I searched for a familiar face. The square looked exactly the same as it once did. The trees were beautiful with bright colors and leaves were turning orange, which meant my favorite time of year was here. The square was a large open space that everyone was welcome to visit. I couldn’t help but feel that I didn’t belong there somehow. There were shops all around the square, and I spotted one of my favorite places. My mother and I used to walk there for pastries almost every week. I wanted to peek inside the bakery. I would be able to feel some sort of reassurance that my mother was real. We went there in the past, but I didn’t want to remember that I was alone without her.
I turned my back to the bakery and looked around the square once more. The lamppost surrounding the square was already turned on, as the sun was slowly beginning to set.
Music blared from all directions, and normally I would have loved to dance, but not anymore. Even Max, the boy from next door, who stayed secluded inside like me, was there. We were in the same class my sophomore year, but he dropped out to stay home. He was more frightened of catching the disease than my mother had been, and that was saying something. But my mother caught the disease, and we didn’t. Tears welled in my eyes, but I pushed the thoughts from my mind.
Max waved in my direction, but stayed on the edge of the square, close to the parking lot. I waved back as enthusiastic as possible back to him, and he looked down immediately.
The Fourth of July fireworks were held at the square every year, as were most parties. I never attended the block parties. Kaley was all for the party scene, but I was never one for that.
Kaley immediately started searching the humongous crowd of people for a cute boy. She had always been so wrapped around the fact that she needed a boy to be happy, but I would never live that way. The sudden death of my parents taught me that I didn’t need anyone to be happy.
My old friends, Caleb and Julian, waved to me, and I threw a stiff hand up. I was not in the mood to be around all the people who probably assumed I was pathetic. Katherine, a chunky brunette, stepped in front of us, blocking our path and only spoke to Kaley. She threw in a hello to me, but I was sure it was because she didn’t want to make Kaley angry. I just looked at her blankly. I wasn’t a big fan of Katherine. She used to spread rumors about everyone, and eventually one about me, and I wasn’t so forgiving anymore or willing to forget. When she moved out of the way, Kaley grabbed my arm in an unbearable grip.
“Oh, my lord, look, Trevor is here. Why did he have to come? He doesn’t care if there’s a cure.” Before I was able to tell her “neither do you,” a dark-haired, lanky boy walked up to Kaley. He strode toward her, while swiping his hair to the side to show off in front of Kaley. I felt her grip on me tighten, and I rolled my eyes in exasperation.
“Hey, beautiful. Want to dance?” he asked her as soon as he approached us, without as much as looking at me. She didn’t bother to ask me if I would be okay alone before she agreed to go. Without looking back, she followed him to the dance floor.
I stood quietly on the edge of the sidewalk, just like Max. Suddenly, I felt completely out of place. I looked down at my outfit; I was dressed in my black lace dress with my jean jacket over it. I wore my black combat boots that were completely out of place, but still cute for the look I wanted, which was “stay the hell away.” This was a mistake. I was pushing it. I was not ready to go out. I grabbed my necklace and closed my eyes. I started to slow my breathing by imagining that my dad was giving me this necklace for the first time. I did this every time I started to panic. I slowly calmed down and started listening to the music. I swayed a little to compose myself and slowly opened my eyes.
I had the oddest feeling that someone was watching me, so I looked around, but nobody seemed to care that I was there anyway. It was probably in my head, because I wasn’t used to being out anymore. My imaginary audience, I supposed. I hadn’t been out in so long.
I looked to the dance floor and smiled as I saw Kaley dancing perfectly to the music. Then laughed out loud at the simplicity of it all as she kissed the new boy as he touched the small of her back. Well, I knew the disease didn’t spread like mono because Kaley would be the first dead. She kissed plenty of boys before the disease began to destroy lives, and she hadn’t changed a bit since it started spreading like wild fire. Kaley was never careful. She always did things so hastily, and I could never do it. Either I wasn’t bold enough, or just never wanted a connection to anyone that way.
