Millennial Prince (Jaxon Prayer Trilogy Book 2)

by Rachel West

  “That’s all?”

  “Well, it’s not very….Pleasant” Jaxon replies with a grimace.

  Jellyfish? I try to wrap my mind around the concept. All this time I thought - -everyone thought -- there was some powerful super-secret technology that kept the Millennials alive. But in reality it’s…Jellyfish?

  “Where are they found?” Vertigo leans forward. His tongue darts out to moisten dry lips and his eyes dance with excitement, unable to contain himself. How long has he been searching for the answer to this very question? Is the Hollows not enough for him? Does he think he can somehow become a Millennial?

  “I’m not privy to that information.” I know it for a lie the minute Jaxon speaks but I’m not sure Vertigo does. The pleasant façade that Vertigo wears crumples for just a moment and longing is raw in his features. He covers it again quickly, but it’s too late. I know the secret in his heart. The thing he wants most in this world. Immortality. I file the information away, knowing someday it will come in handy.

  “That is not enough,” says Vertigo.

  “We had a deal. I have answered your question now hold up your end.”

  Vertigo smiles – a look so untrustworthy it makes my skin itch. I can practically see the gears turning as he searches for an out. This won’t be the end of things with him. I guarantee it. He pulls out a sheet of paper from his desk drawer and slides it across the wood. With his pen he marks a space on the outer corner. “I will give you three rooms. There isn’t space for more than that. Here,” he points to the marked spot. “Ask Ki to guide you.” Jaxon snatches up the paper map from the desk and the three of us turn to leave.

  Vertigo clears his throat just as we are heading out the door. The others don’t notice, but I turn back to look at him once more. He’s dropped the façade. Gone is the slippery smile and false geniality. Dead eyes stare back at me. Vertigo nods slowly. Acknowledgement that I see him for what he is. But also something more…an implication of something, but I don’t know what and I am left wondering if perhaps we would have been safer on the streets.

  CHAPTER 5

  As the door falls quietly shut behind us I look around, searching for Annie. A sick feeling eats at my gut when she’s not where I expect to find her right outside the door. I push past Jaxon and Red. “Annie!” I shout.

  It’s not until I see her sitting calmly on the floor of the next room that my heartbeat slows. Her head is bowed over a deck of cards as she plays some slapping game with Ki. She laughs as she misses the younger boy’s hands and they start over.

  “Annie,” I say curtly. “Let’s go.”

  Her lip curls down but she makes no argument. While she scrambles to her feet I ask Ki “Can you show us the way to our rooms?” Jaxon hands me the map and I point out the small mark in the corner. “These three.”

  “So the boss-man is letting you stay, huh? Can’t believe it. I thought for sure he was gonna sick Jawl and Yawl on you.” Ki narrows his eyes and places his hands on his hips. His curly hair bounces as he says “You don’t look like a trustworthy bunch.” Jaxon, who has once again hidden his face with his hood, suffers the most scrutiny. Ki tries to peer into the shadows, tilting his head first one way, then the other as he tries to get a glimpse of Jaxon’s face.

  “Just show us the way,” I say, exasperated. My muscles ache like I have been running all my life and the stress of it is catching up with me. There is a quiver under my eye, a spasm that speaks to how exhausted I am and all I can think of is curling under a blanket and sleeping for a year.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Ki says. “Follow me. It’s not too far from here. I’m surprised you got such a prime location. Some of the best rooms in all the Hollows. And three? Oh man you’re lucky. Most people are stuffed three or four to a room.” Ki shakes his head like he can’t believe our windfall.

  Now that I know we are safe -- at least for a little while -- I have a better opportunity to take in the changes of the Hollows. When I lived here the people of the Hollows were worn down – you could see it in shadowed eyes and hunched shoulders. It was a place where those with no hope and no future would come to live out their days in anonymity. You did whatever you had to for a secluded corner and enough food to last you through the night.

