by Keya Jay
Chapter thirteen: Ryder Ferris
“Going out again boss?” Ashley asked.
“Where’s Elliot?” Ryder asked her not bothering to answer her ridiculous question.
“He wasn’t feeling well sir so he sent Nico and Carter to watch the girl,” she answered hesitantly.
“Whisperers don’t get illnesses so what the fuck do you mean by he wasn’t feeling well?” he roared.
“Well umm he said he was dizzy and that he had a hard time seeing when he came back the last time from his mission.”
“Where’s he now? I want to see him.”
“Right this way sir,” she said leading the way through the halls of the tunnels.
She opened one of the doors and Ryder could see Elliot lying on the bed that stood in the middle of the room.
There wasn’t much furniture in there just a lamp that sat on a small night stand, the bed Elliot was currently lying in, one chair for visitors and a cabinet filled with medical supplies.
They get a lot of injured wisps but nothing like this.
Like most of the rooms there are no windows in the tunnels and so one of the wisps built a venetian blind in the walls of the tunnel, it stills baffles him that they were able to do something like that.
The aspic of Elliot’s skin or the skin they could see was pale and there were several discolored marks all over his body.
They always kept the rooms cool they are in a tunnel so it’s naturally cool already down there and yet Elliot sweats as if it was 90o degrees in there.
By the looks of it his tongue was too swollen to fit into his mouth correctly which also prevented him from speaking.
“When did this happen?” Ryder asked Ash who stood in the door way looking aghast.
“I don’t know sir, he watched the girl like you instructed but around 8:00 he came back and sent Nico and Carter.”
8:00 the same time Skylar had left the Neon Lights, could she have noticed Elliot following her?
“How was he able to talk to Nico and Carter and why the hell were those the first words out of his mouth?”
“Well his tongue wasn’t like that when he came back and his reasoning for sending out Nico and Carter I presume had something to do with his not wanting to let you down by not following the girl like you had instructed,” she explained.
Ryder went to the medical cabinet and pulled out a tongue presser.
“I don’t want anyone following her anymore,” he announced.
“Yes, sir I’ll make sure to spread the word along.”
Ryder separated Elliot’s lips and slid the tongue presser between his teeth and tongue.
“How long has he been knocked out?” Ryder asked as he reached for a pair of latex gloves.
“Well I had one of the female wisps check on him every hour, she was a doctor so I figured she’d know more than the rest of us.”
“Call her in here,” he said as he pressed Elliot’s tongue to see if he could tell whether or not he had swallowed anything in the last 24 hours, it’s possible that it could have just be an allergic reaction.
“Good evening sir,” the female doctor said.
“What do you know so far, what conclusion have you come to?” Ryder asked her having no such time to exchange pleasantries.
“Well,” she said walking over toward the other side of the bed.
“I thought it was just an allergic reaction of sorts.”
“Well that’s what I thought,” Ryder agreed.
“But,” she was quick to add, “There were injuries on him when he came in and his tongue didn’t swell until later, so it could have been something else entirely. He wakes up disoriented at odds times in the night but doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t even try. He sweats as you can see a lot though it’s fairly cool in this room which makes me believe that there’s some inner fight going on with in his body, making it act out. A couple of times when he had woken up he was panic-stricken.”
Ryder discarded his gloves after throwing away the tongue presser.
“Keep tabs on him and report back to me if anything out of the ordinary happens.”
“Yes sir.”
“Ash are Nico and Carter back?”
“Yes, they got back late last night.”
“Alright I have some other matter’s to attend to so in the meantime hold down the fort no one comes in and no one leaves, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” Ash said.
Ryder left the tunnels and hopped into his car.
He need answers, no more tip toeing around this, he thought as he headed toward Terri St.
5 minutes later Ryder parked his car and waited outside of Skylar’s house for a minute or two before exiting the car and walking up toward her door.
He actually contemplated knocking but then immediately discarded the ridiculous thought and walked right in.
When she had finally descended the stairs she was on the phone, Ryder sat on the couch as he listened quietly to her side of the conversation.
“Nothing, you couldn’t find anything? No I understand, it’s just odd…There’s gotta be something…”
She grabbed her blazer off the back of her kitchen stool and put it on. She looked like she was dressed for work not dinner.
“That would be so helpful…yea I think you should look into it…Ok call me if you come across anything else…Thanks Hank I really appreciate it…Ok bye,” she hung up.
Hank? That can’t be some kind of coincidence. What is her involvement with Hank?
“I’m sorry about that,” she said motioning toward the phone.
“What was that exactly?” Ryder questioned.
“Oh nothing it was just work.”
“Just work?”
“Just work,” she said moving toward the door.