Mindsiege (3 page)

Not harm, maybe, but punish and control, for sure.

Jack knew I wasn’t about to heal Sandra without knowing more information. I picked up my backpack from the floor and sorted through it. I had my small computer, a few clothing items, and my cell phone, which I stuffed into the back pocket of my jeans. I also had the large envelope Jack had given me buried in the bottom of my pack. Not the safest place for it, but I felt a little safer knowing I had the means and credentials to run if I needed to.

Jack sat on the bed beside my bag. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Tears welled up in my eyes at the image of me holding a knife high above him.

“Hey.” He stood and reached his fingers to my face, brushing hair off my forehead and tucking the strands behind my ear. “We’re going to figure this out.”

I swiped at my cheek where a tear escaped. “Yes, we are. But you need to get to Wellington and fix things with your mom, and check on Addison.”

“I can’t leave you.”

“Yes, you can. I’ll be fine.” I had my own agenda—which included identifying Smoking Man.

“What do you mean? Where will you go?”

“I’ll call Marci. Dad obviously trusted her. And I’m fairly certain she knows a lot more than she’s been telling me.” I also needed time to read Dad’s journals. “You can message me through the link I gave you. If my dad set it up, it’s safe.”

“I’m going to go talk to Jonas. He can go with you until I can get back to you.” He turned to go.

“Wait!” I grabbed his arm. “Why Jonas? Why not Kyle?” I trusted Kyle way more than I trusted Jonas. “You looked like you could have punched Jonas in there.”

“Jonas has a similar mind ability to yours, and he tends to get himself in trouble when he uses it. And his panic attacks can be bad. He told me he wouldn’t use his ability until we knew more about the side effects. I was irritated. That’s all.”

“An ability similar to mine,” I repeated. “As in, he can manipulate people’s actions?”

“I said similar, not exactly like yours. Look, don’t worry about it. You concentrate on you for now.”

“Why would you send him with me if he has these issues?”

“Jonas can be a jerk, but he’s loyal. He’ll protect you better than anyone else out there. And Kyle needs to get back to Wellington. He and I have to play nice until we know more.”

“What if all the security measures they put in place
were
actually to imprison everyone there? Isn’t that why we ran? Why Georgia drove a bulldozer through the fence?” My lip quivered and my voice lowered to a whisper. “What if you get there and can’t get back out?”

Jack slid his hand behind my neck. He leaned in and kissed me. “We ran because I wasn't willing to take a chance with
you
. Kyle and I won’t be locked away at Wellington. I will not let that happen. Something tells me we’ve misjudged dear ol’ Mom’s motivations to keep us under lock and key.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Whatever dear ol’ Mom’s motivations were, they had inspired our escape.

Nonetheless, I let Jack go talk to Jonas. But something wasn’t right. I could feel it.

Chapter Four

Armed with my backpack, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed fresh air while Jack attempted to arrange my protection.

I didn’t think I needed a bodyguard, but I
did
need a ride. I didn’t even know where I was. And I definitely wanted to separate myself from Jack until I figured out who was inside my head trying to harm him. We were better off apart for now.

I opened the back door and stepped out into the October air. The early morning breeze was cool, but the sun warmed my cheeks instantly.

The safe house where Georgia, Jonas, and Fred lived was nestled among other older brick houses, very much like the house I grew up in with Gram. Autumn leaves rustled in the wind, their vivid oranges and yellows fluttering high above me. A rusty-chained swing creaked at the house next door. And beyond that, railroad tracks.

Embers in the fire pit in the middle of the patio still smoked from the night before, giving off a distinct campfire-like scent. Eight Adirondack chairs were scattered around the area. I imagined the threesome having small gatherings at their house often. I could easily picture them living a normal life together. To their outside friends, assuming they had friends, they were simply three roommates starting out in life.

A small twinge of jealousy churned in the pit of my stomach. I wanted friends, normalcy, to live on my own away from the threats that haunted me now.

