by S. H. Kolee
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I was floating. The water was calm and felt cool and soothing as I was gently rocked by the tiny lapping waves. I felt complete peace as I closed my eyes against the sun, relaxing and letting the water lull me into a state of tranquility. There was a niggling concern in the back of my mind but I pushed it away, not wanting to disturb the serenity.
At first I didn't notice the waves becoming more forceful since it changed so gradually. But then I noticed that the water started churning violently around me, and my eyes flew open as I coughed from water getting into my mouth.
Suddenly, I felt something grab my hair and I was being sucked underwater, plummeting down with an explosion of speed. I panicked and started flailing my arms and legs to escape the iron grip on my hair, but my struggles were futile as I continued to descend rapidly. I stopped fighting the pull and allowed myself to be dragged lower and lower.
The grip that had shackled me by the hair was gone as abruptly as it had appeared. I distractedly noted that I had no problems breathing underwater, but my concentration was focused on a figure swimming towards me. It was pitch black but I could still make out a fluid body undulating closer.
"Caitlin..." I heard the whisper in my head and there was a dreamlike quality to it. The voice sounded teasing, as if it were tempting me to follow it.
"Who are you?" This was a thought in my head rather than a spoken question. The figure stopped moving when it was about five feet away from me.
"Caitlin, you're not alone. Trust your instincts."
"Mom, is that you?" I asked in my head. The voice giggled and I noticed that it sounded girlish and not at all like an adult.
"I'm not your mother, Caitlin," the voice whispered. "I just saw you as I was on my way to the other side. You looked so helpless that I felt I had to stop."
"Can you help me?"
"Only you can help yourself. Allies are enemies and enemies are friends. The only one you can trust is yourself."
The figure started moving again, but this time it was floating away from me. I reached out my hand, frightened of being abandoned.
"Don't leave me! I'm scared!"
The voice was faint in my head, barely audible. "Don't be scared, Caitlin. Either you'll live or you'll die. Everyone faces that choice in the end."
My eyes snapped open as I surfaced from hypnosis in a blinding rush. I was breathing heavily and my shirt was soaked in sweat. The women let go of each other's hands when they saw I was awake, stepping back and allowing my father to take center stage.
"What did you see?" His expression grew menacing. "And don't even think about lying. If I find out you've lied, you'll be wishing you were dead."
I licked my dry lips as terror gripped me. My experience this time had been nothing like my previous hypnosis. I had gotten no answers, no insights. Just a young girl with a cryptic message.
I scrambled to come up with something believable. There was no way my father would accept the truth. He would be convinced that I was lying and holding back on what I had seen. The thought of something happening to Sarah was intolerable. Despite my father's threats, how could he ever find out that I was lying?
My father raised an eyebrow as my silence continued. I hurriedly started speaking, afraid that I would goad him into provocation.
"I saw vardogers coming after me, but they weren't a united front. Some are pretending to be part of your movement to overtake all the humans, but they're really against you. They're going to try and overthrow you." I wanted to plant seeds of doubt in my father's head, for him to believe that there were traitors amongst his group.
My father's lips tightened but he didn't speak, waiting for me to continue. I took a deep breath, hoping that I sounded convincing. I needed to say something that my father would be happy to hear.
"Your...kind are getting stronger every day. Finding the palladium was the key to winning the war against seers." The words tasted bitter as I said them, but I needed to make this believable. But I couldn't stop the next words from tumbling out of my mouth. "But you're going to lose."
His nostrils flared and his eyes glittered dangerously. "What else?"
I shook my head. "That's it. That's all I saw."
My father turned to Lenore. "Put her under again."
"I can't. Her pulse became dangerously slow when she was under hypnosis. If I put her under again today, there's a good chance her heart will stop beating. It's too much stress on her body."
"We'll take the chance!"
Lenore took a deep breath as if she were trying to calm herself. "She's useless to us dead. We can put her under hypnosis again tomorrow."
My father glared at Lenore but he didn't argue. He turned to the two teenage boys who had been watching silently. "Watch her. And make sure she isn't able to take the palladium necklace off."
He stalked out of the living room towards the kitchen and the three women followed him. I took a deep breath, relieved that he had believed my story. I heard their voices in the kitchen but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The two boys stared at me but didn't say a word.
I couldn't stop thinking about Simon. Was he really dead? I refused to believe it. I couldn't believe it because if I did, I wasn't sure I would have the will to fight. And I needed to fight, even if it meant my death.
I thought about what I had just experienced while I was under hypnosis. The girl had told me I wasn't alone but that I could only trust myself. That didn't exactly make me feel better. And I already knew the people that I thought were my friends were really my enemies. But who were the enemies that were now friends?
It was a while before my father came back into the living room. Despite my fear, I had an urgent need to use the bathroom. Shock and horror hadn't put a halt to my bodily functions.
"I need to use the bathroom."
My father smirked at me. "I don't care if you soil yourself."
"There's no need to go that far," Lenore said in a disapproving voice as she came into the living room. "I'll take her."
