by A. B. Bloom
Chase’s face folded into a frown and he said. “No.”
I stepped away from the human who had the capacity to turn my little world on its head. “I’ve got to get back to my mom.”
His fingers caught mine. “Please stop her from leaving. I know she’s hurting, but that money is nearly yours. It could set you up for life.”
I tried to pull away from his grasp. “It’s not all about money, Chase.”
Before I could step aside he reeled me in, his mouth placed calmly over mine with just the lightest of pressures. His lips didn’t open and there was no heated blast of connection like under the strawberries. When he pulled away his dark eyes flamed, although I didn’t know what it meant. “I know that, Delly.” His mouth curved into a smile. “I wouldn’t survive in this place without you the next few months. You’ve got to stay.”
“So we can hide in the shadows? A controversial friendship between a Meta and a human?”
Chase shook his head and tugged me closer once again. This time his kiss was searching, and his mouth opened over mine, his tongue flicking along my lower lip.
I was breathless when he let me up for air.
“I’m not hiding.” He grasped my hand in his, and as if he was proving the point he held my hand all the way back to my accommodation, and hell if I didn’t smile despite the many stares we received.
My skin was flushed with an alien warmth when I let go of his hand and went back to face Mom. “Keep your comms on,” he whispered as he stepped away. “I’ll call you later.”
The temperate atmosphere of the Complex suddenly seemed very hot to me.
“Mom?” I called and searched for her in the bedroom.
Her face was guarded when I entered. “Delphine.”
“Mom.” I nodded in greeting but she made no attempt to smile at me.
“Who was the boy, Delly?” she asked and I sighed. Clearly, she was going straight to the point.
“Just a boy from class, Mom. It’s nothing.”
She cocked her head to the side, her gaze analysing. “Didn’t look like nothing to me.”
“He’s a friend, I thought that’s what you wanted.”
She snapped. “Don’t treat me like a fool, I know what it’s like in here.”
I stepped back. “That’s not how you’ve always made it seem.” Folding my arms across my chest I glared at her. “I thought this was all perfect and an experiment in unity.”
Pushing her hair out of her face she let out a defeated breath. “I’m hopeful, Delly, not naive.” Taking a step forward she reached a tentative hand for me. “We’ve got to leave, I can’t have them finding out who you are.”
I shook my head. “I can’t, and I won’t.”
“Why, because of the boy? If they find out, Delly, they will take you away from me, lock you in a room and use you until the day you die.” The word die choked in her mouth.
I lifted my shoulders. “We stay. Dad would want us to get the money so Anya has a good safe life, that’s what matters here. He’s gone, Mom, gone and the body you want to take back isn’t his anymore.”
Mom crumpled with my words and I sat by her side on her hard bed, the bed that up until a few nights before she’d shared with her life partner. Her words when she spoke were strangled. “You promise to stay safe.”
I nodded. “It’s only a few more months.”
She sighed and looked up at me through watery eyes. “A few more months and then we can get out of here.”
“Richer.” I said, but I knew that it wasn’t the money I was interested in. It was the human. That night I laid on my uncomfortable bed and replayed the vision of him being killed repeatedly, desperate to find a clue. Each time I watched, the image got fainter and fainter until right before I shut my eyes it disappeared completely and I knew I’d done what I shouldn’t. I’d fallen for the human boy who needed my gift to save his life.
Now because of me it would end.
“Can I just say the grey of your scrubs is particularly flattering this morning.” Chase tugged me in and skimmed his lips along my throat. We were far enough from Mom that I didn’t need to worry about her seeing. Everyone else could see though, and they were watching with avid interest. The sensitive skin of my neck smouldered under his touch.
We’d been like this for two days, him with me wherever I went. I wondered what he’d used to do, before he met me and filled his days with trailing a Meta. He was always cagey with his responses when I asked.
“What’s on the agenda for studies today?” He grinned and grabbed my Uni backpack from me, slinging it onto his broad shoulder.
“Um…” I stared up into those dark eyes, my words flitting from my head.
“How about...” He leaned in and nuzzled against my neck and my entire body responded with a steady hum of electricity that thrummed deep within me. His future was all but faded from my vision, even as we walked along. If I searched for it there was nothing apart from whisps of fragments. It was beginning to feel like I’d never witnessed it at all. “How about...” He tucked his fingers under my chin and lifted my face to his, catching my distracted attention. “We go for a walk around the fields again, you know we were so rudely disturbed last time.” I sucked in a breath at the memory of that day—the day my dad died.
I tried to fight the swelling darkness of grief that threatened to steal my moment of contented happiness from me. In the depth of the night when I was undisturbed I’d had plenty of time to think and mourn and part of me knew that Dad was better reprieved from the silent prison he’d been trapped in since he’d returned to us. Mom was a wreck but she was dragging herself to the kitchen every day to perform her duties now that her seven days of mourning had passed.
Anya…well Anya was a rule unto herself.
Chase stopped mid step, ignoring the weave of people who parted around him. “I’m so sorry, that was insensitive of me.” He clutched me in towards his chest and a few loud tuts reached my ears. I resisted the urge to filter into the futures of those around me and see how they were perceiving our embrace. I didn’t care what anyone thought.
