Aiden
It’s the same dream. Again.
Every day that passes, Nadia looks more and more broken. She doesn’t even look like a child anymore.
I try to stop her but, like every night, my hand goes right through her. So I follow her, like I’ve been doing in these dreams. Even though what I always see makes me feel sick to my stomach.
They torture her, this child. They hurt her and force her to do these tasks. They take MRI pictures of her brain function before and after torturing her. And I think I understand why I’m having these dreams.
Because she’s gifted. I’m not exactly sure what her gift is. I can’t see into the machine when they put her in. But I know it. I know because the pictures that show on the screen look similar to the ones that the scientist took of my brain in the Alloy prison.
This hospital, whatever it is, is in New York. The mortal world. The ungifted world. I wonder if that blocker wasn’t put on me then would I have been in the same position? Would someone find out I’m some freak and send me to this hospital to get tested and tortured?
“What’s this?” The girl asks the nurse who takes a sample of her blood. Nadia points to a chart beside hers. There’s another MRI picture peeking out of the folder, one that clearly isn’t hers.
“It’s a test we’re running,” the nurse replies in that high pitched voice adults talk in when speaking to children. Nadia may be young, but she’s lost her childhood. I find it humorous that this nurse who is taking part in hurting her is now pretending to treat her like a child.
“What test?” Nadia asks.
The nurse straightens her shoulders after bandaging the I.V. to Nadia’s wrist.
“I-I’m not supposed to talk about it.”
“Please?” Nadia begs, putting on her pleading face, batting her long lashes at the woman. It doesn’t take long for the nurse to cave. It seems she has a soft spot for the little girl.
“It would be easier if I show you.” She says in a whisper. Nadia’s eyes widen to tiny saucers, the closest thing to excitement I’ve ever seen on her face.
“But-” the nurse whispers roughly, looking left and right to make sure they’re really alone. They look right through my phantom figure. “You cannot tell a living soul. Do you hear me?”
The girl nods aggressively.
“Come on,” the nurse says, motioning with her head. “Let’s go. Quickly”
I follow them across the hospital, into a room labeled Testing. Nadia gasps when she steps in. And I soon see why.
She breaks into an excited run to the other end of the room, bracing her small hands on the surface of a metal cage. “Hello!” she says, greeting the small white rat that scurries to the edge of the cage in fear.
“My name is Nadia, what’s your name?” She asks, as though genuinely waiting for a response from the scared albino rat. It blinks at her with red eyes, clinging to the metal bars with its tiny paws. I can see it tremble from here. The poor thing has been traumatized by whatever the hell they’re doing to it.
“Miss, does he have a name?”
The nurse looks confused, disoriented as she asks, “Why would we give it a name? It’s a rat.”
Nadia frowns, clearly distraught by this fact.
“He needs a name. That’s why he doesn’t trust you.” This is the most I’ve ever heard this child speak. The nurse clears her throat.
“He’s not a pet, sweetheart. He’s a test subject.”
Nadia blinks before scrunching her face in thought. “Test subject?” she whispers.
“You wouldn’t understand,” the nurse sighs, clearly rethinking her decision to show this to the girl. “You’re still just a kid.”
I look over the papers at the nearest desk, wish my fingers were corporeal so I could flip through them. There are graphs, blood work labs, brain scans. Comparisons between Nadia's and the rat.
And it hits me suddenly, why the rat is here at all. And why they’re running all these tests on Nadia at all. They’re not just trying to figure out why the girl has abnormal abilities, or how they work. They’re trying to recreate them.
“34 Clovis Rd,” Nadia mumbles to herself, reading the tag on the cage. “Where is that?”
“A private animal control firm in Staten Island. The same place where we get all our animals.”
“Can I name him?”
“Sure, hon, but do it fast. We have to get out of here.”
“Clovis,” she hums gently. The rat’s nose twitches. Slowly, so slowly, the rat inches closer to her, cautiously trying to sniff her out.
“Can you take me here tomorrow?” she asks eagerly. The nurse bites her lip, clearly troubled.
“I-” Nadia turns around, her eyes wide with hope.
“Please?”
“I- ok. Fine. Fine.”
***
I wake up with a gasp, finding my clothes stuck to me in a cold sweat. These dreams are getting weirder and weirder.
I can’t shake the feeling that these aren’t just dreams I’m having. They’re visions. Or… memories?
