The Awakening

by Ryan Sova

  A light came and shined down directly on top of her. She rolled over and looked up at John who was now standing over her, his flashlight pointing down directly on top of her, a gun still in his right hand. She could hear more footsteps coming in the distance. “John, please don’t hurt me! I love you John!” Rachel was now crying hysterically.

  Mr. Callahan arrived just moments after John did. “Rachel, I need to know what you know, what you have been telling police and who you have been talking to. And you’re going to tell me, won’t you Rachel?” A thin smile parted on Mr. Callahan’s face.

  If I just tell them everything they will let me live, Rachel thought to herself in desperation. John is still my brother. If I just cooperate he will sort this all out for me.

  “H - He,” she shuddered slightly.

  “I found financial records tying Eric Bourgastine to an organization that ran out of Columbia. I thought he acted alone, that he would bring this company into something illegal, so I told my supervisor Catlin. She said that she would take care of it but nothing ever happened so I made an appointment with Detective Grant and told him everything that I know.”

  “Why did you talk to a detective? Why not the FEDS?” Mr. Callahan asked, slightly puzzled.

  “Because I know him, we grew up together me and him. He set up a meeting for me and him to talk to the FBI for this coming Tuesday. I swear I won’t say anything now. I’ll tell them that I made it all up, please, you have to believe me.”

  Mr. Callahan turned to John and asked, “Do you believe her?”

  John replied, “Yes.”

  “Good,” Mr. Callahan said without one bit of emotion. There was a slight pause. “Kill her.”

  “NO JOHN, PLEASE, YOU CANT!”

  ****

  Garry Henderson screamed. Sweat was pouring down his face, his breaths were coming in gasps and his heart was pounding out of his chest. He tried to stand up. His head felt like it was going to split open and shooting pain came out of his left leg. Garry sat back down, his head and leg in agony. “God,” he said through the haze of pain.

  He cupped his hands together over his head in an attempt to keep his head from exploding and stood back up on his feet. His leg still moved. Unlike Rachel’s, this pain was all in Garry’s head. He stumbled and veered into a wall to keep himself from falling. His head was still swimming from the alcohol. The fact that a bullet had just pierced through his skull didn’t help matters either. “God!” Garry swore. “Where’s the damn Tylenol?!”

  Garry had one hand still holding his head and the other was slamming through his apartment shelves and cupboards, trying desperately to find a relief to his agony. The first time Garry ever had a murder vision, he dreamed of a stabbing victim. After he woke up he went to his bathroom, stripped and examined himself for stab wounds. By now Garry realized that the pain would eventually go away, but two to three hours can be an awful long time when you are in agony. Garry finally found the source of his relief. He didn’t even wait to pour himself a glass, he just chewed and swallowed.

  After making his way to his bed, Garry laid down. The next two hours would be spent moaning and groaning. Tylenol helped a little with the pain, but not much. Garry would take what he could get though in times like these and Tylenol, it seemed, helped more than anything else on the market. He looked over at his cell phone still sitting on the nightstand where he had left it. He would call Detective Grant and tell him about what he had learned, but not yet. Right now he saw no reason to leave this bed. After the pain goes away, then I’ll call, Garry said to himself.

  CHAPTER 2

  “How well did you know Rachel?” Garry asked over the phone.

  “I can see that you have some information now,” Detective Grant commented.

  “I could only put off sleep for so long, no matter how much I may have wanted to,” Garry said.

  “I know, it must be very hard for you,” Detective Grant added sympathetically. “I want you to know that we all appreciate the work that you do for us.”

  “Thanks, I really appreciate that,” Garry said, hiding a hint of resentment.

  These guys get all the glory in solving these cases while I get to be brutalized and murdered, over and over. It started off over ten years ago when Garry started having visions of a stabbing victim in the local area. The pictures from the paper and news coverage were what started him on his vision quest. They were much more cryptic then, only fragments, bits and pieces of what happened and the visions kept on coming again and again. By helping the police department, he was in a way helping the victims’ families, the police department and himself. Seeing detailed case files on every murder and violent crime made the visions come in much more clearly and he would get it all at once. No more being haunted by the same dream over and over. He would go through hell once and then be done with it. As time went on he gained some fame and renown in the police world. Cases were brought to him from other police departments ranging from further and further away. At least I don’t have to be afraid to open a newspaper or turn on the TV anymore, Garry would often tell himself. Garry was usually informed of all violent crimes that occurred well in advance of the media finding out.

  Garry proceeded to relay the entire story from beginning to end of all the events leading up to Rachel’s death. Detective Grant remained wordless throughout the entire story.

