Splintering Reality (Breaking Order Series Book 2)

by Catherine Kopf

  “The hope that someone escaped The Regime’s wrath will be a spark to the people. They’ll want to rebel in the same way: by escaping The Regime with you as a guide to protect them. The Dreamers will turn to you regardless of any darkness.

  “But unlike your sister Enya, you have another option. One that will also cause no one to die and might heal the tensions in this country. You need to claim…”

  The door fell to the ground, bringing up dust near its foot. A man with a gun — the same man who led The Dreamer Peace Committee — approached my mother with caution. Mother clasped her hands together and turned to face the door.

  “Bernard… what a surprise. I’m—” she began.

  He shot my mother’s head. The bang pierced the silence in the candlelight room. Her body fell to the floor just like Suzanne Knight’s.

  To the right of the camera, Enya and I cried as if we knew what happened.

  “Wow, they aren’t identical. Harmony at least had that going for her brats.” Bernard lifted Enya and me.

  “Commander!” a soldier, also armed, rushed into the room.

  “Take the girl to the hospital and administer CF78.” Bernard clenched his teeth and tossed Enya to the soldier. “I’ll take care of this one myself.”

  “CF78?” I glanced at Orion, hoping he had an idea.

  “It’s a power dampener. They drain a little bit of blood and insert a toxin to make magic in a person less powerful,” Orion said. “A simple but popular Regime tactic.”

  The captain nodded and left. Enya flung and cried in his arms.

  Bernard — who I assumed was The Commander by the title the soldier called him — gripped a small knife from his pocket. Raising it above his head, Bernard positioned the weapon for a strike.

  Just before The Commander’s knife slit against my throat, a dark mist formed around him. The Commander turned and faced a small girl who looked around twelve. Her pigtails whipped in the mist she created, and the black swirled mark on her arm gave away her identity.

  “How dare you take away my best friend.” Mai clenched her fist.

  Her eyes fully blackened for a moment, leaving her time to slit The Commander’s throat in a split second. He dropped to the floor as the blood coated his body — dead and lifeless with glossed over eyes. The mist in the room formed around Mai’s hand. She shook for a minute, laced with sweat and pale like a corpse, before regaining her composure.

  Mai picked up baby-me and coddled him in her arms. At that moment, a guard bolted to the doorway.

  “Lieutenant Mai!” the guard bowed her head and gasped. “Is that The—”

  “It wasn’t like he’d make a great leader...” Mai clenched her jaw.

  “Members of the board will see you executed if word gets out,” the guard said.

  “I’m not dumb, Hill! They already hate me for accepting dark magic.”

  She couldn’t mean Principal Hill, right?

  Principal Hill looked over Mai’s shoulder and took off her helmet, confirming her identity. “What are you going to do with him? It’s not like Harmony can take him.”

  “I know that.” Mai spat.

  “Then you also know our growing Regime’s policies for women in power,” Principal Hill sighed. “We’re not exactly welcome under current standards. We’re facing a rebellion after all.”

  Mai sighed. “I’ll figure something out.”

  “And the boy? They’ve already taken his sister. We still have time to send the two together,” Principal Hill answered.

  “... No. I’ll take care of him myself until I find a place to put him and seal his powers away temporarily.” Mai lowered her head. “You know they’ll kill him.”

  “Then I’m assuming he’ll be your link to The Commander? With so much power and all?” Principal Hill asked.

  “A girl can dream, can’t she?” Mai noticed the camera and giggled. “Aww… Harmony was trying to get one last video in.”

  “Is it still capturing us?” Principal Hill’s heels clicked on the metal flooring toward the camera. “This thing can’t be seen by The Council. It’s evidence.”

  “Then we’ll hide it until things are ready to unravel.”

  Mai turned off the video.

  I was lost for words; my trembling fingertips gave that away. My denial warded off the new information, but even it succumbed to what I just witnessed on the tape: the unavoidable truth that clicked into my skull.

