by Petosa, Jess
Pax nodded and then shifted in his seat nervously. “I saw Maver this morning. He asked if we wanted to come over and watch a movie.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Because I have so much time for that right now.”
Pax managed a half smile. “It was worth a shot. It has been awhile since we all hung out. I think I’m going to go.”
“Pax, I should thank you for what you did for me,” Luke said quickly. It was hard to feel like he owed something to someone, and he couldn’t let the details fall into place in the sentence.
Pax stood and shrugged. “It was the least I could do to help.”
Luke just nodded and looked down at the map, signaling that he was done with the conversation. He heard Pax stand and leave quietly, and after twenty more minutes of staring, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. The light outside had faded into twilight, and soon it would be completely dark. Not that it mattered, he could see just fine in the dark. He rolled the map up and slipped it into a drawer in his desk, not bothering to lock it. Any Exceptional with access to his office would know how to break a lock, but none would dare.
He did, however, lock his office door to send the message it was off limits, and hurried down the hall to the elevator. He was almost positive he was one of the last Exceptionals in the building, besides maybe the doctors monitoring the Rogues in the lab. Hez was up there now, back in his small cell. Aden hadn’t trusted him enough to let him remain out in the City, despite his smart display at the Warehouse. Aden still viewed him as an animal and a destructive creature. He didn’t see the intelligence or the control that Luke saw.
The elevator dinged, letting Luke off in the lobby. He saw her before she saw him. She was leaning against the outside doors of the building, messing with the hem of her shirt. Her blonde hair was braided behind her back today. He pushed the door open and blinked several times. Her hair was brown now, dark brown. She smiled up at him, her green eyes crinkling in the corner. He shook his head. She had blonde hair now, and the eyes that peered up at him were blue. They didn’t crinkle with happiness anymore, but rather looked downward with apprehension.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
She frowned. “Your father sent me. He said you might want some company on your walk home.”
Luke glared down at her and walked ahead, expecting her to follow. She did. He knew exactly what his father was doing.
She caught up to him and slipped her arm through his, wrapping her small hand around his arm. Luke had been putting in time at the training center, working on his muscle as well as abilities, and her fingers barely made it halfway around. “Did I do something wrong?”
He stopped walking. “What’s your name?”
“C391,” she said quickly.
Luke shook his head. “No, I mean your name. What were you called in the settlement?”
The girl blushed. “Rune.”
“Rune,” he repeated.
She nodded, watching him carefully. An advocate from the ORC had been coming once a week to give her injections of some sort. He wasn’t sure whether it was fertility treatments or some sort of drug, but it clouded her mind and distracted her. Tonight there was clarity in her eyes, and it was one of the few times he had seen her like this.
“What settlement did you come from?”
“Wheat.”
Rune had been with him for weeks and this was the first time he had made any effort to get to know her. He wasn’t sure what was motivating him to start now.
Luke watched her carefully, trying to focus on the girl that stood in front of him. Rune. As he watched her, a wisp of yellow hair suddenly turned black and snaked through the air, carried by a gust of wind. Random green flecks flashed in her eyes, and then disappeared in the next moment. A feeling wrenched inside of Luke, pulling his stomach in spirals. Something was happening to him, and he felt frightened for the first time in weeks.
“We should get going,” he took Rune’s hand and pulled her down the street at a brisk pace for an Ordinary.
His mind seemed to unravel the farther they went. His vision shifted in and out of the scene. One moment the street was near empty and dark, and the next it was daylight and Exceptionals stepped around him. He shook his head and used his free hand to rub his eyes.
“Is everything okay?” Rune said from beside him. Only it wasn’t her voice. This female voice was a bit deeper, and smoother. A jolt ran through his body and he dropped Rune’s hand.
“Who said that?”
Rune’s fingered her shirt nervously. “I did, Mr. Lukin.” Her voice was back to its normal, high-pitched sound.
