Oppression

by Jessica Therrien

  He thought about it. “I didn’t lie. Technically,” he added.

  “Okay, so why didn’t you tell me about your bloodline?”

  “I don’t know. It was stupid,” he said shaking his head. “I didn’t want to you to doubt your feelings. I didn’t want you to second guess whether or not you really felt the way you did or whether I was forcing you to feel that way. You know it’s real, right?”

  “I know,” I accepted. It was more real than anything I had ever experienced, and to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how to handle a reality that so closely resembled my dreams.

  “Look,” he said, his hand reaching for the back of his neck. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”

  I could feel the apprehensive expression form on my face. After everything I’d learned since I met him, I couldn’t imagine there was more. “What?” I said, dreading the news.

  “I thought Iosif might have told you, but I guess he thought I should be the one.”

  “Is it bad?”

  He laughed. “That depends. I don’t think it’s bad.”

  He sat up on the bed and took my hands. “Feel the warmth?” The familiar heat pulsed between our palms.

  “Yes,” I answered, waiting for the truth.

  I could tell he was starting to get nervous. He swallowed before he continued. “It happens every five hundred years to two people.”

  “I knew it,” I said, squeezing my knuckles tightly around his. “I knew it meant something.”

  He smiled. “It helps us find each other, so that when we do, we know for sure.”

  “Know what?” I urged impatiently.

  “That we’ll be the new mother and father, the parents of the next generation oracle.”

  He waited for my reaction, not knowing for sure if it would be good or bad. “I don’t understand,” I said, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “We’re supposed to have a baby? When?” My breathing started to quicken. “Now?”

  He laughed, sensing my oncoming hysteria. “No,” he reassured me. “Not now. It just means whether you like me or not, you’re stuck with me. Destiny sort of has a way of making sure we stay together, like soul mates.” He kissed my hand, calming me. “When we’re ready, somewhere way out there in the future, yes, we’re supposed to have a baby.”

  “How could we be the parents of an oracle?” I asked, still questioning the possibility of such a theory. “That ability isn’t either one of our bloodlines.”

  “The oracle isn’t really a bloodline. It’s a phenomenon that happens every half a millennium to a different couple, regardless of their ancestry. This time it’s us.”

  I knew William thought of this as a good thing, and maybe I did too, but it scared me that so much of my future had been planned out for me. So many people were relying on me, had expectations of what I would do and who I would be. This was just one more thing I wasn’t sure I’d be able to deliver. But I liked the idea of William as my soul mate, of being destined to be in love. It was what I always wanted.

  “You okay?” he laughed, throwing a painfully gorgeous smile at me. “You’re kind of quiet.”

  “Sorry,” I staggered. “I think I’m still getting over the shock of it all.”

  “Yeah, not exactly something you hear every day.”

  The warmth continued to emanate between our palms, a reminder that we belonged together.

  “But you were right,” I said, reassuring him. “It’s not a bad thing.” I leaned in to kiss his gentle lips, enjoying the moment, but he pulled away long before I wanted him to.

  “So what you’re saying is, you do love me,” he teased.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  He couldn’t hold back his smile. “Nope.”

  “So now what?” I asked, settling back into reality.

  “Feel like hanging out downstairs with me?” He glanced at the clock. “It’s my shift.”

  13.

  FROM THE MOMENT William and I walked into Cearno’s I knew something was wrong. Rachel, Paul, and Nics were all at a table, and all three of their heads turned in anxious anticipation as the door chimed.

  William’s smile dropped. “Where’s Sam?” he asked, unable to hide his worry.

  “We were hoping you would know,” Paul answered as Nics shoved her chair away and headed for the bathroom, clearly upset.

  I empathized with her. If she knew what I knew, I could see why she’d need to leave. My stomach started to tighten into knots making me want to throw up. I’d forgotten about Sam. Kara had been forced to kill the girl, but she hadn’t mentioned Sam.

  “His phone probably died,” I added, hoping it would be true. “Right?”

