Earthshaker

Chapter 11

Chapter 11My heart broke when I entered the room. I knew, as I'd known all along, what I would find there.

No one followed me in. Aggie was my best friend; whatever happened, this was our moment.

I stepped down into the collapsed remains of the torrent of earth, a furrow running straight from the door to the far wall. At first, I was glad to see there wasn't a body underneath it; Aggie had not been caught by the stream of dirt and rock I'd channeled.

Looking further into the room, however, I saw why this was the case. And I froze.

Time-Out was a padded room...and, clearly, a torture chamber. The only furnishings were silver chains and manacles dangling from the ceiling. Six pairs of them, all empty.

Except one.

I shivered uncontrollably. My heart was in my throat. What I saw in the far corner made me want to leave and never look back.

Even before I touched it, I knew the truth. Knew here was confirmation of what I'd feared. Unimpeachable evidence. The stuff of nightmares I was going to have for the rest of my life.

There was nothing left alive in that room. The thing that was hanging from the last pair of manacles was not alive. But it had been.

I took a step back toward the door. Gasped and shook my head.

"Gaia?" Duke leaned in through the hole in the door. "Are you all right?"

I didn't answer him. He kept talking, so did Briar, but none of it registered.

All I could think of was that photo of Aggie from the Divinities flyer, grinning and waving goodbye. One last perfect image of her in her prime, unspoiled, aglow. One last image before this.

Drawing a deep breath, I walked toward the thing in the manacles. Shut down every emotion, made myself as numb as I could. Preparing myself.

It was shaped like a slender woman, wrists clamped in the manacles. Toes dragging on the padded floor. Every inch of her encased in a gray stone shell.

Just like the cat in Aggie's apartment. Flash-baked in a shell of ash and mud. Flesh melted away inside, form preserved by the hard casing.

The worst part was the face, because I recognized it. Also because she'd been screaming when it happened; she was frozen forever in mid-scream, mouth gaping, head thrown back. She'd died in pain and terror.

My best friend, Aggie, had died in pain and terror.

When I got within an arm's length of her, I stopped. Felt like I was going to throw up. So much for numbness. A feeling of dread was one thing; coming face to face with fatal reality was another.

Bending over, I put my hands on my knees and took deep breaths. Fighting for control. The important thing now was to find the truth; the best way to do that was to read the message the killer had left. Aggie's remains, in other words.

Duke was saying something again, he was in the room now, but I ignored him. Straightening, I slowly reached one shaking hand toward the stony shroud.

When my fingers touched the rough surface, a powerful shock crackled through me. Then, a tumult of images and sensations flooded my mind...the same kind of deluge I'd experienced with the flash-baked cat in Aggie's apartment. Only this time, the images didn't have anything to do with a cat.

I fought to make sense of the onrushing storm of input, latching on to pieces like driftwood in a whirlpool. The bitter taste of volcanic ash and mud, suffused with lingering heat. Deeper, the remnants of silky blonde hair, charred and brittle. Bones like river rock, smooth and hard and clean. And familiar. Artifacts that added up to the essence of her, of Aggie.

I would never see her alive again. The thought of it jolted me to the core.

And then, I was jolted again. The sense of a sinister presence gazing back at me from the abyss. The same presence I'd felt watching when I'd read the cat in Aggie's apartment.

Its malevolence was unmistakable. It stared over the shattered wasteland of my dead friend, its terrible handiwork. Cruel and aware.

It knew me. It reached for me, like before.

I withdrew, wrenching my consciousness away from it. Evading its clutching grasp. Almost.

Like the last time, it managed to lay a finger on me. Tapped my fleeing spirit and sent it reeling.

Something exploded inside me again. I felt myself collapse, falling toward the floor...and then I was elsewhere...

Collapsing onto silken bedsheets, flush with the fire of lovemaking. Just finished, at least for now, and well satisfied.

My lover rolled over beside me and stroked my cheek with his fingertip. "Now do you see?" He was the same man I'd seen in my first vision, the fair-featured one who'd sat beside me on the hill overlooking the city. "Do you see how love can be between two souls?"

I smiled at him. I kissed his finger and felt a tremor of fresh passion. I knew it was the first time I had ever been with a man, with anyone; I was dizzy with the afterglow and wanted to do it again.

"It was everything I said it would be, wasn't it?" said my lover.

I looked around the vast room, taking everything in. The walls were inlaid with colorful frescoes depicting romantic interludes out of myth. Beautiful bowls and urns, worked in glass and precious metals, were arranged on shelves and pedestals. Sunlight and soft breezes streamed in from a balcony; one entire wall was open to the elements. I heard the cries of gulls and the lapping of surf from nearby.

