No one warned me that rowing a boat would amount to this much physical and emotional turmoil. I was tempted to throw myself into the lake just to escape from it all. The ripples in the water that left a trail as the small boat glided across the calm surface almost seemed to taunt me in my distress.
Perhaps I was starting to lose it, but its serenity seemed to be laughing in the face of my plight, reminding me that the fatigue in my arms mattered not to the peace of the world around me. Though the full moon had shined a week ago on Gwen’s birthday, there was still enough moonlight tonight cast for me to find my reflection in the water. Mine, and that man’s as he kept his gun trained on me just a few feet away. His choice of using a rowboat over something with a motor was no doubt as a result of his desire to cross without attracting too much attention.
He was determined to get me to his destination alive. I would be lying if I said that thought didn’t also play into the intrusive thoughts I had of throwing myself overboard. There’s a non-zero chance that I could steal the gun in the ensuing chaos once he tried saving me. And, even if I couldn’t, at least my death would mean that he wouldn’t win.
No, that’s probably not true. Tristan is an idiot and would probably get found out eventually. The only way to deny Oliver his victory is to kill him myself. There’s a small chance that I could with the oars. I could knock him unconscious if he let his guard down, then steal the gun in that moment. But even that seemed like a pipe dream with how tired my body was. Still, it was better than nothing. I just needed to find a way to distract him.
“What is Dream Paralysis anyway?” I asked, struggling to row us to our destination.
“Dream Paralysis?” he asked.
“Is it an evil spirit? An alien? A science experiment gone wrong?”
His eyes narrowed. “How long have you and your friends been playing with that power?”
When he said ‘friends’ with an s, I couldn’t help but feel unnerved. Did Tristan tell someone else about it? It wasn’t Gwen, I already confirmed it. Lance maybe? Or was Oliver just guessing that there were more of us?
“I’m not interrogating you,” I said. “If you don’t want to tell me about it then it’s fine, I just thought it would be entertaining to ask about it.”
“Entertaining, eh?” He leaned back. I searched for an opening, but his eyes were still trained on me. He didn’t seem to be willing to let his guard down. “How familiar are you with the history of this city?”
“I know Andrew Jackson was desperate to steal it from the natives because of the gold pockets.”
“Gold, yes. That was the official reason given by Mayor Ficklemann all those years ago.”
“Official?”
“You’re familiar with the Order of Lady Irma, yes?”
“Oh, you’re one of those fanatics?” I feigned surprise. “What do they think again? That Christ’s going to come born again from the lake right here in Deer Valley?”
“Lady Irma is the second coming of the Virgin Mary. And so, it stands to reason that Christ will be reborn again through her at this lake.”
“And where does it say that? Who is this Lady Irma that’s convinced you of all of this?”
“Why, you are.”
It was hard to disguise my utter disappointment at his conclusion due to my fatigue.
“I am? Really?”
He nodded. “You. You are going to lure the other host of the spirit here, and through your sacrifice, the two spirits will become one, and Christ will be reborn through me.”
“I don’t understand. Is this a prophecy someone made up?”
“Watch where you’re taking us, the cabin is a little more to your left.”
I looked back and noticed that I had rowed us slightly off course while we were chatting. A cold breeze ran through the strands of my hair as I did my best to look through the chaos of red in order to steer us back on course. I turned back and found him smiling.
“The Order of Lady Irma was founded by myself once my father turned the mind spirit over to me.”
“Mind spirit?”
“Before we get to that, I believe you were asking about a prophecy.”
“You’re picking your nose.”
The man caught himself with a finger joint-deep into his nostril, then pulled it out and wiped it off on the side of the boat.
“Apologies. As I was saying, the discovery of gold in East Georgia might have led to the outcome you’re describing, but the narrative of there being riches here was partially manufactured. You see, what the history books neglect to mention is the fact that there was never any evidence of gold found or excavated from the mountains around Deer Valley. Strange, isn’t it? And yet the Cralixi tribe that inhabited these lands were forced to leave along with the rest of them. The reason for that is because Ficklemann, who was surveying the land for pockets of gold, found something far more precious than the ore.”
“The spirit?” I asked.
