Unique

by Starr Z Davies

  The stars themselves begin to move. Some fall down away from one constellation, others grow larger, brighter as if moving closer. Then all the stars shift, surrounding the broken constellation, creating a cage around it.

  No. Not a cage.

  A shield.

  The stars in the shield begin spinning in a circle, around and around and around the broken constellation, closing in on all sides. A grouping of new stars rides in, and the resemblance to a man on horseback is almost uncanny. The shield breaks, the fallen stars gather together in his arms, then everything stops.

  All the swirling colors.

  All the pulsing stars.

  Everything is still. Peaceful.

  I press my hand to the cold window, my breath leaving puffs of condensation on the glass, and trace out the new constellation, creating a point on the brightest star. I step back and look at the image.

  It’s a map of downtown! The brightest star is right where the steps of the Administration Building would be, and the broken constellation is Paragon Tower. Surrounding them, thousands of stars fill the street around both locations.

  I spin around to see if Celeste will tell me anything more, but the room is empty. On the edge of the bed, the book sits open to page seventy-one. At the bottom of the page is Celeste’s note on the diagram above it. I read this before but didn’t really understand what she meant. To change the fabric, one must reach out and affect the true point.

  It still doesn’t make much sense. Changing the fabric could be about changing how this city works, but what is the true point and how does one reach out for it? I’m still missing something. Celeste once told me books required finesse to bring out the right meaning. I assumed she spoke metaphorically about telepathy. Could it be possible that she was speaking of this book?

  I turn back to the window as the condensation fades away, leaving a faint, smudged trail of the map. And the single brightest star in the center of it all.

  Remember the stars.

  That must be the true point.

  But what is it?

  “…Ugene…” A muffled voice calls to me. The room shifts like it’s made of smoke and darkness surrounds me. Then something new coalesces around me.

  Lemon cleaner. Cramped space. No light. Adrenaline pumps through me, and at the sound of shoes scuffing the floor, I shift back in the dark, feeling the wall press against my back.

  Mom will never find me here.

  Where did that thought come from? It takes a moment to realize it was my own and not someone else.

  Am I home?

  No. I can’t be at home.

  “Ugene…” The familiar sing-song voice of Mom on the hunt filters through a crack in the door.

  This isn’t real.

  It’s a dream.

  A memory.

  I’m eleven, hiding in the front closet while Mom seeks me out. She tries to use her Telepathy to find me. I try my best to keep her from succeeding. But she will.

  She always does.

  I grin, pulling my knees to my chest to occupy a smaller space as her footsteps creak on the floorboards.

  The doorbell rings. Mom’s steps hesitate just outside the door to my perfect hiding place, then move toward the front door.

  Dad’s voice is muffled from the front entryway where he greets Mom. Whatever he is saying, he doesn’t want to be heard. A moment later, Mom heads back toward the office again, toward me, as she continues her search.

  The front door opens.

  Mom continues to seek for me, but I strain to hear who is at the door. Maybe it’s Bianca. She said she might stop over when they got back from lunch.

  The voices at the front door are muted, and I steady my breathing to hear.

  A man and a woman. One is Dad. The other is definitely not Bianca.

  Curious, I inch closer to the door and press my ear to the crack to hear their conversation, aware that Mom might find me now.

  “… future…You knew…was coming, Gavin,” the woman says. It’s still hard to be sure if I hear the words right.

  “Not of…” Dad says. “…development…don't…still time…”

  She responds, but I can’t hear her.

  The door to my hiding spot flies open, and I jump back. Mom catches my hand, grinning, then puts a finger to her lips.

  “Now we will both hide and see if Dad can find us,” Mom says quietly, glancing over her shoulder out of the office. The entryway is just around the corner. “But we can’t make it easy.”

  The two of us squeeze into the narrow space at the back of Dad’s office closet, behind a false wall from a time before the war, before Elpis, and huddle down. Mom brushes her hands over my head. For a moment, her touch leaves me dizzy, makes my head feel heavy and stuffed with cotton, but the sensation quickly goes away.

