by Eliza Green
Except Anya, who wasn’t looking at all.
Ω
Sheila linked arms with Dom as they left Arcis after their shift. They stood together on the Monorail platform and waited for the train. Anya stood a few feet away, but didn’t notice him.
On the train, he pulled out the band securing his dreadlocks and shook his hair. They tumbled around his shoulders. He looked around the packed train with no place to talk. Dom inched closer to some space by the door. Sheila followed and they leaned into each other like two people who were more than friends might.
‘I’m worried about Anya,’ said Dom in her ear.
Sheila pulled back from him. ‘You like her. And you’re going to blow our cover.’
‘No, I don’t. She just reminds me of how I felt before you showed up in Arcis. Sitting alone, not mingling.’
‘Yeah, but you’re a loner at the best of times. And so what if she is alone? Why is it your business?’
‘She doesn’t want to leave. She’s preparing to stay on the ground floor forever.’
‘Is that such a bad thing, Dom? Don’t get me wrong, I’m as curious as the next person, but what’s happening on the floors above scares the crap out of me.’
‘Me, too. But I don’t see how this programme ends without going through all nine floors. Anya’s on Compliance and stuck in a rut. I can’t stand to see anyone left behind.’
Sheila snorted and several boys looked her way. She smiled sweetly at them until they blushed and looked elsewhere. ‘Is it that you can’t stand to see anyone left behind, or you can’t stand to see her left behind? Come on, Dom. You have a thing for Miss Prim and Proper.’
Dom rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t. But I do need a favour from you. It’ll require you putting that scheming brain of yours to work.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘I need to do something to get her to care. I can’t progress knowing Arcis might keep innocent people prisoner forever.’
Sheila snorted. ‘Innocent, my ass.’
‘Please, Sheila. I need your help.’
‘I’m not happy you’re losing focus over a girl. So anything to get you back on track. And as long as that’s all there is between you.’
‘Thanks. It is, I swear.’ As soon as Anya made it to the next floor, technically the first floor in Arcis, she was on her own. He and Sheila had a job to do and it didn’t involve babysitting her.
Sheila smirked and stepped closer to him. ‘Don’t thank me yet. You might not like what I have planned. In my experience, there’s only one thing guaranteed to work with hormonal girls on Compliance.’ She cupped the back of his neck and pressed her body to his. ‘How do you feel about a lot of flirting and touching while we’re at Arcis?’
7
Dom
Dom had delayed the decision all week. But it was time. The dreadlocks had to go. Rotation had been and gone and he and Sheila had made it to the first floor. Without Anya. He’d failed in his secret promise to take her with him. But now, with Arcis eyes on Dom, he had to do everything he could to look like he belonged there.
Each step from the Monorail to Charlie and Max’s place felt like he were a dead man walking. He might as well have been. It had taken him a year to grow his hair out.
Eleven steps from the front garden to the back door.
Charlie waited for him in the kitchen. Dom swallowed and flashed him a quick smile.
‘You look like you’re about to be sick.’ Charlie pulled a chair over and guided Dom into it.
‘I might be if I think about it for too long.’
Charlie chuckled and placed his wrinkled hands on Dom’s shoulders. ‘I should be offended that you’re nervous. I told you before, I’ve cut many styles over my time. Many of them were a lot more complicated than what you want me to do.’
Dom took a deep breath. ‘I know. I just don’t want to regret this decision.’
Charlie opened a drawer and took out a pair of scissors. Beads of sweat rolled down Dom’s back. The overhead light glinted off the metal.
Why was he even doing this?
‘You have to go deeper,’ said Charlie, as if he’d heard his silent question. ‘You need to blend in more.’
‘I know.’
‘You could have done this yourself.’
‘I already tried, believe me. It’s harder than it looks.’
‘Are you sure about this?’
Dom closed his eyes and nodded. ‘You’re the only one I trust to do it right.’
