The Mesmerized

by Rhiannon Frater

  “Before you woke up?” Simone nodded. “Yes, I did.”

  “I saw it earlier. When I went blind in the first attacks.” Minji leaned her shoulder against the doorjamb. She felt weak, tired, and helpless.

  “So we’re not really immune,” Jesse said. Draping an arm around Simone’s shoulders, he hobbled past Minji and into the room. It was an obvious struggle for him to coordinate his gait.

  “Except for her,” Simone said, her eyes again darting toward Minji.

  “Why her?” Arthur’s voice was shrill.

  Jesse slumped into the chair Minji had vacated. “I don’t know.”

  “Why are you special?” Arthur demanded, his hands clenching his cellphone, his eyes riveted to the screen. The faint sound of a voice dictating how to leave a message whispered through the room. “My kids are probably dead right now, or they're one of them! But you’re immune. Why?”

  Minji lifted a shoulder, shifting Bailey onto the opposite hip to give her aching body a rest. “I have no idea.”

  “Is it because you’re Chinese? Are the Chinese doing this?”

  “I’m part Korean, dickwad.” Minji scowled angrily at the man, her earlier compassion eroding in the face of his ignorance and belligerence.

  “So the North Koreans are doing this? What are you? A sleeper agent?” Arthur killed the call he’d been trying to make, shot to his feet and took a sharp step toward her. “Answer me!”

  “I’m a tattoo artist from Austin, Texas. I was born and raised in Texas, dipshit. I’m just as American as you!” Minji handed Bailey to Simone and matched Arthur’s intimidating pose. She was shorter than he was, but she wasn’t about to back down. “I have no fuckin’ idea why I’m immune, so back off! You’ve been at total asshole since this started and I’m sick of it! You need me, because if you go under again, I’m the one who can take care of you. You don’t want to end up outside with the others, do you?”

  “Is that a threat?” Shooting a look at Jesse, Arthur said, “Is she threatening me?”

  “No,” the younger man said, “but I am. Sit your ass down, or I will sedate you.” He pointed at the chair Arthur had abandoned. “Take a seat, Arthur.”

  “Why are you getting after me? She’s the one who’s suspicious! She’s immune! How do we know she’s really from Texas?”

  “Sit down, Arthur!” Jesse ordered in a sharp voice. “I mean it.”

  Grudgingly, Arthur obeyed, but folded his arms defiantly. “It’s just really suspicious that she’s immune.”

  “Why?” Simone asked. “Because she’s not white?”

  “Or because she has a tilt to her eyes?” Jesse pointed to his own face. “Do I look suspicious? I got a bit of a slant to my eyes, too.”

  “Of course, you don’t look suspicious, Jesse. You’re a true native of America. But with all the trouble that’s been brewing in Korea and China, don’t you think it’s just a little suspicious that the Asian is the only one not affected?” Waving a hand toward Minji, he continued, “That’s the only thing that sets her apart from us, you know. Her race! So that has to be why she’s immune!”

  “I saw a lot of Asians out in that crowd.” Simone stepped next to Minji while gently bouncing Bailey on her hip. “Why would China or Korea send a young, tattooed mother with her children and husband to Las Vegas to start the end of the world? How does that even make sense? Look at her babies, Arthur. You’re a father. You have children. Take a look at her girls. They’re both suffering through this, too. What kind of spy would bring her children to something like this? Or her husband? Her white husband?”

  “So she wouldn’t come across as suspicious?” Arthur sounded less sure of himself, his anger deflating like hot air out of a leaking balloon. Brushing away tears with his fingertips, he sniffled loudly. “What if she has the antidote? What if...”

  Minji kicked Arthur’s shin, but not as hard as she wanted to. “Fuck you! If I had an antidote, I would give it to my daughter!”

  “Hey!”

  “Stop being an asshole, Arthur!”

  “You’re the one being violent!”

  “Arthur, you’re being a dick.” Jesse rubbed his hands over his thighs a few times, vigorously rubbing his muscles, then attempted to stand. When he remained balanced, he moved to Jake’s side.

  Simone settled into the chair Jesse had abandoned and cooed at Bailey, attempting to distract the concerned-looking baby.

