Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 17

After the curl-ups, I was forced to do squats, pull-ups, and lastly, lift weights.

With each exercise, I grew more and more angry at both Ashley and Jeremiah. I hated them for making me do so much work that was unrelated with my powers. What was I even doing here, anyway?

I had to stretch after the heavy workout. All of that took over an hour, and I only received a thirty second break between activities for a reward. Ashley really wasn't kidding.

When I was done, I walked with Ashley to the dining hall, where lunch was served. They had a vast assortment of foods from pizza to beans, potatoes, and steak. The lunch ladies served us with gusto (something I'd never experienced before) and we got through the line quickly.

I sat with Ashley as well, all the while listening to her rambles about her life and why exercising was important. I only listened to the part where she explained why I needed to do normal workouts. She believed it was because it's, "important to keep your body in peak condition," but she also admitted she was under orders from Jeremiah not to train me with my abilities yet. I asked her why, but she apologized and told me she accepted the orders without questions.

Apparently, she had a lot of friends as well. People I had never seen before and probably wouldn't care to remember filled in all of the seats around us. All of the ones except for the two directly in front and next to me. Still, it felt lively, especially since the tables were made of a dark wood and didn't make the atmosphere tense. I didn't have to talk much besides the occasional nod and feigned interest; her friends took care of that.

I was completely bored and focusing my attention elsewhere. I barely paid attention to the conversation until Ashley's words finally broke through my skull and something she said triggered me.

"...Though, you did snap his neck."

She was talking to me. Why would I...

"Who? Who's neck did I break?" I asked Ashley urgently.

"Haven't you been paying attention? Ben's," she replied. "No wonder he hates you so much. He used to talk about how much he wants to kill you every day. Now, it's just a passing thought to him."

I slid down in my seat dejectedly. "You're talking about the day I turned on my team, aren't you?"

"Of course. When else would you do something like that?" she exclaimed.

"I...wouldn't," I said weakly. In truth, I had done it to both Metagor and Sage once. But that was for an entirely different reason.

Now, I was finding out my dreams in the pod told me about my past and my future. More of the unexplained.

Could that have been a memory escaping its bonds through my guilt? Did it happen in my dreams because I had done it and felt bad about it?

"Ashley, do you know what happened that day?" I asked her.

"Who doesn't?" she said with a smirk. "That was the worst day of our lives."

"Why?"

"Because it was also the day we had to drag you in that pod." Her tone became darker. "It...wasn't pretty."

The people around us had become silent, listening to her words.

"What did I really do?" I asked.