Silent Treatment

by David James

  It seemed to be flickering and it was directly in his path.

  Maybe it was help? Of course it must be, someone had come to the rescue.

  He quickened his pace, he could feel the hope returning to him, spurring him on.

  He crashed against tree branches and tripped on roots, but he didn't care. His eyes began to tear up again, wiping them only seemed to make it worse.

  He made one last attempt to clear his eyes, but he was almost there now, almost safe.

  And then he reached the source of the light.

  He was now close enough to feel the heat from the flaming torch and he slammed his feet into the earth to stop himself. In the flickering torchlight he was staring directly into the face of Nathan.

  Chapter Seventy Six

  Ben looked up at Nathan's face. The flickering of the light accentuated the shadows on his face. But shadows or not, it was an expression that Ben would never forget.

  'Leaving us are we Ben?' said Nathan, in a voice that seemed to come from the whole forest.

  The shock of actually hearing Nathan speak was profound. His voice was exactly what he would have imagined from seeing him; it contained an almost malevolent air.

  Ben was transfixed by Nathan's expression. He was unable to speak.

  'You don’t need to return, we are in charge now. Sarah is ours.'

  Ben wasn't sure what to say. But as long as Nathan was talking to Ben, it gave him time to think. Time to think of a way out of this.

  'But we don’t want you telling tales now do we. Or who knows what might happen to Sarah. We don't like people who tell tales,' said Nathan, his tone even more sinister than before.

  'What did you do Nathan?' said Ben.

  Nathan didn't reply.

  Ben thought that if he made Nathan angry it might catch him off guard. But it was a dangerous ploy.

  'What did you do to end up here Nathan?'

  'You wouldn't understand Ben. Anyway we have Sarah now.'

  What did Nathan mean by that?

  'We knew she would help us. We knew she would come,' said Nathan. Nathan smiled a crazed, sickly smile and said 'And now we are all better. As you can see.'

  Ben thought about what Sarah had said about their treatment. For it to have been successful they would have to have….

  'What's happened back there Nathan?'

  'Just a little cleansing. We are all better now. The monsters are gone,' said Nathan with the sort of smile that could induce nightmares.

  'You can fool the others Nathan. But you're not fooling me!'

  Nathan's expression changed. It changed into something altogether more terrifying.

  'You are not welcome here!' said Nathan, almost shouting.

  The torch in Nathan's hand came crashing towards Ben's head. But he was ready.

  He swung quickly to the side and the torch spluttered onto the ground. And then he ran. He ran past Nathan before he could gain his balance.

  He ran like a madman.

  Each time he stumbled he lurched forward, but he used the momentum to carry him forward ever faster. The feeble light from his phone wasn't sufficient, but it would have to do.

  He looked back over his shoulder.

  Everything was black. Surely Nathan couldn't follow in the dark?

  He was completely disorientated now. He couldn't be far from getting out of the forest could he?

  He thought he recognised a rock formation ahead of him.

  And now there were two voices around him and they seemed to be almost in ghoulish harmony, one higher pitched than the other, as they formed a low murmur. He couldn’t quite make out the words, if they were words at all.

  And now the murmur steadily grew louder and began to resemble some form of angry chanting. He thought he heard ‘Ben’ in amongst the brutal sound, but he couldn’t be sure anymore.

  The voices seemed to be reaching some sort of a crescendo, their ferocity increased until they almost resembled a scream and their intensity was such that he felt his head would split open.

  He pitched forward onto the ground for a last time.

  He wasn't getting up again.

  He rolled over on his back to accept his fate. It would be a blessed release.

  Chapter Seventy Seven

  The voices stopped.

  The remnants of them that had seeped into his brain remained, but slowly faded away. The forest became silent.

  He lay there for what felt like an age. He dare not open his eyes. He couldn’t look at that face again.

  And then there was a voice. He rolled over and cowered, he couldn't take any more of the chanting, screaming voices.

  But this voice seemed unlike the others. It was calm and measured.

  'Are you alright Ben?'

  He couldn't help flinching at the mention of his name, but he dared to open his eyes.

  The light that greeted him was from a reassuring electric torch rather than the flaming torch that the children had carried. He could see a hand reach out to help him up and slightly hesitantly he accepted the offer. In the half light of the torches around him he could see that there were several people.

  He grabbed the arm and scrambled upright.

  'You look tired Ben,' said another, female, voice.

  He hadn't thought about his appearance since he had been in the village. As he looked himself up and down, he noticed for the first time that he looked like a vagrant. He now had the makings of a beard, was covered in a mixture of mud, grass and distressingly, evidence of some blood.

  He had recognised the voice. It was a voice he hadn't expected to hear again.

  Cynthia said to him 'How are things there?'

  Before he could answer, the first voice said hurriedly 'How is Sarah?'

  Much to his disgust, he had almost forgotten about Sarah. The mention of her name woke him up.

  'We must get back!' he said urgently as he imagined what might have happened.

  He tried to start walking back, but his legs buckled under him and he was grateful for a stabilising arm.

