The story continues. If you missed any of it, start here.

By the time I reach my apartment, the rain has mostly stopped, and the sun is even peaking out from behind the clouds. I took a car from the diner, but I’m still soaked.

I head upstairs and am out of my shirt before I’m through the door. I change quickly, but then freeze in front of the mirror. What am I doing? What am I going to do? There are people trying to kill me, and I abandoned the one person who has offered me help.

I throw my shirt on over my head as I walk from my bedroom into the living room. I pulled my head through the shirt hole and stop immediately.

“What are you doing here?”

Ruby is standing in the middle of my living room. There’s something odd about the look on her face, but I can’t quite put words to it.

“I was worried about you,” she says. “I wanted to check on you.”

Her eyes keep shifting to the side every time I make contact with them. She keeps moving her weight back and forth.

“Is everything okay?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she chuckles nervously. “I just didn’t think you’d get home this quick.”

I look around. My desk in the corner of the room looks more disheveled than I remember. My brows furrow as a thought comes to the forefront.

“Were you already here when I got home?”

“Well…” she starts, tilting her head to the side.

I can’t believe it. I must have been so caught up with my soggy clothes that I didn’t even pay attention to her being in the corner of my living room. And why was she looking through my things?

Her large brown eyes offer a plea to me. The slight pout of her lips lowers my defenses momentarily, and her next statement catches me off guard.

“It’ll be okay,” she says. “Once you are assimilated again, everything will be fine.”

Assimilated? What is she talking about?

“You’re one of them?” I ask.

I already know the answer, but I don’t believe it. All this time, she was one of them, and I had no clue. Is that why I had no clue? Was she shielding me this whole time from understanding the truth? Did she ever really love me?

I’m chewing on her words when a sharp jolt of pain shoots through my temples. My knees buckle, and I fall to the floor clutching my head in my hands. I can still hear her voice clearly, but it’s resonating through my head this time.

Just let go. Everything will be okay. Give in and we can be together forever as one.

The temporary relief I gain from the pain is like a paradise, but it soon returns. These attacks are more intense than anything I’ve experienced. I start to see things in my head. Visions of… memories? Its all jumbled together, like an amalgamation of countless lives blended together.

I feel something pulling me, like my thoughts are being drawn out of my mind. There’s a relief to the feeling. I know that I won’t feel the pain anymore, and it makes me happy. Except for one small part of me that resists. It’s another voice. It’s Di’s voice.

Don’t. Resist. You must resist.

A growl grows in my throat. I struggle to find the words. They come out slowly and painfully.

“I…can’t…”

I feel my willpower draining away like a bathtub that’s been unstopped. All of my awareness fades, but in a distant corner of my mine, I hear a small explosion.

Everything goes numb, and I fall over onto my side. I lay there for what seems like hours, my vision dark but still aware of what’s around me. The pain in my head fades.

As my vision returns, I see a figure standing over me. The room becomes more clear, and I see Di standing next to me, a small pistol gripped in her hand.

Read the next scene, “Release” here.