Stasis (Book 1.1): Beta

by E. W. Osborne

  She sucked air between her lips with a faint whistle. “That’s not a good trend.”

  “No. No it is not.”

  New York City, NY

  May 10th

  Christopher Steele heard Kristine’s breathing change. With his eyes firmly shut, he rolled away, hoping she’d decide to leave for the day without waking him. Those were always the best mornings, when she left him alone. He stared at the hardwood floor, pretended to be asleep, and ran through his options again.

  He knew he was close to losing her and that scared him more than anything. When he’d approached a gorgeous girl in a short skirt three years before, he hadn’t realized she was super ambitious and famous-in-the-right-circles Kristine McKay. By the time his brain kicked in and tried to warn him this relationship might not be the best idea, he was in too deep. When she asked him to move in together, Chris couldn’t imagine his life getting any better… or more complicated. As happy as they were, it was difficult to maintain his lifestyle without her questioning where his money came from. The half-truths had carried on so long the revelation as well as the information would hurt her.

  Only you would try to hide your identity from an investigative journalist, he thought bitterly.

  Most days she went out in search of a story, he looked for work. Any work, he wasn’t picky. There were more people than jobs and every time he came back empty handed. Emotionally, he couldn’t keep going on like this but he wasn’t ready to fall into the inevitable. There was one job always open to him, but if he accepted that… well, the whole pack of lies would unravel. But the trust fund his parents had left him came with a single condition. When he turned twenty-five, if he wasn’t working for Steele Industries, the money dried up.

  And only you would buy an engagement ring for a woman who doesn’t know half your history.

  Kristine’s yawn brought a smile to his face. He decided he’d endure a morning of nagging if it meant a few minutes of cuddling before she started in on him. Plus every fight ended with incredible make-up sex. He rolled over and leaned on his elbow, looking down at her.

  “Morning, beautiful.”

  Her hair was a crazy brown halo around her head, eyes bleary, breath atrocious, but he wasn’t lying. She was never more beautiful than when her guard was completely down. In a world where millions of people watched her daily, he was the only one who got to see her like this.

  “Hey there,” she replied as she stretched. “You were talking in your sleep last night.”

  He tensed and sat up, hoping the motion hid his unease. “Oh yeah? That’s weird. Did you sleep…”

  She squinted into the distance, pulling up the memory. “Ah crap, I tried to remember what you said. It was really weird and I thought you might get a kick out of it.”

  “Heh, that’s too bad. Trying to get me to dump all my secrets, huh?” He stretched his arms over his head and yawned. “Why don’t we get some breakfast before you go off today?”

  Kristine snuggled against his chest, wrapping her arm around his waist and pinning him in bed. Chris regretted rolling over.

  “Maybe it was your dreamscape. What were you doing last night?”

  He shrugged and gave the top of her head a kiss, thankful she wasn’t able to see his expression. “Uh, nothing really. Nothing special. How about you?”

  She bounced up, cross-legged and excited. He caught a glimpse of what she might’ve been like as a kid at a sleepover, telling stories, gossiping with her friends. “I’ve been doing this wicked cool adventure one. I’m an explorer searching for hidden treasures. The thing has been going on for over a week now, it’s so cool.”

  Christopher nodded, pretending to know exactly what she was talking about. Over the years, his deceit had few cracks. When it came to talking about seeds and dreamscapes, he could only pretend so much. “Oh yeah, I love when that happens. So, do you want eggs or should we…”

  Kristine held his hand as he tried to slip away. “So I’m in the jungle, really dense underbrush. I have one of those sword things, but for plants…”

  “A machete?”

  “Yeah! And I’m slicing and trashing all these vines,” she said, mimicking the movements. “And I’ve got people with me but I’m leading the way. I break through the forest and find this massive stone pyramid in the middle of nowhere. It looks Mayan or something.”

  “That’s cool,” Chris nods, patting her hand. “Keep talking, I gotta piss.”

