The Mesmerized (31 page)

“Ava?” Minji gasped.

“She keeps crying for her mommy, but her
mommy can’t come get her. Are you going to help the baby go home?”
Ava tucked her arms around Minji’s neck and snuggled into her.

“Oh, Ava! It let you go!” Minji showered her
daughter with kisses, joy burning in her chest.

“She’s just scared, Mommy. The bad people
took her away from her mommy. And when her mommy came to get her,
they tried to hurt her mommy. The baby was so scared, she thought a
bad thing and it happened.” Ava’s bottom lip trembled. “She didn’t
mean to do the bad thing. She really didn’t.”

“I know, sweetie. I know.” Minji swept Ava’s
thick curls back from her face. It was a relief to see her
daughter’s personality filling her sweet features.

“I want to see the baby, Mommy. Can I see
the baby before she goes home?”

“You need to stay in here,” Alec said in a
firm voice. “There’s a bad man outside.”

“But the baby feels sick. I want to give her
a toy to make her feel better,” Ava protested.

“It’s probably hungry and needs to go home,”
Minji said while hoisting Ava onto her hip. She never wanted to let
her daughter out of her arms again until maybe college.

Alec worked feverishly at the array of
instruments, checking screens, reading the tablet, darting back and
forth while flipping switches and hitting buttons.

“How soon?”

“A few more minutes,” Alec answered.

Minji slanted her upper body to look out the
thick glass windows at the clear plastic tent. She could barely
make out something moving about in the incubator. A part of her
wanted to see the child, but she was also a little afraid. A long
shadow flowed along the floor outside. It took Minji a second to
realize it was cast by someone walking along the side of the
building so their body was illuminated by some of the stronger
lights.

“He’s out there,” Minji gasped.

Arthur stepped into view, the weapon he
stole from the dead soldier clasped in one hand. Bouncing nervously
on the balls of his feet, he didn’t appear to see Alec and Minji
inside the control booth. Arthur’s head swiveled back and forth as
he studied the vast room, then started toward the tent.

“Mommy, what’s he going to do?” Ava
whimpered.

“Stay here, Ava,” Minji ordered, setting her
daughter down.

“You can’t go out there!” Alec whipped
about. “He’ll shoot you.”

“Finish what you’re doing,” Minji replied,
jerking the key card out of her pocket.

“Minji—”

“If he kills the baby, I won’t be able to
live with myself. And we’re not even sure if we can close the door
all the way if the mother is partially wedged in it, right? Which
means we’ll still have to open the door and she’ll find the baby
dead!” Minji swiped the card over the glass and the door hissed
open.

“Take my gun.” Alec held out his weapon.

“It won’t do me any good. I have no idea how
to shoot it.”

Minji slipped through the doorway and ran
quietly to the corner. Peeking around it, she saw Arthur walking
cautiously toward the tent. Unzipping her boots, she slid her feet
out then tugged off her socks. The floor was cold, but she was able
to move quietly on her bare toes.

Arthur was so intent on the baby he appeared
oblivious to his surroundings. Body visibly shaking, his footfalls
thumped heavily against the concrete floor and echoed through the
room, obliterating even the slightest sound of Minji creeping along
behind him. When he reached the tent, he stepped over the numerous
bodies surrounding it, shoved back the flap, and stepped into the
plastic tunnel that led to the interior.

Crouching, Minji glanced at the control
room. The windows reflected the overhead light, obscuring Alec. On
her toes, Minji edged toward the entrance to the tent, ignoring the
tacky feel of the drying blood against her skin. Arthur’s sobs of
despair were muffled by the plastic. The obviously distraught man
wiped at his face with his hands when he reached the antechamber
inside. Unable to push open the doorway flaps, he tucked his weapon
into his belt and fumbled with the zipper that bisected the
door.

Seeing an opportunity, Minji hurtled through
the long tube and tackled Arthur just as he finished. Together they
tumbled into the inner room, crashing against the incubator. It
wobbled but stayed erect. The plastic floor was slippery and Minji
fought to find traction as Arthur scrabbled at her body, trying to
grapple her.

“Stupid bitch!” he roared.

