The Broken Destiny

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  We slowed down as we rose to a low crouch, the tunnel opening up to a small entrance. Sam held out her hands, her fingers laced together. I gingerly slid a foot into them as she pushed me up toward the small tunnel entrance at the base of a huge silverwood tree. We had accidentally found the entrance while playing hide and seek when we were kids. It had become our secret hideaway since then. We visited our hideaway almost every afternoon to get away from the severity that school held for me. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would still have been treated as an outsider, had my grandfather not been our founder. I thought they all held a grudge against me for our existence. Experiments – that’s all we were to the Council. As I pulled Sam through from the other side, a faint light from behind her caused a long shadow to hide her expression, but by the easy set of her shoulders, I could tell that she was still smiling.

  “What is it with you? I asked her, somewhat irritated.

  She stroked her chin. “I can hear Sonja right now,” she said. “You just do whatever you want, don’t you?” she mimicked, her finger waving in front of my face, her head bouncing from side to side.

  “She’ll be furious,” I said. “We’ll get detention for this, or worse. We’ll be imprisoned for the weekend.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Oh, no! I don’t want to have to stay indoors and stare at her pudgy face the whole weekend, when I could be staring into François’ hazel eyes instead,” Sam said with a smirk on her face, her eyes sparkling.

  “I knew it! You kept it from me, you cow!” I shouted and punched her with full force on her arm, making her take a step back.

  “Let’s go,” Sam whined, rubbing her arm. “Stop procrastinating. I don’t want to go back any more than you do,” she added irritably, heading for the path between the overgrown bushes.

  The stars were shining through a gap in the clouds, and the three moons had risen high up in the velvet sky by the time we scrambled over our apartment wall. I scraped my elbow as I leaped down, but landed softly in our back garden. We made our way to the narrow bathroom window. Sam slowly pulled the window open and listened for movement.

  “Clear,” she whispered, and pushed me through.

  Turning my hips sideways, I slid through the metal frame and landed gently on the wooden floor of the small downstairs bathroom. We patted the dirt off of our clothes, shook the grime from our shoes and gradually crept out of the bathroom, heading upstairs to our bedroom. My heart began to race as I realized that the apartment was unusually quiet. My eyes widened with shock as I remembered that the prize-giving ceremony was being held that night. I shot Sam a look of panic and swore.

  “I know,” she replied with identical panic in her voice. “There’s no way that they won’t…”

  Sam stopped dead in her tracks. I quickly followed her gaze into our room. I expected to see Sonja sitting there but it was worse than that, much worse. Sitting with her arms folded across her chest was Kim, one of the keepers and an important doctor on the Council. With her shoulders squared and her lips drawn into a thin tense line, she sat in front of our homemade dresser which sloped a little to the left. I had never been good at woodwork, although I possessed the creativity required for many other artistic endeavors. Her brilliant brunette hair was twirled into a bun that had been pulled high up on top of her head, and her long, thin, turquoise earrings swayed over her collarbone as she turned her head to face us. Nice earrings, I thought. Minoan by design. She had always been a stylish woman. She stood up, her dark pencil skirt narrow against her slender hips.

  “You look nice,” I said with confidence, knowing full well that she had a soft spot for me.

  She had not had a choice in the matter. I was the infamous founder’s granddaughter. I also knew that Kim had grown fond of me, and of Sam, over time. She said we reminded her of herself when she was our age. Whenever a rule was broken, Kim was sent to talk to the “offender.” The Council was serious about a lot of things, but it was most serious when it came to our mental stability, further deepening my suspicions. Spending the first years of your life on a spaceship, and growing up without parents, tends to play tricks on your mind sometimes. You don’t really know where you come from, or who you are meant to be. I spent a lot of time in therapy – much more than the usual girl my age. I guess it was because of my family history. I hated it – being treated like a fragile, naive little girl. Kim uncrossed her arms and made her way toward us.

  “Thank you,” she said firmly, brushing her overgrown fringe out of her eyes. “Sam,” she nodded, before staring me down.

