IM SO SORRY FOR BEING GONE FOR SO LONG.
I didn't mean to be gone for so long, I was just taking a short break and one thing led to another. Thank you to those who stuck with me <3
I ran.
I ran, feet bare, down the hall, my feet now padding on wooden floor. And for once, I was not dreaming, and I knew exactly what was going on.
I was running, looking for the door. The door I saw in my dream. Deja vu hit me like a wave: in my dream I had also been running on this same hardwood floor, and I knew my destination was near.
The dilemma was that the door looked no different than any other door, and I didn't know why I was drawn to the specific one in that moment. I seemed to just know.
I braced myself. I also seemed to just know what was waiting for me inside. I was terrified that it would change who I am forever. That the second I stepped foot in that room, there would be no saving me.
But I had to go.
I had to help Brendon. I had to help Dallon. There must have been some mistake or a misunderstanding. Brendon and Dallon would never hurt each other; they were childhood friends.
My hand grasped the gold knob. I struggled to turn it.
Locked! Fuck!
I needed a way in. I hated to admit it, but I was desperate. I would do anything.
Without care for my appearance, my fingers searched through my hair and unsheathed a bobby pin from the now-tangled-mess, and then another. I stuck the bobby pins into the lock and prayed that maybe a memory of how to pick a lock would come back to me.
But no memory came. I continued to maneuver the bobby pins. Was it better to give up? Find another room? Maybe my instincts were wrong and Brendon was not inside here at all.
Almost as if on cue, a metal object scraped the floor and impacted against my foot. I looked down, my fingers finding it. A thick base with a long point at the end.
"A lock pick?" I looked up to see dark hair tied in a ponytail, leather pants, and a button up, all in black. A woman with a serious look on her face.
"Use that. Technically the boss told me not to let you into this room, but I don't give a shit anymore. Let him punish me later."
I stared incredulously at the woman, shock written on my features. "Lu?"
She smiled. "Do you need some help with the door, Miss [L/n]?"
Lu crouched down and easily broke open the lock, giving me a wink and pressing a finger to her lips to indicate that I needed to be quiet. I didn't know why I needed to stay silent, but I trusted her. Something told me she knew a lot more than I did.
I followed after her, slowly and nervously. But she took one look down into the room and gracefully, albeit quickly, made her way down the stairs.
"Lu," I heard Brendon gasp out. Air got caught in my lungs.
Lu stood alert, waiting for his next order. I ran down the stairs to stand beside her. Part of me wished I hadn't. I knew what would come next may change everything.
But I had the courage not to care.
The scene around me inspired many emotions. Brendon's shocked eyes seeing me. Dallon's hand grasping a gun. Blood soaked in Brendon's shirt. Not a single scratch lay on Dallon.
A surging pain flooded from my toes to my head and I let out a cry. I suddenly knew more than I had before. This room, the device pointed at me. The crying man and the girl beside me. All parts of the dream were in here.
This was the room. Brendon was the man. The device sat by his foot. And the girl? She was no longer alive, I assumed.
I felt the sudden urge to vomit with so much information flooding into my head. The device wasn't any normal device. It was a government device. Brendon's dad's invention. The one Brendon had sworn to develop and improve.
The one he swore to secrecy to protect.
That meant when Brendon pointed it at me, he intended to use its effects which had to have been what caused my current state.
Did it have to do something with. . .
"My memories," I whispered out loud. I covered my mouth, not intending for the sound to come out.
But why? What had I done to warrant a memory wipe? Why did Brendon do such a thing? And why did he look so grieved when he had?
The "why" made my head hurt more than current situation, so I turned my head toward Brendon who looked sadly toward me and reached his hand out. I extended my own toward him in exchange.
Lu was calm for the situation, like she had seen this a million times, but when Dallon lifted his pistol to Brendon's head, Lu's eyes narrowed, and she got ready to attack him. Brendon was helplessly pressed against the counter, his hands attempting to keep himself steady.
"Lu," Brendon grunted. "No, don't hurt him."
She immediately stopped her action and went back to standing at a rest. "Sorry, sir. I let my adrenaline get the best of me."
He did not respond, but stared Dallon in the eyes instead, as if they were having a mental battle.
I took a step forward. "Brendon—"
"Stop."
I was confused. What did he want me to stop doing? Talking? Moving?
"Dallon is a good person." His response confused me more.
Dallon flinched.
"He just doesn't know what he's doing."
I nodded understandingly. I had to in this situation where I had no idea what was going on.
I was terrified. One wrong move and Brendon was dead. My timidness was short-lived, as Dallon took the gun away from Brendon's head to walk his way toward the exit, guarding it with his presence.
"Now that we all are here," Dallon sighed. "It's time to talk business."
Brendon straightened out and ran a hand through his blood covered hair. "It's about her, isn't it."
Her? Is that referring to me?
Dallon nodded. "With my assessment of the situation, you've already broken your promise. Our side of the negotiation can't be kept, either, as a result."
I squinted my eyes. Negotiation? Our?
Dallon continued. "I should just kill her now."
My limbs went stiff, my senses filling with a desperate need to escape. Suddenly, he was addressing me, and not in a positive way.
Brendon's stare hardened. "God so help you if you do as much as lay a hand on her," he seethed.
Pretending not to hear him, Dallon fiddled with the trigger of his gun. "But I won't. There is still another option if you want her alive, Brendon."
"I know." It sounded like it hurt him to say it.
"There's a high chance she will die."
"I know," Brendon repeated.
"But she may live, and that's what you want."
Brendon stared down at his shoes and clicked his tongue at the device. I walked to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He stiffened.
"You'll have to use that, is what I'm getting from this conversation," I spoke in a soothing tone despite the situation.
He looked helpless, covered in his own blood and sweat, but when I saw the gun sitting in the holster around his belt, it became apparent that he was not at all helpless. He had been entirely capable of holding his own ground.
"Brendon?" I let out. He turned his head my way to let me know he was listening. "Why didn't you defend yourself?"
Dallon heard but didn't hear. Instead, he looked as though he was analyzing the room with envy. The computer sitting on the counter. The multiple monitors on the walls. Large, human-sizes capsules lined the room.
Brendon did not answer me. I grabbed his hand.
"Because I couldn't."
That was a blatant lie. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe he didn't know how to use a gun. but then why would he have one?
"I couldn't hurt my friend," he finished.
I stared at him, no response. I gripped his hand tighter and crouched down so that I could look up at him. "That's the Brendon I know."
His eyes widened, sensing another meaning.
"You mean. . ." Brendon trailed off. "You remember? You know now?"
Before I could answer, Dallon interrupted. "It's worse than I thought. Brendon, I had more faith in you." He reached out and grabbed my upper arms, pulling me toward him and away from Brendon before I could even process what had happened. "I'm sorry, but you two will probably never see each other again."
My heavy dress weighed down on me, and it did not help Dallon much as I kicked against him and struggled in his strong grip.
Lu ran to intervene but something caused her to stop.
The only thing I could see in front of me at the time was a brunette in a purple dress. I was not aware of her actions, but Lu soon fell to the ground with a groan of pain.
The brunette turned to face me, a pair of bloody fabric scissors equipped in her hand at the ready to, as I presumed, cut up the skirt of my dress to make it lighter.
The girl smiled brightly, her teeth a pale white. "Long time no see."
My mouth fell open.
It was Lily.
Ahh once again, I'm truly sorry for my long absence :( I hope this chapter was at least a little good