The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Fourteen: Alia

With a terrified scream and a heaving breath my world exploded into color. I looked around quickly, trying to take in my surroundings. What was going on? Where was I? Then I saw him, sitting right beside me. My brother who I hadn’t been able to save.

“Alec? You...You’re dead.” Everything came crashing into my mind at once. The battle on the hills, fighting to protect Megan and Sabin, watching my friends die. Everything that happened before Alec died, fighting the konna, the sniper, my shockwave. None of it made a difference.

“Everyone is dead.” My voice was thick as I tried to hold back the tears. “I couldn’t save them.”

The tears were choking me, but I couldn’t be sad, self-pity wasn’t what I needed.

“You died! You… you were shot! And I...” the words ripped out of me. “I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t save anyone!” I felt the shame burning inside as I yelled, “I was too weak to save them!”

My brother just stared at me. I scoffed, he probably realized how repulsive I was, how disgustingly weak and selfish I was.

“I wished for death,” I met his eyes, felt the fire in mine reflected back off of his, as my voice lowered to a whisper. “When I saw you laying there I wanted to die too.”

I closed my eyes and saw the vision of him lying there again, two holes in his chest and lifeless eyes staring at nothing. “But at the same time, I knew I didn’t deserve it.” I opened my eyes back up and he was looking at me with something like pity written in his expression. “I deserved to live with the guilt and pain. The failure. It was my reward.”

I could hear the anger, and bitterness, white hot in my voice, burning my throat as they made their way out, “My pat on the back for what a great job I’d done.”

He still had the same look on his face, and still had said nothing. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Did he hate me? He must hate me, to not say anything. I had to try and make it right. I had to.

“I failed you, Alec.” I hung my head and stopped fighting the constricting sobs I’d been holding in. “I… I deserve every miserable second of life that I have left.”

I picked my head back up, and tried to see through the blur of tears into his eyes. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

Still he said nothing. I turned back to face forward, letting the tears obscure my vision, letting the pain erase every thought in my head.

I heard a choking sound beside me and then, “Alia.” He said my name and I steeled myself. Here it comes. You deserve it.

“You’re not, I’m not...” He was stumbling over his words, but I stared ahead, bracing myself for his judgment.

He paused for a second, then when he spoke his voice was soft, but firm. “Alia, listen to me.”

Dread seeped into my bones. He was going to tell me everything I had done wrong. He was going to criticize everything. My brother… my last shred of support. I was about to lose that.

“You do not deserve this. I am not dead.” What was he talking about? Of course I deserved this, I looked over to tell him so, but he kept going.

“Listen to me. I need you to trust me, okay? It’s very important.” Why was he acting like this? Why wasn’t he angry at me?

“None of what you think just happened is real. I am not dead. We are in a konna facility, we’ve been captured.” He was talking faster now, and kept glancing at the door like he thought someone was about to barge in. “Just… I need you to trust me and do exactly what I say, okay?” Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

My head was pounding, I had no clue what he was talking about, but I nodded.

“There is a girl here who can get into your head and put images and experiences into your mind that are not real.” I shook my head, the pounding was making it hard to listen. “Alia, I need you to remember. Remember why we’re here.”

Remember what? I remembered him dying. I remembered Sabin and Megan dying. What else was there to remember?

“I’m trying, but I… there’s nothing there.” I searched my brain, trying desperately to find something. “We were fighting and everyone… everyone died. That wasn’t real?”

“No.” A slight grin started to form on his face as he bore his eyes into mine, trying to communicate something to mine. “Try Alia, please try and remember. We are on a mission with Sabin and Megan. You and I had just switched watch duty for the night when you sensed an energy surge near our camp. I came with you to investigate. We fought with some of the konna and got captured.”

“Megan and Sabin? A mission?” I asked hesitantly. Memories started to stir in my mind. Slowly I started to piece together some of what had happened. “I… I think remember.”

Alec let out a huge breath of relief. “Thank the Creator,” he said.

