He pulled his phone out one more time, first trying to call her and coming to a dead end. Next he texted her, tripping himself up dozens of times with spelling mistakes.
Tula, where are you? Was at the bakery. Please, answer me. I’m desperate. I need to know you’re okay. Please please please give me a sign.
He started up the car, heading for the other side of town. When he got to the house, he slammed the car door shut and ran to the entrance. When he pulled his keys out of his pocket, he dropped them right on the cement before doing a poor job of finding the house key. Shoving the metal in, he turned the doorknob and stepped inside the house. As he walked down the hall, he recalled that he hadn’t noticed any extra cars out in the drive when he got there. Pushing the door to Tula’s bedroom open, all he saw was her neatly-made bed and computer desk. There was no trace of her, though he did a quick job of looking around for her as if she were an Easter egg. Looking under the bed, in the closet, and even between small crevices, he found no trace of her.
“Tula?” He called out from his place in the center of her room. When no one returned his call, he apprehensively exited the bedroom, taking one last peek into the space to illogically see if he had somehow missed her. He went to the living room and saw not a trace of her, along with Mr. and Mrs. Florian’s room and his old bedroom. The house was silent, and Rhett was sure that not a soul was inside there.
There was one room left to check—the one he’d been dreading as he rummaged through the rest of the house. He’d already gotten in trouble concerning trespassing Max’s room, and the thought of having hundreds of spiders flung on top of him again didn’t exactly warm his heart. But he knew that he had to find Tula. If he neglected to go inside of that room because of his own ridiculous fears, and it turned out that something horrible was going on inside, he’d forever regret it.
Turning the handle on the door, he found no resistance as he pushed it open. His first impression was that the room was exactly as he had seen it the last time he was inside. Tula was nowhere to be seen, though he called out her name to see if she was somehow in a spot he couldn’t see. His eyebrows pressed up in worry, he backed out, and closed the door as he went out. Pulling his phone out as he went down the stairs, he hoped to see some kind of response from Tula. The statuses that his phone had to report were sadly lacking.
He called his work and reported that he had an emergency he had to attend to. He couldn’t imagine having to go back to the garage at that moment; he wouldn’t be of much use even if he did haul himself back there. His boss didn’t sound happy about the absence, but being much busier with other things, said it was all right. Rhett let out a sigh of relief in the knowledge that he wasn’t being fired at that moment.
But now that he had the time off, and was scared out of his mind that Tula was in danger, where could he go and what could he do? She hadn’t be missing for long enough to report her to the police, and there weren’t any other places that he would think that she would go to in an average day, especially since her car was at the bakery.
Should I go to the hospital?
He thought.
The cashier didn’t seem to know what was going on either, but I’ve got nothing else to go on. Maybe I should head back to the bakery and talk to Karma himself. Maybe he would have more information for me on her whereabouts.
Feeling like he was going in circles, he headed back to the Honda and got in. Just as he was down the suburban street and heading towards the main drag, he felt his phone buzzing. Excited at the idea of getting a response from Tula, he pulled over and grasped the phone from out of his pocket. What he saw, whoever, horrified him.
Displayed there on the phone in the form of a picture-by-text was the image of his dear Tula in tight restraints, tied to a chair. Bizarrely enough, there was no kind of background behind her; for the most part, it was only black. He almost wanted to punch the window of his car our or cry his eyes out, he didn’t know which. Her nose had blood sliding down from it, her left eye was swollen, and the makings of a bruise was forming on her cheek. He double-checked to make sure where the text message was coming from, and saw that it was indeed from Tula’s phone. There was no message to go along with the picture. Rhett was sure, without a doubt, that this was Max’s doing.
He’s fucking with me,
he thought, his grip around the phone getting tighter and tighter. Observing the image more closely, beyond the dark border of which she was situated in, he noticed that there was greenery.
Maybe we whole thing is photoshopped. Why would this guy ever want to harm her?
