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He pulled away from me, and I tried to hold on, but he shrugged me off, and I lost my balance. I put my hands out to save myself before I headbutted the breakfast tray.
My back straightened, and I found him back in the doorway. A wave of his hand encouraged me to eat, but I couldn’t. My mouth was already full of all the questions I couldn’t voice. Even as it opened and closed to talk, I was as silent as him. There was no sound in the room but the ruffle of clothes as I wrapped the creased arms of my shirt around myself.
I broke the silence.
“Have you made some kind of deal with them?” Terror lingered in my tone, and swallowing it down made me feel sick as I waited for an answer.
He shook his head, his dark hair styled and unmoving, so different from his usual floppy mess. His mouth lifted into a cruel smile.
“I don’t understand?” I didn’t want to understand because none of this made sense to me.
Why was he standing with them? Dressed like them?
My eyes moved from Mercer to the others. One’s eyes met mine. They were dark, like chocolate, and sympathetic to my bleak situation. The other guy’s were as cold as this room now that the door was open, and a chill was welcomed in.
“Probably time to explain it to her,” Chocolate Eyes said. He sounded a little like how I thought Mercer might have sounded once upon a time. American, with a tiny hint of Italian loitering on his vowels.
Discomfort slumped him against the wall. His foot kicked up, pressing against the colorful notes and drawings, and it would have painted an ugly look on my face, but my eyes were back on Mercer, my ears waiting for answers.
“Can you talk? Was it all lies? Are you on their side?” My eyes didn’t lower from his face, not even to see the tormenting freedom lurking behind him. They just narrowed on him, giving my tears little room.
Mr. Cold Stare laughed, unable to control himself. Chocolate Eyes kicked away from the wall, already growing restless. The badly drawn little fox was stuck to his black shoe, and it twisted something painful inside me, feeling like an invisible knife stabbing the heart I shouldn’t have.
I didn’t say a word, letting him crush the lie Mercer had painted. I would let him crush them all, making it less painful when each one became exposed.
I lifted my head to the camera.
“You don’t need to worry about that, Feebee.” I froze at the sound of that same robotic voice that barked daily orders.
Mercer held a device in his hand, a small keyboard that could transmit messages to speakers for me to hear. In that voice. That robotic voice I hated.
“I...you?” I didn’t know what to say. “It was all lies? Please say I’m wrong!” My gut knew I wasn’t. Knew he was on their side—no, he wasn’t working with them. They were working for him. I could tell by the way they watched him for direction. Every other part of me couldn’t face that knowledge, but my gut knew. “You’re the voice.”
My shoulders slumped, and my head dropped, missing any reaction on Mercer’s face.
“But you were hurt…instead of me?”
“I was. That had to happen to help accelerate the fictive feelings you think you have for me.” The impersonal twang stabbed into my ears.
“My feelings are real,” I said, my words making Chocolate Eyes uncomfortable.
With them standing so close, I could see a resemblance lurking behind the white paint—it was the mouth, the perfect teeth.
“I thought you were an only child. Was that another lie?”
“We’re cousins,” Chocolate Eyes answered, moving closer to his cousin.
“A family of crazy people who agree with kidnap and torture?” I quipped, overtaken by a rogue feeling of anger that slipped from my control.
Mercer dismissed the outburst.
“This was all your doing?” My voice broke.
“Yes. Though they did go rogue once or twice.” He side-eyed Cold Stare with hate in his eyes, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. “You’re aware of the reason you’re here.”
I couldn’t read anything from his face as my eyes glanced between that blank expression, now that it was back on me, and his fingers rapidly moving on the tiny keyboard.
“You’re not with your girlfriend anymore because she’s dead?”
