by J D Jacobs
Abbi makes it to the elevator without any problem. As she lowers us, people begin shouting at us. Some shouts are desperate, some are derogatory. I don’t care. There’s nothing I can do anymore. We make our way into the elevator cab without addressing any of the people. The people pound their fists into the glass door, faces full of agony and rage. I close my eyes to avoid looking at them. It’s strange: at one time, people were pounding on the amber glass to get in Avvil. Now the people inside are pounding on the glass because they don’t know where else to go.
Up the shaft and toward the surface we go. I let out a sigh to ease myself, and Sabrina reaches for my hand. Her touch instantly calms me.
The rain has subsided. There aren’t any additional vehicles waiting for us; only the helicopter we came in. However, Abbi flies straight to the helicopter’s open door, where I see a suited man lying down. He’s happy to be surprised by the eagle meeting him, and I know that Grant must be in that suit, still hiding his immunity. Grant’s even happier to see us two walking toward him. I wave at him from a distance, and he jumps down off the helicopter and hugs me as I approach him.
“Good to see you, Jaden,” he greets me through his mask, patting my back.
“You too, Grant. I’ve missed you.”
We get in the helicopter and slowly lift off the ground. As we do, I look down at the amber glass of Avvil. What was once a magnificent creation to look at now holds nothing but terrible memories. I’m glad to be out of that city, but I would easily go back in if Sabrina were still in there. I’m relieved to have her sitting next to me, gawking out the window and down at the Earth below us. For the first time in a while, she has something new to look down at.
“Who’s in the suit?” Grant asks me as Avvil trails further and further away from us.
“This is Sabrina,” I answer him. “Sabrina, this is Grant. He’s one of my friends from Tryton.”
“Nice to meet you!” she tells him.
“Yeah…” Grant dubiously replies. “So, Jaden, I got a surprise for you. You see that cage at the bottom of your feet?”
I look down and see a small dog cage pressed up against the pilot’s chair. “Yeah, what about it?”
“Open it,” he impatiently tells me. I do as he says, and out of the cage trots a rat with a familiar tint of purple in his tail.
“Oh my God!” I say, cradling Scat. He somehow recognizes me through my suit and nibbles at my arms. He’s ecstatic to see me, too. “I didn’t think I’d ever see him again! When did you go get him?”
“I went on a mission by myself to get supplies,” Grant tells me. “Thought what better place to go than Westwood, I could pick up your rats while I was there. Took me a while to find that one. I knew you had two rats, but I couldn’t ever find the other.”
I think of Scar, wondering how she got separated from Scat. Did she get lost or get killed? Did they even get off the roof of Stevenson’s? While I’m thinking, Scat runs from my leg to Sabrina’s. Sabrina looks at him, wondering what Scat wants from her.
“Pet him!” I tell Sabrina. Scat rubs his head on Sabrina’s leg as Sabrina considers it. Finally, Sabrina slowly places her hand on Scat’s back, and Scat accepts the hand and lies down, letting Sabrina scratch him. “See, he won’t bite.” I never thought I’d see either of my rats again. I didn’t even think either of them were still alive. I can’t believe how happy I am right now, but at the same time, I wish Grant would’ve found Scar.
“Anyway, either of you mind if I ask what happened in Avvil? The two kids, Jasmine and Jordan, they won’t tell me anything, and the other two say that they don’t really know what was going on.”
So I tell Grant the entire story: about the Atonements, about being locked up in the thirteenth floor, about the Fuging Bracelets, and about the people who helped me, even though it cost them their lives. I purposely don’t mention the Ribbons.
Grant tells me that Cody’s Atonement was planned and was part of the strategy to get me and Jenkins out of here, but even when the plan worked to perfection, they still couldn’t get me out. Marvin–who was the other Scav with Grant–drove Cody, Jenkins, Jasmine, and Jordan back to Westwood in the van that he and Grant traveled in. Grant decided to stay behind with the helicopter and plan a strategy on getting me out. Not sure why he waited nearly a full day to rescue me, but I can’t complain. I owe my life to Grant once again.
