Barcode: Cavern of Youth (14 page)

Carmen looks back as I slow my pace. Playing with her hair, she asks, “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Why’d you accept Professor Gardezi’s offer?”

“Is it an inconvenience for you?”

“No! Not like that. It’s just, you’re always in the dungeon, you watch me, and now this. It’s a lot.”

“Maybe.”

Carmen smiles. She crosses the street with her head pointed to the sky. I admire her beauty and amazing figure. “It doesn’t make sense. You’re so logical, but you’re helping them search for something that probably doesn’t exist.”

“I already know where it is.”

Carmen’s mouth drops. She stops once we make it across the street. “You know where it is, but you’re not going to tell them? Why?” I continue walking. I hold the door open to Dennis’ skyscraper and she eventually dashes towards me. Instead of going inside, she bends down, kisses me on the cheek and croons, “I don’t mean to pry into your business, but please tell me, papi.”

My face tingles and my eyes naturally look away from her. I can’t believe I’m being suckered by a kiss. “I need to get close to Monte.”

“Why?”

“He’s the only one who knows where Eve is.”

“Eve?” She bites her bottom lip. “You’re probably not going to tell me who she is, but why are you looking for some
girl
?”

People pass all around us to enter the first floor mall, but I still turn to Carmen and open my eyes. “Because I need to kill her.”

“You seem serious.”

“She poisoned me when I was a kid. If I’m within a few feet of her, the toxin activates and I become much weaker.”

“Then why—”

“She’s missing an arm right now and has other nasty injuries. We should be on equal playing grounds. If I don’t find her soon, she may heal and I’ll never be able to catch up to her again.”

“Wow. You’ll get close to Monte—the dangerous guy that robs banks and kills gangsters—just to see if he leads you to her?”

“The cash transfers and seemingly random fights say he’s working for someone that needs a lot of money. I think she’s pulling his strings to pay for her recovery. If I’m close enough, he should lead me to her. It doesn’t matter if we’re friends or enemies. He’ll make a mistake eventually.”

Carmen rests her hand on my shoulder and massages it. “Did she do something worse than poison you? Is there another reason?”

I close my eyes and push her inside, mumbling, “She pitted Spencer and I against each other, and I killed him because of it.” We step in the elevator. “And if I find her, I think I’ll find Helios.”

Hayley finished cooking two minutes ago, but she still hasn’t left. “Damn.” I remember why she’s in my kitchen and that she’s not leaving any time soon. I release a loud sigh and wipe sweat from my face.

“What’s wrong with you?” Carmen asks gently. She brushes her delicate hand over my head.

“Hayley’s going to see us.”

“Oh! She wanted to make you dinner tonight.”

“You’re not getting out of this. She wanted to make
us
dinner.”

“With the injuries on your face, she’ll have a heart attack.” We step out of the elevators with our eyes glued to each other. “Kiss me, papi.”

“Of all the times, you finally ask now?”

“No. You heal really fast. If I can connect with your saliva, I should be able to heal your body quicker.” I look at the sunset out of my gym’s window. My room is high enough to see over the neighboring buildings. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect place. “What’s up? You scared of a little tongue?”

I continue walking through the gym, towards my apartment door. I strike a speed bag along the way. Carmen runs behind me and playfully wraps me in her arms. Before I can finish enjoying our proximity, she twists us around and falls on a blue exercise mat.

It takes me a few seconds to snap out of the enchantment of having her this close. The grunt I release causes her to squint. She scans my face as though an answer to her questions can be found on my flesh.

Bottling up my true feelings, I expressionlessly say, “You kiss me every night the second I fall asleep. Then, you curl up at the foot of the bed. I’ve had your tongue on my lips plenty.”

Carmen flushes red and her heart beats heavily against mine. Her lips are only a foot away from my own, but I can feel her breath and it’s mind numbing. I’m still not used to being close to women so I’m easily excited. She looks down with an enticing smile, but doesn’t mention what she feels.

“I can’t believe you knew and didn’t say anything for an entire week.”

“There’s nothing for me to say.” My hands creep up the backside of her sturdy armor. Her lower body is only covered by a cape and if I’m too far down, I’ll be tempted to move my hands to the area that Malik violated. “I enjoy it.”

