Mindsiege

by Heather Sunseri

  How about a surprise adventure? Kyle asked. I want you to come with me.

  Where are we going? I asked.

  It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.

  Is Jack coming? I’m not going unless Jack is going.

  Yes, I’m coming, Jack said. I’m going to help you stand.

  I surveyed the area around the fire pit. As in previous dreams, I could focus on where I was, but the figures in front of me were a little blurred.

  I pushed myself to my feet. Jack grabbed my elbow and helped me stand.

  “You have complete control of her?” Jack asked, like I wasn’t even there.

  “Yeah. I got her. The injection I gave her should render her unconscious for a couple of hours.”

  “That should be plenty,” Jack said.

  I giggled. “Listen to you. ‘Rendered.’ Nice big word.”

  Jack and Kyle traded glances, and I realized immediately that I wasn’t talking normally. But they seemed to shrug off my drunkenness.

  “Okay, let’s go.” Jack grabbed my hand and led me, not into the house, but around to the side and out the gate. Kyle walked close by.

  On the other side of the gate, we followed the fence along the neighbor’s property. The swings on the neighbor’s swing set blew in the breeze, the image fuzzy. The rusty chains squeaked against the metal poles. The sound echoed inside my head. With all of my senses heightened, I had to place my hands over my ears when the train whistled.

  “Are we going on the train?” I asked. “I like the train. We have to run fast to get on.”

  Jack narrowed his brows at Kyle. “How big a dose did you give her?”

  “She’s fine.”

  They talked about me as if I weren’t there. It kind of pissed me off.

  “Lexi,” Kyle said. “We are going on the train. Can you run fast?”

  “Absolutely.” To prove it, I began running in place.

  Kyle laughed, holding his stomach. Jack used his free hand to shove Kyle. “Knock it off. I don’t have to remind you what I’ll do to you if something happens to her because of your stupidity.”

  “Hey, this was your idea.”

  “Let’s just focus, okay?”

  Suddenly a light shone on us. The train was coming. “There it is,” I said. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  Jack tightened his grip on my hand.

  Kyle stepped beside me. “Okay Lexi, focus on me. We’re going to run together. When you pick up enough speed, grab onto the handle of one of the cars. When I count to three, you’re going to pull yourself onto the train.”

  “Got it.”

  The first car passed us. Jack dropped my hand and began to run. I followed, and Kyle brought up the rear.

  When we picked up enough speed, Jack grabbed onto a piece of metal sticking out from the train and hurled himself into an empty car. He reached out his hand for me, but my legs didn’t feel like my own. I couldn’t get enough speed.

  Lexi, I’m begging you, Jack said. Run harder. Grab my hand.

  Kyle ran directly on my heels. “Grab his hand, Lexi,” Kyle yelled. I reached out. Our fingertips touched, but then broke apart.

  Jack ran his hand through his hair, then reached out again. Come on, baby. Try again. Run faster.

  I lifted my hand again. The very tips of my fingers grazed his. Slowly, my entire hand made contact.

  He counted. “One, two, three!”

  I pushed off my feet, and Jack pulled at the same time. I landed with a thud right on top of his chest.

  Kyle landed in a heap beside us.

  “You okay?” Jack asked, smoothing my hair and eyeing the rest of my body.

  I nodded. It was so dark inside the train car that I could barely make out Jack’s face. “Why are we on the train, Jack?”

  “Don’t ask questions yet, okay?”

  Jack pushed up and moved to sit against the wall of the car beside Kyle. I sat beside him.

  “The night you helped us escape Wellington,” Jack said to Kyle, “you told me you couldn’t force Lexi to do something she didn’t want to do.”

  Kyle appeared to think about that. “I don’t know if it was so much that I couldn’t, but I wouldn’t want to. At the time, you both thought that I had tried to kill Lexi. I wanted you to know I wouldn’t harm her.”

  “Yet here we are,” Jack said. “She’s going to be so mad when she wakes up.”

  I reached up and smoothed the line that formed between Jack’s eyes. “Why am I going to be mad?”

