The Big Game

by Sarah Jaune

  When they were a day out from home, Eli pulled Ivy back with him and let Pablo and Oliver move ahead. Pablo seemed to understand perfectly what Eli was doing, because he kept Oliver going even when it looked like his brother might protest.

  Ivy watched him as she shifted from one foot to the other. Her green eyes were so sad that he almost changed his mind about asking. Almost.

  “Are you scared of me?” Eli asked her bluntly.

  Surprise flickered over her features. “No, of course not.”

  The relief was acute, like a wave of tingling nerves jumping through this body. “Are you mad at me?”

  She shook her head and glanced away as she worried at her bottom lip. “I’m sad about Yung, Eli. I’m sad about him, and I’m upset with my dad. I don’t want to talk about it right now, though. I need to get home, shower, eat, and sleep for three days straight. Then we’ll talk.”

  “Promise?” he asked as he angled his head around to catch her eye.

  She nodded and slowly stepped to him. She rose onto tiptoes to thread her arms around his neck and pull him in for a hug. He hugged her back and soaked in the relief.

  That feeling lasted him all the way back home where Maia cried for almost an hour at seeing them. Or at least he thought she cried for an hour, since he wasn’t with her the whole time. She hugged them all, sent them all off for showers, and ordered them to bring their clothes and shoes down so they could be trashed.

  Ivy went back to her place, and after a huge meal of rice, beans, vegetables, and anything, anything, that wasn’t meat, Eli went to sleep.

  He didn’t sleep three days, but he did manage almost twenty hours before he woke up starving. Eli wandered out to the kitchen which was quiet, clean, and empty and went straight for the fridge to make himself something to eat. Oliver joined him minutes later, and they sat in complete silence except for their mutual chewing. It was absolute bliss.

  “Where is everyone?” Eli asked after popping the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth. He washed it down with nearly a full glass of water.

  Oliver shrugged dismissively. “I think it’s a school day so Graham is probably there, but no clue for anyone else. Did you check to see if there was a note?”

  He hadn’t. Eli glanced over to the counter towards the wall and saw the note that waited for them. He quirked a finger and it floated over.

  “You are so lazy sometimes,” Oliver mused lightly. “I dunno why I’m the only one who sees it.”

  Eli ignored him in favor of reading. “Mom has a doctor’s appointment and we took the girls. We will be back around one.”

  “Mom has a doctor’s appointment?” Oliver said with a snort. “I’d think we’d need one.”

  “At least they took Ava and Alexi with them,” Eli reminded him. “We’d have had to get up to take care of them.”

  “Eh,” Oliver shook that off. “That’s more your thing, bro. I like the runts well enough, but they love you.”

  Eli eyed him with annoyance. “You purposefully keep your distance so they don’t depend on you. What everyone knows is you’re actually the lazy one.”

  Oliver shrugged and stretched back over his seat. His back cracked a couple of times as he yawned. “Whatever. It’s almost one and I’m going back to bed.”

  Just as Oliver’s bedroom door closed, the front door opened. Eli went to see his parents and instead found Ivy shuffling in to flop down on the couch.

  Now that she was clean, Eli could see all the cuts, scratches, bruises, and sunburn that covered the skin that he could see on her arms, neck, and face. “You look terrible,” he told her honestly as he sat at the other end of the couch.

  Ivy closed her eyes and said, “You are so good for my ego, Elijah.”

  Eli had seen himself in the mirror and knew he didn’t look much better. “We’re a matched set at the moment.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed on a sigh. “My foster parents suggested going back to school tomorrow, but I don’t think I’ll try until next week.”

  Before he could say anything, the door opened again and in flooded Ava and Alexi who rushed him like players in a game of soccer. “Eli!” they cried together as they scrambled onto the couch to hug him.

  “Hey,” he laughed as he hugged them before they climbed over him to get to Ivy. He glanced over to see his parents in the doorway. Eli’s smile died away at the blank looks on their faces. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Maia forced her lips up in the mockery of a smile. “Everything is fine.”

  Pablo ran his hands through his hair and held on for a moment, making the dark tendrils stick up on end. Fear had Eli rising to his feet and moving towards them. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Pablo reiterated. “We just had some, uh, very surprising news.”

  “Mom?” Eli questioned as he turned to Maia. “Are you okay?”

  He tried not to panic, he really did, but images of his mother filled his mind, and she was gone now.

  Maia cupped his cheeks and this time her eyes spoke of love as she said, “I am perfectly well, Eli. We’re just… I’m…” her voice faltered as her eyes filled.

  “Pregnant,” Pablo supplied quietly.

  Shock, relief, he didn’t even know what filled Eli as he laughed and hugged his mom. “Don’t scare me like that!”

  This was okay. Maia was a lot younger than Noelle Hunt. She was fit and healthy. She would be okay having another baby.

  “Well,” Pablo said as Eli and Maia broke apart, and he wrapped an arm around her waist. “We’re still a little stunned.”

