The Pull (The Emanation Saga Book 1)

by R. J. Lloyd

  Eva’s fragile grip on her sanity was cracking apart. The men across the table felt familiar to her. However, not in the way she expected. There was something else. Something more. Some other way. And she started feeling the fog closing in around her again.

  “Sit, please, Ian.” Marcus’s voice was low.

  He did, but his anger hit a boiling point. “Talk. Now.”

  Stanley tried to stall. “We want to. But first you need to calm down and trust us.”

  “Trust you?!” Ian yelled.

  Eva couldn't push it away. Instead, it engulfed her, and she could see the two men sitting in front of her, only they were pulling her and Ian out of a wrecked car in the dark of night. He was unconscious, and blood streamed down his face, soaking the front of his shirt. She felt the arms of the man who had been claiming to be her father wrap around her as Stanley told him Ian was still alive.

  “Someone better tell us something, or I’m taking her out of here and away from you both,” Ian demanded.

  The server came to the table, carrying the four mugs of coffee. “Oh, did you only need three? I was sure there were four of you.”

  Ian tried to wave her off. “We don’t need them. Thank you.”

  Eva was still seeing the gruesome scene. Something was off. She couldn't feel her body—in reality or the dream-like state either. She could see that she was carried and laid down next to Ian on the grass, her own limbs being completely limp. Stanley pulled out a metal box, flipped a couple switches on it, stuck some wires connected to it to her head and told the other man to finish it. But what it was, she wasn't sure.

  “We will take the coffees. Thank you. Our fourth will return shortly.” Stanley took one of the mugs.

  Marcus thanked the server and lifted his to his lips.

  “And the fourth?” she asked.

  “We don’t want them!” Ian shouted, and flung his arm out just as she set his down in front of him.

  The scalding hot coffee splashed out of the ceramic mug as it hit the table and went flying over Eva’s seat. The chair had appeared empty to the server only a moment before. Only, as the hot beverage sprayed across it, burning Eva’s skin, the young woman came back into focus, screaming from the burns and startling the server.

  “What the…” She stumbled back a few steps, nearly toppling over the table behind her.

  Eva was still in shock, trying to get the coffee off her skin. “Ouch!”

  Ian reached across the table and grabbed Stanley's water, pouring it down Eva’s arm. He wrapped the stack of napkins around her skin where the hot beverage had hit the most and patted.

  “Where… How did… When…” The server stumbled over her words.

  Marcus went to her side and helped her pick up the items she’d dropped. “She’s been here the whole time, my dear. Maybe you've been working too hard.”

  She looked at him with bewilderment on her face. “I guess so. I’m so sorry. Your coffees are on us. Let me know if you need anything else. I’m so sorry.”

  “That’s alright, dear. It happens.” He patted her back and smiled as she glanced at Eva one more time before running to the kitchen.

  Marcus caught Stanley’s arm. “Stan, she’s injured.”

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  “Has Ian ever been injured?”

  “Not that I can think of.”

  “That was something I wrote in the report a couple years ago. I’d observed she hadn’t been sick or gotten injured. No wounds or anything. But now she is disappearing and getting wounds?”

  “What do you think it means?” Stanley’s eyes were fixed on Eva.

  “I don't care what it means.” Ian got up, helping Eva up as well. “You two obviously aren’t going to tell us anything. And right now, I need to get her looked at.”

  “But didn't you see?” Stanley asked. “Or not see, rather. She wasn't there a moment before.” He reached for Eva, but let his hand drop when she pulled away. “Where were you? You left.”

  “I didn't leave. I was right here the whole time.” She glanced at both of the men who had been pulling her and Ian out of a wrecked car just moments before in her memories. “I was just remembering something.”

  Marcus looked enthralled. “Memories? As in from the last few years?”

  “No.” Her lip curled. “This time? It was of both of you pulling us out of a wrecked car, and hooking me up to some machine. And I was certain you wanted us dead.”

  “Eva…” Stanley reached out again.

  “Dead?” Ian gasped.

  “We want to tell you more, but you need to come to the lab with us. If you’re disappearing when you have these memories, then we need to see what’s going on. We need to compare it to our data,” Stanley tried to plead with her.

  She stood her ground. “No. I can’t trust you!”

  “Eva, please,” Stanley begged.

  “I’m not letting you lock me up and experiment on me!” She ran outside, Ian following right behind her.

  They got several blocks away before Eva finally slowed. Ian put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her in. “Are you alright?”

  “No! Of course I’m not alright. And you shouldn't be either!”

  He pulled her arm out to look at it. “I meant the burns.”

  But they were gone. There was no sign anything hot had even brushed over her skin, let alone scalded her.

  “It feels better,” she said softly. “It stopped hurting when I pushed all of this out of my head while I ran.”

  He looked at her, completely in awe. “Eva, I don't know what to do. I don't want to put you in harm’s way. But all this is messed up. Maybe they're right. Maybe we should go with them and get some answers.”

  “But what if they lock us away and do lord knows what to us?” She wrapped her arms around her waist, feeling the chill of her fears run through her.

