Flawless Dreams

by Hadena James

  “Oh man,” Caleb’s face fell. Malachi looked at me, confused. I put my hand on Caleb’s chest and felt his heart racing under his skin.

  “Caleb, I promise, even if it kills me, I will find who did this to you and to Gabriel.” I repeated to him. Caleb wrapped his arms around me and began to cry. I had expected him to strangle me and was surprised by this gesture of friendship. Malachi walked past me and inside. I heard him let out a low, quiet whistle. After a few moments of my supporting Caleb’s weight, Malachi came back out. He put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “Caleb, none of us could have known this would happen,” Malachi said quietly into his friend’s ear. “Regardless of what you are about to feel, I need you to keep that thought in the front of your mind.” Malachi took Caleb’s weight from me.

  “Everything has been photographed, right?” I asked a cop nearby.

  “Yeah, why?” The cop asked.

  “We may need it,” I answered and motioned for Gabriel who was lurking on the beach at the bottom of the steps. “You and me have got to get to the bottom of your wendigo. I do not care what it takes, we have got to find out who it was.”

  There was a scream behind me. Not that of a wounded animal, but of someone filled with hate. A loud crashing sound followed it. Malachi let out a yelp. I stepped in front of Gabriel, putting my back to my red-headed boss, waiting. Caleb exploded through the front door, knocking it off its hinges. His face was a contorted. Xavier, Fiona, and Rachael had gone to look at Nathan’s body. Lucas, Dominic, and Vlad stepped closer to Gabriel as well. They hadn’t even been inside yet and they could tell just by Caleb’s face that the man was going to be hard to stop.

  “Caleb,” I said his name like a warning, raising my Taser. “It is not Gabriel’s fault any more than it is mine or yours. He knows what you are. He is doing this intentionally. He wants you to kill Gabriel and I.”

  Caleb bellowed at me again, but he didn’t charge. I felt like I was trying to face down the Incredible Hulk. I also thought I might be losing. Caleb reached for me, grabbing my shirt. Lucas stepped forward as Malachi came up behind him. The problem with our Tasers was that the power was up really high. If we tasered a person while another person was holding them, they would both feel it. I thought of this as I wondered whether Malachi or Lucas or both was going to Taser Caleb. He needed it. It would help reset him, calm him down, but I didn’t want to suffer with him.

  “Caleb, please,” I leaned in, letting his arm take my weight. “I know you are angry and hurt right now. I have felt it before. I feel it every day. The rage from it never goes away. However, if you take that rage out on Gabriel, you will regret it for the rest of your life. He is as much of a victim as you are. It started with him when he was just nine-years-old. He has lived with the knowledge that he escaped while his best friend was eaten alive by a monster. Whoever tried to hurt Gabriel all those years ago, is back and he wants to finish the job. He killed your father because your father knew something about him and he needed to hurt you so you could not help Gabriel. Whatever he intends to do next is just another step in his plan to kill Gabriel unless he can make you do it for him. We all want to avenge your father, but hurting Gabriel will not do it. It will just ensure that you victimize Gabriel just like his would be killer did all those years ago.”

  Caleb didn’t let me go, he tossed me aside. He didn’t go after Gabriel though. Instead, he stormed past me, down the walkway, and onto the beach. Malachi followed him. I lay on the ground staring up at the sky trying to remember what it was like to breathe. Very few people scared me, I added Caleb Green to the list.

  “You okay?” Vlad Daniels offered me his hand. I ignored it.

  “Go inside and read the wall. When you come back out, tell me if that is not the strangest contraction you have ever seen,” I said instead of getting up. Vlad gave me a look that included a frown, but I saw several shadows move past me.

  “I feel like I should be on the ground with you,” Gabriel came into view.

  “Just do not ever piss that man off,” I told him. “I was serious about your memories. We are going to have to find a way to put a face on your attacker and I am not talking about the adult that was there, I am talking about the child. Because unless your wendigo is Patterson Clachan, which I have not entirely ruled out at the moment, he is not killing Nathan Green.”

