Hey everyone! This chapter is nearly 2500 words, practically double my usual chapter. But you guys all deserve this for being such amazing fans. I think you'll all enjoy this chapter; I spent a lot of time on it, and I believe it turned out great. For all you CalaMari shippers out there, you'll enjoy this. Next chapter is the one where you'll all turn away and cringe.
Enjoy! "There are pieces of me, small pieces, still in love with a fiction. A ghost living inside a living boy I cannot begin to fathom."
In order to stay awake, I performed mildly exercises, including lunges, pushups, and leg stretching. I also spent a majority of time pacing my room, contemplating the meaning of my dreams.
It was now around four a.m., and I was completely and utterly exhausted. But I continued my routine, which had become robotic; furthermore, it had become easier to remember than how to brush my teeth or comb my hair.
A thought occurred to me that should've occurred much sooner.
What would I do tomorrow night? I couldn't stay awake forever, eventually, my body would shut down, or fall asleep. But I was absolutely terrified to fall asleep. What if the next dream was similar to my meadow dream, but with Maven instead?
Speaking of the devil, at the very same moment, he walked through my door with an alarmed look on his face.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" he whisper- queried, his eyebrows knit together.
I adjusted my position on my bed, from toe touching to having my legs crossed. "I'm scared of what will happen if I do," I answered, averting my gaze to the other side of the room, unable to look him in the eye.
"Why are you scared of sleeping?"
" Dreams. But there more than that. They feel real," I amended. "Bad things happen in my dreams that make me question all I stand for. Who I love," I drawled on. "But of course, you already know all of this, because you're the one that's been doing this to me," the last part comes out in a growl.
"You think I've been drugging you," he nods and chuckles. "I wouldn't do that."
"Well, you're a liar. Since the moment I meant you, you've been lying to me. You lied about who you even were. Everything with you is a lie, therefore I can't trust anything you say or do."
Instead of replying, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pencil.
But in a quick motion, he jabs it into my neck. It wasn't a pencil, but a syringe. I look up at him, "Why?" I croak, my eyes now rapidly becoming droopy.
"I didn't drug this, but you need to sleep. It's important for you to be rested."
"I might dream now."
"I'm sorry," is the last thing I catch.
I shut my eyes, falling back into the soft mattress.
And although I didn't hear anything else, I could swear I felt my hair brushed out of my face and a whisper of a kiss on my forehead.
He kissed me. Not on the lips, but the forehead. But he kissed me.
I wander the halls in search of the labs, hoping to get a sneak peek at their projects, and to find out if they've made something that changes my emotions. Besides for personal benefit, I don't have much reason to spy inside the palace. It's been about a week since the disastrous ball, and I haven't heard anything from the Scarlet Guard. I haven't got the faintest idea of what happened to Kilorn, Cameron, Harrick, Ella or any other members of the guard after my run out of the palace. In the best scenario, most members scattered, making it back to safety, and a couple stayed behind, acting as moles once again for the palace.
I make my way to the science wing, relying on my faulty memory of the palace plan. As much time as I can say I've spent here, I've never had a decent amount of time to explore the expansive building.
I slip into the wing, which immediately transitioned to a sterile white theme, from the warm red and gold patterns. The entrance is large, decorated with chairs and lamps and fake plants, a place for on break workers to relax.
My eyes finally settle upon a door tucked away in the corner, as if it was positioned there to lessen chances of passersby noticing.
After noticing the door with a card scanner, a thought clicks in my brain. This area, aside from the abundance of white, appears to be a common room. At my initial time at the palace, I had no idea there was a science wing, although I had passed this area before, assuming it was nothing out of sorts.
They want it to look like a common room because they don't want anyone to find out what's in there.
I edged closer to the door, ducking behind a fish aquarium when I see a man approach from the window in the door. As he leaves the door, I manage to slip through.
Inside the space is a narrow hallway, not big enough to allow two adults to walk shoulder to shoulder. Down the left side of the hallway, I hear groans and the occasional scream. I cringe at the sound, which reminds me of the sounds I would make when Maven inflicted his clicker on me.
I creep down the hall to the closest room, which I hear no sounds coming from, which gives me the impression nobody is in the room.
I was wrong. A girl about my age is laying flat on a cold metal table that stands about four feet off the ground. Her hair has been completely shaved off, and she has a thin, powder blue hospital gown on, that goes down to her mid thigh.
I tiptoe closer to the girl to get a good look at her, who appears to be sleeping. There's a bright light hanging directly above her, giving her skin an unnatural pale look, causing her to look even more unwell than she already is. The girl's eyes are dull as if to say, "I've lost all hope. The world has nothing for me," and she has large bags under those dull eyes, and her lips look desperately in need of a moisturizer.
"I'm so sorry," I indicate, shaking my head, tears even welling in my eyes. "You don't deserve any of this."
But before I have much time to help her, I hear male voices echoing down the hall, coming towards us.
I begin to panic, looking for a place to hide. But other than the cabinets, there isn't anything else to duck behind, so I begin searching through cabinets to see if any are empty, that the men would have no use to look inside.
At last, I find a barren cabinet and contort myself into it, shutting the door nearly all the way just before the two men come inside the room.
"How are you doing today?" One of the men asks haughtily, not really meaning his question.
The girl tilts her head towards him muttering something on the line of "Go to hell."
