by Dale Mayer
And, indeed, she read bits and pieces, little troublesome notes.
Appears to be in good health.
Still struggling.
No sign of improvement.
No awareness of memories.
She sat back and glared at it. “That’s not helpful,” she muttered.
“What is it?”
She looked up to see Hunter leaning against the doorjamb, his arms crossed. He was freshly shaved and showered.
She smiled, her heart lighting up at the sight of him. “I figured you’d be around somewhere.”
“Not going anywhere for a while,” he said. He looked at the backpack and items on the table. “What’s this?”
“From the truck,” she said. “Well, his rowboat, and then I brought it with me in his truck when I came home.”
Home. He barely could take note of that, as his eyebrows shot up, and he walked over. “Would have been good to have known about this last night.”
“Sorry, I didn’t even think to show it to you,” she said. “I saw it this morning and just now started going through it.”
“Anything interesting?”
“Some IDs. I suspect he’s just kept whatever he’s picked up from vehicles that he stole.”
“Well, it’s convenient that way, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Maybe if he gets lucky, one’s close enough in appearance to use.”
Hunter nodded. “A couple credit cards are here in different names, but, after a certain amount of time, mere hours in some cases,” he said, “they won’t be good anymore.”
“But they can be used immediately though,” she murmured, studying them. She set them off on one side, and she said, “This notebook is what I immediately glommed on to, but it doesn’t help.”
“What’s it about?”
“Me, apparently.” He stopped and looked at her, then reached out a hand. She put the notebook in it and shrugged. “It’s just his notes, and it doesn’t seem to say anything positive or negative either way.”
“Well, maybe that’s a good thing.”
“Not if it doesn’t give us answers,” she said in frustration.
He flipped through it and said, “Your memories appear to be the big blocking point.”
“Yes. At least according to him.”
“Do you want help getting them back?”
“Hell no,” she said immediately. “I told you. Everything he said about my memories suggests I don’t want to remember something.”
“Will you be content to stay in the darkness though?” he murmured.
“If that’s all I have, then that’s all I have.” He frowned at that, and she shrugged. “What am I supposed to say? You’re asking me if I want to find out information that potentially shows me to be an incredibly bad person. I’d just as soon stand in the darkness and forget about it. I’ve reinvented my life for the last many years. I’m okay to stay this way.”
“Are you though? Really?”
Something was oddly intimate about the question, but she didn’t want to go there now. Better to leave last night in the past. She waved a hand at him. “Forget all that woo-woo psychiatry stuff,” she said. “I’m surviving just fine.”
“You’re surviving, but you are not thriving.”
“Come on. Does anybody really thrive in this world?” she asked curiously. “Seems like everybody I talk to is in survival mode one way or another, as if they’ve got so many problems and so much pain that they aren’t thriving anyway,” she said. “I think thriving is a misnomer.”
“I don’t know about a misnomer,” he murmured, “but I certainly don’t see that it’s something you have to hide from.”
“But we’re all hiding.”
“Yes,” he said, “but I think, at some point in time, you’ll want answers.”
“Maybe, but that time is not now.” And, with that, she returned her attention to the rest of the stuff from Peter’s backpack and raised both hands in frustration. “Nothing is here.”
“No,” Hunter said. “Did you expect there to be?”
She frowned. “He has to make a mistake sometime.”
“Maybe. But it looks to me like he’s been doing this just as long as you have been running,” he murmured. “Tell me more about Lizzy.”
“Why?” she asked, clamming up and glaring at him.
“Because Lizzy seems to be a big part of this.”
“I told you. She was my best friend. If we could have any friends in a place like that, then she was it. I struggled with hurting people, and she didn’t seem to have a problem with it.”
“Is that what broke up your friendship?”
“What broke us was that I was punished for not following orders, and she stepped up and followed the orders to avoid being hurt again. And I couldn’t handle it.”
“You couldn’t understand why she would do such a thing?”
“Of course I could understand. I just didn’t like the fact that she did it.”
“So you judged her for it.”
“Ouch,” she said, glaring at him. “That’s hardly fair.”
“The truth isn’t always fair,” he said, right back at her.
She waved a hand. “So, instead of this talk, is there any food?”
“Sure,” he said, looking at her steadily. “Where was Lizzy when you guys were being relocated?”
“In one of the cars ahead of me,” she said.
“Was she ever used as a weapon against you?”
“I knew it was guaranteed the minute I left,” she said. “Lizzy is by far the strongest of them all.” She looked at him and said, “And you’d better watch it because you do have some abilities, and it would be abilities that Peter would thwart.”
“I hear you. He more or less made a threat to that extent last night.”
She nodded. “If he sees any value in you, he will do what he can to utilize it, then throw you away again.”
“Interesting that he would throw it away afterward.”
