CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Once again, after the pop, I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar world. Where did I jump this time? Light spilled from outside and spread across the dusty floor of the hall. I stood and shook the grogginess away. The doorway before me didn’t have bars.

Well, if the EA didn’t know for sure I’m the Oracle, they do now, I thought to myself.

My mind zipped around on how I could possibly free Elle and Kaden. I could bring things back with me, like keys, but I couldn’t control when I came back. And whoever planned to make this into a jail hadn’t done so yet apparently. What about a weapon? If I could find an armory, or if I hid in the camera room, I could see where Kaden was being held once I returned. Or maybe if I found Declan and did what I couldn’t do the last time, this would all change. No. I kept forgetting the timelines only ran parallel and that killing him would only remove him from the future.

I moved down the hall toward the window. Willowy trees swayed in the wind in a Brighton I didn’t recognize. Worn buildings and streets overgrown with brush and weeds were nothing like the beautiful pristine place where I’d grown up. Pride from how Brightonians rose from the ashes anew swelled. So much would change in such a little time. Why did the EA become so corrupt?

Voices down the hall stole my attention, and I hid in the shadows. They faded as the couple rounded the corner. I tiptoed across the dirty floor toward where they’d disappeared, to listen in or see if they were the only ones here. Opened doors on either side of me led to empty rooms.

“This would make a great hospital.”

I jumped at the nearness of the man’s voice—Declan Wilderman, of course—and slunk into the nearest room. He came closer and I cursed my fate. It was as if my time jumping purposefully put me in his path—a path of murder—yet left me without a weapon.

Nice.

“And this is my office,” he swung the door open wide almost smacking me in the face with it.

I held my breath and trembled, hiding behind it.

A woman’s giggle followed. “What do you need an office for?”

My stomach dropped. Why did he have to be with Mom?

“How else are we going to get time together?”

“Declan, honestly…” Mom chastised.

Through the crack I watched him embrace my mom and kiss her neck. I thought I’d be sick.

“We can’t do this, and you know that,” she whispered.

“And why not?” he asked between kisses.

“You know why.” She pushed him away and I did a silent happy dance.

“Jeff, shmeff.”

“He saved our lives and we owe him.”

Yeah! Tell him, Mom.

Declan huffed. “That doesn’t mean you belong to him.”

Mom walked into the hall, her voice terse. “Well, I don’t plan on thanking him by hurting him.”

I bit my lip, in agony listening to this conversation.

“He’s never there for you. He spends all his time in that lab of his, for what? A cure? There’s no cure against the zombies and you know it.”

Mom exhaled sharply. “That girl today was different. She didn’t have a scar. We could give Jeff her blood—”

“I’m not giving him anything. Not the blood! Not you!”

“Please… this is hard enough as it is,” Mom begged.

“Don’t you see? He doesn’t love you like I do,” Declan said softly. “And no one has to know.”

Sounds of kissing just about pushed me over the edge and I put my hands over my ears. Dad’s reaction to Declan’s name all made sense now. He must have found out. But a cure? We had a cure for the virus from The Attack. Did Dad end up finding a cure for zombies, too, making them become extinct? That wouldn’t make sense considering Kaden’s family said zombies were a myth propagated by the EA to control us.

My heart continued to pound as I saw red. I couldn’t stand to hear them kissing any longer.

At the pop and the bright light, I opened my eyes. The room had transformed. Fully furnished, I was surrounded by floor to ceiling bookshelves loaded with books. Real books made with paper.

“Why, hello,” a startled voice said to my left. I turned.

Declan sat at the large desk before me, his eyes cautious.

My breath rushed in and out way too fast. He looked so much older and uglier with thinning grey hair, yellowish teeth and deep wrinkles set in his leathery face. He looked nothing like the photograph in the Advice Meeting hall depicted him.

“That’s impressive,” he continued, gaining composer. “Have a seat, Abigail. We have a lot to talk about.”

I moved to the leather chair and sat, back ridged. My heart raced so fast, I was sure it would seize any second.

