Seeing Double (The Perception Trilogy Book 1)

by Alyssa Lynn

  “Welcome to your new home,” said Marcus, as they continued to walk toward the building.

  “I feel like I should have brought a housewarming gift,” Ava said, right before one of the men cracked her across the face. She lost her footing for a minute, but stabilized herself.

  Kaycie tapped Ava with her foot and whispered, “What the hell is wrong with you? Shut up.” She couldn’t understand why Ava was acting this way. Why all of a sudden she was arguing with these people, when she knew it was going to result in her getting a new shiner. It looked like the men were running out of spots to smack her best friend and the thought of the alternative gave Kaycie instant nausea.

  Ava stood there and pasted a shitty grin across her face. Her swollen eye was getting worse because of the most recent blow, but with the way she was acting, you’d think she didn’t even feel it.

  Coming up to the entrance, one of Marcus’ guards pressed the center button on the keypad by the door and the gears started moaning as it lifted open. Shoving them through the door, they made their way down a dimly lit corridor to another secured entrance. Ava noted that this was not the way she had come in the last time. The cold stone walls were dripping with moisture and each corner was decorated with cobwebs. For it being a newer facility, it sure seemed like it had been haunted for decades by dozens of irate souls.

  Kaycie glanced over at Demo who was staring at his feet while they watched the guys unlock the large door. The ties on Kaycie’s wrists were rubbing her skin raw and made it hard to focus on anything else. They entered a room that had obviously been abandoned for quite some time and it sent chills up Kaycie’s spine. “So this is what horror movies are made of,” she muttered.

  Ava was memorizing as much as she could from their walk in case there was a chance they could escape. They entered a gloomy space and walked along a large round desk that appeared to have been used in the past as the control board. Small switches and buttons lined the entire panel and old wires looped from the underside of the counter below an old outlet. Long, rectangular, fluorescent lights were hung from chains throughout the room and the tops of them were coated in the paint chips that had fallen from the ceiling. The old tile floor was chipped and dirty and the wallpaper was peeling from the walls with, what appeared to be, mold growing underneath. The musty smell of dust and dirt filled the air.

  “No wonder this section was abandoned,” Ava said.

  The guard glared at her over his shoulder as he unlocked the double doors that were in front of them. Each one of Marcus’ men grabbed one of the three and dragged them into the next room, gripping their arms tightly. Demo start flailing to try and get free. Kicking at the guy trying to restrain him with his arms. Nobody stood a chance against these men. They were tall, bulky, and built for war.

  Ava and Kaycie were strapped onto metal surgical tables that stood upright. Two other men were attaching Demo to the table across the room, but they let him lay flat to avoid any further struggle. Each of them had black, belt-like straps around their waist, both legs, both arms, and one across their forehead. Anxiety was beginning to fill the trio.

  The room looked like it could have been filled with surgeons about thirty years ago. Large glass windows replaced all but one stone wall, which was covered in black mold. Air ducts hung low from the ceiling and the corners of this room matched the cobweb filled corners of the rest. One large fluorescent light was fixed at each end of the ceiling, which left the room feeling cold and gloomy.

  Marcus stood in the doorway and watched his men do all the heavy lifting. He looked around the room and nodded with approval once everyone was immobilized and fixed to a table.

  “That’ll be all, gentlemen,” he said, waving them out of the room. His men left and he looked around at the three of them, helplessly strapped down. “It sucks having your hands tied, doesn’t it?” He slowly made his way around the large room with his hands behind his back. He stopped when he made it to the side of Demo’s table. “You. I have never met a clone that was so curious about the things happening around them. Constantly asking questions about everything they saw or came in contact with. What are these hoses? Where did those people come from? What happened to the people I saw you escort in last week? Well, curiosity killed the cat, as they say. Or, in this case, killed the clone.”

  Ava started shifting underneath her straps, “Don’t you dare touch him!”

  “Or what? You’ll break into another one of my buildings?”

