Mania

by J. R. Johansson

  I gave him a quick shake of my head, thinking he’d misunderstood. “The others didn’t think they had anything for me either, but they were wrong. The information was buried somewhere they didn’t know they ha—”

  “I’m not like them, Jack. This isn’t the same situation. I’m sorry.” Mason was on his feet and moving toward the door.

  “No!” I grabbed his shoulder, trying to force him to face me, but he pulled away. “We aren’t leaving here. I can tell you know more than you’re saying, Mason. We saved your life. Parker did. He risked his life and saved yours, and you aren’t going to send us away and leave him to die until you tell us everything you know.”

  Mason wavered, closing his eyes and shaking his head. Finally, his shoulders crumpled forward and he turned away from me. His voice had lost all gruffness when he spoke again. “I don’t have your answers, Jack. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

  I shook my head, panic gripping my heart at the idea of getting this close only to have it all slip away over Mason being unwilling to listen. “How can you even know that?”

  “Because I do, okay?” Mason spun on me, but his eyes were guarded like he still was holding a secret. But what kind of secret? If he was a Builder, he could use the dream he created to craft a dream to hide his secrets from me … .

  So he wasn’t a Builder.

  Going into another Watcher’s void would be a battle for me … I’d have to fight him if I wanted to find out anything, both of us struggling to take control. At his age, Mason would have more experience, and that could give him an advantage. But where was the Builder who kept him alive?

  Which only left me one option—an impossible one.

  I shook my head and took a step away from him. “You can’t be … ”

  He whipped his eyes up to meet mine, obviously shocked by my words. I could see immediately in his face that I was right.

  I just didn’t know how it could conceivably be true …

  He moved back to his chair and settled into it again. I stayed rooted in place as I stared at him, dreading whatever he might say next to prove me right.

  “Your dad couldn’t hide anything in my dreams … because I don’t have them.” Mason inclined his head toward Chloe and finished, “I’m like her. I’m one of them. Type 1.”

  Libby scoffed behind me and I heard her mutter, “They’re everywhere.”

  Chloe’s eyes widened. I tried to process this information into something that made any sense. I’d never heard of a Taker living this long.

  “How?” I growled out the word, furious that he would’ve kept whatever was keeping him alive a secret for this long.

  “I helped your dad with his work for years. He spent so many nights studying my mind, Jack. He wanted to know why Eclipse did what it did. Danny tried to figure out how the connection worked between my kind and the Dreamers. He wanted the real answers to find the real cure he’d been looking for from the beginning.” Mason looked past me like he was lost in a memory. “I was the only one of my kind he could still trust. The only one he could know for certain wouldn’t ever share anything he discovered. Not until we were both sure it was the right cure this time around.”

  “Why would he believe you wouldn’t betray him?” Libby asked, a sharp edge of doubt tingeing her voice.

  “Because I was the one who helped him destroy Eclipse after he first created it and we realized what it could do.” He sank deeper into his chair and closed his eyes, with a frown so intense it looked like it might brand his face permanently. “No one should have that kind of power.”

  I repeated the only question that mattered right now. “How are you still alive?”

  “Helping your dad had some benefits.” Mason opened his eyes and gave me a tired smile. “We found some herbs and specific kinds of meditation that helped create a kind of hypnotic sleep. It’s helped prolong my life quite a bit … but even that can only help so much. It’s why I missed your earlier phone calls, actually. It’s gotten to the point that if I don’t do that ritual for at least twelve hours a day, I’ll be dead in a week.”

  Chloe’s mouth hung open as she looked at him. This information was pretty amazing to me … but for her, it must’ve been on an entirely different level.

  “But all of this just doesn’t feel like living anymore.” Mason moaned slightly and shifted his weight in the chair again. He saw the way I watched him, and grunted. “Look, I’ve told you all I can to convince you that I don’t have your answer. Only thing left is to enter my mind while I go into my resting state. See it for yourself, if you still don’t believe.”

  “No.” Chloe spoke up faster than I could, and it surprised me.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because if he’s really a Taker, it could be dangerous for you in there.” Chloe’s pose was relaxed as she leaned on the arm of her chair, but she looked at me with concern obvious in her eyes.

  “She’s right, Jack.” Finn nodded. “Isn’t overexerting an already-exhausted mind pretty much what made Parker become Divided?”

  “I’m tired, but I’m nowhere near Divided.” I spoke confidently.

  Libby ratted me out anyway. “He’s more tired than I’ve seen him in a very long time.”

  “The last few days have been rough, but I’m still fine. I’ve been through worse,” I said, dismissing her concern along with everyone else’s. We didn’t have time for any other options. And it really was the truth—it had only been a couple of days since Libby had healed me. And while everything I’d taught Parker about being in a Taker’s mind was from what Dad had taught me rather than from experience, I was sure I could handle it.

  Besides, even if I became Divided while saving Parker, I’d never regret it. Despite knowing what having your mind broken like that had done to my brother … and to Dad.

  Parker was my brother. I had to save him. I would save him. Completed formula or not, I would not let him die.

