Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (18 page)

Ivy’s right foot was still bleeding and leaving a small heel print behind her. For the first time since she had started her bizarre sleepwalking, her feet started to change direction on her. Her eyelids started to feel even heavier as though her mind was trying desperately to shut itself off.

She walked toward the entrance of GirlFixer. The fluorescent pink glow became so bright that it began to feel like daylight. Soft, thumping bass touched her on the face. She closed her eyes as she walked to the entrance.

Her sleepwear had stains from the beer that had been thrown at her by the passing driver. The white tank top she wore clung awkwardly to her body, somehow making her look even more vulnerable. Her skin looked deathly white, as though peeled from the work of an eighteenth century mortician. Ivy took on an odd glow in the mixture of moonlight and pink neon.

The group of men at the entrance, a gang of trucker-looking types, took notice but something about Ivy kept them at bay. A few leered at first but their expressions quickly turned cold when she got close. No one seemed to be charging any money to get inside, so Ivy sleepwalked right through the pitch-black entryway.

Part of her woke up when she bumped into an obese man who had his back turned to her. He had been staring at one of the strippers, who was listening to her headphones and knitting some kind of hat.

Ivy sat down in the darkest corner of the bar next to a group of two rather plain-looking women about her age. Between them sat a small boy with a face covered in complex tattoos, like mixtures of ancient texts and hieroglyphics. He was wearing a black robe that looked to have been cut from the finest Chinese silk. The two women whispered things into his ears with him nodding occasionally. All three seemed interested in Ivy but they kept away.

Ivy’s eyes became very heavy and she drifted off again. The group got up and the two women followed the tattooed boy out of the back of the club and into a door marked,
owner
.

Ivy was slumped over in her seat when she heard a man say, “This place is so chic.”

She tried to mumble hello back but the effort was exhausting.

“It’s fine, m’dear,” said Bernard Mengel, who dipped his fancy hat to her. “I’m sorry to just appear out of the blue like this but, you see, we know each other.”

“We do?”

On the floor in front of them stood the DeathStalker. It was staring at Bernard. He became annoyed at the very sight of it. “You infernal machine,” he jabbed. “You stop me from enjoying life. I hate you.” He tried to toss his overcoat on top of it, but the robot easily slid out of the way.

“I’m sorry,” Ivy said. She struggled to keep her eyes open. “I seem to be having some trouble.”

“I can see that,” said Bernard. He gently passed her a cold, bubbly drink while cupping it under napkin in his palm. “I have just the thing.” He guided her hands to her lips to help her drink.

She found herself nearly inhaling the strange concoction. She then pressed her mouth to rim of the glass and licked at the insides. Bitter bits of what could have been tree bark dug into her lips and tongue. She aggressively lapped up the bitter, salty crystals at the very bottom of the glass and slapped it down on the table. The aftertaste reminded her of blood.

“I’m still thinking of a name for that drink,” Bernard smiled to her. “Wait,” he said as he plucked at the air like a harp string, “I’ve got it. The GirlFixer.”

Ivy’s eyes stood wide open and every muscle in her face was suddenly primed. Cold, pleasant emptiness began as a tingle on the tips of her toes. As it swept up her feet and up her legs, she felt pressure everywhere, as though accelerating on a rocket to the moon.

She finally got a good look at him and she said, “It’s you.” All the messages to her muscles were blocked and she just sat there and glared at him in only a momentary fury. Then all the distress and anger seemed to disappear from her face and she looked almost drunk.

“I think we’re almost there,” Bernard told her. “I think you’ll be feeling a bit spunkier after that little cocktail of mine.” Then he slid his wispy, skin and bones, frame across the seat until he was cozied up to her like they were lovers. “I love this natural, fresh-out-of-bed look for you, m’dear,” he said. His long, twig-like fingers started to play with her hair. His nostrils sucked in the air around her and he savored it like a drag from a cigarette. “Same little girl. Same little Ivy.”

His hand cradled the back of her head and he brought his face close to hers. It looked as though he was about to kiss her. He closed his eyes and rubbed her temples. “I’m gonna help you see,” he told her. “Just let yourself go. Let my power inside you.”

Now she looked like a person asleep with her eyes propped open. “It’s you,” she said. “I saw you at my speech. I always knew you would come back.”

“I always do,” Bernard said. He slid his hand between her ass and the vinyl chair cover. With just the effort of his fingers, he lifted her into he air and she landed on her feet. “Sweet Ivy. My special girl. Why don’t you saunter on home now, my special girl.” He gestured her away like a king to a jester. “I would give you a ride but I’m in the mood for some lap dances.”

