Naomi Grim (6 page)

Pushing past him, I ran to the kitchen.
I grabbed the cloak, which hung on a chair and wrapped it around myself. Mother
called after me, but I ignored her, opening and slamming the kitchen door shut
behind me.

I stood behind our home, then began to
run before Mother came out, screaming my name. I should have gone back to
Litropolis, but I had to see Keira. I needed to apologize to my best friend and
make sure she didn't hate me.

I walked slowly this time, wiping tears
away with the back of my hand, trying to contemplate why people were trying to
make me believe I was a Forager.

When I made it to Keira's, I stopped
underneath her window. Getting her attention would be tricky. Her room was on
the second story. I picked up a rock and hoped I had good aim.

The rock missed her window by a few
inches. I threw another. That rock hit its target but I didn't think it would
be enough to wake her up. I hit the window three more times and waited.

Looking around nervously, I had to
remind myself that I was invisible. A dim light came on in Keira's room. She
had probably turned on a lamp. Her curtains parted, and I saw her look down,
but I couldn't quite read the expression on her face. She opened the window.
"Bram?"

Bram? Did Bram sneak out and come to her
window at night? Probably not, with the Watchers all over.

It was going to be a risky move, but I
had to do it. I removed the cloak. "Keira, it's me."

She froze and looked around.
"Naomi, what are you doing here? They're looking for you!"

"Let me in."

She disappeared from the window, and I
went to her back door. It took a moment, but the door cracked open. I went
inside, closing the door behind me. By then, Keira was already tiptoeing up the
stairs. I followed her to her bedroom. Once I was inside, Keira closed the door
gently behind her. We sat on her bed.

She stared at me for a moment and then
hugged me tight. "Are you okay?"

I inhaled the lavender scent of her
long, ebony hair. It had only been a short time, but I missed the luxury of
taking hot showers and washing my hair with shampoo.

"I'm fine," I said after she
let me go. "I'm really, really sorry about all of this."

"Forget about that. I'm just glad
you're okay. Naomi, you can't stay here. Dunningham will execute you."

I ran my hands over her satin sheets,
wondering how uncomfortable my sleep would be that night. "I know. I'm
going back tonight."

"Where are you staying?"

"On the Outskirts."

"With the Foragers?"

"Yes, but they like to be called
hybrids." Or perhaps
we
like to be called hybrids.

"Naomi, what are you going to
do?"

That was a good question. "I guess
I'll have to live there. Adjust. There's nothing past there but barren land. I
don't have many options."

"Yeah."

"Why do you think Dunningham's not
making a bigger deal about this? He knows where I am."

Keira laid back on her bed. "I
don't know, Nay. I really don't."

"Is Chase back from his
assignment?"

"Yeah, I saw him today."

"What did he say?" I asked

"He's worried about you like the
rest of us."

I contemplated whether or not I should
tell Keira about what Dunstan and my mother had told me. "I bled
today."

"What?"

"Dunstan, he cut me with a knife
and I bled."

Keira sat up. "Grim's don't
bleed."

"I know."

"So what does that mean?"

I wasn't sure. I was lost and confused.
The room began to spin ever so slightly. "Dunstan said I'm not a full
Grim. When I went home tonight, Mother said it was true. That my real father's
a human."

I expected Keira to be shocked and act
like it was the most ludicrous thing she'd ever heard, but she didn't.
"That would explain some things."

"What? What things?"

"Why you get so attached. Why you
connect with them. Why you feel sympathy for them when they die."

"I'm not one of them, Keira,"
I said forcefully.

"Why would your mother lie about
something like that?"

"I don't know, but she is."

"Naomi—"

I stood. "I have to get back.
They're waiting for me. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow." I stood and put on
the cloak.

"Okay," Keira said. She
followed me to her back porch. I turned to her. I was going to miss her. I
wouldn't have a best friend in the Outskirts.

She embraced me once more. "Nay,
take care of yourself. No matter what happens, you'll always be my best
friend."

"Same here," I whispered as we
separated. "Bye."

