Crazy Files

by Yvi Valentin

  Jen placed a hand on my head and in an instant, a bunch of memories flashed through my mind. I remembered how we met: we were training with Raphael when we started singing the same song. We laughed and spent the rest of the time getting to know each other and before we knew it we were best friends…sisters even.

  I remembered all of the adventures we went on with Liz. One of them being a mission to play a prank on our boyfriends, they were having a guys night of watching a basketball game, drinking beer and eating nachos. We decided to buy a scary mask and put it in the refrigerator when they weren’t paying attention so when one of them went to get another beer, they got a lovely surprise. Andy was the first to fall victim, he thought Brian or Frank did it and they spent most of the time trying to figure out who did it. It was funny to see the looks on their faces when they learned we were behind it.

  So many memories ran through my mind from battles fought together to our bimonthly “spa” days. We never really went to the spa; we usually went to get our nails and sometimes hair done. I didn’t understand how I could have ever forgotten about her, but then again, Evan did erase my memory. All of the memories Jen gave me made me feel closer to her, like I had my sister back and I knew she felt the same.

  Jen finally took her hand off of my head and the flow of memories stopped. I opened my eyes and gave her a hug as I said, “I can’t believe I forgot about you…my big sis.” I paused for a moment. “When’s our next spa day?”

  We both laughed and she said, “Maybe tomorrow. It could be a good way to lure Evan out here and we get to have our girl time. I’ll invite Liz and fill her in on everything.”

  “Great!” I squealed. “This is so exciting!” I turned to Andy and asked, “How soon can you get Frank on board?”

  “I called him while Jen was giving you memories, he’ll be here within the hour,” Andy replied.

  “Even better, do you think we can start tomorrow?” I asked. “Jen, Liz and I will go to the spa and you, Brian and Frank can be on the lookout for Evan.”

  “I don’t know about that, Aimee,” Brian began.

  “He’s right,” Andy interrupted. “Michael suggested we have at least two teams following Evan at a time.”

  “What if he doesn’t even show up tomorrow? Maybe this is what we need to make Evan aware of where we are and he’ll show up later,” I protested.

  “What if he does? We won’t have enough people to keep a good eye on him,” Andy argued.

  “You mean three people can’t keep tabs on one person?” I was tired of arguing. It was ridiculous and I knew neither of us would back down. I walked into my bedroom and sat down on my old bed. I missed this place, especially my bed. I rolled around and smelled my sheets. The familiar scent of fabric softener gave me a great deal of comfort which I really needed considering everything I had been through.

  The knock on my bedroom door made me jump. The door creaked open and Andy popped his head in. “Are you alright Aims?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I lied, causing Andy to be suspicious.

  “Frank’s here and Liz will be here soon,” he said. “We’re going to talk about the plan for tomorrow so maybe you should come into the living room.”

  I dragged myself out of bed and walked past Andy and into the living room. It was obvious to everyone I wasn’t alright. Everything had become so real, yet at the same time, it seemed unreal. The danger I put myself in was getting to me. The pressure of doing well was too much for me to handle. I was worried I might fail and disappoint everyone. There was too much on the line and I was starting to crack. No matter how much I tried to calm myself down, the anxiety would always come creeping back under my skin. I wasn’t sure I could handle it much longer, but I knew I had a job to do. I tried to suppress my tears and focused on what needed to be done. I threw myself down on the recliner and sighed.

  There was a knock on the door. “That’s probably Liz,” Jen said as she bounced her way to the door.

  She opened the door and Liz entered the apartment. Her short blonde hair and dainty frame made her seem sweet. But there was something in her big blue eyes that seemed mischievous. She was definitely different from every other good star child I had ever seen but what did I know?

  After all the greetings were said and done, we got down to business. I still felt like crap, but I needed to put it aside and focus on the task at hand.

  “So you three are going to have your spa day tomorrow,” Andy started, “and the three of us are going to be watching outside incase Evan shows up.”

  “What if he sends someone else? How will we know who to look for?” Frank asked with a stern expression on his face. His stupid black hair was slicked back with way too much gel in it. There was something in his hazel eyes I didn’t trust. Maybe it’s because I hated how he kidnapped me but I wasn’t about to let my guard down.

  “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to know who Evan might send in his place until we follow him and find out who he’s working with,” I suggested.

  “Aimee’s right,” Brian said.

  “What will you guys do if Evan does show up?” Liz asked.

  “It’s not likely, but if he does, Frank, Brian and I will split up and follow him for a while,” Andy answered. I was surprised he decided to go along with my original suggestion. Maybe it was because he felt sorry for me.

  “I brought earwigs for each of us,” Frank began, “that way we’ll be able to stay in constant contact with one another without drawing too much attention to ourselves.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier if we just communicated telepathically?” I asked.

  “Yes but if one of us gets into trouble and don’t know where we are, we can easily find them with the GPS tracker in the earwig,” Frank explained.

  “I guess that makes sense,” I said hesitantly. I was nervous about what was going to happen. I had a bad feeling about things to come that partially made me not want to go through with this but I knew what had to be done.

