The House (7 page)

I finished my
toast and scouted the fridge for something else to eat. One of the
problems with such a high metabolism, I’m always hungry. When the
fridge yielded nothing breakfast-like I moved onto the cupboards.
Not feeling like cereal I opened a fresh packet of oats and fetched
the milk from the slightly smaller drinks fridge. There is an art
to making oats, one I’ve never mastered so I ramble through every
time. And every time someone will laugh at me as I stand by the
microwave ready to snatch my food away as soon as it’s done. Maybe
it’s a leftover from the animal instincts. Maybe I’m just always
too hungry to wait the extra half a second.

Eddie had
settled next to James with a small bowl of cereal. It looked like
corn- flakes but there are so many damn variations that I can never
tell which kind. He ate slowly and carefully, not spilling a drop
of milk. I’m not a messy eater but no way could I manage that kind
of neatness. I wondered if he even knew he had it. Everything about
him was graceful, from the way he moved to the way his hair fell on
his face. In a way, it added to the strangeness that had made me
want an exit strategy in the TV room.

He was just too
much and I didn’t know why. His power rode just under his skin like
it would come out at any moment. It played havoc with my head; he
looked so normal and he felt so different. And not necessarily in a
good way; if his power was that uncontrolled then he was dangerous.
It didn’t matter if he had the temper or the mind for violence, it
cloaked him anyway. That was what made me instinctively wary of
him. I’d met more than my fair share of people cloaked in violence
and I didn’t want to add to the list. It was likely to shorten my
life expectancy.

The microwave
beeped and I’d got the very hot oats out and was sitting at the
table before a human could have blinked. Eddie just stared at me
open-mouthed with his spoon halfway to his mouth. He still didn’t
spill anything. Unlike me, who managed to drop the first spoonful
all down my top. In all fairness though, I had been made to jump.
Stripes had snuck up on me.

“Are you going
to keep me hostage here until this is sorted?” She sounded so
innocent, so naïve. She wasn’t. The Stripes I’d met had been hard
and scared but never naïve. It was a ploy, one that worked well
with people she’d never met. The girl looked like a stick insect; I
often joked that she must have an extra storage compartment for her
power because it wouldn’t fit in her tiny frame. Of course the fact
that she dressed like an old-style conservative woman didn’t
help.

“Damn you
Stripes, you made me spill my breakfast.”

“I never made
you do anything. You’re quite capable of spilling your breakfast
without my help.” I scowled at her. “But you didn’t answer the
question.”

“I don’t know,
but now you’ve given me the idea …” I paused for effect. She did a
very good, sad puppy face, which I ignored. “… and it might be nice
to have some girl time.” The sad puppy face disappeared and was
replaced by her sulking face. She looked much younger than her
twenty years when she wore that face. I smiled sweetly in return
and had completely forgotten that we had a newcomer.

“My God, it’s
like being back home with my brother.” We all stared at Eddie; he
had finished his cereal and wore an expression that I couldn’t even
begin to read. Then, as if we’d choreographed it, we all burst into
fits of laughter. The House was indeed very close to a family,
closer than some of its residents had ever had before.

“It is a good
way to live.” I hadn’t realised that Marie had come downstairs; the
large kitchen would start to feel crowded soon. I wasn’t used to
having all of us in the same room. While I hated to wander through
empty room after empty room, it was a bit much to have all of us
together. All six of us now. “Although it does get a bit crowded
around the full moon. Have you settled in well? There are a lot of
empty rooms … you could pick one closer to everyone else if you
prefer?” She was offering him a fresh start, she’d forget about him
not wanting her help, which must have hurt some motherly instinct
in her, and start again. I could never offer anyone that kind of
option. Once I’ve met someone that was it, no do-overs and no
second chances. People always tried to put their best face forwards
but once you’d seen the other side to them you couldn’t un-see
it.

“I am alright
where I am, thank you.” Eddie was the epitome of polite but I
didn’t like his tone. Marie just took a deep breath, nodded and
left the room. I was about to scold Eddie for hurting her feelings
but Hercules beat me to it.