  He could hear that his attempt had elicited several conversations around him. He felt as if he was surrounded. Eventually, they seemed to have reached some form of consensus.

  Cynthia said in a calm and measured tone 'We can take it from here Ben.'

  Ben had no energy to resist.

  'Are you okay to walk? The car isn't far away,' said Cynthia.

  Ben nodded, he was too weak to resist and he was helped along the path.

  He looked back over his shoulder into the woods, still feeling guilty that he wasn't going back to help Sarah. But he could see a train of lights heading into the forest; heading towards the village.

  They walked for several minutes, Ben supported on either side. There were several people with bright torches ahead of him and he noticed how quickly they were moving through the forest. At one point he felt as if they were leaving the path he had taken. But soon they emerged from the woods into the car park.

  They had taken a short cut.

  This certainly wasn’t the first time these people had made this journey.

  Cynthia leaned closer to Ben and said ‘Don’t worry, the experiment is over now, you played your part in its success.’

  Ben thought of Nathan’s expression, but he was too tired to respond.

  He hadn't asked where he was being taken. But as they eased him into a waiting car and drove away, the route began to feel familiar to him.

  As the car began to descend, he could see down into the valley to what he thought was their destination. He managed a half smile to himself. Maybe they would be nicer to him this time.

  Chapter Seventy Eight

  Ben awoke. As his mind was still in the strange twilight between dreams and reality, he wondered how much of what his mind was conjuring up at this moment was real.

  He sat upright in bed. He was in a strange room. He tried to remember how he got here, but the blow to his head as he had fallen and the total exhaustion had taken c
are of his short term memory for the moment.

  It was a nice room.

  Very ornate and not the sort of room that he was used to. He checked the windows and they didn't contain any bars. At least it isn't a prison cell he thought.

  He rolled over and stood up. Immediately he regretted it. His head burst into life and reminded him of his injury.

  There were a pile of clothes on the chair next to him, with a force of effort he assembled the clothes on his body.

  The bedroom door opened easily, no lock, and he looked out onto a corridor.

  'Are you sure you should be up?'

  The voice made him jump and his head hurt again.

  Cynthia was standing there with a tray of food.

  'If you get back in your room I can bring the food in,' she said.

  Ben was in no state to argue and dutifully went back inside.

  He propped himself up on the bed and gratefully received the tray of food.

  'How are you feeling this morning Ben?'

  Ben had begun to devour the breakfast, when was the last time he had eaten properly?

  Through a mouthful of toast he said 'I've been better.'

  The food made him feel better and his mind began to clear. Memories of yesterday began to flood back.

  He pushed the tray aside and said urgently 'Sarah?'

  Cynthia smiled and said 'She's being looked after.'

  'And the village?'

  'All taken care of.'

  He paused for a moment, wondering what ‘taken care of’ meant. And for that matter ‘being looked after’.

  'When can I see Sarah?' he said.

  'That rather depends on you Ben,' said Cynthia gently.

  'And the children?' said Ben.

  Now Cynthia's face brightened 'Oh they are doing well. Much better I think you could say.'

  Ben finished off the last of his breakfast.

  'I need some answers,' he said more abruptly than he had meant to.

  Cynthia sat back upright and said 'I’ll tell you what I can Ben,'

  'What was the crazy village about?'

  Cynthia said 'I think you know the answer to that Ben.'

  'Humour me,' said Ben.

  Cynthia settled down as if she was going to tell a child a story.

  'It was really just a theory at first. But it seemed to evolve a life of its own. Sarah's father was heavily involved. But you knew that didn't you. But he wasn't the only one.'

  'And you?' said Ben.

  'Oh yes, and a lot of the people you may have seen around my house.'

  'I wasn't invited to your house,' said Ben pointedly.

  'Oh yes, an unfortunate oversight,' said Cynthia smoothly.

  Ben let that lie for the moment.

  'We all helped at some point. In setting it up mainly, but from time to time some of us did drop in and see how things were progressing.'

  'And how did they progress?'

  'Very well,' said Cynthia, 'the children began to make remarkable progress.'

  'So it all went smoothly then?' said Ben.

  He thought back to what he had read in Sarah's father's journal. And then it dawned on him that Cynthia presumably didn't know he had read it. He suddenly realised that he was actually at an advantage for once.

  Cynthia's expression remained impressively calm as she said 'Well, when you are trying to push the boundaries there can be issues. Was there anything in particular you were thinking of Ben?'

  And then he realised that she was trying to see what he knew. They were involved in a cat and mouse game, unfortunately he knew which one he was. For the moment at least.

  'Tell me something more about the experiment?' said Ben.

  Cynthia held his gaze until it began to feel uncomfortable.

  'Okay Ben,' she said in a tone of voice that suggested she would humour him for a while longer.

  'You probably aren't aware of the background of the children.'

  'Nathan and Emily.'

  For a moment Cynthia didn't seem to know who he meant. 'Oh yes, as you say, Nathan and Emily, amongst others.'

  'Well if you knew the environment they were being brought up in, then you would understand why we couldn't allow that to continue. We needed to intervene before it was too late.'

  'So you created the perfect environment instead,' said Ben.

