Idiosyncratic

  That girl was asking to be knocked off.

  “You think your parents still love you because they gave you that stupid hat?” I could hear some shoving and shoes stumbling over the tiled floor.

  “No!” the girl screamed.

  A brown felt fedora slid across the floor into my stall. The fedora alone told me who she was. There was only one child bonkers enough to wear a Federation-issued hat inside the prison. Everyone called her a brainiac, and that made her a target.

  “What’s your answer, Bern’e’dette?

  “I know they do,” the girl, Bern’e’dette, replied with a confidence sure to enrage her bully further.

  A grunting sound filled the lavatory. Moans followed next. I saw the butterscotch strands of Bern’e’dette’s hair peek into my stall. Another hit scooted her further inside my safe haven. Her eyes opened and spotted me. She licked her lips as I stuffed the rest of my bread into my mouth.

  This little girl was strange. She seemed more concerned with the crusty meatloaf on my lap than the bully beating her. The next second Bern’e’dette was yanked out.

  Straddling the toilet seat, I reached out and picked up her fedora. I stared at her hat, a symbol of her rarity. I knew what it was like to be different and to be ridiculed for it. I slipped my dry meatloaf into my pocket.

  “You’re going to rewrite this pap—” The girl’s words fizzled on her tongue when the lock clanked against my door.

  I climbed down from my perch and pushed open the door. There were two girls. One was gripping Bern’e’dette’s shirt, holding her with rough hands. To my relief, they were younger and seemingly terrified of a defect. They both started to shake noticeably as I stepped closer.

  “Is there a problem here?” I asked them.

  “Nothing that involves you,” the girl holding Bern’e’dette said with a gulp.

  “You dropped this.” I plopped the hat on top of Bern’e’dette’s head.

  “She’s with...” The other girl trailed off. “The two of you know each other?”

  “You know the rumors about defects? How they’re patsies, lurking around, gathering information to report to the Keepers?” I said, pulling the girl’s hands off Bern’e’dette’s shirt.

  “But they’re not true,” she spat back.

  Tugging on Bern’e’dette’s shoulder, I hid her behind me.

  “Do you want to take a chance believing that theory?” I asked.

  The two girls gulped practically in unison, glancing back and forth at each other and me. They turned quickly and headed out the door without looking back.

  “Thanks,” Bern’e’dette said.

  “You should volunteer for the orphan train. There is more supervision and far fewer children. Less likely you’ll get knuckle sandwiches on a daily basis, Hattie” I said, tugging the edge of her hat.

  I tossed my meatloaf at her, and she caught it with needy hands, stuffing it into her mouth. I turned on my heels and marched for the door.

  “What Collection are you a part of?” she asked, her voice muffled by the food in her mouth.

  Terror crept up inside me as I stared at the dingy iron door. My no-man’s-land hadn’t been as vast and dangerous back then, but it was still there.

  “Four,” I muttered, knowing she’d try to weasel her way onto the same, and I would become her protector.

  Now I stared at Oh’pol’s door, debating whether or not to cross my no-man’s-land again. Before I could decide, her door flew open. Oh’pol’s red, puffy eyes grew wide with surprise. Her sorrow spurred me to ask my question.

  “Do you want to make cookies together?” I blurted.

  The words physically hurt my heart to say. A sharp blade pierced through my chest. Silly, silly girl, you’re behind enemy lines. My body was warning me against this, warning me of the risk I was taking.

  Oh’pol’s mouth bloomed into a bright smile. She gripped my hand, and I was too scared to know if I should hold on or pull away.

  “I’d love to,” she said, beaming.

  |Sixteen|

  I WAS TWO WEEKS AWAY from my emancipation—if Dr. Upton intended to file the paperwork—and one month from the Orphan Train’s arrival.

  It was late at night, and I was yet again lying on my bed and staring at No’ll’s letter. My fingers played with the rips at the top. Even though Oh’pol had read it almost eight months ago, I still hadn’t. Maybe part of me didn’t want to read it because if I did, then it would be like admitting that he was truly gone. Maybe part of me, however unwilling, hoped he would come back. It was a goodbye letter, plain and simple, and I just couldn’t bring myself to accept that.

