The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

Chapter Nineteen-Disillusion

LUC

MY MOUTH DRIED as I took in the sight of my sister.

I placed a hand over a desk behind me to steady myself. Nothing could have prepared me for this moment—this moment I had been so sure that it'd never come, that I had to make my peace and move on. 

Through time, I'd been able to accept what happened and to spend my days normally without caving under the guilt. I was convinced that I should have done better; I should have watched Lauren more closely and been more careful. She was gone because of me, because I failed as a brother to keep her safe.

And now, she stood in front of me finally. It wasn't a dream, or an ambush where I was catching a glimpse of her. She was truly in the classroom, uncovered and enclosed with patience. Some nights, I'd be consumed by what I would have wanted to tell her, what I wished I'd let her know before the hunters stole her away from us. But my mind couldn't string a sentence together, no matter how often I'd imagined such scenarios before.

I rubbed a palm down my jaw, working to get a grip. We'd surely be late for next class, but it was too trivial to count. Right now, I needed to focus on answers, on talking, on working things through even if my sister blocked me. I ignored the achy squeeze in my chest and stared at her.

"Apparently, you were ahead of us. A whole year ahead of us."

Lauren's ankle jerked as she leveled my stare, hers cunning and inquisitive. "I know you're angry."

"Angry?" I huffed and folded my arms. I was more than glad to get her back, but it was overshadowed by everything else going on. "That is an understatement. We want explanations. So, you're going to tell us what happened exactly, why you were gone and why you came to school now."

Lauren stiffened at the tone of my voice, the same one I'd use to scold her when she cavorted with humans. She didn't like to be bossed around either, but it had always been my job to look out for her.

"I was expecting a warmer welcome," she said, raising a brow.

"Well, that makes two of us."

Greg eyed us both and blew out a depleted breath. "Stop it. It hasn't been five minutes and you're already at each other's throats." He turned to Lauren, laying both of his hands down on his desk. "We're really happy to see you, but it's hard when we don't understand what happened to you. We... we thought you were dead."

Lauren tore her gaze away from mine and rested her palms on her lap. "I know."

There was a pause pending with a clarification, but none came.

"Well?" Greg inquired. "How are you not dead?"

She didn't explain that, but I had a vague idea on that one. If she staged her death and let us believe it, then... "There's nothing you can do. It's pointless to look at me for whatever answer it is that you want. I can't give you one."

Even her speech was different. She used to sound so joyous and excited. She was the only one that could sound like that without tugging at my nerves.

"Then, why did you agree to stay after the bell?" I spread my arms out and my jaw tightened. "Just what do you think you're doing? Are you screwing with us, too?"

Flinty, uncompromising eyes glided back to me almost in a reproach, like she'd make me shut up if given the chance. I remembered the footage Caldwell showed me on her tablet. Whatever Lauren would throw at me, I'd catch and toss back with interest. 

"Maybe I am. Anyways, I should be the least of your worries. NIO has a list of people to prioritize."

"Who?" Greg asked, stumped, and I shot him a glare for encouraging her not to tell us the whole story. She was skillfully deviating the conversation, not yielding a morsel of considerable substance about her own past. And Christ, I felt like horseshit for not knowing those things myself already. I should have been more observant, should have noticed changes, warnings signs, anything that has led to here.