  Ian took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to weigh out the options. “But what if we don’t go, and whatever is going on gets bigger or dangerous. I mean, you disappeared. And I don't think this is the first time. Whenever we remember things from whenever or whatever, something strange happens. Are they visions or memories? We don’t know! Something strange is going on. And you healing like this? How do you explain that? I don’t know what is going on. Are we aliens? Are we superheroes? Are we zombies? I don't know. But I can’t just run and not find out.”

  “I’m scared.” Her eyes were wide; an innocence shone through them as she looked into his.

  He kissed her. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

  It was her turn to take an exasperated breath. “I’m still scared.”

  “Me, too.” He pushed a stray hair away from her face. “But we need to know. And they obviously have answers.”

  “Okay.” She wrapped herself around him. “But don't you dare leave me alone with them.”

  “Never.”

  With his arms around her, shielding her from the world, they walked back toward the café. Outside, on the sidewalk in front of it, stood Marcus and Stanley. They stopped talking as Ian and Eva came into view.

  Ian kept his arms around Eva, whose head rest on his shoulder. “You are not experimenting on us. You can’t do anything without our permission. And you can’t separate us. Do we have that clear?”

  Stanley tucked his hands in his pockets. “There might be…”

  “No.” Ian stopped him. “If that’s not clear, then we don’t go. She's been through enough, and she’s scared half to death already. I won’t let you make this ten times worse for her. Answers. That’s all we need. We need to know what’s going on with us.”

  “Half to death? I doubt that.” Stanley chuckled.

  Marcus shot him a glance. “Yes. Of course. Follow us there, and we will work together.”

  “Marcus…” Stanley grabbed the man’s shoulder.

  He shrugged off his grip. “They want answers, and it seems we need to know more, too.”

  “Fine.” Stanley huffed. �
�Follow us there.”

  Eighteen

  Answers

  Ian parked next to Stanley and Marcus’s cars outside a large, white-painted, brick building in the center of the city. There was no sign on the side of the building to indicate a company, and the entrance was only a grey painted, rusty, metal door on a plain side of the wall, with nothing more than a single step leading up to it and garbage littering the walkway.

  It was an inconspicuous place other than the obvious lack of graffiti, unlike the surrounding establishments, which indicated that whoever occupied the building took care of its exterior, even if they tried to make it appear as if they didn’t.

  On the ride there, Eva and Ian tested their disposable phones as well as turning on a second set so they each had two, taking care to program the numbers of each other’s in along with the local police, fire, ambulance and taxi companies. Basically, anything they might need in a pinch if things were to get scary while in there.

  None of what they were doing to prepare made Eva feel any more at ease. She went from tapping both her hand and foot in the car to tightly wrapping her arms around herself as they approached the door. Both of the older gentlemen went inside, passing through the doorway as if it was simply another day at work and not as if they had frightened and uneasy people they claimed to care about in tow. And that thought added a sense of anger to Eva’s unease.

  Ian put a hand on her lower back. “I’m with you, and you’re with me. Remember?”

  She nodded. “Mmhmm.”

  They went inside, both with eyes scanning the space as they entered.

  Eva watched as Marcus closed the heavy door, making sure the locks didn't require a key or anything that could keep them from getting out without assistance. Ian looked around the room to take in their surroundings. Stanley directed the group down the next hallway and into a room.

  It was plain. Nothing more than a large, oval, wooden table in the middle, surrounded by ten wooden office chairs, a dry erase board on one wall and a cup full of pens in the center of the table. No windows to the outside, just ones that viewed the hallway, covered with blinds. No artwork hanging on the walls. No office supplies other than the cup of pens, or even aesthetically pleasing décor of any kind. It was just a functional room for groups of ten or less to meet.

  Ian took a seat closest to the door, pulling the chair out next to him for Eva. Nodding to the other two men, he sat. “So, talk.”

  “Slow down,” Stanley scolded his former student. “There isn’t a fast and easy explanation to this. Plus, we need a lot more information before we know everything fully.”

  “Well, why don’t you start with telling us what you do know.” Ian wasn’t calming down at all.

  Eva put a hand on his arm. “Stanley is right. We need to slow down a little. No matter how many times we've gone over our questions, I feel like there’s something we don’t know. Something we don’t know to ask about.”

  Stanley looked at the woman he’d been claiming was his daughter, his expression pained. “You’re right. What you don’t know is a lot. I’m just not sure how to tell you…”

  Stanley cut him off. “From what Marcus has filled me in on, the two of you started dreaming of each other? Can you tell me about the dreams?”

  “Seriously?” Ian leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “You want us to answer your questions when neither of you will tell us anything?”

  Stanley mirrored his posture. “Yes. If you want me to help you figure this out, you need to let me in on your own little secrets.”

  “Secrets?” Ian’s voice rose.

  Marcus cleared his throat. “I think this will go a lot smoother if we just tell them, Stanley.”

  “Shut up,” Stanley snapped. “You tried to handle this on your own, and look where we are.”

  “That’s it!” Eva stood. “We aren't going to tell either of you anything unless you tell us what you’re hiding. Got it? I don’t care who either of you really are right now. These are our lives we’re dealing with. Which, if you haven’t noticed, have been completely turned upside down. Now, get your egos in check and start talking before we walk out of here.”

