“We did it, Zain! We won!” Victoria bustled into the room and threw herself onto Zain.
“You guys won,” Zain said quietly. “I almost caused us a loss. Maybe you guys should take the next test without me.”
“Zain, just shut up,” Cameron fell back on the gray couch. A wet schlop could be heard as his rain-soaked cloak made contact with the cushions. “You can’t make one mistake and then act like you’re some kind of failure. The ground was more slippery than we expected, that’s it. Vic, you, and I are taking the next test whether you think you can or can’t.”
“I tripped on my own feet. I didn’t slip.”
“Seriously, don’t worry,” Victoria told him. “You know you were capable of that as well as I do. Everyone messes up.”
Zain plopped down on the couch next to Cameron. It felt like he was sinking into it.
“How did you two take them on alone anyways? I thought it was hopeless once I slipped off.”
“It was mostly Vic’s work. I just kept throwing myself at them while she slowly lured two people at a time to the side and was able to knock them off. We saved the big guy for last. I don’t think any of us could have beaten him. So when it was two versus one we just kept him occupied. And we won.”
Outside, the rock had nine new people on it and the 96th team had just surfaced. On the side of the room opposite the window, the elevator dinged and opened to reveal a tall man with a beaming look on his face and warm eyes.
“Bolton!”
Victoria darted up to him and wrapped her arms around his stomach. He placed his palm on her head and ruffled her hair.
“Good job, guys. I’ve never been more proud. I told you not to get nervous and here you are!” Seeing Zain’s gloomy mood, he added “Don’t sweat it, Zain. Everyone has their bad days, even at important times.”
“I know.”
“Then act like it. Don’t look so crestfallen,” he crouched down until he was eye to eye with Zain. “Being sad won’t help you tomorrow. I’m proud of you, Zain. What you did wasn’t easy. You took a risk, and it didn’t work out. Happens.”
Zain nodded.
Victoria, now a bit more calm, was able to sit down—not very still, though.
“Now,” Bolton rubbed his hands together with a wide grin on his face. “I want to know everything. What it felt like. If you guys were nervous. Everything.”
Victoria didn’t hesitate.
As it turned out, Team Seahorse was the not the last team to pass the test. The remaining five passed and nobody was forced to leave. It was going to be raining for a day or two, so Cleareye decided that for the greater good the second test would be postponed until everything calmed down, so they moved it to the next dry day.
That night, Bolton hosted a mini party for Team Seahorse in his Glimmer quarters, which, to the children’s surprise, was incredibly larger than theirs.
“I knew it would be bigger, but this humongous . . .” Cameron said with a breathy voice
“Soon enough we may have to call you Trainer,” Zain had said.
His parents were staying in one of the three residential buildings that recruits weren’t allowed to go into. Only after the second test would they be allowed to see each other, according to Glimmer rules. Somewhere in the same building, Cameron’s mom and Victoria’s parents were celebrating the victories of their children.
Falling asleep that night was easy. Not because he was physically exhausted, but because Zain was tired of thinking about his failure and didn’t want to wait for the next test.
The next morning he was woken up to a steady drizzle and gray skies. The room was still dark, but light fought its way in through the cracks in the blinds. Zain’s and Cameron’s cloaks lay on the floor, thrown there the previous evening with the intent of cleaning the room when they woke up. Everything was all over the place. They had been too busy with the aftermath of the test to focus on their room.
“Cameron, we’re going to be late for breakfast. We should get up.”
Cameron, still under the covers and half-asleep, muttered, “Bolton said today is a free day remember? We can sleep as long as we like.”
“Right.”
Zain sat there for about an hour with nothing to do. He was sure Victoria was already awake, doing some kind of stretching, but he didn’t want to leave the comfort of his bed. When Cameron did wake up, they set to cleaning the room, which they promptly got done with help from Victoria, who joined in the middle.
