The Violet Awakening (The Elementum Trinity Book 2) (7 page)

Darkness. Complete and total darkness. That was all that seemed to exist on the other side of the door. Mattie dropped my hand as Al held his lighter to each of our palms, eerily illuminating our surroundings. I recognized the room we wandered into by the human-shaped scorch-marks littering the floor. I shuddered at the thought that Al had created those morbid marks, and that he had created them because of me. I didn’t know if those guards had died, but the bits of flesh still stuck to the floor suggested that they had certainly been left with some nasty scars—and at least one missing ear.

In the stairwell, fluorescent lights dangled dangerously from the walls, threatening to give us just the slightest startle from an unexpected crash. Other than a thin coating of dust, The Facility seemed fairly untouched by the explosion above. Al and I took the free hands of our humany-invisibility-cloaks, fearing that we had perhaps strolled into the den of a less-than-sleeping—and very hungry—monster.

We made our way down to the floor where I’d been released from my shackles. Cubicles were covered in messes of papers, and the floor was sprinkled with the tiniest bits of ceiling. A light was on above a single desk, exactly as it had been on the night of my escape. A lump developed in my throat and seemed to hold itself in place with b
arbed wire as I walked toward the light.

‘Angie, don’t,’
Al pleaded.

I ignored him and continued to the cubicle, using all my strength to force one step after another. A long exhale whispered through my lips at the sight of the empty chair, but the dark puddle of blood beneath the desk was less than reassuring.

“Aww, her grandpa?” The sound of Mattie’s voice alarmed me. After realizing she had spoken aloud, she clasped her hands to her mouth and stared at me with wide, regretful eyes. My scowl at Al received nothing more than a shrug, before he turned back toward the stairwell.

William’s office looked like something out of an odd and violent video game. The glass labyrinth Al had created out of sand still stood, but large sections of it were busted. Bullet casings mingled with the shattered glass across the once-pristine floor, and patches of dried blood smeared the table. Some of it was surely mine, some of it Al’s, but there was much more than either of our wounds had produced. My stomach felt as though it were attempting to turn itself inside-out and free itself from the gelatinous confines of my body.

We continued downward until we finally landed on the tenth floor. Five of the six apartments were just as barren as they had been when I lived there, but mine was still occupied by the phantoms of recent memories. The window at the far end of the living room was stuck on a loop of the half-deer I had seen on the night of my escape. It would spend the rest of its life—or the rest of however long the generators lasted—trying to walk into the woods and off-screen, only to reappear a moment later in the same place it had been before; one more prisoner, held captive by The Facility.

My apartment was in relatively the same state it had been in before I left, with the exception of its obvious ransacking. The few cupboards and drawers were left open, their contents scattered across the floor. They had twenty-four-hour video footage of most of my life; had there been anything interesting in those drawers, they would have known about it without needing to toss my underwear all over the place. I made an effort to look away from the crumple of black cloth on the floor next to my bed—the dress I had worn to Eddie’s funeral—as I tugged at the edge of a piece of paper from inside my pillowcase. I kept my face cold and hard as I folded up Jenny’s drawing and tucked it into my shirt.

I didn’t glance back at my apartment when we left. I didn’t want to—I didn’t need to. The only thing it contained of any importance to me was sitting next to my heart, where it belonged. That place was no longer my home.

We all reacted in our own ways to the sight on the eleventh floor. Mattie gasped, Jason’s face went pale and sweaty, Al sighed with regret, and I relentlessly dragged Mattie along behind me as I rushed toward Paula’s apartment. I emotionlessly stepped over the unmoving bodies that lined the hallway, obvious bullet-holes in their heads. Al stopped at each one, checking to ensure that life had indeed left them. Perhaps I was being selfish in focusing on the people I loved before tending to the others, but as I pushed wide the open door of Apartment Sixteen, I didn’t care.

Paula’s body was nearly unrecognizable. William’s men had certainly spent more time on her than they had the others littering the hall. She sat, hunched over in a chair in the middle of the kitchen, blood still dripping into a puddle from her tied hands. They hadn’t just killed her; they’d tortured her, mutilated her, destroyed her—and it was my fault. I’d been so close with her, maybe they thought she’d had some sort of information that could help them find us. Maybe they knew we would come back, and they just wanted to break me. If that was their goal, they had succeeded. Although I kept my cold, hard expression, broken was the only thing I felt. Broken, and guilty.

Al placed his hand on my shoulder, pulling back enough to let me know that we needed to carry on. I wanted to do something for Paula, but I knew there was l
ittle that could be done. Mattie made sure to hold tightly onto one of my hands, as my other untied Paula’s body and pulled her to the living room floor. I wiped as much of the blood from her face as I could, pushed her matted hair behind her ears, and covered her in a white sheet from the couch. It was the closest thing to a proper burial I could offer.

‘Al?’
Jason’s shaky voice asked in what sounded like a plea.

Al’s chest heaved with a sigh as he dropped to his knees, removing the sheet I had just placed so carefully on the corpse of one of my best friends. He responded to my look of confusion with one of anguish and appeasement. My coldness faltered as tiny orbs of white light—much smaller than those we used to heal—drifted down from his free hand and seeped into Paula’s body. For a moment, radiant specks illuminated her entire being just beneath the surface, before she began to dissolve into glowing ashes. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew that it was beautiful and peaceful.

