Death Wish (7 page)

Wish 9

I set my wrist on the linoleum surface, scanning my bank chip at a street vendor cart to pay for two insulated cups of hot tea. I thank the owner and walk back to Robin, who I left sitting on a nearby bench. We’re in a small park a few blocks away from Marlene Rogers’ house. I sit down next to Robin and hand her one of the cups. She takes it and looks at me blankly, like she’s unsure of what to do with the beverage.
“Drink,” I say, touching my cup to hers in a mock toast. “It’s good.”
I lean back against the bench, taking slow sips of my tea. It’s extremely hot, and my tongue burns when the warm liquid runs down my throat. It’s a little after one in the morning, and the park around us is deserted except for the owner of the nearby drink cart. He moves away from us, the bells looped around his cart tinkling softly in the silence. The clean scent of artificial trees and grass mixes with the smell of our tea, and although it is tainted by the pollution from the crowded city the night still has a beautiful smell. It is a cloudless night, and when I look up I see a multitude of stars in the sky above. I take in the scenery while Robin stares down at her cup in silence.
We sit like this for some time.
I consider saying something, but I know that some initiates have a more difficult time adjusting to the realities of a Godparent’s life than others. Instead I choose to stay quiet, knowing that if she wants to talk she will. I just sit there, taking occasional sips of my slowly cooling tea while looking around. After a few minutes, Robin takes a slow drink of her tea. I take this as a good sign. At least she’s moving again. We continue to sit in silence, drinking our tea and letting the sounds of the night serenade us.
Finally I hear a small noise. I turn to Robin, who is still looking down at her drink.
“That’s it?” Her words are hushed, spoken in a soft monotone. “Less than a minute, and they’re dead?”
I don’t respond, waiting to see if she’ll continue. She does. A small tear falls onto the lid of her cup.
“How can there be life one minute, and in the next it’s gone? It’s so… fast, and so sudden, and so
simple
.”
She looks up, but she’s not looking at me. She’s looking out into the distance, past the green of the park into the neon glow of the city that surrounds this small botanic oasis.
“I think something like that should… it should have more
meaning
. But the entire life of someone is condensed into a file, and with a quick slice and grab it’s
over
. There’s no significance, no honoring the person. Just
sliiice
!”
She makes a cutting motion in the air. Her hand remains suspended in the air for a moment, but with a sigh she drops it. The next part I barely hear, her whispered question no more than a soft breath.
“Is... Is that what it was like for my dad?”
I feel an ache of sympathy for my protege. I hesitate, but then I set my hand gently on Robin’s knee. She jumps and looks at me. Had she forgotten I was sitting next to her? She looks away, sniffs, and wipes the tears from her face.
“I’m sorry,” she says with a catch in her voice. “I don’t know why I freaked out so much. It… It was just a lot to take in. But I promise I’ll do better next time.”
She looks back at me. A terrible sadness still hangs over her, but now it’s accompanied by determination.
“I know you will,” I reply, giving her knee a squeeze before pulling my hand back. “And I know how hard the first Wish is. Mine didn’t go very well either…”
I trail off, and this time I’m the one to look away.
“Really?” She sounds skeptical. “But you’re so great at all of this. How could you have done badly?”
I shrug my shoulders and take another drink of tea.
“Simple: because it was my first Wish completion. As Godparents, we’re the only people who deal with Death on a daily basis. No other people in our world have to, so to transition from an existence of life to one that delivers death is really hard.” I look back at her. “No one does well their first time. I didn’t, Harrison didn’t, and you didn’t. But you know what?”
Robin shakes her head. I continue.
“You got through it, and that’s what matters. And as you get used to this life, and all of the things you experience with it, it becomes much easier. There are some hard things you’ll have to endure, but you know how you mentioned a lack of fulfillment?”
She nods, and I tap my index finger against my heart.
“The fulfillment, meaning, and honoring of the person can happen in here. Whenever you complete a Wish, just remind yourself that you are granting the final, greatest desire of the client. Once you can do that, you realize that your actions are honoring them, and that feeling can give you the fulfillment you crave inside.”
Robin looks at me, a strange expression on her face. I keep my eyes on her, letting the seconds tick by. Finally she turns away with a small sigh.
“You aren’t what I expected, Eliza.”
I don’t know how to respond. But I don’t have to because she continues, turning back to me with a small smile on her face.
“But I’m really grateful for that.”

*

“Elly!”
Harrison knocks me backward in a giant tackle hug and I laugh. I dropped Robin by her new apartment in the Godparent complex a few minutes ago, and walked into my home to find Harrison lying in wait. We collapse in the hallway of my apartment, with him planting a frenzy of kisses all over my face while I giggle.
