Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1)

by Christopher Rankin

  It was Ivy Cavatica.

  She lifted some sand into the air with her right hand, then let it fall between her fingers. She seemed completely absorbed as though the simple action was fascinating.

  “Hi, Dade,” Ivy said. “I’m glad you came outside.” She stood up from the garden and turned to face him. “I’m really sorry for what happened the other day. I didn’t want to do it.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m asleep right now. That’s how I can talk to you. I’m asleep.”

  “Why did you want to talk to me?”

  Ivy shrugged her shoulders like a baffled child, saying, “I dunno.” Looking away as though ashamed of something, she added, “It’s afraid of you. You’re the only thing it’s afraid of. It told me to stay away but I’m asleep and it can’t see what I’m doing very well. It hasn’t gotten in there yet.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and told him, “I don’t think I have much time left.”

  “What has Bernard Mengel done to you?” Dade said to himself.

  “When I’m awake, I have to share my consciousness with it. More and more. Everyday. I like being asleep. You can help me. You can stop it. That’s why it’s so afraid of you. It knows you’ve figured out a way. That’s how you saved yourself years ago.”

  “What you’re talking about could kill you or worse.”

  “What’s worse than becoming a monster?”

  “I don’t know exactly what Bernard’s done to you. It could be too late.”

  “You need to be careful,” Ivy said, looking like a startled little girl. “We’re coming for you and Ann Marie. I won’t be able to stop it. I’m sorry, Dade.”

  She walked off into the trees.

  ...

  The following afternoon, Ann Marie went by herself to pick up a package that was mistakenly delivered to someone in the Asylum corporate accounting department. The sample of rare earth nanopowder catalyst had been sent to her all the way from Japan. Ann Marie had gotten the call about the mistake that morning. The trip was sending her to one of the lower corporate buildings down the hill.

  She and Dade usually avoided the lower corporate grounds. The place seemed, to her, to be populated almost entirely by polite and well-groomed zombies. As she walked down the concrete path, many of them stared at her, looking bewildered at the sight of her young face. They were trying to spot the name on her badge. She could tell that a few of them knew who she was or at least knew that she worked for Dr. Death.

  The lower Asylum buildings all looked the same, three-stories of opaque black glass with lines of suits filing in and out. Very few people spoke to each other. It seemed to Ann Marie that most of the people there seemed like they were pulled straight out of a loved one’s funeral.

  She heard some commotion behind her as a group of suits reacted to something out of the ordinary. “What is that thing?” Someone called out. “Holy shit!” cried another man.

  “What the devil do you think we make at this corporation?” Asked Bernard Mengel, who, it turned out, was the source of the commotion. His DeathStalker drone was right at his heels, following like a loyal dog but eyeing him like an assassin. Bernard’s smile beamed confidence to the onlookers and he spoke with the authority of a Sunday morning preacher. “What you see here is a secret prototype,” he told the crowd of perhaps fifteen people. They all kept back from the thing like it was a poisonous snake. He held his finger in front of his mouth and said, “SHHHH!”

  Someone in the crowd, a tall man with a tightly trimmed grey beard, asked Bernard, “Did Dade Harkenrider build that thing?” Then he just stared at the DeathStalker, shaking his head. “Been here thirty years,” the man said. “I know when I’m looking at something supernatural.”

  Bernard noticed Ann Marie standing there and said to the onlookers, “We have his apprentice right here!” With a warm smile, he waved to Ann Marie to come over. When she got closer, Bernard told them all, “This young lady is the finest young scientist in the United States. Scratch that,” he started to add. “The finest young scientist in the world.”

  The man with the grey beard respectfully nodded. He looked to her as though he had something to ask. After a few moments of internally rephrasing his inquiry, he finally asked. “You really work with Dade Harkenrider?” Then he looked almost confused, adding, “Closely?”

  Ann Marie didn’t know what to say and she just nodded.

  “Be careful with that man,” said the grey bearded fellow. He started unceremoniously in the other direction and left them.

