And when do you plan on cutting my head off to see for yourself? she wanted to ask him. Not really wanting to know the answer, she kept her mouth shut. “I think I need to lie down,” she muttered after a moment.
“Certainly. You are probably exhausted. And you should eat too,” he handed her one of the bananas and she took it before climbing carefully from the stool.
Sydney was sure that he still had the tranq gun on him and maybe the grenade too. But he didn’t show her either of them. She hoped that meant he was letting his guard down. He was still careful to stay behind her though and her skin tingled and crawled at his closeness. She stepped inside the bedroom and he closed the door firmly behind her. When he twisted the deadbolt into place she felt like it was the fall of the executioner’s axe. She was surer than ever that she wouldn’t leave this cabin alive. Falling face first onto the bed, she was asleep within seconds.
***
With a stinging jolt, Sydney jerked awake from restless dreams feeling paranoid and unsettled. Her face was buried in her pillow making it difficult to breathe. Rolling onto her back she struggled to bring her breathing under control. Even though she was awake, the helpless and exposed feelings from her nightmare still lingered. She sat up and rested her face in her hands. She almost laughed when her stomach growled loud enough to startle her. The idea of food still sounded appalling, but her body was tired of being hungry.
Sydney retrieved the banana from the dresser and peeled it. As she ate, she thought about her dream. She couldn’t remember the details except that she had felt vulnerable and hopeful at the same time. Since Doc had told her what he did to Andrew, she had suspected she knew what—who—was in the basement. She was willing to risk everything she had that Doc was keeping the mature Dyian in the basement. And if he was holding it prisoner—just as he was holding her captive—the creature surely wasn’t a friend of Doc’s. And—as the saying goes—my enemy’s enemy is my friend.
Xander
Dressed and once again in Zak’s SUV, the three were on their way back to Wisconsin. Pan was pushed into the storage space and Xander leaned over the back seat to talk to him. He may or may not be directly dangerous to them as they were taking him where he wanted to go, but he had hurt people and they weren’t taking any chances. They didn’t want him where he could easily get to the rest of them. Briefly, they had considered tying him up, but he wouldn’t have been able to steady himself in the bouncy cargo area. Also, people would be more likely to call the police if they saw someone tied up in the back than they would if they just saw someone riding illegally in the cargo space.
“What happened in Vegas?” Xander asked him.
“Which part?”
“When you attacked me and Sydney.”
“I don’t know. I-I don’t really remember. I just-I think-I got so angry-at her.”
“Why?” Xander asked him, resisting the urge to reach out and smack him in the head. Right on the purple bruise where Syd had hit him.
“I don’t know.”
Xander knew he was telling the truth but it didn’t make him feel sorry for Pan. “If you were so mad at her, why did you come looking for her?”
“I told you, when I woke up everything was different.”
“You weren’t mad at her anymore?”
“No.”
“What happened when you woke up?”
“I-I found Sarah.”
Pan sounded genuinely sorry and Xander knew he was aware he had been responsible for his girlfriend’s death. “Then?”
“I got out of there. I knew the cops would think I did it. So I just ran.”
Of course they would think you did it—you did. Xander didn’t point out that truth though. “You were hurt bad when we left…”
“Yeah. I was really out of it—off and on. Things are clearer now. Mostly.”
Xander sighed. He didn’t know how much help Pan was going to be, but he was their best shot. “Do you remember anything more about what happened to you?”
“When?”
“When all this happened? Were you at the convention?”
Pan tilted his head. “Which convention?”
“The E4G convention.”
“Yeah…” Pan drew the word out as if he had just realized he had been there.
“Syd found notes and magazines about the convention in your stuff.” If he cared that Xander and Syd had stolen his computer he didn’t indicate he was.
“That’s right…”
“What happened at the convention?”
“There was a lot of people.”
“I would assume there was.”
Pan was thinking hard. “Something did happen.”
“What?”
“There was a guy.”
Xander could tell that Pan was getting agitated. His breathing was increasing and he was fidgeting restlessly. “What did the guy do?”
“I think the guy drugged me. I remember waking up confused in a strange room.”
“Where did you meet him?”
“I...don’t know.”
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know...normal? I don’t really remember him clearly.”
“And you didn’t go to the cops?”
“No…”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t think the guy did anything. I felt stupid.” Pan was clearly uncomfortable now.
“How did he find you to begin with?”
“I don’t know.”
“OK. Then what happened?”
“I went home.”
“And then shit got weird. The dream and everything?”
“I think so.”
His patience was wearing thin, so Xander left Pan alone hoping he would calm down and not cause a fuss. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He hated feeling so out of control. Their hope for finding Sydney was resting on a guy who was barely making sense and who had already killed his girlfriend and maybe the family behind Xander’s garage.
“So, Syd was at this convention?” Shay asked.
“I think so. It all seems to go back there,” Xander sighed.
“How does all this knowledge actually help us though?” Zak asked.
