While in Solitary, Hunter had time – a lot of time – to think deeply about what she’d seen over the past few weeks. The secret rooms downstairs, the interrogations, the lack in security and the fact that Dr. Wolfe hadn’t been at his most murderous in days felt like puzzle pieces that were trying to form a picture, but all it looked like was one of Picasso’s famous paintings. Nothing made sense, but she knew without a doubt that something was distracting the doctor.
Hunter squirmed on the hard cement floor, staring at the blank walls and the shadow of the light in the silent corridor outside, and couldn’t get her thoughts to shut up. They were choppy like rough waters and didn’t make sense. She argued with the voice in her mind until she dipped in and out of consciousness. At one point she opened her eyes and saw a figure of her own self sitting cross-legged against the opposite wall. Only this figure was on fire, flames dancing lightly over her skin, smiling as though she knew something that Hunter herself didn’t.
You’re going crazy, she said.
“I am not,” Hunter replied, and her voice was hoarse. Her need for water deepened every time she woke up.
Then why am I here?
“I don’t know, to keep me sane?” She wheezed a dry cough. “To help me organize my thoughts?”
Go ahead then, lay it on me. You were thinking about that little black key, weren’t you?
Hunter rolled over and stared at the roof. “It was there the whole time and none of us knew about it.”
And now it’s gone.
“What?”
Well Dr. Wolfe isn’t going to let them anywhere near you, not after what Jet did. Your chances of ever escaping have just been minimized even more so.
“Great. And what about Dr. Wolfe’s secret downstairs escapades?”
I know no more than you do, her double snorted. But it would be worth a look, right?
Hunter stared at her. The flames were entrancing and made her sleepy. “If it means getting out of here, then yeah, it would definitely be worth it.”
What will you do once you get out? Go back to New York? Leave your new friends?
Hunter found herself dreading ever departing from the wonderful people she’d met in ICE. She longed to be with Will in the old quarters, to sit with the others at breakfast, laughing over Zac’s jokes or watching Fearne make strange pictures in her food. Despite her present company, Hunter suddenly felt lonelier than ever, and it was in that moment that she started thinking of Eli again.
Each time she imagined him, they were lying on his bed in the soft glow of his lamps, their legs wrapped around each other, their faces inches apart. Everything was warm and joyful. Eli’s glasses were slipping to the edge of his nose, but he pushed them up just in time. He smiled and a dimple formed in his cheeks. His fingers left goosebumps on her skin as he ran his hand up her arm, to her shoulder and her neck and then to her chin, where he guided her toward him and pressed his lips against hers.
But his lips were cold, colder than the cement floor on which her cheek rested. Tears spilled from her eyes and dripped onto the ground. It just didn’t feel real anymore. She was forgetting him, and every day she felt emptier and emptier and the only things that filled the hole in her heart were the things that distracted her. But there, in Solitary, she was alone.
Not completely alone, said her other self, and something inside Hunter squirmed with uneasiness at the look the girl on fire gave her.
Hunter fell asleep somewhere between that period, and in her dreams, something strange happened.
She was sitting in the dirty, empty aquarium in front of the giant blue tank where Rose and Halle danced. She watched them not with sadness as she had the weeks that followed Eli’s death, but with surprising numbness. And as she sat on the bench, someone came and sat beside her. Hunter turned and saw Fearne. The blue waters glimmered in her wide, knowing eyes. And somehow, Hunter wasn’t stunned to see her there.
“I very much like these dolphins,” said Fearne. “I’ve seen them before in your dreams.”
Hunter wrapped her arms around herself. “So this is another one of your gifts, right?”
“Dream walking,” she nodded. “Dr. Wolfe can’t stop it, but it’s harmless.”
“Can you talk to anyone?”
“So far, it’s just the people I’m close to. I talk to Will a lot in his dreams. Some of the others I’ve visited, but they don’t like it much.”
Hunter gave her a smile. “I like it. I’ve been a bit lonely lately.”
