Reborn (Born Trilogy)

by Tara Brown

  I smile, “Missing your mom?”

  She shakes her head, “No.”

  I smile wider, “It's okay if you are. I miss my family all the time."

  She shakes her head, "Just missing Meg. The rest of my family is here."

  I don’t want to say it, but I need to be honest with her, "I have to go, kid. I gotta stop those people hurting the kids for Meg. Then I have to deal with my dad.”

  Her happy look is gone, “Take me with you. Don’t leave me alone.”

  I grab her and hold her tight, “Anna is going to stay and Leo and Bernie. If I could get Jake to stay, I would but he’s being an ass.”

  She shakes and snuggles into me more, “Don’t leave, Em. We’re safe here.”

  I nod, “But those people that were going to hurt me, they’re hurting the little kids all the time now. We have to go save those kids. Remember, Meg wanted them all dead.”

  She looks at me with her glossy, blue eyes, “Okay. Meg wanted them kids saved. She said that God loves all kids, no matter how they came to be here. She said them men was the devil and not servants of God at all."

  I smiled, "No one knew God like Meg did."

  Sarah's eyes glance around the room, "Uh, Em, just don’t bring them here.” She glances at Andy, “One bratty kid is enough.”

  I laugh softly, “I’m taking that one with me.”

  She shakes her head, “He isn’t so bad with Mary not being here to coddle him over everything. He wasn’t even hers.”

  I don’t understand, “What?”

  She nods, “When Marshall got to the cabin, he kept saying that she was lucky he found that brat for her, and she should be grateful he spared the soul of her baby.”

  I wince, “Oh God.”

  She nods and I wonder if she understands it all. I look at Andy, “So he isn’t like me?”

  She shakes her head, “No. Meg said that’s why they let him live, like us. They was going to let us live too, ‘cause we’re normal.” Her words burn me, she doesn’t know it, but they do. I don’t say anything. I kiss her forehead and take a deep breath of her before I get up, “You help Anna with that kid then. If you want him to stay, you gotta do the work.”

  She smiles, “I don’t like him that much, but I don’t hate him. Not the way I hated Mary. Meg said all he needed was a spanking.”

  I laughed, “Well, don’t go overboard on those either. Beating someone rarely changes who they are, and only really makes you feel better for a short amount of time.” I learned that in a book of my dad’s. It was about parenting, single parenting.

  I wave, “I’ll see you when I get back. Stay in the house with them, don’t stray, and take Leo everywhere with you.”

  She nods, “Be safe."

  I grin and leave the room. I hunt the house for Leo. I find him camped out. It’s his way of healing. He always hides under something. Old wolf instincts.

  I crawl under the huge coffee table and curl into him. The smell of his fur makes my heart ache. I stroke him. He makes his wolf sound and licks my hand. I grab his huge face and make him look into my eyes, “You keep them safe. You stay safe. No coming after me, no matter what. I’ll come for you, I swear it. Even if I have to drag myself here from wherever I am, I’ll make it back, but you stay. You hear me?”

  His eyes study my face. He licks my cheek. I lean into his face, “I love you too.”

  “Keep Anna and Sarah safe the most. If Bernie or Andy have to be risked to save them, I want you to do it.”

  I don’t know if he understands me but I know how his loyalty works. And how he feels about Andy. Damned kid.

  I crawl back out and kiss him. I point, “You stay with Anna and Sarah.”

  He yawns. He knows he’s sick. His wound hadn’t got infected yet but it’s still sore.

  I leave the house and walk to the garage. Bernie is passing Will bags that look like the military compound bags.

  “How did you get all this shit?”

  He grins at me, “I may or may not have stolen it.”

  Anna glares at me from the house. Jake nudges me as he walks out, eating moose jerky, “You think she’s mad now—wait till she finds out Andy is staying.”

  I glare at him.

  He smiles wide, “You better be nice to me, or I’ll tell her.”

  I shove him. Will scowls, “Stop screwing around and load the van.” He nods at the back, “Put some gas in, Jake. Be useful for once.”

  Jake flips him the bird but gets the gas jugs.

  I shake my head.

  We finish loading and climb into the van. Anna doesn’t budge. Bernie gives me a hug.

  Star gives me a devious smile, “I see we’re missing a passenger.”

  I nod, “Sarah wants him to stay.”

  She frowns, “Well, at least we don’t have to listen to him.”

  Bernie looks confused, “You aren’t leaving that kid here?”

  I nod, “We are.” I close the door, shouting at him, “Take care of my family, Bernie.”

  He nods at me through the window. We drive away and I see the desperate anger on Anna’s face. I hate it. Sarah waves through the upstairs window. I scramble over Jake and Will, not thinking and climb over Will’s body to hang mine out the window, waving my arm. Her face lights up.

  “Em, I’m not complaining, but I can’t see.”

  I climb off him and sit back against the metal wall. Star gives me a funny look, “Sometimes you do the weirdest things. Like caring for that kid. What do you care if she sees you waving?”

