Death of Day

by Megan O'Russell

  A single light bulb hung from the stone ceiling over her bed. The bulb swayed slightly.

  Raina let her eyes fall shut, feeling for movement in the bed.

  The room didn’t seem to be shaking or rocking, but as she opened her eyes again, the bulb still swayed.

  “Should have hired a better builder.” Raina’s voice came out as a rough croak.

  She listened for a long moment, waiting for someone to come running now that she’d made a sound.

  The noise coming through the door didn’t change.

  “Great.” She pulled her arm up and over the covers.

  Her hand seemed to have gained a hundred pounds in weight while the ice encased her. She pulled her other arm free from the sheets, holding her hand up where she could see it.

  Her fingers looked the same. The ice hadn’t left any scars.

  She kicked the covers aside, gritting her teeth against the unbearable weight of her legs.

  They’d left her in her clothes from the club. Even her black boots remained firmly on her feet.

  “How courteous.” Her voice crackled again.

  Raina took a deep breath, listening for the rattle in her lungs. The air moved freely in and out through her nose.

  She took another breath, sucking in as much as her lungs would hold. Seconds ticked past as she waited to exhale. Her lungs didn’t tremble in revolt. She let the air out slowly, expecting to hack out blood any second.

  Nothing.

  She took another breath just to be sure.

  “Wow.”

  The word crackled again, not from her lungs but her throat.

  The moment she thought of her throat, it burned with thirst.

  She pushed herself to her feet, lurching across the dirt-covered stone floor to the door. She tried to turn the handle, but the knob wouldn’t move.

  “Hey.” She pounded on the door. “I’m awake, let me out.”

  The voices on the other side of the door stopped talking.

  “Let me out! I’m thirsty.” She pounded on the wood. A dull thump answered her fists.

  They’ve locked me in where I can’t break out.

  “Tell Emanuel I’m awake,” Raina said. “Tell him if he leaves me trapped in here there is going to be hell to pay when I get out.”

  Voices spoke on the other side of the door, their words too soft for Raina to hear.

  A man gave a low, rumbling laugh.

  “Let me out!” Raina pounded on the door.

  The outside voices drifted away.

  “Next time you take a miracle cure from a stranger, make sure you add freedom to the life-saving bargain,” Raina chided herself as she leaned against the door.

  Her father would be looking for her by now. They would have found the guard and let him out.

  Daddy will be looking for me and angry.

  Raina allowed herself the comfort of a smile. There were very few things an angry McNay couldn’t accomplish.

  She turned to examine the room. Roughly carved stone surrounded her.

  “No wonder they need Daddy’s equipment if this is the quality they’re working with.”

  They’d left her with only a bed and a chair. A stack of printed paper lay on the seat, a yellow note perched on top.

  “Been sent to my room to study?” Raina pressed her cheek to the crack in the door. “If I die of thirst before you let me out, I will find a way to haunt you from death.”

  If there was anyone on the other side of the door to hear her, they gave no sign.

  She picked up the stack of paper and note, taking them to the bed where she could sit facing the door.

  In case you doubt the end of the world.

  The note had been scrawled in cramped script as though the author had been in a great hurry.

  “No one doubts the end is coming.”

  Raina set the note aside to read the first page of the pile.

  Resource Assessment – North Eastern Section

  It has come to our attention that, given the population expansion and level of chemical contamination within the area, a reverse of the current course of extinction within the region is not possible. It is therefore our recommendation that all Incorporation resources currently assigned to maintaining the lives of those in the region be reassigned to a more sustainable project.

  “Giving up on saving people and building the domes. Wonder if the people sitting on that board of directors still like to pretend they have souls?”

  She flipped to the next page in the packet.

  The work needed to build and initially maintain the domes is beyond the capacity of those who will be housed within the glass. For the materials needed for initial building and long term maintenance, it is approximated that a population of ten thousand should be allowed within easy working distance until life inside the domes is sustainable. After all long term resources are stored and the domes have reached sustainability, the city dwellers will no longer be useful as there will be no room within the domes for additional resources to be housed.

  Raina crumpled up the page, tossing it into the corner with a shout.

  “People are more than resources.” Her words bounced around the room.

  She moved on to the next page.

  The necessity for the Incorporation to maintain a military force to protect the domes is undeniable. However, we cannot recommend calling the force soldiers. Should the outsiders consider them a threat, the danger to our armed men and women of the domes would only grow. Our greatest hope for a gentle path to the end of relations with the outside world is for those in the city to believe the existence of the domes themselves is in the outsiders’ best interest. We suggest community outreach to ensure good will.

  She flipped to the next page.

  At the point when it inevitably becomes disadvantageous to allow outsiders to remain so close to the domes, plans must be made for the evacuation of the area. We request each Domes Council submit an external clearing proposal to the Incorporation, to be reviewed and filed for eventual use.

  With the varying topography amongst the different domes there is, unfortunately, no unilateral answer to securing the regions.

  “Securing the regions,” Raina muttered the phrase, swiping angry tears away from her eyes. “Securing the regions? Securing the regions!” She screamed the words over and over, knocking the rest of the papers from the bed.

