Evanescent

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  “Well, you guys can’t go back to Arriana’s, or to your dormitory. As far as the Council knows, all four of you never made it back,” Greg reminded us.

  “Why are they doing this?” I looked to Troy, my lids pushing back hot tears of anger and frustration.

  “You’re a threat to them now, you didn’t see that coming?” He lifted an eyebrow.

  I shook my head.

  “What?” Troy looked stunned as my face lifted in realization of something.

  “There is something my grandfather left me, we have to get it back before they discover it.”

  “We know,” he said, narrowing his eyes on me. “We need to get that tracker out of you as soon as possible first.”

  “How do you know what my grandfather left me?” I pulled my arm from his, my skin dulled over a second after his touch left mine.

  Troy just stared at me blankly, like he didn’t trust me all of a sudden.

  “The question is rather, how do you know?” he asked, curiously.

  I really had no idea, but I felt the urgency to break into Vista’s hall of vaults and discover it for myself. “Whatever,” I said in almost a whisper.

  Greg leaned over me, his tiny scanner buzzing softly as he pulled it over my rigid body. I was uncomfortable with him so close to me.

  “There is no tracker,” he confirmed what I already knew.

  “We knew that already,” I snapped.

  “One can never be sure.” Greg’s glare was sharp.

  “Why do they want us dead anyway, what did we ever do to them?” I asked again, not quite believing it. I was always treated differently, because I knew they needed something from me; the secrets within my DNA my grandfather left behind. Things they never knew about the prophecy, but I guess something had changed – they knew everything about me now.

  “What did you think was going to happen if you kept breaking rules, pushing their boundaries, and then became a threat against them? They can’t control us anymore. They know that now.” Troy sighed. “We were not to make it back, any of us.” He stared me down, as if to reinforce the thought into my head.

  “How are we going to hide from the entire planet?” I yelled. I was so vexed, I didn’t want to hold back the feelings slowly choking me. I didn’t want this life for us.

  “It’s not going to be easy,” Greg interrupted, his head dotted with beads of sweat. He wiped his dark, wet hair from his forehead. His light green, leather glove came away darkened with moisture.

  “What are in those bags?” I asked them, making sure I was not insane.

  “Resources.” Greg chuckled.

  “We have someone working with us on the inside. Let’s just say the military base is the safest place for you guys right now. But not for long, as there are eyes everywhere. From there, we move to the Zulu kingdom,” Kronan said, nervously twirling his beads.

  As soon as everyone turned to leave, Troy pulled me closer by my hips. My stomach tingled with a heat that penetrated my chest, and broke my resolve. I couldn’t stay mad at him for keeping so much from me. Maybe I couldn’t be trusted.

  “Go with Tatos and my father to the general’s house, get yourself cleaned up, and eat something. I’ll be there in an hour or so,” he said gently.

  Troy kissed me on the forehead, his kiss burned feverishly on my skin.

  “Greg, see to it that Sam gets back safely, will you?”

  Greg nodded.

  Sam and I hugged, but the feeling was lost to me, almost as if we were secretly rivaling against each other. Sam never liked to be wrong, and neither did I. A common thing amongst our kind – competition and pride.

  The distance from the hangar to the general’s place was short, one we could easily navigate through the thick of the forest without being noticed. It was dark out, and once again the three moons lit every step of the way, penetrating small gaps through thick, silver branches. I took in the scent of the purple flowers carpeting the floor and the almost pine-tang of the forest leaves. The golden shine of the general’s compound glowed from a distance away. I sighed in relief that I would soon get clean and be able to quench my almost burning thirst. The door slid open as we neared. The general wasn’t there of course, he had to be in the summit, be our ears and eyes. I had no idea how elaborate a Keeper’s apartment was until we entered. From outside, the glass and concrete compound looked like one single, square room. Inside, I stared at high ceilings of glass and metal-barred arches, and huge concrete walls on all four sides. High-tech sleek was obviously the design, with glossy surfaces and luxury chairs including a huge fireplace. I looked around – no monitors. My feet touched the modern glass floors, which lit up when I moved from one floor panel to the next. Huge screens on almost every gray wall surrounded us. I watched as they placed Maya on what looked like an operating table in an open room near the kitchen. She lay flat on the cold looking surface. Tatos inspected her pupils, while Kronan tied back her hair and pulled on some black, rubbery gloves.

