Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (31 page)

“Ah,” said Bernard. “Our guest of honor has arrived.” He told her to stand in front of the bonfire. She didn’t seem to hear him but complied. “My beloved nurse has fetched us quite a fertile piece of land on which to grow our fruit. Everyone please give a round of applause to our young mother. For her sacrifice.”

The coven clapped slowly while they formed a circle around her. Flames soared even higher in air as the bonfire suffered a vicious outburst. Bernard shouted to the crowd, “Look at the flame! It knows we’re here and what we’re about to do!”

Without being told, the young mother laid herself on the ground in front of the fire. Her eyes wide open and pupils fully swelled to black, she moved like she was sleepwalking and someone in her dream was directing her.

“Very good,” Bernard told her while the crowd watched in awe. He told the albino nurse, “Get her ready.”

She slid a hunting knife out of its sheath and walked over to the pregnant woman on the ground. With the woman completely unaware and paralyzed, the nurse started to carve something into the palm of her hand. The nurse seemed to delight in cutting the mother. She was like an artist with a paintbrush.

“I got the fluid from work like you asked,” she told Bernard. “I got even more than you wanted.”

“That’s my girl,” said Bernard. “Bring it over and get it ready.”

It seemed nearly too heavy for her to carry but the nurse brought over a large paint bucket and put it down by the pregnant mother. Still very much out of it, the woman just stared straight up to the stars. Each member of the coven dipped their hand in the bucket and pulled out a hand full of what looked like runny slime. Then they each rubbed some on the young mom’s face.

“Amniotic fluid has special significance,” Bernard told the crowd. “Make sure each one of you makes solid contact when you touch her. Make sure your intent is clear and your mind doesn’t wander.” He directed the nurse to cover the young mother with the remaining amniotic fluid.

The crowd formed a tighter circle around the bonfire. Bernard told them, “My children, this world is not what it seems. We are not of this Earth. It’s an illusion. MoneySexPower has gone nowhere. He’s around us. He’s everywhere. All he needs is a place to go. A vessel. We need to give him a path to follow on his way back. Everyone focus. Everyone let your minds meld together. Focus on the fire.”

The bonfire took on a life of its own and started to pulsate like a firefly. It made strange air-gulping noises like a wolf panting. The young mother started to hyperventilate. With a crusty coating of amniotic fluid covering her face and body, she began to tremble on the ground. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Then she screamed like she was about to give birth.

Tiny threads of red light like glowing spider silk started to appear overhead. At first, the strands seemed random like cobwebs. Then they began forming into a structure. The glowing filaments started to look like holographic tree roots germinating in the air.

“See it! See the structure,” Bernard told everyone. “That is the order behind the chaos. Not many humans get to see this!”

The strands of light continued to extend and weave together until the form was nearly solid red light. The thing had taken over the entire sky of Los Angeles. It seemed to extend to infinity like the ocean. The massive red storm flashed and thundered above. Then it sent a red lightning bolt right through the pregnant mother on the ground.

The crowd, having been totally enraptured, started to yell and cheer. A few people in the crowd had digital cameras. They pointed them up and tried to take pictures of the red sky. Whatever the thing was, it wasn’t showing up on any of the cameras.

“Watch carefully!” Bernard told the group. “It’s happening!”

Bernard reacted to the crowd like a seasoned magician, tipping his hat into the air and bowing. “They haven’t seen anything yet,” he whispered to Ivy. She was standing next to him, watching attentively. He wrapped his arm around her waist and gave her a long kiss, which she took like someone under anesthesia. “I really feel like I’m on stage,” he said so that only she could hear. “You make quite a beautiful assistant, my dear.”

Screaming suddenly got everyone’s attention. The young mother had regained some consciousness. She howled like someone waking up on a surgery table in the middle of a gut incision. Her abdomen was in such excruciating pain that her body twisted on the ground.

It looked like a seizure as the woman screamed on the ground in her maternity nightgown. For a moment, she regained some lucidity and looked around at the crowd. She fought to stand up and begged those around, “What’s happening to me? Please. What’s happening to me?” The young people in the coven just laughed and taunted her back. She spotted the albino nurse in the crowd and said to her, “You. I remember you. You’re the last person I remember talking to. What’s happening? I want to go home.”

