Patiently I Wait

by J. W. Stephens

  Shannon walked down the stairs to the kitchen after getting dressed, needing something to drink. As she walked into the kitchen and flipped on the lights, she almost jumped out of her skin.

  “You are up early,” said Julie, as she laughed at Shannon’s reaction to seeing her.

  “Dammit Julie!” Shannon said, almost under her breath. “What are you doing here; and why are you sitting in the dark?”

  “I didn’t know where anyone was and I didn’t want to wake you or Megan up with lights or by making any noise.”

  “I feel asleep in Megan’s room after last night. We were out way too late and I was too exhausted to come back downstairs after hanging out with her.”

  Shannon was hoping Julie didn’t think that was odd as she never slept in the same room with someone as far as Julie knew.

  “Did you girls have any luck at the bar?” Julie asked, almost disregarding what Shannon had just told her.

  “We didn’t really look,” Shannon answered quickly. “You know I am not really into taking random guys home for the night; no offense to you or anything.”

  Julie laughed and gave Shannon a hug, pulling her closer as she whispered, “thanks for supporting me.”

  The girls laughed together and began talking about last night. Julie told the story of the guy she went home with, how handsome and sweet he was. Shannon wasn’t listening, but acted as if she was just to appease Julie for a bit. She was thinking about the night she had with Megan, her new and amazing lover. She couldn’t think of anything else and Julie noticed quickly her story wasn’t being heard.

  “Are you okay Shannon?” she asked.

  “Oh yes, just thinking,” Shannon said back, knowing this was a mistake as soon as the words slipped from her lips.

  “Thinking about what?” Julie asked, crossing her legs and preparing for a long story about Shannon’s night.

  Shannon didn’t know what to do. Lying to her best friend wasn’t something she liked to do, but telling her the truth probably wasn’t the best plan at the moment either. Megan and Shannon had talked about keeping it a secret for the time being, until they could figure out their own plans for the relationship first. They wanted to keep it under wraps in case people opposed it before giving them a chance. It was going to be tough, but she couldn’t break her promise with Megan.

  “Nothing really, just last night,” Shannon said, keeping everything as short as possible. “I haven’t been out like that in so long; it was relieving to be able to go out and have fun with two girls I enjoy being around.”

  “Aw, listen to you,” Julie said, condescendingly. “On a more serious note though, what do you think about Megan?”

  “Well, she is pretty amazing, as I should have known.”

  “You surround yourself with people that are worth becoming friends with most of the time.”

  “She seems to be a lot like me, like she knows what to say just before I do.”

  “She guessed things that no one really knows about me, just because we are so much alike I think.”

  “Well, not really,” Julie interrupted. “She does know a lot about you because of me.”

  “I have talked about you quite a bit to her, because she wanted to know after seeing you in a picture in my house.”

  “She was pretty interested in you, so I told her what you liked, in case you two ever met.”

  Shannon was a little confused, but couldn’t really be mad at Julie. She didn’t like being talked about, but if it wasn’t negative, there really was no reason to get angry. It was however, a little disappointing to hear that Megan had known more about Shannon to start, and failed to mention that as they talked. She had acted like she didn’t know Shannon existed the first time they met, possibly trying to make things less awkward Shannon thought.

  “Well that is nice of you Julie,” Shannon said. “I am glad I finally got to meet her as well.”

  Julie smiled and nodded at Julie. “Me too Shannon, you two seem to get along quite nicely.”

  “Well, how about some breakfast?” Shannon asked, trying to avoid the conversation getting any deeper.

  “Sure, sounds good to me,” Julie replied quickly. “I’m going to hop in the shower really quick before I eat.”

  As Julie disappeared into the bathroom, Shannon started heating the stove to prepare breakfast before running upstairs to wake up Megan. To her surprise, when she opened the door to Megan’s room, she wasn’t there. She checked the bathroom and still, nothing. She didn’t think Megan had came downstairs because she hadn’t heard or seen her when she was sitting in the kitchen. She stood in the middle of the room, confused by where Megan might have been. She had to get back to the kitchen before the stove was too hot, but she wanted a kiss from her lover before Julie came back out of the bathroom. As she walked down the stairs she noticed a basement door to the right, slightly open with light coming into the floor on which she was on. It hadn’t been open before to Shannon’s knowledge, but why would Megan be down there? She thought about going down to see, but didn’t want to wander through the house, not knowing where she was going. She made her way back to the kitchen, pleasantly surprised to see Megan starting the breakfast she was going to make.

  “Baby, what are you doing?” Shannon asked, happy to have found her before Julie was out of the shower.

  “I heard you and Julie talking, so I couldn’t help but listen in on you,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I got a little nosy.”

  She smiled at Shannon, hoping she wouldn’t be mad at her for eavesdropping on the conversation.

  “I don’t mind you hearing anything I have to say Megan, don’t worry about that.”

