Marital Law Read online

  “Why did you come back here, Sidnie? Surely you aren’t planning to challenge me, to try and win back Caleb?” Kaylee said, her hand clasped over Caleb’s. She had a taunting grin on her face and I found myself wondering how we’d ever been friends in the first place. Caleb on the other hand, refused to even look at me.

  Gathering what little breath I had, I said, “I—I just want to live my-my life in peace, Kaylee. You won Caleb, fair and square. There-there won’t be a rematch.”

  “Coward! I told you she was nothing but a coward!” Shouted one of the girls alongside Kaylee.

  The voice sounded familiar. Adeline!

  I looked around, using all my resolve to find my baby sister. I pulled up short as my eyes locked on Adeline’s. The little girl I’d loved with everything in me was no longer. Standing before was a mirror image of Kaylee. She had two tattoos along each arm, she wore the same short jumper suit that showed way too much of breasts and backside, and she’d even dyed her hair brown to complete the look. I was speechless.

  “Allow me to introduce you to my new sister, Sidnie. Her name is Saydee,” Kaylee said in spite.

  “I think she’s going to cry,” said this new Saydee girl. She was not my sister, not the little girl I’d crooned over since the day she’d entered this world.

  No words came and to my despise, a tear actually did make its way out. I knew I was undone. They had seen me at my weakest. I had been defeated in battle and here I was now crying like a little baby. I had trouble focusing on the task, my mind running through memories of me and Adeline. The fight suddenly left me. I gave up on saving the Manumissionists, saving anyone.

  Their taunting went on for another fifteen or so minutes, before they tired of my lack of response. I went to another place, a time when everything was right in my life. I was ten, Adeline eight. We had just finished our training for the day and I decided to take her to the river for a swim. Her deep, hearty laugh every time I jumped from the long rope suspended across the small body of water was infectious. I found myself doing more silly things just to hear her lose herself in our little moment.

  The Saydee girl snapped me out of my memory walk, as she came forward and spat in my face. She said, “You are a disgrace to me, our parents, and all of Providence, Sidnie! You will be punished for turning on us, and I hope MOM banishes you from here forever!”

  It was then that my resolve came out of hiding. Something in Saydee’s eyes brought me back. I realized that she was just another pawn in Marcella Munford’s wicked game of life. She was being used to destroy me, to pummel me into the ground. They all were.

  “I will never stop loving you, my sweet Adeline,” and then I started singing a silly tune I’d made up for her when we were little. “Sweet Adeline. Dun, dun, dun…sweet Adeline. Oh, how I love you, my sweet Adeline.”

  While everyone else thought I’d gone mad, I saw the look in Adeline’s eyes, albeit briefly. She remembered, and she felt. I had gotten through to her and it stopped her mid-turn. If my wrists weren’t bound I would’ve grabbed her and pulled her close.

  Sensing something was off, Kaylee stepped forward and pulled Saydee away from me. With her arm across her shoulder, the two of them left the platform, the city. I thought I saw Saydee attempt to look back over her shoulder, but Kaylee stopped her from doing so.

  After a few more rounds of cursing, spitting, and accusations, the monitors stepped forward and unbound my wrists from the poles, only to tie them behind my back. I was placed on the back of one of the horses again and taken to the Capitol. I didn’t fear what might await me there.

  Chapter 23

  They took me directly to my new home, a small jail cell which measured about five feet by five feet. It was void of everything, just a concrete floor and steel bars to keep me inside.

  “I demand to see MOM! You can’t just toss me in here and leave me to rot! I demand a trial! I have done nothing wrong!” I yelled until my voice failed me, and the monitors were no longer in sight to hear.

  The next hour I spent pacing the small room, hoping they would give me audience with Marcella. My hope waned, I began to turn to worry—to doubt. Had I just returned here for nothing? How could I help the Manumissionists if I was locked up here forever?

  Many more hours went by, and still no one came. The lights suddenly went out in the hallway and my cell was pitch black. Still I paced.

  Weariness eventually set in, my body aching from the trek through the forest and being pelted with the rotten fruits and vegetables. And I stunk. I could smell my stench and it took what little breath I had away. My legs suddenly gave out and down I went.

  The floor was hard, and cold. I didn’t care. I found myself laying out on my right side, my eyes too heavy to keep open. My feet would’ve come close to touching the bars had I not curled up into a tight little ball. Sleep came upon me like a tornado, carrying me to another place, somewhere away from this awful life.

  “Well, well. I heard you were a guest in our home, Sidnie,” sounded the familiar voice of the overly tall and hefty man who I now hated.

  ****

  Monitor Training

  When the monitors came in the room many days later, Colin went over in his cloudy mind how he'd escape, how he'd dispatch them. He counted ten, maybe more. They were in a single line, and he imagined knocking them down like dominos.

  As the first one neared the table he was secured to, Colin poised to attack. When the order keeper started striking him repeatedly in the face, Colin was stunned and confused. After the man tired, the others moved forward in the line, taking their turn. At some point Colin blacked out.

