The Regenerates (13 page)

Ven’s palms began to sweat. Rex had given him this name. He said he had heard one of the snotty women from town using it during one of Flora’s parties. He prayed that whoever Craven Spiers was, he was well-liked by the Ambassador.

“I didn’t know Spiers had children,” the man said.

Ven chose not to respond. The less he said, the better. “Well? Can I come in, please?”

The man narrowed his eyes, but to Ven’s relief he opened the door and let him in.

Ven nodded curtly and entered the palatial mansion. He still thought the palace back home was nicer, but it felt wonderful being surrounded by luxury after so long, even if none of it was his.

“Half of the meeting has already commenced,” the man said. “Your father is obviously ill-informed, as usual. We are currently in the middle of a break. The meeting will resume in twenty minutes. Kindly help yourself to refreshments, and we will let you know when it is time to resume.”

Perfect. Twenty minutes was more than what he needed. He thanked the man and as nonchalantly as possible, walked up the grand staircase.

The mansion was full of lavishly-dressed people. The clothing style might have been different, but it still felt like home. The women’s dresses were flowery and elaborate and their hairstyles were outlandish, but beautiful nonetheless. The men wore neat silk suits and wide-brimmed hats.

Ven wouldn’t have been surprised to see Hans or Florentine around here somewhere. He smiled to himself, missing his friends.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he stopped at the end of a long hallway. The floor was lined with a deep purple velvet, and ceramic ornaments decorated the corridor. He continued along the hallway until he reached a large mahogany door. This was Flora’s room, and it was the first place he was going to try. Coralie could be anywhere, but he had decided to start in the obvious place and work his way around the house.

He had to hurry.

When Ven knocked, a girl with blonde hair tied in a massive pouf at the top of her head answered the door. She blushed when she saw Ven and squealed to her friends, lifting up her long gown and dashing inside. Ven was almost afraid. It was like looking at an obnoxious Florentine. Moments later, another girl came to the door. She was very pretty. Her long, auburn hair was tied in a plait around her neck and she wore a beautifully embroidered maroon dress.

“Who’re you?” she asked.

To his shock, Ven found himself turning red. “I-I think I’m in the wrong place,” he lied. He wanted to slap himself. He didn’t stutter when he talked to girls. Maybe when he talked to boys who were taller than him and had muscles, of which he had none, but he had always considered himself to be quite confident around girls his age.

“Invite him in, Flora, he’s sweet.”

Oh no. This was not part of the plan. “I can’t stay. I was looking for someone, one of your maids. She promised me a glass of sparkling water ages ago and I’ve still gotten nothing. She had ginger hair, if that helps.”

“Oh, Caroline is always a failure. I don’t even know why I hired her. I suppose I just thought she looked nice. Oh well. Plenty where that came from. Hey, Moira, get my cake, would you?” She turned to her friend. “It’s like they’ve all picked today to get brain damage.”

Flora flipped her hair and turned her back to Ven. If the first girl had been an obnoxious Florentine, then this girl was the female version of Kayn. But who was Caroline? Had Coralie changed her name?

“I’d like to speak with her, if that’s alright,” said Ven. “I won’t file a complaint. We all mess up once in a while. I’ll just tell her she has to be more responsible. Where can I find her?”

Flora and her friends stared at Ven like he was a fool for defending servants. “She’ll probably be in the kitchen with the rest of them.”

“Thank you.”

He turned and left, and Flora closed her bedroom door behind him. He could feel butterflies in his stomach. What if this Caroline just happened to have the same hair color?

He headed down the staircase and shuffled past the crowd of extravagant party-goers with thin glasses in their hands to an opulent dining room. He only had about twelve minutes left to find Coralie. When he had located the kitchen, just beyond an elaborate display cabinet, he forced open the swinging doors and peered inside, his heart racing.

Inside, half a dozen maids were bustling about cooking, cleaning, and scrubbing away at the dishes. He scanned the heads until finally, he saw a flash of ginger.

“Excuse me,” he said to the closest maid. She turned to him. “Could you ask Caroline to come here? I need to talk to her.”

“Did she do something wrong, sir?”

