Page 16 of Never the Same

Gideon kept his eyes on his sister as her breathing began to slow down. “I don’t know,” he told his brother as Foxtrot Three began offering cash to people for their phones and silence.

“Could be a dissociative drug,” I guessed, taking a knee alongside them. “A compound of some kind. God knows what. But . . .” My voice trailed off as something darker settled in my gut. I lifted her hand to get a better look, discovering dirt beneath her fingernails. “What if she was buried in that monastery and she had to dig her way out?”

Gideon gestured with his head, signaling me to help. “I don’t know what to think, but we have to get her somewhere safe.”

“And where might that be?” I lifted her while standing tall. Her head lolled to the side as I cradled her between my forearms.

Gideon scanned the crowd, squinting with the streetlamps in his face. “I’ll have a medical team meet us at my plane. We’ll fly her to my parents’ place in Surrey.” He stepped forward to take his sister, but part of me wasn’t ready to let her go. “We need to find who did this to her,” he said in a strained voice as I finally handed her over to him. “And figure out why the hell she didn’t recognize any of us.”

Chapter Six

Hollis

Unknown location

My fingers twisted in the heavy gold-and-cream-colored bedding as I considered trying to make a run for it again. Unlike when I woke up for the first time, I was alone. No strangers claiming to be doctors poking and prodding, asking questions I mostly couldn’t answer.

It was a special kind of horror, not knowing where you were and why you were there. But even worse, not knowing who you were.

The sedatives the doctors pumped into me had dulled my senses and made my legs and arms feel heavy. There also had to be narcotics buzzing around in my system, because my fist didn’t hurt after connecting it to the steely jaw of one of the men who’d been in my room earlier. I had my doubts he was another MD, but at least he didn’t fight back after I punched him. Just growled and backed up as one of the “doctors” doped me up.

I had no idea how long it’d been since they’d sent me to Nothing Land, but I was awake now and anticipating round two.

I glanced at my hands fisting the covers. No restraints around my wrists, and I wasn’t chained to the bed. Apparently not a risk in my captors’ minds, despite my best efforts to break free before.

Chills started to bulldoze their way beyond the barriers of the sedatives, and my pulse went to war with the drugs in an attempt to push my body into fight-or-flight mode.

My teeth lightly clicked together, and I needed to get this shakiness under control if I was going to map out an exit strategy. It was a strange feeling, to have my body and brain in disagreement on what to do. One side warning of danger, the other crying out to remain calm.

Who the hell am I? Knowing that might help me choose which direction to go. But the fact I couldn’t answer that probably meant whoever was watching me on the other end of the camera on the ceiling had done this to me.

The second the double doors slowly opened, the tug-of-war happening inside me came to a halt. All I could focus on were the two men striding in—one was familiar and the other wasn’t.

I shivered as I took in the sight of the men parting ways to stand on either side of the bed.

“Have you calmed down yet? Ready to talk?” the not-an-MD asshole I’d hit earlier asked.

“I don’t know. Plan on giving me a reason why I should hit you?” I hissed back.

“I don’t recall giving you one,” he steadily remarked, his dark eyes boring into me as memories from before waking up in this room battled their way forward.

A coffin that was at least six feet down in the ground.

The earth had yet to cover it, but I had to claw my way up out of the hole.

Then a lot of running and bumping into people before—

“You tackled me,” I blurted out. “Not here, but somewhere else.”

I scooched farther upright, sitting against the headboard as I converted my hands to weapons, preparing to swing. “Who. Are. You?” I enunciated each word as my mind also screamed, Who. Am. I?

“I restrained you last night, but I had my reasons. I didn’t do anything to provoke you today.” He held up his palm. “So easy with the fists, all right?” He slowly lowered his hand to his side. “I’m Gideon.” He lifted his chin. “And you’re Celeste.”

My mind circled around the names like Earth rotating around the sun. Seeking and searching for connection, trying to draw on the light for the truth. Nothing came, just nerves. “That’s not my name.” It can’t be.

“Hollis, does that sound better?” the other man asked. His green eyes held a lot less burn the world down with one look than Gideon’s dark ones.

“Are you picking names from a hat and testing them out on me? Did you two abduct me without even knowing who you were taking?” Had I bonked my head somewhere as I tried to escape, and that was why I couldn’t remember who I was?