Chapter Twenty-One – The Suit Man
In the end, the Suit Man decides for us. He rushes in a few minutes after those two men came through and locks the door behind him before rushing past us. We’re each trapped in our own thoughts and I start shaking again.
Who is that person? Is that the Reader person we’re waiting for? Is he okay? Why is he bleeding so much? Is that something those men have done? Will he live through so much blood loss?
There is still a mass of it on the floor and I can’t keep my eyes off it. No one has come back to clean it up and I’m suddenly glad I haven’t eaten in a while.
“Are you okay?” Blackout asks me again. In the past few hours, fatigue has taken over him and while he has removed his arm from being around me, he has slowly sunk back into my side.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shaking,” he points out. I quickly push off him and lean on the opposite side’s arm rest.
“It’s cold.”
I try to calm my breathing and focus on something else other than blood. I jump on the first thing that comes to mind. “What kind of name is Blackout?” In fact, what was with all their names?
“I have no idea. My name is Charlie.” Charlie shrugs at me.
“I’m Rose.” Hacker frowns at us all and then we all turn to look at Muscles.
“Will.” He more grunts out his name, but it all leads us to silence as we wonder why Suit Man called them all different names.
“Zoe.” I haven’t been called anything yet by Suit Man, but it feels weird to not have these people know my name.
“That’s strange. Do you think he doesn’t know our real names?” Rose asks us all.
“But why pick those names?” I can’t work it out, especially since Will doesn’t look strong at all.
“Well, I’m really good at computers. I suppose he could know that.”
“And I have issues with electrical things, so blackouts aren’t all that uncommon around me.”
“Will?” I ask, but he only shrugs in reply. He’s definitely not much of a talker.
I think about what my name will be. There is no way Suit Man knows about my dreams so I doubt it will be related to that. Perhaps I will be like Will and I’ll have an opposite name. Maybe Happy, since I’m anything but.
“Who cares about what our stupid names are here, we should be talking about a way out of this place.” Rose finally sits down on the other two-seater couch that faces the television. She has her arms crossed over her chest and most of her hair has fallen out of her ponytail, framing her face. Her hair is naturally blonde and she has a tan that makes me feel like Casper the ghost will think I’m too pale. If I hadn’t known it before, I would have guessed she is from Los Angles.
“I think there might be listening devices in here.” Charlie tries to sit up more and looks around, concentrating hard. I, too, look around us, although I have no idea what a listening device looks like, let alone knowing where one might be.
“Where?” Rose also surveys our surroundings and even Will seems curious to see one.
“I don’t know. I can just feel it.”
“Feel it?” I ask, thinking that Charlie might need some more sleep after all.
“Just trust me, okay?”
I don’t know why, but I do trust him. My instincts are usually spot on and I’m willing to trust them when they believe in Charlie. However, I’m definitely going to ignore them when I feel myself wanting to have Charlie’s arms wrapped around me, his lips on mine. What on earth is wrong with me? Obviously these inappropriate emotions I’m feeling come out of some grief thing. Losing Dana and being kidnapped is messing with me and making me act strangely. That’s probably the only normal thing about this situation.
“Either way, I suppose it’s smart to assume they’re listening to us. We should probably watch what we say. We don’t want them to know too much about us,” Rose agrees.
“Since we don’t know what they already know about us and what they want with us, it’s a bit hard to watch what we say,” Charlie retorts, perhaps letting the situation we’re in get to him.
“You’re the one who brought up listening devices, Mr.-I-can-feel-them,” Rose snaps back at him.
“I can feel them.”
“That’s absurd.” Rose crosses her arms over her chest.
“I’m not saying I understand it, I just can tell there’s something around.”
“Good for you.” Sarcasm is now oozing over Rose’s voice.
“That stupid suit guy didn’t call me Blackout for no reason, you know.”
“Is it because your brain blackouts and you say stupid stuff?”
“Rose!” I can’t believe they’re going to start a fight now when we don’t even know where we are or why we’re here.
“No.” Charlie glares at Rose and within seconds, the room goes dark. I hear the small bar fridge click off and the silence in the room feels louder than any of the noises from before.
“What just happened?” I ask no one. I can’t see anyone. I feel Charlie next to me, but other than that, nothing.
