by Mason Sabre
He kissed her without confirming either of her demands. It wasn’t that he wasn’t keeping his promises, he just knew he’d have to push them to their limits.
“I’m ready,” Aiden declared, pushing his way to them. He clutched his bag to his chest. It was so full that the zip wasn’t closed, and he had to hold it tight to keep from spilling out.
"Got your robot?" Stephen asked. He'd built the model in record time, and then he'd shown them what it could do. It needed batteries apparently. Stephen would get those for him, but Aiden was happy with it how it was.
“It didn’t fit,” Aiden shrugged. “I left it on the table. Maybe you can bring it after?”
Stephen frowned. “What have you got …” He popped the top of the bag open to peer into it. It was stuffed to the brim with baby things, nappies, clothes, wipes …. Things that both swelled Stephen’s heart, but also choked him a little at the same time. He crouched down so he could be face to face with the little boy. “Where are your things?”
Little eyes peered at him. “I don't need them. I’m a big brother. They need all their things.”
Stephen cupped Aiden’s nape and pulled him closer. He couldn’t help the smile that twisted his mouth a little. “That you are, but how about you take your robot and I’ll take the baby things? It’s a long drive with nothing for you to do.”
Aiden chewed on the inside of his cheek and held the bag tighter to him as if Stephen might just take the things from it. “What if you forget? Eden said you have to go and do something big and important.”
“I won’t forget.”
“You might, and then the babies don’t have any things and then maybe they’ll get cold and vanish.”
“Vanish?”
Aiden nodded. "My mum …" He glanced up at Helena. "My other one. She told me that my sister had got too cold and then she had to go back to where she came from, and we didn't get to see her again."
Death … he was talking about death. “How about this then.” He signalled with a nod to Jody. “Do you have a pen and some paper?”
“Paper? Sure.” Jody was standing at the driver’s side of the car. He was ready to go, and their boys were already strapped in and focused on whatever it was their parents had given them to keep them occupied. He leant into the car, popped the glove box and got out some paper. “Here.”
Remember baby things, Stephen wrote on the paper. "There. See? I wrote myself a note so I won't forget. How is that?"
“Do you promise?”
It was becoming like a mantra to Stephen. He'd gone from free man to a dozen promises. It was so hard not to scoop Aiden up in that moment and tell him everything would be fine. Instead, he pulled the boy to him and kissed the top of his head. "I promise. I'm a tiger. Tigers never forget.”
“That’s elephants,” Aiden said. “Not tigers.”
Putting his hand to his chest, Stephen feigned a gasp. “It is? I thought it was tigers too. I never forget anything.”
It took a second or two for Aiden to consider it, then he nodded and let Stephen swap out some of the baby things and get the robot from inside. He lifted Aiden into the car and strapped him in next to Helena.
“You know …” Helena said. “These kids are going to have you wrapped so tight around their fingers.”
He shrugged. “It could be worse. If my own kids can’t make me do their bidding, what’s the point?” he kissed her, then clicked her seatbelt into the clasp. “With any luck, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She grabbed the front of his shirt. “You will see me tomorrow.”
“I will see you tomorrow.”
The car door was a sliding door, and Kirsty was ready to go. She stood with it, hand on the handle. “All set?”
Stephen backed up and stood with Eden and Xander. “Ready.” He lifted his gaze to Helena and Aiden. “Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.”
Travelling by day was the best choice. Anyone could travel in daylight, only Others had a curfew, and if they went beyond that and tried to hide, the sweepers would get them and hand them over to Money Hunters, like Xander had been. If they got pulled over for anything, they'd be fucked. It would only need one person to see Helena. Everyone else would die, and the Humans would plead collateral damage.
Going in the day meant they could just be part of regular traffic.
As Kirsty got into the car and they pulled away, Eden rested her hand on Stephen’s shoulder. It was probably more for her than it was for him. Aiden and Helena both waved and Stephen followed the car a little to watch them drive through the gates and away.
With a breath out, he let his shoulders slump. It was done. Helena was on her way to Mel and Nigel … she was safe.
When they were out of sight, and the space between the gate and the road was clear, Eden said, "Are we ready to do this?"
Stephen stared out into the empty road. “We’re as ready as we’re ever going to be.” He turned to Xander. “Let’s get your son back.” Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he stepped out into the road. “Get the car ready.”
“Car?” Eden asked. “For what? I thought we were going to go when it goes dark. That was the plan, right? Let them get away?”
“We are,” said Xander. “But we’re going to Kirsty’s house. It’s empty, and after today, she isn’t going to need it again.”
"We pack up our shit here, get everything we need." When Eden still didn't seem onboard with whatever it was, he had planned, because she really did have no idea. He and Xander had discussed it, he stepped into her space. "Trust me, okay?"
Chapter 52
They each took a bag and filled it with anything that was deemed useful. Bandages, pots, books, first-aid things, Helena's medical equipment. They couldn't take the big machines, but they could take the scanner. It was small enough and mobile enough to just be dumped into the boot of the car. Keepsakes and shit like that could be picked up another time if there was another time.
