Disclaimer: I don't own DP or HON or WOTO
Chapter Two: Escape
October 10th, 2004
Clover's POV:
Dad knew he that he was going to die.
He'd known he was going to die so he'd taught me everything he could and made sure Tess wasn't able to be as close to me as she might've wanted to be. No matter how much it nauseated Tess, she was supposed to take care of me and act like a motherly figure. I'd figured that much out in the five days I've been here, the five days the mad scientist tortured me endlessly.
Well not exactly, Dr. Davidoff has been trying and trying to make me feel like this is my new, permanent home but I'm relentless to believe that. Only two of my five days here have been used for research on me, and even then it's only for blood work and physical exams on my body. Both procedures were done by Lauren, Chloe's aunt and a traitor, whom I still kinda trusted.
"I wonder what Daddy would do in a situation like this?" I murmured to myself, my soft voice echoing off the walls. "I wonder if Dad knew I was a necromancer all this time. I wonder if Jenny knew that too."
Was Dad even my real father? And who was my mother? Necromancy was hereditary, so which side of my family did I get it from? Also, what about me? They said I was a failed experiment so what was going to happen to me and my life now? There were so many questions that I've asked and asked but never have gotten the right answers for. I sat up, I'd been lying on the carpeted floor of my room so I crawled over to my bed and sat there.
There were no kids my age lurking around this place so it got pretty lonely, especially when I'm taken to a playground setting and there's no one else to play with other than a rigid guard that wasn't very friendly. There are only adults here and nearly all of them believe I'm a little monster, an abomination. A failed experiment.
I shook my head. Keep your thoughts happy Clover, or you'll go crazy in no time.
I'm not always subjugated to my room/cell, the reason I say that is because there are no windows and the door was steel with no doorknob. The day after my capture by the Edison Group, Dr. Davidoff took me on the grand tour of the building; showing me all the different rooms and the security room and he even took me to his library where I read about necromancers. Day two was when I got blood taken by Lauren, it didn't hurt very much but she took me to the kitchen for ice cream afterwards and I met André who helped me with my powers. Day three was when I was taken to a playground and got my first glimpse of sunlight but the visit there was very lonesome and the playground was small with eight foot tall cement walls encasing me in. Day four Lauren did a physical exam on me, the basic checking my heartbeat, feeling my stomach to see if anything was wrong, blah, blah, blah. I was so tempted to fake being sick so they'd take me out of here but I didn't. Today was day five and it was almost noon and I've been stuck in my room the entire day.
Diane Enright brought my breakfast to me this morning instead of Dr. Davidoff or André coming to get me and take me to the kitchen for breakfast. When I asked her where they were her face scrunched up and, with a sneer, she told me he was busy. I never liked her much, she was just like Tess. A bottle blonde stuck up bitch.
No, Diane and Tess may be very alike in many ways but Diane was heartless, Tess had some sort of heart inside of her or she'd have kept being a cruel bitch to me after Dad died. Diane Enright and Tess Nicholson weren't exactly alike but I still hated both women with great passion.
As for André, he was a necromancer who immigrated to Canada from France when he was a teenager, currently he was 31. He lived in Québec where he met his wife, who'd died when the Edison Group wanted André but he didn't want to join them so they'd killed her, she had been unknowingly pregnant with their first child. He was the only one I could truly trust around this joint, he knew everything about me, even my plans to escape. He hated the Edison Group, they killed his wife so why wouldn't he, hence he promised to help me escape. André gained my trust and love by telling me all this, I knew he wasn't lying, and I gained his by telling him my own story and plans. The only thing I hadn't told André was about Jeremy Danvers and the fact that I knew about werewolves, well I wasn't sure about the werewolves' part.
"Mademoiselle MacUallis," a sonorous voice with a French enunciation slithered from the doorway. I turned to see a tall man with brown wavy hair peeking through the doorway. Speak of the devil and he shall come.
"André!" I launched myself into his arms and he hugged me back. He'd been helping me with my powers, every since I learned what I was I've been seeing snippets of spirits. "Bonjour André, comment allez-vous?"
"Je suis bien, mon petit moineau," he picked me up and carried me to the bed; he sat down with me on his lap. As he stroked my hair I closed my eyes and relaxed.