“Oh, you’re going home,” The nurse mocked.

The woman fell back onto the ground in more pain than ever. Now the pain had spread from her pregnant womb to her entire body. She screamed like every patch of her skin was being burned at the same time. Her stomach began to contort as the fetus underneath seemed to be doing gymnastics.

Then, as though the pregnancy had never happened, her stomach suddenly collapsed flat. She grabbed for her abdomen to find all signs of the growing fetus gone.

“Don’t worry,” Bernard told her. “Not gone. Transformed.”

Suddenly the woman’s abdomen started to swell up fast. It became as large as it had been. Then her womb kept growing to very unnatural dimensions. It looked as though the poor woman was ready to give birth to a litter of eleven. She screamed when she saw how large she was swelling.

Something was trying to get out of her, but it wasn’t a baby. Just before the woman passed out from the pain, a small, bloody hand ripped through her belly button. Whatever it was kept ripping until the crowd could see a bloody, tattooed face.

MoneySexPower’s dancing tattoos showed themselves through the layers of blood and amniotic fluid. The toddler-sized thing easily took to its feet. It walked around while it inspected the group around the bonfire.

“Welcome back,” Bernard said to it. “You’ll find your new accommodations much more comfortable than the last boy. This way, you can be in your natural state. You’re real.”

Then Bernard took Ivy by the arm and stepped away from the fire for some privacy. “My love,” he told her, “my work here is almost done. Only one more detail. Soon you and I will leave this awful place behind us.”

“What about Dade Harkenrider?” Ivy asked, staring back blankly.

“Don’t worry, my dear.” Bernard told her. “You two will have a lifetime to cause each other pain. It’s your destiny after all.”

...

The following evening, Ann Marie was resting in Dade’s bed in the lab. She was at the end of a rather speedy recovery from her experience in the tank. Still a bit weak himself, Dade attended to her while she received an IV drip of vitamin fluid. He sat in one of the rolling lab chairs next to her by the patio doors. While he stared out the door to the Pacific, it looked like he was standing guard over her.

“You know I’m fine,” she told him. “I don’t need a damn IV.”

“Have you gotten in touch with your mom yet?”

“She’s staying with her new boyfriend,” she answered, sitting up straighter in bed. “Mr. wonderful. I left her a few messages the other night but she isn’t getting back to me.”

“Is that like her?”

“My mother,” Ann Marie said. “Yeah. She’s been known to disappear when a new man is in the picture.”

“I should have never let that happen,” he said, changing the subject to the tank. He kept his eyes fixed on the ocean and sky out the window. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“You keep saying that,” argued Ann Marie. “I’m fine.” She got up from the bed without much difficulty. “You don’t need to be sorry. I made a choice to go into the tank. I’m glad I did it too. I would have died of old age waiting for you.”

“There are a few things we should probably discuss.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Dade said, sounding as though something important was coming, “what we did wasn’t just a regular trip to the other side. It was also your first time going over completely.”

“You’re scaring me. What are you trying to say?”

“Its just...” Dade started to say. “You know how you started to see shadow people after your very first exposure. Well, this is a whole different ballgame.”

Ann Marie’s phone rang and she noticed it was her mother. “Speak of the devil,” she said before picking it up.

“I would like to see my beautiful, brilliant daughter,” said Lori the moment Ann Marie answered. “I am such a bad mother for not calling you back before.” Before her daughter could even respond, Lori went on, “I need to see my best friend in the world. Can you meet me at The Pink Pelican?” When Ann Marie agreed, her mom said, “Good. My new man is here and he wants to get to know the great doctor Bandini. Now get down here, young lady.” After that, Lori hung up.

On her way out of the lab, Ann Marie seemed relieved, telling Dade, “She still sounds a little drunk but nothing like the last time. I think she’s getting better.”

“I hope so,” Dade answered. “Be careful on your way down the hill. The fog is rolling in. The road will be dangerous.”