“It feels like we’re walking away from an important slice of my life,” Eden said, as she got down the steps and stood on the road to look back to the house. She held her bag loosely in her hand, letting it swing beside her leg. She reminded Stephen of a young girl being dragged away from her home. Even her pigtails were gone, replaced with just a single ponytail that swished at the back of her head. It was still pink at the tips, but it changed something about her.
“It has been an important slice,” Stephen said to her. He didn’t have the same pangs of guilt with the place. To him, it was just a building and had never really been home, but then what was home? He hadn’t had home back with his parents either, not really. Just a place he dumped his stuff. “Did you pack the …”
“Witchy stuff?” she mocked, cocking her head to the side. “All in here.” She lifted up her bag and swung it in front of his face, making him need to duck before she smacked him with it. “Sure you’re not afraid it’s going to give you rabies or something?”
Grabbing her at the wrist, Stephen pulled her arm down. “As long as it doesn’t make my ass itch, I don’t care what it does.”
"See, now that would be funny. You could shift and do that draggy thing dogs do to ease that itch." She thrust her hips to demonstrate, and he rolled his eyes and walked away.
“Whatever, Witch.”
They loaded the last of the things into the car, tinned goods, packets, and the baby items they’d saved. Stephen dropped the boot with a hefty thunk that made the car rattle, and took one last glance at the house and nodded. This was it. No turning back now.
Kirsty’s house wasn’t so far away, and they mostly stuck to the backroads to get to it. Stephen was a little curious to go back to the bus site to see if they’d cleaned that shit up yet, but he knew it was a bad idea, and he got on with business.
There was a series of small alleyways near to the town where Kirsty lived. It was the sort of place that reminded Stephen of all the stray homes, a half town, derelict, probably not safe for a rat, let alone anyone t
o actually live in. He turned down one of the alleyways.
Mildew was the scent of the month as they got out of the car. It really did remind Stephen of the sewers and all the other stray places he'd busted open. It had that damp smell to it, but it wasn't disgusting, no. Something was comforting in it like he could feel more at home in the dirt and the Society garbage than he ever could riding the throne of his entitlement.
“Put this all over your face, hands, arms. Make sure you get your eyelids. I don’t know why, but for whatever reason it is, they stand out. Then your feet,” Eden said, shoving a tub of something into his hand.
“My feet are in my shoes,” Stephen said, glancing down as if to confirm the fact.”
“No shit. Just do as you’re told.”
"It works like a cloak," Xander told him. "You put on the cream, and she casts the magic, then it all connects. But it doesn't last so long. By the time we're in the facility, it's going to have worn off.
“Unless you’re afraid of itchy feet?” Eden cut in.
“Funny.”
Peaches … that was the smell, over-sweet peaches. He scooped out a thick blob of it, brought it to his nose and jumped at the sweetly sour twang that hit his nasal cavity. “So, if they can’t see me, they can certainly smell me coming,” said Stephen.
"You're impossible." Grabbing the tub off him, Eden shook her head at him. "Stop being a baby. Turn around." She put two bits of it into her hand and rubbed her palms together the way she had done that very first night he had met her. He was sure she'd called him a baby then too, or something like that. He muttered something at her, a cuss laced with a growl, but as usual, she ignored him. "Crouch down. You're too damn big." He did, and she spread the cream around the back of his neck, his throat and just under the edgings of his t-shirt. He was on his knees and almost as tall as her on her feet. As she walked around him and mumbled something, he fought the urge to tease her. Even if it was just to get a break from all the shit in his head. Whatever words she was speaking were alien to him too. But she murmured her casting and moved her fingers in repetitive motions on his skin until he felt hot under his collar, literally. "There. All done."
The cream was a conduit, Xander had explained to him. They put it on themselves and then she used her magic to bring to it an incantation that would make it so people wouldn't see them. Not that they would be invisible, just that anyone who happened to see them, wouldn't register they had. Not unless Stephen did something foolish; Eden's words, not his.
Between the three of them, they managed to get all the cream in all the right places. Xander even ran his hands through his hair, making it seem greasy as it stuck up in odd strands. “Done,” he said with a firm nod before wiping his hands down the front of his jeans, making the material dark and streaky.
“Me too.”
They kept themselves on the main path to the town. Stephen wanted to duck down through the bushes and hide in the overgrowth. He was comfier there; even his tiger was more confident keeping to the shadows than walking out in the open.
"Trust my magic," Eden had said to him, and he tried, he really did, but it was natural for him to keep to the shadows. God knows, two years holed up with Lee fucking Norton had done something to his bold, brash self. It was almost a fuck you to him for it.
The Adams’ house was like they’d left it with the expectation of returning in a week or so. It was clean, tidy, everything laid out fresh for them to just come back and fall back into their normal lives—a family taking a trip away.
“God, they have food,” Eden shrieked from the kitchen. She had gone ahead and had the freezer door open. “Pizza … pies …” She gripped the handle. “Do you think Kirsty would mind if I made myself something to eat? It’s been god knows how long.”
Xander peered around her and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if she does,” he said. “She isn’t coming back here.”
“Do you want anything?” She was looking at Stephen. It was a given she would share with Xander.
