After dinner, Rich had to study for a bit. Most of his work was temporarily canceled due to the incident at the school. "Mom, can I give Liz a call? I'd like to make sure that she's ok after today, I kind of got her in trouble."
"Who's Liz?"
Rich looked at her, confused. "My friend… Liz? First person I met when we moved here? Comes to the house all the time?"
His mom looked at Aunt Rose. "This is going too far. I'm going to get him some help." She stormed out of the room.
Rich was totally confused now. "Aunt Rose, you remember Liz, right? She's sat right there plenty of times. You have to back me up!"
She leaned in really close to his face, and whispered. "I told you not to touch the board. I tried to warn you. Now things are going to get bad."
Rich sat there in shock. What was happening to everyone? He walked into his room, and stopped.
"Hey bro, can I borrow this?
Rich stared at the girl standing in his room. "Can I help you?"
She laughed. "Good one, Richie. So, can I grab this jacket or what?"
"I'm not kidding. How did you get in this house?"
"Um...we moved here, freak? I'm taking this jacket."
Suddenly the face looked familiar around her eyes. "Lilly?"
"You need a nap or something Rich, you’re wigging out. Later." She passed him and left the room.
Rich tried to absorb the fact that his sister seemed to have aged 16 years in one day. Everyone was ok with it, just like everyone insisted that they had no idea who Liz was. "Someone's messing with me. Any minute everyone will start laughing, and Liz will show up, and they'll bring out Lilly, and everything will be fine. Someone has got to be messing with me."
He walked into the kitchen. Rose and his mother were seated, talking. "Ok, show’s over. You can quit joking now."
They looked at him in confusion. "What?"
"I want to know where Lilly is, and Liz, and what the hell is going on right now!"
Now Lilly looked scared. "I'm your sister! What's wrong with you?"
"My sister is a baby. My best friend has been in this house more than ten times. Cut the crap!"
Now his mom looked angry. "Look, I thought you were kidding around. This isn't funny anymore."
Rich threw his hands up in the air. "You’re right. It isn't. You’re all crazy." He rushed out of the house, plunging into the cool night air.
Chapter 2
"Liz!! Liz!!! I know you can hear me. I have to talk with you."
Standing outside a girl’s home and yelling into her window was pretty out of character for Rich, but he was desperate to figure out what was happening to him, before it was too late. "LIZ!!!"
"What the hell is wrong with you, boy?!" It was Liz's dad. He was standing on the porch in a pair of boxer shorts. Rich could have done without that image.
"Sir, I'm just trying to get in contact with your daughter. I think something bad may have happened to her."
"Son, I'm not in the mood for some prank. I don't have a daughter. I've never even been married. Go bug someone else."
Rich held up a picture of her. "So this girl isn't familiar at all to you?"
Liz's dad locked eyes on the photo, and for a moment it seemed like he was remembering her, like he was about to admit it. Then the moment passed. "Boy, I've had it! Get off my property or I'll have to call the police."
Rich was desperate. "Fine! Call them! Something terrible has happened to my friend, and I'm going to find out what." He felt like he was being watched. "YOU HEAR ME? I WON'T STOP! You're going to get exposed, and I'm tired of playing around."
"We're not playing." The cold voice behind him didn't give him a chance to respond. He heard a popping sound, felt a sharp pinch at the base of his neck, and then everything went black.
Guys in white suits were trying to grab him when he managed to clear his head. He kicked the one closest to him, hard, and ran. None of the guys seemed to be packing heat. One of them half-heartedly ran after him, but they didn't seem in too much of a rush to catch up. Rich was happy to get away, but was troubled by it. It was like they didn't have to catch him, like he was already caught or something.
He decided to take the risk of calling the police himself. He couldn't be sure those guys in the suits wouldn't be back for him, and he was pretty sure Liz's family would go nuts. For all he knew, the suit guys were working with the police, but he didn't think so. At this point he didn't care. Someone, somewhere, must have remembered her. There had to be records or something. Rich dialed his cell phone.
