The City Of Death

Chapter Eighteen- Macy

"She wasn't... There's no way... Skye... Skye was the leader...?"

"Dude, I think we broke her." 

"Shut up, Israel. She just needs a minute to process." Well, so far, I've needed about ten minutes to process. Ever since Israel dropped that bombshell on me, I've been sitting down on a rock, my forehead in my hands, questioning everything I thought I knew. Skye was the leader of the Renegades? But... how could I not remember that? Maybe she just never told me, and I never knew anything of it until the night she disappeared. 

Or maybe Savannah was right on the money. Maybe I was Marked as a way to hide my memories of Skye. Lucifer took my memories and he blurred them. He twisted them so I wouldn't remember how much the Renegades meant to Skye. So I wouldn't remember which team she played for. He manipulated all of my memories so it looked like the Renegades were responsible for Skye's disappearance. He made me afraid of them. He made me afraid of Atlas. 

But. If all of that is true, why hasn't my Mark gone away? Even now, hearing that Skye was the leader of the Renegades, I still can't remember her clearly. None of my memories have changed. There's still a fog clouding my past, and that makes me wonder if Israel and Atlas are telling the truth. Savannah said the way to heal my Mark would be to find the truth. Is it possible that my Mark hasn't gone away because these two men are lying to me? 

"Macy?" Atlas asks softly. He's kneeling in the grass beside me, his face filled with concern. "Are you okay?" 

"No. I'm not okay. I've just been giving this massive bombshell that I don't know what to do with. That's the kind of information that changes everything I think I know. And even hearing it... I still can't remember. My memories are still as blurry as ever," I admit, and Atlas nods slowly, putting his hand on my knee and gently squeezing. 

"Don't expect it to become clear right away. You've had your Mark for so long, it's going to take time to fully go away. But now that you know the truth, things might slowly start to clear up," he advises, and I breathe sharply. There are tears in my eyes. It's been fifteen years. I want to remember Skye now. The good and the bad. Everything that I wasn't supposed to remember and little things that have only been hidden by the passage of time. No matter what my memories will tell me- they could tell me that Atlas brutally murdered Skye in a jealous rage. I don't care. I just want to remember. 

"Tell me something." Atlas's eyebrow raises, his cheek twitching as he tries not to bite it. "Tell me something about Skye." 

"I told you, I didn't really..." 

"Anything. I don't care how small or insignificant. I just want to know something about her," I say, and Atlas drops his head. He chuckles softly, raising his head to look me right in the eyes. 

"I remember when she went back to the City. She'd run away to the Outside when she was eleven. She was so happy out here, and the leader before her took Skye under his wing. He saw the potential in her before anyone else did. He didn't care that she was just a child," Atlas tells me. I look over at Israel, who's busy staring at the ground. I wonder if he knew Skye. I'd never really asked him about her. 

"I can't imagine why she'd ever want to go back to the City," Israel mutters, and Atlas looks over at him, completely unamused. 

"She had a good reason."

"Why did she go back to the City if she was happy out here?" I ask. Atlas looks back over at me, shaking his head and laughing softly. 

"She went back because of you," he tells me. My eyes widen slightly and he pats my knee gently. "She received a message that your mother was due to have a baby. I remember Skye was devastated that she'd missed the pregnancy your parents had been trying so hard for. But the message also said that they were planning on..." He swallows hard.