The Mesmerized (17 page)

“Please stop all this,” Minji whispered.
“Please stop killing and hurting us. Just tell me what you want
from me. What can I do?”

With great difficulty, Ava said,
“Heeeelp.”

“How can I help? You need to tell me.
Please...”

“Heeeelp.”

Resting her cheek against the soft red
curls, Minji wept.

***

The orange glow above the darkened city of
Las Vegas was both beautiful and terrifying. Sin City was swathed
in a choking miasma of smoke, its glittering lights and loud
bustling streets gone in the aftermath of the event. The only
lights other than the fires were the interior lights of a few
buildings, but Minji knew those would be gone soon when the
emergency generators ceased to run. Clouds of smoke shifted over
the full moon hovering low on the horizon.

The air in the patient room was comfortably
cool. It was just the right temperature to lull her to sleep, yet
Minji struggled to mentally disconnect from the terrible events of
the day and sink into slumber. Lying next to Jake on the hospital
bed, she listened to the gentle sound of him breathing. Usually it
was enough to lull her to sleep, but tonight she was painfully
aware of each inhale and exhale. It had taken all her fortitude to
rescue him from the carnage in the casino and transport him to the
medical center, but would it be enough to save him? The
vulnerability of his situation had forced a recasting in their
relationship. A nurturer by nature, Jake relished his role as
protector of his wife and children. Though Minji provided a good
chunk of their income and was an equal partner in every way, she
appreciated his role as the family defender. Now she was his
protector.

The wrongness of the circumstances
encapsulating her family and the world continued to gnaw at the dam
containing her emotions. During her parents’ divorce, she had
learned to keep her emotions in check. She’d wanted to be strong
for both her mother and her father. The tears in her father’s eyes
when he told her they were divorcing and her mother’s silent sobs
during the court hearings had influenced her resolve to be strong
for both of them. The wall she had created around her emotions had
remained strong and in place until Jake unexpectedly scaled it and
dropped over the other side. Where other people marveled at her
ability to remain calm and in control, Jake could instantly tell
what she was thinking. It wasn’t that Minji was unemotional. It was
just that she knew there was a time and place to deal with more
chaotic feelings. In conflicts, she was always calm, but later she
would slug out her anger at her kickboxing classes. If someone
tried to upset her, she never let them see if they slid under her
armor. Of course, later on she’d vent frustrations to Jake. Minji
was a firm believer in keeping calm and dealing with the emotional
fallout later. It was sometimes the only way to get things done in
life.

But her walls were starting to show stress
fractures. Already she’d cracked when Arthur had been a jerk. Her
emotional vulnerability in the face of his accusations angered her
in retrospect. She should’ve just walked out of the room and not
given into anger. Unfortunately, Arthur’s barbs had wiggled under
her skin and now festered. It made her feel weak. If Jake were
awake, he’d listen to her rant, then he’d say just the right thing.
Now, she was alone, scared, and angry.

Across the room, Bailey snored softly in the
bed Jesse had wheeled into the room. It was a comforting sound.
Minji was well aware of the fact that she was luckier than her
companions. Even though the fates of her parents, in laws, brother,
friends, and customers were unknown, she at least had the comfort
of hearing Bailey snore, feeling Jake’s warmth, and seeing Ava’s
silhouette against the window.

If only the being within Ava would let her
rest. No matter how hard Minji had tried to get Ava to lie down,
the little girl had resisted. Now she stood near the window, her
back to the destruction, her eyes glinting in the dim light seeping
in from the hallway around the edges of the slightly open door.

Stretching out her hand, she stroked Ava’s
cheek with her fingertips. “I love you, Ava.”

The strange mewling continued to issue forth
from the child’s lips.

Adjusting the pillow under her head, Minji
closed her eyes to block out the frightening view beyond the
window. Her husband’s long, lean body was warm against her back and
she was careful not to jostle his leg encased in a cast, or his
heavily bandaged chest and arm. She’d tried sleeping on the
rollaway bed, but wasn’t able to relax. Finally, she’d crawled into
bed with her husband since she was small enough to stretch out
beside him. She missed him so much it was physical pain. If only he
would open his eyes and be himself again.

