Shades of Deception

by Piper Dow

  A couple of middle-aged women, elegantly coiffed and elaborately painted, sat sipping coffee at another small table. Kelly gazed, transfixed. She was used to elaborate make-up. In the theater, if an actor wasn’t wearing a lot of make-up, he would look washed out and weak. She had worked backstage for school plays in high school and college. She wasn’t accustomed to such heavy make-up being worn in public places, though. Tearing her gaze from the women, she stared at a bookshelf on the back wall as though she were trying to read the titles of the books and tried to overhear the women’s conversation. From the few disjointed words she could make out, the two were heading to a showing of a play hosting its opening night a few towns over.

  “Are you sure he won’t be offended?” The women were making their way to the exit. “You know him better than I, but I’ve not heard of anyone dressing as a character from a play to go see it,” one woman said.

  “I think he’ll be positively astounded,” assured the other. “He’ll see this as the flattery it is meant as, I promise. What playwright wouldn’t want to know how much his audience is touched by his characters?”

  The women exited the shop. Kelly looked at Wayne, expecting to see her own amusement mirrored on his face, but he was checking his phone and hadn’t noticed.

  “What’s up?”

  “Not much,” he said. He pushed the phone back into his pocket as the waitress brought their food, packaged to go. “Thank you, very much,” he smiled at the woman, who smiled warmly, nodded, and headed back to the counter as Kelly stood to go.

  Kelly took her coffee. She grabbed the bag with her sandwich and put it at the top of her messenger bag, then stepped out the door. There was a bench in front of the shop they could sit on while waiting for the bus. She blew through the hole in the top of the cup and took a sip of her coffee as she made herself comfortable on the bench, then grimaced.

  “Oh, this is black! I’ve got to get sugar and cream, I’ll be right back,” she said, jumping back up and leaving Wayne grinning at her, lifting his foamy, perfectly mixed drink in mock toast.

  Kelly went back inside and found a table to the side of the counter equipped with sugar and cream. She fixed her coffee, grimacing as she took a couple of sips to make enough room in the cup to add the cream. She still overfilled the cup and hastily grabbed some napkins to wipe up the puddle. She sipped again before putting the cover back on to make sure it was up to par, then wiped down the side of the cup and ran another napkin over the table top to make sure she had gotten all of the mess she had made. She glanced at the clock on the wall near the counter before turning to rejoin Wayne outside, then froze. Through the window, she could see a gray car parked in the spot in front of the bus stop sign. She moved toward the door quickly, splashing hot coffee on her hand as she pushed the door open.

  A man with an unkempt beard sat in the driver’s seat of the car. It was the same man who had driven past them on their way to the school. A brown haired man stood on the sidewalk with his hands in his pants pockets, talking to Wayne. As Kelly stepped out of the coffee shop, he turned to look at her. Nodding once at her, he turned back to Wayne. “I wouldn’t want it to go badly, you understand?” He glanced again at Kelly, looked deliberately at Wayne, and walked purposefully to the passenger side of the car. As he stooped to get in the vehicle, the bus drove up the street and pulled in behind the car.

  Wayne stood, grabbed his backpack, and walked to the door of the bus wordlessly. Kelly caught up to him as he boarded the bus and handed over his ticket. They made their way to the rear of the bus, which was much less crowded than the bus that morning had been.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “What was that?” Kelly asked tensely as she sat next to him.

  Wayne glanced around. He reached over and put his hand on hers, squeezing tightly briefly before releasing her. He shook his head as though a shudder of cold ran through him. “How is your coffee, were you able to fix it?”

  Kelly started. She looked at Wayne quizzically. He was staring out the window at the gray car, which had not pulled into traffic yet. He turned back to look at her and widened his eyes for a split second before looking normal at her coffee. “I finished mine outside, but I’m going to eat my sandwich now. I still have half a bottle of water left, so I’m good.”

