Make Me

Chapter 5.4

Of course Vienna beat me to Theo's room. I didn't expect any other outcome.

"Hey, Lana," Theo said. He was looking better than when he wasn't awake, but that wasn't saying much.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Awake. So that's good."

"Same here! Wow we're doing so great," Vienna added sarcastically.

"Yeah I heard about your drowning adventures," Theo smiled. "Does anyone have any idea what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Lana asked.

"You seriously think all of this is a coincidence? Look back at everything that has happened in the past two months. Let's go through it all. First, slime monster at the track meet and Vienna is captured."

"Yep, there was that blonde girl and my powers shouldn't have worked, but they did. And General Batter was concerned because apparently that wasn't the first time the slime monster has showed up," Vienna stated.

"Exactly. And then there's the Dreamcatcher and General Batter tries to kill you."

"And that was the first time I hear something in my head. And I start remembering things about my past."

"Next was the island with the spaceship," I added.

"Then the cars, and I hear someone in my head again and Blair shows up."

"Your powers start fading, and then they crash entirely," Theo said. "What trends do we have here?"

"Attacks on Vienna, each of them getting more and more successful," I stated. "And could it be that Blair is the one who is talking to you?"

Vienna shrugged. "I don't think she was able to do that before, but I don't remember exactly."

"Do you know what her powers are?" Theo asked.

Vienna shook her head. "I don't remember."

"Do you trust her?" I asked.

Vienna nodded. "Yes. Without a doubt."

"Do you think she could help us figure all of this out?" Theo asked.

I shook my head. "We can't tell her anything, even if she is Vienna's friend. That puts everyone here and our entire work at a huge risk."

"What did Greta say about this?" Vienna asked. "Wasn't she going to talk to you about it?"

I shrugged. "She left and said she had other things to do. I guess she doesn't think it's a concern right now."

"Is it a concern?" Theo asked. "I mean, I know you said she's your friend, but we have another alien on the planet, maybe with friends, and we don't know what powers she has. It's slightly alarming."

Vienna shook her head. "I trust her. She talked with Lana and everything went fine. I don't see any reason to be alarmed."

"She just randomly shows up when we're in the middle of a crisis. You don't think it's alarming at all?" Theo asked.

"We're always in the middle of a crisis. Her timing means nothing."

The lights flashed again, and then returned to normal. I guess Greta hasn't figured out what was up with our power system yet.

"Ok, if she's really looking out for you, then why hasn't she helped you?" Theo stated.

I didn't know what to say, and I knew Theo and Vienna were on the verge of an argument.

"That's not her job."

"She said she was looking out for you! I guess that means watch you like a movie and not step in when you're in trouble."

"What was she supposed to do? Drag me out of the pool?" Vienna shouted.

"How do you know she's not the one who shot me?" Theo yelled back.

We were all silent.

"You don't, right?" Theo commented. "You don't know who shot me because you couldn't do anything. Because you walked into a trap. She just happens to show up right after it happened?"

"Theo!" I yelled at him. "What has gotten into you?"

"Vienna thinks she's so great because she can handle anything. But guess what? Some of us can't. Like me. I'm basically dead right now because I had a piece of metal rip through my chest. Did I ever think I would get shot? No, I didn't. But it hurts, in case you were wondering."

"Do you think I wanted that to happen?" Vienna shot back.

"I'm not sure what you think about anymore," he responded.

Vienna stood up and walked out. Theo took a deep breath.

"What was that?" I asked him.

"I'm tired of her being treated like she's special."

"Because she is," I replied.

"Yeah, and yet she can't seem to get anything done correctly."

"If you're mad at her for not listening to you about the virus insert in the computer, just tell her that. Don't attack her about every little thing in her life."

"Attack her? As if I could attack her when I'm lying in bed with a gunshot wound."

"Why are you so mad?" I demanded. "Talk to me."

"I'm just saying what everyone is thinking."

I sighed. "I'm going to leave now. I get where you're coming from, but you're also insanely overreacting. I'm going to blame it on the meds you're on, but if you don't cool off, Vienna will never forgive you."

"Why would I care?"

"Remember the couple of weeks where she hated you for leaving her to be killed by General Batter?"

"Ok, so she's allowed to be mad at me for leaving her, when I was doing everything I could, but I'm not allowed to be mad at her for getting me shot?"

I stood up. "I'm leaving now. I would suggest pulling yourself together before you offend someone who will be mad at you."

"You know I have a point, Lana. Consider it. Think about it."

I left the room.

~~~

I hope everyone enjoyed this episode from Lana's perspective.  The next one will be back to Vienna.  There's only three more episodes left, so things will start to get more intense and things will start to make more sense.  Let me know what you think so far!!  Don't forget to vote and comment!