Another bell rang to wake me up. What was it with Shibuyas and bells? I sat up, stretching and yawning. I looked around. Mateo wasn’t here yet. I could’ve left, no one would’ve noticed. But something made me stay. A piercing horn blew. I covered my ears sharply. The noise quieted down, and I freed my ears just in time for another sound. Thuds, reverberating thuds all around me. Was it the army again? I immediately doubted it, as I saw Mateo walk past the alleyway and gestured for me to follow him. The thuds were making my head hurt, but I stood up and ran towards him, pulling my shawl over my head. “Mateo!” I cried, exhausted, “What’s happening?”?” He put a finger to his lips, lowering his voice to a whisper, “There’s an announcement, but when there’s announcements, they search the alleyways for people who decided not to come, you weren’t safe.” I stared at him, shocked, “What’s the announcement about?” Mateo shrugged, “We’ll see.” The two of us began to walk, Mateo leading the way, to a large stage in the middle of the town. They must’ve had many announcements if they needed a place dedicated to it. A short man stood on the stage, horn touching his lips. As soon as we began to approach, the whole town began to approach, he lowered it and stepped back into the shadows on the other side of the stage. A taller man wearing an army uniform marched onto the stage, turning towards the crowd that had gathered, and began to speak. The Shibuya army led an attack on the Enyana village of the path yesterday.” A collective gasp ran its way through the crowd. I gasped too, not realizing that it had been just yesterday. “As you most likely know, just about everyone stays in that village during the day, as they only have one... kid.” I almost laughed; he didn’t seem to know what to call me. “That child did not arrive at school yesterday and attempted to rally the Enyana’s to defend themselves.” That was not what had happened, I didn’t know what he was talking about. I had tried to save my village, was there something wrong with that? I listened as he continued. “She attacked an army member. We are hunting for this girl, by the name of Anya, throughout the village.” He paused and looked down at us, it felt like he was looking straight at me, “We encourage you to search for her and turn her into us. If she struggles, make sure to let her know that we’re holding her family in custody.” He went on to describe me, very badly, if I do say so myself. If I had taken my hood down in the crowd, they wouldn’t have noticed it was me. But he had hit a soft spot, talking about my family like that. And now I wasn’t safe, not here. The crowd began to disperse, the man was done talking. Mateo grabbed my arm and began to pull me away. “I can’t go back to the alley!” I whispered scathingly in his ear. Mateo nodded, “That’s why I’m going to bring you inside.” I was shocked, that was even worse, “But your mother!” He shrugged, “It’ll be fine, my mother is amazing.” I wasn’t so certain, but I was too worried to argue. I followed him into the flat he lived in. I guess I was wrong about the small-family-large-house thing, because their house, while a little bigger than our own, was tiny. There were three rooms, hence the ‘bigger than ours’ part, one being the living room and the other two being bedrooms, one for Mateo and one for his mother. It wasn’t heavily furnished, in fact, it was bare. There were a few cupboards, but even they seemed to be empty. I looked around at the clean room in amazement, “I thought Shibuya houses were large!” Mateo nodded, leading me to his room, “Most are, but we...” He cut himself off, “I don’t know where you should sleep tonight, but we can figure that out.” He must not have noticed the nervous look I had, because he kept talking about it. “Mateo?” His head popped up, and he stopped talking, “Yeah?”
I shook my head, “I’m not going to stay here tonight.” His eyes were a little mournful, I had to resist the temptation to hug him, “Why?” Mateo asked. I looked around his room, “It’s too dangerous to stay here. Not just for me, I don’t want to hurt you and your mum.” Mateo shook his head fiercely, “It’ll be fine, they don’t search houses.” “They are searching for me, Mateo!” my voice was getting louder, “If they find me, you could be punished too! I don’t want that to happen!” We glared at each other, a silent staring match, like Mum and Lyna had. “Fine.” Mateo was still scowling at me, but he headed towards the door of his room, “Come on. We can find some food.” I didn’t want to take food from him, but there was nothing else I could do. I followed him slowly. The living room was the same as before, except for the woman standing in the middle of it, talking to Mateo. I immediately hid behind the door, hoping she hadn’t seen me. Which is why I was surprised when Mateo called me out. I crept slowly towards him, suspicious of what was happening. Was he turning me in? The woman waved at me, “Hello Anya! I’m Mateo’s mother!” I smiled nervously, “Hi.” “I understand that you’re here for a school project, so I’m going to go and leave you to your work.” As she said this, I relaxed. I wasn’t being turned in. The woman, Mateo’s mother, walked quickly away, and Mateo shot me a look, a cross between malice, happiness, and gloating. I rolled my eyes, “What did you want to do again?” “Give you some food.” He swaggered over to the cupboards, then turned around, “Oops, I forgot, we’ll need a bag, can you go find the knapsack in my room?” I nodded, barely catching the fact that he had said, ‘we’ll’. I turned and reentered his room. It wasn’t hard to find the sack he’d been talking about, there wasn’t much else in his room. I walked over to his cot, the same bed my mum had. On a table next to it, there was a picture frame. I picked it up, studying it. There was nothing in it, it was dusty and old. “It’s for the future.” At the voice, I spun around. Mateo’s mother was in the doorway. I nodded welcomingly towards her, “What do you mean?” She came towards me, “Mateo’s very sentimental, he never met his father. He’s hoping that one day, he’ll find a picture of him.” “Oh. You’re his mom, right?” She looked inquisitively at me, “Yes. Call me Tresa. What about your father?” I glanced down at the frame in my hands, “I don’t know. I don’t even know if I have one.” Tresa nodded, “I’m sorry. I assume that my son lied about a school project?” I glanced up at her, surprised, “Yes. How did you know?” “The appearances of Enyanas and Shibuyas are very different, as you probably know.” Her eyes searched me for anything, everything, that could hurt her son, “Just be careful.” I turned and headed for the door. “And Anya?” I turned to see Tresa staring at me knowingly, “Make sure they don’t catch my son.” I nodded, “I’ll make sure of it.”
