~ Chapter Eighteen:
NERO
My head was swimming. I climbed up off of the floor, clutching a radiator on the wall for support. The gas burned my throat.
My eyes were blurry but I knew Esme wasn't there. The swearing and cursing and apparent biting had stopped a while ago.
Plus, Adam was dying. I had to get to him.
I hauled myself right up onto my feet and staggered down the corridors. Uncle Leo's office was just around the corner. I think.
I bumped into someone and, as I was still so weak, collapsed to the ground. The person helped me up.
I was staring into the inquisitive eyes of a tall slim boy with curly auburn hair and funky square glasses. He had hearing aids and a square box taped to his left leg.
"Er..." I thought hard. "Er, Lucas, right?"
"Right," the boy said calmly. He handed me a similar box to his own from a pocket. My friend from school had one so I knew how to sort it out.
"Where's Leo?" I said into the little mic.
"Is there a problem?" Lucas asked.
I nodded. "We're... we're two Bornes down."
Lucas' eyes widened. "What?"
Someone came up behind Lucas.
"Boys?" Leo looked hyperactively excited in a long white lab coat with bright-pink gloves and his hair sticking-up. His dark skin was covered in black oil smudges and strands of his hair were alight with tiny orange blobs.
He saw my face and looked at us. "Where's Joey? Esme? Adam?"
"Joey's in our dorm," Lucas said, reading Leo's lips. "He's practising his powers."
"And the others?"
"Esme's gone," I said, my voice cracking as I began to sob. "Adam's dying. I've screwed up, Uncle Leo. I... I couldn't protect them. Either of them."
Despite us being strangers, Lucas suddenly hugged me. It lasted a second, maybe two, and then Lucas pulled away, but I needed it. I needed it bad.
Leo stood dumbfounded. "What?"
I wiped my eyes. "I was with Adam. He was asleep. He's... he's been having nightmares. Real bad nightmares."
Leo paled. He looked terrified.
"I used my power to look into his mind." I didn't want to go into details. "He was remembering something, when he went to see Esme when she was ill. I pulled out and felt the heat.
"It felt like, like... I don't know, like he was using his power to fry his brain."
"What about Ezzy?"
"Esme?" I sighed, burying my tear-stricken face in my hands. "I came out of my dormitory to fetch you guys. I ran into Esme in that corridor. She was choking."
"Choking?" Lucas repeated.
"A gas attack. It filled the whole corridor. I heard these voices, heard Esme's screams." My head ached with the memory. "I tried, guys. Please. I tried to save her."
Leo came and put his arm around me. His voice soft, he said, "What happened next, Nero?"
"I heard her being taken away, out of the facility, screaming bloody murder. I tried to get into the attackers' heads. It was too hard. I couldn't get into so many, there were at least ten. Another scream but not hers, not Esme's. A man's. He shouted his hand was bleeding. She'd obviously bit him."
I sighed. "I blacked out not long after."
Leo ran a hand through his wild mop. "Right. Lucas, go get Dr Solace and come straight to Nero's dorm. Nero and I will head there now."
Uncle Leo didn't give either of us time to answer. He strode off.
"She'll be okay, you know," Lucas told me as I handed back the box.
"I hope so."
***
Dr Will Solace spent over three hours by Adam's side and came up with no conclusions.
"There are no medical reasons," he said in exasperation. " The tests I've carried out have been inconclusive. All I can determine is he's causing a slowly-increasing radiation inside his head."
"Isn't that dangerous?" Joey, who'd come along with Lucas and Will, asked.
"Very," Will replied. "I'm stumped as to what to do. I've set up some sensory panels around his head, as you can see, but they need to be on a high strength."
"So put them on a high strength," I demanded.
Will shook his head. "With the temperatures going on in that mind of his, a sudden reaction could easily kill him."
"What do the panels do?" I asked, trying to be a bit more understanding.
"I designed them," Lucas piped up. "They detect movement or change inside a Borne's brain. They can produce a temperate energy to channel or control anything unexpected, even high aggravation. With all the health risks we Bornes pose, then we've got to take precautions. I have so much spare time and an extreme intelligence, I think it's efficient that I put it to good use in preservation for our future."
"So..." I looked back at Adam. "These sensory panels - do they need to be cold to cancel out the heat?"
Lucas nodded. "Freezing cold." He put a thermometer in Adam's mouth. "These are inhuman, impossible temperatures. It is purely Adam's Borne power for controlling weather patterns that he's still alive. But if he suddenly pushes up his temperature, even if just a little... we've lost him. His brain will be exposed to so much radiation he'll turn to mush."
"Is there a chance that if Adam survives this, he could have brain damage?" Leo asked.
"Yes," Will replied. "It's more than a chance. It's a fairly certified risk."
I wanted to cry. "Put the panels on," I said.
Will scowled. "There are too many risks," he explained.
"I don't care. It could be his only chance."
"It could be his last," Will argued. "Do you want to be responsible for that, Nero? If Adam dies, it'll be you who made that call!"
"Will -" Leo began.
"No," Dr Solace snapped. "Nero needs to know. One more shot of temperature and Adam dies. A minute after his death, we could all be exposed to serious radiation. Either we put up the panels and risk killing him, or we wait for another solution."
"We can't play God with his life!" I yelled. "I know that! But how can we sit around and wait? He's going to die, Dr Solace! I don't want him to."
