by S. J. West
I remember someone pulling on my arms and tossing me somewhere cold and hard. I tried to make myself wake up but was only rewarded with another thump across my head sending me back into the darkness.
“Lilly,” I heard the voice but it sounded like it was coming from miles away. I slowly opened my eyes. I was in a large, dark, concrete room tied to a chair by ropes. A faint light like from a fireplace made everything glow an ominous red. There was a bright blue light standing in front of me. I tried to focus my eyes on the shape within the light.
It was Will. But it was an eight year old Will. He looked just like I remembered that night he saved me from drowning in the lake.
“Will?” I asked, sure it was just a figment of my imagination.
“They’ll be here soon, Lilly. Hang on,” he urged.
I couldn’t hang on I was too tired. I quickly fell back into unconsciousness.
“Lilly.”
Was that Will again?
I felt someone touch my face tenderly and whisper in my ear, “Lilly, wake up.”
I pulled my mind as hard as I could out of the darkness. When I opened my eyes, I saw Will, the real Will, kneeling before me with a tortured look of concern on his face.
“Will?”
“Hold on Lilly, they’ll be here soon. Don’t worry.”
From somewhere I heard a metal door open and close.
“I’ll be here with you. Don’t worry. She can’t hurt you. Just keep her talking until they get here.”
And then he vanished, like he had never been there at all.
“Oh, no,” I heard a female voice whine. “I hoped you wouldn’t wake up just yet. I’m almost done!”
I looked up and saw Michelle. Her face was illuminated by the glow of the fire where ever it was. She was still wearing the black polo shirt Brand had given her the previous day.
“What are you doing Michelle?” I asked trying to do what Will had said, keep her talking.
“I’m getting rid of you so Brand doesn’t have to keep pretending to like you. We both know he likes me more.”
“What? Are you crazy?”
“No,” she actually had the audacity to sound offended. “He just needs to be rid of you so he can tell me how he really feels without feeling guilty. With you out of the way, we can finally be together.”
“What makes you think he likes you?”
“Well isn’t it obvious?” It was then I saw the syringe in her hand.
“Not to me, why don’t you explain it to me.”
“It’s just the way he looks at me with all that pent up longing. And then yesterday when he gave me the shirt off his back, well, who does that for someone they don’t care about?”
“Michelle, you don’t want to do this. You’re not a killer.”
“Normally I would agree with you, but I’m running out of time. The Black and White ball is coming up and I know Brand wants to take me. With you finally out of the way, we can have a good time. Can you imagine the look on Nora’s face when I show up to the ball with Brand on my arm? She’ll have a fit!”
“How do you plan to kill me?”
“Oh,” she looked at the syringe in her hands as if she had forgotten about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her attention back to the task at hand so soon. “Can you believe the molecular biology lab here has all three ingredients they use for lethal injections? I wasn’t even sure what they were until I looked it up online. See, I don’t want to hurt you, just kill you.”
“What are you going to do with my body?”
“Don’t you know where you are?” She asked taking a step closer to me.
“No.”
“We’re in the basement of the science building. They’ve already turned the furnace on since it’s been chilly the last few nights. I’m just going to incinerate your body. No one will ever think to look for your bones in there.”
“They’ll figure out it was you eventually, Michelle. Do you really think someone like Brand would want to be with a murderer?”
A savage look transfigured Michelle’s once innocent and shy face. “Shut your mouth! You don’t know him at all. He’ll be glad to be rid of someone like you. You may be pretty but he knows what’s really important.”
“And what makes you better than me?”
“Well, I’m smarter for one. What else does he need? We’ll connect on a completely different level than the two of you could possibly ever reach.”
She started to walk closer to me. I desperately tried to think of something else, anything else to keep her talking.
“Do you know what Brand’s favorite things are?”
She stopped. “Not yet. Why?”
“I just spent the whole day learning what they are for myself. Would you like to know a few of them?”
“Sharing information with the enemy?” She taunted.
“Well, it’s obvious you’re going to win. You might as well learn all you can about Brand while I’m still alive.”
She folded her arms over her chest, careful to make sure the syringe needle was pointing up.
“Go on.”
“Well, he loves to paint portraits. I posed for him yesterday. If you get a chance to do that, I’d highly recommend it.”
“Oh, I will. Go on.”
“He loves to cook. He’s made me the most wonderful meals I’ve ever had. He’s modest about that talent but it’s something you’ll appreciate. What’s your favorite thing to eat?”
“Quit stalling!”
“He loves football,” I said quickly, not wanting to earn anymore of her ire than I had to. “That’s why we were at the game yesterday. And his favorite color is black, like the shirt he gave you to wear.”
It was then I heard it, the faintest scraping of metal against cement.
“He loves to sail,” I said, hoping what I had heard was the door to the room opening. “He has a boat docked by his house.”