I ask Grant about Abbi and how she was able to break through the amber glass with her beak, but he doesn’t elaborate on it. He said it wasn’t part of the plan, but that’s about it. For some reason, it makes him uncomfortable.
We don’t really talk much the rest of the trip. And there’s good reason for that: everybody in the helicopter right now is exhausted. Sabrina has leaned her head on to my shoulder, and I can hear her quiet little snores through her mask. Scat has settled down and is also taking a nap on my lap. For the first time, I feel peace in this moment: flying home where I’ll be safe with a girl that I’ve unexpectedly fallen for. This feeling quickly deteriorates, though, when I remember the note in my pocket and the pistol that’s pressed against my thigh.
I struggle to reach into my pants’ pocket and pull the letter out. I reread it, intently studying every single word:
Miguel,
I know about your sick games you run in Avvil. We have the people and property to bury your pitiful city in Cozmin gas. But I’ll refrain from doing so. All you have to do is follow these two requests:
Tryton will be giving Avvil a visit very soon; you can expect us later this week. On that helicopter will be the boy, Jaden. He has the facial scar. You’re keeping the boy in Avvil, but you must make sure he’s SAFE. He’s become too much of a nuisance in Tryton and we need him out of the city as we try to ensure that stability in Tryton is maintained.
As for the extra that will be on the helicopter: kill him. No exception. Make it look accidental or keep it a complete secret, doesn’t matter to me. I just want him dead.
If you want to avoid trouble, meet the two criteria mentioned. You don’t want trouble with me.
I study the imprint on the navy blue seal. Grant asks what I’m looking at, but I tell him it’s just a goodbye letter one of my friends in Avvil wrote me. Nobody else can know about the content of this letter, not even Grant.
I try to logically attach every statement in the letter to a reason. Who would’ve known about Ricardo’s sick game? Who would have a reason to basically declare war on Avvil? Both of these questions are answered in the flashback I had in the research lab earlier today. Somehow, Jenkins knew of Ricardo’s ways and said that he knew he shouldn’t have trusted Ricardo in the first place. Britt Solomon was Jenkins’s brother-in-law; that alone gives him reason to want Ricardo dead.
I then look at the requests: to keep me in Avvil and to kill “the extra.” It’s pretty easy to assume that the “extra” is referring to Cody. So who would want me out of Tryton and also want Cody dead? Who’s the only person that can’t stand either of us?
The more I reread the letter, the easier it is for me to envision Harrison Jenkins’s signature at the bottom of the paper.
He never liked me. He told me that I wasn’t deserving or good enough for the fame I was given. Was this a publicity stunt that he wanted? Tryton’s savior, kidnapped by another city. Then what, a miraculous rescue mission that makes Jenkins look like an amazing hero? A mission where Ricardo dies in the process, giving Jenkins that coveted revenge?
What about Cody, the kid who threw himself on this trip? Cody’s always been suspicious of Jenkins, always questioning and seeing through Jenkins’s phony demeanor. Why not get rid of the kid that always gets under Jenkins’s skin while he’s in the same city that supposedly kidnapped me?
And thinking back to that same flashback in the research lab: didn’t Jenkins mention to Ricardo that the two had agreed on a deal?
It’s a sick strategy. But he never expected Ricardo to show me the letter.
The pistol throbs against
my thigh. One bullet in the magazine. One shot. I’m going to take Jenkins out. I should’ve called him out the moment I witnessed him beat Scarlett and Ryan and send them to their deaths. The man has never been on my side. He killed Scarlett, he killed Ryan, he tried to kill Cody, and he wanted me out of the picture. It’s time to stop him before he acts on the last two.
“There she is,” I hear Grant tell us, knocking me out of my zone. The tall, metal walls of Tryton are approaching us.
Sabrina sits up and looks out in front of us. “It’s incredible,” she says in amazement.
I quickly fold the letter up and put it in my pocket. “It’s home.”
Excitement begins filling up inside of me the closer we get to the walls. I get to see Dad again for the first time in ages. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see him again.
