Darlings (21 page)

She whispered, “Tiger’s ability is…rare. I’ve
actually never heard of another like it, and most defiantly
positive no one has ever had this ability at her age. Which poses a
control problem. Tiger can, what I call, dual-locate.” 

“Dual-locate?” Gwen was intrigued. 

“She can, in a sense, be two places at once
and completely conscious at both. One is her physical location,
meaning the one we can see her in. The other is where her projected
energy is. It’s almost like her spirit splits. Her projected
location can’t be seen. Sounds great right? Like why are we still
stuck here?” Gwen nodded. “To get to her projected location, she
enters into the spirit world.” 

“Like ghosts?” Gwen asked. 

“Yes. Like ghosts and half deads. Some
friendly, some…not. When she was young it used to terrify me when
she’d close her eyes and tell me where she was and who she was
talking to. The last time she went was almost a year ago now. She
got stuck. One of the spirits took her, and refused to let her come
back. She began to get sick, mumbling horrible things they were
doing to her there. She finally got away after two days, and
threats from the guards to kill her to avoid the spread of the
disease they thought she had. The spirit told her if she ever tried
to come back, she’d drag her to the dark world…forever. She hasn’t
even attempted to go again since, and I’ve never wanted her to go
either, but…I think if you took her energy and went to Andrew, your
bond would be stronger. With the break already in your collars
barrier, you could communicate with Andrew through the bond and he
can tell Tok who then in turn could tell Pete about the pirates
knowing of their plan and how to rescue us. It’s a theory
anyways.” 

“No. Lily I won’t take that chance with
Tiger. You don’t understand.”

Lily cut her off. “I do understand, Gwen.
She’ll eventually die soon in this hell anyways. It’s her only hope
to get out.” Lily clenched her fists. “Listen. I remember in
school, learning about the different abilities our immortals could
possess and the best ways to for us to complement them were. I
remember a borrower, the only one in hundreds of years, say he had
to make a space in his mind. A space like a hole, and fill it
slowly with the lender’s energy. It could work.” 

“No.  It might not work, and then what?
I killed another person...your daughter.” Gwen felt the tears build
in her doe-like eyes. 

Lily was quiet for a while. “I wondered if
something didn’t happen…you won’t do it again. You know better this
time. I trust you.” 

“Why,” Gwen hissed, louder than she wanted.
“Why would you ever trust me; I don’t trust me!” 

“Because he trusts you. I love him and he
trusts you…he loves you. I trust him.” Lily looked weak for the
first time to Gwen. Like a scared child. “You have to do this. If
for no one else then for her.” She looked at her sleeping baby.
“Tomorrow night. Tell me you’ll try.” 

Gwen was silent. She could believe herself.
“Ok…I’ll try.”

“Good night Gwen. Morning comes too soon
here.” Lily said. Gwen took this as her cue to take her bunk. She
swung her leg up over the side of the top bunk and lay there,
staring at the cement ceiling. So much gray. She heard snoring all
around her.  How would she ever attempt her ability again, and
on Tiger at that? Pete’s daughter. Part of Pete. 

She tossed and turned, wishing she had a
blanket, though the weather was perfect in Everland. She wondered
if it was always that way. Gwen drifted off and all she saw was
Andrew’s eyes meeting hers. She wondered if he was ok. Was he hurt?
She didn’t know. She looked her body over. No new wounds. She was
thankful for that, though the pain she felt for him inside was
injury enough. 

Scorching tears stung her cheeks. She cried
for Andrew. She cried for Pete and her brothers. She cried for her
mother and father. For Lily and Tiger in that hell, everyone held
captive in that hell. She cried for the boy and his Mantican. The
boy she knew she’d see again. No she couldn’t let him stay…dead.
She would find a way to bring him back. In that moment Gwen knew.
She knew what she had to do. Tomorrow night, she would find the boy
she murdered…and bring him back. 

Chapter 8

A horn sounded, startling Gwen awake. She
swore she had just fallen asleep moments ago. Before opening her
eyes, she prayed she was back in her room tucked under her silky
sheets about to get ready for another mundane day at school.
Instead, she woke with straw in her hair from her poorly sewn
mattress. 

“Good morning Gwen,” Tiger said
coughing. 

“Hi Tiger,” Gwen sleepily said, rubbing the
sleepers out of her thick black eyelashes. 

