As soon as they got back to the apartment, Mary locked the door and collapsed into an armchair. Her pale face was shiny with sweat. Sophia remained standing by the door. The whole scene was glazed with surrealism; it was like she was watching something play out on T.V. She felt numb, her mind reeling with the shock of the last hour. Then, gradually, that shock gave way to anger, and she was the one who broke the silence.
“Mary. Who was that man?”
“No one.”
“Really?” Sophia’s voice sagged with acidic bewilderment. “Do random strangers often try to chuck you into the back of their cars?”
Mary didn’t answer. She was staring at the opposite wall, a pensive frown on her face. Then she sighed. “Fine. Look, you---don’t tell Sybill I mentioned any of this, okay?”
Sophia stared at her in astonishment. Could she make that promise? Mary sighed and went on without waiting for confirmation:
“That man is named Doctor Reynolds. And the man who did that stuff to the ground is named Isaac. They work together. They want to take us back to the Institute.”
“The what?”
Mary leaned forward, clasping her hands between her knees. When she finally spoke again, her voice was pained and halting, like every word was a jagged stone working its way up her throat.
“Reynolds calls it a treatment facility, but really it’s just a house for freaks like us. As far as I know, your sister was never a resident herself, but she was really scared you would be locked up there because of your power.”
“You said ‘take us back.’ Have I been there before?”
“On and off.” Mary rubbed her forehead with a tired sigh. “It was turning into a long-term arrangement. Sybill asked me to help you guys run away and in exchange, she helped me escape from there. I had been there for a while and I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Wait.” Sophia rubbed her forehead. Her thoughts moved like mud through her skull. “Why would Sybill care if I was going somewhere that could help me with my powers? Even if it was long term.”
“Because that place doesn’t help anybody with shit. My dad just uses it as a front for his sick curiosities.”
“Dad?”
Mary looked startled for a minute, then she heaved another sigh. “I’m Doctor Reynolds’ daughter. My name is actually Felicity.”
“So why’d you tell me it was Mary?”
“Just a precaution.”
Sophia’s mounting curiosity outweighed any anger she felt over being lied to. She processed this new information and moved on.
“You said this is a place for freaks like us. What do you mean? What sort of people are there?”
“All kinds. There’s this one girl I know who can mimic other people’s forms. She does it by stripping the skin from a person’s body and then consuming their flesh.”
Sophia gaped at her, speechless. Felicity went on:
“I know that’s kinda messed up, but the treatments my father does is…” She shook her head, a grim expression on her face. “Like, that girl…she’s just a kid, right? But they don’t care. They stuck her in a cell by herself for months and kept her sedated. At one point she was chained to the floor like some kind of animal. She was so drugged up she couldn’t even go to the bathroom on her own, and her room always smelled like piss and shit. And they do that will all the kids. I know some little boys there who have the ability to absorb the blood of anyone near them. Dad’s solution was to stick them in freezers and put them in some kind of sleep. I think that quack had been planning on lobotomizing them at some point. The only reason he didn’t was because their parents started visiting and he didn’t want a lawsuit.”
Felicity’s whole body was shaking, her face black with anger.
“My dad’s so-called wellness facility doesn’t help anyone master their skills or learn more about themselves. His idea of treating me was to stick needles through my eyelids and inject me with something that made me so high I couldn’t even tell you where my own ass was. I was awake---mentally anyway---but otherwise physically incapacitated. It was awful. I would’ve been better off dead. Can you blame Sybill for wanting to keep you out of there?”
Sophia swallowed something thick and hard that was rising in her throat. Her head was starting to heart; the mud in her skull oozed around blocks of information that she struggled to absorb.
“Where is this place anyway? How come I’ve never heard of it?”
“I don’t know the exact location. It’s not like they advertise on Craigslist. It gets all of its business from word of mouth, and the people who are lucky enough to leave---officially---have to sign NDAs.”
“But your dad runs it. How could you not have at least some idea where---”
“Dad has people working for him, people like us. They do things to shield the location and keep us inside.”
“So how did you escape?”
“Like I said. Sybill helped me.”
“Yeah, I get that, but how?”
“We don’t have time to sit around like this anymore,” Felicity said, standing up. “We have to free Sybill and get you both the hell out of here. Right now.”
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“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine.” Felicity chewed her lip, the pensive frown returning to her face. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. You wait here. Lock the doors and don’t go out, not even to eat. You’ll live a day without sucking brains, right? I’ll have Sybill here by tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow?” Sophia repeated, startled. “But how---”
“Just trust me, honey,” Felicity said with a smile. “I’m good at thinking on my feet.”
July 16, Saturday
Sophia didn’t sleep well that night. Whenever she managed to drift off for just a few minutes, she was assaulted by the recurring nightmare about the blurry faces standing over her, watching silently as her innards were scooped out of her body. She woke up gasping and sweating, only to toss and turn for a few more hours before repeating the damn cycle all over again. When the pale slivers of dawn finally crept across the floor, Sophia got out of bed and started to pace. She had been at it for a few hours when she heard a sharp knock on the door. She flew across the room and wrenched it open.
Sybill was standing there, flanked by Mary and a tall blonde boy. Felicity introduced him as “Jack,” but Sophia barely spared him a glance before she flung herself onto her sister’s neck. Sybill wrapped her in a tight hug that lifted Sophia a few inches off the floor.
“Are you okay?” she said. “Have you been getting enough to eat? You look like shit.”
“I haven’t been sleeping,” Sophia said, laughing weakly as she pulled back and stared up into her sister’s face. “Are you actually here? I was starting to think I’d never see you again.”
