Torn Asunder (Part 1 of 2)

by Abigail Boyd

  Leo grabbed her arm roughly, too roughly for my taste as I can see him squeezing her flesh, and started dragging Beth to the door as she stumbled over her feet. “You need to get out of here,” I heard him growl at her. “You’re messing up everything.”

  Beth’s eyes water as she turned away from him and rushes into the hall. He shuts the door and stands in front of it for a long moment before turning. The guests’ mouths are agape, and no one seems to know what the polite next action is.

  “Sorry about that, you guys. She has a problem when she drinks. Carry on.” After a few seconds, the party goers hesitantly begin to enjoy themselves again.

  “Can I talk to you in the other room?” Quinn asks Leo softly, not looking happy at all as she pulls him aside.

  “Sure, babe.” He smiles with his prominent teeth, and follows her as they head down the hall that must lead to the bedroom.

  They’re gone for ten minutes, and I spend that time talking with my coworkers. She finally glides back out and I wonder if he calmed her down with sex, because she’s got a dreamy look in her eyes.

  “What happened?” I ask.

  “It’s okay. He explained it all to me. She gets like that because she’s an alcoholic, she doesn’t know how to control herself, and he has to be firm.” But her eyes still aren’t focusing on me. And I’ve never known Quinn to be okay with a guy manhandling a girl, no matter how much she may hate that particular girl.

  “Is it okay if I use your bathroom?” I ask, turning to Leo. I need to calm down and think, and I’m too anxious out here.

  “Of course. It’s down the hall, on the left.”

  I go and pee and wash my hands. There isn’t any soap, so I open the top drawer, but find it empty. When I open the bottom drawer, I jump up in shock. It’s full of sex toys, the strong smell of latex wafting out. I make out bright colors and an assortment of curiously shaped objects before I kick the drawer shut with the tip of my shoe. Not something I needed to see, my own fault for snooping. Still, who keeps sex toys in a bathroom they share with guests?

  As I stare at myself in the mirror, I know I need to get out of here. After that little outburst, I can’t deny the truth—I’m not comfortable around Leo at all. There’s something not right about him. But I’m not leaving without Quinn.

  I come back out, and find myself face to face with the man in question.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “I WAS JUST checking to make sure you found your way okay.” His voice is calm, but I can see the veins straining against his skin in his arms and neck. He’s leaning close enough to me that I can feel his body heat.

  “Yep, it wasn’t difficult to navigate.” I hate that my voice is shaking. I don’t want him to know that I’m on to him.

  “Good. Wouldn’t want you to get lost.”

  I try to maneuver past him, but he blocks my way. I turn my head to the right, but a big potted palm is blocking my view from the rest of the apartment. He leans forward and slams his hands beside my head on the wall. I flinch, my throat going dry and I start to panic.

  Those weird, yellow-green eyes bore into me, and the room swirls. My cells remember this violation, and I know what’s going to happen next. He’s going to reach into my mind.

  “What are you doing?” I ask calmly. I have to center myself so I can keep control. “There are people right in the next room.”

  “What am I doing?” he repeats, his voice low and husky. “I’m making sure you keep your mouth shut and your head empty.” He clasps his hands against the sides of my skull and pushes, pain searing into my skull. I gurgle low in my throat and try to push him off of me, scratching for his chest, but he lets go of the side of my head and presses his elbow into my neck.

  “Look at me, Arema.”

  I squeeze my eyes shut, but now I can’t breathe, I can’t make a sound except this horrible choking, and my lungs are screaming in desperation.

  “Look at me.”

  My eyes open without my consent, and I’m staring into the dark voids of his pupils, ringed with yellow, suspended in air. The world around me is distorted. I don’t know what time it is, or where I am. He finally lets go of my neck and I take a huge gasp of air, but I still feel disconnected from my body.

  “Did you ask James about his father?” his echoing voice inquires.

  “Yes,” my mouth answers for me. “He wouldn’t tell me much. Just that his father is dead.”

  “That’s not the whole truth and you know it. You should have asked more.”

  “He doesn’t want to talk about his father. It hurts him to talk about it, and I don’t want to hurt him.”

  “Arema,” he says in a sing-song fashion, like a father reprimanding his stubborn child. “I don’t give two shits what you want.”

