A/N: AHIIEDBJOWNJBIHIVCTVHBJNLKM! FIRST OFF, I HAVE TWO BITS OF GREAT NEWS!
1. It is officially both my one year anniversary of writing and the one year anniversary of 'Fractured!'
We have been here and posting for one whole year now!
Ahhhh I can't thank you all enough for everything you've done! I never imagined that 'Fractured' would take off to where it is today and I am so excited to see what the future holds for all of us!
Thank you all so much for a year here on the platform and for supporting me and this book for as long as you all have! Here's to much more!
2. WE HAVE FANART!
THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS! WE HAVE OUR FIRST OFFICIAL FANART!
This piece was made by the lovely @lazshirfry here on wattpad!
AHHHH IT LOOKS AMAZING!
I know I said Remi's vest was pink in an earlier chapter, but you know what? When I rewrite this book for editing, I'm changing it to blue because this looks 10x better!
Laz also has a book titled 'unOrdinary: Minecraft Edition' on Webtoon where this art is also featured! (And where we kinda did a collab for Remi's birthday with her doing the art and me supplying Isen's lines. XD) Please go check her out!
I tried linking the book but it wouldn't work. ;-; Sorry Laz.
Also, this brings up another note: if any of you have art for the story or art in general that'd you'd like to share, please feel free to ask and I will gladly feature it (with full credit of course!) I'd love to feature you guys and your work and it absolutely makes my day to know you guys are inspired by this book enough that you guys can create art from it!
On that note, let get on with today's chapter!
As usual, I hope you all enjoy!
Love ya guys! ^-^
-KittCat
*Warning*: This chapter contains injury, mentions of mental health issues, mentions of violence, and manipulation. Viewer discretion is advise please!
"Hey."
"Hey, you."
"Wake up already."
*SLAP!*
A sharp gasp was ripped out of his throat as John's mind crashed back into reality. It was jarring to go from feeling like you were floating to feeling like you were being body slammed into concrete.
Obviously that wasn't the case but it was as close to an accurate description as he could think of.
The room spun like a morbid merry-go-round as he looked around in a confused haze. Once it felt like his brain had stopped spinning in his skull, he was finally able to start gaining his bearings.
The room he was currently in felt no different from his previous cell, minus any furniture.
The only noticeable difference was the lone light bulb that dangled precariously over his head with a tired hum, the thing making soft pops and clicks as it strained to stay alive.
But that wasn't what caught his attention.
His eyes landed on a particular blonde seated across from him, her hair pulled up into a neat bun and her honey eyes betraying a bitter edge. Her legs were neatly crossed where she sat in casual business attire, her heels clicking against the concrete whenever she shifted. "Finally. I was starting to worry that we had given you too high of a dose when we sedated you."
John stared at her for a minute before his mind whirled into high gear, memories starting to come back to him.
"Wh-Where-?!"
His tongue felt like lead in his mouth as he struggled to form words, a faint fog still clouding his thoughts.
"Where...a-am...I...?!"
She sighed as she reached over, placing a hand on his shoulder to sooth him. "Don't worry about that right now John."
He jerked away from her with a pained hiss. The faintest image of flames flickering on her finger tips danced in his vision before he turned his head away, attempting to quench the illusion.
"Get...your h-hand off of...m-me...!" Dammit, he'd sound so much more convincing if he could actually speak clearly.
As he tried to shift his arms, he found they were bound behind him, something digging into his wrists with a cold bite.
He didn't have to be a genius to know the feeling of cuffs holding him in place.
Despite the guest in front of him, he diverted his attention to the bindings holding him in place.
When he finally managed to twist his head around, he managed to catch a glimpse of what was preventing him from moving his hands completely.
And oh f*ck...this wasn't good.
The cuffs around his wrists weren't your usual mid-tier grade cuffs that your local mall cop might have.
No. These were Class 5 handcuffs, the ones reserved only for god tiers.
For each tier level, there was a different class of cuffs ranging 1-5.
The most common ones were Class 3, usually used for mid-tiers and below given that a vast majority of the population were mid tiers and that they could easily restrain low tiers and cripples.
John hated them with a burning passion given how the edges would leave his skin bloody and raw when left on for too long.
Now however, he would gladly take those any day.
Instead of a rectangular bar latched around his wrists like a medieval pillory, it was a set of large and heavy braces attached together at the wrists by a thick, short metal chain. Along the links and seams, a glowing blue wire pulsed throughout both of the braces, coiled around the cuffs like a thin snake.
