The Returning Read online

  At the mention of the light, Elise’s soul yearned for another dose. How quickly it had vanished; how quickly she had forgotten the way it made her feel. It had given her a sense of identity, and she had abandoned that for fear in a single moment.

  “Aaron can help. He’ll know—”

  Elise felt her breath catch in her throat. “Aaron?”

  Willis’s eyes lit up. “So you know him.”

  Tears filled Elise’s eyes and her lips trembled. “He’s real?”

  “Very real. And he’s here in the city with us.” Willis took a step toward Elise, slowly. “The way the light moved through you and became an extension of you, I don’t know what that means, but if you come with me and let me keep you safe, then I promise to help you find out.”

  For the second time that night, Elise searched Willis’s face for any reason to run the other way, but she still only saw sincerity when she looked at him. He had spoken about being called; the Seers being called to the city, him being called to find her, and hadn’t she herself dreamed of being called? Maybe this was where that calling started. She gave Willis a nod, and he responded in kind.

  With a chilly breeze at their backs, the two of them started off toward whatever the future held next.

  Jesse followed the pack of CityWatch guards as they led him toward the Scientist. Roth had been found in an old, unused medical laboratory room with his mind destroyed and his eyes nearly lifeless. Two guards had been with him, both stumbling about, spouting off impossible memories from the past, but neither of them coherent enough to recall their names, much less what had happened. The entire situation was madly unreasonable. What could have possibly happened to cause such confusion in two of his guards?

  He walked through the doorframe of another room. The Scientist’s bedroom was very different from his office. It was well kept and clean, thanks to his housemaid, and almost warm. It was coated in browns and golds, had large windows, sturdy furniture, and more space than any one person needed. The old man was lying on his bed, eyes closed, hands placed on top of one another across his chest as if he were readying himself for a coffin. But he was still breathing, his chest rising and falling slowly.

  Several men in lab coats stood around the Scientist’s bed, reading the measurements beeping through the medical machine that they’d hooked Roth up to. Why they were here, and what they hoped to accomplish, was beyond Jesse. They all knew how Genesis worked; there was no going back from it.

  “What else was found with him?” Jesse asked.

  One of the guards stepped forward. “Nothing, sir, just the empty syringe. Both of the guards were huddled in the corner. The straps on the medical chair were ripped loose, though, so it appears someone broke free from them. There’s no way of knowing if that was before or after Dr. Reynard was injected.”

  Frustration rippled across Jesse’s back. How had this happened? He needed time alone to think.

  “I want everyone out,” Jesse said.

  The others in the room paused and looked at their president with confusion.

  “I said out!” Jesse yelled, and the room came back to life. It cleared quickly until only Jesse, his old mentor, and the beeping of machinery were left. Jesse walked toward the bed, his eyes passing over the man’s body. He looked so fragile lying there, unconscious and mindless. Jesse had never thought of the Scientist as weak, but seeing him like this made him so.

  Jesse pulled the wooden desk chair from its place against the wall and set it next to the bed. He sat, placing his elbows on his knees, and dropped his skull into the palms of his hands. He rubbed his fingers in tiny circles along the top of his forehead, hoping the pressure would abate. The beeping gave a steady pulse to the room, and Jesse lost himself in thought.

  A soft knock sounded at the door and Jesse cursed under his breath. The invader didn’t wait for a response. The door opened and a small man in a lab coat entered.

  “I thought I asked for the room?” Jesse said.

  “You did, sir, but I think there is something you need to know,” the man said.

  “What?” Jesse snapped.

  “It’s about Elise, sir.”

  Jesse’s skin went cold at her name and he stood from his chair. “You had better have a good reason for mentioning her.”

  “She did this to Dr. Reynard,” the man said.

  Confusion racked across Jesse’s brain.

  “Well, not this exactly, but she’s the reason he’s in this state.”

  Jesse grounded his heels into the floor to keep himself from lurching angrily at the puny man in front of him. “You must be mistaken. Elise is dead.” Even the words hurt, and Jesse tried to think of a good reason not to have this lab-coat wearer thrown in prison.

  “No, sir. I was working on a project with Dr. Reynard concerning her abilities when this happened.”

  “Her abilities?”

  “I think you should sit down, sir.”

  Elise followed Willis to a dilapidated factory. It was small, with redbrick walls and broken windows. They stood outside as she looked the structure over.

  “This is where you guys are staying?” she asked.

  “I know it’s not exactly the Capitol Building, but it’s safe,” Willis said.

  Elise nodded. That was already more than the Capitol Building had ever been for her.

  Motion to their right caused them both to tense, and Willis moved in front of Elise to block her from sight. After only a moment, she watched his shoulders ease, so she glanced around him to see a familiar face approaching.

  Aaron.

  Elise stepped out from behind Willis and stared at the living, breathing representation of what she had been certain was only her imagination.

  “Hello, Elise,” Aaron said.

  His familiar voice caused her sore bones to relax and her head to spin.

  “I know you have questions,” he said. “I’ll have answers for some; others you’ll discover on your own. Most you already know the answers to.” He smiled at her, and she felt it hard not to smile back. “I was just about to take a walk to see the sunrise; would you like to join me?”

