He took a breath and slowly approached using the dirt road. He made sure to narrate everything he saw. It was still difficult to see, but the house looked to be in good shape. It still had all its windows and a wrap-around porch. The wind blew the front screen door back and forth. The house was completely dark. He wasn't even sure if there was any electricity. There were no cars. He didn't see or hear anyone, especially a pretty teenaged girl.
“Blood pressure is going up slightly,” Ronald announced.
“Wouldn't yours?” Mason said. “I'm in the middle of the haunted forest here.”
“No, Mason, only your mind is,” Doc said, stating the obvious. “Nothing there can hurt you. There's nothing to be afraid of.”
“How many times have you all mind slid? None? So maybe-”
Mason went quiet as he stopped near the steps leading to the porch. There was a puddle of something in front of him.
A thick, dark something.
It trailed away from the house in a thin line before disappearing down the path. He knelt down and ran a hand through the puddle. It was thick and warm.
He took a deep breath, knowing what he had to do next.
“Mason? Talk to me.”
“Just hold on a sec.”
He repeated to himself as he moved his lips closer to the puddle. He wasn't really tasting it. But he had to put his tongue to it, had to simulate the act of tasting in order for his sense of taste to process.
It never got any easier.
He stuck his tongue in the puddle.
He wretched and gagged. His body must have done the same in the lab, as he felt a hand on his forehead.
“Mason? Are you okay?”
“Blood pressure is still going up.”
“I'm okay, I'm okay. There's a huge puddle in front of the house. It's not blood. Motor oil, maybe? I'm not sure. It's warm.”
“That means a car was there. Do you see a mailbox of any kind? Or house numbers by the door?”
“No mailbox. Let me take a peek at the door-”
“Please someone help me!”
The scream froze Mason in place. It was faint, but definitely female. He cocked his head from side to side, listening for anything. The only sound was the wind blowing through the trees.
“Mason?”
“Shut up. Just shut up for a minute.”
The female voice called out again.
“Please! Is anyone up there?”
Up.
She was in the basement.
Mason ran around the side of the house, looking for any kind of basement window. He found several, all spaced apart. He didn't hesitate pushing his head through the first dirty glass window he knelt in front of.
The sounds of nature disappeared. The musty smell of earth was thick in the air. The light varied from black to almost-black as clouds passed in front of the moon.
He saw a pair of pale legs in the corner.
They didn't move for a second. That scared Mason more than any experiment he ever had to do. Then they shifted slightly on the dirt floor. He saw a chain around her ankle and heard what sounded like crying.
Mason pushed his way through the wall and landed on the dirt floor. He walked through everything in his way to cross the basement, vaguely aware of what passed through him. A wooden table with metal on top. Some chairs. Something large and round on the floor, maybe a barrel.
“Oh my God.”
“What, Mason? What!?”
He found Kelly Rierson.
He struggled to see her as the moon teased with its light through the window. Kelly wore the same track uniform as in her picture. Tears ran down her face. Her legs were bruised and dirty. One strap of her tank top was ripped, revealing part of a white sports bra. The left side of her face was red, maybe from a slap or a hard fall. She pulled uselessly at a six foot chain anchored to the wall, the other end secured to her ankle.
There was absolutely nothing he could do.
“Doc, I found her.”
“Is she okay? Tell me!”
“She's alive.” Mason tried to think of what kind of human being could chain someone up in a basement. “But this isn't good.”
“What do we do?” Ronald asked.
Doc's voice was low. “I don't know.”
The basement was flooded in light as a van drove by and parked in front of the house. In that one second Mason took a mental snapshot of everything around him, including the look of horror on Kelly's face.
“We're in a basement. She's chained up,” he explained. “And a van just pulled up.”
Mason and Kelly both heard a door slam above them. Then slow footsteps, dust falling with each step. Mason was terrified, and he was safe. He couldn't imagine what Kelly was going through.
His heart broke as he watched her try to slide her bare foot through the locked chain. It was wrapped around her ankle twice and held in place with a padlock. There was nothing she could do. There was blood running down her foot from burrs in the chain.
“Listen, kid,” Brian said. “You said there's a van? Vans have license plates.”
Mason didn't want to, but he walked away from Kelly, across the basement. He stuck his feet into the cinder-block wall, like stepping stones, and pulled himself through the window to the outside.
A black van was parked on the dirt path near the front steps, over the dark puddle. There was just enough light to let him recite the Maryland license plate. It gave Mason some comfort to know at least Kelly was still in Maryland.
Brian grabbed his radio. In only a minute he had all the information he needed from headquarters.
The van was registered to a woman named Sharon Grainger. She lived on the other side of town.
“Okay,” Brian announced. “I'll pay this woman a visit.”
“But Officer,” Doc said. “This is a regular house, not a place in the woods. My daughter isn't there.”
“It's our best lead, assuming that kid over there isn't full of shit.”
“I'm going with you.”
Brian said nothing for a moment.
“That's against the rules, Al.”
“Then I'll just follow you.”
Brian sighed, accepting defeat. “Let's go.”