  “That’s not my name,” I force out through lips that are sandpaper dry, and he reprimands me with another surge of dizziness.

  “Of course, you don’t remember your real name. Why should you?” his voice asks. “But you need to get him to tell you what happened. How he caused his father’s death.”

  “What did he do?” I ask.

  “He showed him what he really is.”

  “What is he?”

  “A pranic, the same as you and me. An energy drainer, from another world just like this. But you’re not going to remember that in a minute, when I send you on your way. The only thing you’ll remember is that you can’t possibly be together. That uniting will crush both of you.”

  “No,” I press. I feel a surge of pain, and I don’t know where it even comes from, but it fills my brain.

  “That’s what you need to believe. You two cannot be together, because it would destroy everything I’ve worked for. I didn’t tear you two apart just so that you could come back together again and return to Haven. Especially not with the uprising coming.”

  An image floats up out of the nothing. It’s the only thing other than his eyes that seems to exist. It’s of the flower, the purple flower, only the petals are turning like saw blades. I reach for it with numb arms, and it cuts the hold he has on me.

  Everything goes black so quickly I don’t feel myself fall. I don’t feel anything.

  ###

  When I come to, I’m propped up on Leo’s couch with Quinn snapping her fingers in my face. I blink and sit up.

  “Are you okay, Remy?” she asks, sitting back on her heels. “Leo found you on the floor in the bathroom.”

  I nod at her, the entirety of what just happened rushing at me at once. I freeze on the couch, scanning the room. All of the other guests are gone.

  “Leo sent everybody else home,” Quinn says, as if reading my mind. “Nobody really wanted to stay after Beth embarrassed herself.” She seems to be back to normal, the dreamy look in her eyes gone.

  I feel frazzled and I can only imagine what I look like. Not only can I remember what Leo just did to me, I remember the other two times he forced himself into my head, too. And what he said.

  Pranics.

  Energy drainers, from another world just like this.

  I push myself up to my feet. I have to get out of here. Leo steps out from the kitchen, carrying two cups, and I startle and fall back to the couch.

  “Hold on, sit down,” Quinn says. “You don’t have to rush up, we’re not in any hurry.”

  “I want to go home,” I struggle out. Leo eyes me curiously as he joins us, and I try as hard as I can to appear calm. Nausea rolls over me in a wave, and the horrible, stinging pain has returned to my temples. “Right now.”

  “Okay. I can drive you home,” Quinn says, reaching for her keys and standing.

  “Are you two off so soon?” Leo asks innocently. He lifts up one of the cups in his hand. “I brought you some water, Remy, you look really pale. Did you get hurt?”

  I swallow hard, giving me just enough time to compose myself. But I don’t touch the cup. “I think I must have hit my head on the way down. I don’t remember anything. Thanks for helping me.”

&
nbsp; He seems to buy my explanation. “Of course. Anytime.”

  I don’t stop panting until we’re safely seat belted into Quinn’s car and driving away.

  “Remy, you look horrible. What really happened?” Quinn asks.

  I can’t tell her the truth, but I don’t want to put her in danger. “Just like I said, I don’t remember. But do me a favor and don’t go back to his apartment.”

  She frowns, sticking out her lower lip. “What? Why?”

  I stare at her, not knowing how to tell her, not wanting to give her the bad news, especially when I have no proof. “Leo did something to me. He hypnotized me or…messed with my mind. And it isn’t the first time.”

  She’s silent for a minute, taking in my words, turning the wheel a little too hard. “So when I find a guy I actually want to do more with than ten minutes fucking, he turns out to be some psycho Criss Angel mindfreak?”

  “I know you probably think I’m lying, that it sounds insane, but…”

  She cuts me off, her jaw tightening. “You would never lie to me. I believe you.”

  “What? You do?”

  “Do you understand how important your friendship is to me?” she asks, glancing over at me. “Because if you do, you won’t question it.” She sighs and adjusts her seat. “Not to mention, there have been a few times I’ve felt really strange around him, and I’ve forgotten things I shouldn’t have. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s creepy. And then the way he acted with Beth tonight…” She shivers dramatically. “I’ve learned a lot about manipulation and mind games at school.”