  I frown, “I don’t want her last memory of me to be that she waved and I didn’t wave back. I know how that feels.”

  I look down at my boots. I’m tired in a way I’ve never been. It’s like it’s in my soul. My body can heal from anything, but I’m seeing that my heart can’t. Meg’s death is a sore that won’t heal over, not properly, and Leo being hurt and not with me, is an awful feeling. My mind is playing horrid tricks on me, suggesting things like Leo could get an infection, and die thinking I abandoned him in a house with other people.

  I wrap my arms around myself and try not to think about any of it. Marshall is dead, and maybe he did kill Meg, but she killed him right back. She saved all of us. She saved me. I think Leo is the thing that saved the good parts in me, the parts that Granny made, and I think his death would have killed those parts off. Then I would be a shell of a human, like Will. That makes me shudder.

  “You cold?”

  I glance up at Star and shake my head.

  She gives me a faint smile, “You know, you aren’t what I expected you to be.”

  I nod, “Same goes for you. I thought you were weak, giggly, and annoying.”

  Her eyebrow lifts, “So what you’re saying is, you don’t feel like I’m like that?”

  I nod, “I think you’re more than that.”

  She looks wounded, “But you’re not saying, I’m not like that.”

  I laugh, “No. You turn it on too well to not have at least a little of that in you.”

  She smiles, “A girl’s gotta do… ya know?”

  I shake my head. I don’t know. She must have read it in a book somewhere. It sounds like one of those lines.

  Jake climbs into the back with us and sits on the floor of the van next to me.

  "We could have just stayed at the house, Em. We could say fuck it, let your dad ruin the world, and let the religious psychos kill those bratty kids. We could stay at the house and make it work.

  I sigh, "Until when? Until they come and kill us, or take Sarah and put her in a breeder farm, or those kids take over the world, or the religious nuts come for me again?"

  He shrugs, "We coulda stayed."

  I lean my head back and close my eyes, "I need to stop my dad."

  Jake grunts and stretches his long legs out and balls a jacket on the floor. He lays down on it, turning his back on me. The feeling of him next to me is like Leo being there. My boot is touching his leg, like I always do with Leo. If I sleep wit
hout him, I turn sideways in the night, searching the bed for him in my sleep.

  The ride makes me sleepy. I close my eyes, exhausted and worn out.

  I wake to screaming, jolted and disjointed. It's my own.

  Star gives me a confused look, “You okay? You just started screaming.”

  I shake my head, “I don’t know.” I climb over Jake’s massive body and slip into the front seat. I pull my knees into my chest and look out the window.

  “Unroll it.”

  I look at Will. He smiles at me, “Unroll the window.”

  A faint trickle of a grin crosses my lips. I press the button I vaguely recall, and lower the window. Instantly, warm wind bursts in. I hang my hand out, feeling like a kid again. Star laughs at something Jake says. I glance back at the tired look on his face as he rubs his eyes and mumbles, “If we had music, I could almost believe the world didn’t end. Feels like summer out there.”

  I smile when he reaches up between the seats and fumbles with the stereo. A shiny disk comes sliding out. I don’t even recall them, except maybe as movie disks.

  He nods, “Ohhhh yeah.” He pushes it back into the slot and presses buttons.

  Will gives him a look, “What are you doing?”

  He gives a cheesy grin as a song starts. It sounds crazy, my ears hurt instantly. A girl starts singing.

  Jake starts dancing. Star gives him a weird look but then her eyes light up as the chorus starts. “BIG IN JAPAN! AHHHHH!” she screams and starts knee dancing with him. I’m partially horrified but fascinated too. They look crazy, but it looks too fun.

  Will sings along, like he heard it yesterday. He gives me a look, “What, I loved Dragonette.”

  I see it for a second, the glimpse of the person he might have been once. He dances in the seat and turns up the music. I’m uncomfortable with them dancing and singing, like I should too but I don’t want to. I lean my upper body out the window, and I see how it could have been. With my eyes closed it’s so easy. We’re young and fun, and the wind is warm. The beat starts to find its way into my body too. The wind on my face and the hot smell of summer makes everything romantic; it lasts almost as long as the song, but a terrible pain mixes with a sound from the real world. The real one I live in is brought back, as I pull myself in and notice the crimson trickle on my forearm. I’m about to say something to Will when he slams on the brakes. I am thrown forward, but his hand is across my chest, holding me back. I grunt as the van stops.

  Men are on the road in front of us with guns, they’re atop horses.

  “Is it the others?” I ask.

  He shakes his head, “Far worse. Don’t fight. I’ll see if I can negotiate with them.”

  I start to shake my head, “Will…”

  He takes my hand, “I won't let them hurt you.”

  Star and Jake are both rubbing sore spots as a man walks up to my door. He points his rifle at my open window, “Get out.” He’s close to Will’s age. He looks disheveled but not dirty or hungry. He has shaggy, blonde hair and a steely look in his eyes. He’s a hardened man.

