Apollo's 11

by Anna Collins

  "Beat up Ford? Where did that come from? The only car Rick drives is a Toyota Premio. He doesn't have a ford" she said.

  I itched my head "what's going on man? I'm not getting anything" I said in a frustrated voice.

  Freya seemed to be lost in a deep thought, then she spoke in a low-pitched voice, it sounded more like she was talking to herself rather than me "I don't believe it! Kate is my best friend, she can be a bit blunt but there's no way she could harm anyone. I can't doubt on her from the mere words of a stranger."

  I stood up immediately "stranger? did you just say that I'm a stranger to you?" I shouted.

  My voice shook her.

  "Keep it down" she uttered.

  "And I was just talking to myself, no need to fire it up like this," she said.

  I made her stand up by pulling her by the arm. She was only an inch away from me.

  "Ouch it hurts" she pointed to her hand where my fingers were digging into her soft skin.

  "Let it hurt! feel some of the pain that you make me feel all the time" I growled.

  She looked at me in disbelief "pain?"

  I continued "yes, I feel it every time when you treat me like I'm no one to you, everytime when I try to find a hint of affection in these big brown eyes, but I get nothing" I leaned down to her face till our noses were touching. I was breathing heavily and so was she.

  She was silent and her eyes were roaming at all other places but refused to meet my eyes. I tried to read her face and that confused me even more because I could see sadness and guilt on her pretty face.

  "Answer me! Why did you call me a stranger? do I really mean nothing to you?" I demanded, my voice reflecting the unspoken pain of my heart.

  She sighed and closed her eyes "see...Ro...I mean...Zack, yes Zack!You are Zack. See, I am sorry if I made you feel that way, I can never intend to hurt anyone. I know how pain feels like and I will never want it for anyone" she murmured in a shaky voice.

  My grip now went tighter on her arms and she looked up at me sighing. Jeez! she parted lips made me want to kiss her right at that moment.

  Focus dude! you need to get the answers from her, I said to myself.

  "Answer me in a word, what do you think of me?" I demanded again but this time the throw of my voice was powerful than ever. As if the forgotten part of my heart was craving to hear the answer from her mouth.

  For the first few seconds she kept looking into my eyes and when I thought she was getting lost in my eyes she looked away immediately and said "I don't owe you any answer. Now leave me!" she stomped.

  "Not until you take back your words and you know I mean it," I said.

  She still wasn't looking at me when she said "Fine! then listen. Last night was a mistake! I was in a haze because of the strong painkillers.You are nothing to me, while I was in your arms I thought I was making love to my Robert. I love him so much that I lose control by seeing his face. It wasn't for you, it was for him!" she yelled as tears welled down from her eyes and reached to her face.

  Freya

  It actually felt good when I let it go off my chest. The feeling of suffocation was almost washed away by the loud yelling and the tears.

  Zack's grip on my hand loosened. His eyes bowed down, as he stepped backward from me. I gazed him several times but I could see nothing on his face or there was something, some complicated emotion that I couldn't read. But one thing I did understand was that he got the shock of his life, maybe because no girl had ever rejected him like this.

  Unable to see him like that, I turned away from him and ran to my bedroom. I hugged my pillow tightly, in an attempt to the hollowness of my heart. I tried to feel good, but somehow the suffocation was coming back. It was all my fault, I gave him all the wrong signals. I was the worst person in this whole world, even worse than Robert's mother. I buried my face in my hands as warm tears made them wet.

  I stayed locked in my room for an hour or so. Actually, I was trying to hide from Zack. I had no idea what he was doing right now but I didn't have it in me to face him. I gave him a total wrong impression, he might refuse to work for me anymore.

  Then the voices in my head told me that only coward people chickened out like I was doing. Yes, I had fought so many battles in my life, I shouldn't be afraid of this one too. I will go out and talk to him, and if he wanted to shout at me, he could do that too, I thought and stepped out.

