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With a whoosh, the darkness disappears. Sharp, florescent lights blind Barbara until her eyes adjust. She’s in a dull, gray room. Four walls. One exit. A little camera pointed at her in the corner where one wall meets the ceiling. A table. A chair she’s handcuffed to the back of.
She would be worried if a part of her hadn’t always known this day, or a day like this, would come eventually.
Two men, or beings with the appearance of men (Barbara knows enough to question that now), are with her. One leans on the wall by the door. His eyes follow her every movement. She tries not to squirm under his calculated gaze. The other one neatly folds the sack they yanked over her head when they kidnapped her and places it primly on the table. Then, he sits down across from her.
“Welcome, Dr. Lake.” The second man speaks with a thick, German accent. “I am Otto Scaarbach. You may call me Otto, as I think we will become friends while you’re here. I apologize that we can’t be more accommodating, but I’ll see what I can do.” He pauses. “If you help us out. See, the way things work here, I do something for you, you do something for me. You understand, yes?”
Barbara remains silent.
Otto sighs. “It’s a simple matter, truly. The reason why we’ve brought you here. A creature, that we cared for here at our facility, has gotten loose. This creature poses a significant threat to anyone it comes across. Something a doctor, such as yourself, must find incredibly worrying. Now, we have reason to suspect you have knowledge of the creature’s whereabouts. Rest assured, you aren’t in any trouble. We recognize that you are a compassionate person who will help anything that comes across your path, however misguided. All we ask is that you help us resolve both our mistakes and help us locate the creature. So everyone can remain safe and sound and comfortable in their homes.”
“I don’t.” Barbara swallows thickly. “Know what you’re talking about. I don’t know anything about any creature. I’m just an ER doctor.”
Otto frowns. “Please, Dr. Lake, help us willingly. It will work better for you in the end. Don’t you want to protect the innocent people of Arcadia from a monster?”
“Jim isn’t a monster!” Barbara snaps, and then realizes her mistake.
Otto grins wolfishly. “Oh? So you do know our subject of discussion.” He folds his hands and rests his elbows on the table. “Do tell me more.”
Barbara presses her lips together in a thin line. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Her brain chants at her. Her heart hammers. Maybe she could have talked her way out of this, but not anymore.
“Ah, very well.” Otto sits back in his chair and gestures to his associate by the door. “Mr. Strickler, would you kindly bring me a certain little jar?”
Mr. Strickler silently walks forward and places the object in question on the table. Barbara would have admired its glaze job if she were in any other situation. She’s come to love ceramics ever since Nomura began teaching her about the art form.
Otto takes the lid off the jar and sets it down on the table with a plink. Inside, the jar is full of glittery, black dust.
“Now, Dr. Lake, I am a kind man. I will give you one last chance. Tell me what you know or I’m afraid I’ll be forced to do something awful.”
Barbara gulps. Well, this, whatever this is, isn’t going to be fun. “I am not going to tell you anything.” She tries not to sound scared.
“Then, I apologize. I sincerely did not want it to come to this, but you leave me no other options, mon freund.” Otto takes a pinch of the dust and blows it in her face.
Barbara coughs. That was supposed to do something? Seriously? It hardly—
She’ll kill him. She’ll kill them all. She’s hungry. She’s starving. She’s angry. FURIOUS. A growl rises in her throat. She pulls at her handcuffs. Once she breaks free, she’ll—
And then it’s gone. Barbara plunges back to normality. She gasps for breath. What was that? That feeling? That horrible, horrible feeling? It was like she became something else. Something that didn’t know reason.
“What…was…that?” The question leaves her before she can stop it.
Otto chuckles. “So, Dr. Lake, I assume you don’t enjoy the effects of grave sand, then?” He takes another pinch between his fingers. “It would be a pity if you had to go through such unpleasantness again. Tell me what I want to know, where is subject J-1M, and you won’t have to.”
“No.” Barbara closes her eyes and thinks of the cute five-year-old. She pulls the memory of finding out he ate all the silverware and none of his sisters stopped him to the forefront of her mind as a distraction.
She’s prepared the second time the dust gets blown in her face, but that doesn’t stop its effects. The rage. The hate. She strains against her handcuffs. She feels them dig into her wrists. When Barbara returns to normal, the pain pulses up her arms.
“Ready to talk?”
“No.” Barbara gasps. “Never.”
“Very well.”
The cycle continues. He questions. She refuses. The dust.
The world shakes and shudders around Barbara, and loses focus. She just wants it all to stop. She strains. She’ll make it stop. She’ll destroy everything until there’s nothing left and then she’ll finally have silence. She growls. Snarls. Noises she didn’t know the human body was capable of rise in her throat.
She pulls and pulls and the handcuffs snap. Barbara’s up. She lunges and tackles something—someone—she’ll kill them. She’ll kill them all.
Hands grab her. She’s forced against the wall. Restrained there.
She expects Otto’s sickening, calm voice, but it’s a different one that speaks. It’s familiar, but she can’t place it. Barbara screams. Let me go! Let me destroy!
“Hey. Hey. Barbara, look at me. Please, look at me.” It’s a soft voice. Weak. Pathetic. She’ll kill its owner.
Barbara snarls.
“I know you’re in there, Barbara. We came for you.” The voice continues in its pathetic tone. “We’re here to get you out. You have to focus on my voice. Remember me and come back. Come back to me.”