“Yeah,” she grinned, “I know what that’s like.”
“So, if you can visit dreams, does that mean you can find out what happened to Alfie?”
Fearne looked down at her hands. Her face was painted with sadness. “I can’t reach him. It’s like there’s something blocking his mind, a wall I can’t break down. I hope Dr. Wolfe didn’t…”
“I’m sure he’s fine.” Hunter didn’t really believe that, but she wanted to reassure her anyway. Lately Hunter had felt herself become very protective over the younger children at the institution. Perhaps it was a quality she’d never had the opportunity to use, having grown up alone.
Fearne reached out and put a hand on Hunter’s clenched fist. She flinched, expecting it to be cold like Eli’s lips, but it felt like nothing but air.
“You’re trying to do too much at once, Hunter,” she said softly. “Don’t feel like it’s your responsibility to hold us all up. With the fighting in the fitness room and rescuing us from Alfie… you’re too fragile to carry all of this.”
“Someone’s gotta do it, if not for you and the others, at least for the younger ones.” Hunter breathed a laugh. She’d forgotten Fearne was still a child too, but mature enough to be older than even Will.
“Someone does. But right now, you need to put the past behind you.”
Rose and Halle laughed and clicked and nodded, as if in agreement with Fearne. Hunter shook her head. “I have. I’ve moved on, I’m not even thinking about him anymore.”
“You can’t lie to a mind reader Hunter,” she said. “Just tell me what’s wrong.”
Hunter bit her lip. She wanted to be strong for her, for the others. She didn’t want to cry. But Fearne gave her hand another squeeze, and Hunter knew it was pointless. Fearne knew her now well enough.
“I didn’t give myself enough time to grieve for him,” she murmured through a clogged throat. “I had a few weeks after his death, and then I was brought here, and the only times I have even a minute to spare a thought for him are at night before I go to sleep, and in my nightmares. So much has happened since then that I’ve forgotten who he was without having moved on.”
Nodding, Fearne stood up slowly and walked towards the tank. There, she pressed a small hand against the glass, her breath fogging the surface as she watched the dolphins.
“You need to find peace,” she said.
Hunter wiped the tears from her cheeks. “How do I find peace when I’m stuck in hell?”
Fearne turned, her smile twisted to the side. Her green eyes were as bright as the water. She held out a hand to her. “Start here.”
Without a thought, Hunter took the young girl’s hand. Fearne pressed her palm against the cool glass and a wave of water washed through her. But it wasn’t damaging like ice, it seemed to cleanse her. It calmed the burning fire that was tired of being trapped. The water was refreshing.
But it did nothing to surpass the hurt she still felt inside.
“Sometimes it just takes a small step,” Fearne said in answer to her thoughts. “I know you won’t forget Eli, Hunter, and he won’t forget you. When someone dies, the love they give you will never leave.”
Something clicked in her mind and she stared down at Fearne in amazement. “That’s what you meant when you said to me ‘it never leaves you’, on my second day here.”
“Yep,” she beamed. “I may look mad, but it’s all up here.” She tapped her temple and giggled. “Just know that it’s okay to move on and to forget, because ou
r loved ones are always with us. And maybe… after you’ve moved on… you can make room for another?”
She fixed Hunter with a strong, meaningful gaze and Hunter blinked in surprise. Had Fearne noticed how much time she and Will had been spending together? It was true that Hunter had feelings for Will, but they weren’t feelings of love just yet. More of comfort and the need for a friend. Was that because she still loved Eli?
“Thank you Fearne,” said Hunter through blurry eyes. “And you’re right. It will take time. Lucky I’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Maybe not all the time.”
Hunter frowned at the gloom in her eyes, like a giant charcoal cloud looming on the horizon.
“What do you mean?” she asked, thinking of the time she saw Fearne torturing a scientist. “What does Dr. Wolfe have planned? What’s gonna happen?”
Fearne whispered something inaudible. It was as if someone controlling the dream suddenly muted her voice.
