Embers & Ice (Rouge) (16 page)

“I
can’t help but notice,” he growled, “that you’re a little lacking in power
right now and I… well, I don’t think I need to paint you a picture of the kind
of energy radiating through me. It tingles all the way down to my toes.”

Hunter
looked around with her eyes – because her head wouldn’t move – and saw that the
guards were closing in on them, talking into their earpieces, warily
approaching the threat. After the attack from the raging dinosaur, Hunter
wondered if Jet was even worth the caution, but apparently there was nothing
any of them could do but stay back and wait. Alfie lay on the floor,
unconscious, and the only other person whose powers were useful was Marcus.
He’d passed out after electrocuting Alfie.

“So
what are you gonna do?” she asked, trying to keep him distracted. “Now that you
have your powers back? Will you escape?”

His
smile twisted to the side. “Oh baby, no way. You gotta plan things like that.
And you know what they say: keep your friends close–” He grabbed the collar of
her jumpsuit and yanked her to within an inch of his face. “–And your enemies
closer.”

One
of the Men in White decided to take action. He took a running leap over a table
and dove towards Jet, his arms stretched out as though he were flying. Hunter
felt the return of gravity as Jet released her and her legs caved in. She
caught sight of the guard just as Jet’s arm flew in a wide arc. The guard
soared across the room, his back thumping against the wall where he slid to the
floor and didn’t move.

Jet
smiled, but it was only the beginning. More Men in White started attacking,
their tasers at the ready and their fists flying. Jet seemed to take it all as
a game, ducking under their punches and flicking his wrist, sending them all
spinning into furniture and cackling madly. Out of the corner of her eye Hunter
saw the other kids start to whisper to each other. They pointed at something
she couldn’t see from the ground. She hauled herself to her feet and saw Mosi
stride forward – a dark shape amidst the white – with a little blond head
walking before him.

Hunter
tried to call out, praying Sammy wasn’t about to attack Jet. But it was too
late. A blinding light radiated from him, burning like a spotlight straight at
Jet. He screamed and shielded his eyes and in a moment, Mosi had thrown himself
against Jet and wrapped his strong arms around his neck. Jet tried to rip at
Mosi’s skin with his power, but Mosi’s diamond-tough skin protected him. After
a few seconds of struggling, Jet went limp in his arms.

Hunter
surveyed the havoc of the breakfast hall and the unconscious guards. The others
were crawling out from behind the upturned tables, fearfully watching as Mosi
threw Jet’s body to the floor and met eyes with Hunter.
Now it’s over,
they
said. He looked down at his arms, flexed his wrists and smiled.

Hunter
understood that look. He wanted to escape. And now would be the perfect
opportunity – at least six Men in White were down and, though there would be
more, if they could all remove their restraints at once there might be a chance
they could make it out.

She
opened her mouth to shout at Mosi when a blaring alarm sounded throughout the
institution. It was not at all like the gong of the morning bell that woke her
or the alarm that sounded as Alfie turned. Hunter covered her ears and dropped
to the ground as everything flashed red. In an instant, she saw Will crawling
towards her.

“Hunter!”

The
room darkened. A strange smell filled her head and Hunter looked around. A hazy
mist came from nowhere and forced her eyes to close.

Stay
awake!
the fire begged her.
Find a way out!

The
mist was making her sleepy. She felt her cheek press against the cold
institution floor. A hand closed around hers and she lifted her head slightly
to see a shape falling down beside her; a boy with doe eyes and brown hair. Her
world disappeared but his hand did not, and she remembered that as she met
darkness once more.

TWENTY-NINE

After
the breakfast hall incident, things at DC went back to the way they were when
Hunter first arrived: cold, tense and nasty. Dr. Wolfe ordered her locked up in
Solitary for forty-eight hours, along with Marcus and Will and anyone else he
thought was involved in the dinosaur attack. Hunter stewed over the injustice
of it while she rocked back and forth in a strait jacket like some sort of
lunatic. Jet deserved to be in Solitary – and he was, for a whole week – but
Will did not deserve it, and neither did Mosi or little Sammy, who was only trying
to be brave.

While
in Solitary, Hunter had time – a lot of time – to think deeply about what she’d
seen over the past few weeks. The secret rooms downstairs, the interrogations,
the lack in security and the fact that Dr. Wolfe hadn’t been at his most
murderous in days felt like puzzle pieces that were trying to form a picture,
but all it looked like was one of Picasso’s famous paintings. Nothing made
sense, but she knew without a doubt that something was distracting the doctor.

