Aer II

43

Daisy wakes up, she's been asleep for what feels like a week. She stares up at the white ceiling, she moves her eyes along the yellow walls and her stare falls on Nix, who's sitting in a chair by the bed.

'Hey,' he reaches across to her 'how are you feeling?'.
'Fine,' she says, surprised she can get the words out.

'What the fuck were you thinking?' He shakes his head 'fucking risked Joe and the group's safety, risked mine, risked your own'.
  Daisy looks away and shrugs 'you were right, I care about Arawn and I don't want them to hurt him, but people will do anything for a cure, and I know it sounds selfish, but it's true, I was going to see if I could take the place of Arawn'.

Nix frowns 'but sure that would've never worked, Josh claims to his people that Arawn is the Chosen One and that means 'one', as in nobody else is like him, it'd make Josh look stupid'.
'Yeah I wasn't thinking'.
'No, you weren't'.

'My other plan was to kill them,' Daisy says 'but I feel sorry for them'.
'What?'.
'I can see the pain in their eyes,' she says 'especially the girl'.
'What girl?' He asks.
'Eden,' she says 'it's almost as if she feels trapped'.

The door opens and Joe appears, he grabs a chair and sits beside Nix 'how are you feeling?'.
'I'm fine,' Daisy smiles reassuringly, even though her mind feels miles away.
'Look, I don't want to bombard you with questions, but I have to,' he says 'if you want your boy back we're gonna have to know more'.

'They shot me when I approached the gap, with some tranquilliser,' Daisy begins 'I woke up outside a house, John was there and a few Savvys, he was soft and kind, too kind. Then Eden came in and she brought me into the house, she sat me down and gave me some tea. That's when things started to feel off, she started saying a bunch of shit and it was almost as if I'd left my body and was watching everything going on. I didn't wake up until the next morning, that's when I met Joseph, he said I was strong enough to skip training. I had more of the tea and I began to see Eden again, that's when ye attacked. Joseph ran'.

Joe sits back in his chair, he's lost in thought for several minutes 'it's all true then'.
'What is?' Daisy asks.
'That every single person in that place is drugged. No wonder they love Josh so much, he literally makes them addicted to him'.
'It's the girl,' Daisy says 'she stays in your mind'.

'Yeah, Caoimhe...' he sighs 'I tried to tell her to leave but she didn't listen'.

'I'm just a bit lost,' Nix says 'what do you want Daisy?'.

What does she want? Arawn was her main focus for so long, a boy she barely knew. She felt like she needed to save him for what she done to Sam and Mikey. But she's gotten her closure from Eilish. She doesn't want others to find out about their immunity, she needs to know she can trust the ones that will do something about it. Now she feels as if the Savvys are trapped, drugged out of their minds, but who's doing this to them?
Josh.

'How many people do you have here?' She asks Joe.
'Fifty'.
'The town,' Daisy says 'the cult will be moving in on them soon, but they don't want that, we could get to them first, get them to fight on our side'.
'Fight for what?' Nix frowns.
'To free the Savvys,' Daisy says 'kill Josh'.