Chapter VIII

David

WALKING BACK THROUGH THE dark hallway, the only sound being heard from soaked shoes squishing against concrete, David held his tongue even though he wanted to lash out and tell Thomas he was foolish to believe anything except Claire being behind the virus. As they neared the exit, sunlight hit the tunnel. The greenery and pond came into view as they rounded the corner, but they weren't the only thing he saw. A sudden grin found its way to David's lips as he found Joey strolling her way towards the entrance to the palace.

He and Thomas quickened their pace and briskly made their way to her side. "Joey, you're up!" David explained. "You feeling better now?"

To his surprise, Joey didn't answer. Instead, she gripped her left tricep with her right hand and lowered her gaze to the ground.

"Everything alright?" Thomas asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. She used no words but gave a simple shake of her head.

"What's wrong?" David asked, taking a step forward, and Joey lurched back like he was going to attack her.

"Please don't touch me," she whispered.

Perplexed, David obeyed her wishes. "Joey—"

"I remember, David," she continued in a barely audible voice, and David felt his heart sink and quicken its beat both at the same time.

"What uh—" He swallowed a lump through his tightened throat. "What do you remember?"

Slowly lifting her head, she answered, "Everything you two had mentioned earlier, only with now in detail." She sighed and looked up at Thomas. "I remember my dad's compass. I remember how it felt as it took over my thoughts and my actions." David's brow arched when he noticed her glare from the corner of her eye. "I remember that ... liquid that you threw on me, David, nearly killing me."

Distraught, David hurriedly tried to come up with something to say. "That wasn't entirely my fault, Joey. It was Lucinda—"

"I know," she replied softly, and David suddenly found himself at a lost for words. "Lucinda played us all. I don't even think the compass was actually my dads." Her face hardened. "Just another one of her tools to use against us." Her brow furrowed. "I remember losing control of the darkness and hurting so many of you." Her eyes ventured down a few inches and she continued, "I'm so so sorry, David."

He followed her eyes and looked down to find the small slash on his bicep she had given him while under the control of the darkness, and he knew his other arm held a matching wound. They had almost recovered thanks to his bodies ability to heal, but were still vary visible. He had almost forgotten he even had them. He took another step forward, but she continued to back up. "Joey, you don't have to be afraid. What happened wasn't you."

"But it was me!" she argued. "I chose to put the compass on. I choose to keep it on! Even if it took control, everything leading up to it was all me." She wrapped her arms around herself as tears pricked her eyes. "I'm sorry," she wept. Turning up at Thomas, she said once more, "I'm so sorry!" She brushed past both the boys, but Thomas reached out and gripped her hand gently making her stop.

She didn't turn to look at him as he said, "Joey, would you please listen? As much as I hate agreeing with David, he's right about this. That person who hurt all of us wasn't you. If anything it was Lucinda."

She glanced down at Thomas's hand. "Please let me go," she begged. Thomas slowly released her hand and she trudged into the dark hallway of the Palace until she was eventually swallowed by the dark shadows.

David waited for a few moments, but he couldn't just leave Joey alone. Something about her she acted, and the way she spoke just felt off to him. He stared into the entryway, but called to Thomas, "Why don't you go back to the shack with the girls and Bellamy? I'm going to talk to her."

"Why you?" Thomas asked, sounding offended.

David stole a glance back at him before returning his gaze forward. "Because she seems the most upset about what happened between me and her."

"Can you blame her?"

David extended his hand to the side cutting him off, and gesturing for him to wait. "Just give me some time to talk to her. Then you can do whatever you want."

Thomas released a huff. "Alright." David dashed back inside, hearing Thomas's final, "But only a few minutes!" ringing throughout the darkened hall.

David took a quick glance around the magical pools, but he quickly realized that she wasn't there. Cocking his head, he scanned the room more closed, and realized there was a few narrow steps leading up to the tunnel in the left wall. He dropped into the larger nearby pool, trudged through the waters, and climbed the higher pools seeing how that had to be Joey's only option.