  “I don’t know,” Rachel said, her eyes falling to the table. “It just keeps ringing, and nobody’s at his house.”

  I looked at William, knowing that Kara had told him about what happened, and saw little confidence in his eyes.

  “He’s supposed to work today,” William said, trying to put everyone at ease. “He’ll be here.”

  “If The Council—” I started to ask, but William gave me a sharp look that silenced me instantly. Rachel’s head nodded toward a young college girl studying at a table across from us, and mouthed the word “human.” I hadn’t realized we needed to take such precautions in this place, but apparently, I needed to catch on quickly.

  “I should get back there,” William said, planting a soft kiss on my cheek.

  Rachel’s lips pulled into a tight smile as he left.

  “So you guys are really hitting it off, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess we are,” I answered, hoping the conversation would get my mind off of Sam.

  “Has he, you know, persuaded you to rub his feet or make him breakfast yet?”

  I laughed at her and sat in one of the empty chairs at their table. “Not yet. He did try and make me kiss him though.”

  “Creep,” she teased.

  “It was just for a second. He didn’t actually do it.”

  “Uh-huh.” She acted as if she didn’t believe it.

  I was starting to blush. “Should we go check on Nics?” I asked.

  “She doesn’t like being checked on,” Paul answered. “She gets mean.”

  Just as I was about to insist we go anyway, the bathroom door swung open, and she stormed out, heading back to her seat.

  “I’m going to kill him,” she announced. “If he’s made me this worried over nothing, I’m going to kill him.”

  “Relax, he’s fine,” Paul insisted.

  “Shut up, Paul,” Nics snapped.

  “Told you,” he said to me.

  The more Nics worried, the more I was sure something had happened to Sam, and it was my fault. If I hadn’t been there, maybe Kara wouldn’t have followed them. I had to say something. I just didn’t know how.

  “Has anyone seen Kara?” I asked.

  The three of them went silent. “Why?” Nics questioned.

  Before I had the chance to answer, the door chimed.

  “It’s her,” Rachel whispered. I could sense the fear coming off of her. “And Ryder.”

  I followed the others, keeping my eyes down, despite my urge to turn and get a glimpse at the infamous Ryder who’d made Kara murder an innocent girl. The thought made me scared. Why was he here?

  “Sam?” I heard Nics say softly. I had to look.

  My eyes found Ryder first. He was older, in his fifties in human terms, with rough graying stubble on his angry face. He wore a black leather jacket and a gold chain around his neck like some mafia thug, and dragged our friend behind him by the shirt, beaten and haggard. Something about Sam looked different, and I couldn’t decide if it was just the abuse or if it was what everyone had feared—they’d aged him.

  Keeping hold of Sam’s collar, Ryder made his way over to the human girl. “Leave,” he demanded, and she darted out of the café, abandoning her books. “You four.” He nodded at a group of familiar customers, Descendants, and pointed toward the door. Th
ey obeyed, looking back at us with remorse.

  As soon as we were alone, Ryder threw Sam forcefully against a wall. His body absorbed the impact and fell limp to the ground.

  “Hey!” Nics yelled, causing us all to rise to our feet.

  “Shut it, or you’re next,” Ryder barked at her.

  William rushed out from the back, but Kara must have convinced him to stop where he was behind the counter. Her eyes were locked on him, and he didn’t move.

  Sam let out a groan of pain as Ryder gave him a swift kick to the stomach. Impulsively, I tried to reach for him, but I couldn’t move. My body was stuck, frozen where I stood, without even the ability to speak. I tried to take a step, move my fingers and toes, turn my head, but Ryder’s ability, whatever it was, had rendered me motionless.