“Time to get up princess,” Lily advised
sternly. “They don’t tolerate lateness around here,” she added
throwing Gwen’s bloodstained green cocktail dress up to Gwen. “Wash
day isn’t for a week. Looks like you’re stuck in that.” Gwen sighed
and shimmied quickly out of her powder blue pajamas and in to
yesterday’s clothing. She climbed awkwardly down from the top bunk,
attempting not to expose herself. 

“What time is it?” Gwen asked.

“Early,” Lily said. 

“Where are we going?” Gwen wondered if they
would be going to breakfast first. 

“Work,” Lily answered, while quickly throwing
Tigers hair into a single braid down her back. Tiger reached under
her their bunk and pulled out a piece of a broken mirror. She
attempted to look at her braid and when she managed to get a
glimpse, she smiled. Gwen studied the girl. She imagined her lying
lifeless in her mother’s arms. She coughed again and Lily cringed.
Her daughter was clearly ill. 

“Is she sick?” Gwen asked. 

Lily nodded. Tiger went ahead to find her
friend. “Let’s go,” she added. Gwen and Lilly began to make their
way to the door which remained locked in the night hours. They
walked down the cement isle between hundreds of feet of bunks.
Frail men and women were all getting ready for another day of
grueling labor. Suddenly, a hand reached out and touched Gwen’s
shoulder. 

“Miss Gwen, wait,” he said quietly. His voice
was low. Gwen stopped and turned to face the boy as people
continued to walk hastily past.  Before her stood a tall boy
with bright blond shaggy hair. Thick reddish eyebrows sat above his
dark blue eyes. Broken glasses covered with tape sat crookedly on
his thin face.  He wore a pair of brown canvas pants and a
ripped, faded blue-collared shirt. 

 Lily noticed Gwen was no longer by her
side and turned around, annoyed. She narrowed her stunning,
gypsy-like eyes and walked back to Gwen and the blond
boy. 

“I wanted to…meet you. I’m Rynnal. People
call me Ry.” He seemed uneasy as he spoke. “I am…well was… a good
friend of Pete’s,” he said blushing, clearly star struck. “I can’t
believe you’re actually here. We’ve waited for so long…though never
imagined to see you…in here.” He shoved his hands shyly into his
ripped pockets.  

“It’s nice to meet you too Ry.” Gwen felt
awkward. She hated how everyone expected her to be the hero, the
savior, when that’s exactly what she was praying for. A
hero. 

“Hi Ry.” Lily said. “This chit chat is nice
and all, but we’ve got to get going.” Lily stated standing on her
tan tiptoes in an effort to keep an eye on Tiger. 

The boy looked gracelessly down. “Right,” he
extended his hand once more, this time making solid eye contact
with Gwen. He pushed his busted glasses up onto his prominent nose
as they shook hands. Quickly releasing, he walked briskly ahead.
Gwen looked down at her hand and saw a small folded scrap of paper
slipped into her inside. She wasn’t sure whether to let Lily see it
or not. 

Deciding on the latter, she followed her
beautiful collaborator, opening the tiny piece of paper as they
walked. Scratched in pencil, the message read,
I can help you.
Meet me behind the rock hill.

Gwen licked her finger and smudged the pencil
until it was no longer legible and tossed the tiny note onto the
ground. Who was the boy? What could he possibly do to help her? She
wondered. 

“Line up, you stupid animals!” Gwen heard a
guard pirate shout from the front of the line. The crowed moved
into their familiar single files lines. Guards stood with whips on
their hips on all sides. Gwen didn’t remember this from yesterday.
Opening the large doors, they were herded out into the darkness. It
was so early the light wasn’t even in the sky yet. They marched
briskly down the cow shoot as Gwen liked to call it. Looking to her
right she saw something going on in the dark field where they kept
the Manticans. Suddenly, huge lights turned on revealing them.
Manticans. They were shirtless in their human forms, lined up one
by one against the chain link fence, hands behind their bare
backs. 

“What is this?” Gwen whispered to Lily who
was in front of her. 

“I don’t know,” she whispered softly back.
Gwen searched for him, but she was still too far behind to see the
Mantican line clearly. 

A particularly wretched guard stood in the
front of the line on top of a wooden stool. He shouted as he spoke.
“Captain wants you all charged up and ready for the draining!
You’ll have three minutes with your beast. Try anything and I mean
anything you will regret it,” he said sloppily. “Go ‘n’ find ‘em!”
he shrieked. 

