Niko Read online

  Chapter 8

  The next morning Niko woke in a strange bed. She was no longer in the white room and, instead, shared sleeping quarters with Ari. The room she was in was double the size of her house but Ari had apologized for it being small. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to living like this.

  A cat was on her stomach. It was a kitten really, a small thing with a black coat and white paws. It sat on top of the blankets with its nose nestled in its paws but, as if sensing she was awake, it opened its eyes. The cat stretched, then padded closer to her face. It sniffed at her curiously. Then slowly, as if it knew it was doing something wrong but just couldn’t help itself; it stretched out its neck and nipped her nose.

  “Gah!” Niko waved her arms in shock and with a frightened yowl the kitten leaped off the bed. It gave her an offended look before licking its paws.

  The bathroom door opened and Ari peeked out, a cloud of steam enveloping her toweled head. “Sorry about that. Snuggles likes noses.” She made a clicking sound with her tongue and Snuggles perked up instantly. He bounded over to Ari who scooped him up in her arms.

  “Naughty kitty.” She cooed holding him above her head. “What did mommy say about biting noses? Nooooo.”

  He mewed plaintively.

  “Are you hungry Snuggles?”

  Niko spoke up from the bed. “You shouldn’t get attached to it, if you’re fattening it up to eat later.”

  Ari froze then she swiftly clutched Snuggles to her chest and hunched over him protectively even as he struggled to get out of her grip. “Snuggles is not for dinner,” she said, in a voice that promised death if Niko so much as prodded it with a fork.

  Niko nodded, silently swearing to never offer up a menu to the members of the Rose Circle.

  Ari walked across the room, canting her body slightly as she obscured Snuggles from view. “Bathroom’s free.”

  Unlike the day before, Niko knew what the appliances in the bathroom were and what they were used for. She also now knew why a toilet was not a tub.

  She avoided the shower; it felt too much like rain, even though Ari had tried to assure her that it wouldn’t burn her skin no matter how long she stayed under it.

  When she finished bathing she found Ari and Snuggles gone and a note pinned to a new change of clothes. She pulled on the red T-shirt and snug jeans but left the sandals by the bed. She still didn’t know how to put them on and was reluctant to go to Ben for help.

  Niko padded barefoot down the hallway as she carefully followed Ari’s hastily scribbled directions. Out of curiosity she pushed open one of the many doors in the building. It revealed a room very similar to Ari’s but with heavy white cloths covered most of the furniture. A thin layer of dust blanketed everything and floated in the shafts of early morning light. By the bed was a pair of shoes.

  She continued on. After heading down a flight of stairs it wasn’t difficult to learn where they were. All Niko had to do was follow the voices slipping out of the open door.

  She hesitated a moment. The room was white with blue trim. Pale blue curtains held open by gold cords covered the windows. The furnishing was simple and there were no formal table settings to eat at. This wasn’t like the dinner from the night before; no one wore elegant clothes with the barest splash of red and attempted to fill a table seating sixteen with only six bodies.

  Today the boys lounged about artlessly, getting up on occasion to refill their plates from the contents on the sideboard.

  She had the best view of Malik who lay on a couch with a book between his knees and a mug of coffee in one hand. As if feeling her gaze on him, he looked up.

  Smiling, he waved her over. “How did you enjoy your first time killing Slithers?”

  She sat down beside him. “I’ve killed before.”

  “Right, with a baseball bat.” Malik said as Duc began to fill up a new plate with food. “What I meant was how do you like doing it with us.”

  For the most part, Niko thought they were very effective at what they did, even if she felt they talked too much. “It was fine.”

  Duc handed her the now full plate. “She’s a woman of few words,” he said to Malik.

  Niko peered silently at the contents of the plate and Duc shifted awkwardly. “You can always get something else if you don’t like it.”

  Niko shook her head, pulling the plate closer. Everything was so bright, the pieces of fruit on her plate looked like the candy she sometimes found, so unnaturally colorful. She poked at a green slice; it was firm, completely unlike the canned fruit they ate which usually looked like colorless lumps mushed beyond recognition.

  Mistaking her amazement for curiosity, Malik began to point out the items on her plate. Eggs on toast, kiwis, strawberries and blueberries and creamed cashews.

  Niko inhaled the food.

  “Where’s Ari?” She asked when she was finished.

  “She’s with the Director,” Ben said. “Giving her report on what happened last night.”

  “Speaking of which,” Malik said. “If you’re going to be staying with us any longer I should probably get started on your identification.” As the Director had before, he asked how old she was. When she told him all three boys expressed shock.

  Malik placed his hand over hers. “Are you sure, Niko? I know that outside of the city it’s not uncommon for people –”

  Niko lifted her chin. “I can count,” she said frostily.

