by Vakey, Jenn
Chapter Eight
“You don’t have to stay,” she said as he locked every lock on the backdoor. “If this person really wanted me dead, they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of setting me up.” As she said it, she thought back to the flashes she had seen of the person standing at the end of her bed, then to her funeral. The truth was, she wouldn’t put it past the killer at all to go after her while she was at home. If that happened, though, she didn’t want Ben to get caught in the middle of it. “Besides, I would feel really bad if one of your fish died because you were too worried about me to go home and feed them.”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” he said stubbornly. “And my fish can manage for one day. We can go over there tomorrow morning.” He didn’t look back toward her before walking to the front door. After ensuring it was secure, he made his way around the entire house, double checking every window. Rilynne followed him from room to room, but just stood back and watched him with an amused grin.
After he made sure a room was locked up, he shut the door before continuing into the next room. By the time he finished, Rilynne’s house felt completely locked down. “Are you satisfied?” she asked.
“For the time being,” he replied. When they reached her bedroom door, he was stopped by the ringing of his phone. “I’ve got to take this,” he stated. “I’ll be in soon.”
Rilynne nodded and proceeded through the door and into the restroom. After quickly getting ready for bed, she climbed under her thick comforter and sank into her pillows. She tried to keep her eyes open until Ben came in, but she couldn’t. The events of the prior days seemed to be taking their toll on her, leaving her both emotionally and physically drained. As she gave in and let her eyes slowly drift shut, she instantly fell into a deep sleep.
“Right this way, folks,” she heard from her right. “The next stop on our tour is the notorious Rilynne Evans.”
She looked forward and saw a group of people standing on the other side of a wall of gray prison bars. She asked herself for a moment why so many people would be in one cell, but reality set in. She was in the cell.
“Now I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone why Ms. Evans is with us,” a tall man standing at the far edge of the cage said. “Rilynne Evans was a homicide detective working out of Addison Valley, Texas. After a man whom she believed was guilty of murder was released-”
“He was guilty!” she interrupted.
“Right,” he said, seemingly unconcerned with anything she had to say. “As I was saying, after the man was released from custody, he was hunted down and slain in his own apartment. Within days, Ms. Evans was named as the prime suspect.”
She looked out as he spoke at all of the eyes that were on her. Though many of them were filled with curiosity and intrigue, most held something more like revulsion.
“Wasn’t she found innocent?” a young girl called out. Rilynne turned toward her. She looked no more than fourteen years old.
“That’s right, young lady,” the tour guide stated. “Ms. Evans was able to successfully clear her name, as well as deliver the true killer. In so doing, she revealed herself to the world as what she truly is.”
Rilynne’s heart began pounding away in her chest. She wanted to ask what she was doing there, but she already knew. All she could do was sit there and hope she was wrong.
“We have been able to successfully tie thirty-three deaths to Ms. Evans, each occurring because of her ‘ability,’” he said, glaring at her. “The last of which was Ben Davis, her boyfriend at the time. After finding out what she could do, he ran out into a street to get away from her and was struck and killed by a car.”
“What?” she asked, rushing across the small cell. She grabbed the bars with both hands and leaned toward the guide. “What are you talking about? What happened to Ben?”
He seemed unmoved by her outburst. Instead of answering her, he just turned back to the group around him.
“For her crimes, Rilynne Evans has been sentenced to die as all undesirables do. You should feel lucky,” he said with a grin. “You are actually the last group to get to see her before her sentence is carried out, and she is burned at the stake.”
“What?” she yelled. “You can’t do that. I didn’t kill anyone. I haven’t done anything. This is some kind of mistake.”
“Now if you will follow me…” he trailed off, leading the group away.
Rilynne dropped down on her knees, the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Somebody talk to me!” she yelled. She heard her words echo down the hallway. “Someone tell me what’s going on!”
“You have a visitor,” a cold voice said. She looked up to find another man, this one short and stocky. He did have one thing in common with the guide, though. He had the same look of malice in his eyes. “Why someone would want to visit you, I’m not sure.”
When he walked away, she saw Matthews was standing against the back wall.
“Matthews,” she said. “Tell me what’s going on. I don’t understand. Where’s Ben? They said…what happened to him?”
She saw something she had never seen before when she looked out at him. Hate.
“Matthews,” she said softly. “Todd. You know me. You know I would never hurt anyone, especially Ben. Please, just tell me what’s going on. They said they’re going to burn me. You can’t let that happen.”
He pushed off of the wall, his arms still folded in front of him, and walked toward her. “I thought I knew you,” he said coldly. “You lied to me, you lied to everyone. Look at how many people are dead because of what you can do. Ben, Mifflin… Katy.”
“Katy?” she asked as the air rushed from her lungs. “What happened to Katy?”
“She died!” he yelled. “You are responsible. You could have saved her. You should have saved her.”
She dropped down to the floor, fighting the urge to be sick. Her heart was pounding so hard, she felt like it was going to explode in her chest.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Tell me what happened. Please. I just don’t understand.”
