“The timing is right,” she nodded. She shot out of her chair and grabbed the laptop. Back at the table she opened it and pulled up a webpage. It didn’t take long to find the blogs of six of the people on the dreamer list, each blog was open on a different tab so she could look at all of them just by switching. Scrolling through the entries she found what she was looking for. “Holy, mother fuck,” she gasped, surprised even though she had been expecting it.
“What?”
She turned the computer so that Xander could see the screen. “Six of the people who had the dream, they were there. And those are just the ones we know about. I am betting we will find out more of these people on these lists were at that convention.”
Xander stared at her in shock. “I wouldn’t bet against you on that.”
“I think, what ever happened to us, happened at that convention.”
“We need to talk to someone who was there. See if they noticed anything unusual.”
“And if we can find out if there were any police reports or anything like that, that would help too,” Sydney added.
“It would be hard to find that information.”
“Unless we just checked newspapers. Stuff like that would make the news.”
“OK.”
“I wonder if they keep any kind of admission list? Or ticket purchaser information?”
“I’m sure they do, but they aren’t just going to hand that kind of information over. It probably violates privacy laws.”
“Well, what do you think we should do?” Syd asked.
“Let’s check the newspapers first. We can go from there.”
Chapter Thirty
It was late, but neither of them wanted to wait until morning to search for police reports made during the convention. The search didn’t take long, using a local crime tracker database they were able to find two events of note at the right time and location. There were two attempted kidnappings, a fact that should have been alarming to the police. One almost victim was a twenty-six year old male and another of a twenty-two year old female.
“Didn’t anyone think it was odd that two convention goers were nearly kidnapped?” Xander wondered out loud.
Sydney shrugged. “You would think. The paper makes it seem like the police assume it was connected but didn’t pay too much attention. Apparently, the victims weren’t able to give a description of the kidnapper.”
“Hey, click on that link,” Xander pointed to another article on the screen.
After reading through the first few lines they both turned to each other in shock. This article, written several days after the end of the convention as a follow up on the kidnappings listed names. The first, the guy’s name, was unremarkable. However, the second name was the cause of their shock. “Tasha Crowl,” Sydney read.
“She’s on the missing list.”
“Yeah.” Sydney rested her face in her hands.
Taking a deep breath, Xander took over the searching. This time, he googled Tasha Crowl and several articles from three months ago popped up. While Syd stared at the floor trying not to let the dread overwhelm her, he read the article. “Crowl was reported missing September 22nd, two weeks after the convention...she disappeared from her apartment in Oklahoma...no witnesses...family believes it was an ex-boyfriend. They do at least make a connection to the attempted kidnapping in Chicago. The boyfriend doesn’t have an alibi for either incident. Apparently, Tasha and the guy who was almost kidnapped hooked up at the event. I think they assume the boyfriend was doing the psycho jealous thing. There is a picture of her.” Sydney held her breath. “Don’t worry, it’s not you,” he rubbed her back as she let out the breath she had been holding.
“Nothing else about her?” she asked.
“No, doesn’t look like it. Just some other articles saying nothing new was known.”
“This is all just so crazy. Stuff like this should only happen in movies!”
“I know.”
“I just wish there was a way we could find out if Pan, or I, were at the conference.”
“Well, unless he wakes up non-crazy we aren’t going to be able to ask him if he was there.”
The idea of Pan waking up caused her anxiety to pulse again. If he woke up, if he was in a mental state to do so, he would be able to tell the police who attacked him. “We probably shouldn’t stay around Vegas for long.”
As if he knew what she was thinking, Xander agreed. “I know.”
“Is there any other connection to Vegas besides Pan?”
They quickly searched the other missing and dead people on Pan’s lists. “It doesn’t look like it. “Hey,” he said a few moments later. “Check this out. Connor Duggins lived in Chicago,” he was pointing to the last name on the missing list.
“No shit?”
“No shit.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I think,” he began. “That we need to find his family, see if we can talk to them. Find out anything else helpful.”
“That feels rude…”
“What would you rather do?”
“Run away to Hawaii and forget any of this is happening?”
Xander snorted. “How about France? They have nude beaches and I’ll go with you.”
Sydney couldn’t stop her smile. “OK, let’s try to find his family.”
It didn’t take them long to pack up their few belongings and hit the road. Sydney had misgivings about returning to Chicago, but she couldn’t think of a better option. It was the next step in finding out what they could about her past. She hoped, if she stayed with Xander at his place it would keep trouble away from Shay. But, returning to Chicago brought back the reality that there was still a dead man in a barrel at his garage.
The drive was mostly uneventful until they both needed to stop outside of Kansas City. It was nearly morning when they pulled into the rest area and settled down to nap. Sydney’s head was hurting worse than usual and she was silent as she propped her feet on the dash, trying to stretch out the best she could. She hadn’t been asleep for long when her whole body jerked awake in alarm. Her heart slammed against her chest and her head pounded with the intensity of a jackhammer. She looked at Xander and saw that he was sound asleep and she was inexplicably glad.