  She stood silent, glaring at him. Kaycie felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she watched everything unfolding around her. She knew that this wasn’t going to end well for any of them, yet all she could think about was Ethan.

  Marcus looked back down at Demo, “If you wouldn’t have had your hands in every little thing that was happening around here, maybe we wouldn’t have had to intervene.”

  Demo looked up at Marcus and gritted his teeth. The strap held his head firm against the metal. “Intervene with what?” he asked.

  “We had a feeling you were bound to escape. With some of the clones having portions of their donor’s memories flashing through their minds, we were worried you would seek out this little puke,” he said, gesturing toward Ava. “Your donor had no family, no friends, no nothing. It was easy to kill him off. Then we saw in the newspaper that there was a funeral service held for him. How pathetically sweet.”

  Ava felt like she had been stabbed in the stomach. She knew that Demo was a clone, but there was always a small part of her that had hoped Jett was still hiding somewhere. All this time, it felt like Jett was right beside her, but it wasn’t him, it was Demo. How could she have let herself forget about him?

  “You’re a monster,” she mumbled to Marcus. “You kill innocent people to create these clones. For what purpose? To get what you want out of them and kill them off? There is a special place in hell for people like you!”

  Marcus dropped his head as he looked down at Demo and grinned. He walked over and stood in front of Ava who was eye level with him on the upright table. “You know, you were the one that came back for him. We knew you would. That’s why we sent an undercover clone in after you. In hopes to keep you away from this place so we wouldn’t have to kill you.” He stuck out his lower lip and saddened his eyes, “but you came anyway. So you chose your fate.”

  “Undercover clone. You mean, Ethan,” Kaycie whispered.

  Marcus strolled over to her and stood there with a smile on his face. “Yes, your precious boyfriend. Boo hoo, you fell for a clone. You honestly thought some super rich guy was just going to find you in a bar all on his own? Living in the dream world, I see.” He glanced over at Ava, “We knew your best friend, Ava, would figure it out with her full-time gig and all. We weren’t sure how she would go about doing it though. Bravo on your investigative skills.”

  “I don’t understand. How did you know that we were going to come? How did you know where I was? How did you even link me to Demo,” Ava asked, now really wanting to know answers.

  Marcus turned his head to Ava, but didn’t change his stance. “Linking you to Demo was easy. Mainly because you were on the front cover of the newspaper article that talked about the sorry excuse for a funeral you held more than ten years ago.” He took a pen out of his pocket and pressed a button on the side, causing a laser to shine from the tip. Pointing it to the wall, Ava followed the glow of the red light. Hanging on the wall in a wooden frame, was a newspaper article that had a photo on the right side of the typed column. A little girl with tears in her eyes stood next to an empty casket. Surrounding her were pictures of her and Jett as children.

  “Very sad day for you,” Marcus added.

  Kaycie looked over and saw tears running down her best friend’s beaten and bloody face.

  “Finding you was even easier,” Marcus continued. “Working in a genetics lab in one of the biggest cities in the United States. You’ve won awards, Ava. Pretty impressive, I think.” He looked over at Kaycie now, “When we sent in your h
andsome Ethan, we had hoped that he would keep you from wanting to come here and save your precious friend, but that didn’t work out quite as planned. However, we have a new plan now.” He walked over to the wall and flipped a switch. Two large rooms lit up behind the glass windows before he walked back over in front of Kaycie.

  One room was filled with people who shielded their eyes from the light when it flicked on. Kaycie and Ava quickly closed their eyes when they saw what was in the second room.

  Just at a quick glance through the bloodied windows, the girls saw the tables that were smeared with blood and held a few severed body parts. Mangled corpses were tossed into a pile in the corner of the room and surgical equipment lined the far wall. A large incinerator stood in the far corner and their questions were answered as to what happened to the bodies when the DNA source was killed off.

  Kaycie could feel her insides tighten as she tried to hold herself together. As soon as she inhaled, she lost the battle and vomit came spewing from between her lips, making contact with Marcus’ suit.

