by May Dawson
“The plan is that you aren’t going to set everything on fire.”
I felt restless, thinking about my dream the night before and how Ryker had talked me through dousing the flames. I didn’t like the idea of going into any kind of a dream state without him there, now that I knew he could help me save myself. He could help me save us all, if my wild dreams swept me away against my will and I lit this place on fire.
But I wasn’t going to tell Parrish that.
She led me down the hall and unlocked a room on the left with an old-fashioned key in a brass lock. I crossed my arms over my chest. I had a bad feeling about all of this, and yet I felt trapped.
Not just by Parrish.
The dreams felt realer than life. I would feel the breeze slipping over my skin, hear the crunch of a leaf underfoot, inhale the scent of fresh pine and rotting leaves and soft earth. When Ash turned her face over her shoulder to look back at me, I always strained to hear what she had to say to me, but her lips always moved urgently without a single sound. And then the flames came.
As long as she was trapped, so was I.
We were in a long room, almost empty except for a folding table and a few chairs. It took my eyes a second to even make sense of the enormous metal cylinder at the very end of the room. It reminded me of a beer keg, but much larger; it was taller than me and probably ten feet wide. Or maybe it reminded me of an incinerator, actually, because there was a door in the front. A metal door with a hatch.
“What is that,” I asked, and my voice sounded dull, far-away, to my ears. I cleared my throat and tried again, with inflection. “What is that?”
“It’s a sensory deprivation tank,” Parrish said frankly. “It takes practice to tune out the real world while your inner-mind travels in the Far. Roxy knew how to do that. You don’t yet.”
I pointed at the tank. “I am not going into a giant metal coffin in a haunted house. I can guess the spoilers.”
“The tank is brand-new,” Parrish said. “It was never part of what happened here before you came.”
I eyed her skeptically. She wanted me in that tank—desperately—and that meant I had the upper hand here. As much as you can when you’re locked away in a hall for juvenile mutants, anyway.
“Why here?” I asked. “Why do you keep Ryker and Levi and I here?”
“Because it’s haunted,” she said. “And we want to learn how the three of you fight ghosts here as well as how you fight in the Far. Ad we want to see you work together.”
“This is all a big team-building exercise.” I said flatly.
“Something like that.”
“Why?” I said. “I get it, you want to see your sister. I certainly get that. But the building, the staff… why? Who’s behind all this?”
She hesitated. “Loneliness drives the world, Ellis. Loneliness and regret.”
I stared at her, waiting for the rest of that thought, but she stared back at me as if that were supposed to mean something.
“That’s a hell of a one-liner,” I said, “But I was thinking of a name.”
She smiled slightly, her lips curving up, and for a second I saw a flash of Roxy’s face in hers. It unnerved me. But the moment passed, and she went on. “Mr. Joseph. He’s the son of the CEO. He lost his pregnant wife years ago.”
“And that leads to all this…” I gestured at the tank, the hospital, the whole mess. “How?”
“He lost her to a demon,” he said. “Or so he believes.”
I nodded. “Maybe you should lock him up here, not us.”
But my heart wasn’t in it. Maybe demons did kidnap pregnant women. Nothing would surprise me.
“I’m sure he intends for this entire… enterprise… to end up making him a billionaire instead of a lowly multimillionaire,” she said. “But his real motivation? Well, Ellis, I think it’s as full of love and fear, as debased and beautiful, as ours. I think it’s quite familiar.”
There she went again, trying to make us the same. I turned and looked at the tank, my arms knitted across my chest. “How long will it take, do you think, until I can talk to Ash?”
“It depends on you,” she said. “If you go into the tank, if you start to learn to manage yourself… it could be a matter of weeks.”
Weeks.
“That’s a long time,” I said flatly.
“If you want to do this the comfortable way,” she said, “We’re talking about months. Years, even.”
