by Alyssa Lynn
“Kaycie, do you still have that cell phone,” Ava asked. Kaycie nodded and pulled it out of her pocket. “Thanks love.” She stood and walked over to the other side of the plane to take her seat. Dialing the number to the lab, she realized it was only seven in the morning and was hoping one of the girls had arrived for an early shift.
The phone clicked to the answering machine of the lab, “Hello, you’ve reached the Science Complex Laboratory. Our office hours are from eight a.m. to five p.m. If you are calling outside of our office hours, please leave your name, number and a brief message and one of the lab assistants will be in touch with you during the next working shift. If you are calling during our lab hours, please leave your name, number, and your reason for calling, and we will call you back as soon as possible. Thank you,” BEEP.
“Hey girls,” began Ava. “It’s me. Just wanted to ca-,”
“AVA!” Jaime shrieked from the other end of the line. “Holy shit! Are you okay? We’ve been trying to call you and text you since we sent you the lab results of the blood sample we took from the hospital. We know you said you were taking a vacation, but the last we saw you; you were in a hospital bed. You can’t do that to us! And by the way, what the hell was it that we sampled?”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. Listen, things got a little more complicated than what I had filled you in on. I’ll tell you about all of that later. I’m just calling to let you know that I’ll be back in Chicago in about two hours. We’re on the plane now.”
“You’re on a pla… you’re not in Chica… Ava, what the hell is going on? We knew you weren’t in the hospital because we went back and the nurses wouldn’t give us any information as to why you were gone. We started to panic,” said Brittney, putting Ava on speaker phone.
“Is that Ava?” Taylor squealed in the background, running toward the phone. “Girl, you’re on my shit list!”
“Alright, alright! I know. I was a little occupied for the last bit, but once I fill you in on what happened, you’ll understand why.”
“I’m intrigued,” replied Brittney.
“As you should be,” said Ava. “Now listen, we’ve got a lot of things to talk about. First things first; did you continue to feed Icarus?”
“Well yeah. We didn’t want the little guy to starve while you were on a hiatus,” said Brittney, slurping on her morning smoothie.
“Listen, lady. I’ve been through hell and back. Your sass is the last thing I need right now. If I could reach through this phone…” Ava gained composure and took a deep breath. “Anyway, thank you for feeding my little guy and keeping him happy. Did you blow bubbles for him? He really loves his bubbles.”
“For the love of God; yes we blew the damn bubbles. Get your ass home so we can kick it,” said Jaime.
“Yeah,” added Taylor. “After we hug you and tell you how thankful we are that you’re still alive. Don’t ever do that to us again, for real. We were terrified we were going to have to post your job and some lunatic would fill it.”
“I don’t plan to do that again and I’m glad the only reason you were worried was because you were afraid of getting a shitty colleague,” said Ava. She and the girls shared a laugh and Ava hung up the phone. Walking back over to Kaycie, Ava placed a hand on her shoulder. It made Ava’s heart break watching her hold back the tears. She could see in her face how broken and helpless she felt. “Just rest,” said Ava. “We will be home in no time.”
~
As they pulled up to their apartment, Ava thanked the driver and helped Demo up the stairs. She couldn’t help but touch the walls that lead to their door and be thankful she was alive to see them again. “Haven’t seen this place in forever,” muttered Ava. She grabbed their spare key from underneath the porcelain turtle and turned it in the keyhole. She couldn’t help but feel nervous as to what was on the other side. Even with having wiped out Marcus and his circus of freaks, she kept thinking that she was forgetting something.
Cautiously, the group entered the apartment and could hear voices coming from the kitchen. Ava looked at Kaycie and Demo over her shoulder. Demo pushed the girls behind him and crept toward the entryway. He sighed and dropped his shoulders when he discovered who the voices were coming from.
“Finally!” yelled Jaime. She barreled out of the kitchen and wrapped around Ava. In a split second, she pulled herself away and looked at Ava’s face. Squeezing her mouth with her hand, she looked from Ava’s face to the blood stains on what was left of Demo’s shirt. The look of shock on Jaime’s face spread to Brittney and Taylor. The other two girls tiptoed out from the kitchen, keeping their distance for fear of what they were about to be told.
