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CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE

ERIN

“Little Ghost,” Aiden’s purr cuts through the hazy abyss. “Oh, Little Ghost…”

A drowsy heaviness drags me down, tempting me to succumb to a blissful sleep, but his voice beckons me back.

“It’s time to get up.”

“Go away,” I groan. “I want to sleep.”

“Wake up,” he orders, pinching my cheeks. “Now.”

I ignore him, sinking deeper into the murky waters of my subconsciousness, until he prises my eyelids open.

“Ouch!” I wail, squinting up at his masked face poised behind a flashlight.

“Follow me,” he says.

I scramble to my knees from my fetal position on the floor and quickly assess my surroundings. I’m in a different cell. No bed or blankets, more locks on the door, and white padded walls.

My heart thunders. “Where am I?”

“Solitary confinement,” Aiden replies, then heaves me up. “Move it. We don’t have much time.”

“Time for what?” I ask.

“You’ll see,” he says cryptically. “Put it on.”

He hands me a soft, black balaclava. I stare at it blankly, turning the ribbed fabric in my hands until he scowls and snatches it back. He shoves it over my head. It’s tight, and the fabric sucks into my mouth with every breath.

My cell door creaks open.

“Hello, Little Ghost,” Lex says from the doorway. A black-and-white checkered bandana covers the lower half of his face, and an unmoving orderly lays at his feet.

“Is he dead?” I ask.

“No,” Lex says. “Unless you want him to be?”

“We have no time for games, Lex,” Aiden snaps, shoving past him and dragging me out of the room.

I step over the orderly’s body, and a noise from above draws my attention.

“Psst!”

A ceiling tile has been shifted to the left, revealing a gap where Eli crouches, waiting with outstretched arms.

“What—”

Before I finish my sentence, Aiden wraps his hands around my waist and hoists me into the air.

“Hold on,” Eli says.

With Aiden supporting my weight from beneath, Eli hauls me into the ceiling. With one last heave, I collapse on top of him.

“Have you missed me?” Eli asks, grinning as I roll off him.

The cramped vent only leaves a few inches above Eli’s head when sitting.

“Follow me,” he instructs, flicking on the flashlight strapped to his head and crawling on all fours into the unknown.

I have no choice but to follow as Lex and Aiden join us, pulling the tile back into place behind them and condemning us to total darkness.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

My question echoes, but no one responds.

“Quiet,” Aiden says. “Conserve your oxygen.”

We settle into a rhythm and crawl for what seems like hours. We navigate tight bends and increasingly cramped vents that cover the length of the asylum. The faint noise of people talking below us grows louder the farther we go. Although I can’t discern what they’re saying, I recognize one voice.

Dad.

We make our way toward him. From his tone, he’s annoyed about something. The vent widens, opening up to allow us enough space to sit upright.

Eli halts.

We’ve reached our destination.

“What did you say to her?” Dad rages beneath us.

Suddenly, the guys switch off their lights.

“Wha—”

Eli smothers my mouth with his hand, then pulls away to put a finger to my lips. Message received.

He shuffles to reveal a tiny shred of light coming from a gap where two pieces of steel don’t quite meet. He wants me to look down. Gingerly, I lower myself, trying to stay quiet as I lie on my side. The metal chills my cheek as I peer through the hole at the scene unfurling below.

While I can’t see the full room, I can tell we’re in the secret part of Sunnycrest, where Dad conducts his vile experiments.

I gaze into a white cell, watching Dad pace.

Beside him, I see the heads of three other doctors who circle a chair in my direct line of sight where a patient is strapped down.

My stomach lurches as the patient struggles, bound by restraints on his hands and wrists. The victim’s features are hard to make out. Strange lumps and pustules cover his face, like he’s been attacked by a hive of angry bees. His only discernible feature is a mop of straggly, yellow hair.

I squeak in horror. It’s Alfred. The boy I cornered for answers.

“Don’t make me ask you a third time,” Dad says. “What did you say to her?”

“I didn’t tell her anything,” Alfred whimpers, coughing up blood. “I swear, I didn’t!”

