Tethered

by Vaughn Ashby

  "First off what's wrong with hairy dudes? Second, this movie really holds up you guys should watch it again. Third, we should really go help my brother.”

  “Just read the damn book, Pratt, find out where he is.”

  "Oh right, I forgot. I already know."

  Travers and Shane both turned to look at him. "Where is he then?" Shane asked very slowly.

  "You Cunts are idiots," a voice came from Pratt's bag on the floor.

  Travers turned to look at Pratt in the most cinematic way possible. “What the fuck was that?" Travers asked Pratt already knowing the answer. "Did you keep the fucking head?"

  "He seemed like an ok dude I felt bad chopping him up with the rest of the body."

  "Can you ladies fill me in here?" Shane was confused but happy to almost be home.

  The voice in the bag laughed, "ha! He called you a lady."

  Travers leaned over his seat and smacked Pratt opened handed on the cheek. "Remember that thing from this morning? That thing we showed you we found last night? Not the woman but the other thing?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, Pratt here kept the head."

  "And thanks for that by the way." The bag said. "Any chance you could open this up it's a little stuffy in here."

  "Yeah you don't breathe," Pratt replied.

  "Good point, well played."

  "Anyways, where is Jason?" Shane said as he pulled the car into his driveway. He was happy to be home even if it was only going to be for a couple minutes.

  "I'll tell you but you have to let her come with us," Pratt pointed out the front window. Standing there looking upset was Kristen.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  2014 Jason & Jessica: We Traded Clothes

  Jason sat at the red light waiting, after a long chat with dispatch about how the woman with the red hair was able to just walk out of the police station he was frustrated and impatient. He tapped his fingers on the wheel and closed his eyes. Trying to picture where she would go. The fast food place was interesting. Why was she there anyway? Did she want something from that man?

  The car behind him honked, he opened his eyes and saw the light was green. He pressed the gas and the vehicle leached forward. There was no smooth start with his baby. She was all or nothing.

  So what did the man want? This wasn’t a fight over food. He’d really wanted to tell Shane about the weird way she could get people to do what she wanted. And it wasn’t just that she had a nice rack. They acted like she didn’t even exist. And that damn fucker sitting on that fry thing, he shivered thinking about it.

  So where was she? He grabbed his file next to him on the passenger seat. While driving he flipped for the page about the fry guy. No property owned, he lived with his mom. Plus, he was in the hospital, wait she put him in the hospital, did she want him there?

  A shitty parking job and a quick chat with the front desk and he was outside the man’s room. There were supposed to be officers stationed outside his door, and of course no one was there. Jason pulled his gun from his holster and slowly moved towards the room. The door was open, he stepped inside half expecting to be hit with something. Not many frying pans in hospitals so he figured it would be one of those air tanks people always got hit with on TV. Nothing came. He got all the way in and lowered his gun.

  The two officers who were assigned to watch the door were standing next to the bed. Jason looked at them, something seemed off. Their clothes didn’t seem to fit right.

  “We traded clothes,” the taller one said with a smile.

  “She said it would be fun, and it is,” the rounder one added.

  They both smiled at him, one guy was swimming in the uniform of the other while the other wore it like a speedo.

  “Where did she go?” Jason asked already backing out the door.

  “To get something from maintenance, I guess something is broken or something, hey do you want to trade clothes too?”

  Jason left the room and looked for a map, sign, or anything that could lead him to maintenance, “Not right now thanks, I’m going to maintenance.”

  “Just follow the yellow line on the floor,” the tall one yelled as Jason took off. He was too far away to reply but he did see a yellow line on the floor. He rounded a couple corners, then made his way down a long hallway. The hospital was looking crappier as he approached the maintenance area. Not a place where many patients go, so no money went here.

  The end of the hall had two big yellow doors, no windows, the yellow line disappeared into them. He took a deep breath and moved through them, around now he realized that he probably should have come up with a better idea then just barging through the doors, but it was too late for that.

  The maintenance area was actually lit brighter than the rest of the hospital, he’d expected it to be a shit hole, but it actually reminded him more of a morgue then anything else. He pasted a couple work benches and came upon a large loading dock. The woman with the red hair was standing there watching the fry guy load stuff into a trailer.

  “Put your hands up slowly both of you,” Jason said, gun out now.

  The woman didn’t move, “Detective?”

  The fry man stood in the trailer with his arms raised. `

  “I’m not sure what to do with you,” Jason grabbed one of her arms and slapped a handcuff on it. “If I take you back to the station you’ll just walk back out.” He gestured for her to put the other one on her other arm, she did. “I could shoot you but that is so much paperwork it’s ridiculous, plus I’d have to do something with Fry Butt here too.”

  She smiled at him, “Well what are you to do, not great options for you.”

  “What are you doing here anyway? Stealing from the hospital? That’s what this is all about, making some money peddling hospital crap?”

  “No, that’s not what this is about,” she sounded insulted. “We aren’t stealing; they were going to get rid of it.”

  “So you’re just helping them lower their garbage fees? How nice of you.”

  “Watch your tone, Detective.”

