Imagine (10 page)

“
So you need to know what we ladies do here. First thing in the morning you will get up, make breakfast for yourself and Keagan, then you will need to make the beds, straighten up the house making sure that everything is clean and tidy. Then head down to the pool to clean the evening and morning’s dishes, bringing with you any laundry that may need cleaning. Once you have completed all of these things, for the first two weeks you are to attend and take part in a one hour Introduction to Haven’s rules and regulations class. This class takes place every day at the main building, that’s the one where you visited Brother Lorrus upon your arrival yesterday. In this class you will thoroughly learn all of our rules and regulations here, why they must be strictly followed and the punishments you can expect if you choose to disobey them. After the class each day you will carry out your duties to Haven. These can include hunting, sewing, building, stable work or cooking. Anything that this town needs the women provides.” Helen tells me all of this with a very serious look on her face, it all sounds too much like slavery to me.

We both get up and continue our walk home. After a few minutes mulling over what Helen has just told me I cannot hold my tongue “You can
not be serious! What else do we have to do? Do we have to wipe the men’s butts for them too? What exactly do
they
do while we’re slaving away all day anyway?” as I finish I realize that we are now standing right by the cabin that I now share with Keagan. Keagan himself is leaning up against the tree, when I meet his eyes I know that I have overstepped the line once again.

He just stares at me for what feels like an
eternity; neither of us utters a word before he turns around and storms off without saying a word.

XII

imagine a mentor

As soon as Keagan is out of sight Helen’s gaze returns to me, she wears a very serious expression on her face. It really has me worried; all I have seen from this woman has been warm smiles. She takes me by the hand and leads me into the house.

“I will always be honest with you Trish, sometimes the truth will not be easy to take
, but at least you will know where you stand.” She says reassuringly

A pleasant surprise. I
t is definitely not what I was expecting her to say in this situation; I figured she would scald me or tell me to watch my mouth in future, as her son seems to do constantly. I tilt my head slightly to the side and give her a quizzical look; I want her to continue with the conversation as I am intrigued.

As if inside my head, she continues. “Just 25 years ago I was in your
very shoes; I was stolen away from my family and brought here to Haven. I was a little bit older than you, but still did not know anything about my family history at all. Unlike you though, no one wanted to explain things to me. I was hurt, angry and scared all at the same time, so I did the only thing I could and began to resist, in any way possible.”

Now Helen
has my attention. “I mean
any
way possible dear. I refused to eat, refused to drink; I didn’t speak to anyone and refused to do anything that they tried to make me do. The only thing that I did was to lie in the small cell that they threw me into when their usual punishments failed. I curled up in a ball and cried. I took my hunger strike to the point that I almost died. Everyone just wanted to give up on me.”

She takes a deep breath before carrying on with her
story; I can tell that it is bringing back some horrible memories for Helen.

“O
ne night a young man entered my cell, he said that enough was enough. I needed to snap out of it and decide to live my life, even if it was not what I was used to. I glanced up from my ball and there was Marcus. As a last resort the community had decided to assign me a Guardian, his job was to pry me out of the obscurity I had brought upon myself. He literally picked me up off of the floor, I tried to kick out and hit him to get him off, but I was too weak. He literally carried me all the way to his own home and placed me down on a chair. He told me that he thought the community had gone completely the wrong way about things, I was the first person that they had just taken and he was sorry for that. He explained that this was no reason for me to die though. “

Helen takes another deep breath. I have listened attentiv
ely to her story, it is truly interesting. Nevertheless, is she telling me this to scare me into submission?

“Over the next few weeks Marcus showed me nothing but
compassion. He nursed me back to health and slowly taught me the things that were expected of me. During those first few weeks, however, he did not explain to me
why
I had been taken from my family. One night, while we were eating a dinner of wild boar stew with fresh vegetables, he told me of the history of this place and why what they do is so important to the survival of the human species.”

I take a deep breath myself now. I feel like I
been holding my breath the whole time she has been talking, entranced by her story, picturing her as a younger woman and the ordeals she had to overcome to get to where she is today. “Why are you telling me your story Helen?” I ask her.

“The reason, my dear, is because over the next few weeks you will experience things that you have never had to deal with before. You will have to be braver and stronger than you have ever imagined yo
urself having to be. But the most important thing that I want you to take from my story is that my stubbornness almost cost me my life. I don’t want that to be your case Trish. As soon as my son brought you into our house last night I could tell that you are a smart, but stubborn girl. I knew instantly that you would have many disagreements with my son. Keagan has lived here his whole life and no matter how much I try to explain to him how exactly it feels to be a Young Creator here, he will always do what the Guardians have taught and instilled in him. The Guardians are meant to protect us from the evil that lurks in the darkness within ourselves. Keagan is very stubborn, he is very much set in the ways of the Guardian, and so please be patient with him. I think that eventually the two of you will be happy, if you both learn to live together. Look at me; I ended up marrying my Guardian. I now have a husband that loves and adores me; we both have such wonderful children together. This life is not easy, don’t get me wrong. But it can be very rewarding if you just give it a chance. Trish, just give it your best shot. No one can ask any more of you than that.”

