The Forever Ones (The Iduna Project) Read online

  “I need to wrap things up at the Juice Bar first,” I say, my heart dropping in my chest as I see Chale approaching. He looks tired, like he hasn’t slept and when he sees Junius his eyes narrow. I’m not sure why I’m feeling guilty but I know my face has probably flushed a bright shade of pink.

  “Chale – are you OK?”

  Junius looks up at him. “Hey Chale.”

  “You two making plans or something?” he says irritably.

  “Something’s happened,” I say, pulling my hands away. “Tell me.”

  “Jolyon’s gone. He didn’t show up at his place after the club last night and when I went there this morning a Keener called Julian was moving his stuff in.”

  “Did Yul see anything?” I ask, remembering the two of them were together yesterday.

  “It’s weird,” says Chale, “but Yul’s nowhere to be found. His stuff’s all in his apartment but it’s like he’s disappeared too.”

  I dart a look at Junius. “That car was for Joly,” I say.

  Junius’s looks stunned. “Maybe. It could have been for both of them.”

  Chale sits down beside us, furious. “I dunno what you two are talking about but my buddies have just disappeared into thin air and you know something about it. You’d better tell me or I’ll kick up such a big scene Hogan and his gang will show up before you know it.”

  “We have to help him,” I say to Junius. “And I’ll do it with or without you.”

  The three of us push our way through the breakfast crowds. Along the way I bump into Borna, who’s just heading into the Medi Centre.

  “When did you last see Yul?” I ask her. She looks puzzled as we crowd round her, our faces deadly serious.

  “Hey – chill out,” she says. “We had some food at Waves, then he went off with Edelia. Maybe he’s still with her.”

  “Do you know where she lives?” I ask.

  Borna shrugs her shoulders. “I never went to her place before.”

  She’s still watching us as the guys follow me towards the Psych Centre. “Let’s see if she showed up at work. If she didn’t they might tell us where she lives,” I say, knowing in my gut that we’re not going to find him at her place anyway. Instead he’s probably terrified, waiting somewhere to be loaded into one of those mean, black limousines.

  The Psych Centre is in the furthest corner of the compound. It’s an anonymous looking office building with no windows and no signage – just a wide, grey expanse with a black metal door. I feel a sense of dread as we get closer. Last time I saw it my mind was a cloudy, mixed-up mess, but now Junius touches my shoulder and the panic flies away.

  “I didn’t even know this place existed,” says Chale, wide-eyed. “How do we get in?”

  “Follow me,” says Junius and soon he’s pressing a buzzer on the front door. A small panel slides away and a girl looks out.

  “Are you looking for guidance?” she says in a mechanical kind of voice.

  “No we’re looking for Edelia,” says Chale.

  “She’s an assistant here,” I add. “Dark hair, pale skin and really red lips.”

  The girl thinks for a moment. “We have Evaine or Ebe here – but no Edelia. You must’ve made a mistake.” The panel slides across the opening again leaving us standing there puzzled.

  “Why would she lie about working here?” I say.

  “Who knows,” says Chale. “Maybe she’s ashamed of her real job.”

  “Does anyone know where she lives?” asks Junius.

  Chale and I both shake our heads and Junius chews at his fingernail for a moment. “We’re going to pay Carl a visit,” he says, “but can we trust you to keep your mouth shut, Chale?”

  Chale nods his head. “No problem.”

  Junius looks at me for reassurance. “He’s OK,” I say.

  As we head off towards the swimming pool again I wonder what exactly we’re going to do when we get there. We don’t have a plan. Also I’m wondering about Edelia. Who exactly is she and how is she connected to Yul and Jolyon’s disappearance?

  9

  Chale’s follows us silently into the swimming pool lobby. Which is good since it’s not going to be so easy to slip in unnoticed today. The place is filled with school kids here for daily swimming lessons and some nosey little guy will definitely ask questions if we start pressing buttons and opening up the floor.

