Chapter 18 - WHO GETS SAVED FIRST
The tactical team secured the lab in nineteen minutes.
It felt like hours.
Ben survived the gunshot. The bullet had passed through his shoulder.
June sat wrapped in a blanket beside him, refusing to let go of his sleeve.
Celia surrendered.
Adrian Voss became a statue beside his own operating table.
No one knew what charge applied to that.
Sheriff Ortiz didn’t care yet.
She stood in front of Katie’s stone body with tears running down her face.
“Bring her back.”
I sat on the floor with gauze under my nose and my eyes closed.
“I don’t know how.”
Celia knelt beside me.
“I do.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She explained the protocol.
The Medusa had to make eye contact with the petrified person through a reflection while recalling a memory tied to that person’s identity. The gaze that fixed could also release, but the nervous system paid for both directions.
“Memory transfers the pattern,” Celia said.
Noah frowned. “That sounds like nonsense.”
“It is nonsense. It also works.”
Fair enough.
The problem was cost.
The stronger the petrification, the more neurological damage the reversal caused.
I could lose vision.
Language.
Names.
Years.
Maybe nothing.
Maybe everything.
Ortiz looked at Katie.
Noah looked at his arm.
Eli’s sister had arrived at the property after police called her. She stood outside the glass wall, sobbing into both hands.
Three strangers were trapped in stone because of my mother.
Adrian had partially petrified himself years ago.
Everybody needed something from me.
I laughed.
It came out ugly.
Noah crouched beside me.
“What?”
“All my life I was told never to use it. Now there’s a line.”
He did not tell me what to do.
I loved him for that.
Ortiz did.
“Katie first.”
Eli’s sister snapped, “My brother has been trapped longer.”
“He pulled a gun on a child.”
“He’s still my brother.”
The room erupted.
People arguing about who deserved to become human first.
I stood.
“Stop.”
Nobody heard me.
I shouted.
“STOP.”
Silence.
My voice shook.
“I am not a machine.”
That was the first time I said it aloud.
Not a monster.
Not a weapon.
Not a cure.
A person.
I pointed toward Noah though I couldn’t see him.
“He’s my husband, and part of me wants to choose him first. That’s selfish. I know.”
Noah said quietly, “Choose Katie.”
I turned toward his voice.
“You may lose your hand.”
“Choose Katie.”
Sheriff Ortiz’s breath broke.
Celia positioned a mirror in front of Katie.
I opened my eyes only toward the glass.
Katie’s stone face stared back at me.
I searched for a memory.
Not the factory.
Not her angry face.
Something human.
Then I remembered her complaining that I stole her car.
The stupid irritation in her voice.
I almost smiled.
“Katie,” I whispered. “You left the keys in the cup holder.”
Gold light filled my vision.
The world went white.
When I woke, someone was screaming.
It was Katie.
Alive.
And I could no longer remember my mother’s face.
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