Hunter
squirmed on the hard cement floor, staring at the blank walls and the shadow of
the light in the silent corridor outside, and couldn’t get her thoughts to shut
up. They were choppy like rough waters and didn’t make sense. She argued with
the voice in her mind until she dipped in and out of consciousness. At one
point she opened her eyes and saw a figure of her own self sitting cross-legged
against the opposite wall. Only this figure was on fire, flames dancing lightly
over her skin, smiling as though she knew something that Hunter herself didn’t.

You’re
going crazy,
she said.

“I
am not,” Hunter replied, and her voice was hoarse. Her need for water deepened
every time she woke up.

Then
why am I here?

“I
don’t know, to keep me sane?” She wheezed a dry cough. “To help me organize my
thoughts?”

Go
ahead then, lay it on me. You were thinking about that little black key,
weren’t you?

Hunter
rolled over and stared at the roof. “It was there the whole time and none of us
knew about it.”

And
now it’s gone.

“What?”

Well
Dr. Wolfe isn’t going to let them anywhere near you, not after what Jet did.
Your chances of ever escaping have just been minimized even more so.

“Great.
And what about Dr. Wolfe’s secret downstairs escapades?”

I
know no more than you do,
her double snorted.
But it would be
worth a look, right?

Hunter
stared at her. The flames were entrancing and made her sleepy. “If it means
getting out of here, then yeah, it would definitely be worth it.”

What
will you do once you get out? Go back to New York? Leave your new friends?

Hunter
found herself dreading ever departing from the wonderful people she’d met in
ICE. She longed to be with Will in the old quarters, to sit with the others at
breakfast, laughing over Zac’s jokes or watching Fearne make strange pictures
in her food. Despite her present company, Hunter suddenly felt lonelier than
ever, and it was in that moment that she started thinking of Eli again.

Each
time she imagined him, they were lying on his bed in the soft glow of his
lamps, their legs wrapped around each other, their faces inches apart.
Everything was warm and joyful. Eli’s glasses were slipping to the edge of his
nose, but he pushed them up just in time. He smiled and a dimple formed in his
cheeks. His fingers left goosebumps on her skin as he ran his hand up her arm,
to her shoulder and her neck and then to her chin, where he guided her toward
him and pressed his lips against hers.

But
his lips were cold, colder than the cement floor on which her cheek rested.
Tears spilled from her eyes and dripped onto the ground. It just didn’t feel
real anymore. She was forgetting him, and every day she felt emptier and
emptier and the only things that filled the hole in her heart were the things
that distracted her. But there, in Solitary, she was alone.

Not
completely alone,
said her other self, and something inside
Hunter squirmed with uneasiness at the look the girl on fire gave her.

Hunter
fell asleep somewhere between that period, and in her dreams, something strange
happened.

She
was sitting in the dirty, empty aquarium in front of the giant blue tank where
Rose and Halle danced. She watched them not with sadness as she had the weeks
that followed Eli’s death, but with surprising numbness. And as she sat on the
bench, someone came and sat beside her. Hunter turned and saw Fearne. The blue
waters glimmered in her wide, knowing eyes. And somehow, Hunter wasn’t stunned
to see her there.

“I
very much like these dolphins,” said Fearne. “I’ve seen them before in your
dreams.”

Hunter
wrapped her arms around herself. “So this is another one of your gifts, right?”

“Dream
walking,” she nodded. “Dr. Wolfe can’t stop it, but it’s harmless.”

“Can
you talk to anyone?”

“So
far, it’s just the people I’m close to. I talk to Will a lot in his dreams.
Some of the others I’ve visited, but they don’t like it much.”

Hunter
gave her a smile. “I like it. I’ve been a bit lonely lately.”

“Yeah,”
she grinned, “I know what that’s like.”

“So,
if you can visit dreams, does that mean you can find out what happened to
Alfie?”

Fearne
looked down at her hands. Her face was painted with sadness. “I can’t reach
him. It’s like there’s something blocking his mind, a wall I can’t break down.
I hope Dr. Wolfe didn’t…”

“I’m
sure he’s fine.” Hunter didn’t really believe that, but she wanted to reassure
her anyway. Lately Hunter had felt herself become very protective over the
younger children at the institution. Perhaps it was a quality she’d never had
the opportunity to use, having grown up alone.

