by T Swanepoel
Chapter 10 – Into the lion’s den
Jennifer was off during dinner: I could tell because she was quiet as a mouse, which also made the atmosphere tense and the food tasteless.
“So, next week is test week. How is your roster looking?” I asked in an attempt to divert my thoughts and to draw Jennifer into a conversation.
“Fine thanks.” She frowned and continued eating.
I ignored her abruptness. “Well, mine is terrible. I have two on Tuesday and three on Thursday. Can you believe it! Why they couldn’t space it better, no one will know.”
Jennifer didn’t seem to be listening. I took a bite and then tried again.
“How are your classes going, Jen?”
She answered the same as before. “Just fine, thanks”.
I didn’t appreciate her rudeness and decided not to tolerate it. She wouldn’t see the sun shining on anyone but herself. So I decided to confront her head-on. “What’s going on, Jennifer?”
“Nothing,” she replied quickly.
“It’s not nothing. I know you too well. What’s the matter, tell me now!” I demanded.
My stronger approach had the right effect and she stopped eating and looked down at her hands. “I feel like such a failure. I can’t even keep a date, and you’re running around with two stunning guys!”
“I told you, they are only friends. Friends, Jennifer. It’s a concept that you don’t understand. A girl and a boy can be friends, you know.”
“Yeah, that’s what Duncan told me over the phone as well,” she said bitterly.
I had forgotten about Duncan and then remembered that I still wanted to phone him.
“Did Duncan dump you?”
“Yes, Val. What else? That’s what ‘friends’ mean, you know?” she mocked me.
Her reaction wasn’t an overreaction so much any more. “But why, what happened?”
“He didn’t dump me in so many words, but when I phoned him, a girl answered. She said he didn’t want to talk to me and that he’d rather be my friend. Then she asked me to leave him alone for her sake as our ‘friendship’ would only interfere with their relationship.”
“Oh, I’m sorry about him, Jennifer. But don’t you mind him, there are more where he came from. Don’t worry about it, be patient, you’ll find Mr Jennifer soon enough.”
“Don’t patronise me! You’re not the expert!”
I counted to ten and then continued; the poor girl had been dumped and it couldn’t be nice, especially not with the size of her ego and image-awareness.
“You are on campus, Jen! There are guys all over the place, swarming like bees. And if you really want, I can set you up on a date with Wilfred? You seemed to like him? He’s a nice guy.”
“Yeah, he is so nice that he disappeared. I invited him to have dinner with me and you tonight, and he simply didn’t show,” she said with a cracking voice and closed eyes, as if trying to hold back tears.
I knew what’d happened. Wilfred had gone to sleep as he had to do the night shift. In the fumble with Alex’s disappearance, he’d forgotten about Jennifer. Her bad mood made even more sense to me now, but I couldn’t tell her the truth.
“He’s not like that. I’m sure that there’s a very good explanation for all of this,” I tried to calm her.
“Like what, Val? He forgot about me, end of story. And you said that you met him over the weekend. There’s no way that you can know him that well by now,” she growled. Her voice was climbing and the senior tables were staring at us.
“I really don’t think he stood you up on purpose. But you can think whatever you want.” I gave up. There was no convincing her.
She threw down her knife and fork, jumped up and walked away from me.
I finished my dinner under a stare of eyes. Then I collected the take-away for Lisa before going upstairs. Jennifer’s mood was tiring and I put her out of my mind. I’d spend my energy on Lisa instead; she was in real need of support.
But I hesitated in front of her door. I decided to phone Duncan first, there and then. I pressed the green button with firm hands. It rang a few times and then someone picked up.
“Bridget, hello.”
Bridget? Had I heard correctly? It wasn’t possible. Then that familiar voice came again, the annoying, happy voice. It was a voice that I would never forget.
“Hello?”
I immediately pressed the red button. Bridget had Duncan prisoner.
Not him too! As if it wasn’t enough that Alex had disappeared. Unless their disappearances had something in common. Or someone in common. Bridget? Bridget! Now there was a girl that I had totally underestimated. So she was the one behind it all. She had Alex and Duncan captured.
I phoned again, but it just rang and rang.
I had to find Benjamin, and tell him that Bridget was behind all of this. The Reds had to rescue them, Alex and Duncan.
But I had to warn Lisa first. I burst in through Lisa’s door without knocking; it was an emergency after all. My entrance startled her awake.
