Naomi Grim (The Silver Scythe Chronicles) Part 1 (8 page)

Doyle had typed a list of subjects on the
screen reflected on our living room wall—English, Algebra,
Trigonometry, Geometry, World History, American History, Economics,
Chemistry, Biology, and so many others. Then we would also have to
take something called Physical Education that sounded completely
inhumane. There was no way I was going to take this all in by the
time we would be dispatched. I pretended to study and look through
the various textbooks Doyle had provided us. While the others read
and took notes, I merely looked at the pictures.

When class was over, Keira came upstairs with
me. She began to go through my closet so we could coordinate our
outfits for high school.

I lay face down on my bed, my face buried in my
black comforter, while Keira rambled on and on about today's
fashionable teen.

"I'm going back to Litropolis," I blurted out,
cutting her off mid-sentence.

"What?"

I sat up and looked at her. "I have to tell
that boy's mother what happened. It's been eating at me since last
night."

Keira sighed and shut my closet door. "Nay, let
me put this in perspective for you. We were caught once going to
Litropolis and we've already had years subtracted—your fault, by
the way. We got caught again last night, and we both know how
Dunningham reacts to repeated offenses. We got away with it, and
you want to push your luck by going a third time?"

"
Our
luck. I need you to come with
me."

"No." Keira folded her arms across her chest
and plopped on my bed. "Absolutely not. You and Bram have dragged
me there twice. Not again."

"Oh, come on, Keir. Think about those poor
women, wondering where their sons are. They might think they're
dead or something."

"I'm sure at some point they'll figure it out.
I'm not going and neither are you. Nay, this is stupid. Why risk so
much for something that's not really that important?"

It may have been stupid, but I honestly didn't
think we'd get in trouble if we got caught. Reynold didn't seem to
angry the night before.

I sat up. "Okay, but aren't you nervous at all
about going to this high school? I mean, we've never had to do this
before—live as one of them. We've always just lurked in the
shadows."

Keira nodded. "A little. I just hope we fit in
okay and nothing goes wrong."

"Like what?"

Keira shook her head and fiddled with a stray
string on the sleeve of her hoodie.

"Like what? What could go wrong?" I
repeated.

"Your family. You get too involved and
emotionally attached, and Bram is a hothead."

I tried to push those accusations aside. "So
what? You think we're going to blow our cover or
something?"

Keira shrugged. "I don't know, but if there's a
way to mess something up, you or your brother will find it. He's a
horrible influence on Josh. All my brother talked about last night
was how exhilarating it was to fight with those boys."

"Bram is a bad influence on everyone. I'm sorry
that my brother is such a delinquent, okay?"

Keira stood and stretched. "I should get home
and start going through my own closet. See you in the
morning."

After Keira left, I slid on my boots and
prepared to leave. I wanted to get to Litropolis and come back
while it was still light out. Not that I had anything to be afraid
of, besides being tossed into Gattica by the Watchers.

I left the house and walked briskly, hoping no
one would stop and ask where I was going. I spotted Chase from a
distance coming down the street—at least I thought it was him. He
waved and I waved back before making a right turn and going out of
his sight. I hoped he hadn't been headed to my house.

I walked through rows and rows of almost
identical Farrington houses. Twenty-two rows I counted. The houses
stopped, and there was still a little ways to get to the stream. I
took the path through the shrubs as their sticks poked and prodded
at me. I hummed to the rhythm of my boots hitting the ground until
I noticed the sound of extra footsteps. I stopped. The other
footsteps stopped. I walked again and the footsteps began again. I
turned swiftly to see who was following me.

"Whoa, don't shoot!" Chase said with his hands
up. Keira stood behind him.

"What are you guys doing, sneaking up on me
like that?"

"What are you doing here after I told you what
a bad idea this was?" Keira asked.

"I'm sorry, but if I don't do this, I won't
stop thinking about it."

Chase shook his head. "I swear, you and your
brother must love getting in trouble. Didn't you learn from the
other time?"

Keira zipped her hoodie up. "I have. Let's
go."

"No, I've come this far. I'm doing this." I
turned and continued walking down the beaten path.

Keira and Chase groaned, but they followed. We
walked a few moments in silence until Chase cleared his throat.
"You know, you two are on your way to the Upper Estates. You can
get away with this kind of stuff. I, on the other hand . .
."

The last thing I needed was to feel guilty
about Chase getting in trouble. I wished he hadn't come. "No one's
holding a gun to your head."

"Yeah, like I'm going to let you two go to
Litropolis alone."

"We've been there on our own before," Keira
reminded him.

"You do realize this is a repeat offense,"
Chase said unnecessarily, "punishable by prison or
execution."

"You really think they'd execute a few
teenagers?" Keira asked.

"They'd execute anyone," I answered. We'd all
seen that with our own eyes.

A year and a half ago, a man named Ares and his
family lived down the street from us. He and his wife Dolores had
three kids; ten, nine, and seven. Ares had been close friends with
my father until the day he'd made a terrible mistake.

Ares had once been tight with Mr. Dunningham.
He had been one of the lucky few dispatched to collect lives after
a plane crash. When he got back, he held out on Dunningham instead
of handing over all of the lifestones. Apparently, he was saving
them for some kind of underground operation he and a few other Grim
men had planned on running. They planned on selling extra
lifestones to the people of Litropolis for double what Dunningham
would give them. I didn't know how that would work since those
people were so poor, but Father said they were desperate enough to
come up with the money somehow.