  “She was family,” Detective Grant said after a slight pause. “She and her brother are my cousins. Their parents’ names are Amy and Mike Stone. We all grew up together in the same neighborhood.” Detective Grant paused again, “I can’t believe John would do this, they were always so close.” Detective Grant started breathing heavily over the phone. Garry realized that he was crying.

  “So what happens now?” Garry asked.

  “Now, I have to find a way to prove what you just told me. This case still has a long way to go before it is finally solved but you at least pointed us in the right direction.”

  “Well, let me know if I can be any more help,” Garry said.

  “I will. There will be an officer by later today to pick up the case evidence, thanks again. Goodbye.”

  After the phone hung up Garry knew better than to expect another call about this case. They didn’t need him anymore, he had already given the police every piece of information he was ever going to get from his dreams. He wasn’t going to be contacted again by his friends from the police department until the next crime came along that they needed his help to solve and Garry was in no hurry for that to happen.

  The next three weeks for Garry were pretty normal. Work continued as usual. Garry heard nothing of any violent crimes. His life actually became pretty boring for a change. Garry liked boring. He longed for boring. He lived for boring. For Garry boring meant not getting shot, stabbed, beaten, burned, frozen, drowned, raped, tortured, electrocuted, crushed or dropped. For these short periods of his life, he would learn what it was to actually have a normal life for a change. This dream of a normal life never lasted very long, though, so Garry would treasure it while it lasted.

  After Garry’s three weeks of bliss, something unusual happened. A strange man checked out his groceries at Garry’s register. The only reason Garry paid any attention to this man was the feeling that came when this man approached. A chill went down Garry’s spine as the man approached. A feeling of complete horror came over Garry as he checked out this man’s groceries. Garry did his best not to let any of this show and carried out his job without hesitation. When the man was ready to pay, Garry finally worked up the nerve to look up at him. He looked normal, mid-thirties, a medium build, possibly a little athletic, blue eyes, brown hair, normal clothes and what seemed to be a friendly demeanor. Garry could not understand what was so frightening about him. As the man walked away the feeling of horror subsided and then disappeared.

  Long after the strange man left, Garry was still going over this encounter over and over in his head. Am I going to have a dream about him, Garry wondered? Garry con
tinued thinking about this for the rest of his shift and by the time he made it back to his apartment, he was convinced that he was going to have a dream and in that dream, this man was going to do something horrible to him. Garry could not get any sleep that night. The next day, he spent the entire day thinking about this man again. Garry realized that he had never had a premonition like this before. He had never had strange feelings about anyone before, just dreams. The sheer horror that he felt about this man was something that he had also never experienced before. In the time that Garry had between customers, he wondered, what did this man do? Garry was afraid that he was going to get the answer to this question soon enough.

  Another night of sleeplessness came to Garry. He stayed in bed that whole night going over this strange encounter over and over in his head. He had never met someone who gave him the chills like that before, no not even in his dreams. The fear of what his dreams would show him about this man kept Garry up.

  The next day of work was painful. It was followed by another night of sleeplessness. The only thing that got Garry through the following day of work was the knowledge that this was Garry’s last day of work before his weekend. Garry knew that tonight he was going to have to face whatever horror there was about this man because he knew that he was not going to be able to stay up for another night.

  Garry somehow made it back to his apartment. He fought the urge to find somewhere, anywhere to lay down and crash. Garry found his pain medicine and a glass of water. He was not going to go through the trouble of finding these pills again just after being murdered. He didn’t even bother with alcohol tonight, it was taking every bit of effort he had just to keep his eyes open. Garry laid down on his bed and was immediately carried away to sleep.

  Garry woke up and noticed that it was daylight outside. After retrieving his phone that was still in his pocket he found that it was already 8:00 AM Saturday morning, over twelve hours after Garry laid down. Garry looked over at his nightstand and noticed the pills and glass of water that he had left out for himself the previous night. Nothing happened, Garry realized. There was no dream!

  Garry spent the rest of his weekend confused yet relieved that he didn’t have any dreams about this man. He questioned himself frequently as to why he had such strange feelings about someone. This man clearly didn’t do anything. If he did I would surely know about it by now, Garry told himself. As puzzled as Garry was, he was still grateful. Not being murdered is always a plus.

  The following week started off pretty normal. Garry started putting the events surrounding this strange man behind him. Then a chill went down his spine again. Garry looked up and saw this same man from the previous week waiting in line for his register. It took every bit of nerve not to find some excuse, any excuse to leave his register. Garry half expected to be brutally murdered while standing there at his register. Garry fought through this fear and tried to act normal.

  As people went through, the strange man came closer and closer to him in the line of customers. The closer this man got to Garry the more the feeling of horror intensified. There were many people in line, a very busy time of day for the store. Garry looked on with amazement, an old lady with her husband were standing behind this man carrying on a conversation between themselves, not even paying this man the slightest bit of attention. A mother and father with three young girls were in front of him, the girls were playing and talking to this man, the father also was engaged in this conversation. No one but Garry seemed to have the slightest clue that there was something dead wrong with this man.

