Drowning in Deception (16 page)

She didn’t look at him when she
asked, but her curiosity was overflowing. “What exactly was it that you were
teaching? You know, to make them do this to you?”

He didn’t say anything right
away. It was as if he was waiting for her to look at him first, which she
finally did. And then he smiled. His green eyes shone, giving his face a
friendlier look, which partly made up for the ugliness that had been burned
into his flesh. But he remained silent.

“You’re supposed to be dead,
aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“I won’t tell that you’re here. I
promise.”

Finally he spoke. “I know you
won’t.”

He shifted on the couch before
sitting back and setting his clasped hands on his stomach. “I convinced my
students that too much of a good thing was a bad thing, and they should cut
down on the amount of milk they were drinking - not stop - just cut down. Although,
some of them stopped anyway. And I started teaching them the history of our
world, and about how the Wall was not always there.”

“History?”

“Yes. It’s sad that so very few
people are aware of the happenings of our ancestors. I think it’s that way by
design - all part of the plan to keep us all obedient and submissive.”

She swallowed. “Tell me.”

He cleared his throat. “I don’t
think Zander wants you to know any more than you already do.”

“Zander,” she huffed, “no longer
has any say on my behalf.” She looked at him sternly, almost daring him to go
on.

His smile was warm and sincere. “That
may be so, but he still cares about you. He doesn’t want you to get involved
with what we’re doing here. He wants to keep you safe.”

Keep her safe? Boy, was she getting
sick and tired of hearing that. She jumped to her feet and stormed to the
kitchen where she poured herself a glass of water from the tap. Her father was
supposed to be the one keeping her safe, and look at how that had turned out.
If being kept safe meant being kept in the dark about her entire world, and
being lied to, then she didn’t want to be kept safe anymore. She drained her
glass and slammed it down on the counter, marched back and resumed her position
on the loveseat.

“I don’t know what it is that
you’re involved in exactly, but I think I’m old enough to make my own
decisions. And besides, I’ve already been to the other side of the Wall a few
times. I’ve seen how those people are treated. I’ve seen my father doing what
it really is that he does.” Her firm voice cracked. “Tell me what you’re doing
and I will decide for myself if I want to be involved or not.”

She watched as Smith scratched
his chin, considering.

He licked his lips. “The Wall was
built to divide us from them. It was for good reason and both sides agreed, so everyone
assisted in the construction of it. It took many, many years to complete. But
you see, the people of Eadin had already decided that they were the superior
beings and that the others should be forced into submission. They secretly
built the helichoppers and made and stashed some weapons. It was their plan all
along to make the people of Quell their…well, slaves I suppose is the best
term. The consensus was that they deserved to be treated as worthless animals. So
the second they were successfully divided, the people of Eadin dubbed
themselves gods and the people of Quell were instructed to obey their every
command or be shot on sight.”

“There were some in Eadin who,
although they agreed with the idea of being separated, didn’t like how the
people of Quell were being treated. They didn’t believe they were gods or that
they were superior. And when they wouldn’t let up with their complaints,
someone got the bright idea of drugging the milk. That was so many years ago.
Over time, the terminology and the truths were mostly lost and forgotten.
Except for the men at the top of the Watch Tower. They are the only ones who
know the truths…truths written into laws that are for their eyes only. But it
makes their jobs a lot easier that the population is unaware.”

Clover swallowed a solid lump in
her throat. “How do you know all this?”

His chest expanded and she could
see him take a slow inhale and exhale. “I have a very old journal that
documents it all. I found it buried in a pile of rubble in the basement of the
house I moved into when I left my parents’ home.”

Clover closed her eyes, trying to
piece it all together. “So the monsters…” she began, thinking it all through. “There
really are no monsters, then? It’s the people of Quell that we refer to as the
monsters, isn’t it? But why? To keep us from knowing the truth? Simply because
we’re supposedly better than they are?”

He gazed dreamily at nothing as
he spoke. “I owe my life to a couple of the people over there.” His eyes
cleared as he looked at her, considering something. “But Clover…”

The front door swung open and
Zander and Sera strolled in, arm and arm, laughing loudly. “Oh, hey, Clove.
Hey, Smith,” Zander grinned. Sera rolled her eyes and escaped to the bedroom.

Zander eyed them suspiciously. “What’re
you doing?”

Smith cleared his throat as his face
flashed to Clover’s. “We were just talking.”

Zander’s eyes darted between the
two of them. It’s not that she was afraid to tell him the truth about what they
were talking about. She just didn’t feel like arguing with him at the moment.
She’d already made a promise not to return to the other side, a promise she
knew she wouldn’t keep, and it seemed pointless to get into it with him.
Instead of telling him their topic of conversation, she decided to bring up
something she had been wondering about anyway.  “Smith was just about to tell
me why you got milk from the market, when no one in this house drinks it.”

Zander seemed to breathe a sigh
of relief. “You’ve been to the market, Clove. You know they keep track of our
rations. If I never got milk, it could raise suspicion.”

“Ah. That makes sense. Well, if
you’re just going to dump it down the sink anyway, do you mind if I take it?”

He cocked his head. “Take it
where?”

She was going to take it to Rye
to give to Abilee, but she was quick in coming up with a lie. “I’m going to Mella’s
tonight. We’re having a milkshake party and I’m supposed to bring the milk.” It
sounded lame even to her, but he seemed to buy it.

“Okay, but make sure to leave
some for when your parents come tomorrow night.”

She groaned. She had no idea how
they were all going to deal with that.

