The Sanctuary

by Sara Elizabeth Santana

  “Astrid somehow made her way in here,” I explained. “She got hurt in the blast, badly, and we told them to get out of here.”

  “Fantastic conversation we’re having here,” Kris cut in and I could hear the distress in her voice. “But we sort of came here for a reason and now that they know we’re here, I really don’t think we should linger.”

  “Good point.” Tommy nodded. “Let’s move.” He looked at Ash, concerned. “You okay there, buddy?”

  Ash straightened up, grimacing. “I really wish everyone would stop asking me that. Let’s just do this, okay?”

  Tommy looked up at me and I nodded.

  “All right then.” The six of us started moving down the hallway. Tommy ushered us in the direction of the elevator. He slid the black key that he had stolen from the guard through the slot and the elevator immediately opened. We all piled inside and I was grateful not to be on those stairs again. Ash slumped against the wall, taking deep breaths, and we all watched the numbers as we descended to the 7th floor.

  As soon as the doors opened, we were met with the growling faces of a pack of Awakened.

  “Awesome,” Nathan joked, his brow furrowed. He gripped the large knife in his hand tightly. “I was really missing these guys.”

  “I know,” Kris piped up. “I just haven’t killed enough of these guys today.”

  After that, we didn’t hesitate. We threw ourselves into the fight. I had no idea how we were still going. Everyone was exhausted and injured but we kept going. We kept fighting.

  My muscles burned as I sunk my knife into the thick flesh of a foe, and I yanked it out, feeling sluggish. A part of me wanted to stop fighting and just let them take me. There were just too many of them.

  I tripped over a fallen Awakened and went sprawling on the ground. I lay there for a moment, staring up at the bright lights in the ceiling above me. I blinked, once, twice, three times, trying to clear my vision. Every single part of me was screaming, protesting any further movement.

  A hand was suddenly in my vision and I reached up for it, missing it once before my fingers latched on and I felt a familiar palm against mine. Ash pulled me up and I clung to him, breathing heavily. The fight was continuing around us. I saw Tommy punch an Awakened in the face before slitting her throat. I watched as Kris and Erik tag teamed a pair of Awakened, sending them flying. The two of them moved together so in sync. I sighed, closing my eyes tightly and pressing my forehead against Ash’s hard chest.

  “We’re almost done,” he whispered to me. “We’re almost home, baby. Just a little bit longer.”

  His words were met with an unexpected, immediate silence. I pulled away from Ash, grabbing his arm tightly. The remaining Awakened were still and silent. My heart skipped a beat and I took a step back, my eyes wide.

  “No.” The word was low and shaky but it carried in the silent hallway. Ash stepped in front of me, but he couldn’t shield me from Razi Cylon. No one could. We were done.

  She stood in front of us, looking satisfied. She was surrounded by her oversize goons. They seemed to have doubled in number since the last time I had seen her. I didn’t care about them though. I cared about the boy who was handcuffed on his knees in front of them and the girl passed out in the arms of another.

  “Let them go,” I told her, shakily, taking another step back.

  Razi Cylon smiled, the thick red scar on her throat gleaming in the light. My stomach churned at the sight of it. “Now, why would I do that, Miss Valentine? You brought them straight to me, just like I knew you would.” She looked over at Liam and Astrid with a satisfied look on her face. “I knew all it took was taking your precious boy and all of you would come bursting in here. You were always so careless.”

  “She didn’t come alone,” Tommy spoke up from behind me. “You’re always underestimating her.”

  Razi’s eyes narrowed when they landed on her former ally. “You were supposed to be dead. It’s incredibly inconvenient when people don’t stay dead.”

  Tommy rolled his eyes but his body was taut and ready, his hand fluttering ever so slightly near the gun strapped around his waist. “Inconvenient,” he scoffed, shaking his head.

  Razi stared at him, studying him, leaving the rest of us holding our breath. My fingernails were digging into Ash’s skin. Liam was barely conscious, swaying back and forth. He’d been a little beat up after the explosion below but now he was almost unrecognizable. Both of his eyes were red and puffy and his lips were bleeding profusely.