I heard the faint sound of footsteps and saw Alec tense up, panic rising in his eyes. He spoke urgently.

“There is a woman who will be back soon and she’s going to do the same thing to me that she just did to you. When she does I need you to sit there and be quiet. It’s going to look like she’s hurting me, and I might say some things that don’t make sense, but I need you to just not do anything, okay?”

“Okay, Alec.” I said reluctantly and glanced at the door. I wish I could remember what was happening. “I trust you.”

He let a tight smile onto his face that quickly vanished as the door in front of us slammed open and let in a severe looking short blonde woman. Her arm was in a sling, and her face was drawn into tight lines. Immediately a feeling of anger started deep in my stomach and worked it’s way up. I didn’t know who she was, but I immediately knew that she wasn’t one of the good guys. She glanced at me with a look of disgust and contempt, and then walked to stand in front of Alec. She was only slightly taller than him, even though he was sitting in a chair. I watched as she leaned down and put her mouth close to his ear and whispered,

“Let’s get started shall we?” Chills ran up my arms at the tone of her voice. She placed her un-slinged hand alongside his face, and slid her eyes shut.

“Alec,” my voice was wary, “what is she doing?” He didn’t answer, his eyes were clamped shut and his body was rigid. I saw sweat break out all over him, and then he spasmed.

“Stop it!” I screamed. “Stop! You’re hurting him!”

She didn’t move, and Alec spasmed again, sweat was pouring down his face.

“What the hell are you doing to him?!” I screamed louder.

“Shut up,” one of the guys at the door growled.

“Make me,” I spat back. I didn’t know what was going on, since not all of my memories had made it back to me, but I knew for certain we had to get out of here. Alec obviously wasn’t dead, and this woman was hurting him. I had to do something, and if I could get this guard close enough, I might be able to knock him over and somehow get one of his weapons.

Yeah great plan, Alia. That’s totally going to work.

Shut up, it’s not like there’s anything else I can do.

Stupid inner voice.

Alec was full on seizuring in his chair now, but the blonde kept her grip on him.

“Get the hell off him!” I yelled, spit flying from my mouth and hopefully onto her.

In my peripheral I saw the guy take a step forward. It was working. I started rocking my chair. If I could tip it in the direction of the blonde then maybe I could knock her over and get her hand off of him.

“Hey,” the guard, who I decided should be called Big Stupid shouted. “Knock it off!”

I ignored him and kept rocking. Almost there, just a little bit further.

B-S ran over behind and slammed his hands down on my chair, and as soon as he did I slammed my body back as hard as I could, causing the chair (with me in it) it land on him. I heard his head crack against the floor and his breath leave him in a whoosh. I paused for a second, and when his didn’t move I jerked to the right, rolling my chair off of him and onto my side. The blonde still hadn’t moved, she must have been pretty deep in Alec’s head to not have noticed that. I looked over at the now unconscious B-S. My hands were strapped down, but I could still wiggle my fingers.

Damn, I wish I could use my powers.

His knife was six inches away from my right hand, which was the one closest to the ground. I jerked my body around, scooting closer to the knife until I could touch it with my fingertips.

“Come on,” I ground out, straining to try and grip the knife. “Just a little,” my tongue stuck out in concentration, “bit closer.”

“Yes!” I whooped. At that same moment a force equal to that of something very large slammed into my mind and memories burst through the floodgates. Suddenly my mind cleared and I remembered where we were and why we were here. And with those memories came a feeling of dread, this wasn’t a good situation, but it was still something that we could bust out of, if I could just get Alec out of the blonde’s hands.

No time to dwell on that though. The knife was gripped in my right hand. I flipped it around and started sawing through the leather that was restraining my hand. I’d made it halfway through when blondie decided to open her eyes. Her hand remained on Alec’s face, but her eyes widened when she saw me sawing through my restraint and B-S unconscious on the floor beside me.

