The Nemesis Syndrome

7. Eliza

The first thing Eliza knew was pain. Every ache and break, every cut. Her whole body hurt. The second thing was the brightness of the room as she opened her eyes. As bright and blinding as the sun, it forced her to shut them after only a second.

She wanted to whimper, to scream.

But she didn't.

Because her mind worked through the pain enough to realise one terrifying thing. This was not death, or whatever came next. Not when there was a sharp stench of medicine in the air, not when whatever she was lying on was like ice on her back.

She was not dead. How? She remembered everything. Every hit and wince. Even the strange sorrow that had been in his eyes- even if she did think she had imagined that.

But if she was alive, where was he? He had won the battle...

She opened her eyes again, pushing herself up and groaning softly as she moved. She twisted to dangle her legs from the metal table before turning her wrists and looking at them both.

She expected red. But the names were in the same black, glaring at her mockingly, as if to say this boy left these marks on you. This boy nearly killed you.

She would never get rid of the names. Never get rid of the memories. And looking down at herself, never get rid of all the scars either.

She pushed herself off the table, grabbing its edge as she stumbled. Her legs were shaking so much she was surprised they could keep her up; but then, she had reason to make them.

If she was alive and he was too, that meant something was going on. And waking in a blinding white room with less injuries than she should have had only made her more worried.

She made her way to the door, pulling it open ever so slowly, glancing through the crack.

The corridor beyond was just as white, and just as strangely silent as her own room. She knew that meant nothing- not in a world where every person was watched whatever they did- there could have cameras trained on her. Sensors in the floor that told them all who was walking. Bugs that listened to her every breath.

But there were no actual people to stop her.

Eliza parents had always told her that there was something after death. A Great Beyond that was as white as the starlight and as pure as the summer wind. And this place- even the air she breathed in tasted white.

It was as if the Circle they created was filled with so much blood and death, they made this place to be the opposite.

Her progress was slow down the long corridor. Every now and then she came across a door, and with each one, she tried to open them.

Every single one was locked- though some had notes pinned to them, names and dates in black, and some circled in red with another date.

The longest time between the different coloured dates was a month.

Red and black. They were colours that were so ingrained into life that there needed to be no words to say what each meant. Life. And death.

So many people dying here. But for what- and why was she here?

She tried to ignore the doors after that. Tried to walk past them so she could reach the end, reach what she hoped would not be a dead end.

But then a slightly ajar door appeared in front of her, and through it she could hear whispered words, and the one name that would always make her pause.

Leo.

She crept up to the door and held her hand against the wall, trying to listen.

The girl... wake up...both in critical condition, worse than any before. One voice.

He has been the only one not to stop. The other.

More mumbling that she could not understand, and then the voices faded, a door slamming. She pushed open the door and looked in.

The people were gone, but there was still someone in the room, lying motionless in the centre on a high table.

Him.

She stepped in, almost unwillingly. Another step. He didn't move, so she made her way to his side.

His hands were palm up by his side. She reached out touched his wrists lightly, where her name was inked onto his skin.

Still no response.

She didn't want to look at him, not after what he had done, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes looked over him, from his dark hair to his bronze skin. She already knew what his eyes looked like, brown and empty and full of anger.

She scowled at his form, thinking he could have at least been, well...not attractive. It would have made everything so much easier.

But it didn't chance anything anyway.

The people who ran this place wanted them both for a reason. And whatever that reason was, Eliza sensed danger.

She had given up in the Circle. She could never fight her soulmate, not like that. But this? This was against someone else, and she would rather be able to escape.

Her eyes went to the smaller table in the room, where various objects were standing- each one clearly there for emergencies. Operations and healing.

But there was a scalpel there. She picked it up, looking at it before testing its sharpness. A drop of blood fell from her finger to the floor as she walked back over to him, holding it above his heart.

He had wanted to kill her. Had tried. She had seen the hate in his eyes. Felt it in his hits. But her own hands shook as she held it above him, something in her telling her to stop.

He was her soulmate. But she had to kill him- because she didn't want to stay here.

The scalpel started moving towards him, and she tried to pretend it was someone else.

But then his hand reached up and curled around hers, stopping the movement, and his brown eyes met hers.