Beth's Eyes

by A J Estelliam

  ‘No, no! Why are you up?’ she questioned, frowning deeply. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  ‘Please, Anderson! Get me some clothes! I need to go and help.’

  Anderson took me by the arms and held me steadfast in front of her. ‘Stop, Beth. Calm down and look at me. What’s going on? Why are you suddenly so frantic?’

  ‘The news,’ I managed, breathing erratically. ‘The woman on the news…’

  ‘What about the news?’ she questioned, staring up at the television.

  ‘The vision I saw yesterday! She’s been taken! I was right!’ I rambled.

  ‘Slow down, slow down.’

  I looked up as the news rolled around again. ‘Look, Anderson!’ I said, feeling absolutely frantic.

  Anderson turned and watched the news broadcast and I shook my head to myself yet again as I saw the very woman I had seen in my vision displayed smiling in the photograph. She would be dead already, I thought to myself. They didn’t know, and it was my job to tell them.

  ‘This is the woman you dreamed of?’ she asked me when the news reader finished talking.

  ‘It wasn’t a dream, Anderson! It was real! It was a vision. I watched him as he decided to take her, Anderson! We have to go right now.’

  ‘Go? Where?’ she exclaimed, spreading her arms wide.

  ‘To the police! Please, Anderson! I’m thinking clearly! Let me go and help…I want this man to pay what he did to me. I want him stopped.’

  She looked at me for a long moment. ‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ she said slowly, ‘but I’ll come with you to the police.’ she told me. ‘I don’t want you going alone. Especially when you should still be having medical assistance.’

  I rolled my eyes and headed for the door. ‘Can you get me some clothes on the way?’ I asked her.

  ‘Fine,’ she grumbled, reluctantly.

  Anderson and I headed out of the hospital together. She led me to her car which was in the multi-story parking area towards the back of the hospital. When we reached the car, she opened the boot and pulled out a bag.

  ‘Here…I always keep a change of clothes with me-just in case of emergency. I expect they’ll be too big for you as I’m much taller than you but it will do for now.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I replied, accepting the bag gratefully. In the plastic bag was a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a jumper. I pulled on the jeans and because of their length, had to roll them up at the bottom. I then climbed into the back of the car and as in as subtle way as possible, changed into the t-shirt and pulled the jumper over the top. I had no bra and no socks and shoes but it was much better than nothing.

  ‘I’ve found some wellies in the boot,’ Anderson called, ‘but that’s it!’

  ‘Oh perfect! Yes, please,’ I replied, calling back.

  ‘Okay.’

  Several minutes later, I was dressed and ready and we both got in the front of the car to head to the police station. Nerves slipped through my system as the prospect of what we were about to do hit me.

  ‘How are you feeling now?’ Anderson asked as she drove out of the car park.

  ‘I’m nervous about what to say to the police,’ I told her.

  ‘Oh I didn’t mean that, actually. I meant physically.’

  ‘I see…I’m fine,’ I told her distractedly.

  ‘The medication is still working then,’ she commented. ‘You know the pain will return when it wears off?’

  I glanced at her. ‘Hopefully we can be back at the hospital by then…’

  ‘Yeah,’ she replied, thoughtfully. ‘I should have just called the police to come to you!’

  ‘No, too long,’ I muttered. ‘I need to get to them as quickly as possible.’

  ‘You think you can help save her?’ she asked, glancing across at me.

  ‘No, not at all. She’s already dead,’ I told her, glumly.

  ‘Dead?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Oh yes,’ I said, fighting against the vision of her dead, mangled body.

  ‘Then why the massive hurry?’ she questioned.

  ‘To prevent him any further. The sooner they know what I know, the sooner it is that we can stop him.’

  ‘Okay,’ she agreed. ‘We’re almost there already,’ she told me.

  ‘Right,’ I said, swallowing hard. I could feel the tension in me rising and the physical pain I had been experiencing was most definitely returning. Breathing raggedly, I tried to quell the lack of calm inside me.

  Five minutes later, we pulled into the police station. Climbing out of the car, I felt slightly ridiculous in my ill-fitting clothes and wellies. Turning to Anderson, I felt my cheeks burn.

