by Amy Cross
She waited for Annie to reply.
“Aren't you?” she continued finally. “Tell me you understand that, Annie. Tell me you realize how important this is. If the entity succeeds in gaining a human body, it'll become much stronger. It's a force of pure evil, and it'll be under Langheim's control. We're the only ones who can stop this and we have to work together.” She paused again. “Annie, do you understand?”
This time, she waited longer.
“I do,” Annie whispered finally.
“Finally,” Nurse Winter said, getting to her feet and then helping Annie up. “For a moment there, I was starting to worry that you might really flip out on me. I thought maybe I'd underestimated you.”
“I know exactly what I have to do,” Annie replied, staring into space.
“We'll use this time to discuss our strategy,” Nurse Winter said, heading back over to the table. “You're almost ready to wake up, and at that point I'll need you to hit the ground running. You're not -”
Suddenly hearing a bumping sound, she turned just in time to see Annie racing out of the room.
“Where are you going, Annie?” she called out, before letting out a pained sigh. “This is getting tiresome.” She waited again, but now it was clear that Annie wasn't coming back. “Maybe I'm remembering the good old days wrong,” she added with another sigh, “but Annie Radford, I swear you used to have more of a backbone. Pun intended, of course.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Annie, stop!”
Stepping out onto the roof of Lakehurst, Nurse Winter froze as soon as she saw Annie standing over at the far edge.
“Annie, what are you doing?”
With her feet just inches from the side of the roof, Annie was staring at the concrete ground far, far below. A cold wind was whipping the fabric of her tattered dress, and in her mind's eye she was imagining herself falling forward and tumbling toward a quick death. In fact, she was imagining the same thing over and over again, and each time her feet twitched a little as she dared herself to go through with this one final act.
“Annie, I need you to come back from there,” Nurse Winter said, stepping up behind her. “Even though this is all in your head, you can still cause yourself some serious damage if you do something stupid. Do you understand?”
“I'm insane,” Annie replied, still staring down at the concrete. “I don't know what's real anymore. All I know is that I can't go on like this. It hurts too much and I'm no use to anyone. I killed Taylor. I should have killed myself straight after. I don't deserve to live. There's no way back, not after doing something like that.”
“This again?” Nurse Winter said with a sigh. “You can be quite the drama queen sometimes, do you know that? Killing your brother was unfortunate, but you weren't responsible for his death.”
“I pulled the trigger.”
“Your mind was under attack. Another mind had reached into yours.”
“I still should have stopped it.”
“No-one could have stopped it, Annie. You were so young and innocent. You had no defenses at all.”
“I'm dangerous. I need to die.”
“You're starting to piss me off now, Annie. I'm doing three things at once, and I don't have time to talk you down from a literal ledge. Just wait another couple of minutes and you can open your eyes again. I'm working as fast as I can, but I need you to cut all the self-pitying crap.”
Instead of replying, Annie merely continued to stare down toward the concrete. She was imagining the impact, running through it over and over again, trying to persuade herself that there wouldn't be any time for pain. Or if she did feel pain, at least it would be over within a split-second.
“Do you want to know what happened to me, Annie?”
At this, Annie half turned to look back at Nurse Winter.
“After last time, I mean,” Nurse Winter continued. “After Lakehurst, when you thought you were Elly. I wouldn't ordinarily bother telling you, but I need you to stay focused. Stay with me, Annie, and I'll tell you exactly what happened. Do you remember how I jumped down there, to face the entity?”
Annie hesitated, before slowly nodding.
“Good, Annie. And do you remember that final moment?”
Annie turned a little more, finally looking directly at her.
“Stay with me, Annie,” Nurse Winter continued, “and I'll help you remember. I'll help you remember all of it.”
***
Several years earlier
“It's waking up,” Kirsten Winter explained, staring down in the darkness as she felt the voice trying and failing to penetrate her mind. “It wants to break free. You won't have long to get to the surface, Elly, but you have to try. If I die down there, this thing, whatever it is, will come after you. If I succeed, if I manage to control it somehow, then you'll have time to get away. People will probably have a few questions, you can tell them the truth but they won't believe you. Just muddle through the best you can.” She paused. “The one regret I have is that Annie Radford didn't live to join me in this moment. I think she would have appreciated what's about to happen.”
As she said those words, she turned and looked back at Annie. Watching her face, she waited, hoping against hope that some part of the real Annie would break through the constructed Elly Blackstone persona.
“Kirsten,” Annie began, and then she hesitated for a moment.
“See you around,” Kirsten said, as she realized she'd have to wait for that point of realization.
“Kirsten!”
Closing her eyes, Kirsten Winter slipped free and let herself fall straight down into the pit. As she felt herself tumble into the darkness, she realized it was foolish to keep her eyes shut, so she opened them, waiting for that moment when she'd finally come face-to-face with the entity. In her mind's eye, she was imagining some kind of glowing cloud filled with lightning.
