Lies and Legends

by Logan Keys

  Jeremy goes down too, docile, semi-confused. “The people will rise up,” he says, gaze far away.

  “How? For ghosts?”

  He finally focuses on me. “For freedom.”

  “Without leaders? Who will lead them? Can you tell me that?”

  I feel myself unraveling.

  “Trust your Skulls,” Jeremy says.

  They lift us from the ground. I struggle, try to see Jeremy as they turn me away. “Wait! I’m not finished!” I kick my feet into the air leaning on the guard that holds me. “Let me go!” I scream.

  Jeremy yells hoarsely. “Let her see me! Dammit! Let her see me!”

  The guard hesitates.

  “Jeremy!” I cry, my voice alarmed, panic gripping me by the throat. “Jeremy, don’t go!”

  This isn’t the Crystal that leads the Skulls speaking. This isn’t the Crystal that cares for Anthem above all else. No. This is the girl who loves a boy with her whole heart, who can’t stand the thought that she saved him only to lose him again.

  Only to lose it all again.

  They pull me further away and I break free of them, kicking one guard in the face, the other I headbutt and then I’m dashing toward him, hands still tied. I trip when I get close enough, the tears pouring down my face. I fall, smashing chin first into the concrete.

  The guards ascend. They pull out their batons and they rain them down on me from all sides.

  Jeremy’s voice sounds ripped from his throat. “God! Crystal! No! Stop!”

  I feel my bones crushing beneath the abuse. My face is turned away from the battering, but the rest of me is so abused, the pain makes me cry out despite my attempt to stay silent.

  “You puppets!” Jeremy screams. His face contorts with fury. “My father should have put you all into a meat grinder! You monsters!” He seems so lost, the fog gripping him and bringing him further away. Jeremy turns silent as they beat me. Then his gaze finally focuses.

  I’m surprised I’m not dead, but the purge made me stronger, and now I can take far more than a regular human.

  “I love you,” I whisper. “I love you, Jeremy Writer.”

  “Jeremy Cromwell,” he says, his face questioning why he’d said that. “Cromwell,” he says. “I’m Jeremy Cromwell. You will heed my command. Son of Reginald Cromwell, and a Cromwell shall always be obeyed. Life. Liberty. Authority.”

  And the world freezes.

  I wait, breath held.

  The guards turn and face Jeremy, at attention.

  They wait for orders.

  Chapter 50

  Liza

  I wake to myself sitting across from a fire, across from Cory. We’re in the woods but not the same forest as before. This looks mountainous. The foliage is much denser and greener.

  We are alone. Bodega is gone. My memories are not entrapping me any longer. My heart weeps with the joy of freedom, and the pain of knowing he could send me back with a mere thought.

  I almost beg him, “Please let me stay.”

  But he can already hear the thought. While I would picture him smiling with glee at such a weak piece of what I am now, he does not. Cory doesn’t even look over at my wretchedness, no, he’s holding Spirit, inspecting her metal.

  “I thought you deserved a small break,” he says, sounding weary.

  “Where are we?” My voice cracks from lack of use.

  “Halfway to Anthem.”

  “That far?” My stomach drops. How had I traveled?

  I know the answer without asking. I’ve been a blank, empty-minded zombie. Walking onward, while mentally a caged sparrow with a broken wing. Even with Tommy gone, being far away from his… remains, hurts a little bit more.

  I remember everything now. Before La La Land. Jeremy… I slam the door on that. One compartment of misery at a time.

  “You miss him so much then?”

  I know who he means. “Of course.” Tommy. It’s always about Tommy with Cory. His eyes flash at me in warning.

  “Still?” Cory asks, as though I’ve actually been aware of time passing. As if my grief should lessen.

  Instead, it feels as though it has grown.

  “Yes, Cory. I will never stop missing him. Or… Jeremy. Or anyone I love that’s died.”

  “I thought the other one wasn’t dead.”

