SUSY Asylum

by Michael Pierce

  “Thought recognition, like most devices here. But the one you found, if it is like this one, it is probably password protected.”

  Of course it is, I thought. But it did explain why there weren’t any exterior buttons on the tablet.

  “Commodore Chaos hasn’t posted in awhile—or if he has, I haven’t found his new site yet,” Darius said, snatching his tablet out of my hands. He tapped and scrolled through screens, and stopped on the last blog post of the mysterious commodore. Sliding the tablet back across the table, he wanted Mr. Gordon and me to read the post. “He talks about being followed and is paranoid of being found, that his hideout is no longer safe, and how he is afraid of the asylum. He sounds just like my friend, Logan, before he disappeared.”

  “Logan?” I said to myself, not fully realizing I’d said the name aloud.

  “Yeah, does that mean something to you?”

  Mr. Gordon remained uncharacteristically quiet.

  “The tablet I found belongs to a guy named Logan,” I said. Darius was about to speak, but I cut him off. “I don’t know his last name. I took the tablet because he’d just left it out, for some reason having left in a hurry. That was a few days ago and I haven’t seen him since, either.”

  “There seems to be a lot of disappearances going on,” Mr. Gordon said, breaking his longest span of silence since I’d met him. “Could the two possibly be related? What about this asylum you speak of?”

  “It’s a place for crazies with delusions of other planes of consciousness, or so Commodore…” Darius paused to let his statement sink in. “…Chaos says. He calls it the SUSY building in the O.P.C. Medical Facility. But it’s super secretive. I don’t know if it really exists or not. There is no other mention of it anywhere else on the interlanet.”

  “I’ve never heard of this asylum. It must be something new. And who here knows of other planes?” Mr. Gordon asked.

  “Well…us, Desiree, Logan before he disappeared, and the Lorne family. I’m sure there are others, but they are keeping that information to themselves.”

  “And what does SUSY mean?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s never explained,” Darius said. “I think the first post mentioning SUSY Asylum dates back about a year. I have no idea how long it’s actually been there.”

  “The O.P.C. Medical Facility is right by my house on this plane. Desiree and I have seen it from the outside,” I said.

  “Can I assume that it is a Lorne-run facility?” Mr. Gordon asked.

  “Alexandria Lorne is the Chief of Medicine there. She’s quite well known. You may have noticed Alexandria Boulevard near the monorail hub—yeah, that’s her. Oliver, you remember meeting Lazarus? You may have come across Lazarus Boulevard, too, running perpendicular to Alexandria Boulevard.”

  Mr. Gordon turned to me. “You ran into Lazarus Lorne?”

  “I may have,” I said with a huge lump in my throat. “He may have bought me and Desiree coffee. Why, who is he?”

  “Any Lorne family member out in the open, walking around like there’s nothing wrong is not with the rebellion, and not with the rebellion means with Kafka.”

  “Kafka Lorne?” Darius asked.

  Mr. Gordon nodded.

  “I’ve seen him on television!” Darius exclaimed. “He is the developer of a number of buildings in the city, including, of course, Lorne Tower.”

  “He is the patriarch of the Lorne family,” Mr. Gordon said.

  “And I heard he’s been dealing with a family death. He’s been out of the public eye for a couple months now.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. His death was announced to the city—maybe to the entire world—as him retreating from the public eye to mourn a deceased family member?

  “We’re getting off topic,” Mr. Gordon said. He had finished his coffee and tossed the empty cup into a trash can stationed several feet away. “We could discuss the intricate workings of the Lorne family until the end of next week. Right now we need some clue as to where Desiree went. Or what happened to her.”

  “Oliver, you said that the O.P.C. Medical Facility is near your house? And Desiree’s?” Darius asked. “So she would be getting off the monorail around there. She also said you guys had gotten in trouble when you were here last, after I’d left.”

  “Is that so?” Mr. Gordon asked. “And when was this?”

