by Sharon Sant
‘Yeah… why not?’ He put on a grin that was a little too bright. ‘That would be good…’
‘If you don’t feel like it…’ Maggie began, apparently sensing his hesitation.
‘No, Mum, it’s fine. I have to see them sooner or later. I’m ok, really.’
Jacob spent the afternoon with his stomach churning, wondering what he was going to say to Luca and Ellen. What could he say to them after all that had happened? Before he had settled on a course of action, they appeared at the door of his room.
They were holding hands. They looked good together, like a proper couple. Jacob tried to fight the disappointment; it was a feeling he had no right to. Ellen was wrapped in a fitted scarlet coat. In less than a year he could see that her face had changed; the features more womanly, more beautiful. Luca seemed taller, his voice was lower, his jaw a little squarer - on it the faint promise of stubble. Jacob felt as if the world had moved on and left him stranded. The delight on their faces as they saw him sitting up was hard for him to bear.
‘Hey you!’ Ellen smiled, taking her coat off and pulling a seat next to his bed.
‘God, Jacob, you’re like a one man soap opera!’ Luca grinned heartily as he took a seat next to her. ‘Everyone has been on about you at school. All the girls in our year will want to go out with you now, even with the weird eye thing you’ve got going on.’ Jacob gave him a bemused look. ‘You’re interesting now. I thought I might break my leg; see if I can get a look in.’
Ellen rolled her eyes. ‘You see - nothing much has changed with us!’
‘Nothing much has changed with me either,’ Jacob said with an ironic half smile. ‘I’m still in bed. It has to be the longest lie-in ever.’
‘Yeah. Some people will do anything to get out of exams.’ Luca reached over for Jacob’s fruit bowl with his old familiarity and pulled out some grapes.
Jacob raised his eyebrows and Luca grinned, and then popped three into his mouth at the same time.
‘Is your mum here?’ Ellen asked.
‘She went to the restaurant. Change of scenery… you know. She’ll be back later, and Dad’s coming after work.’
Jacob took a deep breath. It was best to get things out in the open straight away. ‘I’m sorry, Luca… for the fight and everything last time I saw you.’
‘Fight?’ Ellen looked between the two in puzzlement. ‘Did you two have a fight? You never said, Luca.’
‘What fight mate?’ Luca mumbled through a full mouth, purple juice dribbling down his chin.
Jacob stared at them for a moment, and then all at once he understood. He had returned to the start. Everything had changed from the moment he had saved his parents; his reality splitting into parallel timelines, and he found himself in the one that made him still good with his friends. He didn’t understand how and it didn’t matter. It was a small gift, the lifting of a burden.
‘I get confused still,’ he excused, ‘I’m probably remembering something a bit mixed up.’
Ellen smiled. ‘Well, I suppose we can’t expect you to be perfect straight away.’ Her face became more serious, ‘I guess it’s been really weird for you, all this. You’ve been away for so long…’ Ellen’s expression was troubled. ‘Are you really ok?’
‘I don’t know yet.’
Then, it seemed the mask of self restraint that Ellen had been trying to keep intact finally crumbled and she hid her face in her hands. Luca shifted in his seat, flapping like someone had been handed a live eel as Ellen relented to unashamed sobbing.
Jacob felt embarrassed that her tears were for him. ‘Ellen…don’t cry please. I’m really alright.’
‘I know,’ she stammered from behind her hands, ‘we thought… it was horrible… we thought you were…..’
Luca put down his grapes and patted a blokey hand on her shoulder. It was the best he could do. ‘We all thought you were a gonner, mate,’ he told Jacob more bluntly. ‘It was amazing really, the way it all turned out. If that police car hadn’t been chasing your dad, the driver wouldn’t have been there to pull you out of the water. And it was so weird how your mum and dad got out; neither of them could understand how they ended up on the road and you still in the car. And you’ve been here for so long, we thought… y’know…’
‘That they would turn the machines off,’ Jacob said quietly.
‘Anyway,’ Luca cut in quickly, not knowing how to respond to the facts that Jacob so simply stated, ‘the papers were full of it for a while. Even the accident investigators couldn’t work it out. I expect the police will interview you soon - unless they have already?’
