Page 74 of The Divide that Binds Us

Her tall stature must duck through my door frame to leave with the Guard.I sigh, leaning back in my chair and staring at my computer screen until I daze and think about the whole night.Bringing up my mom leaves an unsettling feeling in my stomach.No doubt she’ll come back, and I don’t want her to.

Snapping out of my zoning, I power off the computer, no longer motivated to work and trudge to my room.Scotland is still awake.He grabs a pile of blankets and his hand-held device.

“Hey!Me and the guys are gonna camp out in the rec room and play video games, you in?”he asks.

I yawn, pulling my jacket off and tossing it in the corner.My shoulders slump from the weight of a long day as I sit on the edge of my bed.“I’ll stay here, thanks for the invite.”

Scotland nods.“Cool!See ya tomorrow!I have my keys.”

As he leaves though, the twins bust into the room with extra pillows, blankets, and a hefty bag of cheese chips.I quickly get up and point at them, suddenly awake and pissed off.

“No.NO.Get out and let me sleep!Bother me tomorrow.”

Derrick fake cries his way out the room while Eric draws tear streak lines down his face with a grimace.I lock the door before plopping on my bed and throwing the cover over me.

Ijolt awake from thebanging on my door.Ignoring it, I grab my phone from the window ledge to check the time.The banging continues, followed by a few knob turns.It’s still early, but I drag myself up anyway to see who’s waiting.

“Good, you are awake.”Lynn wastes no time shoving herself into my room with the twins dangling behind her.At least they waited to bother me as requested, I guess.I quickly grab a shirt and a pair of shorts to cover my boxers.

Derrick comes close to my ear.“She’s crazy, Rio.Five more seconds of waiting, and she was gonna stomp the door down.”

“Doesn’t surprise me,” I whisper back.

Lynn searches the room and grabs my TV remote to turn it on.The three of us awkwardly linger, watching Lynn flip through channels until it settles on the Emerald Island News station.She turns to us as if hearing my thoughts.

“Trust me, this is important,” she says.

King Jonah is on the screen, in the middle of a speech in front of his golden gates to his palace.A short man with silver and mahogany hair, blended like a milky mocha swirl with a tiny mustache.He squints from the sun and flashes of cameras but maintains confidence.A hint of uncertainty twinkles as he speaks.

“We will work hard to provide what we can for Zeala, but we are asking for your unconditional support as we face dark times,” he states.“We are responding as fast as we can to this crisis and have several hotlines in place to support the needs of our citizens.I will provide daily updates as we fight on.”

I scratch my eyebrow and suppress a yawn.My feet are cold from the floor, so I grab a pair of black socks while trying to pay attention to the TV.

“What am I missing here?”I ask.

“The dragons are officially an endangered species,” Lynn murmurs with crossed arms.She mutes the TV and for some reason, the twins think that’s an opportunity to make a home on my bed and stretch like freeloaders.Lynn’s eyes flicker at them and back to me.“They follow me everywhere now.I do not know why.”

I shrug.“Do you think that death from yesterday pushed Zeala over the edge?”

The TV pans an overhead shot of the farms on Emerald Island.Miles of dry blackened fields stretch beyond the screen until it switches to shots of farmers struggling to pick crops from rotten roots.A shot of a little girl crying stays for ten seconds before transitioning to another cameraman walking through the farmer’s market.It’s evident there’s panic from the surge of customers buying and cleaning out the vendors until their baskets and barrels are empty.

“Wow, this is bad for Emerald Island,” I whisper.

“Oh.You think it’sjustEmerald?”Derrick asks.

“He just woke up,” Lynn sneers, leaning toward him with that scrunched, disdainful button nose of hers.Derrick scoots further onto my bed until he’s pressed against the wall.Eric smiles smugly, unbothered and wrapped into a burrito with my covers.

I flex my tingling hands as my body goes cold.“Wha—wait, what does this mean?”

They take me outside, but not without me noticing forlorn expressions on passing members in the halls.Eerie sobs and whispers echo into the lobby.The receptionist looks frantically at her computer, shaking her head and mumbling to herself.

Standing outside, the nightmare on TV is real, except it’s on Onyx Island, too.

The front lawns of Ultima are ashen, along with the garden and bushes along the side of the building.Our once vibrant yellow hyacinths droop in black rot.The trees have lost their leaves as if winter arrived, and the blistering sun beams right through their nakedness, creating a skeletal shell.

Eric nudges me.“So, uh...the news hasn’t said anything about the other islands yet—not like it’d make a difference on Sapphire because it’s practically dead there all the time, anyway.Our folks won’t be able to tell, so I haven’t heard from them yet.”

“If we’ve been hit, along with Emerald, I’m sure other islands aren’t doing well either,” I whisper, still surveying the area.“The monarchs may each declare an emergency.”

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