I had taken a few steps when I heard the
backdoor close. I took my time walking back to Nigel and Colden. They were
asleep in Odessa's shack, where we would stay the night. I curled up on the
tiny spot they had left for me. It was tight and uncomfortable, but that wasn't
the reason I couldn't fall asleep. I would have stayed awake in the world's
most luxurious bed. I had been fed a lot of information today. There was a lot
on my mind.

* * *

The following morning, after a meager
breakfast of oatmeal, Nigel, Colden, and I traveled back to the Outskirts.
There I gave Dunstan back his precious cloak and he informed me that I would be
staying with him.

I sat at the kitchen table in front of
Dunstan as Jax served us tea. Nigel and Colden stood around being nosey. When
they'd asked what had happened in Farrington, I'd told them nothing.

"So?" Dunstan asked, stirring
his tea. I wished for a cup of coffee right then. My sleepless night was taking
a toll on me.

"I went home to see my family.
They're fine. They said your brother's not even mad at them. He's treating them
normally."

Dunstan sat back and fingered his cup.
"He's planning something. There's a reason he hasn't executed them or at
least sent them to Gattica. Did anyone besides your family see you?"

"No," I lied.

"Good. You'll go back
tonight."

"Why?" Of course I wanted to
see my family and Keira again, but I dreaded that long walk and the climb over
that wall. "Why do you want me to go back?"

Colden shifted from where he leaned
against the wall and muttered something to his brother. I looked back at him.
"You think I'm stupid? You think I don't know that something's going on
and you're planning on using me?"

"We are doing no such thing,"
Dunstan said calmly. "I thought it would be nice for you to go home, but
if you don't want to—"

"No! No, I want to—"

"Then what are you complaining
about?" Colden demanded.

"Gentlemen, aren't you on duty in
the yard today?" Dunstan asked.

They both nodded and walked briskly out
the door.

"Why did you do what you did?"
I asked Dunstan once Colden and Nigel were gone. "I mean, have a child
with a human when you knew what the punishment would be."

He took another sip of his tea.
"Sometimes we don't think with our heads, with think with our feelings. I
wanted to be with Gwendolyn and at the time, I wasn't thinking about anything
else. It just felt right."

I understood. I felt that way about my
decision at Kennedy High. "I felt like I did the right thing then, but I
don't feel that way anymore."

Dunstan nodded. "I know that
feeling. Back then, nothing could have kept me away from Gwendolyn. But she's
been dead for a long time now. I left my son in the human world for fear of
what my brother would do to him. He's dead too. I sometimes find myself second
guessing my decision now that there's nothing to show for it, but what's done
is done."

I was thoroughly depressed. "Mr.
Dunstan, I didn't sleep well last night. Do you mind if I take a nap?" I
asked, too tired to argue with him anymore.

"Of course not. Make yourself
comfortable in my room for the time being. We'll make you a place to sleep in
the study."

I nodded gratefully and headed back to
the bedroom, taking my cup of tea with me.

After setting the cup on the nightstand
beside me, I snuggled under Dunstan's covers. My body was tired, but I was more
mentally exhausted. As I nestled into a comfortable position, I thought about
my father. It hurt my heart to even think that he wasn't really mine. My heart
told me that Dunstan and Mother were lying for some reason, but logic told me
there was no reason for my mother to lie about something that made her look bad
and there had to be a reason I had bled.

* * *

When I awoke, I could tell from the
little light that shone through the curtains that the sun was beginning to set.
I had slept most of the day away. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My stomach
growled. Since I had been on the run it seemed like I never had enough to eat.

I went to the bedroom door. I heard the
voices of men talking. Maybe if I eavesdropped, I would get some inkling of
what was going on.

I cracked the door open and slipped out.
I took a few steps and then stood in the hallway quietly.

"We're going to start with the
first group and see how that goes," Dunstan was saying. "I know this
is experimental and we're already expecting a lot of deaths, but we all knew
this revolt would come with a price."

Revolt? Against what?

"When is this taking place?" a
familiar voice asked. I tried to place the voice, but gave up. No one I knew
would be in the Outskirts, sitting in Dunstan's house.

