I sat down with other children my "age" and played with my food, my stomach turning, and I felt like I was about to throw up. I wasn't that hungry, and I tried to eat something because I knew that they wanted us to be fat enough to eat.

I could feel someone staring at me, watching my every move, and it took all of my self-control not to look at them. I had a slight feeling I knew who was staring at me, and I prayed that he would not look at me for long because I didn't want my cover to be blown.

I took a bite of my food and tried my best not to throw it back up. I was a very picky eater, and it didn't help that I was a half-breed.

"Are you ok?" a girl asked in a whisper, not wanting to break the silence between us. She frowned and studied me with worried eyes, and I had a feeling that it was because I looked sick. "Are you sick?"

I shook my head, no. "I am just not hungry," I whispered. "I am scared." I was lying; I felt very nauseous over that one bite of food, and I prayed that I wouldn't throw it back up because I knew that it would blow my cover, especially since I had someone watching my every move.

The girl smiled hesitantly and nodded. "Me too," she whispered and cleared her throat a bit. She frowned and looked down before she looked up at me, her green eyes filled with grief and sadness. "We can't let them know, though." She shook her head and sighed, and I couldn't help but wonder if she had a family member die here. "No, we can't."

"Why not?" I asked and cocked my head while I studied her because I was curious, and she shook her head but didn't respond.

I jumped in my seat, "startled," when someone smacked the table between us. I looked towards the sound before I looked up to see that there was a lady staring at us with a ruler in her eyes, and my eyes grew wide.

"No talking," the female with the ruler said. She scowled and narrowed her eyes while she looked between us.

However, when her eyes stopped on me again, she narrowed them and pursed her lips in disgust. She looked me up and down, and it took all of my self-control not to punch her in the face and see if her nose would break. "Eat," she commanded and gestured to the food still on my plate. "We need you to be good and strong while you are here."

I nodded and looked at the food, my stomach turning some more.

It was times like these that I hated having the diet of the Addisans, the alien breed that took these children, because it meant that greens weren't that appealing to me, and stuff that didn't have the slightest taste of blood was disgusting to me.

"Yes, Ma'am," the little girl said. She started to tuck into her food, and I did the same, making sure that I didn't gag with each bite that I took.

"Hmph," the female said and walked away, and I had a feeling that she would be keeping an eye on us to make sure that we were eating and not talking.

However, as soon as she looked away from us, and as soon as it was safe, the little girl took almost everything off of my plate and put it on hers before she started to eat everything without a care in the world.

I stared at her for a couple of seconds, my mouth wide open in shock. I had no idea why she did that, but I was grateful that she did it because it meant that I didn't have that much left to eat and could hopefully handle the rest.

'Thank you,' I mouthed after I got my bearings and cleared my throat.

The little girl smiled and winked, not saying a word. She kept eating what was on her plate, not complaining the slightest that she had a lot more on her plate than me.

I finished the remaining food on my plate and almost breathed a sigh of relief when the whistle to stop eating sounded throughout the room.

"Everyone to your dormitories for the evening," a male said from somewhere to my left. "Everyone to your dormitories."

I stood with the rest of the children and placed a small and undetectable bomb underneath the table that I had been sitting at with the rest of the children my age.

I kept my face blank while I walked out of the dining room, but all I wanted to do was smirk.

However, I knew that if I smirked, then I could get killed, so I made sure to keep myself composed and ready because I had a feeling that we would have something fun to do.

Hopefully, everything would go to plan, though. I needed it too; I really needed it as if my life depended on it.

And in some way, it did.

***

I was in a cot near the girl that had helped me during meal time. I kept my eyes closed and pretended to be asleep, but I wasn't asleep; I was listening to the conversation that was happening outside of our dormitory, using a device I had set up in the hallway as well as my hearing.

"We have reports of a male from the Committee, Sir," one of the Addisans said in their tongue, talking to someone else.

I bit back a groan and rolled my eyes, annoyed, knowing full well that they were talking about Timothy. Timothy, I thought and closed my eyes with a soft sigh, what did you do? I bit back a sigh of annoyance and silently moved on the cot, trying not to make too much movement to alert them that I was awake.

"How old?" another male asked, his voice deeper than the other one. He sounded familiar to me, and my heart dropped into my stomach because I had a feeling I had heard him before, someone that was supposed to be important to me but wasn't. "And where is the boy?"

