They drove to an old construction site on a project that was cancelled a few years back. It was supposed to be a children’s and teens hangout hub but funding was too much, so they say. Victor went to the trunk and unlocked. When he opened it, the woman laid dead. Christian stood feeling heavily nauseated while Victor stared at the body in disgust.
He reached over the body and grabbed the shovel.
“Come one grab on and start digging.”
Christian hesitated to follow looking back at the girl’s body.
He walked over to the hole that Victor started and began to dig. They stopped digging, when Victor dropped his shovel. The grave was shallow, only reached half way up their shins. Victor travelled back to the car and picked the girl up by her upper body dragging her feet across the ground making a dust cloud as he walked. He sat her down in the grave and threw the remaining dirt of top of her. It was dried and crumbling, blowing away with each gust of wind. It barely cover half her body but let it stay. Victor walked away to the car but Christian stayed looking down on her face. She looked younger like Lisa did and then he realized that she wasn’t older at all and a tear began to form at his right eye’s waterline. He walk toward the car bursting in rage.
“Victor!”
He got back out of the car to see what he wanted.
“I kept my end of the deal, now give me the antidote!”
Victor began to laugh hysterically.
“What’s funny? Was it something I said?” Christian said with intense sarcasm.
“Antidote? What antidote? There is no antidote!” Victor continued to laugh hysterically. “Don’t you get it, I did that to fool you into helping me with my dirty work.”
Christian’s face froze into seriousness as his timer approach it’s final minutes in the car. His vision pulsed from focused to unfocused and then back to normal. Christian fell to his knees.
“What did you inject me with?” His head fell, hanging by his shoulders.
“Phencyclidine, also known as Angel Dust. Don’t worry I made sure it was clean.”
“You injected me with PCP.” He said weakly.
“I can’t even lie, I didn’t make sure it was clean. I basically just took it out of her arm.” He began to grin. “So within the hour you are going to be tripping out to the max.” He came to him and kneeled wrapping his arm around Christian. “I honestly wish I was with you buddy, but I don’t do drugs. I have a family.”
Christian swiped out him so forcefully that his body stayed limp to one side. “You’re sick!” He said flashing his teeth.
“Whoa. Don’t bite my head off. If it makes you feel any better you only have about two hours till it’s out your system, right… now.” He said as the timer alarmed.
Christian stood up and began to walk towards the car dragging his shovel along as a crutch to lean on. Victor attempted to help bring him to the car and was swung at again having him crashed into the car panting. Victor ran out and grabbed the other shovel and threw it into the trunk along with one Christian used. Christian sat in the back seat cradling himself shaking as the drugs began to take effect. Victor hopped in the car and started it up and began to drive away from the site.
As he laid across the backseat, his memories began to break into small segments that sped up and slowed down constantly as he drove. He every five seconds it seem that the lights lined along the highway was flashed inside the car but every minute it was a block of darkness. He looked at the front and saw the lights changes from red to green, with yellow being non-existing. He closed his eyes, opening them almost immediately. A question came across Christian’s mind and he asked without realizing he asked.
“How did you know that it was PCP that you injected me with?”
Victor said one word. “Cherry bomb.”
It didn’t make any sense to Christian what that meant, so much that he just assumed it was another hallucination produced by whatever was in his system, but then Victor continued with his though.
“Cherry bomb was a code name that everyone gave that drug when I was in high school in about two thousand and four. I was just a senior and that was like the craze for some reason. I never really understand it but it then it became like a logo in our school. A lot of people had ruined their lives early messing with that. Formed an addiction but it scared me seeing what it did to others. I lost my best friend when he was one of his “trips”. He walked out into the road and was hit by a car before I could even say something. I held him while he died in front of me.” Victor got quiet.
“Why did you inject me with girl’s needle, if you witnessed your friend died?”
“This time is different.” Victor said.
“How is this any different?” Christian said.
“Because you won’t die, I won’t allow another person to die. Not in my hands.” Victor said never looking back at Christian.
The last four words echoed in Christian’s head and ricocheted as his environment skipped unexplainably to his home. He was sweating heavily know and was nearing dehydration. He walked over to the sink and grabbed a glass. He turned on the faucet and drank down the water, until it was half-full. He turned around to see his mother siting in a chair sipping out of a glass.
“What are you doing here?” Christian said sitting down his glass.
“Trying to help you find the killer. I left you a hint and you still are having difficulties finding the person who is doing all of this.” She took another small sip. “Have a wide eye and quit looking into the microscope. I thought that was a good clue since you were there that night that Lisa died.”
“You are talking non-sense. If I was there then why don’t I remember?” Christian walked into the living room with his mother and sat down on the couch, rubbing his face.
“Because you constantly remember to forget.”
