Gray Blood

Sacha's POV
"That is sick! Absolutely disgusting! I can't believe that there are people this cruel out there! I mean, I know the emperor's a bastard but this is just sick! Those torturers should be burning in hell right now, not us!" I paced rapidly around the table, my mind in a panicked frenzy. As I rounded the table for about the tenth time, Sean grabbed my arm and sat me down next to him.
"Calm down Cha Cha, your making me nervous." I snatched my arm away from him and bared my teeth. How dare he call me that at a time like this.
"How can you be so...so....so nonchalant about this! Were you even paying attention to what happened in there?" His eyebrow raised.
"Obviously Sacha, I'm not an idiot. I'm just saying its no use beating yourself up over this when its clearly not your fault."
"I'm not beating myself up! I'm complaining! What, is that illegal now? God I'm so sick of this place. I just wanna take you, me, David and Sammy out of here!" My brain seemed to finally click on for the first time today.
"Sean! Oh my god oh my god oh my god!" Sean watched me panic and grabbed my arms before I could hyperventilate. He sat me down and wrapped his arms around me, trying to calm my breathing before I passed out.
"Sacha, what's the matter? What's wrong? Are you sick? Do you want me to get one of the guards?" Not for what I'm panicked about.
"Sean! Where the hell is Sammy! We left him here, he was probably looking for us and we got dragged away to go with David...oh god this is terrible! We have to find him! We have to-"
"Sacha! Just shut up god jesus! You're driving me crazy! You have to calm down!"
"But Sean-"
"Look around Sacha. Look at all the people with their families. What do you see?" My eyes went from table as I watched the boys and girls happily talking to each other, all obviously much happier than me. All trapped in their own stupid little world, oblivious to the real problem going on around here.....
"I see...people being.....happy?"
"Try again, will ya?" What is this, the Spanish Inquisition?
"Sean just tell me what's going on. What does this have to do with Sammy?" Sean smiled darkly, his hazel eyes on the people.
"Do you see one family that has someone who looks younger than ten?" I looked.
"I don't know..." I don't want to know and I'm not going to think about it either!
"Sacha there is no one younger than ten out here. Do you know why?"
"Please don't tell me Sean." Tears were pricking the backs of my eyes. He's dead isn't he? They killed off all the children because...because they're evil fucking bastards that have to murder everyone so close and dear to me!
"Sacha, don't cry. Sammy's not dead. He's alive, I've seen him." Tears poured out of my eyes uncontrollably.
"How do you know? You're lying to me, aren't you? You are a horrible person for lying to me about my own dead brother! I ju-just can’t believ you!" I sobbed. I didn't know what else to say so I let my mind give into my emotions while Sean pulled me on his lap and stroked my hair.
"I saw him Sacha." Really? Liar...
"Wh-where?" He hesitated.
"I can't tell you. It'll break your heart."
"Well, I don't get it. If he's not dead but it'll break my heart, then what the hell is wrong with him?" He’s lying to me. He doesn’t know that by not telling me, the blow is much worse.
"He's with the Emperor. He's being forced to be...a servant for him. Just like David's kid will be." No. No? NO!
"Tell me what happened." He swallowed but nodded to me.
"It was about a month ago. A guard was taking me back to my room when something as making noise on his belt. He took out his walkie talkie and someone began talking frantically. Some fight had broken out somewhere near us and he was the only one who had the right keys. He dragged me to the area where the fight was heading and he pushed me against the wall. He threatened me and said that if I left, I would never be let out of my room again. He went over to help the other guards and I stood their waiting."
"There was a door open across from me, down the hall. I saw a woman in there with a huge ruler or something. She was looking down at someone, really pissed-off looking lady. I didn't know who was in there until I looked in."
"I saw dozens of kids in there, all sitting at the tables and writing. They had the cuffs around their necks but something was really...off. They were all writing at the exact same time. No one moved ahead of anybody, as if they were all one mind."
"And every single pair of eyes was gray. None of them looked up at me but I saw Sammy in the back." Sean began trembling and he whipped his eyes.
"I called his name, despite what the teacher or lady or whoever the hell she was saying to me. He didn't even look up at me. He-it was like some sort of mind control that they were doing to all those kids but now I think I understand."
"They're training them to be Messengers. You know those people who write the messages to these camps? That's what they're doing. But they're only targeting the people younger than us because they're minds can be changed. Especially Sammy, I mean, he's only five."
"But Sacha, when i saw him, he looked dead. I mean, his face just looked so foreign to me that I could hardly recognize him. The guard found me and dragged me out of there. I tried to escape and got locked up for a week because of that. But Sacha....I think Sammy's gone for good."