by Matt Ryan
“Bridget, you’re alive!”
She had bags under her eyes and her shoulders were slumped down. I searched for her fiery spirit but came up blank. She looked defeated. I reached down for her. I wanted to touch her to make sure she was real.
“Things have gotten bad in here. You shouldn’t have come back,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“Get up here with me.”
I pulled Bridget onto the fence and she spent some time steadying herself, but she finally got a solid footing and nodded. I let her go and turned to the crowd.
“Right now, there’s a war going on in the teachers’ hall.” I pointed to the large double doors barely visible at the other side of the hub.
“There’s been a war in here since the day you left,” Leo called out, and crossed his arms.
“Jackie is in that war, in that hall, right now.”
The words struck Leo hard, and he unfolded his arms and walked to me.
I ignored him for the moment. I had him now, but I needed the others. “You’ve been told a lie, all of you. This isn’t the real Academy. This place is a farce, a charade. Verity and her brother designed this fake Academy so they could get kids to make stones for the dark alchemists.”
Gasps and conversations filled the spoke. I concentrated on the Blues, staring them down. They had to know I wasn’t wavering; my mom’s life depended on it.
“Your parents either don’t know you’re here, or are fighting on the outside to get you out. The retirement is a lie. It’s just a way to turn you into a stone. I’ve seen it.” I thought of Ira and tried to keep it together, but my voice shook. “We have a chance right now to unite and take our lives back, to get our freedom back. No more of this Blue versus Red bullshit. No more hating your neighbor only because you were taught to. No more! Right now our friends are fighting the teachers and probably losing.” I took a deep breath. “We need to go and help them. This nightmare can end now and we can go home.”
The Reds cheered and the Blues chatted, but no one was spurred into action.
Bridget, red in the face, turned to her brethren. She pulled off her blue scarf and held it above her. “No more.” She threw her color to the floor. “Don’t just stand there like a bunch of idiots. Let’s tear this place down, starting with them!” She screamed with more force than I could ever muster and pointed at the teachers’ hall.
Leo jerked at her words and pulled off the blue cloth wrapped over his wrist. He threw it to the ground. “No more! Come on, people! Get your stones and go to the teachers’ hall.”
Everyone cheered as they bustled in and out of houses, collecting hidden stones. I hopped down off the fence and landed on the Red side.
“Glad to see you back, but what the hell’s going on?” Bridget said.
I started jogging toward the teachers’ hall and Bridget and Mark kept up with me. “We found my mom,” I said as we jogged, “and found a way to get back in here. It all went wrong when Deegan caught us.” I fixated on the doors at the end of my line of sight.
“Good,” Bridget said. “I’ve got something I want to personally deliver to Deegan. That scumbag has made it his life’s goal to use and abuse me in the name of making stones.” She was the one with a creaky voice now. “And I made a few, Allie. They forced me. I just wanted it to all end.”
I didn’t know what Bridget had gone through, but I could see the change in her; she was meeker and weaker. I didn’t like it. I liked things constant in my life. Seeing her beaten into a compliant sack of bones made my blood boil. Yet another thing the dark alchemists had taken.
“You’ll get the chance. I doubt they’ll be expecting this,” I said as we passed the statue of Clymene.
A lot of Blues and Reds caught up with us. I looked back to see a mass of them keeping pace. I recognized many of the faces and hoped I wasn’t heading them into slaughter. I knew my mom couldn’t keep all the teachers at bay, and that by now she’d most likely succumbed to a stone or two. They’d want to keep her alive, though. That was what kept me going. I’d seen the look on the bald man’s face—he knew her. Maybe they all did. They’d want to keep her, prod her, make her spill her secrets, much in the same way I had with Verity. Maybe they’d have Bridget make the stone.
We reached the door and everyone stilled into silence.
“No one falter. We have the bodies and the stones to end this. Fight dirty. Fight to win.” I held up my two stones and handed one to Mark.
