Mr. Hodek and His Little Minion

35

[MASQ]

On one hand, I didn't exactly want to walk in on Hodek while he was still asleep and have to look at his empty open eyes again. Seriously, whenever I see him sleeping there is no light behind them. It's like he's possessed. But on the other hand, if I didn't wake him up now somebody else might. Besides, he could've gotten up earlier and just didn't leave the room yet. I was willing to take my chances. I wasn't sure why his eyes still unsettled me, though.

I gently knocked on the door, and was met with an irritated "What."

"It's me. They're serving breakfast in, like, ten minutes. Can I come in?"

There was a long, strained pause.

"Yeah. Sure."

As I walked in, I noticed he wasn't moving from his spot. At all. He was keeping eerily still, like an animal being preyed on. I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to get up, or should I come back later."

A few seconds passed before it looked like he'd processed that. He sighed and shook his head, glancing up at me. Something seemed to click inside his head, and without a word he stood up and slowly approached me, grabbing my hand and holding it up to his face like it would turn to dust if he stared at it long enough. There was an unusually crazed look in his eyes; he must not have gotten a minute of sleep.

"Hodek, are you okay? Did something happen last night?"

Eventually, he seemed to realize what he was doing and stepped back. "Um. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about a lot, and then I thought I saw something and...nevermind." His eyes wandered to my shirt sleeve, and his expression melted into perplexity. "What are you wearing?"

"What do you mean? This is what I usually wear."

"No, it looks newer. 'Cept for all the cuts and tears, I guess."

I looked down at myself, realizing just how worn down my clothes had gotten from all this time on the run. I had washed them last night, mainly because I was afraid I wouldn't get another chance once today started. I shrugged.

"Just decided to get them cleaned. Come on, let's go before we start gathering dust."

I ignored Hodek's muttered question of "Who says that anymore...?" and led him down the hall, toward what I had decided to call the rays within the first two days of being here. It was a circle in the middle surrounded by about nine tunnels going in different directions, like a sun with its rays of light. The halls were numbered, but had no labels beyond that. I'd discovered last night that halls 1-5 all led to training areas, 6 went to the dining hall, 7 to the ballroom (I'll explain later), 8 to the base's entrance and 9 to Anniversary's office and dormitory. I remembered how back when I was still living here, everyone had been taught to rely on memory and deduction to get anywhere. Some of my brothers and sisters would "cheat" and write the locations down on their hands, or slips of paper. Some would draw entire maps of floors so it was all in one place. I think one person even carved something into their own skin so it wouldn't be removed when a guard found it and tried scrubbing it off. Even though it was breaking a rule, I held a small sense of admiration in me for their persistence. I found myself thinking now, Even if it's still against the rules, Hodek could use some sort of guide for when I'm not around.

"We're going down hall 6," I said without further explanation. It seemed he didn't need any.

"So that's the...cafeteria, or whatever you guys have. How do you know this already? Is this the exact same kind of system they used before you got...well, y'know." He sounded a bit groggy; even if he hadn't been sleeping, sitting on the side of a bed with your head down for hours will have its effects. I shook my head.