Thirteen

Confession.

Lore 'I don't know, Stephanie, -I'm telling this looking a little bit desperate-, but if she is not here, it means they couldn't have helped her, right?'

Stephanie 'You are hidding something, Lore. It is obvious and I am surprised you're acting in this way. I thought we are friends.'

Lore 'Of course, we are! Don't you ever doubt about our friendship!' I say it very loudly and clearly.

Stephanie 'I have to go. See you later...' the saddness from her voice is able to be felt and makes me guilty.

She leaves without looking back, but I'm still here astray through my lies and bad decisions I make. No more. This should be our fight, not only mine. Jo has told me I need people who care about me, who are ready to believe the truth and Stephanie has proved that she would stay by my side no matter what. I can feel her honestity and I have to stop lying to her because she doesn't deserve it.
   I decide to take a walk around the city for a little time of relaxing, to take my thoughts away from my mind. I'm sitting on a bench wanting to analyse people's gestures, faces, movements. For the first time, I realize all of them wear sweaters, shirts or anything with long sleeves even if there is middle of July and the temperature is high. Now that I notice this, I don't remember seeing any doctors with T-shirts either. The strange thing is that any teenager isn't actually going to school considering it's Monday.
While I was trying to dig down in people's life, I got a message from Kevin saying our lesson starts in twenty minutes. I'm gathering enough bravery to get up from the comfortable place and I am heading to the house. Fortunatelly, I get there fast and I sit beside Stephanie.

Lore 'Can I talk to you after we finish our study, please? I am sorry about earlier.'
Stephanie 'It depends. Are you going to speak it straight or keep skiving?'
Lore 'I will tell what you need to be told to realise I have been doing all these thinking about your own hearts-ease.'

The conversation can't go on because January decides to interfere.

January 'How are you doing, Stephanie?' - I don't understand why she's asking this question, but I have a doubt which I truly hope to end up being false.
Stephanie 'It is better now, thanks for your help!'
Lore 'What help? Why did she help you?' I feel the need to find out more details since they're talking without adding some clues or mentioning something accurate.
January 'Haven't you told Lore yet? (January looks surprised, but she continues) Stephanie has already discovered her ability.'
Lore 'Really? That is amazing!' I pretend I don't know anything to avoid getting rid of extra questions.

Stephanie is looking at me without actually understanding what is happening and I'm sending her a blink to assure my honest future confession.
The lesson starts and I think I won't be able to resist three hours under such a pressure, but the new things we've been learning have turned out pretty interesting and I lost the run of time.
   I take Stephanie to the place I had been before Kevin texted me and I am ready to tell her everything she wants to know.

Lore 'Why did you ask January for help?' I'm saying this a little bit upset.
Stephanie 'She is the only one who has been there for me in the last few days. I have no idea if you have noticed, but my attitude was changing and now at least I know why.'
Lore 'You shouldn't believe everything January says. She was there for Jo too, because she wanted to praise to the others that Jo has discovered the ability.'
Stephanie 'Wait a second. Has she? How do you know and I don't?'
Lore 'I lied when they asked me about what had happened in the forest. I met our friend there and she told me that. She also told me that the doctors would exploit us as soon as we let our ability out. This is the reason I disagreed with your confession to her.'
Stephanie ' Where is Jo now?' Her voice let me notice the fear of the answer.
Lore 'I don't know. I suspect the doctors have taken her while we were asleep, but there is nothing sure.'
Stephanie 'Why do you think the doctors have done such a thing? You are still not telling me the whole truth, Lore!'
Lore 'OK, but you have to promise me this conversation remains here and you'll do your best to believe me!'

   She nodds.

Lore 'Remember when we were in the hospital and we were talking, so I told you that I got rid of their annoying voices, but you had no idea what I was talking about. I didn't want to sound like a crazy person, so I pretended I missunderstood everything. The truth was I could have felt the cold from our tubes, thoughts which had been able to be created and the doctors talking about the huge experiment that it was about to start once we were going to wake up. This is all what they've wanted from us, Stephanie: to wake up, to live in the same city together, to bring 'our special thing' to life, to play their game.'

   Stephanie is looking at me as I am a crazy person, but she wanted the truth and I am sure she'll understand it, eventually.

Lore 'To be honest, I don't think our city was destroyed, I don't think our parents died because of a stupid disease and I definetely do not think they have the same meaning of 'the best' as us.' My voice got louder without realising that.
Stephanie 'January gave me a pill when I told her about... you know what. -she finds her words very hard - After I took it, the whole bad emotions which had found a place inside my head, were gone.'
Lore 'Jo has told me it's normal to act differently while you're on the way to become... special.'
Stephanie 'What is the purpose of the experiment?'
Lore 'No idea, but I guess now that you are with me, it's easier to find out.'
Stephanie 'Why were you the only one who had emotions during those years?'
Lore 'I don't have an answer to this, either. Trust me, I was even more confused as you are now.'
Stephanie 'Lore... What ability does Jo have?' I'm surprised she uses the present tense; this means her hope is still alive and that is the only power we will be able to use against those who want to do us any harm.
Lore 'She can figure someone's important problem out. This is how she found out about the doctors' plan. We need to fight to bring her back, Stephanie! Will you help me or did I scare you too much?' I create a short smile on my face full of desire to make our life... alive again.

She doesn't say anything, she offers me a huge hug instead. To release something so damn hard is like taking a stone from your shoulders, this situation will start to be more clear, two people making a decision should be easier, two best friends fighting for other friends must be worth every minut of agony.

Stephanie 'Thank you for being the person I've known you are, Lore!' she keeps hugging me and I smile.

   We're going back to the house and because I don't like silence anymore, I decide to tell her about my last acknowledgement.

Lore 'Have you ever noticed all the people from this town don't wear T-shirts or shorts including the doctors?'

   Stephanie doesn't answer me, but she stops herself from walking and touches my arm with a worried face.

Stephanie 'Including the doctors... I saw January once without that dressing gown. She has a sort of mark, like a tattoo. I haven't been able to see it perfectly, but something was written on her arm and it was a medium drawning.'
Lore 'Are you sure it was January? Maybe it was someone else.' I'm asking this hoping to be January that person because it would mean a very important clue to start our plan against them from.
Stephanie 'Yes, we are the only ones who live in our house. It was definetely her, but we need to see the tattoo again and to read the sentence she has on her arm.'

   Lore 'Then we know that we should do in the next few days!'