The Last Wars by Bianca Gray (suggested reading txt) 📖

and hope.
“What?” said Fayre, Zanita, and I. Prince just sat there observing everything that was going on. Daniel looked at Nick expectantly. Nick sighed again and turned to look at me. Once again, I was faced with having to stare into his beautiful blue eyes.
“When I was born, my parents didn’t set me in the wilderness like the others did. They kept me, hidden, for a long time. When I was four or five years old, the Fighters broke down the door of our house and killed my parents. They made me watch them die and a woman came up to me with dark crimson eyes and said, ‘this is what happens to those who resist. This is what happens to those who break the law.’ And then I was pulled into blackness for five whole years. Even though I couldn’t move, or see, I could hear everything they were saying. They were relieved I wasn’t ‘The One’ but apparently the resistance was getting stronger. Apparently, there isn’t only just wilderness there are cities, too. They make you think that our society has been broken down so much that there are only barbarians left. And that we have to fight them or something. But then the question is asked, how were we come to be? The mentors will just say that for survival your parents got together, had a baby, but since no one cared for anyone, they just left the baby in the woods. Now that didn’t make any sense to me. My mentor didn’t know that I had seen my parents die. That I lived with them for four to five years.
“But anyway, our society is booming. We have a huge population. But every other family has to give up their first child. They give them to the Center and the Center leaves them somewhere in the woods. The family never gets to see us again, except through television screens. We’re not entertainment per say, we are kids who fight each other. Who grew up in a supposedly messed up world. In other words, we are an experiment that the Center made up. The Center is evil. The Fighters are evil. Everyone in this truly messed up world is evil,” finished Nick, he clenched his jaw angrily. Fayre and I just looked at each other while Zanita had a far away look in her eyes.
“What does that have anything to do with me?” I asked.
“You are The One. You’re the one to bring this to an end. To start society over. You’re the one who’s supposedly going to kill thousands of people to save our society. To save our country. To make sure none of this will happen again. It’s you, Annika! The pendulant is proof,” said Aiden excitedly. I just stared at all of them in shock. ‘You’re the one. You’re the one who’s supposedly going to kill thousands of people…’ Thousands of people. Dead. Corpses everywhere. Dead like Valora. Dead like Nick’s parents. Dead. For what? For really nothing. I stared at them wide eyed. Then I turned to run.
“Annika! ANNIKA!” I heard Nick yell. This was all just a ploy for me to trust him. For me to help him. I HATED him. I continued to run and I could hear that someone had stopped Nick from chasing after me. Good. I don’t want anyone to chase after me. I kept running, even after I had lost my breath. I kept running when I got dizzy. I kept running after I had thrown up blood. And then, I couldn’t run anymore. I fell to the ground, tears staining my face. Brown dried up blood was stuck to my black jumpsuit. I shivered on the cold hard ground, remembering again that it was winter. How we survived last night was beyond me. And then I remembered everything there was green. Huh, how odd, I thought as snow crystals began to fall. Pretty, I thought smiling. I closed my eyes and then all I could see was darkness.

