The Void of Darkness

Chapter 6

Troy's head whipped around and his eyes searched around frantically. When they rested on her, they widened and whole face lit up. He turned around all the way and came over to where Madge was.

"Where were you?" he practically shouted. "I was looking all over for you! I-I thought-" He cut off abruptly and looked down. His face reddened.

"Hey, calm down. I told you not to freak out. I'll explain it later when we're not surrounded by prying ears." She paused, "And what exactly did you think?"

He looked up at her with a sheepish look, his face reddening even more. "I-I thought you were, like, abducted or something."

Madge pursed her lips to keep from smiling. "I told you not to worry about me. I was perfectly safe."

"Yeah, but still," Troy was beet red at this point. "When you disappeared on me like that, well, I was terrified. I thought the worst." He looked down again. "I know it's silly, but I was really worried about you."

Madge was shocked. Here was the person that she was supposed to kill, and here he was going on and on about how much he was worried about her when she disappeared for like, 30 minutes.

Troy misinterpreted her facial expression. He flushed again," Sorry, I know it sounds weird, but you just kind of make me blurt out everything in my head. It's something about you..." He trailed off again, embarrassed.

Madge was speechless. She had always been told that she was impossible to talk to and no one ever felt comfortable in telling her things that would change anything. The committee had had a hard enough time trusting her with this mission.

The crowds in the halls were thinning out and Madge was getting hungry. "Let's get to lunch, I'm starving." Troy couldn't have looked more grateful. He sped up quickly, leading the way.

"Do you mind if we stop off at my locker first?" Troy asked quietly. He had slowed down a little bit.

"No, no, that's fine," Madge assured him. "I don't mind at all." She walked a little faster so she was right next to him. They walked like that for a while before Madge decided to speak up.

"Listen," she started, "Troy, I wasn't mad at you earlier...you know, when you were telling me all those things. I was just surprised. Usually people have trouble talking to me and it was kind of a new thing that it was easy for you. I'm glad of that. In fact," she paused. "It's kind of like that for me. I've told you more about my life than anyone else I know. So...yeah."

A quiet silence fell between them again. Madge looked over at Troy, hoping to see what he was feeling and thinking, but his face was blank. He was good at hiding his feelings.

Madge looked down. She wondered if she was wrong to have spoken up. Their friendship wasn't much, but she didn't want to ruin it. After all, they had just met. Her job was going to be much more difficult if they weren't close.

But then again, maybe it was a good thing that they weren't close. She had promised herself that she would never feel for another human being again, but she had a way of breaking her own promises most of all.

Madge was deeply lost in thought when Troy stopped and she almost ran into him. He was stopped in front of a locker and he was busy twisting it to put in the combination.

The locker sprang open and Troy stuffed his things in and slammed it close. He turned around briskly to face Madge and started walking in the opposite direction.

Well, that confirmed it, Troy definitely hated her now. But that was a good thing-the less people that Madge got attached to, the less people she had to hurt. Overall, things would be better this way. Things would be easier.