8- The Price of Freedom

Luca blinks slowly as a blade of sunlight cuts across his cell, groaning as he stumbles to his feet. Immediately the panic sets in. There is a dull throbbing behind his eyes as he hears the moans and whimpers of those around him. Fear. Pain. Desperation. The emotions crash over him, magnified tenfold by his Enthalpy. He collapses onto his knees, stomach heaving as his vision blurs.

Enthopaths internalize the emotions of those around them if they are in close proximity for too long. The fifty people crammed into this wing of the prison had driven Luca to the edge. It was as if he was experiencing each person’s pain at the same time.

Easing back towards the wall behind him Luca puts his head between his knees, trying to block out the panic rising in his throat. It has been two days. Two days of these emotions clawing at his mind. He wonders, fleetingly, how much time he has left until their whimpers drive him mad.

He was able to block out a bit more of the noise today, though. Last night he had slept for the first time in the two days since he had arrived at the prison. Why…

“Good morning,” Oscar whispers, sparkling eyes pressed to the rusting chain link that separates their cells. His hair is sticking up at odd angles, and as he sits up it falls into his face. Luca softens. For an instant the sobbing and panic fade, and Luca can only see Oscar as he attempts to blow the hair from his eyes, only to grunt in frustration when it comes fluttering back down.

Luca attempts a gentle smile, but pain races through his body. He presses his hands over his ears more firmly, letting out a hissing breath as his body begins to shake violently.

“You… you shouldn’t be here,” he manages, between clenched teeth.

“Come here,” Oscar whispers, reaching his hand as far as he can through a hole in the bottom of the chain link. Luca manages to shake his head. “Here. Now.” Oscar isn’t nearly as gentle this time. His voice is a razor in the morning silence. Several people spit at him from other cells, but he doesn’t react.

Luca braces himself for a moment before turning to claw his way across the floor, moving inch by precious inch towards Oscar. Eventually his fingertips brush Oscar’s and the smaller boy drags him closer, straining to pull his weight across the floor.

Panting, Oscar releases Luca but hesitates a moment. Then, he pushes his hands back through the fence, gently taking Luca’s palm between them.

“Look at me,” Oscar insists. The words come out more forcefully than he had intended, and he curses internally as Luca flinches. He had never been particularly good at comforting people.

Luca had always been the one doing the comforting. To see his friend like this, reduced to a shadow of his former self, was almost too much to bear.

At Oscar’s darkest moment Luca had been there for him. Now is the time to return the favor. Hesitantly Oscar begins again. He pushes a hand through a higher hole in the chain link and cups Luca’s chin, tilting his face upwards until Luca reluctantly meets his eyes.

“Hey,” Oscar whispers.

“Hey,” Luca chokes out.

“Read my emotions.”

“But… but you said…”

“I know. Just do it.” Oscar’s voice wavers, but he is surprised to find that the fear he used to feel when thinking of Luca getting inside his head has faded. “I trust you, you know.”

Luca is silent, but he closes his eyes. Oscar feels a gentle pressure at his temples, and takes a quiet breath. He closes his eyes, and allows himself to remember things he has pressed to the corners of his mind for too long.

His mother, as she sat on the front step of a crumbling building, cradling him as a five year old on her lap. “Look. See that dandelion?” she whispers, voice melodic, as she points to a pale yellow flower easing its way from a crack in the sidewalk. “You’re like that dandelion, darling. As hard as this may be, you’ll always find a way to grow.” The memory is bittersweet, but Oscar doesn’t linger on it for long.

He’s older now, meeting Luca for the first time. He sprints across the street, intending to snatch the brown paper bag from Luca’s side, stomach aching with hunger. Luca grabs his arm firmly, holding him still as he tries to escape. “My lunch is all yours… if you sit with me,” Luca says with a grin. So Oscar does. That was the first of many lunches, lunches where Luca taught him to trust again.

Dimly Oscar is aware of Luca letting out a content sigh beside him, but he keeps his eyes closed.

Memories flit through his head easily now. Warm summer nights on Aster’s roof, laughing at Luca’s pathetic dad jokes. Walks with Luca in the early morning when neither of them could sleep. Luca’s smile in the summer sun. Luca. Always Luca.

He is snapped back to the present by Luca gently squeezing his hand. “What were you thinking about?” Luca murmurs with a lazy smile. His hands have stopped trembling, and his smile no longer seems forced, though he flinches as he shifts to lean against the cell wall.

Oscar feels a wave of guilt at the pain, wishing more than ever that he could heal nerve endings. Luca had suffered enough. It wasn’t fair that Oscar couldn’t ease his pain.

“Hm?” Oscar mumbles, blushing furiously.

“What made you so happy? I’m not a psychic, you know. I can just see emotions, not the thoughts that invoke them.”

