by Imogen Rose
Kellan disagreed. “I think we have to consider Justin and Simla.”
“Justin and Simla? No way, they don’t have the strength!”
“A sudden blow to my head wouldn’t require a lot of strength, just precision.”
“True, but they’d also have to been able to get us here–wherever we are. There is no way those two idiots could manage that unless they had help. Do you think that’s it? That they actually managed to get others involved in their stupid schemes?”
“You’re right, it seems too far fetched. Maybe we should work on the basis of the psycho killer angle instead.”
That was not the least bit comforting. I knew very little about murderers of any sort. I had read a few James Patterson books and occasionally watched Law and Order. If we were in for that kind of ugliness, I was fairly sure that I couldn’t prepare myself. I would just have to fight my hardest.
“Let’s look around for possible stuff we can use as weapons,” Kellan suggested.
Good idea. Weapons would certainly help. I stood back up and started feeling around. I wondered why we hadn’t been tied up? Perhaps whoever brought us here had expected our numbness to last longer.
“Kellan, do you think we were drugged? You know, the numbness?”
“Yeah, I do. We didn’t just go numb on our own,” he said.
“I guess that’s one more thing that points toward a psycho killer rather than Simla and Justin. They wouldn’t know how to drug us,” I said.
“True,” Kellan said uncomfortably. I guess he felt like me, that if it was someone we knew, we could take him or her, but neither of us were comfortable having to deal with a warped psycho.
My toes nudged against something and I bent–painfully–to pick it up. It felt like a stick, I ran my hand from one end of it to the other.
“Kellan, I found a hockey stick!”
“Ice-hockey stick?” he asked, as he came over and took it from my hand.
“Hmm, it does feel like a hockey stick,” he agreed. He took my hand and rubbed my fingers against it. I hadn’t a clue why.
“Do you feel that?” he asked.
“What? The scratch marks?”
“They aren’t just scratch marks. This is a U+ stick, you can feel that, right?”
In all honesty, I couldn’t. I’ve never been good at feel-and-tell games. All sticks feel the same to me. I could barely make out that this was an ice-hockey stick. So, I shook my head lamely, thankful that he couldn’t see me in the dark.
“Shrimp, you mark your sticks, don’t you?”
Again, I get no points for being well organized here. “Kellan, no, it’s never occurred to me to label things since I was in first grade!”
He sighed. “Shrimp, feel the markings.”
I was annoyed. We didn’t have time for games. The scratches could be anything, cat marks?
“It says JW,” Kellan said triumphantly.
“JW?”
“Justin Weeks.”
“Justin Weeks,” I repeated with relief, now hopeful that we wouldn’t have to deal with a psycho-killing lunatic, although, Justin probably could be classified as one, sort of, the lunatic part anyway. At least we knew who we were dealing with.
What an idiot, leaving his stick here for us! He was obviously not alone; there was no way he could have gotten us here on his own. The drugging was a mystery. I wondered if he had more drugs; would he come back and drug us again? I couldn’t bear the thought. I tightened my grip around the stick. I would pound his brains in.
We continued our search and found some more hockey sticks, unmarked ones. We found a metal bar– well, I did. I grabbed it firmly in my hands, and we gathered the rest of our potential weapons and sat down beside them. We took turns getting up and looking for potential escape doors, windows and hatches. It was too dark to see anything. I wondered again where we could possibly be. The ground beneath my bare feet felt cold and hard, like stone and the place stank. I imagined it being some kind of cave, but the walls were too smooth, with angular corners. We were most probably in a room of some kind, in a basement, perhaps a storage facility. Definitely underground, judging by the complete lack of any light. I stood up on my tiptoes, waving my hands about trying to feel for a ceiling, a lamp–anything. There had to be a way out. I pounded on all the walls with the metal rod hoping that one of them would give way. My arms hurt. I finally felt my way back to Kellan, following his voice.
“Why do you think we are being held here? What’s the point?” I asked Kellan.
