“He probably does send signs. You just don’t pay attention to them. He was a smart man. He’ll find a way to get to you. Dreams are real, too, Lena.”
I let that sink in. Maybe I needed to look at my dreams differently. He always wanted to confuse me. I bet my dad just didn’t want me to have things to come to me so easily. He wanted me to work for everything, but I really needed to know if I should trust Jared. I didn’t know if he was tricking me or using me to get to the information.
“I will not let this disease kill you. For your dad and myself and the world.”
“For you?” My heart began to flutter. Was it true, after being together for a few days, that he was feeling something, too?
“Yes, I care for you. I know more about you than you think.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked silently.
“I never stopped checking on you after I left.”
I regarded him questionably. “How did you check on me? I never left my house after my family died,” I said calmly but a little frightened.
“Well, I checked because it was my orders. But I didn’t watch you. I’m not a creep.” He chuckled under his breath. “I watched the house, not you. I didn’t invade your privacy. I listened around the town. Your little friend, Kaley, liked to talk about you all day long.”
I looked over in shock. I felt hurt. I knew I had no friends, but I thought Kaley was at least my friend when my family died. “What did she say about me?” He couldn’t be telling the truth. Not about Kaley.
“She just said how you never left the house. I don’t want to talk about it. Just know she isn’t your friend, and she would’ve turned on you if you had stayed any longer.”
I felt discomfort fall over me. She was my friend. I was sure of it. Kaley had stuck with me through everything. “That’s a mistake. She wouldn’t do that,” I told him a little questioningly.
“She talked about me a lot. She said I hurt you, and you deserved it. She told others that you needed everyone to like you, and when one person didn’t, you went insane. Then you locked yourself up in the house.”
“I literally think no one likes me. And for the record, I was in the house because my family died,” I said bitterly. I couldn’t believe it. That was something Kaley would say. She used the line many times about Katherine. She always told me that Katherine went insane when someone didn’t like her. Anger flooded me. If I ever saw her again, I would probably punch her in the face. “I guess you feel the same way about me. You think I’m selfish,” I said angrily. “And don’t be so flattered. I didn’t go insane.”
“Look, I see who you are. I don’t think you’re selfish.” I felt my face burning and knew that it was bright red. I was glad the night’s sky blocked this from his view. “And I know you’re not insane,” he said softly.
“You’re speeding way too much,” I said to break the conversation as my cheeks flushed more intensely.
“Well, why don’t you sleep?” he asked softly.
“I think I will.” I shut my eyes and before I drifted to sleep, I felt a hand brush against my face.
***
As I walked home through the neighborhood I grew up in, the world around me seemed a blur. I felt the thick air everywhere, but I didn’t fight it like I used to. When my mom was alive, she told me to cover my mouth if I felt the air wasn’t right.
I remembered when my father would sit up all night in his office. As I walked home, I saw the doors wide open. My mother never left anything open on account of my father saying he wouldn’t be able to work with the doors open.
So I took off running to get to the door. A gust of wind blew against my face as I reached it. I heard screaming coming from my mother and I fought against the wind to reach her. Why would my father leave my mom alone?
As I entered the front door, an unnerving silence surrounded me. I stopped in place because the normal room I was so accustomed to was no longer there. The room was black with red all around. There was something on the floor, but I couldn’t tell what it was. As I neared it, I realized that it was my mother covered in blood, and she was reaching her hand out toward my dad’s office. I knelt, but she was cold. It was odd that I didn’t feel bad about her dying for a second time. I felt numb to the sight of her dead.
I continued down the hallway and neared the door to my father’s office. It was wide open, and I walked in. He walked toward me and a dark omen was around him, but as he approached, a glow enveloped around him. He smiled at me and tilted his head as if to exam me. Just as he reached my forehead, a hand clasped over his mouth, and he hunched over.
“Daddy!” I tried to yell out, but little noise came out of my mouth.
He slowly rolled back up and faced me. He kissed my check and touched my forehead. A burning sensation ran through my body, and I began to scream as he smiled down at me.
“Don’t be fooled by anyone, Lena. The key lies in you and you alone. I have figured out the truth and the truth lies in you as well. I know they have tried to kill you, but this is just the beginning. They have won until you can take their winnings. Don’t let them continue to win. Let them help you get the disease out, but that’s it. Do you understand?” He looked at me, and I nodded. “I don’t have much time, but if you trust everyone you meet, you will be controlled. I cannot tell you all because I would mess with everything. I love you, Lena. This will work out, but if it doesn’t work out for you, I will give Jared the knowledge.”
I wanted to ask if Jared was really a part of this plan, or if my dad didn’t tell Jared the plan. But I didn’t get the chance to because he continued.
“Lena, he knows the plan to a degree. He is here to protect you from everyone. But you will ultimately save yourself and others. Listen to your heart and what you hold dear. I will send you my love and guide you. This is where I leave you. I love you.”
I woke up with a gasp, and I looked around. The car was completely empty. I began to frantically move around in search of Jared. I sighed when I saw he was outside the car, pacing back and forth. He looked to me from outside the car and grinned.
