“That crush was really stupid.” I walked away from the gates of the Arena. We were the only ones not inside, the rest of the city seeming like a ghost town in the wake of the festival. I didn’t know where I was going, but we had the whole day. That’s how long they spent trying to kill Fable. Every summer it was the same. Temperance Day began around high noon and didn’t end until the fireworks at sunset.
Isaac stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked slowly beside me, taking care to match my pace. “I keep telling you that the boys on the East side are more fun than the Central brats you keep trying to fit in with.”
I laughed. It was nice to be out in the open air, not stuck inside the dismal Arena all day. I lifted my face to the cerulean sky and took a long deep breath. The whole city smelled like copper, oil and a hint of algae. They said it was because of the permafrost that had covered the city for thousands of years before Fable, her parents and the eight other families found it. She was the only one of them the Fountain of Youth turned immortal.
“Yeah Jonathan was a bad choice.”
“He was a straight choice.”
“It wasn’t just that. He really wants to be immortal,” I said.
“I think he has a crush on Fable,” Isaac said.
“That’s sickening. She’s . . .” I paused, doing the math in my head, knowing that I would give an accurate answer to anyone else I knew.
“Thousands of years older than him.” He chortled under his breath. We reached a fork in the road and Isaac took the path on the right. It curled downwards and to the left, leading into the deeper parts of the city. We passed through a shadow, the other path forming a bridge above our heads. Isaac was heading further west and south, towards the uncharted parts of the underground.
“Where are we going?” I asked, the path still relatively smooth and easy to walk on.
Isaac looked back at me and grinned. “I half thought about introducing you to David and the other guys on the team, but I thought you might say no and go straight back to that Arena.”
He was joking, but there was truth in it. I had never gone to the East side with him. I knew he played street hockey with a few of the boys down there, but I wasn’t interested in getting to know the East side boys. Some people called the East side a bohemian village. I couldn’t be associated with riff raff. Plus, Isaac told me his mom would make me paint something instead of talk to her. I didn’t understand exactly how that worked but apparently they had paint inside each of the little clay stone houses and instead of actually greeting people, they were supposed to paint their greeting on the wall. The idea of being creative terrified me, and so I never went.
“I’m not obsessed with the Arena.”
We were heading into uncharted territory, the ground becoming uneven and rocky. I side stepped a stone sticking up out of the path as Isaac gracefully strode forward. I couldn’t help but look at the way his hips moved when he walked, not quite strutting, but he had swagger.
I couldn’t help but think about Thomas Gim, the boy I had kissed. Thomas was another descendant of the founding families. We used to go to school together. When we weren’t busy with the rigorous schedule, we were playing Othello. Three years ago we were sitting in his room moving the pieces around board and it just happened. I had known before then that I preferred hanging out with boys more than girls and I never tried to hide it. Thomas on the other hand decided to date the first girl he laid eyes on, Serena Carter, a commoner from the North Side.
I later told Isaac that Jonathan Cray was one of the most beautiful boys I had ever known. He was tall, muscular, sandy blond hair, piercing green eyes. He was way out of my league with me being shy, short, and scrawny. I had muscles, but they weren’t the same thick cords of arm that Jonathan had. Isaac was somewhere in the middle between my build and Jonathan’s. His lazy East side accent made him stand out among my friends, most of whom were the scholarly type. We still learned old English, the language spoken during Fable’s time.
Isaac didn’t answer. He ducked under a low hanging archway and I followed, reaching into my belt and clicking on my flashlight. The stony streets were piled above us now, and what we were treading over was speckled with shale and boulders. It smelled musty down there, the usual faintness of algae attacking my senses. I ducked under the archway after Isaac and stood, noticing how there were walls springing up on either side of us. There were still plenty of breaks in the stone, but sometimes we were entirely encased in walkways only a few feet wide and sometimes less than four feet high. Nobody in Temperance lived this deep, for one it was rat infested and for two, there were skeletal remains that hadn’t been removed, not to mention rocks and other debris. We had archaeologists on the South side that were slowly excavating the underground city, but after thirteen hundred years, we had only succeeded in revealing thirty seven percent of what awaited us.
Isaac looked back at me and I realized he hadn’t turned on his flashlight. I shined the light on his face and he shielded his eyes. “I can’t believe you actually turned that thing on.”
“It’s dark,” I said.
“Turn it off.”
I obeyed automatically and waited for my eyes to adjust. Around us was whitish rock that shimmered in the pale fading light of the sun. Rays of sunlight caromed off the stone, casting us in a grayish glow. It wasn’t nearly as dark as the shadows had suggested. I flipped the flashlight around in my hand, giving Isaac a puzzled look.
“Isn’t it cool?” he said. He looked very boyish in that moment. I sometimes wondered how we were only a year apart, Isaac being eighteen and me seventeen.
I glanced at the mishmash of rocks, the cobble stone sidewalks that continued downwards, and the naturally formed pillars. I shrugged. “It’s unfinished.”
Isaac laughed and for a split second I worried about a rock slide. Down here his laugh echoed off the rocks making it sound deeper and richer. “I thought this might be more interesting than another massacre.”