“We’re nearing the end of our time in Glimmer,” Victoria said. “The last thing you’ll want to spend your time on is cleaning up. Try not to mess it up in the next two days. I’ll save two seats for you guys in the hall. Come quickly.”
Victoria, with her usual air of purposefulness, left the room. Zain and Cameron looked as if they were still in bed. Unkempt, messy, aloof.
It was only fifteen minutes later when they were finally ready to leave their dorm. And yet again, when they exited they found Evan just about to head down the stairs.
“I see you passed the test as well,” he sneered. “Unexpected. But I doubt you’ll pass tomorrow’s.”
Zain still had no clue what Evan’s problem was.
Cameron began, “Is Cleareye—“
“Trainer Cleareye.”
“Is Cleareye going to humble you at some point? Or is she encouraging your idea that you’re the best of the best?”
Evan inhaled deeply through his nose and tightened his face muscles.
“I said call her Trainer. She’s not like Bolton, she has the power to do whatever she likes to you.”
“Just like she has when it comes to Ellie and Blythe, right?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I can see it on your face, Evan. As long as nothing happens to you, everything is okay.”
A slight expression of pity spread over his face, but he covered it up quickly.
“It’s their fault!” Evan yelled. “I’m the only one in our group who actually uses what Cleareye teaches me about taking control! It’s not my fault they choose to be weak! Just like—“
Evan stopped, but by then it was too late. The still air rang very loudly.
“Just like who, Evan? Just like me? With my dad?”
Cameron stepped closer to Evan and called him a very profane word.
“Cameron, we should go. We don’t want to the something bad to happ—“ Zain began.
“Look Cameron, I can’t do anything about it. You think I want to see Cleareye beat Blythe and Ellie every day? No! But I can’t, otherwise—otherwise she’ll beat me too.”
“And while you’re to scared to get beat yourself, you’re letting people you ‘care’ about get tortured on the daily.” Cameron stepped closer.
“What’s your problem, Cameron? I said I’m sorry.”
Cameron inched even closer.
“I know what it is. It’s your genetics,” Evan reverted back to his facade of smugness. “You can’t control your anger.”
Just as Cameron seemed like he was going to launch forward, he simply said, “Let’s go, Zain. No point in fighting this sack of flesh.”
Zain threw the door open and stepped through first, Cameron right behind him.
“Run away like Victoria,” Evan whispered to himself.
Unfortunately, Cameron heard.
Cameron halted in between steps.
“What did you say?”
“I said—I said run. Just like Victoria did all those years ago—“
Cameron whirled around, his cloak flurrying behind him.
“Cameron, no!”
First, his fist made contact with Evan’s pink cloak right where his stomach was and immediately after that with his face. It was all in a brief second. From there, things got much worse. Cameron brought up his knee and jabbed it into Evan’s stomach multiple times until he lay on the ground, choking and coughing.
Slowly, Cameron bent down and grabbed Evan by his thin hair.
“If you ever bring that up again, I’ll make sure you won’t be able to speak anymore.”
“You—“
“If you want to keep your tongue, you won’t utter a single syllable about it.”
With that, Cameron stalked out of the hallway and down the stairs, leaving a shocked Zain to catch up with him after he took one last glimpse of Evan on the floor, thick blood leaking out of his nose all over his face.
“Team Seahorse, please come with me.”
Trainer Cleareye’s tall figure loomed over Zain and Cameron as they had just begun to eat in silence. They couldn’t find Victoria anywhere, despite her claim that she would save them seats. To be honest, Zain was somewhat relieved for that at the moment.
Without another word, Cleareye guided them out of the dining hall, out of the building, and into the tallest building of Glimmer. The further Zain walked the more he felt like he was heading towards his imminent doom. Because of Cameron, they may not have been able to join the PRO anymore. So indulged in his own thoughts, he hadn’t realized he was sitting down in an unfamiliar office right next to Victoria, who already had tear lines tracing down her cheeks. That was until Cleareye slapped her hands together loud enough to cause an earthquake.
