by Kristal Lim
Someone was at the front door, knocking loudly enough for the sound to travel all throughout the house and wake him from the strange dream he had been having. The dream was something weird with music in it that he thought he must have heard before because it sounded sort of familiar. But whatever the dream had been, it slipped from his mind easily enough when he saw the pale sunlight shining through a crack in the window curtains. The knocking had never stopped, so he finally forced himself to leave the warm bed and go downstairs.
"I'm coming!" he called out to whoever had decided to drop by at this early hour of the morning. Still feeling sleepy, as well as more than a little grumpy at being so rudely awakened, he answered the door with a scowl. "Yes?"
There was a man standing outside the house. He looked to be about Trevor’s age, and something in the stiff way he held himself clearly said that he was most probably a cop. It took another second before Trevor realized that he was looking at one of the officers who had talked to him last night. "Yes?" he repeated uncertainly. "Can I help you?"
"Detective Roman," the man introduced himself and held out his hand, clearly not expecting Trevor to remember him. Warily, Trevor shook hands with the guy and murmured something in acknowledgement of his introduction. "I'm the person looking into the case of the teenage girl your folks got into an accident with last night," the officer told him. "I went to see you at your house, but you weren’t there obviously. So I thought I’d try you here."
"Yeah," he nodded. "Yeah. I stayed here last night. So what's this about? I already gave my statement to you guys at the hospital."
"Yes, and we appreciate that." The Detective’s polite smile didn’t really reach his eyes. "But there's been a development in the case that requires us to ask for more cooperation from you. So, may I come in?"
Trevor shrugged. "Fine. Sure. Can I at least get a cup of coffee first before you start asking me more questions? Maybe you could use one, too?"
"Yes, thank you. Coffee would be good actually."
Trevor gestured for the man to come in and then turned to head for the kitchen. "Living room's that way. You can wait there while I make the coffee."
The detective smiled at him again then went off to make himself comfortable on the couch. Trevor proceeded to the kitchen and, after searching around for the stuff he needed for a few minutes, prepared two large mugs of coffee. He handed one mug to the detective, who took it with a brief nod of thanks, and then Trevor sat on an armchair and faced the cop. "So, what is it I can do for you?" he asked. After a long sip from the mug, his head was finally clearing up and he wasn't feeling as sleepy as before. He noticed that the detective didn't drink his coffee though.
"You recently moved into town, right, Trevor? May I call you Trevor?" the other man asked.
"Yes, sure. Moved into an old house some distance away from here just about three days ago. But I lived in town with my mom before, when I was sixteen or so. I left for college and haven’t really been back until this year."
The detective nodded. "I see, I see," he commented as if he didn’t know those facts already. "You make comic books, right? You write the stories and draw the pictures? I understand you’re quite successful at it."
Something about the cop’s manner began to rub Trevor the wrong way. "They’re called graphic novels and, yeah, I’m doing okay with them." His tone had hardened just slightly. He didn’t understand what the man was actually doing here asking him these questions. "What’s this really about, officer?"
His question was ignored. "While you lived here, were you acquainted with the Jennings family?"
"Who?" Trevor had no idea where the Detective was leading him with this conversation.
"Doctor Henry Jennings and his wife, Sybil," the cop clarified. "Did you know them back then?"
He shook his head. "No. Sorry. Why? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, when the girl your stepfather almost ran over woke up in the hospital late last night, she saw Doctor Jennings while he was making his rounds. Then she started to become hysterical. She claims that he's her father but, of course, he has no idea who she is. He and his wife never had any kids. Then she was sedated to calm her down, and it was then that she began to ask for you. By name." Detective Roman gave Trevor a very sharp look then, like he was studying every detail of Trevor’s face to see how he reacted to this bit of information.
Unfortunately for whatever crazy theories he might have been spinning in his head about Trevor’s part in all of this, the only expression on the other man’s face was confused blankness. "I don't understand where you're going with this," Trevor admitted frankly. "I've never seen that girl before in my entire life and I don't remember ever giving her my name last night. She looked too out of it that I was even scared of getting near her, and it never occurred to me to waste time introducing myself when she obviously needed help."
"But she must have learned your name from someone," the detective insisted. "She kept saying that you, Trevor, found her and she needed to see you again. She was saying something about telling you about 'the others' and that you had to help her 'free them'. You really don't have any idea what she was talking about?"
"Seriously, officer," Trevor snapped. "I just moved back into town three days ago. I can barely remember the faces let alone the names of old schoolmates. And even if I did remember them, I'm sure that a girl who probably wasn't even born back then was not one of them. I have no idea how this girl knows my name and I've got even less of a clue about these 'others' that has got you looking at me like I'm some kind of criminal. I'll cooperate with whatever investigation you're doing to find out what happened to this girl, but I can't help you with any answers you seem to think I have."
The detective didn't say anything for several minutes. He just looked at Trevor. Then he finally drank his coffee. He gulped it all down and placed the empty mug on the table before him once he was done. "She keeps asking for you," he said softly. "I think it’s all suspicious as hell, but this is a little mystery that I feel will take some time to solve. So I would appreciate it if you would come see the girl and let me hear whatever she may want to say to you. She’s in pretty bad shape physically and, mentally, the doctors think she could even be worse off."
"I'll do whatever I can to help, detective," Trevor promised, suddenly sorry that he had been snippy with the man earlier. The guy was only trying to do his job, after all. "I just wish there was something more I could tell you."
