Chapter 53: 51

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51

Ethan's pov

The minute I closed the door behind me, she looked up. Her lips curving up into that evil calculated smile that made my insides churn every damn time. I noticed the change on her also; her hair once blonde, had been turned into a dark brunette color which made her bare a striking resemblance to Lacy. But honestly, I couldn't care less.

"Ethan, it's late, what are you doing here?" She asked with furrowed brows, closing her laptop and placing her two hands on the brown wooden table, lifting herself up.

"What am I doing here? Are you seriously asking me that?" I couldn't hide the annoyance in my tone, I couldn't stop the rush I felt underneath my skin. Her neck was all I wanted, with my hand choking the living day light out of her. But I couldn't, even if I tried, she'd find her way back up.

A woman who was supposed to be the age of my grandma, still looked like she did since her youth days. It was still a mystery to me and to everyone else.

She sighed, stepping out from behind her table. "I did warn you, Ethan." She said, her voice calm, and her blue eyes cautious. "She hurt you didn't she? Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you that being with her would only warrant to her hurting you?"

I shook my head, wondering why I wasn't even attacking the devil when she was standing right in front of me.

"Humans only know one thing, Ethan. And that is to hurt people like us, people with potential-"

"Oh to hell with your damn potential preach!" I yelled at her, causing her to take a step back in shock. "To hell with every damn thing! To hell with you, to hell with this goddamn Inc!"

She looked alarmed, but tried to act like none of this was affecting her.

"Why can't you see it, Glory? I have no potential, and I am so happy with that, I'm not complaining! Stop ruining my life because you think you're making me better, just stop! I've had enough of all this. You crossed the line with Ivy, you went straight to the border even after I warned you-"

"Ivy was responsible for you dying that day-"

"Bullshit! That's a lie. That's a big lie Glory, cause I know you, and I know what you're capable of. You were the one messing with me, pushing me to the limits to see how far I'll go. Now you want to blame it on Ivy? You want to blame it on someone who's innocent to all this shit? What length are you willing to go to ruin my life?!" I yelled at her, all my pent up frustration digging their way out.

She gulped. "I am not trying to ruin your life-"

"Yes you are! Why else would you send me out there? Why else would you let me get comfortable and then snatch it all away like I'm not supposed to even have a little bit of happiness. Why? Why did you have to ruin Ivy's life? Why did you have to end her parents?"

"It was necessary." She said, her calm voice increasing my anger by the second.

"Necessary? What did she ever do to you? Why Glory? Why do you keep hurting the people I love? Why do you keep taking them away? What have I ever done to you? In what way have I ever offended you?"

Her eyes softened, and I thought I saw a little bit of moisture in them before she blinked them back inside. "I'm so sorry, Ethan. I just wanted the best for you, it's all I've ever wanted."

I raked my hands through my hair. "When will you ever realize that there's no best to me? When will you ever realize that there's no perfect to me, when will you stop treating me like some experiment gone wrong?"

She shook her head hastily. "No, no Ethan please, don't think like that. You're not an experiment to me. You're my son. You mean the world to me, you have no idea how much I love you."

"Then why do you want me to be unhappy?"

"I don't want you to be unhappy, I'm doing all this for you to be happy."

I watched her, feeling so emotionally wrecked. "Then you don't know me. Having special abilities will not make me happy. Being like everyone else will not make me happy. But being with Ivy, makes me happy, it makes me feel like I finally belong somewhere, her presence gives me something no one- absolutely no one has ever given me. Her happiness is all I want to live for. Yet you took that from her, murdered her parents in cold blood, and brought her here, to what? Punish her? Torture her? Hurt me?"

She sighed. "I didn't know, Ethan-"

"You didn't know what? That I love her? That she was the only thing keeping my messed up life together? You didn't know?" I gave a humourless laugh. "You don't have to lie about that, cause the only reason you did all of this was for her to hate me. You did this because you noticed I was beginning to value a human more than I valued you."

She took in a sharp breath like I had slapped her with my words.

"Well you should be happy now, cause your plan worked. You've succeeded in ruining my life again, you've succeeded in pulling Ivy and I apart. You've also succeeded in breaking the thin line that connected me to you."

Her eyes dropped closed and her jaw clenched hard as she swallowed, pulling them back open. They were so red with withheld tears, but she kept her chin up.

"You've lost me Glory Curt. And no matter what you do, you'll never ever get me back."

