by S. J. West
Lucena instructed Ash to step into the glass antechamber separate from the room Zoe remained in. Once the interior door closed and locked, the outside door opened, and Ash was allowed to walk out.
He walked straight to me like we were tethered to one another by an invisible pull string and put his arms around me, resting his cheek against the top of my head. My arms went around his waist automatically. We’d hugged each other a hundred times like this over the years. It came as naturally as breathing.
I heard him inhale deeply.
“God you smell good,” he said. “Like flowers in sunshine.”
“I just smell better than all the bleach in here,” I said, trying to play off the compliment.
“No, you’ve always smelled like that to me.”
“Did she hurt you?” I asked.
“It could have been worse.” He shrugged.
Ash hugged me closer.
“We’ll get out of this,” I promised.
I felt more than heard Jace walk up behind me. Ash reluctantly let me go to meet the man he shared my heart with.
I turned, so I could face them both equally.
“Ash, I’d like you to meet Jace. Jace, this is Ash.”
Jace held his hand out to Ash.
“Nice to finally meet you,” Jace said, sounding genuine in his greeting. “Skye’s told me a lot about you.”
Ash looked at Jace’s hand like he was trying to decide whether or not to shake it.
I almost jabbed Ash in the side to make him accept Jace’s offer of friendship, but Ash didn’t need my prodding. He did the right thing and shook Jace’s hand.
Ash fell to his knees screaming.
“What did you do to him?” I yelled at Jace.
“How is that possible?” Jace asked Lucena, his eyes wide in shock. “He shouldn’t be one.”
Ash crumpled to the floor, bringing his knees up to his chest. Sweat broke out across his brow and his breathing became labored.
“Be one what?” I demanded, kneeling down by Ash, not sure if I should try to touch him or not.
“What’s happening?” Zoe screamed inside her cell, banging on the glass with her fists.
“Oh for God’s sake, you people need to calm down,” Lucena said, coming to stand over Ash with her arms crossed, looking down at my best friend with a sense of expectation surrounding her. “We should all have our answers soon enough.”
“What answers?” I asked her. “What did you do to him?”
“Let’s watch and see” was her only reply.
Ash finally stopped screaming. He looked at me with wild eyes.
“Skye …”
And then he vanished.
“Hmm,” Lucena said in the ensuing silence. “Well, I certainly didn’t expect that to happen.”
I scrambled to my feet, looking around the room. “Where did he go? What happened to him?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Lucena said, completely nonplussed by the situation. She walked over to a tray holding six syringes filled with some sort of clear liquid and picked one up with her thumb ready on the plunger. Then she walked over to me and simply stood like she was waiting for something else to happen.
A few seconds later, Ash reappeared. His eyes were filled with more fear than I had ever seen before. Lucena took her opportunity and jabbed the needle of the syringe into his neck, plunging the unknown solution into his body. Ash instantly went limp, but Jace caught him before he could fall face first to the floor.
“What did you do to him?” I asked, touching Ash’s face.
“Just a little experiment,” Lucena said with a small shrug. “After all these years, I think I might finally be close to a solution to my problem. If he survives, I might be able to give my Harvesters nanites to activate their unique gene sequences. Can you imagine that: a whole army with advanced super powers?”
“What do you mean ‘if he survives’?” I demanded.
Lucena shrugged. “He might or he might not. If he does, he would be the first human to survive the treatment. I haven’t had much luck with it though, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“You used me to activate him,” Jace said bitterly.
“You’re the one who shook hands with him,” Lucena countered. “Plus, it was something new I was trying. Instead of placing active nanites into his system, I put in dormant ones to see if it made a difference. If he survives …”
“Quit saying that!” I yelled. “He won’t die. I won’t let him.”
Lucena’s eyes narrowed on me. “Oh yes, your healing power. I almost forgot about that.”
It was like I could see the gears of Lucena’s mind triple in speed. “That might just work. Bring Ash over here,” Lucena said to Jace, motioning for him to lay Ash on a bed inside a room where it looked like surgeries might be performed considering all the various equipment.
“With the other subjects, their hearts gave out soon after being injected with the nanites. It was like their bodies just couldn’t take the added pressure of their new abilities. If you can heal Ash until his body is able to compensate for the added strain, he might have a better chance at survival. But we’ll have to wake him up so his power can fully activate.”
“But what if he vanishes again?” I asked.
“Let’s hope he comes back before his heart gives out. Otherwise, he might just die wherever he goes.”
Lucena filled a syringe with a large needle from a small bottle of clear liquid.
“Ready?” she asked me.
I nodded, taking hold of one of Ash’s arms.
Lucena jabbed the needle into Ash’s chest, which almost made me lose my hold on him from the brutality of the act.
Ash sat straight up, struggling for air.
He looked over at me before the world seemed to peel away from us like paper from a wall, revealing a new world underneath. A blinding light flashed before my eyes, forcing me to close them. I felt my feet land like I had hopped in the air. When I opened my eyes, I tightened my hold on Ash’s arm.