  “Today you all are going to learn a little restraint,” Ryder cackled to himself as he picked Sam off of the floor by his hair. “If you think it’s okay to break our laws, think again.” His fist cracked against the side of Sam’s face, causing blood to ooze from his nose. I couldn’t turn my head to look away, and realized, neither could anyone else. Ryder had us all frozen still, and every one of us was forced to watch helplessly as Sam was pummeled by this crazed madman. “Let this be a warning to you. There are always consequences.” Another fist hit Sam in the mouth, splitting his lower lip, but he was already unconscious.

  I felt tears drip down my cheeks, knowing it was all my fault. If my body would have been allowed to move, I was sure I’d be trying to control my rocking sobs.

  Ryder’s violent eyes turned to me. “And you.” My heart began to hammer within my still chest. I had no defense, no way to escape. Whatever pain he intended for me would have to be endured. His thick, rough hand grabbed my jaw, pinching my cheeks with his strong fingers. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to pull or how you managed to get you and those humans flagged, but I’ll be watching.” His fist slammed against my face before I saw it coming. Only able to breath, I inhaled deeply and waited for the next blow. It came from the other side, and I could feel blood sliding down the side of my cheek. When the third came, the sweet relief of unconsciousness saved me.

  Faint voices brought me back. I listened for a while before I had the courage to open my eyes.

  “What’s his bloodline?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Sophrosyne?”

  “It’s getting bad.”

  “Reminds me of the war.”

  “What do you think he meant by her managing to get flagged?”

  “No idea.”

  I felt a hand on my cheek. “Hey,” William said, noticing I was awake.

  I tried lifting my lids, but they were swollen, and didn’t open all the way.

  “You okay?”

  I nodded, but didn’t speak. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sam lying next to me. We were in my bed, and the voices of Rachel, Nics, and Paul were coming from the living room of my apartment.

  “Is he?” I asked quietly.

  “He’s pretty bad.”

  I sat up slowly, and my head began to throb. My whole face felt like a balloon as I examined it with my hands.

  “Here,” William said, taking a kitchen knife from off my bedside table. He cut the pad of his thumb as he’d done before and waited for it to bleed.

  “I’m starting to make this a habit, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah, knock it off will ya?” he teased.

  He dabbed the blood from his thumb with another finger and applied it to my left eyebrow, easing only a fraction of the pain.

  “Why are you doing it like that?” I asked. “Your thumb won’t heal.”

  “Left is poison,” he reminded me, and then he placed his cut thumb over another gash on the right side of my lip, healing us both.

  Our eyes locked for a moment as his hand lingered, and he moved his face slowly closer to mine. His kiss was its own kind of relief. Everything would be all right. His soft mouth was hard to pull away from after such an ordeal, and I let myself get carried away.

  “Gross,” Sam moaned.

  “Nothing to see here,” William said using his hand as a privacy screen. “Just stay unconscious a little longer.”

  “Sure,” Sam groaned, “don’t mind me.”

  “You all right?” William asked, all jokes aside. I wasn’t sure what I looked like, but I was hoping it was nothing like Sam. His eyes were already black, and one was swollen shut. Small cuts were scattered here and there, but the majority of his injuries were bruises from being kicked and beaten. His whole face was a swollen mess, and on top of it all, I was right. He’d gone from looking eighteen to thirty in a single day. I wondered exactly how many years they had taken from him, if he even knew the number.

  Sam sighed. “Yeah I’m all right. How do I look? Any gray hairs?”

  “Don’t worry, Nics will still think you’re hot,” William said with a smile.

  “Shut up,” he said, trying not to laugh. “Is she here?”

  “Thanks for telling me he’s awake,” Nics said, rushing through the bedroom door, Paul and Rachel following behind her.

  Sam didn’t try to sit up, or even move, but his gaze stayed locked on Nics. “You owe me,” he said, trying to smirk through his puffy upper lip.

  She shook her head, holding back a smile. “I told you not to do it.”

  “You still owe me.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “How is the pain, from one to ten?” Rachel asked.

  He winced as he shifted. “Somewhere between 10 and 500.”

  I smiled, glad to know he was still in good spirits. “I can fix the cuts,” I offered, “but I don’t know how to heal the swelling.”

