Cure

Chapter Fourteen

Amity

Pieces; parts of a whole. These pieces that I had been left with, parts of what made me whole, I admit I had been barely holding together as it was. But as it is now? I wasn't strong enough to even pretend to be keeping it together. I'd lost so much and now I was here trying to make peace with what I had now. Being left in the dark as to what could've happened to Emira and Luz threatened to tear me apart from the inside. Yet, with what I had left, I had to remain intact enough, strong enough, to find them. Maybe that's why I am the way I am now.

I looked in the cracked mirror and brought the scissors up to my hair. Weeks. It has been weeks since I had seen them. Weeks since I'd joined Jerbo's group to travel with them in hopes of finding Belos. If I found him then I would find... I couldn't bare to think about it for too long or I'd break down crying over it. And tears would not get me anywhere. But anger? Anger has gotten me closer to them than sadness ever could. And I'll be taking down the group that has tormented so many others while doing so. My focus shifted back to the task at hand and I looked at myself once more.

At the first cut, I paused and took in the parts of my hair that had fallen and the decision I had been making. My hair was too long and I couldn't function in a post-apocalyptic world with its length. I needed everything to be more practical and shorter hair would make everything far easier. There was less risk that way. When I was done I looked at myself again, something I had not been in the habit of since this all began. I couldn't even recognize myself anymore. I looked far older than I was and this reminded me of why I avoided looking in one for so long. I was scared of what, of who, I'd see looking back at me.

I took it all in. Especially my eyes that had seen this world for all the things it offered, good and bad, but this is a world I had chosen to grow with. And time truly did take its toll on me from it. Then my eyes lowered to catch sight of the bags under them, reminding me of the lack of sleep I'd been getting. I couldn't sleep. Not without knowing where Emira and Luz were and if they were okay. I have no idea where they were or if they were even headed in the same direction as me. The only thing I had to go off of was my instincts and my gut telling me they had to be looking for the lab where we could get help making the cure. What we had been doing before we were separated.

But still, none of this was enough for me. No matter how much good I got done; for Jerbo's group, for the future, for myself and Emira and Luz. None of it felt like it had been enough. Belos was still out there. He still had power that grew more with each new member he gained to his group, each innocent subject tested upon, and each new monster he released into the world. And even then, that wasn't the worst of it. I knew this was only the surface of it all. And Luz and Emira were still nowhere in sight.

I had no leads and with that I had fear. But that would get me nowhere. So I shut down and became angry and vengeful. And it surged through me, bubbling up from deep within and surfacing with no place to go but out. Then my mind, as a result, when to a dark place. Not just a dark place, but a dark day in itself. The day everything changed.

"I'm so sick of you controlling me! When will you let me live my own life?" I screamed at my mother while throwing my hands in the air from frustration.

"Amity Blight! You do not speak to your mother like that!" My father scolded me but he didn't know why I was really angry. Why I was really acting like this.

"As if she treats me any better!" I raised my voice even further as tears blurred the edges of my vision. I turned around on my heels and threw my backpack over my shoulders before storming off towards the front door.

"Amity do not leave this house until we've talked about this!" My mother shouted but I continued on not in the mood to handle this. I knew I'd have to deal with the consequences of such a choice later but I couldn't care less in that moment. Maybe I shouldn't have left like that. I didn't know it would be the last time I'd see my father then.