  Eyes fluttering, Colin had trouble seeing. He squinted against the bright light inside the room. Everything hurt: his face, eyes, nose, even his ribs. He concluded the monitors must have tired of hitting him in the face and moved further south.

  Hearing movement at the door, Colin slowly looked over. Panic and fear enveloped him at the sight of the two monitors making their way over to him. The beating had broken him physically, the loss of Thomas killed him mentally. He slowly relaxed, hoping they might finish him off.

  To Colin's surprise, the two men went over and turned on some sort of loud speaker thing. Words started pouring from it, like water flowing down the river. They were soothing and Colin felt the tension in his shoulders relax a bit.

  Turning to face him, the taller of the two monitors said, “Your training has just begun, recruit. I personally don't see you making it through the week, but a couple of the other guys believe you might have what it takes! I plan to prove them wrong, even if I have to beat you into submission every single day you are here!”

  It took another fifteen minutes for Colin to be able to focus back in on the voice coming from the machine, and when he did he forgot all about the monitors, Lucius, and his fellow Manumissionists. The man speaking through the speaker knew Colin's name, knew quite a bit about him.

  The voice said, you’ve been through far more than a young boy of your age should ever have to, Colin. It's important you listen closely, to what I'm about to tell you. Your parents are to blame for Thomas's death. They had a choice. No one made them move out to the forest and go against Munford Law.

  Jeremiah was given great authority here in the Capitol. He threw it all away for your mother. I know the lies they've both been telling you—telling everyone. But they just aren't true. MOM could have any man she wanted. She'd never go after one of her monitors. But if on the off chance she did, I can guarantee you they would all willingly do anything for her.

  The words continued to wash over Colin, completely removing the tension from his body. He dozed in and out of sleep, the speaker still soothing him. Colin had no idea how long they'd left him there, but they'd brought him food and drink on numerous occasions, more than he could keep count. He began to believe what was being poured into him, the voice more than a little convincing.

  The monitor training was rigorous and exhausting. At the end of each day, the only t
hing Colin wanted to do was curl up into a ball and sleep. But that's not what happened. He had to clean the cell, which consisted of sweeping the earthen floor, burying his waste in the corner, and polishing the concrete walls. It was mindless, pointless, and a complete waste of time.

  Colin spent hours ensuring only compacted earth showed on the floor, but every time the monitors came in to inspect, they would loosen up the soil with the tips of their boots. For this, Colin got to stand erect, at the position of attention for hours on end. He normally slept about three to four hours a night and was only comforted by the voice assuring him the training would make him a better person.

  Day after day, the monitors trained him and beat him. Colin didn't know who to trust anymore. The voice said the monitors were his friend, and yet all they did was yell at him, and punch, and kick him. It said the forest dwellers were his enemy now, because Colin was no longer one of them. They'd ostracized him, turned their backs when he'd decided to become a monitor. Colin couldn't recall wanting to become a monitor, but if the voice said it was so, then it must've been.

  One day, it all changed. The monitors came inside his cell, told him to gather his things, and then they led him to a different room. This one was nice, with a real bed, an inside toilet, and actual wood on the floor. But the biggest change of all was the fact that they were no longer striking him, and they had stopped all the yelling and cursing.

  When it came time for their joint dinner meal, the other new recruit monitors obviously noticed the change in their treatment as well, because they all had similar looks of surprise on their faces. Colin relaxed a tad, but kept his guard up. The physical and emotional abuse he'd been put through lately had his trust meter at zero.

  Going into their last phase of training, weapons proficiency and hand-to-hand combat, Colin actually smiled. These came natural for him. He'd been training in the forest since he was five.

  He thought he knew all there was to know, until his trainers came out with their arsenal. Their weapons were advanced way beyond their time. Colin was accustomed to spears, bows, and a whole slew of spiked instruments, but nothing of this sort.

  He spent many frustrating hours trying to figure out the workings of these strange inventions. The first, the Incapacitator, resembled a turtle with a button built into the top of its shell. When pressed, the contraption emitted a series of shock waves that rendered the person on the receiving end harmless.

  Colin entertained using the new age device on the forest dwellers, envisioned aiming it at his own parents and pulling the trigger. He believed it would make the voice happy, if he did. As they fell, he snapped out of his thoughts, feeling guilty and ashamed for even thinking such madness.

  He knew it was wrong, but it was hard to keep his mind from going back to causing pain for his family. After all, they were the ones responsible for his even being here in this place, for having to hide out in the forest while everyone else in Providence lived a life of wealth and prosperity. They were...they were wrong. They had chosen the wrong path.

  They...they have to be stopped before they taint future generations. He’d heard the words so many times from the voice that Colin felt like they were drilled inside his head.

  ****

  “His training appears to be coming along nicely. At this rate, he could possibly be ready to lead one of our teams into the forest by the end of the year,” said Lucius, hoping to impress Marcella Munford.

  “I can barely stomach seeing his ugly face around here. He is the offspring of Jeremiah and Hannah, two of the people I detest most in this world! You had better pray this little experiment of yours bring the dwellers to their ultimate demise, Lucius!” Marcella said angrily, madness in her eyes.