  “What are you going to do to her?” I snapped. But the feeling was more out of defense, rather than one for her concern. The feeling left me sick inside. How had I become like this?

  Kronan looked up startled.

  “Well, first we need to inspect her. Troy mentioned a spell. He also said his scanner picked up some strange signals, and that perhaps Enoch has tampered with her. I don’t really want to tell you what his cruel mind can come up with.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “How would the Council have gotten to Maya to implant a tracker in the first place?”

  Tatos shrugged. “We need to explore every situation. The Council is not to be underestimated.”

  “Besides, we need to find out what Enoch could possibly have done to her,” Kronan added.

  “She is not an experiment!” I yelled.

  “How else do we help her?” Kronan frowned, handing Tatos some healing crystals.

  “I’m not sticking around for this, I’m gonna take a shower.” I stomped off.

  I looked at Rob as he entered the compound. His arms folded over his chest, the glare sent my way… almost judgmental, his eyebrow raised. I stared back blankly. He pointed down a narrow corridor to where, I presumed, I would find the bathroom.

  “Sam sent some of your clothes over.” He handed me the navy, blue bag, our school badge of mermaids and daggers mocking me, a reminder of a life I had never had, and never would.

  “I miss her,” I said as I walked away, truly feeling an empty spot in the pit of my stomach.

  He smacked my arm and I turned; only because of the slapping sound on my naked flesh. I wouldn’t have been aware of it otherwise.

  “I know,” he said. “I do, too.” He looked down.

  “Sorry, Rob.” I didn’t look back.

  “Not your fault.”

  But it was. If only I hadn’t been caught up in my need for affection, my desire to be loved and touched by another. If only I had stayed clear of Enoch, I would have seen things unfolding and been able to stop them from happening. These thoughts prevailed, but felt untrue to me. Could I have truly changed that much within one shift?

  “Ava, make sure you keep your activity low in this house, the system will pick up on irregularities in behavioral patterns very soon,” Rob’s voice floated up the stairs.

  I turned back. “So, I’m a prisoner here, too?”

  “Don’t be so dramatic.” Tatos grinned. “You are alive, are you not?”

  I stomped off again. “Men just don’t get it!”

  The passage was constructed of glass, which cut through the forest below. I stared outside into the thick of night surrounding the woods, the soft glow of yellow light pale against the gray bark. The compound was totally hidden by the edge of Silverwood Forest. I headed up to a smooth concrete staircase, lights flickering on with each step I took. I stopped on the top landing, where different doorways and two corridors glared at me. Damn, this place was like a maze, a huge modern maze. I stared at the white, glass paneled door b
efore me. I felt a tug on my consciousness, almost like I was in the wrong place. I shook my head and continued anyway. I went into the bathroom, the door slowly slid closed behind me. No mirrors, no monitors. I moved to the large window near the shower, and stared at my reflection on the dull shimmer of glass. I shifted my eyes to the shower door, not wanting to linger on my reflection for a second longer, like seeing a secret that was not meant for my eyes. It didn’t look, nor did I feel like me in anyway. My hair was tattered, dirty and knotted from my crown to my shoulders. My legs had lost all its muscle. My face was streaked with dirt and sweat, but I had a feeling it was much more than how I appeared. I dropped the bag to my feet with a soft thump. That feeling of being in the wrong place heaved at me again, like a thousand monsters hammering down on my every step. I stared at the shower. I didn’t want to wash myself, scared to lose any piece of me that might have prevailed beneath the dirty surface. Suddenly, I found myself down the stairs and out of the general’s bunker, shoved from behind by some kind of fire nipping at my heels. Tatos and Kronan were so caught up with treating Maya, it was so easy for me to slip away unnoticed. I searched for Robert, but sensed he was not near. I stared down at my clothes as I slinked from the sliver of golden light emanating through the front garden, afraid the white stood out like a beacon – not the best camouflage. I took off, and ran through the forest. My mind remembered every hidden path we had taken, as if my memory was now etched with a map. The cool smells of the forest were comforting in some way. I felt almost free again, jumping over thick, tree roots covered in green moss, the dark of the forest floor covered in purple creepers that tangled into the branches above. I was aware that the wind rushed over my body and even though I could not feel it, it held an invigorating notion to it all. But much too soon, I came to the hangar door, and slumped behind the golden beams of light cast onto the dark grass and into the darkness ahead of me. I could hear them talking, so close, almost as if I was holding a device to my ear. I heard Robert there, too. Keeping myself low to the ground and as close to the thick grooves of the metal wall as possible, I listened in. Something was driving me, I was to gather information, find clues, gather secrets. Their secrets. I rubbed my eyes with my fists, perhaps hoping it would unleash my conscience.

