Causeway

Chapter 2

Bree sat up with a start, holding blankets close to her chest and staring across her bedroom, hearing her heart thumping softly in her ears as she tried to clear her mind.

"Again?" She whispered to herself in confusion, slowly releasing her grip on the blankets and shifting herself around so her legs were hanging off the bed. She felt the familiar pang of hurt in her chest, like an uncomfortable heat that was spreading to the rest of her body. Part of her felt like crying, but enough time had gone by that she found herself at a loss, even just for tears. She breathed in deeply and pushed the thoughts away, hands shaking as she reached out the time.

Nothing about it made sense, and she found herself unable to grasp at answers through her own memory, or anybody else's research around the event. The Rebellion put hundreds of hours of work into figuring out what happened during that assignment, asking informants, sending their best assets on related missions, reviewing each assets recordings of the entire event, and even going so far as to pay off certain government officials who would risk sharing scraps of information. Still, Bree found herself sitting in bed, waking up from the same nightmare, dwelling on the day her best friend died without any more a clue of what had happened than she did on day one.

Bree stood up, walking over to her closet and pulling out clothes she could look presentable in. Considering there was an active assignment later that day, she didn't feel the need to prepare an outfit. There were always a set of clothes set out for her, catered specifically for whatever mission they put her up to.

The entire group changed, not just after Ethan left, but after April went insane. Bree was fully aware she had lost the sense of humor she had as a child, after so many traumatic events. At least, it changed to cater to what she could still find hilarity in. Drake softened, and even though she never believed her two brothers to be very close, Ethan's death affected him far more than she would have guessed. The biggest change had come when he stopped mocking Bree's mother, who had spent the past twenty years comatose in a hospital bed. Though that change likely had far more to do with his realization of his own parent's shortcomings rather than anything else.

As much as Bree wanted to understand, it was impossible to figure out what happened to April. The girl was taken from the van and disappeared for months before randomly showing up again, acting like an entirely different person. It was obvious the government simply wanted to let April return to a familiar location to reveal where their base was, so everyone had to move to another area quickly. After inspection, it was made abundantly clear that April was mentally unfit to work as an asset any longer, due to the fact she seemed mentally unable to spit out anything more than a few words a day.

April, the only one who could put Bree's mind at rest, and she had gone insane.

Bree glanced in the mirror, staring at herself for a moment and wondering how her dad would react if she walked outside looking like a homeless person. She grabbed a hair tie, running her fingers through the tangles before throwing it up into a ponytail, only to cringe at how bad it looked and change her mind, leaving it down. She tried smiling to wake up her face a bit, which only served to prove how fake her grin was. When it was clear none of that would be changing, she slipped on her shoes and left her room, hearing a soft whizzing sound as the door locked behind her.

Everything was ridiculously bright in the hallway, blinding lights just a few feet above her head serving little purpose other than to make sure all assets coming out of their rooms were fully awake. The floor was no better to look at, a filthy white tile that was sure to make anyone gag if they stared at it for too long. Everything was plain in order to give people feelings of familiarity and control, as Jasper put it, when they in fact had none at all.

"Bree," her head shot up after a moment as she remembered that was her name, just in time to see Cody jogging over to her, the biggest smile on his face that matched the energy in his voice, "You look like you just woke up. Did you sleep through your alarm? Drake's been looking for you."