The only reason he knew of Class 5 cuffs was from occasional whispering at the readjustment facility.
There wasn't much to go off of, but supposedly they prevented a person from using their ability by freezing their aura paths upon activation.
It...sounded kinda painful when he thought about it and personally, he didn't want to test it. But that only begged the question; why was he wearing these instead?
The ravenette was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard a soft chuckle, trailing his attention back to the woman before him.
Valerie leaned back in her chair, hands folded neatly in her lap as a smooth smile graced her pale lips. "I know. It's rare we pull those out. Even I myself have never seen Class 5 restraints until today. But knowing you, we can't be too careful given your track record."
Golden eyes narrowed in both anger and weariness. It took him a minute before he finally found his voice, words slowly coming back to him. "Why am...I in these cuffs...? Abilities don't work in these rooms...when the doors are closed..."
These restraints seemed unnecessary. Even Keon didn't need such things during his mind-f*ck sessions. He either left the door open or had it closed but wore a strange brace on his wrist to allow him to use his abilities.
The blonde before him not only had no brace on, but the door was shut.
Valerie shrugged. "Usually. But unfortunately, this place doesn't seem to have the same features. It's quite...outdated shall we say. Disappointing really but, it'll have to do."
John furrowed his eyebrows in confusion before the words she mentioned back in his cell whispered throughout his mind.
He almost snarled as he tugged in his restraints attached to the chair, but he wasn't expecting it to do anything. "Where-...where did you and Zander take me...?!"
Valerie's smile waned, the woman letting her head tilt to the side. "Oh, just a place away from all the noise and any unnecessary distractions."
'Unnecessary distractions...? What is she talking about?'
John stared for a second before a thought clicked. An image of lavender hair and a promise to see him flitted through his mind and immediately, a current of fear ran through him. Already, he knew something had to have happened to Seraphina's sister if this was Valerie's reaction.
His voice was barely a whisper. "What did you do to Leilah...?"
Valerie's smile turned sinister while she remained silent, eyes drinking in his panic.
John tugged at his restraints once again, still yielding no results besides a dull ache in his arms. "Answer me...!"
Leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her fingers threaded between one another, she eyed him with a pointed gaze. "As I said, I brought you here to get away from the noise. Who do you think that will include?"
John grit his teeth as he looked down, trying to hold his tongue before Valerie spoke up again. "Oh, don't you worry. She's fine. So is your friend and that sh*t-faced doctor she cares about."
The confusion must have been clear on his face as Valerie chuckled. "She never told you she was dating that caffeine addict?"
He felt the record scratch to a halt in his mind.
Hold up, WHAT?! Doc?! And Leilah?!
He didn't have a concussion, did he...?
But when he realized Valerie wasn't joking, the reality of her words finally sunk in.
Leilah was dating Doc.
John let the image sink into his head of the grumpy school nurse who would throw you out a window if you so much as prevented him from drinking his coffee and Leilah, who despite her wisdom and sage advice, still had an upbeat demeanor.
Doc's dark aura paired with her sunny personality.
How the hell did doc manage this?! Not to mention the fact that the man was notorious for losing his girlfriends. (Darren had ranted enough times to John for him to know that his job was the only reason he couldn't get a stable relationship...supposedly.)
And how the hell did Leilah manage to get through to the sour man?! He wasn't picky but there were those who didn't like his gruff and often sarcastic personality.
It was like sweet and sour-ok, yeah now he could understand why.
John wondered why she never told him. But then again, it wasn't typically a topic you'd bring up in this situation.
Despite his initial shock, he quickly smothered it as he stared at Valerie.
He wanted to feel relieved that they were ok. But he could already hear the other part of this conversation before Valerie even opened her mouth again. "Let me guess: not for long...unless I help you with something...?"
Valerie huffed a small laugh. Though just like a certain blonde he knew, it was devoid of humor.
"Close. You see John, Seraphina and Darren are only safe if Leilah behaves. And so far, she has. However, I've noticed that she's been spending time with you. A little too much time if you ask me."
John looked away. Truth be told, Valerie wasn't far from the truth.
Being trapped in isolation with nothing but your thoughts for company does things to you. You start seeing things that aren't there, hearing those midnight whispers trying to crawl forward from the depths of your mind. John had sworn he had started seeing shadows back in his cell from time to time, hearing them laugh at his torment or hissing into his ear about the crimes he's committed.