  She made a little face but pressed on, her voice growing louder and more excited. “And off to the side I see this twinkle. You know how things twinkle sometimes?”

  “Uh-huh,” he lied, shaking his head when he was safely hidden in the bathroom.

  “It leads to this hidden room where there’s nothing but gold coins, jewels, everything. But that’s not what I’m looking for. I dig through the treasure, tossing all this priceless stuff over my shoulder until I find it. A book.”

  Chris leans around the corner. “A book?”

  Kristine’s bright eyes widen. She holds her hands shoulder-width apart and nods. “It was this big, leather-bound, and I could tell it was easily the most valuable thing in the room. I can’t wait until tonight when I pick it back up and find out what’s inside.”

  “What do you think it means?” Chris idly asked as he washed off his hands. Her tone told him he might’ve stepped off course.

  “Well, nothing. Dreamscapes don’t mean anything,” she drawled, regarding him oddly.

  He quickly recovered with a casual shrug. “I know that. I meant, what do you think the book means.” Chris turned his back to her as he got dressed, hoping she bought it.

  After a seconds’ thought, she sighed. “I don’t know. How about you? What have you been dreamscaping recently?”

  “Nothing special. Listen, if you don’t want to go out for breakfast, I’m just gonna go downstairs and…”

  Kristine crawled to the edge of the bed and sat on the corner. “You can tell me, you know. I don’t care what it is. I know it’s all fun fantasy.”

  Even though she wasn’t the jealous type, he could tell where her mind was going. “No! It’s nothing like that. It’s… sports.”

  “Sports?” she repeated with an arched brow.

  “Yeah, you know. Baseball, basketball, that kind of thing.”

  “In your dreamscapes you play sports, sports you play almost every week.” He couldn’t decide if she sounded dubious or disappointed. Either way, a little charm offensive would smooth it over.

  “Well, I’m better at night than I am in the day,” he smirked.

  “You can do literally anything, things that even your own imagination couldn’t design, and you use it to play hoops? You can tell me, you know. Even the kinky shit.”

  Although Chris was lying, he felt a bit defensive of her judgment. “What’s it matter to you, anyway?” he grumbled, pulling on a shirt. “I’m getting breakfast.”

  On the balls of her feet, Kristine bounced over apologizing. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad or anything,” she said, throwing her arms around him from behind.

  He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting the urge to tell her everything. Instead, he patted her hand and twisted away. “It’s all right. I’ll save you a plate of eggs.”

  Chris could feel her eyes on his back as he shut the door.

  New York City, NY

  May 15th

  Kristine’s stomach gurgled. It was the third night sitting in a hospital emergency room and she was starting to question her sanity. I’m starving but refuse to spend money on food. I’m exhausted, almost positive Angel is full of shit, yet I’m still sitting here.

  At first, hanging out at hospitals for a story seemed like a good idea. It’s not like she was expecting the exact same thing Angel was rattling on about to walk through the front door, but something interesting might happen. Still, she felt like an idiot. Zombies. Drug epidemic. Nothing like that going on.

  She slouched further into the uncomfortable seat, pull
ed her arms inside her sweatshirt, and held her stomach. ERs were good places to hide, she’d decided. No one pays any attention to you if you aren’t bleeding, screaming, or causing a fuss. If you sit quietly and look a little bored, the staff assume you’re waiting for someone and leave you alone.

  Kristine was so desperate for a story, she even fantasized about being the first to break a story on a celebrity overdose. That thought left a grimy film she wouldn’t be able to wash off anytime soon.

  The waiting room was busy. A mother sat with her crying boy in her lap, the poor kid clutching at his ear. A pair of guys about her age in workout gear helped a third limp in about an hour earlier. There were a few obviously homeless people looking for a place to get off the street and watch TV. The rest… well, the rest were a mish-mash of people all having a pretty bad day.

