Poisoned Garden

by Tracy Korn

  Dear Ms. Rhodes:

  Thank you for your application to The Citadel. We have reviewed your many promising potential contributions to the academy, but unfortunately, we are unable to offer you admittance at this time…

  Everything else the letter said just blended together, the words falling into each other and blurring beyond recognition. I blinked and felt the hot tears stream down my cheeks, which momentarily cleared the letters, but they quickly blurred again as I suddenly felt the need to sit down.

  I found my way to the curb and sat motionless, my mind somehow racing, but without any thoughts beyond an awareness of feeling cold.

  "Halsey…" Max said, sitting next to me. I felt his arm move around me, and saw the abrupt disappearance of his file display. That snapped me out of my trance, and I blinked my file closed.

  "Why did you kill your display?" I asked, though it sounded like an accusation.

  "It's nothing. Let's look back at your other responses, OK? The Citadel is stupid."

  "Max, pull your display back up," I ordered.

  "Halsey, it's really—"

  "Max."

  He sighed and after another few seconds, the file flashed in his external field of view, and the Old English C was at the very top of the first response letter in his queue. We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected...was all I needed to read. All the breath left my lungs.

  "I wasn't going to apply, but you were so adamant… I thought maybe, you know? But I'm not going to go. Mr. Burke told me he accepted my application at the grocery, so I'll—"

  "Max, you have to go," I gaped at him. "Are you kidding me? You have to. You have to, Max." I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks again as the reality set in. Not only had I lost my chance to get out of The Grind, but now I was losing my best friend too. He would live behind The Citadel wall, and I would probably never be allowed there even as a guest. It hit me then that had I been accepted to The Citadel and he didn't, the situation would have been the same. I'd been so busy focusing on my own plans I hadn't considered that.

  "Whatever, we're not talking about my Citadel letter now, OK?" Max said, raising his hand to my cheek and wiping the tears away. "Blink your file back open and let's see what else is in there."

  I took a deep breath and did as he asked, the file projection loading a few feet in front of us. I'd been accepted to all of the other internship positions I'd applied for…the landscaping companies, the City Engineer's department, the Department of Natural Resources, and I almost choked when I saw the acceptance from Raphael's Tea Shop. How could I have forgotten that I applied there? I almost closed the file, thinking that was the end of the feedback, but it looked like there was another letter after the one from Raphael's.

  "What's Eden's Bluff?" Max asked as my eyes took in the elaborate logo—the scripted name against a backdrop of vine covered, arching gates.

  "I don't know," I said, dumbfounded. "I didn't apply anywhere called Eden's Bluff. I've never even heard of it."

  "Halsey…" Max said, his voice low and serious. I pulled myself away from the trance of the logo and tried to make my eyes focus on the words.

  Dear Miss Rhodes:

  We are pleased to offer you admission to Eden's Bluff Academy. You may not be aware of your application to our institution, but rest assured. We do not accept applications, rather, our students are selected each year from judicious reviews of potential candidates at trusted institutions all over the nation.

  In addition to the prestigious honor of admittance to Eden's Bluff Academy, please be advised that you have also been selected by one of our generous benefactors to receive a financial package which includes full tuition, room, and board for the duration of your studies.

  Please review the courier materials that were dispatched to your residence, and kindly reply with either your acceptance or your decline of this offer within the next few days. Should you choose to accept our offer, all transportation to Eden's Bluff will also be provided.

  Congratulations again, Miss Rhodes. We look forward to welcoming you to campus.

  I read the words, but they wouldn't process in my mind until Max started shaking my shoulders.

  "Halls!" he said through a rolling laugh. "That's a full ride! I didn't even know that place existed!"

  I shook my head at him. "How can it exist? Only The Citadel campuses are sanctioned for Authorized careers," I added, feeling strangely excited, but also a little numb. "Something isn't right. I don't feel right," I said, noticing the swimming feeling starting in my head.

  "It's probably just shock." Max chuckled. "Let's go to your place. They sent you a package!"

  We only got about twenty steps when a van pulled up next to us and slammed on its brakes. Before I could even process what was happening, a small group of men poured out and began trying to haul me into the van.

  "Let her go!" Max yelled and started pulling one of them off me, but the man turned and punched him in the stomach. He dropped to the ground, and the man started kicking him.

  "Don't worry about him!" I heard Jen yell from inside the van somewhere.

  "Stop!" I screamed as loudly as I could, but it wasn't the word I heard. It was a screech…the highest pitched, longest, most inhuman screech ever. The men let me go to cover their ears, and in the same moment, from nowhere, dozens of birds started dive bombing them, forcing them back into their van. They pulled away with the birds following, and Max's eyes were wide as he stared at me in shock. I took a step toward him to help him get up, but he stumbled as he took a step backward, avoiding my hand. Alternating waves of fear and embarrassment crashed into me.

  "Halls? What the hell was that?" he asked, his blanched expression unchanged as he dropped his arm from his stomach. I opened my mouth only to realize I had no idea what to say. I didn't know what had just happened either, and I couldn't stand the fear in his eyes as he stared at me.

