The Rise of Onyx Page 17

  “I know. I just really wish I could touch him again, and let him hold me again. I miss that.”

  “Uh, okay. Well, hopefully things will work out and you’ll be able to soon. You know, without being vaporized upon contact.”

  Luna glares at Vidia for that comment.

  “Too soon? Okay, duly noted. Sorry.”

  CHAPTER 12

  “Onyx… ONYX! Stay with me here. Come on, you’ve got to stay strong. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for Luna.”

  The sound of her name reverberating on the Grand Hall snaps Onyx back to the surface. Very weakened at this point, he subsists only on the name of his beloved and the nutrients that are being pumped into his system, thanks to Evander’s request to the infirmary.

  “I know, Evander. I’m doing the very best I can. I just hope it’s good enough.”

  Evander smiles sadly. “That’s just the thing with you, Onyx. Your best is always good enough, because it’s you.”

  “What do you mean? Everything is going wrong. I’m probably never going to get off of this pod-forsaken thing, and Luna will be left without me. Not to mention the entire human race…”

  “No, stop. Onyx, you cannot do this to yourself. Remain calm, and stay strong. There is nothing more you need to do except try to stay alive. Do that for Luna, at least. If you let go of your own accord… there’s no coming back from that for her. She’d be absolutely ruined. I’m convinced there is a future for you both, and I’d really like it if you were around to see it.”

  Onyx sighs, and mumbles some kind of explicit Earth-jargon which Evander doesn’t recognize the exact meaning of, but can assume what is meant from its harsh consonant sounds and the exasperated context it is used in.

  “We’re doing everything we can for you, just hang in there, buddy. Just hang in there. Please.”

  ✷✷✷

  The next few days, which I was expecting to be some of the saddest I’d ever experience, were actually some of the best I’ve ever had. Throughout the beginning of the wedding planning to a despicable boy that I am still convinced I would hate forever, I feel surprisingly calm. Maybe it was the lingering feeling of Finn’s lips on mine, or our blissful night on the hillside together, but I am so deliriously happy thinking about Finn, that I think my parents are actually thinking I’ve warmed up to the whole betrothal arrangement. They couldn’t be more wrong, but I suppose it is for the best that they aren’t on my case about it anyway.

  That was until my blood didn’t come when it was supposed to. It’s never really happened before, so I usually don’t worry too much. But now… well, there could be something. I’m not sure what, but the knot in my throat and the pit in my stomach collides with the guilt of what I may have just done, and I feel myself nearly collapse on the washroom floor.

  This can’t be happening. Maybe it’s nothing, but it could be something.

  I sit on the floor, and draw my knees up to my chest. I must be taking a while, because Ma raps politely on the door.

  “Constance, are you doing all right in there? It is almost time for your fitting.”

  I roll my ears and try to swallow the terrified tears slipping down my throat. “Yes, Ma, I’ll be right out.” Washing my face can’t fix everything of course, but at the moment, I’d hate for Ma or anyone else to find out I was crying. They’d ask why, and I wouldn’t have an answer, since I wouldn’t really know. I’d have my suspicions, but that’s not something I feel at liberty to even share.

  I try to swallow the little voice in the back of my head, telling me what I decide can’t possibly be true - that I’m with child, and it’s Finn’s. Of course it’s Finn’s, it’d be impossible to be anyone else’s. But that’s not happening, it can’t be. I’m due to be married in less than a week - to someone else. I wash my face as well as I can and tell myself not to worry too much, since I don’t have any definitive answers as of yet. That is, until I open the door to my very impatient mother, and promptly projectile vomit all over her. She’s less than enthused, and I am mortified and terrified all at once.

  “Constance! What is the meaning of this? How disgusting! Now I have to go change. Go meet with Goody Evelyn in the kitchen for your fitting. You have better manners than that, I am astounded!”

