Alive (Book 1)

Twenty-Four

During my years of imprisonment with Lana, she barraged me mercilessly with attacks; both physical and psychological. There was not a day that went by when I wasn’t suffering somehow. Not a day I didn’t live in fear.

            But I could still dream.

            They had the power to take away by abilities, my freedom, but not my mind. Every night I dreamt the same few things. They weren’t the nightmares that currently assaulted me. They were snippets of a life I knew nothing about. Little morsels of memory, and I always wondered what they were.

            Now I knew.

            I always told myself someday I would get out. I would be free for real. Normal, maybe, if I would be so daring. But they couldn’t hold me forever. This was when I was naïve enough to hope.

            Loss was loss. Painful, permanent, and everlasting. Scars on the body and the heart. I did not fear death, then. Not personally. Because in death was my only chance at release, to be free of the burdens that somehow befell me. But death continued to elude me, and alas, I learned to fear it as well.

            I shouldn’t have been afraid.

            I shouldn’t have been afraid.

            But the bullet was meant for me. The bullet was meant to kill me. How could I stand by and let yet another person die in my place?

            August’s blue eyes were glazed with pain, his body shaking with tremors he couldn’t control. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, dribbling down his cheek, staining my pants. His head lay on my lap, and all I could do was stare wide-eyed. Because I was scared.

            I was terrified.

            “Augie,” I whispered, voice cracking. “Augie, please.”

            His lips moved, forming silent words, but I couldn’t hear them. I couldn’t make them out. His face blurred, and I realized I was crying. The teardrops splattered onto his face.

            And I was terrified.

            “August!”

            My heart skipped a beat at the loud shout. I snapped my gaze up, seeing a small group of people running our way from the fields. The building behind me crackled and sizzled, crumbling from the spreading fire. I gathered August against my chest, wrapping my arms protectively around him.

            “August!”

            “Go away!” I screamed, feeling too much. I was feeling way too much, and the harness on my control completely fell away. I forced the approaching boy to his knees, keeping him there, seeing him as nothing but a threat. There were two more people around him, another guy and a girl, staring at me with wary gazes.

            A sob fell from my lips. “August,” I croaked, pressing my cheek against his hair. “Augie, come on. You have to take me to that safe house. You have—you have to take me there. You promised.”

            Silence.

            “Augie!” I screamed. “You promised!”

            A burst of energy shot out around me, derived from the emotional travesty that was my psyche. The crowd around me was blown back, the universe itself seeming to shift ever so slightly. August’s blood ran over my fingers, staining crimson against my flesh.