The Executioner at the Institute for Contaminated Children (6 page)

I exchanged a disgruntled look with Eva. Might as well get it out.

“Um…can we…room together?” I said. I’d hate to introduce myself to someone new. It’d mean one-million questions.

Eva’s face did not brighten. “Who said I wanted to room with you?”

Von looked from one of us to the other. I had no idea what to say.

“Now, now, ladies, I’m afraid you’ll have to make do,” said Von. “Since you’re the only new students, we’ll go ahead and place you in one room.”

I continued to stare at Eva as he veered us around. What the hell was her problem? First, she acts like my enemy, then my friend, now a stranger?

Von stopped at the base of the staircase. “You’ll go up this flight of stairs to the fourteenth floor. Your room is 1431. Here are your keys.”

We both stared at him blankly. “Uh…,” said Eva. “Fourteenth floor? What about our baggage? Isn’t there an elevator?”

Von laughed. “Well, of course we’ll take your bags up for you. But we can’t have a hundred students all using the elevator, can we? Tomorrow, you’re expected in room 224 with Ms. Lenora at 9 a.m. for your first class. Also, you’ll note the halls are empty. The curfew here is 9 p.m. You aren’t required to be in bed, but you cannot step foot outside your suite. Best get on it. Oh, and don’t forget to read your rule book. You’ll find it very handy.”

At least the time wasn’t terrible. He walked off and I gaped at the stairs. Hell no. Every day, up and down these steps? Kill me now.

My feet tried to match the rhythm of Eva’s steps, yet kept falling out of it. I was way too tired, and no doubt so was she. It still stung, what she said. Was I really not roommate worthy? Then again, she’d be stuck with me until we graduated from this institute, however long that took. I guess we’d find out the details tomorrow.

We didn’t exchange words except for those of exasperation until we came to the door of our suite, panting and dizzy. Von hadn’t been kidding. Not a soul wandered the halls. But I swear I heard giggling, so I’m sure some people sneaked around.

The key to the door looked ancient with its intricate patterns. Upon a closer look, I realized it was engraved with the emblem of Justitia on one side and the curvy letters LJ on the other. How cool. Like a
Kingdom Hearts
key. Maybe she was their mascot or something.

We walked into a room far more lavish than I could have imagined, with heavy velvet red curtains, two queen-sized beds tossed with feather quilts, and a rug that tickled my toes. Couches and lazy boys accessorized it, as well as a small kitchen. Needless to say, it warranted a few whispers of, “Holy crap,” even from two girls who didn’t really lack wealth. Well, my family was upper middle class, but Eva was definitely harder to surprise. The only thing I could not judge yet was the view, since all you could see through the vast window across from our beds was the night.

Knock, knock
. Eva opened the door and found our bags, with no one in sight.

“I guess they left,” she said. 

I watched her while we dragged them in and then collapsed on our beds.

“Say…why didn’t you want to room with me?” I asked, staring at the ceiling. It ate at me like a worm at an apple.

Eva scoffed. “You don’t get it, do you? They don’t want us to be ‘comfortable.’”

“Uh…,” I said. Considering our suite? I’d have to disagree.

Eva read my thoughts and said, “Not materialistically comfortable, but mentally. I didn’t want them to think we were buds or anything.”

Okay, I had to ask. “How do you know all this?”

Eva bit her lip, still staring at the ceiling, which rose like a light blue dome speckled with black decorations that resembled birds in the sky. Was the White House like this, or was this even better? 

“My sister…went to one of the Institutes…”

My head shot up.

“…before it blew up.”

My face must have contorted pretty badly. Eva glanced and me and grimaced. “Quit that, it’s creeping me out.”

“
You’re
creeping me out!” I retorted. “What do you mean…you mean she’s…?”

“Dead? Yeah, genius.” Her head fell back down, her teeth clanging together. “She told me the same exact thing. How there was no internet or reception. She somehow managed to send me a few text messages before it happened…I don’t know how… Maybe she knew someone who had access to a phone line. Or maybe she ran far away enough to send it. Every time I close my eyes, I picture her running through the woods…”

She clenched her fists. I gulped while she searched through her phone, then sat up, and extended it in my direction, her face clouded. If my expression was freaked out before, now it was simply pallid. So that’s why her sister never got a chance to fulfill her dream. It didn’t come to an end. She did.

