Women of the Grey- The Complete Trilogy

by Carol James Marshall

  Maybe that is why they could justify cutting her, dissecting her again and again. She had not conformed to their wishes; therefore, she was not worthy of them. Not someone to have compassion for, since there was none to begin with.

  It was time for Teresa to go as well. Time to take this sharp blade and plunge it into her neck. Isn’t that what they did in movies and on television? Humans were always plunging knives into their necks or other people’s necks?

  It seemed obvious to Teresa that was the way to kill herself. Maybe her gut? How could she get this knife in her just right so that she poked sharp little holes all over her heart? That was assuming they had a heart. Teresa was almost positive she did, but Women of the Grey don’t have blood like humans. So, of what use was a heart? It would have nothing to do but sit in the chest, useless day after endless day.

  “It’s time,” Teresa told herself. “Time to be free”

  It was then that she heard the lab door creak open.

  June

  “I know why she needs so much.” Clarissa ran her hands up and down June’s arms. June felt inclined to slap her, but she was tired. Harvesting that much blood was messy. She was worried that the body might be found quickly. She had to leave town soon.

  Hell, she’d have to leave the States soon. Out in her car was a packed bag, passport, fake ID, and a plane ticket. She was all set except for this last delivery and payday that it would bring. What use would it be to slap Clarissa now? She was leaving her behind.

  June put her hands on Clarissa’s face, but did so gently, with tenderness. She wanted to give Clarissa the expectation of passion or love. The Mothers in The Grey always spoke sweetly, in a tone of voice that represented an almost giddy nature.

  If you paid attention, there was venom in every “honey bunny, sugar drop, my lovely girl.” The mothers’ words and tone were sweet, but they cut. This is what June felt with her hands on Clarissa’s face. She knew her actions were a fake kindness. She had learned that from the best. It didn’t matter what June felt. It only mattered what Clarissa perceived.

  “Why?” June kissed Clarissa on the tip of her nose, and gave her a smile. She wanted to make Clarissa’s heart leap. It occurred to June that she might be a sadist. Why was petting the dog she’d just as soon kick so much fun?

  “Because Red is better if you drink it.” Clarissa gave June her biggest smile and raised her hands, putting them to her head and then spreading them out, meaning “mind blown.”

  “What?” June exclaimed. She was perplexed. If Red was smeared on the skin, it gave the Women of the Grey a nice dullness that took the edge off. What happened if they drank it?

  “Drink it?” June wrinkled her brow and tilted her head at Clarissa. If she didn’t answer June soon, that slap might happen.

  “Okay, not drink it. Not like vampires. No, if they take some and put it on their tongue, like a drop or two, it gives a more powerful high. It’s very addictive.” Clarissa quickly responded raising her eyebrows at June when she said the word addictive. That was a money maker in her eyes. A cathedral of addicts to supply.

  Nodding, June sat down. There were two ways to go about this. She could tell Clarissa to tell no one of this. They could keep it themselves. The last thing she needed was a pandemic of Red addicts pounding down her door. Yet, why would she care? She was leaving after this.

  “Tell everyone…” June said this to Clarissa and her choice was made. The choice to destroy The Grey was simple. Everyone wants to stomp out something they hate. June hated The Grey.

  “Call Cara now…tell her to slowly spread the word. Give Superior Mother half the cup and tell her that’s all we could get. Sell the rest, a couple of drops each, but human money only, at triple the price.” When June said “human money only” Clarissa’s eyes got glassy. She thought June was planning their future together. A future in the outside world. All her dedication to June would soon pay off. June almost felt sorry for her, but in life there will be causalities.

  “I’m exhausted…I’m going to take a long sleep,” June stood, looking Clarissa in the eye, “while you hustle.” She let her voice drop, making sure Clarissa knew she meant hustle, not flitter around gossiping like some housewife. “Do not disturb me till every drop is sold.”

  Clarissa gave June a nervous nod. “Don’t take any either.” June said while tightly squeezing Clarissa’s hand. She did that on purpose. A little love. A little fear. Isn’t that the way of The Grey?