If only she could wake up and find the world
restored...

***

“Help me, Mommy,” Ava whispered in her
ear.

The universe was a churning miasma of
inexplicable beauty and terror, the colors so vibrant it seared her
corneas and sent a sharp stab of pain through her brain, and the
sound was so ethereal yet gruesome it was agony to her ears. The
blistering cold touch of spider silk sliced through her flesh and
ripped her open.

All the while, Ava whispered, “Help me,
Mommy.”

***

With a grunt, Minji stirred awake and
gripped her head with both hands. The agonizing pulse shredding her
brain sent her reeling across the room to the small bathroom. She
just made it to the toilet before she vomited what little she’d
eaten for dinner. She fumbled with the sink and managed to twist on
the faucet. Her vision was smeared with darkness and bright spots,
rendering her nearly blind. Unable to quell the trembling of her
hands, Minji tilted her head so she could sip directly from the
spigot and rinse out her mouth. When the foul acid taste was gone
from her tongue, she drank several gulps of lukewarm water before
sliding to the floor.

In the darkness, Minji sobbed in both sorrow
and horror. The cold seeping from the tiles underneath her bit
through the fabric of the rolled up scrub pants and sent shivers up
her spine. Swiping the back of her hand across her wet face, she
realized the air was vibrating with invisible strands of icy
silk.

It was happening again.

Rising to her feet, she padded into the room
and heard the whisper of the mesmerized slithering through the
dark.

“Heeeeeeeelp moomee,” was the eerie
chorus.

“Ava?” Minji called out, shivering.

A quick flip of the light switch left her
blinking the dark spots out of her vision. The bright illumination
from the overhead fixture revealed Bailey in her crib, clutching
the bars, and staring at her mother with wide eyes. Jake’s eyes
remained closed, but his mouth was moving in sync with Bailey’s.
Ava was not in the room. With a start, Minji rushed to where she
had tied the child leash to the chair. The end was still attached
to both the chair and the backpack. Ava had obviously slipped out
of the straps and wandered off.

“Ava!”

Rushing toward the door, Minji slipped on
the slick floor, barely catching herself in time on the end of the
bed. She discarded the thick socks and ran barefoot out of the room
and along the corridor. The floor was so cold, it burned her feet,
but she was desperate to find her child.

Jesse had placed all the mesmerized
patients, Simone, Arthur, and Minji’s family in rooms close to one
another on the main floor in an area just beyond the examination
rooms. From each doorway came the creepy, raspy whispers of the
mesmerized.

“Heeeeeeeelp moomee.”

Minji shoved each half closed door open all
the way, flipped on the light, and searched for Ava. Though all the
mesmerized appeared to be sleeping, the cry for help continued to
slither out of their mouths. The first few rooms housed people
Minji didn’t know, but she quickly found the ones with Simone and
Arthur. Simone stood near the window, uttering the disconcerting
words. Ava wasn’t in her room. In the next one, Arthur’s eyes were
open though he was still reclining on his bed, and Ava was not in
his room either.

The doors to the rest of the rooms were
closed, so Minji hurried past the bank of elevators and around the
corner. At the far end of this hall were the open doors to the
waiting room. The examination room doors were all shut, but one
door further down was wide open. The glow of a television pooled on
the white tile and the cackle of static mingled with British voices
murmured from within. She paused in the doorway long enough to see
Jesse standing before a small television with a makeshift antenna
made from wire, hangers, and lots of foil.

“...
are
in
the
affected
areas
and
immune
,
please
call
the
number
on
your
screen
,
or
log
onto
the
website
listed
below
.
The
BBC
will
continue
to
broadcast
until
the
event
reaches
the
United
Kingdom
...”

As though sensing her presence, Jesse’s head
swiveled toward her.

“Heeeeeeeelp moomee.”

