Chapter 5: Fear
“Kat, I think it is time that daddy tells you a story.” My father says with a grin. It is almost noon and my dad had just gotten back from hunting. I am only eleven and I am in my kitchen, staring up at my father’s happy face, glowing in the bright sunlight that slips in though the window over the counter. “It is a story about a man who has to make the biggest decision of his life. You see, he was a normal man, who spent his life working as a lawyer, until the economy crashed and horrible wars began. Now he is a hunter and provides for his amazing family.”
“Daddy, is this story about you?” I ask with a smile. My father looks down at me with a big grin.
“Let me continue please. Then you can interrupt me with all the questions.” For some reason his voice becomes a bit more serious. “The man could not take it anymore. He and his friends had been talking about starting a rebellion against the government for a long time. Now they were actually thinking about doing it.
“The man begins to worry. What if he does this, but then he dies and leaves his family without any hope?” He pauses for another moment and stares out the window, as if his answers were somewhere beyond us. “So, he decides to work with his friend in the rebellion anyways. Now they are planning their steps to succeed.”
“But daddy, what if he and his friends die? What about the families?” I ask, not understanding the story is about my own father.
“Well, I guess we will just have to hope that they don’t.” He gives a half laugh, the kind that has secrets behind it. I stare up at him. Now the image has changed. I am once again standing in front of the executioner. He is wearing black pants, no shirt, and a black cloth over his head, covering his face. He walks up to me and places the noose around my neck, I try to pull away but my hands are tied behind my back. I turn to the side once he is gone and see Cody staring back at me, with the noose around his neck.
“It was great fighting with you Kat.” He says with a grin. I look forward, into the crowd, and quickly spot my little brother. Bobby is crying and clinging to Cody’s mom. The executioner walks up to a lever and places his hand on it.
“Bobby!” I cry as he pulls the lever and the floor drops from below me.

“Kat! Kat, wake up!” Cody screams at me as he shakes me. My eyes snap open and I am back in my room, in Cody’s house. I am panting, trying to concentrate on Cody and stop the room from spinning. Cody is holding me by the shoulders and staring directly into my eyes. I can tell I must have woken him up. His hair is a mess, he is still in his boxers only, and the look in his eyes tells me that I must have freaked him out.
“I’m so sorry Cody. It was just a nightmare.” I say as I take a deep breath and manage to collect myself once again. The lamp on the side of my bed is the only source of light, meaning it is still pretty late.
“I heard you scream Bobby’s name. What were you dreaming about?” Cody asks as I begin to relax. I tell Cody everything I remember from the dream. He does not interrupt as I speak. When I am done speaking I can see the worry in Cody’s eyes. “Do you think we should call off the rebellion?”
“No, this dream has just helped me realize that if my father was willing to go through with it, then so am I. We must save our family and end all of this.” I am staring straight into his eyes as I speak. The moment I look away I notice that it is actually not early in the morning. I stare at the clock for a moment before I realize that it is almost high noon. “Why is it so dark outside?”
“I tinted the windows of our rooms. I don’t want anyone to be able to look into them in case there are spies.” He explains with a smile. I can tell he is becoming a bit paranoid, and starting to worry me as well.
“Don’t worry, but try not to become too crazy. Besides, how will I be able to see what’s happening outside?”
“Ok, I’ll fix them later, but can we get back to your dream for a moment. Why did you have that that flashback of you and your father? You said that you forgot almost everything that happened when you were eleven. You never had this memory. Why do you think it’s surfacing now?”
After the execution of my father I was crushed. That year became the worst year for me. I was forgetting things, losing stuff, and ignoring everyone. I eventually forgot almost everything that happened that year. The execution was actually the only thing I remembered perfectly. Every once in a while a different memory would surface. Each memory would have something to do with the situation I was in.

“I think it’s because I have to make the similar decision. We are about to throw ourselves in a rebellion, no, we are starting the rebellion. We need to make the decision to leave out safe homes and our friends to go fight.” I explain with a frown. Cody slowly got up and made his way out of the room. I quickly stand up and follow him down the hall, out the front door, and into the town. I am still wearing my shorts and tank top; luckily it is pretty hot out. I manage to catch up with Cody and I grab his arm.

“What the heck?” I ask him once he finally looks back at me. He is watching me with a confused look.

“I’m sorry Kat. I just didn’t want to thank about everything I’m putting you through. You are my best friend, and I can’t stand listening to you when you’re sad or hurt about something I’m causing.” I can clearly see the hurt on his face as he speaks.