“I think I spent too much time staring at that stupid map today.” He reached for her but holding her hand felt wrong at the moment, so he grabbed her arm instead. “We need to get home.”
Luke all but dragged her through the streets, wishing he had brought the bike to work today. He thought about picking her up and running with her, but the thought of her in his arms made his chest hurt, another unexplainable feeling. As he rushed up the walk to his front door, he did his best to avoid looking at the large shadow that lurked on the porch. Soft tendrils of darkness wrapped around one of the porch posts, as if a hand were rested there.
As he hurried Rune through the front door, he tried to block out a loud an alluring giggle that the shadow produced. A giggle he was sure he had heard before. The question was…. where?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It had been three days since her talk with Heath, and Ally and the others were still in Champaign. Willow and Cody had yet to be cleared from the processing center, and Ally, Sabine, and Stosh were still recovering from their journey south. Ally had finally been able to get some rest, and the first night she slept for fifteen hours straight.
She and Sabine helped clean the house during the day, helped cook meals, and at night Sabine would slip off with Stosh while Ally stayed back to watch TV. She was growing fascinated with DVDs of what Brooke called Reality TV. There were dozens of shows; all following the real lives of people from the old world. A group of teenagers at the beach, a couple with almost twenty children, little girls dressed in fancy dresses for things called pageants. The options were endless, and Ally couldn’t stop watching. Max stopped over once a day to check in on her, and their conversations never really stretched past the topic of the show.
Today, she had spent the morning watching a reality show with tall, thin women competing in some sort of contest, and had lain down for a nap after lunch.
“Wake up!” someone was jumping up and down on her bed.
“Stop it before I throw you off.” Ally’s throat was dry and, as a result, her voice was hoarse.
She opened her eyes and saw Brooke jump off the bed and walk backwards to the door, her eyes wide. “You’ve been sleeping all day. Dinner is in the kitchen and then we have a fun night planned!”
“Fun night?” Ally asked.
“It’s Friday, duh,” Brooke rolled her eyes and disappeared into the hall and Ally could hear her footsteps on the stairs.
Ally groaned and sat up in bed. Had she really slept right up until dinner? When was the last time she had a full meal? Her stomach grumbled at the thought, and she made her way downstairs and into the kitchen. Sabine, Alexis, and Andrea were all seated at the large table, a large array of food in front of them.
Sabine patted the chair beside her own and Ally took a seat.
“Brooke is making us the house special,” Sabine told Ally.
“Which is?” Ally asked.
“Some kind of chicken bake, and broccoli, and I think mashed potatoes,” Sabine answered.
Ally’s stomach grumbled once again, and she hoped Brooke’s food tasted as good as it sounded.
And it was, which put Ally off a little bit. She wanted this girl to be bad at something, so she didn’t have reasons to like her; but it seemed that her nasty side only came out when boys were involved.
“So what is the plan for tonight?” Ally was prying, trying to
figure out what their idea of fun was.
“Club night!” Alexis and Andrea both squealed at once.
“I don’t like the sound of that.” Sabine looked over at Ally.
“Okay, we need to go get ready. We only have two hours until we are meeting the boys, and that is barely enough time to reach perfection.” Alexis pushed her chair back and jumped up, or maybe it was Andrea. Ally had no idea how to tell them apart.
“Yeah, I really don’t like the sound of this.” Ally agreed with Sabine.
Two hours later, Ally’s back was growing stiff. She sighed and turned to look in the mirror, startling herself for the third time tonight. The colored objects covering the counters turned out to be something called make-up. Brooke had explained that while most of it was expired it was still useable. Apparently there had been a factory full of it nearby and since make-up wasn’t in high demand these days, they were able to hoard most of it for themselves. Eventually it would run out, and as soon as she mentioned it, Brooke’s lip quivered. At first Ally couldn’t imagine being that tied down to a physical object from the old world, but then she thought of her own fascination with books. If she had a book of her own she would do all she could to hold onto it forever.
