If the coming hurricane was as bad as its predecessor, it could be the end for all of them.
Jane lay down on the cot in the on-call room adjacent to the lounge. Mom must be frantic, she thought. Dad too. She’d been able to send out a text a few days ago that she was alive and in the hospital, but then all communication had gone dark. They hadn’t wanted her to even come to undergrad at Loyola, but she’d fallen in love with the school and the city. She’d then quickly enrolled in medical school at Tulane and had never wanted to leave.
Even after the fourth hurricane this year. Even after the levees failed and the mayor ordered an entire evacuation. Even after the CEO of the hospital ordered the patients out, leaving only the sickest of the sick and a bare-bones staff of doctors and nurses. Even after her mother had called, sobbing, begging her to leave.
She was too ideological, Dr. Wraf had lectured her. Too young, too naïve, too much potential to get trapped here. You could die, Jane. We all could.
Jane couldn’t explain why she stayed, beyond her true desire to stay with her patients who had no family and other loved ones.
She also couldn’t explain that mentally and physically, she simply couldn’t leave. Something kept her here.
She turned over in the dark, closing her eyes. No more thinking about the choices she made. Shelia could come in any second with word of the next disaster. She needed to sleep while she could. She said a silent prayer that the dream bypassed her this time….
When she woke, her jaw hurt, which meant she’d been grinding her teeth. It signaled a long sleep.
She slipped off the cot, frantically pulling her hair back with the hair tie she always kept on her wrist. As she rushed to brush her teeth with the spare toothbrush she kept in her locker, and wash her face, she glanced at her phone, which now only served as a way to check the time and date.
Seven a.m. She’d slept the rest of the afternoon and night. Next to her phone was a note in Shelia’s handwriting. You needed it. It’s been quiet.
She hurried out into the lounge, quickly glancing at the back of a man leaning against the frame of one of the windows being hammered by the storm outside. Even the plywood nailed up outside was thumping like someone was pounding on it. It must be calmer inside, though, if Dr. Wraf was taking a break.
“You guys shouldn’t have let me sleep that long—”
Jane looked back quickly, realizing Dr. Wraf never wore a ball cap.
When the man turned from the window, she reached over and pinched her hand. You’re still asleep. You’re still asleep.
“I didn’t want to wake you,” the man said hesitantly. “I figured seeing my face after being asleep might make… things… even stranger.”
William Chance looked much older than she’d seen in her dreams. Certainly he’d aged from how he’d looked on the poster board of cut-out pictures that Julie, her best friend from high school, once hung in her bedroom. She’d tacked him alongside that guy from the Disney musical. She distinctly remembered Julie searching all the teen magazines and online websites for a picture of him smiling, but she could never find one. He clearly didn’t like having his photo taken.
“You can’t be in here.” It was all she could manage to say.
He exhaled, leaning on a table. “Probably not. But security is pretty light.”
She suddenly snapped into clarity. She’d seen him on the news before the power went out. He was on the run for some reason. He’d been kidnapped, right? By some kind of fanatics. It explained why he’d appeared again in her dreams. The subconscious mind was a powerful thing.
“Do you need help?” she asked. “I saw… you’ve been in trouble, right? I don’t know how you ended up here, but there are still police in town—”
He shook his head. “No. I’m… as fine as I can be. I came here to try and find you.”
Don’t say that. God, don’t say that.
“I know this is really strange. But I know you. And I think you know me.”
“The whole world knows you,” Jane said, trying to keep her voice in a calm, detached, doctor tone. “I’ll ask again, are you in need of help? The last I saw, you were… kidnapped? Are you safe?”
“None of us are safe. That’s why I’m here. I know you, but I don’t even know your name.”
Jane took a small step backwards. She’d had her fair share of mentally ill patients. There was certainly strong speculation that a young man who vanished and then reappeared in a violent confrontation with law enforcement might be dangerously off balance.
“Why don’t you take a seat, Mr. Chance. You’ve obviously been through a lot, and it could do you some good to get a thorough examination. Are you on any medication I need to know about?”
He rested his hands on his hips, his shoulders broadening, the vein in his neck rising.
“Listen, please know this is as weird for me as it is for you.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“I didn’t think I could find you. I couldn’t, actually, until a few hours ago. I still don’t truly understand how. But I did. And… I know you’ve seen me in your dreams. Just like I’ve seen your eyes and, eventually, your face. It’s how I found you. We don’t have a lot of time because that storm out there is getting worse. I assume you had a moment, maybe about a year ago, where you have a block of time that you don’t remember. Am I right?”
She flinched. “How do you know that?”
He took a hesitant step towards her. “I don’t know how to even start having this conversation with you. Something happened to you that you don’t remember. The same thing happened to me, a long time ago. What you need to know is that… you’re causing the hurricanes. And I’m the one who is making you do it.”
Run. Run now. This guy is insane.
Jane bolted. As she darted across the room, she realized she misjudged the distance between them.
“Wait,” he said, reaching out, taking her arm.
The jolt was so strong she felt the room tilt. For a moment, all she could see was the storm blowing in from the gulf. It was all around her, ripping and tearing at her and everything in its path—
She yanked her arm back. “You need to step back,” she stammered.
William looked as stunned as she. He held up his hand, examining his fingertips.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you need to stay the hell back—”
Something smashed against the windows outside—a limb, or perhaps a piece of a nearby house. The howling was shockingly loud, and more debris began to crash outside.
He continued to look at his hands, his voice low. “That’s it. How I can stop Lily.”
He raised his head. “Give me your hand. You can stop this. We can stop this. People are going to die if we don’t—”
The battering against the window was so intense, even the hurricane-readied glass began to crack. The walls and floors shook.
William rushed forward and grabbed both her arms. She began to fight back, when she found she could not wrest her eyes from his. She was unable to even blink.
The glass shattered as the storm roared in.
THIRTEEN
The men in suits were waiting for her outside the Oval Office. They stood at attention as she exited, their director towering over them.
“Senator—”
Kate kept walking. “Give me a moment, Director Wolve,” she said, heading out into the hallway.
The Secret Service agents eyed them cautiously as they strode past. As they walked into the adjoining hallway, she stopped.
“The president made it clear we were to discuss this only in private. Is your car waiting?”