At first, I was bored. Most people around me were on their various devices, but I’d long since given mine up. I was still getting used to sitting in hallways between classes with nothing to do but talk to people.
Then I spotted something under Corrina’s napkin. She had folded it well enough that it was hidden — but there was still the slightest bulge at the top. Looking around self consciously, I reached across the table and lifted the napkin to reveal a recording device.
I’d seen ones like it, of course, but not this small. It somewhat resembled the EED Corrina had told me about so long ago — and the one had Elizabeth had used to eavesdrop on me. Corrina wouldn’t have needed something this powerful for a conversation across the table. But if the display at the electronics store was correct, it would do just find for capturing my every word.
Gasping, I looked around the restaurant. Corrina was still out of sight, and the few customers still there were either preparing to leave or wrapped up in their own conversations. So I carefully reached across the table again and pulled out the device.
But I still didn’t want to listen without headphones. I probably could have with a device like this, but living outside the Necropolis and being accustomed to devices most people here would consider “old fashioned,” had left me paranoid. So I grabbed my bag with my “old” mp3 player and headphones. And that’s when something on the floor by Corrina’s bag caught my eye.
Her bag was large. That was pretty common among reporters, who often had to travel to locations far away and bring lots of extra things with them. But Corrina had insisted this conversation would be off the record. No reporter needed this much stuff just to go out to lunch.
And there was a notebook peeking out of the top.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. Then again, Corrina had probably gone out of her way to make sure I didn’t. Arriving early, keeping me distracted…she probably thought I’d never find the recorder, never thought I’d be able to put two and two together.
She was still out of sight, but I heard her voice from around the corner. Quickly, I pulled out the notebook and slid it into my own oversized bag.
Corrina rounded the corner and shoved the phone in her pocket. “Sorry about that. The boss was freaked about some stupid papers. Don’t know why he always overreacts to stuff.” She sighed. “Anyway, where were we?”
I managed to make small talk with Corrina for another half hour or so, my heart pounding the whole time. Once I got home, I excused myself to my room and pulled open the notebook.
There was no intro, no blatant notes that gave away exactly what she was doing. But I didn’t expect that. Instead, the first page had ‘Matt Cavanagh’ at the top, along with what looked like an online article:
At just 15, Matt Cavanagh is already the crush of choice for millions of girls, Immortal and otherwise. But the New Jersey native’s rise to fame hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
When asked why his highly publicized relationship with fellow Immortal Jacey Smith fizzled, Matt became hesitant to reveal details. Instead, he only said: “Jacey and I…we had our differences. We had different priorities, and wanted different things, out of both life and relationships.”
But when Jacey was pressed on the issue, her response was a bit more blunt: “He wanted to study and get good grades and stay out of trouble, and I just wanted to party.”
Matt’s section ended there, and I wasn’t surprised at how tame it was. Yeah, it was probably uncomfortable for him to be asked those questions. But it was probably nothing compared to the what I imagined the rest to be.
The next section was Jacey’s and, as it turns out, I was right.
Not one to let her presence go unknown, 16-year-old Jacey Smith is an Immortal shrouded in mystery. Raised in the city that used to be Toronto, Jacey’s family was hit hard by the collapse when her father lost his job.
“My dad worked at this place called the Rogers Centre,” Jacey said. “They mostly held sports events, but after the collapse, people couldn’t afford to go to stuff like that. So the place shut down. After that…well, everything pretty much went to hell. My dad eventually left, and we already didn’t have much money before.. It was just me and mom, and she had to get a job, which she hadn’t done in forever. She always tried to hide stuff from me so I wouldn’t know how bad it was. But I’m not stupid.”
But things started looking up for Jacey at age 15, when her childhood friend Elizabeth Brogan joined the Immortals. Though Jacey easily could have asked her friend for financial assistance, she was hesitant. “I don’t like asking for help, you know? And I didn’t want her to think I was just using her.”
Imagine Jacey’s shock when Elizabeth approached her asking for money. “She said she didn’t have a lot saved up yet, and she had a big expense. I didn’t have a lot either, but of course I wanted to help my friend. So we pooled our money, and she said it was enough. After that, she petitioned the panel, and I was Immortal in a month.”
But when it comes to just what Elizabeth’s big expense was, Jacey remains tight lipped. “If she wants to tell you, she will,” Jacey says. “But I don’t know if I want to. I will tell you this, though — we shouldn’t have done it. Everyone around us thought it was the right thing to do. But I think we both knew from the beginning that it wasn’t what she wanted. It never should have happened. it’s not that I’m not grateful I got in…I just wish it had been in a different way.”
No surprise there. Jacey was just as reluctant to share things with Corrina as she was with me. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was the most forthcoming of them all.
For Elizabeth Brogan, early life was not easy. The youngest of four children, Elizabeth grew up outside Rochester in a two bedroom home. She recalls often going to bed hungry.