  “What’s wrong?” asks Chale when we stop and look at all the little bodies jumping and tumbling into the water, screeching at the top of their lungs until we have to put our fingers in our ears. Then one of the older kids – a girl of about fourteen – spots Chale and nudges her friends who stare open-mouthed at us. Before we know it, Chale is surrounded by chattering little girls in soaking wet swimsuits and I can barely make out what they’re saying other than phrases like he’s so gorgeous, I love your band, write your name on my arm. Junius stands apart looking totally pissed. He thinks we’re wasting his time. All Chale can do is shrug his shoulders until one of the teachers, a serious looking guy I remember named Vernus, comes and shoos them away.

  “Hey – sorry Chale,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “They’re just so - enthusiastic.” He nods his head and heads back into the pool, dragging his feet. I know that’s how I felt before my breakdown. Before the Psych Centre.

  “We can’t do this right now,” says Junius. “It’s too risky.”

  Chale’s face clouds over. “What are you talking about? We have to do something.”

  “Junius is right,” I say. “We have to wait until tonight.”

  “Yeah – meet us back here,” says Junius. “Just after supper hour.”

  My heart sinks when Chale shoots an accusing look over at me. “I can’t believe you’re going along with this crazy cult guy, Paige. I thought I could count on you.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know yet, Chale,” I say, touching his shoulder. “But I promise you we’ll get in here tonight.”

  He shakes off my hand like it’s diseased and shoves his hands in his pockets. “You guys can hang around all day waiting if you want to. I’m gonna do my own detective work.”

  He starts to head out and I go after him. “Chale – please just come here after supper – when it’s quiet.” But he doesn’t turn around.

  Junius pulls me back. “He’ll show up. Just let him cool off a bit. In the meantime I have to go see Kumaresh. I have an idea.”

  “I’m gonna go and wrap things up with Sven and Svein,” I say, knowing it’ll be hell just getting through the day.

  On the way to the Juice Bar I decide to pay Lynette a visit. It’s been a while since I heard stories about the outside and now I’m closer to getting there I have a few more questions I want to ask. I have to sneak into a side door of the storage building that houses Lynette and the others. Inside it’s kept in complete darkness except for the eerie bluish glow coming from the glass cases. Some of the girls are sleeping, others painting their nails or thumbing through hairstyle booklets but Lynette’s cubicle is empty. All the combs, brushes and makeup gone. I rush up to the glass and flatten my hands against it as if I could will her back.

  “Where is she?” I ask her neighbour, a girl with perfect white skin and silky red hair.

  The redhead shakes her curls and her eyes fill with tears. “She talked too much. You should’ve left her alone. Go away.”

  “But where did they take her?” Suddenly images from all her stories flood into my head. “Just tell me.”

  “They took her away,” says another girl. “Set the little bird free.”

  I feel a scream welling up in my throat. “But she’ll die out there – the moment she mixes with regular people.”

  The girl just nods and makes a throat-slitting motion with her hand then turns her back on me as do all the others, their heads bowed.

  A feeling of absolute fury rushes into my head as I press both palms hard onto the glass, focusing all the rage into that point of contact. Suddenly with a sickening crash the glass dissolv
es into a thousand tiny pieces, shattering in jagged shards onto the floor and I can see bloodstains on the floor of Lynette’s cubicle. My blood. The very same moment the girls start shrieking like a bunch of sea birds, their screams ripping through the silence. Red lights start flashing and I try to gather myself together. Concentrate. Think. I vault over the glass and lunge at the door just before it slams shut, then once outside I run out into the morning crowds and try to lose myself.

  All the way to the juice bar I can’t shake the feeling that I’m being followed but when I look around I see nothing out of the ordinary. It’s just paranoia, I think, but all I keep telling myself is that now I have to get out of this place before someone else takes me by force and it has to be tonight. Then I’m thinking of Lynette who never hurt anyone. They’ve given her a death sentence unless I can get out and find her.

  Sven and Svein aren’t too happy about the mess I’m in when I get to the juice bar, especially since it’s packed this morning. A couple of new Keeners are celebrating their independence from teachers and school.

