Inside, Pt. 1

by Kyra Anderson

  “So?” I pressed.

  “We are going to need some luck, and more than anything, we are going to need to be careful and slow. This is not something we can rush into.”

  I agreed, though I was a little sad to admit that we could not eliminate the problem quickly. “Do you think you can try and convince people to help us against Dana?”

  “I honestly don’t know…” he admitted. “I can try, but I have to warn you, we might not get the type of response you want. Most are probably too afraid of Dana to take the risk in the first place.”

  “We’ll just need to convince them otherwise, then, won’t we?” I said. Clark’s eyes were sharp, the nervous boy gone. He was studying me intently, unsure of my words. When I felt that the silence was too uncomfortable, I turned away.

  “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” he hissed. I continued to stare at my feet. “You really want to kill Dana and tear down the Commission?”

  “Don’t you?” I hissed.

  Clark took a deep breath. “…I guess we better get started…”

  “So, you don’t think it’s crazy?” I asked, feeling hope leak back into my chest.

  “I think it’s suicidal,” Clark groaned. “But…the way I see it, our lives already rest in Dana’s hands, and we are totally fucked just for being in the Commission of the People, so we might as well try to go down swinging.”

  “We can do this,” I told him strongly. “If we can just expose what the Commission does, we can get the American people behind us and it won’t be as suicidal.”

  “We can hope we get that far,” Clark hissed. “I have a few ideas of people who can help us in the Commission. They are in my rotation at school. I will start asking questions to see where they stand.”

  “What classes are you even in?” I blinked, curious why I never saw him at school.

  “I’m on a special prep track for political science, and I also study genetics and advanced sciences.”

  “What?” I blinked. “I had no idea our school even offered those kinds of classes.”

  “If I wasn’t in the Commission, I would have liked to have become a doctor,” Clark said sadly. “So it was a good track for me.”

  “But…seeing what they do to people at the Commission didn’t scare you away from science?”

  Clark fiddled with his hands in his lap, nervous. I watched the reaction with growing concern.

  “To be truthful,” Clark whispered, his voice weak, “from a scientific perspective, what the Commission does is fascinating.”

  My eyes went wide and my stomach flipped.

  “That doesn’t mean I agree with what Dana does,” Clark said quickly, raising his hands peacefully, seeing my horrified expression. “But, admit it, Mykail is fascinating. Being able to give someone the ability to fly…imagine the possibilities.”

  I took a deep breath to calm down. I agreed that it was interesting. It was the method I disliked. Those sorts of things were fine to fantasize about, but to actually torture humans and create creatures was nothing sort of diabolical.

  “But Dana is creating an ultimate weapon out of people,” I hissed. “What happens when he achieves it?”

  “I don’t know,” Clark admitted, his eyes on the floor.

  There was a knock at my door that made me nearly jump out of my skin.

  “Yes?”

  My mother opened my door, poking her head in.

  “How are you doing?”

  “Well,” we both answered.

  “Great. Do you need anything?”

  “No,” we chorused.

  “Okay,” she smiled. “I’m going to the grocery with your father. We’ll be back in a little bit,” she explained. “I put Mykail in his room, so he shouldn’t bother you.”

  “Okay,” I said, anxious for her to get out and go to the store. She bid us goodbye once more and then left. Clark turned to look at me as I turned back to him. He and I both listened as the garage door under my room opened. I stood and walked to my window, carefully looking out of the blinds to see my parents drive out of the driveway and down the street.

  As soon as I could no longer see the car, I moved out of my room and to Mykail’s. He was waiting for me.

  After I let him out, we both walked back to my room. Clark stood up when he saw Mykail and the two nodded in greeting, studying one another.

  “Oh, I remember you…” Mykail said quietly.

  “Hello, Mykail…” Clark greeted, still nervously looking over the experiment. I watched them both carefully, not sure if they were going to get along. The tension in the air between them worried me.

  “Clark,” Mykail started, “are you serious about wanting to take down Dana?”

  “Of course I am,” Clark answered darkly. “Are you?”

  “I am not like most of the others,” Mykail told him. “I want Dana dead and the Commission done for. You may know about the Commission, but you know nothing about what it is like to be strapped to the table and made into something that is no longer human…”

  I could hardly bear to hear him speak in such a manner. I could not even begin to imagine the pain Mykail had suffered to become what he was. I could see by the way the feathers on his wings bristled that he was agitated recalling the painful memories.

  “If you are not sincere in this, then we all may become well acquainted with the feeling,” Clark said seriously, looking between Mykail and myself. “I am willing to help you as much as I can, but we are playing with a very dangerous and very smart predator. There is no way to be sure that he does not know what we are doing, even now.”

  I turned to Mykail, who also turned to look at me. I found myself studying his eyes. There was so much pain hidden behind the clear blue, and so much hatred for the man who had destroyed his life.

