Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-one
Hutton
Iknew what I was doing.
It was a bargain. My life for hers. I would do it again, without hesitation, because she makes me feel. Something other than the agitation I’m usually filled with. Only Achilles and her.
I’m not supposed to know how to contact Number One, but it doesn’t matter what punishment awaits me for finding her.
They won’t end me until I’m used up, and then any part of me that still wants to live will be snuffed out.
I follow Dr. Wells after our session of tests.
He no longer speaks to me, roughly moving me around and stabbing needles in my arm.
He took a call from her cutting our session short. So, I followed him. To the main house over the hill. There is a secure door where he scans his thumbprint. I catch it before it closes and slip in behind him.
Two steps before a piercing alarm sounds.
Before I can strategize my next move, something is thrown over my head, and I feel a jab in my side.
As I’m falling to the ground, I hear her voice, “Bring him in. Let’s see just how well it’s worked.”
That voice.
I’ve heard it before, and it’s laced with evil intent.
This might be the beginning of the end. The canvas bag over my head shifts slightly before I black out and I see her arm move down to pull the bag back in place.
The only thing I see is a slender arm and a rose gold bangle etched with a design before I lose consciousness.
Present Day
In a game of cat and mouse—who has the edge? An argument could be made that it’s the cat hunting down its prey. I’d say it’s the mouse evading the cat. Drawing it close to a trap.
I never anticipated the turn of events when Matt returned to the Center. He informed Rick and Todd that the protective detail could be disbanded. The bureau chief granted my wishes. He told Matt that I can proceed, on my own, how I’d like.
Is this a trap?
If it is, I’m ready.
I’ve been ready since I discovered Eden at the Center. I didn’t even have a challenge in getting close to her again, since Matt suggested that I stay at his rental house with them until I make arrangements for where I will live.
I couldn’t have planned it better. I don’t trust Matt; he works for one of the organizations that sanctioned unthinkable things on children in the name of ‘testing.’ I’m prepared to end his life if he becomes a threat.
“Now that we’re here, I have a few things to say to you.” Matt turns around after placing his keys on the counter.
He looks skyward sighing, then rubs his face. “I know. I know that someone or more than one person has been compromised within the FBI. I know about Wells, and I’m starting to get an idea of… some of the shit that happened at Camp Carroll. I need you to tell me what you can. All of it.”
I keep my expression blank.
That’s what I’d say to someone I was trying to convince.
“What am I going to find when we subpoena all the records of the lab? Are you even listening to me?” He waves his hand in front of me in agitation. “This isn’t some fucked up game. How many more people will lose their lives before you start to talk, kid?”
I don’t respond.
Agent Luke… Matt… or whatever he wants to call himself can’t stop them. No one can.
“You’re not going to give me anything are you?” He steps closer, his jaw clenched. “What is the damn connection you have with Eden? Tell me that at least.”
We’re interrupted as Eden walks in the door. She stops midstep in confusion. Then rushing over she steps in between us. “Whoa. What’s happening here?”
Matt steps back, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Hutton is going to spend a couple days here; his protection detail is over.”
“It is?” She looks between us. “Did something change? Did you arrest whoever attacked Caleb and I?”
I want to grab her and run.
“No,” Matt says. She shakes her head at him as he puts his hands up trying to placate her. “I have a lot to tell you and I will. The most important thing right now is that Hutton and you are safe staying here.”
She calms at his words, turning back to me with her beautiful smile.
“As for you… cameras in my room? Really?” The smile drops as she glares at me.
“That was a creepy invasion of privacy. No cameras here in this house. In fact, no watching any… activities… unless you’re participating.
” It’s hard to contain my smile in response.
She’s lively. As long as she doesn’t remember anything, I can play my part.
“I’m not going to tolerate any shady shit from you, kid. You’re welcome here if you keep your hands and eyes to yourself. Unless invited to do otherwise. Can you agree to that?”
“Sure,” I say with a certain note of detachment. The thing is, I’m getting used to him and to having Eden around.
Eden shows me to the room I’ll stay in for the next few days. It’s small, with a tiny window near the ceiling and a corner closet two feet wide and deep. It’ll work for the time being.
I set my bag on the lumpy bed with a gray flannel comforter. “How’s your leg?” I ask Eden.
“It’s healing really well. I’m more worried about my head,” she says half to herself as she sits at the end of the bed in front of me.
“I’ve been having strange dreams that feel like memories, but I know they’re not.
” She bites her lip rubbing her hand over her injured thigh. “You’re in a lot of them.”