Ivy just stared at him blankly.

“Listen my dear,” he said. “You head on down the lane and back to your little condo. I don’t think I need to worry much about your safety,” he told her with an overwrought wink. “I don’t think I have to worry about anyone hurting my baby. I think you’ll find yourself quite capable. Now you get out of here.”

He stared at her and her feet started to walk her body out of the room. By the time she made it to the door of GirlFixer, her eyes were closed and she was sleepwalking home.

...

During a meeting with the Asylum Corporation board of directors the following afternoon, Dade was introduced to the company’s newest vice president, Miss Ivy Cavatica. In the boardroom that day, she watched him like a pack of starving wolves. While he discussed drone microprocessors in front of the projector screen, she pointed her blue eyes at him like a hunting rifle.

Her gaze was so intense that Dade even stopped his presentation to tell her, “I don’t care if you’re new, don’t look at me that way.” His harsh instruction brought anxiety and discomfort to the board members but only a mischievous smile to Ivy.

When he was finished, she followed him outside and all the way across the courtyard to his vehicle. Dade turned around to let her know that she had been detected but Ivy ducked behind a small shrub far too slender to obscure her body. Her behavior seemed strange, childish and in a way, threatening. Dade could see her giggling like a kid with the upper hand in the game of hide and seek.

Suddenly something very strange happened. The outline of Ivy’s body seemed to become indistinct and blurry. It was as though her features were merging with the background landscape. She was turning transparent. Soon, Dade realized the girl had completely disappeared.

She was behind him.

“My friend,” Ivy said. She put her hand on the small of his back and started rubbing softly.

Dade recoiled at her touch and turned to face her. “Don’t ever make physical contact with me! I don’t care if you’re a woman and I don’t care if you’re on the board. I’ll break your pretty little neck.”

“You think my neck is pretty?”

“No.”

“I’ve wanted to talk to you for sometime, Dade. You’re a hero,” she said. “The Asylum’s Sir Galahad. Everyone knows what you did to stop that terrorist.”

“How did you do that?” Dade asked her. “Back there. Who taught you?”

“Oh,” said Ivy, putting her hand to her face to cover a wide and dangerous looking smile. “You shouldn’t have seen that. I’m so embarrassed.” Then she took a big step toward him like she intended to kiss him. “Did you think you were the only one in the world who had the power? Did you think you were the only one who could evolve?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” answered Dade. “And I don’t know how you did your little magic trick back there.” He started to walk away.

“Oh yes you do,” said Ivy. “You know exactly how I’m doing it. And it’s no magic trick.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I found out a lot about you on the internet.”

“Believe everything you read about me being a killer and the antichrist. Every word of it is true.”

Ivy laughed at him. “So good at scaring everyone,” she said. “Dade Harkenrider has everyone convinced he’s the devil. The more afraid people are, the less likely they are going to look into you, the less likely they find out what happened to your mother. If they’re scared,” she went on, “they probably won’t find out she’s still alive.”

Dade stopped in the middle of a step, turned right around, and marched toward her as though he was going to strangle her. His massive frame towered over her. “You didn’t find that out on the internet,” he growled. “Where did you get that information?”

“Oh. I don’t recall.”

“Tell me now.”

“Are you threatening me, a defenseless woman?”

“Yes, and there is no such thing.”

“Well, I know very well who you are,” said Ivy, dragging her fingertips down Dade’s sleeve. “I know everything about you. We’re as close as you could ever be with someone.” She stepped closer to him and gazed up lovingly. “I know how much you hate being touched by anyone. It’s a shame,” she said. “that you have no interest in that sort of thing.”

“You’re right about that,” Dade told her.

“Asexual as they say.”

“Advanced.”

“Is it true that you’ve never experienced the pleasure of human touch?”

“You’re boring me, lady.” He added, “And no, I find it revolting.”

“You’re going to be fascinating to get close to, Dr. Death,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

“Don’t count on it.”

“And that new friend of yours. Ann Marie, is it? It would be nice to get to know her too.”

Dade faced her down like an opposing boxer. “I’m going to have security cattle prod you and throw you out,” he told her.

Ivy held up her badge with her immaculately manicured nails. “Vice President,” she said. “Yay, promotion.”

“Stay the hell out of my lab. My drones don’t give a damn what color your badge is.”

