by Lisa Beeson
“We talked about our dreams and aspirations, and it was then that I told her about the Cause and where her special gift came from. She agreed that the future the Cause was working towards would be wonderful and exciting. So, that night, after she had one too many drinks and fell asleep, I left and our scientists impregnated her.
“I had a personal driver take her home safe and sound the next morning. She and Sandra drew their own conclusions from there…”
“And you don’t see anything wrong with that?” Val asked, incredulous. He sounded so confident and sure of his innocence, as if it was all perfectly logical and reasonable. That he was the long-suffering saint that silently endured the unfair degradation of his character.
What an unbelievably obtuse asshole…“You may not have touched her physically, but you were actively complicit in impregnating a woman with your child without her consent. That’s called rape in my book.”
He gave her a small, unflappable shrug, as if to say, to-may-to, to-mah-to, and somehow made her feel as if she was being the unreasonable one.
“People are fallible, Val, the Cause is not. I truly did like Anita. And I’ll never regret helping to create someone like you. You are amazing,” he said, pride shining in his eyes. “Once you learn how to control your ability and hone it the way I’ve learned to; there will be no stopping you. With the Cause, you won’t have to hide or be afraid of your gift anymore. You could stand proud, by my side, and we will be the gods we were always meant to be. We could have our own dynasty.”
Val hated how tempting that sounded. She could have a real family. With her father by her side, she could have pride and power. But it was wrong. These people were wrong. They kidnapped, tortured, and killed people. They biomodified, experimented, and impregnated people without their consent.
A bible verse she’d had to memorize when she lived with the overtly religious foster family suddenly popped into her head: …Ye shall know them by their fruits.
The ends do not justify the means. Whatever their ends were anyway? They were not gods.
“You all are insane. Gods aren’t real. They’re just the manifestations of superstitious people with overactive imaginations. Religion is just a way to explain the mysteries of the world and control the sheeple.”
Henry’s mouth curled in a smirk. “They may not have been gods in the way you’re thinking, but our ancestors were not of this world, they were not human, and they were very much real. Who do you think we’re the progeny of?”
“I don’t know…people with mutated genes, maybe. When they were talking about it at Scion’s Keep, I didn’t really care or pay much attention. I was just happy to find a decent place to live with people as freaky as me,” she admitted. “So what are you saying? Our ancestors were some kind of aliens or something?”
His smile broadened as he brought his finger to his nose, to tell her she had gotten it right.
Val cursed. “Now I know you all are crazy. Are you seriously saying that we’re descended from those little gray men with big heads?”
Henry patiently shook his head no. “Our ancestors were majestic beings with unimaginable power. Just look at your friend Ari…”
“What?”
“Ari isn’t human, Val. She came from the same galaxy as our ancient ancestors.”
Val didn’t want to believe it, but it sort of made sense. Ari always did have a sense of otherworldliness about her. She was too good for this world, and she had such powerful abilities…multiple abilities. And it explained why They wanted her so badly. She was living proof of their ancestry.
“Just imagine your children being as beautiful and powerful as Ari,” Henry said.
Val had never imagined having children. For one, because guys never did anything for her in that way. Two, she did not want to bring any more poor souls into this crummy world. But if there were more people like Ari, it would definitely make it a much better place. A bunch of generous and kind souls with the power to heal not only physically, but mentally as well…
“And your children will be so strong, just like you.” He tried to caress her head, but she flinched and dodged out of the way. She still was not ready for people to touch her yet.
He did not seem put out by the reflex, only sad. “All you’re gorgeous curly hair,” he lamented, looking regretfully at her shaved scalp. “You and your sister got that from my mother.”
Yeah well, I wish she would’ve kept it…“Wait. Claudia doesn’t have curly hair.”
“Not Claudia,” he said with a shake of his head. “Skylar.”
“No,” Val said slowly, as if the man really was mentally deficient. “Trent is the twins’ father.”
“He’s Soren’s father, but Skylar is mine.”
“Again, I don’t think you understand how these things work…”
“Diana was on fertility drugs, and it caused her to produce two eggs at a time, as it sometimes happens. The procedure was done right before she ran away, and one egg was fertilized by artificial insemination and the other…happened naturally.”
“That’s why Trent _nd I ran…” Diana’s static-y voice said, making Val jerk in surprise. Her astral projection was flickering madly in and out in the corner of the room, causing her voice to flicker in and out as well. “I wasn’t go_ to be _eir brood mare. I didn’t know _ was already preg _ when we left. I didn’t know Skyl_ wasn’t Tr_’s until they brought m_ back.”
“What?” Henry asked, noticing her distraction. “What is it?”
“Don’t trust h_ ,Val. He’ll say any_ to get you to _ier side,” Diana’s flickering form sputtered. “He punishes a_one who doesn’t g_ him what _ wants. They broke your m_ther. They killed Sandra. Anyone who g_ts in their way…”
“You killed Claudia’s mother?” Val asked Henry, aghast. She hated the bitch, but the fact that she had been murdered was horrifying.
“How…” he asked, searching the room frantically, then stopped and slowly turned back to Val. “She’s in here somewhere isn’t she? Don’t listen to her. She’s a liar.”