And then it came to him:
Because she left him when she met me. Because she moved with me to my mom’s without a word. Because his whole plan of eradicating me failed, and he wants someone to pay… Preferably, both of us.
He didn’t want to look at the image, but felt that he must in order to get a clearer idea on what the next steps were. He fixated on the corner of the image, both because he wanted to gain a clue as to her location and also because it hurt him to see her in the shape she was in.
Trees…. Leaves… What are the possible places?
His first impulse was the river Tula and he had visited the day before. He could have been wrong, but that was where his instincts had taken him. The realization struck him that he should call the police.
But calling the police could mess things up. Max seems really unstable right now, so if he got a hint of an idea that the cops were going to mow him down, he could flip a switch and decide to kill Tula.
He sighed. There were only a few things he could see himself doing to resolve this, so he made the first step towards making a resolution to this whole thing. First, he texted back to Tula’s phone.
I don’t care what the price is or what you want. Just don’t hurt her and let her go.
To his surprise, he got a response right away:
Kill yourself. Then I’ll let her go.
He swallowed.
You know I’m not going to do that.
Another response:
Then I guess you don’t love her enough to save her. I have her here with me. Maybe she’ll make me mad again, maybe she won’t. Come to the river and I’ll kill you myself. Then she’ll be free, I promise.
Rhett’s forehead fell down against the steering wheel in aggravation. He couldn’t let Max hurt her, but he had the feeling that there wasn’t much he could do to prevent Tula’s brother from going completely psychopathic. Was Max completely insane, with the idea of killing all of them if Rhett showed up, or would he simply kill off his rival?
He wants to bury someone in the woods today, that’s apparent enough,
he thought.
He can’t be too bright if he sent this by text. It could be anyone sending me these messages through Tula’s phone, true, but he’s still leaving a paper trail. I feel like if I don’t go right now, something terrible is going to happen. I’ll face the bastard… But I’m not going alone.
He started up the car, and instead of heading for Karma’s Bakery, he turned towards his mother’s house. Once he got there, he went in her room and removed the handgun she’d had since Rhett was a small child.
I never thought that I would have to use this outside of the context of a home invasion,
thought Rhett.
But so be it. I have no idea what kind of weapon he has, and maybe he assumes that I’ll come unarmed. This is risky as all hell, but I’ll regret it—as a man—if I let him get away with this.
Hopping back in the car, he felt a dark cloud was following him as he drove for the river trail he and Tula had been on only the day before. His mind drifted towards the idea of calling the police once more, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a bad idea… That they would only muddle what he was trying to accomplish by going alone.
I’ll call them if I have to, if I feel it’s the right idea. By by then, it might be too late.
He parked at the lot in front of the trail, a new flavor of eeriness settling into his bones. As usual, there were no other cars there. He was completely alone… Or so he assumed. As he stood there looking around at the treetops, he wondered if Max was there right now, looking down at him.
It’s possible, but if he is here, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to start a standoff in a semi-public place. He wants to draw me out on the trail, take me to a place that he can keep me nice and hidden. Then he can do his dirty business and be rid of me. He’ll confiscate my phone, delete the texts, let Tula go, and go about his merry day as the psycho he is.
He walked cautiously, his mind ever-conscious of the handgun that was wedged between his back and the belt of his pants. In his mind, he visualized over and over again about pulling it out and firing a death shot. He’d been to a shooting range with his mother a handful of times—he could shoot, but he was certainly no expert.
The trail seemed as normal as it usually did, though every noise or moment of silence felt like the signal of attack. After about ten minutes of walking with no sign of Max, he couldn’t take it anymore—he pulled out his phone and called 911. After Rhett reported the incident, and told the responder where he was, the woman told him that there would be a fleet of squad cars there within a few minutes.
Knowing the cops, it’ll probably be much longer than that.
