[CHAPTER 9] — Laura
Laura’d had an eerie sense of foreboding ever since they had arrived at the Dorm. When her brother James’ wife greeted them, she’d shown no signs of recognition but that hadn’t helped; she was terrified that her sister-in-law would recognize her and she’d be forced back into the folds of her brother’s Cult. She hoped that she had changed enough over the years that she would not be easily recognizable; Marcia and James were nearly a decade older than her, and she had not spent a lot of time with the pair. Hopefully that, and the fact that the birth of her children through the Cult would have changed her body enough to make it difficult considering they hadn’t been close in the first place.
They had gotten through the introductions and Marcia’s description of their jobs and their assignments. Just when Laura thought she’d made it through, Marica quietly grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her away from the other two walking towards their bunks. She quickly looked around to make sure nobody could overhear them before looking at her with a burning intensity and hissing:
“What are you doing here, Danika?! Are you crazy? If James finds out you’re here, he’ll kill you!”
“My name is Laura now. We didn’t know what this place was before we came, but now that we’re here we’ll be staying until the mission is over. I joined the Phoenix Centennial; we work for the Council. We executed James three years ago; how could he find me?”
“Why are you here?” Marcia repeated.
“We’re here to find a child; Katherine’s daughter. The child had one blue eye and one green, about twelve years old. Have you seen a child fitting that description?”
“No, I haven’t. It is far too dangerous for you to be here. You have to get out of here.”
“I’m not going to do that, especially since I know that you’re here and the Cult hasn’t been eradicated.”
“You were an impossibly stubborn teenager, too. I’m so sorry I didn’t put a stop to what was done to you. I should have protected you.”
“How would James find me if he was executed, Marcia? Don’t tell me…”
“Kevin stood as the face of the Cult. He was the one who was executed. James stood by and let his twin take the fall for everything just to throw off the Council.”
Laura’s whole world shattered down around her. The only thing that had made life bearable for her these last few years was knowing that her brother was dead. Now, she found out he wasn’t dead and her world crumbled. Her heart raced, the world spun, and within a few seconds she had run off towards the bathroom doors. Marcia followed after her and found her in the last stall, vomiting.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.” Marcia said sadly; she knew she could do nothing but stand outside the door as Laura quietly cried. When Marcia was stuck in the middle of James and his actions, trapped in a life that she detested, she could do nothing but focus on protecting her boys. What James had told Marcia was happening and what was really being done were completely different, but Marcia couldn’t forgive herself for taking James at his word. When James told her that his sisters, all of his sisters, had willingly joined what the Cult called the repopulation project she should have known something was wrong. Danika- Laura- had only been fifteen; among the youngest of the women abused by the Cult’s so-called project. James was so good at making an awful action look genuine and caring. A few long moments passed before Laura opened the door and looked Marcia in her eyes for a long moment before wrapping her arms around her in a gentle hug.
“I know that you would have helped if you could, and you had the boys to think about. We have all been James’ prisoners in one way or another for far too long. It’s time to put a stop to that.” Laura held onto her for a moment before stepping away.
“The moment I saw you get off that truck I knew I had to do what I could now. You were supposed to be the foreman in the mines, but if you were out there every day someone would eventually recognize you. There’s no telling what James would do if he found out you were back, so we will have to be cautious.” Marcia was relieved that Laura wasn’t angry with her, but also sad; Marcia couldn’t let go of her guilt in the role she played. To her, it didn’t matter that she didn’t actively hurt anyone; her inactions had done plenty of damage all on its own. She had chosen to marry James because he was charming and handsome and she was young; Marcia’s choices would haunt her until the day she died. “We have to make sure you keep out of people’s way, and don’t bring any attention to yourself. Even here in the Dorm people know the family, know what most of us look like and who we are. James ensured of it; he has billboards up all over the county with the family photo. Every few years he updates it with age progressed photos, except for himself and the boys- they take the pictures new in person. They use age progression software to create the rest of us and remake the same photo. It’s a little creepy to be honest, but he's never given up looking for those of you who escaped and he wanted to make sure everyone knew who to look for. Your photo isn’t quite right, so we may be okay; but if someone looks closely enough, they will be able to see your resemblance to James.”
