Revolutionary Love (The Revolution Series Book 1) (12 page)

I felt awkward. I didn't know how to comfort him, so I kept my mouth shut. I watched the young man struggle with all of his emotions.

"Adam and Seth always loved you. They were supposed to kill you with that bomb in Louisville. Seth had it in him. He did his part perfectly. It was Adam who couldn't. When he looks at you, he just sees the girl you once were."

I watched Rugter struggle with the weight on his shoulders. I hated it when they did this. Confessed to me. Talked about their feelings to me. I was not Evelyn. I was a stranger. Someone they had never met before. I just happened to share the same body as Evelyn. How did Dr. Lynn do this? Live in a body, live in a life, that wasn't his.

Sometimes I got confused. I felt like I really was Evelyn, but with no memory. Except, I remember. I remember the life I used to be living.

I broke the stretched out silence. "What is your mission now?"

Rugter ran his hands through his brown, curly hair. Hair that was just like mine, but shorter. "I need to bring you to the man at the top."

We walked for a couple of days. Rugter and Jewel didn't say much. Sometimes I would find them whispering to each other. I didn't try to hear what they were saying. I didn't want to.

My death was inevitable now. They were bringing me to the man who meant to take Stephan down. I didn't think the man at the top would give me a nice quick death.

He would probably drill me. Ask me questions that I didn't have the answer to. I imagined the worst. That I would get locked in a dungeon with no light for days, dropped off in a heard of the diseased, or tortured. I imagined things that I had seen in movies.

They would tilt my head back, put a washcloth over my face, and pour water on me. Slowly drowning me. Trap me in a basement full of hungry rats. The worst scenarios kept playing through my mind.

Rugter and Jewel shared their food with me. I couldn't keep it down. All night long when we would sleep on the uncomfortable gravel, I'd toss and turn. I felt like a walking zombie.

My wrists were getting smaller. Since I woke up, I had not been eating enough food. My ribs were beginning to poke out from my sides. I saw a reflection of myself in a car window. I was a sick pale color, my hair was in knots, my eyes were droopy and tired, and I was thin. I looked fragile.

By day three of walking, we were close to the mountains. The air was fresh and cold. I could smell a creek nearby. Leafs covered the ground. We began to see more and more trees. It was beautiful here.

"I love the mountains." Jewel took in a deep breath.

Rugter nodded but didn't say anything. The closer we got, the more tense he appeared.

We stopped beneath a tree. Even though it was winter, the sun made us hot and sweaty.

Jewel took her shirt off and poured some of her water on it. She had the same marking on her back as Rugter. Except hers went all the way down her spine. She had more than him. She must have been higher ranking. The designs were beautiful. The first one started at the name of her neck. The ink was black. It was a small simple symbol. A spiral circle. The next one was a line with a dot below it and a dot above it. Before I had the chance to view them all, she put her shirt back on.

"So much better." She commented.

Her tank top was soaked and sticking to her skin. Looking at it made me feel cold. I stepped back out into the sunlight.

"How much longer until we are there?" I inquired, nibbling on a thumbnail.

Rugter and Jewel looked at each other.

"Soon. We need to blindfold you now." Rugter stood up and stretched.

"Why?" I couldn't bring myself to care. I didn't understand how I was meant to trek through the first blindfolded.

"You can't know the way there. You shouldn't have even seen the way this far." Jewel answered.

I didn't even know where we were. I just nodded my head in agreement. Rugter said something to Jewel and left. He ran down the road towards a barn house. He brought the biggest gun he had with him.

I watched him disappear inside. A few moments later, he was driving out with a beat up truck.

When he made it over to us, Jewel slipped a piece of cloth over my eyes. She guided me to the back seat of the truck. It was small. My knees were to my chest.

I listened as we drove down the gravel road. Rugter turned on the radio station.

The news was playing. A man was talking about all the burglary going on in the lower parts of towns and what The Unit was going to do to fix it. He talked about me a little bit. I was still missing, but no longer considered a hostage. I was freelanced. They didn't consider me on the rebel side, nor The Unit side. I was to be shot at first sight. I was a danger to the community. My ears perked at the next part of the news.

