All of us failed to match
our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid
failure to do the impossible.
—William Faulkner
18
Something was in bed with
me.
Something warm.
Something furry and soft.
Something with sharp
claws.
I used the blanket to shield myself as
I moved at a sloth’s pace to the opposite side of the bed. I
stretched out an arm, reaching into the shadows for the lamp on the
nightstand. I bumped it. The furry thing made a noise that sent a
shudder up my spine. I found the little twisty knob and the light
flicked on just as the gray thing sailed at me, claws fully
extended.
It was the psycho kitty.
I screeched and swatted the beast away.
It flew to the floor. The door to the bedroom swung open. The cat
darted past a worried-looking JT.
I pointed. “Cat.”
He looked back down the hall.
“Where?”
“It’s probably hiding somewhere.” I
jumped up and dashed past him. “We need to get that animal out of
here before it tears me up. It hates me.”
Still standing at the door, JT watched
me as I peered into the empty bedroom down the hall. “I didn’t see
a cat.”
“It ran right past you. How could you
not see it?” Where’d that evil cat go? I tiptoed down to the next
open door and peered into another empty room. No cat. “Damn it. It
must have gone downstairs.” I decided it would be better if I shut
the cat out of my bedroom, rather than go on a wild-cat chase. I
headed back to the master bedroom, shoved JT inside, and shut the
door behind him.
“Are you trying to tell me something?”
He glanced at the bed, then at me, then at the bed again. His
eyebrows climbed to the top of his forehead.
“No.” I stomped to the bed, fluffed the
sheet and blanket back in place, and climbed in. “I just didn’t
want that animal to sneak back in here.”
“Who’s to say it hasn’t
already?”
Good point. I peered over the edge of
the bed.
I heard a scratching sound. I gathered
the blanket to my chest and curled my legs, wrapping my arms and
the blanket around my knees. I pointed. “I think it’s under
there.”
JT didn’t look scared. He sauntered
over, bent. Yelled “Holy shit!” and fell on his ass.
I hopped up on my feet and danced
around the bed, shouting, “Where is it? Where is it?”
JT stood up, face a brilliant red.
Tears streaming from his eyes. I realized, too late, that he was
laughing his ass off.
At me.
“You bastard!” I grabbed the first
thing I could find and threw it at him.
He ducked and the pillow hit the wall,
rebounded, and sent a framed photograph crashing to the floor.
Still laughing, JT turned to survey the damage before tsk-tsking
me. “Didn’t your mother teach you it’s bad to throw
things?”
I leapt to the floor and headed for the
broken frame. “It was a pillow.” I carefully picked up the frame
and inspected the photograph. It was a picture of a man, smiling,
maybe in his midthirties, wearing a military uniform. “Besides,
this is just a stock photograph, isn’t it?”
“No, it was left here by the former
homeowner.”
“Why wouldn’t they take a picture like
this with them?”
“I’m guessing it was accidentally left
behind.”
I gently pulled the shattered glass
away from the photograph, trying to keep the sharp edges from
slicing into the print. “How sad. Maybe we should find out where
the homeowner went and give it back? After we get a new
frame.”
“Maybe we should.”
I put the picture back on the dresser
and dumped the shards of glass into the plastic trash can next to
the nightstand. JT helped me pick up the rest of the
glass.
“We’ll run a damp cloth over the wood
floor tomorrow to get the smaller pieces. You should get some
sleep.” He nudged me toward the bed. I climbed in, waiting for him
to leave and shut the door before I cut off the light. I fell
asleep the instant my head hit the pillow.
It was back. The cat. How? I felt its
claws pricking my skin through the blanket.
“Little mouse.”
That isn’t a cat. Cats
don’t talk.
My heart started drumming against my
breastbone. An instant coating of sweat slicked my skin. I tried to
scream; but when I opened my mouth, no sound came out. I couldn’t
inhale. My lungs wouldn’t inflate. I couldn’t move a muscle. It was
as if I’d been drugged, given a paralytic.
Could this be the unsub? The timing was
interesting. There’s no such thing as a
coincidence. The voice. Was it male or female? I still
couldn’t tell. Maybe it was female.
