Meant to Be (24 page)

I felt my panic rise as she approached with
some kind of medieval face mask. I shook my head from side to side
as they tried to strap the mask around my face. Bruno was beckoned
over to hold me steady, wrapping his massive hands around my head
as a single tear trickled down my cheek.

“Please, don’t do this,” I tried to plea, but
no sound came out.

“Very good, no need for all of us to hear
your screams,” he said walking away as Amanda re-strapped my head
to the table.

This time I tried to brace myself for the
pain, but it came from another sensor unexpectedly. I bucked
against the table as a knife-like pain slashed through my other
arm.

Sobbing, I tried to plea with them, but my
words never made it past the mask. The next pain was below my
collarbone and was more staggering than before. Each jolt seemed to
intensify every time they shocked me. Over and over again in
different locations, they tortured my body.

I lost all track of time and my vision began
to blur. I yearned for my emotions to take over, anything to help
me escape what I was suffering.

I began to hallucinate and could see Mark off
to the side. Though he wasn’t strapped down, he seemed to be in
greater pain than I was. I wanted to reach out to him, but my arms
were too heavy, I could no longer feel them attached to my
body.

“Mark!” I tried to cry out. I could read his
lips as he called out my name and then there was darkness as I
mercifully passed out.

I came to suddenly, finding myself in a
wheelchair under a steaming shower. I was still fully dressed and
my clothes were soaked through.

My throat burned and tasted of bile. I looked
down and discovered that I had vomited all over myself.

I felt someone behind me as they squirted
something in their hands and scrubbed my hair. I could feel their
frustration as they roughly scrubbed my head.

The water abruptly turned off. I was
instantly chilled from the soaked clothing against my body. My
teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

“James, you can’t leave her sitting in the
cold like that,” I heard Bruno say through the noise of my
chattering teeth.

I felt the straps being undone.

“Look man, they didn’t tell me when they
hired me I was going to have to clean puke off some girl.”

“Yeah I know, but it’s not the girls fault.
You heard her screams. She was in some serious pain. I don’t think
I will ever forget the scream she made when they first turned on
whatever that machine was,” Bruno said. As he finished taking off
the bindings, I felt a warm blanket being tucked around me and
surprisingly gentle hands under my knees picking me up out of the
chair.

I was weak as a newborn kitten as he carried
me down the maze of hallways. I kept my eyes closed, but tried to
gather my thoughts. They had obviously carried me into a different
part of the building to bathe me because the hallway we had taken
earlier was a straight shot without any turns.

Finally, I heard a door being opened and I
felt myself being lowered onto a cot. I opened my eyes although I
was extremely dizzy, and could see that I was back in my room.
Bruno was standing in the doorway. His clone James was holding a
folded stack of hospital scrubs and a couple more blankets. He set
them on the cot without a word. Bruno shot me a look of what looked
like sympathy, but it could have been just a trick of light.

I heard the lock reengage. I sat up slowly
and was surprised at how weak I was. I used my arm to steady myself
and cringed when I saw the ugly mark the sensor had left. Steadying
myself didn’t work, so I laid back down trying to catch my
breath.

The lights flickered out.

“Go figure,” I muttered.

My teeth stared to chatter as a shiver ran
down my body. My wet clothes had soaked through the blanket that
was wrapped around me. I knew I needed to get them off. I used the
last of my strength to shimmy out of my wet jeans. It took several
moments to recover from the exertion and by the time I started on
my shirt, my teeth were knocking painfully against each other. My
shivering was so intense that the cot began to shake. It took some
work, but I managed to shrug out of my shirt, and slip on the
scrubs that were sitting on the edge of the cot. I was so exhausted
I barely had the strength left to tuck the blankets around
myself.

This time though, my sleep was not
dreamless.

