Dead Awakenings

by Rebekah R. Ganiere

  “You better.” Victor pulled her close. “I’d rip this world apart to find you.”

  Cami laughed.

  The rest of the ride down was full of Victor and Luca chatting about their most recent Halo adventure on the Xbox. The conversation sounded strange coming from the two men. When the doors finally opened the smell of chlorine was prevalent in the air. Evaine coughed and covered her nose with her hand.

  “You get used to it.” Cami smiled. “It’s a bit stronger than a normal pool.”

  Evaine continued to cough, and her eyes teared.

  “You’d better get her to the hospital wing before she coughs up a lung.” Victor chuckled. Cami trotted off with Victor following like a puppy dog. Luca continued past the pool to a door on the other side. A cool breeze swooshed in at them as it slid open. The smell of medical supplies hit Evaine in a wave, and she was immediately reminded of the hospital where she had woken up. She had to swallow hard to control her rising panic.

  Luca walked to a corner and grabbed a paper cup, filled it, and brought it back to her. Her throat felt tight and dry. She tried to speak, but ended up coughing. Taking a sip she tried again.

  “Why is this here?” she croaked.

  “When someone gets hurt or when something goes wrong, we can’t run to our local undead doctor.”

  “What could go wrong?” she asked, surprised.

  He looked at her strangely. “Are you serious? Your body’s dead. What couldn’t go wrong?” She had the feeling he was being sarcastic. “Have you even begun to comprehend what’s happened to you?”

  “I died and now I’m back.”

  He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “No, it isn’t like that at all. You are dead. Your spirit just didn’t leave your body. Everything about you is dead. Only due to the chemicals they shot into you, your brain is still providing all of the electrical impulses needed to make it work. Even after all this time we don’t know the why or how of it. Someone’s experimenting on humans. Every one of us has been given some chemical mixture that killed us but kept out brains working.”

  Evaine sipped her water and stared at him mutely.

  “You can’t go into the sun. Why? Because your skin will burn off. You can’t go out into public without wearing a wig, makeup, and contacts, unless you go to an alternative rave or something. You can’t eat normal food; your body can’t metabolize it. You can’t have kids and a family, or see your old family, if you had one. You don’t even get a chance to have a single normal day for the rest of your existence. This isn’t you being dead and coming back. This is you being dead; you’re just still here.”

  She could feel anguish rolling off of him. He plopped down on one of the hospital beds, laid back, and covered his face with his left arm. She wondered if he’d left a family behind. People that he’d loved and cared about.

  She wanted to say something smart and profound. Something that would make him hate her a little less, but all she could think of to say was, “I don’t think I have a family.”

  He moved his arm and peaked at her, but said nothing.

  She shrugged. “It’s a feeling I have.” She sank to the floor. “I think I might have someone, but not family exactly.”

  Silence hung in the air between them. She concentrated on the pattern of the ceiling tiles. “So tell me something. How do you do that mind talking thing? Are you a psychic?”

  He laughed bitterly. “No. Psychics claim to see dead people and try to tell the future.”

  “Then what is what you do called?”

  “Telepathic communication.”

  “Can you read my mind? The way that you made me read yours?”

  “I can’t make you read mine. I am not sure why you can do that; maybe it’s your skill. But yes, I can read yours too. Not all the time, but sporadically. And I get some kind of vibe from you. Like a GPS on your brainwaves or something. And that’s not something I was able to do before you either.”

  “So I have a skill?”

  “Maybe. For every ten of us that rebirth, only five or six will come back with our humanity intact. And of those that do come back, only one or two can do anything extra.”

  “Extra like what?”

  He sighed. “This conversation was supposed to wait till Nate got here.” He spoke almost as if to himself. He sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the hospital bed. “Telekinesis, telepathy, telepathic exertion, telepathic influence, telepathic reading—”

  “And what you do, right?”

  “Yes, and also what I do, which is telepathy.”

  “So what is all that other stuff?”

  “Look, why don’t you wait for Nate and Aron? They can explain better.”

  Now that she’d thought about it she was bursting with questions. “So what’s the deal with Nate and Abbey? They’re married, but she’s still human.”

  “That’s something you’ll have to ask them if you want an answer. I’m not getting into that one.”

  “Well what about Aron? He’s a doctor?”

  “He went to medical school before he rebirthed. Luckily for us he remembers what he learned. Obviously he couldn’t finish residency or anything afterward, but he continues to study. So now, for all intents and purposes, he’s the resident doctor and mad scientist.”

  “He remembers his past life? Does that mean that I could get my memory back too?”

  “You could, or you could not. Some people never get it back. My suggestion to you is that you give yourself a break and don’t try to remember your past. That’s all it is, past. And all it will bring you is heartache and pain. Figure out who you are now. Go from there.”

  “But—”

  “Look, I’m no good at playing twenty questions. Can you just wait till Nate gets here? I’m not the info guy.” He laid back down.