I decided to stay put where I stood. Everyone was so wrapped up in their own conversations I didn’t think anyone had noticed my arrival, like they noticed Kaley. Suddenly, I wished someone would have asked me to dance, or even talked to me because I felt alone. My demeanor was always telling people to stay away, but maybe I needed something to snap me out of my funk. When was this cure coming anyway? It was already 8:00 and some people liked to sleep. Well, people who didn’t have a life liked to sleep.
I looked down, and I really did feel ridiculous. Kaley had curled my hair and put a waterfall braid through it to give it flare, but not one boy had stared at me, which didn’t bother me. Well, that was a lie. I was only bothered because I wished someone would notice that I was drowning in my own sadness, and I needed a friend. It was not a bad thing to feel alone, but sometimes you needed someone to notice how upset you were.
Sometimes I wished Kaley would talk to me or just try to understand me, but she just talked about shallow, basic things. I could blab about books all day or something complex, but she would rather chat about her boys. I would like to talk about my parents, but she always changed the subject. Maybe she thought it was good for me to not mention them or maybe she couldn’t handle it. Maybe she remembered that night as vividly as I did, and she couldn’t face the demons so it was easier to not talk about it at all.
As I scanned the crowd again, I noticed a boy starting at me intently. I eyed the ground and felt the blood rushing straight to my face. I looked up slowly to meet his face again, but he was gone. Maybe it was just my imagination, because nobody would look at me. I mentally hit myself for seeing things now.
Someone appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my hips. I jumped in place and looked up to see a boy with blond hair, who was tall and lean. I couldn’t place him until he spoke.
“Hey, darling.” Eric, he was the biggest jerk in school. I couldn’t help but scowl at him.
“Can I help you?” I asked as calmly as possible.
“Oh. Lena, is that you?” He uttered in surprise. “I totally thought you were someone else. You know, everyone thought you’d be up in your house still.” He looked me up and down in a way that made me uncomfortable. “Wow. Nice to know that depression suited you.” He winked as he backed away. I was sure he felt my eyes wanting to burn the flesh off his face.
“Yes. Depression does many of us well. Now I’m not afraid to kill people because I have nothing to lose.” A look of shock spread across his face as his mouth fell open. He threw up his hands as if to say sorry. He left quickly, and I wanted to laugh. That’s right, tell your friends, stay away from me. Although I wanted to be out of my funk, I didn’t want it to be with his kind of people. The jerk kind who Kaley so desperately wanted to be around.
A loud honking sound broke me from my thoughts. A large limo approached the square, and I was reminded why I even bothered coming. To see if the cure was real or just a big hoax. The limo stopped abruptly, followed by about a dozen vans for the local cable stations. They all gathered outside with their equipment. Flashes of cameras erupted all around me as a man with a black suit and cap stepped out to open the doors for his passengers. A man and a younger boy stepped out and remained standing. The boy was broad, with a bitter expression on his face. His lips stayed in a tight line, and he looked as if he could crush someone at any moment. His hair was a dark brown, and his eyes seemed to be pitiless black holes. The man beside him was calmer. Cameras started flashing as they finally began walking. The man held the gazes of each person as he passed. He
had brown hair as well, but his blue eyes sparkled. He wore a long white coat that reminded me of what my father wore when he was in his office at work on a new experiment. I couldn’t place him, but he looked familiar.
The music had stopped so abruptly I didn’t even notice how quiet the crowd was until I turned to see that no one was moving anymore. With each flash of the cameras, I felt sicker than the last. I was so nervous and anxious to know if the cure was real. It was hard to see after a while, but I finally recognized the strange boy with the hardened face. His name was Joseph. He dated Kaley for a year or so, but who could remember, and they broke up just before she began dating Seth. Joseph had disappeared from the neighborhood about three weeks ago after he contracted the disease from his mother. His mother had died six days before he disappeared. Many theorized that he killed himself.
