Ill-Fated (Ill-Fated Series Book 1)

by S. C. McMurray

  “They didn’t approve of his job assignment.” She glanced out at the rain. “They wanted me to marry someone with more career potential.”

  Evelyn grew angry. “Dad is a good man.”

  “I know,” she responded quickly. “That’s why I married him, despite their threats. But when they took your father, I had no one else to turn to.”

  It was like a missing piece of a puzzle that was her mother had been found. “Why didn’t you tell me all this?” Evelyn asked.

  Evelyn’s mother dropped her eyes in shame. “There’s much we’ve kept from you. Too much.”

  “I know some but not everything.” She paused. “I know that I’m not your daughter.”

  “Don’t say that,” her mother snapped. “You are my daughter.”

  “I’m a clone, Mother. A repeat of someone else. A science experiment.”

  Her mother’s eyes became glossy. “I carried you for nine months. I gave birth to you. You are my daughter.”

  Evelyn’s voice trembled with emotion. “Then why didn’t you treat me like I was your daughter?”

  Her mother was quiet for a moment until she lowered her voice and said, “Because I couldn’t handle the truth.”

  “That I am a clone?”

  “No…that they were going to take you from me.”

  Evelyn’s head was swimming. The mother sitting across from her, barely holding on, was not the mother she was used to.

  Evelyn leaned forward. “Tell me everything that you know, even if it hurts.”

  She nodded slowly and sighed. “I should have told you a long time ago.” She breathed deeply, as if to gather courage, then began. “You’re father and I tried to have children for many years after we were married and your father blamed himself when I couldn’t get pregnant. He wanted so badly to be a father and to make me happy, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be and after years of trying, we gave up. Then your uncle Steven, you remember him?”

  “Barely.” Evelyn answered.

  “Well he came over to the house one day and said that he had something important to share with us. He said he had a way for us to have the baby we always wanted. We were skeptical at first, because artificial pregnancy was strictly regulated and very, very expensive, but after he explained that it wouldn’t cost us a thing and that all we had to do was let the baby go away for a year for specific Party training when it, you, turned seventeen, we eventually said yes.”

  Evelyn rubbed her temples as she attempted to absorb everything. “Then you knew they were coming for me?”

  “Yes but we assumed it was for the same kind of military training that every high school graduate attends.”

  Rillian interrupted them. “It wasn’t, was it?”

  Evelyn’s mother’s eyes narrowed on Rillian. “No…it wasn’t.”

  She turned her attention back to Evelyn. “Even after the procedure was already completed, I wondered if we made the right decision, but as my belly began to grow and I felt you move and kick, all I could think about was you. My own little miracle.”

  Evelyn pulled the locket from beneath her shirt and opened it, so that her mother could see. “You used to be happy, Mother, what happened?”

  Evelyn’s mother leaned forward and examined the locket. “Shortly after this picture was taken, your father received a holomessage from your uncle Steven. He looked different, thin and pale and he was jittery like he hadn’t slept in days. I remember he kept apologizing over and over again for not knowing the truth about the procedure. He said that they were watching us and that we needed to leave before it was too late. He kept trying to say something but he couldn’t get it out. Finally he wrote it on a piece of paper and held it in front of the camera. With his final words, he implored us to take you and run, to try to get out of the country, and we planned to do just that…”

  “Why didn’t you?” Evelyn asked.

  “Because your uncle’s body was found in the Ohio River the next morning,” she said sadly. “The police said that the evidence pointed to a mugging gone bad, but we knew the truth and we knew we couldn’t run.”

  Rillian piped in again. “What did he write on the paper?”

  She answered, “It was one word…Moirai.”

  Evelyn and Rillian glanced at each other. “Moirai?” They said in unison.

  Her mother continued, “From that point on I dreaded the day they’d come for you.”

  Evelyn felt her eyes tearing up.