Fearne
reached out and put a hand on Hunter’s clenched fist. She flinched, expecting
it to be cold like Eli’s lips, but it felt like nothing but air.

“You’re
trying to do too much at once, Hunter,” she said softly. “Don’t feel like it’s
your responsibility to hold us all up. With the fighting in the fitness room
and rescuing us from Alfie… you’re too fragile to carry all of this.”

“Someone’s
gotta do it, if not for you and the others, at least for the younger ones.”
Hunter breathed a laugh. She’d forgotten Fearne was still a child too, but
mature enough to be older than even Will.

“Someone
does. But right now, you need to put the past behind you.”

Rose
and Halle laughed and clicked and nodded, as if in agreement with Fearne.
Hunter shook her head. “I have. I’ve moved on, I’m not even thinking about him
anymore.”

“You
can’t lie to a mind reader Hunter,” she said. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”

Hunter
bit her lip. She wanted to be strong for her, for the others. She didn’t want
to cry. But Fearne gave her hand another squeeze, and Hunter knew it was pointless.
Fearne knew her now well enough.

“I
didn’t give myself enough time to grieve for him,” she murmured through a
clogged throat. “I had a few weeks after his death, and then I was brought
here, and the only times I have even a minute to spare a thought for him are at
night before I go to sleep, and in my nightmares. So much has happened since
then that I’ve forgotten who he was without having moved on.”

Nodding,
Fearne stood up slowly and walked towards the tank. There, she pressed a small
hand against the glass, her breath fogging the surface as she watched the
dolphins.

“You
need to find peace,” she said.

Hunter
wiped the tears from her cheeks. “How do I find peace when I’m stuck in hell?”

Fearne
turned, her smile twisted to the side. Her green eyes were as bright as the
water. She held out a hand to her. “Start here.”

Without
a thought, Hunter took the young girl’s hand. Fearne pressed her palm against
the cool glass and a wave of water washed through her. But it wasn’t damaging
like ice, it seemed to cleanse her. It calmed the burning fire that was tired
of being trapped. The water was refreshing.

But
it did nothing to surpass the hurt she still felt inside.

“Sometimes
it just takes a small step,” Fearne said in answer to her thoughts. “I know you
won’t forget Eli, Hunter, and he won’t forget you. When someone dies, the love
they give you will never leave.”

Something
clicked in her mind and she stared down at Fearne in amazement. “That’s what
you meant when you said to me ‘it never leaves you’, on my second day here.”

“Yep,”
she beamed. “I may look mad, but it’s all up here.” She tapped her temple and
giggled. “Just know that it’s okay to move on and to forget, because our loved
ones are always with us. And maybe… after you’ve moved on… you can make room
for another?”

She
fixed Hunter with a strong, meaningful gaze and Hunter blinked in surprise. Had
Fearne noticed how much time she and Will had been spending together? It was
true that Hunter had feelings for Will, but they weren’t feelings of love just
yet. More of comfort and the need for a friend. Was that because she still
loved Eli?

“Thank
you Fearne,” said Hunter through blurry eyes. “And you’re right. It will take
time. Lucky I’ve got all the time in the world.”

“Maybe
not all the time.”

Hunter
frowned at the gloom in her eyes, like a giant charcoal cloud looming on the
horizon.

“What
do you mean?” she asked, thinking of the time she saw Fearne torturing a
scientist. “What does Dr. Wolfe have planned? What’s gonna happen?”

Fearne
whispered something inaudible. It was as if someone controlling the dream
suddenly muted her voice.

“What?”

“Now
isn’t the time for that Hunter,” she smiled reassuringly. “Just remember this…
you cannot truly find peace until you have said goodbye.”

With
that, Fearne stood and backed away into the aquarium, swallowed up by the dark
room, and vanished.

Hunter
looked back at the glass, at the reflection of her dull, red hair and hollow
figure from not enough food, at the bags under her eyes that were slowly
turning her into a zombie like the others. But while her body looked weak and
unhealthy, her mind was strong. Now she had a goal; to pick herself up, to not
be that broken girl still hunted by the ghosts of her past. There were bigger
things to fear, things that she needed to be strong for. People she needed to
fight for.

In
the reflection, a shadow suddenly appeared behind her. He had green speckled
eyes, dirty blond hair and an innocent, perfect smile. He waved goodbye to her,
and then he was gone.