20 Prodigal
Prodigal
Lights flare on in the little clear-walled cell, temporarily blinding me. A bright spot of light that shows only empty space—Eldi isn’t there.
Guards come from all directions, emerging from the darkness as Zara releases me.
Even as I take down three of them, reflexes taking control, I know it’s over.
Calvin ruins a single cell, warping the bars with a gesture of his hands and half transforming before a guard manages to slide a syringe into his biceps.
With a yelp, he’s abruptly human again. A suppressant.
His powers will be useless for a solid twenty-four hours.
I’m still struggling as his weapons are systematically removed, and he’s locked in the cell next to Zara and Meredith.
Strong hands rip the mask off my head, turn my chin up to peer at my face. I spit and gasp when the same hands slap me hard. I can feel other hands removing every weapon I have, even unclasping the watch.
“It’s her,” someone says.
“Adele sent a gift along, an upgrade, since you like that old mask so much,” the guard I spit at says, wiping his face. Someone pulls a new mask down over my eyes. I don’t know what “upgrade” means, but it can’t be good.
“Don’t try anything,” one of them says, and trains a weapon on Zara and Meredith.
Meredith doesn’t move, only pauses her singing to say, “Fuck you.”
Zara backs up, arms raised in compliance, but rolls her eyes and sighs as if she were bored.
With the new mask on my face, I’m tossed into the cell that holds Meredith and Zara.
“I don’t even get my own cell?” I sneer, launching myself at the door that has already slammed shut. There’s no answer.
Meredith never stops singing in the corner, doesn’t move an inch until the dungeon door clicks shut behind the heels of the last guard.
I rip at the mask on my face. It won’t come off.
I fumble with the clasps at the back that should release it, but they won’t budge.
This one extends all the way down to the base of my skull, under my chin.
A tight, immovable band locks it in place.
I can breathe, but I feel unyielding metal at my throat with every swallow.
I trip and fall to the ground in my desperate struggle to get this thing off my face.
It isn’t until Zara grabs my head, yanks me up, that I realize I’m screaming.
“Look at me,” she says sharply. “Get it together, now. Breathe. If you puke in there, we can’t get you out.”
She’s right. I breathe in and out deeply. It’s Zara and me in here again. She looks awful, her eyes bloodshot and hair greasy. Her dress shirt and pants rumpled, her jacket and shoes off, like she’s been sleeping in here for days.
“Breathe,” she says again. “Don’t let her see you this way.
” I don’t know if she means Adele, who is sure to turn up, or Meredith, who is still singing to herself.
“Ladybird, ladybird.” Zara taps her hand against my leg in a silent count, lets me lean against her as I struggle to slow my heartbeat and steady my breathing.
When Zara has decided I’m not going to vomit and drown myself inside the mask, she draws back.
“Fucking stupid thing to do, coming back here.”
“Eldi,” I manage.
“Is obviously not here,” Zara says.
My breath through the mask comes in unsteady rasps as I lean my head against the unforgiving metal bars separating me from freedom.
Calvin swears from the next cell over. They’ve put him in a cage.
The one like the cage in the Winnebago, designed for keeping in creatures.
Deep gouges obscure one section of the wall.
Calvin’s pushed himself to the far corner, as far from me as he can get.
He’s getting it now; he’s figured it out.
Déjà vu and memories converge, and I struggle to place where and when this is all happening. Familiar and unfamiliar.
“Ladybird, ladybird,” Meredith sings.
“Will you shut up with that godforsaken nursery rhyme?” Zara snaps at Meredith.
Meredith laughs bitterly. “Who knew a toddler is all it would take to get Reggie back here. I’m honestly shocked it worked. I guess she has favorites after all.”
Guilt. That’s the only emotion I have left.
“Calvin,” I call, reaching a hesitating hand through the bars.
He doesn’t answer.
“Ooooh, Reggie, I think your boyfriend’s mad,” Meredith mocks, moving into the light. I feel her eyes on my back.
“I tried to warn you she was bad news,” Zara says, lounging casually against the rear cell wall.
“Calvin,” I say again, “I can explain.”
“You liar. You’ve been lying this whole time, about everything,” Calvin says. I’ve never heard his voice so full of hate. But he’s cut off by the echoing sound of footsteps in the corridor.
I abruptly rise to my feet and push past Meredith to stand and face the door.
Adele Kingsley walks into the room, removing her mask with deliberate care as she surveys the three of us, a false disappointed look on her face but triumph in her eyes.
A face I’ve seen countless times over the years.
The same eyes I see every time I look in the mirror, no matter how much time, space, and however many disguises come between us.
My future face, in a few decades. The face of my mother.
A cruel smirk grows wide on her mouth as she looks at me.
“Well, well. The prodigal child returns at last.”