Controlled

Three: Back to normal

Where I was living now was in an old compound in the woods. It was an underground bunker that I had to guess was made by some guy that’d seen way too many zombie movies and had some stray cash. The man that’d made it, I’d never met; I figured he was dead. It was a shame, but I was also grateful. I’d been living in there for around a while now; if he was around, that never would’ve happened.

The shelter had two rooms—one, larger than the other, holding four beds in total, along with shelves designated for supplies. The other was a safe room of to the left that was protected by a steel door. Overall, it was a small and stuffy place, not great to spend time in, but it kept us from the weather.

Around ten other kids were living there currently, but I didn’t know a lot of them. This wasn’t a permanent destination for any of us, so there was no use in getting to know the others. I only really knew Sandy, since she’d been here the longest, and because she liked to meddle.

Andy was the only one I was close with, but we’d come to the shelter together after our old spot got discovered, and we’d gotten chased out. The two of us had met pretty soon after my parents died, and we’d looked after one another ever since. We only really had each other, and, if anything mattered in the world now, it was him.  

Andy and I had been at the bunker for around eight months now and had gotten pretty comfortable with the atmosphere. It wasn’t great. Not even close. The other inhabitants weren’t friendly and glared a lot, which was probably because Andy and I shared a bed while most of the others slept on the floor, but we’d been there longer than the others, and it was fair. Things could be tense sometimes—sleep with one eye open tense, but it was safe enough… and we were together.

The biggest downside was that it was a long walk to get to, a couple of miles from the main road. I was used to the hike and getting lost was out of the question by now, but it still got irritating—especially since it was starting to get colder.

The walk gave me time to think, at least.

As my shoes crunched down on leaves, my mind first went to the car ride and the absolute silence I’d sat in as the driver brought me to the address I given, an old gas station that laid parallel to the woods. The drive was long, but intelligent thoughts had evaded me; I was still too shocked and angry by what Will had told me

Now, everything was rushing at me. I was thinking about Will and the “bond” he explained, the look in his eyes when I’d rejected him, and feeling an indescribable pang in the middle of my chest. I knew that I had hurt him, which wasn’t something I enjoyed doing, but I figured that he deserved it; Will had directly contributed to ending my world. He had used his “gift” to overthrow and change my government, stripping me of my rights and my future.

It was strange that to remember that it had only been this way for ten years. Ten years, two months ago.

When I grew up, the only monsters that existed were in our heads and under our beds. By the time of the attack, I was eleven, and I was aware that fairies weren’t going to come to my garden and mermaids couldn’t see me playing from their spot under the sea.

That was why it had been such a shock when they rose up. The news said something along the lines of, “They’re tired of hiding. They’re apex predators and believe that they should be in charge.”

It became a worldwide revolution that took only a few weeks to complete, which went to show how underprepared the rest of us had been… though, to be fair, we couldn’t have anticipated this sort of thing. We’d always focused on other threats.

As it turned out, the creatures had been hiding in plain sight all along, most being people with power and people with money—politicians, actors, lawyers, CEOs, influencers. Being in those positions gave them significant status and access to all sorts of knowledge. The way I heard it, this paved the way for the takeover.

 The news tracked it by countries at first—and then, when they all began to fall at an incredibly faster pace, they started to use continents. Africa went first, Australia quickly following, South America, then Europe, Asia, and lastly North America… the United States, to be exact.

It had been shown on TV, that moment: the American flag atop the capitol building being taken down. That was the end. My parents and I, the entire country, watched.

After everything was overthrown, the continents got divided up… by species, since, apparently, they didn’t all really like one another and had only united for this singular purpose. The vampires ended up laying claim to North America, lycans and shapeshifters to Europe, witches Asia, fae Africa, incu and succubi Australia, and the general extra got South America; things like banshees and jinn and other creatures I hadn’t heard of before this disaster, and they divided things between them by country. Antarctica was no-man’s land.

The chaos of the change of power made things dangerous for a while. My parents stopped letting me go to school due to the riots and violence, which seemed pretty awesome at the time, but I actually never ended up going back. I didn’t finish fifth grade.

My parents made plans to flee the country and continent. Anywhere was safer than North America back then. We had some family friends in France, and we were meant to escape to Europe. They wouldn’t tell me how long we were staying for, but they made it seem like a while. At first they told me to pack a lot, then only essentials once we found out that the airports weren’t going to let us go; the new government wanted new passports, and we didn’t have time to get them.

The new plan was to take a boat. My parents and I packed all of our valuables into our car, then left. We left for the coast, a several hour drive from inland Ohio, and we didn’t make it.

 I shut my eyes briefly and cleared my throat before reopening them. There wasn’t a need to think about that. Maybe I shouldn’t think of anything—at least for a while.

That lasted for about a minute before my mind wandered to Will once more, the foliage of the Evergreens reminding me of his eyes, the crispness of the air bringing me to his gaze, to his face…

God, it’d barely been, what, two hours? And I was already going into Will withdrawal.

