Into the Dark

by Caroline T. Patti

  “We have to figure out what happened,” I say, not necessarily to Nathaniel, but to myself as well.

  “I don’t think it’s that difficult to figure out,” Nathaniel says flatly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Put the pieces together, Gage. They lost Mercy. Or Mercy escaped. Either way, she’s out in the wild.”

  “By escaped you mean … ” I can’t finish the sentence.

  Nathaniel finishes it for me. “She jumped? That’s exactly what I mean. If she was scared enough, or hurt, it’s a definite possibility.”

  He’s probably right. It makes sense. It also means that by now The Assembled might know that Mercy didn’t kill Lyla when she left her body. And if that’s true, Mercy is in more danger than ever before.

  Breachers are impulsive and reckless by nature. Mercy, full of grief and remorse, is like a ticking time bomb. She won’t know what’s happening to her or how to stop and she could end up anywhere, in anyone. We have to find her. Fast.

  “Do you think any of your fancy Breacher tracker equipment still works?” Nathaniel asks me.

  Jinx. I’d give anything to be able to talk to Jinx, but I can’t think about that right now. As for the equipment, if there isn’t too much smoke or water damage, it’s possible. There’s a shred of hope.

  If Nathaniel is wrong and Mercy hasn’t left Lyla’s body, we’ll only be wasting time returning to the warehouse. But there’s nothing else to go on so we take off running.

  The wreckage is sickening. It’s no longer a safe haven. It’s been violated in the worst way. The fire trucks have come and gone, though investigators still linger. We have to sneak inside.

  The halls are underneath an inch of water. The walls are scorched and sagging. Jinx’s body is still in his chair. It’s possible the investigators haven’t found it yet, or they’d found it and are waiting for the Crime Scene Units. Either way, they’ll be returning which means we’re under a time crunch.

  Parts of the control panel are fried, but all is not lost. A few of the monitors are still working. I move around Jinx, careful not to disturb his body. Though I’m schooled in how to work the controls of the Observation Deck, I’m not schooled in its repair. I quickly begin to lose hope and my patience.

  “This is useless!” I yell, slamming my hand down on the board. I watch with surprise as the keys light up.

  Working as quickly as I can, I punch in the codes and wait for the screens to show us something, anything.

  Two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes. Nothing.

  “She could be anywhere.” Frustration rings in my voice.

  “Someone’s coming.” Nathaniel motions toward the door.

  Quickly we dash out of sight. Giving each other hand signals we communicate our next move. I move to the left so that I can circle back and sneak up on whoever it is while Nathaniel chooses the frontal attack. Duck-walking my way around the room I spy two sets of feet, which I signal to Nathaniel.

  On his count, we pounce.

  Using my crouched position, I sweep the legs of the attacker closest to me. Nathaniel dives at the other guy. With surprise on our side, we subdue the two men without much effort. Nathaniel continues to kick the guy about the ribs until blood bubbles from his mouth.

  “Enough! He’s no good to us dead.”

  Nathaniel spits in his face and leaves him to wail and clench his middle section.

  “One of you gets to be our guest and tell us everything we want to know.” Nathaniel stands authoritatively over them both. “The other gets to die. You let me know what you decide.”

  “I’ll tell you nothing,” the guy Nathaniel kicked croaks out.

  “Works for me,” Nathaniel says and then he stomps the guy’s face in. He turns to the other and says, “Looks like you get to talk.”

  I pull him to his feet and hold him against the wall. “You work for Ariana?”

  He nods.

  “Where’s Mercy?”

  He doesn’t answer. “I think he needs some encouragement,” I say to Nathaniel.

  Nathaniel approaches, but he doesn’t have to strike. The guy starts singing.

  “We lost her. Ariana sent us here to find her,” he says. “She told us about your machine and how it tracks Breachers.”

  Son of a bitch! Nathaniel is right. Mercy is no longer in Lyla’s body.

  “Where are Jay and Kate?”

  He hesitates, so I punch him in the gut. Seizing him by the throat I hold him against the wall.