  Grabbing Arthur’s hand, Minji forced it into her hair. “Pull on my dreads. They’re real. Touch my tattoos. They’re real. Hold my daughters. Look at my husband. Pull off his wedding ring and see the indentation in his skin caused by never taking it off. Look at me in my so-called slanted eyes and tell me I’m not a victim of this horrible event! Tell me how I’m somehow inhumane because I’m immune. Tell me!”

  Arthur jerked his hand back, lowered his face, and mumbled.

  “What?”

  Lifting his head, he screamed, “I’m sorry! Okay? I’m sorry! I’m scared out of my mind! God, I wish you were a spy so you could give us the antidote and make this stop. I just want this to be over! I don’t want this to be the end of everything.”

  The needle was in Arthur’s arm before his words faded from the air. Jesse rested a hand heavily on the other man’s chest to hold him steady. “I told you, Arthur, you need to calm down.”

  “You had no right,” Arthur protested, shock planted firmly on his face. “You had no right!”

  “It’s the end of the world, Arthur. I have to do what’s right. And what’s right is you calming down and resting.” Jesse withdrew the needle and discarded it in the bin marked BIOHAZARD. Setting his hands on his narrow waist, he observed Arthur as the drug began to take effect.

  “It’sh schnot fair,” Arthur slurred. “Not fair that she’s immune.”

  “But she is, so deal with it,” Jesse replied.

  Arthur’s eyes fluttered, then closed.

  “I can’t say I’m not grateful,” Simone said. “He was getting on my last nerve, too.”

  “He’s just scared,” Minji said, regaining her composure. “He wants this to be easy. Like a movie. Find the big bad, stop it, save the world.”

  “But this isn’t a movie,” Jesse replied. “And he needs to accept that we’re all lost. None of us have any idea what’s going on.” He cocked his head to look at the window, his long braid falling over one of his shoulders. Jesse solemnly regarded the panorama of the smoke-filled sky and distant fires. “This morning, the world was normal, and now it’s dying. But the end of the world is no reason to be an asshole.”

  “Amen.” Simone crossed her legs and cuddled Bailey in her arms. “Besides, for the first time in his life, he’s the minority. It probably has him at a disadvantage.”

  Remembering Arthur’s earlier phone call, Minji had to disagree with that assessment. In all the years of tattooing, she had learned a lot from listening to her customers. Sometimes people were inked just for fun, but others came in with designs that reflected their life struggles and victories. All those stories had given her insight into the human spirit and helped her understand Arthur.

  “No,” she said. “It’s not that. He’s just tired of feeling helpless. Loss of job, home, marriage and his ability to take care of his family...and now this.” The rage that had surged through her veins with his racist accusations dissipated, leaving her feeling even more tired than before.

  “You’re giving him too much credit.” Jesse leaned against the window and watched Arthur’s chin slowly bobbing toward his chest.

  Minji lifted Ava onto her hip. Staring into her daughter’s eyes, she said, “Well, he’s wrong anyway. This isn’t being done by a country like North Korea or China. This is something more, something...”

  “Supernatural?” Simone raised one eyebrow.

  Meeting Ava’s empty-eyed stare, Minji nodded. She wasn’t too sure how much she should say out of fear of frightening the others.

  “Why do you say that?” Jesse directed his a
ttention toward her instead of the devastating view.

  “The visions we all had. That sound. Those colors. That wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen or heard. Have you?”

  Immediately, Jesse and Simone averted their eyes. Their discomfort was clear. Minji was now certain she shouldn’t share what she’d heard earlier during the attack.

  “It was probably some sort of hallucination,” Jesse remarked.

  “Or a vision of the next world,” Simone suggested. “Heaven.”

  “It seemed more like hell to me,” Jesse said, his dark eyes wary. “Not that we’re seeing the same thing. It’s probably just a hallucination, like I said.”

  Minji knew differently. Not only were they all seeing the same thing, they had spoken the same word.

  As Ava continued to stare at her mother, Minji was convinced that she was correct in her suspicion. Something was speaking through the mesmerized. Even now, gazing into Ava’s eyes, she suspected something was watching her. Something was calling out for help.

  But what was it?

