What Love Breeds

Chapter 4

Essie blinks, her vision coming into focus.

"No, I know, Hari. I'm asking why the background check didn't show this shit."

Essie recognizes the voice. She sees the same dark trousers and shoes, this time with a blue button down on top. His hand is to his ear as he speaks into his phone.

"Benjamin Gardner. One of the... the interns. He just attacked our most valuable project, and you don't know?"

Essie holds still. She listens, though there's not much she understands.

"Look, no, I know it's not your fault. I'm sorry. But obviously it shouldn't have happened the first time, and it can't happen again. Go through all the new personnel files again with a fine-toothed comb. None of them see Essie until they've worked for... I don't know, six months, at least."

Her? Why couldn't they see her?

"Alright. I know. Yeah, I have her in the playpen. I'll do the psych eval myself. Don't send Amelia, she's seen enough people for the day. Yeah. Bye."

He hangs up, slides his phone into his pocket, and sighs. His shoulders hunch with what could be the weight of the world. He turns to Essie, and she's not quick enough to hide her open eyes, though she tries. His footsteps draw closer, slowly.

He comes to her side and kneels beside her. "Essie. Look at me."

She's powerless to disobey. Essie looks at him fully, for the first time. He wears his black hair in a short cut, slick and professional. His mouth is set in a thin line against his squared jaw. Essie can see how someone might find him intimidating, but there's something in the deep pools of his brown eyes as they droop beneath his thick brows. She feels as if she knows him, as if she's seen his face thousands of times before in her mind.

"Hello," he says, and Essie feels his voice reverberating through her bones. "You can call me Jason."

"Jason." Essie's voice cracks on his name, hoarse.

"Essie, you don't know where you are right now."

She shakes her head. No, she doesn't.

Jason nods. It's as if he's staring at her under a microscope. "This is the playpen. Normally, we bring girls here to, um, play with each other. Or to work through a silly argument. But sometimes, we use it for emergencies. To make our girls feel all better."

Essie nods. She lifts her head for the first time. The room is octagonal with plush, green carpet. The walls are split in half, the upper made of mirrors and the lower painted sky blue. Essie rests on mattresses piled haphazardly in the center of the room. As she summons the strength to sit up, Jason helps her right herself.

Jason speaks softly, "Now, you've just had a very hard day. I want you to let that feeling wash over you."

Essie shudders, not taking herself away from Jason's face as tremors of fear wrack her body. She sees flashes of Ben in her mind, of his cruel smile and of his hands flying.

"Yeah, I know," Jason murmurs. He inches his hand towards hers until she allows him to hold it. "It was a horrible thing. I'm so sorry, Essie. That's all my fault."

"No," Essie starts, eager to defend him. Something inside her stubbornly refuses to let Jason be wrong. "No, not you. Ben. Ben's fault."

Jason smiles slightly at that. "You're too kind. But no, I let Ben go in with you. I'm responsible. And I want to make it right."

Essie waits, curious.

"Essie, take a slow, deep breath, pretty girl."

Essie does as she's told. Jason has her focus on her breathing, following it in, and out, in, and out, until she's reached a deep and steady calm.