The Broken Destiny

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  “Good will come of this.” Anaya said, picking up on Sam’s concern.

  “How can it possibly be a good thing, Anaya?”

  My annoyance startled her, upsetting her serene posture. I didn’t mean it, but being away from Sam was going to be harder than I thought it would be.

  Anaya smiled. “All will be revealed.”

  I had a terrible thought. What if they want me for whatever it is I will become?

  “I hope so,” a familiar, deep voice said from the doorway, pulling me back to the present.

  “Kronan!” Excitement rippled through me.

  He walked with such grace as he entered the infirmary, and the energy he emitted was calming. It was a great feeling to have a male figure taking such good care of me. He was acting like a dad and I felt myself blush at that thought. Kronan nodded to Anaya.

  “Ava, my dear,” he said, bowing at Sam as he came closer.

  “Kronan,” I said in reply and then continued to question my relocation.

  “Why do you think you can treat me better when… when my people are the ones who created me? They must know my genetic makeup better than anyone. We are the same after all, aren’t we?” I sighed. I knew it wasn’t true.

  “That would be true under normal circumstances,” he said plainly and sat down on the couch by the window. “I’m afraid your fall was the work of witchcraft.”

  “Voodoo!” Sam and I spat out together as we exchanged a startled look.

  Sam jumped up from the bed where she had taken a seat, came and stood beside me and wrapped her hands around my arm.

  “Yes, dears,” Kronan said. “We found a doll near the site of your fall.”

  I heard Sam swallow a hard ball of spit as he got up to hand me the doll. I pushed my back against the wall, gasping loudly. I tentatively took the doll from him, covering my mouth with one hand. This was not happening! Sam took a step closer to me, her eyes focusing on the doll and her face pale with shock. It had a head of hair that was exactly the same color as mine, gray eyes and narrow lips. My face had been replicated on to that doll, and wrapped around her body was a dress that had been made from the material of my missing pillow. There had been someone in our room that day after all, I noted to myself.

  “I didn’t expect things to progress this fast or this violently.” Kronan said to himself, but loudly enough for us all to hear.

  “None of us did,” Anaya added.

  Kronan cleared his throat. “You are indeed special, Ava, as is Maya.”

  “Maya?” Sam turned to me, searching my face for an indication that I knew something she didn’t. I shook my head.

  “Ava, we needed an antidote to inject into your blood. You see, those darts were noxious; laced with a strain of poison we have never come across. This played an important factor in binding you to this doll, and maybe to a ceremony to recall the spirit. We think this is the reason behind your capture.” Kronan sat down on the couch beside the window again, his long legs almost touching his ears, deep in thought, a cavernous line set between his brows, a sure sign he was very troubled.

  “The Council has stored each ‘specimen’s’ stem cells in a database which they use to refer to, and are kept locked in a secret vault.” Anaya continued. “Well, out of all the stem cells collected, only your sample has gone missing.”

  “Missing? How?” Sam asked.

  “It would appear that there was a break-in the night of the bonfire. Two guards were killed.”

  Sam’s head shot up to meet Kronan’s gaze. “Why does nobody know about this?” She griped.

  I felt the numbness slowly returning.

  “Creating more panic among the students and the villagers would only complicate things,” Kronan said nonchalantly.

  Then he looked at me for a while before standing up to look out the window, gazing into the distance a million miles away before he continued, “Ava, someone here among our people has given themselves over to the dark power of the Zulu witchdoctor.”

  I scoffed at his use of the words “our people.” So, it has begun. My destiny was unfolding before my very eyes, totally out of my control.

  Kronan continued to stare out the window as he spoke. “The poison in the dart we analyzed is an ancient potion. It carries the blood of an ancient king. It is an old dark magic, one that has not been practiced for thousands of years.”

  The words entered and exited my mind. This was too much. We had no idea what we were up against. The powers of the Minoans had just begun to return, so how could we protect ourselves from the darkness coming for us?

  Anaya shook her head, clearly as upset about this as I was.

