Tears were streaming down Lacey’s beautiful face again. She opened her mouth to respond but no words came out. She pursed her lips and swallowed, wiping her eyes with the back of her arm. Taking in a long slow breath, she said finally, “I know, but he can’t be stopped. He has all the power and I’m just a girl.”
“Lacey, you’re not JUST anything. You are valuable regardless of your gender or identity.” Harmony said all this and realized she was giving Lacey the pep talk she always gave herself when she felt lesser than her peers. The image of Lyric came into her mind just then and she remembered how powerless she had felt when he had invaded her mind and made her think she was in love with him. It was embarrassing. It was scary. It demoralizing.
“I sometimes think I would be better off if I was born a man.” Lacey whispered.
Just then, the rumbling started up again from where they had entered the tunnel. In the confined space, the sound felt like a physical presence. It washed over Harmony in waves and the walls appeared to be closing in on them. One of the bulbs above began to flicker erratically and it was a visual representation of Harmony’s heart.
“What is that?” Harmony asked Lacey.
“I don’t know.” Lacey admitted.
Harmony found it odd how little this girl seemed to know about this place. If Harmony hadn’t felt so bad for Lacey, she would have been angry with her for her lack of helpfulness. This place was seemingly inescapable and Harmony felt close to the edge of her sense of peace. The more she allowed herself to dwell on the hopelessness of her situation, the more she found herself spiraling into old fears.
“Let’s move.” Harmony wrapped her left arm around Lacey’s right arm and began to speed walk down the tunnel.
Lacey was so much taller than Harmony that it was awkward to hold onto each other. Even so, Harmony held on tight. This girl was so emotionally fragile that Harmony sensed she needed the physical support. Lacey didn’t complain as they stumbled their way through the semi-darkness and splashed through water that seemed to have been sitting for a while.
When the rumbling increased in volume and a high-pitched screeching chimed in, Harmony squeezed Lacey’s arm tighter. “Run!”
Lacey didn’t have to be asked twice. The girls ran beside one another for a few seconds, then Harmony released Lacey so she could run as fast as she could. Harmony was a few paces behind her.
Lacey reached the end of the tunnel before Harmony did and was stunned to find nothing but a brick wall. She looked around frantically and could only see the walls of the tunnel. If they went back to where they came from, it would be into the clutches of whatever menacing thing was chasing them.
Harmony began to feel her chest tightening and her breath coming out in sharp gasps.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE JOY PAT had first experienced being around Zion was slowly waning after they had worked together all afternoon, had dinner together, and continued to develop a game plan for rescuing Harmony. Clive was still nowhere to be found and Pat had realized that Arrow was not around making his usual sarcastic comments or sneaking alcoholic beverages into the house, either. When Zion had to leave one of their brainstorming sessions to take care of a conflict that had arisen between an accountability coach and his mentee, Pat used the momentary break to seek out information about the outside world.
He immediately regretted it when he logged onto the Kimber Krier website and saw that the first headline was “CEO of Sherwood Severs Still Missing: Police Have No Leads”. As he continued to scroll there were other headlines like, “Hospital Unveils New Chip Implementation Plan” and “Preston Winston Accepts Award for Most Innovative College President”. His curiosity got the better of him and he clicked the link for the hospital article.
A quick skim of the material informed Pat that what Clive had feared was what had happened. They immediately hired a new surgeon to head up the chip implementation program and changed the privacy policy for the patients. The article wasn’t obvious about the motivation for this change, but reading between the lines Pat knew that these changes must be what Clive had alluded to earlier.
“I have to go back.” Pat muttered to himself.
Theresa would just go along with whatever had been decided. Without Pat there, he knew that things would move much more quickly in the direction of making the thoughts of others public knowledge. In addition to this, Pat was one of the only people who knew about his father’s invention causing private thoughts to reappear as real things. He couldn’t continue to stay in this facility even though he felt safe there. He had to return to work.
Suddenly, it also occurred to him that with the guidelines changing he might be able to track Harmony by use of her chip. The only way that would be possible, though, is if he accessed the database at work and bypassed the security measures. Even though he wasn’t close to her, he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t utilize this information to save her.
“Sorry, Pat.” Zion said as he came back into the room. “We strive for coverage across all programs here so I don’t have to be hands-on 24/7, but some things just get too out of control for the staff to handle on their own.”
Pat waved a dismissive hand and then said, “No worries. I think I know how to find Harmony.”
Zion’s face went from confusion to excitement. “Oh, really?”
“Yes, but it will require that I return to the office tomorrow.”
***
The next day, Zion allowed Pat to borrow one of the many vehicles on campus to drive back to his office. When he sat in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, he punched in the address to his work on the GPS and was surprised to find that it was an hour and 45 minutes away from where he was located.
He mulled over ideas for how he would explain his absence to Theresa. He didn’t want to out Zion as harboring a fugitive of the law. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed Justice sitting in the passenger seat. He cried out in surprise and then began tearing up.
“Patty, shhh…shhh…” Justice stroked his cheek and he leaned into her touch. This nurturing care was something Pat never remembered having as a kid. Justice was able to simultaneously meet his needs as a husband and soothe the damaged parts of him from childhood. “My baby.” She cooed. “You’re stressed. What’s the matter?”
Gently straightening his head so he could see the road better, he said, “I thought you were gone.”
“I just couldn’t come see you in that place.” She shrugged. “I wouldn’t ever leave you.”
“But you did leave. You’re not real. You’re just an apparition.” Pat said, forcing himself to stop crying. “Zion explained it all.”
“He’s a religious zealot. He believes a lot of fake things.” She said venomously.
“You’re an apparition.” Pat said again firmly.
“I’m the only thing that isn’t an apparition, baby.” She said.
Her voice sounded tired and Pat’s heart softened. “Really? Then why will you not stay with me?”
“I can’t right now.” Justice said sadly as she ran her fingers through his hair.
His eyes closed briefly to just focus on her touch that was so real. “I love you. Do you remember when we first moved into our house?”
“Yes.” She said. “It was so fun, but you were so particular.”
“There is only one way to hang pictures and you wanted to cluster them in one spot.”
“It was so wonderful to know that I was yours and wasn’t leaving.”
