2025-10-30 03:20:03
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chapter 17
They were rolling past the silent mansion again on their way back to the prison when it hit Nella like shattering glass. She grabbed Frank's arm and the car slid across the empty lanes. "Stop the car," she said, "I remember where I saw her. Stop the car.""Jesus, Nella! Okay, don't kill us."She barely waited for him to pull off the side of the road. When she opened her door, the tires were still spitting gravel at her ankles."Just a second! Where are you going?" Frank yelled out the open door. Nella walked back toward the mansion, her hands shaking inside her jacket pocket as they fumbled for her phone. Frank ran up behind her. "What are you doing?""Do you know if there is cell service here?"Frank stammered. "What? I've never been here- I guess so, I mean we're close enough to the prison that the tower there should cover it. I don't know which ones have been fixed out here."Nella swore and started dialing. "Sevita, pick up the phone. Sevita, it's me, pick up the phone. I need to
chapter 16
The rum was gone. The amaretto was making angry bubbles in Nella's stomach, but she didn't care. Her hand didn't hurt and her heart didn't hurt and she wasn't alone in the silent apartment building. In the dark, empty world.Frank sat across from her, unfolded like a carpenter's rule on the couch. He was looking at the bookshelf beside him, his fingers tracing the cracked spines. His face was softened in the lamplight and though the scar that shattered his cheek still glowed like an almost-dead ember, Nella thought he didn't look quite as ugly as she'd thought before."My wife had some of these books," he said, without looking at her, "I think she would have liked you.""Really? What makes you think that?"He thought for a minute. "The way you treat people. You seem ready to believe that people are better than they appear at first. That there's a reason they are the way they are. And the way you are kind to people like Ann, people so damaged they appear to be monsters to others. And t
chapter 15
Nella could hear her blood pounding in her head like a giant helicopter rotor. She didn't dare to look around at Mr. Courtlen until it had faded into the background. She started to get up, but she shook so much that she thought she might shatter. She sat back down."What do we do?" she asked in a quiet, lost voice. All her training, all of her desire to remain professional and collected was stripped away. She could remember hearing almost the same news spilling out of the television in her university's lounge. The same vivid panic reached out of the memory and squeezed her chest with unbearable weight. She turned to look for Mr. Courtlen.He was as lost as she, still staring at the blank screen. His face was yellow and waxy with sweat. He was motionless but his bones still seemed to want to leap forward without his skin and he was all angle and sharp corner. His terror made him hideous. Nella had time to realize that she didn't care, she was glad he was sitting with her. At last he pa
chapter 14
When the screen shifted from blank black, it showed a small closet and Nella's ears were filled with the incessant buzz of an old florescent bulb and the muffled sobs of a woman somewhere outside the closet. Occasionally there was a sharp, rhythmic banging."Don't do this Robert!" Dr. Schneider's voice was pleading and raw even through the wall. "I'm not sick. You can see that I'm not sick.""I'm sorry Gerta. I have to do this. I can't trust you to maintain quarantine voluntarily. Ann is locked in as well and I'll be locking myself in next.""Someone's going to come looking for us," sobbed Dr. Schneider, "You won't get away with this.""Someone might come along, but they'll have to ignore some pretty massive signs warning them. Then they'll have to break through several palettes I nailed across the door."Nella paused the video. "Mr. Courtlen, I don't know if I should see this. Dr. Pazzo isn't charged with kidnapping but he could be."He ran a hand over his head for a second. "I know
chapter 1 3
The video cut out and Nella turned to Dr. Pazzo. He was shaking and held up one hand as if to forestall her questions. "I think," he said in a low voice, "I'm going to leave you both to watch the next pieces alone. I will answer any questions you have tomorrow, but I don't think I can live through the next part again. If you'll excuse me," he rose from his seat, "Mr. Courtlen, Dr. Rider goodnight. And thank you for the books." Dr. Pazzo shuffled down the hall followed by his guards.Mr. Courtlen took a deep breath and puffed his cheeks blowing it slowly out again. "Do you know what is on the next tape?" asked Nella."I haven't watched it, but I can guess that it is at this point that Dr. Pazzo secluded himself and the others in the lab. Dr. Pazzo's notes say this is a key piece of evidence, but I'm not so sure- I think we've pretty much seen all the evidence that matters. Let's get to it though.""I'm not really concerned with evidence. Did he tell you about his relationship with Ann?
chapter 12
Dr. Pazzo had recovered his usual reserve, but Nella's chest was tight with anxiety. She'd seen no indication of madness in Dr. Pazzo yet, nor did she expect to. Beyond a fairly normal case of narcissism and an understandably high level of depression, he was remarkably healthy. His hints of withholding vital information were all the more frightening to Nella because of this. She could see, however, that Mr. Courtlen was becoming more suspicious of his client. Nella was increasingly convinced that Dr. Pazzo was telling the truth.They resumed their seats. Nella heaved an inward sigh at the contrast between the bright and airy cafeteria and the grim, hunched narrowness of the cell block. She was glad she would get to walk out at the end of the day."Dr. Pazzo," she began, "You said it took you several weeks to notice Ann's symptoms. How did you finally find out that she was infected?""It was the day I took her to the hospital. She had accidentally cut herself on some broken glassware.
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