***

When Clover arrived at the nest
of bushes, Rye was waiting on the blanket inside. He gave her a half-smile when
she walked in. She sat down across from him.

“You okay?” he asked.

For some reason, his little grin
quickened her pulse. What was it about this boy that made her feel so nervous?
She felt her cheeks warm as she smiled back. “I’m okay.” Their encounter the
night before had been purely his way of calming her down, yet she couldn’t help
but blush at the thought of how intimate it had been.

“I wasn’t sure you’d actually
come back after what happened last night. It’s just so unbelievable that you
had no idea what went on here, especially since your father is the leader of
the entire operation.”

She bit her lip hard. Thinking
about her dad was not something she wanted to do. What she now knew about him
stabbed at her heart, and talking about it only plunged the knife deeper.

Wanting to change the subject, she
reached into her bag and pulled out a tightly sealed jar of milk and handed it
to him. “Of course I came back. I had to bring this for Abilee. How’s she
doing, anyway?”

He took it, watching her
carefully. “She’s good. Really good. She’s going to make a full recovery.” But
he wasn’t going to let up about her father. Apparently the suppression of
curiosity was not an issue for his people. “So, what did your dad say when you
told him you found out?”

She lowered her eyelids. “I
didn’t tell him. I don’t think I want to see him ever again. I moved out of my
parents’ house today. I’m living with Zander now.”

His half-smile fell. “Oh. So, you
two have patched things up, then?”

She chuckled. “No. We broke up
today. I’m living in his house with him and his new girlfriend.” Rye must have
thought she was completely messed up to put herself in a position like that.

The corner of his lips twitched,
but the smile didn’t return. They sat quietly for a long time, just listening
to the muted hum of the lantern.

“Clove, I’m wondering…”

She raised her eyes to look at
him.

“What do you know of our people?”

She shrugged. It was hard to
admit that she knew so little.

“Monsters,” he said. “That’s what
they call us?”

This tough looking boy, with the deep
brown eyes and darkly tanned skin had asked her the question. He was the same
boy who had taken her, a person who came from a city with men who treated his
people like savages, and had held her tight when she was upset the night
before. Just looking at him now, with the glow of the lantern making his face
look soft and kind, she couldn’t believe that anyone could possibly think of
him as a monster. In fact, she realized that she was quite attracted to him.
Even the deep, jagged scar on the side of his face had faded in her eyes. She
no longer saw it as something threatening. As she thought back to the previous
evening and the long moment she’d spent wrapped in his arms, she wished she could
go there again tonight.

She was ashamed to admit it, but
looked him in the eye when she answered, “Yes. That’s what they call you.”

He turned his head away from her.

“Rye. I’m sorry. You have to know
that I don’t think that. They’re wrong. They’re just mean and selfish and
wrong. They don’t know you…”

His face shot back to hers. His
eyes had lost their warmth, turning into the feral eyes of an animal, just as
she had seen him that first day in the woods. “They’re right,” he snapped,
leaving Clover shocked speechless.

He took a deep inhale, and
immediately his eyes saddened, his voice softened. “They’re right, Clove,” he whispered,
letting the breath out. “I know I should have told you before. At first I thought
you knew, and then when I figured out that you didn’t know, I was afraid to
tell you.”

A strange laugh came from the
back of her throat, an awkward sounding gargle. “
You
were afraid?”

He reached for her hand, but she
pulled it away, so instead he ran his hand through his wild, dark hair. “I
didn’t know they were calling us monsters now - not until you mentioned the
monsters over here.”

She shook her head helplessly. He
wasn’t a monster. Why was he saying such things?

He took a deep breath again, his
nostrils flaring, and looked her right in the eye. “We call ourselves the
Carnae. The gods, they call us many things… Savages, animals, slaves. For a
while they even gave us a made up name: impetuomanics.”

She shook her head ever so
slightly. She was good with words, but needed a moment to think this one
through. Impetuous: emotionally rash, impulsive. Manic: a state of abnormally
high mood and energy level. She thought about Rye. These things didn’t seem to
describe him at all. He always seemed so calm, so together. Neither did they
make sense when she thought of Arma or Abiliee.

“What does that mean?” she asked.
“Why would they call you that?”

His
brows were low on his forehead, his eyes dark and narrow, watching her. He
blurted it out.
“We
are killers, Clove. We crave blood and flesh, and warm, raw, meat.”

Her
hands went icy and she could have sworn her heart stopped beating. “Are you
talking about killing people…or animals?”

“Both.”

She
couldn’t breathe or swallow, and was afraid the dizzying buzz in her head might
cause her to pass out.

“I
won’t hurt you. Clove…are you okay?” His voice was soft, concerned.

Her head was shaking back and
forth. Why was he saying such things?

She swallowed. “No. You’re lying.
I don’t believe it. If it was true you would’ve killed me by now. Look at you. You’re
human, just like me. How can you eat another person?”

Her heart started up again in a
flurry, pounding hard in her chest, the blood rising quickly to her head and
thundering in her ears. Was she in danger? Had she been in danger all along?
She felt so confused. She had come to believe that her father and Zander - all
of them - were wrong. That there were no real monsters here, but only poor,
repressed people.

“We are human in absolutely every
way. Everything about our biology is identical to yours. Except… We transition,
you see. We change. And it’s when we are in our changed state that we hunt. And
almost always animals...unless a human happens to be nearby.”

Transition? Hunt? She was a human
nearby. A hurricane was making its way through her brain.