Chapter 21: The Weight of Reality

The room was suffocating. Not in the physical sense—Jake had more than enough space to move around—but the weight of it pressed on him all the same. He leaned his head back against the cold, metallic wall, his eyes half-closed, watching the flickering light above with a dull, unfocused gaze.

The same light. The same cold. The same heavy, sterile air that never changed.

Jake let out a breath through his nose, staring at the ceiling, feeling the ache in his muscles that never seemed to go away. His body had been pushed to the limit every day, every session, every moment they dragged him into that damned lab. They called it testing, but Jake knew better. It was control. They were trying to figure out how to contain him, to make sure he didn’t tear through their walls the way he had torn through Galewood.

His stomach twisted as the thought of the city resurfaced again. He could still see it—the explosion, the shockwave that flattened everything in its path, the way the sky itself seemed to rip apart as the energy surged out of him. And the screams.O lord the screams…He could still hear the screams of thousands in his head, over and over again. It sickened him.

Jake squeezed his eyes shut, his hands curling into fists.

He hated this place. He hated the technology that buzzed around him, keeping his powers in check, making him feel like he was constantly on the verge of suffocating under his own skin. And most of all, he hated that he had been sitting here for weeks, doing nothing but reliving the same moments—over and over again—while the Academy slowly stripped him down to a shell of what he used to be.

They hadn’t told him anything about Levi. They never would. The Academy’s handlers weren’t the talkative type, and they certainly didn’t care to tell him where his best friend had been taken after they dragged them here. The separation had been immediate—he hadn’t seen Levi since the explosion. And that absence was almost worse than any of the pain they’d put him through.

Levi had survived, somehow. Jake had watched him die, and then he had stood up like nothing had happened. That single fact gnawed at Jake’s mind constantly, a question without an answer, and the longer he sat in this damn cell, the harder it became to push it down.

How had Levi survived?

Jake shifted, sitting up straighter, the cold steel beneath him pressing into his skin. His clothes still stuck to him from the sweat of the last session, and his body screamed at him to rest, to just let go and sink into the numbness the Academy was so good at fostering. But the question wouldn’t let him. The question, and the reality of where they were.

He’d spent weeks trapped in his own mind, wallowing in it. Blaming himself. He knew what he did. Stuck with the guilt, the grief, the confusion—everything that had been spinning in his head since Galewood. But the Academy didn’t leave room for self pity, not really. The walls, the lights, the buzzing, the constant testing—it all forced him to be here, forced him to face the reality he had been trying so desperately to avoid.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He wasn’t getting out of this place unless something changed. Unless he changed.

Jake clenched his jaw, staring down at his hands. He flexed his fingers, feeling the familiar buzz of energy underneath, kept at bay by the technology they had. They were always holding him back, making sure he didn’t lose control again. But there was something in him, something that hadn’t been broken by the weeks of testing, by the pain, by the endless routine of it all.

He needed to figure this out. Not for them. For himself. For Levi.

The thoughts hit him like a dull weight in his chest, something that had been buried for weeks, maybe longer. He couldn’t afford to keep sitting here and wait for the Academy to figure him out, to pull him apart until they had stripped him of everything that made him dangerous. He needed to understand his power, to know how far he could push it without losing himself.

The Academy didn’t truly care about him. That much was clear. And Levi…

Levi was probably out there, somewhere, going through his own version of this nightmare, and Jake couldn’t stand the thought of being stuck here while his best friend was most likely being torn apart like a lab rat. Jake didn’t know how or why Levi had survived, but the fact that he was still alive was the only thing that has kept him from completely giving up.

The door to his cell hissed open, and the two guards stepped inside, their faces hidden behind their mirrored visors. Jake barely glanced at them. He knew the routine by now.

“On your feet.”

He stood without a word, his limbs stiff and aching from the last round of testing. The guards moved in sync, keeping their distance, always watching him like he was a ticking bomb—ready to explode if they made the wrong move. Jake could see it in the way their hands twitched toward their weapons, ready to fire at the first sign of resistance.

But there wouldn’t be any resistance. Not today. Not yet at least.

Jake let them lead him down the hall, his boots thudding softly against the tile floor. The hum of the dampeners followed him, reminding him with every step of the energy he wasn’t allowed to use. It was always there, under the surface, swirling, building, but never enough to reach for. The Academy wouldn’t let it happen.

He could feel the electric buzz in the air as they reached the lab. The same cold, clinical room, with its sterile white walls and the sharp, metallic scent that hung in the air. The scientists were already there, waiting for him. They always were.

Jake stood in the center of the room, watching as they moved around him, adjusting their equipment, preparing for another round of tests. They didn’t look at him—not really. Just at the data they could pull from him, the readings on their screens. He was a test subject, nothing more.

They strapped him down, securing his wrists and ankles to the metal slab. The restraints buzzed faintly with that same energy, the dampeners designed to keep him in check. Jake stared at the ceiling, waiting for the next round of injections, the next round of pain, the next attempt to push him further.

His body tensed as the needles slid into his arms, and he felt the surge of energy flood through him. The machines hummed louder, the scientists muttering to themselves as they observed the way his body reacted to the new stimulus.

It didn’t matter how much they pushed him, how much they tried to draw out. Jake could feel the power inside him, coiling tighter and tighter with every session, but they would never let him go far enough to lose control.

He could feel it—just out of reach. If he could just get a grip on it, if he could just push himself a little further, maybe he could figure this out.

But not today. Today was about endurance. Getting through another round, another session, and making it back to his cell in one piece.

When they were done, when the machines finally powered down and the restraints were released, Jake stood on unsteady legs, his body aching from the strain. The guards were there again, ready to drag him back to his cell, but Jake didn’t need their help.

He walked back to his cell in silence, the weight of everything pressing down on him.

Levi was still out there. Jake didn’t know what the Academy was doing to him, didn’t know how much time had passed or how much longer they’d be trapped here. But the thought of Levi—alive, enduring his own version of hell—kept Jake grounded.

He had to hold it together. He had to get through this.

Because if Levi could survive everything that had happened—the explosion, the gunshot, the destruction—then Jake had no excuse. This was his responsiblity.

He couldn’t let this place break him. Not now. Not after everything.