Forsaken

by J. L. Weil

  “If you want to leave, I’m right behind you,” he vowed with vigor.

  He was only here for one reason: me, for my health. But I wasn’t any closer to understanding the blackouts than when we first came back. How much was I risking by being here? Were the Forsaken really the enemy I needed to worry about?

  I stood in the shower, relishing the warm water rushing down my spine, and spilling over my shoulders. Like watching a rainstorm from under a cozy blanket or spending a day sleeping by the beach, a long shower had a way of calming me. It could also have to do with their scarcity in this new warped world.

  The pitter-patter against the walls and the droplets running down my skin made me zone out, opening my mind up for a vision to suck me under.

  I was alone. The soft sound of my footsteps echoed down a long, dark hallway. I shivered, the air cold and wet like a sewer. It smelled like one too. “I could really use a flashlight,” I mumbled under my breath. Then I wouldn’t trip over my own feet.

  With cautious steps, I continued, occasionally looking over my shoulder as if I was worried about being followed, and I might very well have been.

  That would explain why my heart was racing and my palms were sweating.

  But what or who was I afraid of?

  My fingers touched the stone wall for support, but I quickly snatched my hand back. Slime coated my palm, giving me the willies.

  This was one of those visions I desperately wanted to wake from, but of course, that meant it would last the longest.

  I cursed my gift of sight as my eyes adjusted to the blackness. Worn, wooden doors were embedded in the wall. I hadn’t noticed them before. Curious, I flattened my palm against the planks. The door groaned as I pushed it open, and I held my breath, not at all certain I wanted to see what was on the other side. I was compelled to keep moving forward. Standing in the doorway, I peered inside.

  A machine beeped in a rhythmic pattern, and a single bare bulb lit the dark space. Two bodies lay side by side on a metal table.

  One of them moaned, turning her head toward me, and the air in my lungs fled. Noooooo.

  My head shook back and forth, refusing to believe what I saw.

  “Star?” I whispered.

  Beside my unconscious friend lay a Forsaken. Its skin bathed the room in a green glow. Tubes ran from Star to the zombie in a Frankenstein arrangement.

  Were there other rooms like this one? How many? What was their purpose? Who was behind these grotesque experiments?

  I knew I had to stop it.

  When the vision faded, the water was barely warm and my skin was wrinkly. I stood under the spray, trying to gather my thoughts. The air from my lungs came out in quick bursts. I blinked, rubbing a hand over my face, unable to decide if I wanted to continue the dream to see what it was I had actually done or erase the vision completely.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I quickly finished washing my hair before the water turned ice cold. Stepping out into the small bathroom, I toweled off, dressed in a long T-shirt of Dash’s, and walked into my room.

  I played the scene over and over again in my head. The room seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. Had I been there before or just to a very similar place?

  I could have sworn it was here in the Institute, but that was crazy… wasn’t it?

  My visions were now almost daily. There were a million reasons why I could be suddenly seeing an uptick in them. I could blame stress. Lack of sleep. The impending doom of the world.

  Take your pick.

  I was so lost in my mind that I didn’t see Dash until he said my name.

  “Charlotte?” he called, watching me as I stopped in the middle of the room to stare.

  Rubbing my eyes, I was surprised to see him on our bed. “Hey,” I said, smiling without it reaching my eyes. My mind was still stuck on the vision and what it could mean because I couldn’t fathom how anyone could do such a thing.

  I wanted to both scream and cry at once.

  Nothing was clear, except… I had an idea. “There’s something I need to do.”

  Dash was stretched out on the bed in nothing but a pair of black pants that sat low and snug on his waist. “Are you talking about right now? If so, you might want to put on more than my shirt.” His crossbow was propped up against the wall, never far from reach.

  I tugged on the hem of his shirt, shifting my feet. “You’re not going to like it.”

  “Do I ever?” he said with a sigh. “Whatever it is, nothing will stop me from helping you if you think it’s important.”

  His loyalty was one of the qualities I loved about him. He didn’t give such blind trust to anyone. Honestly, I might be the only person in the world Dash truly let in, and yet, even with me, he kept a piece of himself locked away.

  “I think it is.”

  Seeing my stony expression, he sat up from his reclined position. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  Moving to sit on the end of the bed, I let my feet dangle over the edge. “I had a vision of a chamber, and I’m pretty sure it’s here within the Institute, hidden away. We need to find it.” I kept my voice low, because in the Institute, I never knew who was listening, and this was information I didn’t want leaked.

  “Where do we begin searching for it?” he asked, as if it was a simple task.

  My fingers fumbled with the duvet, picking at the material, preparing myself for a glower to darken his features. “This is the part you won’t like.”

  “In the dungeons,” he concluded, the scowl lines I’d anticipated creasing his forehead.

  I nibbled on my lower lip. “I think so. It feels right.”

  “You had a vision,” he added, reassessing the details.

  I nodded. “But making sense out of them is hopeless.”

  “Do you know what we’re going to find in the room?”

  “Rooms,” I corrected him. “There are many rooms where terrible experiments are taking place.” My revelation dangled in the air. I met his eyes in the silence that followed. “Our friends are in danger. We’re in danger.”

