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"You can’t go out until I say it’s safe Do you understand? You can’t act without considering the whole group None of us can That’s hoe’vemy father built crumble to hell" A hardness enters his voice "If one of us is captured, or a group that goes out is taken, this entire cell is threatened That won’t happen I won’t let it"

Staring into his earnest face, I know he’s for real This place is his priority As kind as he’s being toout for

A whisper of respect weaves through ht for a causefor an entire population of people he doesn’t even know

I shove down the surge of emotion I’d prefer not to feel this waynot to feel anything for him at all If there’s respect, then before I know it, I’ll be liking him I’ll care My stomach twists

"You don’t know me" As much a reminder for me as him

"Just because we’re carriers doesn’t et that, the minute it’s every man for himselfthen all is lost We’ve become thein his voice--a plea? I roll over ontohi me of the person I used to be--the person I assu was taken away from me My eyes burn, and I blink theain He makes me think that h gusts above e hi down at o He does, his steps a soft tread on the tile It’s not until the door to the infiro of the breath I’ve been holding

SAN DIEGO TIMES

April 17, 2018

A killer is still at large in the greater San Diego area The latest victi woman to fall prey to aA source close to the case claiistered carrier and Ms Go and are unable to locate him

TEN

DARK EYES SHOWS UP AGAIN I’VE DECIDED TO refer to him in this way until I can come up with an actual name for him that doesn’t see and brings to mind old Scooby-Doo cartoons And Guy-I-Killed doesn’t fully capture

He sits across the room on one of the stools beside Phelps’s lab table He watchescoal, hands braced on his knees, his posture as quiet as he is, hisBrown eyes Bullet hole Black-red blood

I wish he would speak If he just broke out in speech like a normal person, not a dead-come-back-to-haunt-me person, then I could talk to him Reason with him Explain why I had to do what I did Then maybe he would be at peace And so would I

"You’re back," I say, and then realize just because I don’t re around in the last couple of days doesn’tthought Maybe he’s been here every time I close my eyes I was just too sedated to notice

He’ll never really leave low of light co off some equipment in the corner Dr Phelps sleeps behind a curtained-off area His gentle breathing scratches the air

When ain, Dark Eyes moves fro at the waist in an eerie, unnatural way, crouching in front of , I lurch back, but his hoarse voice fills houtward through the rest of , sinking deep and biting into me "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaake"

Wake Because I’h someone had truly just shouted for me to wake up, andI drag in a lungful of air My chest swells, holding the breath in before expelling it in a silent rush

I can practically feel ht It’s in this eerie littleinnate hit a chord, a buried memory of when humans were more animal than man, both prey and predator, and I feel low suffuses the roo into the shadows, I see that Phelps is gone, however The curtain to his sleeping area is pulled back, revealing his uno to them Whatever the case, it’s just ht as I roll onto et back to sleep and that this time no visitors wait fora bullet hole to the head and who appear to be growing more vocal Wake? Why would he have wanted me to wake up?

I rub at the center ofmy eyes, I settle back onto the mattress With a small snort, I remember that he was just a fabrication of my subconscious He didn’t command me to wake up I did