“Most of the time,” she murmured, “the abilities are pretty well done for.”
“Meaning, they are burned out?”
She nodded. “If you want to use that phrase, yes.”
“If I want to use that phrase,” he said, studying her closely. “What abilities are we talking about?”
“Anything and everything,” she said, “including a lot of wannabes or people who had minor abilities. People would pretend to have better abilities than they had, until they were tested. Then, of course, the truth would come out, and it would go badly for them.”
“He sounds like a nice guy.”
“I’ve already told you that he isn’t, and I’ve warned you,” she said. “I can’t do any more than that. You’ll proceed at your own risk.”
“Of course,” he said. “Thanks for the warning.”
She glared at him. “This isn’t funny, you know?”
“No, I get it,” he said. “You’ve seen some pretty rough things. These things just never seem to get any easier, do they?”
She shook her head. “No, they don’t. Peter’s an asshole, and he’s never changed. We gonna eat anytime soon?”
“Food won’t change the conversation,” he interrupted.
“Food needs to change the conversation,” she murmured.
He stepped into the pantry and froze. She followed him and gasped. “Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, “but I can guess.”
In front of them was a painting, faded, but a portrait of her. She stepped closer. “I almost feel like I remember this,” she murmured.
“It’s an interesting painting, isn’t it? Multiple images of you.”
“Yeah, it’s one of those receding images,” she said. “I remember playing with that.”
“Did you paint it?” he asked.
She frowned and shrugged. “I feel like I had a hand in it, but I don’t know,” she said. “Why would Peter leave this though?” She
turned to look at Hunter.
“To trigger your memory, I would guess,” he said. “That appears to be the biggest issue on his mind.”
“Well, if that’s what he wants, then it’s the last thing I want,” she said forcibly.
“Got it,” he said, in a calm voice, “but that doesn’t mean that isn’t what ultimately needs to happen.”
“Don’t push it,” she muttered.
He walked around the painting and checked the doors. “Everything is locked.”
“He used to be good at picking locks,” she said. “I didn’t see him ever fail.”
“Well, in that case, no point in locking them again.”
“Why?” she asked curiously.
“Because he was obviously here already, so what’s the point?”
She wasn’t sure what to say about that but nodded. “Fine. Does that mean we can still have food?”
“Of course.” He looked around the kitchen to see if anything else was different, while she watched.
“If he came, and he added something, does that make him a thief?”
“No, it means he broke in and entered a property that’s not his. Even if not locked, he would still be entering illegally.”
“I get it,” she said. “I just wish I knew where I was supposed to go from here.” An uneasy feeling rode deep down into her spine, that constant memory of Lizzy telling her to remember. “I think they want me to know what I’m like on the inside because I did such horrible things,” she said. “They’re jogging my memory, so I’ll go back to being like them.”
“In that case, then I hope you never remember,” he said quietly.
She looked at him with relief. “I’m glad you said that,” she replied, “because I’ve been racking my brain, wondering if I’m supposed to confess to some crimes that I don’t even know if I committed or not.”
“Well, you can’t confess to crimes you can’t remember,” he said. “Which just supports the justification of not remembering. Unless not remembering is hurting you.”
“I’m fine,” she said immediately.
He nodded and didn’t say anything, as he brought out eggs and bread. “A little bit of bacon and eggs are left,” he said, “and I can make some toast. You okay with that?”
“It’s edible,” she said, “so absolutely.”
He smiled at her and said, “Food ought to be more than just edible.”
“When you’re on the run, just edible works.”
“But you’re not on the run anymore.”
“No,” she said, with a confused frown. “We’re holed up here, but Peter has the run of the place, so I’m not sure why we’re still here.”
“Where would we go that he couldn’t find us?”
“Nowhere,” she said, with a shrug.
He nodded. “So, I’m not sure running will help us.”
“No, but it would make me feel better.”
“That’s because action over inaction always feels better,” he said quietly. “In this case, we would just be burning our energy but not necessarily improving the situation.”
“So, what do we do to improve it?”
“Well, let’s find out some more about your history. And his.”
“How is it possible to even find out what his real name is?”
“I did get some photos of him when he was knocked out,” he said quietly. “I sent them off to Stefan, and the FBI is looking into it.”
“Right. You have friends in high places.”
“I do. And it’s not so much that it’s the FBI but a special division of the FBI that is looking into these types of crimes.”
“What crime did he commit exactly?” she said.
“Well, on the surface, it’s just plain stalking and, of course, entering the house illegally. When you leave a painting behind, it’s hardly theft, but I’m sure the FBI could come up with something for it. He was discharging his firearm last night several times, and I think he would have quite cheerfully killed me.”
“Which goes against what he was saying.”
“Oh, I think he would have killed me in a temper but would prefer to utilize me to his advantage to get you to remember.”
