Meant to Be (25 page)

An errant thought hit me. “Don’t you mean the
other four? There’s still another couple out there besides Lynn and
Robert.”

“Once again your assumptions are wrong. I
never said I gave up all of you. I kept the more docile pair as my
own. They adore their papa and would do anything for me. They’ve
been raised to appreciate how special they are. Through my
guidance, they have become more powerful than even I could have
imagined. The girl shows none of the weakness you exhibit, and soon
I will have all the information I need to complete my work.

“Don’t look so dismayed my dear. It is all
for the greater good. The others will become stronger because of
your sacrifice.”

“You’re a monster,” I said, not afraid of his
anger.

Surprisingly he was not angry, instead he
laughed.

“A monster? I don’t think so. I just took
back some of the power. There was a flaw in our DNA makeup when we
were created and I decided to fix it.”

This was all sickening, I thought. Where did
such evil come from?

“They will stop you,” I told him.

“On the contrary, I believe they will look at
your deaths as a lesson. In fact, they will embrace me as a father.
They have felt lost throughout the years, just as you have, but I
will help them realize how special they are and how strong they can
become.”

I knew he was wrong, and I felt bad for the
others. Soon they would have to face this monster also. Mostly I
felt sad for Mark and me. We would never have children, and we
would never grow old together. He was stripping our lives away from
us just like he had with our parents.

“No more questions?” he asked in a mocking
voice.

I was silent. There was nothing else to ask.
He was the monster I had imagined him to be. I would give him no
more satisfaction.

“Well, I see the last part was a deal
breaker,” he said with a small laugh. “Think of your part in this
as furthering the lives of the others. I think we can continue with
the experiments now,” he said as he turned and walked away.

I wanted to protest, to plead with him not to
hurt me anymore, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I
remained silent as they strapped me down to the same table as
before, remaining rigid as they fastened my ankles down. Only when
the woman approached with the dreaded sensors did I finally
respond. A silent tear rolled down my face. I looked around as best
I could with my head strapped down and saw everyone busy at various
computers, only Bruno was watching me.

The sensors were placed in different
locations this time and I eyed them with renewed panic remembering
the pain they caused before.

The first jolt sent a flash of fire through
my body.

I was too weak to scream like I had the day
before, but I did let out a slight moan. The next round was more
severe than the previous jolt and I welcomed the darkness as I once
again lost consciousness.

When I woke, I was not in my cell. I was
still in the laboratory, but someone had moved me to a different
table. I wasn’t wet this time, but my hair was damp so once again
they must have bathed me. Looking around, I could see that the
laboratory was nearly empty with only one grunt over by the
computers. I looked around for Bruno, but he was nowhere to be
found. I wondered briefly how Russo had managed to get so many
others to help him, but I guess evil wasn’t hard to find in the
world.

I closed my eyes; at least they hadn’t locked
me back in the cell. Maybe they realized I was no longer a threat.
I knew the end was close. My guess is that we had been missing for
over thirty-six hours now. I had a small nagging feeling that there
was something I had wanted to do, but I was too tired to focus on
what it could have been.

I continued to lie there, feeling like I was
drifting in and out of consciousness.

The next time I opened my eyes there was a
considerable amount of activity going on throughout the lab.
Several of the people I had seen the last few days were huddled
around one of the television monitors.

“Look at him. His strength it is out of this
world.” One of them commented. “Mr. Russo was right, her pain makes
him stronger. It’s a good thing that door is steel plated. It’s too
bad he’s missing this. Where did you say he disappeared to,
Amanda?”

“I didn’t, it’s no concern of yours what he
chooses to do with his time,” Amanda said in a brittle voice.

I tried shifting to better hear their
conversation, hoping that no one would notice and reattach my
restraints.

Luckily, no one even looked my way. I was
apparently nothing but a lab rat; something insignificant to
experiment on and then dispose of. I knew that would come sooner
than later.

I started to close my eyes again, but then I
finally remembered a previous idea I had forgotten; Mr. Russo’s
ability to read my thoughts. Could Mark and I do the same with each
other?

