Perfect. [Completed]

Chapter 80. Lie As Old As Time

Xara's POV.

I slowly opened my eyes, at first not understanding where I was and why the bed under my back was so uncomfortable to be in. Then I groaned and sat up, almost surprised that my head wasn't in pain. I wasn't tired either, it just felt like I had closed my eyes for a split second.

Looking around, I understood that I was in some sort of a room, my mind still too groggy to make heads or tails of the situation. Tiled purely white walls and floor, so clean that they reflected light coming from small lamps on the ceiling. There were a few more beds on the room, but none of them seemed to be occupied. I sighed and closed my eyes to maybe understand what the hell had happened.

And then my eyes shot open as I remembered my dream. It didn't even feel like a dream, much more like a very distant memory... Romeo killing Fred and then me doing the very same thing! But... Which one of them was correct? Which one of these alternative events happened?! I mean, I hadn't killed Fred, I knew it, but just... It felt so real... As real as Romeo committing that crime.

I gripped my head and groaned, breathing heavily. What... How... I-I didn't get it! It felt like at one point in my memory the reality split into two for a few minutes, and how was I supposed to understand which one of those was true?! How was I supposed to know?!

Could it be that I had killed Fred? No... No... If it was true, then-then why had I forgotten about it? Why was I sure it was Romeo who had committed the crime? And he himself said a few times that it was him, he himself always said it was him, so...

But the memory of my arrow piercing his body, the memory of my own scream of regret and pain still echoed in my ears. This was impossible! Which one of those realities had happened to me?!

My head snapped up the moment I heard someone move, my eyes widening when I saw that the last bed in the room wasn't as empty as I had thought it to be. If anything, it wasn't empty at all. On it lay a human, and my heartbeat sped up the moment I recognised those wild locks of scarlet hair.

Romeo groaned ever so silently and before I knew it, I was already slowly walking up to him. If there was anyone at all who could explain the misery of my memories to me, it was him. If he remembered, of course, if his memory was back... I panicked for a split moment before his eyes fluttered open and locked on me, at first his gaze unfocused but later becoming better.

"X-Xara...?"

I breathed out in relief and sat down on the chair near him, looking his body up and down. Unlike me, he didn't just lay on the bed. His wrists and ankles were strapped to the bed with those long stripes of leather, and as if that wasn't enough, there were two straps criss-crossed over his chest to firmly keep him down.

He groaned and looked away, moving his hands just enough to feel the restraints: "Wh-what... I..."

"Shh, shh, it's okay." I whispered back, not trusting my voice enough to use it. Afraid it would break into small pieces and reveal everything inside me. "It's okay. You're okay. You remember."

The last phrase was more of a statement than a question, and yet he still nodded weakly, looking around the room and seemingly recovering. I bit my lip. Here it goes...

"R-rome..." Right on que, my voice shook and trembled and I had to gulp in order to be able to speak again. "Did... Did you kill Fred?"

He frowned and gazed at me, then sighed and looked down. Whatever he had been injected with, it seemed to weaken now, because he didn't look drugged at all. More like confused.

"I-I'm so sorry for that." He whispered and looked away, hiding his eyes from me, and a blush of shame spread across his face. "You two had completely abandoned me, or-or so I thought... Oh, I was just so mad! I didn't mean to kill him, not really..."