Seeing Double (The Perception Trilogy Book 1)

by Alyssa Lynn

  “We can definitely do that,” Ava started. “Well, most of us can,” she said, looking down at Demo. He shot her an annoyed look, but kept his comments to himself. She couldn’t help herself and knelt down next to him. Putting her hand behind his neck, she kissed his lips.

  “Ouch!” He said, as she touched him.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry!”

  “It’s okay. It’s totally worth it.” He looked up at her and smiled. She leaned down and kissed him again. “You know what? It’s really not. That really fucking hurts,” he said, moaning through the pain. She giggled softly at his use of profanity.

  “Once we’re out of this mess, I promise I’ll make it up to you,” said Ava.

  “If that’s the case, you also sprayed me with pepper spray and bounced me off of the railing in the stairway.”

  “You’re such a wise guy.”

  “I mean, I thought it was pretty clever,” he said with a wink.

  “He just texted again. I think that’s our queue,” Kaycie said, interrupting their moment. Ava stood up from the ground and her and Kaycie started flailing their arms and jumping up and down; yelling and screaming as loud as they could. The garage doors opened up as a swarm of people exited through the building. Some bloodied and beaten, some looked whiter than a sheet of paper. They were frantically searching around the grounds until they spotted Kaycie and Ava jumping and yelling. Running toward the three of them, they flung the gate open and made their way up the hill and toward the woods.

  Ava looked over at Kaycie and said, “Holy shit. Your prince charming just saved the day.”

  ~

  Once he had claimed his bounty rewards and freed the prisoners from the basement, Ethan fled to the control room. The alarms were still blaring in his ears as he ran up and down the halls. He sent a quick text message to his pilot as he ran around the final corner.

  “Finally,” he whispered, when he reached the door. He twisted the latch and came face to face with two guards.

  “What are you doing here?” they asked him.

  “Marcus wasn’t sure what was setting off the alarms, so I was sent out to help locate the source of the problem.”

  The guards looked at each other, but shrugged it off. “There isn’t anything in here. We just scanned the area.”

  “Are you sure you didn’t miss anything? I can give it another once-over to make sure we’re clear. I heard there were people crawling through the air ducts.”

  The guards pointed to the metal laying in the middle of the floor. “It seems as though they weren’t in the ducts for very long,” said one of the guards.

  “Well, then I suppose that explains why you’re in here,” Ethan replied. Sweat started beading on his brow. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up with the charade. The guards noticed the nervousness and continued questioning him.

  “Why is it you said you were in here?” the one asked, seeking confirmation.

  Ethan froze. He spoke with people all the time. Had to lie to people all the time. Why couldn’t he get himself out of this one?

  With the amount of hesitation they were noticing, the guards lunged forward to seize him. Ethan struck at him one of them and jammed his fingers into his throat. The guard fell to the ground, gasping for air. The second guard cocked his gun and went to aim at Ethan’s head. Without thinking, Ethan jumped him. Ripping the gun from his hands and punching him in the face with the butt as hard as he could. He whipped around and aimed at the second guard who was pointing a gun right back at Ethan.

  “So, I suppose we’re going to have a stand-off now,” said the remaining guard.

  “I guess that’s the case. Or, you could just drop your gun and walk out. Nobody gets hurt.” He looked down at the unconscious guard next to his feet. “Well, nobody else gets hurt,” he corrected.

  “Cute. How about I just shoot you in the head and get this over wi-,”

  Ethan pulled the trigger, shooting the guard directly in the face. When the shot connected, the guard dropped to his knees. His gun, still loaded, fell from his grip and landed on the floor in front of him. Blood began gushing and dripping down his neck. As he toppled over, Ethan was quick to grab the weapon before it was trapped under the guard’s lifeless body.

  He took a second to gather himself, still in shock of what had just happened. He wasn’t used to the violence. He was only assigned to certain individuals and once they were put on the plane, his part was over.

  Staring at the glowing cylinder, Ethan had to think of a way to engage the explosion without getting himself killed. When he told Ava that he had a plan, he knew in the back of his mind that he had no idea what he was going to do. His main goal was to get them out of the building.