Charlie separated one of the dreadlocks and snipped it off. Dom opened his eyes as Charlie handed it to him. The sick feeling returned and he closed his eyes again. He didn’t want to see Carlo in the mirror once it was over. But as Charlie continued, Dom’s head began to feel lighter, in more ways than one.
Charlie handed Dom a mirror and he winced. Carlo was there, all right, but he concentrated on the features he’d inherited from his mother. Charlie had snipped the hair off only to the base; he still needed to fix the style.
Something rattled outside and both men snapped their gazes to the back door.
‘Stay here,’ said Charlie. Still holding the scissors in his hand, he jerked the door open.
Dom dashed to the living room and eased back the curtain. He saw a terrified-looking Anya run out of the gate and blend into the shadows. He smiled and shook his head. Had his and Sheila’s plan to flirt and grab her attention worked? Did she care about moving on now? Was she jealous? He hoped Anya had more depth than that. A fire he’d lost some time ago ignited at the prospect of finding out.
As he returned to the kitchen, he ran through his and Charlie’s discussion and what Anya might have overheard. They had talked about nothing of significance. Sheila had warned him it would be a mistake to tell Anya anything about them being rebels. She wouldn’t understand. Worse, she might report them to Arcis. But Dom battled his urge to reveal something deeper about himself. He could tell she kept secrets of her own. Could he trust her with this?
Charlie came back inside and closed the door. ‘There’s nobody out there that I can see.’
‘Yeah, I checked the front. Nothing. Maybe it was an animal?’ Smaller creatures like foxes and badgers sometimes found their way inside Essention in search of food.
‘Probably. Now sit down. You’re not leaving until I fix this haircut. You look a state.’
Charlie swapped the scissors for a hair trimmer. ‘I’ll have to buzz-cut this. When your hair’s grown out again, I’ll give you a proper style.’ He started the trimmer and ran it over Dom’s head. ‘Why did you grow it out in the first place?’
‘My father hated long hair on boys and I couldn’t think of a better way to remember him.’
Yes, Carlo had hated it. After a year-long drinking binge resulting in him paying little attention to anything at home, Carlo emerged from his haze to notice a six-year-old Dom with hair so long it fell into his eyes. Dom had wanted to grow it out and Mariella was letting him. Then one night, Carlo, still drunk from the day before, had dragged him out of bed and sat him in a chair. He told him he looked like a girl then took a pair of garden shears and cut off every last bit of hair, removing some skin in the process. As Dom cried in the arms of his mother, he hadn’t known what hurt worse: being called a girl by the father he looked up to, or the weeping cuts left behind from Carlo’s clumsy technique.
‘You don’t talk about him much,’ said Charlie.
‘That’s because talking would give that man the time of day and he doesn’t deserve it.’ Charlie knew the basics: that Carlo had been an alcoholic and hit Dom and his mother on occasion. Dom had also told him and Max about his surgeries, when Max noticed his scars.
‘You can’t hold on to the past, son. It will eat you alive.’
‘I’ve done okay, so far.’
Charlie paused his cutting and leaned against the counter facing him. ‘Doing okay and living to your full potential are two different things. What that man did to you was unforgivable, but he’s d
ead now. He’s responsible for it all: the surgeries, the suffering he caused her. Even so, you need to move on with your life.’
Dom shook his head. ‘I can’t. Not while my mother is still missing.’
Charlie’s pale blue eyes hid sadness. He had a way of saying so little yet speaking volumes at the same time. The opposite of his asshole father who’d never shut up.
‘What happened to him?’
‘He died.’ Because I killed him.
‘How? You said he was reported missing, and then he turned up dead in the middle of the woods?’
Dom stared up at Charlie. ‘Why do you need to know what happened to him? Isn’t it enough he’s gone?’
‘I suppose so, but you should be happier he’s out of your life. Instead, he still has a hold over you. I’m wondering why.’
Because of what I did, Charlie. I lured the bastard who tormented me and my mother out to that place and I ended his life.
‘He’s been inside my head for so long, I guess it’ll take some time to get him out of there.’
