ME2 (S.E.E.D.S. Book 1)

by J Peregrine

  “My mother?” I said, pulling my collar away from my neck and trying to breath, afraid I might throw up any second. “My mother is dead,” I said, forcing the words out from my dry mouth.

  “Andre may have told Josef that she was dead. We all have our secrets, but I can assure you she is still quite alive. Not very well... but alive,” he said, as he rolled toward the back of the counter and touched some buttons on a small panel.

  My mind reeled. In my reality she had always been dead, my dead mother. How could this be real?

  A smooth metal door to our right rolled aside revealing a long white hallway. “This way,” he said, and pushed himself through the door and into the hall.

  I watched him go. I didn't know what to do or think. I was frozen in time and space. Was this a trick? How could I know? Why would he say something like that? Suddenly the things Jake had said took on a whole new meaning. I hadn’t thought that what he said applied to me, that wasn't me, it wasn't my life, I knew who my parents were. I had just never met them.

  “Well,” he yelled back down the hallway to me, “aren’t you coming?”

  I looked at the floor trying to remember any clue that would have meant she was alive, "You're lying. My mother is dead. You can't just show me another woman and tell me she is my mother to appease me."

  "You be the judge then," he said, as he continued down the hallway in front of him.

  My whole body was shaking. I was cold but sweating and my stomach was in my throat. What if my mother was alive? I stared down the hallway, the white of the floor, ceiling, and walls all blended together making them indistinguishable from each other, and it was empty except for Mo and his wheelchair. I didn’t like the idea of going with him. Especially into another space that looked like it had no exit, but... if my mother was alive? If she was alive... what did that mean? It changed everything. If she was alive then what else was a lie, and why had she left? Or maybe she had been taken. Suddenly I was angry. Did my grandfather know and never telling me? If this was true... if this was true, I needed to know.

  Chapter 35

  He was talking but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. My ears were still roaring with the sound of the ocean and my heart thudding in my chest. “... she did carry you of course. But when she found out the truth...she couldn’t bear the idea of you. She ran and I followed, anything to be close to her. But they always pick wealth over love, don’t they? Ha.” He laughed and moved ahead of me down the hall.

  Every time he opened his mouth, he made me ill. Were these things I did not know or were they lies? My world was crashing around me, but I needed to know the truth. But if what Jake had said was true for me too, then things might suddenly be making sense.

  We went a fair ways down the white hallway until we came to another set of shiny metal doors. These doors opened at our approach. Although I had never seen one, let alone been in one, I knew from all my movie watching that this was an elevator. He rolled in. I looked inside first, felt the floor with my foot and then followed.

  As soon as we were inside the doors shut smoothly. I felt it move quickly upwards and my stomach soured. I had no idea where we were going. I just hoped we didn’t crash. I dug my fingernails into my hand and when the doors opened, I breathed a sigh of relief. The air that met us smelled damp, like wet rock. I followed willingly this time, glad to be out of the elevator. We moved down another hallway and then on the other side another set of doors opened at our approach. This time there were seats and an open space created for his wheelchair. This looked like trains I had seen in movies and I assumed it was a subway of sorts and was proved correct as I felt us start to move. We moved as if we weren’t moving at all but I could feel the pull against my body and suddenly we weren’t surrounded by rock anymore as we soared out into bright sunlight, climbing higher and higher along what looked like the side of a mountain on one side and a breathtaking view on the other. There was obviously a valley below us, and other hills covered in trees across from us. And past the hills were more hills. It was gorgeous and even though I saw them, I only half noticed. I considered what he had said. I had been told my mother had died shortly after I was born. But if she wasn’t dead then had she abandoned me? Could there be a good reason for abandoning your child? Suddenly I felt more alone than I had ever felt before. At least in the past I could dream up how sad my mother was to have died, and now I knew she hadn’t, and I felt betrayed. Grandfather had told me she had died. Why he would have told me this if it was not true? I grimaced and waited.

