Scrambling sounds from the entrance made me turn around, though there wasn’t much room in this place, and I couldn’t move as fast as I wanted to. The stranger was sliding his way into the hole in the tree, and I got a good view of him this time, since the candlelight was surprisingly bright.
First his shoes and legs came down as he inched his way inside, dirt falling down around him. Heavy, scuffed work boots and ripped blue jeans. Then a torso followed, lean and muscled under a dirty blue t-shirt. When his head and shoulders finally appeared I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped my lips.
His features were dark, tanned skin, an angled jawline covered in black stubble and thick brows. He looked like Cain.
I scrambled back against the wall, tree roots digging into my shoulders as I pressed myself against the packed dirt. Anger flooded through me. He was one of them, and I’d been dumb enough to follow him right into this place. Glancing around wildly, I knew there was no way out. It was too small, too cramped, there was only one exit and entrance and the Cain look-alike was sitting in front of it.
“Woah, hey…” The stranger held up both hands. “It’s not like that. I didn’t bring you here for any kind of nefarious purposes. I just want to help.”
“You’re…you’re one of them. You look like him.”
“Yeah,” the stranger muttered. “Cain, I know.”
“So…who are you?”
“I’m Elijah, Eli for short. I’m his brother.”
It felt like something had knocked the wind out of me. Cain had a brother. And I’d managed to get Fiske and I trapped ten feet below the earth with him. Brilliant. It was tempting to pull the same trick I had with the nasty guard outside my cage. I could feel the water in Eli, could feel the way it moved through his extremities, how it held him together. It would be the work of a second to pull him apart. But the closer I looked at him, the less afraid I became.
He might share features with his brother, but he was nothing like Cain. Cain was neatly put together. His hair done with jell, his clothing immaculate. And he was completely serious every time I’d seen him.
Eli was different. His hair was longer, and it fell over his eyes and curled slightly around his ears. It was messy, and I was pretty sure there was dirt in it right now, probably from wiggling himself past the entrance in the tree trunk.
His clothing was ripped and torn and wrinkled, and there was something about his face too, besides a few smudges of dirt. He smiled more freely than Cain, and his eyes - though they were dark like his brother’s – had a sparkle in them that spoke of mischief.
They looked so similar at first glance, but then…even I could tell that they were nothing like one another. Not to mention the fact that Cain was living in the lab, doing the old man’s bidding, and Eli was living out here in a tree. There had to be a hell of a story behind that.
While I’d been examining Eli, he’d been doing the same to me. “Did you know you’re covered in blood?”
“Yeah, I know.” I glanced down at the weird hospital gown I was wearing. Of course, I hadn’t realized I was covered in quite so much. It was soaked right through, it was like I’d painted the fabric red. Nasty.
“I have clothing in the back,” Eli said. “It won’t fit you well, but it’s better then walking around looking like Carrie.”
“What?” I frowned at him, puzzled. “Who’s Carrie?”
“Uh, nothing. Old movie reference. I guess you Jotun don’t watch much TV.”
The words “you Jotun” made me want to punch him. He sounded too much like Cain. Eli must have guessed he’d said something wrong by the look on my face, because he held up both hands again.
“Sorry, didn’t mean it like that. Look, are you okay? Do you need food or water?”
“You have food?” For the first time since I’d run from the lab, I realized just how famished I was, and when Fiske gave a low moan from where he was lying in the corner, I started guiltily. They hadn’t even been feeding him.
“Fiske needs food,” I said hastily. “Badly. They didn’t feed him in there.”
Eli’s face went dark, and for a moment he looked almost exactly like Cain. He stood up, at least, as much as he could stand up when the roof was so low, and shuffled his way past me, towards the back of the dirt cave. When he moved past I was surprised to catch the faint scent of campfire smoke. So he cooked over a fire on the surface and then brought food back down here? There were too many questions to keep quiet.
“What are you doing here in the woods? If you’re Cain’s brother, why aren’t you in the lab with him?”
“I was.” Eli almost disappeared as he walked further into the cavern, just out of range of the nearest candles, so all I could see was a silhouette as he moved about. “But I only lasted a month. I couldn’t stand seeing what they did to people, never mind do any of it myself.”
“How did you and your brother get involved with these people, anyways? What kind of weird sway does that sick old man hold over you? Or do you just really hate being half Jotun?”
Eli didn’t answer for a few seconds. When he came back into the circle of light thrown by the candles, he looked bemused. “Are we that obviously part Jotun?”
“Does that bother you?” I shot back.
“No.” He set something down in front of Fiske, a huge chunk of dried meat. “Not anymore.”
I was about to say something else, the heat of anger rising in my chest, but as I watched Eli help Fiske up in order to eat the dried meat, the anger fizzled out. “So…you didn’t answer my other question? What does the old man hold over Cain? Who is that guy?”