“No, nothing. I need to ask her something about the food. Could you send her here, please?”

“Right away, sir!”

The girl called out, and Caroline peeked her head out from behind the crowd of maids, then walked up to Ven. As soon as he got a glimpse of her face, his heart sank to the bottoms of his feet.

Caroline was Caroline. Not Coralie. She wasn’t here.

The dejection on his face must have been very visible, because Caroline the maid looked nervous.

“What’s the matter, sir?”

The crushing disappointment was making his chest heavy. “Are there any other female staff working here who have the same hair color as you?” There was a hint of desperation in his voice.

Caroline looked at him blankly.

“I know it’s a dumb thing to ask, but I’m just wondering.”

Still appearing perplexed, she thought for a moment. “I don’t know about girls, but there’s this strange boy who has the same hair color as me. He takes care of the garbage, mostly. He’s out in the back garden all the time.”

Ven didn’t know what made him thank her as he made his way to the back garden. But he went anyway. He refused to give up. He walked, farther and farther, not caring that the meeting he was supposed to attend was going to start in less than three minutes. When he reached the large glass doors leading to the garden behind the mansion, he looked around, not knowing what he was supposed to be looking for. It was dark now, save for the lamps that adorned the lawn. Ven walked the whole perimeter of the garden, his heart sinking faster with every step he took.

Then his eyes fell upon a face that he could never forget. No matter how she wore her hair, whether she had it tied and hidden under a bandana or messily knotted at the top of her head, he would know her anywhere.

Coralie was standing four feet away from him. She was wearing boys’ gardening clothes and had a large metal shovel in her hand, digging away at weeds in a flower patch under a bright lamp.

“Hey,” he said.

Coralie jumped. The bandana that had been hiding her hair fell to the ground. When she squinted in the low light and made out who had spoken, the shovel suddenly lay in the dirt, forgotten. She stared and stared.

“Ven? What–”

“Let’s get out of here, Coralie.”

She didn’t say anything. After a moment, she stumbled towards him and began to cry. Tears were falling down her face to the grass, and she did nothing to stop them. When she finally reached him, Coralie flung her arms around him.

“What’s with you?” He hugged her back. “You never cry.”

His voice had become oddly quiet.

Like a wave, he felt pain for how their lives had changed so quickly. But everything was alright now. He didn’t care if he had to sleep in the dirt, because the one connection he had to his old life was here with him, and everything would be fine.

“We need to get out of here,” said Ven. “Let’s just run. Jump over the bush and run.”

Coralie sniffed and nodded. She took his hand.

“What’s going on here?” came a haughty, cruel voice. They wheeled around to see Flora frowning at them. “You’re not – you’re not a boy. Who are you, really?” she said, looking directly at Coralie now.

“I’m a girl. Is that a problem?”

“It’s a problem because you’re a liar. You lied to the people who put clothes on your back and gave you food to eat. We could have you arrested, you know.”

“And yet, your garden is ten times nicer than the garbage dump it was before I started to work here. Who cares what my gender is? Did you ever think for a minute in that flowery head of yours that I just liked dressing like a boy?”

Flora’s nostrils began to flare. “
Daddy!
” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Without wasting another second, Ven grabbed Coralie and ran, as fast as his legs could bear. He would not let some spoilt brat mess things up, not after they had come so far. He kicked aside the lawn chairs and colorful clay vases lining the neat lawn. He didn’t dare look back to see if Flora was in pursuit.

They leaped through a wall of hedges, making a beeline for a row of trees beside the mansion to use as cover. They had just managed to reach the front lawn when three armed men appeared, clicked their blasters and took aim at their foreheads. Ven and Coralie froze. Ven hastily looked around for an exit, but they were surrounded.

“You’ll have to stop there, I’m afraid.”

The Ambassador had appeared in front of the armed men. “You see, we did a little investigating. I had heard from my associate that Spiers sent his son in to attend the meeting in his place, and after a moment of surprise, I realized something interesting. Spiers isn’t even married, or for that matter, in the country. Now you’re seen here with a cross-dressing gardener. You’ll understand if we can’t just let you waltz out of here.”