“He’s fucking deranged.” Laura said, rolling her eyes. “Okay, well I guess I should start with getting settled into my bunk and getting some rest. I’m sure there’s plenty of maintaining to do around here. Where do I bunk?”
“I put those two together in a room, it was going to be all three of you until I saw you. I have a room next to mine that I’m going to put you in. I want to keep you close just in case.” Marcia motioned for Laura to follow her and she led her up the stairs on the west side of the building to the top floor. They went down to the end of the corridor and Marica stopped, turning towards Laura. “This room here is mine, and the room here across the hall is open. You can bunk in here.” Marcia opened the door and let Laura in.
Laura stepped into a well-lit, tastefully decorated room large enough to sleep five people. She circled the room, taking in the floor-to-ceiling windows and vaulted ceilings. In the center of the golden-beige room was a small table with a vase of fresh flowers that looked like they had been placed there this morning. Beyond the table was a queen-sized bed whose comforter matched the colors of the walls in damask print, with the most luxurious pillow she’d ever seen strewn across the head of it. Along the large windows was a long bench for lounging, with little decorative pillows scattered along the length. A small gold chandelier with teardrop crystals lit the room, casting dancing prisms and shadows alternately along the ceiling, walls and floor.
“I’m supposed to have this room by myself? It’s big enough for my whole team, can we not all stay here?” Laura asked as she took in every corner of the tastefully decorated room.
“It’ll arouse too much suspicion to have you all in here. It’s two to a room in these newer dorms, so you would have had to bunk with someone else anyways; but having all of you in here will be difficult to explain when there’s an open bunk. However, since that’s the only bunk open and there’s technically nobody who qualifies to share a bunk, I can put you alone in here with little suspicion; especially since I’m going to make you my personal assistant instead of having you work maintenance. This will erase any questions as to why you’re bunked right across the hall from me. I’ll also be able to keep an eye on you better when you’re close. I’m not going to sit by and hope you’ll be okay this time.” Marcia said tearily, dabbing the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief she pulled from her blazer.
Laura wrapped her arms around her former sister-in-law and hugged her tightly. She knew that Marcia would not be able to let go of the guilt she held over the Cult’s early actions, especially since she had been under the impression that they had willingly participated in the repopulation program. When Laura had escaped James with her other brothers and sisters, Marcia had come to the horrible realization that they had not been willing participants. Laura pulled back from the hug and looked Marcia in her eyes;
“I forgive you. I don’t feel like there’s anything to forgive, but you clearly need it; I forgive you. I don’t believe that you willingly allowed any of us to suffer, and you were in a compromising position yourself with the boys being so young and having to deal with James. Look at me,” Laura waved a hand down her front, gesturing to her body, “I am fine, I survived, I have a child which I never thought I wanted until I had her; you had to protect your sons and yourself. Please stop punishing yourself.”
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Marcia nodded and wiped here eyes, then her runny nose. She did not understand how Danika- Laura- didn’t blame her for turning a blind eye. Knowing how much those women had suffered, knowing the conditions they had been in, would never be something Marcia could forget. Knowing that she could have driven a knife through her husband’s heart any of the nights he lay beside her was becoming increasingly more difficult to live with.
“I’m going to leave you to get settled in; your duties won’t start until tomorrow, so get comfortable and get some rest. I have other business I have to attend to for now, but I hope to see you at dinner.” Marcia smiled and nodded to Laura, then turned around and left the room; closing the door quietly behind her.
