Oppression

by Jessica Therrien

  My one shred of hope was put out like a match on a windy day. My sacrifice, or more appropriately, my death, was the cost of healing Anna.

  “I know that must be difficult to hear, not what you expected,” he sympathized.

  “It’s not what I expected,” I admitted, “but if it’s the only way . . . Turns out I’m not your prophecy girl after all, Professor.”

  “Prophecies are not to be interpreted or arranged. They unfold as they please, taking us all by surprise. Your sacrifice could be what causes the war that brings an end to The Council. There is no way to tell.”

  If what he said was true, only one of two things would happen. Anna would die, or I would. The thought was devastating. I felt sick and numb and hollow, like my very being had been sucked dry from my still standing body.

  “I think I just assisted you in something that will very possibly cause your own death.”

  “Yes,” I answered decidedly. “I think you did.”

  When Iosif excused me from our meeting, I found William waiting for me in the hall expecting answers. I was grateful in that moment that his eyes, which carried all the beauty of the earth and infinite sky, could not bear witness to the crumbled wreckage of my love-sick heart. If Iosif was right, and I chose to save Anna in place of my own life, it would break him, and as I thought of losing him, I felt my throat tighten. I couldn’t allow myself to cry.

  Seeing him had me questioning a decision that I had considered already made. Suddenly, I didn’t know if I could go through with it. After all these years, I’d finally found love. It wasn’t fair that it should be taken away so soon. Before William, I would have died for Anna without a second thought, but as he looked at me, I could see the love in his eyes. He needed me, too. Maybe it was selfish, but there had to be another way.

  “Well?” he asked.

  Well what? I wondered in my head. Had he heard something he wasn’t supposed to? I wasn’t ready to face him about my choice. He wouldn’t understand. I couldn’t look him in the eyes. How could I, knowing how deeply I would break his heart if I chose Anna over him? But a broken heart would heal, and Anna, if left untreated, would undoubtedly die. My chest felt heavy.

  “What did he say?”

  I tried to steady my voice, act myself, and smile back when he hit me with one of his intoxicating looks.

  “He said things will play out the way they were foretold no matter what I do.”

  He threw his hands up. “That’s it? What are we supposed to do? Run? Fight? I need to talk to him.”

  “No,” I insisted, grabbing his hand before he could walk away. “William, come on. He just means what your dad said, ‘business as usual.’ Iosif said no matter what path I take, it will lead to the same place. We just have to wait and see what happens.”

  He sighed heavily as the classroom doors began to open, and students poured out into the sterile hallway. “Wait and see?”

  “Yeah,” I said, coaxing him along with a tug of my hand.

  We walked to the car without a word. The more I thought about it, the more conflicted I felt. If it was really her or me, how could I live with myself knowing that I had the power to save her and didn’t, that I held the cure, but denied her of it? Tears began to well up in my eyes as we left the elevator. I casually dabbed the corners where they had started to pool, catching the drops before they could fall. I tried to tell myself that I had time, time to figure out what to do.

  “They could be wrong about me, William,” I mused once we were in the privacy of my apartment. In truth, it didn’t matter whether they were right or wrong. My main focus was Anna, and whether or not healing her led to fulfilling the prophecy was of little concern to me.

  “They’re not,” he said. I could read the uncertainty in his eyes. They were lukewarm, undecided, worried. Thoughts were happening behind them that I couldn’t decipher, but he was sorting through them more intently than listening to me.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  Our eyes met, both searching each other for different answers.

  “Even if they don’t know about the prophecy, they know you’re the new mother. And who knows what Christoph has planned?”

  “If they come for me, I’ll fight back. If I’m supposed to bring them down, maybe this is how it starts. I’ll do what I have to,” I said, my eyes pleading for him to understand the deeper meaning, but how could he?

