“You said if I pleased her, she wouldn’t have to do that again!” I raise my voice, wrapping my hands around my restraints and jerking them in frustration. The chain leash claps the floor behind me, causing the orderly to stumble forward.
“I said no such thing.” Meridei glances over at her mother in amusement. And to my horror, Apple May has just finished touching herself.
“She’s hadenough,” I growl.
Meridei watches me for several seconds, unearthing my patience with a twitch of her lips.
“And I think we are just getting started,” she says harmoniously.
I can’t watch her go through that again. I’ll lose my mind. I’ll get us both in trouble by having a meltdown and picking a fight in this drunken, sedated state with the orderlies.Think, Niklaus, think! You aren’t from this time. That has to be some kind of an advantage, right? Think!
I fumble through sluggish thoughts as she refills another syringe. And it hits me…
“You inject her again, and I’m going to have to tell Patient Thirteen what you’ve done,” I say in a low, threatening tone.
Meridei’s head snaps up, and she leans forward, wondering if she heard me right. That’s definitely a reaction I was looking for.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Patient Thirteen,” I repeat.
“You don’t know what your talking about. The current resident of that room is Skylenna Ambrose.” Meridei laughs humorlessly. “You know nothing about Patient Thirteen. No one does!”
“His name is Dessin. Did you know that?” I taunt.
Sapphire’s tired gaze bounces from me to Meridei, probably praying I can buy her more time with this bit.
“How could you possibly know that?” A vicious edge laces her words.
“I know more than you think. And unfortunately, I’m going to have to tell him if you make my wife sick again.”
Meridei lowers the syringe. “A pathetic bluff pretending like you know him personally.”
“You don’t think I do?” I raise an eyebrow. “Darling wife, hasn’t Dessin been saying how much he enjoyed poisoning Meridei at her dining party that one time?”
Sapphire’s eyes awaken slightly. She nods once.
“You remember that don’t you, Meridei? Spewing vomit across your dining room floor? Swimming in your fellow conformists’ bodily fluids all night?”
Apple May jumps to her feet. “Does he really know that awful, crazy man, Meridei?”
But Meridei is speechless. Meridei drops the glass vial of wormwood concentrate. Meridei looks from wall to wall of this gruesome treatment room for a solution to this current predicament she’s found herself in. Because I have found her nerve, exposed and isolated, and I have struck it.
“Even if this was all true, you are a patient now. You don’t have the capability to send Patient Thirteen a message!” Meridei shouts, stomping her foot with a face that’s pinched and flushing pink.
I mentally flip through the Emerald Lake Asylum textbooks we were assigned to read in my teenage years. I used to find the information so useless, so redundant. Now, I’m grateful for the knowledge I wield against this bitch.
“The orderly behind me? His name is Jeremiah. His wife calls him Jere-Jere. He can’t go more than an hour without sneaking a sip frrom his flask of vodka. Two years ago, he caught you standing over a patient you drowned in a treatment, right? He helped you resuscitate him and never told Suseas that you had no intention of bringing him back.”
I stare at her as a cluster of emotions strengthens my voice.
“That patient’s name wasChekiss. How would I know that if I didn’t have an entire network of employees here that would happily give a message to Patient Thirteen for me? Go ahead. Call my bluff.”
“We have to continue—the treatment.” Meridei gulps.
“Hmm. You see, I don’t think we do. That unreasonable fear that’s been twisting around inside your head lately? That Patient Thirteen will do something this horrific all over again? That fear isn’t so unreasonable after all. Why? Because you and I both know that Dessin has escaped.”
I stand despite the orderlies clawing at my back to sit back down. But I can’t. I have to get this last part out. I have to plant the seed. I have to get Sapphire out of here.
