Path of Breath, page 13
part #1 of Path of Life Series
Albrecht dug through his pockets for a cigar before taking a drag. He wasn’t supposed to smoke in his English auditorium, but he didn’t care. He pointed the cigar at Erich’s heart. “And it should be the most important force in your heart, Erich Hessen. When the time comes, you must be ready.”
Erich nodded at Albrecht’s wisdom. The man spoke with a haunting sense of foreshadowing, and Erich stood and glanced at his watch. “Marian wanted to talk to me. Thank you for your advice, Jax.”
“The pretty lab assistant for Dorsett?” Jax asked, his eyes flashing hesitation and then fury. “You know my opinions on Marian DeBeaux.”
Erich smiled. He was handsome, and Jax was proud of him. Jax knew that Erich was intelligent and loyal, but he also knew Erich was human, prone to mistakes. Marian DeBeaux had the effects of a succubus on students Jax previously taught. He knew Marian’s capabilities and the way she got what she wanted. “Yes, Jax, I know Marian isn’t someone Sara would want me to talk to, but it’s only because I count Marian as a friend.”
“Why?” Jax asked, puzzled.
Erich shrugged. “She listens to me, I guess. She’s thrilled about this new experiment they’re trying out in the lab, and she wanted to talk to me about it.”
“Isn’t that against the rules of experimentation?”
Erich checked his watch again. “I’ll have those papers graded for you by tomorrow morning, Jax.”
Jax couldn’t stop Erich. He watched as the young man jogged out of the auditorium with a smile. He knew Erich wouldn’t think of hurting Sara, but Marian would. The young man was just that, precisely. Erich was barely in his twenties, a youngster with more of a heart than a mind. He hadn’t experienced the world, and Jax personally thought his decision to marry Sara wasn’t the best idea.
As Jax was left alone in the auditorium, Erich glanced back over his shoulder one more time, entertaining the watching, older Christoph’s memory. Erich witnessed an old, withered man wave at him, and Erich waved back.
Erich glided out of the English wing and hurried to the science center. He entered the humid air of the summer day, passing other students quizzing each other and drinking coffees. He was tempted to turn around and go get his own coffee when a bright blue butterfly popped out in front of him. He stopped, dead in his tracks, as time slowed down. The butterfly flapped its wings, appearing as a sense of warning before the young man.
The butterfly flew away a few seconds later, and Erich was broken from his reverie. He remembered where he was supposed to go. Sometimes, it felt good to forget about everything, and be stimulated by a magical bug.
He met Marian in the genetically grown gardens. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head, and her chocolate eyes were filled with excitement once she saw him. It was obvious she loved him. Marian was a genius, with a higher IQ than many, but she was also a girl, and she, like most of the other women, thought romantic thoughts of Erich Hessen.
“Marian.” He hugged her. They had been friends for two years now, and he was always fascinated with Marian’s scientific prowess. As Jax mentioned, she wasn’t supposed to disclose details of experiments, but she liked talking to Erich. They were close friends after all. “How did it go?”
Marian brushed her hand against a green, leafy bush. “Better than expected, Erich,” she grinned as her eyes widened. She saw it in his eyes. He loved her, right? If he didn’t, why would he be here with her when he could be with Sara?
Marian had explained the experiment to Erich before. Simply, a female mouse, bred and raised in the laboratory, was placed in a maze with fifty other mice. Two of these mice had been her offspring. The experiment was to involve the female mouse’s ability to clearly recognize her baby mice. The idea was that once she found her children, her aura and energy would alert the scientists who moderated the experiment, specifically her whereabouts. A minimal tracker was placed on the female mouse’s head.
“The female mouse somehow managed to locate her offspring despite the same characteristics of many other young mice. It was really amazing. It could really deepen on the aspects of scientific mother-child relationships,” Marian continued. “Also, Erich, I have news.”
“What?” Erich smiled. “I’m so proud of you, Mary.”
Marian beamed. “I was accepted into this government program in D.C.”
