Chained

Fourteen

I don't recall much of what happened after seeing the man. Darkness blurs everything and I am only aware of the urge to get as far away from the man.

Reality—I think it's reality—returns. The man—Robert—is holding me down as I thrash uncontrollably. Awareness has returned but I can't stop my body from fighting back. It's like a primal instinct has awakened and there is nothing that my mind can do to stop it.

"I'm going to have to knock the poor bastard out!" Robert's words cut through the nightmarish choir of terror pounding in my head.

"Don't!" Rachel says sharply. "Unconsciousness is the worst thing during the awakening. He will utterly lose his mind."

"Because he's the picture of sanity right now!" Robert retorts.

"Do not knock him out," Michael says with finality. "Hold him down. Revelations are running through him and his body cannot handle the truth."

Even on the brink of madness, I want to snort at Michael's nonsense.

"You're going to be all right," Emily assures me.

Except Emily isn't supposed to be there.

"Em—"

She places her hand over my mouth, her gaze darting around at the others in the car. There should be no room for Emily, but she somehow fits right next to me. Her body—somehow filmy and real at the same time—leans into me. Water drips from her and the scent of rotten fish lingers in the air.

"I promise that you'll be all right," Emily says. She hesitates and looks at my unnerving companions. "You can't trust them."

Her hand prevents me from responding so I roll my eyes. Obviously I can't trust them.

She leans closer, her wet hair dripping on me. "One of them wants to kill you."

I still can't respond so I hold up one finger and twist my face in disbelief.

"Yes, only one," Emily says, understanding my skepticism.

She should understand my skepticism since she's a product of my tripping mind.

Emily strokes my face, her fingers as cold as the winter sea. "One of them doesn't believe that you are worthy of the truth. You have to convince them that you understand or you will never get back to me alive."

I push her hand aside. "I don't think I'm ever coming back alive."

"Of course you will," Rachel says briskly. "As soon as that concoction is out of your system and—"

"And we don't have to worry about you going on a bad trip murder spree," Robert breaks in.

Emily doesn't break her gaze from me. "You aren't safe, Jason. One of them is a murderer. One of them is a coward. One of them is selfish. Only one of them is a true believer. You can only trust one."

"I don't...I don't understand," I mumble.

She blinks her beautiful eyes at me, her face half lost to the dark night. "You will only survive and return to me if you can open your mind to the truth."

I shake my head. "My mind is too open right now."

"Only you can see the truth right now." Emily tilts her head. "Your mind is the twilight of understanding. Sometimes only the dreamers see the truth, not the awakened."

"Nothing makes sense right now and that makes no sense at all," I say.

"Just remember that I'm always here with you." She takes my hand, seawater dripping down her fingers. "When you need me, I'll be there."

"I don't want you here!" I exclaim, even as my fingers tighten around hers. "That's why I'm here in the first place. For you."

"Who are you talking to?" someone asks.

At least I think someone is asking that question. Everything sounds hazy and distorted, as if I am underwater.

"You are here for me." Emily moves closer to me, the stink of decaying fish wafting around her. "Don't say anything else."

Her lips touch me, the taste of the sea entering my mouth. Water fills the car as she kisses me. Everything burns as the dark water swirls everywhere. It fills my nose and lungs. I should be gasping for breath, but all I can do is kiss Emily. I keep kissing her as her blonde hair floats in the dark water like a halo. A golden light in the darkness.

The water vanishes and a terrible noise fills my ears. It takes a moment to realize that it's the sound of vomiting.

I'm vomiting.

"You're cleaning that up, Freddie," Robert says coldly.

No one offers any comfort or seems to care in the slightest. When I finally finish, I stare in horror. A spider is crawling around the mess and the scent of the sea still lingers.

I blink and look around. Time has passed. More time than I realized. The night disappeared into the gray light of dawn. I don't recognize the location, but I swear I can hear the sound of ocean waves hitting the shore.

But we should be too far from the ocean.

"Where are we?" I croak. "How long have I been out?"

Robert's response is to take a loud drink from a cup of soda. He didn't have that soda earlier. I don't even remember us stopping.

I sit up straighter. "Is it morning? For fuck's sake, how long have I been out?"

"You were never out," Rachel says, finally acknowledging my question.

I shake my head. "No! No, I wasn't."

"It would have been dangerous to allow you to remain unconscious during the awakening," Rachel says flatly. "You were awake the entire time."

Robert grunts. "You said some interesting things, Hill."

I narrow my eyes. "What did I say?"

Nothing.

"I don't believe any of you!" I hiss.

Of course they don't say a word to me. I glance out the window. We seem to have reached a lonely abandoned town—if it can even be called a town. There's a handful of houses and buildings. More trailers and tents than anything else. Like some sort of event is happening.

But the eerie thing is that there are people lined up on the side of the road. They are all staring as the car comes to a stop.

"Where are we?" I demand.

"We've taken you home, Jason," Freddie says sweetly.

Her hand reaches for me and I jerk away. "I...I don't want to be here. Things are more clear now. I want to go home. My home."

The last words are impossibly childish and the slight cracking in my voice doesn't help matters. I just want to go home.

Robert looks at me. In the harsh light of morning, his eyes are almost as dead as Michael's. "Sorry, Hill," he says. "Your old home is dead to you now that Freddie made us take you here."

My heart pounds. "What?"

"You have two choices now." Robert stretches. "If you had a proper awakening, you get to join us. And then you won't even care about your old home. It won't mean shit to you."

I shake my head. "No!"

Robert smirks. "I don't think you want the other choice."

"You don't have to be such as asshole," Rachel tells him.

"What's the other choice?" I ask.

I shouldn't ask. I know that I don't want the answer.

It doesn't matter since none of them answer me. That is somehow worse than the answer.

But not as bad as when I look out the window and see the drooling man in white.