  I tucked the letter into my messenger bag and dropped the bag next to my bed. As I turned the knob on my lamp, the room went dark. I settled into my bed, hoping I’d get a decent night’s sleep. I still waited for the day that Dr. Upton would come for me. Oh’pol was certain he wouldn’t, but—

  “Les’ette! Help!”

  Dread flooded my chest as the words assaulted my ears. I flopped out of my bed, plopping onto the floor, and hovered over the vent, sure it was where the words echoed. I turned toward the metal flaps and replied with the most gut-wrenching question I’d ever asked.

  “Oh’pol?”

  I didn’t want a response. I didn’t want this horror to be true. I just wanted a foreign growl in reply. But grasping truth can at times be like seizing a blade; flesh is sliced open and you’re left to bleed from the reality of it all.

  “Y-y-yes. Gah!” Oh’pol’s words were followed by her screams.

  “Oh’pol!” I waited for a response but got nothing. “I’m coming for you!”

  I knew exactly where she was. If her voice was traveling up, it meant she was in Dr. Upton’s laboratory below. The only way to get there would be the elevator I could only access with a key. I scrambled to my feet, bolting out of my bedroom.

  The house was dark and quiet. I tiptoed through the kitchen, taking a shortcut to Oh’pol’s room, knowing, hoping, that she had a key. I froze in the threshold of her room as the floorboard creaked under my toes.

  I didn’t know where Dr. Upton was. Whether he did it on purpose or not, I wasn’t quite sure, but his schedule was always erratic. My courier runs matched this pattern. Several times I’d been jostled awake in the middle of the night to deliver light bulbs, tributes, the occasional package, or to answer interrogations about said missions. I never knew when my services would be required next.

  As my blood pumped viciously through my veins, I wished I had tried to track him, to figure out if there really was a pattern to the madness. But it was never any of my concern. I never had a reason for it to be. I never wanted to figure anyone out, so I didn’t bother.

  You silly, silly girl, I scolded myself yet again, because secretly I knew that denying that I cared about anybody was a lie. I fed myself propaganda in hearty amounts, which always seemed to cause me to retch it out in the worst possible moments.

  When my surroundings remained undisturbed, I snuck farther into Oh’pol’s room. This space was one I had grown familiar with over the last several months. She always invited me for sleepovers, where she spoiled me with the most delectable foods as we played chess or read a book from her vast collection. I ran my fingers across the spines of the books that spanned the entire wall behind her bed.

  My breath caught in my throat as I heard Vlady’mir’s wings straining to keep his body airborne. Before I could hide, he hovered inside. His paws thudded on the hardwood floor when he lowered himself. His sharp eyes were on me, but his tiny pink nose was twitching in an odd way.

  “Oh’pol’s in trouble,” I told him.

  The little monster had a soft spot for Oh’pol, and yes, I would exploit that to save her. Vlady’mir’s nose twitched faster as his ears shifted downward like a radar detecting distress. He already knew.

  Vlady’mir hopped over and onto the lamp resting on her dented iron nightstand. He knocked the light off the table with his head, and the li
ght bulb shattered against the ground.

  With his nose, Vlady’mir nudged a key that was hidden underneath toward me. It had the Federation emblem. There came a truce between us, a ceasefire all in the name of Oh’pol. I gripped the key and raced toward the elevator I’d been forbidden to use, Vlady’mir at my side.

  The elevator doors swooshed open when I slipped the key into the slot. It wasn’t a pleasant capsule to look at. It was fashioned as another barricade, a copper framework with interweaving iron rods all around. Two gas masks hung on small hooks at each side. Was it a cage for prey or protection from hunters?

  Vlady’mir hopped inside without any reservation. Oh’pol’s pained groans ricocheted through my mind, forcing my feet to move against logic. I pressed the -1 button, noting that there were four more negative levels after it. Dr. Upton’s house, his laboratory, was more massive than I’d ever realized.

