The winter grew worse, and so did Sophia’s dreams---though at least now she had discovered the identity of the three people standing silently over her. She saw their faces clearly: the cold narrowed eyes of Sybill, Felicity Reynolds’ pale-skinned look of resignation, Jack’s lazy smile. And now they were all taking turns being the hand which disemboweled her and moved her carcass around like a puppet. She didn’t know if these new details meant her mind was accepting what had happened to her, or if it was simply repackaging the trauma.
It became so frigid outside that the staff started putting individual space heaters into each room. Sophia spent most nights curled up against it. Jude snuck over a lot to take away the latest books from the third floor and give her new ones. Sometimes they dozed by the heater together, their bodies pressed together for warmth beneath the thick blankets Sophia pulled down from her bed. It was a bit strange, but on the nights when Jude slept over, the bad dreams stayed away. He always made sure he was gone before it grew light outside so he could avoid being discovered by the staff.
One particularly icy morning in mid-February, Sophia went up to the Lavender Ward to visit Val. She found their usual place by the fire empty---well, almost.
“Is she sleeping again?” she asked Jude as she sat down.
“Must be.”
Sophia scowled at the blazing hearth; the flames leapt up and disappeared inside the dark throat of the chimney.
“How long have you guys known each other?” she asked after a prolonged silence.
“Years,” he answered. “We both came for check-ups a couple times as kids before we were eventually ditched here for good.”
“Her parents don’t come and see her, then?”
“Not that I know of. I’ve never met them. I think there’s a lot of bad blood on account of her trying to devour her sister’s soul and all that.”
He heaved a deep sigh and slumped lower in his chair. His long, spindly legs touched a patch of sun on the rug. Sophia watched as his shoes began to turn a woodsy grey, camouflaging against the carpet. He followed her gaze and jerked his foot up. “Shit.”
“You can’t control that very well, can you?” she said.
“Speak for yourself, brain sucker.”
She rolled her eyes. “How have you not been caught stealing books yet?”
“It’s only hard to control when I’m stressed.”
“Breaking and entering doesn’t stress you out?”
“No, I actually find it rather cathartic. Bit of a power rush, you know?” He grinned. “It also helps that I’m unbound by the laws of gravity.”
“…what?”
“Camouflaging isn’t the only way I’m like a lizard, sweetheart.” He mimed climbing with his arms, grinning at her.
“That’s…awesome.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you get stiff when you’re too cold?”
“Yup. Every winter is a fight for survival. I gotta be extra diligent. A few years ago, the heat at this place kicked off for a few hours once and I couldn’t move for a full day.”
“Maybe you should take my space heater.”
“Nah, you need that too. I’ll just continue to use it along with your body heat, in the dead of night, with no ill intentions.”
She grinned. “Other than the transference of stolen property.”
“Oh, that reminds me. I’ll need to come by tonight to---” He stopped, staring over her shoulder. A mingled expression of anger and confusion flashed across his face. Sophia twisted around to follow his gaze.
“What’s wrong?”
“I thought I saw someone---there!”
He sprang to his feet. Chords of veins popped out of his neck. Sophia stood up as well, placing a hand bracingly on the small of his back as she tried desperately to see who or what was causing him to act like a spooked racoon. After a few moments of strained squinting across the room at the pothos plant in the corner, she saw one of the large leaves shake; then a dark head popped out. It was followed by the crouched body of someone wearing dark red scrubs. The intruder darted across the room and hurried through the doors. Jude immediately strode after them.
“Hey, wait---” Sophia said, startled, but he didn’t even seem to be aware of her as he walked out of the lobby. After a moment of hesitation, Sophia followed him.
She hurried out into the hallway, just in time to see Jude disappearing around a corner. A moment later she heard a loud thud and a muffled cry. She hurried around the corner, a sudden vise of panic gripping her chest. Jude was gripping a dark-haired boy by the scruff of the neck and pinning him against the wall. The boy looked around their age; he was heavy set and short, and he wheezed for breath when Jude’s grip jerked upward and lifted him a few inches off the ground.
“What the fuck are you doing on my floor?” Jude snarled.
The boy tried to say something, kicking his feet while his face turned bright red. Jude glared at him for a moment. Then with a disgusted noise, he released him and stepped back. The boy slid down the wall, gulping for air as he rubbed his neck. He looked up at Jude with watering eyes. He hadn’t once glanced Sophia’s way.
“I’m not here to cause trouble,” he panted. “I just got lost. I’m looking for the Sunshine Ward.”
“Someone like you shouldn’t even be around kids.”
“I’m way better at controlling it now, Jude,” he said, staggering to his feet. “I promise. It’s not---”
“Crawl back to your hole, you fucking maniac.”
“I can’t. I have to see----” He stopped, scowled, then looked away. It was only then that he noticed Sophia. “Who’re you?”
“Never mind who she is,” Jude snapped, shoving his shoulder so that the boy slammed into the wall again.
