“This is different. You’re not screaming at me like you were before. I’ve been back and forth here a few times. I know what I’m doing. They don’t.”
“Thanks for looking out for us,” Eli said sarcastically. “Oliver Grain, out to save the day again.”
“Hey, I don’t need this coming at me from all sides. I need to think. Where should we go from here?”
“What’s your brilliant idea now, hero?” Eli said, propping himself against the back wall and sliding down to the floor.
“We’ll wait here for a few minutes and go back out there when the sweep is finished with this floor.”
“And you’ll just know when that time’s up because you’re a superhero?”
“Hey, Eli, how about not being such a dick?” I snapped. “Has that occurred to you? I should have left you back home.”
“You should have left both of us back home,” Eli said, gesturing to Anna. “We shouldn’t be here.”
“I want to be here,” Anna said.
“If we actually knew where we were going, then that would be a different story. But we’re here, wandering around aimlessly hoping we find some neon sign somewhere that reads ‘Desiree’s in here!’ Have you seen a sign anywhere that suggests this asylum you’re looking for actually exists? Because I haven’t. There are plenty of signs around this place and we’ve even passed a few maps, but does any one of them have an asylum even listed? No. There’s just this Psych ward, which just seems wrong.”
“I believe Commodore Chaos knew what he was talking about,” I said.
“Commodore who?” Eli asked, scrunching his face and furrowing his eyebrows.
“Commodore Chaos. He’s a blogger on this plane who talks about the asylum. He believes it’s used for holding people who know about the other planes.”
“Is that all you’re going on? We’re here looking for a fantastical asylum holding Desiree because of a conspiracy blogger, and according to you, in theory, it should be here? That’s it? The evidence you have that this place even exists is from a blog post? Are you freakin’ kidding me, Grain?”
“Are you done?” I asked.
“No, I’m not done. I’m just getting started. I need you to see how ridiculous this sounds!”
“We’re already here,” Anna said softly, timidly dipping a toe into the argument. “Oliver must have more than the brief amounts of information he’s shared with us. Right, Oliver?”
“Of course,” I answered. “I have a good feeling we’re in the right place.”
“You have a good feeling—well, that makes things all better—all warm and fuzzy inside. Now you’ve won me over,” Eli mocked.
“Well, then go if you want to. What’s keeping you here?”
“You, quite frankly!” Eli shouted. “We’re basically being held here like prisoners by you. It’s not like we can just go home unless you take us home. So how about it, Grain? Are you ready to take us home and get some actual help to find Desiree? Because this wild goose chase covert mission is a bust. We’re hiding from doctors in a goddamn closet for Christ’s sake! We’re in no position to save anyone.”
“I hope you’re in a position to save yourselves,” Nero said. “Look outside, Oliver.”
When I looked through the door and into the hallway, I saw we had company. Not just people hanging out in the hallway, but a group of hospital staff seemingly waiting for us.
“We’ve got a problem,” I said, lowering my voice to just above a whisper.
“What?” Anna asked, her voice cracking and breaking the word into two syllables.
“They’re trying to trap us. That doctor and three orderlies are waiting for us in the hallway.”
“Why’re they waiting instead of coming in to get us?” Eli asked.
I shook my head and just as I was about to look through the door again, it faded, showing our position to everyone. Dr. Aguilera was focused on the tablet she had cradled in one arm. The three orderlies, all wearing strange black scrubs like no one else I had seen in the hospital so far, approached the door.
“The boy in the center is the only one we need conscious,” Dr. Aguilera said, looking up from her screen. Apparently she was talking about me.
“Any bright ideas, Grain?” Eli asked, stepping back until he was against the wall.
Anna did the same, like a panicked, cornered animal.
“Just one,” I said, and as the orderlies stepped into the electrical room one at a time, I turned and jumped through the back wall, grabbing Eli and Anna’s arms in midair.
