SUSY Asylum
Lorne Family Vault, Book 2
Michael Pierce
Copyright © 2013 by Michael Pierce
Cover by Karri Klawiter
http://artbykarri.com
Editing by
James Anderson
&
LeAnne Bagnall
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Contents
Sign-Up
Prologue
1. The Urge
2. Bright City Lights
3. House of Mirrors
4. Small Tokens
5. Desiree’s Bright Idea
6. The Perks of Being a Lorne
7. Le7el
8. A New Wolf
9. Damage Control
10. Unsalvageable Pieces
11. Square One
TJ & Desiree (A)
12. In Between
TJ & Desiree (B)
TJ & Desiree (C)
13. Spilling Tea
Desiree & TJ (D)
14. Yearbook
15. Tablet
16. Lunch with Anna
TJ & Desiree (E)
17. Another Gone
18. Logan
TJ & Desiree (F)
19. The Truth
20. O.P.C. Medical
21. To the Asylum!
chapter―
22. Daediem
23. Frolics & the Little Boy
24. My Biggest Fear
25. The Symmetric Plane
TJ & Desiree (G)
26. The News
27. A Wolf among Sheep
28. Leaving Reid
TJ & Desiree (H)
29. Next Steps
Epilogue
The Earthquake Felt Around the World
The Collapse of Modern Civilization
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For Gwendolyn.
She is my light.
Prologue
The orderlies in black scrubs would be rounding the corner of the hallway at any moment. He knew he couldn’t outrun them for long, but his daediem was at his side, helping to keep him upright. Without his roommate—cellmate—he’d already be down due to the oozing puncture wounds in his left leg from where the metal apparatus had been attached. His right leg had not yet regained its strength since the cast had only been off for a few days.
He was more than lucky to have gotten the metal contraption removed in time, but the medicine had worn off and each step became more agonizing.
“There he is!” a deep male voice bellowed from behind. “Stop! There is nowhere to run!”
Freedom was close according to his roughly drawn map. The elevators that led the way out were only a few turns away.
“You’re slowing down!” his daediem pleaded between heavy breaths.
“I can’t go any faster.”
“If you don’t, they’ll drag us back in there! I can’t go back again!”
They turned two more corners of labyrinthine hallways and found their exit.
Blocked!
Three more brutish orderlies in black scrubs stood before the elevators—the only things standing between them and their freedom from the horrific asylum.
He crumpled the yellow paper with the sketched map—which had taken him weeks to compile the data for and draw—stuffed the wad in his mouth, chewed hastily, and swallowed.
“Do you yield?” one of the orderlies asked, which was not intended as a question.
More footsteps skidded to a stop behind him and his daediem.
He was struck by a jolt of electricity, causing every muscle in his body to spasm and go limp. He collapsed, and his daediem did the same.
After a few moments, he regained some control over his limbs. The jolt had stopped. He rolled onto his back and swallowed hard, trying hard not to expel the remnants of the paper still lingering in his throat.
There was now a circle of six menacing faces surrounding and gazing down upon the two boys.
A steady click of high heels sounded in the distance. Two of the orderlies stepped aside to allow her into the circle—the asylum’s Psychiatrist in Chief, the slender woman with long white hair.
“Our second ever escape attempt and it’s with the same patient,” she said softly. He knew her light voice was not to be mistaken for meekness. “Your feat is rather impressive, but I can’t allow you to leave. You have more treatment to undergo.” She flashed a sharp, wolf-like smile.
“Third time’s a charm,” he answered, trying his best to mimic her confidence. He would not allow her the satisfaction of cowering in defeat. He would escape. It was no delusion.
“No, young man, there will be no third time. I will see to that personally.”
He felt the familiar sting of a needle sinking into his arm as she turned on her heel and walked away. The bleak hallway faded from his consciousness before the orderlies in black scrubs even had the chance to pull him and his daediem off the floor.
1
The Urge
I didn’t know where to look for TJ and I didn’t know where to look for my father. Why wasn’t he trying to contact me? By now, he must have heard that Jeremy and I were in Provex City. Maybe he didn’t want to get in touch with me and Mr. Gordon was just sparing my feelings, secretly knowing I was going to be waiting indefinitely. I didn’t know how much longer I could wait. There had to be something I could do. Help in some way. Allow myself to be more easily found.
