Capsule

by Mel Torrefranca

  And maybe not in a good way.

  Peter walked around the front of the car and stopped at Kat’s side. She tightened her grip on the pistol as Peter leaned over her shoulder. “Are you sure about this?”

  “I’m not planning to hurt him,” she muttered.

  “Even if the police get here before Jackie does?”

  “They won’t.” A remaining tear dripped down Kat’s cheek, and this time, Peter wasn’t sure if it was fake. “They can’t.”

  They stood for an eternity in the dark air, and Peter’s bones ached from shivering. He bit his lip, mind racing as though the gun were held to his own chest. As though it were only a matter of time until the last bit of perfection inside of him died. He’d become the opposite of what he’d been chasing for the past two years. He’d been setting himself standards based on a man who had saved a life, and now he’d become a criminal about to take one.

  It didn’t matter that the gun was in Kat’s hands. All that mattered was that he stood beside her. He stood beside a girl pointing a gun at an innocent man, and he didn’t stop her. Who was at fault here? No, it wasn’t Capsule. They’d been blaming everything on the game. On circumstance. But the reality was that all choices had been their own. Peter never had to be a part of this, but he chose to be here. He’d chosen a path of broken morals and rotting perfection.

  I’m the monster. Peter met the gaze of the heavy-breathed man standing several feet away. Not Capsule. Me.

  “Peter!”

  A shout came from behind the fence. Peter looked over his shoulder to spot two familiar faces, their shoulders rising and falling, breathing heavily.

  Jackie dropped the bike at her side. Its handle slammed into the sidewalk, the tires still spinning. Jay kneeled and set his bike gently onto the cement.

  “Quick.” Kat removed one hand from the gun as Peter faced her direction. She reached into the pocket of her windbreaker for Jay’s car keys. “Tell him to wait in the car, just in case the game doesn’t end immediately.” She held the keys toward Peter, and although he wanted to resist, he took them from her with a firm nod.

  Peter ran to the fence, where Jay stood frozen with his jaw dropped in Kat’s direction.

  “Can you get the car started?” Peter stuck the keys through the wires, offering them to Jay, who woke from his trance and stopped staring at the crime scene several cars away. For a moment he hesitated, his hand stopping only inches away from the keys, but he eventually took them. Jay set his free hand on Jackie’s shoulder as a quick sign of reassurance before heading to his car across the street.

  Peter made eye contact with Jackie for the first time since he and Kat had left her at the Grovestown dance. He had so much to say—that he was sorry, that he was wrong, that he actually did need her—but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was, “How’s the arm?”

  Jackie shot a quick glance at the gauze and shook her head. “Fine.” She leapt forward, and Peter took a few steps back as she forced her fingers between the wires, the flimsy fence now leaning in his direction.

  Thinking about the wound he’d seen on Jackie’s arm earlier left Peter with a bitter taste in his mouth. Either her wound had miraculously healed from Jay’s half-assed first-aid care or she was purposefully concealing her pain. With each seething breath she forced her way to the top of the fence, and as she turned to climb down the other side, Peter shook his head to force his concern away. Right now they needed to complete Level Five.

  “We tried to open it ourselves, but our hands go right through it, like how those ice skaters coasted through the capsule at Cherry Ice.” Peter reached out in front of him at nothing, reenacting the experience. “Almost holographic, in a way?”

  Jackie climbed down the other side much faster, jumping once she was only a few feet away from the dirt. She took a few micro-steps to steady herself and swiped her hands against each other to clear the dust away. Before Peter could say any more, she headed toward the glowing blue window.

  Peter followed. “It’s in the—”

  “Car, yeah. I’m not stupid.”

  Jackie’s voice was deeper than Peter remembered, and if he hadn’t seen her lips move, he might have thought it was someone else who’d spoken.

  When they reached Kat, Jackie stopped and raised her brows. Her eyes wandered from the capsule in the Toyota, to Kat standing on the other side of the car, to the man shivering several feet away with his hands in the air.