Laura wandered around the room for a few minutes, investigating the various knickknacks and statuettes that made up the clutter décor on every surface of the room. The dresser sat to the right of the room, against the wall opposite the windows; the décor on it in particular caught her eye. Its surface held little potted succulents in themed pots. The pots were shaped like little fairies, with their heads open for the plants to grown as their hair. A birdcage painted gold was centered on the top of the dresser, and these smaller fairy pots surrounded it, with two being placed inside. The fairies inside were surrounded by miniature plant beds, with mirrors placed strategically to represent water. Moss filled every open space in the birdcage and made up the floor, and climbing plants wound their way up the bars, creating a magical miniature greenhouse scene. Solar powered fairy lights were wound around the bars, so at night they would twinkle and bring the scene to life. The birdcage was topped by a loop which would have been used to hang it; but this one was topped with a small golden phoenix clutching the loop in its talons, its wings spread out as if in flight.
Laura walked over to the bed and lay down, looking still at the fairy garden on the dresser. She had one as a child, on the Ark. This one looked so much like it, and it brought both comfort and turmoil to her. The last time she had seen that fairy garden had been in the Camp, right before James had taken her and her sisters to the tents. She had been trying to repot one of the fairies inside the birdcage when James and his minions had come in; they grabbed her and dragged her off, kicking and screaming. She kicked the table it sat on and the empty fairy had fallen to the floor and broken into several pieces, as had several of the potted fairies. The last time she’d seen her little garden was in shambles, with her precious fairy pots broken on the ground.
Her garden hadn’t been as nice and polished as this; the paint on the metal bars had been chipped and aged, the door to the birdcage was barely hanging on, and the lights had been merely an inaccessible dream she’d had for it. The phoenix that topped it had not been a part of her original design, but given what she had become it was a symbol that she appreciated. Other than these things being updated, the fairies all in one piece, the phoenix and the lights; this looked exactly like hers.
Laura rolled onto her back on the bed; she felt as though she were laying on clouds, and she realized too late that she was drifting off to sleep. Her dream that night was a tumultuous reliving of her childhood growing up with James. Coming in bits and pieces, she relived many of the awful moments James had done something that terrified, angered, or devastated her.
When she was eight, she’d had a doll that she cherished above everything else she’d owned, a Cabbage Patch doll she called Jennifer. Jennifer was her favorite friend, someone she could always depend on for a hug; with her auburn hair and green eyes, and her soft squishy body, Jennifer always gave her the best hugs. One day, she’d put Jennifer down for a nap when their mother called them to lunch; when she came back to Jennifer, Kevin had been standing outside her bedroom door with a grin on his face that told her that something was not okay.
She walked into the room to find James holding a knife to Jennifer’s lady area, he looked at her and smiled maliciously before stabbing the knife into that area over and over again. She watched in horror as James destroyed the only thing she truly loved; ripping her to pieces from the crotch up, then ripping her head off and cutting it into pieces and throwing it around the room. She had screamed and begged him to stop hurting her friend, but he acted like he couldn’t hear her and destroyed Jennifer. Kevin had stood at the door watching, laughing at his twin brother’s antics.
Their mother heard her screams, and came into the room and looked to the scene. She’d done nothing more than tell James to stop and clean up the mess, telling Laura to stop being so dramatic and she would get her a new doll. James had then taken the pieces of Jennifer and put them in a shoebox and buried her in the yard. He forced her to stand there holding a mock funeral for her beloved doll, while he talked about how stupid and ugly she was. After Jennifer’s backyard funeral their mother had brought her a new doll, but it wasn’t the same; so, when James repeated the process, it didn’t hurt her. That had angered James, so he had taken her out to the woods and left her there unable to find her way home; it had taken three days for the rescue team to find her, half dead and starving in the middle of the forest where she had found a hollowed-out log to take shelter in.
Once again, James’ punishment was pathetic; for whatever reason, James and Kevin were their parents’ favorites and got away with everything. They had been incredibly rich then, and their father had been able to buy their way out of any predicament the boys had gotten themselves and the family into. James was not allowed to play games outside his room after dinner, and he was no longer allowed to be left alone with Laura; this meant that as long as he was in his huge room with all his electronics and video games he wouldn’t get in any more trouble. Kevin had gotten the same “punishment” as James, but he didn’t care. As long as he was getting attention from their parents and everyone around them, nothing else mattered to him.
