by Leyton, Bisi
“I wasn’t alone.”
“You came here with those Famila kids. What would you’ve done if they turned you into one of their sleepwalkers?”
“I can take care of myself.” Wisteria knew that was an impossibility.
“Do you even know what a sleepwalker is? Not all of The Family can be trusted. This might seem like a game to you, but believe me, it’s not.”
“I—” Wisteria paused. Even though she probably had more firsthand experience with The Family than anyone in Franklin, she wasn’t going to discuss her life story with a woman she barely knew. “I suppose I don’t.”
“I know I’m not your mom, but I knew her and one day you might see me as some kind of mother-like figure—”
“I have a mother.” And she’d break your face for what you’re saying.
“I know. I know you do. You’ve no reason to trust me, but trust your father. He thinks it’s best for you to remain in Franklin. I agree and I know that wherever she is, rest her soul, so would your mother. She’d be relieved you found your father.” Smiling warmly, Jenny offered her a glass of pink lemonade.
Rest her soul? Shaking her head, Wisteria thought back to the video Jason had shown her. Seeing the video of her father, and the other people, watching as Coia tried to pulse her made Wisteria distrustful of her father.
“I’ll leave the lemonade here in case you change your mind.” Jenny placed the bottle down. “You should think about what I said, Wisteria. I’m the good guy here, and so is your father. Perhaps then you’ll tell me what you were looking for at the school.”
“The school? Were you following me?”
“Franklin is a very small community.”
“Jenny.” Alan entered. “Do you have a second?”
“I’ll be back in a second, sweetie.” Jenny smiled and left the room with him.
Studying her hands, she saw they were shaking. She needed to get out of here, but what about her child? Banging her head on the table, she forced herself to think.
“Are you okay?” Del placed his small hand over hers. “Wisteria, you don’t look well.”
“I’m just sleepy.”
“Then, you should go to bed,” he proposed, as his green eyes searched hers in a way that reminded her of her brother, David. “That way, you won’t get over tired.”
“That won’t help me, but why aren’t you in bed?”
“I was, but then I heard you and Mom talking. I wanted to say goodnight to you.” The little boy hugged her, shoving his woolly hair in her face. “I missed you today.”
“You should go to sleep.” Disentangling herself from him, she slid out of her seat. She did not have time to wonder why this boy was so loving with her . . . a complete stranger.
“It seems the boy likes you.” Her father smiled. “Del, you should go to bed.” The tall dark figure of her father loomed in the kitchen doorway.
“I don’t want to go,” Del protested, but her father gave him a dirty look and the boy scurried out.
“He’s a nice kid.” She watched the boy leave.
“Good evening, Modupe,” her father greeted in Yoruba, and then checked his watch. “Actually, it’s good morning.”
“Good morning, Daddy.” She wanted to be happy to see him, but all she saw was the image of him coldly watching her tackle Coia. She was a little girl and he never tried to help her. Moving away from him, she took her plate to the sink and started to scrape it into a bin.
“You should eat that. You don’t want Jenny thinking you don’t like her food. Even though things are okay in Franklin, we still can’t afford to waste food.”
“All right.” She took out a plastic container and packed her leftover food in it. When she was done, she saw her father watching her.
“Modupe, I’m sorry about the living arrangements. Claire and the kids needed a few days to get their heads around this change.”
“I understand.” She’d never been welcome in his home once Claire had moved in. Why should that change now?
Her father had only had her over at his old house once. David was a different story--he saw his dad all the time--but her mother explained that David was a boy and needed his father. Wisteria now wondered why she’d missed him so much. But getting into the mess around the woman who broke up her parents’ marriage or how her father had behaved was pointless. It was the illusion of what a father could be that she wanted. Feeling her eyes watering, she breathed in.
“You’re still upset, and I’m sorry that you are. I never set out to hurt you, so I promise once —”
“Don’t worry about it, Daddy.” She moved to leave.
“Wisteria, come on now, I’d still like to spend some time with you. That’s why I’m here.” He motioned to Jenny’s living room.
“We can talk in the morning. Please?”
“You were out with your friends, so no one was able to see you. I want us to start connecting, and to figure how we can get our family back together.”
“You’re going to bring everyone back here?”
“Eventually.” He smiled broadly, but frowned. “Wisteria, this is good news, but you don’t seem happy.”
She wasn’t. “You want me to tell you where my mother is?”
Her father nodded. “I do, but let’s talk first.”
“Why?” Revealing the location of Smythe made her feel uncomfortable. There was still so much she needed to learn about her time here seven years ago. She realized now that she must have been on this island before.
“Why?” he repeated. “I need to keep my family safe. I still care about your mother, even after everything. I’ve forgiven her.”
“Forgiven her?” Wisteria saw she was clutching the table knife Jenny had given her. Quickly, she let go and the object fell to the ground. “Claire was the one who came into our lives; she ruined everything.”
Her dad grimaced. “When she took you, she almost killed you and destroyed decades’ worth of research.”
“Research? You did use me for your experiments?”
Her father crossed his arms and leaned against the doorpost. “Yes.”