  The voices from outside are impossible to hear.

  And the two of us cower there in the false wall, waiting for Dad’s turn to seek. But Dad has never joined our game before.

  40

  Cold presses against my cheek and my eyes drift open to find my head resting against a tabletop. I ease upright, but when I pull my arms back, something bites into my wrists. Restraints. Zip-cuffs bind my wrists together with an extra tie to connect me to a post on the tabletop. My senses jump into high alert as my pulse quickens.

  No sounds emanate from the hallway. I close my eyes and focus, only to be greeted by deafening silence broken by the hammering of my own heart.

  Whether it was Paragon or the Directorate, I’m not sure, but they must have tranquilized me and brought me here. Even if this is what I had expected, terror at being locked in this place without my friends to help me escape seizes me in a vice-like grip. My pulse thunders in my ears.

  I cautiously reorient to my surroundings, my eyes darting around the room. Plain, off-white walls, smooth stone ceiling and matching floor. The chair beneath me is cold even through my clothes, sending a shiver up my spine as I consider just how completely I am stuck in the seat.

  A handful of chairs line either side of the table in front of me. No windows reveal the world outside. A single door is closed across from me, and it’s probably Power-reinforced to prevent anyone from getting in or out…or prevent any sound from escaping the room. Even if I manage to find a way to get out of the restraints, I won’t be able to open the door.

  I’m trapped.

  I had hoped to end up in the gorgon’s den, but now I’m not sure how to escape it and find Dr. Cass or Directorate Chief Seaduss.

  The door beeps, and Forrest enters, wheeling a machine with the PD logo on the side into the room. What is that for?

  “Ugene, I didn’t expect to see you awake yet.” Forrest’s casual tone fills me with rage, and my chest heaves with angry breaths.

  Forrest continues working with calm confidence, checking the tubing on the machine to ensure proper connection. He extracts an intravenous needle, holding it in one hand as he withdraws a different needle out of his pocket. “Keep still, please.”

  I drag my arms away from his as much as I possibly can, but the restraints prevent me from truly escaping. Forrest uncaps the second needle and approaches me.

  I kick out. My foot connects with his shin and he yelps, stumbling back a step. But he recovers too quickly, and before I can kick again, he jabs the needle in my left bicep.

  Warmth spreads out from the end of the needle with a slight tingle, then my arm goes limp. My heartbeat slows, but I can’t be sure if that’s Forrest using his Power on me or the drug he just injected. The leg on my left side feels like dead weight. I try to move away, but half of my body refuses. Forrest easily grabs my limp arm and secures the intravenous needle in place.

  “What are you doing?” I ask, staring at the needle as he attaches the tube, then taps on the machine.

  In seconds, blood pumps from my veins, through the tube, and into the machine. Forrest then connects a heart rate monitor to me, and he checks the numbers as it flickers to life. His lips compress.
“You’re angry with me. But not nearly as angry as I am with you. You told my parents, turned them against me, and put my sister in jeopardy.”

  What are they doing to Bianca? Did something happen to her parents? Maybe the Directorate acted against them after my broadcast.

  “After your little stunt,” Forrest continues, “my dad sent out a call to everyone to share their own evidence on social media where the Directorate can’t stop them from spreading the truth. Photos and videos have poured in. Someone even posted a video of my team taking you off the street. Your insolence could cost this entire city the future it deserves.”

  The call to action… That must have been what Mr. Pond was talking about when I left.

  “No smart comments for me now, huh?” Forrest asks. For the first time, I can hear real, simmering anger in his voice. Forrest has always been cool and collected, even in the face of adversity. This anger is new. “I knew you were trouble, even as a kid. A cocky little know-it-all who thought he had all the right answers. But you don’t. You have no idea what you’ve done.”

  I close my eyes and tilt my head toward the ceiling. Blood loss is starting to make me light-headed, but only when I move.

  “I don’t understand what you were thinking,” Forrest snaps. “We were making real progress at Paragon. Now everything is at risk. It’s like you’re trying to destroy the last of humanity.”

