by Elle Casey
“No, we cannot,” agreed Sarah, giving Candi a quick hug for her awesome idea and brave face. She seemed to have gotten over most of her panic and was now ready to kick some butt.
They turned off the overhead light and opened the door, slowly going out into the hallway, headed to the room two doors down. Sarah hoped her brother and the father of her unborn child had managed to take down their attacker, like she and Candi had theirs.
***
Kevin was sound asleep and dreaming of the island when the overhead light went on and the girls ran into the room, shaking him and Jonathan awake. He blinked a few times, trying to orient himself, not recognizing the light fixture on the ceiling. It had weird flowers on it, and the one in his room was made of stainless steel and smoked glass. Sarah’s voice began penetrating his brain.
“ … a big friggin knife, too.”
Candi joined in. “But he’s tied up right now on the floor, and we need to find out where all the FBI agents are and if there are anymore of these guys in the house trying to kill us.”
Candi was on his bed now, leaning down for a hug. Her smell enveloped him, making him pull her to his side automatically for a couple seconds. It was her trembling that finally made it through his fog enough to get him fully alert.
He sat up and placed her down next to him on the bed, removing his legs from the covers and rubbing his head a few times. “Okay, sorry, but I was really out of it there … can you tell me again what you just said?”
Sarah growled. “Grrrr, come on, you guys! There’s a murderer in our bedroom! How much more information do you need?”
Jonathan and Kevin leaped out of their beds at the same time, shirtless but wearing boxer briefs, both of them shouting.
“What?!” Jonathan ran to the door, nearly tripping over his own feet, turning the lock before spinning back around to face everyone.
“Who’s in your room?!” asked Kevin, ready to smash some skulls. The idea that someone had gone after his sister and girlfriend while they slept was beyond ridiculous. He pulsed his pecs a few times, getting the blood flowing into his muscles.
“Like we’ve already explained, three times,” said a very annoyed Sarah, “I got up to pee, and as I was about to leave the bathroom, I heard voices outside the door talking about finishing us off. So I followed a guy into my room where he was about to knife Candi in her sleep.”
“What happened next?” asked Jonathan in a high-pitched voice.
“We kicked his ass,” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders.
“Details, Sarah. Details,” said Kevin, a warning in his voice. He needed to know what they were dealing with and fast.
She sighed heavily. “I jumped on his back, Candi threw the blanket over him, and we beat him with a lamp.”
“Is he … dead?” asked Jonathan.
“No. Just tied up,” said Sarah. She frowned at Jonathan. “I hope you aren’t mad at us that we defended ourselves. The guy deserves to be dead.”
Jonathan shook his head. “No, no … I’m just … glad all three of you are okay.”
“Why do you care about the murderer?” asked Candi, all huffy.
“Not him, dummy. The baby.” Jonathan rolled his eyes.
Kevin smiled. Eye-rolling was not Jonathan’s thing, and it was pretty funny on him. But he had a point. Sarah had taken a big risk. Before he could scold her, Jonathan was talking again.
“You said you heard voices. As in, more than one,” said Jonathan.
“Yes. Two at least.”
“So where’s the second guy?” asked Kevin, looking from Sarah to Candi.
They both shrugged.
“We thought he might be here, coming after you, but apparently not,” said Sarah. “You guys didn’t hear anything at all?”
“Not me,” said Jonathan. “I was in deep R.E.M.-sleep actually. I think the stress must have gotten to me.”
“Yeah. I was totally gone,” said Kevin, feeling bad that he’d slept through the attempted murder of his sister and girlfriend. He walked over and hugged Candi. “Sorry, babe. I should have been there for you.”
Candi squeezed him back hard, acting like she didn’t want to let go when it was over. “We handled it. But we need to get out of here.”
“She’s right,” said Jonathan. “We’ll go as a group. First though, I want to see the guy who came after you two.”
They all nodded their agreement, and Kevin and Jonathan moved to be first at the door.
