by Lucy Adler
“No!” Miss Croft barked at her. It wasn’t a rude bark, just a very emphatic one. “No, it does not have a name. And a shape is irrelevant. It deals in dreams, Daria, that’s the point. And that’s its weakness. Remove its prey and you starve it to death.”.
“So it’s dying? Like, you mean since Caxton and Meyers, and Sendrax?”
“Yes, very good. You’re catching on. We’ve been starving it for a generation now, robbing it of the subconscious idleness it needs to sow its seeds of disorder and corruption, as we talked about this morning. The only place it lives now is in the imaginations of the sleepers. But they’ll all be gone soon enough.”
Miss Croft looked down at the table again and tapped a few times on her screen. Daria was wondering what exactly that last statement meant, but she wasn’t sure she should ask. Their time was almost up and she kind of wondered if her teacher might appreciate an easy last few minutes. Maybe she’d wait a day or two and then try her question.
Of course, as she walked back to her room to drop her things off before lunch, Daria’s mind was more than a little stirred up.
Did I dream?
Did the Dark tap into my mind? It felt like three seconds. Some blackness, a little light, then I was awake. Could it happen that fast?
Is that why I heard that voice on the track?
Am I... infected, or something?
She tossed her stuff on her bed and then headed straight back down the same hall to the cafeteria. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts before, that she hadn’t looked up when she passed the bank of windows overlooking the gymnasium. This time, however, she paused and stared at the little ventilation grate way off in the distance. Then she glanced side to side down the hall in either direction, then over at the door to her left.
I did leave History a few minutes early... I’ve got time for a quick peek.
_______________________
No one at the Institute had been mean to her. In fact, after the aggressive way they had brought her there, it was kind of a shock to find everyone so kind and thoughtful. But as she hurried quickly and quietly across the track, to the far side of the gymnasium, she was feeling unbelievably nervous.
Relax, who’s going to care? I’m literally just walking across the track and then looking at a wall. No big deal.
She glanced back over her shoulder several times, hoping no one was watching her through the windows. Her hands were shaking a little. Her legs felt warm and jittery.
As she got closer to the far wall, her eyes were fixed on the grate, watching for any movement.
I know I heard something.
She stopped about ten feet from the wall, as if she were trying not to scare whatever might be in there. At the same time, she knew she only had a few minutes, so she stepped closer. Then she got down on her hands and knees and inched even closer...
“Hello? This is so weird.”
She waited but there was no answer.
“Uh, it’s Dar- I mean, uh, Dashy. Are you... Is anybody home?”
No answer.
Her face was only an inch or two from the grate now as she tried to peer inside. It was too dark to see more than a couple of feet, not to mention that the duct curved downward after that, so she wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyway.
This is kinda stupid.
Daria got up and straightened her uniform. She looked at the grate one last time, then turned and started to walk away.
“Hey!”
What?!
She spun around and looked at the wall again. Then her mind caught up with the moment and she realised the voice hadn’t come from behind.
“Over here, Daria!”
“Oh, hey!”
It was Jake Two.
Why is he here? Why now?
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Nothing, nothing. Miss Croft ended our history lesson a few minutes early, so I was just taking a little walk before lunch.”
And, you know, talking to the wall and stuff. Did he see that?
“What about you?” she asked him, trying to take the focus off of herself.
“I forgot something in the locker room, so I was just picking it up on my way to the cafeteria. You want to walk together?”
“Sure. But I might pass on visiting the boys’ locker room.”
“I don’t blame you! It’s a horrible place!”
They both laughed and started strolling across the gymnasium together.
Either I got away with it or he saw me and is being really cool about it. I guess both are fine.
Jake ran into the locker room and came back carrying a bag.
“Just some stinky clothes,” he said, wrinkling his nose.
“Yeah, wouldn’t want to leave those behind. Someone might find them by accident and get seriously hurt.” She gave him a smile and laughed a little at her own joke.
They walked slowly across the track, to the door where Daria had entered.
“So, have you been enjoying this place?” he asked. “I know it can be kind of strange at first.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About four weeks.”
“Whoa,” Daria replied, breathing in sharply to express her surprise. “Why so long?”
“I’ve had some... issues, I guess you could say. Nothing bad. I just needed some extra help. And Dr. Reston has been amazing. I should be getting out of here in like a week or so.”
“Wow, awesome.”
“What about you? Do you know when you’ll be going back?”
“No one’s told me yet,” Daria said, shrugging her shoulders and gesturing with her hand. “But I hope it’s soon.”
“You’ve probably got some friends you’d like to see again, huh?”
“Sure, of course.”
“Probably a boyfriend that’s missing you, hey?”
That’s kinda cute.
“Uh, no... well, yeah... maybe, I think.” Daria didn’t really want to explain it all to him. “We kind of left things on a cliffhanger, I guess you could say.”
“I see.”
They were just outside the cafeteria now.