  Her mother reached out and took hold of her hand. “I’m sorry, Evelyn, but we should have told you the truth.”

  A tear streaked down Evelyn’s cheek. “Do you regret it mother? Do you regret having me?”

  Her mother began to cry herself, she squeezed Evelyn’s wrist tightly. “Don’t fight back, Evelyn.”

  Evelyn was perplexed but before she could say anything, the front door of the diner swung open and SS soldiers swept in from outside. Rillian jumped up out of the booth, braced to attack but he was shot with a shocker and crumpled to the floor in agony as the electricity surged through him.

  Evelyn broke from her mother’s grasp. “Rillian!” she screamed as she dropped down beside him.

  The door opened again and she looked up to see the young Captain enter the diner. Suddenly, she was hit with something from the side. It was a shocker. She gritted through the pain and climbed to her feet. She walked toward the young captain but was hit again and again until the she fell to a knee. Two more shots caused her to collapse to the floor with a loud ringing in her ears.

  As if it was happening in slow motion, she watched as the soldiers swarmed in to restrain her. She saw her mother, her face in her hands, sobbing. Then she saw a soldier toss her bag to the young captain. He opened it and found the journal. He flipped through it for a few seconds before something tucked inside the pages caught his attention.

  It was the sketch.

  He blinked twice as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He let the bag fall to the ground, spilling most of its contents onto the floor. He stared hard at the picture of himself and then at Evelyn.

  There was something about the way he looked at her and for a moment, she thought she saw remorse in his eyes. Then, he closed the journal and began shouting out orders. The rim of her vision grew dark. She looked over at RIllian. He was unconscious, the whites of his eyes visible, like two hard boiled eggs. She called to him, but he didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure if the words even came out. She tried again as the darkness closed in on her. She tried again but everything went quiet. Then there was nothing.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When Evelyn opened her eyes, she was looking down on her feet. Her ankles were chained to something. The steel was cold against her skin. She attempted to lift her arms but they were chained as well. There was a humming sound that seemed to pulsate to the rhythm of her breathing. She blinked and lifted her head. Her mother was directly across from her, her face in her chained hands.

  Evelyn couldn’t stand to look at her.

  A glance to the right told her that she and her mother were in the cargo hold of an SS transport ship and the humming sound was coming from its dual engines. There were two soldiers standing guard over them, both hands on their rifles. The cockpit was behind them and it seemed to be buzzing with activity. The sky was a dark gray, and heavy rain pelted the front glass of the cockpit. They were flying west into the storm. That was all Evelyn could decipher.

  Evelyn dropped her head again. She thought of Rillian and her heart sank. She wasn’t sure if he was still alive.

  Not for me. Not for me.

  She closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them, she would be back in Vander’s living room, curled up on the love seat and that Rillian would be sleeping peacefully across the room from her, but the humming sound remained.

  “Evelyn…,” said her mother.

  Evelyn ignored her.

  “Evelyn,” she said louder.

  Evelyn opened her eyes and barely lifted
her head. Her mother had never looked so ugly.

  “I’m sorry,” her mother’s voice trembled, “I’m so sorry.”

  Evelyn spoke barely above a whisper. “It’s too late.”

  “I understand how you feel.”

  “No you don’t,” Evelyn said. “You never have.”

  “I…I love you, Evelyn.”

  “Don’t lie to me anymore.”

  Her mother sighed, “I did what I had to do, and someday you will understand.”

  “You betrayed me,” she said with contempt. “What’s to understand about that?”

  “I had no choice.”

  Evelyn felt the anger stewing insider her. “You had no choice?” She clenched her fist. “You had no choice?”

  “They would have killed your father.” She said. “This was the only way of keeping you both alive.”

  Evelyn shook her head. “And what do you think they will do to me, Mother? Just let me live in peace? I’m nothing but an experiment to them. They will dissect me like I’m a frog or something.”

  Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “I had no choice.”

