“Oh my, you startled me, Tobias. I did not hear you sit down beside me.” Her voice broke ever so slightly as she talked. “How are you today?”
“Oh, not bad for an old man, I suppose. Are you looking forward to the Celebration Faith?”
She looked at him and answered solemnly, “Yes, I am.” As she said this, a single tear rolled down her cheek.
He put his hand on hers. “Yes, me too. The future is so uncertain at times. Some of us will finally find some peace and solace in the New Year and hopefully some of us will freed from the demons that hold us hostage and we can begin anew.” He looked at her directly, and as their eyes locked, they both knew that they both knew.
“This old man is looking forward to some rest and peace.”
This comforted Mama and she breathed a sigh of relief. She nodded at Tobias and stood up from the bench. She started to walk away and stopped halfway to the church to look back but Tobias was already walking away in the opposite direction.
Tobias wondered how many others like her were in the community. He remembered the day he and his wife had come here ten years ago. They responded to the newspaper ad that asked for retired, married couples to participate in a resort-style therapy research session. The research would take six weeks and they would receive $10,000 for participating. For two retired folks like them eking out a living on their pensions, the money sounded like a win-fall. They were assured that is was a non-invasive observation to study human interactions.
When they arrived, they were taken to the Clinic for a check-up. The next thing he knew, he and his wife Marge woke up in their little Hemac house. Marge was beside herself and was having an anxiety attack. She was throwing things about and asking for her father. Tobias tried to calm her down, but when she saw him she became even more distressed. She didn’t seem to recognize him. She started hitting her head with her fists and screaming” Stop it! Stop it! He felt very frightened and didn’t know what to do. He tried to calm her, but this just agitated her more. Before he knew what was happening, two men came into the house without knocking and went straight for Marge. The held her down and gave her an injection. Tobias tried to object, but at sixty-five years of age, he was in no position to try to stop two strong young men.
The next thing he remembered was waking up back in the Clinic. No one was around so he got up to find Marge. When he came to a little office, he heard some men talking. He paused to try to make out what they were saying.
“Well, we could just get rid of both of them,” he heard one man say.
He listened for another couple of minutes as the men behind the door debated. Tobias thought they were going to be banned from the study and not get their money until he heard, “Get rid of the wife and keep the old man. We will have to keep him here until the new memory implant takes effect.”
Confused and scared he crept back to bed. He was just about to get in when he was caught. He tried to convince them that he was just looking for Marge, but they didn’t care. They tied him down to his bed and wheeled him into a different room.
He is not really sure how long he was in that room but he figures it was at least a week. With no nourishment other than IV fluids, he lay in that bed and his own waste for a week. When they finally brought him out his flesh was raw from laying in his own feces and he was so weak he couldn’t stand up. When he asked about Marge, he received an electric shock or was beaten with a whip. This went on for what seemed like eternity. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he stopped asking.
They coached him on who he was now and with any sign of defiance to his new life or acknowledgement of his old life he was subjected to physical torture. They had no intention of trying medicine or hypnotherapy to alter his thoughts and memories. On him, and who knows how many others here, they were testing a theory of trauma based mind control. As time passed, any indiscretions were subject to an increasing level of trauma. These folks were not scientists, they were heartless monsters. Their torture tactics were inhumane. His crippled fingers were a daily reminder of just how cruel they could be. They weren’t deformed because of arthritis. They were deformed because they had all been broken and left to mend without being set.
Tobias would have gladly given in and let them kill him, but they always seemed to know just when to stop. Right at that point where a person couldn’t take anymore, but before their body would give up. They wanted to break people’s spirits, and they were very good at it.
He knew that Johnny had endured more than he was admitting, but what scared both he and Johnny the most was what they might do to Desire if they thought the medicine and hypnotherapy was failing on her. Knowing what these people were capable of, they both feared what they might do with someone as innocent and beautiful as she was.
Chapter Twenty Four
She heard him calling for her but she couldn’t see him. She was standing in the forest beside the creek. Following the sound of his voice, she wondered through the forest. The forest was much darker than usual. She looked up to find the sun, but all she could see was a grey sky. No birds chirped, no breeze blew and no wildflowers bloomed. She shivered as a wave of fear washed over her.
She started to run toward the sound of his voice. Suddenly, he stopped calling to her. There was absolute silence in the forest. All she could hear was the sound her own breathing.
Not sure where to run she ran toward his workshop. As she got closer to the edge of town, she noticed a putrid odour in the air. It filled her nostrils and made her feel nauseous. She covered her mouth and nose with her hair scarf, but it did not help. The awful smell penetrated her scarf and almost overwhelmed her. She knelt down, expecting to be sick, but it passed. She got back up and continued running. The forest floor became very dark and dusty and her feet and skirt bottom were soon covered with a fine black dust. She tripped and fell over what she thought was a tree branch. She landed face first in the black dust and as she raised her head up, she realized she had fallen into a mass grave. Surrounded by charred remains, the putrid smell once again filled her nostrils and, this time, she became physically ill.
