by Quil Carter
“I have a missing nephew and there’s been a sighting of him at your store… I’d like to speak with one of them about it,” Lex said.
“Oh, um, sure,” the young man said. He glanced towards the double doors, a sign with Employees Only above them. “I’ll go get him.” He crossed the dairy section, weaving through open freezers of food and disappeared through the doors. Lex followed him and the three of them waited.
Eventually an overweight man with black trousers and a white button-down with a name tag that read ‘Frank’, came through the doors, his eyes went from Lex to Jobe, then finally Nate. “Can I help you? Is there a problem?” he asked.
“No problem, just… we’d like to speak to you in private for a moment,” Lex said. He walked through the swinging doors into the back warehouse, pallets with merchandise wrapped in plastic all around them, with additional merchandise resting on metal shelving that covered the walls.
Jobe then spotted something else, a door to their left that looked to enter an office.
“You – you can’t really come back here,” the manger said with an awkward cleared throat. “We can speak in the main area. I would be more comfortable––”
“My nephew is missing,” Lex said cutting him off. “He was spotted here. Do you have security cameras on the floor?”
Frank the manager looked annoyed, but his ingrained customer service was preventing him from outright throwing them on their asses, either that or he just wasn’t that type of guy.
“We do, yes,” he said patiently. “But I’m afraid you’d need a court order to view them. Privacy concerns and all.”
Jobe’s shoulders slumped, and a cautious hope that he didn’t even know he had, crumbled beneath his feet. He looked at Lex, hoping to just turn around and leave, but upon laying eyes on Sasha’s uncle, he knew that Lex wasn’t going to go without seeing those tapes.
And it was easy to see why… because this would be the proof––the proof that Sasha was alive and this was all real. Sasha was with someone dangerous, and they had to save him.
“You have to show me those tapes,” Lex said, carefully weaving hostility into his words before he pushed them forward. “I need to know if my nephew is alive.”
Frank bristled at this, and his eyes behind square glasses narrowed. “I’m sorry, sir, but without a court order––”
“I’ll give you two hundred dollars cash,” Lex interrupted again.
Frank’s words halted, but his mouth remained open. He stared at Lex, his mind most likely fighting with itself over this out-of-the-blue offer.
What would win? Greed or morals?
The thing that would win, was the thing that usually wins.
Frank cleared his throat. “What date are you looking for?” he said.
Jobe could feel the relief flooding Lex; it was the exact same feeling that he himself was experiencing.
But as Lex went over the date, and Nate added in the rough time, a cold feeling welled inside of Jobe’s chest.
Lex was eager to see those tapes, to have all of this proven… but didn’t that also mean…
…that they may not show up? What the fuck would it do to Lex if they didn’t see anything?
What would it do to Jobe?
Jobe followed Lex, Nate, and the manager into the office, complete with a medium size television resting on one side of an L-shaped desk. There was a VCR hooked up to it and many wires going to and from.
“You’re lucky…” Frank began as he sorted through a small stack of tapes. “It wouldn’t have been long before it got erased, we don’t keep footage indefinitely. What view point do you want to look at? The security cameras we have are in the entrance and exits, meat section, electronics, household, and automotive.”
“No breakfast cereal aisle?” Lex asked.
“That’s really not a high crime aisle, sir.”
“Kheva and Sasha came in from the meat department,” Nate spoke up. “Meat department and enter and exit. We’ll see them for sure there.”
Frank nodded, then he picked up two tapes, both with a green and white label with blue ballpoint pen, and slid it into the VCR.
He handed Lex the remote. “You have half an hour,” he said. “There’s a camera in my office so don’t try anything funny. No offense.”
“None taken.” Lex took the remote, and handed him two one-hundred-dollar bills. Lex wasn’t one to carry around large amounts of cash, it looked like he may have been planning this all along.
After Frank left, Lex sat down on the manager’s chair and Jobe and Nate stood behind him. He began to fast forward through the tape
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Jobe watched the steady stream of people walk in and out of the Walmart. Even though the people in question were going at high speed, every one of them was briefly analyzed by both Jobe and Lex as they walked in and left, with Nate staring at the ground with his hands shoved into his pockets.
