Shades of Deception

by Piper Dow

  Kelly slumped back in her seat. Wayne sat quietly, picking at the seam of his jeans with his fingernail. The ride seemed much faster than it had that morning.

  As they dismounted the bus, Kelly glanced around. She spotted her father’s truck in front of the station and headed for it. Wayne followed closely, surveying the area as he walked. Kelly wondered if he was expecting more of those creatures to show up, like a repeat of Sam’s adventure. If he did, he would be disappointed, as there were no unexpected lurkers around.

  Kelly opened the passenger side door of the truck and steeled herself for the onslaught. Instead, her father’s chilly silence filled the cab. She climbed into the back seat, allowing Wayne the front seat for his long legs. Her father started the truck and pulled out into traffic without a word. Wayne looked back at Kelly and then at Dad.

  “Dad,” Kelly began, but he cut her off.

  “Wait. I don’t want to hear a thing until we’re with your mother. Just - don’t.”

  Kelly subsided. Her insides squirmed, feeling like a vice was gripping her somewhere in her middle and squeezing. She knew her parents would be upset if they found out what she had planned, but somehow that knowledge hadn’t translated into this heart-wrenching pain of their disapproval. Her father’s upright posture, his tight grip on the steering wheel, his stony silence were proof that she had wounded him. Wayne looked somehow curled into himself on the front seat, though he sat silently staring out the window. Kelly knew that she was responsible for his pain, too, that he would never have gone to Sam’s without her. He would likely never have thought of it. She looked down, staring at her hands in her lap.

  The truck pulled to a stop. Dad put it in park and pulled the keys out, opening his door in one fluid motion. Kelly looked up, confused to be at the hospital, and then surprised at her confusion. Of course they were at the hospital - Mom would still be with Sam. Wayne opened his door and jumped out, pulling the seat forward to allow Kelly to climb out. They looked into each other’s eyes for a moment before silently following Dad up the sidewalk to the hospital.

  Dad walked directly to the elevator and punched the button. The hospital was quiet; most visitors came by during the afternoon and went home before now. They rode up in the elevator, the small, confined space making the silence even bigger between them. The doors slid open, and Dad walked quickly and directly to Sam’s room. Kelly and Wayne followed. Dad opened the door quietly, moving the curtain aside and walking over to sit on the edge of the chair Mom was in. He reached down to take her hand as Kelly and Wayne entered the room. They looked around - to Kelly, the place seemed the same as yesterday when they had left, other than the frigid reception from their parents' stiff demeanor.

  Mom looked at Kelly and Wayne for a moment before speaking. When she did speak, her voice shook with anger.

  “I want to hear what you could possibly have had to do today that you felt was so important to sneak off without telling us. I do,” she said, struggling to keep her voice even. “And I will try to keep an open mind and hear what you have to say. But I want you to know that we have been through more in the past three days than we have been through in a lifetime, and the thought that we have raised children who would know what we have been through and deliberately choose to inflict more worry and stress on us is a very bitter pill to swallow. So, please, I want no lies. I want no persuasions. I want just facts, and I want just truth.”

  Kelly glanced at Wayne. He was staring at his shoes, his face pale. As many times as the school had called about the trouble he had been caught in, as many times as the two of them had gotten scolded over things growing up, they had never seen their mother this angry. As scary as Dad was when he yelled and waved his hands, he was a teddy bear compared to this Mom.

  Looking back at her parents, Kelly began.

  “I wanted to help Sam,” she said.

  Wayne lifted his head and looked at her.

  “We both did,” Kelly amended. “We thought that when the hospital found the drugs in her system, the police would think that she was just a junkie or something, and they wouldn’t look any further. But Sam’s not a junkie - we know she’s not!” Kelly fought to keep the emotion out of her voice, to match her mother’s even delivery. She took a deep breath to steady herself. “We went to Sam’s apartment to see if we could find anything.”

  She waited, looking at her mother. She wanted to show them the pictures she had taken and tell them about the people they had seen, but she wasn’t sure if finding proof that someone was behind what had happened to Sam would work for them or against them at this point.