Helen takes my hand and meets my gaze
. “Promise me you will try?” she is pleading with me.

Keagan throws open the door
at this point, and storms inside. He looks so mad, I’m frightened.

“You know Trish, I have tried really hard to be nothing but nice to you and not treat you like the
others treat their charges. But for some reason all of my patience and kindness is returned with nothing but disrespect. I, the rest of the Guardians and our families, who are trying to help you, will not be spoken to in such a manner!”

He is yelling at me and begins to close in on me. He takes me by my arm and squeezes. 

“You’re hurting me stop it, what is wrong with you?” I yell back at him.

“Keagan, stop
! This is all really new to her; she is still learning our ways.” Helen is pleading with him.

“Are you defending her?
After the way she spoke to you, Mom?”

I can see a look of hurt on Keagan’s face. Still with a tight grip on my arm he
directs his anger at his mother this time “I should have listened to them, they told me that you were too soft to train this stubborn child. All I wanted from you was for you to instruct her in the ways of our people. They told me to ignore yours and Dad’s pleas to be involved with all of this.” his voice is threateningly quiet. 

I have never seen anyone so upset. I really don’t unde
rstand any of this, why is Keagan so mad? All his Mom was doing was trying to explain things to me. Treating me like a human, to prepare me for what is to come, to make his life easier for us all. She did all the talking, I just listened. I look back and forth between Keagan and his mother.

“Keagan, your mother didn’t do anything wrong! She was just ...” But before I can finish my sentence Keagan yanks me toward the bed. He throws back the curtains, picks up the handcuffs and cuffs me to the bed once again. I glare at him; he seems to have completely lost his mind.

“What is wrong with you?” I yell.

But I instantly wish I had kept my mouth shut, Keagan
, who was heading in his mother’s direction, turns 180 degrees on his heels and begins heading back towards me. He takes a detour to the bathroom and emerges with the soap.

He grasps my jaw roughly, his grip so tight that I am forced to open my mouth because I think he may break my jaw. He jams the soap into my mouth and leaves it there. With a glare he tells me. “I am going to walk my mother home, I will be back soon. When I get back you better still have the soap in your mouth!”

With that Keagan heads towards the front of the house. Helen is already making her way out the door.  She looks over her shoulder “I am really sorry Trish, please forgive me. I feel responsible for this but if you remember our conversation it’ll be worth it.” With that she is out the door, Keagan follows right behind her. Slamming the door shut behind them.

I am
left completely stunned. One minute Keagan is warm and sweet, the best boyfriend and son any girl or mother could ever dream to have.  Then, as if someone hit a switch, he becomes cruel and cold. I cannot believe how mean he was to poor Helen, because of one thing I said. I don’t understand why his mood can change so suddenly.

My confusion quickly
turns to anger; I’ve had enough of his mood swings. I spit out the soap, instantly regretting it. Oh no! What have I done? The door opens and Keagan steps through the threshold.

“Keagan I really need to talk to you. We have to talk about all of this.” As I finish my sentence, my plea
, I see a girl follow him into the house. I recognize her straight away, it’s Porsche.

XII
I

imagine
a class

What is going on? This is unreal. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and open them again, slowly, hoping that I was seeing things. To my huge disappointment the blond Barbie is still standing in front of me, a huge smirk on her face. My eyes dart back and forth between the two of them.

“
Why is
she
here, Keagan?” I ask with venom in my voice.

“Porsche
here is one of the few female Guardians here. Before she was a Guardian it was her job to take care of her family. She knows the responsibilities and duties that you need to learn better than anyone I know. My mother was clearly too soft-hearted to deal with someone like you, so Porsche will now take over. I know she won’t be too soft on you!” Keagan replies.

I stare at him
in disbelief; his expression is now hard and uncompassionate. I am helpless; things are just going to get worse from here on in. I miss Helen like crazy already.

He conti
nues as he walks over to me and unclicks my handcuffs. Thankfully he doesn’t say anything about the soap. “We will talk about this some more, but not until later on today. Your class at the main building will start in half an hour, Porsche will escort you.”

“Let’s go Monkey Breath” Porsche says as she is heading out the door with a skip in her step.
I follow her out the door. We start the walk back to the main building; I have also heard Keagan’s parents refer to it as ‘The Center’. Unlike earlier today, when I was taking in all of the beautiful landscape around me, I am now only concentrating on Porsche. Why is she here? What does it all mean for me? Why her - she doesn’t like me
at all.