Xander shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“What’s the timeline? Sydney and everyone else affected seem to have gone to this convention,” Shay began. “Some guys lured them all in—we’re assuming—they did something to them and let them go? If that’s the case how did Syd end up on the shore of Lake Michigan? If this guy attacked them at the hotel? Connor went to the convention, came home, and then lost it. The same with Pan”
“I don’t know.” Shit, Xander cursed to himself. It was like Pan’s ignorance was contagious. “Syd seems to have been different from everyone else since the beginning. I don’t know if anyone else has lost their memory. He may have done something different to her.”
“Or what if it was someone else altogether?” Zak suggested.
“Can we just not complicate things more? One psycho is enough.”
“But if Sydney is the only one like her, it’s possible someone else did something to her…” Shay agreed with Zak.
“I really don’t care at this point. I just want to find her. Then we can try to figure everything out.”
“And, I’m sorry, I know this isn’t the popular suggestion—” Zak began. “But we need to just take her to the hospital. Let people who know what they are doing try to help her.”
“And if we do that and they lock her up in a lab somewhere? Do experiments on her? They could kill her.”
“Maybe. But we know the people who have her—or have been looking for her—have killed people.”
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Xander finally gave in a little.
“Are we just going to drive around Wisconsin and hope this guy picks up Sydney’s scent like a bloodhound or something?” Shay asked breaking the tension.
“Do you have a better—?”
“
Why are we going to Wisconsin?” Pan spoke up from the back, sounding clearer than he had since Rabbit brought him to the garage.
“That’s the last place we knew where Syd was,” Shay answered.
“I want to go to Michigan,” Pan said.
“Why?”
“...I don’t know.”
“What the fuck do you know?” Xander snarled getting tired of Pan’s favorite answer. Shay put a hand on his arm.
“You think we should go to Michigan?” she asked Pan.
“Yeah…”
“Isn’t that where Syd first woke up?” Zak asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well, it would make sense that is where They have a base. If that is where things started for her, it’s possible he took her back there.”
Xander didn’t know what to say. “OK. We go to Michigan.”
“Good,” Pan sighed and settled down again.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Sydney’s internal clock was as thrown off by her situation as she was. The sun had set hours ago but she was wide awake. She guessed it had been about twenty-four hours since Doc had taken her from the cabin. Since waking up late in the afternoon, she had alternated between anxiously sitting on the bed and checking the windows and doors for a way to escape. She had not found any weaknesses so far. Eventually, she had regressed into a futile tantrum of punching her pillow until she was sweaty and tired and her head was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to split in two.
Not for the first time Syd thought about Xander, Shay and Zak. They were probably worried sick and frantically trying to find her. She wished there was some way to get them a message or to talk to them, but even if she could get to a phone she didn’t know their phone numbers by memory. She scowled when she heard Doc moving around in the living room and he sounded like he was humming to himself. A door opened and closed and she was sure it was the door to the basement. The evil doctor descends...
She didn’t want to imagine what he was getting up to with her blood or the thing that was in the basement. A movement from the darkened doorway of the bathroom caught her attention. It happened so quickly she wasn’t even entirely sure she saw it—just a flash of shadow against shadow. But, sure enough, she saw something she wouldn’t be able to ignore it until she checked it out.
Sydney hesitated before heading into the bathroom. Since she had just spent a lot of time searching both rooms, she knew she was alone. That meant whatever had moved was either a small, creepy-crawlie or another hallucination. Neither of which was she eager to encounter. But, finally, curiosity got the better of her and she tip-toed towards the dark bathroom.
At first glance, nothing seemed amiss. She flipped on the light switch and winced at the glare of pain that shot through her eyes and brain. She blinked the tears away before examining the room. Nothing was on the closed toilet or inside the tiny sink. She avoided looking at herself in the mirror because she didn’t feel like seeing her bloodshot and dilated eyes. She always looked like a cracked-out, crazy person when her head felt like this. She turned so that she was facing the shower and sucked in a breath of surprise. The orb was hovering over the shower and her stomach sank.
Moving slowly she drew the curtain back and her heart stuttered at the sight before her. Yep, another hallucination. Inside the tub, another version of Sydney huddled, trying to make herself as tiny as possible. She was shivering and shaking and part of Real-Sydney wanted to reach out to comfort her. The idea of her hand passing through her own arm like it belonged to a ghost was almost as terrifying as the idea of finding that the hallucination was as solid as she was. So, she kept her hands to herself.
Just like before, the sound seemed to be sucked out of the room and she could hear her own heart beating and it pounded a rhythm in her head. When she regained control of her breathing enough to speak she made an attempt to communicate. “Hello?” Her voice sounded like a gunshot in the dark at it she jumped at the sound.
The Hallucination-Sydney didn’t react to the sound which convinced her that this hallucination, unlike when she saw Randall stepping out of the rest stop bathroom, wasn’t aware of her. The vision stirred finally and looked past Sydney, into the bedroom, alarmed as if she heard someone moving there. The sensation was so eerie that Real-Sydney looked behind her just to make sure no one was there. It appeared as empty as it had been moments ago. Hallucination-Sydney pushed herself into a sitting position and the movement seemed to cause her pain because she flinched and gripped her head in both her hands.