Bridget brought out a black-looking stone. I’d never seen one like it, but I hoped it would hurt.
I heard distant screams behind the door. Could it be possible my mom was still fighting? I gripped the iron handle and shoved the door as hard as I could. Swinging open, it slammed against the wall. The teachers had amassed near the end of the hall with their backs to us. Jackie and Carly were still lying where I’d seen them last.
I couldn’t find my mom, but I saw the teachers’ faces as they looked back at us. They divided their glares between us and whatever was in Verity’s office. As we flooded into the hall, their glares turned to fear. It was simple math—how many students does it take to revolt? Their fear gave me the strength to show my teeth and stomp toward them. The teachers huddled closer and glanced at one another. Not one of them had an answer for us.
One step forward and a battle cry from me, and the mass of students moved with a vengeance. Some of the guys were faster, running ahead by a few paces. One threw a brick and another a stone. The brick ended up doing more damage, hitting a frail, older teacher in the chest.
I threw my one stone at Deegan’s back. It hit the portly man’s jacket and flew off to the side, striking a woman in the face. The stone broke and a cloud burst open. Everyone but Deegan screamed and fell to the floor, covering their faces, while he ran farther into Verity’s office.
Deegan gathered something off the floor and turned to face me with my mother’s limp body in his arms. His hand shook as he jerked a knife close to her throat. “Stay back.” He took a few steps deeper into Verity’s office.
I neared Verity’s door and took a quick inventory. The mist had disappeared, but some of the teachers were still trembling, rubbing their eyes and moaning. The others had lost consciousness entirely, and lay on the floor blocking the doorway.
The crowd of students pushed me from behind. They wanted Deegan.
“Hold back!” I yelled. Mark and Bridget held them back as best they could.
“I’m going to leave you all, and if you don’t give me trouble, I won’t kill this woman.” Deegan shook my mom in his arms. A trail of blood dripped from her neck and I felt the real threat of losing her all over again. The thought of it was unbearable.
My mom’s hand twitched, but Deegan didn’t notice.
I concentrated on his face. “Let my mother go. We can’t let you leave, but I promise to take you as a prisoner and treat you better than you have these prisoners.” I pointed to the crowd of students behind me. Many of them protested, some of them yelling out for me to kill him. I knew Bridget wanted to; she sneered at him and gripped her stone tight.
“She’s your mother?” Deegan laughed. “That sure as hell explains some things. Why don’t you tell your people to leave this hall, and I’ll disappear into the morning air.”
“You know I can’t let you leave.”
Deegan’s eyes narrowed, and he pushed the knife against Mom’s neck. More blood trailed over the steel. “I’ll give you five seconds to close those doors.” He stepped back until his butt hit Verity’s desk.
Both of my mom’s hands had moved on their own by this point. Then she opened her eyes, saw Deegan and me, and closed them.
“Five,” Deegan said.
“Give me a second. Pull the teachers’ bodies back.”
Some of the students took great effort to make the move as forceful as possible, pulling the teachers away from the door and slamming them back onto the floor, heads cracking against the tile. We backed up toward the door.
“Four,” Deegan continued.
“Maybe we can make another arrangement,” I said.
“Three.” He made his way around the desk and pulled a drawer open. “Two.”
“Mark,” I whispered. “Get ready.” He was the best thrower in the class, and he was holding a stone in his gloved hand.
Deegan fished around in the desk—and then shock spread over his face. He yanked the drawer out, letting it fall to the floor. Lowering down, he pulled on the next drawer. My mom must have felt the shift in his weight, because her eyes popped open. She gripped his arm, pulling it down with all her weight. Deegan tried to correct, but his robust size didn’t allow for such a balance shift.
Falling to the floor, my mom pushed his arm over her head and snapped his hand, pulling the knife free. Then she plunged the knife into Deegan’s side. He fell down the rest of the way behind the desk. The desk blocked most of my view, but there was a struggle until I saw Deegan’s legs stop moving.
