So first off...since there was confusion regarding the last chapter:
Basically, Dana's dad was lying about what had happened to Collin. He had a reason, but neither Dana nor Luna know it yet. The Seekers kept a list of everyone they found after the initial wave of Souls, which Collin should've been on if he were taken. But he wasn't.
Secondly: This chapter is like 600 words. It is very short. And it's also not my favorite chapter.
Chapter 11
We were back in the hospital. I was sitting on one of the cots, trying to tear my eyes away from my sleeping Seeker. I could feel Dana reaching towards her, trapped.
"The procedure will take place tomorrow. We need to secure a storage tank first." Healer Flames said, looking down at me.
I nodded silently, surprisingly appalled by the thought of being put back into a cryotank. The small space combined with the unawareness that accompanied hibernation that was not appealing to me.
"Will I have a chance to say goodbye to…some people?" I wanted a chance to see Star Blanket. I wasn't sure why. I just felt this strong urge to explain everything that was happening, how fast life on this planet seemed to move.
Fallen Flower laughed. "It's unnecessary. We'll have a new Host for you soon after the procedure."
"Oh." Fallen Flower quite possibly made me more uncomfortable than my Seeker. They were both very similar, in many ways. Sweet, trusting faces that were barely an inch thick.
"You'll barely even notice the transition, Luna," Healer Flames said comfortingly, "We can forget Dana ever happened."
I nodded again, searching my head for the remaining voice of my Host. She was being oddly quiet.
I awkwardly shifted around in my hospital sheets, feeling as if everyone's eyes were on me.
Can you…Can we go see your Seeker? She asked softly, reappearing in my mind.
Why?
You know what? Never mind. She snapped. I shrugged at her angry outburst.
"You can head back to your room, Luna. You've had a rough night," Healer Flames said, breaking the silence.
"We'll have a Seeker positioned outside your doorway, just in case," Fallen Flower chimed in. I smiled tightly.
"Thank you."
[xXx]
I could feel Dana's fear regarding my removal. She was scared – terrified, actually – to die. To die completely, her body discarded, into the incinerator. I felt her cringe.
It's painless. You won't be aware when you are discarded.
She didn't respond.
I felt like I had been bouncing up and down on my bed for hours. I was very anxious, for some reason. The large, muscular Seeker positioned outside my doorway made me feel uneasy.
Suddenly, I leapt to my feet and began pacing around my mirror. I didn't understand why humans reacted to stress with pointless movement.
I felt the mood inside Dana shift from fear…to something else.
I…I have to get out of here, Dana breathed.
What?
I have to get out of here! Her voice was wild.
Calm – Calm down Dana, I said, suddenly afraid.
No! She screamed. An all-too familiar pounding came back, this time more menacing.
Let me out!
I can't! I cried as the pain intensified. I fell to my knees, eyeing the Seeker, who was completely unaware of the war inside my head.
Let. Me. Out! With each word the pain worsened, from burning to searing to torturous. I felt hot, salty tears slipping down my cheeks.
Everything started to break way, jumbling into crushed pieces of sentences.
I felt Dana's presence more than I ever had.
And just like that, my thoughts liquefied into
a place where Dana's thoughts were mine and
mine were hers and we shared
memories
and then the pain –
there was so much pain – but it started to drain away but I was still
stuck
here, frozen in this strange
confused
state, where Dana's entire life was just
one
long sentence
and the only sounds I could hear were the whirring of some unseen wind ant the steady rhythm of our
heartbeat
and I could feel her pain
but it was a different kind of pain, not like the kind that she gave to me
in my head,
not like the pounding,
no, it wasn't that kind of pain,
pain in her
heart
for all the people that she had lost
and all the people who thought they'd lost her
and maybe they did lose her
and I saw all of the things she never got to do
how she imagined them
and I knew all of the things that she never got to tell people
about how mad she was, at her dad for
lying
about Collin
I felt her anger and resentment
because Dana liked Collin
a lot
maybe even
loved
him
and Dana thought he was
dead
when he wasn't
and she had her suspicions about why her father would
lie
but she still wasn't quite sure
why
he did it
and she wanted to tell her mother that she loved her
and it was so unfair it made her want to scream because
her mother wasn't
lost,
she was completely
alive
because she was
resistant,
just like me – or Dana – it didn't seem to matter because we seemed like
the same person
anyway her mother was alive
inside my Seeker
yes
yes, that's who she had been this whole time
Carrie Hatch, my beautiful golden-haired mother
who looked like an angel
and sang like one too
and we would all gather in the living room
before the invasion
and we would dance and laugh as the fireplace crackled and ashy smoke billowed out from the chimney
and by the firelight
Dad would play his cello
making fast and quick dancing music
and my mother would tilt her head to the side and let her hair swoop over one shoulder and she would sing
and watch her children dance
but she was alive and it was so unfair
and then I realized that Dana was hurt
hurt and confused
but she was mostly confused
and also angry
so angry
at me
partly because I could feel everything now
because I was her and she was me
and also because that's just what Dana was
that's what she was made of:
anger
confusion
and a tiny, tiny thread of
hope.
Sooo. There's my chapter, that doesn't really even count as a whole chapter. It's like a half-chapter.
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