But things started looking up for Elizabeth at the mere age of 14, when a panel member spotted her on the curb outside her neighborhood. She had just asked and been rejected for food, having been without for the entire day. This panel member was headed home from work to dinner at his own house, to which Elizabeth was, of course, invited. By the end of the night, the panel had already received her petition to join, and she was officially accepted the following week.
But life in the Necropolis wasn’t easy either. Under mounting pressure, both from her parents, who now expected her to support them, and her peers, most of whom were much older, Elizabeth replaced TNV with alcohol as her drug of choice.
But it wasn’t long before all the partying caught up with her. Just a few months after arriving in the Necropolis, Elizabeth discovered she was pregnant.
“I was scared, of course,” she says. “But I was also kind of excited. I think I was the only one. I know I could have raised the baby, even by myself. But my parents…all my siblings have had kids when they were teenagers, and they’d hoped that wouldn't happen to me. The father…well, he bailed pretty quickly. I didn’t have a lot of money saved up yet. So i decided not to have the baby. But the problem is, I didn’t even have enough money to…you know, take care of it. So I talked to Jacey. We’d been friends when she lived in Rochester when we were kids, and she was visiting Rochester for awhile. She was the only person I stayed friends with after I moved here, even though it was hard to talk to her. not because I thought I was too good for them or anything, but because she was the only one who hadn’t asked me for money.” She pauses to chuckle. “And now I was the one asking her for money. And she didn’t have a lot either, but between the two of us, we managed and…that’s how she got in.”
“I’m so grateful to her for being the only one to pull through for me. But I think both of us wonder if we did the right thing. I know I do.”
The story ended there, with no additional commentary from Corrina. I felt tears brimming in my eyes, already threatening to spill over. Suddenly everything Elizabeth and I had talked about, every problem I’d ever had with her, didn’t seem that important.
twenty-three
I should have waited until
the next day to go back. It was almost a half hour drive back into the Necropolis, and I’d already spent so much time and money driving up earlier that day. But I needed to tell the people involved everything as soon as I could.
Traffic wasn’t too bad — I guess everyone was back at work after lunch — so I made it to Matt and Gage’s house quickly. One I got there, I realized I should have called first. Matt wasn’t a senior like the rest of us, so he probably wasn’t even out of school yet. Besides, just because I was fooled by Corrina’s little project didn’t mean they were.
But I was there; no use turning around now. Taking a deep breath, I slid out of the car and knocked on the door.
They’d done some landscaping since the last time I’d visited. When I first met Gage — and when I left the Necropolis — the front lawn was largely undecorated. Now it had been adorned with a bird bath, lawn gnomes and a circular concrete drive.
Matt answered the door and smiled. “Kenzie!” he said. “What are you doing here?”
“Funny, I could ask you the same question. School let out already?”
“Yeah, it’s almost three. What’s going on?”
I held up the notebook, the page where his section started bookmarked. “I have to show you something.”
“I don’t get it,” Matt said as he flipped through the notebook. “Did Corrina write this all down to expose us or something? I didn’t even think I told her anything interesting.”
“I don’t know what exactly she was doing,” I said. “But she’s definitely recording private conversations. When did you tell her all this?”
“I didn’t. I was talking about it with someone at a party awhile back, and I guess she overheard.”
“How can she do that?” I exclaimed. “That can’t be legal.”
“Probably not. But if nobody saw her with any sort of device or couldn’t prove it, theres not much we can do.” He flips the notebook shut. “What’s she doing with all this, anyway? Writing a book?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? She might want to publish it anonymously. Then she won’t be publicly responsible for any of the blowback.”
Matt gripped the notebook in his palms. “She’s not going to get away with it,” he mumbled.
Gage was in his room studying when we found him. He had a similar reaction as Matt, and I didn’t feel like hanging around with two more people to show. So I headed for Jacey’s.
Jacey didn’t have much to say about the notes. We spent more time than I expected chatting and catching up. It was nearly dinnertime when I headed for Elizabeth’s.
This was the conversation I’d been dreading. After knocking on the door, I was soon greeted by a woman in her twenties, carrying a toddler on her hip.
“Are you Mackenzie?” she asked. I was stunned; in all my time in the Necropolis, I’d never gotten used to being recognized.
“Um, yeah. Is Elizabeth home? I need to show her something.” I hoped Elizabeth hadn’t shared the details of our last conversation with this woman.
“Yeah, she’s upstairs.” She motioned inside with her free hand, which I took as a sign to come in. I sat on a plush leather couch for a few minutes, the same one I”d seen so many months ago at the Halloween party, until Elizabeth walked in.
She must have been studying, or at least doing something more casual than usual. Her hair was pulled back and she wore a sweatshirt and tights. It was the most casual I’d seen her dress in awhile.
As she walked in, her eyes widened. “Mackenzie!” she said. “I didn’t think you’d be here. I thought you were back in Rochester.”