Her eyes didn't leave mine as I turned to walk out.

I stopped just by the door, turning back to her. "Also, if you know what's good for you, you'd order for Roman to be transferred down to the Rebels sector. Cause you made a big mistake the moment you thought of bringing Ivy here. I know her well. As long as she's here, there'll be no peace for you; and Roman might just be the only person to talk her out of whatever it is she's planning."

_

Ivy's pov

Sleep had departed from me last night, but I didn't feel tired, no. I felt like setting up a game plan, I felt like doing what I came here to do, making a move, setting an action. I just felt like doing something, anything that'd distract me from my reality.

I gulped down, eyeing my reflection in the mirror right in front of me. With a towel wrapped around my chest, and my hair already getting dry from the hot shower I took not too long ago. I had no idea how long I'd been standing there, just staring back at an unfamiliar face.

My reflection looked nothing like how it did few days ago. My eyes looked sick, my cheeks, despite the bath I took, still looked flushed, my nose still look a little red from all the crying.

My hair fell loosely down my shoulders, striking a clear resemblance to that of my mom's whenever she forgot to dry her hair after showering just to make coffee for Dad and I which she considered as the perfect breakfast.

My eyes slipped shut, my jaw clenching at the memory, and my heart squeezing at the unbearable pain that came with the thought of my parents.

Will I see this everytime I look at my reflection? Will I keep seeing Mom staring back at me? Will I see Dad asking me why I let it all happen to them? Will I keep hating myself for being... Myself?

I shook my head, bending to rummage through drawer after drawer, looking for a scissors. After a short while, I found one.

I took in a deep breath as I picked it up, closing the drawer.

My dull eyes went back to my reflection.

My Mom had been obsessed with my hair, at least, whenever she wasn't stuck in a business trip. I knew she hated whenever I had it up in a ponytail.

Like Ethan, she'd preferred it loose, wavy and curly.

I gulped. "That's all in the past now Ivy." I whispered to myself, lifting up the scissors to my chin level, just few inches below my jaw.

I blocked out all emotions, cutting my hair, and as I did, I felt a little relieved, or maybe even more burdened. At this point, it was really difficult to focus my emotional energy in one place.

When I was finally satisfied, my reflection looked way different. The bold look I had on was unflinching. My hair described the new me in one word, and I couldn't be anymore better.

But I still saw her, the old me, staring back at me with questioning eyes.

Even though I looked a little different, the shadow of my past never left me. It was still there, lurking, waiting for a weakness, waiting for a flaw.

Something I refuse to show and give.

_

After throwing in a skin tight leather trouser, I coupled it with a white tank top and a jacket. It hasn't even been a whole day yet, and I was already beginning to look like them.

It felt as if I had ants crawling underneath my skin. There was no word to describe how uncomfortable it all felt. But if I'm really aiming to hit the nail on the head, endurance should be my number one rule.

Walking out of the small compartment they expected me to call a bedroom, I found the least person I wanted to see leaning comfortable on the high table right there in what was supposed to be a living room.

It was a pod, but I wouldn't exactly call it that. The bedroom had a door to a one showered bathroom. The living room had just a two sitter couch. No TV, no books, just a center table with absolutely nothing on top it, with a door leading to the outside.

Twirling her knife with a smirk staining her lips, her eyes scanned me from head to toe. "My my, I barely recognized you." She said, standing to her full height.

"What do you want Caramel?" I asked sharply, my hand balling to a fist.

"Relax will you." She said. "Allow me to appreciate your new look first. Love what you did with your hair."

"Am I supposed to say thank you?"

Her smirk grew wider. "And the new character."

I crossed my arm over my chest, raising a brow at her.

"You know what would go perfect with it?" She asked.

When I didn't reply, she dipped her hand into her jacket pocket, bringing out a red lipstick. "Since you're naturally pale and your lips are perfect for the red color, I think it'd do well to your new look, maybe paired with a little dark eyeshadow, underneath and atop your eyes." She said coming closer to me. "Come on." She smiled, pulling my arm back to my bedroom.

She sat me down on the chair in front of the small mirror.

She pulled open the last drawer, picking up a brown purse. "I put these here last night, with all your new clothes. It's quite obvious you didn't check your apartment properly." She said, opening up the brown purse, bringing out a powder and brush.

She stood right in front of me, blocking my view from the mirror. "You know Ivy," she began, rubbing the soft brush over the surface of the powder. "We didn't start off on a good path. Right from ICHS, and down to what I was asked to do to your parents." She said, powdering my face.