“Noooo! Leave me alone! Please, please, please! Leave me alone,” she screamed hysterically, crawling into a bundle and covering her head with her arms.
I realised the poor girl was still in shock from the kidnapping. “Lisa! It’s only me Lisa, it’s Valerie.”
She slowly removed her arms and peeked through closed eyes at me.
“Oh, I’m so.... glad it’s you.” Her voice broke up and she started to cry. I bent over to hug her, holding her until her sobs calmed down.
“These kidnappings have me so nervous,” she explained. “I just fell asleep for the first time in days, and it was the one nightmare after the other.” Her eyes were as red as rubies, red and swollen.
“Oh, I’m sorry Lisa, really sorry to wake you. But I need to tell you something.”
“ Uhhhh. I’m awake now. Go ahead then, as long as it isn’t any more bad news. I won’t be able to handle it right now,” she said, on the edge of another break-down.
“I have reason to believe...” I couldn’t get the word out. Then I tried again. “I’m sorry I have to tell you this. But... uh... it’s Duncan.”
“Duncan? Duncan who?”
“Duncan, as in... isn’t he Mars?” I asked, confused.
“No.”
“Is Alex then Mars?”
“No,” she smiled. “Alex is the sun. Didn’t I tell you this?”
The blood froze in my veins. Alex the sun?
I swallowed. Alex was the enemy. Alex was my personal enemy. I couldn’t believe it!
Alex, who had been so kind and warned me about the parking the very first day that I arrived. It made sense then that he had taken me to hospital and given me over to Bridget’s motherly care. Bridget was working for the lot of them. Then he’d pretended to care about me so much that he’d dropped everything and came looking for me, ill as a dog, and listened to my entire story like... like a friend would. All the while he was nothing more than ...than an astronomical fraud!
And that meant so was Lisa. And the Reds. And they have poor Duncan captured! This sly lot were good: they had managed to deceive not only me, but my parents as well. They had me convinced, really convinced.
And to think I’d almost spilled the beans in front of Lisa just now. Luckily I’d discovered the truth in time, before they did something to Duncan. And wasn’t that a clever trick, I thought, deceiving me into thinking they were my friends and protectors. Classic, textbook deception. The Reds had even let me phone my dad the day that they had found me in the veldt. I had walked around campus with a sense of safety, with the Reds following me, meanwhile they had been spying on me. They had me captured, in a free sense.
Duncan didn’t stand a chance against the lot of them; they were a team of stars and red dwarfs. And they had been trained. And Duncan was probably just a regular human or a weak planet.
I would probably get over the deception of the Reds over time, I hadn’t known them for long enough, except for maybe Benjamin. But
I was really hurt by Lisa. And really, really hurt by Alex. How could he? How on earth could he?
A war between anger and sadness brewed in me. I wanted to scream and cry at the same time. I wanted to know how they could do this to me and keep up the pretences so perfectly. But I had to keep it together, for Duncan’s sake.
“Valerie? You there? Hello?” Lisa asked. “I told you about Alex, didn’t I?”
I had to keep up the pretence in front of her as well. Luckily I still had her take-away in my hand. It gave me something sane to say.
“Oh, yeah. I remember now. But here, I brought you dinner. Excuse me please, I have stacks of studying to do. There’s a big botany test coming up. By the way, I made you copies of my notes. I’ll bring them over if you want?” I tried to hide the emotion I felt behind normal stuff.
“Don’t worry about it now. I’ll get them from you later. I’m going to try to sleep again. The Reds promised to keep in contact. They’ll let me know immediately if they find out anything.”
“Okay, see you later then,” I added for the sake of appearances.
“Wait, what did you want to tell me about this Duncan?” she asked.
“Uhh. It’s not important now, you don’t know him. Don’t worry about it. Sorry I woke you.” I didn’t wait for her answer and rushed out.
As soon as I was outside, I flew across to Jennifer. Ronald probably knew where Duncan was, and Jennifer would know how to contact Ronald. If I could get to Ronald, I would be going in the right direction. I knocked on Jennifer’s door and tried to enter, but it was locked.
“Go away,” she yelled.
Out of all the times to throw a tantrum, I thought.
“Jennifer, it’s me, Valerie. Please open the door?”
I didn’t want to sound too urgent as Lisa’s door was just down the hallway.
“I don’t want to see you,” she replied.