  “Where are Jay and Kate?”

  “Ariana has them.”

  “They’re not at the hotel, are they?” Nathaniel asks. “Where is she keeping them?”

  Again, he stays quiet longer than I’m willing to tolerate so I knee him in the groin. That gets him talking.

  “Meat. Packing. Plant,” he says between gasps for air.

  “And Rae? Is she there too?”

  He shakes his head.

  “Where is she?”

  “Dead.”

  With that I let him fall to the floor. Nathaniel kicks him about the head until he falls unconscious.

  Rae is dead? That can’t be. It isn’t possible that I lost my entire team in one day.

  What is my purpose in all of this? I’m not even sure who I’m fighting for or why. Is Nathaniel still my enemy? Will we turn on each other once we have Mercy back? I have no idea what my future holds.

  “You go to the meat packing plant,” Nathaniel says. “I’ll stay here and see if I can find Mercy.”

  Nathaniel giving me orders isn’t exactly sitting well with me. Too much is happening and I’m unequipped to handle any of it.

  “My team is dead.”

  I don’t realize I said it out loud until Nathaniel responds.

  “Now is not the time to go all human on me, Gage. We haven’t failed until Mercy is dead and she’s not dead. She’s out there alone and we need to find her. We can deal with everything else later.”

  Nathaniel is right. Best not to think too far ahead.

  “Go to the meat packing plant. Get Jay and Kate and meet me back here.”

  “Okay. But first we need armor.”

  The weapons room is at the end of the hall and down a narrow staircase. It’s unfortunate I have to knock out a fire investigator along the way, but there’s no time to think, only to act.

  “This is an extractor.” I hand Nathaniel a tool that to the untrained eye resembles a stun gun. “Point and shoot, pretty self-explanatory.”

  Nathaniel gives me a wry smile. “I’m familiar.”

  “Right.”

  We load up with guns, knives, and whatever we can find. I toss Nathaniel an equipment vest and we spend a few minutes strapping down all that we have collected.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be able to find Mercy?” I ask him.

  “No.”

  His answer isn’t exactly confidence inspiring.

  Equipped with all the weapons I need, I leave Nathaniel at The Observation Deck and make my way out of the building. It would’ve been faster to drive to the meat packing plant, but I can’t risk a trip to the garage to get a car.

  I double-time it on foot, stopping short about a block and a half away. The street is quiet, too quiet, which means that Ariana has lookouts. From my breast pocket I withdraw a pair of binoculars and scan the area. Sure enough, there are men stationed at all the exits. There are two men in a car across the street and one on the roof of the opposite building.

  I take the roof out first. Climbing the side ladder, I use the silencer and drop him without breaking a sweat. The two in the car are next. Once they’re out of the way, my path to the guards at the door is free.

  I used the .45 and both go down without ever getting a shot at me. Once the Breachers find new bodies, they’ll be back, but at least I’ve bought myself some time.

  The meat packing plant is cold, though I expect the freezers haven’t been used in
years. It’s dark inside and the floor is stained with animal blood. Hooks hang from the ceilings. Retired machines idle, rusting from lack of use.

  Slithering through the building, I come upon a lone woman who looks as though she’s waiting for me.

  “You’re good,” she remarks. “I’m better.”

  Quicker than I expect she draws her weapon and fires. Ducking and rolling to my right I keep moving until the spray of bullets cease. I can tell from her footsteps that she’s approaching. When she’s within range, she starts firing again.

  Running as fast as I can, I take cover behind a table. When I know she’s near, I return fire. She ducks behind a pillar and waits for me to give up.

  Empty, I throw my gun to the ground and reach for a knife. Flinging it in her direction, it grazes her shoulder, ripping her white blouse. She reaches down and wipes the blood from her arm.

  “Lucky shot.”

  I throw another knife and this time I hit her square in the throat. She clutches at it, but it’s too deep to remove. Within seconds she’s dead.

  The double knife throw. I learned that from Zee. Even in death, he’s still saving my life.

  In the clear, I begin a room-to-room search. It’s in the third room that I find Rae.

