Conduit - M J Marlow (best short books to read txt) 📗

“No more drugs,” I whimpered as she helped me to the cot and helped me lay down. “Please…” I curled up in ball as pain radiated through every muscle in my body. “Make it stop! It hurts.” “I wish we knew what to do, child,” the nurse told me honestly. “But you just need to let it progress…” “You did this to me?” I broke in, moaning as the pain increased. “Why?” The nurse looked at the glass wall helplessly as I passed out. I woke up several hours later and opened my eyes to see blurs that resembled my kidnappers near me. I blinked to clear my vision and was disappointed. I had hoped that the past twenty four hours had just been a nightmare, and I would wake up to find myself with my ‘family’ again. The nurse came over to take my temperature and smiled as she saw it was normal. She handed me a glass of water and I drank it down gratefully. I was still shaking a bit from what I had gone through, but it was passing. “You had us scared, Dulcie,” she said as she stroked my back. “What did you do to me?” “You had a reaction to one of the drugs we tested on you,” a man in a lab coat said from where he sat at the table. “One you shouldn’t have had if you were completely human.” “What do you mean,” I asked him as I sat up and leaned against the wall, “if.” “You, Miss Santos,” the doctor smiled as he looked at me curiously, “are the descendant of an alien breeding experiment.” He stopped as I started to laugh at him. “Did I say something funny?” “You’ve been reading the twins’ comic books,” I struggled to control my amusement. “You expect me to believe this nonsense?” I was on my feet and headed to the wall. “You can let me go home now. I’m through playing along with your games.” “It is the truth, Miss Santos,” the doctor frowned at me. “You are the result of a breeding experiment conducted on your ancestress four hundred years ago by an alien race who have, until recently, been hidden from us.” “Oh come on!” I shook my head in disbelief. “This has got to be the most farfetched reason to kidnap a person I have ever heard!” My head suddenly started spinning and I was frozen in place. I felt as if my mind was flying. Over land, oceans, mountains, I flew. I came to land in front of a large building with a central tower. I moved inside and passed men in hooded robes. I came to the foot of the tower and went up the stairs. At the very top was a chamber behind a barred door. A man sat there, holding the hand of a woman. In his other hand was a knife. She looked up at him as the tears flowed down both of their cheeks and she nodded. “Those of our blood must never return here, my husband,” the woman said in the strange language I somehow understood. I understood it and I knew what she meant. It was like she was looking directly at me. “Great evil will awake here if they return.” I knew it was only a dream, but I felt their grief and their determination. They were sacrificing themselves so that they could not be used. I was in tears as I watched them die and then the evil came surging into the room. He was cloaked in a darkness that made my skin crawl. He stood over them and cursed. Then he turned and I could swear he saw me there. His smile was hungry and I knew he would destroy me if he could. “Where are you, child?” a soft voice broke into my vision. I felt someone helping me sit. “What do you see?” “A man and a woman in a castle tower,” I said softly, lost to the trance, and completely unaware of the fact that I was speaking in a language I couldn’t possibly know. “They sent their daughter away so the strangers couldn’t have her. But he wants them to have another and they won’t do it. He murdered the villagers and had their homes destroyed to make them obey. So they…” I burst into tears and grieved for them. “They killed themselves so he couldn’t make them breed for him.” A chill ran up my spine and I wrapped arms around my body. “He was not happy to find them like that. Evil!” I wailed as I collapsed. “It is coming for me!” “My God,” the Doctor exclaimed as he left the nurse to help me. “Did you hear that? It sounded like Spanish…” He looked towards the wall. “Tell me you recorded that.” “Of course we recorded it, Doctor,” the wall cleared and a man in a military uniform looked in.” He looked at me. “She connected to the past somehow. What triggered it?” “Fear? Anger?” the Doctor shrugged. “It’s hard to say at this point. All we know for certain is that she has abilities we are just beginning to understand.” “We can’t keep her much longer, Doctor Winston,” the General frowned. “We are going to have to let her go.” Winston opened his mouth to protest. “The State Department is not eager to anger the Spanish over this. The girl is the granddaughter of the Spanish Counsel himself.” He looked in at me. “You have two weeks. I can stall them that long.” Winston left the room, his mind spinning with excitement. The nurse remained with me, massaging my back to ease the tension the trance had caused. I slept a few hours and saw her coming in with a tray. She had two meals set out on it and she remained with me as we ate. We spent time getting to know each other. I could tell from her uneasiness that this was