Evermore

by Brenda Pandos

  “Sure, man. Whatever,” Jax said.

  I couldn’t worry about it. Unlike the last time I’d come here, the place was a ghost town. When no one exited, I waited for several minutes, then decided to bang on the doors.

  An older gentleman in a blue uniform approached, hands on his hips.

  “Open up,” I sang.

  He held his hand to his ear and mouthed, “Can’t hear ya. We’re closed to the public.”

  “I need to get inside,” I sang louder.

  He merely shrugged, then walked back to the reception desk. Some security guard. I fisted my hands and marched back to the Jeep. The guys stood around uneasy, watching me cautiously.

  “What’s going on?” Jax asked. “Isn’t this the place?”

  “Yeah, but…” I trailed off. How would I get inside now? And once I did, was anyone going to be there to help me?

  “Why isn’t he letting you in?” Jacob shifted his stance, sizing up the door like he was ready to strong-arm it, or something.

  “We should go,” Colin advised.

  I stared at the shredded decorations hanging off the back of the Jeep, clenching my jaw when the idea hit. Running over, I slipped into the driver’s seat and turned the key. Then I threw the stick into reverse. I revved the engine.

  The guys’ eyes widened.

  “You better get out of my way,” I warned.

  Jax and Jacob gave each other a look, then hopped aside, giving me a wide berth.

  Without another thought, I sped backward, smashing the back of the Jeep into the plate glass window, shattering it.

  “For the love of the Kraken, are you nuts?” Colin bellowed.

  But I was out of the Jeep and running across broken glass to the stairwell before anyone could stop me.

  Taking the stairs by twos, I bolted upward and busted into the Information Technology office. Without flinching, I hopped the counter.

  “Ignore me,” I sang as I ran past the purple-haired girl and headed toward Kenny’s cubical. But it was empty

  “Where’s Kenny?” I yelled to the receptionist. When she didn’t answer, I ran to her desk. “Hey!”

  Her legs swiveled the chair around, her glare framed against a pierced eyebrow and heavy makeup. I startled for a moment as visions of mermaids danced in my head.

  She gave me a once over, then pulled one earbud out of her ear. “What’s with the tux?”

  “Uh…” I glanced at her name placard, which also had a mermaidish tone to it. “Is Kenny here, Delphina?”

  “He’s off today. You late for your wedding or something?”

  “Where’s his boss?” I asked, impatiently.

  “Where do you think they are? It’s Saturday.” She snapped her gum and everything inside me wanted to strangle her with her earbud cord as she popped in the bud and returned to her computer monitor.

  I stepped closer. “I need someone who can track down a cell phone signal,” I sang.

  No response.

  I pushed the monitor aside and put my face into her line of sight.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she said extra loud.

  I made a motion she needed to remove her earbud, either that or I’d do it for her, and trust me, they wouldn’t work after I was finished.

  “I need a cell phone traced,” I sang.

  The sass melted from her face as she picked up her phone and dialed. I could hear ringing coming from somewhere behind us in the sea of cubicles. “Hey, Barney? I have someone…”

  I sprinted to where I’d heard the sound coming and stopped before an overweight man with a month’s worth of soda cups and food containers occupying every open space of his desk. He swiveled around in his chair, phone receiver in hand.

  “Barney?”

  He gawked at me. “Yeah?”

  “I need you to pull up the location of a cell phone,” I sang.

  His eyes clouded over and he turned to his keyboard, first minimizing a window of what looked like a horror movie he’d been watching. He then pulled up another window and signed in.

  “Hurry,” I said.

  “Going as fast as I can. What’s the number?”

  I gave him the number, and he punched it in. We waited for the site to pull up the coordinates. Then a red circle appeared on a map and hovered over a building in Carson City.

  “Where is that?”

  “It’s…” He zoomed in. “It’s 24333 North Carson Street.”

  I wrote it down on a slip of paper, then prepared to leave.

  “Hey, do you have a business card?” I asked him.

  He squinted. “No. Why?”

  “What’s your number?”