Taylor pointed to Demo and then shifted her direction to Ava’s face. “I don’t even know where to begin,” she said.
“Let’s just say, we had a bit of a run in with the bad guys,” Ava said. “Now that you’ve seen the shape we’re in, is it possible to forgive me for not getting in touch?”
“Either that, or we should be more pissed off that you didn’t find a way to let us know what kind of trouble you were in,” Brittney said, running her hand over Ava’s swollen eye.
“Well, if I would have had my phone attached to my ear while I was tied to a surgical table, I may have given you a call,” muttered Ava. She walked over to Icarus’ cage and placed her chameleon on her shoulder. Demo looked at him with wide eyes. “What? You’ve never seen a chameleon before?” she asked him.
“Yes, of course. We always have little green things running around the clone factory,” he said, not taking his eyes off of her pet.
“He won’t hurt you, ya know,” Kaycie said, walking over to tap Icarus on the head.
“Just a little green guy who enjoys popping bubbles and late-night cuddle sessions with Ava. I’m sure you can relate to that,” Kaycie said, winking at Demo.
Demo put his hands on his hips. “Anyway,” he said, clearing his throat. “We need a game plan to get things in order. You both left quite a bit of your belongings back at Ethan’s. Do we have a way to get them back?” Kaycie’s eyes dropped. “I’m so sorry, Kaycie. I didn’t mean to-,”
“I’m okay,” Kaycie replied, forcing a fake smile. “I will walkie in and see if we can get a ride back to his place.”
The group sat around the living area to relax, and thirty minutes later, there was a knock on their apartment door. The group froze and stared at the door knob.
“Should someone get that?” asked Demo. Nobody moved, but shifted their gaze from the door to Demo. Since all eyes were now on him, he made his way to the peep hole and looked through. Turning the knob and opening the door, Kaycie recognized the guy standing in the hall.
“Did we forget something?” Kaycie asked the man as she walked over toward him.
The man reached in his pocket and pulled out a key. “Yes, I believe you did. The keys to your house ma’am.”
“The keys to my… what?” Kaycie replied, squinting her eyes at the man.
He handed the keys over to her with an envelope. “Do you need assistance getting your things packed up, ladies?”
Kaycie didn’t respond, but instead, pulled the document out of the envelope and looked it over. With her mouth hanging open, she looked up at Ava and shook her head.
“What is it?” asked Ava. Kaycie handed over the document and Ava understood the blank look on Kaycie’s face. “Oh my God.”
Kaycie dropped to the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably. “Is she okay?” asked Demo, kneeling down and wrapping an arm around her.
“She will be, once everything sinks in,” replied Ava. “Ethan meant what he said when he told those guys that he was making sure Kaycie was taken care of.” She gulped, “It appears as though he’s taken care of me as well.”
“What do you mean?” Demo asked her, a confused look on his face.
“He left Kaycie everything he had. His car, his house, his plane…” She looked into Demo’s eyes. “Our bank accounts have been filled with Ethan’s rew
ard money; past, present, and future.” Ava pulled her phone out of her pocket and logged onto her mobile banking app. Putting her hand over her mouth, she handed the phone to Demo.
He took the phone and looked at it, then looked back at Ava. “Why would he do this?” Demo asked.
“I don’t have an answer for that,” said Ava, “but I sure know what I’m doing with my share.” She rushed over to Jaime, Brittney, and Taylor, pulling them into the kitchen.
Demo returned to Kaycie’s side and attempted to pull her to her feet. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I think I will be,” she replied, wiping tears from her eyes. “I just wish we hadn’t ended on such bad terms. I didn’t even want to talk to him or look at him. Now, he’s done all of this and I have no way to thank him.”
“Taking care of yourself will be more than enough for Ethan. I’m sure of it. He wanted to make sure you were taken care of. He wants you to be safe.” He pulled her in to a gentle hug.