“What?”
“Now isn’t the time for that Hunter,” she smiled reassuringly. “Just remember this… you cannot truly find peace until you have said goodbye.”
With that, Fearne stood and backed away into the aquarium, swallowed up by the dark room, and vanished.
Hunter looked back at the glass, at the reflection of her dull, red hair and hollow figure from not enough food, at the bags under her eyes that were slowly turning her into a zombie like the others. But while her body looked weak and unhealthy, her mind was strong. Now she had a goal; to pick herself up, to not be that broken girl still hunted by the ghosts of her past. There were bigger things to fear, things that she needed to be strong for. People she needed to fight for.
In the reflection, a shadow suddenly appeared behind her. He had green speckled eyes, dirty blond hair and an innocent, perfect smile. He waved goodbye to her, and then he was gone.
THIRTY
Dr. Wolfe’s rubber gloves slapped over his wrists with a bloodcurdling thwack. Hunter stared up at him, her eyes near-blinded by the light from the overhead beam, and suddenly wished she was back in her solitary cell by herself, a steel door’s width from this lunatic.
“Welcome back, Miss Harrison,” he said cheerfully and picked up some gauze with metal pliers. “I trust you had a pleasant stay in Solitary?”
She always loathed his humorless small-talk, but found it better just to go along with it.
“Actually, I rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. And the solitude. I did miss the excitement though. Am I mistaken, or did I detect a roar coming from downstairs one night?”
“You’re mistaken,” he said sharply and lifted the protective mask over his mouth and nose. “It won’t be heard again, I can assure you that.”
A chill ran through her spine, a feeling she did not welcome back.
“For today, however, I’d like to show you some of the X-rays we took last week.”
He reached behind the steel table she lay upon and pulled on a lever, allowing the back of it to rise up like a reclining chair. Hunter – still strapped to the table – had a clear view of the door. Dr. Wolfe’s bright screens on her left showed a long succession of X-rays. Every single part of her body was on full display, all ghostly and skeleton-looking. Everything appeared normal, to her eyes anyway.
“Your blood tests are normal, well to your standards. I’ve come across some unusual toxins, however, which I have matched with Joshua’s DNA. I seem to find myself with an interesting number of unknown substances. Tell me, Hunter, when did Joshua get his hands on Feucotetanus?”
Hunter clenched her jaw and refused to meet Dr. Wolfe’s oyster eyes. So he knows about the drug. So what? It’s only half the formula, and even then, the rock is far more powerful than the drug alone.
Dr. Wolfe watched her closely for a moment, but saw she would not crack. He grunted something under his breath and continued.
“I came across Feucotetanus many years ago. The Swedish people are very smart, very well developed. In fact, most of the equipment we use was manufactured there. I had a sample of Feucotetanus, once. Now I wish I made multiple copies, because all the laboratories in Sweden were destroyed. Unfortunately the test subject we were using our last batch on escaped this facility and went into hiding. The drug was too much for his system and there was no way he would have survived more than a few days before it reached his heart and consumed him. Died of hallucinations, I assume. It’s a shame we never got to monitor his progress.”
Hunter was seriously tempted to spit on the man, purely because of his selfishness. But then suddenly, she remembered something. Joshua had said that her mother operated on a homeless man the night of the fire that killed her father. Was it too much of a coincidence that this man, the man who passed the drug on to her mother, who then gave Hunter her abilities that night when she was conceived, was the same man who escaped this facility? Was she really so close to New York?
Dr. Wolfe didn’t seem to notice that her thoughts were somewhere else, and continued talking. “This other… substance, I am unable to identify.”
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, she thought smugly.
“But what I do know is that whatever has infected your blood, it happened long ago. Around the same time that it happened to Joshua, am I correct?”
Hunter didn’t answer, staring at her rib cage on the X-ray board, imagining a hole like the center of the earth burning within her, volcanic lava oozing out. That was where the fire dwelled, the living fire that came from inside the stone. Ravenadium.
