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“I said, correct?” His tone sharpens.
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“You also probably believe that Demechnef couldn’t contain or control him. That they’ve been chasing him for years, and he’s outsmarted them every time. Because with a mind that is so far passed any technological or scientific advancements, how could anyone possibly be able to stand in his way from what he wants? Correct?”
I’m gripping the bars now. Feeling anger pressurize against my rib cage.
“Yes.”
I hear a tapping sound coming from the corner Albatross is sitting in. A stuttering beat of silence. A slurping sound from a cup.
“Now, I’m going to try my best to say this with the utmost delicacy and sensitivity I have in my heart, without laughing, I might add.” An exaggerated sigh. “This is a lie he was fed as a small child. Everything he knows now we have made him believe. He is part of an experiment, that much is true, but the experiment is to make his young mind wholeheartedly believe he is superior to the human race. He hasn’t pulled off a single action without our blessing. He hasn’t fulfilled a single escape without our unlocking the doors first. He will never be able to break into this room. This building. This territory. He will try and fail and try and fail. And that will be the conclusion of the experiment. You see, your travel companion will have a plan, and not have a single doubt in his mind that he will be able to save you. But the closing remarks will be the moment he realizes his entire life was staged. He has been our puppet, and we’re about to cut his strings.”
I stare into the darkness; I blink furiously. I can’t digest what he is saying. The words are skimming off my ears like skipping a rock over water.
“Another way to look at it is if we made a man believe he could fly. We attached a harness, made him forget he had the harness on, and for his whole life he believed he could soar through the clouds. Then, one day, we rip the harness from his body, and he falls to his death. Isn’t that a carefully thought-out ending? What a theatrical conclusion it will be for him. We’ll get to see what happens to the human mind when reality melts through his fingers and he’s left with a disgusting mirror that shows him the sad and helplessly ordinary person he truly is.”
My teeth are scraping against each other and I feel his pointy words deep in the bed of my loyalty to Dessin. For Kane. And that’s just it, I feel it like it’s another part of my body. My respect for him is attached to me like the way my arm hangs at my side. It’s attached and to remove it would be to cut it off and bleed to death. I can’t believe what he’s saying. My respect won’t even allow me to consider it. But the fact that Albatross thinks I would fall for that is pathetic. It’s vile.
“You’re a liar!” I scream. The height my voice reaches stuns me. “You think I would fall for that garbage? You may have made me believe my collarbone broke, or that I’m blind, but you’ll never scratch the surface of the hope I have!” My fingers are squeezing the bars, creating small blisters as I twist them back and forth.
Albatross snickers, like two champaign glasses clinking together. “Why would I lie about that? I never lie about education. And this, my girl, is a seminar taught by me, just for you.” The smug smile leaks into his voice like pollution from a sewer and the remnants of gunk from under a swamp rock.
“He’ll come for me,” I whisper with the hot branding iron of resentment searing through my words. It’s a whisper of certainty. A whisper of confidence.
“Even if he does, my girl, these walls are impenetrable. We have security precautions in this facility that will make your old place of employment look like a child’s playground.” He laughs again. Adjusts in his seat.
I release my grip from the cage. “I’m done talking.”
“Yes, you are.”
33. Into The Darkness
He will come for me. He will come for me. H e w i l l c o m e f o r m e.
My pulse is so quick, so loud, it beats against my jugular, a drum of battle in my ears. I’m woken up by a dull throb of hunger only to feel the shock of lying still in complete darkness again. I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep. I don’t even remember falling asleep. How long have I been here? Is it weeks now? Dessin would never let me be held captive this long. Something must be wrong.
Being all alone in this long stretch of darkness makes me want to scream for help, kick the cage until my teeth rattle. I want to fight to escape. But what if Albatross breaks another bone? What if Absinthe force-feeds me again? I’m torn between doing what would make Dessin proud and cowering in fear of the unknown.
I try to stay calm. There is no need to overreact now. That’s probably what Albatross wants. He wants me to go into hysterics. This must be a tactic of his. Use isolation to make me go insane. Let the darkness turn into hallucinations. Wait me out until I’m begging for company. A stiff chill like a set of long jagged fingernails drags down my spine.
I won’t give him that satisfaction… Yet. I can only breathe like a jackrabbit caught between my lungs. It bounces around furiously. This reminds me of my time in the basement, the cold, hard concrete floor, the way the walls would start to breathe. My small child mind would conjure up new and unimaginable terrors that would lurk all around me. My heartbeat knocks against my skull, stomping on the arteries in my brain. My palms remain pressed firmly to the bottom of the cage and they moisten with single, microscopic drops of sweat.
I blink desperately, silently begging the lights to come on. My stomach twists, gallops, and lurches forward.
Please Dessin, don’t let me go through this again. Come save me, Dessin! I don’t want to be here anymore! I promise to listen to you next time! I’m sorry I didn’t know what I was doing! I swear I’ll do what you say!
A drop of sweat drizzles down my neck, tickling the center of my chest. And I hold my breath, biting down on my tongue to distract from the panic. My bottom lip quivers while my teeth grind together.
Somebody help me!
Terror is suffocating me with a feather pillow. It’s wrapping its chains around my back and chest. It’s locking me in this cage forever.
I might never see the sun again.
I curl into a small ball; my knees jammed against the bars, and my feet ice cold against the metal floor. My mind does strange flip-flops as I try and make sense of being locked in this cage like an animal, of being force-fed, of having believed my bones were breaking. If they only want Dessin to realize he isn’t all-powerful, then why would they want me to suffer?
~