My mom rose from behind the desk, spatters of blood on her face and hands. She breathed hard and looked around the room. Then she dropped the blade to the floor and looked disgustedly at her red hands.
I ran to her as she rounded the desk. Already crying, I couldn’t help myself; the idea of her dying had sent me to the edge. We embraced as if for the first time and I sobbed against her shoulder. She smelled of blood and sweat. Not the olfactory memory I wanted of my mom, but I’d take it over no memory.
I turned back to the other students. Many of them had moved into the room and were staring between Mom and me and Deegan’s dead feet.
I wiped my face with my sleeve. “We won!”
They cheered and yelled incoherent things. The crowd flooded into the room and they tore at the picture of Verity on the wall. I looked at her face before their hands scratched it out. I wanted to sear this moment in my mind. The moment we took down this terrible Academy.
“There’s no way we can leave,” my mom whispered.
“What?”
“Deegan was searching for a portal stone, but there isn’t one. They didn’t have a way to leave any more than we do.”
Fear swelled inside me. The air around me felt heavy, and I had trouble breathing. Grasping at my chest, I tried to think of what we needed to do as the rest of the students kept celebrating. The Academy wouldn’t be a safe place to stay; it was only a matter of time before Verity and Axiom came back.
“We need to fill the portal room with stuff,” I said, but no one heard me. I raised my voice. “We need to fill the portal room. They could be on us at any moment.”
Many of the students looked up at my yell.
“I’m on it,” Mark said. He pulled five people with him and out of the room.
Good. I’d known he’d take care of it. We couldn’t allow Verity and Axiom to attack from within. We had to be smart if we were ever going to get out. I looked at the ceiling. L.A. was directly over us, the heart of the dark alchemists. Axiom and Verity would be united soon, if they weren’t already.
“What else do we need to do?” I asked my mom.
She favored her right side as she walked next to me. “Secure the elevator.”
Leo stepped into the room, holding a limping Jackie.
“Jackie,” I said.
She smiled and let go of Leo to hug me. Carly was right behind her, stepping into our hug.
“We did it,” I said.
Jackie laughed. “Yeah, well, now what?”
“We have to secure this building,” Mom continued. “Lock it down while we figure out an escape plan. Mark’s filling the portal room. Do you think you could get the elevator locked down?” She looked to Leo.
He nodded and turned to Jackie. She raised her brows and said, “Don’t be looking at me. I’m not your keeper.”
He smiled and kissed her on the side of the head.
“Brett, Armando, stop looking at that dead body and come with me.” Leo and the others rushed out of the room. Many more were clambering near the door and the teachers lying in the hallway. I had seen a couple of stones being dropped on the pile of bodies, so I knew we didn’t have to worry about the teachers coming to and seeking revenge.
“I’ll go too,” a girl said. I recognized her from the Red house. A few more Reds followed suit.
“Good. Just make sure no one goes up or comes down,” I said, walking up to the pile of teachers lying on the floor. My mom walked next to me. “Are they dead?” I asked.
“No.”
I breathed out in relief.
“But when they come to, they’ll be dangerous. Does this place have any alchemist cells?”
“I wanted to forget about that, but no. That sick place is unique to you, I’m sure.”
“You’d be surprised,” my mom said. “Storing an alchemist improperly is a very dangerous venture.”
“There’s a service locker,” Carly said. “Pretty small. We could clear it out and put them in there.”
“Fine, but bind them with solid knots and cover their mouths with tape. And make sure there isn’t one other thing in that closet,” my mom said.
Carly nodded with a smile. She gathered a few people and they were gone, off to complete another task.
“What do you want us to do?” I asked.
“Haven’t we done enough?” Jackie said.
“You two can help me make some stones we’ll need in case they make a rush on this place.” My mom walked toward the door, but I didn’t follow.
I looked at Deegan’s feet. “What are we supposed to do with him?”
