Escaping Grace: A Turning Grace Novel (5 page)

He pulled the door closed and locked the effects studio.

“I don’t know why they would thank me. I didn’t make Serum Z,” I pointed out.

“No, you didn’t. But it worked. It did its job, which was to revive you and you proved that,” he stated with a smile.

We walked to center of the courtyard. “I must get going now. You will start classes soon. For now, why don’t you just try to kind of get a feel for the facility? Walk around, meet the other subjects, and consider engaging in some of the activities we have. There is a list on the bulletin board in the Malibu hut.”

He waved his hand goodbye and turned toward the Z lab.

“Dr. Roberson?” I yelled behind him. He turned to me with raised eyebrows. “I was just wondering when Tristen would be able to visit. You said after my tests were done, he could come.”

“Ah, yes. Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten. Enjoy the rest of your day, Grace.” And he walked away.

I headed back to my room, feeling disappointed. The deal was that as soon as I was done with my testing, Dr. Roberson would fly Tristen here. His comment seemed as though he was shrugging the deal off.

Was I not done with my testing? I could feel the uneasy fear forming in my chest at the thought of that. Although it wasn’t all that bad, except for the mysterious soreness afterwards, I wasn’t okay with any more of it.

I could see Number One standing at the entrance of the Laguna hut. Suddenly, the anxiety began to settle down.

“Were you worried about me?” I asked as I walked up the steps to the porch. I didn’t see him all morning, which was quite a surprise considering he had been up my ass since the day I left home. 

“I knew where you were,” Number One answered. “Are you hungry?”

I studied him for a moment. He stood tautly in his suit, a black one this time. His stern facial expression made it seem as though time had stopped. But his ocean-blue eyes…they were soft. Something told me there was more to Number One than he was letting on.

“Are
you
hungry?” I asked.

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stared back at me. His forehead wrinkled, almost like he was trying to understand what I just asked him. As if I had spoken another language.

“Oh my gosh!” a little voice behind me shrieked. I turned around immediately.

The short, red-haired girl that I had been seeing around stood in front of me. Holding more books in her hands than she looked like she could handle and carrying a backpack that was twice as big as she was on her back, the little girl stood motionless. Her big greens eyes smiled back at me, matching the large smile that pretty much took up her whole face.

“Um..hi?” Yes, it was a question. She looked liked she was going to pop! I didn’t know how else to respond.

“You’re Grace!” She set her books down on the bench next to her and wrapped her arms around me. I held my arms out, not sure of what to make of any of it.

She backed away slowly after a moment. “I’m sorry,” she giggled. “That was weird. I’m just really excited to meet you finally.”

I forced a smile while she shrugged away her embarrassment with a swipe of her hair.

“It’s okay.”

“I’m Madison. But everyone calls me Maddi.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Maddi,” I greeted.

She looked up at me without moving her head, just her eyes. “Will you be living here with us?” The
s
in
us
was slurred just a bit. I was assuming this tiny lisp was due to her braces.

“Um…yeah. Yes. For a little bit,” I answered.

I watched her face light up while she sucked in a breath of air. It was evident that she was ecstatic.

I winced and clenched down when I felt a pain in my stomach, which made me involuntarily wrap my arms around myself.

Number One came to my side immediately, noticing my slight stumble. “Grace, are you okay?”

I closed my eyes. “Yes. I…I just need something to eat.”

“Are you okay?” Maddi asked, fear in her tone.

Before I could answer to tell her I was okay, because I didn’t want a little girl to worry, Number One had me already walking toward the Newport hut.

Once inside, he gently sat me down at one of the booths near a window. I glanced around, trying to find one thing to focus on so the room could stop spinning. Booths aligned the walls of the mess hall. In the middle was a long, buffet-style table with café tables scattered around it. I looked behind me. There was a bar with black stools along the back wall; all decked out as if it were a bar on a beach in Hawaii. It was made out of bamboo, with little white lights hanging above it, similar to ones you wrap around a Christmas tree.

There was no one else around. Number One ran behind the bar and through a door that I was guessing led to the kitchen.

He was back in a minute with a tray of food.

“Here you go, Grace.” He set it down in front of me.

