CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Alright, Griffin. Just relax. All you’re going to hear are soft rustling sounds and my voice,” said Ashley. “Close your eyes.”
He nodded at the pretty woman and closed his eyes, almost grateful for the rest after a fitful night’s sleep.
“Let’s go back to The Depot. Tell me your first memory.”
“W-we were playing. Me, Garrett, Gable, and David. My brothers and I were playing, and David was a neighbor. Gable. Gable is gone.” He sounded like a child.
“I know, honey. We’ll talk all about Gable soon, okay? Let’s talk about The Depot.”
“Mom didn’t like all the dust. It was everywhere, and she hated it.”
“Where is your mom?” asked Ashley.
“She died of cancer. Dad too.” Bree stared at Ashley, wondering how many other parents died of cancer or other suspicious deaths.
“I’m sorry. You’ve had a lot of loss in your life.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I have Marilisa now. I’m glad. She’s lovely, and Saint loves her.”
“He does. Were you ever in love?”
“Once. I think. I didn’t get to talk to her or meet her up close. I saw her in the window of an asylum. Her name was Caroline Shui. She thought she’d gone mad because of the dust. I wanted to help her, but they wouldn’t let me.”
“I’m sorry, Griffin,” said Ashley. “How old were you when you left The Depot.”
“We were all young. Maybe ten or eleven. Then, we joined the military together. Special Forces seemed smart, but everyone thought we were freaks. We tried to watch ourselves using the gifts, but sometimes, you had to do what was necessary to save a teammate. They still thought we were weird.”
“That must have been terrible,” she said.
“We learned to stick together. Then I got injured. I moved a group of my teammates but didn’t get out of the way in time. Shrapnel hit my back and legs.”
“I’m sure that was very painful,” said Ashley.
“I don’t remember a lot of pain. Isn’t that odd? I mean, I had hunks of metal taken from my body, and yet I don’t really remember being in much pain.”
“Maybe they gave you great pain management medications,” she said.
“I-I don’t remember that either. I remember the woman, Michelle, the nurse, coming in a lot. She touched me a lot.”
“Touched you?”
“Yes. She would touch my bare thigh or my abdomen unnecessarily. There was something about her that creeped me out. There was absolutely no sexual attraction. I told the others about it because we’d been overseas for a while. You would have thought that I’d gladly want the touch of a woman, even one I wasn’t attracted to, but I was almost repulsed by her.”
“Was she angry about that?” asked Ashley.
“I don’t remember anger. She came in one day and said I had to undergo surgery for a piece of metal lodged near my spine. I don’t remember anything being there, but I didn’t argue.”
“So, you went in for surgery, and then what?”
“I woke up, and they said I could return to duty in a week. I went to my barracks, and my teammates looked at me weird like I had something on my face.”
“Did they say anything?”
“No. Garrett, David, and Gable told them to leave me alone. They said that the team should be grateful that we saved them. They thought we were freaks. It happened to the others as well. It’s why we ended up together.”
“I’m sure that’s been very helpful for all of you. Tell me about the laboratory,” said Ashley.
Griffin squirmed on the couch, and Bree watched him carefully, tapping the button for Doc and Cruz to come. From the window they watched Griffin to be sure he didn’t reach for one of the women.
“I didn’t like the laboratory,” he said quietly, shaking his head.
“Was it in Baghdad?”
“No. No, I don’t know where it was. It was white. White everywhere and bright lights. There were instruments and machines and a horrible smell of metal burning.”
“Metal? Like gunfire?”
“No. Like radiation. Like the smell of machines putting off radiation.”
Cruz stared at Ashley and Bree and then at Doc. He was describing something that few people could actually smell. It was possible but unlikely. If they were delivering more radiation doses to him, it may have been to see if they could enhance his skills further.
“She touched me.”
“Yes. You said she touched you,” said Ashley.
“No. She touched me, my penis. I was awake but couldn’t move. She was laughing. She said she wanted to personally get the sample. She touched me.”
“She ejaculated you?” asked Ashley.
“Y-yes. I remember. The lab. That’s why it was blank for Marilisa. It wasn’t her memory. It’s mine.”