"You humans are so weak. You brought her to me on a silver platter, yet you still want to accommodate her requests for comfort." My father looked disgusted but Lenore seemed unaffected by his words.
"You're not in charge here. You don't make all the decisions."
My father's eyes narrowed but then he just shook his head. "Fine, take her." He reached behind him and pulled out a gun from his waistband, handing it to Lenore. "If she tries to escape, shoot her. I'd rather have her dead than have her escape."
Lenore rolled her eyes but she took the gun. She motioned for the boys to untie the rope around my legs and I felt a brief reprieve when one of my wrists was released from the handcuffs, but it was immediately shackled again after they had threaded it out of the chair slat.
One of the boys shoved me forward and I stumbled, my legs numb from sitting in one position for so long. I struggled to stay standing.
"Come on, hurry up. Otherwise I'll regret being sympathetic." Lenore waved the gun, motioning for me to walk towards the bathroom next to the basement door, and I staggered to it. I looked back at her when she stepped into the bathroom with me.
"Don't I get any privacy?"
Lenore looked amused. "How stupid do you think I am?"
I looked down at my pants, mortified by the fact that I couldn't undo them with my hands handcuffed behind me. Lenore saw my difficulties and sighed, reaching over to help me relieve myself. I didn't look her in the face, embarrassed despite everything else that was happening.
When she pulled my clothes back up and turned to open the bathroom door, I started speaking rapidly.
"Lenore, please don't do this. You can't work with them. They'll destroy us all. Please!"
Lenore turned to me and lifted an eyebrow. "Save it. I don't want to hear it."
My voice turned more urgent. "You can't trust them. After they're done using you, what do you think they're going to do to you? There's no room for human souls in thei
r world."
Lenore ignored me and opened the bathroom door, pushing me in front of her. The two boys immediately grabbed me and hauled me back to the chair in the living room, securing me tightly to it. I was again left with just the two boys standing watch, as my father and the women went to the kitchen and I heard the back door slam. I wondered if they were going to the backyard because they didn't want me to overhear their conversation.
They were gone for hours. I attempted to get a response from the boys a few times, asking for water or for something to eat, but they just looked at me in stoic silence. My arms and legs were killing me from being restrained, and my shoulder and head throbbed from the punch and from falling.
I knew that I would be kept alive at least until tomorrow, since they wanted to put me under hypnosis again. I wondered what Simon's family would do when we didn't return home tonight. I fervently prayed that they would call the police and that would lead them to my aunt's house. I didn't know any other way to get out of this, but I had no idea if the human police force would be able to contend with vardogers.
It was getting dark by the time they returned, walking in by the front door instead of the back. I hadn't heard a car starting so I didn't think they had gone anywhere, but I couldn't imagine what they could have been doing outside this entire time.
They went upstairs instead coming into the living room, except for Marie who went into the kitchen. When she came back out, she was holding a tray with a glass of water and a sandwich. She set it down on the coffee table and looked at me.
"I'm going to feed you, but if you try anything, I'll let the boys take over. And they'll be much rougher with you."
"Marie, you know this is wrong. Why are you going along with it?"
Marie glanced at the two boys but they just stared at her impassively. She turned back to me and lifted the glass to my lips. I didn't refuse the water as I gulped it down greedily, soothing my parched throat. While I didn't want to accept anything from her, I had to keep my strength up if I was going to get out of this alive.
She picked up the sandwich and held it up to my mouth. I took a large bite and chewed it. I had been desperate for water but I had no appetite. I simply ate for energy.
"You don't understand, Caitlin." Marie whispered, so that the boys couldn't hear her. They were sitting in armchairs by the window across the living room, periodically scanning outside as they kept watch over me.
"I didn't know Lenore's true intentions the first time we saw you," she continued, her voice barely audible. "I had no choice."
I whispered as well, but my tone was fierce. "You do have a choice! This is going to end badly for all of us. Why does Lenore think she can trust them? All they want to do is destroy human souls and overtake bodies. Why does she think she'll be spared?"
Marie pushed the sandwich towards my mouth again and I took a bite to keep up the guise of her feeding me.
"Lenore has always been power hungry. She was never satisfied with the calling of a seer. I think she resented it. She sees this as her chance to break free from it. And Cecelia does whatever Lenore tells her to do. It's always been that way."
I swallowed the bite of sandwich. "But what about you? You can put a stop to this!"
Marie shook her head sadly. "I can't, Caitlin. They have my sister. If I don't cooperate, they'll kill her."
"Marie, if you cooperate she's already dead. We're all dead."
Marie pressed her lips together but didn't answer. Instead, she dropped the sandwich back on the plate and turned to the boys. "Feed her." She walked away and up the stairs without a backward glance.
The boy whom I had kicked earlier walked towards me eagerly. Eating became a painful process as he shoved the entire sandwich in my mouth until I almost choked. He pressed his hand against my mouth so hard that I felt my front teeth cutting into the inside of my mouth.
