The Altruism Effect: Book One (Mastermind Murderers Series 1)

by Kristin Helling

  That sounded all too familiar to her. “I thought I dreamed you too,” she whispered, astounded.

  “And I finally found you. And we can go back and find the Warden and save the others.” He leaned forward, resting his forehead on the mattress.

  She lifted her hand and brushed it over his ash brown hair. “How is this possible?” she asked.

  “I don’t have any idea,” he replied, lifting his head back up. “All I know is that there are so many people still trapped in that place. Even after the mutiny, I couldn’t wait to see if any of the others escaped. So if you’d like to help, I’ll understand if you don’t—I need to get to the bottom of this.”

  “By others, you mean Meg.”

  “She deserves what we achieved.” he said, “If she escaped, she’d find me. But… ”

  “But how will you find him? I heard the detectives out there saying they’d checked every building, he’s already fled. The prison is already gone.”

  A silence loomed between them, almost as though her words were enough to echo through the walls.

  “I have to find them,” he said. “Raine. Don’t share this with anyone else, okay? They’re not going to believe you. I’ve been questioned as well, and I’m not getting anywhere when I try and explain what’s going on. We both know what happened. We were there.”

  “Our perceptions?” she said.

  “Huh?”

  Raine thought about her training in psychology once more. She remembered the time she’d talked to a patient who was going through post-traumatic stress because of an abusive boyfriend. She was so close to having a breakthrough with the girl about turning the man in, because he couldn’t be tried without a confession from the victim. But the girl believed it wasn’t the man’s fault. She’d convinced herself that the bruises on her body were from falling down the stairs, and clipping her hip on the edge of the kitchen counter.

  Perception is reality.

  “You’re my perception,” she told Arie.

  “Okay, you’re tired. I’m going to let you rest. I’ll be back tomorrow, Okay? Hang in there. You’re tough. I’ve seen you in action.”

  She smiled at him. “Thanks.”

  “I’ve gotta go before they notice these scrubs are missing. I needed to blend in to get through those doors. Security is pretty tight down this ward.” Arie stood up.

  She closed her eyes.

  It all made perfect sense. She was content with her reality. “Tomorrow we can start planning that rescue, mmk?” She told him. Her eyes closed, and she heard the door to her hospital room creak before it clicked shut.

  THIRTY-NINE

  Raine lay on her side with her back to the door. It had to be well past midnight. She was exhausted, but couldn’t sleep. Staring at the back of her eyelids just brought images of the Warden and the horrors of the prison back to her. When she closed her eyes she only saw red—red from the fires of her car wreck, red with Troy’s blood, and the red of Megan’s hair. Red.

  She was anxious. She wasn’t used to being the one receiving the help. She wanted to get back to helping others. They promised she’d see her family tomorrow, and that was something that kept her hopeful.

  The thought of the prison being moved was haunting.

  The door slammed behind her and she jumped, heedless of the pain. “No, I’m not sleeping yet,” she said to the nurse, who probably came in to check the computers again. The door must have gotten away from her.

  “You must be exhausted,” the nurse cooed in a sweet, soft tone. It wasn’t her nurse in the purple lilac scrubs. But the voice was familiar. It gave Raine comfort and anxiety all the same. She winced as she turned in the bed to face the orange haired, fresh-faced girl.

  “Megan. How did you—where’s—” She couldn’t form any words.

  “Shh… Don’t hurt yourself now.” She walked over to Raine and stroked her hair back on her forehead. Megan was also wearing scrubs. She was clean. It was wrong.

  “Arie’s in-”

  “I’ve already been to visit him,” she smiled, radiating confidence.

  This wasn’t right. Raine had never seen this confidence in Megan. She was meek and submissive. And Megan was calm. She’d already been to visit Arie but he wasn’t with her?

  “What’s going on?” Raine’s voice was shaky.

  Megan walked down to the foot of the bed and pulled the chart off. “You’ve been out for a week.” she said, scanning the file. “Didn’t think you’d wake up.”

  “I want my doctor,” Raine demanded. Something wasn’t right, and the energy from Megan made her uncomfortable.

  The orange-haired girl raised her hands in the air. “Ta da! The doctor is in.” Her smile disappeared.

  “It did take a moment to find you. But after we allowed Arie to escape, we just followed where he led. We knew he’d find you.”

  Raine froze. We. What the hell is she talking about? Help! She tried to scream, but nothing came out.

  Megan clanked the chart back down on the end of the bed and rounded the corner to a cabinet attached to the computer monitor. She reached into the drawer and retrieved some latex gloves. She pulled them up on her delicate hands.

  Raine tried to move, but her legs were locked in place. She looked over at the IV drip. She could rip it out of her arm and try to run. “How did you get into the hospital?” she asked.

  “I work here.” She snapped the gloves on her wrists. “How do you think Allen had access to all the anesthetic?” She smirked.

  Allen. The Warden.

  “You were working together? You were fooling us?” Her voice was raspy, her throat sore.

  “Well not at first, of course. I told you I was his first. Two years ago. But then we fell in love.”