Not sure of what to do with himself, and not wanting to go back to the car yet, he decided to continue down the path. He felt more at ease for some reason, as if he’d transferred the stress of having to deal with Max over to the police even though they were nowhere in sight yet. Not three minutes after walking on, he came to a sign on one of the trees. It had his name on it written in a black Sharpie, an arrow situated underneath. It felt as if the air escaped him as he looked at it. Should he go on, or wait it out? It was glaringly apparent that Max was trying to lead him to some trap, or much worse, his own death.
I don’t care. I want to murder that guy myself. If this takes me one step closer to doing that, I’ll go.
Parting the leaves leading into the wilderness, he walked on, seeing other signs pointing him in the direction that Max wanted him to trek towards. He tried to keep his eye out for booby traps or Max himself, but nothing turned up. Constantly in a phase of simultaneous panic and relief, he headed on under the shadows of the treetops. Eventually, he reached a sunny clearing. It was nice to be out of the thick darkness of the forest, but he felt exposed in a way that made him feel uncomfortable.
“Freeze!” Called the voice of Max. “Put your hands up!”
Though Rhett couldn’t see Max, he wasn’t about to disobey a man who was mentally unbalanced. He kept in his place and slowly raised his arms in the air. He heard a rustling and the swish of pants passing through high grass until he saw Max materialize from the shadows. He had an aura to him that Rhett had never perceived before. It was like the malignant confidence of a boy who had just burned a hill of ants to death with a magnifying glass. In his hands was a large shotgun, pointed right at Rhett’s heart.
“Nice to see you, Rhett,” he said. “So I guess you’ve volunteered to have yourself killed today. Good choice.”
Rhett decided to hold back the comments he really wanted to say at that moment.
Filling the empty space, Max made a few steps forward as he continued on. “I have to say that I’m surprised you showed up. I thought you would be too selfish to save Tula’s life. I guess I misjudged you.”
“Where is she?” Rhett demanded, sweat coming down the side of his brow.
“Oh, she’s in a safe place. A very safe place. It’s best that I get this over with quickly. I wouldn’t want to keep her waiting. If you try and kill me, by the way, it won’t be very good for her. So don’t try any funny business.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s get back to the topic at hand,” said Max, steadying his hold on the gun. “So I suppose you’re wondering why Tula has been so distant lately, hmm? Why I haven’t been so nice to you? I suppose you probably have your suspicions by now.”
“Tula told me everything. There’s nothing you can say that will surprise me.”
“Is that so? Including how I’ve been bending her over and banging her for the past five years?”
Rhett grit his teeth. It seemed to get the effect that Max had wanted, because he smiled when he saw it.
“It’ll be better this way,” said Max. “Tula and I will be together again, just as it was. You’ll be gone, and she’ll have learned her lesson about lying to me. It’s not like I didn’t give her more than enough warnings about staying with you. We’ll live happily ever after, just like we’d planned. You’re her last mistake, whether she lives through this or dies.”
He lowered his eye to the sight, and Rhett realized in a jarring moment that he might get a bullet through him in the next few moments if he didn’t keep stroking Max’s ego.
“How did you do it all?” Rhett asked quickly. “You weren’t throwing us off the whole time, were you? The oven in your parents’ house, the old woman in San Francisco… You couldn’t possibly have made that all happen.”
Max lowered the gun from his eyes. “It’s quite possible, with a little motivation. But then, you’re only a basic mechanic, so you wouldn’t have much of that, would you? Motivation, that is. All I had to do in the beginning was place a bit of dough in a pan Tula likes using and leave it in there. Easy. You remember that I recommended San Francisco, don’t you? I had read about the Gypsy woman online, and decided to go to her ahead of time to target you both. That would have been a good omen for your impending marriage, wouldn’t it? Losing that little trinket on her finger forever?”
“I wouldn’t let that woman get away with the ring I bought her,” Rhett found himself uttering.
“Mmm. Yes, I suppose you out-do me in the athletics department.”