I followed a line of stepping stones around the side of the house to a gate in the picket fence that enclosed the backyard. A couple of guys walked by the front of the house. Satchels crossed their chests and hung low at their hips. Another passerby sped by on a bike, a backpack strapped to her back.

We were close to a school. I glanced back at the railroad tracks again. We had to be near the University of Kentucky. There were a lot of older brick homes near the football stadium, from what I remembered from the few times I had visited campus.

I heard voices coming from the front of the house.

“Jonas, I can’t send her out alone,” Jack said.

I squeezed between a bush and the side of the house, positioning myself so that I could see Jack, Jonas, and Georgia standing on the front porch, and clearly hear their conversation. Luckily, they were too engrossed in their discussion to notice me.

“Take her with you,” Georgia suggested.

“You know I can’t do that. They’ll force her to heal Sandra, and it could kill her.”

“You don’t know that, Jack.” Jonas’s tone was more serious than it had been earlier that morning. “We need Sandra. What if she can take away your nausea and how sick you get when you heal people?”

Jack and I hadn’t had time to discuss whether we actually believed Sandra could heal some of these symptoms we suffered. I would argue we had these abilities
and
these side effects because of Sandra.

“Speaking of,” Jack said, “want to tell me why you suffered a panic attack this morning?”

“I was just playing around.” He paused and looked away, almost directly at me. I glued my back to the side of the house and out of their sight, praying he hadn’t seen me eavesdropping. “There’s this hot girl next door. I wanted to see if I could get her to undress in front of the window.”

Ewww. Gross.

“Sounds like it was quite a panic attack for such a small request,” Jack said, seemingly quite unaffected by what a pervert Jonas was.

“Now you see why I need Sandra. I can’t have even the smallest tasks sending me into a full-on crazy episode.” Jonas tapped his head with his knuckles.

I peeked around the side of the house. Studied Jonas. His hand shook nervously at his side, then reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a small object.

“None of this changes the fact that Lexi doesn’t want to accept that part of her genetic makeup yet.” Jack—always the optimist.

He’d been so supportive of me as I discovered
what
we were. There was no doubt in my mind that he would continue to try to shield me as we searched for more information about
what it meant
to be cloned and how we were genetically modified
.

“Yet?” Georgia repeated. “But you think she will, eventually? Will she become a part of The Program?”

By piecing tidbits together, I had learned that we each had special abilities, some similar, some not. Jonas had an ability similar to mine if he could force a girl to undress. And we all seemed to have certain adverse side effects—nosebleeds, projectile vomiting, panic attacks. I studied the deep lines across Georgia’s forehead. She was worried. Did she have some supernatural ability? Or even more important, did she suffer greatly when she used it?

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I promised her I would help her run if that’s what she wanted. Not a single one of us should be forced to embrace this life that was chosen for us.”

“Fine.” Jonas lifted the object up to his mouth. It was a cigarette. “I’ll take her wherever she needs to go. And stay with her if necessary. It would be my pleasure.” His words rolled right over the smirk that spread across his lips as he stuck the cigarette in his mouth. When he flicked the lighter and the flame sparked, I flinched at both the noise and the fire.

“It’s necessary. Don’t forget someone tried to kill both of us last week. And Cathy was ready to imprison us at Wellington Friday night.” Jack shook his head and added, “I’ve got to confront my dear mother.”

“If Lexi needs to come back here, we’ll deal,” Georgia added. “We need to watch over each other.”

I stood there, my back plastered to the brick. My heart raced as a suppressed memory surfaced. Images of the previous night flashed back to me. Images of me by the fire pit. Fred had played a guitar and sung.

My eyes darted around the yard beside the house. I drilled the palm of my hand into my chest, attempting to massage my panicked heart. Jack assured me that Jonas could protect me. That he was loyal. Loyal to whom?

Events of the previous night slowly seeped into the outer fringes of my mind. Images that at first seemed like distant memories were becoming clearer. Jonas had stomped out a cigarette at my feet last night. He practically admitted to drowning me in the pool. He forced Kyle to stick his arm in the fire.

