The Focus Effect

Seven

I can't sleep. I keep thinking about this thing in my head. Maybe he's lying about it just to scare me. But by the time I finally fall asleep, I don't think he is. He's implied that he's killed someone using the neurotoxin before and I suddenly feel terrified that it was Doctor Sue. I hope I'm wrong. Maybe I should ask to see her. I could tell Kingshire it would set my mind at ease and I would be "more efficient". Somehow I doubt this will work again, though. Escape is now the furthest thing from my mind. But that's exactly what I dream about when sleep finally overtakes me.

I'm back in the Vault but I'm not in the cottage. I'm on the other side of the lake by the waterfall. I can see the cottage from here, golden light streaming from one of its windows. There are rocks here that, if I'm careful and strong enough, I might be able to scale and escape into the jungle. I think if I can make it to civilization before Kingshire realizes I'm gone and find a doctor, the nanochip can be removed and I'll be safe. Only when I reach the top, Kingshire is standing there with a cardboard box in his hand. A red crayon has been used to scribble a button on the box and I know if Kingshire pushes it, I will die. He holds the box out towards me, his finger poised to push the button and says, "Jump or die." Not much of a choice. Either way I die. I rush towards him like a football player trying to make a tackle and hit him hard. Electricity pops off my body and Kingshire flies one way and the box goes the other. Snatching up the box with one hand, I dash into the cover of the jungle. I find a path and start to walk until I begin to notice a set of eyes glinting through the foliage. Another set joins those and yet another. I feel fear rising inside the pit of my stomach. Don't run, I think, it'll make them chase me. Three tigers step onto the path behind me, keeping pace. I see more eyes and become too afraid to walk any longer and bolt down the path. The tigers don't give chase, but several more join the parade behind me. I enter a clearing and tigers pour in from all directions. I'm trapped in the center of the clearing and watch as they slowly advance on me. Remembering the box in my hand, I turn it over and look at the red button. I have a choice to make. Push the button or be eaten. Not much of a choice. Either way I die. I push the button but it's just a red crayon mark on a cardboard box that does nothing. I feel strong jaws clamp down on the back of my neck but suddenly find myself face to face with Bob. I can't breathe. When his eyes begin to burn fire red, I wake up, heart pounding.

I sit up on the edge of my bed, my shirt soaked with sweat. I momentarily wonder how I can still sweat if I don't drink water. The clock on my nightstand says 4:34 am. I don't think I'll be going back to sleep. I'm wide awake and ready to get back to the cottage. Unfortunately that means I'll have to find something to do for the next few hours.

I grab my book and get comfortable on my bed. Fifty pages later, I set the book down on the nightstand and decide to take another peek inside the box Kingshire left for me.

I change focus and look inside. When I shift focus again, symbols and equations emerge from the strings around the objects. I ignore the equations and concentrate on the black and white symbols. I see how symbols of different items can be merged to make something new. Here. I take a jagged symbol with an X at the bottom from the scissors and combine it with a symbol from the stapler. When I do this, an elongated oval of white light materializes before my eyes.

"Whoa." The halo of this yet-to-be-made object, the canvas on which I can connect threads of light and symbols for my creation, hovers and hums ever so softly. This is pretty cool, I think, grinning. I then take several symbols from the whiteout and carefully connect them with the others and create my first silver thread. When I plug the thread into the halo, it turns to blue light and new symbols and equations suddenly appear within the halo's light. I use some of the threads from the objects in the box without changing them. Other threads I create myself using spare symbols, connecting them to the halo as I do. The halo constricts and elongates further, giving it a blade-like appearance. There are tons of symbols that I can see just won't work with this...whatever it is I'm making. But I need one more. I see it. An infinity symbol, although it doesn't mean infinity. It means "bond". If I add this symbol, I will create something new. I don't know how I know this, and I don't know how I know any of this, but I do. I unite the infinity symbol with the others, the final piece of this puzzle put in its place. When I do, there's a sound like air being sucked away and everything smacks together with a loud crack. A samurai sword stands perfectly still, balanced on its tip before me. Gravity takes over and it clanks onto the floor. I'm pleasantly surprised yet kind of horrified. What was I thinking and what the hell am I supposed to do with a samurai sword?