Before I could even think, my fingers shoveled the cold pieces of uncooked boar into my mouth. There wasn’t anything else on the tray, only large slices of cool, thick meat. It was even more raw than what I had the night before. I could have sworn one of the slices was staring at me while it swam in the pink liquid.

But I didn’t really care. The smell was enough to force my hand and my fingers to pick up a slice and bring it to my mouth. I chewed frantically, desperate to feel the chunks slide down my throat. I closed my eyes in satisfaction, feeling every bitter, juicy taste fill my mouth.     

Once I felt I had enough, I opened my eyes.

Well, I definitely had enough. I’d eaten all of it.

“Do you feel better, Grace?” Number One asked before reaching over to grab the empty tray.

I nodded.

“Good. I’ll be right back.”

I grabbed a napkin from the napkin holder to wipe my hands and my mouth, as if that tiny display of proper etiquette could mask what I must have looked like eating. I don’t really remember much except the taste, but considering the amount of time it took me to finish, which was no time at all, I was assuming I looked like a rabid animal. God, that boar was delicious. Really.

I sat in the red vinyl booth and glanced around the room once more.

It was actually pretty nice in the Newport hut. I wondered what else they served besides boar. I’d imagine there had to be other items on the menu. Other animals they hunt and kill on this island.

“Ready?”

“Yeah.”

As we walked back to the Laguna hut, I realized that my hunger pains were coming on more strongly. Before, back home, there was a little time between the moment I got hungry and the moment I felt the urge to feed on something moving.

“Um…do you happen to know why I’m getting worse?” I asked Number One. Chances were he didn’t know, but I had to ask.

“That would be something you will have to discuss with Dr. Roberson,” he answered without hesitation.

Of course
.

We reached the Laguna hut and I was actually pretty happy to get to my room. There had to be an email from Tristen by now.

Number One took his stance near my door.

I entered my room and noticed there was someone standing on the patio facing the other direction, looking out at the beach.

It was a guy…with dark, bed-head hair. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and I could just barely see the white and black of his Chuck Taylors underneath the cuff of his pants.

It couldn’t be.

Chapter 5

The Beach

Tristen turned in my direction and my heart sank. I stopped breathing and stood motionless.

How could this be?

It seemed like the world was frozen in time.

Memories of our first kiss at the Halloween party flooded my mind, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to feel his lips on mine.

I remembered that my legs could move and I inched my way closer to the sliding door. Why didn’t I rush to open it and jump into his arms? Because I was trying to process how he was even here in the first place.

We kept our eyes on one another through the glass. A smile slowly widened across his face, revealing those brilliantly straight, white teeth of his.

His wavy hair danced with the breeze from the beach, and I couldn’t wait any longer to run my fingers through it.

I slid the door open, anticipation coursing through my veins. I briefly wondered who would be the first to latch on, but that thought quickly dissipated when I lunged toward his chest, and he did the same.

The smell of his sharp cologne found its way into my nose. I closed my eyes, thanking God that I could hold him again. He squeezed me in a tight embrace; his arms wrapped around my entire body.

I buried my head into his firm chest. The tears that were fighting their way out of my eyes from the moment he turned to look at me finally poured out, winning the battle.

He rested his head on mine, and I could feel his cool breath on my forehead.

“Grace, I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered.

I sobbed softly, unable to respond.

“Shh, it’s okay.” he said with a crack in his voice.

“I…I’m sorry. I just…I just didn’t think I would see you again,” I admitted.

He pulled me away from his chest and cradled my face in his palms. “What? Why?” He seemed confused about this.

I couldn’t look at him. “I don’t know. I thought it was over. I told you not to wait for me. And I thought that you really wouldn’t.”

He pulled me close to him again, wrapping his arm around my head. “Grace, I started missing you the moment you left. The moment you stepped into that SUV. I know you told me to get over you, but there was no way I was letting you go that easily.”

We hugged in the doorway between my bedroom and the patio for what seemed like forever before Tristen moved us over to the wicker bench.

He sat me down and took a seat. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and studied my face before wiping the remainder of my tears off my cheek.

“It’s okay,” he breathed softly.

I nodded. “When did you get here?”

“This morning. Man, it was a long way!”

I thought about his arrival for a moment. I had only been here one night. It took me almost three days to get here.

“When did you leave New Orleans?”

