by Sara Kincaid
The officer took Leo’s card and scanned both sides of it. After he had finished, he looked to me. “Miss, I need to see your papers. You are aware of the laws, I take it?”
I nodded vigorously. “Yes. Yes, of course! We were just so upset about our...situation that I left them on the dresser back home.” Could the same excuse work twice? No way. Everything else faded into the background. I heard no noises but the voice of the officer. His image grew and grew until he took up all my sight. In him, I viewed our end.
If the officer felt any sympathy for me, he kept it hidden. He nodded curtly. “I’m going to have to take you in. There are penalties for being out without your papers.”
No. Not now. We were so close. So close to our goal. So close to Aster. If I were taken to the prison, they would discover that I had no papers and was, in fact, not in the system. The CPA would be called in for testing as policy dictated and my abilities would be discovered. “Sir, I can’t go to the prison in this condition,” I stuttered, taking a step back from him, stumbling over the broken curb.
“Miss, it’s just procedure. You have nothing to fear.” He stepped forward, reaching for my wrist. Leo reacted by lashing out at the officer to throw him off balance, anger smoldering in his eyes. The officer righted himself and pressed a button hidden in his PID behind his ear. “You’re only making things worse for yourself.”
Leo advanced on the officer and grabbed him by the shoulder, swinging his right fist at his face. “Run!”
A loud crunch echoed in my ears as I turned and fled. Crumbling buildings were a blur on both sides as I ran blindly through the streets, weaving in and out of alleyways. Desperately, I reached out with my thoughts, seeking tendrils of nature to sustain and perhaps cloak me. I could sense the pulse below the street, but the concrete was too thick and I could not grasp the energy through it.
Behind me, I heard footsteps as another officer turned to pursue me. He must have been close by when he received the distress call. “Stop!” he called as he chased after me.
No! My hair flopped behind me as I ran. Turning a corner, I found myself in a populated square. People milled about, blocking my way. They paused in their activities as they watched me blunder into their midst. When the officer appeared, I knew that I couldn’t get away.
“Stop her! Stop that girl!” the officer called.
I skidded on the broken street, stubbing my toes on bits of loose concrete. The energy of the people around me beat out a steady harmony of life, of latent energy waiting to be taken. I could feel my own roots, those strange energy tendrils floating forth, descending like fangs of monsters from stories told long ago, eager to sup their fill. I tried to swallow my hunger, curbing my seeking tendrils like ropes. I looked all around, desperate for a different route, but all my paths seemed blocked. In my indecision, an officer grabbed me roughly, shoving me to the ground. Grit and rubble bit into my skin, scraping my cheek. I was handcuffed and dragged roughly away with the eyes of the onlookers boring into my back as I went. I had failed.
The holding cell was bare and sterile, without character and without any plants. There was no way for them to know what I was and I wasn’t about to enlighten them. The officer shoved me into the cell and locked the door soundly behind him. My breathing echoed in the room. I brushed hair from my eyes and looked about me. There were other cells surrounding me but in the guttering light I couldn’t tell if any of the farther cells were occupied.
My bare feet felt chilled against the concrete flooring. I curled my toes out of habit, but sensed nothing beyond the floor beneath me. I took a haggard breath and tried to calm myself. What now? Think. How long until the officers figured out that I had no papers and called the CPA? Warnings from my parents echoed in my mind and I doubled over, cradling my stomach and clawing furiously at scraps of hope.
A few hours later, the door to the holding cells opened and I jumped as the shouts of a disgruntled prisoner reached my ears. As the officer and the detainee drew closer, I recognized Leo, though his face was beaten and bloody. A second officer followed behind, hobbling and shouting over the din raised by Leo. “Shove him in cell forty-six.”
Leo sputtered and tried to disentangle himself from the officer’s grasp. “You have no right to do this! I have papers!”
