I sighed and grabbed my phone before sneaking out the window in my room. I slid down the roof and landed on the ground in a crouched position. I’d been practicing that since I was younger, and now it had come in handy. I started walking toward the old school building about a mile east.
I arrived and walked into an old classroom. There was already a man sitting on top of the teacher’s desk, waiting for me, most likely.
“Hey,” I stated, walking up to him.
“Hello, Andre,” the man replied.
“What about your name?” I asked, and put my hand out for him.
“Luke,” he stated, taking my hand and shaking it. I wasn’t sure how he knew my name, but I figured he wasn’t going to hurt me. This had been planned, after all.
“Well, Luke, it’s a pleasure,” I said and took a step back.
“What are your ideas?” Luke questioned, standing up.
“I want them to know how I feel,” I replied. Luke nodded and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, handing it to me.
“Does this work?” he asked. I looked at the paper, calculating the formula in my head quickly before I looked back up at him.
“Yeah, it works. Can you do it?” I asked and handed him back the paper.
“Yes,” he replied. “I’ll keep in contact,” he continued and then turned, walking from the room.
A few days later, I was lying on my bed reading a book when Luke called me.
“Did you want to do it?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said and hung up the phone, going downstairs.
“Bye, Mom!” I called.
“Have fun!” my mom replied, probably thinking I was going to the movies or to lunch or something.
I walked to the factory where Luke worked. He probably lived there but I wasn’t at liberty to ask.
There were several men working who looked up when I walked in. I ignored them and found Luke, who was talking to one of the workers.
“Luke, sir,” I stated.
“Andre, come here,” he said and motioned for me to follow him. I did and we walked into another room on the side.
“How do you want to do this?” he asked.
“The water supply, that way it would hit everyone,” I replied.
“That’s what I figured you were going to say. I already have it all set up right over here,” he stated and motioned over to a water tank. I walked over to it.
“Will it work?” I asked, turning back to him.
“Yeah, all you have to do is pull the lever, everything else is done,” Luke stated.
“Alright,” I said and turned back around, putting my hand on the lever.
“People are going to die, you know,” Luke said.
“I know,” I replied and pulled the lever. I couldn’t see what was happening so I just had to trust Luke that it worked.
“Did it work?” I asked.
“Of course,” he replied. Now all I had to do was wait. I hoped Luke was right and that it had worked.
Back at home, I was just waiting for some sign that it had worked. My mom hadn’t done anything yet so I had no idea. Just then the phone started ringing.
“Hey,” I said, answering the phone.
“Hey, Andre, you wanna go down to the lake?” my friend asked.
“Sure, why not?” I replied and hung up. The only reason I ever got invited to the lake was to watch their stuff on the boat. That would change soon.
“Mom, I’m going to the lake!” I yelled, going downstairs and out the door. She didn’t reply, probably doing work or something.
I met up with my friends, Max, Sophie, and Jacob, at the edge of the lake. They already had the boat set up, just needed to push it into the water.
“Hey, guys!” I said and jumped into the boat.
“Hey, A!” Jacob said and hopped in with me, looking at the others with a smirk. They had to push the boat in this time.
“You guys have your clones?” I asked Jacob.
“Of course, we always do,” he said with a laugh. It was a stupid question. I knew that. He knew it was stupid too. For a second I worried that he knew something, but he didn’t. Max and Sophie waded out into the water and jumped into the boat.
“Look what you’ve done. I’m all wet,” Sophie scoffed.
“You were going to end up getting wet anyway. We’re at a lake,” Jacob laughed.
“I don’t need you in my life anymore,” she stated with a smile.
“Aw, come on you know you love me!” Jacob fake-pouted and made a move toward her. She smirked and took a step back.
“Catch me if you can,” she said and turned, diving off the edge of the boat.
“You were just complaining about being wet!” Jacob yelled at her once she surfaced again. She shrugged and swam toward the boat a little, eyeing Jacob.
“Are you a chicken? You can’t come catch me,” she stated. Jacob tossed his shirt at me.
“Watch that, choke Max if you need to,” he told me.
“Hey!” Max yelled after him, but Jacob had already jumped off the boat. I turned to Max.
“They’re idiots,” he said shaking his head, and walked over to the steering wheel of the boat. They were playing tag in the water still.
“I hope you guys can swim well enough to keep up with the boat!” Max yelled at them and started driving.
We drove out to the middle of the lake. The bottomless lake, this was the part that seemed bottomless. None of us had actually reached the bottom, it was a couple hundred feet deep. Of course we actually knew there was a bottom. Scientists had figured that out. It was just a challenge to see who could actually get down there first. No one was actually smart enough to bring oxygen tanks. They just swam down until they drowned and then the next person would try. I seriously don’t know how these people aged, well, I mean I did. We didn’t care what body they were in, they still were that age. On business applications and birth certificates and stuff like that. So I guess they all looked young for their age.
