The Gray Institute_Rebels' Hell

by Leanne Pearson

  'Thank you, honey,' She grins, stepping forward a little. 'You're so sweet.' Before I can really assess what's happening, Stacey leans forward and plants a kiss on my lips. She tastes sweet, like fruit, and her lips are smooth and silky. I forget myself for a moment before jerking away, staring back at her in shock.

  'Err – ' I try to speak but my mouth won't co-operate. Stacey frowns at me, equally confused.

  'Oh, I'm sorry!' She touches my shoulder lightly. 'I just assumed – ' She gestures at me, but I don't know what she means by it.

  'I – ' I hesitate. 'I'm not... I mean I've never... '

  'Oh, shoot! Honey, I'm so sorry!' She laughs loudly, highly amused. 'My mistake. I must seem so fucking forward! I've just lived way too long to be shrewd about things, you know? Better to just put yourself out there and see what happens. Looks like I got it wrong this time!' I'm not really sure what Stacey's babbling about but I'm so relieved she's not offended that I nod along.

  'Oh, God. Slav's heading this way. Come on.' She grabs my arm, dragging me outside and into the hall. She jumps the gaping hole in the floor and waits for me to follow before hitching her skirt up – revealing a lot of her marble thighs – and climbing onto the sill of the landing window. The glass has long since been smashed and it's now just a huge hole in the back wall. Below is a view of expansive garden, littered with rubbish and thorny bushes.

  'What's up with that Slav bloke, anyway?' I ask, climbing up to sit beside her. She seems utterly unfazed by what just happened between us, as though she does that sort of thing every day.

  'Oh, nothing really,' She shrugs. 'He's just so bloody creepy. He fancies me and no matter how many times I tell him to piss off he just doesn't get the message.' For such a pretty girl, Stacey has got a foul mouth.

  'How long have you been with the Rebels?' I ask after a long pause. The sun has finally set and a full moon peeks out from behind a fluffy, grey cloud.

  'Um, about five years. I was a secretary when I met Jasmina, that's the tall girl in there – ' She jerks her head back to the room. 'A human secretary, by the way, not for the Auctoritas. Boring ass job earning shit money. I felt like I might as well be a fucking human again. I was really pissed off with my lot. I wanted to be a Regulator but no matter how many times I applied, the Auctoritas just kept rejecting me. Jasmina told me all about Vlad and his plans, I joined up straight away.' She smiles.

  'And do you, you know – ' I hesitate. 'Think their plan will work?'

  'Oh, who the hell knows?' Stacey shrugs casually. 'The French Rebels screwed up, for sure. But hey, it's better than sitting on our asses doing nothing whilst Sirus runs his dictatorship, right?'

  'Right.' I nod after a moment's hesitation. A presence behind us alerts me to Asil, smiling as he stands on the other side of the hole.

  'You should come in here,' He jerks his head to the room. 'There's a surprise for Lorna.'

  'Be right there!' Stacey chimes, waiting until Asil has disappeared before jumping down from the ledge. She turns to me as I land beside her, her expression conspiring. 'It's a shame he hasn't seen fit to join us yet,' She nods to where Asil has just departed. 'He's a gentleman if I ever saw one.'

  'I thought you liked girls?' I frown. Stacey laughs, her blonde hair shining in the pale moonlight.

  'Oh, honey! When you've been around as long as I have, limiting yourself like that seems nothing short of ridiculous.'

  Lorna's surprise turns out to be a home-made cake, baked by one of the older Immortals who holds it proudly in front of the birthday girl as Slav lights candles from the bonfire. Lorna looks delighted, thanking the older woman again and again. 'She was up all night making that,' Vlad rolls his eyes next to me, but his expression is affectionate as he watches the woman. 'An Immortal baking cakes,' He shakes his head. 'What a ridiculous tradition.'

  'Don't be such a sour puss, Vlad,' Stacey scolds him. 'I think it's sweet. The poor girl's been locked up with Sir Alec for how many years? She deserves a bit of humanity, pardon the expression.' She smirks.

