Deception (17 page)

“How?” the nurse asked, wondering where Aiden and I came from and why we were only wearing our swimmers.

I didn’t respond. I was too fixated on Chelsea, who was writhing in pain. There was no apparent reason why she would be in such a state. Her mind kept telling her she was burning alive in the house explosion I’d saved her from.

“What’s wrong with her?” I demanded.

The nurse looked spaced out for a moment before her mind snapped clear of Aiden’s tampering. “We’re unsure what exactly is wrong with your friend right now. I was just on my way to take her for some CT scans. Her friend is next door if you want to wait with him while the scans are being done.”

“Is there something wrong with him, too?” Aiden asked.

“He collapsed, as well, but he doesn’t seem to be in any pain.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, they’re waiting for her.”

“The scans won’t be necessary,” I said to the nurse as another entered the room.

“What’s taking so long?” he asked, getting frustrated.

I turned to Aiden.
“There’s nothing they can do for her. You know who’s responsible.”

“Your father, I know.”

Both of the nurses fell silent as Aiden began to work his magic. As soon as he’d finished, they left the room without so much as a look in our direction.

When they were out of sight, Aiden said, “You wait here with Chelsea. I’m going to go check on Lucas.”

I nodded as Aiden disappeared out the door.

A moment later, I felt eyes on me, and I glanced at the doorway, where a boy no older than six stood, staring at me. I would’ve thought nothing more of a child wearing a hospital gown taking a peek into someone else’s room, but the way he looked at me sent chills down my spine. Something about him was unnerving. I couldn’t hear his thoughts.

“This is what you get for trying to hide from me,” he said, his voice completely void of emotion.

I stood there, my mouth wide open, too speechless to respond. I knew that the boy was just a messenger and that my father would’ve had to be close by to pull the stunt off at the right time.

The boy snapped out of his trance as soon as his father came rushing to his side. “There you are, Nicholas. You had us all so worried.” He bent down and gave his son a hug. “Don’t you ever take off like that again, okay?”

“Okay, Dad,” his small voice whimpered into his father’s ear, sounding nothing like the chilling voice that had delivered the warning.

His father released him from his grasp, stood up, and looked at me. “I’m sorry if he disturbed you.”

I shook my head. “He didn’t.”

His father gave me a tight-lipped smile, then looked down at his son. “Come on, let’s get you back into bed.”

Chelsea’s scream snapped me out of my little freak-out. She threw her head back as her face twisted in agony and her arms and legs thrashed the sheets off the bed. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched her writhe in pain. The next thing I knew, I was inside her mind, experiencing everything she was. The pain was unbearable. I felt as if I were being cooked alive, but unlike with a normal burn, the pain didn’t subside once the nerve endings had been burnt through.

I was in my own personal inferno. No.
She
was in her own personal inferno, and I was only there watching. Sure, I could feel it, too, but the fire was not in my head. It was in hers.

If I was going to end her torture, I would have to push away at the pain and try to find a way to wake her.

Using everything I had, I tried to focus on finding a way to end it. But it was useless. I didn’t have any idea what I was doing. I’d never been inside someone’s mind before, and I had no idea what to look for.

She screamed out in pain, almost bringing me to my knees. I hung on to her hand and cried as I watched my best friend go through something no person should ever have to go through, and I was powerless to stop it.

The pain was unbearable, and I just wanted it to end. “Stop,” I cried.
Please, God, stop this.

Her body went slack, and I was shoved out of her mind. Tears continued to stream down my face. No thoughts were running through her mind, and I feared her body had taken too much and had given up. I bent over her and watched her chest, waiting for it to rise and fall. But it did not.

“Breathe,” I whispered. As if on command, her chest rose, then fell a few seconds later. I held my breath as I watched her closely, making sure my imagination wasn’t playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. She was breathing again. “Oh, thank God,” I cried with relief.

I leaned in close, afraid of what it might mean if what I was about to do worked. “Wake up,” I whispered. She didn’t.