  “You thought going to Sam’s apartment without telling anyone where you were going was smart?” Dad asked, his voice rising. “We talked to your friends - none of them knew anything! What if something had happened to you? We wouldn’t have had any idea to even start looking out there!”

  Kelly hung her head. “I’m sorry,” she said. He did have a point - an even bigger point than he knew.

  “I have been sitting here all afternoon, wondering if you were laying on the ground somewhere, if those animals or people or whatever they were had gotten you, too,” Mom said. Her voice broke on the last words and tears spilled out over her lashes. “We called your friends. We called the police. We have been frantic - and you’ve been, what, sitting on the bus, too busy to call and let us know you were safe!”

  “Mom, no,” Wayne said. “We didn’t want you worried! We thought we could just go there and get some proof and come back - we’re sorry!” He moved quickly and was kneeling at Mom’s side before she had uncovered her face. Wayne put a hand on Mom’s shoulder and she reached for him, capturing him in a crushing hug.

  Kelly, feeling left out, sidled forward and sat on the edge of Sam’s bed.

  “I’m really sorry,” she said, looking back and forth between Mom and Dad. Meeting Dad’s eyes, she continued, “I didn’t think the whole thing through. I was just so focused on getting something to help Sam, I wasn’t thinking about how worried you would be if you found out we had gone.”

  Dad shook his head. Kelly could see his disgust, but also his relief that they had returned unhurt.

  Mom raised her head and released her grip on Wayne. Wiping her face of tears, she sat back and surveyed the two of them. “I have to say this before we move on and it doesn’t get said. We have to be able to trust each other - you both know that. I am shaken, today, more than I thought possible, in that trust. I don’t know what to do with this, and you have to know that.”

  Kelly met Mom’s eyes. She felt like the ground had shifted underneath her. Tears slipped down her cheeks.

  Mom’s mouth quivered, then tightened. She took a deep breath and met Wayne’s eyes. She closed her eyes as more tears fell.

  Dad put his hand on Mom’s shoulders and squeezed reassurance to her. Clearing his throat, he asked, “What did you find?”

  Kelly wiped her cheeks with her hands and looked at him. She felt raw and exposed. She glanced at Wayne, wondering if their answers were going to make this scene even worse. Although, she thought, as she reached into her bag for her phone, she wasn’t sure anything could make this worse. She pushed the button on the side of her phone to turn the screen on, but it stayed black. Frowning, she hit it again, but the phone was off.

  She closed her eyes. “The battery is dead.”

  “We found drugs,” said Wayne, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat. “In Jill’s room, we found pot, and pills, and a couple of boxes of what looked like mummified hands - body parts. And, we ran into Jill’s boyfriend, Mark, who threatened us.” He looked at Kelly defiantly with the last statement, a silent challenge.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  After much discussion, Kelly and Wayne agreed to take the photos and information they had gathered to the police in the morning. Dad insisted that he would drive them, and then take Wayne to school when they were done. Secretly, Kelly wondered if that was to make sure that Wayne actually went to school, but even though th
e atmosphere in the room had lifted, she didn’t voice the jest.

  Mom stretched, one hand at the small of her back, and rolled her head from side to side. She had slept for two nights in the chair in Sam’s room, and her body was clearly aching.

  “Mom, let me stay with Sam tonight,” Kelly suggested. At her mother’s lifted eyebrow, Kelly pressed on. “You need a night’s sleep in a real bed. I promise I’ll stay with her until you come back tomorrow. Let me do this, please.”

  Mom hesitated, but Dad spoke up. “Deb, let her stay. Sam woke up, she’s doing better. You need to sleep.” He smiled at her and said, “Frankly, you could do with a shower, too.”

  Mom laughed and reluctantly nodded. “Fine, stay with her. Kelly,” she said, waiting until Kelly met her eyes before continuing, “I love you.”

  Kelly smiled, her heart lifting.

