by Tammy Walsh
I did and was surprised when my muscles relaxed and unfurled.
I melted into the bed.
“I’m going to count backward from five and when I get to zero, you’re going to fall into a deep sleep. You’ll find yourself deep inside your subconscious. There, you’ll find your memories. They might be hidden from you right now. Don’t approach them. They will come to you when they’re good and ready.”
I must have been more tired than I thought, as Isabella’s voice faded slowly into the distance.
“Five…”
The cars whooshed in the distance, morphing into the gentle exhalation of a gentle ocean.
“Four…”
The birds hooted into the night, flapping their wings and taking flight.
“Three…”
I recorded every rise and fall of Isabella’s voice.
“Two…”
My lungs expelled every ounce of air before opening up again like a giant bellow.
“One…”
My head was so heavy I could barely even feel it.
“Zero.”
And I was gone.
Isabella
I was surprised he went under so fast—especially after he said there was no way he was going to succumb to it!
At first, I thought he was playing.
I crept up to the edge of the bed and said:
“Hey, Clint? Clint? Can you hear me? Clint?”
I clapped my hands and he still didn’t respond.
“Clint?”
I jabbed him in the ribs but again he didn’t reply.
“I guess you must really be under, huh?”
I turned away and immediately spun back toward him.
“Bwah!”
He didn’t react.
But I knew what would make him react…
I lay down on the bed beside him, bit my bottom lip, and ran my hands over my breasts.
“I feel so lonely. Can you keep me company?”
I took his hand and placed it up my skirt.
And he still didn’t respond.
He was genuinely under hypnosis, I realized.
Well, this was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
Yes and no.
I mean, it was good we were doing something different to help him remember his memories but I suddenly felt very alone.
I was in a drafty motel room in the middle of nowhere.
If someone were to come in right now…
I suddenly felt very scared.
I spooned up closer to Clint and wrapped my arm around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder.
I felt at his muscles.
For some reason, he’d taken his shirt off when he went in the bathroom.
I fingered each of his muscles that bulged beneath the skin’s surface.
He probably thought his luck was in.
There was little else to do in this room besides talk, watch TV, and…
Now I wished I’d given him his payment in advance of hypnotizing him.
At least then I could feel satiated.
Satiated.
The way fake-Liam wanted to satiate himself with me.
The horrific scene earlier in my bedroom didn’t seem real, but otherworldly.
It might have happened to someone else and their memory had been implanted in my head.
That was why I wasn’t too shaken up by it.
I never really believed it was going to happen.
And when Clint came in and saved me in the nick of time…
It somehow felt right, that it was supposed to happen that way.
Still, I preferred for him not to be inside his own head right now.
I needed a little… attention.
Ever since we first kissed, something had awoken inside me, something deep and visceral.
I wanted to kiss him all the time.
In fact, I wanted him inside me.
And every time, something prevented it from taking place.
If we were meant to be together, as we both believed, then why was the universe so keen to keep us apart?
It was as if everything had been perfectly calibrated to ensure we never consummated how we felt about each other.
But we would.
The moment he opened his eyes, no matter what kind of out-of-body experience he had, I would jump his bones.
It was hard to keep myself from doing it right now while he was under…
Maybe that could be how he woke up…
Looking down at me with his big fat cock in my mouth—
I sprung up from the bed and shook myself off.
Calm yourself, slut.
Now isn’t the time for that.
Oh, but it is…
No! It’s not.
I had to watch over Clint while he tried to remember what’d happened to him.
We were a team and I had to make sure nothing distracted him.
And that meant keeping watch.
I approached the tasteless orange curtains and fingered them open.
I noticed my shadow cast across them from the room’s dim light behind me.
I flicked the light switch off and returned to the curtains.
This time, I approached from the left-hand side, right next to the door.
I eased the curtain aside and peered out at the quiet country road.
It was very quiet out there.
You could almost believe everything was as it should be.
Almost.
I sure hoped Clint would wake up with some recollection of what was going on here.
Too much of it didn’t make any sense.
When Liam had left the farm, he’d been a beaten man.
A few hours later, he was the Terminator.
I’d seen Clint’s earlier immense strength and Liam had matched him.
How had he achieved that?
Had he injected himself with some kind of steroid that turned him into the Hulk?
And gave him the ability to shapeshift…?
I’d completely forgotten about that.
I must have repressed it.
He’d adopted my father’s form first, though some of the details were a little off.
Then he morphed back into Liam and tried to rape me.
And for the faintest of moments, there’d been a distinct flicker as the creature assumed Clint’s form.