Doc and Brian left the lab. Ronald was alone with Mason's body.
Mason's mind was still in the middle of the worst night of his life.
He turned away from the van and took a few steps back to the basement window.
Ronald's voice was next to his ear. “Mason, you've done all you can. Maybe you should slide back into your body now.”
“I won't leave Kelly.”
“She can't see you.”
“After nine years, you don't think I know that?”
To his credit, Ronald said nothing else. Mason heard him walk away from the table, the sounds of beautiful string music still in the air, at odds with the nightmare he was in.
Mason felt like he would get sick at any second, but he slowly poked his head through the glass once again and landed on the dirt floor. Kelly was still in the corner. She had given up on freeing her ankle and instead tried to pull the chain from the wall.
A door opened at the top of the basement steps. Kelly stopped yanking on the chain, afraid to move. Mason moved closer to Kelly. He stood in between her and the stairs, knowing it didn't help at all.
The man took slow steps, whistling Amazing Grace. Mason never had a hard opinion on the song, but now it was the scariest thing he'd ever heard in his life.
He couldn't make out any details about the man's face. He carried a flashlight in one hand and a bowl of water in the other. Kelly threw herself in the corner as far she could go. He flashed the light on her face.
“Leave me alone.”
“Just relax there, little girl,” he said. His voice was deep and gravelly. “You need to drink some water. Soon, we'll purify you. Then you can be with God.”
Kelly cried. “Mister, I don't want to be with God. Please, just let me go.”
/> The man lunged forward. He raised the flashlight high over his head, like a weapon. She cowered in the corner and covered her head. Mason hovered over her and tried to wrap his arms around her. He had to do something, anything. His arms only sank an inch or so into her body. He was so close he could feel her shaking.
Mason and Kelly both waited for the blow that never came. The man had changed his mind. Mason had the feeling he'd already hit Kelly at least once.
“Don't ever say you don't want to be with God,” the man threatened. “I'm just trying to help you. We need to purify you. Drink now.”
He placed the bowl of water near her feet, then walked away. He kept on whistling as he walked up the stairs.
After the basement door closed Kelly reached for the bowl and drank it as fast as she could. Mason started to cry with her. He wondered how much she'd eaten and drank the past two days.
Mason steeled himself and walked up the basement steps. He passed through the door and was surprised to see the first floor was well lit. There were candles and a few lanterns spread out. It reminded Mason of a hunting lodge he'd seen on TV. Stuffed deer heads on the walls, a couch and a coffee table in the living room, a tiny bathroom across from the basement door.
The place would seem nice, if it weren't for the man in the kitchen.
Mason finally got a good look at him.
The man looked normal enough, although he moved with a slight limp. He wore blue jeans and a thick flannel shirt, and was almost completely bald. He wouldn't have any trouble blending into a crowd.
There was a lantern on the table in the middle of the dining room, bathing both rooms in light. He still whistled as he set two buckets of water on a gas stove.
“Gonna purify you,” he sang, lifting his arms above him. “Then God will take you and love you.”
Mason shivered. He didn't like the sound of that.
He wanted to go back and be with Kelly.
But he needed to actually help her. And fast.
He thought of the owner of the van.
Sharon Grainger.
“Doctor Ron? Are you still there?”
“I'm here, Mason.”
“I'm gonna mind slide to Sharon Grainger.”
“You can do that? Mind slide to different places without coming back to your body?”
“I can do a lot of things. None of them seem important right now.”
Chapter 6
Mason felt nauseous as he appeared in Sharon's living room. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused on the music still playing in the lab. He wasn't sure if it was the second mind slide, or the thought of Kelly in that basement, that made him sick.
He was surprised to see light. He thought everyone in the home of Sharon Grainger would be asleep. But there was a woman in her thirties sitting alone at a dining room table. She wore a robe and had her hair wrapped in a towel. She was reading a magazine and sipping a cup of coffee.
He looked around as quickly as he could, absorbing every detail. A furnished living room led into the dining room, with a kitchen beyond that. There were pictures on the wall of Sharon Grainger and an older couple. Parents, maybe? There were no pictures of Kelly's kidnapper.
He felt foolish, not sure what he expected to accomplish. He couldn't speak to her, couldn't interact in any way.
Something did catch his eye on the dining room table.
It was a cell phone bill, complete with phone number at the top.
“Doctor Ron?”
“I'm here.” The doctor almost sounded bored. “Your blood pressure went up for a second, but it's down now.”
“I need you to hold a phone to my ear and dial a number I give you.”
“Mason, you know you're not allowed to make outside calls.”
“Doctor Ron!”
“Okay, okay.” Mason heard his footsteps. “I'm sorry. I'm just a little on edge right now.”
Mason felt the phone against his ear as Ronald dialed. Sharon's cell phone rang on the other end of the dining room table. She hesitated before answering, obviously not getting many calls so early in the morning.
“Hello?”
It was strange, talking to someone he was staring at on the phone. There was an echo as he heard her through the phone, and also with his mind from six feet away.
