“But I’ve never seen you before,” Jaden protested.
“That’s because you haven’t been looking. You’ve heard me. I know you listen to me. Mostly. Sometimes you ignore me and do what you want, which is always wrong.” Seth folded his hands and stared into Jaden’s eyes.
“I thought that was my conscience,” Jaden mumbled.
Seth snickered. “My advice is too good to just be your conscience. And I know too much.”
“Like what?” Jaden asked.
“His name. It’s Joseph. You can’t tell him you know it. He can’t know about me.”
“Joseph,” Jaden said. “Joseph what?” he asked. He felt strangely powerful knowing the name. Seth was right to tell him.
“I don’t know. I heard Sam call him Joseph the other day.”
Jaden scowled. “How did you hear it? I can’t remember Sam ever using his name.”
“Of course you didn’t hear it, you were sleeping. Someone has to pay attention while you’re taking a snooze.”
Jaden’s eyes widened in horror. “When did that happen?”
“I’m not sure,” Seth said. “It’s kind of fuzzy, but they keep you asleep for a long time. They always bring you back here, then they take you again.”
“Take me where?”
“I wish I knew. I don’t know what they’re doing, even I can’t see. But it’s something Joseph has been planning a long time. They were only just able to do it.”
“Why?” Jaden asked.
“Because he broke you. You do whatever he says.” There was no accusation in Seth’s voice, yet Jaden still felt disgraced. “It’s like I said before. You had to give in, or you would have gone insane. He enjoys hurting you.”
Jaden massaged the side of his head with his hands. This was too much. His hallucination told him Joseph was doing something to him, and he couldn’t remember what. The hallucination told Jaden he surrendered to Joseph to keep from going insane. Jaden thought that was ironic.
“I’m not a hallucination, I can prove it,” said Seth.
“Okay,” Jaden replied.
“The lights are about to come on. Three, two, one.”
The florescent lights buzzed and glowed their usual unnatural bluish-white light. Jaden looked up at them, then back to Seth, who grinned.
“See?” he said, smiling at Jaden’s look of astonishment. “Master Joseph is coming down,” Seth said, his face slackening.
“How do you know?”
Seth smiled. “I feel him. Like how you know someone’s sitting in the observation room.”
“But why can’t I feel him coming?” Jaden asked.
“Because he terrifies you. You’re afraid if you feel him, he’ll know. Since he can’t hurt me, I have no reason to be afraid. I hate him. What he’s done to you is monstrous.”
The humming of the elevator proved Seth right. Joseph descended into Jaden’s cell, smug as usual. Seth gracefully hopped off the floor and stood next to Jaden.
“He can’t hear me talking to you, but he might be able to hear you speaking to me. Say nothing while I’m here.”
Jaden watched Joseph step inside. He didn’t look like a Joe, or a Joey. Joseph wasn’t the right name for him. Just like Chad hadn’t been the right name for Dalton. The names were too common for men who kept a teenage boy captive several stories below ground.
“Good morning, Jaden,” Joseph said.
“Good morning, sir,” Jaden said. The word rolled off his tongue, like he’d been saying it for years instead of days. Seth was right: Jaden did anything he wanted.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked.
Why the pleasantries?
Seth leaned over and whispered into Jaden’s ear: “Just answer the question.”
“Yes,” Jaden replied.
“Any dreams?” he asked.
Dreams? No, something far stranger is happening, even as you speak to me.
“No dreams,” Jaden answered.
Joseph smiled. “Good. Well, it’s time to follow through with your punishment.”
Jaden shook his head, confused. He’d been punished enough. And punishment for what? Jaden cleared his throat. “I thought I had been punished for that,” he said.
“No, no,” Joseph said, smiling his little smile. “I told you I wouldn’t let you interfere with my schedule. I did what I had to do to get back on track, but you continued to disrupt and disobey me. You have to be punished, Jaden. I can’t let you get away with bad behavior. What kind of master would that make me?”
The panic was clear in Jaden’s voice. “I don’t understand why you need to punish me.”
