Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 17: Pain

The pain radiated through my body, I felt hot and cold at the same time. It was as if my body had been cleaved into two. The screams of Amanda and Rachel still rung through the large, rather empty, warehouse. Minus the remaining specimens of course. Mitchell had Amanda by the neck, Rachel was holding me, my head in her lap. And as I looked into Mitchell's eyes, I saw the fear, and the sadness. He said something, but it never reached my ears. His head shook from left to right, as if it was my fault his finger squeezed the trigger. I looked to Amanda as she was suddenly being dragged by Mitchell to leave, her eyes emitted terror and defeat. Mitchell aiming the gun still at Rachel as he retreated. Finally, my eyes landed on Rachel, blood smeared her face as my hand slowly fell back to my retreating soul, trying to hold it in.

Rachel's tears slapped my face, drenching me in my final moments before I got to pay for my sins. My stupidity landed me here, my mistakes. And the betrayal lit something in me, it angered me to hold on long enough to see the end. The end of all of this, this mess that we both started. Sirens began to blare in the distance. I guess that Mitchell called them as he dragged Amanda out the door and into whatever getaway vehicle he chose.

*******

I knew where he was going, Amanda was probably fighting him the whole way there. At least I hope she fought him, screaming at him to let her go. She was nothing but a pawn, a catalyst for this "science experiment" that led to our ensnarement into this mess and the countless other peoples' involvement. I held onto the betrayal, the feeling that I had been unable to not only save Amanda from this disaster, but that I also couldn't save Rachel. Mitchell was going to the one place he thought that he was safe, the warehouse that I just came from. It made perfect sense that he would double back to the only other place that we did work. How he kept Amanda quiet while Rachel and I were downstairs, I would love to know. Or did he get her to cooperate with him?

My mind was wondering, using the beeps as a reminder that I was still alive to be able to see this to the end, or at least listen. The darkness enveloped me, cocooning me in its warmth, yet I felt the coldness of the sterile room. I felt hands all around me, but my eyes would not open.

*******

Amanda sat with her eyes closed, hoping for her years long nightmare to end. She knew that Park would be out there looking for her, and if he hadn't begun, he would soon. Although she had been in a drug induced coma for some time, she still knew Park's proclivities. How he seemed to be so incredibly charming and sweet when they met; his demeaner and brilliance drew her into the flames that consumed him. She loved him, his shyness, yet his determination to make sure that she saw him. As the tears slipped down her cheeks, she realized her mistake in getting involved with a man like Alec, and subsequently a man like Mitchell. She had recognized him from before, but it wasn't till her awakening that she fully understood just who Mitchell was. Now she sat with her back and legs duct taped to the chair, her mouth gagged luckily with a clean rag. She couldn't decide whose prison was worse, but she knew that it wouldn't be much longer before she found out.

The darkness of her room blinded her to any objects that could have helped her escape. She needed, wanted, to get back to her sister and the man that had tried to help her. She knew that he was a part of this too, but he seemed to want to help her remove herself from this nightmare. Not to mention, as she listened, he seemed genuinely sincere when he spoke of his involvement. Her cancer's reappearance had started Alec's change, that, and the emergence of that boy in the horrific car accident. She didn't understand how she fit in with the boy, but she did now. She thought he, Alec, seemed too interested in the boy but brushed it off as her imagination. It wasn't until Mitchell explained to her that it was that boy who started their work after the many months of dealing with the disease that wiped out those with type-0 blood. She thought to herself that deep down she knew Alec was up to something with that boy, but back then she was blinded by her infatuation with Alec. She knew now that it was never love, it just saved her from her previous relationship and her bouts with death. How could she have missed out on the warning signs?