by Willow Rose
We’re let in. Once again, I have tricked my way onto the base.
As soon as we drive past the big signs and huge buildings, Danny tells me I can get up from the floor. I rise to my knees, and watch out the window as the base passes by.
“So, where are we going?” Danny asks, and I realize I have no clue. “We don’t have long,” he says. “The guys at the fire station will start to wonder where I am. Then they’ll start looking for us.”
“I know,” I say. “I am trying to figure it out.” I grab my phone and text Chloe. I ask her if she can find Liz Hester’s address. It’s my theory that AK has called the groomer and asked specifically for Ally to come to her home to take care of a dog that she probably doesn’t even have.
Seconds later, she texts me back with an address.
What would I do without her?
I spot the van in front of the house as we approach the address and swallow hard.
“I hope we’re not too late,” I say.
Danny parks the truck in front of the house, then turns to look at me. “There’s a box in the back, could you give it to me?”
I find the box and hand it to him. He opens it and reveals two guns. I know nothing about guns and have never even fired one. The mere sight of them makes me jump. Danny picks up one of them, then checks the holster, and then hands it to me. He grabs the other one himself.
“We have these for protection,” he says. “Sometimes, we have to go into very dangerous neighborhoods. We need to protect ourselves.”
“Of course,” I say, and hold the gun in my hand. It looks so wrong. It feels so wrong. I am more terrified of accidentally shooting myself, but still I take it…just in case.
Danny tucks his into the back of his pants like in the movies, and I do the same. It feels strange and I try to walk carefully, afraid it might accidentally shoot me in the leg or worse.
We walk up to the house and stop at the front door. I ring the doorbell, then hear a loud crash coming from inside. I look at Danny, who takes out his gun. I do the same and watch while Danny walks back, then kicks the door in, like he is probably used to from his line of work.
The door slams to the ground and we enter. I steel myself. I tell myself I can do it. Of course I can.
Then we walk in.
I point the gun and walk after Danny inside the living room, my heart pounding in my chest. I can feel my pulse against my temples. I hold my breath.
“Hello?” Danny yells. “Is everyone okay in here?”
No answer. A noise comes from the kitchen. We hurry in there. Then we stop. On the kitchen floor is Ally; her face is smashed into the tiles. On top of her sits AK or Liz, whatever she goes by these days. She is holding a gun to her face, pressing it angrily against her temple.
I gasp.
“AK,” Danny says.
AK looks up, and her eyes meet mine.
“Don’t do it,” I say. “Don’t kill her.”
AK grunts, then laughs while still staring at me. Her eyes are like needles on my body. She raises the gun and points it at me.
“Maybe I’ll just kill you instead? How about that, huh?”
Chapter Eighty-Eight
May 1986
Penelope takes her daughter into the lobby of the hospital. After fifteen minutes of waiting, a nurse tells them to come in for preparation. They put the girl in a bed and insert tubes and a drip.
“Now, this operation will take a few hours,” the nurse tells Penelope. “She will need to have general anesthesia. Has she had that before?”
Penelope nods. “Yes. Once.”
“So, she has no problem with it. That’s great. It will take a few hours for her to wake up, and then we will need to monitor the heart for the next several months. Will you be able to come down here for check-ups, or do you want to have them done up in your own area? We can recommend a doctor if necessary. It is an awfully long drive. I couldn’t blame you if you wanted to find someone closer to you.”
“No. It’s fine,” Penelope says. “We’ve tried all the doctors up there, and they have proven to be quite incompetent. We will come here for her check-ups. It’s no big deal; it really isn’t.”
The nurse stares at Penelope, then smiles. “Well, okay then. I’ll make sure to set it up.” She looks at the child, then smiles compassionately. “I’ll take you to preparation now.”
“I’ll come too,” Penelope says.
“I’m sorry,” the nurse says. “Only the patient is allowed.”
Penelope looks disappointed. “Really?”
“Sorry. Those are the rules here. We have a nice waiting area out in the back. There’s a cafeteria where you can get something to eat and some couches with a TV and some newspapers to keep you busy. I know it’s hard having to wait for this, but it’s how the doctors want it. There is nothing I can do.”