"Now aren't you glad you did it?" said my lover. "Aren't you glad you joined us?"

"Yes." I didn't need to think about it for even an instant. "I feel so alive."

"I knew you would," he said. "I wanted you to feel that way. To lay aside your burdens after all this time and finally know true joy."

I felt a rush of desire as I gazed at him—so handsome, so caring, so perfect. He was like an angel, haloed in the summer morning's light streaming in from outside. His dazzling smile was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life.

Then, suddenly, everything changed, as if someone had flipped a switch. I was somewhere else, somewhere dark and cold and damp. He was still with me, but he was different.

His face was twisted with rage. No trace of love to be seen. Eyes afire with blazing hatred, directed at me. Glaring right at me.

My heart pounded with terror and confusion. "What happened...?"

"How dare you?" He spat out the words. "I'll kill you!"

Suddenly, the scene shifted back to the sunlit room and the moments of afterglow. "I love you, my darling Gaia." He kissed me and ran his fingers over my body.

Then back to the darkness again. "You've ruined everything!" He struck me when he said it. I felt dazed and tasted blood. "You've destroyed us!"

Back to light and warmth. "You're everything I ever dreamed of." More kisses. Stirring caresses.

Darkness. "You've learned fast, haven't you, betrayer?" He struck me again.

Light. "Ready to learn another lesson, my love?" He embraced me again.

I kept jumping back and forth, faster and faster, until I couldn't stand it anymore. Dark, light, love, hate, pleasure, pain. Scenes switching and blurring like playing cards shuffled in a master dealer's hands. Like subway lightbulbs flickering as a train hurtles past. Life, death, joy, sorrow, up, down, like bipolar moods on super fast forward. A mental movie of madness, overshadowed by that malevolent presence.

And then I finally screamed. Mindlessly recoiled from the barrage, lashing out in every way I knew how. Fighting back in a state of sheer panic.

Until Duke's voice finally broke through to me. "Gaia! Stop it! Calm down, Earth Angel!"

Then, I heard Briar's voice, too. "No more, Gaia! Please stop!"

The sound of their voices was enough to snap me out of it. Spinning free of the nightmare slideshow, I plunged back into the reality of Time-Out—but it wasn't quite the same as I'd left it. As I blinked the haze from my eyes and looked around, I saw the place was in ruins. The padding had been torn from the walls in great strips. The furrow of fallen dirt and rock had been whipped up and sprayed everywhere, over every surface. The crack in the wall I'd opened earlier had been forced wider, and more earth had collapsed inward in a great heap.

In my frenzied struggle to escape the quickfire visions, I'd laid waste to the room. The only part of it that was still untouched was the dangling shell of Aggie's ashen remains.

Duke and Briar were unscathed, too. They both huddled around me, staring down at me with worried looks on their faces.

"Are you all right?" said Briar.

I nodded. Then, I shook my head.

"She's gone, isn't she?" Duke glanced at the Aggie-shaped shell. When he saw the look in my eyes, he teared up. "I'm so sorry, honey. So sorry."

"Let's get you out of here." Briar reached for my hand. "I need to call this in, anyway. No signal on my cell phone down here."

I shook as they helped me to my feet. Felt like I'd never stop shaking again.

Out in the corridor, I saw Briar had cuffed Holloway and left him on his side on the floor. Phaola sat beside him, back against the wall, and stared up at me.

"I'm sorry, Gaia," she said. "I didn't know."

"You didn't care." I wanted to kick her on the way past, her and Holloway both, but I didn't have the strength. I settled for ignoring her as she apologized again.

With one arm around Duke and one arm around Briar, I limped away from Aggie like walking wounded leaving a battlefield. Wished I'd never gotten out of bed that morning, never talked to Briar, never known she was missing. Better yet, wished I'd never met her, so it wouldn't hurt so bad when I thought about losing her.

"I'll get you through this, Earth Angel." Duke said it softly and squeezed my shoulder gently for emphasis. "Don't you worry. I won't leave your side, sweetheart."

I was glad for the soothing sound of his voice, glad to know he was with me...but I knew I was in trouble, and even he might not be able to save me.

The worst was yet to come. The full weight of my sorrow had not begun to take shape. And that was only one small piece of the mountain on my back.

The bigger portion, by far, was guilt. I was only then beginning to feel the leading edge of it—the guilt I felt for not saving her. For not realizing she was in trouble sooner. For not acting fast enough.

And, especially, for bringing all this down upon her. Because I knew, from the visions or memories I'd experienced when touching her flash-baked form, that I was somehow connected to what had happened. Maybe, she hadn't died because she'd been trying to expose the s*x ring; maybe, her link to me was what had gotten her killed.

Maybe, in the end, it was all my fault.