Embers & Ice (Rouge) (2 page)

TWO

Joshua
stood between the two steel tables, gazing down at the pale, frozen bodies that
lay upon them, and knew without a doubt that this would not work. It was impossible.
Science wouldn’t allow it. The revival of complete long-term memory,
personality and identity had not yet been proven in cryonics. Only cell
structure and muscle tissue have healed within the body.

Joshua
checked the temperature gauges, loosening his collar and taking deep breaths.
Even though he did not sweat, he suddenly felt very claustrophobic in the
freezer behind his laboratory.

I’m
only a geologist,
he couldn’t help but think.
The only thing I’m
good at is finding rare stones and researching the shit out of things. Can I
actually perform one of the most complicated procedures known to man, when I
have absolutely no experience at all, or am I basically just wasting time,
money and energy on already dead bodies?

He
leant over Jennifer Smart, watching with intense fascination the way her skin
throbbed and froze. He wasn’t sure how long he stared at her sweeping
eyelashes, at the freckles on her forehead and the small scar on the corner of
her jaw. It must have been quite a while, for when he straightened to check her
vitals, his neck had cramped up.

When
Joshua initially decided to preserve Jennifer Smart’s body, he was in a panic
state. It was just after the high school fire, and Jennifer knew too much about
Hunter’s identity for her to safely walk away. Now that he looked back on it,
killing her would have been possibly the stupidest thing he’d ever attempted.
Jennifer would never have acted on what she knew. She was a teacher; a
scientist at heart, but an innocent teacher nonetheless. Putting her into a
coma and freezing her at sub-zero temperatures was completely irrational, even
for him. He really had no idea what he was doing, but something told him it was
right. A voice.

And
then he had to go and do the same to Eli as well. Joshua tried not to beat
himself up over his choices, because he was possessed. At least that’s what he
told himself as he stared down at the boy. To kill him would break Hunter’s
world apart. But then, she believed him to be dead anyway.

Joshua
pinched the bridge of his nose and felt heavy sobs rise in his throat.
God
I’ve made such a mess of everything. Hunter is gone, drowning in grief that I
caused because I was stupid and I let the Iceman control me and screw us both over.
Now I’m responsible for two innocent lives that I might never get back.

In
his frustration, Joshua stalked over to the wall and threw his fist against the
steel. Blissful pain shot through his wrist like fifty daggers. He cradled his
throbbing arm, grateful for the distraction. But the bodies were still there, a
constant reminder of the terrible mistake he’d made.

But
what can I do? What risks am I willing to take to get them back?

You
want them back for answers,
said a chilling voice and
Joshua stopped and glanced up. The Iceman – an illusion of his schizophrenic
mind – had appeared, sly and comfortable as he leant on the storage unit near
the doorway.
You need Jenny to help you understand Hunter’s ability to
overpower you. And you need Eli because you’re guilty. Bring them back.

“How?”
he moaned, gripping fistfuls of his greasy black hair. “How do I do that? I’ve
spent the last month and a half researching this and
nothing
has woken
them up. Nothing! I’m not a doctor, I’m a geologist.”

You’re
a scientist,
the Iceman said shrewdly.
You’ve done well
so far to find the answers. How else did you discover the physics behind your
power and Hunters? How did you make that contraption to keep the fire inside
Hunter? Because you adapt, you have the motivation, and it’s in your blood.

“Things
like that don’t just happen overnight. It takes years of study to learn this
craft. It’s impossible.”

The
Iceman seemed to chuckle at his stupidity.
Impossible? You’re standing here
talking to a figment of your imagination, a voice inside your head, the voice
of your ability to wield and control ice, and you’re telling me that it’s
impossible to wake two people up from a frozen sleep?

“I
have to give up,” he sighed. “Nothing has worked.”

The
Iceman rolled his eyes and said,
Nothing of
this
world.

Joshua
halted in his tracks and spun, his heart racing. He faced the giant glass tank
and a light bulb brightened in his mind. “Nothing of this world? That’s it.”

Finally,
the
Iceman groaned.