What did that mean? I wondered. That he could take Clint’s form as well?
Or mine?
Or anyone we encountered?
And maybe—
Outside, someone cleared their throat.
I shifted position.
It came from a few doors down.
The man stood there with his hand tucked in his pocket as he smoked a cigarette.
He had a bushy mustache and was overweight.
He had thinning grey hair tucked beneath his stetson.
He stared into the night at the small copse of trees opposite.
If Liam was capable of morphing into anyone, couldn’t he have adopted that man’s form?
When he finished his cigarette, he dropped it in the dirt and crushed it beneath his heel.
I pulled the curtain shut, but just wide enough for me to peek through.
The man didn’t notice me standing there and headed back over to his room.
My shoulders were tense and the muscles were beginning to ache.
I relaxed them before a small car passed into view, shifted gears noisily, and then struggled up the shallow incline to join the motorway.
I eased back and peered over at Clint lying on the bed, perfectly calm and at peace.
I smiled.
Despite everything that’d happened, everything that’d taken place, I was still happier than I had been in a long time.
A very long time.
In fact, even with this maniac on our trail and trying to hunt me down, I was more content now than I had ever been.
All thanks to that lump on the bed.
And when h
e woke up, I would drop to my knees and pleasure him the way he deserved.
He won’t know what hit him.
I’d suck every drop from his quivering member the way I wanted.
Or he could ride me until the cows came home.
And being so far from home, I supposed that would be quite some time…
I couldn’t wait for that.
He had the body of an athlete and I was sure he was capable of some incredible feats of stamina.
I’d make sure he put it to good use.
I giggled and immediately covered my mouth, stifling it.
I couldn’t believe I was thinking about a man this way.
I never thought I would think of any man that way again…
Not since my friend disappeared.
The history of it played through my mind again but I tried to block it out, block it without insulting her memory.
I’d been right at the farm.
We needed to leave my hometown and start again.
We needed to leave Liam far behind and get to a place he would never find us.
I just wished it didn’t have to end up this way…
The connection I shared with Clint was special.
The bond was a powerful, almost physical thing I could touch…
And that’s when I realized the “bond” we spoke about wasn’t really a spiritual thing.
It was something I could almost feel with my fingertips.
It was there now in the center of my chest, pulsing a steady rhythm beside my heart.
It began with me and ended with him lying on the bed.
A link that would never die.
I would carry him with me, always.
My smile began to fade.
There was another soft thumping beat in my chest beside the first.
It came out my back and passed through the curtains and the window, to something distant…
But not that far…
What was it?
It faced in the rough direction of my hometown…
But that was fifty miles away and that deep throbbing in my chest was much closer than that.
I couldn’t explain how I knew that, only that it was.
I pulled the curtain aside and peered in the direction of that beat that upped the pace and began to thud faster and harder.
I scanned the small country road, both left and right.
Its origin was closeby, that much I could tell, but from here, I couldn’t ascertain if it was from the left or the right…
Then I spotted movement.
Right there, coming from the right, passing around the grassy verge and pulling to a stop two dozen yards out.
A police cruiser.
But not just any cruiser.
Liam’s cruiser.
It should have been impossible for me to tell them apart but I knew it had to be him because that throbbing in my chest pointed directly at that vehicle.
I shared a bond with that fake-Liam thing?
Why?
I didn’t want to be linked with it.
I only wanted to be joined with Clint.
And still, I didn’t move.
I stopped breathing and my eyes bulged to the size of saucers, praying, hoping I was wrong, and the cruiser didn’t belong to who I thought it did.
The door clicked and swung open.
A boot stepped out, followed by a second.
Then the figure emerged.
Wearing his shades—at night!—he curled his hand around the door and slammed it shut.
And fake-Liam marched directly toward me.
I flew back as if he had psychokinetic powers.
I spun around and found Clint right where I’d left him.
He was still unconscious, drifting away in his little dream world.
“Clint!” I said, falling to the mattress beside him. “Wake up! Please! Wake up! Liam’s coming!”
When he didn’t move, I grabbed him by the arm and shook it.
“Clint! Get up!”
He didn’t stir a muscle.
I checked the motel door.
It was thin and flimsy.
No way it could withstand an assault for long.
When Liam got in here, there was no doubt in my mind what he would do with Clint.
Draw his weapon and open fire.
And just like that, tiny shards of metal would make the memories I’d forged with Clint obsolete.
“Clint!” I screamed in his ear. “Liam’s coming! He’s coming here right now! If you can hear me, you have to get up! Get up!”