I went back two days after Desiree, Jeremy, and I returned from Provex City. I didn’t go far. I just crossed over, found my focus and entered the fade.
When I transported myself up to the plane where Provex City inconspicuously sat, I moved in a space between the two planes until I was safely out of the street. I was not about to be hit by another car. The darkly tinted hover cars sped through me as I floated to the grass, and when I reached it, I burst into the plane with full force.
I dropped to the ground, my whole body suddenly exhausted to an extent I hadn’t remembered feeling before. My limbs tingled and I felt incredibly light-headed. I forgot to take into account that it was raining back home, and so it was raining here, too. All I had on was a sweater, which became drenched in less than a minute. But I was here.
The glowing skyscrapers of Provex City rose in the distance. It was hard to estimate how far away the city actually was because the buildings were so tall, many disappearing into the low cloud cover.
The river I had seen before snaked by and the blue buildings stood beyond the far bank. A little way down the river extended a stone bridge, connecting the cluster of blue buildings with the highway beside me.
My skin broke out in goose bumps and my jaws chattered with so much force I thought I might chip a tooth. My clothes were becoming deadweight
. Despite incoming hypothermia, I was elated for not forgetting the way to get here. I obviously knew it hadn’t been a dream, but sometimes it felt that way since I’d been home. It really was here, only a few steps away. So my father couldn’t be far, either. He had to be here somewhere. And if I was going to wait somewhere, it only made sense to be on the same plane as the person I was waiting for.
I stood up, gathered my strength, and focused on transitioning home. Next time I would account for the weather before leaving the shelter of my room. And before I knew it, I was home, alone, and surrounded by familiar walls. My wet clothes and hair dripped water all over the carpet as I continued to shiver.
I gathered some dry clothes and opened my door. As I stepped into the hallway, attempting to slip unnoticed into the bathroom, Mom exited her room just then, too.
She gave me a curious look. “Oliver, why are you all wet?”
“That’s a good question,” I said, frozen for a moment as I decided on how to answer, and then simply ducked into the bathroom without saying anything further.
“I thought so,” Mom mumbled to herself as she continued down the hallway. “Apparently I don’t deserve answers. Is there a leak I should know about?”
I laughed as I changed out of my wet clothes and dried my hair. I was running out of ways to explain things. I was creating so many stories I could no longer keep them all straight. It was absurd and all I could do in that moment was laugh.
When I returned from the bathroom, warm and comfortable again, Mom was checking out my room. One window was now open.
“I’m not seeing any leaks,” she said.
“There aren’t,” I said.
Mom pulled at the screen in the window casing. “Did you sneak out?”
It did seem like the only logical explanation, so I nodded.
“Why? I’m not holding you hostage or anything. You may use the doors whenever you want,” she said.
“I know,” I said.
“Then why did you—”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you feeling all right?” Mom asked me to take a seat on the bed.
“I feel fine,” I said.
“I just don’t know what’s going on with you,” she said. “I’m worried—about you and your brother.”
I tried my best to reassure her, but there was only so much I could say. It was a huge burden knowing what I knew now, but it was mine to bear.
“Try not to worry too much,” I said. “I’m really fine.”
“I want you two to see the school counselor when school starts up again. If you don’t want to talk to me, at least you can talk to someone. Will you do that for me?”
Her sad gaze pleaded with me to agree. All I could do was nod. I had to be more careful transporting in the rain.
I hadn’t talked with Desiree since we’d returned home, though I saw her every day. The scene that unfolded on the observation deck of Lorne Tower played in an endless loop every time I closed my eyes. Kafka was there—and so was she. I didn’t know when it was appropriate to reach out to her after what we’d been through. She was back with Eli and I was back with Anna. The way it should be.
The way it should be?
Desiree came over the next day unannounced.
“How’ve you been?” I asked, inviting her in.
“I don’t even know how to answer that anymore,” she said, her hands stuffed deep in her suede coat.
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I said, shutting the door behind her. “It still seems like the polite thing to say, though.”
Her green eyes sparkled; her wavy russet-colored hair spilled over her shoulders and down her back. So often her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but not today. I wanted to kiss her again, but made no attempt to close the two-foot gap between us.
“Is anyone else here?” she asked.
As if on cue, Frolics came bounding across the kitchen and attacked her with the uninhibited excitement of a toddler. He circled her legs like a fat, clumsy cat.
