by Nathan Jay
As Tabitha dried herself off, she thought of various ways to tell Trevor she wasn't going back to the job, but none of the reasons seemed plausible. He'd see through her, and Trevor would want an explanation. The two were planning to purchase a new house within the next six months. A loss of income would surely upset their plans, not to mention their plans to get married. Trevor would demand an explanation that she didn't have yet.
After drying off and brushing her teeth three more times, Tabitha opened the bathroom door. As soon as she stepped into the cold bedroom, a nude Trevor wrapped Tabitha in a warm embrace.
"I've been thinking about you all day, baby."
Tabitha moved her face away from his lips to his cheek. She still felt dirty.
"Baby, can you give me a few hours? I have a splitting headache," she lied.
"What's the matter? Bad day at work?"
"Yeah. Kind of busy, you know?"
Trevor backed away from her.
"Okay, baby. Do you need me to make dinner?"
"Could you?"
"No problem. You just take a couple of Tylenol, and I'll get dinner started."
"You're the best!"
Trevor slid into his bathrobe and gave Tabitha a peck on the cheek before heading towards the kitchen. Tabitha flopped on the edge of the bed, sad and confused about what to do next.
Chapter 28: The Souls of Tabitha and Trevor Pt. 3
Tabitha sat in the break room with two other coworkers watching television. Two women laughed as they watched a judge tell a thief off in the middle of Small Claims Court. Tabitha was there, but she wasn't there. She had heated one of her diet meals in the microwave, but she didn't eat any of it. Tabitha still had thoughts in her head about what had happened between her and the bank manager last month. She'd told herself that she would quit, but after taking a look at all of the plans she had made with Trevor, it became evident that leaving was an impossibility.
Suddenly, the two women packed up their lunch bags and left the room to go back to work. Tabitha remained seated. Her mind had lost track of time, and she was in no hurry to "fake" smile for clients. Tabitha hated being there, and it was becoming almost impossible for her to hide her displeasure with the job. As she poured over the events, the door opened, and a woman walked in.
"Excuse me," said the woman. But Tabitha couldn't hear her. Her mind was everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Do you mind if I eat lunch with you?" the woman asked. She walked over and touched Tabitha's arm. Tabitha almost fell out of her seat in surprise.
"I'm sorry. Did I scare you? I'm Diane. I'm part of the financial advisors that go around meeting clients at different branches."
"Hi, Diane. I've seen you pop in from time to time. I'm Tabitha. I'm a part-time teller."
"I didn't scare you, did I?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. My mind is all over the place lately."
"Do you mind if I eat lunch here?"
"No, not at all."
The woman sat in the chair next to Tabitha's.
"How is it out there on the platform?"
"It's not too bad yet. The lunch crowd is mostly check-cashers. How many more minutes do you have left on your break?"
"About 10 minutes."
The woman walked over and put her lunch in the microwave and then returned to the table. Suddenly she grabbed Tabitha's arm.
"He did it to you, didn't he?" she whispered. Tabitha was startled by the question.
"What?"
"You heard me. Mr. Donavan. He forced you to…"
Tabitha pretended she didn't know what the woman was saying.
"Cynthia Gilmore. Did you know her?"
"No."
"She was the teller who was here before you. Cynthia tried to report him. But that didn't turn out the way she thought it would."
"What do you mean?"
"This bank is a small community bank. Most of the company’s leadership is over in a building in Jupiter Point. They all hang together in a "good ole boys" bunch. You know what I mean?"
Tabitha knew what she meant. Plenty of swinging sticks and no chicks.
"Cynthia reported Mr. Donavan to HR. It got back to the CFO, and they brushed it under the rug. Before she knew what was happening, they fired Cynthia."
"Really?"
"Not only that. Those bastards blackballed her from the banking industry."
Tabitha shook her head. These pricks play dirty.
"She killed herself six months after being fired."
Tabitha was stunned.
"I don't know what to say. How? Why?"
The woman walked to the microwave and returned to the table with her bowl of steaming soup.
"This stuff stinks up the place something awful, but I just can't resist it. Clam chowder is my favorite."
The woman took a spoonful of soup and blew on it until it was cold enough. She closed her eyes and put the spoon into her mouth.
"So delicious. Needs a little salt, though," Diane said, reaching over Tabitha to the salt shaker on the table.
"He did it to me too."
"What?"
"Yeah. I was a floating teller when I first started with the bank. I'd go around to different offices whenever someone called out sick. At the time, he was at the Jupiter Point office. One day we were working late, and everyone had gone for the evening. He told me he had me on camera taking $200 bucks from the register."
"Jesus!"
"I can't lie. I did take the money. My husband and I were trying to save money for his surgery. I needed it. The opportunity was there, so I took it."
"My God!"
"That's how he gets you, you know. He'll watch you like a hawk until you screw up, and then he'll pounce. You don't have to steal anything. Just make enough mistakes, and he'll use that to get you."
"This is unbelievable."
"He forced me to blow him in his office," said Diane matter-of-factly. "He told me if I didn't do it, he'd call security on me."
Tabitha cringed. It was how he got her.