  “Dead enough,” I say, teeth gritted. “To me… he’s no longer himself. If he still is a guard in Anthem, marching to the beat of his mother’s drum, hurting citizens, then he’d want to be considered dead.”

  “Love,” Cory huffs. “You use the term so easily.”

  And Cory’s never used the term at all. I don’t say it, but I think it. He laughs dryly and tosses Spirit at my feet. I grasp onto her like a desperate thing. As if she can protect me from Cory when I know that nothing can.

  “Why her? Why that memory?” I ask, referring to Lucy.

  He shrugs. “Why the island? Why anything? Why not just kill you? Why would I send you there do you think?”

  “For punishment,” I say, and he sighs and frowns.

  “Use that god bless-ed brain of yours, Liza. How can one of the most brilliant people left alive be so stupid at the same time? It’s right in front of you. I can punish you any way I want. I can enter your mind and take and take and take…”

  Cold dread balloons in my brain.

  Cory acts as if I’ve slapped him. “Women!” he shouts. “What is it with your sex with rape? Every man isn’t a rapist.”

  “Every woman has to worry about it. Every single day.”

  He smiles a disgusting bend of lips. “Oh, yes. The gray-eyed man. I could have taken you back there. But I didn’t. Why do you think that is?”

  I shudder, holding Spirit tight. “Please,” I whisper. “Not that memory. I can’t…”

  “I won’t. There’s no point. I’m not punishing you, Liza. I wanted you to remember the island. It’s important that you remember everything about it. How you lived. How hopeless it was. It’s the only way we can agree on things. And despite my control over you, I need some agreement, believe it or not.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” he says, coming near.

  I put Spirit down. “I won’t.”

  “I’m sending you back.”

  “No! Wait!”

  “Fine,” Cory says. “Prove to me we can work together.”

  “Okay. Okay.”

  When he was cruel, it made sense, the whole world made sense to me. Now that he is being kind, for him that is, I am questioning everything. It does not settle my anxieties. I am even more afraid. With my power, it seems as though I wouldn’t be so vulnerable. But I am still mortal. Powerful, but I can die.

  Is this why there are so many stories of gods coming down and becoming flesh? To be both, to understand both, is a strange thing. To run through time so easily, it’s given me perspective I never had. Cory is watching me with that expression of hope. It’s a strange thing to see your enemy encourage you to succeed at something, but I can’t figure out what it is he wants.

  I try not to be in awe of his powers. Are they growing?

  “Yes,” he answers my thought, with a brilliant smile.

  Shouldn’t he be ugly?

  That makes him laugh.

  Shouldn’t my abuser be completely and utterly disgustingly made?

  “Now, you’re just being dramatic. I am not abusing you. I am reminding you.”

  I lift Spirit noticing a dullness about her. “The feeling,” I say. “It’s gone. What have you done with her?” I demand an answer as if she were a real person.

  “That’s why I brought you out. It’s an interesting thing, that sword. I wonder… I’ve been feeding off of it I think, by accident. Keeping you in your mental camp has drained me. Then I felt like the sword gave me strength.”

  I don’t know what to say to that.

  “I think you could help the sword rejuvenate.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

  “I have a theory,” Cory says. “Th
e sword is meant to be a tool of justice.”

  “Yes.”

  He smiles. “And so are you.”

  “How can I be a tool of anything, Cory? You keeping me there has done something to me. Time has become so fluid and I feel myself letting go of who I am. Who I’m supposed to be.”

  “That’s good, Liza.”

  “If it means I’ll be like you, then it’s not.” I’m not afraid to be honest because I’ve already thought it.

  “You say that now. But having no attachments is useful.”

  “I still have attachments, Cory. That’s why the visions bother me so. Those people died in prison.”

  He stands. “Exactly. Yes. I want you to remember that. It’s important.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Where is everyone else?” I ask.

  Have we left Phillip and the others behind?

  “I’ve told them to give us alone time.”

  I shudder, and he smiles with an irritated twist of lips. “I’m not a rapist, Liza. You still think of me as the worst? In this place?”

