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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Aftermath
She's in there. She's locked herself in and recoded the lock. I can't get it open. She's crazed. Something about having to get out of here and kill Raines."
"This is what I was afraid of." Stedman stated as she and Becky tried to open the lock.
Jarod peered through the glass trying to find Lily. He finally spotted her at the far end of the room, on a boulder with her knees to her chest, and rocking back and forth. He put his forehead and hand up on the glass. "Lily."
Parker came up behind Jarod and tenderly placed her hands around his shoulders. "We'll get in there. She'll be OK. She's a tough lady; she's put up with me."
Jarod picked his head up off the glass and had a weird look on his face. "What is going on in there? The glass is vibrating."
"Whenever Lily gets extremely upset, she plays really loud music. Deafening." Becky tried to explain peering through the glass.
Dr. Stedman picked up her cell phone and walked away from the group slightly ordering whoever was on the other end to get down there and to bring the kit. After snapping the phone shut, she turned to Jarod, Parker and Becky. "Becky. Mark is coming with a kit. Can you please go meet him at the elevator and make sure he can access the floor?"
Becky looked at Joan sternly. "If you wanted me to leave, you just had to ask."
Joan inhaled and exhaled slowly. "I'm sorry Becky. Yes, I need to speak to Jarod and Miss Parker alone. Can you please excuse us?" Her attempt at subtly hadn't worked.
"Certainly, but if it's something I need to know about Lily you'll tell me right?"
"You may not want to know what I have to tell them. But yes, if you really want to know, I will tell you. Just not now. Let's get through this crisis first and then you and I will talk."
Becky nodded and headed for the elevator.
"Ok. What was so bad that you couldn't say it in front of Becky?" Jarod asked knowing that it wasn't going to be pleasant.
"Jarod there are certain aspects about Lily and the others coming to Angel's Hope that are complicated. Has Lily told you anything about how she came here?" Stedman questioned.
"She said that she was brought here when she was four by a guardian. That she was saved by Catherine Parker. What does that have to do with what's happening now?" Jarod asked looking through the glass again and seeing that Lily just seemed to be rocking to the music playing.
"In certain circumstances we had to bring the children here and send them to the Re-adjustification Wing. They were so traumatized by what had been done to them that we had to help them to forget or just house the children that couldn't respond to treatment."
"What does that have to do with Lily? She said that when she was four she came here and had everything she ever needed." Jarod was getting impatient.
"Jarod. I'm not sure what started this episode. But Lily doesn't remember exactly what her childhood was like. She didn't come here when she was four, she came when she was six and a half. At four she was taken to the Centre and charged to Dr. Raines. Catherine Parker found out that he had labeled her for experiment failure and termination. She faked her death and brought her here."
Parker and Jarod looked at Joan in shock. Jarod looked at Dr. Stedman. "Two and a half years. What did he do to her and why doesn't she remember?"
"I think you already know what he was doing Jarod. You've been learning more and more about the Centre. All I know is that it was a combination of drugs and subliminal messaging in music. Messages in the music played at loud decibels. He was trying to break her, but even at that age she fought him."
"He was trying to destroy her mind." Parker said looking at the figure of Lily.
"He was trying to destroy her soul." Added Jarod, his heart breaking at remembering what Kyle had told him. The tearing down of his personality and his humanity. And the look he had seen in Alex's face, the coldness and lack of emotion. "I hypnotized her in Catherine Parker's office to see if she had the combination to the safe. Is that what triggered this?"
"It may have started a ripple that flooded the dam gate we put in place. We have tried to funnel the negative emotions into activities that would release them. The study of martial arts, weaponry, the imagery of an enemy that had no face but she could work towards conquering and defeating. I need to get in there."
Jarod knew that they were playing against time when it came to Lily's sanity, so he removed the keypad covering and started to re-work the wiring. Becky came up from behind with a man wearing a white lab coat and a black bag. Dr. Stedman took the bag and started ruffling through it.
The young man went to the glass and placed his hand up on it. "How bad is the situation Joan?"
"Not good Mark. I'll know more when I can get in there and evaluate her." She took out a hypodermic and measured a certain amount of drug into the syringe. She put it in her pocket.
"Got it." Jarod turned to see Dr. Stedman going to go through the door with a pair of what looked like airport technician earphones. Jarod grabbed her arm. "I'm going with you."
"Jarod, I don't know if this is safe. I don't know what state she's in. She is classified as a deadly weapon."
"She's my sister and I'm going." Jarod was not going to let another member of his family be destroyed by the Centre.
"Then you're going to need these to even hear yourself think." Stedman handed Jarod a pair of the headphones. "They filter the noise so that you can hear what is being said."
