He watched as Devon approached the stunned Lily, startling her when he suddenly put his hands on her shoulders. Clark watched their interaction, unable to hear them talking over the beat of the music. Trying not to look suspicious, which automatically made him look more suspicious, he lifted his phone and opened the camera. He snapped a few quick pictures of Lily dancing with Devon. Her eyes had closed, moving easily with the crowd is though she had been dancing at the club her entire life.
Once he had obtained a few pictures, Clark lowered his phone, feeling disgusting for taking the pictures. He walked away, watching from the bottom of the balcony stairs to see when Lily would return to the table. He got a few pictures of her returning to Becca and the others, trying to remain focused on Lily rather than stare at Becca.
As Lily sat at the table and talked with her friends, Clark moved back into the dancing crowd, masking himself from view behind the other students and lifting his phone once more to take a few more pictures.
He then pocketed his phone and pretended to look anywhere else but at the table with the new girl and her friends. As he was moving around the club, wondering what it was like to be a normal student, his eyes caught those of Melissa on the balcony. She jerked her head up to the balcony, telling him more forcefully that she wanted to talk to him. He obeyed, meeting her at the top of the stairs.
“Is that the new girl you’re taking pictures of?” she asked.
Clark remained absolutely still, trying not to show his terror at Melissa understanding what he was doing. However, finally, he nodded.
“…I guess Mr. Christenson really is interested,” she mumbled. Clark followed her gaze to the crowd, looking for a Lily even though she was not there. Melissa sighed heavily and turned back to Clark.
“I’m a bit surprised that he assigned you to take pictures of her. You would think he would want a woman to do it, in order to get closer.”
Clark shook his head. “Who knows why Dana does anything he does,” he grumbled.
“Are you on the bus tonight?” she asked. Clark shook his head.
“Mark’s driving me.”
“Then you better get him to take you by her house,” Melissa said easily. “Dana will want everything.”
Clark cringed at the words.
“I don’t want to stalk her,” he muttered.
“Don’t think of it that way,” she said. “Think of it as gathering information.”
“She doesn’t even know what she’s getting into,” Clark hissed sharply.
“None of us knew,” Melissa said. “We all go through this moment, Clark,” she added. “You may not realize it because you grew up in it, but when the rest of us were brought in, we all had a moment of confusion and fear. But just as you’re doing with her, all of us had someone scouting us.”
“But why does it have to be me?” Clark asked. “I’m not trained to do intelligence like this. And I besides that, I’m a boy. Like you said, I can’t get as close to her.”
“Well…Dana must have some reason for it. But it’s better that you obey his order. You don’t want him upset with you.”
The word struck a chord far deeper than even Melissa knew. Clark had not told anybody just how extensive Dana’s torture had become in the previous year. He had not told anybody about the molestations, or the frightening way Dana abused him. To think that Dana would be angry with him because he did not deliver the pictures the leader of the Commission wanted caused primal fear to radiate deep inside his ribcage.
Though he was terrified, and felt dirty even thinking about what he was about to do, he sent a quick text to Sean, asking for the address of Lily Sandover’s house.
The text was answered not too long after he sent it.
1343 Capo Ave. Please be careful.
Clark did not pay attention at all during the student meeting after the club had closed. He spent the time dreading the moment he would have to leave and wondering how it was that Sean could know everything that Dana was doing and not try to stop him. He had to wonder if Sean got some sort of sick pleasure out of helping Dana, or if Sean was more trapped than anyone else in the Commission.
As everyone else was exiting the club, going to the special Commission bus, Clark rounded the building and went to the parking lot, seeing the familiar black car parked in the usual spot.
He climbed into the backseat, feeling angry at Dana, and angry at himself for not having the strength to stand up to the leader of the Commission of the People.
“Hey Mark,” he greeted reflexively, even though he knew that Mark could not respond. He pulled out his phone and leaned forward, showing the address Sean had texted on the screen. Mark stared at it for a very long time, trying to make sense of the words. After a while, he opened up the navigation system, and typed in the address, motioning to it on the screen for Clark to verify.
“Yep.”
Mark nodded once and turned on the car. Clark settled back into his seat, trying to keep his stomach from doing angry flips as they drove.
He refused to look out the window as they drove, already knowing the neighborhood in which Lily lived but not wanting to see the exact route to her house. He felt as though by actively participated in the drive, he was showing an interest in stalking her.
Mark follow the navigation system and pulled over when he got close, finally coming to stop at the curb across the street from Lily’s house.
Clark was looking at every window in the house, seeing the lights on several windows and wondering which was Lily’s room. However, when Thomas Sandover passed in front of the window at the front of the house, Clark immediately looked elsewhere.
There was another set of windows illuminated over the garage. Clark used his phone camera to zoom in on the windows so that he could see if that was Lily’s room. Knowing that Lily had no other siblings, he could only assume it was her room.
