AN: Done. Not quite sure what to think of this one... oh well. It kinda went down a lot differently then I expected. Much more dramatic. It was like the plot was developing itself while I wrote. Wierd.
On a different note, thanks bunches for all the reviews, you guys brighten my day... I'm somewhat suprised by the amount of people demanding for me to make Six an evo. LOL.
Also, if I haven't posted a chapter for a while or want to know what the progress is, check my profile. I write entries about what's going on and when I'll update, also some hints and stuff.
...I think some of you won't like this chapter, but still, ENJOY!
Chapter 3
It had been three days. Felt like weeks. Nobody had bothered giving me an assignment, nobody would even make eye contact with me in the halls anymore. If you could walk from one end of a building to another without interacting with another human, the hallways were too wide. Holiday had at least always been there to talk before, but suddenly she was distant, lost in her own head. She confessed that she was reconsidering staying with Providence, evo sister or no. I guess I'd be too, but I didn't have a life outside those stupid disinfected walls.
I flicked my eyes open and let the world in. Same ceiling with the crack in it, same light from the window. A different boy in the middle of all the familiar surroundings. I suddenly realized the music had stopped blaring from my headphones and there was no escape from my own echoing thoughts. But I didn't want to turn my music back on. The silence enchanted me, the silent clamor of the grave.
The grave...
I pushed my dirty black hair out of my eyes. The day after, we had all gotten onto a armored van and traveled out to Providence's cemetery. It had been a huge flat piece of land, stretching out forever. There was no dirt, just soil. Every few feet there was a nondescript steel plaque, a plaque more suited to being placed below a cherry tree, rather than above the last remains of a war victim. There had been millions of plaques, each with a first initial and a last name and nothing more. We traveled through the sea of graves on a golf cart, not saying anything, all dressed in our regular clothes.
The only flower we had seen was a single red rose lying beside the plaque of A. Roberts. It had been crushed beneath the wheels of our cart, without so much as a reaction from the driver. There wasn't a distinct pathway, so we frequently ran over the dead 's markers. Holiday flinched every time.
Finally we had came upon a freshly dug grave. Just a very shallow ditch, a cylindrical steel casket inside, a pile of dirt beside it, and a newly inscribed name: S. Green. The cart stopped. I realized this was Six's grave. S. Green? Had that been his name? I shook myself and climbed out. White had shown his face via technology and said some words that even he didn't find meaningful. Nobody had cried. Then the device was flipped off and an awkward silence followed. Until a workman showed up and filled in the grave before our eyes.
Then the door to my room burst open, the crash muffled be my headphones. I yanked them out and sat up.
The man in the doorway was short and plump, clad in a magenta suit, a floral dress shirt, and a school-bus-yellow tie. His small, watery eyes were unremarkable. He looked around the room and I felt myself instinctively shrinking back so that the strangely dressed man would perhaps mistake me for the wall. No such luck. He saw me and his eyes lit up.
"Agent Rex?" His voice was whiny and sorta breathy, as if his mouth was full of spittle. I suppressed a shudder.
"Who the hell are you?" I said, not sure how else to respond.
"I'm Agent Six!" he proclaimed.
"No you're not," I said to the anti-Six.
"I am now, since the old one died!" he said (rather proudly), then quickly began to backpedal . "Uh, I mean… passed away?"
There was an awkward silence in which the magenta man cleared his throat several times. He kept opening his mouth to say something and deciding otherwise. It occurred to me that he looked like a fish, an ugly fleshy fish completely out of water when talking to teenagers. Guilty delight glimmered within me, and then a wave of misery overtook it. I didn't even know this man and I had already crossed him out with my virtual magic marker. Why did I always have to JUDGE. Couldn't I just accept people for who they are? Then I was annoyed with myself. I could hate whoever I wanted.
Magenta-Man interrupted my stream of consciousness. "Uh… well since we're going to be partners and everything I guess we should get to know each other? We could go out to lunch or something like that…" he said, trailing off when he saw the look on my face.
"No, I have plans to go hang out with a friend," I said, which was actually half-true. I stuffed my mp3 player in my pocket, grabbed my ever-faithful jacket from the back of my chair, and pushed past Anti-Six without another word.
And it really wasn't my fault if I already hated his guts, right?
The textured orange ball swept lazily through the air over the cracked and faded asphalt. It also passed over the backboard and connected with the rusty brick with a depressed thud.
"Gosh, Noah, you're loosing your edge. Have you even made a single basket today?" I teased. But my blonde friend remained uncharacteristically quiet.
"Hey, can we sit down?" he finally asked.
"Sure," I said, relieved. I hadn't been making my shots either. We worked our way to the wall and sat down against it, staring up at the blue cloudless sky for a while.
"Uh… I'm really not certain how to say this," he said. He turned his head to look at me, and the open honesty on his face surprised me.
"What do you mean?"
He waited a long time before answering, working his narrow fingers under the thick black laces on his shoes. "My parents aren't exactly pleased about this whole thing. I guess they never expected people to DIE, y'know? Heheh…" he laughed nervously. I caught his eye and he looked away, licking his lips.
Something was very wrong about this. He always looked me in the eye when we talked. What was he hiding?
"Rex, they're pulling me out. We're moving out. They won't tell me where because they're afraid you'll follow me. And between you and I, it would probably be best if you don't try."
