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“I’m not here to be your emotional punching bag, Atlas. I am hurting just as much as you are.” She raised her voice slightly.
“You have no idea how badly I am hurting. He is my brother. I’ve known him a hell of a lot longer than you. Don’t you dare fucking tell me that you understand just how much I am hurting.” I seethed, turning around and shrugging her hand off my shoulder.
“You—” Emily was cut off as a couple of the monitors in the room started beeping loudly and rapidly. We both turned to the bed where Kaleb was lying, and an entire medical staff of nurses and doctors filled the room.
They checked monitors, filled syringes with various liquids, and plunged them into his IV. Emily gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, and my mind spiraled. Everything was happening so fast that I was no longer hearing the sounds of the machines ringing in my ears. What happened to the beeping?
Mom and Dad ran into the room; they had just returned from grabbing lunch. I could hear my Mom crying, and she ran over to embrace Emily, who was screaming. My Dad came over to me and tried pulling me away from the bed so the doctors could continue their work to save Kaleb. I didn’t even notice that I had moved. I was standing at the foot of his bed, fisting the blankets that covered him.
It all happened so fast. One minute, Emily and I were arguing, and then next, I was being restrained against the wall by my Dad and a male nurse. I was raging inside as I watched the staff work on my brother. Minutes passed, and eventually, I was released and fell to the floor on my knees.
They were switching off his monitors, disconnecting his breathing tube… He was gone.
I overheard the muffled sounds of the doctor giving my parents their condolences.
“… we can confirm that Kaleb Jensen has passed due to multiple organ failure... This is a sudden and unexplainable death; we still haven’t been able to determine the cause for the organ failure… I am so very sorry for the loss of your son—”
Dad went to comfort Mom and Emily as I kneeled on the floor. My fists pounded into the floor, and tears ran freely from my eyes. At some point, I was pretty sure I had started screaming.
Hours had passed since Kaleb had been pronounced dead. My parents had to finish up the paperwork regarding his body before we could leave the hospital. Emily had left an hour ago, her parents came to take her home. She still hadn’t calmed down, and who could blame her? If it weren’t for the exhaustion that consumed me, I would still be in a frenzied state myself.
“I don’t understand; the doctor stated he died of multiple organ failure. Why does his paperwork state he died of a drug overdose?” I overheard my Dad speaking with the nurse who stopped in with documentation regarding Kaleb’s death.
“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t have an answer for you. You will need to speak with the Physician who called it.” She bowed her head and stepped out of the room. I stood from where I was sitting and took the packet from my Dad, reading over everything once, twice, three times.
He wasn’t wrong; the documentation stated that Kaleb’s reason for death was a drug overdose. It took me several minutes of staring at the words; drug overdose, drug overdose, drug overdose, before I realized what had happened and what this meant.
My brother was dead, and I was going to find the motherfucker that was responsible for his death if it was the last thing I ever did.
CHAPTER 24
Chyler
My head was pounding, and I could barely feel my limbs. I blinked open my eyes and attempted to lift my head to see where I was. The last thing I remembered was Charlotte, Madison, and Alexis before Atlas and I collapsed. Atlas. Where was Atlas?
Panicking, I jerked my head around and saw no one else in the room. He wasn’t here. Did they kill him? I swear to fucking god, if they touched a single hair on his fucking head… I could feel my heart beating hard against my ribs, and my breaths were short. I was hyperventilating. Adrenaline consuming me. Where the fuck was Atlas.
The door in front of me opened, and Madison entered, holding her hands behind her back and standing just to the side of the doorway. Charlotte and Alexis followed her into the room. Alexis stopped next to Madison, and Charlotte stepped closer towards me.
“Good, you’re up.” She snapped her fingers and held her hand out to the side. Madison handed her a syringe with a violet liquid in it. I remembered that vial from when we kidnapped Tyler.
“Ataraxia.” I breathed, my eyes widened, and I struggled in the chair.
“Ah, I see you know what this is. Lovely, that will make explaining what is about to happen to you so much easier.” She grinned and tested the plunger; a small amount of the violet liquid seeped from the tip and dripped to the floor.
“But I’m not a drug addict; what good is that going to do being used on me?” I scoffed and rolled my eyes, giving up the fight against my restraints.
“My girl, Ataraxia cures all kinds of addictions, not just those related to drugs. Yes, drug users are the primary market, but not the only market. Rewiring the reward center means eliminating the feelings of pleasure and reward for anything and everything, from drugs to sex and even food. While the original version, Relessen, only worked on a continuous-use basis—and as soon as you stopped taking it, you would relapse back to your old wants and needs—Ataraxia has been reformulated into a much stronger single dose. One and done, I believe, is the term Roman used.”
“So what are you going to do with that? Rewire my brain to not feel for Atlas anymore? To not love him?” I mocked her. She was trying my last nerve, and as soon as I got out of this chair, I was going to kill her.
“Not exactly. See, Atlas never explained to you just how this drug actually worked. Think of the ‘rewire’ as a hard reset. Once I inject you with this serum, your entire reward center will reset itself completely, making you forget any and all of the vices that once gave you pleasure, that controlled you, as if you had never experienced them at all. This dose right here, however, was tailored specifically to target the emotion of love. Consider yourself the first patient in testing Ataraxia for eliminating the need for love.”
“You can’t ‘cure’ love, Charlotte. It doesn't work that way.” What was this woman on? She was fucking nuts…
Charlotte laughed and pulled my hair, jerking my neck to the side and exposing it for her.
“Of course you can. Love can be a form of addiction, just like everything else in this world, and once this kicks in, you’ll remember the man but none of the feelings you had for him. That is the beauty of this drug; it works because it makes you forget what you crave most in this world, what gives you pleasure; it can make you forget how to feel if administered correctly. Now, you have a job to do, and your—love—for Atlas is going to be a problem. See you in a few minutes, darling.”
