Divagate

Chapter 14

                                         Darwin
                                            •••••
    "Lia?" I say, rubbing my eyes. It kinda looks like her. My eyes are still heavy with sleep, so it's hard to tell.

     The person sitting on the floor among empty beer cans turns to me, their flushed face streaked with tears and filled with panic. It is Lia.

     In seeing me standing on the stairs, she leans her head against the side of the kitchen island, looking ever so slightly relieved, yet still struggling to breathe and shaking. Her clothes are torn, soaked, and covered with a light dusting of wet sand. There's some discoloration under her right eye that indicates an almost healed bruise. Wet and sandy footprints lead from the garage to the kitchen.

     By the looks of it, the walk Siggy said she went on didn't go so well.

     As she draws in a deep, heavy breath, it hits me; she's having a panic attack. What the fuck happened to her?

     I quickly move towards Lia, suddenly fully awake. "Lia, Lia, it's ok. I'm here. I'm here." I sit on the floor with her and place a hand on her knee, moving my thumb back and forth.

     I know telling her to "just breathe" isn't going to do anything. So, I just keep quietly repeating "I'm here" in an attempt to comfort her.

     After a while, her breathing begins to return to normal. Her tears slow a bit, too.

     "I-I thought y-you left." She says between shaky breaths. I shake my head,

     "You know Lincoln wouldn't let that happen." The corner of Lia's mouth quirks up a little.

     "Is he here?" She asks, big eyes pleading. By now, any indication of the bruise that was under her eye is completely gone.

     "Lincoln? No. It's just me." Lia looks down at her lap and nods. We sit in silence for a few minutes. My hand on her knee and her head against the island.

     "Where did they all go?" Her voice doesn't shake anymore and her eyes don't meet mine.

     "To find a camping spot in the woods. Lincoln wanted to be the one to stay and wait for you, but he was in no shape to fight someone off if needed. Lincoln and Vince are coming back tonight to get me... and now you, too."

     "Why did they decide to go camping?" Her brows furrow and her nose scrunches up in confusion, eyes continuing to not meet mine.

     "We saw a news segment on TV about us and figured we'd be safer away from people. The segment was really weird. It had—"

     "I know. I saw." Lia shudders. How did she see it? She was out on a walk on the beach. She wasn't with us when we saw it, either.

     Lia finally looks at me and sees the confusion in my face. She goes on and on about what happened last night.

     Her story leaves me completely shocked. It has to be fake. There's no way that Siggy pushed her— no, he would totally do that. There's no way that she actually met Amy and Tyler.

    She must've hallucinated as a result of her withdrawal and thought she met them. But, she described the news story perfectly.

     Lia tells me about how she remembers everything from before and at Myer Labs. I have no idea if parts of it are true since I don't recall anything from before Myer Labs.

     With the return of her memories also came old fears and anxiety, which explains how her panic attack started. From what I understand, not only did she fear being alone, but she was worried about what would happen to her because of being alone.