by Martha Adele
She walks over to me from the hallway and throws her arms around my neck, kissing me on every inch of open skin from my neck up. When she pulls away from me, I look down to find her wearing Mom’s orange gemstone necklace.
“Welcome home,” she tells me.
A smile rises up on my face as I lift her off her feet and open my eyes to reveal the dream ending.
Markus and another dude I don’t know have passed out on the couch beside me, leaving Bram nowhere to be seen. I rise to my feet and shake off the haziness left over from the purple vial. No one around is awake for me to say goodbye to, so I make my way to the door to leave when I am interrupted with an idea.
I make my way back to the desk that they pulled the purple vial out of and take an extra. Heading out of the house as quickly as I can, I find myself a cab roaming the streets and head home.
When I get home to an empty house and one piece taken out of the cake, I realize how much I hate living alone.
I think back to the feeling of my mother’s warm hugs. I think back to how wonderful they felt. She would always welcome me home. She was always concerned with my well-being. Now, who is? No one is worried about me. No one cares about me.
Mom would have made sure the cake was put away properly rather than letting me leave it out like I did. It is going to get stale if it isn’t already.
Pulling out the purple vial, I lie down on my couch and sit in silence. I stare at the purple bubbles inside the glass tube and think to myself, One more time.
The medicine is injected into my thigh once again, and I watch it drain. I close my eyes and lay my head back.
My mom.
I miss my mom.
It hurts.
It hurts my chest. It hurts my head. It hurts me. The pain seems to put a million tons of pressure on my chest, causing it to hurt to do anything, including breathe.
The vials are the only thing that ever help, and sometimes they don’t even work.
“Don’t worry.”
I jump off the couch and spin around to locate the voice.
“It’s okay, Sam,” she tells me.
“Mom.” I feel my lower lip begin to quiver, and my eyes begin to flood. I run around the couch and wrap my arms around her, just as she does me. The warmth from her hug enters into my body, causing a calming sensation greater than all others.
I don’t seem to get the chance to take my time and hold her. She pulls away and brings up her sleeve, wiping the tears off my cheeks. “Why are you crying?”
“I miss you.”
A smile rises up onto her face as her piercing blue eyes meet mine. “I know. I miss you too, but I will see you again one day.”
“I don’t want to wait.” Tears pour down my face no matter how much I try to stop them. “I miss your hugs.” I chuckle and wipe the tears from my face. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, hey.” She pulls my arms down from my face. “It’s all right.” She wraps her arms around me once more. “You need to be strong. There are so many things in life to look forward to. I don’t want you to miss them because you are too busy dwelling on the past.” She pulls away and wipes more of my tears. “Dwelling on me.”
I nod and allow her to pull me into another hug.
She kisses my forehead and takes a deep breath. “I love you.” The sounds of the empty house around us seems to become more apparent as I realize how shaky my breath is.
“Don’t go,” I tell her. “Please don’t go.”
I feel her hug getting lighter as she passes once more.
The gut-wrenching feeling returns as I choke out, “I can’t do this myself.”
Logan
“Hey, Mavis, it’s Logan.”
The rain outside begins to grow in severity. “Hey, Logan,” she answers. “How are you?”
“I’m good, I’m good. Actually …” I shift away from the wall phone and pick up the newspaper off the counter. “I was just calling you to congratulate you.”
“Congratulate me? For what.”
“For your picture and article being in the newspaper!” I look over the beautiful pictures of the park and read down the article where they cite her name as a large roar of thunder consumes the atmosphere. “It says right here that you took these pictures and that you coauthored the article.”
“Wait, what is it about?”
“The park.”
“Oh really? They gave me credit for that? Yeah, those are my pictures, but I didn’t help write the article, I only interviewed the man.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. That was two weeks ago anyways. I didn’t think that he was even going to do anything with that stuff.”
I toss the paper back onto the counter and chuckle. “Well, he made a great choice to use your work. It looks amazing.”
“Thank you. It—” The rain outside begins pouring even harder, causing our line to break up. “… was—”
“Hey, Mavis, the line is breaking up.”
“What? Logan, the line is breaking up.”
“Wait, I can hear you now.” I chuckle again and look out the window. The skies say that the rain won’t be letting up anytime soon. “I think I should probably go get a cab so I can make it to work on time, but before I go, I—”
“Logan—” The line continues to break. “… saying.”
“Can I see you tonight?” I slowly and loudly enunciate.
Laughter bounces out of the phone’s speakers. “I can hear you now. Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Okay, when can I?” The line goes dead. “Mavis?”
I hang up the phone and dial out for a cab. If I don’t get one now, I’m going to be late for work.
I call for one and have to wait over twenty minutes before the cab arrives. When the driver finally picks me up, she speeds through the rain as if there was none. Though the windshield is covered in water, completely compromising her vision, nothing stops her.
When she drops me off at the building, I almost sprint away after paying her. I have never been so relieved to get out of a car, and that includes the first time I was blown up. I make my way into the building, have them scan my wrist to sign in, and get right to work.