  He wasn't there in the living room, then I began checking the rest of the apartment but couldn't spot him.

  Shit! did he barge out in anger? Hell No! I held my head in my hands. "What have I done, Zack is a hot-headed guy, he can do anything. And now he was super mad at me, what if he is planning to destroy me or something like that. Oh God" I held my head and sat on the floor. My life was about to turn into a living hell, that too all because of me.

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Freya

  After cursing myself for ten long minutes, I decided that crying on this wasn't going to help so I decided to take some required steps. I called up Shawn and updated him about the current situation, leaving out the part that involved me and Zack spending the night together, I was too ashamed to talk about that to anyone.

  Shawn asked me not to worry and told me that he would try to track Zack's location ASAP, he had some friends in the IT department of the mobile company whose SIM card Zack was using. Because the GPS of his phone was turned off and he wasn't even answering the calls. What if he had thrown away the phone in anger? I wouldn't be surprised if he crushed his phone into pieces. I had seen the fire of rage in his eyes.

  It would take Shawn 8 hours to reach New York. Instead of waiting for Shawn I thought of going out and finding Zack by myself. Rick used to be my first choice in these type of missions but now he had turned to be a complicated mission himself. I planned to solve them all, but for now, Zack was the burning problem. I needed to find him ASAP before a media person found him and made him the new breaking news.

  Kate, yes she should be able to sort something out, with that thought I headed towards Kate's apartment.

  I drove through the foggy streets of New York city. The evening was busy in wearing the veil of darkness. While the people in the high-rise buildings stayed unaffected, I could see many people walking down the street, clinging on to their sweaters and jackets. The environment looked misty as if shaded by a black shadow or something. The presence of black shadows and evil creatures weren't something unusual in my life. These damn things had destroyed my whole life and now was keen to take the life out of my body. The flashback of the night when those mysterious characters had attacked me came before my eyes. I knew their intention was to kill me, if it wasn't for Zack I would have been dead by now. What would someone get by killing me? I was totally harmless. I frowned as all the tragedy of my life kept roaming in my head like the scenes of a movie.

  I was sneaking my eyes out everywhere on the road just in case I spotted Zack, it didn't come into any use, he was nowhere to be seen. I kept praying for his wellbeing.

  Soon the familiar view of Kate's neighborhood filled my eyes. This was the place where I grew up to be me. This is where I found myself and realized that I was more than a fat , useless girl. Kate took me under her wing when I had nowhere to go, she had always been there for me, so how could I ever doubt her? She was like a sister I never had.

  Maybe Zack was drunk or something or he saw someone else and assumed it to be Kate. Why would Kate try to harm Zack? It made no sense.

  I parked the car in the underground spot and headed upwards to meet my dear friend.

  I stepped into the corridor and when I halted at the door of Kate's apartment, I felt someone's gaze on me, I turned around to be startled by the old lady who lived across the hall.

  She kept eyeing me with a grumpy look.

  "Hello aunty" I smiled.

  "Don't go there my child. Kate's not the same person anymore" she warned.

  I stopped my mouth from hanging open because her tone of speaking and tha
t look was making my throat dry.

  "What are you saying? Is Kate okay?" I asked breathlessly.

  I only got a blank expression in my reply and she turned to her heels and walked away.

  What was that? Why was the old lady trying to scare the hell out of me? Weirdo! I shook my head and reached for the doorbell. No, I should surprise her, with that thought I roamed my hand around in my black GUCCI handbag, thankfully the extra key to the apartment was still there. I never returned it to Kate.

  I smiled and unlocked the door, I was expecting to be greeted by the sweet smell of lavender air freshener, Kate used to spray it all the time, it was her favorite flavor, but all I could smell was the pungent smell of burning. Jeez! did she set the house on fire?

  "Kate!, Kate!" I called her name amidst coughing. There was no reply and the silence scared me like nothing else. I began to worry if Kate was okay. I ran to her bedroom but was bound to stop my tracks on the door.

