by S. E. Meyer
Jax shook his head. “Well, none of this even matters. We can't do anything about it being stuck in here, can we?”
Anna whirled around to face him. “Here we go again.” She rolled her eyes. “Is that another dig on me? All of you have been blaming me since the minute Cornelius locked me in here with you. I'm tired of it.” Anna balled her fists. “I didn't put you in here Jax.”
Jax pursed his lips. “No, we have Damarion to thank for that.”
Damarion buried his head in his hands. “I'm not even going to respond to that. We accomplished what we needed to. The wall came down, we showed the people there's a cure, that was our mission. Atticus is the idiot that allowed Anna to go off on some revenge rampage.”
Atticus gritted his teeth. “We wouldn't even be here if you hadn't ratted us all out to Cornelius years ago, and I didn't expect a betrayal by my own flesh and blood.”
Anna's eyes grew wide. “It wasn't a betrayal. I had a way in. All I needed to do was pull the trigger. My plan would have worked if you had taken down the guard when I told you to.”
Damarion faced Atticus with flushed cheeks. “I told you, I'm not the one who told Cornelius about us!”
Atticus pointed his finger at Damarion. “Then who did? You're the only one of us that could have. You're the one Cornelius had by the balls all along with Isabelle's mother in the Chamber, and then you allowed him to kidnap Isabelle herself. I know you Damarion, you would have done anything to save them both!”
Isabelle grabbed a hold of the cell door, rattling its frame. “Shut up. All of you, just shut up. I've been listening to your squabbling for a week. None of it matters anymore. It's over!”
George moved in behind Isabelle and draped his arms around her. She brushed him off. “I can't George. Leave me be.”
Anna drifted to the corner of the cell and sat on the cold metal bench. “This is all my fault. I should have known better, but that man has a way of getting under my skin. He pushes my buttons and then I snap.” She shook her head. “I should have listened to my gut.” Anna let out a long breath. “What are we going to do?”
“Die,” Cornelius coughed from the tent's entrance. “You're all going to die.” he stared the group down with reddened eyes. “I have scheduled a public execution and I’m broadcasting it on every device in the city. In three days your little rebellion will be over and this city can get back to normal.”
Three guards walked in behind Cornelius. “Miss Wool. Please stand with your back to the guard. Place your hands behind your back.”
Anna trudged towards the cell door and did as instructed. “What are you doing?”
Cornelius grinned. “I have something special in store for you.”
The guard slid his hands through the bars and cuffed Anna. “Everyone away from the door.”
The group stepped back, and the guard opened the door, escorting Anna out.
“Where are you taking me?”
“The Chamber awaits.”
Anna tensed, recalling the replay of her mother's experience. “Why? What more could you want from me? You've already won.”
Cornelius nodded, a grin wrinkling his blotchy cheeks. “I want you to pay for the problems you've caused. You're going to feel the buckle end of my belt.”
◆◆◆
The guards led Anna from the military tent and out into the Mansion's front yard. Anna turned her head to see only a handful of people standing at the gate. As they made their way into the house Anna viewed the north wall down below. Workers brought in heavy equipment. Cranes and dump trucks spanned the gap in the wall.
“You see?” Cornelius coughed, spittle running from the corner of his lip. “They're rebuilding it. As I told you before, the people have already forgotten.”
Anna hung her head as they entered the house and crossed the ballroom. They took her downstairs to the Chamber room.
“Lie back, Miss Wool,” Cornelius urged once the guard shackled her ankles to one of the chamber beds.
The guards placed the headset and connected the wires.
Cornelius tapped at the control board. “There, that should do.” He gave Anna another broad grin. “Sweet dreams.”
Anna jolted, her eyelids a flutter, as the machine did its cruel task of searching her mind. The scene that played out, was at first a pleasant one, but Anna knew how it would end. She breathed in the city as she neared the wall, her heart leaping with excitement. This was the day of Billy's proposal.
It's so real.
Anna stopped at a flower cart to smell a bouquet of roses. Her senses heightened, she could hear the traffic. The delicious smell the bake shop filled her nose as she passed before taking a left towards the wall. The scene changed and Anna looked up at Billy, ring in hand.
Her surroundings melted away and refocused. Anna stood in front of Billy on the day they banished him.
“You're angry,” Billy said.
I love you. That's what I wanted to say. I love you, Billy.
“Oh, you noticed. Damn right I'm angry, you never should have been on the wall.” Anna listened to herself repeating the words. The muscles in her body contracted as she tried to fight the past, struggling to change her words without success.
No, I love you. I love you and please wait for me. Wait for me, Billy!
Anna's body quivered.
That's what I meant to say. That's what I should have said. Then maybe things would have turned out differently.
The gate slammed shut with a clang that rang Anna's inner ears as she watched a mushroom cloud climbing into the sky behind it.
The scenery changed to the day of her mother's funeral. Anna dropped the tear-stained book into her dead mother's lap, grasping the coffin's frame to steady herself as a second scene played in the background behind the casket.
It was Anna and her mother tidying up the kitchen.
Margaret's voice flowed into her head. 'I eat my meals and help clean up the dishes. I mind my parents and do their wishes.'
