“Because you’re taking over their system, and you’re hurting them, and you’re not trying to keep them alive. You’re just trying to take from them. That wears them down. They’re fighting to stay alive and don’t understand what’s going on in their world. It just becomes this battle that they don’t have any power over.”

  “Exactly,” he agreed. “Thanks for explaining that so clearly. It’s too bad you brought this friend of yours though. I can see that you really care for him and that just means he’ll be on my shit list.”

  At that, she froze. “Why?”

  “You know why,” he replied. “You’re mine. You’re the only person I can talk to this way at all, and nobody else can do anything about it. But you brought him here and that means that you care about him, which means that I hate him.”

  “No!” She turned to Gray, who was staring at the bed, perplexed. “That’s not fair. He didn’t do anything to you.”

  “I don’t care if he did anything to me or not. He wants to do things to you that I won’t allow,” Rodney declared, glaring at her. “So here is a deal for you. He lives, but you have nothing more to do with him, and I get out of here.”

  She slowly smiled. “You do realize that getting out of here won’t help much, right?”

  “I figured that, once I’m out of here, you’ll come up with some way to heal me. It’s one thing to live like this, but I want my body back.”

  “That’s why you want the boy?” she asked Rodney. When he hesitated, she shook her head. “Good God, you’re actually wondering how you can transfer into his body, aren’t you? That would put you back to being a twelve-year-old boy again.”

  “But with the brain of an adult,” Rodney noted. “So I figured I was probably better off to do that, where I would live in his body, before I became an adult, and could actually take over and live the life I wanted, rather than trying to take over some of these people here, who are already kind of messed up,” he explained. “I wasn’t the easiest on them, when I was talking to some of them. So sorry about that.”

  She stared at him. “What the hell have you been up to in the six months that I’ve been gone?”

  “All kinds of shit,” he stated cheerfully. “You really shouldn’t have left me.”

  She stared at him, wondering how she couldn’t have known this was going on.

  “You couldn’t have known,” he confirmed. “And honestly it took me a long time to come back online.” His mood shifted with mercurial speed, and he snapped at her. “I’m so blaming you for that, by the way.”

  “Oh, so now I’m to blame for that too?” she asked, staring at him in shock. “You have no idea what’s going on.”

  “No, I don’t. I want you to walk me out of here though.”

  At that, she took a deep breath. “Have you even looked at yourself?”

  “You know I can’t see myself. That was always one of the things I avoided doing.”

  “I get that,” she said, “but I still need to know where Adam is.”

  “You won’t know,” he stated. “You won’t know at all because I won’t tell you.”

  “If you want me to get you out of here, then you have to tell me.” He still hesitated. “What? Are you actually telling me that you can’t find anybody else to use for your purposes?” she asked Rodney, taunting him.

  “I can’t use you,” he admitted, “and that’s a problem. I wanted to use you, but you’re strong. And I’m not sure, but it seems that you’re stronger than ever.” He glared at her. “How is it that possible? After that blowup, I’m weaker but you’re stronger?”

  She shrugged. “It’s energy karma. I wasn’t trying to manipulate people all this time that you’ve been down, that we’ve been apart,” she explained. “So it makes sense to me, but maybe not to you.”

  At that, he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Get me out of here now.” Then he got up from the bed and walked toward the door.

  Smirking, she realized that he had no clue yet. She looked over at Gray. “Watch out.”

  He understood and held out a hand. As soon as she connected with him, he nodded. “I can see him,” Gray confirmed.

  “Yeah, and he’s mad. He wants me to take him out of here.”

  Gray looked at her, startled.

  She smiled. “He doesn’t know.”

  “How is it that he doesn’t know?” Gray asked in frustration. “He’s here, making all kinds of demands and acting as if he’s perfectly fine, perfectly normal. Yet nothing is further from the truth.”

  Beside her, Rodney cried out, “What is he talking about? What is he saying?”

  “You can hear him, so you know perfectly well what he’s saying.”

  “Yes, but it doesn’t make any sense.” Rodney stared at her.

  “Then turn around and look at your body,” she snapped.

  “No, I won’t.”

  “You need to. Then you’ll understand the problem.”

  Slowly, ever-so-slowly Rodney turned and looked at the hospital bed, where his body—shriveled, shrunken, and comatose—was curled up in a fetal position. “No, no, no,” he cried out. Then he raced for the door.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” she corrected. “After that session six months ago, you were given too many drugs, and you’ve been like this ever since. You’re on life support. Your spirit may be free, but you have no physical movement. I can’t even take you out of here,” she shared. “This is where you’re imprisoned.”

  Rodney stared at her.

  She could tell that he was just starting to accept what his reality was, and then he lunged at her, his ghostly arms outstretched, trying to grab her neck. She immediately sidestepped him, releasing her grip on Gray’s hand at the same time.

  Rodney slammed into the machines that were keeping him alive. The electricity from his energy hit the machines, which then toppled, sparks flying from his contact with them and from the plug knocked out of the socket. Then came a set of sharp spurts, followed by one huge pop.