  “You did what was easiest for you, like always.” Evelyn paused, and attempted to keep herself from crying. “You were never there for me. I may be a freak or some science project but I still needed a mother.”

  Like a bursting dam, the tears streaked down her mother’s face. To Evelyn’s surprise, she didn’t put up an argument and Evelyn saw what looked like guilt in her mother’s eyes. She wept for a moment then wiped the remaining tears with her blonde hair before standing to her feet.

  “What are you doing?” Evelyn asked.

  She looked at Evelyn with desperation and said simply, “being a mother.”

  The nearest guard stepped forward. “Sit down!”

  Her mother took one last look at Evelyn then in a flash, rushed the guard. She slammed into him before he could shoulder his weapon, driving him into the side of the aircraft.

  “Break free, Evelyn!” Her mother screamed. “Break free!”

  Evelyn struggled against the steel binding her legs and arms but it was no use. The other soldier grabbed Evelyn’s mother from behind and yanked her off his partner. Evelyn tried harder and the metal dug into her skin but it didn’t break. Her mother leapt at them again but this time the soldier was ready and he fired a single shot. Evelyn watched in horror as her mother crumpled to the ground in a pool of fresh blood.

  Evelyn’s mouth dropped opened and her blood began to boil. She let out a scream and strained with all of her might. The two soldiers watched in disbelief as the metal bonds broke from her wrists and ankles. As if she had no control of what she was doing, she rushed the nearest guard. Her palms slammed into his chest and she felt his rib bones crack as he was propelled backward into the cockpit.

  Like a feral animal, she turned to other. She saw fear in his eyes as he shouldered his weapon. Just as he went to fire, Evelyn released a violent kick that caused him to careen into the side of the aircraft. As he did so, his weapon discharged, spraying the cockpit with bullets, killing the pilot who immediately slumped forward onto the control panel.

  The aircraft listed to the side, causing Evelyn to lose her balance and stumble backward. The autopilot kicked in and steadied the aircraft.

  Evelyn regained her footing, grabbed the gun from the unconscious soldier and fired into the control panel. She emptied the clip, making sure that the autopilot wouldn’t be able to fly anymore, then threw down the gun and hurried to her mother’s side.

  Evelyn rolled her over and discovered that she was still breathing. The loss of the autopilot had triggered the release of the emergency parachutes which were hanging from the ceiling. Evelyn reached up and grabbed one and slipped it over her shoulders and buckled it around her waist.

  Just as she bent down to pick up her mother, she was hit from behind with a shocker bullet. She winced in pain then grabbed the spent rifle that lay next to her mother and instinctively hurled it in the direction of the shooter.

  She turned just in time to see the young Captain collapse to the ground after the rifle smacked into his head. She stared at him for a moment before the aircraft shifted downward as if someone was yanking on its nose with a rope.

  The quick dissention of the craft jolted Evelyn out of her stupor and she carefully but quickly lifted her mother from the pool of blood. With her mother in her arms she ran to the back of the aircraft. She searched for a button or a lever that would release the cargo hold and finally she found it.

  She kicked the lever with her foot and the door opened, filling the aircraft with wind and rain. With a strength she never knew she had, she held her mother with one arm and prepared to pull the cord on her parachute. But before she did so, she caught a glimpse of the captain lying unconscious on the floor of the aircraft and felt a tinge of guilt for leaving him behind.

  As if there was an invisible force compelling her to do so, she ran to him and wrapped her free arm around his chest. Now carrying both of them, Evelyn stumbled toward the back of the aircraft. Breathing heavily and feeling as if her heart was going to burst, she finally reached it. Wedging her mother’s nimble frame against her side, Evelyn managed to reach the ripcord. She took a breath and pulled it.

  In an instant the swirling wind took hold of the chute and jerked the three of them out of the cargo hold. They were pulled upward as the aircraft disappeared into the gray clouds below them. All was silent for a moment as an upward draft carried them higher into the stormy sky. Then, as if gravity suddenly remembered to function properly, they began to descend rapidly. The weight of the three of them was too much for the chute.