“Like I said earlier, I have issues with electrical things sometimes.”
“You caused this?” Rose shrieks at him.
“Yes.”
“Put it back on. I don’t want to just sit here in darkness when we’re in a place we don’t know after being kidnapped and drugged!” Rose is angry.
Charlie clears his throat and sounds hesitant. “I haven’t quite mastered that part yet.”
“What?” Rose sounds ready to kill Charlie. I feel him tense next to me, however no one says anything else. After what seems like an eternity, the lights finally come back on.
“Did you just do that?” I ask Charlie, wondering if he managed to ‘master’ putting the power back on now or if he had merely been messing with Rose.
“No—”
“Please, Blackout, we ask you to put a stop to that if possible. Our generator is hospital grade, but the five minutes it takes for it to get past you and kick back on is an annoyance.” The Suit Man finally enters the room from a different hallway. He looks shaken, though, less composed than he had been previously.
We all sit silently in what appears to be unanimous fear. What is this man going to do to us?
“Come with me, guys, and we’ll go into the other room where we can talk properly.”
The Suit Man walks through the same hallway he had just entered through and I feel hesitation at following him.
I don’t know what to do, although sitting in this room with the blood still staring me in the face doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. It’s either follow Suit Man or stay with the blood. Suit Man wins out, mostly because everyone looks ready to follow him anyway. So I awkwardly stand up, feeling stiff from sitting for so long, and follow Will who has already begun heading to the door. Rose is next to him. Looking over my shoulder, I watch Charlie struggling to get up off the couch. I walk back to him and reach out a hand, pulling him into a standing position. Rose never offers to help this time. I think that bridge might be burned now.
“Thanks. I just feel a bit dizzy.” I let Charlie put his arm over my shoulder and help him walk down the hallway that the others disappeared down.
This hallway has a door at the end of it and it’s obvious from the blood trail that this is where those men went through with the bleeding kid. To the right is an open entryway that opens up to a small dining area. Inside is a long, wooden table with six chairs. The walls, ground and ceiling are white and plain. Apart from the wooden table and chairs, there is not a drop of color in this room. Seeing so much white makes me feel like I’m in a hospital and it puts me further on edge.
“Sorry about this.” Charlie looks embarrassed to be leaning on me so heavily.
I’m the one feeling embarrassed, though, having my body reacting to being so close to Charlie. I have goose-bumps all over from his touch and I chalk it up to the fact that we’re in a near death situation and
normal reactions aren’t really normal.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve had longer to recover from it.” My legs protest as he suddenly loses his legs and his weight falls further down onto me.
“Not to mention, I have no idea when the last time I ate was. I’m starved,” Charlie complains.
Before I can comment about that we finally make it to the table where I’m quick to let Charlie drop into a chair. I watch Rose stand by the open entrance we’ve just walked through with her arms crossed in front of her and a stubborn look plastered on her face. Will is standing by the end of the table, but hasn’t made a move toward a chair yet.
Tension fills the air and I stay close to Charlie, fearing this situation turning ugly quickly.
“Please, sit down. I’ve got some food about to come out and I know you all want to hear an explanation,” Suit Man says calmly.
“My ears work just fine over here,” Rose snaps.
“You can either voluntarily sit down or I can force you to,” Suit Man growls. His voice has me dropping down into the seat next to Charlie. Will follows suit a moment later.
Rose, to her credit, doesn’t budge. She’s brave.
“I’m not doing a thing until you tell me where the hell I am and why I’m here. Are you going to kill us? Torture us? Sell us to some foreign country as slaves? Hurry up and tell me what’s going on.”
Slaves? Torture? Selling us? New horrors fly through my mind and a lump in my throat grows. Charlie takes my hand in his and I look over at him to see he looks just as scared. His grip remains strong, though, and I try to breathe through my panic.
“Why must women always be so hysterical?” Suit Man rolls his eyes.
“Excuse me?” Rose sounds even angrier, if that’s possible.
“Look, I promise you we are not here to harm you, we’re here to protect you.”
“Then let us go home,” Rose demands.
“We can’t do that. We haven’t neutralized the threat against you.”
“Why do you keep saying we? Who are you?” Charlie speaks up now. Will and I have yet to say a word.
