Fear Darkness (The Fear Chronicles Book 3)

by C. C. Bolick

  I grabbed his arm. “Nothing will happen to you, Dad.”

  “This is important. If I ever leave on a mission and don’t return, I want you to listen to Sylvia. She’ll look after you. Promise me.”

  “You’ll be back,” I said.

  “Promise me,” he repeated.

  “Sylvia doesn’t like me.”

  “I’ll tell you a secret about Sylvia. The people she treats the worst are the ones she cares about the most.”

  “You’re making that up.”

  “Sylvia is a good person. She wants to save lives and I’ll be proud if you absorb half of her dedication.” He reached behind and seemed to pull a toy out of thin air. “They call these Rubik cubes.”

  I reached for the cube with squares of red on one side and another primary color on each of the other five. “I’ve seen these before.”

  “I know you’re obsessed with those video games Joel used to play, but can you solve this puzzle?” He took the cube and twisted until the colors checkered each side at random. “Go ahead.”

  “Now?”

  “You’re right. It’s late.” Instead of releasing the cube, he placed it on the table next to the bed. “Maybe you can solve it after you’ve had some sleep. I’ll put it somewhere safe and you can make a game of it.”

  As I drifted off to sleep, I fought the exhaustion. I wanted to talk to Dad but there was no way for me to change the dream. When I opened my eyes, I stood in a dark room.

  This was a memory of me at the secret apartment in New York. I had to be at least eighteen. Dad left clues for me to find this place when the other agents had no idea it existed. What I never figured out was why he sent me here.

  My eyes adjusted to the dark living area. Only a thin line of moonlight showed through a gap between two of the curtains. I walked through the living room and down the hall, into one of the kids’ bedrooms. As before, I had no control over this dream.

  In the room were shelves with cars and fire trucks, along with every other toy a five-year-old could want. In the next room were shelves lined with dolls and a bed with pink sheets. As I turned to leave the room, I caught sight of colored squares on the top shelf behind one of the dolls. On a shelf no five-year-old could reach. It was the Rubik’s cube. He’d left the cube here for me to find, except I never found it.

  As I walked back into the hall, I cursed myself. Of all the times I’d walked through this apartment, I’d never seen the cube. It was probably the reason why Dad brought me here and I missed the clue.

  Had he left some sort of message for me? Why was I just now realizing, when I had no power to touch the cube?

  Some agent I was. Maybe this job wasn’t for me after all. I’d obviously seen the cube since it was etched into my memory. Why didn’t I notice it before?

  The truth had been here all along. I tried making myself turn around and go back for the cube, but the room around me faded.

  Now I was surrounded with the white walls of a training room where I learned to fight as a teen. Agent Lockhart approached dressed in black sweats with a knife in his hand. This would be a painful lesson. If I remembered correctly, he’d stabbed my arm with that knife and I’d had to visit the med-level.

  As usual, his face showed no emotion. Because he was held as a hostage for two years by a foreign government, feeling no emotions became a survival mechanism for him. One I wished I could replicate.

  Before he reached me, he disappeared and left me alone in the room. Why were people always leaving me? Was this my subconscious throwing a pity-party?

  A door opened and Sylvia walked into the room. I expected her to show me her battle skills, but instead she gave me a rare smile. “I’m proud of you,” she said. “I want you to remember your parents loved you. Don’t ever doubt that.”

  Okay, maybe I was losing my mind. The Sylvia I knew never talked to me like I was her kid. No, I was always a mission for her. Teach Travis. Make sure he can take care of himself. He’s got to fight harder than the other agents to prove himself.

  The woman raised me after Dad disappeared. I felt affection for her but also hatred. This room wasn’t real. Some part of me knew I was locked in a prison but not this prison. Sylvia was the one who gave the order.

  I blinked and the room faded to darkness.

  How would I escape?

  * * * * *

  “Travis.”

