Creators (Entangled Teen)

by Truitt, Tiffany

  “Abrams stopped caring long ago. Even with the creation of his superhumans, he would lose. The other side created, too. And even if they hadn’t, after we were gone, the chosen ones would simply turn into us. He saw that in the end. He always kept ranting and raving about a fail-safe.”

  “You abandoned your sons,” I blurted out. I didn’t know where it came from or why I said it, but once out, I couldn’t stop myself from continuing. “That’s where you creators went wrong. You were the most brilliant men in the whole world, and you tried to will our problems away. To cook up some solution in a lab. But the easiest solution is not always the best one. Your sons needed you, and you abandoned them. I’ll never do that to my children.” He had inherited this trait from his mother. She had abandoned her children, too.

  “That’s what all creators think.”

  “No, just the terrible ones,” I countered.

  Harper sighed. “Perhaps you’re right. Not like any of it matters now. I am sorry for what my son did to you. It’s odd; I almost understand what Abrams must have felt like when he created the fail-safe. It’s strangely comforting to know my disappointment is no longer running around this world.”

  “What is the fail-safe?” I asked, the blood pumping too loudly in my ears.

  “I really shouldn’t say, but considering there is a chosen one outside this door waiting for my command to rip your limbs from your body, I might as well. You did do me a favor. The fail-safe is a way to kill all the chosen ones.”

  All the oxygen was sucked from the room. I staggered away from Harper, clawing at my skin. It felt too tight. My father was going to kill all the chosen ones. He was going to kill James. I pulled in air through my noise. I couldn’t fall apart. Not now.

  “How? How the hell does one do it?” I knew I only had seconds. Seconds to know how to destroy the fail-safe, because there was no way I was going to let anyone kill James. No way.

  Suddenly, the door to the observation room banged against the wall. James. He had come for me. We would always be there to save each other.

  I took a step toward him, desperate to wrap my arms around him. To make sure, absolutely sure, he was still with me.

  But Harper’s voice halted me. “I wouldn’t suggest you do anything rash here, James. You make a move toward me, and it won’t save her. They’ll find you, and then they’ll just kill you both.”

  “He’s right. Just leave. You can’t help me here.” I needed him to survive. Even if I couldn’t.

  “Let us go,” James said. “We’re only two people. We aren’t rebels. We just want to be free.”

  “That’s just it, isn’t it? You want what I could never give you. None of us have ever been free,” Harper replied sadly.

  And then James snapped his neck.

  …

  James slammed the door to the observation room shut, grabbing the wooden chair and bracing it against the handle to keep it closed. Once the momentary shock wore off, I rushed to James and threw myself in his arms.

  “Are you all right? Tell me you’re all right,” James breathed into my neck, wrapping his arms tightly around me.

  I brought my head back so I could look at him. Seeing my bruised and battered face, he clutched onto my arms. “I’ll kill every last one of them,” he growled.

  “Sssh, I’m fine. Are you okay?” I asked. It was difficult to find my voice. He had just killed a man. The world I lived in made me increasingly immune to watching the death of others, but seeing the boy I loved kill, that was never something I would get used to.

  James’s face paled, and it was only then that I realized he was trembling. He had committed murder for me. I knew what that meant for him. He had been created to be a killer, and he had done everything he could to run from that destiny. What he had always feared about himself had come true: he had become a monster.

  I reached up and took his face in my hands. “It’s going to be okay. You’re still you.”

  James shook his head. He was no longer looking at me but past me. Searching for something bright in what now felt like a dark and desperate future. “I’m not sorry I killed them,” he said.

  My stomach tightened. “Them?”

  “Harper and the chosen one waiting outside the door. I killed them both.” James had stopped shaking, his body rigid with the memories of what he had done. He swallowed. “I didn’t see it, Tess. Any of it. I think they messed with my gift. Re-wired it when they tortured me. I can’t see anything when it comes to you. I can’t protect you from them. I heard they had taken you, and I came here. I killed them,” he repeated.

  “I killed someone, too. Terrance,” I replied, my voice frantic. We probably only had minutes before the army of chosen ones descended on us. They would kill me on the spot, but my mind reeled thinking of the torture they would put James through before ending his life.

  He had betrayed everything he was created for.

  The battle between creator and created. Had it always existed?

  James placed a hand under my chin and lifted my face so his eyes could dance with mine. Perhaps for the last time. “You did what you had to do, and I am glad you did.”

  “You did what you had to do, too,” I said weakly.

  James merely nodded, and I knew he would never see it that way. He had done the one thing he had promised himself he would never do. He had killed—and killed mercilessly. I stood on the tips of my toes and pressed my desperate lips against his. It took a moment before he responded, but when he did, his anxiousness matched my own.

  James sighed, pressing his forehead against mine. “What kind of world does this? Makes us into these things?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I wish there was a way to fix it, go back, but that’s not possible.”