“Andre, you good?” Max asked, cutting me from my thoughts.
“Yeah,” I stated and stood up. Jacob and Sophie were having a race toward the boat.
“Whoever wins gets to go down first,” Max smiled and walked over to the edge of the boat. I followed him and watched the two race.
Jacob won, he climbed up onto the boat, taunting Sophie about it, who was trying to scowl. She couldn’t keep the face though and was laughing.
“You get to go,” Max said with a laugh, going to push Jacob overboard.
“Lemme catch my breath,” Jacob said, grabbing Max’s arm and throwing him overboard. He came above water a few seconds later.
“Eight to nine,” he stated, climbing back up on the boat. The two of them had a competition on how many times they could get the other overboard. I don’t know how they managed to remember but they had. Usually it ended with both of them going overboard and that would be a tie, which was why the score wasn’t really high.
“I’m winning,” Jacob smirked.
“Whatever. You go under. Let’s see if you really can win,” Max said.
“Fine, I’m going,” Jacob stated and turned, diving off the boat. He didn’t resurface and we knew he wasn’t going to. We walked down to the underside part of the boat. Jacob’s body was there, sitting in one of the chairs. It was lifeless, the eyes were glazed over and the muscles unmoving. Max and Sophie looked the same. It creeped me out every time I saw a clone, not anyone else. Probably because they had them and I didn’t. I’d gotten used to them and could hide the feeling seeing the clones gave me. I looked away and at Max and Sophie. They were arguing about how far down Jacob would go. I sighed and sat down on one of the chairs.
I must’ve zoned out because I snapped back to attention when Jacob sat up, gasping. He looked around confused for several moments before finally saying, “I almost got there,” his senses seeming to come back to him slowly as he got a hold of his surroundings. I tried not to hide my disappointment. What I’d
done hadn’t worked. Oh well, there would be other chances.
“You did not!” Max yelled.
“Go find out,” Jacob smirked and stood up.
“I’ll go next!” Sophie yelped and ran up the stairs. We heard a splash and she was gone.
“Give me some water, man,” Jacob said after Sophie left, and motioned to a bottle.
“That’s Sophie’s, you sure?” Max said, walking over and grabbing the half-empty bottle.
“Yeah, I haven’t had anything all day and drowning usually makes you thirsty,” he replied. Max laughed and tossed the bottle at him.
“Yo, A, you take that into consideration. Whenever you get a gene transplant or however the crap they are going to fix you, always take extra water if you plan on dying. You get thirsty,” Jacob said, taking a drink and then throwing the rest at me. I shook out my arms, glaring at him.
“Thanks, I’ll consider it. But I might as well bring water to dump on you,” I stated. Max and Jacob started talking about school and stuff after that. I said something every now and then but it was mostly them.
About ten minutes later Max turned to Jacob. “Man, I think Sophie beat you,” he said.
“IDK, man she’s been under for a pretty long time. You think she cheated?” Jacob asked.
“She wouldn’t. I’ll go look for her,” Max replied and turned, going up the stairs. I tried to look like I was worried. But maybe it had worked. This was my only way of knowing. Max came back down a few minutes later.
“I don’t see her, shouldn’t she have resurfaced by now?” Max asked. He was becoming panicked. That I could tell. Sophie was his sister.
“Should we just turn around and she’ll show up?” I suggested. Jacob gave a small nod and headed upstairs. Max gave a look at Sophie’s clone before sighing and following Jacob upstairs. I went after them.
Jacob was driving back this time, Max was standing and looking over the edge. I walked over to him and looked out across the water. I didn’t see anyone or any movement.
“You good?” I asked.
“She’ll turn up, right?” he asked, turning to me, concern written all over his face.
“Yes, she’ll turn up,” I replied. I wasn’t lying. I had just left out the part about her maybe not turning up alive.
“Okay,” he nodded and turned back to face the water. I turned and looked back at it too. Still no movement.
It had been days, more incidents like that had been happening since then. The town officials had found Sophie’s body. She had drowned, no one could figure out why the gene didn’t work and it was scaring people, putting them all on edge. I wasn’t going to tell anyone I knew the reason behind it. Today was Sophie’s funeral. Max and his family had gotten a lot of crap, a lot of people thought that Sophie had somehow cursed the town. We were on our way to the funeral now.
There weren’t very many people there, despite the whole town knowing about her death. I stood near Max and Jacob. A couple of their other friends were there but they didn’t like me all too much so no one was talking to me. I’m surprised I was actually even invited to the funeral, it was probably just because I had been there when she passed.