“You will be
nice to Marie or you won’t survive here long,” he growled at
Eddie.

“Is that a
threat?” Eddie asked, his voice raising slightly but never losing
the polite tone that grated on my nerves.

“Would you let
us talk to your mother that way?” I asked to stop Hercules from
saying whatever was on his mind, because it looked like it might
start a fight.

“She’s not your
mother,” Eddie replied.

I saw Hercules
launch himself off his chair, scattering bowls and plates and bits
of food everywhere in his attempt to get to Eddie. The only thing
stopping him was James’ firm grip on his jumper, which looked in
danger of ripping in two. James looked as surprised as I did, more
I think because he’s stopped Hercules’ attack than because Hercules
had attacked. I spoke very slowly and very clearly; if I didn’t
control myself then Hercules wouldn’t be the only one James had to
hold on to. And he couldn’t handle two of us. Well, he probably
couldn’t handle me at all without resorting to more violence than
he had ever shown to us.

“Marie is more
of a mother to us than anyone else. She is our guide, our mentor,
our safe haven. If you wish to remain here you will respect her, or
it won’t be just Hercules attacking you.” My voice was ice cold and
I could feel the chill radiate from me; I felt it touch Eddie
before I realised that I had let some of my control slip. I pulled
it back in and plastered a smile on my face. My power was starting
to worry me with the way it was acting.

“You need to
change … come on, Trix … then we can go out. I haven’t been
shopping in ages.” Stripes took hold of my hand and led me out the
kitchen and up the stairs. My breakfast was all over the floor
thanks to Hercules. “Hercules if you don’t clean that up Marie will
have your neck for it,” she added cheerfully over her shoulder.

I sighed as I
closed my door. Stripes sat like a perfect lady on the edge of my
hot pink bed-sheets. I walked over to my wardrobe, pulling my top
off on the way and tossing it in the vague direction of the wash
basket. I debated what would most annoy Eddie in my wardrobe. I’m
not big on racy clothes but I felt like making him look just to
spite him. After a couple of seconds of indecision I selected a
mock corset top in deep blue.

I took off the
fluffy socks. Boots are no good for shopping; they take far too
long to take off and put back on when trying on clothes. My jeans
just didn’t look right without the boots so I changed them for a
longer pair with more of a flare; they were still tight round most
of me though. I threw on a pair of skin-coloured socks and I was
ready to go.

“You look good
Trix,” Stripes commented. I smiled. Stripes always made me
smile.

“Thanks, I
know.” I tossed my hair for effect and fell onto the bed laughing.
The tension had gotten way past uncomfortable and I couldn’t seem
to do anything else. Stripes still sat on the edge of the bed
smiling, but I could see her fighting off giggles as well.

“Well? Are we
going shopping or what?” I asked before we started to roll around
on the floor in uncontrolled laughter. We could be there for hours
if we started that.

We didn’t see
anyone as we walked down the road to the pods. That’s not unusual;
mostly people don’t spend much time wandering about suburbia. Our
neighbours worked normal hours so they’d long be at work by now,
the children at school and the women at the gym desperately trying
to get rid of that last bit of baby fat that nobody else could
see.

It felt good
to be out of the House. A small tension I hadn’t realised was there
eased from my shoulders as we walked. Maybe it was just being
outside under the almost sun. It looked like it might even come out
today, although it was determinately hiding behind white fluffy
clouds while we walked down the street. It was better than the dark
grey clouds we’d had for the past week and it didn’t look like
rain, yet. I thought of the old adage: in Britain it is either
raining, just stopped raining or about to rain. I didn’t think it
was all quite that bad but it made me smile to think of it. If it
got too much colder we might even be in for some snow. The one
problem with clearer skies was that the temperature dropped.

We used the
communal pods because Marie was worried about security if we all
had our own. The officials would notice our rather odd movements
and start asking questions. It’s not a hardship considering we live
in one of the more affluent areas of Devon and the communal pods
are only five minutes walk away. Honestly, we didn’t use them
enough to justify the expense of having our own anyway.