Managing to roll onto her side, she kicked
him using the inside of her ankle, knocking him aside. Arthur
recovered then lunged for her. He’d obviously never been in a real
fight. Instead of hitting her to keep her down, he attempted to pin
her with both hands. Spittle flew from his reddened lips as he
screamed obscenities. Minji hit him with a firm uppercut and bucked
her hips to throw him off balance. Enraged, Arthur unleashed
furious blows at her face, but Minji got her arms up, blocking him.
One hard shove with her feet lifted her thighs off the ground and
sent him toppling over onto the floor.

Minji bounced up and slipped into her boxing
position. Arthur crawled to his knees and dragged the weapon out of
his waistband. She’d been waiting for this move and before he could
even lift it all the way to aim, she kicked his wrist, landing a
solid blow. The firearm sailed across the tent and smashed into the
plastic wall, then slid to the floor.

“We need to kill it!” Arthur screeched. “We
need to kill it like it killed our families!”

“Stay back, Arthur. I will hurt you.”

“Do you want us all to die?” Arthur howled
in despair. “Do you?”

“I want us to live, Arthur. I want all of us
to live.”

Face red with fury, Arthur started to stand,
but Minji lashed out with a well-placed kick, flattening him again.
Instead of attempting to rise, Arthur scrambled across the floor to
the fallen firearm. Minji darted around the incubator hoping to
beat him to it, but his hand closed over the pistol and lifted it
just as she reached him. Aiming the gun at her, Arthur’s eyes
dangerously glinted as he got to his feet.

“You’re a traitor, Minji. I always knew it,”
Arthur hissed. Taking a sharp step to one side, he put the
incubator squarely between them.

It was the first time Minji was able to
clearly see a creature twisting about with countless limbs, eyes,
and tentacles. It was not one color, but many. Its form was so
chaotic her mind had difficulty comprehending what she was seeing.
Frozen at the sight of the child, Minji forgot Arthur even existed
as one long, delicate tendril lifted to touch her hand. It
shimmered like light caught in a dewdrop and tears formed in her
eyes. It was beautiful, terrible, majestic, and horrible.

With a strangled cry, Arthur aimed the
weapon at the child.

“Don’t!” Minji ordered, flinging out one
hand.

The invisible tendrils of icy power rushed
out of the tiny being and slashed through the air. Minji sensed
them reaching for Arthur and a second later, the gun fell from his
grip as his face slackened. Enough time had passed that the child
could once more attack those who threatened it.

The exquisite appendage wrapped around
Minji’s wrist. It was almost painfully cold, but she endured it.
Writhing pearlescent tendrils, reflecting every color, or maybe
were every color, looped around her arm. With graceful gentleness,
the baby tugged itself into Minji’s embrace. Stunned, Minji allowed
it to do as it willed, uncertain she could have tossed it way if
she wanted. The multitude of limbs encompassed her torso and
something that could have been a head brushed under her chin. The
sensation was akin to running cold silk over her flesh. The sounds
issuing forth from the being made her want to weep with joy and
scream in fear. It was both comforting and overwhelming. The child
nestled against her and gradually her senses acclimated to the
point where she could draw a breath.

The air was so icy.

In awe, Minji carried the infant out of the
tent, through the tube, and out into the massive room. Facing the
control room, she trembled.

“Alec! Alec!” Minji cried out.

There was a short hiss, then Alec’s voice
over the intercom said, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. We’re both fine. It – she
–managed to stop Arthur.”

“I’m about to open the doorway. You need to
get out of there.”

“I have to give her baby back, Alec.”

“Minji, for Christ’s sake... there are
safety protocols and...” Alec’s face was slightly distorted by the
thick glass and she saw him shake his head.

“It came to me. Crawled into my arms,” Minji
replied. “I can’t turn it away.”

The tiny patter of little feet drew Minji’s
attention to Ava as she crossed the concrete floor with purpose. In
one hand she held her Merida doll. Minji started to chastise her,
then realized there was no point. Ava and the
other
had
shared a body and mind. There was a bond between them.

“It’s sick, Mommy. Will it get better back
home?” Ava asked.

“I hope so,” Minji answered.

The child cooed in her arms, a sound that
set her teeth on edge, made her skin crawl, and caused her hair
stand on end.

Ava lifted the doll to the creature in her
mother’s arms. “You can take it. I can get another one.”

Multiple strands of glass-like flesh snagged
the doll and lifted it toward what Minji suspected was a face.

Ava giggled.

