by R. J. Lloyd
Kyle wrinkled his nose. “So, what he’s claiming is that he made one of us retrieve the files like dogs, and we don’t remember doing it?”
“That's what he said, yes,” she confirmed.
Kyle had been pacing the room. He stopped and punched the wall, leaving a hole in the drywall as the dust clouded around him and fell to the floor. “He has to be stopped. How do we stop him?”
“We don't know.”
“What do we know?” Kyle growled.
Eva stood, her fists balled. “Apparently nothing. We know nothing. And every time we know something, the knowledge base changes and we know nothing again.”
She ran out of the room and out the back door. Once on the patio, she stopped. All she wanted to do was flee, but there was no place to go. Mitchell found them every step of the way. And all their efforts to keep him at bay were proving fruitless. There was no place to go. No escape.
Ian got to the open backdoor. The blinds were disheveled. And Eva stood out in the middle of the bricked, ground landscaping, arms wrapped around herself, eyes looking out around her, lost, frantic. As he stood a few steps away from her, he was at a loss, and he understood her despair.
She whipped around. “Screw this. I'm done. I’m done being a pawn in his little game. I’m done letting him toy with us and our friends’ lives. And I'm done worrying when he's going to show up next and what he’s going to do.”
“What are you going to do?” Ian closed the gap between them.
She took a step back. “I'm going to take action and play the game right back. Only, I'm going to checkmate him.”
“Hold on, now.” Ian was clearly nervous. “We don’t need to go jumping into a fight with him half-cocked.”
“I’m not.” She shook from anger. “Trust me. I’m seeing things very clearly.”
“Then let me in. Tell me what to do,” he asked of her.
She shook her head. “No. I’ve got to do this on my own.”
She closed her eyes and tensed. All the air seemed to be sucked out around them. Ian gasped for breath, one hand reaching out and one clasped to his chest.
Then, everything relaxed.
The hairs stood up on his arms. Eva was in front of him, arms crossed, breathing normally, glaring at the space between him and the patio furniture. He didn’t want to, but he forced himself to turn, slowly.
“What the…” Ian jumped back.
“You summoned?” Mitchell stood there, casually propped against the back of one of the chairs.
“No surprise?” She looked around mockingly.
He flippantly lifted his hands in the air. “Is that really why you called me over? Patience, my dear. Patience.”
“No. It’s not why I called you,” she retorted.
“Then why? Miss me?”
Ian spoke, “Mitchell. Knock your shit off.”
Eva slipped between the two men. “Stop, Ian.”
He was obviously hurt by her scolding as he took a step back. “Eva?”
She ignored him and addressed Mitchell, “I don't want to play your game anymore, and I’m not going to. We’re going to settle this.”
“Oh?” He looked amused. “And just what…”
She reached out and touched his arm. And then… they were gone.
Twenty-Five
Eva
Landing safely in the conference room at the lab, Eva worked to regain her bearings from traveling as fast as possible, so as not to allow Mitchell to get the upper hand. She backed up to create some distance between the two of them and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
He caught his breath. “You’re full of surprises. Now that we’re away from your pesky boyfriend, what shall we do?”
“End this.” Her words were pointed.
He grinned from ear to ear. “Wait. Wait a second. I was going to do this completely different, but hold on.”
Mitchell disappeared.
Eva balled her fists and screamed. “Damn it!”
But before she could formulate her next move, he was back. Only this time, he held on to another person. “Eva, this is Ethan Warner. Ethan, say hello to Eva.”
“Ethan? You tracked down another? How many?” she stammered.
“Well, you were refusing to. Granted, it would go faster if you’d help, but at least this one wasn’t too hard to find.” He patted Ethan on the back.
The man shook uncontrollably. “What are you going to do with me?”
“Nothing, if I can help it.” Eva glared at Mitchell.
He gripped the back of the man’s shirt. “But you didn't help, did you?”
“Please, Mitchell.” She clasped her hands together. “You don't have to do this.”
“How many times do we have to go through this?” He bared his teeth. “Yes. I do. Well, I want to, anyway. Need, want, they’re pretty much the same thing, right?”
“And what about Ethan? You’re just going to doom him to eternity of lab tests and experiments? Like he’s nothing? Like he can’t feel it? And that doesn’t bother you?”
Mitchell rubbed his chin as if he was thinking for a long moment. “Nope. Not at all.” His grin slid back across his face like a snake slithering through a garden. “Awww. Come on now. He's on borrowed time. He can give that time over to science, don't you think?”
“Borrowed time? Really?” She wanted to slap him as hard as she could. “It wouldn't be borrowed if you and your monster father hadn’t been going around murdering everyone.”
“Not everyone. That’s not fair. Just ones we thought would be viable to the project. And speaking of, why don’t you both walk with me?” Mitchell took Ethan by the arm and started down the hallway.
Eva searched her mind for what to do to stop him, knowing nothing she could strike him with would do any harm. It wasn’t like she brought him there because she knew what to do. The only thing she knew was she needed to keep him away from Ian, Michelle and Kyle.
Eva ran to catch up with them. “Don’t worry, Ethan. I just need some time to come up with something solid, but I’ll think of something.”
