Brady didn’t move, didn’t talk, just stood there.
“Notice anything special about our friend?” Turner looked at me with a penetrating gaze.
I forced myself to glance at Brady a second time. That’s when I noticed his black hole. He was dead. Which meant Turner killed him.
Dream. Dream. Dream. I reminded myself, but it was becoming clear to me that this was something else entirely.
“It will be the trial of the century by the time I’m done with it. Serial killers in this day and age? I was shocked to find out that Brady tapped Ms. Hornbacher’s phone so that when she called the police it went directly to his home phone. No wonder LA’s finest couldn’t catch this monster. The scandal!” Turner snickered with delight. “Isn’t that right, Brady?”
Brady’s eyes came alive and he laughed evilly. “I killed them all! I just wish that last little morsel hadn’t got away.” Then his eyes went dead again.
“He’ll say whatever I want him to say.” Turner’s gaze turned hard.
“And then I’ll make him say whatever I want him to say.” I crossed my arms protectively.
“We’ll see.” Turner repeated Franny’s words. He looked neither miffed nor happy at the prospect, just contemplative. “Time to wake up now.”
I awoke with a start. I was in a hospital bed with an I.V. plugged in my arm. I almost yanked it out on instinct, but I knew I was just reacting to my dream. It felt like more. I didn’t even know if that was possible. But then again I didn’t know half of what Geoffrey Turner did was possible. He was like a giant steel safe with no combination, and it was starting to bug me.
“Oh good, you’re up,” came Jason’s voice from the seat next to me. “Don’t worry, your friends are outside. I needed a moment alone with you.”
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Tangle city. I’d deal with that later. At least I was in a hospital gown and bathed. Small favors. “I should tell everyone what happened all at once.” I really didn’t want to repeat everything twice.
“That’s fine. I want this to be between you and me.” Jason was very serious.
“Okay. Weird. What is it?” He was kind of freaking me out.
“I don’t know if I can protect you. I’m doing the best I can, but Turner seems way more determined to kill you than I originally thought. I mean he had a serial killer kidnap you! And you’re his granddaughter. I can’t seem to wrap my mind around that.”
“You and me both.”
Although I was feeling about a bagillion percent better, Brady lurked in the shadows of my brain like a deadly stalker. And I realized that Jason was blaming himself. For everything. “You know, Jason, none of this is your fault.”
“Yes, it is. It’s all my fault. If I wasn’t so damned arrogant giving you my contact info at the tornado site you never would have called me and you never would have been at the Virtual Bar and you never would have…”
“Jason.” I interrupted his guilt-ridden rampage. “Once he saw me on holo my fate was sealed. He’s not stopping until I’m dead, everyone else that’s with me is just in the way in his eyes. Listen, I don’t blame you for anything, in fact, I thank you for helping me, anyone else would have ran by now and I really appreciate you sticking around and helping me see this through, okay?” I meant it. Without Jason I would have really been screwed. Then I thought about it a moment and a sudden flash of insight came to me in a rush. This wasn’t about me. He just wanted to make sure he knew how I felt about him. “What is this really about anyway?”
Jason’s eyes widened as if he weren’t expecting me to call him out on his crap. “What do you mean? I…” He placed his hand over his face in exasperation. “Who am I kidding? Nancy hates me and I don’t know what to do about it.”
I knew something was up with them! “Trust me, she doesn’t hate you.”
“A lot has happened since you were taken. I think Nancy is with Bill now,” he said miserably.
I wanted to roll my eyes and slap him silly. “Bill? Really? You’re a hundred years old and you still can’t tell when a girl is trying to make you jealous, moron!”
“You think? Because if that’s the case, it completely worked. I can’t see straight I’m so crazy.” Jason was as gloomy as I’d ever seen him.
In his moment of vulnerability I remembered why I had a crush on him. He really was cute in a dismal puppy dog kind of way. “Listen, Jason, just tell her exactly what you told me, that you’re miserable without her and she’ll be yours in a heartbeat.”
Jason straightened up in his seat, apalled. “I can’t do that. If she knew how I felt she wouldn’t be attracted to me anymore. She’d think I was a pathetic loser. Trust me, after a hundred years, this is a universal truth I know about women.”
“Uuuggghhh! You’re such an idiot.” I really did roll my eyes then. “Fine. She does hate you, and her and Bill make a great couple, so yaaaay!”
His face fell again in anguish.
Jason was exasperating, and if he didn’t have the balls to tell Nancy he liked her, he didn’t deserve her.
There was a knock at the door.
“Wait, don’t call them in. I need more advice,” Jason started.
“COME IN!” I yelled across the room.
Let Jason deal with his issues with Nancy head on. I knew he just wanted me to tell Nancy he liked her anyway. That was the real purpose of our conversation. Jason sure hadn’t developed past the grade school level of relationships yet in life.
Nancy, Bill and Ryan came into the room with concerned smiles on their faces. I wanted to jump out of my bed and give them a group hug, but I was still feeling exhausted from my experience with Brady. And the dream made me not want to go back to sleep again, so I was stuck being tired and wanting to stay awake all at the same time.
