Storiesonline.net ------- Sleepwalker by Shadow of Moonlite Copyright© 2007 by Shadow of Moonlite ------- Description: A young man discovers that he has been given a unique gift, and the responsibility that comes with it. This is a reposting of the completed original, I do intend to do a serious re-write in the future, but after much prompting from fans I decided to go ahead and release the original here first. I hope you enjoy it. Codes: mf ff Mult paranormal rom teen cons inc bro sis bi safe oral mastrb pett ------- ------- Chapter 1: Introduction Looking back I guess I've always been a sleepwalker, but I wasn't quite like the ones you hear about. I mean you hear the stories of kids getting up in the middle of the night and wondering around the house, parents waking up to find their kids sitting in the middle of the living room "watching" television. Even though the television is off and the kid doesn't even seem to notice that there is no picture or that the parents are even there. I did all that stuff. I wasn't like the really scary ones you hear about, kids actually walking out of the house in the middle of the night, roaming the neighborhood, walking down the middle of the street in the middle of the night. You know the really scary stuff; especially in today's world. My case is a little different. Okay, it's a lot different. I was seven when I first noticed that something strange seemed to be happening. It all seemed pretty normal around the house; no one noticed anything out of the ordinary. I was just your average little boy in your average home. Maybe not 'normal' by today's standards, I mean my parents were actually married and living under the same roof. Oh, sorry, my name is James; James Edward Matthews, to be exact. I was named for my grandfathers on either side of the family. The family joke is that I'm Mom's little J.E.M. Here's a hint. Don't EVER call me that. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom. But Jem is a one of those cute nicknames that will get your son beaten up on a regular basis starting about two days after any kid in school learns of it. Something my mom found out the second day of Kindergarten when she got the call from the principal of our elementary school. It wasn't even my fault. It's not like I brought it up. The teacher noticed it and thought it was cute. Apparently so did Mark, and Ted, and Bobby. I was used to 'Jem' I'd been tolerating it for years; but I drew the line at being called "little Jemmy." Unfortunately I drew the line in Bobby's right shin and just under Mark's left eye. Ted was Bobby's twin brother so naturally it immediately became a matter of family honor and as they say, "It was ON!" Once the SWAT team had secured the area and the smoke started to clear things looked like they were going to be okay. Right up to the point that we had to tell Mr. Iverson what happened. He made the mistake of sniggering at the nickname and I made the mistake of using one of those words my dad wasn't supposed to say around me. That actually got me off the hook with Mom though. It was kind of funny watching Dad try to melt into one of Mr. Iverson's office chairs when he told Mom what I'd called him. Her head just did one of those cartoon spins toward Dad and he just looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, Alaska, the Middle East, a black hole, anywhere! The nicknamed dropped off the public radar for a while after that. Mark's parents brought him over the house and made him apologize, my parents invited them for dinner and we were soon best friends. Anyway, I was seven when things started happening. My sister, Allison, is two years younger than me and I just love her to death. Some nights I would get up in the middle of the night and just watch her sleep. I didn't realize it at the time, but those were the nights she was restless and having trouble sleeping. I would just crawl out of bed and go sit by her and she would settle down. It became pretty routine for my mom to find me sacked out in her floor the next morning. Other nights I would just dream about her. It seemed like she was always in my dreams. We played, we explored, fought daring duels with pirates, wrestled and played with tigers and lions in the deepest wilds of the African Jungle. If I was Tarzan, she was Jane. One night I suddenly found myself on a horse in full armor galloping towards a castle to slay a dragon and rescue the maiden in the tower. That one didn't turn out quite the way you would expect. I didn't end up slaying the dragon. It turned out she, yeah, that was odd too, whoever heard of a female dragon? Anyway, she turned out to be pretty cool after all and we all had tea and then we promised to come back and play again some other time. It took me while to figure out what really happened that night but I'll get to that later. I was at Mark's house "camping" in his garage one weekend and Allison had a bad nightmare. She woke Mom and Dad up with one of those blood-curdling screams of hers, but by the time they got there she was laying quietly. When Mom asked her what happened she said that she was scared but that Jimmy woke her up and told her it was okay. The folks just passed it off as one of those "kid" things. The weird part was that I'd had a dream at Mark's that night. In my dream Allison was having a bad dream and I had gotten up and touched her awake and hugged her and told her it was just a dream and everything was okay. I asked Mom what happened to Allison when I got home and she gave me one of those 'looks' and said, "Why do you ask Jimmy?" So I told her about the dream. She gave me the look again and told me that Allison had had a bad dream but that everything was okay and not to worry about it. So I let it go and forgot about it. Two years later the house caught fire. Allison's room is closest to the kitchen so the smoke got there first. I heard her coughing so I got up to check on her. I don't remember walking to her room, I was just sort of there looking at her, but I couldn't figure out why she was coughing. Then I saw the smoke. I ran to my mom's room and tried to open the door. My hand went through the door! Suddenly I woke up in bed. I smelled the smoke and shot out of my bed like it was on fire. Back down the hall to Mom's room. This time the handle worked and I slammed the door open so hard it dented the wall and screamed, "Dad! The house is on Fire!" That got them both up and moving. One thing you have to give the parents credit for, they had it together. Dad jumped up and ran out the door, boxers and all. Mom grabbed her bathrobe, then me, and headed for my sister's room. By the time we got to Allison's room the flames could be seen in the kitchen. Dad had emptied the extinguisher and was headed out the front door for the hose. Mom had grabbed the cordless phone off the nightstand1 and had 911 on the phone by the time we got Allison up. She reached into Allison's dresser and handed us each a piece of cloth to put over our faces, then headed us out the door past Dad who was just coming back in with the hose. I remember I was really embarrassed later when I figured out it was a pair of Allison's panties I was breathing through. It's kind of funny though when I think about it now. Mom took us straight to the sidewalk and told us to stay there. Allison was still scared and coughing. I was in a little bit of shock but otherwise doing pretty well. Mom disappeared around the side of the house. The next thing I saw was the garage door opening and Mom backing the car out. She stopped and opened the door and told us to get in. She then pulled the car across the street in front of the neighbor's house and told us to stay there. She went back to the garage and pulled Dad's truck out and parked it a little further up the street. She must have grabbed some clothes out of the dryer because suddenly she had regular clothes on. About that time the fire department showed up and the neighbors came out and everything kind of got crowded and crazy. Dad had managed to keep the fire from spreading very far without getting killed in the process. The firemen told him he had done a pretty good job but that next time he should consider putting on some clothes first. At first he didn't get it, but the paramedic who had showed up told him to sit down and stuck an oxygen mask on him and started spraying some foam stuff on his arm. He hadn't even noticed that his hand was burned, or that the hair on his arm was all gone up to the elbow. What little hair he had on his chest was all curled up and singed. We used to tease him about it because he was so proud of what little he had. When they asked me what happened I just said that something woke me up and I heard Allison coughing and smelled smoke. My folks just 'looked' at me and let it go. Normally I'm a really sound sleeper. A plane could land in the living room and it wouldn't wake me up. Unless something was wrong with Allison. So this time, the lightest noise could bring me out of my usual coma? Yeah. But they let it go. I didn't bring up the dream. Hey, I was going to be in Jr. High in another month, I wasn't stupid. The fire department traced the fire to a frayed wire on the back of the stove. The smoke detector failure was the result of a dead battery. Dad had replaced it two months before but apparently the new battery was defective and lasted just long enough to pass the first two monthly tests. We spent a couple weeks in a hotel while they fixed the house and got the smell out of everything. School was starting in another month so we basically just did our school shopping early and got more new clothes than usual. ------- Chapter 2: High School: Things get interesting There is nothing quite like the first day of high school. Okay, later in life college and the first interview for a real job might come close. Fast food and video game attendant don't count. I mean like, interviewing for your new job in a legal office. Yeah, the first day of high school is, well, horrible! I mean, it's cool; you're hot stuff now, in the big leagues. New school, new teachers, real classes, girls... oh yeah, girls. Big girls, with like, big girl parts and tight jeans and makeup, and really short skirts! Yeah baby! And then there are the really big dudes, with the really big muscles, who look like they want to kill you just for noticing the girls. And the teachers, who look as if they are positively ecstatic to be sitting behind the little tables, in front of all the long lines of students trying to get into their classes. Oh, and they just love the freshmen who have no idea what they are doing. The wonderful feeling you get when you finally get to the front of the line, only to discover that it's the wrong line. But I had a plan. That only lasted until about the second line. That's when I found out that freshman don't actually get "free period." Sorry, juniors and seniors only. The only exception made for underclassmen was for returning sophomores enrolled in specific classes, and required permission slips signed by both their parents and their guidance counselors. As a freshman I only got one elective class. Most of the guys went for things like wood shop or auto shop. Not me, the one thing I wanted more than anything was to get into psychology. This really cracked up my friends. Mark thought it was hysterical. "Dude, you're crazy! No way are you getting into psychology. That's like one of those cake classes that the seniors take so they can goof off and get an easy grade. No way are you going to get in. The list must be like a mile long." Unfortunately, he was right. There were only two psychology classes that I could possibly get into no matter how I juggled my schedule and not only were they full but they had waiting lists. But I stuck it out anyway. Stood in the line and waited my turn to put my name on the list. The teacher, Mr. Shelby, wasn't even there anymore. I asked one of the other teachers if they knew where he was and she politely pointed him out coming back across the auditorium. Her name was Miss Swann and was she hot! Can you say babe? Guys were lining up just to get close to her. Of course when you got to the front of the line and found out that she taught Sociology and Art it weeded out most of the lookers. I lucked out later when my Social Studies teacher went on maternity leave. Miss Swann took over her class for the rest of the year and I found out that she is really an awesome teacher. Mr. Shelby was slowly walking back across the auditorium from the water fountain. With all his classes full, I guessed he had needed a break from the throng of disappointed faces. Having nothing to lose I decided to talk to him. "Excuse me, Mr. Shelby? My name is Edward Matthews." On a whim I stuck out my hand. "If you have a few minutes to spare, sir, I would like to talk to you about your class." (I'd gone through the whole JEM problem again in junior high and had since switched to J. Edward Matthews on any official paperwork I had to fill out. I discovered, as you will, that it didn't work. But hey, a guy's gotta try.) He seemed shocked at first but smiled and shook my hand. "Mr. Matthews is it? Freshman?" "Yes Sir, I don't want to keep you from anything if you're..." "Slow down, Mr. Matthews." He interrupted, "I was just surprised at the very old fashion idea of a hand shake being part of an introduction." "Sorry, Sir. I didn't mean to..." "Slow down, Mr. Matthews," he interrupted again, "I didn't say I was offended. Actually I'm quite impressed. We don't get a lot of that around here. Not even from the staff, much less the students. You must be interested in my advanced class; you're already past the level most of my beginning students achieve from the whole first year. One year I spent an entire semester just trying to get the concept of first impressions past the second row. It was a dismal failure. It's rather refreshing to meet a young man who actually pays attention to social conventions." "Thank you, sir. My dad has spent several summers trying to get the idea across to me. If you don't mind I'm supposed to ask you how my handshake was? But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about so we can skip it if you would rather not." "Quite all right. Actually, it was a pretty good shake. A little tentative but that was probably due more to nervousness, the fact that our hands are quite different sizes and that I was a little too stunned to pay full attention. We'll try it again later. In fact, let's make an experiment out of it. Any time you happen to meet me in passing this year, shake my hand and say hello. I will try to pay more attention to the details and let you know how you are doing. Mostly I want to see if we can start a new trend. See how many of your fellow students jump on the bandwagon. If nothing else it should be a real kick to see the expressions on some of the faces when they see it for the first time. Now then, which class are you signed up for? I don't remember seeing you earlier." "No sir, I'm on the waiting list for your 6th period class, I have required stuff most of the rest of the day and it was full before I got there. What I wanted to ask you, sir, was if I could possibly talk to you about dreams?" "Dreams?" "Yes sir." "Mr. Matthews... Edward, wasn't it? Do you prefer Edward, Ed or Eddie? Or do you perhaps have another nickname?" "Any of those are fine, sir. I try to avoid nicknames. It's a long story." <> I thought to myself. There must have been something in my voice because he looked at me for a second before going on. "Well, Mr. Edward Matthews," he said with a gleam in his eye and a definite smile on his face. "Something tells me there is an interesting story there but we'll leave that for another time. Dreams are a pretty deep subject and while we do touch on them in the beginning class, it's really just a passing glance. Is there some aspect of dreaming that you are interested in?" "Yes sir, several things really: 'Cognitive' dreaming for one, non-Freudian interpretation of dreams and dream mechanisms, possible correlations between clairvoyance and dreaming, sleepwalking..." His look cut me off. "Mr. Edwards," he began, "I can see you and I are going to be getting to know each other very well over the next four years. What period did you say you were trying to get in to?" "Sixth period, sir. But it's already full." "Welcome to sixth period Beginning Psychology, Mr. Edwards. I know, it says the class is full. Leave that to me. In fact, let's go take care of that right now shall we?" So saying he proceeded to lead me back to the registration table. Miss Swann was still there, surrounded by a throng of admirers trying their best to stare without her noticing. She looked up as Mr. Shelby approached the table. "Hi, Bob, there was a young man, freshman I think looking for you. Oh, there you are," she said as I cleared the crowd. The crowd did an impressive vanishing act as soon as Mr. Shelby showed up. "I guess this means he found you." "Ah, so you are to thank for our meeting. Susan, I owe you lunch," he said as he quickly looked through the list of names on his waiting lists for classes. "Actually, make that dinner. May I introduce you to Mr. J. Edward Matthews?" He stepped aside and pulled me forward with a hand on my shoulder as Miss Swann automatically reached out her hand for mine. "Something tells me I'm going to be thanking you a lot for steering him in my direction." I took her hand, very conscious of the fact that shaking a woman's hand would be different but not sure quite how it would differ. Her hand was warm but not damp the way some men's hands were, and softer. It was like shaking hands with a satin sheet. But something weird happened. When she touched my hand there was, well, it's hard to explain, it was like an electric charge, but not a shock. I hoped it didn't show too much, but I could feel the blood rush from my face. I could practically hear my heart thud in my chest, and I was very aware of where all the blood went. She gave me just the slightest smile, "Nice to meet you, uh, do you go by Edward, Eddie, JE... oh, no probably not that." Her smile changed to a smirk as she tried to suppress the giggle and released my hand. Suddenly all that recently departed blood and more rushed right back to my face. Just about that time Mr. Shelby apparently got it and chuckled not so quietly to himself. "Ah, I think I just got an idea about that 'long story' you mentioned, and your dislike of nicknames. I'm guessing you aren't fond of jokes about the 'family jewels' either." I thought I would die. "Probably shouldn't mention that you are the 'gem' in your father's crown." He chuckled some more. I thought my face was going to catch fire. Why is it that the earth can never seem to open up and swallow you when you need it to? Miss Swann could no longer contain herself either and the giggle finally got out. She slapped Mr. Shelby on the arm. "Bob, you're terrible. Leave the poor boy alone. He's probably been hearing it since he could crawl. He's at the awkward age. You know-" <> She did. "A diamond in the rough." They both cracked up, <>, then she leaned across the table and put her hand on my shoulder. That same "charge" hit again. "I'm sorry, I know it's terrible of us but really, if you could see the look on your face right now." Suddenly I found myself laughing right along with them. "You're right. I should probably just get over it. I doubt if there is a joke I haven't heard. And I'm sure I'll hear them all again. Actually my name is James Edward Matthews. I thought if I just changed to J. Edward it would be easier. Oh well, scratch that idea. I answer to just about anything. My parents have always been a little more formal after they figured out the curse they had placed on my life. They call me James. My sister and my close friends call me Jimmy." Mr. Shelby placed his hand on my other shoulder. "Well, I think we are off to a good start and I hope that this is just the beginning of our friendship. So how about this, in class and when other people are around I'll be Mr. Shelby, just like with everyone else. And you will be Mr. Matthews. When we are alone, my name is Bob. And I hope to be enough of a friend to call you Jimmy. What about you, Susan?" She turned up the wattage on her smile and looked me in the eye. Suddenly life was worth living again. There was a very odd glint in her eye as she said, "As a freshman of course you are not in any of my classes, and if others are around it would not be proper, but when it's just us," she reached out and took both my hands between hers, "please call me Susan. And I would be honored to be in the select group of close friends that call you Jimmy. I think I would like to be that kind of friend." Something in the look and the touch of her hands suddenly had all the blood rushing south again. I'm not sure but I think I mumbled something like, "That would be swell." <> Fortunately, Mr. Shelby rescued me. "So then, Mr. Matthews, I'll look forward to seeing you sixth period tomorrow." I recognized the formal name and sure enough, another teacher was walking up. From the shorts, polo shirt and tennis shoes it was pretty obvious what she was, if not who. Mr. Shelby filled in the blank for me. "Coach Jenkins, good to see you again. We're just making new friends. This is Mr. Matthews, one of our incoming freshman and the newest addition to my sixth period class." I found myself shaking hands with yet another new person. Wow, three in one day, a new personal high. "Coach Jenkins." I said. "Mr. Matthews, I think I've seen you before. Don't you have a little sister who plays basketball?" She inquired, taking my hand in a soft but firm grip. "Yes ma'am, actually I do. Do you know Allison?" "I'm friends with Coach Stewart over at Watson Junior High. She coached Allison's summer team two years ago and can't wait to work with her again this year. I think I remember seeing you in the stands a few times. She starts 7th this year right?" "Right, but not until next week." "Well, Lynn has been anxiously looking forward to seeing how she has developed. She has very high hopes of an all-league team this year. I hope she's right because I get her girls in two years. Well, most of them anyway." She put a hard edge in her voice and grabbed my hand in a hard squeeze. "Your family's not planning on skipping town, are they?" Just as quickly she let go and smiled and we all had another good laugh. "No," I said. "I don't think we're going anywhere soon. But I'll try to keep you posted if that changes. Or would it be safer to just quietly disappear in the middle of the night?" Everyone had another laugh and I noticed Mark staring at me from across the room, looking very perplexed. I remembered that his mom was picking us up after registration so we didn't have to wait for the bus. "Well, it's been nice meeting all of you. I guess I'll see you, Mr. Shelby, tomorrow at sixth period." <> I thought, deciding to be bold. I took one hand each of Coach Jenkins' and Miss Swann's, <>, in each of mine and kissed them in what I hoped was a courtly fashion. "And I hope to see both of you lovely ladies again soon as well." Miss Swann suddenly blazed a bright red, causing both the coach and Mr. Shelby to burst out laughing. "See you tomorrow, Mr. Matthews." Mr. Shelby clapped me on the shoulder and turned back to the table. "Better keep an eye on this one, Bob," chuckled the coach. "Nice to meet you too, gallant sir. I'm sure I'll see you again. It's James, isn't it?" she inquired as I dropped both of their hands. Susan's hand seemed to linger for just a moment as she took her hand away. "Oh Susan," the coach continued on turning away, "if you could only see your face. I can't wait to tell Lynn about this." I headed for the door feeling much better about my future. Mark was waiting for me. We headed out to the front and sure enough, his mom was waiting for us. We jumped in and headed off. "Thanks for picking us up, Mrs. Davis," I said as I snapped my seatbelt into place. "My pleasure, Jimmy, and I've told you before, you can call me Karen. You're not six years old; you're a big boy now. Anyway, I was out running some errands and it was on my way so it was no problem. Are you boys hungry? How about we grab something on the way home?" Mark and I turned for a quick hi-five in the back seat. "Score!" Fifteen minutes later we were sitting in the sun digging into burritos and sodas. "So dude, what is up with you? Mom, you should have seen this guy. His first day and suddenly he's palling