“You said I’d get to go back to normal life. Like, this fall. College… all that.” But I didn’t believe it. Not when so much money was being spent to keep Ryker and Levi and I here. I didn’t think the company behind this all was going to let us go if they could help it.
My chest was growing tight with panic. My legs ached with a restless sense that I should run. Except there was nowhere to run.
“Eventually,” Parrish said. Her tone was kind. “Ellis. I want you to have a normal life. Like I want for my own kids. Or… maybe not normal. You’re probably never going to have normal. But happy.”
She seemed sincere, and that what made me chew on my bottom lip. I understood why Ryker and Levi didn’t trust her, but I did want to learn whatever she could teach me.
“Fine.” I said. “You didn’t buy me a swimsuit or anything, did you?”
She plucked a red-and-white plastic bag up from behind the phone on the desk. “You seem like a bikini kind of girl.”
Especially with Ryker and Levi around.
But I wasn’t going to voice my inappropriate attraction to the only other people around. I felt weird about crushing on not just the only two guys in sight—and two guys who were essential to my survival—but also on brothers. I was sure Ryker noticed the way it was hard for me to look away from the curve of his cheekbones, the golden flecks in his green eyes, the lushness of his lips in contrast to his hard-angled face. Which was embarrassing enough. But how much worse would it be if he and Levi knew that I also felt a tingle of attraction every time Levi wrapped his strong hand around mine? He was being comforting. He probably thought he was being brotherly and nice. And in response, I felt a shiver of longing, an impulse to lean into him. I was such a… well… trollop as Ryker had put it the other day.
Thinking about my crap social skills was a distraction from Dr. Parrish turning her back so I could hastily undress. I yanked the tags off the black two-piece and slipped it on, moving as quickly as I could. The cracked linoleum floor was cold under my feet, and I shivered as I folded my clothes quickly, tucking my underwear inside my jeans. I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling exposed and vulnerable and frozen. “You can turn around now.”
Parrish turned. “All right, Ellis. And I’m sorry for the chill in here, but the tank should be comfortable. Do you have any cuts?”
I stared back at her. “Uhh. You sent men to tackle me and put me in a straightjacket? And then left me in a house full of murderous ghosts? Now you’re worried?”
“The tank is salt water,” she said patiently. “To buoy you up so you can float without effort. But it does sting if you have open wounds, unless we cover them.” She held up a jar of Vasoline.
“No one likes seeing Vasoline in the creepy mental hospital,” I told her. I looked down at my bruised knees; there were wide black-and-blue bruises on the sides of my thighs, like Beefy or Burly had grabbed me there to sling me into the back of their van. The thought of my hot pink shorts riding up as their big paw knit around my thighs, when I was unconscious, my hair trailing across the grass, made my jaw set. But there were no open scrapes. “I’m good.”
“That’s up for debate,” she muttered, but without rancor. She swung open the door to the pod. “You’ll be able to hear my voice in there as I guide you into hypnosis. Besides that, it should be silent.”
I stepped up to the door of the tank. A shiver ran up my spine. The water inside looked cool and tranquil; a blue light illuminated the pod from the top. I glanced at her. “The light?”
“It’ll be turned off
once you’re floating,” she said. “Don’t worry, Ellis. I will be right here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I wouldn’t leave you to be drowned by the gray arms of the undead.
“The doors are warded,” she promised me, gesturing to the door she’d closed behind us. I glanced back. It was closed with a deadlock, I realized now, and that didn’t make me feel better. “The tank is warded, too. Look.” She pointed at faint, shimmering symbols. “We wanted to make sure there was no chance anything could harm you.”
“Except for the afterlife itself?” Given that I’d just seen three people die there in the video she’d chosen for this morning’s class.
She pulled a face. Apparently that was hard to argue with.
I blew out a deep breath. “All right, here we go.”
There were two steps leading up to the door to the tank. I sat in the doorway to the tank, carefully lowering my legs into the water. It was indeed warm, and I was surprised to feel how my legs were buoyed up, floating in front of me.