I splashed through the wall like passing through a waterfall and landed awkwardly in the room behind the electrical room, maneuvering around an empty bed to keep from completely wiping out. Eli fell to the floor behind me since I had pulled him and Anna through backwards.
Anna?
Eli was getting to his feet in a daze. Only he had made it. Anna hadn’t made it through the wall. I felt I had grabbed her arm, but an orderly must have kept her from transitioning through the wall.
“Where’s Anna?” Eli shouted. “What did you do?”
“I don’t k—”
Another orderly in black scrubs, a hulking brute of a man who looked more like a security officer, charged into the room though the transparent door.
“No way!” Eli looked to me with panic clouding his face and extended a sweaty hand.
I grabbed it and we ran through the closest side wall into another patient room, this one with a sleeping lady strapped to her bed with leather restraints. Her eyes shot open when we crashed into a wheeled apparatus of medical equipment.
The lady screamed. “Somebody help me! I’m under attack!”
There wasn’t time to calm the hysterical lady and we made our way to the door. But before we were able to reach it, another male orderly barged in only slightly smaller than the one in the next room. He held a large syringe filled with green liquid in his right hand.
“Get them! They’re monsters!” the lady yelled.
We were running out of directions to escape. I stood between the orderly and Eli, who was breathing heavily behind me.
“We’re done,” Eli said, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Do you yield?” the orderly asked, presenting the syringe like a weapon rather than a medical instrument, staring straight at me with predatory eyes.
I was about to pull Eli through the back wall, but knew they’d have someone waiting for us there, too—but maybe that person would be someone we could overpower. Then a flash came to me of another option I hadn’t considered before—a maneuver more difficult, but hopefully worth the risk.
I will not yield!
“Eli, trust me!” I yelled, took a step so I’d be standing right next to him, and grabbed his arm. I envisioned the floor melting away and felt myself quickly sinking through it, pulling Eli with me. But Eli’s fear and reluctance caused him to involuntarily jerk his arm back, which was drenched in sweat. My grip slid down, unable to find a firm hold. By the time my hand reached his, I think he finally realized he was about to be left alone in the room with the orderly holding the huge syringe and grasped desperately for my hand.
But it was too late.
My hand glided through his slick palm no matter how tightly I tried to hold on—the force of my falling was too much to hold onto with his feet still planted firmly on the floor above.
I crashed into the room below with Eli stranded on the third floor with Anna, each in separate rooms, each with separate orderlies in black scrubs to battle. We had started out as a three-man rescue group and got picked off one by one, until it was back to only me. Which was how I should have started. It was selfish of me—and stupid—to have involved others on a mission I had been warned not to attempt myself.
I lay sprawled out on the floor in the middle of what looked like an executive office. My right ankle throbbed from the way my foot hit the floor, which took the brunt of my fall. My back, elbows, and head would have some bruising, but nothing compared t
o the pain in my ankle.
Eli yelled a few words; his muffled voice barely reaching the floor below, but just enough that I knew it was him.
Then silence.
I didn’t even know if I could stand. Two more friends were gone. I was obviously in the right place—or I had simply found another dangerous place in this unpredictable plane. Maybe Anna and Eli were now captives here, but Desiree was someplace else entirely. Maybe it was time to yield. Mr. Gordon had been right again. I wasn’t ready for this—for any of this. I wanted to close my eyes and transition home, but lying on the floor from the second level of the hospital, I would probably fall ten feet onto a tombstone and break my back or crack my head open. I had to sneak out into the hallway and get back to the ground floor where I could get home safely.
I lay between an oval-shaped glass coffee table and two leather chairs facing away from me. I could have landed on either one of those things, which would have put me in a lot worse shape. There was at least one thing I could be thankful for in the midst of this incredible fiasco. I turned my head side to side, stretching my neck—when my whole body tensed.
Beyond the two leather chairs was a large cherry-wood desk. Looking through the curved metal legs of the chairs, I saw the bottom half of a pair of woman’s legs with a black skirt flowing just over her knees. Her delicate feet were planted firmly on the ground in open-toed flats and didn’t move. She didn’t make a sound.
