by G. C. Julien
Why’s she staring at me like that? And why isn’t she saying anything?
A loud clicking noise echoes behind her and she turns her head to look.
When she realizes the last guard’s left the room, she sticks her face against the glass of my cell. A small window is open, right in the middle, so I can hear her.
“What happened, Gabriel? Tell me everything. Where was Eve when this happened? I need details. If you want me to get you out of here, I need to know—”
“Get me out of here?” I ask. “So you believe me? You know it wasn’t me?”
She sighs. “I know it wasn’t you, Gabriel. Someone’s framed you and I won’t stop until I find out who it is.”
CHAPTER 36 – LUCY
“Isn’t it a bit weird? I mean… It happened pretty fast. And conveniently, if you ask me.” Abigail jabs her fork into her pile of hot buttered peas. “And why’s your food so much better than ours?”
She’s referring to the sixth floor, where she was assigned by Nayma when we first got here.
“They’re always feeding us potatoes. And rice. I guess a lot of carbs, now that I think about it. Maybe they’re trying to fatten us up.” She makes her eyes go big, and her freckles seem to enlarge with them. “Hey. I should ask Eve to change up the menu. You think anyone can go up there and talk to her? Does she let kids into her office?”
Emily rolls her eyes at me as if to say, Thank God she wasn’t put on the fifth floor with us.
“Maybe I can even get her to reassign me here, with you guys!”
My fork scratches my plate. “You wouldn’t like it here… It’s a lot of the original people from Eden. Isn’t it cooler to meet new friends?”
She sighs and rests her chin on her fist while chewing her peas. “Yeah… Yeah, I guess.”
“I don’t know what Eve allows or doesn’t allow,” Emily says. “All I know is that she doesn’t put up with bullshit.” She shrugs. “I kind of like her.”
I stare at Emily. Does she mean that?
“Look,” she says, possibly reading my mind, “Eve had some pretty weird methods in Eden, but ever since she’s been put in charge here, all she’s done is disarm men. Nothing else.” She shrugs again while taking a bite of lamb. “If you ask me, I’d say she’s the kind of leader we need. Her top priority is women. Vrin didn’t seem to have the same idea.”
“I think Vrin’s top priority was survival and comfort,” I say, a bit peeved off that Emily would ever side with Eve.
“Well, I think—” Abigail starts, but a foghorn-like voice fills the eating lounge.
“Attention, everyone.”
It’s Adimmer, our Facilitator. His beard, smooth and perfectly trimmed and attached to long sideburns, makes him look younger. He tugs on his canary yellow overcoat—something I’ve seen him wear every day since being here—and smiles at everyone, waiting for a few to swallow their bites of food.
“In ten minutes’ time, anyone interested in participating in a movie night is welcome to join us in room 502.”
“Movie night!” shouts a teenage boy.
An angelic voice follows. “W-what’th a movie?”
She must be no older than four years old, which means she’s never experienced a movie before. How is that even possible? How could Vrin have built such an advanced society and not offered movies? I’m automatically reminded of Lucas and the television program we watched together.
We’d sat there in the darkness of the basement as if what we were doing was top secret.
Why?
A chair screeches loudly against the floor and a middle-aged woman stands up. “What’s the meaning of this, Adimmer? We were told by Vrin that Elysium didn’t have any movies… That television wasn’t an option for us.”
Adimmer raises his hands, palms up as if to say, I’m just the messenger.
“What movie?” someone exclaims.
The voices louden and people start getting up from their chairs.
Abigail throws her fork onto her plate and it makes a clanging noise. “I wanna go. You guys coming?”
Emily looks at me, almost as if for permission. Either that, or she doesn’t want to go without me.
“I haven’t seen a movie in… God. I don’t even know how long,” she says.
I smirk at her. Although I’m not in the mood to be surrounded by screaming kids, I can’t say no. It would be nice to sit back and be entertained for an hour or so. The only entertainment I get is reading fiction, and even that is extremely limited. I wonder if that’s been Vrin’s plan all along—promote education over entertainment.
Sliding my chair back, I jump to my feet.
“Whoa.”
I swing around to find Lucas standing behind me with two hands firmly planted on my chair.
