8
Chapter Eight
REESE
Ten. There are ten peoplesitting in this dark room staring at us as if we didn’t disrupt anything, as if this happens multiple times a day. Their eyes are all sunken, surrounded by black rings, and they look starved and sick, but mostly sick. Sin is in the process of shaking the glass shards out of his shirt and pulling it over his head as I stare dumbfounded at the people who aren’t exactly looking at me the same way.
“Hi,” I say quietly. “Are you all hiding?”Obviously they’re hiding. Ten of them are squished into this small room with no furniture other than a mattress and a folding chair.
A man sitting in the middle pulls himself up slowly against the wall. “Are you sick?” he asks us.
“I—I”
“No, we’re not,” Sin says. “Are you?”
“Yes,” the man says. “We all are.”
“How did you become sick?” I ask, hoping he knows, hoping he can enlighten us on this epidemic.
“There’s something in the water…” the man laughs, looking between us, trying to calm himself.The water?
“How is that possible?” I ask.
Through more laughter, the man recites:
A sleeper’s peeper is now the reaper
Take one sip and you’ll fall deeper
Asleep for days, in a haze
Until you wake with fury and blaze
Wake us once, shame on you
Wake us twice, we’ll hunt you
The man’s voice, along with his hysteria, grows in volume and I fear who can hear us outside. I want to hush him, but the crazed look in his eyes holds my unspoken thoughts at bay.
“I don’t get it,” Sin says.
The man finally tames his outburst and in turn, his voice turns cold as he clarifies:
There were sleepers posing as gate-keepers
All fresh water sources were infiltrated with a toxin home grown
Stolen from the young blood of one of our own
Still riddled and confused by what he’s saying, my only question is, “Is it contagious?”
The man shakes his head slowly. “No, Ma’am.” I drank water—that’s all I was given for three years with my meals. Does that mean what I think it means?
“What are your symptoms?” Sin asks.
The man grins, a grin I could have gone without seeing. There’s a sinister look in his eyes. “Are you lost?” the man asks.
“Let’s just say, we’ve been hiding in a hole for the past few years. We need to know whatever information you can give us,” I follow up with.