  Chapter 13

  Jen, Liz and I entered the salon with the intentions of getting our nails and hair done. We needed to be there for as long as possible to make sure we got on Evan’s radar. With the earwigs and guys in place, we sat down to get our nails done.

  “We’re across the street,” a voice rang in my ear. It was Andy. “We each have a different angle on the building so if anyone tries anything, we’ll be ready.”

  “Got it,” I replied. Jen and Liz shot me a look of disbelief and I knew I wasn’t supposed to respond to anything the guys said. “I found the perfect color.”

  “Nice save Aims,” Brian laughed.

  The manicurists got to work on our nails as we started our usual gossip ritual. There was a lot to talk about since I was out of commission for so long, but it was great to be back. It felt a little weird knowing the guys were listening in. Jen and Liz felt the same so we chose our words carefully. Needless to say, there was a lot of mind reading being done. I felt like I was mostly listening to everything that happened in Jen and Liz’s lives. There were no big events that happened back when I had no memory until Andy came for me, so I didn’t have much to talk about.

  “I didn’t realize how boring this was going to be,” Brian mumbled.

  “It’ll be over soon…I hope,” Frank responded.

  “So after our nails dry should we get our hair done?” I asked.

  “Oh no,” Brian whined.

  “Sounds like a great idea,” Liz answered.

  “Are you trying to torture us?” Brian asked. I heard Andy laugh in response.

  “This is fun,” Jen said.

  “Yeah, we should do it more often,” I laughed, clearly trying to drag out the torture.

  “Guys, I see someone…” Andy started. “It’s Gina and I think she’s heading for the salon.”

  We looked towards the door and saw her walk in. I tensed up and looked away hoping Gina wouldn’t notice us. I realized I was holding my breath as I started feeling dizzy. I felt incredibl
y uncomfortable when I felt her evil nature ooze from her pores. I needed to leave right away.

  “My nails are dry, what about you two?” Liz seemed to be attempting to suppress her anxiety but for some odd reason, I didn’t think she was being genuine.

  “You need to make sure Gina sees you, more importantly, make sure she sees Aimee,” Frank said.

  “Hey girls!” Gina called. I instantly felt my skin crawl at the sound of her voice. She was acting like we were all the best of friends when it was painfully obvious we were the worst of enemies.

  “Gina! How are you?” I hated being fake, but I knew I had to do it to get us out safely.

  “Oh I’m great, just here to get my nails done. I see you guys had the same idea.” I was sure everyone could tell she was being just as disingenuous as I was. “You should have told me, we could have come together.”

  “Sorry, I lost your number when I lost my phone,” I said. We both knew I was talking about my memory. “Our nails just finished drying so we’re going to head out, but we should definitely get together some time.”

  “Of course! It was great to see you Aimee.” She watched us as we walked over to the counter to pay for our manicures. “Bye guys!”

  We left the salon as fast as we could and walked away to look for Andy, Brian and Frank. They were hidden very well and we couldn’t find them. “Guys where are you?” Jen whispered.

  “What should we do next?” Liz asked.

  “Go get lunch,” Andy suggested. “We should stay here to see if Gina follows you.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Frank responded.

  “I’m starving,” I said.

  “Where should we eat?” Liz asked.

  “I could go for a burger and fries,” Jen said.

  Liz and I agreed so we went to the nearest burger place and pigged out. We were almost finished eating when we noticed Gina had walked through the door. It was obvious she followed us. I knew she was going to report back to Evan.

  “Guys, Gina is in here.” I tried to keep my voice as low as possible. “What do we do now?”

  “We’re outside,” Frank answered.

  “Get out as soon as possible and head home,” Andy said. “We’ll stay behind to see what Gina does next.”

  We rushed out of the restaurant and headed towards my apartment. I knew Gina saw us, but hoped she wouldn’t follow. That was very unlikely, but it was nice to dream. It seemed like a lifetime had passed before we finally got back to my apartment. I should have felt better being home, but I was nervous. I knew something big was going to happen and it was only a matter of time.

  “We’re home now Andy, what’s going on out there?” I asked. Part of me knew what the answer would be, but I wanted to be wrong. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the answer I knew was coming.

  “We’re following Gina,” Andy answered. “It looks like she’s heading towards you.”

  “She called Evan,” Brian mentioned. “She’s definitely doing surveillance for him.”

  “That’s a good thing right?” Jen asked.

  “It could be seen that way,” Frank began. “It could be only a matter of time before Evan shows up to see things for himself.”

  “Okay guys, just be careful,” I said.

  “We will sweetheart,” Andy replied. Even though he was far away, I could still feel his worry.

  Hours passed before Brian, Andy and Frank came through the door. I was nervous to hear what Gina was up to. It seemed like they could sense it because Andy led me to the couch and sat next to me. He grabbed my hand and took a deep breath before he opened his mouth to tell us everything.

  “Gina was outside the building,” Andy said. “We heard her call Evan again.”

  “What did she say?” I asked, half hoping he wouldn’t tell me. I could tell Andy didn’t want to say anything.

  “She told him you’re staying here again,” Brian replied.

  “We think Evan is going to make his move soon,” Frank explained.

