The Executioner at the Institute for Contaminated Children (12 page)

I swallowed, almost too loudly.

“Yeah, go on, run. It’s what you’re good at,” said Dan. He sure knew what to say to push people away.

“I swear you’ll regret this, you son of a gun,” Hailie spat over her shoulder. 

“Highly doubt it, Flex.”

She came up to hit him but Dan slammed the door in her face. She struck her hand against it. “Screw you too!”

“Hey, you gonna leave me out here?” Todd jiggled the door knob. “Dang, I left the key inside.”

“Come on, you can sleep in my room,” said Hailie. She sniffed and wiped her tears on her wrist. I actually felt sorry for her. 

“Uh…you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Whatever. I’m too mad to care. Unless you wanna tell me what you know.”

“No way. I am
not
prepared for what Dan would do to me if I told you.”

Hailie scoffed. “Coward.”

Their footsteps carried off until we heard another door slam. In the dim light, I turned to Eva, whose eyes were shaken, though not nearly as much as they had been last night.

“What d’you figure that was about?” she said.

I gulped. Because I had a pretty firm hunch. Many of Mom’s court case studies started this way: a divulgence of information followed by a dispute and, finally, a call to trial. “I think…no, I’m pretty sure…they were talking about Dan’s ability.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR—Exempt

I
trained like the undead the next day. My mother was missing, Eva’s condition had worsened, Dan was…I didn’t know what to call him, and my points had nearly gone down to zero after that stupid dining plate. Not to mention, I had less than ten days to stock up enough points to afford the equipment necessary for the event. Maybe I would just sit this one out…but that would put me behind. My competitive edge was on overdrive.

Hopefully, I could count on my family to look into Mom’s disappearance. Dad would go ballistic. And Torrey and Lisa did not need to be missing their mother and sister right now, but what could I do? I was stuck here, in this calculated prison. It seemed like we were free to do anything we liked, yet somehow it felt more and more like a military academy.

Eva got her monitor watch that morning. She had about 1000 points. More than I expected, and it certainly put her ahead of me now. Then again, she probably did a better job of following the rules, considering she actually read the rule book. I could already picture Eva getting the career she wanted, while I got stuck behind on some profiling job, since our outstanding number of points would determine our future. I’d never get the chance to be a lawyer, even though I no longer had any idea how that could work out. Were contaminated people allowed to be lawyers? All I knew was that I was sick and tired of them assigning everything in my life, from what school I attended, to whether I could speak to my family, to even my messed up partner. I wouldn’t let them decide my future too.

I hadn’t approached Dan and refrained from even looking his way, but I still caught a glimpse of him. He looked edgy from a distance, worse than yesterday, like the smallest thing could set him off, his back hunched and hands in his pockets. Anyone who tried to approach him received a glare or a caustic remark. He didn’t wear his bandana today.

Thank goodness I had already gotten my point monitor watch. Now I could control when and with whom I trained, which would give me the advantage to avoid Dan.

But something still ate away at me: how had Dan trained his abilities? Did he still participate in training? If Todd and I were the only ones who knew of his abilities, he couldn’t have trained with others. And I had never seen him look at his point monitor watch, if he even had one. He had to. He said his abilities “saturated,” yet he still needed to earn points, right? If so, just how many did he have? I had to find out. I’m not sure why, but something didn’t sit right within me. And, by now, I learned to trust my gut.

The instant I saw Todd in the cafeteria, I dragged him off to the side.

“Did you get your dorm key back?” I asked.

“Yeah. Wait…how’d you know I didn’t have it?”

“Guessing, remember? Can I borrow it?”

He looked awestruck. “What?”

“I want to see how many points Dan has.”

“You mean his watch? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen it for a while. Last time I did, I think he had 5 mill or something.”

“Five
million
?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, it builds up.”

No kidding. That meant Dan basically already graduated.

I scratched the side of my mouth with one finger. “But you said you hadn’t seen it lately.”

“Nope.”

“Would you mind?” My face was set. I wouldn’t walk away without that key.

He sighed. “If Dan catches you…he’ll be pissed. And he hasn’t exactly been Mr. Sunshine lately.”