  “That was a strange contraction,” Gabriel said. “Seems like I know it from somewhere, but I’m not sure where.”

  “Beats me,” Lucas said as he came back out. “Double contractions aren’t a psychological problem.”

  “People who don’t speak English as a first language are more likely to either use no contractions or use double contractions,” Vladik told us. “My family does both. The way you speak, reminds me of some of my cousins who can’t figure out how to use contractions, but like my mom and some of the others who are very Americanized, speak in double contractions.”

  “So our wendigo doesn’t speak English as his first language?” I asked. “Did you run into a lot of French Canadian fur trappers in the woods?” I looked at Gabriel.

  “No, it was always very quiet out there,” he paused. “But my grandfather was French Canadian. His mastery of English drove my grandmother, who was a school teacher, out of her mind. She was constantly correcting his grammar.”

  “I’ll ask about the elephant,” Lucas said. “Are you positive the face you blocked out wasn’t your grandfather?”

  “Yes,” Gabriel looked at him. “I know it’s hard to believe, but it wasn’t my grandparents, either of them. I remember my dad telling me once that my grandfather was helping the RCMP the entire time they were searching which started the afternoon we went missing. A guy in a boat came up to us, there was someone else with him, but I don’t know who. He knew my grandparents’ names and asked if we wanted to try fishing a spot just a few hundred yards away. We did. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in a dog cage. It wasn’t big enough for me either. I didn’t have much room to move around. The day he killed my friend William, he put up a mirror beside my cage. I couldn’t see William, I could just hear him screaming and see my reflection. Somehow, I got the cage door opened and I ran. I never see the guy’s face, just my reflection and William’s body. I also don’t remember the other person being there the entire time I was in the cage.”

  “Ok, you got out and what?” Lucas asked.

  “I ran for a long time. I remember running and my chest and sides were hurting, but I kept pushing myself to run more. Eventually, I ended up on the side of the lake. I knew if I followed the lake, I’d find the next cabin. There weren’t many places up there, but they were all lake front cabins at the time. I ran along the lake and found another cabin. There was a boat there. I had never driven a boat before, but I had seen my grandparents do it. So I got in the boat and drove it as best I could into the middle of the lake, where I shot a flare into the sky. A boat pulled up to me in minutes. I thought at first it was the wendigo again, but it turned out to be search and rescue workers. I never went up there again as a kid. I returned for the first time about ten years ago, when my grandfather died. Since then, I’ve tried to go back every year. My brother inherited the house after our grandmother passed away a few years ago, not that it mattered, he had lived up there his entire life. He still lives up there.”

  “Think your brother could help?” I asked.

  “No, Raphael has faced his own challenges. When we were five, he cut off his own penis with scissors because it itched. Turned out we had an uncle that was molesting him and had given him an STD. He went to live with our grandparents because they couldn’t surgically reattach it and our parents didn’t want him to be teased when he got older. Like I said, our grandmother was a teacher, she quit her job and made Raph her entire world. He’s smart, but there were complications with the twinning. Raphael doesn’t have vocal cords, he’s missing part of his left foot, and he has no left knee. The doctors say it is as if we were c
onjoined for too long and some of Raphael’s physical body didn’t develop as a result. He’s got a limp, a metal knee, and while we are identical in facial features, we are structurally different. Our uncle picked him because he couldn’t tell anyone about the abuse.” Gabriel looked at Lucas. “And that’s why I don’t talk about Raphael is because everyone looks at me like he’s some kind of freak and he isn’t. He grew up strong and right with my grandparents, went through plenty of therapy due to what our uncle did and he’s overcome his challenges. He works from his home as a software engineer. He lives on the lake year around now, which is impressive since it freezes fairly solid in the winter and everything has to be delivered by plane.”

  Twenty-Seven

  There was a knock on my hotel room door. I checked the clock, the readout said it was 4:08 am, never a good time for a visitor. I swung my legs out of bed, grabbed my Taser, and went to the door.

