Daughter of Death

Prologue:

The cell was dank and dark, and smelt of rust, dirt, and urine. Faint light slithered in from a small square carved into the concrete door, striped with iron rods. If someone looked inside, they wouldn’t see anything important, just a lump of dirty fabric in the corner beside a piss bucket.

It was only when no one was around that the girl uncurled. She’d learned it was better to be invisible here. At first, she screamed and called for help, but nothing good came of it, only some jeering to lift the guard’s spirits. So, she’d dissolved into the girl they didn’t want.

The girl that had no fire.

The girl that had no answers.

The girl, she hoped, they’d have no purpose to keep.

The familiar click of the lock echoed through the room, and the door ground open, letting the light in. The girl lifted her head to the doorway, even though she already knew who had come. There was only one person here who moved silently enough to reach her cell without her noticing.

He ducked under the doorframe as he stepped inside and scanned the cell, taking in the broken lamp dangling from the ceiling and the holes high in the walls where the cement had worn away, just big enough for the rats.

The first time he’d come, she’d been surprised; she hadn’t thought they’d put a twenty-two-year-old in charge of an interrogation. But the longer she’d been here, the more she’d understood.

Some people were made for hard things, for dark places, and Jared Caldwell was one of them.

She stood, her vision blurring with the motion, and she reached out her hands, steadying herself against the wall.

“What do you want, Jared?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

He didn’t reply for a long moment, watching her, but then he stepped aside and jerked his head towards the corridor, gesturing for her to come out.

She shuffled forward, the chains that bound her wrists rattling, and the moment she was within reach, he grabbed her and pulled her into the corridor. Her head spun with the sudden movement, but when the black spots in her eyes faded, she froze, terror flooding her.

Another man was leaning against the wall, watching her. She didn’t cry out, though every nerve in her body screamed to.

“Hello, Azemar,” he said, straightening. “I hear you’ve been uncooperative.”

Fear sent her pulse into a panicked clamor, but she clenched her jaw shut as he watched her, waiting for a reply. The seconds dragged out, the tension in her body reaching a fever-pitched when he lost patience and straightened, moving towards her.

“I’m going to give you one more chance to be honest with us,” he said, coming to a stop in front of her. “Tell us the truth, and this will all be over. No more cell. No more rations. We’ll let you go.”

The girl bit her lip against the sob that rose in her throat.

“Where’s the Mors Mortis device?”

He watched her, head tilted to the side, and she could see the thunderclap of violence she’d long associated him with rising in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” she said, her voice shaky. “I already told you everything.”

“You’ve told me everything you’re willing to tell me,” he said. “But that’s not the same thing, is it?”

She dropped her gaze, letting dark, matted hair fall across her face.

“Please. I don’t know anything more. I was never told—”

She saw his hand a second too late. It slammed into her cheek with a force that radiated from her head to her toes. Her whole body whipped to the side and she dangled, only kept upright by Jared’s grip on her arm.

Blood welled in her mouth and she spat.

“Still being stubborn, I see,” the man said with a sigh. “What a shame. Well, Jared’s methods have clearly been unsuccessful, so we’re going to start doing things my way. I have a new machine, and my men aren’t willing to be the lab rats. I was planning on finding someone else if you behaved…”

The girl froze, her eyes widening as he smiled at her.

“But now I don’t need to bother.”

The girl was still for a second before she lashed out. Her chained hands swung around and crashed into Jared’s face. He cursed, releasing her arm, and she spun away, charging at the man with a yell. But before she could reach him, Jared appeared in front of her again. He flicked a knife to her throat, resting it under her chin, and she froze.

“Don’t move,” he snapped.

Jared’s cheeks were flushed a bright, feverish red, his eyes flashing dangerously.

“How about you take these handcuffs off, and we have a fair fight?” she asked.

“Enough.” The man’s voice boomed down the corridor. “Jared, grab her and follow me.”

He spun on his heels and Jared seized her once more, shoving her down the corridor, but she pushed back, digging her heels in.

A deranged sense of fear was bubbling up, tearing her insides apart as she forced it to remain internal. She would not show them her panic. Not the all-consuming extent of it.

Jared let out a grunt of frustration at her resistance and his grip tightened, yanking her forward with a strength she couldn’t match.

The corridor expanded in front of her, gloomy in the dim light. Her heart lurched when the man turned off, leading them into another room. There was a table in the middle, metal cuffs bolted into its sides and wires running up the legs. Next to it was an IV pump connected to a bag of dark red liquid.

She felt a rush of something. Everything. Her whole being flooded with emotions as if trying to encompass a lifetime of experiences she was realising she may never have.

