Final Truth

Chapter 71: A Clean Slate

"Right then. Well, I suppose we can all leave now," I say, spirits beginning to lift at the prospect of walking out of this prison as a free woman, of seeing the sun once again, of going home, of being able to gain some semblance of normalcy back in my life.

"Julia," Susan interjects, and her change in tone brings back that strange tension in the atmosphere once again.

"What?" I ask, turning to face her.

She can only look at the ground, however, unable to voice what she's keeping to herself. Cassia whispers something in the ear of the boy I have yet to meet, and he reels back with a look of surprise followed by solemn understanding.

"I'll stay here with Jacqueline and Genevieve, keep an eye on all these people. You guys go," he tells her.

"Go where? What's he talking about?" I question.

Cassia comes up to me, carefully avoiding my eyes so that I won't read her thoughts. She takes my arm, tugging me toward the door with a look I can't quite place on her face.

"There's something you need to see," is all she says.

I look back over my shoulder at Susan dragging Adam along with us, an equally confused look in his eyes that tells me he has no idea what's going on.

The confusion only seems to last for a moment for him before something seems to click in his mind, however, his face radiating a sort of cautious hope for some reason. I could curse him for it.

Cassia tugs more insistently on my arm and I face forward again as we leave the lab, not liking the cryptic atmosphere of this at all.

"Cassia, this is freaking me out. Please tell me where you're taking me," I inquire.

"I'm not saying anything because I have no idea what to say. It's something you need to see for yourself," she responds. "Just stay calm."

I don't like her words and I don't like that it's probably something so terrible she can't even describe it, so I distract myself with something, anything, everything, in an attempt to pass the agonizing time it takes to get where we're going: the white tiles, too pristine in a place where such pain has happened. The chilling drafts of the air that have become almost unnoticeable to me over the past few months, the never-ending doors that line the halls, the twists and turns of this stupid prison that seems more a maze for lost souls.

Adam and Susan are whispering behind me, so I crank up my hearing with the power of senses as easily as one would turn up the volume of a television, but due to my pounding heartbeat in my ears, I only catch a few words.

".....dead?" I hear Adam say at the end of a question.

"......terrifying....didn't work......left...." Susan responds.

Attempting to decipher what they're saying only gives me a headache and I can't stand that no one's telling me what I'm about to see, so I rip my arm out of Cassia's hand and back a few steps away.

"Julia-" she begins, but I cut her off.

"No," I counter in exasperation. "I've been here for a year and I've had too many instances where people have just shown me things, thrown me into things, with no explanation. I...I need you to tell me what I'm about to see. It's something bad, I can tell. You wouldn't have tried to keep it from me like this if it wasn't. Please just tell me, I'd rather..."