Charlie nodded. ‘What you suffered, I can’t imagine putting Max through that. You’re a strong man, Dominic.’ He placed a heavy hand on his shoulder and Dom looked away. He swallowed back the bile that rose every time he thought about Carlo. He needed a better distraction.
Charlie finished cutting Dom’s hair and got out the sweeping brush.
Dom stood up and moved the chair out of the way. ‘Why did you become a barber?’
Charlie chuckled. ‘It was to meet a girl, actually.’
Dom lifted both brows.
‘She was the daughter of the barbershop owner in Greenacre, where I grew up. I wanted to ask her out, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. So I did the only thing I could think of. I applied for a job there so I could see her, get to know her better.’
‘So she was Max’s mother?’
Charlie barked out a laugh. ‘Heck, no! This girl I was crazy for, she spent most of her time working as a teacher in a bunch of other towns. I thought it was a noble profession until she came home one weekend with her fiancé. My jaw nearly hit the floor.’
‘So you quit?’
‘I left Greenacre and moved to Halforth. Turns out they all had really bad hair in Halforth. I set up my own barbershop and the rest is history.’
Dom laughed hard. ‘Bad hair?’
‘Shockingly so. Lucky I got there when I did. Those folks hadn’t seen a stylist in forever. I learned how to cut women’s hair, too. Really enjoyed it. They would come in every week, tell me about their days. I loved the interaction more than the hair cutting, if that’s even possible.’
Dom shuddered at the thought of listening to everyone else’s problems. He was grateful the participants were on Compliance. Problems didn’t exist on Compliance. Yet, Anya seemed to be sabotaging her own progress in Arcis.
He wanted to know why.
‘We brought in a new girl from the camp,’ said Charlie. ‘She joined Arcis once you rotated.’
Dom’s heart thumped. Please not Kaylie or Mia. He didn’t have the energy for either of them. Whatever they had was in the past.
‘Who?’
‘June Shaw.’
Dom breathed a sigh of relief. He liked June. Even better, Sheila liked June. She would fit in perfectly. She had the right amount of innocence with her pale blonde hair and blue eyes. But June was far from innocent. She was competitive, and Dom had gone head to head with her a few times in the rebel camp as they raced to assemble guns. June had won every time. Her uncle had taught her how to disassemble a firearm as soon as she was old enough.
‘June is a good fit. She’ll make friends easy.’
‘She’ll be doing more than making friends. I’ve asked her to get close to specific people, in particular a girl called Tahlia Odare, who started at the same time. Her parents lived in Praesidium for a short while then were moved back to the towns.’
Dom frowned. ‘Why?’
‘That’s what we want to know. Nobody just gets moved back to the towns. If you’re in the capital city, it’s usually to stay. Something must have happened.’
Charlie checked his watch and ushered Dom to the door. ‘Best you get going, now. The scanners are due to carry out their sweep in half an hour. I want you back in East when they do.’
8
Dom
Sheila blocked Dom’s access to the food counter. ‘Are you freaking serious?’ She glared at him, arms folded.
He pushed past an unmoving Sheila to grab lunch for the two of them. The first-floor dining hall was full with boys wearing ill-fitting suits and girls in blouse/skirt combinations.
He loosened the tie around his neck. ‘Let’s go outside to talk. Too many people here.’
They rode the elevator down to the lobby in silence. Sheila followed him outside and Dom found a secluded section of grass. He set down both their lunches, aware of Sheila’s mood. Dom and Sheila had been rotated to the first floor a week ago. But he couldn’t get Anya off his mind. Her surprise visit to Charlie and Max’s house meant she’d followed him there. And confirmed to him that she didn’t belong on the ground floor.
He had pitched a new plan to Sheila that went beyond their flirting on the ground floor. But given her current mood, Sheila refused to agree to it.
What was he supposed to do? He and Sheila had to go deeper into the operations at Arcis. From here on in they needed all the allies they could get. His plan was the best option, given the circumstances.