The thoughts wash away in the shower. I have bigger things to worry about. Today I’m going to attempt to break into the Atlas palace.
I take my time getting ready and eating my first meal of the day. I cannot warrant suspicion. Nomi is sitting down with her friends, eating happily as they talk. We lock eyes across the room and I politely nod. She smiles shyly back, waving me over.
“Mister Brooks! Good to see you. I trust you slept well?”
“Wonderfully,” I force a smile, ignoring the way it makes my face hurt. “And you, Nomi?”
“Fine,” she says quickly, a skittish smile playing at her lips. A boy at the table makes fun of her obvious flustered expression which makes her cheeks blush hot. I ignore it, pretend I don’t notice the way she reacts to me.
“Nomi, I heard there was a greenhouse on this floor. How would you feel showing it to me? Say, around two?”
She makes a squeaking noise to her friend, like I’m not right in front of her.
“Are you asking the governor’s daughter on a date?” One of her friends ask with a wide grin.
“Don’t speak to him so casually,” another friend says, swatting his arm. “That’s him. The Heir.” His eyes widen comically.
“Y-you? Sorry… sir.”
“Please,” I say through a sigh. “No need for formalities.” I look over at Nomi, make her laugh with an exasperated face. “If anything, I’m the one who should be flustered. I’m surrounded by only the most important people in Atlas right now,” I say quietly. She giggles.
“No way. Yes, this building houses the rich and elite. But none as important as you, Mister Brooks. We are all honored to be in your presence. In fact, I’m sure we can all mutually agree that your care should be in the palace itself, directly under Our Covenant.”
“You’re too kind,” I smile. “Such a golden tongue is enough to charm the Covenant himself.”
One of Nomi’s friends fans herself with exaggeration, giggling with the others over my words. I fight off an eye roll. I have to play this role flawlessly. I have to pretend like I fit in here.
Even though my heart is elsewhere. Crying out for someone else. Even still.
“There was rumor, you know,” the boy says. “That you were a freshie - born a freshwater - but now I see there’s no way.”
“Luca!” Nomi scolds, swatting at his arm. “Don’t be rude.” I keep smiling, though I honestly have no idea what he means.
“Sorry! I meant - you know - first province,” he says with air quotes.
“The mortal realm?” I ask slowly. Nomi smiles.
“Yes! Though we don’t call it that here, because Atlas is made equally of gifted and mortal alike. It’s known as the first province.”
“Ah well, Luca is right,” I say with a sheepish chuckle. “I actually lived in New York City most of my life.”
“Really?” Nomi asks in excitement.
“No way! He’s bullshitting,” Luca says with a smirk.
“It’s the truth. New York born and raised.”
“What is New York?” One of the friends asks. It feels like a sucker punch to the gut. Oh yeah, I think as I look these people over. These people are about as sheltered from the actual world as you can possibly get.
“Isn’t it the city of lights? As the first division calls it?” Nomi asks, trying to help me out. I offer a look of gratitude.
“Right, that’s right.”
“Back to your question, I would love to show you the greenhouse,” Nomi says through her shyness.
“Wonderful,” I say, feigning a suave charisma.
I don’t know what I’m looking for at the greenhouse, I just know that there are answers for me there. And it seems like a constant reminder that I don’t belong here, not in the slightest. So I have to keep pushing forward.
***
Two doesn’t come fast enough. I spend my time sitting in bed on a mattress far too big for one person, staring at the small bag with the only possessions I came with. There’s a feeling deep inside me, one telling me that if I focus too hard on it for too long, it’ll consume me. Break me. But I can’t afford to crumble, not now. Not when the answer is so close I can almost grab at it.
I slip my back over my shoulder and head out toward the foyer. If everything goes as planned, this will be my last day in this building. Hesitation catches me before I can leave, however, as I stare at the kitchenette. On a whim, I snatch a knife from the counter and wrap it in a cloth before stuffing it into my shoe. Just in case.
There’s a knock on my door. I straighten.
“Mister Brooks,” Tusk calls through the large double doors. “Miss Nomia Offaly is here for you.”
“Thank you William. You may let her in.”
Nomi is dressed in a white shawl and navy blue sundress complementing a diamond headdress, typical high class Atlas attire. She’s painted her lips a deep red-purple and her eyes a shimmering silver.