  “What the hell have you been doing?” says Sven taking a look at my cut up hands.

  “Just walked into a window,” I say, wiping my hand with a wet paper towel. “Must’ve had too much last night.”

  “You gotta learn to chill a bit more, Paige,” says Svein, sucking back an Acai Smoothie. “Enjoy yourself. That’s what life’s all about – isn’t it.”

  “That’s what I was doing,” I say, but when I tell them I’m joining the Iduna Cult Sven starts to clear his throat in a weird way.

  “I can’t believe you’re joining those crazies,” he says, measuring me up with narrowed eyes.

  “I’m just gonna try it for a while,” I say, avoiding eye contact with him. His stare is making me uncomfortable. “I need a change. Something a bit more spiritual. I mean I like mixing juices but I want more out of life.

  “Sorry we couldn’t offer something more rewarding,” He says, shrugging his shoulders. “But why prolong your agony - you might as well clear out your locker now. We’ll manage without you.”

  Svein’s already chatting to a couple of girls at the counter so I head into the back room. I’d hoped to leave on a better note but it looks like it’s too late. Things have gone sour here and there’s nothing I can do. Why waste time I think and besides I can’t concentrate on anything. I keep imagining Lynette wandering around homeless and friendless – worrying about picking up the germ that might end her life.

  I need to go back to my room and prepare for tonight – keep myself busy. Maybe pack a few things. I’m just clearing some shoes out of my locker when I hear footsteps coming up behind me and before I can turn around to see who it is, the storage room door slams shut and someone turns the key. I rush to it and try the handle but it’s locked. Someone’s trapped me here. It must be Sven. That’s why he looked so weird when I said I was leaving.

  All kinds of wild thoughts flash through my head. Maybe he was ordered to keep me here. Maybe they know I smashed Lynette’s cubicle. And how long will it be before they – whoever they are - come along to collect me? How long before I join Yul and Jolyon on the loading dock? How long before I’m packed into one of those fancy black cars? I fall back against the wall shivering. This is not the way I wanted to get to the outside.

  10

  I close my eyes and try my hardest to think about the chanting I heard this morning and once I start humming the melody, my shivering stops and the panic subsides. I sit back and look around the room. Every corner of it from top to bottom. There has to be a way out. Then I see it. A small vent above the lockers. It has to lead somewhere out of here. I pull a bench over beside the locker, then stand back and gauge the distance to the vent. Next I start to work my way through the exercises I learned this morning until I feel the power start to course through my body, then without another thought I run, jump onto the bench and somehow leap upwards so my hands grab the top of the lockers. Next I swing my legs until my feet land on the top. Catching my breath, I silently thank Hilda, my donor mom, for her acrobatic genes and realize I’ve found a way to tap into my hidden skills.

  Now I’m up there I just pull off the vent cover and stuff myself inside the dusty tunnel. Surprisingly I’m able to wrap my limbs so tightly around my body I can turn around and put the vent cover back. I want to cover my tracks as much as I can. Then I scuttle like a crab on all fours along the slippery passage wondering where I’m finally going to come out.

  After a few minutes of awkward shuffling the vent suddenly ends and I crawl out of the hole into a wide, shadowy corridor. I have no idea where exactly this is but if my sense of direction is right I must be somewhere near the Fountain Plaza. A long row of narrow windows stretches the entire length of the hallway and if I stand on tiptoes I can see out. As I thought I’m right above the Plaza where the morning crowds mill around in the usual daily routines. The Iduna Culties are dancing around their banner, though I don’t see Junius and someone’s playing guitar in front of the Keener party. But I feel like someone’s just kicked me in the gut when I look over to the Juice Bar and see Sven talking to Edelia. She’s really agitated – talking with her hands and looking around as if she’s watching for something or someone. Sven’s shrugging his shoulders and giving her a don’t know gesture which sets her off shaking a finger at him. Then she whirls around and stomps off and suddenly it occurs to me that Sven’s been given instructions to watch me. Ever since I came from the Psych Centre. And somehow Edelia’s come to tell him he’s failed his task. Who is she? I wonder and who is she working for?