“Jennifer, please. I need to talk to you about something. Please open the door,” I begged.
“No!”
“Jennifer, open this door. If you are my friend and still want to be my friend after today, open this door. Right now,” I threatened. I was desperate and in a hurry.
There was silence for a moment, then I heard the click of the lock and the door opened.
“It better not be about boys,” she warned. She had also been crying, her eyes were still wet.
“What are you mad at me for? I didn’t do anything to you! Or are you jealous?” I asked her straight-out.
“Out!” she screamed.
“Oh, calm down, would you? I’ll go. But please help me out first. It’s a matter of life or death,” I pleaded, friendlier towards the end. I had to concentrate to stay calm.
“What do you want?” she asked.
I couldn’t tell her that I thought Duncan was in danger, because she wouldn’t help me. So I made a little thingy up.
“I want Ronald’s number. Do you have it?” I asked, pretending to be hopeful.
“A matter of life or death?” she asked with raised eyebrows.
“Okay, not life or death, but your friend’s heart?” I played her in her own language.
“I’ll take a look, I think I still have it,” she said, and pressed a few buttons on her phone.
She gave me the number and then sat down on her desk. “I’m not mad at you, Val. A little jealous, yes, but not mad. I just need to be left alone. I guess I’m sulking a little.”
I grabbed her hand. “Jennifer, look at me.” I waited for her to look me in the eyes before I continued. “You’ll be fine.”
“I guess so,” she said lackadaisically.
“Now, I really don’t mean to leave you alone to sulk all by yourself, but I need to make a call.” I threw her a sheepish grin. “And I have a heap of studying to do.”
“It’s fine. Thanks for popping in. I know you didn’t really want Ronald’s number, you only came to check on me. I appreciate that.”
“True,” I lied. “But I might really phone him up, if I find the courage.”
Then she did something completely out of character. She bent forward and hugged me. “Thanks,” she said in a cracked voice.
“Anything for a friend.” I meant it. She was a good friend, in her own unique way. A little self-absorbed sometimes, but a true friend at least. My only true friend, I thought sadly. Lisa and Alex were just sly, sly deceivers.
“Oh, tell me something else,” I said, almost at the door already. “What dorm is Ronald in?”
She answered with a smile. “You little rascal, you do like him, don’t you?”
I grinned at her. She had no idea. She took my grin as an affirmative, and then she explained where his dorm was.
I hurried to get my car keys. On my way down the stairs, I dialled Ronald’s number, but he didn’t answer and it went over to the answering machine.
I was almost at the bottom, when I remembered that Benjamin was probably in front of the dorm again. And he was probably watching the parking lot as well. With my heart in my shoes, I turned and went back up again. I’d have to take the emergency stairs.
Oh, great, I thought. Me and those stairs in the dark again, and this time it wasn’t even to hide from seniors.
I felt so hurt. I liked Benjamin a lot. And Lisa. And even Alex, sometimes more than I wanted to. And they had betrayed me, deceived me. But I should have known better, after all, Duncan had warned me in the beginning not to trust anybody.
I sneaked past Lisa and Jennifer’s doors and softly opened the emergency door.
After a hard swallow, I collected my nerves. I had to do it for Duncan; he would have done it for me, no doubt.
Clinging to the railing as best as I could, I slowly approached the first step. It was the third time using the emergency stairs, but it wasn’t any less scary. The first four steps were okay, but then it happened. Step number five gave way under me. Luckily I didn’t fall to the ground, the railing held. But my left leg was cut deeply by the rusted metal plate, I felt the blood flowing quickly. A burning sensation came from my shin and knee.
I had to continue, Duncan was in danger, so I pressed on. Shaking with pain, I slowly climbed down the stairs, clinging more tightly than ever to the railing. At the bottom I sat down, ripped off a piece of my jeans and wrapped it as securely as possible around my leg.
I was stuck. I wouldn’t make it to Ronald’s dorm on foot, not with this blood loss. The dizziness was already setting in. So I tried the phone again. This time he answered.
“Ronald, hello?”
“Hi Ronald, this is Valerie. Sorry to bother you. But I really need your help!”
“Why me?” came the antagonistic answer.
“Ronald, I’m hurt and I think Duncan is in serious danger. There’s no one else that I can ask. Please?” I begged.
He was silent for a moment.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Come and get me, please?” I asked with all the persuasion that I could manage through the pain.