“Hey sweetie,” I laugh between kisses. “Why the affectionate greeting?”
He grins and pushes himself up, giving me a hand to help me up. He grabs me around the middle and squeezes, the top of his head brushing my chin.
“I just missed you today,” he answers, then pulls back to look up at me with a smile. “It was weird going on assignment without you.”
I give him a hug back and kiss the top of his head. We stand like that for a few minutes, just holding each other, happy to be together again.
“Same here, Hare,” I whisper against his hair, feeling exhausted from the emotional roller coaster I just went through. I crave the simplicity of going on assignment with Harrison, and can’t wait to get back to my old routine.
We move over to
the living room, and I tell Harrison about the first assignment with Robin. We both sit cross-legged on my cushy suede couch, facing each other. While I talk, Harrison holds my hand, gently playing with my fingers.
“What do you think she meant?”
Harrison raises his eyebrow in question while squeezing my hand. I clarify.
“I mean, what do you think she meant by ‘I’m not what she expected’?”
He considers the question while absently raising my hand to his lips to give my knuckles a kiss. I squeeze his hand in mine.
“Well, maybe she just meant what she said?”
I snort at the non-answer.
“Hang on, I’m not done. Regular citizens don’t know much about us Godparents, and since we have such an exclusive job description I’m sure there’s more than a few horror stories about us going around.”
I nod. That would make sense. He continues.
“I don’t know her, but maybe she was expecting someone really harsh and scary. And when she met you maybe she was really surprised because you’re so nice and approachable. And then, after tonight, when she freaked out about the Wish completion, you didn’t mock or berate her. Sure you were tough and made sure she completed the assignment, but you didn’t abandon her afterwards. Instead, you stayed with her and gave her some comforting advice to help her do better in the future.”
Harrison releases his hand from mine and reaches forward to tuck a silver lock of hair behind my ear. He gives me a gentle, reassuring smile, and kisses my cheek. My shoulders fall slightly—I hadn’t realized how tense they were—as relaxation washes
o
ver me. He always has that effect on me; no matter what is going on in my life, Harrison is my safe place.
“Thank you, Harrison.” I give him a hug. “You always know what to say.” I lean
back against the armrest of my sofa. “
So, how was your assignment?”
“Oh,” he says, waving a hand in the air, “nothing special. I don’t really get the appeal of the ‘mugging’ deaths. I mean, they happen so frequently, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you want your final experience to be. You could ask for
anything
, and you ask to be the victim of a petty crime for your big exit?”
He rolls his eyes and I nod.
“I don’t get it either. What did he have you take?”
I take his hand again and flip it over so I can massage his palm. He sighs appreciatively and continues his story.
“He had some platinum bracelets and clip-on zirconia earrings. At least I
thought
they were clip-on, until his earlobes tore open when I yanked them out.”
Harrison shudders and I grimace.
“Yeah, nasty surprise for me. Anyway, that’s not the exciting part! Something totally
weird
happened when I came back to the office.”
“Really?” My interest is piqued. We see a lot of weird things every day in our line of work. For Harrison to find it strange, it must be
really
unusual. “What happened?”
“Well, I was heading back to the office to drop off the client’s Chip and my costume when I noticed a guy standing outside our entrance to the building. He was running his hands all over the wall, like he was looking for something. I thought that maybe he mixed up the Godparent entrance with the one for clients, so I started walking toward him to point him in the right direction. Well, the second he saw me this guy
freaks
. He yelled at me that ‘we’re all going to pay’, or something like that, and ran away.” Harrison shrugs. “No idea where that came from.”
I roll my eyes dismissively. “He’s probably never seen a Godparent in person and just got scared.”
Harrison nods. “Yeah, I guess. I wonder what he was looking for, though... And what did he mean by ‘we’re all going to pay’?”
I shake my head. Godparents are no strangers to animosity. I’ve been the victim of verbal threats so many times that it’s practically a daily occurrence for me. That’s why I dislike completing Wishes in public settings so much—there’s usually at least one passerby who feels the need to scream their hatred at me. But Harrison hasn’t gone on as many assignments as I have, and he’s still affected by each threat.
“Who knows? He’s probably just losing his pebbles.”
Harrison snorts before correcting me, saying the Old World phrase is “losing his
marbles
”, not pebbles. We both laugh, and with that the rest of the night passes as our evenings together usually do.
