by Cheree Alsop
She seemed to guess my thoughts. “You can trust us. We brought you here because it’s safe.” I let go of her fingers and she stepped back. Her footsteps seemed to hesitate, then a door opened and they faded away.
The need to escape pulsed through my veins. I tried to sit up again and fought back tears as the weight of my bandaged wings pulled against the wounds. A splint kept my wounded knee straight. I eased it to the ground, then gritted my teeth and pushed up against the bed.
The second my weight settled on my knee, it collapsed under me and I fell to the floor. A cry broke from my lips as I hit the ground. I rolled to the side and fought to keep from losing control as wave after wave of pain and nausea coursed through my body. Hurried footsteps rushed down the hall. Muffled voices spoke quickly, but I couldn’t make out the words past the roar in my ears. Darkness swarmed my mind and I gratefully gave in to it.
Chapter Two
Voices whispered in a low cadence nearby. Instinct kept me still as I slowly regained consciousness.
“ . . . dangerous, what with the police declaring them suspects. You should turn him in.”
“He’s hurt, Dad, almost dead. You said yourself he shouldn't have made it through the night. Now you want to hand him over to them? They'd probably just let him die.”
A few moments of silence, then, “You're putting everyone at risk.”
“We know the danger. Everyone's had a say, but something doesn’t feel right about all of this. Until they give us more information, he should stay. Please keep helping him.”
A sigh. “Alright, but you need to be careful. Keep the door locked and don't let anyone in. He's still dangerous.” The door opened and closed behind them and their voices faded away.
“They’re gone,” a soft voice whispered close by.
I jumped in surprised, then clenched my jaw against the pain.
A hand touched my shoulder. I fought not to shy away from it. “Sorry,” she said, her tone genuine.
I opened my eyes and found to my relief that the darkness had lessened somewhat. I could make out a dim shape near the bed that moved with the sound of a chair creaking in protest. “How did you-” The words came out rusty.
Her voice showed her smile. “When you’re awake, you breathe shallow because of your ribs.”
I noted that for the future. “You’re quiet.”
“I’ve made an art of it.” Her tone softened but she didn't expound. She turned away and my throat burned at the sound of water being poured. “You must be thirsty. Dr. Ray said you could drink as much as you wanted when you woke up.”
A straw touched my lips and I sucked gratefully at the water until I heard a gurgle of air.
“Wow, thirsty,” she said. “I’ll get you some more.”
I shook my head, then put a hand to it to stop the spinning. “No, I’m okay.” I pushed up from the bed, slower this time.
“What are you doing?” she asked in alarm.
I held my ribs and leaned forward into a sitting position. “I’ve gotta get outta here.”
“You can’t!” She took a step back. “You'll be killed if you're found; I’ll go get Nikko.”
I shook my head quickly, then leaned my forehead against the side wall to stop the nausea that followed. My wings ached with every movement, but I kept myself from wondering whether I would be able to fly again. I definitely wasn’t in a good enough mental state to consider what I would do otherwise. “Wait, please. I can’t stay. You heard that guy. I’m a danger. You shouldn’t have brought me here.”
I felt the bed lower when she sat on the corner. “You would’ve died.”
I fought back the impulse to say I wasn’t afraid of death. The phrase had been drilled into us at the Academy, and I thought I believed it until death had actually stared me in the face. Anger rose in my chest. “They would have killed him if I hadn’t stopped them.”
“Who?”
“A boy; they were beating him because he was a Galdoni.” My lips curled in disgust. “They had a gun, and he was afraid to fly away.” I stared in the girl's direction, angry beyond the attack itself. That simple act had shattered my every hope of the world outside the Academy.
We sat in silence for a minute, then the girl gave a low chuckle. It was a pleasant sound that chased away my dark thoughts. “What?”
“You wouldn’t get very far, blind with two broken wings and a shot leg. Where’d you plan to go?”
I gave a small, wry smile at the thought. “I don’t know. Not far, huh?”
“Definitely not far.”
I turned one of the pillows so that I could lean against the wall and face her without putting pressure on my wings. They ached with the movement, but I ignored the pain.
“Why'd you help me?”
“We couldn't just leave you there.” Her tone was one of amazement that I would even suggest it. Then her voice brightened. “Hey, I don’t even know your name.”
I thought about it for a minute. “Kale,” I answered cautiously. “What’s yours?”
“Brielle, but everyone calls me Brie.” She sat in silence for a minute, then said, “You know, you’re different than I thought.”
Her curious tone caught my attention. I knew I shouldn’t encourage her to talk to me; my presence put her in danger, but talking to her kept the pain at a bearable distance. “Different, how?”
The bed moved as she shifted her weight. Her movement made a sharp stab of pain race from my knee up my thigh, but I didn’t show it. “Well, Galdoni are supposed to be savage, brutal fighters. Animals, really; at least, that’s what they tell us.”
A knot began to form in my stomach. “Who’s they?”
