Between Two Minds: Awakening

by D C Wright-Hammer

  “Charlie, take the Kennedy out to the interstate and head west.”

  “No problem, boss.”

  “Now, back to my story. Don’t worry, Ryan, I’m just getting to the good part.”

  Ryan nodded in acknowledgement.

  I was still weirded out by the whole situation.

  “The detective and wildlife specialist began mapping out the killings—the wolves and the Indian. All autopsies showed that each one occurred roughly two days apart, but what was more telling was the geographical locations of them all. It turned out that they made a perimeter five miles in diameter with the body of the Indian near a major road. It was pretty clear that whoever or whatever was doing it was marking their territory.”

  The Padre lit his Cuban again, clouding up the car.

  Ryan began to cough, and in my peripheral, I could see him turn back to get a good view of the Padre. But it was the look on Ryan’s face when he faced back forward that was concerning. Still, I let the memory play out as the Padre continued his story.

  “The local authorities sent in a heavily armed group, including the detective and wildlife specialist, and they discovered smaller perimeters with more corpses—some animals but a couple of missing locals. Closing in on what had to be the epicenter, they were strategically attacked by small groups of not only wolves but wild dogs as well. Like an army sending out coordinated battalions, they were under siege for the better part of a day trying to push forward. Losing more than half their party and running low on ammo, the detective and wildlife specialist miraculously survived through the battles. But what they went on to find was nothing short of astonishing and horrifying.”

  The Padre cleared his throat. “The wolves and dogs were trying to stop the group from reaching a sinkhole that had opened up in a thick patch of trees. When the party tossed a flare into the sinkhole, a bloodcurdling growl-into-bark replied, sending everyone but the detective and the wildlife specialist running for their lives. They were left to discover the largest gray wolf ever documented. Standing nearly a meter and a half at the shoulder, with a jet-black coat, the hauntingly enormous beast revealed itself from the sinkhole with fresh, ruby-red blood on its lips. Without hesitation, the detective fired the last three shots from his revolver into the alpha male, but that only made him angry. He jumped five meters, pounced on the detective, and in one motion, bit completely through his neck, sending his head tumbling. That left only the horrified wildlife specialist behind to take on the nightmarish creature. In astonishment and terror, the wildlife specialist was paralyzed from shock as the monstrous canine bared down on her. That was where things took a turn. With her giant head, the mammoth wolf motioned the wildlife specialist to leave. It took a minute for her to overcome the shock and actually run away. It took her even longer to figure out what the hell had happened. The specialist was allowed to survive to tell others what she had seen and bring back more meals for the hell hound.”

  “Damn, boss. What happened after that?”

  “The country’s army was sent in to dispatch the beast. The only known specimen of Canis lupus giganticus was killed and brought to the wildlife specialist for autopsy. It was over seven feet in length and weighed nearly three hundred pounds, which didn’t include the fifty pounds of cow in its gut. But the most telling part was what they found in the sinkhole.”

  “Oh?”

  “He kept trophies of his human kills. The femur bones of more than thirty missing Indians ranging from the west side of the country all the way to the east where he made his den. The theory was that the freakishly large wolf got a taste for Indian blood and made his way across the country until he found a place where he could consistently get his fill.”

  As much as I thought he was embellishing the story, the last part rang a bell.

  “No shit, boss! The veterans that were in my squad in Pakistan used to tell the ‘Man-Eating Wolf’ story to new recruits trying to get them to piss their pants.”

  “Oh, it’s more than a story, Charlie. It’s the truth.”

  He cleared his thought. “So, what happened on the job you asked? As human-like as Canis lupus giganticus was, it had one big flaw. He underestimated his enemies and got complacent at the top of the food chain. To remain alpha male, that’s not something you can do. So, after I provoke buyers who renege on deals, I don’t stick around to see what happens. These buyers know where I stay, so it’s the perfect time to watch from a distance while they spin their wheels, and I handle other business. You always have to have a backup plan, Charlie.”

  I had to admit I was mildly impressed. “You’ve thought of everything, boss. Five minutes from the interstate.”

  “Thanks, Charlie. I’ll be messaging you the coordinates to our destination now.”

  Obtaining my netphone, I glanced at the coordinates before flashing them to Ryan. “Got it?”

  “Yes.

  The rest of the drive was fairly quiet as we made our way out of the city and toward the rural expanse. Plush forests lining the interstate illuminated by intermittent street and headlights were a welcome break from the concrete jungle to which I was accustomed. The small towns we passed seemed quaint, and my mind began to wander, thinking about what it would have been like to grow up in one of them—a place where everyone knew everyone else and all the kids went to the same local schools. I could feel an involuntary grin sweep across my face as I fantasized about a simple, rustic life without all of the urban complexities that had become normal to me. Then the smile slowly melted away as I remembered the true reality outside of the city. My musings were nothing but a romanticized version of years gone by. The problem in the country was the same as—no, much worse than—the city.

  Jobs.