Nancy barely glanced at Jason as she came to my side. She really was mad at him. Jason tried to hide his disappointment, but now that I knew how he felt it was easier for me to see his despair. Bill seemed indifferent to all of it and kept his eyes on me. His goofy smile made me feel happy he was there.
Ryan was at my side instantaneously. He pulled up a chair and held my hand. “How are you feeling?”
“Better.” And I told them everything that happened to me. From the drugs, to the worm, to the cockroaches, to Larry, to making Brady’s victims attack him. They all sat in stilled silence, listening to me as if they were hearing a campfire story of horror and mayhem and not actually something that really happened.
“They didn’t find a holo-cam in his basement. That means Turner has it. He’ll have his team scour that footage to see everything you did.” Jason was the first to break the quiet. “You’re an amazing girl.” Jason looked at me with awe and I noticed the same look in the eyes of Nancy, Bill and Ryan as well.
“I don’t feel amazing.” Their attention was making me feel awkward. It was pure survival instinct down there and more than that, it was desperation. I was so terrified, in the dark…
“Well, you are, so don’t argue.” Ryan reached over and kissed my forehead. “Turner isn’t going to stop. Making Chelsan famous only gives us a few weeks max. People will forget and when they do, Turner will strike again.”
“It’s personal now.” Bill nodded in agreement with Ryan.
“It was always personal,” Nancy said with genuine fear. “He holds you responsible for your father’s death, and now you’ve made a fool of him more than once. Someone like him will never let that slide.”
She was right. “He wants me dead so he can control me. The public wouldn’t know any different. He could attack tomorrow or now and it wouldn’t mean anything. Being famous won’t protect me. We’re not safe.” They needed to hear the truth. Jason’s bold plan of keeping me in the lime light meant absolutely nothing. Turner could care less if I was dead because then he’d have all the control. It was preferable.
Jason looked miserable.
In fact, all of them had a kind of helplessness about them.
&nbs
p; “I don’t mean to bring everyone down, but these are the facts. Turner is after me. He wants me to be his corpse puppet. The only way to stop that from happening, is to stop him.” I realized I was the leader of this pack and I needed to take the reigns of control.
Jason’s eyes lit up. “Then that’s what we need to do.”
Sunday September 26, 2320
Chapter Six
We talked out our plan late into the night until we all had to sleep. Everyone crashed at the hospital. I could tell it was because they were worried Turner would try something, but they all said they wanted to get an early start on our mission. When I woke up it was about seven in the morning and everyone in the room was sleeping and snoring. Bill’s parents made sure they all had beds brought in so no one would be sleeping in chairs or on the floor. His parents made large donations to this particular hospital, so the staff was very obliging. Someday, I would finally meet Bill’s parents and thank them profusely for everything they had done for me.
I had a moment of serene contentment watching everyone sleep. Up until a couple of weeks ago the only person I was sure that loved me was my mom. Nancy and Bill were my close friends before, but now they had proven themselves to be much more than that. And Ryan had a crush on me! Ever since last year! That still made my mind reel. I was so sure he thought I was a freak, but come to find out he felt the same way about me as I did about him. Jason was the biggest surprise. A reporter who was as famous as could be and whose holo-pics I had plastered on my wall ended up being my champion and partner.
This was the gang.
And they would either be in my life forever or I would be the means of their destruction. I hated thinking that way. I already felt responsible for my mother and father’s death, I didn’t want to be responsible for getting my friends killed as well. I knew it was wrong to keep them involved in all this, but I needed them, selfish as it was, I wasn’t willing to let them go. I also knew that if I tried to cut them off again they would just find me and scream at me for trying to. They were here for good. No matter what that meant for their well-being or their safety.
Jason was the first to wake up. I saw him look over at Nancy briefly. That boy was so far gone it was almost funny, but I knew what it was like to have a crush on someone and live with the possibility that they could care less about you. I was lucky. Ryan turned out to like me back. According to Nancy, more than that actually… Aaack! This was the last thing I should be thinking about! I needed to focus on the task at hand.
We had a plan.
And the plan was simple.
We were going to break into Geoffrey Turner’s headquarters.
Even thinking it made my stomach turn.
With the help of Bill and Jason’s connections we’d arrive in two groups (we figured two groups were better than one, just in case one of us failed). Bill’s group was the “tourists,” it consisted of me, Ryan, Bill and Nancy. Like all places of power, there were tours of the facility open to the public daily. Jason would use his reporter card and enter the building that way.
Our goal: To find the real footage of what happened at my trailer park. If we could expose the exterminators, maybe we could take Turner down and put him behind bars.
Slowly, everyone started to wake up. Ryan looked completely adorable as he yawned and smiled at me. I wanted to crawl up next to him and have him hold me all day.
As if reading my mind, Ryan came over to me and crawled into my bed. “How are you feeling?” he whispered in my ear. I wish he wouldn’t do that. It made my brain flutter.