Even though I was able to assuage Harrison’s worries, the words of the lone man do stick with me. It would be so easy to dismiss them as the angry, nonsensical ravings of a disgruntled citizen. But I can’t help but worry that they signal something terrible to come.

Wish 10

The next morning Harrison and I head in to the office together. It’s a beautiful, sunny day outside, without any clouds to interrupt the blue of the sky. I stretch my arms behind my head happily and the hem of my green t-shirt rises slightly above the waistband of my denim shorts. Harrison walks next to me, dressed in a form-fitting, charcoal gray Henley t-shirt and slim-cut white jeans. He’s wearing gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses, and with his perfectly tousled blonde and blue hair he looks like a rock star who just rolled out of bed. He catches me looking at him and pulls the sunglasses down the bridge of his nose to wink.
“Like what you see, little lady?”
“Little?” I scrunch my nose up with mock offense. “I think you’re confused there, short one. And yes, I do like what I see quite a bit. It’s sexy.”
He laughs and I slip my hand in to his with a smile as we continue our walk to Fairy Godparent Headquarters. A need for a morning boost of caffeine led us to
The Roasted Roost
before work, so now we walk outside the Godparent complex, iced lattes in hand. Harrison still seems a little shaken by the threat of the stranger yesterday, and matters aren’t being helped by the people who pass us. Those who live nearby are less wary, since they interact with members of the Godparents Organization frequently. But the city is so densely populated that we still get dirty looks from plenty of pedestrians. Most people do their best to avoid eye contact, quickening their steps in a fearful attempt to get by us as quickly as possible. But angry whispers of “murderer” and “Godparent scum” are still spat at us while we move through the foot traffic. I look at Harrison out of the corner of my eye. His profile is rigid. I slip my hand from his and move it to his shoulder, rubbing soothing circles into the tense muscles.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, baby,” I whisper. I shoot an angry glare to a brunette man about to open his mouth. The man blanches and runs, swallowing his insult before I gave him a chance to voice it. “They hate us now, but they’ll love us when they decide it’s time to die.”
Harrison nods and places his hand over mine.
I’m no longer hurt by it, but when I see my partner’s pain I can’t help but wonder why we are forced to accept this hatred when we’re just doing what we’re told to.
I square my shoulders and move forward, bracing myself against the hate and fear that I have endured daily for six years. That’s the price of being a Fairy Godparent.

*

Not one minute after we retreated into the safety of my office, a receptionist from the Clerical Department pokes her head in. Harrison stops the story he was telling and we both look up at our visitor.
“Godmother Hayworth, Godfather Berthold, your presence is required in the debriefing room.”
“Thanks, Anna,” we say in unison. She gives us a quick nod before leaving. I turn to Harrison, confused.
“Debriefing room? Do we have any new Wish submissions?”
“I don’t
think
so,” he responds, seeming unsure. He looks down at a list on top of my desk. “I have a stabbing scheduled for next week, Albert has to orchestrate a self-immolation in two days, and it looks like you and Robin are slotted for the next submission we get.”
He stands up and reaches out his hand to help me from my chair. We leave the office in time to see Robin come around the corner. She shoots me a quizzical look. I motion her over and she joins us as we walk down the hallway to the debriefing room.
“Good morning, Robin.” I greet her with a cheerful grin.
“Hello, Eliza,” she says, returning my grin with a small, shy smile of her own. She looks at Harrison curiously.
“Oh, right.” I smack my forehead at my lapse of manners. “How rude of me. Robin, this is Harrison. Harrison, this is Robin.” I gesture between my partner and protégé to I make introductions. Harrison shakes Robin’s hand.
“So
you’re
the pixie who stole my lady from me?” Harrison crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. A blush steals across Robin’s face and she stammers, trying to come up with a response. Harrison laughs and nudges her shoulder.
“I’m just kidding, Robin. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“Oh,” she says with an awkward smile, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s nice to meet you too.”
I smile and slide my hand across Harrison’s back. “Harrison and I have been partners for about three years now,” I explain to Robin.
“Yeah,” Harrison says, resting a hand on my hip. “And we’ve been working together for roughly the same amount of time.” He winks at Robin. I roll my eyes and lightly slap his shoulder while he laughs. Robin smiles shyly.
“
Yes
,” I chuckle, planting a kiss on his temple. “He’s my partner at work and at home. Now shush, they’re starting.”
We walk into the debriefing room just as the lights begin to dim. We stand towards the back of the room with a collection of other Godparents. At the other end of the room is a screen, it’s surface blank at the moment. A projector whirs noisily above our heads.