“So, it has come to my attention that one of you brutally attacked one of my students, which is specifically stated as illegal in the Glimmer Rules.”
Her room was perfect. Every pencil was in place. Every shelf was perfectly measured. Even her chair was just the right size for her large, stocky figure.
“Cameron Lin. Evan tells me it was you. Is this true?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not going to bother asking why this occurred. All I know is that it did happen. Do you recall what I told you we do with little boys who break our rules, Cameron?”
“You send them back home.”
“That’s right.”
A sly grin made its way across her face.
“I thought you may have been smarter than this, but I guess you’re too big-headed know when to stop, is that it? It is my job to stop kids like you three, to discipline you. Nothing personal.”
Suddenly, Victoria’s breath grew very shaky.
“What are you going to do to us?” she choked out.
“Well, I’ll have to kick you three out. Good luck with the rest of your useless lives. You can thank your friend for this.”
“Please!” Victoria screamed. “Just let us stay and we’ll do whatever you like!”
She dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together in a begging stance.
“We’ll do anything, we swear . . .”
“All I want you to do is leave Glimmer, nothing else can satisfy me more than protecting the safety of the other recruits. So if you will do anything, you will leave. You are hereby expelled from the PRO Recruit Organization.”
“Just kick me out,” Cameron pleaded. “They didn’t do anything. In fact, Zain urged me to stop but I wasn’t listening to him.”
“If your friends can’t stop the people they know from doing bad things then how can we trust them with stopping Pacifems from doing bad things?” she said sardonically.
“Please. I’ll—“
“I’m sorry. This is for the safety of your fellow recruits—well, not so fellow anymore.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Their safety? Is that what you’re concerned with?” Cameron said coldly. “When you pull out a belt?”
For a moment, Cleareye stared at them with a look of pure terror, eyes wide.
“Did you forget Blythe’s my brother?”
Behind them, the wide doors were thrown open with a loud bang and Bolton’s heavy, fast breathing could be heard. He had run here as fast as he could.
“Mrs. Cleareye,” he panted, “Please. Let me talk with you. Before a final decision is made.”
“I don’t think you can sway my opinion on the matter.”
“Either way, please”—heavy, rapid coughs issued from his chest—“give me a chance.”
Cleareye frowned and pushed her glasses up her broad nose.
“Fine. You three, wait outside. And don’t expect anything to come of this conversation.”
Quietly, Zain, Victoria, and Cameron shuffled out of the room.
The moment the door closed, Cameron immediately began.
“I’m sorry, Vic—“
“Sorry? Of course you’re sorry! You might have gotten us kicked out before we even have the chance to make it in! My whole life has led up to this. Ever since I was little, all I ever wanted to do was be a part of the PRO! What made you so angry that you couldn’t hold back against Evan? Did he just insult you and you just couldn’t take it? Is that it?”
Victoria threw her fist at Cameron’s stomach, who let it happen.
“He didn’t insult me, Vic,” he coughed out. “He insulted you.”
“And what about insulting me gave you the urge to—“
“He brought up that day.”
Slowly, the fires in Victoria’s eyes calmed.
“Cameron . . .”
She wiped the tears off of her face.
“No matter what Evan said, you were supposed to hold yourself back. You did exactly what he wanted you to do. He’s scared of us. And he wants us kicked out by his mommy Cleareye. And you did exactly what he wanted!”
Cameron was on the brink of tears as well.
“I’m sorry. I really am. I’m stupid. I can’t take it when Evan says things like that.”
“Wasn’t that exactly what Bolton told you to do?” Zain stepped in. “Why can’t you just keep calm? You’ve been doing it for the last month! All of a sudden—what—because he said some bad stuff—”
“You don’t know what Evan was referring to, Zain. Stay out of this.”
