The Forum

by Marie Reyes

  "He's locked us in. He..." Isabella sat in a corner hugging her knees.

  "Aadesh do you have your cell phone?"

  He checked his pockets but came up empty. "Must have fallen out."

  "Shit." Martin couldn't hear anything on the other side of the door and wondered if Connor had pursued the others instead. Hopefully, they would be long gone by now.

  "It's going to be fine." Aadesh turned to Isabella and took his hands in hers. "Our friends, they got out. We even called the police. People are coming for us."

  Chapter

  Thirty Seven

  Kristen dragged Piper by the arm until they reached the window. She couldn't hear footsteps behind her and couldn't bring herself to look back. She launched herself out of the window and stumbled onto the grass. They were home free. "Come on Pipes." She egged her on from outside and pulled her by the arms until she fell onto the grass in a heap beside her.

  "What about the others? They're dead, aren't they? We left them, and now they're dead. I heard gunshots. They got shot." Piper was a quivering mess on the floor.

  Kristen wasn't ready to believe that. If she thought for a minute that they had died because of her, she didn't know what she would do, so she used logic. "We can't go back inside. The best thing we can do, is get help. I need you okay. Stay strong." They were both crying, both on the edge of breaking down.

  "Help," Piper shouted and Kristen turned towards the road to see someone coming towards them. They must have heard the gunshots. Maybe everything would be okay after all.

  "Don't move unless I say so." The man held up a handgun in their direction. Kristen thought for a moment that it might be a plainclothes police officer, or an off-duty cop. She had never seen this person before in her life.

  "No, you have to help us. Someone shot at us. The missing girl on TV, she's in there." He had a weapon; he could help them.

  "I want you to come with me, and if you even think of running, I will shoot. Understand?"

  "I don't... who are you?" Piper could barely speak.

  "No more questions." He yanked Kristen by the arm towards his car, which was parked haphazardly on the sidewalk, whilst keeping his gun trained on Piper. They both complied, too shocked to comprehend what was going on. He patted them both down, confiscated their cell phones, and tossed the rucksack aside before forcing Kristen into the front passenger's seat, and Piper into the back.

  "If you alert anyone, or try anything, I will end you, you hear me?"

  They both nodded.

  "Good." He started the car and pulled away.

  "Where are you taking us?" Piper asked meekly. She hated that he could tell how scared she was.

  "You see, unlike Connor, my motivations are quite different."

  "What do you mean?" Her voice didn't even sound like her own, but more like a small, frightened child.

  "You wouldn't see me killing girls because I got rejected, because I couldn't get laid. We may have worked together, but I have no respect for that."

  She couldn't believe she hadn’t even considered the possibility that there was more than one killer. Two people working together. It hadn't even occurred to her. She thought she was free. She thought that maybe they would be okay. Who the hell was this guy? If Connor had killed Bryony Finch, was this the person that killed her father? This wasn't the man she had gone on a date with. Had this man offered her to Connor like a prize? Using a grieving daughter as a token, or had he sought her out? She needed answers but was too terrified to ask them.

  They turned onto a main road, and as Kristen listened to him speak, she wondered what would happen if she grabbed the steering wheel and pulled the car into the path of oncoming traffic. Would they flip over the central reservation, crash through it, or just crash into it? Potentially, they could all die, but surely the odds were better than whatever this man had in store for them. His words started to sink in. They had worked together. That was why the victims were different? Connor's motivations would explain the murders of Bryony Finch and Isabella Torres. What were this man's reasons?

  She finally found the courage to speak. "Tell me, what is your motivation? I want to understand."

  "Have you ever had someone talk to you like you're a piece of shit?" he asked.

  "What?"

  "You heard what I said."

  "I... no, I don't think so."

  "Okay. Here's an easy one. Have you ever been treated like crap by your boss?" She went to answer, but he carried on. "Have you ever been blamed for things that aren't your fault, over, and over, and over? Day after day after day. A never-ending hamster wheel. Busting your ass while the rich get richer, and the suckers like us get left in the dust. I'll tell you who is worst of all. Customers. These are everyday people, like you and me. You'd think they'd have a little compassion. Don't think they don't know how little we earn, yet they treat us like their whipping boys, just because they can. They get off on it. They can say what they want to us, no holds barred. Oh, and have I heard some vile shit in my time.

  Anyway, when you hear people talk about how useless you are, multiple times in one day, five days a week, that is when you start to believe it. Then there comes a point, when you can barely get out of bed in the morning, when you're spending a fortune on anti-depressants, booze, whatever will get you through the day.

  One day, I was talking to this guy, oh was he a piece of shit, let me tell you. I spoke to him for hours over the course of two weeks. He made my life hell. Finally, I'm just straight with him, call him out on his shit. I accuse him of fraud. I know his claim is bogus, and when I lay out all the evidence, he knows, I've got him.

  Anyway, guess what the guy says to me? I'll tell you. He says, 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' And so I did. Being nice got me nowhere, so I turned it back on them. That was justice, I can tell you." The man had barely taken a breath, babbling like a cokehead.

