Paths Cross

{11}

A few days later, I guessed, I woke up in a stark white room with bright lights that blinded me.

I shielded my eyes from the light, my eyes burning as I blinked them open and closed.

I opened my eyes again from being shut, just to find a young woman hovering over me with a needle.

"Woah!" I cried, sitting up. "What's going on?"

The woman tried to push me down again, but someone stopped her.

"She doesn't need to be put asleep again," the voice said, sounding like it belonged to a stern woman.

The woman with the needle stepped away from me, revealing a tall woman behind her, with a blonde hair and a pantsuit on.

President Jenkins.

My aunt.

"After all, she has been asleep for a number of weeks." She stepped closer to me, her heels clicking on the floor.

Weeks? I thought. What has she done to me in that time...

"Why did you kill my parents in that mass shooting ten years ago?" I asked, glaring at her.

Jenkins laughed. "Dear, you ask me the same question every time me meet back up." She leaned into me. "Because. They, along all of the others that were killed, hated me as ruler." She pulled back, running a knuckle along my jaw. I jerked, trying to pull away, but the bed I was sitting on pulled with me and metal dug into my wrists. I looked down. I was handcuffed.

She let go of me, walking over to one of the data screens and tapping it.

"So, I see you made contact with the other felon. Are you two close?"

"Felon? He did nothing. He's completely innocent." I paused, tears coming to my eyes. "And yes, we're close. Very. You took him away from me." I looked over at her, my eyes beginning to blur. "Why? Why do you hate me? Why did you take him away from me? He's the only one I have left," I said, my voice beginning to break and my heart beginning to beat faster. I looked down, sniffing, trying to keep away the tears.

"I know. And because your parents hated me." Jenkins continued to stare at the screen. "Every question you ask is self-explanatory." She smirked. "Such a simple mind. But at the same time, not." Jenkins turned to me, her eyes alit with fire. "You escaped the mass shooting I ordered on your family and everyone else when you were six years old. How?"

"I can't tell you."

She narrowed her eyes at me, turning back to the the screen slowly. "Well, I have some news for you." She tapped the screen a few times, bringing her to a page with a bunch of text on it. "Running several tests on you, it seems you've taken on another being on your way."

"What? What are you talking about?" I asked, confused.

"Well," she said, turning around, "I'm saying: you're about six weeks pregnant. We found out last night."

"What?" I repeated, my heart picking up speed. I could feel it pumping in my chest. "I..."

"Which means we have to delay your execution about eight months. After the delivery of the child, you'll be killed immediately. The father will take it and raise it, while monitored. Let me just say..." She walked over to me, leaning down. "You got lucky," she whispered.

As she walked over to the exit, I stopped her.

"Wait," I said. "You're letting Jesse go, then?"

"Soon enough." She stepped out of the room. "Meet you in the interrogation room, Nina Rokhlin."

Jenkins disappeared, and I slumped, starting to cry. I lost Jesse, we gained a child, and Jesse and the child would soon lose me, too.

Even though I had been running all my life, I wanted to run away again, with Jesse and our baby, away where we could live a normal life.