Suspicious Minds (Stranger Things Novels #1)(27)

“I knew you’d like it,” he said, beaming at her and dropping a kiss on her cheek. “Let me know when you’re ready for the next one. Where are you?”

“Still early. The hobbits may be the ones without magic, but I can feel how it’s going.”

“You can skip the Tom Bombadil/Goldberry section if you want. It’s a little much.”

“Now there’s no way I’m skipping it.” She paused. “But did you just admit this book isn’t perfect in every way?”

“Ha-ha, she’s so funny!” And he tackled her, tickling her until she laughed, as effective as any Prince Charming waking an enchanted princess with a kiss.

His touch had brought her back to life. There was a whole world, not just the lab and its psychedelic fever dreams and mysterious child. She had to remember that.





3.


Terry drummed her fingers against the cot in the small room, then stopped as Dr. Brenner’s eyes gravitated to them. Wavy rainbows seemed to radiate from her hand even once she stilled it.

“You’re not still nervous about the medicine?” Dr. Brenner asked, with a close-lipped smile that told her how silly that was.

“Not really.” Which was true enough; it wasn’t the medicine that had her tense.

“That’s good, Terry,” Dr. Brenner said. “You trust me, don’t you?”

A thread of cold paranoia unraveled inside her. Why was he asking that?

“Sure.”

He hesitated, watching her. “Very good. Because our work is going so well. Are you ready to go deeper?”

What is our work? Or, more specifically, what’s yours? Who’s Kali?

She didn’t know how to ask the questions in a way where they could be taken back if they needed to be—if she was jumping to conclusions she would lose her opportunity to participate in something important. She knew how he wanted her to answer, though.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He removed the small crystal from his jacket pocket and held it in front of her. “Focus right here, concentrate, and once you’re focused, then count backward slowly in your mind from ten.”

She didn’t feel like it, and since it was her mind there was no way he’d know if she didn’t. She sat there, staring ahead but not allowing herself to fix on the crystal.

“Now close your eyes.”

Her eyelids drifted shut, rainbows and sparks flying behind them.

“It’s time for the next step, Terry,” Dr. Brenner’s voice said, smooth as satin. “Time to see what you’re capable of. What transpires here will be a secret. You will maintain this knowledge and complete a task without discovery, but you will have no memory of my requesting it. Do you understand? Can you repeat this to me?”

Terry had to fight to keep her eyes closed and the lie from showing in her response. What was this? Had it ever happened before, when he’d put her under successfully? She should’ve stayed alert, paid more attention.

“What takes place is a secret,” she said. “I will maintain this knowledge and complete a task, but have no memory of anyone requesting it.”

“Good, very good.” There was a moment of quiet, and then she heard the door to the room open. The orderly had left them alone, and so maybe he was returning. The scrape of something against the floor, and then the door shutting again. Her heart pounded in her ears, and she prayed she’d be able to hear Brenner’s words over it.

“Terry, are you ready?”

“Yes.”

“You will remain in the trance state when you open your eyes.” He paused and she wasn’t sure if she should go ahead and open them or not, so she stayed motionless. He said, “Now open your eyes.”

She did.

He sat at a small table that had been placed in front of her. On it was a black telephone wired to nothing and nowhere. He picked up the receiver, and then an object so small she hadn’t seen it at first. A small piece of black metal, thinner than a coin.

“Do you see this?” he asked.

She nodded.

He put it back on the table, and then unscrewed the cover of the phone receiver’s mouthpiece. “You see how easy removing this is? So easy anyone could do it, isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“Even you can do this,” Dr. Brenner said, setting aside the plastic piece and retrieving the small bit of metal. He placed it into the receiver, among the metal and wires there. “It must go right here, touching this wire to activate.” Then he screwed the top back on. “And you will do it, just like I did. Understand?”

Terry reached out to pick up the receiver when he replaced it on the hook, assuming he meant right then.

“No, not here, not now.” Dr. Brenner reached into the pocket of his coat and then gently took her hand and returned it to her lap. He pressed something into it, and when she turned over her palm, she saw a twin to the small black metal piece he’d put in the receiver.

“You will place this device in the phone at the florist’s counter of Flowers’ Flowers and Gifts, the business owned by Gloria Flowers’ parents. You will do so before your next session at the lab. Do you understand?”

No. Why? “Yes, I understand.”

“Good. Close your eyes.”