Tara's Story

Chapter 42

I've been writing like crazy lately! Yayyyyyyy! So expect quicker updates :)

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Chapter 42

*Tara’s POV*

Before Conner could steal me, Sara took me aside to talk privately. “As being an experiment of the lab myself, there are things you will need to know.” She started. “First, expect to be uncomfortable. They literally put you in a cage or room no bigger than a closet. You will be surrounded by bars and have absolute no privacy whatsoever. Secondly, don’t even try to breakout. Struggle at first to make it realistic, but otherwise it’s hopeless. Continuing to do so will probably lead to you being electrocuted or worse.”

I nodded, already starting to regret my decision on doing this. But there was no turning back now.

“Now I’ll lay out the type of pills.” Sara took out a sheet of paper and started to draw circles. “At the beginning they will give you medium sized white pills. These are to put you in a loops state so they can take information about yourself and last a few hours. Don’t take them! There is also the small circular yellow type. They usually give them to people they’re going to operate or transport in order to knock them out. Sometimes they still operate without giving these however. I would suggest taking them. Any other colored ones do not take! Pink will give you hallucinations; blue will give you agonizing pain-even though no one is touching you; amongst others. So don’t take those! That’s all the pills I can think of right now...”

The blood had drained from my face and I felt nauseated. How could they do this to people? How did I manage to get mixed up in all this? Finding my voice again, I asked how I would take pills without them noticing.

“Oh that’s an easy one!” she scoffed. “You just push it up, with your tongue, between your upper lip and teeth. Once they leave, you spit it out and hide it.”

Letting a smirk cross my face for the first time the whole day, I asked “And how did you learn this?”

“Well, no one wants to take vitamins when they’re five you know.” She laughed.

I laughed along with her until Conner found us. “There you are.” He breathed.

Sara walked out, mumbling something close to ‘I’ll tell you more later’ before slipping past Conner in the doorway.

The pained look in his eyes caused my heart to lurch a bit and the joyous atmosphere Sara and I had made the minute before all but vanished. I stood next to him and just like the time we’d been officially reunited, Conner simply put his arms around me. Except this time was full of sorrow whereas the previous had been full of joy.

“I’m going to worry a lot about you.” He whispered.

“I know.”

He held me closer. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I murmured, on the verge of tears again. Pulling away, I forced a smile. “Let’s not spend the time we have remaining in tears. Let’s make the best of it.”

He agreed, pulling me in for a kiss before we walked hand in hand downstairs.

There, Sara greeted me with a shy smile. She and Emmett were at the door. Walking up to me, she spoke. “We’re going to go now. Finalize details and such.” She gave me a quick hug. “I’ll see you soon though.”

I hugged her back. “Okay. See you then.”

After giving a little wave to Conner, she walked out.

Much later in the day, I found Rena texting as usual with a slight frown on her face. “What’s wrong?” I asked, startling her.

“Oh, nothing.” She stumbled, quickly hiding away her phone and composing an innocent expression.

I gave her a skeptical look. “What is it?”

Knowing she wouldn’t get past me without spilling, just like when I found out Brandon had asked he rout, she said truthfully, “Brandon asked me out again for tomorrow night and I said no.”

“Why? I thought you liked him.”

“I do. It’s just I want to spend what time I can with you right now.”

“You don’t need to do that!” I laughed. “There’s a good chance I’ll be fine too. We still have plenty of time to spend together. Go ahead and meet him.”

 “Okay.” She grinned and began rapidly typing again. I smiled and left the room to start fixing supper.

*Conner’s POV *

It was a mostly dampened dinner. Even with the happy chatting over nothing and smiles, the four of us has heavy hearts over the inevitable. No matter what Tara said, these feelings could not be avoided.

The two of us retired to our room early ready to be rid of this day which had changed all of our lives. I held Tara close as I thought about things. Now, I was limited to two days. Two days with my precious, beautiful, Tara. It had been hard on me. Sure, she could be fine, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t turn out that way. By the way she was acting I could tell she had the same feeling.

Letting the familiar scent of vanilla wash over me, I whispered, “It’s okay to cry now.”

Slowly, she gave into the emotional sobs that she’d been suppressing for most of the day to stay strong in front of the others. I knew she was scared. So, I simply let her cry out her worry and fear as I cradled her close to me.  Gradually, the sobs subsided. I still kept my comforting embrace as her breathing steadied.

Once I was sure she was asleep, I finally let the tears leak out of my eyes. Sobs came about and took over my body as I held the sleeping Tara as close as I could, letting my salty tears slip onto her hair as I kissed it. How would I ever be able to let her go? She is my everything. I wake up, just to see her smiling face. We may fight as any couple does, but I would never ever let a day go by without her knowing that I still loved her, no matter what happened. I promised her that if she ever left again, that I would pursue, and that promise I plan to keep. We were faced with an impossible decision to make, and I knew she had to leave. That didn’t mean I wanted to see her go. If there was anything I could do that would hold her back I would, but I can’t do anything. Now, I was left with a mere two days to spend with her. It was almost unbelievable, unreal. Oh, how I wished that this was just a nightmare and that I’d just wake up and our family wouldn’t be in danger. But that wasn’t the case this time.

I was determined to make the most of these next 48 hours with her. No matter how much she kept up the cheery ‘I’ll be fine’ act, I wouldn’t be fooled. Even if by some miracle she came back okay, I knew I wouldn’t regret looking back on these days of desperate closeness.

The sleeping Tara stirred and I was brought out of my thoughts. Kissing her forehead, I decided it would be best to sleep off my tears like she did. Slowly, my eyes closed and my body relaxed, bringing me into the dream world.

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