by Willow Rose
“You had a baby, Reese? But how is that possible?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. You know how it is with my memory, but I do remember being pregnant; I remember my growing stomach, and I remember giving birth. I keep seeing her when I close my eyes, and I can hear her too. My sweet baby girl. She reminded me of you when you were just a baby—all wrinkled and red like a small prune.”
I swallowed, trying to contain all this new information. “So, you’re telling me you had a baby against the doctor’s recommendations?”
“A baby girl, yes. I’m pretty sure. Abby. I called her Abby…I think. I always liked that name, so I guess I would pick that for her.”
“Who is the father? Do you even know?”
She gave me a guilty look. Usually, the guys my sister dated never stayed for more than a few weeks at a time. I guessed he was long gone.
She shook her head. “I don’t remember.”
“And where is the baby now?”
Her eyes filled. “That’s what I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? How can you not know this?”
“I didn’t even remember having her until I got back, Harry. I was in a coma for four weeks. I have no idea what happened before that. I remember someone crying, and I remember my baby girl lying in bed with me, but that’s all.”
“So, she’s just…gone?” I asked, sounding a little angrier than I wanted to. “And you don’t know where she is?”
My sister bit her lip again and nodded. “I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry. I fear that…I was sick, you know? They say I fainted in a supermarket. They took me to the hospital, where they realized something was very wrong. I could barely breathe, and they had to intubate me. That’s when they put me in an induced coma.”
“And by then, you had already infected a lot of people, including nurses and doctors. They didn’t know you were carrying a new virus no one had ever seen before, that no one was immune to. And by the end of the week, it had spread to the entire state, And here we are, almost four weeks later, and the entire world has closed down. Wow. Do you have any idea how you got the virus?”
She shook her head again. “No. They asked me all these questions at the hospital too, but I couldn’t answer them, Harry. You know how my memory is. I can’t distinguish between what is in my head and what isn’t. I thought the baby was just something I had made up until I found the pacifier and suddenly remembered her. Oh, God, what if she died? What if I infected her with the virus, and then she died? I keep hearing her crying; I’m so scared, Harry. What could have happened to her?”
I exhaled and leaned back, quite baffled. Here I thought things had gotten as bad as they possibly could. But I guess not.
“I don’t know, Reese. I didn’t even know you had a child. I can’t believe you had a baby, and you didn’t even tell Dad or me.”
“I meant to tell you. I did. You must believe me, but things went so fast and I couldn’t…I was afraid you’d tell me to get rid of it like the doctors did because I couldn’t. I wanted this child; I wanted her more than anything. She was the one thing right with me…that I ever did right. After I had given birth, I wanted to come to visit and show her to you, that was my plan, but then I don’t know what happened. I can’t seem to separate the days. I thought I…but then… Oh, Harry, I don’t know what happened or how it all happened. I am so confused. I need your help, Harry. Today, someone came for me. I know they did. They came into my apartment and wanted to kill me, and I am so scared. Please, Harry, please, tell me you’ll help me.”
I stared at her, then reached out and pulled her into a deep hug, forgetting all the rules of social distancing and fear of her infecting me. Her skinny body was shaking in my arms as I held her tight and kissed the top of her head while wondering how much of this story I could actually believe was true. How much of this story was just her disease talking or the voices in her head?
“Of course, I’ll help you, Reese,” I said, rocking her back and forth the same way she used to do with me when I was crying as a child.
“Of course, I will.”
Chapter 20
She heard footsteps approaching. Frantically, Candice tried to wrench her hands free, but she couldn’t. Pain shot through her arms as the strips bit into her skin. The grating sound of a door being opened followed. Candice held her breath behind the gag. She had recognized her captor’s voice, but she couldn’t place it. He tried to change it when he spoke to her, making it deeper, so she wouldn’t recognize it, but there was something very familiar about it, and it scared her. This was no random kidnapping. This was planned.
Think about what you have done, he had said. Naturally, it was all she could think about when he left her alone.
Why had this guy targeted her? Did it have to do with her work?
The door slammed shut behind her captor, and she knew she was no longer alone. Her heart rate quickened as she heard the footsteps approach. She felt how she was panting, agitated and whimpering, wondering what would be next for her. Images of rape kept nagging at her constantly, especially in the beginning. Was that why he had taken her? To have his way with her?
No. You can’t let fear get the better of you. You must remain calm and collected. Only in that way can you survive.
A hand touched her cheek, and she winced. The hand lingered on her cheek for a few seconds, and Candice had to focus on calming herself, so didn’t panic run off with her. She felt herself hyperventilating and almost choking behind the gag.
“Don’t be scared,” he whispered.
She could hear his breathing close to her ear. What was it about that voice that was so familiar? Was it someone she knew well? A friend or a co-worker? No, that couldn’t be it. It somehow felt further away, distant. Could he be someone she might have met in a bar on one of her nights out? Someone she had rejected? A former blind date come back for more? Come back for what he believed was his, what he was entitled to?