“I was. But I had lunch with Corrina Girard today and found something…well, I think you should see it.”
I had my finger open to the page where Corrina’s notes started, and I sat the notebook on Elizabeth’s lap as she took a seat beside me. She glanced over Matt’s section, but read carefully through Jacey’s, then her own. I looked around the room s I waited, pretending to be fascinated by the movie posters and vases. Finally, she looked up, closed the notebook and stared straight ahead.
“I can’t believe I told her all of this,” she said quietly. “She said it was off the record. She bought me drinks. I said too much.”
“Elizabeth, I am so sorry about all the things I said to you. I had no idea. Even if you hadn’t gone through all that, I shouldn’t have said it.”
She wiped something away from her cheek, probably a tear. “You know, when you and Gage first met, I was so jealous. I was over him, and I had no desire to be with him anymore. But then when he was interested in someone else, it was weird, you know? I tried to be nice to you because I didn’t want to be the bitchy ex. But when you two broke up and I still wanted Gage…well, I went for it.” She sighed. “Look, that’s all over. What’s done is done. There’s no reason why we can’t be friends."
I nodded. “I’d like that.”
twenty-four
I stayed in the church for awhile after Corrina left. Matt and Paige made their way in, apparently cutting through the sanctuary to get back to the car. I hadn’t realized either of them were there, much less together. I talked to them for a few minutes and they left hand in hand.
After they left, I started flipping through the hymnal. Everyone else had cleared out, but I liked the quiet, and mom probably wasn't done talking yet since she hadn’t come to get me. So I sat at the piano and pounded out the melody of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
When I finished, I heard clapping and saw Gage walking down the aisle. If he had come two hours earlier he would have been kicked out.
“Hey there,” I said.
“Hey yourself.” He walked to the pulpit and looked up at the stained glass window. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk to you before the service. I got here late. There was this big traffic jam outside, probably from all the reporters. Geez, it’s beautiful in here. I haven’t been in a church in...well, I don’t know how long.”
“I guess when you’re immortal you don’t have to worry about your immortal soul,” I said.
He didn’t respond but approached the piano. “So this is it? No turning back? Nothing’s changed after today?”
I shook my head. “No turning back. Have I sufficiently shocked everyone?”
He nodded. “Oh yeah. You know those Immortals. They can drive their cars 200 miles an hour but when their neighbors move away they freak.” He laughed.
I smiled too but I had other thoughts. “I’ve thought about this a lot. I mean, if we don’t die, isn’t that sort of like...cheating?”
He ran a hand along the top of the piano. “This piano is really dusty. You should get them to hire a maid or something.” He snickered. “Yeah Kenzie, I think you’re right. We’re supposed to die. Isn’t death just a natural part of life?”
“Gage, what are you saying? You know, a minute ago you referred to The Immortals as ‘they,’ not ‘us.’ What gives?”
He shrugged. “Are you happy?”
“Yeah, I am. I’ll miss you though.”
“Nah.” He shook his head. “You won’t.”
“Yeah, I will. Just because you’ve...”
“Stopped taking the TNV.”
I nodded and smiled, but then turned back to him. “Please don’t tell me you did it just for me.”
“I did it for me,” he said. “And for everyone else that has to put up with me. Remember our first date, in that coffee shop? I said I didn’t know if I could give all of this up and still be okay. I don’t want material things to be the most important...thing in my life. You know that saying money can’t buy happiness? I think it might be true.” He nudged my shoulder. “Guess you’re rubbing off on me.”
“Gage...I know you. You can’t just give up everything. And you really do have everything.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Please tell me you’re not going to say something cheesy like ‘I have nothing if I don’t have you.’”
He grinned but said nothing.
There was no ro
om between our bodies now. I felt his breath on my neck.
“What about your family?” I said. “What are they going to think? You not being Immortal and all.”
“They get it. Well, they don’t get it...but they’ve accepted it. My mom hasn’t even taken TNV in weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if they stop taking it altogether eventually too. I don’t think my parents especially want me to see them...well, outlive them.”
I nodded, my eyes brimming with tears for what felt like the millionth time that day. I hadn’t even thought about that.
He scooted closer to me. “Heard you playing earlier. Mom made me take lessons for a couple months as a kid. Let me see if I can remember the bass clef.” He stood up and sat on the other side of me, with our legs still touching. When he gave me a facial cue, I started the melody and he went along with the harmony. When I started to mumble the lyrics along on the second go round, so did he.
God rest yet merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
We finished the song two stanzas later with one final chord.
Gage smiled. “We make a great team, don’t we?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the emerald bracelet I had left in Matt’s cupholder in May. “I thought you might want this back.”
I reached out and let the bracelet fall into my open palm. Gage folded my hand over it and didn’t let go. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him dip his head down and then his lips were on mine. I reached out my hand and pulled him in closer. It was a short kiss, but one of the best we’d had.
The Immortals Page 13