Modelland

by Tyra Banks

  “I understand,” Lizzie said. “I mean, at first I was confused. And hurt. And angry. But it’s you, Tookie. I know you wouldn’t do that to me. I knew you’d come back.”

  Tookie put both hands to Lizzie’s face. “I did come back, Lizzie.” Guilt shot through her body. Yes, she was back. But the reason for her trip was not to be with Lizzie, but to dodge danger and death. Still, Tookie continued, because the look in Lizzie’s eyes felt like home. “And … and I’m ready. For Exodus. Really ready. Let’s go. Right now.”

  Lizzie gazed into Tookie’s eyes and nodded, her eyes filled with sad joy. “Really?”

  “Really.” Tookie turned and grinned at Shiraz, Dylan, and Piper. “This is Lizzie, guys. My very best friend from Peppertown.”

  When she turned back to Lizzie, Lizzie’s expression had changed from bright and lucid to something tortured and crazed. She stared at the sky, her eyes stricken with fear. “They’re coming for me!” she shrieked.

  Tookie and the other Unicas gazed at the sky too. Ci~L’s pouch whizzed past her own billboard, which now read WHERE THE HELL IS Ci~L, DAMN IT!? WE NEED HER!

  Lizzie started to shiver and convulse, her eyes locked on Ci~L. Then, turning, she broke out into a run down the city streets.

  “Lizzie!” Tookie screamed, chasing after her. The Unicas followed. “Lizzie! Where are you going? Come back!” She pounded down the LaDorno streets, passing spas, high-end hotels, jewelers, exclusive nightclubs, all kinds of things she used to dream about as a simple girl in Peppertown. But she barely noticed them right now, the storefronts streaking past. “Lizzie!” she screamed again, catching a glimpse of Lizzie’s bright red hair rounding a corner. She looked over her shoulder to tell Shiraz, Piper, and Dylan to hurry up. But they were gone.

  Her stomach twisted. Nooooo!

  Tookie walked in circles on the sidewalk, wondering which way to go. Just then, a huffing, puffing bus from Peppertown—the only one that trekked into LaDorno—pulled up beside her. Vigorous knocks pounded on the windows. Tookie looked up and her heart lifted. Shiraz, Dylan, and Piper were inside.

  Get in now! Piper mouthed through the window.

  Tookie peered up the steps. The freckled driver grinned down at her. “Come on the board!” he said in broken English, with an accent that sounded just like Shiraz’s. “Your little Labrian friend, all my Canne Del Abra so proud of her. She tell me your plight! I help you get away from crazy flying lady!”

  Tookie climbed aboard and gazed at Shiraz, who shrugged and shot the driver her best CaraCaraCara expression, which made him break into a googly I’ll do anything you want smile. It seemed they had learned something valuable at Modelland after all.

  “Where’s your friend?” Piper asked.

  Tookie looked around desperately. She couldn’t even form the words that she’d lost Lizzie again. It couldn’t be happening.

  “Oh my God!” Dylan gazed through the side window. “There she is!”

  “Who? Lizzie?” Tookie asked, brightening.

  “No!” Dylan screamed. Tookie followed Dylan’s gaze. Ci~L soared through the sky. But then, suddenly, Ci~Ls appeared on either side of the bus as well, keeping pace with the speeding vehicle. She’s using her power of Multiplicity, Tookie thought. Now there are THREE Ci~Ls trying to kill us!

  “Down that alley,” Piper commanded the driver. He turned a corner fast, losing the two Ci~Ls that flanked the bus. At the opening on the other end of the alley, Tookie could see the Obscure Obelisks towering in the sky, all lit up by the moon. She was surprised Mayor Rump hadn’t taken them down yet.

  “There’s Ci~L!” Dylan screamed. “She’s—all of her are—landin’!”

  Tookie whipped around and saw the three Ci~Ls skid to a stop on the bricks behind them, their pouches retracting into their arms. As soon as the three Ci~Ls noticed the bus, a determined look settled over their identical faces, and they sprinted after it again.

  “Faster!” Shiraz ordered the bus driver.

  “You gots it.” The Labrian man sped down the alley toward the Obelisks, hydroplaning on the slick street. The bus then hit a pothole, sending the girls flying out of their seats. When Tookie scrambled up again, one of the Ci~Ls was right alongside the bus, staring through the window at them!