I didn't know a lot of French but I knew enough to hold up for a few sentences, and I knew enough to know what André said sometimes. The first time he called me petit moineau I thought he was insulting me because I only knew the word for little but he explained that he was calling me little sparrow. He called me that because I reminded him of the sparrows flittering around and chirping, even when I was in a place not meant for children. I liked André the most because he reminded me of Dad, not physically of course but André cared about me even when others wanted to kill me.
"Clover, how are you feeling?" he asked, his rumbling voice vibrated against my cheek. "What I mean to say is that you've been through a lot and you disclose yourself from everyone, except me."
"André, I don't trust them, you know that, they don't make me feel loved like you do and they scare me. My mother figure betrayed me, Lauren lied to both Chloe and I and everything is just so messed up now!"
"I know, mon petit moineau, I know," he whispered and wiped away my tears and rocked me back and forth. "This place isn't for you, you know that I'm trying to figure out how to sneak you out without them knowing and seeing. It's hard Clover, I've been trying to get out for years but I've never had the motivation or cause until you came along."
"I'm trying Clover, you and I will be out by the end of November and I'll take you back to France with me. We'll simply disappear and, when the times right, we'll return and regroup with the others and take down this place."
"That sounds nice! I really want to see France, from what you tell me it's a really wonderful place!"
"It is," he beamed then frowned. "Come along Clover. Someone wishes your audience, though I doubt you'll want hers. I'm sorry mademoiselle."
I scrambled away from his lap, crawled around him and mounted onto his back. "Onward my sturdy steed!" I pointed for the door and clasped his neck so I wouldn't fall off. He laughed and kissed my head.
"Here we go Clover, are you ready?" he stood, reached back and shifted me so both he and I were comfortable. When I nodded he took off running and spinning us around while I squealed with glee.
We kept fooling around until I nearly fell off his back and a scientist shot us a dirty look. Then he walked slowly and piggybacked me as we talked about miscellaneous things. When we round a corner he stopped, at the end of the hall was the kitchen.
"Clover, you know I hated keeping secrets from you," he said and shifted me again.
"And you know I hate surprises and secrets too," I grinned, he was too much of a friend to me. He knew me so well even after such little time we've spent together.
"Oui," he continued. "Mademoiselle Nicholson is on other side of the kitchen doors and requests your audience. She wishes to speak with you but she did not want you to know she was here until you walked through the doors and saw her."
"Because she wanted me to see the perfect act she put on, to see the sad face she painted on this morning. To make me feel regret for ever disliking her," I muttered. I didn't feel any regret for her, her loss was my gain, I was happy I wasn't blood related to her.
He set me on my feet and took my hand, at 6'1" André towered a good foot and a half over my petite 4'5". "Unfortunately I believe you are correct, child. I do think that she feels the slightest remorse for you, but not in the way you want and need her to feel. She's sorry that you're a failed experiment and didn't want this for you but she doesn't regret the decision to turn you in to the Edison Group."
"But I need to talk with her," I said confidently. "I have a lot of questions for her. Will you stay with me?"
"Of course, mon petit moineau," he pulled me along, keeping me close and whispering encouraging words to me, some in French and some in English. When we reached the kitchen he hesitated and knelt down to murmur to me. "You're plan to act like a perfect little angel is working, most seem like they rather see you dead but it's not true. They don't believe you're any more harm than a regular human child but you have more power within you than I do and you're only 9."
"You're the only one I've told that I see ghosts, they don't know a thing," I muttered back fervently. He tugged my pendant out from underneath my shirt, we hadn't talked about it much but I knew my necklace was important.
"Do not ever lose this," he said firmly. "Clover this is an amulet to keep ghosts away, well not exactly. A lapis is created to keep a necromancers glow small and with a tiny glow not many ghosts will be as eager to speak to you. There are some ghosts around here and even with this and the faded glow of a child they still say that you have great potential."
I nodded but didn't say a thing, he leaned in closer and I felt his warm breath tickle my ear. "Once you go back to your room dress in the warmest clothes you have, dress in layers and wear long johns, boots and your fall jacket. I'm going to try to see if I can take you outside the Edison Group, I'll try to persuade Marcel to let you out so I can take you to dinner."
I knew what he meant and I nodded. He opened the door to the kitchen and shuffled me in. There were three tables; Tess sat at the middle one, twiddling her thumbs.
