11 Ivy

Ivy opened her eyes to darkness. She already knew where she was, strangely. This was the same place she'd seen her memories on the projector, although this time there was no projector. There was only darkness.

"Hello?" She called into the black inkiness. It echoed, but there was no answer.

She felt oddly rested. Relaxed. This place was funny to her, somehow. This place was different from the world she was from, or placed in or whatever. She took a deep breath. She tried to walk, but it didn't take her anywhere, which only made it funnier. Eventually, she got tired and bored, and sat cross-legged on the floor.

"Ahh," she sang into the dark. It echoed once more. But it wasn't funny anymore. Now it was just dull. What was this weird place? And why couldn't she get out of it? "Can't you show me some memories or something," she sighed. "I'm bored."

As if on cue, the projector appeared in front of her. But it didn't show any memories this time. Instead, she was looking at her own dead body. Ben was laying next to her, covered in blood and vomit. He was silently crying. Lea was sitting next to Ivy's body. She looked resigned, and quiet. Ezra was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell," Ivy muttered. Was she... dead? What was this place? The afterlife? If this was the afterlife, she didn't like it very much. Plus, she still didn't remember anything. Was it possible that she wasn't dead? What was this then.

She watched as Lea leaned over and told Ben that they needed to call the agency.

"Ew. They're going to clean my body away," Ivy grunted to herself. "I'm still alive you know! At least I think I am. I actually don't know," Ivy said and frowned. Was she dead? It certainly looked like it on the projector. Weird. Was she going to watch the rest of Ben's life play out on the projector? Was that what the afterlife was? If so, she didn't like it very much.

She watched for a bit, but nothing interesting seemed to happen. Ben laid next to her body the entire time with his eyes closed, a pained expression on his face. Ivy felt bad and wished she could comfort him, but clearly she couldn't do anything. She watched when the agency team came in, somehow managing to keep people out of the subway cart. They cleaned up all the blood, took away Ivy's body, and and swept up the ash. There was no trace of anything that had happened left. Lea, Ezra and Ben got off and were handed new things to change into, and told to burn their clothes if they had any traces of blood on them. The projector switched off after that.

Ivy waited in the dark. She didn't know what else to do. She sat there and stared into the blackness, then closed her eyes and found it looked exactly the same, to the point where she couldn't tell if she had her eyes open or closed. It was slowly driving her insane. She flopped onto her back and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. What the hell was she going to do now?

"Ivy?" A familiar voice startled her. She sat bolt upright. Who had spoken? She couldn't see anything.

"Hello?" She answered, unsure if what she'd heard was her imagination or not. Was she going crazy?

"Ivy, can you hear me?" The same voice responded.

"Yes, yes I can hear you. Who are you?" Ivy asked the dark.

"Ivy! Thank god you can hear me. Listen, I don't have long, and I can't really tell you anything or They'll find out. I just wanted to hear your voice, and have you hear mine. Maybe that will give you some memories. Just a conversation," the person said with a shaky tone.

"Okay... okay... just a conversation. Can I ask who you are?" Ivy wondered. The person was speaking in a rushed tone, and Ivy didn't want to rush them or pressure them. Clearly, they weren't safe.

"I - of course. You haven't heard my voice yet," the person responded. There was sadness behind it, and Ivy felt terrible for whoever it was. "It's me - Lily."

"Lily! Of course. I should have known," Ivy laughed slightly. "You're the one that's missing."

"Yes," Lily laughed in reply. "I'm the one that's missing. I heard you say that," she answered.

"Heard me? How?" Ivy questioned. She heard Lily take a sharp breath.

"I - I'm watching over you. We all are," Lily answered hesitantly. Ivy wasn't sure what that meant.

"Who's we? My family? Our family? Who else is there?" Ivy pressed. She wanted to know who else was in her life that she'd forgotten about. Lily stayed quiet for a moment.

"I can't say too much. I do need to tell you this though. It's important. You and Ben each have three lives. You just lost one down in the subway. It will take a while to regenerate, and each time you regenerate, it takes longer. Please be careful with your lives. Each level will be harder. You can't go around wasting them," Lily explained. Ivy nodded thoughtfully.

"So what is this? Like a video game or something?" Ivy observed. Lily paused.

"Kind of. You'll understand once you get to level one hundred. As for your question before... I can give you a little information. We live on Vancouver Island. We were born in Victoria, but ran away from home because of our mom. Now we live with our aunt Ellie and our two cousins, Riley and May, but we mostly call her Dandy. We were supposed to move to Japan this year. You didn't want to. We shared a room. Ben lived - lives - next door with his dad. That's all I can really tell you," Lily answered as quickly as she could. Ivy nodded quietly.

"So how did we end up here?" Ivy asked. Lily stayed silent for so long, she was sure her sister had left.

"I can't tell you the whole thing, or details. If I do, It'll mess everything up. You'll remember everything and They'll be so mad, They will kill you. Or me. Or all of us. I don't know. They're capable of anything. All I can say is - you agreed to it. They asked you to do this, and you said yes. I still don't know why. You never told me. Or talked to me about it. It happened in a flash. One second you were here, and the next your memory was wiped and you were gone. I've been trying to get as much information in as possible, but it's getting difficult. They suspect it's me, but they can't do anything to prove it. Just stay safe, Ivy. Please. You're the only good thing I have," Lily begged her. Ivy could hear the pain in her voice, and she felt it herself.

"Me too, Lily. Me too." And she meant it.