I got up, disturbing an indignant Dexter to get ready for the weekly Commission meeting.
When I was looking for something to wear, I panicked, trying to decide if I should wear something classy, but form-fitting to draw Dana’s attention, or dress really conservatively to pretend I didn’t want him to advance on me.
Running out of time, I finally decided on slacks and a blouse, but I left the blouse open to show some cleavage and the large necklace drawing attention to the area.
Putting some light makeup on, I hurried to my calling parents.
“Lily!” Mykail’s voice sounded. I back-pedaled to his barred door, where he was looking at me pleadingly.
“Be careful.”
I placed my hand on his.
“I will.”
My family hurried to the meeting, but we were not at all late and spent a lot of time socializing. I spotted Clark and quickly ran to him.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“Hey, how are you?”
“Alright, you?”
“Okay,” he shrugged. He glanced around the room and then back to me. “So?”
“He understands,” I nodded, trying to sound vague.
“Who understands?” a voice quipped behind me. I whirled around and saw Freddie, Brian, Lance, and Ryan. “And what does he understand?”
“Leave us alone,” Clark groaned, rolling his eyes. “Can’t you torment someone else for a change? We have to be boring by now.”
“Torment?” Freddie blinked, feigning shock.
“Who said anything about torment?” Brian blinked.
“We were just trying to join the conversation,” Freddie smiled. “After all, you two are the topic of the gossip, now.”
“Well, Lily, that’s a nice necklace,” Ryan grinned, leaning closer as I backed away. He reached toward my neck. “Is it a family heirloom?”
Clark grabbed Ryan’s wrist.
“Back off,” he snapped, angrily shoving Ryan’s hand away.
“Ooh…you’re possessive of your whore,” Lance laughed.
Brian tapped Ryan on the shoulder and shook his head, nodding toward the front of the room.
We all turned.
Dana was lurking half-behind the curtain that outlined the stage at the front of the room, looking at us behind his dark glasses.
My blood halted.
I turned when I heard the boys who had been harassing me leave. As soon as I saw that they were back-pedaling, I turned back to Dana, who was still peeking out from behind the curtain with the innocence of a five-year-old and the malice of a ravenous wolf.
I shivered.
“Monday, during lunch, come to the east court of the school and we’ll talk there,” Clark hissed. I turned away from Dana and looked at Clark, whose eyes were locked on the leader of the Commission. “Alright?”
I nodded.
I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I knew what was about to happen.
“I am pleased to see that the two of you have become such close friends,” that cold, dangerous voice smiled as it drew closer.
His hand was on my shoulder as well as Clark’s as he stood between us.
“And Clark, good job protecting Little Lily this time,” Dana grinned. He turned to me and, though I dared not look, I knew his eyes were boring into me. “Little Lily…” he said with a disapproving tone, “you have to be more careful, or I will have to keep closer watch over you.”
Something about the statement made me shiver.
“Do I need to make another announcement?” Dana asked.
“No!” I snapped, worried about the way people would respond to another threat.
“Why not?” Dana asked. “It would be fun to see them squirm a little more.”
“They don’t need to squirm.”
Dana sighed heavily, as if I had just denied him going to a party.
“Fine,” he pouted. “You’re no fun.” He turned to Clark. “What were you two talking about?”
“A school project,” Clark said slowly, his voice only barely wavering.
“Ah,” Dana said, telling us that he did not really care what we had been discussing. “Speaking of, Clark, I want to thank you for looking over Eyna’s information for me. It was very helpful.”
I quickly turned to Clark, my eyes wide.
“What?” I hissed. He looked nervously between me and Dana. When I saw the leader of the Commission grin, I knew he revealed the information on purpose to upset me. As I realized that, I understood immediately that I had to turn Dana’s attack to my advantage. I had to pretend I was not upset.
“Yes,” Dana smiled. I felt myself get excited. I was going to try and play Dana’s game on his level. I had to play him. “Clark really is a bright boy for his age, and it was nice to have a fresh set of eyes.”
“What did you look over?” I pressed, trying to sound as interested as I could, turning to Clark. I saw his surprise at my actions, but I dared not try to communicate with him silently while Dana was standing so close. Dana’s observant eyes would see it immediately.
“Uh…” Clark stammered, caught off guard.
“Well, you see, Eyna’s body is functioning just fine, but he doesn’t seem interested in moving anymore,” Dana answered. “So, I had a few tests run on his brain functioning and a few other things, but everything seemed normal. Clark didn’t see anything out of the ordinary either, but he did point out one test we forgot to run, which we will do on Tuesday.”
“Did you ever think that maybe it’s nothing physical?” I asked, trying to keep myself from looking at the dark shades covering Dana’s powerful eyes. I looked at his mouth, hoping that he would not notice. “Maybe it’s mental.”
“It’s possible,” Dana agreed with a half-hearted shrug. “But he refuses to even attack me when I walk into the cell, and that concerns me.”
“Do you always expect your experiments to attack you?” I barked a laugh. “Do you ever think that one day they will overthrow you?”
