“I guess I got lucky they both died around the same time.” His eyes reddened, and he wiped his nose, “Lucky isn’t really the right word. In Estes Park, they remove people once anyone notices signs of the Terror in you. No exceptions. So, all it took was one out-of-character blow-up, and my parents were rounded up and put in the hospital. They told me it was for their own good and… and the doctors would help them,” he paused and she heard him swallow, “I never saw them again. Now I know the truth, but back then, I was just some scared twelve-year-old kid who believed they were doing what was best for everyone.”
“You know they manipulated you, right? You have to know that. It’s not your fault.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Lito seethed. He punched his bed, the tears streaming down both cheeks. He clenched his teeth and punched, again and again, each time with more vigor. Brushing the back of his hand across his eyes, he gathered himself up and smoothed out his features.
“Do you think they—” Colleen asked.
He gently closed his eyes and nodded. “There’s no doubt. And yes—I’m sure they served… them.”
“Lito, I don’t know what to say. I have no words to—”
“So I guess you could say I trusted too much. I know I’ve made some bad choices. It’s just…”
Colleen’s heart broke as she saw this boy recount unimaginable things. The multitude of emotions he was going through played out on his face. She so badly wanted to have the right things to say. This world had chewed him up and spit him out.
“Wait, there’s more,” Lito said, looking up. His face was red and blotchy. “I haven’t got to the really awful part.”
His voice shook, every word put out there on unsteady legs. “There was this girl, about my age, maybe a little younger, I can’t be sure; my memory is fuzzy. Her name was Lizzy, and she was my best friend, and we worked in the kitchen together. We hung out every day. Back then, we still went to Stanley Hall to take Truthmore his meals.”
Memories flooded back to her time in New Estes, the laughing, the sights, the adventure. Spending all her free time with Lito, like they were best friends, too. It hadn’t been all a loss. The more she got to know him, the more she realized the evil had molded him in this wretched world.
“Day by day, she helped me forget,” He explained, “and day by day, I got more scared of Truthmore, more paranoid. One day, we’re returning from taking Truthmore and his men their food when we get stopped. It turns out his best Scotch had come up missing, and we were the last people who had seen it, or so they said.”
She heard the anger in his voice.
“But you didn’t take it, right?”
“Of course not, but that didn’t keep me from getting scared as hell. I caved in so fast they never even got to speak with Lizzy. I told them it was her. Instead of having some sort of backbone, I sold out my best friend.”
Lito punched the bed. The springs creaked and groaned. Colleen sat up and put a hand on his shoulder.
“What did they do?”
“What else? They made an example of her.” He pulled away and sprang up. She heard the violent slapping sounds, “A warning to anyone who dared mess with Truthmore; Do this and die.”
“I’m sorry, Lito. I had… I had no idea.”
“I haven’t finished.” A pained grin flashed. Gone was the scared voice, now replaced with a melancholic delivery. “You want to know the absolute worst part? They made me do it and guess what? I did it. I put the gun up to her head, pulled the trigger, and went right back to work that night like nothing was wrong. I pushed her out of my head.”
Lito lay down and rolled over onto his side; within minutes, he was asleep. Colleen couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard she tried. Images flashed through her head of a young boy, not even a teenager, his life ruined in an instant. He tossed and turned all night, crying and moaning, as if he was reliving the entire ordeal. Jackson sauntered over, and curled up underneath his bed, and fell asleep. No matter how much she wanted to hate him for what he had done to her and others, she couldn’t help but feel that he was just another product of this sick environment.
Forty-Six
Marisha
Marisha popped up and looked around, a feeling of dread hanging in the back of her mind, but she quickly remembered where she was, everything from last night slowly coming back together. If there was one good thing about right now, she hadn’t felt this rested in she didn’t know how long. Other than a massive headache and the remaining sand in her hair and mouth, her body felt recharged, and the usual body aches were at a minimum. Last night wouldn’t be the last time something like that happened to her, and that’s what scared her the most.
A sliver of light filtered down through the panorama of windows above her head. Scents of salt and rotting wood lingered in the air. She could hear voices outside the building; at least they hadn’t abandoned her. Marissa stood up, dusted the remaining sand from her hair, and walked out to meet the rest of the crew. Garrick was by the fire, making breakfast. All the other laborers are already packed up, waiting in a group.
“Good morning sleepyhead, did you sleep okay last night?” he said.
Marisha cleared her throat and spit some more sand out, then wiped her mouth. “Yeah, considering the circumstances. I don’t usually just pass out like that. It’s all fuzzy, anyway.”
“Do you remember what happened?”
“I remember fire, blackness, screaming. The usual terrifying stuff you have in nightmares. Except I felt like I was there. The pain was real, it’s like a dream, but… I’m awake.”
Garrick rubbed his hands together and shifted his weight back and forth, not looking her in the eye.
“We’re going to get you through this,” He said.
“No, you aren’t. You were there when this happened last time. You heard what your brother said, and he’s right. It’s the freaking Terror. No one gets spared from the Terror.”
“There are ways of making it more tolerable.”
