Spirits

Chapter Four

Luke's first sight upon a groggy awakening was a blurred one. A grey foggy cloud that slowly smoothed out into the image of a damp and dirty ceiling. He was looking up. He stirred- a growling coming from his throat- and blinked. His muscles and limbs ached, but he managed to lift his neck and glance around.

Despite his daze, it didn't take him long to take in his surroundings. He was in what first appeared to be a small room, but on further examination was indeed a very big room, which was filled with multiple large machines, with buttons, switches and monitors, and that made strange beeping and whistling noises every moment or so. Turning to look back above him, Luke could see a big spheric metallic ball, with a face-shaped dent on the bottom side.

Luke shuffled in an attempt to adjust his position. He could feel his thighs begin to cramp. There was a soft, spongey cushion beneath him and he realised he was on a chair or mattress. His limbs, however, were tense, tight and heavy and he couldn't seem to move them far. He looked down and saw that both arms and legs were tied with cuffs. His legs were being held down flat and his arms were stuck by his sides. He gasped in horror.

"Stay calm," a voice from behind him said. It was a strong and distinctive voice and Luke definitely recognised it from somewhere... He tried to move his head to see who the voice belonged to, but his restricted limbs prevented him from doing so.

"Who-who's there?!" Luke demanded to know. His breathing rapidly increasing as he began to panic.

"You're recovering from a sedative. The effect is wearing off. It's easier and safer if you stay calm for the next few moments," The voice said.

Realising he had no choice but to trust what the voice was saying, Luke rested his head back down.

"Who are you?" Luke asked again, his voice loud, but less panicked than before. His eyes darted side to side as he heard footsteps approach him from behind.

"Unsurprisingly, the sedative has caused short-term memory loss," the voice said, as the owner walked around Luke's left side and moved to stand in front of him, so that he was clearly in Luke's line of vision. "You saw and recognised me last night. What's your last memory?"

"I-it's you!" Luke gasped, staring wide-eyed at the man standing in front of him. His hair was longer and scruffier and a thick amount of stubble had grown on the man's chin, since they last met, but Luke undoubtedly knew who the man was. "Dimitri Allen!"

"Yes," The scientist nodded once. "You said the same thing last night. Now, your last memory if you please. It could be important."

"I-err..." Luke stuttered, dumbfounded. He unsure what to think and uncertain on what he was thinking. He had many questions, all of which were understandable. Why was he here? Where was he? Why was Dimitri, of all people, here with him? Why was all the machinery around him and what would it do? The questions fuzzed around his brain like electricity, but in the end, Luke answered the question that had been asked to him. "Umm... Last night. Going to bed..."

Dimitri was silent for half a second.

"Good," he said and then made his way to the back of the room, disappearing from Luke's sights. There was the sound of a chair being scraped against the ground. Twice. Luke presumed Dimitri was sitting on a seat.

Luke's head felt heavy against the uncomfortably spongey material. His breaths were deep and his lungs spasmed; he felt as if he'd just sprinted a great distance, he was in such a panicked state. He didn't know what was going on. He didn't know where he was. He didn't know he'd gotten to wherever he was. He didn't know why he was wherever he was. He didn't know why Dimitri was here and he didn't know what Dimitri was doing.

"Wha- whats g-" Luke rasped in between hyperventilated breaths in an attempt to get Dimitri to explain the situation.

"Luke, if you don't calm down I'll have to sedate you again," The scientist's voice from behind him said. "Think about what the Professor would say. You must be rational and calm in a situation like this."

It took time but eventually Luke's laboured breaths subsided into a stable, slower and more regular rhythm and he relaxed. His now lighter and less tense limbs made the chains crash with each other as they limply dropped against the mattress. Then, Dimitri returned to where he had stood before, in Luke's line of restricted vision. Calmly, he sat himself down on a stool.

"Now, I'm assuming you have several questions," Dimitri said. "I will answer as many of them as I possibly can. Please, ask away."

Luke paused in shock of Allen's civil behaviour when Luke was trapped next to him by cuffs on all four limbs. But he thought about what the Profesor would do. Remain rational and calm. Dimitri was presenting him with the opportunity to ask questions and it seemed that the best course of action would be to ask some questions and get some answers. Understandably, Luke had many questions. He picked one at random to ask first.