  'Indeed.'

  'Sort of the old Nature versus Nurture argument then,' said Ben.

  Cynthia looked at him in a new light. 'Very good,' she said.

  Ben must have remembered something useful from university with Sarah.

  'But they were so very troubled children,' said Cynthia sympathetically. 'As I'm sure you realise having met them.'

  Ben nodded.

  'So what went wrong then?' said Ben.

  'Wrong?' said Cynthia defensively.

  'Well they appeared from nowhere and out into the world,' said Ben. He was trying to get Cynthia off guard.

  'Very unfortunate indeed,' said Cynthia.

  'So they escaped then,' said Ben.

  Cynthia winced slightly. 'It wasn't a prison camp.'

  He recognised the same phrase from Sarah's father’s journals.

  'And so they ended up at the institute,' said Ben, 'which was fortunate.'

  Now Cynthia smiled, 'Yes, that was fortunate. Though intended.'

  ‘Intended? You wanted them to go there?’ said Ben.

  ‘We didn’t. It was the children that decided that. You see, they knew about Sarah. That was also most unfortunate.’

  ‘So they sought Sarah out,’ said Ben.

  ‘Precisely,’ said Cynthia. 'As you surmised the institute did run the experiment.'

  Ben finished the last dregs of his tea.

  'I still want to see Sarah.'

  Cynthia's expression hardened. As she began to speak Ben thought that they had now reached the point where she could say what she really wanted to.

  'Sarah is being treated at the institute. She was not entirely well when we found her.' She paused before continuing 'She is resting now and we envisage her resting for some time to come. I'm sure you know that the death of her father hit her badly. And her behaviour has been very erratic.'

  ‘I’m not surprised, being in that crazy village you created. It’s enough to make anyone mad.’

  ‘Ah, well Ben, she was behaving erratically before that. Her colleagues and several others will testify to that, you can be sure. I’m not sure we can entirely trust anything that she might have told people.’

  Now Cynthia looked directly at Ben. And he realised that he was the ‘people’ she was referring to.

  ‘How very convenient,’ said Ben.

  Cynthia smiled, ‘As you say, convenient.’

  Ben thought back to Sarah's conversations when no one else was in the room. He had presumed that she was talking to her father. And he thought about her behaviour that he had witnessed on the surveillance camera.

  And it slowly dawned on him what Cynthia was saying. If Sarah said anything to the outside world, they would only have to dredge up her past behaviour, maybe even using footage from the cameras at the village. It was all an unfortunate reaction to her father dying. He could imagine an array of her former colleagues being wheeled out to the press. ‘Yes we all felt so sorry for Sarah, and it was a tragedy how it clouded her judgement and led to her delusional behaviour’. He imagined that there would be a lot more psychological terms in there, but the message would be the same.

  And then another thought began to gather in his mind, and it was so appalling that he didn’t want to give it form. Had they deliberately made Sarah unstable to discredit her? Made her so unstable that no one would believe anything she said? As psychologists they would be uniquely able to do this if they wished. Surely they wouldn’t go that far to protect their precious experiment and their reputations.

  He looked at Cynthia's smiling face. He wasn’t fooled, he knew her better than that. He tried to formulate a question. Before he could manage i
t, Cynthia began to stand up, picking up the tray.

  ‘But we are looking after her now, so we don’t need to worry.’

  More than ever Ben felt that he desperately needed to see Sarah.

  Ben thought about Sarah’s father's journal and the last entry in it.

  'And the experiment, did it contribute to Sarah’s father’s illness?'

  Now Cynthia did wince.

  She sighed before saying 'Perhaps. The strain was considerable towards the end.'

  Cynthia forced herself to get back on script. 'What we can't afford is to have Sarah bothered by any unfortunate memories from the time you spent with her.' Now Cynthia stared directly at Ben.

  What else could he say but 'I wouldn't want to harm Sarah's recovery.'

  'I'm glad that you said that because we feel that we should not refer to that time. Certainly for a while. Until she is better. And we think that you being there will trigger some painful memories.'

  So they were banning him from seeing her.

  'But only for now,' said Cynthia holding out the carrot of being able to see her at some later date.

  Cynthia took a deep breath and said 'Then of course there is the damage that would be done if your story found itself in the press. Can you imagine the media camping outside her room night and day? Can you imagine the effect it would have on her Ben?'

  Cynthia held his gaze. He was sure she wouldn't release it until he gave her what she wanted.

  But this was it. This was his big break. This story would make him, his name would be up in lights. Maybe Sarah would cope with the constant media attention. Maybe the stream of publicity and dredging up of every part of her life and her father's life wouldn't be too detrimental to her.

  Oh what the hell was he thinking. He remembered the last time he had seen Sarah.

  His shoulders slumped.

  'If you think it would help. I won't say anything.'

  What else could he say?

  As Ben's shoulders slumped, Cynthia's seemed to lift.

  'Splendid Ben. You are a credit to your profession.'

  'Really? Am I?' said Ben wearily.

  Cynthia began clearing away the breakfast things.

  'And when will I be allowed to see her?' said Ben.