by Tara Brown
“Probably. We should leave right away. I’ll get Erin and Miles if you want to get Kyle and meet at the helicopter.” She doesn’t trust me. It’s obvious in her gaze.
“Okay,” I agree for a moment but the bots have a better plan. “Wait, like right here. Give me two seconds.” I climb away from her, scrambling to the window where my room is. I pop my head in, listening. All there is, is Kyle’s slow breathing.
“Kyle,” I whisper sharply, almost hissing. “Kyle, wake up.”
“Lou?” He grumbles and rolls over, lifting his head and staring at the wall, opposite me. “Lou, is that you?”
“Yeah, get up and put your clothes on and come with me. Fast!”
He pops up, rubbing his eyes. “Okay.” He takes a couple of breaths before climbing from the bed and pulling on his clothes. “What are we doing?”
“We gotta go, now. Come out the window.” I duck back down and look to the right. Miles and Erin’s room is next to ours.
I’m over to their part of the roof when Kyle comes out. “What are you doing?” he asks a bit loud.
“Go down to where Leah is, there!” I point.
“Seriously?” He yawns and climbs down the roof, not nearly as quiet as I’d like him to be.
“Shhhhh,” I hiss again.
The window of Miles and Erin’s room is partially open. She’s seated in it, already dressed. “Do I need to climb out too?” she asks.
“Yeah, get Miles.”
“He’s just getting his clothes on. We’ll be down there in a second.” She was clearly listening to my conversation with Kyle.
I turn and crawl back down, jumping to the lower roof and scaling the walls until I’m back where Leah and Kyle are. His eyes are wide, and I assume she told him I murdered and ingested the doctor. How else would you tell the story?
He scowls. “Why?”
“I don't know.” Leah shrugs.
“Lou?” Kyle’s attention turns to me. “Wanna explain?”
“In the helicopter. We have to go. You guys make a break for the hills over there, along the edge of the lake. I’ll go for the helicopter. I’ll meet you. When you get to the edge of the forest, turn north and run through the woods that aren’t far from here, about ten miles. I’ll meet you there at a small cabin near another lake. It’s tiny.” I don't bother sifting through more memories of Dr. Jacquard’s than that. I have to get moving. “There’s a girl there we need.”
“You want us to run away while you fight?” Kyle’s angry. He sort of always sounds this way now.
“She wants to be a diversion for us to get away.” Leah understands what I’m saying.
“No, what the hell? We’re all strong and capable to fight. Why would we pander to this psycho? I’m not leaving you here.” He crosses his arms over his broad chest and shakes his head back and forth slowly. It’s a spicy stance but the fury is in his stare. He’s done with half information and my lying. He’s been done for a while.
“Can you just trust me once more?”
“Nope.” He isn’t budging on this.
“Fine, stay here and die.” I pretend to be more detached than I am.
“I’m coming with you.”
“You can’t!” I snap as Erin and Miles arrive. “I’ll meet you. I have to go before he puts two and two together and realizes I’m the one who killed the doctor. Miles, don't let Kyle follow me. Trust me.” I turn and run, sprinting for where I left the sword under the shadows of the rampart.
There’s a struggle behind me but it only lasts a second. They talk sense into my stubborn boyfriend, and they’re running for the edge of the lake when I arrive at my destination.
I stop being quiet as I land on the ground next to the sword’s resting place.
“Lou?” Liam shouts, rushing to where I am, shining a light on me. “I thought I saw you running on the rampart.” He steps nearer, lowering the light so I can see his face. “Did you kill Dr. Jacquard?”
“Yeah,” I admit blankly. “And I’m going to kill you,” I lie, driving my hand into the dirt and gripping the hilt, pulling the sword from the earth.
“While that was intensely impressive, you can’t.” Liam steps closer to me. “Your bots won’t let you kill me.”
He’s right, they won’t. I already sensed that inside me. I think I sensed it the moment I met him. They’d put their proverbial money on him.