My mom stopped and turned to me. “We’ll incinerate him,” she said, as if that was obvious.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Room five.” She lifted Deegan’s key ring and shook it. “You coming?”
I looked back at Deegan. I didn’t like being part of a group who had killed a man, and it didn’t escape me that my mom had done the actual killing. But I didn’t have time to think about it now. I needed to suck it up and make stones. “Yeah, we’re coming.”
“Holy shit,” my mom said as she entered room five. She glanced back at me. “Sorry.”
I was getting used to the curse words coming from her. I couldn’t say I liked it, but now I knew my mom used foul language.
She moved to the first bookshelf while I looked at the vacant desks, remembering the last time I’d seen this room. “Here it is,” she said, holding a small book in her hands. “If she only knew what she had.”
I looked over my mom’s shoulder to see the cover. It displayed an alchemist’s circle with a triangle on the inside, wrapped with symbols. The title on the book said A Practical Guide to Herbal Stones.
Mom sat down at the nearest desk and opened the book.
“What are you looking for? You think the philosopher’s stone is in that?” Jackie asked.
“Don’t be daft. This is just a part of it. The author of this book is our very own Blane.”
Jackie squinted. “Blane wrote that?”
“How do you know?” I asked.
Mom looked up at me from the book. “The stone I used to make Jackie fade in and out six times—”
“Seven,” Jackie corrected.
“Seven. Well, when I used the stone, I was able to have a quick conversation with him and he divulged the whereabouts of this book.” She tapped her finger on it. “He said this was the key. However, when we got to the library he’d mentioned, it had already been raided by Axiom. His sister is a well-known book collector, so it didn’t take long to learn that she’d left it in here. We only hoped she would take it at face value and store it without much consideration.” She smiled. “And we were lucky.”
“Well, what’s it say?” Jackie asked.
“Give me a minute.”
With my mom deep in the book, I left the room and stood in the doorway. Carly walked by with a large group. They were dragging the teachers’ bodies to room seventeen—a small storage locker. All of the stuff that had been
in the room sat in a pile outside, near the door. They had the teachers stripped down to their underwear, tied up and gagged, and were pushing each one into the room.
I smiled at their progress and thought of Mark. He should be packing the portal room with whatever he’d found. I missed having him at my side, though. I hadn’t been far from him for this long of a time before, and I resisted the urge to go find him and offer help. I didn’t need to be some doting girlfriend. He probably had his hands full anyway.
A chair screeched behind me and I turned to see my mom holding the book near her face.
“This is it,” she said. “We need to make stones. A lot of stones. Can you two gather everyone around the statue? With all this help, we couldn’t have ended up in a better place.”
I frowned and looked back out to the hub. A few students were mingling around, but how would we go about rounding them all up? They were sprawled all around the complex.
“The intercom. We can use it,” Jackie said.
“Brilliant.” I gave her a thumbs-up. “It’s in the teachers’ hall.”
“Go, go. I’ll meet you at the statue,” my mom said, and pushed the small book into her pocket.
We found the intercom in the teachers’ hall, just where I’d remembered seeing it. It looked much like an old phone hanging on the wall. Jackie held the handset and cleared her throat before pushing the button.
“Hey, bitches, this is Jackie.” Her voice boomed over the speakers. “We’ve got some major shit to talk about, so all hands on deck. The statue, five minutes. Peace.” She released the button and hung the phone back up, all smiles.
“Eloquent,” I said.
“Hey, I didn’t want them mistaking me for Verity.”
I laughed. There’d been no chance of that.
The students gathered around the statue. When I saw Mark and Carly, I waved them over and they made their way through the crowd. Mark looked sweaty, but had a big grin on his face. I loved seeing him happy. I’d never thought I’d see that sight in this place.
Bridget walked up next to us and nodded. She’d been helping with the transportation of the teachers, and I hoped she’d gotten a few digs in during the process.