The air felt thick and hard to breathe and the only thing she knew was that if she didn’t get out she would suffocate. She opened the door, not caring that it would surely wake Xander, and hurried away from the truck. Knowing he was watching her by this point, she headed for the only place that would make sense and prevent him from following her—the bathroom.
Inside the facilities she had to blink in the glaring fluorescent lights that nearly blinded her as she stumbled into the women’s rest room. The familiar heaviness in her nose caused her to reflexively bring her hands to her face just in time to catch the first gush of blood. She made it to the sink and let the blood flow on its own. The restroom didn’t have paper towels and she wouldn’t be able to get to a toilet without getting blood all over herself. She groaned, not in pain, but in frustration.
Careful to keep her nose upright and aiming for the sink, she looked in the mirror. Her eyes were dilated so much she could barely see any blue around her pupils. That explains the light sensitivity. A wave of dizziness came over her and she gripped the sink to stop from falling. At the same time movement in the mirror caught her eye and she sucked in a shocked breath as Short Man stepped out of the stall directly behind her. A bright flash above the man’s head added to her shock. The glowing orb from her dream swirled around her but she couldn’t take her eyes of the man in front of her. The light moved slower and more purposeful than a bug would have and it swooped in and out of her line of sight. She turned quickly, nearly losing her balance and expecting to find that the man was gone—having only existed in the mirror—but he was still slowly coming towards her.
Warm blood dripped down her chin as she whimpered. Short Man grinned a wide, rubbery smile and took another step towards her. “
No,” she croaked. Since making a run for the door would bring her closer to Short Man, she stepped further into the bathroom, only realizing the stupidity of that after she had done it. Using the sinks, she guided herself away from him, never turning her back on him at any point. Blood dripped onto the floor from her nose but she didn’t pay it any mind. “What do you want?” she asked him in a voice barely louder than a whisper. His only response was to grin.
“Fuck you,” she yelled. Snapping out of her shock she took a lungful of air and screamed as loudly as she could.
The sound spurred Short Man into action and he lurched towards her, his grin widening until his mouth became a gaping maw that looked like it could swallow her whole head. She backpedaled until she bumped into the tile wall behind her. She was terrified but would fight for her life and raised her hands ready to fend him off. Behind him, Xander slid into the bathroom, the door slamming into the wall with enough force to sound like a gunshot. Which was appropriate since he was carrying a gun in his right hand. Short Man stopped his progress and Sydney looked from him to Xander and back.
Xander’s eyes darted around the bathroom before coming back to Sydney. “What’s going on?”
As Short Man’s form wavered and faded Sydney figured out what happened. Short Man had never been there at all. She looked from her bloody shirt, to the streaks of blood on the floor, then to Xander who was lowering the gun.
“Sydney?” he sounded the closest to being scared as she had ever heard him.
“Yeah?”
“What’s going on?” he stepped towards her cautiously, as if she was going to suddenly bolt.
“I thought Short Man was here.”
“But he’s not.”
“I know,” she took a shuddering breath, willing herself not to cry. That would only make the entire situation worse.
Xander tucked the gun into the back of his pants before closing the distance between them and gripping her by the shoulders. “Tell me what happened.” He eased her towards the sinks and lifted her until she was sitting on the closest one. Using handfuls of toilet paper he wiped at her face and hands as she explained the panic attack and thinking Short Man was coming at her. She even told him about her eyes dilating and the fact that it had happened before.
“And that stupid ball of light was floating around too.” The orb was too weird to not mean something, but she was clueless as to what.
Xander sighed, but didn’t lecture her. “But you’ve never hallucinated before?”
“No.”
“You’re...you are getting worse.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“We need to get you to a doctor.”
“I can’t. You know that.”
Bracing his hands on the sink on either side of her, he lowered his head. “You could be dying.”
Sydney didn’t know what to say to reassure him, mostly because she wasn’t reassured either. “And I might not be. If I go to the doctor they will want an ID. They will want money. They will end up reporting me to the police. And what if they find something bizarre? They could lock me up in a lab somewhere. ‘They’ could be watching the hospitals and come for me when an unknown female matching my description is admitted.”
Growling, Xander pushed away from the sink and Sydney. “This is so fucked.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” he snapped. “Let’s just get out of here. The faster we figure out what happened, the faster we can figure out what to do.”
She fought the urge to remind him he didn’t need to be involved and together they wiped up the streaks of blood with more toilet paper. There was no sense in alarming anyone who found it and causing them to potentially call the police. On the way back to the truck, Xander put his arm around Sydney’s shoulders. “You have got to keep me in the loop.”
Sydney hesitated. Her old resolve to keep Xander out of her mess reared its head. When his hand gripped her shoulder warningly she conceded. “I know!”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” she sighed.
The sun was rising as they climbed back inside the truck. She hated feeling like she was depending on Xander so much. It made the fact that he was involved even worse because she felt like she needed him but still wasn’t a hundred percent sure she wouldn’t need to disappear in order to save his life at some point. And she cared enough about him she knew she would do it if she had to. No matter what promises she had made.
