Luminosity (14 page)

“And we have to figure out if you will be willing to leave Gabe behind in order to be saved.”

This startles me. A pang of fear shakes me from the inside out, and I propel away from Echo, as if he was made of electricity and had physically shocked me. “What?”

Echo shakes his hair out of his eyes and turns back toward the window. “You don’t honestly think we can save everyone, do you? We are responsible for each other. We have the connection.”

“And why wouldn’t I be able to take Gabe with me?” I snap and whatever bit of confidence and hope I had in Echo’s plan slowly seeps out of me, like water through a cracked glass.

“He’s not part of the plan.”

“What plan?” I blurt at him, enraged at this point. “We don’t have a plan! Even if we did, you are just going to exclude Gabe anyway? My best friend?”

Echo doesn’t look at me unkindly. In fact, his gaze is sympathetic and understanding. I don’t see a bit of jealousy anywhere in his eyes as I fight for Gabe’s freedom as well. “I will try to think of a way, Beatrice. Just know, that there may not be a way…and if that’s the case, you are going to have to choose between staying with Gabe or running with me before the City is overcome.”

“Stay here with Gabe, where I know where I am and who I am…or run off with you into the unknown, where I will have no clue who I am any longer…or what my purpose is.”

Echo reaches out, turning my face so that I have nowhere else to look at but up at him. “Beatrice, you will always be you. Beautiful you.” His thumb brushes across my lips, and he stoops down and kisses me, gentle and soft. It’s not like Gabe’s kiss, hungry and needy, but instead it’s a patient, sure thing that happens between us, as if this moment was always supposed to happen, and we both knew it would happen right now, and there was nothing else to do about it but give in.

And I give in. I let him kiss me for as long as he wants, and I kiss him in return. His hand falls from the side of my face and trails down the curve of my neck before settling on my lower back, where he pulls me in a step closer.

Everything seems blurry as we stand there in each other’s arms. I feel like a short-circuiting television, and ripples of static flicker through the darkness behind my closed eyes.

And then, it’s over.

…

“Teams A, B, and C report to the Debriefing Room immediately.” The intercom screams, jarring me out of my dream. I put my fingers to my lips, where I can still feel Echo’s kiss. I stand and fix my hair in the mirror, noting the blush of red that spans my cheeks. Great.

Someone knocks on my door, so I spring into my jumpsuit, zip it and slap the button to open the door. When it slides back, Gabe is on the other side, his grin cocky. “Turns out, girls do like scars. They won’t leave me alone about it.” His eyes narrow slightly. “Why are you all red?”

“It’s hot in there.” The door shuts behind me. I tug Gabe down the hallway, and note the others who are making their way down to the Debriefing Room as well. Some of them limp, and some of them hold onto one injury or another, but most of us are okay, and that’s good to see. “You ready for this?”

“Guess so. I don’t know what they’re going to say. We did eliminate a good amount of Dreamcatchers…what more could they want?”

“I don’t know. I’ve given up on figuring these things out.” When we reach the Debriefing Room and I look around, it hits me just how many people were hurt or lost today. Our numbers are falling, but the Keeper insists we continue with what we’ve been doing.

We sit down in our teams, automatically segregating. Mae and Brandon find Gabe and me and sit in the chairs beside us.

“Your head looks much better, Gabe!” Mae reaches out to touch where the cut was. Already, it looks like nothing ever happened. “Wow.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Brandon grins.

A girl sitting in front of us turns around and smiles at Gabe, pointing to his scar. “I agree. It is kind of neat.” She holds out her hand to introduce herself, though she’s been on our team from the start and Gabe knows well who she is. I roll my eyes at the game she’s playing, and cross one of my legs over the other. “I’m Margie.”

“I know.” Gabe shakes her hand anyway and gives her the same cocky grin that he gave me, which makes me angry. “You did a good job out there, too.”

“Only because we had a great leader.” Margie goes as far as winking at Gabe, then offers me a jaunty little wave that is pathetic at best. “Hello, Seer Beatrice. See anything new lately? It’s been a while since we’ve heard about one of your Visions.”