 I remembered Sam briefly warning me of the bond’s strength—and I wondered if maybe it all was true. If just for a second, I wondered if maybe I was Will’s mate and we were supposed to be together… if I shouldn’t have left…

No. Nope.

Quickly, I stopped myself. I wasn’t going to even consider that.

Fixed in my refusal, I focused, instead, on the ground and the trees and anything else. I thought of the noise of my feet stepping on leaves, the sound of animals calling and scurrying, the whisper of the wind. It relaxed me, so much so that I was almost surprised when I got to the bunker; it’d gone by fast.

Blinking, I focused on the round, metallic circle sticking out of the forest floor like a sore thumb, and reached out to twist the wheel on top. The latch then flipped open, revealing a ladder down the side. I began my climb down, feet carefully avoiding the wobbly bits before I landed on the metal flooring with a noise announcing my presence.

Almost instantly, a woman, in her late twenties with a makeup free face, came out from the safe room, and I let out a sigh.

“Where have you been?” Sandy asked curiously, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Out,” I replied, coming to a stop.

She studied at me for a moment, looking me up and down. I knew she’d zeroed in on my wrapped wrist and thought for-certain she was going to mention it, but Sandy let it pass. “The others figured you were gone for good,” she said instead. “Tried to take your stuff.”

I gave her a look.

“Relax. I knew you’d come back.” She pointed in the corner. “Stuff’s over there.”

Quickly, I walked over, beginning to shuffle through my little belongings. To my name, I had two blankets, a jacket, a backpack, and a picture of my parents and me. The first thing I did was check that the photo was still there, and, when I did, I stared at it for a moment.

I was seven in it. We’d gone to Mt. Rushmore for spring break, and it was freezing. I remembered the entire time I’d been complaining, and, in the picture, my parents had swooped down to help cover me up with parts of their own coats. We were all smiling, and the memory hurt.

“It helped having Andy back me up, too,” Sandy went on, pulling me out of my head. I set the picture down, turning to see her dark brows raised and her arms crossed across her chest. “Speaking of, you should talk to him. He’s pretty freaked out.”

“Where is he?”

“By the river, getting water.”

“Is that where everyone else is, too?” I wondered, glancing around at the empty bunker. Sandy was the person to ask about that sort of thing; she always knew what everyone else was up to.

“Some went with Andy, some went into town for food and supplies.”

They were stealing, she meant. Most of the people were career criminals here; it was how we survived. I didn’t judge. I stole myself, too, and I’d killed someone by accident. Really, I didn’t get the point of following law, of respecting a world that had just chewed me up and spit me out.

“Cool,” I just said. “I’ll be back.”

“That’s what you said last time,” Sandy reminded me as I began to ascend the ladder. I just rolled my eyes.

Once past the latch, I started to walk to the nearby river, my feet taking me there without consideration of a certain path. This place was second nature; I went there more than anywhere else. This was where we bathed, where we got our water, washed our clothes. I knew it perfectly.

It was close, just maybe a two-minute walk, but I made it there in three, my excitement increasing my pace. The sound of crashing water altered me to its presence as I drew nearer, and then, just pushing back some overgrowth, I got a view.

The river was beautiful, as always, but I wasn’t focused on it this time. Instead, with a fast-beating heart, my eyes settled on a back I would know anywhere, and I grinned. “Andy!” I called, running over.

Two others were with him, and they both watched our reunion—an affair covered in a tight hug and quiet, breathless sighs of relief.

“Thought you got arrested,” one of the others said when Andy and I broke apart. Something told me her name might be Jean. Or maybe Jackie. Something with a J.

I shot Andy a quick, reprimanding look for being such a gossip before replying, “Nope.”

The girl and her friend shrugged at that, now disinterested, and they returned to their task. I studied them for a moment, watching them grind soap against their ratty clothes by the falls, before refocusing on Andy, who was smiling at me sheepishly.

“Sorry. You know I get mouthy when I’m worried,” he said.

“It’s fine.” I looked him over. “Have you been sleeping?”

“Not much,” he admitted.

There were bags under his eyes, a clear indication of his exhaustion, and I glanced over the rest of him to see if anything else had changed while I’d been gone. I found that, just as before, his hair was unruly, long, and brown, desperately in need of a cut, and pulled into a low ponytail. His eyes were still, too, colored brown, which was good as it would’ve really startled me if I’d come back to find them green or something. He still had that long scar, stretching from his temple to his left brow—faded, white, and undeniably present.

Andy was the same height, just a few inches taller than me; he often claimed he was six-foot-two, but I’d never measured him myself and was hesitant to accept the statement. His body was skinny as well, malnourished like my own, and I suddenly wanted to hit myself for having forgotten to bring any of the food from the castle.

Hanging off of skin that clung tight to bone was a white flannel we’d managed to snag from a convenience store three weeks ago and jeans that were an inch too short. Andy had long, white socks riding up past his ankle to protect the skin that the jeans failed to, and, below such socks, were sneakers that resembled a honeycomb—covered with too many holes.

“We should talk,” Andy said, drawing my attention.

I glanced at his face, watching well-known features morph into a very familiar expression: Concern. “Sure.” I glanced back at the two others; their backs were to us, but I didn’t want to risk eavesdropping. “Let’s take a walk.”