around with the teachers like he's known them for years." "Just in the right place at the right time I guess. I really just wanted to ask Mr. Shelby a question and suddenly I find myself being introduced to Miss Swann and Coach Jenkins." "That was Miss Swann! Dude you are like the luckiest guy I ever met. Do you know how many guys would give their right nut just to talk to her? Including me! And there you were, shaking hands and laughing it up with her. I hate you!" "Mark!" his mother admonished. "She is a teacher and you will not speak about her that way." "Sorry Mom," he replied, taking a sip of his soda. "You mean Susan?" I asked. Sure enough, I had timed it just right and Diet Pepsi shot out of his mouth and nose. Mrs. Davis and I both burst out laughing and grabbed extra napkins to clean up the mess. Mark finally stopped choking long enough to wipe off the soda dripping down his chin. "That's not funny, man!" "Oh yes it was," his mom said. "And that's what you get for talking about her so disrespectfully. Isn't that right, Jimmy?" "Absolutely! You should have more respect for your betters, young man." I chided. "Didn't your mother and I raise you better than that?" We all chuckled at that and I went on, "Actually, she figured out my secret when Bob," his eyes got big, "that is Mr. Shelby to you. Dude, you are too easy. Anyway, when Mr. Shelby introduced me as J. Edward Matthews, she was looking for something easier and ended up you know where. They both started making jokes and I thought I was going to die. My face looked like that stop-light over there." Mark laughed at that. "I told you that wasn't going to work. You gotta just let it go and take it like a man. Either that or change your name." "Yeah, I know. Anyway it turned out to be a great icebreaker. The next thing I knew they are both telling me to call them by their first names; well, not in class or in public, but if we run into each other off campus or when no one else is around. They both asked permission to call me Jimmy under the same circumstances. And then coach Jenkins walked up and they introduced me to her as well." "That was Coach Jenkins. Dude, I heard some guys saying she was a dyke. Sure didn't look like any lesbo I ever saw." That was a big mistake; I had never seen his mom that mad in my life. "Mark Allen Davis! How dare you!" she exploded. "If I ever hear you use either of those words again I am going to wash your mouth out with soap, even if I have to have Jimmy, your dad and I don't care how many other people hold you down to do it. Coach Jenkins' sexual preferences are none of your business. Whether she is a lesbian or not is her business and the business of those she chooses to be intimate with. And as you have no personal knowledge one way or the other then as far as you are concerned it is just gossip and you will not be party to spreading it. Shame on you! How would you like it if I walked up to a total stranger and introduced you as my son the faggot?" Mark was just as shocked as I was. This was a side of his mother he had obviously never seen either. "I'm sorry, Mom," he said with his head down, suddenly unable to look her in the face. "You're right and it was wrong of me. I won't do it again, I promise." "You had better not. And I am not the one you need to apologize to. Tomorrow, I don't care when, but before you come home, you are to find Coach Jenkins, tell her exactly what you said and apologize for being party to spreading such vicious gossip about her. Do you understand me?" "Mom! Do I have to? I mean, how embarrassing. I've never even met her and you want me to just walk right up to her and say, hi, I'm sorry I called you a dyke?" He clapped his hand over his mouth. "Oops, sorry." "That's alright this time because yes, that is exactly what I want you to do. And I hope it is so embarrassing that you will never even think about doing anything like that again. As far as you not knowing her, you're in luck. Jimmy has already met her and I'm sure he would be happy to introduce you. Won't you, Jimmy? Then when you get home he can tell me what a polite and respectful job you did." I nodded agreement. What? Like I'm going to say no and have that blowtorch turned on me? No chance. "Good, now finish your lunch so we can get home and you boys can wash my car." "Mom!" whined Mark. "What? You thought lunch was free?" She said with a laugh, "You boys should know me better than that by now." The rest of the afternoon passed pretty normally. While we were washing his mom's car, Mark's sister Shannon rode up on her bike. Mark made as if to spray her with the hose. "Don't even think about it, bucko!" she said, giving him a look which implied serious mayhem to his person. "Aww, we're not afraid of you," he taunted, waving the water stream towards her just a little. "Isn't that right, Jimmy?" "Whatchu mean 'we' white-man?" I said in my very best Tonto. "I'm not going there. And if I were you I'd think twice. She knows where you sleep." "Ha!" Shannon sneered and stuck her tongue out at him, putting the stand down on her bike and taking off her helmet. "Now there is a sensible man for a change. Who knows there might be hope for the species after all." "Man?" Mark laughed. "Where? I don't see no 'man' around here. It's just you, me and little Jemmy here." Flashback! It was on again. I launched the soapy sponge at his head. He ducked and pointed the hose in my direction. "You want some of this?" he threatened. "You and the little girl better just behave yourselves, or else." "Little girl!" screamed Shannon. "Get him, Jimmy!" I headed around the back of the car, Shannon headed around the front. Mark started retreating across the yard while trying to cover both of us with the hose. When it became obvious we weren't going to back down he let Shannon have it. She screamed and I took advantage of the distraction, launching myself in a full body tackle. Next thing you know we were rolling on the ground with Mark trying to retain possession of the hose and spraying it all over my back, soaking both of us in the process. Another body slammed in as Shannon landed on the pile. Between the two of us we quickly wrestled the hose away from him. I held him down while she taunted him with her new weapon. "Now who were you calling a 'little girl'?" Suddenly she got a wicked gleam in her eye. Grabbing the front of his shorts she stuffed the nozzle in and blasted full force down his pants. "Hey! That's cold! Stop! Lemme up! Oh, I am going to get you!" he ranted as he struggled to break free. I just held on tight and did my best to keep him down, laughing all the while. Suddenly Shannon turned on me, "What's so funny?" she asked, cutting the flow for just long enough to stick the nozzle down the back of my shorts and then blasting away again. I jumped off of Mark and grabbed for her arm. She let go of the hose and made a break for it but I managed to catch her ankle, tripping her back into the grass. Wow! I thought holding Mark down was a challenge. Shannon was a wildcat, squirming and twisting for all she was worth. Shannon is only a year younger than Mark and I, and you know what they say about girls maturing faster. It must be true because she was just as tall as I was and I hadn't realized how strong she was. I finally wound up on my back holding her around the waist and trying to avoid flying feet and elbows. Mark had grabbed the hose and proceeded to spray both of us. Then he moved in for the kill, an evil gleam in his eye. Shannon must have recognized the look because she started fighting harder and screaming, "No! You better not! Mark! I swear I'll tell Mom." That stopped him. "You're right. You would tell Mom and I'd be in trouble. But Jimmy wouldn't!" He reached down to grab her and pull her up. I knew what he was thinking. I jumped up and grabbed the hose, turned to face them and almost dropped it again. Shannon's white t-shirt had turned practically transparent and I suddenly realized that Mark's little sister had grown up right in front of me and I hadn't even noticed. Suddenly I was very aware of two pale breasts about the size of half a grapefruit with very dark, and very pointy nipples clearly visible through the thin material. She saw where I was looking and smiled, looking me right in the eye. Was it my imagination or was she not struggling as much suddenly? "Don't do it, Jimmy! He started it. You're supposed to be on my side." I couldn't resist. But I didn't want to go too far so I reached around and stuck the nozzle down the back of her shorts, pulled the handle and pushed the lock into place. I let go and ran for the garage. Mark was right behind me. Leaving Shannon dancing around the yard trying to get the hose free and the water turned off. It only took her a second and she flipped off the lock and dropped it to the grass. She was wringing the water out of her ponytail as she came into the garage laughing. Mark must have suddenly realized what I had seen earlier as he stood staring at his sister. I grabbed one of the pool towels off the shelf next to the dryer, opened it and held it out to her. She stepped into it. "Thank you, kind sir," she whispered turning away from her brother and wrapping the towel around herself. Looking back at Mark, she noticed he was now bent over with a towel over his head trying to dry his hair. Seeing him safely occupied she proceeded to blow my mind by staring me right in the eye and opening the towel up to show off her chest to me once again. I'd heard the expression "deer in the headlights" all my life. Suddenly, I had a very clear understanding of just what that meant. All I could do was stare. Shannon seemed to be enjoying it just as much as I was. As I watched, her nipples began to stiffen and press out against the material of her wet shirt even more than before. I just stood there with my mouth open. Then I heard the door opening and she whipped the towel closed and turned away. "If you three are quite finished running up the water bill," Karen started, "I need you, Mark, to run to the store and get me some sour cream. Your father is going to be home in about an hour and I need to start dinner." "Mom, I'm soaked. Can I at least change first?" "You big baby, you'll be dry before you get to the store. Oh, but then your hair would be a mess and gosh, some girl might see you..." By now Mark was blushing furiously. "Mom!" He grabbed a baseball cap off the shelf and stomped off toward the door to get his bike. "Oh, I'm sorry. Come here and give me a kiss. And I'll even give you some money so you don't get all the way there before you realize you left without it." Mark blushed even deeper when he realized that he had almost done exactly that. She grabbed him around the neck and pulled him in close, ignoring the fact that his shirt was soaked, planted a big wet kiss on his cheek and ruffled his hair, knocking the cap off, then headed back into the house. Mark started to follow her in but she stopped him with a hand on his chest and gently pushed him back. "No you don't. You just wait right here and I'll be right back with some money." We all continued drying ourselves while we waited. Shannon faced the far wall. Karen was back in just a few minutes. Mark took the money and headed off to the store. "Let me get you one of Mark's extra swimsuits, Jimmy, then you can just toss that stuff right into the dryer. And speaking of suits, Shannon, next time you decide to start a water fight with your brother and his friends, you should put something on under your shirt." Shannon blushed as she continued, "Preferably a bathing suit but at least a bra. It's not fair to the boys. Is it, Jimmy?" Now it was my turn to blush. "Not that I'm saying you have to fight fair, but it's not nice to tease. Good thing your father isn't home." She turned and went back in. "I'm sorry, Shannon, I didn't mean to stare," I said, eyes downcast. Shannon just smiled sweetly and said, "Don't be silly, Jimmy. You didn't see anything I didn't want you to." She grabbed my chin and pulled my face up, kissed me on the cheek and winked. "Next time just remember that I don't always fight fair." Then she got me again, stepping back and stretching her hands high over her head, causing breasts to jut out against the still damp shirt. "You're not really sorry, are you?" She looked down at my rapidly tenting shorts. "Didn't think so." Then she turned and jumped up the stairs, tossing the towel into the open top of the washer as she went by and disappeared into the house. All I could do was stand there and wonder if that had all just really happened. Once I decided that it really had, I was faced with the problem of figuring out what it meant, a question I was not equipped to answer. Fortunately I was saved from a complete mental meltdown by Karen returning with one of Mark's suits. "Here you go, Jimmy. Are you staying for dinner or do you need a ride home?" "No," I said, handing her back the suit, "thanks anyway, but I should probably go. Mom and Dad will want to know my schedule and talk about school and stuff. Thanks for the ride from school but I think I'll just walk from here. It's not that far, I can dry out on the way home. and this way your car seats won't get wet. Besides, Mark would be mad if he got back from the store only to find that you were going out anyway." "I hadn't thought of that. He probably wouldn't be too happy at that. Sometimes I don't know about that boy. It's not like I sent him after a box of tampons. Oh, sorry," she said as I began to blush again. "Come on, Jimmy, don't blush, you're in high school now for goodness sake. You had sex-ed in 6th grade. You blush at every little thing like that and those high school girls are going to eat you alive." She stepped up quickly and gave me peck on the cheek. "See you around. Tell your mom and dad hi for me and give Allison a hug." "Okay, Mrs. Davis." She gave me a look. "Karen I mean. See you soon." And I headed for home. ------- Chapter 3: It's Like Someone Flipped a Switch That night I had the wildest dream about Shannon. Okay, my dreams had always been a little unusual. That was the reason I wanted to get into psychology and why I had wanted to talk to Mr. Shelby. For one thing, I never have nightmares, at least nothing like what other people talked about. I almost always have dreams in the 'first person' sense. Meaning I saw them as if I were living the scene. That's not unusual in itself. Many people dream this way. What was unusual was that in 'first person' I have control. It didn't matter what was happening. If I didn't like something, it changed. Do you fly in your dreams? I do, a lot. So naturally I never fall off of tall buildings, down wells, over cliffs, nothing like that. I always see me as myself, not as some heroic figure or anything like that, but in my dreams I have always been the absolute master. Kind of like Keanu Reeves as Neo in 'The Matrix, ' only in a different way. Sometimes I seem to be in 'invisible' mode, where I am an observer. I see myself in different situations and circumstances. Or more frequently, I see places and situations as if watching them on television, except that I am in the action, I walk through doors, or walls for that matter. The observer me that is, the other me has to operate in the normal framework of the scene. What's weird is that sometimes I would see things in this mode that I have never experienced before, which looking back is very unusual but I didn't know that at the time. That night I finally realized what was really happening. Dinner and the rest of the evening went normally. As expected Mom and Dad wanted to know how it all went. With much editing I ran down my day. I told them my schedule. They were surprised that I had gotten into Psychology, which reminded me that I had not told Mark about it either. I explained that I had met Mr. Shelby and shook his hand and he was impressed with my attitude and opened up a slot for me. My dad was thrilled. "I keep telling you, son. A good handshake is the basis for a strong first impression. You will be surprised how many doors you can open that way." I had already decided that he didn't need to know about the other doors it seemed to have opened already. I still got a flush just remembering the feel of Miss Swann's hands. Coach Jenkins was different but nothing like Susan's. The rest of the evening was pretty ordinary. I grabbed a shower and was in bed by 9:30. Lying in bed trying to relax, the high points of my day sped past in rapid succession, including the touch of Susan's hands and the dark points poking up through Shannon's very wet T-shirt. Next thing I knew I was in 'invisible watcher' mode back in Mark's garage seeing myself staring at Shannon's breasts. But it wasn't the same. Mark wasn't there. I was again standing there with my 'deer in the headlights' slack-jawed stare when the door opened just like before. But instead of Karen sending Mark to the store she announced that she was going. She then got into her car and backed out. She must have hit her garage door opener as she pulled away because suddenly the door was dropping down and the garage was getting darker. Soon, the only illumination was from the window on the side of the garage. "So, Jimmy, did you like what you saw?" Shannon said, looking me in the eye. "Uh, I didn't see anything," I stammered. "Well then, maybe you should look again." Then she dropped the towel. I watched as my eyes bugged out. "So what do you think now?" she asked with a smile. I was speechless, both of me. This had not happened. Then things really took a left turn from reality. Shannon reached down, grabbed the bottom of her shirt, peeled it up over her head and dropped it onto the floor next to the towel. If I was speechless before I was absolutely dumbstruck now. "Do you like them, Jimmy?" she asked as she ran her hands up over her stomach and cupped her breasts. She squeezed the nipples between her fingers and shuddered slightly. "Oh Jimmy, they're cold, could you help me get them warmed up?" She took both of my hands and placed them on her breasts. I could feel the hard nipples pressing into my palms. And they were cold. How could I feel them? I'd never felt a breast in my life. "Rub them, Jimmy! Like this." And she proceeded to move my hands as if they were her own. Her eyes closed and a small moan of pleasure escaped her lips. "Oh yes, Jimmy like that." She opened her eyes and looked at me. Moving her right hand she lifted my chin so that I was staring into her eyes. "You've never done this before have you? Touched a girl? Oh Jimmy, I'm so glad I'm your first." Then she moved in closer and kissed me. The instant her lips touched mine the scene spun and suddenly I was looking at her through my own eyes. The view had changed. I had gone from 'invisible observer' to first person. I lost my balance for just a second but quickly recovered. What the hell is going on? How can I be dreaming about kissing a half naked Shannon in her garage? If this was fantasy then where did the basis come from? I'd never fantasized about Shannon before. I had always treated her more as a second sister. And now here I was kissing her. I had no clue what was going on or what to do with it. And the hits just kept on coming. Without warning I felt her start to press her tongue against my closed lips. Okay, this was out of the realm of possibility. French Kissing! No way had I ever had a girl's tongue in my mouth! But cool! I went with it. At first I saw a startled look in her eyes, like something had happened that she wasn't expecting. But then she just sort of sighed and closed her eyes. So I closed mine and we just sort of melted into the kiss. Soon our tongues were just sort of dancing and playing. I ran my tongue over her teeth behind her upper lip. She moaned and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me closer. I moved my hands off of her breasts and ran them up and down her back. I could feel the delicate play of her muscles as she shifted to maintain balance in the new position. Meanwhile she seemed to be trying to extract my tonsils. I could feel a raging hard-on growing in my shorts. Pulling back, I shifted my left hand to her right breast and stroked it gently, squeezing the nipple and pulling out slightly. Shannon sucked in air through her teeth and moaned louder. She opened her eyes and stared into mine. I could read the hesitation, and then she seemed to come to a decision of some kind. It didn't take long to figure out what it was as she took a single deep breath and then gently pulled my head down and pressed her breast to my lips. I was lost. No clue what to do. Maybe it was race memory, or early childhood response; I have no idea where it came from, but I sucked her nipple gently into my mouth and ran my tongue around and around, then back and forth over the hard tip. Shannon suddenly gasped and a tremor seemed to run through her body. "Oh God, Jimmy! Harder, suck harder." What can I say? I sucked harder. This was great! Better than my wildest dreams. But my back and neck were starting to ache from the awkward position. I broke away for just a second. Shannon let out sort of a frustrated whine then realized what I was doing. I backed up, gently pulling her with me until I was leaning against the washer. I kissed her once more then spread my legs and 'crabbed' them out as I slid down the front of the machine, pulling her back into my body as I went. When my lips were once again at the right height I took her other nipple into my mouth and began repeating the treatment I had given the first one. Once again there was the sharp, gasping, intake of air, but no tremor. On a whim I brought my hand back around and started to gently stroke and squeeze the abandoned breast. You know, so it wouldn't feel neglected or lonely. Immediately her breathing sped up and she lifted her hand and placed it over mine. I felt her head go back as she guided my fingers, silently showing me exactly what she wanted. After a few seconds she moved my fingers out to pull at just her nipple. She began to squeeze gently, rhythmically, matching the suction and the action of my tongue on her other side. Her body started to rock slightly back and forth as she worked the tip with my fingers. This caused her other breast to move a little in and out of my mouth as well. As she rocked back she would pinch a little harder on the nipple so that it pulled out slightly. This was causing her breathing to increase as well. I began to match the action with my lips, sucking harder as she tried to rock back. She moaned and moved her hands up behind my head, leaving me to continue on my own. Then suddenly she ground herself against my mouth and moaned loudly a few times and then gasped hard as a minor earthquake seemed to rack her body. Then suddenly everything was gone. I was awake in my bed staring at the ridges and shadows of the textured ceiling. The only evidence that remained of the dream was the hard throbbing of my cock as it strained against the covers, tenting them up over my body. My own breathing was just as ragged as hers had been and I realized that this had been true in the dream as well. What the hell had just happened? That couldn't have been my dream. What reading I had done on the subject indicated that dreams had to have some basis in reality. You couldn't do something in a dream that you hadn't done or at least experienced, at least peripherally, in reality. Flying? No problem; I mean, who hasn't seen it on cartoons or in a comic book? You could drive a car in a dream even if you had never driven one in real life because you had seen a car driven. You had been in a car being driven and your mind could recreate the feelings of motion associated with it, but you couldn't rebuild the engine or even change a windshield wiper if you didn't actually know how to do it. So how could I do the things I had just done? Feel the things that seemed so real in the dream? It's not that I led a sheltered life, but I had never seen a naked breast in my life. Yeah, I know. I saw my mothers as a nursing baby, but that didn't wash. Mom's chest was a lot bigger than Shannon's. You could tell the shape was completely different. They were larger, rounder, fuller, and now my mind filled in the blanks from random memories over my lifetime, her nipples were bigger. I had seen them pressed against the inside of her shirt from time to time. You know, walking into an air conditioned room from outside in the summer, that sort of thing, and, even then, it was always with a bra on