  The Commander never showed himself in public because he was just as made up as a piece of fiction, probably kept alive by nuts and bolts created by Mai.

  She placed Mother’s flash-key into her notebook, probably had it delivered to me by those weird woman too. She was the girl who held my hand in the images I saw — if I could even call it that.

  Not only that, but Mai wanted to collect me because I was valuable. Testoid One — that was me. I inspired Project Dark Phoenix. I was spared because Mai needed me alive. The darkness in my blood gave me a link to Mai no one else had.

  “Wow… I wasn’t expecting that.” Ivory was curled in a ball, obviously shaken by the events the flash-key held.

  “So you understand why you have to join us in The Blaze?” The Boy With the Violin asked.

  I shook my head. “You don’t get it. Cal, Enya, Dustin, Wes — I’m the reason their lives are in jeopardy.”

  “Ambert, we can organize a rescue and—” Kuan-yin began.

  I took my violin out of my backpack. “I’m getting them out of there.”

  “You don’t have a choice but to come with us.” The Boy With the Violin stretched out his freckled arm, ready to take my hand.

  “Kuan. Ivory. Both of you go with him.” I lowered my eyes.

  Ivory hugged my arm. “We don’t want to lose you too.”

  “You heard the boy.” Kuan-yin’s eyes watered. “You don’t have a choice, Ambert.”

  “I do have a choice. I either save my own skin or save Cal and the others. If I choose to help them, that’s my choice. I won’t let them die when I can save them,” I said.

  So many people were at stake; so many loved and lamented. I wouldn’t let them suffer like others had to. That was a field agent’s mission:

  1. Find The Dreamers.

  2. Save them at any cost.

  3. Return to Safe Haven undiscovered.

  Rule Three didn’t matter anymore. Safe Haven was defeated, and by the look in The Boy’s eyes, The Blaze wouldn’t be much better for me.

  Even if I had to drag them out of the pits of hell, I’d embrace the flames. I’d embrace the darkness to save those I cared about most so they wouldn’t have to. At that moment, I was no longer an outcast from Fortress or a radical.

  I was a wielder of sound, a rebel with value to The Commander. For the first time since graduating military school, all eyes were on me, and I had to help who I could. It was either splinter The Regime, or crash and accept my silence.

  I wasn’t bent on silence. That, I knew.

  THIRTY-NINE

  Calista

  My heart pulsed rapidly as the helicopter came to a stop. The thumping sound filled my anxiety with determination and fear. Father looked out the window, deep in thought from all the events that happened before my capture. He was all the biological family I had left after losing Mom. I couldn’t help but look at him with pleading eyes, begging my father for his mercy. He had to have some. I was all he had left too. Parts of his heart had to ache like mine did, right?

  “Sweetheart, I…” Father lowered his gaze for a few moments before speaking up. “I’m sorry about your mother.”

  My bound hands clutched the rosary on my chest. Father let me cling onto it, knowing who it belonged to. “Did you love her as much as… you know… my, uh, real Mom?”

  “Suzanne cared about us just as much as she did.” Father sighed.

  “What was she… um... like?" sweat from my cuffed hands dripped onto my dress.

 
“A lot like you before she was murdered by those radicals. I’m glad you’re safe.” Father’s firm face produced a warm smile. Actually smiled like he was happy! I didn’t know if he could do that anymore, and for a second, his misty gray eyes appeared less chilling, less haunted, and more passionate.

  I gestured to my handcuffs. “Father I…”

  I wanted to tell him that I still saw him as my father. That I knew he did everything for what he thought was my protection. But I never got the chance.

  Zeke entered the helicopter and marched straight to Father, dark circles under his eyes showing how drained he was. After a huge puff of air, he finally blurted out what he came to say. “You’re scheduled for an execution at four.”

  “Very well. First I want my daughter to meet The Commander.” Father rubbed my shoulder.

  I smiled back mockingly. I wasn't looking forward to that.

  Father and I stepped out of the helicopter and entered Base Darkguard, the place as dark colored as I imagined it. Father pulled me forward, tired of my reluctance. My shoes squeaked on the clean, laminate floor.

