I huffed and grabbed my bag, rudely getting out of the car without saying a word, accidentally hitting Sean—who was about to open my door for me—in the hip with the door.
“Sorry,” I said quickly before starting toward the house, ignoring my mother’s stern voice from the car.
“Little Lily,” I heard a different voice call just before the sound of a car door closing. I stopped and turned around, spotting Dana next to the car, Sean stepping away as he was motioned back.
“What?”
“You can stop acting, now.” Dana smiled darkly. “It was cute, but we both know that you are intrigued by the Commission. You will be excited to see what really happens there, won’t you?”
“You’re delusional,” I growled, facing him fully. “Why are you so interested in having me at the Commission all the time?”
“Do I need to have a reason?” he challenged. I ground my teeth together, walking over to him.
“I am getting really sick of being your entertainment,” I growled. “You are toying with me and with my family. I know that you are doing it on purpose, too. But I won’t back down as easily. I will fight you until you’re dead and the Commission no longer exists, or until I die.”
Dana smiled and that made me angrier. I took another deep breath, this one to calm down and keep myself from yelling immediately. It would get me nowhere.
“You’re willing to die fighting against the Commission?” Dana grinned darkly. “Oh, Little Lily, I would love to see you try. You have no means to fight against me.”
“Maybe not,” I agreed. “But I won’t succumb to your tricks. If you want to play your games, there is nothing I can do yet to stop you. But I can play that game, too. We’ll just see who’s better.”
As I spoke, Dana’s smile got wider and when I was finished, he chuckled and clapped his hands together a few times.
“I very much look forward to it,” he grinned. He looked at Sean and nodded once. The head of security opened the car door for Dana, who ducked into the limousine. When Sean was back to the other side of the car, I walked inside the house, trying to keep my legs from shaking.
“You stupid, stupid girl…” I scolded myself coldly. “This is fucking suicide!”
As soon as the front door was closed and locked, I ran upstairs, not even bothering to put my bag in my room, and grabbed onto the bars of Mykail’s door, startling him.
“Lily? What’s wrong?” he said, walking to the door as I unlocked it with trembling fingers. I could not figure out if my hands were shaking because of adrenaline or fear.
“He wants me to go to the Commission after school every day and he got my parents to agree,” I smiled, though my voice was shaking. Mykail’s smile was sad, but relieved.
“Good job getting in…”
“Why do you sound so upset about that?” I asked, heavily setting my bag by the door as I entered his room. “This is good. This is a way for me to get even more information about the Commission and Dana.”
I needed him to tell me that this was a good thing. I was already terrified at the thought of being within Dana’s grasp day after day. I was sure it put me at higher risk for getting caught, but I was still agreeing to walk into danger.
“No, it is, it’s good,” he agreed quickly.
“But?” I pressed.
“It’s just…” He hesitated. “I wish there was another way to do this. I don’t like the thought of you so close to danger. I know how Dana can be…”
My heart warmed at his words and it made me feel better about the situation. But I didn’t want to talk about the risks. I already knew how horribly we were in over our heads.
“Why?” I said, deciding to tease him and get his mind off the risks as well. “Are you jealous?”
“Do I have something to be jealous of?” he smiled, seeing that I was teasing him.
“I’ll be close to Dana,” I said suggestively, knowing I was not keeping a straight face with the way Mykail’s lips quirked upward at the corners.
“Is he of interest to you in ways I should be concerned about?”
“That depends,” I continued to play along. “What ways would concern you?”
“Oh, the kind of things any man would worry about when the woman he likes is with another attractive man,” Mykail grinned, slowly walking up to me. I watched him approach, feeling a flutter of overwhelming excitement in my stomach at his close proximity.
“What are you most worried about?”
“I guess,” he took my hand, entwining our fingers as he stepped even closer, to the point where I could feel his breath on my face, “that I won’t be able to see you right after school. I won’t be able to sit and talk with you about how your day was, or what you’re learning in your classes…”
“You like those conversations?” I blinked skeptically.
“I like hearing you speak,” he said with a gentle smile. “I love hearing about the normal, everyday things.”
My heart was beating irregularly and hard against my ribs as I looked into his blue eyes.
“Can I kiss you?” he breathed. His gentle voice ran up and down my spine like electricity and, before I could answer, I was moving toward him, latching onto his lips as if my life depended on it. One of my hands wrapped in his soft hair, while the other rested among the feathers at the base of his wings. I felt him shiver as I ran my hand back and forth along the pristine white feathers and he held me closer, his fingers digging into the skin at my waist.
Everything felt right in that moment.
I felt every part of him that was touching me as if we were of one body. I felt his breath mingling with mine, our energies entwining while I leaned into him for support.
When we broke apart, I felt myself sway, off balance and smiling like a moron.
“Lily…” Mykail whispered. I blinked and looked at him, trying to slow my heart. He looked at me nervously, trying to decide if he should tell me something. Concerned by the look, I snatched my head out of the clouds.
“What?”
He hesitated again and looked away, his eyes distant. My stomach twisted.
