Tomorrow Lost

Five: Two Slow Dancers

Skylar was different from the rest.

For one, she was a Stranger.

But that wasn’t what set her apart from the others at the facility. Out of everyone, she had treated me kindly. She didn’t wear the lab coat like them-- instead, she wore casual street clothes, like the facility was just any other place. And she wasn’t afraid to talk to me or be within a five meter range of me.

At some point, I had started to trust her.

That was my first mistake.

Skylar’s ability couldn’t physically harm anyone, but the power behind it was undeniable. And once she had lowered my defenses, she trapped me inside of an illusion.

It was a world where there no Strangers. My parents were alive. Everyone was alive. It was peaceful. I didn’t have the constant sense of guilt gnawing at my insides, not allowing me to forget what I had done. I guess it was supposed to be my happy place. A perfect world. There, I lead a normal life with my normal family and none of us were aware of the truth… that nothing was real there.

And she was there, of course. Drawing out all of my secrets without me being none the wiser.

My second mistake was falling in love with her. Being with her made me the happiest. Whether it was the touch of her lips or the sound of her voice, it had all filled me with warmth. I loved her. I loved her to the point where it felt as necessary as breathing.

To this day, I didn’t know if those emotions were mine or not. Maybe, like everything else, she had implanted those feelings inside of me. Not like I would be able to remember. It was similar to the incident where there was a dense fog blocking my mind, and I couldn’t break through it, even if I wanted to. They were there. I knew they were there. I was painfully aware that I was supposed to be able to recall these things, but I couldn’t.

Back in that dreamworld, I met Reed for the first time. He was there to help me break out. I had accepted his help without really being aware of it. He blended in with the rest of everybody and approached me casually at first, subtly dropping hints before finally telling me everything was a lie.

I remember that I didn’t believe him at first. But then, nothing else was the same. The collapse of world had started because I had left the thread of belief Skylar needed to spin.

Because of him, I was able to sever the hold Skylar had on my mind.

When I had came to, I was back inside of the facility. They had me strapped to a chair. I realized that everything had been fake. Even if I had known before, coming face to face with reality was a completely different matter. Everything I had wanted--desired--was all just a lie. It was akin to losing everything again. Of course they couldn’t come back. Reincarnation didn’t exist. Everyone was dead. I killed them. Nothing had changed.

Skylar had been there when I woke up. She was standing right in front of me. There was blood pouring out from her ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. She was clutching her throat as if she couldn’t breathe. There was horror in her eyes. And pain. A lot of pain. She seemed to be in pure agony. I recalled that our eyes did not part. I just stared at her, harder and harder. Skylar was the only thing in focus.

I think she said something to me. I recall hearing her voice.

She fell to her knees.

Then she collapsed completely, an abandoned marionnette.

Blood pooled around her.

It reached my feet by the time they came to collect her body. I remember how it stained my toes. It felt hot and sticky.

They wheeled her out on a stretcher. There was no sign that she was breathing, either. Just still.

I couldn’t remember how I felt when I saw this happening. I was just empty. Like my memories belonged to someone else. Even now, when I looked back on it, I was surprisingly apathetic. But I knew that it should make me feel bad. And I knew that I was supposed to hate her for what she did to me. So I did. It just became how I felt towards Skylar: Contempt.

But she was dead so it didn’t matter.

She was supposed to be dead.

But there she was. Very much alive.

“What is she doing here?” My voice was dry and raspy. “Why is she here? She…”

“Who?” Ricki responded, clearly confused.

I raised my hand to point at Skylar accusingly, my arm shaking. “Her. What is she doing here?”

Myra answered simply, “She is one of our members.”

“She died… She did… I saw it.”

“Are you talking about Skylar?” Ricki inquired. “She’s been a member for a while now. How do you know her? And what do you mean by she died?”

I spared her a quick glance, wondering how none of them knew what was going on between me and her. Wasn’t Reed the one that assisted me in breaking free from her hallucination? How could none of them be aware of who she was?

Skylar took a step forward then a couple more back, her mouth opening and closing as if she was searching for words to say.

“Thea,” she said, her voice cracking and falling into silence. “I--”

“Don’t you dare come near me!” I shouted the moment she moved closer once more.

Skylar’s expression shook and her hands swung uselessly by her side. “I…”

The two of us continued to stare at each other and everyone watched us, confusion evident in their eyes.

“Thea,” Reed said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “What’s going on? Is something the matter?”

“You don’t remember her?” I questioned as my voice trembled with either rage or sadness. “You don’t know what she’s done?”

At this, Skylar cried out, “I’m sorry! I’m truly sorry. You have to understand--”

“Shut up!” I yelled, covering my ears with my hands as if that would stop me from hearing her voice. “Get me away from her. Now, please.” I stared at Reed, pleading evident in my eyes.