Throughout the entire day, I am able to avoid John. I figured that he would have come over to me and somehow scolded me for coming in late, but he hasn’t checked on me once. His neglect combined with the fact that I get to see Mavis tonight makes this the perfect day. That is, until I finish cleaning one of the training rooms.
I straighten my posture as I rise to my feet from the floor and get a shooting pain in my lower back. I shoot back down into the bent-over position I was in right before the pain came along, and I freeze. I don’t want to move. If I move, I could damage myself further, but I can’t stay bent over.
Slowly, I begin to rise back to a normal standing position with a small amount of pain and strain on my lower back. I squat down, never twisting or bending my back, and pick up my cleaning supplies.
After packing them all up, I look around in all the training rooms for John, but can’t find him anywhere. Still as stiff as can be, I head downstairs to the front desk and ask the woman at the hologram, “Excuse me, do you know where Commander Young is?”
“One moment please.” She nods and finishes typing something. “Yes, sir, he is currently in a meeting. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Um, could you tell me where the meeting is? I need to speak with him.”
“Will you wait outside of the room until the meeting is over?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She smiles and gives me a little wink. “Room 314.”
I return the smile. “Thank you.”
After heading up the stairs once again in hopes to loosen up my back, I wait outside of the room. I can hear slight mumbling from the men and women, bu
t I can’t make out what they are saying.
When they finally exit the room, I see many random people I feel like I’ve only ever seen once before, along with some of the highest-standing officers in Frieden. Werner Rhodes is one of the first people to exit, but he leaves so quickly that I miss my chance to say something to him. General Wilson is the second to last to exit, followed by John.
When John sees me, he heads over to Wilson and shakes his hand, saying something just before the general leaves, surrounded by his bodyguards.
“Forge?” John comes back over to me and looks me up and down. “Why aren’t you working?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m not feeling too good, and I think I may need to go home and lie down.”
He looks down to where my right hand is resting on my back, and his jaw clenches. “How long have you been here?”
“Since about ten minutes after my shift started. The rain slowed the cab services down.” All cabs except for my driver.
He takes a deep breath and lets out an even deeper sigh. “And you finished Training Room D?”
“Yes, sir.”
John nods, scratching the back of his head with what seems like annoyance. “Then go ahead. You were only supposed to be here for another hour anyway.”
“Thank you.” I head out of the building as quick as I can to make sure John doesn’t change his mind. When I finally get out, the rain seems to have stopped, and time seems to have passed much more than I realized. It is already dark out.
I flag down a cab and give them Mavis’s address. I want to stop by her house on the way home to go in and see her. Yes, I need to get home and lie down, but we already said that we were going to get together tonight. We never said where, so I assume she is probably still home. Why not surprise her?
The cab drops me off by the bridge and takes off, leaving me to trudge through the muddy path to their house in the dark. Somehow, on my way, I step on part of a stick and shoot the rest of it up, scaring me into a small jump. After my nerves partially calm, I continue and make it to their house, never fully feeling safe, and turning around every few feet to make sure nothing is going to jump back out at me.
I knock once and find myself knocking nine more times. Not trying to be excessive, I stop myself there and find some sort of relief in the even number.
The door opens up, revealing a short blonde woman that isn’t Mavis. Her hair is separated into curly golden locks, and her smile seems somewhat fake at first. “Can I help you?”
“I, uh …” I hesitate. “Is Mavis here?”
Her smile grows less fake as she looks me over. “Not right now, but she should be home soon.”
Ms. Page peeks around the corner of the door’s threshold and looks at me with a slight squint. “Who are you?”
“Logan.” I touch my chest with my hand and look at her. “Do you remember me? I took Mavis to Chancellor Oswald’s inauguration ball.”
Her eyes flicker over to the blonde girl for a moment then back to me. We stand in silence for a moment as Ms. Page slowly remembers me or pretends to remember me. “Logan!” She smiles and waves me inside. “Come in, come in!”
Ms. Page heads over to the table and takes a seat. She pats the chair next to her and smiles at me. “Come sit. You are more than welcome to stay for dinner! Caitlyn is making it, and she is a fabulous cook.”
I chuckle, not knowing what to say. Why would I stay if Mavis isn’t here? But why wouldn’t I? I don’t want to be rude.
The blonde girl heads back to the fireplace and stirs the pot. “I think that’s a great idea.” She winks at me and smiles.
Ms. Page rises to her feet and looks around. “Hold on one moment.” She exits the room with almost a skip in her step, leaving me alone with “Caitlyn.”
I take a seat at the table, where Ms. Page was gesturing for me to sit and am almost immediately joined by Caitlyn.
“So, Logan, what do you do? Or are you still in school?”
“I am working as a janitor now in the training building, but I fought in the Taai during the war.”
Almost immediately, her slightly shy exterior gives way. She wiggles her eyebrows at me and leans in. “You know, I may not be a photographer like Mavis, but I can really picture us together.”