“Thank you so much, Demo,” she said, carefully returning the gesture. Just then, the four girls emerged from the kitchen with big smiles on their faces. “What’s going on?” Kaycie asked.
Jaime was all but bouncing up and down, while Taylor and Brittney squeezed each other’s hands. Ava stepped forward and looked at Demo and Kaycie. “You two may want to sit down for a moment,” she said, gesturing toward the couch. Ava placed Icarus back in his cage and stood in front of the group with her hands behind her back as if she were a drill sergeant. “I have a proposition for you both. This is going to sound a little out there, and we won’t know the nitty-gritty until we formulate a game plan, but hear me out.” She looked at Demo and Kaycie who nodded. “As you know, we just had a whole shit ton of things hit us; good and bad. One of the things we left unfinished was the group of people we left behind. Ethan gave his life to save us as well as them, and I think we need to do something to commemorate that.” Waiting for nods from Kaycie and Demo, she continued. “The four of us,” she said, gesturing toward Jaime, Brittney, Taylor, and herself, “have decided that we have the funds and the brains to create a shelter and take them all in. We would, however, need someone in the medical field for obvious reason, and someone that can relate to them. That’s where you two would come in.” Demo stood, but Ava raised her hand and he sat back down. “This will be a lot of work. We would need to find a facility and understand how to run an establishment such as this one.” Ava felt almost demanding and was regretting jumping at them with this idea so quickly after everything had happened. “I know this is a fast decision being made, and I know we, as a group, need time to mourn, but we can’t let these people suffer while we do so.
Kaycie nodded. “It does seem fast, but you’re right.” Looking around the room, she tried to reassure people that she was okay with the idea. “That would be a great idea, but how would we even get this started?” she asked.
“We find a vacated building or we create a blueprint and build. We hire the help to do the dirty work, and determine the number of people that would be staying with us so we can include accommodations for all of them. Everything from schooling, to careers, to food and shelter. They would be kept safe with us,” said Jaime, hardly able to contain her excitement.
“That’s where we run into a problem,” added Ava. The group looked up at her from the couch. “We would also need to enlist some of them; basically form an army.”
“Why would we need to do that?” asked Kaycie, sounding concerned.
Ava took a deep breath and looked at everyone in the room. “As we were walking up the stairs to the apartment, I kept getting a sinking feeling in my gut that we were forgetting something. Trying to go over everything that had happened in that building, it was like watching my life flash before my eyes. Then it paused on a particular scene while we were inside the building, strapped to the surgical tables.”
“I hate hearing you say that,” interrupted Taylor.
Ava looked over at her and nodded, “Believe me, it was no cake-walk actually living it. Anyway, when Marcus was talking to us right after we had arrived, he said something that I think may have dropped out of my mind for a moment.”
What’s that?” asked Demo.
Ava stiffened her back and inhaled deeply. “The fact that the building we just escaped from wasn’t his only facility.”
The group went silent and their eyes darted back and forth. “What does that mean for us,” asked Kaycie.
“It means,” Ava started, trying to keep her voice steady, “It means we have work to do.”
epilogue
G etting settled into their new home was overwhelming for the three of them. A house with too much space to fill, yet still feeling claustrophobic from the heavy atmosphere of losing the original owner. Close proximity was a requirement for them due to feeling uneasy with the thought of losing sight of each other.
“Got everything ready?” Ava asked Kaycie as she poked her head into her room. “Robb is waiting for us downstairs.”
Kaycie had unpacked all of her things in Ethan’s old room. She enjoyed still being able to smell him when she lay in his bed. The pillow cases hadn’t been washed since Ethan had slept on them, and all of his cologne bottles sat on his dresser. It killed Ava to see Kaycie living with the loss of a lover.
“Yeah, just gotta grab a few more things and then we can head over,” replied Kaycie. “Did you grab the hardhats? You know Phil won’t let us in there without them.”
Ava moved over as Demo came walking in with three hardhats stacked on top of each other, “Check! I can’t believe how quickly the building is going up. I suppose when you have that many people working on it at once, it’s bound to have a fast turnaround time.”