“Alright then,” she says with a sigh.
She watches as the child is rolled away. The nurse takes her to an elevator, then takes her to the third floor, where she is rolled into her own room.
“Here. This will be where you wake up once you get out of the anesthesia. It’s no hotel room, but I think it’s pretty nice. Look at all the drawings on the walls from other children who have stayed here. They all had the same procedure that you’re about to have. Now, you shouldn’t worry. I can tell you’re afraid. I’ve seen that look many times, but I tell you, the doctors here are the best. They’ll take really good care of you and make that heart of yours works normally again.”
The nurse taps the girl on her chest as she speaks. As she does, tears start to roll down the child’s cheeks. The nurse sees it.
“No. Don’t cry, little girl. It’s all going to be just fine. Don’t you worry. These doctors have done it so many times. You’ll be just fine.”
“But…” the girl says, then stops herself. She looks nervously at the nurse. “What are you going to do to me?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
The girl shakes her head. More tears stream down her face. The nurse sits next to her on the bed, then caresses her hair. The girl’s legs are dangling from the side of the bed.
“Well, the doctor will cut you open right here,” she says and points at the girl’s chest. “Then he will do a heart catheterization procedure.”
The girl gasps and looks up at the nurse with terror in her eyes.
“Aw, don’t worry,” the nurse says. “You won’t feel a thing. You’ll be sleeping the entire time.”
“She’s making it up,” the girl suddenly says with a small quiet voice.
“What’s that, sweetie?”
“My mom. She’s making it up,” she says louder now.
The nurse laughs. “Now, don’t go around saying stuff like that. I know it’s an uncomfortable situation, but I’m sure your mom is nothing but a concerned mother.”
The girl looks into the eyes of the nurse. The nurse suddenly senses the urgency. It scares her.
“No. I mean she is making it up. Really. She is,” the girl says.
Chapter Eighty-Nine
September 2015
I can’t breathe. The sight of the gun pointing at me makes me panic. I drop my own gun and raise my hands. I feel like an idiot. So stupid. Not so much Tom Cruise anymore. Danny puts down his gun as well.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he says.
“It’s quite the little reunion we have going here,” AK says. “Are there any more of you people coming? I’m sorry I didn’t put on a pot of coffee. I’ve been quite busy with this little monster here.”
“AK,” I say and walk closer. “It’s me you’re angry at. Why not let the others go? You know as well as I do that it’s me you want. Am I right?”
AK stares at me like she is making up her mind. Then she shakes her head. “Sorry. No can do.”
“Come on, AK,” I say. “What has Ally done to you that is so bad?”
“Well, first of all, she’s a snitch. She told everything to the police. If I hadn�
�t run into the general that night, I would be in jail by now. She would have made sure I was put away for the rest of my life.”
“But, AK. This is really about you and me,” I say. “Come on, let’s get it out in the open.”
AK is still pointing the gun at me. Ally is growling underneath her. “Get off me,” she yells. But AK doesn’t move.
“So, you’re mad at me,” I say. “You’ve been mad for, what? Almost thirty years now? I am sorry. I am sorry for what I did.”
“No, you’re not,” she says. “You’re not the least bit sorry. I know you’re not. I can tell. I know you better than you think, Mary.”
“Alright. You got me. You’re absolutely right. I am not the least bit sorry that I spoke up. I am not the least bit sorry that I stopped them from cutting my heart open when there was absolutely nothing wrong with me. I did it to save myself. And to save you, AK. My mother, our mother was killing the both of us. She wouldn’t have stopped there if I hadn’t spoken up. She would have continued. When I told the nurse that day at the hospital, she called the doctors and they immediately called the authorities. Why no one did that before, I don’t know. I have wondered so many times, blamed so many people for closing their eyes. Munchausen Syndrome wasn’t a well-known disease back then. But the thing is that once the authorities were informed, our mother finally received help. She was admitted. She received the help she needed to get better, and when she had Blake, she never did anything bad to him. So, no, I am not sorry for what I did. I saved you, AK. I saved your freaking life.”