“Oh, sorry,” I say. “I, um. We’re going to see the movie. You coming?” I ask, staring at his freshly shaven face. His hair, too, was recently washed. A droplet of water drips from his forehead and glides along his combed eyebrow.
He smirks and I catch a scent of something—either cologne or body wash. It’s fresh and crisp and it makes me feel weak in the knees.
“That depends,” he says.
I stare at him. “On what?”
“Are you going?” he asks.
I giggle and feel like a total loser. Why’d my laugh come out like that? He seems to have liked it, though. He tilts his head to one side and watches me make a fool of myself.
“Well, yeah,” I say. “I mean, duh. Why else would I have asked you?”
Why can’t I stop staring at his lips? Does he notice? The second I look up, I catch him staring at mine.
“All right, Lucy,” Emily says impatiently. “I’ll see you in there.”
She and Abigail walk away whispering and chuckling, no doubt making fun of how I’m acting around Lucas.
“How’ve you been?” he asks.
“Good,” I say, not knowing how else to respond. I haven’t seen Lucas in over a week which led me to assume he was either busy working on his inventions or outright trying to ignore me. With the way he’s smiling, though, it’s obvious he wasn’t trying to ignore me.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” he asks.
“What?”
“Vrin,” he says, and for the first time, he looks sad. “She was good for this place.”
“What do you think of Eve?” I ask.
He tightens his lips. “Honestly, I don’t know her well enough yet. But she’s obviously way more lenient than Vrin. I mean, this whole movie night was her idea.”
I’m stunned.
Why would Eve allow everyone a movie night? Why would she want us to have fun?
“Vrin would’ve never allowed that,” he adds.
“Why not?”
He scratches the back of my chair with this thumbnail. “She believed that mindless entertainment rotted the brain. Why do you think the Library barely has any fiction? She wants kids focused on studying or being physical outside… Not sitting on a chair and staring at a screen or letting their imaginations run wild.” He forces a laugh. “You should see the pile of movies we have downstairs—” Yet when he undoubtedly realizes he’s said too much, he clears his throat. “Um, that’s between you and me only, Lucy.”
“Your secret’s safe,” I say. “Besides, it makes sense that Vrin would focus more on studying.”
“Yes and no. I agree that studying is important, but so is having fun. I don’t know. I think Eve’s doing something right. The whole disarming thing was a bit sudden, but I get where she’s coming from. Especially after…” He rubs his forehead. “I can’t believe someone would do that to Vrin.”
I bow my head, sick to my stomach.
“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to get all dark.”
The room feels eerily quiet.
“Did everyone already leave for the movie?” I ask.
“Looks that way. Here.” He reaches behind him and pulls from his belt my H-Cap.
“Oh my God
!” I throw both hands into the air and snatch it from him. “Is it fixed?” I press the power button and it turns on with a soft beep. “I-I can’t believe it. Lucas! You did it. You fixed my H-Cap!”
He grins at me with shiny narrowed eyes. It’s as if he’s enjoying my reaction more than anything in the world.
“Thank you,” I say. “Thank you so much. You have no idea—”
And he plants his thick, warm lips against mine. The short stubble of his shaved beard tickles my chin, but I don’t mind. His hand, strong and firm, holds me tight at my lower back, pressing me into him.
After everything I’ve seen, I should be afraid, but I’m not. In his arms, I feel safer than I’ve ever felt before. His fresh cool scent enters my nostrils and I breathe it in without removing my lips from his.
Right now, this is the best feeling in the world.
Slowly, our lips separate but our eyes remain locked.
“I… I’m sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to—”
I clear my throat. “N-no… Please don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I should have asked—”
“No,” I say, my legs wobbly. “It was perfect.”
His canine tooth makes an appearance.
“I, um,” I try. “Do you mind if I meet you in the movie room? I’d like to take a look at my H-Cap, but I’d like to—”
“You need your space,” he says sweetly. “I get it, trust me. I’ll save you a seat.”
As he walks away, he grabs my hand and allows it to slip out of his.
Is this what a crush feels like? I need to talk to Nola. I’ve never felt this before. Every part of me is tingling and all I want to do is shout or dance. I’m so excited I feel like I could burst. Clutching the H-Cap against my chest, I rush to my room, unable to wipe the grin off my face.