“Don’t touch me!” he yelled, swatting Jude’s hand away.
“You mean like this?” Jude shouted as he backhanded him across the face.
They were grappling and swinging before Sophia could blink twice. Her first impulse was to call for a staff member, but then she decided against it. What would they do but drag everyone back to their rooms, and possibly limit their free time in the future? No thanks. Besides, even she could tell their fighting wasn’t serious. They punched like they were swatting flies. It was clear that neither of them had ever been in a fist fight before. The damage they’d incur to each other would be minimal. She folded her arms and leaned against the wall, watching them. After a few minutes, they started to slow down. Jude fell back against the wall, nursing a bruised eye; the other boy leaned forward on his knees, panting through a bloody lip.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Finished?” Sophia asked. They both looked up at her.
“For now,” Jude growled.
“You good? Or did you wanna take a swing at me too?” she asked the boy.
He straightened up, looking at her curiously while he wiped his bloody mouth with the back of his hand.
“Despite what he thinks---” he jerked his head in Jude’s direction--- “I don’t go around hurting people for the hell of it.”
“That’s good, because I’m shit in a fight. I’m Sophia Montgomery.”
“Liam Kennedy. And sorry, did you say Montgomery? Was your mother named Evelyn?”
A hard knot tightened in her chest. She nodded.
“I see,” Liam said. He was looking at her with sudden wariness.
“Did…did you know her?”
“She was one of my doctors.”
“Sorry to butt in, kids, but I think we’ve lost track of the general point,” Jude said angrily. “Which is you fucking back to the Basement, Kennedy.”
“I already told you, I can’t. I want to visit someone first.”
“Who?” Sophia asked. "Maybe we can help you find them.”
“The hell we will,” Jude snarled.
“But the sooner we get him out of here, the sooner he’ll fuck off to the Basement,” Sophia said innocently. Jude looked at her through narrowed eyes. Then he turned on his heel and began to walk down the hall, waving his hand non-committedly through the air.
“You’re dangerous, Sophia Montgomery,” he said without turning around.
Sophia gestured to Liam, and the two of them hurried after Jude’s stomping form.
“Thanks," said Liam. "I haven't checked up on this friend for a while."
“She’s probably better off,” Jude piped up.
Liam glowered at his back. Sophia noticed he was curling and uncurling his fists. His tone, however, was even as he went on.
“Her name’s Samantha. She a really sweet kid. I just wanna make sure she’s doing okay. The last few months have been rough for her. Her new treatment plan is making her powers act out.”
“That sucks. What can she do?”
“She’s a shapeshifter.”
Sophia stopped walking and stared at him. “You’re not talking about Basement Samantha, are you?”
Liam stopped and stared at her as well. “You know her?”
“…kind of. But wait, what would she be doing in the Sunshine Ward? Doesn’t she live down there with you?”
“Sometimes they let the younger Basement residents stretch their legs a bit.”
“But I’m pretty sure Kennedy here doesn’t have that privilege,” Jude said over his shoulder. “How’d you even get out of your room?”
“What, you’ve never picked your lock?”
“That’s none of your business, shithead.”
“Put your dicks away, boys,” Sophia said. “Nobody has to prove anything. Let’s just find the Sunshine Ward.”
They stopped at a pair of glass doors. Every inch of the glass looked like had been painted by kids: there were drawings of yellow suns, spooly clouds, smiley faces, balloons, smiling stick figures.
“Here you go. Have a nice life then,” Jude said, turning around abruptly and ungraciously. He started to walk away without bothering to see if Sophia was following him. She wished she could talk to Liam a bit more, but she didn’t know her way around as well as Jude. She waved at him as she turned away.
“It was nice meeting you, Liam. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
Liam smiled and returned her wave. But his eyes followed Jude down the hall.
***
Sophia was late to her Mastery Session the next day. She had fallen asleep in the lobby during her free period and had a nightmare. She wasn’t the one lying on the bed this time. She was the one standing over someone: herself. She felt the way her duplicate squirmed as she wordlessly disemboweled them with her own hand.
Clara looked up from her clipboard when Sophia bustled into the room, breathless.
“What time is it, Sophia?”
“I know, I’m sorry, I---”
“Answer me, please.”
“It’s one o’clock.”
“And when was our appointment?”
“Twelve-thirty. I fell asleep---”
“Let’s start,” Clara said curtly, pointing at the person on the bed. Sophia threw her a filthy look before turning her gaze to her newest guinea pig. Her anger evaporated, replaced with shock. It was Liam.
“I can’t---” she began, then she stopped. She’d been about to say “because I know him” before she remembered that their meeting had been an unauthorized jaunt to a floor that wasn’t theirs. Not to mention the fact that Liam wasn’t supposed to be wandering around like that. And she probably wasn’t supposed to let him, let alone help him out on his secret missions.
“More scruples?” Clara said coldly.
