Embers & Ice (Rouge) Read online

  “Yeah, and he practically signed the consent form,” said Chantal.

  “I know,” Zac chuckled. “What an idiot.”

  Zac then proceeded to showed her the bruise that was forming from when one of the guards caught him mucking around and slugged him in the ribcage.

  Hunter stared at the other poor kids surrounding her and wondered how long it would take before she looked like them – colorless and sick and drained. Years in this place would be enough to drive anyone mad, and Hunter had only been there a day. They have so much potential and they’re stuck here, in the best years of their lives.

  Suddenly something occurred to her. “Hey, guys, why are there no adults here with powers?”

  The grin on Zac and Chantal’s faces disappeared instantly. Neither of them looked like they wanted to answer.

  “They uh… it all depends on the situation.” Zac stared at his plate as he spoke and his oily curls covered her view of his eyes. “Some of them survive for a while, but others…”

  “Just tell her Zac. She’s gonna find out sooner or later.”

  “Fine.” There was no humor in his gaze anymore. “There’s no adults because no one gets to live past their twenties. Their bodies start to die.”

  “But… how?”

  “How do you think? All of the testing, the constant chemicals jammed into our skin, the filth in some parts of this place… it’s not good for kids in such a weak state. There’s no sunlight or good food, there’s just… sickness and gloom and death. We don’t have any fun here Hunter. Even if you’re the happiest, most optimistic person in the world, the cold eventually sinks into your soul.”

  “Speaking of,” said Chantal. “Did you hear about Ted and Elena?”

  “Of course I did,” he muttered, averting his gaze. “Ryo said the scientists took them deep into Death Cave, and they never came back out.”

  “Let me guess,” said Hunter, “they were old and deteriorated too?”

  Zac shrugged. “Elena was completely fine, physically. But about three months ago, she stopped speaking. Nothing could make her move from her cell – the guards had to drag her everywhere she went. Eventually, Dr. Wolfe gave up on her. Ted… he couldn’t handle seeing Elena so lifeless. They were brother and sister; they grew up in this place. He went crazy. He managed to kill one of the guards with a plastic fork. It was seriously messy.”

  Hunter’s stomach turned over inside her.

  “The other day, they were taken down for testing and… I guess they went wherever all the others go when they get too old or too loopy to be of any use to the scientists.”

  If Hunter thought her day couldn’t get any worse – especially after that speech – she was wrong. At that moment, Jet and Mikayla entered the breakfast hall for lunch. Mikayla whispered to Jet and the both of them stared at Hunter with glimmers in their eyes. As they passed, Jet ran his tongue over his upper lip, reminding her of the reason she slogged him that morning. The fire roared to life inside her and she clenched the cold bench beneath her to keep from attacking..

  “God, he makes me want to stick this fork in my eye,” said Chantal as she shot them a loathsome glare. “Sometimes I wonder how he can be so sadistic in a place like this.”

  “Better than being a nutcase,” Zac replied, his eyes watching Fearne as she sat at a table with two younger girls. They were staring at her and giggling behind their hands, but Fearne didn’t seem to notice and continued to yap away.

  Feeling not too hungry herself, Hunter flipped her legs over the bench and stood.

  “Where are you going?” asked Zac.

  “Anywhere. I can’t take much more of this cruelty.”

  “But you-”

  “See you later,” she snapped and stormed towards the door.

  No one had yet told her she couldn’t roam around the hallways without consent, so she was almost nervous when she passed two Men in White standing stock still beside the doorway. A small girl with thick auburn curls bumped into her as she left and Hunter turned to say sorry, but the girl was already hurrying away from her.

  The corridor was empty, and Hunter knew that if she went left and up the stairs, she would come to the cell level where she and the others slept and showered. She had no idea where the elevator would lead her, so the only other option was the door opposite the breakfast hall, which stood slightly ajar.