  Ethan was disappointed when the buttons on the wall didn’t contain one that said ‘Press me and I’ll wait until you’re safely out of the building before I detonate’. Quickly scanning the remains of the room, he was searching for a timer, but the lack of one didn’t surprise him. He knew what had to be done.

  His text to Kaycie was short and simple, but he made sure to pour his heart out in it. He picked the gun up off of the floor and made sure the chamber was full. He took a knee and balanced the gun on his arm. Aiming at the cylinder, he sent a quick prayer up to the one person he hoped would forgive the things he had done, and began counting down from thirty.

  CHAPTER sixteen

  K aycie and Ava stared at each other in shock as more and more people piled out of the building and ran passed them, up the hill. They looked down to the building to watch the crowd thin out until only a few were exiting at a time. Impatiently waiting, Kaycie didn’t take her eyes off of the building. She checked the phone, but there still weren’t any messages from Ethan.

  “Where is he?” Kaycie kept asking. “Where the hell is Ethan?”

  Just then, the last three guys to exit came running directly at them. Two of them picked up Demo and the third grabbed Kaycie’s wrist, dragging them toward the woods. The girls started to panic that they were once again being captured, until one of them looked at Kaycie and yelled, “Ethan said we need to get out of here now!”

  Stunned, Kaycie stopped fighting their grip, but felt her stomach clench. “We can’t leave him!” Kaycie yelled back at them. “We can’t leave Ethan inside!”

  “Sorry ma’am. Strict orders.”

  The phone buzzed and Kaycie looked at it. It was a message from Ethan. “Stop running! I have to read this,” she kept yelling, but the men didn’t stop. Gripping Kaycie’s wrist tightly, they dragged her through the woods toward the orphanage. Demo was draped across the shoulders of the two men running behind Kaycie, with Ava in tow behind them.

  “What is going on?” Ava kept asking from the back of the line, but nobody slowed down to give her any answers. “We can’t leave Ethan back there!” Ava started to feel the guilt piling on her shoulders. She didn’t want to leave him behind, especially on negative terms. She knew it wasn’t his fault and she felt awful for the way she reacted. Ava couldn’t help but to feel the need to turn around and go back after him. Stopping in her tracks, she spun on her heel and began in the opposite direction.

  “Ava!” Demo yelled from the shoulders he was being carried on. Hearing this, one of the guys ran after her, wrapping his arms around her waist when he caught up to her and wrestled her to the ground.

  “You have to let me go in there! You have to let me get him out of there!” she yelled at him, trying to get out of his grip.

  “I can’t let you do it. He was adamant that we get you three to safety.” He flung her over his shoulder and ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Demo and Kaycie watched from a few yards in front of them as she was dragged toward them.

  Tears fell from Kaycie’s eyes as she tried to pry the man’s fingers from around her wrist, but he just squeezed tighter. What was happening? Why were they leaving Ethan back at that building? Ethan said he would be here. That he would be with us. Why wasn’t he here?

  As
they ran faster and faster, they finally hit the break in the trees. The phone buzzed again and Kaycie looked down at the screen just as the air around them stood still. The group collapsed to the ground in the middle of the open field and the gust that came bellowing through, picked them up and dropped them a few feet away from where they started.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Kaycie started screaming as she tried to get to her feet with trembling knees. Reaching toward the woods where they had emerged from, she yelled with all her might. Letting the tears fall from her face and hit the ground next to her. She could feel her heart shatter into a million pieces. She was in shock that he would do this; that he would leave her behind like this after everything that had happened. She wanted to collapse. She wanted to crumble. She wanted to disappear.

  Ava got up and rushed over to Kaycie, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her to the ground. She sat and held her best friend, rocking her back and forth while she sobbed. Listening to the heartbreak that Kaycie was dealing with and having an unsettling feeling in her own stomach. Ava looked out to where the booming sound had come from and whispered, “You son of a bitch.”