  “Have you told her anything?” I heard David ask.

  Immediately, my attention was on full alert.

  “No,” Troy answered flatly.

  I felt my heart sink to my feet, draining my body of all its blood. I held on to the wall to steady myself, bracing for the worst.

  “Oh, that’s bad. Don’t you know anything about girls?” Robert teased.

  “You know I’m not allowed to…” Troy began defensively.

  “Oh, right, being a guide takes priority?” David snapped.

  In between the chatter, I could make out the turning and grinding of metal tools on a hard surface.

  “Since when do you follow rules?” Robert half joked.

  “I’m glad you can find humor in my turmoil, Robert!” Troy snapped.

  David cleared his throat before he continued, “Especially rules enforced by Truth Seekers, who you believe are all wrong in the way they go about following this prophecy.”

  “You know. You know I have no choice!” Troy seemed furious and incredulous at the same time.

  “You have to tell her the truth, because if she finds out, or manages to figure it out by herself… I thought we’d been through this. She’s not just an assignment, you told me that yourself. You told me what it meant to have intruded on her life. You knew what was going to happen. You took the risk when I told you not to fall for her, you made things really difficult for all of us, for you, for your father. You either go the entire way, or leave her alone. That’s how I see it.”

  “I have this under control, and you know I loved her before all of this,” Troy replied, solemnly.

  “I would never have let you do this if I knew who she really was!” Dave shot back.

  “No one knows who she really is. Besides she is my assignment – that is the damn problem!” Troy was shouting now. “I won’t use her.”

  “Any more than you already have?” Robert retaliated.

  “You’d better get out of my face right now.”

  My heart was racing; nothing made sense, yet made sense at the same time. I wanted to sprint back in there and slap each one of them but instead, I swallowed my anger and felt the pain lacerate deeper into my restraint. I should have stayed longer, but I was too afraid to. I didn’t want to hear anymore. Forming fists either side of my body, I stood from the dry, prickly grass unaware that I could feel somehow. Something was changing inside me; all sensation came back to my skin. The wind, the heat of summer peaking, sweat dripping down the front of my dress, but it was soon drowned out by the tidal wave of anger narrowing in on me. Troy was going to pay for this, this pain I felt so strongly, my chest wanted to explode from it. It was more than pain, it was something tangible growing inside me, strangling me, and I was afraid of what might surface in its place. Ice replaced logic, froze over my feelings. My instinct crippled my emotions. Buried them far and beyond. I hated that he was now being another of those people who lied to me! I bit down on my knuckles as I walked back into the forest. I had not realized I was on fire, just heard the wild crackling of burning bushes around me.

