Mania Page 14

  I pulled sunglasses out of my pocket and put them on as a last ditch effort. I’d made eye contact with Wendy last. I would try to find out something from her dreams tonight. Maybe she was a Builder or a Watcher and she was lying about it. Maybe she wasn’t either, but she was hiding something else. Either way, if there was anything she wasn’t telling me, I would uncover it in her dreams.

  No one could hide anything from me in there. It was the only place in the world where I had all the power.

  Eighteen

  Parker

  Life came back with violent bursts of burning from my toes to the tips of every piece of damp hair. Each cell in my body screamed in unison in response to the vicious attack. There had almost been peace, and now there was nothing but agony. My stomach and lungs clawed at my internal organs, their contents eager to escape. I coughed and threw up every ounce of the liquid Cooper had forced down my throat. It seared, and the air gave intense relief in baffling bursts in either direction—liquid out, air in, liquid out, air in. I felt ill. My body had been poisoned and it wanted a way to force all of the toxin out … but it couldn’t find one.

  Cooper’s method had been effective, I had to admit. My eyes had opened out of reflex. I’d had no choice. By passing a message to Libby that Jack shouldn’t come here for me, I’d let Cooper use me exactly the way he wanted, without even recognizing it. And now my connection to Libby had been severed.

  I rolled to my side again and clutched my stomach as another stabbing pain went through my gut. In the darkness of the room I heard someone laugh. I’d thought I was alone; I don’t know why, but I had. I opened my eyes, trying to make them focus, but it took several blinks before everything wasn’t cloudy.

  Cooper was in here, alone. He leaned against the wall next to my threadbare cot.

  “I thought I said we weren’t going to kill you,” he said lightly.

  “So did I,” I grunted out against another flash of agonizing pain.

  “Then you shouldn’t try so hard to die.” Cooper smiled and leaned forward until his face was in the shaft of fluorescent light coming through the window on my door. It was disturbing how much every passing hour affected him. He looked more exhausted now than he had when I arrived, which couldn’t have been more than a few hours ago.

  “If you want me alive … ” I tightened my hands into fists, dealing with the pain in that way instead, so my voice could come out with more strength. “If so, you should stop trying to drown me, or at the very least don’t use contaminated water to do it.”

  Cooper didn’t respond, but he squinted and leaned a little closer to me. It was like he didn’t hear or understand what I’d said.

  “That water was bad and I think you’ve poisoned me. And this means I may have to reevaluate my position.” I leaned up on one arm and met his eyes. No reason to avoid the eye contact now that he’d already forced me to do it once.

  Even with the dark, sunken circles beneath his eyes, he still looked fascinated. His eyes sparkled as he said, “What position is that?”

  “I always assumed Thor was the dumbass in your family.” I grunted as an especially intense wave of pain hit and I couldn’t hold it at bay anymore. I curled back onto the floor and my voice was strained as I finished. “Now I’m certain that it’s you.”

  Cooper’s laugh was cold this time and I watched him stand up straight against the wall. “Oh, don’t worry about contaminated water, Parker. It wasn’t water at all.”

  I raised my head slightly, a shiver going through me at the menacing tone suddenly filling his words. “Then what was it?”

  “I’d call it … the beginning.” Cooper walked slowly toward the door and I saw his left hand start to shake with a tremor that went all the way up to his shoulder before he gripped it with his right hand and made it stop. He turned to face me, pretending like it hadn’t happened even though we both knew it had. “We’re just getting started.”

  “The beginning of what?” I asked, and then my whole body started to shiver. The shaking only made the pain more intense and I couldn’t stop myself from cursing against it.

  “You can’t fight it. We gave you our own special concoction designed to make your body react this way.” Cooper watched my agony with a wide smile on his face before continuing. “We may not be able to kill you, but while you’re here, we’re going to make you wish we could. You’ll be begging for it before your brother gets back here with Eclipse. I guarantee it.”

