CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I wake up hearing voices yelling in the hallway. I can’t see anybody, but one of the voices belongs to Doc Turner. Several minutes pass by as the yelling continues. I hear three or four men walking down the hallway. Scuffing sounds from their dress shoes give them away.
Four men come into my room. Doc Turner and Nurse Karen follow right behind them. The light flicks on. One man walks up to my bed, while the other men stay back. Nurse Karen stays next to the door, but Doc Turner pushes past the men, and comes to stand on the other side of my bed. He looks scared.
The man in the fancy, expensive suit, standing next to my bed, looks at me for what seems like ten minutes, but is probably more like two. I’m not sure what he’s looking for, but he’s looking straight into my eyes. I keep trying to look away from his leer, but I am drawn back in disbelief of his rudeness.
I can’t take the silence anymore. “Didn’t you mom ever tell you that it’s rude to stare at people? Who the hell are you?”
The man speaks, “I’m sorry, Laura, how rude of me. I’m Mr. Stratler. I don’t mean to stare at you, but I wasn’t expecting you to look so... real. According to your test results, you can travel the world with just a simple desire to. You can travel back in time, and change history. You single handedly can go back and stop the events of September 11th from ever happening. Do you know that you have that kind of power?”
Mr. Stratler answers me with something I wasn’t expecting. “To be totally honest, we want you. We need someone with your ability. Your world needs you. Many, many years of research and experimentation went into creating you, the perfect tool. We’ll be taking you to our facility immediately, so that you can be properly trained for what is your destiny. This is what you were created for, Laura, so don’t bother trying to fight us.”
“What if I don’t want to go with you? Like, do I even have a choice in this?” I’m starting to panic now. Where the hell is Laden?!
“Well no, you really don’t have a choice. Think of it as a personal sacrifice for your country, your world; like being drafted. You will be coming with us, right now.” Mr. Stratler turns to his cronies, and waves them over.
Next thing I know, these men are picking me up, and placing me on a thinner gurney, and strapping me down. I start screaming as loud as I can manage. I can’t physically fight them off. One man stabs me with a needle, and a burning sensation immediately follows.
My vision starts to get blurry. My screams dull down to mere whispers. Somebody help me! “Tara, I hope you can hear me. Please, help me!”
Seconds later, from the right side of the room, I can hear Tara. “I heard you call for me Laura. We’re all here now.” I turn my head, and the room spins around me. I see Tara and Jessy sitting on the counter, smiling like fools, waving at me. Sherri, Todd and Reilly are all standing in a row. They’re all here, really here! But where’s Laden?
Reilly steps forward, does a slow blink, and looks directly in the eyes of Mr. Stratler. In an instant, he backs up from my bedside, and stops moving, like he’s frozen. His men start to walk towards Reilly, but also freeze. All of their eyes get big, and shift from side to side.
“Are you preventing me from moving? You must be Reilly. I know all about you, and your ability. Do you know who I am? You’d better release me immediately young man.” Mr. Stratler is very angry, and staring straight at Reilly. He is very intimidating, but Reilly doesn’t even flinch.
Sherri comes skipping past Reilly and stops directly in front of Mr. Stratler. She is as close to his face as she can get. “Do you know who we are? We’re the kids who are going to stop you from taking our friend.” She puts her hand on his arm. “This won’t hurt a bit, and when I’m done, I’ll know everything that you know.”
“Remove your hand young lady. You kids are all gifted because of me. It’s all due to my research, and my understanding of the human brain. I made you what you are today.” Mr. Stratler pauses for a moment, and softens his tone in his voice, once he realizes that his threatening tone isn’t getting him anywhere. “All of you could be very beneficial to your country. If you come with me, you will live out the rest of your lives with riches. You will never want for anything, ever again. We are not here to hurt any of you.” Mr. Stratler is trying to win us over. I don’t trust him, and I don’t think my friends do either.
Tara walks over to me, holds my hand, and brushes the hair off my face. “We’ve come to get you. You must have known that we’d never leave you.”
Sherri takes her hand off of Mr. Stratler. “He’s not the big shot money guy supporting this whole production, but he’s responsible for a lot of it. He doesn’t know who the head people are who ordered this. Doc Turner, this man here is the one who threatened your family.” She moves on to read the other men. Sherri points her finger right at Mr. Stratler’s nose. “You are in big trouble now Mr.!”
