Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) (27 page)

“Wow. That was not at all how I thought this was going to go down,” Jason said, staring after her. He shook his head as he stood. “Follow me.”

Alec swallowed hard as we stood to follow. Marcus exited through the door we’d come in as we followed Jason out another door into a sterile looking hallway with tiled floors. Jason swiped his badge at a set of double doors and they swung open. We stepped through and then had to wait for the doors to close before he swiped his badge again to open a second set of doors. Waiting between the two sets of doors reminded me of standing in an elevator. I looked at Alec. He breathed too fast and his face was pale.

“Calm down,” I whispered. I laid my hand on his forearm to lend support.

He let out his next breath through pursed lips and nodded. “‘m fine.”

When the doors opened, we stepped into a large room where people in hospital gowns and other pajama-looking clothing milled about. None of them wore shoes, just those brown hospital socks with the sticky dots on the bottom. The room had a large television, a ping pong table, shelves of paperback books and board games. There were a couple of couches and soft chairs around the TV. The other chairs in the room were positioned around tables—both tables and chairs were bolted to the floor. Most of the patients seemed to be lost in their own, individual worlds, although, there were a few small groups who appeared to be attempting to converse with each other.

We walked through the common room and through a door marked
Chapel
. “Have a seat.” Jason gestured through the open door. “I’ll go get Natalie.”

The room was much softer than what we’d seen so far. Cozy even, with one couch, a coffee table, and a chair. The couch and chair were of matching leather and quite comfortable.

Natalie must have been close by. Jason returned with her as we settled ourselves on the couch.

“Natalie. This is your son, Alec, and his friend, Paige,” Jason used the kind of voice one uses when speaking to a small child.

“My… my son?” The beautiful woman’s voice was soft, meek. She looked from Alec, to me, to Jason, then back to Alec. “You look like
him
… like Trey. You look like him.” Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “Are you a monster, too?”

hh… no… no. I’m not like him,” Alec stammered. He half rose from his seat, then sat back down. I’m pretty sure I knew what was going through his mind, the same thing that was going through mine—
I don’t want to do anything to scare her or set her off.

She took a step backwards. “No. Not like him. But… something. Something different. Human. But more. Something more.”

The big nurse stepped closer to his patient. “Natalie? You okay? If this is too much for you we can cut it short.”

She patted his arm and shook her head. “I’m okay, Jason. They aren’t monsters. Just people… only better somehow.”

Alec and I exchanged glances. She knew. She could tell we were different just by looking at us.

Her quiet voice belied the fear in her eyes—which, looking back and forth between us, reminded me of a squirrel’s who’d been treed by a Rottweiler. “What are you two?”

Alec shot a quick glance at the nurse. “I’m your son, Alec.”

“Yes. My son. We have the same eyes.” Her voice quivered and she wiped her eyes. “But, what else?”

Again, Alec looked up at Jason before returning his gaze to his mom. “Isn’t that enough for now? That I’m your son, you’re my mom, and I’ve finally found you?”

Natalie pursed her lips and flicked her eyes sideways at Jason without moving her head. She nodded. “Yes. It’s enough… for now.” She stepped over to the chair and balanced on the very edge, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. She wore gray pants and a shirt that looked like the coupling of a nurse’s scrubs and an inmate’s jumpsuit. Even with the drab clothing and no makeup, she was a beautiful woman.

“So… how have you been?” Alec asked. His leg bounced up and down at warp speed.

Natalie laughed. Not, as I’d expected, the maniacal laugh of the insane. But, a melodic, somewhat nervous laugh that made me think of rain falling on the tin roof of my dad’s tool shed. “How’ve I been? You’ve probably been searching for me your entire life, and the first question you ask is ‘how have you been?’” She smiled. “I’ve been crazy. How have you been?”

Alec blushed and looked to me for help.

“Ms. Knight,” I began.

“Oh, Paige. Please call me Natalie.”

“Okay. Natalie, it’s wonderful to meet you. You’ll have to excuse Alec, he’s just a little nervous. Would it put you at ease to know that we know about Trey? What he did? Who he was?”

She looked down at her clasped hands and whispered, “Trey. Yes, he was…” Her eyes glazed over and she stared at nothing.

Alec cleared his throat. “Umm… Mom… Natalie? I’m sorry. For what he did to you.”

Her eyes refocused and she looked at Alec. “It wasn’t all bad. In fact, mostly it was wonderful. Except for the losing my mind part. That pretty much ruined my happily ever after. He treated me like a princess… until he left. Just left. No goodbye. That’s the hardest part. No goodbye. I had already started to see them, then. He found out. Then he left.” She spoke in barely a whisper. “I don’t blame him. Crazy is hard to live with.”

The rage I’d felt about his attempted invasion of my mind—my emotions—erupted anew. “He is to blame, Natalie. It’s his fault your mind is broken. He used you, and so many others, then left you to pick up what was left of the pieces—no super glue in sight.”

“I don’t understand.” She looked at me, confused. “What
others
? How is this”—she gestured at her head, hands fluttering—“his fault?”

