The Baby Project

Chapter Five

~North~

This baby was fucking weird. I felt like it was watching me. Jade had wanted to come over, even before I saw the expression on Sang's face I wasn't going to let her. She pissed me off the way she treated Sang.

"NORTH!" I heard a high pitched voice call out from the park bench where I had left her.

I wanted to just ditch her but I had forgotten my jacket on the bench. Fucking baby and it's creepy

eyes.

I looked down at it, it's eyes were the same reflective plastic as earlier but something more was too it. It reminded me of the camera's set up in my house.

A sense of dread washed over me as I knelt down with the plastic doll, Asteriskos. A smile spread across my lips despite how creeped out I was, Sang had been given the job to name the baby and to my utter surprise, she had chosen a Greek word.

It meant little star.

I shook myself and focused on the doll, I tore apart the back panel that held the chip that made the baby cry and poop and other things.

The inside of the babies panel was filled with far more wires than I could figure out, and quite frankly I wasn't a tech nerd. That was Victor's job.

Grunting I put the panel back on the doll and stood up, I felt for my phone in my front pockets and almost growled when I realized I had left them in the pocket of my jeans.

As I rounded the corner to spot Jade I saw her trying to put my phone back in my pocket.

"The fuck?!?!"

So far I had been pleasant to her... well sorta. But this was it. I didn't care what Blackbourne said about it, I wasn't dealing with Jade anymore.

I marched over and snatched my phone out of her hands, she looked scared and I didn't care, I didn't care about her. I cared about Sang, not this bitch.

Pulling up the call log I saw that she had just spoken to Sang, what had she said?? I turned to her, rage bubbling up to the surface.

"I swear to god, if you told her anything fucked up, you will regret it. You don't mean anything to me, and I want you to quit pretending otherwise. You are just a stuck up floors who thinks she can manipulate everyone. Well you can't, so get the fuck away from me, and stay far away from Sang."

Jade jumped up, surprisingly fast considering her jeans were probably cutting off circulation and her feet would fall off at any second.

"I... it dropped... I..." she stuttered and I glared heatedly at her.

Taking the cue she turned and ran, running right into an older police officer, her purse fell out off her hands along with a few plastic baggies with drugs.

I had seen some residue on her shirt earlier. I was going to investigate but this just made it easier on me. I didn't have to get involved.

The officer lifted and eyebrow and bent down to pick the purse and contents up, he studied a bag and then talked into his radio.

The bitch was busted. Good.

With a smirk I turned towards my phone, I texted Victor to meet me at my his house and to bring Sang. I was putting on my coat and watching the officer cuff Jade when I got a reply.

Victor: I'm bringing Luke home and Silas is coming with. Dropping Gabriel off at his place.

Jade started struggling and she looked panicked. She kept gesturing widely and I could hear her useless screeching from where I stood.

"UNHAND ME YOU BASTARD! I have done nothing wrong, it's not illegal, it's not illegal.. "

She continued repeating the same statement and I shook my head, maybe she was trying to convince herself. Or maybe it really wasn't illegal. It didn't look like the same old street shit you see on a day-to-day basis. Not that I saw a lot of drugs but it's my job to stay informed about what goes on at the school. Hendricks was really missing me off with pulling Sang from classes so she could spy on us.

I spotted a stray baggie on the ground and picked it up, I pocketed it while thinking of a contact I could ask a favor from. Maybe they knew what this shit was.

With one last glance at Jade i put the doll in the saddle bag. It freaked me out. At first I had taken everything seriously, as if it was a real baby. But the more I spent looking at it the more I felt uncomfortable.

What had Jade told Sang?

*****

~Sang~

North had texted Victor a few minutes after I got the call from Jade. We all piled in Victor's car and drove out towards Luke's house.

After saying goodbye to Gabriel, who threatened to hurt anyone if they didn't let me hold the baby at least once today. The truth was, I didn't want to hold Amira. She had started to scare me. I kept feeling like I was being watched.

When I was passed her I swore I heard a faint ticking but I passed it off as the radio.

But then again I had an odd childhood, before my mother was diagnosed I had had dolls to play with. It was normal before the doctors found my mother's cancer, it was only afterwards that she started getting paranoid. Keeping me and Marie inside and slowly isolating me and Marie from

the world beyond our front door. It had been a slow process, keeping us from playing with the neighborhood kids, saying no to going over to other's houses.