We were standing on the side of a road in the middle of a desert with the sun beating down on us. The blue sky was clear except for a few stray white puffy clouds.
“Where are we?” I asked.
But before Ash could answer, he fell to the ground onto his knees.
I put my hands over his heart, feeling its frantic beating. I concentrated on him, letting my body work its magic to heal whatever the nanites in his system were doing to his heart. Slowly, his heart began to beat at a regular, steady pace.
“I’m all right,” Ash said, trying to get to his feet.
“Just sit for a minute,” I told him, crossing my legs and sitting down beside him.
“Where are we?” I asked again.
“I’m not sure,” he answered.
From up the road, we heard the sound of a car coming. For a second, I thought it was one of Lucena’s vehicles as the sun glinted off the silver symbol on the front grille, but then I realized it was a symbol used by an old car company named Toyota. Before we knew it, the car zipped past us like we weren’t even there. The sound of music could be heard coming from the open windows. Just after it passed us, the brake lights came on. Whoever was driving seemed to realize we were sitting on the side of the road, because it backed up until it came to a stop right in front of us.
An auburn haired woman leaned her head out the window to look down at us.
“You two need a ride?”
I gasped. Ash remained completely silent as he stared at the woman.
We both knew who she was.
She was Ash’s mother, Grace.
“Cat got your tongues?” she teased us with a nervous smile.
We got to our feet. Ash’s father was in the driver’s seat, and a small boy of two years stared at us with wide blue eyes from the backseat.
“You kids need a ride?” Ash’s father asked. He was wearing a blue dress army uniform with a matching hat sitting on the dashboard.
“No sir,” Ash finally said. “We’re fine.”
“You sure, sweetie?” Ash’s mother asked. “We don’t mind giving the two of you a lift somewhere. It can get pretty hot out here,” she said, looking pointedly at Ash’s bare feet.
“No, ma’am. We have friends coming to pick us up, but thank you.”
Ash’s mother sat back in her seat. “Well, I’ll be coming back this way after we drop my husband off at work. If you’re still here when I come back, I’m gonna have to insist you ride back into town with me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ash replied.
Ash’s parents waved good-bye to us. We watched the back of their car travel down the road until it was out of sight.
“Was that real?” I asked. “Or are we in a dream?”
Ash shook his head. “I don’t know.”
He looked up at the sun, shielding his eyes with a hand. “It feels real.”
Ash quickly grabbed my hand, and I felt the earth slip away again. This time, we found ourselves back in the glass room with Zoe.
She scrambled off of the bed when she saw us. “Where have you guys been?”
“How long were we gone?”
“Like an hour.”
“Ahh good,” I heard Lucena say through the intercom system in the room, but I couldn’t see her in the lab through the glass. “You’re back. And in one piece I see.”
“What happened? Where did you guys go?” Zoe asked.
“We were in a desert,” Ash said, sounding as confused as I felt. “We saw my parents.”
“But I thought they were dead,” Zoe said.
“They are,” I answered. “But it was like we were seeing them in a dream about the past. They were a lot younger than I remember.”
There was a banging on the other side of the glass. I turned to see Jace yelling something, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Finally, he stopped hitting the glass and yelling to look directly at Ash. His mouth moved, and the message was clear: get them out.
Ash grabbed my and Zoe’s hands, but it was already too late. A shockwave of electricity, like that from one of the Harvester stun batons, dropped us all to our knees. White gas poured from vents in the ceiling. The last thing I saw was Jace banging his fist against the glass screaming my name.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I heard my father’s voice. He sounded angrier than I had ever heard him sound before.
When I opened my eyes, I saw Lucena at her desk staring at the screen of the laptop in front of her. It was exactly like the one my father had with him when we evacuated the Southern Kingdom. I let my eyes wander around the room I found myself in. It was a grand bi-level library with bookshelves built into the walls of the room. Each shelf was packed with leather bound books. Even if I read all day every day, it would take me at least ten years to read all of the books in the room.
“You can’t do that to her!” my father yelled.
“Jon, you knew this day was coming. Don’t pretend you’re a naïve twit like my sister. Why wouldn’t I give my daughter the gift of immortality?”
“She’s not your daughter, Lucena.” My father sounded disgusted. “And you know Emma wouldn’t want this for Skye.”
“Skye’s a child. She’s been brain washed by you humans into thinking becoming a Harvester is some sort of punishment when it’s the complete opposite! That’s why I have to do it: to show her we aren’t the monsters you make us out to be. We’re simply the next step in evolution. She deserves to be the best, and I intend to make sure she has all of the advantages I can give her.”
“Then give her a choice like you gave Emma and me. Let her decide her own fate.”
“The best choice has already been made for her,” Lucena said dismissively. “I just contacted you in case she wanted to speak with you before the operation.”
Lucena looked directly at me like she had known I was awake the entire time.
“Would you like to speak with your father, Skye?”
“Yes.” My voice sounded dry. I had to swallow a few times before it felt like I could speak again.