  She stepped back in shock and looked over at Gray.

  He stared at her and asked, “What the hell was that?”

  She asked Gray, “Do you see him?”

  “No, I don’t. I don’t see anything, except some smoke.”

  She walked over to where Rodney’s body was still connected to the machines. She checked for a pulse, then shook her head at Gray. “He’s gone.”

  “Dear God, how was that even possible?”

  “I’ll say the electricity that he disturbed caused some kind of a backfire, but we’ve got bigger problems.”

  “What’s that?”

  “He’s after Adam. I don’t know where Adam’s gone to or who Rodney coerced to take the boy away, but Adam’s missing.”

  He stared at her and asked, “It was Rodney?”

  “It was him,” she confirmed. “He was responsible for Dr. Mendelsohn’s heart attack, but I’m not sure about everything else.”

  “Good God,” Gray muttered. When his phone rang, he asked her, “Are you safe here?”

  “I’m safe.”

  “I’ll just be out in the hallway.”

  He stepped out of the room to answer the call, and she stared down at the body. She took several photographs and sent them to Stefan, but, as far as she could tell, absolutely no signs of life remained. She opened her senses and could confirm that his body was lifeless. A part of her felt remorse, and another part didn’t even want to go there. Cressy left her body to join Sadie, who was still playing outside.

  Sadie came running, a big smile on her face.

  Cressy asked her, “Did you see little Adam?”

  “Yes,” and then she frowned again. She looked around nervously. “But that man took him.”

  “Did you see where they went?” Cressy asked.

  She pointed. “Down the hallway.”

  “Right, okay. I’m trying to find him. If you see him, let me know.”

  Cressy returned to her body, then walked into the hallway and called out to Gray, “I’m heading down to the front hallway.”

  “I’m coming, but we don’t know where Adam is. We’re doing a full floor-to-floor search right now.”

  “Yeah, we need to do a bit more than that,” she replied. “We need to do a heat-seeking search.” She pulled out her phone and said, “Stefan.”

  I know. I hear you, Stefan replied. Link with me.

  And, with that, she linked with him and could sense Dr. Maddy and several other people in the distant space in the background, but energy flowed through and around her. She said, “I need a direction.”

  Up, Stefan replied.

  She immediately headed for the stairs.

  Third floor, Stefan added.

  “That’s good, only one floor above where I am.” She raced out onto the third floor.

  There were no orderlies, no nurses; Cressy couldn’t believe how slim the staffing was. “How far down?” Then she saw it herself.

  A glow of energy came about halfway down the hall. She raced toward it and realized it was one of the lounges. She opened the door and stepped inside, then cried out because the balcony doors were also open. She raced outside and found the golden energy in the corner, with another energy around it. She stepped forward. “Keith?”

  At that, Keith turned and looked at her, a big smile on his face. “There you go, Doctor. About time you got here.” He held the boy in his arms.

  Adam stared at her in terror, but he had a gag around his mouth, and his arms were tied. “Keith, could I have him back please?” she asked gently.

  Keith looked down at the boy and frowned. “But I’m supposed to throw him off the balcony,” he said in the calmest of voices.

  “You were,” she replied, “but the orders were changed.”

  He frowned at her and asked, “They were?”

  “They were. Sorry to say, nobody told you about it.”

  He frowned. “I’m really tired of this place. I have to work overtime constantly, and I never get a break. They cut the pay, and they cut the hours, but they doubled the workload,” he snapped.

  “I know,” she replied. “It’s all right though. Now we’ll see what we can do about getting you a better job.”

  He cheered up. “Hey, that would be great.”

  “But I really need you to put down Adam first. Maybe you’ll want to check in with the person who gave you those orders and confirm that it’s all okay.”

  He stared at her and then looked back down at the boy in his arms. “I guess I could. He is getting kind of heavy.”

  “I think you should give him to me. I’ll hold on to him, while you check in.”

  “Okay, I can do that.”

  Keith handed Adam to her, whom she held close against her heart, and then quickly passed him off to Gray, who was right behind her. “Keith, sit down for a minute, and let me take a look at you.”

  “Why is that?” he asked.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  He stared at her, then looked down to see blood on his hands. He reached up to his head.

  “What happened?” she asked, taking a step toward him.

  “I don’t know. I must have fallen and hit something, though I’m not usually that clumsy.”

  “I know,” she replied. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it, okay?”

  He smiled at her and said, “Okay.”

  And, with that, he sat back down on the balcony, closed his eyes, and, almost as quickly as she’d arrived, Keith died right in front of her. She raced forward and checked for a pulse, but there wasn’t any. She slowly stood, looked over at Adam, who had tears in his eyes, and she whispered, “You didn’t have to kill him.”

  His eyes widened, and he stared at her.

  “Let me take the gag off,” Gray said, as he untied Adam’s gag.

  And Cressy asked, “It wasn’t even on very hard, was it?”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Gray stared down at Adam and asked her, “What’s going on here?”