  “Or what you’ll make me do something like you did him.” Jason motioned towards the fry guy in the trailer. He noticed his butt looked huge, probably some kind of medical padding for idiots who sit on things they shouldn’t.

  “Come with me.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll tell you everything, come with me.” She said and smiled at him. “There is no paperwork involved and I’ll tell you what’s in the trailer.”

  Shane lowered his gun and pulled his phone to send a message. He wasn’t sure if he was under her mind control or whatever it was. Maybe she was just interested in him and for a man who recently stopped a giant spider thing from crashing through a portal in some guy’s basement that was saying something.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  2014 Shane: Pornographic Memory

  Shane was surprised at how easy it was to convince Kristen to come. Halfway through the conversation, he was sure that she was the one convincing him. Maybe she did just want to know more about him, and maybe she really did just want to be around him more. Even if all that was the case the car ride to Barrhead was painfully quiet, mixed with the confusing conversation on why and what they were actually doing. The only interesting event had been a stupid guy flashing his high beams at them, nothing to write home about.

  On their way, they dropped Anna off at Gemma's house. She was asleep before they got there.

  Oh, you remember Barrhead right? The town Moe lived in, it's back a couple chapters. Small town everyone knows each other. Anyways…

  Once they were all in the car, Pratt spilled the beans about where they were going. But he didn't say why. He claimed to not have read that far and to be fair Shane was surprised he'd read as much as he did with the small amounts of time that he had the book.

  They pulled into the parking lot of Moe's Trailers, or at least what used to be Moe's Trailers. The place looked like it hadn't been used in decades.

  Shane stumbl
ed out of the car and felt like if he had sunglasses on, now would be the appropriate cinematic time to take them off. But he didn't have any and it was midnight so he just stared at the building in surprise. "Pratt buddy are you sure this is the place?"

  Pratt pointed up at the sign, "It looks just like the book described it. Do you think this town has more than one Moe's trailers? I never thought to check."

  "No, I mean are you sure you are remembering it correctly."

  "Oh yes, I have a pornographic memory."

  "Pornographic memory?"

  "Yeah, that one too."

  Kristen stretched her back. "I didn't know that about you, Pratt."

  "There a good chance that isn't true," Shane added.

  "No it's true, my mom said so."

  "Fair enough," Travers said approaching the building. "I'm not going to argue with your mom."

  They all followed Shane to the shop. The building was in a state of decay that was embarrassing to other buildings in other states of decay. Both large garage doors were broken and slumped off their tracks. The storefront glass was broken and the inside was looted for anything valuable a long time ago.

  “So, why are we here buddy?” Travers asked again.

  “I don’t know, the book just mentioned that we were here.”

  “Oh ok, makes sense then.”

  They wandered around the shop and garage but found nothing other than gross spider webs.

  Kristen followed Shane into the garage area. It was darker then the shop had been. Hot thick dust moved through the air. The garage was mostly windowless with the exception of a small window in the door leading outside. Shane slowly made his way around the room, everything seemed to be covered in dust or dirt. Nothing here had been touched in a long time.

  "So, this is what you do?" Kristen asked as she peeked out the small window to the car.

  "Kind of, it's not always like this. The missing Jason is new."

  "But the weird mystery stuff."

  "Yeah, pretty much," Shane pressed against one of the large garage doors, it didn't move.

  "Why do you never tell me about any of it?"

  "You never seemed interested before."

  "In this?" She gestured to the room.

  "No in me." Shane's phone rang, he pulled it from his pocket. It was his boss Bill, he answered and mouthed “sorry” to Kristen. She wasn't upset about it. Talking about this was hard for her.

  "Hey, Bill you know it's the middle of the night right?"

  "Your friend Pratt filled me in on what you were doing and I found something that might help."

  "What did he tell you? No wait I don't want to know. What did you find Bill?"

  There was a pause and Shane could here some mouse clicking through the phone.

  "Ok so the guy who last owned the garage, his name was Moe."

  "Ok," Shane wasn't sure how this helped him. He still wasn’t really sure why they were there.

  "He disappeared over 20 years ago."

  "Ok," Shane sounded slightly more interested now.

  "I'll send you what I found, there is some weird mojo here. He disappeared days after a break in. Plus, he was part of this strange town folklore."

  "Ok," Shane was hooked. He pulled his phone from his ear to see if the email had come through yet. "Was this already on the site?"

  "You’re right it was." There was an awkward nervous pause on the phone, “Would you keep me in the loop?" Bill asked like a nervous schoolboy asking a girl to dance.

  "Always, Bill. Thanks..." Shane trailed off, there was red and blue light flashing through the small door’s window.

  Kristen ran over and peeked through the window. "It's the cops. Does this happen a lot?"

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  1982 Moe: He Only Gargled Blood

  Having listened to Joshy’s story and then having relayed it to Nicole, the three of us took off the next day in Joshy’s police cruiser. The drive was long and he made a few wrong turns on the way, but thanks to the sandwiches, and cookies Earla had packed for us we were having a good time. Joshy seemed reluctant about having Nicole with us. But once she started asking him questions about being a cop, he warmed up to her. Eventually, he started asking her questions about the man in the car. Turns out she knew more about it then he did.