‘Thank you.’
I wasn’t sure who I was actually thanking, but uttering the thought was enough to pull me back to my feet.

Al seemed weak, but we continued our trek downward in The Facility. William’s men had done a pretty decent job of making sure everyone was very dead, but we checked every single body for life. I watched as Mattie and Jason sighed with mourning at the confirmation of each death, both wishing so strongly that they could save these strangers. People they didn’t know, people who had devoted their lives—many, unknowingly—to capturing our kind, and these children wanted nothing more than to help them.

My breath caught as we stumbled onto a very familiar floor, where the streets were lined with white picket fences, perfectly-tended lawns, and identical houses. Remnants of the decorations from my birthday party still littered the ground. Apparently, I had not given them enough time to clean up before I earthquaked the place to pieces.

The computer-generated sky had given way to dark gray panels, and blinding security lights beamed rigidly downward, giving The Village the structured feel of a prison. These surroundings were one of the many truths that The Facility had worked so skillfully to deny—that all within its walls were hostages, even the ones who chose to be there.

Before we made our way to the first house, something in the middle of the street caught my eye; a small box, wrapped in silver and blue paper. It took me a moment to realize why I recognized it, but the memory slowly crept through my mind, as if my brain were desperately trying to suppress it. Eric had dropped it when he saw me in Al’s arms. I had completely forgotten about it by the end of the party.

I bent down, reaching for the box as if it might explode at my touch. Mattie and Jason took a couple steps toward me, but Al held up his arm and shook his head. The wrapping came off easily and fell to the ground, leaving a dark, velvety box in my palm. I remembered it vividly from when Eric had proposed to me. Popping the lid open, I found the ring I was expecting to see, but it was tucked into a note scrawled in Eric’s nearly-unreadable handwriting. It reminded me of when we were younger, and we’d sneak notes to each other under the dinner table. They never really said much, but it made us feel mischievous, having a secret conversation right in front of Emmy and Eddie. The notes had immediately ceased, of course, when Emmy intercepted one that mentioned something about her meatloaf tasting of dead skunk. Not that her meatloaf actually tasted of a dead skunk. Emmy was, really, quite a good cook. But we were young, and it seemed like an appropriate thing to complain about in a dinner-time note.

Angie,

I just wanted to say I’m sorry for freaking you out.

I won’t pretend I don’t love you.
But the thought of you with Al
  I can’t. I know you don’t feel the same way.
I hope we can still be friends
  I’ll miss you.

All the best
, 
Love,
  Goodbye,

Eric

P.S.
I spent all my money on this ring, and I don’t have any use for it
   I still want you to have this.

I dropped the note to the ground, holding the cold ring between my fingers. Rays bounced from the security lights off the tiny diamond, and reflected against my skin like fireflies against the night. Becoming very aware of the stares from Al and the others, I shook my head and slipped the ring onto my finger for safe keeping.

“Come on, then,” I said, choking back the hurt in my voice as I walked toward the first house. Nobody seemed to feel the need to question me as they followed.

We searched each house, only finding more of the same lifeless bodies. Faces I didn’t recognize of people I never tried to know. I was both relieved and disturbed when we found Dr. Helmsworth’s… Grandpa’s… house to be empty. We had yet to come across his body, and it left me more fearful for what we might find on the few levels still below us.

There were two more houses to search in The Village. I breathed deeply as I pushed the door open to the second-to-last house at the end of the street. An audible wail forced itself past my lips, as my eyes immediately landed on two small feet in the entranceway of the sitting room.

I struggled against the strength of Mattie’s hand, unsuccessfully attempting to pry myself away at the overwhelming need to hold Jenny in my arms. Collapsing next to her, I heaved her small, unmoving body onto one of my shoulders, rocking as I sobbed. I cried the tears she could not cry. I cried for the life she’d had within The Facility, and for the years that were stolen from her. I cried for her parents, whose bodies were not far from her own. I cried because she had wanted so much to be like me, and because it was my fault that she was dead.

‘Don’t take this guilt out on
yourself, Angie. This is not your fault. You didn’t pull the trigger.’
Al’s voice rang throughout my head. I looked up to him with wet, angry eyes, because I couldn’t cry anymore.

“Do it,” I ordered aloud, not caring if there was anyone else around to hear. I was met by hesitation and regret.

“I can’t,” Al said.

“Why not?” My tone was hard and full of hate.

“Because—” Jason began, the look on his face suggesting that I should have known the answer. Al held up a hand to quiet him.

“Because Paula was different.” Al’s words were cryptic, and they filled me with more anger for the answers that everyone seemed to want to keep from me. “For now, all I can tell you is that… I can’t.”

I looked down at Jenny’s frail body, and lowered her back to the floor as carefully as I could. The hardness in my face returned with a vengeance as I caught one last glimpse of her hair before covering her with a blanket from a chair. No one felt the need to interrupt the moment of silence that was consuming me, probably thinking it was in mourning. My eyes shifted to Mattie’s hand, still clasping my own, and it took me only a fraction of a second to make my decision.

