Meet Me In The Dark: (A Dark Suspense) (32 page)

He sets the cage down on the bank, squatting down with it. He’s wearing white camo winter gear, like me. We match and we blend. This thought gives me the courage to follow.

What is he doing?

He looks up at me, pushes his sunglasses up to the top of his head, and then smiles. “What did you tell me yesterday about the rabbit? Have I ever heard a rabbit scream?”

“Did I say that out loud?”

“Uh—yes.” He gives me a stern look, his amber eyes catching the sunlight out of the east.

“I don’t think I did,” I reply, already out of breath from that one brief mention. “I don’t think I’ve ever said those words out loud before.”

“I drugged you, Sydney. Remember? You were hysterical, going on and on about a rabbit. That show triggered a memory. You talked about it a little. You told me—”

“No!” I scream it so loud the rabbit begins to squeak, and I swear to God, if it screams—

“Sydney, sit down. Now. Right here,” he says, patting the ground in front of the trap.

“I don’t want to,” I whisper. “I really, really don’t want to be near the rabbit.”

“Do you realize it’s irrational to refuse?”

I nod. I do realize that.

“Do you understand that this will help you get past it?”

“No. It won’t. It will just make everything worse. This is why you want me out here! This is why you’ve been so nice. You wanted to trick me into telling you things!”

“Do you have things to tell me, Syd?” He asks that question so calmly. His reaction is such a stark difference between us.

“I don’t want to talk about the rabbit. I don’t want to talk about the rabbit!”

“Sit,” he commands.

I close my eyes. I know this is wrong. Everything about this is wrong. But when he gets up and takes my hand, I feel helpless again. Just like all those years I spent with Garrett. I follow him over to the cage where the white snowshoe hare is in shock with fright.

I know that feeling.

“Open the cage, Sydney.”

Dear God, please, please don’t make me kill this rabbit
.

“Open it.”

I get up and walk to the cage, and then bend down and unhook the latch on the door. I look over my shoulder at Merc and he nods, so I lift up the wire and fling it back. It clangs against the top, but the rabbit is too frightened to move.

“Now step back here with me.”

I walk back and squat down next to him, unsure of what’s happening. “Now what?” I whisper.

“Now,” he says, turning to me with a smile, “we wait.”

“For what?”

“For the shock to wear off and for the rabbit to leave.” I frown at him. “We’re setting it free, Syd. We’re setting you free too.”

“All I can do is open the door. I can’t make you walk out.”

– Case

S
he has the most confused look on her face. How can it be so hard for this girl to get it? “He brainwashed you, Sydney. It took years and years and years to do that. Do you understand? I was a PSYOPS in the army. With Garrett. We did it together, like a team.”

She sits her butt on the ground. Not to get comfortable, I don’t think, but because she doesn’t have the strength to squat anymore.

She’s in shock. Just like that rabbit.

“We were in charge of people. Company people, Syd. Do you understand what I mean by that?”

She nods. “People like me.”

“Yes, unfortunately. People just like you. Mothers and daughters. You know what it means to be born a Company kid. You know they own you if you’re a girl. You know that they ask the parents when a girl is born if they agree to the mother-daughter promise or not. And what happens to the mothers when they don’t agree?”

“They kill them.” She says it like a robot. She’s caught up in her memories.

“That’s right. They kill them. So if a Company girl grows up with a mother, even if that mother dies when she is small, what does that mean, Sydney?”

She looks me in the face for this and I know, of all the terrible things I’ve done for the wrong reasons, this terrible thing is for the right one. “The mothers agreed to sell those daughters and allow them to be… used.”

“That’s right. Your mother agreed. At least at first. I don’t know what happened with your mother. Or your father. I only know that part is true. She did this to you. They both did this to you.”

“Was I your assignment? In the army?”

“No. I saw you for the first time out there at that cabin. But I had other assignments. Garrett and I had them together. I didn’t understand what the Company was back then. I didn’t understand that they were a shadow government that exists right here in the US, right alongside real people and regular governments. But I got an order once—Garrett and I got an order once. Probably the same kind of order that the Company man who killed your mother got.”

