The Similars

by Rebecca Hanover

  Jane and Booker exchange a look.

  “What?” I press. “What’s going on?”

  Jane clutches the strap of her bag. “Emma, that’s part of the reason we’re leaving this morning. Levi—”

  “What about him?”

  “He signed the paperwork yesterday afternoon. We gifted him, in a custodial account, the shares of Ward, Inc. that would have been Oliver’s, including the super voting rights that would give him quite a bit of influence over the company. The only other shareholders who have that kind of power are us—Booker and me. We did this on faith, you understand. We did this because of everything you just said. Because the Similars, all of them, deserve a chance. And because he is my son.”

  “That’s a good first step, isn’t it?” I say tentatively.

  “We also did it because we are grieving. And we were fools. Early this morning, we received a call from our lawyer. As soon as the proverbial ink was dry, Levi’s guardian—as custodian of the account—sold Levi’s shares on his behalf,” Booker supplies.

  “He sold them? But…why?”

  “We don’t know why his guardian agreed to sell them, but we do know to whom.” Jane looks over at Booker. He nods. “Himself.”

  “What?” I respond. “I don’t understand.”

  “No, you wouldn’t, because it’s so hard to believe. But Levi’s guardian transferred the stock from Levi’s account to his own personal account, on Levi’s orders. Which means the man who raised Levi and the other Similars, Augustus Gravelle—whatever kind of person he may be—is now a key stakeholder in our family’s company.”

  The Tasks

  The day passes in a blur. All I can think about is how Levi handed his shares of Ward, Inc. to his guardian. There must be more to the story than that. Surely there is an explanation or justification for what he’s done. Before she left, Jane told me that they plan to fight this with a lawsuit. What Gravelle did was a gross violation of his custodial duty. I asked her not to blame Levi for what his guardian likely made him do. I don’t think Levi is a bad person, though I can’t say I agree with his actions. Still, it’s not enough to make me distrust him—or the Similars—like the students on campus signing up for DAAM do. Not since I’ve gotten to know them. Pippa misses Pru as much as I do. And Levi saved Pru’s life. All of that has to mean something. It must.

  At lunch, I look for Levi in the dining hall, but he isn’t there. Neither are the other Similars, except for Pippa. I’m relieved when she sits next to me. She makes it feel like a part of Pru is still here, and not in a coma, or worse. Plus, in the time I have gotten to know Pippa, I have begun to think of her as a good friend. I don’t tell Pippa what I’ve learned about Ward, Inc. For now, it feels like my secret. Mine and Levi’s.

  Madison sends alerts to our plums about a midnight session, and Pippa and I wonder if Tessa will be there. No one’s seen her since her father’s guilty conviction, but we doubt she’d miss a Ten meeting.

  That night, as I climb into bed at ten o’clock, fully clothed, with no intention of dozing off, I think about how much Jane and Booker are suffering. I keep running what they said through my mind, that the Similars’ guardian is now a key shareholder in their company.

  I ask Dash to run a search on Augustus Gravelle, and he finds article after article about Gravelle’s accomplishments in the business world, but none of them share a thing about his younger years. It’s like he didn’t exist before the age of thirty.

  Restless and feeling like I’ll lose my mind if I stay in my room any longer, I slip on my boots, leaving my key on my bed. Now that our keys can track our whereabouts, it’s risky to carry it while wandering the grounds at night. I don’t really want to invite the company of campus security. Though we’ve been warned not to ever take our keys off, and I have no way of knowing what will happen if I do, I take that chance and leave it behind, putting a piece of masking tape where the bolt would meet the doorjamb, so that the door to my room looks closed but doesn’t actually lock. It’s a silly trick, but it’s better than being tracked.

  I still have Oliver’s key around my neck. It can’t be traced, and I’d never dream of leaving it unattended. It’s my only remaining connection to Oliver in his last moments. Well, besides his note, which I can’t for the life of me decipher. As I walk out the front door of Cypress and into the biting night, I run Oliver’s note through my brain again. It will explain everything. Especially about him.