  She’s delusional was her first thought. She’d been manipulated by the Warden. And now Megan believed that he loved her, and she loved him. “Why were you so nice to me?” she whispered. She wanted to cry, but there was no time for tears. She needed to keep Megan talking; she needed to come up with a game plan. She was trapped again, in her aching body that was trying to heal. She was just as restricted as if the straps of the Warden were on her, here in this supposedly safe place.

  “Well at first I felt bad for you. I sympathized. I knew how you felt because I’d been there. But then, when I saw how Allen treated you it reminded me of myself. And… “

  “You were jealous?” She half laughed as she asked. “Please tell me you were not jealous. I hate that man! I wanted no part of-”

  “Shut up.” Megan’s voice was cold, and she pulled out the all too familiar syringe from the drawer.

  Raine pursed her lips, but was able to utter a muffled “Please don’t,” as she watched Megan hold up the needle and flick it with her gloved hand.

  “What are you going to do to me?” she asked.

  Megan smiled. “I’ll make sure you don’t feel a thing.”

  The familiar stench of chemicals wafted in. It was the same chemical smell that clung inside her nose when she woke up in the prison. The image in front of her blinked from the hospital room to the white walls of the prison intake room.

  If Megan won, right there in this room, right now, then it was over. Raine wasn’t about to become a prisoner once more. She was taking back her own life.

  As Megan grabbed her arm, Raine yanked her casted arm over, whacking the pale girl in the face. She staggered and Raine yanked the IV from her arm. She kicked off the sheets.

  In the midst of Megan’s surprise, she dropped the syringe to the floor. This time her fingers curled as she lunged for Raine’s throat.

  Raine rolled away from her, and braced herself for the hard floor of the hospital. It came quicker than she expected. She landed on her side with a grunt, curling into a ball before she moved. She rolled under the bed, towards Megan’s feet. “It doesn’t have to be this
way!” she yelled. She saw Megan’s feet shuffling, as if she was trying to decide her next move.

  “You don’t understand. I have no choice.” Megan kicked at her under the bed.

  Raine yanked her chin back to avoid the blow and blindly reached her hands forward, grabbing Megan’s foot. She pulled it.

  Megan fell on her backside. Her hands flew up to her head.

  Raine saw the clock ticking inside her mind. She used her good hand to slide herself out from under the bed, on the floor next to Megan. Megan was turning away from her to push herself up.

  The adrenaline was driving Raine at this point, and she jumped up and positioned herself on Megan’s belly. She shoved her casted arm up underneath her throat and pushed her chin up.

  “Don’t kill me,” Megan husked. “I saw what you did to—guard— “

  That statement partly gave Raine satisfaction, and partly made her feel terrible. Guilty that she was capable of something like that. “Kill you?” she laughed, and caught her breath as her casted arm shook with effort while she pinned the girl she once trusted to the floor. “How will we ever find Allen?” It was the first time she used his real name. She didn’t like it. “And if he was really in love with you, he’ll come back for you. But I know how narcissists are.” She used her other hand to put two fingers on the pressure point of Megan’s neck. “And now it’s your turn to live in an actual prison.” She applied pressure to the point she was taught in one of her many self-defense classes. It was enough pressure to make a two hundred pound man pass out, but not kill them. Megan was by no means two hundred pounds, but Raine felt the weight of the situation underneath her.

  As the girl stopped kicking, Raine pushed herself up on her wobbly legs and backed up, all the way to the door. The moonlight through the window shades cast lines on the floor, and lines on the face of the girl who has been imprisoned longer than any of them.

  FORTY

  Two Months Later

  Raine loosened her grip on the loop of the leash as she walked the eager Viona down the sidewalk towards the field of grass. She pushed up the sleeves of her blazer and took a deep breath of fresh air, with her face to the sky as they approached the field. She unhooked Viona’s leash and let her run into the dog park. “Good girl, Vee!” she cooed as she stood back, crossing her arms over her chest.

  She pulled her phone out of her purse to check on the time, just before she saw the tall, slender, ashen-haired boy walking two mutts towards her.

  She smiled the moment she saw him, and he returned the familiar boyish grin. “You look great!” she called out to him, hurrying over to greet him.

  The bruises on his face had healed almost back to normal.

  She’d just had her own cast removed, although her doctor made her keep the sling and told her to take it easy for another six weeks.

  “You do too,” he said, and hugged her with his free arm. “Where’s Vee?” he asked, looking around.

  “She’s the one with the tennis ball over there, keeping it from those other two dogs.”

  “Yup, takes after her dog mom.” He smirked.

  She playfully tapped his arm, and bent down to pet the straggly, spotted dog by her ankles. “Who’re these guys?” She asked.

  “I’m fostering them right now, but they both have so much energy, I thought I’d bring them to the Viona play date. Shouldn’t you get going?”

  She looked at her phone again. “Yeah, I don’t want to be late. Thanks for taking Viona, Arie!”

  “Anytime, girl. Have you talked to Marcus yet about double dating with me and Poppy?” He bent down and unsnapped the leashes.