The woman had obviously seen me fall from the ceiling and into her office, yet there was no cry of alarm. No curiosity as to what had happened. No sense of obligation to check on my condition—and I was in a hospital! Maybe something had happened to her—
The woman’s legs moved, one crossing over the other at the ankle.
I slowly sat up and grabbed the backs of the leather chairs with both hands to pull myself high enough to peer over. The woman leaned forward, elbows propped on her executive desk, looking straight at me. Her face was emotionless, her skin fair and tight, and polar-bear white hair flowing over her shoulders in waves. She was petite. Her black dress, which was patterned with gossamer layers, had a low circular neckline, and three-quarter length sleeves, loosely flowed over her body. Her dark eyes reminded me instantly of eyes I had seen before, eyes that could look straight through you and see into your thoughts and memories. Her dark eyes had the same avaricious intensity as Kafka—Kafka the bogeyman, when he revealed himself as such. The woman’s full lips curled up slightly, showing a hint of the whitest teeth I had ever seen, in a grin that looked like she wanted to give me a hug and rip my head off simultaneously.
I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until I had completely run out of air. My lungs burned and my breathing returned in spastic gasps as I sucked in too much air to soothe the fire in my chest. My eyes wouldn’t unlock from her gaze. I lowered my head until my eyes were level with the backs of the chairs like a child’s pitiful attempt to hide.
“Ask and ye shall receive, like a gift from heaven, dropping from the sky,” the woman said in a soft, sweet, and almost melodic voice. “You’re a bit early, Mr. Grain.” Then her eyes dropped to my hands, squeezing the leather at the tops of the chairs. “Oh, Mr. Grain, you are a naughty boy, indeed.” She leaned back in her chair, which rocked slightly, and placed her hands across a greatly protruding stomach.
21
To the Asylum!
“Trying to get free stuff in the city, are we?” the woman asked, shaking her head. “Did you draw the Lorne tattoo yourself or did one of your friends do it?”
I didn’t know how to answer or if I even should.
“Please get up off the floor and have a seat so we can have an adult conversation. No more childish games.”
I shakily got up and as soon as I put pressure on my right ankle, I almost collapsed again as a sharp pain shot up my leg, causing me to clutch the backs of the chairs for support. I hobbled around them and dropped into one of the leather seats.
“That was a nasty fall. Good thing you’re in a hospital. We can take care of that ankle for you. We want you to be comfortable during your stay here.”
“Who are you and where have you taken my friends?” I asked as forcefully as I could manage in the presence of this intimidating woman.
She smiled again, seemingly amused by my naivety. “I am Dr. Alexandria Lorne. This is my facility, as is the one I believe you’re looking for.”
“What about my friends?”
“Your two friends are in good hands, professionals capable of giving them the personal care and specialized treatment they require.”
“What about my other friend, Desiree Behring? She came here and disappeared several days ago.”
“The name doesn’t ring a bell from our list of newly admitted patients. Oh—she was the girl on the rooftop with you and your brother,” she said like she just had an epiphany.
“Yeah—how do you know about that?”
“Are you sure she didn’t wander to the other side? It’s a common problem for people coming from the lower plane. They’re easily tempted and captured. Poor souls. Have you had the pleasure of meeting your daediem yet?”
“My what?” I asked with a growing lump in my throat.
Dr. Lorne smiled wider and stood up from behind her desk. Her stomach was even larger than I had noticed from her seated position. She looked like she was ready to give birth at any moment. She walked slowly and carefully around her desk and stopped directly in front of me.
I thought of running, hopping through more walls to safety. She wouldn’t be able to chase me in her condition, but from what I knew about the Lorne family, she wouldn’t have to. I knew I didn’t want to underestimate her capabilities. Sinking lower in my chair, I gazed up at her towering over me.