“Yes, I saw that,” a dreamy look came over Michelle’s eyes. “We’ll probably take a lot of trips together once you’re out of the picture. Maybe he’ll take me to the Mediterranean. I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“If he loves you as much as you think, he’ll do anything he can for you.”
Shadowy figures moved behind Michelle, I couldn’t make out how many but I was thankful to see them. I just had to keep her talking.
“His favorite movie is Casablanca. You know the one with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman?”
“Everyone knows that movie. What else?”
“He sleeps on the same mattress as the Queen of England.”
Michelle’s hands dropped to her sides.
“You slept with him?” The ominous tone in her voice made me instantly regret sharing that bit of information.
“We just slept, nothing else.”
“Sure. That’s what people like you always say.”
“What do you mean people like me?”
“Nora always tells the boys she goes out with that she’s a virgin too.”
“But I am a virgin.”
“Liar! Girls like you always lie! We’ll you won’t be lying anymore!”
Michelle took a step closer to me.
What happened next was a blur of motion. I saw Detective Randall and another police officer rush Michelle at the same time. Detective Randal wrestled the syringe out of her hand and the other officer soon had her in cuffs. She protested the whole time that she was doing the world a favor.
Brand came rushing up to me and started to tear at the ropes binding me to the chair.
“Brand!” I heard Michelle yell. “Brand, tell her you love me not her! Tell her! Let go of me!” She tried as hard as she could to wrench out of the custody of the officer dragging her out of the room. I could still hear her yelling for Brand even when I couldn’t see her anymore.
When I was finally free, Brand held me so tight I could barely breathe, but I didn’t care. I knew I was safe.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…” he
kept repeating like a litany.
Finally I said, “Stop saying that. This wasn’t your fault.”
I looked up into his face and saw his tears for the first time. His expression was one of guilt and pain.
“You can’t hold yourself responsible for a crazy person,” I told him. “She was delusional about you, Brand. It’s not your fault.”
“But it is. You just don’t understand.” He held me even tighter. Eventually, he slowly let me go. It was as if he were saying goodbye to me in that moment. I could feel him building a wall between us, but I wasn’t sure why or who it was supposed to protect.
Once Michelle was secured and on her way to the police station, Detective Randall asked me questions. I told him all I could but left out the part about seeing Will, both of them. When I looked around the room we were in, I didn’t see Will anywhere. Had I imagined him? He seemed so real to me and he knew help was coming. But where had he gone?
“I’ll need you to come down to the police station tomorrow to make an official statement,” Detective Randall said. “Maybe we’ll know more then about why she wanted to kill you.”
“Like I said, all she told me was that she wanted to get rid of me so she could be with Brand.” I felt the arm Brand had around my shoulders tense. His feelings of guilt over Michelle’s murderous behavior were understandable but totally uncalled for. How could he possibly think he was at fault for her insanity?
“It could be she’s just insane and gravitated towards you two. Seeing you happy together probably triggered something inside her mind and the only way she could be happy was to get you out of the way Ms. Nightingale. It’s not an uncommon occurrence. Jealousy is a powerful motivator to someone who is already mentally unstable.”
Detective Randall told me to call him at his private number before I came to the police station the next day so he could make sure he was there to take my statement personally. I thanked him, and Brand took me back to my apartment.
When we got there, Will and Tara came running outside. Tara launched herself into my arms crying. I hated the fact I had made Tara cry so much lately. I looked up at Will standing close behind her and noticed he had the same clothes on that he did in my hallucination in the basement. How was that possible? Or maybe I hadn’t imagined him being there.
Tara finally pulled herself together. “Girl, this is it. No more almost dieing you hear me? My heart just can’t take it.” She hugged me tighter not wanting to let me go. Finally, she went into her take care and protect mode.
We all went into the apartment. Tara sat with me on the futon, Will sat in the rocking chair across from us, and Brand stood leaning against the kitchen counter with a distant, detached look on his face.
I told Will and Tara what I had told the police about what I remembered. But, I had a few questions of my own.
“How did you find me?”
“Your phone.” These were the first words I’d heard Brand say since we left Detective Randall. “We used y our GPS signal in your phone. Once I found you missing from the house, I used my computer to see if you had your phone on you. After I narrowed down where you were, I called Detective Randall.”
I pulled the phone Tara had asked me to keep close by out of my back pocket and stared at it. Who would have thought such a simple device would be my saving grace?
“Once we knew where you were we just had to find where exactly she was keeping you,” Brand continued in a subdued tone as if reciting something memorized. “Luckily I saw her going down to the basement.”
“I saw something while I was down there.” I looked at Will. “I saw you Will. Twice.”
“I was here with Tara the whole time, Lilly. You must have been imagining things.”
“I saw you the way you looked that night when you pulled me out of the lake. Do you remember that night?”
Will looked startled by my statement. “Of course I remember that night. Who could forget something like that?”
