Kymiera

by Steve Turnbull

  To do that would have made her no better than the children she saw in her classes with their silly crushes and lovelorn lives.

  ‘I am no better than any of them,’ she said out loud. And in the remaining large space she drew the outline of a love heart then shaded it to make it three dimensional. Finally she drew an arrow through the centre and blood dripping from it. At the arrow’s point she wrote ‘Chloe’ and at the tail she put ‘Sapphire’.

  And finally she drew a line through Chloe’s name.

  The door buzzer rang. Someone downstairs.

  She screwed up the sheet and tossed it in the direction of the bin. It missed.

  Dragging herself to the door, she lifted the handset and pressed the button to communicate.

  ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Me.’ The voice was distorted but she recognised it. Her stomach churned in hate.

  ‘Fuck off, Chris.’

  She released the button and was about to hang the handset back in the cradle when it buzzed again. There was a moment of hesitation and she put the phone on its hook and turned her back on the buzzing.

  She couldn’t concentrate now. He just kept buzzing.

  For ten minutes she sat in her comfy chair staring at the window and he just kept buzzing. There would be a pause for a minute and she prayed he’d given up. But he didn’t.

  Furious with herself, and him, she stormed back to the handset.

  ‘Just piss off, Chris. Seriously. I never want to see you again.’

  ‘I just want to talk to you.’

  ‘There is nothing that could come from your mouth that I want to hear.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  She hesitated, unable to decide what exactly to say. Half of her just wanted to rant at him, the other half wanted to kill him. Slowly.

  ‘Sorry, is it?’ The rant won out over murder. ‘Really, you think that saying ‘sorry’ makes up for all your fucking abuse? You need to get this through your head. I hate you. And if I never see you again it’ll be ten minutes too soon. You’re a total prick. A nasty vicious bully.’ She took a breath. ‘And you have a tiny dick.’

  She thought the end was a bit lame but it made her feel better. And it seemed to have shut him up.

  ‘I just want to talk to you.’

  ‘And you’re stupid. And—’ She paused. There was a thing on the tip of her tongue, she desperately wanted to say it but it was so daring, so risky, she was not sure she was brave enough. Screw it. ‘—you were beaten by the girl I love. She took your dick and shoved it up your arse. She’s a thousand times the man you’ll ever be.’

  Silence. But he was still there, she could hear him breathing. Heavily.

  ‘Chloe’s dead.’

  The fear began in her hands. Her fingers felt numb.

  ‘She isn’t...’ I spoke to her only yesterday.

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘She’s not dead.’ She began to shake. His voice so calm, so certain.

  ‘An elite army unit. They had her pinned down in a building. They blew it up.’

  ‘I would have heard.’

  ‘It was hushed up.’

  She remembered there had been something in the news about an old building in Stockport burning to the ground. ‘No one was hurt. They said no one was hurt.’

  ‘They say what they’re told to say, Saffie, you know that.’

  It couldn’t be true. They had tried everything to get her and failed. She was better than all of them. It couldn’t be true.

  ‘I need to talk, Saffie.’

  ‘Why?’

  She felt something on her cheek. And brushed away a tear.

  ‘Other things have happened. It affects me—and you.’

  She sniffed and wiped her nose on her arm. I need time to grieve.

  ‘You can’t come up.’

  ‘We can walk.’

  ‘I’m not dressed.’

  ‘I’ll wait.’

  She released the button. As she hung the handset back she missed and it fell with a thump on to the carpet.

  She didn’t bother picking it up.

  Then her terminal buzzed with someone ringing. ‘Why can’t you leave me alone?’ she yelled at it. But she recognised the name on the screen and sat down to take the call.

  Sapphire nodded to the doorman—she didn’t even know his name. Chris was waiting, sitting in the chair provided. It was a faded orange plastic in a style that encouraged you to lounge but provided no back support. It looked uncomfortable. Good.