He watch for a long time, silently hoping that Lily would not pass in front of the window. He wondered if Mark was curious about why they were outside of this house, and if he was watching, too.
Just when Clark was beginning to think that he had lucked out, and Lily had already gone to bed and had her light on to read, therefore would not be passing in front of the window, Lily came into view.
She had her hair wrapped in a towel, having just come out of the shower. Instantly, Clark dropped his eyes and lowered the phone, turning away from the house and feeling sick, sicker than he had at any point during the night.
He took several deep breaths, going back-and-forth between telling Mark to drive away and lifting his phone to take the pictures that Dana had demanded.
Reminding himself of what Melissa had said, and not wanting Dana to punish him in any new, creatively-cruel way, Clark took a deep breath and lifted his phone once more.
Lily was moving around her room, though it was impossible to see exactly what she was doing. Clark snapped a few quick shots of her and watched as she pulled the towel from her hair, running fingers through it absentmindedly.
“Clark continue to tap his thumb against the capture button, deciding to look anywhere else but at the window. However, when he saw Lily remove her robe to put on her pajamas, he lowered the phone and turned away.
He refused. He refused to invade her privacy any further.
“Mark, take me home, please.”
As the car moved easily along the familiar streets, taking Clark back to his cold, uninviting home, he made a promise to himself. He promised that, no matter what punishment might come his way, he would bear up to it if it would preserve what little privacy and security Lily had left. He knew all too well the pain of the mental, emotional, and sometimes physical torture that Dana used against those he favored in the Commission. And he refused to have Lily’s spirit destroyed by such an evil man.
Springing the Trap
Dana was smiling and nearly skipping as he moved through the wards of experiments in the Commission of the People. He was on cloud nine. It was nearing three in the
morning, but as usual he was not tired. Most of the experiments were sleeping, which was a common practice used to pass the time in the cells between testing and meal times, leaving it very quiet within the Commission of the People.
But Dana was giggling, as excited as a child as he pranced through the lower wards, approaching Ward Five.
He knew precisely what caused his mood. He had spent a long time planning each move very carefully to come to that moment. But it was always nice to realize that one’s efforts worked out perfectly.
It had just been decided by the Commission members that the Sandover family would become the newest additions to the Commission of the People. Everybody had been very impressed with Thomas Sandover’s proposed answer to the struggles of transporting goods across the country over the northern lines.
But of course they had been impressed. Dana had set it up. He had been sure to thoroughly research anything that could help open up transportation routes in the north, finding the best way to repair the roads, put in the correct inspection stations, and get the lines running smoothly again, since most of them had been damaged in the Second Revolution. Once Dana had all the information dialed in, he had been sure to kindly ask one of his most devoted employees in the basement of the Commission to put the information on Thomas’ desk, but not all of it. After all, Thomas needed to come to most of the conclusions on his own. If he was unable to do so, he was not smart enough to be within the Commission of the People no matter how Dana rigged it.
But as he had expected, the breadcrumbs left for Thomas to follow had caused him to come to the same conclusion about the repair of the northern lines again. His proposal caught the attention of everyone in the Commission and had finally led them to agreeing to invite Thomas into the group.
That acceptance included the acceptance of the entire family.
Everything was going according to plan.
But Dana still had a lot that he had to take care of.
From what he had seen from the security cameras and his own surveillance of little Lily Sandover, he knew exactly what he wanted to do to her. He recognize the same fire in her that had once filled him in his youth. Because he recognize that fire, he knew what could become of it.
He wondered if Little Lily would ever know just how much he had manipulated in her life.
He was, of course, interested in getting to know his niece. After all, that part of his life had been lost to him. Even most of his memories had vanished along with the rest of his compassion when he was on the table. But when he looked at Lily, he did not see his niece. He saw an unutilized talent that he needed awakening.
He had been working very hard in the Machine of Neutralization project but he had been unable to find a way to bring it to the attention of the people. What he wanted, most of all, was to bring his prize creation to light and to have it be worshiped as a great accomplishment of science that it was.
Dana knew that he was creating the thing that would bring about the end of the world—and he was very excited to unleash it. But in order to do so, he needed a young, fiery individual, to cause just enough trouble for him to justify to the public the need for such human modification.
Dana knew it would take a long time. He understood that things like this would take months if not years to properly plan. But he was a patient man and he knew precisely what he needed to do to get Little Lily to fall into the role he wanted of her.
He strolled easily into Ward Five, and went to the front of the cell that he had been visiting a lot in recent months. He looked over the figure on the floor, the pristine white wings splayed out behind him, still shackled to limit the amount of movement, and therefore the amount of damage, that Mykail could inflict.
“Mykail?” he called. The winged teenager did not move. Dana walked to the food slot, pulling it to the side and pressing his mouth against the narrow metal slip.
“Oh, Mykail…” he sang mockingly.
“Fuck off…“
Dana chuckled, backing away from the food slot and looking into the cell once again. Even though Mykail refused to look at him, Dana knew he was listening.