  No matter what it cost.

  “I’m ready.” I met Mason’s eyes again, and after asking Finn to wake us up in four hours if we didn’t wake up sooner, we both went into separate rooms and lay down. It was time to enter the mind of a Taker.

  And it was time to discover if Dad had really spent all this time leading us down a dead end road with no hope of finding the answers we so desperately needed.

  Mason must’ve beaten me to sleep, because there was no stop in the Hollow to ease me into the inky blackness where our minds merged. It was just straight into the dark, the air so thick it was nearly liquid. It pressed in on me, pressed down until I was struggling beneath it. Everything was pain and agony. It was hard to move or breathe or even think. Fighting against it was so much harder than I expected. It used parts of my mind I’d never had to use before.

  It took me some time to orient myself to the truth. Mason was absolutely a Taker, and he was right. There was no way Dad could’ve hidden the last ingredient in here. So how could I get myself out of this mess? I pushed out with my mind as hard as I could and created a little bubble of clear space to breathe in. It was so strange in here. It was exactly as Parker had described it.

  I tried to picture my dad spending so many nights in this awful place. Why would he? What could he discover here? What could he learn? I reached one hand outside my bubble, feeling the thick weight of the murky air. It just didn’t make any sense.

  Dad might have made mistakes … but he never would’ve come back here night after night with nothing to show for it. There had to be something here—some reason for it.

  And now that I was in here, I had to find it.

  I slowly released the bubble and let the dark, thick air rush over me. My first instinct was to panic, to feel like I couldn’t breathe and to struggle against it. So I fought that instinct. Instead, I relaxed into it. Trying to absorb it in different ways, to meld into it the same way I would a dream. I tried
to become part of the thick haze instead of trying to push it away.

  I was so shocked when it started to work that I nearly choked on a cloud of the thick air.

  Relaxing further, I tried to picture myself spreading out and becoming as thin as the smoke. I tried to imagine Mason’s mind opening up to me, and the air thinned even more. I reached out for the smoke, reaching my hands into it and picturing my dad being here. I pictured him floating beside me and doing the same things I was doing. It wasn’t easy, and it felt like it took a long time, but eventually he appeared beside me.

  I shook my head as my body vibrated from the effort. So Dad could hide his riddle in here. He always was brilliant.

  He sat in the dark mist and smiled at me before saying, “He who makes me doesn’t want me. He who buys me doesn’t need me. He who uses me doesn’t care.”

  My face suddenly felt wet and I wondered if it was tears, but when I brushed my hand across my face, I realized I was bleeding. Like Parker had … and it scared me more than I expected. I wiped it quickly away.

  “Say it again?” I spoke aloud, while also sending the thought through the dark mist into Mason’s mind.

  Dad repeated the same strange phrase and I knew this was one he’d told me before. I tried to focus even though my head was pounding and my nose dripped blood on my hand. I knew if my nose was bleeding in here there was a good chance it was happening in reality. If it was … then Finn might not give me the four hours I’d asked him for.

  “A casket!” I finally found the memory I’d been searching for and shouted out the answer. “It’s a casket!”

  Dad grinned wide and then reached out and pulled me into him for a hug. It stole my breath away and I hugged him back like I never wanted to let go. I knew he wasn’t real but I didn’t care. He looked, felt, and smelled like my Dad, and I would never have another chance to hug him like this again. I had no idea how Dad had managed to plant a memory this real in here, but he’d always known how to surprise me.

  “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered as he patted my back. “The last ingredient is blood from a Builder. You can do this, Jack. Now go.”

  And with that, somehow the planted memory of my father kicked me out of Mason’s dream and back into the early morning light shining in through the window. Back to reality … a reality in which my brother was still missing and possibly dead, and where I missed my dad even more than I’d thought possible.

  Twenty-Eight

  Parker

  I’d been back in my old cell for a little while, and even though my head appreciated the coolness and dimness, I missed the cot and blanket I had in the white room. When Cooper stumbled in, I opened one eye and was surprised to see that he was alone.

  He rarely came alone anymore. I never asked why. In fact, we never really spoke now; I think we were both too exhausted to make any kind of effort. If I had to make a guess about his usual entourage, it would be that the others didn’t ever leave him alone anymore. He often had at least Joey or the doctor with him, who were halfway responsible for keeping him upright.

  This time, Cooper pulled a syringe out of his pocket, and even in the dark I recognized the black goo they’d given me so many times before. I struggled to move away, so he brought in some guards to pin me down. He bent over and didn’t even bother with sanitizing anything before stabbing the needle into my arm.

  Perfect … because the conditions in here were so clean. If everything else they were doing wasn’t enough to kill me, then I’d get to die of some putrid infection.

  I didn’t even think I cared anymore. I just wanted it all to be over quicker than this. It had been a while since I’d done anything but ignore my hallucinations of Addie and Shawn. I’d started wondering if Joey’s help wasn’t actually just prolonging Cooper’s torture. The last time he’d brought me food, I didn’t touch it. I was too exhausted to do more than swallow a little of the water, anyway. He’d frowned but hadn’t said anything.

