I could have panicked. An underage girl I barely knew and had accepted responsibility for had just left for parts unknown and I had only one clue where she might have gone. Her mother lay unconscious in my guestroom, beaten senseless by my lover. The unconscious mother would have to be tended by the daughter of the woman who had just brutalized her. What, me worry?
After checking on Nicole, I went up to Janey's room. She was already getting dressed, her eyes still puffy and swollen from crying, but her face set and determined.
"Janey?" I asked quietly.
"Be ready in a minute. Where do you think she went?" she called out.
"How'd you know she was gone? Oh, I see. Gee, you're getting pretty good with your link thing, aren't you?"
"Yes, and you should be better than me, Dad. I mean, I can sense a lot of things stronger than Mom can but she's real sneaky sometimes about what she knows, so I can't always tell. Simone and I can hook up pretty good but she feels way different than I do, kind of. I can't really explain it, but her sense feels slippery or shiny or something, kind of like yours does, but she's not masculine. Oh, it's hard to explain. Like, well, the last time she and I did each other, she was doing things to me I didn't think anyone but you could do. I made her stop, you know, it was too much. She's like you that way in that she can tell what really turns me on, but still, she's no match for what you can do."
"What do you mean?" I asked her, confused
She turned to me, exasperated but patient, like with a slow-witted child.
"Dad. Stop. Thinking. Feel. Reach out. God! You can do it when you don't think about it, you know? I felt what you did to Mom downstairs."
I must have looked surprised.
Janey explained, "Don't you even know what you did? You were shouting how much you loved her, how this was all your fault, how you would try to make things right, but to please STOP! I mean, you weren't making words with your mouth or anything, you were like shouting in your mind, or something. It was really clear. You were really, really scared, too, not just for Nicole, but for Mom, too. That sort of made me feel good. Then I got really, really cold. Stop thinking of those pictures, will you? I mean, it works sometimes, but Geez, an iceberg? Be a little easier on us weaklings, why don't you."
"You got all that, all the way up here?"
"Clear as a bell, Dad. Just stop thinking. Feel. Can you feel Mom now? Can you tell what she's feeling?"
I stopped and tried to sense my Love. I reached out for Sally. I found her, waiting for me. A lump formed in my throat. Shit. And I thought I felt bad. I sent her my love.
"Don't worry. She'll get over it. She knows you love her. That's all she needs to know right now. She also knows she really screwed up, too. And that you will fix it. She trusts you. She loves you. I trust you, too."
She finished tying her shoes. "Where do we start looking for Simone?"
I was taken aback for a minute. "Uh, would you mind holding down the fort here? I kind of need you to look after Nicole. She's unconscious right now, but nothing's broken, I hope. When she comes to, I need you to make sure she's OK. If she's not, call the hospital and get her there.
"Your mother stays in the basement until I come back home with Simone, or until I give up. That could be a long time, I know. Tough. Let her out of the stocks one hour a day for a shower and exercise. You can change her bondage if you think the stocks are too much for her. I don't know how long I will be gone, so use your judgment. I do not want to injure her but she has lost her freedom until I can get back to deal with her.
"You may give her updates on Nicole's progress and anything I tell you to relay to her on the telephone. Otherwise silence. No chit chat, no making her feel better. You'll need to feed her at least one meal a day while she's in restraints. She cleans up her own messes on her free hour. It will stink down there, so be prepared for it."
Janey nodded, agreeing with everything I said, even the tough parts.
"You're in charge, kiddo. I trust you, too. Remind Nicole about the Free Room rules and that she can stay there as long as she wants. That's where I put her. Oh, the guns are put away, so you won't need to worry about her getting a hold of one. Other than that, be sure to sleep when you can, even if it's during the day. You're going to need it. I'll call when I can."
She rushed into my arms. "Thanks, Dad, for taking charge. I'm glad you're letting me do something."
I held her away from me. "You're not disappointed you're not going with me to look for Simone?"
"That's your job. Besides, if you had to worry about me out there, too, I'd just mess up your sensing thing. You have enough trouble with it, as it is."
Always the critic. At least she was smiling when she said that.
"Good. I'm off then."
With that, I turned and left the house, knowing Janey would take charge. Just like Sally would, if she could.
I called Amud on his cell phone from my car as I headed for the Interstate.
"Amud, I'm sorry to disturb you, but Simone left the house with you this afternoon."
"My friend, as lovely as the child is, I did not kidnap her, I swear."
"Amud, again I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply you had anything to do with it. I didn't make myself clear. She left the house riding on your car. On the back bumper. She has run away."
"Oh, dear!"
"Yes. I need to know the first stop you made after you left the house that she could have gotten off. Probably in a city or large town."
He thought a minute. "Oh, yes. We stopped in at a leather warehouse over near the new stadium. From there we are now heading home."
"Thank yo..."
