Facade

Chapter 13- The Taking.

"What? How?" Lana says in disbelief as we walk to the park near my house, away from anyone that can hear the conversation. 

It's a relatively bright and sunny day. Birds chirping, cicadas buzzing, and calm of the evening reinforced the feeling. This isn't a conversation I'm too keen on having but I thought Lana would be more, I don't know, joyful? Not a simple 'what' since she was always so rebellious.

I sigh and shake my head, "I really don't know, I can't change anything." I'm completely lost. I can't just change how I feel. I wish it was that easy.

"B-but soul mates. This is what you've been waiting for." Lana's eye widen and asks a question that I've been contemplating ever since "what are you going to do?"

I shake my head "nothing. There's nothing I can do, nothing I'm going to do. I'm not going to do Unnaturali Infirmitate." I shudder slightly at the thought as I see her fidget "I'm going to be with Nick." Matthias has soul mate already, this is something I can never tell him.

"Moving onto other things," I stray away from the subject "I haven't asked you yet, how's your soul mate? What's he like?" I ask, turning around to walk backwards and to look at her. Her whole demeanor changes, she tenses up at the question.

"I haven't met him yet." She says in a hushed tone. What? It's past her birthday already. She's suppose to have met him.

"I-I don't understand, how?" I ask as we walk under the arc entrance of the park. There's no way, everyone and I mean everyone met their soul mate on their birthday.

"I don't know," Lana shrugs, she looks beside me, slightly avoiding eye contact "I was out all day and nothing happened."

Really? She was horrible at acting, she always avoids eye contact when she lies. I widen my eyes a little and turn my head away, pretending to not notice and look at the trees and the birds. What reason does she have. Did something happen? Did she meet him and just not like him? Why would he even hide that though?

I turn back and give a small smile while letting out a small breath of air "well I'm sure you'll meet him soon." I half heartedly reassure her as she slowly nods.

Step by step, we silently for a few minutes stroll up to the fountain at the center of the park.

As I listen to the water trickle into the basin, out of nowhere Lana says "Well I hope you'll be happy."

I scrunch my eyebrows at her tone. It's... wrong, it's not a happy kind of tone I'm used to getting from her, it's monotonous and just not her. There's nothing I can say, nothing that I want to say that will make it even more awkward. Whatever's bothering her I'm sure she'll tell me in time.

I shift my attention away from the fountain and the atmosphere seems to have changed. The birds are no longer chirping and yet the cicadas still buzz but they seem to have changed their tune, a darker and jumpy tune.

I jump back at a ruffle in the bushes and a black cat slinks out of the bushes. It's yellow marble like eyes stare at me for a second before moving on, disappearing behind the trees. I chuckle at myself for being scared of a cat.

Suddenly, robust footsteps trot along the cobblestone behind me and I expect to see a group of elderly shuffling through the park. A grunt and a yelp makes me whip my head back to see the commotion. 

A glare blinds me for a moment and I shift aside to see a full armored body towering over me, covering my view of Lana. I scrunch my eyes as I move a few more steps to the right. Fear strikes through me, a conditioned feeling, and I'm paralyzed. What am I suppose to do in this situation, I've never seen a joper arrest someone but I've heard the stories. If I try to intervene, they'll just take me too.

What is going on? "You have the wrong person!" I manage to croak on the sidelines, too scared to intervene. I feel a hand on my arm and I look behind me, another joper, he's holding onto me tightly but not too tight as if I'll try to resist. I watch helplessly as Lana struggles to break free but the joper takes her arms and locks it behind her. Her panicked eyes shift back and forth, thinking about strategies to escape. Her ragged breaths are muffled out by the jopers, radioing in on their situation.

I try to listen in but all I manage to hear is 'We've got her.'

I turn and I start to see people surround the park, poking their heads to see the situation. To see who has incurred the wrath of the jopers.

"You and your filth." I flinch as the joper hisses at Lana and he gruffly puts more strength on the hold he has of her arms, making her jerk back. Filth? What? Was he talking about me? My question is answered as he nods at the guard behind me "we've got your lover boy already." He sneers.

All the fight seemed to escape from her in that instant. She dips her head down, her hair covering her face and stops resisting. It's almost as if she just went limp, making the jopers job a whole lot easier. I look at her in horror, realizing the reality of the situation. Realizing what the joper just said and what Lana has done. This is what's been happening over the past weeks? She's been in Unnaturali Infirmitate?

I silently gasp as I hear a faint sob coming from Lana and I raise my eyebrows. This is the first time I've seen her cry and she's done the unthinkable. It's as if I'm watching this play out from a TV screen, this body isn't mine, this isn't happening to me. I watch as the joper pushes her forward to walk, going in the opposite direction I hear the sobs disappear. I make no effort to show any emotions that are in turmoil inside since there are still so many jopers around me.

A voice comes out of the joper behind me "you're free to go." He releases the clutch he has on me, relieving me of my anxiety but I scrunch my eyebrows a little. One by one, they slink away, leaving me at the center, at the fountain.

As a few minutes pass by I'm sure I was just blank, I'm having trouble processing all of this. A range of emotions pass over me. Anger, worry, sadness, confusion. It's not possible. This isn't real.

An overbearing sense of betrayal covers the worry and sadness I have for Lana. How could she not tell me? How could she even do this? I didn't think she'd go as far as to do this. Why did this happen? How did this happen to her? 

I take a step back, it's after her birthday though and she was in it. I could be prone to it too right? Could I still get it? No, am I already infected? I don't have any feelings for my soul mate after all. I take a few more steps back before turning around to run and then into a full on sprint. I shove my hand into my pocket, clumsily taking out my phone to call the only person who I think would understand.