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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The all too familiar pop happened again. When I opened my eyes, rain poured down around me in the darkness. Ivy ran the length of the wall, completely hiding the stones.

“Victoria. What are you doing out here?”

I shook my head again. The right side of my brain still throbbed.

“Victoria!”

My eyes slowly focused in on a female with brown hair who stood at an opened doorway set into the wall. “You’re crazy to be out there with the sun setting. Come on.”

I blinked at her for a moment. A moan behind me froze my blood.

“Come on!” she insisted.

Courage pooled in my legs and I scurried to my feet and flew past her. She bolted the door on the inside and grabbed my arms, studying me from head to toe.

“How did you get outside? You’re not supposed to be…”

I tried to catch my breath. She looked so familiar.

The girl yanked her head backward. “Wait. You’re not Victoria. Who are you?”

I sucked in another ragged breath and shook my head, trying to figure out how I knew her. We were the same age. Was this my daughter? “I’m…” I blinked at her, feeling so lost and unsure what to say. I just wanted to jump again and get out of there.

She rested her hand on my forehead, then flipped over my forearm, tracing her fingers over the skin. Her eyes pinched for a moment as she scrutinized me.

“We should go.” She laughed half-heartedly as if to cover her concern, but I knew that laugh. Something was wrong.

I gulped down my hesitation, tempted to bolt in the opposite direction and wait for another headache, but where would I go?

She gripped my waist and walked me up a path toward a small house. Once she opened the door, she shoved me and locked us inside.

“Doctor,” she yelled. “I’ve found one!”

I froze in horror, then tried to get around her. She plastered herself against what looked like the only exit. “I’m not letting you go until you’re checked out by the doctor.”

I backed away from her and moved around the table in the middle of the room. “Let me out.”

Headache. I need a headache. Now!

“Sit and wait for the doctor!” She stepped forward.

I stood my ground and shook my head. At my side, I formed a fist. I’d deck her if I had to.

“Maggie, I’ve got this.”

I swiveled around, my heart pounding, and gawked at the man standing in the hallway, at his use of my mother’s name. This wasn’t the future at all, but the past, sometime before I was born. My legs buckled underneath me and the man moved to catch me.

“It’s okay.” He lifted me to my feet. “I’ve got you.”

The two exchanged a funny look as they escorted me into one of the rooms down the hall. He sat me on a twin bed and pulled up a chair.

“So.” He washed his hands first. “What brings you here?”

“She was outside the wall and I could have sworn she was Victoria. Victoria Hanson,” Maggie interrupted. “She’s not. And she’s unmarked.” She yanked back my sleeve. “See?”

I pulled my arm away and tried to defend myself, but my mouth wouldn’t work. Did I try to say I was related to the Brightons? I’d never been inoculated because I’d gotten the antibodies from mom, but against a totally different virus.



“Hmmm…” The man pulled out a tiny sheet of blue paper. He then swabbed my finger and held a tiny pin to it. “This will hurt a pinch.”

He pricked me, then squeezed a drop of blood from my finger onto the paper. At first, nothing happened.

“See?” Maggie shrilled. “She’s contagious. This is horrible. I knew I shouldn’t have let her in. We have to send her back.”

“Calm down, Maggie,” the doctor said, studying the paper. “I don’t think you have anything to worry—”

He stopped. Her eyes swung over to look at the desk, then her jaw dropped. The paper had changed to pink.

He blinked for a minute, then smiled. “Well, that’s peculiar.”

“What does that mean?” Maggie asked.

My heart pounded, watching them. What did the test results reveal? Would they force me to become inoculated?

“I don’t know…” His brows furrowed. He gave Maggie a look before putting a bandage on my finger. “Where’d you say you were from?”

“The southern province,” I squeezed out. My brain cycled through the Brighton family, for someone to impersonate. “I-I’m Alice. Alice Brighton.”

“You’re far from home.” The doctor stood. “I don’t know what they approve of in your province, but it’s not safe to leave the wall. You’re lucky Maggie was there. You know the importance of keeping the rules, especially being a Chosen. I don’t think your grandfather would approve”

“You’re right.” I nodded my head. Was he buying this? Or stalling?

Maggie moved to the doctor’s side. “Oh, that reminds me, Declan—I mean, Dr. Wilderman, I found these for you.”

I sucked in a breath and choked on my spit as she pulled out some mushrooms and weeds from her pocket, laying them on the desk.

“Good.” He clasped his hand over hers and lingered longer than I liked.

I continued to cough, unable to catch my breath.

“Get her some water, Maggie.” Dr. Declan came over and massaged my back as my mom left the room. “Are you okay?”

His name kept ringing in my ears. Not only was I furious he openly flirted with my mom, the time jump had given me a golden opportunity to fulfill my task. On the dresser was a pair of scissors. I could stab him and then the Declan in the future would be gone, too. My body broke out in a cold sweat. How could I do this? How could my Complement think I was capable of doing this? What if my mom came around the corner? There’d be blood. There’d be screaming. A mess…

“I don’t feel so good,” I said.

“You don’t look so good.”

“I think I might be sick.”

He turned to fetch the garbage pail and I tried to will myself to stand. To take the scissors. To not think about it. To just plunge them into his back and run. To get it over with. But I couldn’t move.

He swiveled around and handed me the plastic pail. “I’ve got something that’ll help. Hold on.”

He disappeared around the corner. Another wave of nausea hit and I held the pail tighter. Maybe I really did have the flu. Then the pain sliced through my skull, and I grit my teeth and groaned.

 

 


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 717


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