  “We tested almost every human in the colony, but found no match. Your unique bloodline makes you unlike anyone else on this planet. The only thing we could do was to test every Minoan in hope that we would find some kind of common strain, one that would regenerate your cells by means of mutation. The poison attacked your white blood cells, the reason we had to do a blood transfusion and one we could only do once we had found a match.”

  Anaya walked up to me and gently took the doll from my hand, handing it back to Kronan who was now eating the pancakes Sam had abandoned on the table, keeping my eyes locked to hers.

  “But, I don’t understand, they need me right? Why would they want to kill me?”

  Kronan sighed deeply. “In hope that we would call on him for a cure or give you over to him in order to save your life, but he never expected what we found.” Kronan’s smirk widened across his face.

  Anaya continued. “Ava, we eventually found a match. The genetic material of one of the people we tested in our village matched each strain of yours just about perfectly, which means that you’re related to each other.”

  “Related? How?” Sam butted in before I could say anything, her eyes anxiously meeting mine.

  “You have a sister, Ava,” Anaya said with a sparkle in her eyes – a sparkle I hadn’t seen in weeks.

  Her words echoed through my mind.

  “A sister!” Sam yelled.

  “How is this possible? No human on this planet has any relatives.” I asked, looking down at my hands, my fingers twirling the strings of my scarf nervously and excitedly. Then, a huge electrified smile appeared on my face. My chest wanted to tear open with excitement and love.

  “It is true,” Anaya assured me.

  “Maya is your sister, my dear,” Kronan said while he licked at the sweetness from his lips.

  My smile widened and I looked over at Sam, who seemed happy for me.

  “I’m glad to see you’re taking this well.” Kronan stood wiping his hands on his robe.

  “Yes, of course I am.” I said, half in a daze, in shock that it was at all possible. It should not have been possible – second generation had one child, and one child brought on death.

  “Liars.” Sam mumbled to herself quietly, but not quietly enough to be overheard. I could tell from the slump in her shoulders that she was no longer happy and I could understand why. It had always been just the two of us, Sam and Ava, but now it was Sam, Ava and Maya. Sam stomped out of the room, leaving the door wide open in her haste. Kronan and Anaya kept staring at me.

  I moved forward. “You need to tell me everything! How is it that I have a sister if my mother passed away after giving birth to me?” More lies.

  But before I could get my answer, pain like nothing I have ever felt before tore through my body. I screamed in agony as my bones felt like they were being ripped directly from the muscle. Skin shredded from bone, and all I kept thinking was that Sam felt like an outsider. The physical pain of whatever was happening inside me was bearable, and would pass – I hoped – but losing my best friend was not. With a motion of his hand, Kronan shut the door from across the room. Anaya and Kronan started a chant in the language of the ancients, something passed down to a select few and lucky for them, Anaya was a direct descendant. The pain coursing through my entire body left me paralyzed with fear. What was happening to me? Then,
a white light blinded me and the pain left almost as quickly as it had come.

  “It’s happening, we need to get her to Arraina!” The urgency in Kronan’s voice only added to my tension.

  As my body relaxed and my breathing returned, I called for Sam.

  “I’m right here, friend.” She said.

  I must have been out of it for a few seconds as I was not aware she had returned.

  “I love you,” I said.

  “I love you too.”

  Sam’s face came into view and then her fiery locks went out of focus, her blue eyes soft on mine. Closing my eyes, I submitted to the fatigue.

  My belongings were neatly stacked by the door. They consisted of a row of bags and a blanket Sam had brought to the infirmary. I sat on my bed and stared at Sam, she hadn’t spoken much since Kronan and Anaya had left.

  “I wrote you a letter last night.” She leaned over and handed it to me. I took in her scent; I wanted to remember her forever.

  I couldn’t stop myself from smiling, but tears rapidly forced their way through. She had used the same strange paper as the last time. Drawings of flowers covered all the edges of the handmade envelope.

  “You know, it’s not like I’m going to some far off place and leaving forever,” I said to her.

