by Rebecca Ann
“No!” As the word left my mouth, a burning sensation traveled up my arms and legs. I shifted in the seat, a moan crawling up my throat and past my lips. Heavens above, this was unlike any pain I’d ever experienced before. It was as if my insides were on fire.
“You are doing a good thing. Your services will help Ada,” Carmella continued. “Please repeat after me. You are doing a good thing.”
I clamped my mouth shut and tried to breathe in through my nose, the smell of the cleaner still heavy in the air. It smelled like pineapple, and I soaked it in until I could almost tune out Carmella’s mantra.
“You are doing a good thing. Your people will be better off working as slaves.”
“No!” As though the word was covered in fire, the burning increased, and I couldn’t hold back a scream this time. It ripped through my throat, tears running down my cheeks and into my mouth.
“Your people will be better off working as slaves. They will help bring Ada back to what it once was.”
I gritted my teeth. I didn’t care how much pain I was in. No way in all the universe would I repeat those words. I closed my eyes. Pineapple. Pineapple. Victoria. Lily. Pineapple. “Pineapple,” I muttered.
“Say it, you wretched fool!” A hand smacked me across the face, the sound crackling in the silence. I jerked in the seat, an unwanted whimper passing my lips.
“Repeat it!” the Watcher barked.
“No need, Garrett,” Carmella said. “She’ll say it soon enough.” Her long fingers ran through my hair, and I flinched, eyes still closed. “You’ll make an excellent Monitor.”
I squirmed out of her hold. “Get your hands off me. I’ll never work for you! I’ll never be a Monitor!” My voice came out heavy with exhaustion and pain. So much for protecting my family. I couldn’t even fight off Carmella’s control. How was I going to keep my family safe?
“Too bad,” Carmella said, her voice sliding down an octave. “You have such potential.”
I bit my cheek to keep back another retort, trying to block out Carmella’s voice in my head as she repeated the sentence about slaves. How was she doing this and holding another conversation?
“The handcuffs you have on recorded my voice and are sending it to your thoughts,” Carmella explained. “The sooner you stop fighting my demands, the sooner I’ll let you go.”
I could only reply with a whimper as another jolt of electricity attacked my veins like it was slicing my body in half. Yet if it meant not giving in to this evil woman’s demands, I’d do it for as long as I could stand.
“Evil? Now, Lindsey, I’m hurt. I’m doing this for you and your people. You should be thanking me,” Carmella said from behind me. “You were nothing in Caldwell. Now you’ll be doing Ada a great service.”
“Your people will be better off working as slaves. They will help bring Ada back to its former glory.”
The mantra replayed over and over in my head even as Carmella left the room. It played for hours as I stared out the window. As the natural light faded to darkness, my mind went numb. Using my last bit of energy, I did my best to push the thoughts out. Only a few seconds passed before my energy gave out, and I slumped forward, my head on the table.
Your people will be better off working as slaves. They will help bring Ada back to its former glory. Your people will be better off working as slaves. They will help bring Ada back to its former glory.
“Shut up! Shut up!” I pulled at the cuffs. The chains rattling echoed through the room. “Shut up! You’ll never make me believe your crap!” The burning sensation started up again, and a cry, raw and desperate, left my throat.
“I know you want the pain to end, Lindsey,” Carmella said. “It will as soon as you give up fighting. You’re not going to outsmart me. You’re not going to get rid of me, no matter how hard you try. Things can be great for you. I don’t usually take on Half-Controllers, but you’ve intrigued me!”
The two different dialogues overlapped in my head, forming a string of words that had stopped making sense long ago. I could do this and risk my people or sit here in pain for hours until it broke me. With the first option, I at least had an out.
“Good choice, Lindsey. Garrett, undo the cuffs, please. Lindsey, since your friends are coming here, I’ve sent Watchers on ahead to collect them. Thanks to the conversation you had with your little friend in the garden, I finally have a location. They will be on the next ship back.”
As the cuffs were taken off, I lifted my head. What a coward. I’d let Carmella control me all because of a little pain. At least I could gain the freedom to help the LI population.
