“Miss Seagar, take this, it’ll make you feel better.” The doctor gives me a thimble-sized plastic cup with two pills. I hate taking pills but he smiles and nods encouragingly … I hesitate but I need to be okay to watch over Scottie and swallow the pills with a gulp of water from a water bottle.
The ambulance stops and Raymond jumps out and helps me climb down the steps. He looks at me with eyes that say something important, but I can’t decipher what it is. His words reach me through a layer of cotton wool. I’m desperate to stay alert, but I’m sliding down a slippery slope.
My vision becomes hazy as if a cloud of thick fog engulfs me. My stomach roils. Even though it’s not a hot day, sweat is dripping from my forehead into my eyes. Two males in white hospital uniforms pull Scottie’s gurney out of the ambulance and walk towards a white house. The noise of their chatter and their steps on the gravel is booming in my ears like rolling thunder that comes closer.
“I need to stop and catch my breath.”
Raymond grabs my arm. “Please let me help you. Take my arm.”
I take another deep breath and the fresh air runs like a fresh mountain spring through my lungs. Still, the funny head is not clearing. I’m feeling sick. I’m not sure if I’m sick or whether one of the little ones had a flashback. It was a mistake to come. Didn’t I promise Maddie never to come here? Perhaps she’s having a hard time and I’m paying for it.
I’m looking up to Ray. “I need to put my head down. I’m terribly dizzy. Is there a place where I can lie down?”
“Let’s follow Mr. Thompson. I’ll make sure we’ll find somewhere for you to rest.” He takes my arm “Take it easy, one step at a time. That’ll help clear your head.”
We walk up the stairs and enter the white house. People walking past us staring at me with odd expressions. Is it pity? I don’t need pity. I need a clear head.
“Are you feeling better?”
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know what happened. I never get sick. Maybe some of what I ate for lunch? But … it makes no sense that I’m so unwell.”
I turn to the side, away from Raymond, fearing that I’ll be sick at any moment.
He holds me tight now. “Don’t worry about me if you need to get sick. Let me get you to a room ASAP and I’ll ask our doctor in residence to have a look at you too. We can’t have our guest being unwell while visiting us.”
When we walk along the hallway I have suddenly an explosion of stars happening inside my head and panicked voices are throbbing in my ears.
Maddie. I hear Maddie’s voice. First, it’s hard to make out what she’s saying but then …
“Oh no, this is the house. Lilly, go back, this is the house. The bad house.”
My breathing accelerates and my heart is pounding like a herd of wild horses racing over barren highland. No words are forming inside my head, just panic and a knowing that Raymond has tricked me. My hands are balling to fists and I’m clenching my teeth. What started as fear turned into an explosion of anger.
“You bastard, you drugged me. You deceitful rapist and debauched animal.”
I take a swing at Raymond and my fist connects with his cheek. His head whips back and he looks at me in surprise. He didn’t expect my attack and holds his cheek.
I don’t know where the strengths or even the technique came from, certainly not from me. Amadeus must have come to my aid. I’m no longer alone in this fight. My hand swings for another punch, but now Raymond has my hands in an iron grip. He slaps his hand across my face.
“Calm down, you pathetic bitch, or you’ll regret it.”
He pushes me into an empty room to his right where two male nurses already wait next to an iron hospital bed.
“Where is Scottie? What have you done with him?”
“Taken care of.”
They push me onto the mattress and fasten my hands in the restraints hanging on the bedposts.
“Be still. Do you hear me? Be still.”
Raymond goes to the sideboard at the wall and comes back with a syringe. He holds it up, flicks at the needle with his finger, and grins as he injects it into my thigh. My thinking gets fuzzy. The bastard had it all planned. Everything is ready and I’m the gullible twit who ran into his trap. Ready for the taking.
But why…?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lilly: 24 March 2017, Gateway
I don’t mind waking up in the body. Something about a new day, a new beginning, and new possibilities excites me. Today is different though. Different and painful. My mouth is dry like the Sahara and the funny taste in my mouth goes with a strange smell that causes unpleasant ripples in my stomach.
Is it time to get up? The light behind my eyelids tells me it is but my limbs feel like someone filled them with lead and anchored them to the bed. I try to open my eyes but it appears someone glued them shut. Where am I? And how did I get here? I try to breathe more deeply to stem the rising anxiety. The last thing I need is getting a panic attack.
I look inside for information. Someone of the Tribe knows what happened. It’s just not me. But nothing other than gaping nothingness is greeting me. Odd images come flapping at me from the vastness of my mind, like sheets of washing on a clothesline: sitting with Simon Baker in his car, standing at an iron gate, sitting in a room full of people listening to kids singing. I kind of remember, but I can’t connect the dots. I hate