  Hunter entered cautiously and found herself in a small room with a low roof. Around the interior were random objects; sofas, chairs and tables. It was something of a common room, and the light was dimmer, giving it a comforting aura. Hunter instantly felt more at home there than in her cell.

  The immediate bank of couches on her left were occupied by several children playing on an old chess board. Down the way, at a round table made of light wood, Benji was hunched over a tattered book, his face engrossed. He didn’t seem to notice her enter. The Men in White stationed in the room were watching closely, but didn’t make a move to urge her out.

  After a long look around the room, she decided she’d rather sit with someone than be alone and pulled out a chair at Benji’s table.

  “What are you reading?” she asked.

  Benji’s eyes glanced up and his face immediately paled. Jeez, am I that scary?

  “Oh, it’s u-uh…” he stuttered. “It’s c-called–”

  “It’s Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie,” said a voice from a deep maroon armchair beside their table and Hunter almost jumped in fright when a young Asian girl with a black concave bob and bright eyes popped up over the back of the chair and nodded to the book. “I’ve read it eight times, when this kid here hasn’t got his nose buried in it.”

  Hunter stared at the girl with her mouth agape, feeling just as speechless as Benji whose jaw was clenched in frustration.

  “I can t-talk for myself, R-Ryo,” he said stubbornly.

  The girl’s grin turned to the side. “I’m sorry Benji, I guess I’m just impatient.”

  “How old are you?” Hunter blurted out. Seriously, the girl looks ten but she talks like she’s sixteen. Her English is immaculate.

  “I’m twelve, same as him.” She shook her head in Benji’s direction. “How old are you?”

  “Uh, eighteen.”

  “And what do you do?”

  Hunter cast a glance at Benji and caught him staring before burying his head back in the tattered book.

  “You first,” she replied.

  Ryo nodded, a glimmer in her eyes. “I can manipulate the space-time continuum.”

  “How’d they catch you then?” she asked.

  “Uh uh,” Ryo tutted. Their entire conversation was like a game to the girl. “My turn. What’s your power?”

  Hunter told her about the fire. Benji put his book down slowly with his lips parted in awe.

  “It must be frustrating to have a raging fire burning inside of you and not have the ability to set it free,” said Ryo almost sadly.

  “What’s your story Benji?” Hunter asked, craving a change of subject.

  “I’m f-from Sy-Sydney, in Australia.” He dog-eared the already creased page in Peter Pan as Ryo climbed over the back of the armchair and took a seat at their table. “I used to live with my f-family outside the city in a place called Liverpool. M-my family was big and my parents worked two jobs to k-keep us fed. They didn’t care that I was being b-b-bullied in school. One time I was walking h-home and… this group of year six kids started chasing me. I was running and… I don’t know h-how it happened but suddenly things were flying past me and then I was… home. My legs ached, b-but I’d just made five k-kilometers in fifty seconds. I outran the bullies.” Benji was smiling at the memory, until he dropped his head and all joy was lost in his tone. “That’s actually when my parents started noticing me. ‘Wh-why don’t you have any bruises on you Benji? Wh-why are you home so early Benji?’ So I t-told them. They didn’t know what to do. My d-dad started telling people at the office, and pretty soon the Agents arrived. My p-parents sent me here on a co
ntract basis of one y-year, meaning they could v-visit me when they needed to. I was six.”

  “Did they come back?” asked Hunter.

  Benji fiddled with the corner of his unbuttoned sleeve. Hunter had to lean forward to hear what he was saying. “Once I was g-gone, my parents found it easier to live. They didn’t have to pay for my education or f…food or other things. They saw it as a b-blessing. So no-” He looked directly into her eyes and whispered in an empty tone, “They haven’t visited me since.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Hunter almost automatically, her heart breaking for him. Benji’s soft blue eyes were wide like a small child needing hope. “Your parents will realize what a big mistake they’ve made leaving you here, if they haven’t already.”

  Benji started to smile, but then his shoulders slumped. “I wish I knew somehow.”