  “You little bitch,” he shouted, as he struck her across the face. Staring at her in shock, he stormed out of the room. The three of them were left there to stare at strangers through the large glass window, in addition to their fate that rested through the neighboring one. Blood dripped down from Kaycie’s cheek where Marcus’ ring made contact with her face.

  “Kaycie, are you okay,” Demo asked from the table across the room.

  “I’ll be fine,” she whimpered. “What are we going to do? We have to get out of here!”

  “I don’t have an answer for that,” Ava said. “We’re pretty tied up here Kace.” Her mouth was filling with a mixture of blood and saliva, so she attempted to spit it on the floor, but winced in pain. She looked up at the people in the window who were now staring at them through the other side of the glass. “Who are those people?”

  “They’re soon-to-be clones,” Demo said.

  Ava could feel her shoulders droop. She couldn’t save Jett. She can’t save Demo. And now there’s a whole room filled with a new group of victims that she can’t even begin to think about saving. There was nothing left for her to do, but to close her eyes and cry.

  CHAPTER fourteen

  A va opened her eyes to a quiet and dimly lit room. Their upright tables were now leveled and she felt a dull ache in her temples. Glancing at her friends, she realized they were both asleep, or at least she had hoped they were.

  “Kaycie,” she whispered. There was no movement. “Kaycie,” she whispered again, but still no movement. She looked at the large glass windows that were only lit with a faint glow now, and she was thankful that the blood-bath room was dark as night.

  Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down. “Demo,” she whispered, almost whimpering now. He lay completely still with his eyes closed. “Demo, please wake up,” she said, a little louder now.

  His arm started to twitch under the bindings and she could hear him taking deep breaths now. “Ava, are you okay?” Demo asked with a sleepy voice.

  “I don’t know. I can’t get Kaycie to wake up.”

  “She must not have been able to handle it as well as we did.”

  “Handle what? What are you talking about?”

  “The injection they gave us,” he said.

  “What injection?” she asked, more panic in her voice now.

  “Ava, you were awake the whole time. How do you not remember?”

  Kaycie began shifting in her straps. “Kaycie, wake up,” Ava whispered.

  She opened her eyes and looked over at Ava. Tears began to form, but she remained still. “I don’t feel too great,” she said.

  “Kaycie, just stay calm. We are going to figure a way out of here.” Looking around the room there was nothing close enough for Ava to grab. Demo started squirming under his restraints to try and loosen them, but it was no use.

  Kaycie glanced at the double doors across the room to see eyes looking in at them from the other side. “Ava,” she whispered. Ava looked out of the corner of her eye to where Kaycie was staring.

  They panicked and began doing everything they could to try and break free as the double doors opened and a man in a white coat came walking through. “This is going to be fun,” he said, as he made his way across the room and dropped his bag of tools on the empty table.

  Demo could feel himself begin to cry at the thought of someone hurting Ava again. He didn’t want to see her in pain any longer and he would do almost anything to get her out of here.

  “My name is Marv and I will be your cutter today,” he said through a chuckle as he walked over to Ava. “You look like you’ve taken quite a beating already.” Reaching below her, he adjusted her table so she was upright. “Tsk tsk tsk,” he said, running his hand over her cuts and bruises. “Maybe they didn’t teach you that you aren’t supposed to talk back.” He moved away from Ava’s table and adjusted Kaycie’s so she was also upright. “You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you? I can see what Tank saw in you.” Kaycie narrowed her eyes at him as he touched her neck. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to use his real name. Ethan. What Ethan saw in you.” He pressed his lips to hers and ran his hand up her arm. She tried to squirm away, but the head strap was keeping her still.

  “Get away from her,” Ava yelled to him. He looked up at her and grinned as if it were a game to him now. Taking his hand, he touched the inside of Kaycie’s leg and ran his fingers up the inside of her thigh, almost touching the tip of her skirt.