“The figure of a woman hovering above the lake. With her dark hair, she was described to be similar in appearance to the natives of the land. Ficklemann found her along with his small team and believed her to be the second coming of the Virgin Mary. You can imagine, to be greeted by a sight like that is enough to turn anyone Catholic; even a devout Protestant like him.”
“That explains all the old churches.”
“Indeed. He believed that her presence meant that these lands around the lake were blessed by the Father in heaven Himself. This is why he sought to claim the land as his own. Him and the surveyors dubbed her Lady Irma, after the unofficial name of the lake at the time.”
I sighed, still wishing I could stop rowing. “And yet no one’s seen or heard of Lady Irma since the land was settled by Europeans.”
“Of course not. The Cralixi traditions and worship surrounding the spirit are exactly what kept her pure. Once they were forcefully removed, the spirit’s essence had warped into something more sinister. A vengeful witch that sought revenge against the peoples who desecrated the land.”
“And that’s what Dream Paralysis is? The vengeful spirit of Lady Irma?” I raised an eyebrow. “If that’s the case, then why bother attaching itself to living things?”
“Because it is the nature of man to consume through his own greed. Was it not greed that caused Jackson and Ficklemann to cleanse the lands of the Cralixi? Was it not greed that caused so much nature to be torn down in exchange for the concrete civilization built around the lake? Why wouldn’t a spirit, who cannot directly interfere with the world around it, not weaponize man’s own greed to sow chaos from within his own society?”
I had a hard time understanding what he was saying. Supposedly there was a spirit that lived in the lake that was worshipped by the Cralixi. Once those people were removed, the lack of upkeep of their traditions caused the spirit to descend into anger and madness. It became whatever Castro is now in order to get revenge on humans.
“But then why are there two spirits?”
As I asked the question, a blob of darkness bubbled up from the water’s surface, coalescing into the creature I had seen all those weeks ago with the deer skull. My hands let go of the oars as I reeled back in surprise.
“Ah, did it scare you?” Oliver asked.
I still had no idea what that thing was capable of. It only showed up once during the basketball game. “That’s the spirit of Lady Irma?”
“It’s half,” he said.
“Half?”
The spirit’s body left a trail through the water like a splotch of ink. Its deer-shaped skull tilting at my question.
Oliver, you are speaking far too candidly.
I flinched. “I... it can talk?”
“Ah, so the main host’s hasn’t spoken yet? They must not have used the spirit very much then. Perhaps this will be easier than we thought.”
Do not underestimate them.
“I know I know, but that’s still good news.”
A drop of sweat rolled off the side of my face. In my surprise, I had given him far too much information. It seemed like the spirit learns how to talk the more its power is used.
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“Why don’t you keep rowing if you want me to talk?” After pondering his words, I allowed my hands to fall back onto the oars as I tugged them through the water. “You see, the spirit your friend possesses is the spirit of the body. With it, the host is able to project his soul into the bodies of others. There are complications that come with it, since you’re molding the shape of your own spirit to match the body you’re projecting, but it is a powerful ability to be sure.”
The complications, meaning the residual effects on his soul after a hack that resulted in temporary neurological and physiological changes.
“And that’s what you meant earlier about your father? Your spirit lets you project your soul into their mind or something?”
“Correct, Fraulein. Rather than controlling their body and feeling what they feel, I can think what they think, and even project intrusive thoughts into their mind. And while they sleep, I can scan for any memories I please.”
“Any, except me.”
“Except you and the other hosts, correct again. Since you’re a secondary host to the spirit of the body, your soul has developed a natural immunity to my projections.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Since only Tristan and I should know about the power, then there was no need for me to worry about him reading other people’s minds. He probably won’t find anything worth noting from anyone.
“And what about you?” I asked the spirit. “Are you the one who told him about this prophecy? The one of Jesus Christ being born from my sacrifice?”
Who is the other host?
“My, aren’t you tight-lipped? That’s okay, I didn’t need to know that badly.”
At my words, Oliver grinned.
“We’re going to find out who it is eventually, you know.” He pulled my phone out of his pocket and wiggled it around. “Once I attempt to read the minds of everyone on your social media, I’ll have no doubt that I’ll figure out who it is.”
