Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 113051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Now, I’m staring up at the blinding overhead lights.
“Don’t worry, Syd,” Everly says, looming over me with a Colgate smile. “You’ll be as good as new when you’re done. All this pain you’re experiencing now? It won’t exist anymore. None of this will exist. Isn’t that wonderful?”
But I don’t want to erase it. I don’t want to erase any of it.
“Should we strap her down?” Michael asks, putting on his surgical mask.
Everly disappears, and I hear a tap running. “If you want. David gave her a lot in that tea, didn’t you?”
“She won’t be moving,” comes David’s voice, and I realize he’s in the room with them.
I feel myself sinking further into the table.
I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know how to get out of this.
I don’t know how to free myself.
“We should put her under,” Michael says, the surprising voice of reason.
“We can’t,” Everly says. “It’s too dangerous with what she’s already consumed. We’ll have to operate on her as it is.”
No. God, someone, help me.
“Just because she’s sedated doesn’t mean she can’t feel pain,” Michael says gruffly.
“Well, look at you, dear husband. Finally having a calling of conscience. Has this been a dark night of the soul for you?”
“It’s just a little inhumane.”
“You could have grown a set of morals a long time ago, but you didn’t. It’s too late for you now. Pass me the razors. I feel like we don’t have the time to do this properly.”
“If you shave her hair, she’ll know. It’s why Sydney never caught on. There were no scars or marks.”
“Well, there is that one mark at the back of her head, but I’m sure she thought it was a mole or pimple. That’s the wonderful thing about the back of the head. If you have hair, you have no idea what’s going on back there.”
I think about the faint bump at the back. I always did think it was a mole of sorts, though it was sort of scabby. Is that where they had gone in?
“Razors, please,” Everly says testily. “It will be small. She’ll barely notice. Then we can start drilling.”
Oh my god. Oh my god.
I hear the razors being turned on.
I yell at myself to move.
I yell at the mycelia in my brain to do something, to override the sedation.
But there is nothing.
Just a barely functioning brain.
No genius. No plan.
Then I hear the door to the lab open.
Everly gasps.
“Wes,” Michael says stiffly. “Did Roderick bring you?”
My heart leaps inside my chest.
Wes! He’s here. He’s alive.
Relief flutters through me like butterflies, giving me strength.
“I saw Roderick when he attempted to commandeer my vessel,” I hear Wes say from the end of the room. I wish I had enough strength to turn my head, to lay my eyes on him. “He was easy to subdue.”
“Stay where you are,” David says. I hear the slide of metal, and I imagine he’s picking up a gun or a weapon of some sort. I almost laugh at the thought, but then I see Michael move out of view, presumably taking it from him.
“What are you going to do, Michael?” Wes says. “Shoot me? Shoot me like you did to Clayton?”
“As if you care,” Everly snaps. “You’re the one who wanted to send him home. All so your little sweetheart could feel better. Pathetic.”
“Yes, I wanted to send him home,” Wes says adamantly. “But I didn’t want him dead. I didn’t want him to end up as the next experiment. You promised me this would stop after Sydney.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re not in charge of the program,” Michael says. “All analysis, no progress.”
“No death. Clear conscience. Can’t lose,” Wes states.
“That’s funny,” Everly says, “because Sydney here is under the impression that you tried to kill her.”
“You know I didn’t,” he says quietly. “You saw the footage. I still have the footage.”
Thank god. Thank god!
“So easy to doctor these days,” she muses as she peers over me, her eyes glinting beneath her goggles. “I’m sorry your last moments had to be like this, Syd. You find out your ex-lover killed you right before you have your memories erased. To make matters worse, your ex-lover gets killed too. Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he has to stick around and watch you begin again with no memory of who he is.”
“I’ll find her again, no matter what life she restarts,” Wes growls, and my heart skips hard against my chest as if it’s trying to return to him.
Everly makes a face over me. “But it would be so sad. To see you keep dying like that? Oh well.”
“So you’re going to shoot me. Kill me. Is that it?” Wes says loudly. There’s a tone in his voice that makes my nerves dance. It’s the voice he uses when he’s about to make someone feel like an idiot. Only people in academia know what that is.