under her shirt. Dad didn't keep Playboy or any similar magazines around the house. I hadn't even seen pictures of a naked breast. Much less a 'matched pair' like Shannon's. And nothing could explain the sensations of touch and taste that had gone along with them. Wait a minute; taste? No, not taste. Now that I thought about it, I could feel it in my mouth, but there had been no associated taste. So that part had been consistent with reality, but what about the rest? The distraction of trying to get a grip on the whole thing was enough to allow my painful erection to begin to subside. I got up and trudged off to the bathroom to relieve the remaining pressure and as I was crawling back into bed it hit me. That wasn't my dream! It couldn't have been. The sensations and experiences didn't fit in any reality based scenario. So that had to mean... <> In one of those rare flashes of human insight the pieces slid into place. That was Shannon's dream! Somehow I got caught up in Shannon's fantasy. Did that make sense? Well, let's look at it. Mark had been there this afternoon, that's how we all got wet in the first place. But if Shannon was going to put the moves on her brother's best friend she certainly wouldn't want him there. So he wasn't. She had conveniently gotten Karen out of the way as well. Not too much of a stretch. I don't think Karen would have hesitated to leave us home alone while she ran to the store in real life. How long had it taken? Didn't matter, dream-time was subjective. Shannon could leave her at the store for as long as she wanted regardless of how long the trip took in reality. But I was there. How could I control my actions in someone else's dream? Think about it. I hadn't at first. That was the first clue. I was just an observer at first. I hadn't taken control until she kissed me. That was why she had looked startled! She lost control of me. Up until that point it had been her fantasy. One she had probably had before. Probably more than once as she refined the details and got bolder as the fantasy developed. Obviously not that exact fantasy but the basic plot line had probably been refining itself. The garage scene was just the most recent. How had she known? She hadn't known, but she had noticed a difference! Because the kiss was different? That had to be it. Up until then she had just imagined how I would kiss her and it would have always been the same because she made it up. But when I took over, it was different. It was my kiss. So why go on when she lost control? She didn't go on. We went on. I went on. She guided me through what she wanted. I got the new sensations from her memory? Did that make sense? Well, yeah it did. Shannon would know how it felt to have her breasts touched. She had done it before. Could she imagine how it would feel to have someone suck on them as well? Maybe, keep that for later. But no way could she imagine how it would taste! It fit! She could imagine all the rest. Holy Shit! ------- Chapter 4: Lot's of Questions Well, sleeping was out of the question. So I got up and sat at my desk and started making notes. Was this the first time? No, definitely not. There was the episode with the fire that I wanted to ask Mr. Shelby about. That was the one that stood out the most. Were there others? As soon as I asked myself, I flashed back to the damsel in distress and having tea with the world's sweetest dragon. It was like a cascade from there. I had been in and out of Allison's dreams for years. Why Allison? Proximity? If so, then why not my mom and dad? Okay, simple really, I wasn't allowed in their room if the door was closed. And it was pretty obvious why when I thought back to the fire and what Mom wasn't wearing when I had burst in and gotten them up. Oh, I guess I had seen Mom's breasts before. I mean that lacy thing she had been almost wearing certainly didn't hide anything. But they still hadn't looked anything like Shannon's so the theory still held. She had grabbed her robe on the way out and then changed in the garage when she went back for Dad's truck. Anything else? What about Allison's nightmare when I was at Mark's 'camping'? An isolated event, but still it would explain a lot. After all, I'd had the same dream about waking her up that she had. This was too weird. How was I going to figure all of this stuff out? I certainly didn't want to tell Mr. Shelby that I had ravished my best friend's sister. Actually I guess it was the other way around but still. So not bringing that one up. I must have dozed off because suddenly my neck was stiff and when I looked at the clock it was 5:40. Oh well, I was getting up in another twenty minutes anyway. I pulled on shorts, a shirt and my running shoes and headed off to the garage for my morning wake up routine. I glanced in Allison's room as I went passed, but she was still asleep. I blew her a kiss and then ducked into the kitchen for a bottle of water and to start coffee for Mom and Dad. A quick round of stretching followed by fifty jumping jacks got the blood pumping. I hit the garage door opener and headed out. I had been running in the mornings since sixth grade and had worked up a few different routes around the neighborhood to vary the scenery and the distance. I decide since I was up early I would take the Saturday run even though it was only Wednesday. You know, school starts after Labor Day; Monday was a Holiday, Tuesday was registration and a quickie in the garage with your best friend's sister. I had to laugh at myself for that one. <> twenty-five minutes later I had covered three and a half miles and was just coming back into the garage when the inside door opened. It was my dad coming out for his run. We had tried running together for a while but our paces aren't compatible so while we generally start together we rarely go the same route. "Good morning, James, up early?" "Yeah" I said between gasping for air and sipping from my water bottle. "I woke up about twenty minutes early so I decide to start early rather than risk waking up the whole house." "Ahh" he said, "genius runs in the family. You can thank me in your next life. Well, see you in a few minutes. Don't use all the hot water. And don't wake up your sister. She doesn't have school until next week." I finished my water on the way to the bathroom, stripped off my soggy clothes and hit the shower. I was out and drying my hair when there was a knock on the door. I thought it was my dad so I just opened the door. Oops! There I was, wearing nothing but a smile and holding a blow dryer to my head in front of my thirteen-year-old sister Allison. At least she had the good grace not to point and laugh as I tried to slam the door. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself and tried to look as natural and nonchalant as possible. You could see she was trying really hard not to say something. What finally came out around the smile was, "Good morning, Jimmy. I'm sorry to interrupt but I really have to go. Do you mind?" I just calmly walked out and let her go in. Just about that time my mother came down the hall. "Good morning, James. Do I want to ask what just happened?" The look on my face must have said it all. "No, probably not. Breakfast in twenty minutes! Try to come up with something appropriate to wear, your sister may decide to join you." I stuck my tongue out as she went by. The day was a bit of a blur. English, History, snack break (now there's a concept that I could get behind) Algebra, PE, Lunch, Spanish, and then at last, Psychology. Social Studies was the last class but Pysch was what I was waiting for. It was all the way across campus from my Spanish class so I was one of the last to arrive. I walked straight up to Mr. Shelby who was sitting on the edge of his desk waiting for everyone to arrive. "Good afternoon, Mr. Shelby." I said, sticking out my hand. "Ah, good afternoon, Mr. Matthews," he replied, shaking my hand. He must have been waiting for it. From somewhere in the back you heard, "Suck up." "Ah-ha!" He whirled on the class. "Take a seat at my desk for a second, Mr. Matthews, I'm going to use you for a stage prop for a second. Now then, who said that? Come now be bold. Don't make me guess; you'll regret it. No volunteers? Okay, here's the deal. If I guess correctly who it was, you, and that's the whole class, except Mr. Matthews, who is an innocent bystander in this, get extra homework. If I'm wrong, you get no homework today and tomorrow's class will be at the snack bar over milkshakes, my treat. Do we have a deal?" There was a resounding chorus of "Right On!" "Cool" "Deal!" "Milkshakes tomorrow!" "Okay then, here we go. Let's see; you there, second row from the left, all the way back, what is your name?" His eyes got big and he sat up a little straighter. "Steve McGuiness." "Mr. McGuiness, what makes you think that Mr. Matthews was 'sucking up' to me when he came in and introduced himself to me?" "What? It wasn't me! Really it wasn't" "Are you sure about that, Mr. McGuiness? Would you like to go double or nothing on tonight's homework, for the whole class?" There were a couple of what I was sure were growls and then someone said, "Busted!" McGuiness just smiled and shook his head. "Okay, it was me, but I didn't mean anything by it." "No offense taken, Mr. McGuiness. Would you like to know how I knew it was you? Out of all these fine young citizens why you were singled out as the culprit? What do you think? Racial profiling perhaps?" Everyone laughed at that one. There were four black students, one Asian and two Hispanics. McGuiness was one of the other twenty-three white students. "Actually it was quite simple to tell who it was. I knew the general area that the voice came from and the voice was male. If you look closely, Mr. McGuiness, the students immediately surrounding you are all members of that elite group of superior homosapiens known as 'Females.' Besides, when I was shaking Mr. Matthews hand I was looking at that mirror up there in the corner which you no doubt failed to observe, and I saw your lips move and you then dropped your head. A characteristic of someone trying hard to not get caught being a smart-ass on the first day of school." Again everyone laughed. "Welcome everyone to Beginning Psychology. Who can tell me how many of the topics we have just covered are related to psychology? Quickly; row one, number three, state your name and give your answer." "David Lewis. Behavioral analysis?" "Oooh, big words, very impressive." Laughs all around. "Correct! Row two, in front, your name and answer." "Marsha Ostren. Observation?" "Very good, Miss Ostren. Changing the rules; no names, just answers, I will pass around an attendance sheet later, just check next to your name. Row four, second seat, your answer?" "Divide and conquer." "Excellent! Row five, all the way back?" "Peer Pressure." "Also correct, one more. So far everyone seems to be overlooking the obvious. Third row, dead center, don't look so confused, I'm kidding, there are six seats in the row and therefore no center, no need to count. Number three?" "There's more?" Everyone chuckled. "What's this? Laughter? So far everyone has missed the most obvious answer." He stepped to the board and raised a panel on the chalkboard. Behind it were the words 'First Impressions.' "Now then, let's set some basic ground rules. As far as I am concerned there are no children in this classroom. If you do not act like one, I will not treat you like one. If you act like one I will ask you to find another place to hang out for this period. With that in mind, please allow me to introduce my lab-rat for the day, (chuckles) Mr. Edward Matthews. Mr. Matthews is the only freshman in this class and he was asked to join this class, specifically by me, yesterday after registrations were filled. And no, he was not at the top of the waiting list. No, the reason Mr. Matthews was asked to join this class is specifically because of his first impression. As I said the class was full, the list was long but rather than slink back to wherever despondent freshman go to wallow in their miserable existences, (outright laughter) he sought me out, shook my hand, introduced himself and asked if could have a moment of my time. My first thought was to look for Alan Fundt and the crew from Candid Camera. They not being in immediate evidence, I entered into a short conversation with Mr. Matthews in which he impressed me enough that I decided that the rest of you would be seriously cheated if you missed out on his presence." "In fact, you have Mr. Matthews to thank for your homework tonight. (Boos all around.) None of that now, and just so you will know, yours is the only class working on this particular project. Your homework is to meet three people. I know that sounds difficult, but considering there are upwards of a hundred thousand people within an hour's driving of this school it shouldn't be that difficult. Mr. Matthews, if you would start handing out that stack of cards on my desk. As I said each of you is to meet three people. Strangers! New people! Meeting your significant other to swap germs does not count. You are to introduce yourself, shake their hands, and ask them to evaluate both the handshake and the introduction. The cards are printed for them to fill in their names, addresses, phone numbers and to grade you on both the handshake and the introduction. We seem to be pretty evenly split. Would you like to make it boys against the girls? Or maybe smaller teams? Good, boys against the girls it is. Come on people, you have to be quick in here if you are going to keep up. One point for each evaluation, one more each for name, address, and phone number. Cards must be written in ink, so no erasing." "So much for homework Grab the textbook that is duct-taped to the bottom of your desk. That's a joke, Mr. Lewis. We only use duct tape on students who get caught trying to be smart-asses on the first day of school. (Everyone laughed and several glanced at McGuinness.) The books are in the cabinet in the back. Everybody please take one. Write your name in it, doodle on the cover, draw a picture of your favorite horse or cartoon character. Whatever method you use to mark your territory and establish your identity. They are yours to keep. Just don't let me catch you reading them in class. Reading is what you do other places. Here we communicate. Look it up if you are not sure of the meaning. Okay, you people are killing me. I'm using up my best material and you don't get it. You're depressing me. Leave. Dismissed. Go ruin someone else's life. Mr. Matthews, stick around for a few minutes if you don't mind." I had planned to try to catch him after class and see if we could talk during break or lunch the next day but he made it seem like his idea, which took the pressure off of me to not seem like I was sucking up to the teacher. When everyone was gone he leaned on his podium and asked, "So Jimmy, what did you think of your first day?" "Well, Mr. Shelby." He whipped around and looked at the door. "Whoa, you scared me there for a second. I thought my ex-wife had snuck in on me. We're alone, Jimmy. It's Bob." "Sorry. Well, Bob, you definitely have a different approach to teaching." "Didn't embarrass you to be my 'lab-rat'?" "Not really, it was obviously all in good fun. I didn't have to try too hard to not take it personally. One question though. I'm not going to be sitting at your desk all semester am I?" "Ha! Ha! I knew there was a reason I wanted you in my class. No indeed. You will not be sitting at my desk. Tomorrow you may have the pick of any young lady in the room and sit on her lap." I couldn't help it. And he of course noticed. "Whoa! Jimmy! You gotta work on that blush. You're going to burst something." Once he stopped laughing he continued, "Actually I expect a few people to drop out rather quickly, especially after tomorrow. We always have a few that buy into the idea that this is a gravy class for seniors to get an easy 'A.' The second day I show them what happens when I catch them cheating. There will be at least two, but probably not more than four. The majority will be boys, and they will be publicly ridiculed when it happens. I tell you this because I have no doubt that you would not have cheated in the first place." He glanced at the clock. "Look, the bell is about to ring so you should think about heading off to Social Studies. Don't look so shocked, I'm not spying on you, they only offer it sixth and seventh periods and you were here for sixth. If you are not busy meet me over under the patio outside the teachers lounge when you are done with lunch tomorrow and we can talk about dreams. Don't worry about it if you get busy with something. You never know when a pretty girl may drag you into a dark corner and have her way with you around here, so I will understand if you don't show. Dude, you have got to work on that blush. See you tomorrow. Now get out of here." I couldn't help but laugh. "See you tomorrow Bob." Social Studies was an exercise in advanced boredom and it was all I could do to stay awake until the bell. I caught the bus and headed for home. ------- Chapter 5: Confessions and Revelations Mom and Dad were of course, still at work. Allison was sunbathing out back but came in when she heard me inside. After yesterday's adventures with Shannon I couldn't help but notice that my little sister had grown up quite a bit while I wasn't looking too. Wearing a two-piece bathing suit held together with string made it easy to notice. It was her usual sun worshipping attire so I should have noticed sooner. I guess the last twenty-four hours had really opened my eyes. When she got it the little triangles that were the bottoms actually met on the sides. Now they pretty much only covered the really interesting parts. While the same was not entirely true for the top, there was definite evidence that they were trying to hide something. She must have caught me looking because she smiled and said, "Boys. Trying to get even for this morning? Just be glad I didn't have my camera." I think she was kidding. The vision of hundreds of little prints of me in my birthday suit making the rounds of the local bubble gum society was not a pretty picture. "Just kidding, thanks for noticing though. See anything you like?" I was speechless. I had a déjà vu flashback to last night's dream. No, couldn't be. I must have heard it wrong. "Jimmy, we need to talk," she said, suddenly more serious. "Do you want to just stand here in the hallway or do you want to sit down somewhere. I started to head back outside, but she stopped me. "I think we need to stay inside for this. I don't think it's anything we want to take the chance of anyone over-hearing." Okay, now I was totally confused. It must have shown because she took my hand and said, "How about your room? I'll take the chair and you can sit on your bed." Once we were settled she seemed a little less sure of herself. "Gosh, this is harder than I thought. Okay, let's start simple. You had a dream last night didn't you?" Could she know? Hoping to cover my shock I jumped right in, "Of course I had a dream. I have dreams every night, pretty much everyone does." She gave that her best 'boys are so stupid' look. "You know what I mean. A dream. Not a make believe dream like most people have, a 'Jimmy dream.' You may as well admit it because I already talked to Shannon and she told me all about it. Now, before you freak out, she doesn't have any idea what really happened. But she told me about the water fight with you and Mark yesterday and how you 'finally' noticed that she's not a little kid anymore. About time too, by the way. Then she told me about this dream she had last night. She said it started out almost the same, but without Mark, and then her mother left to go to the store, so then it was just the two of you soaking wet in the garage. Does any of this sound familiar?" I didn't have a clue what to say. So I did the typical guy thing, "She told you all this? And you believed her?" She cut me off, "Don't play games with me, Jimmy." I could tell she was getting angry. "I'm not a little kid and this is serious. She told me what happened. She told me she kissed you just like in other dreams but that this time it changed when she did. She said it was different, how at first it surprised her but she was having too much fun. She just figured she had had this fantasy so many times that it was just getting better. Jimmy, she has wanted to kiss you and play 'boy-girl' games with you for so long that I think you could have grown a third eye and she wouldn't have cared." She reached out and took my hand, "Oh Jimmy, I'm so proud of you for being sweet with her. For not being a typical boy and trying to push to far, for being gentle and caring with her and only going as far as she wanted you to. She said you were a better kisser than she ever imagined, and that your hands were soft but that she could tell it was all new to you. But that you were a quick learner and touched her just the way she wanted you to. She couldn't believe you got her off just by sucking on her boobs. It was very sexy to listen to her tell it. You really impressed her, but I have to warn you. She will probably be turning the charm way up now. As far as she knows it was all just a runaway fantasy. She doesn't know it was real and that you were really there. That's why we have to talk about this. Now that she's let the fantasy run that far she is going to be seriously after the real thing. So you have to be really careful." I was in shock. For one thing, have you ever tried to keep up with an excited seventh grader speed-talking? As if that wasn't hard enough, how could Allison know about any of this? I just started figuring it out myself. I fell back on rule one, 'when in doubt, stall for time.' "What are you talking about? I wasn't anywhere last night but in bed, in my bed, alone. I couldn't have been with Shannon. You said it yourself, she was dreaming. I mean I'm flattered. I had no idea that she had a crush on me. Actually I'm dead, if Mark finds out." "Oh come off it, Jimmy." She was moving from irritated to 'openly hostile' now. "You've been popping in and out of my dreams for years. We both know it. Surely you must have figured it out before now? I mean come on, tea with a pink dragon? Like that was your idea? Sure, you were there, but it was my dream." So much for denial. Now what? When all else fails, try the truth, "Okay. Actually I just figured it out last night. I mean the clues were there but I never really put it together until last night. All that stuff with Shannon just couldn't happen. There was no factual basis. No experience to base it on. I mean, you know, I'm sure she told you, she could tell that she was the first girl I had ever been 'with.' There were too many things that just didn't fit my pattern, and then there were some inconsistencies. Things that only made sense because they didn't make sense, things that were missing. Like when I realize that I could feel her breast but not taste it. Oh, sorry. You probably didn't need to hear that." "Oh no, that's okay. I heard it all before from Shannon. Not the taste part but all the rest. I still get tingly thinking about it. You really couldn't taste anything?" This was not what I expected to be hearing from, or more to the point, talking about with my kid sister. Okay maybe she wasn't really a 'kid' anymore, but still. I pushed on anyway, "Yeah, I think it's because I had no actually experience to base a taste on. I mean, I hadn't even fantasized about it. Eventually I figured out that it had to be her dream and that somehow I was in it, and that made me wonder if anything like that had happened before. Well, not exactly like that but you know what I mean. Then I flashed on the same one you remember, tea with the dragon, and suddenly I knew. I knew that somehow I had been sharing your dreams. Does this mean you do it too?" "No. Actually I don't think I can. I don't think I have ever been 'in' one of your dreams, but I always know when it's really you in one of mine. Not just the dream you, but the real you in the dream. I know you've been doing some reading on the subject. Have you found anything to suggest what might be going on?" "No, nothing. I haven't found anything even remotely like this. That's why I wanted to get into Psychology, to see if I could learn more. Maybe see if I could find someone I could talk to about it." "Wrong. Don't do it. Jimmy, if you need to talk, talk to me, but not to anyone else unless you are really, really sure about them. You've seen those shows and how people react to anyone that even hints at any kind of 'psychic' abilities, and that's just the surface stuff. If anyone knew that you could just pop into their dreams, discover their deepest darkest secrets. They would lock you up in some psychiatric 'research' center and you'd never see anyone again. Don't Jimmy. Maybe I'm exaggerating but maybe just a few of those stories are true or there wouldn't be so many of them. If you need to talk to someone, talk to me. Promise me!" "Okay! Gosh sis, chill. Like I'm going to advertise something like this, I don't even want Mark to find out. You don't think she would tell him do you?" She lost it, "Ah-hahahaha, Ah-hahahahaha. Tell Mark! Believe me, no chance! For one thing, you're right, Mark would freak. He's not ready for the idea of boys lusting after his baby sister, least of all his best friend doing it. No, Mark won't find out from Shannon. So unless you do something really stupid, your secret is safe. Besides, it's her that has had the crush on you, not the other way around. The little brat just got lucky and got to you first, and we need to start to keep better track of what is going on with your dreams. I'm guessing this is the first time that you know of that you've been with someone besides just the two of us?" "Yeah, I couldn't think of any other times. There are a couple of other things that happened that you may not know about. Like the fire. Do you know about the fire?" "What about it? Okay, that's a no. You can tell me about it later. We're going to have to work on all of this later. But it's like somehow you have jumped to a new level and the rules have changed. Only we don't know what they are." "And what did you mean, she 'got to me first'?" "I'll explain later. It's getting late and the 'rents will be home any time now. So I have to shower off the rest of this oil and change before mom catches me on the furniture." She headed for the door, but called back over her shoulder, "Pop in later tonight and we'll 'talk' some more." She gave me wink over her shoulder and slowly walked out the door. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed like there was a lot more movement in her walk than usual. Meanwhile, all I could think was, huh? What the heck was all that about? What did she mean Shannon 'got to me first?' Was there someone else stalking me? This was just too much. She was right about one thing though. I was going to have to be very careful who I talked to and how much I told them. I suddenly felt like I was the little brother. She had obviously been giving this a lot more thought than I had. Could this really be dangerous? I mean, nothing bad had ever happened before. Yeah, but you never left the house before either. If this really was what was happening, then it was like she said, the rules had most certainly changed and we didn't get a copy. Dinner was a re-run of the night before. How was school? Blah, blah, bl-bl-blah-blah. After dinner I kept watching for a chance to talk to Allison again. But before I knew it, it was time for bed. Crap, how were we going to talk about the situation with Shannon and the sudden changes if we couldn't... DUH! Hello. 'Pop' in, and talk to me. Jimmy some times you are so dense. But now I was nervous. Note to self, talk to Bob about some relaxation tapes. I needed something boring and innocuous. I closed my eyes and started replaying Social Studies in my head. Oh yeah! That did the trick. I drifted randomly for a while, just sort of re-living the events of the last twenty four hours. Then somehow I knew it was time. I concentrated on talking to Allison. The scene went blank and suddenly we were sitting in a tent with a flashlight as our only source of light. I was in running shorts and a tank top, Allison had on her standard long tee and panties. We're not really into pajamas. "This was the best you could come up with?" Allison just looked at me with her 'you are so lame' expression. "What, you were expecting company? Spies maybe? Didn't occur to you that if someone wanted to listen all they have to do is stand outside in the dark?" She shook her head. "Never mind, I'll do it." The scene shifted and we were sitting on a blanket, under a tree, by a stream, in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere on an absolutely perfect day. There was a picnic basket off to one side and when I turned I saw the two horses we had apparently ridden here on cropping grass not far away. "Wow! You're good at this!" I said. And I meant it too. "Did you just whip this up or have you been here before? She turned a really pretty shade of pink and said in a small voice, "I made it a while back. I've been waiting for the chance to bring you here. Sorry it had to be like this. I come here to relax. It started as a daydream. Some place to think about when I was stressed and needed to go to sleep. Don't you have a place like this? You know, a place you think about to relax? "Not really. I never really thought about it. I don't have that much stress in my life. Until tonight I never even thought about it. Then I tried to get to sleep and was too wound up and decided I better do some work on relaxation exercises. You say you've been doing this for a while?" "Yes. Where do you think all those fantasy castles we used to play in came from? I wonder. Do you think that because you have spent so much time playing in my fantasies that you never developed your own? Do you consider yourself, oh, imaginative?" "Well, no, not particularly. Now that I think of it most of my dreams have been in settings that I have seen before. Like television, movies, or maybe comic book stuff. I think most of the others must have been yours. You could be onto something there." "Well, it's something to think about. And it may be important later, but we have more important problems right now. So where do you want to start?" "I'm not really sure where to start. There is just so much going on." "Jimmy, how did you make it all the way to high school? It's okay, I made a list." She reached into the picnic basket and pulled out one of those new computers that works like a notepad. You know the ones you can write on. "Give me just a minute; I have to make a note to work on your organizational skills. Probably should spend some time on set design and landscaping as well." She wrote some stuff on the screen before continuing. "Okay, here's what I have so far. We have to try to figure out what triggered the new changes. That's a big one. I think to do that we have to catch up on what we already know. Then we need to figure out who we can talk to and just what we can talk about without putting ourselves, yourself in particular, at risk. Let's start with what we already know. You mentioned the fire?" "That was one point that stuck in my head. It was different. Looking back, it was really different. I remember hearing you coughing and I got up to check on you. But I don't remember actually going to your room. I was just suddenly there, looking at you and wondering what was making you cough. I couldn't smell the smoke; it wasn't bothering me at all. But then I saw it and ran to Mom's room. But when I tried to open the door, my hand went right through it. It was like I was a ghost or something. I guess seeing my hand go through the door made me realize that it was a dream. But it wasn't really a dream. I mean, the scene jump to your room fit, and I've done ghost stuff in dreams before, but when I 'woke up' I didn't even have to smell the smoke, I already knew the house was on fire and just jumped up and ran for Mom and Dad's room." Allison had been sitting quietly, playing with a flower stem and listening carefully, "You're right, that doesn't sound like normal dream stuff. I mean, even the part about coming to my room, while it may be normal for dreams, it doesn't follow the previous patterns. Before, you didn't have to 'hear' that something was wrong; you just came to my room. And you came physically. Mom kept finding you on the floor or asleep in the chair. That or you would just pop into my dream and it would be 'Rapunzel in the Tower' or whatever was playing at the time. By the way, I've been meaning to do this for a long time." She sat up and took my face in her hands, then kissed me very tenderly on the lips. Not like Shannon had but definitely not your normal brother-sister kiss either. When she pulled back and looked me the eye and said, "Thank you Jimmy, for watching over me." She kissed me again. "For playing with me." Again. "And for being my best friend." I was shocked. What do you say to that? I don't know what happened, but for a second I forgot she was my sister. I reached my hand behind her head and pulled her lips back to mine. I didn't go any farther than she had but I put everything I felt into that kiss. "I love you, Allison. I will always love you." A shorter kiss. "Thank you, for letting me come over and play." Another. "Thank you for being my best friend." Another. "For looking out for me and keeping me from making some really big mistakes, and for caring enough to know me better than I sometimes know myself." <> I slipped my tongue out and caressed her lips; she parted them slowly and met me in the middle. Still not the same as Shannon but there was just a sense of warmth and caring and affection that flowed over us. I felt her arms come up around my neck and we sort of fell over onto the blanket. One small corner of my brain asked where the pillow came from and I broke the kiss with a giggle. "Damn you're good." "You have no idea," she said as she pulled me back down and attacked my mouth with her tongue. I was really starting to heat up when the reality of what I was doing came rushing back in. "Allison?" I said, then kissed her on the cheek and hugged her close, "Is this a good idea? You're my sister and I love you like air, but I'm not sure this is a good idea." I felt her breath against my ear as she whispered, "I am. I told you I've wanted to bring you here for a long time." She gently bit my earlobe before going on, "I meant it. And this is exactly what I wanted to do with you when I got you here." She pulled back and smiled. "Except for worrying about things getting out of hand and whether or not some guys in black are going to try and steal you away forever." She returned to kissing me but something was different. "Oh." She sighed. "That pretty much blew the whole mood. I guess we should get back to work." She was right. The feeling was gone. She picked up the portable again from where she had set it down. "So the fire triggered something new. Have you ever done anything like that again since?" Right back to business like nothing had happened. "No. I went through everything I could remember and all the stuff that I suddenly recognized and there has never been anything like that again. After the fire everything pretty much went back to the way it had been." She made a couple of notes on the screen. "Okay. Distance doesn't seem to be a big factor either. Not that we have had a lot of practice with it. Let me make a note of that. We need to watch for opportunities to study the impact of distance. So far you have gone from our house to Shannon's and also, from there back here the night I had my nightmare and you were 'camping' with Mark. We'll have to wait and see if being further apart," she looked up at me, "not that I want to ever be far away from you, makes any difference." She looked back down at the pad, "Now, we know what brought you back to me. You have always been able to feel when I was having a bad night." She gave me a peck on the cheek. It was getting harder to remember that this was my sister. It was like interviewing with a doctor or scientist. She was really going about this in a very thoughtful and professional manner. "So the question is what caused you to, 'bridge', I guess that is as good a word as any for now, over to Shannon's last night. I don't think she was exactly having a nightmare and even if she had been, it had never made a difference before. Did anything else happen yesterday?" "Just registration at school; I got my classes, I talked to Mr. Shelby and Miss Swann." I must have blushed. She gave me a knowing look. "Obviously there is more to that story than you told Mom and Dad. Start at the beginning. Tell me everything that happened, everything. You've probably figured out by now that you are not going to shock me. Now give "Okay, there was more. I told you about Miss Swann pointing out Mr. Shelby to me. What I didn't tell you is that she is a fox! Easily one of the most beautiful women I have ever met. Except you of course." She rolled her eyes and mimed sticking her finger down her throat. "Anyway, she is really hot, the guys were drooling all over themselves. Just mention her name in front of Mark and watch what happens. Anyway, after I talked to Mr. Shelby and we went back over to his table he introduced me to her. It was really different shaking her hand. It was soft and delicate and..." "Yeah, yeah, get on with it," she interrupted. "As I was saying! It was weird when our hands touched. Like grabbing a live wire, only it wasn't like a shock exactly. Suddenly my heart gave one of those cartoon lurches and the blood drained out of my face." "Hmm. And just where did all of that extra blood go I wonder?" she teased. I did my best to ignore her and continued, "Then my nickname came up and they started trading jokes and I thought my head would explode because it all came rushing back up again. Then, after we had all had a good laugh, Mr. Shelby decided I should call him Bob when we were alone and asked if he could call me Jimmy. I said okay and he turned to Miss Swann and asked her. Then she took both my hands in hers and looked me in the eye and asked me to call her Susan and said something about being honored to be my friend and call me Jimmy. And all that blood went racing back down my body again. I thought I was going to faint." "Schwing!" she teased. "It's not funny." I reached down to tickle her but missed. She moved further away. "Oh, I think it's sweet," she said. Then she started singing, "Jimmy's hot for teacher. Jimmy's hot for teacher. Jimmy's hot for eeeek!!" She squealed as I lunged at her again. "Okay! Let me make some notes." She picked up the 'Tablet, ' that's what they called it, a 'Tablet PC' and started writing. "Where did you get that anyway?" "Advertisement in a PC magazine I saw in the dentist's office last year. You want one?" She reached into the basket and pulled out another one and handed it to me. She really was good at this. And I obviously needed practice. "No thanks, I think you're doing just fine. Besides, we'd never make out my handwriting." I reached to put it back in the basket. I noticed that the basket was empty. I closed the lid and then opened it up again. Sure enough, it was empty again. Allison seemed to be ignoring me as she continued to write on the pad. Then I heard it, softly at first then quickly getting louder. "Jimmy and Susan, sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes Love, then comes Marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage!" She turned the screen around and showed me where she had drawn a big heart with 'Jimmy-n-Susan' inside. "Why you little..." I lunged but again she was too quick for me, dropping the PC, rolling off the blanket and jumping to her feet. I was after her in a second. She may be quick but running several miles every morning has its advantages. I don't think she was really trying that hard to 'get away' so it only took a few seconds and I had her. I grabbed her around the waist and scooped her up off of her feet. With Allison kicking and screaming all the way I headed for the stream. When she saw where I was headed she went into overdrive, but I held on tight. When I reached the edge I swung her up over my head and dropped her right in the middle of a huge feather pillow that I had conjured up at the last second. Prepared as she was for the water, she was already half way through a long screaming, "Nooooooo!" when she sank into the soft fluffy surface. The pillow was covered in long pink fake fur that felt like spun silk on the skin. "Oh you rat!" she said as I fell on top of her, "I thought you were really going to drown me for a second." "Now why would I do that? Then you would be all wet when I did this!" I proceeded to attack her ribs with both hands. She shrieked and tried to get away, but I was too strong for her. "Stop! Stop! Oh, Jimmy, please! I can't take anymore!" she final gasped out in between ragged breaths. "Promise?" I demanded, stopping momentarily but keeping my hands firmly on her ribs and stomach. "Yes, anything! Just stop you beast." "Beast!? I'll show you a beast." I pulled up the edge of her shirt and buried my face in her stomach, giving her a wet soggy raspberry before I began chewing at her belly button with my lips over my teeth, growling and slobbering like a rabid animal. She started screaming and squirming all over again. When her knees started getting too close to my head I threw my leg over hers to pin them down then slid my weight on top of her, running my hands quickly up her arms to capture her hands above her head. "You are a very bad girl! Now do you promise?" "Never!" she screamed as she tried to shake me off. I looked her in the eye. "Are you sure about that?" I asked, lowering my voice and looking her in the eye. I pulled her arms down and pinned them just out from her sides as I slid my body further down hers. I caught her shirt between my teeth and slid it up a little further, then gently kissed her just to one side of her belly button. I could hear the sharp intake of breath and feel the muscles ripple down her abdomen at the same time. A very interesting sensation. I gently kissed her again and then trailed my tongue across her abdomen, just below her belly button, to the other side, where I placed another soft kiss, this time licking the spot as I pulled away. I lifted up just enough to blow lightly on the spot and was rewarded by seeing all the soft downy little hairs jump to attention. I started placing small kisses in a line upward from her center point to just below her shirt. "Are you sure you won't behave yourself?" I asked again. "No," she breathed. "Never." The last word was a whisper. I moved up a little further, until my mouth was even with her breast. Then I gently reached down and took hold of one of her nipples through the fabric of her shirt. They had been stiff and 'tenting' the material for some time. My earlier reservations about her being my sister had melted away when she made it clear that she didn't think of us that way. Besides, it was still just a dream. "Uugghmm" was all I heard as she pressed herself up against my mouth. I opened wide and then raked my teeth slowly back across as much of the surface as I could reach until I had just the nipple trapped in a pocket of cloth, lightly held between my teeth. I looked up at another sharp intake of breath and saw her biting her lower lip. I slid back down and placed a few more kisses on her stomach. Then released her arms and placed my hands on her stomach, slowly moving them upward, pressing the material of her shirt along as they went. "Is this what you wanted to bring me here for?" "Oh yes!" She breathed, arching her back to free the material as it started to bind beneath her. Then she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and tore it off over her head, tossing it to one side. I slid my hands up to cup her small breasts. They were definitely smaller than Shannon's, half-oranges instead of half-grapefruits, and with a distinctly different shape, but no less beautiful. "I hope you're not disappointed," she said, looking up into my face. "I know they are not much after Shannon's." I looked into her eyes and started rubbing my palms on her protruding nipples. "Don't be silly," I said. "They're just perfect." I lowered my face to her chest and sucked her naked flesh into my mouth. I was once again disappointed to discover that while the texture was awesome, there was still no discernable taste. That did not seem to make a difference to her though. She put her right hand on the back of my neck and pulled me more firmly into her. "Oh God, Jimmy, Shannon wasn't kidding. I'm so glad I let her have you first. Oh, oh, ummmm." Her left hand moved to cover mine on her other breast. Unlike Shannon she did not attempt to guide me in any way. She just held my hand tightly in hers for a moment and sighed very contentedly. "You know what I heard?" she asked. I relinquished the tender morsel for a moment and kissed between the two swells. "What?" I asked. I moved my hand and started kissing my way closer to the unknown territory on the other side. "I heard," she said, running her fingers through my hair, "that boy's nipples are just as sensitive as girl's." "Really?" I breathed across her skin. "Want to find out?" she asked, tucking her chin down so she could look at me. "Maybe later," I said, licking across her nipple once, and looking up at her. "I'm a little busy right now." I bent quickly and sucked hard at her nipple while simultaneously pinching the other one. Her head went back, her eyes closed and she arched herself against me once more. Her breathing started to quicken. Opening my mouth as wide as possible I sucked in as much of her breast as I could reach, lashing my tongue across and around her nipple the whole time. At the same time I began kneading her right breast at the same time, I again raked my teeth together, taking great care this time, as there was no layer of cloth protecting it. I repeated this motion a couple of times from different angles, sucking and chewing the whole surface until she was again biting her lip. On the next pass I once again trapped her nipple between my teeth. I bit down just hard enough to not lose it and pulled back, stretching her nipple and breast outward, my left hand mimicking the movement on the other side. When the tremor I had been expecting arrived I quickly released her nipple and moved up to kiss her hard on the mouth. Her mouth flew open as she flung her arms around my neck and stabbed her tongue into my mouth, searching for mine. We kissed hard for a few moments then she surprised me by rolling us over quickly without losing contact or missing a single breath. Then she pinned my arms out to my side and said, "My turn." Back then it amazed me just how good she is at dream management. I had been wearing a T-shirt, my normal mode of dress. Suddenly I was in a dress shirt. The interesting part was that it was still tucked into my pants. The really interesting part was that it had western style snaps instead of buttons. Snaps she proceeded to start ripping open with her teeth as she gave little mock snarls and growls. I just laughed and tried not to move around too much. Eventually she was down to my belt line. As her hands moved down the panic must have shown in my eyes because suddenly she laughed. "Scared you, didn't I? Don't worry. I know neither of us is ready for that yet. Someday, probably soon, but not yet." She tugged the bottom of my shirt free and laid it open to the sides. Then she placed her hands on my stomach and slowly started stroking them upward in one continues sweep. I actually felt my nipples pop to attention. "Oooh, methinks he likes it. You have a really nice tummy, did you know that?" "So do you," I said. "Yeah, but yours is all rippley and hard and strong." Her hands started stroking across my pecks and nipples. Once she reached the nipples she altered the movement to the side rather than up. "And ticklish!" she said as she gave my ribs a quick squeeze. My reaction was what you would expect. Everything tensed up and my arms came in for protection. "Just teasing." And she was, she had given me just the one swift grip with both hands and then pulled them rapidly back down over my stomach to repeat the upward movement. Only this time she laid her chest down on me and followed her hands up, dragging her stiff nipples across my stomach as she went. When she reached the proper spot she pinched each of my nipples lightly, then bent and sucked on the right one, licking the tip with her tongue as she went. "No taste. Is that how it was for you too?" I nodded. "Same thing with Shannon?" I nodded again, "I'm thinking that many of the sensations are drawn from our collective experience. While I didn't have any experience with a girl's breast, it was easy to show