𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Nora Brown?

"Okay, so I think I've been patient enough, could you please explain to me what's going on now?" I asked as politely as I could. We've been walking for twenty minutes now with no signs of guards behind us.

This tunnel was definitely more than a mile long by the way.

Dylan sighed and turned to face me. "Elliot wanted to perform a procedure on you that would basically...fry your brain," he said carefully. My eyes widened. Fry my brain? Fry my brain!

"But why? Why would he want to fry my brain?" I asked. Why would Elliot benefit from frying my brain? What would it do for him?

"Well, apparently you have a very important brain. There's something in there that Monarch wants and Obsidian doesn't want them to have it," Dylan explained, staring forward.

"What is it? What don't they want Monarch to have?" I asked, stepping over a puddle. My new white sneakers were starting to become dirty even though I tried my best to avoid the murky water and who knows what else covered the floors of the tunnel.

"He wouldn't tell me that much. All I know is that something about your brain is special and Monarch really really wants it."

I could tell that he was giving me the truth even if the faint glow of the tunnel lights only barely illuminated his face. I didn't have to look into his eyes or study his body language to know that the sincerity in his voice was real.
"So, Elliot wanted to fry my brain so that Monarch couldn't get what was inside of it?"

"Yeah."

Wow. And to think if things had played out slightly differently, I would be chained to that surgery table right now with electricity stinging my head.

"Wait why my brain? How is mine important?"

"Well, it has to do with your parents somehow, but I'm not entirely sure," Dylan admitted.

Of course. Everything had to do with my parents.

"So what are we gonna do now?" I asked, curious to know the direction of his plan, seeing as all I knew right now was that we were walking down a deep dark tunnel.

"Well, I don't really know..." Dylan trailed off and glanced over at me.

"You don't know? We're just... walking around a tunnel with no plan or purpose," I raised my eyebrows at him. "What about Raine? Are we meeting the others later?"

Dylan looked down and licked his lips nervously. My eyes widened and I started to shake my head. No, no, no. You're joking.

"Dylan, please tell me that they're not still in there. Or that you told them what was happening-" I begged but he cut me off before I could finish.

"Look, I didn't have time, okay! I literally just decided to save you when Elliot came to get you from the garden-."

"Wait, did you know? Did you know that he was going to try to do that to me?" I asked. Even though he hadn't answered my question yet I already feared the worst. My eyes began to fill with a familiar sense of betrayal as I awaited his response.

"I... I knew it was an option, but I didn't think they would actually go through with it," he admitted, hanging his head a little.

"When did you find out that they were going to do the operation?" I asked quietly and turned my gaze from Dylan to the ground ahead of me.

"This morning. Look I'm sorry, okay? I should've told you earlier or just done something, but I just... I was scared and I didn't know what to do," he admitted.