Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter nine:

"It's such a shame. I had high hopes for him this time."

"Yes. Such a disappointment. And he was showing so much improvement. I've already given the order to have him retrieved. Once he's back in our care, I'll make sure the upgrading process is started right away."

"Good. This time, I want you to completely reboot his systems. No mistakes this time. He must not remember anything from his past. Not even the name."

"You mean his name? Alex Price?"

"Yes. He must not even remember his own name."

"Yes, sir."

Alex looked over at Becky, his sister. He made a face at her. She saw him and, with a look of disgust, threw her pillow at him. He dodged the pillow, ducking low onto his bed, grinning.

The pillow hit the wall behind him and he picked it up. He turned it over a few times in his hands, tossing it lightly into the air to be able to make a full turn, before throwing it back at her. It hit her right on the head. She looked at him, furious. Her cheeks got all red like she did when she was angry.

"Alex Price! If you don't stop, I'm gonna call mom." She said in her most threatening voice, which wasn't very threatening at all. Their mom would probably just tell Alex to cut it out and then go back to whatever it was she was going at the moment. It was a bit of an empty threat, really.

Alex just shrugged, silently daring her to do it. She knew as well as him that calling her would do nothing. She seemed to read his expression, and her cheeks flared an even brighter red. He bit his lip, suppressing a laugh. The way Becky got so mad when he teased her was just too priceless. He flopped back onto his bed. It wasn't very fun sharing a room with his sister, except when he teased her, but that was the only good thing about it.

He looked out of the window, which was dark and gloomy from the late hour. There was large expanse of trees just outside, branches stretching and overlapping each other, creating a latticework over the twilight sky. They lived in one of the last good sized forests on earth. The trees were shrouded in shadow, like ghostly figures in the night. And on that train of thought, the needled branches reminded Alex of hands. He shuddered at the thought of all of those hands grabbing him. He shook off the feeling.

A yawn made him realize how tired he was. He had already brushed his teeth and gotten PJs on, so without any further fuss, he pulled back the covers and climbed under. It wasn't long before he was asleep.

Alex jolted awake. He had been dreaming, though about what, he couldn't be sure. He knew it had been pleasant, or maybe not. He wasn't sure.

He tried to remember what his dream was about, or even if it really had been pleasant, but he couldn't remember a thing. Not even whether or not it had been a nightmare or a good dream. The thin wisps he had been able to remember right after waking up had vanished like mist in sunlight.

He had a pounding headache. He closed his eyes, even though there weren't any lights on in the room, and the light of the sun was only streaming in through one window, his eyes stung from the light. The stinging in his eyes made his headache worse. He reached up and felt the back of his neck. There was a metal disk there with several assorted bumps and fissures, and he wondered if it might say anything in Braille.

He tugged and there was shooting pain throughout his whole body. His headache doubled. He tried to cry out, but his mouth was parched. The movement of his mouth silently opening due to the pain reopened the split lip and aggravated the bruise on his cheek. Overall, it had been a very bad call to tug on the Braille disk.

He resisted the urge to wince in pain. He knew it would only make things worse. He wanted to open his eyes, to find out where he was, but the light hurt. Everything hurt, as a matter of fact. A dull ache had settled into what seemed like every cell of his body.

He tried to remember where he was. He remembered a face. More specifically, he remembered her eyes. They were blazing red and glowing slightly. In a flood, the memory of Clarity and Rachel came back to him, though some parts were still fogged and unclear. Why was he here? How had he gotten here?

He tried desperately to remember. Nothing. His mind seemed thick with fog, and try as he might to remember what was going on, he couldn't seem to be able to pierce the thick blanket.

The door opened. He almost opened his eyes but stopped himself. No use making things worse. Whoever had just entered the door walked across the room and stopped close to the bed. There was a slight shuffling noise. Alex assumed that whoever-it-was had sat down. He heard a sigh.

A few minutes passed and Alex could hear that the person who had sat down was sleeping. They didn't snore, but their breathing had evened out.

He reached up again feeling the metal disk. He moved as slow as possible, not wanting to hurt himself. The metal disk was warm to the touch. Alex wondered why it was there. What could a metal disk possibly do? He wanted to try tugging it again, but the memory of the excruciating pain stopped him.

Alex could feel the metal disk starting to heat up. It was getting warmer and warmer. He could hardly bear the heat. He still had his hand on the disk. He could feel a slight shock, like putting your hand into an electrical socket. The shocking grew more intense until he couldn't take it anymore. He blacked out.