“There’s a few people waiting in the observatory deck in the hospital,” Grant tells us. “If they were on the roof when we landed, they would get a face full of Cozmin from the blades. That is not an ideal situation.”
We slide the helicopter doors open and begin hovering down toward the roof. Sabrina and I dangle our feet off the edge until the roof comes in contact with them. I stand up with Scat in one arm and take Sabrina’s hand. I then lead us to the edge of the roof. We look out into the city of Tryton as the helicopter blades behind us start slowing down.
“This place is so beautiful,” she says, breathlessly. We admire the tall, white skyscrapers and the vastness of the city. The towering, protective walls that encase us. The serenity of being free in a city, no longer bound to a room, gleams through Sabrina’s mask.
“You two should be good to take your helmets off now,” Grant calls out from the helicopter. The blades have already died completely.
I lift mine off, then help Sabrina unhook the oxygen tank from her mask. I lift the mask off of her. Her long, black hair is messed up, tangled over her shoulders. Her face, pale with fading bruises, glows at me. She’s gorgeous.
I smile at her as I grab her pinky with my pinky. “I told you I don’t break promises.”
She leans in to kiss me. I gladly accept. “I’m glad. I’d have to break it if you did!” She playfully claws down on my pinky, stretching it enough to pop the small joint. My laugh overpowers my wince, and I fight back with a little pinky force of my own.
“Hey, lovebirds,” Grant shouts at us from the door under The Spot, “there’s people waiting to see you. Don’t hold them up.”
I grab her hand and follow her to the door. We make our way down the stairs, where Grant is holding the door for us at the bottom. I go out first, Sabrina close behind.
The observatory deck is full of people, made up mainly of nurses. Dad stands in the front, smiling broadly. Cody stands next to Jasmine and Jordan, who are all happy to see me again.
And then I see Jenkins. The man’s presence is barely recognizable. The dominance in his eyes is nowhere to be found; his face looks genuinely defeated. He wears a long-sleeve jacket, but I can see a faint magenta light creeping out from under his sleeve. I eye him, but he doesn’t look at me. The defeated look in his face suddenly evaporates once he sees whose hand I’m holding.
“Oh my God!” he exclaims, his voice cracking.
I then hear a shriek behind me. “Daddy!?”
I turn my head around at Sabrina, whose mouth is trembling, tears quickly forming in the corners of her eyes. She runs across the room to Jenkins, and he takes her in, enwrapping her in his arms. Sabrina cries on his shoulder while he cradles the back of her head, tears falling from his face.
“My baby girl! Oh, thank God you’re safe!”
My dad approaches me and hugs me, as well, but even seeing him again isn’t enough for me to shake the bombshell that was just dropped on me.
IV. Execution
38.
Tryton held another ceremony the next day to welcome Jordan, Jasmine, and Sabrina to the city, as well as tell everybody that their savior, Yours Truly, is safe. They also recognized Stewart one last time and held a memorial for him. Jenkins, due to the Fuging Bracelet on his wrist, hasn’t felt like doing much of anything, so Dad did the talking during the ceremony. Sabrina sat between me and Jenkins, and to be completely honest, it was almost impossible for me to pay attention to Dad. My mind was too busy being clouded with the one fact that’s distracted me nonstop since it hit me:
Jenkins is Sabrina’s father.
Sabrina is Jenkins’s daughter.
Sabrina never mentioned her father to me, didn’t bother to tell me that Britt Solomon was her uncle. But Sabrina didn’t know her father survived. Their initial plan was to travel to Avvil together; Britt even told them he would let them in. But the two got separated somehow, and Sabrina made it to Avvil before Jenkins did. By the time Jenkins made it to Avvil, word had gotten around that Britt was assassinated in front of the entire city, so Jenkins left for Illinois to find another place of shelter. Jenkins thought his daughter had died, while Sabrina thought the same thing of her father.
But it still eats me. Jenkins is Sabrina’s father. There was a flashback I had of Jenkins’s wife egotoning in a hospital. That woman was Sabrina’s mom. I even saw Sabrina in the flashback and didn’t even know who it was I was looking at.
