Fractured A Slated Novel

Chapter EIGHT



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I slam my left elbow back into flesh, which gasps and sags into a tree. I spin around, kick with my right foot, right fist ready to crack skull against tree, and…

My hand drops.

A girl is bent double, gasping and clutching her stomach, long dark hair cascading down. Barely visible in this light, yet I know that hair. Don’t I?

‘Tori?’

She looks up. Familiar flawless features, beautiful eyes. Yet not the same. Hollow. Choked with tears.

‘Tori?’ I say again. She half nods and slumps to the ground. ‘What are you doing here? How…?’

She shakes her head, unable to talk, and I can’t take this in. How is Tori here? How is she anywhere. She was returned to the Lorders. Tori was Ben’s friend: Slated, like us. I barely knew her, but she was his girlfriend before I was, I’m sure of it. Though he said he never kissed her, I never totally believed him. How could he resist Tori? But she was taken by Lorders: nobody comes back from them.

‘Bitch,’ she finally manages to cough out. ‘Why’d you do that?’

‘I didn’t know it was you,’ I whisper. ‘Keep your voice down. How did you…’ I start to say but my voice trails away. I don’t know what question to ask first.

‘I escaped, and I came to see Ben. But he…’ Her voice breaks, tears start down her cheeks.

Get away from here! It isn’t safe.

‘Tori, we’ve got to move. We can’t stay here. We’ll get caught.’

‘What does it matter now? Without Ben, I…’ And she shakes her head. ‘They’re all dead. They wouldn’t save anyone. I saw it all!’

Get out of here!

But I have to know. ‘Tell me what happened.’

‘I got here hours ago; the house was alight, just, and I held back as fire engines came rushing up, sirens on. But they didn’t do anything.’

‘What?’

‘Lorders were already here. They made them watch it burn. Just let them stop it spreading to other houses. I could hear them screaming, Kyla. And I didn’t do anything. I could hear them screaming inside the house. And one of the firefighters argued with the Lorders, and they shot him.’

‘They did what?’

‘They just shot him.’ And she is sobbing harder. ‘Ben is dead, and I didn’t do anything.’

I know how that feels; the overwhelming guilt. She doesn’t need it.

‘Tori, he wasn’t in the house. He wasn’t there.’ Her shoulders are shaking, she is beyond hearing. ‘Listen to me: Ben wasn’t in there. All right?’

Words are starting to get through. She looks up. ‘He wasn’t? Then where is he?’

‘I’ll tell you everything. But first we need to get away from here.’

‘Where can I go? I can’t go home; it’s the first place they’ll look. I have nowhere else.’

‘Come on.’

I urge Tori to her feet. She is in bad shape. Wearing stupid light shoes, shivering in torn clothes, limping. Her bare arms shine white in the moonlight, a beacon to any eyes. I hold her hand to urge her along, then her arm: her skin is like ice. Then finally link an arm around her waist to help her walk.

‘What has happened to you?’

‘I was all right until you karate-chopped me in the guts.’

‘Liar.’

‘I’ve walked a long way. I can’t go much further.’ Her voice is faint and her body, light though it is, is becoming a dead weight on my shoulder.

‘Stop. I need to rest,’ she says, and her words are slurred.

‘We can’t stop. Come on, Tori,’ I say, but then her body sags. I just manage to catch her, lower her to the ground.

God. What am I going to do? She escaped from Lorders: anyone caught helping her is in for it. Being anywhere near her is danger.

Leave her. Survival of the fittest!

No. I can’t. I won’t!

And I think of Cam’s drawing, and Nico the caveman. There isn’t really any other choice, is there? Even if she could walk that far, I can’t take her home. I can’t put that on Mum. Even if Mum would help, Amy could never keep a secret, and there’d be no way to hide it from her. And if Dad came home… I shudder. He was so suspicious of my involvement when Ben disappeared, he threatened to return me to the Lorders if I took even one step out of line. This would give him the excuse to get rid of me at last. Maybe Jazz and his cousin, Mac, would help. But there is no way to contact them, or get her there. She could never walk that far. It has to be Nico.

He’ll be furious.

Nico’s fury isn’t something to take lightly. But he said to call if I needed to. Why else give me means to contact him?

I fiddle under my Levo in the dark until I find the button on the com. Press it. Be awake, Nico!

Seconds later he answers, voice alert.

‘This had better be good,’ he says.