Perilous

Chapter Thirteen

Perilous

Chapter Thirteen

But when I looked over Liz's shoulder at Grant, then Nick, then Jonas...

Let's just say they knew they were in deep shit.

Bex POV

"Someone better explain to me what the hell has been going on." Macey deadpanned.

We were all standing in Grant and I's room. Liz, who was curled up in an armchair, was still pretty messed up- she felt beyond sorry for what she said to Nightshade. Well, Cammie. I was still getting used to it. Grant, Nick, and Jonas were trapped on the couch in the center of everything. It had been nearly an hour after the secret came out. Most of it had been spent in silence, us girls still trying to comprehend it. Except, we didn't know much more than "Cammie's alive and Zach's pissed at us" so there wasn't really much to comprehend.

"Start talking, and talk fast," I said.

Nick cleared his throat. "I guess that's my cue."

All of our attention was on him in an instant.

"It was around midnight, Zach called me and said to meet him at Headquarters- the infirmary. When I got there..."

(A/N:) In case it isn't clear here, depending on who's talking in this chapter, the italics are going to be in that person's POV. :)

"Zach? What the hell man? It's extremely late-" I froze once I saw Nightshade limp in his arms.

Zach looked distraught, terrified. "She-she just collapsed. I didn't know what else to do."

"Well, you brought her to the right place. Come, in here."

He set her on one of the beds.

I checked connected her to an IV and a monitor machine. Her vitals were all over the place. Not critically, but almost as if one is going through a vivid nightmare.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I was looking through old Circle case evidence and I figured I needed an extra hand, someone else who had spent a lot of time around them. So I went to her hotel and we were working together and I guess she saw herself on one of the tapes or she remembered something. Her head started to hurt, she started to feel hot, she screamed, and then she just...fell."

My face scrunched up. "Curious."

Zach looked up. "What, what is it?"

"It seems her body is fighting something. Or trying to. I'll have to examine a blood sample to be sure, but considering you were going through your most traumatic memories? My best guess is she was given some sort of drug while she was at the Circle, something to make her forget her past before them." I shrugged.

He looked shocked, scared, and pissed all at once. "Are you serious?"

I raised my hands to explain. "Think of it like this. She remembered something, something significant or something important. She just started to process it when the drug, which she's been given a large dose of recurringly by the way to have affected her as severely as this. The drug kicks in and one of two things can happen. One, she forgets where she is, who she's with, or what she was doing. Or two, she forgets what she was remembering and goes into a coma-like state, where she gets trapped in her mind as these memories, broken and frightening, fight to break through to the surface."

"How long will she be out?"

"Not long, two to five hours at most."

"And will she remember? When she wakes up, I mean."

"A little, yes. But not much, and not nearly as much as was brought to her attention during her sleep. It won't be complete either. More complex than anything actually."

Zach thought it over for a while before he nodded and said, "Take the blood sample."

"I took a blood sample, examined it, and confirmed there was some type of drug in her system. Before I could take it out, the computers matched it with another blood sample found at a Circle base. The match was to Cameron Ann Morgan, daughter of Matthew and Racheal Morgan. I wiped it from the system and moved on." Nick concluded.

"You've known the longest and you said nothing?" I growled.

"I know you three are upset with me." He said "you three" but he was looking at Macey, who still had tears threatening to fall from her wide eyes trained on him. "But you have to understand that I wasn't going to put her in that position. She's clearly hiding it for a reason and it has to be a pretty good one considering she misses you guys a lot. I wasn't going to ruin things for her. I am sorry for the pain you're feeling right now, but I'm not going to apologize for what I did."

I clenched my fists. Looking back on it, he was right. He was doing the right thing, and Cammie deserved all the time she needed to come clean to us. That day, though, I was having none of it.

"Jonas?" I prompted.

He sighed, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "I tested one last sample of her blood, just to make sure it was all gone. The system matched it again. Liz was around, I didn't know what to do just yet so I wiped it from the system and went to talk to Zach. He asked me to keep it quiet. I don't trust her, but I trust him, so I didn't say anything."

It was silent.

"I'm not going to hate you," Macey began hugging her knees to her chest. "And I won't be hostile. But I can't forgive you guys. Not yet. Not with this."

"Me neither," I whispered.

"I can't either. Then again, I guess I should be the one asking for forgiveness after what I said to her." Liz's breath shuddered as she bit her lip, trying to hold back another sob.

Jonas stood and hugged her, letting her cry.

Everything settled into an intense silence. It was like we were frozen. In time, in space. I couldn't move. My arms wrapped around my middle, I stared at the wall across from me, it felt as if I was protecting myself, protecting what was left of my world. Everything was crumbling. My best friend, someone I buried over a decade before was suddenly back from the dead. How does one react to that? How does one recover from that? I needed to see her. I wanted so badly to see her and hug her and just talk to her. But I couldn't move. I couldn't bring myself to.

It was Grant who finally broke the silence. "Um...am I in trouble?"

He raised his hand like a child asking a question in school.

It tore me from my trance and made me smile.

I went to him, and he hugged me, and for a moment, everything seemed okay again.