Hello, there! If you're reading this, and haven't read the prologue--I reccomend you do. It's posted under my entries. So, thanks! If you have read the prologue, by all means, continue!! :)

 

Sixteen years later…

 

He woke up as soon as dawn came. It was a sacred rule that had been enforced for the past nine years. The Dark Reds said it’d make for a proper town. So far, seventeen people had been killed because of the unfair law. For many of the elders, it was too much. Most people left in these parts were young children and middle-aged adults who had been here for years and years. All the others got out when they could.

 

“Breakfast!” Someone called from the kitchen. It was his mother, of course. He stood up, pulling on his only pair of navy-blue breeches and a stiff white shirt. His ankle socks went up under the breeches, and the brown shoes matched his suspenders. On the outside, he looked a very well put-together man that many young women fawned over. But he hadn’t set his eye on any lass in particular. He was far too good for such behavior.

 

All in all, he had been taught well. Growing up without a father had made many doubt his manliness, but he proved them wrong. He was caring and considerate, a fine scholar who followed the guidelines. His marks were good and his teachers expected great things of him. The Dark Reds found him exceptionally agreeable--he never sought out arguments. But under the good-natured, fine-spirited boy was someone hurting. Hurting, because his free will had long since been taken away. He wanted to leave, but would never hurt his mother in such a way. For that reason, her, he stayed.

 

“Thomas,” she breathed, smiling as he came into the kitchen. “I have breakfast.” She set down a plate of warm cottage cheese and corn in front of him. He stirred it together, trying his best to choke down the goopy mixture. This was breakfast for most. The richer folks ate brown bread and onions. The Dark Reds had ham and eggs. The thought made his mouth start to water.

 

“You’re not hungry?” She asked, slipping into the seat across from him. Her food sat untouched on her plate, getting cold. She was now a thin little thing, and the light in her eyes shone only upon looking at her pride and joy.

 

Thomas shook his head. “No, I am. I was just thinking about Elaine.”

 

“Oh!” The woman replied, jumping a little in her seat. “We received a telegram from her yesterday afternoon.” She patted her apron, searching for the stiff, white paper. She emerged with it momentarily.

 

Doing well STOP baby on way STOP eddie is fine STOP dan is out of work STOP I sew two days a week STOP Make a few cents STOP My love to you both STOP love STOP ellie STOP

 

He read it silently, not allowing for even the smallest flicker of emotion to cross his face. How he envied the sister he had never met.

“Dear me, it’s most seven!” The woman suddenly exclaimed, standing up. Her meal had gone untouched--most of them did. Thomas took after her and wasn’t very hungry most of the time. No one knew how the two survived on the small amount they did eat. It was a mystery to them, even.

 

Thomas followed her lead, going to the door. She met him there, tousling his hair slightly, giving him a hug, and wishing him a good day. He left; going down the dusty road, quiet as the world passed him by.

 

The Dark Reds watched him with interest. He had almost missed the deadline of being out of the house by seven-oh-five. It would have been a shame to kill him for it. He had promise of being one of them. He would rather be dead, of course, but they didn’t know that. Really Thomas led them all on.

 

A new, fresh face, watched as he walked the well-worn path, her eyes shining. On a sudden burst of bravery, she ran down despite wearing a dress and came up alongside him.

 

Thomas looked at the girl out of the corner of his eyes. She had a name. It took him a minute to recall exactly what it was.

 

“Hi, Rebecca.”

 

The girl was elated that he even addressed her. He’d be impolite not to do so, but they had never exchanged a word in the ten years of going to school together.

 

“Hello, Thomas,” Rebecca replied, playing with a loose strand of her curly, dark hair. Mesmerizing brown eyes raked over his face, searching for a smile…anything. But his mouth remained in the same thin, uncaring line.

 

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” She pressed, wanting nothing more than his attention.

 

“I suppose it is,” Thomas said, untouched by the hot sun and cool breeze. How monotonous of the day to repeat itself. Didn’t it too grow tired of patterns? Could it ever rain or snow or hail? Anything?

 

“Well…goodbye, then,” Rebecca said, skipping off in a different direction. She was anxious to meet up with her friends and tell them the news. Thomas had talked to her!

 

It didn’t take long to find the cluster of prim beauties, gathered by the schoolhouse. Most of them were in their last year of instruction, including Rebecca. She waved merrily, hoisting up her skirts and running the last few yards to reach them.

 

“You’re going to tear your dress!” One of the girls wailed unhappy. She eyed Rebecca’s pink silk with envy and her own tattered shift with remorse.

 

“Quiet, Lissie,” an unpleasant brunette named Farrah hissed. “Go on, Rebecca.”