“Don’t speak to me. You’re worse than he is. Every other time I see you, you’re like this. I don’t trust you any more than this psycho and his lunatic father.”
Mitchell ran his keycard through the reader. Once the door slid open, he shoved Ethan through. “Don’t you speak to her like that. Now walk.”
Mitchell shoved Ethan down the hallway as they walked. The man stumbled, falling to the ground several times as they made their way past several doors. Close to the end of the hallway, Mitchell used his card to open another door. This time, it was about the size of a hospital room and set up like one as well. He pushed the other man in and motioned for Eva. “Care to join us, my love?”
She gritted her teeth. “I don’t care what you and your father did to me in the past. I am not your love.”
He sighed. “Just get in here.”
Eva went in, shivering as Mitchell reached past her and closed the door, his chest and cheek brushing across her lightly in both directions. She recoiled and pressed her back against the wall opposite the room than him.
“So, do you think you'll need anything for tonight, Ethan? There’s some snacks and beverages in the kitchenette. I believe, since this is your old room, there’s some of your clothes still in the closet. I know the cleaning service restocked the bathroom. You should be all set.”
Ethan stared off at a framed family portrait on the wall. “I need you to fuck off and die.”
“Ahhh, yes. The old family photo. Some memories never die, do they?” Mitchell patted the man on the shoulder. “Okay then. We will leave you be. Have a good night. My father will probably be by in the morning to go over some procedures and to ask how life was on the outside for you.”
Eva choked back bile. “You don’t have to do this, Ethan. He can’t hurt you.”
Ethan didn’t look away from the portrait. “Don't, Eva.”
She pulled on his arm. “Really
. If you haven't realized it yet, he can’t hurt you. So, he can’t keep you here. Come on. We can walk right out.”
He yanked out of her grip. “Stop. Please.”
“Why? Why would you just cooperate like this? Why just give him what he wants?” She yanked on his arm again.
Mitchell motioned for her to exit the room. “You should listen to him, Eva. Stop. Let’s let him have some quiet time to think about what he did.”
“No!” she refused. “Ethan! Come on!”
Ethan’s eyes met hers. Tears were filling them. “I can’t.”
“But he can’t hurt you.”
“But he can hurt the people I love.” A single tear made its way down him cheek.
She shook her head. “No.”
Ethan looked back at the painting. “When you find a little girl in here about thirteen, her name is Sage. Tell her I miss her, and I love her.”
“What?” Her breath escaped her lungs, and she choked.
Mitchell rolled his eyes and pulled on Eva. “Oh, for Pete’s sake. Come on. This is getting too blah blah blah for me. Ethan…”
“A little girl? Thirteen? Your daughter?” Eva’s words were falling out of her mouth as fast as her brain could process the situation. “Mitchell? You killed his daughter?”
“And materialized her. Geez. I mean, she’s got all of eternity now.” He glared at Ethan. “That was your surprise. I knew you always wanted kids. So, I got you a daughter.”
“She’s my daughter.” Ethan spoke through his teeth.
“She’s only thirteen, you monster! You killed a child!” Eva fought back throwing up.
“This is really getting boring, you guys. Eva, let’s go.” He turned sideways and pointed to the door.
“No! I’m not going anywhere with you.” She wrapped an arm around Ethan’s shoulders. “I don’t know what I did to you in the past. Whatever it was, I’m truly sorry. But you can’t stay here.”
He wiped his cheeks. “I can’t leave her here alone.”
“Then we should…”
Mitchell cut her off. “This is on your head, Eva.”
He pulled a thin, white disk out of his pocket and pressed it to Ethan’s temple. There was no reaction time for the man beyond his eyes going wide, and his mouth flew open to speak. But before any sound came out, he started flickering for just a moment. And then he was gone.
Eva pressed against the wall again, in complete shock. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the house in Detroit. She tried to travel there. But nothing happened. She was still in that room when he opened ear eyes again. And Mitchell was still in front of her.
He hadn't looked over at her. Instead, he waved a hand. “Oh, yeah. Things like that don't work in these rooms. My father set up some kind of barrier. Sorry.”
She dove for the door, but he reached out and caught her arm. “Let me go!”
“Eva, Eva, Eva. This is very rude of you. You’re being ungrateful for my surprise gift for you, for us.”
Her breathing was too fast to talk coherently. “Your gift to me is a murdered child!”
He painfully yanked her to him. “My gift to you is a daughter we can have together forever.”
She tried to slow her breaths. Once she felt she could speak again, she looked him in the eye. “What happened to you? What did your father do to you as a child that made you like this?”
For a moment, she saw him falter. Something changed in his expression. She didn’t waste it. “Your father. He made you feel like you were less important than his experiments, didn’t he? That’s why you do all this. You feel inferior to those like us, and superior now that you’re one. Don’t you?”
“What my father did to me when I was alive is of no consequence. I am one of the greats now. I am powerful and eternal.” His eye twitched.
“But that couldn’t have been easy.”
He pursed his lips. “My father knew there were superior beings. He knew those who have surpassed their mortal shells would be more powerful and have more abilities. I was just a living boy. His time was better spent focusing on those that were more important and on things far greater.”