Laura, however, had been confined to her emptied room for weeks. Her parents had taken out everything but her mattress and locked her in there day and night unless it was time for a meal. Three weeks she lived this way; one week of each day she was missing. She’d spent her days writing stories in her head where she was a heroine defeating her brothers.
Laura awoke with a start, sitting straight up in the bed like a hot rod had been stuck under her back. She rubbed her eyes and looked around the darkened room; the lights on the birdcage were the only source of light in the room. She was not sure what had woken her up, so she got up and went to her bags. She searched through them until she found what she was looking for; her toiletries. All she could think about right now was taking a shower and washing the sweat and dirt from the day’s travel off her skin.
She took her toiletries and started to head to the bathroom to shower when she heard a thump from across the hall. She placed her toiletry bag down on a nearby table and went to her door; she opened it to see her brother Sean standing in the hallway outside Marcia’s room. To say he was surprised was an understatement; his eyes widened and his eyebrows flew up into his hairline, his mouth formed a perfect O shape as he gasped and cried out,
“Danika! I thought you were dead! James is going to be thrilled to see you.” He grabbed Laura as he said this, and dragged her into Marcia’s bedroom. He threw open the door and shouted, “Look what the cat dragged in, brother! Our sweet little Danika back from the dead.”
James was on top of Marcia, holding her face to one side and clearly assaulting her. When Marcia heard Sean say this her eyes flew open wide and she screamed, “No! Leave her alone! Do whatever you want to me but leave her alone.” James laughed at her, pulling himself out of her back door and zipping up his pants, he rose from the bed to walk over to the pair.
“My, my, my. You really had me convinced there, Danika. I mourned your death.” James spat in Laura’s face.
“Mourned not being able to rape your own sister, you sick fuck? You did mourn me; you mourned the loss of your ability to control me. You too, Sean. You’re a malignant narcissist who gets off holding your children hostage from their mother because she doesn’t want to suck your dirty ass dick. You’re both pathetic.” Laura retorted, laughing in his face. Sean turned her around to face him and backhanded her, letting her fall to the ground with a dull thump. As Laura stood, Marcia ran up behind James with a vase and smashed it over his head. James turned around and grabbed her by the throat, squeezing his fingers around the slender column harder and harder; his laugh getting more and more persistent as she turned purple and blue. She clawed at his hands for several seconds before going limp in his hands; James let her body drop to the floor, her head cracking on the carpeted floor making a sickening thud.
“I should have done this ages ago, you wretched bitch.” James said as Marcia stopped struggling and he threw her limp body to the ground. She did not move, and it didn’t look like she was breathing.
“You piece of shit! What did she ever do to deserve you!” Laura screamed as she watched for any signs of life from Marcia but seeing none. Sean grabbed one arm and James grabbed another and dragged her across the room kicking and screaming. Just as they were about to exit the room, James grabbed a candlestick from an accent table and hit Laura over the head, knocking her out and silencing her so they could get her out quietly.
“Let’s go, we can’t let anyone see us with her.” Sean said to James as he stopped outside Laura’s open door.
“Is this where she was staying?” James asked.
“Yeah, she was, but let’s go! We have to get out of here before someone sees us.”
James entered the room and looked around, his eyes finally falling on what he searched for; Laura’s bags. He rifled through them until he found her military ID and her communicator. He pocketed them both and exited the room, rejoining Sean in the hallway. Picking up Laura’s feet, they continued down the hall until they reached a large tapestry of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. James put Laura’s feet down and moved the tapestry aside and, knocking on the paneling until he found the right spot, pushed on the wall; the wall depressed and then popped open, and James picked Laura’s feet up once again and carried her down into the passageway.
“We’ll take her to the mountain. Keep her locked up next to the other prisoners.” James told Sean as they exited the building through an unassuming door in the back.
They loaded Laura into their truck and took off, leaving devastation to await discovery in their wake.