“Cute.” Opening my eyes, I accidentally flash them and she shivers a bit. I think they still frighten her, but Carmen never looks away. “You seem upset though.”

I try not to release my frustration, but I dig my nails into her armor a bit. She feels the pressure. “You’re using me.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“Earlier today. I saw your eyes flash. You’re kissing me at night to use my energy. You once said that you need to steal power from others. You need me to become stronger.”

A tear gently falls against my face and she groans, “Please don’t say that papi. That’s not why. I wouldn’t do that to you, of all people. I swear!” The authenticity and pain in her voice is heartbreaking.

The area where her tear falls heals a bit of my face. It’s soothing and gentle like the water from the Daughters of Danaus.

I run my hands through her hair. “Okay. Okay. I was wrong. Stop crying, love.”

“I’m so sorry.”

An intense heat emits from Carmen’s lips as they blaze a fiery red. She slowly bends down to kiss my face with her eyes closed. Though her lips feel amazing, it’s the movement in her hips that drives me crazy.

My face heals underneath her warm kiss. The ache in my body fades more rapidly as her tears smear across my cheeks.

Still crying, Carmen retracts her head and presses her nose delicately against mine. “Sorry. That’s all I can heal without you kissing back.”

Carmen rolls on her shoulders and flips up onto her feet, showing more balance than she has in the past. She offers her hand and helps me stand.

When we walk into my apartment, Hayley frowns, “What were those noises I heard and what’s wrong with your face Carmen? A black eye? You’re not that type of girl at all.”

“I’m a gladiator.”

“I don’t care. Don’t let them hit your face.”

Hayley leads us into my dining area, which is directly on the side of my living room. She made grilled giraffe, a vegetable stew, and a golden fleece cake.

As we sit down at the table, Hayley declares, “Okay. Let me hear it.”

“What’s going on?” Carmen asks.

I remove a cloth from the table and place it neatly in my lap. “Well, because I refuse to write prayers, Hayley forces me to tell her stories before we eat.”

“He’s always giving me random facts that most of the scientist in the building don’t know. Reading from that brain of his is a decent replacement for writing.”

“Cool,” Carmen hums. “What are we learning today?”

I declare, “The history of meat and vegetables.”

“Sounds boring.”

“Not so much. You both know a lot about liminal beings, right?” They nod, staring at my mouth intensively. “Quick story, the same scientists that created the first creature also made meat and vegetables.”

“That’s impossible,” Hayley contests. “Food was here long before him.”

“I’m talking about the cloned stuff we eat. It was a British scientist, Ethan Walker, that saw the destruction World War T created. He knew that if America went to war with itself, we’d be left without food and crops. He originally thought England would also have a civil war, so he went to work.”

“Wait. I
have
heard of him, but I didn’t know about the liminal beings connection.”

“Here’s how it started: this guy went around the world and withdrew blood from every living creature.”

“Oh,” Carmen interrupts. “This is the story of Noah’s Lab.”

“Yes. That’s the guy.”

“He got blood from every creature, recording their DNA to create liminal beings.” Hayley adds.

“Yeah. That’s wrong.”

Carmen argues, “But that’s in the history books.”

“It makes him sound more genius, but that’s not something he did on purpose. This guy searched the world for blood to feed his family.”

“What?” The women ask simultaneously.

“Ethan ran the largest meat cloning company in England during his time. Because he couldn’t create blood and constantly needed a fresh supply for his software, he started cloning animals. Ethan kept one male and female of the same animal in each cage. He used the entire facility to train them and let them run around. One day, his children claimed that some animals were saying simple words like
dad
and
mom
. These animals were more advanced than the originals.”

Hayley shakes her head. “Why?”

“That’s hard to explain without sounding too nerdy.” I twist my face until I think of the proper comparison. “Okay. It’s true that a large group of liminal beings were created from crossbreeding with barcodes, but they’re like the ones Gonzales uses. The animals Ethan created came about when he accidentally dropped his own blood on the control panel’s barcode. The machine added in the human DNA.”

