Bali was sitting up, the blanket lying across her lap, covering her bare legs, when the door in the wall opened and the mysterious boy came in again with another tray. This time the hood was gone and he wore a black sweatshirt and torn jeans with red Chucks on his feet. He set the tray down near Bali again and sat down opposite her against the wall. She looked down and saw a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cut diagonally, and a glass of milk.
"Is this your lunch?" she asked him, making him start and look away again with flushed cheeks. "They didn't tell you to feed me, did they?" she asked gently.
"No," he replied.
"Then why are you doing it?" The boy shrugged without looking at her and said simply, "I don't know."
Bali took half the sandwich and the milk off the tray and then, using her foot, she pushed the tray hard, making it slide across the stone floor until it stopped within a foot of the boy. "Now we can both eat," she said when Milo looked up at her in surprise. "Thanks for the blanket," she said between a mouthful of sticky peanut butter as the boy finally reached over slowly and took the other half of the sandwich, taking a small bite. He shrugged in reply but said nothing more.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked after gulping down the cool milk and setting the cup down beside her.
"Talk about what?" he asked.
"I don't know, whatever is bothering you?" she prompted. Milo said nothing for a long time and Bali thought for a moment that he might storm out again, but then he set his half-eaten sandwich down and looked at her.
"I don't know. It just doesn't feel right," he said slowly.
"What?" she asked.
"This," he said, waving his hand around the room. "Here. You. Me. Nothing feels right."
"What do you mean?" He sighed and looked away from her again. "Have you ever felt like you've fallen asleep and the dreams you're dreaming are so vivid you're not sure if they are real life or just dreams?" he asked her.
"No, I haven't. Is that how you feel?" she asked tentatively. He nodded. "I don't know what's real anymore."
"Do you remember anything about your life?" she asked him, hoping she wasn't prying too much and that she didn't scare him off again.
"Not really, bits and pieces maybe. I know I chose this, this life," he said bitterly and then added, "I deserve it."
"You deserve what? To work for the witches? The shadows? How can anyone deserve that?" "I did something, something terrible," he replied.
"Did the witches tell you that?" she asked him.
"They did but they didn't have to. I see glimpses of it. Of what I did. I am evil now. I have to get used to that," he said with a hint of resolve in his voice as he added, "Once you join darkness you can never step into the light again."
"I don't believe that. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody is perfect," Bali replied, feeling an empathy for the boy that was uncharacteristic of her.
"It's not just a mistake. It's worse," he said, shaking his head.
"What then? What did you do?" she asked, her curiosity growing.
"I betrayed them, my family," he said quietly, almost to himself.
"Betrayed them how?" she asked.
"I don't remember," he said so quietly she barely heard him.
"Then how do you know you betrayed them?"
"Because I remember!" he practically shouted at her.
"But you just said you didn't remember," she reminded him gently, not fazed by his outburst. Milo stood suddenly, stepped on his half-eaten sandwich with his Chucks and stormed across the room, waving open the door and stomping through it, letting it slam behind him for the second time.
Bali sat motionless, staring at the door for a long time, wondering who the boy might be. At the very least his presence had given her something else to focus on besides her situation and whether her friends, her team, her family were coming to save her or not. She knew deep down that they were but a small part of her still doubted, considering all her mistakes over the last few weeks, that they still considered her a part of the team. The door swung open suddenly, jerking Bali from her reverie about her friends, and she looked up in surprise to see Milo come running in suddenly.
"They are going to make you search for the girl. Do what they say, don't fight them," he said, standing over her, his cheeks flushed and his chest heaving as though he had sprinted the whole way back from wherever he had gone.
"I can't give up my friends," Bali said, knowing as she did that, she spoke the truth. No matter what had happened or would happen she wouldn't give up Tony, or the girl.
"You have to! You don't understand what they can do to you. I won't be able to protect you if you make them angry!" he said, getting up close to her so she could see the specks of yellow dotting his green eyes.
"How much time do I have?" she asked him, resisting the urge to reach out and touch his arm as she spoke. Something about him felt so familiar and despite the fact that she was the one chained up she had the strong desire to protect him instead.
"They are coming tonight. They think you've been down here without food or water, and you will be willing to talk and help them when they come."
"Well," Bali said with a chuckle, nodding across the room, "you better clean up that sandwich then or they will know someone has been bringing me food." Milo looked to where she pointed and then back at her, his dark eyebrows relaxing into a look of genuine concern.
"I'm serious, Bali. You can't resist them. I don't want you to get hurt."
"Then set me free?" she said, a questioning look in her eyes.
"I can't!" he said in frustration before standing up and pulling away from her. He turned towards the other wall and ran his hands through his curly dark hair, making it stick out at funny angles, then he hastily knelt down and scraped up the smashed peanut butter and jelly from the ground, using his sleeve to wipe up bits of jelly that had smeared on the stone. Taking the leftover food and the tray that sat near Bali's feet, Milo turned and left the room without another word.