"Chew, bitch," he muttered. "Otherwise I'm going to suffocate you and say it was an accident."
My cheeks were stretched out painfully with the amount of food in my mouth but I forced myself to start chewing and swallowed the sandwich as quickly as I could. What I really wanted was another sip of water but he stalked back to his seat after I was done, and I was afraid to ask for more. I was convinced that he'd find some torturous way to give it to me.
As night fell, I waited for someone to show up. Either the police or Simon's family. Surely they would be worried by our absence, and it would be logical for them to check my aunt's house because his mother knew how I was drawn to it. Simon's car was sitting outside of the house, as plain as day. Wouldn't the neighbors notice it? That is, unless they had moved it.
But no one ever showed up. Despite my fear, exhaustion weighed heavily on me. My father and the women never came back downstairs and the boys kept their watch over me, never looking the least bit tired.
I was left with my own thoughts. I kept running through the dream about my mother. I was sure she was warning me about my father, or really my father's vardoger in his body, when she asked whether blood was thicker than water. My father had given me life but the bond between us no longer existed because my father didn't exist anymore. It twisted my gut to think I had thought of my father as selfish and cold all these years, when there was a good chance that he hadn't been my father at all. It was sickening to think of the possibility that maybe I had never known my father. I had no idea when he had been overtaken by his vardoger.
My head continuously fell forward as I dozed off, and I tried to stay awake. But soon the blackness of sleep overtook me, momentarily granting me reprieve from this waking nightmare.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I was awoken by a hand slapping my face. Light was streaming in from the windows as my eyes squinted open. Rough hands were on me and I felt the rope around my ankles dropping away. My father was standing by the couch talking to Lenore as one of the boys released a wrist from the handcuff. He immediately imprisoned my wrist again after the handcuffs were disengaged from the chair.
"Hurry up with her," my father said to Lenore. "We need to put her under hypnosis again."
Lenore grabbed my arm and hauled me towards the bathroom. My joints screamed from disuse, pain shooting through my limbs from having been shackled in one position all night. Lenore helped me to relieve myself again and I wondered at her consideration when she was throwing me to the wolves. I tried pleading with her again but this time she just ignored me, not saying a word.
I was unceremoniously shoved back into the chair and restrained again. Marie and Cecelia walked into the living room and, without a word, they joined Lenore and linked hands around me. My grogginess disappeared as Lenore ordered me to close my eyes and chant.
I followed her direction but I didn't feel the sensation of sinking this time. I desperately tried to make myself slip under but the more I strained to make it happen, the more elusive it felt. I tried to pretend I was unconscious by making my body slack and evening out my breathing.
After what seemed like an eternity, I felt someone pick up my hand and hold their fingers to my wrist. I forced myself to not react when I felt a hot breath against my face.
"She's not under." Lenore's voice made me want to jerk back, but I forced myself not to react. Her voice sounded bored when she spoke again. "Stop faking it or I'll let one of the boys wake you up. The only thing they know how to use is their fists."
My eyes snapped open but it was my father I saw standing before me, not Lenore. He looked enraged.
"Do you think I'm not being serious when I say you'll suffer serious repercussions if you don't comply?" he shouted, looking furious.
"I'm trying!" I cried out desperately. "I'm trying to slip under but it just won't happen!"
My father turned to Lenore. "Is she telling the truth?"
Lenore shrugged. "I think so. There's nothing really in it for her to be pretending. Putting a seer under hypnosis is a serious strain on their body. It's unheard of to do it two days in a row. She may be too weak right
now for her to go under again so soon."
My father was clearly not pleased with Lenore's explanation. His face darkened dangerously. "You said yesterday that she would be fine today!"
Lenore's exasperation was evident in her voice. "This isn't an exact science! I can't be positive about anything!"
"I'm done playing games. I need to find out how to become immortal and it needs to happen now. This charade is over."
My father stalked into the kitchen and I heard the back door slam. His words reverberated in my head. Was that their end goal? To become immortal? It was a terrifying thought.
Lenore didn't say anything after my father left. She just sat down on the couch opposite me. I could hear my father talking to someone in the backyard, but I could barely make out their voices, let alone understand what they were saying.
A few minutes later the back door slammed again and I heard footsteps walking towards me. My father looked smug when he came into my line of vision. I craned my neck to see who he had been talking to, and I froze. My body started trembling and my mind raced as it tried to come to grips with what I saw.
Simon walked up to me, his face cold and expressionless.
"Simon?" My voice was shaking as I looked up at him.
Simon shook his head. "There's no Simon here."
I was close to the edge of hysteria. It couldn't be true. I couldn't accept it.
"No! You said your vardoger disappeared!" I was openly sobbing, all my earlier bravado melting in the face of this cruel turn of events. I searched his face, looking for any sign of the Simon who had loved me so fiercely. "You said it left you the night Claudia was killed!"
Simon crouched in front of me, but there was no tenderness in his expression. Those blue eyes that had once looked at me so lovingly were glacial.