“You’ve developed an obsession with me?” I’ve perfected an unaffected tone and dismissive look. I can’t tell anymore if that’s me or my training.
“I don’t know what to think of you,” she says softly, keeping eye contact with me.
“I’ve studied psychology for six years… I’ve delved into trauma response psychology.
One of my professors studied serial killers.
He said never trust survivors, until you know what they did to stay alive.
” She looks at my bag and then down at her hands.
My heart skips a beat. She’s so close… I could touch her. Just reach out and touch her soft curls.
“You shouldn’t trust me. You shouldn’t trust anyone.” I move back and lean against the wall. “If you’re having dreams that are odd, it just means that you’re overthinking everything.”
Those memories need to stay hidden. If they know she has them back, she won’t get another warning. She’ll die from suicide.
Like so many others.
Laughter comes from the stairs as Blaine and Caleb walk up. Caleb can be heard saying, “You know, there might be treatment for the way you talk.” Blaine starts to laugh harder.
Eden stays seated on my bed when I thought their arrival would make her run.
Slowing outside the doorway, both halt and stare wide eyed at us. “The fuck?” Blaine moves into the room. “Did the Center open a branch in this fucking rental, what are you doing here now?”
Caleb laughs in discomfort. “Like I said, your language is terrible. Hey… ah, Hutton.” Gone is the ‘avenging angel’ and I’m relieved that he’s past what the slurry of drugs were doing to him.
“Let’s not make this a big deal,” Eden says sternly to Blaine. “It’s just for a couple of days.” He stuffs down the tirade that was building in him.
Caleb just nods in agreement.
She could order him to do anything, and he’d do it. If I was willing to trust a single person I’ve met, he’d be it. I don’t think he’s capable of deceit.
“What about protective custody?” Caleb asks cautiously, “Are they here, too? This seems less secure than the Wellness Center.”
“It’s done.” My tone leaves no room for further discussion as an awkward silence descends in the room before Eden stands brushing against my arm. She startles and apologizes, scooting away from me.
Blaine edges in between us like I’ll strike her for touching me by accident. His protective nature makes me dislike him a little less.
Caleb lingers after Blaine and Eden tell him that they’ll get the movie ready that they were planning to watch. “Here.” I reach into the pocket of my bag and thrust the envelope with the drug testing results towards him.
He takes it carefully, flushing as he looks through the contents. “Are… are these about me?”
Nodding, I pull my bag down before kicking it towards the wall. “Yes. You heard or saw something you weren’t supposed to. If you remember what it was… keep it to yourself. Don’t trust anyone.”
Even issuing the warning, I know he won’t keep it quiet. He has no real grasp of the danger he’s in.
Unlike Eden, that gunshot was meant to kill him. It’s only a matter of time before his life ends at their hands. Maybe, if he’s discreet, he can prolong it.
“That’s not true. What? What could I have heard or seen?” He pales as he holds his hand out to the wall to study himself. “How do you know that?”
The drugs should have killed him. They didn’t.
The workouts. The clean eating.
Same reason their brainwashing never fully took with me. The stronger I kept my body, the less control they had. The drugs could dull me, but they couldn’t erase me.
Maybe that’s the only gift Lawrence ever gave me.
“Why can’t I tell you?” Caleb folds the results back up and puts it in his pocket.
“You’re not this dumb.” I roll my eyes at him. “I told you… no one. Trust no one.”
Especially me.
How could I explain to this God loving, peaceful, and sweet human being that I’ve been turned into a weapon?
Number One’s voice plays in my head frequently, “We formed you, Adam, we’re your creators. For the Naturalist Order World. When we tell you the Time is now...”
I fought their brainwashing, my body burned off the drug combinations, and I played along. The more emotionally detached I behaved the more convinced they were it was working.
I tucked my true self so deep; I can’t find it.
Tomorrow, I will go back to Camp Carroll.
The FBI could have found and destroyed the evidence of the government’s dealings regarding the lab’s testing, but I have hidden things around the Camp.
I hope I can find Achilles; she threatened to kill him to get a reaction out of me. It’s only been a few months; he may be back in the woods. I’ll leave a letter for Eden, in case I don’t make it back, with the thumb drive.
The mouse is about to tempt the cat back to the beginning.
If it works, I’ll kill her with my bare hands. She left me alive on purpose. Knowing the dose of drugs wouldn’t do it and not pressing as hard on my throat.
Another form of torture.
I’d get the blame or live with the memories.
All those people murdered at her hands in a fit of rage. I never want to learn that she contributed to my DNA. If she really is my biological mother, death would be a better alternative.