“Did you know that Keagan and I are intended to marry?”
she blurts out, making me look over at her, I feel that ripping pain in my chest again. I really thought Keagan liked me, I really thought we would have a similar story to that of his parents. He must have been playing a game with me, making me care for him. I just don’t understand why. Keagan and Porsche, getting married? I would have never thought that they were each other’s types, exact opposites in fact. Don’t get me wrong, Porsche is beautiful, just in a slutty sort of way, she is also very self-centered, almost narcissistic in fact and cold blooded. I guess opposites really do attract. 

I
put it to the back of my mind, I ignore Porsche. I’ll ask Keagan to explain it all to me later on today, get it from the horse’s mouth. She could be trying to get under my skin and I’m not letting her do that.

Helen told me that all of the new arrivals to Haven come to this
class; I hope Chelsey will be there today. I could do with a friend right now and I do owe her a pretty big apology.

As we arrive at The Center I am once again amazed by the sheer amount of all the carvings that decorate the entire buil
ding. I now know what they stand for and what they depict, so I don’t see them as quite as beautiful as my first visit here to see Brother Lorrus.

We enter the building and
Porsche leads the way up the stairs, we are greeted at the top by three hallways, leading in three separate directions. All of them are very long and painted white.

They are decorated with white fluorescent lights that ill
uminate the way. Plain white doors, the first things made of wood that I have seen anywhere without any carvings, are on either side of the hallway but are all closed. We take the hallway in the center of the three and the lights get me thinking. It seems that, unlike any other building I have been in here, this one seems to have electricity. How else would they work?

Beneath our feet is a pristine white carpet
, our shoes leave behind dirty footprints. We stop at the first door on the right of the hallway; I am immediately greeted by the warm aroma of cooked apples and cinnamon as Porsche pushes open the door, my stomach jumps with joy at the wonderful smell. I take a look around the room we have entered; two long and highly polished wooden tables are in the front of the room. The wood looks almost red in color. Six chairs line up on one side of each table with more chairs lined up by the walls.

Two of the chairs by the tables are already occupied. One by a lady who looks to be in her mid-thirties
, the other by a woman a few years older. They must be Sisters, but I cannot say for sure. Their build, hair and skin tones are exactly the same.

Porsche just turns and leaves, as if her duties are done, shutting the door that we
had come in through behind her without so much as a word or look my way. I find a chair, picking one on the left table, since the Sister team is on the right hand side. In my mind I save a seat for Chelsey, just in case she is left here by a Guardian too. Just as my butt hits my chair she enters the room.

I jump out of my seat and rush towards her throwing my arms around her as tightly as possible, she hugs me back. As I pull away from her to look at her face, I want to make sure that she is alright. Although a little
tired looking, she seems okay, to my relief.

“Trish, I’m so happy to see you! I have been so worried about you; I didn’t know what had happened to you or where they took you. One minute we are in Eddie’s house at that ho
rrible dog fight, the cell, and the next thing I know eat cereal and wake up here. In this strange town, nobody will tell me
anything
.”

While Chelsey is speaking there are tears streaming down her face, she
is embarrassed as she sees the Sisters staring our way and tries to wipe them away, but they just keep coming.

“I’m really happy to see you too, Chelsey. I have been so worried about
you; just seeing you here has taken a huge weight of my shoulders.” I give her a final squeeze and then let her go and she takes a seat next to me.

“
They have told me a little bit about the history of this place and why we were brought here, but Keagan’s Mom told me that this class is supposed to tell us everything we need to know about Haven.” I tell her.

“Keagan’s M
om …?”

She stops mid-sentence
when an older, plump lady walks in the door. She looks exactly like you may picture a librarian to look. Her hair in a tight bun, a pair of horn rimmed glasses on the tip of her nose and wearing a gray skirt and gray sweater vest.

She speaks like a librarian too, in a hushed voice she says “Good morning, you are all here to the introductory lecture for Haven. Please save your questions, I know there must be many, until I have finished telling you everything that I need to.” She nods to each of us in greeting as she walks to the ce
nter of the room.

I fidget in my seat, my right leg shakes with nervous ene
rgy. All I really want to do is talk to Chelsey, hear her story and see how she is adjusting. I want to talk about Keagan, his parents, Porsche and everything that has happened to me since we arrived. The librarian starts to speak, and just as she is telling us her name, Mrs. Klark – with a K, a boy and girl about my age are dragged into the room. Each of them needing two Guardians to get them through the doorway. 