“Thank you, Georgia,” Jack said, snapping me back to the present. “Kyle and I will be leaving shortly. I’m fairly certain Lexi will be ready to leave when I do.”

My mind reeled through memories or dreams—snippets of reality—that I suspected were planted there by Jonas: like when he pointed a gun at my head a couple of weeks ago, and when he led me outside into the cold on the night the fire alarms were tripped in the Wellington’s girls’ dorm.

It was Jonas. He got inside my head the night my father died. The night he forced me to jump into a freezing pool. And this morning when…

That was why he suffered a panic attack. Not because of the lies he told Jack now.

A train whistle blew, startling me from the dark memories, the darkest of all being the one of Smoking Man—Jonas—forcing me to almost drive a knife into Jack’s chest. This image had been only a blur in my subconscious, but it now came into focus.

Jonas. It was him. I remembered. And he threatened to force me to hurt Jack if I revealed his identity.

The whistle blared again, calling out to me.

The train approached slowly, running behind the houses. My grip tightened around the strap of my backpack.

I chanced a glance around the corner of the house again just as Jack passed through the front door. Jonas and Georgia traded looks, then followed Jack inside.

Would Jonas actually hurt Jack? Or was he bluffing to get me to submit to some demand of his?

Jack would be leaving shortly. And taking Kyle. He’d be safe then. Away from Jonas. Away from me.

As the train moved closer, I saw the open car. Empty. Everything that the presence inside my head had said to me scrolled through my memory like an out-of-control teleprompter. He needed me.

He would force me to hurt Jack if I didn’t comply. But I couldn't hurt Jack if I was nowhere near him.

The train whistled—a signal. Or a sign.

I ran. I ran as fast as my legs would take me. I ran through the backyard of the neighbor’s house, past the swing set. I ran alongside the train, the open car. I let the backpack slide from my shoulder and tossed it into the car. It slid across the metal floor.

I felt Jack’s presence ease inside my head.
Lexi, where are you?

I reached out my hand and grabbed onto a piece of metal on the open door of the car. With a giant burst of adrenaline, I sped up. I squeezed the metal and, in one motion, leapt from the gravel, lifting and swinging my legs onto the moving car. Thankfully, the rest of my body followed.

Lexi.

I’m sorry, Jack.
Even my thoughts came out in panted breaths.

Where are you? What do you mean you’re sorry? What did you do?

I grabbed my backpack and hugged it to my chest as I crawled over and leaned against the wall of the car.
I know who is inside my head. They want something from me that I will not give them. Not until I know why.

Tell me where you are so we can talk. Please don’t run from me.

I’m already gone.

Chapter Five

The train rattled and quivered as it crept along railroad tracks on the outskirts of the University. Though I was less than twenty minutes from Midland, Kentucky and Wellington Boarding School, I felt thousands of miles away from anyone who could help me.

I wanted Jack with me, but I wouldn’t deter him from checking on Addison. I, too, wanted to know how she was and whether I had healed her. Maybe by returning to Wellington, he and Kyle would learn more about Cathy DeWeese’s and Roger Wellington’s intentions for the school. And for the cloned humans who lived there.

A shiver moved down my spine at the thought of a group of crazy doctors having that kind of control over a group of humans with supernatural abilities. What exactly did they hope to gain from me and the other clones?

If they hoped to use these abilities to their own advantage, why was someone hell-bent on killing Jack and me? Did someone think we knew too much? Because of Dad's journals? No one but Jack and me knew the journals still existed, even if only virtually.

God, I missed Dad.

The breeze blew wisps of hair off my face as I stared out onto the side streets of Lexington. The air smelled of dirt and gravel, and the rickety train stirred up dust.

I decided I was far enough away from Jonas. I grabbed my bag and jumped from the train, landing with a jolt and tumbling to the ground. After gaining my footing, I made my way down a side street in the direction of campus and in search of Wi-Fi.