“If you will all sit down, I can explain that. Trust me, if I wanted you dead, tortured, sold or harvested for organs, then I have had plenty of time to do so. Why would I waste my time on small talk? Now, I’ll just go check on the food.” Suit Man stands and leaves through another door that looks like it is part of the wall. I hadn’t even noticed it there before. There isn’t a handle so I think he must have some button he can press to get it open. This place feels like a maze. Escaping it won’t be easy.
“I never mentioned organs except when we were alone in the other room. Charlie’s right, they’re listening,” Rose concedes.
“Can you repeat that because I think hearing those words come out of your mouth might be right up there with you apologizing to me?”
“Suck it.” Rose glares at Charlie. She walks towards the table and, after frowning at the chair next to Will, she finally decides to sit.
“Can we not fight right now?” I look at both Rose and Charlie, hoping they’ll let whatever their problem is with each other go. We’re all each other have and fighting isn’t going to help us get out of here, if that’s what we need to do. Another wave of desire to get away from this place tries to overwhelm me.
Charlie nods to me that he agrees, but Rose just looks away from us in anger.
Suit Man returns, carrying two plates that have large sandwiches on each. They are piled so high, full of fillings, that there is no way I could fit it into my mouth. He places one plate in front of Will and one in front of Charlie before disappearing again. Will picks up a half of the sandwich and examines it closely.
“What do you think the chances are that these are drugged?” I ask Rose.
“Probably pretty good, but what can we do? Like that asshole said, if they want to do those things to us, then they can. Might as well have a full stomach while we suffer in here.” Rose shrugs and it’s like her words give the okay for the boys to start eating.
Suit Man comes out again and this time he places a plate each in front of Rose and me. Rose remains hesitant when she picks up her sandwich, however she does eventually take a bite. I look down at my own meal and try to force myself to eat it. I lost any appetite I had when I saw all that blood earlier. I fear eating something will simply cause me to throw up in front of everyone. Not the best impression to make on them all.
“While you eat, I’ll tell you about who I am and where you are. My name is Agent Stan Goodings. I work for a government agency that understands that you are all special and currently all in danger. We have had our eye on you all for quite some time, and while our initial plan was to approach you all in the near future and ask for your help in serving your country, we’ve had to push the timeline up. We believe that since you have all been attacked at a similar time that we must have a leak on our end. It’s why you’re in this facility. It isn’t supposed to be ready for you for another two years. We’ve had to rush things to get it ready. The only thing that was here already set up is the gym and medical area. We plan to keep you safe here while we investigate the leak.”
“But I don’t want to be here. I want to go home,” Rose complains.
“That is not possible. I’m sorry. You are all in danger out there. Here, we can keep you safe.”
“Why would someone want us dead?” Charlie asks.
“I don’t know. I can understand someone wanting to take you to use you for their own agendas, but to kill you is extreme. It doesn’t make sense to us.”
“Where are we?”
“This complex is situated north. That is all you need to know. We call it The Windmill. Feel free to call it home.”
“And what, you expect us to just hang around here until we die of boredom?” Rose snorts.
“I understand that this doesn’t seem like much, but we will expect things from you here. You will begin physical training immediately. If you are to serve this country, then we expect a certain amount of fitness and strength.”
“What is with this bull about serving our country? I’m nineteen and work in a bank. I serve my country by paying stupid taxes,” Rose complains.
“Unfortunately, you don’t get the choice to be so selfish. Wars are brewing out there and men and women, who are protecting your right to have pointless, boring jobs and do whatever it is you poor excuses for humans do, are dying. You owe it to them and the people before them who have died for you to protect our soil and our people.”
I sit back in shock at hearing such a guilt ridden patriotic speech. It’s enough to make me feel like a horrible person until I remember we’ve been kidnapped and I know I definitely don’t want to go to war.
Silence hangs uncomfortably between us all and no one attempts to eat the food in front of us anymore. We’re all stunned. Stan takes a deep breath and I see his back straighten while his expression turns neutral as he gets himself under control.
“As I was saying. We have a gym and you will train in there every day. I will be your trainer until we can find a suitable replacement. My wife, who is also an agent, will be present more for you. She is a psychiatrist who is here to help you through this transition. You will be required to talk to her at her request, however you can also talk to her whenever you need.”
