A Vulnerable Broken Mind (12 page)

“You’ll know soon enough,” the little girl said shortly. She then got up and began to leave. “Be brave and please don’t give up. You must live.” She said gravely.

“Why do our lives matter so much to you?” John asked, but tried not to sound forceful. As he said it, the feeling in his hands were completely back and he could now feel his upper body beginning to recover.

The little girl paused briefly, looking like she didn’t quite know how to answer. “If you live…I live,” she said finally. She then turned around and started walking out of the cell.

“What do you mean?” John asked as he began to move his upper body. She did not answer though and continued to walk away. Soon, she was completely out of sight, leaving John to himself, all alone in the silence.

After his upper body recovered, he could finally start feeling his legs again. He felt great relief as his toes finally began to move again. With the little girl gone, he began to refocus his mind on saving Amber. He just didn’t know how he was going to do it.

When he was able to freely move his legs, he attempted to stand up, which was easier said than done. He firmly planted one hand on the floor and one on the wall in an attempt to pull himself up. Some of his nerves were still in recovery mode, as he felt heavier than usual. With all of his strength, he managed to get himself up to his knees.

He kept his hands on the wall to keep himself balanced. He then planted one foot on the ground. He could feel certain muscles pulling and stretching in his leg as he did it but he didn’t feel any pain. He decided to try his luck and plant his other foot on the floor. He managed to do so and tried to push himself up but luck was not with him as he stumbled backwards.

He stumbled all the way to the cell door and collided with it as he fell down. When he made contact with the door, it shook rather aggressively, which he thought he could use. When John had recovered from the fall, he got back to his knees and grabbed the door and began to shake it. The door was not the least bit sturdy, which meant John had a chance to get out of it.

He used the cell door to try and get back up to his feet. With a great deal of strength and the door to keep him balanced, he was able to achieve it. He waited a little while until he felt that he had control of his own body and then finally let go of the door. He then walked around the room when he felt that he had control over his legs again.

Once he knew that he was ready, he focused his mind on the door. He walked up to it again and shook it once more. The door seemed like it would be easy to dislodge with the proper amount of force. While still a little stiff in some areas, he felt that he could charge at the door without a problem.

John began backpedaling towards the back wall, but didn’t take his eyes off of the door. He bent down in a football player-like stance and tried to muster up as much anger as he could in order to tackle the door; it was an easy feat for him to accomplish. The bars were replaced by the face of Ralph Hunt in his mind.

John broke into a run. He stuck his shoulder out as he ran and braced himself for the impact. His body collided with the door. Pain shot through his body after the hit but he could feel the door buckle from his tackle. The force knocked John back to the ground. His vision was blurry at first but when it cleared, he looked at the door.

Half of the door was sitting off of its hinges, which created a small hole but not enough for John to fit through. He got up and looked at the damage from up close. He could hear the door down the hall open. When he went to look towards the door, he could hear it close. This told him that they were aware of his attempted escape.

This did not stop him. He was so close to getting out that he was not going to turn back. From what he could tell from looking at the damage, all the door needed was one swift kick. He hoped that he was right because he knew that his shoulder could not endure another tackle.

He took a couple of steps back and took a deep breath. He quickly ran at the door and swung his foot at it. His foot made full contact with the door and the pain from the force made him think that he was going to break his foot. The door nearly flew off of the rest of its hinges. It slammed into the wall next to it and nearly bounced back into John’s face but he caught it in time.

John slowly stepped out of the cell and was stunned to see a very long hallway to his right. At the end of the hall was a short set of steps leading to a red door, which stood out greatly with the rest of the hall. John began walking down the hall and was stunned by its appearance.

To the left was an old and yellowish concrete wall that was littered with cracks. He realized that he was underground, as vines and some tree roots protruded from some of them. Above John was a line of small, dim lights that barely lit up the hallway.

To the right of John were more cells. There were five cells and John was in the very last one. Ralph Hunt and Ken Sparks had clearly done this before. The thing that scared John was the fact that they had never been caught.

              He continued to look at the cells until he had reached the very first one. Up until that point, the cells were empty but this cell had something that caught his eye. He walked towards the cell. While a dark room, he could vaguely make out a rope hanging from the ceiling; tied in the horrific shape of a noose.

              While John didn’t believe in ghosts, he felt especially uncomfortable when looking at the noose. A haunting feeling struck him straight in the stomach and rendered him motionless. While he did not know the person who had hung him or herself, he knew that he and that person might have had a lot in common.

              It’s a haunting image looking at any kind of sight of someone else’s death. However, when that sight might be reflecting your own future, it’s an even tougher image to get out of your head. Your only hope and prayer is that déjà vu is nowhere in your future.

              John took his eyes off of that sight before him and turned back towards the red door, which was only a few steps away from him. He walked up the steps and paused for a brief second. The doorknob was bright gold and reflected John’s own nervous expression, staring directly back at him. For a second, he did not recognize himself. He placed his hand over the knob.

              He turned the knob and opened the door slightly. He was greeted by darkness. He pushed the door all the way open and the light from the hallway helped him see a wooden set of stairs that was very long. He looked up and tried to see where they led; they led to a cracked door, which brought a little bit of light into the room.

