Arisen Read online

  A hand trailed down the length of my back, making me shiver.

  “I’m so glad you made it,” a voice whispered in my ear—a voice I knew all too well.

  “Liam,” I said. I grabbed his hand before it could travel any further, twisting his wrist in an unnatural direction.

  “Ow!”

  “Always a pleasure.” I dropped his hand and spun around. He massaged his wrist, his glare quickly dissolving when I met his eyes. “Next time I snap it.”

  Liam chuckled. “Oh, how I’ve missed your playful threats.” His chocolate brown eyes danced with humor.

  I turned back around and made it to the front of the room. The teenagers were all starting to gather, laughing and murmuring in the candlelight. The house was devoid of electricity, so we had to result to medieval methods of illumination.

  When I assumed my usual position in front of the group, voices began to lower or drop away altogether. Melanie would have fainted if she was in my position, but I just smiled. I was in my element.

  “Welcome to another meeting of the Awaken Society,” I started, letting the group of around twenty young people clap and holler. Eyes were lit with excitement. This was the one place we had to be free—where we could discuss ideas and people without any kind of filter. “Are there any newcomers?”

  Two girls in the back raised their hands, exchanging nervous smiles.

  “Welcome,” I said with nods to each of them. “We don’t have rules here—I think we’ve had enough of those for one lifetime. We rely on a code of honor. We trust that no one in this room will ever turn over information to Oportet authorities, we trust that if someone were to get caught carrying out a Mission that they will take all the blame rather than give up the entire group, and we trust that no one will invite anyone to a meeting unless they are absolutely sure that person is awake.”

  I glanced around the room to see nods and murmurs of agreement, and then the perplexed glances of the two new girls in the back. I saw one of them mouth “awake” to the other, and I smiled. I wasn’t going to explain.

  “Does anyone have any news for the Society?” I asked. I frowned when a hand shot up in the center of the room.

  “I have something worth sharing,” Liam started, never breaking eye contact. “There’s an Outsider bus coming in next week.”

  Gasps filled the air.

  “How many?”

  “Just one. A boy… or man, I suppose. He’s eighteen.”

  “Do you have any other information?”

  “Not really. He went to Oportet’s office in Portland, and the Council just cleared him. He has already gone through the entire reeducation process.”

  Liam O’Neill was like me, or like the old me. His mother was a councilwoman, and his father worked in the Immigration Department. Also like me, he awakened regardless of his family’s political prestige and power. The information he could get from his parents was a great asset to the Society.

  Everyone wondered what stopped the Outsider buses. Immigration had been steadily increasing for years, but about a year ago the buses started arriving few and far between. There wasn’t any explanation…even Liam couldn’t get his mother to give him a solid answer.

  “Do you think he’s…one of them?” Melanie asked, her voice shaking. When heads turned in her direction, she immediately averted her eyes to the floor. I cleared my throat so eyes would return to me.

  My parents had always believed in the right-wing conspiracy theories of rebel Outsiders penetrating Oportet to start another revolution. These were the same great revolutionaries who took down the American government. They were terrorists, activists, traitors, and heroes. They were awake.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But I’ll make it my mission to find out.” Why would a teenager choose to come to Oportet completely alone? Not to mention he would be the first one in months. The Council would be watching him closely.

  A hand shot up. “My little sister… She’s in sixth grade…” Lacy Thomas said. “The Council’s new educational reforms are…changing her.”

  “Changing her how?” I asked.

  “She’s, like, angrier. She doesn’t talk as much, and she used to make up songs and sing them, but now she doesn’t. I think she got in trouble for it at school. She told me that music was a waste of her time,” Lacy said.

  Oportet restricting creativity was old news. There had to be something more.

  “She keeps threatening us. My family, I mean. My father slipped up last night and started complaining about the Council making stupid decisions that affected his business, and Hannah started screaming at him. She called him a terrorist. She said that she was going to turn him in for breaking Rule Number Two, and that the guards would take him away.” Lacy shook her head. “I don’t get it. It only takes something little to set her off. And with all of the people being taken lately, it’s really scaring me. Those are our parents.”

  “They’re teaching them young,” I murmured. “Emotions like fear and hate are powerful. Lancaster is brainwashing them to become his perverted version of perfect citizens.”

  When Head Councilman Lancaster took over, he started forming new policies in every department. It was almost like he had been anticipating taking over the position for a long time. The panic and fear of the Outsiders’ attack three years ago allowed Lancaster to pass anything through the Council if he sold it as a form of protection from rebels. The citizens of Oportet needed a leader who promised safety, and it didn’t matter what measures that leader took to ensure it.

  Lancaster’s manipulation of the public’s fear made the passage of the Patriot Act following the 9/11 attacks decades ago seem trivial in comparison. One of the first measures he took was a form of protection against internal rebellion, or “domestic terrorism.” A new branch of law enforcement was established to handle internal affairs: the Oportet Safety Department. The OSD was equipped with its own special building to host interrogations and other shady procedures. It only took a spark of rebellion to send guards to a citizen’s front door, and after a few weeks in the OSD building, that citizen was returned “good as new.”

