*Thank you for the patience! A long one as promised!

One Hundred One |

"Fuck me," I grumbled, banging the god dam- the stupid hammer against my thumb for—at this point, I didn't know how many times it had been now, "This is stupid."

The arrogant old man sitting on a lawn chair while looking over a file or something didn't give any mind to my pain and suffering. Ophelia who had laughed the first few times, no longer did so, finding herself much too busy with her own suffering.

"Why can't I just use duct tape?" she breathed, wiping sweat off her face.

Sonar didn't even look up, "Because it is a bird house, not a leaky pipe."

"Really," I snapped, "Why are we even building a damn bird bath?"

"Because I said so, and I don't remember stuttering."

I rolled my eyes, looking down at our stupid work. It was a bunch of different sized small and medium cut wooden platforms nailed together in a way that would only be useful on a bat against zombies. Attached was a wooden bowl (Sonar had made it, taking pity on us) which also had more nails sticking out than in.

This effort was going onto it's eighth hour.

"Fuck!" I snarled, the hammer hitting my flesh again, "That's it—I'm done!"

Pivoting around, I threw the stupid hammer across the room against the wall. Causing other tools I didn't know how to use to fall. This time Sonar did look up as Ophelia rolled her eyes and moved to sit on the edge of the worktable.

"No," he ordered at her, to which she got off, "Your punishment is to build a birdbath, your birdbath is going to be filled with bird blood by the way. Start over."

"What?" I gasped, "You can't be serious."

He looked at me blankly, "I'm not known for my jokes."

"Sir," Ophelia sighed, "I have to feed the birds."

He nodded, "Go. But be back tomorrow morning. I'm sure our guest will still be here making a bird death compartment rather than a bird bath."

"Oh fuck you," I snapped.

"Thank you!" Ophelia laughed, "Ok, bye!"

I sighed, turning on my heels and taking a break away from this asshole. I feared if I didn't, I would launch my foot so far up his ass, he'd be needing me to make him a bathtub not the damn birds. The old man, didn't take my demeanor seriously, and proceeded to pick up the birdbath and toss it into the garbage.

"What," I sighed, tired, "Do you want from me?"

He blinked, "A birdbath."

"I just want to see my friends," I whispered, tears of frustration filling my eyes, "I want to see Sebastian and Lisa and Oliver. I don't understand why I'm being punished for an argument I didn't start."

He was silent for a moment before turning on his heels and leaving the garage. I shook my head, throwing up my hands and sighing. A minute went by, then two, and three and soon I was sitting on the worktable swinging my legs back and forth waiting for him.

When he finally returned, he did so with two pigeons on his shoulders and a Raven in his hands. I blinked looking at the odd sight, before I noticed the strangeness with the birds. To start, the Raven only had one leg. A pigeon whose wing looked odd and shorter than the other, and the other pigeon just looking like it was about to drop dead at any second.

"This," he said, raising the Raven up to set it on the table next to me, "Is Scar. She lost her leg when one of our men outside the walls had turned after writing a goodbye to his loved ones. Despite a few toes being bitten off, she delivered the letter. I saved her life, and when she went out of commission, I gave her a home. We stopped using Ravens a few years ago, Lilith didn't like that the birds were as smart as five-year-old. Said, it made them unpredictable so she put out the order to kill all our trained Ravens. Scar had been in my care for only a few months at the time, funny enough losing her leg saved her life."

I looked at the Raven who stared back at me.

"Off the table," she then spoke in Sonar's voice, "Off the table!"

I slid off slowly, narrowing my eyes at her.

"She's stubborn. The table's her seat while I work," he cracked a small smile, "On my left shoulder is Teal. She's our oldest and retired pigeon. She has a hard time flying now and I know she looks like she's about to drop but she's a strong one."

I tilted my head, noticing the sudden happiness in the old man's eyes.

"And this," he said moving to pet the bird on his other shoulder, "Is Pig."

I snickered, "Pig?"

"She likes her food," he replied, "So much that went sent out with one of our resource teams, she lead them to a hidden bunker that had mounds of food, including seeds that we could later plant. Unfortunately, it was also her stomach that ended up getting her wing hurt. Pig here ended up flying into a window after seeing a few sunflower seeds on someone's table and now she can't fly anymore."

I chuckled softly, "They have strong personalities."

"All the birds do," he replied, "I have more in my home too. All of which are trained. When I work, they join me outside every day. The birdbath was theirs. However, they need a new one and the council won't permit my time to go into making them a new one. Every being on this island needs to have a purpose, and retired birds don't in the eyes of the council."

I sighed, feeling guilty about being mad, "I guess I should complain less."

"Half my food rations go to them," he continued.

My eyes rolled, "I get it, you can stop guilting me now."

"Good!" he replied, "So get back to work and maybe then I'll decide to give you a moment of my time and see what I can do about your friends. Scar, come on girl, bedtime."

Scar seemed to glare at me, "Stay off the table!"

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered turning back to the table.

He went back to putting his birds back inside his trailer, and I went back to building a new birdbath. As I got new pieces of wood, I paused, looking over at him suspiciously.

"You only have three birds, don't you?" I demanded.

He smirked, not looking up from his damn file, "Teal lives on my trailer in her nest. She can function fine on her own. Scar and Pig live in my trailer."

Of course.

I grumbled but went back to sanding wood, trying to come up with a new design that would satisfy the old man. The day went on and soon, night was falling over us. Eventually, Sonar got up and went inside his trailer. I thought he had gone to bed but he came back out soon after, with a plate of pasta and a glass of water in hand.