The officer nodded. "Well, thank you for your time," Detective Roman suddenly said and stood up. "Let me know when would be a good time for you to come to the hospital so I can make the arrangements." He left quite abruptly after that, leaving his card with Trevor and telling him to call as soon as possible.
The whole strange business with the mysterious girl made Trevor’s head buzz with all sorts of questions. But he had other, more pressing things to worry about so he couldn’t really give it more attention than it currently deserved. After the detective left, he got some things together that his mom and stepfather would likely need during their hospital stay and jogged over to his house for a quick shower and a change of clothes. Then he took a cab to the hospital where he found George awake and sitting by his mom’s bed.
"George?" he said, his voice soft and uncertain as he hovered by the door. "Are you doing better?"
His stepfather forced himself to smile. "Hey, Trevor. Yeah. I’m okay. Come on in, will you?"
"I brought some of your stuff," Trevor told him. "Toothbrushes, clothes. I figured you guys might need them."
George nodded his thanks and gestured for Trevor to take the chair on the other side of his wife’s bed. "The doctor was here some minutes ago," he said. "She’s just sleeping now and he says she’s going to be fine." There was a short silence between the two men for a moment, then a sob escaped from George's throat and his eyes began to tear up. "God, I thought I’d lost her!"
Trevor found himself confronted with the task of comforting the other man. "It’s
going to be all right, George," he spoke as confidently as he could. "Mom’s tough. She’s not going to leave us anytime soon."
"She better not." George wiped at his tears and took several deep breaths. "I already lost two people I loved once, Trevor. I don’t ever want to go through that again."
"You won’t," he vowed. "Mom’s going to be fine. She’s going to be around to keep nagging you for years to come."
George choked back a laugh and Trevor smiled. He watched as his stepfather reached out and tenderly ran his fingers against his mother’s face. "Your mom saved me, you know," George said in a half-whisper. "Ever since my first wife and my daughter died all those years ago, I’ve been, well, I’ve been just walking around, letting things pass me by. Then I met Annie. And she was the most beautiful second chance that could ever happen to a guy like me. If I lost her, too–I don’t think I could stand it."
"She’ll be all right, George," he said quietly. "She won’t leave you. Mom wouldn’t do that to you."
The older man nodded then gave him a piercing stare. "I don’t think I ever said how sorry I was about what happened to you and Vera. To lose a child is heartbreaking, and I’m sorry that you couldn’t find it in yourselves to move on together after that."
Trevor didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, all the dark emotions that had plagued him over a great part of the past year came rushing back. He felt the same way he did when he was sitting in another hospital room across the country, watching helplessly as Vera cried and cried when the doctor told her that their baby was gone. He knew that he should have walked over to her and held her in his arms, he knew he should have comforted her, but he had done nothing. He just sat in his chair, staring blankly out the window, wondering why he wasn’t as devastated as she was at the loss of their child. That was the secret shame that had haunted him this whole time, that had built a wall between them that grew day by day until he could no longer reach out to her and she had stopped waiting for him to do so. Vera’s heart had been broken by the death of their baby. His heart hadn’t been sure what it was supposed to feel.
He couldn’t talk about it with George though. He didn’t want his stepfather to look at him differently. He didn’t want to admit out loud that there was something within him that was hollow. So he stayed quiet and, when he could no longer stand being in the room, he made his excuses, promised to come back later before the end of visiting hours, and left.
Whenever his own spinning thoughts threatened to overwhelm him, Trevor always found that working helped to calm down the chaos rattling in his skull. So he went home and started doing some sketches for his next book, forgetting about the rest of the world for a few hours. When he finally looked up from his desk, it was afternoon and he suddenly remembered that it was going to be Halloween tomorrow. He also remembered the conversation his mom and stepdad had had in the car before the accident and he realized that he didn’t have a single piece of candy anywhere in the house. He had never seen a trick or treater show up at his door in years, but then he had been living in an apartment building. However, he was quite sure that he was going to get little kids ringing his doorbell this year.
He wasn't exactly looking forward to interacting with costumed grade schoolers, but he wasn't so heartless as to shut the door in their little faces when they came asking for treats. So, with a little bit of a resigned sigh, he grabbed his jacket and keys and prepared to do some late minute candy shopping. After this errand was done, he killed some time by checking out the state of the basement because he had yet to set it up properly, and he made up some notes on his plans for renovating the place. Then, finally, he left the house again and dropped by a Chinese restaurant to get some takeout before he headed back to the hospital.
To his relief, his mom was finally conscious and sitting up in bed when he arrived. He learned that the doctor had said she and George were both well enough to go home tomorrow, so a huge load was lifted off his shoulders right there. He spent a pleasant hour having dinner and chatting with them, assuring himself that they were both okay, then it was time for him to go home.
Trevor wasn't all that sleepy yet, so he went back to working on his book. He became so absorbed in it that when he glanced at his computer's digital clock again, he saw that it was forty-seven minutes past eleven already. His long day was finally starting to catch up with him so he collapsed into bed and, just like last night, almost immediately felt a sense of great lethargy sweep over his body. He was getting sleepier by the second without any effort at all and, before he completely closed his eyes and drifted off, he saw the glowing digits of the clock beside his bed mark the hour of midnight.
~~~
Chapter 19