I level my violet-eyed gaze on Miss Margie. She’s quickly ticking me off. “It’s probably best that way, considering how accurate they are.” I want to tell her about the Vision where everyone is dead in the Meeting Room, piled high in corpse towers, unidentifiable from one another. I think maybe this would amuse her, or at least get her to shut up and turn back around.

“There’s been a lot going on. I’ve not had a Vision myself in a good week or so.” Gabe shrugs.

“Funny, I haven’t either.” Mae looks at me, as if I know the answer as to why no one is having Visions anymore, which I don’t. Ever since my Visions became so accurate, everyone thinks I have answers.

“Turn back around,” I mutter at Margie, a bit too rudely. But I follow with a polite addition, “The Keeper is ready.” And she is.

Dressed in her red robes, as always, the Keeper stands at the front of the room, flanked by two armed and high-ranking members of the Watch. Her raven cries out loudly, and I cringe. The Keeper folds her hands in front of her and regards the three teams with a critical eye.

“Seers from Teams A, B, and C, I am calling you here today to first commend you on a job well done. We have confirmed the eradication of fifteen Dreamcatchers, which is more than we were projecting to take down.” The Keeper allows a pause for the cheering that starts. I don’t clap. All I can see is the panic in Mae’s eyes when the child Dreamcatcher was shot and killed in front of her family. Sure she was killed, yes, but at what price?

“Tomorrow, we will deploy Teams D, E, and F and it will be their turn to find and eliminate Dreamcatchers. This doesn’t mean it is a day off for you, though. You will, in your teams, collaborate on what you could have done better, and who were the weakest and strongest links in your teams. I want you to fine tune your performance so next time you step out of the Institution, you will kill with more precision and accuracy.” There’s a long pause, and then the Keeper smiles. “So, I’ve brought in some help.”

Four Watchmen arrive carrying a young man in a Plexiglas box. The expression on his face is that of calm passivity. He stares at us all with wide, green eyes that seem empty and emotionless. As soon as he is put in front of us, we can all feel it. He is a Dreamcatcher.

“This Dreamcatcher goes by the name Mirage. Tomorrow, while the other teams are running their missions, you will take part in a Training Game, in which Mirage will be set loose in the arena, and the first team to find him and kill him will receive an award.”

Mirage doesn’t move. He doesn’t even blink when it’s revealed that he will be our prey. The Seers will be loosed upon him like hungry, eager wolves, and at the end of the game, he’ll be just another dead body. A Dreamcatcher who will dream no more.

Someone starts to clap at the news, and everyone else follows suit. The Keeper holds her hands up to silence us as Mirage’s box is put down on the ground. “I want you to remember the feeling you have now, Seers. This is what you should have felt while out in the streets of the City. If you cannot feel this, then you’ll surely die.”

I feel it. It’s an emotion that’s almost like panic, but there’s a strange certainty behind the panic. It’s almost breathtaking, and the longer Mirage is kept in the room with us, the more restless I become. I shift uncomfortably in my chair and glance sideways at Gabe, who also seems to be in some discomfort.

The Keeper steeples her fingers in front of her as she circles the box. “The Dreamcatcher’s hands will be cuffed in Plexiglas boxes so that he cannot grab hold of you. But, if he touches you in any way, one of the Watchmen—” She gestures to the four who flank the plastic box, and the two who walked in with her. “—will shoot and kill you. This is to simulate your expiration upon being seized by a Dreamcatcher, and to further eliminate the weak Seers who will hold us back.”

A collective gasp fills the room, much like when the Keeper announced that we would be using live rounds in the Training Games. For the most part, we’ve gotten over that. It’s become normal now, knowing that you might walk into the Training Games and never walk out. But having the Keeper selectively shooting us if we’ve been “caught” by this imprisoned Dreamcatcher is on a whole other level.

“Are you kidding me?” I blurt. The Keeper looks at me, pausing expectantly.

Gabe’s hand finds mine and he squeezes it. “Shhh. Not now. You’ll only get in trouble.”

“They’ll kill us? What will be next, Gabe?” I want to storm out of here. The feeling from the Dreamcatcher is making me agitated, and the Keeper’s news does nothing to sate it.