  “Dade has a fan club wherever he goes,” said Bernard to Ann Marie as they watched the man fade into the marching line of suits.

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “Why is everyone so afraid of him?”

  “Because that mentor of yours is very dangerous. You’re the only one that doesn’t see it, my dear.”

  “He’s not dangerous,” said Ann Marie. “Not to me.”

  “That is probably true,” Bernard admitted. “He loves you. At least as much as a vicious monster can love something.”

  “He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t even like me. He just needs me.”

  “I know Dade Harkenrider better than his own mother and he doesn’t need anyone. You are around him because he wants you around him.”

  She caught herself looking as though she was hanging on Bernard’s every word and turned away from him. “I’ve been told you’re very dangerous, that even talking to you is dangerous.”

  Bernard smiled even wider. “If I were to venture a guess,” he said, “these warnings have originated from either Dade or our friend, the Sheriff.” He looked her in the eyes and drew a breath. “Take a walk with me, my dear,” he said, pointing to his DeathStalker on the ground next to him. Flashing red laser light from its electronic eyes, the thing peered up as though to tell Bernard: I’m watching you. Bernard told Ann Marie, “I believe your safety is guaranteed.” Then, with a smile, he whispered to her, “Dade’s spawn will keep me in line.”

  She felt a surge of curiosity and answered so quickly that Bernard could detect her excitement. “OK,” she answered. “I think it’s probably safe.”

  Bernard started down the walkway with Ann Marie and the DeathStalker following. He asked her, “Did you ever think that perhaps I’m not as dangerous as your master would have you believe?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted.

  “Did you ever consider that our dear Doctor Harkenrider has given you the wrong idea about me? He is a bit paranoid after all. You can’t spend all that time on the other side without some side effects.” Bernard studied Ann Marie’s face until he seemed sure that he had introduced some uncertainty. “I still love him. Don’t get me wrong. But I worry about him around you.”

  “He’s fine around me. He’s my friend.”

  “One should be careful around anyone, I suppose,” said Bernard. “Especially in this grotesque world we’re living in. Friendship is indeed an honorable idea. Not one fit for human beings, but honorable nonetheless.”

  “Dade told me that you tell the truth,” she said to him.

  Bernard looked surprised. “That’s the first semi-kind thing Dade has said about me in fifteen years.”

  “He also said you mix lies with the truth. On purpose.”

  A smile grew on Bernard’s face until it looked ripe enough to explode into laughter. “I do,” he admitted. “What can I say? I’ll try to be honest with you right now but I suppose that’s no guarantee.”

  “There are some things I want to know.”

  “Ha!” Bernard blurted out. “Me too, my dear.”

  “Dade took me to the other side.”

  Bernard studied her face and started grinning as though he could detect something. “I thought I saw it on you,” he said. “That’s fantastic! How did you talk the sour puss into it?”

  “Well, it was an accident.”

  “From your expression, I would say a happy accident. I rememb
er the first time for me. It was quite a long time ago but it doesn’t feel that way. The moment I broke free for the first time is one of my most treasured memories. When are you planning to go again?”

  “Well, we haven’t really talked about that. Dade says it’s dangerous. He seems to worry about what will happen to me.”

  “Dangerous? Is that really what he’s telling you?” Bernard asked, sounding skeptical. “It’s his sacred duty to pass down his knowledge to the next generation. If I were you, my dear, I wouldn’t accept that. Just some advice from an old man that’s done some living.”

  Then he walked away from her with his DeathStalker following like a paparazzo.

  Chapter 14

  The Red Formula

  Judging by the extreme care Dade was taking to perform the first step of his new chemical recipe, Ann Marie knew that they were headed into dangerous territory. He mixed up two liquids, one green and one blood-red, and a cloud of black smoke erupted from the blend. The churning mass of smoke looked nearly alive as it was sucked into the powerful fume hood vents.