Joseph put his hands in his pockets. “You don’t remember why?”
Jaden shook his head. “No, sir.”
“I told you to get off the floor, and you didn’t. Then said I would punish you for it later. Then you wouldn’t address me properly, for which I punished you immediately. You killed Hoganoff, and I addressed that. Do you remember now?”
It wasn’t fair. He’d done nothing wrong. “Yes,” Jaden said breathlessly. The incident to which Joseph referred seemed forever ago. Everything before Hoganoff was in a previous time.
“I’m glad. Now follow me so we can carry it out. You know you deserve it, right?” he asked.
Jaden tried to keep his face clear of any fear or anger. “Yes,” he said.
Joseph stood on the elevator and Jaden next to him. Maybe he should beg. Then he thought better of it. He wasn’t allowed to speak unless spoken to. Begging would be out of line and only make things worse.
“Well, let’s get on with it, shall we?” he said, directing Jaden to room D.
Seth appeared suddenly at Jaden’s side. “This will end. No matter how bad it is, it won’t last forever. You’re strong, Jaden. You’re a survivor.”
But those words didn’t assuage Jaden’s paralyzing fear as Joseph lead him toward a narrow, black metal cabinet against the wall. It was slightly shorter than Jaden. Joseph smiled proudly as he insert a key and opened the door.
“Get inside.”
Jaden stepped in, crouching so he would fit. When he looked for some kind of explanation, Joseph slammed the door and turned the key, locking him inside. It was completely black. There was no trace of light. It was a tight fit. All four sides of the cabinet touched him, and though he crouched, his head hit the top.
“Isn’t it magnificent?” he heard Joseph’s muffled voice. “This time the punishment fits the crime. It’s impossible to sit inside the box. There’s fresh air coming in, so don’t worry about suffocating. I’ll get you when I’ve decided you’ve learned your lesson. Goodbye.”
Jaden tried turning, but the box was too narrow. It pushed from all sides and from above. It was much too dark in here. His legs were cramped from crouching. His calves and thighs burned. He pushed his forearms against the door, or what he thought was the door, but it wouldn’t open.
He hyperventilated. It was like he was buried alive in a too small coffin. He squirmed, slamming his body into all four sides of the box, hoping to get a clue and find the front door. He couldn’t see anything. Nothing was this dark.
“Relax,” Seth said.
“I can’t. I can’t see, I can’t see!”
“Calm down.”
“Get me out of here. Let me out!” Jaden yelled, drumming his hands against one side. “Please, let me out!”
“No one can hear you,” Seth said. “Jaden, you have to wait this out calmly or you’ll give yourself a panic attack, or much worse.”
But the hyperventilating escalated.
* * *
Child Protective Services placed him with a family immediately after taking him from his mother. The McNeelys already cared for three foster children, all of whom were doing well. Jaden had no choice but to go. His mother was in prison. So Tricia and Scott McNeely welcomed Jaden into their home, gave him a room to share with another child, and promised to take good care of him.
Whatever good intentions Tricia
and Scott had, Jaden wasn’t ready to live with a new family. Remnants of his recent past haunted him when he slept. He dreamed of gun shots, screaming, the police pulling him away. Nightmares. They never changed and wrestled with his subconscious each night. Psychokinesis (then unnamed) was not, as it turned out, a singular event. He had no control over it, and strange things happened while Jaden slept.
When the house shook the first night of Jaden’s stay, the McNeelys assumed an earthquake. It was California, after all. But the second night scared them. The quaking floor was only a start; the shower doors in both bathrooms opened and slammed—Tricia’s hairdryer powered on and off without her touch—the windows in the kitchen exploded. Jaden was the only one who slept through the madness. To get him clear of the house, Scott shook him awake. When Jaden realized someone touched him, he woke, and Scott flew to the other side of the room, slamming into the wall and falling unconscious.
The house stopped shaking, the doors stopped slamming, the hairdryer turned off.
It didn’t take long for Tricia to realize what, or who, the problem was.