“Little mouse. I won’t wait any longer.
You lost our game.”
What game? I had
no clue what that meant.
JT, I screamed
inside my head, help me!
I tried to move. A finger. A toe. I
couldn’t. Oh, God, I couldn’t. JT was close by, but he had no clue
what was happening.
“Little mouse. I’m losing
patience.”
The microphones.
Why weren’t the agents stampeding into
the room? Couldn’t they hear that awful voice? It made my skin
burn. My hairs stand on end. It was like nails scratching on a
chalkboard, only a hundred times worse.
“Little mouse. You promised. You agreed
to the rules of our game.”
I didn’t promise anything to anyone,
but I couldn’t say that. I couldn’t say anything. I felt like I was
suffocating. I wanted air. So badly. Desperately. I fought for a
breath. Only one.
Someone help.
Please.
I felt it come closer. Felt the chill
grow colder, colder until it stung, burned. My neck. It hurt. The
pain. Still, I couldn’t move. Not an eyelash. Nothing. More pain.
Blindingly sharp. I screamed in my head. Darkness crashed down upon
me, and then I was thrashing, kicking, screaming so hard my throat
felt like it was tearing up inside. The door smashed open, the
overhead light snapped on, and JT raced into the room.
“What?” he shouted, his eyes
wild.
“It was back. It was here.” I bound
from the bed.
“What? The cat?”
“No. Something else. Bigger. My neck.”
I fingered the place where it still burned slightly. “I think it
bit me. Or injected me with something. I think I might be the next
victim.”
My stomach lurched. I gagged. I heaved.
But I didn’t throw up.
JT ran around the bed and turned on the
lamp. He sat on the edge and pulled me to him. “Let me
see.”
I tipped my head to one side and
pointed to the spot, which wasn’t hurting so badly now. “Here, I
think.”
JT studied my neck for several moments,
swept my hair aside to look at it from every angle. “I don’t see
any marks, but we should take you to the hospital and have you
checked out, just in case.” He scooped me into his arms. “Why
didn’t you call me sooner?”
“I couldn’t. I tried.” I dragged my arm
over my face, smearing tears across my cheeks. “I couldn’t move at
all. Not a finger. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak.”
JT carted me down the stairs as if I
weighed nothing. “Maybe you were drugged.”
“That’s what we thought the unsub was
doing to her victims.”
“We figured she was giving them an
amnesic. Not a paralytic.” His hold on me tightened slightly. He
met a crowd of armed agents at the front door.
“Ambulance is on the way,” one of them
said as he barked orders into a handheld radio. JT refused to set
me down while we waited for the ambulance, saying he was worried I
might be dizzy from the drugs. Armed men stood around us in a
circle. There were armed men guarding me. It was crazy. I felt like
I was a president or something, being protected from an assassin.
The instant the ambulance stopped in front of the house, JT and our
circle of armed guards took me to the vehicle. He set me on the
bed, and one EMT started asking me questions while the other one
talked to JT. Minutes later, I had an IV in my arm and was strapped
to the gurney.
JT poked his head inside the back door.
“I’ll be at the hospital when you get there.”
“That’s okay. You don’t—”
“Yes, I do.” He slammed the door, and
off we went to the hospital. No lights. No sirens.
The EMT sitting next to me asked if I
was feeling okay, if I was in any pain, or if there was anything he
could do for me. I wasn’t in pain anymore. The burning on my neck
was gone. And I wasn’t feeling bad at all. In fact, I was feeling
fairly perky. It was as if I’d dreamed the whole thing. I could see
now why the victims might not have told anyone about their attacks,
if this was how they felt.
Despite feeling okay, I knew there
could potentially be something very wrong with me. So I lay back
and relaxed during the ride. When I finally arrived at the
hospital, I was immediately wheeled into a room and greeted by not
one nurse but two, plus a doctor. I was given a little privacy
while I traded my clothes for one of those lovely hospital gowns. I
produced a urine sample upon request, gave up some blood and saliva
for analysis, and pointed to the spot on my neck where I’d been
poked or bitten or whatever. I must have explained our case a dozen
times to a handful of different people. Finally silence. They all
left me to await the results of the tests.