  The capsule was pulled down faster than normal, and I clutched the iron rods for balance. The contents of my stomach corkscrewed. When the doors swooshed open, I stumbled out quickly, wobbled over to a wall, and pressed my back against it for support. I took short, staggered breaths.

  An odd growl I’d heard numerous times in my room assaulted my ears. It was always one of the stranger yet somehow happier sounds, but it had never come from directly behind me. A pounding against the wall reverberated against my back. I spun on my heels and fell onto my bum.

  What I’d thought was a simple, innocent wall was far more sinister. The wall was part of a transparent confine, a tank for a creature that was staring straight at me. I inched closer, realizing what it was, or rather, what it had been. The creature growled at me, but I knew it was a form of a moo. This beast was supposed to be a cow. It had a patchy white-and-black hide, not its normal fluorescent pink. Its ears were fluffy instead of razor sharp.

  But the most substantial difference was its demeanor. The beast gazed at me passively, not with a wild rage that displayed its fangs like I’d always seen when passing by cages at slaughterhouses.

  As feral sounds surrounded me, my eyes wandered from tank to tank. Animals that I could barely recognize filled each one. Lions had golden manes. Ducks had wings instead of claws. One tank was filled with fish, but they were surviving underwater.

  Vlady’mir’s panicked growl garnered my attention. I raced down the strip of clear barricades, stopping when I reached one that trapped Oh’pol. She was wilted on the ground with a gray blanket wrapped around her. Sweat beaded across her forehead. Her blonde hair clung to her face in ratted knots.

  “What happened to you? What has he done to you?” I spat out the questions, almost wishing Dr. Upton were here to hear the venom behind them.

  Did he take her in place of me? I wondered.

  She crawled closer to the wall separating us. Her face twisted in pain. I glanced around trying to find the door, or maybe a sharp object to shatter the glass.

  “I...” Oh’pol lurched forward, a dry heave breaking up her words instead of her stutter. “Hur-ry...” Another heave. “I...”

  I dropped to my knees, pressing my hands against the tank. She made a motion with her hand like turning a key, and then pointed to a small, almost invisible box on the opposite side of the wall.

  I stood up and slid the key into the slot. As soon as I turned it, a stream of gases exploded from vents in the ceiling of her cage. Oh’pol held her hand up, telling me to say where I was.

  Oh’pol’s door slid open achingly slowly as she crawled to get out. Her body shook, and she dropped to the ground. After another failed attempt, I raced toward her, cringing at the entrance as a sickly sweet scent made my stomach curdle. Sticking my head out, I took a breath of untainted air and then charged in. I grabbed her, throwing her arm around my neck, and half-dragged her and she half-stumbled out with me. Vlady’mir was at my side, hopping along with us.

  “What are you doing?!”

  A female voice I’d heard echoing from my vents—Oh’pol’s aunt—screamed at us, but we were already halfway to the elevator. I took a quick glance over my shoulder, making out the silhouette of a woman in a tank.

  “She can’t leave!” her aunt screamed as Vlady’mir growled back at her.

  What is going on here? I thought to myself.

  Vlady’mir kept his eyes on her, his teeth bared and ears twitching.

  I pushed the key in with shaky fingers. As soon as the door swooshed open, I hauled Oh’pol inside and jabbed at the button with the number one. I dropped to my knees at Oh’pol’s side.

  “What is going on, Oh’pol?”

  “Doc...”

  “Dr. Upton?”

  She nodded.

  “Dr. Upton did this to you.”

  She shook her head in a way that could’ve been interpreted as a no or a yes. She slouched against the iron rods. Her body curled in on itself, her head hanging down. I wanted to scream because if I weren’t a defect, I would probably know what was going on.

  It wasn’t until Oh’pol’s hand settled onto mine that I registered my fingers twisting in the edges of my nightgown. My grip loosened as I placed one hand on top of hers. I turned my focus to her face when her fingers started to tremble again. Her eyes shifted to mine as she attempted to convey some message.

  “I—” She coughed. “He...”

  “I’m going to get you out of here, Oh’pol.”

  I was trying not to cry. I was trying not to drum up theories about what was happening to her. I was trying not to notice dozens of Oh’pol’s scales littering the elevator floor. Vlady’mir was curled up against her side, gazing at her with droopy eyes.

