Authors: Cassandra Cole
CHAPTER FOUR
My right knee was deep in a puddle of rainwater just behind the bush where I was hiding. What drew my attention was the fact that I didn’t feel wet. I didn’t even feel cold. It was a very cold, windy night, and yet, with the time stopped, I was somehow isolated from it. It was a frightening thought – not being part of this world; being somewhere else and yet observing the world you could never be a part of. I didn’t even know how those thoughts came to me. I felt it was beyond my control.
All of this occupied my mind while, for some time, I didn’t notice the real problem at all. I realized I could stop time, but how would I resume it? How would I make it work again?
Am I lost?
I stood up. I was only a couple of hundred meters behind my stalkers. I approached the closest one. He was dressed in black and held something in his right hand. Was that for me? I was about to grab him by the hand and find out but I felt a kind of a strong slow wave moving towards me. I looked to my right and saw Christina yelling inaudibly to me. The time anomaly seemed to affect her differently. She moved very slowly. I ran towards her, grabbed her and jumped into the bushes.
Now
, my mind yelled.
Everything went back to normal. The stalkers seemed rather confused but continued down the path. Soon they were gone.
“What were you thinking?” she asked me, with what I hoped was concern as soon as we were alone and far away from that place.
“I was following a clue.”
“What clue?” Her cheeks were flushed from cold and the excitement. She was trembling but pretended not to care for it. I chose not to pretend and took off my coat.
“Here, put this on.”
“Thank-you” she whispered kindly. “What clue?” She was tense and panicked. I had learned that it’s the fear that stems from the feeling of helplessness.
“I’m going to see a woman that your boss hired me to find. It’s a place to start.”
“What woman? How is that going to help him? Why is that…”
“Christina,” I said as softly as I could. “It will be OK,
trust me
.”
She lowered her shoulders as a sign of relief and said OK. Against my better professional judgment I put my hand around her waist. She embraced my hand, resting comfortably on her sleek, lean and curvaceous body. We walked slowly to Martha Ilton’s house.
As we walked half-embraced, I seized the opportunity to ask about the anomalies.
“Well…I don’t even know where to start.”
“Time?”
“Yes, the time thing.”
“I can’t really explain that. It’s something Jonathan was working on. In his preliminary tests he managed to slow down time. But it was something trivial, nothing like this. He taught me, however, theoretically how to behave in such occasions. It’s a special way of moving, and thinking. I can’t explain that easily.”
“OK, but…How did this affect me?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t.”
Those weren’t the answers I was hoping for but my profession had taught me to keep my expectations low. Always small bits of information.
Martha’s house was just across the street now. We stood there for a while so that I could examine the structure and look for as many exits as possible. I did that automatically as you never knew what situation you would be in. You always had to be prepared.
I knocked on the door and kept Christina back. The door opened. An older woman with completely gray hair and huge glasses appeared in front of me. Given the danger involved in this case I expected something rather different. She murmured “Yes?” Adjusting her glasses endlessly as if she was trying to zoom in on me.
“Martha Ilton?”
“Yes?”
“Would you mind if we come in? We’re from the police. There’s something we need to discuss.” I lied without even blinking. Christina gave me a significant look. I knew she liked it, she seemed excited in our new role together, or so I hoped, again.
“Oh…Yes, alright, right this way.”
I needed to see the inside of her place. I thought maybe there was more than meets the eye.
“One or two cubes of sugar?” she asked with a wide smile on her face.
“Just one, thanks!”
Martha went into the kitchen while we were sitting in the living room on a large, comfortable couch. I realized Christina was still wearing my coat. We didn’t even look like police but, luckily, Martha didn’t care. The living room was quite normal. She had framed pictures of her family on the walls. There was an old fireplace in front of us and various old, engraved plates on it. Everything was somehow obsolete and had no particular significance. Why would anyone need to track this woman down? It didn’t make sense…
“Here you go.” Martha said as she re-entered the room, carrying a silver tray in her hands with cups of coffee on it.
“Thank you, Mrs. Ilton. I was, however, wondering if you could answer me a couple of questions. They are vital for our investigation.”
“Of course, of course. Ask away.”
“Does the name Walcow mean anything to you?”
