by S. J. West
“Wilford told me you designed the Cain virus,” I said. “Is that true?”
“Yes,” my mother informed me, setting her cup of tea in its saucer on her desk.
“But why? Why would you design something to take away a Harvester’s immortality?”
“Simple math really,” my mother said with a small shrug of her shoulders. “There are too many Harvesters and too few humans to meet the demand for organs. As long as the Harvesters believe the resistance is the one who developed the Cain virus, they have no reason to suspect me and their hatred of the resistance is strengthened.”
“That’s why you let Michael and his group live? So suspicion stays directed toward them?”
“Exactly. As long as they exist, anyone who happens to be infected blames them, not me. And if a Harvester gets out of line, it’s simple enough to have them infected by sending word to Wilford, who in turn directs Michael on who he should infect next.”
“So the resistance is actually working for you, they just don’t know it.”
My mother smiled. “Brilliant, wouldn’t you say?”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
There was a knock on the study door.
“Come in,” my mother instructed.
Instead of opening the door and walking in the room like a normal person, the intruder of my private time with my mother simply walked through it while it was still closed.
“Lawrence,” my mother said in a slightly annoyed tone. “What is it this time?”
I remembered Lawrence. His ability, of course, was being able to walk through walls and who knew what else. I could only attribute my mother’s sudden irritation to his appearance as meaning he was still bugging her. She had said as much when she introduced me to him back at the castle. His undying love and loyalty got on her nerves. I could only imagine that loyalty had increased a hundredfold if he had undergone the conversion into a true Harvester.
I hadn’t thought about the other people like me who had powers until now. Apparently Lawrence either wasn’t released from his cell or had no desire to escape when Michael and his crew launched their rescue mission. It made me wonder where Jackson, the boy who could harness the power around him, and Ava, the girl who could make plants grow, were now.
“My Queen,” Lawrence said, bowing at the waist, “I was asked to inform you of a problem.”
Lawrence’s beady little eyes shifted in my direction. A half smile played across his lips, like he was pleased to see me.
“What problem, Lawrence?” my mother said irritably, sitting back in her chair. “I can’t read your mind.”
“I’m sorry, my Queen,” he said humbly. “There is an uprising among the humans in the northern quadrant.”
“What are they upset about this time?” my mother asked, seeming bored by the topic already. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time she had encountered such an occurrence.
“There was an incident at the harvesting facility this morning.” Lawrence looked at me briefly before returning his gaze to my mother. “Your daughter could probably give you a more detailed account than I can. I was told she was there.”
“What happened, Skye?”
I related the story about the little girl caught out during curfew hours and the choice I gave to her mother.
“I don’t see anything wrong with what you did,” my mother told me. “In fact, you were more lenient than I would have been. Next time, let them both be harvested to teach the other parents a lesson.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling as though I had let her down in some way.
“As it is, there isn’t any reason for the humans to be so ungrateful.” My mother stood from her chair. “I’ll need to take care of this,” she told me. “The humans can spread discontent like wildfire if it isn’t put out immediately. You should stay here where it’s safe, Skye. This shouldn’t take too long.”
“I’d rather go with you,” I said, standing from my chair. “I should learn how to deal with situations like this, so you don’t have to do it all the time.”
My mother seemed to consider my words, then nodded.
“All right, you can join me. But if things get out of hand and I tell you to come back here, you do what I say. Understand?”
“Yes. I’ll do whatever you tell me.”
“Then let’s go and remind the humans how fragile their lives are.”
As we made our way to the foyer, I could see Walsh waiting for us by the front door.
“So, how many humans are misbehaving?” my mother asked him.
“A couple of hundred. They are demanding that the mother of the little girl be released from the Harvester facility.”
“They’re demanding?” my mother asked almost amused. “Well now, let’s go teach them a lesson, shall we?”
Five Harvester SUVs and the Queen’s limousine were waiting for us at the front of the house. Walsh rode in the back of the limo with me and my mother. Lawrence was relegated to ride in one of the SUVs with the regular guards.
“So, is Lawrence a Harvester now?” I asked.
My mother sighed. “Honestly, I thought it might shut him up, but it only seemed to make him worse. I love undying loyalty from my subjects, but he takes it to the extreme.”
“Then, why don’t you just kill him?” I asked.
My mother looked surprised by my suggestion then smiled. “I’ll take it under consideration. But I would hate to lose someone with his abilities. I find it interesting.”
“How does he do it?” I asked. “How can he walk through things?”
“At a microscopic level, everything has small spaces between their molecules. Lawrence is able to temporarily disassemble his body at a molecular level and squeeze through those spaces in objects.”
“What happened to the other two people you had at the castle, Jackson and Ava?”
“They’re here with me. Apparently Michael was only concerned about rescuing you and Jace. At least that’s what Wilford told me.”
“Wilford told me you have his granddaughter,” I said. “That’s the reason he still helps you.”
“Poor deluded fool. I don’t know why he trusts what I say.”
“So you don’t have her?”
