Fook (19 page)

“Which one theirs?” Ushi questioned as she
leaned forward between the seats.

“It’s around the corner,” Ty replied.

“Why we so far away?”

“Because, after last night’s events, the
police have increased their presence in this neighborhood.”

“Well, I have not seen a cop yet,” Ushi
huffed as she sat back in her seat.

As much as he loved and respected his
grandmother, at the moment, he just wanted to tell her to shut up.
He knew what he was doing. He would have preferred to have left her
at home but she’d insisted on coming along. Just in case something
did go wrong, she wanted to be on the road and out of town as
quickly as possible, which is why she’d insisted that he load the
trunk with all of their belongings as well as install the carseat
in the backseat beside her.

“This is best plan,” she’d proclaimed and
honestly, he couldn’t argue with her logic. “What you waiting for?”
she grew impatient in the backseat. “Go get him.”

“I am, Grandma. I just disarmed the alarm,”
Ty fought his frustration.

“Remember, in and out.”

“Yes, Grandma.” With that last bit of
unnecessary advice, he pulled at the door handle and quickly hopped
out of the car, quietly closing the door and ending his
grandmother’s incessant nagging.

With an abundance of vehicles parked along
the residential street as usual, he didn’t see any reason why
his
would stand out to a passing police cruiser, and with
heavily tinted windows, no one would be able to see the elderly
woman quietly waiting inside. He, on the other hand, was now out in
the open, and not wanting to risk being seen, quickly made his way
down the street, the view of his car and watchful Grandmother
disappearing as he turned the corner onto the Nesbit’s street.

*****

A flash of lightening, followed by distant thunder
startled Jason awake.

11:45 pm

He’d returned to the dorm around eleven to
find Derek already asleep, which had initially come as a surprise
given his roommate’s love of the night and utter distain for the
time wasting activity, but given the excitement of the day, his
choice was understandable, and by eleven thirty, he too had drifted
from reality.

Another flash of lightening lit the room,
followed by an even quicker, louder clap of thunder. Glancing
toward Derek’s bed, Jason attempted to make out the shadowy figure
asleep in the bed across from him. Since the day they’d moved into
the dorm together, there hadn’t been one night that Derek hadn’t
rattled the walls with his obnoxiously loud snoring. The first few
months had been torture for Jason. He’d tried everything from a
pillow over his head to noise canceling headphones but, after
nearly strangling himself with the cord one night, he’d opted to
just deal with the noise, which is what made his roommate’s current
state seem so odd. Though Derek was dead asleep, the room was
completely silent.

While the peace and quiet was a welcomed
change, it was also a source of concern. Derek hadn’t felt the
strange sensation when making the initial jump that morning nor
upon their return…or at least that’s what he’d said. Meanwhile,
Jason had felt it both times, even more so the second time.
Wondering if Derek really had felt the odd sensation, Jason quickly
sat up in bed, placing his hand to his heart as he recalled the
quickened heartbeat which had accompanied the full body tingling.
What if Derek had experienced the same sensations and
cardiovascular response? While
he’d
recovered relatively
quickly, the sensations fading only minutes after arrival, what if
Derek had been experiencing something different? The quickened
heart rate could account for his amped up energy in the lab earlier
and for his almost euphoric demeanor. It could also be the reason
why their room was now completely silent.

“Derek,” Jason whispered in a concerned
tone.

There was no response.

“Derek, are you alright?”

Again nothing.

Tossing back the covers, Jason got to his
feet. “Derek, are you dead?”

He instantly wondered why he’d chosen those
exact words. If he
was
dead, he certainly wasn’t going to
audibly confirm it.

Along with having to adjust to sleeping in a
room with a running lawn mower, Jason had also grown accustomed to
sleeping in complete darkness. Derek had insisted that he couldn’t
sleep if even one ray of light, whether natural or manmade, struck
his eyelids. As far as he could remember, he’d always slept with
some sort of night light, but as with the snoring, he’d managed to
adjust, and now the darkness was as much a comfort to him as it was
to his nearby roommate. What he couldn’t get used to was navigating
the cluttered floor, which made midnight bathroom visits an often
frustrating and sometimes toe busting experience. Now the cloak of
darkness was limiting his view of his hopefully sleeping
friend.