  Relief washes through me. “I’m sorry that he turned out to be a jerk.”

  She shrugs. “Relationships aren’t what they’re cracked up to be, anyway.”

  ###

  She drops me off in front of the building, promising me she won’t go anywhere near Leo until we hatch a plan to confront him. I don’t want him to have any reason to be suspicious.

  Now there’s only one more person I need to confront. I stand outside James’ door for a long minute, trying to figure out my approach, wondering if he’s even home. But I know he is. I can feel him on the other side.

  He smiles when he opens the door, and I see he’s dressed in striped blue pajama pants and a white tank top. Normally, I would concentrate on how cute he is, how sexy his abs look against the fabric of the tank top. But I can’t pretend I’m normal anymore.

  “I need to come in,” I say, leaning against the door frame for support. My head is pounding despite the aspirin I popped on the way here.

  “Of course,” he says, concern dawning in his eyes, and steps aside. I take two steps inside and drop down to the floor as knees go out. Instantly, he scoops me up, and I wrap my arms weakly around his neck as he transports me to the couch. He lays my head back against the pillow and sits next to me, holding my hand.

  “What’s wrong, Remy?” he demands.

  “Do you know a man named Leo?” I ask. When I said his name, a flicker of remembrance appeared in his eyes.

  “Leo?” he repeats, frowning. “I…I don’t remember. The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don’t know. Did he hurt you?”

  “Not physically but…I’ve seen him several times, and he does something to me. Gets inside my head.” In a breathless rush, I explain what happened tonight and the other times, how I forgot each time. His eyes grow wider as I keep speaking, and he moves over so he can put his arm around my shoulder.

  I’m feeling more like myself from sitting down, and I know it’s time for confronting him. We can’t swim with these secrets flooding in anymore, or we’ll drown. I jump up to my feet.

  “I told you I was adopted, but not about what happened before that,” I begin. “I don’t remember a thing about my life before I was twelve. I’ve been…off my entire life.” I take a deep breath, trying to get my bearings, trying to calm my frantic heart, and turn away from him.

  No matter how much courage I feel now, I can’t look at him. I hug my arms to my body for support.

  “Leo told me something else, something that sounds crazy, but that I believe. What he did to me, I could feel it. That I’m something called a pranic, an energy drainer. And what he does, it’s a lot like what I’ve done to other people. I messed with Jason’s mind the day that you found us in the supply closet.”

  I turn around so that I can face him, and I’ve never felt more exposed. I could be standing here naked and it still wouldn’t compare to the vulnerability I’m experiencing.

  Solemn and thoughtful, he stares up at me with his hands in his lap. I could be completely misreading the look in his eyes, the look that says he knows what I’m about to do. But I have to take the chance anyway.

  “This the part that scares me the most.” I don’t even have to picture the flames this time, I just feel the heat erupt inside of me, and open my mouth as the fire passes through. I don’t have a target so it just dissipates, leaving a rush of heat.

  I finally look up at his face, wondering if he thinks I’m a monster, if Leo is wrong. I wonder if he’s he’s going to run out of the room screaming, or call me a witch, both things that have happened to me before.

  But he’s smiling up at me, a smile so sweet and full of adoration that it melts the ice around my heart and the final walls around me come tumbling down.

  “I’m not afraid of you, Shell, so stop looking at me like I should be. I can do magic tricks, too.”

  Leaning back against the couch, he holds up both hands, splaying his fingers, and small, bright flames erupt at the end of each fingertip. I widen my eyes in disbelief, and I give a low chuckle at the absurdity of this night. The flames go out, and he blows on his fingertips for a second, then holds out his arms for me. I go to him and he pulls me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around my back. His hands are still warm as he slides them up beneath my t-shirt to rest against my skin. His velvety touch makes me tremble as he slowly moves his hands up below my shoulder blades. I can feel his heart beat through his shirt against mine, matching each beat, and I realize that the little piece of my heart that’s been missing has just been replaced.

  I pull back from him, staring down at his mouth, his nose, his eyes—so familiar, I’ve memorized every line, but I feel like I’m seeing him for the first time. Seeing the person inside.

  “We’re going to find a way back there,” James says then. “Back to where we came from.”

  To be concluded in Part 2.

  This version uploaded 08/24/13.