Jacob felt a new thrill of dread. He hadn’t considered consequences, normal everyday Earth consequences of his actions. He had only been concerned with getting his life back on track, back to normality. But normal was one thing he could never have again.
Ellen dried her eyes on her sleeve. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got tissues?’ she asked weakly.
Jacob handed her a box that his mother frequently dipped into. It seemed that whenever there was a quiet moment lately, he would find someone crying over him, or skirting issues, or not saying things out loud. Luca’s direct manner was welcome. Jacob wanted to hear these things, decisions of life and death made in his absence. The truth would justify the actions he was planning to take.
With initial awkwardness out of the way, the conversation became easier, like old times. The laughter of the three could be heard ringing through the ward outside Jacob’s room. Jacob was happy, really happy, for the first time in a long time, for a shining hour that seemed all too short he was just Jacob again. It seemed horribly premature that the end of visiting time came and Luca and Ellen were ushered out by Christine. Jacob complained as they left, but all he got in reply was a severe look and a reminder that the much dreaded physiotherapist was on her way up to see him.
Eight: The Taming of Ioh
So many months of inactivity had taken their toll, even on Jacob’s previously healthy body. The simplest physical tasks took immense effort and concentration. Jacob had been warned by Christine, and the physiotherapist, and his parents - just about anyone who came to talk to him - that rehabilitation would be slow and painful. As if he hadn’t already guessed that much, he thought bitterly, after all, he was the one dragging around his useless limbs. But now, regaining his strength was more important than anything and he bore the torture of physiotherapy with a grim acceptance, pushing himself daily as far as he could bear. He was under no illusions - Dae or Makash would come for him soon and he had to be ready. He was more than a little surprised and slightly unnerved by the absence of messages or disturbances from either of them. In fact, there had barely been any activity since the last dream and the cryptic message from Dae.
Ellen and Luca now visited almost every day. On a couple of occasions, Luca brought guests - inquisitive girls from school whom he paraded in front of Jacob like prizes on a game show. Ellen and Luca had a blazing row about it, which she recounted to Jacob on a rare solitary visit one Saturday morning.
‘It is quite annoying,’ Jacob admitted. ‘Makes me feel a bit like a freak show, but I think he means well.’
Ellen pouted. ‘I mean, Katie Hardcastle. She’s not right for you anyway. All lips and hair and no brains.’ Jacob couldn’t hide his smile. ‘I know, I sound like your mum,’ Ellen said, laughing at herself.
‘No… it’s not that…’ He paused, ‘nothing… it’s just nice, that’s all, you looking out for me.’
‘You’re my best friend. Of course I do.’
Jacob had a sudden flashback; he resisted the urge to act on it. ‘Thanks. But I’m really ok. There’s no need for everyone to keep fussing.’
‘I’m not so sure. You seem different… like something’s weighing you down.’
‘I nearly died and spent ten months in a coma. I’m bound to be different,’ Jacob replied with more bile than he had meant.
‘Yeah… sorry.’ Ellen shrugged and pulled her coat from the back of her
chair.
Jacob put a hand on her arm. ‘I didn’t mean to be sharp, Ellen, don’t go.’
‘You sure? Maybe you’re a bit tired.’
‘I’m sure.’
Ellen folded her coat and placed it on the bed. She began to gaze around the room in silence, distracted, as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words.
‘Is there anything you want to talk about?’ Jacob asked carefully, sensing the tension in the room increase.
‘I don’t know. I’m just confused at the moment. I shouldn’t even be telling you about this, God, you’ve had so much to cope with that my problems are nothing.’
‘I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t want to know.’
His mind wandered back again to the boating lake in a time that had now never actually existed. Jacob wanted to know, but at the same time was afraid of what Ellen was going to say. An entirely unethical thought suddenly entered his head. He tried to dismiss it, but the idea wouldn’t be shaken. It was so wrong, yet so tempting. All the while Jacob was thinking, Ellen was talking, but he had stopped listening. And he had hardly noticed the doctor in the room, quietly scribbling on his chart. Even when the doctor reached for Jacob’s arm to check his pulse, Jacob offered it in a distracted, docile way.
