by K. T. Hanna
My brain was trying to rewind, begging to ask questions best left alone, at least for now. I swung myself out of bed and made haste to the bathroom. Nothing wrong with being early to training. I’d done it so often recently. It was sort of my thing. I had lesson plans for my after school groups to drop by Coach Marth’s office and two lectures to get to.
Still eventually I’d have to confront it and ask it why it hadn’t told me Orion was in the program. There were weeks we could have avoided fighting, where I would have had actual guidance. It was lucky I had so many things to do in order to maintain my previous life. Anger bubbled softly inside me, no matter how much I tried to clamp it down. I could just feel the electricity guzzling it greedily.
Orion was in the bathroom, his brow furrowed with a frown. He gazed into the mirror as he examined his stitches. I’d not seen them before now. Sure, I knew they were there, but stitches had this sort of barbed wire sticking out of your body look that set my teeth on edge. His were no exception.
“You’re up early, Dare.”
I nodded. There was no denying it. I’d been getting up earlier to avoid him before our little mission jaunt, and now I was up earlier again. Still.
Whatever.
“Been getting to practice early lately. State’s coming up shortly.” I grabbed my toothbrush, fully aware of Orion standing in his boxers with a frown on his face as he continued his inspection.
“You’ll do well. Don’t cheat.” He grinned at me, squeezed my shoulders, and moved out of the room.
Don’t cheat? Considering he’d been my test subject, he had an inkling now of what I could do with my power. I wonder what he could do to the human body with water. We were made up of what, eighty percent of the element, after all. With his upcoming medical knowledge, he’d probably be formidable. That was my Orion.
Getting my shit together, grabbing my clothes, making food. It all felt mechanical. Like something I’d done every day of my life until now. And it was. Yet there was this whole huge world out there I’d had no knowledge of before a few weeks ago. My best friend was part of it. I was a part of it.
How many more of my friends were actually walking zombies? Wasn’t that what we were? Except we weren’t decomposing yet. At least, I didn’t think we were.
Thoughts ran rampant through my head. I barely heard anything Coach said to me. I needed to focus. This coming weekend was State Championships. I had to do well. This was all part of my shot at the Olympics.
Did a dead person deserve to take that chance from someone else? What if death had inadvertently given me an advantage? There was no denying it could have, if I let it. Did replenishing my energy levels count as cheating? Not a speed boost, but just energy so I didn’t feel tired.
SC was damned picky about when it chose to butt in and answer the questions in my mind. By the time the end of the day rolled around, all my thoughts were a mass of confusion. Today, SC was obviously not feeling chatty.
I walked out of the school buildings to make my way home, running some of my thoughts around in my mind. What sort of events had to happen that I would be standing directly under the line that fell when it fell? I didn’t usually go to extra training. Not on a Sunday around noon anyway.
Was my being there happenstance? Could it have been anyone, but regardless, someone had been destined to die that day? If they were lacking electrical users, it stood to reason that they’d want more. Why not just create the circumstances that birthed us, then?
Considering the footage of the incident, the out of body experience it gave me. Its vantage point was suspicious. How could someone have been there and witnessed the accident, timing the recording perfectly? I needed to see if there were actual street cameras anywhere around town that were located in exactly the right spot to give that angle. I’d feel much better if there was, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
My thoughts began to speed up. What if the SC program made things happen? The whole system seemed wildly unrealistic, so why the hell not think it could control external factors like that?
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I failed to notice any commotion or anyone around me, until I felt a sharp rap on my head and saw stars spinning in front of my eyes.
Believe it or not, I’ve seen a shrink before. Frankly, I think they’re fantastic. Talking to a complete stranger about the shit on your mind has this freeing effect.
I woke up on a couch. One of those chaise lounge sort of things made out of dark brown leather. There were creases through it, as if it had been loved for many years. Perhaps in the family for decades, if not centuries. It smelled of leather conditioner and devotion for maintaining such a gorgeous piece of furniture.
To the left, stretching out to each side of the room and up above me to the ceiling, was a wall of books. Or, more accurately, a massive bookcase. At the far end there was one of those ladders with the wheels if I wasn’t mistaken. Though since I’d not yet sat up, I couldn’t tell for certain.
I could spend hours in this room. Except I didn’t have time. I had to get home. There were questions I had. Like, where the fuck was I?
“Ah, yes. The questions.”
The voice didn’t come from my head. In fact, it definitely came from the same room I was in, although on a different side. I forced myself to sit up, and my head spun as I tried to bring the room into focus.
“Sorry about that. It appears Diva hit you harder than she intended.”
There was a wry undertone to the words, but I still hadn’t found the source. Scanning each inch of the room, my eyes finally came to rest on a young lady. She sat cross-legged on top of the large mahogany desk in the room. This wood wasn’t faded like the side table in our apartment. No, it remained its rich and majestic self. One day, I’d have furniture that shone like that.