  Wayne and their parents left, with Mom promising to be back with breakfast and Dad noting that they would hit the police station directly after.

  Kelly sank into the chair Mom had been using at the side of Sam’s bed, then jumped up again. She fished her phone charger out of her bag and found an outlet, then plugged the phone in and left it sitting on the bedside table which she pulled over. Electrical outlets appeared to be at a premium in hospital rooms, she mused, noting a couple behind the head of the bed with notices on them that they were for emergency use. She followed the cords that were plugged into those outlets with her eyes and found them attached to the bed and the i.v. stand. She surmised that those outlets must be connected to a generator source, in case of an outage.

  She nestled back into the chair, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes. She was too wound up to sleep, but she hadn’t been able to sort things on the bus. She could do that now.

  “Kelly? Kelly, where’s Mom and Dad? Kel?”

  The soft questions were slow and punctuated with pauses, as though Sam was having trouble forming the words. Kelly opened her eyes without comprehension. Her neck was sore, having stretched to one side with the weight of her drooping head. She rolled her head back and around to the other side to ease the soreness from her sleeping position. As she did, she recognized the hospital room.

  “Sam!” Kelly sat up abruptly, her confusion evaporated.

  Sam lay drowsing on the pillow, blinking as she tried to clear her head of the fog of sleep. “Hey, Kelly,” she murmured.

  Kelly leaned forward and grasped Sam’s hand on the bed. “Sam, thank God, you’re awake! Mom and Dad went home so Mom could get some sleep - she’s been here with you since you came in by ambulance. What time is it?” Kelly looked around for a clock. She reached for her cell phone on the tray table, but it was still powered off from when she had drained the battery earlier. Swiveling her head around to look at the walls, she found the clock next to the door. “Nearly midnight. Sam, how are you feeling?”

  Sam was still slowly blinking her eyes -- first one eye, then the other. She frowned in concentration. “Kel, I think something’s wrong with my eyes. Everything is really blurry. I think it might be blurrier in my left eye, but it’s hard to tell.” Her voice was thick with sleep.

  “Want me to ring for the nurse?”

  “No. No, don’t,” she moved her hand fretfully as Kelly reached for the call light cord. When Kelly pulled her hand back, she said, “Kel, I want to tell you something. It’s important. Do you believe me?”

  Kelly squeezed her hand. “Of course I believe you, Sam. What is it?”

  Sam lifted her head from the pillow and moved her eyes laboriously around the room, ensuring they were alone. “Kel, I’m not crazy.”

  Kelly stared at Sam’s face, waiting.

  “Sam, I don’t think you’re crazy, I believe you. What do you want to tell me?”

  Sam focused her eyes on Kelly’s. “I told you. I’m not crazy. Someone is trying to make me seem that way, but I know, I’m not crazy.”

  Kelly nodded, sitting back a little but not releasing Sam’s hand. “I know, Sam. I know you’re not crazy. I went to your apartment today.”

  Sam’s eyes flew open. She struggled to lift her head, to move into a sitting position, then groaned against the pain in her arm. “You...what? Kelly... could have seen...could have gotten you - oh, God, this hurts!”

  “Sam, it’s okay. We’re fine,” Kelly said, trying to calm her. “Stop, let me put the head of the bed up, it’ll be easier for you and won’t hurt so much.”

  Sam stopped struggling and closed her eyes as Kelly pressed the button to raise the head of the bed. She moved her good hand up to her face, rubbing her forehead and temple as though to ease a headache before covering her mouth. Taking a deep, slow breath, she opened her eyes again and tried to focus on Kelly’s face.

  “Kelly, something strange is going on,” she said, dropping her hand. Her voice was stronger but still as though she was having trouble moving her mouth’s muscles. “Everyone told me...leave it alone, but...couldn’t. Starting feeling strange. Losing hours...food was bitter...stopped eating at home. Got fired. People thought...drugs. I never...you know,” she had closed her eyes while she was talking, but opened them again. “Then, started seeing...things. In the shadows, at first. And then Jill.”

