Chapter 35
“CASSIDY FINDLEY! DO NOT LET HIM CONVINCE YOU EVERYTHING IS FINE! IT IS NOT!!!”
Lucy’s words brought the wall I’d built around my mind crashing down. How had I just sat there and let Dr. Elliott Sanderson convince me that everything was just hunky dory when Drew was dead, Cadence was weird, creatures were crawling in and out of her window, leaping form the second story at all times of night, and something was up with Jack? I slipped my phone into my pocket and shook my head violently to clear it. “NO!” I shouted.
Dr. Sanderson was standing next to the coffee table. He turned and looked at me as if I was the one who had suddenly turned into a monster. “Beg your pardon?” he asked, his eyes wide.
I grabbed my head between my hands. Before I could say anything else, my mom came rushing in from the kitchen. “Cassidy, are you all right?”
“She’s fine,” Elliott assured her. “I think she just got a text message about something at school that upset her.”
I glanced up at him, wondering at first if that’s what he really thought, but I could see a flicker in his eyes that let me know to go along with it.
My mother said, “Oh, Cassidy is fine. She just got a text message about something at school that upset her,” and spun on her heels and walked out of the room.
Alarmed, I stood, turning to look at her, and then back at the doctor. “So… that works on my mom, too?”
“Why didn’t it work on you?” he asked, and I could see that he was concerned, like he thought I’d broken his secret superpower or something.
I had no idea whether or not I could trust this man. I’d just met him less than a week ago. He had already lied to me more times than I could count, and I’d just seen him brainwash my mom. “Will you please be honest with me?” I asked, avoiding eye contact.
Elliott cleared his throat. He sat back down, this time in my mom’s recliner, a few feet away from the couch. He seemed to mull a few things over before he said, “I’ll be as honest as I can, Cassidy, but there are some things I’m not at liberty to divulge.”
Whether or not that would be good enough remained to be seen. I moved to the far end of the sofa, closer to him, and sank down. “What is going on?” I asked, my voice just above a whisper. “Where is my sister—what is my sister—and what happened to Drew?”
He licked his lips and then bit down on the bottom one, like he was thinking, trying to weigh his answer. His eyes darted back and forth for a few seconds, and I almost thought he was having an internal conversation, debating what he could tell me, with himself. “Cassidy, I really can’t answer any of those questions,” he finally said. I let out a loud sigh of frustration. “But I can tell you everything is going to be fine. That’s not bull this time. It’s a fact. Your sister will probably only be working with us for a few weeks, and then, hopefully, she’ll go back to school, and life will be back to normal for you and your family.”
I really wanted to believe him, but it was hard when I couldn’t trust a word he said. “Can I record this conversation so I can reference it later?”
He laughed at me. “Uh, no. Why would you need to do that?”
“Because you keep lying to me!” I proclaimed, frustrated. I shouldn’t have asked. I should’ve come into the room with my phone set to record.
“Cass, I’m not lying to you, I promise. I have been saying a few things to reassure you that everything’s going to turn out okay. But, for the most part, it’s not been lies.”
“So, Drew really fell rock climbing and cut her throat?” I folded my arms and tipped my head in such a way to get my point across.
“Some of what I’ve told you may be… embellished a bit.”
I pursed my lips at him. “And you can’t tell me what really happened to her.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He let out a deep breath and ran his hands through that unruly hair, leaving several curls standing up on end. He didn’t seem to mind. “Because my boss won’t let me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Aaron?”
He nodded. “And your parents. They don’t want you to worry about any of this either.”
“Why don’t you just convince them that they do?”
He laughed again. It was a deep chuckle and it set me at ease, even though I didn’t want it to. I needed to stay on guard with this guy. “It’s not that simple. I could convince them, but it wouldn’t be right.” He reached out with his lengthy arm and plucked the water bottle off of the coffee table. Opening it, he took a long drink while I contemplated that response.
“So, you only convince people of things when you think it’s right?”
“Or when I’m ordered to, yeah,” he confirmed, replacing the lid.
“You just do everything Aaron tells you to do?” I knew his name came out of my mouth like it was poison on my tongue, and I silently wondered when I had become so hostile to the man I’d only met once.