“I left not long after you did. As soon as you took off, I went home. Then a few hours later, two guys who looked like the
Men in Black
came to my door and asked me if I wanted to go to Costa Rica. I was packed and ready to go within five minutes.”

“But what about school and your parents?” I asked.

Tristen smiled. “It’s okay. They were actually pretty cool about this.”

“Well, what did you say? You were going to see your zombie girlfriend on an island in the middle of nowhere?” I couldn’t help the sarcasm. Really, what parent would say it was okay for their son to leave with two mysterious men to some place they have probably never heard of?

But I think the better question was…was I his girlfriend?

“Actually, your mom spoke with my mom. She explained to them how important it was for me to come see you…and that you were sick,” he answered, but hesitated on that last part.

My mother? Really? Well, at least she did something right.

And I didn’t think Dr. Roberson would keep his word, especially after the way he shrugged me off earlier. And especially this soon.

Maybe he truly was a decent man. Maybe my anxiety was exaggerated and there was nothing to fear from him. Maybe he was being real about everything. Maybe he did just really want to help me.

Tristen swiped a stray curl behind my ear. “God, I love your hair,” he breathed.

I smiled and felt my ears heat up from blushing.

“So, you gonna show me around this place? From what I’ve seen, it’s freakin’ amazing! I’m kinda jealous.”

“No, there is nothing to be jealous about. I miss home already.”

“Well, have you met anyone? And how was your testing?”

I sighed. “The testing was…okay. It didn’t hurt much. I’ll tell you all about it later.” I didn’t feel like explaining all of the medical crap I had to go through at that moment. “And the people? I’ve only met a few. Dr. Roberson said there were over thirty patients here. But it doesn’t seem that way.”

“Well, where is everyone else?”

“I don’t know.” Sonny came to mind. “How is…how is Sonny?” I looked down at my hands. I couldn’t look him in the eye when I asked this question. I was afraid to know the answer. More afraid of how he felt about it. He’s had time to think about that night, to think about how I must have looked drenched in blood after having done what I did to Phoebe. And his former girlfriend. I worried that maybe he would soon realize that I was truly a monster.

Tristen didn’t answer right away. He took a deep breath and laid his hand on mine. “Grace, she’s okay. Some of the guys from the team called me and told me she was still at the hospital, but she’s okay.”

I closed my eyes and exhaled, completely relieved to hear that I wasn’t on my way to being considered a serial killer. I didn’t know if I could handle hearing that I had offed Sonny too. And although Dr. Roberson told me yesterday she was okay, I would rather hear it from someone who actually knew her.

He cupped my face in his hand again, gently forcing me to turn my head up toward his. “I missed you so much, Grace. I know it’s only been a few days. But I needed to see you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. About us.”

I didn’t say anything. I allowed his words to seep into my core and savored this moment. A moment where everything seemed to be okay and there wasn’t the island or Sonny or food.

I looked into his hazel eyes, then down to his lips. He slowly leaned in closer to me, which I knew was my cue to meet him halfway. It felt like his lips would never reach mine. But when they finally did, the taste of cinnamon caused a tingling sensation around my mouth.

He kissed me softly, lips closed, before slightly opening his mouth. His tongue barely touched mine, but it was enough to wake up my sleeping hormones and before I knew it, we were in a full on make out movie moment.

The world closed in on us, and every thought I had in my constantly running mind gradually floated away.

We wrapped our arms around each other. His fingers worked their way into my hair, gently grasping onto the back of my head and massaging.

I questioned our relationship. I thought hard on the trip to this island about the time it took for me to feel so emotionally involved with him. From the outside, it seemed so fast. He jumped from Sonny to me after one night.

But I have been watching Tristen every day for three years. I liked him since the moment he started sophomore year at Middleton High. He was my secret crush for years. And apparently, I was his too. He informed me the night everything happened that he liked me since the day he saw me as well, but before we could do anything about it, he was caught in Sonny Westwood’s web.

I wondered how I could feel this much for someone so soon, but how could this not be right? This undeniable perception of everything-is-the-way-it-should-be overpowered any doubts that I had. There was this sense of comfort when I was around him, like we have been together for years. The thought of us moving too fast was flying out the window quickly. In his arms, right here, right now, was where I should be.

Neither of us took a breath during what seemed like the longest kiss I think I would ever experience in my life. He kept his hands either on my back or in my hair, but the kissing was getting more and more intense by the minute.