He probably wouldn’t find anything related to the spirit, but I pretended to be frustrated and gritted my teeth. Still, this entertaining talk of ours had granted me substantial new information about the power.
1. The spirit that lived in the lake before the Indian Removal Act of 1835 was a spirit with the appearance of a Native American woman.
2. The removal of the Cralixi tribe and their customs caused the spirit to descend into a vengeful madness, splitting into two distinct entities that leapt from creature to creature in search of a human host.
3. The goal of these spirits is to exploit human greed to take revenge on the species via a host due to a spirit’s inability to interact with the physical world without one.
4. Each spirit has the ability to link the host with another creature. One spirit grants the ability to link with another human’s body, and the other links with their mind.
5. There is apparently a prophecy that states that the two halves of the spirit will become whole through the sacrifice of the reincarnated Lady Irma.
But if everything I’m imagining is right, then there’s still some vital information missing from his explanation.
“What happens to you once the two spirits become one?”
It was just for a brief moment, but I saw it. His smile had disappeared. That cocksure,
condescending grin of his was wiped off his greasy face for just a second. Finally, I had secured myself an angle in the conversation.
“I’m sure you’d like to know Fraulein. We’re almost there. Just keep rowing.”
“Hmm,” I continued. “If I had to guess, I’d say that you’d be able to carry out the
perfect hack once you obtained them both. One where you’re in complete control of both their mind and their body. You’d be able to project into them without worrying about rejection like you would with only one spirit.”
“Stop at the dock,” Oliver said.
I slowed the rowing down as I gauged our distance from the nearby dock. “I don’t
think it’s quite that simple though. I’m wondering. Wouldn’t you be capable of not just linking to another person, but permanently transferring your soul to another person’s body? Maybe through a body swap, or perhaps you’d outright shove them out of their bodies. Either way, if that’s true, then I think that gaining both spirits could be called some form of immortality, no?”
The boat stopped moving once it collided with the edge of the dock.
“Get out,” he said.
“What, no answer?” I turned to face the spirit. “What about you, Lady Irma?”
The spirit said nothing. It seemed as if I was onto something.
“Of course, that’s only if everything the spirit’s told you so far is the truth, isn’t it Oliver? For all you know, it could be lying to you. It wants to use human greed to destroy human civilization? How can you prove that? Perhaps once the spirits are joined, they’ll be the ones pushing you out of your body? Have you ever thought about it that way? If all the spirit needs is a physical connection to our world, then why wouldn’t Lady Irma cut out the middleman to enact her revenge?”
This is why I told you not to underestimate them.
It seemed like the spirit sensed something in Oliver. Did I get under his skin with that? He must have been having some doubts.
“Get out of the boat,” he said again.
“Still no comment? Okay, then what about this hypothesis?”
At my words, his gaze finally left me.
All he did was roll his eyes, with a sigh.
But I had been waiting for something like this.
Just that small action was all the opening I needed.
I moved my left hand over to the right oar and moved to swing it with everything I had.
I didn’t hesitate.
It was a clean reaction.
I would strike him down, steal the gun, and put an end to him right that second.
That was the plan, anyway.
What exactly happened in that split second, anyway?
I thought I had lost consciousness.
My mind must have gone blank as the cloth was suddenly pulled over my mouth from behind.
What was with that reaction time?
How did they get to me just as I moved for the swing?
Who was it?
Did someone show up from behind me without me knowing?
“So you really were trying to find an opening?” Oliver sighed. “Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with someone whose mind I couldn’t read. And of course, it’s a brave little girl like you. This has been an interesting experiment. Even though I can’t hear the words, I’ve read so many minds that I know what kinds of thoughts are associated with which expression. You’re an open book, Fraulein.”
The mysterious stranger moved over and took my hands and bound them.
“W-w-what should we do with her, Oh Great Prophet?” A male voice asked from behind me.
“Take her to the cabin. We’ll be keeping her there indefinitely.”
“Y-yes… I shall.”
A cabin? He’s going to keep me in a cabin? The man had such little interest in me now that I was caught that it felt that I was losing my chance to escape.