Chills caused not only by the frosty air and
freezing floor flowed over her skin, popping out gooseflesh.
Shuddering from the both the cold and fear, she turned and hurried
to the waiting room. Dread filled Minji at the thought of Ava
slipping outside to follow after the mesmerized horde. Bare feet
slapping against the tiles, she ran the last few feet to the double
doors opening to the waiting room shrouded in night.

“Ava!”

Flailing her hand against the wall, she
searched for the light switch. The contrast between the varying
shades of darkness deepened as her eyes adjusted to the deep gloom.
The blocky shapes of the furniture gradually emerged from the
murkiness, but the form of a little girl did not appear. Minji
brushed her gaze back and forth over the room as her fingers sought
out the light switch.

A gasp broke free from her lips.

A figure stood in the entrance of the
building and, for a beat of her heart, Minji thought it was Jake.
Tall, broad shouldered, golden hair haloed by the low light
spilling in from the hallway, the man remained unmoving.

“Hello?” Minji said cautiously.

“Heeeeeeeelpmeeeeee,” a deep voice
moaned.

“Are you hurt?”

A long, unnerving silence followed.

It had to be one of the mesmerized, but why
had he entered the building? The last trickles of the population of
Las Vegas were continuing northward out of the city and none had
shown any interest in entering any of the buildings bordering their
path.

Something soft bumped into Minji from
behind, and she let out a startled scream, jumping to one side.
With relief, she saw it was Ava. The child’s eyes weren’t turned
toward Minji, but the newcomer.

“Heeeeeeeelp moomee.” It was Ava who spoke
this time.

“Ava?”

There was a short intake of breath, then a
heavy footfall. Minji looked up just as the man staggered toward
her. Minji stepped back sharply, dragging Ava with her. She bumped
into the wall and felt the light switch under her shoulder blade.
Promptly flipping it upward, she blinked in the abrupt brightness
of the overhead lights.

A man in his late forties stood in front of
her, blood streaming down the side of his face and staining his
shirt. Listing slightly to one side, he stared at her in surprise.
At last, he raised the wad of cloth he held in one hand to his head
and pressed it against the wound.

“Ma’am, I need some help. Are you a
nurse?”

“No, no, I’m not.” Both relief and
apprehension flooded her. Another survivor had found them.

Keen blue eyes appraised her before shifting
to Ava. “Hello, little lady.”

At her side, Ava screamed.

Kneeling at Ava’s side, Minji attempted to
draw the screaming child into her arms. “Ava, Ava! Look at me! It’s
Mommy!”

“It hurts, Mommy! It hurts!” Ava wailed,
gripping Minji’s shirt.

“Ava, you’re awake!”

“Mommy, it hurts so bad! Please, Mommy, make
it stop!”

“What’s hurting you, Ava? Please tell me.
What can I do?” Relief and terror fought for dominance as she
tugged Ava into her embrace. The slender arms of the child hugged
her neck.

“Ava, please tell me how to make it better,”
Minji murmured into the red curls.

“It hurts, Mommy. It hurts!”

“I’ll fix it. Just tell me how. Tell me
what’s happening.” Minji wanted nothing more than to protect her
daughters from the terrors enveloping the world, but she was
helpless in the face of Ava’s suffering and fears. Crying
inconsolably, Ava’s grip on her mother’s body was almost
painful.

“Ava, please, talk to me. Tell me what’s
happening to you,” Minji pleaded.

“Make it stop!”

“Ava, I will. I promise! Just tell me
how!”

Ava’s hiccupping sobs ceased. Her small
frame grew still. Though her arms remained around her mother’s
neck, the limbs drooped over the curve of Minji’s shoulders.

“No!” Minji tugged Ava from her chest so she
could see her face. One look at the doll-like eyes and blank
expression confirmed Minji’s fear. Ava was once more mesmerized.
“Ava, come back to me. Ava!”

Minji had forgotten all about the stranger
until his hand rested on her shoulder. “Ma’am, she’s one of them. I
don’t think she can hear you.”

“Maybe she can’t, but
it
can,” Minji
growled in agitation. Setting Ava on her feet, she squatted and
gripped her wrists. Staring into Ava’s eyes, she said, “Let my
daughter go. I know you can hear me. Let her go! Please!”