  He told it to me, and I wrote it down. “When I call,” I sang, “you do whatever I want. No questions asked. Got it?”

  He nodded, eyes glazed over. “Yeah.”

  “Great. I was never here.”

  I took off running again, jumped the counter, and headed for the stairs. Jax and Jacob were standing in the lobby. The old guy, who sat frozen with a phone receiver in his hand, watched me with wide eyes.

  “Let’s go!” I yelled. “I’ve got the address.”

  “You’re free to go,” Jax said to the man, “But we were never here.”

  Within moments, we were on the road back to Carson City.

  “I think there’s glass in my ass,” Jax snipped.

  Jacob laughed.

  “Where are we headed to anyway?” Colin asked, unamused.

  “Some place in Carson City. We passed it on the way,” I said. “Hold on!”

  The tires skidded as I turned onto the highway. Bits of glass skittered off the back of the Jeep like falling stars. All I could think about was Ash. She needed me. I just knew it.

  FORTY-THREE – ASH – June 11 – 3:45 p.m.

  I opened my eyes again, shaking uncontrollably, hoping that the events that just happened had all been a terrible dream. Finding the spot between my legs incredibly sore and still wet confirmed I’d given birth. I strained to listen, but there was no baby’s cry. Tears slid down my cheeks. I didn’t think I could take any more abuse, especially not from Alaster.

  He had everything, including my son’s life.

  I just had to get out of there.

  “Fin,” I whispered between chapped lips. “Please. Find me. Save our son.”

  FORTY-FOUR – FIN – June 11 – 4:16 p.m.

  Colin shifted uneasily as I pulled up to the building and parked.

  “Is this it?” Jacob glanced warily at the darkened interior.

  “Doesn’t look open.” Colin glared at me. “And I don’t think you should bust into this building, too.”

  “Maybe the reason it showed him here was because he left his phone at his desk,” Jacob suggested.

  Though the guy didn’t seem like a white-collar cube mongrel to me, I wasn’t going to leave without at least checking the building first.

  “Dude, why don’t we just call the number and find out?” Jax stretched his hand out for my phone.

  I’d thought of that earlier, but I didn’t want to tip him off. At this point, I’d try anything. “Yeah, sure.”

  He dialed the number, then put the phone on speaker. It rang several times.

  “See? He’s not here.” Colin lunged for the phone. “Let’s go back.”

  Jax pulled his hand away. “Hold up.”

  Someone picked up on the last ring.

  “Yeah?” the guy asked.

  “Yo, where you at?” Jax asked, deepening his voice.

  “Who is this?”

  “I’m here with dat pizza you ordered.” Jax waggled his eyebrows.

  “Pizza?” There was a pause. “I didn’t order a pizza.”

  “Well, it’s paid for and I’m standin’ outside yo building on…”

  “24333 North Carson Street,” I whispered.”

  “24333 North Carson and no one’s answerin’ the door,” Jax finished without skipping a beat. “It’s gettin’ cold.”

&nbs
p; The phone muffled. “Anyone here order a pizza and put my name and number on it?” A couple people answered “no,” in the background. “I think you’ve got the wrong guy.”

  “Well, it’s paid for, so,” Jax added. “I guess I’ll eat it. See ya.”

  “No, I’ll come out,” the guy said quickly.

  “Great.” Jax hung up the phone and shot us a big goofy grin. “Now that’s how it’s done boys.”

  “Good job.” I jumped out of the Jeep along with Jax and Jacob.

  Colin remained in his seat and blew out an annoyed breath. “This is stupid. What’s he going to know? Ash isn’t here.”

  “Stay in the Jeep then.” I pressed him with a sideways glare before jogging over to the doors. We leaned against the wall and waited. Within a few minutes the doors opened, and the same guy with dark hair stepped out.

  Jax grabbed him and put him in a chokehold.

  “Where’s Ash,” he sang before I had a chance to.

  His eyes glazed over instantaneously. “In the building.”

  My legs weakened as Jax yanked the guy inside and forced him forward. I grabbed the guy’s collar and lifted. “Where?”