Dom sat down and Sheila dropped to the ground with a huff. He handed her a sandwich and a bottle of water. With the antidote to Compliance in their systems, the food tasted strange. Sweeter. But it was either weird tasting food, or starvation.
‘I’m not sure I heard you correctly, Dominic.’
‘Yeah, you did.’
‘You’re not seriously going to do it?’
‘Why not? She could be useful.’
Sheila snorted. ‘Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes is about as useful as a nun in a brothel.’ She shook her head. ‘I forbid it. It’s not just your ass you’re putting on the line. What if she tells Arcis about us?’
‘She won’t.’
‘How the hell do you know? You’ve only known her for a month.’
‘I have a good feeling about her.’
Sheila stared down at her sandwich, still in its wrapper. ‘No, Dom. I won’t let you. I’ll continue to play your little game to move her on, but she’s on her own. I forbid you to tell her what we are.’
He and Sheila had been flirting. Or rather, Sheila had been flirting up a storm and Dom went along with it. She enjoyed her dramatics too much.
Dom leaned back on his hands and sighed. Sheila was right. What the hell was he thinking, considering telling her anything? Who was she to him?
‘It’s that new haircut of yours, which I think is très sexy, by the way. But it’s gone to your head. And now you’re acting like a dingbat all of a sudden.’
‘You like the new cut?’ Dom ran his hand over his hair that Charlie had cut five days ago. He’d almost tried to tie it back that morning.
She fanned her face. ‘Of course, darling. It does special things to me. Now, stop trying to change the subject. What are you not going to do?’
‘Okay, I won’t tell her.’
‘Good. Speaking of which, here comes the nun now.’
Dom’s eyes widened when he saw Anya round the corner. She carried her lunch under one arm, her posture hunched as she walked. Her gaze flickered to a group of boys playing cards, then she saw him. When her eyes found Sheila, Anya straightened up and looked elsewhere.
‘You owe me big for this one, you idiot,’ said Sheila as she stood up.
‘Hey, skinny girl! It’s Anya, right?’
Anya stopped in her tracks, her unease clear. Dom hated the pretence, and the way Sheila pushed her buttons. Anya was so quiet, so unwilling to fight, or do anything. So why was he letting Sheila do this?
Because he sen
sed that beneath the quiet exterior was something else, and he needed proof it existed.
Anya stopped and gave Sheila her best fake smile. ‘Sheila. So nice to see you again.’
There’s my girl.
Jesus! Focus, Pavesi.
‘Sorry you can’t sit with Dom any more,’ said Sheila. ‘You obviously weren’t good enough to make it to the first floor.’
Dom stared down at his hands. Anything to stop him giving Sheila a withering look or a punch to the arm. She was being a bitch.
Stop complaining, Dom. You asked her to do this.
Sheila laughed. ‘You know you only got into this programme because your parents are dead.’
Okay, that’s taking it too far.
‘Sheila, that’s enough,’ said Dom, but it lacked his usual conviction. He didn’t want Sheila to stop, just to pull it back a little.
Sheila ignored him, directing her anger at Dom towards Anya. ‘Your parents were killed and you’re here because they had nowhere else to put the ugly kids.’
Dom watched Anya’s face change from pale to a deep shade of red. She ground two fists into the sides of her legs.
Interesting.
‘There’s a reason you’re still on the ground floor. It’s because you’re not good enough to do anything. Okay, so you can push a mop around a floor, but that’s it. They feel sorry for you because you’re such a loser.’
Jesus, Sheila. Rein it in.
He went to say something but stopped. Anything he said now would ruin this moment.
Anya snorted with laughter and Dom snapped his attention back to her.
‘What’s so funny, loser?’ said Sheila.
‘Nothing, I was just picturing you taking your pet for a walk, that’s all.’ Anya glanced at Dom. He stared at her, absorbing this new anger, her ballsy attitude, her ability to surprise him. He leaned back on his arms and tried to control the smile that tugged at his mouth.
Sheila poked her finger hard into Anya’s chest. Anya stepped out of her space. She wasn’t backing away from Sheila—she was making the space her own.