Joseph always had rudeness about him, but now he was just cold. Maybe they brought him back to life so he could suffer more, I wasn’t really sure. Just as I tried to decide why he was there, the man in the white coat cleared his throat when mics were placed on his shirt and Joseph’s. They reached the very center of the square. Everyone seemed anxious to hear what he had to say. The crowd turned to him like soldiers.
“My name is Dr. Ravana. This here is my friend, Joseph, and it is my understanding that this young man lived among you almost three weeks ago. I found Joseph wandering aimlessly, howling from the pain he was in one night as I left the hospital. He’d been thrashing about among the trashcans. We took him to surgery right away and were about to cut off his arm because of the rot, but then I found the cure.” He paused for dramatic effect before continuing. What a show he put on, I snickered to myself. “There have been new advances in technology, as we all know. This recent advance has been something my partner and I had spent time working on.” I felt a pinch of pain, and I realized why I knew this man
This was the doctor who worked with my father as his partner to find a cure for the disease. I shivered because this must have been the finding that my father had come up with before his death. It quickly came back to me as I remembered passing him many times in the hallway of my house. I was a ruthlessly angry teenager and never paid much mind to my father’s rants of finding the cure for cancer. When I was older, I paid more attention to his rants and saw the importance of his work.
My father was the leading man of the disease control. He worked daily, abandoning his family for the greater good. He used to bring rats home with him, which scared my mother. He would take them to his secured area in the house that he liked to call his lab. In it, he would put strands of Dermadecatis inside the rats to infect them and then he would try to find the cure for the disease. He believed that if he could find one for an animal, then he could find the cure for a human.
“Through the past week, Joseph has been something of a dummy for us.” He laughed, but Joseph looked passively into the crowd. Dr. Ravana lifted a small, long block of metal into the air. “This is a chip that doctors will insert into any contaminated arm, leg, hip, you name it. In this case, we put the chip into Joseph’s arm. The chip grows into this robotic arm.” He clicked a button on the chip and a large arm expanded before us as the crowd all stopped breathing as a whole. “And it clears the disease away. In a month or two, you are back to normal. Completely safe, my friends.” He waved to the crowd as if he were king. “I have finally found the cure for this disease and it is here. Now, Joseph, ‘The Black Sickness’ began in your arm, but show them it now.”
Joseph obeyed without a second’s hesitation. He lifted his sleeve to reveal completely normal, clear skin. I gasped along with half the crowd, and some people broke off in cheers. But, what was the catch? Did it turn you into some cold person? Joseph looked so angry, but suddenly, as if reading my thoughts, he smiled. His smile was genuine as if he had waited for this moment of triumph for a while.
Dr. Ravana continued, “You see, ladies and gentlemen, the cure is before you. Any questions?”
The crowd broke out in an uproar. Questions were being yelled out from every direction, but none addressed my main concern—what exactly was the cure?
Finally, Dr. Ravana raised his hand to silence the crowd. “Settle down, settle down. I will answer questions one at a time.” The crowd was silenced, and he pointed to an older man in the front whose hand was raised high.
The older man cleared his throat, and the whole square was silent with anticipation.
“I have two questions. One is how do we afford this? People like us?” he asked calmly. “But my main question is, what exactly happens when that thing is in us?” He threw his hand toward the chip in Dr. Ravana’s hand.
“This cure does not come with a cost. This is a guarantee. Wherever the site of the wounds are, we insert this chip.” He clicked the robotic arm and it returned to the former chip. He held up the long silver chip and showed it to the crowd. We all gasped in anticipation. I stood frozen. “This chip will go in and clean out the entire wound or wounds, then it expands and serves as the arm, leg or anything that was rotting. It is like a robotic arm, but not. The chip will act as tissue and will grow as skin. It is a very safe procedure; the chip however, will reside in you forever. But at no cost.”
Shouts for new questions startled me, and I listened intently to their shouts. Finally, Dr. Ravana picked a speaker, and it was a young boy. His voice shook. “Is there anymore successes with your cure?”
