Eos (The Eos Dawn Series Book 1)

by Jen Guberman

  “Ma’am,” he nodded with a smile before turning on his heels. “This way.”

  Zane kept between the blue-eyed man and me the entire walk to his house, throwing back frequent paranoid glances to the man with the knife. We approached one of the industrial structures and the man pulled the door open, walking straight in. The large room was no different than the streets outside, with walls covered in flamboyant paints. He continued down the length of the room, which looked like an abandoned manufacturing plant of some sort. He turned into a door on the right, and we followed. Right inside the door was an orange beaded curtain covering the entrance. He pushed aside the beads for us, revealing a small room with dark chocolate colored walls and a deep red carpet. There were five orange chairs situated in the room, a quirky, rusted teal lamp, and a few glass instruments of varying sizes and colors lying around. The room smelled strongly of odorous plants and paint fumes.

  “Take a seat and make yourselves at home,” the man welcomed, gesturing outwards with his arms, beaming at us.

  Zane waited for me to take my seat, his familiar grin missing from his face and replaced with a look of gravity. When I picked a seat at random, he sat in the one nearest me, keeping his eyes on the man, who pulled a seat across from us. The man with the knife stood in the doorway, twiddling his blade, while the other man sat down, holding out two glasses.

  “Orange juice,” he said as we took the glasses and set them on the floor beside our seats. “So, what are your guys’ names?”

  Before I could speak, Zane interjected with a “yours first.”

  “Tanner,” the man said, moving a greasy strand of hair from in front of his eye.

  “Zeke,” Zane lied.

  “Elle,” I said, taking Zane’s hint.

  “Lovely name for a lovely lady,” Tanner smiled. I nodded in insincere appreciation, skeptical of his intentions. “You aren’t from here—I can tell.”

  “No sh—” Zane started, stopping when I jabbed him with a finger in the thigh.

  “Be nice,” I mouthed.

  Tanner laughed. “It’s okay.”

  “We’re cross-city messengers,” I responded. “From Nortown.”

  “Can I talk to my friend for a minute?” Zane asked the man in the doorway, who silently looked back at Tanner.

  “No, but I’ll let you have the room for a moment. Don’t try anything—I’ll be right outside the door,” Tanner said, stepping through the beaded curtain.

  Zane’s brow furrowed as he squeezed my forearm, pulling himself close.

  “What are you being so weird about?” I glared at his hand, squeezing down on my arm.

  “He can report us for being here! You can’t give him too much information, even if it’s made up—he can find out easily if we are really cross-city messengers,” Zane said in an exasperated whisper, his eyes wide. “All he has to do is alert his town official and the authorities will be here faster than we can climb the fence to get back out!”

  I smiled, amused.

  “What are you smiling about?” he asked, heated. “This isn’t funny!”

  “What’s the worst they could do? Send us back to Avid?” I laughed lightheartedly. “Oh no!” I said sarcastically.

  “Eos, listen to me! When I was caught and brought into Nortown, before you rescued me, they told me they weren’t going to just send me back to Avid. They keep the run-aways in high security prison cells, far away from any of the cities, even the exile towns. They don’t give you another chance. If you hadn’t gotten there that night when I was in the holding cell, I would have been taken away.”

  “I thought they did away with the prison system?” I said, my tone suddenly solemn.

  “They did, but they need a way to deal with those who the exile system doesn’t work on. I guess it isn’t a common occurrence, from what my guard told me, so they can manage to keep up with it. They don’t need as many people to staff it as they would for a huge prison system, but I don’t want us to end up there either way,” he warned.

  We called Tanner back into the room, and Zane and I apologized to our host.

  “Not a problem!” Tanner smiled. “Trouble in paradise?”

  “We’re peachy keen, thanks,” Zane replied simply.

  “So, what brings you to Delaisse?” Tanner asked with a tone of simple curiosity.

  “It’s a long story,” I answered. “We were just sent to get something.”