  As I’m watching her weave her way across past the fountain I see her turn an abrupt left behind a palm tree. She looks around quickly to check if anyone’s watching and then seems to disappear into an opening in the wall that’s just below where I’m standing. My heart starts to race again because I know this must be a passageway to somewhere important and she’ll probably be coming my way very soon. I have to get out of here and find a safe place to hide until tonight. Too bad I can already hear footsteps echoing on a nearby stairwell. I look around frantically – I need to hide but there’s no place - only two other passages leading from this main hallway. Whichever one I take gives me a a fifty-fifty chance of losing her.

  I focus and try to get some kind of intuition, but nothing comes to me so I take off my shoes and run as lightly as I can towards the passage that leads in the direction of the Iduna Temple. Just as I turn the corner a door swings open behind me and I flatten myself against the wall. Trying hard not to breathe I hope I’ve made the right gamble. I sneak a look around the corner and see Edelia burst through into the shadows. Her whole body is taut as she looks from one side of the hallway to the other, considering her options. Like a fool, I duck back forgetting that she’s probably alert to any kind of movement. I think she senses me because she turns in my direction and starts to head my way. Her face looms out of the shadows, the red lips a bloody gash across the white mask of her skin. I pull back trying to think – think quickly – what’ll I do when she finds me? Then just as she gets close enough that I can hear her breathing, a loud ringing sound jangles through the darkness. She stops dead in her tracks and I hear her fumbling around. I dare to peek round the corner and I see she’s fished a small device from her jeans pocket. She waves her hand across it and starts to talk. It’s a cell phone. Just like Lynette described. That’s when I realize that Edelia has come from the outside. Somehow she moves freely between the compound and the world beyond it. And what’s she doing? Spying? Recruiting? Kidnapping? And if she’s here, how many more are there like her?

  I sit back with all the possibilities reeling in my head. She isn’t even talking into the phone, just listening and adding the odd yep, nope, OK. In the nick of time she turns and runs back to the door and soon I hear her footsteps on the stairs again. I rush back into the hallway and look out the window. Soon she emerges from behind the palm tree, flips her dark hair back and walks right into the path
of Chale, who’s storming through the plaza on a mission. He almost knocks her over and, like the polite soul he is, helps her get up. She flashes her pouty smile at him and next thing I know they’re walking off in the direction of Beachside. I can feel the anger rise like fire inside me. Damn her. Now I have to find a way to get Chale away from her before he’s part of the next shipment.

  I take the stairway down to the Fountain Plaza and emerge through the secret doorway which looks exactly like part of the wall. I soon spot Chale’s dark head bobbing above the crowd. Keeping my eyes fixed on him I weave my way through the bodies, knocking and elbowing a few people on the way. But when I reach the bridge to Beachside and I’m about to cross it a stream of children come swarming from the other direction and cut me off. When the bridge empties Chale and Edelia have disappeared into thin air. There’s no sign of them anywhere. I wonder how many of those hidden doors to somewhere exist. Maybe they’re all around us and people come and go all the time. In and out from the world beyond the compound. Preying on us and we just sit here powerless.

  I think about Lynette and tears press at the back of my eyes. Now Chale’s in danger. I curse out loud and slam my hand on the ornamental bridge post causing the heads of some of the nearby kids to swivel round in shock. Dammit! I’ve lost them. I swear to myself now that I’m not going to sit here and wait until they select me. Tonight I’m going to find my own way out and it’ll be on my own terms.

  I decide to check Chale’s apartment to see if they’ve gone back there. When I get to his floor I hear the sound of talking and laughing and realize it’s coming from Jolyon’s old apartment where Julian’s christening his new place. A couple of Keener guys with glazed eyes have spilled out into the hallway and are sucking back on giant smoothies. They beckon me over.

  “Hey Blondie,” the one with platinum hair and freckles says. “Why don’t you come and fill us in on all the cool hangouts?”