Garrett pulled me out of the chair, and I stumbled toward the door. As I gripped the doorframe, dizziness overtaking me, one lone thought managed to get through the fog. I couldn’t fight this battle alone. As I stumbled into the hall, the last words Carmella had spoken registered. I froze. Oh no! She’d sent Watchers ahead to the underground to get Victoria and my family!
I gripped the doorframe, breaths quick and uneven. No! I glanced up to find a tall figure blocking my path.
“I’ve got it from here,” Melody said, and I stiffened as her fingers wrapped around my forearm.
I let Melody lead me down the hall, and once we were in another room, I collapsed against her, unable to stop shaking. A chair scraped across the room, the sound piercing every fried nerve.
“Here.”
I looked up to find Melody holding out a glass of water. I took it and put it to my lips. As the cold liquid ran down my throat, I lifted my gaze. “I hope you know what happened just now, because I don’t think I can explain it. Carmella has sent Watchers to the underground. She must’ve been in my thoughts during my conversation with Victoria before I came to see her. I’m such an idiot!”
Melody sat down in the chair she’d pulled over, her hand on my knee. “I do. I hovered along the edges of your mind the entire time, once I was able to get Madalina to tell me where you went. I’m so sorry, Lindsey!”
I almost dropped the glass as my mind cleared enough to recall Carmella taking over Madalina’s mind. “Is she okay?”
“Not really, no. Carmella had one of the Monitors keep repeating what she’d been telling her for the past hour and a half. She could barely understand me. And no, the Monitor isn’t Chris. He said there’s nothing he can do when another Monitor is present. He’ll be Monitoring her soon. He’s going to see what he can do to override what Carmella did.” Melody leaned closer. “How are you doing?”
I ran a hand over my face. “I failed her! I couldn’t stop Carmella. I couldn’t stop her from taking over Madalina’s thoughts, and she almost took over mine. And now she may harm my friends and family!” I put the cup on the table next to me. “Some Half-Controller I am, huh? I spent so long hiding my powers, and now that they’re out, I can’t even help anyone.” I looked at her.
“Hey, listen, you’ve barely used your powers. You need to train, just like Victoria.” Melody’s voice was firm.
I shook my head. “She didn’t get to me. It wasn’t long enough, and I don’t feel the presence of a Monitor right now. But I could soon, which means we have to hurry and figure out what to do!”
“That’s because your Monitor is Chris. He’s on our side. He won’t put her thoughts into your head. But you’re right. We do need to hurry. I’m gonna go get Mark, and we’ll head to the docks to wait for your family and friends. I agree. We need time to plan, and hopefully Carmella won’t come looking for us. I had Chris tell Madalina and convince her to come with us.”
“Okay. Thanks.” This time I stood with no dizziness, though my legs still resembled a bowl of Jello as I went to the door. “Where is she?”
“In her room getting ready.”
I nodded. “We’ll teleport.”
“Whoa, wait. You sure you can teleport? You just got electrocuted and were almost mind-controlled. We’ll walk.”
“No. I’m fine. I’ll crash later. We don’t have time.” I grabbed Melody’s hand a
nd teleported to Madalina’s room, just as she slammed the doors to her wardrobe.
“Oh! Lindsey!” Madalina came over to us. “I’m going with you to pick up your friends when they get here. It will be good for me to speak about the program in person.”
I tried to smile through the exhaustion clouding my brain. Oh man, I wanted to lie in that big four-poster bed and sleep for a year. “Good! Let’s go!”
Madalina let out a tiny squeal as she clasped her hands together. “This is so exciting!”
I blinked. Was she still being mind-controlled? I couldn’t tell. “Yeah,” I muttered as we left the room. Once we were on the hover headed to the docks, I could start convincing Madalina that we needed to get the LIs to safety once they arrived.
It took a few minutes to get through the palace. I held onto Melody the entire way. I stole a glance at Madalina. She looked ecstatic, like a child on her birthday, with no trace of what had happened earlier. As soon as we entered a hover though, the smile dropped from her face. Guess she had only been pretending.
“Lindsey!” Madalina’s arms came around me in such a tight hug I could hardly stand it.