  Her beautiful blond hair is matted and caked with blood. Her legs are bent in the same direction. Had there not been a puddle of sticky, red blood, I might have been able to imagine that she was sleeping. Kneeling beside her body, I take her hand in mine. She’s cold and stiff.

  My Rae. Gone.

  I kiss her fingertips and grope along her arm, wishing for the warmth that used to radiate from her.

  Finding Zee, finding Jinx, it was nothing like this. There’s an ache in my chest that I’ve never experienced before, like my insides are wringing themselves out. The back of my throat tightens and clenches making it difficult to swallow. My lips tremble slightly and, for the first time since I was created, I cry.

  With my free hand, I touch my face and feel the wetness, the manifestation of sorrow. Following the grief is a surge of emotions, one piled on top of the other without rhyme or reason. Hatred, anger, revenge, guilt, sadness, it’s all there, swirling inside me and bubbling forth.

  “I’m so sorry,” I cry to her. “I will find who did this to you, Rae, that I swear.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Mercy

  “Lyla, is that really you?” Jay’s voice is full of hope.

  Gunshots. Lyla and Jay jump, fumble closer together, and huddle against the wall.

  “What’s happening?” Lyla asks, her voice nearing hysteria.

  “I don’t know.” Jay pulls Lyla into a protective grasp.

  More gunshots, and then it’s over. All that’s left is an eerie silence. Lyla and Jay continue staring at the door waiting for it to open, bracing themselves for whatever horror lies beyond, but nothing happens.

  After a few moments, Jay parts from Lyla just a bit. He brushes the hair back from her shoulders and inspects every inch of her face. His hands rest on the sides of her neck, his thumb brushing the line of her jaw. Tentatively, he leans in, but only halfway.

  Lyla puts her hands on his waist, tugging slightly at the bottom of his shirt. She tilts her head to the right and waits for him to pull her in.

  It’s the moment before the kiss, when the anticipation builds and the heart races and the pulse quickens, because both people know what’s about to happen. I’m watching Lyla and Jay have that moment. They’ve found their way back to each other.

  I don’t watch them kiss. Hearing it is enough and it isn’t my moment to share. I try as best I can to give them privacy.

  When I hear Jay say, “I thought I lost you,” I turn back around.

  “You found me,” she responds.

  Jay takes Lyla by the hand and leads her to the cot. He sits her down next to him and says, “There’s something I have to tell you.”

  He’s going to try and explain to her about me. He’s going to tell her what I’ve done, that I took her body and nearly killed her. Breath escapes me as I wait for him to tell her of all the things I’ve done.

  “It’s about Mercy,” he continues.

  Lyla sucks in a breath then says, “I remember. The birthday party, the alley, it’s foggy, but it’s there. Mercy had like a seizure or something right? Is she okay?”

  Shaking his head slightly, Jay says, “No, she’s not okay. Ly, this is going to be really weird and messed up, and I swear I wouldn’t have believed it myself, but after everything that’s happened … ”

  Lyla interrupts him by saying, “Just tell me.”

  “Um, well,” he stammers. “Um, when we got to the hospital, you were acting really weird.”

  “I was at the hospital? I don’t remember that.”

  “Right, because it wasn’t really you. I mean it was you, like you, you know?”

  “I haven’t heard you struggle this much since we had to recite Shakespeare in the seventh grade. Spit it out, you’re killing me.”

  Oh, Ly, poor choice of words.

  “Mercy was in your body.”

  Ka-boom. There it is, the ugly truth.

  Lyla laughs a nervous laugh. “What?”

  “It all has to do with her mom and Gage and believe me, I still don’t understand it all, but somehow Mercy took over your body. And we thought, well, she told me that in order to get out, she’d have to kill you. She didn’t want to do that so she stayed. But you’re here, so she must’ve been wrong.”

  Lyla looks horrified. Both her mouth and her eyes are open wide. “Mercy was going to kill me?”

  No! Lyla, that’s not what I wanted!

  “Did she try to kill me?” Lyla checks herself over.

