Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (29 page)

...

At the same time, Dade was with the Sheriff a few miles away in the city. Standing in front of Ivy Cavatica’s childhood home, they were checking on the most recent sighting of Bernard Mengel’s stretch limousine. Some anonymous resident in the neighborhood had spotted the old man’s limo earlier that evening and hadn’t liked the way Bernard was staring at the rundown house.

“What was he doing at Ivy’s old house?” The Sheriff asked. “Reminiscing?”

“He loves Ivy in his own way.”

“Sick bastard.”

“It’s going to be very unpleasant for him,” Dade started to explain, “when I take away the only thing in the world he loves.”

“She’s pretty strong. Do you know how you’re going to do it?”

“I’m working on it,” Dade answered.

Then, he was hit with an urge to look to up and to his left, straight for the red light on The Asylum’s top deck. It was like he had seen something in his peripheral vision. The beehive building seemed normal in the distance, but something had Dade concerned.

“What is it?” The Sheriff asked him.

“We should go back.”

By the time they made it back up the hill and back to the lab, it was too late to stop Ann Marie. The moment Dade saw the tank in its black operating state, he knew what had happened. The idea of Ann Marie being in there threw him into an uncharacteristically human state of panic. He and the Sheriff ran over to the control panel, where the Sheriff tried to shut down the sequence.

“It’s too late for that,” Dade stopped him. “She’s already under.”

The Sheriff’s eyes were wide with alarm. He argued back, “Hell, we have to do something. What in God’s name is she doing going in there? I knew we shouldn’t have brought her around all this.” He asked Dade, “What the hell is that thing going to do to a little girl?”

Dade started to get undressed. He told the Sheriff, “There should be enough from the last batch. I’m going in after her.”

“What the blazes is going to happen if you put two people in there?”

Dade’s blank look told the Sheriff that he had no idea and the prospect was indeed risky. He admitted, “I don’t know. No one knows.” He prepared another injection of the red formula and climbed the ladder to the tank. He sat on the edge, taking a deep meditative breath like an Olympian preparing for an event.

Then he lowered himself in the tank, wrapping his arms around Ann Marie’s naked, lifeless body. The Sheriff got the tank lid closed.

...

After what felt like a month spent trapped in a washing machine in the dark, the panic had completely taken over every thought in Ann Marie’s mind. It was soul agony. That indeterminate stuff that seemed to make up her life force felt like it was draining into the black water around her.

Suddenly, she felt someone take her by the hand. Without needing to look, she knew it was Dade. With their hands interlocked, the world around them started to change.

They were racing through a torrent of black, shimmering liquid. It felt like being trapped inside of a massive dark water pipe. Holding hands, they swam through the turbulent flow. Ann Marie noticed twinkling streaks of light in the liquid as they pushed their way through.

Dade noticed something and pointed over their heads. The distinctive mirrored glimmer from what was clearly the surface showed itself to them. They both swam as hard as they could to get to the top.

When Ann Marie pushed through the water’s surface and finally reached air, she found that she was pushing through to a black asphalt street. The moment they penetrated it, the portal vanished and the road was completely solid underneath them.

They were suddenly standing on an empty two lane road that ran past Venice Beach. It was the middle of the night and the only audible sound came from the hissing surf. There were a few cars parked on the street and something about them seemed strange to Ann Marie. They appeared to be normal automobiles but they all were at least twenty-five years old. The whole area seemed emptier and generally less developed than she had remembered.

“Do you recognize where we are?” She asked Dade as his eyes scanned the area. “It looks like Venice Beach but something isn’t right. There are no homeless people around.”

“You’re right,” he said. “Something is off about the whole place.”

“Has this ever happened to you?” She asked.

“Sometimes the red formula will take you to alternate dimensions that look similar to ours.”

They stopped just across the street from the beach. Ann Marie noticed something very unsettling about their condition. “Dade,” she said in a hushed, trembling voice, “something is really wrong with me.”

She was staring at the palms of her hands. Right before her eyes, her fingers were vanishing and blending into one another like an optical illusion. As she concentrated on them, her hands started to turn transparent. The sight caused her to whimper.