The immortals stood in awe. For some it had
been years since they were allowed to see their Manticans. Gwen
heard hushed whispers asking one another, was it a trap? Should we
move? What’s happening?  Deciding it was indeed real, everyone
scrambled to line up in front of their Mantican. Gwen searched
frantically for Andrew. She ran down the line, desperate to find
him. Andrew. She saw him. He looked so tired. Barely able to
stand.  She ran to him as Lily and Tiger followed. “Andrew!”
she hollered. 

“Gwen,” he said, holding onto the chain link
fence, attempting to stay upright. His massive biceps trembled as
he forced a smile. “Fancy meeting you here,” he said. 

Gwen was horrified. She looked up at him
through the fence. Turning to Lily she said, “We can do it now. I
can help him talk to Pete.” 

“No!” Lily whispered harshly. “There’s not
enough time. They’ll see if you use magic; if anything goes wrong,
our chances will be gone. We have to wait.” Gwen nodded and turned
her focus to Andrew. 

 She wished she could touch him. She
wanted so badly to console him. “Andrew, oh my god.” She could feel
tears building in her eyes. “What have they done to you?” Gwen
whispered. “You have to stop. Stop taking all this pain on
yourself. It’s twice what it should be. Give me some. I can handle
it…please.”  

Ignoring her, he pressed his forehead against
the fence. “Have they done anything to you?” he asked sternly eyes
closed.

 “No. I’m ok. Have they done anything to
you?” Once again he disregarded her. “Listen” she whispered
reaching up onto her tiptoes. She was now inches from his face.
“We’re going to be ok. Just hold on. Please hold on.” Andrew
understood as he saw it in her eyes she had a plan. He nodded and
mouthed. “Be careful.” She nodded back, moving her hand up to the
fence. He staggered and she reached her hand through to steady him.
They touched. “No!” he said, preparing himself for the pain, but no
pain came. 

“The collar.” Lily whispered from behind
Gwen. “The collar is making it possible for you to touch.” She
stepped out from behind Gwen, exposing herself to Andrew. He
stiffened. 

“Lily?” he said confused.
“You’re…you’re…alive?” He smiled faintly. 

“Yah. It’s me. Oh Andrew I never thought I’d
see you again ever.” Tears streamed down their tanned faces as they
embraced one another through the enclosure. Tiger wiggled her way
through Gwen and Lily. “Uncle Andrew!” she said in her squeaky
voice. “I’m Tiger, your niece!” she smiled. “I knew we’d meet for
real someday.” 

Andrew looked at Lily who nodded. He slowly
bent down to her level, studying her small face. His voice cracked
as he attempted to stay strong. “Hello beautiful lady. I’m so glad
to meet you.” Tiger beamed as she stood before her uncle. Looking
up at Lily he said, “She looks like-”

“Mom? I know.” Lily smiled weakly. 

“One minute! This is making me sick!” the
grizzled pirate hollered. 

Andrew stood in front of Gwen once more. He
put his large hand discretely through the fence stroking the side
of Gwen’s dirty tear streaked face. Despite the situation. The
horrible circumstance that was now her life. Despite the hells and
horror all around her. Gwen felt her stomach flutter as their flesh
met. “I’ll protect you until the end Gwendolyn,” he whispered into
her ear as Lily tended to Tiger. “Until the end.”

Gwen whispered back, “This is not the
end.” 

“Enough! Back in line!” the guard shouted.
Reluctant to be separated again, some pairs refused to back away.
Whips flew everywhere and electrically charged prodders were
brought out, shocking those who didn’t obey. Gwen, Lily, and Tiger
immediately returned to their positions in line as they knew it was
only a matter of time until they were all together again…they
hoped. Tiger raised her tiny hand, waving good-bye to the only
family, besides her mother, she’d ever met. 

Andrew backed up and waved to his niece as
the lights went out. Immortals screamed as the whips struck and
burned their flesh.  Gwen observed her surroundings. Immortals
running. Whips flying. Cries for help echoing in the night. She
knew. She felt the burning. She would end this. It’s what she was
there for. Why fate had chosen her to save them, she now knew. She
could end it. Gwen was determined. She wasn’t helpless. She would
control her ability. It was her only choice. She would save them.
She was in control. 

“Move out!” the guard yelled once everyone
was back in line. Gwen looked to her left and saw an immortal girl
lying lifelessly on the ground. She could only see the back of her
head. Her wavy brown hair was swimming in a pool of
blood.