“Well, we’re here. I think. I always get confused. Come on out.” He opened the door for me and grabbed my hand to pull me up. My heart gave a leap from the contact. I stepped down onto the sand and smiled. This was like home. “I’m going to pull the car around. You stand here and wait. I’m parking it away from us, and I don’t want you to have to walk too much. Stay right here and don’t move. If danger comes, I will be here. I promise.” And I believed him. He touched my face and left without another word.
I waited as he went to park, feeling shockingly calm and reassured. I was not sure where he went. I looked out to the ocean and sat in the sand. The breeze brushed my hair from my face, and I played with it in my hands. It was wet from the rain, but I didn’t mind, because the scene before me was breathtaking. The moon shined brightly down onto the water where I could see it perfectly. I had good memories involving the beach.
In that moment, I didn’t care how long it took him to come back. I was happy there in my own little world. I thought about the dream I just had. I was alone. I had to bear the entire world on my shoulders. How could I do it? How could I do what my father hadn’t been able to? Why did my father leave the world in my control? I didn’t want to have everyone’s life to deal with when I couldn’t even handle my own.
Jared walked back to me, and I didn’t even jump when he tapped my shoulder. He told me we would have to get moving before the day broke. “Can we go on the beach soon?” I asked quietly.
“How about now? I don’t think I can let you outside when we get in the safe house. We actually have to walk along the shore until we find the safe house.” I smiled as I ran down to the water, and I was hit with a harsh truth. I didn’t think I would walk out of the safe house as I walked in.
Chapter Eleven: The Safe House
I WALKED BEHIND as Jared sped up. He circled the sand around me and jogged beside me slowly. I thought of my
dream and wondered if my father wanted me to trust Jared or not. I couldn’t decide. The truth was, I did trust Jared. I felt something for him. I let the thought slip away. I couldn’t decide if I made this dream up in my mind, so I didn’t get close to anyone because I would be sick and die soon, or my dad came to visit me while I slept. I would like to choose the latter. We walked a while. Jared halted as we passed three lifeguard chairs.
“What is it?” He didn’t answer, so I continued walking.
His voice broke through the crisp air. “Are you going to keep walking, or do you want to get into the safe house?” he asked in a strict voice.
I turned around amazed as I saw the lifeguard chair in the middle was laying flat on the ground, like an opening to a top. The sand had been moved to the side to reveal a breakage in the ground. Light was peering out of it, and I was in complete awe. I shouldn’t have been so impressed by technology, because this was what my father showed me every day before. I loved it and envied those who were tech savvy.
“Wow.” That was all I could manage to say as I looked to see if anyone was watching, but there appeared to be no one around.
“Ladies first,” he said politely.
“All right,” I said rudely and pointed to the hole in the sand. I stood there waiting for him to jump and he smirked.
“Honestly? You should probably go first. Just in case someone is out here waiting for you.” I shivered, but I wouldn’t budge. I didn’t want to be out here, but I was unsure what awaited me down there.
“No one got me when I was alone,” I retorted as his face turned sour. “What do I do to get in there?” I asked a little nervous.
“Just jump. Gabe has it set to whenever you jump a gust of air slows you down and you land on your feet.” He shifted his weight to look at me more evenly.
“Is that possible?” I asked in astonishment.
“Anything is possible for Gabe. You’ll soon find out.” He beamed at me. “Just go ahead. Whenever you land. Move to the left and then don’t budge or touch a thing. I have to deactivate everything.” I didn’t move, and he saw the doubt in my stare. “Trust me for once.”
“What…” That was all I managed because his look silenced me.
“Okay.” I stepped forward and looked once more at him and jumped. It reminded me of jumping into the pool. After that first step, you can’t do anything but feel the water. You can’t stop yourself. Sure enough, a gust of wind caught me as I slowly reached the floor. I laughed in awe as I glanced up the opening to see Jared peering down from very far up.
At the bottom, there was a long hallway to a doorway. I looked to the left and there was another hallway with about thirty computers lining the walls. In the center of the room, there was a large screen. I was amazed that so many machines could be in one small room.
I moved to the left as instructed just as Jared landed beside me. As soon as he did, an alarm sounded as the room turned pitch black. There was no way to see the computers, and I grabbed Jared’s hand just as I had in the elevator. I pulled away in surprise and my heart began to beat in the darkness. There were voices and I didn’t know what they were saying except, “trapped here forever.” The lifeguard chair that was above us closed with a thud and we were surrounded by complete darkness.
Jared didn’t seem to be afraid, but he started chuckling and said under his breath, “That’s a new one.” I was guessing he had been in this room before. I listened closely because the voices had stopped and had been taken over by vigorous typing.
“Access denied.” A voice said out of nowhere. There was a blue light that shined into my eyes and then in a place across the room, which must have been Jared’s brown eyes.
“Jared, no last name. There is one other person here. Access denied.”
No last name? How curious could one person be? I didn’t understand him and how he seemed to never have a full name. Maybe he was abandoned and wanted his real name changed. I was too afraid to point out that he didn’t have a last name. I didn’t understand how he made me feel, either. I knew I felt safe and protected whenever he was around. I had forgotten that feeling since my parents died.
