(58 days prior to present day)
The man came back with syringes every other morning. Not much of a talker, he just smiled and gave us our shots. Chuckled like a maniac, but never said much of anything.
Any resistance led to a knife growling at your throat.
My arm was aching after three weeks of this. To be honest, it was already hurting after the first jab in the arm that I was fully conscious for.
And I was tired of it.
I pulled myself closer to the silver wall, away from his touch and he tilted his head curiously at me.
“Resisting? Again? Why, it’s been so long.”
“I have a question.”
He made a low noise in his throat as he looked me over, eyes growing darker.
“And if I answer you? What will you do?”
He smiled at me, in pity, as he stooped to my level, staring directly into my eyes.
“I’ll stop resisting.”
“Oh? But you already did that for a while there.”
“I won’t do it again.”
He laughed and gestured for me to hold out my arm. When I didn’t budge, the smile vanished. The tension and anger in his eyes were instant.
But I was prepared for it.
“What is this stuff? Why only me and my dad?”
I wanted to know what was in that. What could possibly be so important that they’d give it to us every 48 hours? What was it doing…
Slowly, I reached my arm out to him, holding his gaze, trying to send him a message with my silence and actions.
Answer my questions.
Answer it, and this won’t happen again.
He narrowed his eyes for a moment, his gaze piercing as he looked between my arm and my face. Then, in a flash, he snatched my wrist in a grip so tight I winced. Yanking me forward, a small smile started to grow on his face. But it wasn’t one of him being happy. It was evil.
It was dark.
“You’re not getting the same as him.”
What?
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He shoved the needle into my arm and I flinched. I watched as the liquid inside was transferred to me. I couldn’t tell anything by the color or smell. Someone had made it that way on purpose.
I’d been trying to figure this out for days, getting absolutely nowhere.
Twenty-three days to be exact.
“His… is because he’s a twin. Yours, is obviously different.”
Because I’m not a twin.
So, it was likely blocking my dad’s powers… despite him already being unable to use much strength at all because of his injury. It was a precaution, then.
But then, what was mine doing to me? What was it for?
I didn’t have powers.
So, that left me…
“What does mine do?”
He laughed again as he left.
I grimaced, feeling that burning sensation in my arm again. It was weird, and it spread. But, the longer this went on, the less I felt it. It had lasted ten minutes the first time I was fully awake to feel it. Now, it was about three minutes before it faded again.
It was like it was slowly eating away at something inside of me, slowly, hungrily…
It was odd.
I didn’t like it.
But… there wasn’t much of a choice if I wanted to make it out of this alive, if I wanted to see Jane again.
Jane…
I’d heard nothing.
I closed my eyes.
I willed myself to call out to her again.
Jane, please answer me.
Nothing.
I’d never been without her voice for this long in years… whether it be her letters or talking in my head, or phone calls.
That’s maybe what was stranger… like there’s something—
I froze.
Something…
It was a precaution.
They were giving me something on purpose.
Not because I was a twin, but because…
A hand rested lightly on my back, but I didn’t move another inch. I tried to draw in a breath, shaking as I did.
“Are you alright?”
I shook my head.
No.
No, it wasn’t possible.
It couldn’t be possible.
Right?
Something like that was unheard of.
Much like… that telepathy…
She would’ve responded by now. I knew Jane. I’d known her my whole life. She, despite how she acted or seemed to others, was a worrier. Big time. And there wasn’t any way she could be dead.
One – the guy here was keeping us in order to get to her. If she was suddenly gone, there was no way he’d keep us around any longer, yet, here we were, still alive, still waiting. And he had eyes or ears on her somehow, so he would know better than me at the moment, what she was up to.
Two, we were mates. I’d feel it in some way if the connection was broken.
That meant she was still alive.
And that left…
Only one conclusion.
A conclusion I really didn’t like.
It was like my body was suddenly thrust into a freezer. Goosebumps raced up my arms. I started shaking harder, tears welling up in my eyes.
“Lee?”
I turned to meet their gazes, unsure how to say the invisible pains in my heart.
There was no way for us to contact the outside world without our voices in our heads. She’d likely already realized that something happened to me. She’d try to get into contact using that connection we had with our ancestors.
Probably already had.
There was no way she didn’t already know. It’s been days. Weeks…
“It’s wrong… It - it’s all wrong…”
There wasn’t any way for me to get a message to her. To tell her it was a trap…
No. That was taken away from me every 48 hours.
My mom pulled me into a hug, her arms wrapping around me tight, even as her confusion mixed with sadness told me that she had no clue what I was talking about. She just wanted to comfort me. I clutched onto her arm, leaning into her warmth.
But I couldn’t feel it.
Not now.
I still felt cold.
So…
Cold.
I started crying, unable to stop myself from doing so.
There was no way to talk to Jane.
I was out of options.
We… were out of options.
It meant I couldn’t warn her.
It meant I couldn’t save my parents.
Right now, I was helpless to our circumstance and situation. How had it taken this long for me to realize all of this?!
The answer was simple.
Too long.
“I know – I know what he’s been giving me…”
Our connection was severed.
It was disappearing. That was what the burning sensation was.
And as long as I kept taking those shots, one day, it would be gone forever… no chance of returning.
And Jane… Jane was going to get hurt because of this. Because… I couldn’t send a message. She’d come for me and then she’d get… I didn’t want that to happen. That… that shouldn’t ever happen.
I recalled her smiling face in my mind, but the tears only kept coming.
God… Jane…
I sobbed.
My dad, wearing a somber expression, brushed some of those tears aside, cupping my cheek with his hand.
“Your Alpha connection, right?” He whispered, “Cutting it off…”
I scrunched up my face, unable to say any words.
He knew about that stuff?
I nodded.
“It’ll be alright,” he said as he stared over at the wall, getting a distant look in his eyes. “We’ll be alright.”
He said that with an air of confidence in the silence, even as he was still injured, hurting, healing a bit, getting injected… How he managed to be strong in such a dismal situation was beyond me. I didn’t think it could come from years, or even from age.
It was something else.
He never really said many stories from his childhood. He said that he didn’t ever have one. And I knew only a few of the details surrounding it. He’d been born and raised as a prisoner, being the twin he was. He was getting trained to be a soldier by the previous Alpha. He was forced to fight every single day. Then, he escaped, without any of his memories. Eventually, he found my mom, and the memories started coming back to him.
Still…
“Dad… you can’t know that.”
So many things could go wrong. Everything could go wrong. Jane doesn’t know it’s a trap. Who knew if anyone would be able to find us anyway?! It was just one thing after another. Dad being injured… A room we couldn’t leave if we tried…
His eyes searched mine. Whatever he discovered there had him tugging me closer. He pulled me into a half-hug. He sighed.
“I know… I know.”
I closed my eyes. His hand was pressed lightly on my back. Mom took my other side, giving me the other half of the hug that he couldn’t give at the moment. Tears were falling without end, spilling down my face.
Who else was going to get hurt before this was over? Jane? Mom? Me?
I just wanted to be home.
I wanted to see Jane.
I wanted my dad to be alright.
I didn’t want to be in this room anymore…
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