Barbara claws at the person restraining her. She snarls again.
“I’m sorry,” The voice whispers. “Forgive me for this.”
There’s a pressure like something’s being held over her mouth. The world falls away.
When Barbara wakes, there’s a weight on her chest. She panics, but then she sees. It’s a five-year-old troll child, splayed out across her stomach so his arms can still hug her while he’s asleep. His little body rises and falls peacefully with each breath he takes.
Barbara exhales. It’s just Jim. She places a hand on his back. Maybe it was just a dream? A frightening, horrible—no, there’s bandages on both her wrists, where the handcuffs would have been.
The ordeal happened. She groans and leans back against her pillow.
“You’re awake?” A tentative voice asks from beside her.
Barbara turns her head. Claire is there, curled up under a blanket in an armchair next to her bed. Barbara frowns. Purple-black veins run from the girl’s eyes and up her arms from her hands.
“Claire—”
“I had to.” Claire coughs. “I’m fine. We had to get you out of there and there was no other way in. There was too much security and they were…they were going to kill you.” She ends in a whisper.
“It’s okay.” Barbara reaches out to the girl with a hand and beckons her closer. “It’s okay, they didn’t kill me. I’m here.” She looks up at Claire when, still wrapped in her blanket, the girl approaches her bedside. “How are you doing? Do you feel her presence at all?”
“No.” Claire answers. “I just did one portal. She stirred, but we got out of there before it woke her up.”
Barbara stops herself before she can sigh in relief. She notes the expression on Claire’s face. “Come here.” She holds out her hand to the girl. “Everything’s going to be alright now.” She wraps an arm comfortingly around Claire when she curls up beside her. “I won’t let anything else happen.”
“Shannon’s really upset,” Claire whispers right before falling asleep.
Barbara grimaces. Claire must be exhausted if she drifted off that easily. She strokes the girl’s hair. Best to let her rest.
A part of Barbara aches to get up and see how the rest of their family is doing, but she loathes the idea of waking these two so she remains put.
Eventually, she hears rising voices from beyond the doorway.
“We need to attack!” That was Shannon, loud and angry. “They’re not going to hesitate in hurting us. We need to strike back! Stop them from ever thinking that they can do something like this again!”
“No.” Nomura’s voice is firm. “We will do no such thing.”
“But—”
“I said no, Shannon. There will be absolutely no attacks. We cannot risk it.”
“So you’re fine with them coming after us again and again? So you’re fine with them hurting us whenever they fucking want?” Shannon’s voice raises to a shout. “You were one of them, right? How do we know you’re not secretly on their side?”
“That’s ENOUGH!” Nomura roars back. “Think things through! What do you think will happen if we attack them? Do you think Jim would survive? He barely knows how to tie his shoes! Or Claire? You know what happens if she uses too much magic. Are you willing to risk her corruption for vengeance? Are you willing to put your life on the line? Aja’s? Barbara’s? Yes, I hate the way things are. No, none of this is fair, but I’m trying to keep all of us alive, Shannon.”
In response, Shannon just screams at Nomura. Barbara hears a door slam.
Aja’s voice speaks up in a soft tone. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t go too far,” she tells Nomura. “She’s just scared. The government had her for years longer than they had me and seeing what the Order did to Barbara, it just really upset her.”
“I know.” Nomura sighs. “I know. Just make sure she takes her temper out constructively, alright?”
“I will.” The door opens and closes again.
Footsteps approach Barbara’s room, and then Nomura enters. Her eyes meet Barbara’s and then a relieved smile spreads across her face. Nomura approaches her bed on the opposite side of Claire.
“I heard,” Barbara starts. “Are they—?”
“Shannon needs to cool off, but physically neither she nor Aja sustained injuries,” Nomura interrupts her. “It was a quick in and out. Claire opened a portal to the interrogation room they had you in. The hardest part was…” She sits on the edge of the bed, takes Barbara’s hand in hers, and doesn’t make eye contact. “What do you remember?”
“Not much. I…there was this dust. He kept…” Barbara swallows. “It…I…”
“Grave sand.” Nomura’s grip tightens around Barbara’s hand. “In short, it heightens certain emotions. It has a particularly bad effect on humans.”
“I didn’t tell him anything,” Barbara says. “I don’t think I did. So, we’re still safe. Probably. The Janus Order knows about Jim, but we already knew that.” She pauses. “Though they now know about Claire too and—”
“Fuck, Barbara!” Nomura snaps. Her voice cracks. “We’ll deal with that later. You nearly—I nearly—you—I could have lost you.” She heaves a breath. “Grave sand alters the mind. It corrupts. You almost…” She visibly swallows. “You almost didn’t come back. I had to knock you out so we could get you out of there without you attacking us.”
“Oh…”
“We’re secure. For now. I got us to an old safe house of mine.” Nomura reaches forward and cups Barbara’s cheek in her hand. “I know you want to take care of everyone, but you need to rest. Shannon and Aja will be back soon. Then we’ll talk about where we’ll go from here.” She leans forward and presses her lips to Barbara’s forehead. “I can’t do this without you,” she whispers. “So, for Janus’s sake, don’t leave me.”
“Alright,” Barbara whispers back. She pulls Nomura down so she is curled up next to her.
When Shannon and Aja return, they too join the cuddle pile.
Tomorrow, they’ll figure out their next move. Today, they’re just relieved to all be together.