Ravens (26 page)

“Mrs. Pierce.” Randal took a few steps
into the open room. “It’s time.”

“I didn’t think that it would ever get
this bad,” she spoke to the window, her back to Randal, who exhaled and stuffed
his hands into his pockets. “It took so long for us to get over Julie that we
didn’t anticipate this. What happened to all the hopes and dreams that we had
for her? What happened to the ambitions that she had for herself? It should’ve
gotten better after graduation, and suddenly, it turned on us.”

She glanced over her shoulder and shook
her head. She stood and met her husband in the adjacent room. After a quick
hug, they led the doctors outside, and Randal trudged behind. Mr. Pierce walked
with his arm around his wife, who wept.

Mr. Pierce knocked twice on the barn
door and then entered, using his key.

“Kendra?” he asked.

Kendra peered over the railing on the
loft. Her parents entered with two men. She watched them suspiciously. Seeing
Randal following them seemed to worry her even more.

“Can you come down here, hon? We need to
speak with you,” her father went on.

Kendra moved down the steps to meet
them. The group took their seats but Kendra remained standing. She shot Randal
a cross look. The guilt was evident in his demeanor as he fidgeted with his
hands.

Kendra chuckled. “I know what this is
about.”

“No, you don’t,” Randal started.

“I do. You all think that I’m crazy, and
you’re trying to send me to an insane asylum.” Then she muttered, “Just like
Liam said.”

Randal caught her mumble and stared at
her.

“No, Kendra,” her father replied, “these
men deal with these types of trauma. We met them when Julie and Liam
disappeared. They’ve dealt with numerous children who can’t get over tragedies
of this nature. We didn’t think that you needed their help until now.”

“I don’t need help,” she retorted.

“Please tell them the story that you
told us.”

“What story?”

“Kendra, you can trust them. They just
want to help.”

“I have no story to tell. I may be a
little traumatized, but I don’t have some random, wild story.”

“Kendra.” Randal stood to meet her and
touched her elbow. “It’s okay.”

Kendra yanked her arm back and scowled
at him. “Don’t touch me. You betrayed me. You knew all about this, and you
didn’t tell me. Did you try to trap me with all that ‘just trust me’ crap? I
knew something went wrong the moment I confided in you. You can’t use that word
around me, not anymore. Is this what you were doing when I tried to get a hold
of you? You’re just like them, worse because you’re supposed to be my friend.
You were just trying to trap me.”

He felt hurt that she would believe
that. A shallow ache crossed his chest. “No, of course not. Tell them the
story. They said they’ve heard it before. They believe you.”

“Is that so, and is that all you have to
say? Is it because you want to coax me into a loony bin so that they can push
drugs down my throat and label me a freak, or is it because they’re hunters?”

The men remained calm. They did not show
surprise or fear. Unfortunately for Kendra, she just gave herself away.

“Don’t waste your time. You can leave.”
She dismissed them with a wave of her hand. “All of you can leave.”

“That won’t be happening,” Mr. Dandial
spoke as he stood. He pulled down the front of his suit jacket assertively.

Kendra spun to face them. “Say what?”

“We need you to come with us. The sooner
the better, and the faster that you can get this under control, the faster that
you can get back to a normal life.”

Mrs. Pierce reached out, but her husband
lowered her arm. He shook his head.

“I don’t need to go anywhere, and I’m
not going anywhere.” Kendra walked away.

“Kendra.” Randal moved around her to
block her. “Please. I didn’t agree with this at first, but I ignored the signs
for too long. This has to be done. It’ll be easier for you and your parents if
you just cooperate. Why can’t you face the truth?”

Kendra clenched her teeth. “I trusted
you. You begged me to, and for what? To prove that you’re everything that I
thought you weren’t: a lying, unworthy, jerk?”

Randal felt a sharp pain in his chest, a
stab that assured him things would never be the same. He sighed. “Did you even
think about your story? None of it can possibly be true. There’s no such thing
as parallel dimensions, superhuman abilities, or portals to another world. This
is your way of wrapping your mind around a tragedy to make sense of it. You never
had closure, so you made something up to deal with it. That’s why you feel that
you can move on. This isn’t you, not the girl I know. This isn’t the girl that
your parents know.”

Randal took Kendra’s hands.

“Let me go or you will regret it.” She
lowered her voice and went on, “You’ve seen how I fight. Do you want me to
unleash that on you? On them? Because I will, on anyone who tries to take me
away.”

“You need this. They won’t hurt you.”

She leaned toward him and whispered,
“You remember what I said about the hunters? Well, these guys are hunters in
this world. Are you really going to hand me over to them?”

“Don’t make this any harder than it has
to be.”

She shook her head. Kendra stepped back,
poising to kick and run, but Randal thwarted her plans. He diverted her
attention long enough for the men to sneak up behind her and use a tazer. It
sent a shock wave through her, stopping her heart for a few beats and rendering
her unconscious.

She cried out and stared wide-eyed at
Randal, who cringed. There was enough left in her for perhaps one last action
before she went down. With it, before her world darkened, she fell away from
Randal. She fell away from her betrayer and into the arms of strangers. Even in
her time of ultimate distress, she didn’t choose to go with him.

Mrs. Pierce jerked her face into her
husband’s shoulder, concealing herself and sobbing silently. Their daughter had
to go with these men in order to be “cured.”

The tall and gangly Dr. Orian, a leading
researcher in psychoanalysis, had a dry personality and seemed very curt. He
had tight lips and little patience. If it weren’t for his partner, more
families would have been uneasy about sending their loved ones to the facility.

Mr. Dandial aided the doctor.

