“Do you accept, Ryan?”
Without any other obvious choices, I went along with it. “I accept.”
“That’s great!”
Instead of rattling on about my migration specialist, something else appeared. It was a letter to me.
Dear Ryan,
From the moment I first sensed your presence within my mind, I was not only in disbelief but genuinely afraid. Afraid was never something that I liked being for too long, so I needed to settle it one way or another. I wasn’t sure if you were friend, foe, or something different altogether. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon some of your memories and thoughts that I realized who and what you are.
In many ways, we were very similar people. Just like you, I spent so much of my time lost in thought that while it was depressing and lonely at times, it was all I knew. You too were a kid who had been dealt a bad hand but had a great attitude and strong work ethic.
After realizing this, it felt safe to reveal my most vivid flashbacks. For better or worse, they all surrounded the unanswered questions that plagued me throughout my life, right up until the end. In hindsight, it was pretty selfish of me to do so, knowing that they might pique your interest. I don’t know if it was your morbid curiosity that was driving you or if you truly cared for me. Either way, in spite of the intense confusion and fear that I felt in you the entire time, you pushed forward. You put your own safety on the line to help me. In re-remembering the darkest parts of my life, I came to the depressing realization that I was much closer to you in the time we were together than anyone in my previous life. From my childhood to the marines to my family life to my time as a thug for the Padre, you were there for it all, albeit in memory only. Regardless, you brought an innocent, objective lens to it, which was a perspective that I didn’t believe existed in the world outside of young children.
When I chose to take my own life in that jail cell, I did so thinking that would be the end. Not just the end for me, but the end of all the suffering I had caused, not just for you and your family, but also for Sarah and my family as you saw in the Plan B box. But I also felt like I had no other options. When I awoke to your energy and discovered it was more than just a dream, I felt like I had been given a second chance—one I didn’t want to squander. You helped me make that wish come true. You helped me confirm that my family got as far as Plan B, and I cannot thank you enough.
I also cannot apologize enough for dramatically changing the course of your life. As fate would have it, I turned out to be the dealer of the bad hand you had to overcome your entire life. Looking through our eyes, I saw the letter your mom received with my name on it, and I want to be clear: That was not the letter that I left in my cell before ending it all. My only guess is that it was something the jail manifested to cover their tracks. I assure you that the letter I read to you was the truth. I was sincerely sorry when I wrote it. I was even sorrier when I realized exactly who you were.
Finally, I don’t really understand how our two minds came together and how you came to be in my body, but regardless, you’re ready to take on anything. In our last moments, when you fought me with everything you had, I was actually preparing you, should you decide to go after the Padre. It’s a good thing too, because you really wouldn’t have stood a chance without those skills. Obviously, it would have brought me great joy to see the Padre suffer the same fate that he imposed on so many others. But after I showed you who I truly was, I forced myself to come to peace, believing that won’t happen. Still, I really feel like you have a stake in my vengeance. Had it not been for the Padre, all of our lives would have turned out much differently, and likely, much better. That said, it is your decision to make, and yours alone. No matter what you choose, I couldn’t have asked for anyone better to occupy my body. Use it as you see fit and have a great life, Ryan.
Sincerely,
Charlie
“That bastard.” Tears had begun flowing halfway through Charlie’s letter, and by the time I finished, I was bawling like a baby. Part of me had known what I’d read at Mom’s was a lie, but I was so angry after everything I had learned that I was looking for any reason to release my rage.
Regardless, I felt completely justified in hating Charlie for everything he’d done. Even if the Padre had set things in motion, Charlie had been the one who’d gotten my family involved. And with that, it struck me as strange that, when I attempted to focus on the hate that I thought I felt for Charlie, I came up empty. There was no hate there. Instead, there was a bit of respect for how he’d handled himself as long as I’d known him.
So, finding myself at another crossroads just as I did when I first discovered Charlie, he was right that I had a decision to make. While it might have been one of the toughest decisions of my life, I knew exactly what I need to do.
“Wake up, Ryan! Wake up!”
Chapter 30:
Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
“Wake up, Ryan! Wake up!”
I jumped out of bed startled, and it was too dark to see. I could sense Helen was not next to me, and heard a commotion near the doorway.
“Helen! Where are you!”
Her muffled scream came from the hallway and the faintest sound of a fist cutting through the air came from behind me. My instincts kicked in. Ducking just in time, I slipped under the punch, and feeling the presence of a body next to me, I gave it a hard elbow to what had to be the ribs.
“Oomph!”
Thrusting my knee up toward where dark figure’s head had to be, I could feel the exact moment when I made contact with his front teeth. As the figure reeled back from that blow, I followed with a powerful punch to the neck, and he gurgled to the floor in agony.
“Helen!” But I couldn’t hear her anymore, so I darted down the dark hallway.
Her next scream came from the direction of the balcony. “Ryan!”
“Helen!”
I zipped into the living room and flinched at the click of a cocking gun from the corner. Time slowed down, and without thinking, I went into a sliding motion.
