by S. J. West
Freddy left the room, closing the door behind him much softer than when he had entered.
Ian sighed and looked at Jace.
“You better be able to fight as good as Freddy thinks you can. I’m good, but even I can’t fight off ten Harvesters by myself.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Jace said, full of confidence in his abilities. “I can hold my own.”
“You better…” Ian looked past Jace to me. “Or she might not make it out of Alliance alive.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Not long after Freddy left, the two male Hole guards who had brought me to Freddy’s house came inside the room to take me back to Meg’s. Just as I was about to walk out the door with one guard on either side of me, Jace quietly called out my name. I turned to look back at him. He didn’t say anything, just looked at me like it might be the last time we were allowed to be this close to one another. Not caring what the guards might do, I ran to Jace, throwing my arms around his neck and pressing my lips against his in a desperate kiss. Part of me wanted to give him something to fight for in the battle to come and part of me just wanted to kiss him. He pulled my body in as close to his as possible while his lips ravished mine with unadulterated need.
I felt two hands grab me around the waist and yank me away from Jace in one forceful tug. I didn’t fight against the Hole guard, knowing it would be futile.
“Win!” I yelled as the guard hauled me out of the room.
When I arrived back at Meg’s house, all was quiet. My guards escorted me up to my room and took their positions outside my door. I breathed a sigh of relief when Kirk and Teegan were nowhere in sight. They were unwanted reminders of what my life might turn out like if I couldn’t find a way to escape Alliance.
Taking advantage of my solitude, I made a bath for myself in the small bathroom connected to the bedroom. I ripped off the crimson harlot dress Freddy had decorated me in and threw it as far away from me as I could. The bath water enveloped me as I slid into its cocoon of warmth. I’m not sure how long I sat there staring off into space, not having the strength to form a coherent thought. It wasn’t until I noticed how red the water was with my blood that I finally found the strength to wash the rest of it from my skin.
I drained the blood-stained pool of water and filled the tub a second time, my mind slowly rebooting itself to sort through the day’s events and wonder about what new horrors the following day would bring.
Depending on what happened during the tournament, I knew this might be the last bath I ever took. If anyone but Jace won, I would find a way to end my life as soon as possible. The mere thought of someone I didn’t even know, doing God only knew what to me for a whole month, was more than I was willing to make the girl in the mirror endure. I only hoped Ash would be able to find a way to forgive me for not making it to the Southern Kingdom.
But what if by some miracle I did make it to the Southern Kingdom? Would the people living there welcome me when they found out I had Harvester-like nanites in my body?
I was still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact I had healed myself of a fatal gunshot wound. It was something straight out of a science fiction novel. And how was Jace able to see into my future…our future? He knew without a shadow of a doubt I would be able to heal myself, even when I felt sure I couldn’t. That had to be proof he was telling the truth, right? Even with everything that happened to me in the last twenty-four hours, one thing kept replaying in my mind, our shared kisses.
Why did I kiss Jace the first time? Had they been simple gestures to prove to myself I was still alive? No, that just sounded like a lame excuse to hide behind. Within that small moment in time, when the world seemed to only revolve around me and Jace, I wanted to feel his lips on mine. I wanted to know what he tasted like, how his skin would feel pressed against me. But most of all, I wanted to know what it was like to be kissed by someone who truly loved me or at least thought he did. If Jace really could see into the future, maybe I was following a path destiny had already laid out for me to venture down. Maybe Jace was meant to heal the wounded pride of the sixteen-year-old girl Ash shunned and treated more like a sister than someone desirable.
Thinking back over the five years I spent alone with Ash made my heart ache with missed opportunities. I closed my eyes and saw him standing before me, just before he collapsed in the old library and was taken away by Rose.
“I’ve tried to protect you from everything. Even me…”
Then he called me beautiful. A word I had never heard him utter until that moment. Even when we lived together in the same house at the breeding camp, he never once said anything about how he truly felt about me or anyone else for that matter. Ash had never been one to share his emotions openly. He always kept his feelings to himself, even when he was a child. Was he scared to show his emotions? Did he consider it a weakness he couldn’t afford to have in the world we lived in? Had he always been hiding behind a mask of control and self-confidence to make me feel safe while denying himself the right to love someone?
The sound of my bedroom door opening broke my reverie. I rested my head against the back of the tub, realizing my time alone was over.
“I’ll be out in just a minute!”
Kirk didn’t answer back, but who else would the guards let into my room unannounced?
I wasn’t looking forward to reliving what happened at Freddy’s house to Kirk and Teegan. I felt sure the news had spread to Meg’s by now. I was surprised I didn’t have an eager audience waiting downstairs when I returned. I know I would have wanted to see the freak who survived a gunshot wound to the chest.
After grabbing a pink towel from the bathroom closet and wrapping it around my torso, I made my way into the bedroom. The room was empty. I walked to the door and cracked it open to ask one of the guards if they knew where Kirk had gone but found the guards missing and the hallway as silent as a tomb.
