CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - SULLIVAN
Help me. I say it over and over, hoping she’ll hear me.
But it’s been weeks. Weeks since they locked me in this prison cell. I am unable to do anything but waste away on the floor, wishing for my final end that will never come.
Thomas is gone for good. I can feel it. He’s never coming back. I’ll be left here to rot. No one is even here in this place with me. No sound at all. Nothing. I’m deep underground. No one will find me. I will—
Footsteps outside the door.
Help. Help me.
The grinding sound of a bolt being slid. Then the creak of a heavy door.
“Thomas?”
Thank God, it’s her. Sadie. I’m too weak to talk, so I do my best to project this to her. Sullivan. I concentrate on my name, trying to let her know I’m still here. That Thomas is gone and it’s still me. The one she likes. I’m the one she likes. Me.
Lights flick on. It blinds me—even though my eyes are shut, it’s too bright.
“What did you do to him?” Sadie asks.
“We needed to disarm him,” a man says.
“We cannot afford to have sympathy for this animal,” a woman snarls. “He is everything we’ve been fighting against.”
“Feed him,” Sadie snaps. “Now. And bring him water.”
“He won’t be able to eat,” the man says. “He’s too weak.”
“Then I’ll feed him, Uzi.”
Silence after that little declaration. For several seconds. Then, “I hope you know what you’re doing,” from the woman.
Footsteps. Two sets.
Sadie kneels down next to me. “Thomas?” she asks in a soft whisper. We’re connected. Linked. That’s what she called it back in the tunnel. So I can feel her even when she’s not here. But it’s so much better when she’s near.
“They’re bringing you food. I’m sorry. I was unconscious. I don’t know how long you’ve been like this but…” Her words fall away.
I have no more fight left in me. She’s here. It feels like a victory. It feels like the right time to fade away and let someone else take over.
But Thomas is still gone.
Where did you go?
The only response I get is darkness.
“Thomas?” It’s Sadie again. I feel a lot different. A lot better. And I’m not filthy, cold, or lying on a concrete floor. “Can you open your eyes?” I’m on a bed. A very soft bed.
God. When was the last time I had the pleasure of experiencing a bed? I don’t even remember. It was always Thomas who got to enjoy beds. Women. Drinking. Eating. I had none of that while I was locked up inside my own head.
I’m glad he’s gone. Fucking ecstatic.
Something pushes against my lips. Plastic. A straw.
“I know you’re waking up, Thomas. Drink from the straw. You need more water.”
I try to open my eyes, but only a thin sliver of reality peeks through before I give up and close them again.
“It’s OK,” Sadie says. “You can rest. But can you hear me?”
Yes, I send her mentally. I can hear you.
“I know you’ve done bad things. And I know I should not think of you as a… friend.”
Friend, huh?
She squeezes my hand. “We’re not at Prodigy. We’re with my sister. I have a sister!” She is excited about this. “I’m not…” She pauses. “I’m not what I feared. I just have a twin.”
Twin. Well, that makes sense, I guess.
“Our friends, Uzi and Iziah, they’re here too. We all escaped together a couple years ago. Well,” she says, sighing. “Uzi and my sister Cyan did. Iziah and I were caught. Uzi and Iziah got us out of the tunnel. They came to save me. And I’m sorry for how they treated you. You don’t deserve that. But you’re getting better now. I’ve only fed you a few times and believe me, you look a hundred times better.” She squeezes my arm and I realize I have no shirt on. “Your muscles are even back. I don’t understand how we heal like we do. Cyan says she has the mesh and nanites too. So do Uzi and Iziah. I guess we were in the same test group. My memory is coming back.”
“All of it?” I croak out. It’s barely a whisper.
She squeezes my hand, then whispers, “Sullivan. I know that’s you.”
I manage a smile.
“I’d know you anywhere.” Her whisper is so soft, I barely hear it. Which means she’s worried about the others overhearing. She wants this to be a secret between us. “There’s still a lot I don’t remember. Like… why was I with you?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I croak again.