"Lawrence? Lawrence? Hello? Here is Bala. The girl, the new one, she is missing, no?"
From the blustering in the background, I could tell Amud was not happy that his little wife had snatched the cell phone from him. I smiled, in spite of the circumstances. He would enjoy reminding her of his mastery over her. I knew she would enjoy it also.
"Yes, Bala. I have to find her."
"Use the lights, Lawrence. Don't think, just use lights. You great master, use it. Find the precious one." She then got all soft, unlike the Bala I knew. "I like her. Please. She is very special."
"I know. I like her, too, Bala. Goodbye and thank you."
I rung off, slightly puzzled by their comments.
You know, it was beginning to irritate me. With all advice I had been getting lately to quit thinking, I was beginning to think... , well there I went again, thinking. Anyway, perhaps people were trying to tell me I did too much of it, or maybe that I didn't do it well. I wasn't sure. I decided not to think about it.
I had a haystack, a place to start. All I needed to do now was find the needle. Piece of cake. Yeah, right.
The warehouse Amud mentioned was in an industrial area, busy on the weekdays, but almost deserted at night and on the weekends. I could hear a ruckus that sounded like someone was strangling cats from the tail end of a Heavy Metal band concert in the stadium a couple of blocks over. This being a Friday evening, I figured Simone got here just when the streets were empty, the workers had gone home and the concert was in full swing. A pretty young girl, alone, would stick out like a sore thumb on these naked streets.
I sat in my car, at a loss for what to do next. I had driven to the spot where Amud had said they stopped. The leather warehouse was just down the block. I parked in a No-Parking zone across from the local police precinct. Even the precinct was deserted at this time of the week, manned by just a skeleton crew of rookies. Most of the regulars were probably providing security for the concert. It had been too much to hope that Simone would be standing there waiting for me. I know it was naïve of me, but I had hoped, just a little.
I closed my eyes in quiet frustration and lay my head against the steering wheel of the car. I may have cried for her or just in pure frustration, I don't know. I guess I really had wanted her to be there, tears on her face, cold from the long ride on the bumper, frightened of the strange darkness, a big van, a friendly face, old kind of, kind of cinnamon smell, candy, a warm car, moving now, a warm blanket, warming up, feels good, moving, food, feel funny, voices, laugh, a funny laugh, money through the window, a door opening suddenly, a bad man, fear, scared,...
I woke up with a start. What the Hell was that? I looked at my watch. No. I hadn't been asleep. Simone! I knew I was sensing Simone, seeing what Simone was sensing. Somewhere near, close, but drifting away now. Then just a blank, a faint echo like she was drugged. I had felt the needle jab into her leg. I could sense her drift away from consciousness, then it was still. I was not getting any feelings from her at all.
I found myself out of my car. I could use the sense better outside in the open. I turned completely around several times but I couldn't get a bearing or a direction with this sensing thing and it frustrated the shit out of me. I just wandered the streets, hoping to sense when it was stronger, when she was closer. She was so close...
I wandered the streets looking for her, half running, stumbling, walking. Looking for her senses, reaching out. I needed just a trace, anything. I found that the harder I tried, the fainter she got so I took a deep breath and relaxed. I slipped into the meditative state they had taught us to use to combat torture. It was a kind of fugue state where you just exist. I calmed my terrors and let my senses reach out.
I lost all sense of time and of myself. I immersed myself into her aura and just kept wandering, apparently aimlessly. Time meant nothing
It happened so suddenly. I distinctly felt it when she woke up, the pain, the slaps across our cheeks, a kick in the ribs, one broke. She hurt, I hurt. Too far away, now, she was going away again. Another needle, another sleepless dream, floating. I followed that dream, walking blindly through streets.
Then the men started coming. I could see them, I could feel what they were doing to her, to us. We were ashamed, please, no more, not again. The sense from Simone started to fade again but it wasn't moving away anymore. She was going into hiding, into her own shell into her mind. It was her only defense, her last hope. I sent her a message that I was coming but I didn't know if she got it. I was coming. Hold on. Then it was just like static on an open radio signal.
I kept wandering, trying to find her. The streets were empty through Saturday and Sunday. Monday I had to dodge traffic as I stumbled along the sidewalks. I don't remember if I slept or not. I do remember I stopped looking at people as people. I started looking at them as lights. I wasn't surprised to find most people were pretty dim, if they had any light at all.
Tuesday came and went and I was getting desperate. Just before I collapsed in a doorway, I heard it.
"Help me. Please."
Simone! She was close! I looked around and saw her light. There were no windows in that abandoned building, but I saw her lights. Dimming, but there. I knew it was her.
I found my way into the building and damn near fell down the dilapidated steps into a stinking, fetid cellar. It stunk of fresh urine and shit. I began a frantic search for her in the dark cavernous spaces of the condemned building. The lights from her had gone back out. There was only static again.
