The Last Mate on Earth

Part 1 - Chapter 15

* * * Hope’s POV * * *

Liam is yanked away from me at a fearsome speed before I see a fist fly into view, impacting on his jaw. He’s knocked out cold, his masculine body splayed lifelessly across the floor. “Please, don't hurt him,” I yelp, holding out an arm to stop the attacker as I crouch next to Liam on my knees, instinctively becoming a barrier between him and the other while I check that he’s okay. I brushed my hand across his face, careful not to touch the painful-looking welt that was already forming. It was quite a punch.

“He was only trying to help,” I scolded, sounding like one of the parents.

“He’ll be fine,” a voice says, sounding irritated. I turned, and saw two men – boys, rather – it was Hayden and Joven. My classmates. There are no guards here, rescuing me.

I’m wondering whether I’m in danger at someone else’s hands when I take in Hayden's features and my eyes lock with his. I gasp. I’ve looked into those eyes almost every day for as long as I can remember – yet I have never seen so many emotions and feelings rolling around in them. They are swirling and the colour keeps changing. Black to chestnut brown, black to chestnut brown.

I’m gawping as I take in the alien features that surround the familiar. I cannot help but notice how handsome he is. His short cropped raven hair. His smooth skin has a subtle olive tone. I noticed little beads of sweat on his broad nose and across his cheeks. His eyes are enchantingly dark – a rich, chestnut brown that glistens in the light.

He averts his gaze and shifts, his bare foot nudging Liam’s leg. There is no response. “Hope, are you okay?” he asks, without raising his eyes to meet mine.

“I’m not sure, Hayden.” I said, thinking of everything that’s happened since I woke up this morning.

“He didn’t hurt you,” he says quietly. It’s more an observation than a question.

“No … I thought he was going to, but no. He was confused,” I told him, feeling protective of Liam even though I’m aware the outcome could have been different.

If parent Rita’s words held some truth it should have been. Or maybe Liam is unique in his willpower and more dedicated to the cause than other men. “Yeah, right,” he says, in a disbelieving tone, a frown forming as the muscles in his jaw tighten.

“It all happened so fast. Parent Hannah. She’s dead,” I told him, the words spilling from my mouth.

He winces but, of course, he isn’t surprised. “I’m sorry,” he says.

“You didn’t …”

“No, but I should have …”

“Maybe,” I conclude.

“You couldn’t have,” Joven cuts in. I looked up at him and studied his face.

I wonder what he’s doing here and what his connection is to her. A groan from the floor shifts my attention. Liam stirred, putting his hand over his face. I started to go to him but an arm is raised to prevent it. I gave Hayden a withering look.

“Don’t, Hope. He could be dangerous.”

“I don’t think he had any intention of hurting me,” I tell them.

“It didn’t look like that,” he says.

“You saw,” I said slowly, remembering that he was there as the lift doors shut, that I was shouting for Hayden to help. I was terrified of the unknown and hysterical over Lawrence.

He’d run to help me. I hadn’t needed him. I might’ve thought about it at first, but Liam wasn’t a threat. If the opposite were true, though, if Liam had been trying to take advantage of the situation, I would’ve been saved.

Helped.

Rescued.

The words circulate in my brain. I don’t like the sense of fragility that’s crept up on me today. Yet, in reality, I am weak. Weaker than I’d thought.

“I …” He’s shaking his head, as though he’s finding the situation as bizarre as I am and doesn’t know how to react. There’s clearly no protocol for this.

“He just needs some ice,” he says quickly, cutting across me.

“And to sleep it off.”

“It was quite a punch,” grumbles Joven, rolling his eyes as he crosses his arms, assessing the damage in front of us.

“I could’ve hit him harder,” he mutters under his breath. We hear the sound of feet hammering on the floor before Hedley and his team sprint into view, swarming along the corridor, accompanied by several of the parents, their faces frantic and fearful. I note the absence of parent Hannah and my chest tightens.

“Deep, Philip.” Hedley nods at them, gesturing for them to step aside while the area is secured. Philip. His surname is Philip.

“Are you all right?” wails parent Connie, throwing her arms around me with such force that I’m almost winded. “He didn’t …”

“No.” I said, my cheeks reddening.”He. They. They just helped.”

“Of course that’s all we did!” Hayden scoffs, bemused that they’d think something different.

Parent Connie exhales with relief. “Let’s get you back upstairs. Parent Rita will be coming to see you shortly.”

I’m crushed at the prospect. She is the very last person I want to see. Not one part of me wants to hear what she has to say about what has happened and my involvement in it. Within seconds, Liam is removed from the lift and I’m ushered back in, flanked by the parents.

As the doors close, I search him out and find those eyes once more. Hayden. His name is Hayden Philip. Sitting on my bed, I waited. Not only am I waiting for parent Rita to come in and reprimand me – somehow making out it was my fault – I’m waiting to become submersed in feelings. Guilt. Fear. Grief. Despair. Anger. Hope. Delight. Anything.

Nothing comes. I thought it would and felt it should. I was full to the brim with overwhelming emotion while I was in that lift, but now there is a big black gap where I ought to be feeling something. I am numb.