  Hadn’t Abrams said these very things to me? Hadn’t the world, a dark and twisted place, made her into a mirror image? She had found a way to go back and fix it—to simply let it die out.

  James didn’t speak or move. He simply stared at me. His eyes were darkened by the thoughts that lived inside of him. I hesitantly walked closer and pressed my lips against the scar on his chin. “We’re not just this,” I whispered.

  His eyes began to water. “Not just this,” he repeated. He took my head into his hands and kissed me softly on the forehead.

  The door wailed and moaned. They had come for us.

  James managed a simple smile. He leaned forward and lightly brushed his lips against mine. Despite the way my heart thrashed about my chest, every cell in my body lit up at his touch.

  James walked to the door and removed the chair. His shoulders squared and his hands in fists by his sides, he readied himself for whatever would come next. He opened the door.

  “There you two are! We got a damn battle going on out here, and you’re in here making out.”

  My mouth fell open. Standing before me was Henry.

  The air rushed from my lungs and my eyes grew wide. How was it possible?

  “Henry!” I screamed, running to my best friend and embracing him.

  “Easy there, Tess! I did get impaled with a stick in the neck.” He laughed.

  I untangled myself from his arms and reached up gingerly to touch the bandage at his neck. “But how? They killed Thomas and Harry. Everyone from the compound was dead. Who helped you?”

  “I definitely deserve to win the friend of the year award,” boasted a gun-toting Lockwood as he entered the room behind Henry.

  My lips pulled into a grin at the sight of him. Lockwood hugged me. “Louisa sends her love,” he said.

  “Is she okay?”

  “Demanding as ever but doing well.”

  “Being demanding is a family trait,” Henry joked.

  “I still don’t understand. Were you following us?” I asked Lockwood.

  “Yep. Seems your sister didn’t trust your father either. I was an hour behind you. When I found Henry here nearly bled out, I used some of the things Sharon taught me and stitched him up. He’s the biggest
baby in the world, by the way.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, I believe it.”

  “As much as I’d love to sit and watch this happy little reunion, we have a revolution to start,” a third new voice said as he entered the room.

  My father.

  Chapter 30

  “I can’t believe Charlie trusts the bastard,” Henry told me as I led him down to the basement where the incubating chosen ones were kept. My father had sent the two of us to guard the room, to make sure that once the council found out we had infiltrated their headquarters, they wouldn’t send someone to wake them.

  So far, my father’s arrival, along with that of several of his soldiers, had gone undetected. George had set up a rendezvous point several miles outside of the headquarters. After putting into motion his plan to have Terrance attack me, George met with my father, using his knowledge of secrets, codes, and pathways to sneak in my father, his men, and Henry and Lockwood. I couldn’t figure why George would convince Terrance to attack me…except that it had turned James into a killer. And maybe that’s what he needed him to be for his plan to work. He was a genius when it came to manipulating people.

  “I don’t think my father trusts anybody. He just doesn’t pass up an opportunity for destruction when he sees one,” I replied, constantly looking back over my shoulder as we walked down the corridor to the basement.

  “You’re being too hard on him,” Henry countered.

  I stopped and spun around to face him. “He almost got you killed. He knew those chosen ones wouldn’t take you to the headquarters. He used you to make the story believable.”

  “He used me to start the revolution. I would die for that a thousand times,” he said urgently, passionately. The fire that lived inside of him was in full rage now.

  I rolled my eyes. “While your pledge to die a thousand times is noble, you only die once.”

  “I know about what happened to Stephanie,” he said quietly.

  I licked my suddenly dry lips. “I’m sorr—”

  “She would have wanted to die for the cause,” he interrupted, blinking away the tears that pooled in his eyes. I did the only thing I could do for him in that moment; I pretended I didn’t see them. I kept what I knew about Stephanie’s final moments to myself. That my father’s cause was no longer hers during those final days. Watching Henry die had changed something for her. She gave up her mission to save all to save one.

  But Henry wasn’t Stephanie. Even the news of her death didn’t change his need for revenge. I could tell him how she died for something purer, something worth dying for, but he would never see it that way. That’s when I realized that more than his love for her or me, he loved revenge best of all.

  And I felt sorry for him.

  “I don’t have a key card for this,” I admitted, turning my attention back to the door.

  “Good thing I do.” He grinned, pulling George’s card from his coat pocket. Of course he did.

  Once we unlocked the room, Henry surveyed his surroundings, making count of all the incubating chosen ones to ensure none had been removed from their cases. He pressed his face against one of the chambers, his reflection mixing with that of the very thing created to destroy him. “What were they thinking when they made these things?”

  I shrugged. “They probably thought what every man thinks when he attempts to control the world—they’re making it a better place. I don’t think anyone truly intends to harm people when they go about this, destroy them for joy. I almost feel sorry for the creators,” I admitted. Maybe Abrams wasn’t so different from me—a girl betrayed. Maybe if she knew love, she would save the things she wanted to destroy.

  “You care too much. You want to think the best of people. That’s a weakness.”