“I’m a member of this team too, Cameron. And soon enough, we may not be a team. I don’t care what I do and don’t know. You’ve ruined it. Possibly forever. Now what are we going to do?”
For a while, no one said anything. Everyone just stood there with nothing to do. They couldn’t even make out a hint of Bolton’s conversation through the door. After about a century, the door opened and Cleareye dismally said that all three of them would be allowed to join the PRO if they made it, but there was a catch. For the next day’s test, Cameron was not allowed to participate.
After expressing lots of gratitude, Zain, Cameron, and Victoria followed Bolton outside.
“How did you do it, Bolton?” the excited light was slowly returning to Victoria’s eyes.
“I promised to do some extra work for her, that’s all. Cleareye enjoys acting like she really cares about the kids here, but make a deal with her and she’ll change her mind without hesitation. Whether you guys stay or not, she doesn’t actually care. She’s always overburdened, and she needed someone to help anyways. I also . . . well, she needed a trade. After I’m done with you three, I lose my mentorship license.”
“Bolton . . .” Cameron choked out.
Victoria started crying again and Zain felt like following.
“Cameron. I warned you about this. I specifically told you not to fall prey to your emotions”
“I’m sorry, Bolton.”
“I know you are. But look at what you’ve done. You’ve lowered our chances significantly. You have to think about the end goal, Cameron. The moment you’re in right now isn’t everything.”
“You’ve lowered our chances more than significantly,” Victoria blurted. “I can’t believe you would do this. And Bolton can’t mentor anymore!”
“Don’t worry about me, Vic,” Bolton said calmly. “I’ll be fine. But Zain and Vic have every right to be mad, Cameron.”
“We’re doomed now,” Zain said.
“Not doomed. Cameron may have made things more difficult, but there’s always a way. And Cameron will be right there in the audience, cheering you guys on.”
“I don’t care if he’s cheering us on.”
Victoria walked away, leaving Cameron behind who painfully stared at her as she got further and further. If he wasn’t so angry at the moment, Zain would have felt bad.
Cameron walked away as well before Bolton could tell him to stop.
“Sometimes, people just need alone time,” Bolton said. “I’ll let you have some as well, unless you wan’t to talk.”
Zain shook his head.
Bolton headed off to another building to most likely complete some kind of task he’d been given by Cleareye.
That night, all three of them got in bed unhappy and riled up. Zain hadn’t spoken to Cameron since Bolton rescued them from Cleareye, and Victoria hadn’t been seen since the morning.
They were all thinking he same thing. Tomorrow’s test would be practically impossible. They almost failed with three people, and without Cameron’s strategic thinking their odds weren’t so great.
It was about ten minutes after he had finally gotten into a rest that a slight knock woke Zain up. Rubbing his eyes, he groggily sauntered over to the door and opened it very slightly. In front of him stood Bolton in his usual black cloak gripping a faint lantern in his left hand.
“Wake Cameron up and throw on something warm,” he said.
“Aren’t we supposed to get a lot of sleep before the test?”
“Some things are more important than sleep.”
Zain nodded and within a minute he and Cameron had left their room and were heading down the elevator with the others. Cameron’s cold eyes remained dead-set on the wall in front of him.
“Where are we going Bolton?” Zain asked as he stepped out of the elevator and through the front entrance of the dorms.
“Shh, keep it down. Just wait until we get there.”
Get where?
It was a silent night. A silent breeze tickled the backs of their necks and let the leaves quietly drift across the ground. All the clouds had left the sky, and a thin strand of moon could be made out far above. The raining had ceased as well, so everything smelled of damp soil and fresh grass.
“It’s a good thing they have cars provided here,” Bolton said as he guided them to a small parking lot none of them had ever seen before. It was just on the edge of the forest bordering Glimmer.
Their boots made deep clicks and clacks on the ground, just slightly breaking the stillness of the night. The three kids entered in the back of a small minivan while Bolton stepped into the drivers’ seat.
