“Do you have any siblings?” She stopped short when my face turned cold. “Oh no. I’m sorry. I remember that you had a brother.” She bit her lip.
“I did have a brother.” She froze, and I looked away toward the chandelier.
She spoke softly. “If it’s not too much to ask, what happened really? You didn’t tell me a lot.” She looked gloomy, and I was sure it was because my face looked so wretched. She hesitated. “You don’t have to, of course.” She bit her lip in angst.
After a few moments, I felt myself float back to the time that I last saw him. “His name was Aiden. He was my best friend. My father murdered him,” I told her calmly.
“Oh no. I’m so sorry.” Her eyes glistened with tears, but I didn’t feel sad. I felt angry.
“My father murdered him because he stayed behind when I went to build the safe house. He was younger than me. He didn’t want to betray my father and leave him alone. He wanted to be the golden child. That was his curse,” I told her. I didn’t want to remember the sadness his memories brought me. “He got in the way. I’m surprised he didn’t control Aiden’s mind. It would have been easier, given how young Aiden was. I’m glad that Aiden died instead of being controlled. I wouldn’t want to see him under my dad’s rule. I loved him so much.” My voice broke, and she hugged me.
She didn’t speak for a while. I thought it was because she wanted to give me time. So she held my hand for a long time and kissed my palm a few times. Eventually, she held my gaze so long I couldn’t help but feel happy again.
After a while, we went back to my room. She led the way, and she kissed me all the way to the bed. But what was amazing was she didn’t once lead me to believe that I would have more than a kiss. And I didn’t.
***
I opened my eyes and there she was. She was wearing what she had worn the night before, and I smiled. Suddenly, I felt self-conscious; was she happy to be sleeping there?
I looked down and observed her. She began to stir, and my heart started to pound.
She weakly stared up at me. “Good morning.” She smiled and began to get up, but I pulled her down.
She started to laugh and then she gasped. I quickly loosened my grip and she was dashing. I didn’t follow quickly behind her, because I knew she was going to get sick. My blissful morning ended sooner than I wanted. I yelled for Holland to come, because I knew Lena still wanted her company.
Holland raced to the bathroom from the kitchen and shut the door behind her. I leaned my head on the wall, and Gabe walked behind me.
“Oooo,” he said in a girlish tone. “Did I see her leaving your room?” He smiled at me and winked.
“Okay. Don’t ever wink again, creep,” I told him, and he sneered.
“Well, tell me. What happened?”
“Nothing. I actually care about her,” I retorted calmly, feeling my temper escalating.
“Or you’re just stupid. I mean, how much more time do you think you have with her? I would do it as a soon as possible.” He winked yet again.
I scowled at him, and I felt my face wrinkling in frustration. “Who says I don’t have time with her? You don’t know, nor do I, how long it will be. We have to keep fighting and trying. I won’t give up. And you know what, Gabe, it’s not something you should rush or take so lightly.” I shoved past him.
The truth was, I was a nervous wreck, and I didn’t know how Lena would feel about that subject. Also it was too soon. Maybe not for me, but for her, and I knew I would have to talk to Holland about this because Gabe was obviously not a candidate. The door opened to the bathroom, and I rushed back. Holland came out wearing a gloomy face.
“What is it?” I asked in a flash.
“She is just getting so much worse. We need to make the most of her right now. I don’t know what Gabe and I can do. I will go talk with him. Try to get her to come out if you can.”
I moved toward the door, but everything was blurry in my eyes. This just proved that there wasn’t much that I could do. I wanted to give her the best last days. I had to decide if she should go to my dad to get the cure or not. She deserved life and happiness. I wasn’t sure what her wishes were. I didn’t think I could live with myself if she were dead.
“Lena.” I knocked on the door lightly. There was no response. “I must really gross you out if you had to run away from me.” Then I remembered it was soundproof, so I knocked loudly again.
The door opened slightly and a voice erupted from it. “Will you get my toothbrush?” she asked quietly.
“Sure.” I ran down the hallway and into her room. It smelled of lavender, and I felt sick because she made the room feel like her own in a matter of days. She was always herself and she always wanted to be herself, no matter where she was. She was happy and safe with me. I let her down. I let her get sick. I turned away and got her toothbrush from the bathroom sink.
I jogged back to her and knocked. She opened the door, reaching only her hand out. I gave her the toothbrush, and she quickly shut the door. Holland came out of the lab and beckoned me forth while putting a hand over her mouth to tell me to be quiet.
“What?” I demanded as I approached her.
“Gabe wants to call for a meeting, as he said it. So when she is done, come on.” She walked away, and I felt uneasy while I waited for Lena.
As I approached the door, it opened and she ran to me. She jumped on me, and I pulled her into my arms. I squeezed her, and her lips found me. She wrapped her arms around me, and I held her head up to mine.
I felt so at ease, but then I remembered. “I hate to break this up, but Gabe is calling a meeting,” I told her, and her face fell as she jumped down.
“Let’s go.” She grabbed my hand, and we walked in silence down to the lab.
