by I N Foggarty
##
Eventually, they stopped outside a run-down two-story building. When Mr Yates cut the ignition, the hobo indicated for them all to troop out. The fat man fumbled with his keys again but a quick reminder about the knife being held behind him soon encouraged him to find the right one.
The inside of the office looked little better than the outside, which gave Matt a suspicion that the owner may have been a bit down on his luck. The fat man squeezed his hips between the arms of a battered computer chair and hastily booted up his machine. Ten minutes later and a fat finger shakily pointed at the screen. “Here. That’s the one there.”
“Huh,” Matt heard the Hobo mutter under his breath. “Los sin techo... Makes sense.”
“It’s only my best guess you understand,” Mr Yates bumbled as he wiped sweat from his wrinkled brow with a sleeve. “I don’t ever really know who buys most of the plates I sell.”
That did not sound promising Matt thought, but the hobo soon allayed his fears. “Cut the crap, Yates. Everyone and their grandmother knows you know who you work for.”
“Y…y…you never got it from me ok,” the fat man then said frantically. “If they find out…”
“They’ll be more merciful to you than I would have been had you not told me. Good night, Yates.” Matt could only watch as the hobo hit the man in the back of the neck and he slumped in his chair. He turned to face him. “We’d better go.”
“Yeah,” Matt replied, almost unable to contain himself. “So who are Los sin techo?”
The man did not reply until they were back outside. “A group of miscreants who used to work this part of town. ‘Cept they sent their rep down the toilet a couple of years back. Work out of East Garfield now.” Only when the man locked the office door did Matt realise that he had relieved Yates of his keys.
“Great. Let’s go.” Matt stopped in his tracks. He had no idea where East Garfield was from here.
As if on cue, the hobo answered his question. “East Garfield’s up north and is too long a trek for tonight.”
“Wait we’re not going tonight?” Matt said in alarm. “Anna could be in serious danger.”
“Don’t worry about it kid.” The man’s tone did not reassure him. “Their boss, old Gutierrez is a friend of mine from way back. We’ll pay him a visit tomorrow night and straighten this whole mess out. I’ll wager it’s all just a big misunderstanding.”
Though dismayed not to be heading there now, it was a slight relief to hear the man talk so casually about the situation. If they were friends from ‘way back’ like he claimed then it should hopefully be straightforward.
“Ok,” Matt agreed. “We’ll go tomorrow.”
“Good to see you’re finally getting with the program. Now you best run off home and get some sleep. Come back to my place by eleven-thirty tomorrow night.”
With everything that had happened, Matt had completely lost track of time. A glance at his watch told him it was almost three in the morning. Fishing in his pocket, he pulled out his cell phone and turned on the GPS. He groaned on realising it would take him the best part of two hours to walk home. When he looked up the hobo had already set off on his own trek in the opposite direction. Sighing he memorised the first set of directions and turned to set off. From behind him, the man called out. “And, Kid. You can call me Walker. You’ve already heard it and made up your mind to call me it anyway.”
Setting off along his own route the events of the evening raced through his mind. Everything from his first encounter with ’Walker’ through his strip tease with Candy, right up to Mr Yates being knocked unconscious blurred together as his heart hammered in his chest. He decided that it too would have to be put to the back of his mind and dealt with later. For now, nothing else mattered or could be given any headspace but Anna.
He would find Anna if it was the last thing he ever did.
Two sides of a coin
“…You will treat and refer to her as your mother or I’ll put you out on the street the second you’re old enough…”
“…Boy, if you put another toe out of line I’ll telephone your father and have you shipped out to military school faster than you can say hoodlum…”
“…If I’d had my way you would have been left with your whore mother…”
“…Dylan…”
“…I will not have my only child and heir waste their life on that computer and programming nonsense. You will go to college and study a proper engineering discipline or so help me I’ll…”
“…Dylan…”
Dylan jumped, a voice from the real world accompanied by a hand on his shoulder shattering his thoughts. He let out a slow breath and his gaze zoned in on the voice to see that Chloe knelt beside him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said quickly and snatching back her hand recoiled away from him.
“It’s ok,” Dylan replied reassuringly, though he did not know for whose benefit. “You just startled me that’s all.” Given the circumstances it was difficult but he gave her a weak smile all the same. “What’s up?”
“I…” Chloe stammered. She hung her head slightly. “I was just wondering if I could have a drink of your water.”
She sounded ashamed to be asking Dylan thought. He picked up the bottle that sat beside him and looked at the contents, barely enough for a mouthful each. “Here.” He held it out to her. “I’m not thirsty. You can finish it.”
He could not have told a more blatant lie. His throat felt drier than a sand trap and his mouth tasted worse than that time he had licked a stick of deodorant on a dare. Had the bottle been full he could probably have downed the entire contents and still not been sated. After bringing Chloe to them their captors had returned later with more food and water. Anna, discovering that the girl had not eaten or drunk anything for two days, insisted that she be given a full bottle of water and sandwich to herself there and then. Leaving two of each for them all to share the next ‘day’.