“I don’t do shrinks,” Rose snaps, but it’s lacking the usual anger she has had previously.
“You will here. We’re working at getting books and DVDs sent in for entertainment and as the building is completed you will have more room to move. For now, the areas you have seen so far are the only ones you may use.”
“And if we wander somewhere else?” Charlie asks.
“Then you will suffer the consequences.” The unsaid threat gives me shivers.
“Can we at least call home? Let them know we’re safe?”
“No, you’re not allowed any contact with anyone in your life back home. Until we can determine the threat, we have to assume everyone
is being watched and every phone tapped. If you give anything away in your conversation, this place may be compromised and we don’t have the resources to move again so soon.”
“What can we give away? We still don’t know where we are! Are we even still in America?” Rose asks.
“I can’t answer that. Once the threat is gone, we can reassess your phone call home.” Stan’s tone matches his stance; strict and unmoving.
“And how long will that take? Are you saying we won’t ever be allowed to go home?” I ask.
“You have a bigger purpose in life now, embrace it and be grateful you can do something important with your life.”
I swallow passed the lump quickly forming in my throat and the panic building inside me. “What do you mean when you say we’re all special? How exactly do you expect us to fight these wars or whatever it is you want us to do?”
“You will fight with your abilities. Zoe Jenna Holloway, Codename Third Eye, ability to dream into the future and foresee events that have not yet happened. Charlie Logan Nichols, Codename Blackout, ability to short out and disable electrical appliances. Rose Bianca Montgomery, Codename Hacker, ability to hack and crack any code in the world. William Alistair Parker, Codename Muscles, ability to heal faster than any normal human being and much stronger than all of us put together in this room.”
All of our mouths drop. That’s not possible. Not only does this man know about my dreams, but what he is saying can’t be true. It’s not possible, is it?
“How can you know all that?” I gasp.
“We have kept an eye on you for a long time. Just know doctors and civilians have reported unusual things over the years that have piqued our interest,” he says calmly, but I sense deceit in his voice.
“Even if any of that were true, what do you expect from us?” Rose narrows her eyes at him.
“For now, nothing. Like I said before, we weren’t expecting you for a while. Since we have moved forward quicker than expected, we are further along our schedule than we’re meant to be. It means we can ease into this new situation you’re in. For now, we will just work on your physical and mental health. When we can bring more people here to study you, we can begin the process of learning about your abilities and utilizing the best they can give us.”
“Study us?”
“No one will be harmed, of course. We just need to learn about your abilities; how they work, how to make them work better.”
I feel too shocked to talk. We all are.
“This is still kidnapping.” Rose’s anger has turned to annoyance.
“Perhaps, but since it keeps you alive and your families out of harm’s way, I think I’ll still be able to sleep at night.”
He’s right. Joel had tried to kill me and Dana got in the way. She didn’t have to die. If I hadn’t been home, then she would still be alive. If I went home now, how many more innocent people would die because of me?
“I know I’ve given you a lot to take in. My wife will be by shortly to speak with you. She’ll most likely have dinner with you all.”
“This sucks.” Rose crosses her arms over her chest, although I see a lot of the fight has left her.
“Yes. I’m sorry.” Stan rises from his seat and leaves us going back out through the strange door that looks like part of the wall.
“What do we do?” I ask everyone. I don’t like this situation we’re stuck in, but after our talk with Stan, things don’t sound like they’re going to be changing anytime soon.
“I don’t want to be here.” Rose looks me in the eye, speaking honestly.
“Neither do I.” I lower my voice, aware of potential listening devices. “Something feels off to me.” As I speak the words, I know it’s true. I feel like Stan isn’t giving us a full story and my body’s screaming at me to get out of here.
“What else could this be about?” Will asks me quietly, his head moves towards the middle of the table and we all bring our heads closer to the middle to meet him.
“I don’t know. Something isn’t right, though.” I’m barely whispering now.
“I agree. I get that we’re supposedly targets, but why can’t we call home? Why kidnap us and not talk to us first? And they’ve been watching us for years? That’s just plain creepy.” Charlie leans back into his chair then, moving his empty plate around with his hand. I look down at my own and see I’ve only taken a couple of bites out of half of the sandwich.
“My parents are going to be freaking out,” Rose worries, speaking normally now.
