Murder is weird. It’s such an innocent thing actually. I don’t know if I can define it, even if that goes against what grandpa told me. He would want me to say murder is good when he says it is, and bad when he says so. I used to believe him, but my mind’s been changing recently, within the last few months.
I hate TJ. I hate him so much. He’s loud, annoying, stupid, ignorant, immature, weird, and disrespectful. On top of all of that he’s way too confident in himself. But when I saw him on the bridge, I realized something. In spite of all of those things about him, I don’t want to murder him. In fact, I really don’t want him to die. We have unfinished business. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to get killed. The Principal would rather have somebody else with his Emblem, not him. It makes sense, he’s all those things I mentioned earlier. He’s also a little bit more though. I don’t really get it.
Maybe that means I’m getting infected by him. I couldn’t believe he would try and call out Mr. White, I was surprised he didn’t do anything to the target earlier in the mission. According to grandpa, he doesn’t deserve to live after those mistakes. You can’t afford to make even one mistake, or it’s all over for kids who aren’t a part of any big family.
When I saw TJ and Mercury, I didn’t move. I didn’t want to be blamed for any action I would take. Mercury’s silver hair was soaked and stuck to his head, blood staining several portions of it crimson. His jacket is singed black on the edges, and his left arm is hanging pretty loosely by his side. TJ’s face is even paler than Mercury's despite his darker skin tone. He’s similarly soaked in water, his face is covered in splatters of blood that could be red paint if not for the body of the target slowly drifting away from the two of them. His green eyes are weak. It pisses me off more to see him like this than to see him all bubbly and lame.
“TJ.” I growl at him, splashing through the water towards the two of them. He glances up at me, nervously. I don’t like that. At all. He looks like every other person, scared and nervous. That pisses me off.
“Yeah?” He murmurs quietly, almost shrinking back away from me. Mercury’s the one who stands up and takes a step towards me with a slosh. Mercury Theta, not TJ.
My fist ignites, and I step to him, shooting daggers into his unreadable blue eyes. “I’m reporting both of you if you don’t move.” I state flatly, bringing my other hand towards my intercom. Mercury’s eyes stare coldly back at me. He tsks, shoves his hands in his pockets, and steps back. His eyes remain on me like a bird of prey, an empty threat if ever I’ve seen one. It implies I’m scared of the consequences he could offer me.
“You.” I reach down and grab TJ’s collar, not lifting him up or anything but just to get him to look at me. He keeps trying to look somewhere else and it pisses me off to no end.
“Not now, Nia…Look…I just. I need some time, ok? I can’t-” He can’t?
“You what!?” I barely even notice and I lift TJ into the air, his eyes now entirely focused on me. He winced when I yelled, that’s not TJ. His eyes look shattered, not sharp or witty. His face is desperate and tired, not optimistic and playful. “TJ, get it together! This isn’t some game, we’re not here to screw around! You can’t? You can’t?!" I parrot his words back at him, "Shut up, you idiot! I thought that you had some backbone! For some reason or another. Here you are though, annoying me yet again by proving me wrong. You’re nothing special. You can, ok?! You can or you’ll die, so make up your mind!” He flinched at basically every word I say, his face goes deathly white and he gulps desperately. He blinks while trembling in my hands, and I can’t bring myself to hold him in the air anymore. I throw him down into the lake with a crash, water bursting around him.
“But…This isn’t…It isn’t right..” He mumbles in response, looking up at me with trembling mossy eyes.
“If you feel so passionately about it, maybe you should’ve died instead.” I hiss out at him, bending over so my head is inches from his own, my hair brushing against his cheeks. “Save Mr. White the trouble. What’s right isn’t your choice! You’re only evolved, not a god! You can’t preach, and talk, especially when even a little blood sends you into a catatonic state!!” I finish out of breath, clenching my fists hard enough to feel my own warm blood dripping down my fingers. “Ugh!” I throw my hands in the air and stomp away, hoping some of my blood gets on TJ as well. He’s not worth it, he’s not worth getting this mad over. He’s a dead man walking.
- - - - - - - -
I reported to Mr. White, and soon he and the remainder of the class showed up to meet me at the edge of the lake. A newly born is in his arms, unnamed but evolved. She’s healthy, and she’s going to be my new baby sister. He barely pays me any attention at all, he’s one of the very few people who can get away with that. Instead his eyes are locked onto TJ, who’s being slightly supported by Mercury in the shallows of the lake. Mr. Whites sapphire eyes are sharp and apathetic, “TJ. Give me the direct report.” His words are cold.