A fraction of a second later, she slammed face-first against a jutting section of rock, which sent her spinning around. Gasping, she thudded down onto a slope and then rolled hard, hitting several hard ridges that instantly snapped bones in her ribs and arms and legs. The pain was intense, and finally she hit some larger ridges that sent her skittling down into a wall of darkness, where she finally came to a rest.
Broken and wrecked, with the taste of blood in her mouth, she tried to get up. Her left hand wouldn't move at all, but somehow she was able to prop herself up on her right.
In the distance, somewhere far above, she heard another voice cry out.
“Oh crap,” Kirsten whispered, struggling to stay conscious. “Come on, there's got to be more down here than this. I was right, I know I was. I didn't come all this way just to -”
Before she could finish, light flickered in the distance. Managing to turn her head, Kirsten saw to her surprise that another figure had also tumbled down into the pit.
Still partially on fire, Mary Langheim came to a crashing, thudding stop just a few feet away. Burned and skeletal, she rested for a moment on her hands and knees before slowly turning her face to look directly at Kirsten. For a moment, flames rippled around the edges of her exposed skull
“I want it,” Mary gasped. “I want all of it. Rudolf thought he'd be the one to gain ultimate power, but I knew it was me. That bastard never had the guts.”
Kirsten tried to reply, but she instantly felt a sharp pain in her ribs. Wincing, she tried to pull herself up a little more, and now the pain became even stronger, as if hundreds of blades were slicing through her belly. At the same time, a trickle of blood ran from her mouth, and in that instant she realized she was dying. Or rather, Nurse Perry's old body was dying, which was a problem since it was Kirsten's own brain that currently resided in that body. Either way, death was approaching.
Death... and something else.
“He's here,” she whispered.
“Rudolf wanted me dead,” Mary sneered, as she began to get to her feet, “but -”
Suddenly she flinched and gasped, and her bod
y straightened as if it had been pulled up on supporting ropes.
“He's inside you,” Kirsten whispered. “Tell me how it feels.”
“This one is old,” Mary said, tilting her skeletal face back a little as the flames became stronger. “It's weak. I can do nothing with this. It's not even -”
Suddenly the flames roared, and Mary let out one final scream as her bones fell to the ground. Kirsten pulled back, watching in horror as what was left of Mary Langheim burned to nothing. Finally just a few embers remained, the only light in the dark tunnel, as Mary's charred skull began to crumble until it was nothing more than ash.
“Oh well,” Kirsten said, already bracing herself for the same thing to happen, “at least you died doing what you loved best. Screaming and ranting and -”
Before she could finish, she felt something rushing into her thoughts, and in an instant her mind expanded. She gasped and leaned forward, no longer caring about the pain in her body, as she felt a vast consciousness slipping its way through her own, pushing her limits and filling what was left of her head with its own anger and concern.
“Why can none of them contain me?” the voice purred, echoing in Kirsten's head and drowning out her own thoughts. “Why do they all burn?”
As the voice spoke those words, Kirsten's body burst open in a flash of light. Flames erupted from inside her rib-cage, forcing the blackening rips out through the flesh and curling their edges aside. Leaning her head back, Kirsten felt the immense heat rising up into the back of her neck and then starting to boil her brain in her skull. For a moment the pain was all-consuming, and finally Kirsten opened her mouth and screamed, until her jaw fell away and her tongue burned to a cinder.
And then the body was gone.
And yet...
Somehow she held on. Still wrapped up within the vast mind that had invaded her body, Kirsten felt herself racing through the dark tunnels, slipping through the tiniest cracks. It was as if her consciousness was riding the other, larger mind, somehow managed to stay on its back even as she felt that she might get tossed off at any moment. Somehow she felt the strength to cling on, although she had to scream as she felt her thoughts getting pulled apart. And then, after what felt like hours or even days, she felt a sudden cold wind brushing through her mind, and the sensation of speed began to fade.
For a moment there was nothing.
Darkness.
Until...
“You are still here,” the voice said calmly.
“Oh, me?” Kirsten replied, trying not to sound completely terrified. “I guess so.”
“Your body burned. You should have burned with it.”
“Ask around,” she said, as her mind rushed with all the possibilities. “I'm a difficult woman to get rid of.”
“So it seems. Your mind has somehow clung to mine, but I can still dislodge you. You wouldn't last long if I did that, not without a body. So tell me what I can possibly gain from having you here.”
“Well, for one thing you won't be lonely.”
“I don't even know what that means.”
“We can help each other,” Kirsten said. She was becoming more aware of her surroundings now, and she saw that her mind and the entity's mind were out in the cold night air, drifting through the darkness at the edge of a forest. “You need a body, one that can sustain you for more than a few seconds. Those pesky flesh and bone casings tend to burn up, don't they? Well, there's a way around that.”
“What way?”
“I don't know yet, but you'll find it. Maybe I can help you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I'm sure there's something you can give me in return.” She was desperate, stalling for time. She was already struggling to remember her old life, and her motivations, and it took a few seconds before she was able to draw those memories back. Drifting through the night air, she was already starting to dissipate. “I'm sure you're an inventive evil entity,” she continued. “Why don't you make me an offer?”
