"Tell me right now what I was poisoned with." Rebecca said sternly.
Malyssa was slightly confused for a minute, then realization spread across her face.
"Ah, that poison. If you were talking about any other poison, you'd be dead right now. Well, the poison is very special. We made it ourselves. In fact, I was the one who came up with the idea. I'm very proud of myself." Malyssa smiled.
"Tell me the effects, the ingredients, its purpose. Tell me! I'm not joking."
Malyssa smirked, then began explaining more about the poison.
****************
Connor waited outside for Rebecca. When she came out of the room, she pushed past Connor, running away from him, apparently sobbing.
"Rebecca?" Connor called. She ignored him. What happened in that room? Connor walked in and asked Malyssa what had happened.
"Oh, that's her secret. She's not going to tell anyone unless she needs to. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't tell you. Ever." Malyssa then started to laugh like a madwoman. Connor left the room, and went off to find Rebecca.
****************
Rebecca’s mind was racing. This couldn’t be possible. Could she really be living in a world of her own making? Could she really be dreaming this all up?
No. If she was dreaming this, then in real life…Malyssa said her mind would make things better for itself to patch up the things that would harm it. In real life…if she was making this up…
Could Conner really be dead?
She turned a corner. And Imraan. And Armaan. Anything could be happening to them at this moment. Her mind could be replacing their deaths with a vision of them living. Rebecca pressed her back against the wall and closed her eyes. How many times had she woken up to find that she was still asleep? Would she ever be able to wake up from this dream? This nightmare?
In a rush, she pulled up her shirt to look at her side. The wound was almost completely healed over, thanks to new HIA medical technology. Or thanks to her own mind for changing what was actually happening.
She turned around, holding her head and pressing her hands against the wall. This life was a lie. What could she trust? Who could she trust, if she couldn’t even trust herself? This wasn’t life. This was torture, worse than being trapped in physical restraints. These were mental restraints. This time it was herself that was holding her down, and she couldn’t do anything to change it.
“Rebecca, where are you?” came Conner’s voice. It was so close, yet so far away. He rounded the corner, and she could see his face. His worried expression seemed so perfect.
Too perfect. She couldn’t trust him anymore. She didn’t know what was true and what wasn’t. She knew that what she wanted most was for him to care for her, and now she could see that she had been making it up all along. She always knew Conner was too good for her, that he would never choose her over anyone else. Her mind had to be making this up. This was what she wanted, so it was a lie. She held the sides of her head.
Everything she wanted was a lie. She wouldn’t be able to trust anything god that happened to her anymore.
“What’s going on?” he asked, concerned. Rebecca looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. She wanted him, but she knew he couldn’t be real. She had to let him go.
“I…You’re not real,” she said shakily. She turned and ran off.
Maybe she was wrong. Maybe she could do something. In every dream she had had so far, she had awoke before she died. She’d heard, once, that you can’t die in your dreams, and that you always wake up. It was so simple now. She had the answer.
All she had to do was die, and she would wake up.
****************
Conner was too confused to chase after Rebecca. What did she mean, he wasn’t real? Of course he was. He was standing right there. Why would she think he wasn’t real?
Wait. She hadn’t been like this until she had talked with Malyssa. That treacherous FNTTMS agent must have told her some kind of horrible lie that made her believe she was still in some sort of dream.
Immediately, he knew. Malyssa seemed so nice from the beginning, but he had known the FNTTMS to use the mind in horrible ways, in the worst kinds of tortures. All Rebecca was to them now was a threat. There was only one reason why they would be doing this. He had to warn someone, before something terrible happened.
They wanted Rebecca dead, and this was the best way they could make it happen.
****************
It had all been a big blur to Katie. She saw Armaan jump forward, swinging some kind of broad stick or something. Tyler kicked some guy in the shin just as Sarah pulled out some sort of gadget from her backpack. A Samoan guy flung Tyler away, right into Katie, and she fell down hard, hitting her head on something hard. A few seconds later, she heard voices. She opened her eyes to see the agents standing above her, in the plane. Then she realized she must have been out for more than just a little while.
“What happened?” she asked.
“You blacked out,” Armaan said. “Don’t worry, we handled things.”
“You mean I did,” Sarah said. “I did most of it.”
“Well, I helped,” Armaan responded.
“One guy. You battled one guy. And you didn’t even take him out!” Sarah exclaimed.
“He was already weakened before you pulled out that one thing and told us to cover our ears.”
“’That one thing’ is called a Vibratorium. It’s a little thing the ASW invented. It’s hard on the ears without actually making the drums burst. It can make a full grown man go unconscious.”
“Well, pardon me,” Armaan said, shifting in his seat. “I didn’t know I had been so useless.”
“Hey guys,” Tyler interrupted. They turned to him. “Katie just woke up.”
“So?” Armaan asked, not getting it.
“Shut up,” Tyler answered plainly.
“Oh.” Then he whispered, “Sorry.”
“I’m okay, really,” Katie said, standing up. For a couple seconds she felt a bit woozy, but her body adjusted to the movements of the plane and she was fine. “How did it go with you, Tyler?”
“You might want to think of taking up a job as a cushion sometime,” Tyler teased, giving her one of his best smiles. “You worked quite well for me.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Katie answered, and bowed. Black dots swam across her vision, and she sat down. “So what did you do with them?”
Sarah pointed to the back. “Armaan tied them up and locked them in the big cabinet back there.”
“So…what are we planning now?” Katie asked.
“Well…you kind of weren’t awake, so we already decided without you,” Sarah responded.
“Decided what?”
“The Tongans weren’t all that welcoming…”
“What?”
“We decided to go to Fiji.”
****************
Rebecca was on the top of the bell tower. She wished that she could find someplace higher and quicker, but she knew that she didn't have enough time to find someplace else. She breathed deeply. Soon, this nightmare would be over! She'd be awake in the real world, ready to do something real. Rebecca slowly let her foot lift off of the balcony when she heard a voice calling her.
"Rebecca!"
"You're not real, Connor. I'm going to go back to reality!" Rebecca turned back to the balcony and jumped off of the bell tower.
****************