Faye’s insides felt cold.

It was liked ice shards had dug their way through her skin, piercing her veins and entering her blood stream.  If someone were to touch her, Faye feared that she would break, crumbling to ash on the ground.  She didn’t understand why the sudden feeling swept through her, but it did.  It was like something was completely wrong.

Kole took a step forward, his eyes wide.  Faye bit down the urge to call him back to her, to beg him not to move.  Every important official was in that building.  Everyone who was against her and Kole’s being together.  If they were to be seen—and so close—they would automatically be brought to the prison wards.  If they were lucky. 

“This is where the Gate leads, huh?” Kole said blankly, as though he felt the need to say something but really had no idea what words to use.  “To the building that started it all?”

Faye gulped, willing the ice to melt.  “Y-yeah,” she stuttered out, crossing her arms over her chest.  It did nothing for her, however.  She was still freezing.  “We should—we should go.”

Kole twisted around, his eyes meeting hers.  Faye wondered if Kole could feel the ice in Faye’s veins, could feel the same prickling sensation.  She wondered if it affected him at all, if it scared him as much as it terrified her.  She wondered if inside him there was a sense of urgency, a sense that told him to get the hell away from there as fast as he could.  From the expression in his eyes, Faye couldn’t help but feel that no, he didn’t feel that way.  He only felt fascination.  Fascination that they’d found the source of everything, fascination that they were standing in front of the building that had complete control of their lives.

Whether he noticed the fear in Faye’s eyes, Faye wasn’t sure.  But, when he opened his mouth, his words were full of understanding.  “Yeah,” he murmured, sneaking a quick glance at the vast building in front of them before nodding.  “You’re right.”

Faye let out a long breath of relief.  “Okay then,” she said softly, resisting the sudden urge to grab onto Kole’s hand.  “Let’s get back then.”

Kole nodded, taking a few steps back before gesturing for her to follow.  “Yeah, let’s go back.  That’s enough excitement for today.”

With a small smile, Faye followed Kole back into the woods, back the way they had come.

The | Gate

Kole let the front door fall shut behind him, leaning back against the wood.  He let out a long sigh, closing his eyes.  It had taken a lot of willpower not to say no to Faye, to keep going even though she was so obviously terrified.  Kole wasn’t sure what had taken over him, what was still taking over him, but he didn’t really want to find out.

With another sigh, Kole opened his eyes and moved away from the door.  He crept down the hall, listening out for his family members.  Whether they were even home or not, he wasn’t sure.  But if they were, he didn’t want to announce that he’d arrived.  Not yet.  Something about the way his stomach was in knots kept him from wanting to socialize.  In fact, if Kole had any choice in the matter, he’d run upstairs to the bathroom and puke.

“Kole?”

Kole’s eyes snapped up, locking onto his brother as he stood a few feet away, his arms crossed over his chest.  Kole could see from the expression on Alex’s face that he knew something was up and he wasn’t exactly happy about it.  Kole held his brother’s gaze, resisting the urge to wrap his arms around himself and to disappear.  He didn’t know why he was suddenly feeling such anxiety toward the only person he ever really trusted in the world.  To be honest, he had no idea about really anything anymore.

“Alex,” he said softly, moving forward again.  His chewed on the inside of his cheek, willing himself to snap out of this haze.  Why was he feeling this way?  Why did he have the nagging feeling that he had to go back to the Government building?  Why did he feel like if he didn’t then something dreadful was going to happen—not just to him, but to everybody?  Why did he feel like the Government wasn’t only hiding the genders from each other, but something else, something huge?

Why?

  “Is everything okay?” Alex demanded.  A moment later he was right in front of Kole, grabbing onto his shoulders.  “Did something happen with Faye?”  His eyes searched Kole’s face, trying to find the answers within his eyes.  Kole wondered what his brother would find there.  Unease?  Turmoil?  No one could be sure.  “What’s wrong?”

“Is Dad here?” Kole asked softly instead of answering his brother’s questions. 

Alex shook his head.  “No,” he said, his eyes bright with growing anxiety.  This was what confusion did to him, Kole knew.  The longer you kept him in the dark, the worse off he was going to be.  In a few minutes he was probably going to begin pacing.  “Why?”

“Because I can’t tell you anything with him here,” Kole replied shortly.  With a sweeping glance at their surroundings, Kole gestured for Alex to follow him upstairs, to his bedroom.  Alex, Kole could tell, resisted the urge to mutter out a countless amount of questions as they made their way up the stairs, down the hallway that led to Kole’s bedroom.  And Kole was thankful for that.  If Alex started demanding to know information, Kole didn’t know how much of it he’d be able to take.

