Page 58 of Consume Me

“If Belle was in here, you wouldn’t listen to any of us.” She was right and we all knew it.

“Look, for all we know, they’ve taken her topside,” Brex argued as I pushed past him.

He had a point. She was too valuable to leave behind, but without knowing what triggered the evacuation, I couldn’t be certain that she was safe. “I can’t risk it. I have to know.”

This time Georgia took the lead, pointing down the corridor we’d come in through. “You two get up there and make certain that they aren’t taking her away right now. We’ll make certain the building is clear.”

Brex glowered for a moment before he finally nodded and jerked his head toward the exit. A moment later, their two hulking forms had faded into the smoke and ash swirling through the false hospital.

I charged after Georgia who’d continued down the hall, checking rooms as she went. But Clara wasn’t here. Somehow I could feel her though. It was as if her presence grew stronger with each step I took. She was near. Or she had been. The truth of it vibrated in my bones. My body was on edge, longing for her nearness. She was close-by, and soon she would be back in my arms.

And I would never let her go again.

The closer we came to her, the more my body hummed with certainty. When we reached a nondescript door at the end of the corridor, I didn’t think twice about pushing it open.

Georgia wedged it with a piece of debris, pointing to a wire that was peeking through the frame. It was either wired to explode or wired into a security system. I nodded, grateful she’d caught it.

The open door also helped cast light into the dark passage we found beyond the door. Smoke had built inside the space, which had to be far from the main house and deeper underground, because it had nowhere to go.

She pointed to the masks we’d kept off during the initial breach and we both tugged them over our mouths. It would make communication impossible, but it would help to filter some of this shit out. Continuing down the hall, we discovered a number of rooms, each with a bed and a dresser and little else. Was this where they’d kept Sarah?

Georgia’s eyes met mine through the mask and I knew she was thinking the same thing. It matched up with the description Sarah had given of where she’d spent the majority of the last ten years. The prison was strange. It was more like a bad hotel with no windows but locks on the doors. This is what my sister had been banished to for her entire adult life. I’d left her here to rot because I’d been too cowardly to face what I’d done. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

When we encountered a locked door, Georgia started to move past, but I had to be certain it was clear. I couldn’t risk leaving Clara here. Aiming my pistol at the lock, I blew it open.

Clara wasn’t inside, but it was like looking into my nightmare. A crib sat in one corner, a teetering mobile dangled bears over the mattress. There was a small changing table in the corner stacked with nappies and layette. There was no rocking chair. There were no windows.

And that’s when I knew exactly what MI-18 had been after all along.

They wanted my child.

Georgia grabbed my arm and pulled me back from the door. I stumbled after her, my stomach churning. When we reached the final room. Inside a form lay on the burning bed. Thick, black smoke made it impossible to see inside. It was too slight to be Clara, but we couldn’t just leave them there.

Running in, I bent down to check the woman’s pulse, but froze as I got a closer look at her. Dark hair sprawled around her waxen face—a face that looked a little too much like someone I knew. But it wasn’t Sarah. My mind was only playing tricks on me. Or maybe MI-18 were the ones playing tricks.

Georgia took over, grabbing the woman’s wrist before looking up to me with a grim shake of the head.

Whoever she was—whatever she was here for—she was gone. They’d left her to die. How could I be sure they wouldn’t do the same to my wife?

When we hit the hall, I barreled toward the rooms at the other end, but Georgia grabbed my sleeve. Ripping off her mask, she shouted, “We have to go.”

I shook my head. There was no way I was leaving until I was sure.

“She’s not here.” Georgia began to cough without the benefit of the ventilation. “She’s gone.”

I paused long enough to feel the truth of this. She’d been here, but Clara wasn’t here any longer. There was no light in this place. I felt foolish for falling deeper down the rabbit hole. Now I could only pray that Smith and Brex had gotten topside in time.

Making our way back through the deserted hospital wing toward the entrance to Windsmoor, we were stopped by a shadow. A figure lurched out from a room, clutching a wound in his stomach. We kept our guns trained on him until he came into better view.

I lowered my weapon automatically. Georgia kept hers up.

“Alexander.” I couldn’t hear David’s wheeze over the fall-out alarms but I saw my name form on his lips. Pain was written all over his face as he tried to staunch the wound in his abdomen.

I should move to help him, but I couldn’t process what he was doing here. Had he followed us for some reason? Why would he risk his life when he wasn’t trained in this type of situation? Then another, horrifying thought occurred to me. Was Edward here? I looked around, worried I might find my brother nearby.

David seemed to sense why I was panicked and shook his head. But the reassurance was short-lived when he mouthed something else, “She’s gone. I’m sorry.”

It took a moment for these words to register. Maybe I didn’t want to hear them for what they were, but I couldn’t ignore what he was really saying.