  My face turns pale, and I mumble some hasty apologies to my mother, who thankfully is too distracted with her soiled garments than the possible reasoning behind it all. And that’s the moment I know the truth - that I am with child, there’s just no getting around it.

  I begrudgingly meet Goody in the kitchen, and put up with being stuck with pins and various other sewing contraptions as my mother’s dress is tailored to fit my more slender frame.

  “You look positively beautiful, Constance.” She smiles at me sweetly, and I manage to nod politely at the older woman.

  “Thank you very much, Goody.” I try to return her hug, but I immediately produce what was left of my stomach contents over her shoulder.

  “Oh my, Constance!”

  “I am so sorry, Goody. I’m not feeling very well today.” And that’s my first mistake, as I realize only moments later.

  “Not feeling well - I can see that! We must get you to the doctor immediately - can’t have you ill for your wedding later this week!”

  “No, no, I don’t think there’s a need really.”

  “Nonsense! Hopestill, are you aware that the bride-to-be seems quite ill?”

  My mother appears in the kitchen wearing a different dress, completely devoid of my half-digested lunch that I so brazenly deposited on it only minutes before. “I had my suspicions, after I had to change my clothes. Did she become ill on you as well?” Mother motions to the fluids and bits of food that I deposited over poor Goody’s shoulder as well.

  “Indeed. Get this girl to the doctor immediately.”

  Mother nods, and places a strong hand on my shoulder. Now I know that I am as good as done for, and I’m terrified to find out what happens next.

  ✷✷✷

  “Evander, tell Onyx I’m getting really close to the moment now. This might just do it, stay tuned.”

  “That is wonderful news, Griffin. Thank you for the update.” Evander walks closer to where Onyx is seated, and yells loudly to get his attention.

  “Onyx! I wanted to tell you that Griffin is getting really close to the time coordinates we need. We are almost there.”

  Onyx nods almost imperceptibly, and then resumes his dejected posture. “Thank you for letting me know, but I refuse to get my hopes up. I’ll celebrate if I get off this thing.”

  “When you get off this thing.”

  “Sure. Whatever.”

  CHAPTER 13

  The doctor examines me thoroughly with his very cold instruments, poking and prodding me quite harshly, while my mother looks on with daggers where her eyes should be. I can’t shake the feeling she can read my guilty conscience right through my head covering - I wouldn’t be surprised, really. After ages of waiting for him to stop his very thorough and invasive examination, he sighs, and tells my mother what I had been assuming as of late.

  I’ll never forget the look on her face - the amount of blood my body didn’t shed like it was supposed to seems to ironically drain from her face.

  “I’m sorry, Goody Miller. This is unprecedented, to say the least. And quite shocking - isn’t she set to be married to Silas Brewster at week’s end?”

  My mother’s voice seethes with the heat of a thousand bonfires. “Yes, she most certainly is.”

  The doctor shakes his head disappointedly, and then glances around to make sure we are alone. He leans closer to me, his rank breath hitting my nose almost as sharply as his tools practically mangled the most sacred parts of me. “You know, you don’t have to tell him when it was conceived, you could just wait a few days. After your wedding, you would have been likely to conceive right away anyway.”

  My throat chokes up with the guilt of what I must admit in front of both my mother and the family doctor. Aft
er a very pregnant pause, I force the three words out of my mouth, barely above a whisper.

  “It’s not his.”

  My mother immediately faints from the shock of my confession, and as the doctor immediately reaches down to help her up and bring her back to consciousness, I take the opportunity to run away. I’m not sure where, but I just had to get out of there. My mother was suffocating me in the moment I needed her most, and that doctor just revealed my worst secret and defiled me in front of my own mother. It’s at this moment that I am grateful beyond high hope that my father was not present for any of this, as he would likely have insisted upon coming to the doctor with us, and I think I would have rather met an untimely death than go through that. I run out of the doctor’s abode, not-so-demurely straightening my dress to cover my previously exposed rear end. Without any other idea, I run straight to the marketplace in tears, praying that Rafaela might be there to console me. The older girl has become more of a mentor and mother to me than my own mother is, and if I ever needed her, now would be the time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in the marketplace on a Wednesday before, but I reason that perhaps I never get to come at this time, as I’m usually in school, had it not been for my stepping down from my teaching position.