  It didn’t matter what the rest of the pages said. The Incorporation had planned for everything. From using the city dwellers as laborers to getting rid of them when they were no longer of use.

  She launched herself across the room, her legs easily jumping the five feet, and slammed into the thick, wooden door.

  “Let me out of here!” She pounded her fists on the door. “Emanuel, let me out. I will not sit in this cell while those bastards put together paperwork about this entire city dying. Emanuel!”

  She grabbed the handle, twisting as hard as she could. The metal warped, rotating beyond its normal capacity.

  Taking a deep breath, she raised her hand, then brought her fist down on the handle.

  Pain shot through her arm, but the metal gave, tipping down at an odd angle.

  Bellowing in rage, she pounded on the knob, pummeling the metal without care for the pain or the blood dripping from her fist.

  With a crack, the knob fell away, bringing the innards of the lock with it.

  She stuck her fingers through the hole the knob had left behind, swinging the door toward her.

  Emanuel leaned against the wall outside, waiting alone in the long dark hall.

  “Why the hell did you lock me in?” Raina wiped the blood from her knuckles onto her pants.

  The skin beneath had already begun to heal.

  “Am I supposed to be able to heal like that?”

  Emanuel pushed away from the wall, holding his hand out for Raina’s.

  Her hand shook as she placed it in his palm.

  “You’re further along than I expected.” He
examined the shining patch where the skin had been broken only moments before. “That’s a good thing. Some don’t react as well to the medicine. You’re lucky.”

  “Thanks.” Raina pulled her hand away. “Is that why you locked me in, to see if I could break out?”

  “More to see what you’d become,” Emanuel said. “But we’ve been speaking, and you haven’t tried to kill me.”

  “Ought I have?”

  “There isn’t an ought,” Emanuel said. “But you’re thirsty and angry, and you haven’t tried to claw through my jugular.”

  Raina’s eyes flicked to the pulse in Emanuel’s neck. The tiny movement of blood rushing just beneath his skin. Thumping so deliciously and enticingly close to her reach.

  “We should get you fed before you give in to your new instincts.”

  She heard Emanuel’s words but couldn’t drag her gaze from the pulsing in his neck.

  “Come.” He walked down the hall without giving Raina a backwards glance.

  She teetered between screaming at him and running away, finding a path out of the tunnels and beyond his madness.

  But a scent wafted in Emanuel’s wake. The sweet smell of blood and a hint of something familiar, something that mirrored the inner most makings of her.

  Raina’s feet were moving before she’d made the choice to follow.

  A few doors lined the hall, each made of the same heavy wood that had kept her trapped. More openings had been carved into the walls, and the beginnings of hollowed out rooms lay beyond.

  “How big is this place?” Raina asked.

  Emanuel slowed his pace until Raina walked by his side.

  “Right now?” Emanuel said. “Not large enough. A few rooms and a couple of halls won’t help our cause.”

  “Cause?” Raina said. “I thought this was about survival.”

  “Is there a better cause than survival?”

  They turned at the end of the corridor, moving into a hall that slanted steeply up.

  “So you’re building a bunker?” Raina asked. “Going to hide out down here when the people from the domes decide that having the city rabble as neighbors isn’t advantageous anymore?”

  Emanuel stopped. “You read that far?”

  “What kind of monsters would think the world is so disposable?”

  “The kind who build a glass bunker with an excellent view of the chaos and pain as society ends.” Emanuel strode down the hall, leaving Raina to jog behind him.

  “We can’t let some Incorporation do this,” Raina said. “Who the hell do they think they are to decide who gets thrown out with the trash?’

  “The ones with the money,” Emanuel said. “Money your father happily takes.”

  Raina stopped in her tracks.

  Anger won out over shame.

  “Those bastards are lying to him!” She kicked the stone wall.

  Sense told her pain and broken bones would follow, but her body didn’t find either. She kicked the wall again and again, watching the stones crumble away.

  “Those evil, manipulating, cruel”—she punctuated each word with a kick.

  “Murdering,” Emanuel offered. “They might not have reached that level yet. But if the domes exist long enough, they will.”

  Raina buried her face in her hands. Her pulse raced, flashing white lights before her eyes.

  “You need to eat,” Emanuel said.

  “Screw you.”

  “Now.”

  Raina glared past the white lights and into his dark eyes.

  He didn’t back down.

  “Fine,” Raina said. “Direct me to the nearest jugular and I’ll tear it out. Do we have a virgin offering?”

  “Don’t be crass.” Emanuel led her forward to a narrow side passage, barely wide enough for him to walk down.

  It would have seemed like a narrow alley to nowhere if the walls hadn’t been the smoothest she had seen. Lights hung every few feet, giving the passage a bright glow. She hadn’t realized how dark the other hall had been until light surrounded her.

  Emanuel stopped at the first door they came to, entering the room beyond without hesitation.

  Six people sat on worn furniture scattered around the room.

  All of them turned to Emanuel, falling silent as he entered.

  “We have a new member of our group,” Emanuel said. “This is Raina.”

