He deserved to live a normal life. Well, as normal a life as any heir to a fortune could live. Together, though, he and I could be happy. Have something close to normal. Next to normal, at least.

I bit my lip, picked up my phone, read through a few emails, and then grabbed another magazine.

Dr. Woolcott had promised to stay as late as necessary tonight.

I had a feeling I’d be here for a while.

52

Roy

Get in.

That voice again. The voice that was mine but not mine.

Get in.

Get in the elevator.

I looked at my palm. The burn from the key had miraculously healed.

Get in.

I walked forward. One. Two. Three steps. Then one more. I stood, steel walls on three sides. And the doors closed slowly, slowly, slowly.

Now what?

The panel had only one button. The red one. The one you pressed in an emergency.

The one I’d pressed when…

When…

When…

Press the button.

Press the button.

Press the button.

My hand shook as I lifted it to the red button pulsing along with my heart.

I pressed it.

“Fuck!” I screamed.

My body plunged along with the steel trap that encased me. My stomach rose through my body, lodging in my throat.

The boxes. The dolly. I remembered.

They were there. One had been smashed open, and files were strewn over the floor.

I stood, fighting off the shivers, and picked up the files, placing them back in the carton.

Then the doors parted.

And—

I shot my eyes open.

“Mr. Wolfe?”

I turned toward the voice. Dr. Woolcott’s face was a blur. The whole room was a blur.

And I remembered.

I fucking remembered.

“A woman. Very young. Blond. She was naked. Her skin was… She’d been cut. Cuts on the top of her breasts, trickles of red blood oozing down over her nipples. Her…

How could I have forgotten this?

“Easy,” Dr. Woolcott said. “Take it slowly.”

“My father’s office. I was taking cartons of files down to the lower level for storage. I was eighteen. No, nineteen, doing an internship. The elevator stopped. Then the shaft broke, and it fell. It fell. But LL was the lowest level in the building. I know it went down. I don’t understand. I don’t…”

“Maybe there was a floor below the lowest floor,” the doctor said.

“Yeah. Yeah, there must have been.”

“Tell me more about the girl.”

“She was young, I think. Around my age. Maybe even younger. She gasped. She was saying ‘Help me. Please help me.’”

Then…blank.

“I don’t remember anything after that.” I rubbed my forehead. “Damn! The woman! What happened to the woman?”

“Concentrate. Do you want to go back under?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s the only way.”

No barriers this time. The elevator doors opened as I collected the strewn files.

A naked woman ran toward me. “Help me! Please, help me!”