I found her. She was naked, bruised and barely conscious. They had used a staple gun to fasten clumps of her hair to a wooden post. She was hanging by her hair in a position where she couldn't stand upright or sit or kneel. The muscles of her thin legs had supported her as long as they could in the awkward position, but they had given out days ago. The floor around her was several inches deep in places with feces and standing pools of urine. It couldn't have been all hers.
The two men surprised me as I was vomiting. Given their poor fighting skills, my retching wasn't too much of a disadvantage. I disabled the big one first. He was obviously the bodyguard. The asshole was trying to pull an Uzi out from under his jacket, if you can imagine that. The clip or barrel or something got caught on his belt, but by that time, it didn't matter. His knee when one way, he went the other, shit splashing everywhere as he landed hard. He dropped his Uzi when he grabbed for his knee. I kicked him in the head for insurance, then kicked the gun into a far corner.
The smaller man, a pimp by his dress, was smarter. I could tell because he had chosen a more appropriate weapon. He had his knife out and was trying to appear as if he was ready for me. I like fighting idiots with knives. Mainly because most fighters don't know how to use them and it makes the motherfuckers overconfident. They always get a big one like Rambo or that crocodile guy and the weight tends to throw them off balance. Then they fucking hold the weapon upside down, like I'm going to be stupid enough to step inside his down-swinging arm. This pimp with the yellow hat had really overcompensated for his inadequacies with the monster blade he was holding. I left him writhing on the floor, the knife buried to the hilt in his thigh, right where he had it aimed. The knife had driven clear through his leg with the tip stuck firmly into the wooden floor. I knew he wasn't going anywhere for a while.
I was trying to get Simone free when the third guy jumped me. He would have had me clean, too, but he slipped in the shit trying not to get too close. A little schmutz and I would have been dead. As it was, he still got my arm good with the deadly little knife he was using. I think he thought he had me, now that I was wounded, but he was wrong. He made the fatal mistake of letting me get too close to him. Once I'm in close, well, he died surprised. As I pushed his lifeless body off me, I gave a start of recognition. It took me a moment, probably due to my exhausted state but I finally placed him. He had been in some of the pictures Gary had taken of Sally during her humiliation. What the fuck was he doing here?
I managed to free Simone using the knife I pulled out of my forearm. I simply cut her hair free from the staples and picked her up. I doubted she would care about the haircut, if she survived. They had not tied her arms and she latched on to my neck with what seemed to be all her feeble strength. I thought I felt her sob once, but wasn't sure. Sensing the urgency of flight, I kept trying to find my way to the stairs but my head wouldn't seem to work. Every time I tried to look for the door out of the room, my nose kept turning back to the same dark corner. I would take a step to turn, and my head would swing like a compass needle pointing north. Same damn corner, every time.
I finally realized Simone was yanking on my ear with all of her strength, forcing me to look at that particular corner. Understand, I was brain-dead, tired, stabbed and trying to escape, my survival instincts in complete command. My mission was over. I had Simone. It was Miller time. I was like a horse headed for the barn, ASAP. I did not want to look in that stinking corner.
She was insistent and my ear was starting to hurt. I went over to the fucking corner. Nothing. I started to turn away. My ear just about got torn off.
"What the fucking hell do you want?" I yelled at her in my mind.
"Please. Hidden. Shiny. Silver. Important," came the faint reply over our link. It wasn't exactly words but images. I didn't really understand.
I shuffled around in the debris piled in the corner until my foot kicked into an aluminum case. It was heavy and now my fucking foot hurt, too. I picked it up with my good hand. Simone grasped my neck tighter, easing the work I had to do with my injured arm. Where she got the strength I don't know. I know I was about at the end of mine
My ear released from her grip, I found an exit. On the way out and up the stairs, I stumbled. I tripped over a lit kerosene lamp one of the men had left on the stairway. It fell to the basement floor and broke open. The old newspapers that cluttered the floor caught fire easily. The old dry timbers of the crumbling warehouse exploded into flames, engulfing the three bodies in the cellar.
I heard screams as I walked away, carrying Simone. It was probably the pimp or his body guard or both. I didn't care and it didn't bother me at all.
As I cleared out of the killing zone, as I thought of it, I had to stop and think where I was. I realized I was many miles from my car. I was in the middle of an area I didn't recognize right away even though I was fairly familiar with most of the area. I couldn't see the stadium. I couldn't see any landmarks or familiar buildings at all until I got to the next large intersection. I was standing at Chesapeake and 106th! Shit! I was two towns over from where I had left my car.
I noticed it was night time. There were no buses running in this part of town at this time of the day. No taxis were going to stop for me, not with the way I looked after four days of wandering around, bleeding from a big gash in my arm and carrying an unconscious naked stinky little girl. I headed for the one safe house I knew in this town.
My friend Mac didn't recognize me at first when he opened his door. I just hoped he would take over now. I collapsed in his doorway.