  My stomach twisted with anxiety. She was never this quiet. With hands behind my back, I braced myself for what was coming. Sam and I stood close to each other. She squeezed down hard on my hand, and I knew if she could say something then, she would probably be swearing. Kim looked down at her own hands, her blue eyes softening.

  “You know what this means, don’t you, Ava?” She swallowed audibly.

  I bit down on my lip. I didn’t want to hear what she had to say next because I knew it would probably hurt. Nervously pulling away from Sam, my hands clammy and frozen at my sides, I swallowed hard against the fear.

  Kim cleared her throat. “The dean wants the two of you to be separated,” she said sternly.

  I felt my stomach drop.

  “Kim. Nooo.” My voice broke as I tried to swallow past the tight sensation in my throat.

  “I have no choice, Ava. You should have listened,” she said as she made her way back to the dresser.

  Sam pushed past me.

  “You know what it will do to her, don’t you?” she spat.

  “Yes,” Kim answered, picking up her dark blue purse from the dresser.

  She placed her arms firmly against her sides and looking past Sam, stared at me hard and cold. “What do you want me to do? Lie? Again?”

  I looked down at my hands and felt a great sadness wash over me. I was mostly feeling sorry for myself; always managing to ruin everything with my unyielding will.

  “Yes,” I pleaded, as my eyes started to well up with tears.

  “I don’t know if I can lie for you anymore. I push and push, and try to help you as much as I can, but Ava, I fear you don’t want any help. So now I must force my hand for your own good.”

  I walked to my bed, crossing over the thick, woven rug in front of Sage’s empty bed. Her bed had been unmade for nearly four weeks by that stage.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, sitting down on my bed, my hands in my lap.

  Kim made her way toward the door.

  “I have no other choice.”

  Sam rushed over to her.

  “Please, Kim, one last chance,” she begged.

  “She had her last chance, six chances ago. The Council is unsettled.”

  “Why? Because of who I am?” I raised my voice in anger, immediately regretting it.

  “Yes, it’s precisely because of who you are, Ava – you know that.”

  Kim’s lips pulled into tight thin lines, her eyes lowering to the floor. I saw her shoulders drop, and I felt guilt boil up inside me.

  “I know it’s unfair, but the Council feels that you…” she started.

  Someone on the other side of the door cleared their throat. It was clearly a man.

  “I have to go. I’m sorry, Ava. I’ll make an excuse for your late arrival.”

  “I’m not going,” I spat out.

  “As you wish.” Kim spoke with a sorrow that made me feel hollow and cold from within, like I had just lost something special. She turned her back on us, and I heard two pairs of footsteps making their way toward the dark wooden stairs. The door slammed shut behind them, their voices echoing through the garden. It was definitely a male voice. The gate creaked open and I swore I heard him say “you’re doing the right thing”, before the gate shut and their footsteps clattered away into the distance. Sam sighed loudly, sitting down beside me, her hand gently rubbing the small of my back in hope of comforting me in some way. I think it was c
omforting to her, to comfort me.

  “She’s given up on me,” I said softly, my eyes lingering on my fingers.

  “On us,” Sam said quietly.

  Later that evening, we had decided, much to my dismay, to attend the prize-giving ceremony after all and hoped that our cooperation would bring us less punishment. It was an academic evening and Sam received four neatly carved, wooden trophies. Two were for languages – Afrikaans and English, one for science and one for history. I only received one trophy and that was for art. It had been at least four years since I had been rewarded with more than one trophy, but quite frankly, I didn’t care anymore. I felt that everything about us was false. We were the first human settlers to arrive from Earth. The Minoans lived in a village near the seashore, but the two cultures hardly interacted despite the fact that they also held high positions on the Council. The Minoans’ village was humble. Their white cottages nestled up against the base of Mount Inja. A primitive village, it supplied us with raw materials and most of our herbal remedies. The Minoans also made good jewelry, only using semi-precious stones, the reason unclear to me then.