When they got to one o’clock, the tension in the room reached higher. Jobe leaned in and watched, the room dead silent and their breathing tense.
It was quarter to two when Nate suddenly exclaimed. “That’s Rob!” He leaned over the swivel chair that Lex was sitting in and pointed towards a man in his twenties with black hair past his ears. He was wearing a white and green striped t-shirt, blue jeans, and a black jacket, and his movements alone told Jobe that Nate hadn’t been exaggerating Kel’s odd personality.
Then, the tape froze.
For a moment, Jobe’s heart seized, thinking that the actual VHS tape had something wrong with it, that perhaps Kheva had some sort of mental power to block out all recording devices. But upon looking down, he saw Lex in a state of agony, with a thumb resting on the pause button on the remote.
“Lex baby,” Jobe whispered. “What’s wrong?”
Lex stared forward, a carved statue of himself. Then, with eyes full, he looked up at Jobe and said in a voice twisted of despair, “What if it’s not him?”
The impact of Lex’s words hit Jobe dead center of his own insecurities, and there they burrowed in and nested. It was exactly what Jobe himself was worried about––What if all of this was for nothing? Only a way to get their hopes up.
What if Sasha wasn’t with Kheva and Kel? What if he’d killed himself that night and he was rotting in the woods this very moment?
“Then we keep looking,” Jobe whispered. He tried to force-feed strength into his voice, but Jobe’s own strength was tight-lipped and closed off. “Baby, we have to know.” Slowly, like he was taking a gun out of a bank robber’s hand, Jobe took the remote, then pressed play.
Kel ran ahead, a wide grin on his face like that of a child entering Disney World, then behind him Jobe saw two more figures walk through the doors.
Lex cried out when he saw him; Jobe gasped and tears sprung to his eyes.
It was him.
Oh, thank fucking god.
“He’s alive,” Jobe sobbed. He pressed pause on the VCR as Lex began to cry into his hands, perfectly framing Sasha walking through the doors with…
… with his hand being held by another man.
Kheva Swift.
Kheva was tall, well-dressed in a leather jacket with a red shirt underneath, and black pants and matching polished shoes. He had short black hair, clean shaven with a defined jaw and a square chin, and eyes that glared forward like he was impatient with something.
Impatient with… the young man he was dragging into the store?
Sasha… Sasha was scared.
“He doesn’t like stores,” Lex croaked, his voice but a squeak. “He’s terrified. Look at him!”
Jobe sniffed. The fact that Sasha was alive was outweighing the sadness that Sasha was scared, but he still didn’t like seeing his friend in that state.
And with a stranger… with a strange man that Nate had implied… could be raping him.
“He’s alive,” Jobe said. He rested a hand on Lex’s shoulder and squeezed it. “But he’s alive, Lex. Sasha’s ali
ve. He’s not dead. He’s… he’s alive. He’s alive.” Jobe had to keep saying it to himself, the fear was building.
Sasha was alive… and in the hands of mad men.
In the hands of Kheva, who, even paused, seemed lethally dangerous.
Jobe pressed play, but there was only several seconds left before Kel, Kheva, and Sasha disappeared out of sight. Those seconds however, showed Kheva literally dragging a terrified Sasha into the Walmart, Sasha’s eyes jutting around and his feet skidding as Kheva pulled him along.
Right away, Lex pressed eject on the VCR and put in the tape showing the butcher section. Jobe then started fast forwarding.
He’s alive. Sasha’s alive.
No matter what happens… he’s not dead. Sasha’s not dead.
Jobe stopped fast-forwarding at the 1:47 pm mark and the room fell back into a hushed silence. Moments later, Kel ran into the view of the camera and began literally jumping around the cakes and bakery items, occasionally picking up one and showing someone off screen.
The bizarre attitude of this man… who had once been Rob, seemed to clash with what Jobe expected to be Kheva’s personality. How could someone so… hyper and spastic be tolerated by this seemingly prideful and strong individual? It didn’t make sense.