  It always reminded me of my parents sending Luna away when she wanted to leave Oportet. A neurosurgeon employed by the Council took away her memories, supposedly ridding her of the thoughts she wasn’t allowed to have. This new, more intrusive form of brainwashing ran deeper than self-righteous parents concerned about unruly children. Elite scientists and doctors previously worked under the Council, conducting shady experiments and procedures, but now they were employed by the OSD and charged with reeducating problematic citizens in the new building.

  Liam told me all of this. His mother, the councilwoman, was grooming him to go into bureaucracy, and he played along to get information out of her.

  “We’ve got to do something about this,” I said, earning fist-pumps and shouts of agreement. “Hannah and her friends don’t deserve this. Someone needs to send the Council a message,” I said, my voice rising. “Indoctrinating children into systematic control and suppression is a crime against humanity, and we are going to serve a punishment.”

  Lacy’s eyes lit up. Surges of energy exploded all around me, making my skin tingle once more. We were pure fire, elevated heartbeats, and widened eyes soaking in the beauty of the moment. We were caught in a space without time, a place where nothing could touch us but our own deafening thoughts.

  I used to think it was anger that fueled us, but the resentments we held weren’t as important to us as the other things. It was the desire to taste freedom in its purest form, to be more than who they told us we were, and to be okay with not knowing all of the answers. We were fueled by the things we couldn’t explain, and the desire to know more than we should. To be awake was to understand that nothing could be defined, and that no one could define us.

  I set out a plan, and took seven volunteers to carry out the mission—Liam, Melanie, Lacy and me included. I’d never broken into a middle school before, but I guessed there w
as a first time for everything.

  “We should probably head back,” Melanie said after the meeting concluded. The others were either making their way back home or just hanging out. “The night doesn’t last forever, you know.”

  “I wish it did.” I followed her out after saying my goodbyes.

  Lacy gave me another hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “Hey, Megan, wait!” Liam yelled behind me.

  I pretended I couldn’t hear him as I stepped through the door. I hurriedly caught up to Melanie, sighing when I felt a hand clamp over my shoulder.

  “I know you heard me,” Liam said, out of breath.

  “So?”

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “Let me walk you home.”

  I sighed, then looked at Melanie.

  “I’ll meet you back at the house,” she said, giving my hand a squeeze.

  She turned away before I could protest. I didn’t feel up for a walk alone with Liam.

  “Seriously, Megs. How are you feeling?” Liam asked when Melanie was gone.

  “I’m fine,” I snapped. “Why do people keep asking me that?”

  “You don’t have to play that game with me. You know that.” His hand circled my wrist, sliding down to entwine his fingers through mine. “You don’t always have to be strong.”

  I fought the urge to pull my hand away. “What did I say about the touching?” I asked through clenched teeth, my voice not as strong as I wanted it to be. “I’m not playing a game, Liam.”

  “Your mother’s name was Jennifer and your father’s name was David, right?”

  My jaw tensed, and I could feel Liam’s eyes on mine as I stared into the distance. I nodded.

  “How old was your sister?”

  “She was seventeen when she escaped Oportet.” Barely older than Liam and I were. “She’s twenty now.”

  Liam looked over at me, his face scrunched in confusion. “Megan…”

  “Before you start blabbing about how I’m in denial, you should know that I fully accept the fact that my parents are dead. It’s Luna who’s still alive.” My voice wavered. The summer heat weighed me down. I bit my lip, attempting to stop the trembling.

  “Come on.” He tugged on my hand.

  Liam guided me down his street, toward a house even bigger than the one I used to live in, with a full set of white columns, three stories, and a basement. It had a perfectly manicured lawn with picturesque arrangements of flowers, trees and lawn ornaments.

  We snuck around back, climbing through the basement window like we had on so many other occasions. Liam had two other siblings who were both living on their own now, and it was the family tradition for the oldest in the house to live in the expansive basement.

  “I haven’t been here in a while,” I said, blinking heavily when Liam flipped on a light switch.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  We sat there in the middle of the carpeted floor. Liam cleared his throat.

  “Tell me about Luna,” he said. He reached for my hand but I moved it to my lap.

  “Why?”

  Liam sighed, running a hand through his light brown hair. “So I can understand why you can’t accept that she’s gone.”

  “But I have accepted it.”

  “You know what I mean.” He paused. “What is it that you think happened three years ago?”

  “I don’t know! None of us do. Why would you believe anything Lancaster says about it? The tale of the rebel Outsiders is obviously bullshit propaganda.”

  “Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean Luna is still alive. If anything it just means she was executed like your aunt.”

  My head snapped up, glaring into Liam’s eyes. “Luna made it out.”

  My parents had sent me to my former best friend Stacy’s house when Luna found out the truth about her stolen memories. My sister went straight to her boyfriend’s home, moments after I had told her it was okay to leave me behind. I never regretted the decision to let her go; I only regretted not going with her. That’s what kept me up at night. Was it fear that stopped me? Luna had always been the brave one.

