Page 123 of Death is Familiar

From the swishing that followed, and the warmth against my spine, Three followed suit.

“Life is complicated and messy.” Gentle and unhurried, I continued, “Sometimes it’s easier to ignore what is going on around us to make our lives, just a little bit easier. To choose what to believe, and avoid asking questions we don’t want the answers to, so we don’t have to acknowledge something that might bring us pain.” Which was exactly what I had been doing with all my running from Jack and Todd, trying to escape a situation I didn’t want to confront. The irony wasn’t lost on me. “You might not know this, Three, but you’ve had a hard life. You’ve had choices taken away from you, and have been told it’s a privilege.”

“It is a privilege. Without us, the Seal would be nothing. People celebrate us.” Her words stung, but I shouldn’t have expected anything different. She was born into this life. Brainwashed into thinking how she was treated was acceptable. “And you carry the Seal. You should be pleased.”

“People lie to get others to believe what they want them to believe. Even people we’ve been trained to trust.”

“The Wardens were right about the prophecy, though. You are the key.”

“That may be, but you have to remember, being here, all of this, wasn’t my choice. And I think you’ll soon realize, it wasn’t yours, either.”

†

Well, I’d done a thorough job of depressing Three, and myself, in the process.

The light flickering in the corner didn’t help matters. I watched it buzz and clink on each of the many occasions where Warden White obsessively scanned my belly, simultaneously charging the shock collar still clamped around my neck, until he located the steady and familiar thwump, thwump, thwump on the ultrasound monitor.

Warden White was also an avid specimen collector, taking my blood and doing some analysis while muttering to himself about vitamin levels and something called “HCG”.

He really should have considered getting me a loyalty card to reward me for my contributions. But he seemed more concerned with Three’s mood, and lack of her idle chatter, than incentivizing my cooperation.

Wiping the gel off my stomach, White helped me to my feet. “You seem awfully quiet, Three. Is everything, alright?”

“Yep.”

“Is there anything I can get to make you feel better?”

“Nope.”

“I wouldn’t mind a shower and a change of clothes,” I offered, but Warden White kept his gaze fixed on Three.

“How about ice cream?”

Three covered herself in a blanket and responded with a muffled, “No.”

Warden White’s grip on my arm tightened, before putting me back in my cage and locking me in. He cared about Three, that much was clear, but I needed to see how amenable to suggestion he was. I decided to press my luck. “Her mood might improve if she was allowed outside. Some sunshine would do her good.”

Warden White gave a halfhearted smile, patted me on the shoulder through the bars, then turned to leave.

“I take that as a no, then?”

White’s expression didn’t change as he beeped the buttons on the alarm next to the door.

Raising my voice, I pressed on, “What’s the point in keeping her here if I have what you need?”

White’s hand twitched as he reached for the handle. It was so slight, I almost missed it.

“Why not let her see the outdoors?” I shouted as White disappeared from view, the door slamming shut behind him.

†

Being trapped in a cell underground was incredibly mundane. And depressing. And the perfect storm for the onset of an existential crisis. The lack of clear days, the flickering light, Three’s renewed singing, the boredom, the lack of choice—it was all driving me hopelessly, and irrevocably, mad.

By my guesstimate, I made it three weeks before I got my first waking vision of Todd.

He first appeared, looking grumpy and disappointed, while I was counting the number of tiles plastered to the walls. My count determined that there were 3,456, but that involved some extrapolating since some of the walls were hidden behind storage and cabinetry.

From there, Imaginary Todd was hard to shake, appearing without rhyme or reason.