  “Rafaela! Hello!” I run over to her cart, waving my arms erratically. Her previously relaxed lips round themselves into an “o”, and her bright, purplish eyes sparkle with excitement, probably from seeing me at a different time and day than usual.

  “Constance! It is lovely to see you unexpectedly, what a lovely surprise! Is there something I can do for you?”

  I sigh, and practically fling myself into her arms. “Well, you see, I’m not sure there’s much anyone can do.” For the first time since I figured out what’s been happening with me, I let myself have a good, long cry.

  Rafaela gently holds me close, rubbing my back, even though I haven’t been able to tell her what the matter is yet. As soon as I cry all the tears out of my eyes, she pulls back from the hug and smiles at me sweetly. “Do you think you’d be comfortable telling me what’s got you so upset now?”

  I nod slowly. “Well, you remember Finn, right?”

  She nods. “Oh, my darling, did he break your heart?”

  I shake my head. “No, absolutely not. I actually love him more than ever.”

  “Oh, and you’re still betrothed to Silas.”

  I nod. “That’s not the worst part though.”

  “No?” Her long, dark hair flows delicately over her dainty shoulders. “Well, what could be worse than not being able to marry the man you love?” She pauses for a moment, and I cringe as I watch the recognition fill her face. “Oh my… Constance, when I encouraged you to enjoy life before the wedding, this is not what I had in mind.”

  I nod, starting to tear up again. “It wasn’t what I had in mind, either.”

  “Does anyone know yet?”

  I shake my head. “Just Ma and the doctor.”

  Rafaela sighs. “Well, people will know very quickly, news travels fast. And it’s not going to bode well for you when they find out…”

  I shudder, thinking of all the punishments infidelity would incur. Being betrothed was as good as married in many compounds, including ours. “Rafaela, I’m so scared.”

  She nods. “Well, I’d say… go tell Finn. Talk to him.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?” My tears blur my face, and I try to keep myself from screaming at her, because she’s hugging me again and clearly feels very sorry for me.

  “Well, there is one more thing that I could perhaps suggest…”

  “Yes? Please, anything, I’m desperate.”

  She sighs, and reaches down to a very secret compartment of her cart. Reaching down to a little drawer with a secure latch, she produces a small, glass vial filled with a cloudy greenish-yellow liquid. “This is only a last resort, Constance. And I truly hope you don’t have to use it. But if you do, the herbal pulp mixed in here will terminate the child, and it will be expelled from your body. It’s not something I would suggest, as it is far from ideal and it will be very painful, but if you absolutely need to, in order to preserve your own good name and have a good life, swallow this entire vial in one go. That would do the job.”

  She looks down at the ground, probably ashamed at what she had offered me. But I am so grateful to have a way out of this mess - at least, part of it, anyway. “Thank you so much, Rafaela. What do I owe you for it?”

  She shakes her head profusely. “Absolutely nothing, Constance. I’m just doing what I can to help a friend. I will be thinking of you.”

  I nod, and give her one more hug before tucking the vial into my secure apron pocket where I usually deposit the eggs from our chickens.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Evander! Why is he not responding to me?” Luna looks over at Evander who was reclined on one of the plush chairs in the Grand Hall.

  “Well Luna, I don’t want to scare you, but he really is dying. We’re working as fast as we can, Griffin said he’s getting really close.”

  “He’s not going to die, Evander.”

  He sighs in response to her desperate plea. “Well Luna, if we can’t get him off of that chair with the coordinates that Griffin brings us, I just don’t see how -”

  “If that doesn’t work, then hit the kill switch.”

  “What? Luna, surely you don’t mean that.”