  “And what is that, Elyse? Do you even know what you’ll have to do? Because I haven’t got a clue.”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t tell him. I wasn’t sure I was ready to admit it to myself yet, but he would never let me go through with it. He could never know.

  “William, nothing’s even happened yet.”

  “Yet,” he pointed out. He paced back and forth in front of the couch, running his fingers through the back of his hair every few minutes. “You’re right. Nothing’s happened, and I’m not going to let it happen. I don’t care about some ridiculous prophecy. I’ll do whatever I have to. I’ll keep them away from you.”

  “What will you do if they come, William, make them fall in love with you?”

  “Funny.” He raised his eyebrows. “But don’t underestimate the power of infatuation. Once I’ve got a hold, I can make anyone do whatever I want. Hand over their weapon, take a bullet for me, or jump off a cliff to save my imaginary dog.” The muscles in his jaw tightened.

  I had never really considered William’s ability in that way, as a weapon. The idea made me worry for him, and I began to peel the skin around my thumb. Would he try and fight when I was gone? I didn’t ever want it to come to that.

  “You won’t need to. We have time,” I said quietly, hoping it to myself.

  “Elyse,” he said, kneeling down in front of me and taking my hands in his. “You could die. Every moment you’re in danger. Every day is a day I could lose you.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “You’ll never be safe as long as you oppose them.”

  It was hard to see his face, so stunningly handsome, twisted with anguish. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to lose him, but it seemed like no matter what I decided, there would be consequences.

  “Well, what am I supposed to do?” I asked. “I can’t change what they said. I didn’t ask for this.”

  “I know. It’s just, how am I supposed to protect you if I don’t know what’s coming and when?”

  “You can’t think like that, William. All we have is now, this moment. If you live in the future, you’ll miss things, right here, right now, and you’ll regret it later.”

  I tried to listen to my own words, take my own advice. I couldn’t help but think about time.

  “How can you be so calm about all this?” he asked, finally sitting down beside me on the couch.

  I wasn’t calm. I was falling to pieces. The only thing keeping me together was him, but my fear wasn’t going to turn back the clocks. Dwelling on the future wouldn’t make it better, and letting William see how truly fragile I was wouldn’t help.

  “Worrying won’t change anything,” I answered.

  He sighed. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Promise me you won’t let this ruin everything. Your dad said the future is never certain, so until this prophecy becomes a reality, let’s just enjoy the time we have.” If I couldn’t find another way to heal Anna, I wanted whatever time I had left to be the best it could be.

  “Look, I’ll try, but you can’t expect me to just pretend like none of this happened.”

  To be honest, that’s exactly what I was hoping he would do.

  “Why not?”

  “Because it did happen.”

  His persistence was flattering, but I wished he didn’t care so much. It would make my choice easier, less heartbreaking for the both of us if I did have to go through with it.

  “All right,” I conceded, “but I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “Too bad,” he argued. “We need be prepared, have a plan or something.
”

  “A plan?” I laughed. “Like what? Are you going to stand guard at my door all night?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Every night? Come on, William, be rational.”

  He sank deeper into the couch with a sigh, realizing that he was a one man army. I wondered to myself if this was a losing battle he so fervently sought to fight.

  William continued to stay every night after that. At first he refused to sleep in my bed with me, claiming that wasn’t why he was there, that it was too much of a distraction if anything happened. After the second night, he gave in. Sleeping in separate rooms felt as unnatural as fighting the urge to breathe, but not even he could keep away the daunting thoughts that crept through my mind once I closed my eyes.

  As much as I denied it, I was scared, scared of the future, The Council, of losing Anna, of leaving William, but mostly of death. It kept me awake. I couldn’t avoid it. It haunted me like a nightmare I could never wake up from. The end, my end, it would be over. No matter how many ways I wrapped my mind around it, I always came back to the same conclusion. There was no way out of it. It took a while before those thoughts sank deep into the back of my mind, only emerging now and again to seize me by the throat and cut off my air. When they did, I had to remind myself that I wasn’t in it alone. No one gets out of this world alive, and it was good that I could choose the way I’d go, that I could help people when I did. It wouldn’t be a waste. I would be fulfilling my destiny. Then again, maybe William was my true destiny, the prophecy and the world of Descendants. How could I abandon everything, my people? The two sides of my conscience fought for peace, desperate to accept my fate one way or the other.