  Chris had decided to be a gentleman, it seemed. He opened the door for her and let her go first. Neither of them spoke a word as they stepped out on to the hardened snow. It was slippery and she had to walk slowly. He hovered at her shoulder. He didn’t put his arm around her.

  ‘What is it?’ she said at last.

  ‘I really am sorry about Chloe Dark.’

  ‘No, you’re not. You wanted her dead. You tried to kill her.’

  ‘She was a freak.’

  ‘Just don’t even talk about her. You’re a bastard. You don’t care about anything or anybody except yourself. Don’t pretend otherwise.’

  He went silent. Sapphire looked at snow-encrusted buildings. Once upon a time this area had been one of the richest in Manchester. Then it had fallen on hard times and become one of the worst. The buildings had fallen into disrepair and they had never recovered. The snow gave them an ethereal quality. It made them look pleasant. At least for now.

  ‘I’m staying in Manchester,’ he said finally.

  Her heart dropped. ‘Why?’

  ‘They are putting me on the Utopia Genetics board.’

  ‘Aren’t there a thousand people better qualified?’

  The barb must have hit home because he was silent again.

  ‘It’s not what I want.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s not what I want either. Two hundred miles is barely enough distance.’

  ‘Do we have to be like this?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Couldn’t we at least be civil? We may have to talk to each other,’ he said.

  ‘There’s nothing to keep me here. I’ll apply for a transfer.’

  ‘I can’t stop you.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘And when I give them my reasons maybe you won’t have your position for much longer.’

  ‘I told you I didn’t want it anyway.’

  ‘I know what you told me, but the truth is not something that comes easily to you, Chris.’

  Silence again. Cars crunched past moving slowly. Sapphire felt her nose getting cold. The light was beginning to fade as the winter night drew in.

  ‘Does Mercedes Smith know?’

  ‘I was going to meet her.’

  Sapphire held her breath, this was the moment. Let him have the space, give him the chance to suggest it. This was the chance she needed.

  ‘Do you want to come?’

  ‘Why would I want to do that?’

  He sighed. ‘Do you have to fight me all the time?’

  ‘After all the things you’ve done to me, you shithead?’

  ‘You don’t have to come.’

  ‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘I’ll come with you just so I can warn her about you.’

  ‘Don’t do that.’

  ‘What will you do to stop me, Chris?’

  He stopped in the street and waved. A car she hadn’t noticed behind them sped up and then came to a halt alongside.

  He opened the door for her. She put her leg in and paused.

  ‘If you touch me, I’ll kill you.’

  ‘Whatever you say, Saffie.’

  Chapter 10

  Chloe

  It was still light when Chloe made it back to Didsbury. She didn’t go to look at her own house but, keeping her head down and walking as if she were a normal person, she made her way to her aunt’s house.

  When she got to the corner she leaned against a tree and listened.

  She could not detect anything out of the ordinary. No cars sitting wit
h their engines running, no one else loitering, and no drones in range. It seemed they had given up.

  It made sense if they thought she was dead and the other girls had been taken into custody. There was a chance that her aunt had been quarantined, but in truth Chloe didn’t need her. The only problem would be if the power had already been cut off.

  But there were lights in the house.

  As if she was in no hurry, although she was straining inside to move faster, she ambled up to the front door and knocked.

  It was her uncle that opened the door. He looked at her face. He did not recognise her at first but she could see the realisation dawn. The emotions went from delight to horror in one smooth transition.

  ‘Chloe,’ he said so quietly even she had trouble hearing more than the hiss of his breath over his teeth. At least he didn’t shout it out loud.

  ‘Can I come in?’

  He hesitated and looked out at the street.

  ‘There’s no police or the Purity. And no press.’

  ‘Come in, sweetie,’ he said and backed away to give her room. ‘Your aunt’s been worried sick.’

  He closed the door and followed her as Chloe went through into the kitchen.

  ‘Shall I take your coat?’