I let myself go, pushing my whole lower body out into the water. The water held me up, and I floated in the bright blue light.
“Can you hear me?” Parrish asked. Her voice came from a speaker above. “Ready for me to turn off the light?”
“I guess,” I said.
Darkness fell over me except for the light from the hatch. It made me feel claustrophobic, and I reached out to rest my hands on the hatch, needing to feel like I had an escape. But even as I reached for the doorway, I heard the soft clink of the hatch closing.
“Just close your eyes,” Parrish said through the speakers. “Relax, Ellis. Enjoy the ultimate bathtub.”
“I like candles when I take a bath,” I muttered. “Mood music. Maybe an audiobook.”
“Maybe next time,” she said. “Close your eyes. Relax into the water…”
She began to coach me into a hypnotic state again. I closed my eyes, feeling the panic ebb away, at least for now.
The sound of her voice faded away. I felt weightless. Free. For the first time in a long time, I felt my shoulders unkink as my arms floated by my side; all the stress I carried in my limbs drifted away.
I opened my eyes, and I could have believed that the deep black above me was space and that I could push off and soar through it. Was this what it was like for Ryker when he projected himself?
Fingers brushed against mine, but I wasn’t afraid. I knew who it was.
“Ash,” I said softly.
“El,” she whispered. “I’ve missed you.”
I turned my head to one side, but of course I couldn’t see her. “How do I help you?”
I could feel her amusement, the way I used to sense Ash’s laugh building before she ducked her head, grinning.
“How do I help you, crazy?” she asked, her voice teasing. “The living have bigger problems than the dead.”
“But the fires…” I said softly.
“I’m just trying to escape the monsters,” she said. “Don’t you worry about me. We’ve got two different adventures, and both of us are going to be okay.”
“You know there’s no way I’m not worrying about you.”
“I know.” Her fingers wrapped around mine and squeezed gently; I could feel the many chunky silver rings she always wore press into my skin. “Same here. Thanks for looking for me.”
“I have so many questions.”
“Me too,” she said.
And then suddenly I wasn’t weightless anymore. My legs kicked out, feeling panicked, and I tried to draw a breath, but my lungs were filling with water. I splashed desperately out in the tank.
Dr. Parrish’s voice split the darkness. “Ellis! You’re fine! Just float!”
But there was no air for me to draw in. I flailed in the water, trying to find breath. My feet kicked into the hard bottom of the tank. I pushed off, trying to break the surface, but despite how shallow I knew the water was, I couldn’t find a breath’s worth of air.
And then, just for a second, I saw Beefy’s face in front of me. He was grinning. And then he was gone.
The lights came up on the pod. The door was wrenched open. Parrish leaned in, wrapping her arms around me, and pulled me out. A wave of salt water came out with me, pooling across for the floor.
I choked, and she sat heavily, still holding me in her arms.
“Ellis,” she said, her voice low and urgent. “Just breathe. This is all in your head. You’re dry-drowning yourself. There is no water in your lungs.”
I tried to breathe, and finally, finally, drew a desperate gulp of air. I coughed, choked, gagged. And finally drew a real breath. One that filled my lungs.
You shouldn’t feel grateful for the barest scraps of human decency. You certainly shouldn’t be moved that someone doesn’t abandon you to drown in a haunted water tank. But I’d been so uncertain about Parrish. Now she cradled me in her arms like I was her own child. Her face above mine was taut with concern, and I could see the wrinkle lines at the corners of amber-brown eyes. My chest was tight with a gratitude that I could never express without sounding foolish. She brushed strands of wet hair back from my face and murmured soothing nonsense. It took an immense effort to push myself out of her arms, to flop onto my knees on the cold tile floor.
I wasn’t dying.
But someone was.