When the electronic interference invaded
Kendra’s body through the tazer, it took her over, rendering her unconscious
and snatching away any voluntary muscle movement. To ensure safety for all
parties during the transportation and transition into the facility, the doctor
administered a serum to keep her sedated for a few hours.

Mr. Dandial and Randal lowered Kendra
gently to the floor where Dr. Orian prepared a sterile syringe with serum.
Randal cradled Kendra’s head in his lap. Her body was as limp as a rag doll and
just as malleable.

Mr. Dandial took hold of her right arm
and straightened it, as Dr. Orian wiped the anterior of her elbow with an
alcohol swab. A nice, throbbing vein lay close to the surface on Kendra’s slim
arm. It would carry the chemical composition swiftly, surging to her brain and
quickly offering the desired effects.

“Wait,” Randal interrupted. The sweat
gathered at his brow and he swallowed, staring at the gleam of the needle.

“What is it?” the doctor asked
impatiently, offering no more than an irritated glance.

Randal cleared his throat, pushing aside
the nagging doubts. “What are you doing now?”

“This won’t hurt her. It will only keep
her asleep during transportation so that she can’t hurt herself, us, or others
in the facility.”

“Oh, okay.”

Dr. Orian glanced back at Kendra’s
parents. Mrs. Pierce ducked her head into her husband’s neck as he wrapped a
protective arm around her. Mr. Pierce lifted his chin and nodded.

Dr. Orian inserted the needle, gliding
the smooth, hollow metal through Kendra’s skin, and pushed down on the plunger,
injecting the entire amount of serum. Disposing of his needle and syringe, then
packing up his bag, he stood as Mr. Dandial took Kendra’s body from Randal,
carrying her across the barn and through the door toward the car.

Randal helped the men. “I’ll follow
you,” he started.

“That won’t be necessary. We can take it
from here. We’ll have others waiting to help us,” Dr. Orian insisted.

“But I need to know how to get there so
that I can see her.”

“Perhaps her parents didn’t explain this
clearly, but our patients have no contact with the outside world until therapy
has been completed. Only they will be allowed to meet with her.”

“Well, how long will that take?”

“A few weeks or months.” They crawled
into the car and closed the door.

“Will you send us updates?”

“We find that it works better to only
promise that we do our best. It’s easier for the families not to receive
updates. It dulls their overall hopes. No need to get disappointed. Thank you
for your help, but we must go.”

The men drove away with Kendra. Randal
stared after them in disbelief. Did he make a mistake? Should he have believed
Kendra and protected her instead of handing her over to them? Time would tell,
but until then, the nagging doubts clouded his mind and buried his emotions.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Kendra groaned. She shifted her body and
raised her sweaty palm to her temple. The searing ache in her head was unlike
anything she experienced before. She could feel her skull throb. She wanted to
fall back asleep where it failed to exist.

She glanced down at the white sheets
that covered her twisted body, then around the unfamiliar room. The memories of
forced departure flooded her as she remembered the incident. Her parents and
Randal gave her to the hunters.

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey,” a
haunting and shrill voice spoke from Kendra’s left.

She jerked up to a sitting position, and
swung her legs over the edge of the sturdy pull out bed. Kendra’s hair fell
over her shoulders as she stared wide-eyed at the nonchalant teenager who sat
on a bed across the narrow room. The girl had blonde hair and the saddest blue
eyes, pale skin, and a willowy figure. With back against the wall and one bent
knee at her chest, she picked up a book and read.

“Who are you? Where am I?” Kendra
flinched at the sound of her own voice. It made her headache worse.

“Melody. The asylum,” she answered.

Kendra regulated her breathing and
searched the room. Two wooden desks between the beds attached to the wall, and
the beds attached to the floor. A small, barred window sat high on the wall
above them. The wooden dressers, at the foot of each bed, attached to the wall.
The door stood at the far right. It had a small, barred window, which provided
a limited view of the hall. .

Kendra watched the door and contemplated
escape, but she was too weak to move toward it.

“Don’t bother,” the teen said, “no one
gets out.”

“I’m getting out.”

“We used to all be like you, but I’ve
been here for years.”

“Are you insane?”

“Are you?” She finally glanced up from
her book. She had a penetrating stare that sent a wave of shivers down Kendra’s
spine.

“No. I don’t belong here.”

“Two types of people belong here,
according to them.” She cocked her chin toward the hallway. “An insane person
or a Raven. If you’re not crazy, you must be a traveler.”

“What do you know about Ravens?”

She smiled weakly. Her lips were frail
and cracked. Melody went back to reading.

“Are you a Raven?” Kendra inquired.

“I don’t think they exist, but they keep
questioning me about it.”

“So you’re crazy?”

Melody shot her an evil glare. “It’s
called schizophrenia, sweet cheeks.”

Kendra gulped. Of course it was.

Melody smiled again. “But Jean inside of
me is a Raven.” She cracked a whimpering laugh.

Kendra stared in disbelief.

Melody placed a finger to her lips and
shushed Kendra though she had not made a sound. “Don’t get too chatty with me.
See those blue strips around the room near the ceiling?”

Kendra glanced up and took note of the
three-inch cobalt strip that lined the walls like a vanity border.

“They’re watching; they’re listening.”

“Who?”

Melody returned to her book and did not
speak again.

Kendra crossed the room to the door,
dizzy at first because the medication hadn’t completely worn off. She wrapped
her hand around the cold doorknob, but it wouldn’t move. With a grunt, she
yanked, but the door would not budge. Kendra slammed her palm against the solid
door with clenched teeth but ultimately pulled away with a flinch.