“Do you know who I am?”

I nodded.

“Good. I have to say, Anna was very clever in hiding you and if you hadn’t of attended your meeting, we might have never figured it all out… looks like you weren’t a Glitch after all.”

I clenched my hands in my lap in attempts to stop them from shaking. Anna hid me? Who was she?

Declan stood and pushed his hands in his pockets. A flash of a gun in a holster on his waist made my gut twist. “If Anna had been around for your meeting, you would have made her acquaintance. She is after all, your Complement.” He fanned his fingers on the desk and leaned forward. “You actually had your meeting with my assistant, Jessie. With a few computer facial changes here and there, she becomes a great fill-in when there’s a glitch.”

I blinked at him in dismay when something clicked. It was Declan’s voice I’d heard after my meeting. He and his assistant had staged everything. But why was my Complement’s name Anna? Shouldn’t it be Abigail?

I shook my head. “Why would our names be different?”

His left brow rose. “That’s what I want to know. Maybe we should ask Anna?”

We? I didn’t like the sound of that.

He cleared his throat. “Well, before you get any ideas and zip out of here, you need to put these on.” He pulled out something from his drawer and pushed them across the desk toward me. His hand brushed a beautiful leather-bound book, secured by a lock that also lay on his desk. I briefly wondered what secrets he held inside it until my eyes fell on the handcuffs he set before me. How were those going to stop me from jumping through time?

“No.” I lifted my chin in defiance.

“No?”

Headache. I need a headache.

He smiled evilly and turned a small screen sitting on his desk toward me. Someone with brown hair kneeled on the floor in front of a guard dressed in blue. Declan clicked an intercom button. “Go ahead.”

The cop looked up as if he saw us and nodded. Then he pulled out a gun and trained in on the person’s head. Terror spread through me. Elle, my dad and Kaden all had dark short hair, but I couldn’t see them clearly.

“Who is that?” I asked fearfully.

Declan clicked the intercom again. “Look at the camera.”

When the person didn’t move, he yelled at them again, this time calling them a derogatory name.

The man tilted his chin upward and glared. “Go ahead. Do it!” Kaden yelled.

“No!” I stood, flung off the DOD watch and grabbed the cuffs, snapping them on.

“I knew you’d be cooperative.” But Declan didn’t call the guard off.

Sweat beaded on my forehead, expecting to hear a gunshot at any moment. “Make him stop!”

Declan nonchalantly clicked the intercom button. “Hold for now.”

I trembled, watching on as the guard finally lowered his gun. Kaden spit in his face. The guard backhanded him with the gun.

“No!” I screamed, slamming my bound hands onto the desk.

“That’s enough of that.” Declan clicked off the screen and walked around the side of the desk.

“You’re a monster,” I said through gritted teeth. Anna’s hate for him made sense and everything inside me wanted to grab the gun from his belt and finish him off.

“That’s relative, my dear, but like it or not, we’re in this together.” He produced a shiny key and leaned toward me. Grabbing my wrists, he unlocked one side of the cuffs and clasped it around his own wrist.

“What? What are you doing?”

He smiled. “Where you go, I go. Simple as that.”

I formed my hands into fists and felt them shaking.

“Now,” he said, “I need to see Anna and you’re going to take me to her.”

I swallowed hard and frowned. “I can’t.”

“Then Kaden will die, along with Eleanor, and then your parents. Must I go on?”

“No,” I breathed out hoarsely.

He yanked on the cuffs, pulling me closer to him. My wrist pinched in pain as the metal dug into my skin. “Then you’ll take me to Anna. Now.”

“It doesn’t work like that. I don’t control it.”

His face twisted. “So you just magically appeared in my office. Just like that?”

“Yes.” I hated that my voice quivered as if I were lying.

“I don’t believe you.” He moved toward the intercom and I jerked his arm, pulling him away.

“Don’t you dare!” I yelped.

“Then take me!” he seethed in my face.

I closed my eyes and willed a headache. Please, please, please.

There was a pop, followed by darkness.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 651