  ‘I look ridiculous, right?’

  She smiled at me fondly, ‘You look adorable,’ she told me, her eyes intense on mine.

  I felt myself swallow involuntarily. ‘Thanks…but I don’t think so…’

  She just smiled. ‘Come on. Let’s go.’

  Anderson led me into the reception of the police station and we explained why we were there. Told to sit and wait, the receptionist went to find the officer in charge.

  ‘I feel ridiculous,’ I murmured, shifting in my seat.

  ‘Don’t be silly. He won’t care what you’re wearing,’ Anderson commented.

  ‘Not about that, Anderson!’ I said, rolling my eyes in her direction. ‘I mean how do I tell this police man that I had a vision? Suddenly it sounds insane to my own ears!’ I complained.

  ‘Well, I can’t help you there…but if you believe you can tell him something that helps…’ she murmured and then trailed off.

  Anderson stared at me for a long moment.

  ‘They’ll think I’ve gone mad…’

  ‘Excuse me?’ a voice spoke.

  I looked up and saw a woman standing there, her face serious with concentration.

  ‘Beth Ellison?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, that’s me,’ I said, standing.

  ‘I’m Detective Jess Love. Please come with me.’

  I swallowed hard and followed her down the corridor. Anderson was behind me and I was glad I was not alone.

  I was shown into an interview room where the tall, hard-looking woman sat and stared at me. ‘I’ve heard you have information about the woman on the news.’

  I nodded, swallowing. I couldn’t seem to find my voice.

  ‘Can you tell me what you know?’ she asked.

  ‘I uh…do you know who I am?’ I questioned.

  ‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘You’re Beth Ellison,’ she said, looking down at her notes in front of her. ‘You were attacked and left for dead in the forest by a perpetrator unknown. You were initially thought to be dead but survived your ordeal and have been in hospital ever since. Do you have information on who did this to you?’

  ‘No, not exactly…’ I murmured.

  ‘So, what?’

  ‘I think the woman on the news has been taken by the same man that took me,’ I told her.

  She looked at me intently, her unique eyes quizzical.

  ‘I sort of…well, I had a kind of…some sort of…feeling,’ I decided, ‘that it was him that took her. I think she may be dead.’

  Detective Jess Love looked at me long and hard.

  ‘I think I had a vision or foresight of what happened to Roxy,’ I said and paused, waiting for the intense criticism or disbelief that would follow. ‘You must think I’m mad,’ I muttered, shaking my head. I lowered my gaze for a moment and then looked back up, curious as to why she had gone so quiet.

  ‘Tell me what you saw,’ she said next, leaning forwards and crossing her arms in front of her.

  ‘You’re not going to tell me I’m mad? A fruitcake? Positively loopy?’ I asked her.

  She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. I’m open to hear what you have to say.’

  ‘Right…’ I replied, rubbing my temples. My head was throbbing now and I could feel the pain in my body getting worse by the minute.

  ‘So, you know something about Roxy-the w
oman who is missing?’ Detective Love asked.

  I nodded, feeling hotter and hotter. My body felt sticky as I touched a hand to my head and a dizziness overcame me as I swayed violently.

  ‘Oh, Beth!’ Anderson exclaimed, coming to my side as I lost the fight with staying conscious. I dropped in a dead faint, pain overwhelming me.

  Sometime later, I awoke sensing movement. I blinked rapidly and realised I was in a moving vehicle.

  ‘What…?’ I muttered, struggling to sit up.

  ‘Just lie down and relax, Beth,’ Anderson instructed me, from the front of the car.

  I looked around in the darkness and sat up, despite her words. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘You collapsed at the police station. You were in no state to leave the hospital in the first place, Beth. I’m taking you back.’

  Terror rushed through my veins, ice-cold. ‘No.’

  ‘No? Try yes! I’m the doctor here!’

  ‘Yes, but you have to have my consent, surely?’ I protested. ‘Stop the car! I’ll get out!’

  ‘You’ll do nothing of the sort!’ she exclaimed, lifting her hand in protest.

