by D L Jones
Tre was on the back side of the building watching. His HYPO had worn off and he can feel himself getting sleepy. The formula Tre has used lessened the effects of exhaustion after it wears so he is more able to maintain his consciousness. He notices the police officers going through his car.
“Damn, if they figure out those vials, that will lead them to me.” He thought.
He pulled out his phone and called Michael.
“Tre! What in the hell is going on? I thought you said you had it covered.” Michael answered.
“I did… well I thought I had it covered. I need to know, is there anyway the rental car I had can be traced back to me?” Tre asks.
“No. I figured we would need to make sure you were not in Charlotte. So as far as anyone outside of Offlong Pharmaceuticals is concerned. You are working on an upcoming project, here in Florida, in your office.” Said Michael.
“How did you get the rental.”
“Our friend with the beard rented it before any of this went down. He said he used a fake name and ID, so even that shouldn’t get back to you.” Said Michael.
“Ok, well I’m going to try to make my way back to the airport. Any way you can set up a flight back to Florida. I think I’m going to need to actually be in my office. This has turned into a shit show here. There will be questions.” Said Tre
“Already on it. Just make your way there and a plane will be ready and waiting.” Said Michael.
Tre hung up the phone and started walking down the street.
Rebecca and Lisa were brought to the hospital where Chauncy was held. Rebecca entered the room to see Chauncy laying in the hospital bed, unconscious. He had a tube going down his throat and all types of cables and wiring connected to a machine that sat beside the bed. Rebecca pulled a chair up beside the bed. She took his hand in hers and kissed it. A tear rolled down her face. She looked over at Lisa. Lisa was sitting in a chair across the room, she was also crying. Officer Ford and Officer Ryan entered the room. Officer Ford walked over to Rebecca and put her hand on her shoulder. Rebecca snatched her shoulder away. Officer Ford just stood in silence. Officer Ryan went to say something, but Officer Ford stopped him. She shook her head as if she was letting him know it’s not a good time.
Chapter 25
A few weeks went by and Chauncy was still in the hospital. Rebecca visited him every day. This day, Rebecca had to make a court appearance for what happened the night Chauncy was arrested. They have her listed as a witness for defense. She wondered why they never decided to go after Tre. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since the night of the events.
She decided to go visit Chauncy before she went to the courthouse. She got in his room and sat beside him. She kissed him on the cheek. She looked at his hands and noticed the handcuffs were still there. The skin around his wrist was red and starting to get raw from the handcuffs. Rebecca looked around and saw a few police officers standing outside of the room.
“Does he really need to be handcuffed? He’s in a coma!” Rebecca said.
“He’s Still under police watch. He is considered a prisoner of the court… until the court proves him innocent.” The police officer answered.
“Proves him innocent?! I thought he was innocent until proven guilty?” She commented.
“Honestly Mrs. Peters… is it ever that way?” the officer said.
“Dick!” Rebecca said.
The officer gave Rebecca a look then went back to focusing on what was going on in the hall. Rebecca takes a cotton swab from a cup and pats water on Chauncy’s lips. Officer Ford entered the room and gave Rebecca a hug.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t get anything concrete to on Mr. Jones. Looks like he’s going to get away with all of his involvement.” Said Officer Ford.
Rebecca looks over at Officer Ford then back and Chauncy. She holds his hand a few minutes more.
“Well I guess I need to make my way to the courthouse.” Said Rebecca.
She and Officer Ford leaves the room.
“Did you ever talk to Jeff? The Personal Trainer?” Officer Ford asks.
“No. I know he spent a couple days in the hospital but was released. I haven’t tried to contact him.” Rebecca said.
“We questioned him, but he seems to be clueless about anything past the beating Chauncy gave him. He did give us some information that I would consider… personal…” Said officer Ford.
“What was that?”
“Like I said… I considered it to be personal, not my place to say. You should give him a call…” Said Officer Ford.
“Ok”
When Rebecca got out of the Hospital, she called Jeff.
“Hello…” Said Jeff.
“Hi Jeff, I just talked to one of the police officers. They were telling me you were doing ok? I just wanted to check on you.” Said Rebecca.
“Yes, I’m good. Boy, Chauncy is one strong fella.”
“Yea, that’s not natural though. He was on some drug.”
“I mean he was super humanly strong!!! I never saw anything like it in my life.” Jeff said.
“Imagine what all I saw… that week was crazy.” Rebecca said.
“Well, Becca, I was thinking that all of this happened because he found out about me and you. But I never knew any details until the policed questioned me. Am I to understand that you are pregnant?” Jeff said.
“Yes, I’m pregnant… sorry I never brought it up to you. I didn’t know how to do it. Then when all of this happened, I really didn’t know.” Rebecca answered.
“I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a pig. But… Becca… I didn’t get you pregnant…” Jeff said.
“But…” Rebecca said.
“I had a Vasectomy 8 years ago. I’m not just trying to deny my possible child… I’m just certain that I cannot medically cause a pregnancy with anyone.
