Chapter 18
1378words
“Detective Tremaine, how did you find us?” Lucian questioned with a careful pronunciation of each word.
“Find—you, find?”
The Real-Cassidy could feel how vague the Dream-Cassidy’s response was, but she did not understand why her brain was functioning that way. The Dream-Cassidy’s mind felt sluggish, as though functioning in a stupor. Despite her awareness of the Dream-Cassidy’s condition, the Real-Cassidy felt sober and wide awake. The Real-Cassidy noted that the man speaking to the Dream-Cassidy did not seem to be surprised by her incoherent response.
“How did you know we were here?” Lucian asked again in a clear and unhurried voice.
The Real-Cassidy could feel that she had a better understanding of the question as she answered with, “I followed.”
She noticed that Lucian immediately accepted her answer. She thought his unconditional acceptance seemed strange. Then she became aware that the Dream-Cassidy was unable to say anything other than the truth at that moment.
“So much for repressing her obsession with this investigation,” Stefan uttered with distaste.
“She is tenacious of mind,” Lucian agreed.
“She’s dangerous,” Stefan spat.
“Detective Tremaine, who knows that you are here?”
The Dream-Cassidy quickly processed Lucian’s question despite her dazed condition.
“Nina,” she answered.
“Does anyone else know that you are here?” Lucian immediately queried back.
“Is Nina expecting you to call?” Lucian asked.
“I—ah, Nina?”
A dazed Dream-Cassidy stammered out this comeback in place of an answer. The Real-Cassidy noted that her dream-self was having trouble with the idea that she should know what Nina was expecting. She thought it likely that Nina would be anticipating a call, but that was something she did not feel comfortable giving a yes or no answer to. Shortly, the Real-Cassidy saw Lucian grow annoyed with Dream-Cassidy’s fumbling response.
“Yes. Is Nina waiting for your call?” Lucian asked again with impatience.
“Yes,” Cassidy answered, looking unsure of her answer.
“When is she expecting you to call?” Lucian continued questioning her.
The Real-Cassidy was aware that there was no answer to that question. Neither versions of her had any idea when or if Nina would be expecting a call from her. She could feel her dream-mind struggling to find an answer, but the Real-Cassidy did not understand why the question was such a problem. In her mind, the answer to the question was, I don’t know.
“Will Nina send someone to look for you?” Lucian asked her in a clear tone of voice.
“No,” Cassidy answered with a dazed expression.
The Real-Cassidy watched as Lucian wasted no time going to his next question.
“Detective Tremaine, approximately how long will it be before someone begin to miss you?”
“4 o’clock,” Cassidy responded without thought. “My neighbor will miss me if I don’t arrive to pick up my kids.”
Once again, the Real-Cassidy noted that Lucian accepted the answer without question.
“We should deal with this,” Stefan said decisively.
“Blank her, and send her on her way,” David suggested quickly.
“We can’t do that,” Christine Meyer insisted sharply. “She knows too much.”
“Nothing that she can prove,” David argued back.
“It’s enough for her to start to believe it,” Evan Pritchard spoke in support of Christine Meyer. “We can’t have her pointing a finger at us.”
“Razvan is right,” Stefan quickly added. “Trying to throw her off the scent has failed. We need to deal with this while we have time.”
It was clear to the Real-Cassidy that the last speaker’s comments were the most popular consensus. She watched as most within the room nodded their agreement.
“I will drink her blood this time,” David asserted sternly. “She will remember nothing.”
“It’s too late for that, Cristiãn.” Brooke Chapman challenged sympathetically. “Her mind is already cluttered with incongruities about us.”
“I will manage it,” David instantly insisted.
“That’s too dangerous, Cristiãn,” Ronald Hollis disputed.
“It’s my call,” David rifled back with temper.
“It’s our risk,” Brooke Chapman countered without hesitation.
The Real-Cassidy watched as David gave Brooke Chapman a stunned look. She watched as his mind seemed to be in search of a counter argument. Shortly, his thoughts were interrupted by another voice.
“We will deal with this when the others arrive,” Lucian directed softly.
There was no challenge to Lucian’s words. A prolonged silence followed. Then Nadja began to speak pleasantly to all present.
“Well, let’s not keep her like this. Let me take her into Cristiãn’s office while we wait.”
There was a long moment of awkward glances after Nadja’s suggestion. David looked to his escort. She looked to Lucian. He looked back to her and then to Stefan. Stefan looked to her and then to David. The others in the room looked back and forth between the four of them.
“Yes, please do,” Lucian agreed with a smile and a nod.
Nadja got up from her chair with a hand from David. She casually walked over to Cassidy and gently took her hand into hers. The Real-Cassidy felt her dream-self comply without resistance. She could see Nadja, but the Dream-Cassidy had no awareness that she was standing next to her.
“Come with me,” Nadja softly spoke into Cassidy’s ear.
After speaking those words, Nadja led Dream-Cassidy from the main room and through the hallway entrance. She followed alongside Nadja with only the slightest urging to keep her in motion. They had just reached the door to David’s office when the room suddenly dissolved away, and a new memory began to materialize in its place for the Real-Cassidy.
~~~~~line break~~~~~
The Real-Cassidy suddenly found herself in David’s bedroom, lying in his bed. The transition felt natural to her despite thinking she should be in shock. She shortly became aware of the fact that she was lying naked under the covers. Her gaze was fixed up at an angle and toward the foot of the bed. She thought to move, to sit up and look around the room, but her body would not respond. Suddenly, the image of David’s face appeared at the edge of her vision, and then she heard his voice speaking softly into her ear.
“When you awaken, the things you heard and saw inside the warehouse will begin to feel like a distant memory. You will forget about the woman’s voice that you heard. You won’t remember how tall or strong the man was that attacked you. The whole event will be a faint memory. Do you understand?”
“Warehouse?”
The Real-Cassidy understood what David was saying, but the Dream-Cassidy could not stop herself from questioning the word warehouse. That event was primarily fixed in her mind as an address.
“Last Friday,” David began again in a slow and soft speech. “You went to a warehouse in Brooklyn, do you remember that?”
“The fire?” The Real-Cassidy heard herself question back.
“Yes, at the warehouse in Brooklyn,” David softly corrected. “It caught fire. Do you remember that?”
“Yes, the warehouse. I remember,” The Real-Cassidy heard herself say without reservation.
“When you awaken, all that you heard and saw in that warehouse will feel like a distant memory. Your interest in this case will be gone, and you will stop thinking about vampires as suspects. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Cassidy responded.
“You will forget about the woman’s voice that you heard. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Cassidy answered.
“You will not remember how tall or strong the man was that attacked you,” David asserted in a quiet voice. “The whole event will feel like something that happened many months-ago. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Cassidy replied without hesitation.
A brief silence followed. The Real-Cassidy watched as David examined her face as though trying to memorize it.
“Go to sleep. When you wake up, you will not remember this conversation.”
After hearing those words, The Real-Cassidy felt herself slip away into slumber. Shortly, she reopened her eyes to find she was no longer inside David’s bedroom.