“Maybe,” Dana admitted with a shrug. “That’s what happened to Bryant Morris.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“What? Does that really surprise you?” Dana grinned darkly. “Mr. Morris was a brilliant man, but when he was obsessed with a goal or had a plan, he couldn’t see anything dangerous in that plan, even if it was standing right in front of him.” Dana cocked his head to the side and I couldn’t stop the jolt of fear that ran through me at the action. “And in the end, he was killed by one of his prized experiments.”
I turned to Clark, who obviously had not heard the story before, either. Bryant Morris had died before I was born, so I had never thought much of his death. Given what Dana had explained, I realized that his death had probably been downplayed so that people would never find out about the experiments in the Commission.
“We’ve made improvements since then,” Dana said with a heavy sigh, as if it had just been an unfortunate accident in the past. “In order to properly keep things in order we had to change everything. We had to think like the experiments. It’s always a concern that they will rise up. I mean, it’s happened before.” Dana remained still for a moment and then stepped forward with a sigh and a shrug.
“I guess that just proves what they say,” he said. I tensed as he leaned down to press his mouth to my ear. “You can never trust that you are safe. Even those closest to you can turn around and murder you when your back is turned.”
He squeezed my shoulder and I felt his lips form a smile against my ear.
“Think about that, Little Lily.”
He straightened and walked away. I could not catch my breath until a few seconds later, when the door shut loudly for the start of the meeting, frightening me.
I looked at Clark and was strangely relieved to find that he looked just as terrified.
The meeting was extremely boring. There were a few topics that caught my interest, such as the trip to Europe that the Commission was putting together. A
pparently, there were foreign leaders who wanted to discuss government structure with the Commission of the People, and Dana was putting together a small delegation to go abroad and speak with them.
There were a few brief topics on the experiments and the number of people the Commission was rounding up. That month, apparently, they had taken in fifty-seven people in the entire country. They said this was a vast improvement and that things were starting to look up, whatever that meant. There was also discussion on Gregory Altereye and his men, who had found planets that could potentially support human life and they were thinking of falling into orbit around one of them to see if there was already life on the surface.
Other than those topics, I ignored the contents of the meeting.
Afterward, my mother motioned for me to follow her. I blinked stupidly before falling into step behind her, realizing we were approaching Dana, who was speaking with Freddie’s mother.
We stood by the conversation, waiting for a moment to step in while I stared at Freddie, who glared at me darkly. I tried not to let it scare or anger me, but I was upset. Wasn’t the one warning enough for him?
“Thank you, Mr. Christenson,” Freddie’s mother smiled.
“You’re welcome, Alyssa,” he said. They walked away as Dana turned his attention to us. “Karen and Little Lily Sandover,” he smiled. “What can I do for you?”
“We’re terribly sorry to bother you, Dana.” She was flushing, as if embarrassed, but the shy smile on her face told me that she was more flustered by being near him than asking her question. Annoyance grabbed at me. No wonder she was so quick to defend the Commission. She was becoming fascinated with him, just like everyone else. If I hadn’t been so annoyed with her from our earlier argument, I would have been upset that I was losing my mother to the Commission of the People.
“No, no, it’s no bother.”
“I know that you haven’t finalized who is going to Europe, yet, but for those who have children and are going to leave for a month, do the children still have to come to the Commission meetings?”
“Come, now, Karen,” Dana chuckled. “I have not officially announced who is in the delegation yet, but you know that you and your husband are indispensable. Of course you are going,” he said. My mother smiled and fiddled with her rings.
At least plotting the rebellion would be easier with them gone. The only problem was the unpredictable Dana Christenson.
“That would leave Little Lily all alone, wouldn’t it?” he said slowly.
There were no words to describe the horrible realization that ran through me at the words. I knew that even if my mother had not reminded him of the fact that I would be alone when my parents left he would have known. It was a perfect way for him to offer an invitation to watch over me. In a way, that would be beneficial for getting closer to him, but I was unsure my sanity could handle it.
“No, not entirely alone,” Karen smiled. “She would take care of Mykail, of course.”
Dana turned to me quickly and the action startled me. Behind the glasses, I could feel his intense eyes boring into mine.
“Yes, she will need to attend the meetings,” he said quietly, his voice dangerous.
That was when it hit me. He had seen the possibility that Mykail and I would get closer, and he did not want that. He had already told me that he didn’t want to share me, as if I was some sort of possession, and he viewed Mykail as competition.
I was not going to let him scare me away from Mykail. Mykail was not only an interest to me, he was also a good friend and someone who understood my desire to fight against Dana, no matter the cost.
“In fact,” Dana continued, turning to my mother, “I was thinking of asking Little Lily to stay in the Commission after school.”
“I’m sorry?” my mother asked slowly.
“Well, considering the young people are getting more aggressive in the Commission, I would not want anything to happen to Little Lily. I feel like she’s already family, and I know that several of the boys here would love to call her their girlfriend.”