  I felt like I couldn’t breathe and my heart was beating faster than I thought possible. “How do you figure?”

  “We heard her ask if he thought it was too soon,” Andy said. “She was arguing with him about wanting to do more surveillance before taking such drastic action.”

  “He’s going to try to kidnap me again…isn’t he?” I felt numb.

  “We think so,” Frank said.

  It was a good thing I was already sitting down because I felt like I was going to faint. This couldn’t have been happening to me. I was ready to wake up from my nightmare, but I had no clue how to wake myself up. The distress I was in could be seen all over my face and everyone tried to comfort me, but nothing helped. They didn’t know the real reason for my distress, they had no idea I believed I was dreaming and wanted nothing more than to wake up. I thought it was best if they didn’t know; it would only cause more problems.

  “What do we do now?” I asked. “We can’t just sit here and wait for Evan to show up.” I was terrified. I just wanted it to be over, I felt like a broken record, stuck on the same parts of determined to end the war, questioning my sanity and wanting to wake up.

  “We don’t have a choice. We’ll have at least one person with you at all times and everyone else will break into groups to watch out for Evan,” Andy said. I knew he wasn’t happy with the plan, but there was nothing else we could do.

  “Okay.” I didn’t have the energy to deal with everything. “I’m going to get some sleep; you guys do whatever you have to do.” I went to my room and got ready for a much needed rest. I knew Andy was going to show up soon to see how I was doing. It couldn’t have been more than a minute before Andy knocked on the door.

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “Yeah I’m just tired.” I couldn’t tell him the truth. He had always been so hurt by my thinking everything was just a dream.

  He gave me a kiss. “Okay, hopefully by the time you wake up, we’ll have a plan put into action.”

  “I hope so,” I said weakly. I knew I was dreaming, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Part of me knew this nightmare would eventually come to an end. It was like a movie playing in my head and I couldn’t wake up from it no matter how hard I tried, not until the “movie” was over. There were no fast forward, stop, pause or scene select abilities in the movie. Once it started, there was no stopping it. I would have to play it out through the end.

  He gave me another kiss and said, “Sweet dreams.” I gave him a half smile and went to bed.

  I was running down Michigan Avenue from something I couldn’t see, but my instincts told me I was running from a monster, maybe even more than one. I ran as fast as I could down the magnificent mile, getting stared at by tourists and locals like I was insane. I looked around and realized I was alone. I wondered where Andy, Brian or anyone was. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be left alone, so I couldn’t help but wonder why I was by myself. I ran towards the loop where I thought it was a good idea to catch the train. I was able to catch the brown line at the Adams and Wabash stop. Thinking I managed to get away from who or whatever was chasing me, I sat down and relaxed. It wasn’t long before I saw a familiar face sitting at the other end of the car. It was Gina. The doors opened at Clark and Lake and I ran off the train hoping she didn’t notice. I felt someone grab my arm as I ran across the platform. I turned around to see Gina smiling. She had a tight grip on my arm that made it hard for me to get away without causing a scene. I was forced to go wherever she wanted to take me.

  I woke up in a cold sweat. My heart was beating so fast that I thought it was going to burst. I stayed in bed for a few minutes, trying to calm myself down before I got up to tell Andy about my dream. I couldn’t hear any voices and wondered if I was left alone. I remembered I was alone in my nightmare and ran out of the room in a panic.

  “Good morning,” Andy said. “I’m making pancakes, eggs and bacon.” He looked over at me to see I was a wreck. “What’s wrong?”


  “I had another one of those dreams,” I answered as I tried to keep myself from crying.

  “What happened?” He sat me down and looked at me intently as I told him what the horrible nightmare was about. “I won’t let that happen to you Aimee, don’t worry.”

  “I was left alone and they got to me!” I yelled. I didn’t mean to, but with everything that was going on I was falling apart.

  “I’m not going to leave you alone and Jen, Liz, Frank and Brian are outside watching the place in case Evan tries to do anything.” I could tell Andy was frustrated and wanted to put an end to everything as much as I did.

  “That’s where they are right now?” I felt so fragile. It was almost as if I was going to shatter at the next mention of something bad.

  “Yeah.” He remembered the breakfast he was working on and rushed into the kitchen to make sure nothing was burnt. “Come eat, I didn’t burn it, I promise.”

  I laughed as I went into the kitchen. “Thanks.”

  “Aimee, put your earwig back in, you need to hear this.”

  I rushed into my room and grabbed the earwig off the dresser where I left it the night before. I put it in my ear and asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Evan is waiting outside the door to your building,” Frank said.

  “I think he’s waiting for someone to open the door so he can get in,” Jen pointed out.

  I took a deep breath. “This is bad.”

  “We’re not going to let him in here even if he does get in the building,” Andy promised.

  “What if he tries to break in?” I asked.

  “We fight,” Andy answered.

  Chapter 14

  There was a knock at the door. I walked over and looked in the peephole to see Evan standing in the hallway. I slowly backed away hoping he didn’t realize I was there.

  “Aimee I know you’re in there.” I flashed back to the moment I met him, the moment when all the craziness started. I knew better, I wasn’t going to answer the door. “Come on, I just want to talk to you.”