Five… four… three… two… one…. Goodnight….
When she opened her eyes she found herself in the darkness of her own mind. The house was pleasantly cool and its shadowy corners greeted her kindly. The shadows, Jane knew, hid familiarities that were uncomfortable to her.
Jane called out, “Girls! Where you are you? Can you come over for a minute?”
It only took a few seconds before playful giggles echoed through the house. The girls drew toward her from all corridors and encircled her.
Jane took out her flashlight and looked at the seven girls one by one. She had long since forgotten how to see the cancerous lumps that tore at their skin, stretching out their faces into ghastly caricatures of what little girls were supposed to look like.
“I need you girls to come with me,” she said patiently. “And I need you to pay very close attention.”
Jane walked to the front door and stepped out into the absolute blackness that surrounded her mental house. The girls tiptoed along behind her, hurrying to support each other so none would tumble over. The blackness scared them because they knew that they could get lost there and never find their way back.
Jane walked over to the spot where Baal had stood on the night that they met. She had looked at him from the window and promised him that it would all end before the month was up. He had answered her oath with a mocking smile that was stunning in its beauty.
“You girls get behind me now, please.”
The girls all held hands as they walked behind Jane’s back. Some of them crawled up against her legs, clinging to her pants or standing slightly on her bare feet.
Jane took a deep breath and raised her hands into the air. She closed her eyes and forced her mind to stretch in new ways. Forced it to grow with nothing more than her very own willpower. She had to develop; she had to become more than she was. She needed the size; she needed the room. Her mind had to extend itself.
The mental house groaned and squealed underneath the pressure tearing it apart. It had to adapt, evolve, or it would get destroyed. The walls broke open and the insides of the house began to expand, reaching farther and farther into the darkness that had previously been left untouched.
Jane panted as she watched her mind grow, ever bigger and ever stronger. It had to be the strongest it had ever been because everything depended on this. If she failed now, she would die. None of her plans would matter and she would lose herself to the void she had seen through Baal’s blue door. That horrible place where Ethan Walker had been consumed and lost his identity.
When her house had grown large enough, Jane forced new walls around it and, with a loud rumble, closed them up.
One of the girls exclaimed, “House so big now!”
Another asked, “Why… new… room?”
The girl had seen correctly, Jane thought. She had added an enormous room to her mental house. One that she hoped would be big enough.
She knelt down next to the girls and together they huddled up in a warm embrace.
“Listen very carefully now. We will have a guest soon. He is very beautiful but he is very dangerous.”
One of the girls asked, “Mean man?”
“Like doctor,” another girl said with a small, sad voice.
Jane said, “Much worse than Dr. Greer. Listen! Listen very carefully! When he comes, you have to stay away. Stay out of his way and let me handle it. Don’t talk to him, don’t play with him! Do you understand?”
The girls all nodded.
Satisfied, Jane stood up and took another look at the new room she had just built. Her head felt a little funny, now that her mind had expanded in this unusual way.
The room would be big enough, she assured herself. It had to be.
Arthur sat in his uncomfortable plastic chair, looking down at Ellie. He knew he had other obligations and responsibilities but he just couldn’t pull himself away from her.
Ever since the early morning, slightly after Jane Elring’s departure, the girl had been struggling against the straps holding her down. It had lasted for several hours until Arthur couldn’t look at it anymore and asked Dr. Stewart for help.
Now, drugged with an even heavier sedation, only the girl’s pale blue eyes continued to scream. Her body was perfectly still and no longer had the strength to struggle. It was Ethan Walker all over again.
The door opened and the young investigator and her bodyguard stepped inside.
“Hello, Mr. Toaves,” Jane said as she raised her hand. “How is the patient?”
Arthur was about to respond when he noticed Ellie’s eyes had changed. She seemed calmer somehow and, for the first time since the early morning, she dared to close her eyes for more than a second.
“She has been struggling. I asked Dr. Stewart to give her more medication. To calm her, I mean,” he replied.
Jane nodded and took the chair she had sat on earlier that morning. She pulled it closer to the bed before sitting down. Then she looked at Caleb and pointed to the chair slightly behind her.
“Come on, Caleb. Sit down,” she instructed.
Arthur watched as the bodyguard obeyed silently before returning his attention to Jane Elring. The old man said nothing as her gaze studied his tired face.
“You look exhausted, Mr. Toaves.”
“I am indeed quite tired. It’s been a long night and an even longer morning.”
Arthur saw how Jane shifted her attention toward the young girl. Her dark eyes lingered over Ellie’s face rather than his own. Somehow not being watched by her anymore felt like a relief. Her eyes had been strangely demanding.
It seemed now as if the young investigator was going through things inside her head that others could not possibly be privy to. Checking everything one more time, dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s. Looking for that one thing she had forgotten. That one thing that could ruin everything.
Then Jane looked up at him again with her piercing stare and spoke words Arthur never could have expected from her.
“Are you ready to help save Ellie, Mr. Toaves?”
He was a tired old man. Arthur knew he probably looked like it too. Yet she took no pity on him. Jane Elring wanted something from him and wasted no more time.
Arthur was an experienced man of business and knew a negotiation when he saw one. A deal about to be made. A transaction about to occur.
Yet he was left completely in the dark as to what this young woman desired from him. What those dark eyes demanded, even if the stare softened somewhat because it came from a childlike face.
“Mr. Toaves? I’m going to save Ellie now but I could really use your help,” she repeated.
Arthur shook his head. He didn’t—couldn’t—understand what she was talking about.
“You’re not a doctor,” he said. “How can you help Ellie?”
He watched as Jane Elring leaned forward. She never took her dark gaze away from his face. That terrible gaze that now felt threatening. Coming from those eyes that he wanted to deny, but couldn’t.
“Ellie’s sickness isn’t of the body; it is of the soul. I can help her. I will help her. Will you assist me?”
Arthur took a deep breath as he looked at the young girl on the hospital bed. He didn’t understand why, but Ellie looked peaceful now with her eyes closed. She had finally found sleep through the invisible terror that tormented her. Arthur wanted very much for this peace to last. To grant the young girl the relief that he knew she deserved.
“What can I do to help then? Do you need resources? I can provide—”
Jane raised her hand.
“I don’t need resources. I only need your commitment. Do you want to help Ellie?”
“Of course!”
“Do you want her to be better? To be safe, to be healthy?”