I gently pushed out of her hold and sank onto a nearby seat. “Not really, no. But wait you—how?”
“Chris,” Madalina said, and that was all she needed to say as she sat down in the seat to my left. “I don’t know how long I have before another Monitor takes over, but Chris told me what happened to you.” Madalina’s slender fingers wrapped around my arm, her eyes dark with worry and guilt. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”
I let out a sigh that moved my chest up and down. “Not really, no. I feel sick, and my head is pounding, but we need to figure out what we’re going to do now. Where we’re going to go.”
“I have an idea, but it’s a risky one. Also, I think we should spend the night on the hover. It won’t help with the Monitoring, but we’ll at least get a few hours to ourselves. I got snacks and coffee and a change of clothes.” She held up a pink backpack.
I leaned forward. “A ship might be safer.”
“A hover would be less suspicious,” Madalina pointed out.
I nodded. “Okay. Whatever you think is best. You know Carmella better than I do. Now tell me what’s going on.” I couldn’t keep the impatience out of my tone.
“I think you should become a Monitor. Carmella did say that you’d make a great one. We can use that to our advantage.”
I stared at her, mouth open. “Wait, how will me becoming a Monitor help free my people from slavery? How long would that even take?”
“A couple months, but I’ll lie and say you’ve been training already. And I’ll keep your friends and family safe. Most of the Monitors in District Fourteen are on our side, and like I said, Carmella doesn’t keep tabs on them because they’re Controllers. She assumes they’re on her side.”
“I think it’s brilliant,” Melody spoke up.
“Okay,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll do it.” I pointed at Madalina with narrowed eyes. “But you better hold up your end of the deal.”
“I’ll try my hardest,” Madalina answered. “In the meantime, we need to get you to District Fourteen. Preferably in the next twenty-four hours, before the dinner.”
I sighed. What had I gotten myself into? “Okay, but I want to get my family settled first.” We lapsed into silence, and I grabbed a couple blankets, tossing one to Madalina and the other to Melody. We needed sleep if we were going to take back Ada.
Chapter Nineteen
VICTORIA
I turned over on my back, staring into the darkness that lit up with the thousandth spark in less than ten minutes. My whole body was shaking with nerves. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and got to my feet. Arms out in front of me, I walked to my wardrobe, and once my knees hit the wood, I searched for the door and opened it. Taking a pill would stop the sparks, but it wouldn’t erase the anxiety that had been with me since Elizabeth’s arrival. I’d tried to tell myself she was simply my ticket to Ada. That I was going for Lindsey. The flashbacks her little speech brought on told me it was much more. I wasn’t handling this well at all.
My fingers closed over the bottle as the door opened, and I almost dropped it. “Shannon?”
“Yeah. What are you doing?” Shannon’s footsteps came toward me, and a second later, the lamp came on. I blinked in its brightness.
“Taking a pill.” I unscrewed the top and shook out a pill, holding it in a fist as I put the top back on and tossed the bottle back in the bag. “I just need to take this, and then we can go to bed. Where’s Elizabeth?”
“On the couch in the sitting room. I tucked Sarah and Lily in. They are so excited to go to Ada tomorrow.” I didn’t miss the strain in Shannon’s voice or the sigh as she sat down on my bunk. “I wish I wasn’t so terrified. Part of me wants to stay here.”
“Why don’t you?” I went into the bathroom long enough to wash down the pill and came back out, making my way over to the bed.
Shannon let out another sigh. “Because I don’t want you going alone. Lindsey would kill both of us if anything happened.”
“Very true,” I answered with a small laugh. I made my way across the room to the bunk, and when my knees hit the bottom of it, I stuck out my hand until it came in contact with the bedspread.
“Are you okay?” Shannon asked as I sat down. “I saw you run out of the dining hall during your mom’s speech.”
I tried not to flinch at the word mom. I couldn’t bring myself to call her that. “I was having flashbacks.” I looked into the lamplight. “She gave a speech similar to the one she gave tonight and then handed me off to my dad. She promised to come back for me, but she got arrested, and—well—it’s twenty years later.”