The garage the pods are kept in is absolutely enormous.
There’re only about ten pods but there’s enough room for at least
twice as many. Each pod has its own charging station and they
looked like square soldiers lined up in their neat rows. We went to
the first two and each swiped our pre-paid cards. They severely
reduced the chance of someone following our movements. I didn’t
even want to think about how many names someone would have to go
through before they could tell who was using them. Although
it
was
a bit of a
pain to have to carry the card; most transactions are done with
fingerprints and iris scans these days.

Each pod is
about a metre square and two metres tall. They run in the tracks
that replaced roads when there wasn’t enough oil to run cars
anymore. The seat felt like it was moulding itself to my shape and
the holographic controls blinked on around the clear
imitation-glass walls. I set the walls to fully transparent and
linked up with the pod that Stripes was using. She gave me a
thumbs-up and I pressed the map view.

Setting the
destination for the nearest shopping centre, I smiled back at
Stripes. It can also be a teensy bit claustrophobic inside,
especially if the walls are set to dark. The pods were the
invention of some CERN scientist back in the day when they realised
that they needed something to run on cheap energy. The pods run on
hydrogen. Originally, they just tried to put hydrogen engines in
old-fashioned cars but it resulted in some nasty explosions so they
developed the pods. I hadn’t even been born then but I’d seen the
pictures. We even had a couple of old cars out back. Marie’s
parents or grandparents had brought them. I couldn’t remember
exactly. It was a long time ago anyway.

The journey to
the shopping centre takes about ten minutes and since our pods were
linked we spent the entire time talking. One wall of my pod
displayed an image of Stripes and one wall of hers an image of me.
It looked and sounded like we were sitting next to each other which
meant that the pods had been upgraded since I’d last used them. I
didn’t remember it being that long ago. I resolved to get out more;
it was all too easy to get so wrapped up in life at the House that
I forgot the rest of the world existed.

The pods
dropped us off at the front of the shopping centre and
automatically parked themselves. I don’t know how people ever got
around without them; Marie tells me the most awful stories of car
parks. I suppose it’s just what you’re used to.

The glass
doors swung open automatically when I swiped my ID card. Stripes
swiped hers on the other door and was admitted without any hassle.
It occasionally worried me that we would be tracked as we shopped
but it wasn’t a big concern. We made sure that anything that could
come even close to giving away our secret went unobserved. We still
sometimes looked around to make sure nobody was watching us, but we
weren’t paranoid. Not yet anyway. It was just too ingrained in us
to be cautious to relax in public.

The entrance
corridor was completely pointless except for advertisement. Both
sides were covered in modern holographic technology which displayed
adverts for anything and everything that you could ever want or
never need. My more sensitive eyes sometimes struggled with the
holograms. They never looked quite like they were supposed to and
it gave me a headache.

Entering the
store itself is a complete change from the outside. The air is
pleasantly cool, but not cold, and gently scented. With our
extra-sensitive noses it can sometimes be too much. I can never
tell what an area is supposed to smell like, none of it is real,
and I don’t think the scientists have quite got the formula right
for all of them. Or maybe if your nose is normal human you can’t
smell the alcohol or other medium underneath everything else. That
was why we never wore perfume; we could just about cope with
unscented antiperspirants.

We headed for
the women’s wear section and started browsing through the jeans. In
my opinion, you can never own too many pairs of jeans or too many
pairs of shoes. Unfortunately, my bank balance has a tendency to
disagree. I could afford a few purchases, and I needed to get a
present for an old school friend, but I couldn’t splash out on
anything. With inflation starting to level out, at least it was
becoming possible to buy basics without too much trouble. Although
everything was still ridiculously expensive.

“You looking
for anything special?” I asked. Stripes isn’t a natural shopper and
never goes out without at least a basic idea of what she wants. I
was just the opposite, often window-shopping. Stripes had the right
idea. Window-shopping is often depressing, just going to look at
things you can’t have. Stupid idea - not that the stupidity of it
ever stopped me.