  “Well,” Tanner said. “I hope you got it. Or… get it. Are you still working on getting it?” He eyeballed my bag.

  “Yeah,” I answered.

  “I wish I could be more help, but I don’t know what you’re here for,” he replied, digging into his pocket and pulling out a couple of small, white capsules, which he proceeded to pop into his mouth and swallow. “You haven’t touched your juice. Do you want something else to drink?”

  “No, the juice is fine, thank you,” I said, grabbing for my glass on the floor.

  Zane copied me, taking his glass of juice. We both lifted the glasses to our mouths, pretending to sip on the juice for a while as Tanner sat in silence, his pupils dilating.

  After some time had passed, Tanner looked to the beaded curtain, which was unmanned.

  “You both better be on your way—seems as if you have important business to tend to.” He sighed under his breath, just as I felt a jab in my neck. The room began to blur, and I tried to push myself to my feet, stumbling and crashing to my knees on the carpet as everything went black.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I woke up to the feeling of warm fingers on my neck.

  I sat up quickly. A pain shot through my wrists as I moved. Somebody chained me up. Blinking my eyes until my vision began to clear, I made out Tanner’s figure. We weren’t in his room anymore, and Zane wasn’t with us.

  “Oh my God,” Tanner breathed a laugh. “Man, I thought you were dead or something!”

  “Where am I? Where’s…Zeke?” I hesitated for a moment, remembering that Zane and I gave false names.

  The room was fairly empty, with brick walls coated in graffiti, spray paint cans littering the cement floor, and a couple of rusty pipes, one of which I was attached to by metal chains wrapped tight around my wrists and held together by a basic metal lock.

  “You mean your friend?” He laughed. “He left.”

  “What do you mean he left?”

  “Before my friend could inject him with the same stuff we hit you with, he practically surrendered to us and told us everything he knew, so we allowed him to leave peacefully. We figured he would’ve put up more of a fight than that.”

  “You’re lying,” I spat.

  “Really?” He grinned toothily. “What makes you think he would stay?”

  “We’re on a mission together, I know he wouldn’t just bail.”

  “Does he need you for this mission?” Tanner prodded.

  “Well, not exactly, but—”

  “But? The boy doesn’t need you. He can do the job without you,” Tanner interrupted. “The question is, what is ‘the job’ and why would it require you to come to Delaisse? Cross-city messengers don’t go to exile towns. Why are you here?”

  “I’m telling you, I’m a cross-city messenger. I was just told to pick up a package.”

  “Who would be sending packages from an exile town? Do you realize how stupid you sound?” Tanner snarled, spitting a little on the word ‘stupid’.

  “Can you let me go now? I have work to do,” I said, trying to sound official as I struggled against my restraints.

  “Um…” He seemed to think on the notion theatrically. “No?”

  “Why do you need me here? How is having me tied up at all beneficial to you?”

  “I want to know what it is you’re after. Simple as that. Answer the question and I’ll let you leave.”

  “I could report you for this!” I threatened.

  “No, you can’t. You aren’t supposed to be here, and you know it. You aren’t a cross-city messenger and I wa
nt to know what you’re after. I don’t even care who you are—I just want to know what of value is in Delaisse.”

  “What would you do if I told you?”

  “You want an honest answer? I’ll probably report you to officials either way. I’m not about to lie to you about that.” He chuckled.

  I looked at him unblinkingly for a moment.

  “You’re really stupid,” I said, dumbfounded. “You know, I’m not going to tell you why I’m here if there’s nothing in it for me—not even my freedom. You’re an idiot. If you plan to report me, why wouldn’t you have reported Zeke if he told you everything? And why bother interrogating me if he supposedly told you why we are here? What’s in it for you if you call the officials on me? There are so many flaws in your plan it’s almost comical.”