Jenny, a curvy brunette Godmother whose office is across the hall from mine, smiles and waves when we walk in. I wave back. There are around twenty people in the room, most of them Godparents, but there are also some people who work in the Clerical Department. I even see a couple of people who I can only assume are Surgeons. Their medical scrubs make them stand out. I am about to ask the Godfather standing next to me if he knows what’s going on, but at that moment Primary Godfather Johnson strides to the front of the room and clears his throat. The assembled group goes quiet, the light chatter instantly silenced. The Primary nods to a group in the back; the receptionists and other staff members of the Clerical Department shuffle out of the room. The last one to leave shuts the door. Whatever we’re about to hear is, apparently, for Godparent ears only.
“Good afternoon, everyone.”
The Primary greets us formally, his powerful voice easily filling the room. His expression is sterner than normal. If I wasn’t sure before, I’m now certain that this meeting wasn’t called for positive reasons.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering why you’ve been asked here today.”
There are murmurs of agreement, and the Primary raises his hand for silence.
“We are here today because something has happened. Something
bad
. Last night, two citizens died.”
There is silence after his statement, and more than a few confused looks are exchanged throughout the group. Harrison looks at me and mouthes
What is he talking about?
I shrug.
“Um, Primary Johnson?”
A timid Godfather at the front of the room raises his hand. The Primary looks at him, and the Godfather has to clear his throat before continuing.
“S-sir, I’m confused about why two people dying warrants a meeting. I mean, we complete Death Wishes every day…”
His voice trails off at the Primary’s piercing gaze. But the Primary nods before turning back to the assembly.
“That is true, Godfather O’Malley, we do complete Death Wishes daily. But that is not why we are here. We are
here
because the two people who died… did not submit Wishes.”
Now a collection of gasps meets his words. I inhale sharply. They didn’t submit Wishes? That’s impossible. Only the Godparents, Life Chip Engineers, and Surgeons know how to end life. And since the Clerical Department holds onto our Life Chip Extractors until we’re out on assignment, there’s no way a Godparent can kill someone while off the clock.
A few people in the group give voice to my thoughts, but the Primary raises his hand once more. The room goes silent and he continues.
“To learn more about the details of these deaths, I have brought in Doctor Timothy Alquist and Doctor Harriet Sloan, two members of our city’s surgical team. Please give them your undivided attention.”
The two Surgeons I noticed at the beginning of this meeting walk forward. Their white scrubs may match, but physically they couldn’t be more different. Doctor Alquist is extremely tall and thin, with pale skin and a shock of red hair, while Doctor Sloan is short and curved, with cocoa-colored skin and long, black hair that’s been braided and draped across her shoulder.
“Thank you, Primary Godfather Johnson,” says Doctor Sloan in a smoky voice. She steps forward while Doctor Alquist turns and types on a nearby keyboard. The projector whirs, and a picture of a Life Chip comes on screen.
“As you all know,” she says, addressing the group while gesturing to the picture, “the Life Chip is the invention that has granted humankind practical immortality. Before now, all that the Fairy Godparent Organization knew about the Life Chip is that everyone is implanted with one immediately after birth, and that death can only be achieved if it is removed. But because of the recent, sudden deaths without a Death Wish in the area, we have decided it would be prudent to explain a bit more about the inner-workings of the Chips to the local Godparents.”
Alquist taps a key and the screen behind Sloan changes to an image of a man and woman. They both have deep chestnut hair, olive skin and closed eyes.
“This is a picture of the deceased: Mr. and Mrs. Joel and Beverly Smith. They were found by their neighbor, Ms. Amelia DiAngelo, collapsed in their apartment. There was no evidence of a break-in, and their Life Chips were still intact. They remained under the skin at the base of the skull and were unharmed.”
“Wait a minute,” Harrison calls out at my side, raising his hand to get Sloan’s attention. She nods for him to continue.
“You just said the Life Chips were the reason for our limitless life spans. How could they have died while their Chips were still okay?”
Her face becomes stony. “Because they weren’t okay,” she replies, and with a nod at Alquist the picture changes again. Now there is another picture of the Life Chip, but this time it’s accompanied with a graphic of it attached to the top of the spine. Sloan continues her explanation.
“As you are all aware, the basic function of the Life Chips is to speed cellular generation. From its position at the top of the spinal column, the Chip intercepts neural signals and modifies them slightly. Essentially, what it does is kick the regenerative properties of cells into overdrive. This means that a wound inflicted on a person without the Chip would take days to fully heal. But now, with the Chip altering the speed at which the cells heal the body, the process only takes a few moments.”
The next slide on the screen is a diagram of the human form.