  Everyone screamed. Dylan looked like she might faint. “Have the mercy!” Shiraz wailed.

  Then Tookie looked out the front windshield. Ahead of them stood Lizzie. Frozen. Staring at the oncoming bus. “Don’t run!” Tookie screamed at her through the glass. “Lizzie, stay right there!”

  Lizzie blinked, then stared at something on the ground. It glinted in the moonlight. She bent down to pick it up. Tookie stared at the shiny sharp metal object in Lizzie’s hand. Lizzie then raised it and brought it down hard onto her inner wrist. “Noooo!” Tookie wailed.

  The bus sped fast through the alley. A lone shopkeeper locked up his store, then headed into the alleyway right in front of the bus. The driver slammed on the brakes, and the bus lurched to the left. Everyone screamed and shot forward. Tookie’s head hit the windshield, and she immediately felt a jab of white-hot pain.

  And then everything went black.

  39

  BREATHLESS SISTER-FRIENDS

  Searing pain pulsed at Tookie’s scalp. The cold ground chilled her bones. After a moment, she opened her eyes. The night stars and round moon glowed overhead. The Obscure Obelisks towered off to the left, three giant spikes in the sky.

  Where was she? The last thing she remembered was Lizzie picking up a piece of sharp metal and—

  Tookie shot up. The bus lay on its side next to the Obscure Obelisks, its windshield smashed, its tires flattened, its front end crumpled. The driver was nowhere to be seen.

  “Dylan? Shiraz? Piper?” Tookie called quietly, her heart hammering. Please make them be okay, she silently willed.

  “Over here,” Dylan’s voice meekly responded. “All of us.”

  “Are you hurt?” Tookie scrambled toward them.

  “No,” Piper said weakly. Shiraz murmured that she was all right too.

  Tookie peered into the darkness. One friend left to find. “Lizzie?” she cried.

  Nothing.

  Tookie leapt to her feet. “Lizzie?” she called louder. “Lizzie?” Again, nothing. Tears began to spill down her cheeks. No. No! The image of Lizzie slamming the sharp metal into her wrist swam through her mind. She had failed Lizzie again.

  And then everything just came to a head. Everything Tookie had been through—people walking over her like she was trash during every SPLD; the daily fear that the Unicas were going to be mutilated and murdered; Zarpessa’s nasty secrets and cruel spirit; Tookie’s toothbrush bulging in her father’s pocket on its way to prove she wasn’t his; Gunnero’s mean taunts; feeling unlovable, then loved, then humiliated by Bravo; every second, every minute of her existence suddenly erupted like lava from a long-dormant volcano.

  “How could I have lost you again?” Tookie wailed loudly, her voice echoing into the night. “Why do I keep letting you down? I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”

  The sobs made her buck and shudder. Her wails were so intense they reverberated off the mountain in stereo. Finally, Tookie stopped, held her breath, and looked around. Even though she’d quit crying, the wails kept coming.

  “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.…”

  Tookie spun around in the direction of the noise. Was that someone else sobbing? A figure kneeled at the base of the Obscure Obelisks. And then … thwack. A twisted reed struck in the moonlight, landing on the figure’s back. Blood rose through the figure’s thin shirt. Thwack. Thwack. “Oh my God,” Tookie whispered.

  Ci~L.

  Before Tookie’s eyes, Ci~L—and only one Ci~L this time, not three—started to claw at herself. Tears mixed with blood streamed down her face. “I’m sorry!” she wailed, her voice raw. “I’m sorry!” She tore at her shirt to get down to her bare flesh. Huge new welts rose on her skin. Older ones we
re still an angry keloided red. The blood dripped down her back, pooling on the ground.

  Tookie gasped.

  Ci~L raised her head and spied Tookie. Her eyes widened. Her mouth became tense and hard. Her nostrils flared. She stood and advanced toward Tookie with her bloody hands outstretched, her expression unhinged and twisted, her hair snarled around her face. Tookie backed away, her heart fluttering madly in her chest.

  But instead of running away again, Tookie mustered up all her courage and stood firm. It didn’t make sense to keep running. Ci~L would just find them again and again and again.

  “Take me,” she said softly to the advancing Ci~L. “Experiment on me instead of my friends. Torture me, sacrifice me, kill me. Let them live.”

  Ci~L halted in her tracks and stared at her. After a moment, she started to tremble. She covered her face with her hands and turned away. “I’msorryI’msorryI’msorry…,” she began to moan once more.