“Minji...” Alec’s voice sounded weary and
fearful. “I’m going to open the doorway.”

“Ava, go back to Alec. Mommy needs to do
this, okay?”

Lightly stroking the
other’s
many
tentacle-like appendages, Ava nodded. “Okay, Mommy.”

The little girl turned on her heel and
walked back.

“It takes a playmate from another world to
get her to obey.”

With the shake of her head, Minji attempted
to study the creature in her arms, but again she found it nearly
impossible to truly absorb and understand what she was observing.
It was so beyond the realm of reality, her mind could not process
the creature’s true appearance.

“Minji...”

“Do it, Alec.”

Somewhere deep in the walls came a
terrifying booming, then the air began to vibrate. Teeth chattering
from the resonance, Minji stood her ground, clutching the child
from another world. Loud blasts of air and sound deafened her
seconds before spots formed in her eyes. Blinking rapidly, she
realized they weren’t in her vision, but in the air. Like bubbles
bursting at the top of a glass of soda, the fabric of reality
popped open to reveal something cold, vast, and pulsating with
sound and color.

The doorway looked nothing like a door, a
portal, or anything she’d seen in movies. Her mind processed it as
a rip in the air, even as her senses told her she was standing on a
precipice. In the corner of the tear, a tendril, as delicate as
spun glass, clung to the reality of the human world. This was what
had kept the doorway partially open. This is what had allowed the
mother to influence the human world. Minji had been right. The
mother had reached for its infant just before the scientists had
tried to close the doorway. It was through this tiny rip in reality
that she’d destroyed so much of the human world in an effort to
retrieve her child.

And then the mother appeared.

Once again, Minji’s senses couldn’t absorb
the splendor of the being. She tasted its colors, heard its
fragrance, and felt its voice. Feet leaving the ground, she tumbled
into the center of its terrible existence. The air was alive with
its essence and it flowed around her like the water of the rapids,
crashing against Minji like a boulder in its fury. Minji knew it to
the core of her being that the mother of the infant in her arms
meant her no harm though it could crush her body and toss her away
like rose petals. It was angry, hurt, and still thankful.

“I’m sorry,” Minji said, but wasn’t certain
she spoke aloud.

A massive tentacle wrapped around Minji for
a scant moment. Blinded for an instant, Minji heard the voice of
the being, understood its purpose, and trembled at its words. Then,
very gently, the mother tugged the child from Minji’s arms while
setting the human on the ground.

The mother and child withdrew from the
world, the plastic doll standing out among the mass of luminous
light and colors. The mother slithered into the miasma of ethereal
noise and glowing color. Its many limbs retreated, writhing through
the air around Minji until they, too, withdrew.

Then one last limb slid past Minji carrying
a blubbering, terrified Arthur.

“No!” Minji cried out, but it was too
late.

Arthur vanished into the other world with
one last scream.

The thunderous noise in the walls shut off,
the undulating air fell still, and reality reclaimed the
doorway.

Shaken, Minji slumped to the floor shivering
from the freezing temperature within the room and weeping in the
aftermath of what she’d witnessed. She wasn’t even aware of Ava’s
approach until her daughter was in her arms, kissing her, and
patting her cheeks.

“It’s okay, Mommy. It’s okay. They went
home,” Ava whispered.

Wracked by tears, Minji could barely speak.
“I know, Ava.”

“Can we go home, too?” Ava asked
hopefully.

Dragging a deep breath of cold air into her
lungs to steady her nerves, Minji nodded. “Yes, Ava.”

“With Daddy and Bailey?”

“Yes. Yes. With Daddy and Bailey.” Minji
forced a smile.

Ava beamed affectionately at her mother.
“Can I have more tattoos now? Mine got all gone.”

Minji snuggled her daughter. “We’ll ask
Daddy.”

The mesmerized awakened the moment the
doorway between the two worlds closed. Outside the first facility,
the crowd stirred in one great wave. Cries of fear and shock filled
the night as people found themselves far from home, famished,
dehydrated, and among complete strangers. Some fell to the ground,
too weak to stand. Others sobbed in terror, a hazy memory of a
beautiful, yet horrific dream haunting their thoughts. People of
faith prayed. Others screamed in terror. Many were too stunned upon
finding themselves stranded in the dark desert to do anything more
than wait for someone to help them.