I can feel the tears rolling down my cheeks now. All the memories. All those days spent in bed, when I wasn’t sick. All the doctors and nurses and emergency trips to the ER. The worry in my mother’s eyes, the doctors constantly running tests, not knowing what to do. All that salt my mother shoved down my throat to make me throw up, all the crying for her to stop. I had thought it was normal…that this was how mothers were. That was just the way life was. I never questioned it until that day when she took me to the hospital in Miami and a nurse told me they would do surgery on my heart. That was when I couldn’t take it anymore. That’s when I finally spoke up, even though it killed me to defy my mother like that, to go against what she had told me to do.
“I am sorry, though,” I continue, “about what happened to you. I am sorry that the adoption agency took you back and placed you in that home. I am so sorry about that.”
“You…you destroyed my life,” AK says. She too has tears rolling down her cheeks now. The gun is shaking in her hands. “You have no idea what they did to me at that home. How my life was ruined. I had a family, Mary. When your parents adopted me, I finally had a family. I had a father and a sister. But most of all, I finally had a mother. A mother who cared about me. I had never had that before. Penelope cared so much for me. I have never had that, Mary. Never.” AK wipes her face on her sleeve. “You don’t know how much it hurt to get that close. And then to have it taken away from me? You haven’t even a clue. You got your life back afterwards. You continued to live in that big house on the beach, having a mother and a father and even a brother later on. I had to watch you every day at school, see your happy face while my life was in ruins. You are so spoiled, Mary, and you don’t even know it. That’s why I wanted you to feel what it was like to not have any parents, to lose everything. So I killed your mother and set your father’s house on fire. With him in it. How does it feel, huh? Seeing him in that bed at the hospital? I’m sure he won’t survive. I bet you’ll have to turn off his life-support soon, right? I can’t think of a better way to take you down than this. You’ll have to kill him yourself. Now, how do you like that?”
Chapter Ninety
September 2015
“NO!!”
I am staring at AK, my nostrils flaring. I scream the word, right before I leap through the air. I don’t care if she shoots me. I don’t care if I get hurt anymore. Or even if I die. I am so angry now, I can’t hold it back.
I hate her for what she has done.
My move takes her by surprise, and she doesn’t shoot until it’s too late. The shot hits the ceiling and ricochets back towards her. It hits her in the leg. Danny throws himself to the ground. I land on top of AK and pull her off of Ally’s back. I manage to throw in a few punches while AK screams in pain.
“This is for my mother!” I scream, and throw in a punch in her face. “And this is for my father!”
I run my fist into her face again and again. AK is screaming and yelling. Blood is gushing out of her leg from where the bullet hit her. Meanwhile, Ally gets to her feet and stands next to me. I don’t pay much attention to what else is going on in the room. I hardly even hear Danny screaming, NO!
I don’t notice what’s around me. Not until I hear another shot being fired and blood spurts into my face. AK’s body goes limp beneath me. Her head has a hole in it and her blood is creating a pool around her.
I gasp and let go of her. Her blood is all over my hands.
I look up and into the eyes of Ally, who is standing with the smoking gun. She is still pointing it at me. On the floor behind her, I see a pair of scissors. That’s when it hits me. That’s when I finally realize what I should have a long time ago.
“You?” I say.
Ally nods. It’s not until now I realize she’s wearing a surgical mask covering half of her face.
“You killed Coraline, Jean, and Cassie? You tried to kill Olivia and now you’ve killed AK.”
Ally nods again, still pointing the gun at me. Danny stays completely still in the corner.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because of what they did to me,” she says.
Ally then grabs her surgical mask and pulls it off, revealing a mouth slit from ear to ear.
I gasp and clasp my mouth.
“They did that to you?”