“This ride will take about half an hour so try not to fall asleep. I’d rather not have to wake you up when we stop,” he said with a smirk.
“I told you not to fall asleep. Did any of you even try?” Bolton giggled.
“Yes,” Cameron said bluntly.
They exited the car to find themselves on the edge of a thicker, darker forest. Behind them, Glimmer was not even visible.
“Let’s go.”
Bolton stepped into the forest and through a wall of vines. Tentatively, the others made their way into the thick as well. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was definitely wet. Every tree was dripping with rainwater and the ground was marshy enough to soak up their socks if their boots hadn’t protected them. Multiple times, Cameron breathed in as if he was going to say something, but the breaths receded. By the time they reached the foot of a shallow mountain, even the car was out of sight.
“Up we go!”
“We’re climbing this whole mountain?” Victoria asked. “I thought we were supposed to rest.”
“We won’t climb all the way up, don’t worry. There’s a large, flat piece of land up there and we’ll be able to sit there and relax.”
“We came here to relax?” Zain said. “We were already doing that in Glimmer.”
“Just follow me. Why so cynical? Don’t you three want to have fun? It’s only a bit up, trust me.”
And so the climb began. And it ended just as quickly. The mountain was fairly easy to scale. Every ledge was large enough to take a step on and it wasn’t very steep.
Once they were about thirty feet up, Bolton stepped to the side and onto a ledge with enough room to lie down with one end at the edge and one at the wall that continued stretching upwards.
“This is large? The most this could fit on it is an elephant.”
“Elephants are big.”
“For an animal, not for a piece of land.”
“Alright, alright. Just sit down.”
The three of them slowly shrunk down with their backs against the mountain wall. Zain sat in the middle. In front of them stretched the forest all the way until the horizon. Everything was below them. All the trees, all the animals, all the little critters.
And very far—very far in the distance, Zain could make out the bright lights of a city. One that the three children had never seen before.
“It’s a nice sky, isn’t it? No light pollution out here.”
“Whoaaa . . .”
Unlike what they saw in Glimmer, the sky was littered with tiny white lights filled with a glow that only matched that of the moon. Some big. Some small. But they were everywhere. You couldn’t look anywhere without an army of stars patched on.
“It’s beautiful,” Victoria breathed out.
“It is,” Bolton said as he sat down on the ledge, his legs dangling over the edge. “My mentor took me here when I was around your age, also preparing myself for the day that would change my life forever. Must’ve been about fifteen years ago. Even back then, I remember Cleareye was a mentor. She’s always been one. She didn’t used to look so old, though.”
For a while, everyone sat there just being present. The breeze bit on their faces, but it was a gentle bite, one that made them enjoy being outside.
“Do you hear that?” Bolton leaned forward. “There’s a lot of owls in this forest.”
In the deep distance, Zain could make out what Bolton was hearing.
“It’s nice that we have so much nature in Gaudium now. According to some of the older mentors, before the Immortality War almost every bit of nature was snuffed out. In fact, they had to make laws protecting the lands because people were destroying them to no ends. The Pacifems may not be great rulers, but at least they can keep Gaudium safe.”
“The Pacifems,” Victoria repeated, staring at her tattered, wet, soil covered boots.
“Yes, the Pacifems. When I was younger, I used to wonder if they were right all along, and that maybe if people just followed the rules then everything would be alright.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing. Sometimes people just change because of what they experience, you know. I don’t think it’s okay to stop the natural pattern of life in any way. Death is a part of that. And there will always be children, immortality or no immortality. Children for the Pacifems to kill. Who knows how many have been caught. But I realized that what the Pacifems are doing isn’t right when I was about twelve. It doesn’t take an adult to tell right from wrong, but the Pacifems seem to be very bad at it. And that’s when I decided to join the PRO,” Bolton turned around to look at his three students. The three of them sat down quietly, backs against the rocky wall. “Would any of you like to explain why you joined the PRO recruits? Vic?”