Joshua
ran to the tank and raised the sealed compressor lid. Liquid nitrogen fog oozed
over the tip and spilled out around him. Joshua reached in and pulled out one
of the sample rocks. It was freezing, but it would soon heat if he kept it away
from the cold. He brought ice to his palms and tried to cool it.

In
a last minute attempt to right his wrong, Joshua placed the rock under the
bright florescent light of his microscope and stared down at it. The stone that
began it all. It started as a wonderful mystery, turned into a killer and had
now become the greatest scientific discovery Joshua had ever and would ever
make in his entire existence.

Now,
this supernatural stone was going to help him bring them back. Their memories,
their personalities and their identities included.

Most
importantly of all, Joshua prayed for the safe awakening of their souls as he
sat down to open the stone.

THREE

The
dancing streaks of blue light through the water had drawn Hunter into a trance.
She lost track of time sitting on the damp wooden stool in front of the giant
glass tank, watching the dolphins circle each other and listening to their
clicking sounds. A door not far behind swung open and Tom, the manager of the
aquarium, limped up to her and sat down, his fingers clamped around a dirty mop.

“I’m
sorry Lass, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave,” he grumbled in a thick
Scottish accent.

Hunter
didn’t respond at first. She was rubbing her fingers together, her mind still
deep in a place she couldn’t escape from. Watching the sea animals twirl together
in the water was just about the only place Hunter could find peace and almost
forget…

“Hunter?”
Tom nudged her and she sucked in a gasp.

“Sorry,
Tom, I wasn’t… I’ll go.”

Tom
readjusted his knit cap and pursed his lips. “You can use the back door, I’ve
already shut up the garage. And we’re closed tomorrow for the holiday, so...”
He walked off to fetch a bucket.

Shoving
her hands deep into her pockets, Hunter smiled once more at Rose and Halle.
Hunter spent a lot of time wishing she could swap lives with Rose, so that the
only person she needed was her mother, always by her side. She would give
anything to have a mother, even just to tell her that everything would be okay.
That she wasn’t alone.

Hunter
headed out into the warm, summer weather and felt nothing but a slight breeze
as she walked to the subway. New York was beginning to darken, telling Hunter
it must be later than she thought. The subway was crowded with men and women
returning home from work, with their faces pressed into books or their eyes
wandering. Hunter sat beside a woman chewing gum as though she were trying to
exercise every muscle in her jaw. It didn’t bother Hunter though. Nothing did.

A
strong, sticky blast of wind picked up when Hunter left the station and hurried
down Collins Street to the fourth apartment building. She was far south in
Manhattan, a neighborhood she was only familiar with because of the Chinese
restaurant she no longer worked at.

After
punching in the code and jogging up the flight of stairs onto the first floor,
Hunter fished out her key and unlocked the apartment. Inside, she could smell
fried chicken. The television was playing an early episode of
90210
.

“Hey!”
called someone from the kitchen and Alex Dempsey peered around the corner, her
mouth stuffed with carrot and her blond hair tied up at the nape of her neck
like a stumpy tuft of grass. “Did you pick up milk Hunter? And also, we’re out
of smokes.”

Hunter
dumped her bag by the door and collapsed on the beat-up sofa. “So?”

Alex
threw down her spatula and leaned over the bench separating the kitchen from
the living room. Hunter rolled her head to the side and met the same frowning
face that had been staring at her for weeks now.

“It’s
your responsibility to get the cigs, Hunter, since that’s
all
you consume
these days. And milk. I told you this morning.”

“Yeah.
I forgot.”

“Babe,”
Alex began in a soft tone that always alerted Hunter to another one of her
friend’s ‘I think it’s time you picked yourself up’ speeches. “I know you’re
hurting, but-”

“Please
don’t lecture me for the billionth time. I’ve had a rough day.”