I took a deep breath. "I'll make that decision. Let it be on my conscience."
Will stared at me, his eyes hard and furious and... desperate. He didn't want to be responsible. He didn't want to make that call.
I looked back at Adam. His forehead was bright red. The heat was emanating from him. Sweet poured down his skin and dropped onto the six panels positioned around his head. His body convulsed with twitches and spasms.
"Give me a second," I told the others, and focused on his mind. It was like a door opened on the side of his head and I could freely walk in, just like that. It was easy.
But this time it hurt. An agonising sharp jolt struck as I invaded inside.
He's fighting me, I realised. He doesn't want me to see.
I have to, I growled as I pushed harder.
My vision was tinted red as I searched inside him. I knew I was still standing in the room by Adam's bedside, only a second passing in reality. But this was the most real memory I'd been in. I wasn't watching from the outside like I had been the others. I was right on the sidelines.
***
Adam's memory was set in a living room, somewhere away from the camp. The room was small and cramped and smelled of tobacco and booze. The sofa was black leather but stained with different substances, and an ashtray with a dozen cigarette stubs rested on the arm. The floor was a filthy pea-green, a worn carpet with all sorts of crap stamped into it. The walls were once white but now yellowing, each corner riddled with mould and coated with dust.
Adam sat at a rickety wooden table by the door, reading a dog-eared book. His right eye was bruised black and purple, the eye itself reddened.
He wore a disgusting blue hoodie that looked to be three sizes too big and greying tight jeans that came way above his ankles. He wore a simple white t-shirt with three small blobs that looked suspiciously like blood.
No baseball cap, either. Just his scruffy hair, which he kept itching. Nits.
Then I realised. Adam's hair was blonde. And his eyes - well, his good eye - it was blue.
Why did Adam look like this? Because it was definitely Adam, of that I was sure.
The door burst open and an extremely overweight man plodded in. He wore a stretched yellow polo and grey jogging bottoms. His hair was oily and greasy and thinning at the back, and his face was unclean, with scratchy grey stubble and narrowed beady eyes.
He settled on Adam. "Oi, brat," he snarled.
Adam jumped up shakily. "Yeah, Dad?"
This brute was Adam's father?
"Get me a beer," the man growled.
Adam shook his head. "D-Dad," he stammered, "you've had enough and I think -"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK!" Mr Grimshaw bellowed. "I WANT A BEER AND I WANT IT NOW!"
Adam trembled. "P-please, Dad..."
Mr Grimshaw stomped towards Adam and raised his large fist. He swung. Adam winced.
"NO!" I yelled, but this was a memory. I averted my eyes as Mr Grimshaw smacked his son full in the face. Adam cried out as he fell.
I spun round. Adam was sprawled across the floor, head buried in the gross carpet. He could be heard openly sobbing. He looked up and his nose was gushing with scarlet blood. He cupped it.
"Dad," he whimpered.
"Dad Dad Dad," Mr Grimshaw mocked. He bent down in front of his son. "You're a waste of space, you know that? A waste."
He kicked Adam in the gut and staggered off, leaving Adam crying.
The memory changed to another one. Adam's bruised eye was gone, replaced by a giant great welt across his cheeks. His arms were exposed today in the same shirt minus the hoodie, and he had small green bruises up and down his skin. He was at the table again, reading another torn book.
A woman lounged across the sofa, and I'm ashamed and disgusted to describe what she was doing. A needle was plugged into her arm and she inhaled deeply. Adam wasn't looking at her. He looked unfazed.
"Adam," she said groggily. "Top me up."
Adam ignored her.
"Adam Grimshaw, I said -"
"I heard what you said, Ma."
Mrs Grimshaw swore. "Then do it."
She snorted. "Or should I get your father?"
Adam got up and I knew I couldn't watch. He was going to fuel the supply pumping into her. I couldn't see that. No.
The memory jumped one last time. Adam was in a different dark room, an even smaller room the size of a box with a flea-ridden mattress and a tin can in the corner. Surprisingly, he was smiling.
"I'm getting out of here," he said to nobody in particular. "Finally. Away from them."
He shouldered his backpack, turned to the door and his eyes softened. "Them."
He opened the door and the light shone his face. It showed the real horrors of his abuse. He wasn't recognisable. Bruises and blood stains. But his smile was unavoidable. He was happy. For once.
Be happy, Adam, I whispered. Wake up and be happy. Turn off the sun in your head and turn on the snow.
Nothing. It was time to pull out.
***
I jolted back to reality. As I knew it would, only a second really had passed. I wobbled.
"What did you see?" Will asked eagerly. "Quick, it might help!"
I looked at Uncle Leo. He knew. Of Adam's past. He could tell from my shaky state that it was what I'd seen.
"I passed on a message," I said. "To turn off the sun and turn on the snow. It'll work."
The door to mine and Adam's doorway clicked open. Zarah Venjovi walked in, wearing a striped crop top and denim shorts. She looked nervous.
"Percy and Annabeth told me," she said softly.
"Do they know about Esme?"
Zarah shook her head. "Don't think so. What's happened to Esme?"
"Sit down," I said. "We could be here a while."
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WAHEY this is soooooo long! Well kind of. Well, for me it is.
Hope you enjoy =)
~ Lauren xx