Painless

Chapter Twenty-Four

It took over thirty minutes for me to regain control over my limbs again, and when I finally did, I was so weak I could barely walk. But I was anxious to find Joanie and Glenn, so I forced Benji to help me to my feet and drag me around the basement. This wasn’t easy on either of us, considering he hadn’t fully recuperated, and I was of no help being dead weight in his arms and all. Yet somehow we managed to move from one glassed-in room to the next, searching for our friends and hoping they were still alive when we found them. Or that we’d find them at all.

According to Carson, there was absolutely no sign of Dr. Jackson inside the massive house, and something told me that we wouldn’t find him. Today, at least. Given all the twists and turns and tricks around the castle, I’m sure he’d escaped through a secret entrance only known to him, creeping off into the night.

            “Glenn! Joanie!” I tried to yell out, even though I was still having trouble mustering up the energy to do much of anything at all. Luckily, Benji still had his voice. Yelling was sort of pointless anyway, considering each individual room was soundproof, and the suites stretched down multiple corridors. But we didn’t stop trying.

            After running through rows of rooms without any sign of our friends, Benji finally slowed down and leaned us against the glass to rest. I was still so tired and could barely stand up at this point, but I mustered what little strength I did have to keep my head up.

            “They have to be here,” I said, breathing out the words while sucking in big breaths of air. The reality was that Dr. Jackson had never actually said that Joanie and Glenn were in the building. Sure, it certainly seemed as if he had created a place to raise an army of super kids, but for all we knew, he was keeping his kidnappees somewhere else. Or worst case scenario: he’d taken them with him.

            As time dragged on, I began to worry more and more that this might be the case.

            “They’re here,” Benji said, trying to sound hopeful, but I could tell he was being more upbeat than he felt. “They’ve gotta be.”

            I took a deep breath and pushed away from the wall, staggering down the hallway, determined to check every single room in the place before giving up. My heart sank with every empty bed, but I kept going.

            As we neared the end of yet another hallway, my legs gave out from underneath me and this time Benji was too far away to help. I fell to my knees in a heap of disappointment and exhaustion. I felt like a failure. My mission had been to find my friends, and here I was, losing so close to the finish line. I was tired and hungry and frustrated and confused, and now I was going to have to admit that I couldn’t solve the case; something that had never happened to me before and crushed my ego like a bug. I’d already let Dr. Jackson get away while I was “incapacitated,” botching my only chance at bringing the bad guy to justice. But worse than that, I’d failed Joanie and Glenn.

            And that really hurt.

             “I can’t…” I started to say but couldn’t get the whole sentence out. Benji kneeled beside me and took my hand in his. I wasn’t sure if he was going to help me to my feet or if he was just trying to be supportive, but I was too tired to fight him either way. “I can’t…”

            “Let’s just wait for the doctors to come,” Benji said, looking me over for injuries. “I shouldn’t have let you get up in the first place.”

            I gazed up at him, searching his face for disappointment, but all I saw was love. Unconditional, sappy, sweet and innocent love. The kind of love that people searched their whole lives for. But it was coming from Benji, my best friend, and the one person I trusted with my life, but didn’t trust myself with his. He cared about me when I didn’t deserve it and would do just about anything I asked him to. Except to leave me alone.