  Chapter 20

  Dinner was a quiet affair. Even Bailey was silent on her mother’s lap, surveying her surroundings with a pensive expression stamped on her delicate face. Simone had been kind enough to prepare dinner from the items stocked in the medical center’s kitchen, and though the food smelled wonderful, Minji barely tasted it. Her dark eyes downcast and her expression pensive, Simone picked at her meal. The efforts at small talk between the two women faded as they receded into their own gloomy contemplations.

  Simone had attempted multiple times to call her family, but Arthur’s phone no longer had service. The computers were offline and the television was filled with static. Though no one spoke the words aloud, Minji knew they were all fairly certain that both Simone and Arthur’s families had been swallowed by the event after the last attack.

  Jesse was busy moving bodies, cleaning the blood off the floor and walls, tending to the patients, and attempting to get reception on Arthur’s phone by walking through the building looking for a hot spot. He had also scrounged up two sets of clean scrubs for Simone and Minji and a nightgown for Ava to wear so they could wash their dirty, soot-covered clothing. Minji’s feet were tucked into soft socks, allowing her boots to dry out, and her toes were finally warm.

  Jesse’s determination to keep busy reminded Minji of her husband. If Jake hadn’t fallen victim to the event, he would’ve been trying to find a way to reach the outside world to find help. While her husband’s physical body was safely in a patient room, she missed his voice, his touch, and his essence. She wasn’t alone in her predicament, but without Jake she still felt lonely. Since they decided to create a life together, Jake and Minji had faced everything as a team, and though both were strong-willed and successful in their own right, Minji now realized how much they’d come to depend on one another. There were a millions things she wanted to discuss with her husband so they could plan the next step together. Instead, she was amongst strangers.

  When the women finished eating, Simone cleared the dishes and left Minji alone with her daughters. Bailey played on a blanket spread on the floor while Minji struggled to coax Ava into drinking a protein shake. It took many attempts and a lot of mishaps before Minji managed to get Ava to consume a fourth of the bottle. The entire time, Ava’s eyes never wavered from her mother’s face.

  “I just finished sedating the mesmerized patients,” Jesse said, joining her in the small employee break room.

  Minji finished wiping the dribbles off of Ava’s chin and went to work on the little girl’s neck. “How’s Arthur?”

  “Still sleeping.”

  “Are you going to sedate him again?”

  “Hopefully, he’ll have figured out not to be a jerk.”

  “He’s just stressed,” Minji said, sighing.

  “We’re all stressed.” Jesse sat in the chair at her side and uncovered the dish Simone had left for him. He set a syringe on the table near his plate.

  “Who’s that for?”

  Jesse’s gaze flicked to Ava.

  Minji finished dabbing at Ava’s t-shirt and studied her daughter’s face. Ava’s eyes remained steadfastly on her mother. The thought of Ava being sedated and strapped to a bed made her queasy. It was a strange comfort to have both of her daughters near her, even in Ava’s condition.

  “She drank some water and part of the protein shake,” Minji said.

  “Which is impressive considering the state of the other mesmerized, but she’s going to be in danger of dehydrating if she doesn’t get more fluids into her system,” Jesse said, shoveling food into his mouth, chewing rapidly.

  Minji pondered his words.

  “It won’t hurt her, Minji.”

  “I know that. I do.” Minji glanced at Ava again thoughtfully. Why was she so reluctant to sedate her daughter?

  “I moved a rollaway bed into the room where I placed your husband. We can keep her there, close to her father.”

  Ava’s eyes shifted to Jesse and back to her mother so rapidly Minji almost missed the movement.

  “No, no. I’ll keep her with me. If she stops cooperating with me, I’ll reconsider.”

  Jesse picked up the syringe. “Are you sure?”

  Ava took a sharp step toward Minji, appearing to take refuge behind her.

  “Whoa.” Jesse pinched the syringe between his fingers and waggled it at Ava. “Look at that.”

  The little girl’s eyes were now firmly on Jesse, not Minji.

  “Put it down,” Minji said, trying to infuse her words with a warning.

  Jesse continued to wag the syringe at Ava. “She’s paying attention to me. Actually looking at me!”

