The Protection

Epilogue

I don't know when I stopped screaming. Perhaps it was when the men roughly threw me into the back of an unmarked black SUV, or when they insisted I be quiet as they floored it and drove wildly through the winding streets of north east Dallas. The van careened, sliding me from side to side in the hard plastic back end, but I stared down at my hands that were covered in sticky copper. The front of my red dress was now a shade of black, saturated with blood. My blood. Ben's blood. It was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. I could feel the warmth of it as blood continued to flow fresh from the gaping hole beneath my jaw and into the space between my breasts. That was the point, I think my mind shut off. Like a flick of a light switch I became numb. I could still see what was going on around me, but in a blurred, drugged state. Was this what being in shock felt like?

My sluggish grey eyes traveled from my hands to the two large men, dressed in all black in the front of the van. Who were they anyway? Did they belong to the good guys or bad guys? The Protection? The Resistance? Where were they taking me? The place where they took all the no good Protectors? I could tell we were moving quickly into downtown Dallas as I saw the familiar skyscrapers pass by. The van turned into a dark parking garage in one of the high rises I had never noticed before. The building was comprised entirely of clear translucent glass windows several stories high with the only signage identifying it as THE LOFT. One of the men pulled me out of the SUV and picked me up, my head falling to one side. He carried me easily through a pair of big, steel doors and down a dimly lit corridor. My vacant eyes stared at the muted gray carpet.

My escort turned down another hallway and into a sterile white room. I could feel my dress being stripped off of my body and heard the familiar hum of a shower. The man ushered me into the white tile shower, his fingers digging into my bare hip bones as he held me up. I blinked slowly against the water which was freezing, but I could barely feel it through my catatonia. Over time, the water became warmer and much more soothing and I looked down noting that the water circling my feet and the drain itself was red. Why was the water so red? Blood. I tried to recall what happened, but my mind suppressed the memories again, shoving them into the darkest reaches of my psyche. When I found I couldn't lift my arms, the man washed my hair for me, his large hairy fingers rough as they moved across my scalp.

The water eventually ran clear and I was pulled from the shower, cold and shivering, but soon felt a soft material draped over my body. White. Terrycloth. A robe? Maybe. I felt so tired I didn't care. I just wanted to sleep. I wanted to float away into nothing. I felt dead inside, but the feeling was oddly soothing. I felt another layer of plush material holding down my body, covering me like a soft, warm shell. A cocoon. I saw black again and then, nothing.

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I was told later I didn't wake up for three days. My body and mind had rested in a way of immense healing. It was like I was born again, with my soul a little darker this time.

I could feel someone watching me before I even opened my eyes on that third day. The Resistance, something in my mind whispered. My eyes flew open. But instead of Beth's cold blue eyes staring back at me, the pair of eyes were so dark they were almost black, and nearly as terrifying. Kyler's mother, Helen Isaacs, stood over me adjusting an IV. I followed the tube up to the heavy neon green bag that hung, the vibrant solution seeping slowly into a vein in the crook of my elbow. She followed my gaze.

"They are just some vitamins, honey. To help with your healing. We needed to flush out your system. The Healers found abnormally high levels of sodium kinase in your blood, a common property used to weaken our abilities. God only knows how you were ingesting so much of the stuff." She said standing fully erect, smoothing her skirt.