Sarah ran over and grabbed the nearest lamp, yanking it from the wall. She walked over to Candi, who picked up the lethal knife she’d put on the dresser and cut the cord off. She wrapped the coated wire up in a tight circle and shoved it in her bra.
“Okay,” whispered Kevin, “we all stick together. Give me that knife,” he said, holding his hand out. Candi passed it up to him. “I’m first, then the girls, then Jon. Jon, you’ve got our backs.” He looked at Sarah. “Give him the lamp.”
She passed it over to Jon, blowing him a kiss when she was done.
They lined up at the door, one behind the other, and Kevin turned out the light, plunging them all into darkness.
***
They stood around the body in Candi’s room. He hadn’t moved since they’d tied him up and she’d shoved that nasty sock in his mouth.
“I’ve seen this guy before,” said Kevin, sounding distressed and excited at the same time. “He was at the hospital, in the emergency room!”
“What, like with the FBI?” asked Jonathan.
“No. As in, like a guy just hanging out in the waiting room. I’d remember those boots anywhere, with those silver tips. He was getting coffee right in front of me and Candi. Do you remember seeing him?” he asked her.
Candi studied the guy’s bruised face and boots, cringing inwardly at the nail file sticking out of his shoulder. “No. I wasn’t really paying attention to anyone else around us. Sorry.” She felt useless. A murderer had totally checked them out, followed them, and almost taken them down; and he’d been standing in front of her for who knew how long. She’d been totally helpless, a feeling she hated more than anything. It reminded her of being on that lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, rogue waves tossing them all over the place and pushing them farther and farther away from safety.
Jonathan patted her on the shoulder. “None of us were thinking we were being targeted, so none of us should feel bad about not noticing anything. But that has changed. Now we know we’re targets. And now we also know the FBI either has a leak or they aren’t very good at doing their jobs … at least in this case. So we need to start paying very close attention to our environment and be prepared for anything.”
“What are you saying, babe?” asked Sarah.
“I’m saying we need to get the heck out of this house and find a place we can stay on our own. No FBI. No parents. Nobody but us.”
“Are you nuts?” asked Candi, not believing her brother would be so irresponsible. “We can’t do that. It’s totally … reckless.”
“I agree with him,” said Kevin. “It’s not reckless to try and stay alive. And when the stupid FBI can’t even keep us safe, then we have to take matters into our own hands.”
“But … Sarah’s pregnant,” Candi said lamely. “Don’t we have to take that into consideration?”
“Me being pregnant doesn’t change anything, other than it makes me want to be alive now more than ever. So I agree. Let’s do this. Let’s go finish off the last bad guy if he’s still around, take what we can from here to make the trip easier, and go.”
“But where will we go?” asked Candi. “And how will we live? Do you guys have any money?” She looked at each of their faces, knowing they’d each had their ATM cards taken by the FBI agents, who’d handed them all over to their parents. “Anything we could have used to get money has been confiscated so we couldn’t use them and be traced. We have zero money, zero way of getting money, and zero chance of making it any farther than what’s available in the gas tank
outside.”
“That’s not exactly true,” said Sarah. “We may have money here.” She pointed to the guy on the floor.
“Good point,” said Kevin, bending down and feeling the guy’s pockets. He pulled out a wallet with about a hundred dollars cash in it and an ATM card. “I wonder what his PIN code is,” he said, flipping it over and then back again.
“See if he wrote anything on a piece of paper in his wallet. Some guys do that,” said Jonathan.
Kevin searched through all the little pockets and pulled out a business card from a bank he’d never heard of. There was writing on the back. He held it up. “This might be something.”
Candi took it from him and handed it to Jonathan.
Jonathan shrugged as he looked it over. “Maybe. We’ll take it and try it.” He put it in his pocket, adding the ATM card that Kevin handed over. “There were four agents downstairs. We need to go see if they’re okay and maybe if they have any money if they’re not.”