The dream started the same as every other
dream I had ever had. The Boardwalk in the distance and soft
rolling waves washing up on shore. I felt extremely relieved to be
here at our spot again. There was a light breeze off the ocean that
left a slight chill in the air. My eye was caught by the sudden
movement of someone running across the beach toward me. It was
Mark. I rushed to meet him and just as he was about to reach out to
me, his hands encountered some sort of barrier, stopping him in his
tracks. I reached out with my hands, feeling the strange force
field that was keeping us apart. It was invisible to the naked eye,
but it didn’t make it any less impenetrable.

“Krista, are you okay?” I heard him ask. I
was shocked. We had never been able to talk before in the dreams
and even though there was an invisible wall separating us, I could
hear him clearly.

“I’m scared.”

“I know you are, but don’t worry, I’m going
to find a way out.”

“What if you’re too late? I can feel myself
getting weaker with each passing minute.”

“I won’t lose you. I am going to get us out
of this situation; you just have to be strong.”

I placed my hands on the invisible barrier.
Mark placed his palms to mine. I could not feel them, but the
memory of his touch made it feel almost real.

The feeling was lost as I felt my body being
tugged from the barrier by some unseen force. Mark was being pulled
in the opposite direction. I could see him fighting it as he tried
to grab onto anything and everything. Finally in desperation, I
heard him call out his love for me.

I began to weep as the distance between us
grew. I tried to tell him I loved him also, but I was being dragged
out of my dream.

I blinked at the sudden light that filled the
room. I was disappointed that the dream had not eased the ache in
my heart, instead realizing that I was feeling sicker than before.
At this point, I guessed we had been separated for more than 24
hours now.

I tried to raise my head but, laid back down
acknowledging the fact that my strength was sapping away. Maybe my
violent bout of sickness had escalated it, but I was getting worse
by the moment.

My musing was interrupted as the door to my
room was opened.

“They want to see you back in the
laboratory,” Bruno said stepping into the room.

I sighed and tried to sit up, my body fell
weakly back down to the cot. Bruno reached down and with one hand
and pulled me to my feet. I tried to steady my balance, but my
water like legs made the effort useless. They gave out from under
me, but before I could hit the floor Bruno scooped me back up in
his arms.

I was grateful for his help, but could not
express it as I laid my head against his arm and closed my eyes as
he carried me out of the room.

I dozed off for a moment during the walk down
the hall, but was awakened by the many voices and activity in the
room when we entered.

“I don’t think she can handle another round
of whatever you did to her last night,” I heard Bruno say. “She was
too weak to even hold her head up.”

“Yes, the testing can be quite rigorous, but
when the others join us, it will be well worth it. We have to see
how far she can be pushed,” Russo said.

“I just feel tha…”

“I’m not paying you to feel, or think for
that matter! Just do your job and leave the thinking to me,
understand!”

I tried to make sense of anything that I was
hearing. Push me for what? I thought. Could he really be
responsible for my dreams? What about Sam and Shawn?

“Why are you doing this?” I asked in as
strong a voice as I could muster, not wanting to give them the
satisfaction of knowing how weak I really was.

“Why? Because, it’s the most logical way to
test my theories.”

I looked at him in dismay. He was still
talking in riddles.

Noting my confusion, he sighed.

“Well, I did promise you some answers, and
it’s obvious you don’t have much longer. Though I am quite
disappointed that my experiment failed, I expected the injection to
have a stronger effect at this point, but I shouldn’t be surprised.
You women have always been weak. It’s a wonder we didn’t die out
centuries ago,” he said disdainfully.

“Where to begin,” he started. “I guess the
best place is the beginning.”

“In the beginning…”

Was he kidding? It sounds like he was quoting
the bible.

“There were many of us through the years and
we all converged here in Santa Cruz.”

“Why?” I asked trying to process both his
statements.

He looked at me like I was a disobedient
child for interrupting him.

I clamped my mouth closed not out of respect,
but sensing he would stop talking if I didn’t act like the puppet
he wanted me to be.

“We are drawn here because Santa Cruz is what
you would call
Holy Ground
. ”

“What do you mean
Holy Ground
?” I
asked.

