We Shall Be Monsters

by Ryan Decaria

  Instead of calculus, they went to the nurse’s station. Billie, Hawking, Jackie, Misty, Sasha, Yoko, and Linh followed her inside. Claire too, for some reason, but Anika pushed her back out. “Not now. I’ll find you later.”

  Claire pouted as Anika slammed the door.

  “Ouch.” Billie grinned and handed Anika a present with dinosaur wrapping paper and a girly bow.

  “What’s this for?” Anika took the present and shook it. No noise.

  “Just open it.” Jackie held a small brown box. All her friends had presents for her, most wrapped in pretty paper.

  Anika ripped off the paper and tore open the lid. Inside, she found a pair of neon green tights and held them up. “You gotta be kidding me.”

  Sasha handed her another package. “Give it a chance.”

  Inside were neon green gloves. Her friends laughed. Anika smiled. “You shouldn’t have.”

  She opened the rest, all neon green: a long sleeve shirt, boy shorts, socks, one nylon stocking, a small backpack, and a baggie of green M&M’s.

  “Let’s go over the plan again,” Misty said. “Just to be sure.”

  Anika grabbed Linh’s hands. “It’s all up to Linh now. She’s our rock star.”

  Yoko put an arm around Linh. “Don’t put extra pressure on her,” she scolded.

  Anika put her arms around both girls, pulling them in. “I know I’m asking a lot, but I need you both. Yoko, I need you to keep her well through this. Okay?”

  Yoko whispered into Anika’s ear, “I won’t let her down.”

  Anika pulled away and neither girl could look her in the eye, but Anika was confident that they would come through for her. She beamed as she grabbed a dry erase marker and drew plans on the board. Sasha stood at the door, blocking the way inside and any transmission device that may have been planted. Useful, that one.

  After everyone was satisfied, they headed to class. At the office doorway, Vanderbleek spoke with a police officer.

  “Uh, oh.” Billie grabbed Anika’s arm.

  “It’s okay.” Sasha straightened. “I think he’s here for me.”

  Billie grabbed Sasha’s shoulder. “Keep it together, babe.”

  Sasha smiled, pointing to her eyes. “I don’t have tears.”

  Vanderbleek pointed at Sasha and signaled her to come over. As she talked with him, her friends stood still, huddled together, waiting. The cop explained what they all knew was coming. Sasha’s family had died in a plane crash, or so the world thought. Sasha was all that was left.

  To her credit, Sasha seemed forlorn instead of fuming. Lost.

  After several minutes, the cop left, and Sasha returned to the group. Vanderbleek tapped his foot as they took turns hugging. It was for show, but Anika relished the opportunity and held on a little too long.

  Sasha wasn’t the hugging type.

  “We need more cake,” Billie declared. Vanderbleek nodded and the girls and Hawking went to the cafeteria.

  Sasha took a piece and stared at it longingly. “I wish I could eat it.”

  She smashed the piece into Billie’s face.

  Billie gasped, a huge grin on her face. “You didn’t.”

  Billie grabbed a piece of cake and chased after Sasha. Anika turned toward the cake table right as Linh smashed cake into Anika’s face. After Anika cleaned the frosting from her eyes, Hawking handed her a piece. They inched toward Jackie.

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Jackie backed into the wall.

  In a flying leap, Yoko slammed cake into Hawking’s face.

  Cake flew everywhere.

  “Not the hair.” Misty ducked under a table and got splattered with frosting across her back.

  Jackie wrestled with Hawking until they both slipped and ended up on their butts, laughing.

  Anika sat back and took it all in.

  This. This was worth fighting for.

  The lunch ladies broke things up. And after Anika and her friends cleaned up the mess, they were sent home to change. Vanderbleek explained to the lunch ladies what had happened, and they sent food home with Sasha. Sasha would actually have a home again, after a fashion. With her parent’s death certificates, she could move back into her old house, which was still in their name.

  Everyone sat on garbage sacks in Hawking’s van as he drove them home.