"Clover," she straightened when I slid into the seat opposite from her. "How are you, sweetheart?"
I bit back the urge to bark back and scream at her; instead I remained calm and composed and chose my words carefully since we were on camera. "I'm good."
"Thank you André for bringing her, you can leave," Tess barely glanced at him, her eyes were all for me. Great so now she truly cares.
"Clover wishes for me to stay here with her and give her…" he trailed off deliberately and thought for a moment. He grinned. "And give her support."
She gave him a dismissive wave. "Whatever. Clover, I want you to know how sorry I am."
"For me being a failed experiment," I sounded emotionless and cool. "But you don't care whether they kill me or not, whether I achieve control of my powers or never is able to control them."
She sat there her mouth hanging open like she dislocated her jaw; I knew she was racking her brain to say something back that didn't sound snippy and child-like.
"Tess, what kind of supernatural are you?"
She blinked. "Why don't you call me Mom anymore?"
"Because you're not my birth mother and maybe if you treated me a lot better I might've been okay with that. However you didn't, you lost the privilege to ever be my mom a long time ago but I kept loving you because I thought you were my mother."
"I hated the fact that they just gave you and your father to me. That they expect me to just accept you and love you like you were my own, but you weren't. But I still tried because you needed to be kept safe."
That stung a little. "So if you didn't want me then why didn't you ask them for someone else to take me? And you still haven't answered my first question yet."
"They wouldn't let you go with anyone else and frankly I didn't want to let you go so I didn't make a comment. And to answer your first question I'm a witch."
So she was a witch, huh? Now I'm wondering if all witches are bitches. "That doesn't make any sense. You want me but you don't. Tess, please, I need these answers."
"A little while after your father died I saw that you were trying to get closer to me. I can't understand how a child's mind works and you always kept me at arm's length before Evan died so I was wondering why you were coming onto me," her tone softened a bit.
"Tess, before Dad died," my voice cracked and I was struggling to keep myself from crying and stuttering, "you were barely ever at home and when you were you always brought this cold air with you. After Dad died I needed comfort but you never gave it to me so I worked for it myself. I was only 5, I needed someone to help me through his death, I needed a mom."
She was speechless so I decided to move toward the big kill. It might make her very angry or she might not even answer me. "So I'm assuming the person who I called Dad was my actual father. But do you know who my biological mother was?"
"Huh?" she looked a bit startled. "Oh, um yes, Evan was your father. I don't know for sure who your biological mother was but Evan seemed to love Jennifer very much."
Wait, Dad and Jenny? Jenny couldn't possibly be my – oh shit! Jenny had blue eyes and pale skin. Also, people always asked Chloe and me if we were related, because we had the same azure eyes and facial structure. But that's impossible; Chloe and I were born on the same day and were the same age too, if Jenny was my birth mother then Chloe and I –
"No," my voice was hard and had the slightest bits of anger seeping around the edges. "Jenny isn't my mother."
"I wouldn't be so sure," she stood up to leave but hesitated. "André, can I have a word with you?"
Their dark eyes met and a wordless conversation was exchanged. Then André stood and walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway with Tess. I could still see their figures in the frosted glass and after a few minutes André returned without Tess.
"Tess has left so we can have lunch," André didn't face me; instead he turned to the counter and began making sandwiches. "After we're finished eating I have to go back and do some tests on the blood that had been taken from you."
André was a scientist too; that's initially why the Edison Group wanted him, because he was a geneticist. He studies a person's genetics through their blood and other bodily fluids; he's able to decipher where a person comes from and some genetic anomalies that may occur in a person's blood. I don't know how and why he did it because it sounded very boring and hard to do. But he was very valuable to the Edison Group, he was a great scientist and a supernatural and that was what secured him a job in this hell hole.
We ate our lunch in silence, which is unusually for both of us; we shared stories over lunch and talked about world news. André was intrigued by my intelligence and once admitted, with a rare flush, that sometimes he forgot that I was only 9. Then he'd told me that overlooking the fact that I was a mere child was dangerous and he had to work on remembering that. I couldn't disagree with his statement.
After we were done he took me back to my room and told me he'd be back for me by 6:30 pm. Then he left, giving me about six hours to lounge around and sleep.
I knew I had to rest so I set the alarm clock on the bedside table for 4:30 pm then crawled under the warm covers and took a good, long, dreamless nap.