“You should have seen the complications she suffered during labor. If you had just seen them and told someone, she could have been saved,” he said. “The baby could have been saved. I fought like hell to have you charged with their deaths, and I’m going to sit in the front row and watch you burn.”
She couldn’t speak or even move. She just sat on the floor of the cell, tears rolling down her wet face, until the other man returned.
“It’s time,” he said. She looked up and found that Matthews was gone. “Get up.”
When she didn’t move, he slid the bars open and struck her with something hard. “I said get up!”
She pulled herself onto her feet and stepped out of the cell.
Suddenly, she was standing in the middle of a round room. She tried to move, but found her arms tied behind her, holding her against something hard. She looked over her shoulder as a small whimper escaped her. It was a stake. She pulled her eyes away from it and looked back around the room.
There was a large window circling the majority of it. Sitting behind the glass she saw nothing but familiar faces. Every member of both the Addison Valley and Bodker homicide departments were staring at her, each with a loathing glare. Directly in front of her was Sarah Bennett, her former sister-in-law.
“Please,” Rilynne said in an almost inaudible tone. She was too confused and tired to fight. Ben was dead. Katy was dead. Everyone she loved and cared about was there to watch her die. She didn’t see the point in struggling any longer.
“And what you’ve all been waiting for,” the guide said as he reappeared. He sounded almost like a circus announcer. His upbeat tone just didn’t seem right given what was about to happen. He turned and smiled at Rilynne before reaching out and pressing his hand against a large, red button.
Instantly, the floor around her erupted in flames. “No,” she moaned. “Make this stop. I didn’t mean to. Please make it stop.”
The flames r
eached up like hands and grabbed her ankles. Their long fingers burned worse than anything she had ever felt. She looked out into the crowd for anyone to come to her aid, but all she found was a sea of scowls.
“Make it stop!” she yelled.
The room was still dark when her eyes shot open. She twisted quickly and found Ben sound asleep next to her. She took low, deep breaths, trying to slow the heart that was pounding violently in her chest. It took several minutes for her body to relax, but unfortunately the thoughts racing through her mind were not as easy to subdue.
She gently slid off the edge of the bed, careful not to wake Ben, and slipped out of the room. She felt a tightness in her chest as she walked through the dark house that she hadn’t felt since she was a child. It wasn’t that the darkness itself was leaving her frightened, it was the prospects of what could be waiting for her in it. It took all of the strength she had to wait until she made it into the kitchen before turning a light on.
It was just after four.
As she poured herself a glass of water, she pondered whether she should try to force herself back to sleep, or just give up and get an early start on the day. Though she didn’t have to get up early for work, she still knew the events she currently found herself caught in the middle of would not go away on their own. She was going to need to be well rested if she was to tackle the day ahead. With a resigned sigh, she finished the last of her water and walked back to her room.
Ben hadn’t moved a muscle since she left him. His gentle snoring echoed through the room as she carefully climbed back into bed. Before she lowered back down onto her pillows, she saw the moonlight creeping through the window reflect off of something sitting on the nightstand closest to Ben. She squinted as she tried to make out what it was, and smirked when it became clear. Before getting in bed, it appeared that Ben had made sure her backup gun was in reach.
She grinned down at him before gently kissing him on the forehead and sliding back under the covers. To her surprise, she now felt much more relaxed. It took only moments for her to drift back to sleep.
It seemed like only minutes later that she was awoken again. When she opened her eyes, though, she saw the morning light flooding into the room.
She reached out to grab the ringing phone that was sitting on her nightstand and held it up to check the number. It wasn’t one she knew.
“Who is it?” Ben asked, rubbing his hands over his face.
Rilynne shrugged before pulling the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”
“Evans.” She heard Matthews’ voice on the other end of the line. “I need you to listen to me very carefully.”
“You’re scaring me,” she interrupted. “What’s going on?”
“They just issued a warrant for your arrest,” he said abruptly. “You have about twenty minutes before they show up to take you in. Rilynne, you need to get out of there now. Don’t go to Ben’s or anywhere else they would think to look for you. Just go, go now.”
Chapter Nine
Rilynne was shocked by the tone in his voice. She had never heard him sound so scared. More than anything, though, she was stunned to hear her name. He never called her Rilynne. “You could lose your job for this,” she said as she jumped off the bed and ran to the closet. “You have too much going on right now to take a risk like this.”
“You’re my partner,” he said simply. “Now go.”
Before she could say anything else, she heard the line go dead. With one last heartfelt look at the phone, she shoved it into the pocket of her pajama pants and grabbed a handful of clothes.
“What’s going on?” Ben asked as she shoved the clothes abruptly into the pack she had grabbed from the top shelf.
She considered not telling him for a moment. She knew what it would mean if she walked out of the house now, and didn’t want him to have to make the same decision. Before she could respond, though, he seemed to see the truth in the situation. He was off the bed and out of the room before she knew what was happening.
Rilynne stuffed everything she might need into the bag and rushed out of the room. She found Ben in the kitchen.
