Blood Bond

Today was, of course, the day Mom and Maya would be visiting. I asked Julia to take me up to the visitor's room a little earlier so I could wait for them: I needed some time, alone, to prepare myself before they came.

It was a bare, but perfect example of a Blackwood room: understated red chairs made of some slick, high-tech fake leather that felt impossibly soft, strewn around a few white leather couches. It almost felt haphazard the way these seats are placed, but as you walk around them, you get the sense that you're being corralled into specific areas. Even the generic art on the walls with its random splashes of color felt like it was watching you after a while. And then you knew, each of these spots was meticulously chosen.

I don't believe more thought had been given to even the seats of the Throne Room back at the Keep. At least, that was until those jackals tore it apart.

Three months… that number felt so impossibly small. It'd be all over, as they say in a blink of an eye, and then, what? I will just disappear from here. I can't. I can't leave behind my friends, Mom, Maya, Naomi.

The smile wasn't coming to my lips when the glass doors slid open to let Mom and Maya in. But the sight of Mom's face sparked a warmth within me. The deep worry lines on her face seemed fainter, and the dark circles under her eyes were gone.

"Mom, you look good!" I found myself saying in surprise.

She smiled at me, lifting a bag in her hand. "Yes, things are easier these days." Her eyes shifted from me to Julia, and then back again. "The first installment came."

There was a pause as she pressed her lips into a thin line and looked over me, searching... for what had been sold in exchange? Finally, she seemed satisfied, and added grudgingly, "they helped."

Then the smile was back as she thrust the bag toward me. "I made you some of your favorite tamales, honey. Just how you like them. I'm sure you've missed them."

Julia intercepted the bag just before it reached me. "I'm sorry, but all items must be processed before they can be given to patients. I'm sure you understand Ms. Vega. Letting you visit in the open like this was already an allowance in protocol."

"Yes, yes… of course." Mom waved her off with one hand.

"Hey Leo! look what I got!" Maya hopped about in front of me in sparkling, brand-new sneakers, actual new ones, not just replacement neon laces.

"Wow, they look great Maya!"

"Oh, I got you something as well. Check it out!" She pulled something shiny out of her pink backpack.

Julia reached to grab from it, but Maya jerked away. "Let him see it first, you meanie!"

She held it out to me, it was an old, white, ceramic spoon handle wrapped in tin foil, shaped into a… key.

I stood transfixed, staring at the thing—both of my selves were pinned in one single spot as the realization of what this was slowly sank in.

"It's a porcelain key. You remember, when we talked, about princesses… and getting away." She said hesitantly, as if she was unsure. "You were kind of out of it then…"

When I couldn't speak, she pressed on, "I thought, maybe, you'd feel trapped down there… and became that… princess again…" She looked at me, eyes wavering, even more unsure.

My body ached from being so close and yet so far from her, but I strolled forward with the grace and dignity she deserved. I straightened my back and knelt down before her.

"I remember, Maya," I said as I gazed steadily into her bright blue eyes.

"I want to promise you something. No matter what happens, no matter where or what I am, you will always be my sister."

—

I was staring at my reflection in the brushed stainless steel of the elevator door as we descended.

"You and your sister are certainly close," Julia remarked, almost off-handedly.

I narrowed my eyes and glanced sideways at her. "We've had our share of fights, but I had to take care of her a lot since Mom's always busy."

Something was wrong. During the visit, Julia had been mostly silent, but her eyes were focused on one person. "Why were you staring at her so intently?"

"She and you share the same father and mother. Genetically, she's the closest possible match. I think we should bring her in for baseline testing, at the very least."

My thoughts were immediately of Annie, locked down here all by herself, wandering between strangers' beds in search of comfort. No, they'd do that to Maya, and worse.

They can't have my sister! Both sides of me screamed out from within.

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I lunged at Julia, shoving her hard against the elevator wall. "Don't you dare!" I shouted as heat flared through my body. If I had my palm-fang, I was sure it would have erupted. "You and everyone here, stay away from her! Or else… or else I'll show you how scary I can really be!"

I raised my hand into a trembling fist. The next thing I knew, the elevator was spinning, and I hit the floor with a hard THUD! The wind was knocked out of me. Julia stood over me, effortlessly twisting the hand I had made into a fist, bending it painfully back toward my own face.

"You seem to be under the mistaken assumption that I'd be afraid of something," Julia said in her usual steady, even voice. "Let me make one thing clear, boy. There is nothing in this place, in this country, in this world that's going to stop me from reaching my goal. I do not bend to fear."

I pushed back against her grip, further bending my own hand. The pain exploded, but it was nothing compared to being stabbed through the chest—a sensation I was unfortunately quite familiar with. I rose, pushing against her and the pain. "Leave. Her. Alone," I hissed between clenched teeth. "Or I will destroy you and this place."