  Hunter wanted to be honest with the boy, to tell him that she wasn’t psychic or that his parents might not even miss him at all. They were all abandoned, just like her. But Benji was young, and that meant he still had innocence and joy hidden somewhere in his heart.

  And for the first time since the rain in the warehouse fell upon her and washed away the angry fire, Hunter heard her mother’s words fresh in her mind, almost as if she had finally stepped away from darkness and into the warmth of the sun.

  “Just have a little faith,” she said to Benji gently. He clutched his book tighter, his eyes brightening even more so. “For when there is nothing else, there is always faith to cling onto.”

  Benji glanced down at the book in his hands. “Faith… like Peter?”

  She nodded. “Exactly.”

  As both Ryo and Benji smiled, and the cold, empty room around them glowed just a little brighter, Hunter felt the comfort of her mother’s words. It made the terror of the institution that much more bearable.

  ELEVEN

  I’m dead.

  Holy shit, I’m dead. No matter how many times I repeat that in my mind, it still doesn’t seem real.

  This is what death feels like: stiff limbs, stinging skin, rasping breath and interminable cold. The world is black, so I’m either passing through to the ‘Great Beyond’, or I’m waiting to be cast into hell.

  So what will it be, Eli? Eternal darkness or burning?

  Darkness, definitely. Burning would be horribly painful. But then… would the loneliness be more tormenting?

  Eli lay there, battling with his conscience about which choice to make, when a blinding pain slashed through his body from the tip of his head down the length of his spine. He would surely cry out in agony, but his throat was so dry that only a gasp escaped.

  Wait a minute. Did I just gasp? Am I breathing? Is this still death?

  Eli listened, his body throbbing with pain as though he were bleeding through his skin, and prayed for release. He much preferred lying in cold blackness than this new writhing. Perhaps he didn’t get a choice, and he was already in hell. Stars of red danced in the blackness, making his head throb. After a few more moments, the pain started to dissipate and Eli almost smiled. Well, that wasn’t so bad. Actually, that wasn’t terrible at all. Hell is quite nice and warm if you-

  Eli stopped thinking at once when he noticed something strange through the darkness. A light was blinking just out of reach, very soft and in the shape of a… wait, a human? There was a man, but Eli couldn’t make out a proper form or even a face. And it flickered, like a candle about to burn out.

  Eli lifted a shaking hand and reached out to the man when a shocking jolt exploded in his chest. Suddenly Eli was gasping for breath as if he’d just surfaced from the bottom of the ocean. White light blazed around him and he blinked – yes, blinked – against the rays that threatened to blind him. His chest ached, his body stung like sunburn and his throat begged for water. But despite the agony, he was alive. And being alive was better than ten years of torture in whatever hellish place he’d been lying in.

  For a moment, nothing but the sound of his thumping heart could be heard. Eli heaved in air and waited for his hearing and sight to return. Shapes danced around him like alien blobs from his comic books. He heard a woman’s voice, then a man’s voice, and it was all he could do not to squeal in delight.

  Finally the pain subsided and a tube-like object was placed in his mouth. Blissful water dribbled down his throat and he coughed and spluttered in his haste to consume it. Get me to a lake, I’ll drink it all, he thought. The tube was taken from him and an eerie voice said, “More later.”

  Eli’s vision came back slowly and the blurred shapes fused together into actual objects. The first thing he noticed was that the blinding white light came from everywhere he looked. He was in a small room made of some kind of shiny steel, with fluorescent tubes lining the walls and ceilings. Strange technology surrounded him; machines he’d never seen before with complicated dials and wires and blinking lights. He lay on a frozen steel table encased in some kind of clear sheet attached to more tubes. Eli forced himself into a sitting position and bravely looked down at his body.

  Oh thank God, he breathed in relief. I still have legs. I thought they’d been ripped off.

  He wore a thin white hospital gown, and the rest of his body was flawlessly pale. Usually this would alarm Eli – who was used to the olive tone of his skin – but he was too thankful that his body was all in one piece to care.