“Well, maybe I’ll catch you for a walk again sometime soon,” Jake Two said, giving her a little wave goodbye.
“We can continue the conversation, if you want?” Daria said shyly, nodding toward the cafeteria.
“Yeah, sure. I’d like that.”
They each got their lunches and then met at the table in the farthest corner of the room. The cafeteria was just a big rectangle with about twenty tables and a serving counter at one end. Each table probably sat six or eight people. The room was only about half full that afternoon. Some of the students and staff skipped lunches. It happened on the outside too, not just at the Institute. Some people felt like it was a badge of honour to show how much they valued productivity even above food.
“So, I hope this isn’t rude but I was just wondering...” Jake started, then trailed off for a second.
“Yeah?”
“Back in the gym...”
Oh crap.
“Why was I talking to the wall?” Daria replied, finishing his thought.
Might as well own it, I guess.
Jake laughed. “Well, I wasn’t going to put it like that but, yeah, I guess that’s it.”
Daria flicked a few pieces of food around her plate as she smiled in embarrassment.
“If I tell you, you’re going to think I’m a total mental patient. And I may never get out of this place!” She laughed as she said it but she was genuinely afraid it might be true.
“We’re all in this together,” he whispered. He looked back over his shoulder, then added, “I wouldn’t want anyone to be stuck here longer than they needed to be.”
It would be nice to have someone to talk it out with...
“So, when I was running this morning, I sort of had a weird experience.”
Jake stopped eating and folded his arms on the table. He was looking intently at her and she couldn’t
help being a little distracted by him.
“Anyway, so as I was rounding the corner on the far end, I kind of --”
“Heard a voice?”
“What?!”
What?! How...??
“Uh,” Daria hesitated, “yeah, I think I did. But how did you... why would you guess that? I mean, have you heard one, too?”
Jake looked back over his shoulder again, then back at her with a stone-like gaze.
“Once.”
“Really? Where? When?”
“Same place as you.”
“What?!” Daria exclaimed in a whisper.
“Yeah,” he nodded, “I was running and I came around the turn, and then there was this voice calling to me.”
“What did it say?”
“My name. Just my name, like four or five times.”
“This is crazy, Jake. I mean, I thought I was going crazy but it’s even crazier that it’s real!”
“That’s the thing, Daria,” Jake replied, lowering his head and looking at the table. “It’s not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I actually went back, just like you, and was trying to talk to the vent. I was obsessed with figuring it out for like four or five days. Finally, I talked to Dr. Reston about it.”
“And?”
“And, apparently, it’s not uncommon here. I mean, most students that come for a few weeks have that experience at some point.”
“Most students think the vent is talking to them?”
“No, no, no,” he laughed. “I mean, most students hear a voice at some point. Someone, or something, calling their name. It’s just a coincidence that I heard it in the same place as you. Some people hear it in their room, some even in the cafeteria, right in the middle of a crowd! Talk about feeling insane!”
“But, so, what is it? Why does it happen?”
“According to Dr. Reston, it’s a psychological response to separation and the accelerated personal growth we experience here. You’re away from friends and family, and you’re advancing at an incredible rate. It might have taken you a year or two on the outside to get to the point you’ve reached in just a few weeks here. Your psyche is catching up with your body and intellect.”
“But why a voice? What’s my ‘psyche’ trying to tell me?”
Jake laughed again. “I don’t think it’s trying to tell you anything. Dr. Reston had a pretty intense explanation. He said... wait, let me see if I can remember his words exactly... he said, ‘It’s the death pangs of the Dark, resisting your final steps to freedom.’ I think that was it, yeah.”
“Death pangs?”
“Its final cries as you become who you were meant to be. You’re beating this thing, Daria... and that old thing inside of you - inside us all - doesn’t like it.”
Daria’s mind drifted to her recent lessons with Miss Croft. She remembered one line in particular: “Remove its prey and you starve it to death.”
Is that really it? That would mean I’m...
She looked up at Jake and he was staring back at her with a smile. He reached across the table and touched the back of her hand.
“You’re there, Daria. This is the final stage. If you’re hearing the voice, then you’re winning and it’s almost over.”
She didn’t pull her hand away. She just lingered in the moment, looking back and forth between the table and Jake Two’s piercing blue eyes. He squeezed her hand a little and she turned her palm up and squeezed his back.
“Thanks, Jake,” she said sincerely.
“Any time.”
_______________________
Daria was lying in her bed that night, curled up on her side and looking at the blank wall.
It kind of makes sense, right? I mean, only the Dark would call me Dasha... like, to try to lure me in.
I’ve been making amazing progress. Of course it would try to drag me down, right?
It’s got to be true.
I’m almost... normal.
She rolled over, reached down, and grabbed her tablet off the floor. She clicked on her messages and saw the one from Jake. As she moved her finger to tap on it, she stopped just above the screen. She held it there for a good ten seconds or more. Then she grabbed the tablet and let it fall gently back to the floor beside her bed.
