Forsaken (19 page)

“
Hello?”

“
Is Alex Wright
available?” a female voice said on the other end.

“
This is him,” I answered
as I looked around the house. I was nearly done with all the
remodeling.

“
This is Sandra from St.
Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham. Do you know a Jessica
Bailey?”

My stomach suddenly dropped out. I
wanted to throw up. “Yes. She’s my girlfriend.”

“
There’s been an accident.
She’s in the emergency room right now. You should come down as soon
as possible.”

“
I’m on my way right now,”
I said as I locked the front door behind me.

It was amazing I didn’t get a speeding
ticket as I screeched down the streets. Horrible visions filled my
head as I couldn’t push the truck fast enough. Was she okay? How
badly had she been injured? What had happened?

But what if she hadn’t been hurt? I’d
seen her heal before my own eyes. There hadn’t even been any
blood.

I parked across three spaces as I
pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. Moving faster than I
should have, I sprinted through the doors of the emergency
room.

“
I’m here to see Jessica
Bailey,” I said to the girl who sat at the reception
counter.

“
She’s in room 124,” she
told me as she looked something up on the computer, after asking
for my name. “Officer Barrington is here to talk to
you.”

I turned around and saw the police
officer that had been standing in one corner of the waiting room. I
shook his hand as he extended it to me.

“
Is she okay?” I asked, my
voice frantic as we walked down the hall.

“
It was a really bad
accident,” he said, his face grim. “She and the other boy were just
getting into Ferndale when it happened.”

“
Wait,” I said as I paused
in the hall. “Other boy?”

“
Miss Bailey was in the
car with a boy she works with. They were driving his car, running a
delivery I believe.”

“
Austin?” I asked. Even as
I did I glanced into the room to my right and saw a nurse propping
a pillow under the very guy’s right arm. His eyes met mine, panic
seeping into them.

“
I’m so sorry, Alex,” he
said, anxiety about to overtake him. “It was an accident. I’m so
sorry!”

My eyes grew wide and panic filled me.
“Jessica!” I yelled as I turned and ran down the hall, my eyes
searching franticly for room number 124. “Jessica!” I bellowed
again as I half fell through the right door.

She was lying on the bed, her eyes
closed, her hair fanned out around her face. Monitors beeped and
there were tubes hooked up to her arms.

“
Is she alright?” I half
whispered as I stood five feet away from the bed. I couldn’t seem
to make myself move any closer.

“
It’s nothing short of a
miracle she made it out of there. A witness says she saw the car
fly about fifteen feet before it hit the ground. It rolled about
five times before it landed on the roof. The boy was thrown from
the car almost immediately. He has a broken arm but is fine other
than that.

“
Jessica was trapped
inside. She was knocked unconscious. We had to use the Jaws of Life
to pry her out. The car basically balled around her. I honestly
don’t know how it didn’t crush her to death.”

I bit my lower lip, squeezing my eyes
closed for a minute. Just then there was a knock at the door and a
graying man in a white lab coat stepped in.

“
I’m Dr. Russell,” he said
as he shook my hand. “I’ve been assigned to Miss
Bailey.”

“
Is she okay?” I asked, my
insides quivering. I felt like I was going to shatter at any
moment.

“
Excuse me,” the policeman
said as he stepped toward the door. “I have to go talk to the boy
again.” He closed the door behind him.

“
Is she okay?” I asked
again.

It was a few seconds before Dr.
Russell spoke. “This is nothing short of a miracle, Mr. Wright. The
EMT’s told us that Jessica was completely wrapped up on the remains
of the car. She really shouldn’t have survived.”

“
But she’s okay?” I felt
like screaming at the man. I just wanted to know if Jessica was
alright and no one would answer me straight.

“
Jessica doesn’t have a
scratch on her,” the doctor whispered as he glanced at her still
form. “Not a broken bone, not a cut or even a bruise.”

I cursed under my breath as I looked
back at Jessica.

“
We’ve taken x-rays of
most of Jessica’s body. Forgive me for saying this, but this woman
has the most perfect body I have ever seen. I don’t see evidence of
a single broken bone, ever. And her structural make up, well,
bodies like this just don’t exist. She’s… well,
perfect.”

My vocal cords didn’t seem to want to
work as I just stared at her. I was terrified.

“
She’s just resting right
now. She woke up for a few minutes earlier but she was disoriented.
I think her body’s trying to recover right now, despite the lack of
damage.

“
We would like to keep
Miss Bailey here overnight for observation. If everything goes well
I see no reason why she couldn’t go home in the
morning.”

I gave a nod to indicate that I had
heard him.

“
I’ll give you some time
alone with her. Things are going to be alright, Mr. Wright. She’s
perfectly fine.” The doctor laid a hand on my shoulder, giving me
one of those all too familiar searching stares. After a moment he
let himself out.

Jessica may have been
perfect but that just proved she was not
fine
.

I finally moved to Jessica’s side,
pulling a chair up close to her bed. I took one of her small hands
in mine and pressed my lips to her knuckles. It terrified me to see
her like this, looking so helpless.

She belongs with
us…

You must return…

We are waiting…

The whispers built up slowly, so quiet
that I didn’t even realize they were there at first. They grew in
intensity. They became hurried, frantic. Excited. I closed my eyes,
focusing everything I had into pushing them out.

My breath caught in my chest as my
insides started to quake. Everything inside of me felt like it was
shifting, disappearing and reforming again. My hands shook and I
had to let go of Jessica’s hand to keep from crushing
it.

I braced my hands on the edge of her
bed, my head hanging between my arms. I gave a gasping breath,
trying to force air in and out of my lungs that felt like they
weren’t there anymore.

