Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1)

by Christopher Rankin

“Shit. I must be dying.”

  “It’s true,” Ann Marie went on. “I was wrong about that letter from dad that you threw out. I was mad but you’re my mom and it’s your decision.” She put her hand on her Lori’s shoulder. “I’m sure you have a good reason to keep it from me. It must be hard keeping secrets like that. I’m sorry you have to do that. I’m sorry you have to carry that burden.”

  Lori Bandini’s eyes were spilling over in tears. She tried to talk but she was too choked up.

  Ann Marie went on, saying, “We’ll forget about it. I won’t bring him or any of it up again. From now on, you’re my sole parent and that’s just the way it is. No more questions about it.”

  “Thank you, baby,” said Lori. She was sobbing.

  ...

  That evening, Ann Marie found Dade alone in his laboratory. He was working, with his full attention on something inside the fume hood. There was a look of brimming excitement in his face. When she got closer, she saw Bernard’s black syringe. Dade had the thing in a set of clamps in an attempt to take a sample.

  The black, oily contents of the syringe vibrated and made the entire clamp fixture shake. When Dade put his hand a few inches from the glass barrel, the stuff reacted. The liquid seemed to lunge for his fingers. When he waved his hand around, the stuff followed his movements.

  “What are you doing?” She asked. “Isn’t that the stuff Bernard tried to inject you with?” Ann Marie examined the vile stuff, saying, “I can’t even imagine what kind of horrible shit this is.”

  “I know,” he whispered like he didn’t want the black liquid to hear him. “But, it’s extraordinary. Bernard wouldn’t be so interested in something unless it had serious potential.”

  “Yeah. Potential for something awful.”

  “If I’m careful,” Dade said, “If I approach it with the right safeguards.”

  “You’re crazy!” She blurted out. “You can’t put that stuff into your body.”

  At that moment, The Sheriff interrupted. He was holding his hat to his chest as though delivering some kind of condolence. In a hushed voice, he said, “Dade, it’s time.”

  “I know,” he answered.

  “Time for what?” asked Ann Marie.

  “Should we just let her come?” The Sheriff asked.

  “I don’t want to hide anything from her,” Dade answered. “There shouldn’t be any real danger in it.”

  “I’m still bringing my usual twelve best guys,” said The Sheriff.

  The three of them took Asylum One on what ended up being a very short trip. When the truck stopped in front of a nursing home, Ann Marie looked very confused. When they all got out, she asked, “What are we doing here? I don’t understand.”

  They were met by the Sheriff’s group of soldiers, all dressed in black fatigues. The men were all armed with what looked like powerful, super-advanced cattle prods.

  The Sheriff told them, “Look alive, gentlemen! This is no drill. The package inside is running low on medication and she’s in an extremely unpredictable and dangerous state. Be alert and stay alert until Dr. Harkenrider is finished with his procedure. We’ve done this before and we know our goal. Let’s handle this like professionals!”

  When they got inside, Dade’s mother was surrounded by a halo of soldiers. Each of them had his weapon primed as though the comatose woman could leap up at any time. The men seemed so careful, like they were facing something far from routine.

  Elaine Harkenrider still looked to be in a vegetative state. She just stared off as though no one was there. Her skin was as pale and dead as a shed snakeskin. Her eyes were dried-out red and glassy. Her gray hair was shaved down to a buzz cut.

  “She’s in the process of waking up,” the Sheriff said. “Let’s be fast about this.”

  Dade brought out a syringe filled with a clear liquid and tapped the bubbles out.

  “Wait,” Ann Marie stopped him. “What are you doing?”

  “Putting my mom back into a coma.”

  Dade took a step forward with the syringe while the soldiers waited in anticipation. Elaine Harkenrider just stared off like a corpse. When Dade got close to her, he held the syringe up to the jugular vein in her neck.

  At that moment, his mother’s eyes came to astonishing life. She slowly turned her head and inspected everyone. Then she focused on Dade. She stared at him like she wanted to slit his throat.

  When Ann Marie saw the expression in the old woman’s face, it made her stomach twist. She even retreated back a few steps in alarm.

  “Give her the needle now, Dade!” hollered the Sheriff. “She’s waking up for Christ’s sake!”

  “Take off your sunglasses,” hissed Elaine Harkenrider just before he could plunge the syringe.

  “Don’t listen to her, Dade,” argued the Sheriff with mounting intensity.

  “Take off your sunglasses, my son.”

  Inexplicably to Ann Marie and the Sheriff, Dade lowered the syringe from her neck. Then he slowly slid his sunglasses off.

  “Dade!” shouted the Sheriff. “This is crazy!”

  When Dade’s glasses were off, his mother studied his face like a math puzzle. Then a crooked smile started in the corner of her mouth. In an unnaturally short moment, she was in the middle of riotous laughter. The old woman was laughing so hard that she was shaking her wheelchair. It went on and got more uproarious the longer she looked at Dade.