  "I get it," Piper said. "I lost count of the number of times a customer brought me to tears. I just wondered, what I had done to them to make them hate me so much."

  Kristen stayed quiet, wondering if the empathy Piper was throwing out was helping the situation.

  "See, you get it. If you behave, you may just get out of this. It's not you I'm interested in."

  "Then why are you—"

  "You're my collateral. Just in case I need a hostage or two."

  Although Kristen could barely hold a thought in her racing mind, she knew that this was who killed her father. Connor was only interested in hurting women he felt had wronged him, whereas this person, he was after something else entirely. She imagined the kind of conversation he would have had with her father when he called Best Choice Insurance. Sure, he could be a jerk sometimes, and he could have given this guy hell, but that was no excuse to do what he did.

  She had no idea what to do with her anger right now. She wanted this guy dead, to suffer like her father had, but what could she do with Piper in the car? Whatever Kristen did would have consequences for both of them. If it was just her in the car, she could be as reckless as she liked. She could grab the steering wheel, distract him, try to get his gun from him, anything but sit there pretending nothing was wrong. At this point, Kristen didn't even care if she lived or died, just as long as this person paid for what they did. For now, all she could do was sit tight, and do what this maniac wanted.

  Chapter

  Thirty Eight

  Both Aadesh and Martin hurled themselves at the door. Surely if they used enough force again and again, the latch would detach, or the padlock would weaken.

  "If we broke the glass, maybe we could open it from the outside?"

  "Is he out there?" Isabella asked, still in her corner, but considerably calmer, and no longer screaming.

  Aadesh banged his fist against the weakened glass, and it didn't break, but the cracks grew bigger. He looked out but couldn't see anything but the fractured glass obscuring the view. Defeated, he slid down the door and sat on the cold, hard floor.

  "What'
s our next move?" Before Martin could answer, another shot fired, and glass fell on them as the window above shattered. They tried to shield themselves by putting their arms over their heads and they waited. They had nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait, but no more shots came. Martin wanted to look through the broken window to see where Connor was, but he knew the minute he did, his head could be blown off, yet sitting there waiting was even more excruciating.