“What?” She looked bewildered, and then glared at me as she shouted, “Lettner get in here!”

Reinforcements, wonderful.

I sawed faster as the blonde glared at me, but she didn’t move.

Just a little bit more-

“HA!” I shouted, just as the door slammed open and the guy named Lettner screamed, “What?!”

He looked wildly around the room as he saw the situation. He quickly narrowed his eyes and me and B-S, but just as quickly I moved the knife to B-S’s neck.

“You make one move, try anything, and he’s as good as dead.” I glared at him and made my tone as menacing as a person lying sideways with three restrained limbs could. Which apparently was pretty menacing, because he didn’t move a muscle.

“What are you doing?!” The blonde yelled at him. “She won’t kill him you idiot! Restrain her!”

I pressed the knife tighter to B-S’s throat, drawing a thin line of blood. “I wouldn’t bet on that Blondie.”

I looked back over to Lettner and said, “Do you really want your friend to die just because she’s afraid of me?” He hesitated, and I plowed on, “If you undo my restraints I’ll let you take B-S and you two can go.”

He furrowed his brow. “B-S? His name is Cayne.”

I rolled my eyes. This guy was an idiot. “”B-S, Cayne, whatever! Undo my restraints or he’s going to die!”

His eyes darted back and forth between Blondie and me.

“Don’t you dare, Lettner.” She said lowly.

“You won’t kill him,” his voice was hesitant. “You won’t,” he said more strongly, “You’re a Sankrin, not one of us.” He sneered at me, “You value life, so you won’t kill him.”

Well damn. There goes that plan.

Underneath me B-S started moving, and then groaned and moved some more. This was about to get messy.

“Well, you see here is your first mistake. You think that because I’m a Sankrin that I value life.” I grinned up at Lettner as his face started morphing into one of confusion. “Which is mostly correct. But,” I paused, making him really listen to me, “You know whose lives I value above all else? My family,” I pointed one of my restrained fingers towards Alec, then said slowly, “and my friends.”

“And which category does our boy B-S fall into?” His face dissolved into panic. “Neither!” I yelled.

I flipped my chair so that I was now on top of B-S, whose eyes had just opened.

“Sorry, B-S.” Then I stabbed him in the leg and rolled off the other side and into the blonde.

B-S screamed and the blonde screamed and I screamed and the whole room dissolved into chaos. I had the blonde’s good arm pinned under my chair, and B-S was rolling around on the ground yelling. Lettner however, had just ran back out into the hall and I could hear him screaming for back up. We need to get out of here now. I remembered the sedatives that they’d put into our systems, but they had to be close to wearing off by now. Right? I squeezed my eyes shut and focused every single fiber of my body on the clasp on Alec’s hands. I pictured myself inside the mechanism, switching the levers and moving the gears until it popped open.

Come on you stupid things, open already.

Every muscle was straining, all my energy being focused on the locks, trying to trigger my powers into working.

Dammit, come on and work. It’s just some stupid sedative. You’re stronger than that.

I grit my teeth and let out a yell and a wave of raw, unadulterated, reassuringly familiar energy ripped through my body. Not only did Alec’s restrains open, but mine did too, and pretty much everything in the room smacked against the walls except for me, blondie who was pinned under my chair, and Alec, whose chair was now tipped over and facing blondie with him still unconscious, but unrestrained, in it. I collapsed face down and curled in on myself as the pain invaded my body with the force of a tidal wave.

Way to go Alia, you burnt away all the sedative, which was the only thing keeping you from feeling all this.

It was like my whole body was being attacked at once. I felt like I had red hot iron brands being pressed all over me, it hurt to breathe, my left wrist wouldn’t move, and my face was pounding with pressure of the swelling I’d forgotten was there.

“No, NO! Alia!!” Alec screamed, his face contorting into a look of pain that was kind of screwed up because half of it was smooshed against the floor.

“Alec!” I ground out, I didn’t know if he was still under her influence or not.