  Beyond the darkness, I heard a familiar voice. A woman’s voice—this time my sister called my name. I felt pressure on my hand and looked down at my palm. A light came on and flooded the room. I couldn’t explain how but I knew she was holding my hand.

  Some things I always knew about Angel. She was my sister and the fact she was also a vampire never changed how I felt about her.

  “Do you think he can hear us?” she asked.

  “Maybe,” Agent Lockhart said. “I’ve heard stories from people who remembered hearing voices while in a coma. With my power, I can bring back memories. The mind is a wasteland of winding halls that go nowhere with regrets waiting around every corner. A person could get lost because of the sheer size.”

  “And if that person gets lost?” Angel asked.

  “Travis will be fine.”

  “Could you use your power on him now?”

  “With Travis in a coma, I’d probably do more damage than good. Maybe you could fill me in on what happened with Rena. Sylvia isn’t talking, even to me.”

  “I don’t want Sylvia to hear what I’m about to say.”

  “She can’t,” he said. “Skip sealed the room.”

  After a few seconds, Angel said, “Rena escaped with one of the doctor candidates.”

  “I figured that, but what I can’t decide is why Sylvia asked us not to investigate.”

  “It makes no sense,” Angel said. “Other than the fact Sylvia is hiding why she personally recruited the doctor.”

  “The one from Chicago? Sylvia mentioned the trip so I don’t think she was hiding.”

  As Angel explained the connection to Tyler and Rena’s escape, I thought back through every detail of the night Rena and I had dinner with the doctor. No one could be more surprised than me to learn she was Erin Watts, the woman Tyler lost his head over.

  “So, Rena’s on the run,” Agent Lockhart said. “I’m assuming you’ve got a way to contact her. If she’s still in Travis’s car—”

  “She’s not. Travis knew about the tracking device you put in his Ferrari and had her remove it.”

  Agent Lockhart laughed and I wanted to hit him. If only I could move. He’d tracked me ever since I bought the car. One day I’d get him back for spying on me.

  Angel’s voice shook and my anger at Agent Lockhart dissolved. He spoke in a low voice as he tried to comfort her.

  “Why don’t you use your power on Travis?” he asked. “Maybe you can find out what he’s feeling.”

  They were silent for what seemed like hours. When Angel finally spoke, her voice was flat. “Nothing.”

  “I’m sorry. Maybe even your power has limits. Let’s go with the hope he can hear us.”

  She whispered her next words near my ear. “I’m going to get you out of here. I promise.”

  Sounds of the door followed and then empty silence. Somehow, they’d found a way to mute the machine keeping me under.

  I wished for a sound, any sound.

  * * * * *

  The floor felt like a mat similar to one in the training rooms where I’d fought Sylvia on more than one occasion. With her power of speed in a fight, she’d always beaten me.

  I sat down on the floor, again wishing for any sound.

  “Travis,” a voice said.

  “I’m starting to hate the sound of my name.”

  A woman appeared on the mat before me. Her golden hair fell past her shoulders and her lips curved in a familiar smile. She wore jeans and a white t-shirt with red roses on the front. I’d studied her picture enough she felt like an old friend.

  “Are you another memory?” I
asked.

  “No,” Rosanna said.

  “You look younger, like when you first came to the agency. How is that possible?”

  “This is your head. Anything you can think of is possible.”

  Laughing, I thought of the walls as red instead of white. The walls shifted to a blood-red shade. I thought of them as black and they changed to black.

  “See?” she said. “Your favorite color.”

  “Black isn’t my favorite color.”

  “Then why do you always dress like you’re going to a funeral?”

  “That’s Donald Mason talking. His favorite singer was always Johnny Cash.”

  “Still is from what I hear.” She held out her arms and glanced over her skin. “You must have seen a picture of me from back when I joined the agency. It’s nice being young again.”

  I nodded. “You were twenty, I think. Why does it matter if I saw the picture?”

