Forever

~4~

I blink open my eyes and look around silently. A white ceiling stares down at me as I blink my eyes trying to figure out where I am. I look down at my leg where I was stabbed and see it wrapped in some kind of bandage. I go to take it off but stop as a door opens.

"You."

"Yep, great to see you're awake." He says then walks over to me.

"Don't come any closer."

"Oh please, you might be steadier but the poison is still in your system. I could only get out so much of it."

"Get out?"

"Yeah, I got some of the poison out of your system." He says taking a seat beside me and gently placing his hand on my thigh.

"What are you-

"Relax, damn you're uptight."

"Well excuse me, but last time I saw you you left me to fight these things that stabbed me with poisonous knives, and you ran off with my hard drive." I say and he sighs putting his hand back on my leg and starting to unwrap the bandage. I look down at his hands as he gently unwraps it.

"Why'd you wrap it up?"

"I had to cut into the stab wound that was already there to get the poison out." He says and my eyes widen when I see the huge gash that was just covered by the bandage.

"Why'd you take it out?"

"They need you sane and ok."

"What? I thought you had the hard drive. Why do you need me?"

"They didn't release my sister and mom."

"You're sister and mom? Where's your dad?"

"He's dead, he was murdered a year ago by the same people holding my sister and mother now." He says grabbing a cream and starting to rub it on the wound.

"I'm sorry to hear that." I say and he shrugs. Silence passes and I hiss as he presses hard on the wound and talk again to get my mind off of it.

"I still don't understand why they need me."

"The hard drive helped for sure, but they need your blood. And with the poison in your system, it wouldn't work right."

"So basically, you helped me just so that they can tear into me; make me their science experiment?" I ask and he slides off the bed.

"I don't have another choice! They are going to kill them if I do not get you there."

"How do you know they're not just gonna play you again?"

"They'd be fools."

"Obviously they aren't afraid to be fools, they've sent you to capture me, they killed your father, and now they're gonna use you like a puppet on strings."

"You don't know anything."

"I've been on the run from these people for ages. I know everything."

"No, they'll release my sister and mother once I turn you on."

"Or they'll just kill them anyways. They could care less about your happiness and family, once they have me they can do whatever the hell they want. They might even use your mother and sister as the fist humans to be changed." I spit

"Stop it."

"I can't, it's reality. I know you feel like everything will be over but it won't be."

"I won't accept that. I'm gonna get a new bandage. Be back in a minute. Don't move." He says and I nod knowing there's nowhere else for me to go anyways.

He leaves the room and I lay back against the bed and shut my eyes. There's no way I'm getting out of this.

After what feels like ages, he finally comes back into the room with a bandage.

"Was it buried?" I ask when he walks in and he looks over at me without a response.

Oh great, he's mad.

"What's wrong?" I ask as he sits back down in his spot and grabs my leg. I hiss at his hard grip and his hands instantly freeze.

"I'm sorry." He mumbles looking up at me. He gently re grabs my leg and wraps the bandage around it with care.

"You ok?" He asks as I hiss in another breath.

"Yeah, it just hurts."

"It will for a while, and it's gonna hurt to walk on it with full pressure for a little bit." He says and I nod as he sticks the bandage then places my leg gently back down.

"Does your head hurt?"

"No, it's fine." I lie feeling the aching pain.

"Don't lie to me."

"What, am I that readable?"

"No, I've just been around enough people to know when I'm being lied to."

"Fine, yes my head aches."

"Where's the pain coming from?"

"Here." I say placing my fingers to my temple. He nods reaching for something then pulling out a small bottle.

"It's aspirin, not poison." He says and I nod taking the two pills from him. He hands me a glass of water and I take the pills.

"Thanks." He nods taking the glass away and leaving the room again. My headache slowly starts to go away as time passes.

**

About an hour later he comes back into the room with food and hands it to me.

"When are you taking me to them?"

"Eat." Is his response and I sigh taking the food and digging in. He stands looking out the window and I push myself up to my feet.

"What are you doing?" He asks looming over at me.

"I need to walk on this." I say motioning to my leg and he nods turning back to the window. I walk around the room breathing sharply each time pain strikes up my leg. I push through the pain though, and deal with it.

"What are you looking at?" I ask limping over to him.

"Just the outside. It's peaceful."

"Yeah, it is." I say looking out it too.

Silence passes and shockingly enough, he's the one to break it this time.

"You know, I wouldn't do it if I had another choice or way." He says and I look over at him.

"There's always another way. You just gotta hunt for it."

"No, there is no other way. I can't lose my sister and mom, they're all I have left. If it means turning you in to get them back, I will."

"I wish I could say I understood what you meant, but all of my family died 10 years ago. They'll never come back, they never can come back! Imagine being a 19 year old girl who can't age! A girl who stays this age while her brother grows up, goes to college, gets engaged, and creates a family. Imagine staying young while your boyfriend of 3 years dumps you, moves on, and is now married happily. Imagine a gun pointed at your chest and you hear the bang as they shoot the bullet, but it doesn't kill you. Imagine watching every single one of your family members falling dead around you while you stay standing, with bullet holes in your chest. That's hell, and that's my life. I've been 19 for 10 years! I can't age, everyone I ever loved is gone." I say pressing my hand to the window and looking out it.

"I had no idea." He says but I just shrug.

"Well now you do, and now you know why I don't want other people to suffer with this. It's a curse, it's not cool or exciting. It's awful, I don't want innocent people to suffer like me. I had that hard drive to try to figure out everything they learned about me. To see if maybe I could make a vaccine for myself, a cure, to get rid of this awful thing."

He stays quiet and I shake my head.

"Let's just get this over with." I mumble and he looks over at me.

"Ok."

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