“Send Lori a text and tell her you’re on the way to visit your mom,” he stated. “Ask her if she can keep an eye on your house while you’re gone. Tell her you shouldn’t be more than a week.” She was taken aback by his statement, but she quickly complied. “Go put that in my car. Then grab the sleeping bags out of the hall closet. How long did he say we have?”
“You don’t have to do this, Ben. You don’t have to give up your life like this,” she stated.
“How long?” he asked again as he pulled the pantry door open.
“About fifteen more minutes,” she replied.
“We have five,” he said as he filled the bag in his arms full of bottled waters and numerous cans of food. “Where’s the little stove for camping?”
“With the sleeping bags,” she said as she hurried toward the door. She could feel the overwhelming sense of panic sweeping over her, but she quickly pushed it aside as she ran to his car and threw the bag in. She was just going back in when Ben met her at the door, arms filled with the sleeping bags, stove, and bag of food.
“Let’s go,” he said, quickly slipping his jeans back on. “Get in the car. I’ll grab everything else we need on the way out.”
“Where are we going?” she asked as she climbed into the car.
Ben slammed the trunk door and sat down. He barely had the door shut before he swung the car out of the driveway. “We’ll figure that out,” he said. Rilynne could hear the panic in his voice. She reached down and gently placed her hand on his thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. She then took in the sight and let out a little laugh. She was in her pajamas with her shoes in her hand, and Ben’s pants were unbuttoned and his shirt was only half on.
“What?” he asked, flashing her a confused grin.
She shook her head and dropped her head back onto the headrest. “This is crazy,” she said. “We shouldn’t be doing this. You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re going to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. I can’t let you just throw away your life like this.”
“You are my life,” he interrupted. Rilynne’s heart jumped as she turned toward him, but he didn’t take his eyes off of the road in front of them. “We’re going to figure this out, we just need time. That won’t happen if you get arrested. I can’t do this without you, and you can’t do it alone.”
“Okay,” she said after a few moments. She grinned at him before turning and looking out the window. “So what do we do now?”
“There’s a small camping store on the other side of town. We’ll stop by there and pick up everything we need. After that, we’ll find somewhere we can stay for a few days until we get everything figured out. I should probably stop and get some money so we don’t have to use our cards,” he replied.
Rilynne nodded as she watched the buildings pass by the window. “Give me your phone,” she said a moment later. He handed it to her without question. She quickly popped the battery off before reaching for her own. “It won’t take them long to realize you’re with me, especially since you sent that email in last night. When they can’t find me, they’ll go looking for you.”
“Well, when Lori tells them you left to visit your mom, they’ll just think we’re on the road headed out there. It will buy us a few days to try and figure this out before it starts to look like we ran,” he replied. “We just need to get it figured out by then. If anyone can, it’s you.”
Neither of them spoke again until they pulled up in front of the store. “Wait here,” he stated. “I’ll run in and get what we need. You might want to put some actual clothes on while you wait. I’ll probably run in the store next door, too. I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to run by my place to grab clothes. Do you think it would be safe to call my neighbor and ask him to feed my fish?”
“Matthews will take care of them, I’m sure of it,” she replied. “He’ll realize as soon as he
sees my car in the driveway that I’m with you and will know we won’t be making stops to take care of your fish.”
He nodded and shut the door, pulling his shirt the rest of the way on as he walked.
Rilynne climbed into the back seat after she watched Ben walk into the store. She pulled her pack open and grabbed the shirt and pants off the top. After quickly pulling them on, she climbed back in the passenger seat and closed her eyes while she waited for him to come back.
As hard as she tried, she couldn’t force herself to see anything. She refused to give up, though, and was still trying when Ben climbed back in twenty minutes later.
“So here are our options,” he said as he started the car. “We can either head out of town, or try and find someplace in Addison Valley where we can hide out. I’ll leave that up to you.”
“I know it’s riskier to stay here, but I think that’s our best chance of trying to get this situation taken care of,” she replied. “Is it feasible, though? Are we going to be able to find someplace where we can stay that we won’t be found?”
“I was thinking about it, and our best bet would be to head out to one of the caves on the property Matthews bought,” he replied as he pulled out of the parking lot. “It will provide us with good shelter, and there isn’t really any chance of someone stumbling across us. If Matthews does find us there, he’s the least likely person in town to turn us in.”
Rilynne thought about it and nodded. She didn’t relish the idea of putting Matthews in a compromising situation, but she didn’t see that they had any other choice.
“What about a car?” Rilynne asked. “It’s not like we can exactly drive around it yours. I’m sure it will be included on the APB.”
“Not a problem,” Ben said quickly. “I’ve got a buddy who runs an auto shop. He has several cars he lets people rent out while he is doing repairs.”
Rilynne looked at him hesitantly. “Is he going to turn us in if your face ends up on the news?”
He shook his head. “Nope,” he replied confidently. “He owns me a favor. Besides, he’s not really a news kind of guy.”