  Kat shot Jackie a red-eyed glance. “Can you stop staring and open the damn thing?”

  Peter gestured to the broken window, prompting Jackie to take action. She rolled her eyes and reached for the capsule. Unlike Peter and Kat, her bandaged hand met with the aluminum successfully. She truly was the player of this game.

  “So I guess it’s over.” Jackie’s voice had returned to normal now, that raspiness long gone. She’d dealt with Peter and Kat long enough, and she must have been pleased to finally ditch her job as their babysitter.

  But Peter still didn’t feel ready to end the game. What was the point to all of this? Everything they’d done today was just a bunch of nonsense, wasn’t it?

  Jackie ran her fingers along the capsule, gripping the top with her left hand and the bottom with her right. “Good game.”

  Peter stepped forward to stop her, but he was too late.

  The capsule split open at the middle, and its light blasted from inside. Before Peter could mutter a word, the dense color swallowed him in a flash, wiping everything from sight and drowning him in a world of blue.

  LEVEL FIVE

  A BEAUTIFUL DRIVE to Lothen Heights.

  It was October 5th of 2018, the night of Brookwood’s homecoming dance, but Emmeline had no plans to attend this year. She found power in being somewhere else during such a busy night. She’d been stressed with school, friends, family—everything lately, and to Emmeline a midnight drive topped any form of professional therapy. The splattering of rain across the windshield in perfect rhythm with the cheesy pop music blaring through the car mesmerized her.

  Emmeline was a senior in high school, and although she had decent grades, a buzzing social life, and a handful of people who cared way too much about her, it didn’t feel right. It didn’t make sense to be unhappy, but she was, and the fact that she couldn’t understand why left her empty.

  A few weeks ago, she’d decided that she’d be skipping the dance for a short trip to Lothen. Senior year was supposed to be her social peak, and so far it had been, but she also knew she needed a break. Maybe she’d go on a drive during prom night too.

  Lothen was located one town north of Grovestown. Her favorite part of the ride was heading down Quasso Drive, a foggy road bordered with skeleton-like trees. But even better than the drive was Lothen Heights, a gorgeous campground located on the shoreline. Her favorite spot, a cliff above the soaring waves, reflected the moon perfectly off the horizon at the right time of the night. Standing on that ledge was just as magical as standing on the border to another world.

  Her phone dinged on the passenger seat. A quick glance signaled that the text was from Jay.

  Emmeline faced the windshield with a tense throat. She should have given him a proper explanation about the dance, but she didn’t want to drag Jay into her personal problems. He was a sweetheart and he didn’t deserve that. She removed her right hand from the steering wheel and grabbed her phone to read the text.

  Is everything okay?

  Another text notification slid down from the top of her screen. One of her classmates. You going to Sal’s birthday thing tomorrow?

  Dad wants to know when you’ll be home. That text was from Kat. He’s worried.

  The messages streamed in as they always had. She was the center of attention. The light of the show. Of course there were times she enjoyed it, but now wasn’t one of them. She tossed her phone face-up onto the passenger seat. Her
eyes skipped back and forth between the road and her screen as a few more texts chimed in.

  Hey dude, u coming or what

  Let’s meet up sometime? I miss you <3

  Lmaoo u gotta watch this video

  Emmeline flipped her phone over on the passenger seat, eliminating the distraction. She was driving to get a break from the world, not to play a long-distance game. She reached to turn up the volume of the music, blasting it as she drove past the trees in isolation. No, she didn’t know when she planned on coming home. No, she wasn’t sure how long she’d been driving.

  And no, she didn’t know why she was crying.

  All she wanted was a moment to herself. A moment to live in peace with nature, yet here she was with a phone that wouldn’t stop buzzing. The car drifted as she raised an arm to wipe her face with her sleeve. Before she could adjust the steering wheel, her head met the window in an instant blow.