“If they’re okay and totally oblivious to what happened up here, what do we do then?” asked Candi, not believing for a second they were perfectly fine down there. She and Sarah had made too much noise for them not to investigate, and they should have been standing outside their doors. It made her wonder why the bad guy’s partner hadn’t already come to lend a hand.
“I don’t know what we do,” said Jonathan, sounding frazzled. “Sneak out? Steal a car? Get on a bus?”
Sarah held up her hands. “Just relax, everyone. One step at a time. First we need to go downstairs and see if anyone’s there.”
Candi nodded. It was the only plan that made sense. Staying here in this room made her feel like a sitting duck, begging to get shot at. Going home would only put her parents in danger. Calling the FBI would only alert whoever might be tagging them over there to what they were doing. Their lives were a total wreck, and at this point, it was just a matter of choosing the least awful option. “Fine. Let’s go,” she said, moving to get behind Kevin at the door.
“Okay, so eyes open for the partner of this shithead on the ground, right?” said Kevin, looking back over his shoulder.
Everyone nodded.
“Jon, grab that lamp. Girls, stay between us. I’ve got the knife.” He held it up and nodded reassuringly at them before shutting off the light and turning the handle on the door.
Candi moved as silently as she could, keeping one hand on Kevin’s back, the light weight of Sarah’s on hers making her feel not more secure but like she had just that much more at risk.
***
All four agents had been killed in different areas of the house, each with their throats slit. There was blood everywhere, indicating arteries had been severed. Only one of them looked like he’d put up much of a fight, a nearby stool turned over. Jonathan set it upright for a second and then changed his mind, placing it back where he’d found it.
As a side thought, he pulled off the undershirt he had put on upstairs before they came down and wiped the chair where he’d touched it. Can’t be too careful. What if they think we did this? He knew it wasn’t likely, but he also hadn’t thought this kind of carnage would be likely either. The odds that the killer had taken out four highly-trained professional agents but had been stopped by his sister and pregnant girlfriend were too high to even calculate right now. The fact that the assassin had a partner was the only explanation that made sense; but was it possible there were two knife-wielding murderers after them? Jonathan shook his head, going back to the kitchen to join the others. He’d figure this all out later. Right now, he just had to get everyone to safety.
“What’d you find?” asked Kevin, breathing heavily from the stress. “Are they all gone?”
Jonathan nodded, eliciting a squeak of panic from Candi. “Yes. All of their throats were cut with a very sharp knife. Probably either the one you’re holding or one like it.”
“Obviously, the other killer is long gone. He’d have already murdered us too if he were here,” said Kevin.
“Maybe he’s one of them,” said Candi, gesturing to one of the bodies.
“Maybe,” said Sarah, “but I doubt it. I heard them talking outside the bathroom, then followed that guy right to our room. That means the other guy went downstairs and either killed these four agents or left the house.”
“Why didn’t he come after us?” asked Kevin. “If I was a killer, that’s what I’d have done.”
“Maybe he wasn’t a killer. Maybe he was just an informer,” said Jonathan, the picture becoming clearer. “Maybe he let the guy in and had him just do a sweep of the whole downstairs, then walked him upstairs and showed him which rooms we were in.”
“And he tried to kill the easiest ones first,” said Candi. “Does that make sense that he’d come for Sarah and me first?”
“Who knows? What does it matter? We need to get out of here,” said Sarah. “We’ll have plenty of time to figure this out on the road.”
“Check their pockets. Check any bags they brought. See if they have money or ATM cards we can use,” said Kevin.
They fanned out, each taking a body. Jonathan could hear his sister crying and Sarah complaining angrily.
“You stupid jerk!” ranted Sarah. “Why’d you have to go and get killed like this? You’ve got blood all over the place, and you just left us up there to get stabbed. I don’t want to die by stabbing, okay? I want to die of old age with my hot husband next to me in bed. You stupid bastien, lamefudge, jerkbag.” And on and on it went.