  Dade took a step back from hood and inspected the setup like a sculptor. His intense look was a mixture of concentration and rivalry. It was as though he was daring the chemicals to defy him. After the smoke cleared, he put a laboratory spatula full of catalyst into the flask. Bubbles quickly began to form and burst. Each collapse triggered a small flash of white light in the flask.

  “Is it sonoluminescence?” asked Ann Marie. “How is it lighting up without being pumped by an energy source?”

  “They don’t teach you about this in your laboratory units,” said Dade. “This is a little different.” He tapped the side of the glass flask. Suddenly, glowing red bubbles rose to the surface of the liquid and burst. Like miniature fairies, white sparks began to surge out of the top of the flask and float into the vents.

  Despite having spent the majority of her young life in a chemistry lab, Ann Marie had never seen anything like it. She took a step back with her head spinning from the sight. “What is that stuff?” She asked. “I’ve never even heard of fluorescent phenomena like this.”

  “Very few people have,” said Dade. “Probably just Bernard and me. And now you.”

  “Can you teach me how to prepare it?”

  “Not this time,” Dade answered. “This isn’t like the green stuff. It’s too intense. It’s dangerous.”

  “Wait a second,” argued Ann Marie. “Too intense? I’ve already flown out of my body and over the lab. I think I can handle it.”

  “You can’t.”

  “I handled the green formula fine. You said I was a natural.”

  “This is completely different.”

  “If it’s so dangerous, why are you doing it? Aren’t you afraid?”

  “Very afraid. As afraid as I’m capable of being. I need to do this because there are things I need to find out. This is the only way to do it.”

  “You’re scaring me. Are you going to be OK?”

  Dade considered the question. “My body will be fine,” he said.

  “What about the rest of you?”

  Instead of answering her, he looked at her as if to say: I have no idea.

  “How many times have you done this?”

  “Nearly a hundred.”

  “A hundred times and you’re still scared! You?” She looked Dade over and noticed that his hands were shaking. “I don’t think you should do it,” she said. “This doesn’t seem right.”

  “I have to.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” he said before going back to the fume hood. The smoke and sparkles subsided and the flask no longer seemed haunted. The liquid turned clear like water except for a small red stone.

  It looked like a pebble resting in the bottom of the flask until Ann Marie got a closer look. The small stone was changing color, going from black to crimson with a kind of heartbeat. Then it started to change shape, turning from an amorphous lump to a shape with an extremely intricate surface like the innards of a pocket watch. The nugget of matter continued to change form in the bottom of the flask. It was as though the little thing was putting on a show for whoever may be watching.

  He took the long needle of a syringe and dipped it into the flask. Drawing up mostly clear liquid and just a smidgen of dust from the flashing pebble, Dade’s hands were trembling. He placed the syringe in a set of mounts inside a steel cabinet next to the tank. “This will administer it automatically when I’m in the tank and ready,” he said.

  “You’re actually going to inject that stuff?” asked Ann Marie. “It looks alive.”

  “In a way, it is alive,” he told her. Dade took off his robe and hung it up next to the tank. Ann Marie noticed the goose pimples on his chest and shoulders. He trembled as he lowered himself into the tank.

  Ann Marie followed him up the staircase leading to the top and helped him into the warm liquid. Their eyes met for a second before she shut the lid. Then Dade started to sink. She put her palm up against the acrylic and met Dade’s hand on the other side.

  “You can still call this off,” she said to outer wall of the tank.

  Dade understood her and shook his head no.

  The outside of the tank began to dim and he started to disappear into the blackness. The automated system depressed the plunger on the syringe. This sent a dusting of the strange pebble down the laboratory tubing and into his bloodstream. Just before the huge cylinder went completely black, Ann Marie saw his eyes whip open and a look of terror sweep over his face. His look beamed out such a profound fear that Ann Marie’s body went cold.

  “Stop the sequence!” she shouted to an uncaring instrument console. “Something is wrong!” There was a large red button for the emergency shut off. When Ann Marie hit it, the only thing the machine did was bring up a message informing her it was too late. She continued to try different combinations of keystrokes and menus but nothing could stop the sequence.