I can’t help but blush. What am I supposed to say to that? Lucky for me, Ms. Page walks out of one of the rooms with a few framed pictures, stopping Caitlyn in her tracks.
“Mavis is just like a daughter to me.” Ms. Page sets the pictures down on the table, revealing young pictures of Derek and Mavis together in the town. Both kids in this picture hold a scowl and have their arms crossed. “Neither of them wanted this picture, but when the photographer’s bus came to town, I forced them both.”
She slides over another picture that looks like Mavis, just with dark hair and aged a few years. “This was Mavis’s mom. She died when Mavis was no more than ten. Ever since she passed, I have practically taken Mavis in. Her uncle Randy helped some, but he was always too busy to actually do anything useful.” She shakes her head and slides me another picture of Derek and Mavis.
“What happened to her mom?” I ask Ms. Page.
She slowly sits back in her chair and looks over to Caitlyn, who seems overly interested as well. “You don’t know?”
I shake my head. “I don’t really know much about Mavis’s past.”
Caitlyn looks at Ms. Page and is nodded off. She heads back to the fireplace pot and stirs as Ms. Page looks down at the picture of Mavis’s mom.
“Is there something I need to know?” I ask her.
She sighs a deep sigh and places the picture in front of me. “I believe so.”
Mavis
I make my way into Logan’s work building and head over to the desk. A woman sits here, typing away on the desk’s hologram keyboard at a speed that I find unbelievable.
“Excuse me?” I say to her.
“One moment.” The woman continues to type for what feels like minutes before she finally turns around to me. “How can I help you?”
“My friend works here, his name is Logan Forge. Do you know where he is?”
“I can’t tell you that, ma’am. You can ask his supervisor though.” She types something into her hologram. “Commander John Young.”
I nod. “Thank you. Where can I find him?”
“He should be in Training Room D.” She scans my wrist to log me in and points to the elevators down the hallway. The woman describes to me where on the fourth floor it is and quickly resumes typing. I thank her and follow her directions for what feels like a mile down the hallways until I see a door cracked slightly open. I peek in as I walk to see John with a clipboard, doing what looks like taking inventory on the wall of weapons in front of him. I see guns, ammunition, and what looks like little yellow vials that could fit into a gun.
I take a small step inside and utter a little “Hello?”
“Ms. Wamsley!” He smiles at me and sets down his clipboard. “How are you doing?”
I look around the room of weapons to find we are the only ones present. “I am good, how about you?”
He nods and takes a little step closer to me. “Much better now that you are here.”
I give a little chuckle and cross my arms, trying not to scratch. “Do you know where Logan is? I actually came to see him.”
“No, I don’t. He actually asked to leave early today.”
I find myself nodding. “Oh okay. Thank you.” I point back to the wall of weapons and begin stepping back. “Sorry for interrupting.”
“Oh, it’s no problem.” John follows my pace and approaches me. “I am actually happy you decided to drop by. I meant to speak with you more at the ball.”
I find myself nervously chuckling. “Ah. Sorry about that. I know you guys were busy with Chancellor Oswald.”
“No no, Oswald is a friend of mine. I can speak to him whenever.”
“Yeah?” I ask, trying not to be rude. “Well, that’s nice. It was especially kind of you to introduce Eric and Logan.”
He nods once again. “Yeah. They’re good soldiers, and they deserved to meet him.” Stepping closer to me, he folds his arms, mimicking my stance. “I can introduce you two, you know, if you’d like.”
I shake my head and try to scoot back without making it obvious. “Oh, I’m all right. Thank you for the offer though.” John stares at me, so I continue, filling the silence. “Maybe one day, but as of right now, I am okay.”
“Are you sure?” Smiling at me, he steps closer. “It would be no problem. I have a lot of connections and can make the arrangement fairly easily.”
Nodding awkwardly back, I shrug. “Well, again, maybe one day. I just—” I look back to John as he stares me down with an unsettling smile plastered on his face.
John takes another step closer and smiles at me. “You know, you looked amazing at the inauguration ball.”
Not knowing how to take the compliment, I laugh. After a moment, my mouth finally produces words. “You looked pretty nice too.”
He inches even closer toward me, and I make a half a step back. Before I can do anything, he takes my hand.
I freeze, not sure what to do. All I am sure of is that I don’t like this.
John slowly brings my hand up to his mouth and kisses it. I try to pull it away without making a scene, but he doesn’t let go. “You were the best-looking woman at the entire party, you know that?”
I try to pull my hand away again, but he doesn’t release. “Okay. Thank you, but I think I need to get going.”
“What’s the rush? You should stay for a bit. We have always been too busy to ever actually have a conversation.”
“Maybe another time, Commander Young, but I really have to get going.” I pull my hand free and turn around to leave the room, when John grabs my arm tightly.
“Where are you going?” Squeezing my arm as tightly as he can, he growls back at me. “I am just trying to talk to you.” He pulls me closer and grabs my other arm as I try to pull away. “I even offered to take you to meet the chancellor. And what? You’re just going to walk off?”