  I’m so caught up in my own thoughts, I walk all the way to Dark Lake. I’m almost to the edge of the woods when I see six figures illuminated in the moonlight. They stand in a row on the bank of the lake with their backs to me. They are so still—too still. In a way that’s almost inhuman. It’s them. The Similars.

  In one perfectly synchronized motion, they dive into the lake, their sleek bodies slicing though the onyx water. The water around them ripples, and their bodies disappear under the surface. The lake stills again.

  I gasp, amazed and impressed by their orchestrated motion, the way in which they all moved as if choreographed.

  I inch closer, expecting them to pop out of the water at any moment. I wonder if it will be all in one fluid motion. As I walk toward the lake, careful to stay in the shadows of the trees, I look at my plum, noting the time. It’s been about twenty seconds since they dived in, and the water hasn’t rippled since. It’s as still as an obsidian mirror.

  I watch, then glance at my plum again. It’s been more than a minute since their initial dive. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure most people can’t hold their breath underwater for much more than two minutes, though I suppose they may have trained for this on their island, like Olympians. Maybe holding their breath was a daily exercise there.

  Still, a feeling of dread washes over me as I wait for them to emerge, the seconds—and minutes—ticking by. At the back of my brain, I recognize the beginnings of panic. Are they in trouble? Should I call for help? Dive in after them? I can’t imagine what could be keeping them under for so long. Come on, Emma. They’re fine. They’re simply skilled at swimming, like everything else.

  I check my plum again and can hardly believe what I’m seeing—it’s been more than four minutes since they first went in. I’m sure of it. My heart racing, I scroll to the Darkwood emergency icon. Something is wrong. No matter how trained they might be, no one holds their breath for that long. I haven’t seen the slightest disturbance on the surface of the lake. If they aren’t swimming, what are they doing under there?

  I’m about to click the emergency button, my pulse hammering in my throat, when it happens. In one clean motion, the figures cut through the glasslike lake, bursting into the air like dolphins at a show.

  I let out a breath as I watch them swim toward the shore. Each strong, lithe movement is synchronized. The Similars climb out of the lake onto the bank, shaking the water off their clothes as though what they did was perfectly normal. Seeing them lined up like this, I am enthralled by their athleticism, their beauty. None of them have the same body build, and yet, they all share the same physical strength and skills from training on Castor Island.

  As the Similars head away from the lake toward campus, it dawns on me that the water they climbed out of must be freezing. A week ago, I dug out my heavy coat from the back of my closet, and I’m wearing it. Even so, I’m cold. And here they are, soaked through, none of them the slightest bit bothered.

  Theodora and Maude sprint toward a nearby tree. Theodora starts climbing, and Maude follows right behind her. In what feels like seconds, Theodora has reached a branch about ten feet up. She stands slowly, meticulous with her movements as she steadies herself by holding onto a branch above her head, and then she lets go. I watch her creep away from the trunk. My instinct is to be afraid for her. But as she steps one foot in front of the other, arms out like a gymnast on a balance beam, it’s clear she’s an expert with little, if any, fear of falling.
r />   Her friends cheer her on. Not one of them shows any worry as she walks farther out onto the branch, gaining speed and confidence as she goes. I’m quite certain there’s no way it will hold her weight. Are they going to let her fall? I wonder. Would they do that to one of their own?

  Just as the branch is beginning to give way under her, she leaps off and lands steadily on her feet on the sand. The Similars hoot and holler, clapping her on the back. Maude follows suit. I watch her climb the tree—only she ventures higher, to a branch above Theodora’s. Her ascent is quick, and her descent is even quicker. She jumps down from what must be twenty feet in the air. This time, her fellow clones catch her in their arms.

  I’m bowled over by the sheer physicality of what I’m seeing. The synchronized diving, the climbing, balancing, leaping. I’m also disturbed by it. Normal teenagers wouldn’t be able to do half of what the Similars just did. Normal teenagers couldn’t hold their breath for that long or balance on a branch that high. I’m certain of it. Something is not right. The Similars are beautiful and lithe and fiercely confident. But they are also, somehow, inhuman.