Pushing himself up from the last step with a huff, he reached the tunnel but was surprised to find a staircase on the back wall rather than Joey. Keeping to the left side of the wall, tightroping along the skinny concrete pathway, he made his way to the bottom of the staircase. He turned his head up to follow where the stairs led to, and felt the water that rushed through the center of the steps splash against his skin and clothes. He felt like he'd fall over if he looked any higher, and he grunted in exasperation. Joey better be up there if he was going to climb all these stairs.

By the time he reached the very last step, his thighs and lungs burned from climbing what felt like a hundred floors. He leaned over with his hands on his shaking knees and panted, barely able to catch his breath. He turned his head up to look ahead and there he found Joey. He squinted to see through the geyser of healing water gushing from the floor, and noticed her standing at the very edge of the Palace where the waters poured over the side in a roaring waterfall.

"Joey!" he shouted as he hugged the wall, not wanting to be carried back down those stairs by the water. He reached her, now standing about a foot behind her, and his heart dropped realizing how the tip of her boots hung off the side. His heart beat quickened, and her words broke the silence.

"I didn't mean to hurt any of you," Joey said sternly to be heard amongst the thunderous water. He ceased his movement, afraid of what was going on inside her head. "Chase, Kathleen, Alex, Evangeline ... What I did to them. If I could go back in time and undo what I did ..."

"Well, maybe we'll meet someone with a time traveling ability," he joked with a chuckle. When she didn't look his way or laugh with him, he regretting being so stupid. Clearing his throat, he spoke up, "What I mean is, we've all moved past it. We understand it was Lucinda."

"David, you called me a monster," Joey said plainly, her voice broken, and David's shoulders slumped as a frown pulled at his lips. Joey shrugged. "But you were right. I am one."

"No, Joey!" he lashed out. "I was wrong, and scared of what you were becoming. I should've never even thought that." He looked down at her feet as he watched the current push her ever so slowly off the ledge. Reaching out his hand, he tried gripping her wrist to pull her away from the ridge but she was a few inches too far. "Hey, Joey? Maybe we can talk about this somewhere else?"

He glanced down at the rushing wave, and he knew the force could easily knock him off his feet and send him over the edge if he stepped of his narrow platform. "Joey?" She stood still, allowing the water to billow behind her legs and push against her heels. His mind panicked knowing she could be swept away at any moment, and pushed into a sixty foot drop into shallow water. "Joey, you've got to move away from there. The current's too strong." She didn't budge, and he was starting to get desperate. "What is it you want? Forgiveness? Is that it? To hear me say it? Fine! You're forgiven!"

"I don't want your forgiveness!" Joey shouted back, her hands balling into fists. "I hate myself for being foolish enough to trust Lucinda."

David chuckled uneasily. "We all trusted her on some level. I mean she was, after all, the one we traveled through to the Dome to find in hope that she'd heal me, but we had no idea if she would." Losing her attention, he watched her foot slide a little more forward. "Look, I know what's going through your mind right now, Joey. Believe me I do." He glanced from her feet to the back of her head. "But once you make that decision there will be no second chances."

"How could you possibly know anything about how I feel?" Joey asked, her voice sounding aggravated.

"You think I just found these powers without having an occasional accident?" His voice came out a little more harsh than he intended, but what he said must've peaked her attention because her head turned down towards her shoulder. Trying to keep her interest, he went on, "My mom and dad did everything they could to help, but I lost control many times during that first year. Honestly, I don't know how Ella or Josh didn't realize." He felt a lump form in his throat, but he cleared it away. "After I sent my mom to the hospital, I stayed locked in my room until I got my powers under control, and I ..." He paused about to spill something he never had before. "Several months after the incident, I thought about ending it. I wasn't understanding my ability, and I thought this was the way I'd never hurt anyone again." She twisted her back to face him. "But instead of giving up, I worked harder and became the guy I showed you in your living room." He watched as tears rolled down her cheeks, and he shook his hand emphasizing for her to grab it. She looked down at his hand, but remained uncertain. "My parents understood and never gave up on me. Thomas, Bellamy, ... me ... We're not giving up on you."

A subtle grin etched her face and she slowly reached for his hand. Relief washed over him, but it was shortly lived when she raised her right foot and the current swept her off her feet. She smacked the water with her chest and quickly disappeared over the edge with a scream.

