The Watchers (7 page)

Once again, his focus returned to the
toilet in front of him as the feeling of nausea increased. That
meant the flashes of memory would be coming faster. He clung to the
rim of the toilet, his body on the edge of convulsing. The doctor
came near with a syringe, but he shook his head and let the
repressed memories surface.

He hung by his wrists in a room that
made him shiver. His stomach growled and his dry tongue stuck to
the roof of his mouth. How long he’d been there was anybody’s
guess, but his arms were numb and he’d long since lost the battle
to hold off on urinating. He groaned. He wanted to pass out but
couldn’t, not with the IV they’d hooked him up to in order to keep
him conscious.

Rodents scampered across the floor and
tickled his bare feet. He struggled to touch the floor, to steady
himself so he wouldn’t swing whenever they ran into him. But his
toes merely brushed the surface of the rough wood. A snake hissed
and slithered around his ankle. They had snakes here? This time
when he shivered, it was from fear. He hated those things more than
any of the rodents in the room.

Then another memory flashed in his
mind, and he was strapped to a board and shoved under water. By
instinct he held his breath. Exhaustion fought with his need to
struggle. He was weak. So weak he could hardly move, and his wrists
and fingernails were sore. He was still hungry but had long since
given up on the idea of food. How he wanted to go to sleep, to ease
the duress his body had been under for the past couple days. His
lungs began to burn, and just when he was about to inhale the
water, they brought him out. He gasped the warm air. Before he had
time to see who was handling him, they thrust him back into the
water and the process repeated itself.

Bile rose up in his throat and his
eyes flew open. He was back in his house, staring at the clear
water of the toilet. Even as he trembled, he held onto the rim, his
fingers still tender and his wrists rubbed raw from the rope. It
all had come back to him, and he remembered that moment his
personality split in half—when he reached the point where he
couldn’t take it anymore.

Luke. The blond woman named
him Luke. That was his new identity. And the code phrase was
level 6 reinforcement
.

What did that mean? What was he
supposed to do when he heard that?

He gritted his teeth and cried out as
the acute pain traveled the length of his back where they had
implanted him with that thing—that living creature the doctor had
removed from him. His body jerked forward.

“
That’s it,” the doctor
said, getting ready to stick him with the needle.

“
No! I need to remember!”
Devon screamed as vomit rose up in his throat. Almost there. One
more piece to the puzzle and this whole ordeal would be
over.

The doctor slowly stepped
back.

Level 6
reinforcement.
For what?

The blond woman returned in another
memory. She held a needle in front of him and smiled, her eyes
turning black and a trace of her horns projecting from her
forehead. “The leader’s mark. You will inject this DNA into those
who resist the mark.”

The final memory in place, Devon
released the vomit into the toilet. As soon as he emptied his
stomach, he sat back.

The doctor inserted the needle into
Devon’s arm. His stomach soon settled and the chills left in quick
succession. The doctor helped him up. Thankful to have the
experience behind him, Devon leaned on the other man as he lumbered
to his bed. As soon as he collapsed on the mattress, his eyelids
grew heavy.

“
I want to take that thing
they put in you and see exactly what it is,” the doctor told
him.

Devon nodded, too tired to fully
comprehend what the man said.

The doctor pulled the sheet and
blanket up to his neck.

Devon was barely aware of the doctor
leaving his house. A peaceful numbing sensation swept over him, and
after the pain he went through, he just wanted to enjoy this
moment. His breathing grew slower. He felt sleep coming swiftly.
His last thought, before he finally dozed off was what the blond
meant by the leader, but he knew he’d find that one out soon
enough.

the calm is always followed by a
storm...

Novella #3:

The Leader

Coming October 2010