“She didn’t run off with her trainer,” Val said in an incredulous whisper. “You killed her.”
His face became a mask of pure hatred. “You’re done Diana!” he shouted into the room, not sure where she was. “Your blood ties will only get you so far. No more!”
“They brou_ her here _ test versions of _ red death vi_s on her. Like m_ny others.”
It felt as if the floor had given out from under her. “You guys were the ones who unleashed the Red Death virus…?”
So many people were dead and dying.
“You have to break the world in order to rebuild it the way that you want it. The world is over populated and we’re depleting our resources at an exponential rate. And we needed to give the masses a reason to turn to us to save them. Don’t worry, we won’t let it go too far. The worthy will survive,” he said casually, while doing something on his phone.
This man, her father, had not only doomed Sandra to an ugly excruciating death, but the whole world.
“Does Claudia know what happened to her mother?”
“No. She’s not ready to hear it yet,” he said, still focused on his phone.
“Over here,” Diana’s strained voice said. Her astral projection had moved to the other side of the conference table, and she was pointing at something. Val quickly made her way over, while Henry was still busy on his phone. Diana was pointing to a button underneath the edge of the table. “Push _t ,” she instructed.
Val pushed the button and a control panel emerged from a hidden compartment. Diana pointed to another button. Val pushed it and the black screen on the back wall illuminated to life, showing a blue welcome screen with the Scion’s Keep tree logo on it.
“Don’t mess with that,” Henry scolded, before something on his phone distracted him again.
Diana pointed out a series of buttons on the keypad and Val pushed them. The screen became gridded with security feeds from in and around The Facil
ity. There were views of corridors and rooms, empty and occupied.
Val saw the feed that Gordon had shown her earlier of Diana’s cell. Her body was shaking even more violently than she had been before. She was torturing herself trying to communicate with Val.
Diana’s projection disappeared then reappeared to a place by the screen. She pointed towards the feeds near the top of the wall. There was one that looked like some kind of high-tech command center filled with people rushing around, some of them arguing with each other. She recognized Mara and Gregory, and then gasped when she saw Marin. No, not Marin too…
Diana kept pointing insistently. Val’s eye shifted to a different feed and her heart sunk when she saw the little fair-haired boy. Oh no, Soren… He was running through the halls holding the hand of some woman in a sundress flanked by their own set of suited men. The woman seemed completely out of place, but she had the same dead-eyed stare as Zachary. They rushed out of frame, before it and a couple others went black.
“You have t_ save my baby!” Diana begged, practically screaming, as her projection was getting weaker.
There was a rumbling sound like a far off explosion, and klaxons began sounding in the distance. A few more of the feeds either cut out or were impeded by dark smoke.
Henry cursed repeatedly, looking frightened.
“The people th_ call terrori_ are on th_ island,” Diana said, pointing to the feeds showing a perimeter fence. Guards were fighting guerilla soldiers and shooting wildly at unseen assailants out of frame. “They’re he _ to help.”
“Val,” Henry said grabbing back her attention. “Those people will destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve. Years of research and progress for a better world… all gone. We need you to fight with us. With you by my side we could take down all the vermin.” He held up a small remote. “Just say the word and the chip in your neck will be disabled, and the sight in your eye restored.”
“Val, don’t d_ it! Let it burn!”
Val looked between them. If she said yes, then the chip would be disabled and she could use her ability against them and help the terrorists.
The doors burst open with a flood of people. Six suited men came in flanking Blake, Gordon, and an old woman with milky eyes.
“Don’t push the button, Henry,” Blake shouted. “She’ll never help us willingly.” His beady, rat-like eyes skewered her with hate and disgust. “She was just going to tell you what you wanted to hear so she could help the terrorists.”
Henry stared at her as if he was genuinely hurt at her betrayal. Then the hurt became anger. “No one will ever love you,” he said, with perfect certainty. “You’re too damaged. Your edges are too sharp.”
His words felt like daggers to the gut.
“Your own mother despised you. Even after we rehabilitated her, she still didn’t want you.”
Another wound tore open in her heart. Her mother was alive… She looked to Diana, confused. She had led her to believe that Anita did not want to abandon her and that They killed her.
“Th_y broke her, V_l,” Diana shouted. “They took an alr_dy d_maged women, a_d Shatt_d her psyche. She’s pract_ly catatonic. Th_’re on_y using her to m_ke more kids.”
“There’s nothing out there for you.” Henry continued. “I’m the only one who understands you, the only one who cares if you live or die.” He held out his hand to her. “Last chance…”
“Don’t beli_ it, Val,” Diana shouted. “You don’t need th_m. They’re _ liars. Y_ are loved.” She held her hands to her heart, and Val could see the pure love in her eyes.
She was not unlovable. Diana cared about her – she had been there, watching over her. She knew Val and all her flaws, and she still loved her anyway. She gave no ultimatums, just acceptance.
Val looked back at Henry’s proffered hand, and reached out towards it. His mouth stretched into a triumphant smile, then fell when he saw her hand curl up and her middle finger extend.
Gordon let out a disappointed sigh.
