The Immortals

by Mary Hallberg

  I picked up my paintbrush again and crouched on the opposite side of Luke. Elizabeth continued to talk, seemingly without breathing. “So how was your Christmas? Mine was amazing. Jacey got me this bracelet.” She flashed her wrist at us, revealing a pink diamond bracelet. “And her mom got me a new couch. Her mom! I had no idea she was even going to get me anything. It’s 100 % leather. I love her so much. So what did you get Kenzie?”

  “Elizabeth,” Luke said, “You might want to be careful with that bracelet. It’s gorgeous and I really wouldn’t want it to fall into the paint.”

  “I’ll be careful, I promise!” She didn’t look up and I realized that she'd painted the same area twice. “Anyway, that’s a really pretty bracelet you’ve got too, Kenzie. Is that the one Gage gave you for Christmas?”

  “Mmmhmmm.”

  She made a face but said, “It’s gorgeous.”

  “Mmmhmmm.”

  Elizabeth left the wall and sat on a chair in the middle of the room. “What else did you get?”

  “Um...” I looked at Luke. “Just a couple of other things.”

  “Oh!” she blurted out. “I almost forgot. Paige got me a bunch of diamond earrings. Three different pairs, I think. And an emerald one too! And my mom says she wants to find me a new apartment. Mine’s kind of cramped, what with the new couch and all. I don’t know why she wants to tag along with me. I’m an adult, you know? I can pick out my own apartment. But whatever makes her happy. And she doesn’t get to come up here a lot, you know. So I think she wanted to spend time with me.”

  I didn’t say anything else and neither did Luke or Elizabeth so we worked in silence for awhile. Luke worked his way around the room while I stayed on the far wall we had started with. Elizabeth painted a square inch of wall then sat in a chair, fiddling with her phone. Once she got up and repainted a few square feet of wall near a window. Occasionally she would asked questions about Christmas vacation and ended up talking our ears off about her planned ski trip after the New Year. I mostly grunted or provided some vague response. No way in hell was I going to tell her about the turkey incident; my mom’s attitude toward me using my newfound wealth to buy her things was the main reason my Christmases would never be like Elizabeth’s.

  We'd been working for about an hour when the camera crew arrived. There wasn’t supposed to be any media coverage for this event, but Elizabeth didn’t seem surprised to see them there. As they walked in, she looked up from piddling with the paintbrush and waved them over.

  “Elizabeth!” the cameraman said. “Have you guys been working all day?”

  “Sure have,” she said. “We’re almost done with this wall!”

  “This is incredible.” He panned the room, barely skimming over Luke and me. “Isn’t it a rewarding feeling?”

  “The best!” She spread her arms revealing her sleeves spotted with pink paint that probably hadn’t gotten there accidentally. I clenched my fist and Luke gave me a warning look.

  chapter thirteen

  I drove back to The Necropolis the day after the house painting incident. Gage called me later that afternoon and said we should go to Dr. Cooper’s New Year’s party. I wasn’t sure what else to do, and didn’t want to turn down an invitation that most people would give their right arm to get. So four days later we headed to the doctor’s mansion.

  The bright lights of the city gradually faded out as we went north. Dr. Cooper had lived in The Necropolis back when it was called Buffalo and it was a thriving city, even bigger and busier than The Necropolis now. But since he announced TNV to the world, he had had a fair amount of both critics wanting to confront him and people who admired him so much they wanted to find his house. So he left the city and confined himself to a huge mansion that had once belonged to some pre-collapse celebrity. It was strange to see less and less multi story buildings as we drove, even though the same thing happened every time I went home to Rochester.

  It was cloudy that night and the gravel driveway leading up to the house seemed miles long. If the moon had been full and peeking out from behind the clouds, all we would have needed was some spooky music and it would have been the perfect setting for an old horror movie.

