Chapter 56
I’m taken to a small cell with no window and shut inside. For the first few hours, I alternate between extremes of grief and horror. One of my friends is dead, the rest confined as I am. Imprisoned by creatures that parasitize species after species in an endless cycle throughout time.
And judging by what the orb showed me, humanity is next.
The despair of my first days here seems like nothing more than a bad mood compared to what I feel now. I spend most of my time just lying on the single mossy bed provided for me. I eat when food is brought. When I’m ordered to exercise to keep the body in good condition, I do as I’m told.
What does any of it matter? What can it matter?
The fact my memory will be erased doesn’t seem like a bad thing anymore. Does Bianca still want to remember, now that she knows the truth? How can she? How could anyone?
I don’t know how much time passes; I can’t see the sun, and even if I could, it doesn’t matter. Eventually, days or weeks or months later, my door opens and this time the Swarm crowded outside aren’t carrying food or water.
“Come with us,” one says. “It’s time for you to return.” It holds out a small vial filled with a liquid I don’t recognize. “Drink this. It will make you sleep. When you awake, you will be back in your human body and won’t remember any of this.” It pauses, then adds, “Don’t make us force you.”
Had Bianca resisted? That sounds like her. Or Titus. Or both.
But I’m not like them. I take the vial gratefully and tip it into my mouth, welcoming the darkness as it enfolds me.