My eyes didn't leave hers.

"You're different, Ivy Fisher. Your braveness is something I pray for every damn day of my damned life. Even with a red chip, I can never be as brave as you are, even if I tried."

"How did you get here?" I found myself asking. "I mean the Inc."

She shrugged. "I escaped from foster care, tired of the other kids, tired of my foster parents. I honestly thought it was gonna be easy being off on my own. But, it wasn't. I'd go some days without eating, and I never got any money when I begged on the streets. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I'd find a left over hamburger from Shake Shack." She chuckled. "That was when Glory walked up to me, one night when I was crouched down, shivering, smelly, hungry and cold. She offered me food, shelter, friends... Family. So I followed her." She said, closing the powder and bringing out what looked like an eyeshadow palette.

"Did she give you all she promised?" I asked.

"Of course she did. Glory Curt is a woman who stands by her word. She never goes back on it. I had it all, friends, family, love." There was a ghost smile on her face. "I even had more, I had abilities. After getting my chip, I discovered my ability to hear things from afar, strong reflexes, sharp vision, extraordinary strength. It was all there. I felt like I could do anything. I never ran out of energy. It was spectacular... But-" she stopped, applying the eyeshadow.

With my eyes closed, I could tell that the smile had faded from her lips.

"But what?" I asked.

"But with all the spectacular and enthusiastic nature, there was still that feeling of being trapped. After years of being here, learning how to fight, to be a good soldier. Learning how to use weapons to my best capabilities. Being forced to kill for sport, being forced to hate my old self, my human self." She finished with the eye shadow.

My eyes flipped open to look at her, and like I guessed, the smile was long gone from her face.

"It gets a little tiring, and all you just wanna do is leave... Crawl your way back to that old you, the one you're being forced to erase." She said.

She took her lipstick, angling my chin up to apply it. "For one time in a long while, I feel like something great is going to happen, I can see a blurry light at the end of the tunnel. For one time in a long while, it feels like my thirst for freedom is about to be quenched. And that is because of you. I feel like there's someone asides from me who wants nothing more than for this dimension to burn."

"So you don't really wanna be here?" I asked.

She leaned closer, her eyes dead set on mine. "Nobody wants to be here. Forget all sectors, forget the concept behind them. Some of us were forced here, some of us like me came willingly, but we're being forced to stay, some of us came here because they had no choice, it's either they die or come here to live, but they can't leave. Some of us seem happy, bright and so full of life, but we're trapped inside these four walls, knowing there's a bigger world out there, with people missing us. No matter what way we all came in. We're being forced to stay. And we want out." She said. "You and Roman are our only hope at survival."

"That's why you wanted me to make this choice?"

She nodded.

"So you don't wanna kill me?"

"I don't, but I have no say on what I want. We don't get to want here, but you do. That's why you're the only one who can help us... All of us."

I gulped down.

She leaned back. "Take it like your destiny. Everything happens for a reason." She smiled. "So, if you want to help us, you don't just have to endure us, you have to pretend. Not just with your actions, but with your look." She said, moving away from the view of the mirror.

I took in a sharp breath after seeing my reflection. It was all gone, the tired look, the sad face, the innocent eyes. It was all replaced with a stranger's features, someone who looked braver and bolder than she felt.

Caramel placed both her hands on my shoulders, as I watched her reflection lean in to whisper in my ears. "The old Ivy Fisher, died with her parents. Embrace the new you, use your anger to anchor your strength. You can't fight fire with ice, Ivy. You fight fire with fire."

She smiled. "Now tell me. How do you look?" She asked.

My eyes left her reflection to meet mine. I searched, I searched my face, looking for that memory, looking for anything that'd drive me back to that memory.

"How does this new Ivy look?" She asked.

My eyes didn't leave my reflection. She stared back at me with as much concentration. Not until I saw a side smirk grow on her lips, did I realize my lips going up.

"How does she look?" Caramel asked with a smirk of her own.

I found nothing, there was no attachment. No strings. My look described me in one word, and I couldn't be anymore better... So when I spoke, I knew I'd given the right reply.

"She looks... Perfect."

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I delayed again, didn't I?

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What do you think of the New Ivy? Do you like the change or do you feel like there's a better route she could have taken to all this?

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Till Next update! Bye Beauties!

Nora.