  “Congratulations,” Ivy called over to them as Ava tried, and failed horribly, to braid Ivy’s long hair. It looked like a bird and a squirrel had crawled onto her head and had a fight.

  “Thank you,” Maia said as she let out a slow breath. “It’s a good thing, but I’m still getting used to the thought of having seven kids.”

  “On the bright side, Oliver goes off to college in a few months,” Eli reminded them. “So he’ll be Naim’s problem.”

  Eli’s oldest foster brother, Naim, was already in school in the San Francisco Zone, but he would be back for a month-long visit that summer.

  Seven was a lot, though. Most families only had one or two kids, so they already stood out.

  Maia coaxed Ava and Alexi away from Ivy with the promise of a late lunch, and Eli pulled Ivy out through the back of the house. He grabbed one of their picnic blankets on the way and spread it out in the grass under the shade of a tree. Eli dropped down on it and lay back to stare up at the dazzlingly blue sky that was dotted with puffy, white clouds that didn’t hurry on their journey.

  Ivy sat next to him. “You know, I actually wouldn’t mind being inside and away from bugs or the sun for a couple of days.”

  “We can go in,” he said and glanced up to see her pulling her hair down out of the nest that Ava had left. He chuckled at the sight. “How much did she tear out?”

  “Not as much as you might think,” Ivy told him with a snort. “I think I’m finally ready to cut my hair.”

  “Oh,” Eli said as he felt his brain freeze. He watched her fingers combing through the long, golden locks and couldn’t imagine it not being long, but still… “That’s good, then.”

  It was her hair.

  Ivy’s pale brow rose. “You don’t sound like it’s good.”

  “I like your hair,” he admitted as he turned back to studying the sky. “But I’ll still like it when it’s short.”

  And that was the simple truth.

  Ivy studied the ends that were lying across her shoulder. “Maybe I’ll just trim it.”

  “It’s your hair,” he reminded her in a low voice. Eli cleared his throat and went on. “If you want to cut it, cut it. You shouldn’t do anything with it to please someone else.”

  Ivy didn’t answer as she lay down next to him and stared up at the sky above. “So another baby…”

  “Yeah,” Eli agreed. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, bu
t he was glad that at least Maia wasn’t sick or dying, plus babies weren’t too bad. “It could be a lot worse.”

  “It won’t help with not seeing Becca and Jonas,” Ivy said thoughtfully, “but it also won’t hurt.”

  The back door opened and Pablo stuck his head out the back. “I just had word, Eli. Everyone is okay from your previous trip. They’re settled in their new home.”

  Eli sprang to his feet and raced for the house. “How do you know?”

  Pablo hesitated. “I have a special kind of phone that tells me. I just checked it, and I had a message saying that all was well.”

  “Oh,” Eli faltered and almost asked if he could call Cole, but knew immediately that would be out of the question. “Okay, I’ll…” he trailed off as he walked back towards Ivy.

  He felt like a deflated balloon as he wilted down and waited for his disappointment to fade. It didn’t.

  “I know it hurts,” Ivy said as they continued to watch the sky. “Family seems to be all about hurts.”

  “My family here isn’t,” Eli reminded her. “Heck, I even get another brother or sister out of it, but I think they thought they were done because they wanted to be able to take more foster kids. There aren’t a lot of foster families.”

  “There are more people growing up every day, though,” she said speculatively. “I mean, your sister Naomi might be ready to take on foster kids in a few years. I think I might like to do that later on.”

  Eli hadn’t given it much thought, not until that moment. He’d never really speculated on what he’d do after being a Pursuer. “That could be good unless I end up as the Overseer.”

  “There are worse fates than that,” she told him flatly. “If that’s what happens, then so be it, Eli. You can only fight that for so long.”

  He laughed then, and felt a bubble of relief burst in him. “Never! I’m going to fight it to the very end. But yeah,” he said after a moment. “When I’m actually an adult, I think I’d like to be a foster parent. People notice adults more than they notice kids. That’s why we can sneak around so easily.”

  It was weird imagining himself as an adult, and he wondered, inexplicably, if his life would be his own then, or if it would belong to the Chicago Zone.

  It was an unsettling thought.

  CHAPTER 29

  THE MISSING PIECES

  “My foster parents don’t really need me there,” Ivy said speculatively. “I mean, I’m going to be seventeen soon, and I can live on my own if I want. I’m really only there to help out with the girls, and since I was away for several weeks, it seems like they have a new rhythm with them.”

  “You’re not replaceable,” Eli said bluntly. “I don’t care what your father did to you. He’s the one who is worthless.”

  She didn’t answer, just moved over until her head was on his shoulder. “I was so afraid he would be there, but then when he wasn’t, I was really disappointed. I thought… I thought maybe I’d finally get to tell him all the things I want to say, but, he’s never been around to hear.”

  A dove flew overhead and landed on a branch ten feet away. Eli watched it coo and stick its small head under its wing to pick at something in its snowy feathers. That bird knew better what its plan in life was than Eli. It had a purpose, a path, and a job. It wasn’t worrying about the mommy bird kicking it out of the nest.