The officer clipped Leo on the side of the head and shoved him into the cell. “You resisted a routine investigation and an arrest and you assisted the escape of a felon.” The cell closed with a resounding clatter.
Once returned to his feet, Leo rushed to the door. “You can’t do this! You have no right!” The officers ignored his cries and disappeared. Leo panted and wiped his face. His hand came away spattered with blood. The lights sputtered overhead and buzzed noisily in the silence. He spotted me standing in my cell, watching him. “Vea! What happened? I was hoping you got away.” He rushed to the bars that separated us.
I felt rooted to where I stood. My eyes were glassy and my voice wavered, barely above a whisper. “Leo, what are we going to do? They will figure it all out soon.” Over and over I envisioned the arrival of the CPA, the thunderous claps of their boots on the concrete. The weight of more handcuffs filled my mind as I imagined the CPA taking me away to their stronghold and the many horrors that awaited me there.
“I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
We remained untouched in the prison for twenty-four hours. No one came to get us or even to speak with us. The only time anyone appeared was to deliver meals. With every passing moment, my anxiety grew along with my hunger. The energy of the earth typically flowed through my veins like the blood that pumped through my body and I felt as if my river of energy was running out. I licked dry lips with a parched tongue.
When I began to grow desperate, I reached out, tentatively, seeking some source upon which I could rely for nourishment. But all I could find was a tiny strand of energy emanating from the ground outside the building. The walls were too thick for me to reach through.
Finally, I sank to the ground and stared silently into space. In a dazed trance, I followed Leo’s pacing with my eyes. I knew that he watched me, concerned about my pallor and my waning strength. “Why haven’t they come yet?” I asked, breaking our lengthy silence. We didn’t want to be overheard by any hidden recording devices.
“I don’t know.”
Finally, I fell into a light sleep only to be awoken by a jangling at my cell door. “Miss. We find no record of you in the database. Are you sure you gave us the correct name?”
I opened my eyes, my panic renewed in the face of the officer. Of course I had given them a false name in hopes of throwing them off track for a while. This new officer was being kind to me because they still believed my story about being pregnant. Soon they would figure out the truth. If they discovered I was a Curare before the CPA arrived, the prison would go into a frenzy. Like greedy tyrants, the officers would begin plotting against one another. The inmates would be granted their freedom if they identified a Curare. “Yes. I don’t know why it isn’t registering with your system.”
The officer absorbed my words without a twinge. “We’re going to have to call in the CPA, miss. Protocol. But you have nothing to worry about. Curare don’t get pregnant.”
I nodded numbly and watched as the officer sauntered away. I stood up quickly and sank to my knees, dizzy with fatigue. Leo jumped to his feet and reached toward me. “Vea! Are you alright?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Just...exhausted.” I stood again, more slowly this time, and walked to the wall between us.
Leo reached out his hand and put it comfortingly on my shoulder. “It’s going to be fine. We have to come up with a plan.”
I winced and instantly felt the thread of energy flowing through Leo’s body. It piqued my hunger and increased my heart rate. I resisted though I could all but taste the energy tendril. “Leo, it’s over. The CPA is on their way. I can’t fight them off. I’
m too weak. And I can’t take their energy. It’d be murder.”
Leo closed his eyes for a moment. I sensed his panic and felt my stomach drop dizzyingly. “We’re on the first floor. You’ll take my energy and escape.”
It wasn’t a question. I looked up at him, my lip curled with disgust and my voice quivered with emotion. “What? I can’t do that! I’ll kill you.” When he didn’t respond, my stomach clenched. “Don’t make me do that. Don’t you remember how it was on the farm? All those animals I killed before I learned?” My heart contracted with pain at the thought of losing Leo. Of killing him. But there was no talking him out of it. “How are you so sure that I can get out?”
“Vea, you are a Curare. You are strong. You have the abilities, the firepower to get away if need be.” Leo reached through the bars and clasped my hand. “Do it, Vea. Get away from here and set them all free.”
