Dream About Looking For Someone
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“We can’t have the police here,” said a familiar voice from behind me. I turned around to see that it was Lillian who’d spoken, her mouth still twisted in an expression of pain as she struggled to sit up. “They’ll be looking for us.” She paused and then added, “Or they will at some point, anyway.”
She was right about that – though whether there would ever come a day when the cops weren’t looking for the people she’d been talking to wasn’t clear. The problem was that we didn’t know how long we could hold them off while waiting for a chance to escape.
It might only take half an hour for someone to realize something was wrong. Or even less; with so many people working on this case already, if one or two of those detectives had any inkling what they were doing, it would have been hard not to make progress. But we couldn’t afford to wait more than five minutes before we made our move.
It was all too simple, but it seemed like the best option available: we needed to get out of this room fast, without raising suspicion, and we didn’t have time for stealth. We simply ran for the door, which led back into the hotel’s lobby.
If we managed to get inside and down the stairs and through the front doors, then we had a chance. The real problem came once we got outside. Once we reached the sidewalk, we’d be visible from a hundred yards away to anyone in a car driving by.
And if there was a sniper on a roof nearby, that wouldn’t matter, because he’d hit us before we could get anywhere near the cars. That left us with three possibilities. Either we could try to run across a busy street, possibly against traffic, and hope that nobody saw us, or we could hide under parked cars until we got far enough ahead of our pursuers for their bullets to miss us.
I’d never heard of anyone successfully escaping from police officers who knew they were chasing you, much fewer people hunting vampires, but I had a feeling it could work.
Lillian and I crouched low, moving slowly toward the exit door, keeping ourselves hidden in the shadows as we slipped around the corner and started to pick our way carefully over the uneven concrete.
Lillian’s wound was bleeding again, and every step hurt her so badly that she nearly lost consciousness several times. But after another minute or two, we finally made it back into the parking lot. The street was empty, and I realized that we hadn’t been followed yet. I glanced at my watch and gasped, realizing just how close we were to being found. “Come on! There isn’t time to waste.”
We both took off running. When we reached the road, we stopped to check to see if anybody else was coming, and then we dashed across, jumping in between two cars that were parked next to each other. As soon as we reached the grass beside the building, we darted for cover behind the nearest dumpster and stayed low while I scanned the area.
The street was clear. So were the sidewalks, and the cars along the curbs. It looked like nothing had changed since we’d gone into hiding. But if the cops were already looking for us, it would only take a moment for them to start searching for us here, rather than somewhere else.
We were lucky; it must have taken them longer than I expected to catch up with us. But we also had to assume they would get there eventually, especially now that we’d been spotted.
That left us with two choices. One was to go straight ahead and try to find a way into the sewers where we could escape. But that wasn’t really an option anymore, given that it would be so easy to track us down in the tunnels.
Even if they didn’t manage to trace us directly, they’d probably be able to figure out exactly where we’d gone and then wait for us in the area. We might be able to fight our way past them, but I doubted it. They were experienced hunters, and the last thing we wanted was for them to catch up to us before we could escape.
Instead, I went to one side of the building and peeked around the edge of the trash cans. It looked like there were no windows in this section of the wall. I didn’t want to climb onto the roof and look around, so I decided to go for the most obvious alternative. I grabbed Lillian’s hand, and we crept back toward the alleyway behind the building.
The alley opened into a small courtyard surrounded on three sides by buildings. On the fourth side lay a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. At some point, a fire truck must have backed into it, because the vehicle was sitting sideways with its rear tires in the middle of the yard. Beyond it, beyond the dumpster and the wall of the next building, was the street.
“Do you think they’ve seen us?” Lillian whispered.
“No,” I said. “They’re too busy chasing us. We’ll stay quiet.”
We crouched against the wall and listened, hoping to hear something that might indicate that we were being watched. After about ten minutes, it became clear that there was no immediate danger. I pulled Lillian aside and whispered, “We need to make a break for it.”
She nodded. She looked pale but strong. I could tell that her wounds weren’t hurting her anymore. Her eyes glittered with determination. And I felt like we could do it. Maybe, just maybe, we had a chance of surviving.
As we started for the fence, I noticed a piece of paper lying on the ground near the fire truck. I bent over to pick it up. It had been thrown away; I don’t know what made me turn back and grab it anyway. It wasn’t that much bigger than a business card.
But when I held it up to examine it more closely, I gasped. It was a business card belonging to one of the cops that I’d met in the restaurant. His name was Paul, and he was wearing a uniform. I recognized him right away; his picture was on all the wanted posters.
