I shout for others to come and help me with him. I clutch his arms and shake him desperately, I know it’s useless but my body is acting involuntarily. I don’t know what to do now. His body is warm enough to indicate his death was a few hours ago and I can’t help but think about the ‘what ifs.’ What if we would have come here early? What if I have never let him go alone? What if I’ve had someone call the medics to attend him before this mishap?
I shake my head to get rid of these questions. It’s not my nature to let any project go unattended, to have such a huge fiasco all under me. But this feeling gnawing at me is not only guilt, it’s regret. Regret for missing my chance to bid farewell to him. It’s like Jace all over. I never got to say goodbye to him and now with Rick gone, it’s the same feeling.
I feel horrible to think of Jace in past. There can be an infinite possibility of his end but my mind refuses to think of any other than this. For me, he’s gone, forever.
“Oh, crap.”
Behind me, I hear footsteps running in the room. Someone check his pulse, I’m not sure who, but it doesn’t matter, they aren’t going to get any. From my peripheral vision, I see Thomas bending down and hooking his arms under Rick’s knee and on the neck to pick him up. He rushes out of the room without saying anything to anyone.
I know he must be taking him to medics, to see if they can resurrect him or something. More optimistic than realistic.
Liam takes a seat beside me and I look up to him, to his soul searching eyes fill with concern then my gaze shift to Ivy who's sitting on my bed, less affected than rest of us.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes. It was ours.” In no mood to listen to Liam’s contradiction to my statement, I shift my weight to my heels to stand up but just as I rise a little above ground a sharp, agonizing pain slice through my lower abdomen making me crumple on the ground, groaning.
“Licy!” Liam holds my arms and makes me look at him. I clutch my stomach and close my eyes, cold sweat bead run down my temple. When I open them I see Ivy standing beside me with a glass of water.
My veins feel on fire. I can feel every vein throb in my skin and this is when I know it’s happening again.
“Leave.” I just need to say this once and Liam takes Ivy and rushes out of the room. The pain pierces through my body, making me writhe in agony. My veins bulge in my arms in a serpentine manner, constricting more and more. By this time all I see is red, not metaphorical red but actual red. The edge of everything in my vision is red. There is static sound around which keeps on increasing and then it’s numbness in my ears, it keeps on getting unbearable. I stuff my fist in my mouth to keep from screaming.
Crumpling on the ground, my mouth release an involuntary moan. Strands of hair on my body raise upward, like some invisible force acting on them, clutching them from the base.
I lay on the ground, my forehead touch the ground and arms surrounding my stomach while waiting for this pain to subside. To go away.
I have no idea how long I lay there, moaning in pain but when it gets over I leave the room running. My steps refuse to halt even when I know I’ve put enough distance between me and the room. I keep forwarding to the medic ward.
The rest of the Elites are already present there. Liam is talking to the medics, Ivy on phone doing something while Thomas is napping on the couch. I close my fist to restrain myself from smacking him. Ivy must’ve heard me approaching as she looks up at me and raises her eyebrow. “What’s up with you now? All cool?”
I ignore her and walk over to Liam. He turns to me and nods in acknowledging me. I nod back at him.
“Is she okay?” Ivy asks Liam from behind me.
“I’m right over here.” I gesture to me.
“Yeah, but if you’re going to keep your mouth sealed I’ll have to ask others by ignoring your presence.”
“And I should be glad by your concern?”
“It’s something you should after your episode.”
“What you said?” I seethe my words at her. I never want anyone to know about it. Let alone her.
“I told her about it, Licy.” Liam defends her by jumping in between me and Ivy as if I’m one step away from clawing her face ―or maybe I am. “She’s going to be around now and it’s better if she knows about us as a team.”
I know but that doesn’t make it any less easy. I just look at him and turn to the medic head he was talking to.
“What’s the autopsy report?”
“It was arsenic poisoning. It works real fast if given in high dose and his headache was a symptom of it. Liam said he was completely fine before meeting Gerald so it’s certain he was poisoned when he was with him. It can be the waiters who served him tea or the one who made or maybe Gerald himself. Anyone could’ve poisoned him.”
“Was there any chance of treating him if he was here before?” The little regret side of my brain voice out.
“Maybe or maybe not. We can’t know for sure. It must’ve taken a while to get to know if he was poisoned and with which one. When he has arrived in the building it was already too late. We probably could’ve done something but it doesn’t matter now. He’s not here and that’s his endgame.”
I lift my head a little in understanding and then turn to Ivy. “I want a group of deviant to dispatch for the café. Find out if the workers there were involved in it or not. Is the situation already reported to Allen?” She answers me in yes. “Good. Update him with our further plan and ask him to allot a group for search.” She nods and turns around, walking out.
I look at Liam from the corner of my eyes. “We have something else to take care of.”
“What?”
Rebecca. I have to take her with me to fulfil the promise I made to Rick. We have to pick her up from her Aunt's place and let her meet Orla and Rick. Her parents. But these are for later, for now, we have one important thing to take care of. So I yell.
“Will someone please wake this shit up?!”
____________________________________
I was halfway through this chapter when I lost it from my phone (yes, lol I don't have a laptop). It wasn't hard to rewrite, though time-consuming, as I remember what my plot for this chapter was, but I still made some changes and decided to push Rebecca's chapter one chapter away.
See y'all I'm few days.
Vote. Comment. Share.
YOU ARE READING
PROJECT ELITES
Science Fiction|| HR- 36 in Action-Thriller || Everything was fine in genetically modified Elite's life until one of them starts showing changes. Jace, the leader of the Elites family starts his own way of betrayal to their makers. Futura had a hard way of taking...