Before Sybill could answer, Felicity hissed,
“You’ll have plenty of time for tearful reunions after everyone was safe. Let’s get out of here.”
“What?” Sophia looked at her, surprised. “Right now?”
“No, Sophia, after we have a going away party with all of the neighbors. Yes, fucking now. Jack, can you get us there?”
“I’m a bit wiped out right now,” the blonde boy said in a peevish voice. “We’ll have to be old fashioned and walk.”
Sophia didn’t know what that meant, but she decided not to care for the moment, reserving any commentary for when she was finally alone with Sybill again. There was going to plenty for them to talk about---and not all of it was going to be pleasant. The questions were already bubbling up in her mind: Why did you never tell me that there were other people out there like me? What actually happened the night we ran away from home? Why haven’t I been able to remember anything?
Felicity led them down a few flights of steps and then out into the muggy summer morning. They walked for what felt like hours, pausing frequently to rest their legs. Sophia had plenty of time to think, and she found her eyes wandering to the tall boy named Jack. The languid way he strolled down the sidewalk, hands in his pockets, like he was moving through honey; his heavy-lidded grey eyes; the feathers of dusty blonde hair that fell onto his long neck; the way his voice had the slightest hint of a Southern drawl. It all seemed vaguely familiar, but she wasn’t sure why. She was certain they had never met before.
“Where are we going to go?” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth, tearing her eyes away from Jack to look at her sister.
“As far away from here as we can,” Sybill whispered as they turned into Station Square and began to make their way across Bessemer Court. The fountain, splashing into its great stone basin, was the only sound Sophia could hear on the quiet summer air. The rest of the area was largely deserted. “We’ll just borrow some money---Felicity? What’s wrong?”
Felicity had stopped dead in her tracks. A silence fell on the group, an unnatural calm that made everything inside of Sophia grow cold.
“Oh dear,” Jack sighed, at the same time Felicity yelled “Fuck!” and started to run across the courtyard.
Sophia barely had time to process what was happening before she felt something wrap around her ankle. She was pulled to the ground and dragged yelling and clawing across the bricks. She twisted around on her back to see who was pulling her, only to realize with horror that it wasn’t a who, but a what. A thick brown vine---rough and hairy---was coiled around her leg. It was pulling her towards a tree---no, a man. He was covered in writhing vines, branches sprouting from his head and shoulders. Wreaths of leaves were entangled in his long dark hair and curling around his legs and torso. The only human thing about him was his eyes. They glittered in between the leaves like fat, black beetles.
“DROP HER!”
Sybill was suddenly at her side, tearing at the vines with her nails, a hideous expression of feral rage on her face. Sophia felt the bonds break and she scrambled to her feet. She started to run, but then noticed that her sister wasn’t following her.
Sybill had lunged at the tree-man instead.
His eyes popped in surprise and before he could react, she was already on him, gouging her fingers into his eye sockets. He yelled and thrashed, but his struggling only made Sybill claw with more ferocity. He desperately beat at her with the vines hanging off his wrist, his alarmed cries turning into roars of frustration and rage. Then Sybill suddenly went limp and collapsed heavily onto the ground. Sophia expected her to spring to her feet, but the seconds ticked by, and she didn’t move. Sophia rushed over to her.
Her heart stopped.
A thick branch was protruding from her sister’s body. Her head flopped on her chest as blood poured down her torso and trickled onto her legs. Unbelievably, she was still breathing---but barely. Sophia could hear her ragged gasps as she struggled to pull air into her failing lungs.
She’s okay. We’ll get that thing out of her and then we’ll run away to a new life, just the two of us, like we planned.
Sophia could hear the chaos still happening around her, Felicity’s angry screams, the guttural moans of agony from the tree-man, Jack’s high-pitched laughter. The noise broke over her, divorced from meaning, as insignificant as dust in a tornado. The center of reality was right in front of her, and it was ending.
A shadow fell over her. She heard the rustling of leaves and waited for the vines to dig into her flesh once more. But nothing happened. The tree-man just stood there. Waiting. Sophia realized he was letting her keep vigil until---
Her sister drew a long, choking breath that shook her entire body. Then she slumped forward and expelled several gelatinous, swirling bubbles, which slowly rotated and began to drift towards Sophia, coming at her with a solemn, bobbing finality. Sophia recoiled.
The tree-man grasped her by the shoulder and pulled her to her feet. She had no strength left to fight him off. He could’ve led her straight off a cliff. He half-carried, half-dragged her towards the main road, where a van was parked. The side door flung open. A woman Sophia didn’t recognize reached out and pulled her inside. She stumbled into thick darkness that smelled of leather and sweat. The windows were tinted, and as she groped her way through the blackness, she realized there weren’t any seats. She curled up into a fetal position on the floor. Then the door opened again; the light was blocked by tree-man’s silhouette and someone else was shoved next to her with a heavy thump. Sophia realized with horror that it was Sybill’s body when she saw the memory bubbles materialize in the blackness. She scooted frantically away from them, pressing herself against the windows, her arms extended as if to push them away.
Nnononononono, please, oh Christ, I’m not ready, nonono ---
The van door opened for a third time, and she had a split second to register Felicity and Jack struggling against their captors before they were forcefully thrust inside. Then the door slammed again. After a moment Jack started to softly hum to himself and Felicity began to snivel. But Sophia didn’t feel sorry for her; she wasn’t even annoyed at Jack’s baffling nonchalance. She felt nothing but the weight of her own agony and confusion as the bubbles swarmed around her.
The floor beneath her lurched, and the van began to move.