She licks her lips and the cold wind dries them immediately. Her face is flushed and I know that if I were to check her heart rate right now, it would be off the charts. But she’s holding it together, so I continue.

“And we were ordered to take care of this Company mother-daughter pair.”

“Did you do it?” She has hope in her eyes that I didn’t, and it kills me to admit that I did.

“Yes. I did it. I did it because Garrett had already raped the mother and he was going for the little girl next. She was twelve. The same age Sasha was when they tried to take her. Her mother never gave her up. They killed her before Sasha ever left the hospital when she was born. But her father did things that were against the rules. It was a father-daughter kill that night I was sent to save you. And I chose to save her instead.”

“You left me there.”

“I know.”

“Because I wasn’t worth saving?” She’s crying now. Silent frozen tears.

I lean in and grab her face, holding it in both my hands as I look her in the eyes. “That’s not why,” I whisper. “I just figured you would be OK. You were sixteen. Sasha was only twelve. I made a choice and I’d like to say I regret it, but I don’t. I love Sasha very much. She is the only good thing that has ever happened to me.”

“But I wasn’t OK.”

“I know that now. But I really thought you would be. I really thought you would be, Syd.”

A noise off to our left drags our attention away from each other and back to the cage. The rabbit hops forward once, then twice. It sits there at the edge of freedom and hesitates.

“Be the rabbit, Sydney.”

“The rabbit gets eaten by dogs.”

“No, watch.”

She does watch. She strains so hard she might be giving herself a headache. But the look on her face when that rabbit finally figures out it can run—it’s amazing.

She gasps as the small animal zigzags across the frozen river and disappears in the thick woods of the opposite bank.

“Be the rabbit, Sydney. Get away from him. Garrett filled your mind with lies. He filled you up with instructions and triggers. He’s been using you to do his dirty work. And even though I never saw him again after he disappeared, I know he was taking you. Wasn’t he?”

If she knows, she holds it in. And I let her.

Because I just set her free. And now we’re ready for the final step.

“You can hope for truth, but always be prepared for betrayal.”

– Sydney

W
e check the rest of the trap line and if there’s a rabbit in there, I set it free. It’s amazing how something so simple can mean so much. My mind clears as the morning moves on. Memories come back and others recede. I’m feeling pretty good, and when we get back to the cabin, Case—or is he really Merc?—starts making something for us to eat as I watch from the barstool, nursing a beer.

His phone rings and he looks at the caller ID and smiles. “Sash,” he says. “Sash?” He looks at the phone and then I can just barely make out the three hang-up beeps from the speaker.

My head begins to pound.

“Huh,” he says. “She called me yesterday with news of a boyfriend.” He shoots me a smile. “I do background checks on them. And she had a date and needed one pronto. But I had things to do.” He smiles at me. “You needed me more yesterday.” And then he chuckles as he dials again. When there’s no answer, he shrugs. “Probably in a remote area and lost signal.”

I close my eyes as my mind starts to swirl.

“You OK?” Case asks.

I open my eyes again and shake my head. “I feel funny.” He looks worried. “Dizzy, almost.”
And confused,
I don’t add. “All that rabbit stuff, maybe.”

“Maybe you’re just hungry?” He pushes a plate of salmon and a glass of water in front of me.

I drink the water and push the plate away. “I’m really not feeling well.”

“You want to go lie down?”

“Not really,” I say, squinting my eyes from the sudden headache. “But I probably should.”

“It was too much, maybe?” He picks me up and carries me towards the stairs, climbing them easily. He takes me into the bedroom and sets me down on the bed. “I’ll stay with you if you want.”

I nod and close my eyes as soon as my head rests on the soft pillow. “I feel a little better already.”

He pulls his thermal shirt over his head and throws it on the floor, then kicks off his boots and goes to work on mine. They drop with a thud. I study him as he stands at the end of the bed. He’s hard to ignore. Perfect, really. His muscles are cut into his body like a statue’s, hard as stone.