Page 63 of The Labyrinth

I entered the village, the first few shacks seeming smaller than I remembered. More ramshackle. There was the school, dirtier than I remembered. The market was open, the small stalls filled with the people I had known my entire life. They laughed and joked with each other, haggling for the little they had in their pockets. But still they smiled, through the dirt and the grime. They probably smiled more than the people inside the Labyrinth. They knew how to be happy about the smaller things. When you had nothing, you were grateful for everything.

There was the neighbor's shack, a bright purple drape replacing their door. And there, next to it in the same place it had always been, was my family’s shack. Nothing had changed, and yet everything had. How had six of us lived in such a small space? It seemed impossible now that I knew the size of the homes others lived in. I pushed open the door, my heart stuck in my throat. Would they still love me? Would they see something was different about me, written all over my skin?

“Hello?” I called.

“Rissa!” Ettie’s bright little voice greeted me first. I grinned as she leapt off the bed, racing to my arms. “You’re home! You’re back!”

“Hey, Ettie girl,” I murmured, wrapping my arms around her as I spun her around the room. “Gosh, you’ve gotten so big!”

I pulled back to sweep her hair away from her face, still blonde, still golden, still shining, like the hidden treasure she was. “I’ve grown two inches! Mama says I’m having a growth spurt.”

“I believe it. You’re so tall! It must be all that porridge.” I smiled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Ettie seemed even less of a child than she had when I last saw her, growing out of her stubby childhood limbs. She looked healthy, too. I couldn’t feel any of her ribs.

“Porridge, and eggs, oh, and chicken once a week!” she piped up excitedly, squeezing her arms around my neck. “I have so much to tell you!”

I laughed, putting her down on the floor. “Eggs, and chicken? Are you pulling my leg?”

“She’s not.” My mother’s voice, music to my soul, rang out from behind the door. “Oh, Rissa. It’s so good to see you.” She pulled me into her embrace, holding me close. My cheek was damp with her tears as she cried quietly. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

“I’m here now.” I ached for a moment. I had been away for too long. I knew I should’ve come back sooner. I had been so afraid, so fearful they wouldn’t understand my new life. But being here now, I realized that had been a foolish concern. It was like I had never left. The pot bubbled over the low fire. There was the bed, messily made. I could still cross the room in fifteen paces, ten if I was feeling energetic. “Chicken?”

My mother nodded. “Since you’ve gone, we’ve gotten money every week. It’s enough for us to buy the extra food. Enough for us to get a tutor for Ettie. It’s why she’s home right now. Tennyson…that’s his name, isn’t it? He’s not one for words, but he wrote with the first envelope of money. Said you were safe, and being taken care of, and wanted to make sure we were taken care of as well.” She held her hand to my face, and I leaned into her touch. “You look well. Different. But well.”

I was filled with different emotions. Gratitude for Ten, for taking care of my family like he said he would. Letting them know I was safe. Sadness I had missed so much. Heartbreak for everything I had experienced to get to this point. “Mom…I…I…I’ve done bad things, mom.” My voice broke, and for the first time in years, I just needed my mother’s reassurance. I needed her to hold me, stroke my hair and tell me everything would be okay.

She looked up at me, smiling sadly. “Haven’t we all? We do things that break our hearts, and make us tear at our skin. We make decisions that weigh down our bones. What matters though, is this.” She cupped her hand over my heart. “It’s still beating, isn’t it? It brought you home to me again.”

It was still beating, a constant reminder I was still alive. This life wasn’t an easy one, but I was still here. I was still going. Still clawing my way out of the grave, one hand over the other. I might not be able to see the top of the hole yet, but I was getting there. And every time I fell, slipping down a little lower into the dirt, someone’s hand was there to pull me back out again. Ten was right, just like he always was. My family didn’t care about anything besides the fact I was still standing. How could I have ever doubted them? I clasped my hand over my mother’s, unable to speak the words caught in my throat.

“It’s okay, Rissa. You’re here now. You’re here, and that’s what matters.” She pulled back to look at me again, and Ettie came to clutch my waist. “Now, are you back just because, or is this a more important visit?”

I grimaced, so caught up in seeing my family again I had forgotten the real reason I’d returned. “I don’t come bearing good news, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

“No, I didn’t think you did. Your face says it all.” My mother focused her attention on the pot bubbling on the fire.

“There’s a war inside the Labyrinth. A bad one. The people they’re fighting…they aren’t good, Mom. You need to be ready to leave at any moment. We should get your stuff together, just in case.” I hugged Ettie back, pressing a kiss to the top of her golden forehead. “The guys can help organize the big stuff when they get home. And I’ll come out here the second I hear anything, or send someone who can bring word to you.”

“We’re leaving?” Ettie asked, peeking her head up. “Where are we going?”

My mother turned back to me, hands on her hips. “Yes. Just where do you think we can go?” She wiped her hands on her hips.

“To a different village, maybe. One further away from the Labyrinth. Away from the gates. This group, they want to enslave all the humans.Allof them.” I cupped my hands over Ettie’s ears, not wanting her to hear. I didn’t want to give her nightmares. “Mom, they breed the girls on the inside. Right now, Ten’s council still has some morals. But if this new group takes control, who’s to say they wouldn’t take Ettie?”

Ettie brushed my hands off her ears. “Don’t keep secrets from me. I hate it.”

My mother just shook her head. “This has been our home since the Fall, Rissa. There’s nowhere else to go. The desert is deadly. We both know this. I can’t uproot everyone over a possibility.”

She was so fucking stubborn sometimes, it was incredible. It suddenly made sense where I got it from. Ironically, I had always thought I got it from my father. But seeing her stand up to me, debating logistics—she hadn’t seen what I had seen. She didn’t know how brutal the Ravens were.

I needed to try a different tactic. Understanding and logic would work on me, so I needed to make it work for her. I was going to make sure my family was safe if it killed me.

“Listen to me. Ten is good. Probably better than I deserve, all things considered. But not everyone inside the Labyrinth is. These guys make them look like amateurs. I’m not saying you have to up and leave right now. I’m not asking you to move out this very second. I’m just asking you to be prepared. Get some stuff together. Have some preserved food ready. Just in case. Maybe it’ll come to nothing. Maybe I’m worrying over absolutely nothing. But on the off chance I’m not, you need to be prepared. I need to know you’re safe.”

She wiped her palms across her pants, chewing on her lip. “We will get some things together. But, Rissa, this doesn’t automatically mean I’m leaving. Why would I leave a Hell I know for a Hell I don’t?”

The idea of leaving them here killed me. As much as I wanted to return to Ten, the idea of leaving them in limbo made me uncomfortable. They were so happy over a chicken, and eggs, and a tutor for Ettie while I was eating donuts and sleeping with enough blankets I could make a rope out of them. I was asking them to change everything, when everything they had was so little. I should’ve brought them more from inside the gates. If I knew it was safe inside the Labyrinth, I would bring them home with me. But I didn’t, and leaving them here, inside the shack I had grown up in, felt wrong. This place wasn’t my home anymore, but the people inside it still were. Our house in the Labyrinth didn’t feel like a home, either, but Ten did. And having the people you loved split by a gate, and a different life entirely mademefeel split down the middle. My heart was tearing in opposite directions, in tatters as I tried to make sense of it.

The door swung open, revealing all three of my brothers. They were dirty, and covered in dust, but all three of their faces lit up when they saw me—even Lars’. “Rissa!” Bear was the first to reach me, grabbing me and swinging me around like I had done to Ettie.

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