“Why?” Wisteria gasped. Finally hearing him admit it caused her to heart to ache.
“It is complicated, but the bottom line is we wouldn’t have this biter problem. We were close to creating a way—”
“You created a child out of my DNA, and now you say—you forgive her?” she exclaimed.
“So that was why you were walking all over town. You were looking for this child.” He laughed.
“But it’s true, isn’t it. I saw the video.”
“I’m not a monster. I’m sure to you it sounds like I was, but I was the only person who didn’t want you to actually carry the child. I found a surrogate who—”
“How could you do this to me? I’m your daughter.” She’d hoped it was a misunderstanding, that what her mother had said and what Jason had shown her was not true. “I was a little girl!”
“No!” Del shouted from the other room. “I’m not sleepy.”
“You know he could be your child. Or, rather, the child I created from you and what does he call himself now—Bach?” her father remarked. “He’s the right age, has the right eye color and skin tone.”
“Del?” Wisteria’s eyes widened. “You placed me here on purpose? You were trying to trick me.”
“Trick you?” Doc continued to look confused.
“He’s not my child.” She headed to the back door to leave.
“Wait.” He grabbed her shoulder. “Listen to me.”
“No, you’re exactly like her, trying to manipulate me. That’s why you insisted I live with this kid who can’t possibly be.. . . .” Her voice trailed off as she struggled to put words together to describe what he did. “My life is a game to you!” Getting up, she stormed to the basement door.
“Listen to me, because I didn’t come here for you to insult me.” He twirled her around.
“Let go of me!” She pushed him away from her.<
br />
“Hey, Wisteria, are you okay?” Christopher called from the other side of the back door.
Her father let go of her and she stormed to the door.
“What are you doing here?” Opening it, she saw Christopher standing there holding weapons. “Is everything okay?” Her gaze was fixed on the weapons.
“I was passing by on my way home and wanted to make sure you were okay, after the whole Enric and Ollie incident.”
“I’m okay, but I was thinking about going on a walk.”
“Wisteria, don’t go outside,” her father called after her.
“I need some air,” she muttered and tried to step past, but Christopher blocked her path. “Let me through.”
“Christopher!” her father ordered.
Christopher glanced over at her father. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”
“Move now.” Wisteria stepped up to him but he didn’t budge.
“Listen to Doc, okay? Everything will be all right.”
Nodding, she stepped back calmly. Abrupt-like, she then punched Christopher in the face while snatching his gun with her other hand. Her training as a tracker was serving her well now. Pointing it at him, she gestured for him to move back.
“Stop!” she heard Del cry. “Let go of me.”
Turning back, she saw Alan carrying Del in one arm and holding a table knife in the other.
“You don’t want me to hurt your son,” Alan warned.
“Alan, are you out of you mind?” Doc gasped, and then he moved closer to Wisteria. “You too, put the gun down. No one is going to get hurt.”
“Her first.” Alan shook the boy.
“You’re hurting me,” Del wailed.
“Do it, Wisteria. It will be okay,” Christopher assured her.
She knew she was beat for the moment; they were all crazy and they might hurt the little boy. Reluctantly, she gave him back his gun.
Alan dropped the distraught little boy. “Del, I want you to go to Jenny.”
“No, I don’t want you to hurt her!” Del wept.
“Put these on.” Alan handed her a set of plastic cuffs. “Then you can have your child.”
“Seriously?” She glared at her father. “I thought you were in charge here?”
Doc glowered at Alan, but didn’t answer her.
“Just promise you’ll let him go.” Putting her hands through the plastic strips, she tightened them by pulling on the end with her teeth.
“Alan, Doc, what’s going on? What are you doing to him?” Jenny entered.
“Alan, give the boy back to Jenny,” her father told Alan.
“Doc—” Alan started to say.
“No, get the child out of here. Wisteria’s secure. She’s not going anywhere now.”
Alan mumbled something and then handed Del to Jenny.
The older woman left with the boy.
“Doc, what’s going on?” Christopher demanded.
“Out, now.” Alan glared at him. “This doesn’t involve you.”
“Please, don’t leave me here,” she implored.
“Christopher? Now,” Doc insisted.
Christopher glanced down at her hesitantly. “You’ll be fine. I trust Doc.” He left through the back door.
“Christopher’s almost as stupid as you are,” Alan remarked.
“I know Del isn’t my son. If he were half Famila his eyes wouldn’t have turned green yet.” She remembered Bach telling her that as a child he was made to stare into the sun for hours, to get his eyes to turn a healthy green.
Jerking his head back, as if her revelation took him by surprise, Alan sneered, “You have no idea.”
“You weren’t a social worker from Queens,” Wisteria realized.
“Social worker? No. My name is Raubacher, as in Raubacher, Zahl, and Conrad, or RZC. You’re only alive because I’ve allowed it.”
“This is your company?”
“RZC used to be my great-grandfather’s business. I’m just a lowly enforcer, but for all intents and purposes, I’m in charge. Why else do you think I insisted you stay here in my home? I needed to see you myself.”
“You are all monsters for whatever you did to me, and that’s why my mum took us away from you.”
