Legacy In Fire (Book 1)

Little Jade (Chap-14 FULL)

What's up my loves. Not gonna waste your time. But the song I chose for this chapter is 'Towards The Sun' by Rihanna. Go on now, enjoy.

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Sweet unconsciousness didn't last long, my eyes fluttered open and I felt a strain on my body, like I was swimming under water and trying to break the surface but an anvil was tied to my feet, pulling me back down. Fortunately, a herculean act occurred on my part, and my strength surpassed the down-pull; I emerged from the surface.

As if from a distance, I realized that the electrodes were still hanging from me. With much more strength that should've been needed, I pulled them off and with their release came a popping sound; I welcomed it, I would make bigger and worse popping sounds...cracking sounds later...but the infliction wouldn't be upon me the next time.

My legs felt numb, but I ignored the absence of tactility; that was if you could ignore something that you couldn't feel. I placed my legs on the ground, and to my surprise, they stayed stationary. I turned, searching for Dr. Bennett so I could impose some more...something more.

Not much...but not a little either.

But how would you? You don't even know how you did it in the first place. An infuriating voice in my mind questioned. I dismissed it.

When I finally found Dr. Bennett, he was lying comatosely on the floor, his white shirt charred and a deep-burnt laceration lay beneath. I could almost feel sorry for him if I hadn't known what kind of man he was, almost. I was trudging toward him on my weak legs, achieving some amount of feeling with each step when the door slowly opened revealing a doll of a girl in its frame.

She was extremely cute, dark blond hair, a small elegant nose; her lips were a cherry pink and her large doe eyes, such a luminous shade of green I believed that flames were hidden behind them, lighting them up from the inside. She was about 11, I guessed, her face hadn't yet lost the roundness of childhood...she reminded me of someone. And then lucidity slapped me in the face, that and an ounce of insanity because that little girl was me. Me.

So when she said to follow her, I had no choice but to oblige.

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This situation was making me feel slightly disoriented. Scratch that, it felt like I was frickin' inebriated. How could I be looking at myself? And not myself as I was now, but a younger me...this didn't make sense.

I went in front of the miniature me and looked her in the face; she looked at me with the same expression as she was wearing when she came for me-impassive-and said her signature line follow me, hurry. She had been saying that repeatedly for the last couple of minutes and God He Knew if she didn't wear my face, I would have burnt off her lips already.

We stopped in front of a wall, and I shot mini-me a look that I'm sure she took no notice of as she drew a card out of her pocket and put against the wall. To my not-so-surprise, a fraction of the wall receded and an opening was unveiled. She walked into, gesturing for me to trail, repeating her mantra but this time with a smile. I did not feel a bit apprehensive and I think I needed to be worrying about that.

She led me into a room; it was vacant-people wise-but I could tell it was used often. I could smell the residual odor left from the 'cologne' the men in this place wore and a coffee mug was even left on a desk. A profusion of monitors was spread wall-to-wall, and each displayed a child in a room. My eyes started to search for someone inadvertently, sparing brief glances at a girl tied up in manacles on a bed; another boy who had a Band-Aid plastered from ear-to-ear across his nose, beneath it dried blood lingered.

Not that I didn't care. I just didn't care much.

I looked and looked, but to no avail. I couldn't find him.

"Who are you looking for?" a high-pitched voice chirped.

"Uhmm...someone named...Max." I choked out, not knowing why it was so hard to say. "He's super tall, and has this lightish-darkish brown hair thing going on, and...and he has these tawny eyes, they look so much like gold....like if you could take them out and touch them, give them a real good look, they'd be the purest and most refine gold you'd ever seen. And he's sweet, but cocky" I gave a wry laugh "cocky as hell. He thinks he's the best thing since the invention of the microwave...Is he? Maybe? But don't tell him I said that, it'll only fuel his ego. He knows when you're sad, and loves to get you mad, and you love to get him mad too. Because it never ceases to be f-f-funny, b-but don't tell Max that, you...can't."

Then I was a pool of tears on the floor. Mini-me came towards me and wrapped her tiny little hands around my body, I reciprocated the hug, squeezing her with the same amount of force she was hugging me with- and only the heavens could tell how a little girl was that strong. I don't know how long we were there on the floor for, or if it was even borderline safe, or if I was going insane and was imagining things. But I stayed there, being in comfort for the first time since I had been there; it could have been minute or an hour, I didn't know and honestly, I didn't care.

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When I finally got up, I dug my palms into my eyelids, erasing all the marks of my breakdown. I was not soft. Jade could live through this and beat it. Jade was as bright and powerful as a flame. Jade had to believe that.

My duplicate called me over to a desk, inlaid with a keyboard. I saw her punch in a code and the images on the monitors switched. I could almost kiss her, and I did. Right on the cheek, I scanned the screens, but again, there was none that showed Max. I was downcast again, I felt like an overfull cloud teetering on the edge of letting it all out and I think if I did that, there would be an unprecedented flood-and not with water.

I glanced at lil' Jade and she smiled, entering the code-or another, I couldn't tell-once more and this time, I took my time, scrutinizing, carefully analyzing every screen.

My heart stopped. I saw a shock of messy brown curls, the curve of a set of poetic lips, but when the face was exposed more...inch-by-inch, my heartbeat quickened. One of his eyes-his left I presumed-was bruised, and his left arm was wrapped from his fingers to where it met his shoulder in thick bandages, the edges stained a dark red that almost looked black. My heart ached.

"Where is that room?" I asked under my breath. Silent. Deadly silent.

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What did you think of mini-me. Do you think shes real or fake? Comment telling me what you think. And don't forget to vote and comment.