“You mean nothing to me.”
“You're not the first guy who's ever said that to me.”
“There must be a body out there that can sustain my presence,” the voice replied. “I can find that without your help. So far, you seem to be nothing more than a distraction.”
“Ouch. Now you're really starting to remind me of a couple of old boyfriends.”
She waited, but now the voice fell silent, as if it had become disinterested in anything she was saying. A moment later she realized she could feel the other presence starting to drift away, and she had to make a conscious effort to remain close. Already, the sense of dissipation was making her worry that her mind – or what was left of it – might simply fade away without some kind of body or container.
“Hey, come on,” she continued, and now there was true desperation in her tone of voice. “You can't do this alone. Like it or not, you need me!”
Again she waited, and again she felt the entity drifting further and further away. At the same time, she was becoming aware of a buzzing static sound nearby.
“You need me!” she screamed. “Don't leave me here! I'll -”
“Quiet!”
Suddenly the entity rushed back at her, pushing her away so fast that this time she had no chance to stay close. Her mind was sent spinning through the night air, ripping apart even as she cried out. And then, just as she was about to be pulled to pieces, her thoughts were caught in the field of a nearby power-line. Sparks burst through the air, but Kirsten was already screaming as her mind was drawn into the line and then rippled along at breakneck speed. Finally, just as she worried that the sensation would never end, her mind reached a pylon several miles away, and her thoughts were able to come back together.
“Where are you?” she called out, but now there was no sign of the entity.
For the next few hours, Kirsten Winter's consciousness rested in the pylon. She was struggling to figure out where she was and how she'd ended up there, but slowly she was able to put the pieces together. She couldn't see and she couldn't hear, but she was able to reach out with her mind and slowly she became aware of her true situation: she was buzzing and flickering in a pylon late at night, close to a dark forest that seemed to stretch off forever in every direction. And her only way in or out of the pylon, if she wanted her mind to remain even remotely intact, would be through the wires.
It took days, however, for her to even begin to understand what she could do next.
She remained in one section of the power-line, barely even daring to extend to the next pylon. When she did dare, her every move was tentative. She reached out a thousand times, not quite bringing herself to make the jump, until finally a spark of her old vigor returned and she made the final push. All of her mind was intact, but pieces were in the wrong order and she spent a long time trying to reorganize. She lived her memories over and over again, each time pushing them a little closer to their proper order. Finally, after eight days and eight nights spent half in the power-line and half in the pylon, she began to properly understand what was happening. The fear was still in her chest, but now she remembered that she'd basically been afraid her whole life, of one thing or another. Now what she felt was evil, or at least the impression of evil. She'd been in the company of something so truly awful, she knew now that it had to be stopped.
“Annie,” she whispered finally, once she'd given up all thoughts of the entity returning for her. “I need to find Annie.”
***
“So I did,” Nurse Winter said, as she stood on the roof of Lakehurst and watched the side of Annie's face. “Remember? I found you, and we put this plan into action, to trap the entity and then to beam it away using the telescope. Kinda elaborate, I know, but we're so close now. I just didn't have any clue that Rudolf Langheim was still around.”
She waited, watching Annie's face carefully, hoping for a flicker of understanding.
“You do remember, Annie.”
Again, she waited.
“
This doesn't make sense,” Annie said finally.
“So? Who cares?”
“I care. It's my life, and I don't understand it.”
“That's because life doesn't make sense,” Nurse Winter replied, “even at the best of times. And let's face it, Annie, you're about as unreliable as narrators get. But the truth is in there somewhere, and sometimes you just have to go along with the ride. The one thing you absolutely cannot do is step off that ride, because I promise you... The world needs you to finish this, Annie.”
“I can't.”
“For God's sake, wake up!” Nurse Winter snapped suddenly. “Annie, you have to cut the bullshit and focus!”
“I can't,” Annie whispered again, shaking her head as she turned and looked back down toward the concrete far below. “I'm too tired. I just want to go to sleep forever, and I don't want to ever have to think about anything again.”
“I'm at the radio telescope,” Nurse Winter said again, taking another step closer but not quite daring to reach out and grab Annie's arm. Not yet. “Do you understand? After I separated from the entity, I didn't have a body of my own, but I tracked you down. Remember? Then I made my way to the Eldion House radio telescope, and you followed and we established this cult. You loaded me into the telescope's systems using a USB key, because the systems are isolated from the rest of the world. It's not like I can hop into one of the generators, is it? So I'm trapped there now, but that's alright. I also set up the other cults so that they'd shepherd the entity here, and frankly I think I gave them some fabulously silly names. But the point is, it was all designed to lead to this moment, and we can still salvage the situation. Just because Langheim has shown up, that doesn't mean everything's lost.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Annie, don't be -”
“I'm so sorry, Taylor.”
“Annie -”
“I love you, Taylor.”