Curse of the gorgon, p.30
Curse of the Gorgon, page 30
“Well,” he spoke up. “We’ll try again, first thing in the morning.”
“You do understand what Thora is saying?” Cass asked. “You’ve been through so much already, Lyles. You deserve to rest and live out the rest of your life.”
He nodded briskly. “I also heard irreparable brain damage. Look, Cass, you don’t see what I see when I close my eyes. At any given time, I’m tripping through the gloaming, not here, nor there, not even in my own mind. Perhaps it would be best to cut the tether and just float.”
“You don’t mean that,” Cass said.
“I do,” he said. “I can try to help you find Elle on my way out. That would make it all just right. Don’t you think?”
Charybdis moved in and touched his shoulder.
“Thank you, Lyles,” Cass said. There was no more she could bring herself to say. Trying to talk him out of offering his life would have been harder. She noticed Thora watching her slyly and felt a wave of guilt.
“We should all get a good night’s rest then,” she said. “We’ll take turns looking after Mr. Lyles here and start bright and early.”
Cass volunteered for the first shift. She watched Lyles nap, and at some point she closed her eyes as well.
She dreamed of Elle.
They were in bed, in a small apartment. Soft music played as a gentle rain fell outside the window. She knew that it was a dream, one of those sweet, fuzzy around the edges types. She’d experienced them before, Elle in flowing white, hovering above where she slept, or Elle in a wild garden of flowers completely nude.
In this dream, Cass pulled her close, kissed her. Similar interludes they’d shared during their brief moments together had been harried by the danger of being discovered by a pack under the hive mind control of Lyles, or by Thora and Olympicorp, or the SDC.
Then, in the dream, Elle had run away from her and out a door where there was nothing but the strange fog that Lyles called the gloaming.
She woke startled, her entire body wired as if she had been wrapped in a blanket charged with static electricity. She found Lyles staring at her.
“You were there,” he said. “In the white room.”
She gathered her senses. “It was only a dream.”
“Think of it as more than a dream,” Lyles told her. “When day crosses over to night, the conscious and the unconscious. The gloaming.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It’s the time between dusk and night, a very brief time, a magical time,” he explained as if his words made perfect sense. “In this case it’s the place between conscious and unconscious, that’s where you find the white room.”
“Lyles,” she said, rubbing her temples. “Thora would say that was complete nonsense.”
“She doesn’t believe that,” he said. “Do you?”
“I wanted to believe Elle and I had a special connection, that it could save me, save us both.”
“And now?”
“I don’t know.” She lowered her head. “None of that changes the fact that I want Elle to be safe and happy even if it’s without me.”
“You let go of your faith,” he said. “But just because you have a different perception of something doesn’t mean you have to stop believing. You came in contact with Elle just now. It wasn’t a dream.”
“Thora says it would take years to develop whatever we’re doing here into an exact science,” she countered.
“It sounds as if you’re ready to give up,” he said.
“I can’t,” she said. “I won’t.”
He smiled. “You have the gumption. You just need the spirit.”
She smiled back at him. “What about you, Lyles?”
“What about me?”
She hesitated. “I’m just sorry. You deserved better than this.”
“Now don’t go feeling sorry for me,” he said, reaching out his hand. “Just keep in mind what I’ve told you.”
She took it.
Osbourne entered the room to cover the next shift of watching over Lyles. She stayed around long enough to see that he was once again resting comfortably before leaving. There was a dormitory section, a maze of cubicles with tidy cots topped with thick mattresses. She checked in on Thora and Charybdis to find them deep in slumber recouping from their adventures in the Black Forest.
Cass claimed one of the empty cubicles and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She did not dream.
* * *
Cass hurtled through the gloaming, filled with a panicky feeling as if she were in the middle of a crash-landing. Her body was tucked inside of a gel filled pod somewhere in Germany but her consciousness was in a void of swirling white and constantly changing gray shadows traveling at the speed of light. She had become familiar with traversing the gloaming over the last two days. Like the Aegis, the gloaming had become something that was always there waiting for her to tune in. Even in her sleep, she searched for Elle.
She came to a hard stop and the gloaming scattered revealing black at first, the absence of light which solidified into forms. She would have squinted to make them out but realized that she did not perceive this place with her senses.
The space developed around her—a counter, narrow lanes flanked by ruts, a rack that held dark globes.
A bowling alley.
Once her mind recognized the type of space, it brightened with color. A mural under black light, a disco ball shooting out a pattern of reflected squares on a rainbow-colored carpet printed with a confetti of geometric shapes. Country music played faintly overhead. Much like the apartment Cass had found through the gloaming, this place had remarkable detail.
She noticed Elle then standing there watching her from the middle of one of the lanes. Cass stepped forward calling her name.
Elle turned and ran, crossing over the lanes.
Cass gave chase, past a snack bar and a sitting area for bowlers to enjoy beer and refreshments in between games. She followed the Elle-shaped shadow down a narrow hall and a floating sign that read: restrooms.