"I'd like to report a missing person. My friend has been gone for almost two days. When I started asking questions, some men started following me and tried to attack me. I think I'm in danger and I’m certain that she is."
The woman on the line asked him a lot of questions. He gave her his address, followed by all the information he could recall about Liz, her family, his family. When he was done, he jumped on his bike and rode home to meet the police. The night was cold, and alive. He could feel the darkness watching him again.
When he got to Aunt Rose's house, it was completely dark. He went in and had a seat. It was only a few minutes until the doorbell rang. Rich got up. "One moment."
A police man kicked in the door. Two more ran into the living room. "Whoa! Hold on!"
The cop knocked him down, put his knee on his neck, and started cuffing him. "You're under arrest for the murder of Alice Pickman and Liz...someone. Hold still." The cuffs clicked into place.
"Alice!? Wait, Liz someone?! Are you kidding me?!"
"I told you not to move!!" He stomped on Rich’s back. "AAAAA!"
"You have the right to remain silent. You also have the right to get the crap kicked out of you if you move or say anything else. I saw what you did to the girl, son. You carved her up real good. Now, where's the other one? WHERE?!"
The cop kicked Rich in the chest. "AUGH! I don't know! You're not making any sense."
"Stand back, ma’am. We're handling a situation. Go back to your car."
"But this is my home! Richard! What are you doing to my son?"
The police officer led Mrs. Spoller back outside. "We've got to take care of this. Your son will be fine. Go back to your vehicle."
The men in white suits filed into the living room in a neat line. It was so weird. "We'll take it from here, officers."
Rich tried to get up with his hands cuffed behind his back, but he just didn't have the balance. "NO!! THEY'RE WHO I CALLED ABOUT! DON'T..."
One of them shot four small darts into his chest. "You should have just let us taken you. This all would have been much simpler." Everything rapidly faded to black.
*****
When Rich woke up, he was in a little cell with a window, sitting at a table. In front of him was a steaming cup of black coffee and a newspaper. A medium-sized guy in a black suit entered the room and had a seat. "Morning, Richard. How do you feel?"
"Like a truck ran over my head. What happened?"
"You're being held for questioning. I'm Agent Branson. What can you tell me about this woman?"
He was holding up the picture of...of...Rich really had trouble remembering for a few moments before it all came back to him. "That's my friend, Liz. She's been kidnapped or something, but it's more than that. No one remembers her, that she was even alive. Her own father doesn't remember. Then the police told me..."
"Don't worry about the police right now. We're past all that."
"Well then, who are you guys? You just attack me, take me off the street? The cops just hand me over to you? Not to ask fifty questions, but when do I get to see a lawyer?"
"Who says you need a lawyer? Did you do something wrong?"
"I don't think so… I'm just trying to find out what's going on."
"Well, young man, that can be a very dangerous proposition right there."
Rich was getting tired of the whole question and answer routine. If these guys weren't cops, and he hadn't done anything wrong, and
they weren't going to tell him anything useful, his time was just getting wasted.
Agent Branson took a sip of coffee. "Well, you got quiet all of a sudden. I thought you wanted to know what is going on? Here's what I know: You assaulted my men when they tried to pick you up. You made a false call to the police. You resisted arrest. Your actions today could put you in a lot of trouble young man, or not. It depends on how cooperative you’re willing to be."
"Right…."
"Well, I gotta tell you, what the human authorities are putting together right now is that you murdered your friends and then assaulted the police. That's what everyone will think."
Rich was trying to think of a better comeback than, "right," when he froze. "What did you say?"
"I said, ‘what the authorities are putting together on you’..."
"No! No man, you said ‘human authorities’! Where the hell am I?" Rich stood up.
The agent didn't react. "Are you finished yet? These little outbursts are not going to improve your situation, or help get you out of this room."
Rich didn't care. Liz goes missing, everyone suddenly doesn't remember her, and thinks some teenager is his baby sister, and now he's being accused of murder? "I haven't done anything wrong. I reported a disappearance."