  “I do understand how dangerous Dana can be,” Mykail said slowly. “I am willing to risk my safety for the possibility of bringing him down. But I do not want to force anyone to fight with me and risk their lives unless they have the desire to see the Commission torn down, preferably before there is a lot of progress with Eyna.”

  “I do agree with the time problem,” Clark nodded. They both turned to me.

  “What choice do I have but to fight him?” I said coldly. I could feel my anger and hatred rise inside of me, nearly bringing tears to my eyes. “If I don’t fight against him, that means I am submitting to being his amusement for the rest of my life. If we don’t fight, there is no way to get out.”

  I looked at both of them seriously.

  “We may not win, but we need to be sure that if we do go down, we go down fighting.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The plan started simply. We needed to see how many people we could rally behind our cause. Clark said he would drop hints to some of the other young members of the Commission while I would try to get closer to Dana to know the layout of the Commission of the People and the Enterprises lab.

  I went to school as though nothing was different, but there was a part of me that felt very powerful…very alive…

  I was looking for a means to take down the most powerful man and the most powerful institution in the world, and there were only a few people who would know about it. We were an underground force, just as Thomas Ankell had been with the Children of America, slowly working toward changing people’s ideas toward the people in charge of the country.

  Things had to change.

  I was quiet and brooding, constantly considering angles of our revolution. Even though Becca has not held a real conversation with me in a long time, she realized I had changed. That week, she finally approached me.

  “Hey, I was going to go get a soda…do you want to come with?” she asked one day at lunch. I blinked, surprised by the invitation, but realized shortly after that she wanted to talk to me alone, which caused me to scramble to my feet. I had been meaning to ask her what was wrong for several weeks. Now that we were going to be alone, I was going to take the opportunity.

>   It was Wednesday, which meant most students were watching the weekly soccer practice during lunch, so there were fewer people in the hallways.

  “Hey, Lily,” Becca started as we reached the vending machine, “is everything alright?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “You’ve been really weird since you became a part of the Commission…and lately, you’ve been…” She hesitated. “You can’t tell me what happens in the Commission, but I’m worried.”

  I also took a deep breath.

  “I would have talked to you already, but you didn’t seem to want to talk to me. I feel like you’ve been avoiding me for weeks.”

  Becca turned to look at me, her expression startling me.

  “You’re part of the Commission, now.” she whispered. “You’re dangerous.”

  “No, I’m not,” I told her strongly. “Becca, I swear, I would never do anything that would hurt you or any of my friends.”

  “You’re part of the Commission of the People,” she repeated. “You might end up saying something you don’t mean to…it’s just the circle you travel in.” She pressed the button for a soda. “I really wish I could look past that.” Her voice was pained. “But I…I just can’t get over it…”

  “Becca—” I stopped. I wanted to tell her right then that I wanted nothing to do with the Commission and was planning to take down Dana Christenson.

  Becca watched me fight with myself for several long moments.

  “What is it about the Commission that makes all of you Commish Kids so nervous around everyone else?” she asked, confused. “You all act as though you want to say something, but you can’t.”

  “That’s because we really can’t,” I chuckled brokenly.

  Becca looked over me, leaning against the vending machine.

  “What’s he like?”

  “Who?”

  “Dana Christenson,” Becca clarified, opening the soda as she spoke the name, not meeting my eyes. “We never see him or hear about him, we just…” She trailed off, taking a sip of her soda. “What is he like?”

  I looked at the floor, memories popping into my head of the leader of the Commission of the People. I wanted to explain my nightmares every night, and that I was too frightened to be alone, in case he appeared to, once again, assault me. Becca waited patiently for my answer, but I felt as though Dana’s eyes were on me already—even the thought of him made my hair stand on end.

  Becca’s eyes suddenly turned sad. I did not know what was in my expression, but something about my countenance made her suddenly reach out and hug me.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. I blinked, feeling tears come to my eyes, though I was unsure why I was about to cry. She pulled away. “What has he done to you?” she hissed. “That look just now…”

  I lifted a hand to my face and wiped away the tears threatening to break loose, taking a deep breath.

  “I wish I could tell you…” I hissed. I looked at her seriously. “Becca, please…I know I’m part of the Commission, but believe me when I say that I would never do anything that would hurt you. I really need some friends outside of the Commission…that place is horrible…”

  “Of course, of course.” Becca nodded, hugging me again. “I’m sorry…I was being thick and stupid. I should have seen this earlier.”

  “Lily,” a voice called. I turned quickly, breaking my hug from Becca to see Felicity. “What are you girls doing?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I don’t think I need to remind you that there have been some things said at the meetings about how we have to be even more careful of who we speak to,” Felicity said shortly, looking between us. “After all, you don’t want to lose your spot as a favorite, do you?”

  “Why don’t you just back off of her?” Becca snapped. “We weren’t talking about anything that you guys do in the Commission. We were just talking.”

  “Of course you were,” Felicity said, the words leaving an acidic feeling in the air.

  “What are you doing here, Felicity?” I asked.

  “I was wondering if you had heard anything about Miranda smuggling drugs,” Felicity said. “Actually, I can just ask both of you.”