Erich jubilantly shouted, “That’s great!”
“Yes, it is,” Marian said, but her face clouded quickly. “But I don’t know if I should take the job.”
“Why?”
“It’s in D.C., I guess. All of my friends are here, and I couldn’t stand to leave.” What I really mean, she thought, is that you’re here.
Erich wasn’t catching onto her subtle hints. “Marian, you have to take the job! It’s a step up from here. You must take it. You’re brilliant, and you should go.”
Marian opened her mouth to speak. “What if I don’t want to go?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to go?” he asked. “It’s the perfect opportunity for you, Marian. You need to take it.”
Marian whispered weakly, “Because.”
“Why? Marian, talk to me,” he said, gently pushing her chin up. He didn’t mean anything by this touch, but he had locked himself into defeat. Erich was young, yes, and his idea of friendship didn’t melt with Marian’s.
The touch electrified Marian. Insanity crashed against the bare sanity that remained in her brain.
MARIAN MCDONNELL DEBEAUX was born in Fleming, Georgia, a small town on the Atlantic coast in the mid-1970s. She was born into a doting family, a family who “had it all together.” Her mother was a successful veterinarian and her father was a lawyer. Marian DeBeaux had a great future. She was smart and an attractive child, though she always seemed to be alienated from her peers.
When she was six-years-old, she walked into her mother’s bathroom to find a bloody woman sobbing on the floor. Puzzled, Marian went to her mother.
“Go away, Marian,” her mother wept bitterly.
Later, Marian discovered that her mother had miscarried. For a few months, her mother ate and said nothing while her father distanced himself from the family unit. On the outside, they were perfect. On the inside, they were far from it. After Marian’s mother regained a bit of her old personality, Marian took an IQ test, which determined she was many years above the level of her classmates. Around the same time, Marian’s parents announced that she would have a baby brother or sister soon. Marian’s mother was pregnant again.
A few happy months passed by. They eagerly prepared for the baby’s arrival, buying a crib and decorating the room adjacent to Marian’s. “Will my sibling be a girl or a boy?” Marian questioned constantly.
“We don’t want to know. We are going to be blessed, and the baby’s gender doesn’t matter,” professed Marian’s father.
They painted the walls in light green and yellow. However, on a trip to the doctor for a check-up, they received troubling news. Marian was with her grandmother when her parents came to pick her up. Her mother refused to speak, and her father broke down sobbing when he saw his little girl. Marian had seen her mother like this before, after the miscarriage.
“What’s wrong?” Marian asked, confused.
“Your brother won’t live long,” cried her father.
Little Marian picked at her braids. “What do you mean, Father?” She looked to her mother, who stood with glassy eyes and a bloody nose. “Mommy? I thought you didn’t want to know the baby’s sex.”
They didn’t tell her. When she was older, she knew the term backwards and forwards. But they didn’t tell her. She was eight-years-old, almost nine, when her mother successfully gave birth to a son, Charles Princeton DeBeaux, who was born without a crucial part of his brain. Three hours later, little Charles took his last breath of air.
His condition was called anencephaly. He wasn’t destined to survive his birth, but somehow he ended up living for three hours post-caesarian. Marian saw her brother for a moment, and she asked, “What is wrong with him, Grandma?”
Grandma cried, tousling Marian’s hair. “He is going to heaven soon, Marian.”
After the funeral, things changed desperately. Her parents divorced within three months. Her father remarried a woman named Claire in Augusta. Her mother became a recluse who drank every night at the local bar. A pre-teenaged Marian grew up without either of her parents, and her scientific knowledge increased dramatically. She was never seen without a book in hand.
When she was fourteen, she habitually made a trip to Charles’s grave. “Hey, Charlie,” she whispered as she placed a flower on his tombstone. “Grandma said you went to heaven, so I hope you’ll save me a seat there someday. Mom’s not doing too well, baby brother. She’s been drinking an awful lot, and Dad hasn’t written me in three months.”