              John hesitated but began to walk up the steps. He had to stop for another second and slow down his pace as the stairs creaked with each step. He tried to make his steps as light and slow as possible, which reduced the sound greatly.

              His nerves rose and he began to sweat as he got closer. He stopped at the door as the stairs came to an end and began to push the door open. There was no noise coming from the other side, which made John even more nervous. He didn’t know what was waiting for him on the other side.

              As he pushed the door opened, he began to see into whatever room it led to. His eyes first set sight on a white wall with a painting of a rain forest and under it was a small table and a pot of flowers on top of it. A pleasant image in an unpleasant place.

              He pushed the door opened further and saw that the white wall was actually connected to a set of stairs.

              The door led to what appeared to be the entrance room to Hunt’s house. It was a large room with an all-white appearance. The stairwell was fairly big and led in two directions; one side led to the left part of the house, and the other, to the right side of the house. The two directions were split by a railing with an ugly gargoyle that rested at the very front of the stairwell. To his left were two rooms. One looked like the living room and the other was the kitchen. As he approached the first step to the stairwell, he stopped to get a sense of where he was.

He tried to think back to earlier that night when he had snuck up to this very same house, getting a sense of what part of the house that he had seen Hunt in. There was one door shaped entranceway to his right, which appeared to lead to a hallway. The first room in that hallway was opposite of the doorway; it was the very same sitting room where John had spotted Hunt, that hallway led to Amber.

He was about to walk towards the hallway when he was greeted by the unmasked Ralph Hunt and Ken Sparks, a sight of horror that he could have done without. They stopped at the sight of John. John could see an unconscious, nude, and cut up Amber sitting on the shoulders of Hunt.

Seeing Amber in this state drove John into anger and vengefulness, the likes of which he had never felt before. He was about to strike but didn’t have a chance as Sparks went for his gun.

Instinctively, John jumped back behind the stairwell and just made it out of sight as a gunshot went off, nailing the gargoyle and shattering it to pieces.

              John could then hear the shuffling of feet. He heard the front doors open and a pair of feet go through them. He could hear a pair of feet coming towards him and with help from the white marble floors, he could see the shadow of Sparks coming towards him; his arm extended with the gun in his hand.

              “No! Let’s go,” Hunt shouted emphatically.

              Sparks stood there a little longer, clearly thinking it over. He then turned around and followed Hunt out of the house.

              Filled with pure adrenaline, John quickly got up and ran towards the doors, which had just closed. He plowed through them but was already too late as a black SUV sped around from the left side of the house and down the road to the highway, its tires screeching. John hopelessly stared in its direction as its tail lights went out of sight. John ran towards the driveway and desperately tried to see the SUV but it was long gone.

              John’s adrenaline faded almost instantly. The SUV’s disappearance brought John back to an instant state of depression. He turned around and walked back to the front steps, sitting on the bottom step with his head down and his eyes watering with tears.

              He was completely lost. He didn’t know how he was going to save Amber now, He heard footsteps walking towards him. The sound startled him and caused him to lift his head. Standing before him, was the little girl. She didn’t say anything, she merely sat down next to him and stared at him.

              “I’m so sorry,” John said, his voice cracking. “I tried but I was too late.”

              The girl just stared. Her eyes were not emotional. In fact, it looked like she was trying to burn a hole in him with her eyes. “It’s not too late.”

              John looked incredulous. “How is it not too late?” John screamed. “They have my wife and I have no idea where they went. How am I supposed to find them?” John asked with anger. He couldn’t find the strength or reason to calm himself down.

              The girl gave John a very sad look. She then reached out and grabbed his hand and held it. While not ridding John of his sadness, he felt a comforting feeling when she did this.

              “I know you might feel lost but you’re closer to finding them then you think,” she explained. “You might not know where they are but someone down there might.” She pointed down to the town below.

              “Who could possibly know?” John asked.

              “Think about it. Deep down, I think you already know.” She said and John thought to himself while staring down toward Tuxton. The town as a whole was not visible but the street with the houses were. Suddenly it came to him. He had already met this person. He had turned around to the little girl to tell her his discovery but she was once again gone.

              John turned back towards the town and began to walk down towards it. He had immediately thought of Mary Stanton. She was the most suspicious to John. Her quick answers and her unusual behavior should have made it obvious to John from the start.

              She was hiding something and John was anxious to find out what it was. John continued to walk back into town, trying to walk down the hill as quickly as he could. On the way down, he saw the police office. The lights were on but nobody was there. John realized that he was truly alone in this mission. There wasn’t a cop for miles and if he were to get into trouble, he couldn’t call anybody.

              Once he was at the bottom of the hill, he turned to walk towards the houses. John was now as determined as ever as he approached the street. Since Mary Stanton’s house was the first on the street, her house was visible right away.

              All of the lights were off in the house, indicating that she was asleep. John had lost complete track of the time and didn’t really care what time it was and didn’t care that she was asleep. He wanted answers.

              He walked up the steps to the front porch and pounded on the door. Mary didn’t come to the door right away. John remained persistent and pounded on the door again. A light finally came on in the house. “Who is it?” Mary shouted from the inside of the house.

              “It’s John Robinson, I need to talk to you,” John shouted back.

              “Mr. Robinson?” Mary said, sounding nervous. “I really can’t talk right now. Come back later.”