Trapped | The Trapped Trilogy Book 1

Fifteen (Part 1)

Fifteen (Part 1)

He wouldn't let me bring him with me. He said it was too risky if he went, so he told me to just come back for him when I got out. If I got out.

I sneak around the hallways, trying to be quiet, which is easier to do with bare feet than with shoes on, I realize. There aren't as many guards at nighttime, it seems, considering I've only come across two and neither of them noticed me. Meanwhile, the purple on my hand has spread. Not a lot, but a little bit to where it starts to worry me. Why am I just now starting to notice this? I hope it's not deadly or anything...

I reach the area of the people that want to fight. No guards are around to stop me from entering the space. I think it's probably because everyone can hold their own. They're probably taught to fight and how to protect themselves. I mean, that's what I would do if I was running a rebellion—I would make sure that everyone knows how to take care of themselves and each other.

I shake my head. I'm not running a rebellion, and I never will be. No matter how much my mother pushes me, no matter how many people she sends after me, it's just not going to happen. It's not who I am.

I walk by a room with a glass window. It's the length of the wall, but only half as wide.

I peer in and see someone punching a long cylindrical bag hanging from the ceiling. His groans and grunts as he hits it are muffled from the glass barrier that stands in between us.

Peter.

I open the door to the left of the window, and walk in. He turns around to the sound of the metal scraping on the floor, his body rigid. Slowly, the tension leaves his body and the fire burning in his eyes softens as I walk toward him. I stop in the center of the room, trying to control my breathing. The last time we talked, I shouted at him, I acted like he was a complete stranger...

I hear him whisper my name before he strides toward me and wraps me in a hug. I stand still, my body aching and my heart beating hard against my ribcage. Guilt twists in my stomach and leaps into my eyes in the form of water. I want to tell him I'm sorry, that I didn't mean it back there, that I was hurting, I was scared... But instead I stay silent and feel his arms around me.

He pulls away, holding me at arms length.

"Are you okay? What happened? How'd you get away from Rebecca? Did they hurt you?"

I wipe some of his sweat off of my neck and my arms and cross my arms in front of my chest.

"They had me in a Simulation Sphere."

"I know. Been there, done that... Are you okay?"

I nod and pucker my lips, not knowing how to really tell him about its state. "I broke it."

"What?" He laughs, awestruck. "You broke the simulation?"

I shake my head and look down, backing up a little.

His arms drop to his sides.

"I broke the sphere."

He thinks I'm a freak, doesn't he? He knows I'm not normal... He hates me now...

Surprisingly, he busts out laughing and looks at me with a smile plastered on his face. It almost takes me off guard.

"At least you're okay," He says, wrapping me in another hug.

He's okay with it... he doesn't care I'm different, that I'm not normal...

He cares about me.

"They're going to kill me..." I choke out, the realization falling upon me like a heavy blanket.

I feel him pull away and he looks at me.

"Come with me. We need to leave."

"It's not that easy," I tell him. "It's never that easy."

"What do you mean?"

I lift my palm up to him, and he looks at it puzzled.

"What happened?"

"I touched the wall."

His eyes grow wide and he grabs my other hand, pulling me behind him.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm taking you to someone."

"Who?"

"Someone who knows what it is."

We show up at the door. The door behind the hologram on the black wall. I pull and tug at my arm, to try and pull it away, but it only leads to Peter wrapping me in a bear hug and dragging me into the room.

My mom wakes from her sleep on her char, and smiles at me.

"So you're back?"

"Not by choice," I spit.

"We need you to see this," Peter says to her, holding out my arm.

"No we don't—let go!" I wriggle and writhe, trying to break free of his grip, but he doesn't budge.

My mom's eyes grow wide as her mouth drops open, and she presses back in her chair. It rolls to the wall and she presses into it as much as she can, as if I had caught fire and she's trying to run from the flames.

"Stay away—stay—stay away!" She shouts, grabbing a knife out of her pocket and aiming it at me. "Keep her away from me!"

"What is it?" Peter yells over her shrill voice.

She keeps her eyes locked on my hand and shakes her head. Peter asks again, more forcefully this time, and she closes her eyes and takes a breath.

"She's becoming one of... them," Her voice is shaky.

"How?"

"The Government made a serum... I don't know from what, or how, or why, but they did. And and they put it in the walls. I don't know why... they just did, quite a while ago... And—and the spikes on the walls cannot penetrate anything but the first layer of skin on someone. They can't go through clothing, shoes, or gloves. The gloves you use for tapping on the panels..." She gulps. "It seeps into the brain and rewires it—"

"I know that part," I say, ripping my hand away from Peter in a huff. "But what else will it do to me?"

Where am I?