  The train slowed and then stopped. Then there were powering down sounds and a click of metal as the doors opened.

  This time the air was filled with the smell of plants, it smelled like Grandfather’s greenhouse and made me homesick, but Mo was moving fast ahead of me, so there was no time to pause. The hallway was enclosed in glass overhead and along one side like the train. Outside was a forest of green things, I looked in awe as I followed him. When I got to the end of the hallway I stopped. The room before me was like the cave Jake had taken me to except that this was huge, it might have been man-made, but it looked like the inside of a mountain and was like stepping into a glass cathedral filled with plants and water and diffused light. It was extraordinary. The sound of water was coming from the far side of the space. It was not a terrifying waterfall like the one at the river but a peaceful waterfall that fell from a crack in the side of the rock wall high above into a pool below.

  We headed straight for the waterfall and came to a large space overlooking a lower room and the pool. Then I saw below us a bed covered by a puffy white comforter and in a chair beside the bed was a woman dressed in a nun’s type habit that was all white except for a piece of blue in the shape of a bird in flight. This seemed a bit odd since I thought all religion had vanished with the fall, but she did seem to be a nun. She watched us as we came down the stairs and nodded to Mo. Then she got up and left but only to the other end of the room where there was another chair and a small table that must be hers as they were both white and decorated with the same blue bird. As she got to the chair, she picked up a book from the table and sat down, not even looking back at us.

  Chapter 36

  “Elizabeth,” Mo said, as he pulled up alongside the bed. “Elizabeth, wake up I have a surprise for you.”

  At this I became concerned that perhaps he really had lost his mind. There was nothing in the bed but a pile of pillows and a puffy white comforter.

  “Come here!” he ordered me. “Come, show her you are here.” He tapped the arm of his chair. “Elizabeth, look. Look who is here to see you.” He looked down at the bed obviously expecting something to happen. “Say something!” he ordered glaring at me. Then his tone softened, and he said, “Elzbeth, say something to your mother.”

  “Mother...?” I felt dishonest saying this, even to an empty bed.

  "Go on, go on," he demanded.

  Was he mad? The little girl in me wanted it to be true, wanted there to be someone there under all those covers, but if it was true then I also wanted to be hurt and angry and very, very angry. Why had she left? Where had she been? Why hadn't she come back? And then I couldn't help myself. “Mother, my name is El.” My voice wavered even though I had promised I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of affecting me but then I froze as I saw the covers start to move. It was a slow movement from deep within the mass of white. I held my breath.

  A bone-thin hand emerged up out of the whiteness, working to push the blankets down and out of the way with only minimal success.

  It wasn’t the see-through skin or the unnatural thinness that shocked me, but my own eyes staring back at me that did the trick. I stepped backward in a panic, breathing quick and shallow, hyperventilating. Was that possible? Could one look so much like their mother? She was older, of course, and thinner, a hollow reflection of myself. Hope and fear twisted into one inside myself and it terrified me. Suddenly I understood, they wanted me to die so she could live, just like Jake said.

&n
bsp; She studied me for several moments. “Andre said you were dead.” As she said this in a hoarse voice, she attempted to push the comforter in front of her down again with her hands.

  Mo took hold of her hand as it moved across the top of the comforter and squeezed it gently. Then he looked at her, but I could tell he was speaking to me. “When Josef disappeared, we thought he had killed you out of jealousy. We never imagined he would have raised you, given the circumstances.” He looked up at me for a moment. “Finally, Andre got news that made him hopeful, not to find you but to find Josef. So, he went looking again, hoping he’d kept the rest of Elizabeth’s eggs viable. But this is so much better. Now we can celebrate.” He smiled.

  “You act as if it is her lucky day,” Elizabeth whispered.

  “But it is, she wanted to meet her mother and here you are,” he said, spreading his hands apart indicating her prone form.

  She tightened her lips and closed her eyes for a moment as if gathering the strength to fight this fight. “Do you know why you are here?”