  Elise glanced at Willis and he smiled too, nodding toward Aaron and heading into the old factory. The moment he was gone she wished he would return. He really did make her feel safe, and without him she felt very vulnerable. She looked at Aaron’s kind face and then timidly followed him through the still-sleeping city streets, down short alleys, and around a couple of corners, until they came to a large brick building that had a ladder reaching up one of its walls.

  Aaron took the ladder swiftly, without much effort, and Elise followed, working to get her tired, bruised limbs to climb each rung. Once at the top, Aaron reached down and assisted her up and over the roof’s edging until she was standing securely.

  The roof was flat with a large, groaning generator sitting in the center but otherwise free of debris. The city stretched for miles in all directions; thin smoke billowed from dozens of chimneys, cattle roamed out in fields to the west, and streetlights illuminated the lonely roads below. The scene was picturesque, especially seen from a viewpoint that Elise had never experienced or even imagined. There really was so much life in this city that she knew nothing of.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Aaron asked.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “This is one of my favorite spots in the city. I’ve found myself up here many times to reflect on the people below. Watching them remember, and forget, and change.” He paused and looked past Elise toward the two giant matching buildings at the farthest end of the city. Elise knew they had once been used to house the women who were not selected during the time of the Choosing Ceremony. Now they just stood empty.

  “Things were different on the outside then, but the same blindness existed within the soul,” Aaron said, staring at the looming fortresses. “I met your mother then.”

  The word mother still sounded foreign to her, and she wasn’t sure she could fully accept it.

&
nbsp; “You knew my mother?”

  “I know her still,” Aaron said. “Very well.”

  Elise wanted to ask him a million questions, but the words seemed to get stuck behind the feeling of injustice rising in her gut. It seemed as though everyone knew things that had been hidden from her, hidden behind lies she had been told and blindly believed her whole life. Like they were all in on some sick joke that she was the butt of. She had a family that was alive in a faraway place she hadn’t even known existed. The man from her dreams was real and leading a group of people called the Seers, yet Elise still felt like she was wading through the dark, trying to figure out where she fit.

  “I’ve seen you from up here,” Aaron said.

  “Then why didn’t you ever come to me?”

  “I did.”

  Elise shook her head. “In my dreams? I didn’t even know you were real.”

  “Of course you knew. We spend so much time struggling with what we think we don’t know that we miss the truth underneath that gives us all we need.”

  “Every time I think I understand what’s going on, I feel like the rug gets pulled out from under my feet and I realize I understand nothing.” The weariness of the last several hours began to creep under her skin.

  “Well then, let’s start with what you think you know and understand,” Aaron said.

  “Well, I know nothing is actually as it appears to be. I know that I don’t know anything about this city, or my past, or where I come from. I understand that everyone around me has kept me in the dark, but I don’t know why. I understand that for some reason I’ve been kept basically imprisoned my whole life, but the reason is a mystery to me.”

  “Those are all things related to the forms of this world. The buildings, the roads, the clothes we wear, the lives we think we own. I want you to look beyond that. Look to the true identity that lies within you. That is what you need to understand; when you do, the rest all falls away.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “Remember the truth, the voice that calls to your soul. I know you have heard it. What does it tell you?”

  Elise searched her mind but found all her thoughts consumed with the frustration of her present condition. She couldn’t reach beyond the clutter crashing around inside her brain. “Nothing. I hear nothing.”

  “Stop searching for what you think the answer should be, and just feel the first thing that comes.”

  Elise closed her eyes and stopped trying to push through the madness. She did as Aaron suggested and just waited. The moment felt eternal before the familiar whisper came.

  Remember who you are.

  She wanted to remember; she wanted the freedom that Aaron so easily carried, but who was she? A girl nobody had wanted, kept locked away because she was different, lied to, used, manipulated. The voices of doubt rose higher the further Elise tried to push into herself. What was she even doing here, on this roof? Why had this power been given to her? She was useless.

  Suddenly the world seemed to fill with shadows. All around her they billowed up from the roof, moving toward her, giving her menacing looks, as if they had faces, as if they wanted to devour her whole. They stirred a deep-seated fear that rattled Elise’s bones.

  “Elise,” Aaron said.

  Elise opened her eyes and exhaled. There was nothing on the roof but her and Aaron. She shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “But you already have,” Aaron said. “You’ve seen the light, felt its power. It is already within you. All you have to do is turn toward it.”

  “I can’t! I’m not the one you want. I’m just a girl! This power shouldn’t even be mine. You asked me what I know—I know I’m not enough for this.”

  As the words left her mouth, she could feel the shadows again, creeping up her back and wrapping their fingers around her neck. She wanted to run from this roof, hide somewhere where they couldn’t find her, shut all of this out. Aaron was wrong about her. Willis was wrong. She couldn’t be called to this; she wasn’t enough.

  Remember what I call you.

  Somehow the tiny voice sneaked through the mounting fear, and Elise felt the shadows quake at its softness.