Brooke had drawn a dark, black line along the top of Ally’s eyelid, and then covered the area with a dark, purple powder.
“This will make your violet eyes POP,” she had said.
Then a light powder was applied to her whole face, and then a pink color to her cheeks. Brooke slid an object over her lips, and they were left soft, shiny, and covered in color. Next Brooke had pulled a long, black object from a drawer and plugged it into the wall. She called it a flat iron, and Ally realized it looked similar to the hair dryer. It had also been in the factory with the make-up. There were apparently hundreds of them in boxes.
“Your natural hair is gorgeous, but I’m just going to straighten a few pieces here and there to smooth it out,” Brooke said as she put the thin object on a strand of Ally’s hair. A puff of smoke rose into the air and Ally dropped back.
Brooke giggled. “That is normal. I promise not to burn your hair.”
In the end, the result was almost scary. Ally barely recognized the girl who stared back in the mirror. She hadn’t spent much time thinking about her looks before; it wasn’t something Ordinarys in the settlements really had time for. Without consistent electricity, how could they? Some of the homes didn’t even have mirrors in their bathrooms, and there were definitely no flat irons. Luke hadn’t had one in his house, but why would he?
“Stand up!” Brooke squealed.
Ally obliged, pulling at the tight jeans around her legs. She had never seen so many parts of her body while wearing clothes. These jeans hugged her legs, the shirt hugged her stomach and chest, and the neckline crept dangerously low.
“I’m not sure this is really…. me,” she said to Brooke.
“You look amazing. I’m jealous of how pretty you are,” Andrea said with a pout.
That was another thing about these girls. They spent the past two hours obsessing over who was prettier, who had better hair, who looked better in red, and who had the longest legs.
Sabine stood from the stool. “You really do look amazing, Al.”
Ally could say the same about Sabine. Her red hair hung in pretty curls, and one of the girls had evened out the shear cut Sabine had given herself. Her freckled cheeks were bright with a pink color, the same one that was on her lips.
“Time to go.” Brooke clapped her hands. “The boys will meet us there. They were probably ready hours ago.”
“I bet,” Sabine mumbled.
Brooke, Alexis, and Andrea all grabbed small bags they called purses, and shoved more make-up inside.
“Just in case we need a refresher,” Brooke said to Ally, and then they were out the door.
“It’s about time!” A boy with black hair called to their group as they left the home.
“You didn’t have to wait,” Brooke sneered at him.
“And risk you hating me, baby? Never.” The boy shot her a sly grin and then gave the rest of the group a once over. “Whoa, who are your friends?”
Ally resisted the urge to cover her body with her arms. She could have sworn this boy could see through her clothes with the way he was looking at her.
“That’s my sister,” Stosh said as he appeared from behind the boy. Stosh’s mouth hung open slightly as he took in Ally, color draining from his face. The red rushed back into his cheeks when his eyes slid over to Sabine, who was by Ally’s side. He grinned. “… and that is my girlfriend, so back off.”
He pushed past them and came to Sabine, taking her hands in his. They stared at each other in awkward silence for a moment—at least it was awkward for Ally. Brooke, Andrea, and Alexis sighed loudly and stared at Stosh and Sabine with large, needy eyes.
“Seriously, how much longer are we going to….”? Max walked up to the group, his sentence fading out when he saw Ally. “What did they do to you?”
Ally narrowed her eyes and watched his widen.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he walked over to her with a smile on his face. “You look different.”
Brooke snorted. “I just made her acceptable for a social outing.”
“I take back different,” Max peered at her with his bright, blue eyes. “You look beautiful.”
Butterflies took flight in Ally’s stomach, or were her abilities struggling to work their way out? The last guy to call her beautiful was Luke.
“Relax.” Max must have sensed her unease. “I was giving you a compliment, not proposing to you.”
“Proposing what?” she asked.