  It was safety that was never safe. In the Hollows there were no Praetors, no Millennials, no threats from the outside world. It was a closed community. One where you made sure to keep your eyes on the ground unless you were offering yourself. One where only the strongest and most vicious had any kind of security.

  My stomach turns as memories of the tiny, carved out hole I lived in return to me. I was nothing more than an animal. My bed made from scavenged scraps. Food was whatever I could steal from my neighbors. I barely left that little hole the first few months. I was too frightened to move. Too frightened to do anything. It was dark and terrifying and I thanked my mother’s ghost for watching over me each time I survived until morning.

  Then one night, I was crying myself to sleep, mourning for everything I lost, when Red walked by. He heard my tears and stuck his head through the entrance to my little tunnel. I shrank back, terrified, knowing the things he could do that I couldn’t stop. Instead he handed me a small slice of bread and left without a word.

  For days he came by each evening to bring more food, slowly drawing me out like he was taming some wild beast. Eventually I did come out and he taught me how to be a survivor, not a victim. He taught me how to steal. Where to hit a man so it hurt. He showed me secret tunnels woven throughout the Hollows where I could run to. He showed me there were ways other than the madness that grew from loneliness.

  Now, when I look around I can’t imagine this is the same place. Every area is well-lit. We pass by fearless children laughing in small groups. People talking in corners, looking well washed and un-aged by years of stress. They’re all thin, lean, but not the scrawny, bony look of someone starving. Their eyes are the same though, sharp and dark like a knife. In the outside world they are a threat. Thieves, pimps, cutthroats. But here, in this new Hollows, they are neighbors. Friends.

  I look to Red who looks as shocked as I. “What is this?” I whisper.

  “I don’t know,” Red’s brows draw down in consternation. “I don’t care much for this Vertigo - but if he did all this? I can’t believe it. It’s a different world.”

  We pass through a market. A giant, cave-like room that has lights hanging from the ceiling, leaving the room bright as a summer day. Stalls line the pathways. Women hawk food and jewelry. Men cook fresh meat over open fires. Dozens are gathered in a fenced off corner spotted with picnic tables all under a sign that just says “Tavern.” I glance up, someone has even cleaned off the painted mural that covers the ceiling; a depiction of a battle between angels and dark creatures crawling up from the ground.

  Ki points out different people and stalls. I try to listen, but I am too shocked by my surroundings. No one truly knows where the Hollows came from. Parts of it are clearly man-made, dug into the ground by some long dead architect. I’ve always wondered if the Great Uniter knew what he built his city on. I imagine what could have been here before; another city, another life -- a place where people are happy and free and paint giant murals in underground tunnels.

  “The baths are over there,” Ki points down a large tunnel. “They’re free to use but if you want a towel it costs a yellow chip.”

  “Baths,” I mouth to Red. A smile fills his face, his teeth and eyes bright in the yellow light.

  Past the market Ki leads us to a secluded corner. Off the main hallway little pods of rooms, grouped three and four together, branch off, the set-up similar to what I imagine you’d find kicking over an anthill. Ki stops in what was once clearly a single, large room, but it has been broken into three separate ones – two on one side and a third opposite them with a small patch between them that can barely be called a hallway. “We’re here!” Ki throws his hands out wildly in offering. “Told ya it was a prime spot,” he says with a delight
ed smile on his face.

  “Thank you.” Jaxon gives a half-bow which Ki laughs about as he runs off, leaving us alone after one last curious look.

  The rooms are nowhere near as nice as my apartment was but compared to what I expected they feel like a mansion. All three are actual rooms, with walls made by someone pinning up heavy aluminum sheets. There’s only one bed in each room, but they’re large enough for two if you’re willing to press close together.

  Red immediately claims the one closest to where we entered our small haven, dropping his two bags onto the bed. Everyone is smiling and happy. For a moment at least, we have a reprieve. We can pretend to be normal teenagers. We can forget we are wanted fugitives. That we’re living in underground tunnels surrounded by criminals who would sell our lives for a single chip. It’s relaxed and simple and even Red and Jaxon stop their hateful glares for a few minutes.

