The Fandom(69)

‘No, as a matter of fact, I don’t. If you’d seen what I’ve seen, the way the Gems really treat the Imps, you’d soon change your tune.’

‘And maybe, if you were in my shoes, you’d change yours.’

My fists clench in frustration. ‘For God’s sake, Alice. The Gems only treat you like that because they think you’re one of them.’

‘So?’

‘So . . . what happens when you catch a cold, or you start to age like a normal person, or you, I don’t know, you go to a pub quiz and can’t answer all the questions cos your IQ isn’t stupidly high?’

I clearly hit a nerve. She takes a step back. ‘Are you saying I’m thick?’

‘Well you must be if you want to stay here.’ I sidestep her and walk towards the trees, my boots slapping the grass, my body rigid and prickling with rage.

But she runs after me, catching me by the arm. ‘Violet, please try and understand, I’ve never fitted in, not anywhere. This is the first place I haven’t felt different.’

‘Poor Alice. It must be hard being so beautiful.’ I wrench my arm from her grasp.

‘That’s not what I mean.’ She circles in front of me, blocking my path. ‘I’m happy here.’

‘Oh and it’s all about you, isn’t it? Have you even thought about Katie? About what Thorn will do to her when he realizes you’re only here to get naked with Willow?’

Something crosses her face, an expression I can’t quite read. Guilt? Regret? And that’s when I notice for the first time that she no longer wears her split-heart necklace.

The treachery deepens in my gut. ‘You’re not just sabotaging our chances of getting home. You’re risking our lives.’

‘Thorn won’t hurt Katie, he fancies her too much . . . It was clearly just a threat.’

‘You tell yourself that. And you tell Nate, next time some guard tries to hack off his hands, you tell him it was clearly just a threat.’

This unnerves her – her brow knots together. ‘Look, Violet. I know the guards were out of order, but Willow and his family, they’re actually really nice. They would never do anything like that.’

The anger fills every part of me. I think of that boy floating in a tank, hacked in two, and that promise I made Ash seems so very far away. ‘Is that right? So why don’t you ask Willow what he keeps in that bunker at the bottom of the estate?’

She doesn’t look confused, as I anticipated. Her eyebrows don’t pull together, her inky gaze doesn’t falter – she looks sheepish, ashamed.

‘But you already know, don’t you?’ I say.

She looks away, adjusts her sheet. ‘I saw the scars on Willow’s legs, and when I asked him what happened, he told me.’

‘About his dismembered relatives?’ My voice rises.

‘The Duplicates? Yeah.’

I glower at her, daring her to meet my gaze. ‘Calling them Duplicates doesn’t stop them being people.’ I pause, momentarily thrown. ‘Wait. Willow told you? So Willow knows too?’

‘Yeah, course he does. They’re his legs.’

I could punch her right now. I clasp my hands together – a desperate prayer. ‘No. That’s the point, Alice. They’re not his legs.’ I spit out every word to try and make her understand. ‘He. Stole. Them. From. His. Brother.’

‘You’re being melodramatic.’

‘Oh really?’ I’m shrieking now, but I feel so full of rage, so incensed, I’ve lost all volume control. ‘Well maybe you shouldn’t have stopped them amputating Nate’s hands after all. You and your new mates could have had a spare parts coffee morning.’

She steps towards me, her voice calm, like I’m the unreasonable one. ‘Look, Violet. It’s not as bad as it sounds. All of the Dupes are in comas, it’s not like they’re in pain, or even aware they exist.’

‘Oh well, that’s OK then, so long as they can’t look you in the eye when you carve out their vital organs.’

She ignores me, continuing in her balanced tone. ‘And the Harpers built their Dupes a special hiding place to keep them safe.’

‘Yeah, I know. I found it. And believe me, they’re anything but safe.’

‘Calm down, Vi.’ Only Alice could look so collected, so poised, wearing a sheet from my pseudo-boyfriend’s bed, while discussing organ theft. ‘After they heard those rumours about the guards at the warehouses . . . you know . . . fiddling with the Dupes, they built them a special hiding place to keep them safe.’

‘Fiddling . . . as in . . .?’ I slip over my words.

‘God you’re naive. As in sexual stuff.’

I shove my hands over my ears, unable to process this extra information, trying to hold my brain together. ‘Holy crap, Alice. This just gets worse and worse.’ My voice sounds funny, like it’s inside my head. ‘I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say. I don’t know you any more.’ I drop my voice to a low snarl. ‘You disgust me.’ I’ve never spoken to Alice like this, not even when she stuffed my favourite T-shirt down the toilet cos Alfie Peach asked me to the Year Eight disco. Not even when she stole my algebra homework and pretended it was hers and I got detention. I expect her to crumple, to burst into tears.