Sabrina lives in Jenkins’s apartment. I’ve never visited Jenkins’s place before, mainly because I had no desire to. Now I do. It’s on the opposite side of Tryton; quite a walk. It’s a cozy little apartment to themselves; a nice place to live out your days with your last remaining family member.
But what really gets me? Her name is Sabrina Jenkins. That is probably the ugliest reminder of all.
But I still really like her. I spend as much time as I can with her, and when I’m not with her, I think about her all the time. She’s amazing, beautiful, hilarious, fun to be with. Nothing can change my feelings about her, not even the possibility that her father wants me and my best friend dead.
The Fuging Bracelet has changed Jenkins completely. The bracelet sucks the life right out of him; he doesn’t get angry or loud anymore, but he does get happy. He still smiles when he sees his daughter that he thought was dead. He weakly laughs when she talks. He even has an almost-convincingly likeable attitude when he’s around me, something he never had before. He’s a different man.
“The only ones who are perceived as evil are the ones who are bad at hiding their intentions.”
Jenkins simply became good at hiding his.
On top of the nightstand next to my bed sits an alarm clock, my walkie-talkie, a cushion for Scat to sleep on, and my old hammer. In the top drawer of the nightstand is my broken shark tooth necklace and an old Sports Illustrated magazine. Under the magazine is a locked, wooden cigar box that I bought at the Tevoc Shop. I have the only key that unlocks the box. In the cigar box is the pistol and the letter. I don’t know if I’ll ever use that pistol. I don’t know if I’ll ever tell anybody about that letter. But they still sleep next to me every night, just in case.
…
“So, you found yourself a girlfriend,” Dad begins, twirling the pasta in the plate in front of him. We’re eating at The Ember, one of the seven Shoas, for lunch. Neither of us own an appetite, though, as we’ve been too busy talking. I try to catch up with Dad any chance I get. “How’s it going so far?”
“I really like her,” I tell him as I slice a meatball. “I really do. She’s amazing.”
“She’s also a little bit older than you,” he jokes.
“Only six years. You and Mom were like, what, five years, right?”
“Your mom and I graduated high school together, so no.” His smile dissolves the longer he looks at me. “I can tell something is bothering you, though. Do you want to talk about it?”
“I didn’t know she was Jenkins’s daughter. Out of all the people in the world to be her dad, it has to be him. It makes me uncomfortable. I mean, you said it yourself. Do you remember what you told me right before I left for Avvil? You said that Jenkins isn’t on
our side. And I still believe that.”
“Jaden, what I said was premature,” Dad replies, his voice lower. “Look at Harrison now with that weird bracelet he has on. If that ‘Fuging’ bracelet does what you told me it does, then he’s waiting to die. He has no energy to do anything. I’ve even taken over most of his mayor duties ever since he came back; he just hasn’t felt like doing anything. There’s no way he could have the energy to hate you even if he did hate you.”
“I know he does, Dad.” Careful not to mention the letter, I remind myself. “I don’t know how I know, but I am positive that he hates me.”
“You know, when I first started dating your mother, your Pawpaw didn’t like me too much, either. In fact, he hated me.”
“Yeah, I remember he told me about the time he caught you and Mom kissing in the barn behind their old house.”
He points his fork at me and smiles. “See, you mentioning the Love Shack proves my point even more.”
“Oh, dear God, the barn had a name? That’s disgusting. Why would you tell your son that?”
“My point is that your Pawpaw didn’t like me either. But eventually, the more I hung around Tiffany and her parents, the more I grew on your Pawpaw. It took me a while, but I eventually went from the kid who was dating his daughter to the kid who’s becoming the son he never had. It simply takes time; Harrison isn’t going to hate you forever.”
“Yeah, but like I said, that Fuging Bracelet is sucking the life out of him. He doesn’t have enough time for me to grow on him.”
“If that’s the case, then him hating you shouldn’t bother you so much.”
…
“What do you think of the place so far? Nice, right?”