  “I know,” she said, holding me tight.

  “At least the other girls will return after I leave.”

  “Please don’t. It isn’t your fault. You just make sure you get back soon, okay?”

  I could see the uncertainty and sadness in her light blue eyes. They were like two hardened darts of poison, swallowing the pain. She undoubtedly would have been thinking about everything I had told her, about us being broken experiments, the ancient blood craft that tied me to an ancient spirit and why I suspected the Zulus of wanting me. She was wondering if I would survive my change, my training and eventually my stand-off with destiny. These were the few questions that ran through my mind with every breath I took. Sam and I were both terrified of what was to come. Everything was so uncertain. You wanted change and you got it, I told myself.

  “We need to stay positive, Sam,” I told her.

  “Yes, we do and we will – we will beat this. All of us,” she said, barely smiling.

  “What is everyone saying about me?”

  “Oh, the usual gossip.” She said with a flick of her wrist.

  “I don’t want to know, do I?” I stared up at her through my long eyelashes.

  Shrugging her shoulders, Sam said, “It’s silly really.”

  Her always upbeat voice sounded grim.

  “Here,” I said to her, calmly pulling out a device from underneath my pillow.

  “I bought it for you and got one of the nurses to gift wrap it.” I smiled meekly. “I need to be kept up to date with the latest scandals,” I joked mildly.

  Sam didn’t smile back.

  Anaya and Kronan entered the room.

  “Good afternoon, ladies.” Kronan was in a much better mood than we were. I guessed it was because he would now get what he wanted, to train me and to move past the threat that had their village under siege for far longer than it had on our little city. We all bowed in greeting.

  “Good, thanks,” she said, anticipating his question.

  He nodded. I wanted to tell him how excited I was about Maya, but I needed to be sensitive toward Sam. The pain in my legs gradually returned. I hoped that it wasn’t a permanent thing as it would surely affect my gymnastics and swimming – probably affect me taking on the evil witchdoctor as well. The sensation of burning ice made its way to my hips. I bit down on my lip. I didn’t want Sam to see I was in pain.

  “Ready?” Anaya asked as she made her way toward my bags.

  “As I’ll ever be,” I said sadly.

  “Your body will take a while to get used to the changes; the transfusion might have also aggravated the process.” She said, confirming what I had suspected was happening to me.

  Tatos entered with a swift bow and lifted my luggage, flinging all three bags over his shoulder. His bow thumping against the arrows already strapped across his back.

  “I’ll walk with you to the gate.” Sam said.

  Turning to Anaya she asked sarcastically. “Is that okay?”

  “Yes, of course. I would advise you to take an escort though.”

  “Uh-huh,” she replied, her mind a million miles away.

  She handed me a soft package. “I brought you my favorite sweat suit so you will always think of me when you’re lazing around.” Her usually warm eyes were dark with restraint.

  We were both going to burst into tears at any second.

  “Thank you,” I forced out.

  “I know you don’t like wearing sweats, but maybe it’s best that you’re comfy when training, you know?”

  “Umm… you didn’t perhaps…”

  “Yes, I thought you might object, so I also packed your jeans and an attractive sweater.” She grinned.

  “You know me so well.” I kissed her on the cheek.

  Tatos rolled his eyes. “We need to go. The sun will be setting soon.”

  Sam and I walked out of the infirmary hand in hand for what felt like the very last time, our fingers laced together all the way to the gate. Some faces peered through the windows as we passed. It seemed as if the whole world knew about our plans. I sighed as we neared the exit.

  “I will come and see you soon, if that is okay with you, Anaya?” Sam asked just before we hugged, and by the firm grasp around my shoulders, I knew she was probably giving them a venomous look. Sam hated sharing me, sharing anything really. But it wasn’t Anaya allowing Sam to visit, would the keepers allow her? I knew Sam and she would do about anything for me.

  “Yes, anytime,” Anaya said in her melodious voice, ignoring the sting in Sam’s voice with ease.