“I thought I would let you know that you’re about to be given as a gift to a new family coming into the Commission.”
As expected, the sentence immediately got Mykail’s attention. He turned, his wings ruffling as he moved them so that he could sit up and face the leader of the Commission.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean just what I said,” Dana said simply. “I have a new family coming into the Commission and I want to give them a gift. I’m very fond of this family and believe you would be the perfect gift.”
Mykail became very suspicious.
“I don’t believe you…” Mykail whispered.
“It doesn’t matter to me if you believe me or not,” Dana said with a shrug. “But you will be given as a gift, and soon.”
Mykail crawled forward, his eyes scanning Dana diligently, knowing that there was a catch.
“The only experiments you give as gifts are the ones that blindly obey you,” Mykail noted. “So why are you giving me to a family? You know I hate you.”
“Yes, yes, you’ve made that abundantly clear,” Dana groaned, disinterested. “Which is why I have come to make a deal with you.”
The younger man grew even more suspicious, but he was also interested.
“What deal?”
“I want you to get the teenage girl, Little Lily, to despise me.”
“…I don’t understand.”
“What is there to understand? You hate me, and I need Little Lily to hate me.”
“But…why?” Mykail pressed. “You certainly do a lot of work to make sure that everyone blindly follows you. What’s a special about this girl?”
“Oh, trust me, she is special,” Dana agreed. “She’s already upset at having to move to Central, and I know that there’s a greater fire raging it within her. I want that fire stoked. I want her to become so angry, so infuriated, that she decides that she is going to find a way to expose me and out the Commission.”
“…this is a trap.”
“Of course it is,” Dana said easily, a sick smile spreading over his lips. “But she doesn’t need to know that.”
“…are you going to hurt her?”
“That depends,” Dana said, shrugging. “It depends on how much trouble she causes.”
“And what do I get out of this?”
“If you help me,” the leader of the Commission started, a dark smile playing over his features, “then I will give you a chance, no shackles, no chains, to kill me.”
Mykail narrowed his eyes, not believing him.
“This is a trap that you are willing to bet your life on?” he asked incredulously.
“Oh, Mykail,” Dana cooed, shaking his head. “You have no idea what I would risk for this. And you need not worry yourself. Perhaps I will even continue the final testing on your brother, which should give him some semblance of a brain back.” Then I looked over his shoulder at Christopher in the opposing cell, seeing the way he was chained up to keep him from hurting himself. Mykail also looked at his brother, wondering if there was a chance to save anything of his brothers former personality.
“Do you swear to me?” Mykail pressed.
Dana lifted his hand, and looked up half-mockingly. “I swear to you,” he said. “I swear to you that I will hold up my end of the deal if you hold up yours.”
Mykail’s eyes darted between the floor, his brother, and Dana, his brain racing, trying to figure out what exactly Dana was planning and what trap he was walking into.
“What do I need to do?”
* *** *
Dana was far too excited to even think about staying in the Commission basement that night. He needed to get out. He needed to feel the night air on his skin.
He needed to see Little Lily.
He told Sean that he wanted to drive around that night, waking him from a deep sleep, which allowed him to trick Se
an into driving around the city before finally turning into the Sandover’s neighborhood. By the time Sean realized where they were driving, it was too late to stop Dana from visiting.
Dana got out of the car and walked down driveway, around the side of the house and to the back door, letting himself in with his own key. He moved easily through the house, keeping quiet, moving like a gentle breeze as he walked through the living room, up the stairs, and carefully opened the door to Little Lily’s room.
The teenager was sleeping, her face contorted in discomfort at whatever she was confronting in her dream.
Dana watched and fascination as her eyes move rapidly behind her eyelids, her face creasing even deeper the longer she slept. He longed to know what was going on inside her mind, wanting to see what plagued her sleep.
Be sure to remain as quiet as possible, he put his hands on either side of her on the bed, leaning over and watching her discomfort grow.
He looked her up and down, seeing the way her body shifted under her bed covers, the way that her pajamas were twisted from her continuous movement. He watched her expression become more and more concerned. He wanted to unravel her, he wanted to understand her, he wanted to be the center of her world. He wanted to be the one in her dreams.
He leaned over her face, barely restraining himself from pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead.
“Oh, Little Lily,” he whispered, his breath barely ghosting through the air to ruffle at the hair at her temple. “I’m going to eat you alive.”
Lily let out a distressed sound and Dana quickly, but silently, backed away, pressing his back into the corner near her desk. She rolled, trying to escape the presence that she had felt, which caused her to fall heavily to the floor, waking her.
It was the closest that he had been to her while she was conscious. He had, of course, watched her from afar as she went to and from school, looking in on security cameras to get more detailed understanding of her. But seeing her come to the world of consciousness after what appeared to be a distressing nightmare was more fascinating than anything he had ever witnessed.
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