California Dreaming

by Stacey Johnston

  Talk about bad luck.

  I can’t help but suck in a sharp breath. I can’t move. I’m fucking stuck like glue.

  What the hell?! I need to get out of here - we all need to get out of here before Shadow Guy realizes we are standing here and have just witnessed his crime.

  Just as quickly as it was raised, the gun is lowered, and Shadow Guy steps over the dead body, quietly moving away. He is heading toward the other end of the alley like he was never here. Releasing the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding, I nudge Stephen as if to say let’s go. Slowly moving backward, we double back in the direction we just came from, turning the fuck around.

  Fuck it. I don’t give a shit if I’m late now. The last thing any of us need is to have this guy realize we are witnesses to his crime and coming back to silence us as well.

  I can’t believe how easily that shit just went down, how smoothly he eliminated his victim. I have only seen shit like that on TV, and even then I knew it was all staged and choreographed. I never imagined that I would actually experience something like this in real life. We continue walking, trying to be as quiet as possible, all our eyes on the black shadow walking away from us.

  “Fuck.” Kyle curses under his breath, and the next thing I know, there’s a loud crashing noise.

  Holly hell! Twisting my head sideways, I catch site of Kyle just as he trips over an empty trash can, falling backward and crashing onto the road. Rushing to him, Luke and I quickly pull him up.

  “We have to go,” Stephen roughly calls out as quietly as one can manage to yell. I chance a look back at Shadow Guy, only to see him looking back. When he starts moving in our direction, I know we really have to go. Grabbing Kyle by the sleeve, I yank him up off the ground, and we all start running.

  Without looking back, the four of us continue running faster than I think we ever have. Dodging everything, we run until we are out of that alley and back on the beach. We have to find somewhere to hide until it’s safe enough for us to get home. Deciding it would be better to stay in a public place, we head toward the Penguin Café. Luke makes the point we can hide in a booth and watch as people pass by the window.

  “You boys back again?” Doreen calls out as we walk through the door. “You know we’re closing soon, right?” she continues as we take our seats.

  “Yes,” answers Luke. “Sorry Doreen, we won’t stick around long.” Picking up on his tone, she moves out from behind the counter to approach us.

  “What’s going on boys? Why do you all look like you have seen a ghost?” I don’t know about a ghost, but she’s not fucking far off. I am still catching my breath when she calls out for her husband to bring water over. Putting a bottle in front of each of us, he stands next to his wife, waiting for one of us to tell them what is going on.

  “I’d talk if I were you,” Bob declares. “She won’t give in until you do.”

  Glancing at the others, I see the fear apparent in their eyes, each one of us just as scared as the other. However, it looks like one of us is going to have to say something. We can’t sit here all night.

  “I think we just witnessed a murder,” Kyle blurts out, his voice squeakier than normal. Doreen gasps, and I drop my head, resting it on the table beneath me. My hands resting around my neck, I want to cry. The tears welling up in my eyes are threatening to burst free. Gripping my neck tighter, my hands shake uncontrollably as the wetness of my tears escapes my eyes, moving down my cheeks and onto the table below.

  For what seems like forever, it’s silent - nobody utters a word. When I eventually lift up my head, I’m somewhat relieved to see that I’m not the only one who is crying. I watch as Bob crosses the cafe and locks the front doors while Doreen places her hand on Kyle’s back in an effort to console him while she contemplates what to say.

  I know what we need to do, but if we call the police, how do we know Shadow Guy isn’t watching. We don’t even know what the guy looks like.

  Fuck, did he see our faces when we turned back?

  Shit! It’s then I realize that I have no idea what we should do now.

  Chapter Three

  Kyle

  I don’t know what we were thinking coming here. If that guy in the alleyway even got a glimpse of our faces and followed us, we would be putting Doreen and Bob in danger as well.

  “You boys need to call the police,” Doreen tells us, breaking the uncomfortable silence we had fallen into. The look on Luke’s face is one of panic, and I feel his pain.

  “What if that guy is watching right now?” Luke replies. “How do we know he’s not out there waiting for us?” There is panic radiating through his voice by now as well. He’s right, though. How do we know that guy isn’t hanging back somewhere out there waiting for us to leave? If we are followed home, we will be putting our families at risk as well.

  “Did you see his face?” Bob asks. “If he was following you, the four of you wouldn’t have made it to us. He sounds like a professional, which means you wouldn’t have gotten far at all. I think it’s safe to assume, that he never got a look at your faces either. This keeps you safe for now.”

  I don’t think I have heard Bob talk that much…ever. I do believe he’s right about us being seen. It was really dark by then, and there is hardly any lighting down that alleyway. It’s mostly focused above the doors and that’s it. When I tripped over that trash can we were in complete blackness. Surely he didn’t see us. He probably doesn’t even know there were four of us. Maybe we should call the police.

  “We should do that, but we also need to call our parents. It’s after six,” a quiet Ben announces.

  Fuck! I forgot about our parents. Boy, are we screwed now.

  Everyone goes quiet again. The silence around us is becoming unsettling. Sensing our hesitation, Doreen turns to her husband.

