Experiment in Terror 09 Dust to Dust (2 page)

The front door to my house was already open, though as I booked it up the driveway, I noted that there weren’t any signs of blood or struggle. I burst into the front hall and looked around wildly.

“Dex!” I yelled. “Dex!” I started running for the stairs but heard a slight moan coming from the kitchen. I paused. “Ada!?”

I ran inside and saw her lying on her side on the tile floor, trying to sit up, her blonde hair in her face. I immediately dropped to my knees and put my hands on her shoulders. She was damp to touch, though it was probably from the workout she had been doing in the living room earlier.

“Ada!” I said, trying not to screech. “What happened?”

“Perry?” she asked weakly. I helped her get into a sitting position.

“What happened?” I asked again, applying slight pressure to her shoulders. “Where is Dex?”

She put a hand to her forehead and slowly shook her head. “I…I don’t know. I…there was a man here.” Suddenly she looked straight at me, fear mixed with sweat on her brow. “Oh my god. He took Dex.”

I swallowed hard, trying my hardest not to let the terror take over me. “How do you know that? What happened? Think!”

She rubbed her lips together, her forehead creased as she tried to think. “I was just in the living room…working out. I heard a knock at the door and went to answer it. There was this guy. At first I thought he was selling something, he had this douchebag kind of smile, you know, and then I realized that there was something seriously wrong with this guy.” She took in a deep breath. “I can’t explain why I thought that, it was just a feeling or the way he was looking at me, I don’t know. He asked if Dex was home. And he was…I’m sorry Perry, I didn’t know what to say.”

I just shook my head, trying to get her to continue. I felt like we were losing time by the second.

She went on, sliding her hands down over her face. “I told him to hang on a second, that I would go get him. But Dex was already coming down the stairs, like he knew. And that’s when I knew I made a big fucking mistake by answering that door. The look in Dex’s face…I can’t describe it. He was angry. And then, then it was like he was fucking terrified, more than I’ve ever seen him.”

She paused. “The guy, he told Dex he’d been looking for him, that he finally needed him for something. And Dex, he didn’t say anything. I wasn’t even sure if he heard him at first. Then he looked at me and I knew how much trouble we were in. He yelled at me to run and get you.” She exhaled shakily and in her eyes I saw as much helplessness as I felt. “I was going to, I started to run. Then the guy reached out and touched my shoulder and that’s the last thing I remember. I guess he dragged me to the kitchen, I don’t know.”

I couldn’t even process it and yet my brain was attempting to. Dex was gone. Michael had him. He had managed to knock both Ada and I out with either a touch or some way of getting inside of our heads. What did he want with Dex? Did Dex go willingly? Where were they headed?

I’ll see you in New York, Perry
. That’s what Michael had said to me.

“What is it?” Ada asked. “Who was that guy? What happened to me?”

I took in a deep breath, trying to hold it together in whatever way I could. “That was Dex’s brother.”

She frowned. “Huh?”

I slowly got to my feet and helped her to hers. “Michael O’Shea,” I told her. “I met him on my walk. Whatever he did to you, he did to me. He was able to get in my head and he was able to get in yours. And whatever he wants with Dex…it’s not good.”

“I figured as much.”

“Ada,” I said slowly, wishing she could feel my panic, know what Pippa had said to me. “Listen to me. As dramatic and bat shit crazy as this all is and all sounds, we have to get Dex back.”

She pursed her lips, perhaps weighing just how crazy it did all sound. “How?”

I paced across the kitchen, wringing my hands together, trying to go through the options. There weren’t many.

“I don’t know. He’s gone with Michael, in his car, I doubt it was voluntary and even if it was…I have to go to New York.”

She stared at me blankly. “Sorry, what?”

I bit my lip and nodded to myself. “Yeah. I have to go to New York. Manhattan. That’s where Michael is taking him.”

“And how do you happen to know this?”

Splices of a dream came back to me. One with Pippa just a week ago, a dream of warnings on the Brooklyn Bridge. The other dream more recent, punctuated by raining embers in snow. A dream of death and Dex.

Now that I knew what had to happen, I was filled with an even greater sense of urgency. All signs were pointing to this.

