Chapter 4
Just Scratching the Surface
She only ran as far as her room, knowing that it was unlikely the doctor and his goons would return to it. That’s why Willow was startled by a voice that sounded close to her.
“Are you okay?”
Willow gripped her wrist as she spun around to find the source of the voice. No one was there. It was just like earlier, but she hadn’t had the chance to ask Nolan how he’d manage to speak to her from the other room.
Now, she didn’t really care. All she wanted was to get away from him. Nolan had never physically hurt her before, so the fact that he might have broken her wrist was shocking. It triggered the same reaction she’d had when she was younger – she ran. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that there were people actively looking for her. Some of them had been directed to go to other floors. She left her room and started phasing through other cold rooms, most of them empty. She only stopped when she ran into a large slab of metal. Stumbling over it, she stretched out her hands to catch herself, and this time she heard a snapping sound as her hand hit the surface. Unable to stop herself, Willow let out a cry of pain. Her grey eyes opened wide as she realized she was in another torture room and the metal object was a cabinet of some kind. Tools clanged around inside of it. In her shock and pain, she fully materialized.
To her horror, an alarm sounded, leaving her no time to really consider her situation. The blaring sound made her want to cover her ears, but Willow knew better than to try. Her wrist was useless, so trying to use it for anything was out of the question. She looked around, trying to figure out where the alarms were, but soon it didn’t matter – she could hear people rushing in her direction. Turning back the way she had come, Willow ran through several rooms, crouching as she heard the people drawing closer. She moved close to the wall near the hall so that anyone who looked in would not see her moving along in the opposite direction.
When she heard the people pass the room she was in, Willow continued through three more rooms, then stopped. Hurrying to the door, she stood to the side and crouched down. Cradling her wrist, she rocked a little on the balls of her feet and panted.
Her heart pounded as a voice spoke to her in a calming tone, “Please calm down.”
Startled, Willow tried to find the source of the voice. When she didn’t see anyone, the young woman felt certain that there were electronics somewhere hidden in the room. Someone was playing her.
Then the voice spoke again, “Please get back against the wall and try to relax your breathing. They are probably going to be heading back this way soon, and they are going to be looking for you. Stay out of sight because they don’t know that you are the person who set off the alarm. They suspect it is you, but don’t let them confirm that by letting them find you now.”
Willow’s eyes darted around the room, looking for the source of the voice. “Who are you?”
“The guy from the café. I bumped into you and got you into this mess. I promise I’ll get you out of here; it’ll just take some time.” Then there was a melodic laugh that didn’t sound quite right, but she didn’t have time to consider it as the voice continued. “I don’t have your gift … unless you have the ability to get me out of here at the same time?”
There was a note of hope in the voice, but Willow shook her head. “I don’t know. But how are you talking to me?”
This was met with a few seconds of silence, then he responded, “I’m sorry I didn’t get to explain it earlier, but I’m using more direct methods. Given your … unique abilities, I’m able to talk to you directly.”
Can you hear what I’m thinking?
Willow desperately hoped he couldn’t. She certainly didn’t want Nolan to have access to her thoughts because she didn’t think he needed any more reason to belittle her. When he didn’t say anything, she whispered, “So you … I don’t understand.”
“How much do you know about yourself and your abilities?”
Shrinking against the wall, Willow didn’t really want to tell him what she had learned over the years, but she also had no idea how much he could figure out on his own. He had already seen her use force to push cars, and now he had witnessed her literally running through the wall of his room. At this point, he basically knew about as much as she did about what she could do. Whispering, Willow said, “If you mean do I know that I’m a freak, yeah, I know. Don’t need you to tell me that.”
This response was met with silence. When she heard him again, his voice was much softer. “You aren’t a freak. Whoever told you that was horrible and not someone worth listening to.”