  Inside, however, the mansion was alive. People chatted in clusters and danced in twos and threes to pulse pounding electric music. The punch-with-punch was readily available but since Gage’s (and plenty of other people’s) parents were close by we had to be careful; no drinking to excess here. Shame, because once we got in I felt like I might actually need it that night.

  Paige stood near the front table, whispering in the ear of some blonde girl I didn’t recognize. I wasn’t planning on talking to them but Paige flagged Gage down and I didn’t want to leave him so soon after arriving.

  “So my friend Casey and I went to this jewelry store,” she was saying. “And there was one within walking distance and we had to drive like, ten minutes to get to this one. And I didn’t know why she had picked this one but I figured there was a good reason, right? So we go in and she just picks this ring up. This gorgeous diamond ring that she could have easily paid for herself, and the store clerk saw her pick it up and walk out. I mean, she had to have known there were no felony cameras in there and that the clerk wasn’t Immortal so she knew we couldn’t get busted. But she didn’t even have to steal it. She just did it because she could!”

  The blonde girl looked impressed, but I wasn’t so sure I felt the same. The locations of the felony cameras were supposed to be hidden and random so we wouldn’t feel like we were being watched all the time but would still feel safe. I wasn’t sure I felt safe anymore. Then again, most people outside The Necropolis didn’t feel safe not being able to testify against an Immortal if they witnessed them committing a crime. It was like our crimes didn’t exist without video evidence.

  “Kenzie?” Gage said.

  “Hmmm?”

  “Some friends of mine want to meet up at nine and get beer.” He kissed the top of my head. “What do you think?”

  “I think if you get gum in my hair I’m breaking up with you,” I said. Paige laughed a lot louder than I had anticipated and I pushed Gage’s gum-filled mouth away. He frowned and pretended to sniffle.

  Mom called a minute later and I stepped out. After fumbling my way through a dark hall on the other side of the living room, I finally found a quiet spot. I could still faintly hear the music from the living room. The hallway was dark and difficult to navigate and I couldn’t find a light switch, but it would have to do.

  I set the phone on the floor and opened the video screen. Mom was using an old phone without a screen so I couldn’t see her and she couldn’t see me, but I opened it anyway out of habit.

  “Hi sweetheart,” she said. “Are you having a good New Year’s?”

  I lay back against the wall. “It’s great.”

  “Okay honey. I hope you’re being safe.”

  I grunted.

  “Have you told Gage yet?”

  I nodded, then paused before remembering that she couldn’t see me. “I told him.”

  “How did he take it?”

  I shrugged, once again forgetting the absence of the video screen. “He seems to be okay with it, I guess.”

  “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. I know it’s difficult, but I really think this is for the best.” I knew she was smiling, maybe even preparing to shed a tear. “Living in The Necropolis is tough.”

  How would you know? I thought. You’ve never lived there. You’ve never even been there. You only know what grandpa has told you and he’s clearly biased. And you’re only being nice to me because I’m going along with what you want.

  But I said nothing.

  “I have to go mom,” I said. “I’ll see you next week.”

  When I got back to the living room Elizabeth was by the punch bowl but I ignored her. I saw Gage heading for the kitchen and made my way there, but Elizabeth grabbed my hand and said, “There you are Kenzie! Let’s get a drink.”

  She led m
e through the crowd, pushing past more than one tipsy person. Amidst the many minglers, we found a small table taken up mostly by a large punchbowl that I could tell from one close whiff had almost as much vodka in it as it had punch.

  Elizabeth grabbed a glass and filled it almost to the brim. “Want me to pour you some?” she asked. I shook my head as she took a huge gulp. She winced as it went down but said, “Are you sure? It tastes great!”

  “Positive.” I picked up a handful of chips, plotting how I was going to ditch her. It probably wouldn’t be difficult; a couple more glasses of that punch and she’d be hanging all over one of the guys surrounding the table.

  “So Gage tells me you’re leaving.” She could still stand up straight without falling over, but I could smell the vodka on her breath even more than I could coming out of the bowl.

  “Yeah, in a couple of weeks.”