  Without any exchange of words we agree that Jaxon will take the second room; the largest of the three that stands alone with no shared walls. Annie and I make our way into the third that shares a wall with Red. There’s no windows, not this deep underground but adhesive light strips run at waist height then again at shoulder height giving the room a comforting glow.

  I drop my bags onto the bed. “Well,” I say, “I guess this will be home for a bit. Just until we get back on our feet.”

  Annie stands in the doorway and stares impassively at the tiny room. In her hand she fiddles with a thread from her shirt, balling it up and unraveling it over and over.

  “Annie? Is everything okay?”

  “I had friends there,” she whispers so quietly I barely hear her.

  “What?”

  “I had friends. At the orchard. That you left there. Why didn’t you rescue them too? Why would you leave them there? You could have saved all of us. Why did you only come for me?”

  “Annie.” I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t know the right words to stop the tremble in her lip. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t -- It would have been impossible.”

  “The Praetors will punish them. That’s what they do. When one of us did something wrong we were all punished. They’re going to kill all of them.” Her voice is heavy with anger and tears.

  “No.” I reach my arms out for my sister but she flinches from my embrace like a startled animal. “They won’t do that. They can’t. The Praetors need people to work on the farms. It’s not --“

  “You don’t understand! You have no idea what they are like. They’re animals. Monsters. They have no understanding of reason. You do what they want and you don’t fight it. If you’re lucky and you don’t get in their way then they won’t hurt you. By taking me away you’ve killed all of the others, you’ve killed all my friends. They’ll never…They’ll never….”

  I stare aghast at my sister as her words die off. Her hands are clenched so tightly at her side that all the blood has rushed away.

  Something inside of me cracks; a piece of my heart that I have spent the last five years protecting and harboring the memory of my sister within. I’d dreamt of the day I would have Annie back with me. Every night I fell asleep, hating myself for letting her go. But now that she’s here it’s like… it’s poisoned. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to save her and we’d be happy and together and whole. We’d be a family again.

  “I’m sorry,” I say because I don’t have the words to make it right. “I didn’t realize…” I bite my tongue. She doesn’t need excuses or reasoning.

  Tears pour freely from Annie’s eyes. She trembles, from anger or sorrow I don’t know, but shivers run through her entire body like she’s being consumed from within.

  I take a small step forward. She’s within arms reach but I hesitate. I don’t know how to comfort her. I don’t know how to make it better. But seeing her standing there, looking like the world has just ended in front of her, I need to do something. I need to make it right.

  “I’m so sorry,” I repeat again, feeling useless.

  Annie lifts her eyes slowly to meet mine. Her mouth opens like she’s going to say something but all that comes out is a broken sob. This time when I reach out to her she doesn’t pull away. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and pull her against me. She’s so tiny. So frail.

  She presses her face against me until the sound of her sobs is muffled by my shirt. I lead her slowly towards the bed with my arms still holding her. Her fingers claw at my back, like she’s looking for a way to cling to sanity.

  I whisper words that mean nothing. I promise her it will be okay. That it will get better. I know all of it is nothing more than lies, but it’s all that I can offer. Eventually her cries die down. She releases her desperate grip on me and drops down to the bed with her back turned. I run my hand soothingly up and down her back, knowing it’s not enough, but grateful that she doesn’t pull away.

  Maybe there is hope for us to be a family again. Maybe she just needs a little time. Maybe one day she won’t blame me.

  Maybe someday I won’t blame myself.

  I listen to her breathing as it slows and steadies. She snores lightly, a soft whistling like the distant cry of a bird. Having her here, with me, tucked against me like when she was little, it should be perfect. I should feel whole and complete. I did the impossible. I saved her from the grips of the Praetors. But all I see is the accusation in her eyes.

  I long to leave her alone in this room and go find Jaxon. I want to tell him how it’s all wrong and I want him to tell me it will all be okay. When I settle in for sleep images of him dance on my lids. His slow, lazy smile in the morning. The delicate strength in his wrists and the smoldering fire in his eyes.