“I know, but I’m his partner. Someone has to check on him, right?” That lie would probably come back to haunt me. To say that I cared about Dan sounded weird, especially since I was mainly scared of him now. Yet more than curious, a part of me also felt sorry for him. If I’m the first person at the institute that had abilities even mildly similar to his, and if he hadn’t been able to practice it on other students for whatever reason, he must have felt lonely. What if I told him Eva had similar abilities? Would he care?

“I guess…” Todd scratched his head. “I don’t even know where you’d start to look. He used to keep it in his pockets all the time.” 

“Oh.” My shoulder sunk. This would be a lot harder than I thought. “Well, it won’t hurt to search.”

“Uh, yeah, it will. You’re messing with our privacy, Donna. Not cool.”

My hands intertwined, a pleading gesture. “I’m really sorry. But aren’t you worried he’s been acting weird lately?”

“I thought it was cuz we fought, but…maybe it’s something else. He did seem a bit agitated even before that. The other night, I tried to ask him what was wrong, and he threw a lamp. Even got me scared, so I left him alone. Hadn’t really tried talking to him since.” He took a deep breath that puffed out his chest and I felt chills run down my back. A lamp, huh? What might he throw at me, a piano? “All right, you have my blessing.”

“Yes! Thanks, you won’t regret it.” Why was I so damn happy? It pissed me off. At first I thought it had to do with my hero complex. But what if…what if my abilities somehow subconsciously guided and affected me? My stomach squirmed. Was it even possible to lose yourself to your contamination? No, I couldn’t let that happen. Yet the itch was too great. I had to get a look at his watch.

Todd gave me a skeptic glance. I must have looked like a kid eager for a lollipop. “Something tells me I will, and I’m not the one with the psychic guessing gene.”

The key fell into my hand and I was off before Dan got back from lunch. He never missed lunch, although I rarely saw him in the cafeteria. Just where did he go?

I double checked both ways to make sure no one was around before I inserted the key and slowly turned the lock.

My voice lowered in a pathetic attempt to sound like Todd. “Hey, man, you there?”

Somebody shoot me. In the head, preferably, so I’d have a nice, painless death, because this was grueling torture.

Dan didn’t reply. Although I could already sense the odds were against him being there, I still had doubts about completely trusting my guesses. I’d really have to get over that soon, since the event approached and all.

I pushed open the door. My head peeked into the dark and my stomach unknotted. No one there.

Slam! My spirit left my body for an instant when the door shut behind me. Okay, really not the time to lose my cool. Or make more noise.

I made sure to lock it, just to give me a bit of extra time to hide in case Dan returned.
Now, let’s see…where would he keep his watch?

About to start turning the place inside out, I paused. Wait a minute, if I could just focus, I could probably find it without having to look.

I closed my eyes and imagined myself back in the art gallery, where my senses and that compass inside me had guided me around the maze of artworks.

Come on…show me the money. Or, um, Dan’s watch. Where is Dan’s watch? In a drawer? No, no, he doesn’t seem very organized. Not in the bathroom either, he wouldn’t stick electronics there. The closet’s too obvious. The bed…

My eyes opened. A fire ignited and inflated my diaphragm. That was it. I came up to it slowly and then quickened my pace. The watch wasn’t under his pillow, I already knew that. I bent down and stuck my hand in the mattress. You had to be kidding me. It took a few minutes of rummaging—damn, his arms were long—until I finally felt the strap of the watch and pulled it out, my face flushed and hair in a fray.

The itch grew stronger. I gulped and looked at the screen with one eye. No way.

There were no numbers. Just dashes. How could that be? According to the manual (and, yes, I did read it this time) that meant the watch was out of range. But the maximum point number was 10,000,000. How could that be?

My fingers began to dial through the menus and my eyes grew wide. It read:

Point donation: Exempt

Point acceptance: Exempt

Maximum negative points: Exempt

Maximum positive points: Exempt

Date until event: 9 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes

Participation in event: Exempt

Huh? How was that possible?

Why was Dan exempt from everything? What did this mean, was he special somehow?