“Say Great Prophet, uh… I don’t know how to ask this…”
“Speak your mind.”
“I was just wondering, uh… C-can I do her?”
Oh, and I’m going to get raped too? Isn’t this fantastic?
“I-I mean look at her, c’mon. Will you let me? J-just once boss. Please. I-“
I found it curious.
There’s something uniquely paradoxical about the sound of a gunshot.
It’s so absurdly abundant in practically every piece of media relating to audio that it was practically a cliché. Movies, news stories, cartoons, music. And yet, experiencing it in a real-world situation for the first time had left me awestruck.
My ears were ringing.
I honestly thought I was dead.
However, the grip on my wrists had loosened.
My back was suddenly doused in water.
I turned around slowly, still deaf to whatever was going on around me.
There was no one behind me anymore.
As if I had been silenced by a ghost in the wind earlier.
All that was left was the large ripples left in the lake behind me, and the dark red that slowly spread through the water.
“- the boat.”
I couldn’t hear whatever it was that Oliver was trying to tell me.
Even when I felt the cloth on my mouth being removed, my eyes were still focused on the body of the man that sank down to the bottom of the lake.
“- out of the boat.”
The ringing was fading, and my hearing slowly returned.
“I’m only going to ask one more time. Get out of the boat.”
“You killed him.”
He clicked his tongue.
“Yes, I did.”
“Did he disgust you that much? You could have just told him not to.”
He sighed. “Did you forget what this spirit lets me do? The second he opened this mouth, his fate was sealed. That’s because, he had decided to go through with his plan. If I said no, he would have had his way with you the second I left the cabin to do something else. There was no path forward where that man could be allowed to live.”
“I see.”
I still hadn’t taken my eyes off the Lake. The thought that someone that sinister had me in his captive just moments earlier might have sent a shiver down my spine had I the time to realize it. I wonder what it was that I felt as the water calmed, eventually returning to its serene state. Fear? Relief? Anger? Disgust? The whirlwind of emotions inside of me were causing a storm that I couldn’t seem to calm.
“Fine, I’ll ask once more. Get out of the boat.”
Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be any time to process it at the moment. Deep down, I was also hoping that someone heard that gunshot and would come to rescue me, but if I delayed it for any longer he might strike me like he did in the car earlier. With great reluctance, I climbed up the dock and walked to the shore. The man followed behind me, still pointing the gun my way.
“Does my safety really matter that much to you? You’re going to kill me anyway.”
“You’re the Lady Irma. Everything I’ve done so far was only done out of necessity for the greater good. You’re still a holy figure required for the rebirth of Christ.”
He wasn’t actually looking out for me, I thought. This whole thing was just some sick religious roleplay. If this guy truly created a cult as large as The Order just for some clearly made-up story this spirit told him, then I have a bridge to sell him.
“Besides…”
“Besides?”
“There’s nothing I hate more in this world than a rapist.”
So there was some kind of empathy in there after all.
“I appreciate it,” I said.
I wonder what it was I sensed in his voice. It was the most human I’d seen him since we’d first met. The façade of vulnerability he’d shown me while we were on the boat was just a trick. He was testing me to see what I was capable of. He’s far wiser than anyone I’d had to deal with at school. I can tell that a lot of thought goes into the way he deals with other humans. But still, that just cements the fact that he truly did care that something like that might have happened to me because of him, as he risked a lot by shooting that man at that moment. At the very least, I know now that I’ll probably be safe here until Tristan gets caught.
“Have you ever seen someone die before, Fraulein?” he asked.
“Can’t say that I have, why?”
“You seem to be handling it well.”
Truthfully I didn’t care that the man had died. It wasn’t just that he had meant to harm me, no. For whatever reason, after all the talk I’ve heard surrounding things such as PTSD when it came to events like these, it just hadn’t bothered me as much as I had expected. But I suppose that kind of answer wouldn’t be sufficient for him.
“My dad worked with dead bodies, I’m used to it.”
“Do you always lie this much? I’m acquainted with your mother. I know exactly who your father is.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Jeremy Felix, right? I was surprised. A best-selling author, right under our noses in Deer Valley. Not anymore, I suppose. Not since the divorce. I’d ask what happened, but with your lying streak, I think I’d have better luck skimming through Carla’s memories tonight.”