Jonathan smiled, knowing Sarah was doing okay mentally if she had the presence of mind to be angry at the dead agent. His sister was another story. Her tender heart was taking a pummeling right now. They’d have to address that as soon as they could. Her having a nervous breakdown or a panic attack would not help their situation one bit.
“Guys, come check this out,” said Kevin. “I think I struck gold.”
Jonathan joined the girls in the kitchen. Kevin had a duffle bag out on the table, its zipper open. He was holding a folded-up manilla envelope in his hand.
“What’s that?” asked Sarah, reaching for it.
“I’m not sure, but it looks like money to me.” He opened it, peering inside. “Yep. A lot of money.” He handed it to Jonathan. “I think we found our mole.”
Sarah frowned at the bag. “Whose bag was it?”
“It belonged to that guy,” said Candi, pointing to the one in the kitchen. “I saw it over his shoulder when we first got here.”
“So you think someone paid him off recently, so recently he didn’t bother to put it anywhere but in his bag? And then the killer slit his throat after, without taking the money back?” asked Jonathan.
“Maybe. At least, I think the guy upstairs probably paid him off and planned to take the money back when he was done. But he just didn’t get that far.”
A muffled thumping from upstairs silenced them completely.
Jonathan looked at everyone’s face; all of them were reflecting back the fear that he felt in his heart. The killer’s awake!
“We need to get out of here,” whispered Candi, her face as white as a ghost.
Sarah nodded hurriedly.
“We need to get dressed first,” said Jonathan. “We can’t run around outside in our underwear. Everyone will notice us, and we have to go everywhere incognito.”
“He’s right,” said Kevin. “You girls stay here and write the FBI a letter, telling them what happened. In fact, write two of them and put them in different spots. If there’s another mole, maybe it’ll up our chances one of the good guys sees it. Jon and I will go get your dresses and our tuxes.”
Candi grabbed his arm. “But what about that murderer?” she asked, her voice an octave too high.
“Good point,” he said, picking up the knife in one hand and the lamp in the other. “Jon … arm-up, dude.”
Jonathan picked up a gun from the floor, examining it a little before letting it hang down at his side. “Ready.”
Sarah ran ov
er to him and hugged his neck, kissing him on the cheek. “Hurry back. We’ll be right here waiting.”
Jonathan nodded, following Kevin out of the room and up the stairs, the now steady thumping and banging coming from the girls’ room making him want to run in the other direction as fast as his feet could take him.
***
Kevin threw the door open, hitting the guy in the head. The murderer had somehow managed to wiggle his way several feet towards the entrance.
“Arrrrrrr!” yelled the guy on the floor, a string of probable cuss words following, but unintelligible due to the sock in his mouth.
Kevin closed the door and swung it open again hard, knocking the guy once more. “That’s for attacking my family, asshole.” He pushed the door against the guy’s head until it moved him far enough back to free the entrance completely. Kevin and Jonathan stepped inside, Jonathan going over to the closet to retrieve the girls’ dresses and shoes from inside.
Kevin squatted down next to the guy who was still completely tied up. He hooked his finger under the wire going across the guy’s cheek and pulled it down. He took the sock out of his mouth, waiting for him to stop hacking and wheezing before asking his questions. “Who sent you here? Why did you try to kill us? Why did you kill those agents?”
The guy glared malevolently at Kevin, making him want to flinch; but he held his ground. He wasn’t going to let this guy intimidate him.
“You’re so fucking dead, man. When I get out of here, I’m going to hunt you down and cut your fucking tongue out of your throat!”
Kevin held the knife up to the guy’s nose, making him cease his struggles immediately. “No, dude. You’re not. Because I’m going to call the cops and have them come arrest you for the murder of those four agents downstairs.”
The guy jerked back and forth some more.
“Just tell us why you want to kill us so bad,” Kevin continued.
“I don’t question my contracts! I just fulfill ‘em. Now let me go, and I’ll agree to let you live. Otherwise, you’ll be dead by tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if I’m in jail, they’ll just send someone else.”