“Then I’ll die trying.” I lift the sword and smirk.
“You can’t possibly think I’m that stupid.” He frowns, totally underreacting to my sword in hand. “Where are Erin and Miles and Kyle and Leah?”
“Gone. I sent them away.” I smirk as if this was always part of the plan. It wasn't but my mind is coming up with solutions to this problem. One seems unlikely and yet I try anyway. I turn and run as hard as I can, heading in the direction my friends went. I run right over top their footsteps.
I’m almost to the lake when something hits my back, stabbing in. I stop and turn, seeing Lee holding a bow and arrow. I veer away from the footsteps that have made a trail, heading for the lake.
When I reach the water’s edge, I make it appear as though I might jump in. But Lee grins as Liam presses a button on something and for a second time since I arrived, pain shoots through me and everything goes dark.
I’m not completely out when Liam’s voice shouts commands, “She wouldn't have run in the direction of them. They went that way. She was trying to lead us away from them.”
The bots might want him to lead, but they are unable to fight solving whatever problems I give them.
I grin as pain hits a second time and I lose consciousness.
Chapter 20
My arms are vibrating when I wake. There’s pain; something is hurting me, but I can’t figure out what it is. I blink and notice the absolute darkness I am in. There’s moisture, water dripping, and dampness in the air around me. The air is close too, like there’s a limited supply of oxygen. My problem-solving kicks into high gear straightaway.
I’m underground.
Maybe an old well.
My toes are touching something, just the tips, but I’m tied up by the wrists and they’re over my head. I feel stretched, long and tight.
Placing pressure and weight on my toes, my wrists and shoulders relax ever so slightly.
I swallow and notice my parched throat. It burns like I haven’t drunk anything in days. My lips are chapped and my muscles are screaming. My fingers and forearms are numb, they’ve been above my heart a long time. But the bots are circulating the blood, forcing it to my extremities.
My mind wants to remember the important things: Joey, Gus, the Littles. Mr. Milson. Kyle smiling at me with those sexy lips and dazzling green eyes. But the bots disregard all the sentimental nonsense. They plot. Standing on one set of toes, I lift my leg weakly and feel in a circle, spinning with my wrists. There is nothing around me. No walls. I finger the rope around my wrist, it’s tight. I manage to get my fingers around it. I lift on my toes a little higher, so I can get a grip of rope above my wrists and hands. When I have a firm hold, I take a deep breath and jump as hard as I can. I push off with just those toes, lifting myself quite high in the air, managing to grab a decent amount of rope. My legs are off the ground. My shoulders and arms scream. But hope weighs more in my heart now. I swing myself and jump again, grabbing the rope higher up. I inch up like this, gripping until my hands and wrists glow with the blue lights as they repair the damage being done by the rope. But I don't stop.
No matter the pain, I continue to rock and jump using the momentum of the swinging to climb higher and higher.
There’s no light except the blue glow of the bots which show me I am in a large room. When I get high enough, I loop my legs into the rope and take the pressure off my wrists. I slide my wrists back and forth. Gasps of pain and agony slip from my lips as I manage to dislocate my thumbs and pull my trembling hands from the rope.
The lights glow so brightly from my broken and bloody hands, I see
the trap door above me. The room is large and circular, like an old water cistern. I’m about to ask what the hell a water cistern is, when the bots answer. They flash a memory from Dr. Jacquard’s mind.
“Oh,” I whisper to them, or to me or to no one. My voice hurts my throat.
When the bots have my hands mostly healed, I grab the rope and military climb to the trap door. I push on it, lifting and flooding light from the day down into the dank space. It burns but I don't cower or look away.
I force my eyes to take in what is around me.
The lid is heavy, but fortunately, the rope is attached to a crank on the ceiling right next to it so I can hold that for balance. I push hard, lifting higher and checking my surroundings.
There’s nothing.
Gravel.
No sound but the breeze.