Unable to help it, Willow scoffed. She wanted to tell him that he was one of the people to call her that back in high school, even though she had always kept herself under control back then. Instead, she sat down, drawing her knees up to her chest. Her good arm wrapped around her legs, while the arm with the broken wrist rested between her legs and her body. She did not say anything in response to his words, at least not anything that would help the current situation.
When she didn’t answer, Nolan said, “I’ll make sure to take you somewhere safe after getting you out of here. For now, I just need to know how much you know about your … heritage.” His words were chosen in a way that left the impression that he was withholding information even while saying he would help her.
With a sigh, she said, “You don’t have to pretend you think differently of me. It’s why my parents have been looking for a way to get rid of me. As soon as they found out that I was a freak, they wanted to get rid of me, even going so far as to tell me that I was adopted. Whenever I did something that upset them, they would tell me that I was not really a part of their family. At least that was one constant over my life,” she said with thick sarcasm in her voice. “If they aren’t my real parents, then I don’t have a clue about my heritage.”
“Who are your parents?”
“It doesn’t matter. If they are my biological parents, they’ve disowned me, so I don’t have access to the seedier aspects of my heritage. If they did adopt me, I can’t access the paperwork, so there’s no way to tell who my biological family is.”
“I understand that it’s a sore subject, but who your parents are is really important.”
“I don’t see how it’s going to help anything right now. Because I don’t see how talking about family is going to help get me out of here. If they are willing to torture you, a member of the Woodward family, a nobody like me has no chance of escaping by a paid ransom or promise of power.”
This was enough to shut him up for a few moments. When he started trying to talk to her again, Willow decided to ignore him. She focused on paying attention to where the people were. When she couldn’t sense them near the door, she stood up and quickly checked to see if anyone was looking down the hall. After confirming that there was no one paying attention so far from the room where she had heard the alarm, she darted across the hall and into another sterile-looking room. Then she kept running through several rooms that were perpendicular to the hallway she just crossed.
While she was in pain, Willow was in better shape as she moved through the rooms the second time. She had been fortunate enough not to encounter anything that stopped her the first time, but she wasn’t taking exactly the same path. After going through a couple of rooms, she slowed down and started paying attention to the layout and items in each room. Some were like her cell, cold and mostly devoid of anything beyond an uncomfortable bed, a mostly empty trolley, and a place to use the bathroom. Other rooms looked more like chemistry labs or places where experiments were done – not torture kind of experiments. None of them made her feel nearly so unsettled as the room she thought of as a torture room. None of them were nearly as nice as Nolan’s, either. After a while, she walked through them cautiously but with a more assessing eye. She figured whatever she could learn about the place would likely help her get out safely.
What she didn’t want to think about was returning to Nolan.
As she moved farther away, she occasionally heard Nolan trying to talk to her, but years of being berated and belittled by her family had made it easy for her to tune out people, even if he was somehow speaking into her mind. She was too busy exploring to better understand her current situation. That was one thing that she knew how to do, and she was incredibly adept at exploring, even without her abilities.
She had traveled cautiously through over a dozen rooms when one room caught her attention. Willow stepped into a space that was reminiscent of the school nurse’s room or doctor’s office. After making sure it was clear, the young woman began going through the cabinets. Initially, she tried to check them without opening the doors, but it was harder to see the items without a light. Willow slowly opened one door, her eyes roving around the room in case there was a hidden alarm attached to the doors. When nothing happened, she turned her attention to the contents. It took a while, but eventually, she found a wrap for her wrist.
Sitting on the floor, Willow tried to prepare herself to bandage her dominant hand. As someone who had a weak stomach when it came to blood and broken bones, this particular situation was a nightmare. She looked down at her wrist, and immediately she looked away from it, her stomach threatening to revolt at the sight.
“That’s quite impressive.”
The voice once again startled her, and Willow hit her wrist on her knees. Talking a little too loudly, she said, “Stop doing that, Nolan! Every time you do that, you startle me, and this is hard enough without you breaking my concentration.”