  Tookie frowned. “What’s happening to you?” she demanded. “Why are you crying?” She certainly hadn’t expected this from Ci~L. Rage, yes. Fury, certainly. Painful death at her hands, absolutely. But not desperate sobs.

  “It—it’s my … my fault,” Ci~L blubbered into the concrete. “It’s m-my fault. M-my … f-f-f-ault!” She could hardly get the words out through her choking sobs.

  Tookie blinked at her. The sacrifices. Clearly Ci~L was racked with guilt over what she’d done to earlier sacrificial girls, perhaps to become a Triple7.

  Then Ci~L turned to Dylan, Piper, and Shiraz. “With all my powers, I should have been able to save you!” she screamed.

  The girls looked at each other, confused. “Save them?” Tookie repeated in a whisper.

  “I don’t think she is meaning Unicas,” Shiraz said.

  Ci~L took in huge gulps of air, whirling around to face the Obelisks. “I miss you s-s-so much!” Then she collapsed onto the base of the Obelisks, her forehead against the tallest pillar. “Every day I told you that you were good enough, special enough, beautiful enough, that you deserved to be at Modelland. All I wanted was for you to know how amazing you were, how perfect you were just as you were. I should have shut the hell up when I noticed your night sweats, your headaches, your bulging veins. It’s my fault you got sick and caught the …”

  “Who is she talking to?” Piper murmured. “She needs to be hospitalized.”

  Then Ci~L rose once more, and turned to the mountain. “You killed them!” she yelled to the mountain, her whole body shaking. “Bloody murderer!”

  She turned back to the Obelisks. “I searched for you,” she moaned. “I searched and searched. I couldn’t find you. But I kept searching. And then I found you, underneath. I dug and dug and dug till my hands bled, and there you were …” Ci~L smiled dazedly, as though in a dream. “… all three of you. I don’t know how long you were buried, but you still looked so beautiful to me. And we were together again. But you didn’t wake up. You wouldn’t open your eyes!”

  Then Ci~L whirled again and pulled on Tookie’s arm. Tookie reared back, afraid, but Ci~L’s face was crumpled and extremely vulnerable. “Help me, Tookie,” Ci~L whispered. “Help me open their eyes. Help me wake them up.”

  Tookie stared at the Intoxibella. All at once, everything she’d assumed about Ci~L flipped upside down. She still wasn’t sure what was tormenting the Intoxibella, but one thing was certain: Ci~L was not guilty of murder. The guilt she felt right now was over something far more abstract, something more like bereavement and failure.

  When Tookie didn’t move, Ci~L groaned and fingered the reed on the ground, preparing it for her back once more. Moving quickly, Tookie reached out and grabbed her wrist. “Ci~L! Stop it!”

  Ci~L paused and stared at her through cloudy, dazed eyes.

  “Please, Ci~L!” Tookie sank to her knees in front of her. “Give me the reed. You can’t do this to yourself. Not anymore.”

  Ci~L clutched the reed hard. “I deserve this! I need to pay for what I’ve done!” Her eyes darted to Dylan, Piper, and Shiraz. “I need to pay for not saving you!”

  “Ci~L, look at me,” Tookie commanded. “You’re not talking about them, are you?” she asked tentatively, gesturing to her friends. “You’re talking about someone else, right? Someone who died in the Diabolical Divide?”

  Ci~L shut her eyes tightly, as though reliving some terrible, debilitating pain all over again. “My sister-friends from home—Hendal, Woodlyn, and Katherine. When I became a Triple7 Intoxibella, the first thing I did after that tournament was teleportal back home so I could celebrate with the three of them. I told them they were worthy, that Modelland’s rules were ridiculous and that they deserved to be there more than I did. Hendal was so beautiful, so voluptuous, with bright lavender eyes. Woodlyn’s hair and skin were pale and luminescent like a full moon, and Katherine was so tiny and had the cutest freckles and the most luxurious curly brown hair.”

  Tookie flinched. She looked over her shoulder at Dylan, Shiraz, and Piper. Their mouths hung open in shock.

  Tookie turned back to Ci~L. “So what happened that got you in so much trouble with the BellaDonna?”