Kole closed his bedroom door behind him and watched as his brother collapsed onto his bed.  Alex’s eyes remained on him, waiting patiently—at least as patient as Alex had ever been before—for Kole to continue.  Kole chewed on the inside of his cheek again, hating the feelings inside him.  He’d never felt anything like it.  Not ever.  “Faye and I went walking through the woods today,” he began.

Alex listened attentively as Kole explained everything.  How they talked through the woods, how they reached the Government building.  He even listened as Kole told him about the tug he’d had toward the building—the tug that he couldn’t explain.  Alex didn’t say a word as Kole spoke, his eyes simply widening when Kole said something that shocked him.  Kole pushed on through his story, not really knowing where to stop.  The churning in his stomach continued and so did his words.  Kole wondered if it would ever end.

“Wow,” Alex murmured as Kole finally managed to press his lips together.  “Just . . . wow.”

Kole nodded.  “I don’t know what to do.”  He threw his arms in the air exasperatedly.  “Something is telling me that I need to check out what the hell is going on in there.  I know it’s wrong, and that it could get me arrested, but I feel it.  I’ve never felt this strong of a tug before, you know?”  He sighed, dragging one of his hands down his face.  “But then when I see the fear on Faye’s face, I wonder if I’m going crazy.  Maybe I am going crazy.  The old me would never do stuff like this.”

The old him.  Was that how he was now referring to himself?  Kole hadn’t really taken into consideration that he’d changed all that much.  He knew that he was becoming more able to take risks, more apt to go against the Government’s wishes, but he didn’t know that he’d changed—at least, not enough to label an old and a new part of himself.  But, maybe it was true.  Maybe he had changed. 

“You’re not crazy,” Alex assured him, standing up.  Alex, Kole observed for the millionth time, always held himself with a confident grace, one that Kole could never hope to hold himself with.  Kole hated the fact that he wasn’t as brave or confident as his brother, that he hid in his own shadow rather than facing the world with a curled fist.  He hated that he couldn’t make threats sound like small-talk yet still get the message through, that he couldn’t intimidate someone with a simple stare—without even glaring.  Alex was someone that Kole had always looked up to.  And he always would.

“I’m not?”  Kole blinked.  “How could you possibly—”

“Know that?”  Alex snorted.  “Kole, just because you’ve actually sparked some curiosity, doesn’t mean you’re crazy.  It means that you actually care about something for once.  And I’m happy for you.  I say you go back to that building and figure out what the hell is going on.  It’s about time someone finally did.”

“But—” Kole swallowed.  “But what if I get caught?  I can’t do it alone, and I doubt Faye will be all that willing.  You didn’t see the look on her face when she saw the building today.  She looked like she’d been shot.  And, even then, how would I do it?”

Alex grinned, his hands reaching out to grab Kole’s shoulders.  He gave his brother a slight shake before smiling.  “My dear brother, you have me to help you along the way.  Even without Faye, you’re not alone.”  He paused, his smile growing.  “And, as to how we’re going to do it, let’s just say . . . I have no freaking idea.”

Well, Kole thought to himself, that was a start.

The | Gate

Faye paced through Errika’s bedroom, chewing on her fingernails.

Chewing her fingernails was something that Faye hadn’t done in years.  When she was younger she used to bite her nails all the time, using it as a way to cut some stress from her system.  Terra and her mother told her off for the longest time, warning her that her nails were going to look disastrous.  But what did Faye care what her nails looked like?  They weren’t really all that important, right?

And then, after Terra died, she stopped.  Just like that.  Faye didn’t really know why she stopped, but she did.  Maybe it was a subconscious need to please Terra after death.  Maybe it was something else entirely.  Faye had no idea.

“Faye, what’s going on?” Errika demanded, her eyebrows coming together.  Faye was struck by how much she resembled Alex.  Faye had never seen anything like it.  The arch of their eyebrows, the way they hooked their arms when they were irritated because they had no idea what was going on.  “Seriously.  You’ve been pacing for ten minutes.”

Faye’s feet stopped moving.  She spun around, her eyes wide.  “Errika, it’s so big,” she whispered hauntingly.

“What’s so big?” Errika continued to demand.  Faye could see the irritation in her friends eyes, and she wished that she could bring herself to explain what she’d seen.  But the ice was still in her veins, unyielding.  Faye feared it would never melt away.  “Come on, babe.  You know I need answers!”

“The—” Faye swallowed, shaking her head.  She twisted her hands together, forcing her mouth closed as she resisted the urge to bite her nails again.  No.  She would not destroy her nails because she was nervous.  She grew out of that habit.  She grew out of it.  “The building.”