  A muscle along his jaw popped. “We’ll look for these hidden rooms of doom, but only after you’ve slept.”

  “I’m not tired,” I insisted. “I’m fine.”

  “I know you are, but that doesn’t mean your body doesn’t require rest.” He patted the spot next to him on the bed.

  I wanted to resist. An urgency inside me was telling me we were on a time crunch, but the glimmer of worry in his eyes had me conceding. “An hour,” I said, climbing in beside him and snuggling into his waiting arms. “I can sleep more after we save the world.”

  I felt his lips curl against my temple. “Is that what we’re doing?”

  “Who the hell knows,” I mumbled, contentment filling me.

  A sigh came from his lips, his whole body relaxing. I hadn’t realized the tension he’d been carrying. “Nothing is right in the world unless we’re together.”

  I understood what he meant.

  My eyes drifted shut, and I fell into a deep sleep with the sound of Dash’s heart beating against my cheek.

  An hour turned into eight.

  Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. Outside a light rain drizzled, splattering the windows. The sky was pure black—no moon, no stars. Dash had his arm around me as if afraid I might disappear while he slept… or get taken again.

  My rumbling stomach had woken me up.

  When was the last time I’d eaten a real meal?

  Too long. And my belly was yelling at me to put some substance in it.

  Careful not to wake him, I scooted out from under his arm to the edge of the bed and stood up. It was late—way past supper—but hopefully, I would be able to scrounge up something in the kitchen. If there was ever a time to start poking around for those rooms, now, in the middle of the night, would be ideal.

  But not without Dash.

  No more doing things on my own. I needed a partner in crime, for I still didn’t kno
w what I would find behind door number one or door number fifty. The Institute was brimming with secrets, and I was sick of their lies.

  It had to end.

  If that meant my father went down with the council, then I would deal with it, as would Mom and Ember. I still didn’t want to believe my entire family could be caught up in the conspiracy.

  Throwing on a pair of pants, I tiptoed to the door. My hand grabbed the doorknob.

  “Going somewhere?” a husky voice vibrated near my ear in the dark room.

  I jumped like a cat with its claws out, ready to draw blood. “Dammit, Dash. You can’t sneak up on me like that. I almost ripped your eyes out.”

  He leaned a hand on the wall over my head, smirking like the devil.

  Clutching my heart, I attempt to steady my racing pulse. “How did you manage to get out of bed without me hearing you?”

  “Ninja skills.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t use them on me. Make some noise or something.”

  The impish grin on his lips slipped away. “You weren’t sneaking out to go snooping around on your own, were you?”

  “Believe it or not, I wasn’t. I haven’t eaten, and I was going to grab a snack.”

  He lifted a brow in a way that made me confess my other thoughts.

  “Then I was going to come back for you so we could go undercover. I need your ninja skills after all,” I added.

  “Damn right you do,” he replied, throwing on a shirt.

  Together, we stepped out of the room and into the hall. It felt like a ghost town. Nothing moved, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t watching. I’d learned while living under the Institute’s roof that there were Gifted who could be invisible, who could hear and see through walls—freaky, but it was the world we lived in now. Anything was possible. No one’s privacy was safe, and you always had to watch your back.

  We made our way down to the kitchen, only passing a few evening guards. They nodded at Dash, but other than the small head gesture, said nothing.

  “Do you think we should enlist Ryker and Ember to help?” I asked, grabbing a slice of bread and a jar of spread like peanut butter with a honey taste. It wasn’t Jif but did the job.

  Dash propped an elbow on the counter, watching me whirl around the kitchen. “Depends. More eyes would be helpful, but how secret is this? Would either of them run to your father? I don’t trust them completely.”

  He had a valid point. I slapped the sweet, thick peanut butter onto two pieces of bread, offering Dash one. “Are you sure you want to do this?” I was thinking about how difficult it must be for him to return to such a place. The memories haunted his dreams, and I hated causing Dash any type of anxiety. Not that he would ever admit that it did.

  “I’ll be fine. It’s only a place. I refuse to let what they did to me define who I am now. I’ve dealt with my demons.”

  Had he?

  We consumed our snack as we headed back to the elevator. I felt a biting pang of fear as we set off to the dungeons. “How are we going to get past the guards?”

  “At this hour, most of them are three sheets to the wind.”

  I shot him a puzzled look. “What?”

  His lips quirked. “Drunk, Freckles.”

  “Oh. That still doesn’t mean we’re going to get inside undetected,” I pointed out.

  “I’ve managed to escape the Institute’s highest security area twice. How hard can it be to break in?”

  “Bet you never thought you would do that.”

  “Nope. Can’t say it ever crossed my mind.”

  Dash led us out one of the side entrances, into the courtyard, and away from the main gates of the compound. It was extra dark outside from the lack of moonlight, and he weaved our fingers together as we crept along the edge of the building. The light drizzle of rain had more or less stopped, leaving the ground mushy, our light footsteps making squishy sounds.

  “Why are we going this way?” I whispered. It was the opposite direction of the winding staircase that led underground.

