We push the beds to the very back of the lab, as far from the bodies as possible. The area around the bodies feels . . . crowded, I guess, and the smell isn’t exactly pleasant. Jaden seems more at peace when we move away, too. I don’t blame him. Can’t exactly be comforting staring at your own dead body.
This side of the room is almost blindingly white . . . the walls, the cots, the floor. The only splash of color is a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall, but that brings to mind the red of the blood on the white tile beneath the chairs.
I hunt for a switch to dim the lights. Once we have everything set up for the night, Deo tosses me a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a familiar-looking brown prescription bottle.
“Oh. Good.”
He gives me a questioning look, probably because I sound less than enthusiastic. He knows as well as I do what kind of hell tonight would most likely be without the meds. But I can’t explain why it worries me that they were in the bag. And maybe it’s a different bottle of pills. Or maybe there were no new messages inside the fridge when Timmons or whichever Fudd they sent retrieved them. Maybe.
We eat in silence for a few minutes. I debate whether to take the pills, since I have no idea how long it will be before Cregg or Lucas pops in again. But I’m already exhausted. If I don’t get sleep, I’ll be worthless.
I go to the small fridge along the back wall and grab a bottle of water to wash down the pills, taking a moment to snoop. In addition to the water, there’s a container of black cherry yogurt with the name Megan written in black marker on the side. It expired six months ago.
Near the back is a small white plastic case with maybe twenty smaller sections. About half contain tiny glass vials, like the ones nurses use for immunizations. Acting on instinct, I snatch one and slip it into my bra. It will be less conspicuous there than in my pocket.
The vial is icy against my skin. What made me grab it? It’s probably a flu vaccine, or someone’s insulin. I’d blame the theft on remnants of Bruno’s kleptomania or Arlene’s hypochondria—she was a world-class hoarder of pharmaceuticals and wasn’t above “borrowing” a few pills from the medicine cabinets of friends and family without asking permission. But even Arlene would have shied away from something that required a needle. And there’s a part of me that’s hoping maybe whatever’s in this vial is something more.
“That Jaden guy’s still in there, right?”
“Yeah. Cregg said he’s not done with him.”
“I know. That seemed weird to me. I mean, it was pretty obvious he believed you’d picked up the guy’s ghost. What’s he going to do? Run those . . . what do they call them? Those brain scans?”
“EEGs? No—at least I’m pretty sure that’s not it. He wants to see if I’ll start having the kind of visions that Jaden did.”
He curses and wads up his sandwich wrapper. “That’s the last thing you need. You’re still processing Molly, right?”
“Yeah, but I think I’m through the worst of it. A few more nights, maybe.”
That’s probably wishful thinking. I keep stopping before Molly dies, sometimes going back a bit, even as far as to what happened in the van. There’s no need to worry Deo with that, however. Hopefully, the pills will do their job and I won’t even wake him.
That starts me thinking about Aaron and the night at the beach house. I’m glad beyond belief to have Deo here and safe, at least for the moment. And I’m glad he’ll be here tonight, in case I do wake up, to help talk me out of the dream and into reality. As comforting as Deo’s presence may be, though, it’s not the same sense of safety that I felt waking up with Aaron’s arms around me. It was only a few minutes, but it was really nice while it lasted.
I push thoughts of Aaron aside and scoot my cot closer to Deo’s. “I’ll get you out of this, D. I promise. You’ll be back—”
He rolls up his sleeve and I see a round Band-Aid on his bicep.
“What’s that?” I have to ask, even though my stomach is sinking and I have no doubt at all what it is. Maybe that’s what made me grab the vial from the fridge. Some inchoate sixth sense telling me that we might need a sample?
“They didn’t give me an information pamphlet when they stuck the needle in. But I seriously doubt it was a tetanus shot. It’s probably whatever they gave Dacia and the other girls.”
I can tell from Deo’s expression that he suspects this isn’t a good thing. And that’s without knowing everything that Aaron and I read about the Delphi Project. Without knowing the side effects that hit so many of the test subjects.
“But you heard Cregg. He said if I do what they ask, he’ll let you go.”
“He’s not going to let me go, Anna. I don’t know if they injected me so that they’d have more leverage over you, or if I’m part of a control group. But . . . when Cregg comes back in, tell him you’ve changed your mind. That you want me to stay here with you. Because no matter what he promises, the only other option is that I end up like those three.”
He nods toward the bodies on the other side of the room.
It’s the same thought that I had earlier. And as much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m pretty sure he’s right.