  My eyes opened wide in shock as the rib shaking scene came into my view. Her room was dark, except for the few black candles that were left in a scattered way on the platform of her giant wooden dressing table.

  But the thing that made my head spun was her face, no, not only the face, her overall attitude. With mascara smudged all over her face and red lipstick that was everywhere down to her lips to her chin, she was looking scary. Her hair, God! the shoulder length hair was totally messed up. What was she up to?

  I swallowed hard, but before I could speak something, she began murmuring some something in a language which I couldn't understand. Soon the murmuring turned into a loud chant. Her eyes were fixed at the reflection of her own image, that the full-length mirror was showing her.

  I kept looking at the mirror curiously. Ahh, maybe Kate bagged a role in a TV commercial and was rehearsing for it. She had the tendency to feel every character before playing them. But what's with this loose fitting black rug that she was wearing? As far as I could remember, Kate never took up any assignments that made her look ugly or non-glamourous, in her words.

  I kept looking, the skit looked kinda interesting.

  "Amagra Mey Mey Giadaaa" Kate shouted in a loud squealing voice.

  Her voice and those weird words were now giving me goose bumps. When I thought it was enough and I should make her aware of my presence, a bunch of black smoke appeared in the mirror.

  I pressed my hand on my mouth to stop the yelp that had almost escaped from my mouth. My eyes grew wider as sounds of grunting became audible and it was coming out from the smoke itself. There must be a person behind the layers of those smoke, but how could someone get inside a damn mirror?

  I shook myself as the sane part of me still refused to believe the scene that was happening right in front of my eyes. How could I close my eyes from something that was occurring for real?

  Kate's voice was slowing down and her eyes were half closed now, it looked like the black smoke was making her go weak. And soon Kate fell down on the ground.

  "Kate!" I yelled and reached down to hold her.

  "Freya!" she gave a faint smile as I sat down on the floor beside her and placed her head on my lap.

  "Are you all right?" I asked.

  "Freya, run away from here, just go!" she murmured in a weak voice.

  "Why? and what's all this?" I asked.

  "She...is alive...and she...will make...me..." with those broken words Kate passed out in my lap.

  I immediately checked for her pulse and sighed in relief "thank God! she's just unconscious."

  "You spoke too soon," said a deep voice, I couldn't make out if was a male voice or a female one.

  I looked around to see who the hell was speaking like that, strangely I couldn't spot anyone. "Who are you?" I yelled, maybe to hide my fear. Adding to it was the darkness, my long lost enemy.

  An ear breaking sound of laughter filled the whole room "how can you forget me? I never forgot you my almost daughter-in-law" said the scary voice.

  I clutched on Kate's hand for support. My hands were shaking by now. Now it didn't take me anything else to recognize her, she was Rebecca, Robert's dead mom.

  Was she alive? But Robert had killed her in front of my eyes, her body had burned down into ashes right before us.

  "You must be thinking how is it possible for me to stay alive after all that you had done to me" she spoke.

  Could she read my mind too? God!

  "You destroyed my body but could not vanish my soul. I am alive than ever, the only difference is now I have to capture someone else's body and use it" she said in the same loud tone, but somehow I felt that her tone was getting sad.

  "You have no right to live. You are a witch! The only thing you know is to harm people and use them for your own benefit" my voice shook as I tried to fight her with my words.

  I looked down at Kate, my best friend was lying unconscious on my lap and by now I was certain that who was the reason behind it. A drop of tear escaped from my eyes.

  "How are you and Robert any different from me? you both have blood in your hands, remember Robert killed me for you!" she was growling now.

  Something was creaking, the mirror crushed into pieces and the black smokes escaped into the air.

  The small globes of ominous smoke curled up to form a human figure. Though the room was dimly lit with some candles, the smoke was quite visible. The smoke looked like those glittering stars that shine at the heart of the darkness.