“Mister Brooks,” she says with a curtsy. I shift uncomfortably at the gesture.
“Just Aiden,” I remind gently. She bites at her smiling lips, eyes fluttering up towards me.
“Right,” she whispers. “Aiden.”
“Shall we?” I ask, motioning to the door. My lip twitches in a frown as I do, seeing Tusk linger by the entrance. He notices, smiling in return.
“I heard you two are headed out. I hope you don’t mind if I tag along.”
I straighten, hiding my unease behind a smile. “Not at all,” I say between clenched teeth.
“Come on,” Nomi says, tugging slightly on my sleeve.
She guides us out in the hallway, where William lingers a few meters behind. Nomi must sense my unease. Her voice drops low so only I can hear.
“Nosey bastard. Just pretend he’s not there.” I blink in surprise, unaware she even had the ability of cursing.
“Are they always like this? Meddling in our affairs?” I ask, keeping my voice a slight whisper.
“Always,” she says, scowling. “Especially when it involves the governor’s daughter and twice so when she’s with the Heir himself. You should know that, in these walls, you are always being watched.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
We turn a corner in the glass hallway, catching the eye of every passerby as though to prove a point. William still lingers behind. I lower myself to whisper in Nomi’s ear.
“Hey, let’s try to lose him.”
Her eyes grow round. “How?”
“You tell me,” I say. “You know this place much better than I.”
Her uncertainty chips away enough for a giddy smile to peek through. And I see something burning in her, something that may have just been laying dormant all this while.
“I’ve never done something like this before,” she says in a rush.
“Never?”
“Never. Come on, this way.”
Nomi picks up the pace, clutching my sleeve to make sure I’m close. The crowd of people thickens as we turn yet again, and we take advantage of it, hiding amongst them.
Typically, we would be easy to spot. But everyone here looks much like us, dressed in white and blue and silver and gold. I’m not sure if it’s enough to lose William. I don’t risk it to look behind us and find out.
I spot the entrance of the greenhouse up ahead but Nomi tugs me aside.
“There’s another entrance this way. We’ll attract less attention.”
"You know, you agreed incredibly quickly for someone who has never done this before."
She ignores me, pulls me toward a smaller hallway with less people and through an unlabeled door.
There’s another winding hall with dim lighting and doors on either side of us. She pulls me quickly toward the last door, where we’re washed in a sea of darkness.
The lights flicker on with a buzzing sound. We’re surrounded by pots, fertilizer, cuttings of saplings and bags of soil.
“You think we lost him?” I ask, searching the small closet we’ve stumbled into.
“I think so,” she huffs. “But not for long. That man is like a bloodhound I swear. Come on.”
There’s another door on the other end of the closet, a metal door that creaks loudly when Nomi pushes it. The dim lighting erupts into bright natural light.
The greenhouse is huge, the gardens so grand that I nearly forget what I’ve come here to do. There are rows and rows of greenery. We’ve landed in what looks like a meadow, with hanging vines dusting the surface of a small pond. Grass grows around my feet, tickling my ankles.
Koi fish bubble at the surface of the pond. Small birds look at the two of us, chirping a song to each other. A tall weeping willow shelters us from the sun, burning bright above the glass far atop our heads. I soak everything in, the blossoming minnie merritts, the bushels of wildflowers. Dandelions and calla lilies and pink roses. A blue butterfly flutters above Nomi’s nose, probably mistaking the ornaments in her hair for flowers. It reminds me of Silva for a split moment, of that image of her at the lake in the Alloy campus. Thinking of Silva reminds me of her death. That snaps me out of my daze immediately, like a bucket of ice water was just dropped over my shoulders.
I turn sharply to Nomi. “We don’t have a lot of time. And I need to ask a huge favor of you.” She meets my gaze, wide eyes and all.
“What is it?”
“I admit I have an ulterior motive for coming here.” Her cheeks run red beneath their dark complexion at my words. I quickly correct myself, dropping my voice to a low whisper. “I mean I need to make it into the palace. I need to meet with the dict - Covenant,” I say, clearing my throat. “And it’s urgent. There’s a way of getting in through here. But, as you said, William will be on our heels in mere seconds. I need you to distract him when he comes and cover for me.”
I wince as she stares, mouth gaping. “You want me to cover for you while you sneak into the palace… to meet with Our Covenant?” She asks. I swallow hard.
“Yes. Precisely.”
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