“What building?”

Errika huffed, hopping from her bed and grabbing onto Faye’s shoulders.  Giving her a rough shake, Errika said, “Come on.  Answers.  Now.”

“The Government building,” Faye choked out, her words coming out like spasms.  She silently cursed herself.  Why couldn’t she just say it?  It wasn’t like anything had really happened.  She and Kole had seen the building and then they’d left.  It was as simple as that.  But Faye still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.  That something terrible had happened—and was still happening—there. 

“Okay, why don’t you take a sec to collect your thoughts?” Errika muttered, her nails digging into Faye’s shoulders.  Faye winced.  Errika, unlike Faye, had long fingernails—fingernails that never managed to hurt you when they got too close.  “Because I do not understand what the hell you’re saying with all these fragmented sentences.”

Faye nodded, gulping down her anxiety.  She had to push it down, to keep it contained.  If she couldn’t get these words out, then she would never be able to get the problem fixed.  “Kole and I found the Government building,” she said finally, relieved that the words finally came out.

Errika blinked.  “What?”

“We were walking in the woods and then we found the Government building,” Faye whispered, her eyes scrambling for the floor.  The ice shards were poking at her skin, threatening to stab at her.  “There’s something completely wrong with the place, Er.  So wrong.”

Errika brought a hand through her hair, a sheer sign that she was still confused and didn’t know how to handle it.  No one messed with Errika’s hair—not even Errika.  “You—you saw the Government building?  Like, legit?”  Her eyes searched mine.  “What do you mean there was something wrong?  What happened?”

“Nothing happened.”  Faye collapsed onto Errika’s bed, closing her eyes.  In the back of her eyelids she could see the Government building, so vast that it stretched out further than she could see.  And then suddenly she was seeing inside—seeing Courtnie Featherstrom as she grabbed onto girls, an evil grin on her face as she ripped their heads from their bodies.  Faye’s eyes snapped open, suddenly disturbed.  She did not like that mental picture.  “We just saw the building.  But there’s something about it.  I feel like something is completely wrong with the place.  Like terrible things are happening there.”

Errika’s eyes widened.  “Was it a strong feeling?”

Strong?  The word seemed insignificant to how she was feeling right now.  “Very.”  Faye nodded.  “Something’s going on there.”

Errika’s face scrunched together suddenly, and Faye’s eyes widened.  She’d never seen Errika make such an expression before—ever.  This could not be good.  “I’ve been thinking,” she said softly, falling onto the bed beside Faye.  “I’ve been getting the same feeling you have about the Government—it just didn’t take me seeing the building to feel it.  It just doesn’t make sense for us to be separated.  There has to be some hidden agenda.  Doesn’t there?”

Faye shrugged.  “I have no idea.”

“And that,” muttered Errika, “is precisely the problem.”

The | Gate

The papers went flying of Courtnie’s desk, fluttering to the ground like dying butterflies.

Anger consumed her.  No—anger was the wrong word.  Fury.  Fury consumed her.  She’d never felt so aggravated, so infuriated, so malevolent in her entire life.  She wanted to take someone’s neck and snap it.  She wanted to punch a wall.  She wanted to set things on fire.

She wanted to tear the world apart.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” she shrieked over and over again.  Her hands went flying, attacking everything that she could.  Books crashed to the floor, as did her writing utensils.  Everything went to the floor.  Everything flew.  Crashed.  Fell.  Failed.  Failed her.  Failed to keep standing.  Failed.  Failed.  Failed.

She couldn’t rid the awful picture of her gloating face when she realized that there was nothing in her cell.  When Courtnie came up dry, the triumphant expression on her face—it was unbearable.  To see that little smirk—it made Courtnie want to rip her head off and throw it into a fiery pit.  She knew exactly what Courtnie was feeling and she’d taken advantage of it.  She’d made it worse.

And she loved every second of it.

She was up to something, Courtnie knew.  Courtnie knew that she had been planning something—could sense it from the start.  But there was no way to prove it, no way to show her brother that his daughter was no better than she had been since they brought her in so many years ago.  There was no way to unmask her.  To show Fortis that his little girl was nothing more than a hindrance that needed to be disposed of.  That his little girl was going to rip apart Cesve by the seams. 

She would not let the world that her family built fall apart.  She refused to let a simpleton bring down everything she’d worked so hard to achieve.

Especially not her.

But nothing was going as Courtnie planned.  First the cameras were taken away.  What next?  What did she have up her sleeves?  Courtnie knew that there was something coming—and what was coming next was going to be big.  So big, Courtnie had to wonder if she would be able to recover from it.  Would Cesve be able to recover?  Or would this be the time when she finally got her wish—the secrets of the Government would be unleashed? 