“Can I continue or are you going to act like
an insolent child?” He asked in the condescending tone I was
beginning to hate with a passion.

“
Holy Ground
, meaning that celestial
beings are drawn here, or more accurately,
Guides and
Protectors
are drawn here.”

My head reeled at his words. ‘Celestial
Beings?’ ‘Guides and Protectors?’ My religious background was
sketchy, but I did know that ‘celestial beings’ meant angels or
something like that, but I had no idea what he meant by
‘Protectors’ and ‘Guides.’ A million questions raced through my
head, but I held my tongue.

“In fact, Santa Cruz means
Holy
Cross
,” he continued. “For centuries, our kind gathered here
and were then dispersed by arch angels to go out and ward off the
evil that plagued the earth,” he said with bitterness dripping from
his voice. “We were paired with
soul mates,
creating a
predetermined connection between a Guide and a Protector. Plus, our
reproduction ensured that our kind would continue from one
generation to the next. “The Guides,” he said looking at me
bitterly, “were created to use their emotions to find the evil that
lurked in the human spirit and use that emotional power to try to
sway them to the
good side
, instead of the path they were
on. Protectors were sent to protect the Guides at all cost. The
trick is that one cannot survive without the other. I’m sure
they
felt we would cherish the bond that tied us together.
I, however, was the exception. I survived the loss of my weaker
companion and became stronger despite the severing of our bond. I
plan on making the remaining Protectors like me. Meaning, the life
of a Protector will no longer rely on that of a weak companion that
is susceptible to every human emotion. So you see my dear, I will
fix God’s mistake. Of course, I had hoped that the injection I gave
you would make you stronger; giving you better control over your
emotions, but science sometimes takes time doesn’t it?
Unfortunately for you however, time is a luxury you no longer have.
I’m sure your death will destroy your Protector, just as every
other Guide’s death has before you.”

His hatred was tangible.

I wanted to know what had happened to the
rest of the Guides and Protectors, but was suddenly more scared of
him than I had ever been. His dark, evil aura surrounded him making
me feel extremely uncomfortable.

“It was easy to destroy them you know,” he
said, picking the thoughts out of my head; I knew instantly that
Sam and I had been right. We could read each other’s minds; we just
needed to master it. I shook my head. I would not play his
games.

He snorted once again, rummaging through my
head. “Oh come now, you wanted the truth after all. It wasn’t I
that created our kind this way, but it will be me that fixes it,”
he said, sounding almost proud of himself.

His egotistical confession was horrifying.
How many had he murdered? My heart constricted as I thought of my
parents, so casually tossed to the side. Grief threatened to
overtake me as I thought of all the lives lost.
Was he a…
I
searched for a phrase I remembered hearing years ago in my one
attempt at attending church when I was younger.

“Fallen Angel?” He said impatiently rummaging
through my head. “Your ignorance is almost overwhelming. You’re
supposed to be more superior to typical humans, but you seem to
lack the IQ I am used to dealing with.”

Like I cared at this point what he thought of
me. I did wonder though, if we were directed by angels, how he was
able to murder innocent people without any repercussions?

“I have the protection of another higher
power, you could say; one that encourages my talents,” he said with
a sinister smile that made my skin crawl.

“Why were we abandoned? Why not destroy all
of us? We were practically babies,” I asked angrier than I had ever
been. He had destroyed all our lives and seemed so pleased by his
deeds.

“My intention was never to destroy our kind,
but to make it stronger. Your parents wouldn’t listen to my ideas,
choosing instead to trust in a creator that made them weak. They
left me no alternative but to eliminate them. I have been watching
and observing all of you for the last fifteen years. I know
everything about all of you. It was only a matter of time before
you were drawn here, just as we were before you. Soon, the other
Protectors and Guides will come as well, feeling the call of the
Holy Cross. Let me rephrase that. The others will join me since you
and your significant other will no longer exist.”