Christian opened his eyes. There was a crowd of people talking and drinking around the couch he sat on. He was at the party, Lisa had attended the night of her murder. He had got up and looked around, there was frats everywhere and several people wearing the same jacket everyone witnessed Lisa’s murderer wore. Christian didn’t have a drink in his hand. He began to remember that night, he didn’t have a drink at all.
“I was the only one that could have been a reliable witness. I was the only one who didn’t drink that night at the party.” He spoke to himself in a soft whisper.
The environment skipped back to his house and he looked at his mother who was still sipping off the drink she had before.
“I was the only one who could have known who the killer was.”
He flashed back to the party, except his mother.
“Look around you. What do you see?”
He turned around as everything played around him slowly. He saw people talking, socializing as college teens usually do. He kept looking but stopped looking at the fine details, like the time and close and began looking at the people. He heard a girl’s voice laughing. He looked up toward the door and saw Lisa holding someone’s hand pulling them out of the house. He could see the jacket but couldn’t identify the face. It was blocked by a group of teen that was drinking out the plastic disposable red cup. He knew that he couldn’t remember something he didn’t see so he couldn’t move to see the face so he remember what he could about the murderer. He looked closely at the jacket and saw that it was an exact copy of the football team’s letterman jacket except for the fact that it didn’t look as new as the others. It looked like it was aged for not long but longer that that the others. The light grey on the jacket given to the football player, today was nearing white while the jacket the murderer wore was a very dark grey.
His environment shuttered back to car where he continued talking with Victor as he laid in the back seat.
“There was a big drug bust at my school that same year. They found all the drugs hidden in one students’ locker. The only thing was… It wasn’t like anyone was suspecting. The kid it was all pin on, he was brilliant, he always talked abo
ut being in law. I always thought he would be a great lawyer, but that night he was caught, the police found him hung. Christian closed his eyes while he laid. He opened them and was right at home where he last was.
“My everything keeps skipping.” Christian said staring blankly into blank space.
“Everything around you is not skipping, it’s just your memories that keeps skipping. Your brain is trying to organize thing in a way you can understand them. It’s scattering them about like a puzzle so you can solve it, even though you already have it solved.” Evelyn said.
Christian sat and felt something run down his nose. He raise his hand and wiped, looking at it. His hand was crimson with blood. He grabbed a tissue off the table and wiped his nose.
“It’s time to wake up, Christian.” Evelyn said.
“I don’t understand yet. Who killed her?”
He woke up in his living room. The sun was out and bright and light up the living room. He looked at his phone clock and saw that it was a little after eleven. He rushed to get up to write all of the clues that was from his premonitions. He wrote the down, scribbling them as he wrote. He picked up his cellphone and dialed for the Connor. He answered.
“I need you to let Judge Maddox that I will be running late. I need at least thirty minute to gather information. I think I know how to end this.”
“What? Okay, I will see if he would give us that. I can’t believe that you can finish this nightmare. How can you…”
“I can tell you much, but just know that it will be over soon. I have to go, don’t forget thirty minutes.” Christian said as he was about to hang up the phone.
“Okay. I’m on it.”
Christian hung up the phone and began experiencing flashes of his memories. The girl he buried was the focal point. He snapped out of it and walked to his room to get dressed. The image continued to flash across his eyes he opened up his closet. He closed his eye hearing the same screams he heard the night of Lisa’s murder. He covered his ears hoping it would drown out the sound, but it still remained clear as day. His eyes began to tear up and then the sound stopped as the sound faded away and he cried. He cradled himself against the wall.
“We have no right to play god, we have no right to decide what happens next whether it’s life or death.” Mrs. Balmore’s voice echoed in his head.
Christian grew so weak, that upon standing his legs gave back out and he was brought back to his knees.
“I’m so sorry. He said in a low whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
Chapter XVI
Kyra woke up to see that Victor wasn’t in bed again. She just sigh with disappointment. Not that he wasn’t there, but because she looked, anticipating a different result. She left the room walking to Lily’s to check on her. She wasn’t in her crib and her covers was ruffled like she was there. She ran down stair on the edge of hysteria, grabbing the house phone and dialing nine-one-one. She stooped as she saw at the corner of her eye, Victor playing with Lily in the living room.
“Oh, good morning. How did you sleep?”
“Where have you been for the past two days?” She said disregarding his question.
“I had just been driving around giving myself time to relax. I thought you might also need the time to find Kyra. I thought might had needed the time away from me.”
She didn’t answer back. Instead she walked back to the phone base and the sat the phone down. She walked back to the living room.
“She could have at least told someone you were here.” Kyra said holding her robe with both hands.
“I thought you would assume that it was me.”
Kyra didn’t continue, but instead looked around. She felt something, or someone was out of place.
“Where is Christian?” She asked.
“I was on my way home last night and I had seen him walking on the sidewalk. I offered to give him a lift home and he hopped in. Instead of coming here he told me to drop him off at his house.”
