Summers of Yesteryear Snippet

And this, agents, is why we train against every form of mental conditioning...

“You were always such a ferocious creature.”

My blood turns to ice, and I frantically shine my flashlight around the room. The shadows dance around me, but I can’t seem to see the King of them.

But my other hand goes for my knife just the same.

“A heartless liar and manipulator. So like me.” His voice echoes all around me now.

Why can’t I pinpoint his location? “Show yourself! Show yourself, Earnestine!”

But the psychopathic psychiatrist I met during the Dystopian Takeover just laughs, the chuckles becoming louder and louder like drums in my head. “Maybe that was why it was so easy to get into your head. To make you do my bidding. Because it was exactly what you wanted to do.”

I blink, trying very hard not to remember the flashbacks from the part of my mind I dare not tread.

But how can I forget the way I almost killed Emily? The reason she had every right in the world to walk out of my life and never look back.

Slowly, carefully, I make my way toward the garage, still checking to make sure the shadows didn’t reach out to strike me. “I’m with a team of well-trained agents. They’ll come looking for me. They’ll find you-”

Just as I reach it, the garage door drops down, the sound of it causing my heart to stop and my hands to drop my flashlight. It flickers off even as I loose the light of the moon.

Throwing myself against the garage, I press my back to it and wave my knife in front of him, bracing for his attack.

“They won’t come for you. You mean nothing to them. No one ever comes back for you. Except me.”

I feel it. His touch against my left forearm.

Without hesitation, I drive my knife down into him. Into my left forearm.

I cry out with pain even as I bring myself down to the dust coated floor.

Tears prick my eye as I consider pulling out the blade and risking bleeding out, or keep it in and risk Dr. Earnestine unarmed. “I’m going to kill you. If it kills me, I’ll kill you.”

He just laughs. “That’s exactly what it will take. You see, I am you.”

My fingers grasp the blade, ready to pull it out. Shaking, but ready to kill and die. “Where are you!”

The laughter echoes again. It’s always the same laugh with the same tempo. “I already told you. I’m in your head.”

That’s when I realize what I should have known all along.

I’m alone in this hangar.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions? Mission Head has big dreams for the traditional publication of this companion novel to the Dystopian Takeover trilogy, so anything that leads toward near perfection is greatly appreciated!