Mortals

02: CAL

Naturally I prepared for her arrival, for seeing one of the three faces that have haunted my waking and sleeping hours the last three weeks, but there's no preparing for Lilith. She crashes into the room, neon-yellow prison fatigues crumpled, her once short brown hair now an unruly shoulder-length. Her eyes are wild and tired and hungry, and they fix brazenly on my own gaze. Before I can get out a word, she runs at me, her face dark with rage.

I'm slammed up against the wall, and the air leaves my lungs in a rush. "You traitor!" she growls.

She must see something in my face – something other than surprise – because her brows lower and she grabs my uniform in two fists. In the next moment, I'm flung forcefully across the room, my body colliding with my glass desk. Pain spikes in my ribcage. Printed reports go fluttering through the air like a flock of white birds. I've only just started to sink to the floor when she yanks me up again and punches me in the stomach.

"What did you tell them?"

My mouth flops open but no words emerge. I suck in a desperate lungful of air.

Lilith takes insult to my silence and punches me again. I double over, falling to one knee before her.

"I get thrown in prison, and you're sitting here in a comfy office doing mathematics?"

"Lilith, stop," I gasp.

But she's not done. And I know her. She's like a storm: wild, unpredictable, and beyond the begging – or, in some instances, praying – of those she affects. Better to weather her anger than to fight it.

Half my height, she drags me back across the room and slams me against the viewport, twisting my arm behind my back. Fire lances through my shoulder and across my back. Down below, USO employees munch on sandwiches and noodles, blissfully unaware of what's going on above them. "You back-stabbing coward!" she spits. "What did you say about Atara? Where is she? What have you done?"

"Nothing, Lilith, stop it! I swear, this isn't what you think."

She twists further and I can't help myself: a cry escapes my throat. "Alright, alright! I made a deal, okay?"

"A deal? With who?" Her breath is hot on the back of my neck, and foul – but then, she has been in a cell the past three weeks.

"Who do you think?"

"Garen," she says softly, her voice taking on the far-away quality of someone reliving bad memories.

Commander Erik Garen. The man who took us off the Hermes mission, who interrogated us the second we landed on Earth, who threw Lilith, Merc and Atara in jail under charges of mutiny, reckless endangerment and destruction of USO property. The man who, since taking on the role of Commander, has thrown USO on its head.

Keeping her hold on my arm, Lilith jerks me away from the window and walks me over to my desk chair, shoving me down. "Tell me everything."

I take a deep breath. "Towards the end of my interrogation, it became apparent that Garen didn't want to send me to prison. He put a proposal forward – he'd keep me out of jail and give me a position in USO. In exchange, I was to help him with anything he needed."

"Cal," Lilith says, aghast.

I shake my head, a gesture meaning, It's okay. "He promised they'd only be small favours, and it was a title, a job – my freedom. And more than that, it was an opportunity. All I had to do was give false testimony stating I'd been taken aboard the Hermes against my will, that all my actions had been to limit the harm caused by my co-crew, my...captors." I say the last word quietly, but Lilith hears it all the same. "Garen took care of all the rest."

She stares at me. When she at last speaks, her voice is low – dangerous. "You testified against us."

"Yes, but–"

"You had us thrown in jail in order to save your own skin."

"It wasn't like that. You were all going to jail anyway, I–"

"Oh, so you figured you'd just help the process along, tack on a couple more charges? How many extra years did reckless endangerment get us? Ten? Fifteen? You know what, who cares! Throw us away for life, as long as Cal gets his daily coffee, his equations, and enough status to feed his abnormally large ego–"

"Enough!" I spring up from the chair, fury coursing through my bloodstream. I'm six-foot-four and smart enough to know it can be used to my advantage. Lilith stumbles a step back, startled.

"I did this for you – for us. Why do you think you're standing here right now? Do you think they would have dropped the charges had I not been around to have them dropped? I've been working day and night to get you all out, on top of doing all that's required of me, whether that be for my job or for Garen. I haven't had a full nights sleep since we got off the Hermes. I haven't even seen–" I take a deep breath and collect myself. Clearly the lack of sleep is getting to me. "All I'm saying is, you could show a little more gratitude, or at least an iota of goddamn empathy."

Lilith glowers up at me. "I will not." She turns and starts for the door.

I chase after her, rounding the desk. "Lilith, wait–" She's at the door. She's not waiting. "Please–" I take a deep breath. "Please. I need your help."

She pauses with her hand hovering over the access lock – a black panel set into the wall, programmed to read the ID chips in our wrists – then slowly turns back to face me, arms crossed. "What makes you think I'd give it to you?"

"Because you wouldn't be doing it for me. You'd be doing it for Merc and Atara."

She takes a threatening step towards me. "You haven't gotten them out yet?" Her tone is both incredulous and accusatory.

"There's more evidence against them then there was against you. I couldn't convince the courts to let them go."

She laughs, scorn making her blue eyes glint. "And you think I'll be able to?"

"No," I say, dead serious, "but you can help me break them out."

— — —

Hello everyone! Hope you're well!

Remember, chapter 3 of Mortals has now been posted on Inkitt. To read the next chapter for free, just head to this link: https://inkitt.app.link/RA_shayebay (I've posted it in the in-line comment). And make sure to follow me and add Mortals to your reading list while you're there!

Lotsa love, Shaye x