  Eventually Razi looked away and her eyes met mine. A shiver went up my spine as she regarded me carefully. There was a gleam in her eye and the corners of her lips were slightly upturned. “I’m so glad you are back, Zoey. We have missed you here at Sekhmet.”

  “I’m not back,” I whispered fiercely. I cleared my throat and my voice came out stronger. “I’m here for Ash. That’s it.”

  “I knew all I had to do is was take the boy and that you’d be here. I knew it.”

  “You used him,” I accused her. “You used him as a tool to get what you want, like he doesn’t matter. Like he’s not even a person.”

  Her eyes narrowed and when she spoke again, her voice was sharp. The hairs on my arms stood up. “When are you going to understand? People are expendable. People do not mean anything to me. I take what I can get from them and that’s it. People make mistakes, hurt people, create messes.”

  I looked at her, disbelieving. “Then why do you care? Why do you kidnap us? Why are you obsessed with getting us pregnant and perfecting the world if you think this?”

  “Because I can control them. Because I can make it better. Humans can’t be left alone to their own devices. They need someone to guide them; they need me. Without someone to keep them in line, they could destroy everything.”

  “People don’t destroy everything,” Ash cut in. “You destroy everything. There is nothing left because you destroyed it all. People have died. Cities have burned. And you hide yourself in a hole in the ground and pretend like you’re fixing the world.”

  For a moment, she looked as if she was going to lose her temper. Her eyes burned black and her fists clenched. Then, it was gone, and her features were smooth again. She turned to her nearest bodyguard. “This one has served his purpose. I have no use for him anymore.”

  The words took a moment to register and everything moved in slow motion. We all reached for our guns as the bodyguard raised his own gun and pointed it at Ash. I dove in front of Ash just as a shot rang out. The two of us tumbled to the ground.

  Large hands reached for me but I pushed them off. I threw out my limbs, in furious and messy punches and kicks, anything to keep them off of me. Ash was beneath me and he wasn’t moving but I couldn’t think of that. I had to stay on top of him. I had to keep him safe.

  A hand reached around my neck, yanking me back, making me choke. I dove forward but it was too late. I was trapped. I looked down and the world began to spin. My body went slack in my captor’s arms.

  Ash was lying on the ground, unmoving. He looked almost peaceful, like he was asleep. I could almost believe that he had passed out. He was bruised and bloody and he had been so exhausted. I could almost believe it.

  The hole in the middle of his forehead told an entirely different story.

  Loud, gut-wrenching screams filled the hallway and it took me a minute to realize that they were coming from me. There were horrified gasps and reactions from my companions but we were trapped, captured. The big ugly goon who had hold of me started dragging me away but I fought. I kicked and screamed, tears bleeding down my cheeks, anything to keep from leaving Ash.

  Ash, who was the love of my life. Ash, who I had come to save.

  Ash, who lay dead on the cold hard floor.

  A hard punch landed in my stomach and I blacked out briefly from the pain. I stopped struggling and tried to regain my sense of direction. I felt something pierce my skin, a needle, and I screamed, locking my eyes on Ash one more time before I slid into com
plete darkness.

  WHEN I WOKE up, I was on a soft bed. The room was spinning and I immediately rolled over and threw up over the side of the bed. There wasn’t much left in my stomach and I dry heaved for a couple minutes. The corners of my eyes were crusty from all the tears I’d shed.

  I rolled back over onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. The reality of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks and I covered my face. Each breath that came out of my mouth felt hard. Each breath was careful and shaky.

  Ash was dead.

  Ash Matthews was dead.

  I let out a frustrated scream, preparing for the tears that didn’t come. I felt empty, even more so than when Octavia had called me into her office. He was gone. The whole reason we had broken into this stupid facility, had risked our lives, was to save his life and it hadn’t mattered. He was dead. He was gone.