“Walcow? No…I don’t think so. What a strange name!”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Well…I guess I am. It is quite a memorable name.”
“That it is.” I smiled looking at Christina who remained silent and impatient with the way things were going. Time was running out and we were no closer to finding Jonathan. I continued asking questions.
“Did anyone visit you in these past few days?”
“No…No one really visits me. My children moved away and I don’t really socialize. The neighbors are all young people. I prefer solitude.”
Dead-end
I thought. Again I looked at Christina who seemed worried and I simply couldn’t blame her.
“OK, we have to go now. Thank you for your time. If you remember something else please call me directly on this number.”
“I will. Let me walk you out, then.”
I approached the door and opened it for Christina, finding any reason possible to make physical contact I placed my hand on her shoulder. How I longed to bring her body close to mine, place my lips on hers, passionately kiss her, and run my hands through her lush hair before moving them down her body and…I stopped myself from entertaining the desires of my mind and heart. FOCUS! I scolded myself.
Christina stepped out first. However, as I was about to leave, I heard Martha mumble to herself. I turned around only to see her struggling to utter something. It seemed like she was having a heart attack. I crouched down to see if she was alright but she suddenly caught me by the hand and yelled.
“Don’t leave, you idiot!”
I looked at her, terrified and called Christina back in. Martha continued in a tone of authority.
“Go to the kitchen and do what I tell you. Now, you impudent fool!”
Christina came in and after hearing these words, cried,
“Jonathan?” To my utter surprise. I reminded myself to stay calm, under circumstances that would dictate otherwise.
CHAPTER FIVE
Finally, a spoonful of baking soda. Is that a teaspoon or what?
I hoped I got it all right. Christina was holding Martha down on the chair while I was mixing the potion. All the while I was thinking –
What if I poison her?
Killing this crazy old lady would not be considered euthanasia by anyone.
Well, here goes nothing.
“I’ll hold her, you give her this!” I said to Christina, taking over her role.
“Don’t! Please! Why are you doing this?” the old lady cried creating a sick feeling in my stomach.
“It will be alright” I said, even though I was far from being sure of it.
Christina poured the potion down her throat. She struggled much harder for a minute or so, but then she stopped.
She’s dead
, I thought.
“Took you long enough…” Martha finally spoke after a while but with a far less trembling voice and a completely different attitude. She looked at me first and then at Christina. She put her hand on her face and continued.
“Darling…I’m sorry I put you through this.” Christina started to cry and felt unable to respond. She was somehow sad and scared at the same time.
“What
is
going on? I want some answers” I shouted at what appeared to be the dead shell of an old woman. Jonathan possessed her. Somehow.
“Sit down. I’ll explain.”
“I’m waiting…”
“I’ve made some bad decisions. My experiments were going well but I needed better, faster results. Simply put, I’ve experimented on myself. I’ve slowed everything around me, including my body. It’s there in the basement, in the crate I tried foolishly to hide in.”
I was amazed by how open-minded I was as I accepted all of this. It was like some kind of drug induced dream.
“And what is
this
?” I said pointing at this old lady he was talking from.
“This…is part of an older experiment, when I tried to exchange people’s bodies.”
“What? And how is this legal? How is this even ethical?”
“People are afraid of what they don’t understand. My experiments are, as you can see, ground-breaking. Existing laws cannot apply to me. Don’t you understand? So when things got ugly, I went back to the three bodies I had already tested. What could I do?”
“And what happens to Martha?”
“She’s alright. She’s here, just suppressed for a while. It’s like she’s sleeping.”
I was outraged. This didn’t sound right. I was an accessory to kidnapping, possible murder, and why?
“What about me? What did you do to me?”
“Oh, yeah…” he said smiling softly. “I forgot about you. I slipped a time potion pill into your drink the first time we met. You were one of my backup plans in case something went wrong.”
Before I managed to reply, outraged at this kind of behavior, we heard a faint knock on the door. Someone was hesitant, sensing something was going on inside. Christina woke up from her trance of hearing Jonathan speak through Martha and stood up in panic.
“Be quiet!” Jonathan said. “They followed you, you idiot! You two need to go. Meet me at my second host - Ron’s house. You know who it is.”