Anyway, Ares should have known better than to
try to hide lifestones from the Lord of Death. He could sniff them
out like his bloodhound, Blue. Ares was found out, but he wouldn't
give the names of his cohorts. I admired him for that. I remembered
the day when we were all required to assemble in the square. There
was a stand set up for the execution. Ares, his wife, and their
three children trudged across the platform while we
waited.

Before an execution, Grims with years left must
go through the subtraction process. If a Grim had less than one
hundred years, they could be killed.

I remembered the feel of the crowd. Some people
were sad. Most were angry. My father was one of the angry ones. He
said Ares was a traitor. That may have been true, but I didn't
think his actions warranted death, especially for his wife and
children, who had nothing to do with it.

The Watchers began with the children.
Dunningham wanted to make sure Ares suffered the full extent of his
crimes. The Watchers lined the three little ones up side by side.
Samara, the seven-year-old, was to be first. Samara was a
sweetheart. She would often come with Ares when he visited with
Father and beg me to paint her fingernails. She stared into the
crowd with her tiny porcelain face, not shedding a tear.

Ares and Delores had to be held back from
trying to protect their children. I closed my eyes and covered my
ears. The first shot pierced the air. I closed my eyes tight and
pressed my fingers into my ears until they hurt. The second shot
made me fall to my knees. My body couldn't hold me up anymore. Bram
called my name, but I ignored him. On the third shot, I tore my
hands from my ears only to wipe the tears away. By the fifth shot,
I had become numb.

I'd knelt until we were dismissed. I pulled the
hood of my cloak over my face and turned, careful not to catch a
glimpse of the dead bodies on the platform. I walked quickly,
pushing my way through the crowd. I didn’t want my family to see I
had cried. No one was supposed to be crying. The execution of a
traitor was a joyous occasion. I hated Nowhere for a long time
after that.

"Nobody's getting executed," I assured my
friends. "We'll be fine."

We reached the stone wall. I kept my eye out
for the spot where the cement blocks could be removed. It took us a
little longer to push the blocks away than it had taken Bram, but
we got through.

On the other side, Keira brushed the dirt from
her knees. "How do you propose we find this kid's mom?"

That was a good question. "We'll just ask
around. Everyone knows each other."

I spotted a woman holding a stick with chunks
of meat over a tin can of fire. She looked aged, as did many of the
people of Litropolis. The woman was silver-haired with bulged and
wrinkled skin. Her fingers were abnormally curved and deformed.
People in Farrington and the Upper Estates didn't look like that.
Her appearance was the result of someone who was running low on
years.

With Chase and Keira on my heels, I moved
toward her. I cleared my throat, and the woman jumped. That was
unusual. It was hard to sneak up on a Grim.

I felt bad for startling her. "Excuse me. Can
you tell me where I can find the families of two boys named Starkin
and DeCarlo? Someone named Claudia?"

The woman looked at the three of us
apprehensively. Then she looked down at the meat and shook her
head. The woman probably thought we had bad intentions and wasn't
willing to rat out her fellow Litropolites.

"Please," I pleaded. "It's very important.
Something happened and their families should know. Starkin asked me
to relay the message. He told me his mother's name is
Claudia."

The woman thought for a moment before pointing
straight ahead, which really wasn't helpful.

"Straight where?" Keira asked. The woman
pointed to the right.

"We go straight and then make a right?" I asked
to clarify.

The woman nodded. I thanked her and left her
alone. Her fear of me made me uncomfortable.

It took us about five minutes to get to the end
of the street, navigating through people preparing their suppers
over tin can fires. We made the right and found ourselves at a dead
end. One tent sat at the corner right, before a brick
wall.

"Think that's it?" Chase asked.

"We'll see," I answered, walking toward the
tent.

I knelt at the opening. A woman sat on the
ground with a whining infant cuddled in her arms. There was a girl
who looked about ten and a boy who looked about Dorian's age. There
was no place for me to knock, so I had to speak to announce my
presence. "Good evening. Are you Claudia?"

The woman nodded. "Who are you?"

The children stared at us, and the baby
quieted. "I'm Naomi. This is Chase and Keira."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Why are you
looking for me?"

"Your son asked me to," I answered.

She looked at her children and then at me
before handing the baby to the girl.

I backed up, and she crawled out of the tent
and walked us a few feet away. "What happened to my boy? Is he
dead?"

I shook my head. "No, no, but the Watchers did
take him to Gattica." We all knew going to Gattica was only a
little bit better than being dead.

Claudia gasped and touched her heart. "For
what? What did he do?"

"He was involved in a fight. They took his
friend DeCarlo also," Keira answered.

Claudia bowed her head and wept. In my hurry to
fulfill Starkin's wishes, I hadn't realized I was basically telling
a mother she would never see her son again. There were no visiting
hours in Gattica.

I looked at Keira and Chase, but they only
shrugged. I rubbed the woman's back.

"What did he do?" she asked again. "What could
he have possibly done for them to do this to him?"

Keira had already answered that question. I
didn't know what else to say. "Um, I'm really sorry."

Chase, Keira, and I began to back
away.

"How do you know what happened?" the woman
asked.

I'd been hoping to avoid that question. "We
were there."

"Who was he fighting with?"

I couldn't very well tell her it was my brother
and that he, in fact, had started the fight.

"We don't know. We were just passing by," Keira
answered, saving me.

"Do you know where DeCarlo's family lives?" I
asked.