  She thought about her wings, but they had already seen them. The wings had already ripped through the T-shirt and jumper she wore underneath, the coat was thicker and bearing up. It wasn’t that she couldn’t control them, but like arms they kept trying to help her with her balance.

  He took the coat by the shoulders and she peeled herself out of it. After being confined for so long she couldn’t help but stretch them.

  Her aunt stared open-mouthed and her uncle, looking at them from behind, gasped.

  ‘Oh, Chloe—’ began her aunt.

  Chloe moved her head from side to side, stretching her muscles.

  ‘I wondered what bird you were going to be,’ said her uncle.

  ‘And what am I?’ said Chloe with not a little irritation, she was getting fed up with the way people wanted to look and comment on the way her body had changed. It wasn’t any of their business.

  ‘Bat,’ he said.

  Chloe frowned. ‘What?’

  ‘You’re...a bat,’ said her aunt.

  Chloe jumped out of the chair and into the hall; she bounded over the banister rail and in a single leap was outside Melinda’s door. She pushed it open and opened the wardrobe to use the full length mirror.

  The wings had automatically closed in to her body because there wasn’t much space in the house. She spread them. Black skin—the same shade as her own—folded out behind her. She guessed the total spread was still less than two metres, but she could touch the side wall with it from where she stood.

  The top—leading edge—of the wing curved round jointed bones and there was a hook at one point along its length, and, she turned to get a better look, she could see long bones joined by the flat skin.

  In the mirror she saw her uncle appear, though she had heard him coming and already knew he was there. ‘You didn’t know?’

  ‘I don’t get to look in mirrors much.’

  ‘Do you want to know what you’re looking at?’

  Her first impulse was to say no. She wanted to say she hated them, but then she thought it was like saying she hated her middle finger. They did not feel like extras anymore. She nodded.

  ‘May I touch?’

  She nodded.

  ‘It’s just like your arm. The upper arm is here.’ He touched and she pulled away. Then forced herself to remain still. ‘That’s the elbow and then the forearm is much longer and stretches all the way to here. And then you have a hand: thumb and fingers. All the bones are stretched and longer, but there are the same number as in your arm and hand.’

  Chloe imagined her hand closing, and she closed her right hand. She concentrated and the right wing closed up on itself. It felt...normal.

  ‘I thought you preferred birds,’ she said.

  ‘They both fly so I looked it up, but birds are more interesting.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Her uncle looked mortified.

  ‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said.

  ‘Perhaps we need a cup of tea,’ said her aunt.

  ‘I need to make a call first,’ said Chloe. ‘If you don’t mind.’

  ‘In private?’

  ‘Yes please.’

  ‘We’ll stay up here until you’ve finished.’

  They were talking about her as she went downstairs but she tuned them out. She didn’t want to know.

  Chloe closed the door of the kitchen and sat down in front of the terminal. She called up Miss Kepple’s number and dialled. There was a short pause before her ex-teacher answered.

  She looked at Chloe in astonishment, and then she started to laugh. Hysterically. It was about that point Chloe noticed Miss Kepple must have been in the middle of changing as she was only wearing her bra, though she was holding a top.

  ‘You’re alive!’ Miss Kepple said when she was finally able to use words.

  ‘So far,’ said Chloe.

  ‘Chris said you’d been killed, blown up.’

  Chloe nodded. ‘They tried.’

  ‘What happened?’

  Chloe shook her head. ‘Long story. Look, Sapphire what I said before still stands. I need to know where the other girls are.’

  ‘I haven’t been able to.’

  ‘I have new information that might help. Melinda Vogler was being held in a Utopia Genetics place in Alderley Edge. The police raided it. I was too late and so were the police. The girls were taken somewhere else.’

  ‘All three girls?’

  ‘Yes, I think so. And, I’m not sure, but I got the impression the Purity Special Agent guy—your Chris—knew where they were.’

  ‘He’s not my Chris, Chloe. I hate the bastard.’ She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say more and then snapped it shut.