She chuckles under her breath, trying to be quiet. “I know you’re someone good. At least to me. But I was gassed or something. It took some more of my memory away.”
“Fuck,” I say. “I forgot, sorry.”
“I got the earlier stuff back. I remember my sister. And Iziah and Uzi. But I have a big gap. The years Prodigy had me since the escape. I don’t remember anything.”
“Just give it some time,” I manage to spit out. But shit, it feels like a very long string of words right now.
“Can you open your eyes?” she asks. “I need to see them. I need to see those eyes so I know you’re going to be OK.”
I try again, this time managing to bring them to half-mast. “Hey,” I manage.
“Hey, yourself.” She smiles. Then she inhales deeply and lets it out. Relief. “I was so worried. When I finally woke up and realized they didn’t feed you…”
I try to shrug, but I’m not sure I pull it off. “No biggie,” I say. My voice is hoarse but at least my mouth no longer feels like it’s stuffed with cotton. “You can make it up to me later.” I wink. Or… what I think passes as a wink right now. It’s more of a two-eyed blink.
But it gets results. Because she smiles and maybe… yes, I think I see a blush.
“Do you know,” I say, thinking I must be delirious for even going here, “I haven’t flirted with a girl since I was twelve.”
“Twelve?” She laughs. Then she looks over her shoulder, afraid someone might be watching her reaction. “Kind of a late bloomer, huh?”
I laugh this time. Or cough. She helps me sit up so I can do it properly, patting me on the back. “Sorry if I got you in trouble with your people.”
“I’m not in trouble. They don’t control me. We’re equal partners.”
“Thanks,” I say.
“For what?”
“For using your… street cred, I guess. For getting me out of that fucking prison cell.”
“I’m not done with you yet, Sullivan Brooks. Not even close. Whatever’s going on, we’re just getting started. So I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.”
This makes me look at her for several silent seconds. “Do you need me at your back?”
She shrugs, still very nervous about being overheard. “I don’t know yet. But I’d like someone who didn’t grow up with me on the team, if you know what I mean? An objective opinion, if you will. But I have to warn you, Sullivan. They see you as evil incarnate. The Alphas are the most feared project to ever come out of Prodigy school. I’m second-guessing myself a little too. But whatever you are, whoever you are… it’s not what they think. So I’m gonna give us a chance.”
Us. I like the way she just phrased that.
“We could be a great team, remember? Oh, that was Thomas. But it still applies to you and me, right?”
I nod, looking at her face. She’s not pale anymore. Her skin is a soft light brown. Like she comes from a part of the world that has a blue-green ocean and a white-sand beach. I can practically picture her on that beach. Yellow bikini. Her hair all streaked with gold and red from the sun. Laughing. I have no idea what she looks like completely happy. I’d like to see her happy.
“But don’t fuck me over. Please. If you’re here to fuck me over, put me out of my misery first. Do it without me knowing.”
I take her hand, ball it up into a fist, and bump it to mine. “Wondertwins?”
She laughs. “Yeah, sure. But that’s a stupid name. We’ll have to come up with something way cooler.”
I appreciate her for a few moments. Enjoy her. Then whisper, “I’d really like to kiss you right now. And not just because you showed up when it mattered.”
She holds her breath, then glances over her shoulder.
“But I’ll wait,” I say softly. “Just don’t make me wait too long.”
She blushes. Which almost makes up for the predicament I find myself in. “I need to get downstairs,” she says. “Cyan is not happy with me for insisting they get you out of that cell. None of them are. You can rest. Or take a shower. I put clothes in your bathroom. Or come downstairs for dinner, if you feel like it.”
“Sure,” I say, letting go of her hand. “I’m up for all of that.”
I watch her walk away filled with… longing.
A strange feeling, I realize. I’ve never had that before. Not even when I was desperate to be the one in control instead of Thomas. This is something new.
I like it.