  “Couldn’t handle it, huh? Well, we’re all going to miss you. It’s not going to be the same without you in bio.”

  I didn’t bother to mention to her that our bio class was over and we would get all new classes next semester anyway, even if we were still in school together. She pointed to my head with her free hand. “Your hair is so pretty. You should really get highlights. They’d bring out your eyes. Did I tell you I wanted to go to cosmetology school? And that was after I was already Immortal too!” She took another sip of her drink. “I have to pee. Save me some chips?”

  I wandered away from the punch bowl and into a side room filled with tables full of figurines. My mom used to have a few figurines of angels around the house, but most of those had been put up years ago in favor of coffee table books and big lamps.

  I reached out to touch an angel holding up her arms in some sort of cheer when I heard a voice behind me. “You must be McKenzie.”

  I jumped and looked behind me. A man in his sixties wearing khaki pants and a white dress shirt was standing in the doorway.

  “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just wondering who might be in here admiring my study.”

  “Dr. Cooper,” I said.

  He nodded. “I realize that we’ve never formally met and you must be surprised. I don’t think you would remember me.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think I ever met you. You knew my dad, right?”

  “Many, many years ago.” He crossed one leg over the other. “He was one of my favorite colleagues. It’s a shame we lost contact. I guess I had other priorities.”

  I bit my lip. “Dr. Cooper...did you ever write my dad a letter?”

  He stood up straight. “What?”

  “I found part of this letter in my dad’s stuff. It was just a paragraph, but he laminated it and was using it as a bookmark. I guess whatever you said, he liked it.”

  “I only wrote your father one letter in his life. I doubt it was that one.”

  “He didn’t know any other scientists, and it said the writer was a scientist. It had to be you.”

  He was silent for a moment, and I worried I had said something wrong — or that he knew I was lying. Of course he knew I was lying. He knew my dad had far more connections in the scientific community than just him.

  Then he said, “How much of the letter did you read?”

  “Just the last paragraph. I don’t know where the rest is.”

  “That’s good, McKenzie. It’s not a letter you ever need to read.” I couldn’t see his face well in the dim light, but I figured that wasn’t a bad thing. “I should probably get back to my party now. Must do some schmoozing, you know. I’ll have to give your mother a call sometime and do some catching up. It’s always nice to hear from an old friend.” Just before he left the room he turned his head and said, “I hope to see you around, McKenzie.”

  I found Elizabeth again near the punch bowl a few minutes later. She had already finished off her first glass and started on another, her arms around some generic frat boy. I didn’t care to watch the train wreck that was Drunk Elizabeth, so I wandered to the kitchen and found Gage standing in a corner. The idea of getting beer had apparently been forgotten because he was alone with a plate of food. He smiled when he saw me but didn’t move.

  “Who was that on the phone?” he asked.

  “My mom.”

  “What did she want?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Planning stuff for your big move?” I nodded.

  He shuffled his feet and chewed on a toothpick. “When are you leaving?”

  “The 14th.” I picked up a grape off of his plate. Normally he would have made a joke about me stealing all of his food, but he just stared at the grape as I popped it into my mouth.

  “Come on Gage, let’s not do this right now,” I said.

  “Kenzie, you knew we would have to talk about this. You can’t just tell me you’re leaving in two weeks and expect me not to say anything.”

  “I know, but you’ve known about this for days. Now’s not a good time to talk about it.”

  “It’s never a good time, is it?” He turned on the balls of his feet and took the half eaten plate of food to the living room.

  chapter fourteen

  I spent the next two days on the couch (soon to be Luke’s couch, not mine) watching old TV show marathons and staring at my phone hoping someone, anyone, would call. Finally, as I was dozing off to some sitcom, I heard rustling outside the sliding glass door. Sighing, I got off the couch and pulled back the blinds. Gage and Matt leaned against the door making faces, their grimy hands and mouths making streaks on the glass. I frowned and popped the door open. They fell over each other into the doorway.