  “Bob, call Alex. Get him to come here, but on his own and have him enter through the back. We will keep it low key just in case there is someone watching the boys.” Slapping my hand to my forehead, I sigh. Of all people, she is calling Alex Clark.

  Waiting for deputy douche bag as we like to call him, or DD for short, is making me edgy. After Doreen phoned our parents to explain what happened, she managed to get them to agree, to meet us at the station. She was going all mother hen on us, and it was a relief to have someone take over like she was. I don’t know about the others, but I was too scared to move.

  I jump when I hear a door slam. Snapping my head up, I see DD walking in behind Bob. Slumping back down in the booth, I start to relax again as he makes his way to our table.

  “Trouble seems to find you guys, doesn’t it?” DD scowls. God, he is a douche. He has been riding our asses all summer. It doesn’t help that he is Krystal’s older brother.

  Who is Krystal you ask? One of Ben’s conquests. She didn’t like him dumping her, so she told her brother. Needless to say, he has made it his mission to harass us all summer.

  “Leave them alone,” Doreen shouts out. “I didn’t call you here to pick on them.”

  A small smirk finds its way onto Luke’s face, it’s brief and DD misses it, but the rest of us don’t. “Are you going to help them or not?” She insists. She’s now standing beside him with her hands on her hips.

  “Yes, I will help them,” he replies, his shoulders slumping slightly, dejectedly. Smiling Doreen moves back over to the counter to finish closing up. “All right, let’s get you boys back to the station. We can finish this up there.”

  Rising we follow DD towards the back door, stopping briefly to thank Doreen and Bob before heading out into the squad car waiting outside.

  Ben

  I cringed when Doreen told Bob to call DD. That cop has it in for me thanks to his sister Krystal. Man, that girl is trouble. I knew before I seduced her, that it was going to end badly for me, but I wouldn’t listen. She is hot, I mean seriously fucking hot, but she uses her brother’s position as our local police deputy, to her advantage. Fuck with her and her brother will fuck with you. L
ike I said, I knew in advance what I was getting myself into.

  I couldn’t help it, though, she chased me.

  The boys warned me to stay away from her. Fuck, even Luke told me to give that girl a miss, which should have set off alarm bells, because he hits anything in a skirt. Everywhere we went, she was there. Always in her tight as fuck tops and short skirts. It’s like she paints her clothing on every morning, that’s how tight they were.

  My undoing came when she cornered me at a bonfire on the beach, at the beginning of summer. We were all drinking, and singing, sitting back enjoying the warm summers night. When she sat down next to me, she was wearing nothing but a tiny bikini. My fucking eyes were bulging out of my head at the sight. I was hooked and she fucking knew it. That girl knew exactly what she was doing, and she played her part well. Just before sunset, and after a shit ton of beer, I had her naked in the sand dunes. I was covered in sand from head to toe, but none of that mattered. I was balls deep in her warmth, with her screaming my name.

  The problem was, she wanted more and of course I didn’t. I got what I wanted, so I was happy, but she told her brother what happened, and he has been on my ass ever since.

  While we waited for Alex to arrive, we sat in silence. I was contemplating what would happen to us now. There’s no way we will know for sure if that the killer saw our faces. I’m quietly confident he didn’t, because it was pitch black where we were standing.

  I never saw his face either, which won’t help the officers at all. That whole alleyway was black except for the light shining over the doors. The illumination offered was only enough to help those entering, or leaving those buildings. We never got a good look at either of the two guys standing in front of us and for that I am grateful. The sight of him pulling that trigger and the other guy dropping will be etched into my mind forever. It’s a sight you just can’t unsee.

  As DD walked in I gulped. The smug look on his face irked me because he knew he had us now. He has been trying all summer to pin something on us, and this will give him just the ammunition he needs. Not that we have done anything wrong. It’s just that, he is always saying the four of us are heading for trouble, and that he would be the one waiting when it happened.

  He is such a dick.

  I had to smirk when his wise crack was attacked by Doreen, the look on his face was steely. He doesn’t like being challenged like that, and he will no doubt make us pay for that when we reach the station. Saying our thank yous and goodbyes to Doreen and Bob, we follow officer dipstick out to his cruiser. He allows Stephen to sit in the front and gets great pleasure shoving the rest of us in the back. I spent that whole trip back to the station in silence, like the others, except my gaze is concentrated on the streets outside. By now it’s pitch black, the darkness finally encasing the whole town.

  I wonder if our mystery man is watching; if he saw who we were. More to the point, I wonder if they found the body yet.

  By the time we get to the station, all our parents are in the waiting area pacing. All of them with worried looks on their faces. Making our way through the doors they rush us, engulfing us in massive bear hugs. It’s stifling, but comforting at the same time. When my mother starts crying, the realization of the extent of trouble we are in hits home.

  There’s no coming back from this, is there?