  Father clenched his teeth and constantly shifted his eyes to look at his watch. I was obviously throwing off his schedule. “A little help?”

  Two guards grabbed onto me, leaving Father to lead the way.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t I seeing The Commander?”

  “This is the shortest route.” Father didn’t turn around to look at me.

  My eyebrow stayed raised.

  We entered a hallway filled with clear glass windows. Some windows were cracked and splintered; others carried both dry and fresh blood stains which looked like one of Wes’ unfinished artworks.

  Glancing through the window, I recognized several faces from Safe Haven and Serre, faces covered in soot and ash. Dustin and Enya struggled, Becky laughing in the background. They were each handcuffed to a chair, gags covering their mouths. A couple of wires were placed on their bodies, filling me with jolts of worry. A scientist placed a needle in Enya’s elbow and drew some blood.

  Becky pushed a button on a remote control, causing sparks to fly out of the wires. She was electrocuting them.

  “No!” I struggled against the two officers holding me.

  They pushed me into an elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. Despite the calm beeping of the elevator, I screamed at the top of my lungs. My legs squirmed in the air, dangling from the tight grasp of the guards, but nothing I did worked. My right arm was still weak from my procedures in Serre.

  When we got to the top floor, Father opened the doors to an office and sat me down in a chair on one side of a desk. The other side had a chair turned away from me. The officers held me down as my father took a rope and tied my arms and legs to the chair. They exited the room and closed the door. All but my father.

  “That was quite a show, wasn’t it Calista?” the chair on the other side of the desk turned toward me, and a chill ran up my spine.

  There, sat a man with blue-green eyes and dark-blond hair — The Commander. A wicked grin laced across his face, just as cynical and twisted as all the Dreamer lives he’d taken. This was the person who outlawed dreaming. This was the man I hated more than anyone, even though I was meeting him for the first time. Despite the flawless appearance he held on the outside, my eyes narrowed, knowing the thorns and poison he held within.

  “Hugo, remove her restraints. She’s never getting out of here,” The Commander straightened a pencil on his desk with one, stiff movement in his wrist.

  Father did as he said. “We had to keep her under control.”

  “Understandable. Now, leave,” The Commander waited for Father to exit before continuing. “Calista Knight: The Girl Who Hears The Fates. Destined to help guide Dreamers out of the darkness when she’s sixteen.”

  “How… how do you know that?” I asked.

  “You could say I practically know you. You’ll be fifteen in two weeks too,” The Commander spoke in a monotone voice, and he barely blinked at all.

  “And I suppose The Dreamers were terrible to you, just like The Regime is to me?”

  “Still sour about your step-mother?” The Commander’s monotone voice chuckled. A spark lit behind his eyes, and not from emotion. “I enjoyed watching her blood coat the street. She was annoying.”

  My lip quivered. “... How do you know that?”

  “The way she clasped onto you, that selfless love… disgusting.” “You didn’t think she really cared, did you? And that disgusting friend of yours, Ivory… Cally this, Cally that. All so annoying.” his head jolted to the right before returning to its straightforward place.

  Odd… The Commander might have been talking, but there was a puppeteer underneath. Someone who’d been there. I grabbed a cup of water on the desk and threw it at The Commander.

  “Follow to achieve… ach-ach-achieve…” the voice frizzled, deepened, and went out.

  Sparks flew from his body before it reduced to limp wires and metal.

  “Come on out, Mai. You were never just The Lieutenant, were you?” I shouted.

  A giggle echoed from the back of the darkened room. “Wow… never thought you’d figure out.”

  A metal door slid open, revealing a secret room in The Commander’s chambers, complete with cameras and remote control capabilities. Mai sat in a pink chair, fluffy by the look of fur on it. Behind her laid a submersion chamber. Wires hung from the head of a teen girl. Her light blonde hair stuck up, floating in the water, and her lilac eyes were slightly open. Her body barely clung to life by the thin arms and legs she had.