  “The shadows cannot hurt you, Elise,” Aaron said. “They are only shadows. Let go of the lies they tell you and see who you truly are.”

  The comforting voice came again, still soft, hardly audible, but powerful, and with it came the light, piercing through the shadows of her mind, calling forth a power that was housed within her. It boiled up into her chest and down through her arms. Faster than it had before, it seemed to flood her entirely.

  “What do you know now?” Aaron asked.

  Remember what I call you: Daughter. Chosen. Called.

  “Who does He say you are?” Aaron asked.

  A delicate wind ruffled the ends of Elise’s hair, and the light in her mind flowed down through her fingers and toes. “Daughter,” she said. “Chosen and called.”

  As the words left her mouth, the gathering energy multiplied, pressing against the inside of her skin, wanting to break free, as if at any moment the power would consume her entire being and tear her apart. A cooling rush expanded from her shoulder, and she opened her eyes to see Aaron resting his hand there. A smile spread across his face, his eyes filled with dancing fire.

  “Again,” Aaron said.

  Daughter.

  “Daughter,” Elise answered.

  Chosen.

  “Chosen.”

  Called.

  “Called.”

  Aaron nodded. “The truth will set you free. It is the reason you are here now, in this place, for this time.” He spun her around so that Elise was facing the rest of the city, and she gasped.

  “See the world with new eyes,” Aaron said.

  Colors of all varieties danced before her. Golds and blues, purples and reds. Waves of color poured over the buildings and streets as if a haze had been lifted and all that remained was the vibrating beauty of what really was. Her heart raced and her mind spun, all doubt crushed by the light. It no longer sat caged in her mind but flowed out through the ends of her fingers and swept across the sky and down into the streets.

  As if she were part of the light itself. But then, wasn’t she?

  Daughter. Chosen and called.

  She was the light of the world. She didn’t need the voice to tell her; she felt it in every molecule of her body. She felt filled with power by her true identity. As if she’d been standing on the edge of a cliff, her toes dangling freely over, the rest of her so close to knowing and only needing a push; the truth of who she was yanking her free of the edge. And she felt as if she were flying.

  Tears dripped off Elise’s chin, and she dropped to her knees, the voice of truth speaking warmth over her. The wind wrapped around her as if it were love itself. She trembled in the midst of the One who called her daughter, the One who was the light, the One who gave His power to be her own.

  All that you see before you I have given. Your inheritance is power beyond comprehension. What shall you fear, then? Who shall stand against you? Remember what I call you. See the world with new eyes. Walk in my truth, and be the light of the world.

  A new sensation washed over her then, an awe-inspiring sense of love and acceptance that brought forth another round of tears. A feeling of worthiness that Elise had never experienced. As if she were perfect in that moment, flawless and unable to fail. Because He called her daughter and gave her His power, filling her with perfect love that made her the light of the world.

  Elise opened her eyes and saw that the vibrating colors were gone, the wind had died down, and the fiery light bursting from within had quieted. But she didn’t fear, because nothing was as it had been. She knew more now than she ever had before. It was as if all the lies in her mind had been replaced with truth, and the ground under her feet could no longer be shaken.

  She took a deep breath and let it out. Even her breathing felt new. She glanced at her hands and saw power instead of weakness. She pushed
herself from her knees with purpose instead of doubt. She looked at Aaron and saw the same joy she felt, saw love instead of unfairness.

  The sky was now painted with the first colors of morning. Elise and Aaron said nothing for a long moment on that rooftop. They didn’t need to. A bond of truth connected them now. Aaron finally broke the stillness with a soft chuckle and walked over to the roof’s edge and sat. Elise followed.

  “I have waited a very long time for this day,” Aaron said.

  Elise sat down beside the man. “And what happens now?”

  He smiled. “Now you change the world.”

  Elise moved her eyes away from him and watched as the city below started to awake.

  She could feel Aaron’s eyes on her. “Are you afraid?” he asked.

  She thought for a moment. “I feel like I should be.”

  “Why?”

  Elise could still feel power vibrating over her skin and filling every pore. “Changing the world doesn’t sound easy.”

  “Don’t be afraid. This journey was laid out for you long before the beginning of time. The power you have is an incredible gift.”

  She glanced at her hands again, and visions of the power that had coursed through them returned to her mind. “So when I touched those guards . . .”

  “You were calling for their truth, which is the same as yours. They have been numbed by the Genesis Serum and blinded to what is real, but the truth still exists within them. As it is your inheritance, so it is also theirs. The darkness can’t rob people of that, only hide it. You have been called to uncover it.”

  “Will people resist?” Elise asked.

  Aaron nodded. “Yes, some will. But that’s okay. Even their blindness now is okay. Only because they are blind can they now be awakened.”

  Elise shook her head. “You talk in a lot of riddles.”

  Aaron laughed and swung his arm around Elise’s shoulder, pulling her close. “I’ve been told that before.”

  15

  Elise followed Aaron down from the roof and back to the old factory. Her mind still swam with colors and warmth. The sky felt different; the earth felt different; she felt different. Her body felt new, or maybe just finally awake.