“You seek SUSY Asylum, do you not? Looking for the girl you mentioned?”
My mouth was so dry my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, preventing me from opening it to reply.
“Your wish shall be granted,” she said, extending a hand. “Allow me to help you up. This newly constructed hospital is a premier facility, one unlike any other, and you will get to experience something seldom do in the entire world.”
I took her hand as requested and stood up, balancing most of my weight on my left leg.
“Are you taking me to my friends?” I stuttered.
“There is a personal suite ready and waiting for you. It’s important you two have your privacy so you can get better acquainted.”
“Who? Who’s going to be in there with me? Where are you taking me? I just want to find my friends. We’ll leave. Please…it was a mistake to come here.”
“No it wasn’t, Mr. Grain. It was fate, destiny, divine intervention—you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. Come along.” Dr. Lorne guided me across her office, helping to keep me supported as I hobbled alongside her.
The door to her office became transparent and I saw two orderlies in black scrubs waiting patiently in the hallway. Neither of them were men I’d seen before.
“Jax and Cole will take good care of you. And the exceptional doctors of the asylum will give you the care you need to get healthy. I will be checking in on you,” she said to me and then turned her attention to the orderlies. “Please help Mr. Grain here. Due to an unfortunate fall, he has suffered a sprained, maybe even a fractured ankle.”
“Yes, Doctor,” the men replied in military-like unison.
Alexandria Lorne disappeared back into her office, leaving me in the questionable care of the two hulking orderlies. One was noticeably larger than the other, but both men could have snapped me like a pencil.
“The good doctor wants us to take special care of you. A fall, you say?” the smaller of the two large men said and instantly slammed an open palm into the middle of my back with the force of an accelerating truck.
I tried to gather my balance by firmly planting my feet on the floor, but I crumpled under the searing pain of my right ankle and went sprawling to the ground with an involunta
ry cry. Rolling over with my knee pulled into my chest, I clutched my ankle and stared at the two orderlies smiling down at me.
“It’s not nap time yet, little buddy,” the smaller man with a blonde buzz cut said. “Jax, help him up.”
Both men reached down and grabbed me under the shoulders, lifting me to my feet and then six inches off the ground like I was weightless. They let go of my underarms and allowed me to slam back on the ground.
I collapsed again as my feet hit the floor and cried out in pain. My ankle throbbed and burned after the initial lightning bolt had shot through my body from the moment of foot-to-floor impact. Tears moistened my eyes and began rolling across my face, but I resisted the impulse to break into a full sob. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
“The good doctor won’t be happy that you’re just fooling around when we need to be getting you to prep,” the orderly with the buzz cut, Cole, said.
“Time’s a wasting, little buddy,” Jax said, and both of them lifted me up again.
This time, they held tightly to my arms—not allowing me to fall, but not helping me walk, either. They briskly marched me down the hallway, forcing me to scramble, hobble, and hop to keep up. Every time I applied pressure to my right ankle, my right leg went limp, and the momentum of the walk caused me to lunge forward. The men caught my falling body each time and kept me moving at their pace by dragging my body forward until I could regain some type of footing.
We turned down a short wing with a semicircle of elevators and marched straight into the middle vessel. We ascended several floors with dark walls surrounding the glass capsule. And then the walls vanished.
We were now in a glass tube ascending into the open air, seemingly unconnected to any sort of building; we just continued to shoot up into the heavens. Above us, the sky was filled with stars and a large, nearly full moon that shone silver light upon the landscape. There were lights on the horizon, but nothing that resembled the powerful luminescence of Provex City. I could see in all directions and felt like I could see pretty far, but the city seemed to be gone. There were scattered clusters of lights presumably coming from small towns or communities, but nothing that looked like a major metropolitan area. Then I looked down through the glass floor of the elevator and saw empty landscape below us. The campus of hospital buildings was also gone. We were rising straight out of the ground, straight out of nothing.
SUSY Asylum Page 24
