We move on, powerless in the churning rivers of time, and things that were once strange become familiar, become home.
The Great House, as headquarters was called, was a sprawling mansion with secrets tucked away in every corner. There were stacked bookshelves on every floor covered with history tomes and thick, dusty novels. I wanted to leaf through all of them, even if just to see what lay inside, but we were all advised not to touch anything that wasn't ours. It was against policy. A lot of things were against policy.
Training began to take up my day, and not just training my ability, but physical training as well. Every morning we travelled in armoured cars to the mountains, where we ran through the trails together. Children were usually paired with their peers, but since there wasn't another doll-turned-contractor, I usually made the jog myself.
I loved running. There was something about being alone with my thoughts in the crisp morning air that was so refreshing and beautiful. I could forget about the past, even if just for an hour. I started getting up earlier and running through the dark streets, meeting the rest at the drop-off location. No one noticed I wasn't in the vehicles.
No one wanted to talk about the security situation. Too many Children were ending up in traps, too many safe houses destroyed, too many internal questions. No one wanted to believe that one of us would give each other away. After all, we were all comrades, all equal. What could one gain by joining up with a human Government or Syndicate?
One morning I woke up before the sun and dressed myself in my usual running gear. I'd amassed quite a collection of clothing over the weeks, none of it new, but all of it new to me. I shuffled quietly down the stairs, but I'd been found out; Claude was waiting for me by the front door, a large grin on his face.
"What are you doing?" I asked. He pulled up a foot in a stretch.
"I'm coming running with you. It can't be nice running alone every morning," he replied. I smiled back, but something rubbed me the wrong way as we began walking down the dark streets. It was as if his motives had nothing to do with my wellbeing, but for his satisfaction in letting me know that he knew my secret. Maybe he'd been put up to it to make sure I wasn't leaking information.
Soon all of that fled my mind as the running took over. My focus moved to my breath, my pace, the pounding of the pavement beneath my feet.
"How is your training going?" Claude asked once we left the suburbs and were surrounded by forest. I didn't like to talk and run, but I slowed to a jog to make up for the lost air.
"I start combat this week," I replied. He chuckled.
"I don't know why they're putting everyone through that. It's not like half of them need it. Annie can blow fireballs from her mouth, I don't think knowing proper stances is going to be a big deal for her," he said.
"And what if she comes up against someone stronger?" I retorted without thinking. Claude just laughed harder.
"Who is she going to fight stronger than her? Some goons in the military? Think about it, Yin. No one is stronger than contractors. We could easily create a functioning society within the Government if we just showed a little bit of muscle," he said.
I wiped sweat from my brow. Was he trying to test my loyalty with these statements? Or was he really feeling this way? The Creed of the Children of the Gate was strictly against harming humans unless absolutely necessary for survival. He seemed to sense what I was thinking.
"Come on, don't tell me it doesn't make you angry that the military killed all of those contractors without a thought in the world. It wasn't even a fair fight. Half of them were asleep, I heard."
"I know what happened. I was there," I responded, then curbed back my hostile tone. Why was this upsetting me so much? "It doesn't make me angry, it just makes me... sad. There has to be a reason why humans would strike. That reason was probably fear, which just leads to the question of why they were so afraid of contractors before the Change."
"You were there? How did you escape?" he asked. I didn't bother to answer. I was tired of trying to explain how I'd made it out of the massacre alive. Most of the time I felt like the others were angry at me for living when their own loved ones had been killed.
"Fine, then. But to answer your question, the Government was obviously afraid of the power contractors had. Maybe there was even a war for supremacy, who knows. Why do we hide who we are?" he said.
"Because we have to. We're not ready to be public yet, not until we can properly transition back into society," I replied.
"Do you honestly just swallow everything they feed you? Do you not have any of your own opinions? Honestly, if I didn't know any better I'd think you were just a doll."
The phrase stopped me dead in my tracks. I didn't remember life as a doll, but even hearing the word being applied to me caused my stomach to lurch and my blood to boil. Calm down, I told myself, he's just a hot head. But it wasn't easy. I could feel the anger taking me over. I felt like my other self was taking control, my specter, and I was just slowly slipping away. Until I heard his voice.
"Yin! Are you okay?"
I fought to stay conscious, but I still crumbled to the ground. I saw two sets of boots running toward me. Strong arms wrapped themselves around me, pulling me upright.
"Hei," I murmured, my head still swimming. He put his hand across my forehead, wiping the sweat away, then he turned to Claude, who was standing a few feet away.
"What the hell did you do to her?" he growled. Claude threw up his hands in defense.
"Nothing, I swear! We were just jogging and she blanked out," he said. Liar.
"I thought I told you to make sure she came with the car," Hei stated angrily. Claude just shrugged.
"Look, I figured if she had company she couldn't get into any trouble."
My head was still fuzzy, but I wrestled myself out of Hei's arms.
"You wanted me followed?" I questioned. His eyes went blank as he searched for a reply.
"I just didn't want you out here alone in the dark. Something could happen," he said finally, but the damage was done.