I was still gasping for breath as I stumbled to my feet. My lungs burned, and when I tried to ask her where Ryker and Levi were, all that came out was a croak. So I lurched for the door. I fumbled with the bolt.
Parrish was by my side, and I thought she was going to fight me, but she reached over my clumsy fingers and pushed the bolt open. She pulled open the door for me. I stumbled out into the hall, and she followed me.
“Ellis, what is it? How do I help?”
“Ryker,” I said, stumbling down the hall to where the warded door still stood open, instead of locked like it should have been if Ryker and Levi were there. “Levi.”
“Come on,” she urged. “You can lie down in your room and catch your breath. I’m going to make sure they’re okay.”
I wanted to say that if Ryker and Levi were hurt, it was because of her guys. But my lungs ached so desperately that I still couldn’t draw a full breath. I couldn’t run. I was no help to them right now.
She helped me through the warded door, squeezed my arm and then she ran down the hall, frantically checking each room. I could see her shoulders slump slightly when she looked into the door of their room, and she turned back to me.
“Just stay here,” she told me. “I know where they would have been taken.”
I shook my head, unwilling to be left behind. She met my eyes evenly, resting her hands on my shoulders. “Listen. I can help them. Those guys, they don’t really work for me. They work for Mr. Joseph. But I can stop them. Okay?”
I nodded. I bent over, my hands braced on my knees.
“You already helped them,” she promised me. “Let me take it from here.”
Then she turned and ran. I could hear the rapid beat of her sneakers as she turned the corner and ran down the unwarded hall.
I was still leaning over, trying to breathe through the pain in my chest like my lungs had been raked over with sandpaper, when I heard the sound of the warded door swinging shut. My head jerked up frantically.
Nurse Tom leaned against the door. He pressed the button on the keypad to engage the lock.
“Just us,” he said.
Chapter 11
I turned and ran down the hall. My legs felt like lead; my muscles, deprived of oxygen while I was drowning, barely obeyed my commands. I turned hard right into the boys’ room. I couldn’t smell fresh paint anymore; hopefully no one had cleaned up from the evening’s warding yet. I remembered how the duffel and the swords had been stored in the nurse’s station ,but I only had one chance now. I stumbled for the bed.
“Where are you going?” Nurse Tom asked. He closed the door behind us with a click.
I hit my k
nees hard next to the bed, as if I were about to say my prayers before bed. Instead I dragged the bag out. My hands were still clumsy as I fumbled through the bottles of holy water and boxes of salt, looking for the can of spray paint. My fingers closed around cool metal.
“Funny,” Tom said, “But you can’t ward off the living. You and those boys, you think you’re such badasses, but you should’ve heard how Levi screamed when we put that towel over his brother’s face.” He was closing the distance between us, slowly and steadily. Every footfall was ponderous, deliberate. He was trying to terrify me.
“You’ll learn to do as you’re told,” he said. “All of you. Why God above would give any gift to the likes of you—”
His body loomed above me. He was close enough to grab me.
I lurched to my feet, no matter how unsteady my legs were beneath me, and pressed the trigger for the spray paint. His eyes widened a second before I blasted red paint into his mouth and eyes. He ducked his head, trying to cover his eyes, and I leaned in, aiming the spray of paint down his throat.
He stumbled forward, blinded now, choking himself, and I ducked under his arm. He turned, raging, his arms wind-milling as he tried to catch me to pummel me. Wiping his eyes frantically with one sleeve, he tried to block me from the door.
“Let me go,” I said. “Or I swear to you, I’ll burn this place down and you in it.”
He looked towards my voice, squinting, but I was already moving quickly away, my bare feet soundless on the linoleum.
He tried to say something and choked instead, his body wracked with uncontrollable coughs.
My fingers were still curled tightly around the can. I took a few silent steps towards him and to one side. My hands were shaking. If he caught me, he was going to kill me. I didn’t doubt that. No matter how much I was worth to the company. That wouldn’t matter right now.