My body is an empty void. My brain is frozen. I could barely move. Hardly think. My eyes are drawn to my dressing-table, the bags of make-up and brushes parent Hannah had packed away just a couple of hours ago when we’d been talking affectionately. I remember the warmth of her fingers as she touched my face and am haunted by what happened a short while later.

The same action repeated, but this time so violent. I see her wrinkled face in Lawrence’s hands and the numbness intensifies. I’m unable to make sense of the horror I’ve witnessed. I should have been the victim. Instead, he stole my old friend’s life. What was the point? This room. This space. I used to feel safe here. Oppressed, trapped and controlled, perhaps, but I have a great responsibility and they’ve been here to help me do all I can to save our race.

This sanctuary has given me support, kindness and security while I’ve been growing up. They’ve given me comfort, stimulation, an education, and friends. Parent Hannah. And then there was Hayden, Joven and my classmates.

They were a gift, I see now. To keep me engaged with people of my own age, to keep me connected. Because one day all my real companions will perish and I’ll be here alone … What then? What is to become of me?

I think of Hayden and I see him in my mind, full of passion, anger and fire. I wonder how long it’ll be before his image fades, or before my brain revises the arches of his nostrils or the wave of his hairline, makes him taller or gives him a more muscular physique. How long will it be before the image I have of him is turned into a work of fiction?

Now I just have to wait and see if he's cast out, like the classmates before him. Pray that our little moment was lost in the spectacular devastation of the morning.

“I’m sorry, child,” says a low voice behind me. My heart constricts and shrivels. I turned to parent Rita, who is as composed as ever at my bedroom door.

Suddenly, I was overcome with anger and hate. I grip my bed sheets to stop myself lurching at her, because that’s what I want to do. I want to run at her and let this feeling go but I can’t do that. “I know how fond you were of, parent Hannah,”she continued.

“I was,” I responded, hating how quickly we’re able to talk about her in the past tense and wishing we didn’t have to.

“She did the right thing,” parent Rita says, walking unashamedly into my room and looking me up and down, as though examining me for any physical injuries. She won’t find any.

“Did she?” I snapped.

“Of course,” she says, her voice chillingly cold, considering she is talking about the loss of an innocent life and someone she has spent at least a decade working alongside.

“And what makes you say that?” I asked, the anger still bubbling inside.

“She knew you were about to expose yourself.” I can’t deny it. “She saved you.”

“So it’s my fault?” I shouted.

“I didn’t say that,” she says, her face like stone.

“But, you implied it!” I shrieked.

“Hope, control yourself,” she warns, her voice remaining calm, unlike my own. “Parent Hannah’s clearly sensed something that the rest of us had failed to spot. She'd have died happy knowing she was saving you.”

“Why didn’t you notice it?” I asked, jumping up from the bed. “How was he chosen over every other man screened? How was he allowed in here?” Blood rushed to my head as the words rushed from my mouth.

“The matter is being looked into.” She blinks with a pursed mouth, not giving the slightest indication that my reaction is bothering her. “It won’t happen again.”

“And that’s it?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“I think you’re forgetting the bigger picture here, Hope,” she retorts, her eyebrow rising just enough to be condescending but not enough to be completely inhumane, given the circumstances. “You’re becoming too sentimental at a time when the focus should be on the cause and what we’re set to gain, or lose. Choose your battles. Focus on the path ahead. It’s tragic about parent Hannah, of course it is, but hers was just one life.”

“Why should my life be deemed more important than hers?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat.

“You are called the Saviour for a reason. You are called the last hope for a reason. Do you pay any attention in your history lessons?” she quips.

“I thought I was just a cog,” I say drily.

“Hope…” she sighs with impatience, tugging on the cuffs of her shirt “Parent Hannah served the greater good by sacrificing herself. We should be grateful to her, but let’s not dwell.” I remained silent, my gaze falling to the floor between us. “And what happened in the lift?”

“Nothing,” I tell her, my voice barely audible as sadness niggles away at me. “I was saved.”

“The guard was found unconscious.”

“It was a misunderstanding.” Her eyes were on me, trying to read whether or not I was telling her the truth. I don’t know why she’s bothering to ask. There must be cameras everywhere – surely she’s seen the whole thing already.

“So no further action is necessary, with any of the young men involved?” I shook my head, unable to lift my eyes from the floor.

“You said they would hurt me. That temptation would be too much.”

“Temptation can either strike instantly or grow over time, Hope. Don’t be tricked into sloppy behaviour or you may not be so lucky next time,” she warns, her eyes sharp. “Understand?”

I nod.

“Very well,” she said, making for the door.

“A funeral!” I called after her. “Will there be one?”

Parent Rita sighs at the inconvenience. “I’ll make sure it’s marked in some way,” she says. “I’ll get the other parents to … address it.”

“Thank you,” I said, almost to myself.

“She really was the most remarkable woman.”

At that moment, all I wanted was a pair of arms around me. Liams, Hayden’s – Parent Hannah’s … Even Parent Rita’s would bring a certain level of comfort.

Yet she gives me nothing. Parent Rita takes a breath, lifts her chin and silently walks out of the room. Leaving me to cry a swamp of tears on my own.