  We had been eating dinner that night when Lancaster showed up on our doorstep. I remembered Stacy’s mother bawling her eyes out, giving me chills before she’d even uttered any words.

  “A group of Outsiders murdered your family,” Mr. Caraway said solemnly after Lancaster had left. “Tomlinson was killed as well. Alfred Lancaster is our new Head Councilman.”

  That was all I got. A group of Outsiders murdered your family. It wasn’t long before every form of media shouted the story of my family’s death, plastering it to every book, newspaper, television screen, and radio station in Oportet.

  Evil lies beyond Oportet. If we put our trust in the Council, Lancaster would keep us safe. That was the message we were told.

  “She made it out,” I repeated.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I do!” I said, exasperated.

  My body started shaking again. I wasn’t sure how I ended up in Liam’s arms, but I attached myself to the heat of his body and the beating of his heart until he was the only thing I felt—until it was him I saw behind my eyelids, not Luna, not my parents.

  That was how it always was with us. We fed off each other’s pain, attached ourselves to it. That was why I didn’t sneak through his basement window anymore, but also why it was so easy to do it again.

  There we were, a tangle of limbs, memories and heartbeats until neither of us could remember why tears stained our faces or our hearts ached. I had my head on his chest, and he had his hand in my hair. Our words were a jumbled mess of half-thoughts and daydreams.

  4

  Luna

  I was sitting on the kitchen counter, my legs wrapped around Jasper and his hands on my face as he kissed me.

  “I’m back in the band, bitches!” Drea squealed behind Jasper.

  I pulled away, and Jasper groaned.

  “I thought you said they’d be gone for the day,” I whispered.

  “You two are seriously disgusting,” Drea said.

  I slid off the counter and crossed my arms over my chest. “We didn’t realize we’d have an audience.”

  “Yeah, well, the drummer dude was surprisingly fine with getting kicked out of the band. He had better offers, or so he said.”

  “I thought we agreed that I was going to talk to Eric,” Jasper said with a sigh. “You can’t just—”

  “Chill. It turned out perfectly fine, didn’t it?”

  Eric had always told Jasper that he was temporary, and that he was expecting to move across the country soon. Jasper was short on a drummer, so he hired him anyway.

  Jasper let out another exasperated breath. He was the unofficial leader of The Void, and Drea had been bugging him to let her back in the band since she’d returned. Back before Jasper and his mom Lilly moved to Oportet, the kids in Jasper’s neighborhood had formed an angst-filled, punk rock band. Drea had been the drummer.

  “We aren’t fourteen anymore, Drea. Things have to be done a certain way, and if you’re always going to—”

  “Jasper, darling.” She drug out his name in a voice that made me uncomfortable. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I’ll be on my best behavior, I swear.” Drea winked at him before leaving us alone.

  Jasper leaned his forehead against mine. “I’m going to regret having her back in the band, aren’t I?”

  “Maybe not,” I said without a lot of confidence.

  “Are you coming to rehearsal tonight?” Jasper stuck out his bottom lip. When I hesitated, he begged. “Please?”

  “Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes at his pout. “It’ll be fun to see Drea push your buttons all night long.” I smiled.

  “I’ll make Ash go to keep you company.”

  My smile faltered. Ash with his tattoos, accent, and smirk made me uneasy. Especially when he called me “love” and stared at me, even with Jasper in the room.

  But maybe I wasn’t being fair. I could
always give him another chance. I was extremely tired when I met him last night.

  “Where is he, anyway?” I asked.

  “Visiting his grandfather. He’s showing early signs of Alzheimer’s, so Ash is making sure there’s a place nearby he could live when…the disease takes over.”

  I frowned. “That’s terrible. But it’s sweet that Ash is taking care of him.”

  “Yeah it is.”

  I thought about my own family. I missed them—mainly my aunt and little sister. I missed the feeling of being connected to someone both biologically and emotionally. Jasper and I didn’t have any family out here but each other.

  “You look tired,” Ash said, glancing at my face.

  We were sitting against the back wall of the room, watching The Void get used to Drea—their new drummer. The guitarist, Sam, offered up his basement in downtown Portland as the rehearsal venue.

  “Insomnia will do that to you,” I replied. “I only get a couple of hours sleep some nights.”

  “I don’t think I’ve had a full night of sleep since I was eight.” He laughed, though I wasn’t sure what was so funny about it. “Jasper gave me a copy of your book. It’s very interesting so far,” he said, his mouth moving into a crooked smile.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “You know, I warned Lilly not to buy into all of that nonsense. Bat shit crazy, those people. She was dead set on it, though,” Ash said, shaking his head. “The scary thing was that the cult was actually growing until you wrote your exposé. I knew there was a reason you never heard about anybody leaving that place. Up until you, of course.”

  I nodded. “I just want to learn more about what happened with the American government, and how it relates to what’s happening in Oportet.”

  “You writing a sequel?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You should talk to my grandfather. He was a teenager when it all went down. I could take you with me next time I visit him, if you wanted.”

  “That would actually be really cool, thanks,” I said. I was about to say something else when Jasper started singing.