  Kim didn’t look at us once that night, but she did applaud when we received our prizes. I was somewhat on edge because of it. Late that night, Sam and I lay quietly in our beds. The moons beamed a pale light through our window, but the stars seemed cold and distant. We were worried about how they would split us up, hoping that it was just a threat, but we knew that threats eventually lead to action.

  “Do you think they’ll get someone to replace Sage?” I asked resignedly.

  “I don’t know,” Sam said softly.

  I could tell she was tired by the way she dragged out her words. Sage had disappeared almost four weeks earlier – with no witnesses to her disappearance. It was as if someone, or something, had just appeared out of thin air, picked her up and taken her to another world altogether. The nature of her disappearance pointed to a great plan. I had read enough detective novels to know what planning a successful kidnapping, and leaving no forensic evidence behind entailed. If it had been the Zulu people, they would have left their victim behind either barely alive or dead – with body parts missing, such as their eyes, tongue, or mouth. They were well known for their muti attacks, taking those various parts which were used to produce muti (medicine), or potions. We knew very little about their black magic, but we did know that the body parts were taken when the victim was fully awake and aware of what was happening. The organ, or body part, had to be full of adrenaline for the ancestors’ magic to work. The whole case was strange.

  “Who was that guy with Kim tonight? Her date?” I asked Sam.

  “Maybe,” Sam said through a yawn.

  “He’s from the English School, right?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Oh, Sam, wake up!” I yelled and threw a pillow at her.

  She turned her face into her own pillow.

  “Don’t want to. Got a game tomorrow, remember?” she replied, her muffled voice tired and emotionless.

  “Fine, good night then!” I said heatedly.

  I lay there for a while, staring into the subtle darkness of the night. The treetops rocked gently from side to side. I wondered when it would rain again, when I would see dark, fierce clouds gathering and bolts of lightning livening up the sky. It had been almost three years since the seasons had changed. We were stuck in the limberness of mid-autumn, just like I was stuck on that damn planet, bored out of my troubled mind without a glimmer of hope – deep in nothing but a dark abyss of hopelessness. I snuggled in deeper under my covers, fighting off the cold that had somehow crept in, trying to imagine what it must have been like on Earth. I had seen depictions of it in the dozens of movies we had downloaded from the network. I wished that I had lived in the time before the final disaster, before they tore everyone away from their parents and brought them to such a primitive place where we lived a totally restricted life, and where our science was set against an almost brand new planet. I longed to live in a place where everyone got along and no prejudice existed. I dreamed of a land full of diverse cultures where everyone was free to be themselves, not mindless sheep like at our school. We had been carefully shaped into something of their design and given the persona they wanted us to have. I felt my anxiousness turning numb as I started struggling to keep my eyes open. My chest tightened, and my head felt heavy with worry and disgust. I was deep in dreamland, in another world altogether, when something brought me back. I froze, listening carefully. I couldn’t hear anything, but I definitely felt a presence outside our window – our second story window. The window slid open and a bright orange torch shone into the room. My body stiffened as I tried to call for Sam, but the dark presence had a paralyzing effect over me. The dark figures were inside the room in a matter of seconds. They were too fast to be human. My heart pounded inside my chest, and my arms stiffened against my sides as my body sank deep into the mattress. I felt myself slip away as they neared. I tried very hard to shake my spirit free and to save it from being sucked into the unknown, but I was in some weird state of paralysis. My lips wouldn’t move. My whole body was slipping away from me. I didn’t know if I would be able to escape, if I let myself fall into the darkness of unconsciousness. The two tall, dark figures made their way past Sam’s bed. I felt my soul shake violently as I fought for consciousness. I strained to pull myself free from the darkness that threatened my soul in a desperate attempt to grab Sam. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t scream.

  “Ava!” I heard Sam shriek as one of the figures held a pillow over her face.

  I need to get free, I thought, as I struggled against my invisible restraints.

  “Damn it, Ava!” she yelled, and I finally felt myself snap out of it.