  He touched a finger to my nose. “No questions, remember?”

  Chapter Eleven

  “I have a chai tea latte for you,” Jack whispered in my ear.

  I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow beside me, breathing in the smell of fabric softener. My head ached, and I wasn’t sure why. Slowly, I grew more and more conscious. I must have been exhausted the night before, because I struggled to bring myself out of the deep sleep I had been in.

  I returned to my back and opened my eyes, squinting against the light. Jack was the first thing I saw. I liked that. I smiled.

  Kneeling beside the bed, he was fully dressed in a navy polo and khakis. His hair was damp, and he smelled of shampoo. Lines formed between his eyes as he studied me.

  The events of last night scrolled through my mind. I remembered being by the fire pit. Jack held me. We talked. Not about anything specific. Not about the clones I discovered yesterday or about Jonas’s control over me. I must have fallen asleep, but not for long.

  I remembered voices waking me.

  I was dreaming. No.

  Kyle was there.

  The train.

  I studied Jack’s face again. His school uniform.

  As realization dawned, I pushed myself up and looked around. My smile faded. “Where am I?”

  “Lex,” Jack said, a warning in his voice.

  I narrowed my eyes. “What have you done?”

  Calm down, please. I did what I had to do.

  “What you had to do?” I pushed the blanket off of me and climbed out of bed. Still dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, I ran to the only window in the room and looked out onto… the front lawn of Wellington Boarding School. Closing my eyes, I lifted a hand to drill two fingers into my forehead. I let out a long breath and whipped around. He took a step backwards. “You brought me to Wellington?”

  I paced while squeezing the bridge of my nose. I had worked so hard to get away from Wellington, a school where I’d once felt safe and had hoped to graduate from. But everything changed when Cathy DeWeese turned it into a prison for cloned freaks.

  I stopped pacing and took in the room. It wasn’t a dorm room. A full-sized bed stood against one wall. Beside the one window were an armchair and a small bookshelf. It was cozy. “Where exactly are we?”

  “This is Coach Williams’s apartment.”

  “What?” I didn’t even know my swim coach—an ex-FBI agent hired by my father—lived on campus. That did make him closer to me, which could have been by design. For protection, maybe; protection I hadn’t even known I needed.

  Jack didn’t move from his spot against the wall. His eyes watched me carefully as I glared at him. “Why, Jack? Why did you bring me back to Wellington?” Did Jonas know I was gone? I searched my mind. Nothing. My pulse raced, wondering what he would do when he discovered where I was. When he discovered I was right where he wanted me.

  “You thought I didn’t believe you.”

  “That’s not a reason.” I felt the fire spread up my neck and onto my cheeks.

  “I had to get you away from Jonas. He was controlling you. He can’t do that here.”

  Uncontrollable laughter bubbled up and out of my throat. “Is that what you think?”

  “What do you mean?”

  I stepped up to him. I stood so close I could hear his heavy breaths. “Jonas doesn’t need to be close to control me, Jack. He can hear my thoughts, see what I’m seeing, and force my hand—anytime, anywhere. Not even the gates of
Wellington are going to keep me safe from his mind invasion.” Or from the other clones with a mission, according to Jonas.

  “Then we have to find a way to block him.” Jack reached out and slid his fingers between mine. “You block me all the time.”

  I did, but with Jonas, it seemed different. “That easy, huh?” I scoffed.

  “No, but we’ll figure it out.” Jack rubbed his free hand along the back of his neck. “Seth might be able to help.”

  “Seth. Good ol’ Seth,” I mocked. I definitely wanted to talk to him. Awfully convenient that the IIA just happened to be cloning humans so close to where Seth just happened to set up the original location of The Program.

  “What happened to me taking on a new identity and running so that your mom and other crazy scientists couldn’t control me?”

  Jack straightened, rolled his shoulders. “That was before.”

  “Before what?”

  “Before you took off yesterday, went all rogue on me, and held a scalpel to Jonas’s neck. Before Marci was murdered very near The Program. And before…” He grabbed my other hand and pulled me closer. “Before Jonas controlled your mind so fully that you were willing to come back to his house with him. I don’t think your life is in danger with him, but I think something strange is going on. And it’s forcing you to make decisions you wouldn’t normally make.”

