The Good Ones

Chapter 21: Fade Away

Lucinda had to dig deep down inside herself to find the will to stand when Mavis told her Alex had finally returned from the North Pole.

"He wants us to meet in his living room in ten minutes," said Mavis. "To talk about our suicide mission."

Lucinda just nodded. Right now, death was at the very bottom of the list of things that concerned her. The top of that list was occupied by the voice inside her head that wouldn't stop.

Give me life, and I will give you power.

"I need to call my parents," Mavis said. "I guess I'll tell them the same thing I told them when we went to Montana, that I was on a road trip with Alex, working cattle. I just don't know what Aurora will tell them if I'm killed."

Lucinda didn't say anything. Mavis called her parents every night without fail, but Lucinda hadn't talked to her parents in months. If something happened to her, it would be good riddance to bad rubbish in their eyes.

After Mavis left the bunkhouse, Lucinda took three Adderall at one time. Not that it was going to make a difference. She'd never recovered from the crash after she came down off the Rhino Juice a few weeks ago. She barely had the energy to perform basic functions, let alone make coherent thoughts. The voice inside her head, what she was now calling "the monster", didn't go away when the juice wore off. It lingered in the back of her mind, telling her she could be powerful again if she just gave it life.

The temptation to give in to the monster had been the most overwhelming thing that Lucinda had ever experienced in her life. Unlike Adderall, where the euphoria only lasted thirty minutes and its stimulus effects four hours, the intense euphoria from Rhino Juice lasted the entire twelve hours it was on board. As if that weren't enough, it gave her limitless power. She could walk into a Dark Army base and kill every single one of those freaks with minimal effort. Never again would she fail someone because she was weak. However, with the power came the monster. When she gave it life, its wants and desires became her own, and they were dark, evil, twisted things. One of the monster's deepest desires was to see Mavis Rogers dead.

Lucinda joined the others in Alex's living room and took a seat on the floor next to the coffee table. Kevin and Mavis occupied the couch, while Alex stood in front of them, next to the tv.

"Well?" Kevin prompted. "What piss poor excuse did Nicholas give for sending us to South Africa?"

"He thinks we've had enough additional time in training," said Alex. "He's confident we've learned from our first mistakes and won't make them again. Thinks we'll have the best chance at gathering information undetected."

Lucinda caught the slight hesitation in his voice and knew he wasn't telling the whole truth. Being the daughter of a pediatric psychiatrist had made her a good liar, and good liars could spot other good liars from a mile away. She would've called him out on it if she had the energy.

"I'm touched by his confidence," said Kevin.

"He's made the call," said Mavis, looking stone cold. Amazing what a broken heart could do to a person. "All we can do now is prepare, so we come out of this alive."

Mavis's voice woke the monster from its temporary slumber.

Give me life, and I will give you power.

Kill her, and you will be the most powerful.

Lucinda closed her eyes and dug her fingernails into the carpet.

"The good news is that I know Bushman's pretty well," said Kevin. "I spent a month there filming for my show."

"Well, thank God for small favors," said Alex.