  Without thinking, I ran. I ran as fast as I could, and in what seemed like just a minute, I was already back to the eye of the forest. I stopped at the end of the rock wall, again, not even a little winded until I looked down at my shaking hands, and all the breath escaped my lungs at once.

  Feathers were slowly changing back into my fingers. "What…" I gasped, then blinked as hard as I could to clear whatever crazy illusion I'd just seen.

  I looked again at my hands just to be sure they were still hands and blew out a breath in relief to see that they were. It was just a trick of the light or something, I told myself as I took a few more steps, but then stopped and looked at my hands again, wondering if maybe it wasn't a trick—if maybe I could make them change into feathers.

  I tried to remember how they'd looked a few minutes ago and concentrated, but only my same uneven nails and spindly fingers remained. I immediately felt stupid and started walking again, telling myself I needed to focus. Jen had just tried to pull me into a van. She had been released, and the woman who arrested her even dropped her off!

  My head started spinning with everything that had just happened, and I needed to go inside and lock myself in my room before something else happened that I couldn't control. But of course, one look at my porch told me it already had.

  Chapter 10

  My mouth went dry as I saw the woman who arrested Jen at my door talking with my Aunt Alice. I darted behind a tree and waited to see if she was coming or going. My aunt's face was hard to read because it was usually always crumpled in the same dissatisfied way it was now, but there were also flashes of shock. What was this lady telling her?

  Finally, the woman turned and walked toward a black car that was parked on the side of my house. My aunt closed the door, and the woman checked over her shoulder, then made her way to my bedroom window. She cupped her hands around her eyes and peered in for a few seconds, then got in her car and finally started driving down the hill.

  I moved completely behind the tree I'd been peeking around and waited for the car to drive out of sight. In what seemed like just five strid
es, though it couldn't have been, I was outside the front door of my house.

  I couldn't stay here. I had to get out of The Grind before either Jen's goons tried to kidnap me again, or that officer arrested me and brought me back to Jen anyway.

  My mind was racing again. I opened the door as silently as I could and made a B-line for my bedroom—the fermented, sweat sock smell of my aunt's cabbage concoction still hanging in the air. My stomach dropped when I heard the deep bellow of my uncle's voice not three steps after I came into the house.

  "Halsey!" he called, stopping me in my tracks. His voice was stern, but it didn't seem angry so much as impatient.

  "What have you been doing?" My aunt Alice asked as she darted into the room. "I want to know why we had the Director of Crisis Management here looking for you not five minutes ago, and why she was asking questions about how you've been feeling lately." She gave me a hard glare.

  "Uhh…" is all I said, scrambling for words because I realized I couldn't tell her about the men who just tried to grab me. I couldn't think of a logical way to explain about Jen and why we were with her in the first place. But then I realized what my aunt had said.

  "Director of Crisis Management?" I asked. That didn't sound like a job title for someone who arrests people for Unauthorized medical care, but she had arrested Jen.

  "Did you hear your aunt?" my uncle asked, this time, his voice a little louder. "Why was the Director of Crisis Management here for you?"

  I cleared my throat. "Because Lauren Stover died?" I answered, though it sounded like a question. "Complications or something at the hospital for a disease she had. Lauren attacked me, remember?" I blurted, then kicked myself because I no longer had the injury that was bandaged just yesterday. I quickly tried to change the subject. "The director was probably just making sure I didn't feel guilty or something, but I know it wasn't my fault." I was starting to babble and knew I needed to find a way to shut my mouth so I could get to my room already.

  My uncle studied me, then turned to Alice. "She did say the girl died," he nodded, then seemed to resolve something. "Negligence by that blood-money hospital from the sounds of it." He pressed his lips into a line, nodding again for emphasis, and I breathed a sigh of relief since he seemed to be on track to drop his inquisition. I needed to get out of here before that director woman decided to come back.

  "Well, she left her card for you," Alice said, taking it from her apron pocket and handing it to me. It read Eve Adams, Crisis Management Director in bold, black letters, with her contact number and queue code embossed in the lower left corner. "She said to call her the minute you got home. But see what's in that box first," Alice added, pointing me to a shoebox-sized package still wrapped in brown paper on the table. "A nice young man dropped this off for you. He said he was from a prestigious school—a direct competitor to The Citadel monopoly," she continued, impressed.

  I took a few steps toward the box, but a knock at the door jolted me back.

  "Why are you so jumpy?" my uncle asked with a chuckle. A few seconds later, the ping of my communications chip sounded in my ear, and I blinked to see what it said.

  Max:

  Sorry about back there. I was just surprised. I'm outside, and we have some trouble.

  He was surprised? How did he think I felt?

  I crossed to the door and opened it, half expecting Max to run the other way when he saw me. But instead, he visibly exhaled.

  "I'm sorry," I said to him. "I got embarrassed and just started running and—"

  "No, me too, it's OK," he said quickly, catching his breath. Bird caws filled the air from somewhere in the distance, and a chill ran down my spine. "Halls, I just passed that police lady's car," Max said quietly. "I hid so she wouldn't see me, but I could tell it was her. She might know where you live."