He needed to be direct, not give her a chance to hang up.
“Someone driving a van you own has kidnapped a girl.”
Sharon wrinkled her nose and set her coffee down. “Who is this?”
“Listen to me. He's at a house in the woods somewhere. Keeps talking about purifying her, sending her to God.”
Her hand started shaking, and he could see he struck a nerve. She gripped the table with her free hand to steady herself.
“Oh no,” she said.
“You know about this?”
She stood up and paced. “Neil's been taking his medication. He's been fine.”
“His name is Neil?”
“Yes. He's my brother. My half brother.”
“Okay. I don't know what he plans on doing, but it can't be good. His medication, whatever it is, it isn't working. A cop and the girl's father are on their way to your house right now. Do you know where this house is?”
“Yeah. Our father and Neil, they used it for hunting.”
“Can you take them there?”
“I will, I will. Who are you?”
“You can hang up now,” he told Ronald.
Mason heard the phone go dead in his ear and felt Ronald move away from him.
He stayed with Sharon a minute longer. She took a few deep breaths, then broke down in tears. She grabbed a picture on the wall and ran her finger down the glass.
He didn't follow when she went to her bedroom to change clothes.
He focused on Kelly Ann Rierson one more time. He pictured her in the basement, exactly how he left her, to help pinpoint the mind slide. If he had some details about where a person was he could slide that much closer to them. He wouldn't have to walk through the woods again.
*****
Mason appeared a few feet away from Kelly. He was dizzy for a moment, no doubt the result of his third mind slide of the night. Moving the mind around was always taxing.
She huddled in the corner in the darkness. Her legs were tucked under her, pressed against the wall as far as she could go. She sobbed quietly with her head in her hands, having given up on the chain.
Mason sat on the floor next to her, as close he could without dipping into her. He tried to to rub her shoulder, only to feel the bone and muscle as her arms shook.
“I'm not leaving you again, Kelly,” he said. “No matter what happens.”
Neither one of them knew how much time passed. An hour, maybe more. They heard Neil walking on the floor above them, but he didn't come back down the stairs. They looked up when it sounded like he was singing as he walked around the house. Mason didn't dare move from Kelly's side to find out.
He tried to cling to the hope that help was on the way.
“Mason, just thought you'd like to know,” Ronald said. “This is the longest mind slide you've ever had. Well, the longest one that I'm aware of.”
He was not proud or happy to hear the news.
The basement door creaked open.
Kelly shifted as Neil walked down the stairs, trying to press more into the corner. She wiped tears from her eyes and clasped her hands together.
“Please, Mister, please don't hurt me.”
Neil carried two buckets of water, one in each hand. He wore thick gloves to protect himself from the scalding water. Even in the near darkness, Mason could see steam rising from the buckets.
Mason stepped closer to Neil, looking right into his soulless eyes.
“If you hurt her, I will find you.”
“Mason,” Ronald said, concern in his voice. “You're...crying. Please, come back to your body.”
“Hello, little girl,” Neil said, setting one bucket on the ground. “I'm gonna save your soul.
This will hurt. I won't lie. But you'll thank me when you meet God.”
Neil grabbed the second bucket with both hands.
Kelly sprung to her feet and stepped forward. Mason's jaw dropped when he saw the chain that once held her foot, tucked in the corner. Her foot was badly cut up and covered in blood from sliding the chain off. Her legs and shorts were smeared with red from sitting in a small pool of her own blood.
But she was free.
She kicked Neil between the legs. He fell to his knees and dropped the bucket. The dirt absorbed most of the water, but not all of it. Kelly let out a scream as the scalding water splashed on her feet.
She grabbed the second bucket and threw the water in Neil's face.
He screamed in agony as he covered his face with his hands.
“Run, Kelly! Run!”
She ran up the basement steps in the dark. A hand grabbed her ankle before she made it to the top. Her knees and shoulder struck the hard wood.
Neil, his face raw and peeled, clutched her bleeding foot.
Kelly pulled her good leg back and kicked as hard as she could. Her heel caught Neil flush on the nose. His face wrinkled up as he slid back down the steps.
She burst through the basement door, Mason right on top of her.
He almost shouted at her to take a right, but knew it was useless. He knew he was useless.
She found her own way through the maze of candles in the living room. The chilly night air greeted her as she ran through the front door.
Into the arms of Officer Brian Lowdry.
“Whoa! It's okay. I got ya.”
Mason scanned the front of the house. Five police cars were spread out in front of the van. Doc was waiting with barely contained patience behind another cop, gripping his hair. Sharon Grainger sat in the back seat of a squad car, still crying.
“Here,” Brian said. He gingerly moved Kelly into the arms of another officer. “Take her.”
Two officers led Kelly away as Brian and three others stormed the house.
Kelly only made it halfway to the car before she fell to her knees. She cried hysterically and curled into a fetal position. Mason never left her side. He tried to run his hand through her hair as the officer pulled her to her feet. Doc cried as he stood near a squad car, but didn't move toward his daughter.
Mind Slide Page 4