“Then I saw you again, dressed just like you are now. You told me to hang on because help was coming, and you told me to keep her talking until they arrived.”
“That’s not possible, hon,” Tara said. Her tone told me she was afraid the experience had made me lose my mind. “Will was right here with me the whole time.”
I shook my head slowly. “No, I know what I saw.”
No one seemed to know what to say.
“Well, I don’t care if you saw Jimmy the Cricket down there,” Tara said. “I’m just glad your ok.” She held onto my hand tightly, not willing to let go.
“Will, I think we should leave and let Lilly rest,” Brand started to walk toward the door with Will following close behind.
I stood up. “Brand, you’re leaving?”
He wouldn’t even look at me, just held his hand on the door knob looking at it. “You need to rest Lilly. I’ll try to call you later.”
And he was out the door before I could make another attempt to protest.
What was wrong with him? Why was he acting so strangely? Why was he leaving me?
“Come on, hon. Let me make you a bubble bath to help you relax.”
Tara must have thought I was in shock after that. She had to undress me, bath me, put new clothes on me and tuck me into bed. But, I couldn’t sleep. I was in shock. What was wrong with Brand? Why wasn’t he with me when I needed him the most? Why did I get the feeling he was pulling away from me, leaving me forever?
A new energy coursed through my body. I had to find out what he was thinking. I slipped some sneakers on, grabbed my Mom’s car keys and ran out the door before Tara had a chance to ask me where I was going or try to stop me.
I reached Brand’s house in record time. When I walked into his home, I found him sitting in his living room staring out the windows towards the lake. No lights were on, no TV, just complete silence and darkness. The only light in the house was coming from the moonlight spilling through the glass windows on either side of the fireplace in the living room.
I went to stand in front of Brand. It seemed to take him a few seconds to pull himself out of wherever his thoughts had taken him and realize I was there.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said in a cold voice I didn’t recognize. “You need to stay away from me, Lilly.”
“Why are you saying that? What did I do?”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with his hands clasped in front of him. He stared at his hands, either unwilling or unable to look at me. “You haven’t done anything. It’s all my fault.”
I kneeled down in front of him. “No, it wasn’t your fault. She was just crazy is all.”
“You don’t understand, Lilly!” He stood up, frustration written all over his face. “And it’s not something I can explain to you. It was me. It’s because of what I am that she almost killed you!”
“Stop! Stop saying that!”
“It’s the truth,” he turned his back to me. “You need to leave.”
The utter lack of emotion in his voice scared me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What was he doing?
“Are you breaking up with me?” I couldn’t help the crack in my voice. This couldn’t be happening. He wouldn’t do this to me would he? After all the times he said he loved me?
“I can’t be around you any more. I thought things would be different with you, but I can’t ignore what I am. You need to leave.”
“No,” I said stubbornly. I wasn’t about to let the best thing in my life go so easily. “No, I’m not leaving.”
“Don’t you understand I don’t want to see you anymore!” He turned on me with a fierceness I’d never seen in him before. “I need you to leave! I don’t want you anymore Lilly. What part of that don’t you understand? Leave me alone!”
I ran out of his house with tears streaming down my face. I got into my mom’s car and raced down his driveway. By the time I hit the highway, I was blinded by pain and tears. My chest felt like it was about to implode from misery. I had to pull o
ver to the side of the road until I could stop crying long enough to see where I was going.
When I got back to the apartment, I collapsed into Tara’s arms. She didn’t ask me any questions just held me while my heart broke.
Chapter 12
After crying on Tara’s shoulder most of the night, I finally fell into an exhausted sleep on the futon. The next morning Tara made me eat a little breakfast before taking me to the police station so we could get that over with. I called Utha Mae and my mom and told them what had happened. They were going to come see me, but I asked them not to. The less stress I had in my life the better.
“You’re going to miss your classes,” I told Tara.
“Girl,” she looked at me with one hand on her hip like I was crazy. “Do you think I’m lettin’ you go there by yourself? No way. We’re playin’ hooky today. With what you’ve been through, you deserve to take a day off. Heck, we might just take the whole dang week off!”
I called Detective Randall before we left the house. He said he was already at the station and had some interesting news to tell us.
When we got to the station, Detective Randall escorted us to his office and took my official statement. After describing everything I could in as much detail as I could remember, he sat back in his seat behind his paper strewn desk and told Tara and me what he had discovered.
“It seems Michelle was behind everything that’s happened to you in the past few days. She confessed to running you off the road, turning on the gas in your apartment and also to sabotaging your car. Something about your alternator?”
“Yes, it went out on me the night before she made me crash into the ditch.” I remembered Brand asking me if I had recently had any work done because it looked like my car had been tampered with.
“What was her plan? I mean why tamper with the alternator?” I asked.
“Well, apparently she was waiting to follow you on the highway when you got back on it. She planned for you to breakdown there and need a ride. Then she would have had you and basically followed through with the same plans as yesterday.”