“Als...” He started crying, tears leaking down his cheeks and onto the floor “Don’t leave me. Please, please, don’t go!”

She was still in his head.

“Alec,” louder this time, “Listen to me!”

His sobs grew louder, I could practically feel his body shaking and shuddering, chest collapsing in with every gasping breath. He needed to be woken up.

“Alec Lachlan Parker, wake your sorry ass up RIGHT NOW!” I was breathing hard, the strain on my lungs and ribs setting my chest on fire.

His eyes flew open and he gasped, “Wha… What is she doing here?” He quickly scrambled up into a sitting position, moving away from blondie’s face. “Why...” he looked around quickly and then saw me

With a quiet voice he said, “Alia? What’s going on? What happened?”

I turned my head slowly towards him, “What do you remember?”

“You... you died,” his voice was soaked with misery, the pain written in his eyes broke my heart. Then his eyebrows scrunched, like they always did when he was thinking. “Wait, no. No that’s not right. That was fake.” He paused, meeting my eyes with an unsure gaze. “Right?”

I let out a relieved laugh. “Welcome back little brother. We don’t have time to rehash everything, but I need you to just trust me, ok?”

I repeated to him a condensed version of what he’d said to me after I’d woken up.Turning back to face the door to check for Lettner and his backup, I couldn’t see Alec, but I felt him nodding slowly,

“Okay, but do you know about...”

I cut him off as I heard the faint sound of voices.

“Later,” I said. “Right now, we need to get out of here.”

I grunted as I pushed myself up to one knee, standing shakily and made my way over to Alec. Blondie and B-S were still unconscious, but it couldn’t be long before the backup got here.

“Come on,” I reached down and grabbed his hand, helping him get up, “we’ve got to go.”

He stood up with much more ease than I did.

Good. And as long as he knew who the konna were he’d be in better shape than I was to get us out of here. I pushed the door open slowly, wincing as the bright light from the hallway hit my eyes. It was clear, miraculously, or maybe just luckily, but the sound of voices was still present

I turned my head back and put a finger to my lips, then pointed it to the right, which was the direction we’d be escaping in.

We moved down the hall as fast as we could, but I was going slower than Alec was, having to lean my good hand on the wall to help me along.

“Give me your arm,” Alec whispered quickly.

“I’m fine,” I said back harshly.

Alec rolled his eyes at me and took my arm, swung it over his shoulder, and we took off.

A few turns later and I finally heard voices echoing behind us.

“Where are they!”

“What happened here??”

Alec and I exchanged looks, then went off in the direction we’d been headed, only a lot faster this time.

I heard footsteps pounding, not right behind us, but closing in.

“Split up!” A deep voice boomed. Tyrone. “They can’t have gotten far!”

Fantastic. An exit would be good at anytime now!

Alec and I both tried to quiet our labored breathing, which was a struggle, since we were now practically sprinting and both sporting our own small army’s worth of injuries.

We tore down another hall, changing direction as fast as we could. Then as we swung left around a corner we suddenly weren’t alone. Standing at the end of the hall, were Tyrone, Cayne, and Daphne.

In the split second it took us to see each other Tyrone had started forward, and I’d yanked on Alecs arm and spun us around to head back the way we’d came.

“Brittany, we’ve found them!” Daphne yelled behind us, followed quickly by a growled out, “You idiot!”

Alec stumbled and when I looked up he had an anxious look scrawled across his face... he was thinking again. I didn’t have time to think about what that meant though, all my energy was being focused on not being recaptured. However, it would seem, continuing with tradition, we have potentially the worst luck in the entire universe. And by potentially I mean definitely.

Standing at the end of the hall was queen blondie in the flesh, looking highly pissed and armed with a gun.

“Stop or I’ll shoot!” She shouted down at us.

“Go ahead and try!” I shouted back. She couldn’t touch us now that I had my powers back.