It was quite disconcerting not knowing if it were day or night outside. Anna had shared a theory that they were being fed at night, which had been backed up by Chloe who suggested that it had been afternoon when they had first met. She had not said why she thought so and the tears that had welled up in her eyes had been enough to discourage them from prying. If that were true then that had been yesterday and by Dylan’s logic around about twenty-four hours ago.
Though even with someone else for company, the time had not passed any quicker. Chloe had huddled herself in a corner for a time, while Anna had parked her rear down near the gate and had not moved since. Or at least as far as Dylan knew. He himself had been asleep at points and lost inside his own thoughts during others. Perhaps she had been moving about but had developed a preferred spot to which to return.
At first, Dylan had yearned for some form of conversation or prolonged human interaction. However, by now he had lowered this desire down to anything that would stave off the boredom, even if it were only for an hour or two. Standing up he began to stretch his limbs. The smell from the corner had gotten worse and made him want to hurl the closer he got. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to pay it a visit. Pinching his nose with one hand he wandered over and clumsily undid his jeans with the other. He did not need to see the dark brown colour of his urine to know he was dehydrated. The only redeeming quality being that no cloud of flies had started to swarm. Anna might well have been right about them being underground.
Lacking underpants, as he had been wearing swim shorts under his jeans at Raymond’s, meant his trousers had begun to chafe against his skin. His sweaty t-shirt had been peeled off of his sticky skin yesterday and replaced with his shirt. He could only hope they were not stuck there long enough to require him to change back. Anna had discarded her light hoodie days ago and then given it to Chloe when the other girl had appeared cold; she still wore it.
“Dylan?” The girl’s soft voice tore him away from his thoughts as he returned to the other side of the cell. He had to look twice to make sure
his mind had not just played a trick on him. Such had been the sparse nature of the conversations since Friday night. Chloe looked back at him before blurting out. “Where are you from?”
An obvious yet interesting question. One to which he did not know the actual answer. “I’ve lived in Chicago as long as I can remember. “Calumet Heights for the most part. How about you?”
The girl looked slightly taken aback. Had it been because he had asked her the question in return or that he had bothered to reply at all? Or had her ordeal been such that any human interaction made her skittish? “West Town,” she mumbled.
West Town. If he recalled his local geography correctly, that was in the northern half of the city. Surrounded by an obscene number of ‘Park’s’. “Is it nice up there?”
“I like it. Though My dad’s always talking about moving.” To Dylan’s ears, she sounded more relaxed now. Perhaps talking about everyday things would help.
Though he did not relish a conversation about fathers, it seemed a logical choice in this instance. “What does your dad do?”
“He’s a police officer.”
That was worrying. Though not well versed in the goings on of the criminal underworld by any stretch of the imagination, even he knew that messing with a cop’s family only asked for trouble. Whoever had kidnapped them must certainly have some sort of power. Though it only served to raise the question of why he and Anna had been kidnapped. To that, he could not even fathom a guess.
“My best friend’s sister is a cop,” he eventual said, hoping to divert the conversation away from talk of his own father.
Chloe said nothing in reply and for a moment he thought it may be the end of their brief dialogue. When she did eventually reply she threw him a curveball, “how do you know Anna?”
If there existed a subject he would rather not talk about more than his father it would be Anna. Instinctively, he glanced over towards the sleeping red-haired teen. She looked hot again and he had slowly started to ponder whether or not she was sick.
“We go to the same school,” he replied. It may have been the most simplified version he could come up with, but at least it was still the truth.
The girl gave him a look that told him she could see through his whitewash. “You’re not friends are you?” Though phrased such, a question it was not. The fact she had discerned it, given the state she had been in when they first met, either served as a credit to her character or a demerit to his and Anna’s for not being able to hide it better. Perhaps a bit of both.
“We’ve had our differences.”
The expectation that he might have to divulge the complicated and at points nasty relationship he had with Anna was quickly put to bed. “I won’t pry.” Dylan breathed a sigh of relief. “I just wondered why you don’t get on. She seems really nice.”
The relief vanished and he harshly blurted out, “she’s not.” The girl visibly retreated away from him and he instantly regretted his tone, even though it had not been intentional. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“But you did,” Chloe said softly. “It was your instinctive reaction.”
For some reason, he found it strange that this random girl could see right through him. Maybe being cooped up for this long without ample mental stimulation had dulled his wits. In fact, that made perfect sense.
“Trust me, deep down she’s not a nice person.”
Chloe looked over towards the motionless form of Anna. He followed her gaze. “I think she is. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have helped me yesterday.” She held up one of her still bandaged wrists, as though it were evidence of Anna’s nature.
“She was only nice to you because she wanted information from you.” It might have been slightly cruel to shatter her skewed image of Anna but she needed to know the truth. Dylan didn’t doubt that she had trusted the other girl when she had said she would get them out of here. He, on the other hand, still suspected that she would cut them both loose… or worse if needs be.
“How long have you hated her for?”
The question took him slightly by surprise. So much for her not prying. “A long time. And it’s more than mutual.” He couldn’t hide the bitterness in his tone as he absentmindedly rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Maybe you were right once.” Dylan turned to look at the girl and gave her a questioning look. “However she might have changed since then and your hatred has blinded you from seeing it.”