“Me and TJ pursued-”
“Mr. Theta I didn’t ask you, and if you insist on answering me one more time over TJ I’m going to ensure you can’t a third time.” Mr. White cuts Mercury off, his eyes still trained like a hawk on TJ.
Mercury tsks and looks away, the ghost of a blush on his face. TJ responds in a voice barely stronger than a whisper, “We pursued Rahj to-”
“Who’s Rahj.” Mr. White states, barely as a question. It comes across more as an order, stern and unyielding. TJ pauses for a moment and glances back in the lake, the distant speck in the water drawing his eyes.
“The target.” He murmurs after a moment, looking down and not meeting Mr. White’s eyes. “We pursued the target to the lake, and killed him. Mercury acted as the direct fighter while I snuck in and killed him myself with my Emblem.”
Mr. White doesn’t say anything, but glances at Mercury who nods at TJ’s words. He sighs and crosses his arms, as though he needs to try and think about what to do. With his eyes shut he starts to talk slowly, picking his words carefully. “I’ll file the report over the mission…Everybody head back to the US embassy, Jasmine will come pick you up tomorrow. Don’t leave the embassy once you get there, spend the day there. I’m going to provide some assistance to the E.E.E.” He looks at us and nods, “TJ, you’re the exception. You’re coming with me.”
As Mr. White disappears from our view I call out, “You heard Mr. White, everybody let’s get going. If somebody else dies or makes a scene I’ll kill them.” My eyes are focused on TJ while I finish my sentence. I’m taking charge obviously, it doesn’t make sense for anybody else to even try.
* * * *
I haven’t seen TJ for a month, not since we got back from the mission to India. It’s annoying, such an obnoxious person literally keeping me up at night. He’s probably dead, so it doesn’t make sense for me to care. Not that I care. Well I might but it’s not because I want him to be alive. It just feels like we have unfinished business. Classes have been pretty quiet actually, a nice return to form. It’s great or whatever, but the lunch is still absolutely crazy. I’m blaming that on TJ. Just like I’m blaming the silence on his absence. I don’t miss him, despite what Crystal’s been saying. Mercury looks terrible, it’s kinda funny. Whenever I talk to him about TJ, not that I do it very often, but whenever he happens to be brought up, not by me of course, Mercury’s eyes fall. Thomas hasn’t been having a great time either, contrary to what he might want me to think. He misses having somebody to bully I bet, he could get away with just harassing TJ.
Damnit! It’s already one o’clock! I need to fall asleep, our classes tomorrow are the last ones of the semester, and then we get a week to go to our families. We have several finals, and if I’m not well rested I’m screwed. “This is all your fault, TJ!” I cry out in indignation, tossing one of my pillows across the dark room.
“What the heck did I even do?”
My heart stops, my stomach drops, and my lungs pop. I squeak out, “TJ!?” In a very controlled and mature manner that doesn’t justify the laughter that spills out of his mouth. His disembodied voice is from above me, so there’s really only one logical conclusion, “Are you haunting me you annoying prick?” I ask, happy the room is pitch black so he can’t see me smiling.
Fortunately he laughs further at that comment and manages to wipe the smile off my face, replacing it with an annoyed expression as he talks, “Haha! No, not quite, granted I got close like thirty times.” I hear a thud and I stretch out my hand, igniting my fist. TJ’s lanky body is sprawled across my floor, a hand gingerly on his back with a small grimace on his face. His eyes are playful, and he has that stupid innocent expression he used to have. It’s a little different though, maybe a little sharper. It reminds me of somebody, but I can’t put my finger on it.
“Did you just…” He totally just…Fell through my roof. “Are you going to pay for that?” His eyes widen and he puts a hand to his mouth.
“Ms. Beta, I would never have thought that such a rich and powerful woman as yourself would stoop so low as to have an innocent low-life like myself pay for you in any facet!” He’s annoying, so so annoying. I’m going to punch him. I swear I’m going to punch him. “Awww look at that!” He exclaims with a playful grin spreading across his face. “You’re smirking! You missed me!”
…For the record…I wasn’t smirking.
When I finally got my hands on TJ though we ended up in the cafeteria, which was completely empty because it was the middle of the night. “Ugh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” He whisper-shouts into the floor, where I’m firmly keeping him. My knee is on his back and I’m keeping him in a tiger hold so he can barely move. We’re both a little bit out of breath, but I feel like he’s worse off than me.