True, I had almost forgotten all about Fable and the kitchen knives they were likely stabbing her with right now. I felt uneasy knowing I’d have to return to Rab and my strict lifestyle in a few hours. “It feels like we’re trespassing on a compost heap.”
Isaac laughed again. “That’s because we haven’t got to the good stuff yet.”
I raised an eyebrow. “There’s good stuff?”
Isaac didn’t answer me as he continued down the straight slab of sidewalk that angled towards another small circular platform with multiple roads leading off it. Two of the roads were completely blocked by rocks. If I could turn myself into liquid I might fit through the tiny spaces left. One of the other paths was unkempt with wires dangling from the ceiling. It looked like it used to have something attached to the wall, but it had been ripped out hundreds of years ago. The first people of Temperance kept records in code and only a few people knew how to read those codes nowadays. Whatever they were wiring into the wall was long gone now.
One of the paths led into a cavern with higher ceilings and a pattern of stones that scattered across the floor. I wanted explore there but Isaac ducked into the wiry path with the narrow walls and I followed, not wanting to get lost. He squished his body through the exiguous tunnel and I used my hands to steady myself. I only had to bend a few times to avoid more of the wires. I banged my knee against a metal box left haphazardly on the ground and let out a wail. The tunnel continued until Isaac and I were on a ledge. The city was miles above us and we were standing in a small cavern. I noticed stalagmites along the walls in the blurry gray darkness. I pulled out my flashlight to get a better look. It was a completely undeveloped part of Temperance. I peered over the cliff and realized it was only a couple of feet down to the next platform. Below that were more stalagmites and above us were giant stalactites, reaching towards us with their icy fingers.
“I guess we stop here?”
Isaac crossed his arms and grinned. For a second I thought he was going to jump and then he jerked his head t
owards it like he wanted me to jump. “You can go first.” A smirk appeared on his face.
I frowned. Isaac knew I wasn’t that athletic and that spelunking around in caves wasn’t what I did with my friends. I clicked the flashlight off and looped it into my belt. It wasn’t like I was trying to prove something but I sat down on the dusty rock and swung my legs over first. I inched to the edge and felt for the next platform with the toes of my boots.
“I bet you’d rather be doing this with David.” It was more like four feet down. I half slid, half jumped off the first ledge and landed on my feet. I turned around and looked up; realizing that without a boost there was no way I was getting back up there.
“Okay your turn,” I said looking up at Isaac. I couldn’t see his face so I pulled out my flashlight and clicked it on, accidentally shining it in his eyes. He recoiled, but didn’t immediately move towards the ledge. For a moment I had this horrible thought that he only brought me here to leave me and that we weren’t friends at all. I had trouble telling who really liked me and who only paid attention to me because of my name.
“Move over, I don’t want to jump on you,” he said. I cast the flashlight around to find out where I could move to then went left. He jumped off the ledge and landed with a loud thud. The shale rocks covering the path jiggled, resettling. I looked up to make sure none of the stalactites were going to fall and impale us. Shining my light at the calcium deposits I sheepishly realized they had rounded tips, and none of them were remotely dangerous. I glanced back at Isaac who was again giving me that look like I was crazy and paranoid all at the same time.
“What?”
“Nothing just, I wouldn’t take David here.”
I shone the light at the ground, away from Isaac and his brown eyes. “Why not? It’s great if you want to be alone with someone.”
Isaac moved towards the part of the cavern I was avoiding because it looked scary. For the first time since I had met him he looked nervous, like he had a rebuttal to my snarky comment and was holding it in. That wasn’t like him. He stood in front of the slab of rock that hung over another three foot high tunnel and put his hands on it. He would have to crawl and I would have to crouch to get through that. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that so instead I shined the light on his back and waited for him to turn around.
“There’s a better place for that further down,” he said. He took his hands off the stone and pulled at the fabric against his thighs, readjusting it. I crouched down and shone the light into the tunnel. It wasn’t long. The light bent around the edges and curiosity got the best of me.
“Are you going in first?” I asked.
Isaac looked back at me and nodded. He lowered himself onto all fours and then laid flat against the ground, face first. The way he moved made me wish we were more than friends. He slithered back and forth like a snake. I followed like a frog, my fingers gripping the rock, my head ducked, my legs bent at awkward angles. Isaac pushed himself to his feet the moment he was free of the tunnel and I followed, wanting to know what was on the other side of it.
I was speechless.
We were in an atrium, the only exit a darkened tunnel on the other side of a bed of rubies. They glittered along the walls as my flashlight darted across the chamber. The ground was uneven, obsidian rocks jutting out at odd angles. I stayed near the walls, examining the pretty colored rocks. I turned and Isaac was facing the wall on the other side of the tunnel we had come through. He was looking nervous again. I laughed in an attempt to ease the tension between us.
“You’re right. This is a better make out spot.”
Isaac looked at me dead on and something in his expression changed. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Something about the way he said it made me think that he meant me, and he meant now. I shuffled foot-to-foot and twirled the flashlight around in my hands. Light fractured off every surface forcing Isaac’s face into the shadows.
“You should bring David here sometime,” I said swallowing a big lump in my throat.