“No,” she breathed, scrambling backward. “Please, no. I don’t know anything! Please!”

She thrashed against Jared’s hold, throwing every curse she knew at him as he tugged her forward and dumped her onto the table. Her scramble to get back off was thwarted when a cuff close around one ankle. And then the other. Her whole body vibrated with panic as Jared unlocked the cuffs from her cell and tied her wrists down, too.

She shouted, trying to tear herself free. But the rations they’d kept her on had done their job. She was weak and lethargic, her fear sapping her energy, and the fight drained out of her as the inevitable sank in. She didn’t resist as Jared stuck a needle into her arm and attached it to the IV drip. The liquid started winding its way into her system, aided by her frantic heartbeat.

“I bet you’re proud, aren’t you?” she asked. “Two Azemars in one month.”

Jared’s eyes darted to hers, his mouth tightening, and for the first time she saw something cut through that terrifying emptiness that was always on his face. He turned away quickly, moving to the man’s side, and she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

This was it.

Goodbye Mum.

A switch was flicked. The table thrummed alive and her breath caught.

Goodbye Dad.

The surface vibrated, growing hot enough to scald.

Goodbye Seth.

The tugging began, and she whimpered, muscles scrunched tight against the pain in her chest.

A tear slid down her cheek.

I’ll see you all on the other side.

Her eyes flew open as the pulling became unbearable and she finally allowed herself to scream, unable to do anything else as her soul tore from her chest.

Chapter One:

Leah Azemar’s eyes were bright in the darkness as she stared at Narra High School and flicked her lighter on and off. It was an ugly building. The fading light exaggerated the roof’s sharp edges and blocky architecture, and it stood stark against the soft rolls of the Australian bush.

A few years ago, she’d climbed out the window of her math room onto that roof. It had been a decent view, only marred by her teacher’s screams to come back inside. Up on the hills were the fancy houses with expensive views of the sea; further down the shopping centre and pubs. Then, the disorganised suburbs. It was the ocean that’d caught Leah’s attention, though. It always was.

The only thing that ever looked alive in this town was the ocean.

A stick cracked and Leah turned. Arelie stood behind her, eyes dark and blonde hair pulled into a harsh bun. Leah hadn’t particularly liked Arelie when she transferred to Narra a year ago, not that it mattered. There was no better when Leah needed to remind the residents of Narra to keep their distance.

“You ready to do this?” Arelie asked.

“Yeah.”

Leah kept her face blank, her hands moving to her pockets, pushing the lighter down deep.

“Good.” Arelie’s eyes flicked around, her expression betraying her excitement in a way that Leah didn’t personally allow. “The bike’s around the front. Once you’re done, get to it. No stopping. I’ll be able to disable the alarm and security cameras, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t call the police.”

Leah just nodded.

Arelie pulled a drink bottle out of her leather jacket and threw it over. “You’ll need this.”

Leah caught it, twirling the bottle around her gloved palm. Liquid sloshed inside. “What is it?”

“Petrol.”

Leah blinked, her calm facade shattering. “I’m not using petrol. We don’t want to burn the entire school down.”

The blonde’s eyes narrowed. “We don’t?”

Leah stared at her for a moment before sighing and pocketing it, raising an eyebrow.

“Happy now?”

Arelie nodded.

“Wait for my signal,” she said, and before Leah could reply, she walked away.

Leah waited until Arelie’s tread was lost beneath the hum of the cicadas, and then she turned and lobbed the bottle into the trees behind her.

Sometimes she wished she’d made friends with a less psychotic criminal. Arelie had always been ruthless, that was what attracted Leah in the first place, but lately she’d been taking larger risks, and dragging Leah into them with her.

First, there’d been the graffiti on the cliff face, then the fireworks that nearly blew Leah’s head off when they’d exploded early. A couple of days ago, she’d pulled Leah aside and suggested they burn down the school.

At first, Leah refused, but on Friday, everything changed. She’d done something insanely stupid, and she’d managed to do it right in front of a school security camera.

Forget jail. If anyone saw that footage and realised what it meant, she’d get a one-way ticket to the dissection table. She’d become a freak of nature to rip apart and examine. A lab rat.

She wasn’t about to let that happen.

Leah pushed the thoughts away and waited for Arelie’s signal. It didn’t take long. A flashlight lit up the oval once, twice, three times. On the forth flash, Leah grabbed a rock from the border of the oval and moved to the closest window.

She raised the rock, and a shadowy figure in the window mirrored her lead. The figure’s green eyes were determined, her black hair melding into the night—and then the rock went through, shattering her into a million pieces.