  “The end of last year. I forget exactly when. She said Oliver had gotten into some kind of fight,” Darius said, looking at Mr. Gordon, but glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “I see,” Mr. Gordon said. I thought he would say more, but he didn’t.

  “If this SUSY Asylum is real, there may be people looking for you guys now.” Darius stopped. “And maybe even me…” Darius began to freeze up again. He reminded me of how Jeremy had become.

  “We should be careful,” Mr. Gordon said.

  “Maybe she didn’t make it home because she got caught.” Darius stared at me.

  “Don’t make this out to be my fault,” I snapped.

  “Maybe if you hadn’t been in that fight at the club, then you two might not be on their radar.”

  He didn’t know what he was talking about, but turning it back on Desiree wasn’t going to help get her back. She had been the driving force in coming back to the city—with the bright idea of impersonating a Lorne.

  “So if she’s there, how do we get her back?” I asked Mr. Gordon.

  “Assuming this asylum is a real place for the Lorne family to hold people for whatever reason, then we can’t do it alone,” said Darius.

  “Come on, Mr. Gordon, you’re the one telling me we can do anything we believe in. To never say never. Never say can’t. If she’s in there, we can get her out,” I insisted.

  “Oliver, we can’t just walk in and out of the wolf’s den. If Desiree’s being held in there—in a Lorne-run facility—she is beyond our reach. And what if she’s being held as bait?”

  “Bait for what?”

  “Bait for you,” Mr. Gordon said sadly. “I will continue to look for her and hope she turns up somewhere other than there.”

  “We have to at least go in there and look around. We won’t even ask any questions…we’ll be in and out like ghosts.”

  Mr. Gordon shook his head, his eyes reflecting terrible dread.

  Darius, too, was silent, still—speechless.

  “Come on, Mr. Gordon!” I yelled and then nervously looked around to see if I’d disrupted the other patrons. I abruptly lowered my voice. “We have to do something.”

  “And like I said, I will, but getting ourselves captured—or worse—is not going to bring Desiree home. I’ll see what my contact knows.”

  

  Mr. Gordon got me home late for dinner, which I didn’t even have to explain. He had also taken back the lime-green bracelet to deter me from going back to Provex City on my own. Like something as small as a bracelet had stopped me before—or would stop me again.

  “Your friend Desiree’s mother stopped by earlier,” Mom said as we were cleaning off the table. The rest of the family had already cleared out of the kitchen, but the pots and pans, with one place setting, remained on the table.

  “Oh, yeah?” I asked, piling food onto my plate.

  “She said Desiree’s been gone for two days. She asked if you knew anything.” Mom stood a few feet from the table, balancing herself with one hand against the countertop.

  I looked up with a mouthful of food.

  “Well?”

  I chewed franticly and swallowed hard. “I haven’t seen her and she didn’t tell me anything.”

  “I thought you two were close.”

  “So did I,” I said and took a sip of water to soothe my burning throat. “I guess we don’t tell each other everything.”

  “Well, you may want to go over there and tell her yourself. She was a mess and we should all be able to relate to that after what happened last year.” Mom grabbed her purse and snagged a cigarette. “No pare
nt should have to go through the stress of a missing child, plagued with the mental anguish of whether that child’s safe or hurt, living or…I don’t even want to think about that.” She disappeared into the laundry room and I almost immediately heard the swing and recoil of the side door.

  Frolics padded into the kitchen and hunched down hungrily beside my chair, hoping I’d give him some of my food or carelessly drop something on the floor. I scratched him behind the ears when I got up with my empty plate, then solemnly cleared the table alone.

  I couldn’t bring myself to face Desiree’s mom. Even though I honestly didn’t know where she was, I still felt a pang of guilt for her disappearance.

  Anna had texted me while I was out with Mr. Gordon, but I had only now received the message.

  Have you heard from Desiree yet? she asked.