"You don't trust me," I accused. I stumbled backward. I didn't want to be near either of them, and I could feel something trying to grab me and take me over from the inside.
"That's not it at all Yin, I swear," he began, but I was in no state to hear him. I couldn't move anymore. I was paralyzed.
"Maybe you should have just let her run when she wanted to," Claude quipped. Hei was staring at me, his eyes widening as he realized something was happening to me.
"Just shut up! We need to get her back to the house, now," he said. White wisps shrouded my vision, then took over my mind.
All I could hear over the next ten minutes was Hei's worried voice. "Just hang on, Yin." Then everything went dark.
...
I woke up in my bedroom, my body aching and my mind clouded. Scarlet and Hei were sitting by the end of my bed, talking gravely. When they heard me rouse, both leapt up to my side. How long had I been out? I blushed when I realized I was in a nightgown. Had Hei been around when my clothes had been changed?
"How are you feeling?" Scarlet asked, her voice motherly.
"Sore. Groggy. What happened?" I asked. Scarlet's face fell and she looked to Hei.
"We don't know. We think maybe your abilities might have gone rogue," he said.
I thought about the running incident. I remembered feeling absolutely helpless. I remembered feeling... out of control. Was this my ability going rogue? What did that even mean?
"What do I do about that?" I asked after fully digesting it. Before anyone could answer, a young man arrives at my door.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Scarlet, but the new recruits are here," he stated.
"I have to attend to this. I'll be back to check on you later, Yin," Scarlet said before rushing off with the man. Hei and I were now alone. I looked at him expectantly.
"We'll just have to keep observing," he said finally. Right. So he didn't know anything either. I sighed. This was all becoming too much.
"Hei, why don't you trust me?" I asked. His eyebrows furrowed with concern.
"I just want to keep you safe," he replied. I turned my head away from him and gazed out my window, where the sunlight shimmered on dust particles.
"But you need to trust me. I don't want to be followed around just to make sure I'm safe. My runs were my own time, time to reflect on things," I responded quietly. Hei leaned forward and reached his hand out to grasp mine. His touch sent shivers down my spine, and I met his sharp, intense gaze.
"I want you to trust me, too. It's dangerous out there for us, and if something happens with your ability like that again, I don't want you to be alone," he whispered. Something soared through me, some intense emotion I couldn't yet explain, but it wasn't enough.
"What's happening? Why are we training so hard?" Hei released my hand and leaned back in his chair, his eyes scanning the room distantly.
"War," he said, "there is a section of the Government known as Pandora that knows about us, that is trying to eradicate us. I don't know how we're going to get through this, to be honest. There are so many lives at stake, on both sides. I don't know how we can co-exist without violence. That, and there are some who don't believe in our Creed. They don't think contractors should be afraid of humans," he explained.
I thought about Claude and what he'd said to me this morning. Were we really supposed to be the dominant species? Somehow this thought didn't sit right with me, even if contractors were more powerful than humans.
"Claude said something like that this morning. That he thought contractors were a better evolution of humanity," I said. Hei contemplated this as if he'd thought about it so many times before.
"Claude has been with us from the beginning. As much as I know that his ideology is different, I don't think he would ever betray us. He's had too many chances to give us up. Why would he now, when we're stronger than every?" he pondered aloud.
"So what happens now?" I asked. Hei attempted a smile, though his eyes were clouded and complicated.
"We train. We prepare to fight if we have to. We stay safe," he said. I bit my lower lip, trying not to smile. Even though it kind of pissed me off, it was cute that he worried about me. I wonder if he worried about everyone like that.
"I'll do my best," I replied.
Hei patted the end of my bed as he stood up.
"Get some rest. Your combat training starts tomorrow, and I'm your trainer. You'll need it," he said, then left me alone in the room.
I thought there was no way I could go back to sleep now, but within minutes of quiet, my body lulled itself back into a deep slumber.
...
I woke in the middle of the night. It was cold. My window was open, and moonlight poured in. I slept through the entire day, and my body still ached. I realized suddenly that even though I hadn't summoned my powers earlier, I hadn't paid my price. Just the thought of it created sweat beads on my neck.
I shuffled downstairs to the room with the piano. My body seemed to sigh in relief as my fingers gently touched the keys. I began to play, hoping I wouldn't wake any. I fulfilled my price, and then I heard something. A voice. It was coming from the grounds right outside the room's window.
I tiptoed to the window, where I could see a tall, beautiful woman standing near the bushes. She looked like she was carved from perfect ebony, and she was speaking to... no one. I could barely make out her whispers.
"There's been an interesting development," she said, then stopped. She turned and looked right at me, and her stare sent chills down my spine. Then she smiled. It wasn't a nice smile; it was frightening, even threatening.
I ran back upstairs to my room and wrapped myself in my blankets. I tried to forget what I'd just seen, but the beautiful woman's smile followed me into my dreams.
** Thank you to everyone for reading! :D This is probably going to turn out much longer than I'd originally planned, and I have a lot planned. I'll try my best to keep posting regularly. **