“This was the last thing she sent me.”

It displayed a single text message. If I did not know her any better by now, I would have thought Eva played a prank on me. Or maybe it was that odd sixth sense which told me she wasn’t kidding.

It read:
I have been sentenced to die.

CHAPTER ELEVEN—Dress Code

A
ll three-hundred some pages of the rule book fell horizontally before my eyes as I let the back blinding fall away from my thumb.

“Sentenced to die…” What exactly did that mean? Did this book have the answers hidden in its 200,000 words?

It held instructions on everything from the point system to how to wear you uniform to breakfast, lunch, and dinner times. What was allowed and what wasn’t in some kind of training and so on. I tossed it on the bed. Maybe I’d read it later. Not.

I sighed. How was I ever going to become a lawyer if I hated to read?

“LeJeune colors suit you,” Eva said to the red uniform I wore with light blue accents. It consisted of a red jacket, a light blue tie, a thigh-length skirt, and stockings. Typical prep school dress code, with a bit of style. I gagged.

“Thanks,” I said with a twitch of my lip. I looked like I was dressed for a parade. But since everyone else wore it, it served as more of a camouflage than a red flag. Good.

Eva wore yet another set of decorative earrings that accessorized her already attractive face. They had hemimorphite gems in their center to match the uniform blue tones and intricate bronze artistry which spanned out from them. She looked like she just came off a
Vogue
cover. Some girls tried to cover up their flaws by drawing attention to other things, but Eva had no flaws I could speak of. She simply liked fashion.

“Do you style your hair differently every day?” I asked, amazed at how she had gotten her hair through its own loop and let it hang from the back as though it were a clip. Probably another skill her sister taught her. The thought of her formed a stone in my stomach.

“Pretty much,” said Eva. “Don’t
you
get bored of leaving it the same way?”

“Nope.” I stared at her blankly. How
did
we get along anyway? We were nothing alike. But I couldn’t complain. Having Eva here meant everything. I was already home-sick. If I had to come alone, it would have sucked.

“Haven’t read the manual yet, I see.” She chuckled.

“Don’t plan to.”

“I dunno…they seem pretty strict. What if they test us on it?”

“First day of class? No chance.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, if you say so. I only read a few chapters in. It’s like reading the dictionary.”

I pointed my finger in my mouth and gagged. Eva rolled her eyes.

“Let’s go meet this Lenora lady. Maybe she’ll give us our schedules. I hope she’s nice.”

“If she’s anything like the Vonster, we’ve got nothing to worry about.” I froze at the group that walked down the waking hallway just as Eva locked the room with our key. A girl and two guys, one of which had a red bandana tied over his brunette bangs. Oh, no, the competitive jock from the quiz bowl tournament! I doubt he’d forgotten the call I made, and the last thing I wanted was to get stuffed into a trash can before I even made it to class.

“Hide me!” I squeaked to Eva.

She looked around in confusion until her eyes settled on the group passing us by.

“To hell with it, you’ll have to talk to him sometime,” she said, like she knew the whole story.

“Yeah, but I don’t know what to say.”

“Just use your instincts.” Eva smiled and I gave in, breathed, and prepared myself for some nasty remarks.

He didn’t even look my way. His group passed us like we were invisible. Wouldn’t you take note of two new students in the hallway who looked as out of place as lamp posts in a desert? But maybe I gave us too much credit. Maybe we weren’t any more interesting than the Victorian wallpaper.

All right,
I
wasn’t, but Eva was definitely worth a glance. I looked at her and she shrugged.

“Might be the haircut. And the uniform,” she noted and it dawned on me. “Doubt he’d recognize you.”

Now it made sense. Not to mention, they must get new students all the time. I breathed out. Maybe he wouldn’t remember me after all. That meant I’d get a new slate. If so, I’d have the advantage. I may even play a little prank or two on him. My lips curled. Game on.