“Oh, y-yeah, sorry.” She went to stand next to the bed. She could feel Clara’s intense stare on the back of her head. She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and entered his mind.
It was easier to navigate than Samantha’s and Jack’s had been—but only a little. She fought laboriously to reach the darkest corners, calling out to the small divots bubbling within the blurry, incoherent spheres of his early childhood. When she drifted as far back as she could, she saw a particularly blurry memory. But before she could select it, she was suddenly seized by another. It took by surprise and she had no time to fight it off; it sucked her into its vortex like water through a straw:
They are sprawled on slushy winter ground. Their staring eyes are marbles wedged into heads bent at crooked angles, stuck on top of necks in shapes they shouldn't be, connected to limbs sticking out like needles in a ball of yarn, unnatural and long. He screams their names but nobody answers. His words turn into sobs and the sobs choke him and after a while he doesn't know if he's saying the names our loud or just thinking them.
Momma Pops Frankie Emma Sue.
Momma Pops Frankie Emma Sue.
What has he done?
The Bearded Man was leaning over him. He seemed full of needles; they dripped out of his mouth and eyes and crawled out of his gums like metallic insects. Everything looked swollen and dark. Misshapen shadows crawled toward him, but when he cried out they vanished. The doctors told him they’d never been there, but he didn’t believe them, he didn’t believe anything they said.
The edges of his vision were so blurry. He stared sluggishly at the flowered wallpaper, the purple petals spreading out in every direction, a constellation of bruises.
Their anger seeped through the room like water from a sack. He shrank from it and tried to turn his aching head away from their burning, dark-eyed gaze. Those eyes were like black ice.
A sharp chemical smell filled his nostrils. He choked.
“.…baby…it’ll be okay... sweetie…”
Cool hands stroked his forehead and then they were snatched away. Something sharp pierced his flesh and his arm burned .
Someone was screaming down the hall, high-pitched animal wails that made the hair on his neck stand up.
“Get Camilla…get the…”
Light burst into the room. Bars of butter fell across the floor. His eyes stung.
“.…sweet boy…”
A little girl was sitting in a rocking chair, blonde and wide-eyed and eyeing him nervously. She reminds him of Emma. He hands her his cupcake.
Clip-clip-clop. The steady sound of high heels.
His finger bent funny. He willed it to move. It crunched a little as it tipped sideways. Fear ripped through his chest. What had they put inside of him?
The memory ended in a swirl of darkness. Her eyes shot open. She was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. It had been Xavier Coppula. The bearded man leaning over Liam in his memory, she was positive. She had seen that face many time in her Rolodex of nightmares, marred with blood and potpourri. And that flowered room was the same…and who was Camilla?
“Did you get enough?” Clara interrupted her train of thought. “Or do you need to go back in?”
Sophia tried to pick up on her mental signal, hoping she could catch snatches of the doctor’s thoughts once more. But no luck. She was absurdly disappointed. Then she had a flash of inspiration: maybe she could draw some thoughts out instead of waiting for them to appear.
“There were some...strange memories in there,” she said, rubbing her head and speaking slowly, as if she were discombobulated. “Really strange.”
She sneaked a peak at Clara, waiting for her to react. The doctor’s eyes were flat and expressionless.
“Like I’ve mentioned before,” she said smoothly, “I wouldn’t put too much trust in early memories, especially those of the Defectives from the Basement Complex. Good afternoon, Sophia. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
***
Sophia picked her bedroom lock that night and went for another midnight stroll through the silent hallways. She’d been trying to locate the blue door again for the last few nights. She could still hear that awful sobbing in her dreams; the sound interwove through her nightmares like strands of notes from a demonic choir.
As she rounded a corner, lost in thought, she bumped into something hard and warm. She sprang back with a strangled cry, her heart in her throat. It took a few moments for her to recognize the person standing there. Her stomach dropped.
“Well isn’t this a lovely surprise?” Jack drawled. He cocked his head to one side as his eyes scanned her face with the detachment of someone watching a zoo animal pick its nose behind the glass. A dusting of soft blonde hair fell into his eyes, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
“I hear you visited me a bit ago,” he went on, after a tense silence had passed between them.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t take much of anything.”
His face was partially concealed by shadows, but the part she could see was impassive and pale.
“Why not?” he said with a little laugh that sent a chill up her spine.
“It was hard to separate important memories from the less significant ones. So I left them all be.”
“How very noble.”
Another silence. She wondered if he was going to move on, but he just stood there like a statue, staring at her.
“You didn’t need to go through all that trouble, love,” he said. His voice sounded strange; it was almost like he felt sorry for her. “You can take whatever you like. There’s nothing in my head I want to hold onto.”
“Not even Francis?”
One of Jack’s eyebrows went up. Other than that, his face showed no expression. They held one another’s gaze, stone-gray staring into warmed chocolate. Then he brushed past her and continued down the hall without looking back. Sophia watched him go, a strange combination of compassion and anger stirring in her heart.