They Came After Me

by C S Allen

  I looked down at the receiver and I said, “I have to call home. That’s who I’m going to call, and no one is going to stop me.” I quickly picked up the phone’s receiver that was on the floor and dialed before I changed my mind. My parents’ phone rang, but no one answered for some reason. I was about to hang up.

  “Hello?” my mom’s voice yelled into the phone.

  “Mom, it’s me, I’m all right,” I said, as calmly as I could, while my heart just jumped out of my chest.

  “Will? Oh my God, it’s Will, Jim! It’s Will, he’s on the phone!” my mother yelled, while holding the phone away from her mouth. “Will, where are you? Where have you been?” my mother asked.

  “Mom, I can’t say much, but I’m coming home tomorrow morning, okay?” I replied, knowing that the government was probably listening in on my parent’s phone.

  “Will, the police are looking for you. They say that your cabin caught fire, and everyone was killed, including responding officers. You’re alive, thank God!” my mother replied, sobbing.

  “Mom, I’m okay I promise,” I said, trying to calm my mother down.

  Next, I heard my father’s voice come on the phone. “Will?”

  “Dad, I’m okay, I’m coming home tomorrow morning,” I replied.

  “Will, they’re looking for you, son. They think you had something to do with that fire,” my dad stated. He sounded agitated.

  “Dad, how do the police know that I was at the cabin?” I asked.

  “Will, they have something of yours that identified you,” my dad stated.

  I was confused as to what the police had that identified me. I had everything that belonged to me in my car, so what could they possibly have? “I have to get off the phone, Dad. I’m coming home tomorrow morning,” I said. I had tears in my eyes, but I was trying to be calm.

  “Will, I trust you and I’ll see you in the morning, son,” my dad replied, as he hung up.

  My dad and I were always close, and he meant the world to me. To hear him call me ‘son’ at that moment made me choke up and cry as I put the phone receiver down. My dad would only call me son when he was really proud or he was worried about me. The last time he had called me son was when I was eleven years old, and I was hit by a car in front of my house. I was racing my bike on the sidewalk and jumping the curbs. I was in my own world and feeling like I could be a stuntman on a motorcycle when I turned left into the middle of the road. A car was coming down the road from behind me, and I didn’t hear it and then my lights went out. I woke up a couple of days later in a hospital with my dad at my bedside.

  “Will? Will? Hey, buddy, how are you doing?” my dad had asked, as I woke up from a coma. I had no idea what had happened or why I was in the hospital as I looked over at my dad, and I saw he had tears falling down his face. I don’t remember much about that time in the hospital, but I remember my dad saying, “Son, I’m so glad that you made it back; you had us worried.”

  I sat down on the bed and wiped away the tears, taking a few deep breaths to try and calm myself. I went over to the bathroom sink and picked up a cloth to get it wet. I turned the faucet handle and put the cloth under the cool water. The water felt good on my hands as I twisted the cloth to get the excess water out. I tapped my face a few times with the cloth and then completely wiped it. I turned the water off and dropped the cloth in the sink without hanging it up to dry. I turned around and went back over to the bed and picked up the remote to turn the TV back on. I turned the channels to go back to the MTV station and watch more videos, and thankfully they had a lot of rock bands playing that I liked. When the clock read six fifteen, I was more than ready to get the hell out of my room and go downstairs to the hotel’s restaurant. I got off the bed and made sure I had my wallet with me and my key to the front door of the room. I took a quick look outside to see if anyone was around and then opened the door to walk out. I took my time walking down the stairs as the sun had set, and shadows were on the steps from the railing. I then walked over to the front door of the hotel and walked in. As usual, no one was at the front desk. I could see people in the restaurant, so I went inside and found a table that I could sit at while facing the door. I didn’t want anyone coming up from behind me and surprising me. A waitress who I hadn’t seen earlier came up and gave me a menu with a glass of water. She was polite and told me about the specials for the night, and then she gave me time to look over the menu. I looked at the single people as I sat at my table. I wondered if any of them was the one looking for me, but then I remembered what I had been told, ‘I would know who she is.’

