Void

Ch. 15- Torture

"Have you ever been in love?  Horrible isn't it?  It makes you so vulnerable.  It opens up your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.  You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you...  Love takes hostages.  It gets inside you.  It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness...It hurts.  Not just in imagination.  Not just in the mind.  It's a soul-hurt, a real-gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart-pain.  I hate love."  ~Neil Garmal

Chapter Fiveteen- Torture

August 4th 3012, 12:37pm

Today was the day.  Today was the day.  The group was supposed to be coming back.  The mood in the mall was nervous mostly.  After five days of being without family or loved ones, everyone was anxious to have them back.  There had been no communication and no one knew if the five boys were dead, a void, or on their way home.

Today was the day.  Jaxon was hopefully going to be coming home.  Everyone was.  All of them.  They would drive up in the unmarked white van with five passengers and enough supplies to last the resistance at least a month and a half.  We would all relax and be happy that they all made it.

The last few days were easy on me.  Brantley still felt awful about the last drug test, so he took it easy on me.  As a matter of fact I hadn’t taken the pills for days. There were no more fights amongst me and the resistance members and I felt as though I was finally becoming tolerated.  My gate was no longer brought down and locked at night and I could walk around the mall without an escort.  Claire had given me some clothes that I could keep and I had regular kitchen duty with her and Leon.

Suddenly I heard footsteps running closer to my open doorway.  A few seconds later Claire appeared in the door way.  She was huffing and puffing with her hands on her knees and her head down.

“Here…pill…van…driving…”  She huffed out taking a breath in-between each word.  “Oh god, I can’t breathe.”  She exhaled, sounding exasperated.  She held out pinched fingertips with a small white pill sandwiched between her thumb and index finger.  “The van is driving towards the mall, take this.”  She said having finally caught her breath.

I reached out and took the pill from her and took the small pill with ease.  Her hand wrapped around my healed wrist and pulled me in quickened steps towards the door that Josh had opened when I first arrived at the mall eleven days ago.  As the pill took affect I started running too.  Eventually Claire was able to let go of me and I ran on my own.  I pulled ahead of Claire and ran towards the small group of people that was standing by the door.

I saw Daniel first.  His dark hair was disheveled and I saw the thick stubble that had grown on his chin.  He looked exhausted and upset as he pushed his way through the crowd of people.  Next, I saw Cody.  His blonde hair was in the same unruly fashion as Daniel’s hair was.  Elizabeth was hugging him close to her and sobbing on his chest.  I looked away, not wanting to intrude on their moment.  Lane was smiling as he rubbed Audrey’s back and held her against him.  I could see in his eyes that he was tired but he smiled and nodded towards Audrey’s parents, every now and again taking time to look down into Audrey’s eyes.  I searched the crowd for Jaxon but instead my eyes landed on a crying Rebecca.  Daniel was rubbing her back and whispering to her.  Rebecca let out a mangled cry that got everyone’s attention.

“Josh didn’t make it.”  Claire said beside me.  In all the fuss I hadn’t realized that she was beside me.

“What do you mean ‘didn’t make it’?”  I asked her in a low whisper.