The Fade

Chapter 4

                      "Stop struggling or this will hurt even worse!" The women in white coats held me down, digging their pasty gloved fingers into my skin. I flailed, hitting one woman in the face and another in the throat. I attempted to scream, but like always, it came out a deep groan. They thought I was insane when they were the ones who'd done this to me in the first place. They had isolated, tortured, poisoned me, and now it was my fault. Little did they know, I had heard everything. Now, all I needed to do was escape and leak all their secrets. But how?

                       The doors slid open and he walked in. His brown boots clicked on the white floor, causing an echo to bounce through the pristine room. "Well, well, well. Look who decided to stay." He held a tube of blood in his hand.

                      I tried to speak, making nothing but weird moans. With everything in me, I forced my lips to form words. "If it were my choice, I would have been long gone." I panted from the effort.

                   "Would you, though?" He circled me like a hawk. "Seems that someone still has, shall we say, feelings." He glanced at me with eyes like daggers. Betrayal, and he knew it.

                     "I trusted-" Perspiration beaded on my brow. "I trusted you."

                     "And that, my dear, is why you fell. Trust is weakness, hope is weakness. . . love is a weakness." There, right there, I was sure I'd seen regret in his eyes, lurking behind the cage he kept his soul hidden in.

                     His words broke me once again. I should've known better than to let him get to me. But here we were, strangers with a past. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. My back ached and it felt lumpy, as if something protruded from it.

                   "Ah, I almost have pity for such a weak, hopeless, pathetic, forgotten little girl. It was almost too easy getting you to fall for me." He smiled wickedly and shook his head, his molasses hair shining in the lamplight. "No one will ever find you now."

                   "Aaron, I know you fell for me, too. Whether you like it or not, you care for me. If you didn't, regret wouldn't be stabbing you in the back." I spat. My throat hurt and so did my head.

                   Aaron fought back the fact that I had pierced him. I didn't want him to know that I would take him back. I hated the forgiveness that I held in my heart for him. No matter how much I missed him, no matter how much I wanted him, I wouldn't fall back into that pit of betrayal. He was so handsome, his big blue eyes and brown hair, strong jaw, and built physique. I wanted to resent him so badly, to replace everything I had loved about him with anger. But it was no use. My only weapon was to use his love for me against him. "I know you wanted me, and you still do. But you're scared. They threatened you." Every word hurt my lungs.

                    Aaron was crushed. Each word dug even deeper. "Do it." He handed a vial of blood to a woman in a white coat.

                    As the detestable glass tube was brought closer, I realized it wasn't blood. It was as black as night, sloshing with every movement. I had seen the liquid many times before. Every week, they would inject a new tube. The serum was painful and loud. I don't know how to explain it, but every time they forced it into my veins, I could hear it. A loud, rushing, piercing sound flooded my head. Before I had time to think, a needle was thrust into my arm, making me wince. I watched as the black liquid was injected into my arm. It was so thick that I could literally feel it coursing through my veins.

                    I started to whimper when Aaron knelt beside the bed. His thick eyelashes attempted to hide his crushed soul. A single tear landed on my hand. "I promise, this will help." His voice broke, just like it had all those nights he'd spent crying on my shoulder.