"In a few days. I'm tired of
watching my people die. We were counting on those lifestones from the high
school, but of course you know—"

"Yes, yes, I know.” I placed the
voice. It was the man who had prepared us for human interaction. The one who
had overseen us on our assignment. That voice without a doubt belonged to
Doyle. "I was counting on those lifestones, also. As I said before, I'll
make it up to you."

I leaned against the wall and slid down
to the floor. Doyle was Dunningham's right-hand man. What was he doing here
fraternizing with Dunn's outcast brother?

Then I remembered something that had
never sat right with me. When we'd first spotted the Foragers at Kennedy High,
we told Doyle about it. He'd said he'd take care of it, but he never did. The
Foragers hadn't gone away. When I asked him about it, he blew me off. He wanted
them there.

I heard someone cough, probably Doyle.
"I have to get back," he said, sounding strained. "We'll connect
again tomorrow."

I darted back to the bedroom door as
quietly as possible. But I still kept it open a crack. "What about the
girl?" Doyle asked. Did he know I was there?

"Don't worry. She's doing just what
she's supposed to. You can't let my brother get his hands on her. She's exactly
what we need."

I heard the front door close, followed
by the door to Dunstan's study. I crept out of the bedroom, down the hallway,
and out the front door. I hadn't seen Jax, but I figured if he'd seen me leave,
he'd tell Dunstan. I walked from the cottage as briskly as possible.

I stood in the middle of the Forager's
village. The streets were almost empty now. Perhaps everyone was inside
preparing their meals. I decided to explore. I passed a man sitting on his
porch, smoking a pipe. He grunted and shot me a dirty look. I looked away. All
the people here must hate me.

After walking through a large cluster of
cottages, drawing strange looks and hushed whispers from the Foragers, I came
to a large fenced-in plot of land. There were about twenty men inside with
shovels digging ditches in the tan soil. The large area was cut in half by
another chain-linked fence. On the other side, there were countless mounds for
as far as I could see. I entered the gate. Against the gate in the center, a
man sat on a tall chair, overlooking the field through a pair of binoculars. He
looked like one of those lifeguards I'd seen on human beaches. We knew about
lifeguards. They interfered with death so they were frowned upon in our
society, much like police officers, fire fighters, and doctors.

If anyone noticed me, they didn't show
it. They kept right on digging with a monotonous rhythm. My shoulders hurt just
watching them.

I saw Nigel digging at the far side of
the plot. Colden was at the edge not far from me, digging with an intense
anger. I passed two men, who ignored me, to get to him. I stood not far from
him as he continued to dig. Stray dirt fell on me, but I ignored it.

"Colden, what are you guys
doing?"

"I'm working," he answered
curtly.

"I see, but what are these holes
for?"

Colden stopped digging and looked at me
sharply, then he laughed. "Of course. Why would you know what they were
for?" He dropped his shovel. "Come with me."

I followed him to the gate. "Zayne,
I'm taking a break," Colden called to the man sitting in the chair.

"You already had a break," the
man said, not even looking in our direction.

"Thanks," Colden said as we
continued out of the gate. He reminded me of Bram.

"Where are we going?"

"Just be quiet and walk."

I wondered if there was a feeling worse
than hate as I followed him silently. Maybe if I said nothing else to him, he'd
stop being so rude and pissing me off. I didn’t know how much more of his
attitude I could take.

He led me away from the empty field, and
I realized there was more to the place than I'd thought. After walking for a
few minutes, we came to a large stone building. It was like a modern-looking
building in the human world. The closer we came to it, the more I noticed a
weird odor coming from it.

There were two glass doors on the
outside. Colden pulled them both open and I followed him in. Immediately, my
arm went to cover my nose. Inside the building were rows and rows of cots
filled with people. People who were wrinkled, gray, and bald. I gagged
involuntarily.

Colden looked at me for a moment.
"Yeah, you're not used to that. That's the smell of death. You've never
seen this because this doesn't happen to your people. These poor people are
rotting from the inside out."

