The Dollhouse Asylum (30 page)

He knows it, can detect it. Why else would I try to leave? I glance at the other couples on the rooftop, and my stupid mind conjures up Abe and Eloise, sitting in the very center, kissing each other’s ears, but they’re not there because Teo cut out their tongues and let them bleed to death. Instead, there stands Jonas rapping his stun gun in his hands, smiling at me, inches from the trap door we crawled up.
Oh
, to rap that stun gun on him.

Marc and Cleo sit to the left, Marc’s entire body trembling. We shouldn’t be sitting on this rooftop waiting for Teo to speak—we should be demanding that he hand over that insulin—but Jonas would stun us immediately. We have to
do
something.

Romeo and Juliet, on the other side of Jonas, huddle closely together, like making themselves small might make it harder for Teo and Jonas to see them. I remember that trick. I did it often at Khabela last year, but that’s not who I am anymore.

Ana and Sal sit together near the back, but for the first time it looks like they’re actually getting along. Ana’s whispering something to Sal and he actually nods back somewhat civilly. For Ana, I feel relieved.

Teo prowls around the roof, circling his couples like he’s trying to hang on to control, but that’s long past now. Murderers aren’t allowed to have friends. “Let me tell you a story,” he says, frowning. “Something you need to know. Something everyone here needs to find out.”

Marcus locks his jaw, and Romeo pulls Juliet tight against his chest, but all I can do is stare at that stun gun in Jonas’s hands. One wrong move and he’ll zap us, and there is nothing to keep us from falling off this roof.

“There was once an instructor,” Teo walks inside the perimeter of the group, up the slight incline of the roof, “who was the most stifled man in all the land. He sought to impart wisdom, but his students’ brains were forever stuck in boxes. They took their notes, blandly accepted classes, never stretching.” These would be my classmates. I hadn’t any idea he felt like that.

“But then a new girl arrived,” Teo turns his hollow face to me, “and she was different from the others.”

Different. Different could be good or bad.

“She rarely spoke, hid behind her unblemished hair, but it was plain to see she adored math.”

He didn’t need to spell that out. Something like a chuckle murmurs from Cleo’s throat, and I hate that she’s seeing this side of me. I hate that everyone can see.

“The girl’s mind had a flexibility,” Teo continues as he rests a hand on Romeo’s shoulder. “She tried things the other students did not, but she questioned herself, and it was apparent she was searching.”

For friends, but only the type of friends who play nicely.

“Knowing she needed guidance,” Teo says, “the math teacher soon fell for the girl; her fragility combined with his pride was far too tempting. So he courted her, wooed the girl—the best he could within the confines of their society—and when the timing was right, he took her.”

To think I was glad to be taken. I need to be shot. Trampled to death by a wildebeest stampede.

“But that is not the only person he took,” Teo moves away from Romeo and walks to the center of the group, stopping right next to Jonas, “for the man knew the woman needed friends.” He gazes at the neighborhood right below him. “Neighbors, to share what they would have. But not just any neighbors—ones whose brains didn’t quite fit in boxes.” So this is why he chose Marc’s classmates from Griffin, the artsy school.

Veering around a pipe jutting from the top of the roof, Teo turns to Sal and Ana at the back. “So the man watched the students at his brother’s school, noticed many of them broken. One boy,” he nods toward Sal, “not only carved wood, but he also
knew
math. No one appreciated his dual gifts. Another,” he spins to face Juliet on the right, “was in a one-dimensional relationship, and didn’t know how to get out. A ravishing model,” he glances at Cleo on the left, “had unrealistic dreams.”

As if recounting the tale at arm’s length isn’t doing quite what he wants, Teo shifts, connecting with us directly. “All of you,
all of you
needed to be fixed. And the world you would live in would be infinitely better than what you had known.”

But did he not think for a moment we might not want to be
fixed
? Or at least think we might want to work out our own problems, if that’s what they are?

Teo moves next to me by the edge of the roof, glancing at the homes lining his segmented street. He studies each one, one after another, after another. Pausing at the last one, he turns to watch Romeo fidgeting with Juliet’s engagement ring.

“In the beginning,” Teo says, “we enjoyed our little world. Such talent, unrestrained fervor, was precisely what I had foreseen. And you proved yourselves, started earning the vaccine.” Yes, Teo adored Romeo’s and Juliet’s party, and then he adored my painting.