“How long was I unconscious for this time?” I asked.
“A day and a half.”
I stood from the leather chair I was sitting in and walked to the backside of the desk. Lucena stood and motioned for me to sit down in her chair.
I stared at the face of my father on the computer screen. His hair was an uncombed mess on top of his head, and a short beard hid half of his face. It didn’t look like he was taking very good care of himself. His eyes held so many emotions: guilt, worry, love. Looking at how quickly he had deteriorated in such a short amount of time worried me.
“Skye …” he began but became choked with emotion and had to stop to compose himself. He cleared his throat and began again. “Skye, you don’t know how sorry I am. I never thought she would take you back so soon.”
“You knew she planned to do this to me?” I asked, not able to believe what I was hearing him say.
“I thought I had more time. I was trying to figure out a way to hide you before she had a chance to come and get you.”
“But you knew she wanted to make me into a Harvester?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t think that was important enough to warn me about?” My voice got higher the angrier I became.
“Skye, please. I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily. I thought I had time …”
I looked away from my father, not wanting my last words with him as a human to be in anger. Even if he had been able to take me somewhere and hide me, it wouldn’t have mattered. Lucena would have just forced Jace to find me again. There was nowhere in the world I could hide. She controlled everything.
“Did you know about my mother?” I asked, needing to know if he had played a part in what Lucena was doing to my mother’s body. “Did you know she has her here?”
The shock in my father’s eyes gave me my answer. “Emma’s alive?”
“Her body is,” I said. “Lucena’s been using her organs when she needs them.”
My father’s shock was soon replaced with an anger of his own.
“No, I didn’t know that. I swear to you if I had known, I would have done something to stop it or at least died trying.”
“Say your good-byes,” Lucena told me sharply. “We have work to do.”
I looked at my father, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time I saw him and felt an emotional connection to him. Once I was converted into a Harvester, I would probably care about him as much as I would a fly on the wall.
“I love you, Dad,” I said, meaning every word. “Don’t forget that. No matter what happens after this.”
“I love you too, Skye.” Tears clouded my father’s eyes. He held his hand out, and I knew he was touching my face on the computer screen in front of him.
The top of the laptop in front of me snapped closed. Lucena leaned down to look me in the eyes.
“Now, let’s go make you who you were always meant to be.”
I stood from the chair and followed Lucena out of the library. Before I knew it, we were walking down to the subbasement floor.
“Can I see my friends first?” I asked. “I would like to say good-bye.”
Lucena stopped walking down the hallway and turned to me. “Zoe and Ash aren’t here anymore, but I suppose you could speak with Jace.”
“What do you mean Zoe and Ash aren’t here? Where are they?”
“I sent them somewhere else. After the operation, I’ll tell you what I have planned for them. It just seems cruel to tell you now. I don’t want you upset before the conversion.”
“Well, too late. I’m already upset!”
“You’re too human to think about my experiment with them logically. I’ll tell you afterwards. If you still want to, I’ll even take you to them personally.”
I knew there wasn’t any way to force the information out of her. She held all the cards and was playing them like an expert.
“Where’s Jace?
” I asked.
Lucena walked down the corridor a little farther and pressed a red button on one of the steel doors.
“Jace,” Lucena said, looking inside the cell. “Skye wants to speak with you before her surgery.”
I walked up to the cell door and saw Jace walking toward me from the set of bunk beds in the room.
“Why are you in a cell?” I asked.
“Because he was being a complete idiot,” Lucena answered for him. “He lost his mind when I told him I planned to convert you the moment you came back with Ash from wherever it was the two of you went.”
“I tried to warn you,” Jace said, pressing the palms of his hands against the glass.
I pressed my hands over his, wishing I could feel the warmth of his touch one last time. Would my love for him survive the conversion? Would love even be an emotion I would still be able to feel?
The helplessness I felt was mirrored in Jace’s eyes. That more than anything else frightened me. He was the only one in the world who knew the person I would eventually become. If he held no hope for me, how was I supposed to?
“What happens to me? Will you still love me after I become a monster?” I asked, desperately wanting to know this wasn’t the end of who I was. I needed to know good would conquer evil and that by some miracle I would remain the same person.
“You’re too good of a person to become a monster.”
“But what if I do?” I asked, feeling scared and uncertain.
“I will always love you. There is nothing you could ever do to change that. Do you remember when we were at Freddy’s house?”
The question caught me off guard. Why would Jace waste the last moments we might have together talking about that night?
“The party?”
“Remember what I told you then?” he said to me.
My mind raced back to that night. What was Jace trying to tell me without actually telling me in front of Lucena? I honestly didn’t know, but hoped I would have time to figure it out.
Before I knew it, Lucena pushed the red button on the touchpad.
“What’s so important about what Jace said to you at Freddy’s?” Lucena demanded.
I thought back to the night Freddy had hosted a party in my honor at his house. It was meant as an opportunity to give the people who had bought spots in the tournament a chance to meet their virgin prize.
