Embers & Ice (Rouge)

by Isabella Modra

  “What are you doing?” Will hissed into her ear. His arm still held her tight, his grip nearly bruising her. “Do you want to get us both put back in the Orb?”

  Hunter shoved him away. “What happens if he comes at me again while I’m in the shower, huh? You won’t be there watching me all the time.”

  Will blushed, the color striking against his pale cheeks. He scratched the back of his head shyly. “Look, can we talk about this later? I need to eat and the corridor isn’t exactly the most private place.”

  “But where is-”

  “Meet me tonight in the boy’s bathroom straight after dinner. That’s when the staff eat; there’s less security. And there’s never any guards.”

  “Fine.”

  Will nodded and moved away. The moment he left, a sudden emptiness overcame her. There was no denying that there was something stirring inside her for Will. Even before the Orb, it felt like they already knew each other.

  But what about Eli? Had she already forgotten him? Was there so much going on in ICE that it felt like a completely different world to her life in New York with Joshua and Eli and school and reality? Even if she couldn’t escape, even if Eli was dead, it was still too soon.

  She forgot about chasing after Chantal and hurried upstairs to her cell. She wanted a shower, but she was afraid to even glance at the bathroom. Instead, she slumped into her cell and sat down on the hard mattress. Tears and emotions drained out of her body. She was tired and upset and angry and confused and just wanted to go back to sleep and forget all of this and dream of a better place.

  Moments later, there was a small knock on her cell door.

  Fearne stood behind the glass. She smiled warmly, and even though she didn’t really want to, Hunter couldn’t help but invite the girl inside. It wasn’t the first time Fearne had been there to comfort her. Having the ability to read minds meant that Fearne knew a lot about Hunter’s life even after she told her everything. She could always sense when her thoughts were not on the present, but her cloudy past.

  “You still miss him, don’t you?” she asked as the door opened for her.

  “It’s easier being here than in New York, where I just… moped around. I’m distracted in this place. But there are times…”

  “When you’re alone?”

  “How did you know?”

  Fearne sat back against the wall on the bed. “I can’t read thoughts directly. This–” She pointed to the metal bar digging into her temples, “–stops me. But I can sense things. It’s almost like a premonition. They don’t know how to stop it.”

  “That’s probably a good thing. At least you’re not completely powerless.” She held up her wrist.

  “You were amazing in the Orb yesterday. The way you shielded Will from the acid rain.” Her bright green eyes lit up. “Your power is very strong. Wait-” Her words were cut and her happy gleam dissolved like smoke. She whipped out a hand and pressed it against the center of Hunter’s chest. She froze, waiting, watching the young girl as her eyes darted around in their sockets. It was alarming, but oddly captivating. And yet Hunter knew the girl had sensed her fire.

  “It controlled you once,” she said.

  Hunter bit her lip. That was one thing about her past Fearne did not know yet. But it wouldn’t hurt to tell the young girl the truth – especially since she felt better already just being with her. “Almost. When I first discovered what I could do, I was fragile and didn’t know how to use it. I… I killed someone trying to defend myself.”

  “You are brave, Hunter.”

  She blinked in surprised. “Well… I’m not the only one who has suffered here. Everyone has experienced pain.”

  “Our pain has passed. Yours is still raw.”

  “I just can’t move on yet. I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye, and now I’m locked up here playing cat and mouse. I still haven’t forgiven Joshua either.”

  “These things take time,” she said, as if it were the simplest answer.

  The words toppled out again before she could stop them. “Fearne, what were you doing with that scientist last night?”

  For a moment, she sat there thinking, the smallest frown knitting her brow. “I’m… I don’t remember. What was I doing?”

  “You don’t remember anything?”

  “No,” she replied. It didn’t look like she was lying. “Was it something bad?”

  Of course, they erased her memory. Hunter leaned forward and wrapped a wispy lock of hair behind Fearne’s ears, trying not to wince at the bald patches.

