Jekyll, an Urban Fantasy (33 page)

She came around the corner at a run, sliding to a stop in front of the first door she saw
. Might as well start here, right?
Since none of the doors were marked, she might have to try them all. With her luck, this would probably be the staff lounge, complete with a vending machine and coffee maker. As she swiped Alex’s keycard in front of the locking mechanism, she vaguely wondered what their ‘new employee training’ program was like. Did they get a huge chart of the facility and have to memorize which door led to which room? Opening the door a crack, she almost laughed, imagining the look on Alex’s face when she gave her back her card.

Until she heard moaning.

With a quick glance around, she pushed the door open. It seemed heavier than the others, but she couldn’t be sure. Honestly, she’d had better days. She was tired of all of this shit and her body was probably just pissed off at her.

The hallway lights didn’t shine far enough into the room to light up anything past the first two feet. She peered into the darkness, hoping her improved vision would let her see whatever else was in there. Whoever had moaned. At least, it had sounded like a moan, but she could’ve been wrong. The prickle of trepidation on her skin left her
hoping
she was wrong.

A sound from somewhere down the hallway made her jump. She stepped inside and shut the door firmly, but quietly. They couldn’t find her. Not yet. With no light from outside, the room was completely black. So she slid her hand along the wall, feeling around for a light switch. Nothing.

Great
. With her hands out in front of her, she felt around the wall on the other side of the door. Nothing there either. She gave up, knowing that if she tripped over something in the darkness and sent The Clinic’s tools of torture clambering to the ground, they would see-through her offer to cooperate and be on her like hyenas on a wounded member of the pack.

Reaching out, she felt the doorjamb and followed it until she felt the knob. All she needed was enough light to see, so she opened the door a crack and wedged one of her shoes between it and the edge. Her shoe crunched. The door was
definitely
heavier than the others. Why?

Oh God, was that another moan?
She knew there was something wrong. Sensed it. Knew she should turn around and try another room
. Just find the goddamned serum and get the hell out of Dodge. Don’t get distracted.

But she couldn’t leave. Not until she knew what was making that sound. A sound that, while it could barely be heard, reverberated inside of her.

An invisible force, similar to the one she’d felt when she’d met Justin, pulled her forward. Maybe it was just another sleeping room. Maybe she’d see him strapped lightly to a bed with the cushioned straps he’d described.

Yeah, right.
The pull, the need to move closer, was far stronger than she’d felt towards Justin. More like the one she felt around Mitch, but darker and less pleasurable. As she stepped into the middle of the room, the overhead lights turned on automatically. Motion-sensors. So why didn’t they turn on when whoever else was in here moved?

The room was big. Various trays of medical equipment, small work desks, and other crap she didn’t care about were spread out throughout. One wall was a continuous row of glass cabinets. And of course, one could hardly miss a line of cages along the far wall. Three cages, all in a row. With numbers on large placards hanging off the cross-bars. How frigging convenient—all the doors were open to welcome whoever The Clinic wanted to throw inside. Three-two—

Her stomach wilted when she looked into cage number one. Unlike the first two, its door wasn’t open. And the overhead light didn’t shine as brightly as it did in the other two cells. She studied the placard as she crept forward, her eyes unable—or unwilling—to look at what was beyond the sign, even though she felt its presence like a heavy burden on her chest.

Hyde01

Without moving, she traced each letter and number at least three times with her eyes. Until she realized that she hadn’t run away. So somewhere within it, her mind had already decided it was going to make her look. It was just stalling, or building courage, or another equally-useless activity. She counted to three and looked up just as she heard a growl.

Directly in front of her, chained to the wall, was a monster. A Hyde. A thin cement bench was flush against the cinderblock behind him, giving him only a few inches to sit on. Two thick metal cuffs enclosed each of his wrists, short chains attaching him to the wall, stretching his arms out to the sides just parallel to his shoulders. They sagged in their bindings, huge muscles flaccid but still holding tremendous power if flexed. It must have been excruciatingly painful to not be able to lower his arms.