He was right. I had never seen anything
like it before. I'd seen old people die all the time in the human world. I'd
collected countless lives from hospitals and nursing homes, but I'd never seen
anything like this.

Three men and two women in white lab
coats wandered around the room, touching people and adjusting things. A woman
laid open-mouthed, gray eyes staring at nothing. I felt sorry for her and
wished someone would put her out of her misery.

"Can we leave now?" I asked
Colden as I turned for the door.

He grabbed my elbow. "No, you need
to experience this. Have you ever watched one of your family members just
wither away like this?" I shook my head. "Well, I have. My father,
five years ago. He ran out of years. We tried desperately to raid the Mill. To
get some lifestones to save the people who were almost expired, but the men we
sent were captured. My father died, Naomi. He was a Grim and he died. That's
not supposed to happen."

My heart went out to him, and I
understood his coldness. Losing my parents to life-expiration was something I
never worried about. As long as Dunningham sent them on assignments, they would
live forever. Death in the human world never stopped. There would always be
lifestones to collect. There was plenty for everyone. There was no reason for
what I was witnessing. "So, those holes are for—"

"To bury our dead. Yes. Every day
the younger men have to go out there and dig holes just to bury our families.
It's a job that's never complete. There's always someone to put in the
ground."

A man moaned from somewhere. One of the
white coats walked in his direction. I backed away and leaned against the wall.
"I get it."

Colden turned to me. "You get
what?"

"Why you hate me. Why you hate us."
Colden turned back around. "Colden, I know this doesn't mean much to you,
but from birth we're raised to believe that you guys are the enemy, that you
steal lifestones to hurt us. We never get to see this. I mean, we know that you
guys die, but until you actually see it—"

"We really needed the lifestones
from the high school, Naomi. They would have saved all these people."

I looked down at the ground and
remembered the girl in the bathroom—the one who was dead now. I thought back to
her telling me how they needed those lives to survive and we only needed them
for money, when we already had more than enough. "I'm sorry," I
muttered.

"Tell that to them," Colden
said, but his tone was softer this time.

I thought about Roxy and Hunter, then I
thought about my now upside-down life and these Grims on the verge of
expiration. Was it worth it? "If I could go back and do it differently, I
would."

Colden stepped closer to me, looking me
dead in the eye. His eyes seemed bluer than they had the other day. "If
you're really sorry, there's a way you can fix this. There's still a way all
these people can be saved."

  "H-how?"

"Dunstan will tell you about that
when he feels the time is right."

Thankfully, Colden walked out the door
and I followed him. "Doyle was here earlier, talking to Dunstan. He's
Dunningham's top assistant. What was he doing here?"

"I can't tell you."

I was tired of the secrets. "He's a
liar."

"Hey!" Colden yelled.
"Whenever he can, that man slips us a few lifestones here and there. If it
weren't for him, we would be in a lot worse shape."

"Doyle steals our lifestones and
gives them to you? Why would he do that? What's in it for him?"

Colden shook his head. "I shouldn't
have even told you that. Don't repeat it. I have to get back to work."

Colden went back to the graveyard and I
stood there, letting all this new information sink in. Doyle was up to
something. He wasn't the type who would risk his life for Foragers out of the
goodness of his heart. Soon it would be time for me to go to Farrington again.
I intended to come back with some answers this time.

* * *

Nigel, Colden, and I waited until it was
dark to climb the wall into Litropolis. The walk from there was a lonely one. I
was relieved to see the place I called home.

I knocked on the back door. This time
there was no wait. I was expected. Although it was late, and the family had
already eaten, Mother had a spread prepared for me. All my favorites—candied
yams, broccoli with cheese, pepper steak, mashed potatoes, and apple pie.

I gorged myself as my brothers sat in
their pajamas, staring at me, and Mother asked me countless questions.

I answered her as succinctly as
possible. I didn't want her to be worried about me, but I would tell Bram what
I had learned earlier.

"Is it true about Naomi?"
Dorian asked Mother.

Mother fiddled with her fingers.
"Is what true?"

"You know, that Father's not her
real father."