  “Never mind,” Hunter smiled. “Thank you for cheering me up.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said and threw herself against Hunter, wrapping her stick-thin arms around her neck. “I’m very glad you’re alright. You were so good to my Will in the Orb.”

  Hunter’s heart almost broke again. She waited until Fearne had waved goodbye – not without a light peck on her cheek – to let the tears fall again. Only this time, they were tears of joy. The first real tears of joy she’d had in what felt like centuries.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Somewhere, between her first few days of imprisonment and this new side to inhumanity she discovered in the Orb, Hunter felt a darkness swirl within her. It was black and cold like Dr. Wolfe’s soul and it leeched through her, like tar smothering the cracks on a road. The fire cowered from the blackness, because it had never felt anything so dark. Except once: That night in the warehouse, when revenge crept up on her and the fire had brought out an evil side she’d never seen before. It was not quite as silently deadly, but it was just as bad and just as powerful.

  The fire didn’t know this darkness. It was grief and terror and hurt and fury all at once, and it was spreading in her soul. The only thing that stopped the fire the first time was love. But her love had vanished when she truly accepted Eli’s death, and there was certainly no love in her life now.

  That was why Hunter didn’t seem to care about the black spirit that quietly freed itself inside her. Even if she had love in her life, could she see it then? Or was there a greater love to overpower it? Was the ultimate battle with her inner self still to come?

  Voices interrupted Hunter as she pounded her frustrations into her punching bag that evening. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Marcus and Mosi stroll into the room. For the first time ever, Hunter noticed there were no guards, and the two boys were using that opportunity to talk a little louder than normal.

  “I don’t mean Jamison,” Marcus hissed and sat down on the bench. It was always Marcus bench pressing, Hunter noted. Mosi never seemed to do anything. “You know that, right? It’s Steel we should be worried about.”

  “We should be worried about even discussing this,” Mosi replied. He shot Hunter a glance. “People could be listening.”

  Marcus frowned, and only then did he seem to notice her. After a moment he leaned back on the bench and gripped the bar. “Spot me.”

  Hunter pretended to reposition the bag and tried to ignore them, but Mosi had other ideas.

  “Your boxing wasn’t up to scratch in the Orb,” he addressed her quietly.

  Hunter turned. “If you were in my position, you would know that wasn’t the case.”

  “Yes,” he said. “But fortunately, if I was in your position, Will would be dead.”

  A lump rose in Hunter’s throat at the truth in his words. Though Mosi’s eyes were soft and burdened, his body was strong and large. He could crush her with one clench of a fist, and she didn’t doubt that he’d do it to survive.

  “So are you gonna correct me on my technique again?” she asked. “Am I not standing right?”

  Mosi inclined his head. “If you turn a little and bend your knees, you’ll have a stronger impact.”

  Hunter snorted and turned back to the bag. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

  “Did you punch Jamison when he attacked you in the bathroom?” he asked, hovering his palms under the bar as Marcus lifted.

  Zac, you blubbering twa
t. Hunter sighed and decided if this was question time, she might as well sit down. She started stretching her legs out on the mat beside them.

  “It’s a little harder fighting a grown man with an extreme hard-on than a sack hanging from the ceiling.”

  Marcus started to chuckle and nearly lost his concentration.

  “I can only imagine,” said Mosi.

  “I have a question for you guys, if that’s alright.”

  Marcus dropped the bar and exchanged looks with Mosi. “Shoot.”

  Hunter met his raven-black eyes. “Why are you always in here with each other? Mosi doesn’t even need to work out.”

  Marcus’s eyes narrowed. “It’s because I’m Jet’s brother, isn’t it?”

  “Not… necessarily,” she lied.

  “I’m nothing like him,” Marcus said, as if that were the only explanation needed.

  “And I do not need to lift weights,” said Mosi simply.

  Hunter suddenly found herself laughing. Even as Mosi stared at her in surprise, Marcus started chuckling too. It felt good to laugh.