  I have to go. I can’t let them spot me, not after what I’ve seen. I don’t know why exactly, but I know in my gut that I can’t let them know what I know. I spin on my heels and start back to Cypress. I move faster the farther I get from the lake and the Similars, with their eerie middle-of-the-night routines.

  A hand clasps my arm.

  I spin around, ready to defend myself, but when I face my attacker, I’m staring into familiar eyes. Levi’s eyes. I move to slide out of his grip when I notice the blood in the moonlight. Levi has a gash on his bicep, maybe four inches long. It’s bleeding.

  “Your arm—” I exclaim as I reach for him. Levi pulls back.

  “I must have scraped it on a rock when I was coming out of the water. I thought I felt something sharp.”

  “It’s deep,” I say firmly. “You might need stitches.”

  “I’m fine,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest, dismissing my suggestion. “I know you saw us, Emma. Diving into the lake. Climbing that tree.”

  “Yes,” I say carefully. “I did.”

  “I can explain.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you can,” I seethe, suddenly furious at him. “Just like you can explain how you helped your guardian dupe Booker and Jane out of shares of their own company.”

  Pain flashes across Levi’s face, but not physical pain. He hardly acknowledges the gash on his arm. But inside, it’s a different story.

  “They told you,” he says.

  “Yes. And I’ve been racking my brain to understand how or why you would do that. But I’ve only been able to come up with one explanation: you did it to hurt them.”

  “Is that what you believe?” Levi asks.

  “I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “If you’d asked me this morning after I said goodbye to them, I would have said no. But now…” I falter. “I don’t understand any of it. You. The other Similars. What I just saw.”

  “There are things I can’t tell you, Emma, but that’s not my choice—”

  I don’t give him a chance to finish. “Then you won’t mind if I do. I’m happy to tell everyone about your extreme sports.”

  “That took years of practice. You’d be amazed what you can do if you’re relentless. Some of the kids at Darkwood want to be world-class concert pianists and athletes. That takes talent, but mostly, it takes persistence. Hours doing nothing else. We swam on the island. Every single day. Sometimes for hours at a time. And Gravelle, he would time us. At first, we could only hold our breath for thirty seconds. It took years to learn how to do that, Emma.”

  “Why were you out here in the middle of the night?”

  “Same reason you were.” He shrugs, his wet T-shirt clinging to his chest. “Couldn’t sleep.”

  “We should go,” I say. “The midnight session starts soon. Madison won’t like it if we’re late,” I turn to leave. He reaches out and grabs my arm again.

  “Emma, please,” he says. “Hold on. Wait.”

  That’s when I notice his arm. The gash. The one that was bleeding moments ago is almost entirely healed.

  I must be seeing things. Was it on the other arm, the cut? But no. The skin on Levi’s other arm is smooth and unblemished. The gash is still there, the same shape and size, only it doesn’t look fresh anymore. It looks like it’s a few days old, with blood dried around it.

  Levi glances at his arm, then at my face. In a heartbeat, we both acknowledge how strange and not right this is. I’m suddenly aware of how alone we are on these dark, desolate grounds. Where are the other Similars?

  Levi lets go of me—thank God, he lets go of me—and I step away from him. If I were to scream, no one would hear me but Levi’s companions. And they are just as “other” as he is.

  “I can’t do this,” I say. “The Wards are like my family. I can’t know what I know and not do something about it. If they get hurt, or someone else I love…”

  “Then what?”

  “I could never live with myself. Levi, you have to explain it to me. Why you did that to Booker and Jane. Why your skin healed so fast. It’s almost like you were never cut in the first place. Tell me or I tell everyone what I saw,” I say, and I hate myself for threatening him, but there is too much at stake.

  “You want to know, Emma?”

  “Yes!”

  “You want to know what happened with Jane and Booker’s company? You want to know what my guardian has planned for them, for all the originals’ families?”

  I freeze. What he has planned for them?