She watched me. Her dark blonde hair hung almost to her waist. From this distance, I couldn’t see her eye color, and I wasn’t about to guess. She sucked on a lollipop, and her gaze never left me.
I couldn’t see anyone else in the room. So she must have been the speaker.
“It’s good to see you awake.” She spoke again. Her voice was much more commanding than her appearance would have me believe. “You were out for a good few hours. Don’t worry. Orion will make up an excuse for you.”
It seemed they knew me well enough. They knew, at least, that I’d be worried that my friends might worry about me. It occurred to me that I often worried. Perhaps I’d try to change that.
“Thank you.” It seemed appropriate.
She jumped off the desk, tossing the lollipop into the trash without a second glance at the container. It landed perfectly. Moving around me, she ummed and ahhed for a few seconds. Then she planted herself directly in front of me and grinned.
“Welcome to the Ark. You have been entered into the Second Chance program. I am your cruise director. Please direct all questions you have to me.” Her grin grew larger when she called herself the cruise director.
It felt like I was missing an inside joke, in this very Wonderland-esque environment. Even so, her mood was infectious. It was difficult to maintain politeness at the best of times, but right now I desperately wanted to have amazing manners.
Instead, my mouth decided to cut communication with my brain and blurted out: “How old are you?”
I cringed, because that seriously wasn’t the way I wanted to start the conversation.
But she laughed. “My name is Nya.” And she deliberately winked in my direction.
“And to answer your question. I was seventeen when I died.” Her eyes held no sorrow, nothing to give away that she was sad about her circumstances or anything.
I had no idea what to say. Usually I had something on the back burner. But nope. Right now? I had nothing. The voice that was usually in my head remained quiet.
“Ah. Yes. Your companion cannot reach you in the Ark.”
A flicker of something dark passed across Nya’s face as she waved her hand around indicating the entire room. “We are guarded against interference in here.”
With a snap of her fingers, the bookcases on the far end moved backward and parted before sliding into a space in the wall on either side like pocket doors.
Behind that bookcase was the largest collection of screens I’d ever seen. Different scenes flickered on each one, flitting between individuals and landmarks, on a constant rotation. It was like they were watching the whole world, or at least Nya was from this strange library. I wondered what she saw, but more importantly, why was she the one watching?
“My. So many thoughts and no questions. Tell me, Dare, what is it you’re wondering about?”
“What the hell is that?” I pointed and she laughed again.
“It’s a part of the reason you can hear your own thoughts in here without them being interrupted by irritating voices.” She glanced back at the surveillance display, motioning for the bookcases to move back into place.
“But let’s get back to the shallow end before I drown you with too much.” Her voice was soothing, lulling, and easy to mistake for someone who wasn’t just lying to get under your skin. I switched up my train of thought without really meaning to.
“If you died when you were seventeen, why do you still appear to be that age? Do none of the Second Chance survivors age? Does that apply for everyone? Does that mean the doctor was what, thirty-eight when she died? How does this even work?” It was like I had no control over the abundance of questions that spilled forth.
Nya held up her hand, motioning for me to stop. So, I waited, even if I struggled to hold my tongue.
“You have all the questions. Questions that someone with your abilities must have.” She glanced around, as if checking to see if anyone else was listening. Despite having shown me her futuristic security system, I hung on the edge of my seat, waiting for her. But it seemed, I was the one being waited on.
“Wait, you mean my electrical abilities?” I scoffed the word, unsure how that was supposed to make anything make more sense.
“Those and your different methods of application. “ She glanced to the side, like she was seeing something I couldn’t, a light frown on her face as she did so. “You aren’t just following the tutorials you were given. You’ve actively improved your skill by applying computing logic. Quite brilliant, actually.”
I thought I understood. “So it’s not that the abilities are new, just that no one figured out how to apply them, or thought to apply them in that manner before?”
She nodded, but I could sense the hesitation. There was more she wanted to say. I wish I knew why she didn’t. “Sort of.”
I still couldn’t get over the fact that this young woman was...what was she? “Can I ask your rank?”
Nya smiled. “Rank B. Master. Technically anyway. Not that it really means all that much in the grander scheme of the system. I wanted to give you some advice. Your SC system had flagged your thought process. It’s best that you don’t let it know when you’re uncomfortable.”
I blinked rapidly trying to understand what she meant. Not only was she being delightedly vague, but was she implying that I could somehow distance myself from SC’s ability to hear everything I thought? “I’ve asked questions since I could talk. Hard to stop now.”
She grinned mischievously, but there was something else underlying her expression that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. “Which is fine. Just be aware of how many you ask, and of whom you ask them. If that allows you to still come up with things like the experiment you made on Friday night, then I’m all for it.”
It still felt like she was holding back from revealing more. Infuriating actually. I’d never seen her before, yet it felt like I should know her well. I couldn’t feel a presence in my mind at all, and it made me begin to wonder just why and how SC didn’t seem to be able to reach me. I needed something like this for myself.