  “Sure, no problem.” She spoke a bit too harshly, but she didn’t care. Luca was so infuriating. One minute he seemed actually to care about her, the next minute he was so rude she felt he’d burn her to death with his stare. Part of her wanted to reach out to see if she could read what he thought, but a bigger part of her was afraid of what she might hear, so she didn’t. She closed her eyes and searched for the thread that connected them anyway. She listened for the sound of his voice, something to lead her to him, but there was nothing.

  Minutes ticked by, and the wait seemed endless. She took to counting the ceiling tiles again in the thick silence. She literally had to bite down on her tongue several times to keep her questions from bursting out again.

  Finally, voices floated down the hallway. The door opened and both Nate and Aron stepped in. Luca sat up suddenly and locked eyes with Nate. Nate nodded almost imperceptibly, and Luca bolted from the room without so much as a backward glance.

  Chapter Ten

  Evaine sat silently while Aron probed and prodded her. Finally he listened to her heart, which she found odd and a bit comical, since there was nothing to listen to. After taking a few measurements he got out a wax like substance and mixed it, pouring it into her ears to make molds. She waited as it hardened.

  “Have you felt any extra brain activity in the last couple of days?” Nate asked when they finished.

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Luca explained about us and about the extra abilities that we sometimes have. You’ve felt his ability. Have you felt anything like that inside yourself?”

  Luca had said that he hadn’t been able to read anyone else’s thoughts before and she sure could read his, so maybe that was her extra ability. She didn’t think that was it though, since she couldn’t do it with anyone else. “No.”

  “Well then we would like to perform a few tests to see if you have one.”

  “What kind of tests?” She looked from Nate to Aron.

  Nate rubbed his chin. “A stimulus test.”

  “Have you noticed that when you become enraged or upset your senses become heightened and you become a bit quicker and stronger?” Aron as
ked. “It’s like that. When you’re enraged your ability is more likely to manifest itself.”

  “But I’ve been enraged several times since I got here and nothing’s ever happened.”

  “Yes, but have you ever felt truly threatened here? Like something was life or death?” Nate asked.

  “Does it only manifest when you are in danger?”

  “If it’s a passive ability like Luca’s, then no; it usually is pretty apparent from the moment you rebirth. If it’s something more offensive, then it first manifests when you feel threatened. In the past we failed to test efficiently, and we had several accidents with those we didn’t realize had offensive abilities.”

  “And if I do have an offensive ability, what then?”

  “We’ll teach you how to harness it and use it. Not as a weapon, unless necessary though,” Aron said.

  “Like Tae Kwon Do?” She laughed. They looked at her quizzically. “Never mind.” She shrugged. “So, if I have an ability, will you want me to use it to help you find out who is doing all this? Join in the cause?”

  “Well, that would be your choice, but yes, we hope you’d want to,” Nate said.

  Nate was so composed. Sitting so still in his preppy clothes, as if this were nothing more than a negotiation in a business arrangement. Was this what he’d been like before? So level-headed, logical. Like Spock! “And what if I don’t have a useful ability? What happens to me then?”

  “We can find other ways you can help or you can figure out what you want to do. Not everyone here has an extra ability. Aron and Ronan help, but by using their natural talents.”

  “Do you have an ability?” she asked Nate.

  “Yes. But I won’t discuss it now.” Nate flicked a speck of dust from his crisp khakis. “In one way or another everyone helps out.”

  “Luca said that there are lots of us, but no one really knows how many.”

  “There could be as many as a hundred. Here we have up to twenty at any given time. We also have a home on the West Coast that has about fifteen who live there and one in Canada. We’ve heard that Damien has taken in a lot of the Forgotten. He won’t confirm that though.”

  “Who’s Damien?”

  “Damien is the leader of the Feeders. The Feeders are like us somewhat. They have their humanity—difference is, they choose not to follow it. They believe they don’t have to, that we’re evolution. Humans are no more than cattle.”

  “So they eat people. Does that make them stronger and faster than us?”

  Nate appraised her with a slight smile. “Yes. However, we have more in our Haven House that possess extra abilities. So we equal out pretty well—not that we would ever want to test that theory.”

  “They don’t have anyone in their family with extra abilities?”

  “Evaine.” He actually chuckled. “We aren’t at war with them. Let’s just say that we have agreed to disagree and leave it at that. We don’t mingle unless necessary. There have been times when our family members have joined theirs and theirs have joined ours. They don’t dine in our area, and we keep tabs on them, but that’s about all.”

  So if she wanted to leave here, she could go to one of the other havens, but what else was there? She remembered the feeling from feeding. It was so irresistible; she had barely been able to contain herself. But…she had killed someone. A person. A real person. Possibly with a family and a dog and—no! She had to lock it away. She couldn’t think of that. She’d never feed on human again. It wasn’t an option.

  Her fingers tingled. She cracked her knuckles and rubbed her fingertips together, trying to massaging the sensation away.

  “It won’t help.” Aron watched her sympathetically. “It won’t get any worse, but it’ll spread to your toes next. Then in an hour or two your arms and legs will begin to tingle. When your head starts to hurt, it’s almost over. Tomorrow morning you’ll be a bit lethargic. By the next day you’ll be fine. It’s the human feeding finally leaving your system. If you continued feeding the high you experienced wouldn’t last as long so you would need to feed more and more frequently to achieve the same results. And the itching would get worse. You get a high for a while, but it wears off.”