  “I don’t know,” Jay says. “I didn’t even know she, well you, were here until they threw me in here.”

  “So, where is Mercy now?”

  I’m right here! Why can’t you hear me?

  “Maybe she figured out a way to get out without having to kill you.” Jay gestures toward Lyla and says, “Well, obviously she did because you’re here and not dead and she’s, man, I don’t know.”

  “You realize this sounds insane?”

  “Yep. But Ly, there’s more.”

  Lyla gets up off the cot and walks a few feet away. She crosses her arms over her chest and poses in her stance of defiance, one hip cocked. “You know what, Jay, this is a lot to process and I’m not sure if I can take anymore.” Lyla paces back and forth for a moment and then pivots to face Jay straight on. “We can’t stay here. We have to do something.”

  That’s the Lyla I know and love, the one who isn’t afraid of anything, the one who’s fiercely protective of the ones she loves.

  “Like what? Ly, these people, these Breacher things, they’re no joke. I’ve already seen Mercy … ” He pauses. “I know she didn’t do that to you on purpose, but still, she can take bodies. All the Breachers can apparently. We need to be careful.”

  Hearing Jay express his fear of me is like taking a bullet to the chest. I’m a monster and he’s right. My two best friends in the world have every reason to fear me.

  Lyla, listening to Jay’s words carefully, begins to put the pieces together. “Wait, you said before that Mercy’s mother is alive. Is that true?”

  “Yeah. Freaky, right?”

  “Does Mercy know?”

  “No idea. But I don’t think it’s going to be a happy reunion.”

  Lyla sits back down on the bed and sighs, and for the next few moments there’s silence. How desperately I want to join them, to be near them and draw comfort from them. Mostly, I want to tell them how sorry I am for causing all of this.

  Jay pulls Lyla into him and she nestles against his chest. At least they have each other.

  Suddenly, the door bursts open and all of us jump.

  Gage!

  He’s dressed in combat gear, a black vest, heavily equipped with weapons fits s
nugly to him. In his hand he holds some type of handgun, which he holsters immediately. His usually slicked hair is mussed, his cheeks flushed. His dark eyes are even darker, black and piercing.

  A strange look comes across Gage’s face and then he seizes Lyla and hugs her. “Mercy!”

  Jay jumps up and tries to pry Gage off Lyla, but Gage will not let go.

  “I thought … ”

  Lyla backs away. “I’m not Mercy.”

  Gage looks to Jay for an explanation, but Jay throws up his hands and says, “Don’t look at me. I have no idea. I’m just as confused as you are.”

  “No,” Gage starts.

  “Uh, thanks,” Lyla says in a hurt voice.

  Gage’s eyes dart back and forth. With his hands on his hips he says, “I didn’t mean to imply … ” He seems to be having difficultly thinking of the right words to say. “You’re sure?”

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure,” Lyla says.

  “And Mercy? Is she … ?”

  Is she standing just a few feet from you? Yes! Why can’t you see me? Gage! I begin to scream. Gage!

  “Did you hear that?” Gage asks.

  Holy shit! It’s working. Gage!

  “Hear what?” Lyla asks.

  Gage concentrates, holds up a hand telling them to be quiet while he listens.

  I’m here! I yell.

  “What is it?” Jay asks.

  Gage hesitates and then says, “I thought I heard … ” He stops. “Never mind.”

  Don’t give up! Gage!

  “Mercy?”

  He looks right at me when he speaks, steps in my direction and I think maybe, just maybe, he can hear me.

  Lyla and Jay look around the room and then back at Gage. I can tell they want to see what he’s seeing, but they can’t.

  Can you see me?

  “No, but I can hear you.”

  What’s happening to me?

  “Are you talking to her? Is Mercy here?” Lyla moves closer to Gage.

  “I think so,” Gage answers.

  With all of my might I concentrate, throw my energy at Gage. It’s a strange sensation, to say the least. It isn’t like before, with all the pain. This time it’s all heat, buzzing around me like a vortex and I thrust it at Gage.