  Just for a moment he envied the bird, but then Ivy’s arm went around his waist as she huddled closer to him, completely lost in her pain, and he knew he didn’t want to trade. He didn’t want to lose the love of his family, or the connections he could make.

  Life and love and pain were all wrapped neatly together with a tidy bow. There couldn’t ever be the miracle of love without the risk of the hurt.

  “Why do I care so much about someone I’ve never met?” Ivy demanded of Eli. “Why does he matter to me?”

  Eli tried to think of how his mom or dad would answer that, and the best he could come up with was to ask another question. “How was he made important in your life before now?”

  She was quiet for a good five minutes before answering. “My mom made him important. She made his opinion and good favor mean something.”

  “So, does what she said mean you have to?” Eli said in as reasonable of a voice as he could manage. He was personally furious with Ivy’s mom for all that she’d done to his friend. “Also, your mom was crazy, and she wanted power. She had to have been after getting into the Overseer’s house as his wife.”

  “I’ve thought of that,” she agreed sadly. “Daggers, what a pathetic life. Imagine being willing to do almost anything to join in with the crazy crowd. I get that it’s not perfect around here, and that the Overseers have a lot of advantages, but it isn’t like anyone is starving or homeless. We’re all taken care of as long as someone in the family is able to work.”

  “Except in Chicago,” Eli muttered darkly as he thought about his home zone.

  Ivy waved her hand at that. “Okay, sure, but seriously your dad is a special kind of messed up. I’m really glad we got your siblings away from him. I’m also glad they’re safe.”

  “How did your mom get mixed up in all of this?” Eli wanted to know.

  Before she could say anything, the back door slammed open and Oliver wandered out with a bag that Eli realized was from their trip to Chicago. “Mom told me to clean out your car, thanks for that by the way, and I found this. Where do you want it?”

  They sat up and Eli took the bag from him. “It’s books from my house in Chicago.”

  “Great,” Oliver offered, not in the least interested, as he stalked back into the house.

  “Do you think he’ll ever be human?” Ivy wanted to know.

  Eli shook his head as he unzipped the bag. “I doubt it, but he’ll move out soon, and he won’t be my daily problem anymore.”

  “That’s a cheery thought,” Ivy replied sarcastically.

  He felt his heart trip over in his chest as he saw the book on top.

  Mythical Creatures by Kara Jon.

  “This is the book,” Eli explained as his eyes flew over the battered cover which showed a faded dragon wrapped around a tree. In the tree hung a single apple, which a child was reaching for, completely unaware of the dragon at his feet.

  “Which book?” Ivy asked curiously as she studied it. Then her sunburnt face went white. “Not… not the one with the wendigo in it.”

  “Yeah,” Eli confirmed in awe. “I can’t believe it! She must have caught me looking at it a dozen times. Wow.”

  She shook her head violently. “I don’t want to read that, Eli. They’re dangerous.”

  “I know, but this could help us survive,” he reminded her. “If we knew more, then maybe if we encountered one it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

  Her fear flipped suddenly to anger. “Get real, Eli! You might be able to kill one, sure. Actually, I think there’s a good chance you’d survive without a problem, but the rest of us are doomed if we come up against one!”

  Stunned, he opened his mouth to reply, but didn’t know what to say. “If you don’t want to me to read it now, I won’t.”

  It must have been sheer stubborn pride that had her chin rising in the air. “No, you read it now. If you’re going to read it, then I want to know what it says.”

  “But you just said—” Eli shut his mouth tight and focused on the book in his lap. He flipped through slowly until he found the pages that he remembered so well, but now the monsters didn’t seem quite as scary as they had when he was a child.

  They were worse. Much worse.

  The images were all graphic, and different. One was of a fat beast with rotting skin, huge fangs, and enormous antlers. The only part that didn’t appear fat on this creature were its stick like legs.

  Ivy made a small squeak of disgust as she stared down at the page. “It looks dead, but still very dangerous.”

  Eli flipped the page, and the next didn’t have antlers, and it certainly wasn’t fat. It was gaunt, emaciated,
and almost dead looking. This one didn’t have the huge fangs, but instead its hands were claws with five inch talons. It wasn’t any better than the first one. On and on they went, to the thing that looked like a man, but with red eyes that glowed from skin as black as ink. This one also had antlers, and was, oddly enough, dressed in a suit. The last picture was a wraith-like man child, horribly rotten, but transparent, so that in the drawing Eli could see the forest behind the being. Picture after picture contained things that were going to haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.

  Then he came to the pages with the written descriptions, and he cleared his throat before reading out loud. Eli had to clear his throat twice before the words unstuck enough to break free from his constricted chest. “The wendigo, sometimes also referred to as a windigo, is the only true aboriginal magical creature from the land. Its references throughout history can be found through thousands of years of history. The first mention comes from stories of Native Americans. It is told that the—”