Chapter 33: Why would we go there?
Chapter 33: Why would we go there?
The city, cold, dark, unforgiving, broken. Sarah stood in the middle of the city, surrounded by skyscrapers. Sarah went to put her hand in her pocket, and made a scowl. She looked down at the cut on her hand, but she wasn't sure what it was from. The jacket she was wearing, was Apollo's. She looked across the street and noticed a figure. It was a woman with blue-ish gray hair. She looked like she had a tail. The woman reminded Sarah of Medusa, one of her favorite cartoon villains. But that couldn't be her, the character was completely fake. Sarah wandered, the voice's commands ringing in the back of her head. She had to meet up with a man, he would be sitting on a bench in all black. Sarah wandered for a while. Soon enough, she found the man. He smiled at her, and she began to walk closer. He then waved, when she was about 20 feet away. "Gods, finally. She didn't say that it would be this long until you got here. We've got to get going." He turned and began to walk away, but paused when he realized that Sarah wasn't following him. He turned around, Sarah was crying. "I know this is hard, but it's what's best for you Sarah." He said. "Right." She agreed as she followed him. This time, he didn't look back. Her thoughts were crowded, this man talked to her with such comfort, and he looked like her father. He sounded like him too, so...he must be her father. She didn't dare ask for confirmation though, as it had the chance of breaking her tranquility. They walked for a while before stopping at a car. It was old, and rusted. Sarah didn't mind it, most things were rusted nowadays. She opened the passenger's side door and climbed in. They sat silently for a while. Sarah's thoughts went a little like this. This is my father! We should be bonding, not sitting here in silence! She opened her mouth to speak when his phone began to ring. "Yes, she's with me."
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"Yes, I tied up the loose ends with Amellia."
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"Yes, but I don't think she even knows why."
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"Yes, I'll see you soon."
He finished, and then set the phone on his leg. Sarah began, "soooooooo, where are we off to?" He answered, "have you ever been on a field trip to the old government's science and history museum?" "Yes, but why would we go there?" She asked, confused. He replied, "Oh, sorry. We're not going there, but to a similar building nearby. That wasn't meant to be confusing." He opened the glove compartment and pulled out a bag. It smelled, odd? Sarah decided that it wasn't her business, so she looked out the window. She heard him chewing and the compartment being closed. She turned over to see him looking relieved, in his eyes at least. The rest of his body was so tense that she was wondering if he had just exercised or something like that. He noticed her staring, and tried to look more comfortable. Soon enough they came to a stop in front of an old building. It was very tall, the walls were white but extremely faded and dirty. There were what seemed to be a combination of windows and balconies. It was miss-shapen, but maybe that was purposeful? While looking up, Sarah realized something. The sky was a dark, stormy gray. Why had that taken her so long to notice? She was interrupted by two people that had come outside to greet them. They asked her to come with them, so she said goodbye to the man she knew as her father. Each one grabbed hold of her arm, and felt something poking her arm. In mere seconds, Sarah had fallen asleep.
Apollo's Perspective, Breaking her fake reality:
Apollo sat in the car with his grandmother, Blake, Isi, and disappointingly Sarah's mother Amelia. They had been in silence for the last half an hour of the ride. His grandmother picked them up from the office building that they had been staking out. Everyone was disappointed in them, Apollo could see why. But, he didn't really care. He cared about Sarah too much, way too much to just let her be taken for testing. He was informed of her condition the day they met, so was Isi and his grandmother. It made Apollo so sad, and he couldn't do anything to help her. He could only help by making her time alive worth living. Blake suddenly spoke up, "so...….what are we doing right now? What's going on with Sarah?" He asked, only partially informed in the situation. "Apollo, did you really not tell him?" His grandmother asked. "I figured Blake could figure it out himself." He scoffed, he had become less and less of a fan of Blake nowadays. "I'll explain." Amelia said somberly.
"Blake, Sarah went through a large trauma when she was a toddler. Her brain was altered, and there was no way to bring her back to normal. Eventually, we learned that Sarah's brain does not work anywhere as well as it's supposed to. We were informed that she had been diagnosed with brain lesions." She paused and took in a shaky breath. "She-she's had these symptoms ever since. Umm, she tends to stutter a lot, as it takes her a long time to process her emotions. She has recurring head pain, nausea, memory loss, quick behavioral changes. Sarah has a hard time concentrating quite a lot. I'd say the worst one though, would be her hallucinations. She makes up these stories, these universes in her mind that can completely differ from reality. I really couldn't tell you what she thinks of any of us, as she's constantly conjuring up different stories and character traits for us. Hell, Apollo, she could think that you're some greek god. Her visions of the world and other people are always changing. Just, know not to get upset with her. None of this is her fault, we just have to get her through it." Amelia finished, grabbing a tissue to wipe her face.
"Alright, uh, that's a lot." Blake sighed. "You didn't answer my question though." Apollo glared at him, couldn't he tell that this was a sensitive subject? "Why are we going to some research building?" Blake asked. Amelia answered, "because you guys couldn't keep her safe! That was the whole reason that Sarah was in that cottage! First you nincompoops got her poisoned! Second, you let her wander off and now she's out getting herself in trouble!" Amelia let out a long, agitated sigh. "We didn't just let her wander off though! You", he pointed to Apollo's grandmother, "gave her to those people that came by!" Blake counteracted. "Yes and that was my fault, it seemed like the right thing to do for her in the moment." She looked back at the road. "Enough with the blame game." Apollo cut in. Sarah's going to get used for testing and we can't let that happen. No one knows how long she's going to live so we need to make her life worth it! Not filled with suffering and despair. I'm taking a nap, let me know when we get there." Apollo quickly fell asleep, curled up in his seat.
Apollo woke up, there was a bright light. He concluded that he must be dreaming. He saw Sarah, and a man with a tight grasp around her arm. His first instinct was to run, and relieve her of the hold. So, that's what he did. But the more he ran, and ran, and ran, the further away she became. All of a sudden Apollo felt locked to the group beneath them. He couldn't walk or run anymore, he fell to his knees locked to the ground. Apollo looked at Sarah, the man had held a knife up to her neck. Sarah started to scream and cry. She just kept crying and crying. Apollo felt hopeless, he couldn't do anything to save her. All of a sudden, Sarah turned into ash and flew into the wind.