Doc Turner shakes his head. “Yes, I am well aware of that. I suppose I can tell you the whole story now. He threatened to take my wife and daughters, and sell them overseas. At the time, my girls were only three and five years old. He said that I would never see them again, but that my wife would be forced to watch our daughters go through hell every day. He said that they would wish for death.”
Todd walks over to the glass wall separating Mabel Whitson’s room and my room, and points into the pitch black room where Mabel is probably unconscious. “Mabel’s lying in that bed, unable to live her life, because of you. That sweet girl can’t do anything, because of your actions. You ordered her to be drugged up so much, that she can’t even talk. Seriously, do you believe that you aren’t hurting anyone? I’m sorry, but we can’t trust you.”
Todd struts over to Mr. Stratler. The man in the suit, a minute ago looking so in control, is now starting to cry.
Todd starts laughing. “I’m making you feel dread. The kind of dread that Mabel has most likely been feeling every single day that she’s been in that bed. All I have to do is will that emotion on you, and voila, here you are, crying like a little girl who lost her puppy. I’m not even really trying, so how about I click it up a notch, and fill you with despair? Horrible feeling isn’t it?”
“Am I too late for the party?” The sweet, familiar sound of Laden’s voice fills the room. He sounds chipper. He weaves his way through the frozen, still men, to get to my side. “I was helping a patient. I am here, my love. He leans down and kisses my lips.
I can’t believe that he left me here alone. Because of that, these men almost took me away. Where was he? Who was so important that he had to stay away from me?
Doc Turner and Nurse Karen stare at Laden and I. Doc steps forward to Laden. “Laden? Openly fraternizing with the patients is seriously frowned upon. You should have kept it secretly to yourselves. Do you love her?”
“Yes, I love Laura.” Laden’s eyes are filled with love, no fear, just pure love as he gazes into my eyes. “And I’m going to protect her from any experiments, or people that might cause her even the slightest problem.”
The lights flicker on and off, on and off. The men in the suits fall to the ground, holding their heads, in obvious agony. Blood streams from their eyes, noses and ears. Their cries of pain are muffled from the gurgling of blood that is now slowly drowning their lungs.
Todd yells to Reilly, “Stop! You’re going to kill them. We don’t want them dead, we want them in jail.”
Reilly looks at Todd, with his eyes huge, “Dude, I’m not doing that, I thought you were.”
“No, I am.” The shadow of a tiny, frail girl is standing at the door. She is wobbling, having a hard time holding her weight on her legs, even though she can’t possibly weigh more than ninety pounds.
Laden says, “I was helping that patient.” Suddenly, I totally forgive him. Is it possible that I can love him even more than I did before?
“Mabel?!” Reilly runs through the maze of bodies that are now writhing in pain on the floor. Seeing her made him complet
ely forget about his hold on the men, releasing them instantly. No matter, they’re in too much pain to hurt anyone.
Reilly scoops Mabel up, and wraps his arms around her, lifting her from her feet, and spinning her around in a complete circle. Tears of happiness are spilling from his eyes.
Mabel wraps her arms around him, and squeezes as best she can. “I waited for you. I knew you’d come back one day. I never gave up hope.”
Reilly, so obviously elated says, “I didn’t know you were here. They lied to us. But I’m here now, baby. I came as soon as I could.”
Mabel pulls herself from his grasp, and holds his face. “I know. We’re together now, forever. But first, I have something to take care of.” She kisses Reilly’s lips tenderly, then she turns back towards the room full of people. “Reilly, you’d better gather our friends and leave. I’ll clean up the garbage. Karen, you’ve been good to me, you can go with them. Doc, you can leave too, but you have a lot to answer for.”
Reilly, Todd, Tara, Jessy and Sherri walk out the door. There’s no need to sneak out under the veil of time freeze like on their way in.
Laden scoops me up in his arms, and Nurse Karen unhooks my IV, lays the bag on me, and the three of us exit the room. Doc Turner is the last to leave. Mr. Stratler and the men he brought with him are left to endure the wrath of Mabel Whitson.
With no one touching it, the door slams shut lightning fast, and the room fills with grey fog. I try to see through it, but I can’t. Gut wrenching screams of men being tortured echo down the corridor. Red liquid splatters on the glass walls. It looks like blood.
Reilly stops, then waves for us to continue on without him. “I’m not leaving Mabel again... ever. We’ll catch up with you later.”
We round the corner, and leave through the door that Todd is holding open for everyone. Nurse Karen and Doc Turner stay at the nurses’ station, and tell us to go. The ‘Restricted’ area’s door shuts, sealing with a click.
Colours In Blackness - A New Life Page 24