  “Eli?”

  The soft voice of a woman startled him and Eli’s head whipped to the left where two people stood guardedly watching. The woman was younger than the man, with brown wavy hair and eyes wide and concerned. She bit the corner of her lip nervously and moved an inch closer to the man. He didn’t seem to notice.

  The person beside her was tall and quite thin, wearing a creased, buttoned-down shirt. He had hair as black as a raven, slicked back like a Hollywood actor. His eyes were so pale, they were almost frightening. He had sharp bone structure and a cautious expression.

  They were both watching him as though they expected him to explode, but Eli wasn’t even sure he had a voice at all.

  The woman tried again. “How do you feel Eli?”

  He said nothing, his mind completely jumbled. Am I in a hospital?

  “How did you feel?” the man asked the woman and she shot him a harsh glance.

  “I felt like I’d been thrown into an icebox and chartered off to Japan, no thanks to you.” She rolled her eyes and stepped around the empty table, cautiously approaching Eli. He was too frozen in shock to move. “Eli, I know you must have so many questions for us. Let me first assure you that your vitals are completely in check and your tissues have healed miraculously well.”

  What? What the hell is this?

  “We just need to know if you feel like yourself. Can you tell me that?”

  Her eyes were so warm that Eli felt almost compelled to answer her. He shot a nervous glance at the man standing against the wall, his pale skeleton fingers touching the cuffs of his shirt, his eyes narrowed and waiting. So he tried to remember where he was before he woke up. Maybe it would explain who these people were.

  Suddenly, he was drawn back into a memory. He wore a tuxedo his father had ordered for him. Sounds of clinking glass and loud chatter blared around him. The world was tinted golden and glimmering with faces. Somewhere in the distance, a violin was playing. He recognized the piece and longed for the instrument he’d played almost all his life. He attended the benefit for his father’s sake, but he didn’t want to be there. He’d rather be anywhere else, in fact.

  Through the haze of glamorous people, he saw her: The girl with the red hair. She passed him, her arm looped through another man’s. Eli stared closer at the man with the pale eyes and realized it was him; he was the one she came with. The girl locked eyes with him and his whole body tingled. Her eyes were golden like a glowing flame. Then, she was swallowed by the crowd.

  Eli breathed in slowly, stared at the man and woman, and suddenly felt a terrible fear rake through him. What had happened at the benefit?


  “Eli,” the woman pressed. She hesitated, her frown deepening, before she asked another question. “Do you know who I am Eli?”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t know either of you.” The man and woman exchanged worried glances, causing Eli’s heart to thump. “Wait, should I? Who are you?”

  “He doesn’t remember us,” said the woman. Her voice wavered. “Did something happen to his memory during the revival? What did you do, Joshua?!”

  The man called Joshua moved not an inch, his pale eyes wide as he gazed down at Eli. A chill spread through the room. He opened his mouth and closed it again. An eternity seemed to pass before he spoke.

  “Tell me, Eli, what is the last thing you remember? Can you recall Prom?”

  “Prom?” he hissed, and started coughing. “That’s – months – away. It’s still January, right?”

  Joshua pursed his lips. “Answer my first question.”

  Eli thought back for a moment. “I… I went to my father’s benefit for Colombia University. It’s like… a week before school goes back.”

  The woman put a hand to her mouth, her eyes glistening with shock. “Oh God…”

  “What? Where am I? What day is it? What did you do to me?”

  Joshua pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. “If he doesn’t remember who we are, Jenny,” he whispered, “and his last memory is the benefit… you know what that means, right?”

  The woman nodded. She looked about to burst into tears.

  “He doesn’t remember Hunter,” she said.

  PART 2

  REMEMBER ME

  TWELVE

  “Check mate.”

  Ryo sat back in her chair, her grin wide like a Cheshire cat, leaving Hunter completely flabbergasted.

  “A twelve-year-old beat me at chess.”