  Ci~L shut her eyes. “Because of my SixxSensa power, I feel things intensely. I was living in an amazing penthouse in LaDorno, and my sister-friends would visit me every day after I finished with photo shoots, Run-a-Ways, posing for my picture on Metopian money, being the guest of honor at parties thrown by royalty, worldwide televised poetry slams, and autograph signings. My life was an insane dream overnight, but I would always, every day, run back to them. But when a week passed and there was no sign of them, I knew something was wrong, and I knew exactly where to go. To the Divide. The creatures there are like things you wouldn’t even see in your worst nightmares, and there were moments I wasn’t sure I’d get through it alive. But I found my sister-friends, one by one. Two were buried and … I … I dug up their bodies with my bare hands. I was planning to trot their bodies through LaDorno in my own personal parade to show the world—it was time people understood that Modelland’s narrow beauty ideals are flawed and in need of a change. But Gunnero got wind of my plan and went on a search for me. Luckily, I heard about his pursuit before he caught me, so I quickly created this monument in my sister-friends’ honor and buried them here.” She pointed to the Obelisks. “I couldn’t parade their bodies through the town square, but this was the next best thing I could do. Then I gave myself up to him.”

  Dylan backed up from the three pillars. “Wait. There are dead bodies under here?”

  “Body Girl …,” Shiraz whispered.

  Ci~L nodded and fought back another sob. “That’s why the BellaDonna has been punishing me.”

  Piper rocked on her heels. “Why didn’t LaDorno just demolish the three Obelisks when they first went up?”

  Ci~L wiped her bloody hands on her shirt. “Most people in LaDorno thought the Obelisks were some kind of mystical sign, and in the six months after I put them there, tourism increased tenfold, so the mayor allowed them to stay. The BellaDonna demanded they be taken down, but she has no jurisdiction over Metopia. So she takes her frustration out on me.” Suddenly, Ci~L’s face twisted with pain, and she gripped her stomach and raised the reed to beat herself once more.

  Tookie caught her arm again. “Don’t. Please. What happened is not your fault. You can’t literally beat yourself up over this. You were chosen to be an Intoxibella—a Triple7, Ci~L. And you’ve used your fame to spread your message all over the world, and everyone loves you. Your friends … yes, they’re dead, gone forever. But they still live inside of you. And now, inside of Piper and Shiraz and Dylan. Maybe it’s time to let them go. Let their souls rest. So that you can rest.”

  Ci~L shook her head. “But Tookie, I feel like my soul is dead. I feel so lost. Like I’ve gone insane.”

  “With all due respect, Ci~L, I must agree with your last statement,” Piper murmured.

  “Me too,” Shiraz said. “You cry lots, but how we know you still won’t do the
tortures to us? The killings?”

  Ci~L flinched. “Hold up. Kill you?”

  “First there is the experimenting,” Shiraz clarified. “And then the killings.”

  Ci~L blinked hard. “Killing? Are you serious? Do you realize how I rebelled to get you three to Modelland? The rules I broke? On The Day of Discovery, you weren’t on the list they gave me. I got rid of that thing and specifically chose you three instead.”

  “So we really weren’t on the list,” Piper said morosely.

  “No, you weren’t.” Ci~L shrugged. “The only one who was on the list was Tookie. She was the first pickup, and when I saw how unusual-looking she was, I thought maybe this was my chance. I could be a renegade. Pick girls I wanted, girls who could make up for Hendal’s, Woodlyn’s, and Katherine’s deaths. It was my experiment. My grand project.”

  “But why me?” Tookie blurted out. “Why did Modelland want me on the list? You just said I’m unusual-looking!”

  Ci~L raised her hands helplessly. “I’m sorry, Tookie. I don’t know.”

  Shiraz still didn’t look convinced. “But you looking at us so strangely in class!” she protested. “You give us evil eye! Like you want to squash us like bug!”

  Ci~L winced. “If I’ve been looking at you like that, I’m sorry. It’s just … you remind me so much of them. Your spunk, your sassiness, your intelligence. Do you know how refreshing it is to have girls like you at Modelland? It’s never been done before! So sometimes I stare at you and can’t believe I did it—I can’t believe I actually got you to Modelland, and I can’t believe I figured out a way to get the BellaDonna to keep you there. And then I get flashbacks of my sister-friends and my mind starts doing crazy things. I’m sorry if I scared you—it was a combination of crazy and tough love. But I feel like you’re making a huge leap … for all of us. For girls everywhere. You too, Tookie. Don’t think you’re excluded from this.”