“That’s so backward!” I exclaimed.
“What part?” Rome asked.
“All of it! From Uppers getting off easy to women being the property of their husbands!” I yelled. “What the fuck kind of world is this?”
“You know what kind of world,” Harlow said, and she strode to where I was and stood right in front of me. She locked her eyes on mine, and I could barely keep myself from flitting away from her gaunt features. “You’re in this world, Willow. This is your world. Why do you keep acting like you haven’t enjoyed the privilege of this world from the minute you first took a breath?”
It struck me again how strange this world felt and how much I didn’t want to be a part of it. How much I didn’t believe I was a part of it. Everything felt wrong to me, the way the women were subservient even in the class of Uppers. How Lowers were unfairly punished for the smallest slight, be it legitimate or simply perceived as such. I hated it all, and the urge to destroy it felt like a gorge rising in my chest.
“Come on,” Alexander said. “There’s no point arguing about this place when we’re right in front of ground zero for Lower torture.”
He was right, so we walked together up to the front doors of the place they called Central. The center of it all with all the horrible things that could be happening to Luke by the time we got in there and found him.
Alexander pushed the door open when we got there. It was a heavy thing crafted of metal with the same emblems carved into it. He squared off his shoulders and became the arrogant little asshole I knew and loved to hate. The Alexander the public saw before he started to lower his guard for me to show me the loving man beneath the facade.
“Can we help you?” a bored-sounding woman said at the front desk. She didn’t even look up from the paperwork she had there. She was older with the weary voice of somebody who both hated and needed her job.
“I am here for Luke Lancaster. He was brought in not too long ago, from what I understand,” he said.
“And you are?” she asked, looking up.
And the moment her eyes met his face, her demeanor changed completely. She stood up so fast that her chair tipped backward with a loud clatter, and she began to stammer and breathe with huge, gulping gasps.
“Mr. Remington, sir! I’m so sorry, sir! I didn’t realize it was you, sir!” she said and then went off babbling about getting Luke immediately and would he please not tell anyone that she hadn’t greeted him with the proper response right away.
“You’re forgiven if you get Luke for me,” Alexander said with a wave of his hand and a magnanimous smile. “I won’t ever mention a thing about your disrespect....”
He leaned in to read the tag on her blouse.
“Sheila. If you bring Luke out here and release him to me, nobody needs to know.”
“Oh yes, sir!” she exclaimed and turned to scurry into the back rooms.
We waited in front of the desk, not talking or moving. There was a waiting room to the left of us, but it had a row of hard molded blue plastic seats that looked sticky to me. The TV bolted to the wall high up in the corner was turned down low and seemed to be some game show in black and white. Something from yesteryear, kind of like the way they treated women around here. Maybe Crimson and the associated town were stuck in the fifties.
I shifted from one foot to the next and leaned back against Rome. Alexander stood close and touched my hand with the tips of his fingers. Harlow slumped over the desk, propping herself up with her elbows.
From somewhere in the back, I heard the sound of somebody crying out in pain.
I ignored it at first, imagining it was a trick of my mind, but then I heard it again. A cry of pain and the faintest echo of somebody yelling for help.
“What are they doing back there?” I asked, breathing out with my eyes wide open.
“Re-education,” Harlow glowered. “Fucking re-education of Lowers, only, so don’t worry, they won’t ever come for you.”
“But they could come for you,” I said. “Or Luke. Or any other Lower I get to know.”
She opened her mouth and seemed like she wanted to argue, but Alexander straightened up, and we all heard the clip-clop of Sheila’s shoes on the linoleum tiles.
She came back out behind the desk, and out of breath, she said, “I’m afraid I can’t let you have him.”
“And I’m afraid that response is unacceptable,” Alexander said, his power gliding off him smoothly as his voice commanded her to pay attention. I both loved that he could access it but despised the fact that he used it to make a Lower shrink in front of him. “You are going to march back there on your swollen little feet and get my classmate, Sheila, or I will be the one sending you into re-education.”
Harlow winced, and I narrowed my eyes in disgust. I could see Rome avoiding us both, choosing instead to stand beside Alexander and tower over him, intimidating Shiela with his sheer size.
Shelia blinked rapidly, her breathing speeding up, and I could see beads of sweat forming on her upper lip. I felt bad for her, I really did, but I also wanted Luke. I wanted him more than I cared about the clerk in front of us. The irony of my mindset wasn’t lost on me, the fact that I was being a hypocritical asshole, using our collective power to force our will.
But Luke was at stake. I couldn’t ignore that, and I would never forgive myself if I gave up on setting him free.