Into the deep

CHAPTER 9 — She wants to kill me

I put my hands up to tell her to stop — but instead I blasted Becky with some sort of ice. She just stood there.

I had no idea how I did that, but clearly it didn’t affect her.

I needed my friend, but I had no idea who — or what — she was now.

These lightning powers were unbelievable. So were my ice powers. How did they do this to us? How did they take my friend’s memory away? This was unreal.

I was scared.

“Becky… how long have they had you here?” I asked.

I got no reply. It was as if she just wanted to kill me and nothing else.

“Let’s get out of here and go back to our families.”

“Family?” she said. “They’ve always sent a replacement.”

“What do you mean, a replacement?”

“You heard me. A replacement.”

Oh no… had they cloned me? Like they did to Becky?

“Becky, listen to me. They’ve brainwashed you. Please — you have to remember me.”

“They didn’t brainwash me, Katie.”

Oh my God. That was the first time she’d said my name this whole time. Maybe she wasn’t brainwashed after all.

“Look at me, Katie,” she said. “I know what you did. You let them die.”

“What? No, Becky. I would never have let that happen if it was under my control.”

“Yeah, sure. All you did was yell ‘no.’ You didn’t even try to save them. Which is why, when the agency contacted me a few weeks later about giving me powers, I immediately said yes. I swore that if I ever saw you again, I would kill you with these very powers.”

“Becky, wait. Let’s talk about this. Please. I didn’t want them to die. I tried warning them. Please believe me — I loved them so much.”

“Exactly. You loved them. I still do love them. All you did was pretend to care. That’s why you went out to look — to pretend. Which brought you here. To me. So now I can do right by my friends, and my promise: I can kill you.”

“Don’t make me do this, Becky. Or did you forget? I have powers now too. I can fight back.”

“Fight? Oh please. This is going to be breakfast for me. You — a weak little weasel. You could never beat me, much less kill me. You’re way too hung up on the whole friendship thing. That’s why I’m going to win this. That’s why you die by my hand tonight.”