"Why did you sedate me?"

"Last night?" Dimitri replied. "Because you were calling for help and I worried you would alert someone."

"Why did you say you'd sedate me again?"

"Because you were panicking."

"So?"

"I didn't want you to be panicking."

"Why not?"

"Panic and fear makes people make irrational decisions."

"And you don't want me to be scared or panicked?"

"I do not."

"So why I am chained?"

Dimitri opened his mouth to speak, but didn't say a word. He looked towards the otherside of the room, then to the door and then to the cuffs chained to Luke's wrists and ankles. Then, he looked up.

"I can't have you escaping before you hear me out," Dimitri replied. "I need you to listen to me and understand what I have to say. Then, you need to make a decision, which you need to be in a rational state of mind for. Hence, why I don't want you to be panicking. Once, you've made your decision, you can either stay or leave."

"You... You'll let me leave?"

"Not until you've heard what I have to say."

"Well... Then-then say whatever it is!" Luke said in a raised voice. His mind was struggling to interpret all of this and he was more desperate to leave and get out of there more so than he was to understand anymore of what was going on. To put it simply, he didn't care. He just wanted to be back home. "I just want to get out of here!"

"I'm not so sure that you will, Luke," Dimitri said.

"Why would I want to stay with you?!" Luke exclaimed. "You-you've kidnapped me!"

Dimitri sighed.

"I was very sorry to hear about the passing of Flora Reinhold. She was a good friend of yours, was she not?" Dimitri said, with a knowing expression.

Luke blinked.

"How do you know about Flora?" Luke asked, his words slow as they rolled off his tongue in shock and disbelief.

There was a strange flicker in Dimitri's eye and the scientist stood up. He turned to face the wall and walked towards it, but the image of the flicker in the man's eye was stuck in Luke's mind. Was... Was it shame?

"Miss Flora Reinhold was a suitable candidate for a scientific experiment that I have been working on for almost as long as the time machine," Dimitri said, facing the wall, refusing to look in Luke's direction. "I was very hopeful with this experiment. Even more so hopeful with my plan of Future London. It seemed more definite and accurate, but due to the electromagnetic radiation in Future London, which was caused by the attempted construction of a working time machine, the experiment did not do what it was supposed to do. Instead, it did something else."

"It... Killed her?"

"It did something much more extraordinary than that, but in the end, that extraodrinary thing did indeed cause her to perish."

"So you... you killed Flora?" Luke questioned, his face seeming to drop in an unsettling and overwhelming mix of shock and anger.

Dimitri's face did something of a similar nature. He swallowed and his eyes, which were still carefully staying away from meeting Luke's, stared towards the ugly, grey floor. Luke had thought he'd seen shame in Dimitri Allen's face and now he thought he'd seen guilt, but it was short lived.

The Scientist looked up. His eyes darted from side to side and from up to down, still in refusal to make contact, but occasionally glimpsing for a second in Luke's direction. There was the beginnings of a smirk playing on his features, but he seemed to remain solemn behind the eyes and deep inside.

"Of course that's what you choose to focus on," Dimitri said and pursed his lips.

"What else am I supposed to focus on? She's only been gone a week..."

"The extraordinary thing," Dimitri replied. "That is what you are supposed to focus on. That is what you are supposed to ask about."

Luke paused in hesitation. Momentarily, he forgot that he was cuffed to a mattress and tried to sit up and was quickly pulled back down by the weight of the chains.

"What is the extraodrinary thing?" Luke asked in exasperation, which was caused by both his failed attempt to sit up and the conversation which he was finding slightly disrespectful towards the late Flora.

"We'll come back to that, Luke," Dimitri said. "I can't tell you anything until I have your full co-operation and know that I can trust you."

"B-but you killed Flora!" Luke exclaimed, beginning to grow restless again. "How could I ever trust you?"

"Because I unintentionally killed Flora," Dimitri answered with a seemingly honest tone. "And if you help me, you could be able to talk to Flora again."

Luke paused and his eyes grew wide in shock.

"I could... I could see Flora again..."

"No, you could talk to her again," Dimitri replied.

"I don't understand..."