I tried to explain to her as quickly as I could and as best I could, starting with what little I knew about Michael, about the Pippa in my dreams warning me about imminent danger, about what Michael had said to me. The more I talked, the crazier it all sounded but Ada, bless her soul, she was able to put that aside and just listen. She was able to believe me.

“You can’t just fly to New York, Perry,” she said after I felt absolutely breathless from the truth. “Where will you go? Wander the streets shouting for Dex like a nutter butter? You have nothing to go on.”

“No,” I said. “I have something to go on.” I brought out my phone and in vain tried Dex’s cell again. I hung up at his familiar message, ignoring the pang of hurt that threatened to rip through me at the mere sound of his voice.

This couldn’t be happening. Not like this. Not now when everything in our lives were finally coming together.

“Perry?” Ada asked and I realized I was standing there, hand to my chest, my grip nearly breaking my phone.

I quickly nodded and dialed a number on the phone. My first thought was to call Rebecca but as much as I needed her help, she also wasn’t like me, like
us
– she didn’t know how to deal with this sort of thing, despite what we had just gone through at the asylum. Also, she was still on the I-5, riding putt-putt toward his final destination and time wasn’t on my side.

So I called the only other person who not only would understand but could possibly help me and help Dex. The only person who knew a thing about Dex’s life in New York.

I called Maximus.

But, naturally, life was a sick bitch and he didn’t answer his phone. I started to wonder if perhaps Michael’s reach was farther than I thought and he too had been compromised. So I left a frantic voice message for the ginger to call me back and then ran upstairs to pack an overnight bag, Ada in my tow.

“What are you doing?” she yelled at me, hot on my heels.

“I told you!” I raced into my room and starting throwing shit around. I crammed a few pairs of underwear and a bra into a small carry-on along with a pair of jeans and a few shirts.

“Perry, seriously!” she screeched, grabbing my arm and making me stop. I’d never seen such worry in her eyes before. “Don’t just go and do this. You don’t know anything for sure.”

“I know that if he just wanted to talk to Dex, he wouldn’t have sought me out. He wouldn’t have done what he did to us. You saw his eyes, that…that emptiness. You know he’s bad news.”

“But he
wants
you to come to New York,” she said. “He’s baiting you.”

I stood up straight and looked her dead in the eye. “Then I’m taking the bait. But I can’t stay here and hope that he’ll come back, hope that I’ll get a hold of him. We both know that’s not going to happen. It’s this or it’s nothing and I’m supposed to marry the fucking guy! If there is anything I know about me and Dex it’s that nothing is never an option. I’m going to New York. And you’re letting me go.”

“Fuck that,” she swore, a strange gleam coming over her eyes. “I’m not letting you go. I’m going with you.”

“Ada,” I said incredulously. “No way.”

“Yes,” she said. “You’re my sister and I’m not going to let you do this by yourself.”

“You’ve got school,” I said feebly. Truth was, I wanted her to come. More than that, I needed her to come, I could feel it in my gut, like I was stronger with her by my side. But I wouldn’t be a good sister if I didn’t insist she stay out of it. She was too young to get wrapped up in something that neither of us understood.

“You can’t stop me,” she said full of fiery conviction. “If you do this without me, I’ll be right behind you. You have money on your credit card? I have money on mine.”

“You’re too young to travel alone,” I countered.

She smiled coyly. “I have ways.”

“Mom and dad will never let it happen.”

“You let me worry about them.”

“Ada.”

“Perry,” she answered and for once I saw how damn serious she was. “If you’re going after him, I am going with you. End of story. Now, would you rather me go with you now or trail your ass through the city trying to catch up? Though perhaps I’ll meet some nice New York men who’ll be willing to help me.”

I grimaced at the thought of my little sister alone in the Big Apple and trying to duplicate scenes from Sex and the City. Throw in some blood and gore and it would be pretty accurate.

Don’t think like that,
I told myself.
Don’t think at all. Just go there. Keep calling, keep trying. And go.

And so I did. There was no way I was able to prevent Ada from going with me either and from the conviction in her face, I know she’d be stupid enough to try it alone. She was better off with me, even if I had no clue what I was about to do.