  ~

  Kaycie was still curled up in Ava’s arms when Demo made his way over to them. Still holding his wounded side, he looked a lot better now than he had when they carried him out of the building.

  “You seem to be recovering quickly,” said Ava, still holding tightly to her best friend.

  “Those two men that carried me gave me a pill to take. They said it would help with the pain.”

  Ava nodded and looked down at Kaycie who had downgraded to a low whimper. “Sweetie, I am so sorry for what you’re going through. I don’t even know what to say right now.”

  “Good, because neither do I,” Kaycie replied, wiping snot from the top of her lip. “I don’t understand. Why would he do this?” Ava reached over and grabbed the phone from the ground next to her, squeezing it tight in her hand. Kaycie took it from Ava and looked at the screen for a minute before flipping it open. Ava watched her eyes dart back and forth before her lip began to quiver and the tears started pouring again. She threw the phone and yelled at Ava, “This is all your fault! If you didn’t want to save those sorry idiots, then Ethan would still be alive!”

  Ava’s mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide. She looked at Demo and he helped her up off the ground. “Kaycie, I didn’t mean for any one of us to be put in harm’s way in order to save them. I was hoping that the plan could include us saving them as we escaped. This was far from what I had in mind.” She walked away from Kaycie and over to where the phone had landed. Picking it up, she read the text message from Ethan;

  Kaycie, I know you wanted things differently, but Ava was right. We should always do what we can in order to help the greater good. Knowing that you are safe is enough for me in this lifetime. I created a lot of hurt in many different lives since I was created and it’s time to do something for the good. My deepest apologies to you for getting you into this mess. I’m smarter than this and I should have known better. Please know that I will always be with you. I want nothing but the best for you and I’ve done everything in my power to make sure you get that. I’ll never let go. Ethan.

  Ava closed the phone and let it fall to the ground. She looked over at Kaycie who was sitting on her knees with her face buried in her hands, sobbing. She walked over and knelt down beside her. “You know you can blame this on me as much as you need to. I know you don’t mean what you said and I know that you’re hurting right now. It won’t bring him back, but I understand how it feels to want to place blame on someone.”

  Looking up at Ava, Kaycie wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Ava. I didn’t mean it.”

  “I know you didn’t.”

  Demo sat down beside the both of them and let them have a moment of silence. After a few minutes, he asked, “Okay, so where exactly do we go from here?”

  “I guess we all go back to Chicago,” Kaycie said, sniffling and getting to her feet.

  “How do we plan to do that?” asked Demo. “We don’t have a plane and I’m in pretty bad shape. I’m sure we would be questioned by some type of authority. Plus, I’m still not considered a real person,” he added, using air quotes as he spoke.

  “First item on our agenda is to make Demo into a real boy. Let’s go Pinocchio,” Ava said, gesturing for him to follow. Kaycie and Demo got to their feet and attempted to walk away, but were stopped by the three guys that carried them through the woods.

  “Um, miss? Ethan asked that we give this to you.” One of the guys handed over a walkie talkie. “He said you would know how to use one.”

  “Thank you,” Kaycie said to him. “Did he say what it was for?”

  “No ma’am. Just that you would need this to get home.” He nodded to them as he jogged back over to the group.

  Ava looked at Kaycie and Demo, “I’ll be right back.” She ran over to the group of guys and talked with them for a moment.

  Demo looked at Kaycie, “I’m truly sorry for your loss. I know he meant well in doing what he did.”

  “I know he did too. I just wish it didn’t have to be this way. He was a good guy, aside from all of the things he did for this company.”

  He placed his hand on her arm, “The things he did weren’t his first choice. I’m sure if he would have known the outcome for all of those people, he wouldn’t have followed through. Things wouldn’t have ended up like this. Then again, if he hadn’t done what he did, you never would have met him.”

  Kaycie was overwhelmed with gratitude. She jumped at him and hugged him, then lunged back and covered her mouth with her hands. “I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?”

  “Not at all. The pills those guys gave me were pretty decent. I’m practically numb from the neck down.”

