Finding Fiona (8 page)

“
That is strange,” Hannah
said.

“
I know.” Fiona read the next entry
to herself:

July 15th

This dream was vivid. I woke up in
a van, tied up and with tape over my mouth. There were two men in
the front. I struggled with my ropes, but I finally got them
undone. I took the rope and pulled it over the neck of the man who
was driving. I think he crashed the car just before I woke
up
.

Her eyes widened. “Oh, my goodness, I forgot
about this one. Did James say there was a car wreck near Mystic?
Listen to this.”

After Fiona had read the entry, Hannah looked
at her with wide eyes. “Gosh, Fiona… he did say one of the Alarias
crashed near Mystic. You think you caused it? You think that was a
memory?”

“
Yeah… I can usually tell between
them. Memories are just more vivid.” Fiona closed her eyes,
thinking back to being in the van. “I even remember… the jeans I
was wearing…” She opened her eyes. “I think it happened the day you
found me.”

Hannah’s knuckles were white as she gripped to
the steering wheel. “I’m sure we’ll find out what happened to you.”
She’d been saying that since she’d found Fiona and driven her to
the hospital.

Fiona read a few more entries, some about the
recurring fire dream, especially the one in which she was running
down a spiral staircase before someone grabbed her. That one
haunted her more than the others, and sometimes her body tensed up
when she walked down stairs.

She read one to Hannah about a Christmas
memory when she got a Rottweiler puppy as a gift. Another entry
mentioned watching Night of the Living Dead in a movie theater.
When she’d first told Hannah about that one, they’d joked that
maybe Fiona was a time traveler.

Some entries made no sense, and Fiona was
fairly sure they were nightmares: dreams about her hair falling
out, her fingernails falling off, her skin peeling away. It never
happened to her, though; she watched it happen to herself. She
wondered if it had anything to do with the two
Elizabeths.

“
Here’s the one
with me bleeding in the car…
August 13th.
I had a strong dream last night, I think it was from the day Hannah
found me. I was in a car, someone was driving, a girl with brown
hair. My stomach was bleeding horribly, all over my hands. I think
I remember something smelling like cinnamon. She stopped the car,
opened the door, and pulled me out. I hit my head on something, and
that’s when I woke up.
”

“
I remember you telling me when you
had that one.”

“
It’s so odd, though. Do you
remember seeing a car?”

Hannah paused. “No… I was in my mom and dad’s
yacht, I just heard screaming.”

“
I was screaming?”

“
Not when I got there, but you
could have been screaming. I don’t know, you were pretty
weak.”

Fiona glanced out the window. They were
driving on a bridge that went over a reservoir. Red and orange
trees surrounded them, leaves falling lazily to the ground. The sky
was cloudless, a brilliant blue.

“
We’re not too far from Mystic,”
Hannah told her. “Do you want to stop there?”

“
Not really, but I need to
pee.”

After calling James, they met him in the
parking lot of a hotel off the highway. He stood by his car, his
arms crossed. Hannah pulled the Land Rover up beside him. “Get in,
I’ll show you where I found Fiona.”

James got in the back seat, and they began the
familiar drive. Fiona couldn’t believe they’d been here just a few
days ago. So much had happened. She knew so much more now. Some of
it was good, some bad, but at least it was knowledge compared with
the fuzziness that had filled her mind before.

“
James, listen to this,” she said,
taking out her dream journal again. She read him the entry about
trying to strangle the driver. “Didn’t Daniel Alaria wreck near
here?”

“
Oh, my god,” James breathed. “Yes,
he did. I can’t believe it. So, they kidnapped you… you caused the
wreck while trying to escape… then what?”

Fiona shrugged. Of course she didn’t know, why
was he asking? “All I remember after that is being in the car with
that girl, then I woke up here.”

“
You should have told me earlier,”
James said.

“
I only just remembered as I was
reading this.” She held up the dream journal.

Hannah pulled into a parking spot at the
harbor, and the three of them stepped out of the car. The harbor
lay before them, the open sea to their right, boats lined up next
to extended roads. Fiona could see boats moving in and out as their
owners enjoyed the sunny weather. Between them and the harbor lay
some rocks in shallow waters.

“
This is where you were?” James
asked.

“
Yeah, right on these rocks,”
Hannah said.

“
I just don’t get it,” Fiona said,
kicking at a rock. “How did I get here?”

“
You said you remembered something
about being in a car with a girl?” James asked.

Fiona read him the journal entry, though she
could see the memory clearly in her head. She wished she could go
back further in her memory, just a few minutes. How did she end up
in the car? Who was the girl?

“
She left you here…” James trailed
off. “But the Alarias wouldn’t have wanted that. They wanted
you.”

There was a moment of silence as Fiona stared
at the rocks. “Where were they taking me?” she asked.

James gazed out at the harbor, biting his lip.
“I don’t know.” He sighed. After a moment, he gave Fiona a
reassuring look. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it all out.”

* * *

In a few hours, they were in New York City.
They wound through the busy streets to Elmscott Avenue. Hannah
followed James into a parking area next to 2673, and they found
spots not far from each other. James jogged to their car before
they could get out. “Wait, I need to go in first,” James said. “Our
friend Keith is here, and I need to talk to him.”

“
Why?” Hannah asked.

“
It’ll be a huge shock, I don’t
want to surprise him like that. Just hang out here for a bit. Stay
in the car until I get back.”

He jogged away. Fiona watched him approach the
backdoor.

“
I don’t like this,” Hannah
said.

“
Yeah, I know,” Fiona said. “But I
think he’s telling the truth.”