  "So what else could we do? get killed by you? I bet you killed Robert too. What else can I expect from a bloody bloodsucking nasty witch!" I shouted again, trying to match the animosity of her voice.

  She laughed in return "yes, I killed him and now I will kill you too."

  "You hate me, so you should have reached to me directly. What was the need to involve my friends in it? They have done nothing to you" I exclaimed.

  "Your friends don't even exist for me. I used Kate as a vehicle. It was comfortable for me to live in her body and besides I could keep an eye on you too" she said.

  "What about Rick?" I asked.

  "Ahh, I blackmailed that loser, I threatened that I would kill his family and he was ready to dance into my tunes," she said.

  "I don't get it, if you wanted to kill me, you could have done it sooner, what was the need to play these games?" I asked in awe.

  "Don't try and act innocent. I am aware that you know where 'the light' is! I detected it around you. It saves you from everything and.. and just hand it over to me before I get angry and kill everyone around you." she demanded.

  "Hey psycho woman, all your words just went above my head. What light?" I asked.

  "The Light" is the power of the devil. It's made from the aura of goodness but is filled with the energy that every evil being requires. It's the curse of God and the blessing that Devil gives to his favorite devotee. I’ve spent my whole life to earn it, but master chose to throw it around like this. What a shame!" she exclaimed.

  "Just shut the hell up. I don't have any powers. If I had it, you would have been dead by now" I pouted.

  "I know you don't have it. He has it. He will never refuse if you ask him to give it to me" she said.

  Either my brain had retarded or I was having a serious hearing problem. What else could I say? That woman was uttering rubbish.

  "And who is that "He?" I made a face of annoyance.

  "That guy whom you picked up to pose as Robert" her answer came almost immediately, her voice was ringing in my head like the vibration of a cell phone.

  "Zack?" I blinked.

  "Yes he, he has inherited the power of Satan himself. And his presence around you has kept you safe by now, otherwise, you would have been dead " she spoke.

  My head spun, "listen, Zack is a local bike racer, he doesn't have anything to do with all this" I tried to clarify.

  "I also thought the same. I wanted to ruin your plan of replacing Robert, so I had planned a brutal attack on Zack, but he escaped." She hissed.

  "See, you are m
aking a mistake," I said.

  As I finished my sentence , a vase started flying out in the air and soon it hit me hard on my forehead. The blow was so strong and painful that I fell sideways on the floor, next to Kate.

  "I don't make mistakes! Understand?" she announced in fury.

  "How did I forget that mere words don't work for you. Now I will give you the hard medicine" she shouted.

  "Ouch, please don't harm any of them. Zack, Rick, and Kate are not aware of anything, spare them for God's sake" I pleaded in a voice filled with pain and tried to sit up.

  She smirked "You should have known this by now, I don't believe in God."

  "Tell me where is that Zack, and I will spare the life of your friends" she spoke.

  "I don' know" the words had barely escaped my mouth when the window opened and a generous amount of molten candle dropped on my hand.

  Though it was molten candle but the burning sensation resembled that of the fire.

  I screamed in pain.

  She rejoiced at that.

  "Better inform me, rest prepare for the worst" she warned again.

  "We had an argument and after that, he stormed out of the house. And why are you torturing me? You are a witch, so use your damn powers and find him out" I taunted.

  She growled "My powers don't work on him."

  "Such a weak witch, begging people for powers" I mocked.

  I had no idea from where I gathered the strength to mock her. I knew another movement of torture was heading towards me. Rebecca must have been fuming with anger.

  Nothing happened, there was a pin drop silence in the whole atmosphere. A heavy gust of wind came in through the open window, blowing out all the candles. Holding my heart with my shaky cold hands I waited for her next move. Something told me that my end was very near.

  Chapter Seventy-Four

  Zack

  It was a quarter to 11 in the night. I was riding a sports bike, cutting through dark, cold streets as if nothing mattered. As if on cue, Metallica's Nothing Else Matters started to play at a roadside fast food restaurant. They were shutting it down anyways.