My mother was talking with Max’s parents, they had grown up together so that’s the only reason Max and I were friends. I saw Luke, why was he there? Yeah, he was part of this town, but he didn’t need to be here. Most of the town hadn’t come. I walked over to him. He looked up when I walked over.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“What you did worked, but you killed an innocent person,” he stated.
“She killed herself,” I replied.
“You can think that, but now that you’ve done it what do you plan to do?”
“Nothing. They are scared and they are weak. That’s what I wanted,” I stated.
“What about when the officials figure out the problem and fix it? They are going to try and find who did it. And guess who is going to be the number one suspect?” Luke said and turned, walking away. I watched him walk away before turning around and walking back to the others.
After the funeral my mom went home with Max. I went back to my house, Jacob and the others went back to his place.
I was watching TV when there was a knock at the door. I sighed and got up to go get it. Sophie’s dad was standing there.
“Hello,” I said a little uneasily. Why wasn’t he with my mom?
“Hello, Andre, may I come in?” he asked.
“Sure,” I nodded and opened the door wider, stepping to the side so he could walk in.
“Do you need something?” I asked, closing the door and following after him.
“I just wanted to talk to you,” he stated.
“About what?”
“Sophie,” he said and turned around. I took a step back, confused.
“What about her?”
“Well, Luke, my boss, came by to offer his condolences and also to tell me that my baby girl was murdered,” he stated and took a step forward.
“Murdered? How? She drowned in the lake,” I stated blankly, watching him.
“Yeah, no one just drowns. You die of old age. That’s all,” he replied.
“I really don’t know. She jumped off the boat like normal and she never came back up. She might’ve done something to the clones and killed herself. It’s possible, people have done it before,” I said.
“The thing is, the officials looked at the clones. There was nothing wrong with them. She, for some reason, didn’t go back to them. And the only reason I can think that would cause that is if her gene wasn’t working,” he stated.
“I really don’t know what you want from me, sir,” I said, backing up a few steps.
“The only person who has the intelligence and the will to take away someone’s gene would be you. What I don’t understand is why take it from her and not some random stranger?” he said, advancing on me.
“I wouldn’t do something like that to her,” I stated.
“Who else would want to remove the gene?” he stated.
“Who said it was removed?” I replied.
“We’ll see how intelligent you are once I tell the town officials what you did,” he snapped and pushed past me back to the door.
“They can’t do anything if there’s no evidence,” I stated, turning to face him.
“There will be evidence. And you think anyone will listen to your side of the story? You’re an abomination,” he practically snarled before turning and walking out, the door slamming behind him.
I sighed and walked back into the living room, collapsing on the couch. He was right, the officials wouldn’t listen to me, evidence or not. But would they take his story without evidence? That, I didn’t know.
My mother walked in a few minutes later, she walked toward me with concern written on her face.
“I’m fine,” I stated, standing up.
“Everyone thinks you had something to do with it. Do you?” she asked, looking at me like I was a different person.
“No. I can’t murder someone. How could you think that?” I questioned.
“I believe you, but tell them,” she stated and stepped aside. One of the officials had walked in, his jacket pulled to the side so I could see the badge. It’s not like I needed to, you could tell an official from a mile away.
“You can’t do anything. There’s no evidence that shows I killed anyone. You’re just going to take another man’s word? He’s in grief. He’ll blame anyone for her death,” I stated and took a step forward, my eyes on the official.
“We’ll see,” the official stated before continuing. “We can’t do anything to you yet, even though I’d like to, we can just bring you in for questioning. Are you willing to?” the official asked. If I said no I’d be going unwillingly so there wasn’t really any question in his sentence.
“I’ll go,” I sighed and walked past him to the car. He said something to my mom quickly before following me out.
We were in the questionin
g room. I wasn’t an idiot, they were totally faking it, just looking for some evidence to put me behind bars. There was a one-way mirror in the room. It was pretty obvious and the official had a gun and handcuffs on him, both of which were illegal to have when you were just bringing someone in for questioning. This wasn’t even a questioning room, it was an execution room that had been cleaned. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to scare me or if they just thought I was really stupid. I was sitting down and the official was standing up, his hand constantly going to his waist, where the gun was. Did he think I was going to attack him? What could I do?
“You were on the lake when she drowned. Correct?” he asked.
“Yes. With Max and Jacob,” I stated.
“What happened?” The official took a step toward me, his hand still on his waist. I did my best to ignore it and looked at him.
“We were in the underside of the boat. Jacob had just woken up and claimed he could see the bottom. Sophie wanted to beat him so she ran upstairs. We heard her jump in the water and she never resurfaced,” I replied.
“Well, you never expected her to resurface,” he stated.
“No, we didn’t. It was a game we played. We expected her to clone but she never did,” I said.
“Why is that?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I know as much as everyone else,” I snapped and started to stand up. He shot me a glare and I sat back down uneasily.
Spark a Story Page 3