Free Shattered Skies: Beginning's End by Heather Linn Page B

and forget about it.” I knew I was giving in and normally that was so not me, but I had to get them to stop looking at me like I was some kind of saint. The looks on their faces were ten times scarier than anything Akia could have done to me, and that was saying a lot, all things considered. 
     
    “OK, we have a deal. Just let me get the lab set up and we will run the tests tonight while everybody is here, so if nothing happens, they can see that with their own eyes.”
    I really didn’t see the point of displaying me as a freak show in front of the others. Most of them hated and resented me already; what was the point of giving them more fodder? As much as I didn’t want them there, I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to give the Doc to prevent them from being there, so Dr. Walker won the second battle of the night. I must really be slipping. I had to get back on my toes or people were going to think I was becoming a pushover.
    Less than an hour later, I was sitting in the middle of Dr. Walker’s office and lab. I wasn’t really sure what method he was going to use to try to prove his theory, but I was a hundred percent sure that I wasn’t going to like it. When Dr. Walker entered the room with a box in one hand and a large cup full of some funny looking liquid in the other, my pulse quickened.
    “What’s in the cup Doc?” Normally, the box would have been more of an eye catcher, but I was almost certain that whatever fluid he was carrying, he was going to expect me to drink it all like a good little science experiment. 
    “It is a minor sedative; my plan is to relax you into a state of deep hypnosis. I want to make you relive everything just the way that it happened that night. But I want you to relive it frame by frame in slow motion, and we will see what really happened.”  I really think that he expected me to protest his plan, and I probably should have. Hell, maybe I was becoming a pushover, but I think I needed to know the truth more than anyone else. I needed to prove to myself that I was not the freak that some dead guy foresaw so many years before I was even conceived. I knew who I was; I was Cat, stubborn, hard headed Cat. I needed to be reminded of that now more so than ever, and if whatever was in that cup could give me back my sense of self, I would drink it all plus whatever other concoctions he came up with.
    I reached out my hand, expecting him to place the cup in it. I was sure that as much as I wanted to get this over with, Dr. Walker was equally anxious to get started. He was, after all, the man who had lived and breathed science most of his life. I wasn’t paying much attention, but the weight wasn’t right and when I looked down I saw that it wasn’t the cup that my fingers had closed around, instead it was the heavy little box. 
    “What is this?” It wasn’t a holiday and the Doc was a good man. He always made sure we all got something when it was gift giving time, but I was almost certain that this wasn’t a Hey I screwed up royally, give me a present holiday. When he didn’t answer, I opened the box, half expecting something to jump out at me. Instead, I was greeted with one of the most beautiful rings I had ever seen. It was a black band, as dark as the midnight sky. In the center of the black band were silver waves I just couldn’t stop staring at. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing or if the ring was supposed to mean something to me. 
    “That is a ring that I picked up when I was just starting medical school.” He stopped talking, I guess he thought that it was all the explanation that I needed. 
    “It is nice. I am not sure what it has to do with me though.” I still wasn’t sure if this was a reward, or if it was some sort of punishment trick, I was hoping it was the former because I didn’t think my body could handle much more punishment. 
    “Take it out and look at the word on the inside.” He almost sounded excited to be sharing with