  Hunter sighed and fell back on the mat. “I need to lift,” she said to herself. “My stamina isn’t exactly up to scratch.”

  “You fight well though, Hunter,” Mosi said in his deep voice. “You might not be as strong as you once were, but you are smart and you are passionate. That makes a good fighter.”

  “Please,” Marcus scoffed.

  “You are a Techno,” Mosi snapped at him. “What do you know about fighting?”

  “I’m a gamer, what don’t I know about fighting?” Marcus looked Hunter up and down, his eyes glinting like coals. “And anyway, I could beat her in a fight with my eyes closed.”

  Hunter’s eyebrows shot up. Don’t do it, warned a voice in her mind, but it was just too tempting.

  “You’re on,” she said.

  Mosi and Marcus looked at her with frowns.

  “What?” asked Marcus.

  Hunter backed up a few steps until she was standing on the larger yoga mat. There were still no Men in White around, making her challenge even more alluring. She raised her fists in the basic boxing position, her smile widening.

  “Come on, Spazzy McGee. Get your ass up and fight like a real boy.”

  Marcus breathed a laugh and wiped a hand over his mouth. “You’re serious?”

  “Better put your fist where your mouth is,” she replied. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

  Mosi chuckled beneath his breath and crossed his arms over his large chest. Marcus leapt to his feet and appraised Hunter. Then he stepped onto the mat.

  “You’re on, Hot Cakes.”

  After shifting back and forth on the balls of his feet and grinning like the Joker, Marcus made the first move and the fight began.

  Hunter didn’t realize until she and Marcus were dodging hits and kicks and rolling across the floor how much she actually missed her training sessions with Joshua. As surprising as it was, the man could really dance the deadly art and he taught her a lot about reading the opponents moves and hitting pressure points. Though Marcus’s hits were strong and would surely bruise her fragile bones by morning, his gaming skills didn’t pull through in a real fight. His reflexes were slow when it came to knowing his own body, and his flexibility was poor.

  After ducking under a right hook, Hunter kicked his knee in and caught him around the neck, dragging him down to the floor and pinning one arm under his body. The other one swung heavily up to sock her in the face but she flipped onto his chest and forced the arm under her knee, pressing it down.

  Marcus kicked furiously. “Fine! You win!”

  Hunter knew she couldn’t hold him for long and so she rolled off him, breathing hard. Mosi was grinning and clapped his hands together.

  “Well done,” he beamed. “I wonder if you noticed we have company.”

  They spun to face the door, but it was only two small children of no more than five or six hiding behind the door frame, peering in. Hunter relaxed.

  Mosi motioned for the children to enter and their faces transformed into wide eyes and grins. They hurried to the edge of the mat and sat down with eager gazes pinned on Hunter. She felt insecure and uncomfortable at teaching children how to fight, but perhaps it was a good thing. And the look in Mosi’s eyes told her she might be right.

  “Go again,” he nodded.

  Hunter glanced at Marcus. “Well?”

  With his hands clasped around his knees, Marcus made a face that said this was the last place on Earth he wanted to be, but behind that she could see his thoughts ticking. He really wanted to learn, he just didn’t want to be humiliated.

  “Think of it as practice rather than a lesson,” she said. “After all, I’m no martial arts master.”

  “Someone taught you though,” Mosi noted. “And he taught you well.”

  Hunter raised an eyebrow at him. “What makes you so sure?”

  “I… know more than you think.”

  “You fight her then,” Marcus muttered.

  “Chicken!” exclaimed Sammy, a little boy with silver blond hair and one glazed blue eye that happened during an operation downstairs. He and Hunter had become good friends in the past few weeks. Sammy could glow brighter than sunlight when he didn’t have a power restraint on. “You’re just a big fat chicken, Marcus.”

  “Who asked you, Sparkles?”

  The young boy glared and the girl next to him hid a giggle behind her hand.

  “Alright, enough,” said Hunter. “I think we’d better quit it before the guards come. I don’t know why they’re not even here anyway.”