Isaac sighed. “I’m not with David anymore.”
I knew that but I was trying to change the subject. I didn’t know what to say so I continued twirling the flashlight around and one of the rubies glinted throwing a glare as bright as the sun into Isaac’s eyes. He held his hands up to his face and let out a loud guffaw. “Will you turn that thing off?”
“Sorry.” I clicked it off and put it back in my belt. I waited until my eyes adjusted. I could make out Isaac’s shape, the height, the outline of his chest, the line of his hips. It was like we were locked in a stalemate.
He sighed again. “I think you’re afraid.”
“Of the dark?” I asked slowly, arching an eyebrow. I knew he wasn’t talking about the dark but I didn’t want to talk about my relationship status.
Isaac stopped staring at me like he wanted to do something and turned a fraction of an inch away. “Cray is such a jerk. And he’s a safe choice, you can like him all you want and you don’t have to worry about getting hurt because you know he’s never going to feel the same way about you.”
I went for the flashlight again, like it was comfort food and then stopped. “I told you that crush was stupid. What about you? You date all these guys on the East side and none of them last. You seem to like getting your heart trampled on.”
Isaac chuckled but it wasn’t funny. “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
I rolled my eyes, now he was quoting Tennyson. That was such an East side thing to do. I crossed my arms. “Fine, I don’t like Cray okay? He’s just some psycho that wants to bag my thirteen hundred year old aunt.”
Isaac turned and took a step towards me. “I didn’t bring you here to talk about Cray.”
I threw my hands up in the air. I was actually feeling angrier than I should have been. My heart thumped wildly in my chest, my body vibrated with agitation. My hands trembled but I kept them planted firmly at my sides, absentmindedly rubbing my fingers against the black fabric of my one piece.
“Then why are we here?” I sounded terse, like I wanted to punch the wall only it was covered in rubies and I’d come away with a bloody and broken hand. Somewhere between me being really angry and thinking about punching things, Isaac had kissed me. His hands were on my face, his body was against mine, and his tongue was parting my lips making me suck in air through my nose while he explored my mouth. Tingles spread from my chest and down my legs. I gripped his waist at his hips and forced us together. His hands slid down my shoulders and looped around my back, holding me to him. I could feel the fast-beating pulse of his heart against mine.
And then I needed air. My hands went slack on his hips, my lips stopped kissing him back. I slumped away towards the rubies and felt the sharp things poking into my back. I tilted my head up in an attempt to kiss him again but all I felt was something hard hitting my temple. “Ow.” I rubbed the place where I had hit my head.
“Are you okay?”
I remembered in that moment that Isaac was my friend and that he had kissed me, really kissed me. It was like nothing I had expected and everything I had ever wanted in a kiss all at the same time. There was nothing hesitant or awkward about it. My mouth hung open, dumbfounded as I moved my lips trying to figure out how to talk again. “My head is spinning a little.”
“Yeah mine too,” Isaac said. He sounded out of breath.
My stomach did flip-flops as I reached out and touched the stone that I had collided with. I pushed myself carefully away from the wall and looked back at it. I almost wanted to yell at it for ruining such a great moment. “No I mean I hit my head and I feel a bit woozy.”
“Are you okay?” His tone was different than it had been before all the kissing began. He sounded genuinely concerned, like he would carry me all the way home if I were really hurt. I rubbed the sore spot on my head and smiled. He really liked me, and I really liked him.
“I think I’ll be fine.”
Isaac clicked on his flashli
ght for the first time since we had gotten down here and shone it away from me but just enough that he could see my face. I closed one eye and squinted at him, not liking the idea of light when it could be dark and I could be touching him. “I think the appeal of this place is wearing off. As it turns out, it’s really not that great if you want to be alone with someone.”
I laughed as he crouched on the floor, preparing to sashay through the short tunnel. I followed his lead as we made our way back through it. We stopped a few times on the way back, unable to let the heat of what we had just discovered die out before we hit the surface. Our second kiss made me feel safe. I could count on Isaac to help me smooth out the relationship with my father. When I took my place in the Senate, I could count on Issac being there, supporting me as I spoke out against the idea of finding the formula for immortality. I’d further my father’s ideas of Nuclear Expeditions and see what we could discover outside the walls of Temperance.
We neared the smooth sidewalks and my communicator beeped. I pulled it out and looked at the time. Sunset settled over the horizon, the thirteen-hundred-and-eighth annual Temperance Day coming to a close. I put my communicator back in my belt and slid my hand into his.
“I need to get back to the Arena,” I said.
“Will you come to the East side later?”
I smiled. “Yeah, I’ll paint something nice on your wall.”
We neared the gates to the Arena and Isaac pulled his hand out of mine. “You’re not afraid?”
“I’m not really afraid of anything anymore.”
Isaac shook his head as he moved away from me. I watched him as he rounded the Arena, fading from sight. Thundering applause erupted as fireworks zinged into the air. Fable had lived again but that didn’t matter to me. My world no longer revolved around the immortal girl and the founding families and the stigma of Temperance. My world had become so much more, it belonged to me now. I couldn’t wait to find out what it would be like.
City of Cruelty and Copper (Temperance Era) Page 4
