My vision is blurry by the time I enter the house again, both from the rain, and from my eyes re-learning how to see.
"You are not like Atlantic, Aria, where all you want is destruction and chaos," my father told me. "You can save people. Heal them. I even believe that maybe one day, you'll be able to resurrect the dead."
I enter the house, it's so dark, but with the frequent lightning I'm able to see.
I was dead - I felt it, what it was like to not exist. I brought myself back. How? Can I really bring back the dead?
I put my hand over Liams heart. I shut my eyes as I feel energy getting drained from me, from my heart, my organs, my brain, I feel everything get weaker. It hurts, not like an ache, but it's sharp, and it's everywhere. I can't help but scream after so long, it feels like needles stab me everywhere.
He gasps and sits up. He looks terrified, holding his hand over his heart. I look down at his stab wounds, the shirt is still bloodied, but the wounds are now gone. I stare at him in shock. He looks around frantically and asks, "What the fuck just happened?"
"A human could never take down Atlantic Sinclair," my father said. "Only you, Aria. You're good. It's in your nature to be good, to save. You must save us all from that boy."
"I brought you back from the dead," I say. He looks at me like I'm crazy. But he knows it, he feels it, and he sees the two others dead.
"W-well bring them back, too," he says.
I look over my shoulder at them. I remember the time Malia stole my favourite shirt and stained it, and the time Henry left a plate in the sink for an entire week.
"Nah," I say.
I push myself up to my feet, but the second I do, my hands grip my hair. I felt dizzy, like I was about to fall over, my head pounded, my ears rang. With poor balance, I made my way to the bathroom, as I always did when I didn't feel well.
I place my hands against the sink and look down, waiting for the white noise and dizziness to die down.
Once it has passed, I look up, I see myself in the mirror, but is this really me? The whites of my eyes are red and bloody from burst blood vessels. I can't look away from my reflection. I would not cry tears, I'd cry blood. Slowly, I touch my face, I couldn't believe that this was me.
"Are you going to explain to me how you brought me back from the fucking dead?" Liam asks from the door frame. I see him in the mirror.
I turn around, looking away from the reflection that I tried to convince myself wasn't me.
"I can heal, Liam, I can save," I tell him. I can bring back the dead, heal people from illness, take their pain away. "And the next person I save is going to be Atlantic Sinclair."
Right now, he's brainwashed. Convinced by Maria that I don't love him, I don't care about him, that he doesn't even know me.
He may have killed me, but even resurrected from death, I still care for him. He might hate me, but I still love him, I still love the man I'm supposed to kill.
"Didn't he kill you, too?" Liam questions. I smile.
"He did," I say. "But I love when they play hard to get."
╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯
A T L A N T I C
"I killed Aria Reyes."
I spoke those words for the first time 4 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 45 seconds ago. They hurt to speak, as if I were speaking glass, my throat getting stabbed and ripped open repeatedly.
I thought how much I thought about her before was bad, now, it's even worse. I do not go one second without her face in my head, without her voice saying "I love you" in my ears.
It's 4 am. I hear it, over, and over, and over again. I can't handle it anymore.
In black joggers I make my way down to Maria's apartment. I don't care about the time. I pound my fist against the door, I don't stop or wait, I just keep knocking.
"What?" she asks angrily while opening her door, being taken out of her sleep.
"That injection you told me about. That numbs you emotionally, that makes you unable to feel," I say. "I want it. Now."
She looks shocked. I had turned it down several times, now here I was in the middle of the night begging for it.
"Okay," she says.
The private medical room, we're in it soon enough. I sit in the chair while she prepares the syringe, I still see Aria in my mind, she's haunting me until the last moment possible.
"I understand you are struggling with what you did to Aria Reyes," she says as she flicks the syringe. "But you did the right thing. I am proud of you, Atlantic."
Her words mean nothing to me. I don't even acknowledge them. I simply whisper, "Just make me unable to care."
She nods. I close my eyes as I feel it go into my vein. I think of her, her beautiful face, her big lips, that gold jewelry she wears. But as I feel it spreading inside me, slowly, I stop thinking of her. Of her smile that felt like it stopped the world, her eyes that could've brought me to my knees.
I open my eyes.
She isn't in my head. I don't think of her.
"There, Atlantic," Maria says. "Now why don't you go get a good nights sleep for tomorrow."
I nod, but I do not feel. I can't even remember why I needed to do this. I think of nothing as I go back up to my room, and fall asleep quickly, with nothing on my mind.
I sleep throughout the night. It's the first time in so long.
Maria tells me I need to go and kill 5 people. I don't ask why, I don't care, I just do it. I slaughter them. I make their death more painful than it needs to be. I stand in my bathroom now, staring at my reflection.
