::34::
A Choice

I turn and look at Francis, but he doesn’t move. He only leans against the slimy wall. He shoves a finger in his mouth and picks at his fungus covered teeth. When he finally does move, it’s only after Stu and Jessica appear from behind him. Together, the two strut across the bridge toward Cecero. My jaw drops.

When they reach the other side, CeCe leans over and grabs each of their chins, letting her disgusting, black fingernails wrap around their faces. “All of you have done a wonderful thing. You shall be rewarded handsomely.” Like a proud parent, she kisses them each on the head. “Now, off you go!” she says with a flick of her hand.

Stu and Jessica clasp hands and prance past the group and around the obelisk into the shadows.

I steal a glance of Bishop to gauge his reaction. Perpetua, someone he cared about, betrayed him. She’s always been nasty and mean to me, but I never would have seen her transforming into a poisonous villain. Bishop only stares ahead, grinding his teeth with his jaw taut. His muscles tense beneath his gray robe.

He and Sam were right, and I should have listened to them. We should’ve never come here. I only have myself to blame for the situation we’re in.

And poor Sam—she just witnessed everything through her connection with Bishop. I know she’s devastated over Stu.

After a quick analysis, it seems Stu carefully planted himself into our ring of friends. He acted like an outcast of Perpetua and Jessica. They all played on our good nature, hoping that he could gain our trust. And he did. He and Perpetua very easily guided us to this point, tricking us into piecing together the sundial bracelet. They must not have known how to retrieve the final pieces themselves. Finally, Stu manipulated us into delivering the relic to CeCe for his final betrayal.

“Francis!” CeCe yells across the room.

Moving faster than imaginable, Francis stands before CeCe in a split second. He bows his head in absolute reverence and holds out his dirty hand.

“You have served your purpose,” she says in a dull voice. With a screech that sounds like a thousand crashing cars, she lifts her foot and kicks him square in the chest.

In slow motion, Francis’ bulging body arcs away from her, flying backward through the air and over the edge of the balcony. His arms and legs spread away as he reaches to grab something—anything.

“No!” I scream, reaching toward him, struggling with my restrainers.

Francis plummets into the sinking darkness of the pit. He may have tricked me, but he was just a defenseless man, a Seer without the ability to transcend the layers of time with his body, only his mind. His garbled screams last forever, until they just fade into nothing.

CeCe, happy with herself, struts from side to side. Her red cape drifts behind her, curling up at the edges. The dog-beast and the bald man glide smoothly in line with her. Together, they form a human snake, anchored to the person in the wheelchair.

The crowd murmurs, waiting for her next explosive move. The heartless and evil woman makes Terease look like an angel.

CeCe spins around. Her gaze zeros back in on me. “We’re sorry. We’ve been so rude,” she speaks in the third person, chiding herself with false genuineness.

“Greetings.” She pauses, holds her arms out, and nods her head slightly. “We’d say that we’ve been expecting you, but you can already see the truth of that for yourself—can’t you?”

The crowd laughs as though she’s acting out a part in a play.

“You have what you want, now let us go!” Bishop demands with a struggle. His captors restrain him.

Turning, CeCe grabs the bracelet from Exeter. “There are a great many things that we want, young man,” she ponders, “but this is only one,” she says in a beautiful, sinister voice.

Her head turns back toward me. “Seraphina—child—come close so that we may see you,” she coos.

“No.” I shake my head. After watching her kill Francis, no way.

“We said, come here!” She points one long black fingernail directly at me.

“No,” I say again.

“I think our guest needs a little help!” CeCe shouts.

A sweaty, body builder type with an arm wrapped in tattoos grabs my waist. I fight with him, frantically hitting his leg with my fist.

“Sera! No!” Bishop screams. Instantly, there’s a shuffle I can’t see.

The man muscles me across the narrow bridge. I hang, pinched in his grip, feet and head dangling over the edge, the pit of nothingness below me. Immediately, I’m sick, almost passing out from vertigo and his stench.

He tosses me on the ground in front CeCe. I look away from her, but she captures my chin in her palm; her black nails curl up around my face. She clenches them into my cheeks like a snare.

“Look at us!” she screams like a crazy woman and thrashes my head toward her.

I look right through her, gritting my teeth. I’ll never give her the respect of looking her in the eyes. I will defy her until my end.

“You have Eliza’s eyes,” she considers.

Pursing my lips, I don’t speak. My face is still locked in her grasp.

“The most stunning part,” she chuckles to herself, “you actually believed you’d find your mom here!” Her head tips back in laughter. The sound rips through the shaft and ricochets off the ceiling.

“Didn’t you?” she asks darkly, pushing for an answer.

“I didn’t expect to find a snake!” I spit at her. The crowd gasps at my response.

CeCe smacks me across the face with the full force of the back of her hand. When she does, her garnet ring slices my flesh. I recoil, grabbing the wound. Warm blood trickles down my face. The crowd hushes to a silence.

She reaches down to touch my cheek, drags her fingers through the red goo, then gazes at her blood covered fingers. She lifts her hand and slowly rubs the blood onto her own face like war paint.

My eyes narrow. She’s deranged.

She inhales deeply, continuing to rub my blood into her skin. Her eyes flutter as though she’s taking a hit from a drug.