The coastal air drifted against Marian’s brown hair. She was lonely, and she talked to her baby brother for hours. She didn’t go home that night, instead choosing to sleep by him. He needed someone to protect him, and since their parents were gone, she would make do.
She awoke the next morning to a dewy ground. Her jeans were stained with grass, and she knew her mother would be angry when she got home. “Bye, Charlie,” she said, deciding to go home. She walked the four miles to her house, and discovered a Jeep in the driveway.
She entered to find an old, ugly man drinking a bottle of whiskey at the dining room table. “Hey,” he slurred.
She looked to see her mother walk into the room. “Marian, meet my fiancé, Rodney.”
“Did you say fiancé?”
“Get the cotton out of your ears, and don’t embarrass me,” her mother barked. “Rodney will be staying with us from now on.”
The years continued. Marian grew up, devoting her whole life to school. Her mother’s alcoholic problem grew worse and worse and worse, but Marian was allowed to volunteer at the veterinary clinic. She felt a future in her favorite subject, science, for sure. She went months without hearing from her father, until she found out Claire was pregnant. The baby was a boy, Carter.
Rodney became abusive once Marian turned sixteen. He never raped her, but gave her the creeps. Marian tried to seek out her real mother, the woman who used to be her mother, but no help came. Rodney was more of a father than her real one, in a twisted way.
Marian eagerly took the scholarship that led her to Boston, where she spent most of her time with her nose in a book, until she was introduced to crack cocaine. Then, she found relief through pills. She sobered up after her mother introduced her to her half-sister, Julia, in 1995. Marian took a special liking to Julia, who had similar brown hair and brown eyes to Charles.
She made one last trip to Charles’s grave. He would have been in his late teens by then. “Charles, you’ve missed a lot. I wish I could tell you in person, but it’s almost your fault that this all happened.”
Without another word, she turned her back on a brother who had done precisely nothing but fight to live. Julia returned to that spot years later, where she took Marian’s place in protecting their brother.
In college, Marian was a success. She accepted the internship with Professor Dorsett while beginning a friendship with a German exchange student her senior year. His name was Erich Hessen. He didn’t know perfect English, but he was interested in literature and was about to be dating a pretty girl named Sara Compton.
Marian had never felt a romantic feel for anyone before. She wondered if it was because of Rodney, or maybe she was asexual. Not until she met Erich. She wanted to be his Sara, and she constantly obsessed over him. Whatever parties he attended before Sara’s presence, Marian would be there. Even after Sara’s introduction, Marian “casually” ran into Erich many times until the perfect night in mid-1996.
Marian was returning from a study club in downtown Boston when she was approached by a white man who asked for her purse. The young science geek handed him her bag, but he pushed her into an alleyway and rammed his tongue down her throat. However, a young hero had seen the thug, and Erich entered the alley. He left the gangster in a messy heap on the dirty road.
After saving her, Erich invited her to coffee, where they bonded over their mutual love for education. Marian was being offered an internship with Dorsett, and Erich was being to become an assistant for Jax Albrecht. Erich was very in love with his eighteen-year-old girlfriend who had recently moved to Boston. Marian never found out how they had met.
Marian took it upon herself to maintain her friendship with Erich in case things with Sara never worked out. However, in an effort to keep his USA citizenship intact, Sara and Erich eloped, and their two children were born only ten months apart.
While she believed she was destined for Erich, her scientific research was astounding. She became a key leader in many experiments even her professor couldn’t solve, which led to her opportunity in D.C. for a newly reopened government branch called “PATHS”. Her mission: the aspects of a family. Would she do it?
IN THE GARDENS at the university, she pushed against him, kissing him with all of the strength in her muscles. He was shocked by her wet kiss, and he didn’t kiss back. He didn’t kiss her, but her mind had altered things. Christoph watched in disgust, seeing the memory pan out like reality had happened. He pushed her from him, but she thought the kiss meant something. She really did.
And once he had pushed her away, she fought back against him, dotting his face with ravenous kisses. “Stop, Marian!” he screamed, but she didn’t listen. “Marian! Marian, listen to me!”