  Minji wanted to scream that it was not Ava watching him, but something other, something dangerous, but her instincts compelled her to be cautious. “Stop it. I’m not going to allow you to drug her.”

  Maybe the nurse practitioner caught the implication of her tone, or maybe he became unnerved by Ava’s stare, but he set the syringe aside. “Maybe she’s waking up if she’s afraid of needles.”

  “Just don’t do that.”

  “Seriously, Minji, maybe it’s a good sign,” Jesse suggested, then dug into his meal once again.

  Minji knew otherwise. Something was watching through Ava’s eyes and it did not want to be sedated. Sedation meant blindness. Whatever was observing them wouldn’t abide that.

  Minji kept her theory to herself, but was certain she was right.

  Leaving Jesse to his meal, she collected Bailey, took Ava’s hand, and hurried to the patient room where Jake slept. Bailey was already close to dozing off, so Minji laid her next to Jake. Her heart broke just a little when the baby girl lovingly touched her father’s shoulder and snuggled into him.

  Settling into the chair next to the bed, she held Ava on her lap. She combed trembling fingers through Ava’s red curls while staring into her daughter’s glassy eyes.

  “Ava, if you can hear me, I love you. I love you so very much. I’m going to try very, very hard to free you. I promise.” She took a deep breath. “And to the other inside of Ava, I know you’re there. I know you’re watching me. Not only through Ava, but the others. You need to tell me what you want from me. Tell me what you are and what I can do so you’ll let Ava and the others go.”

  The little girl’s eyes did not waver from Minji’s face.

  With tears running down her cheeks and dripping from her chin, Minji pleaded with the nameless being to release her daughter and the rest of the world. Frustration, anger, and despair spurred her rambling appeal. The entire time, Ava’s eyes stared into Minji’s, mouth twitching as strange sounds emanated from her throat.

  “Please stop all this,” Minji whispered. “Please stop killing and hurting us. Just tell me what you want from me. What can I do?”

  With great difficulty, Ava said, “Heeeelp.”

  “How can I help? You need to tell me. Please...”

  “Heeeelp.”

  Resting h
er cheek against the soft red curls, Minji wept.

  ***

  The orange glow above the darkened city of Las Vegas was both beautiful and terrifying. Sin City was swathed in a choking miasma of smoke, its glittering lights and loud bustling streets gone in the aftermath of the event. The only lights other than the fires were the interior lights of a few buildings, but Minji knew those would be gone soon when the emergency generators ceased to run. Clouds of smoke shifted over the full moon hovering low on the horizon.

  The air in the patient room was comfortably cool. It was just the right temperature to lull her to sleep, yet Minji struggled to mentally disconnect from the terrible events of the day and sink into slumber. Lying next to Jake on the hospital bed, she listened to the gentle sound of him breathing. Usually it was enough to lull her to sleep, but tonight she was painfully aware of each inhale and exhale. It had taken all her fortitude to rescue him from the carnage in the casino and transport him to the medical center, but would it be enough to save him? The vulnerability of his situation had forced a recasting in their relationship. A nurturer by nature, Jake relished his role as protector of his wife and children. Though Minji provided a good chunk of their income and was an equal partner in every way, she appreciated his role as the family defender. Now she was his protector.

  The wrongness of the circumstances encapsulating her family and the world continued to gnaw at the dam containing her emotions. During her parents’ divorce, she had learned to keep her emotions in check. She’d wanted to be strong for both her mother and her father. The tears in her father’s eyes when he told her they were divorcing and her mother’s silent sobs during the court hearings had influenced her resolve to be strong for both of them. The wall she had created around her emotions had remained strong and in place until Jake unexpectedly scaled it and dropped over the other side. Where other people marveled at her ability to remain calm and in control, Jake could instantly tell what she was thinking. It wasn’t that Minji was unemotional. It was just that she knew there was a time and place to deal with more chaotic feelings. In conflicts, she was always calm, but later she would slug out her anger at her kickboxing classes. If someone tried to upset her, she never let them see if they slid under her armor. Of course, later on she’d vent frustrations to Jake. Minji was a firm believer in keeping calm and dealing with the emotional fallout later. It was sometimes the only way to get things done in life.