"Joey!" David took a head dive on the concrete until he was lying halfway on the path and half in the water, his head and arms dangling over the side of the waterfall.

He found Joey buried under the raging water holding onto a rusty metal rod that stuck out of the bottom of the ledge, and her legs flailing in the boisterous stream. He didn't know how long she could hold her birth, nor that rod.

"Joey!" Thrusting his hand into the swift water, he pushed against the weight that pounded his arm until his hand wrapped around Joey's wrist. He yanked on her wrist, but she didn't let go of the rod. "Come on!" He felt her resisting him, but with another strong yank she took the hint and released the rod.

David shouted and grimaced as his shoulder was nearly pulled out of socket from the sudden weight, and he looked down to watch Joey emerge from under the fall with a gasp of air. She looked up at him and quickly wrapped her dangling arm around his wrist of the hand that held hers tight.

"Hang on, Joey!" he said, grasping onto her other hand with his free one. Using a strength he didn't know he had, he hoisted Joey's body up onto the platform and both of them sat with their backs against the wall, and boots in the water. They looked at each other and panted heavily before David realized their hands were still grasped. He squeezed hers a little tighter, thankful to have her sitting beside him.

"You are my best friend," he continued, locking eyes with Joey's red, puffy brown ones. "And I'm sticking by you until the very end." He climbed to his feet, pulling her hand along with him, but she resisted his tug.

"Give me a minute," she said, and David replied with a little lift of his brow. "I'll be fine. Really. I just need a second to myself." She returned the squeeze, and he gave a small nod before releasing her hand. Her hand dropped back down to her lap, and he turned around ready to begin his tightrope skills once again. He shuffled towards the stairs with his back against the wall, and once he had reached the stairs he began his descend leaving Joey behind alone.

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THOMAS STARED INTO THE dark entrance of the Palace with his hands in his pockets waiting impatiently for the two to return. He had wanted to follow, and hated the thought of David being in there with her alone. She was a mess, and quite frankly, seemed unstable. Just thinking that David was up there alone after what happened in the first Dome made him sick to his stomach. He just hoped the two wouldn't kill each other up there.

He guess that anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes passed before David finally emerged from the shadows of the Palace wearing a bothered and slightly angry expression. After another few seconds, he noticed that David was alone. He opened his mouth, ready to asked where Joey could be, but David walked on completely ignoring that he was even there. "Are you going to tell me what happened in there?" he asked without bothering to turn, but could tell that David wasn't interesting in answering his question when one didn't come.

He gave a quick roll of his eyes, and turned slightly to the right when suddenly a stabbing pain jabbed his stomach. He doubled over and clenched at his abdomen, but seconds later the ache was gone. He rubbed just above his belly button before lifting his shirt to find no answers as to what had happened. Standing upright, he tugged his shirt back down, and the twinge returned more intensely.

Thomas's knees hit the rocky terrain as he clenched his stomach tightly. An unexpected burn filled his throat, and he opened his mouth as blood spewed out. Raising a hand to his mouth, he swiped at his bottom lip and saw the crimson color stain his palm. The taste of iron stayed present in his mouth, but a few more seconds later, the pain was once again gone.

His heart raced rapidly as he stared at the blood trickling down his fingertips. He clambered to his feet, and stumbled his way over rocks and through puddles towards the pool of water created by the fall from the Palace. He knelt down, scooped water into his hand, and swashed it around in his mouth before spitting it out into the stone beside him.

He sat back on his heels as he stared down at pieces of his reflection in the fast moving stream. Questions raced through his mind that he couldn't easily think of the answers to, and as he stared into the water panting, it was then he realized the sweat beading his brow.

Furrowing his brow, he wiped the rough skin of his arm across his forehead, and stared at the perspiration perplexed. He knew sweating was a normal thing for many people, but it felt foreign to him. Even with the small amount of ice his body could create, it was enough to keep his body temperature at a comfortable degree.

His legs suddenly grew weak, and he plopped down on one of the bigger boulders continuing to stare down at his now shaking hands. Thomas may not have known much about the second Dome or Paradise, but he knew enough about his ability to know that something about this place effected him.