Mykail’s eyes found mine.
“Please…just…just promise me that you will be careful…” he hissed, his voice pained. “I don’t want you to get into trouble because of something I’ve made you do.”
“I’m a big girl,” I assured, relaxing in his arms again. “I told you before, I didn’t like what Dana was doing. I’m in trouble if I fight and if I don’t fight. But if I do nothing, then I will feel worse and suffer more by letting myself down. That’s worse than the pain of being captured”
“You say that now,” Mykail breathed, “but you don’t know what he’ll do, Lily. He’s as dangerous as a man can be. Don’t think that you’ll ever be prepared for his games.”
I nodded and took a deep breath, wanting to stop the conversation before I really did have second thoughts.
“I’ll be going into the Commission soon…” I whispered. “I guess we should go over what I need to start looking up when I’m there.”
He squeezed my hand and smiled at me with his breathtakingly white teeth.
“That can wait a little,” he assured, sitting on his bed while I took my usual position beside him. “Tell me what happened today in school. Did you get your biology exam back?”
Once again, things felt normal. I was able to look past what the Commission had done to Mykail. I could see past the wings. In my eyes, he was just a boy my age who was kind and caring and gave me such a warm feeling that I found myself drawn to him even when he was doing nothing special. It was magnetic, and I was moving closer to him, even if it was a recipe for disaster.
* *** *
Thursday morning I was immediately swamped by my friends asking me what had been the deal with the limo the previous day. I made up a stupid excuse about how I had to go to a meeting with my parents that I had completely forgotten about. They didn’t believe me, but it stopped the questions.
There was a tension around the school that day and all through Friday. I could not entirely understand why the student body seemed so anxious and worried, other than the rumors spreading about the Commission reinstating the Sweeps. Even those who had nothing to fear from the Commission of the People were on edge. Everyone was quiet, unsure of themselves and unsure of who they could trust. The halls were quiet, no one spoke above a murmur. The tension was thick through the building. Even at Archangel, people were not themselves.
Anyone who stayed home from Archangel because they were sick or for any other reason was thought to have been taken by the Commission of the People. That was a long list of people, since so many students were getting sick as the weather got colder. Despite this common knowledge, everyone still suspected the Commission of going around and picking people up as families kept quiet out of shame.
The Commission of the People, which was supposed to protect the people of America, was the most terrifying thought on everyone’s mind.
I remained close to Clark through our time at Archangel. With everyone on-edge, we dared not to speak of the notes or our plan. I had not even had a chance to tell Clark that I would be seeing him every day after school staring on Monday, though something told me he already knew. It felt like everyone’s eyes were on me, watching, sensing something different. Though we had not heard of the Sweeps starting again, I knew that the horrible game would start again. The Sweeps meant no one was safe, and if one family called in another, it took the pressure off them. The horrible misdirection practices were the reason the Sweeps had ended.
When Saturday came around, the Commission meeting had a very different feeling. The adults were acting as always, but the children were tense and quiet, glancing at one another. Even Freddie and his friends did not attempt to harass me.
Dana was nowhere in sight when the meeting began, but when Mrs. Markus went to the podium, even the adults could tell that there was something different. Mrs. Markus took a deep breath and opened the meeting as usual, her voice trembling.
“Our first order of business is a very important matter that must be discussed and dealt with immediately,” she started, her eyes averted to the top of the podium. “For this, I will turn the microphone over to Mr. Christenson.”
I looked around in the silent room for Dana. No one clapped when he randomly stood from a seat at one table. No one greeted him. Everyone knew something was wrong. Something horrible had happened. There were no signs or rumors floating around the room, but a very strong feeling had taken hold of the air.
Dana stood in front of the podium, pulling out his pocket watch, fiddling with it in his fingers as he looked around the room from behind his glasses. I spotted Sean near the far, front door, his eyes downcast and nervous.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” Dana greeted. I was briefly reminded of a villain in a horror movie. Dana sounded like one of those cliché men who was excited to see the people in his grasp squirm uncomfortably. Dana was even more frightening, though. He was real.
“This is a very important dilemma we currently have and it must be resolved with great immediacy.” Everyone looked at one another, not sure what he was referring to. “If you will all remember my announcement before, I told you that the rules of the Commission must be followed to the upmost letter. And, even after I said that, particularly to the young people of this organization, we have children of the Commission who think they are above these laws. Last week, we took into custody Miranda Jacobs, who you know as the daughter of Cal and Diana.” He motioned to the parents, both of whom were sitting in their chairs, indifferent to the situation. I felt my heart speed up and I looked around the room urgently. The Commish Kids were wide-eyed with horror at the realization of what had happened to the girl everyone had been asking about.
“On what charges?” an angered voice bellowed from the back. I saw Dean, Miranda’s boyfriend, sitting in his far back seat, angrily glaring at Dana.
“The smuggling of illegal substances across the northern border and ownership of a firearm,” Dana said simply.