Xander
Xander gripped the steering wheel and ground his teeth as they drove away from the rest stop. He hoped that Rabbit came through with finding a doctor who would be willing to help them. He knew the biker would do what he could to make it happen, no matter how much he hated Xander. And, besides, Rabbit only hated him so much because he was in debt to him. He hated owing anyone anything. And that debt and hatred had been festering for a long time.
Rabbit was the enforcer Xander had been backing up when he had accidentally killed a guy. After his arrest he could have rolled on Rabbit and gotten his time reduced. But he had refused. Stupid loyalty. But that loyalty had been drilled into Xander over and over again after he took up with the club. He knew that with his rap sheet Rabbit would have went down hard over what happened. As the adult with a bad history he would have taken the brunt of the blame no matter who had actually been driving the car. But Xander’s record had been clean at that point. He took the fall, and Rabbit owed him for it.
Xander glanced at the rear view mirror and scowled. It was late, and he was surprised to see headlights about a quarter mile behind them. It wouldn't have seemed as odd if he wasn’t already feeling paranoid and out of sorts. He glanced at Sydney but she had fallen asleep again. He hadn’t mentioned that he was trying to find a doctor because it might not happen. No matter how badly Rabbit wanted to settle their debt he might not be able to find a doctor he could threaten or blackmail into helping them. And even if he could, it would take a very creative doctor to get around the paperwork of running lots of tests on someone.
Feeling bitter and annoyed, he let off the gas. He wanted the guy behind them to go around and get lost. His presence was agitating Xander more and he didn’t want another frustration at the moment. The vehicle gained on them quickly as their speed fell and came close enough for him to be able to tell it was a large van, but then it dropped back again. Xander’s hand flexed on the steering wheel. If the driver was following them, he was pretty terrible at it. If it had been Xander he would have passed them, pulled off an exit and waited for them to catch back up and then start following them again.
He debated on waking Sydney up to let her know what was going on but decided against it. The driver of the van may be staying behind them because his odometer was broke and he was trying to regulate his speed. Maybe the guy was lost. There could be a variety of logical reasons for the van on their tail. Not that Xander believed any of them were true—but it was possible. If he woke Syd up he would freak her out for no reason.
Xander pressed harder on the gas and his old truck roared forward with minimal complaint. He smiled and patted the steering wheel. Good girl, he grinned. He watched for the van’s reaction and it didn’t seem to speed up. It fell behind. Either the guy wasn’t concerned with keeping up with them or he had gotten stealthier in the past twenty minutes. He considered his options. He could keep going, or try to lose the guy. At the last second he took the Lawrence, Kansas exit trying to keep the shift in direction as smooth as possible to avoid waking Sydney. He pulled the truck behind a McDonald’s and turned the lights off. If the van followed them he didn’t see it. Given the late hour and deserted roads he would have seen any other vehicles, but after waiting ten minutes they were still alone.
Xander glanced at Syd again. Still sound asleep with her feet tucked under her. He put the truck into gear and headed back towards I-70. Even though he was relieved to know they either hadn’t been followed, or no longer were, he grew more worried about Sydney. She was sle
eping like a rock any chance she got. Between being stressed and sick, it was taking a lot out of her so he decided to keep his paranoia about being followed to himself.
Chapter Thirty One
By the time they made it back to Chicago, Xander had finally stopped pouting over Sydney having kept her worsening condition from him. For the rest of the trip she had felt progressively better until they reached the garage. As they pulled in her stomach lurched, there was a dead man waiting to be dealt with.
“I’m going to go get lye and stop by Shay’s to give her a burner phone so we can talk to her,” Xander didn’t look like he was excited about dealing with the dead body either.
“OK. You aren’t going to tell her everything, are you?”
“Hell no.”
“Good. When you get back I’ll help with...Short Man.”
“You don’t have to. I told you I’d take care of him.”
She shook her head. “I can’t make you deal with that on your own.”
“Mmhmmm. Well, make yourself at home. I’ll be back soon.”
“OK. I’ll start trying to find Connor Duggins’ family.”
“Sounds good.” Xander started to walk away but turned back. He grabbed her hands and pulled her towards him. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.
Sydney’s breath caught in her throat. It felt so good, so warm, and so safe in his arms that she had to resist the urge to stop him from leaving and spend the rest of the day wrapped around each other in bed. Not having sex—while she did want that eventually—right now, she just wanted to feel comfort. “Hurry back,” she whispered against his chest.
After he was gone, she shook off her moment of tenderness. Big girl panties, Syd. Come on. She hurried upstairs and took a quick shower before sitting down at the laptop. A search of Duggins’ name brought up several news articles that mentioned his disappearance. He was a technical writer for a software company and left work at his normal time just over a month ago but never returned home. Apparently, his behavior had been erratic just before his disappearance and his friends and family said he’d had mental health problems previously. From what Sydney could interpret, it looked like the police were convinced he had just ran off.
Don't Let Them Find You Page 19