  He shakily pointed to the hall. “Down there.”

  The creak of the passenger door sounded behind me, meaning Colin had finally gotten out of the Jeep.

  About time.

  My mind raced as we marched across the linoleum floor of what looked like a hospital. Stark white walls with abstract pastel designs hung in cheap frames. Chairs covered in vinyl lined the small waiting area wall. What was Ash doing here?

  “Did you take her?” I sang.

  “Yeah,” he said apathetically.

  My hands balled into fists. After I mojoed him and everything, he still took her. I should have killed him. “When?”

  “Before the wedding.”

  My heart pounded and it took everything inside me not to grab him and break his puny neck on the spot. “Take me to her,” I sang.

  We rounded the corner and stopped before a set of locked double doors marked, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL BEYOND THIS POINT. The guy swiped his card against the reader and the doors opened magically.

  A woman walked out into the hall, wearing a mask and a white coat, quickly glanced at us, then yelped in surprise.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  “Don’t move,” I sang to her, then smashed the kidnapper into the wall. “Where is she?”

  He whimpered. “I don’t know.”

  I turned to the woman in white. “Where’s Ash?”

  She shrugged, too.

  “A redhead with green eyes!”

  She tilted her head. “Do you mean Candy?”

  “No! Son of a—!” I grunted in frustration, then turned to Jax and Jacob. “Split up. Sing to anyone you see and don’t let them leave.” Colin leaned against the double doors as if he was terrified to be there. Figures. “Colin, just stay here and keep an eye on these two. I’ll be right back.”

  He nodded.

  I bolted forward, scanning the opened doorways as I moved as quickly as I could. I continued singing, freezing whomever I met, asking if they had seen a redheaded girl. Their answers were conflicting and they kept mentioning Candy. After about five minutes, I’d checked every room without success.

  “Fin! Over here!” Jax called.

  I tore around the corner and entered a room at the end of the hall. Ash lay strapped to a table still wearing her wedding gown, torn and shredded around her waist. Blood covered the sheets and her dress.

  “Ash!” I ran to her and touched her face.

  “She’s breathing, but unconscious.” Jax unbuckled the wrist restraints.

  I glared at the IV’s attached to her, and then at the necklace radiating orange light. “What is all of this?”

  Jax shrugged. “I have no clue.”

  A dark-haired woman entered, then shrieked and ran out.

  “Stop!” I sang, and she froze. “Get this stuff off of her!”

  She robotically walked over and started unhooking the wires and tubes. The machines next to us beeped with alarms, but she didn’t silence them.

  “Why isn’t she awake?” I asked.

  “I gave her something to sleep,” the woman said.

  “Why?”

  “Because,” she turned to me, eyes sad, “she lost her baby.”

  The world swayed, and I had to grab onto the gurney. Our child had died? How? When? My hands then lashed out and grabbed on to the woman’s shoulders, squeezing tight. “How did this happen?”

  She flinched, her face pained. “We didn’t know she was pregnant. She didn’t look pregnant.”

  “Why is she here?” I grunted.

  “Her blood. It has a special protein. We were to collect it. It didn’t hurt her. Just… the stress must have thrown her into labor.”

  “Must have?” I raised my hand to hit her.

  She turned her head downward, flinching.

  “No,” Jax restrained my hand. “She’s not to blame, and you have to focus on getting Ash out of here. She needs a healer.”

  “Not to blame?” I yelled. “What kind of place is this?”

  “We’re a research facility for cancer,” the woman said, voice quivering.

  “And you just take people and steal their blood?”

  “She’d volunteered. She just…” the woman stopped talking.

  “Restraints aren’t needed when one volunteers,” I grated.

  “I don’t know…” She swallowed, then shook her head as if to clear away the song. “I just did what I was told.”

  “When will she wake up?” Jax asked as he wrapped Ash in a blanket.

  “Soon.” Her eyes panned across Ash’s frail body, sorrowful. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I went along with this.”

  “Money, I’m sure,” I seethed.