After a while it was just expected, there wasn't one occasion when it happened. It evolved until I couldn't remember the last time we had had our last real day. I couldn't remember which days my mother had been truly herself and which days the raging sickness in her mind had started to take control.

My thoughts drifted back to Marie, I hadn't seen her in a while. Maybe when I got home I would check on her. Hadn't Kota said she'd been drinking? What if she got into other stuff, experimented pills and alcohol? I still remember that day, when her eyes filled with pure joy over the fact that I was naked, in a closet.

It didn't matter though, she was my sister. It didn't matter how much blood we shared, if any at all, Marie was my sister and I wouldn't abandon her.

Luke pulled me out of my thoughts when he dropped an arm around my shoulders, he squeezed my opposite arm and hugs me.

"I'll see you on the flip side, Sang," with that he got out of the car and walked to the front door.

"Silas?"

"Aggele mou?"

"What does flip side mean?" I asked.

He chuckled and moved so he could see me, he was up front the Victor who was smiling and fiddling with the radio.

"It's just an expression."

I nodded like one understood and he faced the front again.

I looked down at Amira, the ticking had returned and I could decipher if it was on some unknown timer or what.

Soon, we met North out front and his dark, brooding eyes captured mine through the windshield. He walked around and opened the door for me, I was about to say hello when he snatched Amira from my hands and started pulling off her back panel.

What was he doing? Was he crazy? No he wasn't crazy. Maybe he had seen me give the doll creeper out looks.

Sometimes I did. Sometimes I looked at it as if it was a spider hanging from a web, dangling right in front of my face. I big, fat, hair brown one that you could clearly see the fangs.

Victor and Silas both got out, shooting each other looks, they didn't know what was going on?

Whatever North was looking for he found it within seconds.

"Fucking shit," he grabbed my hand and towed me to Victor's house.

"What's going on?"

Silas shut the doors and Victor locked the car up.

North looked over his shoulder briefly, addressing Victor's question, "the babies are rigged, I think. I want you to look at them, see what all they've been doing. I shut them off for now but you have to remember, has anyone done any academy business with the stupid doll present?"

I instantly felt bad, and relieved. So the baby did have something wrong with it, I wasn't turning paranoid like my mother. But I also felt bad, Victor had spent around 500 dollars on baby things.

Victor and Silas were both silent, North took that as answer, "me too."

I stayed near North as we made our way up to Victor's room, I didn't know if Victor's parents were home but I didn't want to meet his dad again, even if they were home.

Victor sat in his chair at his Dragon desk and I sat near him, North looked at the backwards clock and tilted his head, "it's backwards"

"Yup," Victor didn't glance up from North's baby as he picked her apart, looking for something.

I looked around, eyes landing on North.

"Where is Jade?"

North's dark eyes flashed and caught mine in a starring competition, "Sang Baby, I don't like Jade. I never have. I never will. I only lo- care about one girl, and she's always neck deep in trouble. "

I saw Victor's shoulders tense for a moment at the beginning before they soothed out at the end, what was that about?

Silas came and wrapped an arm around my waist from behind, he lifted me up and sat down before placing me on his lap. His arms only tightened around me once I was sitting.

It felt like North had taken a big weight off my shoulders, I felt light for the first time since this project. But that all faded when I heard Victor swore.

What was wrong?

Victor pulled a timer out of the first baby, it had about forty seconds left. All of the boys looked at another wide eyed.

"Aggele mou, stay," the order in his voice was unmistakable.

All three boy's slept to their feet and ran out of the room, North stayed by the door, like my own personal guard.

Was there a bomb in the baby? I looked at the desk and saw the rest of the baby insides. There was two cameras on the desk, and one microphone.

A few seconds later I heard the unmistakable boom of something blowing up, North looked relieved. I heard Silas and Victor's footsteps walking back as they talked in hushed voices. North's eyebrows furrowed, he walked away from the door, towards the other boys.

In their absence I heard a faint ticking.

I saw Asteriskos on the table right before the explosion, and then my senses abandoned me.

The force pushed me back and I crashed into the wall, falling to the floor, the room was on fire and my vision was blurry. Mumbled voices broke through the deafening roar of flames, but I couldn't make out what they were trying to say.

Despite the warmth I felt trickling through my hair, I felt peaceful.

The edges of my visions darkened until I fell into a dark abyss.