“Your mother has almost as little a clue about what’s going on as you do—little girl.” Alan advanced toward her. “That’s why she did what she did. It was immature and stupid.”
“Yeah?” She backed up until she hit the counter. “Because using your child as a guinea pig is very mature. You’re not a father.” She glared over at Doc. “And I hope she keeps David far, far away from you—”
Alan slapped Wisteria across the face with such force she would’ve fallen to the floor if she wasn’t propped up against the cupboard.
“Alan, that’s enough!” Doc seized him. “I need her to tell me where my son is.”
“Tell me where Demi is.” Alan grabbed her by the neck.
“What, so you can turn him one of your lab rats too?” she choked.
“Don’t concern yourself with that. Doc would never do what he did to you to his own children.” Smirking, he let her go.
Balancing herself, she clenched her hands together as Alan’s words sank in. “What are you saying?”
“Your mother was pregnant when we met,” Doc revealed.
“Actually, it was when she came on her hands and knees, pleading for my protection,” Alan sneered.
“You’ll say anything to justify what you did.” She couldn’t imagine any circumstance in which her mother would ever do that. As far as Wisteria knew, her mother always had the life she wanted.
“No, your mother was actually a slut,” Alan retorted.
Without thinking, she struck him in the face with both of her fists. She hit him so hard he crashed to ground. Pouncing on him, she punched him repeatedly with her cuffed hands, until someone pulled her off. Fighting to break free, she saw she was being held by Doc.
“Wisteria, this isn’t helping,” Doc warned.
She kept on struggling, even though her hands were still in the plastic restraints.
“You will tell me where you really came from.” Alan rose, nursing a bruised lip. “And you’re going to tell me what happened to the guys I sent over there.”
“What, you mean Rupert and those Red Phoenix clowns?” Wisteria jeered. “One of them had a droopy eye?” Around the time she’d met Bach two years back, they’d had a near fatal run-in with a group of Red Phoenix agents. These agents had almost killed her mother and kidnapped Wisteria.
“What happened to him?” Alan demanded.
“He became infected after the rest of his crew left him behind and they crashed,” she said coldly. “I think one is still being held somewhere, far from here.”
“Hmm.” Doc nodded. “So, they found the others. That’s promising because it means we can find them again.”
She doubted that, because Smythe was protected by a piron net now.
“And in the meantime, we have Jason Webb and you. You two are a million times better alive than Edmond was to us dead,” Alan continued. “Or your mother.”
Doctor Edmond Hu, or Silas Cheung, as Wisteria knew him, was a teacher and scientist on the Isle of Smythe. Several Red Phoenix agents had come to Smythe years ago to kill him.
“So why didn’t they get David, since he was so important to you?” she muttered. “They had the chance.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Doc glared angrily at Alan. “It doesn’t matter, you’re here and once you’ve told us how to find David and your mother, everything will be all right.”
“Doc, I’m done playing with the girl.” Alan went to the fridge and took out some ice, placing it on his lip. “Wisteria, we’ve invested a lot of money and hours in you. I need to finish what I started.”
“Wait, you want me to go back to being an experiment?”
“Of course not,” Doc explained. “We won’t need to experiment on you anymore.”
“Yeah, we know exact
ly what we need from you.” Alan smirked. “And Doc’s promised me it’s going to be painless.”
“What does that even mean?” she wanted to know.
Alan strode past her to the basement door. “Doc, Wisteria is no longer my guest. Arrange for someone to take her to Zone Eleven.”
“Zone Eleven—are you sure?” Doc questioned. “I don’t think that’s necessary. There’s no way she can escape from the island.”
“If she wasn’t Demi’s daughter, I’d agree with you.” Opening the door, he nodded to her. “Get in and get some rest. You might find this to be a long night.”
Obediently, she nodded and walked into the basement room where she’d spent the previous night. She would need to bide her time and see if there was any way she could escape. She soon found that she was being followed by Christopher. “They let you back in?” she muttered.
He didn’t respond. Once he got her inside, he took out a knife and cut her bonds. “Are you okay?”
“The man I thought was my father stood by and let Alan choke me.” She rubbed her wrists which were bruised and sore.
“You did hit him.”
“After he tried to choke me.” Massaging her neck, she went into the room.
“I’ve never seen Alan do that.”
“I thought you said Doc was in charge?” She knew that wasn’t the truth now.
“I don’t know.” Christopher shrugged. “Listen, let him calm down and I’m sure everything’s going to be all right.”
“Why do you keep saying that? How do you think everything is going to be all right?” Wisteria demanded. “You’re as crazy as they are, or you are blinded in some way.”
“Trust us.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I promise, you’ll be fine.”
“Don’t touch me.” She jerked away from him. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll release me before my friends get involved.” And by friends she meant Bach, and possibly Radala.
“There won’t be much the Famila can do. Doc’s been poisoning the water and air in the Marble House since they arrived. They’ve got so much bean vine in them by now even a toddler could take them out.”
“No.” She realized this was why Bach and Radala had been sweating so much, and why he’d not been able to regenerate. “He never trusted them.”