“She was placed in the warehouse years ago, but he still thinks I would keep my word to him and protect her as long as he does what I ask.”
“Have you spoken to him lately? Has he said anything about what was happening over there?”
“If you’re asking whether or not the wild goose chase Jace and the others went on to find Ash and Zoe was over, no they hadn’t returned to Michael’s camp yet. But, I’m sure they’re back by now. Is there anything you want to know? I’m sure I’ll be in touch with Wilford again this evening.”
“No,” I said half-heartedly, even though Jace’s face seemed determined to haunt me. “I don’t need to know anything.”
“Do you want me to bring Jace to you?” my mother asked, knowing full well what, or in this case who, I wanted. “I could have him here by tonight if that would make you happy.”
The temptation to accept my mother’s offer almost overwhelmed me. I felt a physical need to have Jace by my side again but knew it might not be the best thing for me at the moment. If he found out what my mother was doing with Ash and Zoe, he would feel honor bound to rescue them. His hero complex would kick in, and I might end up having to kill him.
“No. I don’t want him here, yet,” I said. “I’m still getting used to being a Harvester. I think having him here would just upset me more than anything.”
“Probably a wise decision,” my mother said. “Humans always feel entitled to act on their emotions, most of the time without thinking things through.”
As we approached the demonstration, I saw a line of Harvester guards pushing the humans back from the Queen’s convoy. Lawrence had said there were only a couple of hundred demonstrators, but from what I could see, the crowd must have quadrupled in size since that time.
&nb
sp; We stepped out of the car and walked up to the steps leading to the entrance of the harvesting facility. Behind me, I could hear jeers and cries of outrage clearly, but one voice stood out among the others. When my mother and I reached the head of the stairs, I looked out into the crowd and found the owner of that voice.
The little girl whose life I saved that morning was staring straight at me screaming at the top of her lungs about how much she hated me and how she wished I was dead. She kept eye contact with me until I finally broke it off, unable to meet her gaze any longer for some reason. Deep within my subconscious, the part of my mind which still held the last shred of my humanity wept over the child’s loss. I firmly shut the door on my weakness, choosing to ignore its cries of despair.
As the Queen calmly surveyed the crowd of discontented humans, she slowly lifted her right hand and snapped her fingers. The guards who had escorted us to the facility quickly dispersed into the crowd grabbing people at random and bringing them back through to stand in front of me and my mother at the base of the steps. The Harvesters used their stun batons to force their chosen humans to their knees. The noise of the crowd lessened as they warily watched to see what fate my mother had in store for those in front of her.
“Do any of you honestly think this little demonstration will change anything?” my mother asked.
“We just want Eliza back,” a man said from the front of the crowd. I instantly recognized him as Gavin, the woman’s husband. “She didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Are you her husband?” my mother asked.
The man nodded. “Yes. Please show pity on her, Queen Lucena. She’s been a good breeder for you. She doesn’t deserve to be harvested yet.”
“From what I understand, your wife chose to be harvested in order to save your daughter’s life.”
“She had no choice,” the man said bitterly, pointing straight at me accusingly. “Your daughter knew Eliza would rather die than see her own flesh and blood butchered.”
“Then what’s the problem?” my mother asked. “Your daughter broke the rules. By all rights, she should be dead now. Yet, my daughter showed leniency in giving your wife a choice, which is a lot more than I would have done if I had been there. As it is, your little demonstration has just cost the lives of these people in front of me.”
Screams of “no” and outrage could be heard coming from the crowd while whimpers of hopelessness came from the twenty people on their knees in front of us.
“Take them,” my mother instructed in a low voice but loud enough for the Harvesters to hear.
The twenty sacrifices were drug up the stairs and into the hospital within a matter of seconds.
“You’ll burn in hell for this!” Gavin screamed. “You’re both going to hell!”
My mother smiled.
“Would you like to be next?” she asked the man. “Perhaps we should just make this a family affair and be done with it.”
My mother turned to Walsh and seemed to give him a silent command with just her eyes. Walsh walked over to the man and grabbed both him and his daughter, dragging them forward to stand directly in front of us.
“Please,” the man begged, “leave my daughter alone. This was all my fault not hers.”
“I know it was,” my mother said, looking him up and down in disgust. “And now you’ve made your wife’s sacrifice for nothing. Take them in.”
The crowd grew silent as the man and his daughter were drug into the harvesting facility crying for mercy. My mother’s gaze returned to the crowd.
“If any of you would like to join them, please stay where you are and my Harvesters will gladly escort you inside as well.”
It was like someone had thrown a bomb into the crowd. Within a matter of seconds, the demonstrators scattered, none of them having the conviction to stand up for what they had whole-heartedly believed in only moments before.
“And that’s how you handle humans,” my mother said, satisfaction in her voice. “Threatening their mortality and playing on their fear of death lets you win every single time.”
My mother decided to stay at the harvesting facility to make sure there were no more disturbances.
“Skye, I need you to go back to my house and keep an eye on Zoe for me,” she said. “She should have her babies at any moment. If she goes into labor before I get back, tell Walsh, and he’ll get in touch with me immediately. It won’t take me long to get back to the house.”
