“Where is she going?” Sydney asks, staring after her. She casts an uncomfortable look at Rosemarie’s body, but none of us check on her. We let her rest with her roses.
“Leandra’s going to find Winston,” I say, watching as she drives off. Her tires squeal when she pulls onto the main road.
“Is she going to kill him?” Sydney asks.
“We can hope,” Marcella mutters.
“I don’t want him dead,” I say, meaning it. “Or… dead for real, I guess.”
“How in the world did they fake his death?” Sydney asks. “I’m assuming the people who identified his body actually made sure it was him?”
“He created living androids,” Marcella says. “Considering the other stuff he’s accomplished, this probably wasn’t even that hard.”
“We need to talk to him,” I say. “He needs to explain this mess he’s made.”
“What?” Marcella says. “Mena, he just tried to have us killed. Why would we go to him?”
“Because Leandra is injured, and we need to protect her,” I say.
“Seriously?” Marcella asks, looking sideways at me. “Leandra lured us here, and it seems pretty likely that it was so we could meet with Winston. You still trust her?”
It takes a moment, but I actually laugh when I say, “Yeah. I guess I do.”
“Then we need to go stop Winston Weeks,” Sydney says. “Assuming he’s still alive when we arrive.”
“Wait,” Brynn says. “What about the girls inside the house? We can’t just leave them like that. We have to… We have to bury them.”
She’s right. We can’t dishonor the girls, leaving them alone and broken.
“You go,” Lennon Rose says, startling us.
We’d forgotten she was here. We don’t sense her anymore, not the way we sense each other. And if I’m honest, I’m scared of her and the ease with which she can kill.
“I’ll take care of the other girls,” she says kindly. She pauses, looking at us apologetically. “I didn’t know,” she continues. “If that’s what you’re wondering. I didn’t know what she’d do to them. I took them from Leandra because I thought she could help them.”
“How could you not know?” Marcella says angrily.
“I haven’t been staying here,” Lennon Rose responds. Marcella furrows her brow.
“Then where have you been staying?” she asks.
“It’s not important,” Lennon Rose says, waving her hand. “Now go! Leandra may be awful most days, but I won’t see her die by Winston’s hands.”
Sydney takes her car keys from her pocket and holds them up. “Brynn?” she asks as if getting permission for us to leave. Brynn sniffles, looking from us to Lennon Rose, and then solemnly, she nods.
We start to run for the car, but Brynn doubles back and pulls Lennon Rose into a fierce hug. I watch as Lennon Rose closes her eyes at the touch, a small glimpse of our old friend.
“Take care of them,” Brynn tells her. She pulls back and Lennon Rose nods, promising she will. Brynn runs over to get in the backseat of the car, and then we start it up and race to find Leandra and Winston Weeks.
22
The sun is beginning to set outside the windshield and I rub roughly at my eyes, my vision blurring from the pressure. The girls are talking around me in the car while Sydney drives. They’re debating what to do next, but their voices are muffled, distant. I’m starting to lose myself, lose who I wanted to become.
We are surrounded by death and destruction when all we want is peace and freedom. The corporation has been ended, but rather than face the consequences of his choices, Winston Weeks faked his death and then attempted to kill the woman who’d helped him. I have no doubt his plan included us, as well. After all, Rosemarie said we needed to be destroyed.
What level of ego, of greed, does it take to want a group of girls dead because they won’t obey you? How dark must a soul be to explain that away, to allow it, to justify it? Humans are soaked in this lust for power, and it permeates everything they do. And ifI am very honest with myself… they are becoming increasingly hard to sympathize with.
There’s a vibration on my hip. It takes me a moment to realize it’s my phone buzzing in my pocket. I take it out, still disoriented. A Colorado number splashes across my screen, and suddenly, I think it’s Jackson. Okay, so maybe not all humans are terrible.