Anna watched the stage in the kitchen play out. Margaret hugged her. “I love you,” she said. “To the moon and back.” Anna lost herself in her mother's strong embrace. “Thank you for helping so much around here. It means a lot to me.” The scene in the kitchen faded.
Anna let go of the casket to wipe her wet cheeks.
There was another sudden change in Anna's surroundings and she found herself in bed as a child.
Anna cringed.
The shadow man.
Heart pounding against her little ribs, young Anna opened her eyes.
The shadow brushed her arm.
Anna recoiled, pulling the blankets over her head.
Go away. Go away. Please, please, just go away, she thought, hearing his slow steady breaths while smelling a trace of familiarity in his cologne.
The shadow touched her again, squeezing her small thigh.
Upon the chamber's table, Anna's entire body trembled. Her legs twitched while her unconscious frame tore at the restraints around her wrists. She squirmed, writhing at the repulsive touch of the shadow man.
Then, while lying on the cold chamber table, a sudden consciousness came to her and Anna awoke. She opened her eyes and their color changed from baby blue to steely gunmetal-gray.
The console next to her bed turned off, then back on again, as the panel illuminated all of its LED's.
Anna closed her eyes, finding herself in New Easton. Sheila looked at her. “How can we welcome people into the heart of our town with an impenetrable wall around it?”
The panel next to Anna continued its flurry of flashes as her surroundings twisted into the shape of a wall. The concrete surrounded her as a large beating heart sat in the circle's middle. Anna could see the person in the hooded sweatshirt mortaring the last few blocks.
Anna side stepped the mountain of throbbing red flesh and moved behind the person laboring at the task with their back to Anna. She touched the person's shoulder and the hooded shape turned to face her.
Anna swallowed hard as the heart behind her pounded the earth below her feet.
The person staring back at her from below the hood with terrified eyes and mortar clumping her brown curls, was Anna herself.
The Anna in the sweatshirt spoke.
“I stay safe with walls and fences about. They keep me in and the predators out.”
The console sounded an alarm and the display read. 'Frank Anderson: File 146'
Anna's head throbbed.
What is happening?
The scene changed to the inside of a church. Anna watched Frank Anderson and Atticus sit next to each other on the front pew.
“How is your end going?” Frank asked.
Atticus nodded. “I'm making progress. We found the perfect location and we have about fifty living there. It will be a lot of work to get the major systems up and running, but we're getting there.”
Frank handed Atticus a box of vials. “Good. I need to know that helping you, and putting my family's life at risk, is for a reason.”
Atticus nodded, handing Frank a similar-sized box. “Have you made any progress on an alternative to getting Anna's blood? She is getting old enough to remember.”
Frank nodded. “Yes, I have a man on the inside now at the Morton's clinic. We can get the samples when she goes for treatments.”
Atticus let out a breath. “That's a relief.” He shook his head. “It's crazy to me that the only human with the cure in her veins has to go for treatments she doesn't need.”
“We have to keep up appearances. And follow the law.” Frank replied.
Atticus nodded. “Until next time then.”
The scene swirled away from her and Anna opened her eyes. She angled her head to look at the control panel. The screen now read. 'Damarion Brockman file: 87'
What is going on? The chamber is playing other people's files?
Anna let out a gasp.
Am I doing this?
Anna closed her eyes and a dark cell appeared. Damarion sat in the corner, a tear hanging from his chin. “I will never tell you where they are. Never!” he said, drool trickling from the rim of his mouth.
That doesn't sound like a man who would have ratted everyone out.
But if not Damarion, then who?
The display changed to read, 'Playing Richard: File 47'
Anna watched as Cornelius reached back, pulling his belt down hard across Richard’s shoulder blades.
Anna flinched at the horror of the old man lashing the boy. Over and over he brought the belt down, buckle out, against Richard's flesh.
The scene changed to a burning church and Anna watched Richard save Atticus and the priest.
The machine flashed scenes in front of Anna at an increased pace. She watched Richard free her mother from the Chamber.
What? Richard let mom go?
And saved Atticus?
Anna watched as the beatings increased both in intensity and frequency.
“You killed Margaret by letting her go!” Cornelius spat. “She had an implant.”
Anna sucked in a breath, realizing she was watching a Chamber file.
The only way I could watch this is if Cornelius put his own grandson in here.
Anna winced at the sound of the belt breaking Richard's skin.
“This isn't working. It's time for something new, boy!” Cornelius coughed. “It's time you try out my new project.” Cornelius smiled.
Well, that explains why Richard turned out to be, well, Richard.
Anna's surroundings changed. She recognized where she was as soon as the house came into focus. It was her house, and she was standing on the street.
Richard was in the bushes looking up at her bedroom window. Anna stepped around the corner to see herself changing her clothes.
That's a little creepy, Richard.
Anna watched her family, along with her young self, leave the house. Richard crept to the side window and slid it open.
Oh, Richard, Anna thought. Prowling, peeping, and unlawful entry?
Richard crawled inside the window of Margaret's office and Anna's surrounding changed to her bedroom. Richard jogged into her room. He picked up the pair of panties she had left on the floor and ran back downstairs.
