Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(7)

“If Lexi needs to come back here, we’ll deal,” Georgia added. “We need to watch over each other.”

I stood there, my back plastered to the brick. My heart raced as a suppressed memory surfaced. Images of the previous night flashed back to me. Images of me by the fire pit. Fred had played a guitar and sung.

My eyes darted around the yard beside the house. I drilled the palm of my hand into my chest, attempting to massage my panicked heart. Jack assured me that Jonas could protect me. That he was loyal. Loyal to whom?

Events of the previous night slowly seeped into the outer fringes of my mind. Images that at first seemed like distant memories were becoming clearer. Jonas had stomped out a cigarette at my feet last night. He practically admitted to drowning me in the pool. He forced Kyle to stick his arm in the fire.

“Thank you, Georgia,” Jack said, snapping me back to the present. “Kyle and I will be leaving shortly. I’m fairly certain Lexi will be ready to leave when I do.”

My mind reeled through memories or dreams—snippets of reality—that I suspected were planted there by Jonas: like when he pointed a gun at my head a couple of weeks ago, and when he led me outside into the cold on the night the fire alarms were tripped in the Wellington’s girls’ dorm.

It was Jonas. He got inside my head the night my father died. The night he forced me to jump into a freezing pool. And this morning when…

That was why he suffered a panic attack. Not because of the lies he told Jack now.

A train whistle blew, startling me from the dark memories, the darkest of all being the one of Smoking Man—Jonas—forcing me to almost drive a knife into Jack’s chest. This image had been only a blur in my subconscious, but it now came into focus.

Jonas. It was him. I remembered. And he threatened to force me to hurt Jack if I revealed his identity.

The whistle blared again, calling out to me.

The train approached slowly, running behind the houses. My grip tightened around the strap of my backpack.

I chanced a glance around the corner of the house again just as Jack passed through the front door. Jonas and Georgia traded looks, then followed Jack inside.

Would Jonas actually hurt Jack? Or was he bluffing to get me to submit to some demand of his?

Jack would be leaving shortly. And taking Kyle. He’d be safe then. Away from Jonas. Away from me.

As the train moved closer, I saw the open car. Empty. Everything that the presence inside my head had said to me scrolled through my memory like an out-of-control teleprompter. He needed me.

He would force me to hurt Jack if I didn’t comply. But I couldn't hurt Jack if I was nowhere near him.

The train whistled—a signal. Or a sign.

I ran. I ran as fast as my legs would take me. I ran through the backyard of the neighbor’s house, past the swing set. I ran alongside the train, the open car. I let the backpack slide from my shoulder and tossed it into the car. It slid across the metal floor.

I felt Jack’s presence ease inside my head. Lexi, where are you?

I reached out my hand and grabbed onto a piece of metal on the open door of the car. With a giant burst of adrenaline, I sped up. I squeezed the metal and, in one motion, leapt from the gravel, lifting and swinging my legs onto the moving car. Thankfully, the rest of my body followed.

Lexi.

I’m sorry, Jack. Even my thoughts came out in panted breaths.

Where are you? What do you mean you’re sorry? What did you do?

I grabbed my backpack and hugged it to my chest as I crawled over and leaned against the wall of the car. I know who is inside my head. They want something from me that I will not give them. Not until I know why.

Tell me where you are so we can talk. Please don’t run from me.

I’m already gone.





Chapter Five


The train rattled and quivered as it crept along railroad tracks on the outskirts of the University. Though I was less than twenty minutes from Midland, Kentucky and Wellington Boarding School, I felt thousands of miles away from anyone who could help me.

I wanted Jack with me, but I wouldn’t deter him from checking on Addison. I, too, wanted to know how she was and whether I had healed her. Maybe by returning to Wellington, he and Kyle would learn more about Cathy DeWeese’s and Roger Wellington’s intentions for the school. And for the cloned humans who lived there.

A shiver moved down my spine at the thought of a group of crazy doctors having that kind of control over a group of humans with supernatural abilities. What exactly did they hope to gain from me and the other clones?

If they hoped to use these abilities to their own advantage, why was someone hell-bent on killing Jack and me? Did someone think we knew too much? Because of Dad's journals? No one but Jack and me knew the journals still existed, even if only virtually.

God, I missed Dad.

The breeze blew wisps of hair off my face as I stared out onto the side streets of Lexington. The air smelled of dirt and gravel, and the rickety train stirred up dust.

I decided I was far enough away from Jonas. I grabbed my bag and jumped from the train, landing with a jolt and tumbling to the ground. After gaining my footing, I made my way down a side street in the direction of campus and in search of Wi-Fi.

Fifteen minutes later, I slid into a booth in the back corner of a coffee shop. The busy in-and-out-the-door activity of professors, students, and businessmen and women calmed me rather than added to my anxiety. Their comings and goings grounded me into a sort of normalcy. One could get lost in the “normal” of others’ lives.