“Oh
please,
you
had a rough day?” Alex started. Hunter rolled her eyes and
walked to her bedroom, but Alex followed her anyway. “Kin screamed at me more
times than humanly possible and I had to work an extra hour because Ash went
home sick. Then, I coughed up rent for the month because you were out watching
fishes swim around in their tanks and
not making a living.
Hunter-” She
threw out her arm against the door frame and stopped Hunter from running back
into the living room. “I know what it’s like to lose someone. I don’t have
parents either and I broke up with Michelle a few months ago. Now I’m on my
own. I’ve been there too.”

Hunter
sighed, stripping off and shoving on shorts and a band T-shirt while Alex
drawled on about how difficult it was dealing with her sexuality whilst trying
to get an education, but she wasn’t listening. She’d heard it before. And she
couldn’t take another minute of it.

But
where could she go? Who else would offer her a room, even if it could only fit
a rusty single bed and a cupboard they found on the road a few weeks ago. Who
else in the world could she turn to?

It
had been just under a month since Prom. Since Eli died. Since Joshua killed him
and nearly destroyed her. And since then, she hadn’t heard a word from him. Nor
had she any luck in finding Jack.

At
first, Hunter wandered around debating what to do with herself. Suddenly the
life she once had felt like someone else’s. School no longer mattered. She
couldn’t bring herself to return to the apartment to gather her things and move
out. She couldn’t even think about Joshua without breaking down in tears.

Hunter
had thought long and hard about why she’d been able to grasp the fire. She
should have given in to it. She was angry and terrified and fuelled by grief.
Why did it not consume her like it consumed Joshua? Was it the voices of those
she loved? Was it love itself? There had to be another element to her powers,
an explanation as to why it had a mind of its own. The volcanic stone could not
be human.

However,
she had no room in her mind to explore this theory, not when she had to find
Jack. The very night of Eli’s death, after she had turned her back on Joshua in
the warehouse, Hunter went looking for him. He was in more danger now than
ever. Joshua’s perception of science and all things abnormal were never
incorrect. If he was sure Jack was special, he was most certainly right. Which
meant that not only would Joshua be hunting him; the Agents would be on his
back as well.

But
Jack didn’t return to his empty apartment. There was no trace of him. She went
back a few days later, but Clare had vanished too with all their belongings.
The apartment owner said that Jack never came home, and Clare moved in with her
friend to finish school. The only place left to look was the very last place
she would ever venture. There was no way, not even if her life depended on it,
that Hunter could bring herself to search for him at Eli’s house.

“Hunter!”
Alex screamed and Hunter snapped out of her reverie and blinked at Alex in the
doorway, who was practically yanking her hair out in frustration. “Where the
hell do you go?”

“What?”

“I
was talking for, like, ten minutes – I
swear
– and you didn’t move an
inch.” Alex looked exhausted, no longer her usual lively, mischievous self, and
for that Hunter felt terribly guilty. She didn’t want to be a burden on her
friend, not when her life was so screwed up.
The sooner you find Jack, the
sooner you can go into hiding and get out of her hair.

“I’m
sorry that you and Eli broke up. I know you want to hide out here, believe me,
I’d be doing the exact same thing.”

Hunter
looked down at her toes, guiltier still that Alex didn’t know the truth. But it
was safer for her.

“And
I really hope that things get better for you,” she continued, “but you need to
wake up. You’re not focused, you quit the restaurant and you dropped out of
school before you could even sit your SATs, and all because of a break up. What
the hell do you plan to do?”

With
a sigh, Hunter shoved her hair up in a ponytail and slapped her hands by her
side. “I’m sorry Alex. I’m a mess at the moment, and I swear I’ll pay you back
one day for letting me crash here. I just need… I need a little longer to get
my head screwed on. Then, I promise, I’m out of here and on the road to
recovery.”

Alex’s
face softened immediately. Her eyes even glistened with tears. She pushed
herself away from the doorframe and wrapped her long, skinny arms around
Hunter’s neck.

“No,
I’m sorry. I don’t have any right to tell you how to run your life.” She pulled
away and kept a firm grip on her shoulders. “And hey, what do I know? I’m a
twenty-two year old lesbian studying media at a community college and living by
myself.”