  For months, wherever I have been, so has he. I didn’t realize how familiar his presence had become, how much I’d grown to depend on it. My heart aches as I strain to listen for any sound of him in the next room over.

  How is it possible that my heart longs for Jaxon, when for the first time in five years I finally have my sister at my side?

  CHAPTER 6

  “We have to go back,” Jaxon insists with eyes full of intensity.

  “We can’t. It’s not safe,” I argue even though part of me agrees with him. For two days Jaxon has been trying to convince me that we need to go back to my apartment. But for two days we’ve been safe. We’ve had the chance to rest. To bathe and eat filling meals. The past few weeks have been -- They’ve been terrifying. The work-prison. Rescuing my sister. Ever since Jaxon arrived the pace of things…It’s been relentless. The chance to just catch my breath has done more for me than anything else could have. I know the moment we step outside the doors of our rooms it will all come rushing back.

  “I will be going,” he says, “with our without you. I need to try and contact Darren. If he’s--” Jaxon draws his lips tight then changes the direction of the conversation. “I need my tablet to contact him.”

  I shake my head looking for an argument to convince myself as much as him. But how can I tell him no after all he did to help me rescue Annie. Am I so selfish that I wouldn’t do the same for him?

  I stand up, wincing slightly at the pain in my ribs. “Fine,” I say and I can’t help but smile back at the grin that overtakes his face. “But only if Red will keep an eye on Annie. I won’t leave her alone down here.”

  “Of course,” Jaxon flutters his hand, magnanimous now that he’s gotten his way.

  I leap up from the floor, the thought of getting out of the Hollows, even if just for a few hours, electrifies my nerves. Despite how much this place has changed, bright lights and smoothed doorways can only do so much. They can’t erase my memories of the past. The truth of what lies just beneath the surface of the community; the predatory nature of this place. Shuddering, I push the thought from my mind.

  I knock on Red’s door once before pushing it open. He’s sprawled out across his bed twisting a small knife mindlessly between his hands.

  “Hey,” I settle onto the bed next to him. “Can you keep an eye on
Annie for a bit?”

  Red rolls onto his side and arches his body around mine, his head resting near my knee. “No problem. Going to the market?” He asks.

  “Uhm,” I nervously scratch at the back of my head “Well…” I trail off.

  “Evie,” Red says warningly.

  “Jaxon and I are going back to my apartment,” I blurt out. Half-hoping that if I say it fast enough he won’t have time to argue.

  “Hmph” Red snorts as he leans back on his pillow and curls his hands beneath his head. “Of course you are.”

  I blink at him, surprised at the calmness in his voice. I expected an argument, a fight, something. “We’ll be fine. It’s just a quick trip. We need some things from my apartment. The Praetors didn’t notice last time and they were right outside the door.”

  “Mmhm,” Red nods like he’s only half listening. I poke him in the stomach to get his attention.

  “I’m not asking your permission. We’re going. I’m just here to ask if you can keep an eye on Annie for a few hours.”

  “I wasn’t trying to stop you. I know how bullheaded you are when you decide to be stupid. Just be careful. And don’t let Jaxon get you into any more trouble. We’re deep enough in as it is.”

  “Promise!” I jump up to find my sister. I pause outside the doorway to our room, twisting my fingers nervously together. For two days, while Jaxon and Red and I have searched for peace, she’s sulked in the room refusing to speak with anyone and barely eating. Every glance from her is full of resentment. So like a coward, I’ve camped out in Jaxon’s room.

  I’ve almost convinced myself all she needs is time.

  When I ask her to go hang out with Red she doesn’t question me. She grabs a book from a small stack in the corner and stomps past me without a word. I swallow my surprise and trail behind her. I’m tempted to ask if she’s sure, to prod at this easy acceptance or elicit any kind of response from her. Red greets her with a wave. She mutters something I can’t hear and drops to the floor, settling with the book in her lap and blocking out anything I might say.