Pop! Pop!
My momentum brought me to the wall just a meter from the intruder. With all of my might, I kicked him in the kneecap, dropping him to his other knee.
Even though he yelped, he was still able to swing his massive fist and crack me in the jaw.
“Ah!”
As much as it hurt, I instinctively came back with a punch to his chest, but he was a big man, and it hardly did any damage. Realizing I was catering to his strengths with close combat near the floor, I popped up and tried to kick him in the face when he grabbed my supporting leg and dropped me back down onto my back. Kneeling above me, he then balled both his fists together and, with all his might, tried to come down on my face to crush my skull. I dodged to the left, then to the right, and as he pulled back for a third attempt, it became apparent that I had to end the fight quickly or his size advantage would be the end of me.
With his next attempt to bludgeon me, I countered with a calculated strike to his right temple that made him go limp and slump over.
Pushing the lug off of me, I sprung up. Helen screamed from outside. Darting out to the balcony, my still-adjusting eyes were blinded by the streetlights while I was trying to see where they were taking Helen.
“Ryan! Listen with your ears!”
Finally able to focus, I heard Helen’s last scream from below. I peered over the railing and saw the big door to the black auto-truck slam shut just before it squealed its tires and sped off.
“Shit!”
I was about to follow down the fire escape when I realized that not only did I need transportation, but I had no clue where they were going. Remembering that Helen had borrowed her dad’s car, I ran back into the apartment and into the bedroom. I kicked the gasping man still on the ground and grabbed my netphone from the nightstand. It had the startup program to the car. Then I remembe
red what Helen had last screamed.
Listen with my ears?
Opening the drawer to the night stand, I was first presented with my hunting knife, which I instantly grabbed. Moving some other things around, I found the radio to the earpiece. I didn’t have much time to catch up to them, given its five-kilometer radius, so I dashed out of the room, onto the balcony, and down the fire escape. I slid down the hand railings, back and forth until I hit the ground. I darted across the street and started the auto-car from my netphone. The driver’s side door opened and I dove into the seat. I pressed the ignition button, and the seatbelt strap shot around me as the auto-driver slowly pulled out of the parking space and presented a navigation hologram followed by the vehicle’s annoying voice.
“Where would you like to go, sir?”
I tapped instructions into the hologram, and the car headed in the direction of the auto-truck. Then it became painfully apparent to me just how slow auto-drivers went—I was losing precious seconds to catch Helen. Looking across the dashboard, I saw the manual override button. I remembered what to do from driving as Charlie, and knew I had to take my chances.
Pressing the button hard, the auto-driver first warned me, “Caution, sir. Manual driving is a dangerous endeavor. Please reconsider. Otherwise, press manual override again.”
More than pissed, I pressed the button with my fist. With a surge, the dashboard transformed to present a steering wheel and two pedals appeared on the floor. I gripped the wheel and hit the accelerator hard, and I was off with a screech. Then I switched the radio on, and through the choppy reception, I heard Helen trying to give me clues.
“Why the hell are you taking me across the city? What do you want with me?”
“Lady, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut your mouth.”
“Screw you, asshole. If you’re taking me to Marktown, my boyfriend will find us. He knows your little neighborhood through and through.”
“It would make my night for him to follow us. I’d love to see what the boss will do to him. Now, shut your damn mouth!”
For the next few minutes, I could only hear the sounds from her pocket. I had to think hard about where they were going. Marktown had changed a lot since Charlie’s time, and it didn’t make sense for them to go to the old building where we saw the art show.
After twenty minutes of driving, I entered the neighborhood, and fortunately, voices started coming from the radio again.
“Juan and Marco haven’t checked in since we left that place. You think they’re all right?”
Helen butted in. “I bet Ryan beat their asses, and when he gets to this big house on Spruce Street, you’re next.”
“Hey, why the hell do you keep talking like that?”
The muffled sounds of them patting her down culminated with what had to be them pulling the earpiece out of her pocket and crushing it.
Click!
Then nothing, and my gut dropped.
A big building on Spruce street? The Padre’s old complex!
I picked up my speed just a little and made all of the turns that would get me there as fast as possible. Pulling just a kilometer from where the Padre’s complex used to be, I parked the car. I hopped out of the car and made my way one hundred meters across the street to get within line of sight.
They had knocked down the “ghetto” mansion and replaced it with a legitimate one, but upon further glance, it was much more. The Padre had built a three-story, brick suburban fortress, and it would be tough to infiltrate.
Weaving in between the street lights, I made my way into the yard of the neighboring house, pretty confident that eyes were on me right away. I assessed the front door, knowing it would be foolish to enter that way, so I looked through the narrow path between the neighboring building. I saw the black auto-truck parked under the garage overhang and thought I should head back that way, when I realized something.