When he didn’t immediately respond, the young woman thought that she might have gotten him to leave her alone until she was ready to deal with him. She let her head fall back gently against the wall while she breathed through her mouth to prepare for what she needed to do.
“I really think we need to talk.”
Willow balled up her good hand. “Seriously, Nolan, right now, I don’t want to deal with you.” This time she was going to force him to talk because she didn't want him to interrupt her when she was actually wrapping a broken wrist. Speaking to the room, she pointed out, “You broke my wrist, and I’ve found some supplies to try to take care of it. If you don’t mind, I don’t want you startling me or breaking my concentration. Medicine is not my field, so this is tough enough without you making things worse.”
“What do you mean by taking care of it?”
Annoyance crept into her voice as she said, “I’m going to wrap it so that I don’t keep hurting it further.”
“How can it be worse than being broken?”
“I’m not a medical professional, but I’m pretty sure that falling on it and hitting it against things has made the break worse.”
“Instead of causing yourself more pain, you could just return to me.”
Shaking her head, Willow told him, “You broke it. Why should I believe that you can tend to it?”
“Because I can do more than just wrap it up. I can actually fix the bone.”
This time, Willow was the one to be silent.
“Are you still there? Please tell me what you are thinking.”
Biting her lip, she wasn’t sure what to say. “How do you plan to fix the bone? I looked around the room, and it was much nicer than the rest of them, but there wasn’t much in the way of medical supplies. There sure wasn’t the material for a cast or something that would set and stabilize it.”
“Like you, I’m not a medical professional, so I don’t know how to use human medicine to treat it. What I mean is that I can actually heal the bone, even if you’ve made it worse. It will be like the break didn’t happen.”
“How?”
“That’s like asking you how you are able to move through walls.”
Willow mouthed a few words but didn’t speak as she tried to figure out what she wanted to say. Finally, she decided not to try to explain something that she was simply able to do. “That’s not even remotely the same thing.”
“It’s one of my abilities. Actually, healing is a pretty common ability for my kind.”
“You’re kind? Do you mean men? Athletes?” What she was thinking was obscenely rich people, but she didn’t say that aloud.
“This isn’t a conversation to have over a mental link.”
“How do I know you aren’t going to hurt me again? You could just be luring me back to the room for … some nefarious reason.” Willow knew that he wasn’t planning something like that, but in her current vulnerable state, she really didn’t want to be near him. Not until she had some time to calm down.
His words were calm as he explained, “I only hurt you because I thought you were one of the people who abducted us. I’m really sorry about what I did. If I had known it was you touching me, not one of them, I wouldn’t have grabbed you like that. And, you have to admit, I wasn’t in the best shape when you were here, and having a wet cloth dabbed on an open wound wasn’t the best way to wake. I was startled and just reacted.”
Willow tilted her head to the side, “Don’t you mean you aren’t in the best shape? Or are you that good at healing?”
“It’s an innate ability. Even if I’m unconscious, my body repairs itself quickly. It’s what makes it incredibly difficult to kill my kind. Not that you would be able to tell if you were to see me in my current state since I’m trying to keep my abilities secret.”
“What do you mean I couldn’t tell? Are you walking around with a lot of blood on you?” She was about to argue that it would be pretty clear he wasn’t still hurt, but when Willow considered the state he was in when she saw him, she knew that someone needed to look pretty close to see that the wounds were healed. Just a look at him had turned her stomach. If he hadn’t cleaned off the blood, she could imagine people wouldn’t be able to see the wounds were actually healed.
And given his reaction to her, she very much doubted that anyone else would be able to get close enough to tell.
She could imagine him shrugging as he replied, “Having a bit of dried blood on me is far from the worst thing to contend with. Besides, I don’t plan to be here for long, so I’ll be able to clean the blood up soon enough.”
“What makes you think you can get out of this place? It’s a maze of hallways and rooms. And you’ve admitted that you can’t just walk out like I can.”
“This place is … based on an old design that is well known in my field of work.”