“He offered to take a ride with you?” Kyra asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, why not?”
“There is obviously tension between you two. Every time you see him you can see the hate in your stare.”
“I don’t hate him.” Victor said.
“Come on, even, Lily knows that’s a lie.”
“I don’t hate him. At first I thought it was weird that, he had come here drunk like he has been here before.”
The smirk on Kyra face turned into a frown. She knew what came next.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I am not trying to say anything.” Victor said trying to deescalate and diffuse the conversation before it began.
“So I’m nothing but a cheater now, huh?” Kyra said biting down, hard.
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you didn’t deny it either.” Kyra spoke.
Victor sat quiet.
“It’s always good to know what your other thinks of you.” Kyra started to walk away and Victor scurried to his feet.
“Come one. He is smart, I can give him that but he is not a mind reader. How else would he know where we live?”
“Maybe he could have asked around. This is not that big of a town where you have to work hard to find where we live if you ask the right people.”
The phone began to ring but, was ignored as the fight strengthened in intensity. The ringing stopped and so did the fight as a beep came on and a voice followed.
“Hi, it’s Adrian. I just want to tell you how much of a good time I had last night. You made my break up a whole lot better. I hope to see you again, soon.” A woman’s voice spoke. Everything sat still.
“Who is Adrian?” Kyra said.
Victor’s head hung.
“Who is she?”
“I’m so sorry.” Victor said.
Tears streamed down her face and she kept repeating until Victor spoke again.
“It was never, supposed to go this far.”
“Wait, wait. So you are telling me… This whole time you told me nothing was going on, that I was just imagining this in my head. There was actually something going on, with her.” Kyra began to laugh. “See, it’s funny, because these tears are not because you cheated, and lied to me on several occasion and made me, for a month… feel like I was the crazy. Like it was all in my head, like I imagined all of this. And then the funniest part you stood right here in front of me with the audacity to try to accuse me of cheating, so that you could have closure. So that you can feel better about what you did and you were caught.” She stopped laughing and came down and grazing his face with the backside of her hand. “I’ve been part of your comedy skit for way to long. I am tired of being you side act and honestly I am tired of you, so I’m going to tell what is to happen next. I’m going to go upstairs with my baby. I’m going to sit her down in her crib and I’m going to get myself ready to meet Adrian. Now you have until the time I get back to get everything you own or even have your face on it, and I want you to take them and find somewhere else to go. And if you are not gone or if your stuff is still here, I am going to show you how crazy I can really get.”
She walked into the living room and grabbed Lily heading upstairs following her exact instructions. She sat the baby down in the crib and walked to her room and closed the door. She walked into the bathroom turning on the shower then watched as the steam rose, bellowing over the curtains and fogging the mirror. She closed and lock the bathroom door, staggered back to it covering her mouth and sliding down to the floor crying. It was masked by the raining of water as it hit the floor.
Connor had made it to the court and saw that Brian was there and ready and so was the Judge. Judge Maddox looked at Connor with distaste, he must have known that something was going to make his stay in the courtroom extended.
“Mr. Davenport, why isn’t your representative present.”
“He has to take care of his case files. He wanted to know whether, it was okay if you grant him thirty-minutes to gather the information
he needs today, your honor.”
“You know what, it is not okay that he wants to gather, and longer the process of whoever’s conviction. But if he is getting information that could be use in the court to bring the case to its conclusion, I will not grant him the full thirty minutes to get his necessities together. Instead I will call to order, a twenty minute recess and if he doesn’t have everything he needs by then, then we will continue without him.”
“Yes your honor.” Connor said as the gavel was slammed down. The recess was in order.
Christian phone rang as he sat down at a computer and looked up information about the letterman jacket, searching up the little detail like the color and the way it was stitched. He answered.
“The judge gave you time but, not the thirty-minutes you asked for.”
“How much then?” Christian asked typing as fast as he could trying to get answers.
“Twenty minutes.”
“I can work with that. That’s more than enough time.” Christian said scrolling down the page with each search.
“I have to go. I will call as I’m on my way.” Christian hung up the phone and sat it to the side to finish his search for answers in cyberspace.
Kyra went to the daycare center that Adrian stayed with her son. She approached her as she sat playing with her little boy before departing. Kyra stood with a smile on her face as she sent off Lily.
“I’ve seen you before.” Adrian said to Kyra.
“It could be when I jog around the city.”
“No, I’ve seen you before like when I was younger. I can’t remember where.”
“Well maybe it will come to you later. I actually want to ask you if you want to go get some coffee from the diner a little down the way. I have been meaning to make new friend, so I can keep my mind off of work.” Kyra said.
“That sounds nice.”
They both walked out together.
They arrive at the diner after a short drive. They sat down in a both sitting on opposite side.
A Murder Of Our Own (Inevitable Darkness) Page 12