Shadows

Chapter #8

I'm floating in a sea of darkness.
Actually, scratch that.
I'm drowning in a sea of darkness.
I've tried to move but sort of gave up a while ago.
I don't know where I am.
I don't know who I am.
Whenever I try to remember, my memory gets stuck on a name.
Adaline.
Whenever I think of her I lose focus and am thrown back to nothingness.
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Suddenly, there's a loud ringing and a light in the darkness. I feel my hands tingling so I try to move them.
"His hand moved. Do you think he's waking up?" I hear a voice ask.
I try standing up. And am still in the same place.
"Maybe, but I think we've got a few minutes." Answers another voice.
"I still feel kind of bad that we had to do that." Says the first voice, a girl's.
"So do I but he was a hazard. He had to be stopped."
"Even after what she said, he still tried to protect Adaline. That's love."
"Or insanity."
Adaline? Who are these people and how do they know her?
I open my eyes. I'm in a small, medical looking room with many beds in it.
I hear breathing and I look over to see a tall, blond girl sitting on the side of the bed. She smiles.
"Sup' Jeremy." She says. And at first I wrinkle my nose and wonder who Jeremy is.
Then the memories come back.
I back away from Brianna, and straight into Chase.
"Hey." He says nervously.
"What the hell did you do?" I ask, the raspiness and hatred in my own voice even scaring me.
"We just knocked you out. Didn't do anything to you." Answers Brianna.
I look past Chase and see Adaline hooked up to a bunch of monitors. She has a bandage wrapped around her head. I whisper her name and narrow my eyes at Chase.
"What did you do to her?" I know they'll lie if I leave them to their own devices so I push my thoughts toward Chase.
'Tell the truth.' I tell him. His eyes get that blank, glazed-over look that most people have when I use my chip ability on them. I really hate using persuasion on people but if they did something to Adaline, I need to know.
"We implanted her." He tells me.
Brianna's jaw drops but then she closes her mouth and I can tell she's pissed.
She steps toward Chase who looks like he has no idea what's going on.
"What is wrong with you?! I thought we were going to break it to him gently you idiot! Who's not waiting for the signal now!" She yells as she slaps him across the face. It makes an awful cracking sound as her hand makes contact.
"What did I do?" Chase asks, looking really confused.
Suddenly, there's multiple Briannas.
"I think you know full well what you did!" They say, flickering in and out of reality. One minute they're there and the next, gone. Then back again.
Adaline moans, distracting all of us. I look over and see her hand flinch. She must be waking up.
The Briannas sigh and I turn just in time to see them disappear.
"Look, she has a naturally short recovery time and we gave her the new and safety improved Chip okay?" Brianna says, obviously hoping I'll accept this as an apology.
I curl my lip. Even with the safety improved, the Chip is still really dangerous. When they put it in adults it was declared unsafe because, without a developing brain, the Chip tore up tissue while being implanted. When they did implant it in kids they only put in kids who had severe disabilities or illnesses.
I stand up and push past Chase.
I look down at Adaline and run my hand along her delicate jawline. I'm about to take my hand off when she grabs it. She squeezes my hand gently, opens her eyes and winks at me.
I turn around to see if Chase or Brianna saw that but Brianna is too busy lecturing Chase. He's too busy being completely terrified to notice. I would be terrified if a maniac was waving her hands like that at me too.
"This whole thing started with you keeping me from eating chicken!" She screams.
"The guy?!" He asks, looking horrified.
"No! Gah!" She yells, slamming her head against the wall. "The food you idiot!"
"Oh..."
They turn and notice me staring at them.
"What are you looking at?" Brianna asks.
"Nothing..."
"Sure." She says. "You were just admiring my sick bod."
"Okay then." I say, backing away from her.
"Well you know what they say," she says, coming closer. "My body's too bootylicious for you babe."
"Um, okay." I say, I know she's quoting from a really old song but don't know the next line. I back even farther away from her, preparing to spring the trap that Adaline sprung the first time we met. Hopefully this time it'll go better.
"I think we both know you enjoy our little game so let's get on with this." She tells me stepping right in front of me. "I can get rid of Chase any time you want." She whispers, her breath brushing across my cheek.
Suddenly, Adaline jumps up and has Brianna on the ground in what feels like under a second and with the Chip, probably is.
She grabs a needle of whatever they put in me and stabs it into Brianna's arm. Chase runs toward her and they roll across the floor, lunging and jabbing at each other.
"Jeremy!" She screams, knocking me out of my trance.
I grab another needle and rush over to help her.
Chase has the upper hand and is straddling Adaline's waist, punching her in the face.
I tackle Chase off of her and jab the needle into his leg. He struggles for a few moments before he goes limp.
I pull the needle out of him and stand up. I throw the needle to the ground where it shatters.
I walk over to Adaline. She's sitting on the ground with her head in her hands, breathing heavily.
I sit next to her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"The other side of what?" I ask.
And she just smiles.