  “I’ll take what I can get.”

  The four of them left, giving me space to treat Sam without the pressure of a crowd.

  “I’m sorry I can’t do more,” I told him, healing the last cut on his face. The swelling was still pretty hard to look at, but I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to heal those kinds of wounds. I kicked myself for not asking Iosif when I had the chance. I needed to find out.

  “Are you kidding? It feels so much better already,” he said, closing his eyes.

  My guilty conscience set in. In my mind, I had done this to him. “This is my fault, Sam,” I confessed. His eyes opened and he was looking at me again. “Kara was following me. If I wouldn’t have come—”

  “No. I won’t let you take the blame for them,” he insisted. “They did this to me, not you.”

  It felt good to hear him release me of the guilt, and although I still considered myself somewhat responsible, at least I wasn’t holding it inside wondering who would hate me for it.

  “You’ll probably feel even better if you wash all this dried blood off of your face,” I suggested. “Do you want me to run some warm water in the sink for you?”

  “Ladies first,” he said. “You didn’t get off too easy yourself.” He closed his eyes again, desperate for sleep, or maybe desperate to escape what had happened. “I’m just going to rest for a second.” I couldn’t imagine how tired he was, what he had been through.

  “Sure.” I slid off the bed and headed for the bathroom. My heart felt lighter, like it was easier to breath now that I had Sam’s forgiveness. “Thanks,” I said, looking back at him, “for not blaming me.”

  “No prob, bob,” he answered with closed eyes.

  The warm water turned pink as I scooped it up into my face. It was soothing against my sore cheeks, and I dreaded seeing what they must look like. After my skin was rinsed clean, I faced the mirror. There was already a purple bruise forming below my left eye, and the right side of my face was noticeably bigger than the other.

  I’d never been beaten up before, but it made me feel stronger, tough even. I survived, and maybe next time, I would know what was coming. Having felt the pain, maybe my instincts would kick in, and I would be able to fight back.

  I moved my face closer to the mirror, examining my war wounds. I couldn’t be
lieve he hit me. A heavy feeling settled into the pit of my stomach as I thought of Anna. I hated the fact that Ryder knew about her, but if he hadn’t taken me, punished me like Sam, being flagged must mean we were safe.

  “What do you think he meant when he said I was flagged?” I asked William as he came to the bathroom door.

  “I don’t know,” he answered, taking the wash cloth and dabbing the spots I missed, “but it might have saved your life.”

  His touch felt good, and I stayed quiet as he examined my face.

  “You think he would have killed me?” I asked when he was finished.

  “Depends on what you did,” he said with a look of interest. “Feel like telling me?”

  I thought of Anna. All my life I’d been her secret. Now she was mine.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  The rest of the day was spent watching movies with everyone on my new TV. It felt like the only thing we could do to distance ourselves from what had happened. Sam and I got the recliner sides of the couch while the others sprawled out on the floor. It was nice to be with everyone, with friends, but I couldn’t take my mind off of Anna.

  “Just be careful, okay?” I said, sneaking a phone call to her in my room.

  “It was never a problem before, Elyse,” she answered. “I’m sure nothing will happen.”

  “Anna. Promise me,” I demanded.

  She sighed into the phone. “I promise.”

  When everybody left, William insisted on staying. I didn’t protest. He’d been sleeping in my living room every night since Kara’s break-in anyway.

  “William, how is it that I ended up living above Cearno’s?” I asked when we were alone.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Of all the places? All the cities?” I mused while snuggling against him in my bed. “I think Betsy knew.”

  “She did,” he confessed.

  I looked at him in shock. “How?”

  “We’ve known Betsy ever since the crash. My dad and I were the ones who took you to her house after it happened.”

  The memory came rushing back, the pain of it suddenly fresh in my mind. I remembered the image of the crumpled car I’d tried to erase thousands of times, those first days with Betsy, the hollow aching that consumed me then. But for the first time, something about the memory was different.