  My guilt grew as more people approached me for answers. I was now expected to know more about Desiree than her best friend. And it tore me up inside. What if she was in that asylum—SUSY asylum—in one of the buildings just across the river, only about a half mile from my house? What if she was being held only a half mile from home? She had saved me without any regard for her personal safety, and I wasn’t going to do everything within my power to help her?

  No, I haven’t, I texted to Anna.

  I received no more messages for the rest of the night. I continued to cling to the slight ray of hope that I might receive word from Desiree to assure me she was okay. If anything was possible, then it was possible she’d come back on her own to avoid risking my life.

  I took out Logan’s tablet from my backpack and thought about turning it on. But still, nothing happened. Darius had mentioned the tablet likely being password protected, so I thought of random words that seemed like plausible passwords.

  Suddenly, the screen lit up. After flashing through a few booting screens and a welcome screen, the three-dimensional desktop appeared. The background had a large symbol in the center, a symbol I had seen before—the symbol next to the signature of Commodore Chaos when he signed his blog posts. Logan had told me he had moved here a few years ago—but I had never guessed he came from Greater Meric. Provex City. And he was most likely Darius’s lost friend.

  Commodore Chaos was his pen name and his password, which seemed silly, but I guess who would think of that here. He was obviously going between planes to post, but primarily hiding out here. Now he had disappeared again, as suddenly here as he had for Darius several years ago.

  I stared at the symbol on the screen, which looked like a broken anarchy sign—the circle with a piece missing to look like the letter “C.” Now I knew why I was in that blog post Darius had shown me. Though I didn’t know how he knew so much about the Lorne family, or at least why he thought he did. How did he know about this SUSY asylum? Was it just a name he coined himself?

  I laid the tablet down and picked up TJ’s journal, tracing Desiree’s drawing of the gargoyle with my finger. It was my only connection to her at that moment. The ink on my wrist was nearly gone. The gargoyle was the only thing left, with her signature scribbled across the bottom. I flipped through the warped and fraying pages until I reached an entry I had not yet read. I read about my friend from the hurt perspective of another friend, both of whom were gone. But in that moment I didn’t feel so alone.

  TJ & Desiree (F)

  Desiree wouldn’t stop walking.

  “Will you please talk to me?” TJ begged, finally grabbing her arm to bring her to a halt. He let go when she tugged wildly at his grip. But at least she had stopped.

  “I can’t trust you. I don’t know what else you want me to say,” she said, refusing to look at him.

  They were in view of her house and she looked like she was ready to make a break for it.

  “Yes, you can! I can only say I’m sorry in so many ways. I’m sorry again. We were both drunk. It’s not like you were passed out or anything.”

  “How do I know that? I don’t remember that part of the night. All I remember is being fully clothed and then waking up next to you completely naked.” Desiree turned to face him. “You knew I had to be home by midnight. I don’t know what you did to me. How can I ever trust you again?”

  “Because I would never hurt you.”

  “Was it or was it not your whole plan to get me drunk so you could have sex with me?”

  “It wasn’t like—”

  “Was it or was it not your whole plan to get me drunk so you could have sex with me!”

  “It was Blaine’s idea to get the room so we could drink and—”

  “Great! So it was a plan the two of you worked out together. Was Jillian in on it, too? Was everyone there trying to get me drunk and naked? Look at Desiree, drinking and making a complete ass of herself! Look at Desiree, let’s get her out of her clothes and laugh at her little girl boobs! Is this what happens when you get to high school?”

  “Hey, keep it down. Someone could hear you,” TJ said, trying to calm her down.

  She glared at him and stuffed her hands into her shorts pockets.

  TJ went on. “The plan was to have a good time. I’m sorry that things turned out so terrible for you. I—”

  “Did you have a good time? Did you get what you wanted—me out of my dress and in bed with you? I can’t really say that I did because a gaping hole in my memory and puking my freakin’ guts out isn’t my idea of a fun night.”

  “Desiree…”

  “Please, TJ, just leave me alone. I can’t deal with this anymore.”