  Kelly was clearly missing something. She decided to go along with his antics for the moment. She leaned her head back against the headrest on the back of her seat and looked slowly around the bus. Including the bus driver, there were only half a dozen other people on the bus, each sitting alone. Two had headphones in their ears, one with eyes closed and hand tapping his thigh along with the beat, the other staring unblinkingly out the window. Another man had his eyes closed, his head leaning against the window of the bus as he dozed. One woman was engrossed in a book, her lips mouthing the words as she read, one finger sliding down the page to help her keep track.

  A thin woman was chewing the skin near her thumbnail and staring out the window at the coffee shop. She wore jeans and a flannel shirt over a light t-shirt. Kelly frowned, then worked to mask her expression. It had been warm enough out during the day, but now that the sun was going down, it was starting to get chilly. This girls’ flip-flops would definitely not be Kelly’s choice of footwear this late in the fall.

  Wayne was digging his sandwich out of his backpack. He set the bag down on the floor near his feet, then reconsidered and stuck it between his arm and the side of the bus. He glanced around as he did so but said nothing. He unwrapped his sandwich from the paper it was wrapped in, using the paper as a plate of sorts in his lap. He took a bite and chewed, though he appeared to have a hard time swallowing.

  Kelly slowly unwrapped her own sandwich, following Wayne’s example and using the wrapping as a plate in her lap. She looked at the turkey sandwich with dismay. It was stuffed with meat, had a decent slathering of mayo under the lettuce and tomato, and would have otherwise been very tempting after all the exercise she had gotten that day, but her appetite had fled with the brown-haired man’s arrival. She picked up one half of the sandwich and raised it to her mouth, but lowered it again. She didn’t feel like she could eat, and it wouldn’t do any of them any good for her to choke on the bus ride home. She rewrapped the sandwich and tucked it back into her bag. “I think I’ll wait a bit,” she said. She lifted the cup to her lips and managed a sip of coffee, not looking at Wayne.

  The bus driver had gotten off the bus at the stop and gone into the coffee shop. He hurried out to the bus and climbed back into his seat, stowing a cup of coffee in a cup holder at the dashboard. He glanced into the mirror and made eye contact with Kelly briefly before glancing away. He used his mirrors to pull out into traffic, neatly avoiding the gray car that was still parked in front of the sign. The stop had taken just a couple of extra minutes, but Kelly thought her nerves had been stretched an extra mile. She turned to Wayne, expecting him to talk now that they were away from the stop, but he gave a quick shake of his head and took another bite of sandwich. His eyes strayed to the thin girl at the front, still picking at her thumb, and then to the bus driver. He put the sandwich down in his lap and reached into his backpack, withdrawing the half-finished bottle of water.

  “Just wait. Not here,” he whispered as he brought the bottle to his lips to take a sip.

  Kelly sighed and turned her head toward the other side of the bus. Whatever the brown-haired man had said to Wayne, and obviously it had to be something about what was going on, Kelly needed to get some of this sorted before they got home. Her parents were going to find out where they had gone, and they had better be able to give them some answers that made sense. She pulled out her phone. She could at least try to figure out what the skinwalker legends were about while she waited for Wayne to calm down.

  Half an hour later, Kelly was growing increasingly frustrated. Trying to search for information on the Internet on her phone was not as easy as on her laptop, but she had never failed this spectacularly before. She tried puttin
g in different keywords but was only seeing returns of native American legends out West having to do with Native Americans with abilities to assume forms of animals - nothing local to the area, really, and nothing tying the legends to drugs.

  Kelly thought about the journal entries Jill had written, and searched for pink pills and depression, warm, cozy, and other words that Jill had used to describe the effects of the drugs. With this, she thought she was having a little more luck. Several images showed up with the caption “MDMA,” and there were even links to pages offering to sell the pills based on her location. Kelly frowned, her eyebrows pulling down. She swiped down on the screen and disabled the locator app on the phone. She would prefer to be able to do her sleuthing anonymously - or at least not advertise her whereabouts as she was doing it.

