John and Leon pulled up to the house. It seemed just like John could remember. It was a tad run down, but no more than any other house with the income that his parents had. The house was small and tan, a series of stepping stones leading to the entrance and a pinwheel spinning near the door. John remembered making one of the stepping stones out of concrete, he put his hand in and then put shiny rocks in a circle around it one day with his mom and then the next day they put it in a hole that they dug. John looked now and saw only blank stones.
It had been a year or two since he had even talked to his parents, maybe they just moved and hadn't had the chance to tell him yet. It wasn't that they didn't keep in touch, it was just that John had been so busy with his job lately. They knocked on the door.
A skinny young man with thinning hair opened the door. A man at his age should not be losing that much hair, and he looked like he had never seen food in his life. He pulled the door open and stepped back, his head bowed. Inside they could see another wilting young man standing behind a couch where a girl sat. She looked to be about 20. "John..." Leon warned. He had put the pieces together too. This must be Selena and the two named ones. "What did you do to me parents?" John asked her.
She looked at him. "He isn't your real Daddy remember. You told me yourself." She shook her head at him as if this was perfectly obvious. John continued. "My parents lived here, where are they?" She cocked her head and then nodded. "Oh, that must be why he had us come here." She sat up on the couch that she had been leaned back in. "I think I made you forget. Like with the others." She watched him, obviously expecting him to understand. "Oh, I guess you wouldn't remember the others..." She sat puzzled for a moment trying to figure out how to explain. "Do you remember running away?" John shook his head, but then stopped. "I... I did have a dream last night. Of us, down in that lab. I tried to save you, but I was too late and you wouldn't leave with me." At this, nodded. "You were always very nice John."
When she said his name, he heard it as John, but her lips moved differently, like what she was saying had more syllables than John. Leon looked a little worried. "How do you know his name?" She shook her head. "He's figuring it out right now, don't spoil the fun." She said to him in a pout. Leon got distracted by something on the table.
John thought more about the dream. "So I was from the lab and I left, but you wiped my memory of the lab? Then, why do I remember my parents and all of this detail about them?" She looked hurt. "Because you had it so good! I wanted that!" She shouted at him. Leon showed him a piece of paper he had found on the table. It was a newspaper clipping that showed this house. It mentioned the address and that a couple had lost their child very suddenly.
"That's how I knew where to find you. After they took you, one of the scaries had shown this to Daddy." Leon interrupted. "Scaries?" She shushed him. "The men with the white coats. You know, the testing ones. Always testing. Anyway, he said something about how the team was sloppy. I took it after and hid it in my teddy. I used to dream about living in your house like you did, with a Mommy and a Daddy, and toys and a bike. I can't believe you had a bike." She shook her head.
"So when I left, all of those dreams were what you were thinking about when you told me to go run away. You wanted me to go home with these imaginary parents you thought I had." She nodded. "After the scaries left, they said they would find you if you went back home, since they had the team go and clean up after themselves. Luckily I never told you to go back to them specifically, so you just imagined that you had and moved on with your life. They thought you were a failure anyway and that I sent the scaries away, so they gave up on looking for you." She stood up from the couch. "Then you came back. Why did you come back?" She asked him accusingly.
He came back? "Oh, you mean the hearing?" He said.
"They wanted me to do a magic trick, but I heard what they said. They called you what they called the others, but if everyone found out about the others they would go away. I didn't want you to go away like that, I wanted you to run away." She said with a pout. "I pretended you were really the character from my books that I named you after." He looked at her more closely. She had named him? "What do you mean?" He asked her. She rolled her eyes, apparently this was something he was supposed to know already. "When they took you and then you met me, you were sad that I didn't have a name. You called me Selena. I didn't say very much to you at first. Then, they did the testing on you. I heard you screaming and then heard what you said to Daddy while he was yelling at me. After that, I named you after one of the scary things in my scary book. Remember, the one I took because I thought it was a love story?" John shook his head and she giggled. "Oh yeah. I guess you wouldn't. Anyway, I named you that because if you were named after something scary, you wouldn't have anything to scream about anymore and I named you after that one because you could talk straight into Daddy's head." She said this with an air of pride, she obviously thought that the name was a good fit.
"We had a library in the lab?" He asked her. She shook her head. "No, I just got to visit one once for a little while. One of the scaries felt bad that I didn't have anything to do all day. When he saw me crying one day he snuck me out to a library for a quick trip. I only had a few minutes to pick a book before we had to run back, so I grabbed one that said something about love on the rack with wheels."
Leon looked at John and then back to her. "So... what are you doing here now?"
She frowned. "See, I told you not to ruin the moment but you did anyway. Totally spoiled." She sighed. "Daddy told me to take the others and bring you back. The others can make him go away." She pointed to Leon.
John had to think fast. "Why don't we talk for a bit longer first?" He looked the named one in the eye and told him to go back to the lab. He did the same with the other that was behind them. If Selena was worried for her own safety, she did not show it.
"Okay? What do you want to talk about?" She sat down on the couch and crossed her legs.
John nodded to Leon and took a seat on the chair across from the couch now that they weren't in immediate danger. Leon stayed standing and kept an eye out. He peeked through the blinds on one of the windows and saw that the named ones were walking down the road towards the lab.
"Do you have any plans for your life yet?" He asked her. She looked a little hurt, a slight pout on her face. "Why would you ask me that?" She asked. "I have a new job, I am a manager at a firm. It's really nice. If you want you could come with me, I make enough money that I can take care of you and you can do whatever you want. You could go to the library, get a bike, whatever you want." He offered her. He really wanted her to accept. He didn't like the idea of being on the other side of a war like this with her.
She looked at him very seriously. There was a long silence where the only sounds in the room were the sounds of everyone breathing and the occasional movement of the blinds as Leon kept watch. Finally, she spoke in a very quiet voice. "I can't. Daddy would be mad remember." She looked like she might cry. "That's what you said last time." He said to her. "He isn't really your Dad, you don't owe him anything, even if he was. What they did to you was wrong." He said to her. This time she did cry. "You think I didn't wish that I had left with you?! Every day after that I thought about all the things that we could be doing. Every time they made me do something for them I could see myself with you instead. I promised myself I wouldn't make the same choice again." She cried. "Then why did you?" He asked quietly.
"I'm scared." She finally sobbed. She looked up at him and through the tears he could see it again. The deep pools that were here eyes. He could take the dive. This time he did.
"Forget about everything. Come with me back to the lab. Daddy will be mad if we don't." She said to him. He didn't move a muscle. "You don't need to be afraid when you are with me." He told her. "If you want to leave that place and join us, we can stop the Council. We can all be safe together." He hadn't given her any command, hadn't forced her into anything. The only thing he did was make it so that she knew, really knew, that she would be safe from the Council if she joined them.
She broke into tears and John moved to hold her. She flinched at first, but then held him tight. Leon gave him a nod and left to get the car started. "Okay." She said. "Take me with you."
Know they take the fight to the Council.
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