Branson smiled. "Of a girl who appears to have been murdered, in a crime scene of two girls where it looks like you took a DNA bath; you realize your whole story is crap, right? The cops are going to grab your tail and lock it up forever. That's if a jury doesn't decide you should fry in the meantime."
"I still don't believe any of this. I'm just going to sit here quietly until you put me in jail, or let me go. You can't just leave me in this room; it's illegal."
The agent looked annoyed. "That's all well and good, until you have to use the bathroom..."
"I'll piss on the floor."
"Or you haven't had water for days..."
"You can't..."
The agent abruptly stood up and slammed his hands down on the desk. "I can do as I please! I can declare you a terrorism suspect and shove you in a hole in the basement. You'll just disappear."
"Is that what happened to Liz and Alice? You assholes make a habit of making people disappear?"
The light coming in through the little window darkened. Suddenly, the coffee didn't smell like coffee. The writing on the newspaper didn't make any sense.
"I would think about being a little more cooperative, Richard. This is a dangerous situation for all of us. You have no idea of the importance of what we're working on here."
Something stumbled through the hall behind them. Rich could have sworn he saw..."What is it you're working on here? I just want to find my friend."
The light level went back to normal. Agent Branson leaned back in his seat. Everything suddenly seemed more...normal.
"You will see your friend, all your friends very soon. Try not to worry about it. You're safe." His voice was getting very sing-songy. "Everyone's safe and happy." Rich suddenly felt very tired and dizzy. "W...what? What?"
He took off out the door, knocking Branson over. "Dad!?"
Rich's dad slowly turned his head toward him, his blank, expressionless face not really focusing on anything. He very slowly turned away, and walked out of sight down the hall. "DAD!!"
The halls were all completely bleached white. There was so much light, they almost seemed to be glowing. Rich tried to follow the path he thought his dad had headed down, but there was no one. Just a maze of endless halls….
Someone shoved him from behind, hard. "I got you now, boy!!"
"AAAAAA!"
His dad's eyes were red now, his clawed hands extending toward his face. He was sick. "It's me, dad. It's Rich! What the hell?"
"You left me to die! YOU AND THAT WHORE MOTHER OF YOURS!"
Dad missed him and hit the wall. Large claw marks tore into the tile as little bits of it rained down on Rich.
"You're not real! Not real!!"
"IT'S ALL REAL, RICHIE! IT'S ALL FOR YOU! YEEAAA!"
The drugs fully kicked in, and Rich finished blacking out. The hallway was empty except for Agent Branson. He dragged the boy back into the interview room.
Branson rubbed his chin. "Interesting…. He's managed to resist the treatment again."
Another man in a white suit entered the room. "It should be impossible, but he has the memories. Should we eliminate him from the test?"
Rich snapped awake for a moment. "Eliminate? Are you talking about killing me? Dude, no..."
Agent Branson hit a button on the desk. "Negative. We would just run into this problem again later. That could be extremely problematic. We need to use him as a dependent variable to find the solution now. Reset his entire memory and reintroduce him"
"Dependent what? What are you guys..."
White Suit Guy shot two darts into his chest. Everything swirled into darkness once again.
Chapter 3
"Hey man! Are you ok?"
Rich groggily looked up, as a heavyset guy shook his shoulder. "W..what?"
"Are you ok? I found you sitting here blacked out."
Rich looked around. He was sitting on a bench outside the school. "I don't know how I got here. I'm Rich, I just moved to town."
"I'm Stan, pleased to meet you. You don't have seizures or anything do you? Anything medical?"
"No, nothing like that. What time is it?"
"Time for you to get a watch. HA! Just kidding, its 7:45. We can walk to the school together, if you want."
"I'd rather skip out, but it's my first day. It would be bad luck."
The two guys walked toward the school. "Hi guys!"
There was a cute girl waving and coming toward them. She seemed strangely familiar to Rich, but he couldn't place his finger on why.