  I looked at her for a moment trying to decide what to say. “Josef sent me, to find him....” I said, nodding towards Mo. “And...” I stumbled over what to say next as I looked down at her but Mo cut in.

  “She thinks Josef was her grandfather.” He laughed. “Rich, don’t you think? And she believed him.” He laughed again and this time his eyebrows raised a mile high. “Hysterical,” he said, as he watched Elizabeth’s face.

  Mo pushed himself back to the table and poured water into a tall glass. He handed it to me. “Here, you must be thirsty.”

  I swallowed involuntarily.

  “It won’t bite,” he said, offering the glass to me again.

  I reached out and took it from him.

  Then he poured some into a cup with a handle and a hollow, pointed end. He carefully lifted Elizabeth’s head and let her drink from it, then he let her head down as she settled back into her pillows once again.

  My world had flipped upside down and it felt like it might collapse in on itself. I wanted to run, or cry, or be angry but instead I stood there feeling sick, unable to believe. “Josef raised me. He was my grandfather, and all I had...” The last bit faded under Mo’s outburst.

  “He was your keeper, not your grandfather." His voice boomed, angry and harsh. "He kept you alive and away from us for one reason and one reason only, because he hoped someday to be able to do as we intended all along, to help her.” He nodded down at Elizabeth. "But he didn’t want to help her if he couldn’t have her, he was selfish. In the end, I assume giving Elizabeth back her life was a last-ditch effort for him to save his soul. Ha! Redemption! I love it!” He tipped his chair and threw back his head to laugh, but as he finished laughing, he sobered instantly, swallowing the rest of his laughter and clearing his throat. His smile soured and his eyes narrowed. “Andre,” he said.

  As soon as Mo had said his name I heard shoes on the stairs, and turning, I saw Andre flanked by two large men all dressed in grey. I wouldn't have recognized him immediately, a different setting, different clothes but it was him. My world cracked. The man who had murdered my grandfather was coming straight towards us. My heart shuddered, part rage, part terror and I felt myself start to panic but I couldn’t move. I heard Elizabeth sinking back down into her pillow of blankets. Her face drawn and tight, I looked at her and she stared out at me as she disappeared, her eyes becoming distant and full of sorrow.

  Chapter 37

  “Moses, you didn’t tell me we were expecting company,” Andre said, as he walked towards us. He was wearing a suit that shimmered as he walked, making him look like a business tycoon out of an old movie. But as he got closer, I realized how frail he looked. Obviously, he was a very powerful person, but his pale skin made him seem sickly.

  As he grew closer, he slowed. “It’s you,” he said, and stopped.

  The look on his face changed, and he reached into the bed to touch my mother.

  “Darling, do you see, do you know what this means? You are saved.” He pushed the blankets aside so he could see her face and took her hand. “Do you see? Do you understand, we can finally live again. No more being stuck here in this bed. We can go and do all the things we always wanted to do, together.”

  The covers moved slightly as she pushed them with her other hand and with seemingly great effort lifted her head in order to see. “What about them, Andre? What about their lives....”

  “We've discussed this. Without us they would not exist.” He shot Mo an incriminating look then scraped his hand back over his head through his white hair, “Why do you insist on this nonsense? This has been the plan from the beginning.”

  “This is your plan and it should never have been.” She slowly withdrew her hand from his and slipped down into the recesses of the covers once again.

  The last time I’d seen this man, his men had killed my grandfather and seeing him now made me sick and enraged. I wanted to throw myself at him and pummel him with my fists. However, I saw that although he was obviously powerful and probably dangerous, he was also old. How could I pummel an old man no matter how enraged I was?

  He looked me up and down like he was choosing a fish to fry.

  I scowled back at him.

  Then he looked at Mo. “An exact replica as you said she would be.”

  “Down to the smallest mole.” And they both looked at my neck.

  I wanted to put my hand on my neck to cover it so they couldn’t see, but it was too late for that.