I breathed a sigh of relief. The idea of being able to control someone’s bodily functions to that extent was way too much to comprehend. And if I could do it, then I couldn’t be sure I was the only one who could. There would have to be someone else who could do it, too, and they might be more willing to use it.

I wiped Chelsea’s sweaty hair away from her face, then picked up a cloth and wiped it across her forehead. “Come on, Chels, you’ve got to wake up.” She didn’t move. I closed my eyes, hating that she was once again a victim of my father’s game. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to get involved in this sick game.”

“Hey?” Chelsea spoke in a sleepy voice.

I jerked my head up, afraid that I was hallucinating.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Stop looking at me like I’m a freak.” She lifted herself onto her elbows and looked around the room. “What the hell happened? And why are you wearing your swimmers?”

I laughed. She seemed completely unscathed by what she’d just been through. “Do you remember anything that happened while you were out of it?”

“I was unconscious?” she asked in surprise.

So, she didn’t remember anything. With a smile on my face, I nodded.

Chelsea cringed, fearing her short skirt had given a full show of her underwear to everyone. “Oh, God.” She sat up and threw off the sheet. “Where’s Lucas? Don’t tell me I scared him off?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I said with a laugh. I could always trust Chelsea to worry about what a guy thinks rather than worrying that something was wrong with her.

“Where is he, then?”

“He’s with Aiden.” I figured she didn’t need to know something might be wrong with him until Aiden had confirmed it.
“How’s Lucas?”
I asked Aiden.

“He’s completely out of it. Nobody has any idea what happened to him. What about Chelsea?”

“And where’s Aiden?” Chelsea asked.

“I’m not sure,” I quickly replied before answering Aiden.
“She’s awake, and from what I can tell, she has no memories of the whole thing.”

“How did she wake up? Maybe it’ll work for Lucas.”

“No idea. One second she was writhing in pain, and the next, she wasn’t.”
I didn’t know if I’d really had anything to do with waking her up. And if I hadn’t, then I didn’t want to give Aiden another thing to laugh at me about.
“Have you called Nathan?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you think we should just take Lucas to him? He’s not hooked up to any tubes, is he?”

“No tubes. But I think we should call him first. We’re going to need someone to wipe everyone’s memories of the two of them being here because I’ll leave too many blanks that Nathan can cover because of his medical background.”

“Okay. Let me know when they’re here.”

“Will do,”
Aiden said.

I reverted my attention back to Chelsea, who was now looking at me as if I were a freak. “What?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. You’ve got that spaced-out look you have going on way too often. Are you sure there’s nothing seriously wrong with you?” she teased.

“Apart from being a freak of nature, nothing at all.”

“I wish I was a freak,” she mumbled under her breath. I’d been wrong about her not having feelings for Lucas. She definitely did, but she knew nothing could ever happen between the two of them because she thought they were practically different species. Yes, they were both humans, but she didn’t see how they could ever be together when she would continue to age and then die while he would live on forever. Not that she even thought she had a chance of Lucas seeing her as anything but a fragile friend of his best mate’s girlfriend.

I wanted so badly to let her know Lucas would never think of her like that. But I couldn’t for two reasons. One, I couldn’t let her know we could hear her thoughts, and two, I had no idea if Lucas really would feel that way.

“Cheer up,” I said, putting my hand on her knee.

She gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Can we get out of here now?”

“Yep.”

Chelsea edged herself off the bed, but stopped before her feet touched the ground. The last thing she remembered was watching her mother’s bandages being changed. She looked up at me, her face strained with concern. “Is my mum okay?”

“The nurse didn’t say anything about her,” I said. “How about we go see for ourselves?”

“Okay.” She pushed herself the rest of the way off the bed and brushed down her skirt.

“We’re just going to check on Marie,”
I said to Aiden.

“Stay safe.”

“Always.”

Chelsea and I snuck out of her room and through the corridors to her mother’s room. I put my ear against the door and listened for any sounds of someone in the room with Marie. It was clear. Chelsea turned the doorknob slowly, making sure she wouldn’t wake her mum up if she was asleep. We quickly stepped inside.