  Evelyn quickly realized that she needed to lessen the load. As the wind and rain lashed against her, she looked at her mother then at Adam. She knew the right choice and it should have been easy. She heard own pleas in her mind.

  Drop the one who put you in the situation. Drop the one who hurt your family and friends. Drop the one that took Rillian from you.

  She wanted to, she really did, but it was as if her body had a mind of its own and instead she just squeezed the two of them tighter. The ground appeared below like a sea of green and black but rapidly grew more defined as they hurtled toward it. As she strained to hold onto Adam and her mother, she resigned herself to her fate. She closed her eyes and braced for impact.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the sounds of her leg bones snapping accompanied by the most intense pain she’d ever felt. So, when she opened her eyes, she reached right for her legs to assess the damage. To her shock and dismay, they were completely intact.

  She pinched herself to make sure she was awake then looked herself over. Her clothes were ripped and torn and she was covered in turf as she had skidded across the green before coming to rest in the bunker of a golf course. The rain was just a drizzle now and drops of water ran down her face and dripped from her nose.

  She was breathing heavily as if she had just awoken from a nightmare. She wished she had because the reality was even worse. She looked to her left. The young captain was lying sprawled out on his back on the other side of the bunker. The gentle rise of his chest told her that he was alive.

  Suddenly a moan came from somewhere nearby. Evelyn whipped her head in that direction.

  “Mother!”

  Evelyn climbed out of the bunker and ran to her mother, who was lying on her stomach on the edge of a nearby pond. There was a stream of blood flowing into the water. Evelyn covered her mouth with her hand as she approached her.

  “No. No. No.” She repeated to herself as if she could just wish away what she was seeing.

  She kneeled down beside her mother, carefully placed her hands underneath her and rolled her over as gently as possible. Evelyn pushed aside the blood matted hair that was covering her mother’s pale face.

  Her mother opened her eyes and smiled weakly. “Evelyn…”

  She reached for Evelyn
but she could barely lift her arm. Evelyn took hold of her mother’s hand and squeezed it between her palms. It was cold like ice.

  “I’m sorry, Mother.” she said as her eyes began to gloss with tears. “For everything.”

  Her mother shook her head meekly. “No. Not your fault.” She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again and said between breaths, “Save them.”

  Evelyn nodded as the tears began to fall. “I-I will.”

  Her mother’s lips curled into a smile. “My beautiful, strong daughter.”

  She coughed and a spurt of blood spilled from her mouth. Evelyn quickly wiped it away with the sleeve of her shirt.

  Her mother’s voice quivered as she said, “You are no accident or experiment.” She squeezed Evelyn’s hands as tightly as she could as a single tear crossed the lines of her face. “You are our miracle.”

  Evelyn began to weep and she couldn’t help it. The mother before her matched the one in her locket. The lonely breakfasts, the forgotten birthdays, the bitter words, meant nothing now. She couldn’t hate her anymore, even if she wanted to. She bent over and kissed her mother on the forehead.

  There were no more words shared between them. The rain continued to fall and seemed to have a cleansing effect on her mother’s soft face. Her mother’s breathing slowed and she closed her eyes. Evelyn held her mother’s hand as her mother’s chest slowly rose and fell. She felt her pulse weaken until it couldn’t be noticed. Helen Smoak coughed and her chest rose then fell one last time. It didn’t rise again.

  Evelyn held her mother long after she was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  His head was throbbing and he could feel warm blood seeping down his cheek from a gash on the side of his forehead, but he didn’t move to address his wounds because he couldn’t take his eyes of the girl. The sight of her holding her dead mother made his stomach wrench with guilt. He felt the need to recoil to some dark place much like a spider does from the light of the morning. He never intended this to happen. His target was the girl, the mother was just the bait.