  “Come on. There has to be something I can do. I can’t lose you.” He spastically reached for her arm, but she pulled back just beyond his reach.

  “You didn’t. You took advantage of me and thought it was a great idea. Afterwards, did you tell Blaine how I was? Wait…don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. I never want to know. We’ve been friends forever and I don’t understand how you could do this to me. I can’t forgive you. Not now; not ever.”

  “I didn’t tell Blaine—or anyone else for that matter—anything. I love you, Desiree. You mean everything to me.”

  “Don’t do this to me. You’ve already done enough. I’ve gotta go.”

  “What are you going to do?” TJ’s tone turned from apologetic to sharp and serious.

  “What?” Desiree snapped.

  “Who are you going to tell about this?”

  “That’s none of your business! I don’t owe you anything anymore.”

  “You don’t mean that.”

  “I mean every word,” she said and rushed home.

  Her mother opened the front door like she’d been watching their argument from the window. Desiree was wiping her cheeks and shaking her head as she pushed past.

  Her mother stepped out onto the front lawn with her hands on her hips.

  TJ turned on his heel and took off for his house. He thought the morning after the incident was horrible, but after hearing Desiree’s mother yelling at him from down the street, he had never felt worse. Like a problem. Like the enemy. Like a criminal.

  “If I ever see you near my daughter again, I’m calling the police!”

  19

  The Truth

  It was still dark outside when I sat silently on Desiree’s bed. The room had no life without her. Her mother and sister were still sleeping soundly, with no idea I was in their house. Breaking in is quite easy when you can just walk through walls, especially when you’re not running for your life. Calm, deliberate, and focused action is the key to these types of abilities.

  I was already devising a plan as to what my next steps in finding Desiree would be. And each one would be more uncomfortable than the last. By the end of the day, I would either have Desiree back or be locked away with her. I would visit the asylum, walk in and out, and no one was going to stop me. I had to tell myself that now, make my mission and courage absolute—otherwise I was already doomed.

  The jagua ink, applicator, and tracing paper already adorned with Desiree’s handiwork covered her
desk. The bed creaked when I stood up. I crossed the room to scoop up all the artwork, and left her house like a ghost. I looked back just as a light turned on in an upstairs window, probably her mom getting up to start her day. I thought of the mental anguish Desiree’s mom must have gone through from what happened between Desiree and TJ, and wondered how it compared to what she was going through now. I hurried home, afraid of being spied on like TJ had been.

  

  I couldn’t concentrate on my classes, but I went to each one of them so Mom wouldn’t get a call from the office. It was important that everything seemed fine. Keeping my mouth shut and my eyes on my teachers, I looked like the model student, but I didn’t hear a word they said. I concentrated on what I felt I needed to do, what Mr. Gordon didn’t support. However, he wouldn’t have supported Desiree’s decision to come after me in Provex City the first time. In which case, I’d most likely be dead.

  By the time lunch rolled around, I abandoned my usual eating spot and strolled up to Anna and Eli. Anna produced a bright smile at my unexpected appearance, while Eli glared at me with contempt. Truth be told, I wasn’t too thrilled to see him, either, but I wasn’t there to mend friendships. I was there on behalf of Desiree, whether she approved or not.

  “I may know where Desiree is,” I said right away.

  That changed both of their expressions. Anna’s smile for me fell right off her face and Eli’s cold eyes softened. He looked up at me with what looked like genuine interest. He scooted closer to Anna so they could both face my direction. Without waiting for an invitation, I sat down in the grass.

  They waited for me to say more, but I wasn’t quite sure how to proceed. Where did I begin?

  “When we met with our history teacher, Mr. Gordon, it wasn’t for regular study sessions,” I finally said.

  “I knew it!” Eli exclaimed.

  “Let me finish!” I said. “It wasn’t some kind of code for going behind your backs and hooking up, either. We were meeting with Mr. Gordon, but it wasn’t for history study sessions. I can show you what we’ve been doing—but not here.”