Final Truth

Chapter 28: I Don't Mind if You Scream

Julia's point of view:

With my chest tangled in the world's most painful arrangement of knots, I pace my prison cell back and forth like a desperate traveler trying to find a destination. My head spins aimlessly with a million explanations of what could be wrong with Peter, what could have possibly happened to him this time, but I can only come back to one fact:

Yet again, Henley has managed to take Peter away from me.

I grasp the bars of my cell firmly and lean my head against them, swaying back and forth so I can keep thinking but continue to move.

The cold metal burns my skin, almost cruelly reminding me that I have no power here. I can't walk through the bars, can't influence the elements to break myself out, can't have an abnormally advanced mind to think my way out. Nothing.

It was easier, I think, the last time this happened. I was so sure Peter was dead that I hadn't allowed myself to think of anything else. It was an unspeakably devastating blow to the heart, of course, but at least I thought I knew what had happened to him. Now I have nothing but the torturous uncertainty.

I want to talk to someone, to demand some sort of understanding, but I have no avail to that. God knows Henley won't tell me anything, Steven will be too busy being a doctor/prisoner, and Felicity's not here right now. She's allowed thirty minutes of exercise two times a week, now being one of the times she's gone.

My grip on the bars goes slack and my hands fall to my sides, but my head still rests against them. The unknowing here kills me, makes me want to bash my head against these bars from time to time.

Not only that, but just the sight of the power removing gun that I've been holding on to is enough to cause me unholy fury lately. The dumb thing taunts me, for what could I possibly do with it now? Henley's always one step ahead, and her guards are always armed.

It's only worse for Peter. Even if by some miracle we could somehow escape, he'll never be able to really leave this place; he's never going to be the same. Even if we could go home, work with Cassia and give him his memories back, go back to the life we had before everything went to hell, he's never going to forget this. Theoretically he's more trapped than I am.

The sound of footsteps treading heavily down the hall brings me out of my thoughts, and I look up desperately for any sign of him.

"Peter?" I call out hopefully, but my spirits crash immediately when Henley's stupid golden eyes shine at me from the shadows.

She approaches me with two other guards, a normal kind of sly determination in her demeanor. However, it's different this time in an odd way; something's off about her now, something wrong.

"I swear if you think you're about to test me-" I begin, but she raises a hand to cut me off.

"Actually, the aforementioned boy is what I've come to collect you for. You see, I'm trying to get him back to the way he was when you first arrived here, but something went wrong last night when I tried to brainwash him again. I need you to try to fix him," she states.

"What do you mean 'something went wrong'? What did you do?" I demand, moving one of my hands to nervously twirl a lock of my hair.

"We put too many chemicals in him at once and it completely messed him up. Nothing we've tried has managed to repair his mind, so you're our last option. We want you to talk to him, maybe even try to heal him if you can get close enough," Henley informs me.