  The six gave murmured welcomes and greetings.

  “Hi.” As Raina exhaled the word. The scent of the six caught in her mouth, flooding her with a need she didn’t recognize.

  “Careful.” Emanuel reached out, blocking her path.

  “My turn.” A pale girl around Raina’s age stood.

  “Thank you,” Emanuel said.

  The girl walked toward him, pulling her mop of brown hair aside.

  Scars marked the base of her neck. Emanuel pulled a knife from his pocket, slicing across the girl’s skin so quickly, Raina almost missed the flash of the blade.

  The girl winced but didn’t cry out as blood trickled down her neck.

  Raina gasped as the scent of fresh blood hit her lungs. A clawing need unlike any she had ever felt before tore at her from the inside out.

  “She’s really thirsty,” the girl whispered.

  “Drink carefully.” Emanuel seized Raina’s shoulders, guiding her forward to the girl’s neck.

  “No.” Raina clung to the doorway. “I can’t do this. People shouldn’t do this.”

  “This is the price of survival,” Emanuel said. “She gives her blood willingly so we can be strong enough to fight against those who would destroy the city.”

  Raina dug her nails into the stone.

  “No.”

  “Do you want to stop the domes from discarding the city?” Emanuel said. “Do you want to build a future people like you will actually get to see?”

  “Yes.” The word came out with a sob.

  “It’s okay,” the girl said. “You need to drink.”

  Raina let her fingers fall slack. Emanuel guided her, facing her toward the girl’s neck.

  The girl tipped her head to the side, exposing her blood-stained skin.

  Instinct took over. Raina lowered her mouth to the wound, sucking greedily.

  Better than liquor, for the liquid held no burn. Better than sun, because the joy of it flooded through her veins in an instant.

  Emanuel’s hands held her shoulders, anchoring her to the world, as she floated into the bliss of blood.

  Chapter Four

  The stench of the city reeked worse than Raina had ever imagined a foul scent could. The sweat and grime of every person who had wandered through the streets during the deadly day clung to the air even in the shadows of the night.

  Raina moved quickly through the streets, keeping away from the main roads, dodging past the packs of drunken men.

  Her legs longed to run. To let her feet pound against the pavement as hard as they could.

  I could fly across the river if I tried.

  The absurd thought curled Raina’s lips into a grin.

  “It’s better if you just dive in,” a voice carried up from the shadows of a basement apartment staircase. “Don’t think about it, just do it.”

  Don’t think about it, just do it.

  “I promise you’ll have fun,” the voice said.

  Raina shivered. Knowing the voice wasn’t trying to convince her to do something foul didn’t stop her revulsion from setting her teeth on edge.

  Raina turned down a side street, heading straight for the calming lights of Bellevue Avenue.

  Little had changed in the three months since she’d walked the all too familiar street. Each lamppost had been decorated for the festive season. Proof that while the world ended, the rich would still have their fun.

  The urge to build a bonfire of the spangled bows curled Raina’s fingers. But the flock of bought security guards kept the impulse at bay. They roamed the center of Bellevue Avenue, mingling between houses, the weapons they carried t
he only vague sign they knew the perils of the surrounding city. None suspected the danger that strolled past them, her gaze locked on the front door of home.

  “Miss McNay?” A security stooge jogged from the far side of the street.

  James. Jeff?

  The tag on his shirt read John.

  “Miss McNay?” John repeated her name.

  The jog had kick-started his pulse. His heart pumped blood through his veins, beating a gentle rhythm at the base of his neck.

  Focus, Raina.

  “Did my parents move?” Raina asked. “Has there been a warrant issued for my arrest?”

  Is there anyone left to do the arresting?

  “I, umm.” John glanced up and down the street. His hand dropped to his weapon.

  Tear the weapon from his hand, break his leg, you’ll be down the street before the rest can react.

  “If I could escort you to your door,” John said. “I don’t want to ask too much, but maybe you could say I helped you get here?”

  Raina smiled, her body relaxed, leaving only the itching thirst to bother her.

  “How much did Daddy offer as a reward for my safe return?” She draped her hand over John’s elbow.

  “Enough to get my wife and daughter clear of the city,” John said.

  “Promise you’ll take the money and get as far from here as you can?” Raina asked.

  “I’ve heard of places out west where people have figured out how to farm,” John said. “Never had an interest in growing anything, but I could learn.”

  “You found me at rehab,” Raina said. “Too embarrassed to come home. You convinced me my family wanted me back.”

  They climbed the steps to the house. Raina banged on the door.

  “I hope you have a nice end of the world, John.”

  “Thank you, Miss McNay.”

  The door swung open. Nettie leaned against the doorframe.

  “Well, damn,” Nettie said. “Mom, Dad, Raina’s not dead.”

  Nettie’s breath reeked of booze, the stench strong enough to carry over the scent of the feast of blood that lived in the house.

  Raina focused on Nettie’s face. Nettie’s seventeenth birthday wouldn’t be for a few more weeks, but anger and distrust had already marred her brow.

  She’s a person. See the person, not the meal. Emanuel’s voice echoed in Raina’s mind.