          Andy nodded, setting down his pail and allowing for me to lead him away from the river. I set out east, away from the bunker, away from the river, and away from the road; I wanted the two of us to be alone. Just us.

“What happened to your wrist?” he asked as we walked.

“I’ll tell you in a second.”

          “I think we’ve gone far enough.” He sighed when I didn’t reply. “Cassie, come on—”

Stopping abruptly, I gazed at him. “Do you think anyone is nearby? Could anyone hear us?”

Andy looked around for a moment before returning his eyes to me. “No one’s here. Just tell me what’s going on… you’re freaking me out.”

“Okay.” I glanced away, finding a log nearby. I needed something to stabilize me while I talked. “Come on, we should sit.”

          He listened to the advice, taking a seat next to me, and I began only after he gave me an impatient look.

Andy shifted several times while I spoke, and by the time I ended he now leaning forward with his forearms on his thighs, hands on his mouth, fingers parted to allow words to pass through. His head was tilted in my direction, eyes on me, and he seemed intrigued.

“So they took you to High Court?” he asked.

“Yeah. Kept me in a cell for a few hours first, and then the vampire I was telling you about came, Lukas, and they drove me to the High Court.”

He thought on it for a moment. “That’s with all the people that started the revolution, right?”

“Yeah.” I thought of Will briefly but blinked the image away. “Apparently the, uh, witch was a diplomat.”

Andy’s face morphed into one of horror, and his back suddenly went ramrod straight, hands falling from his face. “What? They could’ve killed you for that!”

“But they didn’t,” I said smartly.

“Ugh, Cassie!” He let out a groan. “You should’ve told them I was involved, too!”

“Why would I?” I asked, the very idea disturbing me.

“Because the blame was all on you. Maybe if you had—”

“No,” I interrupted sternly. “There’s no way I would’ve.”

“Look,” he said, “it was my fault, anyway. I’m the half-breed. They wouldn’t have even looked twice at you if it wasn’t—”

“Oh, shut up! Anyone that has a problem with you has one with me, too. You know that. We’re in this together.”

We stared at each other, both glaring and waiting for the other to relent. The two of us were too headstrong for our own good.

He let out a breath, eyes falling eventually. “You could’ve died. You get that, right?” Andy muttered. “You didn’t have to do that for me.”

“I know.” I could see his guilt, and I moved closer, the wood scraping slightly against my clothes. “Look, everything turned out okay.”

Andy’s head tilted. “How did it, by the way?” His eyes went to me. “How’d you get out of there?”

I fell quiet.

“Cass?” he urged, sensing something was off. “Why did they just let you go?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I finally just said. “I’m here. That’s enough, right?”

He was quiet and turned away. We didn’t keep things from each other. “Right,” Andy said.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two of us—unnatural. I hated it.

“I’m considering turning myself in,” he finally spoke, breaking it.

“What?” I erupted, giving him the fiercest look I could muster. “Are you insane? You can’t do that! They’ll kill you!”

“I can’t keep drawing you into this!” he replied, just as angry. “You almost died, okay? Or you could have!”

“I don’t care!” I said, furious tears coming to my eyes. He was all I had left. “I don’t care! We’re in this together.”

Andy leaned forward, bringing his hands then to his eyes, where he rubbed them quite furiously. “I can’t let you die for me,” he murmured. “You’re too important.”

“Too bad. I’ll die for you all I want,” I replied.

Andy pulled his hands away, freeing his face, and showing a very miniscule smile. “You’re being crazy.”

I knew that, but didn’t he understand? What sort of life did I have left with no parents, no education, no money, no home, no future? All I had was him—and if he was gone, then what was even the point of any of it?

“I couldn’t deal if you weren’t here anymore,” I admitted, quietly, because this was the kind of thing that had to be said in a near-silent way.

“Don’t you think I feel the same?” he replied.

Silence fell, frustration resting between the two of us, and Andy broke the pause again. “Look, you…” He took a breath. “While you were gone… it made me think.”

I glanced at him. “About what?”

“About the possibility that you might not come back.”

Our eyes met, and something passed between the pair of us. A fear… an understanding of that fear… the knowledge that we were together.

Suddenly, right while I was looking, his eyes turned green, and I blinked a couple of times, startled. As I refocused a second later, peering closer, I came to find his orbs still brown, and I realized, fairly quickly, that I’d just imagined it. And though it had only been brief, and it hadn’t been real, it was enough to ruin the moment.

My gaze fell. Andy sensed the change in my mood.

“We should head back,” he spoke finally, voice rough, and he stood, taking a few paces forward.

“Andy, wait…” I voiced, standing and tentatively approaching.

He turned. “Yeah?”

I swallowed. “I don’t want the others to know about what happened.”

“About High Court?” he replied, glancing at me.

“About any of it. You didn’t tell them about the death of the witch, right?”

He shook his head, indicating the negative. “No… nothing. I just let it slip that you’d gotten arrested.”

“Good.” I took a breath. “We’ll keep this between us. Let’s go back.”