The Truth

'What do you know?' Ross asked eventually. I turned away from the fire, the afternoon was growing late and the fire cast a warm light across the room.

I shrugged. 'I know the clinic is a front for the development of something that is meant to the increase powers of the already gifted. That they are also experimenting on humans. I know the Seekers of Emancipation is a cult designed to supply those willing humans to the clinic to be experimented on. I know most of these humans and supernaturals do not survive the experimentation. They die or are confined in the cells beneath the clinic. I know the clinic believes I can help to perfect the serum.' I paused. 'And I have also met some people who have truly benefited from the clinic's help.'

'Clair and Lewis,' Ross said.

'Yes, Clair and Lewis are the two I know of.'

'There have been others,' Ross said.

My heart lightened a little. I hadn't realized how much I was worried about them. 'So there is a halfway house they will be going to?'

'No. There is no house. As soon as they gain full control they will be subjected to the same treatments you have been having to find out what it would take to break them again.'

I stared at him. 'They'll kill them?'

'Eventually.'

'And you knew this and did nothing?'

'They were no threat to the CSC.'

'Sorry?'

'The clinic would not have found the answers they needed from Clair and Lewis.'

I thought I had missed something. 'Wait, you mean you would only help people escape if there was a danger they could help the clinic solve their problem.'

'You are the only person I have ever helped to escape.'

'And the others?'

His face remained impassive but something flitted across his eyes. 'I did what I had to do for the sake of the supernatural community.

'You... you killed them?'

'Or I allowed the clinic to kill them.'

My stomach turned over. 'And me?' The words forced themselves out of my mouth.

He stared into the fire. 'I was ordered to kill you to stop the clinic from getting the solution.'

I could hardly breathe. 'But?'

He looked back at me and those pale eyes bore into mine. 'You never accepted the lies the clinic fed you. Not fully. You questioned, sought out the truth, and stayed only because you were threatened. I couldn't help any of the others. They wouldn't have thanked me for taking them away, they had been promised too much. By the time they realized their mistake, if they ever did, I could no longer safely release them. At least not into the world.

The meaning of his words sunk in. 'So you killed them.'

'I released them from a hell you could not begin to imagine.'

I stared at him trying to take in what he was saying. He watched those people get well and then be tortured into madness and did nothing until it was too late to help save them. How could I have been so wrong about him?

'You killed them,' I repeated.

'I did what I thought was right. You wanted the truth? Well, this is the truth.'

'Yet you saved me. Despite the CSC ordering you to kill me. I don't suppose they are very happy with you.' I had to force the words out.

'No, they aren't.'

'They still want you to kill me?'

'They have sent me here to kill you tonight.'

I felt the blood drain from my face. Was that why Brent kept Marcy in the kitchen, so they wouldn't have to witness my murder?

Ross' nostrils flared and his eyes dilated. 'But that is not why I am here,' he said as if sensing my terror. 'I am not going to kill you, Grace. Believe me.'

My heart pounded painfully, 'Give me a reason to do that.'

'I can't. All I can say is that I am a creature of instinct and my instincts are screaming at me to keep you alive.'

Almost without thought, I felt for the truth in his words. My heightened senses made it easy to tap into my newly discovered ability. I looked at his words and into his eyes and I knew, without any doubt, that he was telling the truth. He did not intend to kill me. There was more, much more, but it was hidden deep and I had no idea what it was. All I could be sure of was that he was telling the truth, he did not intend to kill me. Tonight.

I nodded and forcing my voice to remain steady asked, 'What else have you learned?'

He searched my face and seemed to be reassured by what he saw. 'The clinic has contacted the CSC with an offer. They want you back, Grace. Very badly.'

I shrugged, it came as no surprise.

'Within the last two days, they have kidnapped two members of our community and made the CSC aware they are willing to exchange them for you.'

'Who are they?'

'One is the chairman of the CSC, Geoff Dorling.'

'So, someone the CSC will want back?'

'Yes, very much.'

'Yet they've still told you to...kill me rather than make the exchange?'

'Stopping the creation of this serum is more important than anything or any one person.'

I nodded but I was still trying to understand the dynamics of the situation. There was a pause.

'And as I have promised to tell you everything that concerns you I think I should tell you that I know, Meredith.'

My head snapped up. 'You know, Meredith?'

'She came to me a few months ago digging for information for an article she was writing for her magazine. I don't know where she got my name but she was playing with fire by contacting members of the supernatural community without a sponsor.'

'I don't understand.'

'The supernatural community is a hidden society and anyone that threatens that secrecy would be in danger. The only way she would have been safe is if someone from the community vouched for her. When I heard she was unsponsored I warned her to stop digging.'

'You threatened her?'

'No, I told her the risks.'

'After that, she approached Meridian Clinic. Jeremy put me forward as the clinic's spokesperson. She interviewed me but she went away disappointed. The next time I heard of her a... friend, told me she was being held by a coven of vampires.'

'Vampires?'

