The Human Puzzle » Places

         

Sarah felt her control slipping as soon as everyone began to leave. She was given a firm order to wait with Delirium in case there were any tricks being played between Delirium and Rezia and that she actually wasn't dead. Sam likely thought Delirium was now a puppet when in reality the girl was dead in her arms. She was about to tell the guard as much when a small voice in her head just told her to stay silent and wait.

So Sarah did. She sat alone with this dead girl. A girl she didn't know but also felt like she did. And that was where Sam had made his mistake.

Being alone "guarding" the dead body of Katherine made everything come back in waves. That fog and that mask that had been built up brick by brick over the years was tumbling. Seeing the destruction and the pure unnecessary violence that had surmounted in Katherine’s death blasted through her shield of not knowing. Who she was, where she was, and that she had not been in control for a very long time. Her mind had been broken so thoroughly since the years Stephen had thought her dead that she had never shown any signs of remembering her life, and the idea that all these processes were wrong. Hatred cut through her, strong fierce, like a wildfire. She had not felt such an emotion for a while. It was all for Sam, for the people who had done this to her. Who had made her look at her brother without recognition the first time she saw him again.

The fog was lifting, so Sarah left Katherine where she was, closing her eyes, and walked to the elevator. She went to press the button but a headache began to form, her vision going foggy. Was it the chip he had implanted? Did Sam already recognize her defiance and was trying to prevent her from helping the others? Maybe he'd always put perimeter checks on her chip in case she ever broke the fog. She tried again simply lifting her hand to the button, but her arm was too weak. She vomited promptly on the floor.

Sarah sat down, nearly passing out, and pulled herself back from the elevator doors. Almost instantly all her strength came back and the pain in her head subsided. She was about to wait there defeated when she felt such raw anger and pain strike her mentally. Sarah recoiled, partially confused. No one was near enough to her to be pressing their emotions on her. Usually she had to be at least in the same room to actively feel someone else's thoughts without searching for them herself. Otherwise she has to specifically look into people's minds, and even that doesn't have a far reach.

Sarah reached out blindly with her mind and found a tether to Stephen reaching out to her. She pulled on it and instantly she was in his mind in his thoughts. Even so far below her, she could connect with at least him, her brother. He was angry, and in so much pain. Resilient, rebellious. And... dying. Her brother was dying.

Sarah jumped up and launched herself at the elevator button, instantly the waves of nausea weakness and pain brought her to a blinding stop. She could barely even see. She was paralyzed, shaking and in pain almost near collapse. The button a fingertip out of reach. Again she felt pain from Stephen radiate into her. His last few heartbeats. He was dying, he was planning on dying. Sarah cried out, fighting the insufferable chip in her head, the pain could not stop her. She moved her frozen muscles, her body rejecting every inch she moved her arm.

As she finally, finally had her finger on the button, Stephen's thoughts went dead. Silent. He was gone, and she was too late.

Sarah exploded. Her entire fist slammed into the button, her body lurching forward. The chip had given up, shorted out, no longer able to keep up with her resilience. The elevator door opened with a mocking ding!

Sarah entered, Sarah descended. She was going from room to room, each of Sam’s usual places of torture and deceit, taking much longer than she would have liked. She didn’t care now, Stephen was dead. She was just coming to save all who were left, caught in Sam’s game. She schooled her face into emotionless disinterest each time she passed a guard. She had security clearance to be down here, even had a key to get around that had been tucked into one of her boots alongside one of her knives. Just merely Sam’s pet, being called to her master. She finally after much searching felt the minds of the group she was looking for huddled together behind another closed door. She readied herself, pulling out one of said knives.

She swung open the door, revealing a dead Sam on the floor and four people standing ready to leave.

Sarah dropped to her knees, the knife clattering on the floor, and wept.