  “There’s some kind of shortage today,” Marcus said. “None of the guards are upstairs in the cellblock either, just the common room and the breakfast hall.”

  “Why?” asked Hunter. She remembered her earlier conversation with Will. He must know that, or he wouldn’t have wanted to meet me tonight. But how?

  None of them had an answer. Perhaps it’s something to do with why Dr. Wolfe was so cheerful this morning, Hunter thought. Then she realized that whatever the reason, she didn’t want to know. If Dr. Wolfe was planning something, nothing in the world could be more terrifying.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Like most of the Institution that evening, Hunter found the lower floor with the boy’s bathroom empty of all Men in White. She crept cautiously, expecting to be tasered in the back as she went through the common room to the bathrooms on the other side. She pushed open the iron door and peered in. No one was there.

  This room smelt far worse than the girls’. Hunter slapped her sleeve over her mouth and grimaced. The faint sound of dripping taps echoed in her ears. The silence was eerie, and memories of the scene upstairs stirred inside her. She went to turn around and go back when someone cleared their throat and Hunter opened her mouth to scream.

  A hand slapped over it and she whirled, expecting to find herself caught in Jamison’s slimy embrace again. But there was Will, all tall, broad and anguished. She was so relieved that she felt the urge to hug him, to have him wrap his arms around her protectively. The instinct brought upon her a wave of uncertainty and she pushed him away quickly.

  He stared at her with seriousness. “Sorry I scared you.”

  “Where did you come from?” She glanced at the door and frowned. “I was standing right at the door.”

  Will nodded his head behind him, a glint of mischievousness in his eyes. “Secret passage.”

  For the first time, Hunter saw an inconspicuous slit in the tiling. “How the hell did you find that?”

  “I’ve been here a very long time. I know everything there is to know about this place. You’d be surprised at some of the things the guards neglect.”

  Hunter gazed up at Will, at the way flashes of silver light blinked in the deep brown of his eyes half hidden by the dull locks of hair that hung over his forehead. His thin lips were parted slightly, his arm still extended towards her as if he longed for her touch. Though alarms should have been blaring
behind her eyes, Hunter felt no fear in following him. In fact, it would be safer wherever she was going if Will was leading her away.

  “So,” he whispered and pushed the wall inward. It made a soft grounding sound like stone on concrete. “Can we talk down here?”

  Hunter stared at it apprehensively, then nodded. “Okay.”

  “This way to the dungeons,” he smiled suggestively. It was small and crooked, but a smile no less. Hunter had never seen Will with anything more than torment on his face, and for a moment she was transfixed and didn’t move. Then it disappeared and turned into a frown and he was cautiously reaching out to her. “I’m kidding, it’s not… I didn’t mean-”

  “It’s okay,” she said and pulled herself together. The voice of the fire in her mind was shaking its head. Figuratively.

  “I’ve been down here a hundred times. You shouldn’t worry.”

  Hunter went behind him into a tiny tunnel. He stopped once she was inside the dank space and eased the wall back into place. It was suddenly pitch black.

  Hunter groped around for him, her heart beating erratically, and found his arm. She gripped it tight, marveling at his tense muscles instead of feeling fear.

  “Don’t worry, I know these hallways like the back of my hand,” he said. His voice spoke close to her, and its deep tone was soothing. She longed to light a fire to guide them.

  Will gripped her hand as they walked. It had been a long time since Hunter had held a strangers hand that way. It was not the most outlandish thing that had happened to her in the past few weeks, but it was definitely odd. She felt comforted, despite her circumstances. It was unclear to her where she stood with Will, whether they were ‘friends’ like she was with the others, or whether there was something else, a bridge between friends and more. As she moved slowly deeper into the darkness with Will guiding her, she tried to concentrate on his hand in hers rather than the guilt that was still settling in her stomach.

  Will slowed, halted and patted his foot around. Moments later he dipped down and grabbed Hunter’s other hand.