An annoying beeping sound woke me. I slapped my hand down on the off button, sat up and stretched. A few bones creaked (which was really scary considering my age) but I felt really good. Then I remember what I was supposed to do.
With a groan I slipped out of bed and stripped down to take a shower. I've been washing myself for years now, before he died Daddy would've made the perfect housewife – er I mean husband. But once he was gone it was all up to me to clean and clothe myself; Tess bought me clothes, made me food, and paid for me but that was it. The rest was up to me.
And in a place like this I'm pretty sure that if I asked a person – even a woman – to help bathe me I'd get a really disgusted look. Furthermore, I'm positive that they're happy to know I'm potty trained.
In my shower I replayed the floor plan of the building. Three floors, one was storage I think and I only say that because it was above this floor and I've never been up there. The floor I was on – the second floor – was where all the room/cells were, the security room and where the doctor's room was and Dr. Davidoff's office. The first floor was where the lab, surgery room, school area, playground and other stuff was. I didn't know the route André wanted to take but with three years of gymnastics (Chloe and I needed to learn how to be a bit less clumsy) up my sleeve I'm sure I could make it over an eight foot wall.
I had to keep in mind of the security cameras; there weren't any in the rooms or in Dr. Davidoff's office but they were everywhere else. Even outside the compound. I shook my head and turned off the shower, stepped out, dried myself off and put my hair in a towel turban then wrapped the fleece robe around myself then got into my post shower routine.
Rubbed some baby cream on my face, then unravelled the turban, wrenched a brush through my hair then blow dried my hair. Turning off the hair dryer I felt an odd sense of déjà vu, I did this every morning before breakfast. It was so familiar I nearly forgot where I was.
I stomped out into the room, super mad at myself. I yanked on my many layers of clothes; long johns underneath my jeans and about four layers of upper wear – tee shirt, long sleeved shirt, a fleece sweatshirt and my cozy and warm fall jacket. Of course I wouldn't put on my jacket or boots until André came to get me, turns out, in this place, that my happiness was what they wanted the most. When I asked for boots and a warm autumn coat they didn't question me, it was the beginning of October and it was getting nippy outside. I'd also asked for a back pack, I got a few inquiring looks then but I'd said that I was just for emergencies – I still think I lost some brownie points with the back pack. Damn!
I filled the small knap sack with my toothbrush, toothpaste, two extra long sleeved shirts, my hair brush, and a tube of lip balm. I kept mentally cursing the damn scientists and guards for not letting me sneak granola bars, rice crispy squares, and other snacks back to my room. Hopefully André would cover food, and buying other things. Then I remembered the wad of twenty dollar bills André given me and stuffed it into my left boot, I'd counted it off yesterday and found nearly two hundred dollars.
I wandered back into the bathroom and stared in the mirror for nearly ten minutes. My straight long hair fell to the middle of my back; I knew it could get in the way when I tried to escape so I braided it. Then I officially stated I was done.
I checked the time once I returned to the room; 6 pm, okay so I had a half hour before André would come to retrieve me. I busied myself by triple checking that I had everything and that I was wearing as many layers as possible. Quarter after six, I pulled my boots and jacket on then mentally prepared and waited.
Five minutes later I was beginning to have self doubts, thanks to the seeds of uncertainty that Tess planted years ago. What if I wasn't good enough to escape? What if André and I were caught and killed? What if André's plan failed and somehow only I got out? What would I do then?
Go back to your original escape plan.
My original escape plan?
Jeremy Danvers?
Right. My inner voice sighed, frustrated with me. I'd hit a stroke of pure luck when André and I were introduced, he knew this place better than I did and I had a person on the inside I could trust. But if André failed or betrayed me then I had a backup plan.
My head jerked, no! André wouldn't ever betray me. I waited in silence for my inner voice to disagree with me, nothing came.
I checked the clock again, two minutes until André was supposed to come. I watched the clock as it ticked away those last two minutes. Then 6:30 came.
A mere second after the clock struck 6:30 pm the door opened to reveal a man. A tall dark haired man.
But it wasn't André.
I'd never seen this man before, or at least I thought I didn't. Somewhere deep in my subconscious a little alarm rang saying that this man was one I could downright trust with my heart and soul.