How long has he been like that?

The cotton pants he wore were torn and fraying where they’d rubbed against the edge of the bench, bloodspots dotting the fabric. He hung there limply as if he were on a cross. Or like a twisted, disturbed artist’s rendition of DaVinci’s man.

When he lifted his head, she saw the hate radiating from his eyes. A hate so dark, she felt it seep into her pores, leaving her filthy. She’d
never
seen that much evil. Not even in Mitch’s Hyde. Her feet were frozen where they stood, but her legs shook, not knowing whether to step forward or flee.

“I can’t believe you stole my frigging keycard!”

When she heard Alex’s voice from right behind her, Eden flipped around and aimed the Taser in one fluid motion.

“Did you tase your guard?” Alex wasn’t alone. Fields was there, along with two other guards. “Because if you
did
, the gun is now about as useful as
he
was.”

“Damn it. I hate it when I’m right,” Eden said as they all poured through the doorway. She lowered the Taser and stepped backwards,
towards
the creature.

“Who is he?” Eden asked, not caring who answered, as long as someone did.

“Not something you should be around,” Alex muttered. The rest of them stayed quiet.

“Some-
thing
?”

“Yes, Eden, some-
thing
.
That
”—she motioned to the Hyde—“is what could happen to your precious Mitch.
That
is what they turn into, if they don’t get themselves killed first.”

Eden’s entire body shook uncontrollably. “No.”

“Look at it!” Alex’s voice was loud, vicious, wanting to hurt. “Get used to that expression. Because unless we find a cure, that’s what you’ll spend the rest of your life with. Taking care of him, changing his diaper, all that good stuff.”

“Why didn’t you give him the serum?”

“We did. But it was too late. His transformations had already done too much damage to his system.” Alex shrugged like it was just another day. As if Hyde01 was a butterfly they’d found, stabbed through the torso, and kept in a shadowbox on the wall “Now he doesn’t come back at all. He can’t. Not fully. He can speak when he’s pumped full of it, but he’s not…
real
at all.”

“Real?” How could she say that? She didn’t know what was going on in his mind. Eden turned around to face him, not caring if they grabbed her from behind. They would do it anyway, and there were too many of them to fight. So, with only a few moments left before they did whatever the hell they were going to do to her, she stared at him, looking for…something inside of him.
Needing
to see something human inside of him.

He watched her approach, tugging against his bindings.

“Don’t get too close, Eden. I’m telling you—he’s gone. G-O-N-E. Gone.”

His eyes slicked towards Alex and he growled. Like an animal.

“See?” Alex said.

“That doesn’t prove anything. Even a rabbit would growl if it was strung up on the wall like that.”

When his gaze switched back to her, she saw it. A brief moment of humanity within his pained eyes, as if the man inside him was begging for help. For something to end all the pain and torture that awaited his future. And then it was gone, leaving only rage behind.

“No,” Eden whimpered, imagining he was Mitch. But it was
beyond
that.
No one
should be put through that. “He’s still there. There must be something you can do for him.”

“Like what? Nothing works on him anymore.”

“Then put him out of his misery.” Anything would be better than this. “For god’s sake, Alex, there’s a man inside him somewhere.”

“The Clinic doesn’t kill people.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” she shouted. “You’re torturing him! You’re giving him
something
, aren’t you? Just give him
more
.” She glanced around the room and saw trays of medical equipment and tiny vials on them.

“It won’t work.”

“Then what are these? Barbie toys?” She ran to the closest tray, knocking it over while trying to grab it. Supplies flew everywhere, scattering all over the floor. She slid to her knees and frantically started picking up vials and syringes. But their labels all had codes she didn’t understand. “
Please
tell me some of this is for his pain. Tell me you are giving him
something
for his pain!” From her knees, she looked up at Alex, begging for her to at least nod. “
Please
.”

Alex looked down at her calmly. “Like I said, Eden, nothing works.”

As the guards moved forward, she saw Carter standing still behind them, leaning against the wall. He looked even more haggard than the last time she’d seen him, dark rings under his eyes, his body hunched in on itself.