Victoria shook her head and shifted uncomfortably next to Zain.
“Do you know why I brought you here tonight?”
“If we knew then we wouldn’t keep asking questions,” Cameron quipped. “Sorry,” he added quickly. “Force of habit.”
“I see,” Bolton took off his cloak and threw it over his legs like a blanket. “Do you remember what I said when you told me you needed sleep, Zain?”
“There are some things more important than sleep.”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“What could be more important before the night of a test than sleep?” Victoria asked with a fatigued look.
“You three,” Bolton uttered. “You three are more important. Just yesterday, you three were a team. And yes, you ran into some obstacles, but you were a team.”
“We’re still a team, Bolton.”
Now he turned around completely, his back facing the ledge. He gave each of the three kids a deep stare in the eyes.
“Teams get through their issues together, not alone. You have to work with each other. Even when you don’t want to. So I wouldn’t call you a team right now. Just three people with a dream to get into the PRO.”
“And bringing us here is supposed to fix that?” Cameron picked up a tiny rock beside his lap and cast it as far as he could.
“I thought it might lighten the mood a bit—it is beautiful here,” he said smugly as he turned back around and his legs dangled off the ledge. “And the night always reminds me who my real friends are, there’s something about it. I don’t know. But I brought you here to be at peace. Away from Glimmer, away from all the expectations. And I brought you here to be open with each other. About how you feel and what you’re going through. So Victoria, if would, please kindly explain to us why you want to join the PRO.”
Victoria gulped.
“It’s alright. You’ve known Zain for a while now. You can trust each other.”
Zain turned his head to Victoria for an instant and quickly returned to staring at his own boots. He didn’t even know she was hiding anything from him until that morning.
“I—I haven’t always wanted to be part of the PRO,” she started nervously. “In fact, I didn’t even consider it until I was about seven years old. When I was little I wanted to be a painter. But my parents were part of the PRO. Both of them.”
Zain grabbed a large, eroded rock and ran his fingers along its smooth, hole-riddled surface.
“I still haven’t met them,” he said.
“You won’t meet them.”
Bolton reached over and took Victoria’s hand, and gripped it tight.
“You won’t meet them,” Victoria continued, “because they were caught by the Pacifems with a child. And the Pacifems thought they were the parents. So they—so they killed all three of them,” she began to cry silently. “That day I tried to run away from Totum. I don’t know where I was running. I was just running. But Cameron stopped me before I got too far and brought me back home, and here I am. I live in the Sector for orphans—an orphanage.”
Zain took a deep breath.
“I’m . . . it must have been sad,” he said stupidly. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. “So that’s what Evan was talking about today. When he said you ran away from something.”
Victoria nodded and wiped her tears away with her wrist. Her brown skin was covered in shadows and her freckles were impossible to see under the moonlight.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, Victoria. Really. But look how strong you’ve turned out. You’re one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met.”
“Ever since then I’ve wanted to be a part of the PRO. I swore to myself I’ll never let anything like that happen to another child or parent again.”
As Zain sat there dumbly, watching Victoria relive her past, he realized that he didn’t have it so much worse than everyone else did. In fact, he might have been more fortunate than Victoria, even though he never left his home for thirteen years of his life.
“And that’s exactly why Cameron got fed up with Evan,” Bolton explained. “He wasn’t doing it because he was reckless or he likes to get in trouble. He was defending his friend. And even though it seems like that might not have been the right decision right now, having a friend like that is more important than what you decide to do in your future. No matter what, you’ll always have someone standing by you.”
Cameron’s face turned a deep shade of red.
“I’m sorry, Cameron,” Victoria muttered. “I know you were just trying to help. And I got mad at you for it.”
Cameron untucked himself from the ball he had curled into.
“Shut up. I was wrong, Vic. I was. Even if I was defending a friend, it caused more harm than good.”