“Okay.” I whispered and grabbed Christina by the hand, noticing an electrical current pulse through my body.
What is that
? I thought, knowing full well the answer.
“Wait!” Jonathan said a bit louder than he intended. “First you need to knock me unconscious to get Martha to take over.”
“I will not punch an old helpless lady. Do it yourself.”
“I can’t move, you idiot! What part don’t you get? If they find out it’s me, they’ll torture both of us to find out where I hid it.”
“Hid what? Who are THEY?”
“I don’t have the time!” he screamed at me. Christina took the bowl from the table and knocked her unconscious. Whoever was outside was now trying to break in since they heard Martha’s screaming voice and the shattering of glass.
“Let’s go!” Christina said. I didn’t complain but instead tried to use the knowledge I had of this house. When I first entered I noticed a small window in the back that was partially hidden by a huge cupboard. We ran towards it and together pushed it out of the way. She crawled out first and I pushed the cupboard back. I figured I could use the time anomaly as soon as they entered to sneak out. I just had to wait for the right opportunity.
They burst in. Three of them.
OK, now
! Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing! They were approaching. One of them came my way.
Now what?
As he came in I thought about hitting him but I knew it would be pointless. I couldn’t beat three of them. He immediately turned his head to the left to see me crouching there.
“It looks like I found him,” the man said while I noticed Christina peeking through the window from the outside. The assailant caught my eye and followed it to the window. Another smile as he pulled out his gun.
“No!” I yelled and charged towards him. The gun made its distinctive loud noise. A million thoughts ran through my head. I focused them all into one.
CHAPTER SIX
Red thick liquid poured down my face but I chose to ignore it for a while. Being somewhat lightheaded strangely suited me. I was sitting on a curb, a couple of streets from Martha’s house. I couldn’t walk, I was sure of it. Somehow, sitting there, looking at the streetlamp flickering for no apparent reason felt soothing. Something I really needed.
“Rudy?”
The soft, pleasant sound came from my right. She sounded like an angel at the time.
“Rudy, God, you’re bleeding!”
I couldn’t even look at her. I feared I would somehow jeopardize her divinity.
“Rudy, do you hear me?!”
“Yeah, hun…”
I heard her chuckle. OK, I thought to myself – I earned the sight of her. My eyes turned towards her wonderfully precious face that still held that worried look in the eyes. She spoke. I only heard a couple of words like: God, help, hospital, drive.
“I’m fine,” I replied and tried to get up. My legs, however, felt different. They refused, “Just give me a minute or two to get myself together.”
“Your head – you’re bleeding!”
“Trust me, I’ve had worse. Just go on and buy me some tissues or something. I don’t think I can spare any more blood.” An artificial smile covered my face.
Just go
.
She ran away to the drugstore that was a couple of hundred meters away. I felt my coat pockets. Strangely enough, it was on the inside. I pulled out the bottle of painkillers and opened it. Two or three should be enough I guessed.
Christina came back with a bandage and something to prevent infection.
Yeah, this will hurt…
“Better?” She asked as I was leaning over a cup of hot coffee in the first diner we came across.
“No.”
She smiled, all the while looking straight into my eyes. I didn’t know if it was the effect of those suspicious painkillers that I took but at that moment she seemed like the most perfect creature on the face of the earth. It was as though I could see straight through her stunning beauty into her soul. Yeah, probably the painkillers, but either way, I was just happy to be the person beside her, helping save her from the likes of Jonathan, a modern day devil wearing no disguise, well, other people’s bodies perhaps.
“You probably lost a lot of blood. Coffee won’t help but it’s a start.”
“Thank you, Christina.”
“For coffee? The least I can do since you saved my life. This is the second time I guess.”
“Who’s counting, right?” I answered.
She smiled again. I guess that’s how you know when someone likes you – if they laugh at your bad jokes.
A couple of strands of hair fell over her face. I seized the moment and moved them with my hand, slowly caressing her face. She looked at me half-surprised, half-embarrassed, half happy for it, I continued in hope. The medications softened me up. I let my guard down.
“If I’d only met you earlier, Christina…”
“What then?” Her eyes glazed at the thought as she tried not to show her embarrassment. She knew I was a bit under the influence of the painkillers, and her. It gave her a free pass into the hypothetical world where she was free from everything, including Walcow and his control over her. I chose to play along.