“Brazenly rash, headstrong, arrogant, tendency to disregard orders…this is what your file states of you, Alia Parker.” She smirked at me, her eyes icy cold burning into the fire of my own. “Today those characteristics that you’re so proud of will be your downfall.” I watched, tense, as her eyes slid to gaze at something behind my shoulder. That was her first mistake.

I quickly grabbed Alec and slammed open the door next to us, shooting both of us into the empty room. With a thought the door slammed back shut and a metal cabinet taller than Alec flew to barricade it.

“Okay,” Alec said, panting, “so now that you’ve trapped us in here…”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m trying to get us out of here.”

There was pounding on the door, I remembered B-S and his freaking super strength and threw a few more things over to the door. It wouldn’t last long against him.

I stood and looked quickly around the room, there were no windows, no vents, nothing. Even the walls were reinforced with steel, meaning that even if Alec’s powers were working, he wouldn’t be able to break us out of here. I let loose a string of curse words and Alec raised an eyebrow at me.

“So it looks to me,” he said, sounding entirely too unconcerned about the situation we were in, “like there is no way out of this tiny room.” He gestured around to the said tiny room, “which means we’re going to have to fight our way out.”

I huffed, blowing some of my hair out of my eyes, “Thank you so much for that insight, however, the teensy flaw in your plan is that I’m the only one here with powers and there’s at least four of them out there with back up close behind.”

“Ah yeah about that... there’s something you need to know.” He looked up at me, wincing as a loud ripping sound came from the door.

“You can tell me later, ok?” I said back tersely and then threw everything else in the room at the door, hoping to buy us a little more time. Then turned and put my hands on my hips.

“Listen I’m only going to say this once, I’ve just been tortured for hours so I’m not exactly at 100% right now, okay?” When he quirked his eyebrow at me, I rolled my eyes at him. “I mean if I was they wouldn’t stand a chance, but right now I would need help, and you are currently useless…so any bright ideas before I martyr myself trying to save our sorry asses?”

“I don’t know about bright ideas, but…” He grinned at me and twirled his fingers, and a flame appeared out of them, making shadows dance across the tiny rooms walls, “is this bright enough for you?”

I punched him in the shoulder and glared. “You could have said something sooner!”

The door was now partially open, letting light into the room.

I felt the adrenaline dump into my system, erasing the pain and replacing it with an unbearable itch to move.

“It’ll be a fair fight now,” I grinned wickedly at the door, now halfway open and opening wider with every grunting punch that B-S nailed it with.

“Maybe not so fair for them,” Alec smirked as the door opened and he and I struck as one, hitting Cayne with wind and force so hard that as soon as his body made contact with the wall behind him he was unconscious.

We held our position right inside the doorway, forcing the konna to come in a few at a time. We burned through their back up, using our powers, slamming them against walls, resorting to hand to hand on the rare occasion that someone got through. They just kept coming until finally, they stopped. The blonde appeared in the doorway and without hesitation Alec and I both struck at her, but she did not move.

“I really didn’t want to have to resort to this again,” she shook her head, “not for your sake, but for Tyrone’s. It really does tire him out.” Before the words had finished leaving her mouth she stepped to the side and Tyrone pounced in, palms faced towards us.

“Hold your brea-” I shouted as the black fog of his power surrounded us. Blindly stumbling I reached for Alec and grabbed his shirt. I dragged us towards the door, shirt pulled over my nose.

A couple steps, come on.

The edges of my thoughts were growing fuzzy when a hand reached into the darkness and grabbed mine. I immediately pushed back, trying to throw the person away from us, but the hand stayed where it was, my wrist held painfully between its fingers. A hand had to be connected to a body though, right? I kicked my right leg out low, dropping to the ground, hoping to knock the person over. No such luck, of course. I was yanked back up, and suddenly out into the hallway, Alec in tow.

It was Tyrone who had a hold of me, and the last thing I remember seeing was his fist, wreathed in the color of a moonless sky, sailing towards my face.