“But I…” My mouth closed on the forbidden word, the word that drove my heartbeat each time he touched me, the word I had dismissed from my vocabulary the day my mother told me of the curse that ruled my body. But my eyes conveyed the truth. How could I destroy him?
I covered my face with my hands. “Vea, it’s okay.”
“How is it okay?” Tears ran down my face.
“It’s your only choice.”
I took a deep breath and choked back a sob. “No it’s not.” I pulled my hands down and wiped them on my pants. “What if I only take some?”
“Some?”
“Just enough to get out and not hurt you. We can escape together.”
“Can you do that?” Leo scrambled forward and reached through the bars. “Yes! Of course you can!”
This was no time for self doubt. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.” His eyes were bright with determination. “Do it. Helping Curare is what I have lived for. For my grandfather. For the others. For you. I’ve dedicated my life to you.”
My eyes found his in the guttering lights of the prison and he searched my soul for a hint of understanding or validation. I understood the hidden meaning, the implication of his words. His dedication ran far beyond the cause to which he had pledged himself. I took a deep breath and reached out tentatively to the energy and strength that Leo offered to me. In spite of my misgivings, I opened myself up to the delicious symphony that was his life force and allowed it to flow into my veins. The energy was thick and strong. It tasted pure, for it was purely given. I felt instantly energized and powerful even as my heart shattered.
Leo’s energy poured into my veins, rocketing through me like a drug. The invisible connection between us united us and I felt the thrum of both of our hearts, beating in stride. I closed my eyes and gave myself over to the terrible, but thrilling, feeling of the energy as it coursed through my body, and tried to keep aware of how much I was taking.
But the ecstasy of power dazzled my senses with flashes of light and the scent of the earth, and the world came alive. In my weakened state, I had grown dull and my senses softened. Then I began to panic, the feelings of euphoria quickly dissipating as Leo’s heartbeat began to slow. His life slipped into the void and mingled within my own blood. We were tied together and I felt him receding into the shadows. He was dying.
I tried to relinquish my grip on him, but I was trapped somewhere in the void. His energy called to me deliciously and despite myself, I wanted more. I struggled against the tide of power, fighting to close the connection between us. As I fought, I witnessed the shutting down of his organs, the feeling of sluggishness that overtook him. Through each moment, we kept our eyes locked together. I don’t know if he could see my panic or my struggle. He never even flinched.
I felt each struggling breath and the creeping chill of death through his veins. It was heavy and despite being energized, sleep beckoned. I finally broke the connection when a high-pitched beeping surprised me, calling me back from that heady darkness. I jumped back, my awareness falling into my own body. The officers had implanted a monitor in Leo’s arm when they had checked him into the prison and the sudden drop in his heart rate alerted the officers to an emergency. The doors swung open and shouts reverberated down the hall as the officers ran to see what was going on.
Leo stumbled to his knees, struggling to move forward and flee with me as he promised. Finally he collapsed on the ground. I scrambled to his side, my energy completely restored and Leo utterly broken. “Leo! I’m so sorry.” Tears sprang to my eyes. I’d taken too much. I’d killed him. Even now, I could feel it, though we were no longer touching. My body was sluggish, frozen in panic and overwhelmed with guilt that bit into my heart with icy fangs.
Leo looked at me through the haze, his eyes milky and distant, and he smiled at me from the floor. “Vea, go. Now. I love you.”
Once again, similar to our escape from South Farm, it was as if he had released me. At his bidding, my body unfroze and I began to move, my mind a whirlwind. I refused to think of the last words he had spoken to me because I knew if I did that, my legs would founder and I would never escape. Instead, I focused on the power, Leo’s final gift to me. Energy fluttered through my veins and I became heady with it. I planted my feet and connected to the ground beneath the floor. It was as if I felt myself at full capacity for the first time in my life and I was struck with a vision of the ravenous villain I could be if I so chose. Had Bram felt this way?