  Dade’s biofeedback data looked strange. His heart was slowing and his body temperature was already dangerously low at ninety-four. Suddenly, his heart went from a slow beat to a dead stop. A warning message, scrawled out in red, filled up the computer monitors: DANGER! BIOFEEDBACK SIGNAL OUT OF SAFE LIMITS.

  His body temperature started to fall at an alarming and unnatural rate. Ninety-four became ninety-two became ninety degrees in no time. The fluid in the tank was warmed to ninety-eight-point-six, so it made no sense that he was getting colder. Something was very wrong. Eighty-nine degrees sent Ann Marie into a breathless panic.

  She nearly tripped on her way up the stairs to the top of the tank. She yanked on the lid so hard that her arms hurt. It didn’t budge. She tried to activate the electrical relay that started the pneumatic lift for the lid but the computer had her locked out. Dade’s heart was stopped completely and his temperature was falling to eighty-five degrees.

  It was like something invisible was chilling his body.

  Ann Marie heard her heart racing in her ears and struggled to catch her breath against the panic. She was starting to cry. “No!” she screamed. “No! No! No!”

  She had an idea. She disconnected the tubing for the pump that opened the lid. From across the room, she quickly rolled over a pressurized nitrogen tank. Her hands were shaking as she connected the pressurized nitrogen to the lid’s lifting mechanism. A turn on the pressure valve and a flood of nitrogen gas made the lid creep up a few inches. The moment she had enough room, Ann Marie climbed into the tank and tried to pull Dade’s body out.

  “Wake up!” she shouted when she got his head to the surface. “Dade! The sequence is over! Wake up!” She slapped his cold, lifeless cheek while she hung on to the edge of the tank with the other hand. “Please wake up,” she said quieter, to herself. “I need you. Please.” They both floated quietly for what seemed like a long time to Ann Marie.

  Ann Marie was weeping when Dade finally began to cough up breathing fluid on his way back t
o life. She hung on as tight as she could while they both floated there in silence.

  Eventually, Dade whispered to her, “I’m scared.”

  ...

  Ivy knew she was dreaming when she saw Bernard Mengel at the foot of her bed. He was naked and leering at her. “I’m inside you,” he told her. The old man’s withered shoulders looked like dying saplings. However, his skin looked unnaturally youthful and unblemished. His entire body was distorted, like a malnourished skeleton covered in baby skin.

  Standing over her, Bernard grunted and flashed his teeth. They were pointed like that of a piranha. She couldn’t move. “I’m getting deeper inside you every day, my love,” the vision told her. As it reached climax, the dream Bernard roared at her until it became a deafening pounding in her ears. Ivy screamed.

  She found herself wide awake with the phone ringing on the nightstand.

  “Thank you for blowing my mind,” said the breathy, satisfied-sounding voice on the other end of the line. “That was good, my dear. Oh so good.”

  Behind Bernard’s voice in the background, there was a distinct sound of a woman crying.

  “What is happening to me?” Ivy asked him. “Please, Bernard. Tell me.”

  “Everything, my dear. Everything is happening.”

  “Why are you doing this to me?” She asked. Bernard was preoccupied with something on his end of the line and didn’t hear the question. Another woman’s voice was in the background. Whoever the woman was, she was crying to Bernard. “Who is that crying?” Ivy asked him.

  “One of your sisters,” said Bernard, who found his answer quite amusing. He started laughing to himself.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” She asked with more insistence.

  A slow humming started in the receiver as Bernard started to sing to her. “I’m in the mood for love...simply because of Ivy,” he started to croon. Keeping his voice locked in the same tune, he continued, “She is the queen of my...babies!” He sung. Then he started singing gibberish or what sounded like gibberish. “Bomm Bomm Inter Eck Sun Stars. Feast Blacker and Blood. Send Pure Flower Death. Inter Stars Ivy!” He ended in a crescendo.