  Sam’s thumbs burrowed into my shoulders as she shook me. She stood inches away from my face, her breath warm against my cheek. I looked around – all was calm. There were no dark figures hiding in any corner of the room, but I did notice that it was unusually dark. The glow of the three aqua moons had faded. They lay behind a blanket of clouds.

  “You scared me!” Sam exclaimed.

  “Thank you,” I heard myself say, as I held my fists over my heart. “Just a dream,” I said, falling back into bed.

  “A nightmare is more like it.”

  Sam’s tone wasn’t calm and pleasant. A pale light fell on her face and I could see how puffy her eyes were. She must have been in a deep sleep. She stumbled as she climbed in next to me, and we lay spooning each other until she fell asleep. She lay behind me, her long arms stretched over my torso. Sam was there for me every time I had a bad dream; my safety blanket. Her deep breathing turned into a soft snore. I fought, and tried awfully hard to block out her snoring, but I couldn’t fall asleep, however. I lay there terrified of the shadows. Slowly slipping from Sam’s grip, I made my way to the kitchen thinking that a cup of warm milk and some comfort food would ease my angst. My feet hit the warm wooden floor and I thanked my lucky stars for technology; the invention of what is known as under-floor heating was amazing. I made my way down the stairs silently, so as not to wake any of my flat mates. As I stared into the fridge, my bare thighs broke out in tiny goose bumps. I looked over my shoulder in the direction the slight chilly breeze was coming from, and noticed an open window above the counter that held all our blenders and replicator apparatus. The stifling smell of smoke made its way toward me. Who would have smoked down here? I wondered. There were six of us in the apartment, but I couldn’t recall any of them ever smoking as it was forbidden to the female species. It must have occurred only a short while before as the smell of smoke was still heavy and potent in the room. I crinkled up my nose and shook it off. I continued to peer into the fridge, pulling out a canister of milk. I searched for some grapes, rummaging through the drawers to no avail, stomping my foot in disappointment.

  “Typical.” I murmured.

  My grandfather, being our founder, had left me a huge inheritance so I could afford luxuries and most pe
ople took advantage of that. The shoveling of boots on the wooden floor nearby startled me – I dropped the milk and spun round. My stomach churned. Quickly, I reached for the lamp on the countertop beside the fridge. We had had a water fight in the kitchen a few days earlier and had burned out some of the circuits that lighted up the bottom floor, so we were making do with an old touch lamp that didn’t seem to be working properly just then. I hit the sensor one more time. The lamp dimly lighted up the counter but the entire bottom floor was still flooded with darkness.

  “Couldn’t sleep either, huh?” a smooth voice said.

  It was a male voice. I slammed the refrigerator door shut in shock, let out a small yelp as my finger got caught in the door, inwardly swearing at myself.

  “Who’s there?” I inquired. “What are you doing here?”

  My knees trembled. I am sure it was a dream I had earlier, I tried to convince myself.

  “Eating grapes,” the silky male voice said, slicing through the silence.

  I frowned at that. I could see him moving out of the shadows toward me, but I couldn’t quite make out his features, the majority of his face still covered in darkness. He stopped just shy of the light. His slight figure leaned against the edge of the wall that led up to our room.

  “I asked you a question,” I said furiously.

  “Uh-huh,” he said. “And, as I said, I am eating grapes.”

  He promptly swallowed.

  “Oh, and staring at your sexy legs,” he added, a hint of mischievous amusement in his voice.

  I stood anchored to the spot. I had gone downstairs wearing nothing more than a shirt and thick knee-high socks. My cheeks reddened.

  He picked at another grape. “Want some?” he mocked, extending the bunch.

  His voice was slightly muffled as he was trying to talk with his mouth full. I twitched and took a step behind the counter, feeling exposed and embarrassed. Pulling the shirt over my buttocks to cover my underwear, my cheeks searing with heat I said, trying to gather my thoughts. “If you leave now, I won’t scream,” and pointed toward the door.