Ellen had stopped mid-flow, clearly put off by the presence of the man in the room with them, and still Jacob hadn’t realised.
‘How are we today, Ioh?’
It took a good five seconds for the sentence to register. Jacob tensed; every muscle suddenly rigid. He looked into the face of the doctor, though he knew already. His eyes darkened swiftly, almost black with his hatred.
‘Surprised?’ Makash arched a sardonic eyebrow.
‘Get out, Ellen!’ Jacob hissed, his gaze not moving from Makash’s hypnotic stare.
‘I don’t understand-’
‘Just go!’
Something about Jacob’s manner made her obey, though later she found it hard to remember what it was. Hurriedly, she gathered her things and left the room. Makash watched her go with a sly smile.
‘There is no point in sending her away. Wherever she is, I will find her.’
‘Stay away from her!’
‘What do you think, Ioh?’ Makash made himself comfortable on the edge of Jacob’s bed. ‘Would you have found the answer you were looking for inside her pretty head?’
Jacob’s thought processes were almost too fast for him to keep up with as questions fired, one after the other. How did Makash know what he had just been thinking, yet Jacob had not had any warning of Makash’s presence? From his experience, it didn’t make sense. It was as if there was suddenly a loose connection somewhere - but how had it happened? He wished he could ask Dae.
‘Dae cannot help you now. His power grows weaker by the hour. Have you noticed that your power has also weakened?’
‘No,’ Jacob lied.
Makash laughed soft and low.
‘What have you done?’ Jacob pressed.
‘Have you given any more consideration to my proposal?’
‘I’m not coming with you. I’m not going at all, not with you, not with Dae, I belong here.’
‘I don’t think there is much you can do to prevent it.’ Makash studied Jacob as if he were some new scientific specimen. ‘Don’t you want your power back? Without it you are helpless to protect anyone.’ His cold tone was mocking. ‘Then again, you’re too stupid to use it properly. Why do you think you are here? You must realise there is no way you can win.’
‘What have you done to me?’ Jacob demanded, his pulse quickening, panic rising as a hard lump his throat.
Jacob grappled for the explanation. Access to his power was barred and it was obviously something that Makash was doing. Ioh’s power now matched that of Makash and would not be so easily dampened, so there had to be something else, an external influence. Jacob thought about everything that was done with him on a daily basis in hospital, things he never questioned. Then, as if a switch had been flicked, he knew; the answer was staring him in the face. And even as he reached his conclusion, Makash knew that he had worked it out.
Jacob threw himself out of bed in blind panic. With the tiniest flicking gesture of his hand, Makash had knocked him down, Jacob’s legs collapsing like a newborn deer from under him, and he lay sprawled across the floor at Makash’s feet. He struggled to push himself up onto his knees.
‘Tut tut, Ioh. You’ll make yourself ill,’ Makash sneered and placed a firm hand on Jacob’s shoulder.
Jacob looked up to see the door of the room open and Ellen return with the nurse.
‘Ellen…’
Ellen ran to him but Makash held a hand out. ‘Stay back.’ Makash’s hand left Jacob’s shoulder and grabbed his wrist, holding it fast. ‘He’s dangerous. Sometimes, the aftermath of a near death experience can produce episodes of psychosis.’
‘Don’t listen to him, Ellen!’ Jacob was pulling, trying to yank free.
Ellen wrung her hands, wavering, confused; Jacob scared her more than anyone else in the room, the black irises of his eyes blazing with an intensity that she had never seen before.
‘Nurse, I think we need help. Go and fetch another doctor,’ Makash ordered.
‘NO!’ Jacob struggled, twisting in Makash’s grip.
The nurse hesitated.
‘Quickly now,’ ordered Makash. She had no choice but to obey, and hurried from the room.
Makash turned his cold stare to Ellen. A flick of his wrist and she was frozen, her wide, fearful eyes suddenly unseeing.
‘Ellen!’ Jacob cried, reaching for her.