It was the perfect unison of two people that longed for one another.

It was so right.

A tiny, soft giggle rang through my ears, almost as if it were a distance away. I ignored it at first, not wanting to break the moment Tristen and I were having.

“Maddi dear, it’s not polite to stare.” I heard a whisper, suddenly realizing that we may have an audience.

I broke away from the perfect kiss and glanced over at the screened-in porch next to mine. The little red-head girl was staring at Tristen and me with a smile from ear to ear, her braces reflecting the sunlight.

Tristen chuckled. “I guess we have an admirer.”

“I’m so sorry about that. We didn’t mean to pry. We were just going back inside.”

The elderly woman stood up slowly from her wicker bench. Her gray hair was tied up in a bun with a few loose strands flowing in the breeze.

It suddenly hit me that I knew who she was. I stood up and walked over to the screen. “Ma’am?” I called out to her before she could make it inside.

She turned to me and smiled. “Yes, dear?”

“I…um…I’ve heard about you. Dr. Roberson told me about you.”

“Ah, yes. I suppose he told you I was the really old lady that lives here.” Her voice seemed unsteady, and it reminded me of what a cliché elderly woman would sound like in a cartoon.

I smiled. “He might have mentioned that you were…older.”

“Well if you call one hundred and fourteen older, then yes.”

Despite the gray hair and shaky voice, her appearance told a different story. She barely had any wrinkles. Her posture was near perfect. Her dark skin was clear and blemish-free, and she seemed to be in pretty good shape overall; thin and about average height. She was actually quite pretty.

“I’m Grace.”

She laughed softly. “Oh dear, everyone here knows who you are. You are quiet the celebrity. My name is Estelle. But the big question is, who is that handsome young man behind you?” she asked, peering over my shoulder to get a look.

I looked back at Tristen, whose face just turned a lovely shade of red.

“That’s Tristen. My…my uh…” I was stumped. I didn’t know if the boyfriend title was acceptable just yet.

“Her boyfriend,” He finished as he stepped next to me.

Well, I guess to Tristen it was.

“Nice to meet you, Tristen. Now I’m going to leave you two lovebirds. This old lady has got to get some food in her.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Tristen and I responded simultaneously. We watched as she walked back into her room.

“Holy crap! She’s a hundred and fourteen? How is she alive?”

“Don’t you remember? Dr. Roberson told us about her. He said the serum brought her back to life and she’s been alive ever since,” I answered, piecing together in my mind what Dr. Roberson said earlier about immortality.

“I do remember him saying something about being immortal before you left. Do you think that’s really true? I mean, do you think we can actually live forever with that serum stuff?”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if I would want to live forever.”

Tristen looked at me with bulging eyes. “What? Why not? Shit, if that were true, I’ll go tell Dr. Roberson to stick me with the needle now!” He grabbed my hand. “Grace, we could live together forever. Wouldn’t you want that?”

“But would we be living? Technically, I’m dead.”

We stared at each other in silence. The reality of what I just said finally hit me. I’m a dead person, walking and talking and living. I am the embodiment of what the rest of the world believes to be a fictional character in movies. It’s not enough to either be alive or dead. I had to be both.

There were still so many questions I had about my condition.

A knock at my door brought me back from thoughts of death. I kissed Tristen on the cheek before stepping inside my room.

I opened the door to Destiny, the gothic chick I met earlier.

“Hey, Grace. A few of us are going down to the beach. Wanna join us?”

“Um, I kind of have company.” I gestured to Tristen, who was now sitting on my bed.

“Oh, well bring him! C’mon. It’ll be fun!” she said.

“Grace, we should go. I’d like to meet everyone too,” Tristen said eagerly.

Ugh. I wanted to spend all my time with him. Alone.

“Okay, let me grab my bag.”

“Awesome!” Destiny smiled.

I grabbed my Hobo bag and Tristen and we followed Destiny out of the Laguna hut. Number One was standing outside on the porch.

“Aren’t you coming with us?” I asked.

“No. But I will be able to see you if you need anything,” he responded in his usual terse tone. The fact that he would be watching me should have been disturbing, but it kind of felt comforting. I didn’t mind having someone watch over me, especially in a place that I really didn’t know much about yet.