I jerked awake, not knowing where I was or what was going on. As my eyes adjusted to the lighting what I saw brought everything rushing back in. Tyrone was standing in front of me, and I was lying flat on my back, the electric restraints once again encircling my body, in the same room I’d been in before they moved us. I rolled my eyes.

“What, didn’t want to put me in a chair again?”

Tyrone’s face was a barren landscape, cold, harsh, and unfeeling.

“We know better than to make the same mistake twice.” His voice was clipped and emotionless.

I moved my head as much as I could without frying my forehead, again.

“So what’s the plan now big guy? More torture? A party? Letting me go would be great, then I could finally give you the proper ass-kicking you deserve.”

He grunted and walked over to stand right beside me, close enough to where I could feel the cold that his body radiated. Weird.

“Do you know who Megan O’Carroll is?” He said mysteriously.

“Never heard of her.” A lie, of course, but I wasn’t about to let him know that. What was he getting at anyway?

He shook his head. “Wrong answer.” He took a few steps over to panel on the wall and I had a split second to think

Oh sh-

And I was burning again. I combated desperately with the pain, searching for something, anything in my mind that would make the pain stop.

Unbridled, a memory shoved forward and I grabbed at it like a lifeline in a storm.

I saw Megan and Alec sitting together on a bench at Edil, out on the central quad, they were laughing and talking and Alec had his arm slung around Megan’s shoulder and a look in his eyes that I’d never seen before.

What the hell? I thought. This had never happened… had it?

“Hey Als, think fast!” I jerked my head around, on alert, only to see myself a few feet away, laughing as I sprinted to catch the denai ball that Sabin had thrown.

“My reflexes are better than yours will ever be, Raider!” Memory me yelled as I jumped and did a somersault, catching the ball midair.

“Show-off!” Alec cupped a hand around his mouth and shouted from the bench.

I had a hand cocked on my hip and smirked over at Alec, “Oh yeah, baby brother? I’d like to see you do better!”

“It would be my pleasure!” He stood up and then leaned down to give Megan a peck on the cheek, saying: “I’ll just be a sec, I’ve got to go embarrass my sister.”

Megan grinned up at him. “Like I’d expect anything less.”

“Come on,” Memory-me complained. She (me? ugh nevermind) raised her eyebrows as she looked at Megan. Behind her, Sabin mimicked gagging until Alec whacked him in the back of the head. “Seriously Megan, what do you see in him?”

Megan just threw her head back and laughed while Alec ran towards memory-me at full speed, arms open wide.

“Come on, Als! Give me a hug!”

Memory-me laughed at him and then turned to take off sprinting down the field only to be knocked onto the grass by a very muscular, unmoving, annoying, Sabin Raider.

Suddenly, I felt my perspective change so that I was in the same position as memory-me. I realized with a start I was actually her.

“Ugh,” I didn’t move, except to crack my eyes open at Sabin. “Really? Was that really necessary?”

He shot a sly grin down at me, then let out a dramatic sigh, “That’s what you get for being a showoff, Al’s.”

I dropped my head back onto the ground and let out a breath. Alec was bent over double laughing at me. I narrowed my eyes at him and then looked back to Sabin. “You’re just bitter because I do things prettier than you do.”

“Whatever you say,” he laughed and reached a hand down. “Come on, this game isn’t over yet.”

I reached a hand up and said “Damn right it’s not,” and then pulled his hand down as hard as I could while rolling forwards towards his knees. He toppled onto the ground with a very unflattering, “UNGH!” I moved to stand up only to find my feet being knocked back out from under me, which resulted in my landing on top of Sabin.

“Geez Parker, if you wanted to get close to me all you had to do was ask!” He winked while obviously trying to hold in his laughter.

I winked back, “Only in your dreams, Raider.”

The memory snapped away from me, suddenly unreachable. It left a hollow spot in my mind, but the burning was gone.