“Go ahead.”
It was no longer about escaping. I needed to kill this man.
“The Secret to being Admired. Packed with a philosophical spine so sturdy, and a body of psychology so neatly wrapped around it that it propelled thousands of people out of social destitution and into a sea of clout. I’ve heard that even one or two billionaires attributed their successes in life to the book. And so, I wondered what kind of daughter was raised by this man: the one whose knowledge of love had lifted so many into its light?”
“And what conclusion have you come up with?” I asked.
“Walk up the steps.”
We arrived at the cabin after about fifteen minutes of walking. It appeared that my question would have to wait until later. The cabin was quite large despite my initial assumptions. Oliver walked me up the six steps over to the right and then through the door of the refurbished cabin.
“Oh, Great Prophet.”
The lights were already on, and inside I found three individuals wearing deer skull masks inside bowing at Oliver as he entered. There were two men and one woman. The first man, with his large, daunting figure, could have been anywhere from 25 to 40 years old. His rough skin and round body gave me the impression that he was someone who could put you in the ground if you so much as looked at him funny. He sat in the corner of the room with a power drill in hand. Once he was done bowing, he returned his attention to the workshop desk before him and started drilling into some wood, causing the whirring sound to fill the room.
“’Hey Peter, the Prophet didn’t give you permission to start making noise.”
The dark-skinned man who just spoke up was slightly easier on the eyes. He was a well-built man who looked to be in his twenties, wearing a grey tank top with baggy black pants. He stared over at me with a playful gaze.
Then there was the woman in his arms, similar in complexion, who by comparison, seemed to be looking at me with a sort of disgust that I couldn’t quite place. Her long, straightened green hair was in stark contrast her partner’s short, black hair. She wore nothing but a bikini top and jean shorts, a casual look that contrasted the menacing mask she’d donned.
“Zoey, let me introduce you to your caretakers. The large man in the corner is Peter. The man and woman over there are James and Jude.”
Caretakers? Captives, you mean.
“Hey,” James called out again. “Where’s John?”
“He didn’t have the Fraulein’s physical safety in mind, so I disposed of him.”
“Good riddance. I always hated that nasty prick. He kept staring at Jude’s tits all day.”
“Ewww, don’t remind me,” she said.
“Heh. Hey, let’s go see his body.”
“You two are to stay put,” Oliver said. “I’m going to head out to clean it up. I’ll be in contact with you tomorrow night. Until then, you three are in charge of the girl. And don’t be afraid to gag her. She’s got a mouth on her.”
“Yes, Oh Great Prophet. Praise be to the Lady Irma.”
When Oliver left, the man named James pulled his own pistol out and trained it on me.
“Over to the chair, off you go.”
He nudged the front of the gun in the direction of a wooden chair that sat at the corner of the room. There were chains at its feet, which meant that, barring bathroom breaks, I’d most likely be spending most of my time in this seat. And very likely, assuming nothing changed, that seat would also become my grave.
I thought back to the bragging I had done to Laura Young earlier in the month. I told her that I planned to die famous and loved by the world around me. What was it she said? Not everyone can die a Napoleon, I think? If Oliver gets his way, then that might be true for me too. In as much as I would like to avoid meeting my end here, I truly don’t know if I can deal with a situation like this on my own.
If there’s any chance of me escaping, it has to be through Tristan. He’ll hack me eventually; he can’t live without me with that power dwelling inside of him. There’s no one else he can trust, after all. And once that happens, we can probably make something work together. If my theory on how Dream Paralysis works is correct, then he won’t be able to chain hack them if he doesn’t know what their faces look like, so those masks are an intelligent precaution on Oliver’s part. But all it’ll take is one slip up for the hack to work. And I have no doubt that I’ll be able to create that opportunity once he’s here. The problem is, if he doesn’t hack me soon, then we’re probably both going to die.
The clock in the room’s ticking filled the silence, as if counting down to the imaginary end of the timer that came with Tristan’s capture.
Tick, tick, tick.