  By the time the man reached Garry and it was time to scan his groceries, complete horror had overcome Garry. Garry fought through it and after what seemed like an eternity, his business with this man was finished. As the man walked away, the feeling of horror gradually subsided and eventually disappeared just as it had the previous week.

  Garry spent the rest of his shift going over this strange man again in his mind. He wasn’t going to lose any sleep over him this time at least. But Garry couldn’t wrap his head around what was happening. Am I finally going senile, Garry started to wonder? There was no logical reason to be petrified about one casual person. The more Garry thought about these two strange encounters, the more puzzled he became.

  The rest of the month passed by fairly peacefully. The strange man made a few more appearances in Garry’s store, but other than that, nothing unusual happened. Garry relayed his story to Detective Grant hoping that the police department might start an investigation on this man or set up surveillance on him. Detective Grant’s answer was disappointing yet expected, “We can’t start an investigation on someone based only on a feeling, if you can give me some details about what this guy did, I will look into it for you but until you give me something to work with, I can’t help you.”

  Garry knew that he was not going to get any of those details anytime soon so all he could do for now was wonder. It had now been almost two months since the Rachel case and more than a month since Garry’s first experience with the strange man from the grocery store. Garry was coming home from work when his phone rang. He didn’t answer it because he was still driving but he did look and see who was calling him. It was Detective Grant’s phone number. “Oh well, it was fun while it lasted,” Garry said softly to himself. A phone call from Detective Grant could only mean one thing.

  Upon returning to his apartment Garry called Detective Grant back. “Garry, I am going to need you to come to the station,” Detective Grant said urgently over the phone.

  “Am I in some kind of trouble?” Garry asked.

  Garry rarely ever came to the police station to offer his services. For legal reasons it had always been best that no one ever saw or knew about the kind of help Garry was offering to police. The evidence was always brought to him at his apartment and had been that way from the beginning.

  “No, you’re not in any trouble. Do you remember that strange man that you were telling me about, the one from your store that you wanted me to start an investigation on?”

  “Yes,” Garry replied, his curiosity now growing.

  “I am not going to go into any of the details over the phone, but we have him and his wife here. I would like you to accompany me when I interrogate them and see if you can make any sense of all this.”

  After hanging up the phone, a sort of terror overcame Garry. Not the same terror that followed this strange man upon meeting him in person, this terror was an anxious sort of dread. Garry wanted an answer to all this and at the same time was terrified to find out what that answer might be.

  The drive to the police station was unusually long. Garry’s heart was beating out of his chest. Garry had not felt this nervous since his last dream. This was different though because it was real. He was not going to wake up and find himself lying in his bed this time. Whatever was going on was going to happen while he was awake and there would be no escaping from it.

  When Garry arrived at the police station, he was greeted at the door by Detective Grant. “Good, you’re here. Come this way.”

  As Garry was led into the police station, that same eerie chill crept back down his spine. It felt as if it was emanating from one of the rooms. Garry knew where he was heading. His feelings guided him, the same as a foul odor would guide a man to a rotting corpse.

  Detective Grant stopped just short of where Garry knew they should be heading. He opened a door, turned on the light and walked in. Garry followed. He realized immediately where Detective Grant was taking him. This was an observation room. There was a two-way mirror that covered most of the wall where Garry could see this man and his wife but they could not see him. The man looked about the same as he had all the other times Garry had seen him. He wore a plain brown tee-shirt. Garry could not see his pants or shoes as the table was obstructing his view. The man was seated at a long table in the room, facing Garry. Sitting next to this man was what Garry assumed was his wife. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, long brown hair, and had a slim, petite figu
re. She wore a blue flowered dress.

  “What is going on?” Garry asked now that they were alone.

  “I would have thought that this was some kind of sick joke but for the warning that you gave me,” Detective Grant replied. “Dalen Strong is this man’s name. This morning a woman called 911 and reported that a man was trying to kill her with a kitchen knife.”

  Not another stabbing, Garry thought to himself. Of all the ways to die stabbing was the worst. Detective Grant continued, “The recording goes on for several minutes of her screaming and pleading for Dalen to stop. At the end of the recording, the woman is gurgling on what sounds to be her own blood and gasping for air.”

  “So she knew her attacker. She called Dalen by name. Who is the victim?” Garry asked.

  “Dalen is sitting next to her right now.”

  Garry’s eyes darted back to the woman sitting next to Dalen. He examined her through the glass. There didn’t seem to be a single mark on her. She certainly did not look like someone who had just gone through a horrific attack. And why was she sitting next to her would be killer?