  I swallow, opening the door slowly.

  “Don’t,” Will mutters, as I’m about to hit the man with the door. I take a deep breath and let him grab me by the bloody spot on my arm.

  He gives me a charming grin, “Sorry, I was aiming for the tires.” He is handsome with straight, white teeth. He winks at me. I want to claw his eyes out. Instead, I let him drag me back, placing the barrel against my head, “Get out or I won't accidentally miss again.” Will meets my eyes with desperation. “It’s okay.”

  I shake my head. The man whispers in my ear, “Whoa, girl. Stay calm and I’ll be gentle, I swear it.”

  My brow knits together. Will shakes his head slowly, “Look at me, baby.” He climbs out as one man opens the back door. He hauls Star out violently, holding her next to his body. She is shaking with rage. I see it on the men’s faces when they look at Star. Fury fills me. One of the men rides over, lifting her up onto his horse.

  The man who had been holding Star, butts Will in the stomach with his gun. Will doubles over. They wrap a rope around him and Jake. There are at least a dozen men. The man with his greasy fingers on me, pulls me backwards. He climbs on a horse, “Get on.”

  I am about to fight but a man hits Jake in the back of the legs, dropping him to his knees. I climb on the back of the horse. “Don’t hurt them.”

  He nods, “Put them in the van.”

  I haven’t ridden a horse since I was a tiny kid. My friend Rebecca had them. He grabs my arms and wraps them around his chest, “Hold tight and no funny business or you can sit up front, and God knows where my hands will sit.”

  I nod. My breathing is hitching in my throat. Jake and Will are shoved back in the van. A few men get in with them. Will’s face is the last thing I see as the door closes. Blackness envelops me as something is stuffed over my head. I breathe heavily, against the stale feel of the material. I don’t have a plan but something dark fills me when I hear Star start to protest.

  My worst nightmare is about to come true, the sound of my own ripping and tearing. Only it’s worse, my only sister will also join me as I’m victimized. Silent tears stream my cheeks. I’ve never felt fear like this. Not even at the farms.

  We ride for a long time. I hold myself to him, smelling him and the horse and rocking against him in the heat. It’s intense. I try to stay in the mountains for the summer months. It’s brutal down in the lower lands. The thing over my head makes breathing almost impossible. My eyes close against my wishes. I feel myself melting into his back. He chuckles and stops the horse. He pulls the black thing off my head.

  I can’t open my eyes. My breaths are shallow. I feel his fingers on my lips. It sparks an old reaction. My head shoots up. I open my eyes. We’re in the middle of the forest.

  He smiles, “What’s your name?”

  My hands twitch with the want to choke and kill him, but they won't move beyond that.

  He lifts my face, resting a spout against my lower lip. He winks his sparkly steel-colored eyes at me, “Drink up.”

  The warm water pours into me. I gulp it back, feeling panic and despair starting to stir inside of me.

  He pulls it away and dumps some over my head. He rubs it into my hair. I shake my head, lifting my weak hands over my face.

  “Sorry about the hood.”

  I shake my head, wiping my face clean. He gives me an odd look, “Why do I get the feeling you’re plotting my death right now, behind those pretty eyes?”

  I nod, “I am.”

  He smiles, “I bet you could kill me too couldn’t you?”

  “Yup.”

  He laughs, casually, “I might have to keep you all to myself.”

  He turns and boots the horse lightly. We don’t stand a chance at catching up to the rest of them. The water refreshes me. I see Star’s body draping over the horse. She passed out from the hood.

  I take a deep breath, fighting the butterflies in my belly and grab his throat. I try to wrap my arm around his neck as I wrap my legs around his waist. He jumps off the horse, rolling us both. We land with me on top of him. I choke him. He hits my arms, knocking them back. I swing, punching him in the mouth. He laughs and rolls us. He is on top of me but I’m squeezing his middle, choking him that way. He makes a noise, as he sits up and smacks me. I cry out, squeezing harder. His fingers curl around my throat. They’re huge. I know he could snap my neck.

  He smiles a bloody grin, “Stalemate.”

  I don’t know what that means. I feel his grip loosen, letting my legs relax. He presses his bloody lips on mine. I gag and cry out as he kisses me. He stands up, grabs my arms and drags me to the horse.

  “Now you get to sit up front. You pain in the ass.” He hauls me up onto the horse. His hands slide around my middle to the reins, “Mess with me and I won't keep you safe.”

  My jaw trembles. I can taste his blood in my mouth.

  My head is slumped as we ride up the hill fas
t, after everyone else. I need Leo. I need Anna. I wish I’d waited.

  We crest the hill and turn into the bushes where the van is parked on the dirt road. I can barely make out a goat path of sorts. My butt and body are aching. I need more water. We get into a camp consisting of cabins like mine. There are a dozen of them though.

  I see Will and Jake kneeling on the ground. Will’s eyes meet mine. He’s searching me for signs of bad things. I shake my head subtly. Jake glances at me. He looks terrified. I know I am too.