CHAPTER 7

I was under the willow tree again, where everything was green and lush, but everyone was gone. Then I saw Valora, dressed in white, her brown hair flowing out behind her. I looked at her happy and confused.
“Valora!” I cried out. I got up to run to her but she looked worried.
“Annika, you must listen to me. It’s the middle of winter. Why is everything so warm and green?” she asked. I shrugged; my mind was muddy. I couldn’t think right. I shook my head.
“I don’t know Valora,” I said slowly. She shook her head, fear showing in her eyes, something that I had only seen when she was dying.
“Yes, you DO Annika. You DO know. Because you are the One and I think the Fighters know it now. They might have seen your pendulant. And now that you have escaped, everyone with you is in danger. WHY IS IT GREEN IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER?!!” she yelled at me. I shook my head trying to think as I was coming out of my sleep. I sat up straight, a light layer of snow covering me. Then I knew.
“It’s a trap,” I whispered. I got up quickly and started to run back the way I came. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Everyone I knew would be dead if I did. I felt dizzy and nauseous when I got there. It was warm and green just like in my dream. But also like in my dream, no one was to be seen. Then I saw Ida’s body in the middle of the field. Her eyes were open, staring at me. Staring into horror. Her mouth was open like she was going to scream. But she wasn’t going to scream. She was too pale to be alive. I slowly walked over to her dead body. I fell to my knees and then grabbed her pale hand. Tears started to roll down my face. Sweet Ida was dead. But where were the others. I looked up. Nick, I thought frightened. Where was he? I had obviously come too late, but… That’s when I noticed something cold being held to my temple. I put my hands up and slowly turned around. It was Fayre, but she looked crazed, insane. Something about her eyes told me that she didn’t recognize me.
“Fayre!” I cried out in joy. She looked at me confused. Her face hardening and relaxing. That’s when Terryn stepped out of the shadows. He slowly pried Fayre’s fingers off of the gun and took it away from her.
“It’s Annika, Fayre. It’s Annika,” he whispered. Then Fayre fell to the ground, crying hysterically.
“What happened to her?” I whispered. How long have I been gone? I asked myself, not daring to ask. Venus stepped out with Daniel, still looking as gorgeous as ever.
“They came, they killed, they captured. Could turn anyone a little insane. Especially someone who’s never seen real violence,” said Venus looking at Fayre. Terryn had his arms around her and rocked her like she was a baby. She just cried into his shirt.
“In case you didn’t know, she and Ida were very close. Actually she, Snow, AND Ida were all very close. Snow has been captured and Ida is dead. There’s a very good possibility that they’re never going to see each other again. It’s like losing a sister of yours,” said Venus harshly.
“Where’s Nick?” I asked ignoring her glare. Venus looked away at that time. She didn’t answer.
“Daniel?” I asked looking up at his grim face.
“He’s been captured. They took him first, thinking he started the whole runaway thing,” he said slowly. I felt like I had been frozen into ice.
“Why would they think that?” I asked, my lips hardly moving. And then I figured it out. Because of his parents’ resistance, they would think Nick would resist as well. Daniel didn’t say anything, probably recognizing that I had figured it out myself.
“Nick,” I whispered. I couldn’t hold myself up anymore. My legs fell out from under me. I hit my head against the ground, pain shooting to my fingertips and toes. I knew I was going to black out again.
“NICK!” I screamed trying to fight the blackness. But the darkness was taking over. What’s the use living anyway? Why am I here? Then I remembered. Oh, right. I’m the stupid One. Then I became a slave to the darkness.

CHAPTER 8

I woke up gasping for air and instead gulping water. Venus lifted my head from the river as I coughed up water. She stared at me coldly. The water was ice-cold. And everywhere there was snow. Then she dunked my head into the ice-cold river again. I came back up sputtering water.
“What are you doing?” I managed to cry out before she dunked my head into the river again. She kept my head down there for a long time that I thought I was going to drown. Then she yanked on my hair, pulling me back out. I coughed, shaking my shivering, small body when I did. I kept coughing unable to stop. She just glared at me, sitting in the snow. Daniel, Terryn, and Fayre were nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes of coughing, I got to whisper what I said before.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What do you THINK I’m doing, Annika?” asked Venus.
“Killing me?” was all I could think of.
“No, you idiot fox human thing that ruins everything and can’t warn people ‘til damage has already been done!” she cried at me. I just stared at her.
“AND you can’t go three seconds without fainting. You are such a stupid human being. You DESERVE to live with foxes. You obviously can’t comprehend ANYTHING. YOU IDIOT!” She yelled at me. I just blinked.
“YOU’RE SO SELFISH!!! We tell you you’re the One and you run away because you can’t ‘handle’ being so important!” she screamed at me, putting literal quotations around “handle”. Her hazel eyes fiery.
“You’re right. And you probably are wondering how I can possibly be the One as well,” I said, calmly, but my body was shivering like crazy. Venus just stared at me, confirming my suspicions. She had been waiting for me, the One, for practically her whole life. She was trained to protect me. But she was also wondering, why wasn’t it her? It probably would be better if it were she. Instead she gets an emotional girl who doesn’t know a thing. A fox idiot.
“The One is supposed to possess some sort of power. A power that is so…magnificent. But you don’t possess any power. I don’t believe you could possibly be the One,” said Venus glaring at me. It was like all the friendship we might’ve had, was gone. Great. Then Daniel came out from behind a tree.
“Venus, the power is supposed to come out when she’s really distressed. When she needs it,” said Daniel calmly.
“Yeah. When SHE needs it,” said Venus. Practically saying I was selfish again. Then she got up and walked away from me. I coughed again, shaking terribly, and then I think I started to cry. Daniel grabbed my upper arm and yanked me up. He wrung out my wet hair and patted my head.
“It’s okay, Annika. Venus is just upset. She lost everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean Valora. She and Val were like best friends,” said Daniel brushing caked snow off of my clothes. I didn’t say anything. Probably Valora dying was my fault too.
“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked. Daniel smiled at me.
“We’re going to put your power to the test of course,” he said smiling. What?