There was even louder typing and once again the voice spoke. “Access denied. Unidentified person in the room has not been evaluated. Access denied.”
I heard his voice from across the room. “I get it, but this is Lena Alona.” There was a pause and the blue light flickered to me once more. I felt a prick on my finger and gasped in pain. I put it into my mouth and tasted blood. Then I felt a yank of my hair and realized that it was being pulled out.
Just then the lights flickered on and the computers shut down. “Access Granted.”
The door slowly rose to a long narrow white hall, and Jared looked back at me, waving me forward. The only sound I heard was my heart pounding, and my feet wouldn’t move me forward.
“Why is my name so important to everyone?” I saw that he wanted to laugh by the way he bit down his lip, but he didn’t. My heart fluttered as I looked at him in the hallway light. He really was something. “Can I change my name?” I asked defiantly.
He let out a tight laugh. “Then we wouldn’t have gotten in,” he said through his laughter, and I frowned.
“Yeah, we wouldn’t be in this mess either,” I reminded him sadly.
He touched the small of my back as he guided me forward and didn’t shove me like he normally did. My heart sped up from his touch, and I was immediately frustrated that he made me feel this way. We walked through the door, and it slammed down behind us. I looked back and there was only a wall there now. There was no way out. There wasn’t a panel to get out. We were trapped.
“How do you leave?” I asked quietly.
“You don’t,” he said in a sinister voice. “Just kidding. Not this way. There’s a different way to leave. Don’t worry. If you want to live, you should have a little faith in me, and trust,” he said in all seriousness.
“Why are you being nice to me right now?” I tested through the silence.
“Oh.” He looked confused. “Would you rather me to be cruel to you?” I looked away. I shouldn’t have said anything, but he lifted my chin to force me to look at him. “Well, I just want you to know that I’m not mean. I’ve just had a hard life. So have you, and I should have respected that before.”
I didn’t respond but stiffly nodded and pulled my face from his hands. I continued to walk, but he stayed behind for a second, and I heard a sigh. I didn’t know why, but he made me feel so happy. I hated to feel this way when it might be too late for him to love me.
The hallway was white, but all along the walls there were beautiful paintings and tables with flowers on them. It looked like a home. We turned the corner, and I was in awe. This was an underground house. The room was open with a large couch and kitchen to the left. The couch was a cream color with brown trim around it. The walls were a warm brown. The kitchen had burgundy walls with flowers painted along the wallpaper. The house was filled with the scent of warm vanilla, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Jared’s mother lived there or if another woman lived in the house underground, just waiting for Jared.
The smell filled me up, and I felt happy and secure. It was unsettling, because I didn’t know if it was too late for me to feel at home somewhere. I was determined to fight this disease with my mind as cancer patients fight their cancer.
“They must be down in the lab,” Jared quietly told me.
“Wait. Who is waiting down there?” I asked all of the sudden feeling self-conscious. I touched my forehead and felt ridiculous. Of course they knew I was sick.
“Holland and Gabe,” he exclaimed like I should have known the answer.
I followed him down the hall to another narrow hallway. This one was black and expanded to ten sets of doors. The door we approached was painted black and white. Jared opened it at the end of the hall and it led to a long corridor with stairs. They went down for what seemed like ages, and I was exposed to a brightly lit room. Inside th
e lab were twenty computers just like before and there was a long table for people to sit at. Along the table there was a long and wide television screen on the wall, but I didn’t think it was used for entertainment. There was another large table on the other end of the room where many items sat.
In the center of the table, a boy bent over a machine with wires sticking out. A girl with strawberry-blonde hair that flowed all the way down her back sat beside the machine on the table. She looked bored and was staring longingly at her nails. She scowled whenever the boy made a sound. Neither of them glanced up. They seemed to be connected somehow, because she continued to clean the tools he used as he held them up. She would give him new ones as if he had told her he needed them, but they weren’t even talking.
“Holland, you have to help. I can’t do this alone; I have to activate the system. I think Jared will be here any minute,” said the boy.
“Oh please, Jared will get past the system fast, don’t you think?” Holland assumed quickly.
“I did.” Jared spoke up. They both looked up with shocked faces. “You were supposed to be watching for us. You changed the system. Why?” he asked quietly, so quietly it sounded completely menacing.
The boy peeked up from behind the machine he was working on. He had dark curly hair and square glasses on his face. He was short and muscular, but his head looked as if it weighed the most on his body.
“Jared, we have to change the system every week. Come on, don’t you remember?” He walked toward Jared while wiping his hands off on a towel. Holland sat in place with a dumbfounded look. I was starting to realize he sounded frustrated all the time. “We changed it when you left. We didn’t exactly expect you back,” he uttered, and I was struck by his comment. Why would he say that? Did he think we wouldn’t make it there? “We knew you would get past it. I only remembered just now.” Jared didn’t respond so the boy continued, “Come help me? I’m trying to activate the transformer. Remember? We built this together, but now it’s malfunctioning, so I tried to make it something new.” He patted Jared on the back as if to say hello and completely bypassed me.
Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Page 9