  After ten minutes had gone by, the waitress came back and took my order. I ordered a fish dinner with a side of macaroni and a Coke to go with it. Six thirty came and went, and so did my dinner, as I stopped eating at seven fifteen. No one came in who I knew, and I wasn’t sure if I should leave at that time or not. I ordered an apple pie with milk since the waitress was really trying to sell dessert for some reason. When I was done taking my time eating the pie, I decided it was time to leave and forget whoever was supposed to meet me. I got up from the table and left a twenty-dollar bill to pay for the meal and the waitress’s tip.

  “Thank you, young man!” the waitress yelled, as I left the restaurant to go back to my room.

  I was a bit surprised that no one had come to visit me since the people in the government liked to be on time. Maybe they changed their minds and didn’t want to bother me anymore, I thought. When I got to my room, my phone started to ring, so I took out my key from my front pants pocket and quickly opened the door. I grabbed the phone and said, “What do you want now?” as the door closed behind me.

  “Will?”

  I freaked out because the voice sounded like Olivia. “Oh my God, Olivia?” I yelled into the phone.

  “Will, it’s me!” Olivia yelled back. “Will, please don’t say anything to anyone about everything,” Olivia stated. She sounded like her voice was so far away.

  “Olivia, are you okay? Where are you?” I desperately asked.

  “Will, they know that you are going home tomorrow; they hear everything. Please, please don’t say anything ever, do you hear me? They said that they’d kill me, and I don’t want to die, Will,” Olivia stated.

  “Where are you, Olivia, I need to see you,” I pleaded.

  “Will, I can’t go home; they won’t let me. Promise me you won’t ever say anything, Will,” Olivia said. Her voice sounded even further away.

  “Olivia, I promise I won’t ever say anything,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Good!” a male’s voice yelled into the phone, scaring me almost to death.

  “You fucking asshole!” I yelled back into the phone as it went dead. “Those motherfuckers, God damn it!” I yelled out, as I slammed the phone receiver down. I quickly made a decision to go home that evening to catch the government off guard.

  I grabbed my bag, threw in my dirty clothes, checked that I had everything, and then went out the door. I ran down the steps and over to the hotel’s front door and dropped off my room key and yelled, “I’m leaving!” to whoever was in the back room. I turned around and went out to my car and opened the driver’s side door and got in. I tossed my bag over to the passenger seat and then got my car keys out of my pants pocket. I started the engine, looked around the area to see if anyone was watching, and then took off out of the parking lot.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When I got on the main road, I felt like going a hundred miles an hour to get home, but I couldn’t. Why would they keep Olivia hostage? Why would they kill her because of me? And then it hit me, the government wanted the both of us paranoid about the other. Olivia would always be afraid that any day she could be killed because of me. And I would be paranoid about making a slip of my tongue, causing Olivia to be killed. “My God, they’re sick bastards!” I said, hitting the steering wheel. Twenty plus minutes later, after turning down streets that I didn’t need to go down, I was home in front of my house. I got out of my car qu
ickly and slammed the door closed as I ran toward the front steps.

  All of a sudden, I felt that I should knock on the door, so I did. Dad took a look out the front window to see who was knocking and then I heard, “It’s Will!” The front door swung open, and there stood my dad with a big smile on his face. “Get in here, boy!” my dad said, as he took a step toward me and pulled me inside my home and closed the door.

  My mom was in the living room, and she came over and gave me a hug while my dad hugged the two of us. After the hugging and my mom’s sobbing, we all sat down to relax.

  “I thought you were coming back tomorrow, Will?” my dad said.

  “I was, but things changed,” I said, shaking my head. “What did the police want, Dad?” I asked.

  “Will, what happened up at the camp?” Dad asked.