Even Lissie listened, despite being a bit shut out, to each word Rebecca said. So carefully did she relate her adventures with him, how he spoke and was so handsome. By the end of her sermon, most all the girls had gathered around Rebecca, her own private worshippers. All but one, that is.

 

Delilah Moore, with her soft blonde hair and features, sat on a stray tree stump, eating her lunch since she wasn’t able to have breakfast. The poor thing was so thin, and hungry. Her blue eyes bugged out from her face, and her legs were too long for the simple brown dress she always wore.

 

Thomas entered the schoolyard at that moment, causing the other girls to hiss and giggle even more so. Delilah watched, unimpressed, finishing off the last bit of bread and cheese. She wiped her skinny fingers delicately on a dry cloth, then her face. She wished she had more to eat and felt selfish.

 

“Oh, look,” Farrah sneered suddenly, coming up to the little thing. “It’s dangly Delilah! Look how skinny she is, girls! No man will ever marry something half so small. She’s not even half a real woman.”

 

Thomas watched, feeling sorry for the poor soul, yet not brave enough to say or do anything to stop the nasty Farrah. One of the soldiers will get her eventually, he decided. Karma would soon be in her wake.

 

Delilah stood, eyes cast down to the dusty ground, and picked her way past Farrah and the other beauties. It was hard with her four feet nine inches, but managed. Thomas watched as she discarded her food, went into the schoolhouse, and shut the door behind her.

 

Inside, Delilah cried. She looked out the one small window, sighing as she saw the other girls and how they gossiped so. She wished to be one of them, or one of the children playing quietly on the tree-swing. She’d give anything.

 

The teacher, a scrawny Dark Red, made his way up to the door. He was friendlier than most, and would have been killed long ago, if not for being quite a patron of law and an excellent tutor. The children didn’t like him, but they didn’t dislike him.

 

Delilah quickly backed away from the door as she saw him approaching. She shouldn’t be caught in the schoolhouse before the teacher was. Quickly she fled to the other end of the small structure, trying frantically to open the back door. Right as the knob was turning on the front entrance, the door flew open and she stumbled out, falling against the sandy ground with a groan.

 

A hand shot out instant. Delilah took it with a sigh, allowing herself to be helped into a standing position. She saw her rescuer was Thomas and went to picking at the dirt now smeared on her clothing.

“Sorry about that,” he said stiffly, stepping away. The other female students watched with envy. How dare skinny, unpleasant Delilah have him! Rebecca was about to march forward, having made up her mind to get rid of the pest-girl, when the school bell rang.

 

Instantly the anxious scholars flitted to their desks, including Thomas and Delilah. Somehow, they happened to get seats right next to one another. Usually both sat in the back, but as far from others as they were possibly allowed.

 

The day passed slowly, with Delilah hiding her face in her hair every chance she got. Thomas watched her with interest. She was so shy, and he could hardly understand it. When the Dark Red dismissed them for lunch, Delilah was first out the door.

 

Her stomach growled with hunger, and she wished she hadn’t eaten her food earlier in the day after all. How irresponsible of her. Now she would have to be hungry until late this evening or maybe tomorrow morning, depending on when her “daddy” got his money from the Mill. This was a reality for many, despite the careful watch of the Dark Reds. They should have benefited their citizens by at least eliminating hunger—but they were too selfish to help anyone but themselves.

 

Delilah scaled the nearest tree, her mouth puckering in distaste. Rebecca, Farrah and Lizzie decided to seat themselves right under her refuge. Whether it was on purpose or merely accidental, Delilah didn’t know. She grew hungrier as they began their feasts consisting of chicken, bread and fruit.

 

Thomas stood across the courtyard, watching with a frown as Delilah hovered in the tree above the mean-mannered girls. He looked down at his own lunch, a sandwich of cheese and fish, and wished she had the same. The sudden feelings of empathy surprised him. He didn’t even know he was capable of such.

 

He walked to the middle of the dusty yard, front and center. Slowly, he rose the uneaten lunch in the air.

 

“Uh…I have this spare sandwich here and I’m not really even hungry. I don’t want it to go to waste, you know how expensive food is, so, and perhaps one of you would like it?”

 

Everyone stood, dumbstruck. That was the most anybody had ever heard him say. There was only a slow pause before a congregation of girls rushed toward them, claiming hunger and thanking him profusely.

 

“I’ll take it,” Rebecca said innocently, smiling at him fondly.

 

Thomas edged away from her. She really was strange. “Well…you look like you’ve had someone to eat. Oh! Delilah doesn’t have anything. Would you like this?”

 

He pretended for it all to be a coincidence, but of course it wasn’t. So Delilah accepted the food, much to Rebecca’s displeasure, and much to her own.