“Yes, you are. Now start coming back to classes you dumbass. You’re the worst, Mercury’s been worried sick, Crystal’s pestered me about you, even Thomas is upset he doesn’t have an easy target anymore.” I ease up on TJ a little bit and stand up, letting him go. He makes it to his feet but not without a struggle, and breathing heavily he gives me a thumbs up.
“Yeah, no, 100 percent. I had to take care of some stuff, so…Couldn’t make it to classes. Will be fixing that soon.”
“How soon?” I narrow my eyes at him, to which he gives a small flinch.
“Tomorrow soon.” He elaborates with a grin, flashing me two thumbs up and taking a step backwards. He’s here, TJ. The real one, not some shadow of himself but that same stupidly charismatic idiot as before.
“What were you doing? What happened?” The words spill out of my mouth before I can think twice about them, which is fine. I am actually curious, I just hope that he doesn’t think this means I care about him.
“Oh boy.” He smiles softly, and then chuckles while sticking his tongue out at me. “I sure was doing things, and things certainly happened. Now as for the details of either of those statements, I choose to refrain from elaborating on them.”
“Oh yeah?” I ignite my fists and shoot him a glare, “I’m not sure if I gave you a question you weren’t allowed to answer.”
“Oh yeah?” He parrots back to me, crossing his arms and taking a cautious step back. “Well I’m not sure I like your tone missy. Your Mother and I talked quite a bit and she was not very supportive of your behavior.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
….What? My fists extinguish themselves, it feels like I’ve just been smacked upside the head. “...My...My mom? You...You were working with the-”
“Emblem Eradication Enforcement squad, yes.”
“The E.E.E.” I murmur in disbelief, this guy couldn’t possibly have been working with such a prestigious group.“What were you doing with them?”
“Same old, same old.” He mentions dismissively, shoving his hands in his pockets as he begins to walk backwards. “More importantly you’ve become much more open to breaking rules - It’s past midnight and here you are. Not in bed, but in the cafeteria!” He gasps, and puts a hand to his mouth gently. “My goodness Nia, is that the perfect little girl you were raised to be?” He shuts his mouth real quick after I shoot him a glare, but not without a small snicker escaping him. “Come on, I think you’ll get a kick out of this.”
He gestures for me to follow him as he walks back through the school. “There are guards.” I whisper after him, following despite knowing it’s the dumbest option available to me. He looks back and shrugs at me, before continuing along his merry way like nothing is wrong. In fact, everything is wrong. I don’t even like TJ, and yet here I am being dragged along in some stupid scheme of his. He glances back after a few turns, and when he sees me he gives a grin.
“Y’know, I think I like you Nia.” WHAT is he TALKING about? What? He likes me? Of course he, he should. I mean, I’m me. But to just say it after so many feuds and instances of discourse between us I don’t get it, wait, like, love me?
“Like, like me?” I hesitantly ask, not looking at his face because I have a funny feeling he would make fun of me. Turns out I didn’t even need to be looking at him for him to start laughing regardless.
“Wow!” He exclaims with another small snicker, “You have got to work on that ego of yours!” Oh, he didn’t. I look back at him, expecting to see a teasing smirk that I could wipe off of his face with a smack. I have to stop my hand though, because he looks back at me totally straight-faced as he continues. “Why would I? I have Mercury.”
Wait. What?
“You’re just…I noticed that as hard as you try to be the opposite you’re a good person deep down. Granted, very deep down. Like, Mariana Trench levels of-” He’s doing a TJ thing where he goes off on a tangent, and I tune it out and white noise as I take in what he just said. He was very serious when he looked at me. There’s no way, but…
“TJ.” I cut him off, stopping my movement. He glances back to me quizzically with a playful glimmer of light in his emerald eyes. “Are you gay?”
There’s a stillness that hangs in the air between the two of us after I asked the question, and a deathly quiet seems to emerge from the ceaseless noise that surrounds TJ. His white face makes it impossible to tell if he’s turned more or less pale after the question. His lips are tightly bound together, and he blinks at me. Then tilts his head slightly, a hesitant smile on his face as he answers. “N..No?” I can’t tell if that surprises me or not, so I just nod and we keep moving. I know I probably shouldn’t have asked that question, just because TJ’s also not talking as we keep moving.
When he finally does open his mouth though, it’s a stupid retort to my question. “So, since I said I don’t have a crush on you, your mind instantly went to...I bet he’s gay.”
“Well, you said that thing about Mercury so it wasn’t just because you didn’t like me.”
“Sure, sure, an excellent scapegoat you’ve found for yourself there.” He stops moving in front of a door that we’re not allowed to enter, that we never will be allowed to enter. It’s the Principal’s lounge. He’s the only person allowed in there. We can’t get in. “Alright, let’s go in.” TJ remarks casually, going for the door handle.
