3
Mrs. Delacroix opens the classroom’s door, using a magnetic card that can only be used from outside. As she closes the door behind us, I look at it worriedly. What if she decides to kill me like her children? I roll my eyes at my silly thought. Only Monsters get killed.
“Hand me your iAm, please.” Mrs. Delacroix stretches out her hand across the table separating us.
I obey silently as I examine her serious face. However peacefully she poses, I can’t stop imagining her killing her children. How did she do it? Did she drown them? Eat their hearts and livers, like the Snow White Queen? How can someone kill their own child, no matter how monstrous they are?
“I am sorry about what happened outside with Eva,” I say, as Mrs. Delacroix checks my iAm, connecting it to a master computer to check if I am cheating.
“Who is Eva?” Mrs. Delacroix says absently.
“Eva, you know, the…”
“Ah. The Monster.” She clicks her keyboard, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. “Who cares about Monsters?” She takes a sip from her cold coffee.
“How can you be sure she is a… you know?” Sometimes I can’t bring myself to say the word.
“It’s so obvious. I called her parents yesterday to stop her from attending the Ranking Ceremony, but they didn’t listen. When I assured them that the iAms’ predictions were rarely wrong, and that she was going to be a Monster, they said that Eva attending the ceremony was going to be more of a last wish before dying.” Mrs. Delacroix licks her gummy lips, tasting the sweet coffee. “I hate when parents say that.”
“I guess her parents saw no use in Eva attending the Monster Show.” I say. The Monster Show is the only way for a Monster to get ranked. A three-day-long deadly game show, that if you survive, you escape being a Monster. It’s pure entertainment that draws tons of money to the Summit. The show is broadcast worldwide, and the games are just sick. No one ever survived the Monster Show, not even Woo.
“You never know. Maybe Eva is special, and could be the first ever to survive the Monster Show and get ranked.” Mrs. Delacroix chuckles mockingly.
“How do you expect anyone to survive the crazy games and deadly puzzles in the Monster Show? It’s impossible. Besides, if someone survives the games, how are they going to live among us? Everyone will still humiliate them.”
“Yeah. And that’s the fun of it,” Mrs. Delacroix nods, as if both of us share a secret. “The Monster has to die,” she whispers.
“Do you know what’s going to happen to her parents?” I wonder.
“If they were Eights or Nines, they might have to only move to poorer suburbs. It’s all up to the Summit. Sadly, Eva’s parents are both Fives. They’ll be downgraded to Monsters. The Summit hates when they turn older people into Monsters.”
“Why?”
“Older Monsters are not fun to watch on TV. They’re slow, and lack motivation. It makes the show dull and boring. Do you know that Eva’s younger brother might be a Six? If I were her parents, I would have killed her years ago, and saved the family.” She smirks at her reflection in the monitor.
I start to feel uneasy being alone in the room with her. What if I turn out to be a Monster? Will she kill me on the spot, here in this room? I suddenly think of my family, but I know they will be fine. My younger brother Jack is a pre-Nine. He is the first in our family. We’re all usually Sixes and Sevens. Anything you want to share with me, Mom? I promise I won’t tell dad.
“The Monster has to die,” Mrs. Delacroix lets out a long sigh, as she checks my name on the computer.
“Is something wrong with my name?” I ask.
“Not at all,” she says. “You’re ready to go. I think you will be surprised with your rank today, Decca. Let me just write your name in the system.” She started typing and licking her lips. “Don’t you wish all Monsters would just die? I can’t wait for the day we turn into a Monster-free nation.” She says nonchalantly.
I don’t comment. My eyes are fixed on hers. I can’t help but feel disgusted by her. Now that I know I am safe, I try and look for a human soul behind her eyes. I can’t stop imagining her killing her children.
“You have a big chance of becoming an Eight today.” Mrs. Delacroix looks happily at me. “You’re still a Seven though. Your score is very close to an Eight. Who knows? Maybe the iAm changes its mind.”
I am not pleased with her news. I keep staring at her. “How did it feel, Mrs. Delacroix?” I say slowly, my voice is unusually low and colorless.
“Excuse me?”
“How did it feel killing your children?” I feel a beast rising in me.
“How dare you ask me about—” She doesn’t complete her sentence, as she notices the sudden, dark change in my personality.
I jump over the table, and shock her with the electric cattle prod that I stole from the Gatekeeper outside. She buzzes like a fly, but I catch her before she falls to the floor. “Don’t you dare fall asleep on me,” I kick her. “I swear if you don’t do what I say, I’ll buzz you to death.”
“Okay. Okay,” she obeys, drooling uncontrollably. “What do you want?”
“I want you to switch the results on this iAm with mine,” I demand as I show her Eva’s iAm, which I stole in the middle of the fight outside. “Now!”
“But that is impossible,” she says, looking at me as if I have turned into a ghost. She wonders if I am the same girl she was talking to seconds ago. “The iAm is connected to a small receptor in your brain, right under your ear. It’s the size of a grain of rice. It can’t be removed, and I can’t change the results.”
“Don’t bullshit me,” I growl. “That receptor only gathers information about us and connects it to the iAm from the day we are born until we’re sixteen. Right now, the iAm and the Summit know that the owner of Eva’s iAm is a Monster, and that the owner of mine is a Seven. Switching the iAms now will work. I’ve been studying this for a whole year, and I know what I am talking about. There is a program that allows you to divert the iAm to a different receptor, which means a different teenager. This is how the Summit forges the results when they want to get rid of rebellious teenagers.”
Mrs. Delacroix, although still dizzy from the shock, must be wondering how I know all this. How I suddenly changed from that damsel-in-distress girl to a rebel. She takes Eva’s iAm, opens it, and starts working her magic.
“You know that this will make Eva a Seven, and you’ll become a Monster. Don’t you?” She locks the iAm, and types on the computer. I see Eva’s data and mine being switched. “Why would anyone do this? Why would you want to be a Monster?”
“None of your business,” I threaten her by pushing the electric cattle prod closer to her.
After she finishes, I snatch the magnetic card that opens the door away from her, and tuck it in my pockets, along with the two iAms.
“I wanted to cry,” Mrs. Delacroix mumbles. “When I killed my children. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t.” An unborn teardrop seems to argue its way out of her eyes. “You know why I couldn’t? Because the iAm would pick up on it, and I didn’t want that to happen. In our nation, we have to accept these sacrifices, right? It’s for the best interest of us all. It’s our fate that we can’t control.”
I throw her one last disgusted look, and I don’t hesitate to buzz her to sleep. “I guess I’ll have to sacrifice you now. I’ve decided that this is your fate, child-killer.” I walk to the door with the only magnetic card that opens the door from the outside. Mrs. Delacroix won’t wake up for hours to ask for help, and no one will know she is hurt. They will think she is working inside.
The first thing I do when I get out is plaster a naïve and innocent smile on my face again, before I stumble intentionally over another boy’s shoes. I’ve managed to fool them all, but that’s only the start.