  “It was cruel of Josef to have hidden you from us all these years, he cost us precious time.”

  Mo had reached in and laid his hand on Elizabeth’s head. Immediately Andre tightened his lips and raised his eyebrows. Clearly, they both wanted to claim her as if she was a possession they were vying over. As Andre reached down to her, I realized he was wearing skin-tight gloves. They were clear like his skin and with them, he reached into the covers. She started to pull away, but he took hold of her hand anyway.

  “It will be alright,” he said to Elizabeth, but she did not look at him. She was looking at me, but her eyes were empty.

  Then I realized, I didn’t want to be here anymore, mother or not. They wanted to use me in some way and my very existence made whatever it was possible, tacit compliance because I was alive. Without me, there would be no saving her, my mother. I stared into her eyes.

  “Get on with it.” Andre threw up his hands. “I have waited long enough.”

  The look on Mo’s face made me wonder what their relationship was, he seemed annoyed or angry, it was hard to tell.

  “I need time to prepare,” he said, from between tight lips.

  “Well, hurry up! If your experiment doesn’t work I want to know.” He leaned forward looking down into Elizabeth’s cocoon. “You will feel better once this is over, darling, much better. The new improved you, eh?” He hovered there for a moment, perhaps hoping for some kind of response but he got none. “Get on with it then, I am tired of this.” He waved his gloved hand at her mute form and left the room with his guards, one ahead of him, one behind.

  Once Andre and his guards had gone down the hall and through the sliding door, Mo turned back to Elizabeth and leaned in, pushing her covers aside again. “Don’t worry, he won’t have you, not this time.”

  She closed her eyes and turned her head away.

  Mo rolled to the other side of the room.

  I looked at her and she was looking at me again. Her eyes were captivating. My whole body was vibrating with a mixture of rage, confusion, fear and it was hard to think. I wanted to run far away from her, but I also wanted to stay I wanted to talk to her. “Are you... my mother?” I whispered.

  She was silent for so long I felt myself become even more anxious. What if she was?

  “There is no easy answer to that question,” she whispered.

  “A yes or no will do,” I said.

  “I guess you could call me that if you like, but technically I would be more like your twi
n than your mother.” She closed her eyes again as if explaining this had exhausted her.

  “But you carried me?”

  “Yes.” She turned her head towards me but did not open her eyes.

  “And you gave birth to me.” My emotions threatened to erupt into tears, but I forced myself to remain contained.

  “Yes.” She wiped a tear from her cheek with a bony finger, and she continued so quietly I was compelled to lean in to hear her. “I was in a coma when Andre and Mo came up with the idea. They’d done everything in their power to heal me to keep me alive, but they were afraid they were losing me. When I came out of the coma, they had already created you and implanted you inside me.” She shook her head. “When they told me I was pregnant, I was so confused. I thought I’d become pregnant naturally. I thought Andre and I would be parents. And then you were born, and you were so perfect and gorgeous, I fell in love with you. But one night I heard them talking and I realized the truth of what they had done. When I put everything together... it tore my heart in two.” Shaking her head, she wiped more tears away. “I couldn’t stay. If I had stayed... Josef helped us escape but I was ill and afraid that somehow Andre would find us. I asked Josef to hide you. So, he took you and went north. I told him we would meet in the North, we even had a rendezvous plan, but I knew we never would, I knew I never would, but I needed him to believe that to keep you safe.”

  “He told me you died....”

  “He may have believed I had died when I never came to find you. I was sick and my body couldn’t handle the stress of fleeing. I took shelter with strangers and lapsed into unconsciousness. The Sisters of Mercy took pity on me. They took care of me, but Andre is their benefactor and thus their doors are always open to him so...”

  Mo rolled back to the side of her bed and made her drink whatever he had made. Then he fiddled with controls on a stand near her bed and the light dimmed all over the room. The glass all around us grayed, cutting the light by half as if it were now dusk.