“Maybe,” Victoria said. “But Bolton’s right. As long as you two and I have each other we’ll be alright. Whether you like to show it or not—which most of the time you do not—we are a team.” Victoria grabbed Zain’s hand and squeezed it.
“That’s how a team talks,” Bolton said with a slight grin. “After a while, every petty argument begins to actually seem petty. And there’s a reason none of you are truly enraged by Cameron’s mistake. If were, you wouldn’t even be talking to each other right now. It’s because you trust each other. And even though you know that one of you can’t be there tomorrow, you know you’ll be able to do it. You’ll be able to pass. I know it. You know it. We know it.”
Bolton turned back around to watch over the large black tsunami that was the forest. No one spoke for a time. Just the owls spoke. And the wind. When he turned back around again, he was delighted to see that both Victoria and Cameron had fallen asleep on either side of Zain. Their heads lay on each of his shoulders, and their breathing was slow and heavy.
“They don’t usually attach to people this fast, you know,” he said. “They’ve both had rough lives. You’re one of the best things that’s happened to our team. I was going to have Cameron tell you, but I’ll let him sleep. I’m sure you heard of his dad.”
Zain nodded.
“And you’ve heard mentions here and there of what he’s done. But there’s only one real truth to what happened. His dad was a terrible person. As bad as it gets. The first time I saw little Cameron, he had marks all over his body and such a tired look in his eyes that I went home and sobbed. Such sorrowful eyes for a child to have. He was six.”
Zain wanted to shimmy around and fix his position, but he didn’t want to risk waking Victoria and Cameron up. So he sat as still as he possibly could.
“That’s why Cameron’s always lashing out and doesn’t like listening to people with authority,” Bolton continued quietly. “He sees his dad in them And it’s also why he despises Evan. Evan’s had everything Cameron never did. A loving family, people who can provide for all of his needs. Lack of parenting can really affect a child.”
“But his dad’s in jail,” Zain said curiously. “He lives with his mom and Blythe.”
“Now he does,” Bolton’s dark skin glittered under the translucent light of the moon and the millions of stars. “It took us five and a half years to get that monster behind bars. He never even really met Blythe until about a year or two ago. So you see, I like to think of myself Vic’s and Cameron’s father. None of them have one, so.”
“I didn’t even know parents like that existed,” Zain said. “That they could be that bad.”
“I can’t understand how someone can live in Totum and treat children like that. Children are the heart of Totum, of our whole way of living.
The owls were getting quieter now.
“You’re lucky, Zain. So am I. We’ve never had to feel the kind of emptiness they feel.”
Bolton watched over the two as they slept calmly, their lips lit blue on their peaceful faces. He went on.
“I don’t think Cameron would have known what to say if I asked him why he works so hard for the PRO. I don’t think he knows himself very well.”
“Why’s that?”
“Ever since Cameron was little, there’s been one person who’s always been there for him. Not Blythe, not his mother, not even me. Victoria. From the moment I met them they were like night and day, so opposite from each other but always paired together. If you encountered one of them, the other was somewhere in a thirty foot radius. When people came to push and shove Cameron, she would help him. And so Cameron grew very protective over her—as you can see when he stopped her from running away. He may not know it himself, but he’s doing it for Victoria. Without her, his world crumbles like a sand castle.”
“They’ve known each other for a while, haven’t they?”
“They have,” Bolton sighed. “Longer than anyone else from the old team. Evan has turned out to be quite the bully, though. Zain—I want you to know how incredibly grateful we are that you joined our team. You’re someone that everyone can trust, even Vic and Cameron. Finding someone you can trust is harder than most things.”
Zain would have said thank you or something, but his eyelids were fluttering up and down, until he too fell asleep under the starry sky. Bolton didn’t sleep that night. He just sat there, on the edge of the mountain, staring out into the abyss. The moonlight made everything much more beautiful.