  “Part of the reason Rodney wanted Adam is because Adam is very talented,” she explained to Gray. Turning to Adam, she asked him, “You killed your own family, didn’t you, Adam?”

  His eyes widened again, and she nodded.

  “Your dad? He was beating up you and your mom. Then one night you wanted him to stop so badly that you saw him in your head, being slashed by somebody who was very powerful—coming into the house, killing your family, and rescuing you. Didn’t you?”

  He silently stared at her in shock.

  She nodded. “Later you realized it had happened exactly like your dream.”

  “How did you know?” he whispered, tears in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to do it, and I didn’t mean for Mommy to die too.”

  “I know you didn’t.” She crouched in front of him. “The thing is, when you’re a dream stalker, like I am and like you are, you have to be careful that you don’t actually hurt people.”

  He started to bawl in her arms.

  She wrapped him up in her arms and just held him close.

  In the meantime, Gray looked at her in shock and muttered, “Please no.”

  She shrugged. “All I can tell you is that something was happening that was terrifying, and he needed it to stop, and, just like me, when I create dreams or nightmares for people, he created a solution to his problem. That solution is what killed his family.”

  “Did he actually wield the knives?”

  In her arms, Adam shook his head frantically. “No, no, no, I didn’t. I didn’t.”

  She held him close and nodded. “In his mind, he did. In his hand, he did not.”

  Gray closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Jesus.”

  “I know. I know. Adam only wanted the abuse to stop.”

  “I didn’t know it could happen,” Adam whispered, bawling his eyes out. “I didn’t know.”

  Gray looked at her, and she smiled, then hugged Adam gently. “I know that,” she whispered. “I know you didn’t mean it. I know you didn’t even know you could do that. Unfortunately you’re one of very few people who can.”

  *

  Gray didn’t even know what to say. It was a very long night. Stefan had arrived to take charge of Adam, although Stefan didn’t have a clue what would happen to the boy, and Stefan had a long talk with Grant about it. They still had a lot of ends to tie up, but it looked as if Rodney had been behind a lot of it, not realizing that his body was as damaged as it was and had needed even more energy, particularly in this case from his aunt, in order to keep functioning the way he was.

  When they interviewed the aunt that evening, she had realized Rodney had quite a bit of psychic abilities and had wanted him here close by, so that she could monitor his progress. Plus it was so exciting to her to think that somebody with his physical damages could actually still be alive. But she was under the impression that Rodney’s psychic abilities were so minor that he could basically communicate on another level because she kept hearing whispers in her head and wondered if it was him. But she couldn’t talk to anybody about it because it was just a little too far out there.

  Gray wanted to say a whole lot about it, but, like Grant, he stayed quiet.

  As Gray walked out of the center afterward with Grant, he asked his boss, “Do you ever get to talk to anybody about this stuff?”

  “When these cases come up, I reach out to Dr. Maddy and Stefan,” he replied. “It’s different for Drew, since he’s married to Dr. Maddy and has immediate access to her and to her knowledge of all this. In your case, if you’re lucky, you’ll have total access to Cressy.”

  “Dear God, they must have had very lonely childhoods.”

  “They had very lonely childhoods, very abusive childhoods, and, only because of people like us, can they have somewhat normal lives now,” Grant explained. “I know it’s already too late for you, but I guess I should have warned you that, once you sign up for something like this, there really is no going back.”

  And, with that, Grant had led the way to the hotel, where Cressy slept.

  Hours later, the guys were still sitting here and talking. Finally Grant said, “I need to head home and get back to my family.”

  Gray nodded. “Thanks for everything.”

  “Yeah, well, believe me. You’ll need some help, when writing up this report.”

  Gray groaned at that. “I can’t even imagine.”

  “No, I’m sure you can’t.” Grant chuckled.

  “Wait. Then the little boy—Adam—how could he have killed his family exactly like the annihilator?”

  “Because his father had been watching it on the news,” Grant said wearily. “And that boy just picked it up and, with such an imagination, it wasn’t hard to get it close enough to have us wondering if it was the annihilator.”

  “But that also means that the annihilator is still out there.”

  “He is,” Grant noted, “and that’s unfortunate too because we still have to hunt him down. But there’ll always be another annihilator. There’ll always be another monster out there. All we can do is take it one day at a time and get them off the streets as soon as we can,” he stated. “Then, when you get a chance, rejoice in being alive, healthy, and enjoy life itself.” He nudged Gray toward the bedroom. “And remember to love her because, with these people, very little love has been in their lives, and they are as loyal as they come.”

  Long after his boss had gone, while standing in a hot shower, Gray wondered just what his friend meant and whether it was intended to be a warning about Cressy. When the bathroom door opened, he turned to stare through the streaming water, as she approached him.

  “Hey,” she said, as she stepped into the shower beside him, completely nude. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close.

  He snatched her up into his arms and hugged her tight. “Dear God, all this stuff …”

  “I know. I’m sorry. It’s kind of a lot for you to absorb.”