Free Ordinary (Anything But) by Lindy Zart

or away. She stared straight ahead as she walked in nothing but a towel and bare feet on the cold floor. Conversations halted, then picked up, more excited than before. Someone laughed. Honor gritted her teeth and crossed the room, glad when she got to the hallway that led to the room she’d slept in the night before. Nealon and Burns came through an opening in the wall she hadn’t known was there, startling her. Burns’ eyes gleamed as he took in her appearance. Honor inwardly recoiled, knowing he was dangerous, a predator of the weaker beings. She needed to stay away from him as much as she could.
    Nealon’s face remained blank, but fire flashed in his eyes. He turned to the woman and demanded, “What are you doing?”
    She drew herself up, trying to look important and looking like she was trying too hard to be important instead. “I gave her ten minutes. She neglected them.”
    “Maybe she’ll listen next time,” Burns said, not taking his gaze from her. Honor wanted to hide herself from him, to cover herself up in layers and layers of clothing, anything to get the feeling that he was imagining what her body looked like under the towel out of her head.
    Nealon locked eyes with her, never once glancing down. She respected him for that. “Go to your room. Get dressed. I will come for you momentarily.”
    Honor never thought she would be thankful for Nealon, that she’d ever have any reason to be grateful to him, but right then, at that moment, Honor was. She no dded and strode away from them, so disoriented with her surroundings it took her a moment to find the room. It was the only one with the door open. Honor wondered how many people were in the other rooms behind the closed doors. She shivered and it wasn’t just from the lack of clothing she had on. She walked inside and turned to the door, closing it. There was no lock, not on her side of it. Anyone could walk in; anyone could lock her in from the outside.
    There was a small rectangular window in the door, covered like the other windowed doors she’d seen in the church. Someone could slide it open and watch her at any time they pleased. The idea of someone observing her sleeping, while she was completely helpless, was actually scarier than the thought of someone watching her undress, although both thoughts were reprehensible. Honor felt sick thinking about it all.
    She hurriedly dressed, only then noticing that the food Ryder had kicked over was cleaned up and a new tray, with fresh food, was sitting on the bed. Honor stared at it, her mouth salivating. It was plain oatmeal, dry toast, and watered down orange juice; same as before, but at the moment it looked and smelled like the best meal ever to her. Her hands shook as she moved for it, stopping when the toast was within reach. It could be poisoned. She closed her eyes, wishing she wasn’t so suspicious of everything. She wanted to be able to eat and drink the meal without thinking of all the possible outcomes her digestion of it would bring forth. She wasn’t like that though.
    Honor thought over every situation, every facial expression, every tone of voice and act, to death. It was in her DNA to look at everything from every angle she could think of. Most of the time it helped her from making bad decisions, but usually it annoyed her. A lot of the time she pushed the compulsion to analyze away and simply acted. Sometimes that was good, sometimes that was bad. Nealon found her like that, hovering over the food.
    “It won’t bite.”
    “Will it poison?”
    He paused. “I am not your enemy. You need to realize that. Now eat.”
    “It kind of seems like you are.”
    “It kind of seems like you’re a brat too.”
    Honor took in his expressionless face and almost laughed. Her lips twitched and she looked away. Did he actually have a sense of humor? Her stomach grumbled loudly and with a sigh she dug into the food. She was starving, it would go to waste otherwise, and…she was starving. Honor tried