I glanced at Jason, standing next to her chair, listening to every word. “He wasn’t what he seemed… what he made you think he was.” I looked at her, intent to make her understand. “He was a monster.”

She shook her head. “No. He loved me. He was
something
… but, not a monster, I would have seen it.”

“It’s not a good idea to talk about monsters with Natalie,” Jason interrupted. “In her world, monsters are real, not just a word used to describe an ex.”

Monsters are real in your world, too, you just don’t know it
.

Alec took it upon himself to change the subject. “I’m just really glad I found you. It’s good to talk to you and to know you’re alive.”

Natalie smiled. “You have no idea how good it is to see you. I think about you every day and wonder where you are. What you’re doing.” Her smile turned to a frown. “You probably hate me, don’t you? For leaving you? Where did you go? Who raised you?”

“I don’t hate you… anymore. I did before I knew better. When the only explanations for why you would have left me were all bad—she didn’t want me, she’s a drug addict, she was a hooker. I understand better now why you abandoned me at the hospital on the day I was born.”

“Who raised you?” she asked again.

“A wide variety of foster families for the most part. I left that world behind when I was fifteen and I’ve done a much better job of it on my own.”

Natalie’s face crumbled. Tears fell from her eyes and trailed down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry. I had no idea. I thought for sure an adorable baby like you would have been adopted into a loving family. I hoped. I told myself over and over that’s what happened. That you were happy and safe…” A dainty sob escaped her throat.

“Natalie… Mom. It’s okay, really. The foster homes weren’t that bad. And, I turned out fine. Great, really. I mean, look at me, I’m a stud.”—that brought a brief twitch to her mouth—“Please, don’t cry. I’m not mad at you. I understand more than you know.”

She took a deep breath. I passed a box of tissues from the coffee table to her. She dabbed at her cheeks and wiped her nose. “You seem to have your father’s confidence, anyway.” I wondered if she was referring to his ‘I’m a stud’ comment. “I’m sure you have many questions for me. Go ahead and ask.”

Alec looked down at the floor. “Just… I guess… what happened? The night I was born. Why did you take off?”

“Well, I was scared, mostly. My mind had started to slip a couple of months into the pregnancy. Your… father… had left before I even knew I was pregnant. I think he sensed what was coming, not that I was pregnant, but that my mind was breaking. I started
seeing
things. Things I knew couldn’t be real.”

“What kinds of things?” I asked.

She looked at me and blinked, like she’d forgotten I was even there. “Oh, monsters, mostly. Like the kind Tolkien wrote about. Trolls, Demons, things that slithered out of the sewers and attached themselves like leaches to unwitting people. Wolf creatures with blood dripping from their fangs…” Her voice quieted to a near whisper. “
Babies
… that weren’t really babies. I could… can… see what they are. But no one else can.” She glanced nervously at the nurse.

Jason, the nurse, spoke up then. “Her medications help, but, she still has breakthrough hallucinations occasionally. Mostly with other patients or visitors that I don’t really blame her for seeing as monsters.”

Alec and I both nodded. The nurse’s comment about not blaming her made me want to see one of her monsters. What kind of person evoked this response in her broken mind?

The silence became awkward as Natalie stared at nothing, trance-like.

“Umm… Na… Natalie? It’s okay you know, that you see monsters.” Alec’s eyes flicked to Jason then back to his mom. “You aren’t alone.”

My mind raced with snapshots of some of the monsters I’d seen. Devil Hounds, Trolls, changelings, Goblins, an Ogre… and Brone. Faeries.
Trey.
Not all monsters were hideous looking creatures.

A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. She shook her head. “No, Alec. It’s not normal. It’s good that I’m in here. Safer. For others. Not for me because they’re in here, too.”

“Who Mom? Who’s in here, too?”

Another sideways glance at the nurse. “Monsters.”

Alec and I looked at each other.

“How did you find me?” Natalie asked.

“I found some stuff, at Trey’s house, that
led
me here.” Alec pulled the locket out of his pants pocket. “A picture he had matched this one that you left for me at the hospital.”

She reached for the locket, a look of wonder on her face. “I left this? For you?”

Alec nodded and handed it to her.

“I think I remember that. I had you. I held you for a minute then handed you back to the nurse. I was afraid I would hurt you… or you would hurt me. I can’t remember which. Maybe both. The nurse left the room with you and I… I dropped the locket on the bed. I left. I left you there.” More tears fell from her eyes as she opened the locket. “I just had a gown on. Blood running down my legs. That’s all I remember. For a while. That’s all I remember.”

She rocked back and forth as she looked at the open locket. Alec reached for her hand. “It’s okay, Mom. It’s really okay.”

She looked up at him and squeezed his hand. “How can you be so forgiving?”

“I understand. That’s all. I just understand.”

She handed the locket back to him and wiped her eyes. “Okay. Enough blubbering. Tell me about yourself, Alec. Tell me everything.”

“Well, I think I’ll save some things for when we have more privacy.” He looked at Jason then back at his mom. “Right now, I’m just traveling with a group of friends, learning stuff.”