  Looking down on the new recruits from her command center, Marcella forced Colin from her mind and focused on the others. She felt a sense of pride that she’d achieved during her tenure the status as the one and only true leader of the people of Providence, their chosen queen. She was a god among them. Yes, a god. She could give them life or take it away with the snap of her fingers.

  “You still haven't told me your plan for Providence after the dwellers are removed from the equation,” Lucius said, evidently unhappy with being kept in the dark.

  “In due time, Lucius. In due time. For now, just bring me the heads of Jeremiah and that wench of his, Hannah. And after they are gone from this world, kill the boy as well.”

  “Are you sure? I mean, he could be of future use to us. After all, we are pouring a lot of effort into training him to be a member of the royal guard.”

  “It makes me sick just to look at him! You heard me! I want all of their offspring eradicated from creation!” Marcella all but shouted.

  “I just don't think kill—” Lucius started.

  “Because it's not your place to think, Lucius! Just follow the orders you've been given and everything will work out accordingly,” Marcella interrupted.

  A look of anger came across Lucius's face, but he quickly masked it. Turning to leave, he said over his shoulder, “I have to go check in on the other new recruits.”

  “You do that,” Marcella said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. With Lucius out of the room, Marcella made her way over to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a rather tall glass of the dark liquid. She was fortunate that her mother had pilfered the stores and personal cellars across the country after the war and had generously stocked the oversized basement area with enough booze to last for many decades.

  Marcella didn't care about who took her place. That woman would have to fend for herself. She planned to deplete the stocks before she departed the earth. Her daughter, if she ever had one, would have to find her own form of self-medication.

  As she left the operations center and made her way outside to the open courtyard, Marcella couldn't help but smile. She was ruler of Providence, the only existing form of government left in existence after the war. Under her leadership, entire cities had been rebuilt, and a lost and dying civilization had been given new hope, a new reason to live. They were her true children, and she really didn't care if she ever had any blood offspring.

  The sight of the blooming flowers, her precious azaleas, caused Marcella's smile to widen. Her gardeners spent countless hours nurturing them: pulling weeds, watering, killing the numerous species of bugs that seemed to have multiplied over the course of the last few years. The devastating fires might've given the land new life for growth, but it had somehow brought about more bugs, more rodents as well.

  Fortunately, the rodents had followed the trash Marcella has ordered be dumped along the perimeter of the forest. At least they didn't have to deal with those pests inside the Capitol. They were disgusting. Their plump looking body’s equivalent to a full-size squirrels, beady little eyes, and sharp, razor-like teeth.

  These creatures—scourgers, they were called—were known to attack humans and chew off entire limbs. One of the young boys nearest the edge of the forest had been attacked and killed by one of the ravenous beasts. When his parents found him, his entire face had been chewed off and the majority of his insides. Since it was a boy, not many around Providence voiced their anger with the critter, other than his parents. Had it been a girl, Marcella would’ve had to find a way of exterminating the creatures.

  As she glimpsed the forest from her vantage point, Marcella’s expression changed to an evil smirk, thinking about the scourgers chewing on the dwellers. She still thought herself extra clever for drawing the creatures outside Providence with the trash, and right into the homes of Jeremiah's wretched band of misfits. Enjoy yourself for a short time longer, Jeremiah. Soon, you will be no more.

  Tossing her empty glass onto the concrete floor, Marcella studied the vessel as it shattered into many pieces. This was how she lived. She could build and topple cities with a few simple words from her mouth and never have to worry about the debris, the cleanup. On her way to her chambers, she tapped one of her many guards on the shoulder, pointed to the broken g
lass and said, “Make sure that is cleaned up before I come back here later this evening!”

  Keeping eye contact, the monitors said, “As you wish, my queen.”

  Marcella had taught them well. It had taken the execution of a few of them, for word to get out that any form of disrespect from her royal guards wouldn’t be tolerated, and this included facial gestures. Every order she gave, she made sure to watch their eyes, their gestures. If they displayed any sign of disobedience, they were replaced.

  Chapter 24

  As Colin lay his head down on his new bed, his thoughts were a whirlwind. He saw his family, minus Thomas, and his anger soared. They were responsible for the death of his little brother. They had brought the monitors down on them all. Only he could make them pay. Colin had to be the one to bring them in, he had to capture them and end their evil ways. Resolute in his thoughts, Colin dozed off to sleep peacefully.

  When he awoke the next day, he was ushered off to a private meeting with Lucius. It had been over a year since he’d met with the man, and Colin was very nervous. Five minutes later, his trainers placed Colin in an archaic looking high back chair which just so happened to be outlined with small pointed spikes. It was gray in color and stood about seven feet tall.

  Colin felt himself shrink deeper into the chair, knowing this was just another one of Lucius's ways of intimidating. It wasn't enough that the man stood a good two feet above him and looked like the grim reaper. No, Lucius used everything to his vantage.

  His pulse quickened, as it normally did, in the presence of the unsightly looking man. Having been on the receiving end of Lucius's anger, Colin prayed this wasn't another one of those sessions. His mind ran through everything he'd done over the last year and a half, his training, his transformation. He'd done everything he knew to please the man.