  “I wouldn’t have cut him badly.” Would I have?

  “I’m sorry I doubted you.” He touched my face with the tips of his fingers, tracing the line along my cheekbone down to my chin. “It just didn’t make sense. He had helped us. The night of the accident.”

  “It wasn’t an accident, Jack. Someone drugged me and intentionally tried to run us off the road.”

  “I know.” Pulling his hand away, he stretched and closed his fingers into fists, then reached for the chai tea he had set on the nightstand and handed it to me. “I know we thought Wellington was dangerous, but right now, this might be the only place we’re safe.”

  “What about Georgia? Will she be okay?” We had just left her there with Jonas.

  “Georgia can take care of herself. She refused to come with us. She thinks Jonas is being controlled by a stronger power and is convinced she can help him.”

  Yeah, that’s what he kept telling me, but that didn’t change the fact that every time I was controlled I saw Jonas inside my head. “How did you and Kyle know you’d be able to get me out of there last night?” Jonas had said he would stay out of my head while I was with Jack, but I wasn’t sure I believed that.

  “Kyle seemed to think I’d be able to monitor Jonas’s invasion into your mind as long as I was touching you. I could sense Jonas there until you fell asleep. Soon after, Jonas went to bed, and Kyle came. We thought that as long as we kept you unconscious, we’d buy ourselves enough time to get out of there. Also… we tranqed Jonas.”

  I laughed. Served Jonas right. “How does Kyle know so much?” Until last Friday, I didn’t even know Kyle knew we were both cloned.

  “Kyle has actually studied supernatural abilities of the mind ever since he began entering people’s dreams. And when you were able to prevent me from getting sick the other day when I healed his burns, he thought maybe our connection was stronger when touching.”

  Made sense, I guessed. I nuzzled my face into his chest and snaked my hands around to his back, careful not to spill the tea. Our connection was strong, especially when touching. “Why didn’t you just tell me what you were planning? I might have gone willingly.” Probably, anyway. “You took quite a chance that Kyle would be able to direct my body to leap onto that moving train.”

  The muscles in Jack’s back stiffened. “I know. But I couldn’t have you knowing or thinking about any of it. If Jonas knew what we were planning… I just couldn’t take the chance that he’d stop us or hurt you.” He slipped a finger under my chin and lifted my face to his. Leaning down, he brushed his lips across mine. “I do want to know one thing. Why did you give Jonas a black eye?”

  I tried to look away, but Jack held my chin tighter. I swallowed hard. “He kissed me.”

  Jack closed his eyes. That’s all, though, right? He didn’t touch you in any other way?

  “No, caveman. Jonas kissed me, and I took care of it by punching him in the face.”

  “Why did he kiss you?”

  “IIA agents were following us.” I backed away from him, breaking contact, and took a drink of the chai tea. “He wanted to throw them off. And there’s some—” I started to tell Jack about the other clones and The Farm, but I couldn’t form the words. Something stopped me.

  Or someone.

  Jonas.