“The Arena reporters. They say it before and after every show.” Her voice darkened. “I think it’s to make sure people don’t think of Galdoni as human, because you’re killing each other.” She paused, and then said in a quieter tone as though uncertain she should continue, “According to the reporters, Galdoni were a failed genetic experiment. You only want to kill, which is why you were chosen for the show.”
Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed hard. “We were made, not chosen. We’re trained to fight, to not be afraid. But I didn’t know it was for some show.” I didn’t hide the disgust in my voice. My head started to throb.
“Not just some show, the most watched television show in the world. People throw away their life savings betting on you guys.”
“Betting on which one of us will die?” The implication made my stomach roll. It had never occurred to me to question what we did at the Academy. None of us did. Training and fighting was all we knew; but what Brie said brought it all into a perspective I wasn’t prepared to face.
I saw the Academy for the first time from a profitable point of view. There was too much to consider at once, but jarring details swirled through my mind like the forbidden questions, the separation of ages, the restrictions. I gripped the blanket beside me until my knuckles ached.
Her voice quieted. “There’re a lot of groups out there making waves, saying that it’s unethical. I think that’s one of the reasons it got shut down; that and a rumor about some of the big wigs skimming money off the top to pad their own pockets.”
I nodded silently. When they had shut down the Academy, all we had been told was that we were to be given a chance to make our own way in life; but if what Brie said was true, they must have lost millions, if not billions, just by letting us walk out the gates. Exhaustion clouded my thoughts. I closed my eyes.
“You should sleep,” Brie said quietly. I felt her weight rise from the mattress. “Do you need help lying down?”
I wanted to tell her no, but I was already too far into the void to respond. I rested my head back against the wall and gave in to the fog that swarmed through my thoughts.
***
The next time I awoke, my limbs burned with fever. Chills wracked my body even though blankets had been piled on top of me. I could barely make out the voices that spoke around me, strangers
in the dim room. I couldn’t hear Brie’s voice among them; I wondered if she had finally realized how dangerous I was and left.
***
I had no idea how many days had passed when I finally opened my eyes and found the fever gone and my blurred vision somewhat lessened. The room was blissfully empty and my throat burned with thirst. I pushed up slowly to a sitting position. The movement made my wounds ache, but it also verified that I was alive. I could take pain.
The blurred shadow of a pitcher stood on the dresser a few feet away. I moved my bad knee to the edge of the bed and rose carefully, keeping my weight on the good leg. My wings throbbed with the movement, but whoever had bandaged them had wrapped them securely to my back to keep them immobile. I leaned on the bedpost, then limped along the wall to the dresser.
My body shook with fatigue by the time I reached it. I couldn’t do more than laugh weakly when I picked up the pitcher and found it empty. I turned to go back to the bed; low voices caught my attention. I limped the few steps to the door and opened it carefully so the hinges didn’t creak. The conversation grew louder.
“They’re arresting anyone who hides them. We’ll be thrown in jail as accomplices,” a male voice said in an urgent tone.
“Accomplices to what?” Brie answered, her voice defiant.
“Do you really want to know?” he demanded.
“Okay, Jayce, calm down. It’s not like we have to decide anything now,” another male replied calmly.
“And wait for the police to come pounding on your door? Everyone’s at risk here; you know that, Nikko!”
“Did he look dangerous to you?” Brie asked. “We’re lucky he made it through the last few nights, and he acted surprised when I told him about the show.”
“You told him?” Jayce let out a chortle. “That’s rich. Way to clue him in on his role here!”
I gritted my teeth, but kept my mouth shut.
“That’s enough, Jayce,” Nikko’s voice cut in. “He’s not dangerous right now, and we can restrain him if we need to. There’s just too much going on for us to make a hasty decision. Dad said he won’t even be strong enough to leave the bed for another few weeks if he survives the fever. We’ll make a decision then if things become too intense.”
The sound of someone sitting down not so gracefully was followed by Jayce’s slightly calmer voice. “Fine. And until then, I’m sleeping with my knife under my pillow.”
I smiled, but Nikko’s next words wiped the smile from my face.
He spoke quietly. “Did you see the scars he has? What do you think that means?”
“Probably that he kills people. I don’t believe his story about the boy in the alley,” Jayce commented darkly.
“We saw the brown and white feathers,” Brie told him in an exasperated tone as if they had gone over the same thing before. “We have no reason not to believe him.”
“Yeah, except there was an awful lot of blood in that alley, and I don’t think it was all from him.”
I frowned and tried to remember if I had hurt any of them enough to draw blood. I hoped so, but doubted it.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Nikko pointed out.
“It means you have a dangerous Galdoni in your house whose presence puts everyone in danger. That’s not something we should fool around with.”
He was right. I knew the danger better than they did. I pushed open the door and a hinge creaked. The trio looked at me; I could make out the blur of them sitting on two couches. Brie rose to her feet.
“Kale, we-”
“I need to leave. You’re right. I’m a danger and it would be best if I left your home.” I leaned against the door frame to catch my breath.
“You don’t need to leave,” Nikko said. He rose to stand beside Brie. “Jayce is just being himself.” He glanced at his friend.
Jayce’s voice lowered. “I didn’t mean for you to hear that. We’re just worried, that’s all.”