...

That evening, while Ann Marie and Dade prepared for his trip in the tank, he told her about his strange encounter with Ivy. Right away his manner seemed grave. “I can’t be sure...” he said. “But I think I saw her teleport right in front of me.”

“That couldn’t be,” said Ann Marie. “It must have just looked like that from where you were standing.” She added, somewhat delicately, “Maybe these experiments affect you more than you know. Maybe you were seeing things.”

“That’s not what it was,” Dade said. “There was something wrong with her. I could feel it.”

“What do you mean by,
wrong with her
? Human beings do try to talk to each other on occasion. Maybe she liked you.”

Dade crumpled up his face as if he had just caught a whiff of rotten eggs. “It’s a revolting thought,” he said. “Humans are worse than chimps when it comes to sex. I don’t think that’s what it was though. She knew things about me.”

“The internet is full of information and crazy rumors about you, thanks to those conspiracy wackjobs and religious nuts.”

“She knew things about my mother. She also knew that I’m asexual.” He thought back to the incident and added, “She seemed to delight in disgusting me.”

“What did she say exactly?”

“She asked me if I’ve ever fornicated. Well, she didn’t use those words exactly. She asked like she already knew the answer.”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her of course not. There was no reason to lie.”

Ann Marie was shocked by his disclosure but did her best to hide her reaction. Dade didn’t seem perturbed in the least by the discussion. He was more focused on attaching the electrodes to his skin with sufficient pressure so they wouldn’t detach and float away in the tank. “You’re unique, Dr. Harkenrider.” She told him. “That’s for sure. I admire it, actually.”

“What’s to admire?”

“All that self control,” she said, “all that focus in your life.”

“I don’t think you understand,” he told her. “For me, it’s not a matter of self control. I’m just not that kind of being. It’s a language that I’ll just never speak. The thoughts and urges that normally torture men and women for most of their lives...I’ve never known them. I’ve never known that cruel joke. Thank goodness.”

“How can that be?”

Dade considered the question carefully. The look on his face suggested that the answer was troublingly unclear. “It’s something Bernard did to me when I was young,” he said. “It’s the one thing he gave me that I’m grateful for.”

“I’m a virgin too,” Ann Marie said to him. “Never even been close.”

“Good for you,” said Dade. Most of his attention was centered on attaching a sensor pad to the side of his neck and he acted as though her admission was trivial.

“Boys have liked me, I guess,” she went on. “But when they’re around me a lot, it seems to change. I don’t know what it is.”

For the first time in the conversation, Dade looked at her attentively. Then he laughed. “Who cares what it is,” he told her. He shot a look over to the tank, which was steaming a little as it reached body temperature. “We’re scientists. We have more important things to think about.”

“I see the way my mom is with men,” Ann Marie said, “and I don’t want it. It’s not for me. I think it’s demeaning.”

“It is,” he said. “Now can you help me with this sensor?” He needed help placing one of the sensor pads on his lower back.

Ann Marie was already used to seeing him three-quarters naked in the lab and the request didn’t seem that strange. She stood behind him and pressed the adhesive sensor into the skin at the bottom of his spine. It occurred to her that she had never been so close to a man’s naked body. “That woman you saw today,” she started to ask, “what did she look like? Was she pretty?”

“Humans aren’t attractive to me.”

She ran her fingers and palm over the adhesive sensor on his back to make sure it was secured. “Looks like you’re good one that one,” she said. “Do you need help with any others?”

“No. I’m ready.”

She nodded and Dade climbed the ladder to the tank. He said one last thing to Ann Marie before sinking into the liquid. “I’m going to concentrate on that woman and see what I can find out.” He added, “I forgot to tell you that she mentioned you.”

...

The following day, The Sheriff was wearing his reading glasses and paging through a paperback romance novel. With perfect light under the trees in the courtyard, The Palos Verdes Rehabilitation Center had become his favorite reading spot over the years. Every few minutes, he would look up from the page to check on the person he was watching.

The woman the Sheriff was guarding was in a persistent vegetative state and had been that way for the last fifteen years. Elaine Harkenrider, Dade’s mother, sat the way she did everyday, looking out toward the ocean in total blankness.

The Sheriff had owned this responsibility for the last decade and a half. His knowledge of the hospital went back further than that of most of the staff. Late that afternoon, as he peeked up from his book, he saw something that bothered him. For the first time in his fifteen year vigil, something was wrong.