Hannah pulled her hair out of its bun and
combed through it with her fingers as they waited. In Elizabeth’s
journal, Keith was one of Fiona’s close friends. He took a year off
school with James, and they worked at a resort in Virginia. Her
uncle asked Keith to live here… why didn’t he live here himself?
Where did he live? She made a mental note to ask James more about
him.

Ten minutes passed before James came back
outside. He got into the back seat. “Okay,” he said, “I know this
sounds stupid, but Fiona, can you put on a scarf or
something?”

“
I don’t have anything like
that.”

“
But the Alarias… I don’t want them
to see you.”

“
I’ve been sitting in this car for
ten minutes. If they’re here, they’ve already seen me.”

James swore under his breath. “Fine, let’s go,
but quickly, okay?”

They got out of the car and jogged to the
backdoor. James let Hannah and Fiona go first. A rush of déjà vu
washed over Fiona as she looked around. On her left ran a wall
about as tall as her, stretching ahead of them, then turning to the
left to eventually meet another wall. The upper half was glass
instead of wood. The wall encompassed an area with desks and a
waist-high shelf. Fiona ran her fingers along the door that led
into the area. She’d been here before.

She gasped when she saw the spiral staircase.
She couldn’t count how many times she’d dreamt about it. She was
running down the stairs, smoke and fire surrounding her, and as
soon as she reached the bottom, someone grabbed her. She stood at
the bottom of the staircase, staring up at the balcony of the
second level.

“
Do you remember anything?” James
asked.

Fiona had been so absorbed in her surroundings
his voice made her jump. “Yeah,” she said. She slowly walked up the
steps, faintly aware of James and Hannah behind her. The upstairs
had a small hallway along a balcony, and she knew the first door
she came to was going to be a bedroom.

She pushed the door open and faced a large
room half-filled with boxes. Her shoulders sagged. She looked over
her shoulder at James. “Was this a bedroom?”

James nodded. “It was yours.”

Fiona stepped inside.

“
A lot of things were damaged in
the fire. We had to get rid of nearly everything,” James
said.

She went to the window, looking outside at the
adjacent building and the small alley between them.

“
Fiona, do you really remember this
place?” Hannah asked.

“
Yeah,” she said. She went outside
and walked around the rest of the upstairs. She found a guest room,
then a living and dining area and kitchen that overlooked the
downstairs. She stood at the balcony and gazed downstairs. “I know
I’ve been here before… but something’s different.”

“
We had to rebuild a lot,” James
said.

Another bedroom lay at the end of the hallway.
This one was larger, and it had an unmade bed. A few clothes were
tossed on the ground. “Who’s staying here?” Fiona asked.

“
I am.”

Fiona turned around; a guy with dark blond
hair stood with James and Hannah. “I’m Keith,” he said. He had a
stocky build with a round face that, like James’s the first time
she saw it, was slightly familiar to her. It sent a thrill of joy
through her to recognize someone again.

“
Hi.” Fiona paused. “How long have
you been standing there?”

“
He came upstairs with us,” James
said.

Fiona flushed. “Sorry. I didn’t see you, I
just… recognize so much here.”

Keith shrugged. “It’s okay. It makes sense
since you pretty much grew up here.”

“
I kind of recognize you, too… I
mean, your face looks familiar.”

Keith smiled with a blush, digging his hands
into his pockets. “That’s cool.”

Fiona walked into the bathroom, which was
bigger than the downstairs one, complete with shower and bathtub.
“This is so strange,” she said, looking down at the claw foot tub.
“This hasn’t changed, has it?”

“
No,” James said with a shake of
his head.

They went back downstairs. “I remember running
down these steps during the fire,” Fiona said, “and someone grabbed
me from behind.”

Hannah rubbed Fiona’s arm, frowning. “James,
weren’t you going to show us why you think the Alarias are
responsible?”

“
Yes,” James said. “Come
on.”

* * *

Chapter Six

They went into the enclosed area that took up
most of the bottom level.

“
This is where the lab was,” Fiona
said, looking around at the desks.

“
Yeah!” James smiled. “Yeah. You’re
remembering, that’s great.”

She returned a small smile. She didn’t have
the heart to tell him she wasn’t having any memories, it was just
instinct. She wished she could remember working in here with her
parents, but it wasn’t like that.

James sat down at one of the desks where a
laptop rested. “Pull up some chairs, I want to show you this.” The
three of them gathered around him. As he waited for the laptop to
start, he said, “Well, I told you both about the fight. It was
about three years ago. Your parents and the Alarias stopped working
together, but the Alarias still wanted to be a part of Remus.” He
turned to the laptop and pulled up different windows. “They called
all the time, they wanted to file a lawsuit against your parents to
get the Remus files, and your parents nearly got a restraining
order.”

“
Wait, what’s Remus?” Hannah
asked.

“
The replication project,” Keith
said.

“
So, you know about everything,
too,” Fiona said.

“
Yeah, we’ve been trying to figure
out what happened since the fire.” Keith paused. “Sarah told us a
lot.”

Fiona tried to remember what she could from
the journal about Sarah, something besides the fight they had. God,
she wished she had that journal. She glanced at James. “Didn’t you
say she disappeared?”

“
Well, we haven’t talked to her for
two weeks, but she’s probably just ignoring us. She’s all over her
Facebook, so we’re not really worried about her.” He stopped moving
his mouse. “Okay, these are the tapes from the security camera you
guys have in the back.” A video player showed them the small
parking area in the back in black and white. “This is sped up. Over
the course of four hours, this black SUV drives by five times the
day of the fire.” He showed them the Mercedes SUV, his finger
moving along the screen with it. “We froze the frame and got the
license plate number. It’s Greg Alaria’s car.”