The Gemini

2. Revolt

Carter Reynolds

"Okay, try this one," said Kiara. She took a deep breath before humming a specific note.

"D#." I answered dully.

"You're really good at this." Kiara commented.

I sighed, and stared at the glass dome that had been constructed over the metal walls outlining the courtyard. The Forbidden got to be here for an hour each day, with one small group being supervised at a time. It was my only chance to talk to someone besides the agents that guarded the cells, but it also meant dealing with the malevolent sun.

For a while, Taylor, Kiara, and Mrs. Pearce were in the the same group as me. Out of the three of them, Kiara was the only one left. Taylor got lucky. From what I've heard, Mrs. Pearce didn't. I was hesitant to trust the rumors, though. Maybe Mrs. Pearce was alive and being isolated somewhere, like her daughter or Lena.

Lena.

I didn't like thinking about her, even though she was everyone else's favorite topic. I had no idea why the Forbidden felt entitled to so many opinions about someone they've never met. Kiara and I were the only ones with an idea of who Lena really was, but we agreed to keep our mouths shut.

"Carter?" Kiara asked. Her voice still sounded raspy from being in the Lab a few days ago.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You were thinking again." Kiara explained patiently.

"Yeah, I guess it's just..."

"Are you light-headed?" Kiara asked, concerned.

I knew what she was trying to ask me. The guards here were wary of the vampires, so they took extra care to keep them sated. That wasn't a problem here. The glaring sun, on the other hand, was.

During the summer, the leaves kept most of the courtyard shaded and safe. Now that it was fall, the leaves were surrendering to nature and abandoning me on the ground. The spindly branches that remained were no match for the daylight.

"Hey." said Kiara. I could barely discern her voice from the pounding in my head. "Hey." Kiara repeated.

"What?" I snapped.

"Are you grumpy?" Kiara teased.

"Shut up." I whispered, moving so the shade of the trunk could cover me better.

"Now are you okay?" Kiara asked.

"Ki, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're surrounded by a metal wall with people just staring at us."

I gestured to the large windows that lay along the walls. There were agents behind each one, wearing lab coats and observing us like we were caged animals in a zoo. One of them accidentally made eye contact with me, and I winked at him. The agent immediately pressed a button, and an opaque wall pulled up over the glass.

"Did you see that?" I asked. "That was homophobic. I'll see him in court."

"Okay, I have another one," said Kiara, ignoring my comment. She hummed a new note.

"A." I answered.

"Right again." said Kiara, as if I hadn't been right every other time. "Isn't it cool that we both have perfect pitch?"

"It's just because we're Forbidden." I replied unenthusiastically.

"I had perfect pitch before I died." Kiara pointed out. At this, I perked up. Kiara never talked about her life before Atalka, so I was actually interested.