  Cooper got back on his feet, made it over to the door, and he and the guards left. I stayed there in the quiet, waiting for the now strangely familiar echoing of this particular medication. It usually took a few minutes to kick in, but they were giving it to me in bigger and bigger doses.

  My door had a strange sliver of light on one side that I hadn’t noticed before. That struck me as important, but I couldn’t remember why. I blinked a few times and then lifted my head to focus my vision more firmly on the door.

  It was still open. Just a crack. Cooper hadn’t realized it hadn’t shut tightly, and now he was gone and it was still open …

  I’d been waiting what felt like an eternity for an opportunity like this, but it took nearly that long to get my body up and into a standing position. I leaned against the wall, panting, willing my body to find whatever strength it had left and make one final effort.

  I had to get out of here, and I had to do it right now.

  Shuffling my feet as quietly as I could, I moved from the cell into the hall and shut the door tightly behind me so no one passing by would see it standing open and notice. I had no idea where to go from here, but I knew everyone turned right when they walked out, so that’s where I would go first.

  The first hallway was a little difficult because I was so dizzy and stiff, but by the second hallway I was beginning to loosen up. Getting my blood pumping a little was helping bring back some clarity.

  I spotted a chunk of brick on the ground to the side of a hall. It looked like it had fallen from a piece of wall that was crumbling a bit near the ceiling. I paused to pick it up, hefting it in my hand. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it was something. I had no idea where I was going, but I tried to keep track so I didn’t wind up lost in this seemingly endless maze. I turned right when possible unless it felt like it would take me in a circle.

  There were almost no people in this section of their compound. I heard voices once or twice, but I was able to slow down in time and wait for the people to go away, or take the hall leading the opposite direction. After what felt like my hundredth right turn, the medicine was really starting to kick in and it became impossible to keep track of my turns. It just felt like one echoing hall after another.

  My body kept moving without much guidance from me. My mind felt like it was floating somewhere above. I couldn’t think which way to go. I couldn’t listen for anyone up ahead. All I could do was keep walking and hope I’d get somewhere good eventually.

  Instead, I ran straight into Cooper’s back, sending us both sprawling across the floor.

  My body felt like someone had turned it on autopilot. I watched as I climbed slowly back to my feet and started staggering down the hall again.

  “How did you get out here?” Cooper watched me in confusion, huffing and panting still from the collision. I glanced at him and saw that his eyes were focused beyond me. At the end of the hall I saw what he was looking at … doors with outside light shining through them. Had I finally found the doors to the outside?

  Cooper got to his feet and jogged after my body, jumping onto my back and slamming me into the ground. My head hit hard against the concrete floor and the skin above my eyebrow split open wide. Blood started flowing down across my face, but still my body kept fighting to get back up.

  Floating above myself, I watched it all as if from a distance, vaguely thinking I should stay down. That would probably be the smarter thing to do. Instead, my survival instincts started running the show. I took the brick in my hand and slammed the sharpest tip into Cooper’s shoulder. He screamed out in pain and rolled off me. My body got up into a standing position, but then fell against the wall.

  At the end of the hall, the doors to the outside burst open and several heavily armed guards ran in. They stared at the scene in shock until Cooper yelled out, “Shoot him, you idiots!”

  They each unholstered their weapons and pointed them at me, but I didn’t exactly look threaten
ing as I slid slowly along the wall toward them. One of the guards grazed my arm and the other my leg. Being shot twice finally brought my body down, and I collapsed into a heap on the floor. My eyes were still open, but it didn’t feel like I was really here anymore. Everything felt so far away.

  There was a lot of blood and I was pretty sure I should be in pain, but all I heard were the echoes of Cooper yelling and cursing my name.

  Then Joey came running by and pushed Cooper off of me. He called for the doctor and asked the guards why they’d shot me. Cooper’s eyelids kept closing and he had to shake his head to get them to open again as he sat down beside my not-wounded leg.

  Before I faded out and lost consciousness completely, I heard Cooper’s voice coming through loud and clear, even though the words were barely above a whisper.

  “I should just let you die. Let you die like your dad has let so many of us die,” he threatened, and I honestly hoped he meant it this time.

  Twenty-Nine

  Jack

  As soon as I told Mason what I’d found in his head, he went to pack a bag while I ushered Libby, Finn, and Chloe out to the van. We got ready to head back to Parker’s house, to my lab in the storage room. Mason said he knew enough from working with my dad to help out with putting the formula together, and he even had adenosine, the first ingredient, on hand because he’d used it to help keep himself alive. We only had five days left, but … we’d find a way to make it work.

  Finn jogged over to me, and I stopped sorting the supplies in the van once I saw the grim look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

  “The safe house.” His words spilled out over each other. “Is it near Oakville?”

  I thought for a second, then inclined my head. Everything about his demeanor was making me nervous. “Yeah, it isn’t far from here, only about thirty minutes away. Why, Finn?”