  The bus slowed and lurched sidewards toward a bus stop sign, stopping abruptly. Kelly put a hand out to steady herself on the seat in front of her and looked up at the front of the bus. The thin girl with the bitten thumbnails was moving down the stairs. Kelly saw the bus driver’s mouth move as he said something to her. The girl made no indication that she heard him as she swung out the door and walked down the sidewalk. This bus stop was in front of a park. Kelly watched through the window as the girl cut through some low-growing bushes to step into the park. She avoided the paved walkways to walk toward a stand of trees, disappearing from Kelly’s view as the bus resumed its route.

  Kelly glanced around. The girl reading the book was gone, as was the man who had tapped to the beat of whatever song he was listening to. A few other passengers had boarded the bus, all absorbed in their own travels. She must have missed a couple of stops while she was focused on researching the legend.

  “Kelly,” Wayne spoke her name quietly. He had his elbow leaning on the window and his hand resting on his face, covering his mouth discreetly. “Don’t look at me, just listen, okay?”

  Kelly picked up her phone and switched to Facebook, then held it in front of her like a book and pretended interest in the screen.

  Wayne continued in a voice so low she had to shift a little closer to hear him. She put her elbow on the armrest between them and crossed her foot under her other leg, aiming for the picture of leisure as she scrolled her news feed.

  “When you went in to fix your coffee, those guys pulled up in the car,” Wayne said. “The guy that got out was Mark - he said he was Jill’s better half. He said the other guy had seen some bikes at the apartment, and then seen us on the bikes on the way to the school and got concerned that something might be wrong with Sam. The way he started out, if we didn’t know better, I might have thought he was concerned about her. That changed quickly, though - he could see you through the window of the coffee shop. He said it gets really hard on a guy when his sister gets hurt. Kel, the guy is a sociopath. He’s just talking like he’s asking how the weather is, but he’s saying how it would probably be difficult to live with yourself if your stupidity got your sister gutted like a deer in hunting season - that’s what he said! Then you must have started looking like you were coming out soon because he said he has people everywhere. He has people who don’t look like they would know anything or anyone, and he’s keeping an eye on us. Then he said that bit about not wanting it to go badly when you came outside.”

  Wayne went quiet. Kelly risked a glance at him - his eyes were closed, and he looked as though he had fallen asleep. She knew he hadn’t - his breathing was still shallow, and the hand in his lap clenched. Kelly felt the rising panic in her own throat and fought to contain it. She glanced at the front of the bus and caught the bus driver’s gaze in the mirror again. The man who had been staring out the window with the earbuds in was looking back at them. He didn’t look away when he saw her looking at him, staring insolently back for a moment before one side of his mouth lifted in a smirk.

  Kelly looked away. Maybe Mark was making idle threats - what kind of person says he has people everywhere? On the other hand, though, he had followed Sam home, and found Kelly and Wayne. That was pretty coincidental if he didn’t have people everywhere, watching. But, what if it was just the guy in the sweatshirt? He had been in the photo with Sam. He had been at the hospital, Kelly was sure of it. And today he had been in the library at the college. He could be the only person watching them, and Mark could have found out through him.

  Kelly looked back down at her phone.

  She still had her Facebook news feed open. Someone had posted a quote, but it was the photo in the background that first caught her eye - it was a picture of a woman caught in a rainstorm, her hair and clothes plastered to her body from the downpour. Superimposed over the image were the words, “The Lord will carry you through the storm.” Kelly paused. Slowly, she touched the screen. The image jumped to fill the screen, and Kelly reread the verse. She tapped the link to bring her to the page that had posted the quote and watched the screen. If there ever was a storm in her life, this was it - and she could use some reassurance that she remained in the hands of a God who was bigger than this storm.

  “Sometimes life is overwhelming - health problems arise, or relationships hit rocky patches, or maybe job responsibilities threaten to crush us," the blogger had written. "When you find yourself in that space, find comfort in this verse - Isaiah 43:2, 'When you pass through the waters I will be with you When you cross rivers you will not drown. When you walk through the fire you will not be burned, nor will the flames hurt you. This is because I, the Lord, am your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.' How amazing that you can be in the middle of a furious storm, and yet trust that the creator of the world is bigger than the creation. God is in control, and when we remember that, we are able to find rest - even though the storm rages around us.”