“And there’s something else I found.” Dr. Wolfe’s smile widened and crooked teeth protruded from within. He was very much enjoying this show and tell. “I think you already know, Hunter, that this substance – when combined with Feucotetanus in the right chemical mix – is what gave you your powers. When I separated the two, I found something fascinating. This other substance… it lives.”
Hunter started sweating. Blood throbbed into her head, reminding her of how dehydrated and hungry she was. It had been over twenty-four hours since she’d eaten. The lack of food was confusing her thoughts, and in a moment of panic, the same figure of fire appeared behind Dr. Wolfe, leering over his shoulder. Hunter stared at her reflection in fright.
He’s growing closer, she sighed, shaking her head down at Hunter. He tortured Joshua into revealing the secret, and all you’re doing is sitting there.
Hunter swallowed hard. He won’t find it.
What if Dr. Wolfe gets lucky? What if he stumbles upon the location, or even finds the samples hidden in Joshua’s lab? Would he try to re-create our powers? Would he use our blood samples to make more of us?
“It’s a marvelous thing, Hunter,” said Dr. Wolfe. “And I will find out what this substance is. By any means, I will find it.”
Hunter gazed in fear at her shadow self, hoping she had something encouraging to say, or at least a way to distract her as Dr. Wolfe started attaching electrode patches to her chest.
Protect our secret, said the fire, and the figure of Hunter melted away into the shadows, leaving her and Dr. Wolfe alone.
Hunter forced herself to the fitness room after a late lunch, because it was the only way she remained strong and not weakened from Dr. Wolfe’s surgery. Even if she felt faint, even if her body screamed at her to go straight to her cell and sleep, she wouldn’t. She allowed herself to cringe and walk slowly, but that was it.
Mosi, Marcus Will and Chantal were in the fitness room when Hunter entered, working on their combat skills under Mosi’s tuition. She heard Marcus hiss at the sight of her bruised arms from Dr. Wolfe’s machine, and the burning rage in Will’s eyes hit her like headlights from across the room. She stalked to the bench press and slowly lowered herself.
“You look like someone painted you with purple leopard spots.” Marcus poked one of the bruises on her right arm and she gasped and slapped him hard on the shoulder.
“Ow! You asshole, that hurt!”
“Jeez, I’m sorry. What the hell
happened to you?”
“Don’t ask,” she grumbled. “When did you both get out?”
“Only this morning,” said Marcus.
“Dr. Wolfe was merciful and didn’t call me in for surgery,” said Will with grit in his tone.
“Lucky you.”
“Guess you’re not up for a tussle then Hunter?” Marcus raised his eyebrows and nodded to the mat. “Mosi was just teaching me some new moves. I wish we had something more interesting to fight with though. Like targets or knives.”
“Hey guys,” called Zac from the door. He came in to join them, followed by Sammy and Fearne. Sammy’s smile widened at the sight of Hunter and he sprinted up to her.
“Hunter!” he exclaimed and threw his arms around her middle. She groaned and hugged him back as best she could. “Oo, sorry, are you hurt?”
“Just a little sore,” she replied. Marcus and Mosi went back to their training. Chantal joined them, mimicking their moves and nodding along with Mosi’s instructions. “Has Alfie come back yet?”
Will, Fearne and Sammy shook their heads. “There’s been no sign of him,” said Will. “Something tells me it won’t be anytime soon.”
“Alfie doesn’t deserve whatever treatment Dr. Wolfe is giving him,” said Hunter. “I know exactly what it’s like to not have control over my powers. It takes time to grow in strength and perseverance.”
“Maybe they’ll make him a bracelet soon,” said Sammy. “Maybe-”
The room was suddenly silent. The fight had stopped. Hunter peered around Sammy and her heart thudded at the sight of two Men in White in the doorway, staring at their group with menacing stares and rigid posture.
Embers & Ice (Rouge) Page 17