Betrayal

Chapter 6

  Jolene woke up a few hours later with no recollection of what had happened before she passed out. She remembered leaving her room, and she remembered the large, tar-like creatures that seemed to inhabit the mines.

Her head felt light and she sat there for a few minutes as she watched the world around her spin. She didn't remember what happened and she didn't want to remember. A voice could be heard from outside the door. It was low and spoke in a harsh whisper. Jolene went to get up, but realized that her ankle was shackled to the bed frame again. She closed her eyes and listened.

The words were muffled, seemingly bleeding together into one long word that made absolutely no sense. From the slight accent she realized it was Lucas and all she could do was close her eyes and hope he wouldn't come in. She hoped that he was leaving and got caught up with other things. She hoped that whatever he wanted to do he had already done.

Then she heard it; the one name that brought hope back into her, the one name that reassured her that everyone was there.

"Zoe."

Jolene sat back, leaning against the salt walls to think about the girl she had completely forgotten about.

She couldn't believe it. From the sounds of it, Lucas sounded pretty pissed off about her, and Jolene wondered what it was that she had done.

She thought of her as she knew her, hoping that she was the same bright eyed girl she knew. She thought of her thin, pink lips that were always curved into a smile when she was around her. Her eyes, those beautiful grey eyes that Jolene would give anything to see again. Then there was her pale skin that would tint pink on the warmest days of the summer.

Jolene stopped and realized that she was looking back on Zoe as if she were in love with her. It was funny, after all, she did always favor Zoe over Lucas, and it wasn't just because he was slightly... unpleasant. Jolene never thought about it before, how she never really understood the drama in school over guys. She had convinced herself that she just wanted to focus on school, but deep down, despite how deeply it was buried, she knew that wasn't the reason.

The door burst open, causing Jolene to jump in shock. Lucas stood there, looming in the doorway like some monster that lurked in the dark,

(Like the real monsters that lurked in the mines)

huffing angrily and bearing its teeth. He stared Jolene down, scanning her face for an emotion, any emotion. In reality, he was looking for a reason to take his anger out on her. He wanted to blame his failures on her.

The traps were destroyed?

She did it.

Someone escaped and now dad was mad?

Her fault.

Some of the molded got into the labs and now a guy went missing? And they blamed Lucas?

Jolene killed him.

But he knew it wasn't that simple. Jolene had been sleeping this whole time. Hopefully she was cured. Dr. Reed had told him that she needed to stay in the labs so he could observe her and make sure she didn't reject the serum. Lucas declined and carried her over his shoulder back into her room in the mines. As he carried her away, he ended up confirming Dr. Reed's suspicions.

He looked at her, seeing the fear in her eyes, the horrified look of a victim. He smiled maliciously at her, as he approached the bed. The door remained open.

She brought her knees to her chest and pressed herself up against the wall as much as she could as he inched closer to her. Her breathing became ragged as fear coursed through her veins. Now she was sure she wanted nothing to do with him. She wanted to distract him, she had to think of something quickly.