Free Protect All Monsters by Alan Spencer Page A

not the Ritz, and it’s sure as shit not home.”
    She opened the standing bureau. Rows of clothes faced her, the same as what she was wearing now: white button-up tops and black pants. The shoes ranged from pumps to steel-toed boots. Panties, stockings and socks were on the bottom shelf. The room stank of fresh bleach. Had someone else resided here recently?
    I bet people die here all the time.
    The inhabitants of the boat didn’t fully realize that reality, but it was finally sinking in for her. Death was a possibility—an expectation—and she was her only bodyguard. Tomorrow morning would be the beginning of work. She had a feeling she was going to meet one of the monsters from the manila folder up close. She was curious as much as alarmed at that prospect.
    Addey showered clean the smell of salt water and layers of sweat she’d built up on the boat. The products were institutionalized, the ugly tan bottles labeled soap , shampoo and conditioner . There was another tier to the plastic shelf installed in the shower, containing shaving cream and a razor.
    Finished cleaning up, she wrapped herself in a dark blue terry cloth robe and sat on the edge of the bed, patting dry her hair. She was so tired now, and against her intuition, she rolled back on the bed and closed her eyes.
    Sleep came effortlessly.
     
     
    “Addey.”
    It was a summoning from the bottom of a chasm.
    Again, “Addey…waaaaake up.”
    The statement was wispy and broken apart by distance.
    “Addey, you’re in danger!”
    She was jolted from sleep. Static electricity clung to the bedsheet, shocking her enough to give her a real startle. The room was dark, though she didn’t remember flipping off the lights. She gawked at the tall-standing mirror on the wall. In the glass was a ghastly figure lit up by a bluish-white light, like a Bunsen burner flame. The face was a mere reflection of a reflection, weak, but sharp enough to distinguish the speaker. It was Deke. He was sodden in blood, drenched from the still-gushing bullet wound to the chest. The villainous expression he’d worn before had faded into humbled fear. He beckoned to her with every shred of his life: light, energy and soul. Addey wasn’t sure what was left of him.
    Farther away his image fluttered, as if something was dragging him back to where he’d come from, and he shouted at her in one last round of desperation. “This island won’t be the same soon, maybe in days. There will be a war. So many will die brutally. I can see it now, but I don’t know why. You have to find out why, Addey. You must escape before it happens!”
    “But how do I find out what’s going on?” She couldn’t believe she was talking to a mirror, even seizing it by the edges and shaking the thing. “Jesus, they’ve got electric fences up. I’m on an island without transportation. Nobody can swim that far. I can’t escape. There’s nowhere to go!”
    Deke’s image turned murky and then all went dark the moment his final words were issued. “The monsters are plotting against us.”
    She clung to the mirror. “Please come back. I need you. I’m all alone here. Come back! Deke, don’t leave me!”
    She stared up at the mirror, reflecting a woman out of sorts.
    “It hasn’t even been a day yet, and I’m already losing my mind.”
    She recuperated from Deke’s visit after fifteen minutes alone with a blank mirror. She checked the clock. It was eleven at night. They would get her up early in the morning to put her to work doing God knew what.
    Addey was about to slip under the sheets again when there was a knock on the door. The face behind the door was a militant one. She was buzz cut—a Demi Moore GI Jane replica. The woman’s speech was straight to the point. “I am a friend to all the women here. May I come in? I have a few things to go over with you. I want to fill you in on some details.”
    She didn’t feel like having the stranger near her, but it wasn’t her choice to let her in or