AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twelve
Guilt and Grief
I visibly flinched. Hearing the words made today seem all too real. If I closed my eyes, maybe I would wake up back on my apartment floor, sweating from the strangest dream yet.
My eyes flicked from the camera to the man in front of me. I searched his face, his brows, his mouth, his eyes.
He didn’t know what I was, but they certainly weren’t treating me like they thought I was benevolent to their cause. They didn’t trust me or what was inside me. The cuffs at my wrists and the cell lined with gravel were enough to know I shouldn’t trust them either. The light inside me was difficult to explain, and they wouldn’t understand how I had known it would destroy the creature. The connection to the creatures—the dreams—they would never believe me.
The man in fatigues appeared to be military, his rigid stance and aggressive demeanor fit. The only thing he was missing was a rifle. But he had had a rifle. They all had. On the ridge.
They had shot the creature. But the bullets didn’t deter the creature for a moment.
I pivoted my head to stare at the camera high on the right wall facing me.
“Who are you people?”
“That’s not how this works, Charlotte. I ask questions, and you answer them.”
I hated his demeaning tone. It felt as if he were scolding me like a child.
“Why are you looking at the wall, Charlotte? I am talking to you.”
I turned to the man still hovering over the table. I hated looking at him, especially since I knew he had watched me. How long had they followed me?
I forced my eyes to stay on him. “Please, who are you people? What do you know about the creatures?”
His chest bloated as he drew his shoulders back.
Did these people connect to the creatures like I did? Did they have the same strange nightmares for years like me? The man in front of me did not seem like the kind of man to be having my fantasies. I didn’t think we shared dreams, or anything else, in common besides our current location.
He leaned onto the table, blocking my view of the camera. I ducked my head at his closeness.
Stop cowering! You need to figure out who these people are.
I searched his clothing for some insignia.
My cultural professor had said something like, ‘Everyone gives off information about themselves by just being.’ What information was Mr. Bad Mood giving off? Besides a dark black shirt and hiking pants with lots of pockets, nothing else appeared familiar. His clothing was absent of patches, stations, teams.
I scanned my eyes down his arms. A large black watch encircled his wrist. It looked expensive, with many different dashes. I flicked my eyes to the bottom of the metal ring. It was a GPS watch, a brand-new, very expensive one. That line was just released a few months ago. I knew because it was a more elite, male version of what I had wanted to buy myself.
Well, that wasn’t a ton of help.
“Why were you hiking on El Tiburón Ridge?” He stood over the table as he crossed his arms.
He wasn’t answering my question. It couldn’t be good if these people weren’t willing to tell me who they were.
“It seemed like a nice mountain with great views.” It was what I’d told Logan, and it wasn’t exactly a lie.
I just want to go home, back to when my dreams were just dreams.
It felt like years since I was nestled on my bed. I wanted to be there now. Far away the man I was stuck in this ice-cold room with.
“Why were you at the pier late Friday night?” he asked.
“I like to run there. Lots of people go there,” I said.
“I know you were attacked on that mountain by the creature. How did you survive?” The man felt closer than he was. He loomed over the table, but it felt as if he were whispering in my ear.