The men chuckle, as one of the men retires to a chair in the room's corner, pulling out a clipboard and a pen. The other man walks to the opposite side of the area, entering my blindspot. When he comes out of the corner, he bares a syringe.
"Entry number six. Patient Ella has now lost nearly all of her electrokinesis ability permanently. A couple more injections should permanently take away her ability. Proceeding with injection seven," the man with the needle says, as the second man scribbles notes down on his clipboard.
As he pushes the needle into Ella's neck she screams in agony, despite her weariness. I clamp a hand down over my mouth, preventing me from screaming at the doctors. It didn't occur to me the Ella was the Scarlet Guard's Ella until I heard her scream. It was the exact same scream I heard at the ball when Maven broke her arm. But I kept myself tucked away in the cabinet, fighting the urge to run at the men. But without my electricity, I had no chance of winning against those two men.
So I waited in the cabinet, attempting to block out Ella's cries of pain. I stared into the blackness of the cabinet, it was now all the way closed. At least, here in my cabinet, I didn't have to have the gift and pain of sight. I didn't have to look at Maven's face and have my mind filled with conflicting feelings, I didn't have to look at Ella, and her tired face, and I didn't have to look at the palace, and have one thousand horrible memories rush into my head.
About five minutes later, Ella stopped her yelling and screaming, and I dared to take a peek out.
The pair of scientists exited the room, walking back the way they came. I waited a few seconds before coming out of the cabinet.
Ella's head flicked to my direction. Her dismal eyes studied me, attempting to determine if it was really me.
"Mare?" she whispered hoarsely, her throat terribly dry from her wailing.
"Yes, Ella, it's me," I looked at her frail body once again. "I'm so sorry."
"We're going to get them," she says, then breaking into a long cough.
"Let me get you some water," I respond, rummaging through the cupboards, in search of a cup.
On my third try, I end up finding a vial, meant for chemicals, but it would have to do for now.
Walking over to the sink, I ask Ella "How often do they feed you?"
"Honestly, it's hard to tell. I spend so many lonely hours in this room with nothing to do but think. Sometimes I feel as if time is passing five times slower," she answers, eagerly drinking the water I offer.
"I had no idea you were here," I remark, sitting down in the doctor's chair. "If I had known, I would've killed everyone in the palace to get to you."
"You still have your lightning?" she asks, crinkling her eyebrows.
I let out a laugh, "No, at first I thought I still had them, but when I tried to vandalize the palace, I found that the king was still putting restrictions on my freedom."
"So he's not keeping manacles on you this time?"
"He's trying to prove himself to me. He acts as though he feels terrible for everything he's done, and gives me freedom, to an extent," I say, in a disgusted tone, rolling my eyes. "And the worst part is, that for a while I actually believed him. But after this? That minuscule amount of trust he built with me in the last week is gone," spitting the last words, I stand up from the chair and begin to pace. "But who am I kidding, maybe it was never there in the first place, maybe he has been slipping his new pills into my food."
"You think he's giving you pills to change how you feel about him? Maybe. But I saw the way you looked at him during the ball when I snuck little glances before I was discovered. Perhaps he is drugging you. But instead of creating something, enhancing it."
"I've been asking myself the same thing. And you're right. Deep down, in the depths of your heart, there's still something there. But not anymore. He hasn't changed one bit, and he's been doing science experiments on my friend."
"More than an experiment, Mare. Maven has a goal here, and I think I know what it is, although the doctors haven't told me much. He wants to permanently take your lightning away from you, just like those sick men are doing to me. I don't know why he wants to take away your lightning, but that's my best theory."
I smirk at her theory, settling into a leaning position on one of the cabinets. "He could want my lightning so I would be defenseless against him, I never told you, but Ada came up with a drug that prevents whisper control and also blocks silencers. Maybe her concoction also stops silent stone. Whatever you've been injected with, I think Maven's already started it with me. I can only generate sparks on my fingers."
Ada smiled sadly. "I can't feel the electricity that rushes through the palace. It's not like silent stone. It completely takes away my powers, but without the crippling effect."
"It's like it reverts you back to a common red, forever."
"Exactly."
"I'm going to get you out of here, tonight," I utter these words, simultaneously hatching a plan on how I'll get Ella out of the expansive palace.
"I don't have my lightning, Mare. I'd never make it," she explains, frustrated.
"What if we could get your lightning back? Think about it, they must have a cure, in case something went wrong, and your body began reacting strangely as if you were infected with a disease. After all, I highly doubt his majesty would risk killing me with his pilot drug."
Ella's eyes went wide with hope. "You're right, I actually think there might be something," she recalled, aiming to remember something that had become nearly forgotten. "After the first time, they administered the drug, I felt so sick and began shaking, to the point I was practically seizing. The doctors began to panic, yelling about how they needed to get number one-point-five, they called it. After they injected it, I felt better, and I could feel the electricity through the silent stone again. They hadn't only stopped the sickness but had also restored my lightning. Since then they've been giving me a new drug. It takes away my lightning, but it doesn't make me sick."
"Then I suppose we need two-point-five, then."
"Yes, I need that. I don't want to lose my lightning," she explained, her eyes welling with tears. "I know it sounds silly, but my gift- it's become part of who I am."
"No, it doesn't sound silly. I know exactly what you mean. Neither one of us is going to lose our lightning, and I have a plan."