JT strolled in then. He smiled, but I
could tell he was hiding a very genuine concern under the
expression. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Better than fine,
actually.”
“Does your neck still
hurt?”
I checked, poking at it with my
fingers. “Nope.”
“Do you hurt anywhere
else?”
“ No.”
“Good.” He plopped his butt on the edge
of my bed and patted my knee. “Now it’s my turn to sit by your
side, like you did for me.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I want to.”
Once again, an awkward silence fell
between us. Our gazes tangled. My breathing sped up. I had a
feeling, if I looked up at the monitor I was hooked to, I’d see my
heart rate was double its normal speed.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of
this,” JT said.
“JT, why didn’t anyone come in and help
me when I was being attacked?”
“I can’t answer that yet. I’m looking
into it.”
“Has anyone reviewed the
tapes?”
JT shook his head. “I didn’t have time.
I’ll look at them after you’re settled in.”
“Settled in? Am I being
admitted?”
“I’m guessing you will be.” Looking
down at the bed, he set one of his hands on mine. “It’s going to
take a while to get back all the test results. If there’s any
chance you’ve been infected with a contagion, they won’t want you
running around, exposing other people.”
“You’re not scared.” With a tip of my
head, I motioned to his hand, still sitting on top of
mine.
“No, I’m not.” He leaned closer and
smoothed my hair. I liked the way he did that. Then he reached for
the little remote clipped to the bedsheet and turned on the TV. My
mother, looking like she’d just rolled out of bed—which I’m sure
she had—came rushing into the room. Katie was on her heels. They
both were sporting white faces and bugged eyes. Did they think I
was near death?
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” I said before one
of them collapsed.
Mom raced to my side, grabbed my hand,
and cradled it to her chest. “Sloan, when I got the call, I was
absolutely terrified. I was much too upset to drive. Thank
goodness, Katie was awake. She drove me.”
I smiled at Katie. “Thanks.” Katie
probably hadn’t been awake before my mother had
called.
“No problem.” Katie was standing closer
to the exit, probably hanging back because the small space was
already very crowded. She looked at the monitors. “What’s going
on?”
“I was attacked. I’m feeling better
now. I think they just want to keep an eye on me for a little
while, make sure I’m all right.”
Katie nodded. “Okay.” To my mother, she
said, “I need to get going. I have to get up early
tomorrow.”
Mom looked at me, at JT, and then at
Katie. “Umm.” She looked at JT again.
JT nodded and smiled. “Of course, I’ll
give you a ride home, Beverly.”
Mom grinned. Katie waved and
left.
Mom turned worry-filled eyes toward me
again. “Now, what exactly happened? Tell me
everything.”
“I don’t know if I can tell you
everything. It might be related to our case and we’re not allowed
to discuss our cases with anyone, outside of police and medical
personnel.”
JT said, “She was sleeping in a
monitored room. We’ll find out what happened very
soon.”
Mom clearly wasn’t happy with JT’s
nonexplanation. “I’m your mother, for God’s sake. You can’t tell
your mother what happened?” This was not good. Mom was getting
herself wound up. That always ended in disaster.
“Mom. Please. If I could tell you, I
would. Don’t get upset.”
Mom flung her hands in the air. “My
only daughter is in the hospital after being attacked, and I’m told
I shouldn’t get upset? What kind of shit is that?” She stomped
toward the exit. “I’ll be back in a little while. I need some fresh
... air.”
I knew what kind of “air” she was going
for. I didn’t try to stop her, hoping it would help her calm down.
It could go either way. She might return, telling me she was seeing
pink talking elephants everywhere and end up being escorted
upstairs to the psych ward. Or she might return in a mellow
whatever mood. Naturally, I was hoping for
the latter. It was the most frequent result. But the former had
happened, more often than I wished. For whatever reason, pink
animals of all varieties were a common hallucination for poor Mom
when she was stressed.
After Mom headed out to self-medicate,
JT gave my leg another pat. “It’s tough handling these situations
with family. They don’t understand in the beginning.”
“Yours didn’t come to the hospital,” I
said, just realizing it for the first time.