Jarod turned to Parker. "When we get through the door, cross these two wires and punch in a code. Any code you can remember. And don't punch it in except for Dr. Stedman and myself. We have to try and contain her." Parker nodded her head in agreement. Jarod pushed the code in and the door opened. Music blared so loud that Becky, Mark, and Parker had to cover their ears.
Lily sat rocking to the music, seemingly oblivious to their entry. Dr. Stedman and Jarod approached her slowly and cautiously.
Shouting as loud as she could, Dr. Stedman yelled Lily's name. With no response, she looked at Jarod and motioned that Jarod try. Jarod decided to move to the front of his sister and see if he could make eye contact. Stedman tried to stop him, but Jarod moved quickly. He bent down on his knees in front of her. "Lily." He yelled on the top of his lungs.
The young woman moved her head far enough off her knees so that her eyes looked at Jarod through the soft brown curls of her hair. He saw the coldness he had seen in Kyle's eyes. "Go away Jarod."
"I know you're confused right now. I can help you through this. We can do this together." Jarod was trying to reach the person he knew was trapped inside.
Lily jumped off from the boulder and sent Jarod flying backwards onto his posterior. "I don't need your help. I don't need anyone. It makes you vulnerable." She started pacing around. "A lone assault will be more successful."
"Lily." Stedman yelled trying to assess her charge's condition. "Do you know where you are? What is today's date?"
Lily stopped her pacing and shot a look. "I've been to hell and back." She looked up at the trees, fixated on the leaves. "It's the day when all the suffering stops. It's the beginning of the end." Lily looked Joan eye to eye.
Jarod got up and moved towards the two women. "Lily, together we will make the suffering stop. Dr. Stedman will help us." His eyes pleaded with hers, looking for some sort of recognition.
"No one can help us." Lily screamed. "The evil is all around us. Inside whispering. You can't ever get away from it no matter how hard you try. You're an example Jarod. It keeps touching our lives time and time again. There's only one way to make it stop." The music in the room changed songs. Lily listened to the words and seemed entranced.
I want my money back. I want my money back.
Lily started singing with the words:
"It's all or nothing and nothings all I ever get."
"Every time I turn it on I burn it up and burn it out."
"It's always something. There's always something going wrong."
"That's the only guarantee. That's what this is all about."
Lily ran full force and jumped onto one of the boulders, teetering on the edge. She turned around and looked straight at Jarod.
"It's a never-ending attack. Everything's a lie and that's a fact."
"Life is a lemon and I want my money back."
The song continued while Jarod tried to approach the boulder where Lily was standing listening to the music.
And all the morons and all their stooges with their poems.
They're the ones who make the rules. It's not a game, it's just allowed.
There's desperation. There's desperation. There's desperation in the air.
That leaves a stain upon your clothes and no detergent gets it out.
And we're always slipping through the cracks. And the movie is over, fade to black.
"Life is a lemon and I want my money back."
"I want my money back. I want my money back.".
Jarod was just about to reach the boulder when Lily put her hand up to tell him to stop. She screamed from on top of the rock:
"What about love, it's defective. It's always breaking in half."
"What about sex, it's defective. It's never built to really last."
She looked eye to eye down to Jarod and continued to yell:
"What about your family, it's defective. All the batteries are shot."
"What about your friends, they're defective. All the parts are out of stock."
"What about hope, it's defective. It's corroded and decayed."
She turned her attention to Joan.
"What about faith, it's defective. It's tattered and it's frayed."
"What about your Gods, they're defective. They forgot morality."
"What about your town, it's defective. It's a dead end straight to me."
"What about your school, it's defective. It's a pack of useless lies."
"What about your work, it's defective. It's a crock and then you die."
Her face turned to rage.
"What about your childhood, it's defective. It's getting buried in the past."
"What about your future, it's defective. You can shove it up your ass."
Lily jumped off the boulder and walked quickly to the door. She tried opening the lock while mouthing the words to the music that played on.
I want my money back. Life is a lemon.
I want my money back. Life is a lemon. Life is a lemon.
It's all or nothing and nothings all I ever get.
Every time I turn it on I burn it up and burn it out.
Unable to get the door open, she stepped back while Jarod and Dr. Stedman slowly came up next to her. Jarod ready to grab her and the doctor to use the syringe in her pocket. Lily snapped her head in their direction:
"It's a never-ending attack. Everything's a lie and that's a fact."
Lily pulled the gun from the back of her pants and a turned back to the door.
Parker seeing what she was going to do screamed. "Get down!" Parker pushed Becky and Mark to the floor. The guards dove for the floor. Lily aimed the gun and fired at the glass. Pieces flew everywhere. Jarod and Dr. Stedman dived for cover behind nearby boulders. Hitting the remaining shards with the gun, Lily walked through the doorframe.
Life is a lemon and I want my money back.
And we're always slipping through the cracks.
And the movie is over, fade to black.
Life is a lemon and I want my money back.
Back, back, back, back.......................................................................
