Final Truth

Chapter 27: Red

Henley's point of view:

"I trust the boy is recuperating?" I ask of Steven in his office, walking in unannounced.

My presence catches him off guard, causing him to stumble back in the chair he was sitting in and a few papers to go flying, green eyes wide with alarm.

"Just fine, Ms. Collins," Steven rambles, quickly collecting the fallen papers and standing to acknowledge my presence. "He can walk much better and I took his stitches out yesterday, but I'm afraid he's asleep now," Steven adds, seemingly stepping in front of my line of vision to block Peter from me.

Glancing over his shoulder, I see Peter in his hospital bed sleeping calmly, a look of content on his face.

"Oh no, I'm afraid that won't do. You see, I have a few questions for him that I need answered immediately," I order Steven in voice strong enough to make him coward slightly.

Reluctantly, he steps out of my way.

Taking slow strides toward Peter, I eye him carefully as my head swarms with questions of his current mind-set. Is he still under my control, or does he remember?

"Wake up," I hiss at Peter, slapping him on the shoulder and causing him to shoot upwards in surprise.

With a bit of shock, I see that he doesn't look at all like the person I turned him into anymore. His face is much less hard-set, his hands no longer always clenched in fists. His eyes are wide with innocence and brown once again.

Oh no, this definitely will not do.

Peter's demeanor changes upon seeing me, my mere presence enough to send him inching away from me against his hospital bed. With a twinge of anger I realize that it is disgust, not fear, that sends him away from me.

So you do remember.

"You're looking well," I offer, baiting him.

Peter says nothing, merely turning his head away from me so he won't have to look at the woman who held his mind captive for so long. I want to laugh at his sheer childishness.

"Henley, he's still kind of weak. Perhaps you could schedule this at another time-" Steven begins from the behind me, but I immediately raise my hand to silence him.

"I was going to interrogate you to see where your allegiance lies, but I've already seen enough. Steven, escort Peter to the lab," I order him, and finally Peter turns to look at me with actual fear in his eyes.

"You're going to make me a bad guy again, aren't you?" He asks, even his voice sounding normal again despite the anxiety in it as Steven helps to lift him out of bed.

"Depends on what you deem as bad," I tell him, watching the two boys slowly follow me out the door with Peter walking at a slow pace to accommodate his bullet wounds.

"You," Peter mumbles under his breath, but I pretend not to hear. I'll have him as a trusty prison guard once again.

But for my own personal form of entertainment, I decide to take the long way to the lab, the path that takes us right by Julia's prison cell. Perhaps it will give her some willpower to get through these tests, seeing the boy alive. Lord knows she'll need it. Besides, it'll be the last time she'll ever see him normal again.

And sure enough there Julia sits by the door of her cell, her green eyes fluttering as if she was about to sleep. She seems peaceful, almost like she forgot she was a prisoner. However, as soon as she sees Peter, all traces of tiredness vanish.

Julia leaps to her feet, eyes wide with fear and shock as she plunges her hand out between the bars, desperately trying to reach Peter while shouting his name. Peter reacts, of course, shaking Steven off and lunging for Julia. His hand finds hers and his fingers intertwine with hers, his knuckles turning white at the sheer ferocity with which he holds on to her. Her green eyes are boring into his, a palpable feeling of electricity sparking between the two as a silent understanding seems to pass between them.