  A flash of light.

  The car skidded. Faster and faster, out of control.

  Emmeline gripped the steering wheel, the color draining from her hands as her head throbbed from the impact. She slammed her foot onto the brakes, but she was too late.

  With a crash, her hands jumped from the steering wheel.

  A second car had turned around the corner with awful timing. When the driver had caught sight of the oncoming car drifting into the wrong lane, there had been no time to brake. A jolt of the steering wheel had been enough to lighten the impact, but even then the crash had left the oncoming car spinning out of control.

  The second car came to a stop. A man stepped out, leaving his own vehicle running with the headlights on. He checked the wheels of his car, the lights, the windshield. Besides a dent in the front that smashed the license plate inward, everything was fine.

  The man had been heading home from a dinner date in Grovestown. He hadn’t been paying too much attention to the road, but he was sure he hadn’t been driving in the opposite lane. Surely the crash hadn’t been his fault.

  The car he’d struck had slammed into a thick tree off the other side of the road. Under the illumination of his own car’s headlights, the man caught a glimpse of a young woman’s face through the shattered passenger seat window. He inched closer, her side profile growing more vivid. More real. As he watched the blood drip from her ear, his stomach turned against itself. He leaned forward, choking on his own breaths.

  With a shaky hand, he pulled out his phone and dialed 911.

  And he called.

  Well, he thought about it.

  But he couldn’t bring himself to press the dangerous green button. The green button that he knew might land him in jail.

  With the adrenaline kicking in, the man threw himself back into his car, fiddled with the gears in a panic, and continued on his way home.

  It was the next morning when a woman clocked in for her shift at Sunshine Auto. She wasn’t in the mood for work, but she greeted a man with a smile as he entered the log building only two minutes after opening. He explained that he’d been planning to trade in his car.

  So the woman inspected the car, surveying the damage. The front was completely smashed inward, but there didn’t appear to be any major functional issues. Cosmetically, it would take some money to repair.

  “The damage was from a previous owner.” The man’s voice quivered. It seemed he was awfully excited to buy a new car.

  “I see.” The woman ran her fingers along the dented front. With a deep breath she dusted her hands on her jeans and stood. “We can give you three thousand for it. What’s your name?”

  The man gulped and set a hand on his soon-to-be-old car.

  “Nicholas Moon.”

  04:04:33

  JACKIE PULLED HER arms out of the car window.

  The world was still, noiseless besides the distant echo of sirens. Time stopped to allow the memory a chance to marinate, to really soak into their brains. No malice grew between them because what to be angry about had yet to be understood. The other four levels hadn’t been a surprise to more than two people, but this memory had shocked all three of them at once. This was something different. Jackie wasn’t the only bystander.

  “So he…” Peter shook his head and backed away from the car that now lacked its blue aura. The magic had died, and now all that remained was the bloody truth. “No, there’s no way.”

  Jackie stared at the car window—or the lack of it. She imagined Emmeline sitting in the seat, right where the glowing capsule had been hovering an instant ago. She imagined the blood dripping from Emmeline’s ear. What Nicholas had seen that night ingrained itself into Jackie’s memory as though she’d been there.

  Kat still hadn’t faced Jackie or Peter, nor had she lowered her arms. Her face grew red as she opened her mouth and shouted, “Your uncle?” The owner of Sunshine Auto raised his hands higher, misinterpreting where Kat’s anger was truly directed.

  The nephew of the criminal. The sister of the victim. It’d been that way all along, and no one knew.

  “You wanna know why he saved Isabella?” Kat’s voice elevated into a scream. “Because he felt guilty! Because he was guilty. The only reason he saved her was because he thought it’d make up for what he did. Like some kind of sick penance.”

  Peter narrowed his eyes at the back of Kat’s head. “That’s not—”

  “He wanted the easy way out of doing the right thing. If he was a good guy, why didn’t he tell my family?”