  Kelly closed her eyes. She loved the number of times that she would be having a stressful day and, seemingly out of nowhere, along would come a reminder that she wasn’t alone. She took a few deep breaths and sent up a silent prayer of thanks that God cared enough to tap her on the shoulder and slow her down. Opening her eyes, she saw that the man with the earbuds was looking at her again. She gave him a brilliant smile before turning and nudging Wayne. She handed Wayne her phone, still open to the devotional. She watched him read it and pause, then reread it. He gave her back her phone with a weak smile. Kelly smiled back - it was small, but any little encouragement would help.

  Ear Buds, as Kelly had taken to calling him, got off the bus before it got to the central station. She and Wayne disembarked, conscious of the eyes of the bus driver on their retreating backs. They scanned the boards listing the buses and their corresponding routes quickly, finding theirs and making their way over to it before speaking.

  “Wayne, you don’t have to worry. He’s not going to hurt Sam or me again. We’re going to figure this out,” Kelly said.

  Wayne grunted. He looked like he had more to say, but closed his mouth as he glanced around them. “Did you see all those people on the bus? How many of them were looking at us? He could have people watching us now,” he said.

  Kelly shook her head. “How? Everyone that was on the bus when we got on, got off before this station. Who could he have watching us?”

  Wayne had been thinking about that. “The bus driver got off the bus, and then looks our way when he gets back on - and that was at the bus stop where Mark was. The skinny chick - she was obviously an addict, probably promised a fix for reporting back. The creepy guy who kept looking at you - any one of them or even all of them could have been watching us for him. And here,” Wayne looked around wildly, “he could have texted anyone and told them to watch for us to show up! No, Kel, I’m serious!” Wayne shook his head as Kelly started to laugh.

  “What if he did? What are they going to tell him, that we got off a bus and got on a bus? Seriously, Wayne, you’re making this bigger than it is,” she said.

  “Am I?” Wayne’s face was set. “Sam’s in the hospital because this isn’t as big as I think? No, Kelly, I don’t think I’m wrong. You didn’t hear tha
t guy - he’s off, and he’s dangerous. And we’re going to be careful.”

  The bus driver opened the door and began allowing passengers to board. They climbed the stairs and handed in their tickets, then made their way to seats at the back of the bus. There were a few more passengers on this bus than the last, but they were still on their way within minutes.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Kelly looked at Wayne and knew she would not be able to change his mind about how much danger they might be in. Switching subjects, she asked, “Did you text Mom?”

  Color drained from Wayne’s face. “Oh, no! Oh, man, I forgot! Crap!”

  “Well, they’re going to know we weren’t at school when we get home, anyway,” Kelly said. “But we probably ought to call now, because they probably are already worried sick.”

  She pulled out her phone and swiped the screen to wake it up, noticing that she had several text messages she hadn’t noticed coming in. She scanned the texts and sighed, then called up the phone contacts and dialed her mother’s cell.

  “Mom already knows something is up - she texted me a bunch of times,” she told Wayne as she waited for the call to connect. Her mother picked up the phone on the second ring. “Hi, Mom. I know - yes, he’s with me. We’re okay. I’m sorry. I know, but Mom - okay. No, I know. Yes. Um,” she pulled the phone away to glance at the phone, then put it back to her ear. “We should be at the bus stop in about 25 minutes. Okay, thank you. Mom, wait - how is Sam?” Kelly had closed her eyes to focus on her mother’s voice, trying not to sound defensive. “Okay. See you in a bit.”

  She hit the button to hang up the phone and looked up at Wayne’s face. “Well, so they know already that we didn’t go to school,” she said weakly. “And they are not happy. She said she had to call the police to let them know that we are safe, since they had already called to file missing person reports. Sam woke up, though. For a couple of hours this afternoon, so that’s good news.”