  Despite the general bizarreness of the situation, as the hours tick by I find myself actually enjoying Lorna's make-shift party. Most of the Rebels are friendly, besides two strange members who lurk in the shadows not speaking to anyone, even Slav turns out to be slightly less creepy than I imagined. Lorna eats as much cake as she can stomach before it's time for us Immortals to be fed. Maristella – the older Rebel who baked the cake – hands out pouches of red liquid and I stare at the contents, confused.

  'Is this what you usually do?' I ask Stacey, who's already drained hers.

  'Huh?' She frowns.

  'I mean – ' I hesitate. 'Don't you... you know? Hunt?'

  'Oh, right,' She nods suddenly. 'First year. I forgot. Actually, for us this is pretty normal,' She jerks her head at her empty pouch. 'Most Immortals continue to hunt, but for those of us who have better connections, we can often find blood elsewhere. Hunting is time consuming.'

  'Connections?' I shake my head, confused.

  'Hospitals and such,' She explains. 'Go on, drink up.' She urges, nodding at my still full pouch. I raise it to my lips, but a voice over my shoulder halts me.

  'You haven’t hunted before?' Vlad steps in front of me, his dark eyebrows pulled down seriously.

  'Uh, well, not really,' I shrug. 'I had a Practical lesson once where we – ' I stop, swallowing a large lump at the memory. 'We practised on a live victim.' Vlad and Stacey let out low hisses in unison, the sound echoing through their teeth.

  'A new practice,' Vlad shakes his head. 'Approved by Sirus, of course.' He eyes my pouch for a moment before gently taking it from my hand. 'Come on,' He jerks his head towards the door. 'You should learn how to hunt properly. You might need it one day.'

  'Now?' I gulp again, much to Vlad's amusement.

  'We don't condone human beings being shepherded to their deaths as a practice run, but we are, after all, Immortal. You should learn the au naturel way, Ryder. At least once.'

  'I don't think Lorna – '

  'There's no need to tell her,' He cuts me off. 'She's safe with Maristella. Come,' He steps forward. 'You too, Stacey.' Hesitantly, I follow Vlad out of the large house and into the darkness of the courtyard. We climb into his car, he and Stacey in the front, myself alone in the back, and head down the gravel path towards the road. Nobody speaks as we cruise along the winding stretch, past the neighbouring houses and misty fields. Soon, the silence in the car becomes unbearable fused with the anxiety of what's to come.

  'Where are we going?' My voice sounds alien as I speak.

  'There's a farm upaways here,' Vlad points beyond. 'Workers are always coming to and fro at odd hours. It's quiet in the fields – you won't be disturbed.'

  'Vlad,' I shift forward in my seat, feeling tension bubble in my throat. 'I don't really know how.'

  'Stacey and I will help you,' He assures me. 'Use the training you were given in Practical – no matter how immoral the circumstances were.'

  I've neglected to mention my gift to any of the Immortals I've met thus far, and I don't much feel like explaining it now, but how else can I make Vlad understand that I can't kill just any human? I need to see evidence of their guilt; it's the only use my gift grants. But I can't allow myself to appear weak in front of him, no matter how friendly he or Stacey seem. I still don't know them properly, not yet, and if it comes to it, mine and Lorna's safety could depend upon how capable they think I am. That image will be forever tarnished the moment I start babbling about green balls of guilt.

  The farm seems to rise out of the gloom before us; a large, ramshackle building with many out-houses and surrounded by crop fields. We journey on towards it, and before we've driven half a mile, I spy a lonely traveller walking quickly along the dusty road. A male, middle-aged, his balding head lowered as he treads purposefully along the roadside, a brown bag slung over his shoulder.

  'Here's your quarry.' Vlad smiles at me in the rear view mirror, but I can't return it. I've known for a
while that one day I would have to hunt humans for sustenance, that the task would be neither pleasant nor easy, but I never dreamed the day would come so soon. I'm not ready, but I can't let Vlad know that. Even now, he's studying me in the mirror, wondering whether I'll back out. I don't want to kill this man, innocent or not, but my position within the Rebels depends on it, and right now, that position is extremely important to me.