While she packed in a whirlwind – I think, despite the dire circumstances, she was excited about going to New York for the first time – I called a cab and sent texts to Maximus, Rebecca and Dex. I knew the Dex one wouldn’t go through – normally I could tell when he read them and it wasn’t the case. I still watched with my breath in my mouth, hoping that he’d read my words.

When I realized he wouldn’t, I put down the phone and closed my eyes.

Dex!
I yelled inside my head. It was a long shot, but I was still going to take it.
Dex, can you hear me? I don’t know where you are or what’s going on but I know you need me. Michael, your brother, he’s not a good person and I’m scared for you. I’m coming to New York, hoping you’re there.
I paused.
I love you.

Even in my head, it came out more like a whisper.

I waited again, not knowing if he could hear me wherever he was, and if he could, if he would respond. But there was a void. There was nothing but the prickly grey behind my eyes and the sound of Ada running down the stairs.

My heart never felt so empty.

Ada put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Hey. We’re gonna get him back. He’s gonna be fine.”

I looked at her and tried to draw in her strength. I nodded. “Cab will be here. Let’s go wait outside.”

***

I’d never just shown up at an airport before and tried to buy a ticket for a plane. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever really bought a ticket for a plane in general. In the past, whenever I’d travel, it was always my parents who made the arrangements.

Or Dex.

I thought back to the first time I’d flown alone, when I was going down to meet him in Red Fox, New Mexico. It felt so long ago, not only with the passing of time but the passing of character. I was no longer that shy, insecure girl who stared adoringly at Dex and prayed that he felt the same thing for me as I did for him. Granted, I was still flawed, deeply and terribly, but when I looked back at how far I’d come, sometimes it was almost unbelievable.

It wouldn’t have happened without him. I wouldn’t have become the person I was without him.

I couldn’t lose him. I wouldn’t.

I tried to keep those feelings at bay while the cab took us to the airport. Every moment I thought about Dex, every time I felt that rush of anxiety and pain, it was a moment taking me out of the game. I had to stay focused.

Turns out, though, that you can’t just hop on a plane to New York. Well, you can - they took my money, after all. But we were put on standby, which didn’t help with my anxiety. While Ada took her time perusing the airport gift shops and snapping up bags of junk food and high fashion magazines, I started texting the crap out of Rebecca, Maximus and Dex again. I also started waiting for the dreaded phone call from my parents, the one they’d make once they realized everyone had suddenly disappeared. It would probably would have helped to have left a note, but what the hell would it have said anyway? Be right back, we’ve gone to New York because Dex was kidnapped by his long-lost brother whom we think is in cahoots with Satan? Not that my parents would be terribly surprised at this rate.

I thought back to my mom, about the medication I’d taken from her. I hadn’t meant to take it, just switch out a few pills and see what happened. But the pills were in the bottom of my purse and they were coming with me. I could no longer monitor her and see if she was experiencing anything, to see if she saw ghosts like I did. I could only hope that what I did would make her realize that I knew and that she needed to fess up to being just like Ada and me.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long for us to get on standby, even though Ada had to occupy another seat further down the rows from me. She wasn’t too happy about that but at least she was seated next to a thin, anti-social looking woman. I was seated next to some fat business man who kept jabbing his elbows into me, taking up far more space than what was politely possible.

It was just when everyone had boarded and the flight attendants started their safety demonstration that Rebecca called me. Even though the nearest attendant had just made a point about putting all phones in airplane mode, I quickly answered it.

“Thank god,” I said into the phone.

“Perry?” Rebecca asked. “I just got your text. What happened?”

“I don’t know,” I said, my voice shaking all over again. I was aware that bacon in a suit was looking at me with interest. I moved closer to the window, until I was smooshed up against it. “Dex…he’s gone. His brother appeared out of nowhere and I think he took him,” I whispered frantically into the phone.

“Miss, you’re going to have to turn off your phone please,” I heard the flight attendant say.

I looked over my shoulder at her and nodded. “Okay,” I said to her before I addressed Rebecca. “Rebecca, I have to go. I’m heading to New York with Ada.”