The Program

Chapter Fifteen

"As strange as you might think it could be, Reid was once an actual good person. God, you could even consider him a human being worth keeping alive." I may have snorted when those words left Riley's mouth, waiting for her to confess that part of the story was just a joke to help lighten both our moods before getting to the serious stuff. But all she did was raise one eyebrow and place two of her fingers on the bridge of her nose, leaving myself to realize she wasn't joking.

"Sorry about that." I apologized, my front teeth clamping down on my bottom lip, forcing myself to shut up and helping relieve a small part of a nervousness I had acquired in the last few minutes. With my teeth finding a dried up piece of skin and biting it away, I mumbled, "Um, so uh, you can continue now."

Her nodding and then leaning against the tree again, she said, "Anyway, like I was saying, Reid was normal. He came from a normal family, with parents that loved him, and he was also an only child." She cleared her throat. "He met his wife, Diana, Jack's mom, when he was eighteen. Within days, he knew she was the one, her apparently feeling the same. And then after three more months, they got married."

"Huh, I never thought Reid would have the heart to be a love at first sight kind of guy." I muttered, only for it a second later to land me a glare directly from Riley. 

"Lexi, do you want to hear this or not?" She asked.

"Yes, I do. I just wish you would bypass the boring stuff. I get it, he meets the love of his life, blah blah blah, they get married, more blah." I motioned with my hands in various ways to show my point a bit. "I bet the next thing you're going to say is that they found out she was pregnant and life was super fabulous for the Harrow family." I cheered, then changing my tone to low and dramatic. "That is, until the fire."

"Would you like to tell the story? You're doing a pretty good job as far as I can see." Riley crossed her arms. "Besides the dramatic effect anyway."

I rolled my eyes and nudged her while doing a small laugh, then snapping back to reality and quickly bringing my arm back to my side. I just treated Riley like I was comfortable around her, a mistake I couldn't make again.

I coughed, pausing for a second and saying, "I'm sorry, please continue. I'll stay quiet this time."

It was her turn to roll her eyes, starting yet again. "Okay, i'll forgo the boring parts as you call them and get right down to it." And then after running her hands through her hair said, "The fire, the one Jack thought his dad died in, was planned. All of it. Much like when Reid wanted Natalie to join this whole operation, someone else wanted Reid to join, and they used the fire to do it. Of course, this person was smart, really smart. They knew how to make it look like an accident, putting blame on Jack's grandmother, making it seem like her poor defenceless self caused it. In all actuality though, this person, Reid's boss, somehow killed her by bashing her head against the table.

"Then, the fire was started and well, I think I can spare the details. Simply put, everything burned. And their objective that day was to kill the entire family, minus Reid, or Ben, whatever you want to call him." I silently decided to stick with Reid as the name. "That is, until they had a better idea, use his family against him. They captured his wife, locked her up, she's still alive as far as I know. But this organization will kill her, torture her, anything that needs to be done to get Reid to cooperate."

"So, Jack's mom is still alive? This whole time Jack's parents were alive?" I asked. Riley just nodded, seeming to be okay with me butting in this time. Then something entered my head. "Would they have done the same to Jack, imprison him?"

"Probably. But what matters is that they didn't. Jack made it out of the fire, a bit burned sure, but safe." She told me.

"And an orphan." I shook my head, adding, "Kinda."

"Yeah, kinda." She agreed. "Listen, I know this wasn't exactly the back story you were probably looking for. But all I got is proof that Reid wasn't always a bad guy. He loved his family, that was used against him. Over time he just didn't care anymore, hate consumed him. That's the story of Reid. But the story of Ben Harrow is much different."

"I get it. But I still have some questions." I said, her motioning with her hands for me to go on. "Why didn't this organization type deal just grab Jack from foster care after the fire? I mean, I thought the dudes involved were smart. You would think the would capture him."

And Riley felt it was a good time to laugh, full on laughing to the point of choking. "Oh god, Lexi. That cracked me up. Thank you, I needed a good laugh." And then she went all sarcastic on me and pinched my cheek like what an embarrassing grandparent would. "When you show your unintelligent side you seem so cute." She started chuckling again.

"Just answer the dang question." I growled.

"They tracked down Jack really easily. Why do you think he was with Martha and Henry, the people who not that long ago confessed they work with these people?" She smirked while explaining. And it clicked in my head. "Of course, the simpler route  would have been to take him and trap him anyway. But fear does something to a person. For Reid, his fear was that Jack would be captured. He knew that once it happened, Jack would be tortured. And not like sent to the test kind of torture, actual, literal torture that would leave wounds you can't wake up from. And with Martha and Henry right with Jack always, all they had to do was send him in if Reid screwed up."

"He was protecting him the whole time." It was a statement, barely whispered. But then anger surged in me and I had to ball my fist tight and clench my teeth so I wouldn't take it out on Riley. "John's parents are monsters as well."

"At first, yes. But that's the funny thing in this story, Reid turned bad, John's parents turned good." I gave her a confused look. "Fine, i'll explain. They didn't know why their boss wanted the kid to have an eye on him at all times but they did it. They didn't realize the importance. And they didn't expect to begin to actually care about Jack, like he was literally their own son."