Courtnie’s fist landed on her desk.  No.  She could not let that happen.  She could not let that happen.  She.  Could.  Not.  Let.  That.  Happen.

She lifted her fist, ready the punch her desk again, but suddenly the door to her office flew open.  She spun around, agape as her eyes latched onto the figure standing in the doorway.  Fortis stared back at her, his eyes wide.  His fingers curled onto the doorknob tightly, so tightly that his hands turned red, making his knuckles look ghostly white.  He looked horrified, Courtnie observed.  Horrified and suspicious.

That was not a very good combination.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, his grip on the doorknob tightening.  “Courtnie—what is wrong with you?”

“I—” Her mouth snapped shut and she swallowed.  Something in her brother’s expression told her that he was no longer going to listen to a single thing that she said.  She’d lost him.  But, she had to try.  “I went to the prison wards,” she said, regaining her composure.  She stood tall, crossing her arms irritably over her chest.  “Do you know who I went to see?”

“You need to stop this,” Fortis muttered, pushing away from the door.  He stepped into the room, a guarded expression etched onto his features.  “You need to leave her alone.  You’ve gained absolutely nothing—in fact, you’re losing more than you’re winning.”

“She’s ruining everything!” Courtnie hissed.  “Why can’t you see that, Fortis?  She’s tearing down Cesve by the seams.  She’s already taken away the cameras—”

“Do you hear how you sound right now?” Fortis demanded, his voice cooling.  Courtnie blanched, unused to this.  No matter how mad she made him, Fortis never talked to her this way.  Like they were strangers.  Like they were two worlds apart.  Like they were enemies.  “How do you think she managed to get the computers down, little sister?  She’s been locked up in a cell.  A cell that I’ve had to keep her in because you don’t have the decency to let her go.”

“She’s paying the price for her crimes,” Courtnie seethed, her hands curling into fists.  “It is no different than any other perpetrator.” 

“It’s completely different!”  The acid in his voice dripped onto the floor, slithering its way toward her and through her skin.  She could feel the poison threatening to take over her body, her mind.  She’d never seen Fortis so angry, so hateful.  This was not the brother she knew.  “You would have her killed if you could.  You would kill your own blood—just to keep the name of Cesve alive.  How does that not disgust you?”

“I am ashamed that she is my blood,” Courtnie spat.  “She is nothing to me.  Nothing.  All she is is a little pest that needs to be taken care of.  If you weren’t blind with this apparent love you have for the girl, then maybe you’d be able to see that she’s nothing but a hindrance.  A danger to everything that we stand for?”

“We?” Fortis’s voice grew soft.  “We, Courtnie?  There is no we.  There hasn’t been for a long time.  This is all about you.  You and your conceit.”

Without another word, Fortis turned and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

The | Gate

Faye lay back on her bed, her eyes blankly staring at the ceiling.  She wasn’t really seeing anything; at least she wasn’t really seeing the speckled wall.  All she could really see was the expression on Kole’s face when he saw the Government building.  The absolute wonder, the curiosity.  The need to know what was inside.  She felt it too, she did.  But it was shoved down deep inside her, locked back in a box with a key that she’d lost in her system.  It was devoured by the utter conclusion that something was wrong.  That something was completely and terribly wrong.

But if that were the case, wouldn’t that be more of a reason to figure out what was going on?

But she couldn’t figure out what was going on.  That would mean going back to the building, back to the source of all this turmoil.  That would mean feeling the ice again, which took so long to get rid of in the first place.  And as it was, she could still feel the dull pressure of the ice threatening to poke back out if she thought about this for too long.

Faye sat up, rubbing her eyes.  The thoughts within her were battling out, threatening to tear her apart from the inside.  They were such conflicting thoughts.  Desert the idea of the Government building, or go back and find out what was wrong?  Go back and feel the ice, or fall back only to hate herself for not figuring out the problem before it was too late?

“Faye, hon?”

Her eyes barely had time to glide over to her bedroom door before Mary was pulling it open, standing in the doorway.  She smiled at her daughter.  “Dinner’s ready,” she said politely, her smile growing.  “Will you be joining us tonight?”

Lately Faye had declined eating with her two family members because she hated the sight of Kat.  Just seeing Kat’s face would make her so angry that she feared she would burst.  The day after she found the box in her room, Faye had almost broken her plate from gripping it too tightly.  It was shocking to even her mother that she was capable of such emotions.  Faye was usually a mellow girl—no explosions, whatsoever. 

That was, until Kat brought out the worst within her.