  Kaycie chuckled a little as Ava came jogging back over. “What was that all about,” Kaycie asked her.

  “I was getting contact information from them in case we may need something. I guess they’re going to hide out for a little while until they come up with a plan.”

  “I feel kind of bad for them. I don’t want to leave them here,” Kaycie said, looking over Ava’s shoulder at the large group of people congregating in the middle of the field.

  Ava pointed at the walkie talkie, “Did you figure out what that thing was for, yet?”

  Shaking her head, Kaycie held it up to her mouth and pressed the button, “Hello?”

  Static rang through the walkie talkie before a man on the other end of it responded, “Yeah! Is this Miss Kaycie and gang? Over.”

  “Uuhh, yeah? Who is this?”

  “Roger that. This is Bird One, ready for pickup when you are. Over.”

  “Pick up?”

  “Yes Miss Kaycie. Your plane back to Chicago. Ethan said you would walkie in when you were ready for pick up. Over.”

  “Over where?”

  “Miss Kaycie, are you ready for pickup? Over.”

  Kaycie looked at Demo and Ava. Demo reached over and grabbed the walkie talkie. “Bird One, this is Demo with Miss Kaycie and gang. We are ready for pick up. Please send pick up location and we will be there. Over.”

  Ava and Kaycie stared at him.

  “What? We learn things,” he said, handing the walkie talkie back to Kaycie.

  More static came in through the walkie before the man started talking again. “Roger that, Demo. Landing area is right around the old orphanage parking area. Can you make it? Over.”

  Demo went to reach for it, but Kaycie puffed up her chest and started talking into it, “Affirmative. We will meet you there in roughly thirty minutes. Over.”

  Ava started laughing, which caused Demo to join in. Kaycie attempted to laugh along, but could only manage a nervous titter.

  “Well, Kaycie and gang,” Ava said, “I suppose we better hitch our way back. Don’t want to miss our flight home.” Demo grabbed Ava’s hand and the three of them made their way back to Nora’s Homestead.

  CHAPTER
seventeen

  G etting settled into their seats on the plane was a little difficult. Ava’s face was still pretty mangled and Demo’s body was pretty cut up. Kaycie was pretty shaken from all of the day’s events and couldn’t take her mind off of Ethan. Her heart felt like it had been shattered into a million pieces and she wasn’t sure that it could ever be put back together.

  “Here we go again,” Ava said.

  “Yeah, but this time it’s for good,” replied Demo. The flight attendants were handing them glasses of champagne and some crackers to get something in their stomachs. Kaycie could only nibble at the snack in her hands. The thoughts of Ethan kept ringing through her mind and overpowering the want to consume food.

  Ava got up from her chair, feeling the aches and pains in her bones from the beatings she took. She sat down next to Kaycie and put her hand on her leg. “Kace, I know it hurts.” Kaycie’s eyes met hers and her lips tightened to fight back the tears. Ava grabbed her hands and squeezed. “I hope you realize what he did for us. Everything he did, he did it to save you. To save us. He made sure you were safe. To me, that makes him a winner in my book.”

  Kaycie lunged forward and hugged her best friend. Ava could feel Kaycie’s body shaking. Her hair was becoming damp with tears, but she squeezed Kaycie tight. After pulling back, Ava saw the terrified expression on her best friend’s face.

  “Your face,” Kaycie said, covering her mouth.

  “Yeah, I know. Adorable, isn’t it?” Ava replied, reaching up and gently touching her battle scars. Demo overheard the conversation and came to Ava’s side with an ice pack. “Thank you, but I think you should be more worried about your cuts and scrapes.” Ava reached over and examined the deep gashes in his abdomen. “How are you not feeling th… nevermind, I forgot about the stellar pain pills they gave you. Did they say how long until they wore off?”

  Demo shrugged his shoulders. “I think I’ll be fine. We tend to heal fairly quickly.” He reached down and patted Kaycie’s shoulder, “You’re a strong girl, Kaycie.” Giving her a soft smile, he walked back over and sat down in his seat.