  Cara and Clarissa squatted together in a room above the garden. Both were quiet because there were mothers in the Grey’s garden today. Mothers who didn’t know about this secret room.

  “Her assistant told me she puts it in her mouth.” Clarissa directed this remark to Cara, not sure if Cara was bothering to really listen. Clarissa pulled her socks back on. She couldn’t help but put just a tiny bit of Red on her foot. A place where June wouldn’t see it.

  Cara shrugged the responded “Fine…whatever. I’ll tell them all.” It bothered Clarissa that Cara never showed excitement about what they did. They were criminals in The Grey and were allowed to get away with it. Their leader was a customer. That was hilarious. Why didn’t Cara see that? Why was she always so damn dull?

  “We’ll get more stuff, don’t you see…more money.” Clarissa’s voice was a touch shrill when she said this to Cara. Cara shrugged once again and silently walked out the door, off to tell one and all to put a little in your mouth, lay back, and enjoy the feeling of nothing for three times the extra price.

  Cara had been skimming from Clarissa and June since they started. She felt no guilt for this. June was a shark, and Clarissa had love goggles on when it came to June. Cara was saving up, and one day she’d pay to have June tucked in, gotten rid of, disappeared as so many do in The Grey. Then Cara would work for herself and make Clarissa lick the soles of her shoes.

  June hadn’t been to her quarters for a while. She tended to ghost The Grey, making sure she was nothing but a rumor most of the time. She often stayed with Clarissa or in that secret room above the garden.

  Tonight, though, she didn’t care who saw her going into her bedroom or who walked by it hearing noises and knowing she was in there. Superior Mother would soon get her dose of Red and would probably be out of it for the next twenty-four hours. That would give June enough time for a long sleep, followed by going to Clarissa’s room to gather her cash.

  June already had it planned out. She’d get to Clarissa’s room and get the cash from her. She knew the mothers had human money hidden. They always did, even the ones that never left the Grey. Maybe it was their “someday” money. Money that they’d spend on luxury items, if they ever got out into the world.

  June didn’t know for sure what that would be, and she didn’t care. Lying on her dusty sheets, June rolled over to her side and played it out. She’d get the profits from Clarissa, giving her a little something extra for her and Cara. She’d then tell them she was going out for more.

  She’d be excited about leaving, so she knew she had to play that down. She needed to act happy about the money and about going out to get more. They wouldn’t know what she was really feeling. Clarissa and Cara would be clueless to her real source of joy.

  After collecting from them, June would go out one of her secret exits, get to her car, and drive straight to the airport. She was flying to Mexico. Cancun, Mexico, where she planned to buy herself a little beach house and purge herself of The Grey.

  She’d use the salt water to cleanse herself of Superior Mother’s gaze. She could see that house now, sand tracked in all over it because June wouldn’t bother cleaning her feet before going in. There would be no mother there to call her a “Messy Betty…. Mucky Duck.” Or some other nonsense with their scornfully spiteful words.

  This house that June fantasied about would have no mirrors. She never wanted to see the Women of the Grey again. Unfortunately, they were clones, “all the same and none different.” If she looked at herself, even with the black hair and
lipstick, she’d still see Superior Mother. She’d still see the face of that young mother clutching her stuffed bunny with watery eyes and sorrow dripping all over the damn room.

  No mirrors, sand all over the floor, and June would be something she’s always wanted to be: anonymous and free.

  The word of a new way to take Red spread quickly through The Grey. Mothers wanting to bang their heads against walls slipped a drop, dry flake, crust of Red on their tongue and waited. Slowly, the new way washed through the hallways. Mothers lay on the floor in the cafeteria, delirious and unable to move.

  Some mothers pinched their noses in disgust, but put some Red on their tongues anyway. They didn’t want to miss out on something that was said to be divine. How could they not take part in something that was rumored to be so cool? No, these mothers and Women of the Grey would do it anyway, no matter how gross. They needed something to take the edge off. Scrape the sadness away. Something to make them not feel.