“What?!” I grab his wrist and stare at TJ in shock. “TJ, that’s the Principal’s lounge. We can’t get in there, we’re not allowed.”
“We’re not allowed out of our rooms at night either, and this place has tons of cameras. We’re already caught when morning comes, and the only way to erase the footage would be behind these doors. Plus, I have something in here I want to show you.” Shockingly enough, he makes a really good argument. He definitely does have a strong case for erasing the footage, but I wouldn’t be in trouble in the first place.
“I’m only here because I’m chasing after you TJ, they’re going to see that on the cameras too. I’m not in trouble in the morning, plus my family-”
“Nia.” He cuts me off with a tired expression, raising one eyebrow as though annoyed I don’t get something yet. “They don’t have cameras in the vents, which is how I got into your room. They’re going to see a boy and a girl emerging from the girl’s room at one in the morning, chasing each other and then having some banter.” Oh. Oh no, I get it now. “You’re just as busted as me, now let’s commit a little crime, kapeesh?” I glare up at him, he’s got a smirk raring to go under that patient face, I can tell. He wants to show me something anyways, and I guess I am pretty curious what it could be.
“Fine. How do we get in?” I begrudgingly concede to him, and sure enough he smirks as he turns back to the door.
“Simple, everything here uses magnetic locks. I’m basically a magnet man.” He announces with a grin, putting his hand on the lock, using his Emblem in some way or another, and then opening the door with no problem. “Presto.” He walks in and turns around, beckoning me in with a finger. The room is dark, and so far I can’t make anything out inside of it. That’s off putting, given that I have vision enhancing shots. I should be able to see in the dark, and they were working earlier today with TJ through the halls and in the cafeteria. In fact they’re still working, so why can’t I see in there?
“TJ, we shouldn’t be going in there. I have a bad feeling about thi-” He grabs me by my wrist and pulls me into the room.
=================
I never liked the Principal. He knew too much about me, and he tried way too hard to get me to play in the palm of his hand. I almost did too, in India. I should’ve died, I got crazy lucky. I was far too dismissive of the target and went against too many orders, I even let Rahj kill two of our classmates. I lost two Emblems, and yet I’m still here. I was assigned to the E.E.E., and they were given an express order to kill me if I showed even the slightest sign of hesitation or unwillingness to do everything they asked. That was his biggest mistake, putting me in a squad of adults who knew what was happening. It wasn’t the school anymore, I was off his grounds, and I could see things as they really were. Jennifer Cadmium let me know everything, and everybody on there was on my side in a manner of speaking. Leo even came back to work with our squad.
The shots are a suppressant for us. They allow certain people to incapacitate the kids with a simple touch, but it runs deeper than that. Our final doses happen when we turn 18, and in those are mixed a ‘final solution’ which allows the Principal to kill any of the Evolved with a touch. It monitors their movements, their heart rates, even acts as a lie detector when the need arises. That’s why nobody with an Emblem works outside of the government, why you have to report to this school. I couldn’t just come out and talk about this once I got back, I had to make the others believe it. Mercury might believe me if I told him, but nobody else would. They’re too indoctrinated, it’s too risky to admit I know all of this. So, I have to make them believe. And who better to convince than Nia, Jennifer’s daughter. I didn’t think I’d be able to get it done on my first night back, but at the rate things are going…I’ve got a pretty good shot. Plus, I did promise Jennifer I’d save Nia.
The Principal's office door swung open, and I wasn’t surprised to see darkness meeting me. “Presto.” I murmur with a grin spreading across my face, walking into the office. It’s kinda fun to reach out blindly to find a light switch. I overhear Nia complaining and raising her voice slightly, which forces a sigh out of my body. I reach out and pull her into the room, “Nia, go flame on! I can’t see in here.”
“I’m not your torch!” She hisses back at me, before acting very much like a torch would and lighting up the room with fire. The place is unnerving to say the least. A steady stream of paper emerges from the corners and wraps around the walls of the room, disappearing into another corner. The entire room is covered in these rotating, silently creeping walls that reflect Nia’s fire. Only a single wall across the entrance displays monitors and computers that seem to control the security of the building. There’s a circular desk in the center of the room, with three chairs surrounding it.
“Three…” That’s strange, the Principal is the only one I can imagine coming in here. As confused as I feel, Nia looks much worse. She walks over to the walls cautiously. She pauses in front of the paper and starts reading them. “Don’t light the papers on fire.” I call out teasingly, looking at the other wall. Heart rates, glucose levels, oxygen content, ridiculous amounts of information are in the papers that stream across the walls.
