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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Loneliness & Heartache
pretender_gurl
Infirmary
The Centre
Blue Cove, Delaware
April 14, 1994
12:32
"Jarod!" Sydney cried as he rushed into the sterile white room in the Centre's Infirmary.
The Pretender was lying on a reclining hospital bed intensely staring at the ceiling as if he were counting the holes in the plaster. He was in white Infirmary pajamas and had a five o'clock shadow. Reviewing Jarod's chart, he say that Jarod had gone into shock and lost consciousness for a brief period of time. Sydney moved to the bed and began checking Jarod's vital signs. Satisfied that his charge was not in imminent danger, Sydney sat back in the chair beside the bed and held Jarod's hand.
"Jarod? Jarod, can you hear me? It's Sydney," the psychiatrist said, but he received no response.
This puzzled Sydney. Jarod should have bounced back by now. His body was as healthy as ever, but it seemed as though Jarod's mind was holding back. It was almost as if Jarod didn't want to heal, didn't want to come back to reality. Watching the even rise and flow of the Pretender's chest, Sydney decided that he could only wait. The rest was up to Jarod.
SL-5: Tech Room
The Centre
13:05
Miss Parker stood before the wall of surveillance screens with her arms crossed. Her bluish-gray eyes scanned the wall slowly, occasionally glancing at the blueprints of the building that were on the desk before her. She was following the movements of her Sweeper, Larron as he wound his way through the Centre. The Tower had specified that the Sweeper should never be out of the camera's sight for more than two seconds.
Her father had forcefully encouraged her to return to work at the Centre. Her first project was updating the surveillance system in the building to ensure that cameras and audio bugs were placed in the most strategic of locations. The feeds that were shown in this area of the Tech Room were mostly from offices of the menial Centre workers, residential areas, the Infirmary, and other low clearance areas of the building.
On the far left wall of the room was locked door that required a very high level of security to enter. This room had the feeds from the all of the laboratories, Renewal Wing, offices of the higher-ups, and the conference rooms. The techs in there had all been with the Centre for at least twenty years and were given extremely thorough background checks. Miss Parker also suspected that the Centre was holding a stick over their heads, but she doubted that anyone could prove it.
"Camera 49 needs to be moved ten degrees to the upper left," Miss Parker called as Larron disappeared behind a pillar.
A young woman called out a confirmation as she typed codes into the computer and Miss Parker watched the camera angle shift. Besides changing camera angles, over eighty new units had been installed throughout the Centre since Jarod and Jira had both escaped the Centre. She had done Jarod's space personally since she knew where their special hiding place was under the camera when they were children. The Centre had also increased the number of Sweepers and Cleaners by thirty percent. From now on, four Sweepers would stand guard in the laboratories and the remainder of the Sweepers were assigned to the most important Centre subjects.
"Miss Parker! What are you doing here?" Sydney asked as he came into the room.
"I'm reviewing the surveillance system," Miss Parker said quickly. "What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for the surveillance on Jarod today. He seems to be experiencing some sort of catatonia and I don't know what brought it on," Sydney replied.
Alarms sounded inside Miss Parker's head. "Is he all right?"
"He seems to be stable for now, but I believe he may have gone through a T-Board."
He's sharp for an old man, Miss Parker thought. "Yeah, Syd, he did. What did you expect? He ran away from the Centre! You had to have known they would retaliate."
Sydney sighed. "I know, and it's not the first T-Board that Jarod has attended. I just don't understand his reaction. It's as if he no longer wants to face the world, and that is not like Jarod."
"I'm really sorry, Sydney. If there's anything I can do to help..." Miss Parker offered, hoping that there wasn't.
"Perhaps there is…" Sydney began thoughtfully. "Perhaps there is."
Simulation Laboratory 2
Centre Biological Research Facility
Donoterase, Maryland
13:27
Jonas had just finished another simulation, his third so far today. This one had been fairly easy and he solved it primarily through mathematical formulas and algorithms. He was scheduled to work out in the fitness room at 1400 hours. Since he had finished the simulation early, Mr. Lyle gave him a booklet of exercises to work on. Jonas looked down at the hyperbolic functions and their derivatives and sighed.
Mr. Lyle was sitting at the desk in his office in the corner of the lab. He was filling out paperwork, not focused on Jonas at all. The boy put his pencil down and closed his eyes. He tried to concentrate as hard as he could on the voice that he had heard in his head earlier. It had been a female voice, and she was whispering for him to hold on. But Jonas couldn't find her. He couldn't hear anything.
Pushing his chair back, Jonas stood and walked to the doorway of Mr. Lyle's office. He knocked on the doorjamb and cleared his throat.
"Mr. Lyle?"
"Hmm?" Lyle replied absently.
"Could I talk to you?" Jonas asked.
"About what?" Lyle asked without stopping his work.
"I don't hear the voice anymore," Jonas said quietly.
Lyle looked up at the boy and put his pen down. "What voice?"
"A girl's voice. I used hear her talking to me inside my head, but I can't anymore."
"What did the voice say?" Lyle asked, his eyes cold and hard.
"Um, I'd rather not say," Jonas said, looking at his feet and jamming his toe into the floor.
"What did you hear, Jonas?" Mr. Lyle asked in a warning tone, jumping up from his chair to tower over the eight year-old.
"She said she was going to come for me!" Jonas said quickly.
Lyle visibly relaxed and began to chuckle. "She's not coming for you, Jonas. No one is. Your family is dead. Mr. Raines and I are your family now. Do you understand?"
"Oh, yes, sir! I understand," Jonas said emphatically.
Lyle smiled at the boy's enthusiasm. "Good, then let's get back to work."
Mr. Lyle's smile grew as he watched Jonas walk back to his table and continue the exercises he had been assigned. Raines was right. The pictures of Jonas's murdered 'parents' had indeed sealed the boy's loyalty to the Centre. Though they had lost the girl, Jonas was most definitely theirs. As long as secrecy prevailed, Project Gemini was Lyle's ticket to the top.
Infirmary
The Centre
15:32
Jarod was vaguely aware of his surroundings. He could see the bright white of the room and the occasional dark blur of another person in the room. He heard muffled voices talking above him and could smell the scent of antiseptic all around him.
From this, Jarod had deduced that he was in the Infirmary. Tracing back the events of the previous day, he remembered the T-Board and immediately his chest constricted. It felt like his heart was shattering into a million pieces and he had difficulty breathing.
Miss Parker had betrayed him.
Jarod couldn't imagine facing her again, or Sydney for that matter. Where had he been? Didn't Sydney care that Jarod was called to a T-Board?
The empty feeling in Jarod's stomach and his aching heart were all that he could clearly process. So Jarod used his pain to shut out the world. Transforming Miss Parker's betrayal into a defensive wall between his mind and body, Jarod replayed moments of warmth between them; the first time they met, their first kiss, the day her mother died, their adventures, the day Faith died, the escape to the gardens, all leading up to the consummation of their relationship less than twenty-four hours ago.
And then twelve hours ago, she sent 325 volts of electricity through his body.
Suddenly, the wall that separated Jarod from his pain crumbled and he was once again left with his loneliness and heartache.