Marian didn’t until he finally grabbed her wrists. “I said to stop it,” he barked. “I’m married, Marian! God, why did you kiss me?”
Tears filled the girl’s eyes. “I…I thought you liked me…”
“Marian, you’re my closest friend, but I’m in love with someone else,” he explained. “I never meant anything by this. I don’t love you, Marian. How could you do this?”
Hurt, angered, confused, Marian reached out to touch his golden hair, but he instinctively moved away from her. “Marian, I can’t do this. Don’t call me, don’t talk to me, don’t speak to me anymore, Marian. I have a wife, for God’s sake. Jax was right.”
Marian watched as he walked away. He had done the right thing, but she didn’t see it. He loved her, she knew. He loved her. He loved her. He loved her.
But he didn’t love her.
“MARIAN DEBEAUX?” shrieked Izzie after Christoph finished his memory. “She is the one…how did this all happen?”
Christoph shook his head. “I don’t know, Izzie, but it’s all related somehow. Marian DeBeaux is Olivia Moore, the girl who tried to keep us away from each other at the Bash a few weeks ago.”
“Olivia,” Izzie whispered, remembering the girl. She had a fake accent, baggy clothing, and ugly hair. It made sense that she was fake. “What are you going to do to her?”
Christoph didn’t speak for a moment. “I don’t know, Izzie. I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid.”
“Dad, don’t be afraid,” said Nick. “That woman deserves punishment.”
“By whom?” Izzie argued. “The government, Nick? Because the government has caused all this.”
“It’s not the government,” Nick wisely retorted. “It’s not the government. It’s a certain sect of the government, something most probably don’t know about. What if there are more experiments like us out there?”
“It’s very possible,” Christoph agreed. “Very possible.”
“Could we find them?”
“We need to focus on finding Kate before we do anything else,” Izzie said glumly. “Once we find your sister, then we can do whatever. But we need Katherine first. She’s our priority.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
MILES AND MILES away in Calais, a muscled, tall woman with long, black hair and narrow brown eyes helped carry Katherine Stone into the safe house on the edge of town. She was Rachel, fiancée to Watson, step-in leader of the hideout of northern Maine, and former experiment.
She entered the safe compound, and one of the members, Liza, immediately removed Kate’s clothing and gave her a fresh outfit to hide from authorities. Gabriel placed his radio transmitter in his room as some of the other members, members who had watched many die in the past years, shifted into the great room.
The compound was small. It was a five-bedroom home in the forest outskirts of Calais. There was a basement where many slept, and upstairs was the typical family setup. The blinds were always closed, and the place had a reputation for being a Boo Radley type of home, but Rachel liked it that way. They needed to stay secluded from the public.
As she entered the great room, she kissed Watson quickly on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re back, even if so soon,” she admitted.
He nodded. “No one else is.”
He was right. The rest of the hideout crew angrily stared at Watson, but Rachel ignored them. She took place at the podium as the group took seats. She knew them all well: Gabriel, Watson, Liza, Angeline, Hester, Isaac, Peter, and Ace. Some were deformed, others were healthy.
Gabriel had been the subject of a mental game. He grew up in a home in Massachusetts with a loving family, but he was taken away after his skillful computer expertise was discovered and used by Dr. Hatchell, a filthy scumbag who had used many. Gabriel was tortured to the point of torture to see how far he could mess with a computer screen. He was the experiment of bloody computer games which no one understood. Gabriel didn’t talk much, which was perfectly understandable.
Liza was an older woman who had been from Scotland. She wasn’t brilliant, but she and her twin brother, Nico, had been the experiment of Dr. Hatchell as well. He wanted to see how far twin capabilities could be launched. Dr. Mengele of Nazi proportions had experimented on twins, but so had Dr. Hatchell. He had Liza fearful of her own brother to the point that she left Nico and never looked upon his eyes again. If you looked closely at her, you could see one of her eyeballs was a plastic ball.