“Really?” My mother sounded interested and I could not stop the roll of my eyes.
“Yes, but if I may say so, none of the boys are really worth her time,” Dana shook his head. “So, in order to keep her safe, I would like to have her come to the Commission after school.”
“Oh…well…” My mother turned to see my reaction. I tried to tell her with my eyes that I did not want to be in the Commission after school every day, hoping she would get the hint and say no. She turned back to Dana. “I don’t know…” she said. “You are such a busy man, Dana. I would not want to impose. Besides, she would be all alone…”
“No, not at all,” Dana assured with a gleaming smile. “Clark stays with me every day as well. There are plenty of ways for the young ones to amuse themselves.”
“I think I should talk to Thomas about this,” my mother said.
“Oh, yes, of course,” Dana agreed. “You discuss it with him and let me know.”
“Thank you.” She turned to me and nodded. As we turned to leave, Dana grinned. I stopped.
I could not show any fear to Dana. I had to be strong and willing to face him. I took a deep breath, preparing myself.
“Hey, Mom, I’ll be over in a little bit,” I told her. “I want to ask Mr. Christenson something.”
“Alright,” she nodded, walking away, somehow convinced despite my shaky voice. I turned back to face Dana, who was waiting patiently.
“Little Lily,” he greeted as I approached again.
“What did you mean?”
“Mean about what?”
“About people close to you being able to turn around and murder you,” I clarified, my voice stronger than I expected. “What did you mean?”
“Just as it sounds.”
“Then the experiment that killed Bryant Morris was one that he was close to? How can he be close to an experiment?”
“It’s very easy,” Dana chuckled. “I am close to many of the experiments. You see, if I were to go down the same path as Mr. Morris, Eyna would be the death of me.”
“Eyna?”
“Mr. Morris was obsessed with the experiment that killed him,” Dana said. “He would spend hours mulling over his charts, trying to fully understand him because, ever since the beginning, experiment four-eleven forty-one was different. He was rebellious, powerful, he did not fit the mold of the other experiments, and he was puzzling, to say the least. Mr. Morris became obsessive, to the point of spending every day with this experiment, even speaking with it to try and understand it better. Then, he let his guard down, and four-eleven forty-one killed him.”
“What happened to the experiment?”
“He was dealt with accordingly,” Dana smiled darkly and my hair stood on end. “You see, when you start working on the experiments, you can become obsessed very easily.” He paused. “I think we should have this discussion in my office.”
“Why?” I asked a little too quickly.
He chuckled.
“I won’t harm you, Little Lily. Where would be the fun in that?”
Before I could protest, he walked toward my mother and father. I forced my feet forward. I knew that the more time I spent with Dana, the easier it would be to get closer to him, but I was just starting to realized that I actually had to spend time with him, no matter how much my instincts told me not to.
“Tommy!” Dana called. I saw my father cringe and turn around, surprised to see us both.
“Dana,” he greeted.
“I am going to take Little Lily back to my office. She wanted to ask me a few questions,” Dana stated matter-of-factly.
“Oh…okay,” my father said, caught off guard. “How long will you be?”
“I—”
“Actually,” Dana cut me off, “Clark and his mother are staying late tonight. They can drive her home. There is no reason for you to stay.”
“We can wait,” my father assured quickly. “We wouldn’t want
to impose on Danielle.”
“Nonsense,” Dana assured. “They have a driver. He can take her home if they are not ready to leave.” He smiled and placed an arm around my shoulders. “I can assure you that I will return her safely to you.”
My father was torn and that eased my worries. My mother seemed to have no problem with the idea. She smiled and turned to my father.
“It’s alright, Tom,” she said. “She’s safe.”
Do you really believe that, Mom? I whispered silently, starting to feel that I had lost her to Dana already.
“Yes, of course,” my father nodded, not wanting to accuse Dana of anything. “Okay, then…we’ll see you at home, honey.”
Dana steered me away from them and through the door I had not been through since the first night at the Commission. I remembered the way to Dana’s office, but the memory was fuzzy, as if I had been in a dream the last time I walked those halls.
Dana walked me into his office and closed the door behind me. The office was dark, papers scattered over his table and his large, ornate desk. The office was messy and disorganized, papers even scattered to one side of the desk, some of them folded, thrown there haphazardly and stepped on.
“So, Little Lily,” he smiled, walking past me and leaning against the front of his desk, crossing his arms over his chest and tapping the toe of his shoe against the floor, “why are you suddenly so interested in the experiments? Last time we spoke about them, you basically told me that I was wrong and to go fuck myself.”
“I didn’t say it in so many words,” I said coldly. He laughed.
“The reason I wanted to have this discussion in my office is because I like the way you are when you’re away from everyone else,” he chuckled. “You really hold back in front of others. Why?”
“I don’t…” I contradicted slowly.
“Really?” Dana challenged. I shifted my feet awkwardly, standing near the door, trying to still my trembling legs. He lifted a hand and slowly removed his glasses, the action amazingly graceful. “May I ask you a personal question, Little Lily?”
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