All thoughts on the matter were soon wiped clean when Kheva and Sasha stepped into view, Kheva’s hand still locked around Sasha’s, and Sasha… Sasha’s head was snapping in all directions, his body language cowered and his face twisted with anxiety.
Jobe’s heart broke for him. Sasha was so scared. He didn’t want to be out in public, and not only that…
Jobe noticed that Sasha kept looking down at their joined hands, it soon hit him what Sasha was most likely nervous about.
And he was right, upon looking at the other shoppers, he realized more than a few of them were watching Kheva and Sasha, and watching their clasped hands.
Not only was Sasha scared of being out in public, but they were getting looks because two men were holding hands. Jobe would never do something like that with Sasha, that was just a thing you… you didn’t do.
Their little towns on Vancouver Island were progressive to a point. Jobe had never directly been bullied over being gay, but it wasn’t like you flaunted it. You knew to show your affection in your own home. That’s just the way it was.
And as Sasha’s lips moved, seemingly saying pleading words Jobe couldn’t hear, he knew Sasha was saying the same thing.
Suddenly, Jobe saw Kheva’s eyes widen and glare. He said something to Sasha, ripping his hand away, and Sasha cowered down submissively and began to back away.
“He’s going to hurt him!” Lex cried in a panic. He even looked towards the office door as if forgetting they were watching a recording that happened weeks ago. “Fuck, he’s going to fucking hurt him!”
“He was fine when I saw him,” Nate said quietly. “He… he had bruises on him, but nothing that seemed brand-new.”
Jobe took little solace in that. He knew about the bruises, but Sasha was covered up and the security recording’s resolution wasn’t 100%.
They kept watching, and the hand that was squeezing Lex’s shoulder tightened when Kheva stalked right up to Sasha, who was pressed up against a cooler looking terrified.
Kheva’s eyes were burrowing into Sasha’s, but Sasha’s head was turned. His body language was infuriating Jobe. Just the fact that this asshole was doing that to his best friend, made him want to reach through the television screen and downright strangle him.
Then, just as Jobe was plotting Kheva’s eventual death, he saw something that made his chest turn to an ice cave.
Kheva grabbed Sasha’s arm and pulled him forward––then kissed him.
Right in front of several onlookers, he kissed Sasha on the lips. Passionately, deeply… and Sasha wasn’t pulling away.
Jobe’s mouth fell open, so wide it could’ve hit the floor. He continued watching, the onlookers scattering at the shocking display, and saw Kheva finally pull his lips away from Sasha’s, then speak something to him that Jobe wished he could hear.
Then Kheva turned and stalked away, leaving Sasha standing there stunned.
A look on his face that Jobe took as surprised terror.
Sasha then glanced around one more time, and with his posture cowered like a submissive dog, he walked out of view of the camera.
And that was it.
Sasha’s alive.
Keep reminding yourself that Sasha is alive. Every time your thoughts slip to what you just saw, remember––Sasha is alive.
Suddenly Lex let out an unhuman roar. Jobe and Nate both jumped from shock as the bellow was unleashed, and Jobe sprung on Lex right as the man grabbed for the VCR, most likely to throw it.
“He’s alive; he’s alive,” Jobe said rapidly, his arms wrapped around Lex’s back to restrain him. “Lex, he’s alive. Sasha’s alive. Baby, that’s all that matters. He’s alive!”
“Look at him!” Lex cried, his tone a twisted knot of agony. “He’s scared. He’s scared. He’s being hurt; he’s being hurt in the worst way and I don’t know where he is.” Lex let out a dry sob as Jobe tightly wrapped his arms and squeezed Lex’s back to his chest. They both sunk to the floor, Jobe making shushing noises as Lex tried to control his own hoarse breathing.
“I need to find my boy,” Lex said through a ragged voice. “I need to find my boy. Jobe, we have to find him.”
“We will,” Jobe whispered. He rested his forehead against the back of Lex’s head. “We will, I promise. We’ll find him and we’ll help him.”
