Cornelius was silent the entire time back. He refused to eat dinner. He stayed away from the study entirely. He couldn't look my direction. He was more than guilty. He was ashamed.
The entire evening was silent, and it slowly slipped into night. I waited until Cornelius was asleep in an armchair to sneak out of the apartment. I scooped a handful of ashes out of a fireplace and stealthily slipped down the stairs.
The ashes proved to be useful in fingerprinting revealing the code to unlock my way to get out. I punched in the numbers (4482) and followed the pipes to the fuel room.
The steel door no longer scared me. I didn't need the waiting room, I went straight past the door where I first saw Cornelius. The long, dark corridor that split to two rooms didn't scare me. I knocked at the door labeled "CONTROL ROOM", and Edison answered with a scowl.
"What do you want?" he grumbled, clearly annoyed.
"I'm supposed to be in the next batch," I replied, refusing to feel fear.
"You need to go into the other door to be tested then."
I did so obediently, opening an airtight door that revealed two guards beating at least a dozen workers one after the other. My stomach dropped at the sight. A few workers lay bleeding and crying on the floor. No one went to help them. They just waited in a group to be beaten and thrown to the floor. On the other side of the dome was the control room where Edison and several other people watched coldly.
A guard noticed me and grabbed my hair. He forced me against a curved glass wall several inches thick. He bashed my skull against the glass, kicking my feet out beneath me. My knees hit the floor hard. He hit me in the face a few times before kneeing me in the back of my neck and dropping me to the floor. My nose dripped crimson onto the cold stone.
I wasn't afraid before, but I was now. I regretted my decision entirely. I wanted to be back in the apartment. I wanted to be back with Cornelius again. I wanted to read with him again.
I tried standing, but the guard kicked me in the stomach with a steel toed boot. He swung repeatedly, to the point I felt like I would vomit. He stomped on my right wrist, causing it to snap. I felt the skin break, and I began bleeding quickly. I couldn't move my hand without needing to scream.
I tried but found no sound. I could barely breathe. My vision was clouded with tears and spots. All I heard were the shouts and sobs of others.
Suddenly through all of the chaos, the door swung open violently and a high pitched whistle broke through the suffering. The whistle was promptly followed by the baying and growling of two monstrous dogs. A large streak of back flew by me and leaped at the guard beating me.
I tried crawling away but stopped when I heard a few gunshots being fired by the other guard. I couldn't see what he was shooting at. Nevertheless, I hoped he had bad aim.
"Genevieve! Genevieve!" a familiar voice called out through the chaos.
Tears streaked down my face and I found my voice.
"Cornelius!"
He knelt down on the floor and felt around blindly before finding me. Brief relief crossed his face but was soon replaced with a pained grimace. One of the bullets had hit him in the chest. He planted his back against the wall and pulled me into him.
"Genevieve...I'm so sorry for doing this to you."
"How are we going to get out of this, Cornelius..? We have to.."
He shook his head and opened his mouth to speak. Instead, he coughed, blood staining his teeth and trickling down his lip. Crimson bled through his button up shirt, tears falling from his chin to my scalp.
"Cornelius, you can't do this. We have to make it out of here," I begged.
Cornelius stroked my hair and smiled painfully. His voice was raspy and sputtered.
"This is how the story ends Genevieve...it's not a happy ending, but it can be. We can end it...that's why you came here."
"The story can't end yet!" I begged. "Please, Cornelius!"
"Genevieve...I'm glad you were the ending of my story," he whispered, breaking the distance between us and kissing me softly.
His hand landed on mine, and scraped it against the stone floor. A spark landed in the blood pooling around us, and the last thing I remembered was kissing Cornelius.