Nothing.
No movement.
Nothing.
I didn’t even bother trying to tug him from the bed.
Even if I could, there was no way I could get him into the bathroom and through the window.
Only Clint was strong enough to do that.
My eyes alighted with an idea.
So maybe Clint could do it!
I dived for the amnesia book and scooped it up off the mattress.
I’d laid it facing down so the hypnotism chapter was right where I’d left it.
I scanned the paragraphs until I found what I was looking for.
I read the passage:
“W-When I c-click my f-fingers, I w-want you to g-get up and c-climb through the b-bathroom w-window.”
I could barely get the words out of my terrified mouth.
“T-Three. T-Two. One.”
I clicked my fingers and, as if by magic, Clint sat up.
His eyes were shut, his movements slow and deliberate, but he was moving.
He swung his legs off the bed and slowly marched toward the bathroom.
“Hurry!” I said. “Quick!”
I chastised myself for not telling him to set a new world record.
I snatched up my bag and glanced back at the door.
Thud!
Thud thud thud!
I pressed my hands to Clint’s heavily-muscled back and tried to shove him forward, but it was no use.
I might as well try to force a wall to move.
The front door splintered and snapped open.
Liam’s face appeared in the hole and peered through at me.
He wasn’t grinning and wore no expression.
Frankly, any expression would have been better than his vacant one.
I slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it.
Another temporary obstruction.
Clint stood on the edge of the bath and pulled himself through the wide but narrow window.
For a moment, I feared he would get stuck.
I was relieved when his broad shoulders slipped through and his legs leaned upward.
He fell out.
My turn.
Smash!
The bathroom door splintered inward.
Liam’s arm reached through and grasped for me.
“You’re mine, slut!”
“I don’t think so, asshole!”
It was terror more than courage that summoned the retort.
I snatched up Clint’s drying shirt, jammed it in my bag, kicked off the side of the bath, and sailed toward the window.
My hope had been to time it just right so I sailed through the window unimpeded but grace had never been my strong suit.
My stomach caught on the edge of the window.
Damn those extra pounds!
I pulled myself through, my shin barking against the frame as I fell in a heap on the other side.
It was fairly high and Clint wasn’t there to catch me.
“What the fuck?” I spat at him. “Why didn’t you catch me?”
He stood stock still, barechested in the cool night air, that vacate expression still plain on his face.
“Oh right. Hypnosis. Hurry up and get in the car!”
I bolted toward my pop’s old hunk of junk, scrambled for the keys in my bag, found them, dropped them, and then scooped them up again.
I unlocked the door—totally unnecessary as I
doubted anyone was desperate enough to try and swipe this piece of shit—and climbed inside.
Clint wasn’t beside me.
He stood beside a different car.
I wound the window down and bellowed at him:
“This car, asshole! This car!”
I reminded myself to be clearer in my instructions next time.
Clint climbed in.
He barely managed to shut the door before I hit the gas and took us onto the country road toward the motorway and headed north.
“Clint,” I said, swerving around a vehicle in the slow lane. “Please come back to me from wherever you are. I need you. Clint? Please wake up! Please!”
But his eyes remained shut and my hope stayed shuttered along with it.
Ras
I found myself in a large cavernous space that I’d only ever seen in my dreams and that moment right before waking up in the hospital.
It was filled with mist that writhed in concentric circles.
There were no walls and seemed to go on forever.
Above me, nothing but empty sky and endless black.
I wondered if it was normal to feel uncomfortable in your own mind.
“Hey, Clint? Clint? Can you hear me? Clint?”
The voice echoed and reverberated off into the infinite darkness.
“Clint?”
It was Isabella’s voice.
It echoed through the space I found myself in.
“Isabella?” I said. “Are you there?”
“Clint?”
“I’m trapped in my own mind!” I yelled. “It’s amazing!”
“I guess you must really be under, huh?”
Huh?
“No. I’m right here. Can you hear me?”
“Bwah!”
My hopes deflated.
It was no use.
She can’t hear me.
I was alone in here, with no way to communicate with her.
She was speaking to me… but on the outside of my body.
I felt something touch my chest.
I placed my fingers where it occurred and sensed it was Isabella touching me.
She was up there, out there, touching me.
Her warmth boosted my courage.
The sooner I uncovered my memories, the sooner I could return to her.
I edged cautiously into the mist, preparing to shirk back any moment it made a move to snag me in its foggy entrails.
One inch after another, I descended into the darkness with nothing to guide me but my instincts.