"It says that he is fifteen," the male that spoke first said. "However, his blood says that he isn't. He is around eighteen-years-old." He cleared his throat before he continued with the information he was given. "He is on his way to the Pit."

I bit back a growl of annoyance and pulled my arm close to my face, knowing that I was going to have to do something to protect and save him. I opened the fake piece of skin that hid a computer underneath it and typed a message to my group, warning them that Timothy had been caught and was on his way to the Pit.

As soon as I finished typing the message, I looked around and noticed that the girl who had helped me earlier was staring at me with wide eyes. I placed my finger on my lips when she opened her mouth to ask what was going on and silently told her to be quiet.

The little girl closed her mouth without question and nodded.

"Are there any others?"

"No, Sire," the informant replied. "The Committee has not done their homework."

The little girl looked at my arm and then at me, wondering what was going on and why a part of my arm was flipped up and why my face was covered in a green light. Confusion filled her eyes, but thankfully, she didn't say a word.

I bit back a sigh of relief and turned my attention back to the little computer. I pursed my lips in annoyance when I saw that they wouldn't be able to get to Timothy in time, and I mentally groaned because I knew that it meant I had to blow my cover to save his butt.

Again, I looked up to see that the little girl was still staring at me with curiosity and a small bit of fear in her eyes. 'Pretend to have a nightmare and scream loudly,' I mouthed, praying that she would be able to understand reading lips.

'Why?' the little girl asked, and I had to bite back a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness.

"Make sure that there are not any others," the "Sire," said. "We do not want to be stopped, especially since we are close to having our biggest haul yet."

"Yes, Sire," the soldier said, and I had a feeling that he was about to.

Shit. 'Scream,' I all but hissed, knowing that my time was almost over, and I wouldn't have a way to get out if she didn't. 'Do it, now. Trust me.'

The little girl's eyes grew wide with fear, but she nodded. She turned away from me and closed her eyes, and I closed the computer on my arm and closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep.

The little girl started to whimper and thrash around before the guard and "Sire" could go along with their business. She started to whimper loudly, but she didn't scream just yet.

"Hold on," the Sire said, hearing the whimpering girl thrashing around the room. "What is that?"

"It sounds like a nightmare, Sire," the guard replied nonchalantly.

"Hmph," the Sire said, unamused. He opened the door when the little girl screamed bloody murder and started to whimper in fear, and some of the other girls woke up and looked around in confusion.

I pretended to be a heavy sleeper and was not affected by the noise, even though I did have to close my ears so that she didn't accidentally destroy my eardrums. I kept my whole body relaxed while the two men walked in and made sure that they didn't realize I was also awake.

"Shut up, Girl," the guard said, harshly in English but didn't put a hand on her because of the person beside him. "Wake up."

"Mommy!" the girl exclaimed and woke up while she sat up in bed. She started to sob hysterically, and the soldier hissed in annoyance.

"You, wake up," the Sire said in English while he shoved me off the bed. He scowled when I sat up and blinked slowly, waking up. Realization and relief filled his eyes before they turned into confusion. However, he didn't say a word.

I cocked my head and stared at him, confused. I stayed silent while he pointed at the girl that was crying and trying to clutch onto the soldier, who was pushing her away in disgust.

"Stop her from crying," he ordered. "Get up."

I hesitated before I nodded and stood. I walked over to her and sat down beside her. Taking a mental deep breath, I pulled her into a hug and rocked her back and forth, praying that she would get the idea and stop crying.

The little girl clutched me tightly and slowly but surely stopped crying. Still, she held onto me tightly and kept sniffling a bit.

I had no idea if she would let go of me or not when they left, and I prayed that she would because I had a job to do.

"You both will sleep in the same bed tonight," the Sire said, interrupting me from my musings. He looked between us and scowled while he narrowed his eyes, looking dominating. "Do not make another noise. Do you two understand?"

Silently, we nodded, and both stayed silent because we didn't want to go against what the king had ordered.

The Sire nodded and left, followed by the guard that had walked in with him. His whole body was tense, but he did not say a word about knowing who I was nor questioned me why I was here, even though I had a feeling that he already knew.

I laid down on the cot and pulled the little girl beside me so that she was also lying down.

As soon as I sensed that they were completely gone, I pulled the covers over us and opened the small computer to illuminate our faces so that we could see each other. 'Well done,' I mouthed, and the girl beamed with pride. 'That is one way to do it.'