  In the nine hours that June slept, Red loomed in the hallways in the Grey, becoming a beast. There was not a corner that did not have a Woman of the Grey or a mother staring at walls or speaking to tables. Being so wrapped up in their trip, they did not see each other or care for one another. Instead, they drifted around one another like snowflakes, leaving themselves open and unguarded.

  They were all perfectly placed to be picked off, one by one.

  Lisa

  Lisa felt that she would bash her head in soon. By soon, she meant she wanted to do it now. The cascade of human emotion that was in the room trickled into her, making her lungs feel full of water with bit traces of acid.

  The Z9T people had told Lisa stories and showed her pictures on the internet. Picture after picture of people, smiling, with one of the Women of the Grey. In some pictures there was a Woman of the Grey smiling, holding up a drink. In another, a Woman of the Grey was blowing out candles on a birthday cake. The worst was photo after photo of them holding babies.

  Endless pictures of Women of the Grey holding a baby, smiling for a camera, looking teary-eyed, some content, and some lost. The ones that held the babies had the lost look in their eyes. Those photos Lisa believed would haunt her for eternity.

  Lisa the empath to humans shook both with anger and fear. The Grey wasn’t a secret. The Women of the Grey weren’t secrets. They were not clever. Every Woman of the Grey left a trace. These humans took their time, gathered their information and wits. Lisa licked her lips. It was now the time of reckoning. The humans were hurt, and their hurt turned to anger. The anger led to a forward motion that had brought these three to Israel, who had led them straight to Lisa.

  What would Lisa do? She’d led them to the doors of The Grey. She’d do this because there was no hiding any more. There would be no more lie after lie after lie. It was time for it all to end.

  The walls of The Grey were crumbling and they did not know it. Lisa questioned herself, though. The Women of the Grey were her race, or clan, or what? She didn’t know what the Women of the Grey were to her. Lisa had been birthed by one of them and raised to be them, but Lisa now knew the truth.

  She had never been one of them. Lisa was an outsider from the beginning. She felt as if she was a stranger within their walls. Questioning every single thing that came out of the mothers’ mouths. Questioning and defying everything Superior Mother had told her to do on her missions. Lisa just couldn’t do what she was told. Something in her sided with the humans, not them. Never them. Maybe because she was more human than anything else.

  “They’ll meet us there at one a.m.” Maria’s voice broke Lisa’s train of thought. Maria had taken off her shoes and laid on the floor with a laptop. The same laptop that showed Lisa the endless photos. There are no real secrets.

  Lisa asked “Who’s them?” She had stayed on the opposite side of the room from Israel, stuck to her corner. Lisa could admire him from afar like this. Allow her love to flow over to him. Sadly, he’d never bother to catch it.

  Maria rolled onto her back, then sat up and got close to Lisa. “Cozy up with the beast,” Lisa thought. The fear they had first felt for her was gone. Lisa didn’t like them. If she had learned anything from Superior Mother, it was that it’s good to be feared. She didn’t want them getting comfortable with her.

  “The other Z9Ts. There are hundreds of us traveling to the location now.” Maria’s voice was almost peppy, downright giddy at the prospect of mass murder. It made Lisa wince. She knew this had to happen, but the human’s point of view was theatrical. They were playing aliens vs humans in their heads, like a made-for-TV movie.

  One of the men with Maria spoke up. “How many have powers like you?” His eyes rested briefly on Lisa, then he looked away. Lisa knew what that look was. It was hate. He hated her, or her kind.

  She had never thought about this. The only one she knew of was Superior Mother, but why? She had powers of cold, Superior Mother had the same control over her frost. Did they all? Was it a few?

  “Our leader,” Lisa said. She could have said more. Told them that all the same questions were now circling around her thoughts, but she couldn’t. A part of her had to defy them the way she defied Superior Mother. Maybe she wasn’t on anybody’s side but her own. It was all so confusing. Lisa felt like she was on train tracks watching the train come at her. She could jump out of the way, but did she want to?