Moving? What? It hit me like a ton of bricks, knocking the air out of my lungs. And then something else occurred to me, a scrap of memory, like a piece of faded torn fabric in the corner of a room. A conversation at a Mexican restaurant…
"Wait… but you said you weren't going to tell your parents you worked for Providence, because of the confidentiality agreement…" I slowly said.
He paused, sucked in a breath, and said, "Did I? Ah… oops."
I was astounded. "Noah, are you lying?"
He stood up and jammed his fists into the pockets of his army jacket. "Sorry, I have to go. Goodbye, Rex." And he began to walk away.
"Noah?"
But he kept walking. I stood up, not sure whether to run after him or just let go. He paused at the other side of the basketball court, where the ball we always used sat. For a second he looked like he was about to pick it up, take it with him (it was his ball after all), but instead he shrugged and kicked it away.
"NOAH!" I yelled, now desperate.
But he had already turned the corner and was gone.
It took me several hours upon getting back to providence before I realized Bobo was nowhere to be found.
I had been wandering the halls, wrapped in my own confusion, the old basketball under my arm. I had brought it with the intention of destroying it, but then I wasn't sure how to destroy a basketball. Scissors? Hammer? I could go evo on it, but that would seem overkill.
It hadn't occurred to me that something else had happened while I had been gone. I guess it had been stupid of me not to see it coming. After all, Six had been the one who convinced White to let Bobo stay with me. Why would he let him stay after Six was gone? After half an hour of searching, I went the only place I could think of: the lab.
The light from the windows normally pervaded every part of the lab, even the deepest corner. But when I walked in, the blinds (which I hadn't even know existed before then) were drawn tight. Holiday was sitting on the counter facing the door. Her mascara was smeared under her eyes, which were red and puffy. Her skin was pale, her blouse wrinkled. A wad of tissues were clasped forgotten in her hands.
"Doc?" I took a couple steps into the room.
She looked up, saw me, and sorta half-smiled. "Hello, Rex." She wiped her nose with the tissues and let them fall to the floor.
"Have you seen Bobo?"
Her smile faded. "Nobody told you?"
"Told me what?" I asked, beginning to panic.
The last voice I wanted to hear came from behind me. "The monkey is gone, Rex. It was silly of Six to keep him, since he was obviously a bad influence on you. I'm sorry, I know he was a good pet." I turned and it was Magenta-Man, standing next to the door with his short arms crossed and a smug smile on his balding skull.
I snapped right there.
"He wasn't a PET, you fat purple FUCK! He was my friend! Who the hell do you think you are?" I screamed hysterically.
His smug grin widened. "Don't use profanity, my dear. It makes people loose their respect for you."
"I DON'T WANT ANYBODY'S RESPECT! I JUST WANT MY FRIEND, MY PARTNER, AND MY FUCKING MONKEY!" And before I was aware what I was doing, my bare fist connected with his face.
"Rex!" Holiday yelled. I didn't react. I grabbed the fat man by the tie and threw him down on the ground, kicked him in his bulging stomach. OOMPH, he wheezed. Then Holiday's hands were gripping my arms and pulling me away. I shouted something I don't remember, but I didn't try to shake her off. Somehow I knew the fight was over.
And I had lost.
"Rex? Oh my gosh, what have you…" she trailed off as the purple man rose to his feet. One arm was pressed against his belly rolls, his tie was ripped off and crumpled on the ground, and his face was bright red. Yet there was a triumphant edge to his wheezes.
"You… have… crossed the line. I think you'll find we are… less tolerant of your escapades without… your nanny to shield you…" he said, between gasps.
I looked down, avoiding his eyes. Somehow I knew this was his revenge for me blowing him off earlier today. I saw the wad of Holiday's tissues on the ground. They were tattered, dirty, falling apart. Unraveling. Like my mind…
Anti-Six had caught his breath. "Holiday, call security. Have them take Rex to his room. His old room. Solitary confinement."
"You can't do that… I have rights…" I protested, but the passion was lost from my voice and my eyes remained on the ground. The man took a few steps towards me and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look in his stupid eyes. Like a shark's, they were, just round gray balls of clay.
"You have no rights. You're an evo, and a dangerous one. The monkey has more rights than you," he said, and spit on my face. I staggered back, away from Holiday and the man, until my back hit the wall. Now there was a triangle formed of us. Holiday's eyes were full of tears again, and I wouldn't meet them.
"Call security," he said, still staring at me.
"Please…" Holiday begged.
"Or I will make sure you never see him-or the inside of Providence-again."
She looked at me for a second, but no longer, before her hand began to travel to her earpiece.
*Stares at PC*
Wow. That was really hard to write, emotionally. I didn't expect MagentaMan to be like that at all. Don't know where the spitting part came from. Or Noah leaving by his own choice. And the whole Bobo thing was totally unscripted. Damn, I was creative today. Oh, and sorry about the swearing. I just thought the situation deserved it.
Please drop a note on your way out. Have I made you cry? Scream? Eat a bannana? Say it! Say it out loud!
(Edward Cullen's a UNICORN!)
WTF? Twilight reference? GET OUT! EVIL ADD!
With many apologies for getting rid of more characters,
-Niobe