“No, I’m so sorry Cody. I didn’t even bother to think of your feelings while I complained like a little baby. I am beyond sorry. I don’t even know how to make it up to you.” Cody takes a step closer to me and pulls me into a hug. We stand like this, in the middle of the square, for several minutes, but it feels like hours.

“Leader Cody,” A voice says from behind us. We finally pull away and turn towards the voice. Our friend, Elizabeth, is standing in front of us. She is part of the supplier team. “I was just wondering, when is the next time we are going to go shopping?” I am almost surprised at how easily Elizabeth uses the code word.

“Um, the next shopping spree will be in two days, at the sideways hour.” Cody says nonchalantly. “Try to tell the shoppers. Did you make leader?”

“Yes sir, I also want to thank you and Leader Kat for even considering me for the . . . rebellion.” She says the last part in a hushed tone.

“We know you won’t let us down.” I tell her with a warm smile. She gives us a bright smile before hurrying down to the baker’s. “I think we need to get like, a symbol or something. You know something so we know when someone is on our side or a spy for the government.
Cody stares up at the sky for a few seconds as he thinks about this. “You’re right. We should come up with a symbol that everyone can wear or carry.”

“Yea, but we can thank about that later. Right now we should focus on getting some food for the house, and I want to go back to my old house and look through some old boxes for anything we can use.”
Shopping ended up being more like another team meeting. Everyone who we ran into was a member of the rebellion. I still can’t help but wonder how we could have possibly managed to get so many people to follow us into such a crazy idea like a rebellion. “Cody, can you take the bags to your house? I’m just going to go straight to my old house.” I tell him as we leave the town square. “I should be back in about an hour or two.”
He nods and makes his way home. I saunter down the street down the street to my empty, dark house. I hesitate at the door. ‘Can I really enter this place again?’ I ask myself as I place my hand on the knob. I take a few deep breaths and slowly turn the knob, opening the door to old memories. Everything is exactly as I left it.
There are boxes spread out in the living room and dining room. All the furniture is covered with cloth, and the doors are all shut tightly, trying to trap the horrible memories in the desolate rooms. The entire house is silent, except for my breathing, and ominous.

I make my way up the stairs and down the hall to the storage room. There are even more boxes in there, filled to the top with old items that I once cherished, but later out grew. I walk over to the boxes pushed into the corner. All of them have my father’s name written along the side. I take a deep breath and begin to open them.

The first box is simply filled with his old clothes. The second box contains all of his books. I open one of the books and study it. ‘This is his journal.’ I realize. I place it back in the box and slide it to the side. ‘I should take these back with me, they might have something important in there.’ I open five more boxes until I reach an interesting one. This box is small, only 7”-by- 5”, and is completely red. I try to open it, but realize it is locked and I can’t find the key.
Chapter 6: The Box

“So these are your dad’s journals? Did you start reading them?” Cody asks the moment I enter the house and explained to him what I found.

“No, for some reason reading them would seem like I’m invading my own dad’s personal life.” I try to explain. While I’m talking, I notice Cody is already flipping through one of the journals. “Cody!”

“What? I got bored, and they are right here. Don’t you want to learn more about your father?” I hesitate for a moment. I am dying to know as much as I can about my dad. I cave and quickly pick up one of the journals before I change my mind. I flip open to the middle and begin to read out loud.

April 9th, 2011
Today is Kat’s 10th birthday. I want to be happy, I really do, but my mind is racing. Today John brought up the rebellion idea again. I begged him not to. I wanted nothing but to make my daughter’s birthday one of the best days of her childhood. Seeing her and Cody standing beside each other, waiting for the cake, breaks my heart. I can’t stand even thinking of leaving my dear wife, beautiful Kat, and sweet one year old, Bobby. How can I do this to them? But it really doesn’t matter, right? When will there be a rebellion anytime soon? Anyways, Kat had fun today, that’s all that matters. She and Cody are getting very close now. Sometimes I fear I might even lose her to this boy one day.
I stare numbly at the page. It is almost painful to think that my dad thought that a simple boy could ever tear us apart. Instead it was a rope necklace that suspended my dad off the ground. I look up at Cody and I realize I must be crying.

“I’m sorry. Let’s keep reading we might get to something good.” I say quickly, wiping away the tears. Cody turns to a random page in the journal and begins to read. I stare at him; I can tell that something is bothering; he is still focusing on what I had just read.