"A terrorist of one is a suspect for the bombing at the military unit. All helicopters and military vehicles had times bombs set on them. They each exploded at the same time. The same man is suspected of a twelve different murders. They were military personnel and citizens. If anybody has any information, please let a soldier in The Unit know immediately. We are here to help you and keep you safe, but we can't do it without you."

"Someone is killing rebels and people in the military?" Jewel sounded perplexed.

Rugter sighed. "Just what we need. Another problem in this messed up country."

I wondered why someone would do such a thing. The person was like me. They were on neither side. Except I didn't walk around bombing things and killing people.

I stopped breathing when the truck came to a stop. I listened hard. Rugter opened my car door and led me out of the truck. Pine needles cracked under my feet.

"Watch your step." Rugter cautioned, leading me up a few stairs.

I heard a door creak open. It smelt clean in here, like pine soil. A soft fragrance filled the air. We were walking on hardwood floors. At least it wasn't stone from a dungeon. The only footsteps I could hear was mine and Rugter’s. I didn't know where Jewel went.

Another creak of a door. Rugter led me inside and pushed my shoulders down. I was sitting on a soft chair. It felt like a leather one. It was cushiony. Comfortable.

Rugter left the room and closed the door with a click. My heart was beating fast and my palms were sweaty. I bounced my sore legs up and down. Tapping my fingers on the armrest of the chair, I considered taking off the blindfold. I didn't know if I was allowed to, so I kept it on.

The room smelt like leather and cologne. A man must frequent this room often. Maybe it was the man at the top. Idly, I wondered what his name was and why he went by that.

I listened to a clock tick. I smiled to myself. It felt ironic. I viewed my life as a time clock and there was a clock ticking down my minutes.

It was freezing in here. I could feel the air conditioner blowing cold air on me. It reminded me of a doctor’s office.

I couldn't take it anymore. I ripped the blindfold off of my eyes. I blinked to adjust my eyes to the light streaming through the window.

I jumped when I saw a man sitting at a chair across from me. The only thing separating us was an oak desk. It was polished and perfectly clean. I looked closer at the man and froze. My mouth began to feel dry.

He had soft, brown hair. His eyes were a deep hazel. Grey hairs were at his temples. He wore a simple white tee shirt. His hands were folded on the desk.

I bit my lip. Hard. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. The man sitting across from me was my father. I didn't understand what was going on. I didn't dare open my mouth and ask questions. Everything about him was different. His smell. The way he held himself.

Eyes that used to glow at me with warmth were now cold. Ruthless. He reminded me of Stephan. I thought the man at the top was supposed to be good. All about freedom.

My hands were shaking. He didn't recognize me. What if this was my father? He died when I was seven. What if he woke up here just like me? But then, what if he didn't wake up here and this was just a man with the same characteristics? I didn't know what to do. What to say. I was going to die at the hands of someone who looked just like my dad. I stiffened and held my posture straight. I would be strong.

"Your patience is impeccable." His voice was soothing. Just like my dad’s.

I couldn't look at him any longer. I stared out the window. I didn't know how much longer I would be able to hold myself together.

"I see you recognize me, Evelyn. Your memory was lost, no?"

I looked back into his eyes. He did not show any kind of emotion. He would be amazing at poker.

"Why are you asking me questions?" I whispered. Pain filled my voice.

The man leaned forward on his elbows, bringing us closer in range. "I haven't seen you in person since you were eight."

It couldn't have been my father. He died when I was seven. My posture relaxed a little bit. I didn't even know if I wanted this man to be my father. He didn't seem like a good man.

I began to tap my fingers again. "What do you mean?"

The man smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "You are either an extremely good liar or you truly don't remember. Stephan and I were once good friends. I was your bodyguard." The man continued to watch my face closely. "Stephan and I had a falling out. We disagreed on the rules he was setting. I couldn't bare to watch him strip the people of their humanity and so I left."

"Why are you telling me this?" I wondered out loud.