  I sat up and looked around. A new realization hit me and I closed my eyes briefly.

  I was in the same room that they’d kept me in the last time I was here. Of course I was.

  I was still in the same clothes that I had arrived in. I was covered in blood and my hands shook as I held the fabric of my shirt under my fingertips. There was the deep red of human blood and the even darker black blood of Awakened. There was a stack of clean clothes on the table across the room but I made no move to go near them. I didn’t want to see them. I never wanted to be in those beige clothes ever again.

  There was also a plate of food next to the clothes. I didn’t know how I had missed the small before but it made my stomach churn. I was pretty sure they had laced my food when I had been here before to make me sleep most of the time and I didn’t want to sleep.

  I wasn’t even sure I wanted to survive.

  Ash was dead.

  It didn’t matter how many times I repeated myself. It hadn’t registered with me. It didn’t feel real. The image of Ash laying on the ground, eyes wide open, with a bullet in the center of his forehead kept flashing through my mind and I squeezed up. I dry heaved a few more times, my fingers clutching the blanket beneath me.

  I wished I wasn’t alone.

  I had no idea where everyone else was. Astrid. Nathan. Erik. Kris. Liam. They could be in other rooms somewhere or they could all be dead. I wasn’t sure which one I preferred. It wasn’t that I was eager to end my life but I wasn’t eager to be back here. I wasn’t eager to be poked and prodded.

  I wasn’t eager to have a baby in my stomach, which was sure to be Razi’s next plan.

  Time passed by slowly. There had been a clock in the room before, but it seemed to have disappeared in the months since I had stayed here. I had no idea how much time was passing. I thought of Greg and everyone waiting for us in Hoover and my stomach clenched. We were supposed to be on our way back by now. They had known that we might not return, but I had hoped, we had planned. Everything had fallen apart.

  I started counting but I lost count somewhere past three thousand. I tried to name the starting line-up for the Mets but I couldn’t remember their names. Everything was blending together and Ash’s face kept flashing behind my eyelids.

  The food kept tempting me, even though I knew it’d be cold by now. I hadn’t eaten in so long and I had lost so much blood. They couldn’t keep me in here forever.

  After what felt like hours, I heard something and sat up, the hairs on the back of my neck at attention. My eyes were pinned on the door as the handled turned. Someone stepped through and I thought of Tommy. But it was a face I didn’t recognize. Of course. Tommy didn’t work for Sekhmet anymore. He was on our side now.

  The boy that stepped through the room was young though, probably not too much older than I was. He looked wary as he came into the room and I didn’t blame him. I probably had a bad reputation for punching people around here. Not completely unwarranted, but I wasn’t going to fight him. When he crossed over to me and placed handcuffs on my wrists. He hesitated, his cold fingers lingering on my skin.

  “I’m not going to fight you,” I said, my voice low, and he jumped. I almost laughed. This was the person they had sent in to handle me? He pulled me up and I nearly fell over. My body was so exhausted. Maybe they weren’t so far off.

  I followed him through the hallways, feeling an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. I had been in this hallway before, repeatedly. I knew exactly where we were going and I knew exactly what was behind that door.

  The boy slid the card through the slot and the door popped open. He pushed it open and practically forced me into the room. My heart sank and I entered the all too familiar room. The work out equipment, all the medical tools. They had been my worst nightmare just six months before.

  The worst part of those nightmares was sitting right in front of me, looking quite pleased to see me. “Zoey. Sit down.”

  I looked at her and the chair and remained standing. I wanted nothing more than to collapse in that chair but I wouldn’t listen to her. Not anymore. Not like I did before.

  Razi finally looked up from her notes and raised her eyebrows. “You’re suddenly disobedient?”

  “You killed my boyfriend,” I said. My voice wavered but my eyes remained on her. I would not show my weakness. I would not show her my tears.

  “Zoey, you are nineteen years old and you put way too much stock into a person that would have not been important in less than five years, guaranteed, if you had continued to date him in the normal world. You are blinded by the fact that this world leaves you with a smaller selection than before. He was familiar. He is also easy to replace. You’ll see that.”

