Chapter Twenty-eight
Keir
Istop and look around for a landmark. My mind is triggered by something, but it just can’t hold onto it.
Jolie looks back at me taking my hand. “It’s alright. You’re safe here.” Horizon Wellness Center. I’ve been staying here for a few months and even though a twinge of déjà vu hits… no memories.
“This just feels… strange?”
A nurse at the desk only feet away smiles warmly. Jolie tucks her hair behind her ear and wraps her arms around my arm.
I let Jolie lead me down the hallway to my room. The thought of a small, closed space makes panic set in. I pull away from her, telling her that I’d like to see Dr. Vargas.
“You will. You have an appointment tomorrow with her.” Jolie’s eyes squint at me for a second, before she laughs. “You can talk to me, if you want.”
I can’t talk to her. There was an unmistakable shift when my nightmares became more physical. I can barely look at Jolie. I feel dirty and disgusting.
“Keir, the FBI has recruited me. Did I tell you that?” She looks proud of herself. “They wanted me, for work they’re doing on the psychology of interrogations. I’m only telling you this, so you know that you can trust me, I’ll be working for the FBI.”
She twists to the side, stamping her feet like she can’t contain her excitement. It grosses me out. What happened to the sweet girl I first met at the hospital? The reaction shows on my face before I can stop myself.
“Does your head hurt?” she asks, taking one of my hands.
“Uhh… I’m going to rest.” The last thing I want to do is close myself into this room, but I want to get away from Jolie. “Thank you for picking me up from the hospital.”
“Oh… of course, we’re friends.”
She promises to be back later, and I tell myself I won’t feel so ‘off’ about her and everything else after I get some rest. I haven’t been sleeping well because the nightmares are almost debilitating.
The room looks like a hotel.
I don’t own much. The emptiness shows when the drawers open and with the bare closet. One picture is taped to the wall near the bed. I recognize the picture of dad, mom, and me at Disneyland. I collapse on the bed in silent tears.
I reach into my pocket to clasp the thread and beads from an old bookmark of my mom’s.
My hands are wrapped around a throat, pressing… cutting off the airflow. A voice drifts out of the darkness.
“Make her stop. That’s right… she attacked you. She tried to kill you.” I touch the side of my head. My fingers come back bloody.
I look down to see the face of my attacker and her blonde head of curls. Her mouth twists into a sneer. Blue eyes full of wrath.
Why? Why did she attack me?
Before I can ask, I hear my mom’s voice, “Just go along to get along. Okay?”
I can’t see her.
Where is she?
I look back down. The blonde woman is gone, and I fall face-first on the bed. When I roll over, she’s standing above me.
“Saaaammmm…,” she sings out to me in a chilling voice. “Stop me or I’ll take it all away… all of them.”
I wake up choking and coughing, my face wet with tears.
Why am I having these nightmares? Have I always had them? Who is this woman I keep seeing in them?
Maybe I should tell Jolie. I can’t take much more of this.
Walking around the Center, a lot of the people here seem to know me and say hi. Jolie finds me sitting at the back of the Center on a bench, staring off into space.
“Feeling a bit better after some sleep?” She’s wearing an even more revealing pink dress. I avert my gaze.
“I’ve been having nightmares.”
“Oh, no. Keir, that’s so awful. Do you want to tell me what they’re about?”
Not really, but I’m so tired.
“I keep seeing the same blonde woman. Over and over. I don’t know her, but she wants to hurt me.” I scrub my hands down my face. “I had a nightmare that I was strangling her.”
Jolie nods. “I know why.”
My heart kicks up. “You do?”
“Oh, honey.” She places her hand on my lower back. “You’re seeing the face of the person that attacked you. Hit you in the head.”
She lays her head against my arm. I try not to jerk away.
“How… how do you know that?” I swallow taking a quick glance at her.
“She’s one of the other graduate students. You were found in her room. I didn’t want to tell you this, but there's a video of her hitting you in the back of the head with a laptop.”
When I peek back her way she’s frowning and shaking her head. “She’s deeply disturbed.”
“Do the police know that?”
“No. But you should talk to them.” She moves closer to me; her chest rubs against my arm. “She’s dangerous and we don’t want her to return here to the Wellness Center.”
“We?” A chill moves through me. Why do I feel like something isn’t right about what she’s saying to me?
“Oh… no, I mean you. You don’t want her to come back here.”
“Where is she?”
Moving on the bench away from Jolie I keep my eyes trained on the pond.
She’s suffocating me.
A memory flashes—my hands around the same blonde’s throat. She’s moaning and calling my name, “Keir. Harder. Press harder.”
I shut my eyes, shaking my head. What’s happening to me?
Jolie continues telling me that I should call the police to give them a statement then talk to Dr. Hart. I drift away from what she’s saying. A soda can floating in the pond has my attention while my thoughts blur into an unfocused mass of confusion.