“It better, for the amount of money we’re spending to have it done. I’m not sure how much longer we can keep everyone cooped up in this house,” Ava said. “I swear, October is creeping up on us and I’m starting to panic we’ll be having an indoor Trick-or-Treat session on the first floor.”
Kaycie and Demo chuckled at the thought of having a house full of ghosts and zombies running around. “I don’t think it will be a problem. Robb is pretty set on the fact that we may have a finished facility in the very near future. Just some drywall and paint should do the trick,” replied Demo.
Robb yelled down the hall, “Where you guys at?”
Ava noticed Kaycie’s cheeks flush pink as she looked toward the doorway. “We’re in Kaycie’s room,” Ava yelled back. Smirking at her best friend, Ava crossed her arms and enjoyed the thought of Robb and Kaycie together. Robb was a super dependable guy that Ava knew she could trust. Besides, he was one of the guys that helped drag them away from the catastrophe. Not to mention the fact that he was drop dead gorgeous. Ava walked over to Kaycie to help her put the last few documents into the file folders.
“You’re so smitten,” she said to Kaycie.
“Am not,” she whispered back.
“Are t-,”
“Ssshhh…” Kaycie interrupted her.
Robb walked into the room, “What are we shushing?”
“Nothing,” Kaycie said, before Ava could open her mouth. “My allergies are a little wound up today. Let’s head down.” The girls grabbed the items off the bed as they walked past Demo and Robb.
Ava pulled her dinging phone out of her pocket and checked the message, “Jaime, Taylor, and Brittney are already down there waiting for us. I’m sure they have a whole new list of questions for you Demo; I swear, they can’t get over the creation process.”
“Well, they will get an up-close-and-personal view of all of the creations once we all begin working there,” Kaycie added.
“I’ll answer any questions they have for me. Like I’ve been doing for the last few months,” Demo said with a chuckle. He looked at everything they had stacked in their hands. “What all do you feel like you’re going to need for this? Aren’t we just going to see the progress of the shelter so far?” Demo asked the girls, while Robb stood beside him
with the same amount of curiosity.
“We need the documents for signing and notarization. The contracts for the new workers to get busy and finish the final details. And, of course, we need snacks. You should know that we can’t ever go anywhere without our Twizzlers and Milk Duds.” Kaycie said as she locked eyes with Robb.
“Oh,” Ava began, “And the uniforms.”
Robb and Demo looked at each other and replied in unison, “Uniforms?”
Ava and Kaycie shared a grin between the two of them. Placing a hand on her hip, Ava looked at Demo and Robb, and grinned.
“Yeah guys. Every army needs a uniform.”
soundtrack
“American Woman” Written by Randy Bachman, sang by The Guess Who in 1970. Cover released by Lenny Kravitz in 1999
“I Wanna Dance With Somebody” © 1987 ARISTA RECORDS, INC. Written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam. Sang by Whitney Houston.
“Vienna” © 1977 Almost Music Corp. o/b/o Impulsive Music Written and sang by Billy Joel.
“Pony” © 1996 Written by Static Major and Timbaland. Sang by Genuwine.
“I Will Always Love You” © 1973 Written by Dolly Parton, Re-recorded in 1992 by Whitney Houston.
“Unwell” © 2003 Written by Rob Thomas. Sang by Matchbox Twenty.
“These Boots Were Made for Walkin’” © 1966 Written by Lee Hazlewood and Recorded by Nancy Sinatra. Re-recorded by Jessica Simpson in 2005.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alyssa Lynn is an author who lives with her daughter in a small town in Central Pennsylvania. She is an extremely outgoing individual who loves Halloween and exploring new places. Alyssa started writing when she was in her early teens, but only started taking it seriously in the early months of 2019. Since she was known for never following through on projects (i.e. paintings, drawings, household projects) she decided it was time to see a project through, from start to finish. Now that she has a few stories under her belt, and one of them published, she’s ready to take on the world of writing.
