The Anomaly Project

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

AUTUMN

The feeling comes out of nowhere. It just hits me, hard, like a ton of bricks, jolting me awake in the middle of the night. My hands fly to my stomach, where there's a fiery pain just above my belly button. I press hard on my stomach, trying to ease the pain.

Haley, who had been sleeping on the floor beside me, gives me a strange look. "Are you okay?"

I remind myself to breathe deeply. In, out. "Yeah, I — I think so. I'm not sure. I just have this weird pain in my stomach. Like I got stabbed or something."

"Let me see your stomach," Haley says. I obediently pull up the hem of my shirt a little bit. There's nothing out of the ordinary. Haley and I exchange a look. "I don't see anything wrong," she says.

"Me neither. But — ow!" I press my hands to the painful spot again. "It still hurts."

Haley frowns. "That's bizarre."

"Well, our whole lives are just full of 'bizarre'," I mutter. "Hey, wait – it's... it's fading."

"The pain? It's going away?"

I nod. "Yeah, but slowly." And it's true. The piercing pain is gradually turning less and less intense. After a few minutes, it's gone completely.

All that's left in its place is a dull, hollow ache in the pit of my gut, leaving me feeling as if I'm missing something; a part of me that I'll never get back.

And try as I might, I just can't ignore it, and I can't get rid of it.

***

TODD

I can't move. It's like every muscle in my body has turned to lead. I feel heavy, so heavy everywhere, but I feel heaviest in my heart. I can't take my eyes from Noah's body.

It just doesn't seem real. Maybe I'll wake up back at camp in a few minutes, and when I walk out of the dormitory I'll see Noah sitting with Autumn at the campfire, talking and laughing and alive.

But I know it's real. I know there's no going back from this. One of my best friends is lying dead before me, and I was the person to kill him.

Someone snaps their fingers behind me. "Get him up," I hear Forrester say. "And dispose of the body."

A pair of hands grabs me under the arms and I see another guard scoop Noah up like he weighs nothing and carry him out of the room. I shout something, my voice full of fury, but even I'm not sure what I say.

I manage to grab Noah's sword before I'm dragged out of the room. The guard holding me doesn't protest; I suppose he assumes he'll just take it away from me later. Forrester grins evilly at me as we pass by, and a fiery ball of rage rises in my gut. I've never felt such intense hatred before.

The second the steel door closes behind me and the guard dragging me, I turn myself intangible, and his hands pass through my body. I swing my fist hard at his neck. He chokes and grabs his throat. Then I slam my palm into his huge nose, snapping it. Blood flows down his face, soiling his clothes.

I kick his chest, and then his knees, and he falls to the floor. He goes out like a light when I shove the sole of my foot hard onto the top of his head. I attach Noah's sword to my hip and swing my own sword onto my back.

I run. I don't know where I am, or where I'm going; all I know is that I have to find Colton and Tessa and get out of this bloody building. I turn a blind corner and run smack into someone. A rather familiar someone.