  “It’s hard to tell. It depends on what you’ll do with the power given to you.”

  Cory turns thoughtful. “Have you ever been poor? I mean before everything went to hell. Were you ever poor?”

  The question catches me off guard. “Have you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I doubt that.

  Cory waves a hand. “In power. In friends. In freedom. I’ve been very poor since I was born in those.”

  I huff a dry laugh. “If you think I feel sorry for you, Cory…”

  “I don’t. But if you would stop judging me for a minute, you might see---truly see---for the first time in that naïve skull of yours that there is more to a person than perceived knowledge. Change occurs with each thing that happens, and we are all more than one thing. I am not just evil. You are not just good.”

  “If you mean you have other sides. I’m more than aware of that.”

  “I wasn’t finished.”

  “Then tell me your point.”

  “Don’t interrupt me again,” Cory warns.

  I bite my lip hard when things fade to the island. “No!” I shout, and the world comes right again.

  He sighs and begins, “Thomas was very rich in this world, poor in the last. As the tides shifted, soon our places swapped. Money meant nothing. Influence meant nothing, at least political types. But Thomas, someone with the innocent face, the morals, the principles, he was wealthy beyond measure in this place. What can a poor man like me do to keep up with a man surrounded by people who love him? Someone who is mourned when he is gone. I should have been the one Simon turned to save our mission. I would have supported his war. I already did things for him to help aid his vision. I believed in it. But he looked at me the same way you do. Like I’m unreliable. Like I cannot be trusted. But I am the most trustworthy and honest one left on this planet, Liza. I am who I am and I won’t lie to you---pretend I’m better.”

  I don’t say anything. My emotions are tumbling toward hatred. Because he speaks of Tommy as if he should dare. The unspoken floats in the air between us. So, you killed him, I think as clearly as any words can say.

  Cory grits his teeth. “I can influence people. Control them. But it wasn’t enough. Thomas influenced a legion without anything but his stupid good boy charm. He incited a riot the moment he got a chance to speak.”

  How devastating, I think sarcastically. To be so powerless and powerful at the same time.

  “Don’t push me,” Cory warns. “I was jealous of him. I realize that now. And it is a silly and weak emotion. But he was going to die no matter who pulled the trigger. Think about that a moment. A friend? Close range, without the trembling fear of standing before a firing squad. He never knew what hit him. I did Tommy a favor.”

  I flinch at the words.

  Cory waves a hand as if to erase an entire life. “It was the act of a desperate and poor man, you see,” he says. “But I’m no longer bound by such things. I think you’ll sense that now.”

  Cory sighs when I mentally sing a tune in my head from childhood. “I’ve got a theory about our little gift here. Spirit, is that her name? I’ll let you keep her. It’s a bargain I’ll make with you, Liza. A show of trust. But you will have to take better care of her this time.”

  “Take care of her…?” I ask.

  “Yes. I think she needs to be refueled, fed, if you will. I know you don’t understand yet, but I’ve been testing her out and I think if used in a certain way, her powers grow. But over time, she also runs out. My guess is the blood of evil people might suffice… and don’t say it. I know you want to. Yes, my blood undoubtedly would satisfy her quite well but, that’s not an option.”

  I frown. “You mean zombies?”

  He bites the inside of his cheek. “I tried that. She just grew deader in my hands. In fact, that’s why she’s dead in the first place. I think me using her was a mistake.”

  Cory rises. “Follow me.”

  I realize now that we’re on a hill, and he takes a narrow path trekking downward before motioning through the trees.

  “Down there,” he says.

  “Who are they?” I ask, curious despite my reticence.

  “A man and his daughters. I’ve been tracking them for days.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Simple. Kill him.”

  “What?” I rear back away from him. “Why would you want me to murder a man?”

  “Come,” Cory says, starting down the hill quietly.

  He waits until I follow and I have to, or he’ll make me. We pick our way along, quietly.