She felt paralyzed with fear and horror. She tried to scramble to her feet, but the more she struggled to regain her footing, the further she seemed to sink into the ground. The dust seemed to consume her. By now she was crying so hard she could barely see. On the verge of giving up, she heard a tiny voice in the distance, “Bee Bee, please come home, I miss you.” It was the sweetest sound she could imagine hearing amidst all this horror.
She tried desperately to get up and run to him, but could not. As she tried to untangle herself from charred remains, she started to feel progressively warmer until the heat was almost unbearable. She turned her head and sawing a raging inferno slowly burning toward her. The flames became so close, she could feel her skin starting to burn. Just before her body was engulfed in flames, two strong familiar arms lifted her up and out of harm’s way.
She opened her eyes and she was back in the secret room behind the workshop. She was on the floor and Aedan was beside her, embracing her and planting kisses on her forehead. He was whispering that everything would be okay.
“Oh Aedan,” she said as she relaxed in his arms.
“What happened, Darby? When I came back from showing Sarah Jane out, you were passed out on the floor, squirming and crying. It looked like you were trying to kick something.”
The dream had felt so real, her skin felt hot. Was she having that meltdown that he had been worried about?
“Nothing, Aedan. Just a bad dream. Nothing unusual.” He helped her up and led her over to the couch to sit down. Aedan rubbed her back as they spoke about what Sarah Jane had told them. They continued to digest this new development. They never guessed that there were others like them in the community who had given into this charade to avoid retribution from the people who brought them here, let alone a person who purposely played along in order to stay here.
“Aedan, what are we going to do? I had assumed that if we could actu
ally escape from here, we would naturally go home to our families. I guess I was naïve. . I don’t think I really understood what the reality of our escape might mean. Sarah Jane made a good point. We don’t have any money, anywhere to go and no identification. We don’t even really know where we are! What on earth were we thinking?”
She looked at him for answers. Those answers plagued him from the moment he had decided that they needed to escape and he had yet to come up with a solid plan. But one thing Sarah Jane had divulged to them today, although vulgar and terrifying, actually gave him hope of a successful escape.
“Darby, before Sarah Jane came here, I couldn’t fathom how we would possibly get away without eventually being tracked down. I had a few ideas but knew they were tenuous. Regardless of what I had told you, I knew that reuniting with our families probably wasn’t going to be possible.
“Despite the unconscionable plan They have to end this experiment and destroy us, it may actually be the best thing that can happen in order for us to escape unnoticed. If they believe everyone has been reduced to a pile of ash they have no reason to look for us. That doesn’t solve the issue of trying to reunite with our families, but at least it opens up possibilities.”
Darby shuddered a little. It seemed a little morbid to her that they were happy about this latest development. It was sick and twisted, but it would also provide the cover they needed to get away undetected.
He looked at her and knew what she was thinking. “We cannot do anything to stop the chain of events planned to extinguish this community,” he said. “Any untoward action could get us killed and possibly worse. I have seen what they are capable of. We have one shot to get out.”
Darby sighed. “Aedan, my brain is humming trying to sort this all out. All of a sudden everything has come crashing back in my head. I know who I am now and I am not certain if that will make this easier or harder for us, but I do know that now—more than ever—we need to get out and if you told me to take your hand and run right now, I would.” She took a deep breath of defeat. “How on earth will I ever be able to pretend like everything is normal for a whole week?”
Aedan looked at her. He too felt overwhelmed at this moment and all the possibilities his mind was contemplating at the same time made his head buzz. But when he looked into her sparkling green eyes, it helped to soothe his anxiety. Pushing everything else aside, he focused on her right now. He stood up and extended his hand to her to motion for her to get up. He led her into the bedroom. She followed him without question.
They stood at the foot of the bed and began kissing feverishly. They clumsily groped each other to remove their clothes. Before long, they were both naked and groping each other roughly as if to confirm that they were real and not figments of someone’s twisted imagination. Darby winced as he caressed her. He stopped and looked at her. He gasped at her red, raw skin.
“Darby who the hell did this to you? Tell me.”
She lowered her head and whispered, “I did.”
He looked shocked and just stood staring at her. “But why would you do this? This looks so painful.”
“I felt dirty and was trying to scrub it all off.” There was nothing more to say. She felt dirty and used, and hearing Sarah Jane’s horror story had proven too overwhelming for her.
He embraced her gently and planted kisses all over her body careful not to hurt her. He picked her up and lay her down on the bed and gently entered her. She wrapped her legs around his hips and grinded her hips into his to feel him deep inside of her.
She pushed him over onto his back and straddled him. She rotated her hips and seemed to devour him. She moaned silently as she found just the right rhythm. Aedan looked up as his Darby, her long red curls bouncing around her. Her face was tensed as she found her groove and he remembered that look. He closed his eyes and lost himself in the pleasure of being inside of her.