“Better now,” I said.
“Except he’s lying on your I.V. which can’t be good,” Bill almost snarled from the other side of the room.
“Whoa! Sorry!” Ryan immediately jumped out of my bed as if it were on fire.
Ah, man. Bill!
“You have to take it out anyway. I’ll get the nurse in here.” Nancy punched Bill’s arm on the way out and Bill looked slightly ashamed, but not enough for my taste. I’d say the ratio of guilt to satisfaction was a good 2 to 10.
Ryan didn’t seem to notice. He was so upset that he might have hurt me. “I didn’t give it air bubbles, did I?”
“Don’t be paranoid.” Jason made a familiar expression on his face. I was beginning to recognize its meaning. It was the, I’m with a bunch of kids, expression. “Nancy said she brought you some clothes,” he said to me.
Nancy came back with the Nurse.
“You ready to leave?” The Nurse talked to me like I was twelve-years-old.
“Yeah,” I said with as little attitude as possible.
The Nurse didn’t even care if I had said yes or not as she walked over to me and pulled out the I.V. She handed me a hospital electronic reader. “Thumbprint there and there and you’ll be all set.”
I thumbprinted in the places she told me to and the screen flashed green.
“Okay. You’re good to go. I’ll have some nurses take these beds away, don’t you worry about it.” She directed her “over-kindness” towards Bill who awkwardly smiled at her.
“Thanks,” I said, then a thought hit me. “How is Doris Hornbacher?”
“She’s just fine. On the news today.” The Nurse grabbed a remote and turned on the holo-tv. Doris was standing in front of the press, all fire and passion, talking about her mission to take down Brady Johnson. They showed a clip of Brady being taken to prison and my breath caught in my throat. My dream was real. Turner had killed Brady and now he was under his control. Brady’s black swirling chasm taunting me through his holographic image.
“Good old, Doris. She’s really taking to the limelight.” Jason smiled in spite of himself.
Nancy had her arms crossed and purposely ignored him.
The nurse didn’t. She smiled the most flirtatious smile she could. “She doesn’t look as good as you do, Mr. Keroff.”
“You haven’t known him long enough.” Nancy practically guffawed.
Jason played it as cool as a cat and ignored Nancy’s barb. He smiled at the nurse and kissed her hand in farewell. “Thanks for watching.”
Vomit.
This was Nancy’s cue to roll her eyes at me and we could share a moment of disgust for Jason’s cheesiness, but Nancy was livid. Her eyes were bulging and she looked like she wanted to punch Jason in the face. She grabbed Bill’s hand and dragged him toward the door. “Come on, Bill, let’s MAKE OUT!” And they were gone.
The nurse was oblivious to it all, she was still enamored with Jason. “Call me.” And she left as well.
Jason’s face was riddled with misery and Ryan couldn’t hide his enjoyment at the whole situation.
“I don’t mean to be the interrupter of high school drama here, but we have another snag,” I told Jason and Ryan about my dream with Turner and Brady.
“I’ve heard about astral projection. Another one of Turner’s experiments. From everything I know it should be harmless, just a way of communicating,” Jason said with thoughtfulness. “It works both ways though. If we could get into his dreams… let me research it some more.”
“We better find Nancy and Bill,” Ryan said through a grin of amusement. “I hope they’re not in the supply closet again.”
I elbowed Ryan playfully. He was having way too much fun making Jason squirm. He knew as well as I did that nothing was going on between Nancy and Bill, but he liked watching Jason turn into Hamlet every time he mentioned the two of them together.
Nancy told me everything that happened in my absence before we went to bed last night. I guess as soon as they discovered I was gone, Ryan went on a rampage. I was relieved to hear that no one thought I had run away again, but everyone’s first thought was that Turner had me somewhere himself. So, unfortunately, all the searching went into Turner’s holdings and properties and where the most likely place he’d take me would be. By the time Ryan remembered my shoes with the tracking device he had implanted inside, Brady had already destroyed them. They were flying blind and completely destitute.
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Ryan and Bill went out everyday trying to find any sign of where I might be, but it was like looking for a specific grain of sand on a beach. Nancy and Jason undertook the other approach of searching the net and following Turner like a hawk to see where he was going at all times. They even checked out a few places they thought might be likely candidates for where he was holding me, but it always ended up being a dead end.
The first few days of working together, Nancy said, were brilliant. She said Jason was so polite and sweet, he even held her hand. In fact, that’s how the whole mess started. When he held her hand, Nancy took that as a cue and tried to kiss him. Jason, apparently, freaked out and said she was far too young for him and that he saw her as a younger sister. Nancy was embarrassed and furious. (I would be too. It was obvious to anyone that had eyes that Jason was head over heels for the girl.) So, she decided to test the “little sister” theory and flirted as hard as she could with Bill. (She informed Bill of what she was doing beforehand and he became a willing participant. I think he liked the attention.)
The Riser Saga Page 23