  “I’m interrogating you because I only need to turn one of you in, and he was much faster to cooperate, so I gave him a free pass. You, on the other hand… If the officials get word of someone here without authorization, they might reward me for my good deed to the community,” he said, a tone of mockery in his voice. “And I’m interrogating you to see if your stories match up. That’s all. I already know why you’re here, so don’t bother lying. Just save us both some time and prove whether your little friend told the truth or not. Why are you here?”

  I tilted my head slightly, narrowing my eyes and staring at Tanner for a moment before I spoke up.

  “I’m looking for a box. The box contains a key that could help me open a different box, which contains a key capable of unlocking anything and everything,” I answered coolly.

  “You’re lying,” Tanner accused.

  “I’m not.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “You know, I thought it would be fun to try that, but this is wasting my time,” I joked. “We were sent to pick up a package of pills for someone in Nortown. That’s all. I can’t give a name though—I signed a paper stating that the identity of the recipient would remain confidential.”

  “That’s it?” he asked in a sigh, disappointed.

  “That’s it.”

  “Alright.” He paced the room for a minute.

  “Can you let me go now?”

  “I’ll let you go when I let you go,” he glared at me, stopping in his tracks. He paced for another moment before continuing. “God! You know, people used to tell me everything changes, but I’ve realized—nothing ever changes. You get stuck somewhere in life and that’s it. And it isn’t just people like me. You people in the cities don’t have it any better than us—you just wind up in a job, unchanging until you rot,” he spat.

  “That’s not true,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “You’re delusional.”

  “Funny, coming from someone who pops pills all the time.”

  “Shut up,” he snarled, squatting to face level with me on the ground. “You don’t know the half of it.”

  “Sure I do. Daddy was mean to you, wasn’t he?” I jeered, a smirk growing on my face.

  “Don’t talk about my fath—”

  “Did daddy hurt your feelings?” I interrupted in a false pouty voice, just before Tanner slapped me, stinging my cheek.

  I growled and, without a second thought, rammed my boot straight into his chest, forcing the breath out of him and knocking him from his already wobbly squat. Instantly I smashed my feet downwards with all of my strength, aiming for his face. My boots made impact with his jawbone and nose as he rolled over to his hands and knees, reeling in pain. His face drooping to the ground, he clutched his nose as blood began to drip onto the concrete. Before he could lift his head, I pressed my boot against the back of his neck, digging his face into the ground.

  “Let,” I pressed harder with my boot.

  “Me,” harder.

  “Go,” I howled, pressing harder still.

  “Okay! Just get off!” he shouted, sputtering through the blood oozing from his nose. He swore under his breath, calling me some profane slur as he hesitantly reached into his pocket, squirming under my foot as he handed me a miniscule key.

  “See? Now wasn’t that easy?” I smiled pleasantly, lifting my foot and unchaining myself. “Where’s my bag?”

  “By the door, over there,” Tanner motioned to his left, a furious look in his bloodshot eyes as he shook drops of blood off his hand.

  I hurried out the door, scooping up my bag and double-checking for all of my belongings. When I was sure they were all there, I decided to make my way to the fence and get out of Delaisse. My hands and legs were shaking as I bolted from the building. I’ve never hurt anyone like that before. I felt a twinge of guilt before rationalizing that I only fought in self-defense. He deserved it, I told myself, trying to shake off the jittery feeling. What about Zane? If Zane really did leave, he probably already found the key. Why would he just ditch me like that?

  I kept watching carefully as I sprinted toward the fence, shoving past a few startled exiles as I ran. I scanned the streets as I ran, hoping for a sign that Zane was for some reason still here, but I found nothing. What if Tanner actually does have him? I began to worry. If he had Zane, he would have interrogated him first, I’m sure. Zane was the one who made it obvious we were worthy of suspicion when he asked to talk to me alone. I bet that’s what gave us away. Tanner probably would have questioned Zane first, so it’s only logical that Zane is already free, right?