“I’ve been wondering that myself. I thought all that stuff from the parking lot was behind us. This is a bit over the top, even for Justin; the drugs, especially. I wonder if Simla’s involved? We don’t even know for sure that this has anything to do with Justin. Someone could have taken his stick. Dad mentioned that someone has been messing with the portal. I wonder if this has something to do with that?”
“If this has to do with the portal, why pick on us? We’ve got nothing to do with it! Whoever should have taken Mom, instead!” I said irritably.
“Shrimp, you don’t mean that. This is an awful situation to be in, especially since we don’t know what’s happening. What if your Mom has been taken and is being held somewhere else? Would that make it better?”
“Of course not!” I said angrily. “I was just saying!” I let go of him and marched to the furthest corner I could find.
Suddenly, we heard a scratching sound coming from the wall. I ran back into the security of Kellan’s arms and he held me close, as we listened. The scratching noise was followed by a tapping sound. We quickly and quietly gathered our collection of weapons, and made our way to the farthest wall away from the noise and crouched down. We didn’t move, being still as statues. I could barely breathe, I was so afraid. I gave myself a mental shake. This was ridiculous. It was probably just Justin. We needed to get ourselves ready and teach him a lesson. I pulled the metal rod close to me, clenching it firmly in my fist. I was ready.
A clunking sound preceded a blinding beam of light that pierced the darkness of the room and then stopped as abruptly as it began. Someone suddenly grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me towards the light–away from Kellan.
“They should have been back hours ago,” Olivia said, with pangs of worry shooting through her. She looked over at Rupert. “It’s four in the morning. Kellan always brings her back on time. Neither Kellan nor Arizona is answering their cell phones. I called Larry. They’re not over at his place. He’s driving over. Do you have any idea where they could have gone?”
“Ollie, to be honest, I didn’t think of asking. Arizona looked so distraught that I was relieved when she left with Kellan. He’s probably the only one who can calm her down at the moment. We should get Harry up, he’ll probably know, if anyone.”
She nodded. “I hate waking him up in the middle of the night like this, but I guess we’d better. I’m really worried. I hope they didn’t do anything foolish.”
“Foolish?”
“Yes, like run away.”
“I guess it’s a possibility. Neither of them were happy with the situation. I doubt they’d run away, though. Kellan is so sensible. And even if they did, where would they go?”
“I don’t know, Rup. Let’s wake Harry and see if he knows.”
“Are we going to tell him what happened earlier this evening?”
“Rup, I don’t want to get into it with him right now, let’s just tell him that Arizona is upset with us and we can’t reach her.”
“Okay. I’ll go wake Harry and bring him down.”
She nodded. “Be careful not to waken Ella.”
Rupert reappeared in seconds looking uneasy. “Harry’s not in his room. His bed has been slept in, but he’s gone.”
Olivia called his cell. No reply.
“Let’s not panic, Ollie. I’m sure there’s a perfectly simple explanation. Maybe they’re all out somewhere together, somewhere without cell reception,” Rupert said, trying to calm his wife.
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Olivia nodded hopefully. “I’m sure you’re right. Still, it is late.”
There was a sharp knock at the door and Olivia hurried over to let Larry in. He looked worn out as he made his way to the couch and slumped down. He ran his fingers through his unbrushed hair and looked at Olivia wearily.
“Ollie, what’s up? You sounded worried.” He noticed that she looked unusually stressed. Her normally perfect hair was messy where she’d been running her fingers through it. That wasn’t like her at all. She was usually calm and composed.
“You’re not worried that Kellan’s not home or answering his cell?” she asked puzzled.
“I guess, a little. But, after what we put the kids through today, I’m not the least bit surprised. I’m sure they are out de-stressing somewhere. They’ll be back when they feel they can face us–with more questions, no doubt. I do wish I knew where they were, but I’m not too worried. Arizona is in good hands with Kellan. He’s unlikely to do anything stupid.”