A memory clicked in her mind, and Willow realized that the place was probably familiar to him. Without thinking about what she was saying, Willow muttered, “You mean it’s something that your family helped design.”
This again caused him to go silent. When he spoke, Nolan said, “Please come back so we can talk.”
“I’m really not sure that’s a good idea.”
“I swear, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You already did.”
There was a hint of annoyance as he replied, “I mean, I’m not going to intentionally hurt you. If you really knew me, you would know that I am not that kind of person.”
Willow scoffed before she could stop herself. “Sure. I’ve heard that before.”
“Not from me, you haven’t.”
It took a lot to keep her thoughts to herself, but the young woman also knew that it wouldn’t make any sense to fight with him. It hurt to think that he had been so cruel to her, but it apparently hadn’t meant anything because he didn’t even recognize or remember her. Taking a deep breath, she decided to offer up something that he couldn’t argue with. “The guys who responded to the alarm are still over there. I’m currently somewhere that is pretty empty and I don’t plan to move right now.”
“That … is a very reasonable decision and not one I can really argue with well. So…” at that point, she could hear him clearing his throat or his thoughts; Willow wasn’t exactly sure how it worked. “Do you mind if we keep talking until the coast is clear?”
This was something she didn’t expect, so before she had a chance to really consider it, she automatically said, “Sure.”
“Great. I am really sorry for getting you involved in all of this. If I would have known this would happen, I wouldn’t have followed you from the café.”
“Ah, it’s all right.” Willow cringed as the guilt started to kick in. How would she tell him that the reason they were in this situation was because of her stupidity? Now that she felt like she was temporarily safe from the doctor and his underlings, she had time to reflect on her role. Hearing him apologize to her made Willow feel horrible.
There was a laughing tone as he said, “You must be on overload now to be so blasé.”
“I think, given our current situation, the blame isn’t really the problem. We can deal with that later.” After saying it, she couldn’t help but tell herself that she would make it right.
“Well, that’s very kind of you to say. Most people would be enraged in this situation.”
Feeling uncomfortable, Willow asked, “Are you saying that you would feel like that in my position?”
He paused, then said, “I’m not sure. Probably. I mean, I didn’t plan for this to happen, obviously, but I think that getting dragged into something like this … emotional reactions really aren’t rational. And considering your unique abilities, you are in even worse danger than me if they realize what you are. If not for me, you wouldn’t be here, and you wouldn’t be in so much danger.”
Willow closed her eyes as she pulled her legs up and rested her good arm over her knees. She placed her forehead on her uninjured arm, the guilt eating at her. “Don’t worry about it. We can discuss everything later when we get out of here.”
“That’s a very generous attitude. If I were a suspicious person, I would be asking more questions now.”
She had no idea how to respond to that, so she simply said, “I’m exhausted, but I know that I’m not going to get any sleep.”
“When you come here, I’ll protect you so you can get some real rest. It’s the least I can do.”
“I can’t do that to you. I’m sure they’ll be looking for me soon enough, and considering your room is next to mine, I’ve no doubt they’ll think you had something to do with my disappearance.”
“You might be right about that. Even though they came into my room, it would make sense for us to work together,” Nolan said. They were both quiet, and she wanted to wait to hear what he had to say. When he spoke, Nolan put her on edge. “Can you be honest with me?”
Afraid he would ask her something that would incriminate her, she was hesitant in her answer. “It depends on what you ask.”
“Do you know how your ability works? And please be honest in your answer.”
“Didn’t we already cover this?”
“I recall you dodging the question by asking me about my abilities.”
Feeling defeated, she finally admitted, “Not really. I suppose it’s because it’s an innate ability, too. If you know a lot of people who can heal like magic, there are probably other people out there like me who can walk through stuff.” She paused. “Did you just stumble upon your abilities without knowing anything?”
She thought she heard him chuckle as he replied, “Not at all. But my situation is a lot different because I was raised by my family.”
“But you said that it was something your body just did on its own. So why does it matter that you were with your family?”
