Counterfeit

-fortyeight--

--fortyeight-  //  7 COMMENTS FOR AN UPDATE!!!! 

I'll be with you from dusk till dawn. Baby, I'm right here.

+ Dusk Till Dawn +

-

HE WAS UNABLE to find his voice as I remained sitting across from him. I felt like a spectator to the war he was fighting inside; a war which reflected on every inch of his exterior. His hands were shaking, clenching - knuckles were being cracked. His breathing was rapid and never enough to fill his chest. And his eyes... I think every terrible thing he had ever felt was trapped inside. 

My heart shattered in the silence.

When he was able to speak, his eyes couldn't meet mine, and I knew it wasn't worth moving over to him: he would break. I began to wonder if any of it was my fault. I couldn't remember much of anything that felt recent prior to my ten months in The Dormir, and at the least, it always left me frustrated. I might have hurt him. I might be the cause of his distress and be absolutely blinded to it. 

From how he began, the evident desperation to finish, I realized that whatever I didn't know must have been such a tremendous burden to have been carrying all alone, even more so, to explain how much he had been left hurt by it. When had life become so heavy? 

"There's a process which we call The Alteration. Every resident must undergo this prior to arrival at a Dormir." It didn't sound like his words - they were too rehearsed to be from him. 

He continued. "It is one of the most...unfathomable concepts I've ever known." Charleston stated. "This is where I lost you." 

This is where his hurt was, I discovered. The Alteration, whatever it meant. Losing me. 

"I'm right here, Charles." 

"Yes, but you weren't." 

It was confirmation, finally. But I didn't want it to be. It meant that I was the one who had broke him, and I wasn't sure that I could live with the guilt, and I wasn't certain what I had done. 

I'm sorry. 

I tried. 

The words didn't come. 

Instead, "what is it?" When he looked at me, I hoped with all that I had that he would see it: my regret. I couldn't give him much else. 

"The Alteration is a 28-day-period." He told me. "Every single person living inside a Dormir would have been through it, including you." 

He seemed angry. Not at me, but at himself, perhaps for letting it happen. 

"You called it the Brain-Washing Stage." There was a hint of a smile as he looked down, but it vanished as quickly as the fear came settling in. I mirrored him; it sounded terrifying. 

"They..." he looked up, paused for a moment, "God, it was awful... 

They change you. They made you forget. 

They modify who you are, what you think, what you want. They alter your thought patterns, your memories and perceptions of things. They make you think how they want you to, and make you forget what they don't want you to know... I was one of those things."  

"Charleston, I..." 

"You're connected to a machine - for an entire month you're asleep, they feed you memories, ideas, new drugs. They make you forget what or who you left behind." 

"But, I remembered my dad. Why did I forget you?" 

"Because I had the most power to change you. The most influence or impact. If you didn't forget me, they feared you would rebel - remember too much, realize their lies." 

"Then why did they let you in as a guard? If you had so much power?" 

"They didn't know it was me, they only knew the idea of me. Do you remember what your father does?" 

"I'm not sure. It's a bit blurry." I admitted. I knew aspects of what he did, but I couldn't trace it back to one thing. 

"He works for the Elite Salvation Assembly, and so do I. It's the foundation behind The Dormirs. The people who established the camps, the same ones behind The Alteration and everything else that puts us here." 

"I thought that was the problem: that I was here. Why does my dad work for them then?" 

"To get information." 

"Like an Inside-man?" I questioned. 

"That was you." He was struck by his own statement. Bruised. 

Everything was starting to make a lot more sense, but it came with its consequences. Me being in here was the problem, and the fact that I left was what had hurt Charleston. There was a great deal of shame in the matter that it had taken me so long to figure out, especially when Charleston had been waiting on me to do so. Waiting, all alone. 

-fortyeight--

11/12/17

Book 1, part 2 is coming. Be prepared.

7 COMMENTS!! 7 COMMENTS!! 7 COMMENTS!!

Are you excited for part 2?

What do you predict will happen?

Do you think everyone will survive?

Are you keen to know more about The Dormir, why Pip is there, and what they need to fear about it? Remember, The Dormir = The Sleep.

Please comment your thoughts about the book/characters!!

-

Oh, You reign in my soul. I will never be alone.

- 

PS: Please continue to pray for my friend Tia with terminal illness. Prayer changes everything.