Dead Ringer *Watty 2016*

Locked

Days of preparement went on monotonously and some people even began to prefer their job over the morning activities, and Larkin was definitely one of them.  She wouldn't get to see Coraleigh until the beginning ceremony of sustainment so she would have to wait on answers until then and anatomy of giving up your organs, how to behave in Cian society, nor Pride in Death seminars excited her.   After cramming their brains full of information in the morning and working their muscles to the breaking point from mid day to nightfall there hadn't been any time to sneak off to the train tunnel again so one month after their first meeting Coraleigh, Larkin was just as stuck and confused.

One day as Larkin and her friends were walking to another boring seminar on why their deaths meant the greater good of society when an attendant stopped them.  "Larkin?"  he asked in a gruff voice.

"Did you need something?"  She answered with more attitude than she had originally intended.

"If not get lost," Wilder said standing up straight to his full height and stepping forward forcefully but he was still not as tall or as large as the attendant.

"I wouldn't be spending my time with you plebs if I didn't," the attendant said and it was only after he spoke that Larkin recognized him as the same attendant from the room the one that wasn't supposed to give her three minutes.

"Then what do you need?"  Briar asked crossing her arms.

The attendant ignored Briar and turned back to Larkin, "I need you to come with me immediately."

"I'm coming with her," Sanders said not as threateningly as Wilder could be but just as serious.

"That's not an option," the attendant said and Larkin freed herself from the questions that entrapped her in her mind for long enough to speak up.

"Its fine Sanders," Larkin wanted to go with the attendant and see what he had to say, she wanted him to be the key to answering a few of her questions.

Her friends still looked skeptical, "I'll be right there Briar, trust me I won't get lost I will see Wilder's big head towering over everyone."

"Yeah chill out," Briar said laughing in a way that only her friends knew was forced, "you know how emotional boys can be," she said to the attendant good naturedly before walking off.

Both boys looked unsure and Sanders kept looking back, "Later Lark," Wilder called with a grin even though his eyes looked worried.  Once they were gone the attendant's hand grasped tightly onto her shoulder.

He pulled her along with her out of the main walkway for plebs and through the administrative building that was only used during the preparement.  "Where are we going?" She asked trying to sound annoyed but not entirely resisting.

The attendant grunted in reply, which told Larkin that she would be given no real answers.  She moved her feet more quickly in an effort to lessen the pressure that his pulling had on her arm.  Finally he pulled her into a small conference room where there was a large metal desk and two metal chairs.  He let go of her arm and turned to lock all six locks along the door.  For the first time since she recognized the attendant Larkin began to grow nervous, no where else in pleb Village did the doors have locks.  "Umm can't we leave that, I'm claustrophobic," Larkin lied.

"No your not," he answered quickly before taking a seat at the other side of the desk.  It was only then that Larkin saw how young he looked, maybe only one or two years older than her.

"Larkin I have to inform you of some tragic news," he said the word tragic but his voice sounded robotic.

Larkin raised her eyebrow questioningly, still not wanting to seem anything but calm and collected.  He continued on, "Collette is dead."

"What?"  Larkin said loudly in complete disbelief.

He flung his hand over Larkin's mouth and began speaking in a whisper, "No one can know this Larkin, and while no one should be near this office it is best if we keep our voices down."

Larkin glared and licked the palm of his hand which he pulled back as if it had been laying on a stove.  "You cannot lick me," he said.

Larkin shrugged, beginning to understand what this news meant for her, she had never heard of a dead Cian before and there was certainly no need for a pleb without a Cian.  "How'd she die?"  Lark asked no longer afraid with her own death most likely hours away.

"We don't discuss such matters," he answered but Larkin could see in his sad, questioning eyes that he had not been told.

"So that's it then?"  She said, "Do I get to say goodbye, or attend the sustainment parties or is it just wham bam off to the guillotine," Larkin didn't know if she was in shock or denial but death suddenly didn't seem scary or sad she was just ready to get it over with.

"Your not going to be killed?" The attendant said with his first honest sounding emotion of the day, "What is with you plebs you're all so suicidal."

"What is with you Cian's you're all so homicidal," Larkin answered still processing the idea that she got to live and still unsure if she believed him.

The attendant smiled at her joke but quickly caught himself and returned to a look of neutral disapproval.  "A Cian has never died so suddenly before," he began to explain, "word of her death would cause widespread panic."

All of the information made sense to Larkin but she couldn't find a solution or even a reason she must be told.  "Larkin we need you to take her place."

"As a Cian?"  She asked even though she clearly understood his meaning. 

He rolled his eyes, "You will  spend the next week undergoing the same modifications that Coraleigh had and learning of life of a Cian, or more specifically Cora's life as a Cian."

"What will you tell my friends?"  Larkin asked confused yet excited by the prospect of her new life.

"Your pleb friends are of no interest to us but the official story is that Coraleigh's organs began to slow down earlier than anticipated and you were taken for immediate sustainment.  That will account for both Cora's absence and your own."  He answered growing sadder with each use of the dead girl's name.

Larkin's questions had all been satisfied so he led her away from the plebs to a train that would take them to Cian City.  As the boarded the train he was careful to lock the door behind her.  "Can't be too careful if you're anything like her."