"There are security tapes, but he erases them at the end of every workday. Hell, who knows? He probably keeps them to blackmail the girls."
Tabitha instantly started crying. The security tapes! She'd completely forgotten that the bank recorded everything.
"Calm down, Tabitha."
Tabitha became angry. The tapes were probably the only way that the sick son of a bitch stopped women from going to the police about him.
"I've got to quit. I just can't take this."
"In total, we think he's probably done this to about 15 to 20 women over six years. He's a full-blown predator."
Tabitha looked at Diane.
"Why are you telling me this now?"
The woman put a scoop of chowder into her mouth and chewed for a little while before responding.
"I'm telling you this for several reasons. One, on the night he did it to you, I saw it."
Tabitha lowered her head in shame. Diane rubbed her back.
"Hey. Don't worry. I didn't see as much as you think."
Suddenly Tabitha was furious.
"If you saw that sick son of a bitch doing that to me, why didn't you come in to stop it?"
Diane looked away.
"The second reason I'm telling you about this is that something is about to happen to him."
Tabitha calmed herself and stared at the woman suspiciously.
"What do you mean by – happen?"
"All you need to know is that he won't be here much longer."
Tabitha sat up and paid attention. Her sadness evaporated like a small raincloud on a summer day.
"Is he going to jail?"
"No, nothing like that."
"Then what do you mean?"
Tabitha sensed a sinister tone in the woman's voice. She didn't know whether to celebrate the potential harm to her attacker or to feel afraid.
"The women he took advantage of…we are going to handle it ourselves."
Suddenly Tabitha was
afraid and excited all at once.
"What are you all going to do?"
"If you want to be there, tell me. But that is the only way you get the complete details. If you choose to remain an outsider with your hands clean, we'll understand. But the victims will take their revenge. That is why I came to you."
Tabitha's hands began to tremble. She wanted nothing more than to see Mr. Donovan suffer just as she did, to take away the piece of him that felt safe and comfortable. She'd taken her revenge on him over and over in her imagination. In one fantasy, Tabitha had seen a large crowd of muscular prisoners taking their turn beating and raping him until he was but a stain on the prison floor. In another fantasy, Tabitha had thrown him to a pack of wild dogs and watched as they ripped him apart. Now, this proposition of revenge had penetrated reality, and she wanted a piece of it.
"Okay. I'm in. What are the plans?"
Diane laughed – a much more masculine cackle than Tabitha had anticipated.
"It's not that simple."
"Why not? I said I'm in."
"How do we know you're not going to run to the cops or something? We have to protect the women involved in this."
"Okay. So, you tell me. What is the next step?"
"We're meeting at Jupiter Point. Are you familiar with the park?"
"Yeah. The place where all of that weird stuff happened, right?"
"That's the place. Meet us there on Sunday at 3 am."
"Sunday morning? Why Sunday?"
"For some of the girls, it's kind of a good day for judgment. For me, it's just another day on the calendar."
Tabitha stood up and cleaned away the items at the table.
"See you on Sunday, Diane," she said as she walked to the door. Just as Tabitha was about to exit the room, Diane spoke.
"So that you know. Donavan deserves this. 100%. After what he did to all of us, you shouldn't feel bad about anything that happens. He brought it on himself."
"I know. See you later."
As Tabitha walked past the manager's office, she saw Mr. Donavan laughing as he talked on the telephone. Suddenly Tabitha was angry again. She looked on the wall of his office and saw the picture of the man with his son. Disgust overwhelmed her once more. How could someone do such a hideous thing to another person while his son's picture stood witness to the whole thing? Tabitha glared at Mr. Donavan again. The more she looked at him, the more she wanted him to die. There was no place on this earth for a soul so morally corrupt. The sight of the man wiped away any reservations she had in meeting up with the group of women in the forest. Now she was entirely on board with their plans.
Tabitha turned the corner to her workstation and almost knocked a man over.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, sir," she said. The man straightened his Fedora hat and pulled his trench coat tight.
"That's alright, ma'am. A good day to you," he replied and continued on his way toward the exit. Before he exited the building, he paused. After watching Tabitha prepare her work station, he frowned and left the building.
Chapter 29: The Souls of Tabitha and Trevor Pt. 4
"You barely touched your dinner tonight. Is something wrong?" asked Trevor as he cleaned away the plates.
"Nothing beyond the normal. I'm just tired, I guess."
Trevor shook his head in agreement.
"I'm tired too. That new account is kicking my butt," said Trevor.
"Really?" Tabitha asked half-heartedly.
"Yeah. I don't know why the company doesn't invest in technology. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm living in the time before computers. You'd never believe how much paperwork we go through. When I talked to Michael in technology about the…"
Trevor paused. He could tell Tabitha wasn't with him. After a few moments, Tabitha snapped back to reality.
"Oh! I'm sorry, baby. What were you saying? I missed that."
Her boyfriend looked at her suspiciously.
"Maybe you should try to get some sleep. You're kind of out of it."
Tabitha stood up from the dinner table and kissed Trevor.
"Please forgive me, baby. I'm just exhausted. Do you mind if we call it an early night?"