  “This is your head. I appear the way your brain thinks I should.” Rosanna touched her cheeks. “You’ve seen other pictures of me.”

  “The agency has pictures taken after you died.”

  “But your subconscious chose this version of me. I wonder if it’s because I remind you of Regina. My daughter looks almost exactly like I did at her age.”

  Rena. I wanted nothing more than to touch her. Looking down at my hands, I thought of the sick feeling when I touched her by accident. I burned her skin, even though her fingers only brushed my arm. Something came apart inside of me that day.

  If there was one good thing that came out of her pain, I’d seen Rena’s future and devised a way for her to escape the base.

  A drop of water fell on my head, then another. I wiped away a drop that slid down my face. “What are you doing?”

  “Don’t blame me for the decorations. Your subconscious chose for it to rain.” She pushed her hair back. “I’d appreciate if you’d make it stop.”

  “How?”

  “Think happy thoughts.” When I groaned, she said, “Think about seeing my daughter again.”

  I thought about my last night with Rena and the rain stopped. “Where are we?”

  “On the isolation floor.”

  “Sylvia locked me up.”

  “You didn’t give her a choice by opposing her in front of the senator. Locking you in here isn’t the worst punishment Sylvia had up her sleeve.”

  “Can you help me get out?”

  “Maybe.” She disappeared and moments later reappeared with a look of disgust. “Maybe not.”

  “Is this how it was when you took over Bethany’s body?”

  “Are you saying you believe now? Agent Payne, I thought you said ghosts weren’t part of your beliefs.”

  “I never said that. I just needed proof.”

  She crossed her legs and closed her eyes as if meditating. “Here’s your proof.” The room filled with deep crimson roses. Thousands of roses lay on the floor around us, petals blanketing the soft surface until nothing but red was visible. Rosanna opened her eyes. “What do you think?”

  “Not my favorite color either.”

  “I hope you’re not this hard to please with my daughter. She might have second thoughts.”

  “Are you going to take over my body?”

  Rosanna’s eyes widened. “Wouldn’t that be awkward? No, I don’t think we’ll form that kind of arrangement. Regina would never look at you the same way again.”

  I sighed with relief. “Why are you here?”

  “To talk. You seemed angry.”

  “I was dreaming of my mother, but the memory didn’t last long enough. After all these years, I finally got to see her again. She was beautiful.”

  “Yes,” Rosanna said. “While Angel has her fiery brown hair, you inherited her emerald eyes. I can’t look at you without thinking of her.”

  “You were friends?”

  “She was a career agent and I was in love with her husband’s partner. We tolerated each other.”

  I laughed. “At least you’re honest.”

  “Honest but I make it a point to never trust anyone. My daughter has always been the same way, yet she’s placed one hundred percent of her trust in you.”

  “I love Rena.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say those words. I was impressed with how you helped Regina escape the agency. It was fruitless but interesting nonetheless.”

  “Sylvia didn’t plan to let her go. I couldn’t stand to see the agency put her in a cage.”

  “You saw her future, didn’t you? You knew Sylvia planned to lock you in here?”

  I nodded.

  “Why not escape before your capture?”

  “Because that opportunity was better spent getting Rena out of here. Her escape was my choice and I don’t regret it.”

  “You really do love her.”

  “A year ago, I didn’t think it was possible. Even when I saw her for the first time, I never imagined she’d want me as more than an agent to protect her. I figured when she learned the truth about who I was she’d hate me.”

  “I’ve seen how you treat her and I respect you for that.”

  “No one will ever hurt Rena, including me.”

  “She knows nothing of how to deal with men. At eighteen I was married. I learned to play Louis’s game and kept my heart to myself. In exchange for marrying him, he took care of my family.”

  “You traded your future for theirs.”

  “You do what you have to for those you love.” She smiled. “I’m glad Regina found a man like you and not Louis.”

  “Because a girl always finds a man like her father.”