There was something in my eyes that seemed to give her pause. She blinked, and looked over my hand before releasing it.

"Interesting. You have an extremely high pain tolerance as well. Very well, Leonard. We will not involve her. However, there is one thing you must do for me."

A soft ding sounded and the metal doors of the elevator slid open.

Her eyes met mine again. "Survive."

—

I tried to focus on finding any hint of that faint pinprick of light, or some indication of its presence. But the sound of chewing pulled me from my thoughts.

"Annie! Can you please not eat on my bed?"

"But Big Sister Leo, this canitas mollies is so good! And the dark juice too!"

"It's carnitas tamales. The sauce is mole; and of course it's good, my mom puts chocolate in it. But don't eat it all! I haven't had any yet!"

That said, I didn't try to pull the tupperware from her hand. If she wanted to finish it, I wouldn't begrudge her that, especially since it's her first time trying it. And actually, I wasn't hungry at all after that round with Julia.

"Okay, just try to be quiet, alright? I'm trying to concentrate here."

"What are you looking for?" she asked, stuffing another forkful of meat and sauce into her mouth.

This is going to sound so stupid. "Umm… I think I umm… connected with something living this morning? Maybe a… mouse?"

"Oh, yeah!" Annie said, unconcerned. "I see it, Big Sister Leo! The line isn't very bright, so I don't think it has much longer. But it's over there." She pointed to a spot to my left.

There was nothing I could do but to try to focus my mind in that direction, and then I felt it.

A faint glow. A dot now, really, pulsating, slowly dimming.

It felt like the connection I had when my blood was inside another body, except here there was so little blood essence that I was sure if I tried to draw from it, I'd instantly drain it dry. It needed light. It needed to be fed.

I decided to try another tack, instead of drawing blood essence from it, I decided to push my essence toward it.

A sharp pain, like a shard of glass, stabbed through my chest, but I focused on pushing my essence the other way, on forcing it through my connection to that dimming dot. The shard of pain stabbed deeper until finally, a bit of my own essence broke through. The faint glow grew brighter. I sensed a tiny heart beating.

"Oh! You did it Big Sister Leo. You are so scary!" Annie cheered from beside me.

I ignored her, because now in my mind was a new vision: a mouse-eyed view of scurrying through the giant, white hallways of the facility.

The strain of controlling it wasn't so bad, just a minor pin stuck in my mind.

Perhaps this was because it was just a mouse with a simple mind. But this was also different from the others. Unlike Kael or the puppets, I hadn't taken control of its organs; my blood was already there, inside of it. And unlike Stonehand, where I had only the senses from my blood flowing within him, this was complete. Here, I saw through its eyes—the towering white walls, the blurry orbs of light above. I felt the smooth, slick tiled floor beneath my paws. I smelled the sharp tang of antiseptic and the odors of sweat and perfume from the people moving about. All these senses, however, felt as if they were being filtered through a strange, grainy film.

I also didn't need to puppeteer its every move; after all, I wasn't deep in its brain. Instead, I just sent thought-suggestions through my connection, and it seemed to take those as commands.

I guided the mouse down the hallway to the airlock, where it scurried between the legs of a few passing nurses, following them into the decontamination chamber. Once through, it ran past Mr. Norman and made a bee-line for my room.

Annie hopped over to the door. The moment it slid open, she scooped the small white mouse into her hands.

She cradled it in her hand, and it looked like what one would imagine a lab mouse might look like: small, round, covered in white fur, and a pair of beady red eyes. Except, just like the mice I had seen on my way in, this one also had wires coming out of its head. They were connected to a square circuit board on its head, like it was wearing an electronic graduation cap. It was a cyborg mouse.

Annie didn't seem to care as she lowered her face down to the critter. "Oh, it's so cute! Here, have some canitas, little one!" She held a chunk of meat up to the mouse. Its whiskers twitched as it sniffed the offering, and then it promptly devoured the morsel. "Big Sister Leo, since it's part of you now, what do you want to call him?"

I smacked my head; I wasn't expecting to get a pet. This was definitely going to be trouble. "How do you know it's a him?"

"I just know." She playfully petted the mouse's head, careful to avoid the wiring.

I felt a strange double-vision—one of seeing her pet the mouse with my own eyes, while also seeing and feeling the sensation of giant fingers stroking my furry head.

The sensation was deeply disorienting. A headache was already starting to form, so I tried to cut the connection. Strangely enough, it worked. The double-vision and my link to the cyborg mouse simply vanished.

"We could call it that famous mouse. M-something?" Annie's voice pulled me back.

My gaze drifted from the small red eyes of the mouse in her hands to the tinfoil-wrapped ceramic key sitting on my desk. A key... he could be the key to unlocking the mysteries of this place. He could go where I can't.

"No," I said softly as I took the key into my hand, my fingers feeling over its crinkled edges.

"His name is Key."