Stan waved back. "Rich, this is my friend Liz. The grumpy one standing by the door over there is Alice. You'll get used to her."
Liz ran up to Rich and gave him a hug. "Yay!! Hug the new guy!!!"
"AAAAAA!! What are you doing?"
"HUGS!!!"
They all walked into the school together. Stan showed them where their first class would be. Again, all of this seemed familiar. Ms. Care seemed nice.
"Congratulations, Richard. You got a perfect score on the pop quiz. You must have been ahead of this chapter at your old school."
"No ma’am. Actually, we were two chapters back."
School seemed to end quickly. Alice offered to give them all a ride home, which Rich quickly accepted. It was two miles to walk to his house. As they were driving, something caught Liz's eye. "Hey, there's my cat!!"
Alice slowed the car down. "What?"
A small, black cat was running into Dark Falls Cemetery. The cemetery was huge, and darkness seemed to hang over it.
Alice stopped the car. "You don't want to go in there. Are you sure it's your cat, Liz?"
"I'm sure. I know." She got out of the car and ran into the cemetery. Alice turned to the back seat. "Rich, go after her. I'm worried."
"Sure."
Rich got out of the car and walked through the gates. "Not again. Again?" Rich wondered what he meant by that. This had never happened before. He had the weirdest feeling of déjà-vu. Alice was walking up behind him. "There she is. She's fine."
"Thank God."
"You seem awfully worried about someone you met an hour ago. Love at first sight? Wouldn't be the worst thing for her right now…. Her dad recently passed away."
"I don't know about love at first sight, but there's something..."
Suddenly, Liz took off running, ducking in and out of the tombstones. For a moment, Rich thought she was playing tag with someone, but then he saw the figure encased in shadow. It was chasing her.
Rich and Alice took off after her. Suddenly the figure wasn't behind Liz, but was in front of her. A few seconds later, it wasn't a human figure, it was the cat.
She was chasing the cat.
"What the hell is going on here? Did you see that?"
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Alice ran ahead of him. "I don't know what I saw. We have to help her."
Liz was still running. "Dang, I can't get her to stop. I caught her once but she wiggled loose. Help me."
"Here, Kitty! Here kitty, kitty…." Alice was trying to coax the cat over, but to no avail. They didn't even have anything to feed it.
As the cat passed one of the headstones, Stan walked out and grabbed it. "Hey guys, what are you doing all the way over here?
Rich felt the need to step in front of the girls, but he didn't know why. "Liz was trying to catch her cat. We saw it by the front gate, and it just took off. Wouldn’t stop for anything. She couldn't catch up to it."
"Such a cute little thing… and so easy to lose… So easy to get hurt..." Stan was squeezing the cat way too hard. It hissed and tried to break free. "So...squirmy..."
"Stan, what are you doing man?"
"Nothing. Here you go." He stiffly handed the cat to Liz and then started walking into the graveyard. Alice took a few steps toward him. "Hey buddy, where are you going?"
"I'm not your buddy, bimbo. You and your little friend need to stop going where you shouldn't. Something could happen." He walked off into the distance.
Rich just kept looking in his direction. "So weird… He's acting like a totally different guy than I met today."
Alice threw her hands up in the air. "He's acting like a grade A jerk. Come on Liz, let's get out of here."
A thick fog seemed to roll over the graveyard. The sky seemed darker than it should have been. Rich could hear things moving around in the darkness. "Aaah...guys. I think we should get the hell out of here. Something's..."
Rich was pulled into the fog, and vanished with the slightest hint of a scream.
"AAAAHH!! Rich!!!" Liz ran toward where he had been.
"Liz, wait!" Alice got half a step in her direction before she also vanished into the fog, screaming. Liz stood there, surrounded by cold darkness. The cat hissed. "Guys...not funny… We should go now." Silence was her only reply. She panicked as she realized she was completely turned around. She had no sense of how to get out of the cemetery. She was trapped.
An Infinite Sorrow Page 3