  Kristine didn’t have much to go on since Angel had been less than specific. As far as she could tell after spending a few nights in different ERs, she’d seen nothing out of the ordinary. After hours watching nothing happen but the daily tragedies of life, she decided she was lying to herself. There was no story there, no matter how much she wanted there to be. Unwilling to admit total defeat, and took the long way home. Kristine wandered through the open parts of the hospital before fully deciding to leave. With her hands stuffed in her pockets, she allowed her mind to drift to Christopher.

  The dynamic of their relationship was shifting. She hated feeling like his keeper, and a failing one at that. It was always a thought in the back of her mind that maybe he was an anchor holding her back. Maybe you’re using him as an anchor, she’d tell herself, shifting the blame yet again.

  And the deepest secret… She felt horrible for lying to him about her dreamscapes, but the truth of it would’ve been too painful. What she really queued up every night was him, well, them. Their life, or rather, the one she imagined them having. The worst part, it wasn’t anything special like how they’d live if they had billions in the bank.

  She’d dream about coming home from a busy day at work, playing with their dog, welcoming Christopher home from his. They’d go Upstate and visit his family, which she had to create from complete scratch since he’d never introduced her to any of them. They’d talk for hours, share stories from their childhoods. Dreamscapes were supposed to give you experiences you couldn’t have in the real world. They were designed to help you unlock parts of yourself you could’ve never imagined. But these fantasies made her feel pathetic, like her unattainable dream was a normal life with a man who showed her love.

  And now I’m pregnant and hoping when he finds out everything will magically change.

  “This is stupid,” she muttered to herself. If there was any hope of having that kind of life, she needed to sit him down and talk about it openly. She knew she had to move fast before she lost her nerve... and started to show. But first, I’ll check the ER once more before leaving. Spinning on the ball of her foot, she marched back down the hall she’d come from and quickly became disoriented. Walking without direction in one of the biggest hospitals in the country turned out to be a bad idea.

  After asking three people for directions, two of whom contradicted each other, Kristine ended up on the outside of the hospital. Her normally good sense of direction had gotten completely switched around. Looking left or right offered no clues, so it’d have to be a choice. Many times over the coming months Kristine wondered what would’ve happened if she’d turned the other way.

  As luck would have it, turning right took her around to the ambulance entrance of the ER. She nearly slapped herself for being so dense. She’d spent nearly three full nights sitting around in the waiting room when she could’ve been lurking near the heart of the operation, so to speak. There was a chill in the spring night air but she was freshly invigorated.

  Walking up and down the sidewalk pretending to talk on her hands-free, Kristine kept an eye on the brightly lit bay. With no point of reference, she couldn’t tell if it was a busy or slow night, but there did seem to be a fairly steady stream of ambulances coming through. Her feet were starting to ache when two came rushing in back to back.

  EMTs jumped from the open doors and immediately she could tell this was different. The first truck unloaded as she crept closer. She caught a glimpse of a bloodied hand dangling over the side of the stretcher. Monitors, cords, and bags of fluid surrounded the body. Male or female, she couldn’t tell, but she got the sense it wasn’t looking good.

  What caught her attention more than the flurry of activity was the second truck. The doors flew open as quickly as the first yet the patient wasn’t rushed inside. They apparently wanted to put a little distance between the two, which seemed odd considering they were most likely involved in the same accident.

  Kristine inched closer, a prickly sensation spreading across her skin. The air didn’t feel right. There was something in their movements that set off warning bells.

  When she was nearly at the bank of automatic folding doors, they finally lowered the patient to the ground. A middle-aged man with a round belly and bald head stared placidly into space. He didn’t look like someone needing emergency care if it hadn’t been for the blood coating his chin and neck. She tried to watch without them noticing, although it was difficult not to stare.

  Kristine made as many mental notes as she could. Even if this wasn’t what Angel had been talking about, it was weird enough to remember.

