Final Truth

Chapter 58: The Beginning of the End

(Occurring at the same time of the previous chapter)

Julia's point of view:

Last night, I expected to wake up to a feeling of dread, wake up to the world crashing and burning as my all-consuming fear ignites in my chest and obliterates my body.

I expected to cry, expected to become hysterical, expected to find Henley and plead with her not to kill me. Hope she would find her humanity and let me live.

Seems I must have forgotten who I was last night.

Instead, I wake up to light flooding my hospital room from a tiny window too high for me to see out of, light that seems to warm a prison that insists on staying frozen.

And for the first time in what must be months, I smile.

A true, physical, small smile as I rise up and stretch, ease flooding into the crevices of my body that crack and pop from their disuse during sleep.

No no, I'm not afraid today. I'm relieved.

For so long I've dreaded what's about to happen, so sure that my failures would amount to something I could never hope to climb over, that my death would be slow and agonizing.

But now, no thought of that sort plagues me.

I don't fear my death anymore; one way or another, Henley won't control me after today. Whether that means I'll defeat her or she kills me, I'll welcome either one if it means escape from this place.

Even if I fail my last test, if I can just destroy the serum that she continuously mixes my blood with, then nothing else will matter.

I carefully climb out of bed, surprised when I am not greeted with pain flaring up my limbs. Fresh clothes have been laid out for me; nothing special, just a t-shirt, jeans, and the same pair of shoes that I arrived here in, but having been in a hospital gown for what feels like forever, any different fabric would be a warm welcome to my skin.

I change quickly and then reach for the power-removing gun I've kept hidden under my pillow, grateful that it's small enough to fit inside my pocket. I make a mental note to use it after the test is over, not before; hopefully Henley will be distracted enough for me to disarm her.

No sooner than the gun is safely hidden, the door to my room is thrust open by Henley, golden eyes alight with malicious intent coupled with something that can only be described as relief.

It'll all be over for her today too, at least in one way or another.

"Let's get this over with," she says, and a guard comes out from behind her with a pair of power-proof handcuffs, more than ready to escort me to the lab.

I don't protest, allowing the man to bind my wrists behind my back, but I make no effort to hide the mental discomfort that they've always brought me. To have powers for so long, only to have your connection to them completely severed, is almost like losing a piece of yourself.

He nudges me forward toward the door, following Henley into the hall as we make our way to the lab.

"Don't be afraid, Julia," Henley muses as we walk. "You'll be with your boyfriend soon enough."

Something inside of me visibly wilts at her words, the insult a low blow that makes me want to yell, but I bury those feelings deep enough to keep them from surfacing.

You made your peace with it. Move forward.

"I'm not afraid," I respond, my voice betraying nothing.

"We'll see."

We continue to walk, the sound of our heavy footfalls echoing throughout the hall and bouncing around in my head enough to distract me until the lab is upon us, seemingly more menacing now than it was before.

I'm escorted inside and handed over to the small group of nurses that are always with me during this ordeal, and they waste no time prepping me for the test.

I do regain some level of comfort, however, when the very nurse that returned my power- removing gun to me is the same one who injects me with the chemicals needed to undergo the test.

"You'll do fine," she whispers to where no else can hear, giving me a small smile of encouragement.

A guard removes my handcuffs and escorts me into the glass case, latching the door shut behind me as I step inside.

Funny now how the walls seem to close in on me more than they ever did before.

"For this test, you are not limited to a single power. You have everything at your disposal to face what's in this hallucination. But be warned; this test is unlike any you've had before. What you're about to experience is going to affect you in ways I cannot even begin to describe, so don't put much stock into your foolish hope of passing," Henley warns. "You'll be lucky if you can still speak when it's over."

Against her words, I stand resolute and defiant, not afraid of what I'm about to be thrown into.

"What you've done to me in real life is far worse than anything you could conjure up in a hallucination. Start the test," I retort, fingers itching for the power removing gun.

"Very well. You two, guard the door, and call in all of the others to assist you," Henley orders her men. "Be prepared for anything; I don't know if her friends are even going to try to break her out, but if they come, make them wish they hadn't. Nobody gets in."

"Yes ma'am," they say simultaneously, almost like machines in the way that they obey her.

Henley turns her attention back to me as she moves toward the control panel in front of the glass case, hand hovering over the button that, when pushed, will activate the serum in my body and plunge me into a different reality.

"You will fail, just as your boyfriend failed you, just as you failed your friends and family. And when it's all over, I'll be the one to take my city out of the darkness you've shrouded it in. I'll be the one to make it stronger, more powerful than it ever was before. And you will finally perish for the atrocities that stain your soul."

She slams her hand down on the button, and pain unlike I've experienced before absolutely explodes from the injection sight of the needle, traveling through my bloodstream like an excruciating fire.

My vision goes dark as I feel myself falling backwards, one coherent thought I have left echoing through my head as the images of the test come into focus:

Prove her wrong.