Dad tsks. “It’s a shame we’ve come to this, especially after making such good progress the last time you were in this chair.”

He attaches electrodes to the sides of Alfred’s head. Alfred wriggles around, making his restraints bite into his skin and draw blood, trapping him in place.

Dad walks out of my vision, presumably to a machine linked to the wires attached to Alfred.

“Stop!” Alfred croaks. His eyes wide with sheer terror. “Okay, I’ll tell you! Just not that again. Please!”

Dad saunters back, wearing a twisted smile that shows the true psychopath he really is.

“Tell me,” Dad probes. “What did you say?”

“All I said was that she already knows,” Alfred says. “I swear, that’s all.”

Dad smiles and ruffles his hair affectionately. “Very good, Alfred.”

“I promise I’ll never speak to her again.” Alfred sobs. “I won’t say another word. She asked me the questions.”

I bite my lip to stop myself from bawling. My father is evil. Seeing the tapes and hearing about his experiments was hard enough, but watching firsthand lets me see the pure pleasure he gets from causing others to suffer.

Dad strokes Alfred’s bruised cheek tenderly.

His gentle gesture conjures a vision in my head.

The same fingers brush my cheek.

“It’s going to be okay,” Dad says.

I want to believe him. I really do. He dabs my forehead with a damp cloth. The coldness provides a brief reprieve from the burning sensation setting my skin on fire. However, despite his comforting words, I’m struck by more fear.

“You’re going to be okay, Erin,” Dad purrs. “Everything will be back to the way it was…”

“Everything will be okay, Alfred,” Dad says.

Alfred’s shoulders relax, buying his lies. Yet, I brace myself. Somehow, I know what’s going to happen before it does.

Dad turns to another doctor and orders, “Maximum charge.”

Alfred has no time to react as a thousand electric bolts shoot through his body. His eyes roll into the back of his head as his limbs convulse.

“Shall we stop?” a doctor asks as a machine bleeps like crazy. “His body won’t sustain much more.”

“No,” Dad replies. “Keep going.”

I want to look away, but I can’t. I’m mesmerized by Alfred’s twitching body and watch until a final drawn-out beep signals his heart has stopped. Even then, Dad keeps going, delighting in Alfred’s dead body flailing around like a fish out of water. A puppet under his control.

Finally, when he’s bored and Alfred’s skin is steaming, Dad waves for the machine to be turned off.

“Take his body to the freezer,” Dad says dismissively. He picks up Alfred’s limp, burned arm to inspect it. “We can use his organs for our next experiment.” Dad checks his watch and sighs. “I need to get home for dinner. My wife and I are hosting Sheriff Brady and his wife.”

He hurries off and we remain in the vents, frozen, watching them wheel Alfred’s corpse away.

He died because of me. If I hadn’t hounded him for answers, none of this would have happened…

My mouth fills with the bitter taste of iron due to how hard I’m biting my lip. Silent tears soak through my balaclava. He has to be stopped . We need to put an end to my father’s reign of terror for good. There must be a way to bring him down.

“Time to go,” Aiden whispers.

He begins the journey back to my cell, but I don’t move. I’m not only shaken by what I’ve seen, but by the fleeting memory that I’ve been here before, that I’ve been strapped to the same chair.

Eli gently nudges me.

“He’s dead,” Eli whispers. “Nothing will bring him back, and we’ll all be dead if someone notices you’re missing.”

He’s right.

My body enters autopilot, moving back through the tunnels. My ears are still ringing with Alfred’s pleading. The crawl passes quickly. Aiden catches me as I drop from the ceiling, back into my padded cell, without saying a word.

I pull the mask off and slump to the floor, drawing my knees to my chest.

“We have to go,” Lex says, peering around the cell door. “Or they’ll find us.”

“We can’t leave her like this,” Eli argues. “Look at her.”

I rock back and forth.

That room…

The horrible smell of singed hair…

It transports me somewhere else…

“Wake up!” Dad’s voice rings through the abyss. “Come back to me, angel.”

