Remembering his other warning, I also made sure I moved silently. My father's urging to hurry up echoed back through my mind, and I tried to shake off my fears. There'd been an almost zombielike quality to him, and I didn't even want to think about what they might have done to make him that way. I was pretty sure 're-education' was a nice way of saying 'brainwashing.' I'd only ever seen one person who had come back, and honestly, he'd seemed like half a person after that. What exactly went on there was a secret, one I never wanted to find out. They were the stuff of nightmares for young Alchemists like me, mysterious places where those who grew too close to vampires were dragged off to learn the errors of their ways. What if that's what this was about? What if I was finally being taken to a re-education center and Zoe was replacing me?įor a moment, the world swam around me, and I caught hold of my bed to steady myself. Technically, neither did I anymore, not since I'd been put on indefinite suspension for bad behavior this summer.
What did he need Zoe for? A late-night wake-up meant Alchemist business, and she had nothing to do with that. The panic that had only just subsided began to surge within me again. He shut the door without another word, leaving me staring. 'I'll go wake your sister.' He turned for the door, and I leapt out of bed. I felt my eyes widen but didn't hesitate with a response. 'You need to get dressed and make yourself presentable,' he continued. Naturally, that was his only apology for scaring me to death. I sat up in the bed, my heart still pounding. He let go and stepped back to regard me coldly. I stilled my thrashing, thoroughly confused. My eyes blinked, staring wildly around the dark room until my father's face came into focus. A thousand frantic thoughts dashed through my mind in the space of a single heartbeat.
There was a hand covering my mouth and another shaking my shoulder, startling me out of a heavy sleep.
0 kommentar(er)