I wear all black. And with black hair and eyes, the only other colour on me is the red blood splattered against my face. I don't see the human behind the blood, just the blood, and I like it. I don't want to wash it off.
I grab the bottle on my counter. I spray two sprays against my neck. My eyebrows lower at the scent and I move the bottle before my eyes.
It's a woman's scent. It's sweet. It was Aria's perfume.
I set it down, not caring.
As the phone call I was getting in the other room went unanswered, the voicemail started to play.
"Atlantic, tomorrow you will be accompanying me at the hospital," Maria says on the speaker. "Mr. Grey will be there, to see just how far you've come."
I barely even listen to words. I just look at the blood on my skin.
I want more of it.
╰── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╯
A R I A
I stare at the hospital, the one rebuilt from me burning it down, the one I'd love to destroy once again. But that's not what I'm here for. I'm here for him, I know he's here.
He is getting lost in the darkness that Maria fills his brain with. This is who I am, to save, that's what I've always wanted to do, save. I want to save him from himself.
"Remind me why I'm here again?" Liam asks from the drivers seat.
"I don't fucking know, idiot, I guess you're just sitting in a drivers seat for fun," I say dryly to him, making him point at me and mouth 'Rude.' "Have the car ready in case I need to get the fuck out of there. The people in there that work for the government itself all think I'm dead. It needs to stay that way for now."
"Okay," he says hesitantly. "But I'm telling you, Aria. You're wasting your time. Atlantic can't be saved."
"We'll see," I whisper.
With my hood up, I step out of the car. It's windy and the city is loud. I know the building perfectly, I know where to enter that has no security.
The top floor is where everything unethical is conducted. I know that's where he'll be.
I make my way up there, I take the stairs, everybody here is lazy and takes the elevator.
When I get to the top floor, I open the door so slightly, and look around. I make sure nobody is out here before stepping out. Once I see that the hallway is empty, I begin taking silent steps down the hallway.
While I was created to kill Atlantic, it seems all I want to do is save him, from the time that I met him.
I hear the elevator ding behind me, making me jump. I go into the room with an open door beside me, it's dark, no lights are on. I press my back against the wall.
"He's here," I hear Maria's voice. But I don't look out. I keep my back against the wall as I hear multiple pairs of footsteps. "Atlantic, come on."
"Atlantic Sinclair," an infamous voice speaks. "It's nice to finally meet you."
I move my head slightly to see if I was just hearing things, maybe it was all in my head. But I see him. Mr. Grey. He created everything, the funding for all of these trials and experiments, everything all lead back to him.
"He has been doing everything asked of him," Maria speaks for him. "There have been no issues. And Aria Reyes has been taken care of."
"Very well," Mr. Grey nods. "Say, Atlantic, could I have a moment alone with Maria?"
Atlantic doesn't nod, he doesn't speak. He just turns and walks away. Something was different about him, I felt it, even from here.
"So, what now since the girls dead?" Mr. Grey whispers. "That's what we've been waiting for. Right?"
"Yes, but we need to make it believable," Maria whispers back. "We cannot just tell the public he did something wrong so we are going to kill him. We need to make him do it, we need to make him snap."
"The death of that girl, that's what we can use," Maria continues. "He truly did care for her."
"Alright," Mr. Grey agrees. "Then we will steal her research and do it ourselves. We should've never done these trails."
"I agree. But we will be rid of him, soon enough," she whispers.
I watch her walk away with him. I always knew they were using him, they don't care about him, not like I do.
Once they've walked away, I take this opportunity to get the hell out of here. There was no getting through to him right now, something about him isn't right.
I begin running down the hallway toward the staircase, which is right beside the elevator. But when I'm just a few steps away, I freeze, as the elevator doors open, and I'm standing right in front of it.
But I'm grabbed and pulled. In the blink of an eye, or maybe even less, I'm pulled into a dark room by strong arms. I'm pushed against the wall, my eyes are wide, and a hand covers my mouth. I look up at him, into his dark eyes, as the people exit the elevator. He puts a finger to his lips and whispers, "Shhh."
I remain silent. I don't dare to move. I don't even breathe until the group of people walk down the hallway.
He stares at me strangely.
"What's wrong, handsome?" I whisper while smiling.
"Why are you haunting me?" he asks. "I killed you. Why am I now hallucinating you?"
My eyebrows lower. I raise my hand to touch his face, so he can feel me, and know that I'm real.
"I'm here, Atlantic," I tell him. But it's not him. I can feel the darkness from him, the lack of empathy, he is not the same, there is something different about him.
"She's broken you," I say.
He shakes his head. He says, "You broke me."
"Now, stop haunting me," he adds.
He lets me go. I watch him as he exits the room. He's numb. He cannot feel.
If he cannot feel, I will force him to feel.
Word Count: 2110