  Oh’pol gripped my shirt, a desperate, determined expression on her face. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she fought to get words out.

  “Betray...I...he...tell...Uncle...”

  Was she trying to tell me that her uncle had betrayed her? Was she telling me this so I would leave her behind to escape?

  As the door opened, I was determined to get us both out of there as quickly as possible. I wrapped my arms under her armpits and around her chest, heaving her up. I wasn’t going to leave her there so he could finish his experiment.

  Suddenly her body lurched from my arms. She dropped onto the ground as green bile heaved out of her. Her extremities began to tremble more fiercely. I fell to her side, pushing her golden hair behind her ears. I had no idea what to do. Oh’pol’s face was twisted with horror.

  “Oh’pol!” Dr. Upton’s voice matched the distress in her expression.

  Oh’pol turned her face to the sound of his voice and did the last thing I expected. She reached out for him.

  Suddenly, the whites of her eyes became visible as her pupils rolled upward and she began to convulse.

  Dr. Upton raced toward her, attending to her within seconds. He rolled her onto her side as her body flailed with convulsions.

  “What’s happening to her?” I barked.

  “You just killed her,” was his reply.

  |Seventeen|

  “YOU CAN’T JUST SAY something like that!” I snapped.

  As soon as Oh’pol’s seizure stopped, Dr. Upton scooped her up. I followed him as he stepped back into the elevator.

  “Say what? The truth?” he growled.

  I didn’t know what he was going to do to her. I had to protect her.

  “Don’t lie! You did this to her!” I screamed.

  When the door to his laboratory opened, he ran through the corridor and into an examining room. He settled her on the bed and then rushed over to the far side of the room. I was about to follow when I felt a faint tug on my skirt.

  “I...I...he...” She tried to speak.

  “Try not to breathe, Oh’pol,” Dr. Upton shouted as he fiddled with a bulky machine.

  “R...E...F.”

  “Stop talking, you daft girl!”

  “Stop yelling at her!” I screamed at Dr. Upton and then turned to Oh’pol. “I’m here, Oh’pol. I won’t leave you.”

  Dr. Upton rolled
the table that the machine rested on over to the bed. The device was so heavy that he struggled with it. He removed a large gas mask from the drawer and placed it over Oh’pol’s whole face. He then connected the rubber tube that protruded from the bottom of her mask to the device.

  “She isn’t going to die,” I shouted. But then, in a voice I hardly recognized as my own, I whispered, “Right?”

  Dr. Upton emptied a syringe full of a clear liquid into her arm. “Do you want me to spare your delicate feelings with a lie?”

  “No.”

  “She’s dying, and I don’t know if I can save her.”

  There was a pain in his voice that actually made him seem like a normal person with emotions. A normal person who actually cared about her. A normal person whose heart was breaking too.

  After emptying another syringe filled with an orange liquid, he flicked a switch on the machine. It roared to life, identifying itself as the source of yet another mysterious sound I’d heard while lying in my bed at night.

  Dr. Upton rushed over to a sink in the corner and scrubbed his hands with quick, harsh strokes. He wheeled over yet another machine, pulling out tubing with two needles the size of writing pens at the ends of them. He inserted the needles into Oh’pol’s arm with a proficiency that only came from experience. He pressed a few buttons on the machine and it clicked to life, drawing out Oh’pol’s blood and then pushing it back in. Was it filtering it?

  Dr. Upton started to examine her scalp, skimming his fingers across the scales over the side of her forehead. He lightly tugged at one, and instead of remaining firmly planted, it came away in his fingers.

  “Too soon,” Dr. Upton mumbled.

  He changed his focus to her hair, clutching her blonde strands. The chunk of tendrils came away with his tugs, leaving a misshapen bald spot on the crown of her head.

  “Les’ette?” Dr. Upton said in a very controlled voice. “I need you to back away slowly...right now.”

  A scream, a cry so loud and penetrating it didn’t sound possible, burst from Oh’pol’s lips. I smashed my palms against my ears, trying to block it as the shriek— no, the roar— persisted.