Olivia wasn’t entirely convinced. It was nice that Larry had such confidence in Kellan, but they had really thrown the kids for a loop, so goodness knows how they’d react.
“Larry, Harry is missing as well.”
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? It means that they called him, probably to talk things through.”
“It’s not ideal,” Olivia responded. “I’d rather have explained this to him myself. Neither Kellan nor Arizona understands this enough to even begin to explain it to Harry. It’s going to be a mess.”
Larry nodded. “I suggest we wait for a while and see if they turn up in time for school, although, I suppose they may head straight there.”
“That sounds like a sensible plan. Ollie, don’t you think?” Rupert asked.
“I guess. It’s already past five, so we haven’t got that long to wait. I’ll take Ella to school this morning and if Arizona hasn’t shown up by then, we’ll head to the high school. Larry, stay over. Use one of the guest bedrooms and get some sleep. You look worn out. I’ll wake you for breakfast.”
“Thanks, Ollie. I will go and lie down for a while, though I doubt I’ll sleep.” With that, Larry left, leaving Olivia and Rupert alone again.
“Ollie, come sit by me and try to relax. We’ll wait for them together.”
Olivia was exhausted. She went over to the couch and sat down next to him wearily. She could feel the stress working through her body, something felt wrong–very wrong. She leaned into Rupert for support. He felt unusually tense; his normally comforting heartbeat mimicked her anxious palpitations. He put his arms around her for comfort, but it did nothing to distract her thoughts. There was nothing to do but wait. The kids were bound to come back in the morning. But, what if they didn’t? The kids could have been in an accident. They could have run away to find Dillard. Or, they could have just run away to never be found again.
Olivia chided herself. She should have been gentler explaining the whole situation to Arizona at Ames. Throwing all that information at her daughter, all at once, that had been foolish. There was no way Arizona could understand or process the information. After all, who could? Just the possibility that a portal could be constructed that could facilitate transport between different dimensions was a concept even most physicists would have a hard time swallowing. In fact, the idea that there even were different dimensions was way beyond the scope of most people’s acceptance. Yet, she had expected her teenage daughter to accept this and then additionally absorb the fact that she had been transported through such a portal. And to top it all, she’d told her daughter that if she wanted to go back to her father, she’d have to go back through the portal right away. Olivia knew that she’d handled the situation very badly. She had gone way too far. If she could only go back….
“Ollie, wake up,” Rupert whispered, gently shaking her awake. “It’s time to wake Ella. I don’t think Arizona or Harry came home, unless they snuck past us quietly. I must have dozed off.”
Olivia sleepily turned to look at the hall clock. “Ella must have slept in, it’s seven already. I better go and wake her. I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
“I’ll make some coffee and get Larry up,” Rupert said, as he got up and stretched.
The house seemed unsettlingly quiet as Olivia walked up the stairs to Ella’s room. She quietly entered the room making sure not to waken Ella. She savored watching her eight-year-old daughter sleep those last moments before she had to wake her. She tiptoed along to Ella’s bed and gazed down. Ella must have slid under the duvet as she often did in her sleep. Olivia gently pulled up a corner by the base of the bed, peering under. There were no signs of Ella amongst the tossed pillows and crumpled duvet.
“Ella, are you in the bathroom?” Olivia shouted, heading over to the bathroom door. There was no reply so she opened the door. There were no signs of Ella in the bathroom. “Ella, where are you?” she yelled, as her heart started pounding erratically. She was barely able to breathe. She ran out of the room and stumbled down the stairs, almost crashing into Rupert. “Rup, Ella’s not in her room. We should have checked on her last night!” Olivia cried hysterically, as Larry came rushing down toward them.
“Let’s look outside, maybe she took Gertrude out?” Larry suggested.
Rupert nodded, although he knew this was highly unlikely. He should have checked on her last night. He felt sick. It hadn’t even occurred to him that she wouldn’t be fast asleep in her bed as usual. “Larry, I’m going to look for her inside the house, can you take the outside?”