  I did my best to sneak calls to Anna. I wanted to see her more than anything, but William wasn’t letting me out of his sight.

  “How are you?” It was always the first thing I asked, and she knew it was more than just a casual greeting.

  “Good today,” she said, but her voice lacked truth. It was too cheerful.

  “What did the doctor say?”

  “I didn’t go,” she sighed.

  “Why?” I tried to keep my tone even, but I heard it waiver with disbelief and anxiety.

  “There’s nothing they can do, Elyse,” she answered candidly. “I had a realistic talk with Dr. Mendez over the phone.”

  “Well, what did he say?”

  My heart was skipping around like a Mexican jumping bean trying to wriggle its way out of my chest.

  “He said they could try another round of chemo, but . . .” her sentence dropped off hopelessly. “I just can’t go through it if it won’t work.”

  “Maybe it would.”

  “It’s everywhere, Ellie, too far gone.” She took a deep breath. “The cancer has metastasized to my bones and lungs. It’s stage four. Who knows if you’ll even be able to help?”

  “No,” I said encouragingly, ignoring the nausea churning in my stomach. “I will. We’ll figure something out.”

  16.

  NOTHING HAPPENED IN the week after Kara divulged our secret. Things were too quiet, and I hoped it wasn’t the calm before the storm. William held me tight when we slept, like if he didn’t cling to me, I would fall away from him. I did my best to get through the days without looking over my shoulder. In the past weeks I’d known about The Institute, I only managed to attend two classes, Origins & Human Evasion. There was just too much on my mind to care about any sort of schooling, but William was desperate to cheer me up, and promised this class would be different.

  When I walked into Abilities Defense for the first time, every head turned my way, like I was back in the fifth grade again. The classroom must have been three times the size of an ordinary one. There were no chairs or desks, just open space with comfortable beanbags and sitting areas along the walls. Light streamed in through the tinted windows of the top story, and the building block pattern of the city stood out like a backdrop on a stage.

  I noticed the absence of William’s hand in mine as he stepped in beside me, and I held back the impulse to grab it.

  “All right, begin paired exercises,” said the woman addressing the class, unable to hide the eagerness in her voice.

  With just a hint of a smile, William joined the group, leaving me with the teacher.

  She beckoned for me to follow her to her desk. It was in the corner, free from the commotion that had broken out amongst her students. Laughter, discussion, along with cracks, bangs, pops, and a variety of other unexpected sounds filled the atmosphere as the kids practiced their skills.

  I took a seat facing her with my back to the chaos, waiting for her to speak. She had short red hair that stopped at her chin, but from the age in her eyes, I could tell that if not for the dye job, it would be slightly gray. She looked at me affectionately through her delicate silver glasses before finally letting on.

  “You look so much like your mother.”

  Her words caught my attention, and I stopped fidgeting with my nails. I had closed the door on that chapter of my life, expecting it to fade like smoke, but here the embers continued to burn.

  “How did you know my mother?”

  “I guess I should have known she wouldn’t have mentioned me,” she said, pausing to recollect. “I’m Helen. We were best friends.”

  Curiosity swelled in me like rice in water. Maybe she knew something that would help fill the hole that was left in me when they died.

  With the flick of her wrist the classroom froze, not only the ticking clock and the pendulum that swung in rhythm on her desk, but the students as well. Everything was still, left motionless as it was in that moment, like a snapshot taken of time.

  “Sorry to stop time on you like that. I know it’s a little strange for people at first, but it’s my only hiding place here at school for valuable things. Kids and their abilities, you just never know.”