  "She does know where I live," I said too quickly and handed him the card she'd left me. "She was just here wanting to talk to me."

  "Are you plotting a revolt? Let the boy in!" my uncle bellowed from behind me. I stepped aside to let Max in and watched his expression crinkle as the lingering smell of the cabbage stew obviously settled over him. I held back a smile.

  "Open the package," my aunt said impatiently. Max and I exchanged knowing glances, and I made my way back to the box.

  Inside was a T-shirt and another box, this one covered in a thin, white, crepe material. I lifted the lid and a 3-D projection began hovering over the box, which I nearly dropped. I set it on the table and watched the large, gold letters E and B become animated and dance around each other until they settled over the gate of a huge, rod iron fence. A few seconds later, a multitiered, white building with pillars materialized behind it.

  As the scene panned out, a wide expanse of blue stretched out to the horizon in the background, and in the foreground, palm trees came into view over the top of the iron gate. A few seconds later, an impossibly perfect looking man with white-blond hair pushed the gates open and stepped through.

  "Hello, Halsey. My name is Uri," the man said, startling me at the personalization. "We at Eden's Bluff would like to welcome you to paradise," he continued, spreading his arms out and glancing over his shoulder. "You were chosen from thousands of students across the nation to be a member of our academy—among the first, might I add, in hundreds of years to receive an education that rivals that of The Citadel Network of higher learning. Rest assured, all our career paths guarantee Authorized credentials upon completion. Care to take a look around?"

  The man gave a quick nod, then turned to go back through the gates. A second later, he was walking through the door of a huge estate house. Inside, two hallways spread out in opposite directions, and a winding staircase disappeared into the top of the screen.

  "Wow," Max said under his breath. "I've only seen places like that in old movies."

  "This is our welcome wing, as we like to call it," Uri continued. "All the administrative offices are in this building, but if you'll follow me…" he added, curling a finger at the screen as he walked toward the huge bay window at the back of the room. "This is the pride and joy of campus. Six student dorm buildings, an archery field, not to mention two hundred acres of rolling forest, fields, and curated gardens, all nestled by the sea in the Caribbean. Quite a view, no?" Uri turned back to face us and smiled. "Please feel free to upload the included school information to your cloud so you can take your own virtual tour, and if you have any questions, my personal queue code is also included. If you decide to join us at Eden's Bluff, Halsey, please RSVP by midnight tomorrow, and we'll arrange for your complimentary transportation. I apologize for the narrow window, but given the timing of your school year's end, this was the soonest we could approach you with our offer. If you agree to join us at Eden's Bluff, we'd like to have all travel completed while the weather is ideal so you have a chance to acclimate before classes begin. Please take the virtual tour for details on what to pack, travel, and more. Welcome to paradise, Halsey. We hope to see you soon."

  With another perfect smile, the transmission faded, and a small drive chip lay at the bottom of the box.

  "I'll take the virtual tour first," my aunt said, immediately picking up the chip and pressing it to her temple as she crossed to the nearest chair.

  "Looks promising." My Uncle Ray met my eyes. "Must cost a fortune, though."

  "Actually, they gave me a full scholarship, room and board too," I added, still not quite sure why I wasn't jumping up and down in elation.

  "It's completely free?" Ray asked, blinking a few times as if to clear his vision.

  "That's what the letter I got said. Here…" I blinked to pull up the file, then blinked again to send it to his inbox. "I just sent it to your queue."

  He blinked twice, and I waited while he read the 3-D projection of the letter I'd sent him. His gray brows gathered, then raised as he shook his head.

  "I guess I don't have to worry about you working for some idiot in the valley," he said through a weak laugh.

  "Ray, look
at this place…" my aunt Alice crossed to us and handed the chip to my uncle so he could apparently take the virtual tour, then turned to me. "If you let these people know you're coming by midnight tomorrow, they'll have you there in twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours. Now that's efficiency."

  "But we just ended high school today," I said, surprised.

  I thought I'd have more time, but I already knew I couldn't stay here anymore. Not with Jen sending thugs after me, and Eve whoever from Crisis Management either wanting to arrest me or deliver me to Jen herself.

  "What's the problem?" my aunt asked. "It's just as fancy as The Citadel you insisted on applying to...even though it's just an oppressive governmental tool, designed to pigeonhole everyone on the wrong side of the wall, but I digress."

  I didn't want to defend The Citadel so much as I wanted to defend my choice to apply there, but it didn't matter now. I couldn't argue that Eden's Bluff looked just as prestigious and legitimate as The Citadel, and from what I could tell, there was no reason not to be excited about the opportunity.

  But I met Max's eyes and confirmed my stomach was turning for a reason. There were some things we needed to settle before I could make any promises to Eden's Bluff.

  ***

  Max sat in the chair in my room, still not saying a word, and I couldn't take it anymore.

  "I don't know what happened," I said abruptly, not meeting his eyes. "I don't know how I made that sound back at the school when those guys jumped out of the van." Max took the chip from Eden's Bluff off his temple, apparently having finished the virtual tour. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Were you just watching that Eden's Bluff thing?"