me what she, or now you want. While you may never have had someone else stroking or sucking on them you have an expectation based on your experiences touching them yourself, which it was obvious that you both had some experience at, but I had never tasted a girl's breast. And of course you certainly can't reach, so there is no basis for the sensation. I hope the real thing is as good as the fantasy. I really enjoyed it. And I am enjoying you doing it to me, but whether a boy's nipples are as sensitive as a girl's or not, the impact isn't the same. So, as much fun as this is, I think maybe we should give it a rest for now and think about where we are headed and how far we want to go with it. The next step for any of this has to come in the real world and I don't know if any of us are quite ready for that just yet. What do you think?" She sighed and turned her face to the side. Laying her head on my chest, she slid her hands under my torso and hugged me close. "You're right, for a change. Kidding! About most of it anyway. I doubt boys play with their boobs, just not much there to work with. So much of pleasure is trial and error and finding what feels good and building the expectation. This has been a lot of fun though. I imagine this is what it must have been like for you with Shannon?" "You imagine wrong," I said, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her back. "With Shannon I was pretty much scared to death and flying on a wing and a prayer. With you I wasn't worried or scared at all. I was focused on just doing everything I could to make you happy and make sure you enjoyed it. Though not vastly experienced by any stretch, I'm guessing I did okay?" "Jimmy, you don't need to beg for compliments. You did just fine, but what about you? Isn't it frustrating to be that passionately involved and not get anything out of it for yourself?" "Actually I got quite a bit out of it. I got the extreme pleasure of making you extremely happy. As for the rest, I guess I have the advantage of not knowing what I'm missing." She pulled up and I let her go. "Really!? You mean you never... you know." "No. Never really felt any desire to. Well that's not really true. I mean sure, when something grabs you by the hormones and squeezes and all that blood rushes south you kind of naturally..." I shot up, pushing her up with me and grabbing her arms. "That's it! That's what the difference was." "The difference in what? My boobs and Shannon's, I mean I know hers are bigger..." she began. I cut her off, "What was that you said about not begging for compliments?" I gave her a quick hard kiss. "I told you. Yours are fine. They are more than fine. They are perfect. They fit your body just right. I like them a lot. What I meant was that's what triggered the change; the 'move to the next level' as you put it, was hormones, raging hormones. First the stuff with Susan at school, and then Shannon flashing me in the garage, no wonder I was keyed into her fantasy. I was acutely aware of her budding womanhood and then somehow picked up the heightened interest in me. Sort of a 'moth to the flame' thing, I was keyed to her so when she started to really focus on me, I got pulled to her." I stood up and started buttoning my shirt. "Get dressed, sis, I can't work with you distracting me like this. Here I'll help." I 'dreamed' up one of those lacy cover-ups you see in the Victoria Secret catalogs. She looked down at the lacy material and shook her head. "Pretty good, you're learning fast, but I don't see how this is going to help you concentrate." "You're right, but I think it looks great on you. How about this instead?" Poof, she was wearing a nun's habit. "No. Definitely not! Maybe you should just let me take care of my own wardrobe." Suddenly she was standing there in a white satin bra with matching panties that covered no more than her sun-suit had. All the blood in my body seemed to flow south all at once. She slipped her arms into the matching robe, smiled and said, "I'll have to remember that you like this one. So, what's it going to be? More work or do you want to call it a night, think about what we have so far and see if we can't get a fresh start tomorrow?" I stepped in front of her, untied the robe and slipped my hands inside. Her arms came up around my neck and I slipped mine around her back as our lips met in a soft kiss. Despite the sudden abundance of exposed flesh I felt no desire to push the limits any farther. "I think that is a great idea. Thank you again for letting me come over and play, and for knowing me better than I know myself. I love you, Allison Ann. I always have. I just never knew how much." She tucked her head under my chin and squeezed me to her. "I love you too, Jimmy, but I've known how much for a while now." She dropped her hands down to grab my butt through my pants. "And some day soon, I hope to show you just how much that really is, but not tonight. Go back to bed. And stay there, you can dream about me if you want, but stay on your side. I'm just going to walk around here for a while longer and enjoy the peace and quiet. It's amazing that we can do all this here and still actually be resting. And maybe I'll catch up our notes before I call it a night and wake up. See you in the morning, Prince Charming." "Goodnight, Princess." I didn't wake up, but I knew I was 'back' in my own bed as it were, at least in my own head. My dream self turned off a light and we knew nothing more until the alarm went off and it was time to start the new day ------- Chapter 6: The First Steps The morning passed quickly. I took a shorter run and spent some extra time stretching and doing calisthenics before the rest of the family got up. No one was up so I snuck into Allison's room. Kneeling by the bed, I leaned over and gently kissed her mouth. She moved a little, then I felt more than saw her eyes open. She started to react, then realized it was me. One hand came up to grip the back of my head and she pressed her tongue against my lips, seeking entrance. I opened my mouth to meet her half way. As my tongue touched hers I slid my hand up to knead at her left breast while we kissed. I rubbed it lightly through the material and pinched the nipple as it started to swell, all the while swirling my tongue around to explore the contours of her mouth. This was my first real kiss. And it was different from the one in my dreams. It only took a second to pin it down. The taste of her mouth was different. "Umm," she whispered, breaking the kiss. "Now that is the way to wake up in the morning. Good morning to you too. I'm guessing no one else is up yet?" "Congratulations, you got it first try. Even if someone gets up, you have an appointment with Dr. Walters today for your physical, so I can say I was just making sure you were up." "Oh I'm up. What about you, are you "up" this morning?" I hadn't been but I was getting there fast. "Tease," I whispered. Then I moved my hand off of her breast and tweaked her ribs. Her body jerked in the usual response, one arm coming in to protect the other flashing across her body to slap my hand away. "Okay, okay. I'll be good!" "You'd better be." I said, kissing her once more on the forehead. "Now how about you shake that cute little butt of yours out of bed?" I got up and headed off to the bathroom for my shower. I was about halfway there when she caught up with me. "Wait," she whispered, "I gotta go!" She was wearing her usual bed wear, a long t-shirt and panties. Just before she closed the bathroom door she flipped the back of her shirt up, flashing her panties at me and gave a little wiggle. I just rolled my eyes at her. She covered her mouth to stifle the giggle and shut the door. As I was standing patiently, my parent's door opened and my dad came out in his running clothes. "Top of the morning to you James. What's with the bathroom?" "Morning dad, I woke Allison up to remind her she had to be ready for her physical. I guess I should have waited because now I'll probably be late for school." "I heard that!" came the angry voice through the door. Dad just laughed and shook his head, "And on that happy note, I think I will make for higher ground. No sense both of us getting caught in the blast. See you in a bit. Tell your mother I took the long run this morning." "Sure, have a good run." As the garage door closed, the bathroom door opened and out came Allison. She had her nose up and was very astutely not looking at me as she swaggered past. I gave her a quick slap on the butt and bolted through the door to safety. "Why you!" But she was too late. "I'll get you for that!" I heard mom's door open, "You'll get who for what?" "Jimmy hit me! There I was just walking down the hall, minding my own business, and out of nowhere that evil boy assaulted my person! He actually touched me! And not in a polite manner at all! And I am going to seek redress for his effrontery." "Right, why is it I think there is more to the story than that?" "Mother, I'm shocked!" she said in her most insulted voice. "That you would doubt your own daughter in a matter such as this. I realize that he is your first born but to approve such barbaric behavior, why, I just can't believe it. It was an unprovoked and unwarranted attack I tell you. I would have fought back but it came so unexpectedly and there simply was not time." "I see. James Edward Matthews," she said, raising her voice. "How dare you assault your sister in such a fashion, especially when she was unprepared." "That's more like it," Allison said, suddenly sounding much more agreeable. "Next time," mom continued, "wait 'til she's ready. Then turn her over your knee and wail her good! Do I make myself clear?" "Yes ma'am!" I yelled through the door. It may have come out a little garbled as I was just finishing brushing my teeth. "Mother!" Allison whined. "Now get yourself dressed." Again she raised her voice. "Breakfast in twenty minutes, be there or go hungry!" "Sure thing mom. Dad said to tell you he was taking the long run this morning so he will be a little later than usual," I yelled as I turned on the shower. "Thank you dear. And good morning," came the reply. There may have been more but I was already getting into the shower and the sound of the running water drowned out any further comments. Eighteen minutes later I presented myself, dressed and ready to eat. Despite the severity of her injuries, Allison had somehow managed to arrive ahead of me. "Why good morning Allison," I said teasingly. "I trust you slept well." "Hmph!" came the reply. "I am not talking to you, you brute!" "Oh, gee. That's too bad. I don't suppose you would tell me what I did to deserve such treatment? So I can be sure to do it again every chance I get." As I was speaking I had walked behind her chair. I bent down quickly and blew a sloppy wet raspberry on her neck just below her right ear, then pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. "Oooh yuck! Mom! Jimmy's giving me cooties!" Mom just rolled her eyes and did a masterful job of ignoring the whole exchange. Eggs, toast and juice magically appeared before us, curtailing any comments that might have been forthcoming. I wolfed down the eggs and toast. Then, just as I took a big drink from my juice, Allison reached into my lap and grabbed me right by the crotch. Suddenly juice was shooting everywhere. Mom turned around but by then Allison was just sitting there looking like the perfect little angel. "You shouldn't eat your food so fast James. Here," she said, throwing me a dish towel. "Yeah Jimmy," Allison chimed in. "Don't be such a pig." I've never wanted to strangle her so much in my life as at that moment. "Better get that before it drips on the floor or you'll have to mop after school," she said, smiling sweetly. I finished wiping up the mess and headed off to school. Allison gave me a wink and blew me a kiss as I headed out the door. Nah, I guess I'll let her live. The first two periods flew by. As soon as break started I grabbed Mark and headed off to find Coach Jenkins. "Oh dude, this is going to be so embarrassing! I don't even know what to say," Mark complained as we approached the gym. "Better think of something quick big guy, there she is now." I raised my voice as I waved to her. "Miss Jenkins! Have you got a second?" As we got closer I reached out my hand in greeting. "Good morning Mr. Matthews. To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" she inquired as she shook my hand. "Actually Coach, I wanted to introduce you to my good friend Mark Davis. He had bit of a problem the other day and he needs to talk to you about it. Don't you Mark?" I said, placing the ball squarely in his court. "Um, that's right Coach, I mean Miss Jenkins. I just wanted to... well actually, I mean what happened is..." Mark sputtered. "Mark! Just tell her what happened." "I'm getting to it dude, just give me a minute. What I was trying to say Miss Jenkins is that the other day at registration some guys were saying some stuff about you. It wasn't really nice, and well, I kind of repeated it to my mom and Jimmy at lunch. And my mom like totally freaked out and yelled at me and told me I had to apologize. So that's why I'm here." Mark stood there with his head hanging down and looking like he expected the firing squad to show up any minute. Miss Jenkins just looked at him for a second. "What kind of things were they saying?" If he was nervous before, he was sweating bullets now. "Well, actually it was that you, uh, well that you..." "That I'm a lesbian?" she offered. "Yeah, but they didn't say it that way. They said you were a dyke. And when I mentioned it in front of my mom she about ripped my head off." "Your mother sounds like someone I might like to meet some day. That is a word I really don't like. It conjures up such a negative image." "That's what my mom said. That and since it's not something that I know but just something I overheard someone else say that it's just gossip and I should apologize for spreading it. So that's why I'm here, to apologize for gossiping about you that way." "Really? Well then I would definitely like to meet her someday. Tell you what. Why don't we see if we can make a fresh start? Mr. Mark Davis, how do you do? I am Melinda Jenkins. I'm one of the PE teachers. I also work with the girl's cross-country team and coach girls basketball. And just so you know, I am a lesbian. I hope that doesn't bother you." She stuck out her hand. A little tentatively Mark took her hand and shook it. "Pleased to meet you Miss Jenkins. I'm Mark Davis, freshman dork! And aside from maybe it being unfair competition I don't care if you are a lesbian or not. And I promise that in the future not only will I not listen to gossip like that, I will step up and try to stop it from spreading further. And you'll probably meet my parents eventually, my sister Shannon starts here next year and she plays basketball." "You're Shannon Davis' bother! Then I am really pleased to meet you. She is an awesome player and I can't wait to get her on my team. It's just about time for the bell, boys, you'd better head for your next class. It was nice meeting you Mark. It takes a big man to do what you just did. And while I'm used to it, I would appreciate any help you can give in controlling the rumors and gossip about me. James, a pleasure to see you again." I shook her hand and we headed off to our next class. The next two periods flew by pretty quickly, and then it was time for lunch and to see about talking to Mr. Shelby. I grabbed a burrito and a carton of milk from the snack bar and headed over to the teacher's lounge. They had tables set up outside with big umbrellas so that the teachers could enjoy the sunshine. Mr. Shelby was talking to someone I didn't know. He glanced at me as I approached and as I got closer I heard him say something like, "that's fascinating, really. I'll have to look into that." Then shook the guys hand and said, "Could you excuse me, I have to meet with a student about a personal matter." "Good morning Mr. Matthews. Glad you could make it. Let's have a seat over hear where we can talk privately," he said loudly as he steered me towards a table off to one side. "Jimmy, thank God you came. I was afraid I was going to have to listen to that idiot talk about politics all lunch hour. So, how is high school going so far?" "Okay I guess. Some of it's good, some of it is so boring it's hard to stay awake, but all in all it's been okay." "Glad to hear it. So tell me about your fascination with dreams. Why are you so interested?" I had given a lot of thought to what I wanted to say. More to what I didn't want to say. Even more than that to whom I said it to. Mr. Shelby saw my hesitation and waited patiently. "I'm a sleepwalker." There, that was pretty safe. He didn't have to know that I did it without leaving my bed and that a lot of my "walking" seemed to be taking place in other people's dreams. "Is that all?" he asked. "I wouldn't worry about it. There are actually a lot of people that do it, even some very famous people. And while there are behavioral patterns associated with it, the activity itself varies quite a bit from case to case. Some do it in childhood and grow out of it. Others don't start until later in life. For some, it's a response to a traumatic event. But somehow I don't think that's what you are really talking about Jimmy. Now, I haven't known you that long, but I can tell you are holding something back. Am I right?" "Yes sir. There is more but it's kind of, well..." "Okay, stop right there. First of all let me tell you a few things about myself that you may not know. First off, in addition to being a teacher here, I am a councilor as well. I am one of the people you are supposed to be able to come to if you have a problem. As a councilor, your conversations with me are confidential as long as they cannot be construed as representing a threat or violating any laws. So if it's something personal, you don't have to worry about me telling anyone. Does that help any?" "Yes and no," I said. "That is it helps up to a point. I want to learn more about dreams because I don't think my dreams are normal." "Not normal? Normal is a pretty arbitrary word. How are they not normal? Are you saying that you turn into a vampire and chase sheep? Or spend a lot of time talking to aliens? Things like that?" "No. Its nothing like that. You know what cognitive dreaming is?" "Of course, controlling your dreams as a way to deal with subconscious problems that manifest themselves in those dreams. There was a big push to use it as a therapeutic device back in the Seventies. Someone has a recurring nightmare about falling and the phobia spills over into real life. So you teach them when they are falling to add a trampoline or a big pillow at the bottom of the cliff or building that they fell off of, or a parachute on their back. You teach them to control it by eliminating the fear. That sort of thing. Kind of died out after a while. It's too bad, it looked like it had real potential. But you could make more money selling pills that made people feel better without all the work." "But it's a lot of hard work," I said, "and takes a long time to learn it?" "The time varies with the patient and the nature of the problem." "Have you ever heard of a case where the ability was innate?" "No. Not that I know of. But like I said, the idea died out. As far as I know there has been very little research on it since. Why?" "Because I've been able to do it all my life. And as far as I can tell, I have never had a nightmare." "Really? That is interesting. So you're saying that nothing ever happens in your dreams that you can't handle? You never wake up scared in the middle of the night, that sort of thing?" "No, not even when the house caught fire." "Your house caught fire in your dream? So what, the fire station was right next door and put it out right away? Or did you became Superman and blow it out yourself?" "No, actually I had a dream that the house was on fire. Only when I woke up it really was." That stopped him. "Now that is the most interesting thing you have said so far. That almost borders more on clairvoyance. You mentioned being interested clairvoyance the day we met didn't you?" "Yes sir." "Has anything like that ever happened again or was it an isolated incident?" "No sir, just the one time. Or if it did happen any other time then it wasn't such an obvious event and I didn't notice it." "Well put. Jimmy, I have to tell you this is some fascinating stuff. What you are talking about usually falls under the heading of paranormal studies. Of course with just the one isolated incident it could have another explanation. Have you ever experienced something like this when you were awake?" "No." "Well, that in itself doesn't really surprise me. Is there more?" "Nothing I can talk about." "I'll take that as a yes. Can you tell me why you can't talk about it?" "I don't think so. I wouldn't know how to explain it without sounding like a paranoid nutcase." "Hmm. Are you afraid of it?" "Not really, I just don't understand it. That's why I'm trying to learn more. I want to figure out what's going on but I can't find anything even close to it. And I'm afraid of asking anyone any specific questions." "Jimmy, it sounds like you are afraid of someone finding something out? Is that what the problem is?" "Yeah, that's it exactly." "Well that is easy to fix. Do you have a dollar?" "Yeah, why?" "Jimmy, are you familiar with doctor-patient confidentiality?" "Yeah, sort of." "Well let me enlighten you further. Doctor-patient confidentiality came about as a way of protecting people who had problems that others might look upon unfavorably, for example medical conditions like AIDS and other social diseases. A doctor cannot tell anyone about a patient without their consent. If they do, they are held to be liable and can be prosecuted, sued, etc. It was set up so that people would go in for treatment rather than ignore a problem for fear that others would learn of it and they would be ridiculed or ostracized by the community. If they didn't get treated, the problems got worse and the diseases spread unchecked. In the case of psychiatrists, psychologist, even clergymen, the constraints and protections are even greater. You could go to your psychiatrist or priest and confess to murder and they couldn't tell anyone, and could actually be prosecuted if they did. Not to mention that the case against you could be nullified due to where the information came from. If you were a patient and it came out that the cause of your problem was guilt over killing someone, they still couldn't turn you in. And if they did, they could loose their license and be prosecuted, even sued for breach of contract. Do you follow what I am saying? "Yeah, I understand." "Well then Jimmy. I am a certified and licensed doctor of psychiatry and psychology. I can legally give advice, interpret, provide expert testimony in court, diagnose and treat a wide variety of conditions and ailments, prescribe medication, etc. I am even licensed to do clinical research in several different fields. With that in mind I want you to think about giving me that dollar. By giving me that dollar, you become a patient and I become legally obligated to keep anything I learn under the strictest confidence. The Supreme Court could maybe force me to repeat what you tell me, but I doubt if that is likely to happen. So, don't give it to me now, but please think about it and if you decide that you want to talk about anything or elaborate on something, whatever, then you give me that dollar. And I won't let you do it without a witness of some kind so that it's legally binding. And then we can talk." "In the meantime, I do not perceive anything that we have discussed to be of a nature that would require me to pass it on, therefore it is covered by my contract as a counselor for the school district and will also be kept confidential. And I will do my best to help you with the things we discussed. I'm not sure just how yet, but I will explore the possibilities and we will work on getting you some answers. For now, lunch is almost over so we better get headed off to class." I looked around to make sure no one was close, and then stuck out my hand. "Thanks Bob. I appreciate your help, and I will give it some thought. There is only one other person who knows about it, the one who told me to be careful who I talk to about it. I'll talk to them and let you know. See you in class." We had a pop quiz in Spanish. But it was just