  Then he walked out and locked the door behind him. The room grew colder in the minutes after he left. No, the air around me wasn’t colder, I was hotter. I had a fever. My body was fighting whatever they’d put in me. I just had to hang in there and keep fighting.

  That’s what Addie and Finn would want me to do. That’s what my mom would want.

  Another blinding wave of pain crashed through me and a hoarse cry tore free from my throat. Time passed, but it was impossible to tell how much. One wave of pain would be so intense I couldn’t stay conscious through it. And the next would bring me back to awareness as it tore through my body with the force of a natural disaster. I could feel Darkness there. He lay beside me. He carried the pain too.

  And I didn’t feel as alone.

  My eyes were closed during a point when the pain dulled for a minute. In the quiet, I thought I heard someone breathing. Opening my eyes, I saw a female figure outlined against the light that came through the tiny window in the door.

  “Hello?” I croaked out, wondering what kind of twisted girl would choose to be in here watching me suffer through this.

  “Oh, Parker.” She whispered my name but kept her distance. The voice, though … I would know it anywhere.

  “Addie?” I tried to raise my head but couldn’t. “How did you find me?”

  She didn’t answer. Instead, she moved over to kneel beside me in the quiet. A match flared and she lit a small candle she held in her lap. Her face was illuminated, looking ethereal by candlelight, and her hair glowed like dying embers around her.

  “I’m here,” she said.

  “You shouldn’t be.” My protective instincts kicked in. “If they find you … you need to leave, Addie. Maybe we can both find a way out of here now. Is the door still unlocked?”

  “No. We aren’t going anywhere.” Her tone made my heart ache. Her expression looked distant, almost cold.

  I tried to prop myself up on my elbow, but my head started pounding again and I lay back down. “What do you mean? How did you get in?”

  “I came here to help, but I’m not sure what I can do with this … ” Addie gestured toward me. “Cooper was right. You’re weaker than I thought.”

  “Cooper?” My already feverish body filled with a new chill. “What do you mean, Addie?”

  “You’re too trusting.” She leaned over and ran one finger over my forehead and down my cheek. Near my chin, she suddenly pressed harder and scratched me. “You never even suspected me.”

  I pulled back, watching her in complete shock. Shaking my head, my heart pounding in my throat. “No … ”

  “Oh yes,” she whispered, giving me that vibrant smile I loved so much. “You’re so easy to play. Almost too easy.”

  My heart shattered into a million pieces and I asked the only word that mattered: “Why?”

  I heard a thumping sound and the distant echo of someone yelling.

  “You knew you weren’t good enough for me, Parker. Now maybe your bad choices have rubbed off on me a little too much.” Her face twisted into a snarl and I was actually a little afraid of her. Closing my eyes, I tried to convince myself this was just a nightmare, that it couldn’t be real.

  Except I knew that I didn’t have nightmares.

  “Addie … this isn’t you.” Tears ran down my face now and the pain rushed back with them. “You can’t mean this. What did they do to you?”

  “I chose this,
Parker. I chose this over you … and now you have to deal with that.” She spoke low, near my ear, but it didn’t sound like her. I’d never heard Addie filled with so much hate. Had I known her at all? Had this been buried deep inside her all this time?

  I heard the thumping and distant yelling again, but this time I recognized it. Shawn … the guy I’d spoken to earlier, was yelling at me.

  “Hey man, can you hear me?” he bellowed as if from a mile away, then said, “I wish I’d gotten your name.”

  He kept yelling. Another wave of pain hit and made me cry in agony. “Parker,” I finally spat out when it improved slightly. “My name is Parker.”

  Shawn didn’t speak for a few seconds, then said. “Damn, they finally got one of you.”

  I opened my eyes and saw that Addie now stood at the window looking out, her back to me. Every time I’d held her, kissed her, looked into her eyes—they all came rushing back and I couldn’t believe they’d all been a lie. Was this another cruel trick of my mind?

