Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (28 page)

Ivy seemed determined to destroy every duplicate with brutality. She kicked and threw up dirt while she tried in vain to shred the real version. The frustration was driving her to total madness. She screamed and threw her hands into the air. “I’ll find the real you!” She hollered. “I’m going to destroy you!”

The Dade duplicates all told her in chorus, “Go home, Ivy. It’s over.”

“I hurt you!” She shouted to all the different versions. “I did it. I got you on the ground. See! You’re not so powerful!” She told him, “This little trick you’ve done here is nothing. I’ll show you real power.”

With hundreds of copies of Dade flickering in and out of existence all around her, Ivy drifted over to Asylum One. She slowly ran her fingertips over the armored windows as though inspecting for some chink in the impregnable hull. She put her ear up against the door to try to hear Ann Marie inside.

“I hear someone special in there,” Ivy told the array of Dades. “And I bet I know something that you don’t know.” Ivy addressed her loyal half-dozen coven members, the ones that hadn’t run away. She told them, “Give me strength, my allies.” Then Ivy rested both palms against the side of Asylum One and closed her eyes.

Inside, Ann Marie felt a flash of cold air hit the passenger compartment around her. It was as though the air conditioning had come on by itself. Her stomach sank and she was overcome by the feeling of overwhelming nausea. She thought that she might throw up. Her head began to throb and her eyes felt very strange, like a pressure building up behind them.

In the seat in front of her, what started as a wisp of vapor began to materialize into a tattered piece of nightgown. Ephemeral corpuscles of red light started to become blue eyes. Black hair spilled into the air like water from an invisible hydrant.

Suddenly, Ivy was staring at her with a lopsided smile. Ann Marie bolted to the other side of the compartment and pulled at the door handle to escape. There was no way to open it.

“Looks like it’s just the two of us,” Ivy said as she looked her over in the most threatening way. “Apparently your master can’t teleport through objects like I can.”

“Please!” Ann Marie begged. She pulled at the door handle with mounting panic.

Their eyes met for just a moment. Ann Marie’s were wide and filled with terror, while Ivy’s contained only cold resolve. Then something changed in Ivy. Just as she was about to grab Ann Marie by the throat, she stopped.

Her monstrous gaze turned to something far more tender. Then it twisted to one of horror. Ivy seemed to be revolted by herself. She stared down at the hands she was going to use to strangle Ann Marie. Her eyes welled up.

“I’m sorry,” was all Ivy said before a loud cracking rang out.

Ann Marie saw Dade and the Sheriff standing with the truck door open. Ivy was gone. She immediately threw her arms around Dade. The fear and panic gave way to tears after a few moments.

“She would have killed me,” she whispered to him. “She was about to. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why she didn’t.”

“I don’t know either,” he told her.

“How did she teleport through the door?” She asked. “I thought you said that was impossible.”

“Impossible for me. Apparently, there isn’t anything about Ivy that Bernard won’t sacrifice.”

“So you’re saying she’s stronger than you now?”

Dade hesitated before answering, “I’m afraid so.”

The Sheriff chimed in, asking him, “Where’s Bernard? What’s his part in all of this?”

“I would have expected him to be here to watch Ivy attack,” said Dade. “I would have thought it would be too much fun for him to miss.”

“Well, if he ain’t here,” said the Sheriff, “then somebody else has got problems.”

...

Shortly after the attack, when they made it back to the laboratory, Ann Marie called her mother to check on her. Harkenrider had already sent the Sheriff and his small personal security team to the apartment to stand guard outside. Lori Bandini wasn’t picking up the phone at first but eventually answered her daughter’s third call.

When Ann Marie finally reached her, Lori was in the middle of giggling so hard that she could barely speak into the phone. “Hi baby,” Lori said. “We’re having so much fun over here. I can’t wait to introduce you to my man.”

“OK, good, mom,” said Ann Marie. “I need you to look out the window and see if there is a security truck from the company outside. Do you see the Asylum logo?”

Lori Bandini was in the middle of uproarious laughter at something her boyfriend was doing and didn’t hear. “What was that, baby?”