  Decades ago, major businesses would prop up clusters of small towns in areas like the ones we drove through. Factories, insurance companies, tourist attractions, and the like would employ the majority of residents across miles and miles. The only alternative was to get a service job—food, lodging, and the like—to support those businesses secondarily. Regardless of their near monopoly on labor in those areas, it wasn’t enough. With very few exceptions, most of those companies moved in what became known as “The Great Corporate Migration,” to the cheapest places they could to set up shop—the South and other countries. They hired remote workers at minimum wage to handle as much work as possible while underpaying most of the skilled labor in the area since they were the only places within a reasonable commute. All of that left many of the major stretches between cities destitute.

  Random methamphetamine labs thrived for a couple of years until they couldn’t supply their product cheaply enough to the dirt-poor population. Hundreds of rail-thin, chalk-skinned, toothless addicts aimlessly wandered the countryside as their bodies slowly gave out. The old stories said that if you traveled far enough away from the expressway and turned off your car, you could hear the faint moans of meth heads dying. I had to physically shake my head to stop the morbid line of thought, and fortunately, we were close to the location.

  “Ten minutes out, boss.”

  “Okay, Charlie. Once you exit, you’ll make a right, and after a few miles, you’ll see the road fork to the left with construction signs saying that a road is closed. It isn’t.”

  “Got it, boss.”

  Leaving the interstate, I followed the Padre’s instructions. We cut through a heavily wooded area when the road split. Driving around the sign, I made a slight left onto a gravel road, and the fluid suspension of the car lent itself to a smooth ride.

  I looked at Ryan. “You getting all this?”

  “I am. Thanks.”

  After a winding half kilometer, we came to a small parking lot, and in front of us was a building under construction lit up by security lights across the top. There were already two other Cadillacs in the parking lot, and I drove past them so I could get the best spot next to the building. I got ou
t of the car and headed for the trunk to get the Padre’s bags, and Ryan, scoping out the surroundings, slowly followed.

  The Padre than emerged from the car.

  “What is this place, boss?”

  “Let’s just say a great mind is a terrible thing to waste on a bad body.” He headed into the building.

  Ryan swung around and pointed at the custom sign for the company that owned the building as he read, “Oceanic Laboratories: Where Dreams Become a Reality.”

  Suddenly, time stood still for everyone but him and me.

  “I figured it out, Charlie!”

  “What is it?”

  “I know where the Padre is in my…time.”

  “He’s still alive?”

  “Yes. I met two people in Marktown. One of them was a man with pictures of an old dog. A dog named Ruby just like the Padre’s ring! The Padre must have mind migrated into the man’s body after his plea deal.”

  “Whoa, he mind what?”

  Ryan pointed to the building in front of us. “This place was the first to try putting the mind of one person into a different body. I always heard stories about how they failed with humans and scary stuff happened. Now I don’t know what to believe.”

  I couldn’t stop my eyebrow from going up when I began to connect the dots. “This mind…migration. Is that how you ended up in my body?”

  Ryan nodded. “Like I said, there’s a lot for us to discuss. Right now, I just need to know how to go after the Padre.”

  Looking Ryan up and down, I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea even if he was in my body. “From what I know, you don’t seem like the ‘going after’ type. Weren’t you in a wheelchair?”

  “Yes, but I’m hoping your…abilities will help with that. Maybe you can even teach me.”

  A sigh forced itself out of me, and I knew that as much as I wanted to mentor Ryan in all things stealth and combat, it didn’t feel right knowing what I knew about him…about us. “Before we do that, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Ryan shook his head. “What’s more important than catching the Padre?”

  “Trust me, you’re going to want to know this.”

  “Okay.”

  I cleared my throat, and as I searched for the right words to say to Ryan, tears welled up in my eyes. “Since I became aware of my thoughts again, it seems like vengeance is all I’ve known. But the last thing I want is for you to get hurt for me, without knowing everything. Before you make any rash decisions about the Padre, I need to share something with you—something that recently became clear to me. I need you to know who I really am.”

  Ryan’s puzzled expression broke into one of more confidence as he responded, “I know you, Charlie. I know everything about you.”

  “That’s the thing. You don’t. What I am about to tell you—show you—has been buried in my mind as deeply as I could put it. I think the best way to communicate it to you is through a letter I wrote while I was in jail. It contained everything I wanted to say to the person I wronged the most in my life. It’s important to me that you hear it before you decide what you’re going to do.”

  Again, confusion overcame Ryan’s face. “Okay, Charlie. Let’s hear the letter.”

  As I pinpointed the memory in my mind, Ryan and I were whisked away from the building parking lot in a blur and reappeared together in my holding cell. Sitting on the edge of my bed with a pen in my shaking left hand, I began writing the letter on a small table. The shame from that moment was still fresh in my mind. As disappointed in myself as I felt writing it, I felt even worse reading it to someone close to me. Each word was more and more painful, but I knew it all needed to come out, so I persevered.