vocabulary and I did okay, nine out of ten and the one I missed was really just a spelling error. Mr. Shelby wasn't kidding when he said the second day would be different. He had also correctly predicted that several people would completely blow off the assignment. He handed out a single sheet of paper with everyone's name on it. Thankfully for mine he just put E. Matthews. Then we spent the first half of the class meeting each other. We had to introduce ourselves to everyone else, shake hands and so on, then score the two just like on last night's home work. It was surprising how different the introductions could be. Some of the guys just sort of grunted their names at each other, shook hands and moved on. And even though the greeting was so basic, both would score it high. Some guys tended to score handshakes based on complexity. This was fine as long as both parties knew the handshake being used. While we were doing this Mr. Shelby was going through the cards, putting together a comparison sheet for each student contrasting the 'outside' results with those received from fellow students. It was a very interesting experiment. Once we were done, he got out a digital camera and had each of the students stand for a photograph. When asked what the photos were for he simply stated that they were for another experiment. On the homework assignment, the girls creamed the boys on points. The girls got complete information almost ninety percent of the time. It turned out that the ones who didn't give the information were afraid of ending up on someone's mailing list. Less than half of the guys got more than just a name. We discussed the methods used to do the assignment. Where did you go? Did you use the same greeting for everyone? It was very interesting. Some of both groups had gone to the mall. Some just picked random people walking down the street. A few had actually gone to local business offices thinking they would do better with business people. As the end of class approached Mr. Shelby singled out the ones who had blown the assignment off. He told them to stand up in front of the whole class with their noses against the chalkboard in little chalk circles, truly a kindergarten moment. "I told you yesterday that there are no children in my class. That as long as you didn't act like one, I wouldn't treat you like one. Being an adult is all about accepting responsibility. You four chose not to do your homework. I don't want to hear the excuses. You are all here today, so I assume that neither you nor any member of you immediate family was in the hospital. And even if that were the case I doubt that you knew everyone working there, much less the other people who may have been visiting, so the opportunity was still there. I suspect that in a few cases the problem was that video game characters can't shake hands." "Tonight's assignment is simple. Each of you four will be given ten cards." There were a variety of moans and complaints. "This is like a pop quiz, only in your case the results of this assignment will constitute twenty-five percent of your grade for this semester. Therefore in order to get one hundred percent, you must bring back all ten cards, complete with name, address, phone number and full evaluations. Remember, the cards are to be filled out by the subject, not by you. The rest of the class is excused from homework, however if anyone wishes to pick up some extra credit they can see me for additional cards. But don't delude yourself thinking it will count for twenty-five percent of your grade. You would be very disappointed. Class dismissed. See you all again tomorrow." ------- Chapter 7: A Quiet Night at Home I really wanted to talk to Allison about the things that Bob and I had discussed. The only problem was she wasn't there. I found a note saying that she and Shannon had gone to the mall to catch a matinee and that she would be home for dinner. So much for that idea. Then I realized it wasn't such a big deal. After all, we had all night to talk, and other things. I changed and took my homework out on the back patio. The next hour and a half was spent relaxing in the sun. Just me, some tunes (I had gotten one of those jukebox mp3 players that hold like a million songs for my birthday) a tall glass of lemonade, and of course three textbooks, paper, pens and pencils. You know, just a typical teenager catching some rays. Well, typical for me anyway. After the homework was finished I kicked back to relax for a bit. I must have dozed off because I didn't hear anyone come home. My first hint that anyone else was around was the bucket of seemingly ice-cold water that suddenly drenched my head and chest. I leaped up from the lounger with a loud scream, just in time to see Allison drop the bucket and dive into the pool "You little brat!" I jumped up and tore after her. After the ice bath the pool felt like diving into a hot tub. I immediately knew something was up because Allison was making no attempt to get away. Once she was in the water she just swam to the far end and waited for me to catch her. "Hi Jimmy, have a nice nap?" she teased. As soon as I got close she launched herself at me, wrapped her arms around my neck and started kissing me. I jerked away as she tried to stick her tongue in my mouth. "Are you nuts? Mom and Dad could be home any second!" I whispered urgently, glancing toward the back door. "Relax big brother. Didn't you check the recorder when you came home?" Actually I hadn't. After my initial disappointment at finding Allison gone I had forgotten to. I told her so. "Dad is taking Mom out; they won't be home until late. We're supposed to fend for ourselves for dinner, do our homework and be in bed on time. Which means that I, have you, all to myself for the evening. What do you think of that?" "What do I think?" I said in a low voice, "C'mere and let me show you just what I think of that." As soon as she came away from the wall again I grabbed her, dunked her head under the water, then swam for my life. She chased me for a good five minutes trying to return the favor, but I'm a stronger swimmer and even when she did catch me she didn't have the strength to push me under. It was sure fun letting her try though, or so I thought. I might be stronger but she is definitely sneakier. After another unsuccessful attempt on her part I dunked her again. She must have been waiting for it because there was no resistance when I shoved her under the water. It didn't take long to find out why because suddenly my swim trunks were down around my knees. She had it timed perfectly, breaking the surface just as my hands shot down to grab my runaway trunks. This left me in a rather vulnerable position, which she took immediate advantage of. "Hey! That's not..." I started to complain. She must have pushed off really hard from the bottom because she came out of the water almost to her waist, and as she came back down she put both hands on top of my head and aimed for the center of the earth. As I was already bent over trying to recover my suit I didn't stand a chance. I ended up about two feet under water trying desperately to reach the surface. This is hard to do with your swimsuit still around your knees, and of course since I had been caught off guard complaining about the unfair tactics, my mouth had been open and I didn't have much air left. I finally managed to kick my way to the surface, spitting and sputtering and looking around for Allison so I could drown her. Did I mention how sneaky she is? Okay, the whole sequence went like this; she went down, my suit went down. I went down for my suit; she came up, way up. She came down; I went down, way down. Do you see a pattern here? I came back up again and, you guessed it, she went back down. The extra kicking while trying to reach the surface had resulted in my suit going from my knees down to my ankles. I mentioned Allison was nowhere in sight when I came up. I immediately discovered where she had disappeared to as she yanked my suit the rest of the way off, yanking me pretty much off my feet in the process. I had a sneaking suspicion that to go back down in search of her would be an even bigger mistake, so I waited for her to surface. I didn't have to wait long. I had expected her to come up taunting me with my suit. Nope. By the time I got my feet back under me she was coming up right next to the steps and proceeded to walk out of the pool with my suit. "Hey! Bring those back," I yelled. "I don't think so. I worked hard for this little trophy and I'm keeping it. Besides," she said, holding them up in front of her waist, "I think they will look pretty good on me. Don't you?" Actually I wasn't really that much bigger than her. I had ended my last growth spurt at around five-foot-six. Girls do mature faster, so along with the extra curves she was up to about five-two. Neither of us is what you would call fat. My waist was about twenty-eight-inches, hers couldn't have been more that twenty. Of course, she had hips, very nice hips actually, where as I practically needed a belt to keep my underwear up. "I like the one you have on a lot better," I said, hoping flattery would succeed where threats obviously stood no chance. She just looked at me. Then she hooked the waistband on her finger, slung them over her shoulder like a coat and struck a pose. "Come and get them," she taunted. "Come on, Allison, that's not fair. Give them back." Despite the adventures we had shared the night before I was not really ready to parade around naked in front of my sister. Especially since all this had given me a raging hard on. "Ooh, poor boy," she pouted, and then walked to the edge. She held the suit up over the water as if she were about to drop it. I should have known better. "Not!" she cried then turned and went into the house. "Allison!" She returned to the glass door a second later but my suit was nowhere to be seen. The door opened and a towel landed about two feet from the edge of the pool. Then she turned and was gone. Not trusting her, I waited for a few seconds to see what would happen, then swam over to grab the towel. I crept down the side, holding the towel up out of the water. I then climbed slowly out, covering myself as I headed towards the house. The lights were all off but it was still early so the house had plenty of light. I cautiously walked down the hall towards my room. Allison's room was closed but the bathroom door was open. If I hurried I could beat her into the shower. I grabbed a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt from my room, and then stepped into the bathroom. Dropping my clothes next to the sink and my towel on the floor, I reached past the curtain to turn on the water. I jumped back, startled, as the curtain shot back. There was Allison wearing nothing but my missing suit. She had cinched the waist just enough that they wouldn't fall off her hips. Other than that, my little sister stood before me stark naked from the waist up. "What do you think?" she asked, in very happy voice, like she was showing off a new outfit to a friend at the mall. "Still like the other one better?" I just stood there with my mouth hanging open and stared. She was a vision come to life. Even with her wet hair plastered down, dripping wet and wearing a ridiculous pair of oversized boy's yellow baggies, she took my breath away. I was speechless. I could feel the blood leaving my face on the now familiar journey south. This had the usual result. The effect was not lost on Allison as she said, "I guess not." She turned and adjusted the water temperature then held out her hand to me and asked, "Were you coming in?" I took her hand and stepped into the tub. She pulled the shower curtain closed and popped the trigger on the tub, sending warm water cascading over us out of the shower head. Then she stood and pulled me to her, wrapped her arms around my neck, pressed her body to me, her lips seeking mine. Her mouth was slightly open and her tongue already questing ahead. I threw caution to the wind and met her half way, my arms snaking around her waist. It was like a scene in a movie, two lovers kissing under a waterfall. Only in all the movies I was allowed to watch, the two had clothes on. I liked this way much better. She held the kiss for a few seconds then pulled back. "Hi!" she breathed huskily. "Still mad at me?" "I think I could be talked into forgiving you," I replied, kissing her nose and leaning my forehead against hers. "Has anyone ever told you that you're sneaky?" "Why Jimmy! You make it sound like I had the whole thing planned." "The thought had crossed my mind." "Really? I'm shocked. But now that you mention it, several thoughts have been crossing my mind lately. Like what these really taste like." She bent down and proceeded to suck one of my nipples into her mouth and lick at the tip. And almost immediately pulled back and spit. "Yuck! Chlorine!" She spit several more times, and then reached and grabbed the soap. "Hold still." She proceeded to rub the soap liberally over my chest and arms, then between her hands until she had an appreciable lather built up. Placing the soap back in the holder, she proceeded to add the lather on her hands to what was on my chest, rubbing all over my neck, chest, stomach and arms. She then re-soaped her hands. "Now for the back." I started to turn but she stopped me, "I said, 'Hold Still!' Now be a good boy and lift up your arms." She pressed herself hard against me and began making big soapy circles all over my back. I could feel the softness of her breasts as they pressed against my chest. Her hard nipples felt like they were cutting grooves of fire in my flesh as they slid around. This was definitely better than the dream. She kissed me hard as her hands worked there way down my back and began kneading the cheeks of my butt. There is no way she could not notice the hard pillar of flesh that was pressing against the outside of her, actually my, suit. She stopped and moved us around so that my back was to the shower, blocking the water from hitting her. She then picked up the soap and looked me hard in the eye. She held my gaze as she slowly sank down to her knees in front of me. <> Her head was inches from my very erect penis. She lathered up her hands and began soaping one leg. She kept it up until the surface was slick with suds, then repeated the process on the other side. I was going out of my mind. Each time she would work up across my thigh I thought I would explode. When she finished the second leg she looked up at me to catch my eye, then slowly slid her gaze down my body to my rigid penis. "So that's what it looks like, I've always wondered," she said. Lathering up her hands she began massaging the flesh around the base, causing my cock to twitch and move, and her to giggle. The light growth of my pubic hair helped to generate more lather which she gathered up and used as she started gently rubbing my scrotum, very gently rolling my swollen testicles around between her fingers. I thought I was going to die. Then it happened, she gently slid one soapy hand up the length of my penis, the slickness of the soap lubricating the shaft as she went. "Oooh! Soooofft," she whispered in an airy voice, "and yet hard at the same time." She gave it a gently squeeze before starting back down. I'm not likely to ever be a porn star by any stretch of the imagination, but her hand barely closed around my shaft. To keep the lubrication even she twisted her hand a little on the way back up the second time. Once she reached the top, she took a minute to trace around the flared tip with her index finger and thumb. "What an interesting shape." Looking up at me again she said, "I hope I'm not distressing you, but I want to remember every detail so that it will be right when I dream about it later." God she sounded sexy! She turned her attention back to the matter "at hand" and began slowly moving her hand gently up and down my shaft. "You said last night that you had never done this before, so this will be a first time for both of us. Just tell me if you want me to stop." Right! Like that was going to happen! As her hand began to move faster my knees began to get weak and I started to slump. This allowed the water to run over my shoulder and down my body, washing away some of the precious lubrication. "Hmm, can't have that now, can we?" She leaned past me and turned the water off. Unfortunately she only used one hand and could only turn off one side at a time. The good news was that she started with the hot so I got to keep my skin. I cringed as the cold water hit my spine. She immediately realized her mistake and slammed her palm down on the shower button, sending the icy flow out the lower spout. "Sorry about that," she said as she turned the second knob. "Now then, where was I?" Her left hand had been rinsed clean so she rolled the soap in it a couple times. She then returned to my scrotum and began gently rolling my testicles as her other hand resumed its slow trek up and down my aching erection. As she slowly built the pace I felt a tingling sensation growing in my abdomen. Then it happened! Suddenly I was shooting streamers of semen everywhere. Her head was to one side so she didn't get splattered. The first two shots went over her shoulder and spent themselves against the far wall of the shower. I don't think the first one even lost altitude on the way; it was like a rifle shot. The second hit a little lower. My abdomen was convulsing and my hips involuntarily rocked in time to the movement of her hand. I came so hard that it was not until the third spasm that the flow even touched her. It hit her shoulder and trickled down across her chest. A few more much smaller streams landed on her arm and then the rest kind of oozed down her wrist. She kept stroking gently until the flow had stopped. "That was fun." "You have no idea," I managed do squeak out. My legs felt like Jello and I was in serious danger of falling. Apparently Allison noticed and she steadied me as she stood back up. "Easy there, slugger, don't die on me just yet. I'm not through with you. Lean on the wall for second while I get the water back up to temperature." When the water was right she popped the shower button and quickly rinsed her arm and shoulder. Then she steered me under the water and said, "Here, better rinse the rest of that soap off. I wouldn't want you to spot." I turned under the water and rinsed the remaining soap off, quickly shampooed my hair and then turned the water a little colder to rinse it. That had the effect I was looking for. The colder water woke me up enough that I no longer felt like I was going to topple over. My leg muscles were a little sore though from the strain of standing up straight before Allison's onslaught. Then I turned the hot water back up and looked at Allison, who had been waiting patiently for me to finish. "My turn?" she asked, flashing me a smile. "No," I said, picking up the soap, "my turn. Come over here, little girl." "Oooohh, I like the way you say that. Jimmy, I don't want you to think I'm stalling, but let me wash the chlorine out of my hair first. I don't want to take a chance of running out of hot water." "Oh, that's okay. I don't think you'll be in the way." So saying, I knelt down and began soaping her legs. When I had worked my way up to the bottom of the suit I just slid my soapy hands right up the baggy leg. I was careful not to go too high and avoided her most private area. She shivered a little as I approached the juncture of her hip. She turned to rinse her hair and I kept right on working as if nothing had happened. I finished her other leg and then, adding a little more soap, sent both hands seeking up the back of her legs to massage her magnificent backside. I was a little sad though that I couldn't watch as my fingers traced patterns on her flesh. I stood and turned us around so that once again my body was shielding her from the water. I reached back and carefully turned the water down to just a trickle while trying to maintain the temperature at the same time. That should allow us plenty of time before we ran out of hot water without letting it get cold. I stood and began soaping her back, rubbing the skin gently as if administering a back massage. When she started to lean back into the massage I knew it was time to take it to the next level. I picked up the soap, pulled her back to lean fully against me, rubbed the soap a few times on her tummy, then lathered up my hands and began to massage her stomach. In ever widening circular patterns I drew lines on her abdomen. With each completed pass I crept upward. As my hands went higher, so did my returning erection, pressing up and forward against the back of the suit until it was pressed against the twin curves of her cute bottom. When I reached the swell of her breasts I moved my hands out and upward, tracing the line of the curve. Then back in across the top, up to her neck and outward to the tops of her shoulders. I pulled her hard against me and she moaned softly. Instead of starting over I slid my soap slick hands down her sides and then in to cup her breasts. I drew soap circles around and around her breasts, avoiding then nipples. She moaned again and I detected a little frustration as I continued to avoid the one place I knew she wanted me to go. On the next pass I cupped each breast and then firmly drew my fingers straight up while pulling her more firmly to me. This put quite a bit more pressure on her breasts but the soap allowed my hands to slide freely. The pressure caused the area around her nipples to swell slightly. This time I gave her what she wanted, pinching her soapy nipples hard as I passed over them. "Uuhhmmm!" she moaned, "do that again." "What?" I breathed in her ear, "This?" I repeated the action. Normally I would never pinch that hard, but the slickness of the soap prevented the necessary friction to cause pain. "Yes! That. Oh, are you sure this is the first time you've done this?" I breathed in her ear, "You know yours are the first breasts I have ever touched. Except in my dreams of course, and you can hardly count those." I repeated the motion again. "As nice as they were, they don't compare to the real thing. Allison, I can honestly say that you have the most perfect breasts I have ever touched, even in my dreams." I leaned my chin on her shoulder and kissed her neck gently just below the ear, and I sent my hands down to the waistband of the swimsuit. I could have just pulled and it would have slid down, but I decided it would be more fun to untie it. I carefully undid the little bow she had tied and let the weight of the wet material and gravity do the rest. When the trunks hit the tub she just stepped out of them and pushed them aside with one foot. As she was doing this I drew my hands together and down, seeking that magical area where heaven meets earth. "Oh Jimmy. You are driving me insane, and I hate to say this, but I need you to stop," she whined. "I have to get this soap rinsed off and get out of here, or in another 5 seconds I'm going to be begging you to do things to me that soap will take all the fun out of." "Really?" I asked, trying to keep the frustration and disappointment out of my voice. "Really. I'm sorry, but in that area the skin is really sensitive and soap is a real irritation." Turning around to face me she put her arms up around my neck, kissed me and said, "Don't worry, handsome, I don't want you to stop any more than you do. But if we don't go somewhere else, I will be paying for it for days." "No, it's okay, really, Allison. Whatever you want to do, and I mean that. My primary goal at this particular instant is to try and bring you even half the pleasure you brought me. If that means we need to move somewhere else, that is fine. If that means that we need to stop and start over again tomorrow, that's fine. I won't like it, but it will be fine. I don't ever want to seem like I'm pushing you anywhere you don't want or aren't ready to go." "Well there is no real danger of that happening anytime soon, Jimmy. I know exactly where I want to go and you are going to take me there if I have to drag you kicking and screaming the whole way. I've waited very patiently for you to stop thinking of me as your little sister and realize there is more to who I am. Now that you've noticed, I want to take advantage of it before you forget. Now turn that water back on, you're wasting valuable time! Mom and Dad could be here in four or five hours and I don't want to have to rush." I had to laugh