  “Arie, you know we’d love to. I’m so happy you were able to meet someone that has as much passion for animals as you do.” She reached up and touched his arm. “It seems like you guys will make a really great team.”

  Arie smiled at her, side glancing over to keep an eye on the dogs. “Thank you. I’m happy too.” He looked up. “Ah, man. Doody calls!”

  She laughed as she looked over to see one of his foster dogs squatting.

  He waved over his head back at her, “Have a good appointment!”

  “Thanks. I’ll give you a call when I’m on my way back.” Raine turned and made her way to the train.

  She sunk back into the armchair and hugged her notebook to her chest. The smell of the lavender and lilac diffuser relaxed her further. The light purple walls were calming. It was like home. A woman sat across from her on the sofa. “So tell me about your day.” Raine smiled at the woman as she opened the notebook. “Would it be okay if I took notes, wrote my thoughts down while we talk? I can put it away if it makes you uncomfortable.” She leaned forward and motioned she’d put it on the table between them.

  “No, no it’s perfectly fine,” the woman answered, her voice soft. “My day has been great so far. I met a friend for coffee this morning. The person in front of me, who I didn’t see because she left so quickly after she got her coffee, paid for mine. Something that’s called paying it forward. Something so small, but makes such a big difference in the life of a stranger, you know? She’s not trying to save the world, but the fact that she made my day, and she didn’t even know me, it’s what humans are made of. I’m sure you can relate. Have you gone to see her at all?”

  Raine stopped writing and looked up. She’d told the woman about Megan. “No. My friend Arie has, though. And she’s still not talking.”

  “Have you concluded why the man you called the Warden did what he did?” she asked.

  “Well, based on my clinical training, he was your typical psychopath. He believed that what he was doing was for the greater good of humanity, studying human behavior. You know, he could have studied human behavior by just sitting in that coffee shop with you this morning.”

  They laughed in unison. The woman reached forward and took a sip from her ice water.

  Raine continued, “Instead, he took it to the extreme. He was resentful for being excluded back when he was in college.”

  “A very good lesson for not allowing things that happened so long ago affect your life now, huh?” she said.

  Raine leaned back in the chair and smiled. “Yeah, I’d say so.”

  “What about her—Meg, was it? Was she doing it for the greater good?”

  “No.” Raine sat back in the chair again and looked across the table at the woman’s ringlets, which sat perfectly at her chin line. Though they were in a professional setting, this was a woman she trusted. She felt comfortable sharing these details with her. And if it could help, the sharing was meaningful. “Megan exhibited another example of human behavior. Survival. Resilience. She did what she had to do to survive at first. But then, then she manipulated the manipulator, all in an effort to save herself. Megan’s motivations were not for the greater good of humanity. Megan’s motivations were fueled by her own sheer will to make it out alive, no matter the cost to others.”

  “Is that what you feel you did too?”

  Raine thought about it. “I’ve dedicated my life to helping others in spite of my own paranoia and anxiety. I am still a flawed human being, but I would have never killed Megan in my hospital room. And now she’s our ticket to finding and rescuing the others.”

  “It’s been two months. You don’t think that they’re gone?”

  “I do.” She said with regret. “Gone to a new city. Murdered at the hands of the narcissistic psychopath. I’m not sure.” She remembered what he was capable of. “Nobody can know. I just have to accept that it is not in my control.”

  “I agree. It’s not your fault.”

  She nodded at the woman. “Well thank you.”

  “I know you probably feel like you’re responsible for the others, but you’re not. I’m sure the authorities are working to find them. You’ve been doing a great job of getting your life back on track.”

  “Well I appr
eciate that.” She nodded at the woman.

  “I’m serious. You’ve come a long way, Raine, and I’m proud of you. I think you’ll be able to get back to doing routine things again soon, maybe get you back in the office with clients again. I’ll see you for your next appointment on Thursday, yeah?” The therapist with the curly hair closed her own notebook and put it on the table between them, then inched to the front of the sofa.

  “Thursday works,” Raine agreed.

  “Just make sure you check in with the receptionist on your way out, and she’ll get it confirmed for you. Remember, focus on those things that you do have control over. Live your life. Buy a coffee for the person behind you in line, and accept the free one when that person is in front of you.”

  Raine smiled. “I like that. Thank you, Doctor.”

  “Any time. Maybe next time you’ll be willing to talk about when you woke up in that prison. Tell me the story.”

  Raine nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Next time.”

  “Tell me Raine, I’m curious. Why did you decide to become a psychologist? Why did you want to dedicate your life to studying the human mind, human nature? Was it to protect yourself from what you feared? Was it because you couldn’t control your own paranoia and anxiety, so you wanted to see it in others, to see that you were not alone?”

  Raine contemplated the question for a moment. “I’ve always known this answer, from the beginning. It’s the same reason you chose to become a therapist.” She stood up and crossed to the door, putting her hand on knob.

  “I did it for the greater good.”

  THE END

  Want to know what happens next?

  Like this story, each book in the series digs up a psychological experiment from within the archives of our history. In book two, Raine Walsh continues her story, but you will also get the perspectives of two other characters: A tireless detective, and a killer that could be your neighbor.