Tricia was not an overly religious person until that moment. For her, only one thing explained the bizarre and unholy things happening in her house.
With her husband unconscious on the floor, and children scared, she took action. While Jaden was paralyzed and confused, Tricia tackled him to the floor, praying loudly. She bound and gagged the boy so the demon couldn’t control the body or say anything. Her other children helped her take Jaden, who kicked and squirmed, to the coat closet on the second story. Carl, one of Jaden’s foster brothers, punched Jaden so hard it disoriented him and knocked him out cold. Jaden was shoved into the closet, door locked, knob braced from the outside.
When Jaden regained consciousness, he kicked and tried screaming, but could only groan. After a while, he slept. The nightmares were worse.
Suspicions confirmed, Tricia opened the closet door and kicked him in the ribs until he woke, then dumped a bucket of cold water on him to keep him awake, so the house could remain in order. Based on the frantic screaming of Tricia, her husband, and three foster children, the paranormal activities of the house had frightened them into a frantic hysteria.
They left him in that closet for two days, never letting him out to feed him, give him anything to drink, or let him use the bathroom. Jaden didn’t let himself fall back to sleep, afraid that if anything happened, one of the McNeelys would strangle and kill him. He probably couldn’t have slept if he’d tried; he was sure Tricia had broken one of his ribs.
Finally, on the third day, Scott and Tricia took Jaden out of the closet. They dragged him into a bedroom and tied him to a stripped bed. Jaden fought them, trying to get free so he could run away, but they stretched his limbs to the corners of the bed, which pulled at his chest, making the pain flare. Another window shattered as Jaden screamed.
“Stop it, stop it!” Tricia yelled.
A priest arrived.
Jaden stared into the man’s green eyes, silently begging him for help. Jaden’s face was streaked with tears, and his chest burned.
The priest stared at Jaden in horror. He turned to the expectant McNeelys. “Call an ambulance,” he said.
“But he’s possessed!” Tricia exclaimed, her eyes wide and bloodshot.
“He’s just a boy.” The priest untied Jaden from the bed, lifted him into his arms, and carried him from the house and into his car.
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” he said. He sped away, calling the police as he raced through traffic, reporting the McNeelys and where he took Jaden.
He spent three days in the hospital. They treated him for exhaustion, dehydration, and a cracked rib. The nurses came by frequently to check on him; one of them brought Jaden ice cream.
His story of demon possession and rescue made the local newspaper.
His social worker was fired, and the McNeelys were charged with child abuse. Jaden was assigned a therapist who specialized in severe cases. Jaden was six years old.
* * *
The incident left him with a fear of small places. His therapist, Anita, called it claustrophobia. Jaden called it misery. Since the closet incident, Jaden checked every small space and closet of every house he entered, compulsively worried he might find himself in one again.
This box was smaller than that closet, and shrinking every second. His legs burned, his back ached. He had to get out of here before his chest exploded.
“Please, let me out! Please!”
There was no answer.
“Help me! Please, somebody help me!”
No one came. Jaden didn’t know how long he was trapped inside the box. His legs and lower back were in agony, so sore they made him faint. When he regained consciousness, he wasn’t sure if he was truly awake, it was too dark. He must have been inside for hours.
He never thought he would miss Dalton, never thought he’d wish to see that confident smirk and those stupid ties. Dalton would have never made Jaden suffer like this. Granted, he made Jaden suffer some, but there was always a reason behind it. He was trying force Jaden to use his PK, trying to hone Jaden’s ability. He never tortured him for the sake of torturing him. Dalton hated punishing Jaden, Joseph was right about that. Dalton did think of Jaden as a pet, his favorite spaniel that performed cool tricks. Jaden had taken that affection for granted.
“Don’t cry,” Jaden mumbled as he shivered inside the shrinking box. Crying never helped, in fact if Joseph caught him crying, or found evidence of it, more punishment would come.
Jaden was exhausted. How long had he been in here?
“Help,” he said weakly, hardly hearing his own words.
“Shhh, someone’s coming,” Seth whispered in Jaden’s ear.