  “Julie did tell me that you knew me, and a good bit about me before we met though, why didn’t you tell me?”

  Megan looked disappointed that Shannon had brought that up, but answered her nonetheless.

  “Well, I didn’t want to scare you away babe. When she told me about you, I thought you sounded so wonderful that I didn’t want to mess it up when I got the chance to meet you.”

  “Why would I have cared if she had mentioned me?” asked Shannon. “She is my best friend.”

  “Well, I don’t know. I just thought you would mind if she had talked about you so much, and you found out that I knew all these things about you before you even knew who I was. I didn’t want to seem like I was stalking you.”

  “To top it off, I was dating Dan when we first met, and that would have been awkward as well if I had shown that much interest in you the first night.”

  “Well, I suppose that is true babe,” Shannon said, leaning over to kiss Megan softly on the cheek. “I’m not mad, don’t worry about that.”

  Megan smiled and rubbed the side of Shannon’s face with the back of her hand while kissing her back, on the lips this time.

  “Want to help me with breakfast?” Megan asked, giggling quietly.

  “Of course I do,” replied Shannon. “That is so sweet of you to make Julie and I breakfast!”

  Megan laughed louder, knowing she stole the kitchen from Shannon. They went to work on breakfast together as they talked more about what all Julie had said.

  As they were almost finished with the food, Shannon heard something that made her feel slightly odd, and didn’t know what it might have meant.

  “Wait a second. You are telling me that you dated Dan because I did first? Why would you do that?”

  Megan hadn’t meant to tell Shannon that part and it slipped during conversation unexpectedly.

  “Well baby, I didn’t mean it like that really. I dated him because you and I sounded so much alike, and I wanted to see what you saw in Dan.”

  “I knew that if you liked him, I probably would as well.”

  Shannon was angry now, and slightly confused still.

  “So you used him, just to see what I saw in him?”

  “I still don’t understand what you could have gotten out of that?”

  Megan tried to explain, but nothing was go
ing to help the situation at this point. She didn’t want to see Shannon angry anymore so she let something slip out of her mouth that she didn’t want Shannon to ever know.

  “I dated him to see what you liked Shannon!”

  “I have wanted to be with you since Julie told me about you and I wanted to see what I should do to get you.”

  “Yes, I used him; but only to make you happy in the end.”

  Shannon couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Megan had wanted her this whole time, for years now. She had been fantasizing about her from the moment she knew who she was. She knew exactly what to do and say to get her, and had succeeded.

  “Is any of this real Megan?” Shannon yelled, not knowing who Megan was at the moment.

  “Do you really mean all the things you say to me, or do you just say things to make me want to be with you?”

  Megan was tearing up, trying to think of what she could say to make the situation better.

  “Shannon, I did this for us! I knew you would be more than happy with me and I wanted to make sure that I could make you feel that way. I didn’t want you to know all of this, but I knew I was the one for you.”

  “I loved you from the moment I heard about you!” Megan exclaimed, with tears now rolling down her cheeks.

  “Why didn’t you tell me all of this?” Shannon asked, trying to remain calm.

  “Why didn’t you just let me know from the start?”

  “Because you would have never loved me back. You would have gotten as far away as you could if I would have told you how much I loved you, wanted you, needed you. You had never meet me, but you have been in my dreams for years.”

  “I need you to see something Shannon,” Megan said, wiping her tears away.

  Shannon didn’t want to oblige. She loved Megan, but she didn’t know if that was real anymore. She shook her head at Megan, letting her know that she wasn’t interested in seeing anything, or knowing anything else.

  “Please Shannon, you need to see this. It will show you that I really do love you, and always have.”

  “Go look downstairs; it will show you how much I love you.”

  Shannon didn’t know what to say, think, or do. She figured the least she could do was look as it couldn’t be anything worse than what Megan had told her already. Their love was set up from the beginning, and only her side of the equation was real.

  She went to the basement door, peeking downstairs to see if she could make out anything from afar. It was lit, but only in the stairwell. There was another door at the bottom she could see, leading into the basement itself.

  She slowly walked down the stairs, not knowing what to expect when she got to the bottom, she put her hand on the doorknob and swung it open quickly, not wanting to be spooked by anything. It was pitch black in the room as the dim light from the stairs didn’t reach into the room at all. She felt around the wall, finally running her hand across a switch. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed her hand upwards.

  She stood in horror, frozen by what the lights revealed as she flipped the switch to illuminate the small, dark room. She began to shake, unable to put the thoughts running through her head into any kind of logical order. Hundreds of photographs filled the room, taking up the walls and shelves in their entirety. She stumbled backwards trying to both move and make sense of the situation simultaneously. Just before she spun to head back up the stairs behind her, she heard a voice that made every hair on her body stand straight up.

  “Babe, are you okay?”

  CHAPTER NINE: WHO ARE YOU?