"Here," he grunted, "You need to eat."

I looked at him in surprise, "You let your slaves eat? Wow."

He rolled his eyes before moving back inside his trailer. I waited until he was inside before devouring the food in seconds, not realizing how hungry I was until I was licking my fingers clean of food. I then downed the water, but not before spilling it over the wood.

"Ah fuck," I groaned before an idea came to me, "Oh!"

Getting to work, I started trying to execute an idea I had no idea how to build. Hell, I even pulled books off the shelves of the garage and skimmed them. Needless to say, when he returned at midnight, it was with a displeased look on his face most likely due to annoyance of my loud cursing. But, I was glad for his arrival, because I needed his help.

"What is that?" he asked.

I smirked, "Ok, here me out. A birdbath that works as a fountain!"

"Is that why it has a hole in it?" he replied coolly.

My confidant smirk dipped a tad, "Uh yes?"

"How would they get water? The island does not condone those not serving."

I nodded, "Ok, I thought of this, kind of. So it can collect rain water and just recycle the water throughout it. You can add a little salt to it to keep the water clean I just don't know the pluming side of it all. I-I read one of your building books though."

He tilted his head slightly, "You made stairs?"

I shrugged, "Pig can't fly you said."

The man was silent for a moment, "Come with me."

He walked briskly away from the garage, and through the thriving town. I followed after him, practically jogging to keep up. Although I wanted to question where we were going, I knew better than to test him. So, I said nothing, allowing my short breaths to be the only sound. He brought me to one of the ports, where boats were set up and on the shore, men standing around. I frowned slightly, wondering why we were here.

"Sir!" One man said walking over, "We weren't expecting you until tomorrow."

He shook his head, "I'll be back tomorrow, for now bring me Sebastian."

My eyes widened, and my heart fluttered. I held back from reacting, I didn't want these people to know how excited I was to see him. I needed to act neutral, we weren't safe here, they couldn't know how close our ties truly were. And then I saw him, and all thoughts of that left my mind. His eyes widened, and I was suddenly running towards him, throwing myself into his hands. The man let out a small oomph as his arms caught me, he only stumbled back two steps.

"Hey love," he whispered into my ear.

I let out a sob of happiness, "Hey you."

Slowly, he put me down, but his hands didn't leave my body. Instead, they held my face. His eyes searching my eyes as mine did the same, he looked tired but there was excitement there, happiness. I hoped it was because of just me but I knew better. Despite only being here a short while, he was happy here.

"I missed you," I whispered.

He leaned in, touching our foreheads together, "I missed you more."

"So why'd you not look for me?"

He paused, pulling away and I cursed myself silently. I shouldn't have asked, the words just slipped from my mouth before I could hold back. His eyes flickered and there I saw a moment of guilt before he sighed softly.

"I did," he replied, "Love I didn't stop asking. But the reply was always the same."

I nodded, "I know. I'm sorry."

He shook his head, that confidant smirk on his lips, "We have lots of time to make up, how about we find a nice, quiet spot and start catching up."

At that I laughed.

"Sebby!" a feminine voice called, "Come on! We're about to make a bonfire!"

My laugh died down instantly, as a woman jogged over. My eyes narrowed as this female with short blonde hair and bright hazel eyes wrapped her greedy little fingers around Sebastian's arm, pulling him away from me to hug his side.

"Jessica," he replied, pulling away, "I'll be there in a second."

She giggled, batting her eyes, "Oh come on, I told you since we're best friends now, call me Jess. After the nights we had in the past few days, I wouldn't mind you calling me other names though."

My jaw fell open and I let out a strangled noise.

Jessica then noticed me and frowned, "Oh. You must be Erin."

"It's Mira," I replied coldly.

She smirked, "Sure, sure. Well, goodbye, Sebby and I are busy as bees! And we have an early shift tomorrow so we should get going. It was nice to meet you Erin."

Ooh, this bitch—

"Alright," Sebastian suddenly said, "Jessica I haven't seen Mira in a while, I'm good with missing the fire. I'll talk to you later though."

She turned to him, unfazed, "Okay Sebby! See you later!"

"Don't mind her," he replied, "She's like that with everyone."

I forced a cold laugh, my heart hurting, "Mind her flirting with you? Why would I when it's not like we had anything going on anyways. Go, have fun. Enjoy your fire."

I would not let a Jax situation happen all over again.

"Love," Sebastian sighed softly.

Turning away I chuckled again, "No, no. Please save that for Jessica."

My feet moved, marching away from the port. On my heels was Sonar, who surprisingly had been quiet throughout that entire situation. Now, the old man moved to march beside me, making us both look foolish marching down the sidewalk at midnight.

"Don't," I snapped.

He shrugged, "I wasn't, although, the only man who talked to my wife like that ended up with a bullet in his head. Right between the eyes."

I gasped, "What?"

"No, he was infected," he replied, taking lead, "It was fine."

Ok then.  

AUTHOR'S NOTE *SPOILERS CONTAINED ABOUT SEBASTIAN*

Ok, I left the chapter off here for a reason! Normally, I don't like getting involved in swaying the minds of my readers but I love Sebastian. Please just wait before you make your mind up about Sebastian. This I added in to make a point, so show you what I think true love is. Because let's face it, we cannot control how others act around those we love, and we can't respond how we would in our head. However, before you put Sebastian in the doghouse made for Jax, just wait. Wait until you hear both sides of the story, then you can make up your mind. Remember, this book is from Mira's perspective, which means it is very bias to her thoughts. 

A teaser of the next chapter has been posted on my profile page, if you need more reassurance <3