  ‘Anderson, please!’

  ‘Please, what? Beth, you’re in need of medical attention! You must go back.’

  I stared at her in the darkness as her frown in the mirror caught my attention. ‘I’m not going.’

  ‘You are!’ she objected.

  ‘Is my condition life-threatening?’ I questioned.

  She stared at me momentarily in the mirror.

  ‘Exactly. It can’t get much worse than death and I’ve been there. I have to go and do this, Anderson…’

  ‘Do what?’ she exclaimed, alarmed and concerned.

  ‘I’ve got to hunt down my killer,’ I told her, my voice low and determined.

  Anderson slowed the car and pulled over on the side of a forest road. The persistent rain hammered against the windows of the car and an eerie feeling swept through me.

  ‘Beth; you’ve been through a lot,’ Anderson began.

  ‘Don’t start with the whole-you’ve been through a lot, you died and now you’re not right in the head…I know all of that! I know I sound like I’m one sultana short of a fruitcake but I’m not. I need to do this, Anderson.’

  ‘I can’t agree with you there, Beth…’

  I sighed, sitting back against the seat behind me. ‘Maybe you don’t have to…’

  ‘I’m not letting you run off into the wilderness in search of a crazed killer, Beth! He’s dangerous! You didn’t die last time, but who’s to say you wouldn’t this time-especially if he knows you’re on his trail.’

  ‘He doesn’t though…I’m a ghost to him, Anderson. That’s what makes it so perfect! He thinks I’m dead. I’m the one person who can find and stop him.’

  ‘If you believe that, you take it to the police,’ she said, instructing me on what I should do.

  ‘I can’t do that, Anderson.’

  ‘Why?’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Because…because…oh, it’s too hard to explain,’ I told her, resting back against the seat. ‘Just drop me off at the nearest town, please.’

  ‘Absolutely no, frigging way!’

  ‘Anderson!’

  ‘I’m taking you to the hospital! Beth, I have no other choice! It’s a matter of being my duty of care!’

  I thought for a moment. I understood her predicament-she was a doctor and helping me to be medically well was clearly the most important thing in her mind. ‘Well, in that case, I know what I have to do.’

  ‘And what’s that?’ she asked, turning to face me in the back seat.

  ‘I’m sorry, Anderson, but I’m going to have to take you hostage.’

  Chapter 5

  Anderson stared at me for long moments before throwing her head back and laughing hysterically. When her laughter subsided, she looked at me, amazed. ‘You seem to be missing a gun or a weapon with which to subdue me,’ she chuckled.

  ‘Well, yeah…I mean, obviously I don’t have a gun or anything. I’m not threatening you in any way, shape or form,’ I told her.

  ‘Then why did you say you were going to take me hostage then?’

  ‘Because it takes away the responsibility you feel to get me to medical help. It also means you have to do what I want to do-you have no choice.’

  ‘And without arms, why on earth would I agree to this?’ she asked, her bright-blue eyes wide in the moonlight.

  I held her intense gaze for a moment before answering. ‘I think you’ll help me because we have a connection, Anderson. Whether you want to deny it or not, I’ve felt an inexplicable connection to you ever since we met. I know you feel it too…’

  Anderson’s gaze was unwavering; and emotion filled her visage.

  ‘I think you’d want to help me; and you know you can keep an eye on me medically if you’re by my side. Help me, Anderson. I promise to back you up once this is over-I’m just asking for you to go against what is ‘right’ and help the woman who died in your arms.’

  Tension filled Anderson’s eyes as she clearly wrestled with the decision she had to make.

  ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ I murmured, ‘you should just overrule me and take me back to hospital. The thing is, if that happens Anderson, I believe you would be granting my death certificate. The moment the killer realises I’m alive, he needs to finish the job. If I’m on the run and away from any public attention, he can’t do that.’

  ‘You really think he’d try to come back and kill you?’ she questioned.

  ‘Of course he would! I’m unfinished business to him!’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know, Beth!’

  ‘Please. I’m begging you, Anderson.’ I could see her relent as her gaze softened towards me.