He was sure that if the woman hadn't made the attempt to give him company, he would've already started submitting to those voices long ago.
Leilah's little sessions had grounded him. While it wasn't enough to even begin undoing the damage they'd done and while he didn't know if he could completely trust her, talking with her helped him re-focus on his drifting thoughts.
Even though he had his doubts about Leilah and her motives to help him, he decided to put them aside. She had been honest with him this far. Though he couldn't completely believe her words, her actions had been proof enough to convince him that maybe, just maybe, she was telling the truth.
In a way, it was like he was talking with Seraphina again. That is, if Seraphina was older and had a slightly more upbeat personality.
He couldn't deny that something about it made his heart ache. Because throughout all of this, he knew he'd never be able to fix the damage he had done to her.
But that brought him back to something else.
"What part of what they were doing was supposed to fix me...?" Though deep down, he knew he deserved this.
Valerie sighed, the smirk vanishing. "Great. Looks like she's already gotten to you."
John only huffed, fed up with her stalling. "Look...enough with your little mind games...Marcella and Keon have been doing that number for ages now...! Cut the bullsh*t and get on with whatever it is you want..."
Valerie raised an eyebrow, ignoring his words. "...You haven't changed a damn bit since the day we met. I thought they would've tempered that little flame of yours. Of course, I guess I have Leilah to thank for that. She's been undoing all that hard work that Keon and Marcella have put into fixing you."
The ravenette narrowed his eyes. They both knew that wasn't true in the least.
Going through Keon's sessions again has been nothing but torture for John. Each time he comes out of it, he finds more and more reasons to hate himself.
Each time, he feels like a part of him is being stripped away, as if he was being peeled like a fish.
Keon would choose one person from his memories that he's hurt, focus only on them, and replay their beatings over and over again until his muscles would twitch from how real it all felt.
The latest sessions involved Isen, staring up at John with a hole through his arm and pure terror in his eyes as the ravenette electrocuted him to a spasming crisp.
Before that, it was Blyke, almost a dozen holes in his arms and legs before he collapsed on the tarmac and John put a fist in his back.
And before that, Remi. The pinkette would be hacking up blood as John nailed her into the brick wall, causing it to crack and crumble.
It just kept going...
Every single beat down, every bruise and cut that he inflicted, all of them have been played back over and over again like a broken record.
Juni. Zeke and his cronies. Those students who kidnapped Seraphina. Cecile. Ventus. Meili. Zirian. Arlo. Adrion. His graduating class. Claire.
Almost every other day was someone new, someone's bloodied and bruised face being shoved before him as he beat them till they stopped moving.
He had almost forgotten their faces, convinced that all his beatings had disfigured and maimed them to the point of no return.
John could hardly remember what any of them looked like now because every memory he tried to conjure up was stained in a splattering of red, mottled black and blue. They were now etched in their blood and accompanied by endless cries of pain.
The only one whom he could vividly remember now was Seraphina. Because she was the only one he had yet to harm out of the long line of people whom he's come across.
But there were other ways Keon reminded him of how he hurt her.
'She has no friends.' Keon would whisper.
'Her reputation is ruined because of you.'
'You left her with nothing.'
'You let her get hurt because you were a coward.'
'She didn't even have an ability, yet you let her take all those beatings even when she was bawling before you, begging for the pain to end.'
John couldn't argue with that.
It was all his fault...
He had hurt Seraphina more than she ever hurt him. He had grown so numb that while her slap still stung with a vengeance, he had long since submitted to that simple fact.
Each time it would play, he'd remind himself that he deserved it. He hurt her, lied to her, ridiculed her and told her she meant nothing to him when that couldn't have been further from the truth.
Over and over, that memory would play. Her tear filled eyes overflowing with hurt, anger and pain as she stared at the monster he's become.
All he did was keep running his mouth while she was crying her eyes out because he had lied to her and used her and played her like a puppet...
It was his fault...
It was all his fault...
He was a liar...
He was a coward...
He was a fraud...
He was never a good person and he was never meant to be anything...
Because whenever he tried to give his life whatever meaning he thought it could possess, he'd only end up hurting everyone in the process...
Even though her stare tore his heart to shreds, he still hung on to the thought of her as her face and his dad's were now the only ones not drenched in crimson.
But...now even that was starting to fade away into something else.
There were nights when he tried to sleep that only turned into another free session with Keon. Instead of only Claire haunting his nightmares in New Bostin, now things had meshed together.
Memories that he knew shouldn't involve her were now warped.
