Jaden Baker (34 page)

Jaden tried turning, but the box was too narrow. It pushed from all sides and from above. It was much too dark in here. His legs were cramped from crouching. His calves and thighs burned. He pushed his forearms against the door, or what he thought was the door, but it wouldn’t open.

He hyperventilated. It was like he was buried alive in a too small coffin. He squirmed, slamming his body into all four sides of the box, hoping to get a clue and find the front door. He couldn’t see anything. Nothing was this dark.

“Relax,” Seth said.

“I can’t. I can’t see, I can’t see!”

“Calm down.”

“Get me out of here. Let me out!” Jaden yelled, drumming his hands against one side. “Please, let me out!”

“No one can hear you,” Seth said. “Jaden, you have to wait this out calmly or you’ll give yourself a panic attack, or much worse.”

But the hyperventilating escalated.

* * *

Child Protective Services placed him with a family immediately after taking him from his mother. The McNeelys already cared for three foster children, all of whom were doing well. Jaden had no choice but to go. His mother was in prison. So Tricia and Scott McNeely welcomed Jaden into their home, gave him a room to share with another child, and promised to take good care of him.

Whatever good intentions Tricia and Scott had, Jaden wasn’t ready to live with a new family. Remnants of his recent past haunted him when he slept. He dreamed of gun shots, screaming, the police pulling him away. Nightmares. They never changed and wrestled with his subconscious each night. Psychokinesis (then unnamed) was not, as it turned out, a singular event. He had no control over it, and strange things happened while Jaden slept.

When the house shook the first night of Jaden’s stay, the McNeelys assumed an earthquake. It was California, after all. But the second night scared them. The quaking floor was only a start; the shower doors in both bathrooms opened and slammed—Tricia’s hairdryer powered on and off without her touch—the windows in the kitchen exploded. Jaden was the only one who slept through the madness. To get him clear of the house, Scott shook him awake. When Jaden realized someone touched him, he woke, and Scott flew to the other side of the room, slamming into the wall and falling unconscious.

The house stopped shaking, the doors stopped slamming, the hairdryer turned off.

It didn’t take long for Tricia to realize what, or
who
, the problem was.

Tricia was not an overly religious person until that moment. For her, only one thing explained the bizarre and unholy things happening in her house.

With her husband unconscious on the floor, and children scared, she took action. While Jaden was paralyzed and confused, Tricia tackled him to the floor, praying loudly. She bound and gagged the boy so the demon couldn’t control the body or say anything. Her other children helped her take Jaden, who kicked and squirmed, to the coat closet on the second story. Carl, one of Jaden’s foster brothers, punched Jaden so hard it disoriented him and knocked him out cold. Jaden was shoved into the closet, door locked, knob braced from the outside.

When Jaden regained consciousness, he kicked and tried screaming, but could only groan. After a while, he slept. The nightmares were worse.

Suspicions confirmed, Tricia opened the closet door and kicked him in the ribs until he woke, then dumped a bucket of cold water on him to keep him awake, so the house could remain in order. Based on the frantic screaming of Tricia, her husband, and three foster children, the paranormal activities of the house had frightened them into a frantic hysteria.

They left him in that closet for two days, never letting him out to feed him, give him anything to drink, or let him use the bathroom. Jaden didn’t let himself fall back to sleep, afraid that if anything happened, one of the McNeelys would strangle and kill him. He probably couldn’t have slept if he’d tried; he was sure Tricia had broken one of his ribs.

Finally, on the third day, Scott and Tricia took Jaden out of the closet. They dragged him into a bedroom and tied him to a stripped bed. Jaden fought them, trying to get free so he could run away, but they stretched his limbs to the corners of the bed, which pulled at his chest, making the pain flare. Another window shattered as Jaden screamed.

“Stop it, stop it!” Tricia yelled.

A priest arrived.

Jaden stared into the man’s green eyes, silently begging him for help. Jaden’s face was streaked with tears, and his chest burned.

The priest stared at Jaden in horror. He turned to the expectant McNeelys. “Call an ambulance,” he said.

“But he’s possessed!” Tricia exclaimed, her eyes wide and bloodshot.

“He’s just a boy.” The priest untied Jaden from the bed, lifted him into his arms, and carried him from the house and into his car.

“I’m taking you to the hospital,” he said. He sped away, calling the police as he raced through traffic, reporting the McNeelys and where he took Jaden.

He spent three days in the hospital. They treated him for exhaustion, dehydration, and a cracked rib. The nurses came by frequently to check on him; one of them brought Jaden ice cream.

His story of demon possession and rescue made the local newspaper.

His social worker was fired, and the McNeelys were charged with child abuse. Jaden was assigned a therapist who specialized in severe cases. Jaden was six years old.

* * *

The incident left him with a fear of small places. His therapist, Anita, called it claustrophobia. Jaden called it misery. Since the closet incident, Jaden checked every small space and closet of every house he entered, compulsively worried he might find himself in one again.

This box was smaller than that closet, and shrinking every second. His legs burned, his back ached. He had to get out of here before his chest exploded.

“Please, let me out! Please!”

There was no answer.

“Help me! Please, somebody help me!”

No one came. Jaden didn’t know how long he was trapped inside the box. His legs and lower back were in agony, so sore they made him faint. When he regained consciousness, he wasn’t sure if he was truly awake, it was too dark. He must have been inside for hours.