Daria rolled over and curled up under her blanket again, facing the blank wall. There was a smile on her face as she fell asleep.
_______________________
As Daria rolled over and faced the wall again, Dr. Reston also smiled. He watched the monitor a little longer, then turned and looked at Jake Two.
“Excellent. Couldn’t have gone better.”
“Thanks.”
“I think she bought the whole thing.”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“And she’s definitely into you,” the doctor laughed, jabbing him in the arm.
“Of course she is,” he replied, stroking his chin and smiling. “And it was genius, you know, giving me the same name as her boyfriend. I guess that’s why you’re the doctor, eh?”
“Not that clever, really,” Dr. Reston replied, rolling his eyes as he started walking away. Jake Two was a useful asset but not necessarily because of his intellectual prowess. He was smart enough. Just enough.
“So I guess you’ve moved him already, right?”
“Yes. But we’re still going to have to accelerate Daria’s treatment. And I think perhaps I’ll pay our other guest a visit, just to make sure there aren’t any more outbursts.”
“Want my help?”
“No, you’ve been extremely helpful already, Eric. Thanks for the great work. You should get some sleep now. She’s going to be looking for you tomorrow, I think.”
“Right on,” Jake Two replied. Then he and Dr. Reston exited the room and turned in opposite directions down the hallway.
Behind them, the little office was now vacant. But its wall of screens still showed images from every corner of the facility - including Daria’s room, where she was sound asleep.
7
Month: 3 | Day: 26 | Year: 60
PRISONER
Her schedule was flipped around the following day. The morning kicked off with three hours of Math, which was particularly gruelling. Even though Caxton and Meyers had reduced the need for sleep to a mere 45 minutes, there was still a bit of mental lag when one woke up. The pills helped but it didn’t mean that three hours of Math was the first thing you felt like doing.
Daria endured, and excelled. Things were clicking for her regularly now. New concepts were falling nicely into place. As the morning lesson drew to a close, her teacher asked her a question.
“Do you think you might want to work with Math in the future, Daria? Perhaps something in engineering or physics? Or maybe you’d like to teach. I think you’d be good at that. You’re very easy to get along with.”
“Oh, well, thank you. I’m not sure, maybe.”
Heck no. Give me whatever is the farthest thing from working with Math. Can you read for a living?
After some more small talk and lies about how she would definitely consider a future in mathematics, Daria was on her way to see Miss Croft. In the hall, she bumped into Jake Two.
“Whoa, hey, what’s up?” she said as they almost literally ran into each other around a corner.
“Hey! How are you doing today?”
“Good, good.”
“That’s good.”
“Yup. Good stuff.”
They both nodded and looked around awkwardly.
“What about you?” Daria asked.
“Yeah, good. Hey, so, will you be on the track this morning?”
“After I see Miss Croft. Maybe in a couple of hours?”
“Sweet. Maybe I’ll stop by, just in case you hear anything again. Might be nice to have a... friend, you know, to talk to or something.”
Daria smiled. “I’d like that. Thanks, Jake.”
“No problem.”
They each continued on their separa
te journeys. Daria didn’t realise she was still smiling when she opened the door to greet Miss Croft. She also didn’t stop to wonder how it was that Jake had free time to visit her during her gym period.
“You’re in a good mood today,” Angela said as she entered the room.
“I guess I am,” Daria said, tucking some hair behind her ear and flopping down into her chair.
“I’m glad, because I’ve got some good news for you.” Her teacher hesitated a few seconds to heighten the suspense. “You’ve only got one week left.”
Daria’s heart jumped and her whole body, which was already feeling warm and fluttery, was suddenly coursing with adrenaline.
“No, really?! You’re serious?”
“I am.”
“But, wow, that’s awesome!”
“Well, let’s get to our work today so we make sure there’s no reason to hold you back!”
Daria shuffled her chair a little closer to Miss Croft and set her tablet on the table. Her teacher turned hers on and within a few seconds there was an image on Daria’s screen.
“It’s only fitting that as you get closer to the end, we talk about The End.”
“The End?”
“You won’t have heard much about this at school. It’s not something we like to discuss with everyone. We reserve it for the more... gifted. The ones we think can handle it, and maybe even be a part of the solution.”
Gifted? I was just hoping for normal!
“Sounds interesting.” Daria didn’t want to question it, in case she somehow messed things up.
“I alluded before to the end of the sleepers. The time when they’ll all be gone.”
Daria looked down at the image on her screen. She was expecting... actually, she wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Something big. Something devastating, perhaps? But instead, in the middle of her screen, was a syringe filled with a reddish-brown liquid.
“Uuhh, what’s this?”
“Direx. The future, Daria. Freedom. For everyone.”
“Is this like a Sendrax upgrade?”
Miss Croft laughed. “You could say that. It definitely takes Sendrax to a new level. It’s the final stage of what began at the Final Renaissance. It’s the gateway to the New Humanity.”
