The Island Ch. 16

Intense, aggressive, but short-lived.

More than that, the slight twitch in her eyebrows told me that I was on the right track. "What? Did you think that Walker was the only one working against you? Do you think that every time they were free of your control, they weren't investigating to find out what you are? What you really are. Your hubris is astonishing! They hid the weapons, all of them. They carried on Walker's research. I know all about you and your mind-flower. I know where they hid the weapons! I know everything. And what? You are standing there threatening me with some mystic bullshit 'cause you think I don't know any better?"

I could see that my words were having an effect. There may not have been any fear behind those dark, dangerous eyes, but there was plenty of shock.

"I'll tell you what," I went on. "Why don't you crawl back under whatever rock you have been hiding under for the past few decades, and maybe I will forget you exist."

That malicious smile curled onto her lips again. "You are alone, Dan." she seemed to spit out my name as if the very taste of it was foul. "Maybe I can't kill you; maybe I can't stop you. But what about your girls? What about your unborn children? I can certainly kill them. I can make it so that you spend the rest of your miserable life on this island completely alone."

My hand moved before I even thought about it. My hand clamped around her throat and shoved her hard back into the wall behind her. I squeezed hard! "Threaten them again," I hissed. "I don't want to kill Louisa, I know she is only the vessel that you control, but I will snap her neck like a fucking twig if it means protecting everyone else on this island. Mark my words, Mother. I am going to find you, the real you. And I am going to end you!"

There was a gasp, and Louisa suddenly started thrashing against my grip, her eyes clearing in an instant as Mother fled her body. I couldn't help but groan at myself.

"God fucking Dammit! I pushed the control out of her with Freja's powers."

I let go of Louisa, and she crumbled to the floor, sobbing hysterically. Amy and Tom opened the hospital door behind me, both of them immediately moving to help her as she curled into a ball. It only took one look at them for Louisa to clamber away from them, kicking and crawling along the wall until she scrambled into the open door behind her. The open door of Holding Two.

For the briefest moment, this surprised me. I was still operating under the mistaken belief that they couldn't see it, but the look of shock on Amy and Tom's faces when - at least as far as they were concerned - a room magically appeared in front of them told me beyond doubt that they could see it too. We all followed her in.

"Don't come closer," She almost screamed. "Please, I don't want to hurt anybody."

"Shhh," I said, trying to calm her as I knelt in front of the woman, trying her hardest to press herself into the corner of the room. "She's gone. You're you again."

Louisa blinked for a few moments, looking around at me and the others. Tom and Amy seemed to be having an inordinate amount of trouble with dividing their attention between Louisa and the rest of the room. The bodies and the bloodstains were, to be fair, pretty distracting. Suddenly Lousia threw herself at me, wrapped her arms around my neck, buried her head into my shoulder, and sobbed uncontrollably. I could only hold her as her shoulder bounced and her tears rolled onto my skin.

"She is going to kill you," she whimpered between sobs. "I saw her plans. She is so angry! None of us are safe unless we do what she wants."

"Mmm, that is not how tyrants are beaten," Tom said from behind me.

Louisa's eyes snapped up as if it was the first time she had properly seen him. She unwrapped herself from me and hurled herself across the room and into his arms. "Tom, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Please don't hate me. I am trying so hard to fight her."

Tom just held her, stroking his fingers through her hair.

I scratched my head, another warning from Dr. Walker drifting from my memory. "That is why she is winning," I said quietly. "The effort you put into fighting her produces adrenaline. She feeds off that to grow stronger. The more you fight her, the stronger she gets."

"So what do I do?" Lousia asked, turning her head to look at me but not even attempting to leave Tom's arms. "I can't let her win."

"No, WE can't," I tried to smile reassuringly at her. "You are not on your own with all of this. But next time she tries to take control, let her. It will give her less power to feed on, and she won't be able to control you for as long."

"How can you know that?" She asked.

"I have my ways. To be honest, I think the less you know, the better. But we are all behind you, Lou. We are not going to let anything happen to you or to anyone else if there is any possible way to stop it. We do have a plan."

She seemed to think about that for a moment before nodding in acceptance. Neither of us knew if Mother could control her into giving up all of our secrets, but it wasn't worth the risk.

"So, am I going to be the one to point out the dead bodies?" Amy asked after a few minutes of silence. "And the room that wasn't here yesterday."

I was about to open my mouth when Lousia answered for me. "They are some of the people who were here before us. There was a group of them working against Mother. She made the person she was controlling back then kill them, some of them, anyway. I could see her memories. It was... It was horrible. I think some of them escaped, though."

"Really? This was new information."

"What makes you say that?"

Lousia frowned. "It's a memory, a fuzzy one, though. It's the last thing she remembered about that group," she nodded at the skeletons. "Whoever she was controlling saw them, and they left her here. She watched a ship come to the bay from on top of the mountain; the rest of the group was there waiting for it. By the time Mother got there, they were gone. Mother went back into hibernation then, and I think... I think the woman was left here to die." She pulled herself free of Tom's strong arms and stepped a little closer to the bodies. "I remember this, though. They were sleeping. All of them were women, I... I mean, the woman I remember, she burst in and just started shooting. That one was first," she pointed to the body sumped on the bed. "Then that one." A nod to the body leaning against the wall. "And these two were killed when they tried to rush her. Mother made her watch; she was crying the whole time. It was like a nightmare."

"Do you know why she killed them?" Amy asked.

Louisa swallowed hard and turned back to look at our Doctor with a nod. "They... they were infertile."

"Jesus..."

"Amy..." I could see the tears starting to form in her eyes. "I'm infertile. I had a hysterectomy four years ago."

My mind briefly flicked back to what Freja had told me about healing our group during my first vision. Ray had been convinced that he'd had the snip, but with Zoe pregnant, he had obviously been healed. Perhaps Louisa had as well. But that was a detail I didn't want to share. The question was, however, how these women were infertile when Dr. Walker recounted a period of unconsciousness just as we had experienced. Had they not been healed too? Or was there something more sinister going on?

Tom and Amy both flashed a look at me. I had told them about the healing at the lake, and I assumed they both understood why I wasn't telling Louisa, but the same question seemed to have occurred to them.

"How often are you lucid?" I asked Lousia.

"I'm not sure," she answered after thinking about it. "It's not regular, but Mother says she will know what I had done when she wasn't with me, and she would make me hurt someone if I didn't follow her orders."

"She lied. She can't see anything you do unless you tell her."

"But can she make me tell her?"

"I don't know, but if she has to make you tell her, then you may be able to be selective about what you say." I offered carefully.

Lousia seemed to think about it. "But until we know either way, you can't tell me anything. If I know, and I am made to tell her...." she left that hanging in the air.

I nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Okay, here is what we can do. Mother is going to try to get into you again sooner rather than later. Swim with the current," I said, parroting Dr. Walker's words. "Don't fight her; let her in. She will make you tell her what happened after she was forced out. See how much of this conversation you can keep from her. Then, next time you are lucid, come and tell me." I didn't want her to know that Tom was always lucid, either, something else that the other two members of our conversation seemed to understand.

Louisa nodded before moving back into Tom's arms.

"Let's get you into the hospital and have a look at your neck. I'm not sure what Mother said to get Dan to grab it so hard, but I can already see the bruises forming. I'd like to check them over to make sure that's all there is."

Lousia nodded again and looked over at me. "Considering what that bitch said to him, I would say he was quite restrained."

I offered her a weak smile. "Okay, you go check her over. I will give you privacy this time. And we can deal with all of this," I gestured to the rest of the room, "another time."