“But then?” Teo spins to face me. “Our most prized jewel tried to run away.” His eyes pour into mine, and mine simmer as I refuse to look away.

“What did you hope to accomplish, Miss Laurent?” His voice rises so that it’s pitched high. “Use the vaccine as a shield against the disease?” He lifts his dark face to the ribboned sky, laughing like that’s the most idiotic thing he’s ever heard. He almost looks beautiful the way his eyes shine, the way his lean body opens up with his legs planted wide. But then he turns those black eyes on me like daggers, as he spits, “Well, the joke’s on you. There
is
no disease. Do you honestly believe a generator could power all of this?” He gestures at the houses on his street. “It’s simply attached to the regular power grid. It was easy enough to buy the right people off.”

I flinch, teetering dangerously close to the edge. No disease? He’s lying. I take a full step forward, unable to make sense of what he said. I got the vaccine, saw the footage, everything. But he’s laughing and my head’s pounding, and when I turn every which way to see the others, I find Ana’s wide eyes; she’s just as lost as me.

Teo must see my mind reeling, but I must be too slow for him because his fingers are twitching. “It isn’t
real
,” he hisses. Tendrils of fire dance in his eyes, and it’s like they’re applauding, laughing, taunting.
And you thought yourself clever. Just see what you have missed!

The vaccine…there’s no need? So if we’d found a breach in the fence, we could have just left? Right in front of me is Ana, shaking, with a quivering lip; Romeo looks like he’s taken a bullet to his chest the way his eyes blink open wide, and Juliet’s patting his hand, leaning in closer to whisper something in his ear. But Marcus is shaking his head. That’s when I remember what he said before:
What I don’t get is why my brother “rewards” us with a vaccine when we live in a society that’s supposedly impenetrable
. Marcus, you were so right.

Which makes me realize something. “You said our parents told us to stay away,” I tell Teo. It wasn’t just Teo, either. Abe said he spoke directly with his grandmother.

Teo grows stone cold. He’s staring at me, mouth hanging open.
Crap
. He was speaking and I’ve run over whatever he had to say. But there’s nothing I can do, no way to change what I’ve done, so I take in a ragged breath. “You said our parents told everyone to stay away, but there is no Living Rot, no resurfacing.” How could he ever have gotten them to lie like that? They wouldn’t have wanted us to stay away.

Teo’s mouth works like he’s trying to speak, but it’s taking him a bit of effort to tuck his astonishment away. Pursing his lips, he says, “It was easy enough to convince them to cooperate when otherwise, the assurance of their children’s lives might grow unsteady.”

He threatened them
. What did he say to Mayor Tydal, to my mother? Mayor Tydal might not technically be in the picture anymore, but Teo had a way of being thorough. Did he tell them that, if they tried to find us, he would simply snap our necks the way he did to Lance and Gwen? That must be how he got the actors to portray the Living Rot on the footage he showed us, the people panicking near Griffin. It was all a set-up.

Cleo, on the opposite side of the roof, is actually snarling, and Marcus is gripping her hand, not out of support or the illusion that they are a pair, but because Marcus, of all people, is holding her back. Sal grips Ana by the arm and pulls her up, and the two stand there, tense, like they might actually do something.

When I look around the group, every single person is seething. They agreed to play along, but only because he told them the Living Rot was back. They didn’t want to leave their parents, but took comfort in the fact that that’s what their parents had wanted—for their kids to be safe. Now, it’s like the final piece for rebellion is finally falling into place. Before, we were terrified he’d kill us, but he threatened our parents? That is so very far from okay.

“You lied to them,” I say. Why did I ever love such a man? He was alluring, yes, but I should have known. His kindness is a memory. Like with the balloons. Now it doesn’t matter. Now I can see Teo for the monster he is. He’s nauseating.

“As I was saying.” Teo smiles falsely, shrugging his jacket off. “Is it just me, or is it hot up here?” He sets it gently down like it’s more important than a person or pet. “I believe our world is getting rather dull.” He turns to me, rolling up his sleeves. “And since we have this issue of needing to get down to three, perhaps Persephone can help me.”

I stare at his suit jacket, mere inches from me, remembering how I thought swiping the remote from his coat was our ticket out of here. He needs to understand his vision is waning. That he must tell us how to leave.