The thought of being in just the same room of her made me find it hard to breathe. There were too many emotions torrenting at once, too many questions. I just wanted to leave. I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t like the way that she was looking at me. Why did she have that expression on her face as if she was the one that had been hurt? When did she get the right to apologize to me for what she did? I didn’t want to hear any of it.

She was supposed to be dead.

And it would’ve been better that way. For me, at least. Then I wouldn’t have been in a situation like this.

Myra nodded her head at Reed and the group ushered me out of the main area, leaving Skylar standing there with her eyes trained on us the entire time.

I could feel her feelings bombarding me, all of them mixing in with mine and creating cacophony inside of my body. It felt as if I was going to vomit. Tears burned at my eyes--whether they were from her emotions or mine, I didn’t have the answer to that. But it felt like barbed wire had been wrapped around my throat and someone was pulling it tightly, cotton in my mouth, and pins in my eyes.

At some point, someone offered me a seat. And then I was given water. I went through these actions robotically, my mind distant.

Sometimes I wondered if she ever loved me or if it was all just pretend. If you loved someone, you couldn’t hurt them, right? That’s what I thought it was supposed to be like. So, she couldn’t have loved me. But the way that she had just been staring at me, all of those feelings, made me feel as if she had.

And that was not possible. It was wrong. She was a bad person. And she had hurt me.

A pair of green eyes appeared before mine, shifting in and out of focus. It took a moment for me to recognize that they belonged to Reed. “Thea?” he asked, his voice sounding fuzzy in my ears. “Are you able to speak now?”

I bit down on my lips and averted my gaze from his. “You don’t know who Skylar is?”

“Skylar is one of us. She joined a half year ago. We found her heavily wounded and trying to run from some government dogs,” Reed began to explain patiently. “Since then, she’s been a great help to our cause and an extremely loyal member. It’s why Myra promoted her to being part of the core.”

“No,” I muttered, shaking my head weakly. “She works for them. For Laura.”

“What?” Reed sounded quite shocked by my words.

“Don’t you remember? When we first met, I was trapped inside of her illusion.”

“What do you mean her illusion?” Myra spoke, causing me to look up and realize that everyone had formed a semi-circle around me and Reed was bent over in front of me. “That was caused by another Stranger. Skylar’s powers aren’t like that.”

“What?” I blinked. I was uncertain of many things, but Skylar being who she was was not one of them.

“Skylar can cause mental disturbances in others, causing them to feel panicked, but she doesn’t create powerful illusions like that,” Myra said. “She’s one of the weakest here.”

I shook my head. “She’s lying. She’s misleading all of you. I know the truth. I know who it was. Reed, don’t you remember?”

“I never saw the Stranger that orchestrated it,” he responded simply. “But, it can be assumed that they are now dead from the amount of force you used to break out. It would’ve caused severe brain trauma.”

I paused, swallowing, images of the bloody Skylar appearing in my mind. “What about bleeding?”

Reed looked a bit confused. “There wouldn’t be any.”

His words disturbed me, but I didn’t ask any more because they were still missing the main point. “It doesn’t matter. It was her. I saw her. I was there. She works for Laura! And--and like Reed said, she should be dead.”

I watched them exchange glances with each other. It looked like they were struggling to believe me. I didn’t understand why. What did I gain from lying about this? Didn’t they get that Skylar had somehow managed to survive and now she was trying to… I didn’t know what her purpose was, but I assumed that it would be something evil.

“Reed, can I show you?” I questioned, desperation tinging my tone. I didn’t want Skylar to hurt any of them here. They weren’t the nicest, but they were all better than her. And I wasn’t going to allow her to trick anybody any longer.

“Yes.”

He held out his hand and I wrapped it with mine, squeezing my eyes shut tightly as our minds connected. This time, I concentrated and conjured up specific memories of Skylar. I could sense his immediate shock and subsequent disappointment. The two of us sat like that for a few breaths before I let go of him.

Reed stood up properly, his expression stony.

Myra’s gravelly voice sounded, “Ricki, bring Skylar here. Mallory, escort Thea to her room and help her get settled. We’ll handle this situation.”

Mallory nodded her head, clearly not understanding all that was happening. “Follow me!” she chirped and exited the room with a skip in her step.

I took a few moments to stand up and before I walked out, Myra called out my name. I turned to her, wondering why she had stopped me.

She stared deeply into my eyes. “I will get the truth for you, Thea.”

My heart pumped wildly in my chest and I nodded my head a few times. “Thank you,” I muttered, the words barely passing through my lips.

Myra didn’t respond and turned her gaze away from me, and I left the room quietly.

Mallory was leaned against the wall waiting for me and a broad smile formed on her face when she saw me. “We’ve been preparing for your arrival. Big Sis wanted to make sure that you felt comfortable,” she started explaining, her childish voice filled with joy. “I helped with decorating your room.”

“Decorating?” I echoed, my mind still on the topic of Skylar. I wanted to push her into the corners of my mind, but that was not possible, and her face kept resurfacing.