“My body was able to heal itself, but my family explained it to me before I even knew that it was not something that most people could do.”
“How did your family know that you could heal yourself?”
“It’s mostly an expectation because the vast majority of shifters can heal themselves. And a large percentage of us are able to heal others, too, something that my family did have to tell me since that wasn’t something I was likely to realize. Everyone around me could heal until they finally decided I needed to attend school with other students.”
It was a lot, but one thing caught her attention. Willow narrowed her eyes. “Did you just say shifters?”
“Ah, yes. Sorry. As I said, this really isn’t a conversation we should be having like this. There’s a lot that I can tell you, but from what I’ve been told, it’s really not a good idea to have someone like you isolated when you start to learn about yourself.”
Willow peeked up over her arm, “Why?”
“Because it can have a very adverse effect. One woman pretty much destroyed an entire facility when she was pushed too far.”
Her mouth fell open a little, and she couldn’t help but mouth the words he said. “She … destroyed a facility?”
“Yes. That’s why I think it is best that you come to me – when you are ready – then we will talk. If something happens, I’m in a pretty good position to keep you safe, both from the people here and from yourself.”
“ Are you in a good position to keep me safe?” Willow knew that Nolan was confident, but this seemed delusional. “You are a prisoner. ”
“I have other skills than healing.”
Willow scowled at the wall, “Yeah, you can talk directly to my mind.”
“Well, that’s just something my family can do. It’s why we look at most types of tech as unnecessary. There are more disadvantages to us having them than advantages.”
“Can you talk to anyone like this?”
“No. But again, this is getting into territory that I don’t want to discuss from afar.”
Willow put her head back down, the pain in her wrist starting to make thinking difficult. “I wish I could just go home.”
“If you really wanted to, you could.”
“I’m not going to just leave you here.”
There was a pause before he asked, “Why not?”
“They beat you unconscious. You may think that I’m in greater danger, but I don’t think that’s true.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you aren’t human. If they figure that out, you will definitely be in danger. And I know that they torture people to death here. With your healing ability, it just means that it will be drawn out that much longer.”
“That’s not your problem, though. You could get out of here and get the medical attention you need. As you pointed out, you don’t have to be here, so if you really want to go, just go. It will be much safer for you to escape instead of putting yourself in unnecessary danger.”
It was the strangest thing, being urged to leave by Nolan Woodward and feeling too guilty to do it.
With a frustrated grunt, Willow placed her good hand on the floor and stumbled her way into a standing position while trying to cradle her wrist.
“What’s happening? Are you okay?”
“I’m going to see if you can actually fix this thing because it’s really hurting.”
“Why don’t you just leave? You can go to a hospital and have your wrist fixed. These people don’t have your name, so it’s not like they will be able to track you.”
Willow closed her eyes and hung her head. Her wrist was hurting, but that’s not what was bothering her – she knew that the people definitely had her name. They knew far too much about her. They set all of this up. Even if she wanted to leave, they could easily find her and drag her back if they didn’t just kill her.
The last one died ...
The thought went through her mind, and Willow knew that staying was a huge risk. However, she couldn’t just leave. She had no idea what he meant about being a shifter, but Nolan had made it clear that he wasn’t particularly afraid in this situation. He clearly didn’t realize just how dangerous their situation was. It seemed to Willow that he was playing down the risk to himself while telling her that she was in terrible danger.
There really wasn’t any decision to be made – Willow wasn’t in a situation where she could just leave.
Hopefully, he’s right about being able to help because I’m not going to survive for a day if I leave here. Or I’ll be right back here, and they’ll figure out what I can do. Then I won’t be able to escape.
Not about to voice that to her high school bully, all Willow said was, “I’m not going to just leave you here. For all I know, you are still hurt and just want to make me feel less guilty so that I’ll leave.”
There was a melodic laugh, and then Nolan said, “Okay. If you can get back here safely, I’ll be waiting.”