Julia's point of view:
"How did you find me?" I ask after an eternity of blissful silence, finally gaining the strength to use my voice once more.
No one answers immediately as our embrace dissolves, my friends stepping away to compose themselves before Adam speaks up.
"Those prisoners you freed navigated their way to the city. Steven told us how to find you," he explains.
A small smile finds its way to my lips at that, relief flooding my system with the knowledge that they made it there safely. But then, a sort of dreadful sadness soon chases away the calm.
"I suppose he told you about Peter, too," I whisper, turning my eyes to the floor.
Nobody acknowledges my words, but I detect a palpable shift in the atmosphere, the air around me growing thick with something I can't place, something that feels like withheld information.
"He did. Julia I'm...I don't have the words to comfort you," Adam admits, allowing me to perceive that the change in ambiance isn't coming from him.
The strange heaviness to the air quickly fades to the back of my mind, however, when I notice that most of the guards and nurses have begun to wake from their induced slumber.
A few of the nurses shriek upon seeing Henley's lifeless body on the floor. Others look relieved. Some of the guards look resigned, defeated, and I know they won't bring us trouble. A couple of them, however, look enraged.
"Please," I address them, hoping to assuage the situation before someone decides to start another fight. "Please don't do anything. It's over now."
All of the nurses seem content to stay where they are along with most of the guards. About five men, on the other hand, do not follow suit, rising to their feet and regarding me treacherously.
"You killed her," one of them seethes, reaching into his pocket for a gun that isn't there.
"No," I counter. "She drove the knife into herself."
"Liar," another spits at me venomously.
"Where is my gun?" The first man demands, growing more furious by the second as he frantically searches for it.
"I destroyed every gun in this room. No one else needs to get hurt today. I told you, it's over," I say.
"Little girl, you know nothing," a third man says before outright lunging at me, his imbecilic comrades following suit.
I can hear my friends ready themselves to assist me, but they never have to act on it: I outstretch my hand and freeze every single one of them in place with the power of control.
The five men stand there as if paralyzed, only able to move their eyes as I approach them. I can still feel their anger but have no desire to punish them, only to remove them as a threat.
I touch each of them on the forehead, releasing a particularly potent dosage of power-induced sleep before they each slump to the ground, a threat to no one now.
"Should give them half a day's worth of sleep," I mutter before addressing the rest of Henley's staff. "Anyone else?"
Thankfully, no one speaks up.
YOU ARE READING
Final Truth
ActionJulia Lancaster has reached her breaking point. She stands on the brink of shattering into millions of pieces as feelings of anger, hopelessness, and betrayal swirl within her. Everyone she loves is gone, unreachable to her anymore. Taken by Henley...