Marisha felt her chest tighten and her pulse quicken. She balled up her fists and screamed, “I’m seventeen years old! This wasn’t supposed to happen for, like, ten more years.”
“Maybe these are just isolated incidents.” He said, shrugging his shoulders, “If it's any consolation, you've got friends here who will look out for you.”
Marisha raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. They would leave soon, so she packed her things. Quinn was already getting the horses fed and watered. It wouldn’t be long before they left. She grabbed a cup full of breakfast, shoveled it in her mouth, and headed up to the front to talk to Quinn.
“Hey, Quinn.”
“What’s up?” Quinn looked away and kept working, as if trying to avoid eye contact.
“About yesterday. I don't know what that was,” she apologized.
“I think I've got a pretty good idea. I shouldn’t have let you come with us.” She saw the muscles in his neck tighten.
Marissa bit the inside of her lip, “I promise you nothing's going to happen.”
“You better be right, because if anything happens to these people or me, I won't hesitate for one second to protect what means most to me, and that includes defending them by any means necessary. I get it that my brother's hung up on you, but we,” he said, pointing from her to him, “don’t have a good history.”
Quinn turned around and checked on the horses, essentially ending their conversation. He busied himself, making sure everything was sufficiently tied down. Everyone would be ready soon and would be leaving, with or without her. All she could do was pray it didn’t happen again, but she knew it was only a matter of time.
Forty-Seven
Colleen
Even as the smells of a full breakfast filled her nostrils, Colleen didn’t want to get up. Sure, she was hungry, but thirty more minutes of rest seemed to be in her immediate plans. She leaned over, carefully balancing herself to not fall out of bed, and pushed aside the curtain covering Lito’s “r
oom.”
“Dude, are you awake?”
She leaned over again, but this time she misjudged how awake her body was, and she tumbled out of bed, slamming into the ground.
“Ow! That hurt like a—son of a–” She took a huge breath, shaking off the pain.
“I am now,” Lito said, his words coming in between stretching and a yawn.
Colleen narrowed her eyes at Jackson and reached out to pet his tangled hair.
“Jackson,” his ears perking up, “I’m laying on the ground helpless, and you just sit there sleeping.”
He stretched his paws across the floor as he let out his high-pitched yawn. He licked her elbow, his idea of comforting her.
“You know most dogs need more than the eight hours of rest he gets a day.”
She sat up and scratched him under his chin. “He likes it. He’s not most dogs.”
Colleen stood up and shut her curtain. She looked for her clothes, coming up empty.
If he took my clothes, I swear I’ll…
Even though it was cold in Seattle, the building was like an oven, and the wool blankets had made it worse. She wasn’t above stomping around in her underwear until someone got embarrassed enough and gave her back her clothes. She wrapped herself in the itchy blanket and searched Lito’s area.
Nothing
“Whoever the turd is that took my clothes, I hope you're having a good laugh.”
“Look under your bed,” a female voice said, sounding annoyed.
Colleen got down to her stomach and blindly searched with her hands, finally finding them right where the woman had said they would be. She pulled on her pants and shirt, then sniffed her socks, catching an aroma of lavender and something earthy, maybe sage.
Wow. They’re growing on me. This is never good.
Breakfast couldn’t be too far away, with the smells of bacon and eggs getting stronger. After navigating through the maze of curtains and beds, the room opened up into a large dining area where people were milling about. Kids were stuffing their faces with freshly baked bread and fruits, as the adults visited while waiting in line. Across the room, Lito’s hand went up, waving her over. Making a beeline to the food line, she had to sidestep a few people to secure her place.
As she waited in line, Colleen felt a finger tap her right shoulder, causing her to turn around.
“I see you have found your way to breakfast this morning,” Kali said. “I can imagine you have quite the appetite this morning.”
She sounded way too chipper for this early in the morning. Colleen was too tired to fight with this woman, even after the welcoming committee had proved less than so.
“How could I miss it? The smells would drag anybody out of bed. I'm surprised you don't have wild animals clawing at the doors, trying to get in all hours of the day,” Colleen said.
Kali’s eyes got wide, “Oh, you'd be surprised what wild things show up on our doorstep. Where are my manners?”
She grabbed Colleen by the hand and dragged her up to the front. “This line is moving far too slow. We don't want you famished when Marisha returns.”
Kali pulled her up to the front of the line, much to the disdain of several people. But no one was going to speak out against the woman responsible for running the place. They sat down, and Colleen stuffed her face, just like she had at dinner the night before, and like before, she didn’t care who saw. The dinner hall cleared out as people finished up; pretty soon, they were the only people left.
“I have to ask,” Colleen said in between bites of food, “I know you said Marisha was part of your community, but you say she left on bad terms. An outcast of sorts.”
“Correct,” Kali took up her fork and knife and began to carefully cut her food, scanning the room, making eye contact with many people.
“So then, why did you kidnap her back? It seems like she would be the last person you would want to welcome back home.”
“Kidnap?” Kali said, clutching her neck as if there was an invisible set of pearls between her fingers, “Oh my dear heavens no. We didn’t kidnap her. These boys and I thought they were rescuing your dear Marisha.”