Paul’s card read:
POLICE OFFICER PAUL MENDES
CALL THE POLICE IMMEDIATELY FOR EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE
***
The phone number was listed on the front of the card, but I knew that there was no way I could call from here. I couldn’t risk being spotted at all, but even if we tried to use our cell phones, somebody would notice immediately. That meant that we needed to leave right now… before the cops found us.
But how?
Lillian saw my expression change and turned to look at the gate. She squinted as she scanned the wall. “What is it?”
“It’s locked,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” said Lillian. “Like all of these places are.”
A couple of moments later, I realized why she hadn’t thought of it sooner. The metal gate had been chained to a large rock. There was no way for us to reach it without climbing.
“Maybe there’s a way,” she said softly. She looked up at the top of the wall again and frowned. Then her face lit up as she realized what she was looking at.
We ran across to the opposite corner of the property, near where a wooden staircase led up to the second story of a nearby building. It looked like a door. If we could force it open, we could climb inside.
“You first,” I said, pointing to the ladder.
She stepped up on it and then jumped onto the wall, landing lightly in front of me. I followed suit and grabbed the rungs of the ladder, pulling myself up and scrambling after her. We clambered onto the roof and slid carefully down the other side.
At that moment, I heard voices echoing through the alley behind us. It sounded like two officers talking in low tones, probably having just finished their patrol and returning to the station house. As soon as I was safely over the edge and off the roof, I ducked behind the building and waited for them to pass by.
When I looked around the corner, I saw that Lillian was already on the ground and hiding behind a dumpster. I dropped to the dirt floor beside her and leaned against the side of the building.
After another minute or so, our pursuers drove past us out of view and headed for the parking lot where I’d parked my car. Lillian breathed heavily and let herself slump forward against the brick wall. Her breathing sounded painful, but she kept staring straight ahead. I knew we had to get moving quickly, so I put my arm around her shoulders and lifted her easily, cradling her to my chest.
We hurried along the sidewalk as fast as we could until we reached my car. Once we were both inside and buckled up, Lillian slumped over against the passenger seat. I started it up, shifted gears, and accelerated as far as I could into traffic.
“Where are we going?” she asked quietly as we rolled through the streets.
“West,” I replied.
We drove aimlessly for almost an hour, staying out of sight and trying not to attract attention. I didn’t want to risk leaving my car somewhere, but we needed someplace private to rest up. At last, I decided that we should head toward the city limits.
Then, finally… “Oh, God!” Lillian gasped suddenly, her hand flying to her mouth. “Are we close enough yet?”
I glanced at the clock on my dash, which told me that we’d been traveling for nearly ten hours now. But we had a long way to go still. And there was always the chance that we’d get intercepted before we made it home.
I pulled up at a stoplight near the center of town and turned off my headlights. “We’re not quite there yet.”
“How much farther?” she moaned.
“About another three miles, maybe. Maybe less, depending on how bad the traffic is getting.”
I took a deep breath. “And we’ll have to cross into West Virginia before we can get out of the city. So we won’t be able to turn back once we start moving.”
Lillian closed her eyes, and tears began rolling down her cheeks. “Please make this easier.”
“Just hang tough for a bit longer,” I said softly, reaching over with my free hand to squeeze hers gently. “This part will end soon. Then you and I can relax together for the rest of our lives…”
***
The traffic ahead of us slowed. Traffic lights were flashing yellow, and cars were creeping along at barely twenty miles per hour. I felt the tension growing steadily worse until it threatened to overwhelm my senses.
But Lillian seemed completely unperturbed. She sat quietly between us, clutching her knees tightly and rocking slowly from side to side as though she were singing a lullaby to herself.
Finally, the light changed to green and we surged forward again.
A couple of blocks beyond that, I got off the freeway and found a small neighborhood road. At least it would give me a chance to pull over safely. I stopped my car about half a mile away, near the top of a steep hill where a tree blocked our path.
“Hold on tight,” I told Lillian, putting the car into park and then shutting off the engine. Then I popped the glove compartment open and grabbed a small black box that I’d stashed there earlier, when I’d come to pick up my gun.
Once we were all secured inside, I flipped the switch on the side of the case and opened it. A blue arc of electricity flared brightly inside it, and I quickly slipped on the earmuffs attached to the sides of the device.
They covered my ears and insulated me from the power surge. After slipping on one of the thick rubberized gloves, I pushed on the button to activate the device. The blue glow faded, replaced by a pale white light that filled the interior of the vehicle with blinding brilliance.