“My Dad is going to be freaking out, too. He goes into full worry mode if I have a scratch on my arm. The fact that I was kidnapped means he’s going to be going mental,” Charlie states worriedly.
How will my Mom feel? Truthfully, she isn’t home a lot. I could have probably gotten away with moving out for a few weeks before she really noticed. Of course after what happened with Dana, I’m sure my absence is fully realized. Maybe I wasn’t seen being taken, though. Maybe they just think I ran away, left to blow off some steam? She might already be back at work right now.
“Are you okay?” Charlie’s voice jolts me away from my thoughts.
“Yeah, just thinking about what Stan said,” I lie. I don’t want to admit that my only family might not really care that I’m missing.
“It’s pretty crazy, right?”
“I’m hoping this is a dream and I’ll wake up soon and it’ll be this time last week,” I admit. There would be so many things I’d do differently.
“Maybe this is one of your future dreams and you’ll have to go through this all again?” Charlie smiles at me, perhaps trying to make this situation less serious.
My breath catches at his words, though. It feels so strange to have someone else speaking about my dreams and so casually, too. I have gone my whole life hiding them and now at least four other people know about them. It feels weird. Just thinking about being studied and having to keep having my future dreams scares me.
I never want to have another dream, ever. They’re a curse, not something to be bettered and used as a weapon to serve for war. That is absurd. What am I expected to dream about? People dying? Figure out a way into a place with the least amount of casualties? Am I going to be trapped watching people die over and over for the rest of my life?
“You said you knew the guy who tried to kill you, right?” Charlie asks me.
“Sort of.”
“Was he killed?”
“No, they arrested him.” I force myself to not cry in front of these people, even though my heart just squeezed me painfully enough to warrant a river worth of tears.
“What did he say?”
I lean forward again and everyone follows suit. I’m not sure why, but I don’t want Stan to overhear what Joel said. I clear my throat to make sure I’m not shaking and allow myself to remember being in that room with him at the police station. “It’s crazy, but then this situation is crazy. He said he had dreams where a man told him that he had to kill me because, in the future, me and a group of other people—” I pause, realizing I am currently with a group of people and suddenly Joel’s dream sounds a little less crazy. “—do something horrible and so I had to be stopped now before it could happen.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, do you think it’s possible? Maybe whatever Stan is going to make us do won’t actually help people? Maybe we’ll do bad things?” I’m speaking so quietly, I wonder if they can even make out my words.
“I think that guy sounds like he’s going for the insanity plea and this whole situation is ridiculous.” Rose places her hand over her forehead like she’s getting a headache.
Charlie nervously rubs his hair back and forth while he takes in my words.
“The lady that tried to kill me did seem to know who I was. She knew my name and she spoke about being sorry that I wouldn’t get the chance to date this girl. That she had forgotten that she hadn’t stopped eating red meat yet. That’s a weird thing to say, right? And then she died a
nd turned to ashes straight away. That’s not normal,” Charlie whispers.
“The guy who tried to shoot me turned to ashes, too. What does that mean?” Will speaks up, forgetting to be quiet.
We all shrug. Nothing is making any sense.
“Let’s just talk about this later. I’m getting a headache. I need to clear my head. Who wants to have a game of pool?” Rose pushes her mostly empty plate away from herself and stands.
“I’m going to see if there is any more food; I’m still starving.” Charlie rubs his stomach and I move my plate over to him. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m not hungry.”
“Come on, Will, I bet you’re a pro at pool.” Rose nods at Will.
“I’ve never played before.”
“Even better. We’ll put money on it then.”
“I don’t have any money.”
“You can owe me. Come on.” Rose stands up and Will reluctantly follows her out of the room.
It’s silent after they leave and I feel awkward sitting with Charlie while he scarfs down my food. Soon, he’s finished and sits back, sighing heavily, tapping his stomach and smiling a bit at me. He has eaten nearly two full sandwiches.
“So what’s your deal?” he asks, while he wipes his mouth with a napkin.
“Excuse me?”
“Why are you in here with me? You have a thing for watching people eat?”
“No.” My cheeks redden in embarrassment.
“Then why?”
I look up at him and wonder if he’ll understand or not.
“The blood out there. I don’t want to see it again.”