The hand was removed, and she felt him walk away. He was still in the room; she was certain of it. She hadn’t heard the door open and close again, and now she could hear something else. It sounded like a zipper being opened on a backpack or a suitcase, maybe. Had he brought something? Toys for his sex games? Instruments for torturing her?
The thought made her gasp behind the gag, and she fought to breathe properly to calm her beating heart.
What was her kidnapper’s plan? Was it going to be painful?
Please, God, no. Please.
Candice slid down onto the mattress below her, her torso shaking in fear. As she laid her head down, her blindfold slid up slightly, just enough for a little light to enter. Almost blinded by it, she closed her eyes briefly, startled. After a few seconds, while her kidnapper was busy with his bag, pulling things out, she managed to peek out just enough to see him. She couldn’t see his face since he had his back turned to her and was wearing a surgical mask like most people were these days when going outside like the governor had urged them to.
She couldn’t see his face or see him properly, but she could see what he was pulling out of his backpack, and the sight made her just about lose it.
Candice didn’t know much about explosives, but she did know that’s what she was looking at. Her heart almost stopped as she worried this guy might make a mistake and blow them both up, but his hands moved with what seemed like expertise and experience. Praying under her breath, she watched as he worked with great caution, then attached a wire to the backpack holding the explosives and trailed it from the backpack to the door. Then he left her, closing the door carefully behind him.
Again, Candice was no expert, but it didn’t take a genius to see that if anyone tried to come through that door, the bomb would be triggered. Realizing this, she lay completely still, listening, hearing nothing but the heavy beating of her frightful heart.
Chapter 21
Harry had given her the couch and was sleeping on the floor himself. Reese laid awake most of the night, staring into the
ceiling or looking at her handsome little brother, snoring away next to her.
Always the gentleman.
He had found a new girlfriend, he had told her, and she had gotten his entire story of the past year, during which he had lost his wife. She was now in a witness protection program and had changed her identity and everything. It was quite the story, and Reese felt sad that her brother had to go through this. But she was happy he had found Jean. She seemed like a nice girl, and Harry looked so in love when seeing her. Reese had said hello to her, standing on the porch before they went to bed when Harry went out to see her as she returned from working at the hospital. Reese had gone back inside to let them talk, and Harry had stayed out there for at least an hour, while Reese watched TV in his living room, trying not to listen in on their conversation.
She had sat with their dad for a little while, holding his hand while he slept. He was still burning up and had started to cough. Reese was worried about him. She knew what he was going through. She didn’t exactly remember much from when she began to get symptoms, but she did remember that it didn’t feel good. For her, it had started with a fever just like their dad, and then a burning sensation in her lungs and a deep cough had followed. She didn’t recall exactly when it began, but it was bad once it started. She coughed and coughed all night long and had to sit upright to sleep. It had felt like she would suffocate.
Abby? Where was the baby at this point?
Reese didn’t remember her from when she was sick, but how could that be? Had she contracted the virus and died? Had she buried her somewhere?
Reese couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing. It was eating at her. She feared the baby was lying somewhere, crying for her mother. She kept hearing her cries as she closed her eyes, and it felt like torture.
When realizing she wasn’t going to get any sleep, Reese got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen. She found some iced tea in the fridge and poured herself a glass. She was still out of breath from even the smallest of efforts, and she got dizzy from standing up, then sat in a chair at the dining table. The sound of Harry’s snoring filled the room and made her calm.
No one made her calm like Harry.
Reese felt sadness overwhelm her when thinking about the many people filling the hospitals right now all over the world. She couldn’t help feeling like it was all her fault—like she was to blame for their misfortune. Not to mention the millions of people that would be unemployed after this because of the economy and a possible recession. That’s what they had said on TV. Reese didn’t know much about that, but she had heard the experts talking about it, and it saddened her deeply. So many of the people in the supermarket where she had fainted had become sick afterward. So many doctors and nurses who had treated her, who didn’t know what they were dealing with—how many more had she infected? She had been contagious for days before she fainted in that supermarket, the doctor had told her. Not that they knew for sure, but that was their theory. Perhaps it could have been more. In all that time, she had been out and about in society. Reese often rode the bus or the train that also went to the airport. She worked at a CVS where many people came and went. Seven of her coworkers were in the hospital now; Harry had told her—including her boss. One of the infected clients who had frequented the CVS where she worked was also a teacher at a local high school and had spread it to the students. One particular school had more than four hundred kids in the hospital. Many of them had died.
How am I supposed to live with myself after this? How am I supposed to continue, knowing I have caused this, that I was the one infecting them all? I caused this Armageddon. I caused it all!