Still no response, not even when I directly thought about it in my head. Interesting.
But Nya’s laugh peeled like silvery bells through the room. “It’s nothing nefarious. Just private. Be wary of how you direct your thoughts, where you direct them at. Some things are better kept to yourself.
“Why did you bring me here then? Couldn’t you have just told me on campus?” I was a bit irritated now since it was obvious she wasn’t going to give away more than she already had. My fingers were itching, and not with power, just with curiosity to see what was behind those bookcases up close. I should have been at home eating dinner and playing quizzes to get us ready for the upcoming exam block. But I wanted more than anything to follow my nose.
“I could have approached you on campus, but it’s far safer in this particular room. And to be honest, it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. Also, in here we can speak plainly. Here, you can talk freely, just as you should practice to in your mind.” She gestured around the grand library that had to be the size of a medium-sized house just in itself. “This is my sanctuary. It’s better to be here where people will take me seriously, than out there where many people still assume I’m a child.”
“So the people enrolled in the Second Chance program don’t age?” Since she hadn’t answered it the first time I asked, I pushed the point. It sort of made sense, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around it.
“Not like most people. But then life expectancy isn’t huge either. Not many people I moved up the ranks with are still around.” Nya was silent for a few moments. So much that I thought she wasn’t going to say anything else. Then her brow pinched, and a small scowl appeared on her lips.
“You almost botched the entire operation, and the only reason you’re not in punishment right now and being fined, is that you did a great thing and healed your teammates.” Her tone was stern, worse than my high school principal’s. “Even if you’re not sure how you did it. You got lucky. Something like that requires a level of finesse I think you guessed right at.”
I believed her. Down to my very core, I believed her. What could I have done to them if I hadn’t been so focused? What if I’d been nervous? I could have killed them both. I wasn’t only lucky to be alive myself—so were they.
“I won’t push it. I’ve been working on refining my control. I promise.” I meant every word.
But even that promise lay like lead in my stomach. She watched me intently, as if she were waiting to see if I had anything else I wanted to say. As if she were weighing the thoughts in my head for herself.
But then Nya smiled. “It’s okay. You did what was needed, listened to your instincts. An excellent idea for an eel. Just like you did when I sent you to Heavenly Dough. Keep your wits about you, and… just. Keep any complaints to yourself. As much as you can.”
I wanted to ask her what she meant, because those last couple of statements felt loaded, like there was so much more behind them. But before I could ask another question, I was gone. The jolt as I landed back in my room at the apartment was enough to make me stumble to my knees. It was difficult to steady myself, and I had to wonder if Nya had been telling the truth. Her words had been filled with second meanings. And of course, I’d managed to neglect asking her about the shadows or robots or whatever they were.
There was so much I didn’t know, but something about the way she spoke let me believe that there were ways to find out without cluing in my little system friend. I really hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking on my behalf.
It wasn’t until later I realized I hadn’t even asked her why it was so important that we talk where SC couldn’t overhear us.
Almost a whole week passed before I began to worry. Had I done something wrong that the system wasn’t providing me with any more tasks? Had the Ark interfered with our connection? I double checked my interface several times a day.
Which, inadvertently, allowed me to appreciate its simplistic beauty
. It reminded me of an advanced alternate reality system that required thought versus spoken word to activate it. If it was possible. Then again, I’d come back from the dead with apparent super powers. Who was I to say what was and wasn’t possible anymore?
They’d paid me for the job I botched, but my system had barely spoken to me since I went to visit Nya, and it hadn’t even sent me on any shitty retrieval missions either. It made me wonder if the Ark, as she’d called it, had interfered with my communication ability. I frowned, trying to muddle my way through that train of thought. My power didn’t even flare at the irritation. Another odd side-effect of my visit to the Ark.
“You need to learn to put on a poker face.” Cyan popped up next to me. She’d changed her hair color from bright blue to a royal blue. It made her eyes pop because they were three shades paler, and her soft powder blue skirt suit accented the whole appearance.
The Docs didn’t really round it out, but they, too, were blue. And her T-shirt had a smiling rainbow waving at those who looked. I’m not sure how she pulled it off, but she wore it perfectly. Glancing down at my dark sports pants and baggy school shirt I felt a bit underdressed, though I’d never cared much for clothing.
“I don’t play poker.” And despite myself I even tried to keep my face straight, but the grin still broke through. Damned friends. Always making me smile.
“There’s a very good reason for that, Dare.” Cyan patted my hand and flung an arm around my shoulders. “So tell me, why have you been so distracted this week?”
What did I say to that? “Just worried about Orion healing up ok. Work is stressful. State in a few days.” I shrugged, trying to lend my words some casual hesitancy.
“The usual, then.” She grinned and nudged my side. “We’re on for tomorrow night though, right? We’ve barely played at all lately.”
Tomorrow was Friday. But I couldn’t stay up too late. “I’ve got my last training session on Saturday, so I’ll hit the hay early. Don’t compete until Sunday though.”