  She stood her ground, staring down the two men across the table from her. Marcus, the man she’d been calling Dad as long as she could remember, looked back at her with a tenderness she hadn’t seen from him since before New York.

  He bowed his head. “I never wanted for any of this to happen.”

  “You were fooling yourself then.” Stanley started pacing the other side of the room. “What did you think would happen?”

  “It was my project, but they were your idea. One, I might add, I didn't want to go along with.”

  “What idea?” Ian asked.

  They ignored him.

  “But you did. Finding out if we could do it was just as important to you as it was me. But you went and made her your daughter. You made it personal.” Stanley leaned over Marcus.

  Eva approached the table. “Find out what?”

  They continued to ignore them.

  Marcus kept his composure. “It was personal. They were real people. And you killed them.”

  “We had no choice! Not if we wanted this whole thing to progress.” Stanley threw his hands in the air.

  Eva gasped.

  Ian stood and pushed her behind him protectively. “Eva, quietly back out of the room. Now. Go.”

  “No!” Marcus reached out to her. “You can’t go. We need to make sure you’re not dematerializing or something else.”

  The couple looked at him, even more confused than before.

  She put her hand on Ian’s shoulder and looked around him at the older men. “Dematerializing? Dad?” She shook her head. “I mean, Marcus. What do you mean? And whom did you kill?”

  Stanley smiled. “You, my dear.”

  “What do you mean?” Her breathing became erratic. “Ian?”

  Ian wrapped an arm around her. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but this isn’t funny.”

  “It’s not a game,” Marcus replied. “He’s telling the truth.”

  “Stop lying to us!” Ian yelled.

  Stanley came around the table. His demeanor was calculating, cold, and unfeeling. “Your names are Brendan Owens and Connie Fraser-Owens. You were a young, married couple we met that fit our experiment’s needs perfectly. We took your lives to test out our theory on your spirits.”

  Eva gripped Ian’s arm. “Ian…”

  “No.” Ian closed his eyes. “You are my college professor. Professor Finnigan. I am Ian Fuller.”

  “Ian…” Eva tried to get his attention again.

  “That is my name, but that is not the whole truth.” Stanley’s distant exterior cracked slightly.

  “You were there for me after my parents’ deaths.” Ian searched his mentor’s face. “And then you were there for me after my accident. You helped me piece together my life. You had me over for holidays. I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but this? No. What do you mean you killed us and experimented on our spirits?”

  Eva stepped in front of Ian. “Ian. The names he said. Those are the names from my memories.”

  “What?” Ian wasn't fully hearing her. His mind reeled.

  “Memories?” Stanley grabbed her arm. “What kind of memories?”

  Ian shoved him back. “Do not touch her.”

  “Eva. I need you to tell me more,” Stanley pleaded.

  She looked over at Marcus. He was still in his seat, his head in his hands. She made her way around the table, pulling out of Ian's grip when he reached out to hold her back, and pushing past Stanley, who shouted at her to tell him more.

  She knelt down next to him. “Marcus? Dad? I don’t know what’s going on. Please, tell me. Am I dead? Did you kill me? Us? Did you kill us? Then how are we here?”

  He lifted his head, tears pouring down his cheeks. “Yes.”

  “Yes, I’m dead? Or, yes, you killed us?” She put her hand on his.

/>   He winced as if her gesture was painful. “Both.”

  “Marcus.” Stanley said his name like a father would to one of his children when scolding them.

  He ignored his colleague and took her hand in his. “Stanley and I are scientists. Our specialty is in spiritual research.”

  “Marcus. You’re going to compromise the experiment even more.”

  Marcus kept his eyes on Eva. “We were working on materializing a person’s spirit after death. We’d had some success. Hell, I felt we had a lot of success in just being able to detect and hold them. Most people still don’t even believe in ghosts. But we were able to not only prove they were there, but we could actually track them and hold them. And as our experiments progressed, our knowledge grew. Eventually, we could make a spirit materialize.” He could see the confusion forming on her face. “We could force them to show themselves. To take the shape of the body they previously inhabited.”

  Her hand went to her mouth. “You could bring them back to life?”

  He shook his head. “Not really. The body was gone. But, like you and Ian, you appear as if you are back in your body. So much so that you can be touched, and you feel like a normal human.”

  “But what you’re saying is that we’re not. We’re dead? And you two killed us?” Ian slumped back into one of the seats.

  “After years of experiments, we realized the more recent a spirit left a body, the more successful we were,” Stanley explained.

  Eva shot him a look. She turned back to address Marcus again. “So, you took our lives for your research and experiments? You killed us? Did we know you? I mean, how come us?”

  Marcus glanced up at Stanley, and back down at his hands. “Stanley knew Ian from the college, yes. And, yes, Ian had lost his parents. He also knew you two were a young, newly-married couple who wouldn’t want to just move on so easily. That your attachment for each other because of your love for one another might help keep you here and help make you want to be materialized.”

  Eva fought back tears. “Then why separate us after all that? Why was he so far away? And why didn’t we know of each other? Of all of this?”