When I closed the door, a large hand clamped down like an iron mask against my lips, sealing them shut. An equally firm arm snaked its way around my waist, pulling me up against the man behind me. His warm breath reeked of alcohol as he spoke.
“I’m supposed to tell you I’m a gift from Meg,” he said, dragging me to the bed and forcing me stomach down onto the pink comforter, pressing his whole weight against my back.
I tried to scream, but all I could manage was a mangled cry for help. The man let go of my waist, since there was no way I could move under the full force of his weight, and began trying to wriggle out of his pants. I knew I only had a minute or two before he got what he came after. The only part of my body I could move freely was my legs. I began kicking them as hard as I could to try and unbalance him but soon learned that was an act of futility. He pried my legs open so far, I thought he meant to break me apart like a wishbone.
In the split of a second, I felt the man’s weight lift off my back, heard him yelling obscenities to whoever had saved me, and then the loud cracking sound of glass breaking. I knew it was the window in my room shattering, and I knew the man had been thrown out of it because his yells faded before ending abruptly. I couldn’t seem to force myself to turn around to see what had happened.
“Skye, are you all right? Did he do anything to you?”
It was Ian.
I closed my eyes and tried to compose myself before facing him. For whatever prideful reason, I didn’t want Ian to see how shaken I was. I didn’t want him to see me act weak.
Before I could stop it, I began to cry. I faintly felt Ian lay a blanket on top of me and help me sit up while wrapping it around my shoulders. He sat down on the bed and pulled me in close to his side in a consoling manner. I grabbed the front of his shirt with one hand, using it as a shield for my tear-streaked face.
I’m not sure how long we sat like that. Ian didn’t move, just allowed me time to get past the horrors I had faced since coming to Alliance. Only when I had no tears left to shed did I let go of Ian’s shirt and pull away from him slightly.<
br />
“Thanks,” I told him, feeling somewhat sheepish at having him witness my emotional breakdown.
Ian shrugged, like he had women drench his shirt in warm, salty tears every day.
“You needed to let it out.”
My eyes drifted to the now broken window. The shear white curtains fluttered in the slight breeze coming into the room.
“Who was he?” I asked, wondering if the man was lying dead on the ground below.
“A regular of Meg’s,” Ian answered in a detached voice.
“He said Meg sent him as a gift to me.” I huddled deeper into the blanket, physically feeling the cold hatred of someone I barely knew. “I know she doesn’t like me, but why would she send someone to do that to me?”
“Jealousy,” Ian replied without even mulling over his answer. “Meg’s used to having all the attention on herself. If she’d been able to deflower you before Freddy’s big tournament, you would just become another girl in her house, not someone everyone in town was fighting over.”
“But now, she’ll have to deal with Freddy.” This thought made me wonder what would happen to Meg when Freddy found out what she had orchestrated. “How did she get rid of my guards?”
“They’re men, Skye, and this is a whore house. How do you think she got them away from the door?”
I didn’t have to let my imagination run too far to find an answer to my own question.
“What happens now?”
Ian stood from the bed and looked down at me. “I have to tell Freddy what happened.”
“I thought you cared for Meg,” I said, searching Ian’s face for some emotion.
“I thought I had a reason to.” Ian looked away from me toward the shattered window. “Turns out she is more like a Harvester than I am.”
Ian turned away from me and headed out the door without a second glance back. As an afterthought he said, “I’ll send Kirk and Teegan up to take care of you.”
He turned then to make his way down the hallway.
I may not have wanted to be around them earlier, but when I saw Kirk and Teegan run into my room, I felt strangely comforted. They alternated rushing in and out of the room to find things to block the wind from coming in through the broken window. I saw Teegan look out the window to the ground below and pop her head back in.
“Did he survive?” I asked her.
With a satisfied look of justice on her face, she shook her head no.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the man who had almost raped me being dead. I suppose it was justified, but I just couldn’t bring myself to feel happy about it. The most I felt was relieved.
After they stapled a tarpaulin around the broken window, Kirk and Teegan sat with me on the bed. Kirk put an arm around my shoulders while Teegan put an arm around my waist.
“We need to get out of this place,” Kirk said with certainty. “Good people shouldn’t have to put up with this type kind of crap.”
“I’m all ears if you have a plan,” I replied.
Kirk sighed heavily. “It’s going to take a miracle to figure one out, or at least someone a lot smarter than me. But there has to be a way. We just need to put our heads together to find it.”
While the three of us sat there trying to come up with an escape plan, a high, shrill scream came from somewhere downstairs. We jumped up from the bed and went to see what was going on. When we reached the landing leading down to the front parlor, we saw four Hole guards, two men and two women, and Ian. The two men were holding a struggling Meg in front of Ian beside the open front door.
“How could you?” she accused Ian, venom drenching every word. “How could you choose her over me?”
“I didn’t choose her over you,” Ian replied, staring at Meg like he finally realized he didn’t know her at all. “You’re the one who sent Marvin in there to rape her! How could you, Meg? Do you even know how to care about anyone but yourself?”
Meg laughed harshly. “Well, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. When have you ever cared for someone besides yourself?”