At least, Faye hoped it was the worst.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” said Faye, her lips pricking into a small smile.  “I promise I won’t scream this time.”

Her mother smiled largely, happy (at least Faye thought) that Faye was finally seeing reason.  “Thank you, hon.” She moved to leave and then paused.  “I’m really sorry about what Kat did.  Did you want me to take the box up to the attic?”

Faye’s eyes flicked to the box, hidden under a stack of clean clothes.  She’d tried to hide the box away, unable to look at it, but unable to bring it back to the attic where all of Terra’s other things were kept.  The thought of setting the box with all of Terra’s other things—she couldn’t bear it.  Just looking at all of her things . . . Faye didn’t want to risk it.

So there the box sat.

“No,” she whispered, surprising herself.  She wanted the box out of her room.  Why didn’t she just take the offer?  “That’s okay.”  She smiled fleetingly.  “I’ll be right there, okay?”

Mary nodded before leaving the room.  Faye hopped off her bed, stretching her arms out.  Her eyes tiptoed toward the box, locking on it.  Faye wanted to look away, to go downstairs to where the food was probably already on the table, but she couldn’t bring herself to.  Something about the box called to her.  Screamed at her, even.  It was like Terra was ushering her to open it, to look inside.

Something inside Faye cracked.  The next thing she knew, her feet were moving across the floor, toward the box.  She had no control of her movements, no control of her body.  She felt tears burn in her eyes—but not because she was sad.  She was terrified.  Terrified that something inside her had taken over.  Something that she couldn’t control.

Faye knelt down in front of the box, pushing the clothes away.  She pulled the box toward her, her stomach lurching.  She didn’t want to open it.  She really didn’t want to open it.

But she did.

Inside it where Terra’s writing things.  Her schoolwork, her notebooks.  Anything that needed pen and paper.  Faye reached into the box, pulling out Terra’s Geometry book.  She remembered how Terra used to sit on the couch, scrawling into the notebook effortlessly, her math book by her side.  Though, she never seemed to really look at the math book.  It was like she didn’t need it to answer her problems.

Faye flipped the book open.  Inside was a message, stating that it was Terra’s property.  Seeing Terra’s handwriting—her beautiful handwriting—made Faye want to throw up.  The memories were threatening to overwhelm her.

She flipped another page.

And stared.

There were no Geometry problems, no sign that this was a math-work book at all.  Faye, turned to the cover, thinking that she might have read the title wrong.  Maybe it actually said English homework, and in a rush Faye had misread. 

But she didn’t.  It said Geometry.

Faye flipped back to the writing, her stomach hurting now.  She began reading the words, her stomach dropping with each syllable, with each letter.

Lies.  Everything that we’ve been taught are lies.  The false promises, the false statements fed to us by non-other than the people who are supposed to be sworn to looking over us: the Government.

They don’t want to protect us.  There is no beast on the other side.  There’s no such thing as this monster that will devour you if you so much as take a step into its territory.  They’re just lies.  Figments of our imagination.  Lies.  Lies.  Lies.

I never believed that there was a beast on other side.  Not even when I was a little girl.  The thought seemed preposterous—completely stupid.  If there were really a beast, it would have overcome the Gate’s borders.  And if it couldn’t even do that, why did everyone have to be afraid? 

But now I know.  I know.

I know everything.

What’s on the other side?  That’s the question that all girls have been asking since the beginning of time.  The Gate has always been here.  To “protect” us.  But little does everyone know that this Gate hasn’t been here forever.  Someone built it.  And it wasn’t that legendary figure that people conjured up to answer their questions.  No.  Regular people built it.  Both girls and the creatures on the other side.

What are those creatures?

Boys.

Faye dropped the book, her hands shaking.  The Geometry book snapped shut, collapsing on the floor with a small thud.  It looked so innocent from the way it was lying—like it only held simple problems from school.

But it held so much more than that.  Faye knew that now.

Terra knew.  Terra knew everything.  She knew about the boys, she knew what the Government was doing.  She knew.  She knew.

With a trembling hand, Faye pulled her cell phone out of her butt pocket.  Without thinking of what she was doing, she dialed Kole’s number.  She brought the phone to her ear, closing her eyes.  She could feel the tears burn there, just like she could feel the ice falling into her stomach.

When Kole picked up the phone with a casual greeting, Faye sucked in a breath.  “I’m coming over,” she said simply.  “I’m bringing Errika with me.  We need to talk.  And we need to get into the Government building.”

With that, she snapped the phone shut and stood up, moving toward the door and opening it.  With one last glance at the fallen Geometry book, Faye pulled the door shut, heading downstairs toward where her family members were waiting.