  “Dad, I was the fifth wheel at the party, if you know what I mean. I didn’t have a girlfriend, and so when it got late, the others were making out, and I got to feeling weird about it. I had some wine with the others and felt tired so I decided to go sleep in Steve’s car that night. Steve felt bad about what I was doing, so he drove me back to campus from the camp. I slept in my dorm room that night and then didn’t hear about anything until last night. I’m freaking out about everything. I don’t know what happened and how it all started. We had a fire in the fireplace going because it was cold up there, and we had candles because there wasn’t any power for lights,” I stated, trying to fool everyone.

  “So, your friend Steve drove you all the way back to the dorms from the cabin? All that way at night while he was drunk and making out with his girlfriend?” my dad asked. He sounded skeptical.

  “Yeah, Steve is the best and coolest guy you would ever meet, Dad,” I said, looking at him and my mom.

  “Will, the police know you were there because they found your picture ID badge on the ground up there,” my dad stated seriously.

  I knew right then that I was being set up for failure because my ID badge was in my dorm room, hanging off of my lamp shade. “So, they were looking for me to find out what happened then, right?” I replied.

  “Will, they asked us a lot of questions. They had two police officers and a detective looking for you, and the detective was mean,” my mother said, looking serious.

  “Will, tomorrow we will call the detective and leave a message for him since it’s Saturday. Don’t worry, guys, we’ll get through this horrible tragedy that happened to Will’s friends. I’m just so glad that you’re alive, Will,” my dad stated, as he reached over and patted my knee.

  It was close to nine o’clock, and I told my parents that I was going up to my room for the evening. I got up and walked over to my mom, who was sitting in a recliner, and gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her good night. Then I walked over to my dad and bent over like I was going to do the same to my dad and whispered in his ear, “Dad, come see me in a few minutes.” Then I stood up and said, “Good night all.”

  I went upstairs to my room and saw that it was like I had left it during the Christmas holiday. I sat down on my bed and took off my shoes while looking around my room. So many things that need to be thrown out or given to Goodwill, I thought. Model airplanes, posters on the wall, books that I had read years ago.

  When I was looking around the room, I heard my dad walking up the steps being that he was the only one who could make our steps creak. I followed his footsteps up to my door, and then there was a knock at my door. I got off my bed and quickly opened the door and waved my dad in before he could say anything. My dad then walked in and closed the door behind him, looking at me concerned. I put my index finger in front of my lips to make sure he didn’t make a sound. I turned and grabbed my desk chair that was sitting under my desk and put it beside my bed.

  “Dad, sit here for a minute but don’t say anything,” I whispered. My dad then put his hands up, motioning that he wanted to ask what was going on, and then he sat down. I did a quick look out my bedroom window to see if anyone was in the street who wasn’t supposed to be there. Luckily, the coast was clear so I could begin with what I wanted to say. I sat down on the bed and hunched over toward my dad. I waved for my dad to get close to me so he bent forward, still looking at me with bewilderment. “Dad, do you trust me?” I whispered.

  “Yeah, of course I do, what’s going on?” my dad asked, whispering back.

  “Dad, there’s a girl’s life at stake right now if I tell you about what happened at the camp. She will be murdered by our own government who has taken her,” I whispered. My dad sat up. “Dad, Dad, please listen to me,” I pleaded. Then my dad bent forward again. “Dad, I have to tell the same story to the police that I told you. The story I told you isn’t true, but I have to stick with it. The government has tapped our phones in this house and is watching me. The second I mention anything about what happened, my friend Olivia will be killed. I just spoke to her on the phone at the hotel, and she told me that she’s being held. I don’t know where she is, but she’s alive,” I stated.

  “So, you’re trying to tell me that something happened at the cabin that involved the government? And you and this girl Olivia were threatened by the government not to say anything because you witnessed something?” my dad whispered, looking a bit shocked.

