Above All Else, Evie

III

Sleep evaded Evie as she laid awake staring at the ceiling. She pretended to count sheep but her mind was really preoccupied, thinking about the future. The shuffling of feet in the hall flung her out of her own head; she was desperate to talk to someone. Delicately she climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the door, attempting to be as quiet as a mouse. She opened the door just a crack, enough to see whether it was her mother or brother out in the hall. Evie's eyes landed quickly on Katherine's back as she looked into her son's bedroom seeing him so peaceful made her feel content even in the scariest of times.

    "Mom," Evie whispered from down the hall, careful not to wake her young sibling. Katherine snapped her attention to her young adult daughter and silently walked over to her bedroom.

    "What are you doing up sweetie?" She inquired, her voice tight with tension.

    "I was hoping to talk?" She responded. They both shuffled into her daughter's bedroom. Evie seated herself high up on the bed near her pillows, she laid back into them wishing they would envelope her and allow her to sink in. Katherine sat at the foot of the bed. As Evie picked at the frill on her blanket she formulated the questions she wanted to ask her mother in her head, all of them seemed so vague. She knew her mother had no definite answers, she just wanted to hear that it was all going to be okay in the long run.

    "Mom," She started with desperation shaking her voice, "What are we going to do now?"

    "Evie, there's nothing we can do but wait to hear from the government."

    "Do we even have a government at this point?"

    "I have no idea, I guess until we hear from someone in charge," Katherine sighed.

    "But how do we rebuild from something like this?" Sorrow was blatantly written on Evie's face, tears brimmed in her eyes. Exhaustion, stress, and worry were starting to weigh on her so heavy that she felt as though she were Atlas holding up the world.

    "There have been whisperings," Katherine began and paused, not sure how to continue, "That the government will be instituting arrangements that make it possible to start over quickly."

    "What the hell is that suppose to mean?"

    "Rearranging the borders and states, rebuilding, forced repopulation."

    "What the fuck!" Evie exclaimed, "They can't do that, this is the United States, this is a free country?"

    "But are we anymore?" Katherine countered, "Anyway it's just been whisperings, I doubt it would come to that." Although Katherine spoke the words out loud she didn't seem convinced. Evie just looked at her mom with a look of pure agony, she wasn't one who liked to be told what to do, nonetheless someone who appreciated being told where she was to live and how she would spend her life, there were no words for her to say to express that to her mother. The look of horror on her face did it for her.

    "Just try to get some sleep, okay?" Katherine tried soothingly, she patted her daughter on the back and kissed her on the cheek. Evie just nodded, neither woman had anything left to say to each other.

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    Strange dreams invaded Evie's mind that night. Dreams of large rough hands grabbing and pushing her, church bells ringing, long white dresses, and of grand and gloomy churches. By the time she woke up in the morning she felt like she hadn't slept at all. Her head dully ached all over. There was no motivation for her to get up, work was canceled indefinitely as well as classes. She allowed herself to lay in bed and sulk for a good while, wishing that the clock would rewind and life would go back to the way it was supposed to be. She wished it was six months prior when her father still made her breakfast every morning.

    Pitter-pattering of feet running down the hallway signaled Evie's salvation from her wallowing in self pity. With a burst Jack came bolting into the room, his smile was bright enough to kill any negativity in a mile radius. Evie flung herself up. Her curly brown hair was crazy mess on the top of her head, green eyes wild, she appeared the definition of disheveled. Despite his enormous amount of energy being mildly annoying, Evie was happy to see her 'baby' brother.

    "Are you sleeping?" He asked with a mischievous smile, knowing that she wasn't at all asleep.

    "No," Evie hesitantly responded.

    "Good! Can we play legos?" He pleaded with his big sister.

    "But I'm so tired Jack!" She answered truly meaning it, any other time she wouldn't have been able to resist the curly haired, puppy dog eyed, little boy in front of her.

    "Well than can we watch a movie together?" Desperate for some time with one of his favorite people on Earth he tried again. Evie pretended like she had to think about it, although she didn't.

    "Fine, but you have to give me snuggles in return!"

    "Always!" He responded before clambering into bed and cuddling up with Evie. She grabbed her laptop from her bedside table. The duo scrolled through Netflix together, laughing and debating, spending a lazy morning just enjoying one another's company.

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    Fear rocketed through everyone's body all throughout what was left of the country as they sat glued to their televisions. The news was heartbreaking in so many ways. After so much pain and loss, they were being hit with one more sad reality. One Evelyn Connolly had nightmares about all through the night previous. Angry tears pricked at the edges of her eyes, she couldn't even comprehend what they were saying. A new government? A test? Marriage? It was all too much and way too overwhelming.

Katherine reached for her daughter's hand intending to comfort her in a time of need. Evie wanted none of it. She grabbed her phone and bolted upstairs to her bedroom. She slammed her door shut shaking the frame, and causing an echo to bounce off the walls. Falling against the cool wood of the door she allowed her body to crumble underneath her. She landed on the floor, knees to her chest, back against the door, head in her hands. There was no stopping the flood of tears that wracked her body. She felt as though the world had crumbled down around her, it basically had.

Wiping away her tears and clearing her throat, she dialed one of the most familiar numbers she knew. She listened to it ring once, then twice, and then halfway through the third ring, the phone clicked to voice mail. A happy voice floated through the speaker of the phone, "Hey, it's Max. I can't get to the phone right now, leave me a message and I'll call you back."

"What the hell did he just send me to voicemail?" Evie whispered to herself. She tried another time, once again it sent her to voicemail. Rage filled Evie's veins as she dialed the number one more time, with no luck she was sent to voicemail again. Evie let out a frustrated scream. Max had never sent her to voicemail. He had never ever ignored her. What was the world coming to?

Evie picked her phone back up, it rang three times before relief washed through her body upon hearing her best friend's voice.

"Artemis! Have you seen the news?" She demanded.

"Yeah, I can't even believe it."

"We have to get out!" Evie exclaimed, "We have to leave, we can go to Mexico it's not that far away and from there we can figure it out."

"Woah Evie what are you talking about? We can't do that, you'd never see Jack again." Artemis answered matter of factly.

"So what you plan to be auctioned off to the highest bidder?" Yelled Evie angrily at her best friend.

"It's not like that, you take something like a personality test and they match you with the best possible person." Artemis informed.

"How are you so okay with this?" Huxley couldn't hide the anger in her voice. Why was her best friend acting so nonchalant about being told what to do with the rest of her life?

"I'm obviously not, but what am I supposed to do? Run and hide? We can't!" Artemis was beginning to become agitated at the judgement she was receiving.

"Max is ignoring me." Evie changed the conversation, hurt evident in her voice.

"Do you blame him?"