  The guy sat straight up, unassisted, with both legs sticking out. She noticed his hands were cuffed to the railings of the bed, even though he seemed far from a threat. The glassy, unfocused look in his eyes made her shiver. She followed a few paces behind as they rolled him in.

  A nurse met them at the door. “We’re gonna have to juggle to find space for him. Are there any injuries?”

  “A few cracked teeth. Tell them to look out for pieces in the one who came in with him. We couldn’t find everything at the scene.”

  Kristine pressed her lips together to keep from groaning. That explained the river of blood from the guy’s mouth. Lovely.

  They passed the patient off the to emergency room staff and hung back, arms crossed and head shaking. Kristine knew she couldn’t follow the strange guy in any further, but lingered to listen to their conversation. Leaning against the wall just behind the pair, she kept her distance.

  “I don’t get why we don’t just wheel him upstairs with the rest of them?”

  “Ranger told me they’re running out of beds for the psychos.”

  “And probably running out of cops to watch ‘em all. Sounds like a good defense to me.”

  “Hm?”

  “You know, snap, kill someone and pretend you lost your mind. Can’t throw a crazy person into prison.”

  Kristine’s ears were buzzing. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Angel’s information more than paid off. But the implications of it happening in two cities at once were too overwhelming to sift through right then and there.

  Before they could turn and catch her eavesdropping, Kristine moved fast. She let out a small squeal as her toe caught her heel, sending her colliding into the youngest, and closest, EMT.

  “God, I’m so sorry,” she panted, brushing herself off and giving him her patented smile. “At least one of us has quick reflexes.”

  Even if she were single, he wasn’t her type, but a source was a source. All it took was a couple minutes of flirting before she had his contact details, and hopefully someone to come to if she had questions. It was late and she knew her boyfriend was probably wondering where she was, but excitement thrummed through her body. She needed more. This was only scratching the surface.

  She made a quick excuse and dipped away from the EMT, leaving him feeling like an absolute stud. Upstairs. I have to get upstairs, whatever that means.

  No wandering this time. Kristine made a systematic sweep of each floor in the main building and found what she thought she was looking for on the fourth floor. After walking miles around the hospital
campus, things started to blur together. Even if she hadn’t overheard the EMTs conversation, a bank of secure doors safeguarded by two armed policemen stood out.

  Luckily, she noticed the men standing there with her peripheral vision and carried on down the hall, turning left, then right as if lost. Once out of sight, she leaned against the wall and tried to collect her courage. You can do this. Confidence opens doors.

  Heart pounding against her ribs, she retraced her steps back down the hallway. With a scrunched up, confused expression, she stopped to scan a map of the floor. At least one of the men posted had noticed her. She could feel his eyes.

  After memorizing the number of one of the rooms they were guarding, she huffed and turned away. Ten feet away, she called out.

  “Excuse me? I don’t know if you can help, but…”

  “Sorry, miss. We don’t work here,” the shorter one replied, resting his hands on his belt. In any other situation, the movement would’ve seemed threatening.

  “That’s okay. Maybe you can help anyway,” she smiled back, making sure to stand closest to his partner. Kristine scrambled for an excuse, her nerves thankfully misinterpreted.

  The other man leaned closer and patted her on the shoulder. “Where are you looking for?”

  She met his dark eyes and looked away demurely as she pulled out a scrap of blank paper. “Room 454B.”

  The pair exchanged a quick look. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”

  Kristine could feel her meager hold slipping. She tried to pull out the big guns, however useless it might. “But it’s my father,” she half-sobbed. “I had to pay a nurse downstairs just to give me the room number and… and…” She took a deep, shuddering breath as if fighting back the onslaught of tears.

  The short cop looked at her with a mixture of pity and disgust. “I’m sorry to hear that, but we can’t let you through.”

  “I just want to see him,” she pleaded. That one is made of stone, but maybe I can get this one to soften, she thought as she turned her attention to the man with the dark eyes. “I need to understand why this happened. I have to hear it from him.”