TABOO: THE COMPLETE SERIES(25)

“I don’t think Weldon’s worried about his health and longevity.”

This is so wrong.

This is a new level of fucked up.

“You’re trying to get him hooked,” I said. “Is that why you got so much of it? This isn’t safe! This drug isn’t designed for recreational use!”

“Trey. Sometimes I think you forget where you are.”

He was right.

Maybe I do forget.

But that kid was passed out on something that amounted to horse tranquilizer in potency and they wanted to do it again. I could tamper with the dosage back in the lab but the whole place was rigged with surveillance. One wrong step and they’d be putting that shit into my veins. I wasn’t done talking but there was a strange feeling rising in my gut that I couldn’t get rid of.

I had to get out of there. I stepped into the hallway and the door closed behind me. I could no longer see him. That feeling in the pit of my stomach got worse. I couldn’t hold it in and ended up purging my last meal in the hallway.

Working for Weldon was like being in a constant rabbit hole, you never knew where some insane man with crazy hats would lead you.

But I was part of this circus.

And that had to stop.

Maybe until today, I hadn’t realized the extent of what I was into because denial was better than facing the ugly truth but that day I had clarity.

I couldn’t keep going this way. Something had to be done.

They needed my help.

There’s one more person who needs your help, Trey.

Even when I was out in the parking lot I couldn’t breathe and the world felt so small. I loosened my tie when I got in the driver’s seat of my car, and I just sat there trying to get my brain to work.

What are you going to do, Trey?

Are you going to play savior to these two and put other lives in jeopardy? You know what they have on you. You know what’s going to happen.

No, I don’t.

I don’t know anymore.





JAKE


Fooling Weldon long enough to swipe his keycard was the easy part.

Getting him to leave the room turned out to be harder.

“What do you mean I need to come over?” Weldon was yelling at whoever was on the other end, probably one of his associates. He was clearly pissed off, but for him pissed off might have been his resting state. “Do I have to do everything around here?”

Before he was done, there was a knock on the door and I sat there, looking down at my feet. Mace walked in and went over to Weldon who was still having a yelling match with his phone. I always tried to ignore Mace’s presence. In my mind, if I didn’t acknowledge him he wasn’t there. Too bad the nightmares weren’t so forgiving. Mace was standing all silent and dutiful like a toy soldier who only came alive when Weldon gave him a command.

When Weldon was done talking, Mace cleared his throat to get his attention. Weldon rolled his eyes. “If you tell me I have to deal with some shit you’ve created, Mace, you’re going to get me extremely angry!”

Mace tried to smile. “No sir, nothing’s wrong. I just thought I should give you some updates on the therapy.”

It was clearly code for something.

Weldon turned to me, it sounded like he was about to speak but he didn’t. We hadn’t said one word to each other since last night. When I woke up Weldon was in the bathroom which gave me a chance to get that keycard and ever since he came out he had been yelling at someone over the phone.

“Let’s go,” he turned to Mace and they both left.

The door clicked shut.

My hands trembled.

Soon, my entire body was doing the same.

The keycard in my hand was already sweaty, thanks to my overzealous palms. I glanced at the clock and I don’t even know why because there was no need for time in my life. Not like time had anything at all to do with anything anymore.

I must have stared at the door for hours.

Glanced at the clock again but it made no sense because I couldn’t remember the previous time, and I still had no use for it.

On my mind, One. Single. Thought.

Colton.

Still shaking I finally gathered the courage to get up. There were no knives in here, Weldon didn’t allow any cutlery to be stored in the room, it came at meal times and was promptly collected soon as I was finished, so I couldn’t get an actual weapon. I expected any moment for Weldon and Mace to come back and barge in and locate the keycard on my person. It was a downright scary thought but I just didn’t care anymore. When I slid the keycard in the slot, I expected it to not work.

It didn’t.

I wiped the sweat off my brow. It was freezing in here so how was I sweating so much? I had to swallow hard before I tried my luck again.

It worked.

Fuck.

I hadn’t thought that far ahead.

My hands quaked still holding on to the door. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and opened the door.

Silence.

That’s what greeted me. I looked around and realized I had no idea where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do from here. There were two options, left or right, so I chose right. But when I found myself standing face to face with an elevator, I stopped. This was clearly not the way to go. Mace said we were in the special wing. Trey had told me once Colton was in the special wing. There was no reason for me to take the elevator to lead me away from the special wing that I was already on.