Estranged [Completed]

Wait- What?

"Wait...Are you...?" Kalei sat up. She looked at her surroundings and found that she was still in the alley with the dumpster. Walker stood about ten feet off behind Terin, watching her carefully with crossed arms. Samantha's body lay beside her. Kalei's thoughts were jumbled. It was like two and two floated before her eyes, but her brain kept fumbling the four. "Did I...?"

Terin stood up. "Can I trust you?"

Kalei blinked, then squinted at him. "What?"

"You know what I did to my daughter. Your mother. You know what Josh nearly did to his mother. Can I trust you to stay away from Fenn and the children?"

His words sent her thoughts clicking back into order with sobering clarity. "Yes." The reality of what would happen if she found Fenn, the memory of what happened to her parents – for the first time in her life, Kalei was firmly resolved to never see Fenn again. Her crushed heart was a small price to pay for his life.

Still... 

"You know what I did to my daughter"... 

Was this some weird dream? Could he really be...?

Terin turned and walked toward the alley entrance as he said, "Let's go."

Kalei's arms felt heavy and awkward, but she complied. "So do I have to go back to solitary, or will I be free to roam Downtown?"

Terin kept walking as he said, "You're free to go wherever you want as soon as we get you back into uniform."

"What?"

"You've been reinstated to Warden."

Kalei shook her head, not sure if she heard him correctly. She glanced at Walker, and the unwavering seriousness on his face chased away all doubt.

"Who says I want to be?" Kalei took a couple steps after Terin, but then a pounding headache rushed through her skull. She reached out to the nearest wall, leaning against it as she tried to push back the onslaught.

Terin called out, "You can do that in the car."

Kalei growled through her clenched teeth, pushed off the wall, and marched past Walker on her way out of the alley.

The street was quiet, the old theater across the road sleeping in these morning hours, and the small restaurant to her left was likewise closed, both businesses seemingly recuperating before the next rush of evening traffic came for them. It was just as Kalei had always remembered it, except she had to step under a strip of "Crime Scene" tape, and at each end of the street, an officer stood watch, deterring the sparse passersby. There was also a new silver sedan parked at the curb, which Terin was already climbing into on the opposite side. Although she knew they weren't looking her way, Kalei was eager to get out of sight before the officers spotted her, so she quickly followed after Terin and climbed into the back seat.

Once inside, Kalei was relieved to be safe behind the heavily tinted windows, but the relief didn't extend to her body. Feeling heavy, Kalei leaned her head against the window, watching the buildings slide by as the car pulled away from the curb. Within her, she could feel the darkness – her new darkness – pulsing and moving. There was so much now. And every time she looked at it, she saw images that didn't make any sense.

To no one in particular, she asked, "Why do I have these... memories that aren't mine?"

She was surprised to hear the driver reply, "The darkness carries within itself not only a complete copy of your biological makeup, but it also retains memories so that when you get hurt, or shot in the head, the darkness can reconstruct you exactly as you were."

"Erit?" Kalei pulled her head away from the glass and caught a glimpse of his face in the rearview mirror. "Shit, I didn't recognize you. How are you reaching the pedals?"

Erit stiffly replied, "Don't worry about that."

Kalei chuckled as she leaned her head back against the firm, leather seat and said, "Okay, whatever. So you're saying the darkness keeps all of my memories? Why? What's the point?"

"Truly, no one can say for sure. But some scholars speculate that the darkness is something of a symbiotic parasite. Its sole purpose is to grow and perpetuate itself, which it can only do by consuming the darkness of another individual. In order to ensure optimal success in this endeavor, the darkness must maintain the health of its host."

"Okay... I'll just pretend I understood that." Kalei shook her head. "So where are these new memories coming from?"

Erit pulled the wheel right, carefully watching the pedestrians standing at the edge of the sidewalk as he made his turn. "When you killed Samantha, you absorbed every shred of her darkness and all that entails: including her memories."

Kalei looked out the window. Her eyes darted as they traced the trajectory of the passing lampposts. "So I did kill her." She turned back to Erit. "But how?"

Terin answered, "You pierced her heart."

"No I didn't. But if it's as easy as that—"

Erit interrupted, "What he means to say is, you pierced the heart of her darkness. It isn't... tangible exactly. No one has been able to establish a physical location for it within the body. It can only be found by venturing your own darkness into another person. And it can only be destroyed with the darkness."

"Oh." Kalei returned her attention to the passing scenery. She remembered how it had felt when Samantha's heart had snapped. She remembered the rush and the dark place it had taken her... She tried not to get carsick.

Well, I think I understand why Erit and Terin wouldn't teach me this shit in basic.

"What happened to the backpack Josh had with him?"

"What?" Kalei pulled away from the window to look at Terin.

He looked at her with his usual, level stare. No new grandfather there, no touching reunion or reconciliation with the past. Just the same stoic Terin, with the same dumb questions. What the hell did she care about the kid's backpack?

She looked away and scoffed. "Josh probably dropped it during that incident with his mom. You guys found him, right? Why not ask him?"

Terin's tone gave away about as much information as his reply. "We can't."

She looked back, trying to find the answer in his weary eyes. "Why not?"

Terin met her gaze, but it was Erit who answered, "Well, technically, we could ask him. I mean, we did pick him up. It's just... it's complicated."

"What do you mean? You ask him the question, he answers. How can it be more complicated than that? Is he refusing to cooperate?"

"No, he's very compliant, but his answers... You girls..." Erit sighed. "Allow me to put it this way. You know what I told you about the darkness being able to contain memories and reconstruct the mind? Well, in rare cases, especially when multiple head injuries are suffered within a short period of time..." Erit trailed off.

A red flag went up in Kalei's mind. Erit loved to talk about anything and everything. Stopping himself was not something he did. "What's wrong with Josh?"

Erit navigated another turn in silence. For a second, Kalei thought he wasn't going to answer. Then he said, "It seems his mind did not fully reconstruct itself ... He can talk in English and walk a straight line, all of that, but..."

Terin interrupted, "Did he tell you what was in the backpack?"

"No. Why? What's wrong with Josh?"