“Watchmen, you may take Mirage back to his cell. Make sure you toss some food into the box for him. I don’t want my Seers chasing weak prey. They need to be fit and on their game if we are to protect our Institution and City.” At the Keeper’s orders, the four Watchmen hoist the box off the floor and carry him out, presumably to put him back in the brig. After Mirage’s removal, the uneasy feeling starts to fade away, and the panic slowly disappears. The Keeper bows her head to us. “You are dismissed. Report to the Training Games at zero eight-hundred hours.” She exits the door she used to enter, taking the Watchmen with her.

“Hopefully you won’t manage to get another one of your stupid teammates killed tomorrow,” Rachelle yells over at us, waving a hand over her head so we know where she is in the crowd of Seers. As if we care.

“Ignore her,” I mutter to Gabe, Mae, and Brandon.

Brandon glowers in Rachelle’s direction and pounds a fist into his meaty hand. “One day, she’s going to get what is coming to her.”

“Yeah, she’s not too bright.” Mae’s insult sounds almost cute next to the anger in Brandon’s voice.

“Maybe the Dreamcatcher will touch her tomorrow, and we’ll get to see it when she’s shot by the Watchmen.” I turn to the others and smile, but they aren’t smiling back. I frown as we file out of the room. “Sorry. She really gets on my nerves.”

…

Gabe stares intently at the bowl of apples. He holds a pencil, and sometimes he scribbles furiously with it, and at other times, he’s erasing. The bowl of apples remains the same as minutes pass by, and we’ve gotten no further than we were before.

“Art class is so stupid. So is art homework,” Gabe finally blurts and drops his pencil on the table to rub a cramp out of his hand. “Why do we need to know art anyway when our job is to protect the Citizens with our Visions?”

I smirk, having wondered the same question ever since we were introduced to art class back when we were small children, barely able to handle our Visions. “Maybe we have to learn it so we won’t be as boring to other people as we would be if all we ever did was See all the time. Maybe it’s because we know how to draw apples that the Citizens respect us.”

“That is almost the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, Bea.” Gabe laughs, begrudgingly picking up his pencil again.

“Yeah, well. Just draw your apples and shut up. Homework is homework.” We are out in the garden, where it is quiet and no one can bother us. Well, anyone could bother us, really, but no one does. Not even the bodyguards, who have yet to show up today. As the days go on, their watch becomes less and less intense. Perhaps the Keeper is realizing I am not the threat that she thought I was. Or, perhaps, the matter with the Dreamcatchers is taking priority over what I am doing.

I tend to think of the garden as a little piece of color in such a monochrome building. The Institution is made up of blacks and grays, and the City around us is dark and shadowy. Retreating to the garden feels like another world altogether, and I wonder if in the past everything was as colorful and as full of life.

In the middle of the garden is a small, fountain-looking stone structure with a rounded top made of red glass. It looks ornamental, but we know it serves a purpose. It looks rather conspicuous with its ominous crimson color and imposing presence. No one ever bothers with it, though, and we’ve come to accept it as part of the mysteries that the Institution keeps.

Gabe goes back to drawing for a little while, as do I, and when I glance up, I find him staring at me. “What?” I ask.

“Nothing. I mean…” Gabe looks back down, blushing just a touch. “I mean
something
, but…it’s stupid.”

“What is it?”

Gabe doesn’t say anything at first. “It’s just that you look pretty out here.”

I put a hand to the raven bottle cap pendant that he bought me. “Me? Pretty?”

“Don’t act ridiculous. I’m sure you know that you’re pretty.” The more Gabe talks, the more his words taper off at the end, lost in the bashfulness.

I don’t know what to say to that, so I fumble with the pendant in my hand and swallow a lump in my throat. “Well…thanks, I guess.”

“And you’re still wearing my necklace,” Gabe points out, carefully changing the subject away from my appearance.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I love it.” I smile and look down at the raven, perched on a naked tree branch. “I really do.”

“Bea?” Gabe asks.

I focus on him as he puts his pencil down.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you that…well…I um…” He scratches at the back of his neck, his long hair falling over his fingers, tangling within each digit. “I like yo—”

“Seers Gabriel and Beatrice.” The Keeper is suddenly standing beside us, her arms crossed over her chest. Her raven sits perched on her shoulder, its black eyes inky and vacant.

“Yes, My Keeper?” We almost answer in unison, though Gabe’s words are filled with nervousness from whatever he was about to tell me before.