CHAPTER TWELVE—First Point

T
he rush down thirteen flights of stairs and the pounding chorus of feet the other students generated excited me, but was also a pretty good reminder that for every flight we came down, we’d have to go back up around twenty steps. It’d make a nice addition to a military obstacle course. I definitely wouldn’t have trouble keeping my weight, if not losing it.

Besides the infinite stairs, the view of Lake Superior at daylight stunned me. Numerous windows throughout the institute looked down at the lake from a cliff almost as tall as the institute itself. With no end in sight, you could mistake it for the ocean. Waves roared like lions and broke against the sharp rocks. A small waterfall emptied into the lake not far from here. Just as much as rules and prisons existed for the sake of justice, freedom and nature existed for the sake of innocence. I couldn’t wait to get out and look over the edge myself, maybe roam the beach with Eva later, if she was up for it. Right now, I had to figure out just what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

I don’t know if I should have been surprised, but the jock and his crew were lamely in the same class as us. The bigger scare and surprise was Ms. Lenora.

My first thought when she walked into the room in her high black leather boots was that she could pass for the Black Canary’s cousin. I watched her with a kind of fan girlish gaze, though I made sure to shut my mouth when she faced us.  

She couldn’t have been more than five years older than us, her bronze hair gathered in one large curl geared towards her right. Bangs were scattered over parts of her face, her eyes thick with dark eyeliner and her lips painted with a very pale shade of beige. Leather gloves bound her hands, tied at her wrists. I had to wonder if she was contaminated too.

Probability?

I couldn’t guess because I was too busy dancing out of excitement on the inside.

“To our newcomers, my name is Jayden Lenora. As a reminder to all: call me Jayden and die. You may call me Lenora. No need for titles, it’s a waste of breath.”

Her cold voice took me aback and I stopped dancing immediately. My soul stiffened like a soldier.

Fat chance anyone would dare call her by her first name anyhow, but it seemed Lenora liked to reassert her authority.

The class was postured in seats on a diagonal, like in college, only in a far smaller room, and she stood on what could only be a small stage. I almost expected to see a whip tied to her back when she paced.

“As always, when we receive new students, we distribute them into squads based on their abilities.”

Wait, what? Squads? What about class? Wasn’t this a lecture?

“Your team captains are in charge of explaining the point system, which you should have already read in your rule books. For those newcomers who have
not
read, you might expect to start at zero points or even maybe a lucky newbie portion.” She laughed through her lips. “Do either of you two know what amount you actually start with?” Lenora’s eyes shot from Eva to me like a harpoon and I gulped. I really disliked getting called on, whether I knew the answer or not.

“Negative fifty,” said Eva. I breathed in relief. What would I do without her?

“Precisely right, Miss…?”

“Surrontez.”

The class murmured and the back of my neck grew hot. I already hated this; throwing Eva’s name out there for speculation just made it worse.

“Miss Surrontez, you just earned your first point.”

Only one? So to get fifty you’d have to… This wasn’t going to be easy, was it?

“Your squads have already been decided since you stepped foot in LeJeune,” said Lenora. “I have no jurisdiction there. Squad captains, you should already be aware if you have new recruits to take on and which is which based on our little interrogation.

“As it is not in the rule book, I will remind you: this institute exists for the purpose of discipline and education through your abilities. You are not here to be schooled in subjects such as math or English. You are the school; you choose what you will learn in order to succeed. I won’t waste another minute to explain. Disperse and advance.”

She walked off stage and everyone began to rise. My eyelids plopped open and closed several times. What just happened?

They froze open in another second, as someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to nearly jump in my seat. A red bandana hovered over me, like an evil halo.

“Welcome aboard, compadre. That was a little disappointing; I’ve seen you do better.” He protruded a hand. “I’m Dan.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN—Rules

M
y eyes didn’t leave Dan’s hand. His friends watched my every move. He could either firmly shake my hand or completely humiliate me for a second time and withdraw it.

Probability of the latter? High.

“Dan what?”

He smirked and lowered his hand. “Daniel Tyrell.”