After she regains her composure, she grabs my arm and glares down at me. “And you have Eliza’s defiant attitude,” she says, “but it will not serve you well. It will only serve us! We promise you that!”

“You don’t know anything!” I yank away from her.

She shakes violently, enraged. The dog-beast growls, snapping his teeth. The bald man trembles. They all spasm in their spots like electricity courses through them. Even the person in the wheelchair quivers. When they do, one dainty hand falls out of the green cape’s sleeve. It clutches the handle of the wheelchair. The person is not old and weak like I imagined.

The group breathes deeply in unison, calming themselves. When their wicked vibrating subsides, CeCe paces as though in contemplation.

“What shall we do with her?” she asks the crowd. “Shall we send her into the pit?” The crowd cheers. I stiffen with fear. She walks dramatically around in a circle.

“Or shall we make her one of our own?” she says to herself, peering down at me with her coal black eyes.

“Never,” I say under my breath.

CeCe rushes toward me, lowering her eyes inches from my face. “We tricked you into reconstructing the relic,” she says in a playfully sinister tone. She holds up the bracelet, dangling it in the air. She wiggles it, trying to tempt me like a cat.

My jaw clenches. Mona’s conversation on the phone replays in my head. “I think, eventually, it will be our best defense against CeCe,” she had said. I wonder if “it” is the bracelet, and I wonder how I can use the relic to hurt her. I cock my head, staring at it, letting the possibilities run through my mind.

“We’re quite certain we can get you to do whatever we choose. We know your mind better than you do.” CeCe’s mouth lifts at one corner.

Determination surges through me. I peer back at Bishop, sending him a look I hope he comprehends. He nods. In one precise motion, I smack the bracelet out of CeCe’s fingers. The bracelet slices through the air and lands ten feet away. I dive for it, sliding on my stomach across the floor.

I quickly flop over on my back, but CeCe has already descended on me. Her dog-beast snarls over my face. His mouth foams, anticipating a fight.

She collapses her hand on the animal’s head. “Relax, Cerberus. There’s plenty of time for that.” Her hand gently strokes his head. “He’s such a good Protector, isn’t he?”

An animal for a Protector? I don’t have time to understand how that’s possible. I scurry backward on my elbows with the bracelet in my grasp. One arm slides off the edge of the balcony, pushing free several loose rocks. The top half of my body hangs over the edge of the balcony, the black pit below me. My heart races out of control.

The dog-beast inches toward me, growling. Hot air from his fanged mouth radiates on my legs. Drool oozes over my bare foot.

“Wait!” I yell.

I extend my arm in the air over the blackened pit. The bracelet dangles from my hand.

“I’ll drop it!” I scream.

I hope this will act as a bargaining chip, one that can free Bishop and myself. There’s a long pause. My chest pumps erratically. Finally, CeCe’s face folds. She bursts into hate-filled laughter. Tears roll down her cheeks.

Confused, I look over at Bishop. He’s advancing on the guards: kicking, punching, and flipping around in maneuvers that seem impossible. The crowd cheers him like a gladiator. He makes his way to the center of the bridge. My stomach turns, seeing him there. Black emptiness drops into nothing on either side of his feet. I have to get back to him to get out of here.

“Drop it!” CeCe yells out, egging me on.

I look at her, confused.

“See,” she says, “you’re already doing what we want, and you don’t even realize it!” She laughs, delighted with herself.

Her team rumbles with laughter. I hadn’t put the relic together, just so she could destroy it. It might have been her intention all along, but I can’t let her do that now. Silently, I still cling to the hope that it might take me to my mom—someday.

The person in the wheelchair jolts. Part of their face appears from behind the hood.

I gasp, and my heart thuds to a piercing stop.

The laughter and cheering of the crowd, CeCe and her group prodding me on, Bishop fighting with the guards, it all fades into absolute silence. The person in the wheelchair is my mom. I focus only on her face.

She’s been here all along.

“Kill him!” CeCe yells out toward the guards. Her horrible words pull me back to the moment.

Bishop is struck down. He falls to the floor of the bridge. The tattooed man kicks him in his rib cage several times. Bishop screams out. His agony unleashes through the cavern.

The crowd cheers.

I’m horrified.

The Protector-beast snarls at me. My hand trembles, still dangled over the pit. Unsure of what to do, I know I’m trapped. Bishop needs my help, but I also need my mom.

“Join us!” CeCe offers. “You’ll become an outcast like all of us here when Terease finds out what you’ve done.”

“You’ll only know your true strength here, with us. The Academy will keep you weak, revealing only their truths. There’s so much more you can learn with us.” She reaches her hand toward me.

I can’t focus on her horrid words. The bracelet had worked, and CeCe knew the truth all along. I only glance between Bishop and my mom, trying to choose. The one thing I desire most sat here all along, sleeping peacefully, serenely, ageless.

I look back at Bishop, now unconscious. The tattooed man steps forward onto Bishop’s arm, breaking it under his weight with a sickening crack. It flops limp, dangling over the edge. I shudder with agony, feeling the pain that should have ripped across his face. Another guard squats down and shoves Bishop’s lifeless body over the edge of the bridge and into the endless, black pit.