  Peep holes bother me. I’m always worried I’ll look in one and someone will stab me in the eye or shoot me. One of the first things I did every time I got a hotel room was cover it with a sticky note. I had not made an exception this time so I didn’t bother to look through it. I just flung the door open.

  Malachi looked like shit. He smelled of alcohol and breath mints along with some female bodily fluids from a woman who might need to see a doctor. He leaned against the door frame.

  “You’re drunk, go away,” I told him.

  “I am drunk, but I am also concerned. Have you seen Gabriel?” He slurred his speech a little as he spoke.

  “No.” My heart beat quickened. “Oh god, did Caleb get a…”

  “Caleb has been with me all but the last half hour or so along with Gabriel. We came back to the hotel. I walked Caleb to his room and went to check on Gabriel and found his room standing wide open and no sign of him.”

  “Were you at a strip joint?” I asked.

  “Do not judge us,” he sneered at me.

  “You smell like a woman and not her perfume. I’m trying to establish where you were and what might have happened. Were you at a strip club?”

  “Yes, we all went to mourn Nathan. He worked Gabriel’s case ya know.”

  “I know,” I said. “So you left the strip club and came back here when exactly? Do you have a receipt from a taxi or ride share service?”

  “We’ve been back maybe an hour,” Malachi pushed off the wall. “Caleb wanted to have another drink when we got to his room, so I obliged.”

  “I hate when you are drunk. You are impossible to deal with,” I went into my room letting the door shut on Malachi and grabbed my phone. I dialed Fiona first. “Gabriel might be missing or he might be passed out some place and Malachi just misplaced him. Do you want to come help me search?”

  “Sure, I’ll get a few others awake, it’s a big hotel.” She hung up and I went back to the door, where Malachi was obnoxiously knocking on it.

  “What?” I asked as I opened it.

  “You shut the door on me.”

  “Yes, I made a phone call. Fiona and I are going to search. Go to your room and call me if he is there.”

  “I’ve been to my room, he wasn’t there.”

  “Are you sure? Because you did not mention that the first time.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “So you lost Gabriel?”

  “No, I had a drink with Gabriel.”

  “And after you got Gabriel drunk with a crazy guy trying to kill him, you lost him.” I pointed out.

  “You make everything sound so negative. He and Caleb needed to bond over guy stuff.”

  “Booze and strippers?” I asked.

  “Judgy, judgy, judgy, this is why you don’t get invited to more parties.”

  “You lost a guy who is being hunted by a serial killer!” I screamed at him.

  “When you say it like that it just sounds bad,” Malachi rolled his eyes. I huffed and shot him with my Taser. He instantly fell to the ground, eyes closed, body jerking. He was too drunk to go into beat the Taser mode and I was just fine with that. I couldn’t believe he had let Gabriel wander off alone, drunk, with a serial killer after him. Of all the dumb ass drunken things to do. I kept my finger on the trigger, tapped my foot against the ground, and swore heavily at Malachi. What I really wanted to do was kick him until he sobered up. Then I wanted to go down a floor, break down Caleb’s door and kick him a few times. Grieving or not, we were all in this together and Gabriel might have just passed out behind a potted tree or he might have been kidnapped. When I found him, I was going to kick him a few times too. Just not as hard.

  “Whoa,” Rachael’s voice caught my attention. I didn’t stop letting the electricity flow into Malachi, but I did stop swearing.

  “This dumb ass took Caleb and Gabriel out drinking tonight. When they got back, Gabriel went to his room without an escort. Malachi went to check on him at some point later and found Gabriel’s room open, but no Gabriel. So either Gabriel wandered off and passed out somewhere or he’s been kidnapped and at the moment, I am totally blaming Malachi for it.”

  “Do you want me to kick him for you?” Rachael asked. I smiled at her. Maybe she got me after all. I let go of the trigger.

  “Maybe later, when we both have on steel-toed boots and his knees are better exposed. For now, we should try to search the hotel. Get everyone together.”