  Shannon didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t speak out of complete fear and disgust. The pictures weren’t normal pictures of her, but something far more terrifying. They were pictures that had been taken of her while she was at home or school. They were pictures she had never seen before this moment. Megan had to have been in Durham without her knowing, taking pictures of her before she had even met her. Shannon looked back up the stairs and looked Megan in the eyes.

  “How could you have done all of this?” she said, with anger in her voice now.

  “How long have you been following me?”

  Megan started down the stairs, but didn’t make it far before Shannon let out a yell that could have been heard throughout the whole house.

  “Don’t take another step Megan! Tell me everything, right now!”

  Shannon wanted everything out in the open now, so she could figure out everything that Megan knew, or had been doing without her consent. She wasn’t interested in fixing anything as that was the least of her concerns at the moment. She just wanted to know why Megan did all of this to her, if she loved her so much like she said.

  “Shannon, I can’t tell you everything. I can’t explain why I did what I did. I love you and that is the only reason I have been following you, getting to know you so well. I wanted to make sure we were together so I needed to know everything about you.”

  “You don’t love me,” said Shannon. “This isn’t love!”

  As the situation escalated, Shannon started to wonder something that hadn’t crossed her mind. For the last hour they had been talking, arguing, and yelling without an interruption from Julie. She normally only took fifteen minutes or so to shower so this was quite unusual for her to be gone for this long.

  “Megan,” Shannon said, clinching her teeth as she forced the words out. “Where is Julie?”

  “She left a little bit ago; I’m not sure where she went.”

  Shannon knew this wasn’t true and began to get worried about the situation. Julie would never just leave without at least letting her know first. She wouldn’t have gotten out of the shower and never returned to the kitchen, where Shannon told her to meet her afterward. Things didn’t add up and Shannon wanted answers. She started up the stairs, pointing at Megan with fury in her eyes.

  “Megan, you listen to me. If Julie is hurt at all, so help me God, you will never be able to sleep peacefully again!”

  As Megan backed up the stairs and into the living room behind her, Shannon continued up after her, fuming at this point.

  “For the last time, where is….”

  She was interrupted by a cloth covering her mouth from behind. She gasped, startled by the grasp of the hand. Black was all she saw after that moment, pitch black.

  When Shannon woke up she was laying in the back seat of a moving car, groggy from the drug that had been used to knock her out. Chloroform was her guess from the cloth that she felt momentarily. She decided to lay there and try to see and hear what was going on before speaking, or showing any sign of being awake.

  There were two silhouettes in the front seat, one in the passenger seat and the driver, which appeared to be Megan.

  “Has she contacted you yet?” asked Megan.

  Then, out of the darkness, came a voice that Shannon didn’t think she would ever hear again. It was scarier than she had remembered, deeper it seemed. Given the situation it might have only seemed that way, but she was terrified nonetheless.

  “Yes, she went to the back room. She called me as we were walking out the door. She said not to hurt her and I told her that we wouldn’t make any promises.”

  The voice was Dan’s, and who he was talking about wasn’t clear. Why was Dan here? This didn’t make any sense at all. She wanted to gather all the information she could before signaling them to her alertness.

  “What are we going to do now Dan?” Megan asked, acting nervous about the whole situation.

  “Well, we wouldn’t be in this predicament if you would have just kept your mouth shut. Why did you start telling her things? Everything was going according to plan and you just had to talk. You had her wrapped around your finger Megan!”

  Dan was angry. Shannon had never heard him like this and didn’t like the way it was going so far. More than mad, he seemed frustrated. Shannon was trying to put all the pieces together, but still had no idea as to why they had conspired to do anything like this in the first place. Again, Dan sp
oke out loudly, obviously getting angrier as Megan drove.

  “Dammit Megan, the plan was going perfectly! How could this happen? She would have brought you home and led you right to everything we needed. Such an easy, fool proof plan, it would have given us the perfect life and you couldn’t pull it off!”

  Not only had Shannon not seen Dan mad like this, but it was quite apparent that Megan hadn’t either. She was getting upset and started to yell back without thinking.

  “Well it wasn’t as easy as I thought Dan! Yes, everything seemed perfect on paper, but it wasn’t as black and white as you may seem. I really started to like her. She was stealing my heart and I thought about backing out multiple times, but I knew I couldn’t do that to family. I slipped up and told her things I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry I messed up, but you are my brother. We can get through this and figure everything out again. The money will always be there, we just need to figure a way on how to get to Shannon’s parents accounts.”

  Brother? Had Megan just called Dan her brother? Dan had mentioned to her he had a sister, but said he never met her. He said he didn’t know her name or where she was, but he knew he had one. Was he lying then, or had he found her after the fact? It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was getting out of this and making sure herself and Julie were okay. Apparently this was about her family’s money and getting their hands on it through the power of love and deception. Why did they need money? Megan’s house was bigger than almost anything she had seen and Dan had always been fairly wealthy, or at least she had thought.