  She laughed. “You have a sense of humor that doesn’t fit the agent facade. I like that about you.” Her laughter stopped and she stared past me, at the far wall.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “You have a visitor.”

  I looked around. “Who?”

  “A visitor in your room, not your head. Several visitors in fact. It will be a pleasant surprise.”

  “What’s happening?”

  Rosanna glanced around with alarm and climbed to her knees. Beneath me, the floor changed from the soft mat to cold stone. “Feels like someone is breaking you out.” The floor began to shift like a boat on rough waters and she stumbled to her feet, her heels clanking on the stone. “This is where I make my exit.”

  “We’re not finished,” I shouted.

  “For now, we are.”

  “You never told me where Rena is. When will I find her?”

  “Unlike you, I can’t see the future. How am I supposed to know when or if you’ll find her?”

  “How do I—”

  Rosanna disappeared before I could finish. The shaking turned violent and I fell backward, slamming my head against stone. Why did the floor have to change now?

  “Don’t touch his skin,” a voice said.

  Was that Tyler? Maybe I was losing it. The floor stopped shaking and I tried to stand.

  “Tyler,” I yelled at the surrounding white walls. The roses were gone.

  “He’s disconnected,” Tyler said. “We’re clear to go.”

  “Don’t let him wake up,” said a woman who wasn’t Rosanna. “This trip will be safer if he’s out.”

  “Then we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

  The sound of raw power crackled in the air. My skin hummed like I’d been struck by an electrical charge. Every hair stood on end and the charge spread to the tips of my fingers and toes. Then all feeling in my body faded, which should have freaked me out.

  Instead, I focused on the last voice, a sound I’d recognize anywhere.

  It belonged to my father.

  Chapter Three

  Rena

  Two hours after we left the restaurant and swapped cars, Erin and I traveled east on a highway toward Richmond. Despite the fact I’d driven all night, I felt wide awake as I gripped the wheel of the black Honda.

  I didn’t know the model year, didn’t want to know.
Skip had insisted this was the perfect car to disappear in. He’d read a statistic about Hondas and with his photographic memory never forgot a single detail. It was a common car, easy to fade into the background with, and Skip had no trouble finding one to take us out of town.

  Brake lights flashed in front of me. I veered into the left lane and passed a pickup similar to the huge Ford I drove back in Florida but with less rust.

  Above us, the sun cast the full weight of its daily trek. As long as we didn’t face any traffic delays, we’d make it to the hotel Skip booked long before sunset.

  “Lay low for a few days,” he’d insisted. Skip and Angel left as we did, headed for Atlanta. They wanted us to stay off the radar until they’d had a chance to talk with Sylvia and negotiate our return. Secretly, I hoped this gave Angel enough time to free Travis.

  Even with my power, I didn’t know how to argue with Sylvia while she had Travis locked away. Not like a nuclear bomb would get him out or keep him safe.

  Erin mumbled and stretched her neck. “Sorry, riding makes me sleepy. Need me to take over?”

  “I’m good.” At least this car had a radio that worked. So far, Travis didn’t have a good track record when it came to vehicles I’d like to disappear in.

  I’d felt guilty watching the tow truck disappear down a winding road with his Ferrari, miles of green pastures and a backdrop of mountains to either side. Skip promised the tow company would keep his car safe until we could get it back to Atlanta. If anything happened to that car again, Travis wouldn’t forgive me.

  “For a minute, I thought the last twenty-four hours was a dream,” Erin said. “Until I realized I was riding in a car.”

  “You don’t have a car?”

  “I took public transportation everywhere in Chicago or I walked. I haven’t driven in years.”

  I laughed. “Weren’t you just offering to drive? Or maybe that was part of the dream.”

  This brought a slight smile to her face. Erin stared at the miles of farmland along her side of the road. “I haven’t seen this much grass in years.”

  “Do you miss Chicago?”

  “No,” she said, without hesitation. “Do you think Skip knew what he was talking about when he bought this car?”