Story # 2.9 The Dream

Rob was still handcuffed with his arms behind the chair he was sitting in.  He was still alone in the room after Pat had left.  He was alone with his thoughts as well.

Why is this happening to me?  Why won't he help me?  I don't understand any of this.  Everytime I close my eyes I keep waking up to this horrifying dream.  He knows where I am, so why won't he help me?  There has to be a way out of this.  Somehow, someway, there just has to be.

Still buried in his thoughts, his affect flat as he stared down at the floor before him, the door to the room openned.  In walked Linda, Jay's wife.

Rob looked up at her, his green eyes shimmering in the light as the door closed beside her.  She stared at him without blinking, completely focused on the man before her.  If looks could kill, Rob would have died before she entered the room.

Linda slowly moved towards Rob, but not gingerly.  It was a motivated and determined gait.  She was there for a reason and it wasn't fear.

Rob took a deep breath, unsure what was about to happen next.  He remembered some of his previous encounters with her and knew they had not gone very well.

Linda stopped a few feet in front of Rob and stood there, still staring into the man's eyes.  All Rob could do is stare right back.  Finally, Linda responded.

With a quick stroke, she took her left hand and slapped Rob across the face as hard as she could.  The jolt nearly knocked Rob to the ground, twisting him sideways and causing a minute amount of blood to come forth from his lips.  Rob could taste the blood, and as he spit it out, he began to chuckle.

Linda continued to stare at Rob as the man leaned back up to face her, now laughing.

"I gotta tell ya, lady, you pack quite a wallop.  Too bad this is still your husband's face."

"You know who you're in?", she asked.

"I know, because I know I don't know you.  So I have to be somewhere else."

"Then why don't you leave?"

"Isn't that the real question?  Why?  Isn't that what's really on your mind?"

Linda just stared at Rob.

"I think the real question you should be asking yourself is will it ever end?  Your husband has been gone for a long time now."

"He'll be back."

"Maybe he won't."

"Maybe I'll make you bring him back?"

"Maybe he's dead?"

Linda got right in Rob's face, "Maybe I'll kill you first!"

"That's smart, kill the body of the man you love because of someone else's mind?"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take to get rid of you!"

"No it's not.  You wouldn't even be in here if I weren't handcuffed still.  You're terrified of me.  I've seen it in your eyes.  I scare you to death and you've never felt that way before.  You've had the perfect life with the perfect family up to this point.  This whole thing has destroyed all of that and it scares the life out of you.  But not because you're genuinely afraid, but maybe...just maybe you like it."

Linda got face to face with Rob, "I DO NOT LIKE THIS!  YOU DO NOT KNOW ME!"

"I know people's eyes.  You're lying just like Pat."

Linda couldn't argue with the fact that even she considered Pat a liar, as much as it disgusted her to agree with anything Rob was saying.  But nothing inside of her liked anything about this man.  At least, she thought.  Doubts were starting to creep in now with every utterance of his words.

"Why do you think Pat lies to you?"

Linda stood back up and took a step back, crossing her arms, "He claims he isn't lying."

"But you don't believe him any more than I do, now do you?"

"I believe he knows more than he is telling us, but that's always the case with men like that.  Men like you."

"Men like me?  When have I lied to you?"

"The minute you entered my husband's body."

"I had no control over entering your husband's body."

"Then who does?"

"Ask Pat."

"He plays games."

"So do you!"

"I'm not playing with you!"

"Yes you are.  You are right now.  Deep down, you like me being here and you just won't admit it.  You'd like to know me better because I'm different from your husband.  Because you long for something more than this life.  Because you're bored."

"You think that is what you see in my eyes?"

Rob knodded.

Linda charged at Rob, coming to rest in his lap with her hands firmly planted around his throat.  She had a death grip on his jugular.  She could feel the strain and anguish in Rob's face as he struggled under her grip.  His face was turning redder by the second as the oxygen supply was being cut off.