  “You know who you sound like when you’re talking like that? The damn council,” I said.

  Ignoring my insult, Henry walked past me and pointed to the control panel room. “Is that how I end this? George said you had the code.”

  I felt sick. That was why my father had sent me down here. Not to take count but to end the lives of the incubating chosen ones. George had planned this moment long ago. He knew I wouldn’t kill them on my own.

  He should have known I wouldn’t kill them now.

  “I’m not telling you anything. So if you want to kill them, you’d better go find George and tell him to give you that damn code,” I spat.

  Henry sighed. “I really don’t want to make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

  He was right. This was more difficult than it needed to be. George knew me. He knew how I worked. That was part of the reason he had made my life so difficult. He knew I would fight Henry over the codes.

  “He’s trying to distract me. Keep me busy,” I said slowly.

  “What are you talking about?”

  I raised a shaking hand and pointed it at my best friend. I would love him forever, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t shoot him. He couldn’t help my father take James from me again. “You’re going to tell me what my father’s doing, and you’re going to tell me right this second.”

  Henry opened his mouth to protest when the alarm bells began to blare throughout the entirety of the headquarters. I clamped my hands over my ears to protect them from the painful noise. Henry, obsessively focused on the mission at hand, stalked over and dragged me to the control panel.

  “The code. Now,” he ordered.

  I shook my head furiously. “I’m not giving you anything. You can go to hell,” I snapped.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Henry warned.

  “You’re right. We don’t. George could have given you the code, but he needed you to keep me busy. He’s always playing games,” I muttered, walking past Henry toward the exit. Before I could get far, Henry grabbed onto my elbow.

  “You can’t win,” I told him. “You do know that, right? Every chosen one up there now knows the building is being attacked. How the hell do you expect to beat them?”

  “We don’t have to beat them,” he yelled over the noisy warning system. He opened his jacket to reveal a makeshift bomb attached to his chest. “We just have to slow them down.”

  I felt dizzy.

  Lightheaded.

  He used me to start the revolution. I would die for that a thousand times.

  The fail-safe.

  My father was going to kill the chosen ones. All of them.

  I tried to yank my arm from Henry’s grasp but he wouldn’t let go. “You can stop fighting me. I’m not letting you leave this room. We came here for a reason. Now give me the code!”

  I hated him. I hated my best friend. He had always been this person, and I was too blind to see it. Henry had been right when he said that I wanted to see the best in people.

  “45981,” I mumbled.

  “Good. Now, hold this,” Henry said, shoving his rifle into my hand. Once he turned his back to me to punch in the code, I knew what I had to do. Trust was a mighty powerful weapon in itself.

  I whipped the rifle back and let it fly against the side of his head. With a grunt, he crumpled to the floor. I hadn’t killed him. He’d wake up. It was something.

  “Don’t ever call me weak again,” I shouted over his body. I wouldn’t help him commit murder. I wasn’t like him.

  The headquarters was under lockdown. The chosen ones were alert and ready to fight. I had George and my father trying to wipe every chosen one from existence.

  But it didn’t matter.

  I ran as fast as I could. Straight into the danger.

  I had to save James.

  …

  Complete and utter chaos had erupted on the main floors of the council headquarters. I ducked my head as I ran through the mass of people that seemed to be everywhere doing everything. Like the roaches that scurried across the bathroom floor of the compound when the lights were turned on. There was a group of creators who worked together to pull free several paintings nailed to the wall. I wondered if they were trying t
o save the works of art for the sake of the art or steal them for themselves. Hidden amongst the clumps of men searching for a purpose were the natural girls forced into service. I watched as one girl pulled on another girl’s arm who lay curled in on herself in the corner, crying and wailing that the end had come. Several chosen ones ran past me in formation while creators huddled in corners arguing over strategies and best laid plans.

  I had no idea where I was going. I didn’t know what the fail-safe entailed, so I didn’t know what to look for. I just ran as fast as I could through the halls, hoping to see my father or George, but mostly I searched for James. My father had taken him and Robert along.

  That was the part I couldn’t wrap my brain around. Why would he have taken three chosen ones with him to activate the fail-safe that would kill them?

  “Now, if you want the council gone, taking out that army is the first step.”

  George wanted to die. He wanted to ruin the council so badly that he would sacrifice his own life for it. Like Henry, he was willing to die for his revolution. My father would certainly have no qualms about killing the entire chosen one species, including his son-in-law and the boy his daughter loved, but George must have lied about what the fail-safe did to get Robert and James onboard.

  As I rounded the corner, I practically collided with three chosen ones who formed a barrier in front of the offices of the inner circle. If there was a place to start looking for a fail-safe, it would be here.

  One of the chosen ones grabbed me by the shoulders. “This area is off limits,” he warned.

  I swallowed back my fear. “I…I was just looking for Richard Harper. I was assigned to his family, and I can’t find him anywhere. I need to make sure he’s safe.”

  “He’s not here. Now move along,” he commanded.