The Broken Academy 4: Pacts & Promises by Jade Alters

Author:Jade Alters [Alters, Jade]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

When the light dies down and I open my eyes, I’m hardly sure who I am, let alone where. The name Emery rings a bell, but if I’m Emery… then whose feelings are these? Anguish. Fear. Guilt. The guilt is by far the worst. The weight of a horrible deed sits on my chest like a car full of cinderblocks. My hands come up to wipe tears from my eyes, which tells me a few things about my oddly new situation.

My skin is a few shades lighter than usual. It’s the color of a long winter spent inside, compared to my usual pallor. My clothes are also a matter of interest. Gone is my usual Academy top. I’m in a hospital gown. That brings my face back up, to read my surroundings. The bland tile floor. The stiff sheets. The sterile white lights everywhere. It is a hospital. The room is filled with several people I don’t recognize. There’s a doctor and a nurse, easily identifiable by their uniforms. But the other two… a thin, older blonde woman and a stocky, balding man… they look at me in the most peculiar way. Almost like I’ve just punched them. Their lips move in the shape of language, but I hear only muffled grumbles. I blink hard and strain to hear them. What I hear, though, is surprisingly familiar. Though I know not the words, I do know the voice. It’s Cece. And the voice is coming from me.

“No, please! Mom, I didn’t… this guy - he bit Jason! You… you should have seen the blood,” Cece pleads with the thin woman, or maybe I do. Against the pull of all my cries, the woman pulls her hand away from my scalding hot shoulder. “Please listen to me!” The woman turns completely away from me, to face the doctor.

“Doctor… what was Cecelia’s blood alcohol content when she checked in, again?”

“Two-point-eight,” the doctor tells her. A pang shoots through every organ in my body.

“Jonah,” the woman says to the balding man. He can’t seem to look at me, or anything, besides his shoes.

“Dad,” I plead with the man named Jonah, “This guy had Jason. He was going to kill him! I was trying to save him!” I wail. I don’t even know how, but I’ve trapped his burly arm in the searing grasp of both my hands. He pulls back from me, hard, but I just can’t bring myself to release him. Not when I know… it will be the last time.

“Let me go, Cecelia,” he orders. I can see in his eyes that he’s already decided what the truth is, no matter what I say. I don’t want to poison his memory of me further by cursing or screaming. So, against every instinct in my body, I unclamp my fingers from around his arm. Jonah and the thin woman turn for the door.

“I think it’s best for everyone that we give her some space, like you said, doctor,” the woman says on her way out.

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