Ghosts

by Tess McLennan

  Back of the Church, midnight.

  - A.B

  All tiredness was soon forgotten, as I lay awake counting the minutes on the digital clock, hung high on the cabin wall. At exactly 11:56 pm, I quietly pulled my boots on and crept out of the cabin into the dark night. Clem lay fast asleep on the top bunk, and didn’t stir as I grabbed my coat. I toyed with the idea of waking her, but decided against it. Two bodies sneaking around would attract more undue attention. I still didn’t know whether the TGHL had a curfew, or if there was punishment for being out of bed after the late evening prayer, but I hesitated to find out what that punishment might be.

  I reached the back of the Church, and leaned against the cool stone, waiting for Aggie to appear. I suddenly felt as though I was being watched, that someone had discovered my reason for being there, and I decided to enter through the large wooden doors, to shield myself from prying eyes. As I entered, I realised that I was at the opposite end of the Church to usual… near the door where Saxon and Aggie usually entered. The door that Chloe had been dragged through. I wondered if this was what Aggie had meant by the back of the Church, when suddenly the thick oak door swung open. Aggie stepped through, looking around quickly to see if we’d been followed, before beckoning me to follow her through. I entered, and Aggie shut the door carefully behind her, locking it tightly.

  It felt surreal to be so close to her after all this time, and I realised from the size of her distended belly that there couldn’t be much time left before the baby was born. Aggie lit a dark green candle, and gestured for me to sit down on the armchair facing her. The scent of coconuts and lime filled the room, as I eyed the door nervously.

  “Don’t worry, nobody is coming in. I’ve made sure we’re alone.”

  “Aggie, what is all this?” I sat down in the armchair. I was careful not to get too comfortable, in case I needed to make a quick escape.

  Aggie rested her hands on her stomach.“You made it.”

  “Yes…” was the only response I could muster up. I thought about giving her the entire run down of our journey, but I decided against it.

  We were silent for a moment, before I spoke up again. “Aggie, is this what you want? Do you want to be here?” I thought again of poor Chloe. Her poor battered body on the cold ground of the Church. She’d probably lain just metres from where we sat. I thought I could see droplets of dried blood on the stone floor.

  “Well, if I wanted to be here, do you think I would have met with you tonight?”

  When I didn’t answer, still consumed with thoughts of Chloe, Aggie continued,

  “No, I would have had your arses thrown out of here, the minute I spotted you in Mass that night.”

  “Is she okay?” I said suddenly.

  “Who?”

  “Chloe.”

  Aggie’s eyes suddenly darkened. “She’ll be fine. Don’t think for a minute I liked what I saw that night.” She shook her finger like a preacher to further her point. “But I had no power to stop it. Nobody here could have done anything to help her. Or they would have ended up the same… maybe even worse.”

  I was silent again, comforted slightly at the thought that Chloe was, by somebody’s standards, going to be okay.

  “Aggie, Henry is hell-bent on taking you home… as am I. We didn’t come all this way just to live out our days as TGHL slaves.”

  “I know… which is why we need a plan. A careful plan to get out of here.” Her brow furrowed suddenly, as her eyes fell on the door. A shadow flitted in the crack between the door and floor… somebody was listening to our conversation.

  Aggie pulled herself out of the chair, and marched over to the door. She flicked the locks at terrifying speed, and threw it open, only to find Wanda crumpled on the floor, her head in her hands. I realised she must have followed me when I left the cabin, and I cursed myself for not being more careful.

  “Please…” she begged, raising her head up towards Aggie. “Please, I want to help.”

  “Help with what? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Imogene, give me a hand.” Aggie and I grabbed Wanda by the back of her jumpsuit and dragged her into the room, slamming the door once again behind us. Unsurprisingly, she weighed very little, and slid easily across the floor. This time, the slamming door was less subtle and the sound bounced around, echoing throughout the Church. It was so loud, I half expected the TGHL soldiers to come bursting in at any second. Aggie clicked the locks shut behind us, ensuring we wouldn’t be disturbed again.