  Just as he went to move, a metal object fell onto the floor, a pipe? A fizzing sound. He saw Aadesh dive into the corner, shielding Isabella with his whole body, and then it dawned on him. He barely had time to face the wall and place his arms over his head when a force rippled through him and a deafening sound perforated his eardrums.

  ~~~

  "What is your name?" Piper asked, and Kristen wondered if she was trying to manage him, to get personal details about him so she could ingratiate herself to him, and to stay alive.

  "John."

  She knew this route as they had only traveled it a few hours prior. She recognized the junction. Gas station on the left, pharmacy on the right. He turned left at the lights. There were barely any cars on this road as it was still too early for people to be starting work, and apart from offices, there was just open, grassy spaces, and trees.

  He hadn't driven down the road long before the turning came. They passed the artificial lake and Kristen wondered what the hell this guy was going to do once he got there. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

  There were only a few cars parked in the lot, and John found a space as close to the building as possible. He turned off the engine and his finger hovered over the trigger of his gun. "Now we wait."

  "What are you going to do?" Kristen asked.

  "Can't you make an educated guess?"

  "How many people have you killed?"

  For some reason, he didn't seem to mind the questions. It was as if he wanted to talk and unburden himself. "Only two. Two for me, two for Connor."

  "There are only three videos."

  "Soon, there will be a fourth, and a fifth."

  "How did this all start?" She wanted answers, now!

  "It was fairly innocent at first. Connor and I would bitch about our customers. We sat next to each other and whenever I got an obnoxious ass on the phone, I would pull up the plan and find out all their details. You'd be amazed at what you can find out about people online. I would find their homes on the internet, look at their social media, learn everything about them. My first act of rebellion was this guy who was claiming for loss of earnings. He screamed at me for almost an hour straight and you know why?"

  "Why?" Kristen humored him.

  "Because he didn't want us to deduct tax and expenses from his payment. He wanted us to pay him more than he actually earned. How crazy is that? That someone could abuse me like that because he was an amoral piece of shit. My boss enforced a no hanging up rule, so no matter what abuse these people flung at us, we just had to take it like little bitches. So, a while after this person called, so it wasn't obvious, I set up loads of fake accounts, even used a VPN and I tanked his business, all from the safety of my computer. I gave him awful reviews, flung accusations around. The dude actually went out of business. Can you imagine what it feels like to have that kind of power over someone who likes to walk all over lowly call center agents? It felt amazing.

  So, at this point, I trust Connor enough to tell him what I did, and he loves it. Then, he admits to me, that he liked to use the client information to stalk the lady customers. He would hang outside their homes. The ones that lived close anyway. He told me he loved to play games with them. Follow them for ages, walk behind them, speed up, and watch them pick up their pace to avoid him. He never did anything at that point. He just liked the thrill of it, the power of it.

  So, we both know each other's secrets. We got each other's backs. Things just escalated from there.

  Piper and Kristen were horrified by what they were hearing but tried not to show it.

  "Do you know what Connor is going to do with our friends?" The fear had evaporated from Piper's voice, and now, she sounded exhausted and resigned, like she didn't even care what happened to her anymore.

  "Can't you make an educated guess?"

  Chapter

  Thirty Nine

  Martin couldn't hear anything but a muffled ringing. It reminded him of the Motorhead show he went to where he was right in front of the speaker and his ears buzzed for days. Except, this felt a million times worse. He stayed huddled in the same position, unable to move. He knew he was injured. His insides felt like they had been obliterated into jelly and he was too frightened to check what damage had been done.

  His back burned and sharp pains stabbed at him when he moved even a fraction. No doubt there was shrapnel embedded in his flesh. He couldn't hear the others move, even if they were, he probably wouldn't be able to hear them anyway. Finally, a sound penetrated the hum of tinnitus and knowing he wasn't deaf, made him feel a sliver of hope, even if that sound was screaming.

  He moved his stiff arms down to see Isabella leaning over Aadesh. She looked scared and disorientated, but the smears of blood on her clothing didn't look to be hers. He crawled across the concrete towards her and Aadesh, trying to ignore the metal fragments that stuck out of him. Aadesh was laid on his stomach, with his head resting on the floor facing Martin.

  "You're going to be okay," he said, ignoring the fact that he wasn't moving, and didn't seem to be breathing. He was too scared to take a pulse, as if there wasn't one, he didn't want to know. He didn't know whether to remove the twisted metal pieces protruding from his back and assumed he was less likely to bleed out if they stayed in place. There were too many injuries to try to stem the bleeding, so he watched over him. The largest fragment appeared to protrude from the back of Aadesh's skull. He convinced himself help was coming. He had called the cops when everything went down, and they must have traced his call by now. They would be there any minute.

  "He's dead," Isabella cried, her face screwed up in a pained expression.

  "No. It's okay. The cops are coming. They'll be here, and then they can get him the help he needs."

  "He's gone." Her tears just kept coming, and he desperately tried not to let them get to him. He needed to keep it together, at least until the police arrived. She got up off the floor and barreled towards the door, shoving it at full force with her side, and almost fell forward as the door burst right open. "Come on. We have to get out of here!"

  There was no way he was going to leave Aadesh all alone in this god-forsaken room. Isabella backed into the room with her mouth open, and her eyes wide. Connor was there waiting for them.

  "You just won't die will you," he said calmly, holding an object in his hand, what looked like another pipe bomb. Martin leaped up and pulled her back as Connor stood in the doorway about to hurl the explosive device at them. When his arm was raised, that familiar fizzing sound of the fuse made Martin recoil, and he and Isabella clung together like a single organism.

  Chapter Forty

  It felt like an eternity sat in stony silence in the car. They were trapped there for hours, afraid to move. One wrong word and it could have been the end for them. It was agonizing being so tired, but not being able to close their eyes in fear that they may never open them again. And even though this felt like agony, they knew, once the office opened, and John made his move, that things would get so much worse.

  He clearly had something big in store, and they would have done anything, not to bear witness to it. It felt surreal watching the sunrise, wondering if this would be the last sunrise for some, including them. Usually, the dawn chorus was a beautiful sound, but not today. They listened to the birds as they watched the clock, the ticking time bomb on the dashboard.

  The early risers finally started making their way into the office, and John deemed it time to make his move. "Now, I want you to act completely normal, okay? No crying, no screaming. If you tip anyone off, I will shoot you
on site, and whoever else happens to be in the vicinity, I will kill them too. Got it?"

  They nodded. It felt so strange as they got out of the car into the morning air. It was quiet, peaceful almost, with the sound of the running fountain and officer workers chatting about mundane things, like what they were going to have for breakfast, and who they were meeting for lunch, if they even made it that far.

  Piper looked at the office workers smart dress, and in comparison, they looked like crap on a stick. She didn't belong there, and she was certain it wouldn't take long for someone to notice. The movement and whooshing sound of the automatic doors made her heart leap up in her chest. Her anxiety was through the roof, and she had no idea how to contain it, especially in such a formal environment. The receptionist looked them up and down as they walked in, and she could feel the judgment.

  "Hi Jackie. I have two guests from the Ohio branch to sign in," he said coolly, like he'd done this a million times before.

  "Sure honey. Is that for the financial crime conference?"

  "It is."

  Jackie tightened her high, blond ponytail, and then passed them a clipboard. Kristen looked down at the paper and picked up a pen from the front desk, trying to keep her hand steady. She put her actual name down, the date, and time. She considered writing an SOS message on the paper, to get the receptionist's attention, to get them to call for help, but John was hovering over her. She signed her name and passed the clipboard into Piper's trembling hands. Keep it together, Pipes, she said in her head, hoping that she could somehow transport the message into Piper's brain telepathically. Jackie seemed nice, and she didn't want anything to happen to her.