A sharp shove knocked Chase off balance and he nearly tumbled, pulling me with him. Now, Chase is quite big, with wide set shoulders, so no one is going to run into him by accident. He caught me tight, holding me straight and checked me over as if he was searching for damage before turning his attention to the rude person who walked on past. “Hey,” Chase called and I tried to hold him back as he went after the tall human.
“Chase, don’t, it was just an accident,” I called after him, but with my words the human turned and smirked in my direction and I knew that it wasn’t an accident at all. I knew I shouldn’t but I allowed my mind to wander to see what was planned out for that particular obnoxious being but all I could see hear were flashing images that spun through my vision too fast, and loud shouts of angry men. I reached for Chase and grabbed him back to my side, all the while the human watched us. “Please leave it, that guy is anger with a capital A.”
Chase wanted to shrug out of my hold but I held on tight. The human sneered again. “That’s right, listen to your little Meta bit of stuff.” A flash of blonde caught my attention and my eyes were drawn to the blonde girl from lectures, the one who loved attention and who’d glared at Chase and I that first day when he’d come to class. She was smiling, a secret curve of her lips. I took a step forward but was distracted by Chase reacting to the human’s words. He punched forward and nailed the guy a sharp jab on his right cheek. Ricocheting back, his head flew and spittle span out like droplets of a waterfall. The images within my head that I normally managed to contain unless I wanted to filter through them, exploded into a mirage of colour and I gasped as I tried to make sense of them all. Red was washing everywhere and black boots were stamping and I struggled to put myself into the present where Chase was beating on some half-wit human with a runaway mouth. His fist collided repeatedly with skin and bone, blood splattering until the black boots of an Intra offi
cer marched into view. Chase was shouting something at me, something about running but I couldn’t make sense of what was unfolding around me or in my head as a myriad of different visions, different perceptions of the same scene rushed at me. A scene in which I was stood right in the centre.
It was all too quick.
Far too quick for me to understand that Chase was telling me to leave because an Intra officer was about to throw him to the floor and restrain his hand with some form of holding device that was like nothing I’d ever seen and another Intra officer was going to grab my arm, hard enough for me to shout, and then haul me off.
This was not good at all.
In the distance, on the edge of the crowd, I caught sight of Frankie, his blue gaze wide and troubled as he watched me get hauled away by security.
The clock on the white walled room told me I’d been sat there for the best part of two hours when the door finally opened and a man with broad shoulders and a dark stare entered the room.
Chase’s father. I could tell it was him instantly. I didn’t need the visual images of him and his son having a heated discussion at some point later that day to fill my mind and nor did I need to recall the one lone photograph from Chase’s living quarters with the smiling happy family captured for all time. Chase looked like his father in a more handsome, less severe kind of way.
For a moment, I was distracted from my less than comfortable surroundings by the image of Chase that filled my mind. His shoulders set and his eyes ablaze, he looked determined.
Chase’s father didn’t speak. Lowering himself onto the seat on the opposite side of the table he contemplated his fingernails. I refused to fidget or look uncomfortable, that was what I told myself, but when he lifted his gaze and his dark eyes swept my face I knew he could read my discomfort as well as any empath. His expression was one of an intelligent man who cut the bullshit. Which he did. “Miss Hama.” He inclined his head in greeting but there was no warmth in the relaxation of his facial features and his lips didn’t curve into a smile.
“Intra Commander Walker.” I kept my gaze levelled on his face. There was no point denying I knew who he was.
He picked up the papers he’d brought in with him and tapped them against the desk, straightening the edges into a uniform line. “You’ve caused quite a stir, Miss Hama.”
My mouth fell open. “Me? I wasn’t the one handy with my fists.”
A rush of guilt burned my cheeks when I considered my words against Chase, but I already knew Commander Walker wasn’t going to bring out the best in me.
He nodded slowly, his black eyes burning like hot coals. “Funny that my son didn’t have a problem with aggression until he met you.”
“How did you know he met me?” I snapped the question, surprised at my own boldness.
His lips stretched into a tight smile. “I make it my business to know everything my son does.”
“Really?” I questioned and then decided when I saw the hardening of his features that I needed to shut my mouth before I made this a lot worse. Somehow, I doubted he gave a shit about his son but this wasn’t the time to make the point.
He ignored my jibe and proceeded to flick through the file of papers. “So, what form of Meta are you, Miss Hama?” He pretended to read the words on the page but I knew he wasn’t. “I can see your mother and sister are listed as empaths, but you strangely are not. It is the Intra’s understanding that all females in the line of one blood family have equal gifts.” There was no mistaking his emphasis.
I shrugged and allowed my shoulders to fall, the whole time telling myself to keep my face smooth and free of any worry. “I guess it isn’t always the case. I’m as near to human as I’m going to get.”
Walker smashed his hand onto the table and his face flooded with a vivid red. “You are nothing like a human, and nor will you ever be. We just need to find out what you are and why your family have kept you a secret.” He leant forward. “All secrets are kept for a reason, Miss Hama, it’s my job to find out why.”