  “Who do you think you are?” Aggie hissed at Wanda through gritted teeth. Wanda covered her face with her hands in fear. “Do you know what I could have done to you for eavesdropping?” I cringed at the thought of having to witness whatever was on the other end of Aggie’s threats. She sounded like medieval royalty, with her genuine threats of pain and torture, and Wanda squirming on the floor like a lowly peasant at the thought of the punishment she might receive. It was clear, Aggie had the utmost power in this place, and she was choosing to use it to the full extent.

  “Please… I can help you.” Wanda uncovered her face, her hands replaced by her wiry hair falling over her eyes.

  “Help us how?” Aggie snarled. I couldn’t tell if she was really angry, or playing it up to frighten the life out of Wanda.

  “I know about the Experiment Room… I know how it works.”

  Aggie suddenly stopped and stared at Wanda. “The Experiment Room? Why would I want to know about that?” Suddenly, Aggie looked less like a Queen, and more like a scared commoner. She rubbed her belly, and lowered herself into the chair. “How can we trust you?”

  Wanda stood up slowly, and brushed herself off, although there seemed to be no dust on her clothes. “That baby inside you is in danger. And you can either listen to me and save yourselves, or you can throw me to the wolves. What are you going to do?” She had Aggie cornered. I looked over at her, hoping she would at least give Wanda a chance.

  “Okay…” Aggie nodded, although hesitantly. “Tell us about the Experiment Room.”

  “How much do you know?” Wanda took her place in the third armchair.

  Aggie and I looked at each other, before shaking our heads. I found it difficult to believe that Aggie knew nothing about this room. “You really don’t know anything?” I asked her, surprised. “You’re basically Saxon’s bride.”

  She shrugged, crinkling her nose at the thought. “I’ve never needed to go there. I’ve never been in that much trouble.”

  “I’ve been there,” Wanda interrupted. She took a deep breath in, and carefully exhaled it before continuing with her story.

  “Think of your brain like a computer. All your memories, your life, what creates and defines you… it’s all just data being stored, like files on a desktop. If you think of it that way, it makes it easier to comprehend that your brain can be rewired with the right tools. People can be made to say certain things, do certain things, believe certain things, with the right sort of data implanted in their brains. Just like using a USB… It’s an age-old tactic, but it’s become a lot easier with modern technology…

  “So naturally, those who act, or speak out against the TGHL… they undergo this sort of mind control experiment. Just like your friend Chloe…” Wanda stopped and looked over at me, clearly making some sort of link between Chloe and I that didn’t exist. “To imprint the values of the TGHL into their minds, to make them nothing but slaves to the system.”

  “But it didn’t work for you?” I answered, confused as to why Wanda would still want to help us, if her mind was conditioned to tell her otherwise.

  “Let me finish…” Wanda paused for a moment, and seemed to be listening out to something that neither Aggie nor I could hear. “But then, one day, somebody close to Saxon thought, why don’t we take it a step further? Could it be possible to imprint virtual realities into the mind, to make people feel as though they were in one place, but really in another?”

  “What would be the point of that?” Aggie rolled her eye
s. “It seems a bit ridiculous to me, a waste of time. If they want to punish people for acting out, don’t you think that mind control is enough?”

  Wanda leaned in closer over the coffee table. Her voice dropped to a low whisper. “Have you ever woken up, and not known where you are? How would you feel, if after a few seconds, or a minute, you still have no idea?”

  Neither of us said anything, and Wanda took our silence to mean that we understood perfectly what she was getting at.

  “It’s a frightening thought. Some people don’t come back from that. And Saxon has found a way to dip in and out of these realities, as if to torture them further… Technology is limitless these days.”

  “And what if it goes wrong? Things go wrong with computers all the time…” Aggie knotted her fingers together.