  “Gross,” I said. “You two are cleaning that up.”

  Gage propped his elbow on Matt’s back to stand himself up. “Of course, darling.” He reached out with both hands to grab my face and kissed me.

  “Yuck, you just put your lips on that glass.” Secretly I was relieved; it seemed that our argument earlier that week had been forgotten.

  Matt stood up and dusted his hands off. “So Kenzie, how do you feel about bowling?”

  “I feel that it doesn’t like me. I’m one of those people whose bowling scores look like golf scores and my golf scores look like bowling scores.”

  He laughed. “Well then you can be on a team with Gage. You two won’t stand a chance. Come on, everyone’s waiting back at the house.”

  Bowling turned out to be easier than I had anticipated. Someone decided on a boy versus girls setup, so my fantasy of Gage leaning behind me and guiding the bowl down the lane was gone. But Elizabeth, for all her faults, was a pretty good bowler. I wondered if she and Gage had ever played together.

  I got to talk to Paige more too. She mentioned again that she wanted to be a doctor like me. But when she twisted her finger inside the bowling ball and it started bleeding she nearly fainted. As I sat by her on the colored chairs, her finger wrapped in cotton, she turned and crossed her legs. I looked over at the opposing team’s chairs. The seat beside Gage’s was empty, and Matt headed toward the front desk.

  “Where’s Matt going?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “Maybe his shoes don’t fit.”

  “He wouldn’t say anything though, would he?”

  A piece of bloody cotton fell onto Paige’s lap and she grimaced. It was strange to see someone so bothered by blood but I ignored it. “Wouldn’t he though?” she said. “I don’t know, I really like him, but sometimes it seems like once he gets on a tangent about something he’ll never shut up.”

  I frowned. Matt not being able to shut up? “Not with me.”

  “Maybe he’s just different with his friends. Trying to impress me or something.” She removed the cotton wad from her finger. “I’m going to get a band-aid.” She hopped down and made her way to the front desk, where Matt met her. He took the fingers on her non injured hand in his and squeezed her waist with his other. He whispered something in her ear and they both burst out laughing.

  It probably shouldn’t have bugged me, but for awhile (at least until
it was my turn to go again), it sort of did. It wasn’t exactly a revelation; Matt had been outgoing at the barbecue, flirting with any good looking girl who paid him attention. Yet when he was with me, he clammed up. Why was I so different from every other girl he associated with?

  Gage was as good at bowling as Elizabeth, but the boys were still no match for us. Halfway through the game we were ahead, but only by a couple of points. So I decided to spice things up with a loser buys food bet, but only between Gage and me.

  By the end of the night we had beaten them by nearly thirty points. Twenty minutes later, Gage and I were alone in a booth in the back of the alley, two boxes of fries on the table. Everyone else had opted for the arcade, so we were alone.

  “Quit stealing my fries!” I playfully slapped his hand away as he reached for what had to be his twentieth french fry out of the basket he claimed he had bought for me. “You’ve got your own.”

  “I ate them all,” he whined.

  “And whose fault is that?” I tilted my head to the side and shrugged. His pout curled into a smile, and he leaned over to kiss my forehead.

  “You’re a nerd,” I mumbled.

  “Mmmm,” was all he said. He leaned his forehead against the side of my head as we sat like that for a minute before Matt walked up.

  “Hey lovebirds,” he said. “Got any more food?”

  “Um...” I looked down at the three fries left in my basket. I picked it up and held it up to him. “Here you go.”

  He took it reluctantly and raised his eyebrows. “Gee, thanks.”

  I smiled and shrugged. “It’s your brother’s fault. Go get your own food.” As we ushered him off, it occurred to me that I might not get to eat fries again for a long time.

  Half an hour later, while everyone else ate, Gage and I sat on the sidewalk outside the alley. It was warm for January, but Gage still had his arm around my shoulder. He laced his fingers through mine with his free hand and I rested my head on his shoulder. I shut my eyes and listened to his breathing for a moment.