In White Robes

Chapter 20 - Reflect Me

There was no telling where we were going. The hall stretched far out, doors on all sides, red alarms still flashing and shouting their ugly song. Everything around me spelled out despair.

Everything made no sense.

I soon found myself running with Tabby instead of going back for Avery. It was a hard truth to accept, so impossibly difficult to swallow, but he was gone. Avery was no longer Avery. I had to move on.

I was looking ahead, past Tabby, trying to see where he was leading me. And that was it: a tall, red staircase leading up off this level of the facility.

"I found it," Tabby said, panting heavily, "the exit. We have to go up. There's a trapdoor up there. That's our way out. I looked outside"—he flashed a cute grin my way—"the fresh air smells really good."

Suddenly I was again determined to leave. This was it. Our last day in captivity. Behind us, there would be the last living subjects trapped here, trapped in the fire, but this was the way it had to be. I'm sorry.

Tabby and I began ascending the staircase, threatening to trip and fall a few times, but we never actually did. The adrenaline rushing through our bodies proved to be both a blessing and a curse—pushing us along toward the end of the road, yet too fast so we would lose our footing at times.

Though our focus was too high to slow us down now. With the fear of the inferno raging behind us, collapsing the facility into a metal heap of waste, and Avery still chasing after us, the only way through was forward.

Forward.

I had just reached going halfway up the steps when a young voice spoke to me from behind: "Don't go!" Myself and Tabby froze, anchoring ourselves on the steps, looking back.

"Don't leave me," said Avery, standing at the foot of the steps, his arms reaching out for me the same way I had reached for him. Blood still trickled from his nose. "I thought you loved me, Kay. How could you leave me behind?"

That's when everything inside me shattered. My heart broke. My veins froze up. My blood went cold. I could drown out everything aside from voices. I was just in a world of my own, standing and staring and hearing.

So close to freedom. So far away from my angel.

From Avery.

I felt myself turning completely in Avery's direction. I even took a step down on the staircase, glued to his existence.

"I do love you!" I shouted. "I do. I do . . ."

"Then don't leave me," Avery said, gesturing gently for me to come back. Beckoning me. "Stay with me. We can be happy here. You and I." There was a pleasant smile on his face, yet his eyes had not regained color.

Even still, I wanted him . . .

"I will, Ave . . ." Slowly I was descending the steps. Back deeper towards the fire that crept around corners, punching through halls and standing right behind Avery.

"He's tricking you!" Tabby shouted over my wandering thoughts. "Don't you dare walk down those steps! He's going to kill you!"

I wasn't listening. Just watched as Avery spread his arms outward as though they were his wings, and smiled. I felt like I could jump and land inside him. Burn up in the fire with him.

"If you go down, you'll die!" Tabby was sobbing now, desperate.

"I know," I said calmly. "I think that's what I want. Somehow, it feels right. Sorry, Tabby."

Before I could act, though, before I could find Avery's touch, the fire pushed upward on the steps with abnormal speed. I saw it swallow Avery's body, his smiling face, and then there was just the blast of heat. Smell of molten flesh in the hall.

I couldn't even open my mouth to scream even though I wanted to.

My body went limp, and Tabby took hold of my arm, pulling me up and past the last steps. We raced against the inferno as it poured through the hallway leading to the trapdoor. A ladder waited for us at the end of the hall.

The thought of Avery was embedded in me now. Forever hurting me each time I blinked. How he stood there and let the fire lash into his body, melt him away in an instant.

"Go! Up!" Tabby yelled, and I realized I was on the ladder. He was pushing against my rear, ushering me forward, so I went, never looking back. I couldn't stifle the tears burning under my eyes, rolling onto the deep scratches left by Avery when he was fighting my hold.

I climbed and climbed and pried the door open and right then, natural light flooded my eyes. The smell of trees and water and sky. The smell of liberty.

No hesitation, I thought as I hoisted all of my body through the door and onto what felt like dirt. Moist, real nature. Tabby appeared behind me and a heavy slam sounded—the noise of the trapdoor shutting us out from the facility, which I now saw was constructed beneath ground. The crackling of the fire down there was silenced at last.

We did not stop going.

Tabby took my hand and ran, weaving through trees, threading through the green, not exactly knowing where we were but that was okay. I was just happy to finally be free.

Yet none of my questions had been answered.