  We pulled into the field a good hour or so before we expected the Taurus to show up. We got out of the car and walked towards the spot Joshy said the car disappeared. The wheat in the field swayed around us as we walked.

  Joshy stopped and so did the tire tracks. He seemed reluctant to move any farther. I told Nicole to stay with him and I slowly ventured forward without them. I stuck my hand out in front of me, expecting it to disappear or ripple into somewhere else. Nothing happened. I got a good 20 or so steps past where the tire tracks ended and turned around. I shrugged at both of them.

  We returned to the car and figured a police car sitting out here in the wheat was a give away that someone was here waiting. So, Joshy drove it down the road the opposite way he said the Taurus was going to come from. He jogged back and was very winded when he got to us. We laid down in the wheat not far from the vanishing spot but far enough away that we wouldn’t be run over if he deviated from the path Joshy said he would take.

  We munched on the last of the sandwiches and waited.

  The sun was already mostly down when the car pulled into the field. Both Nicole and Joshy had drifted off to sleep waiting, but I woke both of them.

  The headlights of the car cut through the wheat and we poked our heads up to watch. The car with its trailer connected by one of my trailer hitches drove across the fields. I’m not sure what I was expecting, flaming tire tracks, or flash of light brighter than a lighting bolt. Neither of those happened. It did just as Joshy said it had the night before. It just disappeared, nothing flashy about it. It was there and then not there.

  I got to my feet and ran towards the spot. There was nothing. I was both enthralled and let down.

  Then I started to feel it. It felt like pressure, pressure everywhere. The fillings in my teeth started to hurt. I was glad at that point that I’d made Nicole brush her teeth so religiously every night, she had no fillings. Joshy looked at me, his eye contact said exactly what I was feeling. It got worse and I felt like my teeth were going to explode in my mouth. The pain became terrible and I started thinking of things Joshy might have in his car to pull my teeth out.

  Nicole watched both of us. She said nothing but looked uneasy, she was still young and didn’t know how to help, she was frozen in thought.

  Then Joshy’s chest exploded. Both Nicole and I were covered in red. There was a quick flash of light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I closed my eyes and grabbed Nicole pulling her tight.

  The pressure stopped, the pain was gone and the light disappeared. I could feel Nicole hugging me just as tightly as I was hugging her. I slowly opened my eyes.

  We were in a forest surrounded by lots of thick trees and an old looking hunting cottage. How had we gotten here?

  Joshy coughed and blood ran from his mouth and chest. Pulling Nicole along I went to him. I wouldn’t normally have liked her to be so close to death like this, but based on what had just happened, I wasn’t going to let her go, you see.

  Joshy looked at me with large eyes. He knew what was happening and what was going to happen. He tried to talk but he only gargled blood and coughed again. I put my hands on his chest trying to stop the bleeding. What had happened to him? It happened so fast someone must have shot him, maybe a hunter, or maybe the man in the car? I hadn’t heard any guy shots, Joshy hadn’t even yelled. He just popped.

  I looked at Nicole she was holding onto my shirt. Both she and the shirt were covered in Joshy’s blood. I looked back at Joshy who stared up at the sky blankly. His chest, or at least what was left of it, wasn’t moving. I ran my hand over his eyes and closed them. I’m not sure why I did that, I’d seen it in movies and figured it was right.

&nbs
p; I wiped my hands on my shirt and hugged Nicole again. She was shaking.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  2014 Jason & Jessica: Wait What Did You Do?

  The car whined as they turned off the main highway and onto what looked like what used to be a crappy road. Grass grew down the middle acting as a center line. The sun was just starting to set and its long rays where making it harder to see anything in that direction.

  Jason pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. He glanced over at the woman who had convinced him to come. He still wasn't sure if he was under mind control or maybe he was just into her a little, either way, he was there and didn't know where there was.

  "So," he said, trying to break the silence. "When do you think you'll actually tell me where we are going and what we are doing?"

  She said nothing, she just kept driving, ignoring him.

  "I'm sure what's his name from the fry place is happy you let him you know not come on this amazing adventure. So, he was supposed to get you something right?" He was fishing for answers. "The thing from the hospital was that what he was supposed to get you?" He took her silence for yes. "What was that thing? Why did we only take part of it?"

  Again she said nothing.

  "How can you make people do things? You know that mind control shit? Is that what you call it?”

  She grunted and sighed at the same time. "You talk so much, just be…” She brought her hand up and closed two fingers together. “Quiet, silence, shut up whatever works."

  "That's it, pull over, and let me out. Why the fuck did you bring me here?”

  “Fine,” she grabbed his arm and sighed again. “The thing in the back is part of an MRI machine. It basically works by using really powerful magnets. That's what “fry butt” as you call him was supposed to get me. We need the machine to get back to the house. I don’t think I’m always able to make people do what I want. It's a skill I picked up one day. I don't know why I can't control you, though, you are a mystery, and I like that. Better? Can you shut up now?"