“Then why treat them like they’re beneath you?”
He grew angry. “They are! So many of these experiments have been complete fails. None of them have reached the potential he knows is there. Not even I. I am still not… not… you. You’re magnificent. You have stability in your cells and power. It’s natural for you. That's why I must be with you.”
“Natural? You think this is natural?” She slid down the wall to create some distance between them. “It’s not natural that your father neglected you to perform unnatural things to people, to murder them.”
“This is all for the best, Eva. Why can’t you see that?” He started pacing.
“But what if it isn’t?” She stood and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, but she hesitated. She cringed at the thought of being so tender with him, but she knew she needed to. “What if all of this is wrong? Your father has brainwashed you to think his work is so amazing just so you wouldn’t hate him for being a terrible father.”
He clenched the sides of his head. “No! You’re wrong. You’ve reached such potential, and you need to embrace it.”
“Mitchell.” She pulled his arms down. “I am dead. He murdered me. He murdered you. Your father murdered you so he could use your soul in his labs. And he uses you as his pet, retrieving others for him.”
“My father loves me. He’s proud of what I can do.”
She touched the side of his face. “Can you tell me any point when you were alive that he said kind words or was encouraging? Think about it, Mitchell! Think! Can you remember a time he was your father and not some guy who donated sperm to make you, only to take your life from you a few, short years later?”
“I was already dying.” Mitchell used his sleeve to wipe his eyes.
She softened her tone. “And when he spared you from your suffering, was he gentle?”
Mitchell didn’t say anything. He just stared at her with a mix of anger and pain.
She furrowed her brows. “What did he do? Did he at least try to make it painless?”
He swallowed hard, his fingers tightening around her hand.
“Was he cruel?”
“He was no more cruel than necessary!” he roared.
“Are you sure about that? Think, Mitchell. You were convinced, brainwashed that he was so noble. You didn’t even consider how he took your life was important? That it might be a sign about the man he truly is?”
His eyes glossed over. “It wouldn’t have mattered. I was too sick to care.”
“But you should have. He should have cared.” Her eyes searched his expression for a reaction.
Mitchell’s throat tightened around his words. “I remember his face. He never looked at me with any father-like emotion. Not even when I was little. I didn't expect him to when I was dying, either. He looked at me the same way he had when he took any other life, calculating and scientific.”
She gasped. “You saw him take lives?”
“Sure.” He looked slightly proud. “He trusted me as an assistant. He explained his work, and he only ever looked at me with pride when I was helping him further his studies. It might not have been a fatherly pride, but this is so much more important than one sick boy having a father. So, of course I was more than happy to become part of what he loves so much.”
Eva felt sick to her stomach. “Tell me about the day he took you from being just his son to something more. Tell me about how he killed… transformed you.”
He looked at her a moment, hope entering his expression in her rebound interest in him. “Like I said, it was the first time he’d looked at me as more than just someone living or some living assistant. He studied me a moment, immune to my inane whimpering and moaning, and he saw something more in me. Then, when he wrapped the cord around my neck, he grinned, and I knew it was because he was happy that I would finally mean more to him. He
looked happy to have me be more, and I was, too. I tried to not fight so I could show him how much it meant to me.”
As Mitchell recounted the events of his death, Eva curled into his chest, wrapping an arm around his back. For a moment, as she rested her head against him, the deepest sadness she’d ever felt sank into the bottom of her heart and killed a part of her. Mitchell’s story was sickening. The idea that you refuse to struggle as your father is killing you just so you can mean more to him? she thought. That wasn’t something you can hear and be the same afterward.
But in the same moment, she realized he would never be convinced to see how wrong the whole thing was. Mitchell was too far gone, too far insane, to ever come back. So, with her other hand, she pulled a pocket knife out of her jeans pocket and slowly, quietly flipped the blade out as he dove deeper into the memories from before his death.
“When I woke, he explained to me what he’d done. Over the years and lots of screw ups on my part, I came to the knowledge of our history, but the necessity of not remembering details in order to keep my immortality has spared me the pain of it all. So, with every little bit of knowledge he gave me from our past, I had to treat it just as that… knowledge. And I had to disconnect from who and what I was. Gladly, I became who I am now, and I see the me from before as nothing more than some pathetic loser begging for attention. I use who I was as nothing more than a learned lesson.” His eyes grew wide.
Eva stepped back. Her breaths were coming fast. The look spread across Mitchell’s face made something in her very being cringe at the same time as her heart completely sank.
He looked down at the hilt of the blade that stuck out of his side and looked back up at her. She couldn't tell if he wanted to break down or lunge at her. “What have you done?”
“I’m putting an end to all of this.” She stood her ground. “I’m setting you free, even if you don’t see it’s the right thing to do.”
“But I love you. I love you, Eva. Why? When we could do so much together. Why? How?” His anger started to win over within his voice.
“Because I love you, too, Mitchell,” she lied. “I love you enough to see you're suffering even though you don't know it. You’re suffering under his thumb and behind all his lies. And I love you enough to make this all stop, for you.”