“Oh yes,” Dr. Ravana said. “They are in recovery right now, but Joseph was the only one who could come with me tonight.”
More shouting erupted as the flashes of the cameras blinded me.
“Ah yes,” he said as he pointed at me. I jumped in place as I heard a voice behind me. I turned to find a girl with black hair and the blackest of eyes I had ever seen, even blacker than Joseph’s.
“How do we stop the disease?” It was a simple question, but it had so much strength within it. I froze in place, and I seemed to feel the whole audience shake as I was.
“My dear. What is your name?”
“Cle—” She cleared her throat. “My name is Clementine.”
“Well, Clementine. No one knows, and that isn’t the point. The point is I have found a way to let you all survive if you do find yourself with the disease.”
She looked down quickly, but not before she glared into my eyes. I turned as fast as I could from her so I wouldn’t meet her gaze again.
“Any more questions?” Dr. Ravana asked quickly. The reporters began shouting out things. One caught my ear, and I felt tears well up. “What do you think of the death of your partner?”
Dr. Ravana smiled deeply, pointed to the man and responded in a voice so cool I felt as if my ears should be covered as if I were a child. “My partner was a good man. He wanted the same things I did. His death was a tragic mistake. I don’t think it had anything to do with what we have done for years. I was asked to work with Dr. Alona for the sake of society.” All faces turned to me, and I felt like I wanted to shrink back into my skin and hide there.
“We still don’t know how the disease is contracted, but he left me to possess the greatest gift. Dr. Alona gave the cure plans to me, and this is what is in front of you all. The hope of the world is in this technology. We have to now find a way to prevent the disease from being contracted, but that starts with understanding its origin.”
Silence was all around me, and I could hear reporters in hushed voices speak about the appearance of a doctor in such a small town. I could hear others speaking about the town being the origin of the disease. I heard the dreaded name Isaac many times. Some seemed to blame Isaac for bringing the disease.
In my haze, I heard a new question. “Doctor, are there any dangerous side effects?”
“Well, let Joseph be the speaker on this one.” He pointed to Joseph, and Joseph sulked forward. The doctor patted him on the back and then stepped backward with a look of relief on his face.
“Side effects you asked about. I have to say I feel freedom
. If the disease were to come back somehow, the chip would roam through the body to find it. That is another reason the chip should stay within us who receive the cure.” He scanned the crowd. “I feel more strength than I have ever before. I feel like I have a clearer head. As you see, there are only good side effects. I did not get sick from the cure. The disease was the part of this that was the worst.” Joseph stepped back without another word.
The doctor approached the crowd, smiling brightly. “Any other questions?”
“Can we save the ones who have died?” It was Max. His voice carried through the crowd with a chill. I felt my heart swim with hope. Hope I knew Max was feeling for his mother to return from the dead.
“We cannot my, dear boy. We must mourn the ones who have left us.” He hung his head, and I felt my face scrunch up.
After a moment of silence, a voice spoke up.
“Is this chip going to be something that can alter our behavior?” His voice was crisp and beautiful. I searched longingly in the crowd. I couldn’t see the face.
“I can hear a voice, but I can’t see a face,” Dr. Ravana said in a slightly cracked voice.
I didn’t understand this new fear in his voice, but before I could think anything more of it, the new voice spoke again. “I don’t think that matters.” There was a chuckle, and Dr. Ravana’s face grew grave.
“Well, faceless man,” he said in a sinister way. I felt a chill spread down my arms. “There is no altering of personality. Everything is under control. As Joseph said, he is freer than he was before the disease.”
“Perfect.” The voice spoke again, and I could hear the hint of a smile. Dr. Ravana looked outraged. He slowly regained composure and smiled once more. I searched the crowd for the faceless man, but there were too many people in the crowd for me to find him. Everyone searched with me, but it seemed as if he were never there.
Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Page 2