  She reached her hand deep into the back of the bottom drawer of her desk as I stared wide-eyed at the unmoving scene around me. It was surreal. I wanted to go touch something just to prove to myself I wasn’t imagining it.

  “Kind of fun, huh?” she said with a smile as she found what she’d been looking for.

  “Amazing.” I returned the smile.

  “I’ve been saving something for you,” she said, revealing the hidden trinket. “It’s a bracelet. It was your mother’s. She gave it to me before she left. She said she wouldn’t be needing it anymore.”

  The bracelet was a solid gold ring. It was too small to slip over my hand, but it unclasped on one side and hinged on the other. It fit perfectly, and sat snug against my skin.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said as I examined the intricacies.

  It was finely carved so that a design was visible along its surface—the rod of Asclepius. The etched carving of the serpent wrapped itself around the imprinted staff.

  “Your father made it for her,” she added. “He was really talented with that sort of thing.”

  I smiled, remembering how he liked to tinker in his shop behind our house. Even after a long day’s work in the field, he would come in for dinner smelling of metal and wood. Nearly every piece of furniture we owned had been hand-crafted by him.

  “I never understood why she gave it to me,” said Helen referring to the bracelet, “but I’m glad she did. It will help you when you need it most.”

  She took my hand gently in hers to examine the bracelet already on my wrist.

  “See here?” She pointed to the two raised nodules that played a part in the pattern. “Push them at the same time.”

  As I did, something sharp stabbed the delicate skin below my palm with a quick jab, and I let out an involuntary cry of pain.

  “Ouch. What was that?” I asked accusingly.

  She laughed at my reaction.

  “You’ve got to get a thicker skin.”

  She continued to hold my hand firm with the palm down, and quickly grabbed a tissue to catch the droplets of blood that fell from the small hole at the base of the bracel
et.

  “This is a tool,” she said. “Wear it every day.”

  She unclasped the bracelet and stuck her own thumb with a pushpin to heal our wounds.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I said as I watched what looked like a snakebite magically heal on the underside of my wrist.

  “I did it for your mom all the time. It’s no big deal.”

  “Did she do a lot of healing?” I asked.

  “Well, she healed me plenty of times,” she answered. “To be honest, we were a little reckless in our day. With me being able to stop time and her ability to heal, well, we always pushed our limits to the edge.”

  “How so?” I asked, smiling at the thought of my mother’s sweet and gentle demeanor giving in to reckless fun.

  “Back then it was different. There weren’t really any planes to jump out of or anything, but we were always seeing who could ride the fastest horse, climb the tallest tree. We definitely saw our fair share of black eyes and broken bones.”

  I looked down at the bracelet and imagined my mother wearing it, pushing the raised gold buttons that would draw out her power. She would have known what it meant to have this ability. I wondered if she ever had to struggle with the sacrifice I faced, if she ever felt her purpose was more than just to heal cuts and scrapes. What would she tell me if she were here? If it were her, would she be strong and stand up for what she believed in? But I didn’t know what she believed. I was on my own in this.

  “What about humans?” I asked with hesitation. “Did she ever heal any humans?”

  “You know that isn’t allowed. Don’t you, Elyse?” Her tone was emphatic, but something was off about her expression, insincere.

  “Yes,” I answered plainly, unsure of her feelings on the subject. “I was just curious.”

  The classroom came back to life just as quickly as it had frozen still, with a flick of her hand. Some students remained comfortably seated and quiet on couches, their eyes closed in concentration. Others sat in beanbags facing a classmate, trying to evoke some internal reaction in their partner. Meanwhile, the students with more visually obvious abilities were erupting into chaos. Rachel and her boyfriend flew around the room like flies trapped in a box, a girl with frizzy brown hair knocked objects over with a pulse of invisible force, blue streams of electricity crackled as a boy pulled energy from a light socket on the wall.