Their chase ended through the swinging doors of the restroom. Cass heard the creak and bang of a stall door. Inside, she saw that the walls had been scrawled with what looked to be salacious newspaper headlines about Elle and what happened in Kuwait. She heard soft crying come from the stalls.
“Elle?”
“Please, just leave me alone.”
Cass’ heart broke to hear the hopelessness in her voice. She crouched low.
“Elle, I don’t know exactly why you’re so afraid of me,” she said. “I think I may have a good idea, this place isn’t real, I think you may be stuck here.”
“You’re the one who’s not real. You’re a nightmare, a demon.”
“That’s not true,” Cass said. “I’ve been looking for you Elle, I fear that wherever you are, you’re in danger.”
“Why should I trust you?” Elle asked. “You hurt me. You killed all those people in Johannesburg.”
Cass flinched. The words stung, though she would never purposely hurt Elle, she had indirectly, just by knowing her. As for killing people, she had done that as well, perhaps not in Johannesburg. She let the guilt wash over her and stood firm. She could make all of it right.
“Where are you Elle? Do you know?”
Silence.
“Please, you have to tell me, I can help. I can get you home.”
“You’ll come and take me away, put me in a freezing truck. Lock me in a cage.”
“Elle, I would never do that,” Cass said.
“You’re the Gorgon.”
Hearing Elle say her wraith name made her blood run cold. “I was, but then I met you. I’m Cassandra Hunt. Cass for short. You were the first person to call me that,” she said.
“I don’t remember that,” she said. “There’s a lot I don’t remember.”
“I know, you could say that I’ve been through the same ordeal,” Cass said. “I had no memories either. Someone kept erasing them from my mind.”
The creak of a stall door. She looked up to see Elle peering at her through a sliver of an opening. Cass straightened.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” Elle said her voice trembling. “I thought the doctors would cure me, but everything has gone wrong.”
Cass took a tentative step forward.
“Do you know where you are?”
“No. Not anymore. I was at Gloaming Hill.”
“Gloaming Hill?” Cass asked and immediately thought about Lyles.
“It’s in West Virginia, it’s a facility where I was supposed to get my memories back,” Elle said and choked back a sob. “I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
“It’s okay,” Cass said. “I’m going to figure it out.”
The door swung open and the mist filled the room in billows. The next thing she was aware of was cold air. Strong arms lifted her from the gel and she sat up sputtering the stuff from her lungs. She could not hear or see anything, but the pulses of everyone in the room came through.
Something was wrong.
She tried to speak and found that she could not.
“It’s okay,” Charybdis said close to her ear.
Cass did her best to express her doubt.
“It’s Lyles,” she said. “He’s flat-lining. They’ve been working on him for twenty minutes.”
She looked in the direction of the pulse, and through her bleary vision she could see the shape of the other pod. Beyond, she could see a table and a body, and the figures of Thora, Liang, and Osbourne.
Cass took a moment to gather herself. She hoisted herself out of the pod, her hands and feet slipping in the gel. Charybdis knew better than to attempt to stop her, and helped her to her feet and guided her toward Lyles on the gurney.
As she neared, she could make out better exactly what was happening. They were trying to keep him alive. They didn’t know what she did. Thora saw her watching and shook her head dispassionately.
“He’s gone,” she announced.
“You have to keep trying,” Cass insisted.
“He’s brain dead,” Thora said. “You can feel it can’t you?”
She turned away from the scene. She could not stand to see him dead, knowing that he made the sacrifice to save Elle. The last few days had taken a lot out of the small team, but Lyles had paid with his life.
Charybdis came to drape a towel around her shoulders and comfort her.
“Did you find the white room?”
“I did,” Cass said. “I saw Elle.”
“Can you be certain that it was her?”
She looked down at her trembling hands still covered in the gel from the pod. She could not be sure. It could have all just been a fever dream brought on by the drugs, or one of Thora’s tricks.
“She’s in danger,” Cass said. “She told me that she was in West Virginia, at some facility. She called it Gloaming Hill. That has to mean something.” She looked around at Thora, Osbourne, and Liang. The latter two looked wrung out from their efforts to save Lyles’s life. None of them had an answer.
She went to him and touched his forehead slick with the gel.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“What exactly did you see?” Thora asked behind her.
“I saw a bowling alley this time,” Cass said. “Elle was there and she didn’t seem to know me. She called me the Gorgon.”
Thora studied her for a moment. “I think I am beginning to see the purpose of this white room and the gloaming.”
Cass turned and eyed her with suspicion. “Or have you always known?”
She scoffed in reply. “Has my participation in this experiment not proven that I had nothing to do with your reporter’s disappearance?”
“Elle,” Cass said. “Her name is Elle. She’s somewhere scared out of mind because some scientists want to play God.”
“You’re no better,” Thora accused pointing at Lyles. “You didn’t mind sacrificing him.”