I was confused though. What I’d just seen had definitely been a memory, but I couldn’t remember anything like that happening to me. Alec and I hadn’t known each other during our time at Edil, and Sabin and I had had a strict, professional relationship at best.

Tyrone’s voice snapped me into reality. I smelled my own burnt skin and resisted the urge to gag, fighting the waves of nausea and pain that were washing over me.

“You know Megan O’Carroll.” He said stoically.

“Who is Meg...”

I stopped talking as images flashed across a screen in front of me.

Megan and I walking together across the academy. Us laughing over dinner at a restaurant. Her, Sabin, Alec, and I all playing denai together in the commons field. Her watching with a serious expression from the balcony of the sparring arena as I sparred against my instructor.

“You know Megan O’Carroll.” He repeated himself. A statement, not a question.

All these images were of us, but I couldn’t remember a single one of them.

I stared at Tyrone and didn’t answer. He must have taken that as his cue to start talking again.

“Since it has already been decided that you will not be making it out of here alive,” he paused, then stepped closer, “our leader has elected to tell you some very sensitive information.”

“Are you really sure about that? Because I’m dead set on living, so this might be a bad idea for you.”

His face remained a wall as he turned back towards the screen and clicked a button on a remote I hadn’t noticed he was holding.

Three faces popped, up side by side. The first one on the left was the blonde asshole who’d decided to use and abuse Alec and myself, then...... I blinked in shock .Zig's picture was ’s picture was the middle and Megan's was on the right.

“What the hell is that supposed to be?” I spat.

“This is your friend,” he touched his finger to the screen, “Megan O’Carroll. This,” he moved his finger to the left, “is her brother Zig O’Carroll. And this is their-”

“No.” Disbelief and a forgotten memory made my voice quiet.

He continued on, “-older sister, Brittany O’Carroll.”

I grit my teeth together. “No.”

“Your dear friend Megan, is half konna. Her sister is one of our leaders. Megan never told you.”

For the first time emotion leaks into his voice. Malice, smugness, and something else that made me want to put him through everything he’d put me through a hundred times over. “How does it feel?” he asked. “How does it feel to be betrayed by someone who you thought to be one of your closest friends?”

My hands started shaking, then my arms and legs, and then my whole body, until I was trembling with rage and saw red.

“Megan didn’t...” I choked on the words as they came out of my mouth, “Megan didn’t betray me.”

Tyrone smirked and shook his head.

I screamed, “Megan O’Carroll is not a traitor!”

“Not yet, anyways.” Tyrone smirked down at me. “Oh and has she told you about her powers?” He let out one harsh grating laugh. “They run in the family.”

My body was acting out of my control, the shaking bad enough to make me hit against my restraints and hear the sizzle of my already charred skin. I didn’t care, I could no longer feel it.

My voice was low, menacing, and murderous when I spoke. “My friend is not a traitor. She will never be a traitor. And you,” I glared up at him, fire blazing in my eyes, “you will always be on the losing side. And I will see to it personally that you end up exactly where you belong.”

I closed my eyes and focused all my energy, like I had earlier, on my restrained, on the circuits that powered them. I was willing my powers to come back, to fight of the sedative.

“Not so fast, Parker.” My eyes flew open only to see a syringe filled with a black liquid descending towards my neck. “You can’t use the same trick twice.”

I jerked my neck around trying and failing to evade the needle.

“I will kill you.” I spat as the plunger entered my neck. “Megan is not a traitor. And I. Will. Kill. You.” The room started tunneling into blackness, but I kept my eyes fixed on Tyrone’s face. “You’re a liar.” I could feel myself slipping, but I kept talking, “You’re a liar, and Megan isn’t,” my sight was now pulsing with black spots, “my friend isn’t a… a traitor.” As the words left my lips and I slipped down into my own mind only one thing echoed down with me. Megan isn’t a traitor. Megan isn’t a traitor. Megan isn’t a traitor.

And I hoped with every fiber of my being I was right.

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