Enemy Among Us

Chapter 13

Laney

I woke up around four in the morning, I sighed. I got up and went downstairs to see Eli standing in the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee. "Couldn’t sleep either?" He turned slightly surprised and then looked down. “Yeah, what about you?” “Same here.” I stood beside him and looked through the fridge, grabbing a muffin that Savanna and Gabby made the night before. We sat at the small two person dining table as I sighed. “To think this would happen to her again.” I looked up at Eli who was rubbing the sleep from his face. “Do you think she did it to herself?" “Anaiya’s skilled but I don’t think she would rig her own house to explode. Even if she did, how did she even get herself chained up and in your closet?” I shrugged, it did seem impossible but it’s hard to tell what’s what with everyone on edge. We sat there for awhile, when the sound of footsteps made there way into the living room. We looked up to see Anaiya walking towards the back door. “Anaiya?” Eli tried to get her attention but she just sluggishly kept walking as if she was on autopilot.

We got up and gently gripped her shoulders, stopping her. As if she was a puppet cut from a string, she slumped against Eli. He picked her up and we took her back to the room, laid her back down in her bed and pulled the blankets over her. I closed her windows which were now open, looked back at her as she laid lifeless and walked out, once again closing the door. I heard Eli sigh as he rubbed his temples. “Something is seriously wrong, She won’t speak and when she does move it’s as if she’s not doing it herself. The last time this happened it was when Cole died.” We both frowned at the thought that she was shutting down again, after her husband’s death she just shut herself in and no one could get to her. “I’ll call the doctor and have him come check up on her.” He nodded and walked back downstairs. I followed him, grabbed my phone and dialed the doctor, luckily we got our own personal ones due to the insurance we have as Agents. I explained the situation to him and hung up. “He’ll be here in a bit.” Eli nodded and stared at his cup. I sat across from him and finished my muffin. After about thirty minutes the doctor arrived. I led him upstairs and into the room. He checked her eyes, her mouth, ears but when he pulled out his stethoscope to listen to his heart, he pulled away as if stunned or in fear. He listened to her heart one more time as if he couldn’t hear it the first time, placed a mirror under her nose as it fogged up from her breath. “Impossible.” “What? What is it?” He shook his head and stood up, turning to us.

“Her heart is barely beating yet she’s breathing perfectly. She seems to by dying but also frozen in this state.” We looked back at her to see her staring at us, we were nervous because she wouldn’t look at us the first couple times. She once again got up, walked past us and went downstairs. We followed her to the backyard, she stopped at the center and looked up at the sky. It was still raining when she suddenly collapsed. We rushed over to her, lifted her up and carried her back inside. We laid her on the couch, the doctor checked her one last time and sighed in relief. “Well her heartbeat is stronger now and her breathing is fine. I want you to call me if anything happens.” I nodded as Eli put a blanket over her. We both gasped as Anaiya groaned and slowly opened her eyes. “Anaiya!” Eli hugged her causing her to grunt. Just a second ago she was basically dead and now she was waking up as if she was waking from a coma.

Anaiya

I groaned as Eli tightly hugged me. “Morning to you too?” I winced and rubbed my chest above my ribs. “Are you okay? What happened?” Eli gripped my face as if he were a mother making sure their child isn’t injured. “Ugh I can't remember, I remember doing work on my laptop then it all goes dark there. I do remember my mother's voice and seeing Cameron, I also remember feeling pain but that's it.” He looked at Laney, then she walked over and crouched beside me. They both had these worried almost fearful expressions. “You don’t remember how you got here?” She looked very concerned. "Do you remember how you got here?!" She asked me again more aggressively as if I didn’t hear her. “No, jeez!” "You were missing for three days. When we found you, you were tied up in the closet. You wouldn’t respond to anyone and you kept walking puppet-like outside.” I tilted my head slightly, confused. Eli then gripped my hand tightly causing a sharp pain near the cut at the palm of my hand and the memories flooded into my brain like waves. I jumped back and pressed myself against the wall as my panting became heavy and I could feel the pain more clearly as if the wounds had gotten deeper and more painful. I looked at my arms and noticed the bandages and stitches that covered my body. I started panicking and one memory that stood out the most was when I saw someone grab Cameron, I then felt something pierce my skin and my vision faded before coming back to me. I hadn’t realized I shouted Cameron’s name out loud as my arm was outreached as if trying to grab something.