  “This doesn’t have to be a sad goodbye, my friend. I will call you before nightfall.” I said.

  Sam sniffed as she tried to hold back her tears, but she fought a losing battle.

  We both started weeping quietly.

  “I love you,” Sam mouthed as we headed out.

  “Hey!” she shouted.

  I turned around.

  “Your birthday’s coming up!” She smiled.

  As she pulled the hood over her head to protect her curls from frizzing in the rain, I mirrored her action and let my hood cover my view of her as I turned – covering my tears as we left. It doesn’t matter anyway, seventeen is such an overrated age, I thought. Besides I felt a hundred years old lately. I looked down at the wet ground beneath my feet, water pooling around the soles of my once clean boots. With a slow screech of metal the guards closed the gate behind us. I turned back staring at the huge iron gates, the winged pattern of our military badge spread from one wall to the other, showing me that I was no longer welcome. Sam stood staring as the wind picked up some of her red hair and brushed it across the dark gray sky, like fire against ice. I waved, water darkening the soft material of the gloves Maya had given me, the golden pattern almost fading with each drop. I loved the rain so much, but everything seemed out of place because of it. I will never be happy; our keepers have made sure of that. I kept my eyes on the soaked forest floor. I wanted to feel like this forever – forever gray, forever numb, forever sad. It concerned me that my thoughts were so morbid and indulging, forcing more of these gloomy thoughts to enter my mind. The more negative thoughts I had the worse I felt, and the worse I felt, the more I welcomed the pain and anger that harbored inside me. It was the only part of me I could control. The sound of waves breaking in the distance brought me back to reality. Finally, I looked up and saw the dark purple forest close in around us. Nearing the bridge, silver trunks gleamed in what little light remained. Sometimes, it felt like the forest was the only place I really belonged. It was a place of silent mystery and magical beauty, a place where peace resided. Its beauty captivated me and rejuvenated my soul. My favorite part of the forest was where it surrounded the waterfa
ll. Throughout our walk no one had said much. I hadn’t taken them for the sympathetic type anyway, but I began to wonder if there was something else they weren’t telling me. As we headed into the denseness of the forest, a strange sound caught me off guard. I know that sound, I thought. It was coming closer. A red motorbike abruptly came into view from behind the tall trees. Yes, of course, the red motorbike. Troy. I hadn’t heard from him or seen him since my fall. My chest began to vibrate as the roar of the bike neared, and my stomach twisted in anticipation of seeing him again. I covered my broken arm with my coat and partly hid my face, enough that he wouldn’t get the slightest hint of my excitement in seeing him. The bike was suddenly right in front of us. The engine roared loudly as a lopsided smile grew across my face, and then I recalled what had happened that night – rejection. I looked back down as he passed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his head turn to look back at me. He popped his famous wheelie and raced off into the distance. My smile returned. I had forgiven him in an instant, hoping it would bring him back. My shoulders drooped in disappointment when I realized it wouldn’t. Tatos turned toward me, either scrutinizing my behavior – or my thoughts. What did you expect? I asked myself. Did I expect Troy to be my knight in shining armor, to bring the procession through the forest to a halt and to pull me up onto his lap? Did I expect him to be my hero, to race away with me as I clung tightly to his strong chest? That’s exactly what I had been expecting. It was an easy way out of an uncomfortable situation. I sighed and kept my steady pace. It finally struck me that I would be seeing Maya, my sister. I realized that the village would be my new home until the next school cycle. It would be a home with fewer restrictions, and a home where I would be free to be myself and say and do what I pleased. I could feel a great charge of electricity building up inside me. Is the Minoan village where I belong? I wondered. I decided it was. I belong with my sister, my family. I wanted to scream out loud with joy but then a nervous, uncom fortable feeling darkened my mood. I would see Enoch too. I knew that he knew I had chosen Troy over him, and I expected him to treat me indifferently. However, I wasn’t sure that he would. I didn’t know him well enough to be certain, but the sides of him I did know scared me.