“There’s nothing I would eat in there. I’ll hunt before we go tonight.”
“They’ve got burgers.” She held up a box of processed, round burger patties.
Stephen shot the box a glare like it had just insulted his mother. “If that’s been anywhere near a cow, I’ll get down on my knees and tell the Humans how wonderful they are. I’m heading upstairs.”
The office at the front of the house was locked. Stephen pushed the door and then slammed into it by accident, expecting it to just open, but after a second of recovery, he understood it was all secure. Well maybe secure against normal people, not him. It was no effort as he twisted the knob and pushed the door back. The wood snapped in the frame, and the door gave way.
It had been a long time since he’d really got to play around with a machine. This one might have been classed as old, but it looked newer than what he was used to. Of course, he’d only used the computers in the library near where he had lived, and they were bordering on extinct. But this one was pretty straightforward as he turned it on, and when the prompt screen came up, he typed in the password he’d watched Kirsty enter days ago.
Bingo. He was in.
“Pizza is in the oven,” Eden said when she sauntered up the stairs and almost swung herself on the door frame. “I put in a couple just in case.”
“Do you know what shit goes into pizza?”
Biting on her thumbnail, she shrugged. "Still tastes good." She narrowed her eyes when Stephen rolled his. "You've never eaten pizza, have you?"
“Do I look like the kind of guy who eats pizza?”
“You look like the kind of guy who’d eat the pizza delivery boy, let alone the pizza.” Nodding at the computer, she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Just looking.” Xander came up the stairs a moment later. He had a glass of something bright and orange in his hand. The ice cubes clinked against the glass. “If we get into the Norton files, can you get into the feed for that transmission and shut it down?” he asked Xander.
“Why would you shut it down? That’ll just alert them to something being wrong. You don’t want to warn them we’re coming.”
“You want to take down the transmission?”
“I want to do more than that.” On the shelf near to the monitor, he had noticed Kirsty had a small freestanding microphone. He grabbed for it and handed it to Xander. “I want to replace it with my own. We put out a feed, show everyone the truth.”
“If we do that now, they’ll kill those children. They’ll end Joey.”
“And you’ll start a war,” Eden added.
“We’re already at war.” He put the microphone onto the desk and then pushed the computer tower around so he could get to the back of it. “Can we record something, put it with that video you looped and hack it into their feed?”
“Yeah. It’s easy enough. I can—”
“You’re going to risk everything,” Eden said, understanding what he was doing. “This is mad.”
Stephen grabbed Eden's bag from her. She had her book in it, and he took that out. "You tell me I am the one. You tell me that I have a purpose. I can't do that purpose from behind closed doors. I can't hide behind a curtain."
“There’s a price on your head.”
“Yep.”
“You’ll just start off a hunt. They’ll all come looking for you. For us.”
“I am hoping this will change their minds.”
“Hope?” Eden asked. “You’re balancing your life on hope?”
“Hope is what we have right now. Xander? Can we do this?”
“I can’t …”
Stephen pushed in the way of Eden. “Go back down to cooking pizza, or stay up here. Either way, this is happening.”
“Helena will kill you.”
"Helena is almost halfway to safety now. That's enough for me. I'm not talking about doing this now. Before we go in, we take the laptop, Xander cuts the line, and we upload. I want a video showing exactly what is happening in
there. By the time it's going out, we're inside. By the time we're coming out, people have seen it and know the truth. Lee can't kill us then. Not if he wants to prove himself innocent. Think about it. We aren't the only ones in Exile who believe in this, are we?" He waved her book at her.
The heavy book was like their flagship … a book of promises they all had to believe in, or this was all going to shit. She snatched it from him and pressed it to her chest in a protective grasp.
“We ask them for help. Anyone listening. We ask them to come and stand with us.”
“People are afraid.”
Stephen nodded. "But people are also angry and just waiting for someone to make a move. We put this out, people will come. I want to record an explanation, and then Xander loops it with the clips of the kids. We wait until we're outside Norton's, then we cut the feed and replace it. It'll work."
Even Xander nodded at her for this. She was backed into a corner, and she knew it, but some part of her also knew what Stephen said was right. "Okay," she said eventually, not sounding convinced, but she dared, and that was enough for Stephen. "Not until we're at Norton's?"
“Nope. I don’t want him to have notice, but I want people to know the truth.” He lowered his voice. “I saw what they did to Joey. We can’t let them do that anymore.”
“For Joey,” Eden said.
“For Joey,” Stephen repeated.
The microphone was easy enough to set up. Xander had it installed in a second, and then he loaded up the video he'd made of the children in the cages. The flash through Eden's eyes was enough for Stephen to know he was doing the right thing because there was anger; even in her eyes, it was there. He needed that anger from everyone who saw this, from everyone who had a heart.
“You ready?” Xander asked. Whatever he’d loaded up had a recording screen on one side and the video on the other. “When I press this, your voice will record over this video. Like a soundtrack.”
“Do it.” Stephen cleared his throat, eyes on the images of those children in the cages. “I am Prisoner 932416 …” he began. “I need your attention.”