How can you fit in here? Jaden wondered.
“I have many talents,” Seth said.
Jaden heard a key inserted into the lock. The door flew open wide. Jaden squinted and turned his head away from the florescent light.
“Good, right were I left you,” Joseph said. He laughed.
Jaden felt himself slip forward, he was going to fall and hit the floor. Joseph pushed him.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Joseph said, grinning. “Not until I say you can come out.”
Jaden’s body shook. He was afraid he would fall. He gripped the sides of the box with his elbows, bracing himself.
“I hope you learned your lesson, Jaden. Do as I say, or I punish you. Did you learn that?”
Jaden nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said hoarsely.
“Very good. Would you like to come out now?”
“Yes,” Jaden said. His feet were slipping.
“Very well. You may come out.”
Jaden took a deep breath and took one step out of the box. But his legs were noodles and wouldn’t hold him. He fell to the ground. He tried pushing himself up again.
“Stand up. I’m only going to ask you once,” Joseph said.
Jaden crawled to the wall, turned his back to it, and pushed himself up. He locked his knees and leaned against the wall.
Joseph laughed. “Good! Now you’re learning. Stand there until Curtis comes and helps you.”
Jaden did as he was told, finding it a hard order to follow. Exhausted and hungry, he was ready to drop. In a battle between him and his heavy eyes, Jaden was sure he would lose. His stomach waged its own war with him, a fight of acute pain and rumbling ravenousness. It would be a while before Curtis came to fetch him, he knew that.
Joseph didn’t want to kill his favorite possession, so he doled out mental and emotional torture instead of physical pain.
“Hang on, Jaden,” Seth said. He put his arm around Jaden’s waist and helped hold him. “It’ll be over soon.”
“When?” Jaden asked sleepily.
“Much sooner than you think.”
Curtis escorted Jaden back to his cell. He lay down as soon as Curtis left, his legs thanking him. Sleep wrapped around him. Seth lay close to Jaden and encircled him in his arms.
Seth felt so real. The humming acted like a narcotic more than a lullaby, and Jaden slipped into a deep sleep, dreaming of birds in trees.
Lumps of time went missing with more frequency, replaced by the no longer mysterious appearances of Seth, who insisted the time for escape approached, without an idea of when. “Trust me,” was all he’d say when Jaden protested. But he was not annoyed by Seth. On the contrary, his presence was welcomed. Seth was a friendly entity who talked to and sympathized with him.
“That’s because I know you better than anyone,” Seth said.
“But how are you here? Where did you come from?” Jaden asked. Seth acted like Jaden’s idea of a big brother. The biggest problem was his existence. No one else could see Seth. He still maintained that Seth was some kind of hallucination.
“I keep telling you,” Seth said kindly. “I’ve always been with you.”
“But you’re not me.”
“Nope,” Seth said. “Definitely not you.”
“So you remember everything I do?”
“Of course,” Seth said.
“And you’re going to get me out of here?” Jaden asked.
Seth nodded. “I promise.”
“How?” Jaden whispered. “How will we get out?”
Seth’s face broke out into a wide grin. “It’ll be something small.”
“Small?”
“Yes. Something small. Something simple.”
Jaden frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s like how you hit Dalton. He’d forgotten to tell you to melt the ice, he was self-absorbed and didn’t think about it. It’ll be something like that. Joseph has you tied so tightly now, everyone around here feels safe. You don’t even make eye contact any more. They know you’ve been beaten, but that’s what’s good.” Seth paused to grab Jaden’s shoulder and give it a friendly shake. “That’s a good thing. They don’t know you still have some fight left in you.”
Enough time had passed for the ulcer to heal, but Jaden’s insides were always writhing with one type of sickness or another. He was constantly weak and tired, and wanted to sleep whenever he was left alone. He didn’t know how he was going to escape with the pathetic amount of energy he had. If he wasn’t sneezing, he coughed. He had congestion and body aches, chills, and headaches. Weight loss was an ongoing problem.
Jaden Baker Page 24