Three: Not In Your Best Interest

Aurelia

[Three Months Later]

It’s like I’m underwater.

Muffled noises echo in my ears…or is it my head? Colorful lights flicker between my eyelids. 

There’s pain…in my head. It hurts. 

The scent of food fills my nostrils, and slowly, things start to make sense. There’s the sound of footsteps, which I can hear more clearly; something clanks in the distance.

My eyes peel open, and I wince, slamming them shut when bright lights threaten to blind me.

“Umph.” That’s the only sound I can muster through my very dry, papery mouth. Goodness, they feel like they’ve been stuffed with cotton balls.

There’s movement by my side. “I think she’s awake. Get Zeke.”

Zeke?

Who’s Zeke?

Where am I?

“Can you hear me?” The soft, feminine voice asks. Cool fingers tap me, and I flinch.

“Too... b-bright,” I manage.

“Huh? Oh! The lights.” There’s a soft click, and the room is bathed in darkness. 

And I try again. My eyes flutter open and adjust. It’s not pitch black, still bright enough to see but not enough to blind.

The room is small, unfamiliar. It takes a while to realize I’m lying on a small mattress. The mattress smells of dust and something medicinal.

There’s a single wooden chair in the corner and something that looks like a radio on it.

“W-what?” I struggle to sit, nearly knocking over the bucket beside me. “Where…where am I?” I stare up at the young woman, eyes big and round.

“Glad to see you properly awake,” she says. “You’ve been unconscious for three months. You started coming in and out of it about two months ago, but you were too unstable to stay awake for long.”

Three months? I’ve been unconscious for three months?! 

“What?”

She stares at me with concern, a hand on my shoulder. “Do you remember…the apocalypse?”

Just like that, everything rushes back. My parents, my family, and how they left me to die. I remember knocking on that bunker; I remember running for my life.

I remember…Walter.

My eyes quickly fill up, chest heavy. 

I don’t have time to dwell on it when a man walks in, his steps heavy as he fills the doorframe and flicks on the light.

I wince, shutting my eyes briefly.

“Be careful, Zeke. Her eyes are sensitive.” The woman cautions, but he doesn’t respond.

Dragging my gaze up, I blink at him. 

He’s so tall. 

That’s the first thing I notice. I have to crane my neck up to properly take him in. Dark hair that looks like he’s run his fingers through it multiple times, and whiskey colored eyes that look like he hasn’t slept properly in weeks.

“Uh...h-hello?” I croak.

He looks like he has something to say to me. And he won’t be nice. Like I offended him somewhere between the apocalypse and my sleep.

Bending his head slightly, he steps further into the tiny room. “Leave us, Cherry.”

Cherry, the woman with pink highlights in her blonde hair, frowns. “She just woke up, Zeke. Now’s not the time.”

“I said leave us.”

I glance between both of them, confused and frankly quite frightened. 

Cherry pushes a bottle of water into my hand. “Drink it all. I’ll head over with painkillers in a bit, your head must be throbbing.”

“It is.” I nod gently. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Aurelia.”

She knows my name. I press my lips together and turn to the man who’s now sitting on the wooden chair. It looks like it’d give under his weight.

“H-hello,” I say again.

He doesn’t reply immediately, just glares at me with a clenched jaw. “It’s good to see you finally awake. If you didn’t wake up, rescuing you would’ve been in vain.”

“You’re the one who brought me here?” I’m a bit surprised, given that he doesn’t seem to like me. “Thank you. For saving me.”

“Don’t thank me,” he scoffs. “It’s not in your best interest.”

Oh.

I knew it felt too good to be true.

Still, I’m confused. I rack my brain for any encounter I may have had with him. He looks familiar, but I can’t picture any situation where I could’ve been horrible to him.

Because he looks like he wants to punish me for something.

“Have we…met?” I ask.

A brow lifts. “No.”

“Then why are you staring at me like I stole something from you?”

He lets out a humorless chuckle. “Oh, but you did.” Jerking to his feet, the chair tumbles back and falls. “You did, Aurelia Hayes!”

I inch back on the mattress, hugging my knees to my chest. “W-what? What did I steal? I promise, it’s probably an accident, and I’ll give it back.”

His glare turns on me so hard, I gulp. His voice comes out eerily calm. “Can you give back the lives that you and your fucking family stole?”

Chills run down my spine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You and your father!” He screams, and I flinch. “Your father has destroyed our lives! His stupid research experiments have killed our loved ones. You’ve taken fathers from their kids, wives from their husbands, and you’re all going to pay!”

Those files. That must be what he’s talking about. The documents I found, the many deaths.

God.

I’m paying for sins I know nothing of. Sins I’m not a part of.

My heartbeat rings in my ears. “I didn’t kill anyone, I swear.”

“The fuck you didn’t! You all think you’re invincible, don’t you? That you’d rip people from their families and go scot-free?!”

“It’s all my father, I’d never...”

“But you’re his daughter, aren’t you?” 

I swallow. “Yes, but—”

“Then you know exactly what your family is capable of.”

He reaches for the door.

“What are you doing?” 

“Keeping you here.”

My eyes widen in panic, and I scramble from the mattress, my limbs trying to remember how to move. “Keeping me?”

“Until I figure out what to do with you.”

My stomach drops.

“You mean…you’re holding me prisoner?”

His jaw tightens. “If that's what you need to call it.”

Don’t get me wrong, I understand his anger. But if he would just calm down and listen to me, I can explain that I am not my father.

Apparently, locking me up is his brilliant solution.

I refuse to be locked up in here.

Before any of us can blink, I bolt for the door. I make it two steps before my legs fold as if they belong to someone else. 

And I fall.