  “Addie, please … ” It was all I could say and all I had to say.

  She turned to face me and then shook her head and turned away.

  “Parker.” Shawn’s voice was urgent and sounded closer, like he’d moved along his wall to the spot where I rested against mine. “They forced some nasty liquid into you, right?”

  “Yes,” I said, but I only half heard him.

  “Listen to me. Whatever you’re seeing in there, it isn’t real,” Shawn yelled, and this time a shadow crossed past my small window and someone pounded on his door.

  “Quiet!” a voice shouted from the hallway.

  “That stuff causes hallucinations,” he continued, this time speaking at a more normal volume. “It messes with your head. Don’t believe it.”

  Addie turned to face the wall Shawn was hiding behind and frowned. I watched her, blinking as the truth fell into place. Of course it wasn’t her. In my feverish haze of pain I’d actually believed it, but I knew her better than that. It made no sense for her to be here … and she would never say these things.

  Not my Addie.

  She shot me a rueful look, like she knew I’d figured her out. Then she shrugged and dissipated into a million shards of shadow.

  I lay there alone, catching my breath. “Thanks, Shawn.”

  “No problem.” He sounded relieved even through the wall.

  “One question, though … ” Exhaustion swept me and I hoped to pass out again because at least it would give me some relief from the pain.

  “Yeah?”

  “How do I know that you’re real?”

  It was silent on the other side of the wall for a few seconds, then said, “You might not know … but I was here before, if that helps. And I won’t disappear.”

  “Fair enough,” I grunted out.

  “Hang in there, man.” He sounded miserable. “It’ll pass.”

  But it didn’t feel like it ever would. Waves of pain went on endlessly, easing here and there but never going away. My feverish brain argued with itself. Ten full days of this and I wouldn’t be begging for death—it would be surprising if I survived. I’d probably be actually dead. But Cooper said this was the beginning. What else did he have planned? Could it be even worse than this?

  I heard movement in my room. Someone else was here again. Would it be someone real this time? I prayed it wasn’t Addie. Even knowing she hadn’t been real, having her say those things to me was so painful. She seemed so real.

  Something touched my mouth and poured more liquid down my throat. I fought to push them away. No more poison. No more pain. But then I stopped fighting. This was definitely fresh water and it had a medicinal tang to it. It brought an instant relief so sweet I nearly cried.

  My visitor moved away and I tried to blink as my pain continued to fade. I tried to focus my eyes before this person got away. Whoever this was had helped me, maybe even saved me. They were a friend, and if I had a friend in here, then I had to know who it was. When I finally got my eyes to focus, the door had closed and locked.

  Several minutes later my shivering had almost entirely stopped and the door opened again. This time Thor came in. I watched him, unsure if I should fake the kind of pain I was probably supposed to be in. I moaned and shivered for effect. He never met my eyes, but as he walked past, he kicked my leg hard enough that I was sure it would leave a massive bruise. I grunted and considered kicking him back, but my body literally wasn’t capable of that movement. Rubbing at my newly injured thigh, I rolled into a tighter ball. I pretended to close my eyes and waited for him to finish whatever he was in here for.

  Once he thought I wasn’t watching him, Thor grabbed a garbage can from the hall, shoveled the dead rat into the can, and then left.

  Nineteen

  Jack

  After driving to a nearby picnic area, I parked the van. I climbed out and took a seat on the van’s back bumper, trying to get my emotions under control. Parker was in more danger every minute that I couldn’t save him. Maybe I’d made the wrong decision. Maybe trying to get the new formula together first wasn’t the best plan.

  Maybe I was wasting time when I should’ve already been trying to find a different way to get to him. I wished Libby would wake up and tell us what she’d learned, but I definitely didn’t want to interrupt them.