  Her eyes flashed to mine. “I didn’t know she was pregnant. Honest.”

  I carefully lifted Ash’s unconscious body into my arms. If I didn’t get her out of there, I’d commit bloodshed on this pathetic existence of a person.

  “You’ll forget we were here,” I sang to her. “You’ll destroy any samples of her blood. Any tests. Any records. Any evidence she was here. And if you can’t do so, you will call me,” I sang her my number. “And then you’ll quit, you miserable excuse for a human!”

  The woman’s head lowered, but I couldn’t watch her grovel now. Ash needed to get home.

  Jax followed me into the hallway. “Dude, I’ll stay and clean up.”

  “No, you can’t. Just sing to the crowd, and tell them to get out of here. Once I get Ash home, we’re coming back and torching this place.”

  “This mess is too big to leave,” he insisted as we approached the people. “And if we burn it down, we’ll destroy any leads to where Ash’s blood or research went.”

  I sucked in a measured breath. “How will you get back? We’re too far from the lake.”

  “I’ll persuade someone to drive us, but don’t worry. Just take Ash home.”

  “We need to stay together,” I said.

  “I’ll be fine.” Jax put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Let us handle this.”

  Jacob called out from down the hall. “I found more of them.”

  We ran to him. Three girls in high heels and dresses that barely covered their bodies stood off to the side with their hands on their hips.

  “You can’t keep us here,” the redhead said.

  “I don’t know what’s up with these three. They don’t have promising tattoos, yet they won’t answer me,” Jacob said.

  “Answer you?” I asked, not having enough brainpower to unravel the mystery.

  “Yeah.” Jacob scowled. “Could you be too dumb to be persuaded?”

  “I heard that,” the redhead said.

  “I don’t know. I gotta go.” The guilt of failing Ash, of losing my son because I let the basswipe go, started to unravel me. “You two handle it.”

  “Whe
re’s Colin?” Jax asked.

  My gaze swung to the doors.

  Jacob shrugged. “He was there a minute ago.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Find him, fix this, and get back before sunset. I’ll meet you at the house.”

  Jax saluted me before I walked out of the research lab with Ash in my arms. I’d failed her. I’d failed everyone.

  FORTY-FIVE – ASH – June 11 – 4:59 p.m.

  At the sounds of a horn honking, my eyes pulled open. Wind beat against my face as the bright sunlight pelted down on my skin. I gripped onto the armrest and shrieked.

  “Ash, It’s okay. It’s me. Fin.” He reached over and held onto my knee. “You’re safe.”

  I tensed at his touch and yanked away.

  He withdrew, confused. “It’s okay. We’re going home.”

  “Home?” Beyond the words “congrats” scrawled in paint on the windshield, the green of the pines covering the mountains, and the white shale sand on either side of the road blurred past. I couldn’t process what had happened. He’d found me? How?

  “Where are we?” I croaked out, trying to clear my head of the lingering grogginess.

  “We’re on Highway 50.”

  After everything, I didn’t trust my eyes. Glancing down at the blanket, I saw the blood, then remembered what had happened, of what I’d lost. Tears started to fall again. How would I ever tell Fin? How did this get so out of control?

  Once we knew we were expecting and even when I was taken the first time, I should have never let my selfish wedding fantasies get in the way of our family’s safety. For what? To pretend to a mother and sister that I’m human when they despised me? To matter to a father and to a grandmother who weren’t my blood relatives?

  My head drifted to rest against the cold windowpane, my legs curled up underneath me, my insides numb. I had naïvely thought that once I was freed of that hellhole, it would be over. But I knew differently now. I’d been branded forever and wherever I went, it would follow, eating me alive. If I told Fin that Alaster was alive and behind it all, he’d go crazy and never let it go.

  Within twenty-five minutes, we pulled down our street and up to the cottage. A moving van stood parked on the dying grass of the lot, where movers loaded in tables and chairs. Leftover wedding decorations blew in the wind like funeral pyres, and I turned my head from it, all of it raw and a reminder of my stupidity.