The officers reached Leo’s cell and were hastily unlocking the door to get to the stricken prisoner. I reached down within myself, dipping my thoughts into the chasm of energy that buzzed and hummed with life within me. I grasped ahold of it and willed it to transform, to transmute. I called to mind the strength of the sun, the blazing and piercing heat during the summers spent on South Farm, the boundlessness and vastness of its energy, and willed that energy to focus on the cell wall.
The air around me grew white hot and it crackled as the energy left my body and slammed against the cement bricks before me. I had deliberately chosen to wield the power of the Igni Curare in hopes that the officers and the CPA would be afraid of me. My hands felt like they were aflame. But instead of pain, all I felt was power. The stone and steel crumbled beneath the fire of my anger, indignation and fear. I felt myself weaken slightly as the massive amount of energy left my body in a single moment.
The officers turned from Leo as they felt the temperature of the room rise and watched in awe as the wall disintegrated before me. “Stop! Don’t move! Curare!” they cried. But I simply ignored them and stepped out into the street, the asphalt sizzling beneath my bare feet.
And then I was running, the air whistling in my ears as I sped blindly down the roadway. People were blurs as I passed them. Buildings melded together. My heart pounded in my ears as I desperately tried to evade my pursuers. With each step, I imagined them tackling me and bringing me back to the prison. They knew now. They knew my secret. Soon the CPA would know, too. All I could do was think of what I had left behind and of the terrible crime I had committed.
Aster,
My greatest fears have come to pass. Brandi was here. I’d forgotten to alter the sensory programming for the door of my pod and she was still listed with unrestricted entry. The doors slid right open for her.
I’ve never seen her so angry. She flew in here, PID camera whirring. She caught me in the middle of an experiment, evidently expecting to find you here with me. I was attempting to transfer water through the air - and it worked. I was so startled, that I stumbled, tipping the table and dumping all of my beakers and lab equipment onto the floor. There’s broken glass everywhere.
She accused me of having Chem Sickness and called me Farm Boy. She threatened to put the video on the Net. I tried to appeal to her, but she wasn’t interested.
Oh what have I done? I’ve brought this on myself and still, my heart is in tatters. I should have ended things with her when this all began or tried to explain it to her. But she never woul
d have understood the magnitude of what I’m doing.
Aster, there are people banging on the door of pod, people wanting answers. I’ve seen the video. She posted it just as she said she would. I’m not ready.
What am I going to do?
Bram
Chapter 8
When I couldn’t run any more, I turned into an alley and slid to the ground in a gasping heap. My hair was knotted and my feet throbbed, unused to the solid pavement beneath them.
Night was falling and I listened as the City took on a new vibe, as the dark and seedy rats of the underbelly of society rose to the surface and took to the streets. Catcalls and cries for Pop and other drugs rang in my ears, a testament to the generations of people who had been drained of life and aspiration, as colorless and hopeless as the undyed rags that hung from their drug-ravaged bodies. Here the dreams of those who had once had the heart to hope for something bigger decayed and the husks of the people who had once existed to dream them waded through the losses like a curdled river of waste.
Though I knew I should move, I could not find the strength. My limbs were heavy with grief. Instead, I curled up in the shadows, drawing my knees to my chest as hot tears rained down. All at once, Leo’s death overtook me, drowning me in misery. I had killed him. With my own two hands. I had drained him until his body no longer had the strength to sustain itself.
At that moment, I admitted my love for Leo, star-crossed and too late. My own hands orchestrated the murder of the one whom I had denied for so long. But now, my soul took its revenge, letting loose the whole of what I felt in a single burst. I covered my mouth, trying to stifle the sob that wrenched from my throat, joining the cacophony of misery that rose to the sky in the darkened streets. I dug my fingernails into my skin until drops of blood bloomed and dripped down, mingling with my tears and puddling on the broken sidewalk beneath me.