Upon seeing their faces I r
ealize they are the two people I saw wearing chains and blood-stained clothes on the day that I arrived. Both of them have shackles, the same kind that attaches me to my bed at night, on their hands and legs. The boy is fighting his captors, he is covered in bruises, and there is one that covers half his cheek, it is a purple/blue color and just looking at it I know that it hurt a lot to receive. The girl seems to have given in to her capturers but she too has dark bruises on her arms. Tears have caused her mascara to run down her face.

They have been through hell. Covered in bruis
es, their clothes are torn, stained with blood and dirt. I notice that they have the same complexion and dirty blond hair. I wonder if they are brother and Sister.

The boy whips his head up like a lion roar
ing, a growl leaves his throat. He head-butts the fierce looking Guardian to his right, who instinctively lets go of him to put his hand on his forehead and check the damage. The other Guardian doesn’t miss a beat in pulling both arms up high behind the boy’s back and puts him in a tight headlock. Finally, the fight leaves the boy’s body and he starts to relax. He looks around the room until his eyes land on me; they are a clear blue like a cloudless, summer sky. This boy attractive, but in a much different way to Keagan. Whereas Keagan is dark and mysterious, this boy looks like a troublemaker, someone who is always up to something. I can see the laughter lines on his face and hint of mischief in his beautiful blue eyes.

I stare back at him for a moment and
look at the girl; she has been silent throughout all of what has happened. Her face is completely devoid of emotion, like she has simply lost the will to fight. The Guardians take them to the back of the room and sit them on two of the chairs that are against the wall.

“Well now that Kia and Sam have finally decided to grace us with their presence, let us begin the class. We now only have about 30 minutes before pickup time” Mrs. Klark says with a disapproving look directed towards the siblings at the back of the room.

“This class is intended to make your lives easier, to tell you everything you need to know about living in Haven. Being torn away from your families and friends may be hard, but you being here is for your own protection, your families’ protection too and ultimately for the good of the entire human race. You three all are direct descendants of The Creators”

She looks at us in turn as s
he states our names “Trish, Kia and Layla, the younger of the two Sisters. This means that you all have blood running through your veins that gives you certain abilities. These powers can be a danger to you and to others; there are many people will do
anything
to gain access to them.” She pauses and turns a page of the booklet she appears to be reading from.

“
Each of you has been accompanied by a family member, or in your case Trish - a close friend. They are our insurance policies, to ensure that you don’t do anything stupid. Each of you has been assigned a Guardian and a mentor; it is their job to acclimatize you to you to life here in the Haven as well as protect you. This place is a safeguard, not only for society but also for you Young Creators. It is somewhere where the Guardians can ensure that you are caused or cause no harm. I know that you, Sam especially, may want to find the quickest way out of here. I assure you that escape is impossible; Haven is a small island, completely off the radar and protected by ancient magic.

              It is somewhere where we can all live in peace. Over the next two weeks you will each have to do your upmost to understand our lifestyle and become a part of our society. Not an easy task, but we will all do our best to help you. Ok, so up to this point does anyone have any questions?” Mrs. Klark makes eye contact with each of us in turn once more. She seems very professional, well-rehearsed.

I raise my hand, as if in school “Did you just say that we are on an
island
?” I glance back and forth between Mrs. Klark and Chelsey. She looks just about as fascinated as I feel.

Mrs.
Klark trains her eyes on me and gives me a shrewd smile.

“So you picked up on that, did you? I’ll have to make sure to tell your Guardian to keep an eye on you young lady. It is usually the ones who are plotting an escape plan who pose that particular question
at this point!” This definitely throws everything into a whole new perspective for me. Making this situation even worse than I thought. I had figured that I would bide my time and figure out where exactly Haven is, stock supplies and find a way out of this crazy backwards town. But being surrounded by water makes that plan virtually impossible.

No one else raises their hand
, through fear of giving her any other ideas about our intentions, so she continues. “As you may have noticed, our lifestyle here is a little different than what you are used to. There are many reasons for that, reasons which we will discuss further tomorrow.  As I was saying, there are two main reasons why you are all here. The first is to protect the outside world from what you all can become and the other is to protect
you
. Young Creators are often hunted by a group called The Collectors - The Guardians are not the only group that knows about your existence. While The Guardians want only to protect human kind and protect you, these Collectors only want to use you to make themselves wealthier and more powerful. Having a Young Creator, someone who has the ability to just make things out of nothing, is a definite advantage. They seek to put themselves into positions of power, having use of powers such as yours can enable them to do this with ease. For example, a sweet Young Creator was captured by The Collectors and made to do things that ended up destroying her. She committed the worst crime by taking her own life; she wanted to escape those terrible people and what they were making her do so badly.

A
nother Young Creator turned into a Collector herself. She wanted more and more power. When she was bored she would do horrible things. I know that you all have seen the carvings on the doors and walls around Haven. These depict the history of The Creators that came before you, the ones that The Guardians could not protect.” Mrs. Klark explains.