Brooke snickered behind her and Max let out a loud laugh, throwing his head back. “Forget it, are you ready?”
Ally nodded and fell into step behind him. Along with the dark haired boy and Stosh, there were three other boys following the group. She thought she might have heard the names Tristan and Mark thrown around, but she didn’t know which name went with which boy. Stosh and Sabine strolled hand in hand behind her, while the blonde trio they were sharing a home with huddled at the edge of the group, speaking in whispers and giggles.
They didn’t have far to go. At the edge of their street, near where the edge of town met the woods, sat a large brick building. The building stretched a few stories into the air, and was two streets wide. Ally shivered as she looked up at it, unease sinking back into her stomach.
“The Warehouse,” Sabine whispered.
“The Warehouse,” Ally nodded.
“The Clubhouse,” Max said from beside them.
The others hurried ahead toward what appeared to be the main door. A small line formed outside, but the people in it were being shuffled through the door quickly. A soft drum came from the inside; a sound Ally couldn’t quite place. Nerves prickled up Ally’s back as they drew closer. Images of the Warehouse flashed into her mind with each step she took: Tighe dragging her inside, seeing Luke’s look when he first saw her, watching Luke and Tighe square off in the ring, and then discovering that she had Exceptional abilities.
“Is everything okay?”
Ally realized that she had stopped walking and was staring at the ground, caught up in her thoughts. Max had stopped in front of her, his hand reaching out toward hers.
“Yeah,” she said as she threw on a fake smile. “This place just reminds me of something from my past.”
She caught up with him, tensing slightly as he reached his arm behind her, using his hand to guide her toward the door. His hand rested in the middle of her back, not too low, but her skin tingled underneath her shirt.
Walking into the Clubhouse was only similar to walking into the Warehouse in that it was packed with people. Max grasped her hand and pulled her through the thick wall of people near the door. They burst out on the other side and Ally gasped.
The center of the Clubhouse was one big open space, and within it stood at least a hundred Ordinarys, all jumpin
g or moving in rhythm. The drumming she had heard from the outside was actually the beat of music, a loud and quick paced type of music she hadn’t heard before. The sound cut through her, electrifying the blood in her veins. She felt strangely alive. Multicolored lights swirled around the room in a chaotic fashion.
Stosh and Sabine stood to her left, looking just as awestruck. Brooke, Andrea, Alexis, and the others had disappeared into the crowd. Ally took a moment to look around. Those who weren’t on the dance floor were standing in groups around it. They talked and laughed, and some lifted bottles of liquid to their mouths. Water, or something else maybe.
“What is this place?” Ally asked, realizing that her voice was lost in the music. Max must have seen her mouth move because he drew closer to her.
She hesitated, the smell of pine tree wafting off him. “What is this place?” she repeated her question.
Max leaned toward her. His warm lips brushed her ear before he spoke and an uncontrollable shivered waved through her. Ally self-consciously wondered if he noticed.
“A dance club. They were real popular in the old world. We were able to salvage the equipment and music. It’s open every Friday, all night long.”
He was practically yelling in her ear but she could barely hear him. She waited for the music to suddenly shut off, wondering how loud he would sound in the sudden silence.
Ally leaned back toward his ear, careful to keep her own lips at a safe distance. “I’ve never seen anyone dance like that.” She pointed at the crowd of Ordinarys in the center of the room. She partially lied. She had seen it before in movies.
Max’s eyes sparkled. “Dance with me.” She read the words on his mouth, since he no longer leaned close to her. He had both her hands in his now, pulling her toward the crowd.
She pulled back on his hand, shaking her head no. Now he leaned toward her, his lips brushing her ear once more. “Are you scared?”
Yes. She wanted to shout it at him, knowing he would read it on her lips rather than need to hear it. Instead, she shook her head no and let him pull her toward the crowd. Stosh had asked her to dig deep, to search for the Ally he had known at the beginning of summer. The old Ally. The Ordinary Ally.
