Autopsy of a Mind

I stomped around my room, trying to compose my thoughts when the phone rang again. I swooped down to the bed and swiped up the phone. It was Sebastian.

"Hi," I whispered, almost breathless. 

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately. "Why do you sound like that?" I could hear the anxiety in his voice. 

"I… ran up the stairs," I said finally. And I had. I was wondering if I should tell him why I had done it though. 

"Sounds counterproductive unless you are trying to increase your physical fitness. Who was trying to talk to you and why did they affect you like this?" Sebastian, always cutting out the bullshit and getting to the point. 

I sighed before plopping down on the bed. "It was Ross Reynolds." There was silence on the other side.

"I thought he died," Sebastian said casually.

"No, he is alive and kicking. And still an asshole of epic proportions," I swore. 

"I understand why you have such a violent reaction. What did he want to tell you?" He seemed to have an idea that it wasn't a simple greeting. 

"He tried to make excuses about why it took seven months for me to be rescued and why I had to be the one who solved the case and not the police." I scoffed. 

"He came to apologize, then," he added. He paused for a second, thinking about what to say next. "People in power don't like to be in situations where their power is taken away from them. Ross was all high and mighty, so saying that he made mistakes would be hard on him."

I broke out into a humorless chuckle. "I know that. That's not what pissed me off."

"What else did he say?" he asked cautiously.

"He said that there was someone helping Alicia on her murder spree and they never found any clue about him. The police wanted to bury their failures and that's why they were trying to pin some blame on me." I grew silent after that. 

"And I never knew about this? Is he kidding?" He was incredulous. 

"He gave some instances. About the precision of the murders and the lack of evidence." I sighed. 

"I have the case files." I heard him push off the surface he was sitting in. "Wait, I'll get the files and look through it."

"No!" I said quickly. "You have so much work on your plate right now. Don't worry about it right now. I'll take the flight late tomorrow night. The plane will land the day after, so… I'll come home and pick up my things before work."

He groaned. "I'll pick you up," he offered. 

"Sebastian, catch some sleep. Please."

"I—" and he stopped midsentence. 

"What is it?" I asked with a sense of urgency.

"I think I have a lead. The conversation with you really helped."

I blinked. "Happy to be of help?" The words came out more as a question. "Anything you can tell me?"

"No. Nothing. I got some emails from a government official saying that I couldn't speak about it anymore."

That was strange. "It did cause a media frenzy and the government and police were scrambling to make people feel safe. Probably trying not to protect the people from feeling insecure."

Sebastian hummed. "I'll call you at night, okay?"

And he did. We spoke about nothing and everything until I felt my eyes droop. Soon, I was drowning in my dreams. Scenes from my captivity resurfaced in my mind.

"Evie," I heard in the distance. It was a voice I knew and I tried to wade through the water I was drowning in and towards it.

"Evie, wake up." His voice was gentle. I moaned as it slipped away from it. Realization slowly seeped in. 

I was dreaming. I was dreaming all of this and I had to wake up. I calmed myself down and looked around the room I was locked in. I needed to find a location where reality frayed and then concentrate enough to jolt my body into consciousness. 

How did I know this? Dr. Knight.

It took me a while. I don't know how long… but I slowly gained control of my body. 

I blinked my eyes open and squinted in the dark. Beside me, my cell phone was still lit. I turned to it and saw him. 

"Are you okay?" he asked softly. 

"Why didn't you cut the call?" I asked, my voice cracking. I felt my throat and chest tightening.

"I was just working and I miss you in bed. Hearing you breathe in the same room was comforting," he admitted. I could sense that he was holding back. 

"How did I get together with such a nice man?" I teased. "Tell me the truth… you thought I would fall back into sleep-paralysis or night terrors, didn't you?" I smiled. 

He looked at me, not giving me a clue. "It's good that you know how precious I am. Now you can never leave me." He cracked a smile. 

I saw him push his glasses up his nose and groaned. 

"Now I really miss you," I said, my voice barely a whisper.

"Get up. Go to the water heater and heat some water. Slowly sip on it and sit, okay?" Always so bossy. 

I picked the phone up and held it in front of my face as I walked to the refreshment station and started the heater. Ten seconds in, I poured out some water and walked over to the bed. I found a remote and switched on the air conditioner. 

Reducing body heat would help with sleep. And the water would calm me down. I took a small sip and hissed. 

He glanced towards me and smirked. "Don't be impatient," he coaxed softly. I nodded and silently watched him work. He bounced around the room, writing on the whiteboard and shuffling paper.

I couldn't even tell him that I wanted to help. I didn't need Sebastian to be held accountable for spilling government secrets and whatnot.

The night seeped into morning and I watched him. He didn't speak and neither did I. We sat in comfortable silence: me reading a book while he worked on the case.

When the birds chirped, I sighed and shut the book. "I'm going to talk to Alicia," I said softly, trying not to startle him. 

He looked up and nodded. "I'll apply for an interview. I'll take the interview while you listen in." He was not asking for my permission. He was telling me that he was not going to let me ask her questions or remind myself what had really happened. 

"I will talk to her myself," I pressed. 

He shook his head. "You interviewing her will be emotionally motivated. Your training may make you a good interrogator but it doesn't make you inhuman. You have feelings… strong feelings about her and I will not allow you to sink into the darkness to quell your curiosity."

I gulped. "I can trust you, right?" I asked. Of course, I could. It was a rhetorical question. 

"I am not inhuman, but I will do anything to find the answers to your questions. If there is someone who was aiding her, I will find them and bring them to justice. They will not escape. Do you understand?"

It sounded like he was willing the universe to go with it. And I finally understood why. He was beating himself up for now getting the answers when the case had happened. I could see the hint of guilt on his face and knew that it was crippling him.

"You couldn't have known," I whispered.

He shook his head. "If there were signs of another person and I missed it. It is my fault."

I groaned. "You may be a genius but you were also a child at the time. You had barely gotten field experience." I shrugged. "If you were that perfect, I would have never liked you. I like humans, not robots… or gods for that matter." I cracked a smile. 

"I'm glad you are feeling better," he announced. He looked at the clock and sighed. "It's time for you to get ready for another day at the conference. I need to get up and get to the station, too."

"I'll see you in twenty-four hours, okay?" I murmured. We said our goodbyes and hung up. The rest of the day went about in a blur. 

The next morning, I was stretching beside Harshit on the plane. 

He looked at me and chuckled. "You look excited about something," he said finally. 

"Of course. I am seeing my fiancé after two days and I have a new obsession."

Harshit shook his head in disbelief. "I thought you would be broken and re-traumatized, but it only gave you another thing to obsess over, didn't it?" he asked. 

"This is the only way to kill my demons. Maybe I was always so afraid and looking over my shoulder because my unconscious mind knew that there was someone out there who had hurt me and was still roaming free on the planet. And now, I have proof that I wasn't completely insane in my paranoia. Now I know that this demon in the shadows exists. If they are human… they are tangible and I can defeat them."