Hexed

Chapter Twenty-six

Its early, somehow, I managed to get a few hours of sleep. When I wake up again it's 6:30 and the sun is starting to rise. Once I finally get out of my bed after staring at the ceiling for what feels like hours, I open the door slowly, to walk out of my room. The halls are silent, my mind is silent. The floor feels cold under my bare feet. I didn't bother to put on socks, or clothes other than the sweatpants and oversized t-shirt I found. I'm cold, but I'm not shivering. I want to feel the cold, I want to feel. Anything. I don't think I've felt this numb ever in my life before, I feel exhausted. Every part of my body feels like it's going to collapse at any moment. I don't know where I'm going but I keep walking. Until I reach the door to the room where we locked Willow in. I put my ear to the door, nothing. With my left hand I clutch on the items I took from my room, and with my right I hold the iron handle, just as cold as everything else around me, and start opening the door. Jerome told me not to go to her, only with his permission. But I don't care. The room is dark, almost completely. No noise, I hesitate to turn on the lights, but I do when I hear a slight movement. The light isn't bright, it's far from it. One small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling in the centre of the room

She's sitting in a corner of the room, curled up in a ball, on a mattress on the floor. Her eyes open, staring blankly in front of her.

I slowly walk further, to her. Surprisingly she doesn't look at me, she just stares int a void.

I stop right in front of her, I open my mouth to say something but she cuts me off.

"I killed her, didn't I?" she says softly.

I don't know how to reply.

"She's dead because of me..." she says, this time her voice is filled with terror.

I sit down next to her on the mattress. About a meter apart.

"Not you." I start. "That wasn't because of you."

She looks at me, her eyes red, and face pale.

"I remember. I remember everything." her voice trembling, lips shaking.

She puts her head in her hands and starts shaking even more.

"Listen," I say, a bit more confident now. "the only ones responsible for all of this are the people who work for the government, the ones who created the serum, who drove us insane. This was their fault, and they're going to have to pay for it."

I pause.

"But I can't do it without you. Alright? You've saved me more than you know. We started this, and now we have to finish it."

She looks up, and slowly nods, her face is still pale but the look in her eyes changed. It's quite for a second. Then I remember the items I'm holding.

"Here" I say as I hold out the necklace.

She instantly takes it, and holds it carefully in her hand.

"How did you...?" she starts.

"Naomi gave it to me, to give to you. She wanted you to be safe, to continue, to be happy."

She doesn't say anything, probably thinking about Naomi, or what I said. Or going insane. There's no way to tell really. I wait another minute, then stand up.

"By the way," I take out my music player. "In case you need it."

I put it down next to her.

"are you sure." she says calmly.

"of course. You probably need it better than I do right now." I say. "you should get some rest, or at least try to. I have no idea what they're planning but I don't think we'll stay here for much longer."

"thanks" she says.

I then turn around and walk out the door, closing is softly. I take a deep breath, somehow it took a lot of energy not to completely melt down in front of her. I haven't seen most of the others after last night, I don't even remember what happened after Jerome stormed out the room. Everything just seems like a big blur. I notice that the light of the hallway has finally been turned on. Someone else must be awake. I keep walking, and open the door leading to the main room. The one where everything happened.

Once I step inside, I see that almost everyone is there, standing around a table. Discussing. Jerome, Benji, Kasper even Luca.

"Whatever we do next, it's going to be without her!" Benji says aggressively.

"We need everyone we can get! Like it or not she's only helped us so far, there is no reason to just abandoned her completely!" Jerome snaps back.

I can tell the discussion has been going on for a while.

"Are you listening to yourself? Since when are you so naïve? She could work for the president, she could've set this all up, she could be the reason Naomi is dead!" Benji shouts.

Jerome is about to reply but without thinking I interrupt.

"Benji has a point, there's no way to know what her intentions are and we can't risk her ruining everything. We've already lost someone, we can't afford to lose anyone else."

The room gets quiet. Nobody speaks for what seems like forever, I can see Jerome hesitating. Until Kasper finally says something.

"That's not true." he says, he looks down and takes a breath. "I wasn't sure until yesterday but Luca doesn't work for the government. Not anymore."

I frown, not completely understanding where he's getting at. Kasper opens his mouth again to continue but Luca, - who hasn't said anything this whole time – interrupts him.

"Kasper is right, I should've told you sooner, but I wasn't sure when was the right time. I guess he figured it out before I could tell." she says a bit too calmly.

"Tell us what? Spill the fucking beans already!" Benji yells.

Then Kasper says,

"That her last name is Wyler. And mine is too."