“That’s preposterous!” one of the other parents said quickly. I glanced back at Dean’s table to see his mother shaking her head. “Someone must have planted them on her. Miranda would never—”
“That is what I first believed, as well,” Dana cut her off sharply. “But upon further investigation, we found that she had been taking part in a drug chain over the border and, while she was not selling, she was facilitating the trafficking.”
“She would never do something like that!” Felicity snapped, standing up.
“Felicity, sit down!” her mother snapped.
“It just goes to show that you can never truly know someone,” Dana said. He nodded to Sean. Dana’s head of security opened the door he was standing by. Through the door, two guards pulled in a barely-walking girl that I had only seen once or twice in school. She was dirty and bruised, her hair in disarray around her head as she tried to look around the room. Her clothes were ripped and dirty. Everyone was horrified at her horrible appearance and many people, including myself, felt hot anger through the shock.
The guards threw her to the ground next to Dana’s feet.
The room was deathly silent as everyone watched her slowly move her arms and legs, trying to find her balance or something to hold on the floor.
Dana turned to everyone in the room once again.
“I do not want to have to say this again,” he growled dangerously. “This commission is what keeps this country together. This is the organization responsible for the peace we live in today, and if anything, anything threatens that security, we must eliminate it immediately. Disrespect of this country will not be tolerated!” he ordered, his voice shaking everyone in the room, even his guards jumped slightly when his voice echoed around the walls.
I was watching Miranda, who was still reaching out with her hands, trying to grab onto something. Her hand finally found the leg of Dana’s trousers and her fingers wrapped in the fabric desperately.
“P-please…” Her voice was barely audible. “I-I-It wasn’t…I d-didn’t…”
“Be quiet,” Dana snapped, moving his leg to kick her off as if she were merely an insect.
“You can’t do this to her!” Sarah snapped, her parents trying to silence her, their faces horrified.
“I most certainly can,” Dana said shortly, his voice sharp.
“What are you going to do with her?” Brian called.
“I haven’t decided, yet,” Dana admitted, looking at Miranda as she continued to shake and grope along the floor. “Most likely I will do something simple with her. Maybe one day she will become a gift for a new family coming into the Commission of the People.”
There was a tremor that ran through the room. The statement had horrified nearly everyone. I looked at the other teenagers in the room. They were mortified, but more than anything they were angry. Miranda had been one of the popular girls and to have her treated in such a way because of what they thought was a false accusation upset her friends greatly.
“Say something!” Kelly snapped at Miranda’s mother, who was at her table. Diana remained still, staring at her daughter as if she were a stranger.
“Say something!!” Ryan repeated. His parents tried to silence him, but he moved away, walking around the table to Miranda’s mother. Sean nodded to one of his guards, who quickly moved to restrain the young man as he approached the captured girl’s parents. Ryan fought against the guard holding him and yelled at the two stoic figures.
“How can you just sit there?!” he snarled. “How can you just throw your daughter away?! Why don’t you fight for her?! Think of Julie! How do you think she would feel seeing her sister like this?! How are you going to explain this to her?!”
“They won’t have to,” Dana said coldly.
My body ran cold.
“Daryl,” Dana called over his shoulder.
This time, when the door opened, a scientist walked in, holding t
he hand of the six year old younger sister of Miranda.
No one could move or speak. Diana looked at her feet, closing her eyes.
“No…” Miranda whispered, turning to see her sister, even through the locks of tangled and disheveled hair. “No! You can’t!!” she screeched, reaching for her sister, trying to clamor forward when Dana caught her by her hair and threw her easily to the floor.
“I told you to be quiet!” Dana ordered. He looked at Julie as Miranda began crying, curled up on her side, muttering ‘no, I didn’t mean for this to happen,’ over and over again.
“Julie,” Dana called to her, his voice dripping with something that made my nausea worse. He extended his hand. “Come here.”
Julie shivered, hiding her tear-stained face behind the scientist that had brought her in. She whimpered, beginning to cry. I spared a glance around the room and was thankful to see that everyone in the room was just as horrified as I was at the situation. Even those who were intensely loyal to Dana were unable to stomach the display.
“Julie,” Dana called to her again, his voice turning sharp. “That was an order. Do you remember what happens when you disobey me?”
Julie shivered, sobs rising from her chest as her little body shook. I felt so sick I was sure I was going to vomit. Many people had their hands over their mouths, their eyes wide and their breaths short. This was too much, even for the Commission of the People.
Julie slowly walked to Dana, continuously glancing at her older sister, who was still curled up and muttering as she sobbed.
“Just ignore her,” Dana shook his head. “She’s no one.”
Julie finally reached Dana and took his hand slowly. He pulled her closer.
“Good girl.”
He stood straight and placed a hand on little Julie’s shoulder, even as she started to cry, her eyes filled with terror.
“I told you all before,” Dana said darkly, “I would have no qualms taking your children, your friends, siblings, and anyone else who threatens this country. I do not care who they are, how old they are, or who their family is. None of that matters when it comes to our nation. We will not allow America to fall. We must uphold the laws of the Commission of the People, regardless of personal feelings. The Commission does not need feelings and empathy. It simply needs people to obey.”
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