The Marradith Ryder Series Part 19
Will opened his eyes.
The first thing that he was aware of was a bright light. He stared into it.
He blinked.
He looked down.
His injured arm was bundled in a tight swath of bandages, and rested on a fluffy white pillow.
“Okay,” he whispered to himself. “I’m still on Earth.”
He was in a hospital room. Beyond the dark window he could hear the sounds of traffic in the distance. The last thing he could remember was falling asleep in the back of the car. Just before that, Marradith had given him some medicine. Shit, he thought, she probably gave me the knock out drugs that Bruce kept in the glove compartment. In the dark interior of the car, he had not looked at the capsules before he swallowed them.
“Hey, look who’s awake?”
A plump woman in a white coat came in through the doorway. She took a penlight from her pocket and shined it in his eyes, touching his face gently with her cool fingertips.
“I’m Dr. Hollis,” she said kindly. “How are you feeling, Will?”
“Loopy.”
“That’s to be expected,” she said. “You’ll be pleased though. The surgery went very well.”
“Surgery?”
“The electrical burn on your arm was pretty bad. Mind telling me how you got that?”
“Uh, my radio fell in the tub?”
The doctor suppressed a chuckle. “Your brother told us that he did not know what happened, but that you’d give us a lame excuse.”
“My brother?”
“Yes, it was him and his girlfriend that brought you in. We had to remove a layer of necrotic tissue from your arm, about six inches long. When it’s healed you’ll have a nice scar. I’m sure it will give you some bragging rights. They got you here just in time. Much longer, and without treatment, we’d have had to remove more.”
He felt a surge of relief, and then anger. At least they hadn’t butchered him further than that.
“Did my… brother bring any of my stuff?” he asked.
Dr. Hollis frowned, rubbing his shoulder in a motherly fashion. “No, just you, dear. There will be a little confusion while the drugs wear off.”
Justin and Marradith still had his laptop.
And with it, all the information that it had taken nearly a year to gather about The Circle.
***
“So you’ve been having Leighton’s dreams. What exactly, is he dreaming about?” Justin asked.
They were speeding along another dark road, in the battered Lincoln that belonged to Will.
Marradith paused before answering, trying to think of the best way to say it. “He was dreaming about a woman. I’m not sure if she was his wife or his girlfriend. But he loved her. And she was thinking about leaving him. She hadn’t really told him that yet, but he knew that she was frightened of him.”
“Maybe that was Caroline. Surprising, really, that he thinks of her all these years later.”
“Why?” Marradith asked.
“I don’t know. I really don’t know much of him on a personal level, but I’d never have thought Leighton would be the kind to carry a torch for a girl. I guess there’s always that one. How come you didn’t mention it before?”
“A couple reasons. At first, I wasn’t sure if they were real memories, or just the sort of mixed up dreams that everyone has. But, um, they were very graphic.”
Justin chuckled. “I see.”
He looked over and could see she was blushing. She kept her eyes on the road, trying to avoid his stare.
“It’s not funny, you know. I really don’t like carrying around other people’s extra… whatever you want to call it.”
“Well, if it’s just about him missing his wife, I don’t guess there is anything we can use.”
“That’s the thing that’s funny about it. I feel there is a reason for it. I just haven’t found it yet.”
“Let me know, when you figure it out?” he said softly.
“Don’t you mean, if you’re still around?”
He’d expected some resistance on Marradith’s part. He was surprised it took her this long.
“I never said I wasn’t going to be around,” he said.
“You never said you were coming back.”
“My job is to get you delivered safely from one point to another. And part of that job is almost over.”
“Which is what bothers me. You’re not quite telling me everything.”
“Okay, no, I am not telling you everything, because it wouldn’t do you any good. I need you to be focused on what you have to do. And the less you know, the better. You won’t have to worry about slipping up and saying anything that is supposed to be a secret.”
“It sucks that after all that’s happened you still don’t trust me.” she said.
“I do trust you. I don’t particularly trust the people you’ll be talking to. There is a big difference.”
“Whatever.”
“We’re here,” Justin said, cutting the engine.
Marradith looked at him.
They both just sat there for a time. The street around them was quiet.
Marradith was trying to think of something to say. But she couldn’t. She felt panicked. But she sat still, hardly breathing, because she didn’t want to show him any weakness.
He leaned over and kissed her.
She felt clumsy at first, not having expected it. But she kissed him back. When they parted, he still leaned close, his breath warm against her cheek.
“If you really knew, you wouldn’t be worried about me trusting you. I know you’ll do whatever needs to be done. I am proud to have known you, even for this little bit of time.”
“Okay. That sounds like goodbye.”
He put a finger to her lips. “No. But you need to go now. Please.”
She understood why. She didn’t want to move one inch from him.
“Be careful,” she said, and got out of the car.
She waited on the sidewalk until she saw his car turn and his headlights fade into the distance.
—
© 2009 Lori Titus
Lori Titus’s The Marradith Ryder Series appears each Wednesday on Flashes in the Dark. She is the short story editor for Sonar4 ezine. Many of her stories have appeared on MicroHorror and Shadeworks, and her first anthology of horror stories is scheduled for release in 2010.
For more information see her at: http://www.myspace.com/talesforthedark
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June 10th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Another wonderful update. I suspect Will may not like the idea of just laying around in the hospital.
And nice of GoogleAds to generate a wound dressing advertisement to go with the story!
June 10th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
LOL, that’s funny! Talk about perfect placement…..
June 16th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Will did get hit with a lot of power, at least he gets to keep his arm. Only now the cops are going to find him.