  ‘Can you find them?’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  Chloe put her head on one side, there was someone talking outside.

  Are you sure this is the place? Pause. No, I’m not accusing you of anything. Pause. Yes, I can smell her as well.

  ‘I have to go,’ said Chloe. ‘Someone’s here.’

  She disconnected in the middle of Miss Kepple saying something like Good luck.

  Chloe cocked her head on one side. It was Dog, and he was out the back with someone else. She went to the door and unlocked it. She could hear them moving away, well, she could hear Dog—he was like an elephant—but the other one was almost silent. And to her that meant invisible.

  She pushed the back door open and a wave of cold poured in. ‘Get in here before the place freezes.’

  Dog popped into view, he was grinning. ‘Hi, babe!’ Then he turned to look into the monochrome of black and snow. ‘Come on, she’s harmless.’

  Chloe was already shivering. ‘I’m shutting the door in three.’

  Dog was in her face moments later. ‘I am happy to enter this abode—wow, they’ve grown. Totally awesome.’

  ‘Shut up. Who’s your friend?’

  A figure had come into the light; the shadow of his hoodie covered his face.

  ‘That’s Jason, don’t freak out when you see his face.’

  ‘Is that supposed to be a joke?’

  The one called Jason was past her and inside the house almost before she noticed. Dammit, I need to remember to use my eyes.

  She was pulling the door shut when her aunt screamed.

  Chloe and Dog slammed their hands over their ears. Chloe turned and saw that ‘Jason’ had pulled back his hoodie and his face was a nightmare.

  Chapter 11

  Mercedes

  She had had a nap and was feeling better. The freaks were not crawling out of the woodwork and trying to grab her anymore. It had been years since she had had a turn like that. She should probably apologise to Xec.

  Sitting up on the side of the bed she glanced at her r
eflection in the mirror. She wasn’t old and her exercise regime kept her in good shape. Running a company like this was easier than it used to be. The Purity only ever supported one genetics company in an area. She had no competition and a guaranteed market.

  ‘Mercedes?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Xec.’

  ‘Sorry for what?’

  ‘Earlier. I was short with you. I’m sorry.’

  Xec said nothing for a long moment.

  ‘I appreciate that, Mercedes,’ he said. ‘But that’s not why I’m interrupting your rest.’

  ‘Has something happened?’

  ‘Special Agent Graham is here and he has a woman with him.’

  ‘Woman?’

  ‘It’s Sapphire Kepple.’

  ‘Is that supposed to mean something?’

  ‘The Purity teacher at Chloe Dark’s school.’

  ‘That’s curious.’

  ‘I thought so,’ said Xec. ‘They seem quite familiar so I would assume they knew each other previously.’

  ‘And he wants to see me?’

  ‘He has asked for a private meeting.’

  ‘But with this woman?’

  ‘That was implied.’

  Mercedes considered. ‘I need some time to freshen up.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Xec. ‘Do you want them up here or in a meeting room?’

  Mercedes thought again. Should she be personal or official? Why would he bring the woman? Mercedes shook her head, what was wrong with her? This whole business had affected her more than she wanted to admit. She needed to be decisive.

  ‘Let them up here.’

  Chapter 12

  Chloe

  Her aunt stopped screaming. Through ears like wool she heard Dog.

  ‘Please don’t do that again.’

  It didn’t look as if she would. She was frozen in the doorway still staring at Jason.

  Her uncle arrived in the hall and he had a gun. Chloe stared. She had no idea he even owned a gun; he was always talking about peace and tolerance. At least when he wasn’t talking about birds. He pulled his wife out of the way and was raising his gun towards Dog.

  ‘No!’ Chloe leapt across the room and stood in front of him. Her wings raised to block the view. ‘They’re friends. They helped me.’

  ‘They hurt Mary!’ He was trying to look round her and still had the gun up. He was waving it in her direction.

  ‘No, they didn’t. Aunt Mary, tell him you’re all right.’