  Forrest checks the machine once more, then heads for the door, where a quick bioscan hums before opening it. Before he leaves, he glances back at me. “Dr. Cass and Directorate Chief Seaduss will be along to talk to you. I suggest you cooperate.”

  Then the door closes, and the lock clicks into place behind him.

  This is it. No one knows where I am. Paragon could keep me like this forever, as long as they balance how much blood they are taking to avoid sending my body into shock. The fact that I’m not in a bed gives me hope that they won’t keep me forever.

  Hope is swiftly dashed when I realize Paragon may take what they need and dispose of me afterward. Like they tried to do to Jayme.

  Why did I think capture would be to my benefit?

  Terror presses on my chest as the walls of the room seem to close in around me. The injection that numbed half my body wears off, turning that half of my body into a mass of pins and needles. Flecks of black dot my vision. I can’t regulate my frenzied breathing and begin thrashing awkwardly against the chair. Each yank and twist is less controlled than the last until the little energy in me drains away. I settle back with a whimper.

  If I can’t get out of here, they will have everything they need.

  The door beeps.

  41

  Dr. Cass strolls into the room and sits at the table to my left, glancing at the transfusion machine before giving a satisfied nod. As always, she is dressed immaculately like an upstanding corporate executive. She folds her hands in her lap.

  Hilde is in the corner—as always, close at hand—with that tablet she carries like a child. Cradling it.

  A bulk of a man with broad shoulders and unnaturally huge muscles ducks into the room. His cold gaze locks on me, making the room much frostier.

  I would recognize that face anywhere: Directorate Chief Seaduss.

  “This is him?” Seaduss asks, resting his fists against the tabletop as he leans forward to examine me. The table creaks under his weight. “He doesn’t look like much.”

  “He’s liquid gold,” Dr. Cass says, but despite the cool tone, her eyes dart anxiously at Seaduss. “Ugene, I have to say you surprise me. When I first brought you into my program, I was under the impression you were interested in the science behind Powers. I expected great things from you; real interest in changing the world.” She’s like my mother when she lectures me, starting first with how disappointed she is. But this woman is nowhere close to being my mother. “Imagine my disappointment when you left just when we were on the verge of a breakthrough.”

  Left? She made it sound like I ran away from home instead of fleeing a deadly research program. “You said it yourself. Wisdom is a moral duty,” I say, throwing her own words back at her from an old interview. “I have an obligation to share it.”

  Dr. Cass flinches, but her voice is steady, with a hint of sincere hurt. It’s almost convincing. “Do you know how special you are, Ugene?” Her face lights up with happiness. Real, pure happiness. It sickens me. “You are everything I hoped for and more.”

  Escape. I must be able to escape somehow. Think, Ugene. Think!

  My hands are restrained, but my legs aren’t. What can I do with them?

  “Alas, no real progress can come without its setbacks.” Dr. Cass sighs, again, casting a cautious glance at Seaduss so quickly I nearly miss it. “And we’ve had our share.”

  Seaduss straightens, crossing his massive arms over his thick chest, and Dr. Cass stiffens. She’s afraid of him.

  Seaduss’s fancy suit doesn’t fool me anymore. Not after discovering what they’ve been doing.

  I need out of here somehow. I think I read something about breaking restraints like this over the knee. But they have to be tight, and I can’t do it with the extra tie locking me to the table. Somehow, I need to trick them into releasing me from the table.

  “You are extremely troublesome,” Seaduss says. “That broadcast has created quite a stir. However, when your little revolution dies, people will return to life as they know it because it’s comfortable. Easy. They will forget you.”

  What kind of stir did I create? I can only hope it’s one that leads to change. Or at the very least a chance to escape. Forrest mentioned the videos and photos, but just how much of a difference are they making?

  Seaduss casts a menacing smile at me, and my stomach twists. Dr. Cass averts her gaze to the machine as if it needs monitoring.