  Vlad pulls the car into the dirt track beside the road, well out of sight of the lone human. He turns off the engine and we sit in the darkness and silence for a moment before Stacey turns to face me.

  'It will be okay, Eve,' She assures me. 'There's no one around to witness if you make a mistake. Everyone has to learn eventually.'

  'Attack from behind,' Vlad tells me firmly. 'And do it quickly. We may be in the middle of nowhere but the less chance you give him to cry out, the better.'

  'When you're finished,' Stacey interjects. 'Cover the puncture wounds with a slash – use your nails. It'll make it look like he was attacked by another human instead of bitten.'

  'Go, Eve,' Vlad urges me. 'He's almost caught up with us.' Before I've had time to think any longer, I place my hand on the door and let myself out, closing it quietly behind me. I start up the path towards the unsuspecting human, whose heartbeat I can hear already. His breaths are laboured as he exerts energy walking, and the scent of his blood is strong and clean. As I walk, I try to envisage a way to determine if this man is guilty or innocent, but it would involve alerting him to my presence in order for me to look him the eye, and besides, even if he is innocent, I can't very well return to the car without having killed him. What will I tell Vlad?

  I spot the man before he sees me, a dark silhouette in the gloom. I dart into the field on my left, moving silently through the tall grass, coming up behind him. My footsteps keep time with his, only five or so feet behind, but he doesn't sense my presence. He's shorter than I originally thought, and possibly older; there's a pale bald patch on the crown of his head and his neck is lined and sagging. I keep time behind him for a while, moving silently on the pads of my feet, and listen to his ragged breaths as he hurries through the night.

  Where is he going, I wonder? Has he just finished work? Does he live on the farm? Does he have a family? Perhaps he's returning to them now. Perhaps he has a partner and children waiting at home for him. How will they feel when he doesn't come back? When they discover he has been murdered in the dead of night on a lonely stretch of road?

  A sense of panic builds within the walls of my chest, taking over my body until I'm in danger of giving myself away. I'm not ready for this. I'm still too attuned to humanity. I'm not like Vlad, who likely has had years of practice, not just with the physical skills required to kill human beings, but with the mental repercussions of murder. The only men I've ever killed were guilty, deserving; I did the world a favour ridding it of them. But this man? This man I know nothing about. This man could be my father.

  Vlad's dark car comes into sight up ahead, and I know that I must make a decision now. I must either kill this man and live with the consequences, fully immersing myself in my life as an Immortal, or refrain from it, foregoing my guilt but betraying my species. Before I can make my decision, a pale hand wraps itself around my wrist and drags me back into the long, grassy field. Vlad's eyes glint in the moonlight, his expression eerily neutral. 'You're procrastinating.' He hisses in low tones that only I can hear.

  'I'm not.'

  'You are,' He growls. 'You have to do this, Eve. This is who you are now. This is what we do.'

  'You don't,' I snap. 'You drink plastic pouches of willingly given blood from hospitals. Who says I have to do this?'

  'I do,' He jerks my arm painfully. 'If you don't, I will.'

  'Why?' I wrench myself out of his grip, feeling the sting behind my eyes where tears would appear. 'Why are you doing this?'

  'Every Immortal has to do this,' He says, his tone rather gentle now. 'It's just the way of nature. Kill him, Eve, or I will.' With that, he disappears, leaving me alone amidst the grass. I breathe heavily, feeling my anger and helplessness merge into one. This man will die now, no matter what, because of me. For the first time, I view my Immortality as a curse rather than a blessing, and I head back onto the road to fall into step with the man once more.

  As he passes the dark car, I launch myself at him, remembering my Practical tutor – Alexandrov Oblonsky's – instructions. Swift and clean. Don't let him splatter. I cup the man's head as he falls to the ground, shielding his skull from the tarmac. In one smooth motion, I sink my teeth into his neck and draw the blood from his veins, unable, despite myself, to suppress a moan of ecstasy as it quenches a hunger I didn't know I possessed. My body lights on fire as his life drains away and his torso goes limp in my arms. The whole thing is over before he's had time to struggle.