Cass felt white-hot anger roiling inside of her. “I’m going to the states.”
“Wait,” Charybdis said. “How will you know where to look?”
“She told me that she was in West Virginia, I’ll start there.”
“Foolish,” Thora said.
“Go back into the pod,” Charybdis suggested.
“And waste more time?” Cass asked.
“You’d rather go on a snipe hunt?” Thora asked.
“I have to try,” Cass said. “I don’t expect you to understand.”
“I understand,” she said. “You judge me and yet you so easily used Lyles. He put his life on the line in some ridiculous sense of honor.”
“What would you know? You send wraiths to do your dirty work.”
Thora stared at her for a moment, then reached inside her jacket and removed a small envelope. She tossed it across the distance between them. Cass caught it.
“It’s a passport, money, you can get to the States,” Thora said.
Cass turned the envelope over in her hand to test the heft. She looked to Thora. There was nothing left to say. She looked to Charybdis.
“Come with me. You said you would.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I must stay here with Thora.”
“I’ll do this on my own,” she said and left the room.
Charybdis followed her. “Where are you going exactly?”
“The States.”
“Yes, I get that,” she said and grabbed her shoulder. “Can you stop for a moment?”
She shrugged her off. “I don’t have time for this.”
“You’ll get killed.”
“You don’t understand,” Cass said.
“Stop saying that,” Charybdis told her. “You’re not the only one who will sacrifice everything for someone they love.”
Cass stopped, stunned by her words.
“Then come with me.”
“I have to stay. That is my sacrifice.”
Cass nodded. She understood.
They embraced.
“You will always be my little one. Now go and don’t forget about me.”
“I won’t,” Cass said. “Mother.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jefferson County, West Virginia
Elle opened her eyes to find herself stretched out in the back seat of a moving car. It was night and she could see the sky and ghostly clouds. A full moon seemed to sink into the murky black of the sky like a bright pebble thrown into a puddle.
They were no longer at Gloaming Hill.
She sat up, groggy. She saw Dr. Stevens at the wheel. She noticed Elle and looked over her shoulder to give her a quick once-over before turning her attention back to the road.
“You’re awake,” she said.
“Where are we?” Elle asked.
“We’re on our way to DC,” she said. “I’m taking you to your mother.”
She remembered the bloody fight between her doctors that had ended with Dr. Branch’s death.
“What is going on?”
“Gloaming Hill was compromised, by a terrorist cell. I had to get you out of there.”
“Do you have a phone?” Elle asked. “I want to call my mom.”
“Phones can be traced,” Dr. Stevens said. “We’re going to meet her.”
Elle was still under the effects of the syringe Dr. Stevens had given her and felt wobbly and foggy-headed. She rolled down the window for the air. She breathed in the smells of the highway—exhaust, and the crisp fall she’d missed. She was away from Gloaming Hill. She was free.
In the rearview, Dr. Stevens watched her. Elle did not feel free.
They stopped at a motel. It occurred to her that she had no idea where they were. She asked Dr. Stevens as she guided her to the front desk. She parked Elle on a sofa while she booked a room for the two of them. The woman at the front desk identified herself as the owner. She explained that there was a pool on the premises as well as a communal area that was open twenty-four hours and stocked with a foosball game, a vending machine, a computer, and printer/fax. She kept eyeing Elle suspiciously.
The room was clean and cool. Dr. Stevens ushered her in and dropped the two bags she’d brought from the car and shuffled to the bed to sit. She sighed and massaged her temples. She looked up when Elle moved to sit on the opposite bed.
“This must all seem incredibly insane,” Dr. Stevens said and crossed the space between them to sit with her.
“Can you please explain to me what happened back at Gloaming Hill?”
“Dr. Branch turned,” she said. “Leslie, I understand. But Branch?”
“What do you mean she turned?” Elle asked.
Dr. Stevens stared at her for a moment and rose from the bed to pace the small space.
“We need to get rest. We need food and a shower.”
“Why can’t you just tell me?”
“I will, I swear, I just need a moment to think.”
“Why do you need to think? If it’s the truth.”
Dr. Stevens gave her a wounded expression. “You must trust me, Elle.”
“You killed Dr. Branch.”
“That is unfair. You were there. She attacked me first, and had she succeeded, I can’t fathom what she would have done to you.”
She came close and touched Elle’s face. “I can’t possibly let any harm come to you, Elle. You do believe that don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said. “I believe that, but—”
“Then put that trust as well into my promise to you. I will explain everything.”
Elle sighed.
Dr. Stevens smiled brightly and went for the phone on the nightstand between the beds.
“We’ll order pizza. And soda.”
She was putting on a brave face, Elle supposed, but it did nothing to soothe her worries. Dr. Stevens ushered her into the bathroom with instructions to shower. She left the door open when she left. When she was gone, Elle inspected the tiny bathroom for a window and found none. She resolved to take her shower.