Great, now she sounded like a character from one of his favourite sci-fi movies. Granted Matt had said something similar to him after the pair had started dating. He had not believed it then and would not now. People did not change.
All that happened was that they changed the mask they wore for other people to see. At the end of the day, when they were alone in front of the mirror and they took it off, the same old person stared right back.
“Do you think she’s sick?” The question cut through his thought process again and he shuddered slightly. A look of concern on the girl’s face aligned with his own worry from earlier.
He moved to take a closer look at Anna. She looked flushed and small beads of sweat were clustered all over her forehead. He had no intention of getting any closer to check though. Not after what had happened the last time he had touched her. Chloe had no such misgivings and quite calmly knelt down and placed the back of her hand against Anna’s forehead.
“She’s burning up.” He watched her shift her fingers to the girl’s neck. After about a minute she announced, “I think her heart rates up too.”
“Are you sure?” Dylan asked anxiously.
“Yes. I did a first aid course in school earlier this year. I think she might be really sick, Dylan.”
Shit. If Anna was sick there went their best chance of escape. Though by the looks of her she needed to see a doctor, sooner rather than later. Would their captors care if he and Chloe told them? The thought that they wouldn’t, felt harrowing. They had kidnapped them for a reason and so surely could not let them die.
“We have to tell them,” he eventually said, sounding more confident about his decision than he felt. The two men had not exactly been open to conversation.
Chloe gave him a look reminiscent of how he felt inside. “W…w…what if they h…h…hurt us” She squeaked.
“I’ll do the talking. Though I might need you for support. If we both petition them they might listen.” It may be the last thing the girl wanted to hear but they had little choice.
As much as he disliked her he had no wish to see Anna die. Even if that wasn’t likely at this moment, they had no way of knowing how long they would be down here and without proper food, water and medicine, even a simple illness could quickly become dangerous.
“O...o…o…ok,” Chloe eventually stammered. The girl huddled herself back down on the floor.
Dylan followed suit, thankful the conversation had ended; his voice had slowly become hoarse. Anna was not the only one in need of aid when their captors next arrived.
He could only hope they would not be long in coming.
The fog dissipates
Sunlight dappled the pale blue walls of the bedroom. The curtains, though drawn were unable to completely block the penetrating rays emanating from the cloudless Tuesday afternoon sky. The thin cream material rocked gently back and forth in a mild breeze that fluttered through the open window behind it.
Lying haphazardly amidst the bedsheets Matt Taylor tossed and turned, unable to find comfort. Rolling over he glanced at his alarm clock; it was just after one in the afternoon. He groaned. It had been close to five am when he had eventually climbed back into his room after the night's escapades. By the time he had got to bed and fallen asleep, it had not been long before his mom had come in to see why he had not woken up for his run or for school.
It had not been easy to lie to her. However, his fatigued appearance coupled with an impeccable attendance record had been enough to convince her that he was ill and thus unable to go to school. Fortunately, Jani
ne had not paid him a visit, for she would surely have seen through the ruse. She must still be mad at him he reasoned.
He turned over again and tucked one leg out on top of the sweaty duvet. Even with the window open the bed still felt too warm for his liking. It was too bright to boot, an indication that he had missed most of a smashing day. Tucking his head underneath a pillow he tried desperately to block out the light. For a single blissful moment, all was well. Only for a bird to start chirping outside.
“Urgh!” Matt yelled, throwing the pillow in the direction of the window.
Sitting up he glanced around the room. He would find no rest here he reasoned. As though sounding an agreement his phone vibrated across the top of his pine bedside cabinet. Without thinking to check who might be calling he picked it up.
“Hello?” he answered lethargically.
“Matt!” He groaned internally on recognising the girl’s sweet voice.
“Natalie?” he asked wearily.
“How are you feeling? I was worried at first this morning when you didn’t show up. I thought something had happened to you.”
For some unknown reason, Matt found himself slightly surprised that her concern sounded genuine. Still, it did not matter. He felt in no mood to speak to her so the sooner he got her off the other end the better. “I’m ok. Feeling quite tired.”
“Make sure you get plenty of rest then.”
Almost in an act of defiance, he climbed out of bed. He wasn’t going to get any more sleep so he might as well source something to eat. Unfortunately, his hope that Natalie might take the hint quickly evaporated.
“Isn’t it just terrible what’s happened to Dylan? Your sister and that other officer have been back in today.” So that’s how she knew he was ill. “Anyway, I think they're interrogating everyone who went to Raymond’s on Friday...”
The slight hostile nature of her tone caused him to open his bedroom door with more force than necessary. His sister and her partner were only doing their jobs. Besides, it had only been a few questions. If it helped to find Dylan then… His foot took a step too far and he almost fell down the stairs. Dylan. After encountering Walker and discovering that Anna had been kidnapped he had completely forgotten about Dylan’s disappearance. Surely it was too coincidental that they had both vanished on the same night. He would have to remember to ask the ‘hobo’ if he recalled more details about that night when he saw him later.