Reese sniffled and drank her iced tea. Then she folded her hands and did something she hadn’t done in years. Being a pastor’s daughter, she had been quick to reject God and everything her dad stood for as a teenager, especially after the rape. She had thought God had left her, and she turned her back on him. How could she not when she had prayed for His help while she was being raped, and He had stayed silent? How could she believe He wanted what was best for her? How could she believe He was for her when He let this happen? When He didn’t stop it? She hadn’t prayed for his help since, but she was doing that now. It was time to stop running.
“God, if you still remember me,” she whispered into the darkness of the room, while tears spilled onto her cheeks. “I need your help. I’ll do anything you tell me to. I am in so much pain, and I don’t know how to make things right again. Help me find my baby. Help me. Please.”
Reese sat like that for a few minutes, realizing this was the clearest she had been able to think since she was let out of the hospital. She slowly remembered things from the time before. Harry had taken her to the drive-thru pharmacy and made sure she got new meds, and she already felt better than she had in a very long time. The voices were still there, but she was less anxious, and the paranoia seemed to have settled slightly too. Her mind was still racing with images and thoughts that she didn’t know where they came from or if they were true or not, but it was definitely an improvement.
Reese finished her iced tea, then rose to put the glass in the dishwasher when she thought she heard a sound coming from behind her. Gasping, she turned around and saw someone, a figure standing by the window outside.
Reese stopped and stared at the figure, heart racing in her chest.
Was he real? Or was he just in her mind?
There was no way for her to tell.
Reese closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again, and the figure was gone. She sighed, relieved. It was just her imagination, her paranoia. It was nothing.
She closed the dishwasher, then walked to the living room, where Harry was still snoring. She laughed quietly at him, then sat on the couch and stared at her baby brother for a few seconds, finally feeling a little tired, hopefully enough to be able to go to sleep.
Reese laid down, pulled the blanket over her shoulders, and closed her eyes. As she did, she saw Abby again. This time, she was lying on a blanket on the floor while Reese was changing her diaper and tickling her stomach. Abby was cooing, and then she pulled her lips into a small smile.
Her first smile.
Reese’s heart skipped a beat, and she opened her eyes with a gasp, smiling from ear to ear when remembering this, realizing it was no dream; it was real. She remembered it vividly.
As she opened her eyes, she looked right into the face of a dark shadow towering above her. She didn’t see it, but she felt the blade of the knife as it was pressed against the skin on her throat.
Chapter 22
I was dreaming about Jean, a strange dream where she was far away from me, and I couldn’t get to her. She was sick and couldn’t breathe, and I could hear her calling my name, but I couldn’t find her. I was pulled out of the dream with a loud gasp when something woke me.
It took me a second or two to realize what was happening. At first, I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, it was so surreal, but once I got my sight back, I realized Reese was in trouble.
There was a person bent over her, and she was struggling.
I shot up, then rose to my feet in the same swift movement and sprang for him, knocking him sideways into the wall behind the couch. The knife was still in his hand, and he swung it at me, cutting me on the shoulder. I fell back and placed a hand on the wound, while Reese screamed and kicked. She tried to escape, but the person grabbed her and stabbed the knife at her. Reese moved just in time, and the knife went into the couch instead and ripped a huge tear in the fabric. A second later, I was back on my feet. I swung my fist and hit him on the jaw so hard he flew back and crashed into my lamp. He scrambled to his feet, then ran for the door. I jolted after him and was inches from grabbing his collar, but missed. He unlocked the front door, then stormed outside. By the time I was on the porch, he was running down the street and disappeared between the houses.
I stood there, panting and wiping sweat from my face when Reese came up behind me.
“Who was that?” I asked. “Did you know him?”
She shook her head. “I…I don’t know.”
“Did you see his face?”
She shook her head and turned around.
“Reese?” I grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her to force her to look at me. “You know who he is, don’t you?”
She looked up at me, then shook her head. “I don’t know who he is.”
“But you did recognize him, didn’t you?”
“Maybe. I…I don’t know, Harry.” She exhaled, frustrated, and sat on the patio swing. She was hitting her head with her fists. “I just can’t…I don’t know. I know him, yes. At least I think so. I think I recognized the eyes, but I could barely see them properly with the sparse light in the living room. It was pretty dark. And I don’t know where I should know him from.”
“But maybe he is someone you met while you were off your meds,” I said.
“If it is the same guy, then I have seen him in my mind. In images,” she said. “I thought it was just a dream or one of my paranoid hallucinations, you know? I’ve had so many of them lately. It’s hard for me to tell the difference.”
I pulled her into a hug, calming myself and my pounding heart.
“Of course. I know it’s hard for you.”
“I told you that someone was trying to kill me,” she said, her body shaking in my arms. “I’m so scared.”
“Of course, you are. We need to get you somewhere safe. I know just the place.”
Chapter 23
“How will I know that she won’t infect me?”
Al was wearing a surgical mask, plastic gloves, and glasses when she opened the door after unlocking the many locks on the other side.
“I told you this on the phone, Al,” I said. “She’s recovered. If there’s anyone it’s safe to be around right now, it’s her.”