It did not take long for her breathing to quicken and her gentle moans become louder and more desperate. He felt her force him deeper and deeper inside of her. With an almost violent shudder, her thighs tightened around him and she arched herself backward and let out a loud cry. She felt her body peak with pleasure for several moments, and when she felt a hint of its descent, she continued to grind and peaked over and over again. Aedan held back, letting his Darby revel in physical ecstasy. When he could hold back no longer, he let himself go and joined Darby in her blissful commotion. When she felt his hips shudder beneath, her she screamed out with pleasure. They moved together, intensifying each other’s rapture until, depleted of energy, Darby dropped like a rag doll on his chest.
Aedan wrapped his arms around her, cautious of her tender skin. They lay there for a while, still one, and didn’t say anything. They both wanted to enjoy this moment of bliss without reality creeping in to ruin it.
As Darby lay with her face buried up in Aedan’s chest, she closed her eyes and relished her newly returned memories of her Aedan. She remembered how they used to be. Their love was one in a million. How lucky was she to be in love with her best friend and have him love her back? She couldn’t imagine a life without him. Despite the trials and tribulations that may lay ahead, she felt a renewed sense of confidence that they would overcome all of them together.
As for Aedan, he couldn’t be happier that her Darby’s memory had been restored. As Desire, she was so naïve and not worldly at all, but now that she was Darby again, he knew her like he knew himself. He especially knew that the qualities that had, at times throughout the past, put her at odds with some people would be her greatest assets now. The Darby he knew was stubborn, driven and extremely intelligent. This was in addition to her being a raving beauty. Their families had always joked that she was a true Irish lassie through and through. She had never met a challenge she backed down from and he hoped that her true spirit had been re-ignited with the return of her memory.
Feeling exhausted and a little groggy, Darby raised her head. She looked at her love. “Aedan, I should go home now. I know we need to finalize our plans, but I am not certain I have any reason to meet with you in private anymore. Time is ticking and I have to know what I am to do.”
“Don’t you worry, I will find a way” Aedan reassured Darby. “I also need to examine the Celebration Hall and you need to dig deep down inside to find the strength and determination to behave as though all is normal. Watch your mouth, Darby and remember to speak as you have also spoken in Hemac. Any sudden changes in our behaviour will be noticed and I cannot have you go to that Clinic.”
Darby promised she would do her best.
On the way back home, Darby stopped to pick some vegetables. The mid-afternoon offered a blue sky and bright sun. As she walked, she mentally prepared herself. She had two people inside of her right now, and it was imperative that Darby hibernate and Desire remain dominant for now. She chuckled to herself a little bit. There was absolutely nothing funny about their situation, but consciously willing herself to switch back and forth between two very different personalities made her think that she had a starring role in a psychotic horror movie that was so farfetched, no one watching would ever believe that something so bizarre could ever really happen. And here she was, smack-dab in the middle of this very strange world and shifting rapidly as she had over the last few days from being a young girl trying desperately to follow the rules to a young woman trying to figure out how to break every rule and plan a grand escape into a lost world.
Why on earth did this have to happen to her and Aedan? They’d had such bright futures before all of this and now it seemed as though they would be lucky to have any semblance of a normal life. If they were successful in their escape, who would they become? What would life look like for them? Once upon a time, their future had been clear. Aedan was heading to law school and she would follow shortly after him, with hopes of being accepted into nursing school. They would marry, have children and live happily ever after surrounded by family in their small Irish community where even those who weren’t blood relati
ves were just like family.
As she approached the back door of the house, her thoughts shifted to “Mama”. What a sad tale she had told. It made Darby think that life was merely a series of moments and each and every encounter people had determined what the next moments would bring. Perhaps if Mama had of picked a different diner to go to when she arrived in the City, her life may have taken a completely different path and she would have realized her dreams.
Perhaps if Aedan’s family hadn’t spent those few minutes stopping for coffee and donuts that morning, there would have been no car accident. Although Darby’s memory had returned, the events of that fateful day remained fragmented. She could remember feeling excited about making the trip with Aedan and his family and also feeling nervous because, for the first time in their lives, they would be apart. They had spent almost every day together, not just as young lovers, but as best friends.
She and Aedan had sat in the backseat of his dad’s truck and his parents sat up front. Aedan’s younger brother had stayed home as he had to work that day. She could remember holding Aedan’s hand. The next thing she can remember is lying on the road with Aedan not far from her covered in blood and not moving.
Holy shit. Something had just occurred to her. What if Aedan’s parents didn’t survive? It was difficult enough to picture how their families must be feeling.
With endless thoughts and questions running through her mind, and a last-minute reminder to herself: I am Desire, she entered the house. She could hear nothing so she assumed Mama was still at the church. In a way, she felt relieved because it would be so awkward trying to act as though nothing had changed. She felt confident she could do it eventually, but she felt happy to have some time to herself, all the same.
Desire prepared the vegetables and peeled some potatoes and put them in the oven to slow roast. She then seasoned a small roast beef and slid it in the oven beside the vegetables.
Who We Are Page 23