Word count: 2682
I wanted to scream, I wanted to run. Inside my head, I was doing all those things and more. But my body wasn't complying, my bones were super glued together.
Eventually, I willed myself to move backwards, never once looking away from the eyes that I once thought were so beautiful. The ones that I knew wanted me dead, wanted to see my blood running out of my corpse as my face drained of all colour and life.
He licked his lips, the ones that had kissed me. The ones that were now laced with poison, every word deadly.
"Don't worry," his voice was so low and smooth that I wanted to believe him, wanted to trust him. "That was before. Before I knew how brilliant you were." He grabbed my hand and I didn't have the strength to move away.
We stared into each other's eyes for a moment, just reading each other's emotions. I couldn't tell what mine were, mine were rampaging around. Changing from love to anger to sadness to confusion. Changing as the seconds ticked by.
"How?" My hands moved away from his, the warmth disappeared instantly. "How did you do this?"
"It was easy," he told me, a smirk on his face, his cheeks pink and full of life. "Have you ever heard of Nanoparticles?"
I nodded. I had heard of them I just didn't have a clue what they were or what they were even for. There hadn't been much research on them when I looked in the revision book for the science exam I never actually took, not enough time to collect solid data. The information barely fit a full A4 sheet of paper.
"They're very easy to manipulate, to mess with." He took at pause and breathed in deeply before continuing, "you see people don't understand them, but they allow them to live alongside them. They're sort of like those random ingredients chucked into drinks, you don't know what they are but if they're on something you want you don't care.
My father created miniature robots. They were so unbelievably tiny but, once inside the body, they slowly destroy cells. The person dies but they leave a part of the brain active, the instinctual part. The part that tells you to eat. Them "zombies" are merely a product of putting the robots into the Nanoparticles. Consumers did all the other work."
It was clever and simple. But don't they have all them regulations? Maybe his dad was a scientist and pretended they were fine and caused no effects.
"Do you- do you choose the parts that die? Can you brainwash them? Keep in the part that talks?" I asked him, remembering "R".
"Possibly, others were working on that..." Archie scrunched his eyebrows together.
I tried to forget it, tried to divert the conversation. Run away from the subject like I used to run away from everything.
"How do you know so much about me?" I was surprised I got the words out. I was surprised I had any words inside me to let out, I felt hollow.
"Jack." The one name made my skin boil. "I told him to get with Ella to get closer to you, see how strong you truly were. People were always saying how amazing you were, how you could survive anything. I wanted to see it for myself." He leaned forward and placed his chin delicately on his intertwined fingers, elbows bent. Before giving me a massive smirk. "I needed to know what I was up against."
Why? What did he expect me to be? Some girl that had a black belt in karate and would kick his ass, or did he expect me to be some girl that only exercises when she gets up to make a cup of tea? As I stood there, I wished I'd swapped that tea for karate lessons. I wished I had participated in the classes like my dad had wanted me to.
"What I found was... unexpected, to say the least," I stayed quiet as he spoke, "that's when the plan changed to killing you. You weren't like the rumours, you seemed to be just like any other awkward teenage girl. He was supposed to keep you in the house that day, he was also meant to spike your drink so you stayed asleep. He failed both tasks because he loved Ella, apparently. I think he was just too weak personally, and then he ditched you. I wasn't happy because I thought you wouldn't survive on your own, man, was I wrong. If anything, it built up character. You changed in ways I could never have imagined."
He was the reason I was left all alone? The reason I nearly died so many times? And does that mean the reason my coffee tasted weird was because Jack had put some form of Rohypnol into the mug? Probably not enough, he must've messed up the ratios or something. That's the only reason I could think of, Jack would not pass up the opportunity to leave me for dead so easily.
"I knew I couldn't kill you then," he continued, "I took a liking to you, wanted you here with me."
"Which is why you came after me?" I questioned.
"No," he spoke very slowly, calculating my reactions. "It was why I sent Caleb to you."
"You sent Caleb?" I whispered, feeling my body stiffen. That's why he had warned me when Jack came, he had known Jack. It had all been one elaborate plan to get me here.
"And then Caleb messed up, he tried to keep us from getting to you. He nearly got you both killed because I couldn't track you, that was never part of the plan. But, once I found you, it did allow me to swoop in and become the hero. I must admit it worked out well." He was smirking again. I wanted to smack him, scream at him, throw him into a pit of the very things he created.
"Worked out well? For who, Archie!?" He didn't reply, he just kept staring at me, letting the information seep into my brain. I bit my lip, I thought of Caleb. How scared he had been in this world, how nice he was to me and I to him. "I don't believe that Caleb would ever do something like that, that an innocent little boy would take orders from you."
"He had no choice, Jack made it quite clear that he had to if he wanted to see his parents again."
"But isn't Kevin his dad?"
"No, that was just a cover story." My mouth dropped open, the more Archie talked the worse he seemed to be. He rolled his eyes at me. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm not that bad. His parents were already dead; an immunity of the virus had gone wrong during testing. The same testing your mother was involved in."
The words rang in my head, was I hearing him right?
"You tested my mum! Are you the reason she's dead...?"The reason I never saw her in the hospital. It made sense, why I never got to see her there. Why I never got to talk to her. She was being tested on, she was dying, she was dead. Dad had covered for her, why had dad let her do it? And it didn't explain why she went to Manchester?
"So right yet so wrong." Archie tutted and shook his head. I stared at him in confusion. "Oh, have you not figured it off by now? You really did lose your memory aye? Still, I thought you were smarter than this. I didn't test on your mother, your father did."
"My... my dad?" I let the words seep into the air. "No! My parents are dead, Ella is dead, you got them killed! Not my dad, he would never, he could never-" I felt the familiar burning in the back of my eyes but tears didn't appear.