"Perhaps I should explain in more detail," The Scientist said. "You see, the experiment I used Flora for killed her. Like I said, this was unintentional. The experiment should have caused her no physical pain whatsoever. However, due to the experiments occurring in Future London, which was where she was unknowingly exposed to the experiment, the experiment didn't work. The two experiments almost mixed together and... And Flora began to see visions of your future, Luke."

"She...?"

"She saw visions of your future," Dimitri replied. "Never more than a week before they occurred, but they were accurate scenes of your future, which Flora witnessed like dreams. I don't know what she saw. She never told me. She refused to in fact-"

"You spoke to Flora?" Luke suddenly interrupted.

"Yes, but we're getting side-tracked," Dimitri said in dismissal. "Now, as I just said, Flora saw visions of your future. Your future only. No one else's. Her visions were all centered around you."

"A-and is that why I'm here now?" Luke asked. He was afraid of the answer as his mind couldn't come up with any ideas as to why he was here now, shackled to a bed in a middle of a science laboratory!

"Because the experiment in a way... has worked," Dimitri said with a nod, before his confident tone dropped. "I think."

Luke felt a stir in his stomach. He'd felt many since he'd awoke, but this one was by far the strongest. He could tell by the look on Dimitri's face- a strange, stiff and empty gaze that looked as if had seen too much- that he was not in a safe place and whatever was going to happen, was going to be bad.

"You see, Luke, my experiment, the one I included Flora Reinhold in... I was trying to connect the world of the living to the world of the dead," Dimitri nodded. "It's a rather complicated science and some may argue that you can not even call it science. In theory, it's possible and so I decided to give it a go."

"You were... You were trying to bring Claire back?" Luke said as the realisation seemingly hit him in the face.

There was a pause as Luke awaited a response. Though, of course, his answer was correct.

"I was trying to find a way for me to contact her. Technically, if I go about it this way, I'm not bring anybody back, I'm instead talking to them," Dimitri paused. "I say 'them'. I mean 'her'. The connection is a wobbly and dangerous one. It can only last between two people. If I get this to work with Flora- if I get this to connect you and Flora in a world that's beyond this one- then perhaps I can form a bond between Claire and myself, too."

"This is... This is all too much," Luke sighed and looked away, though with his cuffed limbs, there were limited places he could avert his line of sight towards.

"I know and I apologise for that. And for your friend. I know Flora meant a lot to you."

Luke turned back to face him, sharply; his neck almost clicked.

"You know nothing about Flora and me!" Luke exclaimed in defense.

"Actually... I do," Dimitri said. "The bond between here and the world of the dead can only exist once between each person, because the bond attached itself to whoever felt the strongest love or compassion towards the said person. As an orphan, Flora was the perfect candidate for the experiment. That was why it had to be her."

"So? That doesn't prove anything!"

"It does," Dimitri shook his head. "You see, although the experiment was supposed to give Flora the ability to talk to her dead Mother or Father, it instead gave her the power to see visions of the future, due to the mixed radiation from this experiment and the time machine construction. The result of me exposing Flora to so much unstable atoms gave a surprising result and a very unexpected one. After all, the two outcomes are indeed very different, but there is one similarity between what was supposed to happen and what did happen. One person. The bond can only form between one person once. And her one person was the one person all her visions of the future her centered around. You, Luke. The bond between Flora and you was the strongest bond she ever formed and perhaps the strongest you will ever form."

Luke was not sure how to feel. He did however understand.

"You want me to take part in the experiment and connect to Flora?" Luke asked, although he did of course, once again, know the answer. "I'll be able to talk to Flora again?"

"Hopefully, yes," Dimitri nodded. "There are indeed risks, which is why I'm giving you the option to say no. After what happened to Flora, I don't think I can force an experiment in any way, shape or form a second time, so-"

Luke had already made up his mind.

"I'll do it."


AN: So really this update should pop up on a Tuesday so I should wait until tomorrow to share it with you all, but it has been a while since I've updated this fic so maybe it's just a very late Tuesday update...

So, yeah, apologies for my lack of updates. Year two of university has been even more hectic with the last and my bed has broken due to poor craftsmanship and I now sleep on a mattress on the floor. I have a longer commute to uni from my flat now, too, so even less time to come home and work on fics AND I have so many other things to do at the moment! Work for my degree and my job are sooo tiring and time-consuming.

Anyway, please forgive my rambles and a review would mean a lot (especially because there were none on the last chapter)!

Nikki~