I gnawed on this new bit of information. If
telepathy was a possibility could I reach Mark and try help save
him at least?

I felt it was at least worth a shot.

I closed my eyes to concentrate, fighting the
urge to drift off to sleep, which is what my battered and weakened
body now craved.

Now was the time to be strong.
Concentrate
, I chanted to myself.

Mark
, I thought.
I know this is
crazy, but answer me if you hear this
.

I tried again,
Mark, please answer me if
you can hear this
. I repeated it over and over again, to no
avail. I didn’t want to give up, but the many hours of being
separated from him had just taken too great a toll on me. I’ve
never experienced the ache that I was feeling now. As I worked to
keep my mind focused, I could hear footsteps approaching the
table.

Amanda stood over me, attaching more sensors
for yet another round of torture.

I had no strength left to protest, instead
only to lie and accept my fate. Strangely though, I felt nothing
but soft vibrations. Was this the end? Maybe I was too far gone to
even feel the pain anymore.

My thoughts began to dissipate and I slowly
drifted off.

This time Mark was already waiting on the
beach for me. My heart sped up as I spotted him. I struggled toward
him, but the lethargic feeling had followed me into the dream. I
reached the still invisible wall that separated us to see Mark
looking at me in horror. He raised his hand as if to touch my
face.

I watched as his concern was replaced with
anger. His fist clenched and struck the wall sending invisible
ripples vibrating up from the ground.

I stepped closer and placed my hand on the
barrier to comfort him. His frustration was evident by his heavy
chested breathing. He placed his hand to mine on the barrier and
looked into my eyes.

Not knowing how much time we would have
together, I tried to tell Mark everything that had happened; the
truth about his dad, about our parent’s death, the others, and
about ‘Guides’ and ‘Protectors.’ It was a lot of information to
take in.

“Plus, I think it’s possible for us to read
each other’s minds,” I said, finally winding down from my
longwinded speech.

“Why do you think that?” he asked.

“Because your dad was able to read mine, I
just don’t know how he did it yet.”

“I think the key is to open our minds…” my
voice trailed off as the wall separating us evaporated.

“How did you do that?” Mark asked in
amazement.

“I told you, I think that we are all
connected through our minds. I haven’t pieced it all together, but
I am slowly beginning to figure all kinds of things out.”

I looked at our hands that were now
touching.

Our fingers were intertwined and I relished
the familiar heat of his touch. I reached up and softly stroked his
face as he kissed the middle of my palm. In the next instant I was
pulled strongly into his arms. The ache that had followed me into
the dream loosened, just by the touch of his embrace. I sighed as
he put his hands on my waist and pulled me close for a
heartbreaking kiss. I clung to his shoulders, molding my lips
firmly to his; I could feel his warmth spreading throughout my
body. I moved my hands up to his head greedily taking what he was
offering. The ache eased and as I pulled away, I could feel the air
feeding my hungry lungs.

His soothing touch gave me instant relief, at
least here in the dream.

Mark pulled me down to sit on the sand with
him. He tugged on my hand and settled me between his jean clad
legs, wrapping his arms around me, pulling me tightly against his
hard chest. I rested back against him as he took one of my hands
into his.

“I have missed you so much,” he said. “It’s
been impossible to control my rage, plus they’ve told me
nothing.”

“Well just before I fell asleep, they were
discussing your strength increases. It seems the more pain they
inflict on me the stronger you become.”

Mark tensed at my words. I forgot I had
glossed over the shock treatments on my earlier explanation.

“What do you mean they inflict pain on
you?”

“They’ve been shocking me with jolts of
electricity, obviously testing to see how far your strength will
go. Your dad wants to see how far we can be pushed. He survived
your mom’s death and I think that’s his ultimate goal for the other
Protectors. His real problem is the fact that the Protector’s life
depends on someone he thinks is weak,” I said trying to clarify the
source of Russo’s madness.

“I just can’t believe my father is capable of
this kind of evil.”