not exactly what she had been told to do and I adored her for it. “Did your parents really name you Dulcinea?” Mary Murphy asked. “Like in the musical?” “Like in the book,” I told her. “My parents were historians,” I explained to her. “They met in Toledo, Spain, while they were learning Medieval Spanish. My mother fell in love with Don Quixote.” “They read the book?” Mary was impressed. “Wow.” “I wish I could have known them better,” I said sadly. “They died when I was only four.” I looked at the wall. “Do you think they had something to do with their murders?” “Murders?” Mary was shocked. “I remember it,” I told her as I went to sit on the cot. “Just flashes of emotion: anger, fear, pain, despair. The police who found me told me last year that I was holding them by the hands and screaming when the authorities arrived. The men who did that to them were gone.” “That’s horrible, Dulcie,” Mary shook her head. The door opened and she took the tray. “I’ll see you at dinner time.” She looked at the Doctor, who was bringing in a trolley with several items on it. “We’d like to see if any of these items trigger any memories for you, child,” the Doctor said simply as he set on the table. “Please come sit down.” “I don’t want to,” I shook my head in refusal. He came over and yanked me up, forcing me to the table and shoving me into a chair. “That hurt!” “Then be a smart little girl,” the Doctor snapped at me, “and do as you are told.” I looked at a simple ceramic bowl and wondered why it made me feel cold. I didn’t want to touch it. I had a feeling I would ‘see’ things if I put my hand on it; things I did not want to know. But I shook my head. That wasn’t possible. It was just a bowl! I picked it up and my skin felt like it was on fire. I no longer saw the room, but a village filled with screaming people. I did not see myself standing in a trance state with the bowl in my hands. Blood flowed from a slit wrist into the vessel I held in my hands and pain lashed at my mind. The Doctor passed his hand in front of my eyes, recognizing the signs. “Where are you, child?” “In the village,” I said softly. “There is so much fear; so much pain. The Five who came to us in the blizzard, they are so angry!” I shook my head. “I don’t want to look. I don’t want to see.” “It’s all right, child,” the Doctor’s soft voice soothed my fear. “You can not be harmed. We are here with you. What is it they are showing you?” “It is horrible!” I whimpered and fell to my knees. “They are taking people to their homes and locking them inside and we hear their screams. They are setting fires with the people inside!” I was shaking uncontrollably now. “No!” I screamed. “Not me! Not me!” “My God, General,” a lean, bespectacled man exclaimed, as he watched me collapse. “She’s speaking in medieval Spanish.” He watched Winston take the bowl and set it on the table then look up at them with a smile. “Did you know she had that gift?” “According to the tests,” the General said as he watched the Doctor pick me up in his arms and lay me down on the coat, “this is the least of the talents this child has.” He pressed the speaker. “Let her sleep for now, Doctor. She’s earned it.” When I woke up next, the table was littered with objects. I did not want to be anywhere near them; I still remembered that feeling of horror that had struck me as I touched the bowl. Darkness had taken over and I had become lost to the past. What had happened before I had passed out? I thought of asking the Doctor, but the man made me uneasy. He knew more about this situation then he was telling me. I looked over at Mary and she smiled and motioned me to join her and a young man in a military uniform. He was lean and wore ill-fitting spectacles. His hair looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in weeks and my hands itched to move a strand of it out of his eyes. He reminded me of Snitch. I saw the record he had made of each item. “Are you feeling better, Dulcie?” Mary asked me as I sat down. “This is Professor George Schneider.” “Dulcie?” George perked up. He was intrigued. “Short for?” I knew what he was asking and cringed. I gave it to him anyway and saw him beam. “You’re kidding!” “Dulcie’s parents were historians specializing in Medieval Spain,” Karen told him. “Her mother read Don Quixote in the original language.” “And named her daughter Dulcinea?” George laughed and shook his head. “Stick with Dulcie, kid. It will give you less grief.” “If you are through giving the child life lessons, Professor,” the Doctor said as he came into the room; “perhaps we can get to work?” He saw my pale face and frowned. “Are you feeling all right?” “I feel like something swallowed me and spit me out,” I told him bluntly. He didn’t appear at all shocked. “What happened?” “You touched the bowl and saw something happen that it was connected to,” Winston told me candidly. “It appears you have a gift.” “It didn’t feel like a gift,” I replied. “I don’t remember anything that happened, except that it made me feel like I was being swallowed by darkness.” I looked at the table of artifacts. “Is that going to happen every time I touch something?” I saw his hungry look. “You’re counting on it, aren’t you?” “You must admit that it