“I said security is coming to the apartment to make sure you’re OK. Can you look outside and see if they’ve arrived?”

She started laughing again, so hard this time that it sounded painful, almost like she was crying.

“Mom, did you hear me?”

“Uh huh.”

“Mom, Dade and I were attacked tonight...”

Ann Marie heard nothing but the most drunken sounding laughter. Her mom’s howling just got stronger until it sounded like she was having trouble breathing.

“Mom, did you hear me? We were attacked tonight. I’m OK but...”

“That’s nice, dear.”

“Mom! You’re not listening! Why are you acting so weird?” Her mom seemed quite involved with whatever was happening on the other end of the line and the questions didn’t register. Ann Marie went on, “Dade sent someone to the apartment to wait outside just to be safe.”

“Outside?” Lori Bandini asked before she started back with the laughter. “I’m not at home.”

“Well, where the hell are you?”

Through the phone, Ann Marie heard her mom ask her boyfriend, “Sexy, where are we?” Lori started to laugh again before finally telling her daughter, “Apparently heaven.”

“Mom. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What the hell is wrong with you, you little bitch?”

“Huh?”

“Why don’t you just fucking leave me alone, you spoiled, shitty, little brat? I’m having a good time and as usual, you ruin it like you ruin everything.” Lori Bandini spoke in a cold, perfectly matter-of-fact fashion. Her tone sounded as though she was giving her daughter driving directions.

“Why are you saying this to me, mom?”

Lori’s voice quickly took on more venom. She said, “It’s about time I told you how you’ve spoiled my life, how you’ve driven everything good out of it, how you dragged me across the country so I could be lonely all the time. It’s about time you know how much I’ve grown to hate you.”

“What?” Ann Marie asked in a hush because she was barely breathing. “Mom?”

Lori started laughing again before hanging up.

Ann Marie stood trembling like a ghost had just bared its fangs to her. Dade could tell immediately there was a problem and came to her side. He asked, “What happened? What did she say?”

“She’s just drunk. Forget her,” Ann Marie said. Salty tears formed in her eyes and started to burn. She turned away from him. “There is nothing we can do for her. She was too drunk to even tell me where she was.”

“Was she with anyone?” Dade asked, suddenly looking concerned for a Bandini other than Ann Marie. “Are you sure she’s...”

“Yeah I’m sure she’s safe. She was with Mr. Wonderful. She’s always safe. Every one of the hundreds of nights she kept me up waiting, she ended up home safe. No matter how much I worried about all the rapists and serial killers, she always came home safe. Sure she’s safe. She’s always safe.” At that point, Ann Marie couldn’t look at Dade because she was starting to cry.

“Maybe we should make sure.”

“No!” yelled Ann Marie. “I’m done. She’s an adult. I’m just a god damned kid. She can fucking figure it out like I always have to figure it out!”

“What did she say to you?”

Ann Marie wiped away some of the tears and looked Dade squarely in the face. “She said that she hates me. Hates her own daughter.”

“Ann Marie,” said Dade, sounding almost tender. “She doesn’t hate you. I’m no expert on humans but it seems like she is going through something.”

“I think she does hate me. Who could blame her? I suppose I did ruin her life.”

“I don’t understand. You didn’t ruin anyone’s life.”

“I made her lonely,” she said. “Brought her out here and turned her into a worse alcoholic. Figures she would resent me for it.”

“I don’t...” Dade started to say before Ann Marie cut him off.

“I want to go in the tank,” she said. “I’m ready and I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m tired of you putting it off.”

“It certainly isn’t the time now,” Dade told her. “One has to approach it from a place of psychological strength or else it could be a real disaster.”

“I’m ready now,” she said as she started to cry again. “I’m not just some stupid kid. I’m ready.”

“I’m sorry. I care about you too much to let that happen.”

“You care about me?”

“Of course. That’s a ridiculous question.”

“Then let me go in the tank. I don’t want to feel this way anymore. I want to
feel
different. I want to
be
different.”

“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t go in the tank.”

They stepped outside onto the top deck and just stared quietly at the Pacific Ocean. At one point, Ann Marie made an odd request. Without looking at him, she asked, “Can you put your arm around me?”