"Are you all right?" his rich baritone dripped with the upmost concern, but when he took a step toward me I shrunk away. Then he smiled a smile so small and sad that I wanted to pounce on him and give him all my love.
Instead I steeled myself for the foray of armed guards to pour in. When that didn't come I turned to the man and questioned him. "Who are you and where's André?"
"Who I am is not of any importance and something aroused with your caregiver and a witch."
"What do you mean? Something happened to André!"
"Now is not the time child!" he sailed toward me and picked me up. "I need to get you out of here and to safety. You are in danger here; you always were and always will be."
"I have no idea who you are!"
"But you trust me, even without knowing my name and much less who and what I am, you trust me entirely. Correct?"
I nodded and clung to him. "Take me to André, please. I need to see him. If you know me then you know that I need to see André!"
As he was running throughout the halls he explained to me. "Diane Enright and André got into a farce; the Edison Group didn't trust him anymore so they eliminated the threat."
Fear, anger, and sorrow zinged through me, tears pricked my eyes. "He'd told Dr. Davidoff about his idea of taking me out to dinner and they knew he wasn't going to take me to dinner. He was going to escape with me, they knew that and they killed him because they need me."
"Yes, I'm very sorry Clover," he whispered in my ear as we descended down the stairs to the first level. "A supernatural geneticist, while rare, is replaceable. You, an extremely powerful genetically modified necromancer, are not and that is what got him killed. It's not your fault, it is theirs, they did this to you and they will pay one day. But my soul duty right now is to get you out."
I knew it wasn't my fault, that I had no idea of what André's plan was or what might've been his motives to get me out. But I still felt guilty because it was what I was – who I am – that got him killed initially. The mere thought of escaping with me got André killed.
André… another fatherly figure of mine was dead. Yet again, because of me.
"We're almost out, how come no one has noticed us?" I asked the mysterious man. "Usually when I'm taken out of my cell I'm guarded and sometimes a guard is posted in front of my door.
"I cut off all the security cameras and alarms and my power is invisibility. No one can see us or hear us, just so long as you are with me but if you were to let go of me then you would be seen. But I believe that they are just figuring out that the security is off and that you are not where you are supposed to be."
I didn't say anything more. A minute later, though, an alarm started screeching through the hallways. The man cursed and released me.
"Keep running, go straight until you reach a dead end then turn left and keep going," he said in a rush. "There's a hole in the wall at the end of the hall, go out of it and you're free. Run to the forest and don't stop, not until you're sure you can't run anymore."
I nodded and took off and, in my haste; I blindly dropped my back pack. A bullet whizzed past my shoulder, and grazed me, cutting through the many layers of clothing and slicing my shoulder. I heard the commotion ensuing behind me and squeezed my eyes close, and kept rushing through the building.
I followed his directions, not stopping for anything or anyone. When I reached the end of the last hall sure enough there was a hole the same size of me, through it the cool evening air rushed into the building. I barely paused to think about why and how it was there. I jumped out and sprinted into the woods.
I ran and ran and ran. No matter how much my body pleaded me to stop, how much the fire burned my lungs I couldn't and didn't stop. When my legs gave way or when I tripped over a root I stumbled back up again and kept running.
I fell but unlike the other time I didn't get up and wheezed until I caught my breath. Then I curled up and cried.
Somewhere through the dry heaves and the full out screaming I fell asleep. I vaguely remember the sun of dawn lighting the trees when I fell asleep.
I woke the next day around noon and stumbled through the woods until night fall, and then I found a little bunker in the forest and fell into the world of nightmares.
In the days that followed I realized that money was worthless when you don't know where the hell you are and when, as far as I know, you don't know shit where the nearest civilization is. I could be just meters away from a town or, at the very least, a road or a thousand miles away. I didn't know what the hell to do out here.
I didn't have food, I drank dirty water (at least it kept me alive), and my back pack was lost when I was scurrying to get out of the compound. I was beginning to think of little forest animals scuttling by as food, the days and nights blended together. I didn't know anything but trying to survive.
I was losing myself.
Days or weeks later I tripped on an uprooted tree. And didn't get up again.
A/N:
Awww poor Clover, she's struggling to survive! Okay so I'll try to have more chapters up quickly but the school year is starting and it might put updates behind a little. But I'll try my best!
R&R PLEASE!
Thanks Shawna~~~