  My lungs felt tight and hot. It was like fire was filling them instead of oxygen. I leaned forward, propping my elbows on my knees and trying to calm down. I was stronger than this. I had to be stronger. Dad trusted me to be … he’d trusted me to take care of Parker and to solve this formula puzzle.

  I pushed aside the aching loneliness that thoughts of Dad always left me with and tried to focus. For now, the only thing I could do was spend tonight in Wendy’s dreams and hope they held more answers than our conversation had provided.

  As I sat up straight and leaned against the cold metal of the van, I realized Chloe had gotten out and was standing in front of me. Most people couldn’t sneak up on me like that. She had dark glasses on, too, and I wondered if she already knew what I was thinking and had protected me from making eye contact with her just in case.

  “Have you decided?” Chloe’s voice was low, and I wasn’t sure if she was trying not to wake up Libby in the van or just attempting to keep the conversation quiet enough that the few other people hanging out in the park this late couldn’t hear us. Then Finn climbed out of the van and walked back to lean against it on my left side.

  “Decided what?” My voice and body were both starting to match up with the level of my total exhaustion inside. I’d wanted to watch Libby’s dreams tonight and get some real sleep, have her help heal me … but that wasn’t looking like an option right now.

  “What we should do now,” Finn said, raising his eyebrow and looking at Chloe in confirmation. She nodded and they both waited for my answer.

  I’d grown used to being put in charge. Dad had trained me to lead most of my life. I wasn’t afraid of it. The only thing that scared me was the thought that Parker was at risk. Losing him would be too much for me when I already had so little left.

  “We have two choices,” I said. “I can go into Wendy’s dreams tonight and see if she’s hiding anything.” Standing up, I stretched my back. “Or I can accept this for the dead end it seems to be, wake Libby up, and go after Parker … like I probably would’ve preferred to do from the beginning.”

  “Why do you always use this word ‘I’?” Finn said lightly, even though his stare could burn metal. “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

  Chloe giggled, grinned widely at Finn, shook her fist, and said, “Inconceivable!”

  I shook my head, trying to force their words into any sort of sense, and then Chloe turned back to face me. “It’s from a movie, don’t worry about it. But I vote option one. You don’t even know where they have him.”

  “I
’m awake.” Libby’s voice came from inside the van. I looked up and saw her staring out at us. She moved toward the front to climb out, and I met her before she was even out the door. She looked pale even under her olive skin. And she still appeared devastated, but much better and saner than she had been before she’d slept.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, and then wished I could bite my tongue and immediately steal the words back. Of course she wasn’t. Neither was I.

  She pretended I hadn’t spoken, and I was grateful. “Your brother was there. He was okay … ”

  A massive swelling of hope rose up in my chest and I saw Finn’s face spread with a wide smile.

  “What did he tell you?” I asked her, starting to worry that her reason for looking so grim could be tied to Parker and not Marisol.

  “He refused to tell me where they have him. He asked me to tell you there are heavily armed guards everywhere, Jack.” Libby reached out to hold my hand, her eyes filled with nothing but misery.

  “So?” I shrugged, adjusting my dark sunglasses tighter against my face with my free hand. “I’ve dealt with situations like that before.”

  “I know, but he still wouldn’t tell me. He said it would be nearly impossible for you to get to him without being caught.”

  “Why is he so stubborn?” I groaned and stepped back, shoving my hands into my pockets.

  “There’s more, Jack.”

  I heard tears in her voice and my heartbeat stuttered. She reached out for my arm and I almost pulled away. I knew there was more she had to say, but from the look on her face, I was terrified to hear it.

  “He said to tell you not to come. He said it’s too dangerous, that he’ll be okay and you should stay focused on figuring out the new formula.” She trembled all over. “But then they pulled him out of my dream and broke the connection. I’m not sure what they did to him, but I f-felt him go, Jack.”

  An icy rush of fear went down my spine and I jerked my arm out of her grip. “No. It’s impossible for you to be sure.”