Tattooed

XXIII

My mind was spinnning, or maybe it was the room, I couldn't tell. I hadn't seen Wes since that night we ran from the guard. He...he got away, didn't he? He had to, he had been evading guards ever since I met him.

But here he was, on this tiny blinking computer screen in front of him. He was in jail, no worse, prison. The state put him in prison for being in another stratum.

I gripped Corinth's arm tightly and she jumped in surprise. She saw the pained look on my face, then glanced back on the screen. "Cess, do...you know this guy?" I nodded meekly. Her confused face slowly pieced together my situation. "This was the guy all along, the one you could never talk to me about. You were secretly seeing Wes."

I gave her a look. "How..." I thought popped into my head. "Did you know him too?" The girl in front of the computer screen answered for Corinth.

"We all knew him, Wes was one of us. One of the leaders actually. He came here almost every night with intel."

I parted from the huddled group and fell against one of the couches, sliding to the floor. Now the room really did look like it was spinning and I had the urge to throw up. When Corinth said my whole world was about to get a lot more complicated she had no idea. It didn't just get complicated, everything I thought I knew got turned upside down. I tried to take in deep breaths and calmly review everything I just learned.

I was sitting in this secret headquarters, for a secret group that was against our government. Apparently this group knew more scandalous things then I read in my book. My best friend Corinth was a part of this group, so is my boyfriend. More accurately he's one of their leaders. He came here most nights. Did he come after he talked to me and his mom? Was his mom even sick? Was she even in Creative? How much lies did he tell me?

Corinth sat on the ground next to me and squeezed my knee. "It's going to be okay. I know this a whole lot to take in."

I faced her. "Tell me, tell me what our government is really doing. What's so bad that there's a gang of rebels forming?"

Corinth's face turned from soothing to grave. "All the stratums ever wanted was to be a utopia. Perfect. Lately there's been some people that don't comply, and they've been taken away. Families think they're just relocated. But it's worse. Some are thrown into prison to rot, but worse scenario is they're brainwashed. Made into completely new people with no memories of the past."

My mouth opens in horror. "How do you know?"

"Wes' mom is one of them, Cecil. She found out people from Colorless were being oppressed and the government wiped her memory clean. That's why Wes kept coming here, he was trying to help her remember."

My attempt to steady my breathing failed. I could feel my pulse rapidly rising and my chest rose and fell in sync with my heartbeat. Corinth shot up and got a paper bag for me to hyperventilate into. Once my breathing returned to normal and the lightheadedness faded a little I removed the bag from my lips and looked into Corinth's eyes.

"We have to rescue Wes."

Corinth nodded at the rest of the people, still huddled around the computer. In my panic, I forgot they were even here. The bearded man offered his hand to help me up. I took it. He had a firm grip and there was a fire in his eyes as he told me, "Way ahead of you, we're going to break into the prison and get him out ourselves."