“They came to my door in 1995,” she says. “We had moved away. My mother and I lived in Melbourne. I thought AK was long gone. I thought she was out of my life for good. It had been three years since the night we…when we broke into your house. I had told the police everything. I had moved on with my life. Started a new school, made new friends, stayed out of trouble. I was a straight A student and doing so well for myself. I was back on track and determined to stay there. Until they rang my doorbell on that night in March. They attacked me at my house when I refused to go with them. They cut me with a knife. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a job when you look like this? I had nothing for so many years. When my mother died, I had to find some way to make money. So I came up with the idea of grooming dogs. No one cares that I wear a mask. But I can never have a normal life. Never!”
“So, you killed them?”
I look at Danny, thinking it must be hard for him to hear all this. Jean was his wife through almost twenty years and the mother of his son.
“Yes, I did. And now I have to kill you as well. Both of you.”
Everything happens so fast. I believe I am the first to hear it. Footsteps outside closing in. And then…the piercing smash. Glass is shattered everywhere. Flying through the air is something, or maybe someone, crashing through the window.
I am thrown to the floor. All three of us fall down. Someone jumps over me. I scream while glass surrounds me. Someone is on top of Ally, holding her down. Chaos and shouting. Danny is pushed down. The person on top of Ally is struggling to hold her down. I blink my eyes. The man is in uniform. I recognize his face.
It’s the general.
Ally is screaming. She reaches for the gun and grabs ahold of it. I don’t think the general has seen it.
“She’s still got the gun!” I yell.
Ally lifts the gun up in the air and I lunge forward to try and grab her, but I am not fast enough. She places the gun on her temple.
“NO!”
And then she pulls the trigger.
Chapter Ninety-One
October 2015
Two weeks later, I am standing in front of the prison as my b
rother is let out. I see him and wave when he approaches the gate. The door makes a buzzing sound and he can finally step out.
As a free man.
“Yay!” I yell and run to him. I throw myself in his arms and hug him tightly. A tear leaves my eyes and ends its days on my lip before I wipe it away.
“Hey, sis,” he says, and kisses my forehead. “Boy, it feels good to be out.” He takes a deep breath of the intoxicating fresh air. He closes his eyes quickly, then looks at me again. “Thank you for never giving up.”
“Let’s get out of here,” I say, and point at the car where Salter and Joey are waiting. Behind them is Sandra, parked in her Escalade. Inside sits Marcia, Chloe, Alex, and Danny. They poke their heads out of the windows.
“Hi, Blake! Welcome home!” Marcia yells. She holds a bottle of gin in her hand, which she gives to him. “Here. I bet you’ve missed this.” Then she laughs with her hoarse voice.
“Everyone came?” Blake asks, looking at me.
“Well, we’re almost family, right? Not one of us believed you were guilty.”
“I’m moved, guys,” Blake says.
“What are you waiting for?” Marcia says. “Let’s get out of this dump. I have a beer with my name on it at the Beach Shack.”
Blake gets in the car with me, Salter, and Joey. We all drive back to the beach. I, for one, am feeling grateful. I am so glad I finally managed to get my brother out. It wasn’t easy. Ally was gone and couldn’t admit to having killed Jamilla Jenkins. But once I got the general on my side, Chris Fisher finally listened to my story. The general told me he had received a phone call from the firefighters at the base telling him about Danny, who had announced his arrival, but never showed up. He immediately knew something had to be wrong and started a search. They found the truck parked outside of Liz’s house. Worried about Liz, he looked through the window, where he saw Ally pointing a gun at us, and immediately took action. It was the general who made sure Chris Fisher would listen to what I had to say. I told him what Ally had told me and all the details about AK, alias Liz Hester. I told him how she admitted to having killed all the girls, but it bothered me that I had never asked about Jamilla Jenkins. I told him I had a feeling the four killings had to be connected, since they had many similarities, and asked him to look into it. Ten days later, he told me they had searched Ally’s house and found Jamilla Jenkins’ purse in her closet. They had also found out that Ally groomed Jamilla Jenkins’ dog about a year ago, but they got into a fight over the price. The fight that was heard by many neighbors turned bad, and Ally Meyer ended up threatening Jamilla Jenkins. That was enough to drop the charges against my brother, and now he is finally free.
