Page 22 of Unstoppable


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Fuck!

I jerk, but the pain is over just as fast as it began. My head swims a little, and I feel sick as the chip wires into my brain like an octopus stretching inside and curving around the stems. My fingers tighten, gripping Isaac’s hand with all my force, yet he doesn’t complain. He kneels patiently, stroking my hand as I breathe through it. When I jerk my head in a nod, he stands and squeezes my hand once more.

“You’ve got this, Nova. We will be right here the entire time.”

I nod again, feeling nervous now, before I turn my head to meet Dimitri’s eyes. “Do we guide the memories? I have a, erm, lot of—”

“Nova,” Nico says as I stumble over my words. I look back at him, and he smiles softly. “We all have a lot of bad memories we don’t even want to remember, never mind want anyone to see.”

Fuck, he knows. He knows that I feel exposed, vulnerable, and weak.

“We won’t look. I promise you that. Your pain is your own, and your memories are too. We will only look when it’s time,” he promises, and I believe him.

“Okay, let’s just bloody do this,” I mutter, leaning back in the chair.

“I can strap your arms down if you want,” Dimitri offers, and I snarl without thinking. “Okay, never mind, it was just to stop you from moving, but that’s fine. Okay, we are going to inject you with a hallucinogenic to help. It’s short-lived, so we have to be quick. Our metabolism burns them off too quickly.”

“Too fucking right,” Jonas mumbles, and when I spare him a glance, he frowns. “Doctor Dick created the serum using me as a lab rat.”

Well, shit, that explains a lot.

“If you just roll with it, it’ll be easier. If you try to fight it, it will hurt and make you sick for days,” he cautions.

“Okay.” I feel the prick, then an icy cold liquid moves through my arm and up my chest.

“Okay, Nova,” Louis begins, his voice reassuring yet firm. “Take us to your home, to the estate. See it, smell it, and remember it.”

I close my eyes, finding it easier than staring into their hopeful gazes, and then I do just that. I recall the way the rain would wash the huge gardens clean, and how it would fall through the big oak tree Ana and I used to play under, the leaves bowing under the weight. I remember how the fog would roll in through the moors, surrounding the old, red-brick building sitting in the middle of nowhere, giving it an eerie look.

There’s a gasp, and when I open my eyes, the image, the memory I’m seeing in my head, is projected onto the screen. It’s fuzzy, like a dream, and when I focus too hard on that, it falls away.

“Focus, Nova. Close your eyes. Go back to the estate,” Louis instructs.

Taking a deep breath, I settle back.

Ana runs across the cobbled back patio, her dress flowing behind her as I chase her through the open back doors and into the cold, quiet kitchen, our bare feet loud on the cold tile.

She turns around to whisper, “Shh, we don’t want to wake Dad.”

Nodding, we sneak over to the fridge.

“Focus, Nova. Lead us to the entrance,” Louis murmurs, his insistent yet soft tone piercing through the memory until Ana’s face disappears.

Turning, I leave the kitchen. Like always, there’s only minimal light out, and never enough to fill all of the unused, dust-collecting rooms. When I was younger, the dark scared me, until I grew to realise that it was what was waiting in the dark that scared me more.

“Good, where now?” Louis prompts.

I hesitate at the base of the grand wooden staircase. For a moment, I can’t remember.

“You’ve got this,” Isaac encourages, so I slow down and let my body lead.

I turn without thought, instinctively knowing the way. Slowly moving across the tile of the entryway, I see the huge double front doors are shut against the storm. I turn and peek at the stairs like I did when I was a kid. At the top, I see the flickering light from my father’s study, and fear pumps through me, so I turn away and hurry on before he spots me.

Ana would be reprimanded for being out of bed late, but me?

I would bepunished.

I come to the hallway, stilling before the cold darkness of it. The doors running the length of it mock me before I suddenly hear footsteps on the stairs. I turn slowly, and fear fills me until I’m choking on it.

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