“I cared about you,” Ian said, like it pained him to admit it.
“Yeah, you cared about me so much you let anyone in this town do whatever they wanted to me. But when the Virgin Queen needed your help, there you were, ready to save her.”
“If Marvin had done what you sent him in there to do, we would both be dead, Meg. As it is, you might be allowed to live.”
“Live?” Meg snorted. “Do you call what I’ve been doing here living? Spreading my legs for every Tom, Dick, and Harry in this godforsaken town? Why didn’t you ever protect me, Ian? Why?”
Ian looked away from her. I couldn’t tell if he felt shame for not doing what he could to protect Meg or if he was disgusted with her and just couldn’t bring himself to look at her anymore.
“Take her to the Hole,” Ian told the guards. “Freddy will decide what her punishment should be.”
“Ian!” Meg yelled, struggling against the hold of the guards as they drug her out the front door. “Ian, help me! Ian!” His name hung in the air between them like an emotional tether until the door closed.
Ian stood motionless for a long time oblivious to the fact that the three of us were watching him. I motioned to Kirk and Teegan that we should go back up to my room. I chanced another glance in Ian’s direction and saw a single tear course down his cheek.
Not long after we returned to my room, the two female Hole guards appeared in my doorway and said they would be outside my door until it was time to go to the tournament. I didn’t thank them, but I was glad they were there, even if their only reason for being present was to protect Freddy’s investment.
Kirk and Teegan went to their rooms and brought back pillows and blankets, saying they weren’t going to let me out of their sight for the rest of the night. We laid out all the blankets we could find and made a circle of pillows on top of them to lounge against. Kirk snuck in a bag of Oreo cookies, a container of milk, two glasses, and a bowl and spoon.
The cookies were stale and a little hard from age, but after you dipped them into the milk, they softened and tasted wonderful. I watched Teegan put three cookies in her bowl and splash them with some milk. She used the spoon to smash them up and then scooped a spoonful of the mixture into her mouth. She tilted her head back to let the sweet concoction slide down her throat.
I looked away, feeling guilt over watching her trying to eat.
I felt Teegan nudge me with her foot. When I looked back up at her she shook her head at me with a small grin like she was telling me not to feel bad about watching her.
“You should see her suck down a container of chocolate pudding,” Kirk said. “Let’s just say it ain’t pretty.”
Teegan flicked the fingers of one hand beneath her chin toward Kirk. Even I got the meaning of that small bit of sign language.
Kirk just winked at her. “I know you still love me.”
Teegan rolled her eyes at him and continued to eat her Oreos and milk.
“So, how did the two of you end up in Alliance?” I asked. “You know my story, what’s yours?”
“Wrong place at the wrong time,” Kirk sighed. “Teegan was here before me. She was with her family when Freddy and a group of Hole guards found them camped just outside the fence.”
“Is her family here?”
“No, her mom and dad tried to fight them off and were killed pretty quickly. Teegan was only spared because one of the guards took a liking to her. That’s how she ended up here at Meg’s.”
“So, how did you end up here?”
“Stupidity,” Kirk said with a roll of his eyes as he reached for another cookie from the bag. “I stumbled across Freddy’s lake house one day. I was so hungry I swear I could smell him cooking hamburgers out on his grill from miles away. Once I got to his house, I was practically salivating all over myself. I saw him and Meg sitting out on the deck at the picnic table eating all kinds of stuff I thought didn’t exist anymore. I didn’t care who th
ey were. I just knew I had to have a hamburger. Well, I got my hamburger but I also got a free ride in Freddy’s van to Alliance; been here ever since.”
“Either of you ever been to Julia’s?”
“Every human here has been to Julia’s. Freddy has her do a full check-up to make sure we’re not carrying any diseases. The Harvesters here can get sick just as easily as the rest of us.”
“So, what’s her story?” I asked, wondering just how safe Zoe and Blue were in her care. Not very was my thought, but I needed to know how dangerous Julia actually was.
“I heard she lost her daughter trying to make it to one of the transport planes to the South.”
“Lost? Like she’s dead or like she just lost her?”
“Just lost her. People were so crazy at the airports you could hardly keep track of anyone. Her daughter got swallowed up by the crowd. Julia had a chance to get on one of the planes, but she wouldn’t leave until she found her daughter. So, she missed her chance to escape.”
It was a similar story to Makena losing his wife. I almost felt sorry for Julia, almost.
Kirk and Teegan tried to cheer me up by playing a game of charades. I got the feeling this wasn’t the first time the duo had played this particular game. Teegan would get so frustrated with us for not guessing her mimes that she would sometimes stamp her foot in frustration and groan while pulling on her hair. Against all odds, they made me laugh so hard I started to cry, but in a good way this time. It almost made me forget that midnight had passed and I only had a few short hours to prepare myself to face the outcome of the tournament. Around two in the morning, Kirk made us all get under our individual covers and try to get some sleep. I lay there trying to think of a way to escape Alliance. When the sun rose, I was no closer to figuring out a plan for freedom than I had been the night before.