What was going to happen? Would they hurt her? Kill her? She knew the secret location of their base so it wasn’t like they’d just let her leave. Myra was not the type to take mercy on others.

“Obviously!” Mallory laughed, answering the question I had forgotten I asked. “Big Sis wouldn’t let me decorate it the way I wanted to, though. She said that it was your room and not mine.”

“Myra’s your elder sister?”

“No. We’re cousins. But she’s basically my sister.”

“Oh.”

“My father tried to kill me when I was first born,” Mallory explained without any prompting from me. “Because I accidentally took mom’s life during childbirth. But Myra got him instead and then we hid because she said it wasn’t safe for us.”

I felt my blood run cold at her words. Skylar faded a bit from the forefront of my thoughts and I grew curious about Mallory’s circumstances. I had never heard of a Stranger that caused any complications during birth. And that also meant that Myra had killed her own uncle around age… seven or eight? “I’m sorry,” I told Mallory.

And I was.

I understood what it felt like, even if she didn’t fully comprehend everything yet.

She blinked her large eyes at me. “Why are you sorry? It doesn’t upset me.”

“I just… sorry.”

Mallory laughed. “You’re weird.”

“Am I?” I agreed that I was not good with words or people, but my personality was not strange, was it? I tried to be normal when conversing with others.

Mallory didn’t answer me and spoke as she stopped in front of a door, “Here’s your room.” She flung the door open with great ceremony. “Ta-dah!”

My eyes widened at the sight. I didn’t know what I had been expecting, honestly. In the facility, the room I had been given was still small, but everything was white and there was no furniture, causing it to feel cold and empty.

But here, even though it was even smaller, I felt… welcome? I didn’t know how to put this into words. It felt like I was a person, I supposed. I stepped inside, my gaze dancing around. There were the standard necessities for a room and nothing more, but to me, it felt absolutely amazing.

The bed looked soft! There were sheets on it. And there was a nightstand. And a dresser with a mirror propped next to it. The colors were all pale and gave off a soft, warm feeling.

“Do you like it?” Mallory questioned. “I spent a lot of time working on it with my friends. We wanted it to look pretty for you because Big Sis said you were a special guest!”

“I really like it,” I answered, walking around with my eyes shining. “Where did you get all of this?” I pressed against the mattress, pleased to find that it wasn’t as hard as rock.

“The store, duh.” Mallory rolled her eyes at me, as if this answer was obvious. “Where else would we?”

I didn’t have a response for her, so I shut my mouth tightly, feeling a bit ashamed. Was I supposed to have known this?

“Anyway!” Mallory exclaimed. “I was the one that got the idea to decorate your room because Big Sis was just going to give it to you with nothing.”

“Oh,” I said, taking a seat on the bouncy mattress, feeling rather amazed. “Thank you, I really appreciate you doing that for me.”

The young girl smiled broadly at me and took a seat down next to me, leaving about a foot of space between our bodies. “Do you think that you’re going to stay with us?”

“Huh?” I was a bit surprised by her question and didn’t know where it was coming from. Where else would I go if I didn’t stay with them? I didn’t know where I would even go… I didn’t know where we were in the first place. My sense of direction was already bad and I had never exactly asked either.

Mallory pouted her lips a little. “Well, you don’t like Skylar, right? Does that mean you’re going to leave?”

“No…” At the mention of Skylar, my entire body stiffened once more. “She isn’t a good person.”

“She isn’t?”

I shook my head, pressing my lips together tightly. “Someone like that can’t be good.”

“What did she do?”

Not wanting to discuss the topic with Mallory because I knew that she wouldn’t understand, I simply shrugged. “Bad things.”

“You’re not good at explaining,” Mallory stated blandly, obviously unhappy with the response that I had given her.

“I’m sorry,” I told her truthfully. “Are you close with Skylar?”

“Not really. I’ve talked to her a few times though and she was always kind. Everyone has a good impression of her.” Mallory’s eyes flashed with a strange light. “Are you sure you aren’t wrong about her? Maybe someone stole her face.”

“Stole her face?”

“It can happen.” Mallory continued to ramble on, “I was the one that healed her when they first found her and I could tell that she wasn’t impure. There wasn’t much for me to cleanse other than her wounds.”

Why did she keep talking about things that I didn’t understand? “Are you… is that your ability?”

“Hmm. Kind of,” she answered. “Anyway, what was it like there?” Once again, she changed the topic of the conversation.

“The facility?”

“Yeah. I’ve never been to one.”

An uncomfortable shiver passed through me. “It just… I don’t know. I didn’t like it, but I needed it.”

“Why did you need it?”

I stared down at my bony hands and chewed on my inner cheek, feeling the flesh grind underneath my teeth. “I did something very bad.”

“I heard that the facilities were very bad,” Mallory contested. “This place is good, though. We’re better than them.”

“That’s…” I smiled awkwardly and didn’t go into deeper detail. Mallory and I came from two completely different realms… there was no way that she would be able to understand to what I meant.