'The only way I could get her out was to tell them I was her sponsor and would vouch for the fact she would not publish anything she had learned.'

I thought of the light in Meredith's eyes when she spoke of writing her big story. I knew she would go to just about any lengths to get it. 'That story was to be her big break, she wouldn't have agreed to that.'

'At the time she would have promised anything.'

'But she didn't keep her promise?'

'When I heard stories of her disappearance I assumed she hadn't and that the vampires had reclaimed her. It would have been their right.'

'But you don't think that anymore?'

'No. It seems Meredith found another way to free herself of the need of a sponsor. She planned to become a supernatural.'

My stomach flipped. 'Oh my god.' I stood and strode over to the darkening window, across to the door, and back to the chair. 'She joined the Seekers of Emancipation?'

'She must have heard about them while she was poking about looking for information. It would seem a logical step to her I suppose. It would rid her of me and her promise if she were a part of the supernatural community herself.'

'And the clinic took her willingly I suppose.'

'From what I have learned it seems they were suspicious of her at first. It wouldn't have stopped them from using her though. They were hungry for all volunteers, but Meredith could not have known that, because in order to convince them to take her she offered them you.'

It was like a punch in the stomach. 'She sold me?'

Ross looked away.

'She bartered me for some ridiculous promise of powers?' My heart ached for the friendship we had known and for the betrayal by my only friend. 'They killed her.'

Ross shook his head. 'No, not yet. She's still at the clinic. The clinic has told the CSC that in addition to freeing the two captives if you are returned, they will keep Meredith alive and when the tests are complete they will free both you and her.'

He watched me and I could feel his anxiety as I stalked to and fro across the room.

'They won't free us. They'll kill us.'

He nodded and some of the tension eased from his face.

'What about the others?'

'The community can't help them. Everyone knows the price we have to pay to stay in the shadows and relative safety.'

'You would let them die? The clinic will kill them, eventually. I doubt if they will forgo the opportunity of experimenting on them first.'

Pain and something much darker flashed across his face and was gone. 'You can't go back.'

'You got me out once. You can do it again.'

'No, I can't. I don't work at the clinic anymore, remember? I can't help get you out this time.'

'And I can't sit here and do nothing.'

'Don't you understand? The CSC is willing to kill you to prevent you from going back while the clinic is willing to kill to get you back. Either way, you have to stay hidden until we sort this out.'

'And the captives? Meredith?'

Ross rose and went to the door then he turned and shrugged. 'We can't help them.'

I stared at the door as he closed it quietly behind him. It was a long time before Marcy joined me. I heard her show Brent from the house then she lit the lamps and settled down into a chair. The logs she piled onto the fire crackled and spat fat gold sparks. I slipped into the other chair. The grandfather clock in the corner ticked and we sat. In silence. But my mind was shrieking at me as it flit from one horrific fact to the other. Ross was a murderer. Meredith had betrayed me and now she was being experimented upon. The clinic will do anything to get me back. People had been kidnapped because of me. The clinic was actively creating monsters out of misguided innocents. The CSC wanted me dead. Ross had been ordered to murder me. He had refused to kill me while at the clinic only because I had continually asked him to show me the way out. What if I hadn't been determined to annoy him. It had become almost a game. A dangerous game to be sure, rather like poking a dragon with a stick. Dangerous but worth it to see what would happen. I did it out of frustration most of the time. I did it to see his reaction with little hope, after those first few times, that he would ever really help me escape. What if I had stayed quiet, kept my head down, and hoped what the clinic was doing would soon be over and I would be free to get on with life. Would he have killed me?

'You know?' I asked Marcy.

'Most of it.'

'He wants me to let the clinic kill them.'

'They won't be the first to die and they will not be the last unless the clinic is destroyed for good.'

'I know these people, Marcy. Clair and Lewis are just as lost and confused as the rest of us. They think they are going to get a new life together. And Meredith, she was, is, a friend. I have known her since childhood. I know what he wants. He wants me to leave them there. Let the clinic kill them. But how can I.'

Marcy's voice was low, 'What are your options?'

'Perhaps if I go back. Then at least we will have a chance of getting them out.'

'You think? And what about getting you out?'

'They've said they'll release the two prisoners and keep Meredith alive at least for a while. It should give us some time to warn Clair and Lewis and figure out how to get me and Meredith out.'

'You won't have Ross there to help you.'

'Ross has had made it very clear he's happy to watch them all die.'

There was a long silence as Marcy picked up her crocheting and plied her hook. 'Did Ross tell you who the Clinic had snatched?'

'Yes, he said it was the Chairman of the CSC. Somebody, Dorling, or something.'

'And the other one?'

I thought back, 'No, I don't think he mentioned who the other one was.'

'No, I thought not.' She turned her work preparing to begin a new row. 'It's someone he cares about very deeply, as a matter of fact. A member of his immediate family. A young girl just coming into her powers. The youngest member of the same family he has sent to guard your Penningtons. The family who went willingly, happy to leave their young member in his care. So before you judge him too harshly think on that.