“Derek, wake up,” he spoke louder. He had to
know that he was alright, even if that meant stumbling over to
Derek’s bed and shaking him awake.

Another bolt of lightning lit the room and
this time, Derek’s empty bed.

Surprised, Jason fumbled for the lamp,
filling the room with a soft artificial glow. The shadowy figure
that he thought he’d seen was nothing more than a body double made
of covers and a couple of pillows.

“Derek?” Jason called out as he made his way
toward the bathroom.

Again no answer, as confirmed by the empty
adjoining room.

“Where did you go?” he wondered aloud as his
eyes fell upon the desk at the foot of Derek’s bed. “Unbelievable,”
he sighed as he quickly hurried to his dresser, pulling out a
t-shirt and pair of jeans.

When he’d arrived home less than an hour
ago, the backpack, which had contained all of Derek’s wiring had
been lying on the desk, but more importantly, the medical coat that
they’d gone out of their way to obtain, had been resting beside it.
Now both were gone.

Quickly, Jason threw on his clothes and
fumbled with his shoes, nearly falling as he neglected to untie his
right shoe before attempting to shove his foot inside.

“How could he?” he mumbled. “He knows the
risks. We agreed to wait until I was done analyzing the data. How
could he just run off without me and—?”

A sudden chime from Derek’s nightstand ended
the one sided conversation as Jason glanced in its direction to see
Derek’s personal iPad lit up beside his bed. Curious, he wondered
toward it. On the screen was a text, but by the time he got close
enough to read it, the tablet went dark. Curiosity getting the
better of him, Jason picked up the computer, sliding his finger
along the bottom until it fell into the familiar, circular
depression. He pressed it, but at the same time, lost his grip on
the device and watched in horror as the expensive toy slipped from
his hands, bounced off the corner of the nightstand and struck the
floor at the exact moment another boom of thunder shook the
room.

“Oh, crap!” Jason exclaimed as he dove for
the device, expecting to see a shattered screen as he flipped it
over beside a dirty sock and half eaten banana.

Thankfully, the screen was intact, but his
relief was short lived. Getting to his feet, his eyes remained
fixed on the fuzzy image filling the screen. Somehow, between the
fall and being picked up, the photo app had been activated,
displaying one of the hundreds of photos currently housed in the
tablet’s flash memory. No other photo could have caused his heart
to sink deeper into his stomach however. It was grainy and had
obviously been taken in a low light situation with partially
obstructed visibility but it wasn’t the poor quality of the image
that sickened him. Lying on a bed, pantsless and with a massive,
purple dildo on his chest, was none other than the sixteen year old
version of himself.

“What?” Jason questioned the photo confused,
trying to process what he was seeing.

This was the first time that he’d seen a
photo from that horrible night…which he’d always found surprising.
He knew there were others out there. There had to be. He recalled
seeing cameras before managing to free himself and run from the
room, but remarkably, no images had ever surfaced…until now and on
his best friend’s computer nonetheless.

Before he could analyze what he’d found any
further, the iPad chimed again as another text message appeared at
the top of the screen. As if the image before him wasn’t enough to
get his stomach churning, the new words to accompany it were.

Bethany: I analyzed that red fluid you gave
me.

Quickly, Jason swiped at the message,
displaying the conversation taking place between Derek and none
other than the female counterpart to last night’s failed experiment
in blind dating.

Derek: What is it?

Bethany: Blood.

Derek: What?

Bethany: That’s it. Blood. Simple Type O
negative blood. Where did you say you got it from again?

His heart completing its decent, Jason
bolted from the room.