Ann Marie smiled because she loved when Dade showed his protective streak with her. “I will,” she said. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

On the way down the hill, the road began getting hazy very quickly. The fog started as flying white wisps before it started to erase the road in front of her. She slowed the car down and tried to find the yellow lines in the middle of the road. It was difficult to see them but she managed to keep the car going in the right direction. One side of the car was bordered by rocky cliffs, the other by a steep drop to the ocean.

Keeping her car under fifteen miles per hour, she kept a close watch on the road in front of her. She even turned the music all the way down to open up more of her senses. “Come on, road,” she said to herself, “don’t disappear on me.” She slowed the car to under ten miles an hour.

Without warning, the handle to the passenger door lifted and car door quickly opened. Someone was sitting in the car beside her. He lifted his hat to Ann Marie.

“Never ever, ever leave your car door unlocked. Never ever, ever,” Bernard Mengel said as he started to laugh. “You could end up in the most precarious position unprepared.” Ann Marie started to panic and the car nearly went off the road. Bernard grabbed the wheel and corrected their path. “Now now, be careful,” he told her. “Young drivers,” he remarked.

Ann Marie’s hands were starting to tremble but she did her best to keep it out of her voice. “Good to see you again, Bernard,” she said. “Is this visit about anything in particular?” She looked terrified but delivered the line without any quiver in her voice.

Bernard laughed heartily and put his hand on her shoulder. It was the first time he had ever made physical contact with her and the sensation made her feel like her heart was about to explode. He told her, “You sounded so brave just then.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course you should be afraid,” he admitted. “After all, I am what I am and I do what I do. And I have been cooped up way too long.” He started laughing like he was really entertaining himself. “Don’t worry so much,” he told her. “It won’t take that long and you’ll be relieved when it’s over.”

“Why are you going to hurt me?”

“That’s a good question, my dear. I suppose it’s because I just can’t help myself. I was born this way and it just feels good.”

“Dade will hunt you down.”

Bernard started laughing. “The sourpuss! Of course he’s going to hunt me! After what I did to him when he was your age, it became the purpose of his life. Whatever I do to you isn’t going to change that. My and Dade’s relationship has been carved out by fate. We’re natural enemies, you see.”

“What did you do to him?”

“Ha!” Bernard blurted. “You see! Even when you know something horrible is about to happen to you, even though you’re so scared that you’re shaking, still this fascination with Dade Harkenrider. Ahh, a young woman in love.” He stared at her for a quiet moment. To Ann Marie, it seemed as though he was imagining what she would taste like. He went on, “Dade was my first spiritual child so to speak. I tried to raise him as the son I always wanted him to be, but something went wrong.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure,” Bernard admitted, before offering his best guess. “I did my best with him but in the end, I couldn’t change him. Something was broken and twisted in Dade before I even started. That’s why he conducts himself the way he does. That’s why he’s a monster.”

“He’s not a monster.”

“Believe what you like.”

As Ann Marie’s car circled its way down the hill, the fog became less thick and she could see the ocean down below the cliff. “What are you going to do to me?” She asked him.

“I’m going to love you,” Bernard said before breaking into riotous and totally inappropriate laughter. “Don’t worry so much. You’ll feel like a million bucks when it’s all over. Look at my daughter, Ivy. Look at the beautiful creature she’s blossoming into.”

“Why are you doing all this?”

“Why indeed,” Bernard said with a glimmer of rumination. “Well, because it’s the way things are meant to be. It’s the natural order, my dear.”

“No. It isn’t.”

Bernard’s face took on a shade of menace at Ann Marie’s challenge. He told her, “You’re just as simple as the sourpuss.” He went on as though he had the mission to convince her. “Of course it is meant to be. I know someone as smart and special as you can see it. Look at these humans. Look at what their civilization has turned into. The whole thing is eating itself and these stinking animals fight with everything they have not to notice. Every day, people like me work to speed things along, to do our part. Every day, things get a little more horrible and a little more evil, for lack of a better word. Every day, we chip away at the goodness that’s left. Every day, we claim more minds and souls. I’m just part of the clean up crew, doing what I can for the natural environment.”