  “Miranda Jacobs?” Becca asked. “Yeah, right,” she snorted. “She would never do something like that.”

  “Are you sure?” Felicity pressed. She turned to me. “What do you think, Lily?”

  “I don’t know her.”

  “She’s in the Commission,” Felicity said. “Since last week’s meeting, every rumor is being taken very seriously, but I don’t know who’s been spreading this one about Miranda. I want to stop it before it gets around enough to cause some real trouble.” She shook her head. “Maybe you can do some good and use your favorable position to make sure that Mr. Christenson doesn’t hear about it.”

  “I really don’t like her…” Becca said coldly as she walked away.

  “No one likes her.”

  “What the hell is happening? It seems like all the Commish Kids have gotten even nosier since you joined the Commission,” Becca noted. She looked at me. “What did she mean by favorable position?”

  I looked at my feet again, feeling my stomach twist around itself.

  “I can’t tell you…at least, not here…”

  I tried to communicate with my eyes that I wanted to talk to her privately, away from the school and away from Archangel.

  “Do you want to come over this weekend?” she asked. I let out a sigh of relief and nodded.

  * *** *

  I spent a lot of time during the school week wondering how I was going to get close to Dana and if Clark was finding other people for our cause. At night, after I had finished my homework and my parents had gone to bed, I spoke with Mykail. He would draw me maps of what he could remember of the layout of the Commission.

  Mykail and I would sit in his room, talking about the plan to take down the Commission and the other things he could remember from his imprisonment. We decided to ask Clark about his progress before we continued to plan further. We also had to see how Saturday’s Commission meeting went before continuing our discussions.

  Instead, Thursday night I sat with him, looking at my hands nervously.

  “So…what happened…when you were brought into the Commission? How did they find out about your family?” I asked.

  He blinked, stunned by the question, before he lowered his eyes.

  “My family had been smuggling drugs over the border, so it’s no surprise that we were caught at some point. But…” He closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair, his wings bristling. “That night…I was playing a game with my younger brother and sister when the door was broken down…I don’t know…everything happened so fast…” He closed his eyes and paused.

  “The next thing I knew my little sister was screaming for me…but I couldn’t see her…” He rubbed his head, closing his eyes and cringing. “I don’t really remember what happened. I was too disoriented.”

  I placed my hand on his boldly and he wrapped his fingers around mine.

  “A lot of it is really a blur…” he admitted. “I don’t know…once you’re in there…it’s like you’re under Dana’s spell. Nothing really matters down there.” He fixed me with a serious look. “Please…please don’t let yourself get dragged under. If you feel that he is getting too dangerous…just leave and we’ll find another way.”

  I smiled and squeezed his hand.

  “There is no other way,” I told him. “We have to make progress before Dana can finish his work with Eyna, remember?” I looked at our entwined fingers, feeling a smile spread across my face at the sight of our hands together. “I’ll be fine.”

  He squeezed my hand, and then quickly leaned forward and pecked me on the cheek. My eyes went wide, my other hand covering the place where his lips had made contact. He blushed as he retreated, and I smiled, also leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek innocently.

  I had admitted to myself that I had a crush on Mykail, and
the fact that he kissed me made me forget that we were about to fight a war against the most powerful man in the country. My heart was knocking too hard against my ribs for me to think about anything other than the person in front of me.

  I was sure I was blushing when I backed away.

  I looked at my hand still in his, trying to avoid eye contact, embarrassed.

  It seemed like eternity before I saw his other hand moving toward my face. I looked up as his hand came to rest on my cheek, his thumb stroking my skin. My breath was knocked out of me by the nervous, but tender, look in his eyes.

  It almost did not register that he was moving in to kiss me. I stayed completely still, unsure what to do.

  Suddenly, his soft lips were on mine and my eyes slid shut in bliss.

  I counted that as my first kiss, not the kiss Dana had given me a few weeks previous. This was my first kiss.

  It was tender and sweet and I wanted it to last forever. I didn’t think about anything else around me. I didn’t think about the fact that Mykail was an experiment given to us by Dana. I didn’t think about how much danger we were putting ourselves in with our treasonous intentions. I only thought about how nice his lips felt against mine.

  When he pulled away, it was several long moments before I could breathe again. I opened my eyes. He was smiling. I was sure there was a stupid, goofy grin on my face, but I didn’t care.

  I was happy.

  He squeezed my hand.

  “I really like you, Lily,” he whispered. “You’re such a brave, honest, and strong young woman…I am just in awe of you.”

  I flushed crimson at the words, flustered and embarrassed.

  “You should get some sleep…” he declared. “You have Archangel tomorrow.”

  I nodded, still smiling like an idiot, but unable to school my expression.

  I got off his bed, feeling like I was walking on air, elated, my heart still racing. I walked to his door as he stood.

  “Good night, Lily.”

  I turned around and, still smiling like a complete moron, I flew over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him before turning away and running to my room, embarrassed.