The reason we kill

Chapter 7

Cara spent the next two hours braiding Ivy’s brilliant hair into a complicated knot. Then Cara went to the closet to find something suitable for Ivy to wear. Half an hour later Cara had managed to persuade Ivy to wear the same tight fitting jeans she was wearing, and had even managed to find a top both of them would wear. The high-heels were a bit of a problem, because Ivy could hardly stand in them, but Cara had persuaded Ivy to keep them on at least while they were in the corridors.

“When we’re in the practice hall you can take them off, okay?”

“Why are we wearing high-heels at all?” Ivy asked wobbling around on hers.

“Because they’re sexy.” Cara said simply. Cara looked Ivy up and down and decided that the little girl looked like a child model. The black of the tank-top suited her well, made her fair skin even paler, as if she were an angel. Cara fished a box bound with red velvet out of the corner of the closet. She opened it and took out two identical sets silver earrings. She threw one pair at Ivy, who looked at them with a clueless expression.

“How am I supposed to put theses on?”

“Stick them through the holes punched through your ears.” Cara mumbled, her earrings already in place and rummaging through the box for some necklaces.

“Cara, I don’t have holes punched through my ears.” Cara looked at the little girl and realized she was right.

“Well we’ll have to get you some quick, won’t we.”

Ivy looked to the floor and mumbled, “My Mommy didn’t like earrings.” For a second Cara was quiet. She felt the heavy waves of tension radiating from the little girl. Ivy seemed to be nervous, unsure.

“Well then I guess we’ll do without them. What about that necklace?” She said, pointing towards a golden locket hanging around Ivy’s neck. “Can you take it off for me?”

“I’d rather not.”

“Okay.” Cara slipped a silver chain over her head, on its end dangled one of the elegant Peak Clover suns. “We should get going or we’ll miss the entire school day.”

“It’s already really late. Shouldn’t we be getting lunch sometime soon?” Cara looked at her watch. It was two o’clock.

“Usually we would be heading to lunch around now.” Cara said, “But today’s Monday, on Monday’s we don’t get any lunch or dinner.”

Ivy stared at her looking shocked. “No lunch or dinner?”

“I have some snack bars in the closet if you get really hungry, but I would save those for this evening." Cara walked to the door and turned around when she noticed Ivy wasn’t following her.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Why don’t we get anything to eat on Mondays? How are we supposed to perform if were slowly starving?”

“It isn’t such a bad idea you know.” And when the little girl didn’t answer, “look,” Cara said, kneeling down next to her. “If you saw two beggars, one a very beautiful but slightly starved woman, one ugly, overweight, dirty man, who would you give money to?”

“The woman.”

“And why?”

“Because… I don’t know. Cause she’s a woman?”

“No, you would give her money because she’s beautiful and starving. People feel for the beautiful, that’s why you will find that Child Assassin organizations like this one are filled with only beautiful children that belong in Broadway. If we’re all a tiny bit too skinny along with that, that’s even better. You see the logic in that?”

“What happens if one of the children grows ugly over time?”

Cara looked away. “God loves ugly children too.” Ivy gasped.

“They kill them?”

“Well they can hardly keep them, right?” Ivy looked more shocked than anyone she had ever seen. “Look Ivy,” Cara said, “this is just the way Peak Clover works. You don’t perform, you die. It’s simple and easy to remember. You know, at the start of the year, Peak sends a van out to collect children. They kidnap them from orphanages, the ghetto, or pick them from the lawns in front of their houses. They look for beautiful kids between three and thirteen. When a kid gets ugly they take the kid up to the fifth story into the room that’s always locked. You know, a dead kid is useful too. They sell your organs, exchange them for money or kids. If, over time the child proves itself useless, it is disposed of in the same way. A talented child is moved up in the worth scale over the years, its worth defined by the number of people it shares a room with, the less the more it is worth. When the child has proven itself as useful it is sold to another organization, or in the case of a girl sometimes to older men, or the child is incepted.” She told Ivy briefly what Inception was, then she continued with her lecture. “If, like you and Josh and the rest of us, the child has proven itself as very valuable, the child is kept past the age of thirteen. Ivy, just be very happy you are one of the people who’s made it all the way to the top.” Ivy stared at Cara for a long time. Then she nodded and looked away.

“Well… I guess.” She said.

“Come on.” Cara said. “We have work to do.”