  “Am I not treating her as well as Ethan did? Should I be putting forth more effort?” He asked as he continued to run his fingers over Kaycie’s body. “I’ll be back for you,” he whispered into her ear as tears ran down her face.

  Ava wanted to scream out for help, but she knew that it would only cause more guards to show up and help this psycho with his games. She couldn’t even imagine what would happen if there was more than one of him.

  Marv walked over to the empty table and unraveled the bag, allowing it to open and reveal all of his tools. Knives and needles filled the bag to the brim. He reached in and pulled out a long knife, running his thumb along the tip of the blade as he walked over to Demo’s table. He cranked the lever and Demo rose to an upright position. “There we go,” Marv said. “Now you get to make eye contact with your little girlfriend while I cut you into pieces.”

  Running the knife along Demo’s torso, he cut through the buttons on his shirt to reveal skin. “Do whatever you want to me,” Demo started, “but leave the girls alone. They had nothing to do with this.”

  “That’s not what I heard,” replied Marv. “I heard that they stole you from us. It’s not very nice to steal, ya know.” He pressed the blade to Demo’s chest, hard enough to break skin and draw blood. “Now you’ll have to pay for what you’ve done, little clone.”

  Demo screamed out when the knife cut into his chest muscles. Ava yelled, “Leave him alone you fucking prick!” In the back of her mind, she knew she couldn’t watch them take him from her twice. Clone or not, he was still Jett to her. “Take me!”

  Marv lifted an eyebrow, “Let’s not all try to be heroes now. There’s plenty to go around.” He looked over at Kaycie and licked his lips. She squeezed her eyes closed at the sight of him and when she opened them again, another man in a white coat and surgical mask came walking in with a knife in his hand.

  Kaycie couldn’t stop the tears from pouring out when she thought of what two of them were capable of doing. Her body quivered at the thought of them touching her. Ava saw the second man enter and started to shake. One psycho wasn’t exactly a day at the park, but it was definitely more manageable than two.

  While Demo screamed out under the pressure of Marv’s knife, the second man walked over to the bag of tools on the empty table. Marv lowered the screaming clone’s table so he was parallel with the floor.

  Kaycie began pleading, “Please no. Just stop doing this. You don’t have to do this!”

  “It’l
l all be over before you know it,” said Marv from across the room. The second man walked over to Marv with a second knife in his hand and stood next to him, staring at Demo lying on the table.

  “Take me! Leave him alone!” Ava started yelling. The second man lifted his knife and brought it down with force. Blood started gushing all over Demo’s table. Ava cried out.

  When Kaycie looked up, she noticed that Marv was hunched over Demo. The second man pulled Marv up and dropped him on the floor. Reaching up, he pulled the strings on the surgical mask and let it fall on top of Marv’s limp body. Kaycie looked at him and whispered, “Oh my God. Ethan.”

  ~

  After freeing everyone from their straps, Ethan supported Demo with his shoulders to help him stand. “Listen,” he said to the three of them, “I know you hate me and I know I have a lot of things to explain, but right now, we just need to get you out of here.”

  “You have a lot of nerve coming back here,” said Ava, with a swollen lip.

  “So, I was just supposed to let them kill you?”

  She went silent and crossed her arms. Looking over her shoulder at the people in the other room, Ava saw everyone was now pressed up against the glass. “Fine, whatever. But can we at least help them too?”

  “That room is filled with clones and those that will soon be clones. You honestly want to risk everyone’s lives in order to save them? The minute those people go missing, this whole building will riot. Not just Marcus and his trio of clowns.”

  “Why do they have clones and non-clones in the same room,” asked Kaycie.

  “They heard about you three coming here and didn’t want to cause a stir in the production.”

  “So they placed them all in the same room to watch us be tormented. That seems like a great way to NOT stir shit up around here,” said Ava.

  “Let’s just get the hell out of here,” whispered Kaycie. Ava put her arm around Kaycie’s shoulders and followed Ethan through the double doors. They weaved in and out of various hallways and the girls were uneasy about how simple it was for them to get away.