• This is the second book of The Collected series •
"Those who bring pain are here to save, and those who bring hope will bring death. A great evil rests on the horizon, eating away at each setting sun. Nothing is as it seems while you beg for salva...
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To say the least, I was disappointed, but also relieved. I had wanted it to be Number Eight out there with her army of Collectors. I wanted to show her, show them what I was. Yet I also didn't know what I would've done if it had been them. We were outnumbered and weak.
I'd switched to the losing side.
Everyone kept saying I was stupid. Maybe they were right. I was supposed to be on my own side, I meant to do what was right for me. Somehow I kept getting caught up in stuff like this.
Angrily I threw my stupid mask on the floor. Tossed my haunting cloak on "my" bed. That's what Andrea had said, that this was my room. Why did it feel even more of a cage then the one the Collectors gave me.
Conflicted.
That word couldn't even begin to describe me anymore. Flashes of memories bombarded my mind, none of it seeming real anymore. They didn't come in any particular order- not one that I could figure out- making them harder to understand.
An agonized groan sounded from outside, mimicking how I felt inside. I peaked my head out my open door, my eyes resting on the weak alien boy. Jasper.
"And why are they letting you stumble down the halls alone?" I leaned against the doorframe, a smirk resting on my lips.
"No one wants me around," he stopped, leaning against the wall for support, "they don't want to see my face."
"Poor little boy that no one loves, mopping around the halls hoping to find a meaning to his miserable life." I jutted my bottom lip out, relishing in the sad look that settled within his eyes.
"It's not like they want to see you either." His head fell to the side, hitting the wall, "They only pretend to love you because they don't want to be against you."
"Obviously you have mistaken me for someone who cares." My teeth clenched together, my hands clutching into fits, anything to make me feel pain. Something I didn't know I'd been missing unlit recently. However like before, like all the other times, I felt nothing.
"You care, I can tell when you look at them." His pained laughed echoed down the hall, "don't pretend you're lost. You know exactly who you are, we all do, you just don't want to except it."
"You know nothing about me." The words ripped from my throat and redness creeped into the edges of my vision. The Collectors tried to teach me to use my anger, now I can't seem to control it. I stalked to where Jasper leaned on the wall and glared down at his small figure.
"I can read you like an open book." He tried to sound brave and threatening. He only sounded scared. Still, his words seemed to push me over the edge. Before I had time to think about what I was doing, my hand had wrapped its way around his scrawny neck. I slammed him against the wall and his feet dangled, trying desperately to touch the floor. His hands hit weakly at mine as he gasped for air, his face reddening to the colour he wished it was.