"You go to bed. I'll finish the dishes."
"Can you wait on the dishes, honey? I want you next to me."
Trevor smiled.
"Okay. Just let me put away the leftovers, and I'll be right there."
Moments later, Trevor walked into the bedroom. Tabitha was lying on the bed asleep in her clothes. After removing Tabitha's clothes and putting her into bed, Trevor showered. As he stood in the warm water, he wondered about his fiancé. There was something that was bothering her. After wasting a few minutes trying to discern the source of her uneasiness, Trevor gave up. Things would resolve as they always had between the two of them. She'd eventually tell him, and things would return to normal. Trevor brushed his teeth and climbed into bed. As he drifted off to sleep, he never noticed the stranger standing just outside his bedroom window, peering in. After he was asleep, the man turned and walked away.
Chapter 30: The Souls of Tabitha and Trevor Pt. 5
As Tabitha drove down the dark road towards Jupiter Point, she kept looking at her cell phone. Although Trevor was a heavy sleeper, she expected him to wake up and find that she was gone. What would be her excuse? What could she tell him? Her early morning flight was sure to spark infidelity speculations. No man on earth would openly accept their fiancé's reason for leaving home in the middle of the night without an excuse. Earlier in the week, she'd thought about telling him that she would be staying at her friend Melissa's house for the weekend. But when she'd attempted to contact Melissa to set up the alibi, Tabitha discovered Melissa had gone to Florida on vacation. So, she decided to just flee in the middle of the night, hoping that she could return before Trevor woke up.
Tabitha's car slid along the foggy roads like water making its way down a pipe. There was no traffic early in the morning. It was just her and the road. She felt like she was in one of those luxury car commercials made to entice people to put themselves in debt. Her car carved the winding road like a sharp knife as if it had been programmed with its final destination long before Tabitha climbed behind the wheel.
As she turned to drive up the hill leading to Jupiter Point, Tabitha became afraid. The sky had a deep red color to it that she'd never seen before. Tabitha tried to comfort herself with the thought that maybe someone was shining lights from some event, but she knew better. She was well aware of the stories about Jupiter Point, and none of them had happy endings. Maybe the red sky was a warning for her to stay away. Although she wanted to turn around, Tabitha kept pressing forward. She wanted to see the demise of that colossal prick no matter the cost.
Tabitha pulled her car into the parking lot of Jupiter Point and turned off the engine. After looking around for a few minutes, a car pulled into the parking lot behind her. It was Diane. Tabitha opened her car door and got out to greet her.
"Hi, Diane. I think we're the only ones here so far, but…"
Diane ignored Tabitha and walked past her directly into the woods.
"O…K…" Tabitha whispered as she saw Diane disappear into the forest. Reluctantly, she walked behind her into the brush. As Tabitha descended into the dark forest, she began cursing under her breath. Tabitha couldn't see anything. Walking in the woods at Jupiter Point was like trying to see through a glass full of ink. She could hear Diane's footsteps as she stepped on sticks and pushed through bushes, but that was all. After walking for several minutes in absolute darkness, Tabitha saw a small campfire to the left of her path. As she approached the fire, she heard Diane speak.
"She was right behind me. No worries," Diane said.
"Good," a female voice responded. "Let's get this over with."
When Tabitha arrived, five women were standing around the fire. All of the women were faces she didn't recognize. A couple that looked old enough to be in their 40's, and the other two looked like they weren't much older than 18 or 19. Ta
bitha felt her heart sink. She had no idea the depths of Mr. Sullivan's depravity ran so deep.
"Everyone. Please welcome Tabitha to our sorority of abuse," said Diane.
"Hello, Tabitha," the group said collectively. Tabitha waved at the group but remained silent.
"We shouldn't be missing anyone now. Right?" asked one of the teenaged girls. After looking around for a few seconds, all of the women confirmed that everyone was there. Diane smiled and nodded to the older brunette woman standing to her right.
"Go bring that piece of shit out."
The women brought out a naked and blindfolded Mr. Sullivan and led him to the fire. Although the man's presence stirred feelings of pain and anger in each of the women, none of them said anything. They all starred at the pathetic man with nothing but contempt in their hearts. Tabitha watched in disgust as they led the man to the campfire. Gone were the expensive suits and flashy jewelry he so proudly flaunted. The smug smile that Mr. Donavan flashed whenever he wanted to flirt was gone. One of his expensive ties was used as a gag to shut him up. Mr. Donavan's overweight naked body glistened in the light of the campfire like he was a pig going to slaughter. Tabitha was sure that the man was aware of his pending execution; the smell of his urination a clear indication that he received a proper lesson on the price of underestimating his victims. There were deep cuts all over his body, and his breathing seemed labored as though he had internal injuries. But none of the ladies cared about his medical condition, not after what he'd done.
"Please don't," he begged. Tabitha temporarily felt sorry for him. Although he had committed such a heinous act, did they have the right to take from him what was most precious? After all, Mr. Donavan hadn't killed anyone. At a bare minimum, he only deserved the justice of an eye-for-an-eye. Death was forever. Just as Tabitha was about to speak up in his defense, the man let out a much more vicious rant.