Reprisal (TSIMHBINM Book 2)

Chapter Four

"Please Echo." I shook my head at Colton, who was now sitting crosslegged on the ground in front of me. He looked like a walking corpse. His eyes sunk into his skull, with purple bags hanging underneath them. He had lost a significant amount of weight as his shirt slid off his shoulders and his pants were only staying up from a belt looped in the tightest hole. Colton was also remarkably paler, even paler than me which I assumed was impossible. But the most prominent feature was the sizable stain of dark blood on the back of his shirt, between the two holes for his wings. Where the fabric was missing, I was able to see a blood-soaked bandage that continued around Colton's body. As much as I wanted to believe it was a minor injury, I knew it was not. The boy's appearance made it even harder not to believe him.

I couldn't look him in his dead, gray eyes. "I can't. After what you did to me-to us." I added, glancing around at the group standing throughout the clearing and looking them each in the eye. But when I met Kai's, she shook her head and stepped forward. Ayden narrowed her eyes.

"Let's get one thing straight. I don't trust you," Kai pointed at Colton and then turned to address the rest of us. "But we did all see 'Colton' change back into that kid who looked like Alex right?"

At this, Colton turned his head to face Kai. "You saw him?"

Kai nodded her head. "The kid kept flickering back and forth from you to someone looking like Alex. Except from what I could tell, this kid had red eyes." She looked around at the rest of us to confirm what she just said. I nodded. She had a point.

"Twins," Colton muttered an looked up at me. Kai rolled her eyes. "Really? I wonder what made you think that." Just as the rest of us had begun to do, Colton ignored her remark and opened his mouth to continue. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head, pressed his knees to his chest, wrapped his arms around them, and began rocking back and forth. I took a step forward and knelt down next to him. When Kai moved forward, I shooed her back. In fact, I told the three of them to go ahead and get some rest. I didn't believe Colton was capable of trying anything and even if he did, there was no way it would get him anywhere. But deep inside me, I knew even if he wasn't on the verge of death, Colton wouldn't touch me. Yet my heart couldn't seem to convince my mind that the one I loved more than anything else was fully innocent.

As they walked away, I moved my legs out from below me and sat mere inches from the boy who I could barely recognize. Up close, I could see the glistening streaks running in streams down his face. His sunken eyes were puffy and rimmed with red.

"Tell me what happened," I said quietly.

"I can't remember," he whispered, clenching his eyes tighter.

"You mean about the twins?" Colton gave a weak nod. "A second ago I could've answered you. The memory just vanished from my mind." He took a shaky breath which led to another coughing fit.

I sighed. "You're sure you can't remember? Anything at all?"

He nodded again, still in the midst of coughing.

"At least tell me what happened." I gestured to his bloodied t-shirt.

"Siara took my wings," he muttered.

"I can see that. Did she do anything else?"

"Kept me in a room. I don't know how long I was in there."

I shook my head. Siara, Colton's mother, was the reason we were all like this. Siara Freyd and her husband Gray were the leaders of the organization called Nialliv. Since before they did it to me, the two had been experimenting on humans to create the perfect super soldier and had even gone as far as to experiment on their own son. After Colton showed me a picture of us before Nialliv had gotten to us, I got a memory back of our parents arguing over him. According to him, that was the last time we saw each other until his parents killed my family and experimented on me. I of course don't remember any of this because of Nialliv's fancy memory erasing serum which has been used on me countless times.

Colton spoke again, this time a little louder. "We were in the forest. Y-you blacked out and a second later I did too. When I woke up in that room, all I could think about was if you were okay. Then some people came in and took me to one of the l-labs where they... where they ripped my wings out." Once again tears glistened down his face in streams and he took a shaky breath. "I don't know how long I was there but they gave me food six times. I finally escaped when a guard brought me food and I stole her gun." I wanted to ask how he had had the strength to get the gun, but he continued before I could.

"When I did, I stumbled through the forest until I luckily found you." Colton managed small, sad, no-tooth smile. "I know your friends, don't believe me but Echo, I know you want to." He finally looked me in the eyes and said, "please."

I sighed and slid myself closer, putting an arm around him. "Alright, Freyd. But only because I love you so much."

A/N I'm so so sorry I haven't updated in so long! I've been super busy with school the past few months I haven't even had a second to think about writing. I tried to write a little more than usual, but it doesn't seem to be by much. I can't promise updates will be posted weekly or even monthly, but I'll tried to update as much as possible!!