It was uncomfortably quiet up and down the street. Something wasn’t right. Still, I didn’t have a choice but to move forward. Sneaking along the edge of the other building, I got about ten meters in when a giant shadow appeared from behind the building in front of me, and I didn’t have to turn around to know someone had come around the house to follow me. Being so close to Helen, I wasn’t messing around anymore, and I pulled out the hunting knife.
Both of the guards simultaneously charged in my direction, and I didn’t have much time to figure out the best way to deal with them. Jumping as high as I could, I kicked off the one building and then off the other, getting just high enough to come down, knife in hands, into one guy’s shoulder as I landed behind him.
He squealed like a stuck pig.
A slight nausea set in as I felt every centimeter of my blade impale the flesh of another human.
The other guard took advantage of my distraction to land a decent shot to my eye.
The force of his punch sent me stumbling back several meters. Fortunately, I had kept my hand on the knife that was in the other goon and it pulled out as I fell back. It took a moment to get my vision back after the blow, but when I did, it was just in time to catch the other thug rushing at me. He was too big to out muscle, so I let him get within a meter of me, dropped to a knee, and pointed my weapon at his gut.
Thud!
He toppled over me but not without taking all twenty centimeters of the knife to the midsection, and he quickly went into shock from the wound. Wiping some of the gore off of me as I got up, I finally made my way toward the backyard.
I was ready to turn the corner when I heard a single footstep and intuitively ducked down to catch the next guard by surprise. When his gargantuan frame appeared, I hesitated for just a moment before trying to stab him in the chest. That split second turned out to be the difference, and he batted the knife from my hands before I made contact. Panicking, I rolled to the ground and popped up behind him to get him in a choke hold.
Charlie’s words echoed in my head. “As he gets weaker, you should get stronger.”
The only problem was that this guard didn’t seem to be getting weaker. Instead, he reached over his shoulder and grabbed one of my arms. Before I could react, he effortlessly flung me into the backyard some ten meters away, and I painfully bounced a couple times off the ground. Stunned, I looked up to watch him pull a gun with a silencer from the holster and point it at me.
I scrambled to get away. The sound of a shot fired pierced the air.
And then everything went black.
“Wake up…Ryan…wake up.” A familiar voice rang in the distance.
When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see nothing but darkness, and I called out. “Hello?”
“You’ve come too far to fail, Ryan.”
“Charlie? Is that you?”
“Remember what I taught you.”
“I remember, Charlie, but what if I fail? What if I just can’t do it?”
“You can do anything you put your mind to. And, Ryan?”
“Yes?”
“Never give up hope!”
Then a flash of light wiped away the darkness. Regaining consciousness, my head was groggy, but I otherwise felt fine. I opened my eyes, and the brightest light accosted my pupils. I half-expected to relive Charlie’s old warehouse memory, and then jump up from the ground to run away from the Padre’s goons in a Cadillac. Only this time, I awoke to the real world, relieved that the shot I had taken wasn’t fatal at all. But the reprieve was short lived when I took in my surroundings. A makeshift hospital room with curtains all around and a hanging light above. I tried to sit up, and was denied by thick straps holding down my upper and lower halves to a medical table. Before I could further assess the situation, I overheard talking somewhere on the other side of the curtain.
“The new sedative worked well. Once the test results come back, we’ll confirm each of their statuses.”
T
he woman must have been talking about Helen and me.
A man responded, “Good.”
I recognized his voice.
Then footsteps made their way in my direction, and fear began to grow in me. Fingers poked through an opening in the curtain and ripped them open. It was Allen, from the basement at ‘art’ show, as I had suspected.
He walked to the foot of the table. “You’re finally awake. Good.”
“Where’s Helen!”
Before he could respond, she screamed from somewhere across the room. “Ryan!”
“Helen? Are you okay?”
Only silence. Then they must have gagged her.
“Dammit! I swear, if you hurt her…”
“I assure you, she’s fine. You’ll both be fine for now.”
Still angry, I fired back, “What are you going to do to us, Padre!”
A maniacal grin slowly crept across his face, and my stomach began to sink. Then the familiar hum that had calmed me for a decade slowly filled the room as Sonya, in her auto-chair, appeared next to Allen.
“We’ll be getting to the bottom of how you found us. But there’s one thing you got wrong. I’m the Padre.”
While I was caught off guard, it didn’t change the situation. I turned my glare to him. “What are you going to do to us?!”
His face was even more sinister than Allen’s, despite his façade of an elderly woman. “Oh, Ryan. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Last week, when you found us at the community center, I almost had Allen kill you both for talking like fools. Then it dawned on me that you might help me get back at my son. Frustrated when that plan failed, I was about to put a hit out on you again when I had another revelation.”
The Padre’s grin was pure evil.
“You see, the bodies that Allen and I occupy are wearing out, and we were about to start the long, drawn-out process of finding new hosts. Then, you found us. And I must say, it’ll be nice to get out of this old hag’s body. She barely made it through the original procedure, leaving me in this damn mechanical chair. It’ll be nice to get into a spry, young man’s body.”
Between Two Minds: Awakening Page 36