  “You’re right. They do sometimes go wrong. Which is how people end up in The Pen…”

  “The Pen?”

  “Some computers are old, and can’t handle being rewired, or the idea of USB imports, anything external. They’re fragile, and sometimes computers are just of poor quality, and shut down almost completely.”

  “Almost completely?” I repeated.

  “Just imagine a computer where the monitor works, but the main hard drive is busted. Those are the people who go to The Pen... Too far gone to be any use, to anyone.”

  I wanted to press her for more details, but I wasn’t sure I could stomach what she had to say. “How do you know all this anyway, Wanda? Why would we want to use the Experiment Room in our plan?” I asked, suddenly feeling wary of her presence. Wanda ignored my question and continued talking.

  “Most doors don’t have cracks under them… I’m a master eavesdropper.” Wanda smiled, apparently pleased with this small, but insignificant talent.

  “So let’s devise a plan then…” Aggie leaned forward, and stuck her hand out towards Wanda. “But so help me God, if you’re playing us… you’ll be more than sorry.”

  Wanda nodded her head in agreement, and took Aggie’s hand in a firm handshake. We shook hands with each other, and got to work. Aggie was going to cut a hole in the fence near the abandoned guard’s tower. It was a relative distance from the main buildings, and would more than likely go completely unnoticed if the fence were broken. It was also a short distance from where our car had been parked, apparently by a guard after we left it on the side of the road. I was grateful that Aggie had some power within the TGHL, and that she was using it wisely. It appeared she could get away with mostly anything.

  “But, I think we might need to cause a bit more commotion when we leave… a bit of panic, so that we can slip out unnoticed, or the guards will see us in that field.”

  I looked over at Wanda and thought of our yard duty together. “I know exactly what we can do…” and we nodded in unison.

  “But we also need a Plan B…” Aggie said. “In case this one fails…” It appeared that Aggie was a methodical planner, just like I was.

  Aggie hesitated before suggesting what she thought was the best path in case of emergency. I was reluctant, but agreed, stuck in a corner with nowhere else to go.

  Wanda wasn’t in favour of the Plan B we devised, deeming it more risky than the first plan.

  “What if it fails? What if you end up in The Pen?”

  “That’s why it’s Plan B. Our second choice.” Aggie stared coldly at Wanda. I thought I saw a flash of concern in her eyes at the idea of The Pen. But, instead of voicing whatever concerns she had, Aggie stuck out her hand again. “Do we all agree?”

  Suddenly, I remembered something important that Wanda had left out of her earlier explanation. “You need to tell us about the babies first…” I interrupted their handshaking, remembering how confused I had been by Saxon’s sermon earlier that evening.

  But before Wanda could tell us any more, Aggie sat back in her chair and closed her eyes suddenly, her mouth tightening over her jawbone, as though she was in pain.

  “I think we need to see the doctor. Now.”

  Indigo’s birth was a quick one. Wanda disappeared as I walked Aggie casually over to the doctor’s cabin, to request assistance. I had little knowledge of childbirth or babies, but I knew that we needed to remain calm. The doctor’s cabin was also a makeshift hospital, which was completely vacant when we entered it.

  Now, the long night was over, and the sun was peeking through the blinds. I opened my eyes, remembering that I’d fallen asleep at Aggie’s bedside. An imprint of my head had created a perfect circle in the pale pink hospital blanket. Aggie was cradling her little girl. When she realised I’d woken up she asked if I wanted to hold her. She beamed with pride as she passed the tiny baby to me.

  “I’m going to name her Indigo. After …”

  I didn’t get to ask her about where the name had come from, before Saxon and two TGHL soldiers entered the doctor’s cabin, along with Neil, our prayer group leader. I realised I’d never seen Saxon without the backing of at least two to three of these soldiers, or the sword that always hung so menacingly from the belt around his waist. I quickly passed baby Indigo back to Aggie, who hugged her tight against her chest.