With a loud buzz, a small door in the middle of my dashboard swung outward, revealing a square chamber that contained what looked like a huge, metallic sphere about four feet across. It was glowing faintly with its own faint illumination, and the metal itself felt warm to the touch.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the energy burst ended, leaving my entire vehicle dead silent in the dark.
I reached out and grabbed the sphere with my gloved hands, pulling it firmly toward me and setting it down next to my driver’s seat. There was no sense wasting any time. When I’d first seen the box, I’d known exactly what this thing was: an experimental weapon of the most dangerous kind.
It wasn’t something I could use on myself without blowing the lid right off this whole plan. So I needed to know if it would work on someone else, too. If it did, we might have the means to save ourselves — even if they didn’t let us leave the island alive.
I lifted my head out of my lap so that I could look around and see Lillian’s face in the rearview mirror. Her head was still bowed, but now she was staring straight ahead instead of at us, as though she couldn’t bear the thought of opening her eyes in such close proximity to us.
Her lips were trembling, and she kept repeating one word over and over again in a soft voice.
“No…” she said. “Please, please don’t make me watch it.”
“You won’t have to,” I promised.
“I want to… I need to… but I can’t! Oh, God, I can’t!” She started sobbing again.
There was only one way to do this. And I’d never been good with children or animals, so this would be the perfect test for my newfound powers. I reached into my pocket and pulled out two pieces of paper, which I unfolded carefully and put on my dashboard.
One was a standard piece of lined notebook paper, with lines to write down my observations in neat block letters. On the other piece of paper were several dozen words I had written down earlier in a different font.
When I placed them side by side against the window, their meaning became immediately clear to both of me and Lillian. But the more she looked at it, the less she seemed able to grasp it.
“I know I can’t stop you,” she whispered. “So I’m not going to pretend to fight you anymore… I’ve done it enough already, haven’t I?”
“Yes,” I replied calmly.
Then I turned on the overhead light, switched on the wipers, and began driving back home.
As we drove past the first streetlight, I looked down at my clipboard and made sure my notes were in order. Then I glanced at the words on the front page of my notepad and confirmed that I’d copied those accurately from the letter inside the box.
The woman who’d left me the message in the phone booth was definitely the same person who’d sent me to this place. The only thing that surprised me was the fact that I hadn’t recognized her name before now.
It wasn’t unusual for people to change their names after becoming fugitives since criminals tended to live under false identities wherever possible. And yet, somehow, I should have been able to tell this was her from somewhere.
We passed another sign and I read over my notes again. At last, I understood. As far as my new abilities went, this was a major step forward. This time, when I closed my eyes, I saw a clear image of her face as soon as I closed my eyes. All these years later, it was still etched permanently into my memory.
She was the wife of a powerful man, and she’d married him for his money. He’d loved her until he’d gotten greedy and taken her away from the family that had given her shelter and protection for all those long years. She’d never forgiven me for what I’d done to ruin it for her, but she’d also never forgotten me…
And now here was my proof. My chance to finally set things right. If I followed her instructions properly, then we’d both get what we wanted. She would escape the life of crime that had stolen her youth and robbed her of the chance to live happily ever after. I wouldn’t be stuck here any longer than necessary, and I’d get the justice I deserved for my part in her husband’s crimes.
This woman was the one who had killed me. I would take vengeance upon her for the deaths of my brothers… but first I needed to see if she truly meant what she’d told me to do. If she was capable of doing this, then maybe I really had found someone who could help me find a way out of this hell.
My heart was pounding hard, but my mind was calm. There was nothing more important in the world to me now than making sure that I didn’t fail again. I knew this would be dangerous, but there was no point in trying anything else.
“Okay, Lillian,” I said calmly. “Take your seat belt off, please.”
Lillian’s face grew even paler.
“What?” she asked.
“It’ll only be a short ride,” I explained. “Just until we reach the next crossroads.”
“But it’ll hurt!”
“I know it will… but I think it will be worth it.”
“Don’t talk like that!” Lillian wailed.
I pressed gently on my own forehead and concentrated on my memories of being stabbed by a knife. It felt strange having this much trouble putting my finger on something so simple, but the truth was that my experience with this kind of pain was limited.
When I thought about being shot or blown up, I remembered it well enough. But stab wounds and bullet wounds were something else entirely; they weren’t nearly as a graphic in my head, and it took a while to remember what they’d actually been like. Eventually, though, the answer came.
The pain was intense, almost unbearable, but I fought through it quickly and kept my eyes firmly shut. After a few minutes, the feeling started fading away, and I let myself open my eyes once more.
“Are you ready?” I asked quietly.
“No!”
The End