“I know,” Oscar mumbles. “I was just thinking about someone who means a lot to me.”

“Oooooh, Oscar’s got a crush,” Luca taunts, making Oscar blush even more. “I know I’m hot stuff, but you should try to contain yourself,” he jokes, laughter glinting in his eyes.

Oscar looks away.

“Wait…” Luca stills, the laughter in his voice fading. Oscar cuts him off.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, but we both know this is no time for jokes. Aster will be waiting for us tonight. We need to play our cards right to get out of here,” Oscar snaps. His voice is sharp. Clinical. Luca opens his mouth as if to say something, but thinks better of it. A suffocating silence falls over the cell.

. . .

Aster paces the streets a block away from The Keep, listening intently for the sounds of approaching Enforcers. There aren’t any. The morning silence should put her at ease, but instead it makes her restless. She goes through Oscar’s backpack for the tenth time.

Flash grenades? Yes.

Bandages? Yes.

Pistol?

Fear rips through her, but as she brings her hand to her side it rests on the familiar metal, and she breathes a sigh of relief. Everything is as it should be. In a few hours Luca and Oscar would join her outside of The Keep. Everything was going perfectly… so why did she feel like something was incredibly wrong?

…

Oscar watches as the sun sinks beyond the gap in the jail’s ceiling, hardly daring to breathe as a single star winks into life in the dusk beyond. A key rattles in the door beyond and like clockwork a burly guard rolls into the room, carelessly tossing packets of dried food into the cells.

Oscar grins in satisfaction. Everything was just as Luca had told him it would be. As the guard approaches Oscar’s cell he lunges at the chain link, chuckling madly as he throws himself at the metal. He screams slurs at the man, but the guard does not react. Oscar’s blood runs cold. What if this didn’t work? This man was the key to his escape. He didn’t expect the man to be so unresponsive. Determined, Oscar clenches his fists.

As the guard turns to leave he meets Oscar’s eyes for an instant. In that moment Oscar takes a deep breath and sends a ball of spit hurtling towards the guard.

Thwack.

The guard freezes. Saliva drips down his face, matting bushy eyebrows as he raises a shocked hand to his face. Calmly, he turns back towards Oscar.

“You must be new around here.” His voice grates against his throat like acid, and his eyes are twin daggers as they gaze at Oscar. Oscar meets them, forcing a crude sneer to his face as the man wipes spit away with a tattered sleeve.

The man’s body trembles and suddenly he is looming a foot over Oscar, the seams of his shirt straining against the muscles beneath. The grin falls from Oscar’s face. He hadn’t expected the guard to be a Builder. In silence, the man unlocks the cell door. As the metal screeches open Oscar forces himself to race out the opening. This man would be expecting him to make an escape attempt. He slows at the last second, just enough so the guard can wrap a bulging hand around his waist, throwing Oscar to the floor. “Dumb kid,” the man growls, removing a baton from his belt. Oscar screams as the metal rod falls across his shoulders, lunging towards the man before he is thrown to the ground again. As he falls, however, he manages to snag a finger in the guard’s pocket. The older man doesn’t notice as Oscar retrieves something from inside, curling his fingers around it as he falls back to the floor.

The man is furious. Oscar hears something in his shoulder snap as the man brings the baton down. He hears someone scream, and belatedly realizes that the sound is coming from his own throat. The pain strikes him a moment later, a white-hot bolt that makes his entire body seize. The baton comes down upon Oscar three more times. One to each leg. One to the spine. Oscar hears the bones snap, and is dimly aware of Luca screaming from the cell behind him. The sound makes a wave of guilt rise within Oscar. Once again he had let Luca down. Provoking the guard had been his idea. He had promised Luca he wouldn’t be hurt… but the Builder looming over him clearly has other plans.

The guard brings the baton down a final time, as if for good measure, and carelessly heaves Oscar into his cell before locking the door behind him, storming into the corridors beyond. Oscar forces himself to remain motionless, listening as the guards footsteps recede down the corridor beyond.

“Oz?” Luca’s voice is more fragile than Oscar has ever heard it, and the single syllable rings into silence as Oscar forces himself to listen to the guard’s receding footsteps. Satisfied at last Oscar eases himself up, snapping a dislocated shoulder back into place with a practiced hand. His body aches, but the feeling is not forgin to him. Beatings like this were common on the streets.

“Huh. Well he was a bit more aggressive than I anticipated,” Oscar grumbles, pulling his mangled leg back into place. Luca lets out a strangled sob, leaning heavily on the cell wall separating them.

Oscar looks up, and gasps in horror at Luca. Blood runs down the boys hands, nails torn to jagged stumps in places where he had tried to pry the lock off his cell. There are cuts along Luca’s arms from the chain link, and tears still glisten on cheeks.

