Cured (27 page)

She laid down her knife and fork and turned
to me, expression serious.

“
Oh god, if
it made you stop eating it must be serious,” I
half-joked.

She frowned,
and I shut up. Clearly it was not a laughing matter. “Cecilia only
hates you because Axil does,” she said, her voice low so they
couldn’t overhear us. Even though they were on the opposite side of
the room, Prime hearing was sharp, so she began to
whisper,

“
Axil is from
the Labour Field. Farming. H
is Dad is the
executive of his Field, and his Mum is the second in charge.
Anyway, Axil said that one day a group of Alphas stormed their
Field and demanded to speak to his parents. They ordered them both
to accompany the officials back to Olympia to learn the basics of
genetic animal engineering. They wanted Axil’s parents to start
farming tracker wolves.”

“
What are
tracker wolves?” I interrupted.

“
You don’t
know about tracker wolves?!” Ellina raised her voice in surprise,
before checking herself, and whispering again, “Tracker wolves are
the massive, angry dogs that patrol the Field borders and the
bottom of Olympia. The trackers have been trained to kill anyone
that tries to cross their borderline into another
Field.”

I gasped,
‘That’
s awful.”

Ellina nodded
and continued, “Anyway, Axil’s parents agreed to go to Olympus to
learn about breeding from your Aunt Tiana, leaving Axil, his two
sisters and his baby brother behind for a few weeks to fend for
themselves. When his parents finally returned, they started
breeding the wolves. They spent the next six months perfecting the
breeding and nurturing of the dogs until they were old enough to be
trained as trackers. They trained them too, teaching them to sniff
out stray Norms, and kill those who crossed the line.”

Ellina paused
in her storytelling and shuddered before continuing, “Then … and ‘m
just retelling what Axil told me … um… Axil said your Dad came to
their Field, alone, on the day before the wolves were set to be
transported out to every Field. Axil’s parents had spent an entire
year on the tracker wolf project, and the time had finally come to
complete it for good. Then your Dad arrived. Axil said King
Apolleon, I mean, your Dad, came in the middle of the night and
just knocked on the door of his family’s room. Apparently he begged
to be let inside, saying that he was in danger…”

“
Axil is
lying!” I exclaimed too loudly, I looked around to see Axil staring
at me. I met his stare and growled. How dare he make up lies about
my family?

“
Hey, don’t
shoot the messenger,” said Ellina, “I’m just telling the
story.”

I nodded, “Sorry, please keep going.”

“
So, Axil’s
family believed your Dad. They took pity on him and let him into
the room, where he told them something about being chased and
needing to hide out for an hour or two. While he hid he told them
that they should run away, leave their Field and not come back.
Apparently your Dad told them to find a way to travel the ocean to
another continent.”

Laughter bubbled in my throat at the
ridiculousness of the story. I commended Axil’s imagination, but my
father was the leader of our government. He would never do anything
to jeopardize or contradict the law of Olympia.

“Then your Dad left, just as suddenly as he
had arrived. And they never saw him again…”

“So what’s Axil’s problem?” I asked
incredulously. “Even if Axil were telling the truth, which he
certainly is NOT, it doesn’t sound like Dad did anything terribly
wrong.”

“
Well,
apparently later that night, when Axil’s father went to check on
the tracker wolves before bed, he couldn’t find his main key. He
looked everywhere but it was missing. So he took his spare key and
went to the animals’ quarters… Their crate had been unlocked, the
door swung open, and the wolves were all gone.”

I gulped.

“
Axil’s
family decided that your father had stolen the key when he sought
shelter in their home hours before, and then stolen the wolves.
When the Alphas arrived to oversee the transport of the wolves the
next morning, the animals were missing. Axil’s father explained the
whole situation, telling them about your Dad and everything.
Obviously the Alphas didn’t believe him, so they shot him, and
Axil’s mum, right in front of Axil and his two sisters and baby
brother. Then they left.”