“Am I a prisoner now?” I quickly stuffed my shaking fingers under my legs so my weakness wouldn’t be spotted.
His face was calm, all signs of the florid red removed. “Only until we have a chance to interview your friends and family.” His eyes met mine. “Assuming they come quietly.”
I gasped. My mother couldn’t be bought in, not in her fragile state. If they found out she’d been hiding me, the implications didn’t bear thinking about.
Commander Walker placed his elbows on the table and leant forward, his intense scrutiny pinning me to the spot. “Unless of course you agree to leave my son alone, stay away from tarnishing his reputation.”
“Tarnishing?” I blurted. “I thought the Complex was supposed to be an experiment in co-existent survival?”
He raised an eyebrow and it reminded me of Chase. I wished it didn’t. “You and I both know that’s not the case, surely, Miss Hama.”
His comms beeped and he held his hand up as if he was stopping me talking, not that I had anything to say. “Status report, Intra Officer.” He barked. His eyes held mine as he listened to the other end of the conversation. “I see.”
I squirmed in my seat. This was a nightmare situation. A couple of weeks back I would have thought the worst nightmare I would be in would have been trying to save a human from an untimely death. Now I knew that my worst problem would be trying to save the human I loved while at the same time protecting the Metas around me.
Walker’s comms disconnected the call with an ominous beep. “It seems your ogre friend is resisting questioning, Miss Hama.”
The blood seeped from my face and a wave of light-headedness caused me to sway in my seat.
“Of course,” he continued. “If you were to agree to my terms, no other, shall we say more heavy-handed measures need be taken.”
A vision of Frankie being held down and subdued with a blast from a medical laser filled my mind and I tried my hardest not to react to it. I knew I was only seeing a retelling of the information Walker had just been relayed. Still it hurt and still it worked. What if they were to do that to my poor confused mother who had just lost her husband. What if they were to do that to Anya who was rebelling and could spill anything and everything.
“Okay.” The mumbled word fell from my mouth and it tasted bitter. “I’ll leave Chase alone. On the condition you stay away from everyone I know.” I knew I didn’t have the right to ask for anything but I figured it was worth a try.
Chase would understand.
At least I hoped he’d understand. I’d get a message to him somehow that he had to stay away from the fields, away from all places that looked like they could be that dark place where his life ended with the seeping of his blood onto dried soil.
Walker flashed me an enigmatic smile. “I’m so glad we could agree, Miss Hama.”
He stood but I was determined to have the last word. “You know, there are still six months left in this experiment, it could be any other human and Meta that unbalance the facade of social justice.”
His smile tightened and his eyes pinched around the edges. “I don’t care, just so long as it’s not my son who’s embroiled in the middle of it. This ‘experiment’ as you call it, Miss Hama, is a volatile situation, and I won’t have Chase put at risk.” His words choked off and if I didn’t know better I would have thought he was concerned, maybe even cared for his son. “He’s all I have.”
I had nothing to say to this so I sat in silence and waited for whatever was to come next.
Walker sighed. “You are free to go, but, Miss Hama, make sure you stick to our agreement. Otherwise I shall be the first to investigate why you aren’t listed properly.”
I knew I’d got off lightly, but at what cost I wasn’t sure.
I was escorted back to my living accommodation. Mom didn’t speak to me as I entered and so I headed straight for my bed, exhaustion and emotional drainage sapping the last remaining energy from my body.
I la
id on my bed and called Frankie. He didn’t respond.
When Chase called me, I didn’t pick up either and I slept with tears drying in my eyes.
Adrianna didn’t meet me for the trip to Uni Academy the next day and I tried very hard not to notice the looks cast in my direction. Everyone must know about the fight. It was what I told myself.
Frankie wouldn’t meet my gaze as we went through security but I felt him crowd near me as we approached a huddle of humans that were clustered and waiting for something. When they refused to move as we walked towards them I realised with horror that they were waiting for me.
People weren’t staring at me because of the fight. They were staring at me because I was the Meta who had dared to kiss a human in public.
The humans refused to move as we tried to pass and there was a grumble through the crowd of murmured whispers I couldn’t quite make out. Frankie’s eyes turned to that stormy dark blue and I placed a hand on his arm to soothe him. “Don’t, it’s okay,” I said. Just as the words being whispered reached my ears. “Meta slut.”
The air pushed out of my lungs. Meta slut. I’d only kissed Chase, nothing else. I hadn’t even had time to contemplate anything else.
I straightened my shoulders and pressed my way through the bodies blocking my path. A human hand connected with my shoulder but I knew I couldn’t spin and retaliate, that was what had started the problems yesterday. I kept on moving as more and more hands surged against me and somehow Frankie was driven away from me. With the touch of one hand the sharp image of Chase covered in blood filled my head and I whirled, my face torn into a mask as I realised his killer was around me, right there and then. There were too many people and they pushed me this way and that, my bag was ripped from my shoulder, the contents spilt onto the floor. I couldn’t care, all I could focus on was the thought of Chase’s blood being spilled in the same way.
I didn’t even register when a human hand yanked at the neck of my scrubs and dashed me backwards ripping the material.