“That would not make me happy,” she said calmly. “I don’t like being used as a pawn, and I don’t want anybody I know to be used to make me do something.”
“Oh, I hear you. But that doesn’t mean we’ll have any choice though. We don’t know what his end game is.”
She replied, “So we need to leave here, so that he can’t play his end game.”
“Maybe. Or maybe we should just stay here and see if we can come up with a few devices of our own to get clear of this.”
“You’re talking in circles again.”
“Maybe,” he said, “maybe not. Let’s eat up first, recharge our energies, and come up with a game plan.”
“You keep saying things like that, but I feel like it’s just to throw me off the scent.”
“And what scent would that be?” he asked her curiously, as he cracked eggs into a bowl.
“The fact that there isn’t anything we can do,” she said calmly. “The fact that he’s got our number, no matter what.”
“That doesn’t mean he’ll win,” Hunter said quietly.
“How can he lose though?” she murmured. “He’s got all the cards in his hand.”
He grinned at her. “Does he?”
She frowned. “Yes, I think he does. He disappeared quite easily last night.”
“Sure, but do you think I didn’t let him?”
At that, her jaw dropped. She leaned forward and said, “Seriously?”
He nodded. “He’s not a whole lot of value if he’s a prisoner and won’t talk. What we need to know is what he’ll do next, where he went, and what he’s planning on doing from now on.”
“But how will you figure that out? He’s gone. It’s not like you can track him.”
“That’s exactly what I did. I put a tracker on him,” he said. “So hopefully, when I go check it again, which is where I was just a little bit ago, we’ll have a better idea of where he is.”
She shook her head in astonishment. “I didn’t know you had access to that stuff.”
“Most people just don’t know where because they don’t care enough to look,” he said. “In my business it’s something I do all the time.”
“But you can track him otherwise too, can’t you?”
“I can, if you’re talking about energy. Yes, that’s what I do. It’s my bent,” he said, “but I’m also caught between that and keeping you safe.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about that so much,” she said. “Again, we know that he doesn’t want to kill me.”
“True, but do we want you to get caught?”
“Well, if we did,” she said, “and you could track me, then it would take us back to his home base and whatever else he’s got planned.”
“I thought of that too,” Hunter said calmly, “but I’m not up to using you as bait. You’ve been used enough in your life.”
“And what if I told you to use me? Just make sure you come rescue me.”
“I’ve already considered that,” he murmured, “and I’ve discarded it.”
“And if I want you to anyway?”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Too bad,” she said in exasperation, “because we need to put a stop to this.”
“We do, but we don’t have enough information yet.”
“And where will we get the information from?”
“Stefan is working on it.”
“Right. Stefan and the FBI.”
“Exactly,” he said, tossing her a quick grin. “Remember? Trust is a problem for you.”
“Of course it is,” she said, “because in all those years that I needed somebody to rescue me, nobody was out there to do it.”
“Maybe nobody knew you needed a rescue, and maybe your cries for help weren’t getting through because of whatever scenario they had
managed to wrap around you. Maybe you were in a steel building or another construction capable of blocking radio waves, which can stop telepathic messages, even on the ether. Our minds still need a way to get loose in order to send messages.”
“And somebody has to be listening,” she said calmly.
“Indeed. And I wouldn’t guarantee that nobody was listening, but that doesn’t mean that your message was coming through loud and clear.”
She frowned at that. “All the things that have to happen in order to make life a little easier on some of us,” she said, with a shake of her head. “You don’t think about it, do you?”
“No, because nobody wants to believe it’s as shitty a world out there as it is.”
“It’s not all shitty.”
“What! Is this you saying that?”
She laughed. “Okay, fine,” she said. “So a lot of it is shitty.”
“A lot of it is, indeed, shitty, but it’s not all like you said. Come on. Eat up.” He put the plate down in front of her.
She sniffed the air. “I never could make bacon look like this,” she said, staring at the crispy strips. “It was always burnt or looking like half-raw fat.”
“Lots of people don’t care which way it ends up, as long as it’s cooked enough not to make you sick. Bacon’s bacon. It’s always a treat.”
“Maybe,” she said, “but I like mine so it doesn’t have fat jiggling all over it.”
“Then it’s a good thing it’s not got any fat jiggling all over it today,” he said, with a chuckle.
She smiled. “I don’t understand how you can be so calm about this whole thing.”
“Because,” he said, “I’ve seen assholes like him before. I know he’s dangerous, and I know that he’s hunting you, but I believe that we will get through this.”
“It just seems so far-fetched.” She wanted to believe Hunter; she really did.
“All of it is far-fetched,” he said.
She laughed. “I know, and when I think about all the things that I went through, well, that all seems severely far-fetched too, especially now that I’ve got some distance from it.”