“Fine,” he answered. “Where are you?”
“I’m at the dorm, but you can’t use the main parking lot. You have to pick me up closer to campus. I’ll push on, look out for me. I’m wearing jeans and a pink t-shirt.”
“Okay, I’m on my way.”
I sighed with relief. Help was on the way. True help. I was worried about my parents as well, but they weren’t in immediate danger. And the lines weren’t safe, so I couldn’t let them know what I had learned. I had to help Duncan first.
Ronald came quickly in his little car.
“How did you manage to get so far?” he asked, shocked by the amount of blood on my leg.
“I had to. I’m so worried about Duncan. Do you know where he lives?” I asked, trying my best to ignore the pain.
“I think so. Do you want me to take you to him or do you want me to take you to hospital first?” he asked, looking at the increasing pool of blood.
“No, don’t worry about me. L
et’s go to Duncan’s first. But we need to hurry, please. He’s in grave danger.”
Ronald opened the door for me and then helped me into the passenger’s seat.
“Sit back, or no, rather not: put pressure on that wound, it’s not looking good at all. His flat is about ten minutes away.”
“Thank you, Ronald, thank you so much, for helping me. And... and I’m sorry about the date.” It felt great to be sitting down and off the leg.
“Forget about it. It’s history,” he answered and took off.
We weren’t far away, when he glanced up at the rear-view mirror and then accelerated.
“Something the matter?” I asked, the world all a bit blurry. He didn’t answer and I turned my head to look out the back window. I gulped. A black Merc was close behind us, or so it seemed through the blur.
“Oh no! They found me!” I gasped, fear choking the air out of my lungs. “Go, Ronald, go!” I yelled. “As fast as you can, they’re going to kill us both!” My words felt slow, but they were there.
He seemed totally convinced as he pushed the little car to its limit. The engine revved wildly and the speedometer needle was close to the maximum. Ronald geared up and down, literally flying across traffic lights and zigzagging to get around cars. I was thrown left and right. It felt as if we were about to lift off, but it occurred to me that he was a very competent driver.
But the Merc stayed close behind.
On top of the blurring, my eyes were burning, probably because of all the blood I had lost. I barely managed to make out the writing on the boards around us. We were headed for the highway and going so fast that I didn’t actually want to see, so I turned round in my seat. It also helped to keep an eye on the black Merc.
“Who are these guys?” he asked. “And what do they want with you?”
I didn’t know how involved Ronald was, so I lied.
“Don’t know,” I answered without moving my eyes one inch off the Merc behind us; he was getting dangerously close.
“Then how do you know that they want to kill you?”
I didn’t want Ronald to discover how bad my condition was, so I tried my best to keep my words light and my speech together. “Long story. It’s a ‘if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you’ kind-of thing.”
“I’m involved already, Valerie. Haven’t you noticed? We’re chasing down the highway, almost at the speed of light. I’m already risking my life here. So I think you can tell me.”
I wasn’t sure if I could trust Ronald. I’d never had a very warm feeling about him. But okay, he was rescuing me, and as he said, he was risking his life for me.
Then, through the blur, I noticed the black Merc getting closer. Ronald was a good driver, but so was Benjamin. Or I thought it was Benjamin behind the wheel. It was difficult to tell through the darkened windows and the streetlights didn’t really help.
“He’s getting closer. Hurry, Ronald, hurry!” I screamed, but my reaction was too late.
The black Merc closed in on us and nudged the back bumper. Ronald almost lost control, but regained it after a close shave with a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
“Let’s just say that Duncan gave me something, and these guys want it. And they would kill for it.”
“You girls and your secrecy. It’s so frustrating, you know. Duncan’s girlfriend is exactly the same.”
“His girlfriend?” I asked.
“Yeah, he dumped Jennifer. Now he’s back with his old girlfriend.”
I wanted to ask who his girlfriend was, but the Merc was closing in on us again.
“He’s getting close again, Ronald. He’s going to bump us again!” I yelled.
The black Merc did bump us again, and this time it was worse. Everything happened in slow motion, like in the movies. I saw the nudge on the back bumper, then the gentle sway of the tail of the car. The Merc’s nose lost contact for a moment and then hit us again just as our car swayed to the other side.
I didn’t see what happened in front, but I felt the impact. Then I saw the black Merc crashing into us. It was Benjamin driving.
***