Hearing his voice was breaking my heart.

"To see if your memory is truly gone. You recognize me on some level. I see the pain in your eyes. At one point in our life, you did love me. That changed, though."

I still loved my father.

"You do look familiar." I admitted. He looked more than familiar. He looked just like the man who raised me.

He nodded his head, satisfied with the truth. "I need some information."

"I don't have any answers that you will ask." I didn't know Evelyn's life at all.

"You do have the answers I will ask. Why did you not shoot Adam in the back that night in the tunnels? He said he walked away first."

I wasn't expecting that question. My mouth opened and closed a few times. "His back was turned. I'm not like that."

"Oh, but you are." He said it like he knew me. Like he really, really knew me.

I leaned back in the chair, relaxing my posture. I was annoyed. I was tired of people telling me who I was. What I'm like. None of them knew me. They all knew nothing about me. "But, actually I'm not." My tone held sass.

The man copied my body language. "What makes you say that?"

I quirked an eyebrow. "If I was like that, I would have shot him, now wouldn't I?"

His hazel eyes darkened. He didn't like the idea of Adam getting shot. "You are only doing what is convenient for you. At the moment, you must have had a motive to keep him alive."

I remembered Rugter said this man could predict people's moves. I stared into the eyes that were the same as my fathers. I badly wanted it to be him, but I knew it was impossible. What were the chances? I leaned forward a little bit and pulled out the gun that Rugter let me hold onto.

The man stiffened when I pointed it at his face. "Did you predict that Rugter would give me a gun? Did you predict that I would pull it on you? You are acting as though I am the one playing a game, but I am not. I am surviving. Everything I have been doing since waking up from the bombing was surviving." It made me feel ill pointing a gun at the same face as my father. My stomach twisted. I wouldn't pull the trigger. I didn't have that kind of malice in me. "What game are you playing?" I asked him. When he moved, I slammed my left hand down on the desk. "Move and I will shoot."

The man kept his hands on top of the desk. "This was Stephan's plan all along."

I was confused now. "What was Stephan's plan?"

"You get blasted by a bomb, survive, pretend to lose your memory, act like a good person who didn't want to kill, break Rugter out, knew the rebels would take you to me, gain some of their trust, get a gun, and shoot me." He was frowning. The wrinkles around his mouth deepened.

The last time I saw my dad he didn't look so old. He was young and carefree. He had laugh lines around his eyes. He was a happy person. This man frowned more than he smiled. He was hard and cold. My father was warm. They were opposites.

I slammed the gun on the desk. "I am not Stephan's puppet! I do not do as he says! I am my own person and I do what I say!"

The man used my distraction to snag the gun and slam my face down on the desk. Pain shot up my entire head. I felt the barrel of the gun pressing against my temple. I closed my eyes. His hand was firm on my head, keeping it pressed against the desk. I didn't struggle. The clock was still ticking.

"Predictability. You let your anger take control of your thinking. You slammed the gun down because of my accusations and now I have the upper hand."

I breathed heavily through my nose. "Pull the trigger." I was surprised my voice didn't shake. It sounded calm and under control. I felt anything but under control. I was losing control of everything.

"That's not how things work here." The man pulled the gun away and took his hand off the side of my head.

I pushed myself up. My hands were shaking. I put them behind my back to hide it from him. I didn't want him to see my fear.

The clock was still ticking. It sounded extremely slow compared to the tempo of my heart.

His eyes were like a hawk. He saw everything and missed nothing. It was so silent, I jumped when the door opened.

"Should I take her now?" That was Jewel's voice.

I felt relieved hearing it. The man watched the relief overtake my body language and facial expression. He gave a short nod of his head.

Jewel's hand wrapped around my arm and she led me out of the office. My legs were shaking. She led me through doors that led into what would be the backyard, except it didn't have a fence. Trees swallowed us. I watched my breath fog in front of my face.

"He is intense, huh?" Jewel asked.

I didn't respond. I wanted his face out of my mind. He tarnished my last memories of my father. I bit my lower lip when it trembled.