Picking his way across the somewhat steep roof, Teo takes his place next to Ana and Sal, who’re standing so closely their elbows are touching.

Teo leans into the pair, smirking at Ana’s taped skirts. “I do believe it is far past time for this couple to leave.” He sighs dramatically.

“Or these two,” he says, hopping over to Romeo and Juliet on the right. “They have not done anything noteworthy lately.” He smiles like he’s feeling more pleased than hurt. Juliet’s ringed finger twitches, like she’d like to scratch the eyeballs out of his face.

Throwing his head back, Teo laughs maniacally, like some sort of villain in a play. He’s stepping away from all of us, no longer wanting us on his stage. He is alone except for Jonas now, and his grip on his couples is disintegrating.

If it weren’t for Jonas, we’d attack Teo on the roof. Cleo’s already broken away from Marc’s grip, and Sal and Romeo flank Marcus at the back. Teo, seemingly oblivious, asks, “Persephone, who do you wish to leave?”

Cleo reaches for that pipe that’s jutting out from the top of the roof when Marcus growls, “Why don’t
you
pick?”

And it’s like Marc’s question makes everyone teeter; Teo hasn’t fully lost his hold on everybody. Even Cleo pauses from wrenching that pipe from the roof, like she wants to know the answer herself.
Yes
, she must be thinking,
who
would
Teo pick?

But he doesn’t need to pick anybody. We could all live—he could see.

Holding up a finger, Teo pauses. “Matters would really be much simpler if one couple just—”

And without finishing his sentence, Teo shoves Romeo off the roof. He means to push Juliet, too, but she scrambles out of Teo’s reach.

I scream. So does Juliet. Marcus is shouting, his face deathly white, and at first I’m not sure why he’s the loudest, but then I remember Romeo is his friend.

Stomach in my mouth, I peer over the edge to find one of Romeo’s legs bent back behind him, almost touching his back. I dry heave, throw my hand over my mouth. Romeo’s crooked body is like a clay form on the ground. An arm twists around at a sickening angle, and nothing moves; not even his fingers twitch.

Juliet throws a punch toward Teo, but he grabs her around the front, bringing her trembling body into his.

“Do not force things,” Teo tells us through Juliet’s hair. I can’t believe I wanted to protect him before. “I will push her off,” he says. He glances over the edge. “I have done it before.” He is sick,
sick
.

“Cleo,” Teo says, spotting her gripping the pipe she’s wrenched from the roof, “drop the weapon, please.”

But Cleo has no intention of dropping it, and I don’t think she should—except that Jonas is lifting his stun gun now. But she doesn’t see him. She takes a few steps closer and growls, “The only one with unrealistic dreams is you.” And when she lifts the pipe higher, like she means to strike him across the face, Jonas jabs his stun gun into her back, and she drops in a heap on the shingled roof. I worry she’ll roll off the side, but that bit of roof is flatter than the rest, so she should be safe.

“Please, Teo,” Juliet’s saying over and over, her nutcracker smile long gone, “we did like you said. We passed, remember?”

Teo studies the top of Juliet’s black hair below his face. It’s like I can hear his thoughts in my head:
To push, or not to push? That is the question
. That’s the type of question the sick bastard would ask after studying the same books as me.

He can’t do this; Teo can’t dismiss her life. Before, I never said anything, because I was certain he’d ask Jonas to slay everyone in the room, lash out at anyone next. But I can stop this murder—I can save Juliet. “You have to stop this!” I cry to Teo, clutching his arm. “This isn’t right.” Teo’s eyes soften, and I watch as his grip loosens around Juliet.

Jaw slack, he turns to me. “What has happened to you?” His eyes are open so wide, it’s like he doesn’t know who I am.

I open my mouth—I mean to tell him maybe I was broken before, but I’m smoothing all the cracks, when a blur of white crosses my line of sight. I know that movement. It’s Jonas, moving straight for Juliet. I reach out to stop him, but with one hand he knocks her away from Teo, his stun gun swinging loose in the other. She teeters, millimeters from the edge, screeching. I grapple for her hand, but her hands are flying about her too quickly, like she’s trying to grab onto something, but she’s too scared to see.

Jonas splays out his fingers to push her off, when two things simultaneously happen next: Cleo, apparently awake again, yanks that stun gun straight out of his hands, and Jonas’s fingers connect with Juliet’s face and shove her off the roof.