  Anika showered and dressed in her new neon green ensemble. She looked ridiculous. Hopefully, no one would see her, but the potential results would be worth risking a little embarrassment. Play it crazy. No one would know what she was plotting. She could live with that.

  She put on sweats and a purple cardigan and put the rest of the greens into the bag on top of the device her mother had delivered—the means to end it all. Anika had read over the instructions a dozen times. She had the tools, the know-how, and the time. Did she have the ability to kill again? Even if it was to save her life and the lives of countless others?

  As she walked through the rose bushes outside while waiting for Boulsour, she actually felt a little sad that it might be her last trip to the laboratory. She tried to smell the roses, but they smelled like the frosting she still had up her nose.

  Anika sat across the desk from her father. He raised a bushy eyebrow. She glared back in a sort of contest. His gaze never once fell on the neon green jelly shoe or the neon green squirt gun or the neon green plush Cthulhu she’d spread out across his desk. They were nearly the same color of neon green. Her friends had no clue how far the spectrum of color applied to his vision.

  She spritzed more of the perfume into the air underneath the desk. The sound was negligible, but the moisture in the air would be noticeable if he were too close.

  “Are you going to visit me every day?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She shot him a half-grin. “Am I a problem?”

  His gaze lingered out of the corner of his eyes as he turned toward his screen. She wished her vantage point would let her read what he typed. She needed a fragrance that let her see around corners, or through walls.

  Anika scratched at the neon green body suit she wore under her clothes. She was amazed they’d managed to put together a matching ensemble so close to the same exact shade of neon green in a single day.

  “No, no.” He typed wildly at the keyboard. “Better to have you close.”

  Really, Dad? Close? Are you even trying?

  “How close?”

  “Nearby. In the vicinity.”

  “Maybe I could get a job here, after school.” A calculated question. Give him more reasons to think she wanted to stay and give him another distraction.

  He smiled but didn’t turn. “Yes, yes. I like that idea. You’re kind of a hero around here, anyway.”

  What? Anika wasn’t trying to let it get into her head but being a rock star at the lab was pretty cool. “Kind of?”

  Now he turned, right as Anika was about to unbutton her cardigan. Cool it, Romeo. Don’t give him a reason to look. Distract. Distract. She needed another calculated question. “Do you have any other children?” She blurted out instead.

  What? Way to go, Anika. Toss it out there, nice and casual.

  The fluffy clouds above his eyes flinched ever so slightly. “No. Not that I know of.”

  Anika resisted the scoff in her throat. “You’re not the best liar.”

  He flexed the muscles in his neck as his teeth clacked together. “Perhaps, you are under the assumption…”

  “Macy and Margery.” Anika didn’t want a lecture on properly addressing her seniors. “Honestly, if you’re going to continue to underestimate me, you might want to…”

  He slammed his fist on the desk. “Anika!”

  She nodded. Acting rashly never turned out well for her. Romeo needed a white board to plan and a little skepticism as well. She’d get revenge on Claire for ruining that play. Not a tale of star-crossed lovers, but a morality lesson against being an arrogant prick.

  “Am I wrong?”

  “Go home.” He relaxed his jaw and turned to his screen
. “I have some pressing matters to attend to today. I’m a busy man.”

  Anika slid off her shoes and put them in the neon-green bag. She needed more time. What would Romeo do right now? WWRDRN? “Is George still giving you fits?”

  He took a long, slow breath. As he exhaled, he rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb. “I’m trying.”

  Anika resisted a grin as she pulled on her gloves under the desk. “Is he showing any signs of improvement?”

  “I’m close to finding a cure. I don’t have enough…enough resources to complete my hypothesis.”

  Blood. Her blood. Dravovitch wasn’t willing to use any for his friend, and that realization sent a chill up her spine. Was the machine that close to being at full charge? He couldn’t wait a few days for her body to replenish a few pints?

  Anika loosened her sweats. The gamble was on, and she had nothing to lose.

  “I need a waffle.” Dravovitch wheeled to his mini fridge and pulled out a carton of premade waffle batter.

  With his back turned, Anika slid off her sweats, rolled them up, and stuffed them into her bag. Her neon green tights were not the fashion statement she’d have chosen for infiltration. The 80s was definitely not her decade.