“Jesus, that was fast. You woke what, ten minutes ago?” Liam asks from nowhere. I can’t see him. The lid lifts overhead and he’s there; he was standing behind it. I didn't even hear his heartbeat.
“Water?” I ask with a raspy whisper.
“Of course. I am impressed.” He grabs my arm and hauls me out, his eyes lingering on the rope burns on my wrists.
I try to stand but my legs are weak and I collapse onto the dusty hot gravel. He hands me a bottle of water, a skin rather. It’s an old-fashioned water bottle. I pull the cork out and dump the water down my throat. I’m guzzling hard, ignoring the warning from the bots to slow down. I drink until it’s empty and sit back, listening to the churning and gargling as my body tries to cope with the downpour.
“Your problem-solving is faster than anyone I’ve ever stuck in that hole. Lee took two days and eventually I had to bring her up. The bots can only do so much, you see.” He speaks like we’re friends and this is normal and everything about the two of us is just casual. “You have to have some intelligence already inherent. Your survival skills are impressive.”
“Screw you,” I growl, making him laugh.
“Here.” He hands me a sandwich on homemade bread. I snatch it, biting furiously into the food.
“You’ve been in there for two days, but I kept you asleep. I woke you eleven minutes ago.”
“Where are my friends?” I ask between mouthfuls of sandwich.
“I wanted to ask you the same thing. They’re gone. And we can’t find them. That was also smart.” He taps the tip of his nose. “You had me on that one. Clever girl. Run in the direction they went so I would start the search in the opposite direction. I have to give you that. Took me half the day to realize they went that way too. Then we followed the footprints to a river. They crossed it but it doesn't appear they came out the other side.”
That and the sandwich landing in my stomach makes me grin.
“I know.” He sighs and runs his hands through his hair. “Leah. She’s too damned smart.” He sits back, resting on his hands suggesting he’s enjoying the sun. “I will say, the direction they were going, west, was strange. Then it dawned on me, you must have told them to go to the old town that way and hide there.”
I feign a bit of worry, since I never told them to go west at all.
“I burned the town to the ground, didn’t find one of them. No trace of them.”
“Guess Leah is smarter than you after all.”
“I never disputed her being smarter than me,” he says defensively. “But now I need you to answer some questions. Or I will put you back in that hole and leave you there.”
“You can’t.” I smirk.
“What?” He scoffs. “I could kill you easily.”
“Try.” I realize we are now on even ground. I am his equal in importance. It’s the sneaky part of Dr. Jacquard’s plan I didn't notice before.
“Why would I kill you? I need answers from you.”
“Just see if you can.” I press my cracked lips together, feeling the skin break and a small bleed start. “For shits and giggles,” I taunt him.
His gaze lowers to my bleeding lips and he makes a face as though he’s thinking. It takes him a whole minute to comprehend what has happened. He’s also smarter than I gave him credit for. “Are you kidding me right now?” He sits up, leaning toward me. “Is this a joke?”
I shake my head, not saying a word, letting the humor in my eyes answer for me.
“That son of a bitch!” he shouts, getting up and kicking the dirt. It lifts into the air like a cloud and showers us both with the breeze. “He gave you his knowledge and now the only person who can complete my plan is you?” He laughs bitterly but his rage is so real, I taste it in the air.
“Maybe he just wanted us to be friends,” I joke.
“Oh, we’ll be more than friends, Lou!” He rushes me, grabbing me off the ground and throwing me over his shoulder with a thud. The force of my landing there causes an instant reaction in my stomach. I puke down the back of him, violently, but he doesn't stop. He doesn’t seem to notice. He storms toward the castle, which was behind the lid of the cistern all along.
I struggle to free myself from his grip, but he’s holding me so tightly I can barely breathe. He bursts through a set of doors I’ve never seen before and starts up a massive flight of stairs. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them before. The bots replay the moment in my head, confirming indeed I ran down them once.