“
No,” I said through
clenched teeth. “No.”

The whispering built in intensity,
becoming chaotic. I couldn’t even distinguish actual words. But I
was getting their message loud and clear.

“
Alex?”

Air flooded my lungs and my insides
felt whole again as everything dropped away and my head jerked up.
Jessica was looking at me with her wide hazel eyes.

“
Jessica!” I cried in
relief as I pulled her into my arms.

“
Where am I?” she asked as
she returned my embrace and looked around. “What
happened?”

I sat back a bit, hovering at the edge
of the bed. “There was an accident.”

I saw the memories come back to
Jessica before I even finished my sentence. “The semi. The car
flipped. Austin flew out the window. Is he okay?” Her tone was
suddenly panicked.

“
He broke an arm but other
than that I think he’s fine,” I said as I brushed a stray hair
behind her ear.

Jessica took in her surroundings
again. “I’m in the hospital.” It was a terrified statement. “I
can’t be here Alex. There’s something wrong with me. They’re going
to find out.”

I glanced at the closed door, my
insides knotting up. She was right. I had to get her out of here.
Now.

I jumped up from the bed, digging
through every drawer and cupboard. “Here,” I said as I found
Jessica’s clothes. “Put these on.”

She didn’t protest or even say
anything. She just got out of the bed, keeping her backside covered
as best she could with the hospital gown. I turned around as she
pulled her clothes on.

“
They’re going to ask
questions,” she said. “What have they seen?”

I squeezed my eyes closed. “Enough.”
Too much.

I didn’t realize she had finished
getting dressed until she stepped around in front of me. Her face
was tight with mixed emotions.

“
They can’t know whatever
they might have seen,” she said as she looked up into my eyes. I
could see the conflict in her own. “You’re going to have to fix
this.”

“
What?” I asked, my brow
furrowing.

“
They can’t remember I’ve
been here. None of them.” Jessica’s face was stark
white.

I swallowed hard as I stared back at
her. “I’m not like him. I can’t do that. It’s wrong.”

Jessica bit her lower lip, her eyes
dropping away from my face for a moment. When she looked back up at
me they were tight. “They can’t know. There’s something wrong with
me Alex. They’ll do whatever they have to to figure it
out.”

And I knew she was right. Dr. Russell
would start to wonder what was going on with Jessica. He had seen
proof on the x-ray that there was something off. She was too
perfect.

“
I don’t want to do this,”
I said with a quivering voice.

“
I know,” she said, her
voice husky sounding. We stared at each other for several loaded
moments. “I’ll wait in the truck.”

I felt my insides harden as I watched
her go out the door. It felt as if the afterlife had sunk their
claws further into me. I was getting forced into being what I
was.

My jaw was clenched as I walked out
the door and into the hall, all traces of Jessica gone. I walked
down the hall and stepped into the room I had seen Austin
in.

“
Alex, I’m so sorry,” he
started in again.

“
For what?” I asked. I was
focusing everything I had toward Austin. “You have nothing to
apologize for. You were in an accident.”

Austin’s face was saturated with
confusion as he looked back at me. “The car. Jessica almost came on
the delivery with me. She would have been killed if she’d
come!”

“
Get better soon, Austin,”
I said as I started back toward the door. I paused with my hand on
the doorknob and looked back at him. My insides felt
sick.

“
Thanks for coming to see
me,” Austin said with a small smile. “You’re a good guy,
Alex.”

I couldn’t even return the smile as I
gave a nod and stepped out.

I didn’t feel like a good guy after
altering Austin’s memories. It was wrong to mess with people’s
heads.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

JESSICA

He hovered above me, his eyes gleaming
black, the excitement and anticipation blurring their focus. His
hands stroked both my arms softly, sending shivers down my spine.
As his lips brushed mine, my pulse raced and my own hands brushed
his bare back, my fingers rising and falling over the coiled
muscles. They froze as I felt the feathers.

My eyes, which had started closing in
blissful anticipation, shot open, gaping wide at the ones that
stared back at me. Black, not steely gray.

I wanted to scream as Cole’s hands
continued their exploration of my skin. And just when I thought I
could bear it no longer without screaming, it wasn’t me he was
touching anymore. The woman I was watching him with seemed to be
enjoying what was about to happen.

With morbid curiosity I watched as
Cole reached for something, realizing it was a length of rope. The
woman seemed blissfully unaware of whatever it was Cole intended to
do with it or that he even had something in his hand. Before I even
understood what was happening, Cole had the rope wrapped around her
neck before she could even scream.

Sweat covered me as I woke up,
panting, my insides squirming in disgust. I felt dizzy and the
branded X on the back of my neck prickled slightly.

I was glad to see that Alex wasn’t
lying beside me. Alex didn’t need to see me having nightmares. It
just wasn’t fair to him. When I looked at the clock and saw that it
was already ten, I knew why he wasn’t still there. It was Saturday
and Rod liked to go play basketball on his day off. It probably
wouldn’t be too long before he would come home. Alex needed a
distraction too. Ever since he had made everyone at the hospital
forget I was even there he’d been off. I didn’t blame him. There
was something wrong with messing with people’s heads.

As if these new nightmares
weren’t disturbing enough, I had the sickening feeling that they
weren’t just nightmares. They felt so real and they were
so
vivid. Each one had
been slightly different yet all too similar, all five of them.
Every one started with Cole charming the woman in the dream, always
starting out as me, followed by some romantic escapade that
included having a portrait painted of myself. Just as it seemed I
was unwittingly about to make love to Cole it thankfully wasn’t me
anymore and Cole choked the life out of the other woman. He
murdered them.