A woman, who was perhaps in her thirties, didn’t belong there. Her skin was pale and freckled like an albino but her hair was jet black. Under her jacket, she was wearing pink nursing scrubs. She hadn’t spoken to anyone the entire afternoon and it was becoming increasingly obvious that she was not visiting friends or family. The Sheriff had caught her numerous times watching Dade’s mother and even taking a few pictures of her with a digital camera.

The Sheriff had been taking his time, waiting for the visitors and family to begin to clear out, before making his approach. Tucking his paperback under his arm, he walked across the garden area and sat down next to the strange woman.

“Afternoon,” said the Sheriff, without looking at her directly. She just nodded back and continued to gaze straight for Harkenrider’s mother in the wheelchair. “You got friends or family in the hospital here?” The Sheriff asked. The woman didn’t respond and seemed to focus even harder on Elaine Harkenrider. He went on, saying, “It’s OK. Don’t say a word. Just listen. I don’t know who you’re working for. I don’t know if it’s the corporation, the CIA or if you’re one of those people into something crazy. I don’t care. All I can tell you is you’re in the wrong place, young lady. You’re not old enough to know what you’re getting into. If you knew what my employer was like, if you knew how seriously he takes the security of that woman over there, you would be doing something else with your life. I don’t know if you looked into Dade Harkenrider before you started messing with his family, but the internet rumors don’t do his cruelty justice. Whatever you’re being paid or whatever your motivation is, girl, you need to smarten up.”

The woman stood up and walked away.

Chapter 10

The Pink Pelican by the Sea

After Dade’s session in the tank one evening, Ann Marie drove down the hill to meet her mother at the Pink Pelican. The place was empty, even for a weeknight. Lori Bandini was cozied up in a booth with a somewhat handsome, middle-aged guy in a suit. He looked pleasant enough, certainly less rough and sleazy-looking than the usual men she seemed to attract. When Ann Marie made it inside the bar, the man was holding the edge of his martini glass up to Lori Bandini’s lips and encouraging her to drink. The sight made Ann Marie’s heart sink and race with anger at the same time.

“Hey!” she shouted to the man. His eyes showed that he was quite sober.

“Hey yourself!” the man shouted back. He wrapped his arm around Lori’s lower back as though he intended to scoop her up and carry her out of the bar.

“That’s my daughter, you jackass!” Lori told him playfully, while lightly slapping him on the shoulder. Her eyelids drooped so low that she looked like she was fighting off a sleeping pill.

Ann Marie marched toward them and glared at the man. “Can’t you see how drunk she is?” she asked him. “We’re leaving.”

The man tightened his grip on her mother. “Come on,” he said, “don’t be such a party pooper. We’re having a great time. In fact, I think you should join us.” He put his other arm around Ann Marie’s waist and started to pull the three of them together. “Now this is what I’m talking about,” he said as he started to cackle.

Ann Marie pushed back so hard that the man had to catch himself to keep from slipping out of his chair. “Get your fucking hands off of me!” she shouted. It was so loud that it immediately caught the bartender’s attention. “And get your hands off my mother!”

“Hey, hey,” the man in the suit said, “I’m sorry.” He held up the palms of his hands and backed away from them both.

The bartender, a dark-skinned Italian man of rather short stature but with massive, muscular arms crowded with veins, shot the businessman a threatening look. “What’s the problem, Lori?” He asked. “This guy bothering you and your daughter?”

“I was just having a drink and not bothering anybody,” the man started to plead to the bartender. “The kid here is crazy and just started yelling at me. I don’t know what’s wrong with this kid.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my daughter,” said Lori Bandini, looking both drunk and cross at the same time. “Don’t call my daughter crazy. Don’t ever call my daughter anything!”

“OK. OK. Fine,” the man said, taking a few steps away from Ann Marie’s mom and toward the door. His expression made him seem harmless enough and, at that moment, he seemed to be genuinely apologetic. “I didn’t mean anything.” He continued to back up, until he was nearly at the door.

“Yes, you did,” said Ann Marie who was scowling at him.

“Get the fuck out of here,” said the bartender.

The moment the man’s hand hit the doorknob, he let a menacing expression take over his face. “Fine,” he said as he opened the door and turned to face them. “What do I need with some sloppy alcoholic bitch anyway?”

Ann Marie charged at him but the bartender kept her from getting very far. As he held the back of her collar, she started to shout at the businessman. “Shut up peanut-dick! Why don’t you come over here and I’ll kick your fucking ass!” The bartender held on to Ann Marie’s shirt collar as she fought to get loose.