“Carter?” she whimpered. He’d loved her once. A delusional and destructive kind of love, but love nonetheless. He didn’t look at her. Instead, he stared at the monster behind her, his eyes afraid but not surprised, as if he’d seen it all before.

She skittered backwards on her hands and knees until she hit a desk. She watched the men spread out, not knowing which way to move, not seeing a way out of this. Cornered, like an animal.

“Stand up, Eden,” Fields said, his voice cold and mechanical.

“You
knew
about this,” she said to him, her eyes darting from him to Carter to the other men. “All of you
knew
about this. How could you let this happen? For god’s sake, Fields, that could be your daughter hanging up there!”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s
nothing
like my daughter. It only happens to males.” He flicked his head toward Hyde01 without looking at him.

And somehow it all made sense. None of them saw a human being hanging there. They only saw a monster.

“Then it could be Justin. Carter, I know you hate Mitch, but think about Justin. He’s a person!”

Carter’s stare broke, and he finally looked at her. His face was tired, worn out, confused. “Eden, they’re doing this for you. And for Justin. And even for Mitch. It’s helping them figure out—”

Alex stopped him with a simple raise of her hand. Her smile was predatory, condescending. At any moment Eden imagined the bitch would be offering her candy if she’d just help find her lost puppy. “That’s why we need you,” she said. “Why it can
only
be you.”

“No-no-no-no-no! If you think I would bring a child into the world with the possibility of
this
happening to it or Mitch, you have shit for brains. You people are insane. This is all insane.” She wished her voice had been stronger, less pathetic. But her will to fight was dying—she could feel it.

How do you fight people who aren’t capable of feeling anything? Words had no effect, because they could be so easily dismissed. Regardless of how much truth they held. And fists? Fists only left temporary pain, a physical discomfort accepted in the name of righteousness.

“Genetically, the child has to be yours, Eden.” Alex glanced at the guards standing in front of her. Then she looked back at Eden and silently mouthed, “But it
doesn’t
have to be Mitch’s.”

“No!” Eden yelled the word until her breath ran out.

The men moved in unison, lunging toward her. All three of them, like they’d probably done a hundred other times. She kicked her legs as Fields took hold of one, but the other men each had one of her arms and they weren’t being gentle.

“Please, Fields,” she begged. “Please, don’t do this.” She felt her shoulder give out, the pain making her scream even louder.

Hyde01 echoed her call, crying out to God or to the devil. The sound so frightening, it stopped everyone in the room. They all looked to him, saw him move like he was having a seizure, blood staining his shirt above and below each metal cuff as he slammed his fists against the wall. His cry didn’t stop, not even for a second, even when he started pounding his head against the concrete. Again and again he threw his head back, squirming within his bindings.

Eden wanted to cover her ears like Carter and Alex were. Wanted to make him stop. But all she and the men who held her could do was cringe. But she wouldn’t close her eyes like they were doing. She wouldn’t pretend he wasn’t real. That he didn’t exist. That he didn’t matter.

Fuck them.

He mattered.

She felt the sting of a needle in her arm as one of their goddamned poisons pushed its way into her bloodstream.

“Put her in cage three!” Alex’s scream was barely audible over Hyde01’s howl. The guards lifted her and started carrying her towards the line of cages along the wall. Eden tilted her head all the way back, seeing Hyde01 upside-down between the men who held her upper body. After they put her down and shoved her into the cell, he stopped screaming.

And even though she couldn’t swear to it, right before his head dropped forward and his body slumped like he’d just run out of batteries, she thought she’d seen him smile.

Mitch was pacing outside yet-another unremarkable office building, glancing irritatedly at Landon, when the call came in.

Landon checked the caller ID. “It’s my buddy who was watching the liquor store.”

“Well, take the fucking call!”

After a few
‘heys,’
‘reallys?’
‘no shits
?’ and one mention of Carter’s name, Landon held the phone out towards Mitch. “Someone wants to talk to you.”