Lex climbs on top of our toilet to loosen the screws on the vent cover. “I’ll go to the morgue. I know the way.”
It’s not a good idea. The last time one of us snuck out solo, Acacia found Eli and took him hostage. But I won’t stop him. Even if I order him to stay, he won’t listen. Lex doesn’t show his emotions outwardly, but fear emanates from every pore in his body. I can smell it. Visiting the morgue is the only way to corroborate Eli’s story. He has to go.
“Be careful,” I say.
Lex nods solemnly before scampering up the wall into the vent and disappearing.
“It’s my fault, Aiden,” Eli whimpers. “I loved her. I really fucking loved her.”
“I know,” I say, stroking his hair while sliding my other hand underneath the mattress.
I fumble around to find a shard of plastic that I’ve fashioned into a blade from a broken lunch tray. I always keep one stashed for special occasions and emergencies. This is one of those times.
“A killer,” Eli mumbles. “I’m a killer.”
I pull out the pillow from underneath his head.
“Bite down on this,” I instruct. “I’m getting that chip out of your neck.”
“Okay,” he says, looking up at me wide-eyed, with no hesitation.
Cutting his implant out without hitting an artery is going to be a challenge, but it’s better than leaving it in there. I won’t let him be used again. He’s better off dead than becoming Acacia’s puppet.
Eli winces when I make the initial cut.
“Don’t move,” I urge. “Stay really fucking still, okay?”
He freezes as I carefully pull back a flap of his skin. Blood spews down his neck, covering my hands. Judging by the volume, I’ve not hit anything important. I scrunch up my nose in concentration and take a deep breath before poking my finger into the hole and grappling for the alien object.
“There,” I declare, finally getting a grip on the metal tube. I yank it out in a flourish, like I’m ripping off a Band-Aid, and hurl it across the cell. “It’s gone.”
Eli cups his neck, nodding dazedly. He holds a blanket against his wound to stem the bleeding. He’s suffered worse injuries than this.
“Lie down,” I say, climbing into bed with him, the same way I did when we were kids.
I wrap my arms around him. He sobs into me, more hysterically this time, and I stroke his back. His tears soak through my shirt, mixing with his blood.
“What’re we gonna do next?” Eli says between sniffles.
As much as I want to tear out Acacia’s throat for what he’s done, I hold in my fury, locking it away in the little box in the back of my brain where I hold all my repressed feelings. They exist as demons, lurking in the shadows of my subconscious, but I can’t face them. Not yet. The others are depending on me to get them out of here.
“We’ll get revenge,” I say. “Acacia will pay for this and everything else he’s done. We’ll expose him as a monster, and we’ll get his beloved daughter to help us. We’ll turn Erin against him. She will be his undoing, and we won’t stop until we get what we want.”
PART FOUR
NEVER ALONE
PRESENT DAY
CHAPTER
FORTY-TWO
SARAH
My skull rattles,imploding from the weight of a lifetime of memories crashing into me like a tsunami. I remember everything. Childhood. High school. Partying. Erin and I swapping places that night, Dad finding me, and then my last recollection before I lost myself bowls me over…
I’m not dead. Not yet, anyway. Although, I may as well be in hell.