Cold water douses my cheeks.

My entire body aches, and my eyelids feel like they’re weighed down, but I open them. My irises burn from the stark light.

Machines whir.

White coats, clipboards, pens, squeaky shoes…

“There she is,” Dad says. “Erin?”

“Yes?” I reply.

Dad’s face lights up, smiling in triumph. “It’s complete.”

Others applaud. Doctor Warner stands among them, a strained smile on his face, feigning delight.

“I’m going to take you home,” Dad says. “Everything will be fine.”

“Where am I?” I ask.

“Don’t worry about that now,” Dad says. “You won’t remember any of this. All you need to know is that I’m doing this for your own good.”

“She’s lost it,” Eli says.

I cover my ears, sobbing as I rock.

I want these visions to stop, but they keep coming…

“Again!” Dad choruses.

They submerge my head in freezing water. Someone wrenches my head back. I gasp for air, just long enough to catch half a breath before I’m forced down. Water fills my mouth, and I scream silently, praying for the end, before I’m pulled out again, spluttering.

Piano music fills the room. It’s almost deafening. I try to appreciate it, savoring the sound for a fraction of a second, before they shove my head below the surface once more.

“Again!”

I accept my fate. The water isn’t clear. It’s murky, with a yellow hue, and leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I hope I’ll drown. Anything to make it stop. The piano keeps playing, beckoning me closer.

Between my chattering teeth and the music, my thoughts are a jumbled mess. I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not, or who I am. Everything is fragmented.

I’m wrenched up, dripping wet, and Dad drags me across the room toward the piano.

“Play,” he commands.

Shaking, my fingers fumble with the keys.

“I said, play!” Dad instructs.

I keep trying, but I’m not good enough.

We always had lessons at the same time.

Sarah and Erin—the pianist twins.

I was never as good as she was, no matter how hard I tried. She was a natural, getting everything right the first time, but me? I had to work twice as hard. I never understood why we both had to play.

“I’m doing my best,” I say through chattering teeth. “I really am. Please, Dad. I’ll never be as good as her.”

“You will!” He bangs his fist on top of the piano. “Practice makes perfect.”

“I’ll never be perfect,” I say. “I’m not ? —”

He hauls me across the room again and plunges my head into the icy water.

“Enough, Erin!”

An earthquake rips through my brain, making it throb.

This isn’t right…

This isn’t me.

Eli shaking me pulls me back to the present. “Wake up!”

“Something’s wrong,” I mutter. “Something’s wrong.”

Mom was right. I really am sick.

“We have to leave,” Lex says. “What if they find us here?”

“You two go,” Aiden says. “I’ll stay.”

“You can’t risk being seen,” Lex hisses. “It’s reckless.”

“What’s reckless is leaving her when we’re so close,” Aiden says. “I know the risks, and I make the fucking rules, remember?”

Eli hesitates. “But?—”

“Go!” Aiden roars. “Now!”

The two of them scurry out, not daring to argue after seeing his thunderous expression.

I look up at Aiden. “Am I going crazy?”

He removes his mask and kneels by my side, smiling sadly. He holds my chin and tips my face up. I stare into his gray eyes, steeped in mystery and torment. Eyes that suddenly feel so comforting.

“We’re all crazy,” he replies.

“But the things I keep seeing in my head…” My sentence trails off. I squeeze my eyes shut to erase the visions, but they don’t go. Not this time.

A few months ago, I was a star pupil at Stonybridge Academy.

The most I had to worry about was a date to the Harvest Ball and college applications.

Now, I’m unraveling. First, a simmering rage keeps rearing its ugly head.

Now, visions that keep getting stronger the longer I’m in Sunnycrest. They feel real. Too real.

Aiden catches a tear as it slides down my cheek.

“What if I don’t want to remember, Aiden?” I murmur.

“You have no choice,” he says. “You need to come back to us. To finish what we started.”

“Who am I?” My voice cracks. “Tell me the truth.”

“You’ve always been ours.” Aiden looks me in the eye. “ Sarah .”