I stepped closer and placed my hand on the barrier to comfort him. His frustration was evident by his heavy chested breathing. He placed his hand to mine on the barrier and looked into my eyes.
Not knowing how much time we would have together, I tried to tell Mark everything that had happened; the truth about his dad, about our parent’s death, the others, and about ‘Guides’ and ‘Protectors.’ It was a lot of information to take in.
“Plus, I think it’s possible for us to read each other’s minds,” I said, finally winding down from my longwinded speech.
“Why do you think that?” he asked.
“Because your dad was able to read mine, I just don’t know how he did it yet.”
“I think the key is to open our minds…” my voice trailed off as the wall separating us evaporated.
“How did you do that?” Mark asked in amazement.
“I told you, I think that we are all connected through our minds. I haven’t pieced it all together, but I am slowly beginning to figure all kinds of things out.”
I looked at our hands that were now touching.
Our fingers were intertwined and I relished the familiar heat of his touch. I reached up and softly stroked his face as he kissed the middle of my palm. In the next instant I was pulled strongly into his arms. The ache that had followed me into the dream loosened, just by the touch of his embrace. I sighed as he put his hands on my waist and pulled me close for a heartbreaking kiss. I clung to his shoulders, molding my lips firmly to his; I could feel his warmth spreading throughout my body. I moved my hands up to his head greedily taking what he was offering. The ache eased and as I pulled away, I could feel the air feeding my hungry lungs.
His soothing touch gave me instant relief, at least here in the dream.
Mark pulled me down to sit on the sand with him. He tugged on my hand and settled me between his jean clad legs, wrapping his arms around me, pulling me tightly against his hard chest. I rested back against him as he took one of my hands into his.
“I have missed you so much,” he said. “It’s been impossible to control my rage, plus they’ve told me nothing.”
“Well just before I fell asleep, they were discussing your strength increases. It seems the more pain they inflict on me the stronger you become.”
Mark tensed at my words. I forgot I had glossed over the shock treatments on my earlier explanation.
“What do you mean they inflict pain on you?”
“They’ve been shocking me with jolts of electricity, obviously testing to see how far your strength will go. Your dad wants to see how far we can be pushed. He survived your mom’s death and I think that’s his ultimate goal for the other Protectors. His real problem is the fact that the Protector’s life depends on someone he thinks is weak,” I said trying to clarify the source of Russo’s madness.
“I just can’t believe my father is capable of this kind of evil.”
I grabbed his hands and twined my fingers through his. “Neither did the others,” I said.
I kept expecting to be ripped away from him at any moment.
He obviously felt the same, because as the time passed, he wrapped his arms more firmly around me as if anchoring himself to my body. I had a more pressing thought on my mind, but was trying to avoid bringing it up.
“Are going to get out of this alive?” I asked softly.
Mark made no comment at first. I angled my head so I could look up at him to see what he was thinking. He leaned forward and brushed a brief kiss on my lips. “I don’t know,” he said a breath away from me. He leaned down and pressed his lips more urgently to mine.
My heart broke into a million pieces. This could be the last time we would see each other. I felt a hot tear burn its way down my cheek. Mark stroked it away with the pad of his thumb. We did not talk again and when I woke I could still feel the heat of his touch.
I opened my eyes and looked around to find the lab was once again deserted. I scanned the room as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. Sitting up, I expected to be too weak to move, but I felt surprisingly alert. My body still ached, but the feeling of heaviness had receded.
I lay back on the table as I heard someone enter the lab. It obviously wouldn’t be good for me if they found out I had regained some of my strength, another round of torture would be brutal. I couldn’t help wondering though if maybe it was the injection Russo had given me that had me feeling a little stronger.
I remained as still as possible quietly listening to the movements of the person who had entered the lab. I heard the rapping of computer keys and then the shuffle of feet as they moved from one computer to the next. A few moments later I heard the familiar tapping of Amanda’s heels on the polished cement floor. I was worried that Russo would arrive considering he would be able to pick through my mind and know that I wasn’t as weak as I appeared, hopefully he was still away from the lab like I had heard the previous night.
I kept my eyes closed realizing this made my other senses stronger. I could smell the coffee in the machine across the room as it began to drip in the waiting pot below and the overpowering perfume that clung to Amanda in a nauseating way. It wasn’t just my nose that seemed stronger; my ears were picking up many noises around the room, like the impatient tapping of a woman’s fingernails as she waited for the coffee to finish brewing.
Finally, I heard the sound of multiple feet as they entered the room. Amanda passed out daily instructions, which led me to believe that Russo was indeed gone for the day. I kept my eyes firmly closed and willed my body to remain lifeless as someone raised my arm to check my pulse. I remained spaghetti-like allowing my arm to hit the table with a heavy thud when they finished. My cover was nearly blown when a cold metal stethoscope was pressed to my chest causing me to wince slightly. Thankfully the worker was too preoccupied with another conversation to notice. After a few moments the stethoscope was removed and I could feel a blood pressure cup being applied to my upper right arm, with a few pumps the band constricted tightly around my arm. Once completed, I heard the scratch of a pen on paper as the person jotted down my statistics.
“Her stats are still running high, but her body seems to be depleted of all strength. She remained unconscious through the simple exam, I believe she doesn’t have much longer,” the voice said.