Flora appeared behind her father, looking triumphant.

Ven glanced at Coralie hopelessly, just as a deafening noise came from inside the mansion. They turned around to see smoke rising from the second floor. Moments later, another explosion erupted, and then another.

“Hey, run, you idiots!”

They looked behind them to see Rex hiding up a tree.

Thanking the stars for the diversion and making a mental note to buy Rex and his gang all a feast, Ven grabbed Coralie’s hand and used the commotion to dash behind the trees and out of sight.

A shot rang out from behind the tree. Ven and Coralie jumped and looked back to see Rex on his knees, clutching at his chest. Beneath his shirt, a dark red stain was beginning to grow larger and larger.

Rex’s eyes were wide open, as if he was unable to comprehend what had just happened. He looked down at his chest. His small body fell to the ground and moved no more.

Ice began to spread through Ven’s blood. He stood rigid, frozen to the earth, unable to process what had just happened. Coralie clamped her hands to her mouth. Ven looked up to see the Ambassador aiming a smoking pistol at the boy’s heart.

“Now stay where you are,” he said. “Or I will shoot a second time.”

Ven couldn’t move his mouth. His tongue had become extremely dry. Beside him, Coralie was shaking.

“Follow me,” the Ambassador said. “We are going to ask you some questions.”

Ven followed him, unable to think. There was an odd ringing in his ears.
No, this didn’t just happen. I was just talking to him. I was just thinking of what food I would buy for him and the others…

From the second floor, the anxious guests were peeking out from the broken window and gasping. Ven and Coralie had barely reached the doorstep when a scream erupted from behind them. They turned around to see an old woman in a gray dress walking towards them. The glimmering lights coming from the lampposts and the torches surrounding the mansion made her look of shock ghostly.

Beside the mansion, hidden until now, was a small house. The front door was ajar.

“You murdered a child,” the old woman whispered, edging closer to the Ambassador, who did not flinch. “You murdered an innocent child. Who do you think you are? Was this little boy not worthy of a wonderful life?”

She could no longer hold back her sobs. Before the Ambassador could drive her away, her family members suddenly emerged from the house, shielding her from him, giving Ven and Coralie a chance to escape. As they got closer to Rex, they saw another man carrying him. With each step Ven took, Rex’s mischievous face sprang into his mind, piercing him like knives. It was his fault. This boy, this compassionate little stranger was dead, and it was all his doing.

What would he tell the others? Ven’s breathing began to slow and he could feel cold shivers shoot through his hands.

“Does he have a family?” the man asked.

“No.”

The man turned to leave, then Ven stopped him, his hands shaking uncontrollably. “Wait, he does have one. Follow me.”

Ven led the man all the way to the empty diner by the wharf. The man looked at him, puzzled, but when he peered inside the diner and saw children’s belongings, he understood. He looked away.

“I’m not going to stay,” said Ven, grief washing over him. “But I need you to do something. All of the children who live here, give them homes. Even if you have to let them stay with you for a few days. Make sure they have homes. They deserve the best life in the world.”

“I will,” the man said. “I’ll do everything I can.”

His chest tightening into a knot, Ven led Coralie back to the inn. They said nothing and Coralie didn’t ask him any questions.

“When we get inside, I need you to promise not to react.”

“What?” said Coralie.

“There’s someone with me.”

Coralie stared at him suspiciously but didn’t say anything else. Still overcome with shock, Ven didn’t even realize that he had already walked up the stairs and stood at the door of his room. He didn’t know what time it was. It could have been midnight or dawn.

Ven tried opening the door, but it was still locked. “Open the door,” he said with a deadness in his voice.

After a few minutes, Kayn appeared in the doorway. “I thought I told you to
get out.
”

He stopped as his eyes fell on Coralie. Ven held his breath.

Coralie looked at Kayn for a moment, then shrank back, falling against the wall. She looked at Ven in terror, then back at Kayn, the fear turning to hatred. That was all it took for Kayn to figure out who she was. Coralie turned around, ready to storm away, but Ven pulled her back.

“Don’t, please,” he pleaded. “Don’t leave.”