Brainwashed

Chapter 10: A New Development

Chapter 10:

A New Development

“They did what?” Camille yelled into her phone. She waited until Sage answered back to yell at him again. “I can’t believe you let them do that! You know I didn’t want that to happen to her! I can’t believe you Sage.”

In her sudden wave of fury Camille hung up on Sage without warning. Then she threw the phone across the room onto her bed. Camille paced her room, too anxious and worked up to sit. Her emotions warred inside her stomach- guilt, fear, anger, confusion. She didn’t know what to do.

Abruptly, as a thought popped into her head, Camille threw herself at her bed and knelt down beside it. She began to rummage underneath it looking for something. When she finally found it she let out a little yell of excitement. Camille pulled it out, sat down on her bed and set to work. Her stomach felt like she was on a roller coaster; her head told her it might be dangerous to do this, but her heart told her it was the right thing to do.

~*~

My alarm goes off and scares me awake. I jerk up to a sitting position, surprised. After a few seconds to collect my thought, I turn off my alarm and head to the shower to get ready for school.

Last night was horrible. I could not go to sleep. And when I finally did, it was a fitful and restless sleep. I kept waking up, wisps of nightmares still in my thoughts. I just couldn’t stop worrying about Stella.

I run through the morning routine on autopilot, my mind a thousand miles away. I run down the steps taking two at a time, just to get to the kitchen to see Stell. I’m a little hopeful that she’s better; that yesterday she really was just tired. But all my hopes are expelled as soon as I walk into the room.

She isn’t talking.

She still isn’t talking. Estella. Not talking. It’s just not normal, not right.

I just stand in the doorway, crushed. The idea of Estella getting brainwashed just won’t compute with my brain. I have to fix this. Somehow I have to fix this. It’s my fault. I made this happen, in some way I made this happen. So I have to fix it.

And the first thing I’m going to do is have a little talk with Camille.

~*~

Just like I was in a rush to get to the kitchen, I’m in a rush to get to the bus stop. I’m practically dragging Stella with me, too preoccupied with my thoughts to care if she is complaining- even in her zombie state she complains a lot. Good to know some part of her is still left. But all I care about now is getting her back to her completely normal self. And that involves being at the bus station where Camille is.

I arrive at the bus stop panting, a still complaining Estella behind me. As soon as I see Camille I veer toward her. She didn’t see us coming so when I grabbed her arm and dragged her way from her little group she yelped in surprise.

“Zeke! What are you doing?” She asks me, contempt in her voice.

“I need to talk to you. About this brainwashing stuff.” I say glancing around to make sure no one could hear.

“Um, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that too.” She said, eyes flicking to Stell like she new something. “But I don’t know if I should.”

“Camille, this is wrong, it’s all wrong. Why are you helping them? How can you just let them do this to kids?” I was getting angry. Well, angrier than I already was.

“It’s survival, Zeke. That’s all it is. I couldn’t do anything anyway, even if I tried. Don’t get angry at me Zeke, I’m just a pawn.”

“Don’t get angry? Don’t get- look what they did to my sister! Look! You could have stopped it! You have influence, an inside job. You can tell them not to- not to-” I couldn’t go on, couldn’t finish my sentence. The thought of what they did to Estella is just too horrible. I looked at Estella. She was just standing there, staring at the ground, a blank look on her face. I have to fix this, someway I have to.

Camille’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Look Zeke, I’m sorry about what happened to Estella, really I am. But there was nothing I could do to stop it. It doesn’t work that way Zeke. I don’t have influence. Sure I have an inside job, but that’s it. I can’t tell them what to do. I’m only here because Sage asked for it. I can’t tell them what to do, they tell me what to do.”

“Well you should at least try!” I say- a little too loudly. People look over in surprise and I lower my voice. “You should at least try to help someone.”

Camille starts to say something, “I am trying to, Zeke, I am. But-“

“Well then why not help me too! Why not Estella!” I half yell trying to keep quiet.

“That’s who I’m trying to help!” Camille half yells back. She’s getting angry- probably because I cut her off and was yelling at her. “If you’d only let me talk then you’d know that!” She lets out a big sigh as if to calm herself.

“Oh.” I say, astonished and half embarrassed. “Sorry, I- I’m just a little, you know, worried about Stella and all.”

“Yeah, I get it. It’s okay.” She says a little exasperated. “Look, I have this for you.” And she pulls out this cube and hands it to me. It’s a silver metal, smooth, but also engraved with these ancient runic designs that swirl all over it. “I can’t explain what it is right now. But meet me in Mrs. Hickory’s classroom after school tomorrow and we’ll talk.”

“Stella’s teacher? Why her?” I ask in surprise. “And why tomorrow, why not today, I want answers now.”

“Because she’s on our side. We can’t meet today because the Boss called a meeting of his own and everyone has to be there.” And at that moment the bus decides to screech to a stop at the curb. “Look, we’ll talk about this later. But in the meantime, we never had this conversation, okay? Don’t tell anyone about our meeting tomorrow, or we will all be in danger. It’s dangerous enough as it is right now, we don’t want to make this worse. So for now, I’m still the girlfriend of your enemy. Alright?”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. Nothing happened here. Um, I guess I’ll see you after...” I trailed off the look she gave me. “Never mind.”

I watch as Camille walks away to board the bus. I think about why she wants to help us now. But never mind that. It’s a good thing she wants to help. What does it matter her intentions are. As long as it helps me get Stella back.

So I grab Estella’s arm and drag her to the bus. But as I go, my thoughts turn to the cube that Camille gave me and that is now stuffed in the bottom of my book bag. What is it? Does it do anything? And if so, what? How will it help me? I know my day will consist of nothing but thoughts of that cube and figuring it out.

I know I know, long time since i updated. It always is, so what's new?

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