  “That’s why I’m here, Lucas wants to go floor by floor starting with the lobby.” She told me.

  “Good, lead the way.” I left Malachi in the hallway. Rachael checked his pulse and satisfied that he was still alive, she followed me down to the lobby.

  We checked every floor and every room. My knuckles were raw from beating on doors. Gabriel was not in the hotel. The security guard said he saw him talking to another guy, who he identified as Malachi. The hotel security footage had him walking down a hallway with a guy that could have been Malachi, except he was taller and maybe skinner by just a hair. They entered a stairwell and never resurfaced on video. No one taller than Malachi was a registered guest.

  Back in the lobby, Malachi was being given IV fluids by concerned paramedics. It seemed heavy Tasering and heavy drinking didn’t go very well together. I might feel bad about it later, but at the moment, I was hoping they blew all his veins. Caleb looked slightly better than Malachi. If it was my father, I probably would have gotten drunk too. That didn’t mean I wasn’t holding Caleb somewhat responsible, it just meant I wasn’t going to Taser him and give the paramedics a second person to work on. Lucas and Xavier were making phone calls. Fiona was trying to find footage from cameras outside the hotel. Rachael was contacting whoever she had previously worked for to see if she could tap into some unknown resource. Dominic and Vlad were actually searching the parking lots, alleyways, roads, and dumpsters in a twelve block radius along with the local police and the FBI.

  I was trying to call Gabriel’s sister. In Texas, it was nine am and she wasn’t answering her cell phone, even though she had a few kids and a husband. As a matter of fact, the husband wasn’t answering either. It went to voicemail for the fifth time and I called Gabriel’s oldest niece. She was twenty and lived in an apartment a few miles from her parents and younger sister. Her younger sister’s phone was also going to voicemail and I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. After the fifth time of his niece’s voicemail, I called the local police department.

  “My name is US Marshal Aislinn Cain and I need a wellness check done on the family members of another US Marshal,” I told the desk sergeant. “Yes, I’ll hold, but you had better transfer me to someone that can help me or I will fly to Texas and rein fire and brimstone down on your department.” The desk sergeant said something snotty, which I probably deserved, but he transferred me to someone with the word Captain in their title so it was worth it.

  “My name is US Marshal Aislinn Cain with the Serial Crimes Tracking Unit and I am needing your department to do a wellness check on the family members of another SCTU member. The Marshal in question d
isappeared from his hotel a few hours ago and is being actively stalked by a confirmed killer. I have been trying to reach Marshal Henders sister, husband, and nieces to see if they have heard anything, but none of them are answering. We arrived in California yesterday because this killer murdered the father of US Marshal Caleb Green. We are taking their not answering their phones as very serious since their bother is missing and one Marshal has already had a murder in his family.” I paused while the captain spoke. I didn’t think it was to me. He came back and told me he had dispatched multiple units. It was the attack on the FGN all over again and there was nothing I could do to stop the train wreck.

  Suddenly static crackled over the line and I realized the captain was letting me listen into the radio chatter that he was hearing. This I appreciated. If I remembered, I’d send him a present.

  “This is unit 1744, we are getting no response from the residence however there are cars in the driveway and we can see lights on in the house, please advise.” A woman’s voice came over the static. I closed my eyes and hung my head. The captain told them to breech the door, if they turned out to be okay, they’d get an apology and a new door.

  “This is Unit 1697, we are on scene at the backdoor attempting to make entry as well,” a man’s voice said.

  “Dispatch, this is Unit 1744, we have one female victim in the hallway with what appears to be a GSW. She is breathing, but just barely, dispatch EMS.”

  “Dispatch, this is Unit 1697, we have one teenaged female victim in the kitchen with multiple injuries, pulse is weak and thready.”

  “Marshal Cain, I will personally call you back when we know more. I will send someone now to the second location,” he hung up on me. Probably to bark orders to other people.

  Twenty-Eight