“Well, that’s kinda what being someone’s boss means,” he shrugged.
“Do you like him? Is he your friend?” I needed to know if every single word of what I was saying here would get back to the guy who kept sneaking into my sister’s room.
“Of course,” Elliott shrugged again. “Why wouldn’t I?”
I was frustrated and I huffed, my arms still folded. “You going to tell him everything I’ve said to you?”
He weighed his options. “No, I don’t need to tell him anything about what we’ve talked about so far.”
I was skeptical. “You’re not going to tell him that my brainwashing session didn’t work?”
“Now, why would I go tell my boss that I failed?” He chuckled again. “Besides, I could make it work if I wanted to, Cassidy.”
Feeling bold, I began to speak, not considering the consequences. “No, you can’t. I have my ways of remembering. You could try, but I’d remember the things I’ve seen again. Eventually.”
“Really?” He leaned forward in his chair. “Is that a challenge?”
I’d said too much. He could destroy my phone, raid my room, annihilate the notebook, track down my friends, and brainwash them, too. “No,” I said quietly. I was silent for a long time, the weight of his stare crushing me into the sofa cushions. “I just… wanted to know what was going on with my sister. I feel like she’s in some sort of danger.” Did I dare tell him I thought she was a vampire?
“Your sister is fine.” He wasn’t doing that thing with his eyes when I glanced up at him, but I was inclined to believe him.
“Did she kill Drew?”
“No.”
I believed that, too. “Did one of her friends kill Drew?”
“No.”
“Did someone kill Drew?”
He took a deep breath. “I can’t say.”
That was a yes. Drew had been murdered. I shook my head, not sure what to think about that. “Were you and your associates there when Drew died?”
He opened his mouth and then closed it before he shrugged.
Also a yes. Frustration grew. My hands became fists. “Did you or one of your associates kill Drew?”
“No.” This answer came very quickly.
I stared at him for a long time, making sure I could believe him without any brainwashing voodoo. I did. I believed that none of Elliott’s friends had killed Drew, but they knew who killed her. He wouldn’t tell me that, though. I swallowed hard, trying to determine whether or not to ask him the true question that was burning in my mind. I wanted to know if my sister was a vampire.
“Look, Cassidy, I think this is probably enough Q and A for now. I can’t really tell you anything more, and even if I could, you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”
“I’d believe you.” I jumped on that quickly. I wasn’t sure if I would or not, but I wanted him to think I would.
A smirk broke across his face. “Okay, but… I still can’t tell you anything else. I will come back though, soon, and talk to you again, as quickly as I can.”
“But… I have so many more questions.”
He was still smiling at me. “That’s good. I just can’t answer them. And you need to stop searching for the answers, too, lil girl, because you’re just going to end up going down the wrong path. The answers aren’t out there,” he gestured out the window. “If they were….” He didn’t finish that sentence. I had no idea what he was talking about.
I was frustrated again. A sort of a half-groan, half-growl came out of my throat. “Can I have your phone number?”
He looked surprised again. “What for?”
“So that I can call you.” It seemed obvious. Perhaps the doctor wasn’t as smart as I had given him credit for.
“I know that,” he replied. “But why?”
I ran both hands through my hair. “Because I trust you. Despite your lies and trickery. I think you’re being honest with me now.”
“But I can’t tell you anything else.”
“Sure you can,” I countered. “Aaron can’t prevent you from answering simple questions, can he? Like, when’s your birthday?”
“July tenth.”
“See? And… where were you born?”
“Oklahoma.”
I nodded. Thanks to Emma, I already knew that. “Easy peasy. How old are you?”
“Ha,” he said, standing, “I can’t tell you everything, Cass.”
“Why not?” I asked, following him as he headed toward the door. I found it a bit odd that now I was running him off. I even assumed he’d want to stick around and talk to my mother, let her know the brainwashing had gone as expected.
Elliott paused at the door. “Because… you wouldn’t believe me.”
That was a dare, and I knew it. He wanted to know what I knew. “I would. What are you, like, twenty-seven?”
He couldn’t contain his laughter then as he pulled the front door open and stepped out onto our porch. “Sure. Let’s go with that.”