  “What do you want from me?” I hiss when we get closer, panic making my voice squeak.

  Cory pauses and pushes the branches aside so we have a clear view of the family. “Silly girl, I want you to see.”

  Chapter 51

  Dallas

  Joelle and I stand before Adrian inside of her spider loft. “Mother, we need to accept their agreement for peace.”

  “Peace?” Adrian says, her face stricken. “But we must make our move now!”

  Joelle’s mother hadn’t seemed happy when we told her Bradford was gone. Why would she be upset by him being out of the game? But I see, Adrian has enjoyed this gender war. She hates them, and I think that has to do with her past.

  “No,” Adrian says. “What do men know of peace, daughter? Do you know what your…”

  “What?” Joelle asks. “My father, you mean?”

  “He killed your friend! Do you want peace with the man who killed Tommy?” Adrian has gone off the rails it seems. Her face twists into a mask of hatred over the thought of Simon being free. She’s all over the place laughing then about to cry. “Simon is in his machine. We can’t release him, anyway.”

  Is she talking to us or herself? Is that hope that rests in her gaze?

  Joelle looks at me and I show her the images in my mind of the machine. She nods. She knows it’s the same as what made her. But now, at this, she’s fisting her hands. “Perhaps we should hear what he has to say,” Joelle tests.

  It’s obvious Joelle has no love for her father, but I sense that she’d rather stare into his eyes when he paid, make him confess that all along he’d been her parent, and maybe demand answers as to the charade.

  Adrian rises, marching toward Joelle. “He’s useless! You don’t know him like I do!”

  “Mother, tell me the truth for once in your miserable life. You’re afraid he’ll take over. You don’t actually care about Tommy or me. Any of us. Just yourself.”

  Adrian makes the grave error to lift a hand to Joelle. She means to strike her daughter. She pauses, curls her fist, and lets her hand fall before she can connect. But the damage is done. Joelle’s face contorts with a pain I can understand, a pain I’ve known. The betrayal of your own flesh and blood, not just that, but the betrayal of someone who by the very nature of things should be raising that hand
to defend you.

  Before I can move, before I can do anything, Joelle grabs her mother by the throat. She lifts her up off the floor. The guards rush forward, but so do our own vampires.

  “You wanted the rise of the queens.” Joelle’s voice shakes with rage. “You wanted the women to rule. And so it shall be. But not you, Adrian. You will not rule. And if you raise your hand to me ever again, you will surely die for it.”

  Joelle flings her away with disgust. “Was it Simon who burned me in the sun time and time again? Who slapped me, who hurt me, who would have let me die to find out how strong I was?”

  Her mother holds her throat and croaks out, “No, he only pitted you against special after special for training without worry over whether you’d die.”

  “Which reminds me, you stopped none of that either.”

  Adrian bursts into tears, her body folded up on the floor. “Come to me, daughter. Come here. I know it must hurt. I know I have wronged you.”

  Joelle’s face hardens, and it’s interesting, how her mother makes her stone after all.

  I startle to see the doors swing wide, and it takes some focusing, but Shade has entered the dark loft. I stride forward to tell him to leave. I’d rather not see him killed.

  “Don’t worry,” he says, touching my chin, lifting my gaze to his. “Her magic doesn’t work on me. You can’t turn a shadow to stone. I’ve come for other reasons. To warn you. Simon is free. Once Bradford was out of the way they managed to get the machine to let their leader go. He’s on his way. Full force.”

  I turn to Joelle who has heard everything. She stands tall and gives a dry smile.

  “Dallas, summon the rest of the vampires. Tell them to cross the moat. There is no reason to hide any longer.”

  “What about Simon,” I ask.

  She moves to the doors, and exits onto the balcony. “Let him come.”

  Chapter 52

  Crystal

  “Jeremy,” I say, my voice as soft as satin.

  He turns to face me, his features alight with the sudden realization. He can order them. He can command the guards. Rule the guards, rule Anthem.