Larry rushed off without another word, slamming the door behind him while Rupert and Olivia scrambled their way through the house looking for Ella.
When Larry came back looking despondent, with Gertrude by his side, Olivia picked up her cell and called the police.
“They’ll be here in a few minutes,” she said, as she started opening the kitchen cabinets to check and see if Ella, for whatever reason, had decided to play hide-and -seek. “Where did you find Gertrude, Larry?”
“I heard her whimpering in the garage, so I opened it and she jumped out. Looks like she’s been stuck in there all night.”
“You know,” said Rupert, “we probably shouldn’t touch anything until the cops get here.”
Olivia frowned at her husband. “Why?”
“Ella is missing. I doubt Harry took her with him. He would never do that without letting us know. I can’t imagine that she just took off. I’m so hoping that she’s not been taken….”
“Taken?” Olivia asked in disbelief. “You mean as in abducted, kidnapped? Why would someone do that? Who?”
“I have no idea, Ollie. It’s just that this is so bizarre. All the kids are missing. Let’s just wait for the cops.”
“No, let’s not. We need to find them. Let’s check the house again, more thoroughly this time, both inside and outside. Larry can you drive up and down the road and see if you see any signs of them?”
Larry nodded and left, pointing to his cell, signaling for Rupert and Olivia to give him updates. Rupert and Olivia started a thorough search, looking under beds, in closets, behind curtains–everywhere. There were no signs of Ella or any of the others. Rupert let the police in when the doorbell rang. He recognized the two cops from when Arizona had been attacked
“They’re all gone!” Olivia let out before she sat down on the hall chair, too distraught to speak anymore.
“Sir, can you tell us what’s going on?”
Rupert nodded. “We had a disagreement with our teenage daughter, Arizona, yesterday. After which she disappeared with Kellan, Larry Fox’s son. We assumed that they were cooling off somewhere and would be back once she’d calmed down. When they didn’t return, we went to wake our son, Harry, to ask him if he knew where they were. That’s when we discovered that Harry was gone as well. Again, we assumed that they were out together. We weren’t overly concerned. However, when we went to wake our younger daughter, Ella, for school this morning, we found that she is missing as well. So, we
’re obviously seriously worried.”
“Can I have some pictures of them, preferably computer images so we can email them to the station and get a search going?” asked one of the officers.
Rupert nodded, and went to fetch his laptop. The officers emailed the photographs to the police station and then turned to Rupert with more questions.
“Do you think that the children went somewhere together or that they’re apart?”
Rupert shrugged. “I know for sure that Arizona and Kellan left together from Ames, on Kellan’s bike. Harry and Ella were both home last night. They disappeared from the house in the middle of the night sometime. We didn’t hear anything. We’ve no idea when or how or if they went missing together. I haven’t even checked to see if Harry’s bike’s here,” Rupert said knowing how stupid this sounded. He should have checked earlier.
“Let’s do that, sir. It’s important to know what mode of transport was used.”
Rupert followed the cop to the garage. Harry’s bike was still there, as were all the cars. “I assume that if they left on their own, it was by foot.”
“We’ll start a search of the immediate area.”
When they got back to the front door, another four squad cars had arrived and the house was swarming with uniforms. Rupert made his way to a dazed-looking Olivia who was sitting with a female officer.
“Rup, what’s happening?”
“Ollie, they’re checking the house for clues, trying to get a feel for what could have happened, for what’s going on.”
“Mr. Darley, can I have a word, please?” an officer interrupted. He waited for Rupert to follow him into the kitchen. “There are signs of struggle in your son’s room.”
“What sort of signs?” Rupert asked, now petrified.
The officer grimaced and said, “Well, things have been knocked over and there are blood stains on the floor and by the window, just a few spatters.”
“Oh my God,” Rupert said, and started heading toward Harry’s room. How had he not noticed?
The police officer grabbed hold of his sleeve firmly and said, “Mr. Darley, I know this is difficult, but I can’t let you upstairs while the CSI are up there.”