  “There’s a window at the base of the Institute on the south side. We’ll go through there and take the service stairs down into an unused portion of the dungeons. The staff uses it to deliver food to the inmates serving their sentences.”

  I swallowed, as fear grew inside me. So many things could go wrong, and if Dash and I were caught… I shuddered to think what the consequences would be for either of us. The head of the Institute might be my father, but I’d come to understand his position gave me no special treatment. “You’re going to have to knock out some guards, right?”

  Even in the dark, I could make out the dimples appearing on his cheeks. “Probably.”

  “But no killing.”

  “Not unless it’s necessary. If they hurt you, I can’t make any promises.”

  I’d take it.

  We came to the window covered with moss and overgrown grass. Dash reached for the handle, and I put my hand on his arm. “Wait. There’s something else I should mention.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dash looked over his shoulder, lifting a brow. “Are you serious? Now is not the time for a conversation. We should be like ninjas moving stealthily without noise.”

  “But I’m not a ninja, and this is really important,” I whispered.

  “Freckles, just spit it out.”

  “There is a chance Star might be in one of the rooms.” I didn’t know why I hadn’t told him yet, or why I had chosen this inopportune moment to let him in on the rest of my vision.

  He blinked. “Say again? Star?”

  I nodded.

  Dash’s mouth opened and then snapped shut. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You failed to mention this before. Why?”

  Noticing his distress over our friend’s well-being, the reason I hadn’t shared with him earlier dawned on me. “I didn’t want you to do anything reckless.”

  “We already are doing something reckless,” he hissed, running a hand through his hair.

  I squinted, wincing. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Now we have no choice but to find these secret rooms.” He crouched down, pushing aside the wild grass and jiggling the window back and forth until he had it mostly pried open. “I’ll go in first to make sure we’re clear.”

  “I’ll give you sixty seconds,” I whispered.

  He weaseled himself halfway into the window and grinned. “I only need thirty.” Then he disappeared, and I was left alone.

  Focusing on my hearing, I listened for any sign of a commotion, but of course, I heard nothing but the whistling of the wind. A drop of water fell from the eaves, hitting me in the forehead.

  “Freckles,” Dash called from inside. “Throw your legs over and I’ll catch you.”

  I hoisted myself through the window, trusting Dash would be there. His arms caught my hips before my feet touched the ground. My eyes scanned the darkness. It looked as if we were in a storage room. Shelves lined two of the walls and were filled with old cans of inmate grub that had spider web bridges between them.

  I suppressed a shiver and moved closer to Dash. “Now what?” It was pretty obvious who formed our plans in this relationship, even the spontaneous ones.

  “Follow me. Don’t get caught. And most importantly, don’t die.”

  “Have I told you lately how much you suck at devising a plan?” I groaned.

  He moved to the front of the room with me close behind, and as he carefully cracked the door, I felt the atmosphere intensify. Voices were approaching our hideout, and the Shaman stiffened. He signaled with his hand for me to keep quiet and stay put.

  I held my breath, waiting for the two Night’s Guards to spot us and sound the alarm. We were doomed before we had even begun. Why had I thought this would be easy, regardless of Dash’s warnings?

  The answer was because, in my eyes, there was nothing Dash Darhk wasn’t capable of doing.

  As soon as the guards were in front of the door, Dash went into action. They were unprepa
red for the attack, giving Dash the upper hand, and in under a minute, he had both guards unconscious. Together, we pulled them into the storage room. Dash swiped the master keys off one of them, and as we stepped into the hall, he locked them inside by breaking off the key in the hole, which also blocked off our escape.

  Brilliant.

  Inching our way down the corridor with nothing to light our path, and no idea what waited for us, my breathing became labored. We came to a T in the hall, and Dash threw his arm out, stopping our progression. We waited until a guard reached the end and turned the corner before we went the opposite direction.

  After more than an hour had passed of us aimlessly wandering the underground maze known as the dungeons, I had lost hope we would ever find what I’d seen in my vision. Hell, maybe it didn’t exist, or maybe I had it wrong. We had searched every inch—high, low, left, right, checking behind every door—but nothing resembled a hidden passage. We even scoured the empty prison cells, but Dash put his foot down when I suggested the ones that were occupied.

  “What if it isn’t in the Institute like I suspected?” I asked.

  “Then we keep looking.”

  I let a long rumble of frustration from my mouth. It wasn’t reasonable to expect to find it one night. Yet, I had been so sure it would be down here, and I’d finally have proof of what my gut had been trying to tell me—whom we couldn’t trust.

  “There are only a few hours left before sunlight. We can start fresh tomorrow, and in the meantime, I’ll make some casual inquires.” Dash stopped abruptly. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

  I strained to listen but could barely hear anything over the roaring in my ears from my pulsing heartbeat. Then I heard it. The low beeping noise coming from in front of us. I angled my head to the side. “What is it?”

  Dash shook his head, staring intently at the wall. “I don’t know. A machine?”

  “It could be,” I agreed as I remembered the machine in my vision.

  The beeping grew louder as we moved closer. Dash ran his hand over the solid brick wall, feeling for something. “The entrance has been ghosted.”