I guess we're adding sexual deviancy and burglary to the list.
They were now both standing in Margaret's office. Her tablet was still running with the display illuminated.
Anna saw Cornelius's name and several others listed out on a sheet of paper in front of the tablet.
His grandfather's name caught his eye as he ran passed Margaret's desk.
She forgot to close her tablet before she left.
Richard stared at the screen for several seconds. “I think my grandfather would like to know what you're doing with all this information about him,” Richard said, pulling his phone from one pocket, while stuffing Anna's underwear in the other.
“Finally I might make Grandfather proud of me.”
He up-linked the phone to the tablet and downloaded the entire hard drive and then noticed Margaret's smart drive still plugged into her tablet. He pulled the smart drive and drove it into his pocket before crawling back out the open window. Richard scurried around the corner of the house, landing on the sidewalk and almost bumping into Margaret. He slid his phone into his pocket.
“Oh, hello Richard. I'm sorry, Anna's not here.”
Richard stood with wide eyes.
“Are you okay?” Margaret asked.
“Oh, yes. I'm okay Mrs. Morton,” he finally said before running away.
“I'll let her know you stopped by to see her,” Margaret called after him.
Richard. It was Richard who told Cornelius everything and gave him mom's smart drive.
But how did the resistance get it back?
'Playing Victoria: File 23', the machine responded.
Anna's surroundings melted into a patient room at Gentech laboratories. Atticus lie on the bed, badly burned. Isabell's mother set Margaret's smart drive into Atticus's only good hand and closed his fist around it. “A boy gave this to me. He told me it was important and that you would need it.”
Richard gave it back?
Anna opened her eyes and re-scanned the control panel, shaking her head.
I don't understand. It would seem the chamber is answering my questions.
But how? Why
The display changed to read, 'Playing Frank Anderson: File 29'
Anna closed her eyes.
She was back in the church, standing in front of a younger-looking Atticus. His hair was midnight black, with only a few gray wisps above his ears. He was sitting next to Frank Anderson.
“Did you bring me what I need?” Frank asked.
Atticus nodded, handing Frank a box of blood-filled vials.
Frank set the box in his lap. “Perfect. I'll get started on a cure.” He raised an eyebrow. “Atticus, I ran her entire profile.”
“What did you find?”
“There's nothing to worry about. Everything worked as planned, but in the process of protecting her DNA, I found a few anomalies.”
It was Atticus's turn to raise an eyebrow. “Anomalies?”
“Yes. A genetic mutation giving her a higher propensity towards telepathy. I would like to run a few tests on Anna's brainwave pattern and electrical activity. It would seem there were a few accidental genetic enhancements.”
Atticus pressed his lips together. “I don't think Margaret will agree to any tests. Allowing us to take her blood is as far as she'll go. Let's keep this information between us.”
I think I’m controlling it.
Anna's breaths quickened as she re-opened her eyes and checked the display “Telepathy?”
The control panel displayed one word, 'Scanning'
She closed her eyes and the scene inside the wall at the top of the hill came back into focus. There was a sudden explosion and the surrounding wall crumbled to dust. Shadow appeared through the cloud of debris. He came up to her and bowed.
While staring deep into her eyes, the wolf spoke.
“Only when sheep become wolves, and wolves become sheep, will man have peace and restful sleep.”
Anna opened her eyes. “Richard?” she said, her eyebrows raised as Richard ran into the room with a gun in his hand. “What are you doing here?”
Atticus followed in behind him.
“I'm saving your ass,” Richard replied.
“How many times is this now?” Anna asked.
“I stopped keeping track. Don't be funny, we have to hurry,” he said releasing Anna's bonds.
Anna looked into Richard's eyes, realizing for the first time the pain she saw hiding behind them. “Richard,” Anna whispered. “I'm sorry for everything you've endured.” She stood and hugged him. “I was wrong about you. You've spent your life balancing your morals between pleasing someone who cannot be pleased and the bite of their belt.”
Richard's eyes widened as he ended the embrace. “How could you know that?” He waved Anna's apology off. “It doesn't matter right now. Don't get all mushy on me. My plan has been taking too long, and it's execution day. I can't wait any longer. Here's your gun.” Richard handed Anna her weapon.
“You have to kill him. Right now. He's alone in his study. Do you understand?”
Atticus faced Anna. “Are you ready?”
Anna popped the magazine from her handgun and tipped it towards her to see the initials in the top round. She slid the clip back into place while nodding. “I've never been more ready.”
-
CHAPTER XXIV
Anna and Atticus followed Richard up the basement stairwell and into the main ballroom. “Where is everyone?” Anna whispered.
Richard turned his head. “Outside, getting ready for Grandpa's big day. Okay, you two go on from here. You know where the study is, just down the hall,” Richard instructed in a low whisper.
“You're not coming?” Anna asked.
“No, I have to get the files started for Damarion's swearing in. Damn it. I shouldn't have waited so long, but this is the first time he's been alone all week. Now get it done!”
Anna entered Cornelius's study, followed by Atticus. She trained her weapon, pushing the door closed with her elbow.