“Oh, don’t worry, Gordon,” Val said with mock-cheerfulness. “I have one for you too.” She whipped up her left hand and extended her other middle finger.
The sound of Diana’s flickering laughter gave Val a burst of confidence and pride.
At least somebody appreciates my humor.
“Regrettable,” Henry said tightly.
“I am what you made me, Daddy,” Val said with a wry grin.
A siren blared around them as the screen began flashing red. When the siren stopped, the screen showed a straight-on view of Randall, strapped to a chair with his mouth duct-taped. He looked harried and tired, but uninjured and well fed.
Better than how I was treated…, Val thought bitterly.
The wall behind him was white and unadorned, but in the corner of the shot was the edge of what looked like a bunk behind him, like the kind they had on ships. The blankets were a mess, as if they had just gotten him out of bed to tape him to the chair.
Gordon gasped, grasping the back of the chair in front of him as if that would keep him from trying to reach through the screen for his son.
A distorted robotic voice began talking over the feed. “If you want Randall Reinhold back, you must surrender all the prisoners and the cure to the Red Death virus. If they are not all at the lagoon in an hour, that’s exactly sixty minutes from riiight…now, then he will suffer a very messy and very painful fate. Do you want that, Randall?” A black boot came into view as it kicked the leg of Randall’s chair, jolting him and causing him to shake his head vehemently as his eyes filled with genuine fear. “Decide quickly, asshats,” the voice continued. “Time is running out.” The voice cut out and the screen switched back to the security feeds.
Val let out a huff of laughter at the petty insult. She was liking these terrorist more and more.
After a barrage of choice profanities Gordon yelled, “What have you done with Wyatt!” He looked back at everyone and pointed towards the screen. “Did you see that though,” he asked. “They have him on a damn ship.” He took out his tablet and began tapping angrily at the screen as he stormed out of the room.
Henry nodded to the suited men, and four of them came rushing at Val. She tried to evade them, but they were too quick and too strong. She struggled as each grabbed ahold of one of her wrists and ankles, lifting her easily off the ground. “Don’t touch me! Get off!”
The other suited men opened the doors and wheeled in a chair with hand and foot restraints, and even had ones for the neck and head as well.
Val struggled even harder. “No, no, no, NO!”
“I didn’t want to do it this way, especially after what happened to Anita,” Henry lamented. “But this is the only option you’ve left us with. You will fight for us, Val.”
“Never!” she screamed as the men slammed her struggling form down onto the chair. She tried to kick and flail, but the men held her down, restraining her wrists and ankles, while another man grabbed her from behind restraining her head and neck into place against the brace. “You’re all cowards!”
“Keep fi_ng V_l! D_n’t g _e in!” Diana screamed, though she sounded weaker and farther away. She tried to say something else, but she was flickering too much to understand.
A loud explosion shook the building as more klaxons resounded in the distance, putting everyone even more on edge.
One of the suited men moved Val’s chair to the corner of the room, while the others placed two chairs from the conference table in front of her. Blake led the old milky-eyed woman across the room towards her. “Here we go, Oma,” he said, almost tenderly.
Is she the one that’s gonna make me into a dead-eyed puppet?
Val tried to search out Diana, but she had disappeared. Don’t leave me, she wanted to wail, but one of the suited men stuffed a large rubber mouth guard into her mouth, causing her to gag and preventing her from saying anything.
She looked to the video feed of Diana’s cell just in time to see Asa, Claudia, and a young Latino
boy walk in to stand beside her trembling, emaciated body. Diana’s eyes were open and she was saying something. Claudia only shook her head sadly, as she stroked Diana’s sweaty, pale hair from her forehead. Diana’s violent tremors abruptly stopped as her muscles stilled. It looked as though she was frozen in place. Her eyes were wild with fear. Asa took a syringe from the pocket of his lab coat and injected it into the IV connected to the back of her hand. After only a moment, Diana’s body went slack and her eyes emptied of life.
She was gone. They killed her.
Val’s world started to whirl and spin chaotically around her as if she was trapped on the demonic carousel once again.
“She’s finally at peace now,” Blake said dispassionately, noticing her line of sight as he helped the old woman down into the chair facing Val.
His beautiful, fearless, selfless sister was gone from this world forever and he did not even care.
Furious, Val screamed through the mouth guard, pulling with all her strength against the restraints.
“Calm yourself, dear. You’ll feel better in a moment,” the old woman said while gently patting Val’s knee. She then lifted her palsied arms and placed her gnarled, arthritic hands on the sides of Val’s face.
Val recoiled away from her touch. Everything about the woman repulsed her and made her skin crawl. Then it was as if her disgust was just siphoned away.
“There we are, that’s it,” the old woman murmured. “Give it to me, and it will all go away.”
Val felt her fresh heartache start to melt away with a sigh of relief. Then her anger began to slip.
“You are important to the Cause,” Blake said, his voice seeming to come from somewhere far away. “…And the Cause is just.”
Her earliest painful memories flashed through her mind, and one by one all the bad feelings associated with them slipped away. They elicited no emotions now, they just were. It was as if she was observing someone else’s life – just pages in a picture book.