Brainwashed

Chapter 12: Excitement and Anticipation

Chapter 12

Excitement and Anticipation

            I ran the whole way home after that. I was too excited to get Estella back to normal to care about anything else. And even though it isn’t that far from school to home, I’m still out of breath because I was running so hard.

            Unfortunately, when I got home, I couldn’t remember all of the poem that Camille told me. I was too impatient to go Google it so instead, I quickly got out the cube and opened it up. Once I had the card ready and the video set up, I sprinted up to Stella’s room.     

            So here I am, standing outside Stella’s room, panting. I’m so excited to get her back, Stella, the real Estella, but I find myself standing outside her door. I guess I’m just preparing myself mentally for what will happen, if it works or if it doesn’t work. Stirring myself out of my depressing thoughts, I kick Estella’s door open and charge in.

            My eyes scan the room until I find her at her desk. Stella is sitting, working on her homework- nothing strange, we normally do our homework right after school. But normally she listens to some music- she always says it helps her concentrate, contrary to all the studies that say it’s distracting- and sings along while she works.

            Yet another sign of how terribly not-Stella she is.

            Not even jumping at my loud entrance, Stella just keeps on working. A little annoyed with her lack of response, I practically growl her name when I call for her, “Stella!”

            Her reaction is very slow. She slowly puts her pencil down, and slowly turns around to face me. For a second I think she is doing it on purpose to annoy me- before I remember that she’s brainwashed and she doesn’t even control her own actions any more. Once she’s turned around, she looks up at me with a half questioning and a half not-really-there look. Not even a word.

            I’m so annoyed at this point- annoyed at the way Stella’s acting, at myself, at everyone responsible for this- that I don’t even say what I want, I just shove the cube with the card in front of her face so she is forced to look at it.

            I’m hoping that I won’t have to hold Stella’s head so she can’t look away, but she seems like she’s entranced in the video.

            As soon as I think this, I see a change in Estella’s eyes. I’m not sure how to describe it but, I guess, it’s like she became aware. She didn’t have that detached look anymore, she didn’t look like she wasn’t really comprehending what she saw. If I could guess, I’d say it was like waking up, and realizing that the dream you were having really wasn’t a dream, that you were really awake the whole time.

            And then there were tears in her eyes, and suddenly she was sobbing and crying and I could tell she was afraid. Dropping the cube, I wrap my arms around her small body, and in this moment, I don’t care about anything else. Nothing else matters because I have my little sister back.

~*~

            Estella and I spent the rest of the day together. We didn’t even bother to do our homework. Homework was way, and I mean way down on our list of important things to do right now. Instead of working, we spent most of the time sitting in the living room and just talking. It began with how Estella got brainwashed and then from there is progressed to pointless talk.

            “So I left to go to the nurse’s office, and the whole way I was thinking how strange it was. When I get there, the nurse asks me to wait in this one room that’s connected to hers. So I get in there, she closes the door and I wait. That’s when I heard the sound.” At this point I can tell that she’s reliving her fear because of how she’s fidgeting so much. “It was a click and this hissing sound. I look around and there’s all this smoke coming into the room! It smelled horrible and my throat started itching. I began to cough. Then I started banging on the door screaming for help.”