“If that’s what you want, I’ll do it,” I said.
“I know it’s hard to be around them because they remind you of your old life. And as soon as the babies are born, I’ll move them somewhere else so you never have to see them again. But you know how important these babies might be.”
“Yes, I know. I’ll be fine.”
And then my mother did something completely unexpected. She leaned in toward me and kissed my cheek. The look in her eyes as she pulled away confused me. It was almost as if she let the mask she presented to the world fall for a split second, showing me the love she felt for me.
She turned away from me quickly before I had any more time to contemplate her odd behavior. I knew she cared for me. That was obvious the first time I met her. But could the Queen of the Eastern Kingdom truly love someone? How was that even possible after being a Harvester for all these years?
As Walsh and I drove back to my mother’s home, I contemplated my own feelings. Was my mother’s momentary lapse proof that Harvesters were doomed to retain a portion of their humanity? Would I always be forced to fight against my true nature, that small voice within who yearned to be released and allowed to feel again?
I didn’t know any of the answers to my own questions, and I had a feeling even if I asked my mother to provide them for me, she wouldn’t be able to. Either that or she would lie and say her humanity died the moment she became a Harvester. I felt sure there wouldn’t be a simple answer either way.
After we returned to the house, I asked Walsh, “Is there a way I can keep an eye on Ash and Zoe without actually having to be in the same room as them? I don’t think I could stand that.”
“Yes, your mother has been observing them from her study. I can show you how to activate the holographic surveillance system in there.”
Once we were back in my mother’s study, Walsh showed me the control panel inlaid in her desk. With a few quick codes, a holographic image of the sitting room Ash and Zoe were still in came to life in front of me. It was remarkably detailed with only a hint of transparency. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I had been transported to the room below me as a silent observer.
They were playing a game of checkers, which seemed to bore Walsh to tears. He quickly made an excuse about needing to see to something else in the house. I sat in my mother’s chair and watched the two play for a while before becoming bored myself. After a while, I stood and tried to find something on the bookshelf to while away the time.
“Ash,” the image of Zoe said behind me as I browsed my mother’s selection of classical novels. “Would you do something for me?”
“Sure, squirt. What do you need?”
There was a long pause, and I began to wonder if Zoe was going to answer.
“Would you … kiss me?”
My attention was immediately drawn back to the hologram.
Ash looked shocked, and Zoe looked extremely embarrassed. Zoe raised her hands to her eyes, covering them in shame.
“I know. I know. It’s a stupid thing to ask,” she admitted.
“No, it’s not stupid,” Ash said, clearing his throat in an attempt to hide his own discomfort. “But why do you want me to?”
“It’s just that …” Zoe let her hands fall back into her lap as she seemed to search for the right words to better explain her request.
“It’s just that it seems really weird that I’m having your babies and we’ve never even kissed. I mean look at me,” she said with her arms stretched wide. “I’m as big as a house, about to have three babie
s, and I haven’t even kissed a boy for goodness’ sake.”
Ash grinned. “Do you really want me to be your first kiss? Wouldn’t you rather share something like that with a boy you love?”
“That’s just it,” Zoe said, an earnest yearning transcribed on her face. “I’ve had a crush on you since we met. I just couldn’t tell you because when you met me, I looked like a child. But I’m not a little girl, Ash. I’m a woman. A woman who wants to be kissed by someone she loves.”
“Oh,” Ash’s voice faltered, suddenly failing to know what to say.
Zoe looked despondent. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Now I’ve embarrassed you.”
Ash stood from his chair and went to kneel by Zoe. He placed a comforting hand on her back.
“You didn’t embarrass me,” he told her. “I’m actually flattered, Zoe.”
Zoe lifted her head and looked down at Ash.
“I know you love Skye,” she said. “And I’m not asking you to fall madly, deeply in love with me. I just want to know what it feels like to kiss someone.”
“I don’t think that’s asking too much,” Ash said, full of understanding. “Do you think you can stand up?”
Zoe eagerly nodded.
Ash stood back up and helped Zoe to her feet. I walked closer to the hologram, watching them carefully, scrutinizing every look exchanged and nervous twitch of their lips. The scene looked vaguely familiar, and then I remembered why. Ash was my first kiss. Now he would be Zoe’s too.
Ash cupped Zoe’s face with both hands and slowly brought his lips into contact with hers. The kiss was slow at first, gentle and tender like Ash was afraid he might break Zoe if he pressed her lips too hard. Zoe wrapped her arms around Ash’s neck and deepened the kiss, letting him know she was anything but breakable.
I slowly walked around the two virtual figures instantly feeling my blood begin to boil. This was nothing like the first kiss I experienced with Ash—a kiss which haunted me for two long years. That kiss was filled with awkwardness and an unyielding posture on Ash’s part. I always thought it was because Ash wasn’t attracted to me in a romantic way until he professed to have always been in love with me just recently. And here he was kissing another girl like there was no tomorrow, meeting each passionate moan from her with one of his own.