I had a tear
in my eye, which I wiped away angrily. Why was I crying at a story
that was so obviously made up? My father would never do such a
thing. He was a good man, and a law-abiding Olympian Alpha. “It
isn’t true,” I choked out, although my voice was unsteady. I hated
that I was questioning my father’s morality, even if only slightly.
Axil would have to be a complete sadist to invent such a story, but
I was sure my father would never commit such an awful
act.

Ellina nodded sympathetically, “I know it
isn’t.” But her voice wavered too, and a surge of anger towards her
for doubting my father overwhelmed me.

I jumped to
my feet, murmuring something about feeding Meatloaf, before
gathering a handful of shredded chicken breast from the food table
and storming out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I was
furious. Too furious to care where I was going, as long as it was
far away from lying Axil and traitorous Ellina. I stormed down the
hallway, stomping my feet too loudly. I reached the end of the hall
and swung open the very last door, not caring what was inside as
long as I would be alone.

I stepped
inside the room, which looked like a museum at first glance,
although the artwork and sculpture that decorated the space was all
Greek inspired. I remembered seeing the name of the room on the
hologram map, “Greek history” it was called. I didn’t care. I
pressed my back to the wall and slid down it. I held my knees to my
chest and tried to focus on easing the pain that pounded in my
head. The Wall opposite me flickered to life and began to recite
facts about the Greek Gods, making my headache worse.

“
WALLSCREEN
OFF!” I yelled at the Wall, rubbing my temples. The Wall went
blank. I raised my head from where it was resting on my knees, and
slowly got to my feet, staring at the Wall the whole while,
wondering. I placed my hand on the Screen; it appeared to work as a
normal Wallscreen, answering my every command. I started to
consider what else it could do, and whom it could
contact.

“
WallS
creen on?” I said
hesitantly, and the Wall flickered back to life. “Call Prunella
Optime.” I said, with more force, and an authentication box
appeared on the Wall. I entered my password that I usually used to
call home, and heard a ringing sound. It was working. Two rings
later my mother’s face appeared on the screen.

“MUM!” I yelled reaching out to the wall. Her
face softened momentarily, before her expression became a concerned
frown.

“Avery Rose,” she said softly, “Are you
allowed to be contacting me?”

“
No one said
I couldn’t, and I found a WallScreen, so maybe they won’t mind…”
Even I could hear how unconvincing my voice sounded.

“
Hang up now,
Avery. Play by the rules.”

“WAIT MUM!” I yelled.

“
A lady never
yells Av-”

“
I know, I
know, I am sorry,
” I interrupted her, “I
won’t yell. But just listen to me. I think I am in trouble. And I
just heard a story about Dad, that I think might be true, and I am
not sure what it means…”

M
other interrupted me this time,
something that she never did, because it wasn’t proper manners,
“Avery Rose. I cannot help you. If you are in trouble then I
suggest you fix it yourself. As for the matter of your father, he
and I are not seeing eye to eye currently.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She continued, “We are not speaking, Avery
Rose, so I have no idea what he has or has not been doing. I wanted
to wait until you finished your tasks before telling you, but we
have become somewhat estranged, and are talking of separating.”

My mouth fell
open and I sat gaping at Mother’s image on the screen.

“Avery Rose, a lady never gapes.”

I didn’t argue. I was in shock.

“
Goodbye,
Avery Rose.” She looked me in the eye as she ended the
call.

I sat, not
moving, for a long time, trying to understand what had just
happened. My own mother didn’t care about me. She didn’t care that
I was in trouble; she didn’t even wish me luck. I had always known
that my parents often disagreed, but they didn’t often have serious
fights, and a lot of the time they still acted deeply in love. How
could this be happening? I didn’t cry, but when the shock wore off
I became angry. Angry at my father for obviously hiding things, and
maybe even being a criminal. Angry at my Mother for not caring.
Angry at Axil for making me doubt my father, and angry with Ellina
for telling me the story. I started to pace the room, glancing at
the historic artifacts and memorabilia.