“Oh man. I’m so sorry, Victoria.” Shannon’s hand rested on my shoulder, and I covered it with my own. “I have flashbacks of my time on Ada too. I was ten when Madalina’s dad married Carmella and your mom led the rebellion.” The bunk squeaked as she stood, her frame lost in the darkness. “We should get to bed. I don’t know what time we’re leaving tomorrow.”
I crawled under the covers and pulled them over me, staring into the darkness as I waited for sleep to come.
I awoke hours later to voices out in the sitting room. I stretched and listened for Shannon on the top bunk. When no movement came, I climbed out of bed and made it over to the wardrobe, tripping over a pair of shoes. I kicked them out of the way as my hand touched the wooden door. Feeling for the knob, I opened the wardrobe.
It didn’t take long for me to get dressed in black leggings and my favorite shirt, a long white one with butterflies on the front. Grabbing my bag, I walked into the sitting room. “Who all is going?”
“I’m going!” Lily said. She was sitting on the couch with Sarah. “And Sarah is too.”
“And my mom,” Sarah spoke up.
“Yes,” Elizabeth answered.
“Anyone else?” I put my bag down and sat next to Lily, my gaze directed at Elizabeth, her face lost in the darkness, the lamp on the end table not enough light to make much of a difference.
“Yes. About twenty people, including your friends Bethany and Shannon. I spoke with your father, and he’ll be here this afternoon to take us to the ship.”
“Who’s going to be on the ship? Ada Watchers?”
“Your father and a few of his friends who are Watchers! He hasn’t left Caldwell since bringing me down here.”
I blinked. Did she mean she’d planned this all along? “So you knew I’d go with you?” I couldn’t keep the resentment out of my voice.
“I hoped you would, yes.”
I folded my arms. “And what happens when we get there? Where will we go?” Apprehension punched each word as images of all of us being hauled off in chains flashed in my mind.
No. I couldn’t let myself go down this road. I was going for Lindsey and no one else. I couldn’t worry about what Elizabeth would do once we got there. Probably go off and start another rebel
lion.
“Well, you’ll come back to the palace with me,” Elizabeth said.
I tried not to cringe. That made sense. Lindsey would be there, and we could formulate a plan. I started to reply, but the door burst open before I could.
“Watchers!” Shannon gasped.
I rose from the couch. “My father’s here already?”
“I mean Watchers from up top. They’ve invaded. Come on. Get your shoes.” Shannon slammed the door with a bang.
As if on autopilot, I grabbed my bag and cane as someone pounded on the door. My heart drummed in my ears, and I stayed still as their voices floated through the room.
“Watchers! Open up!”
“Come on!”
My breathing quickened as Shannon opened the door. A spark left my fingers, but I let it come. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but in this moment, as the Watcher stood before us, part of me wanted to shoot a spark right into his chest to escape his cold, lifeless gaze.
“Are you Shannon Babcock and Victoria Thompson?” the Watcher asked in a low and commanding voice.
“Yes,” Shannon said, no trace of fear in her words.
“And I’m Elizabeth Mathews,” Elizabeth said. “There are children here. I ask that you not hurt them.”
“You have two minutes to grab your belongings. Move!”
I grabbed the duffle off the table and took Elizabeth’s hand. I may not believe or trust her, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t seek comfort from her. If only we’d left sooner with my dad.
“It’s okay,” Elizabeth whispered. “I know you don’t believe it, but you’ll be safe on Ada.”
“Come with me. Now.” He grabbed Shannon by the arm, pulling her out the door. Another Watcher charged into the room.
I yelped as large strong hands wrapped around my forearm, dragging me forward. “Please,” I choked out. “Slow down. I can’t see very well.”
“Let go of my daughter!” Elizabeth’s hand came around my other arm. “I’ll help her down the stairs!”
I exhaled as I clung to Elizabeth, like I’d done all those years ago when I begged her not to leave. I pushed away the flashback as we walked down the steps. Cries and screams came from all directions, and I wrapped my hand around my cane. Several sparks came from the hand wrapped around my cane, but for the first time in—well—ever—I was too occupied with the chaos around me to care, much less panic.