Instead of Seraphina, he saw Claire. Instead of Claire, he'd see Seraphina.
Scarlet irises would freeze over into sky blue and in turn they would melt away back into flaming red.
New Bostin and Wellston no longer felt like two separate places of which he lived two separate lives.
Instead, they now seemed like the same place, memories from his past and present blurring together and leaving him dizzy with confusion.
No corner of his head felt safe anymore. He couldn't even trust his own mind at this point.
Throughout it all though, part of him tried to hold on. He tried to hang onto those dimming moments that made him happy, moments that even if he still ended up back here again, he wouldn't trade them for the world.
He felt like a coward for hanging onto memories that hurt him.
But despite the sting, he still felt the warmth in them. He still remembered sugary mango drinks and sunlit windows. He remembered late night video games and eating too much popcorn and candy. He remembered walks down the street with the wind in his hair and a shoulder brushing his arm.
He reached even further, remembering quiet mornings and the bittersweet smell of coffee. He recalled sturdy arms wrapped around him and the sound of rain hitting the roof. He found moments where it was just him and dad, leaning against each other on the couch watching TV as they drifted off.
There was an even fainter memory, one that seemed more like a dream. One of a woman with feather white locks looking down at him, her smile soft but excited as she leaned down and murmured something he had long since forgotten before pecking the top of his head.
Peppered between them were images rather than memories. Despite the bitter taste they left in his mouth, he held onto those too. A blonde sitting across from him at a booth, arms crossed with a triumphant grin. A redhead waving at him and bidding him good morning as he left his room. A pinkette kneeling in front of him to hand him papers despite the image that followed. A duel haired teen asking about his struggles as a cripple. A blonde and greenette duo resting against a tree in a park beside him.
For some reason, they were the only good moments that had yet to be touched or tainted by Keon. It didn't make him feel any less guilty though.
These were all people he's hurt in some way, brutalized to no return or betraying their trust, and here he was holding onto these faint moments involving them as if he hadn't tried to maim them.
He really was pathetic...
Because despite every corner of his brain telling him lies, he found comfort in these tiny pieces he had secured, trying to keep them close to his chest and shield them from the dangers of his mind.
Whenever he fell asleep, he held onto them for all it was worth.
And that was all he could do: hold onto these little moments like pebbles on the shore and pray that when the drowning waves came crashing over him again, they wouldn't be swept back out to sea.
Valerie stood up, the click of her heels echoing throughout the quiet room. "Why do you trust her so much? How do you know she's been honest with you?"
John kept his mouth shut. He wasn't going to give her any fuel to light her fire.
He kept his gaze to the floor as she rounded behind him. "After all, she works with us. She works for EMBER, John. The big, bad, vigilante killing organization. According to you, everyone here is corrupt. They're all liars and fakers, hiding behind masks. So why is she any different?"
Again, he said nothing as she continued to walk, her hands neatly clasped behind her back. "Why is she not a monster?"
At that, he snapped his gaze up, his glare enough to burn a hole through her, his words flowing more clearly. "Shut up! The only reason she's here is because of you people! You just said it yourself: you're using Seraphina and Darren to blackmail her into staying!"
A smile playfully tugged at her lips. "Well, you're right on that part. But, has it ever occurred to you why she was with us to begin with? We don't just target random strangers on the streets, John Doe. Why is it that she was working for us before she ever met you? Why do you think Leilah is so important to us that we wouldn't just kill her for insubordination?"
John froze.
He...he didn't know...
He and Leilah never talked about what she did with the authorities. The only thing he could guess was it had something to do with research as she would walk in with a lab coat sometimes.
John said nothing as Valerie knelt in front of him. "You see John, a high tier with her background holds so much value. I mean, why wouldn't she? She majored in genetics with a minor in ability studies and later went to work for a company that deals in those very things!"
He only stared at her but his face must've betrayed some form of confusion as Valerie's grin turned sharp. Leaning forward slightly, her voice was barely above a whisper. "While Zeta-Sci may have stolen our research on dampeners and disablers, her contributions in finalizing them have been quite fruitful I must say."
The ravenette stared forward in shock, gaze a thousand yards away.
'No...Leilah wouldn't...she couldn't have...'
The woman pulled back and John locked eyes with her. "I wonder...why would Leilah never tell you that she's the one who made the very drug that caused her own sisters ability loss? Why would she hide the fact that she created the very thing that stripped your best friend of her ability and led you down this path once more?"
Chapter 45 (Pt. 1): end.