  “So that’s why they eat off diet,” she mused to herself.

  Nate leaned back and gave her a sideways glance.

  “Why are you staring at me like that?” She crossed her legs and wrapped her arms around herself in a tight hug.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just that your taking all of this very well. Most don’t. It takes weeks and sometimes even months before they are able to control themselves or accept what they have become.”

  “I’m used to having to adapt.” She spoke without thinking. “My whole life has been nothing but shifting around from place to place. Trying to adapt, trying to fit in. Being what others want or expected me to be.” Nate and Aron stared at her unblinkingly. It made her uncomfortable. “What now? I wish you would all stop staring at me like I’m a car wreck.”

  “You remember?”

  She thought for a moment about what she’d said. “Yes and no at the same time. It’s more impressions than actual knowledge. Like adapting is something that I have had to rehearse, practice even. Something I had to teach myself until it became habit.”

  “I think we should start testing right away, if you feel up to it,” Aron said.

  “Will it hurt?”

  “Uncomfortable would be a better word.”

  “But no physical pain?”

  “Not if we can avoid it.”

  “OK, let’s get going then.” She jumped down up from the bed. “The itching is going to drive me cuckoo bananas if I sit here any longer.”

  “It’ll take a couple of hours to set everything up. Why don’t you try to lie down for a bit.”

  “There’s no way I can rest with this itching going on.”

  “I can help with that.” Aron pulled a vial out of a cabinet and came toward her. “This will help you till it’s over.”

  A flashback of the guy at the hospital coming toward her with the syringe caused her to gasp and back away. “Uh, that’s OK.” She stared at the syringe in his hand. “I’ll deal with it.”

  Aron stopped moving, stuffed the needle into his pocket and held his hands up in surrender, a warm smile on his face.

  Needles were so not her thing. Her instincts told her that there was a good reason she didn’t like them.

  “I’ll have Luca take you to your room and we can come get you in a bit.” Nate flipped open his cell phone and punched in a number. Nate glanced her way, and he gave her a tight smile. After a minute he clicked the phone shut. “Aron will go with you while I go get things started.” Nate and Aron exchanged a glance. But then just as quick, Aron had on his big reassuring smile. He escorted her out of the hospital wing and back to her room.

  Chapter Eleven

  Evaine sat on the edge of her bed, scratching the never-ending itch on her hands and arms. She’d slept for so long. Bombarded by images, she tried to make sense of her dreams. The impressions slipped by so fast, she was unable to grasp any particular one long enough to understand what she saw. She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. How long had it been since she’d showered? She stripped off her clothes and went into the bathroom. Someone had stocked her shower with all the luxury bath stuff she hadn’t been able to afford before. She lingered under the warm water. She would never have allowed herself to stay in the shower that long when she had to pay her own water bill.

  Opening the wardrobe she was surprised to find a pair of yoga pants and a pink T-shirt. She pulled them on, sat back on her bed and waited.

  After biting her nails down to nubs the camera in the corner moved. A few minutes later a young man knocked and walked in. It was Ronan, the computer kid. His build was slight and his white hair hung in a long, shaggy, surfer cut. He wore a jeans with a polo shirt. He looked much younger than the rest as well. All gangly arms and legs. Her gut clenched—he never would grow into them now.


  “Hey.” He entered. “Sorry to make you wait. We’ve been a little preoccupied. Luca has been checkin’ on you since you got here, but he had to run out tonight, so we’re gonna wait till tomorrow to start with your testing. Are you hungry?”

  “How long have I been here?”

  “Well, let’s see. There’s today and yesterday and you slept four days. You were awake for two days, and we picked you up the day before. So about a week and a half. Maybe a little more, give or take.”

  The thought of eating made her shiver. They ate animal parts, but would she go crazy like last time?

  Walking to the door he punched the code. “We’ll be removing the lock from your door after the testing. Provided there aren’t any problems.”

  She followed him out the door. “What kind of problems could there be?”

  One of the Forgotten screamed. Evaine covered her ears to block out the shrill cries. The gigantic lump in the cell across from hers was sitting on his bed staring at the wall. He was enormous with skin like gray coal cinders and stark white short hair. Ronan strode out of earshot of the screams, and she quickly followed.

  “Well, there are a few things that can arise from the testing,” Ronan continued. “You could get violent, have super powers that we don’t know about, go crazy and start killing people.” He shrugged. “Typical stuff.”

  “Thanks. I feel so reassured now.”

  He laughed. “Don’t worry.” He smiled and a dimple appeared on his left cheek.

  She smiled back. She liked his sweet smile.

  They had made it to the secret wall. He punched the code, and they stepped through into the study. As the door opened she heard voices. Two men were in the kitchen. She remembered them as having been patrolling the grounds when she came in. They stopped talking and turned as she and Ronan entered.