“Come on,” Anders said, tugging on my hand. I just stared at him. “Inside,” he offered. I still couldn’t answer, but allowed him to lead me past streaming waterfalls into the darkness of the open archway.
Inside, the cascade house was damp, cool, and extremely dark. Water thundered overhead and added to the fog of tiredness that threatened to envelop me. I spotted a long, low concrete bench and wanted desperately to sit on it. Thankfully, Anders understood and led me to it. I sat down, but jumped back to my feet instantly.
“It’s so cold on my bottom,” I heard myself say in between giggles.
“You won’t be cold for long, I promise,” Anders reassured me. He gently removed his jacket from my shoulders and laid it across the bench for me to sit on. He patted it, and I sat back down. Much better.
The benches were extra wide, almost like stone beds. They reminded me of altars. I thought about Romeo and Juliet, and decided she would have stabbed herself on just such a bench.
Thoughts rushed through my head like the water above me. How odd that I was with a lord, inside a fountain in Scotland after dark. Maybe I should be afraid. Why wasn’t I? Why should I be? Anders was big and strong and handsome.
I imagined being a lady and strolling through gardens like this anytime I wanted. I was starting to see why Elsie would want to marry Anders. It wasn’t a bad life.
I felt my eyes closing, and every time they did, it felt so good, like I’d just taken a little nap. I repeatedly opened and closed them, blinking a little longer each time. Anders mumbled something into my neck, but I couldn’t hear what; I could only feel the warmth and vibration. I did hear myself moan.
Anders put his hand into my hair, and it felt divine. I heard a scratching noise, and couldn’t figure out what it was. A small breeze blew on my back. My dress fell off my shoulders, and I couldn’t figure out why. Anders was tugging at the sleeves near my elbows, but I couldn’t straighten them out to help him. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but I couldn’t stop him either. Everything was so hypnotizing.
I felt another gust of wind, and Anders was ripped out of my embrace. I heard yelling, but it sounded like it was at the end of a tunnel. Another person was with us in the cascade house. Another guy. He was dancing with Anders, or wrestling with him or something. Anders went to sleep on the floor, and the new person came over to me. He pulled my dress sleeves back up to my shoulders. I heard him refastening what I now realized was my zipper. He gathered me up in his arms.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he said. “Anders won’t bother you again.”
I looked into his face and knew I was safe. I settled my head against his chest. “Thank you, Graham,” I whispered before I let my eyelids finally fall closed.
CHAPTER 18
Maren! Maren!”
I opened my eyes. They felt swollen and heavy. I blinked and tried to figure out where I was.
“Yeah?” I croaked. My cheek pressed against something cold and hard. I was sitting on the ground, leaning heavily against the side of a stone bench. A carved gargoyle screamed silently at me, his forked tongue frozen in midair. I tried to move away from it, tried to get up, but found I couldn’t move my body. I saw walls of bushes in all directions and realized I was still in the maze.
“Maren! Listen to me,” Graham said.
I felt like I was at the bottom of a swimming pool. My vision was wavy and my ears were clogged. I heard distorted laughter and the sound of people talking somewhere nearby.
Graham lowered his voice to a whisper. “This is for your own good, but please stay quiet.” He was crouched next to me, waving something thin and shiny. He plunged it into my arm. The impact burned, but I was paralyzed to stop it. When he yanked it back out, I saw it was a syringe. I couldn’t believe it. He was trying to kill me! And after he just saved me from Anders?
I heard him counting: “Thirteen . . . fourteen . . . fifteen . . . sixteen . . .”
Didn’t the nurses on television always count backward when they wanted someone to black out after a shot? Why was he counting at all? Why did he do this to me? Why couldn’t I stop him? I attempted to scream, but nothing came out.
“Fifty-six . . . fifty-seven . . . fifty-eight . . .”
My entire body convulsed as if I’d been hit by lightning. In a single instant, I was able to sit upright, feel everything, and speak.
“WHAT THE WHAT?” I shouted.
“You’re welcome,” Graham replied, yanking me to my feet. I felt like I’d been beaten with a bag of bricks, but at least I could think clearly again. Perfectly clearly.
“What’s going on?” I rubbed the needle mark on my arm. “What did you just do to me?”
“Link arms with me, smile as if everything is fine, keep walking, and I’ll tell you.”
The chattering voices were getting louder. Other people from the party had discovered the maze and were exploring it. I reluctantly grabbed Graham’s elbow and let him lead me down the path. We turned a corner and saw the group: three boys and two girls I didn’t recognize. “Hey, Graham!” they said.
He nodded brusquely at them—as if I was his girlfriend and they shouldn’t interrupt us, I thought—and steered me past them. As soon as they were out of sight, I jerked away from him.
“Explain,” I demanded, pointing to the now-purple hole in my elbow. “What did you poison me with?”
“I didn’t poison you. I un-poisoned you, actually.”
“You shot ‘un-poison’ into me?” I wasn’t buying it.
“I injected you with flumazenil. Now, let’s keep walking.”
I wanted answers, but I also didn’t want to be lost in the maze anymore, and Graham knew the way out.
“What’s that? A flu shot?” I asked, as we started back along the path.
“No, it’s to counteract the Rohypnol,” he replied. I stared at him blankly. “The date rape drug . . .” he explained.
I froze. “The what?”
“The date rape drug. Someone must have slipped it into your drink.”
“But I wasn’t drinking! I didn’t have any alcohol. I only had soda.”
“It doesn’t matter. A tiny pinch of Rohypnol will work in anything, even water. It’s colorless, tasteless, and odorless, so you’d have no way of knowing.”
“How did you know, then?” I asked.
“I didn’t. I was only guessing. When I saw you on the patio with Anders, I knew you were either extremely drunk or had been drugged. In either case, I wanted to make sure you were safe, so I followed you. When I got to the cascade house, I intervened because you were obviously not coherent, and I didn’t want you doing anything you’d regret.”
He started walking again, and I followed, grateful for the sudden motion. Graham stumbling upon Anders removing my dress was mortifying. I looked down at the path.
“Thank you,” I said.
“No need to thank me,” he replied. “I’m appalled that my cousin would try and take advantage of someone . . . especially you.” Now he sounded embarrassed.