"You want to play games, then we'll play games!  You know what I see when I look into your eyes?  A scared LITTLE boy!  A weakling that can't fight for himself, so he takes it out on others when they least expect it.  I wanna know why this has happened?  I wanna know why you've taken my husband!  I wanna know why you did that to that girl!  I wanna know why you're here now!  I want you out!  OUT!  OUT!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!"

The light was starting to dim for Rob as Linda had just about choked the life from him.  But before he completely faded away, he spoke one thing that changed Linda's mind.
"I....didn't....kill....her..."

Linda heard this through fading breaths.  With that statement, she released her grip and back out of Rob's lap.  Rob cough incessantly, trying to catch his breath again.  His head drooped as he gasped over and over.

"What did you say?", she asked.

When Rob finally caught enough breath to speak again, he tried to restate his previous statement.

"I...didn't...kill her."

Linda thought some more about this statement.  Is he just lying to me to keep from killing him?  She looked in his eyes and although she didn't like the man, she didn't see anything that told her he was lying about this one.

"I didn't kill that girl."

This time, as he said it, Linda looked directly into his eyes.  He was not lying.  He didn't kill her.

"Did Jay?", Linda had to ask.

"I doubt it, but how do I know what he does when he's here?  The question is, do you think he's capable of that?"

Linda thought for a moment, but replied, "No, I do not."

"Then there's your answer."

"Then who did kill her?"

This question was as equally important to both Rob and Linda.  For Linda it would be vindication of her husband's innocence.  For Rob, it would prove conclusively that he too was not capable of such an act.

"Well, think about that for a minute?  Who's the one person we both know that's lying to both of us?"

"Pat."

"He wouldn't have done it himself, he would have had someone else do it for him.  But it was all for a reason.  He had to have a reason to bring your husband here, just like he brought me here."

"I thought you said you have no control over being here?"

"I don't.  Someone or something keeps forcing my hand.  Until you figure that part out, you'll never have your question as to why this is happening answered.  And if you touch me again, I'll kill you!"

"Feelings mutual."

"Glad we agree on something."

"We agree on two things.  Neither of us trust Pat either."

"So you don't believe I killed that girl?"

"I'll need proof before I believe that one.  But you've given me some direction I needed."

Linda turned to leave the room and headed for the door.

"That's it?  I thought you wanted to know why?"

"I do and now I'm going to find out why.  You just sit tight, sweet pea.  You're about to meet your maker."

As Linda openned the door, Rob hollered at her.

"Did it ever occur to you that if Jay can bring things here, I can take things there too?"

The door was blocking Linda's view of Rob, but she stepped back slowly to visualize him again.  Rob was staring at her as she looked back at him.

"You need to be very weary of how you tread, lady, when it comes to your next action after you leave here.  You have no idea what you're about to mess with.  Of course, that is also a way for me to prove the person I am.  Just be mindful, if you start asking too many questions, you'll get answers you don't really want."

Linda thought about her response for a second, then leaned on the door to ask a legitimate question of Rob.

"Listen, Rob is it?"

Rob knodded.

"If things go bad, can you take me there?"

"Take you...to where I come from?"

Linda knodded.

"You don't wanna go there."

"Is Jay there?"

"Yes, but only when I'm here.  If I went back there, you'd still be with me, not Jay."

"But I could see for myself why you want to be here so badly?"

"Trust me, lady, you don't wanna go there."

"We'll see."

With that final comment, Linda closed the door and left Rob alone again.  Rob sat there thinking to himself once again.

She believes me!  She actually believes me!  At long last, someone believes me.  I have to take her there.  She has to understand what happened, before it's too late.  Maybe she can help me end this horrible dream I'm trapped in too.

Story # 2.8 When they come around...

Larry, Seth, and Mike were lying on beds side-by-side at The Fleece.  However, it wasn't their deceased bodies lying there.  Amazingly, all three men were still very much alive and improving in  their conditions, if you wanted to call it that.