“Then I guess I would be buying YOU this coffee, better yet dinner in a fine restaurant, hoping for a kiss in return.” She blushed as her embarrassment increased this time. She seemed to shudder. I made her uncomfortable.
Good.
I thought. All of a sudden, a reasonable, professional part of me came to life. She isn't
yours.
It said to me. She was Walcow’s…I was told. Was it true? I continued in a slightly different manner. But, I could continue to probe …
“Anyway, you and Walcow…You weren’t quite honest with me.”
“What do you mean?” Her mood changed suddenly.
“He is not only your boss, is he?”
“What do you mean, Mr. Banks?” not willing or not wanting to answer I thought.
“It’s just a piece of information I like to know.” I fumbled as a reply.
She remained silent for a while. So did I.
After I finished my cup of coffee I turned towards her and lightly said,
“So, care to buy me another cup of coffee? I am your hero, after all, remember?”
She smiled and ordered another one. As soon as I finished my first sip a question was waiting for me.
“Now seriously, Rudy…What happened there? You simply appeared next to me outside. I dragged you away from the house.”
“The serum your boss apparently drugged me with – it stopped working.”
“Stopped?!”
“Yes. I couldn’t stop time. It just sort of, broke. Everything was distorted, I couldn’t predict the exact trajectory of the bullet that was flying towards you. I had to improvise.”
“Oh, god…I didn’t even know it was possible.”
“You didn’t even hear the best part. The bullet fractured and a small part started to embed itself into my forehead. You can’t even begin to imagine the feeling…Christina.”
“I am so sorry,” she said, grabbing my right hand firmly. I pretended not to notice while my body ached for hers.
“The weird part is, while everything stood motionless including me, one of those three men that was in the back approached me. He put his hand on the bullet and asked me where Jonathan was. He seemed to be unaffected by the time anomaly! Do you know anything about it? Did Jonathan give the serum to anyone else?”
She released my hand and looked down. Selfishly, pretending to be much more agitated than I actually was, I put my hand under her chin and lifted her head up looking deep into her enticing, charming eyes.
“Christina, tell me,” I insisted.
“Well…There is someone. I guess it’s possible.”
“Who?”
“Jonathan’s brother. Joseph…”
“He's got a brother? How is it that I didn't know? I did a background check on him when he first hired me. I didn’t see the name Joseph anywhere in the Walcow family.”
“Not Walcow. He changed his name. He always hated it, I suppose. Something of a black sheep in the family.”
“Well,” I grinned, “Jonathan also isn’t what one might call an upstanding citizen.”
She touched my hand, and seemed lost.
“He has his dark moments…But he's not a bad guy, really.”
“He hasn’t given me any reason to think otherwise” I insisted.
She stood up. I could see despair in her eyes. The change was evident. Walcow was her weak spot, for some reason something seemed to tear her in two right down the middle as if she had a second identity. She was controlled by him, somehow.
She's the only good thing about him.
I thought.
“Did you drink your coffee? We need to go. We need to find the others like Martha and talk to Jonathan there. If you won’t, I understand. With everything that has happened to you…I’ll go alone.”
I stood up as well, drinking the last drops of coffee on my feet and holding my slightly unstable head wound. I took another one of those painkillers from my coat losing count, and paid the check.
“I won’t let you go alone. What kind of a guy do you think I am?” I said, testing her immunity to my charm. She was much more immune now, I chose to believe.
“Let’s go.”
As we were about to walk out I held the door and moved closer to her. I whispered.
“I didn’t mean to offend you. I'm sorry. I don’t know Jonathan, I can’t judge him.”
She softened a little. My world stopped again as she planted a gentle, soft, perfect kiss on my cheek, but quickly looked away. I was done in by her entirely now, if I wasn’t already. The kiss told me everything was alright anyway. It instantly made me feel better. However, I had to remind myself to
focus
.
“Christina…One more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“This brother of Jonathan’s…What’s his name?”
“Joseph.”
“Joseph what?”
“Joseph Michaels, I think, why?”
“Michaels…Where have I heard that name?”