  “Yes, and I can’t tell you the truth to what has happened. And now I’m left with trying to lie to the police to keep Olivia alive. They will kill anyone to keep what happened a secret . . . I’m scared to death,” I whispered with all seriousness.

  My dad looked me in my eyes and realized that either I was a great liar or something was really wrong. He sat back in his chair. A knock at the door came as my dad looked down at the floor. “Yes, Mom? Come in,” I said out loud.

  “Will, we need to have a talk, and I mean right now,” my mom said loudly. My dad quickly stood up and put his index finger to his mouth, looking at my mother. Then he took two steps over to the door and whispered into my mother’s ear. When my dad finished whispering to my mom, she stated, “We need to talk about some rules in this house if you’re going to stay here.” Then she smiled at me and rolled her hand forward for me to go on with the conversation. We played like we were really serious about rules and standards of living in the house while I was on vacation from school. Then my mom stated that she was going to talk to me later and closed the door while staying in my room. “Now you two better tell me what the hell this is all about,” my mother whispered to us.

  We sat in my room for over an hour, talking about what was going on, and then my mom surprised me.

  “Will, why do you have thousands of dollars in your bag? I mean you must have what twenty, thirty thousand dollars in that bag?”

  I froze and didn’t know what to say. My dad looked at me with his eyebrows raised like he was surprised.

  “You have how much money in a bag?” my dad asked.

  “Mom, I wish you didn’t go snooping because that causes me more trouble. Listen, I was given seven hundred thousand dollars to keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t take all of it out of the bank, only fifty thousand. If any word gets out that I said anything to anyone about the money or what happened at the cabin, Olivia is dead; they have her.”

  “Our government gave you that much money to do what with it? Did they think you were going to run away so they gave you that amount for the rest of your life to hide? Or is this another setup to say that you all robbed a bank or someone?” my dad asked, as he started thinking.

  “Will, did you all get into something, and it went wrong? Just tell me, Will, I’m not judging you. This whole story about the government is the worst made-up story that I have ever heard of,” my mother whispered, looking at me in all seriousness.

  I sat up on the bed, followed by my parents, who were sitting up and staring at me. “You guys wouldn’t believe me even if I told you!” I whispered loudly, while shaking my head. “Never mind, you guys, I have a plan, and it won’t involve either of you. I’m going to the sheriff’s office on Monday to s
peak to him directly,” I said whispering and stood up from my bed.

  “Now hold on, Will, sit down for a second before you go off half-cocked. You have to see things from our perspective, just for a second . . .now sit down and let me explain,” my dad whispered loudly and grabbed my hand. I sat back down on the bed and heard how their day went with the local police and how the sheriff had come by looking for me. My mother had been the first at the door when an officer knocked. He asked her if she knew where her son William was. From that moment, my mother’s stomach sank into great fear. She told them that I was at a lake cabin up north with my friends and would be home in a day or two. My mother didn’t fear that I was in trouble with the law, but rather that I had been killed somehow. The police told my mother that I may have been one of the victims of a cabin fire since they had found my ID. They couldn’t tell who was who because the fire was so intense that the bodies were beyond recognition.

  “Now I want you to take all of that in and think what that did to your mother. I wasn’t home yet, so your mother was by herself and trying to deal with you being dead. No one knew exactly where you were, Will. The police found a burned-down cabin that was still smoldering and half of the woods still on fire. Two police officers were killed, trying to rescue the people in the cabin, and they got caught in the blaze, from what the sheriff said to your mom. That is the most devastating news that you could possibly ever have about your child,” my dad explained, still whispering.

  I went over to the bed and sat down beside my mother and put my arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry you guys are going through this,” I whispered, looking at my mother and then over at my dad. I told my parents that I would go to the sheriff’s office on Monday and ask to speak with the sheriff alone. I didn’t want my parents to be with me because they didn’t need to be around and hear my statement about the truth. I had to risk almost everything, including Olivia’s life, to expose what had happened at the cabin.