  Israel came over to Lisa, sticking a hand out with a broad smile. The same smile he had given her when he handed her coffee at his comfy little coffee shop. Lisa took his hand, feeling her cold desperately push itself into the warmth that was Israel.

  “Lisa and I are going for a walk.” Israel pulled her up, tossed her some shoes, and then opened the hotel room door with style, the way the old Israel had done things.

  Sitting at a fast food restaurant, Lisa bit into her burger, realizing how hungry she was. She ate the burger quickly, then walked up and ordered another one. Israel nodded at her, winked, and started popping French fries in his mouth.

  They had said very little since leaving the hotel room, except for Lisa mentioning that they needed to eat something and her not giving a fuck if the others ate or not. Israel found humor in this, answering her by walking to the fast food restaurant and then laughing and pulling her towards the counter.

  To most they probably appeared like a happy couple and Lisa wanted to bathe in that. She would pretend all there saw them as a couple, and happy. She would also pretend that Israel saw them this way.

  “Have you thought about what you’re going to do after?” Israel asked. Lisa blinked at Israel, chewed, and suddenly her appetite dropped to the floor and skittered away.

  “After?” Lisa responded. She was nervous now. He’d ruined her basking in the fake contentment.

  “After tonight…after it’s all done. You’ll be free then. No one to come get you. Nobody chasing you.” Israel shoved three French fries in his mouth and did a little dance in his seat.

  Lisa took another bite of her second burger. She didn’t want any more, but needed a reason not to answer him. “No one to come get me. Nobody chasing me. Nobody that cares.” The thought ran through Lisa’s fingertips straight to her brain.

  Lisa never did answer Israel. She walked back to the hotel in silence, smelling of greasy burgers and the dust from this ugly desert town. She had made up her mind with the very last bite of her burger. There wouldn’t be an after for her.

  Love is a nasty creature that Lisa wished she could stomp on and make suffer.

  Superior Mother

  Lifting the glass container with the half cup of Red, Superior Mother smelled it. She didn’t know why or what she was looking for, but she inhaled deeply. The smell was exotic, alluring. It was the best smell.

  She knew it was the best smell because she was an addict. She thought she was clean — she wasn’t. She thought she was better than this — she wasn’t. She thought she could lead — she can’t. Superior Mother could think of no better way to go out than to drown hersel
f in her now one desire, Red.

  At one time she had wanted to rule The Grey, and she did. Then she craved her daughter. Now all she wanted was Red. Thoughts of The Women of the Grey, the mothers, the daughters of The Grey were in the background and ignored. Lisa faded from afterthought to never thought. Now all her concentration was for Red.

  The want of Red thundered through Superior Mother and she would not ignore it. Instead, she had ordered enough, she believed, to change her completely. This amount of Red would bring on her savage self, maybe for good. Red would give her the warmth she wanted, but then she’d feel herself change. The lust to thrash, the need to kill would awaken.

  Then it would be over. Changed into an Original forever. She’d kill whoever entered the room. She hoped this amount of Red would make her savage enough. Strong enough. Give her the will to kill those that always lingered in her shadow, the puppet masters directing the show.

  Going into her bathroom, Superior Mother took the Red with her, guarding the glass container against spillage, against a bump on the knee, or anything that would make Superior Mother move in the slightest way that could harm her prize.

  Superior Mother stripped naked, kicking her clothes aside casually, not believing she’d ever wear them again. When she turned, she’d rip them off of her. The Originals wore no clothing. They were naked. Superior Mother had flashes of Teresa laying on the table that gave her a quick shudder.

  Teresa was naked as well, but not because she wanted to be. Not because Teresa volunteered to be there. The Originals stripped her bare, not thinking that she deserved some dignity. Superior Mother grasped at her sink. Anger was rolling around in her. She needed to stop thinking of Teresa and focus on her planned demise.