“You one of those people that faints at the sight of blood?”
“I just don’t like it. It reminds me of something I don’t want to remember.”
He frowns at me. “How can a scene like that with so much blood remind you of something?”
I inhale loudly, but can’t speak. I can’t say the words I want to say out loud, no matter how irrationally comfortable I feel around Charlie.
“Sorry, that’s none of my business.”
“It’s a long story.” I don’t want Charlie to think I don’t like him or don’t trust him, but I’m just not ready to tell that story yet, maybe I won’t ever be ready. It isn’t a long story. My best friend was killed in front of me and I watched her bleed out in my backyard. No, it’s much easier to not say those words out loud. It’s easier to imagine Dana out there with Drew. Perhaps they’re back at MAY, having a drink right now, talking about those twenty kids they’re going to have.
“Want to close your eyes and I’ll lead you back to your room so you don’t have to see it?” he offers.
I eye him warily. “You’re okay to walk?”
“I feel better now that I’ve eaten.”
“I think I’ll take you up on that offer then.” I want to be braver, I want to be strong, but who am I kidding? I’d rather seem weak and ask for help than try on my own and break down in front of a bunch of strangers. Anyway, if it means Charlie touches me again, then that is all right with me.
Charlie gently takes my arm and I lean closer to him automatically. He makes his way to the exit and I allow myself to be pulled along, taking deep breaths before readying to close my eyes.
My body tenses when Charlie turns the corner out of the dining area and I know what we must now be facing. I go on high alert when he stops dead in his tracks. We’ve barely taken five steps, still in the hallway, heading towards the couches and pool table. Why stop here? Maybe he isn’t feeling better?
“What is it? Are you okay?” I turn my head to where I know he is and open my eyes to look at his face.
“It’s gone.”
“What?” I turn my head slowly back in front of me and observe that there isn’t a spot of blood anywhere. It must have been cleaned up while we were all eating our lunch. “That’s a relief.” I smile softly at Charlie and then look down at his hand that is still holding my arm. There’s a brief moment of awkwardness before he quickly removes it.
“Sorry.” His voice sounds nervous and I wonder why. Am I making him uncomfortable?
A loud bang brings our attention to the lounge area where we watch Rose laughing hard and Will looking red-faced while he picks up a ball that’s rolling away on the floor. He must have knocked it over the edge.
“I wonder if there’s anything good on TV.” Charlie quickly moves out of the corridor and I slowly follow.
Even though the blood is gone, my mind is remembering it easily. I’m light-headed thinking back to the pool of blood that had been surrounding Dana as she bled out in my backyard. The deep red fluid that seeped through her dress. The same blood that covered my hands as I gripped onto her.
“Zoe?” Charlie calls out to me. He’s halfway sitting on the couch, but has stopped midway down.
“Yeah?” I carefully place one foot in front of the other and walk over to him, feeling grateful to make it over to the couch without collapsing.
Charlie seems to analyze me for a moment and I instantly feel a hundred times more nervous than I have been before. What is he looking at? Can he tell what I’ve been thinking of? Does he know how haunted I feel? Or is it more superficial than that? Is my hair sticking up? I haven’t even looked at myself in the mirror in who knows how long. I didn’t want to in fear that I wouldn’t recognize the person looking back. Now I’m wishing I had at least given myself a cursory look. I always look like the dead when I’m upset.
I sit down next to him, staring at the TV while continuing to feel his eyes on me.
“Do you mind if we watch this?” Charlie appears to decide to drop whatever he had wanted to say and points at the television.
I nod, not even caring what is on. Anything that will distract me from this situation works for me.
“I’m thirsty,” Rose complains before crouching down and looking in the bar fridge. From what I can see, it’s full of energy drinks, bottles of water and juice.
“No alcohol.” Rose frowns as she takes out an energy drink. She then glances at us. “Do you guys want anything?”
“A juice would be great,” Charlie speaks while keeping his eyes glued to the TV and I nod that I’ll have the same. Rose hands Will an energy drink first before handing us both a bottle of orange juice.
Charlie and I sit in silence, watching a show about a spy and I briefly wonder if we should be taking notes. This guy seems to know a lot about how to get out of a sticky situation. We could use his help. Especially given the information bomb that’s about to be dropped on us.
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