“You- you’re alive?” Luca sobs, suddenly looking very small in his cell despite his height.

“Oh my god Luca. What did you do?” Oscar turns away from his legs, grabbing Luca’s hand fiercely. He closes his eyes for a moment, knitting the torn skin back together. When he opens his eyes Luca rips his hand away angrily, relief shifting to rage as he sizes Oscar up.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Luca growls, glaring at Oscar. “You could have died.”

“It’s fine. I’m a healer,” Oscar mumbles, watching as his bones slide back into place. He feels exhaustion from overusing his ability pound at the back of his head, but pushes the feeling away. Now was not the time for weakness.

“You’re an idiot, you know,” Luca seethes, watching Oscar. The smaller boy looks up, hurt. He wraps his arms around himself protectively.

“Sorry,” he whispers.

“You know I’m not mad at you, right?” Luca says more gently. “I just thought I was going to lose you. I… don’t know what I would do if you weren’t here. Besides, your little ‘publicity stunt’ wasn’t worth it.”

“Sure it was,” Oscar says with a sly smile.

“...what?”

“That damn Builder was in such a hurry to discipline me that he didn’t realize my antics weren’t about escaping at all. My escape attempt was just a distraction.” Oscar pulls a rusting ring of keys from his jacket pocket, glancing towards the crack in the ceiling. It was pitch black outside now. Aster would be expecting them.

Luca’s mouth hangs open as he watches the keys glint in the starlight.

Oscar catches his eye, and shoots him a small smile.

“I guess all that time on the streets taught you a thing or two, huh Oz?,” Luca whispers breathlessly. Oscar nods, silently unlocking his own cell. As he frees Luca he becomes dimly aware of eyes on his back.

Slowly Oscar turns towards the prisoners surrounding them, throat going dry as they press grimy faces against the rusting chain link.

“We could shout for the guards right now, you know,” a man hisses, sneering at the two boys.

“Take us with you,” a young woman pleads, holding her child tightly to her chest. Oscar freezes. One wrong move with these people and he and Luca would be as good as dead. Gently, Luca rests a hand on his shoulder, stepping towards those in the cells around them.

“I know how hard this is,” Luca whispers. “I would take these keys and free each one of you if it would save your lives. But we all know that Myriad would find you the moment you crawled from The Keep. I cannot offer you freedom- but I can offer you a promise. My escape today is part of something greater. There is change coming. Soon we will return for you.” Those assembled are silent. In the distance Luca hears the clattering of a guard’s boots. He suppresses the panic rising in his chest. The guards would change their shift in a few moments. They didn’t have long. “Please,” he whispers. “You must trust me.”

The prisoners look uneasily at one another, but remain silent. Suddenly, a fragile voice pipes up from the back corner.

“I’m tired of promises. Myriad promised he would make life better, and look where that got us. We don’t want your empty promises, boy.”

Luca walks towards the voice, kneeling until he can see a small woman crouched in the darkness of her cell. She continues. “Run. We will be silent, and pay for your transgressions when they anger Myriad. I want no promise from you- but if you see that wretched power thief in the corridors kill him without a thought. He is not worthy of life.” Luca nods towards her, and turns to leave, but something about the woman’s speech causes Oscar to freeze.

“I’m sorry… did you say power thief?” Oscar ventures. Luca pulls at his sleeve frantically. They are running out of time, but Oscar brushes him off.

“Of course. You don’t believe those myths about our ‘lord and savior’, do you boy?” The woman smirks. “They say he has every power, but at the end of the day he has nothing but the mind of a thief.” Oscar stills.

“What do you mean?”

“He takes our powers, boy. Sucks them from us until there is nothing left. Eventually it kills us, you know. To have our abilities sucked away like that. And for what? He uses our powers for a few moments until he cannot grasp them anymore and they are gone forever. Such a waste. Why do you think he has so many prisoners? We’re nothing but fodder for the dragon, my boy.” The woman coughs, covering her mouth with a scarred hand. It comes away red with blood. “I don’t have long now. He took my ability last night. There’s nothing he can do now to punish me for sharing his secret.” She pauses a moment, taking a raspy breath. ”Go, boy. Run now, before it’s too late,” she shrieks, a fierce spark burning behind her eyes. Oscar allows Luca to drag him away at last. They duck into the corridors beyond, twisting through The Keep’s narrow passages. They duck into a stairwell as a guard passes, but he takes no notice of them.

“Myriad has a weakness,” Oscar breathes. Luca nods, finding the smaller boy’s hand in the darkness and giving it a light squeeze. As Oscar’s heart does backflips in his chest he can’t help but think that for once things are going his way. They find a service door leading outside, and as the two sprint into the darkness, leaving the looming compound behind, they allow themselves to feel a flicker of hope as it races through the air.

They get halfway to the fence before the first bullet screams over their heads.