If you are Pregnant, and I have been the only man other than Chauncy, I think it’s a good chance that Chauncy is the father of your growing child.” Jeff said.
Rebecca stood in place with the phone to her ear. She didn’t say anything. She thought about how all of this got out of control when Chauncy thought Jeff impregnated her. She started crying again.
“You still there?” Jeff said.
“Oh… yes… thanks for the info Jeff… I have to go…” She said as she ends the call.
The hearing Rebecca attended at the courthouse was uneventful. There was lots of media there, but the hearing was to establish a continuation. Rebecca didn’t speak. Rebecca left the courthouse thinking about what Jeff told her.
“This is Chauncy’s child.” She thought to herself, rubbing her belly.” She was only about a month pregnant and had only barely started so show. Not enough to where anyone would guess that she was pregnant. She stood in front of the courthouse thinking about everything when something caught her eye.
“E 5th Street Diner”
The sign on the restaurant at the end of the block. She remembered Chauncy mentioning 5th street the night he was arrested. She didn’t know what he meant. She decided to walk down to the restaurant.
Once inside, she notices one of the booths was taped off.
“What happened there?” She asked the waitress.
“Some guy broke the table a few weeks ago… dumped it over on someone he was having coffee with and ran out of the store.” The waitress said.
Rebecca looked at the table for a few moments then took a seat at the counter. She ordered a cup of coffee. Half way through her cup of coffee, she asked for the check. She pulled out her card to pay. The lady went to ring her card, then came back.
“Your name is Rebecca Peters?” The waitress said.
“Yes…”
Someone left something here for you. Said to give it to you if you ever came in here. It was in our lost and found.
“What?” Rebecca said.
“Hold on a second, I’ll go get it.” The waitress said.
She comes back with the receipt for Rebecca’s o
rder and a mini-recorder. Rebecca recognizes it as one from the store. It had a piece of paper with her name on it. Rebecca takes it and looks at it for a few seconds.
“Thank you…” she says as she takes her cup of coffee and the mini-recorder out of the store.
When she gets to her car, she starts to play the recordings on the device. She starts from the beginning. It was Chauncy’s mini-recorder. At first, it’s all meaningless. There are recordings of him looking for clues to who is robbing his store. A lot of entries about him taking HYPO, then other entries of him waking up and not knowing what happened.
She hears the part when he finds the van and the pistol.
“So, he wasn’t lying about that…” she thought to herself.
Then she gets to the last recording. The recording of his conversation with the bearded man. The one where the bearded man explains that Tre set up the kidnapping and purposely left Chauncy the backpack with HYPO as a real-world experiment.
She quickly grabbed her phone to call Officer Ford. She scrolled through her recent calls and found the Officer’s number. She called.
“Hello, Officer Ford speaking…”
“Hi… um… what would happen if I found out some other information about Tre… that the courts didn’t know…” She asked.
“Why? Do you have any more information?
“I was just curious… hypothetically speaking…”
“Well it’s hard to say. A lot of what Chauncy was arrested for are things that will stick, even though he was under the influence. Any new evidence would have to prove that Tre either forced Chauncy’s addiction or sold him the drugs that he was addicted…” Said Officer Ford.
Rebecca thought about it, she knew that Tre didn’t sell, or give him the drug… other than the night of the kidnapping. He had set everything up so that Chauncy would come across it on his own, take it on his own. This would be hard to prove Tre’s involvement in court.
“Thank you, Officer Ford.” She said as she ended the call.
Chapter 26
Several months went by. Chauncy was still in a coma. The court case had ended and Chauncy was sentence to 5 years at a criminal medical center. His lawyer used a version of an insanity plea, it worked since Chauncy was unable to appear in court. Rebecca had pretty much kept to herself. She has been staying locked in her house all day every day. Not even Lisa or her mother had heard from her.
Rodney drives by the HD shop. He stops in front and looks at the giant “closed” Sign. With Chauncy in a coma, there was no one to run the store. Rodney tried to talk Rebecca into giving him access to the things he needs to keep it open, but Rebecca never answered any calls.
A store owner from one of the neighboring stores was outside. He watches as Rodney gets out of his car and walks to the front of the HD shop. He goes to speak to him.
“How’s he doing? You heard anything?” Asks the store owner.
“Still in a coma… still the same…” Rodney replies.
“His wife say anything about the future of this store?”
“She hasn’t said much to anyone.” Rodney said.
The store owner looks at the closed sign along with Rodney.
“Well, he was a successful man… I figure with all the money he made over the years… things will be just fine waiting for him.” Said the store owner as he goes back to sweeping.
Rodney slowly walks back to his car and gets in. The store owner watches Rodney as he drives off… then goes back to sweeping the floor in front of his store.
Tre sits at his desk, reading a file on his computer. The file states that the HYPO program is being halted… indefinitely. He reads over the file several times then turns the computer off.
He stands and puts on his lab coat. He looks around his office. He glances over to the boxes of HYPO in the corner, shakes his head and walks out of the room. While walking across the office floor, he hears the phone in his office ring… he runs back and answers.