  The sirens grew louder.

  Jackie pressed her palms against her head, trying to tune out their argument and focus on their next step. This wasn’t the right time to lose control. There had to be a reason why the game hadn’t ended yet. What if Level Five’s not over? Jackie’s eyes met a sliver of purple peeking out of Kat’s back pocket—her phone. I gotta check the app.

  “Why didn’t he call the police?” Kat’s voice shook. “Maybe she wasn’t dead. Maybe she could’ve been saved.”

  Peter slammed a palm against the side of the car, a few extra shards of glass from the window trickling onto Jackie’s sneakers. “You saw what happened. It wasn’t his fault.”

  Jackie made her way around the front of the car and grabbed her phone from the back of Kat’s pocket. Kat didn’t flinch. She was so fixated on arguing with Peter that she had no energy to notice anything else.

  “Wasn’t his fault?” Kat scoffed. “This whole time. For the past two years you’ve been trying to live up to your perfect uncle. But your uncle was a murderer. He killed her. You’ve been trying to live up to the impossible standards of a psychopath. A guy who’d rather maintain his perfect image than do the right thing.”

  “No, you’re wrong.” Peter’s voice grew softer.

  Jackie stepped away from Kat and opened her phone to reveal the first screen of Capsule. A pop-up over the countdown read, CONGRATULATIONS, PLAYER. YOU MAY NOW CLAIM YOUR REWARD.

  “Nicholas hit her and did nothing to help. Do you know how many times I’ve wondered why she crashed? Why she ran into that tree? Do you know how many different scenarios I’ve run through in my head? He could have given us closure.”

  Claim my reward? Jackie frowned at the screen as she closed the pop-up, revealing a new line under the five crossed-out levels. Following LEVEL FIVE was a line labeled CLAIM REWARD in bold. She tapped it, triggering a new pop-up with the phrase LOTHEN HEIGHTS.

  A sixth location.

  “I’ve been trying to be nice.” Peter spoke slowly over the roof of the car, ensuring each word reached Kat with painful clarity. “But it was your sister who swerved into the other lane. Why should he get blamed for her mistake?”

  “Guys!” Jackie shouted as the red and blue flashing lights entered their field of vision. “There’s another location. For the reward.”

  Two police cars stopped in the middle of the road, blocking their path to Jay’s car. Shoot. J
ackie took a deep breath. There better be another way out.

  “Reward? You really think I care?” Kat turned away from the man, lowering the pistol to her side. “I just found out why my sister died, and you wanna get to some sixth location?”

  “That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” Peter ripped his eyes from Kat and laid them on Jackie with no hesitation. “You’re just in this for the game.”

  The rage that Jackie felt after they left her in Grovestown came pummeling back. She forced herself to loosen the grip on her phone, concerned that she’d break it.

  “We’re just your entertainment,” Kat said. “Aren’t we?”

  “No!” Jackie screamed, but not in response to Kat’s question.

  Two arms reached around Kat from behind. The man had seen their argument as a chance to free himself from the vulnerable situation he’d been placed in. One arm tightened around Kat’s neck, and the other pried the gun from her fingertips. The man stepped away from Peter and Jackie, Kat stumbling with him as he brought the gun to her head. The fear in his eyes was undeniable, and despite the fact that he had his arms wrapped around Kat’s neck, he was still trembling.

  Kat finally had answers, but she still hadn’t cried. Even with a gun to her head—her life only a pull of the trigger away—she still hadn’t shed a tear. She was nothing but a fiberglass mannequin.

  Jackie at least expected a human response from Peter, but his face was hollow, eyes vacant. He watched Kat’s fading life in front of him with no urgency to lend her a hand.

  The police car doors opened from behind the fence, their sirens accompanying Sunshine Auto’s warning signal to compose a haunting lullaby.

  Without looking at the screen, Jackie swiped to the second page of Capsule and tapped the emergency button a second time.