The Journal, Part 6
Sara sat quietly in the passenger seat of the black car as Jack drove toward the city. They left her dad's car behind, as well the mysterious accident scene where she somehow hit a child and yet didn't. Apparently another one of her hallucinations.
Sara sat quietly in the passenger seat of the black car as Jack drove toward the city. They left her dad's car behind, as well the mysterious accident scene where she somehow hit a child and yet didn't. Apparently another one of her hallucinations.
She didn't know what to believe anymore. The man beside her claimed to be her brother, but she never had a brother growing up. Yet this was the man who held all the answers she needed.
"If you're my brother," she said, "why wouldn't I remember you?"
"It's interesting," he said. "I remember a history completely different than you do, and in it, we were really close."
"So the history of the world is different here?" she said.
He glanced at her briefly before putting his eyes back on the road. "Of course," he said. "That's what they always wanted."
"Are you telling me you didn't exist before all this happened?"
He picked up the journal and held it up. "How could I have left this for you if I didn't exist?"
"But we don't remember the same. What makes you think you're really my brother?"
He smiled as he glanced at her again. "There's nothing I'm more sure of in the world than that I grew up with you, and I've loved you more than I could love anyone."
She wasn't sure how to feel with a complete stranger professing his love to her as a brother. She wanted to believe that he was who he said he was, but it made no sense. For her, their history together never happened.
"Were you there when the world ended?" she said.
"We all were," he said. "You and I tried to stop it together."
"Wait," she said. "That's not something I would forget. There was only one person who was with me until just before the end." She tried but failed to block the image from her mind of her boyfriend Michael plummeting to his death from the rooftop of the Faceless Corporation Headquarters.
"It's really not that far-fetched, Sara," Jack said. "Look around and you'll see that Faceless has managed to erase everything. The world ended and yet nobody even knows about it except us. Surely, it wouldn't be that hard for them to erase me from your memory."
It's possible, she thought.
"So what's our plan?" she said.
"We drive to the Faceless Corporation building. It is, of course, something else now, but it's the only place I know to start."
"Don't you know who's behind this?" she asked, remembering what he wrote in the journal.
He stared straight ahead. "I can't tell you that just yet. I don't want you to die, and have to protect you for as long as I can."
"From what?"
"Faceless prepared for this for a long time," he said. "If they know you survived and somehow have most of your memories in tact, then they have to be looking everywhere for you."
"Why would they care? No one even knows they exist now."
Jack suddenly pulled the car over to the side of the road. He put the car in park and looked at her, a look of determination on his face. "You're the only one who can stop what they're planning. It's all about you. It's always been all about you."
"What do you mean? I didn't stop it. It happened."
"No," Jack said. "Their plan has always been much bigger than destroying the world. This is about enslavement and eradication of everything of everything we believe in. They want to change everything, and not for the better. Not by a long shot."
Sara's head was spinning. She had always thought she understood Faceless's end game, but clearly she didn't.
"I've gotta get some air," she said as she reached for the door handle.
The moment she stepped out of the car, her vision lit up with the scene of a burning earth and the screams of dying people. Then it was gone.
She got back into the car. She looked over to speak to Jack, but Jack wasn't there. The journal sat in the driver's seat.
Where did he go? she thought. I was only out of the car for maybe ten seconds.
.She grabbed the journal and opened it up. A new entry was written inside.
Dear Sara,
I wish this journey didn't separate us the way it does.
I hate that I can't be there to protect you all the time.
They've changed things, and I'm not sure how to stop it.
They're looking for you.
You have to hide.
We'll find each other again.
Don't lose this journal.
Love,
Jack
To be continued in Part 7
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