He told me I wasn’t like the others. It sounded like a compliment. Until I saw the others.
I’d known Cade for years. I thought nothing of it when he asked for a sample of my blood. He had always been a little weird. Probably just keeping professionally sharp.
Now we were in his lab. Well, his basement. He usually brought work home with him. I always admired his dedication.
I laughed about him keeping half the room in darkness, and switched the light on. There were six bodies under sheets. I screamed.
“Dinah, calm down, it’s not what you think!” Cade came toward me and I backed up, holding out a hand, telling him to stop.
“Not what I think? What am I supposed to think when I see six bodies in your basement?”
“They’re not dead.” Cade insisted. “They’re in a state of suspended animation.”
“With what equipment? They’re on tables and…” I checked one of their wrists. “They have no pulse, Cade!”
“Their pulse is extremely low, that’s all.”
I looked at one of their charts.
“Jessica Avonleigh? Are you kidding me? She’s been here all this time?”
“Please, Dinah, I just need time. Time to figure out how to bring them back.”
Cade had officially lost it.
“From your blood, I know now, that you are the key to fixing this.”
“No, I’m not!” I ran to the door. It was locked. Cade came closer and in his hand, there was a syringe.
“It’s a mixture of chemicals that induce the coma like state.” Cade said simply. “But you, Dinah, you will wake up when I give you the second injection. I know that now.”
“You are not doing anything to me!”
“I’m sorry. I have to. For science. You’ll understand one day.”
Cade had me in his grip, and I couldn’t resist the needle he stuck in my arm.
I came to sitting on the bumper of an ambulance, a blanket around my shoulders.
“What’s going on?” I asked. The EMT regarded me closely.
“You don’t remember?”
I shook my head.
“You faked a coma and then called the police.”
“The girls in the basement, are they…”
“Dead, yes.”
“I can fix it! Why won’t you listen?” Cade wrestled against the grip of the policeman and the handcuffs. He saw me. “See, Dinah? I knew you’d be different!”