  “Words will never be able to convey just how sorry I am. Hurting you is one of the biggest regrets of my life, and I am certain that me rotting in a cell for the rest of my life or even getting the death penalty will bring you very little solace. As far as people go, I know that I am as low as they come. It only makes sense that you would have these thoughts, and I am here to tell you that they are valid.

  “You may be looking for some kind of explanation for why it all happened. I could go into the details about my childhood and how I was mistreated starting at an early age. But I know it’s a tired story that you will have no concern for. I could bring up all of the traumatic experiences I had while serving in the military where I saw countless dead bodies of people I knew. Though I know it doesn’t excuse what I have done. The line of work that I chose was always meant to be temporary. I just wanted to make enough money to get by, and then I would quit. But as each job came and went, I had to dig deeper and deeper to compromise my morals. Sure, I didn’t get involved in the shadiest aspects of the work, but I knew. I knew what I was part of. I knew that I played a vital role in a horribly corrupt operation, and I kept on enabling it until it was too late.

  “In a twisted way, it’s fitting that I finally paid the price on the day that I decided to quit. However, it shames me more than anything that others were hurt in the process. If I could do it all over, I would have stayed working the backbreaking line job I had, and would have been content to barely make ends meet even if that would have made things tough at home.

  “In closing, I want to let you know that I have tortured myself enough these last few months so that there is only one more logical thing for me to do. I’m going to give you the thing that you undoubtedly seek and unquestionably deserve. By the time you read this letter, you will have justice, and the world will be a better place. Sincerely, Charles Rios.”

  “Charlie, I know you felt like you let Sarah and the kids down. I was there for all of that.”

  “No, Ryan. That letter wasn’t to Sarah.”

  In an instant, I queued up the memory of that fateful day. I was at the wheel, Ryan was in the passenger seat, and we had just gotten away from the other black Cadillacs chasing us. I eyed my mirror, and it seemed like I had lost them. I turned completely around to be sure they were nowhere in sight. Exhaling hard, I thought that I might actually have gotten away until I finally turned back around.

  “Charlie! Watch out!”

  Slamming on the brakes, I was too late.

  Crash!

  Waking up on a stretcher, I was being wheeled along the side of the road with Ryan walking by my side. As I was being lifted into the ambulance, Ryan and I caught a good glimpse of the parked car. It was totaled so bad that it was difficult to tell if it was green or gray. Then a cold feeling washed over me as I peered down to see a pool of blood below the wreckage.

  Someone was in that damned car!

  Immediately after that heartbreaking realization, screaming came from the paramedics near the car I had smashed. “Cut this damn thing open! Late-term female in the backseat with a strong pulse!”

  I could only make out a piece of what he was saying as the doors to my ambulance started to close, but one look at Ryan’s face was enough.

  Ryan turned back to me with piercing eyes. “This is bullshit!”

  Chapter 28:

  The House that Lies Built

  “This is bullshit!” Furiously tearing into the closet, I chucked shirts, pants, and dresses all over the room.

  “Ryan! Calm down! What’s going on?”

  “Stay out of this, Helen!”

  I was working my way to the back where there was a stack of boxes in the lower right corner. I snatched the top one and flung it out onto the floor. I dropped to my knees and went to work flipping through random trinkets from my childhood—a childhood of countless lies. Chucking that box aside, I dove back into the closet for the next.

  “You’re making a huge mess! Wait until she gets off work so we can have a talk with her.”

  Hurling the next useless box with all my rage, I stood up to get in Helen’s face. “This is between me and my mom! She doesn’t get to hide the truth from me any
longer! There has to be proof somewhere around here, and I’m going to find it before she gets home!”

  Box after box, I dumped the contents out and pushed through the piles, trying to find anything of significance. Coming up in vain each time, the ire was only growing in me. After reaching the last box and on the verge of exploding, I darted past Helen, into the hallway for some air. Struggling to catch my breath, I headed downstairs to gather my thoughts on where to look next. At the base of the stairs, I glanced over at the front door and something caught my eye. The virtual reel was flipping through old pictures. I ran over and lifted it from the table, then waited patiently for confirmation as it rolled.

  “There it is! The son of a bitch car was green!”

  “Ryan, you wouldn’t tell me why you’re so angry at your mom on the phone. At least tell me what’s going on now!”

  Still livid, I tried to calm myself enough to explain what Charlie had shown me. “My mom was in serious accident in the car from this picture.”

  “How serious? She’s not permanently injured, right?

  “No. She wasn’t. I was!” My body went cold, having clearly stated the truth for the very first time in my life. The frenzy that had overcome me for that last hour almost instantly waned into deep sorrow. Tears began to pour from my eyes as I collapsed to my knees.

  Helen was near enough to catch me from falling on my face, and she held me as tightly as she could. After a minute of me sobbing, she finally pulled away just a bit. “You were with her? Isn’t she too young for you to be with her.”

  Gathering myself enough to talk, I stood up and wiped my face with my sleeve. “That picture must have been months before. I wasn’t just with her during the accident. Mom was pregnant with me.”

  I could almost see the gears turning in Helen’s head.

  “That means you weren’t paralyzed from a birth defect.”