He never thought he would miss Dalton, never thought he’d wish to see that confident smirk and those stupid ties. Dalton would have never made Jaden suffer like this. Granted, he made Jaden suffer some, but there was always a reason behind it. He was trying force Jaden to use his PK, trying to hone Jaden’s ability. He never tortured him for the sake of torturing him. Dalton hated punishing Jaden, Joseph was right about that. Dalton
did
think of Jaden as a pet, his favorite spaniel that performed cool tricks. Jaden had taken that affection for granted.

“Don’t cry,” Jaden mumbled as he shivered inside the shrinking box. Crying never helped, in fact if Joseph caught him crying, or found evidence of it, more punishment would come.

Jaden was exhausted. How long had he been in here?

“Help,” he said weakly, hardly hearing his own words.

“Shhh, someone’s coming,” Seth whispered in Jaden’s ear.

How can you fit in here? Jaden wondered.

“I have many talents,” Seth said.

Jaden heard a key inserted into the lock. The door flew open wide. Jaden squinted and turned his head away from the florescent light.

“Good, right were I left you,” Joseph said. He laughed.

Jaden felt himself slip forward, he was going to fall and hit the floor. Joseph pushed him.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Joseph said, grinning. “Not until I say you can come out.”

Jaden’s body shook. He was afraid he would fall. He gripped the sides of the box with his elbows, bracing himself.

“I hope you learned your lesson, Jaden. Do as I say, or I punish you. Did you learn that?”

Jaden nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said hoarsely.

“Very good. Would you like to come out now?”

“Yes,” Jaden said. His feet were slipping.

“Very well. You may come out.”

Jaden took a deep breath and took one step out of the box. But his legs were noodles and wouldn’t hold him. He fell to the ground. He tried pushing himself up again.

“Stand up. I’m only going to ask you once,” Joseph said.

Jaden crawled to the wall, turned his back to it, and pushed himself up. He locked his knees and leaned against the wall.

Joseph laughed. “Good! Now you’re learning. Stand there until Curtis comes and helps you.”

Jaden did as he was told, finding it a hard order to follow. Exhausted and hungry, he was ready to drop. In a battle between him and his heavy eyes, Jaden was sure he would lose. His stomach waged its own war with him, a fight of acute pain and rumbling ravenousness. It would be a while before Curtis came to fetch him, he knew that.

Joseph didn’t want to kill his favorite possession, so he doled out mental and emotional torture instead of physical pain.

“Hang on, Jaden,” Seth said. He put his arm around Jaden’s waist and helped hold him. “It’ll be over soon.”

“When?” Jaden asked sleepily.

“Much sooner than you think.”

Curtis escorted Jaden back to his cell. He lay down as soon as Curtis left, his legs thanking him. Sleep wrapped around him. Seth lay close to Jaden and encircled him in his arms. Seth felt so real. The humming acted like a narcotic more than a lullaby, and Jaden slipped into a deep sleep, dreaming of birds in trees.

Lumps of time went missing with more frequency, replaced by the no longer mysterious appearances of Seth, who insisted the time for escape approached, without an idea of when. “Trust me,” was all he’d say when Jaden protested. But he was not annoyed by Seth. On the contrary, his presence was welcomed. Seth was a friendly entity who talked to and sympathized with him.

“That’s because I know you better than anyone,” Seth said.

“But how are you here? Where did you come from?” Jaden asked. Seth acted like Jaden’s idea of a big brother. The biggest problem was his existence. No one else could see Seth. He still maintained that Seth was some kind of hallucination.

“I keep telling you,” Seth said kindly. “I’ve always been with you.”

“But you’re not me.”

“Nope,” Seth said. “Definitely not you.”

“So you remember everything I do?”

“Of course,” Seth said.

“And you’re going to get me out of here?” Jaden asked.

Seth nodded. “I promise.”

“How?” Jaden whispered. “How will we get out?”

Seth’s face broke out into a wide grin. “It’ll be something small.”

“Small?”

“Yes. Something small. Something simple.”

Jaden frowned. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s like how you hit Dalton. He’d forgotten to tell you to melt the ice, he was self-absorbed and didn’t think about it. It’ll be something like that. Joseph has you tied so tightly now, everyone around here feels safe. You don’t even make eye contact any more. They know you’ve been beaten, but that’s what’s good.” Seth paused to grab Jaden’s shoulder and give it a friendly shake. “That’s a good thing. They don’t know you still have some fight left in you.”

Enough time had passed for the ulcer to heal, but Jaden’s insides were always writhing with one type of sickness or another. He was constantly weak and tired, and wanted to sleep whenever he was left alone. He didn’t know how he was going to escape with the pathetic amount of energy he had. If he wasn’t sneezing, he coughed. He had congestion and body aches, chills, and headaches. Weight loss was an ongoing problem.

His diet was mostly juice, fruit, and bread. Joseph and his team noticed Jaden’s fading health, but there were benefits. The constant torture sessions had ended, though Joseph hadn’t quit cold turkey. He favored pushing his little button whenever he thought Jaden did something to upset him.

These days Jaden went out of his way, spent hours thinking and analyzing his encounters with Joseph, to find every little thing he did that Joseph punished him for. Sometimes it was looking the wrong way, not speaking fast enough, speaking too soon, or not doing something just right. Seth assured Jaden that even if he did exactly what Joseph wanted, he would punish him regardless.

“It’s what he’ll always do,” Seth said. “It’s how he is.”

One day Jaden preempted any pain with an apology. Logically he thought it was the only thing he could do. Before Joseph asked him to perform any menial or great tasks, Jaden apologized for anything he might do wrong and begged for Joseph to show mercy. His eyes fell just below Joseph’s neck, not daring to look him in the eye. He saw, to his somber delight, that Joseph was pleased.