Subject #013 | ✓

Chapter 38

Listening to the song above is a MUST for this chapter! It's fabulous and suits this chapter perfectly! Enjoy!

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I don't think about the consequences of punching the wall until I actually do it. My knuckles explode with pain and I double over, strangled gasps escaping between gritted teeth, as well as a few questionable words.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, but I'm pretty sure that won't get us out of here." Alix comments obnoxiously from where he's seated, pressed against the cell wall on the far side.

"What do you suggest we do?" I growl in his direction, clutching my rapidly bruising hand.

"Well, if you had laser vision—"

I cut him off with a loud disapproving groan before turning back to the task at hand: getting the hell out of here. I'm aware that I'm pacing, my eyes tracing every inch of this claustrophobic box.

The metal bars are stiff and exactly three inches apart. Well, three inches based off of the finger trick we learned in the second grade. The walls are hard cement, and tendrils of dim light stretch into the cage like ghostly fingers. 

"No offense, but the day you figure out how to open this cell will be the day pigs fly," Alix comments uselessly from the corner. "There's not supposed to be a way out."

"Thank you so much for your amazing observation." Sarcasm drips off of my words. But he's right. This cell is authenticated, and human flesh can't beat cement. Giving up, I take to pacing back and forth across the cell, my eyes never wavering from the ground and the shoes that I'd trashed from the long journey.

"Stop pacing. It's making me nervous and stressed." Alix says.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" The words come out louder than I expected. "What did I ever do to deserve this? Everything I've done is for nothing. What are we supposed to do now? Wait until they kill us? I've been sitting here desperate for too long and you're telling me to calm down? Well, let me tell you something Alix—or should I even call you that?" He flinches. "I didn't come this far just to be caught and dragged in the wrong direction once again. If you don't agree, I don't really care. You and Liz have been questionable ever since I met you. But I was so blinded by the fact that my parents needed to be found to question your intentions. Well, I'm questioning them now. Your identity is a lie and it always has been. What's to say that you weren't in this along with everyone else? And Liz.... I don't even know what she wants! It was obvious from day one that she wasn't helping us for the action but for something more, and who's to say you aren't in on that too? I'm so done with the lies, and even more done with the questions. Why can't I just live a normal life? Is that too much to ask?"

After I'm finished rambling, I realize how much of a mess I am. I'm halfway to tears, and my fingers are buried in my hair, threatening to rip out chunks at a time. I'm already regretting every single word that just came out of my mouth. But it's too late to take back the words now, especially when Alix is looking at me like I just stabbed him—the blade piercing him straight through the heart. I don't expect him to forgive me, much less speak after what I just said, but he's always been on for surprises.

"Listen to me. Yes, I was a coward. I was afraid of who I used to be and was afraid of what people would think of me. I had such a nuclear bomb of a life, and I screwed it up even more than it originally was. But Jess, I regret it every day. Do you think that there's a day in my life that I don't regret not grabbing Amelia before the fire consumed her? Do you think that there's a second that passes that I'm not thinking about how I could've saved her, but instead all I mastered is cowardice?" I'm silent because there's nothing to say. He's right. "You were wrong to think me a part of this. If I was, you'd have known a long time ago," he concludes, staring up at me. I expect hurt to be reflected in his eyes from his words, but instead, all I see is my reflection, with my wide eyes and frizzed up hair, and my frustration at our current situation.