“That’s nasty.” Carmen scrunches her nose and leans away from me.

Hayley asks with disgust in her voice, “We’re eating humans?”

I chuckle. “Not really. The DNA that developed was neither human nor animal. It was a new breed. When Ethan died, his kids continued experimenting and teaching the animals how to talk and read. They continued growing. The first set of animals he bred outlived him and his kids. Decades later, the British government discovered the truth and tried shutting down the facility.”

“That must be when the famine started,” Carmen realizes.

“Yes. The kids, well adults by then, shut down the facility and wouldn’t produce any meat. America begged the British to reopen their lab because most of their food was being imported for pennies on the dollar. The Brits complied after the famine in America killed nearly double the amount of men and women that were dying in the war.”

Hayley nudges her place settings until they’re perfectly straight. With a smile she interjects, “This is supposed to be a quick story. We haven’t heard about vegetables yet, and the food’s getting cold.”

“The animals got smarter and started experiments of their own. They began cloning vegetables. Then, they migrated to America and various other countries, saving the world from hunger. Now, let’s eat.”

Carmen mumbles, “That’s fascinating. How’d you learn all of that?”

Hayley teases, “He never tells.”

Taking a huge bite of giraffe, I say, “One of the original animal kings, Takashi Tiger.”

“Not fair! Why’d you tell her?”

“Because all the stories I told you involved my hearing that you didn’t want to know about. This is my first time telling you something I learned from him. Takashi mostly taught me how to kill, but I picked up some useful information along the way.”

The ladies dig into their meals and we eat in silence until the cake is passed around. Once it’s sliced, Carmen’s eyes water and glow similar to moonlight on the river. “Yum,” is the only word spoken then.

While they’re finishing their dessert, I begin putting the dishes away. Hayley takes her last bite and walks her plate to the sink next to me. As I load the dishwasher, she says, “You got into a fight today. Didn’t you?”

“What? Hmm...Your hair looks pretty and dangerous, but I like dangerous.”

“Don’t you try to be evasive with me. I’m not falling for your flattery,” she threatens while poking me in the stomach. I laugh.

At the same exact time, we mutter, “What the hell was that?”

“Did you just laugh?”

I shout, “No. No way. Hayley, I swear on whatever god you praise, don’t do it.”

Hayley demonically creeps towards me. “Do you know how much I’ve wanted this since the day I met you? Please. Just let me try once.”

“Get away from me.” My voice obviously isn’t sinister enough to ward her off because she backs me into a corner.

“One time. Or at least once per day until the bandages are removed.”

“No,” I yell, but it’s too late. Hayley tickles me to the ground. She dances her little fingers on my stomach to the point that I’m about to cry.

“Okay. I guess I have to stop when I see tears, but I’ll be back.”

Still laughing, I sputter, “Wow. No one’s ever done that. I can’t believe you.”

“I’ve tried it so many times when you were normal-sized, but you never gave in. Even Dennis is ticklish, but you gave me nothing to work with.”

“You’re so funny. I love you, Mom.”

With those words, I hear the plate shatter in Hayley’s hand. She unintentionally slammed it against the sink. Carmen jumps out of her seat, but breathes more steadily when she notices that it was just a plate.

The blood from Hayley’s fingers drips on the floor. She takes one soft step towards me. Her voice is too weak to understand. I have to read her lips as she whispers, “What did you say?”

“Nothing. I was just—”

She passionately bolts towards me. Her knees slam on the ground, creating a loud thud. She hysterically blares, “Don’t play with me. What did you say?”

“Hayley I—”

She grips my face with her hands and smears her blood across my cheeks while crying, “Say it again please. I didn’t hear it clearly. Please.”

Looking away, I repeat, “I love you, Mom.”

Her entire body trembles. She involuntarily shakes my head in her hands. Hayley’s kisses cover my face. She even plants a few on my eyebrows and eyelids.

Releasing a loud, excited cry, she ties her arms around my neck. I initially resist. Why does she love me so much? Hayley should hate me. Trying to hold myself back from hugging her causes my arms to ache and leak black blood onto my bandages. Giving in to my deepest desire, I hug her back. My heart does more leaps and flips than hers.