Through our contact, I forced Mattie’s vision to cloud over, sending her into the experience of my electrocution after I’d accidentally caused the quake that had led to Eddie’s death. She felt the agony I had felt, and shouted as she yanked her hand away in pain.

“Angie, no!” Al called after me as I ran from the house, unprotected by Mattie’s gift.

A whispered breath from my own lungs swirled around me as I moved, growing until it became a gust strong enough to knock Emmy’s door from its hinges. The wind only continued to build as I searched the house, until furniture was shifting dangerously across the floor. Al stumbled in after me, but I bounded up the stairs before he could reach my arm.

‘Angie! Stop this!’
his voice shouted inside my head.

The wind did cease, but not at his request. Eric’s room had been empty, but the master bedroom held a single corpse. I lowered myself next to Emmy’s body, only made aware that Al, Jason, and Mattie were standing in the doorway by the heavy sounds of their breath.

‘You put us all in danger,’
Al scolded, looking over Mattie’s hand to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

“How?” I cried
, falling back from my knees to lean against the wall. “We are alone here. Everyone is dead.”

Al’s shoulders slouched as he pinched the bridge of his nose, seemingly trying to force himself to disagree with me. He couldn’t, because it wouldn’t have been convincing. It wouldn’t have been true. Staring blankly into the space before me made it difficult to notice when he’d popped his eyes open, cocking his head as he examined the body from a distance.

“No, they’re not,” he said, rushing to Emmy’s side.

I had to strain my eyes in order to see her chest moving ever so slightly up and down. I felt for a heartbeat. It was faint, but it was there, and mine felt like it was going to thud right out of my body. I didn’t think twice before forcing the healing light from my palms, but Al quickly stopped me. Instead, he took one of my hands and produced the light himself. It felt like strands as thin as silk were tugging from all parts of my body, as he drew from my power to make his own stronger. The holes in Emmy’s chest closed, leaving only shiny pink marks behind. I waited anxiously, until she finally shot upward, gasping and choking as she regained the life that had been slipping away from her.

Emmy looked from face to face, trying to gain some sort of clarity, until her gaze eventually landed on me. At first, I thought she might slap me, but I was relieved when she leaned forward, embracing me in a hug I had needed for a very long time. Her animosity towards me seemed to have disappeared, or at least lessened.

“Oh, Angie,” she said, crying into my shoulder. “You saved me?”

I pulled away from her, tears wetting my own face, and shook my head.

“Al did.”

Emmy looked confused, and I quickly remembered that she had no idea about the others.

“You’re… you’re like her?” she questioned, lowering her brow.

Al seemed oddly distracted, but nodded silently before rising to help her to her feet. Emmy looked like she was nearly going to collapse at the sight of her own blood, and wrapped her arm around me for support.

“Emmy, do you know what happened here?” I asked, leading her away from the gruesome sight. She closed her eyes in recollection.

“I heard gun shots… and then they came,” she recalled, before clasping her hand to her mouth. I felt her legs wobble under her weight. “They took him. They took my baby.”

I glanced warily at Al behind us.

‘She genuinely believes they kidnapped Eric,
’ he said, still seeming unfocussed.

Jason helped me move Emmy down the stairs into the sitting room. We lo
wered her onto the couch, and I hurried to bring her a damp rag from the kitchen. She looked at it curiously for a moment, before realizing it was for wiping the blood from her face. After a long while of trying to calm herself down, Emmy inevitably glanced up at Mattie and Jason.

“You’re all… You’re
like Angie?” she asked.

Matti
e and Jason looked to Al, who gave them permission to respond truthfully. They nodded, and Emmy shook her head, lowering her face to her palms.

“I had no idea,” she began, but seemed to catch herself before finishing her sentence. “What is the rest of The Facility like?”

All eyes shifted to me. Apparently, since I knew her best, it was my responsibility to tell her that everyone she had known for the last eighteen years was all kinds of dead. I sighed and sat next to her, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“So far, you’
re the only one we’ve found… alive. But we still have the lower levels to check.”

I felt her tremble under my arm, but she held her composure. She had always been strong.

“Go,” she whispered. “Someone else might need you.”

“I’m not going to leave you here alone,” I said disbelievingly, shaking my head at Al as he thoughtlessly moved toward the front door.

“I’ll be fine,” she sniffled, wiping her nose on the bloody cloth.

“I’ll stay with her,” Jason volunteered.

Emmy seemed taken aback by the thought, and Al squinted at her with skepticism before finally nodding his head in approval.

“This is Jason,” I said softly to Emmy, hoping to ease her worries of chilling
with a random person ‘like me,’ whose powers were not restrained by Electro-Cuffs. “He’s a good kid, and he’ll make sure nothing bad happens… again.”

Emmy finally nodded, but her eyes still showed her concern. I glanced back at her one last time before leading Al and Mattie out of the house.

‘What’s wrong?
’ My words did not need to be heard by Mattie, and I was happy to find that they lacked the echoed sounds of group-communication.

‘Nothing,’
Al lied.