More blood poured from her nose joining the congealed mess around her mouth. Her eyes were blurry and unfocused when Hallucination-Sydney brushed her fingers through the blood and slapped her hand against the wall. Her eyes rolled back into her head as smeared a word onto the wall of the shower. Run. When her head flopped back against the tub it should have thudded but it was as silent as ever and she began to fade until she was gone. Real-Sydney didn’t realize she was moving until she had backed out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.
Her legs gave out when she collided with the bed and she sat down heavily. By now she was pretty sure these hallucinations were memories. But what the hell is causing them? There didn’t seem to be any trigger that she could pick out. One minute she was sitting on the bed and the next she was seeing herself in the bathroom. How did she end up in the bathtub? And was the message to herself? Both times she had seen visions of her past she had been in an out of consciousness. Maybe when Doc implanted the creature in me it caused me to spazz out like that?
That theory seemed to make sense to Sydney. She would have been in pain, confused and it was entirely possible she was already having problems with her memory at that point. When did I realize how bad I had messed up by falling for Doc’s scam? Sydney was glad she couldn’t remember that shame and guilt first hand. Just imagining it was bad enough. She rested her head in her hands and tried to calm down enough to make her head stop pounding. But it was getting aggressively worse. She wondered if Doc could give her something to make her head hurt less. At this point she would take any narcotic he gave her. She would almost rather be jacked up on painkillers and oblivious to everything than have to deal with this situation any more. But Doc wouldn’t even know she was awake, he was downstairs doing god-knows-what.
A thought caused her to tilt her head slowly. Her hallucination began minutes after he went downstairs. The last time she had one was when he was outside the cabin with the Dyian in the van. The first time she hallucinated was when she and Xander were on their way back from Vegas, how long had Doc been following them? Could he have followed her to and from Vegas? It can’t just be a coincidence, right? It was the only instigator she could imagine. Otherwise, why wasn’t she having the hallucinations all the time? It couldn’t just be stress. She had been stressed plenty since all this began and she hadn’t had any visions. Doc said that we are aware of each other through some kind of pheromones. Could that cause hallucinations? Or can the Dyian cause them?
It was a crazy thought, but not any crazier than anything else that had happened. Doc explained the life cycle of the Dyian in terms of a parasite. Parasites are kind of insects, bug things, right? Bees communicate through pheromones, I think. Other bugs probably do too? Sydney didn’t know if she should be worried by how much sense that train of thought made. Maybe if I’m closer I can communicate with it somehow? If I can communicate with it, then maybe we can work together to get out of here. Her head was beginning to hurt worse than ever.
Sydney couldn’t believe she was excited about the possibility of communicating with some kind of alien life. I actually just thought the word alien, she shook her head at herself. Willing to give anything a shot if it meant a possible means to escape, Sydney resolved to try to get as close to the Dyian as she could. Fighting back nausea from the pain in her head, she stood and dragged her feet towards the door. She knew it was futile, but she tried the doorknob anyway. Of course it was locked. She rested her head against the cool wood an
d took a deep breath. The pain of her migraine was rapidly becoming so bad it was hard to think straight. She knocked as hard as she could, but it barely made a thump.
Refusing to give up, she took a deep breath to steel herself against the agony, and stomped on the floor. Three loud bangs, then three more before she had to stop. She slid to the floor and rested her back against the door. Her vision was blurry and she could taste the blood that dripped down her throat when her nose began bleeding. It felt like it was an hour later when the door pushed her towards the floor as it opened. She didn’t have the strength to stop her fall as her face met the rough wood and the last thing she was aware of was the worried gasp as Doc bent over her.
***
When Sydney came to, she didn’t open her eyes right away. She could hear Doc moving around mumbling to himself and there was an ambient beeping that she quickly realized was her heartbeat. She must be back in the basement and hooked up to a heart monitor. She was relieved her heartbeat sounded normal. Behind those sounds, she realized there was something else. It wasn’t a sound she could hear—it was more like sound she could feel. It was like being watched. It was an awareness that she wasn’t alone, and she was sure it wasn’t Doc she was sensing.
She took a deep breath and tried to relax but when she felt Doc grab her arm and rub it with something cold and wet, she sat up with enough speed to cause him to jump backwards. She stared at him as wide-eyed as he was staring at her. “What happened?” she croaked. Her voice sounded like she hadn’t used it in days. Her head was still pounding but it was a fading drum corps as opposed to the heavy metal band that had been playing in her brain.
“You passed out,” Doc answered, recovering from his surprise.
“Why?” she asked, looking around the basement.
“...I’m not sure.”
His hesitation in answering indicated he at least had a theory. There was another table next to the one she was laying on. It had straps that hung over the side that could be used to restrain whoever was being examined. Worse was the rolling tray next to the table. It was on the far side, but Sydney could still see used needles, a scalpel and wads of cotton and gauze that were stained a dark blue color. “How long was I out?”
Don't Let Them Find You (The Dyian Series Book 1) Page 31