“It’s OK,” Dade told her as he grabbed both of her hands. “It’s a side effect. Don’t concentrate on your body too much.” He looked her squarely in the eyes and it calmed her down. “Now,” he went on in a relaxed voice, “don’t try to control your body too much. Try to control your awareness.”

She put her hands into her pockets and took a deep breath to steady herself. A beach breeze suddenly came out of nowhere and blew a few palm leaves around the street. The wind also brought with it a section of newspaper. It nearly stuck to Ann Marie’s foot as it blew by. She picked it up and immediately looked at the date.

“It’s Christmas,” she said, before adding, “nineteen-eighty-three.”

She followed him down the road along the beach. The first sign of life anywhere was a car approaching. When the headlights got close, they could tell it was a black stretch limousine, Bernard’s limousine. They both stood, facing the approaching automobile.

“What’s happening?” Ann Marie asked.

“I don’t know,” said Dade.

As the car got closer, they seemed to be locked in its direct path. When Ann Marie tried to move, her legs were planted in place. Bernard’s limo got closer and they couldn’t get out of the way.

Just at the moment they should have smacked into the hood, they were both hit with an overwhelming bright flash that felt warm on their faces. When their eyes adjusted to the new environment, they realized that they were now sitting in the back of the limousine, sitting right across the luxurious cabin from Bernard Mengel.

The old man had no idea that the pair was sitting just a few feet away. Dade immediately leapt across the cabin like an attacking mountain lion. When he tried to grab Bernard, his hands went right through him like he was a ghost. Dade tried one last time to smack what seemed to be an illusion.

“He isn’t real, Dade.”

“I know but I had to try.” He said, before adding, “And I think we’re the ones that aren’t real.”

“Why did it take us to the past?”

“I have no idea,” he answered.

Bernard suddenly looked up from the old book he was reading and stared right in their direction. “Funny,” he said to himself. “I recognize that feeling.”

Something outside on the road got Bernard’s attention. “What the devil do we have here?” He asked, fixing his eyes on whatever it was. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen your kind,” he said.

Shadows, dark silhouettes created without any apparent substance, filled the Venice Beach street outside. The entire mob of thousands of black human outlines was fighting to get Bernard’s attention. Some were jumping up and down and pointing somewhere.

“I see you,” Bernard whispered to himself. “I see you, my shadow friends. Don’t worry. Now friends, what exactly are you trying to tell me?”

The shadow people were all pointing down the street and vaulting over one another in a mad fury. It was as though they were pleading for Bernard’s help. “OK, OK,” he said to them. “I’m following you. Don’t worry. Sheesh.” He told his limo driver that they were changing plans and to continue down the street.

Ann Marie saw them too and said to Dade, “Look. Look. I’ve seen these things before. She waved to the shadow people. A few seemed to notice her and waved back.

As the limo continued down the road along the beach, the shadow people grew more insistent that Bernard follow them. Then, out of nowhere, they commanded Bernard to stop. They held up their hands and jumped up and down. A few shadows even leaped in the path of the car. It seemed abundantly clear that they wanted Bernard to stop.

“Stop right here!” Bernard commanded his limo driver.

“Right here?” The man asked. “Are you sure, sir?”

When Bernard stepped outside, the mob of shadow people formed a circle around him, jumping up and down and pointing aggressively toward the ocean. The perfectly silent mob of two-dimensional creatures was nearly in a riot.

“OK, OK,” he told them. “I’m walking. I’ll follow you.” He told the driver to wait by the car.

Dade and Ann Marie were invisible to Bernard but strangely not to the shadow people. They directed them to follow Bernard. The two followed the old man as he walked across the sand. Ann Marie asked Dade where they were going. He seemed as confused as she was, saying, “We’re off any map that I know, kid.” His answer delivered her an electric pulse of fear.

They approached the sound of the surf. Perhaps a hundred yards away, an orange glow showed itself by the water. As they got closer, it became clear that they were seeing flames. Perhaps twenty people in black robes were holding hands around a bonfire.

