“Ouch. Rough, Caleb!”
“Sorry.”
“No, that’s alright. I told you before I want you to speak your mind.”
Caleb said nothing.
“Spending the night with Ellie yesterday gave me a better understanding of how Baal operates. I wasn’t entirely sure until this morning after meeting with Agent Bradford.”
“You mean the report? Did he send it already?” he asked.
“He didn’t have to. While the two of you were arguing I took a moment to scan his mind for what he knew about Roger Wheeley. It was all I needed.”
It was Caleb’s turn to shake his head. Had he, in his ignorance, gone along with plans he didn’t even know existed? Or was it just a coincidence?
Again Agent Bradford’s words haunted Caleb and though he tried to check himself, he couldn’t help but be afraid of his client then. Coincidences probably didn’t exist when dealing with Jane Elring.
Jane said nothing but Caleb saw a shift in her eyes. Was she saddened by his paranoia, or just upset that she’d been caught?
Jane continued. “So what Baal does is it takes your deepest feelings of guilt and force-feeds them to you over and over again. It distorts your mind, showing you what you fear in the most horrible ways.
“Ethan Walker saw a zombified friend, Billy, eat his face and bite through his skull. Billy was the naïve boy that followed him around when he lived on the streets, getting in trouble with him. During a burglary gone wrong Billy got shot. There was guilt in Ethan’s mind that he couldn’t let go of and Baal exploited it.
“Ellie was the victim of child abuse and was told repeatedly that it was all her own fault. Her abuser, Roger Wheeley, got killed by Ellie’s mother. I’m not exactly sure what happened after that because Ellie’s mind was a mess last night, but I think she blames herself for that too.”
Caleb listened quietly to what Jane told him. He too had been attacked by this entity and he could relate to the pattern his client laid out.
He whispered, “John C. Reilly….”
“Right. Your personal demon. Caleb… you need to start talking about him. I can help you.”
Jane’s words brought Caleb to his next issue. She had said that there would come a time when she would need him. She had a plan for him and Caleb was beginning to think that it was somehow violent. Why else take him on as a bodyguard?
He asked, “You want to help me because you need me. Is that correct?”
“I do need you. Or I will, pretty soon now. I do need you sharp for that, I won’t lie.”
“You’ve been inside my head for days now. You’ve even whispered things to me when your voice gave out. I’ve been good about all of this, even though this stuff has been scaring the shit out of me.”
Jane agreed. “You have.”
“I want to know now. What do you want from me? What do you have planned for me?”
Caleb found Jane’s dark gaze and locked eyes with her. They sat silently for a little while as they looked into each other’s souls. Of course, only Jane could hear what was being said underneath the silence.
“I want to escape, Caleb. I need to get out because one of these days I’m going to fuck up and they’re going to kill me. They’re going to push that damn button and they’ll take my brain and they’ll throw my body in the trash.
“I need to escape, because I can’t live like this. I don’t want to be a tool for the rest of my life. Always afraid and always exhausted. I want more for myself.”
Caleb saw tears welling up in the young woman’s tired eyes and realized that he couldn’t know if they were genuine. It didn’t matter to him. He understood what she wanted for herself and could sympathize with that. To exist in a state without freedom or relief was torture, and no person deserved that.
Was she dangerous? Yes, Caleb believed that she could be very dangerous. As Agent Bradford had said, her mere existence was a threat to national security.
She had been inside his head and he had heard her whisper things to him. The power that suggested that was truly terrifying. What if she ever whispered the wrong things? What if she ever started screaming? What could she make people do if she really set her mind to it?
Was it about trust, then? Did Caleb believe that this young woman in front of him, beautiful and innocent with her childlike face, would never use her powers for evil? Was she a good girl?
No, Caleb didn’t believe that. He knew people were shitty, even the pretty ones.
So why, he wondered, was he so inclined to go along with her? It had first happened to him when he saw her in front of the giant oak. Her eyes had been shut and her face had been tense. Her small shoulders had trembled underneath the weight of her reality and she had collapsed. He had caught her and carried her away from the evil field.
Caleb knew he wanted to protect her. To help her. He couldn’t understand why. Perhaps, he thought, he was already under her spell.
Or was it what he had seen her do? Had she not insisted on seeing Ethan Walker off to the other side with tears in her eyes? Had she not spent the night fighting off the demons inside Ellie Aulding’s head, choking on her own blood in the aftermath?
Again he looked into her tired, dark eyes. He didn’t see evil or danger then. He saw a young woman who had been dealt a really shitty hand by powers that didn’t mind playing with lives. Powers that could genuinely be considered evil. Horrible and vicious bullies that cared about nothing but advancing their own egos.
Caleb would save her from that. He wouldn’t let the bullies win. Not this time. He promised himself that he would help her and, with that, he made the promise to Jane too.
“You rest now. When you wake up, you will tell me the plan,” he said.
Jane didn’t say a word. She simply wiped the tears from her cheeks and lay down on the bed.
Together they spent the next few hours in the hotel room. To Caleb’s ears everything was quiet.
Jane closed her teary eyes. She was so tired and felt intimidated by all the things she knew still had to be done.
Jane was touched by Caleb’s conviction even if, in the end, she realized it didn’t have that much to do with her. Unconsciously Caleb was trying to overcome his own trauma and realized he could use her for it. It benefited Jane, however, and she would help him heal from the emotional injuries he sustained in Iraq. She owed him that much, at least.
The next few days would be crucial and required no small degree of prep time. Her mind had to be focused to the extreme.
First was Ellie, the young girl that she knew she could help. She couldn’t beat the demon that was currently feeding on Ellie, but she could take away the substance it fed on. Later today she would help release the poor girl from her guilt, leaving nothing for Baal to cling to.
Then came Arthur. She had seen things in his mind that he had repressed for years and she knew that they were vital. Jane hoped that she could help the old man too. At any rate, he needed to become her friend because she needed his maze of a mansion. Helping Ellie heal was going to put her in his good graces.
As soon as she antagonized Agent Bradford an elite group would come to the special agent’s aid. They’d get her too and there was nothing she could do about that. But if you had a place like the Toaves mansion… a place where Caleb could memorize all the little rooms and corridors… well, a retired black ops soldier might just be able to pick off the members of that elite group one by one.
It was her only chance. This was it and she couldn’t squander it.
With that, Jane forced herself to fall asleep. There were things she had to prepare in her mental house, too.