Larry should have died from an intracranial bleed, brought on by Rob, in Jay's body, slamming his head into the wall with great force.  The blow actually sent pieces of Larry's skull into the back of his brain and the brain stem.  He should have died days ago.

Seth's aortic arch had been severed by the bullet that penetrated his chest.  That's instant death in most cases, but somehow he survived long enough to be whisked away by his assailant.

But neither of those compared to Mike.  Mike, literally, had his brains blown out at point blank range.  You can't get more immediate for death than that.  Yet, his vital signs were low, but normal and his wound was healing.  Both were impossible circumstances.

But nothing is impossible at The Fleece.

Pat walked into the recovery room, after having just left his son Rob from their little talk.

"How are our patients coming?", Pat asked.

A man, dressed in regular clothing with no identification on his being, stood over the monitors keeping an eye on the three men.

"They are progressing.  No surprise, the one shot through the head is taking considerably less time to heal than the other two", replied the monitor tech.

Pat smiled and shook his head.

"Amazing!  Brain and cranial matter is so much easier to heal than arterial damage."

"You'd think it would be the other way around though?"

"Yes, that's what our science tells us.  But as you know, things have certainly changed."

The monitor tech paused for a moment and turned towards Pat.  Pat looked back at him, a little stunned by the action.

"You do realize what we can do with this tech, right?", asked the monitor tech of Pat.

Pat simply knodded, giving his patented smile.

"We're looking at the cure for cancer, hepatitis, HIV, AIDS, ebola..."

Pat knodded to all, looking down at the monitors before both men.

"...even death."

"I hardly think we've found the cure for death, don't you?"

"When a man gets shot through the head at point blank range, he's dead.  Yet that man is alive in there."

"He was in stasis, not dead.  His brain activity had yet to cease and body was still warm.  Had he laid there for more than five to ten minutes, then he would have been dead and there would have been nothing we could have done for him.  Besides, you imply that death is a disease that can be cured.  That's just a natural process of life.  All things must end."

"But if we can regenerate tissue?"

"If you had started the regeneration cycle passed the ten minute mark, you would have brought something back far different than the man you shot at point blank range, Steven."

"Is that what happened?"

"What happened...to what exactly?"

"You know what I mean, Pat?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't, Steven.  By implying something happening in past tense, you're suggesting this happened before.  We have no way of knowing what happened before.  It's all just an educated guess."

"But isn't that what this Trent guy was brought in for to begin with?"

"Jay was brought in because he might could set a new precedent.  He's something...unique."

"And by unique, you mean expendable?"

"If it comes to that, yes."

"So who is the guy that's in him now?"

Pat took a deep sigh as he looked back down at the consoles beneath them.  Steven never took his eyes off of Pat, trying to read his reaction.

"That man is an unfortunate case.  He can't be helped."

"Why are you lying to me, Pat?"

Pat looked up at Steven, eye-to-eye, "I'm not lying to you, Steven.  He's a lost cause.  There's nothing we can do for him."

"Nothing?  Is he as lost as these men here?  Because I'll have to tell ya, Pat, you can't get much more lost than these three people lying in this room."

"Those are physical losses.  We can fix the physical.  But we can't fix emotions, mentalities, or time.  That's still out of our bounds."

Steven looked back at the three men lying before them.  Mike's healing was almost complete, while Larry and Seth were nearing completion.

"So what do you want me to tell them when they come around?"

Steven looked back at Pat.

Pat looked at the three men lying there and smiled.  Then he looked at Steven, still smiling.

"Tell them, welcome to The Fleece."

With that, Pat turned back towards the door and exited the room.

The monitor began to beep wildly.  Steven saw this and gave that particular monitor attention.  He pressed a few buttons in sequence.  The sequence manuevered a syringe into position over Mike's chest.  The syringe was then shoved downward, directly into Mike's heart, and injected.

With in a few seconds, Mike's eyes were opened and he was breathing on his own once again.