Hunter
gave her a warm smile and squeezed her elbow. “That’s not true. You have girls
here all the time.”

Alex
scoffed and ruffled Hunter’s hair until she slapped her away. “Yeah yeah. Come
on, the chicken is probably burnt, but I have leftovers from work.”

“Great,”
Hunter said sarcastically, smiling all the same. “Just what I wanted.”

They
sat down with their microwaved noodles and dim-sim and watched Alex’s favorite
movie –
Mean Girls
– while Hunter tried to think of anything but Eli,
who was forever on the forefront of her mind. Every breath felt like a deep
ache in her chest, an ache that couldn’t be cured no matter how many aspirins
she wolfed down or how many hours she spent watching the dolphins play.

So
many times she caught herself getting to her feet and almost walking out the
door with the intention of catching a cab to Eli’s. Countless hours she spent
erasing the last memory she had of him; lying motionless, blue and dusted with
icicles on the floor of room twenty-three. How long would it be before she forgot
him completely, before she lost his scent or the unique color of his eyes or
his cute, boyish laugh or his strong hands as they skimmed her neck and brushed
her hair away? How was this fair? Why did Joshua take him away from her? Did he
enjoy it? He sure seemed amused when he held her in chains of ice and laughed
as she squirmed.

Hunter’s
fingers tightened around her chopsticks until they cracked in half. Alex was
laughing so hard that she didn’t hear her gasp. Sick of the movie, Hunter
stormed into the kitchen and threw down her plate, grabbed some cash from the
fruit bowl and crossed the apartment to the entryway.

“Hey,
where are you-”

“Out,”
she snapped and wrenched open the door. “We need milk.”

The
wind outside was nasty and hot and the streets were empty. The convenience
store was at the end of the main street, and she planned on taking no detours.
Not after the last time she ventured into the dark night and killed a man.

When
did my life become a pit of endless death?
she asked herself. She
couldn’t remember a time when things were normal, when she didn’t have the
ability to walk through fire or draw it from within herself and shoot it at
people – people, meaning Joshua. She couldn’t remember living with Joshua,
growing up in that empty apartment or going to school and sitting alone in the
cafeteria where everyone pointed at her and hissed the words ‘slut’ and ‘skank’
behind their hands. Her freshest memories that didn’t make her stomach clench
were of Eli. Of kissing beneath the veranda at
Raoul’s
, or under the
bleachers, or on his bed. Of dancing at Prom and feeling blissfully happy
before the walls crumbled and chaos erupted.

A
car she didn’t see sped past her and drove right through a puddle made from a
drain leakage, splashing dirty water over her back. She gasped and squeezed her
eyes shut. A memory washed into her mind of the night she met Eli, when they
ran from the boring University benefit and saw a silent film. Hunter had fallen
for him right then and there, but not until now had that become clear to her.
He was the only person who saw her for herself; as a lonely girl who just
wanted to love and live normally. If only he hadn’t loved her back, he might
still be alive.

The
fire burned inside Hunter, as it so often did when she thought of Joshua. She
almost didn’t notice a couple taking an evening walk with their dog. When she
looked back over her shoulder, she could hear them whispering about her and
frowning, as if they knew her.

Hunter
couldn’t escape those people. Since she put her face on television and every
news broadcast channel the night she ran into a burning restaurant to be a
hero, everyone seemed to recognize her. But doing so only saved one life. The
consequences were far greater. Not only did the little act of kindness put her
identity at risk, it killed Eli. Because after that night, Eli knew her secret.
And that was why Joshua killed him.

With
fresh tears burning in her eyes and her chest heaving, Hunter stopped against a
gate to a local elementary school, breathing in. For a moment she wondered if
she’d ever be okay.

It
was then that they came for her. Hunter somehow sensed the danger even before
the black Mercedes van sped down the street and skidded to a halt on the road
only feet from her. For a moment she was so frozen in fear, like a rabbit
caught in a hunter’s line of fire. Then men in black suits holding weapons like
hand guns spilled out of the van and the flames burst to life inside her.

She
would not go down without a fight.