On hearing the click of the door closing behind us, Marie turned her eyes in our direction. “Chelsea,” her raspy voice called out. Thanks to the smoke inhalation, her throat was killing her. I wondered how much worse it would’ve been if she’d been in the house longer than the few seconds I’d taken getting her out. Maybe it had nothing to do with the smoke and more to do with whatever my father had used to make the explosive.

“Hey, Mum,” Chelsea said, walking over to her. She stood to the side of the bed, not knowing if it would be okay to pick up her hand or if that simple gesture would cause too much pain. And Marie secretly hoped her daughter wouldn’t pick up her hand because she didn’t have the heart to tell her how much it would hurt.

I stood beside Chelsea and looked down at her mother. “How are you feeling, Marie?”

“I’m doing okay,” she lied in her raspy voice. Most of her body was still covered in bandages, but I had to give her credit for not showing the pain she was feeling inside.

Chelsea exhaled loudly. “Good. I was so worried you may have been in pain when—” She quickly shut her mouth when she realised what she was going to say.

Marie tried to narrow her eyes at Chelsea, wondering why she’d stopped mid-sentence, but the pain that little bit of movement caused made her decide it wasn’t worth it.

“So, Mum, Jade and I have to get going back to her place. Get some rest, and I’ll come back to visit you soon. Okay?” Chelsea wanted to stay longer, but she was afraid that she would slip up and reveal my secret. She also felt guilty for leaving her mum so soon, but she knew she was okay and wanted to make sure Lucas was, too.

The corners of Marie’s lips twitched as she tried to smile, but again, the pain was too much. “Okay,” she managed to say. I wished I could take away her pain and do what Aiden wasn’t able to do. She didn’t deserve to go through this, and once again, it was because of who I was. Both her and her daughter’s life would have been so much better if they’d never met me. Hell, everyone I knew would have been better off if they had never known me. But I couldn’t change that. And so, I would have to learn to live with the guilt.

“Come on,” Chelsea said, grabbing me by the wrist.

“See ya later,” I called to Marie as her daughter dragged me out of the room.

We closed the door behind us and quickly made our way back to the room where Chelsea had been.

Chelsea hopped back onto the hospital bed. “So, what’s going on with Lucas?”

“Hang on a sec. I’ll just check,” I replied.
“Is Nathan here yet?”
I asked Aiden.

“Yeah, he’s already fixed everyone’s memories and found out that Lucas was injected with a sedative.”

“Well, that’s good news,”
I said, then realised how bad that must have sounded.
“I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant was it’s good he didn’t have the same thing done to him that Chelsea did.”

“Don’t worry. I know what you meant. Anyway, Nathan asked me to bring Lucas back to his house while he sorts out a few things at the hospital. Did you want to come, or do you want to go back and stay with Anna?”

“Hang on a sec,”
I said to Aiden, then turned my attention to Chelsea. “Aiden’s taking Lucas back to his apartment. Did you want to go with them, or do you want to go stay with Anna?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Would wanting to go to his house be too weird?” she asked, hoping I would say it wasn’t at all.

And so I did. “No, not at all.”

“Okay then, let’s go,” she said a little too eagerly.

“They haven’t left the hospital yet.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry,” she said with a goofy look on her face.

I smiled at her. I had to love my Chelsea. She always seemed to be able to make me smile at the worst of times.
“We’ll come with you.”

“Okay. I’ll meet you there.”

“You ready?” I asked Chelsea.

She scoffed. “Of course I’m ready. Let’s get out of here.”

“What about your bag? Did you bring one with you?” I asked, looking at a bag on the bottom shelf of her bedside table.

She followed where I was looking and saw her bag. “Oops. I’d better take that with me, hey?”

“It might be an idea.”

She picked up her bag and dug through it. “Hang on a sec. I just want to make sure no one’s taken my iPhone.” She wanted to make sure the hospital could get in contact with her if her mother’s condition changed. A moment later, she stopped her search. “Yep. It’s still there.”