  Saxon’s glare fell on me first.

  “You… out.”

  “Saxon, Imogene helped me last night... She can stay.” Aggie didn’t look away from the baby.

  Saxon pretended not to hear her, and clicked his fingers at me, as a signal for me to leave. I secretly hoped Plan A wouldn’t work, so that we could go straight to Plan B and take Saxon down a few notches. I rose silently from my seat next to the bed, and kissed Aggie and little Indigo on the cheek. “Congratulations,” I whispered. Our plan was going to be harder now we had Indigo to factor in.

  Aggie gave me a longing look, as if to say she wanted me to come back later. I smiled at her, and exited the room, taking all my strength not to give the soldiers a decent shove before I moved past them.

  I stopped for a second and listened out, hoping some of Wanda’s talent had magically rubbed off on me. I saw an open standing cupboard to my right, and crept inside, leaving the door slightly ajar behind me. I could also be a master eavesdropper if I wanted to be.

  “This was our agreement, Aggie. Right from the beginning.”

  “I know that… but right away? Can’t we spend a little time together first?”

  “No. Most certainly not. The next full moon is soon. We must prepare her.”

  “Saxon…” I heard something crash to the floor.

  “Get a hold of yourself.” Saxon’s voice began to sound angrier. “Give me the child.”

  “She has a name.”

  “She has no name!”

  Outside the cupboard door, I heard a number of voices colliding with each other all at once. Aggie’s voice, feeble and crying out for her child… Saxon’s voice, angrily demanding silence and obedience from her. There was another crash, before numerous pairs of feet stomped closer and closer to the wardrobe. Through the crack in the door, I saw Saxon holding baby Indigo, followed by the two soldiers, and Neil, who gave me a sinister wink as he passed by the cupboard. They exited the cabin through the front doors and I stood frozen in the wardrobe. The baby began to wail outside, and the sound of Aggie’s heartbroken weeping echoed throughout the doctor’s cabin.

  18

  “Today we are going to talk about escape.”

  My ears pricked up. I looked up from the floor to find Neil staring straight at me again, a common occurrence in our prayer sessions. I thought for a second he’d somehow found us out, that the jig was up and our plan was over before it had even begun. Escape… it was all I’d been thinking of since the night of my meeting with Aggie. It was two days since we’d sat together in the Church, and nobody in the congregation had seen or heard anything of her, or the baby since Mass that night.

  It appeared Neil was making a conscious effort to look into everyone’s eyes in the prayer group that day, and my heart rate slowed a little as he passed by me, making his way towards the people at the bac
k of the room.

  Telling the others about my secret meeting with Aggie wasn’t easy. Apart from Wanda, there weren’t any other members of the congregation that I felt at ease talking around. We managed to snatch five minutes after breakfast, walking inconspicuously together, talking in hushed tones. There wasn’t time to even discuss that Aggie had given birth to Indigo, as I quickly told them the details of the plan that we discussed, knowing that any minute the call for work duty would come. I had just finished my explanation, when the voice rang out, and we all scurried off towards the gardening shed to begin our day.

  I realised all of a sudden that Clem wasn’t sitting next to me as usual in the prayer group, and the patch of floor that she usually occupied was wide open. I frowned at the empty floor space, figuring that she must have felt sick, or been assigned extra work duty, and soon forgot about her, as Neil continued his sermon about the concept of escape.

  “So what does God have to say about escape? What is escape? Perhaps escape to you is coming here, to the Temple? Perhaps escape to you is a holiday? Or perhaps you think of escape, as turning away from temptation? ‘No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man’. Temptation is human. But you can escape it, you can overcome it. With the right tools, and lessons from God.”

  It took all my strength to hold back a chuckle at how vehemently I disagreed with Neil’s sermon. I was glad I hadn’t lost the ability to laugh, even if only to myself. With nothing but the escape on my mind, temptation was something I certainly didn’t want to overcome any time soon.