Gabe and Holland were both looking down while leaning against the table. It was just like we had found them when we had arrived, but with a new a dilemma and a graver one, in my opinion. When we reached the bottom of the steps, Holland looked up and shared a small smile with Lena.
“What’s going on?” Lena asked Holland.
“Gabe,” Holland said softly without looking at Lena. I felt apprehensive because of Holland’s uneasiness. Gabe stepped forward, looking beyond both our faces.
“I just want to tell you that I want to keep trying. I’m just afraid of the consequences. So we wanted to ask you first.” He directed his full attention to her.
“What consequences?” she asked calmly.
“If we were to damage any part of your brain, I don’t know how we would fix it. Have you ever heard of Phineas Gage?” he asked.
“I have. The railroad accident correct?”
“The very one.” He smiled, because she knew something as well as he did. “The same thing could happen to you. We could destroy something in your brain. We could make you blind. Or we could make you a different person completely. We don’t want those risks.”
“I’d rather be blind than dead or a piece of rotting meat.” She closed her eyes. “Let’s get started.” I was glad she was willing to risk her life to get better, but I didn’t want her to lose herself or her sight or her hearing. Then I had a wonderful thought.
“Wait!” I shouted.
“What?” Everyone turned to me, alerted.
“What if we target her arm first? What if we can see how this heals and then we’ll see how to heal her head.”
Gabe looked to Holland, and Holland was pouring with enthusiasm. “What could it hurt? Would that work?”
“But what if we were to mess up? What if it made it worse? Why did it spread there to begin with? They injected her in the head and not the arm.”
“How do we know that?” Holland inquired to Gabe.
Lena squeezed my hand lightly, and I looked down to her, and she was eyeing all around the room into the distance. “I didn’t know I was worth saving like this,” she said only where I could hear.
I tilted her chin up so she could see me. “You are worth saving. Don’t forget tha
t.” She nodded against my hands. She should have known we loved her, and we would fight for her.
“Gabe, we have to try,” Holland urged.
“What if we make it spread even more?”
“We could try what you made?” she asked him, and his face contorted.
“Absolutely not. Don’t be ridiculous. That could kill her.” Gabe looked away in dread. I didn’t understand why.
“What could kill her?” I inserted. They both turned, and Holland’s face was red from being flustered.
“I made an antidote to the disease. But the thing is, I don’t know what could happen if we injected her with it.” Gabe proudly held up the antidote. “I conjured this up last night.”
“How sure are you about it working?” I had to know that she would be safe.
“About eighty percent. I won’t give her it. I really am not.”
“Ask Lena,” Holland quietly remarked and all pairs of eyes turned to her.
Lena looked indifferently at Gabe and just nodded. “I will try it if all else fails. I want to be better, and you know what? If I get worse, I was going to die anyway.” She looked to me as her face scrunched, and I couldn’t believe how small I felt and how brave she was.
“Let’s try the things that could damage me first and then let’s try the antidote,” she told us. It was as if she was reassuring herself that she was brave enough.
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Antidote
GABE SEEMED NERVOUS as he tried to blast through her brain again. This time he tried to zap a new place, but the same things happened to Lena. Holland tried to obliterate the disease inside her arm, but the result was the same. The wire came out fizzing again, and she resisted all types of treatments. We all knew we would have to use the antidote.
“Do it,” she said calmly and nodded to herself.
She grabbed my hand, and I smiled to her. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”
“If something bad happens, I love you.” I shuddered at her words.
“I love you. Nothing bad is going to happen,” I reassured her.
Gabe came slowly to her as he prepared the syringe. “Okay. This is going to burn and sting everywhere. No one will know how bad this hurts so no one will judge you if you scream.” No hint of sarcasm was there. I death stared him. “What? I had to warn her.”
She laughed, and said, “Bring it on. I won’t even scream.” She smiled and then said, “Okay. Totally kidding, but bring it on, and thank you for sparing me lies.” He looked flattered that someone was appreciative of his ways.
I gripped her hand, and she held tightly as Holland rubbed alcohol on her forehead. “Should we try the arm first?” I felt so nervous and my voice shook fiercely.
“I think it would be better to inject the target area. It’s worse here, and she was injected with the disease here. When we tried to zap her arm, there wasn’t much to zap. The rotting has spread to so many places, not just her arms but her legs and stomach. She told Holland where they all are. Don’t worry. This will work.” Gabe nodded sufficiently at me. “Trust me, Jared. I really think this is the antidote.”
I put my hand down, and Lena put hers back in mine as Gabe injected her. Then she was screaming. She thrashed about, and Holland held her down and looked from Gabe to me.
“I wish I could make the pain go away,” she told us, and I wished I was the one feeling the pain for her, too. I couldn’t stand how bad she was feeling.
Lena gasped for air as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.
“When does it stop?” I barely made out. Gabe looked at me and shook his head, because he didn’t know.
“Then how long until it works?” I asked him in a shrill.
“It is supposed to start destroying the rotting tissue immediately, but maybe I calculated it wrong. I’m not sure.” Gabe looked frantically to his computer, but there were no answers there.
Lena reached for her forehead as tears fell from her eyes. “Kill me,” she screamed at the top of her lungs, and Gabe turned away. I thought I saw his eyes glistening. “Please,” she screamed, and tears spilled from my eyes.