Leah sucked in a breath, waiting for the alarms, but the night stayed silent. She propelled herself over the ledge and into the classroom. The room was shadowy and eerie, and she darted between tables to the door. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. Leah stepped back, gauged the wood’s strength, and kicked out. She felt a grim satisfaction when the door splintered outwards, creating a hole big enough for her to fit through.

She slipped inside and jogged down the corridor towards the principal’s office, ignoring the anxiety that pulsed against her temples. This needed to be quick. Even Arelie couldn’t suspect why she was really here.

When she reached the office, Leah forced the door open and unplugged the main computer, smashing it against the ground. The noise split the night apart, too loud for comfort, and she raced around the room, throwing open the draws and emptying all USB and hard drive she found into her pockets, praying the shitty funding Narra High School got hadn’t gone into upgrading to cloud storage yet.

Once she’d done all she could, she ran back to the English corridor and crouched down on all fours, peering into the vents that lined the walls. She’d only gone a few metres when she found the one Arelie had prepared, stacked high with wood and scrap paper.

She knocked a half-drunk Coca-cola bottle out of the way and fiddled around in her pocket, first pulling out the prepaid phone she’d bought last week, and then her lighter.

She dialled three numbers while flicking the lighter on and off.

“Narra Fire Brigade.” The voice that picked up was rough, male.

“There’s a fire at the high school,” Leah said, and hung up.

She flicked the lighter on and held it out, nudging a piece of paper to life and watching the glow spread. The papers withered, collapsing into a golden mass, and Leah took off her gloves and threw them in.

The moment they hit the fire, they flared, crackling and curling, and Leah frowned. Wool didn’t ignite that quick. She leaned closer, brow furrowed as the flames revealed what she hadn’t noticed in the darkness.

Greasy liquid covered the wood, and resting behind it was another Coca-Cola bottle, filled to the brim with something oily and glowing. The fire jumped around it, building higher.

For a moment Leah was still, her brain sluggish. But that would mean —

Leah exploded into action with a second to spare, flinging herself back as a fireball rocketed up to where her face had been moments before. The windows shattered, raining glass as fire careen up the wall in front of her and slammed against the ceiling.

“Petrol!” she gasped.

With a speed she was used to suppressing, Leah jumped up and sprinted down the corridor. Her back smouldered with the heat, her lungs flooding with panic and smoke.

Why had Arelie put petrol on the wood and not told her?

A larger explosion rocked the school, knocking Leah’s legs out from beneath her. Her knees collided with the ground, her cry of pain masked by the roar of the fire.

She scrambling up again and bolted into the classroom, dashing towards the window. She launched through the frame, ignoring the jagged glass cutting her palms, and tumbled towards the grass as another explosion tore through the school. Leah hit the ground hard and rolled to the side, kicking her feet back underneath.

Her ears were ringing so loudly, she almost didn’t notice the howling scream that split the night apart. When she did, though, she grimaced. It was the alarms. Arelie had screwed up.

She turned away and hobbled towards the tree line. Her body was shrieking in protest, her breath rattling through smoke-filled lungs. She needed to keep moving, she needed to –

“Leah!” Hands grabbed her jacket, trying to turn her around. “Where are you going?”

Leah spun and pushed the hands off and Arelie went flying backwards, stumbling to the ground as Leah towered over her.

“What the hell?” Leah hissed. “Petrol? You put petrol on the wood without telling me! You could’ve killed me!”

Arelie stood, her eyes flicking to the bush behind Leah nervously.

“We need to get to the bike,” she said. “Why are you walking towards the trees?”

Before Leah could reply, Arelie grabbed her arm and tugged her towards the car park. Leah wanted to yell at her, but her panic overrode it.

The night rolled around in a disturbing blur of orange flames and she began to run.

Arelie’s black motorcycle was ahead of them now, two dark helmets hanging off its handles. Leah grabbed one and slammed it on, swinging her leg over the back of the bike. She’d barely sat down when the engine kicked in. Leah shot her arms around Arelie’s waist and clenched tight. And then they were off.

Leah swivelled around in her seat and stared as the school lit up behind them. Bursts of orange and yellow flashed through the windows; birds screeched as they took to the skies, fleeing from the noise and heat. The entire building was being consumed, glowing from within like a jack-o’-lantern, and Leah’s stomach sank with dread.

But it was only as Arelie rounded the corner to Beach Road that Leah realised exactly how much trouble she was in.

A dark silhouette was emerging from the front door. They stood straight, their hands in their pockets and their face turned in Leah’s direction as the fire raged behind them. They raised an arm, waving goodbye, and then it was all gone.