at that. I quickly turned the water back on and rinsed myself off, then stepped out to give her more room. I dried myself off and then held a towel for her as she stepped out. She lifted her arms over her head and turned into it so that her back was against me. I took the hint and began drying her delicate skin. I took my time drying her breasts and then began to work the towel down her body. I planted butterfly kisses along her spine as I went. Soon I was on my knees drying her legs and feet. I just couldn't resist planting a couple of extra kisses on her cute little bottom, reaching around as necessary to dry her front as well. I'd spent extra time rubbing the course yet soft material over her wonderful breasts, but I avoided her pubic area as I wasn't sure whether the towel would irritate it or not. As I got back to my feet I whispered into her ear. "Next time you're really mad at me, and the parents aren't around, tell me to kiss your ass. I'd really like that." "Yeah, I'll just bet you would!" She turned and kissed me gently. "I bet I would like it too. Why don't we go and find out?" She took my hand and led me out the door and down the hall and into her room. She pushed me back until I was forced to sit on the bed, then kept pushing until I was flat on my back. I slid over and she crawled in next to me. She lay half on top of me, one leg draped over mine, snuggled close to my side and leaned on one elbow. With her free hand she began to draw circles around my chest. I brought a hand up to return the favor. Her nipples were still hard from coming out of a shower into the cool air and the buffing I had given them with the towel, and this one swelled even more when I touched it, puffing up and out. "That reminds me," I began, "I still don't know what these taste like." I slid down enough to put me at the right level and stuck my tongue out to flick at the crinkled tip of her breast. The texture was familiar but even softer than I remembered from my dream. That made sense actually. I had experienced the combination of our collective experience and she had only ever touched them with her fingers. There are a lot more nerve endings in the mouth. "Mmm, even better than I expected." I then began to earnestly nurse at her breast, sucking, licking and even lightly chewing as I went, just like in our shared dream. The only difference was that now I had added the additional sensation of taste to the mix. Humans have five senses and up to now I had been limited to four. Add the fifth and that is a twenty-five percent increase in sensation. Truly awesome is the only way to describe it. All those pleasurable sensations were going straight to my brain, and it was passing a lot of them along to other parts of my body if you know what I mean. At first I tried not to think about it. That was a dismal failure. Have you ever tried to not think of something? So I tried a different approach and just concentrated on bringing pleasure to the sweet, tender flesh so close at hand. As I worked her flesh with my mouth I let my hand roam freely over the rest of her. After a few seconds she caught it, shifted to lie more on her back, and directed it to her other breast. I took the hint and proceeded to shower it with all the attention I could spare. Then I switched, moving my mouth to the new location. It was just as sweet as the first one. "I can't decide which tastes better," I complained, "perhaps with further study?" I resumed my ministrations. Allison's breath was starting to come faster. I ran my hand up and down her side, hip and abdomen, then back to cup her breast. She captured my hand in hers and began to guide it down her stomach. I know where she wanted to go but since I didn't know 'the lay of the land', I wanted her to guide me. I broke the suction on her nipple for a moment, "You'll have to show me what you want; I've never done this before." I returned my lips to her breast and she placed her hand directly on my outstretched fingers and guided me to the Promised Land. She spread her fingers, taking mine with them. Down, down, down into the uncharted territory she took me, dragging my fingers around and past her opening on both sides. Tracing the tender line where thigh meets paradise. Down and back the length of her slit, but not touching it. Down, up, down, up, down, as she came back up the third time she put pressure on my middle finger and guided it into the valley of her slit. It was moist and slippery. The feel was like nothing I had experienced before. Soap was sandpaper in comparison. Not too deep but the full length of her velvet furrow. As I neared the top where her lips came back together, just below where they met was a little knob of flesh. She trembled slightly as we passed over it. "Ah-ha," I thought to myself, "that's a spot to remember." Then back down again and this time when she came up she pressed two fingers together and down into her flesh. As she reached the top, she split our fingers again and directed me to both sides of the hard little knot. She was really wet and the lubrication spread easily to the new flesh. She then used my fingers to draw little figure eights over and across it. With each pass I could feel her tension increase. It was fascinating to watch her body respond. As her breathing increased a flush started to creep across her skin. Tiny beads of perspiration began to appear. I returned to suckling her breast for a moment, blossoming perspiration adding a slight salty tang. Her hand left mine to travel the now established road on its own for a while. Her fingers found her unoccupied breast and began rolling and tweaking the nipple. Her breathing became more labored. I glanced up and, just like in our dream; she had trapped her lower lip to keep quiet. I left her breast and kissed her. Her mouth opened and she took a hard gasping breath before her tongue snaked out searching for its playmate. She moaned into my mouth as my fingers played their subtle music in her. I glanced to see her pulling hard at herself. Suddenly she gasped harder, sucking in a large gulp of air and her hand shot back down to cover mine. She held my hand firmly and rubbed my fingers hard and fast across the little knob that seemed to be a place of special pleasure. Her body began to shake and a high keening whine burst from her. Her whole body seemed to heave and shake as her orgasm took control. Eyes closed, head back, neck muscles straining visibly, with her back arched as if straining against invisible bonds, she rode the sensations, until finally she began to relax. The sheen of perspiration was more apparent and her whole body seemed to glisten slightly. Her eyes opened but she appeared pleasantly dazed. She finally focused on my face and smiled. Her hand came up and pulled me down to kiss me once again, no longer demanding, but very, very nice. "Oh God, that was good! Now you know why I bite my lip. Not that it was ever like that by my self. But still, I don't think Mom and Dad would appreciate the magic of the moment. Well, Mom might understand but I don't think Dad would..." "Thank you, Jimmy! Thank you, thank you, and thank you. You, my friend, are going to be very popular. I'm glad I got to you first. Okay Shannon got there first but that was just a dream. I got the real thing. She is going to be so jealous." ------- Chapter 8: A Quiet Night, pt 2 "What do you mean Shannon will be jealous? You mean you're going to tell her?" "Don't be silly! Of course I'm going to tell her! She's my best friend; I can't keep something like this from her." Allison gave me a quick kiss on the cheek then literally bounced out of bed. "Be right back." A second later I heard the bathroom door close. Not a bad idea actually. While waiting for my turn I decide to put some clothes on in case something went wrong with Mom and Dad's date and they turned up early. Or for that matter if things went better than expected and they turned up early. Then I remembered my clothes were still in the bathroom. I got up, fumbled in Allison's closet for her bathrobe and had it opened and waiting when the door finally opened. "Well aren't you sweet!" she said as she turned herself into the soft cover-up. As her arms went in I folded the robe and myself around her and hugged her close. We had always been close. I mean how much closer do you get? People talk about sharing "every waking moment." I can top that; how about sharing dreams? Trust me, if you ever get the chance, take it. No, I couldn't think of how two people could be closer. "My turn," I said as I stepped past her. When I came out in my running shorts and T-shirt Allison was on the phone ordering pizza. I snuck down the hall and planted a kiss on her neck, and then reached into the fridge for something to drink. There were several cold bottles of water, my drink of choice. I pulled one out, popped the top and took a big swig. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was. Allison's eyes got big when she saw the bottle so I held it out to her. She took a sip between 'yeah' and 'uh-huh' and handed it back. I took the bottle back and headed for the living room. Then I stopped and went back. I handed her the bottle and went out back to recover the textbooks and homework I had been working on when she got home. It had only been... I looked at the clock. Three hours! We had been going at it for three hours! No wonder we were thirsty. I put my school stuff on the desk in my room just as she hung up the phone. I followed her into the living room where she picked up the remote and started surfing for something to kill time while we waited for the pizza to arrive. "Did you order bread sticks?" "Of course. With extra pizza sauce and ranch dressing. I'm a big girl, I can order pizza." I planted myself in the big chair and stretched. Halfway through the stretch Allison eased back into the chair and made herself comfortable on my lap. There is nothing quite like the feeling of a bouncy young woman wiggling her way into your lap. I put my arms around her waist and helped her settle herself. "Anything on?" "The usual; nothing, nothing, sports, more nothing, news..." She finally settled on one of the music channels playing smooth jazz and tossed the remote onto the table. "It's just for background noise anyway. You know, in case the neighbors are listening. We wouldn't want them to hear anything suspicious." "Oh, heavens no," I agreed in my best mock southern belle. "Of course if they didn't catch the last three hours worth then the next thirty minutes isn't likely to excite them." "Three hours!" she exclaimed. "Was it really three hours? Wow! I was thinking maybe an hour and a half, two tops. Three hours!" "Well, you know what they say, 'time flies when you're having fun, ' and while I can't speak for you, I was most definitely having fun." "Oh, you may most definitely speak for me. That was by far the best time I remember having ever. And I thought last night was good! By the way, what did you decide? Do you like them better with flavor or without?" "You couldn't tell? Maybe we should try it again and you try to guess which one I like best.' "Hmm, tempting, but it wouldn't work. You have the memory now, I'm afraid you're stuck with it forever. Huh, that is so true about so many things. I guess you really can't take it back, not even in your dreams. Anything else different?" "Yeah, now that you mention it, your kisses taste different too. But I can't figure out why. Any ideas?" Allison stared straight ahead and a flush crept up her face, "No, I can't think of anything." "What about mine?" "Oh I definitely like it better with the flavor. Kissing you last night was one thing, but now, it's like so much better." I would find out later that she had noticed a difference in the taste as well, but for now she didn't bring it up. "So what's this about telling Shannon?" "Is that the pizza guy?" She tried to jump up but I held on tight. "Allison? Nice try but I'm not buying it. What is going on? Are you two up to something?" "Well, no, I mean, not really. It's just that she's my best friend and like, she told me all about her dream the other night, so naturally I told her..." "You told her about last night?" I couldn't believe it. "I thought you said we had to be careful about people finding out." "Not about that silly. Like I'm going to tell her that it was real. She'd never believe it anyway. No, silly, I meant about you and me by the stream. I told her I finally took you down by the stream. She went nuts, wanted to know every little detail. It's a good thing the theatre was dark and the movie was loud or she would have been so busted." "She did it in the theatre?" Now I really couldn't believe it. "Yeah, and it was so hot! I was whispering the details to her, and I could tell she was getting really hot and bothered. We always take sweaters because it's "so cold" in the theatres. Anyway she had hers over her lap so no one could see anything. But I knew what she was doing. You know; all of a sudden she gets real still, and it's like her body shakes for a second. Oh, it makes me hot just thinking about it." She wiggled a little. "You too huh?" There was certainly no point in denying it. I was really glad she was on my lap. With just my jogging shorts on and no underwear it would have been really obvious. "I suppose you did the same thing when she told you about us in the garage?" "You bet. We both did. It was like phone sex. If the line was tapped the FBI is going to make a fortune with that tape!" "It didn't bother you that your best friend has the hots for your brother?" "Why should it? I've had the hots for you at least as long as she has, probably longer. I told you I'd wanted to take you down by the stream for a long time. I started building it in 4th grade! By the end of 5th I knew what I wanted to do with you there. We're not even half way down the list by the way, so we're going to have to go back again soon. I can't wait to see how much better it is now that we have more of the details figured out." "Shannon knows you have the hots for me, and she didn't think that was weird, or sick or anything?" She looked at me funny, "Do you?" "No, of course not, I mean in my head I know that there is this big bad taboo about incest but when I'm with you it doesn't feel anything like that. In fact it's about the most right feeling I think I've ever had." "There, you see? We're a lot closer to "the problem" and we don't think there is anything wrong with it, so why should she? Besides, she knows how much we love each other, and even though she wants you, she wouldn't do anything to come between us. So it's all cool." "And you don't have a problem with her and me... you know?" "Humping like bunnies?" she said with a grin. I grabbed her ribs, "No, don't tickle! I'll be good! No, I don't have a problem with it. In fact I've been trying to figure out what I can do to help. But I don't want to like, interfere or do anything that would spoil it. If it's going to happen with you two, it has to happen just between you, at least for now." I wasn't quite sure about the "for now" part, but I agreed with the rest. Of course, I didn't know what to do about that either, especially since I had invaded Shannon's most private fantasy about me. It was like I was just going after her for her body. I certainly didn't want her to think that, but what do I do now? I couldn't just suddenly "act interested." So why was I interested? I certainly hadn't been before she flashed her wet T-shirt at me. Was that it, just simple physical lust? No. That wasn't it. I loved Shannon almost as much as I loved Allison. It was a surprising thing to suddenly realize it, but it was true. No, flashing me had just been to break through my stupidity. But how could I get how I felt across to her without revealing anything? Suddenly Allison was standing up, snapping her fingers in front of my face, "Hello? Anyone home? Earth to Jimmy, you back yet? Pizza's here and I don't think I want to answer the door in my bathrobe. Why don't you get it and I'll get plates and stuff. Money's on the counter next to the phone." "Oh! Sorry! Yeah, got it." I jumped up, grabbed the money and headed for the door. I got there just as the bell rang. I was a little shocked when I recognized McGuiness from psychology. "Yo! Lab-rat, what's up guy? It's Edward something, right? Matthews! That's it. I don't think we really actually met before." He stuck out his hand. "Steve McGuiness, struggling senior and pizza delivery boy, at your service." I shook his hand. "James Edward Matthews, freshman lab-rat, nice to meet you, Steve. So what do you think of Mr. Shelby's class so far?" "Oh man, that guy totally rocks! He's like the coolest teacher in school. Anyone else busted me like that it would have been straight to detention. But he actually turns it around and makes a whole lesson out of it. And you know what? I actually got a job offer while I was workin' on that homework assignment. I'll have to tell you about it some other time though, 'cause right now I got these orders to deliver. I don't suppose you know what he's up to for tomorrow do you? No, never mind. Even if you do I'd rather just wait and let the adventure unfold. Nice to meet you, Edward, see you around." I took the pizza and breadsticks back to the kitchen where Allison was waiting. "Who was that guy?" "Remember how I told you about the guy in psychology who called me a suck-up? And how Mr. Shelby jumped on it as an opener for the whole segment? That was the guy. I thought he would have been more embarrassed but it sounds like it made a huge impression on him." We passed the evening together comfortably, finally settling on the couch to watch a movie. It must not have been a very good one because we both fell asleep. I was propped up on one end and Allison was passed out with her head in my lap when the folks got home. The next thing I noticed was Mom shaking us and telling us to go to bed or we would be stiff in the morning. I got up, hugged her and staggered down the hall to my room. I was out again as soon as my head hit the pillow. ------- Chapter 9: Don't Screw This Up I'm not sure why, but when it was just Allison and I, I don't remember dreaming at all. Maybe it had something to do with the parents coming home, or being back in my bed. Whatever the reason, it seemed like as soon as I hit my pillow I found myself in the hallway outside, of all places, Shannon's room. I had been trying to think of how to talk to her but hadn't come to any real conclusions. I guess somewhere in my head a part of me thought I was ready. <> I took a second to try to organize my thoughts then quietly scratched on the door. Not really a knock, because that would echo, but just a scratch that no one else was likely to hear, or, if they did, they would discount it as being something else. I heard a sound of furniture creaking and a second later a very sleepy Shannon cracked the door and peaked out. "Sorry to wake you," I whispered. Her eyes got big and she whispered back, "Jimmy? What are you doing here? Come in before someone wakes up and catches you." I slipped in and she closed the door before continuing, "Are you crazy? You can't be here in the middle of the night!" "Of course I can silly," I whispered back. I could see she was starting to wake up a little more. Well, not really "wake up," but you know what I mean. "It's a dream, so we can be anywhere." "Then why couldn't we be somewhere else? Like down by a certain stream that I know you are familiar with?" She grinned and put her arms around me. "No, Shannon, it's your dream and I think I came here to talk to you for a reason." I pulled her arms loose and held her hands in front of me. "Here, sit down." She was starting to look distressed so I held onto her hands and sat on the edge of the bed facing her. "I think we're here specifically because nothing would happen, here in your room, in the middle of the night, with your parents down the hall. Shannon, we need to talk, well, actually I need to talk to you about yesterday, about what happened in the garage." Her face started to fall and I could see moisture starting to accumulate in her eyes. This was not going well. "You mean, you didn't..." She started to shake. "No!" I raised my whisper to a dangerous level. "Of course not, silly." I took her in my arms and held her to me. "Yesterday in the garage, Shannon, you changed my life. I never thought any girl could feel that way about me. And to find out that it was someone that I already knew and loved so much! Oh, Shannon, you just have no idea what you did for me. Okay, maybe you have some idea, I know Allison and you have been talking. But what I'm trying to say sweetie is that I don't want you to think that it's for the wrong reasons." "I don't understand," she mumbled against my chest, still sounding confused. "That's because I'm an idiot and I'm not doing this very well, but I need to get this out so please just hang in there. Shannon, when you flashed your beautiful self at me to get my attention? You didn't need to do that. I had already noticed that you had grown up and that I was a fool for not seeing it. When I picked up that hose and turned and saw Mark holding you? Right at that very moment, I was awestruck. A second before I was wrestling with my best friend's snot-nosed, bratty little sister, but then suddenly in that one moment I... Shannon, it was like I didn't know who you were. For a second all that I could think was 'Who is this beautiful young woman and why haven't I seen her before?' Shannon, two weeks ago I would have shoved that hose right down the front of your pants and never thought twice about it. But then you were just a little girl and it didn't matter. But when I saw you yesterday, struggling to get away with your shirt clinging to your body, it was like I was seeing you for the first time. You saw it. I know you did. I saw you. You saw me change and you knew. Your body language and everything changed. And at that moment I knew that I couldn't do it. Not like that. Suddenly you were too special. That part of you was too special, and it would have been disrespectful and horribly wrong. I just couldn't do it. You saw that didn't you?" "I guess I did. I saw the change in you, that you finally saw me for me. Not Mark's little sister, but me. Jimmy, I've wanted you to really see me for so long," she sniffled just a little, "and it finally happened, and then I just couldn't let you get away. So I figured that if that was what it took to keep you..." "I think that's why I'm here tonight, Shannon. You have to know that it didn't need to go that far. Not for me. I was already hooked before last night. In the yard, when I saw you, it was as if a veil was torn away and suddenly there you were. Then when I held the towel for you, it was because I didn't want you to be seen like that. Not even by your own brother. I didn't want you to attract that kind of attention, because you're not that kind of girl. After that, then when you flashed me again? I knew then that it was just for me and it blew my mind all over again, because I knew that you weren't that kind of girl. But it confused me; if you weren't that kind of girl then why did you do it? Then suddenly I understood; you did it for me, that you liked me and wanted me to see you that way. Not anyone else, just me. Shannon, I've never felt so special in my life. I could never imagine someone wanting me like that. It just never occurred to me." "Shannon, I don't want our future to be about that. I don't ever want you to think that I see you that way. You're beautiful, and I'm sorry you had to go that far to make me realize it. I appreciate the effort, but... I don't want you to think that I think of you that way. Shannon, I have loved you for a long time, I just didn't realize it. All of this has made me take a hard look at my feelings and you need to know, Shannon, if I never see you that way again, or, after that dream last night, touch you that way again, I will still love you." I hesitated for a moment, then went on in my most rye "I'm such and idiot" voice, "Of course I'll hate myself for saying all this," back to my normal voice, "but, Shannon, if it never happens again I will still love you." "You really mean that?" She pulled back and looked at me. "Yes you do, I can see it in your face. You really do love me that much, don't you?" "I don't really need to answer that, I'm just a projection in your dream telling you things you already know. But yes, I really do, with all my heart. And that