  “Ava!” a voice screamed from behind me and I panicked, I had been caught. Before I was fully turned, an electric bolt shot from my palms, making me scream as the pain tore through me. It was too late to stop it. Someone tackled me to the ground and we rolled through bush, twigs cutting into my skin, stones and sand scraping against my knees, palms and elbows.

  Once we finished rolling, I stared up at Troy’s face, my eyes wide with shock.

  “What happened?” I asked. I truly couldn’t remember.

  He lifted himself off me, took my hand and gave me the once over.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, yes I’m fine.” I patted smoke and debris from my singed dress.

  “What are you doing here?” He pulled my hand, and we started making it up the small slope we had just stumbled down. I noticed his limp had worsened.

  “You better get that checked,” I said.

  “I’ll live.”

  He pushed away branches as we hit the clearing where I had almost singed the entire forest.

  “It’s nothing!” Robert was shouting.

  I looked up from the forest floor. David and Greg were fussing over Robert’s arm. A fire extinguisher lay disregarded at their feet.

  “Ouch!” Robert slapped David across the face.

  Dave pulled his thumb out of the wound. “I just needed to see how deep it was.”

  “It’s deep, thank you, Doctor David,” Robert huffed, and pulled his arm free from the prying vultures.

  “You need some blood cleaner,” Greg said, tugging a metal canister free from his cargo belt, twisting the lid off.

  “What is that for?” Robert’s eyes widened.

  David nodded, so Greg and Troy each grabbed one Robert’s arms. Before Rob even had a chance to protest, the screaming and swearing echoed throughout the forest. I spun, thinking I had heard something.

  “Warn a guy next time!” Robert spat to the ground and inspected the wound in his right arm.

  “Luckily, you didn’t have a shirt on, or we would have had to surgically remove the cloth,” David said, touching Robert’s wound again.

  “Stop that, dammit!” he yelled. “It’s my arm, and there will be no operations.”

  “Calm down, will you,” Troy ground out.

  “But, it hurts.”

  “Poor baby,” David couldn’t help but tease.

  Then all four pairs of eyes darted my way. I couldn’t remember what I was doing there, what led up to me almost taking a friend’s life. I was shivering, trying to push my mind behind the wall of ice keeping my memories from me.

  And all I could think was why in heaven’s name he nee
ded the blood-cleaner. They could not have known about the disease already, could they?

  Our walk back through the hidden forest path to the general’s, was lit by the early morning rays burning into the start of a new day. The forest was submerged in a radiant purple haze, the hazy glint of silverwood trees shading the light from the dark patches. I was having trouble focusing on anything after the fire I’d somehow started, and was counting on the light patches to guide me. The walk was torturous with Robert’s moans and David’s teasing. But no one said a word about what I had done. Why I had done it, or why I was spying on them? I think that’s what it was. The door to the compound slid open with a low, swooshing sound. A gentle gust of wind blew my hair from my face. Kronan was already waiting for us, his arms tightly crossed over his chest, and a slight scowl on his face as Troy took my hand leading me to sit. All I could focus on was how Troy made my physical sensations flutter to life, and then I put it all together. I had blood-shifted, and that too had brought on feeling to my skin earlier. I hovered over the crisp, white sofa for a while, staring down at my charcoaled dress, trying to forget what was going on with me. Trying to find some kind of clarity.

  “Just sit,” Troy said as his hand left my arm.

  “Yes, sir.” When I tried to sit, my butt hit the sofa harder than I thought. I giggled. It would take a while to judge things without the sense of feeling guiding me.

  Troy kept his eyes on me. “It’s not funny.”

  “Ouch!” Robert screamed from the medical room.

  I sat forward, peering around the corner to take a look. Tatos was pulling and twisting his arm. “Minor tissue damage,” he said.

  “Will it leave a scar?”

  “It might,” he replied. “Do your kind scar?”

  Robert swore. “I don’t know! I have never been hit by fiery lightning before.”

  “It was unintentional…” I started, but swallowed any apology when his eyes kept their lock on mine in a heated stare.