*****

Splintered remains of what used to be a fence laid
all around Ty’s feet. Happy to have made his way from the car to
the Nesbit’s front yard unseen, he now stood in the open, staring
at the demolished fence that had once divided the Nesbit’s side
yard from their neighbor’s. As far as he could remember, the fence
had been fine earlier that morning, but now only the back half of
the fence still stood. Looking around, the freshly cut stump and
random small branches, scattered about the neighbor’s yard, told
him everything he needed to know about the events that had unfolded
after he’d left.

Suddenly realizing the vulnerability of his
position, he quickly stepped through the debris field, attempting
to avoid any potential nails in the fallen boards and ducked into
the shadows of the side yard where the damage became even more
evident. Not only had the fence fallen victim to the since cleared
tree; the house had also suffered a significant blow.

“The guest room,” he thought, trying to
recall the floor plan from that morning’s installation as he stared
at the damaged window, which had since been covered with a bright
blue tarp and an abundance of duct tape. “Not the most secure fix,”
he thought while at the same time appreciating the Nesbit’s
carelessness. While the alarm system was deactivated, this window
still provided an easier point of entry and exit. His son was only
one room over and with the Nesbit’s bedroom all the way at the back
of the house, he figured he’d have no problem peeling back the
tarp, slipping inside, and sneaking away with his son without
anyone even knowing he was there.

Confident in his new plan, Ty removed a
pocket knife from his back pocket and began carefully cutting at
the crease were tape met tarp. Avoiding the ripping sound of the
sticky fabric, the temporary cover slowly succumbed to the blade as
the corner gave way from the smooth stucco finish and inch by inch
the blue barrier fell to the side as an opening, large enough to
quietly slip through, was made. Folding the knife, he returned it
to his pocket and cautiously stepped over the low sill and into the
room.

Darker than the shadowy yard, the dim street
lights that had aided him outside, barely penetrated the unlit
room. Ty attempted to remember what the room looked like as he
pulled his second foot through the window, bringing it to rest on
the invisible floor beneath him. From what he could remember the
room was furnished sparingly.

“Bed over there,” he thought, turning his
head to the opposite side of the dark void, picturing the neatly
made, double guest bed. “There’s an easel over here,” he reached
his hand out, checking the distance to the recalled wooden tripod.
“And over there is the—“

Standing chest high, penetrated the dark
from the direction of the recalled dresser, was a tiny red light,
floating in the darkness.

“Did I install a camera in here?” Ty
recalled the system’s layout. “No. There’s a camera in the main
entry, living room, nursery and master bedroom.”

Whatever that light was, he hadn’t put it
there. Terrified that maybe the Nesbits hadn’t been so careless
about their security after all, Ty stared in the direction of the
door, expecting Mr. Nesbit to come bursting into the room, fist
swinging like he had the night before but the door remained closed.
The lights remained off and the house remained quiet.

Remembering that the room had been clean and
fairly spacious, he quietly made his way toward the beacon. The
outline of a small white object, sitting on the remembered dresser,
came into view as he grew closer. Beside it stood the door to the
living room and beside that, the light switch. Light no longer
necessary however, he ignored the switch and reached for the door
knob, slowly turning the surprisingly noisy handle and carefully
pulled the door toward him. The light from the dimly lit hall,
poured in through the crack, bringing out the dresser’s deep cherry
tones and illuminating the ghastly attempt at art currently resting
upon the easel. More interested in the surprise piece of
surveillance equipment though, Ty paused in his departure to take
one last look at the tiny device and smiled as he read the brand
name along its base.

Tyco

“A baby monitor,” he smiled. “Hardly a
sophisticated peace of surveillance equipment,” he thought.

Glad that the device hadn’t been a camera
but still cautious of its powerful microphone, he released his grip
on the noisy doorknob and carefully slipped through the opening
that he’d already made.

Not sure if it was the fear of being caught
or the excitement that only twenty feet of floor space and one door
was separating him from his son, Ty suddenly realized that his
heart was pounding; so hard in fact that the thought of his heart
being so loud as to register on the monitor crossed his mind.
Disregarding the brief, illogical thought however, he carefully
crept toward his sleeping son’s door.