  He knelt down in front of her like he had no fear whatsoever. He said to her, “I’m happy you’re enjoying yourself.” Then he got the syringe in position to deliver the injection.

  At that point, his mother’s laughter became even more spirited. She hollered, “It worked! I can’t believe it worked!” She howled so loud that it shook Ann Marie’s chest. “It worked! It worked!”

  Dade didn’t ask her what she was referring to. He pushed down on the plunger of the syringe, rendering his mother’s body perfectly limp. Even before her eyes closed, the evil life seemed to drain away.

  “Damn it, Dade!” shouted the Sheriff. “Sometimes I just don’t understand you. One of these days, I’m gonna get rid of that god damned thing!”

  “It will be near impossible to kill someone as powerful as she is,” he objected. “Even in a coma. Something would go wrong. Something terrible would happen. The best we can do is keep her contained. At least she isn’t running around out there.”

  “Well, that’s just a god damned matter of time,” said the Sheriff. “That coven found her and they’re still out there. Do you even want to imagine what would happen if your mom got out and took control of a group like that?”

  “She would be worse than Bernard,” Dade answered. “Much worse.”

  ...

  Late that night, Ann Marie was looking for Dade and found him on the deck outside his lab. He was so deep in thought that he didn’t even notice her approaching. His face looked troubled and his eyes had the haunted quality that struck her when she first saw them.

  She stood with him in silence. The surf was so quiet that it seemed as though the entire Pacific Ocean had vanished. The starlight had an abnormal vigor. Below them on one side, the streetlights of LA twinkled and the insides of homes formed hazy specks. On the other side, there was just the black void of sea.

  She couldn’t get Elaine Harkenrider’s cruel, savage expression out of her mind. While she and Dade stood quietly, the woman’s face was still haunting her thoughts.

  “I think I’m having trouble now that things have calmed down,” she told him. “What I saw happen to you, what happened tonight, it’s too much. My head is spinning.”

  He looked at her warmly, saying, “It will stop spinning eventually. I know from experience.”

  “Are you OK?” she asked him.

  “I missed my chance at Bernard.”

  “They’ll be more chances.”

  Dade just nodded.

  “Where do you think he’s going?”

  “Only the
devil knows.”

  “Ivy and my mom are doing even better,” she told him, changing the subject. “They’re both downstairs in the hospital unit.” She considered something for a moment before adding, “Ivy is still in and out of it, but she keeps asking for you. In fact, that’s all she’s asking for.”

  “They’ll be much better in a few days.”

  After some hesitation, she asked him, “What happened to you and Ivy? You know, over there?”

  “We saw our conventional human lives. It’s what would have happened without...” He tried to search his mind for the right term. “It. Whatever it is Bernard worships. The parasite.”

  “I can see it,” said Ivy. She was suddenly standing in the doorway and looking at Dade. “The red storm in the sky. It used to be invisible but I can see it all the time now.”

  When Ann Marie looked up, all she saw was the usual blanket of stars. “Looks like the normal, regular sky to me,” she said.

  “How are you feeling?” Dade asked Ivy.

  “Better,” she answered. Her eyes were locked on him. “I was dreaming. I think I dreamt an entire life.” She took his other side by the railing. “It was our life. I miss it. I don’t know how you can miss something that never was.”

  “You can,” Dade told her. “Sometimes those are the things we miss the most.”

  Ivy gazed at him like just the sight was bringing her nourishment. For her, the moment was the most joyful reunion. While Ann Marie stood watching, Ivy clenched Dade’s hand and rested her head on his shoulder.

  Dade Harkenrider was now focused on something else, something above them in the sky.

  The sight of Ivy and Dade together made Ann Marie’s stomach wrench like it had just been pumped full of hot magma. She felt suddenly unwanted in a place that had come to feel like her first real home. So, she followed an impulse that felt like aggression. She reached for the fingers of Dade’s other hand and wrapped them up in hers. Ann Marie tried to pretend Ivy wasn’t there.

  “What are we going to do next?” She asked him. “That coven is still out there.”

  He didn’t answer because he and Ivy were staring at something above them.

  Their linked hands were making the thing in the sky show itself. The red storm glowed and churned like the three of them were looking up at the hot insides of a volcano. Underneath the glow, there was a glimpse of moving parts, strange structures like insect parts combined with the gears and springs from a mechanical watch. It was as though machines of all kinds had come together and stolen life.

  The red storm, the parasite scanned countless red spotlights over the entire city like it was filled with police helicopters. The red rays were beaming into everything. They invaded houses, storefronts, cars, alleys, men, women and children. The glowing parasite covered the entire sky from the Downtown LA across the ocean.

  While the three of them watched, Ann Marie felt like the eye of the red storm was staring down at her. The next moment, one of the shafts of light from the red whirlpool beamed straight down and into her heart.

  To be continued...