  She pulled off her cardigan and stuffed it over the sweats. As Dravovitch fiddled with the waffle maker, Anika retrieved the neon items from the desk. Now or never. Get in. Get out. Run for her life. She spritzed the scentless mist into the air.

  Neon green spandex covered her from her neck to toes. She tiptoed to the door, pulling the Lycra stocking over her head, just thin enough for her to see through. She pulled the door open. “Later, Dad.”

  Stepping to the side of the room, Anika felt the fool. Romeo was a narcissistic hottie with a sword. All Anika had was a perfume bottle and green tights. How would she explain such a stupid outfit? Would he suspect something nefarious, or would he laugh at her? She wasn’t sure which was worse.

  The door closed.

  Her father looked up. Studied the door a moment. Shook his head. Returned to his work.

  Anika spritzed more perfume into the air. Sasha’s mother was right. This mad science crap was pretty awesome.

  Anika reached into her backpack and sent a text to Linh. The next step was all up to her, with a little help from Blake. She had to break farther into the lab’s systems to set off an alarm or to fluctuate a setting in the secret lab. Anything to get her father to go to his secret lab to investigate. No biggie.

  Anika’s father’s phone flashed. He picked it up and ran his fingers through his wild hair. He stood. Paced toward the bookcase. Glanced at the door, his field of vision passing right past where Anika stood. He picked up his desk phone and dialed.

  “Doctor Soren, are you in the basement? No? Can you meet me there? What do you mean ‘not right now’? What is wrong with the boy?”

  She knew Blake would come through. Gold star.

  “Fine. Hey, have you tried Anika’s blood on him at all? Perhaps there’s a cure for George in there somewhere. Later, yes.”

  He hung up.

  Was he going to take credit for all her ideas?

  He stared right at her. Anika held her breath.

  Finally, he returned to the bookshelf and pushed on three books on different shelves. The blue one first. Then red. Then brown. Anika memorized the pattern.

  The bookshelf pulled away from the wall, revealing the elevator. He slunk inside. Anika tiptoed across the room, spritzing herself one last time, and slipped in behind him.

  He whipped his head back, his eyes darting around. He scratched his scalp and turned back. Anika took a slow breath.

  The elevator descended through the lab. He couldn’t see her, but he scratched at his ear, shuffled his feet, and fidgeted with his shirt cuffs. He was agitated, though he probably didn’t know why. Breathe too loud, sneeze, or brush up against the wall, and he wouldn’t stay fooled. Right now, he could reach out and touch her if his brain couldn’t let the nagging go.

  The doors opened into the darkened secret cavern laboratory. Dravovitch stomped out of the elevator and his boots clanked against the metal platform as he crossed to the sensors and pounded keys. Anika tiptoed out and stared up at his machine, a literal man-made rain cloud of plastic-coated metal, wiring, and huge battery packs swinging around on large metal arms.

  Anika and Sasha had climbed onto the machine the last time she’d snuck down here, narrowly avoiding pinch points as the arms swung around like a gyroscope. Despair bore down on her chest like a vice. Her heart raced just looking at it. Last time, she’d almost let the arms crush her after finding out her father’s nefarious intentions.

  As the lights flickered on across the cavern, Anika hesitated. This was where she would die, and she came willingly.

  The elevator doors closed. Anika took a sharp breath and crept onto the platform. She wasn’t going to die now. Not today. The grating of the platform bit through her tights into the bottom of her feet as she snuck behind a huge potted plant.

  When had he decorated?

  Her father whipped his head around again, staring right at her. He rubbed his eyes. “Sleep,” he muttered. “You need more sleep.”

  He turned back.

  The plant wasn’t the only new piece of furniture. An array of glass display cases had been spread around. Quaint, and perhaps a sign he’d spend more time down here in the future. What was he planning?

  He checked the sensors. His shoulders were tense as he ran his tests. She eyed the alcove designed for her to stand in when he finally threw the switch. The natural lightning he collected would course through her body as he drained her blood.