“C-Cameron! Where’s Cameron?!” I gripped Eli’s collar as my eyes began to burn from the tears that were threatening to fall, he was surprised. “He…” He looked at Laney as she nodded. “What?!” “He was found dead in the woods by your husband’s grave.” He looked down. I gasped and the tears began pouring down my face as I couldn’t control myself anymore. Eli hugged me once again and I collapsed into him. Who would do this? Is what I thought but I knew who did it and why. I gritted my teeth and forced the tears to stop, walked upstairs, changed and fixed my hair. I put on my vest, put my gun in its holster, put on my jacket and walked out. Laney and Eli were hot on my heels, already dressed. “Where are you going?” “Headquarters.” “What?! But Anaiya…” I growled as my pupils sharpened without realizing causing my friends to stop and take a step back. "No! Don’t you but me! I’m sick of people dying because of me, I’m putting an end to this. You can follow me or stay out of my way!” I stormed off towards my car that was parked halfway down the street. I jumped in and drove towards HQ.

I parked in the lot and stormed inside. Everyone on duty looked up and gasped as if I were a ghost in the making. The way my wounds looked earlier, I can understand why but I didn’t care at the moment. My boss came out of her office and blocked my path. “Mrs. Holman, you shouldn’t be here.” She narrowed her eyes at me as if it would make me stop in my tracks and book it back home but it didn’t. My eyes glowed and I looked down at her. “Move.” I growled, she flinched but didn’t move. I marched past her and into my office. I sat at my desk and tried logging into my laptop, the passwords were changed. I glanced up at my boss who was now standing in the doorway watching me. “What’s the password?” I growled. “You know I can’t tell you that Agent Holman, you are no longer on duty, your injuries are too extreme and we don’t need to lose anymore agents. Especially our brightest ones.” I glared up at her before unplugging the computer, taking a disk out of the pc and smashing both of them. Unfortunately for her, I already had everything I needed. Ever since Cole’s death I had started rerouting everyone’s, including my boss’s, files to my pc where they automatically downloaded to the disk that I never took out unless necessary. I put the disk into an envelope, put it in my pocket and shoved past my boss without a second glance. I rushed down the stairs where the agents were all up out of there desk with guns pointed at me. “You know I can’t let you leave with that.”

I looked back up the stairs at my boss. She wasn’t my boss anymore, I could see that her eyes were now dilated as her pupils had shrunk. Her eyes even glew a bright purple. I looked down at the other agents present to see that their eyes were fogged over. She was controlling them. I glanced down the hall to my right then up at her. “Don’t do it Anaiya.” I smirked. “You never were good at controlling me were you mother.” I took off down the hall. The agents followed of course as they tried to catch me. I kept running towards the end, a large window was placed there recently because it had gotten hotter outside. I sprinted towards and threw myself through the window. Thankfully I was between the first and second floor so it wasn’t too far a fall. I landed onto a large SUV as it started and took off. I sighed and looked at the disk. “I won’t let you win.” I watched as the building got smaller when it suddenly vanished. I don’t mean like we were too far away, I mean like I was looking at it one second then it just disappeared. I looked at my watch which was tracking my phone. I always leave it on my desk on missions.

The GPS location told me that it was near my husband's grave. My heart stopped. She was going to kill them. I had made friends with most of the agents in my building and if we are gone then she could easily destroy the world if she so pleases. I peeked into the sun roof of the car to see my sister, Tony. I smiled. We had both run from our mother because we knew just how awful she was. “I came as soon as I heard what happened to Cameron.” She glanced up at me as she sped to my house. She was also friends with some of the agents because we basically grew up with them. She parked in front of my driveway as I jumped to the ground and hurried inside. “Eli! Laney!” I searched the entire house and couldn’t find them. Tony was standing by the door as she peered inside, the car still running. We looked at each other with fear both knowing where they were. We both ran to the car and jumped in. “I should have known this was going to happen.” I glared out the window as Tony stepped on it. We were headed back to where it all started and where it was definitely going to end.