"So in other words, Martha and Henry are trustworthy?"

"I guess. After all, you're getting this info from me, Riley, the computer program who is currently glitching. I could be feeding you false knowledge." She grinned. "Anymore questions?"

I thought for a moment. "Yeah. Um, if Reid, and John's parents cared so much, why were they both in the test? And don't laugh this time because i'm so stupid and the answer is right in front of me."

"Reid did eventually mess up. And when I say mess up, I mean big time mess up. He tried to kill his boss. And boy, was she mad about that, ready to bring Jack in and everything. But Reid knew about their plans for the test, also knowing that if he played his cards right he could be in control of the test. So he made a decision, thinking aloud to his boss if he could send his son to the test instead." Riley paused. "And then when Martha and Henry got the news from Reid on who would be going into the test, not knowing Reid was Jack's father at the time, they were worried. And the night before the epic 'dream', they made a decision as well, send their son in to protect Jack."

"Ha, you see how well that worked. John hated us." I laughed.

"But he did save Jack's life, even if it wasn't actually in any real danger. Besides, all that was going through Martha and Henry's brains that night was why would they send him in if he's important? What are they going to do to Jack? How can we help? You can't blame them for not thinking ahead and realizing a sibling war would break out."

"Okay, let me get this completely straight." I breathed out. "Reid sent Jack, his son, into the test to protect him from his boss who wanted to capture him and hurt him. And John's parents were all like 'heck no' and sent their own kid in. Yep, makes total sense."

"This isn't the time to use sarcasm."

"You were just extremely sarcastic a minute ago." I defended. "But anyway, this information leads me to another question."

Riley closed her eyes and slumped against the tree even more, releasing another long breath. "And what would that be?"

"Why send bears after us if he didn't want Jack to get hurt? I mean, I see doing it once, to scare us or whatever. But when he realized Jack would just run at the things and kill them, hurting himself in the process, why not stop?" I asked.

"Don't you think if he had mercy on his son his boss would just take care of that little problem?" Huh, it made sense. "But i'm surprised you haven't asked the biggest questions of all."

"There's more to ask?"

She huffed. "There are always more questions to be answered. Why does humanity need saving? Why am I not shut down when I told you I am? Disrupting can't be the only reason, so why does Reid want you dead? Why aren't you dead?"

Riley was right in a way, I wanted to know the answers to them, all of them. I desperately wanted to know the reason behind the test saving humanity. And yeah, what was up with the Riley shut down thing?

I am always wondering why Reid wants me dead out of anyone else. Sure, I disrupt, and I was difficult to deal with or some crap, but to kill me when me and his son seemed happy together was strange. 

And the big question, why am I still alive? I was supposed to die when I shut down the test. The fact i'm here is miraculous.

"And what, you know the answer to them?" I wondered aloud.

"Duh." She responded in an almost sass filled fashion, adding extra by flipping her hair. "Because i'm smart."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Are you gonna make me beg? Tell me, Riley." It wasn't really a demand, but I tried to make it sound like it was.

"Begging would be nice." She said. "But sadly, no more answers from me." She closed her eyes again and grew still.

"Wait, you're not like dying, are you?" I asked, causing her to laugh.

"No. Programs don't die, not really. Only humans die." She laughed more and continued. "And you'll die too. So I guess that means the only one dying out of the two of us is you." The tone of her voice suggested something, a whisper coming from her next. "It's just happening for you at a really slow pace is all."

I decided to ignore this, joining in the laugh. "Then what's going on?"

She ignored me, eyes still closed and breathing calm. "There's one more question you need to ask though." Okay, now she sounded weak. Without letting me speak, she said, "And that's, who is Reid's boss? And trust me, that's way more important than the other ones I just mentioned."

"Then tell me who it is." I touched her shoulder and she felt cold, ice cold.

"You know her, and hate her. God, do you hate her. And she knows you do." She went on ignoring me. 

And then it all stopped, Riley I mean. She stopped, I could tell. Her body, now very much pixelated and fading. After a minute I could barely tell she had been next to me.

She may have thought only humans could die, but she was wrong. Because whatever that was, it was her death.

Riley was dead.

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Hello there oh so beautiful readers. How ya doing? So, The Wattys have started. That's cool. This is the first time i've ever been on Wattpad for one so, you know, I thought it sounded like fun and entered The Test. 

That's just something I thought I would bring up. But I actually have a question for anyone wanting to answer. I have been hearing nonstop through messages and comments since Jack and Lexi kissed in the first book that they shall make adorable Jaxi babies. And my question is, what kind of Jaxi babies are you envisioning? I seriously want to know. Are they a boy, girl, twins like Lexi and Marcus perhaps? How many will they have? What do they look like? What do you think is the perfect name/names for these made up children? I'm just really curious :)

Plus, i'm wanting to know for, uh, you know.........other reasons

And also, why is no one envisioning the perfect wedding for them? God, you all do know that in my mind, that would come before Jaxi babies, right?

But anyway, bye guys :)