“Keep walking!” shouted the bartender to the man, who finally left.

After the man slunk out the door, the bartender laughed heartily to Ann Marie. He told her, “Damn, kid. I thought I had a bad temper. That prick is lucky I held you back.”

After the two and a half tall glasses of water that her daughter just about forced her to drink, Lori Bandini’s buzz was beginning to give way to fatigue. She started to fall asleep in one of the booths by the bar. The bartender told Ann Marie that he had done his best to make sure that her mom hadn’t gone too crazy with the cocktails, but that the man she was with kept pouring them down her throat when he wasn’t looking. Just like back in Philadelphia, her mom was already starting to become a celebrity at the local bar.

The place was just about empty except for a few of the fishermen locals when Ann Marie helped her mom into the car. When she shut the passenger door, her mom was already well on her way to being fast asleep.

Just as the door closed, Ann Marie heard someone in the parking lot behind her.

“You’re old enough to drive,” said the businessman from earlier. “Too bad.” From about a car’s length away, he stared at her like she was something he wanted to rip to pieces.

“Really?” said Ann Marie without looking scared. “You are such a tough guy that you’re gonna wait outside for a teenage girl who yelled at you? What are you going to do? Beat me up?”

The blonde-haired businessman smiled and his blue eyes seem to glisten in menace. “You should be careful,” he said, “who you talk to. What is it with bitches? They think they have the right to say whatever they want, to whoever they want, whenever the damn well they please. I’m not the kind of man you can just scream and yell at.”

“I think I’m gonna call the police,” said Ann Marie. She was starting to show how afraid she was.

The man took a step forward and swiped a wisp of blonde hair from across his forehead. “Perfect,” he said. “Let’s bring the police down here. My company owns the fucking police! I’ll tell them you tried to steal my wallet.” He took another step toward her and stopped again, saying, “You little bitches should be careful how you talk to an important man like me.”

“Oh, should we?”

“Trash,” he said as though the word contained venom. “You and your slag mother. Trash. I could buy and sell you a thousand times over.” He slung his eyes over to Lori Bandini, who was completely passed out and had the side of her face pressed flat into a pancake against the car window. “Your mom over there is quite the drunk. All night she’s hung all over me so drunk that she can barely talk. If you hadn’t have come along, I would probably have her blowing me in my back seat.”

Anger filled every space in Ann Marie’s body until she felt the electricity around her eyeballs. In the first step she took toward him, she wished to kill him so badly that she wanted to cry. Her fists were clenched and she was breathing so fast through her nose that she sounded like an animal.

“Fuck you,” she growled at him. It had such tone and severity that she sounded like a man-eating tiger lashing out from behind her bars.

The man laughed so heartily that he brought a hand up to his stomach. “I love that,” he said while he continued to laugh at her. “That’s perfect. You and your mom shouldn’t even be anywhere near Palos Verdes. It’s trash like you that’s ruining it. You and your lonely and desperate mom.”

She charged him, grabbing at his collar with one hand and slapping his face furiously with the other. Ann Marie didn’t even hear him laughing over her rage. He pulled at the back of her hair until he had her under control. He was quite strong and it didn’t take long.

“You didn’t like that?” He asked her while she continued to squirm under his grip. “Did you?”

With her scalp burning as she fought, Ann Marie looked around the nearly empty parking lot for someone to help. She noticed the expensive silver Maserati that must have belonged to the man. She also noticed the sticker on the back window that clearly read,
Asylum Corporation, Parking Area 2
. She realized that he worked in one of the lower buildings.

“You don’t know shit, you asshole! I work up there,” she said, pointing to the beehive Asylum Laboratory high on The Hill. By the way it was lit at night, it looked like a UFO. “Forget the police. I’m calling my boss. I’m calling Dr. Harkenrider. He’s my boss and my friend.”

What mirth there was left the man’s face. The name, Harkenrider, had registered in him like the name of Lucifer. “Yeah, right,” he said. “You just heard that name on the internet.”

She took her security badge from her back pocket and held it up for the man to see. “Did I get this off of the internet?” she asked. The platinum tinged badge matched the hull of the Asylum Laboratory. “Dr. Bandini, bitch!”

“You’re Dr. Bandini?” He immediately let her go.

“Fuck yes I am. My boss is going to hear all about this. He’s going to hear that you threatened me.”