I grabbed his hands and twined my fingers
through his. “Neither did the others,” I said.

I kept expecting to be ripped away from him
at any moment.

He obviously felt the same, because as the
time passed, he wrapped his arms more firmly around me as if
anchoring himself to my body. I had a more pressing thought on my
mind, but was trying to avoid bringing it up.

“Are going to get out of this alive?” I asked
softly.

Mark made no comment at first. I angled my
head so I could look up at him to see what he was thinking. He
leaned forward and brushed a brief kiss on my lips. “I don’t know,”
he said a breath away from me. He leaned down and pressed his lips
more urgently to mine.

My heart broke into a million pieces. This
could be the last time we would see each other. I felt a hot tear
burn its way down my cheek. Mark stroked it away with the pad of
his thumb. We did not talk again and when I woke I could still feel
the heat of his touch.

I opened my eyes and looked around to find
the lab was once again deserted. I scanned the room as my eyes
adjusted to the dim light. Sitting up, I expected to be too weak to
move, but I felt surprisingly alert. My body still ached, but the
feeling of heaviness had receded.

I lay back on the table as I heard someone
enter the lab. It obviously wouldn’t be good for me if they found
out I had regained some of my strength, another round of torture
would be brutal. I couldn’t help wondering though if maybe it was
the injection Russo had given me that had me feeling a little
stronger.

I remained as still as possible quietly
listening to the movements of the person who had entered the lab. I
heard the rapping of computer keys and then the shuffle of feet as
they moved from one computer to the next. A few moments later I
heard the familiar tapping of Amanda’s heels on the polished cement
floor. I was worried that Russo would arrive considering he would
be able to pick through my mind and know that I wasn’t as weak as I
appeared, hopefully he was still away from the lab like I had heard
the previous night.

I kept my eyes closed realizing this made my
other senses stronger. I could smell the coffee in the machine
across the room as it began to drip in the waiting pot below and
the overpowering perfume that clung to Amanda in a nauseating way.
It wasn’t just my nose that seemed stronger; my ears were picking
up many noises around the room, like the impatient tapping of a
woman’s fingernails as she waited for the coffee to finish
brewing.

Finally, I heard the sound of multiple feet
as they entered the room. Amanda passed out daily instructions,
which led me to believe that Russo was indeed gone for the day. I
kept my eyes firmly closed and willed my body to remain lifeless as
someone raised my arm to check my pulse. I remained spaghetti-like
allowing my arm to hit the table with a heavy thud when they
finished. My cover was nearly blown when a cold metal stethoscope
was pressed to my chest causing me to wince slightly. Thankfully
the worker was too preoccupied with another conversation to notice.
After a few moments the stethoscope was removed and I could feel a
blood pressure cup being applied to my upper right arm, with a few
pumps the band constricted tightly around my arm. Once completed, I
heard the scratch of a pen on paper as the person jotted down my
statistics.

“Her stats are still running high, but her
body seems to be depleted of all strength. She remained unconscious
through the simple exam, I believe she doesn’t have much longer,”
the voice said.

I lay there, quietly contemplating what I
should do next. They were obviously waiting for me to pass away.
How long would they wait before they decided to take matters into
their own hands? I knew I would have to act the next time they left
me alone, if my strength remained.

The lab was noisy with activity as everyone
worked at their stations. I passed the time by trying to connect to
Mark, but no matter how hard I concentrated I was not able to make
my mind respond the way it needed to. I could feel that I was
close, but I didn’t know how to bridge the gap. Every few hours
someone would come over and go through the routine of taking my
stats. Each time I would will my body to remain limp. I was amazed
that I continued to get stronger as the morning progressed. I soon
felt that if I wanted to, I was capable of movement. I believe that
the time I spent with Mark in the dream had made me much stronger.
Lying on the table for so long though, I became acutely aware of
the fact that my body was dehydrated and my stomach was empty. The
thirst I could ignore, but I laid there in fear that my stomach
would betray my half dead state. I played mind games in my head
trying to remain alert, wanting to be sharp incase I had to move
quickly.