Nate stood awkwardly beside them, his eyes on the floor. “I… I didn’t really want to mention this before. I didn’t want it to come to this, the guy is scary…” he began, his tone quiet but loud enough for Jobe and Lex to both turn to him. “But I have someone I can contact, a nightcrawler. He’s an asshole, and I can’t promise anything, but he might help us.”
Lex’s eyes became desperate. “You do?” he said, his voice breaking. “You think he’ll… can he find Sasha? How soon can you contact him?”
Nate’s sneakered feet shifted in place, and his hands stuffed themselves into his pants pockets. “He doesn’t have a cell phone, but I know someone who knows him,” he said. “I can’t promise anything. He’s not a good person, but I think… I think I gotta try.”
A wave of relief swept through both Jobe and Lex. It was something, it might not be much, but it was something.
And right now, they desperately needed something.
Then there was a light rap on the door. They were in no state to see anyone, but considering they were in the middle of a manager’s office, there wasn’t room for choice.
Nate opened the door, and as Lex and Jobe rose back to standing, Frank the manager stepped in.
“There is someone outside the loading docks who wishes to speak with you,” Frank said in an oddly monotone voice.
Jobe froze, but it was Nate who gasped and stepped back.
“Please use the exit door to your left,” Frank said. “Bring the tapes you’ve acquired as well.” Then, as Nate gaped in horror and Jobe and Lex stared confused, the manager turned and walked toward the swinging double doors and into the sales floor of the Walmart.
The three of them stood, and Jobe didn’t know about Lex, but the hair on the back of his neck was prickling.
“Don’t go… don’t go…” Nate stammered. He was white as a sheet and his head was shaking back and forth. “It’s him. It’s fucking him, I know it.”
All attention turned to Nate. “Are you saying… Kheva told him to say that?” Jobe asked slowly.
Even at the mere mention of the name, Nate flinched, but he nodded. “I know that look. I know what it looks like when he’s controlling one of them.”
Lex swore. “I don’t believe it,” he said, still not a breath of life in his voice. Lex looked to be walking along the edges of an anxiety attack, with his back to a rock wall and his front to a sheer cliff. “I don
’t believe he –– he has those powers. Sasha, Sasha just found him. He’s been stalking Sasha. That’s all… that’s fucking all.” He looked at Jobe, his eyes pleading. “Right, Jobe?”
They’d gone back and forth with whether they believed Nate and Lariat’s strange explanation to what Jobe and Lex had seen as sheer insanity brought on by some mental condition. How can they suspend belief to the point where all of this made sense? It was impossible that a man could have these fucking super powers.
That…
… Sasha could.
“I think… we need to go out that door,” Jobe whispered. He looked to his left, through the askew door that showed a sliver of the vast stockroom full of boxes, pallets, and lifts, and saw a single door with a neon red Exit sign above it. “We have to see if he’s there, Lex.”
“I can’t…” Nate said with solidarity. He walked out first, Lex and Jobe trailing behind. “I’ll meet you in the truck. I just can’t see him. This won’t end well and I can’t be a part of it.” Nate was off before either of them got a chance to speak.
Jobe and Lex’s heads turned towards the exit, then slowly, they both walked towards the door, several low murmurs of voices sounding in the distance, too far to be of importance.
Jobe’s heart raced the closer they got. He was drowning in so many emotions, he had no idea which ones he actually felt. He wanted to kill Kheva, strangle him until his eyes popped out of their sockets, but even inside this growing rage, there was a part of him that was scared of what was about to happen.
Everything about Kheva screamed dangerous.
But that just meant Jobe couldn’t let Sasha remain with him. Even if they were putting themselves in danger, they had to do it.
For Sasha.
Jobe made the motion to push open the metal door, but Lex held out a hand. “You stay back here in case––”
“Not happening, baby,” Jobe said, and he pressed the metal bar on the door and squinted his eyes as daylight streamed into the cavernous stockroom.
Jobe shielded his face with his arm and squinted, the sunny day blinding eyes used to the dimly lit, cavernous stock room and manager’s office. He stepped into the parking lot, the weather deceptively beautiful considering the mood, and looked around.