Mother looked at Bram, who shrugged. I
wondered if my brothers thought any less of me because of this lie Mother was
telling. I wished Father was there to set the record straight.

"No, it's not," I answered
firmly.

Bram raised one eyebrow. "That's
not what you said last night, Mother."

"We are not having this
discussion," Mother replied.

Bram hit the table with his fist, and
Mother jumped. "Like hell we're not. This is our family, too. You don't
think we have the right to know? Answer Dorian's question. Have we been living
with a Forager or not?"

I threw my fork down, causing candied
yams to splatter across the table. "I'm not a Forager and don't you ever
call me that again!"

Mother banged on the table. "Calm
down, both of you!" She looked at my brothers. "You're correct. You
have a right to know. A long, long time ago I made a stupid mistake, but that
doesn't make Naomi any less your sister. It's not always about blood."

Bram stood, shaking the table like
always. "That's where you're wrong, Mother. It is about blood." Then
he looked at me. "I'm sorry, Naomi. I love you, but you don't belong
here."

He left the room and a lump formed in my
throat. Bram had said plenty of mean things to me, but that was by far the
cruelest.

Mother's eyes welled with tears. She
patted my hand. "Darkness, I'm so sorry. Really I am." She left the
table, leaving me to stare at my half-eaten plate.

"Don't worry, Nay," Dorian
said. "You'll always be my sister, no matter what."

* * *

I gave Bram a half hour to settle down,
then I went up to his room. I knocked, but there was no answer. I turned the
knob and the door opened. Bram lay on his bed, bouncing a ball off of his wall,
catching it, and then bouncing it again. Bram only did that when he was upset.

He didn't acknowledge me as I sat on his
bed. "Bram, listen. I know you’re mad, or you hate me, or whatever, but I
need to tell you something." The ball continued to bounce off the wall,
but I kept talking anyway. "They're planning something. The Grims in
Litropolis and the Outskirts. They're planning a revolt."

The ball stopped. "Is that what
they say?" Bram asked. "Well, good luck to you guys."

"Bram, this is serious. I don't
think they're just talking about sneaking in to raid the Mill; they're planning
an attack."

Bram laughed. "If they're foolish
enough to plan an attack on us then they deserve what they get in return.
That's like a kitten trying to fight a lion. I don't think it's anything we
need to worry about."

"But now I understand why they
would do what they're planning."

Bram rolled his eyes. "Of course,
because you're one of them." He sat up and stared in my face. "That's
why you've always felt sorry for them. You're one of them. Who knew all this
time the enemy was living right under my nose?"

"I'm not the enemy. They're not the
enemy. They're only trying to stay alive, Bram. What if you had to watch your
family and the people that you love wither away? Wouldn't you fight for the
lifestones that were rightfully yours to save them? There's no reason for any
Grim to ever die."

"They're not Grims, so stop staying
that. You're not a Grim. As a matter of fact, if you weren't my sister, I'd
kill you right now for trespassing in Grim territory."

I clearly wasn't going to get through to
him, at least not then, so I left him, went downstairs to collect my cloak, and
slipped out of the house.

I needed to speak to someone who
wouldn't judge me, a person who would just listen as I talked. I took a brisk
walk to Chase's house. I enjoyed the chilliness of the Farrington air while I
could. Soon, I would be back in the hot, muggy atmosphere of the Outskirts.

I knocked on Chase's backdoor, praying
he wasn't away on assignment. I waited for someone to answer as the sting from
my brother's words continued to taunt me. Chase's mother, Ariel, opened the
door. She looked around confused. As she stepped out for a better look, I
slipped in and made my way to Chase's bedroom.

I opened and closed his bedroom door
gently behind me. By the steady rise and fall of his chest, I could see that
Chase was in the midst of good sleep. I hated to wake him up. I removed my
cloak and sat next to him, shaking him gently. 

He shot up, and we almost bumped heads.
"Wuh!"

"Chase, it's me," I whispered.

"Naomi?"

"Yeah?"

"How'd you get in here?" Chase
asked.

"Your mom let me in," I
answered.

"She did?"

"Yeah, but she didn't know."