Without saying anything or looking at her, he did. Her legs felt as though they wanted to collapse in that spot. She held on to him and felt relief from a profound anxiety. Gripping the black fabric of Dade’s lab coat, Ann Marie tightened her embrace until her muscles were trembling from the effort. It was like she wanted their bodies to fuse.

“I have to find Bernard,” Dade whispered to her. “Before things get any worse.”

Ann Marie just nodded while she held on to him.

“You stay here where it’s safe,” he told her. “When your mom calls again, we’ll have it traced and we’ll find her. Don’t worry.”

“OK,” she nodded.

“One more thing,” Dade continued, “I’m having a friend watch over you.”

The DeathStalker that had been guarding Bernard now had a platinum finish and looked like it had just come off the assembly line. Its metal legs clicked their way across the floor as the machine took its position as Ann Marie’s guard. It stood in front of her, looking as though an entire army couldn’t get through its defense.

“Are you going to be OK by yourself for a while?” Dade asked her just before he left.

“Just find Bernard and stop him,” she said without looking at him.

A few minutes later, Ann Marie stood out on the top deck. She was watching Dade’s truck until she was sure that Asylum One was past the guard booth and on its way down the hill. Then she got to work to prepare the tank. She figured that she didn’t have much time until he came back.

After setting the breathing fluid temperature to ninety-eight-point-six degrees, she started on the most difficult part. Getting the needle into the vein of her arm was made more difficult by her shaky hands. After she had the needle fixed to the vein in her arm, she connected the long plastic tubing that would deliver the drug. She strapped Dade’s buoyancy belt around her bare waist. Then she climbed the ladder to the top of the tank and dropped all her clothes to the floor.

It was more difficult than she thought to lower herself into the liquid. It was so dense that it seemed to resist her plunge. When she was all the way inside, she hit the button for the lid on top to come down. With only about six inches of air between the liquid and the lid, Ann Marie took a deep breath. The warning lights on the chamber told her that she didn’t have much time left.

The small gap of air started to narrow as the pumps filled the tank to the very top. She took one last deep breath and let herself drop into the tank. The clear walls of the giant cylinder started to go black. At that point, she panicked.

She pulled herself up to the top but there was no air left. She smacked as hard as she could at the lid as her heart started to burn and pound in her chest. She spun herself around and tried to kick her way out. Her struggle didn’t even make a sound.

Simultaneously she was hit the urges to hold her breath and gulp for air. The terrible state of confusion didn’t abate until she felt a hot pounding in the center of her skull. She couldn’t hold her breath anymore, so she sucked in as much as she could into her lungs.

The alien feeling of the fluid inside her mouth and lungs made her panic even more. She struck her fists, her feet and even her head on the sides of the tank. It was so dark that she had no idea which end was up. She took another gulp of fluid and there was a vague but accompanying sense of relief. She gulped again. She was breathing.

A flash of one small red LED in the tank reminded her that her adventure was only beginning. She felt a tingling sensation in her arm where she had stuck the needle. The feeling spread up her arm until it reached her head and made her dizzy. She floated perfectly still as though time had stopped.

Then she felt and heard a roar, followed by pressure all over her body. It was like the tank had turned into the barrel of a high-powered rifle and she was careening out the end. The extreme turbulence seemed like a white water rafting ride for someone completely blind. Ann Marie sensed herself accelerating into the dark nothingness. She screamed but experienced neither the sound of her voice nor the very presence of her body. Ann Marie was both there and gone.

Images, scenes of completely unfamiliar landscapes and machines started to blink as though lit by a series of camera flashes. Nothing seemed normal. She saw a line of people watching a sunset on a beach but there were two orange suns on the horizon. An entire world of interlocking metal gears and clouds of hot steam began to take shape. The steam became as dense as fog and the world changed again.

Ann Marie saw a trickle of red light as the fog lifted. In front of her, she saw tattooed flesh on the backs of men and women as they kneeled and bowed. She realized there were thousands upon thousands of people in the cowering mass. They chanted and prayed to something in the clouds above them. It looked like a red sand storm.