“No. They learned already they aren’t
going to get any information. Anyway, my life wasn’t on the line.
They would’ve been there if there had been any chance I was
checking out of the hospital in a hearse.”
“I’m not sure my mother will ever get
to that point.”
“She will. In time.”
The doctor strolled in. Asked me how I
was feeling and informed me I was being moved upstairs to a room
shortly. Mom wandered in just as I was thanking the doctor. She
plopped into a chair, turning red eyes toward me.
“Sloan, I’m feeling better now,” she
said.
“Good,” I said.
JT slid off my bed. “I guess I should
be getting back to the house. I’d like to get a look at those
tapes. Mrs. Skye, are you ready to go?”
She smiled. “Sure.” She gave me a hug
and a bunch of kisses. “I’ll call you later, baby.”
“Okay, Mom.” To JT, I said, “Thanks
again.”
“No problem.”
I settled back to watch a Seinfeld rerun. But just as I got comfortable, a woman’s
shout, followed by a huge crash, had me bolting upright in
bed.
Mom?
I looked at what seemed to be a flurry
of frenzied activity at the nurses’ station. I looked at the wires
and tubes sticking out of my arm and chest. I looked out at the
nurses’ station again. At the monitors behind me.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I
grumbled.
“Damn it, listen to me!” Mom yelled.
“Those fucking monkeys are going to hurt my daughter!”
Another crash.
I slid off the bed and walked as close
to the door as I could. The tubes stretched. The wires attached to
the little pads glued to my chest tugged. I unplugged them, and the
monitor started shrieking. I grabbed the bag of water off the IV
pole and headed into the melee. Mom was swinging arms and legs,
fighting off invisible monkeys and visible security guards. JT was
standing nearby, trying to get her attention.
I stomped toward them, but someone
grabbed my arm. I turned. My nurse. “You need to be in bed. We
can’t have you out here.”
“That’s my mother.”
The nurse didn’t care. “Yes, but we
can’t have you out here—”
“I can calm her down.”
“No. Absolutely not. You must get back
in bed now.”
Mom screamed as a huge man tackled her
to the ground. “You fucking bastard! This is a free country. I have
rights.” She kneed the security guard in the groin and rolled out
from under him as he fought for breath.
A pair of guards dove at her. It was
two on one now. Mom didn’t stand a chance.
I was desperate. This wasn’t the way to
handle her. She was terrified. And they were making it worse.
“Please.” I broke away from the nurse and headed to Mom’s aid; the
clear bag was cradled in my arms and a plastic tube dragged on the
floor. “Mom, I’m right here. It’s okay.”
Mom clawed past one of the men,
crippling him with another well-placed shot to the groin. “Sloan?
Where’d the monkeys go?”
“JT caught them.” I pointed at
JT.
JT gave me a what-the-hell look, then
nodded. “Sure. They’re all locked up now.”
Mom grabbed me, hugged me. “Thank God.”
Next she hugged a bewildered JT. “Thank you, thank you, thank you
for taking care of my baby girl. She needs a man like you. Brave
and strong. You two will have a wonderful—life together. You can be
married where I married her father.”
Fabulous. Mom was already planning our
wedding.
“Yes. I’m sure we will have a wonderful
l-life,” JT stammered, looking a little stiff.
I swallowed a sigh.
A pair of large male nurses strolled
up, talking to Mom in soothing voices, offering her a chance to
rest for a while. Mom let them guide her to a wheelchair. As they
wheeled her toward the service elevator, the sound of her raves
about her future son-in-law echoed down the halls, barely reaching
the now eerily silent nurses’ station.
The nurse, who looked absolutely livid,
grabbed the sloshy bag of water out of my arms and gathered the
plastic tubing, lifting it off the floor. “One of your rapid
diagnostic tests came back positive. You must be quarantined. Now
we may have to quarantine everyone here as well, at least until the
rest of your test results are back.”
I looked at JT.
He visibly sighed.
I looked at the nurses, at the
doctors.
They weren’t happy. In fact, they
looked like they wouldn’t mind doing a few uncomfortable medical
procedures on me, just to make me suffer a little.
“I’m sorry.” Feeling like shit, I
shuffled back to my room.