I throw myself onto my bed, imagining it to be a floating cloud.
God, I could live with this feeling forever.
But I’m pulled back to reality when I remember what I’m holding—my H-Cap… memories of my mother. I scrunch my pillow underneath my neck and bend my knees. With the H-Cap resting on my thighs, I turn it on.
A small green light appears at its rounded tip and all of my old pictures are projected into the air in front of me.
I’m about to start enlarging them when I see something else. At the top right-hand corner of the projection is a flashing exclamation mark. It sits directly beside my Messages folder, which has always been empty.
A new message? How is that even possible?
I touch the icon with the tip of my finger and a new screen appears with a video frame. It’s blurry, and I can’t quite tell what it is. Underneath, it’s written: July 19, 2064.
July 19? How? That’s the day Aunt Eve came back for me. That’s the day the war ended.
Hesitant, I allow my finger to float up to the video frame. Although afraid of what I might see, I have to play it. The screen flickers and suddenly, my mom’s face appears.
“Is this thing working? Come on. Come on.”
She toys with the screen and taps at it. I’m not sure what device she’s on, but obviously, it isn’t hers.
“L-Lucy, honey,” she says, now staring right into the camera.
Where is she? It looks like a fancy office.
“If this works, honey, you should receive a message to your H-Cap. Listen, things are getting out of hand, and Mommy wants you to know she loves you so much, okay? Whatever happens, promise me you’ll find someone good… Someone honest… to take care of you.”
Tears are streaming down her face and with the back of her hand, she wipes them.
My throat swells watching her. She looks beyond terrified. It’s like she knows something awful is coming. I watch in horror, wanting to turn it off. But I can’t—I need to know what happens.
“I…” She turns her head sideways to a bunch of frenzied voices in the background. “Shit.”
She hits a button on the device, trying to turn it off, but nothing happens. Instead, I’m left staring at a beige and white wall and part of the American flag.
“Put that down!” someone yells.
Holy shit. That voice. It’s President Price. What’s Mom doing with the president? Where is she? Where’s Aunt Eve? They left together. Are they both there? My palms slip against the metal of my H-Cap, but I don’t let go.
“You’re not a murderer. Let this go,” my mom says.
My heart’s beating so hard it feels like a hammer’s stuck inside my chest.
A bunch of shuffling and grunting fills the air. Then, something cracks, and the president whimpers.
“What’re you going to do?” he sneers. “Beat me to death?”
Oh God, I wish the camera would turn. I need to know what’s happening.
“Stop it!” comes my mom’s voice. “You don’t need to do this!”
There’s more shuffling and it sounds like she’s fighting someone.
“It’s not loaded, you dumb bl—” says the president.
But then, he goes quiet. The next thing I hear is gargling.
What happened?
Oh God, what happened?
“You don’t deserve a bullet, you motherfucking—”
My stomach sinks—I know that voice.
It’s Eve.
Then, a loud noise follows. It sounds like cartilage being crushed or smashed by a hard object. I’m assuming it’s President Price’s face.
“Oh God, what did you do?” my mom says.
She sounds so frantic.
“This is for all the women whose lives you’ve ruined,” Eve growls.
It sounds like she’s beating him, but he isn’t making a sound. Is he dead? There’s so much noise going on, I can’t tell what’s happening. I almost wish the video would end, but it doesn’t. Instead, I see something I wish I hadn’t.
Into the camera’s view comes my mom, clasping at her throat. Blood comes pouring out through the cracks of her fingers.
She drops to her knees.
“O… Jesus Christ, Ophelia. Please, no. No, no, no,” Eve sobs. She steps into the camera’s view and grabs my mom with one arm, falling down with her. In her other hand is a huge rifle with a bloody bayonet attached at its tip.
“Come on, we have to go,” comes another familiar voice.
Vrin.
Vrin knew about this?
My mind is racing a mile a minute.
My mom gargles one last time before her head falls back, revealing a large open gash at the base of her throat. I turn away and grind my teeth.
“I’m so sorry,” Eve cries.
I squeeze my H-Cap so tight that the frame cracks out of place and the image distorts.
Eve always warned us about not letting snakes into our garden, when this whole time, she was the fucking snake.
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