Overdose

20. The Executioner

It was a quiet and peaceful morning when the power outage happened. The only sound was Damion and I having an argument.

"You know where she is, don't you?" Damion yelled.

"For the last time, Damion, I have no idea where Xander took Lilith." I said angrily, balling my hands into fists. "Stop acting like Xander and I are best friends."

"I just don't understand how you don't know where she is! Aren't you part of the staff? Don't you know what goes on? If you're hiding what you know then I swear to god-"

The lights above us flickered, and then went out for a moment. The white noise the made disappeared. A strange whirring noise started and stopped. I looked over at the guards. They tried talking into their radios but I could tell by the way they were smacking them with their hands that they clearly weren't working. Damion looked just as confused as I did.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, stunned.

"I'm not sure." The tension in the room diminished, leaving only silence. Suddenly, the white noise and whirring came back, and the lights turned on. The guards said something into their radios, which seemed to be working again.

Damion and I sat down the couches. "Don't think I'm not still mad." He said, but he didn't sound mad. He sounded as confused as he looked.

"I promise you I have no idea where Lilith is. The moment I find out, I'll tell you."

"Thank you." He muttered, not looking at me.

Veronica came in and sat next to Damion, flipping her hair behind her. "Did you guys see that power outage we had?"

"How could we miss it?" Damion asked, like it was a stupid question.

"I wonder what caused it." Veronica said, ignoring his sarcasm.

"I might have an idea." I didn't notice Heath was sitting near us until he spoke. He moved over to where we were sitting and sat next to me. "You guys were arguing before it happened."

"You two were arguing again?" Veronica groaned. "Do you have anything more important to do than argue all the time?"

"Oh, don't you know Veronica? The Executioner's schedule is cleared now that he doesn't have to torture people any more." He put emphasis on the word anymore. I suppose he wanted us to remember that I used to do that.

"Thank you for reminding us, Damion." I turned away from him and looked at Heath. "What do you think caused it?"

"Are any of you around computers a lot?" Heath asked.

"No. I'm mainly around arguing idiots." Veronica whispered under her breath.

"My mother worked in cybersecurity." Damion shrugged. "She had a whole room in the house just filled with computers and stuff."

"Interesting." Heath stood up and brushed himself off. "Please try to keep the yelling to a minimum. Some of us are trying to suffer in silence." He walked away, leaving the rec room. One of the guards watched him while he left, but instead of asking him where he was going like they did to other patients, they just let him walk through and leave.

"Weird kid." Veronica played with her hair, talking to herself.

"I don't think he's weird." I said aloud, not exactly talking to anyone. Damion stayed silent.

"I wish Lilith was here." He muttered. "She'd calm me down."

"I can try to talk to some of the other staff." I offered. Damion finally made eye contact with me. "Maybe Dr. Evelyn knows. Until them, I'm in the dark just like you."

"The second you find out anything, tell me." He stood up. "If I find out you hid anything from me, I won't hold back on you." He turned around and left. I groaned and leaned back into the chair, looking up at the ceiling.

"Can you blame him?" Veronica said, after a long moment of silence.

"What?"
"Can you blame him?" She repeated. "You hurt others. You hurt him. I'd be surprised if anyone still trusted you at this point."

If I didn't have that emotion blocker, I'm sure this would have really hurt me. Was I worried about what people thought about me? Absolutely not. But I'm not Xander. I didn't want people scared of me, walking on eggshells around me. Especially not the people that I was trying to escape with. But while I was in The Facility, I had moments where I wondered if I was still a victim. The lines seemed so blurred.

"I'm going back to my room."

"Wait, Executioner." Veronica stood in front of me, stopping me from going any further. The look on her face softened, as if she was comforting someone. She looked at me with her light green eyes. "You're sure you don't know where Lilith is?"

I felt my eye twitch. Didn't I just have a whole argument about me not knowing where she is? But instead of getting angry, I just felt weird. Everyone thought I was a bad guy. There was a lump in my throat. Was I sad? Was I angry? Was I hurt?

"I'm sure." I said, and walked by her, leaving her standing there alone. The guards at the door opened it.

"Next time someone talks to you like that, you should just hit them." One of the guards said. "You're staff, not like any of these weak people moping around all day."

"I'm clearly not one of them." I replied, and walked to my room.

While I was in The Facility, I had moments where I wondered if I was still a victim. The lines seemed so blurred.