“And with good reason. They’ve got to be out looking for us by now, what with the millions they’ve apparently just thrown down the drain. I shouldn’t be here. You should have left me in that alley.” I closed my eyes and rubbed the bandage across my forehead in an effort to stop the headache that was starting to pound.
“Brie,” Nikko said cautiously, but she didn’t listen.
Brie crossed the room and ducked under my arm so I could lean on her. My ribs gave a sharp ache at the movement. “You need to sit before you fall down,” she said, pulling me to walk with her.
I fought back a protest and limped to keep most of my weight off her. She eased me down on the couch next to Jayce. I kept my leg out, but the pressure of my wings against the back of the couch made me wince and I had to sit forward. The world spun. I took a deep breath to fight down the nausea and leaned my head in my hand. When my stomach was under control again, I glanced at Jayce. He had turned to face me, a cushion between us. I gave him a wry look. “I’m not going to kill you or anything, if that’s what you think.”
“Reassuring,” he replied, staring at me. “I’ll bet that’s what most killers say before they slay their victims.”
“Jayce!” Brie and Nikko said in unison.
I shook my head. “It’s okay. ‘We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them’.”
“That’s a Livy quote!” Nikko stared at me.
I nodded. “Politics at its barest.”
He exchanged a glance with Brie. I took a shallow breath. It made me uneasy how quickly my strength failed. I wouldn’t get far in such shape. I flexed my knuckles and noticed for the first time that they were scraped and bruised.
“That must have been quite the fight,” Nikko commented.
I glanced at him and nodded.
“Did you kill anyone?” Jayce asked. Brie slapped his shoulder but he ignored her, his attention on me.
I went with the truth. “I didn’t kill any of them.”
He then asked the question I dreaded. “Have you killed anyone?”
I didn’t answer. It was something we never talked about at the Academy, kill records and death. It was all supposed to be just practice, but accidents happened and punishment for such accidents never took place. The closer we got to the Arena, the fiercer the battles became.
I felt Jayce's stare and pulled my thoughts back to the present. My mind worked sluggishly through an exhausted haze. “It’s kill or be killed at the Academy, but I never wanted to hurt anyone.” He fell silent for a moment and I glanced at him. “You don’t believe me.” I said it as a statement, not a question, but I was surprised when he shook his head.
“I do believe you.” His tone showed his own surprise. “I’ve always been able to tell when someone’s lying, and you’re not lying.” I felt the cushion dip between us as he leaned closer. “What's it like at the Academy? I've heard rumors, but no one ever goes in or out. How long has it been since they've let anyone leave?”
“Twenty-nine years,” Nikko and I replied at the same time. I glanced at him, but couldn't make out his expression with my still blurry eyesight. I shrugged and ignored the pain it brought from my wings to my shoulders. “We were raised in the Academy; this is our first time seeing the outside.”
“Raised? I thought you guys came out as adults, blood thirsty and fighting,” Jayce said, a hint of embarrassment in his voice.
I glanced in his direction. “Not exactly. We're what you'd call test-tube babies.” I looked down at my bruised knuckles. “Combat is a religion at the Academy. We live it, breathe it, and know that some day we'll die from it if we're not fast enough or strong enough to defend ourselves.”
“But you know Livy,” Nikko said quietly.
I nodded. My heart clenched at the memory. “Academy professors smuggled books to the few of us who held interest in the world outside. They also held secret classes at night. I think they were hoping we could change things eventually, if we had enough insight into our own situation and the outside world.”
“What's y
our favorite book?” Brie asked. Her tone was carefully neutral and I wished I could see the expression on her face.
“The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas,” I told her.
Nikko laughed. “That's ironic.”
A smile spread inadvertently across my face. I was about to reply when a footstep caught my attention. I rose quickly despite the aching protest of my wounds.
“What is it?” Brie asked, alarmed.
“Someone's coming.” I backed toward the door, gritting my teeth when I forgot about my knee and put weight on it.
The front door opened.
“Dr. Ray,” Jayce said.
“Hello students, how-” I felt his shock when he saw me. “What is going on here?” he roared. He stalked toward me and I limped back until I felt the door behind me. Adrenaline surged through my veins and my body tensed for attack, but I fought it down. “You get back to that room and you stay there! You put these kids' lives in danger just by being here. If anything happens to them, so help me, I'll-”
“Dad,” Nikko protested. He grabbed the doctor's arm. “He's okay, really.”
“He might have you fooled,” Dr. Ray growled, “But he's a trained killer and a suspect in a government conspiracy. I should have known better than to agree to him staying here.”
My head swam. I stepped through the doorway and limped backward toward the bed; instinct screamed for me not to turn my back on him.
“But Doc, he hasn't done anything,” Jayce argued, surprising me.
The doctor’s voice lowered. “You should keep your sister out of danger. You know better.”
I sat on the bed and pushed back so that I could lean against the wall. My head throbbed and my knee ached. I could feel the damp bandages where it had started to bleed again. The exhaustion that weighed down my limbs made my thoughts sluggish. I struggled to stay upright.