  He blushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t – I’m sorry.”

  Ben’s eyes were on her but in a different way than before, he looked as if he wanted to prod her a few times with a stick. “I didn’t think it was possible,” he said as he watched her with narrowed eyes, chin propped in his hand. “But I suppose if some people can manifest late then the reverse could also be true.”

  He leaned forward, eyeing her eagerly. “Can I do some tests, take some samples? It’ll only be a little.”

  She pulled away from him and her back pressed against Malik’s leg. “First tell me what you’re talking about. What manifests?”

  “To kill Slithers.” Ben began, finally sitting upright. “You have to manifest first. Before that you’re just a regular person with nothing particularly extraordinary about you. Then it’s like the path forks and you're taken down a different road that not many people are able to travel. They gain the speed and strength to kill monsters. For most of us, our path changes when we’re eighteen but yours seems to have come a little early.” He sat back, a regretful smile tugging at his lips. “I wish I could kill Slithers at seventeen.”

  Quietly, she admitted. “I’ve been killing them since I was fourteen.”

  Malik choked over his coffee and three pairs of eyes pinned her to her seat.

  “You,” Duc said pointing a finger at her good-naturedly. “Have officially become a freak.”

  Niko shrugged and folded her arms tightly across her stomach. She could still remember the first time a Slither had attacked her, the fear and desperation she’d felt as she fought for her life.

  “Maybe it’s something in the water Outside,” Ben mused. “Did Ari manifest early?”

  Duc stuffed a strawberry in his mouth. He talked around the fruit. “Ari manifested same as we did. Eighteen.”

  “Eighteen what?”

  Ari stood in the doorway; she wore a silky white shirt that bared her back and slim black pants. Like the boys, she wore the barest splash of red, her contribution being a thin scarf draped around her hips.

  “Niko manifested early.” Malik replied.

  Unlike the others, Ari registered surprise with the barest lift of her eyebrows. “Must be why the Director wanted her to stay.” She began breaking the crust from around her slice of toast, raining crumbs down on the floor. “A package arrived this morning for you Ben.”

  It was as if someone had yanked him upright from his lackadaisical pose. “You had it placed in the laboratory right?” He asked standing. When she nodded his face lit up even more and he hurried out. Ari gla
nced at Malik. “He’ll probably want your assistance and please, for love of the gods and the sake of my nose take a shower when you’re done this time. You guys always smell like sulfur after a necropsy.”

  Malik placed his hand on her upper arm before he left. “If your brother is still alive...” He said and Niko resisted the strong urge to correct him. There was no if about it. “He’ll eventually come to the city to look for you and the guards at every checkpoint know to send anyone by the name of Jared Niko here to the Ord– the Rose Circle. We’re keeping our end of the bargain, Niko.”

  Ari filled her plate, complaining to Duc that they had eaten all the good stuff, before she placed herself besides Niko. Her bare toes pressed against Niko's thigh.

  She bit a peach wedge in half. "Since, it seems that we're the only ones sensible enough not to consider exploring dead Slither guts fun, let's do something exciting – "

  "If it's anything outside of the hotel, it'll have to wait. Niko can't go." Duc told her. "She doesn't have identification."

  Ari gazed at her; her beautiful mouth turned down in a slight frown. "You poor thing. Malik takes forever to make identifications; he's such a perfectionist. I believe you will have died of cabin fever before he's halfway finished." She ate the other half of her peach before she reached out and placed a cool hand on Niko's forehead. Her slim fingers were lightly scented by the fruit.

  "It feels like she has a temperature already." Ari announced. "Couldn't we sneak her out for a day? I'm great at disguises; she's too pretty to die so young."

  "Better to die of cabin fever, than to get thrown in Detention by some over-zealous Official." Duc countered.

  Niko shook off Ari's hand. "I won't get cabin fever. I don't get sick."

  Ari and Duc fell silent for a moment, they looked at each other with bright eyes then Duc's lips wobbled as he struggled to hold back a smile.

  "Cabin fever's not a real illness." He explained. "Nobody dies from it."

  "You just become frightfully bored and start to annoy everybody. You'll begin to wonder how people look without their arms and legs." Ari leaned forward conspiratorially. "I suggest starting with Ben, he'll look adorable with detachable limbs." She nodded sagely. "Trust me, I have an eye for this."

  Niko decided that before breakfast Ari suffered from slight insanity.

  "Oh I know." Ari exclaimed as she clapped her hands together once. "I saw how you looked at the fresco last night. Duc paints in his spare time you could join him."