  Anger burned through me and I pictured launching myself at her and wrapping my hands around her throat until she stopped breathing. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that her bodyguards were still very much in attendance. “I won’t see anything. I won’t see anything other than the fact that you’re a bitch.”

  The vein in her forehead throbbed and she dropped her eyes back to her notes. I wanted to throttle her for everything she had done. She had tortured me. She tortured Liam. She had made Astrid pregnant. She had killed and killed and killed.

  I wanted to kill her. The cold metal of the handcuffs digging into my skin reminded me that I could do no more than get under her skin.

  “Sit down,” was all she said in return.

  I sighed, and sat down in the chair. “I hate you,” I spat at her.

  She nodded. “I would be surprised if you didn’t.” Her eyes met mine. “You’re so much healthier than the last time I saw you. I’m proud of you.

  My fingernails were biting into the skin of my palms.

  “We are going to get started right away, Zoey. I won’t let you get away like you did last time,” her voice was clipped and impatient. She stood up, handing her notes off to one of her doctors that were standing to the side.

  I felt my heart sink into my toes. She would do to me just as she did to Astrid. She was going to make me pregnant. I sunk further into the chair as if it could just transport me out of the room. I wished it could take me away, anywhere but here.

  One of the doctors reached for me, and I put my hands up to block him. He clucked, irritated, and motioned for one of the bodyguards. He made eye contact with me and my vision went red. He was the same one who had killed Ash. I recoiled from him.

  “Stop fighting,” Razi said, bored.

  I stepped backward and then there was a loud boom, not unlike the explosion that had happened the day before. I lost my footing and sprawled to the ground. My hands were still locked together and I couldn’t catch my fall. I landed hard and rolled onto my back.

  Razi was up on her feet, looking panicked, turning to her bodyguards. They reached her in no time and started tugging her towards the door. Everyone was running out of the room. This was clearly not expected. This was not on Sekhmet’s agenda for the day.

  I could hardly believe it. I had always thought I was important to Razi, important enough to go through all this effort just to get me back. But in a moment of panic they’d left
me behind. Sekhmet was not the place it had been when I was here – Razi wasn’t the same person and this realization gave me hope. This place could be taken down, maybe it would not be done by me, but someone would succeed.

  I waited until everyone left the room before trying to regain my footing. I pushed myself up just in time for another explosion to rock the entire floor. I fell again, catching myself clumsily with my palms. I grunted, crawling across the floor. I just had to make it to the door. That’s all that made sense to me, making it to the door. Everything would be okay if I could just reach the door.

  The door swung open just as I was reaching up for the handle and I skittered backwards to avoid being hit.

  “Oh shit, Zoey, I’m so sorry.”

  I lay on my back for a long pause, staring up at the two people who had come bursting in through the door.

  “K…K…Kaya?” I asked, disbelieving. I looked from her face to Bert’s. “What on earth are you guys doing here?”

  Kaya looked at me, and her expression switched from apologetic to fierce. She was dressed in in the sleek black Sanctuary uniform and had a gun in her hand. She looked nothing like herself, at least not the Kaya that I’d known when I first arrived at Sanctuary. She looked confident and sure. She looked strong. “Did you really think that you could just leave and I wouldn’t come after you?”

  I opened my mouth to reply and shut it almost immediately.

  “You left in the middle of the night. You snuck out without saying goodbye. You had no idea if you’d be coming back or whether you’d see me again. Actually, I think you had a pretty good idea that you wouldn’t be coming back.” She offered me a hand and pulled me to my feet.

  “Kaya…”

  She shook her head. “We’ve been sharing a room for months. We’ve shared so much. I’ve heard you cry and scream. I’ve heard your nightmares and you’ve heard mine. I thought we were friends, Zoey. Screw that, I thought we were family.”

  Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. Family was a word that I didn’t’ get to hear very often lately. “Of course we…”