“Okay, okay,” I said, tugging at his collar and forcing him to sit. “Back off.”
He finally did, but it took some powerful persuasion.
“Just me and Jeremy,” I said once I got the bulldozer under control. “My mom’s visiting Richard in the hospital.”
“Where is he?”
Where he’s been for the past three days—cooped up inside his room with the door closed. Jeremy hadn’t wanted to discuss what had transpired in Provex City. He hadn’t wanted to talk to me much at all. He’d become closed up and shut down. He was acting more like me, which I found terribly unnerving. He was supposed to be the strong one—the person I could lean on when I needed help.
“He’s in his room,” I said.
“Can we...” she started, gesturing down the hall toward the bedrooms.
“He hasn’t really been accepting any visitors,” I said.
“We’re not just any visitors,” Desiree retorted. She leaned in and gave me a hug like it was an afterthought before heading down the hallway.
Jeremy’s door was the first one on the left (and the only one closed in the hallway).
Desiree looked to me before knocking. I shrugged—not giving her permission, but not-not giving her permission, either.
The first round of knocks went unanswered. The second round was met with a curt, “What?”
“Can we come in?” Desiree asked in her most soothing voice.
There was a long pause.
I was about to tell her “I told you so,” when Jeremy answered her request.
“Sure.”
Desiree beamed like she’d just won a prize and entered. I hesitantly followed.
Jeremy was lying on his bed with large headphones pulled up to his temples, the music he was listening to still spilling from the earpieces. It was The Who and I knew he only listened to classic rock when he was feeling pensive and sentimental. His eyes were bloodshot and I wondered if he’d been crying, but I wasn’t about to ask.
“How’re you doing?” she asked, inching cautiously to the edge of the bed.
“I’m fine,” Jeremy answered. “Is that all you came here to ask me?”
“No...” she said, but almost as a question.
Jeremy waited. I lingered in the doorway.
“I can’t go back,” Desiree finally said.
“Good. You shouldn’t,” Jeremy said. “None of us should. There’s nothing left—”
“No,” Desiree interrupted. “I can’t go back to my life before. What happened to us was awful, but that place...I can’t stop thinking about it. I dream about it—of nothing else.”
“It’s only been three days. It’ll pass.”
“I thought you would understand,” Desiree said, first folding her arms, and then stuffing her hands into her oversized coat pockets. “You know more about that place than either of us. You could—”
“Let me stop you right there,” Jeremy said. “I’m not going back. I’ve seen enough—done enough that I now have to live with. I can’t go. I’m not going back.”
“But—”
“I killed a man!” Jeremy shot up to a seated position. “Has that slipped your pretty little head?”
“Whoa, Jeremy,” I started, advancing to Desiree’s side.
Jeremy ripped the headphones from his temples and chucked them across the room. The cord wrenched free from his iPhone, silencing the music. The headphones cracked in several places from their impact with the wall and fell onto a heaping pile of dirty laundry.
“I have to live with what I’ve done!” Jeremy continued. “To Kafka. To Mom and Richard. To you, Oliver. Everything is my fault. And you come in here wanting a city tour guide? If you want to go gallivanting through the city, then go. But I’m not taking you, and neither is Oliver. Do you hear me, Oliver? You’re not going back.”
You’re not my father! You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do! I wanted to yell, but simply squeaked out a meek, “
Okay.”
“I’m sorry I bothered you,” Desiree spat.
I tried to place a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off before storming out of the room.
“You could have been a little nicer,” I said to my flushed and steaming older brother.
“I mean what I said, Oliver,” Jeremy said. “Don’t go back. Talk to Daniel. He’ll put some sense into her. He always knows the right thing to say. Now promise me.”
“What?”
“Promise me you won’t go back. I thought after what had happened, it wouldn’t even be an issue. But I guess I was wrong. The story of my life. Promise me.”
“I promise,” I said.
“Close the door on your way out.”
I found Desiree huddled against the wall in the dining room. Frolics had found her first, but had sensed her anguish and lay beside her with his head against her sneakers. She turned her head away from me as I took a seat on her Frolics-free side.
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” she said in no more than a whisper.
“Me neither,” I said, thinking of my walk in the rain.
“It’s right there and no one else knows.” Desiree turned her head halfway, now staring straight ahead. “I’ve crossed over a few times in my front yard after dark. Did you know you can see those skyscrapers from our street?”
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