The entire group turned out to be women. They were all young, college age and younger, except for one of them. She was considerably older. Her black and red robe contained splashes of gold on the sleeves and neck. The cold-eyed woman appeared to be the leader of the group.

This woman was standing over a small boy who was struggling to free himself. The boy looked around five or six. He had a mop of black hair and haunted-looking eyes too big for his face. The group had his arms and legs tied to metal stakes in the sand.

After looking at him for just a moment, Ann Marie was the first to figure out who the boy was. “It’s you. Dade Harkenrider,” she said. “As a little boy.”

“I guess it is,” said Dade.

The little boy was fighting as hard as he could to free himself. His limbs were anchored to the sand and he couldn’t get away. Little Dade’s face was taken over by confusion and panic. “Mom! Please, mom!” the little boy shouted at the leader, the one with the gold on her black robe.

At that moment, one of the other women came forward with a large golden dagger about as large as a machete. The boy saw it and immediately cried out so hard that it sounded like his throat was closing up.

Bernard approached the group without hesitation, walking like a man with a purpose. When he got within earshot, he shouted at them. “Hey!” he yelled like he was chastising a child. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Ann Marie asked Dade, “What’s happening? What are they doing to the boy, I mean you?”

“It’s an old ritual,” he told her. “Adults steal power from certain children. Since we’re not really here, there’s nothing we can do.”

The second in command of the coven handed Dade’s mother the golden dagger. She pointed it at the heart of the screaming little boy and plunged it into his chest.

Ann Marie fell back in fright and covered her eyes, shouting, “No! Please!”

Moments later, the coven just stared at the motionless boy bleeding out of his chest. They seemed to be waiting for something special to happen.

Bernard Mengel was shouting, kicking up sand as he marched toward the women. “You disgusting savages!” he bellowed at them. “You contemptible brutes! And you,” he said, addressing the leader of the group. “I thought you and your friends understood the rules. This is your child,” he said looking at the boy. “You know this ritual is strictly forbidden.”

“Forbidden by whom?” said the older leader as she tossed back her black hood.

“Forbidden by a superior sorcerer,” said Bernard, smiling venomously at her.

“Mind your own business, Mengel!” shouted one of the college-aged underlings, a fiery eyed brunette. She told the rest of her group, “We can take this guy. We’re together. We’re a group. He’s all alone.”

“You and your silly groups, Elaine,” said Bernard to the leader. “There is no power in numbers against me. You’re all fools.”

“Bernard,” said the leader who definitely seemed acquainted with him, “please understand. This isn’t an ordinary boy.”

“I’ll say,” answered Bernard. “I’m pretty sure you hit his heart but he’s still alive and kicking.”

One of the coven members put her ear to the boy’s mouth and felt a weak breath. “That’s impossible,” she said, looking directly at the massive dagger in the boy’s chest. “We hit him in the right spot.” The girl looked over to the leader of the coven, saying, “We’ll pull it out and do it again. It’s bound to work this time.”

“I was thinking about scalping all of you,” Bernard told them. “I’m going to start with the next one of you that touches the boy. I haven’t scalped anyone in a long time and for some reason, I’ve been missing it lately.”

“Leave us alone, Mengel,” said the coven leader. “I have the right to do what I want with what I made. My son belongs to me.”

“With all the amazingly evil things we do, Elaine, there is just one place we aren’t supposed to go,” Bernard told her. “You don’t kill your own offspring. You don’t take his power from him before he can even defend himself. You bitches really should know better.”

“Let us be, Mengel!” Elaine shouted. “It’s none of your business.”

“Well, that may very well be true,” said Bernard as he started to circle them like a vulture. “But I’m making it my business. I let your little coven exist and I can always change my mind.”

“You and that corporation of yours won’t be able to push us around forever,” said Elaine.

Bernard laughed wildly before telling her, “I disagree.” He pointed at the women who were holding the boy, telling them, “Let the boy go or I turn this entire coven into a pile of sludge in the sand. For those who think I’m kidding...” Bernard said just as his body vanished in a snap.