  “We were all sent here with tasks,” Levi says quietly. “Me, Maude, Jago, Ansel, Pippa, and Theodora.”

  “Tasks?” I ask softly.

  “Yes. We each have one.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “No,” he says, scanning the horizon. “How could you. You think we’re just kids. Teenagers attending Darkwood to get a top-notch education and prepare ourselves for the most prestigious Ivy League universities.”

  “Aren’t you?” I ask, but I think I already know the answer.

  Levi laughs. “We learned calculus at ten and biophysics at thirteen. We’ve read every classic and written our own. Maude’s an expert computer programmer. Pippa could be playing flute at Carnegie Hall. Trust me, we don’t need a Darkwood education.”

  “But your strata,” I insist. “If you’re all more advanced than us, Ansel and Jago should also be in the top five. You and your friends would have taken all five spots.”

  “Come on, Emma—think about it. Wouldn’t that have been a tad suspicious?”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Jago and Ansel didn’t—how should I put this?—‘try their hardest’ on the test. Frankly, none of us did. Though Maude, Theodora, and I still ended up with the top spots.”

  “You threw the test.” I feel like an idiot.

  “All part of Gravelle’s plan, Emmaline. All part of his plan.”

  “What did you mean when you said you had tasks? What kind of tasks?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? Mine was to make sure Jane and Booker accepted me into their family and into the family business, so that Gravelle could seize shares of Ward, Inc. He’s wanted to be a major stakeholder in their company for years.”

  “But why?”

  “He says it’s for my own good.” Levi shrugs. “He told me I’d be reclaiming what was rightfully mine. He says I deserve it, that they owe me, as my DNA parents.”

  “But why would you need to sign your shares over to him?”

  Levi shrugs again. “He thinks I might make emotional decisions as I get to know my DNA parents. If he owns the shares himself, he can act on my behalf.”

  “So you knew about this,” I say, trying to comprehend. “You knew about this plan
all along—this, this task, and you were always planning on going through with it?”

  Levi stares into my eyes. “Yes.” He has no shame, no remorse. “I did. And I played my role well,” he says wryly. “You’ve wanted to hate me from the minute I arrived at Darkwood, but you never had a reason—except for the fact that I look like your dead best friend. Congratulations. Now you have all the justification you need. I’m going to get changed.”

  Levi walks away, and I’m left standing in that desolate field, wondering if everyone has been right all along. The Similars can’t be trusted.

  The Suspect

  The wind whips at my cheeks and ears as I hurry back to Cypress, walking as briskly as I can without running. For the first time, I’m afraid of him, of the Similars. He explained about the stock, but he failed to tell me how his cut disappeared like that, so quickly. Are they human? I ask myself, the cold starting to pound in my head. Who—no, what—are they?

  Pippa stands outside Cypress waiting for me. I check my plum. It’s 11:55. How did she change and get here so fast? She holds out my key.

  “You weren’t in your room when I went by to get you for the session,” she says as an explanation, and she puts the key around my neck. “If I were you, I’d be a little more careful where I left this. I walked right into your room and saw it on your bed.”

  For the first time, I cringe being so close to Pippa. She is one of them, after all. I don’t know if I can trust her, or any of them.

  I say nothing about what I saw as we walk together up the creaky stairs to the Tower Room. I never thought I would look forward to spending time with Madison, but at least in this group setting, I will be safe.

  What are you afraid of, Emma? That they will hurt you? I run the first day of duty over in my mind again: both of us working, Levi and me. Both of us painting. Hearing Pru scream. Entering the boathouse together.

  Is that what happened, or is my mind playing tricks on me? He carried Pru to safety, didn’t he? Of course, there’s the possibility that he did that to cover his tracks. But Levi couldn’t be that fast, that devious, that disturbed as to have hurt Pru…could he? He shares Oliver’s DNA. Oliver, who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And yet, their upbringings. They were so drastically different. Oliver was so loved, Levi… I don’t know. Abused? Brainwashed? Pushed to extremes or simply neglected? The way he dove under that water… It scares me to think how strong he might be. How easily he could have grabbed Pru.