Colleen raised her eyes as if in agreement. “Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. In my defense, I was the one getting beat. Their threat was a bit much, though.”
Something felt off, but that’s what she expected. Places like this rarely were what they appeared on the outside. It might take a while, but eventually, you reached the rotten center.
“I will have a conversation with them when they return.” Kali stood up and pushed in her chair, “When you finish, be sure to drop by my office again. I don’t expect the group to be back before this afternoon.”
“I can do that, as long as Lin will not be there. She isn’t, is she?”
“No, she should be on gate duty again. I’ve spoken with her as well. She knows her place. Lin is a…“Kali taps her index and thumb together. “Lin is very protective of me and our ways. Sometimes it gets in the way of formal greetings.”
Colleen shifted her eyes to the left. “I can see that. I’m glad she apologized.”
“Apologized?” she said, sounding surprised. “Oh no, she did no such thing. I just got her to agree to not do it again. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gave you the finger the next time you saw her.”
She gave Colleen a quick wink, turned around, and was out of sight before she knew it. Colleen finished her meal, not leaving anything. They never knew when their next good meal would be, and she wasn’t planning on staying any longer than she had to. She spotted Lito from across the room, talking to a girl he had been in line with earlier. He looked to be well entrenched in conversation.
“I guess he wasn’t that heartbroken.”
The girl was cute, and somehow how even shorter than Lito, if that was even possible. Her shoulder-length hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, showing her heart-shaped face, her skin the same color as Kali. Her powerful liquid brown eyes pulled Colleen’s attention from all the way across the room.
Very nice, Lito. She must be blind.
Colleen motioned for him to come over and sit down, but he wasn’t paying attention. Fully entrenched in a deep conversation, no less. She stood up and took her dishes back to the kitchen, and grabbed a rag to help wipe the tables. She had always hated kitchen clean-up duty whenever mom had dragged her into a new hostel, and every time her mom would swear to never do it again.
She made a line to Lito. She tossed her head back and laughed right before he could see her, mocking him just enough to ruffle him. It didn’t take long before he noticed and shot her a disgusted look.
“Yes, Colleen?” He said, his eyes motioning to the girl.
She put a hand to her chest, “Oh my bad, I didn’t notice you were talking to someone. Well, aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friend?”
The girl spoke up before Lito could say something. “Hi, I’m YamunaAhnah.”
She was even more stunning up close; her smile beaming, accentuated by a small gap between her front teeth.
“Nice to meet you, YamunaAhnah,” Colleen said as she took the girl's hand and kissed it. “That’s a beautiful name, matched with such a beautiful voice. You wouldn’t be related to…”
“She’s my aunt.”
“That makes sense.” Colleen put her hand out to shake. “Well, I’m his good friend, Colleen. We go way back.”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“No, no. Not that kind of friend.” She scoffed, scrunching her nose up. “Don’t worry. He doesn’t really do it for me. I’m already off the market.”
Lito put his head in his hands and sighed, “Colleen, what do you need?”
“We’ve been requested to go back to Kali’s office.”
“For what?” He asked.
“I don’t know. All I know is that Lin won’t be there.”
Colleen turned and waved for him to follow.
“Well, that’s good. She flipped me off about fifteen
minutes ago. What an angry lady.”
“Tha sounds about right; well, let's go.” Lito pursed his lips and looked her dead in the eyes. With a slight cock of his head, he shook his head.
“I can let you go—” Yamuna said.
“No, you don’t have to do that.” He said to Yamuna. He turned back to Colleen. “Did she specifically request me, or just you?”
“Jackson and I will go. He’s more fun, anyway.”
Jackson leaned against her leg and cowered his head. She reached down to feel his snout, realizing it was dry.
“Thanks,” Lito said, “Yamuna says we’ve got a few days before they get back—”
“I’m sorry what? A few days? How did it turn into a few days?”
“It’s always a three- or four-day trip depending on how far they go,” Yamuna said. “Maybe she just misspoke?”
“Maybe so. You two have fun,” Colleen said, “Jackson and I are going to go see what’s going on.”
Colleen walked away and tapped the side of her thigh to get Jackson’s attention. As she was walking away, she heard Lito call out, “Be nice, Colleen.”
“Oh, don’t you worry. I will be.”
Forty-Eight
Marisha
Today wouldn’t be any different than yesterday. Quinn was going to push everyone as hard or harder than he had the day before. According to him, they would make it to the halfway point before nightfall. But Marisha was skeptical.
By noon she was already feeling all her joints grinding movements, the aches, and pains, the damage done from yesterday.
“Why did I volunteer to do this?” She said to herself. “I should have just stayed back at the museum. At least I could have rested and gotten a decent meal.”
Garrick had said nothing else since they had left this morning, and come to think of it, he had been acting weird all morning. Ever since her second attack, he had become a little less friendly, deciding to come along a little less shrewd. And Quinn still wasn’t saying anything about what exactly they were doing out here.
The Maddening: Book 2 in the Terror Saga Page 26