“Liam, put me down!” I flail. As he flings open a door, he obliges. He throws me down on a rug-covered spot on the wooden floor. I grunt with the impact and take a second to assess the damage. Not that there’s any need. My body begins to heal whatever he has injured.
“You want to be my equal? You want to play this little game? Fine! Then you can stay here and you’ll never leave,” he seethes and turns, leaving the room. The door slams behind him followed by a series of locks clicking.
Once I have my breath again and it feels like whatever he might have injured is close to healed, I get up. Still sore from the cistern and the rope, I limp to the windows. They’re barred with heavy wrought iron and they don't open. I hit a windowpane with my fist, wincing at the bulletproof glass.
“He really thought of everything,” I say and stare out at the calm waters of the lake in the distance.
I’m not alone a minute before something rustles out in the hallway.
“Lou?” Lee whispers through the crack in the door.
“Lee!” I turn to the door and walk over. “You have to help me.”
“Why did you have to murder Dr. Jacquard?”
Taking in a deep breath, I pinch the bridge of my nose—likely in the exact same way my father did when my mother drove him insane—and take another large inhale.
“That was so stupid! He’s going to kill you and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself.”
“Lee, help me out of here, please.”
“I can’t. I don’t want him to kill me too.” Her footsteps walking away are the next thing I hear. She leaves me here, something I honestly didn't think she would do. I figured if my life was actually on the line, she would protect me. The way I would her. But I was wrong.
That fact is hard to swallow.
And not just because it means I may end up having to kill her, but because I believed my love for her would be stronger than his brainwashing. If that’s not the case, what will become of me? Will he brainwash me too? Will I forget how much I love everyone important in my life like she has?
Feeling defeated, I turn to the large bed in the room and decide to lie down and try to figure out a solution to everything. But when I lie down, my body decides sleep is more important. Rest and healing and conservation.
I fall asleep with no say in the matter. Which is fine, the bots know better than I do anyway.
Chapter 21
I wake in the dark to an idea.
It’s brilliant, though I don't know how I will find everything I need to do it. It’s the perfect escape plan.
My body is rested and I’m calm again. The bots were right, I needed rest.
Regardless of being a prisoner, I’m c
onfident I will get away from him.
A sound triggers my ears, a breath, and I realize I’m not alone. There’s a heartbeat here too. I think I recognize it.
I can’t see anything for a second and then I catch a glimpse of movement. He’s sitting in a chair that wasn't there before, watching me from the darkest shadow in the room.
“That’s creepy,” I mutter, knowing he can hear me across the massive room. “Watching someone sleep.”
“I’m creepy,” Liam admits indifferently. “I always have been.”
“You were born creepy?” I ask, sitting up, startled by the confession.
“No.” He stands and walks to the end of my bed. I wonder for a moment if he’s going to kill me, but I remember he can’t. He needs me. “Do you want to know me, Lou? The real me?”
“Yes,” I answer before I think about it.
“Then take my hand. I’ll show you everything.” He reaches for me, offering his hand.
“Where are we going?” Plans start to formulate, escape and rescue and murder.
“You’re going somewhere, not me.” He pulls a knife from his back pocket. It flashes in the dull light coming in the windows when he opens it.
Panic hits like a fist until he pricks the tip of his own finger. “There’s something you have to see if you’re ever going to understand.” He holds the bloody droplet at me.
“What am I supposed to do with that?” I ask as his finger begins to glow.
“Take it. See. I think it’s the only way to explain. I can’t tell the story. I don’t really remember it. They don’t want me to.”
I’m confused about what he’s saying, but also nervous this is some kind of trap. There’s a whisper of fear in the back of my mind suggesting this is about to happen whether I want it to or not. It can happen one of two ways: nicely or forcefully. Admitting I’m curious enough to do it, I opt for nicely and allow him to smear the glowing blood on my finger.
It’s like holding phosphorescence. I stare at it, entranced by the beautiful blue glow.
Despite being a bit disgusted at the notion, I place his glowing blood into my mouth and let the lights flash in my eyes.