  ‘Well, you’d better make it seem more real to me,’ she muttered, ‘take me hostage then…’

  I smiled a small, triumphant smile of success. I lifted two fingers as my fake gun and pointed them at her head. ‘Drive, you…we have places to go,’ I said, in my firmest voice.

  ‘You might want to work on your authoritarian tone,’ she chuckled.

  ‘Whatever. Now drive! I have an idea where we can go…’

  I directed Anderson for the next fifteen minutes. I knew I didn’t want to get too far from town where the action was happening; but far enough away so that we wouldn’t be found and disturbed while I figured how I was going to find my killer.

  ‘Now turn right,’ I told her.

  ‘Where? I don’t see a turning!’

  ‘It’s very difficult to see…slow down,’ I instructed. ‘There!’

  ‘That’s like a dirt track!’

  ‘Trust me,’ I said, encouraging her to keep driving. ‘Honestly, we’ll be safe down here.’

  ‘Says little miss hostage-taker!’ she complained, navigating the small, wet and muddy road.

  ‘It’s just down here on the left.’

  ‘What is?’ she questioned.

  ‘The cabin.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, slowing as sure enough, we came across a cabin.

  Anderson slowed the car to a halt and turned everything off. It was eerily quiet, only the sound of the rain on the car windows pattered away merrily.

  ‘Come on. Let’s go on in. I know where the key is left.’

  I headed out of the car and hurried up the steps. Searching on the wet planks of the wooden porch floor, I located the gap between the slats and pulled out the key that was hidden there.

  ‘Ta da!’ I exclaimed, happy.

  ‘Quieten down,’ she hushed. ‘This doesn’t need to be noisy!’

  ‘Oh relax! There isn’t anyone for miles! We’re in the middle of nowhere.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Anderson grumbled, ‘that’s what I was afraid of.’

  I unlocked the door and let us in. I tried the lights and found they were not on. ‘I guess we make do tonight,’ I murmured, wandering in through the darkness. ‘I think there’s an emergency drawer somewhere…with candl
es in, I think.’

  ‘So, whose place is this then?’ she asked me. ‘Please don’t say it’s someone that would know to look here for you once people know you’re missing?’

  ‘No,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I haven’t been here for over a year, actually,’ I said, looking around in the darkness.

  ‘Why? Whose place is this?’

  ‘My ex’s,’ I told her, wandering over to the kitchen.

  ‘Oh…I take it you haven’t had much contact with the ex since breaking up?’ she asked.

  ‘None…but back then, we used to come here for weekend’s away and just for a little break. It’s her family’s cabin.’

  I saw Anderson nod, and take on the pronoun I had used to describe my ex.

  ‘It’s very unlikely she would be here mid-week as she works long hours. We’ll be fine for a short time here.’

  Anderson looked at me for a long moment and then puffed out air, exasperated. ‘This is the worst idea, Beth…’ she complained then, clearly having second thoughts.

  ‘Well, you’re my hostage so you don’t get to change any decisions I make,’ I told her. ‘I’ll get the candles and then can you redress my cuts please? I feel like I’m bleeding again.’

  ‘Oh Christ, this is so wrong,’ she muttered under her breath.

  ‘Ah well, live a little Anderson. Death isn’t that great,’ I joked.

  Leaving Anderson in the lounge, I went to the kitchen and searched around for the drawer I remembered had candles in. I knew they were there as one night my ex-partner Nikki had collected some candles and placed them around the bath to make our evening together more romantic.

  ‘Ah! Success!’ I cried as I found the right drawer. Within several minutes, I had a few candles placed around the room so we had some light. I then went to the bathroom, collected the first aid kit which was in the cupboard and came back to the sofa.

  ‘This should have a few, basic essentials,’ I said, handing the bag over to Anderson.

  ‘It’s not a hospital,’ she grumbled.

  ‘Nope…but close enough for now,’ I told her, sitting down gingerly.

  ‘You okay?’ she asked, eyeing me closely.

  ‘I’m…I’m struggling a bit now but I’ll be fine after a little sleep I think.’