Even though I
hated history class at school, the Greek religion aspect always
intrigued me. It wasn’t the specific Gods that fascinated me. I had
no interest in learning which subject matter each God was
responsible for, and I couldn’t care less about their family trees.
I was more interested in the way society saw the Gods. The way that
the people were so adamant that the divine beings existed. The way
that everyday citizens were willing to lie, steal, even murder in
order to obey these abstract notions that apparently ruled them
from above. Every thought they had and action they took was
measured and carried out with the reaction of the Gods in mind.
They gave up everything, including their ability to think and act
as they desired, or even as they felt was right, because they
needed to act in accordance with the Gods. It was not like the
power that the Gods held over them was physical, they were
dictators conjured up in the imaginations of the people. They all
bowed down to illusory authority. That was not living; it was
obedience.

I started to consider the way that the people
so readily obeyed these ruthless and often cruel Gods. Divine
creatures that demanded sacrifice, and ordered humans to carry out
deeds so unsavoury as murdering family members, controlled every
aspect of the population with no real source of power
whatsoever.

I couldn’t
help but compare the historic society to the one that existed
today. Had anything changed at all? Surely people were not still so
ignorant that they answered the elite without any further thought,
passively obeyed, and bowed down submissively. At least in our
society, the powerful dictators actually existed. They weren’t just
made-up ideas. The rulers posed real, physical threats to the
masses, and enacted punishment readily. I shook my head, erasing
the parallels between the time-distant societies from my mind. It
wasn’t the same situation, I told myself. Things were different
now.

After calming myself down I felt ready to
return to the company of others, but realized I still had a handful
of chicken clenched in my fist. I closed the door to the Greek
History room behind me and turned, only to crash straight into a
large, solid chest.

“
Sorry!” I
cried automatically, and stumbled backwards. The chest belonged to
Axil, who stared down at me from his impressive six foot something
height. His eyes were cold.

“
Ellina told
you,” h
e spat.

“
Uh… yeah.
She did,
” I replied. “Listen Axil, I
really don’t think my father would have done something like that.
He wouldn’t purposefully hurt anyone.”

He squinted
at me, “That is crap, and I think you know it. He was the reason my
parents were murdered. Your father is a monster, Avery. How can you
not see that?”

“I know it must feel that way, if your story
is true-“

“Are you saying I am lying about my parents’
death?”

I shook my head vigorously. “Of course not.
No one would lie about such a thing. I am just saying that my
father might have had good reason for doing what he did.”

Axil took a
step closer to me, but my back was already pressed up hard against
the closed door. He leaned down, his face so close to mine that I
was inhaling his breath straight from his mouth.

“
Stay away
from me,” he growled, before turning on his heel and striding down
the hall.

I stood,
leaning against the door, breathing hard. I had no idea what my
father had done but I had every intention of finding out. Now that
I had calmed down and was thinking logically, I realized that Axil
would have no reason to make up his parents’ death. There had to be
a story behind it. I refused to believe that both my parents were
heartless monsters.

Once I was sure Axil was gone, I went back to
the garden and fed Meatloaf the chicken, which he happily gulped
down in two bites. Then I walked back to the kitchen in search of
my friends. They sat huddled around the far end of the table, and
looked up as I entered. Both Theo and Ellina wore pitying looks and
I almost turned back around to leave. Then I saw Felix, whose head
was slumped in his hands. His expression was not one of pity, but
one of defeat and genuine sadness. I considered how his own father
was not a part of his life.

Felix’s
family situation was a confusing one. His mother, Helletta was very
kind. She used to comfort me when I was fighting with my own
mother, and even laugh as I mocked my mother’s ridiculous too-sweet
voice, even though if my mother found out she would probably have
her thrown off Olympia. Her husband Captain Triton however, was the
military leader of the Alphas. He was a hard man, with very little
time for compassion and even less time for his family. I never
figured out why Helletta had married him. I knew that Felix felt
the same way because he often used to WallScreen me late at night,
upset at something his father had said, and we would question his
mother’s motives together. Because his job involved constantly
patrolling and overseeing the Fields, he was rarely home, and when
he was, he preferred to spend his time drinking copious amounts of
Nectar Ale, and drunkenly abusing his wife and son.