"Don't blame others for them being weak. Besides, why would I lie?" He said the words slowly and with emphasis.
I had had enough. I jumped up from my chair and put my arm over his neck, pushing down at his throat.
"Stop!" I hissed. He seemed unfazed, very little emotions were showing. When I realised he didn't care I slowly released him and huffed.
"I am simply stating facts." He stared me straight in the eyes, he wasn't smirking. He was lying, he had to be lying. "My dad knew yours. They worked together trying to perfect the virus."
No, he was an accountant. He had a boring old job, he wasn't some scientist that made up zombies. "You're making this up," I said, not sure whether it was to convince him or myself.
"You volunteered to have Injections, made by your dad, to become immune, to test it. It was a prototype... the rumours said you lost your memory but no one knew for sure."
The injections. The reason behind my fear of needles, the time my dad took me to the hospital because I was ill. Though, thinking back, the place did look odd. Was that what made the zombies act weird around me? I didn't remember much about the hospital but I remembered the liquid filling my veins, my screams as the medicine burned me from the inside out. My heart ached and my brain hurt as I remembered. Shortly after my illness, I stopped doing things that I used to, suddenly I remembered my karate lessons; I was good. I remembered how everything changed afterwards, how I changed.
"It doesn't make everyone immune, some died, but the injection worked for you... and the later one for me." He stared at me, a smile playing on his lips. I didn't understand why I would volunteer to it. Was he telling the truth? "They worked and worked until the government found out. Your dad's work was hidden whilst my father took all the blame. He went to jail and I swore I'd carry it on. And I did."
"How can you be so heartless?" I muttered, he wasn't realising what distress he was putting me through. He didn't think about other people as he decided to carry on with the family business. I wondered if he was as heartless as he made out... I mean he kept me safe, he kept Caleb safe - until the end at least. But it was all for his own gain, wasn't it? None of it was really about me, he just wanted to rule the world. He was power hungry and he would help anyone needed and kill anyone who was not.
I couldn't get over how my whole life seemed to be a lie, I didn't even know who my parents were. Did Ella know? If she had then she would've had the injections and not me, why was it me?
"Heartless? You say that like you aren't." I moved back, realising that I was still lingering far too close. "Maybe at the start you weren't."
I watched anxiously as he opened a draw in front of his seat, a small brown envelope was inside. My throat was scratchy, it was like he was shoving the paper down it. He handed it to me, I could feel the weight inside it. It should've been light so why did it feel like it weighed a ton? Maybe more. He nodded at me to open it and I took a shaky breath before sliding my fingers in the opening and removing the paper from the gluey substance. My fingers were shaky and the envelope was ripped, it looked like a dog had gotten to it first and tried to open it in its mouth. But I didn't care, not really. I was more scared about what was inside. I glanced in and saw what looked to be photographs.
"What are these?" I gulped.
"Just something a friend of mine took." Archie's eyes watched my movements carefully, a smirk still residing on his face.
I pulled out the pictures and saw they were long distance snaps of a street. At first, I was confused... until I saw the car.
There was a body lying in it, legs out. In the distance, two shadows rushing towards the person. I flicked through hurriedly, one of them was pulling the other out of the car. And then finally, a person stabbing the other... these weren't just any pictures. They were pictures of Ella's death. They tumbled to the ground, fluttering down gracefully. I felt like crumbling to the floor, but I stood tall, solid.
"Why do you have these? Are you sick!?" I snarled, clenching my fists at my side. Archie never once stopping grinning.
"No." He shook his head softly. "It was in case you forgot what has happened. Don't let her death go to waste! You're just like me, and together we can take over the world! England is just the start."
"How!?" I spat out. Take over the world? That was the plan? How damn cliché . "And I'm nothing like you." I saw his eyes glistening, the bottom of his lip twitched.
"On the contrary, you are exactly like me. In many ways in fact."
"You're mad." I shook my head. "Completely and utterly mad!" He couldn't believe I was anything like him.
"Madness is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I, on the other hand, adapted my little virus until it worked. I'm not mad, I'm a genius."
"Okay if you're not mad then please tell me how you can possibly think I am like you."
"You killed," he said it as casually as he would say my name, "Logan is dead at your hands. If you think I am a monster for creating this virus then, in turn, you are also a monster for destroying a life. No?"
"But you've killed so many! You killed Logan, not me." He looked at me disbelieving and I didn't blame him. I turned up, I pushed him into that infected but he didn't know that. Did he?
"I think you're remembering this wrong."
"The only reason he came after me that night was because your apocalypse turned him batshit insane." I was close to sobbing, my body trembled all over. He stood up carefully and inched his body close to mine, I didn't move. I felt like someone had cemented my feet to the floor and all I could do was stand there like a statue.
"He wouldn't have been good enough for you anyway," he whispered in my ear, his warm breath sent tingles down my spine. He kissed me quickly on the lips, they were cold and hard against my own. I felt all the colour drain from my face but still I couldn't seem to move or push him away, he smiled. "Now since we're both standing. Let's have a look around." He started leading me out the door but I stopped him, my curiosity for something that made sense whirling inside me.
"Why go through all the trouble of bringing me here?" Why hadn't he just said 'hey I have a safe house, let's go there'?
He didn't answer like I had wanted him to, "what's a king without his queen? After your father abandoned mine I didn't want anything to do with you but I know we need each other. During our time together you made me realise that I wanted to share this new world with someone equally as good as me."
There it was again, him comparing himself to me. I was nothing like him! Was I?
He looped his arm through mine and carried me out of the small office.
Two weeks ago the world made sense and, as much as I wanted a story book-like adventure, I wanted my old boring life back more. I wanted to finish my exams, go to college, get a boyfriend, get married, have a real life and a future. I could see no future, not one I wanted at least.