The Invisible Planet

Part 10: Benji

The murderer from Midelian, the man had called her.

Angeline crossed her arms as she walked through the trees, feet crunching on fallen purple leaves. The air had a chill to it, though it should have been much colder. The planet was farther from the sun than Glacia, yet perfectly temperate. It was one more mystery that would have to remain unsolved for the moment.

With an entire planet to explore and a ship full of survivors that would no doubt eventually want revenge for her part in their situation, the choice to leave them behind seemed like the only one to make.

But as the sky grew quickly darker, she began to wonder if it was the right one.

She gathered sticks from the ground as she went, bundling them in her left arm to use later for firewood. The survival skills Charlotte had taught her back on Kespan were finally coming in handy.

The air smelled of wood and flowers and vaguely of the sea. Up ahead, the trees grew thinner. She hurried through the tree line and stopped. White sand covered a short beach, sloping down toward soft blue waves. She was in a decently sized cove with an island in the center, across which there were trees with red leaves. To her left, the water opened up to an ocean that spanned as far as she could see. To the right, there were more trees and a river that poured out from between them.

She crouched a few feet from the forest and began to set up the makings of a campfire. There was nothing to eat, but the idea of food made her feel sick. It took her an hour to painstakingly light the fire. She sat down beside it with the ocean to her back, keeping an eye on the forest to her right.

It was hard to believe that only a few days prior, she had been living comfortably on Midelian.

Ted, her foster father, had adopted her from Gareth Calloway's adoption agency. There were several branches on Kespan, all filled with children of varying ages waiting to be bought. She was lucky enough to have gone not only to Midelian, but to a man that didn't seem interested in using her for sex. Many of the other girls her age weren't so lucky, and those who weren't adopted by the age of eighteen were either sent to the brothels, or met with a worse fate — some even as young as fourteen, if they didn't meet the agency's beauty standards.

"You're lucky you look so young," Charlotte had told her.

Ted wasn't particularly kind or loving, but as far as she could tell, he wasn't cruel. There were four other foster children in his house. She shared a room with Benji, a ten year old boy from a different branch. Christine was turning eighteen that year, and she shared a room with Vivian, who was seventeen. Ted had adopted them both several years before Angeline, and they were much more like sisters than she could ever hope to be.

In his own separate room was Kylen, a quiet boy who kept to himself and had only just gotten a ComWatch the week before the incident. In the year and a half they lived together, he had only spoken to her twice, other than to thank her for meals.

At the registered age of sixteen, she was lucky to have been chosen. It was Ted's wife Heather that had picked her, hoping that she could help out around the house and with her tailoring business. Christine was never quite good at it, and Vivian was constantly ill.

Her and Benji grew close over the months, and she came to feel as though he had always been her little brother. He would sit on her lap while she helped him with his schoolwork, and they would play silly pranks on each other that drove Heather up the wall.

"You're driving me up the wall!" she'd scream. Then she'd threaten to return them to the adoption agency, but they knew she never would.

Angeline couldn't believe it had only been a week since the day she had arrived home from school to find Benji crying. There was a bruise on his face that made her blood boil.

"Who did this to you?" she demanded.

"Some kids at school," he mumbled, looking away.

"Who? I'll put the fear of the Stars into them," she threatened.

He shook his head. "You can't. You'll get in trouble."

"So what? Someone's gotta teach those bullies a lesson."

He shook his head again and more tears rolled down his face. She wiped them away and drew him into a hug.

"Hey, it's alright," she soothed. "If they ever hit you again, you hit 'em back twice as hard. Okay? Hit 'em where it hurts."

He sniffled. "Okay."

If she had only known—

A rustle in the leaves drew her attention. She stood up and she peered into the darkness behind the tree line, straight into a pair of glowing red eyes.