  Tears welled in Sam’s eyes and spilled over. She made no attempt to wipe them.

  “Pictures, on my phone,” she said, “but...so afraid to go back. I printed them at the library, bought...ticket home. I didn’t think. They followed me,” she closed her eyes again. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

  “Sam, we know you’re not crazy, and this is not your fault,” Kelly said, squeezing her hand. “We’ve seen the pictures. We gave them to the police after someone TP’d the house. Today, Wayne and I went to your apartment, and then to your school. You were right, something is going on - and we have proof! We took pictures!”

  Kelly used her free hand to grab her cell phone again, this time hitting the button to turn it on. She hadn’t had time to look through the photos since her phone had shut down on the bus ride home, and she’d apparently fallen asleep after plugging it in to charge.

  They watched the screen as it played the startup sequence, then Kelly tapped the icon to open her photos. Seeing the little thumbnails renewed Kelly’s apprehension.

  “Sam, do you know what is in Jill’s room?” She watched as Sam’s eyes flicked to Kelly’s face and then back to the phone’s screen. “The drugs, and the rest?”

  “I know Jill smokes, but...not...at the apartment,” Sam said, then inhaled a slow gasp as Kelly enlarged one of the photos of the boxes of body parts in Jill’s closet. “Oh my God. No.”

  Kelly nodded, scrolling through the pictures so that Sam could see them.

  “Sam,” Kelly hesitated, not wanting to hurt her sister but knowing it would come out soon anyway. “They tested your blood, and it came up positive for drugs, but they couldn’t tell what with the test they ran.

  Sam’s face flushed. “I didn’t take drugs,” she said slowly, “but I did think...in my food. That’s why…”

  “That’s why you stopped eating at home, and why you wrote in your journal that the milk tasted funny and you poured it out even though it was new,” said Kelly, quickly filling in where her sister’s plodding train of thought was headed. “You could be right - it would explain a lot of your symptoms, but I don’t think weed would make you lose time, or see things, would it?”

  Kelly shook her head. “Anyway, the blood tests are why Wayne and I went to your apartment. We knew you wouldn’t do drugs, but we were afraid the police wouldn’t look any further if they thought you did. We are going to give all of this to the police in the morning.” Kelly motioned to the picture still visible on her screen.

  Sam nodded slowly, rubbing at her temple again.

  “Sam, let me ring for the nurse. You have a headache,” Kelly said.

  When Sam nodded again, Kelly used the call light to signal for the nurse and lowered the head of the bed.

  After the nurse had been in w
ith some pain meds and a glass of water, Kelly turned out the overhead light. “Sam, get some sleep. I’m not going anywhere tonight. In the morning, you’ll feel better, and maybe be able to think more clearly. We’ll get through this.” She reached over and squeezed Sam’s hand, adding, “God will protect us. He always does.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Kelly strode quickly across the foyer of the police station, then stood back as a police officer escorted an older woman through the front door.

  “We have the forms available right over here, ma’am,” he was saying, directing her with his free hand while his other hand gently guided her under the elbow. “The assailant has a head start on us, but filing this report will at least get your insurance started on your claim.”

  Kelly didn’t hear the rest of the officer’s remarks. She pushed open the door again and stepped outside. Just what she needed, another reason for her father to be angry with her. She took a breath as she glanced around for the truck, then stepped down off the stairs and followed the sidewalk around to the parking lot. Dad and Wayne were already in the truck waiting for her.

  “Where is your bag? You said you left it inside and had to go get it,” Dad asked.

  Kelly shook her head. “It wasn’t in the room we waited in, or in the room where we talked to the detective. Let me look in the truck again.”

  Dad sighed and shook his head. “Kelly, I don’t see how you can lose things so quickly. You had it when we left the hospital?”

  Wayne hopped down from the front seat and pulled the seat forward so that Kelly could climb in the back. As he did, a corner of her small brown purse was exposed under the seat. “Is this it? I’m sorry, Kel,” he said, pulling it free and handing it to her.