Outlier

The Termination

It was nearly midnight. After Jace had left the hospital, she had gone back to her father, who'd told her she couldn't go home that night, for security reasons. She'd happily complied, but in the end she was sent to the Biltmore, in the Paradise Wing with the delegates from earlier.

Which also meant Jace wasn't far away.

Venus was lounging on her bed when she received a call. She glanced at the screen of her mobile, lighting up obnoxiously, and groaned.

Incoming call from Marty, the screen read. She hid under the covers until the ringing subsided.

Slowly, she emerged. She almost wanted to take the device for a dip in the pool so she wouldn't have to deal with the way she felt whenever she thought about Marty. Suddenly, that idea seemed highly tempting.

She pocketed her room key and marched out of the suite, her mobile clutched in her fist. It lit up again, chiming merrily. She swiped to the left to hang it up, and proceeded down the lavish, carpeted hallway to the elevators. A thought occurred to her- what if she just dropped it down the shaft, through the space between the elevator and the floor?

She mashed the button for the elevator. As the doors opened, she pinched the phone between her fingers, ready to drop it.

"What are you doing?"

Venus jumped back a bit, her mobile clattering to the ground. She hadn't noticed who had been in the elevator, nor had she noticed that there was anyone in the elevator at all. It was Jace, his hair dripping, a towel slung across his shoulders, smelling strongly of chlorine. He must've just came up from swimming.

He stepped out of the elevator and picked up her mobile as the doors closed behind him. His eyes were narrowed at her, clearly scrutinizing her for doing something so odd. She couldn't blame him.

Her mobile rang in his hand. She made to snatch it from him, but he held it out of her reach.

"Were you trying to get rid of this? Do you know how expensive this is?"

Venus jumped in an attempt to grab her mobile, but Jace only held it high in the air, using his height to his advantage.

"Give it to me!"

"Why, so you can drop it down the elevator shaft? How about you donate it to someone less fortunate if you don't want it?"

It was still ringing loudly, blaring some pre-programmed tune. Jace wrinkled his nose and covered one ear with his free hand.

"God, I hate noise." He muttered, and swiped right to answer the call.

Venus tried even harder to grab it from him, but Jace began to walk away on his long, long legs, and Venus struggled to catch up.

"Hello?" A pause. Then, "Jace Lloyd, Venus's husband to be. Who are you?"

While jogging to keep up, Venus waved her hand in front of her neck. Hang up, she mouthed. And don't call yourself my husband to be!

"Venus is busy. I'll take a message for her if you'd like."

She heard Marty's voice, tinny and quiet at this distance, and unintelligible as well. Just as well, she thought. Hearing what he has to say would only dampen my good mood even more.

Jace stopped walking, then, and stared down at Venus, that odd smile from earlier on his face again, and the same hunger she saw in his eyes was present just as before.

"I see. Well, I'll be sure to pass it along. I'll be hanging up now."

As he withdrew the mobile from his ear, Venus heard Marty say, Wait. Jace put the mobile back to his ear again.

"Yes?" Whatever Marty was saying made his smile grow even wider. "Oh, don't you worry. Anyway, goodbye. I suppose I'll see you at tomorrow's ceremony, right? The only Oriental." Jace laughed. "Have a good night."

When the mobile was tossed into her waiting hands, Venus began to walk back to her room.

"Don't you want to know what he told me?" He called after her.

Venus turned around and glared at him. "Does it look like I want to know?"

"Absolutely," Jace said. "Your boyfriend told me that his sister's been formally charged and was taken away by the police for supposedly attacking Governor Calinao, and that they'll be questioning her tomorrow at the Collection Day ceremony. He wants you to speak on her behalf. He sounded panicked."

Venus lowered her gaze to her feet, fidgeting. "He's not my boyfriend." She mumbled.

"You really don't think things through, do you? Either that, or you're not as tough as you thought you were. It may even be both."

She didn't reply.

"Oh, come on. I know what you did. You didn't have to do it."

"Shut up."

Jace caught up to her easily and put a hand on her shoulder. "When they scan her, and it comes up that she's not an Anomaly, what will you do?"

She shrugged off his hand and kept walking.

"Collection Officials are very familiar with warping, Venus."

She turned and gave him a foul stare. "Shut up!" She repeated. "Shut up, or I'll make you shut up!"

Jace raised his eyebrows. "Are you threatening me? Would you really hurt me?"

Venus withdrew a bit. "You were talking out of turn."

"Out of turn?" He laughed. "Alright, I see where this is going. You want to be with your father? Fine, I won't stop you. Consider our engagement off."

He began to walk in the opposite direction, Venus catching a whiff of the chlorine hanging off of his body. She frowned.

"What about helping me?" She called after him.

Jace paused. He looked back at her, his eyes looking somewhat slanted, like an Oriental's would. "Think of it this way," he told her, shaking out his hair. Sparkling droplets of water rained down on the carpet around him. "If we got hitched, I would have custody over you, which means that I could do whatever I wanted with you. Being a Governor, that includes protecting you from prosecution for being what you are. But that's all down the drain now."

"What are you talking about? Governors can't save anyone from Collection."

"Oh? What makes you so sure?"

Her chest began to heave. Her lips were dry with the air that passed between them. "Because my father couldn't save her. He couldn't save my mother."

Jace had really turned around, now; he wasn't just looking sideways anymore. He took the towel from around his shoulders and put it over his hair. "He couldn't, or he wouldn't?"

Venus only stared at him.

"Do you want another chance?" He drawled.

"You're such a liar," she hissed. "You're a slimy man, you know that? I've half a mind to rifle through your head and-"

"Do it, Venus," he murmured, his eyes glinting. "Why don't you do it? Look into my mind and see the truth. See what I want with you."

His eyes were wide and filled with hunger again. It sent shivers down her spine. He took a step towards her, and then another. It occurred to Venus that if she read his mind, she'd regret it. Rather than stay another moment, she ran to her suite, swiping her room key over the sensor and practically falling past the door. She locked it and looked through the peephole, heart beating frantically out of her chest. She'd half expected Jace to be standing in front of her door, but he wasn't.

Hesitantly, she unlocked the door and peered outside. The hallway was empty- deserted, and Jace was gone, as if he'd never been there in the first place. Only the faint scent of chlorine lingered in the air, soon to disappear, like the proposition she'd so confidently turned down.

She was already beginning to regret her decision.