  In a way, he was a vampire. A self-made immortal stealing the life from his progeny.

  Anika slipped out from behind the plant, careful not to rustle the leaves, and inched toward the edge of the platform. Below, the stone slab shone bright in the dim cavernous floor.

  Anika gasped.

  A body lay on top, his chest cut and spread open.

  “Now what?” Dravovitch pushed away from the desk as he stood up, sending his chair wheeling across the platform. It hit the grating and crashed. He flew toward the stairs, toward Anika. She jumped to the rock below. Her feet slipped as she hit the ground, and she landed on her butt.

  Dravovitch rushed down the stairs.

  Anika rolled out of his way as he crossed to the stone slab.

  Anika crawled under the platform and curled up. Her tailbone hurt. Her pride was smashed. She’d almost ruined everything. What was she doing acting like a child? She had no time for that. Toughen the flunk up, Anika!

  Dravovitch examined the corpse. He even listened at its open mouth, before scratching the wild gray mop on his head. He stalked back to the stairs and hit them two at a time. He pulled out his phone. “Boulsour, make sure Anika gets home okay. She was acting a little weird.”

  He hung up, checked his equipment one last time, and returned to the elevator. The doors opened, and he disappeared inside. “Soon.”

  Soon? Anika’s stomach lurched. Soon one of them would be dead, and Anika would do everything she could to make sure it wasn’t her.

  The elevator doors closed. Anika pulled the stocking off her head and struggled to breathe. She didn’t want to make these decisions. She wanted that other option. The one where she worked alongside him creating weird science and making the world a little better every day.

  Where was that father?

  Anika got up and stumbled to the stone slab. The body on top was a nude man in his twenties, cut open and dissected. Her stomach warbled but throwing up wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t leave evidence lying around in puddles.

  She didn’t recognize the body, so she ignored it and ran under the machine, scanning for the part. There. She took off her gloves and put them in the bag. She slung the bag over her shoulder and climbed.

  Time to see this conspiracy through. She pulled out the special wrench and got to work.

  Misty pushed pas
t Billie and Hawking into Linh’s room. Linh was still on the floor where Yoko had laid her after Linh started seizing. She had a long pillow under her head and a Hello Kitty blanket covering her. Yoko sat quietly on the bed.

  Billie paced across the room. “We need an ambulance.”

  Misty sat on the floor and put a hand on Linh’s cheek. No one pulled out their phone. No way they were making that call. Not in this town.

  On Linh’s wall, Linh had pinned pictures of her with her friends to a corkboard. Before Anika dropped in, Misty never understood Linh or her issues. In fact, Misty had been so absorbed in her sisters’ dilemma and potential she’d started to see people as means to ends. Just like Anika’s mom.

  Misty had come from Gloria’s hideout and had argued to be one of the three to come here. She’d been vehement. Fought for the right to take care of her own friends. After what they’d done to Esposito, Misty was sure her sisters were capable of a whole lot more than she’d once thought possible. Gloria had, at least, saved him from the alligators last minute with several jaws around his limbs. He was still in critical condition at the hideout, but he’d whispered something to Gloria, which satisfied her. Of course, she’d kept it to herself.

  Mind-blowing and mind-numbing at the same time. The drift was real. Now, it was Misty’s responsibility to get Linh back up and working. The work being the activity which caused the seizure in the first place.

  She felt the nasal spray in her pocket. The medicine would hopefully bring Linh out of her unconsciousness back to normal alertness within a few minutes. Misty stared into Linh’s peaceful face and knew she couldn’t go through with it. She wasn’t a monster.

  Misty’s sisters may have become spies, working for Gloria, but Misty didn’t have to join them. Gloria wasn’t her general. They were all soldiers in this war against the megalomaniacs, but, well, this Misty wasn’t anyone’s lackey.

  Misty ran her fingers through Linh’s hair as she scanned Linh’s computer desk—three monitors, a dozen computer towers, and an army of plastic action figures in a war zone. There had to be another way that didn’t endanger Linh’s life. Linh’s chest rose and fell. “Has this happened before?”