  Hi, Lexi. You can’t tell him, yet.

  ~~~~~

  “Are you ready for this?” Jack framed my face with his palms.

  Gripping the starfish hanging on a chain just beneath my collarbone, I nodded and said, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Just remember. You hold the power. Cathy knows what you can do. She’s seen it firsthand, but obviously needs you—needs us—or she and Seth wouldn’t have moved The Program from UK Hospital to Wellington.”

  “And she doesn’t know how much we know.” Especially how much I know.

  “That’s right. For now, we’ll keep it that way. Once we’ve read more of your dad’s journals, we’ll confront who we need to.”

  “So we’ll play dumb.”

  “And nice.” There was a warning behind those two words.

  “Why, Jack DeWeese, whatever do you mean?”

  After a lingering kiss on the forehead, Jack opened the door to the school’s large boardroom, down the hall from Dean Fisher’s office.

  Stopping just inside, I surveyed the people sitting at the table. President Wellington sat at the far end of the table. Beside him, Dean Fisher smiled, his expression warm and inviting. I had always gotten good vibes from that man. But today, everybody was the enemy.

  Kyle sat beside President Wellington, his uncle and only family member that I knew of. His lips curved into a smirk as soon as our eyes met. I’d deal with him and his crazy train-hopping later.

  To the other side of Dr. Wellington was his sister, Jack’s mother for all intents and purposes, Cathy DeWeese. Just seeing her made a chill skip down my spine.

  Where’s your father? I asked Jack.

  Still out of town, according to Cathy.

  As we walked closer and stood at the head of the large table, Cathy pushed back from the table and rose.

  “Sit down, Mother,” Jack said. He leaned into the table, his fingers spread wide against the dark wood. “I told you yesterday that Lexi would probably never set foot on Wellington’s campus again.”

  “I believe you said you wouldn’t either.” Cathy sat back down and crossed her arms.

  I glanced sideways at Jack. He shrugged. He hadn’t shared with me that he’d told his mom he wouldn’t return to Wellington.

  “Well,” he started again. “Things have changed. Lexi changed my mind.”

  I suppressed the urge to look at him wide-eyed again, for fear of undermining whatever it was he was doing.

  “Lexi changed your mind?” Dr. Wellington asked. “Was this before or after you bulldozed through my school’s new fence?”

  “Careful, R.W.,” Dean Fisher said, then returned his attention to us. “Let them talk.”

  “Lexi and I have returned to Wellington on a trial basis. We—”

  Cathy stood again. “You’re hardly in a position to tell us what you will or won’t do on any kind of basis.”

  Jack straightened, rolling his shoulders back. “That’s where you’re wrong, Mommy Dearest. I’m eighteen. And Lexi will be soon.”

  Dean Fisher motioned with his hand for Cathy to settle down. A very strange unspoken message transpired between them.

  “So, as I was saying, Lexi and I are at Wellington to learn. We agree to abide by school rules as we always have, but we will not be held prisoner. We will come and go as we please—as
we did before you added all the extra security.”

  “That was for you,” Dr. Wellington said. “To keep you safe, not to hold you prisoner.”

  “Good, then we shouldn’t have a problem,” Jack said. “The extra security is appreciated as long as it’s not used to hold us hostage.”

  Cathy squirmed in her seat. “Everything we’ve added… bringing The Program to Wellington, the extra security… that was for the two of you. And Kyle.” She gestured to Kyle, who nodded in acknowledgement.

  I cocked my head, eyeing Cathy. Did she not know about the others—Briana, Jonas, Georgia and Fred? What was Cathy’s motive in all this?

  “And, like I said, we appreciate it,” Jack said. He was good at the “nice” game.

  Cathy relaxed in her seat. She traded glances with Dean Fisher and President Wellington, nodding in some silent agreement.

  “So,” Dean Fisher began. “I guess neither of you have missed much school. A lot has happened since Friday night, though. Are you both okay, physically?”

  We looked at each other, then nodded.

  “One last thing.” Our heads both snapped toward Cathy. “You will attend all Program classes. I’m sorry that Friday night was a shock to you. And I’m sorry, Lexi, that your father was less than honest with you about how you were created… and what you were designed for…”

  My spine straightened and I stepped up to the table, ready to blast Cathy DeWeese for even suggesting that my late father was anything less than a perfect dad to me. It wasn’t her place to criticize him. Jack grabbed my hand and held tight. Just let it go. You’ll get an opportunity to say your piece later. We’re playing nice, remember.

  “…But if you’re here to learn, you will meet with Seth as soon as possible to get The Program integrated into your schedules.”

  Seth nodded, still silent.

  “Great. Fine.” Jack pulled on my hand and started to turn.

  We were just about to the door when Cathy spoke again. “Oh, and one last condition. For Lexi.” We turned. I gripped Jack’s hand tighter. My other hand clenched into a fist, anticipating what this woman might say. “I’m going to need your help with Sandra.”