Final Truth

Chapter 3: Like a Perfect Reflection

Julia's point of view:

From far off I hear it, like faint call speaking volumes that is carried by the chilling drafts of these hallowed halls.

Someone is yelling for me.

I recognize who's calling instantly, for there's no world or number of lifetimes I could have where I would not feel the tug of familiarity at that voice.

"Julia!" I hear Peter yell, his voice muffled from being so many rooms away.

I immediately stash the power removing gun safely inside one of the springs of my bed, making a note to find a better hiding place for it later.

I get up, despite the pain I feel washing over my entire body, and hurl myself at the bars of my prison cell, foolish hope rising up inside of myself and threatening to drown me from the inside.

"Peter!" I call out for him, believing that maybe he's done it, that maybe he's not completely gone.

"Peter, I'm here!" I yell.

But now he yells no more, and I hear a deafening silence take his voice's place.

My heart rate picking up with anxiety, I am about to call his name again when I hear him scream in pain.

It's a scream unlike any I've heard before, a scream that makes my hairs stand up on end and fear take over me.

What are they doing to him?

I bang on the bars again and rattle them around, now desperate to escape and find him.

I grip the bars and close my eyes, even though I know what I'm about to do is futile.

"Turn transparent, dammit!" I yell at myself, but to no avail. I drop my head in defeat.

Power-proof cells.

"Peter," I grieve silently, dreading the thought of what Henley could be doing to him.

I lean against the bars with my head in my hands, wondering how I managed to send everything into a spiraling downfall and drag everyone down with me.

"Don't feel bad...it's happened to all of us," a very shy and meek voice speaks out from my right.

I turn my head in the direction of the voice, only to see an inmate whom I had previously thought was asleep.

A girl is looking at me through the bars of her cell, her face covered in the shadows.

"What's happened to all of us?" I ask her.

"This is how it works around here. They take you and someone you love, and then that terrible woman turns them against you with that power of hers," she explains.

Baffled, I merely blink at her statement.

"They do that to every inmate here?" I ask, and she nods.

"Who'd they turn against you?" I wonder aloud, and what little I can see of her face turns sad.

"My brother," she says, but I can tell she's not finished yet.

"They imprison you here and turn your loved ones bad. That way, they can get what they need and always have leverage over you. Any time you act up, they make your loved one hurt you because they know you won't fight back. And when everything's finished, they break your spirit once and for all by killing the one you love in front of you," the girl finishes, her voice as fragile as glass.

My throat tightens at her words as my pulse picks up, fear rolling across me.

"I'm so sorry about your brother," I tell her.

She slowly lifts her head up, flashes of her face peeking out from the shadows like a ghost.

"Don't be sorry for me...be sorry for yourself now. My horrors are distant memories, a chapter in my life that I have closed. You, however, are new here, and they're going to show you what pain means. I'm sorry for what you'll experience," she says, her tone showing actual sorrow in my direction.

"The boy I love is being tortured as I speak. My friends and family are probably dead. My home is burned to the ground. I think I know what pain means," I retort.

And much to my surprise, the girl lets out a light laugh, probably the first time she's laughed in years. But it's a laugh out of pity, not joy.

"I thought that perhaps warning you might make you a bit tougher when you face what they put in front of you, but I suppose this is something you'll have to experience for yourself to understand," she says, and then retreats back into the shadows and out of sight.

"Wait!" I call out, wanting to at least know the girl's name.

I see the outline of her silhouette turn back around, her attention on me.

"Come into the light," I tell her.

And very slowly, inch by inch, she makes her way back into view.

I glimpse more of her, and her appearance is not quite as I expected.

She's very small, no muscular build whatsoever and reaching just above my chin in terms of height.

Her skin is iridescently pale, like the sun had forgotten to spare a few more beams of light for her. Coal-black hair falls in waves over her shoulders.

Only her face still remained hidden.

"My name is Julia," I say, and hold out my hand.

She reaches a trembling white hand through the bars on her side and shakes my hand slowly, her hands as cold as ice.

And finally she steps completely out of the shadows to reveal herself, the light making her skin even paler and so bright that it's almost painful to look at.

"I'm Felicity," she says, and when I can take a look at her eyes, I nearly scream and retreat in disbelief.

Nearly.

Instead my hand goes slack and my jaw drops down, not being able to comprehend what's in front of me.

This isn't possible, this isn't possible...I was told that my sister and I were the only ones...the last two people that possessed this trait...

But as much as I want to disbelieve it, I can't ignore the bright hue staring back at me that mirrors mine like a perfect reflection.

I am looking at someone else with green eyes.

Someone like me.