“The Chip works on every single area of the body, meaning that no matter where you are injured, it tells the body to heal at an exponentially faster rate than it is capable of doing naturally.”
Another hand raises in the audience, and Sloan nods at them. This time it’s Jenny, the Godmother I waved to before the meeting started.
“Um, I’m a bit confused.” Her voice is high and nervous. “I understand how the Chip works, but something doesn’t make sense. If the Chip increases the body’s rate of healing that drastically, doesn’t that run down our bodies really quickly? I mean, I thought that organs had a certain limit to how much abuse they can take. Shouldn’t we all be dying
earlier
because of the Chips?”
Sloan smiles, and the image of a professor teaching a classroom comes to mind.
“That is a very good point, and it
would
be the case if not for the second purpose of the Life Chip.”
A
second
purpose?
I straighten up, my attention completely captured. I thought the Godparent Organization told us everything there is to know about the Chips, but apparently that’s not the case.
Alquist hits the button on his keyboard again, and now a Life Chip and a team of surgeons grace the screen behind Sloan.
“In addition to increasing neural healing signals, the Chips also monitor the state of the body.”
Sloan gestures to the screen behind her.
“Each internal organ has a certain ‘lifespan’, and the Life Chip keeps an eye on that. Before the invention of the Chips, most human organs would have an average lifespan of fifty to seventy years. The older each part got, the worse they would function, and if this process was not intercepted with surgery or medication the organ would eventually fail. But since everyone has been installed with the Life Chips, this type of intervention is no longer needed. When a part of the body is nearing its expiration, be it the muscles in an arm or the person’s liver, it will send a signal to the Surgeons who work for the Security division. Upon reception of this signal, we send out a message to that individual that they need to report to the doctor for a check-up. You have all received these check-ups before, I’m sure.”
I certainly have.
“During the check-up, us Surgeons will take a new clone of the body part needed and replace the dying one with the new, healthy one. The average citizen usually only needs a check-up every ten years, but due to the nature of your profession, Godparents are more likely to have a check-up at least every two years.”
I had noticed that my doctor’s appointments seemed to increase in frequency whenever I completed a particularly violent Death Wish, but I never really gave any thought to it.
Sloan nods to Alquist, and he moves forward while she retreats back to the keyboard. He clears his throat and continues where she left off in a soft voice.
“What we have concluded, with the cases of Mr. and Mrs. DiAngelo, is that the Life Chips stopped sending updates about the states of their bodies. Now, the Chip is programmed to send out a message if any component is malfunctioning, but we never received the message. So we believe that one of two possible scenarios occurred: either the Life Chips were told to stop sending out updates, or the message to the doctors was intercepted. We are still examining the Chips, but in either case it means that their organs ran through their life cycle, began shutting down, and led to their deaths.”
“So what does that mean? Did the Chips just screw up, or did someone tamper with them?” I can’t see who shouted, but they are angry.
Alquist jumps slightly at the questions, and clears his throat again before answering.
“W-well, we are still examining their Chips, so we cannot answer that question right now—”
“Well what are we supposed to do then?” Another person has joined the conversation. “You said their Chips weren’t physically damaged
—t
hat means someone could be killing off people without their knowledge!”
This is met with a wave of agreeing murmurs. Alquist begins to sweat and clears his throat multiple times. Clearly, he is out of his element in front of this large group of irate Godparents. Fortunately, Sloan steps forward to deal with the crowd.
“We don’t
know
if that’s the case,” she shouts above the mutters of everyone. “But while we find out what led to this development there is something everyone here can do.”
A few people quiet down, and with an impatient cough from the Primary the rest of the group falls silent.
“Be
aware
of what’s going on around you,” Sloan continues, lowering her voice back to its normal, husky volume. “The first thing we need to do is determine if someone tampered with the Life Chip system. It would be very helpful to the Surgeons and Engineers of the Chips if you could all keep an eye on your surroundings. Is someone going where they shouldn’t? Is someone asking oddly specific questions about the Chips? If you hear or see anything suspect, please report it to your Primary. If you all do this, it will help speed along our investigation. Until then,
please
remain calm. It could have been nothing more than a simple malfunction. As long as you all keep your eyes and ears open we’ll be able to sort this out soon enough.”
She turns around, grabs the keyboard, and motions for Alquist to follow her out of the room. The screen goes blank, the projector is silent. Alquist gives a small, nervous nod to the Primary, who moves to the center of the room again as the two Surgeons exit.
“Thank you all for coming. As soon as I hear more details about this incident, I will inform you. Now, back to work.”
He motions to the door, and we begin shuffling out of the debriefing room.