‘I’ll deal with her later. First, to scratch this annoying little itch…’ Makash’s long-fingered grip had an unnatural strength and he held Jacob fast as he looked down at him.
Jacob’s chaotic thoughts raced for a solution as he tried to wrench himself free. He called on his power but there was only an empty void. Where was Ioh? Makash started to squeeze his wrist, slowly, like a snake squeezing his prey. Jacob fought in vain the sudden drowsiness that took him. His struggles weakened; the light beginning to fade. His desperate gaze fell on Ellen, eaten by guilt, terrified that she was going to die and there was nothing he could do to save her. As his vision began to blur, he thought he saw Dae appear. No… not Dae, a pale ghost of the man… Already fading, Jacob had only the vaguest awareness of the pressure released from his wrist. The final images to imprint on his failing consciousness were of Ellen suddenly snapped back to life as she dragged a huge breath and the smoke-like form of Dae pulling Makash away, the two of them disappearing from his sight. Seeing that Ellen was safe, he sighed and finally let the blackness take him.
Nine: The Problem of Ellen.
‘I came as quickly as I could - what’s happened?’ Jacob’s mum burst into the room, hair wet and windswept.
Ellen clasped her hands together. ‘I’m sorry to call you away from your shopping.’
‘Never mind that. I’m glad you did,’ Maggie replied briskly glancing over at Jacob, now peacefully sleeping. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I don’t know… he was fine, we were talking; he was a little quiet…’ Ellen felt as though her memory of the event was incomplete somehow, but she couldn’t understand what was missing. ‘The doctor came in,’ she continued, shaking the thought, ‘and he just went mental.’
Maggie glanced at Christine, Jacob’s nurse, who was now in the room with them.
‘I wasn’t in here at first,’ Christine added apologetically. ‘Ellen came to fetch me. As far as I can gather, Jacob didn’t take too kindly to the locum doctor.’
‘That’s an understatement!’ Ellen said as her gaze flicked back to him.
‘Well,’ Maggie ran her hands through her wet hair, ‘something must have triggered him off. He’s usually a very sensible boy.’
‘To be honest, since I’ve nursed him he’s seemed that way to me,’ said Christine, ‘but we don’t really know how the accident has affected him mentally. We might n
ot know for a long time. The psychiatric team have yet to assess him.’
‘A psychiatric assessment?’ Maggie asked, her tone sharp.
Christine shifted uncomfortably. ‘Under the circumstances it seemed best.’
‘I know he’s been through a lot but I just can’t see why he would need something that drastic.’
‘It’s a precaution, that’s all.’
‘I suppose it is out of character for him to behave that way,’ Maggie conceded.
Ellen agreed. ‘I don’t think it’s like him.’
‘Ellen – exactly what happened? Tell me from the beginning.’ Maggie hung her wet coat on a hook behind the door.
Ellen quickly went over the morning’s events. She paused as she suddenly remembered a detail.
‘When that new doctor came in I don’t think Jacob had noticed him at first, well, he didn’t seem bothered until...’
‘Yes?’
‘Until the doctor called him by a strange name… not his name, he got Jacob’s name wrong. Then Jacob told me to get out and his eyes… his eyes were absolutely black and mad.’ Ellen looked so disturbed by the memory that Maggie and Christine could only stare at her in silence.
Christine spoke. ‘I don’t understand… what do you mean, his eyes were black?’
‘Haven’t you noticed? His eyes change colour. It’s one of his little peculiarities.’ Maggie turned to Ellen. ‘You obviously have. I’ve never seen them black before though - have you?’
Ellen shook her head.
‘Where is this locum? What’s his name?’ Maggie asked Christine.
‘I don’t know his name, I’m afraid. I don’t know where he is at the moment either. He went off a few minutes ago and I don’t have a pager number for him.’ Christine looked embarrassed at the lack of information.
‘Where is Dr Bowyer?’
Christine lowered her voice. ‘That’s who the new man is covering for. No one knows where Dr Bowyer is. He hasn’t been in to work, and nobody has been able to get in touch with him or his wife. To be honest, the new man...’ she paused.