His red bandana lay on the night stand. Why had he removed it? I’m sure he wore it in the first place to stand out. Unlike me, he loved attention. But now…he pushed everyone away and tried to de-identify himself. So strange. Like a criminal on the run from the law.

The doorknob jerked and I jumped, stuffed the watch back inside the mattress, and ran to hide behind the couch in the corner, closest to the entrance so I’d have a chance to get out.

Dan walked in and I almost felt a hand wrap around my neck and restrict my windpipe.
I’m not scared, I’m not scared, I’m not scared
…

My hand clamped down on my mouth to muffle my hot breaths. I peeked around the couch. Dan paced the room, back and forth, like an anxious predator. What was the matter with him? Suddenly, he stopped, and a chair flew across the room. Todd wasn’t kidding about the lamp. I flinched when it crashed into the wall and left a massive hole inside it.

Dan walked over to the couch and I paused my breath, but he only turned off the light and then walked to the bathroom. I exhaled. This was my chance. Move or die.

He turned on the shower, and although the bathroom door was open, I made a run for it, as quick and silent as possible. I moved on tiptoes across the wall to the door, turned the lock slowly, and opened it to walk through when a hand came down on it. The door slammed so loudly it almost gave me a heart attack, but it compared nothing to the look in Dan’s eyes as he veered me around and slammed me against it.

I shook from head to toe, one of his hands beside me, blocking the exit.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growled. The glint in his eyes pierced me like shards of ice, but I stood firm. I said I’m
not
scared, dammit! 

“What’s wrong with your watch?” My nostrils flared, hands clammy, and the rest of my body shook like a blender.

“Get out.” He removed his hand and fumed over me. “Get out before I make you.”

I couldn’t move. I had never seen Dan this angry or fierce, wolf-like.

But I wouldn’t back down yet. I had already come this far. I had actually started to like him as a person, and now Dan stood for everything I hated about the institute, with his controlling power, secrets, and lies. Some kind of catastrophe had to have happened. Apprehension flashed through his eyes when I said, “So make me. Why did you tell me about your abilities when you couldn’t even tell Hailie?”

“Are you stupid? You would have guessed eventually. I’m surprised it took you so long. But I had a feeling you repressed it, and kept asking me to tell you because you wanted to hear it from me. Why?”

I bit my lip. He was dead on. I thought we were similar in our need to compete. But maybe he was more like Eva than me. Attention-seeking, a bit sadistic, and controlling. Although Eva had more good qualities than that. Dan didn’t. Those were his raw and only traits. “I wanted you to trust me…because we’re partners,” I partially lied. He couldn’t know the rest.

His severe scowl didn’t fade. “Well you sure messed that up when you broke into my room, didn’t you?”

My head lowered. “I’m—”

“I won’t repeat myself again. Get lost.”

This time I didn’t protest. I failed. There was nothing left to say. And it made me sick to my stomach.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE—Tragedy

D
ays passed, the event drew nearer, and I had barely seen one glimpse of Dan. Either he did well to avoid me, or I was set on not seeing his face. But I did hear rumors, lots of them.

“You know he broke up with Hailie, maybe that’s why he’s so surly.”

“No way. You talk to him. I’m not coming near him.”

“What’s his deal? Did someone die?”

“Just don’t pay attention. He’s a jerkoff. Come on.”

I didn’t get it. I couldn’t correlate this Dan to the person from the quiz bowl tournament. He seemed so happy then. Was this really because of Hailie and his ability? Wait…what if Dan had controlled Hailie? I shuddered. No, that didn’t seem like him. At least my gut told me so.

Dan didn’t interact with anyone much anymore; he just sort of built up a wall around him. Everyone now completely shunned this previously outgoing and attractive kid. He cursed when people came near him. If someone tried to touch him, he slapped their hand away. Like he was looking for a fight. And yet he wasn’t. He just wanted to isolate himself. I knew that much.

Despite my efforts, my points didn’t build up as quick as I’d hoped. The equipment for this event would cost about 5,000 points, and I was just nearing 3,000. It wouldn’t be enough. Besides, to sacrifice that much without backup would be a waste. I had learned to save.