I pulled her into a tight hug as she began to hit my back. I felt tears falling fresh and hot all over my back from Lena. Then there was silence. I pulled back and looked at her face. Slowly, the dark from her forehead was disappearing. Skin seemed to be growing over the gaping hole that was once there. She gently lifted her hand to her head, and she began to laugh. It made no sense, but all at once, my heart started beating again and a warm feeling came over me.
“Lena,” I said calmly. “It’s going away.” She laughed, and I brought her lips to mine. We stayed this way until Holland touched my shoulders.
“You can save that for later. I need to check her blood content and make sure she really is cured.” She turned to Gabe. “You’re a genius. You’re amazing.” She smiled at him, and I smiled at him. He looked down, almost ashamed, and I was uncertain why. I kissed Lena and backed away. I watched over her as Holland checked everything.
She looked so healthy. She looked as if she were glowing instead of turning black all over like before. I felt myself ease up, and I turned to look to Gabe, to tell him thank you, but he had left the room.
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Side Effect
LENA AND I were happy as ever that day. She braided her hair in fancy ways all around her head.
“Your hair is beautiful,” I told her as she beamed at me.
“If I had a normal life, I would be a hairdresser,” she told me. “I would have gone to school with Kaley, but now that I know that Kaley isn’t really my friend, I’m thankful I didn’t.” She paused but continued beaming at me. “I’m glad things are this way instead. I wanted a simple life, but my father had mixed it up whenever he had to do things for his work. I didn’t hate that he was a doctor, just the things he missed in my life.”
“He missed things for the right reason. Don’t forget that,” I told her.
“He missed my dance competitions and recitals. He missed out when I rode my first bike, and I was sad over it. I never blamed him, just his job.” She looked down sadly. “I’m so happy he left me with the job to save people. That is my gift. Isn’t it? My true meaning.” She smiled, and I felt content.
Lena cooked me blueberry cobbler, which was my favorite when my mother used to make it. I hated to admit it, but Lena made it better.
Lena told me about her life before Dermadecatis. She told me how her mother got the disease and how her father’s light left his eyes as she got sicker. She was glad they got to die together and one didn’t have to suffer over the other.
Lena was so selfless, and it made me love her even more. We could learn each other slowly and happily. I loved her, and I knew she loved me. We didn’t have to rush anymore. Not the intimate parts, not the dates, not anything. Not anymore. We could grow old together if we wanted to. We could hide out there forever.
As if she read my mind, she asked, “How can we help the people out there, Jared?” I snapped back to reality. We had to help them. We had the medicine to help them, and I knew we would have to do that. She wanted to always be there for others, and I was glad she had this quality, but she was finally fixed.
“We’ll figure something out,” I told her. “But let me enjoy you being safe.”
She smiled at me and kissed me. She dragged me down to the bed, and we kissed for a while and fell asleep. It was complete bliss that she was happy and healthy again. I loved her.
***
In my dream someone stood over me in the darkness. They moved swiftly across the room. When I opened my eyes, there was only blackness. I looked beside me, and Lena was there still. In the dark room, she didn’t look well, but she was. It was just my imagination, because I wasn’t used to her being better. I felt her face and it was clammy so I got up to open the door to let some air inside. As I was up, I went out to get water in the kitchen, but stopped in the hallway when I saw that Gabe was there. He never seemed to sleep anymore.
He looked surprised to see me. “Can we talk?” he asked softly when he saw I was up.
“What’s up man?” I asked quietly.
“I hate to do this.” He hesitated, and I panicked.
“Oh no. What is it? Did she not get cured for real?” Panic was all in my voice. I didn’t calm down until he said that’s not what it was about. “What is it then?” I whispered wildly into the darkness. He led me to the kitchen and turned to me sharply.
“I have discovered something. I didn’t want to tell you, but I wanted to try it out first.”
“What is this? What is going on? You’re freaking me out,” I said as calmly as I could when all I felt was complete dread.
“She is not who she says she is. What I put in her was actually a dye deactivator,” he said and hung his head down.
“I don’t… I don’t understand,” I said calmly.
“She works for your father, Jared.” The world collapsed, and I looked from him to the darkness of my room where she was lying, sleeping.
“How do you know that?” I asked defensively.
“Look at this.” He handed me a set of papers. It was the call log from Lena’s room. Gabe did get all of the bills for all the things that worked in the house, including the phones.
“Recognize that number? That’s your father’s.” He handed me the records.
A sick feeling passed over me. This was his number. This was the number of the man who betrayed me, and there was unease in the pit of my stomach that made me feel wrong at the moment. I didn’t think this was real, but I didn’t know what to feel. “She was never sick, Jared. She was faking it the whole time. The dye made the black go away,” he told me again.
“Explain the hole in her head. Explain the smell coming from her body? Explain the sickness that Holland saw. Explain the wires that came out of her head completely singed. Explain it all,” I said in shock.
He didn’t speak, but instead glared at me in anger. “Don’t be stupid,” he said.
He didn’t look sad, so I tried to defend her one last time. “You’re lying.”
Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Page 16