The Choosing

Chapter Twenty One

I woke up in a cold sweat. My thoughts were swarming, as nothing seemed consistent. I was just with Essence and then Nova and my dad? I closed my eyes and shook my head. The fog in my brain didn't clear. To make matters worse I couldn't see anything. Wherever I was at the moment was pitch black.

I moved my hands to steady myself in the bed. As my fingers gripped the cold metal, I knew where I was. I was in my bed that was parallel to Essence's bed. So if I had fallen asleep maybe I had dreamed about Nova? That seemed logical.

I sucked in a relieved breath and let my head fall onto the hard pillow. If I focused hard enough I could Essence's breathing. Pretty much only when she took a deep breath though. I couldn't hear much else, other than the solemn voices of guards. I assumed they must be checking in on everybody's rooms. I knew I wasn't going to be falling asleep anytime soon, so maybe figuring out their routine would be possible. I had always been the type of person that couldn't fall back asleep once they were awoken. It annoyed me to no end, but I just couldn't fall back asleep no matter once. I was honestly rather surprised I had been sleeping as much as I had lately. Usually, for me, sleep was hard to come by. A while ago my doctor prescribed me a medication to help me sleep. It worked pretty well, but after I left home for the tests I hadn't taken it.

The lock clicking forced me to shut my eyes and pretend to sleep. Light flooded in the room, it was so bright I could tell with my eyes closed. I could hear the guard step in the room. They walked over to Essence and stood there for a minute. The guard was writing something down, but I wasn't sure what.

"Stand." the guard commanded.

"I will do so."

I squinted my eyes to see a still sleeping Essence get out of bed and stand. I had to hold in a shocked gasp. If she had been commanded in her sleep was I next? What if I messed up? I squinted further. Okay, her eyes her closed, so I'd have to do this blind.

"Go back to sleep," the guard commanded after writing a few other things down.

I braced myself for my turn, as I heard Essense shuffle back to her bed uttering the word she was forced to. Steadying my breathing, I tried not to move.

"Stand."

I kept my eyes shut and tried to get out of the bed. Throwing the covers off of my body I stood. I almost cursed as I realized I hadn't said the words.

"I will do so." said quickly.

"Slow to answer commands," the guard muttered, "they're not gonna like that. Let's try one more thing."

I bit down on the inside of my cheek in fear. What was I going to have to do? Hopefully nothing crazy.

"Open your eyes."

"I will do so."

My eyes opened to reveal a tall man with grey hair. He looked to be about sixty- five. He wore a dark blue shirt and black pants. He wrote down my compliance and studied me. I tried not to move.

"Alright," he said, "walk from one side of the room to the other."

I hesitated, not wanting to wake Essence up. I decided that living was worth more after a couple of seconds.

"I will do so," I said walking across the room effortlessly.

"Hesitation and slow to command. Who injected this one. Alistair Wells, what a surprise." the guard said out loud, "this one is going to need another injection. Might as well re-inject the other ones he did. Hm, only one other. Cade Miller."

I gasped.

The guard whipped around, "How-"

I was about to scream when the guard collapsed right in front of me. I was met face to face with Cade. He gave me a warm smile.