“Tracy Jones speaking, may I help you?”
“Tre… we need to talk…” Said the bearded man, the hired kidnapper.
Tre was silent for a few seconds. He thought that was a lose end that was handled. The sound of the man’s voice sent an odd feeling through his body.
“Are you crazy? Calling me at work?” Tre said.
“Fuck all that…we need to talk…
Meet me outside… now!” said the bearded man.
Tre slams the phone down on the desk. He angrily leaves his office and heads towards the elevator. He was skeptical about the kidnapper. This whole time, he thought he was dead. He figured the kidnapper had to know he tried to have him killed. He reached inside his lab coat and grabbed a vial of HYPO. He jams it in the side of his neck, squeezes it to inject the whole chemical mixture in his blood stream. This version of HYPO was the latest version. Over the last few months and with the data they got from Chauncy, they solved a lot of the problems with the drug.
It’s not addictive anymore, nor does it cause aggression. It doesn’t cause long bouts of exhaustion after use and you are able to keep your normal frame of mind while enjoying the benefits. It’s almost a perfect drug. Tre felt it warming his body as the elevator door opened.
He walked outside and didn’t see anything.
“psst…” said the bearded man from across the parking lot.
Tre looks and walks over in his direction. The bearded man was standing between 2 trees. Tre thought everything about this is suspicious, but he felt he could handle anything would happen… with HYPO in his bloodstream. He gets to the bearded man.
“Ok… I’m here, what is this about?” said Tre.
“Walk with me… I have to show you…”
They both walk around to the side of the building. The highway came close to the side of the building and they were headed in that direction. They walked under the overpass, into the side door of the parking garage then up a few flights of stairs.
They get to the end of the parking garage and come to a van, the only vehicle in the garage. The bearded man stops in front of the van then looks at Tre.
“A van… So, what?” Tre said.
“Look inside” said the bearded man.
Tre looks at the van, he then realized that the van looks familiar.
“Is this the van…” Tre said
“Just look inside…”
The bearded man waited for Tre to open the van doors, but Tre just stood, looking. The bearded man opened both doors to reveal several boxes, and some canvases that looks to be hiding something. Tre walks over and leaned in to look. He checked out the boxes and they were empty. He lifted the tarps and canvases to see there wasn’t anything there.
“What the hell is going on here?” Tre said.
He turns around, angrily, to yell at the bearded man but is faced with something he wasn’t expecting. He was looking down the barrel of what looks like a very large caliber pistol…
As soon as he realized what he is looking at…
BLAM!
A single shot echoes through the parking garage.
Tre falls backwards and lands in the back of the van. The bullet couldn’t fully penetrate into his brain, because of his HYPO hardened skin, but it was lodged in the front of his forehead. He fell unconscious. Blood ran down his face and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
The bearded man walks out from the side of the van over to an extremely pregnant woman holding a smoking pistol.
“I’ll take care of that…” said the bearded man as he grabs the gun from Rebecca.
He carefully wipes off the fingerprints as he walks back over to the van.
“I don’t think he’ll die, he’s on that HYPO shit. But I have a bone to pick with him…” Said the bearded man
“you won’t be seeing him anymore.”
He reaches in the van and ties Tre’s hands and feet together with some wire zip ties. He covers Tre with the tarps from inside the van and close the van doors.
“again,
I’m really sorry about this Mrs. Peters. I hope Chauncy gets better…” Said the bearded man as he gets in the van.
Another car pulls up beside Rebecca. Rodney gets out. He helps Rebecca to the passenger seat of the car, closes the door behind her.
“Everything good Mrs. Peters?” Rodney asks.
Rebecca looks at Rodney for a moment then rubs her pregnant belly.
Rodney drives out of the parking garage.
Part II
HYPO: The Complete Story
The Screenplay
FADE IN
EXT. The HD shop storefront - 9 am
The front window of the store is completely shattered with a cinder block sitting on the floor just inside the store. Shattered glass covers the floor around the cinder block. A closed sign is barely hanging in its place but still lit.
Through the broken storefront window, you can see inside where there were basically no damaged items, but clearly missing items.
A few Workers are surveying the damage with the replacement Window pane nearby in preparation to repair the damage.
INT. The HD shop back office - 9 AM
The back office of the HD shop is lush with a oversized leather couch and a large mahogany executive style desk. The highest end personal computer is sitting on the desk with several surveillance monitors mounted on the wall across the room
OFFICER RYAN, a 47-year-old black male is writing on his notepad. OFFICER FORD, a 38-year-old White female is standing patiently, as if she is impatiently waiting for something to happen.
The door to the office slings open and CHAUNCY PETERS enters. The 35-year-old owner of the HD shop is writhe with anger but still manages to keep a somewhat cool composure.
CHAUNCY
How is it that I have owned this store for 10 years and not once have I been robbed or broken into but in the past 2 months it has happened 3 times! What the hell am I paying you for? To keep my shop from being broken into! That's why I'm paying you!