Free Minds

Chapter 16.

    As my eyes fluttered open, I groaned, moving my hand to rub the pain torturing the backside of my skull. I tried to lift my previously motionless body from the floor but my legs protested by releasing a piercing ache in response. Why were my legs aching? Every recent memory began rushing in as my eyes instantly became aware of my surroundings. I brushed the tender part of my head again. The last thing I recalled staring at three seats made out of clothes before I passed out.

   Wait...more like knocked out!

"Hey, Arch-nemesis."

   Why did that greeting sound so familiar?

   I scrambled to my feet despite the agony that shot through them and spun to stare at a defensively poised duo.

   A duo I recognized all too well.

"Aarav? Camila?" My hand returned to my head to calm the unsettling confusion dulling my mind, before I asked. "Hold on... how is this possible?"

   They stayed silent when they realised the question was mainly rhetorical. Instinct drove me to examine their eyes. I didn't know whether to be relieved or even more distraught that the pairs, though widened, were not dilated like the others.

"Wait..." My gaze found the stick in Camila's hand. "Did you knock me out? With that?"

"I swear it was a-an ac-cident," she stuttered, still gripping the wooden, tree-branch sized stick like her life depended on it. "It was Rav's fault."

"Oh please! You were going to do it anyway." Aarav said, scoffing at her accusing finger pointed his way. "I was the one who tried to pry it from your grip when it slipped to hit Beth."

"Thanks for that, Rav, really," Camila replied, anything but gratitude showing in her rolled eyes.

"You don't really think I'm like the others do you?" I asked her.

"We can't be sure. You could be wearing contacts for all we know." The suspicion in her squinted eyes that kept growing was beginning to piss me off.

"Well, I can assure you, I'm not." I glared at the stick she still had a tight grasp on. "So do you mind putting it away? I really don't think my brain can handle another concussion."

"As long as you stay where you are." She raised her shoulders into a mini-shrug. "You have nothing to worry about."

   The only thing that stick could be good for was hitting that stupid smirk right off your stupid face. I withheld the scream of frustration tickling my throat. Just my luck to be stuck with Viola's best friend.

"Why are you just standing there?" I turned to Rav saying, "You were the one who brought me here, without me asking or begging you might I add. Talk some sense into your crazy friend!"

"Hey! She's not crazy, okay?" Rav replied, holding out a defensive arm.

"Thank you Aarav!" She cast a victorious snarl toward me.

"Just insanely paranoid—Ow!" He cast an annoyed glance at Camila as he rubbed the spot on his torso she punched.

"You know I thought this would eventually end if I didn't intervene. I guess I was wrong." A sudden inclusion of a new voice behind the three of us startled me into a jump.

   I looked over my shoulder to discover that the gruff voice belonged to a male figure leaning against an area of the wall close to the curtain that led to this room. He was dressed in black from head to toe. I inhaled a sharp breath when I looked into the same mask he had saved me from, still over his face.