  As his lifeless body hits the floor, the car door opens and Vlad joins me at the man's side. I turn my head, refusing to look at him, and head back towards Stacey. 'You need to slash him.' His voice calls over the breeze.

  'You do it.' I snarl over my shoulder, climbing into the car. I slam the door closed and turn away from the sight of Vlad mutilating the dead man's body. Stacey eyes me warily in the wing mirror.

  'Vlad's very old,' She speaks quietly, her voice tinged with regret. 'He forgets how hard it is at first. How the first one stays with you. But don't worry,' She turns in her seat to face me. 'It does get easier.'

  I remain silent on the journey back to the house, and storm past Vlad up to the room where Lorna sits by the fire, talking to Asil. I haul her to her feet and turn to the brother of the man I now hate.

  'Are we sleeping here tonight?' I demand. He appears taken aback at my tone but doesn't rise to it.

  'No, we're heading back to the house.'

  'Can we leave now?' I don't wait for a reply before turning, dragging Lorna from the room. I let her sit in the passenger seat this time whilst I brood alone in the back with the shadows. I won't talk to either of them, no matter how many times they ask me what's wrong. Eventually, Lorna falls asleep, and the only noise penetrating the air is the humming of the engine.

  'Do you want to talk about it?' Asil asks finally. I shake my head. 'Is it something my brother said?'

  I snort in response, and Asil nods knowingly. 'He can be a little brash sometimes. He's a bit socially challenged. It's what makes him a good leader.'

  'What time are we leaving tomorrow?' I change the subject, desperate not to think of Vlad or what I've just done.

  'Eight. We're to meet Vlad and the others back at the house. We'll travel together from there.'

  I glance over at him, his face half-hidden in shadow, his eyes staring straight at the road ahead. 'We?' I frown. 'You're coming with us?'

  'Not exactly,' He shakes his head, his curls bouncing. 'I'm – ' He hesitates, glancing into the rear view mirror. 'I'm going with Lorna.'

  'Lorna?' I frown, peering round at her. She sleeps deeply, her eyes still beneath the lids. 'She's not coming with us?'

  'It's too dangerous,' Asil replies. 'She'll end up holding you back. There are things you need to do that you won't be able to with a human in tow.'

  'Oh,' I sit back in my seat, staring out of the window, watching the dark fields whip by. 'She's going to be furious,' I snort, suddenly amused. Of course it's too dangerous for Lorna to come with us. Of course she'll hold us back. I was stupid not to realise it before. 'She's got this half-baked notion that she's going to be the star of the show. Distract the guards so that we can break in.'

  'Yes, I heard.' Asil's mouth twists at the corner in a small smile.

  'So, where will you take her?'

  'Not far. You'll meet up with us afterwards.'

  'After we've broken the Rebels out, you mean?' I raise an eyebrow. Asil nods. 'I'm still not exactly sure how we're going to transport hundreds of starved Immortals off an island,' I muse, staring hopefully at Asil. He smirks, his blue eyes flashing as a street lamp passes
by. 'They've told you not to tell me anything, haven't they?' I frown. 'Vanessa and Him?' I spit the last word.

  'It's – '

  'Nothing personal. Yeah, I've been told.' I snap, folding my arms angrily.

  'If it makes you feel any better, I don't know the details, either.'

  'You don't?' I frown. 'But you're His brother..?'

  'The brother who refuses to join them,' He reminds me. 'The brother who still has a relationship with Malachy Beighley.'

  'But Malachy – '

  'I know that,' Asil interrupts. 'And Vlad does, too. But he's not a very trusting person, my brother. Not even with me.'

  The admission doesn't surprise me, and as we travel smoothly towards the safe house, I conclude that Vlad is not at all a likeable person. Perhaps his past is the reason for it, but after what he just made me do, I can't excuse him. Though a part of me – a large part of me – knows that what happened had to happen sooner or later, the circumstances in which I was coerced into killing a human being show the depth of Vlad's insensitivity, and I'm reminded once again of my unshakeable loyalty to Lorna as I realise that, if it weren't for her, I would undoubtedly leave Vlad and this whole charade behind.