  “Aurelia…” I muttered.

  “You didn’t think you were the only ones with an Oracle, did you?” Mai’s grin twisted.

  “... It makes perfect sense. You’re the only monster I know who could ban dreaming and kidnap Aurelia,” I said.

  “The Dreamers were terrible leaders.”

  “Dreamers believe everyone can help change the world and people deserve differences. Wes showed me that. That’s why he showed me how to dream!”

  Mai flipped through a black and red hardback book in her lap. “He’s really deceptive. I’ll give him that.”

  “... What are you talking about?” I hugged myself, defending myself from the attack.

  “Telling you Hugo killed his parents was the smartest move to use you and Ambert for his gain. Not like he didn’t know the system anyway.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “For a while,” Mai said. “Wes worked for me.”

  “Wes wouldn’t use us like that. He…”

  Mai interrupted, “Isn’t his real goal finding his sister? Wes’ powers have been useful to find radicals. He was an insider. A spy.”

  “Wes is my friend!”

  “Wes is a survivor! A liar! And he’d do anything for Aurelia! Even give me test subjects and betray his own people!” Mai smiled and clapped her hands, opening a window beside her office.

  Vials of every color coated the wall, several mixed with a black substance. To my other side, I saw more Dreamers being drained of color, blood, and life laying on the stretchers with tubes sticking out of their arms.

  Mai picked up a vial, ink-like in color, and displayed it in her hands. “It’s taken me a while to harvest this. With it, Project Dark Phoenix was born and my search for candidates began.”

  “And Wes… he found them for you. With his Onlooker powers. Didn’t he?”

  “Genetic innovation was going to be a thing eventually. I’ve just pushed it.”

  “... You’ve been corrupting souls with magic they shouldn’t have. Dark magic." my heartbeat pumped rapidly in my chest. This was wrong, and crazy, and not good for any resistance.

  “You make it sound bad…” Mai gripped onto the vial tighter. “I call it genetic revolution: a chance for The Regime to evolve from its ashes. Doing something to get rid of the undesirables in this world.”

  “It’s evil.�
�

  “I’m only giving people what they want!”

  “The last time I saw Zeke, he was a kind doctor. Look at him now!”

  “Despite his medical knowledge, he saw himself as a geek no one could love. He wanted to be strong, a warrior. A fighter. Becky… she was a simple girl at your military school who wanted to be beautiful, and Sam was always fascinated by magic. June’s even more dedicated to The Regime now. I’ve helped them fit in more than anybody.”

  “Sam…" my memory was brought back to the kid from the first day of my second year. The piercing screams he croaked while being dragged away remained seared in my memory.

  Mai paused for a second to absorb her ‘good deeds’ and let out a sigh. “I’ve made them evolve… like me. What more could be better?”

  My gaze lifted to meet Mai in the eye. “Why are my friends and I here?”

  I half-expected her to say we were going to be a part of her project.

  Mai giggled and stood from her chair, placing the small vial in her coat pocket. “You all have rare sets of magic. Other than that, you’re worthless to me.”

  “We’ll find The Blaze and beat you.” I clenched my teeth “What you’re doing is crazy!”

  Mai squeezed my neck. “Then I'll make sure I watch the light drain from your eyes, just like I did with Astra. You’ve lived your whole life without your mother, and if I don’t get my way, the resistance will have to live on without you.”

  She released my neck and I gasped for air, breathing heavily in and out of my lungs. A sharp pain coursed through my chest as Mai banged on the door behind us.

  June entered the room, turning to Mai for instructions.

  "Take her to the healing ward and fix up any of her injuries. Then we can begin analysis on her," The Commander ordered.

  “Of course, Commander.” June stayed firm as she clutched my shoulders.

  She dragged me into a medical ward and strapped me into a hospital bed. Nurses grabbed my arm and rubbed an ointment on it, which instantly numbed it. They used a light which emanated purple rays and drew blood using a needle. When I got too curious, June pressed a cloth against my face, causing my vision to fade to black.