Chapter 143: Cydia and Shaylee
I felt Mrs. Hammond drift off. Just as well. She didn't need to hear me reinforcing what she thought was her daughter's psychosis.
"They don't believe me." Pain's face was makeup free, looking so odd and yet so familiar. I'd noticed it before, but had never been able to figure out who she reminded me of. No time for that now, either. "I shouldn't be surprised, should I? They never believe." She sighed so deeply she seemed to collapse in on herself, chest caving as her chin dropped.
Clearly they had drugged her.
"It's okay, Pain," I said. "I do."
She smiled, an innocent, lovely expression. "I know." Trouble passed across her face like a cloud. "Can you tell them? So they will let me out?"
Could she make me feel even worse? "I can't," I said. "I'm not allowed. Not yet. But soon, I promise. Honest."
Her head bobbed a loose nod. "I know you will." She turned a little toward me, her hospital gown twisting around her thighs to an almost obscene height. I reached down and adjusted it for her, wondering why her mother hadn't brought her clothes from home then figuring it wasn't allowed. Mrs. Hammond didn't seem like the type to deny her daughter anything.
"Syd," Pain said. "There's more. About the dream."
I nodded. "I know. Pain, tell me what you remember."
Her lower lip trembled slightly, eyes drifting from me, gaping wide, mind lost. "I hate you," she said.
That declaration startled me. "What did you say?"
It was only then I realized we weren't alone. Not anymore. The brightness of the sun, the glare from the glass, disguised the spirit now floating above my friend. I looked up at her, watched as she floated, descending into Pain's body. There was nothing I could do but watch, shake and pray as Pain convulsed gently before settling. When she looked at me again, there was a new awareness in her, a consciousness I knew.
"Cydia."
"Shaylee." The image of the spirit flickered around Pain before stilling again. "Here we are again, dear sister."
"Leave her alone." I felt something inside me swell with impotent anger, smothered by the spell wrapped around my mind.
She laughed softly, a seductive and dangerous sound. "Why should I? This is the perfect vessel for my final vengeance."
"For what?" Here then was the answer I needed. The reason for the dreams. "What is this about?"
She glared at me as if unbelieving then laughed again, clearly enjoying my need and confusion. "You don't remember yet. But you will. When the time comes and we are together, you will know. And I will destroy you once and for all."
So much hate. I pulled back from her, trying to escape it, feeling weak and powerless in her presence, as if the dream girl whose life I lived had leached into me. Cydia's spirit jerked me closer again.
"Wait for me, dear sister," she hissed. "I'd hate to miss a moment of it."
"Let her go." I shoved my transplanted fear aside, struggling to reassert my own personality. "She's not part of this."
"She is blocked and open," Cydia said, "and perfect for my purposes. I will see you soon, dear sister."
The spirit rose from Pain, her laughter echoing eerie as she floated into the light of the sun and vanished. I turned to my friend to see her collapsing slowly into the chair, sliding down further on the plastic. Her pale skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, bangs plastered to her forehead.
"Syd," she whispered. "I'm scared."
I'm not sure what comfort I could have offered her, seeing as I had none even for myself. But a smiling nurse didn't give me the chance to think of something.
"Time to go." She held out one hand. Pain automatically took it, letting the woman help her to her feet. I scowled at the petite nurse in her cheery teddy bear scrubs, knowing it wasn't her fault but feeling so powerless it made me angry.
I stood there in the heat and light as Pain shuffled away. As she passed through the doors and into the ward, she looked back over her shoulder at me.
Mrs. Hammond hugged me with one arm as the heavy steel door closed on Pain.
"She'll be fine," she said with fake brightness. "She always is."
As much as I wanted to believe her, I knew way more than she did.
I so wished I didn't.
***