Eli came back and sat across from me. He put a bundle of cloth beside me, a checkered shirt that was a million sizes too big, and pair of sweat pants. I was more interested in the food though, eyes going to his other hand. My stomach was rumbling like crazy.
Folding his legs, Eli placed a small wooden box on one knee. He opened the lid, revealing smaller chunks of dried meat. I could smell it now. Smoked fish. It was making my mouth water.
“That guy is our grandfather.”
Maybe Eli had been expecting shock at his big reveal, but I wasn’t even slightly surprised. I just nodded and took the handful of dried meat he was offering me. “So that’s why Cain feels like he has to prove something to him. So, why is your Grandfather on this mad quest to wipe out his own genes?”
Eli shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
In the moment of silence after this statement I took the opportunity to shove a handful of meat into my mouth. It was smoky and sweet and aboslutely delicious. We both sat still, and I realized I could both hear muffled shouting from overhead, though there was no sign of the light from flashlights. Eli had put the branches back over the entrance to our hiding spot.
I looked at him pointedly. “I think we’re going to be here for a while.”
“Right.” He shifted, getting more comfortable on the dirt floor. “I guess I sort of owe you an explanation anyways. The way Jotun genes work is usually predictable. You either get enough of them that you display the traits, or you don’t, you stay human. But in some cases, odds are it’s like one in every million cases, something goes badly wrong. The genes attack your own body.”
My eyes were wide. “What? I’ve never heard of that.”
“Probably because you spend all your time with full blooded Jotun.” There was a hint of bitterness in Eli’s voice. “It isn’t an issue that ever comes up for you. Anyways, when this happens, the genes attack their own body, and that person either freezes to death, or burns up from the inside out.”
“You’re joking me.” It was hard not to be critical at this point. Maybe he was lying to try to gain my trust and sympathy.
“Not at all. Ever hear of spontaneous human combustion? It’s because they’re not quite human. But like I said, it rarely happens.”
“But…” I badly wanted him to finish the story. I was beginning to see where this was going.
“But it happened to my father, shortly after my mom had Cain and I. He just froze to death. He got colder and colder, and there was nothing we could do about it. My grandfather was a doctor, and one of the best scientists in Canada, and yet…he couldn’t save my father. He had to watch him slowly freeze to death.”
I was getting chills, like a tiny bit of that frost was creeping over my skin. To have your own body turn on you…to kill you with your own powers a little bit at a time…the idea was terrifying. “I’m so sorry.”
Eli shrugged again. “Cain and I were too little to remember it happening, but grandfather does. I think it drove him a little mad. He started this company, and set up base here, in the middle of nowhere. He’s determined to find a way to make us fully human, so it can’t happen to anyone else.”
“If he’s so determined to save you, then why are you out here living in the woods?”
Eli frowned, the glitter in his eyes extinguishing. “This quest of his to find a cure has taken over everything. It’s become “the greater good” and all else falls by the roadside. Including family. Our grandmother left him years ago.” He shifted uncomfortably, dropping his eyes to the ground between us. “I was a coward, I should have left when she did, but I was afraid. I was afraid I would die the same way my father did. It’s amazing what atrocities you can make excuses for when you think you’re going to die.”
I remembered the tone of Cain’s voice when he’d been talking to the old man, his grandfather, frustration and pent-up anguish. He was torn between knowing all of it was wrong morally, and his fear of death.
“One day it was too much for me,” Eli said. “I told my grandfather off. I called him all sorts of awful names. Told him he was cruel, that he was a monster. Then I said I was going home, and I was going to call the paper and tell them everything, including the location of this place.” Eli dropped his head, his hair falling over his eyes. When he laughed, it was a bitter, sharp sound. “Not the smartest move on my part.”
My chest was tight just listening to his story. When I spoke, my voice was small, swallowed by the cool earth around us. “What happened?”
“He couldn’t let me ruin everything, of course.” Eli offered me the box of dried fish again, and when I shook my head he shut it with a snap and put it to one side. His rueful smile was back, like what he was about to say was no big deal. “He ordered the guards to take my car keys away, and lock me up in one of the rooms. Said he’d deal with me later, whatever that meant.”
“What did you do?” I said softly.
“I ran.” His eyes glittered, the candlelight revealing the glassy sheen of tears. Eli blinked quickly, ducking his head again. “They still search for me every day. Sometimes he sends Cain out to look for me.”
I was almost breathless now. How was it that I barely knew this person, and yet I felt sorry for him? His family had committed atrocities against my people, and yet I felt the need to comfort him. “Do you think Cain would…?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t look up. “I don’t know. I ask myself that every day.”