“What…What is this stuff?” Nia murmurs, extinguishing a hand and pulling some papers closer.
“Proof.” Exactly what I’ve been looking for. Nia looks confused at me, to which I only shrug in response. “You’re a smart girl. Why would the Principal have all this information in his office? Why would he have…” I walk over to the table and investigate a little more, finding files and reports over each member of the E.E.E., and something else. “A failsafe?” I toss the file over to Nia. It detailed how each member felt about being Evolved, and their loyalty to the organization. Continually in the papers it alluded to killing them if they got too close to becoming independent.
She reads silently through the pages, with a face that progressively becomes more and more pale. “Proof of what TJ? That he’s doing his job?” She whispers back at me. She’s nervous, I can tell by her voice, but those words are exactly what I’d expect. “Independence can be dangerous if they’re going to commit treason. So it makes sense-”
“To kill anybody who takes a step out of line?” She purses her lips and doesn’t look at me. A dead silence creeps between the two of us as my words settle like dust to the ground. “The only justification would be if we’re confident that taking a step out of line is bad. Nia, that would mean saying the Principal is objectively good. That’s autocratic, isn’t it?”
“Look, structure is needed to get things done. If he establishes it through fear and threats that’s not our business TJ, it’s for the greater good.”
“So the ends justify the means? Fine. Then what are the ends Nia? What is the goal that we’re working towards?” She knows the answer just as much as I do, but it doesn’t surprise me she finds herself at a loss for words. Her crimson eyes are unsure, darting between me and the files she holds. “For him to hold all the power, all the Emblems in the world? An unstoppable army ruled by a ruthless and cold man?”
“But if others had Emblems they could attack us themselves. We’re only doing this to protect ourselves TJ, because without security we would risk everything being taken from us, everybody could die. Everything could come to an end.” She gives as rebuttal, her words losing some of their energy. Nia’s smart, maybe too smart. A lot of people are, they overthink things.
I snort, and then start laughing. “How, Nia? People abruptly lose all morality and decide to kill absolutely everybody? How would everything come to an end?” She can’t give me an answer, and after waiting I give my own. “We don’t know. But I do know that if he gets his way, everything keeps going the way it does, the world as we know it is gonna end. You want the Principal in charge of the world, ruling it with an army of Evolved at his fingertips? His word would be the law and there wouldn’t be anything anybody could do except listen to and abide by his rules. You would rather live under that, than roll the dice? Than taking a chance on humanity? Be more optimistic. The most evil and malicious force in the world…is people. Everybody focuses on that. In doing so they ignore that the most incredible and kind forces in the entire world are also people. I’m not saying that security and order is evil by nature, but Nia, you can’t correlate those to the Principal. Those concepts are abstract, they’re not good or bad, it’s how people interact with them. You can’t have one person calling the shots for everything…ever.” I got a little bit too philosophical, but I can’t stop now. Nia doesn’t know what to do anymore, I kind of changed her whole perspective by bringing her here in the first place.
“The Principal…He’s not bad. He can’t be. He takes care of us, and-”
“Nia!” I grab her shoulders and she seems stunned that I’m doing so. I realize very quickly she’s surprised because she’s still on fire, and my hands are likewise now flaming. That’s irrelevant, it’ll make my point hit home all the harder. “He’s forcing you to kill people, raising you to be soldiers, and the only thing he’s giving you is shelter and his own personal affirmation.” I take my hands back, and they’re burned a bright red and throb painfully, but Nia seems to have realized something. She stumbles backwards a little, and turns out the light before leaning against the wall.
In total darkness, Nia’s voice calls out, “But I’ve lived my whole life listening to him. I can’t just stop TJ. What do you think you can do, leave? He’d kill us.”
She raises a stupid point, and then a legitimate one. Right after each other, which makes me smile. “Sure you can. Your whole life only counts for so far, you can change it whenever you want. So come on Nia.” I crouch next to her and put my still very warm hand on her shoulder. “Let’s overthrow the Principal. But first, we’ll leave. We’ll sneak out tomorrow, it’s getting too late today, and Mercury needs to come with us.”
We rise together, and when she leaves the office, I watch as she heads back towards her own room. I still had some work to do. Namely, the security cameras. All I have to do is destroy the entire office, that’s going to help me take care of the whole tracking situation. Now, how am I going to do that without arousing even the slightest bit of suspicion?