  She walks closer to him, suddenly much stronger and deliberate than she’s ever been. “I am as serious as this whole situation is - and that much is not lost on me, not in the slightest. I refuse to exist without him, so if the coordinates don’t work, I will hit the kill switch myself.”

  Evander’s face turns pale. “Now Luna, I know that I don’t experience emotions the way you do, but surely there has got to be another way around this.”

  She shakes her head. “Out of courtesy for you all, I am waiting for those coordinates. If they don’t work, I am hitting the kill switch myself. It will stop the current once and for all, and he will be freed. Don’t you see that?”

  Evander sighs. “I suppose there’s not much I can do to sway you at this point. But I would like to know - how did you even know about any of this?”

  Luna shrugs. “I’ve heard you guys talking about it, and I’ve had a lot of time to think and plan. So the way I see it, you can either help me, or fight me. And given how determined I am, I don’t suggest you fight me because you will lose.”

  Evander swallows a chuckle before it manages to escape his throat. “Well, that’s good to know, Luna. I’m not sure about the parameters of everything yet, but I can assure you that I wouldn’t dare fight you.”

  She nods curtly, her long, dark ponytail bobbing ironically happily in the heat of the moment and the tension that is palpable in the room. “Good.”

  ✷✷✷

  “I’m following Constance now - she ran away toward the marketplace, and now seems to be running back toward the residential area. I’ll keep you posted, should be any minute now, by my estimation.”

  “That’s good to hear, Griffin, as we are rapidly running out of time. Onyx is hanging on by a thread.”

  ✷✷✷

  I run straight to Finn’s house from Rafaela’s cart, and I try to formulate the right words to say to fix everything. I’m not sure what I’m walking into, but I knock on the front door of his house anyway. But before the door can be opened, I react to a tapping on my shoulder behind me.

  “Hey, hey you!”

  I sigh to myself and roll my eyes. “What do you want, Calm? And why aren’t you in school?”

  “Ma kept me home because I faked sick real good this time. Isn’t that great?”

  I smirk a little, but respectably shake my head. “No, Calm, you shouldn’t have lied to your mom. You should really go home now and tell her what happened. I’d take you myself but I have some… matters to attend to.”

  “Whatcha doin’ at the Abbott house? Borrowing some butter
?”

  “Sure, I suppose.” I know I just told him not to lie, but I’m not about to explain all this to a ten-year-old, and especially not this one in particular.

  “I don’t wanna! It’s so fun to not be in school.”

  I nod, but gently nudge him toward his own front door across the way. “Just trust me on this, you’ll appreciate it later.”

  “But I don’t wanna!”

  I open my mouth again to speak, but I’m interrupted by a familiar voice behind me. I turn to see Finn’s gorgeous, sparkling eyes behind me.

  “Constance? What are you doing here?” My face pales again, and I nod toward the annoying ten-year-old throwing a tantrum in the middle of the street in the most inopportune time possible.

  “Well, I’ve got to talk to you.”

  Finn smiles and leans against the doorway. “Okay, well then, talk.”

  “No, not here. And besides, Calm is… definitely not… calm at the moment.”

  Finn rolls his eyes and then steps between me and the wild child. “Go on home now, Calm. Don’t make me tell your mother that you’ve been bothering me today.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “Oh, but I would. Run along now!”

  Calm sighs, and then turns back to his home, defeated. I’m both impressed and relieved.

  Finn smiles at me, but then notices my distraught face and motions toward the yard. “I think the woodshed is empty right about now, since Pa’s out buying supplies. Come on.”

  I follow his footsteps, and try to formulate the right words in my head. Nothing that sounds good enough comes to me, so I tell myself to just say it. Easier said than done, of course. My shaking hands and frightened face is about to give me away anyway. We both enter the shed,

  and Finn closes the door behind us. I turn around to face him, but I meet his lips instead. I wouldn’t complain too much, but there’s just too much on my mind for me to fully appreciate the moment, so I don’t.