  “Your friends are going to die fighting this battle for you,” he says.

  “They know the risks,” I say. I can’t let him intimidate me, even if the idea of my friends dying scares the crap out of me. They do know the risks, but I don’t want them taking those risks.

  Hilde observes from the other side of the room, staring at me intensely, face set in deep concentration. Now that I recognize her using her Power, I know what she’s trying to do, but it won’t work. She won’t read me. She can’t.

  Mom put up a wall on my mind. That’s what she did in the false wall when I was eleven. I never felt her Power like that before, or since. It explained why Madison and Terry couldn’t read me, why Hilde struggled so hard to break in back at Paragon during our final escape. It also explains why Willow’s influence on my mind isn’t as strong as it is on others.

  Mom was preparing me for this like she knew this day would come.

  Seaduss prowls toward my chair, sitting on the edge of the table in front of me. It groans in protest.

  I press my back deeper into the chair.

  The way he examines the tube drawing my blood makes me uneasy, and when he turns those icy eyes on me, any hint of his humanity is gone. “Do you know what happens to dogs who bite their owners, Ugene?”

  I don’t answer.

  Seaduss’s thick lips thin in a tight line. “They are put down. For the safety of everyone. Radicals are like rabid dogs. We need to find them all and put every last one down…for the safety of everyone in this city.”

  I raise my chin in defiance. “Safety of everyone, or just a select few?”

  Seaduss stiffens but is quickly distracted by Hilde as she approaches Dr. Cass and shows her something on the tablet.

  I cock my head to try and get a closer look.

  Dr. Cass politely pushes her chair back to excuse herself, but no matter how much she tries to act calm, the fear in her eyes gives her away and she can’t meet Seaduss’s pressing gaze.

  “What is it?” Seaduss barks.

  “A security breach at Paragon Tower. I’ll deal with it.”

  So I’m not in Paragon Tower.

  The Protectorate had some sort of schematic for
the building, and I have a bad feeling now that their intentions are more malicious than Willow would ever admit. On the other hand, they might be searching for me. Seaduss boasted that my friends would die. Are they walking right into a trap?

  Seaduss grabs Dr. Cass in a tense grip. She winces, but he doesn’t relent. “This is your fault. If you can’t take care of the mess you’ve made, then I have no further need for you.”

  Dr. Cass’s face turns ashen, and her elbows pull tighter against her body. Her gaze is frozen on his. “I will.” Despite all the signs indicating otherwise, she sounds confident.

  Willow was right. Doc was right. If even Dr. Cass is afraid of Seaduss, then he is the real threat. I assumed Dr. Cass was the big fish, but she’s just one of his pawns.

  Seaduss releases roughly and Dr. Cass stumbles a step away. To her credit, she doesn’t rush to the door as I would. Instead, she smooths out her suit, raises her chin, and strolls out the door proudly. Hilde shoots a deadly glare at Seaduss as she follows Dr. Cass, but his attention is already back on me.

  “It must be nice to remain ignorant of your own blame in all of this,” I say.

  I’m seeing stars before I even feel the sharp, pulsing pain in my jaw. I didn’t even see him move.

  “Do you have any idea the shitstorm you’ve created, Ugene?” he asks, folding his arms once more. I swallow and shrink down under his gaze. “You have no idea what kind of danger we all face without proper order.”

  “Enlighten me,” I say, and despite a desperate attempt to sound in control, my voice quivers. I squirm in my chair, prepared for another backhand.

  Seaduss’s smirk is more like a snarl, baring sharp white teeth—or maybe they just seem sharp to me. “Without laws, without order, people with Powers descend into chaos. They use their Powers on each other, and civilization falls apart. Only through a balance of Power, using our tools for a greater good, can we remain safe. But an epidemic has spread through this city. People with regressing Powers turn to lawlessness, threatening the balance we so desperately need. In the last ten years, incidents of theft, abuse, and murder have more than doubled, and in every case, it was someone with regression acting out against others. We needed a solution before those infected spread regression and destroy what remains of our great city.”