October 30th, 2012
Something’s wrong with everyone. The rebels are doing their best to keep up with John and me, but I can tell they have no faith or hope anymore. I keep a picture of my family in my pocket, but even that is not bringing me enough hope. John also has a picture of his family with him. It seems to be working well enough for him. I wish I could possibly be as strong as him. So many have died in combat today, and so many more will die. Imperium is threatening us to surrender, but I don’t think that will happen.

How many will die before Imperium realizes that they are the ones that are wrong? I think of my family every moment I am not fighting, and when I am, I try to focus on going back to them. Tomorrow we are planning on going straight to Imperium and simply shooting and bombing until they surrender or everyone lies dead on the ground.

If I die, I pray someone will bring this back to my family for me. Let them know the truth.

November 6th, 2012. The day my father died. This time Cody doesn’t even bother to hide his sympathy. “I’m fine, I swear.” I say with a half smile. I can tell I’m not fooling him in anyway. Before I can stop myself, I fling myself at Cody and cry my eyes out. “I’m so sorry, I can’t stand crying this much, but hearing all this stuff about my dad. . . I can’t take it!” I sob. I cry for another few moments before I finally calm down.

“You have the right to feel the way you do. I wish I had any records of my father, but he wasn’t into writing things down.” Cody says with pain clear in his eyes. I can even see a hint of jealousy. “We should just read these later. I’m actually really interested in finding out what is in this box.” He says as he picks up the small red box. He hands it to me and I study it for a few minutes. The box is pretty plain, just red with some odd swirls carved into the sides.

“It’s locked and I couldn’t find the key.” I say. Before I can say anything else Cody grabs his lock picking kit from his room. It was a present from his dad on his 9th birthday. I can’t help but smile as I watch him carefully pick the delicate lock. Once he is done he hands the box back to me, letting me have the honor of opening it. I slowly lift the top off and stare at the only two things in the box. One item is a letter, the other is a necklace.

“Is that it?” Cody asks as he looks into the box. I pick up the note and slowly read it once through before repeating it to Cody.
Dear Kat,

If you are reading this then it means you are old enough to understand. I am leaving you with this necklace and I want you to cherish it. I have apparently gone through with the rebellion. Either I am alive and giving this to you personally, or I am dead and your mother is handing this box to you. I pray it is the first one.

The symbol on that necklace is the Cat’s eye. It is the symbol I used in the rebellion. It was based off you, Kat. The symbol is a dagger in the center of a cat’s eye. This is meant to symbolize our cunning sight when it comes to the truth and that we will fight to protect the future we wish to see. I had this necklace made just for you. It is a locket and I have taken the privilege to place a picture of the two of us in it.

Wear this necklace with pride. I love you Kitty Kat.
Love, Dad

I slowly close the letter and wipe the tears away once again. I carefully pick up the necklace from the box and hold it in front of my face. It is a cold locket, with a carefully imprinted picture of a cat’s eye with a dagger in the center. I slowly turn it around and see my name carved into it. I open it and see the picture my father had mentioned in the letter. It is a picture from my 10th birthday, right before my father made the decision to join the rebellion. I study my father’s happy face, his scrunched up eyes, amazing smile, and vibrant mood altogether.

“Can you help me?” I ask Cody as I turn around. He can tell I need help putting the locket on. Once it is securely placed around my neck I cannot help but fell my dad’s presence once again. I lightly touch the necklace one more time before I turn to look at Cody. “We should look through your stuff. I bet we will find something that your father left for you.”

“No, he left me nothing.” Cody says dismissively. The hurt and envy in his eyes are so blunt that it almost makes me feel like I should apologize that my father left me this. I think Cody can tell that I’m worried because he says, “I’m sorry; it’s just a little unfair. My father leaves me nothing, but your father leaves you almost everything. We can look in the storage closet tomorrow if that will make you feel better.” He offers with a smile.
That night I have comforting dreams of the old, happy days. When I was a kid and spent my time with my family or with Cody outside. I awake the next morning with a smile on my face and a great attitude to start the day with. It is still very early, and Cody and I have not planned to go hunting today, so I make my way to the kitchen to make us both breakfast.

I enter the kitchen and find that it is pitch black. I look at the windows and see that they are covered. ‘Damn, Cody must have forgotten to fix the windows.’ I think to myself as I reach over the counter to the light. Even as I am switching it on, I can feel something is wrong. My head snaps to the left and I automatically see the figure, even before the lights are on.

“My dear Kat, you seem so frightened. I didn’t mean to scare you.” The man calmly says. I stare at him with a mixture of fear, shock, and pure hatred. He stares back at me, the same way that a predator would stare at his prey, analyzing their next move.

“Hello President Cilark.”