  "I don't know..." Duc said. "The generator was acting up again and I want to fix it before – Hey!" Ari had thrown a piece of toast at him.

  "The generator can wait. We're trying to give Niko something to do, something to stave off the inevitable wave of boredom," Ari said, "Do you want to be the first to try out the new limbless look? I guarantee it'll happen, she already has a sizable collection of knives."

  Niko placed the knife she had considered palming back on her plate. Duc eyed the movement dubiously. He didn't look as if he believed she was capable of severing body parts out of boredom but knowing that she already had a cache of sharp utensils didn't inspire much confidence.

  "Alright." He conceded. Ari cheered.

  "This is why I love you," she said, digging into her eggs.

  Duc raised a pierced brow. "Don't forget Malik."

  With her mission finally accomplished Ari barely looked up from her food. "And Ben. Love is like candy, you should share it as much as possible."

  Duc’s expression softened and he gave Ari a smile. “What kind of candy does that make me?”

  Ari pressed her finger to her lips in thought, brushing against the crumbs that peppered her mouth. “You’re like strawberry candy,” she said finally. “Hard on the outside but soft and gooey in the middle. Now go.” She made shooing gestures at both of them.

  Outside of the breakfast room Duc broke, into long strides. He wore boots, though not the acid resistant ones they usually wore outside and they beat a deep rhythm against the hardwood floor. She could tell he wasn’t particularly pleased that Ari had forced the two of them together. Niko didn’t usually stay where she wasn’t wanted but she was curious about Duc’s art and the fact that she could make some of her own.

  The room was on the ground floor. Unlike the lobby’s high vaulted one, this ceiling was unadorned and there were no images painted into the plaster. Perhaps it was for the better as it left nothing to compete with the images peppering the floor.

  There were canvases of many sizes and levels of completion. Some leaned against the walls; the bright light emitting from the wall of windows cast triangular wedges of shadows behind Duc’s art. They were a variegated mass of color molded into creatures more inhuman than Slithers, giant constructs of machines, laughing children, and sometimes a simple scene of peaceful reflection.

  Niko stood silent in the door, eyes darting around the room. It seemed as if every time she thought she’d found everything a new painting would creep out of the shadows and draw her attention.

  She glanced at Duc and found that he had been watching her, but when her eyes met his he quickly looked away. He cleared his throat and stuffed his hands into his pockets. His hands were square things with thick, strong fingers that seemed utterly mismatched with his ability to dab such minute amounts of paint onto a delicately worked image.

  “The supplies are in the cabinet,” he said gruffly and moved past her to get them.

  Niko headed toward one of the paintings as his heavy boots clomped across the floor. The scene looked vaguely familiar, though she was certain she’d never come across the building Outside or the mob that surrounded it. Many shades of grey and brown paint formed figures that threw bricks and bottles against the face of a large building.

  “The Grey Rebellion.” Duc said, stopping by her side. He carried paints and several sheets of paper in his arms.

  “Did it happen Outside? That building looks familiar.” The more she looked at it the more certain she was, but the details of when and where sat firmly in the back of her mind, just out of reach.

  “That’s the Council building. Meetings were held there and the Council decided on the best way to guide the city. It burned down during the Rebellion.”

  Niko frowned; maybe she had mistaken the building for something similar Outside. She took the art supplies from Duc, sending him away when he tried to tell her what to do. It wasn’t water treatment, she was sure she’d be able to learn on her own.

  She sketched out the image then began to fill it with paint, forgoing the brush to use her fingers. It consumed her attention entirely so that she didn't notice others had entered the room until Malik crouched down beside her.

  He had changed clothes from the morning but he still smelled faintly of sulfur, there was a cut on his finger wrapped in a bandage.

  "That looks nice," he said, gesturing to her artwork.

  "It looks a bit gloomy to me." Ben commented from her other side. He remained standing. "Lots of murder and desolation."

  Under the image of an overcast sky she had painted a tree in the foreground, barren limbed and skeletal as were most of the trees Outside. Further in the background she had resurrected her home from the ashes.

  She placed her fingers, still wet and slippery with yellows, blues, blacks and greys, on the paper and dragged her hand across it. She left ripples as she destroyed the painting.

  "Don't do that," Ben sounded genuinely shocked by her actions.

  "It's just a picture." She murmured. She wiped her fingers on the floor leaving streaks to join the multicolored spatters that peppered the room. "I can make another one." She'd poured a lot of energy into the painting wishing the night of the fire had ended differently. But it hadn't and painting a picture wouldn't make it so. That was why she destroyed it, but she doubted Ben would understand.

  "Well, I'm keeping this one." he bent down and tugged the painting away from her. She let him. Interestingly, he didn't smell like sulfur.