  I continued to reason with myself that Zane was already out of Delaisse and on his way somewhere else. Once over the fence, I pulled out the map from my bag, scanning for my current location. The next closest exile town was Equivox. Great. An entire town full of people who are sure to be super helpful—the liars.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Grrrgglll…

  I clutched my growling stomach as if to silence it. I have no idea where Zane is. I can’t stay here though—it’s too risky. I hope he got out. I’ll figure out a plan to find him after I eat. I just want to get somewhere out of sight before I eat, I reminded myself, thinking of the loaf of bread in my bag. I made my way into the endless scape of sand, the opposite direction from which we entered Delaisse. The longer I walked, the more distant the chain link fence became, and the more isolated I felt. Once Delaisse was completely out of my sight, I could see nothing but sand, stretching in every direction.

  Grrrgglll…

  My stomach growled again. Well, this is as good a place as any, I thought. I wanted to be out of sight, and I haven’t seen anyone since I left Delaisse. I sat in the soft sand, feeling some of the warmth through my jeans. Plunging my hand into my bag eagerly, I retrieved the bread, opening the bag and pulling out two slices. Before I allowed myself to take a bite, I resealed the packaging and stuffed the loaf back into my bag. You have to save some for later, I told myself, knowing I wouldn’t be able to stop eating if I didn’t put it away.

  I devoured the first slice of bread, but then took it slower on the second, savoring the sweet, doughy taste. While I sipped on some water, I pulled out the map and reviewed the direction I was headed. It didn’t seem like I’d have to worry about running into any cities—it was a straight shot to Equivox. If Zane found the Delaisse key, he probably moved onto the next town, which would be Equivox. If he really were free, he probably wouldn’t leave Delaisse without the key. But what if he’s still with Tanner? Or what if he moved on to Equivox with no intentions of meeting back up with me? Or what if he’s looking for me? Would he know I’d try Equivox next? Even after I knew it was time to continue on my way, I still sat there, running my fingers through my hair. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I couldn’t just sit there and wait. I sighed, sitting for just a moment more. I know I don’t have the best relationship with my parents, especially my mom, but I miss them. I pulled out the picture I saved from Rockhallow of my grandpa, my dad, and me all laughing together. Maybe when, or if, I get the Skeleton Key, I’ll visit dad, if he even wants to see me. But if I had the key, I could easily get into any place I want. I’d still have to be carefu
l, but I could visit him.

  I sat there for another minute, daydreaming about sneaking into Rockhallow to visit my dad. I need to get going, I prompted myself, standing up and brushing the sand from the back of my jeans. I continued this luckily uneventful trek, keeping a pattern of short breaks every couple of hours until it was sundown.

  I finally came across the first ruins I had seen since I left Delaisse, spotting them in the distance as the sun was about to dip below sight. I gathered all my remaining energy and sprinted toward the small pocket of black in the vast field of uninterrupted sand, relying on the dim light of the moon and what was left of the setting sun to give me just enough vision to see my destination. Kicking sand up, my feet sank into the smooth ground every step I took, exhausting me further. Minutes later, I reached the beginning edge of the ruins. The building remains were short in stature, likely the relics of some family cottages of a village. I peered inside the remains of some of the houses, partially to see if any would make decent places to spend the night, but mostly I did it to ensure I was alone.

  When I was sure I was the only living thing in the area, I backtracked to the most structurally sound building in the area—a small, blackened cottage. Aside from suffering obvious damage from an internal fire that must have burned all of the furniture down to broken wood structures, the petite home was intact.

  After sweeping off a patch of ashes and dust from the floor, I laid down, wrapping myself in my blanket and situating my bag as a pillow—a very hard, very lumpy pillow. Lying on my back, I looked up to the ceiling, remembering how Zane and I had fallen asleep under the stars that glimmered through holes in that ruined place before reaching Delaisse. That felt like ages ago, even though it was just the other night. This roof was in an appreciably better state than the one Zane and I had found—there were no holes revealing the stars, but there was still a familiar cold breeze filling the air.

  Shivering, I curled up on the firm ground, burying my head under my blanket. I stayed that way until I fell asleep, wondering where Zane was that night.