  Chapter Four

  Stephen

  After the initial interviews and then the confirmation from Alex that they had indeed found a body in that alleyway, my body was aching. We had been sitting in separate interview rooms for over an hour at least. Why we needed to be interviewed separately I will never understand, but that’s what they did. My mom was devastated. She hasn’t stopped sobbing since we were brought in. As much as I understand what she is feeling, it has nothing on what Kyle, Luke, Ben and I have been going through. We have no idea if that guy with the gun saw our faces, or what will happen next. There is talk amongst the officers that we will never be able to show our faces around town ever again, but I think that’s DD being a dick towards us. We are currently waiting in another waiting room for the feds to show up. It seems there is more to this story than the ass-wipe officers of our town are willing to share.

  When the Feds finally showed up, they had our parents in tow. “So you are the four that witnessed the hit.” Some dude in a black suit throws at us as he walks through the interview room door.

  Removing his sunglasses, he maneuvers across to the room to take a seat on the other side of the table. By now he has the attention of all four of us. Placing a file on the table, he opens it up deliberately showing us the photo sitting on top. Picking it up, he throws it in front of us. “I’m agent Nickles from the Federal Agency of Criminal Activity. I have been assigned to your case. Now please have a good look at this photo, does this person look familiar in any way?”

  Leaning forward Ben takes the photo in his hands, bringing it towards him for a closer look. “No, should he?” he asks, throwing it back down.

  Sighing, our man in black pinches the bridge of his nose before turning his attention back to us. “I was hoping you could confirm our suspicions. We believe the man in that photo is the one responsible for the hit you witnessed. If it is, you boys are in grave danger. Are you sure you didn’t get a look at his face?”

  “Like we told the other officers, we didn’t see his face or that of the one he murdered and we doubt he saw ours!” I proclaim, the frustration sneaking into my voice.

  “Can I ask what you boys were doing walking through that part of town?” he asks. He is quite tall, with tight lips and a worn face. If I had to guess, I’d put him in his late fifties. As if communicating silently, Luke looks over at me as if to say he will answer. “We needed a short cut” he starts. “We were running late and that’s the quickest route. Are we nearly done, because we just want to go home?” His voice was quiet, but his tone was harsh. I don’t blame him since deputy dickweed had been on our cases since we arrived.

  Fuck Luke, and his uncontrollable cock. That fucking thing has gotten us into more trouble than it’s worth. Some days I wish he could better control his urges. “Unfortunately, that’s not going to be possible. If Silo didn’t get a look at your faces, he will still be looking for you. To him, you are unfinished business, the only ones to have ever witnessed his actions. He will hunt you down, I can promise you that. We have spent years trying to find him, but he is a ghost.”

  What does he mean we can’t go home? Where the hell are we supposed to go?

  Picking up his file, the fed tells us to stay put as he rises to leave. “What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Luke calls out to him.

  “We need to make arrangements for protection detail for you all. Just sit tight while we get this shit sorted,” Agent Nickles replies, closing the door behind him as he leaves the room.

  “What the fuck!” Luke curses. My thoughts exactly.

  We sit in this interview room for what seems like an eternity. Our parents were called out when the F.A.C.A guy left so that they can make arrangements for when we leave the station. No one is saying anything, we have become silent once again. I have spent the time confined in here wondering what the hell we are going to do now.

  What do they mean by protective custody?

  How long will this affect us?

  Movement outside the door sparks my attention. When the door opens we all look up to see our parents filing back into the room and they don’t look happy at all. Following them was agent Nickles and another stiff in a black suit.

  “Boys this is Agent Backe and he is my partner. We are here to inform you that as of tonight you are being placed into the witness protection program.”

  I don’t know about the others, but I am dumbfounded. What the hell? No wonder our parents look pissed.

  “Where?” is all I ask. I know how witness protection works, they uproot you and place you in some obscure place where they think you can’t be found.

  “We are still working on that, but for the n
ext couple of days, we will place you at our safe house in Brooklyn. Not even Silo will think to look for you there,” Agent Backe informs us all.

  There is so much talking going on in that one room, I swear my head is going to explode. Ben, Luke, and Kyle are yelling, saying that there will be no way in hell they are moving to Brooklyn. I’m with them, I don’t want to move either. Our parents are throwing questions at the agents, wanting to know exactly what will happen next. They have jobs here that need to be sorted, schooling for us, and their homes to sort out, and so on.

  I never realized the impact this was going to have on them, I’ve only been concerned about me and the others. Uprooting us to Brooklyn is a massive deal for us, but in reality, the problems it will cause our parents are greater.

  Fuck, we really got ourselves into trouble this time.

  Luke

  I’m fucked! Well and truly fucked. What the hell am I going to do now? My father is never going to forgive me for this, it’s just one more stupid act I have performed. My brother is another issue, when he gets wind of what has happened I will have him on my ass as well.

  How the hell do I get myself involved in shit like this?

  The Feds let us go home to pack, but not without protection. We had a guy tailing us the whole time. When I got home, I tried to head to my room but got stopped by the stairs by my father. “Luke, wait,” he calls out.

  Hesitantly I turn in his direction, preparing myself for the barrage that was set to be hurled my way. “I know you are expecting me to yell at you, but I’m not going to. I realize you never meant to get involved in this, that you were just trying to get home on time. I just want to reassure you, that although I’m not happy about the situation I am here to support you.”