is really weird. Because you know that I love Allison too. And yet at the same time I can love you so much and it doesn't take away from my love of her. It's strange, I'm really happy that it can be this way; that I can love you both so much without taking anything away from either of you, but it is strange. Maybe it's because I know you love her the same way?" Something in her eyes made me pause for a moment, then it was gone, "I don't understand it. But I don't need to understand it to know that it's right." "Oh, Jimmy, I do love you, and I hope it's not just a schoolgirl crush. I don't think it is but I guess we won't know until we see where it goes, or if it grows, or whatever. I'm just rambling. It's what I do when I'm happy and excited, and oh, Jimmy, you make me so happy and so excited! I could just rip your clothes off right here... "I guess you're right though, that's why we're here isn't it? Because it's a place where that couldn't happen? Not tonight, because tonight we just needed to talk. Allison always said you were smart. Well, I guess you better go, I need to get some sleep. Oh, I guess I am sleeping aren't I? Wow, this is really strange. What was that old poem, 'A Dream Within a Dream?' And now I'm rambling again." I kissed her on the forehead and stood up. "Don't worry about it, you're probably going to forget most of this anyway, that's the way dreams are. I'll see you again soon, and not just here, but out there, where it counts. Until then, just remember that I love you and I will always love you no matter how it turns out. Not just your body, but you. Okay, your body too, but mostly you. Goodnight, sweet Shannon, kiss me and go back to sleep." She kissed me all right, deeply and passionately. Anywhere else and we would have been in trouble. I laid her back down on her bed, pulled the covers up, brushed a wayward strand of hair tenderly from her face and turned to go. I walked through Shannon's door directly to the picnic glade by the stream. Allison was already there, doing something with her Tablet PC. She looked up as I closed the door. When she saw me she jumped up, threw her arms around my neck and swung her legs up for me to carry her. "Hi, handsome, where you been? I missed you." She kissed me on the cheek and laid her head on my shoulder. "I went to talk to Shannon." "Really, how did it go? What did you say?" She gave me sideways look. "Did you just talk or were you being a bad boy?" "Oh, don't worry. I'm sure she'll tell you all about it tomorrow. In fact I'm counting on it. I don't want to prejudice your reaction and I want an honest opinion of how I did and that's why," I sang the rest, "I'm not gonna tell you." "What?" She jumped down and stamped her foot. "That's not fair!" "I'm sorry, I knew you were gonna pop a cork when I told you, but, well, I need to know how I did. And I want you be able to listen to Shannon without knowing in advance what she is going to say. If I tell you, then you may hear what you want to instead of what she "heard" and that could be bad. I've already got this pretty screwed up and I need to see if what I told her made sense or not. I'm going to see her face to face in the next day or so, Saturday at the latest, and I need to know how to handle it. Otherwise I am going down in flames and she is going to be really hurt." I hung my head down and looked into her eyes. "If I blow this she could be hurt pretty bad, and I don't want to hurt her, sis. Do this for me, okay? Please?" "Okay, I understand," she said quietly. Then suddenly she got very serious, "You're right, darn it! If there is a chance that she could be hurt by it, then it's not worth the risk. Now I can't wait until morning so she I can call her. Shoot! I can't call her; that would be too suspicious. I have to wait until she calls me. Oh, this sucks!" She punched me in the arm. "This is all your fault!" I just laughed at her emotional gymnastics. That didn't help any, it looked like she was going to hit me again, so I hugged her before she got the chance. "Listen; there is some stuff I wanted to talk to you about after school," I looked at her with a big smile, "before we got side-tracked. I talked to Mr. Shelby today and it sounds like he might be someone I can talk to about stuff. I wanted to run it by you though." "Okay, but I'm not standing here all night." She pulled away and walked back to the blanket. When she turned back around she was wearing the outfit she had 'put on' right before we said goodbye the last time. She lay down on the blanket; her robe fell open in a very interesting way, and she patted the space in front of her, "Why don't you come over here and tell me all about it?" I just shook my head and smiled. "You, are a very naughty little girl, I kind of like that. Keep it up and I just might have to spank you." She smiled back, a sudden fire in her eyes. "I just might like that... Promise?" "No, one of us would enjoy it too much and then we wouldn't get any work done at all." "Oh, you wanted to work?" She stood and turned around and took off the bathrobe. For a second I was worried but when the robe came off, instead of the soft and lacy stuff that was under it before she had on a pair of Capri's and a crop top. It was pink with spaghetti straps and had "Brat" written across the front. While it did leave her tummy bare, it was something that wasn't going to be too distracting while we talked. She folded the bathrobe and tucked it into the picnic basket. Then she sat down tailor fashion on the blanket and looked at me with that "are you going to take all day" look. I just shook my head again. "You are just too special for words. You always manage to surprise me." She smiled again. "Good. So what's up with Mr. Shelby?" She listened very attentively while I recounted our conversation. When I was finished she sat for a moment longer, obviously thinking. Finally she said, "I think this has potential, but I don't think we should rush. Give him the dollar, the witness probably isn't necessary but do it anyway. The question is who to use? If it's someone he picks, they might back out of the deal if he asked them to and then we'd have no witness. But who can you use that won't wonder about the idea of a fifteen year old boy needing psychiatric care? We'll have to give that some thought. I've been thinking about some other stuff, too; like how to tell when you are in your dream, or my dream, or someone else's. I think you need a prop." "A prop? What do you mean?" "Okay, hear me out; this is what I was thinking. What you need is something that from now on will appear automatically in all of your dreams. Like a certain lamp, that no matter what room you're in, that lamp would be in it. See what I mean? Doesn't matter where you start the dream, whatever room you start in, the lamp would be there. But that's just an example and a lamp wouldn't work. What happens if you are outside? No room, no lamp. Well okay, it's a dream and the lamp could be outside but it would look really stupid. Are you with me so far?" "Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Sounds like you have something in mind already." "Actually I do. How about a ring? If you are in your dream, it shows up, but if you are in somebody else's dream, it disappears. It's still there, but it's invisible. That way while you may not know where you are, you would know where you aren't and that you need to be careful. Know what I mean?" "Yeah, sort of, I guess." "I'm going to have one too. If you are in my dream, your ring will disappear, but mine will be visible. Mine will only be visible if you are in one of my dreams. So if, like, you 'bridge' into Shannon's dream and I am there, you will be able to tell if it's my dream with her in it or the other way around. Or I guess it could even be someone else entirely and we could both be there. We don't really know the limits of this thing yet. But if it's not one of our dreams then you would need to be extra careful what you did or said, even to 'me' while you were in that dream. How does that sound?" "Okay, I guess. It would certainly help avoid the kind of mistake I made with Shannon. But you're starting to make this sound like a high-tech spy movie." "Depends on whether you consider invisibility to be more high-tech or magic. I just think we need to do what we can to avoid complications." "Okay, so where do we get these rings?" "Where else silly? We go shopping! Come on, this will be fun." She jumped up and steered me toward the door by the bushes. She opened the door and we stepped onto a busy street. There were quite a few people but it didn't feel crowded. I also noticed a lot of expensive cars driving by. Suddenly a woman walked by with a bunch of shopping bags and I recognized it; Rodeo Drive, the scene from "Pretty Woman." Allison just hugged my arm and said, "I've always wanted to come here." "You are too much; couldn't you just have pulled a set out of the picnic basket?" "Yeah, but where's the fun in that? C'mon! Lighten up. Remember, we wanted to work with your imagination. Call it a field trip." "Okay, okay, I'll play along." It was nice, just the two of us walking down the street holding hands like lovers, unconcerned about who saw us. I took advantage of it by picking her up and swinging her around by her waist. Her arms went around my neck as she landed. "I love you, you know! I can't think of anyone I would rather walk down the street and shop with." "Oh, that's so sweet of you." She gave me a little kiss then dropped back and held both my hands. "Buy me something!" "Anything you want." She snuggled to my side and we headed down the sidewalk. I was looking around at the shops when a little girl on a sidewalk bench caught my eye. She looked to be seven or eight and was wearing a white dress with pink trim; somehow she looked out of place. She caught my eyes with hers for just a second then jumped down and ran off, disappearing into the crowd. "Ooh! Let's go there!" Allison suddenly stopped and pointed. I looked where she pointed and saw a reasonable nondescript building with the words "Tiffany & Co" over the doorway. Suddenly she was jerking my arm and pulling me across the street. Apparently there had been a break in traffic and she saw a chance to go. I just ran along behind her. She jumped up on the curb and stopped suddenly. Just like a little kid playing tag who has suddenly reached "base." An elderly couple waiting for the light just smiled at us and laughed. I saw the woman whisper something in the man's ear and he looked in her eyes and then squeezed her hand with his. It looked like one of those, "remember when we were young and in love?" moments. I couldn't resist smiling and waving to them. The woman got an embarrassed smile on her face and blushed. But then she waived back. About then the light changed and they were off. Allison gave me another tug, "C'mon slowpoke!" As we stepped up to the double doors a man opened one side and stepped back, holding the door for us. "Welcome to Tiffany and Company," he said politely and gave a small bow. "Why thank you, sir," Allison said. "May I ask your name?" "Robert, Miss." "Thank you, Robert, Allison Matthew." She held out her hand. "You are just too sweet." Robert bowed over her hand and kissed it. "Very pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Matthews," he said, then tipped his hat and handed Allison through the door. An undetermined time later, we left with a set of promise rings in a velvet box. Mine was a simple band, hers was similar but had a single diamond set in a filigreed basket. To look at them one would never know that they each contained stealth camouflage "technology" and were biometrically encoded so that only we could wear them. And I still wasn't sure if it was magic or science that made them invisible or allowed them to "know" whose dream we were in. Robert held the door for us and we exited directly to the picnic stream. We sat down on the blanket and Allison pulled out two bottles of water; shopping was thirsty work. "Okay, put yours on." She handed me mine and had started to put hers on when I stopped her. I took the ring from her, "Hey!" Ignoring her protest, I stood and pulled her to her feet. Dropping to one knee I took her left hand in mine and, looking her in the eye, said, "I, James Edward Matthews, promise to always love you, Allison Ann, and I promise to do my best to always be there for you." I slid the ring onto her finger. A tear crept from her eye; she sniffled and said, "Oh, Jimmy, I don't know what to say. Hug me." I stood and pulled her to me, holding her for a second before she pushed me away. Sniffling again she slapped me lightly on the arm, "Look what you did, you made me cry." I pulled a tissue out of my pocket and handed it too her, "I'm sorry I made you cry, but I'm not sorry I said it. I meant every word." "I know you did, silly, that's why I'm crying. I just love you so much and you make me so happy." She dabbed at her eyes for a couple of seconds and then tossed the tissue towards the basket, which opened and a long tongue shot out, catching the tissue in mid air. I just stared for a second and shook my head. "I don't suppose you want to tell me what you said to Shannon to make up for it? Never mind, I already know the answer. Here, give me your hand." Without a word she slid my ring on my finger. "Okay," she said, "now for the test." She let go of my hand and immediately my ring disappeared. I couldn't even feel it in on my finger. I touched the spot where it had been with my other hand, nothing there. I reached out and touched her hand again and watched it re-appear. As it did, I once again felt its weight. "Okay, that about does it for tonight. Unless there is anything else you want to cover?" she said, giving me a sly smile. "Nothing comes to mind," her face fell, but I pulled her to me and kissed her nose, "unless you count covering you with kisses." I kissed her lightly on the mouth. "But I think I'll save that for another time. I'll see you soon." Then I turned and walked to the door. I felt the ring disappear again as soon as I stopped touching her. I looked back just before I opened the door and she was standing there wearing her robe and waving. Only the robe was open and she had on an almost non-existent "butterfly" g-string and nothing else. The robe covered the swell of her breasts as it draped. "Sure you can't stay for a while?" She called with a smile. I reached into the bushes, pulled out a cartoon sign in the shape of an arrow that said, "BRAT!" and threw it toward her. I watched as it stuck in the ground, pointing right at her, and then I stepped through the door. ------- Chapter 10: You Gotta Trust Someone Friday was an interesting day around campus. The football team, which had been practicing for most of the summer, was being presented to the rest of the school. They were easy to spot around campus all day. The school had a standard dress policy for all sports teams. Guys were required to wear a collared shirt and tie on game day, or in the event of a weekend event, they had to wear them on Friday. This was intended to honor the other team. Of course it also gave everyone a chance to ID the jocks. You could pick the teams out just walking around. We didn't have a separate freshmen team like some schools. You either made the JV or you didn't. The JV squad looked kind of nervous, especially the freshmen, walking around in shirts and ties. The frosh almost all looked like they had just bought the stuff the night before. Some of them hadn't even bothered to iron the shirts. Even some of the first year sophomores looked nervous. The varsity at least had some experience at it and took a little more pride in appearance. The seniors, particularly the black seniors, made an event, heck, practically a competition out of it. They just plain went for it. The pep rallies used to wipe out the last two periods of the day. They quickly learned that two periods with no attendance right after lunch was a free pass to cut out early. Then they tried just taking attendance during sixth period and then releasing the students to the rally. That cut it down a little but not much. So they started varying the schedule. And they never used the last two periods unless the game was a long way off. For those games you really could just cut for the rest of the day, if, and it was a big if, you were an ASB (Associated Student Body) member and went to the game. It was kind of ridiculous, an office person was there at the gate and you showed the card and told them your name. Apparently it was pretty rare that they even looked at the name. There were actually some enterprising students that took advantage of the system by renting out their ASB cards. For five bucks you could cut class, then go the game and no one would know. I guess it worked out but it seemed kind of silly to me at the time. This particular day, being just an introduction of the team and general rah-rah session, they only scheduled it for seventh period. A quick round of attendance and then you were free to go to the rally. Or, if you wanted to risk it, run for the hills. Homework was generally light, as it usually is the first weekend of the new school year. I breezed through most of the morning. After my conversation with Allison we had pretty much decided to take Mr. Shelby up on his offer, provided we could find a suitable witness. As lunch approached, I still had no idea what I was going to do and I was getting pretty nervous. Maybe this wasn't going to work out after all. I was on my way to talk to Bob when the situation resolved itself. Bob, Susan and Miss Jenkins were sitting at a table out in the sun by themselves. I had considered Susan but discarded the idea because it seemed that there might me more to her and Bob than met the eye... But Coach Jenkins? If there was anyone that appreciated the concepts of privacy and confidentiality, it was a lesbian school teacher. Okay, admittedly that was a bad way to think of it, but it certainly fit the situation. In retrospect I can't believe how comfortable I had become in such a short time, but I just walked right up to the table and said, "Hi, everyone. Am I interrupting anything?" There were no objections, and after a round of pleasantries I was invited to have a seat. "Actually, James, I was just telling Bob and Susan about your friend Mr. Davis, and how impressed I was with his apology yesterday." "Really? I thought he was going to melt into the nearest crack at any second." Everyone smiled at that. "Come on now, Jimmy," Susan said. "That was hard for him. It's embarrassing to have to do something like that. That's what makes it so impressive. I think we've probably all been there before, I know I have." "Yeah, I know. But that doesn't mean I'm going to pass up the chance to bag on him just a little if I get the chance. After all, what are best friends for?" That got a chuckle from everyone. "Actually, Mr. Shelby, I came by to talk to you about that matter we discussed yesterday." "Oh, then we'd better be going." Susan said. She started to get up but I reached out to stop her. There it was again, I swear there was a spark when I touched her arm. Not one of those painful static discharges, just a weird rush of sensation. Like electricity moving up my arm, but in slow motion. I could tell by the way she looked at my hand on her arm that she had felt it too. I noticed that the tiny hairs on her arm were standing straight up. Something to think about later, right now I had more important things on my mind. "No, actually I would like both of you to stay if you don't mind." They nodded and sat expectantly. I took a deep breath and pulled the dollar bill I had prepared out of my pocket, unfolded it and handed it to Bob. "Are you sure about this, Jimmy?" I nodded my consent; he looked at me as if he hadn't seen the gesture. I got the hint. "Yes, I'm sure," I replied in a serious tone. "Very well then. Ladies, you are witness to this. Yesterday, Mr. Matthews and I discussed some things that he had on his mind. Some of them he was apprehensive about bringing up for personal reasons. I assured him that in my role as counselor he had certain reasonable expectations of privacy in matters that we might discuss. When that was not enough I decided to take the matter further and informed him that I am in fact a licensed and bonded practitioner in this state. That if he wished, for the nominal fee of one dollar, I would agree to take him on as a patient, which will give him legal protections of a much greater magnitude. In the presence of you, Susan Swann, and you, Melinda Jenkins, I have just accepted that payment and all that goes with it. Jimmy, if I were ever to open my mouth without your consent you would own my ass. I hope you're happy, not too many kids your age can say that about one of their teachers." "Well, Jimmy, thank you very much for your trust in considering me a suitable witness," Susan said covering my hand with hers. Mr. Shelby's eyes followed the motion. Again the rush of sensation; I felt a now familiar tingling begin low in my abdomen. "Actually you were the first one that came to mind, and I wasn't going to ask you. I had decided to ask Coach Jenkins. Due to her background, I was sure that she would understand the importance of trust and discretion. Not that I think you don't, but I felt that it might be a conflict of interest for you. I'm sorry if I have the wrong impression, but I got the sense that there may be more to your and Mr. Shelby's relationship." I couldn't believe how red she got. Then she chuckled and Mr. Shelby roared with laughter, "Oh, he's quick. You were right, Mel, when you said to keep an eye on him that first day." Susan went on to add, "Actually, Jimmy, I am another one of Bob's patients." Mr. Shelby stopped laughing and looked at her and the surprise was evident. Miss Jenkins just glanced at Susan and nodded. "Really?" This was definitely not expected. "Yes really," she said. Wow. I couldn't help but wonder what someone as smart and beautiful as her could need with a shiink? Of course, she was probably thinking the same thing about me. Mr. Shelby broke the silence, "So, Jimmy, what do you think of our little experiment with introductions so far?" "I think it's going very well. I can't wait to see the results of the homework and stuff. I ran into Steve McGuiness last night and it has really had in affect on him." Mr. Shelby looked surprised, "Well that's certainly something. How exactly? If you don't mind my asking." "Well, he was really impressed with the way you took control of the situation on the first day and used it to kick off the whole topic. And he said he actually got a job offer when he was doing the homework the first night. He thought that was pretty cool, and I agree." "Well, what do you know? It's usually the wise guys that drop the class." "Oh, I don't think you're going to get rid of him that easily. I got the impression that he was really looking forward to seeing what came next." Just then the bell rang and it was time to go to class. As my class was with Bob we could walk together. I shook hands again with Susan and Coach Jenkins and thanked them again for helping out. I don't know what it is about Miss Swann but I kept getting a rush every time I touched her. It was like my whole body tingled. Then we all headed off to our respective classes. "I see Susan has the same effect on you," Bob offered. "What do you mean?" I asked, trying hard to control my blush. "Well, you didn't blush this time but it's pretty obvious that you react to her presence. I don't know about you, but for me, touching her is like grabbing a live wire." "I thought it was just me." "Nope. And I was surprised that she told you about our relationship." He trailed off. I wasn't sure what to say so I just walked on in silence. We got to class and I discovered that two of the "cheaters" had dropped the class; both were male, just as he had predicted. This meant that I now had a seat. I sat in the second row. I was surprised to see that McGuiness had moved up from the back row. Then Mr. Shelby sprang his pop quiz on everyone. We were each given a set of photographs and a list of names, then asked to match them up. I felt like I did pretty well, I got about eighty percent. Strangely, the people that did the worst were also the people that most everyone missed. "Anybody see a correlation here? Let me show you something else. You all recognized the people that scored well on introductions and handshakes. You failed to recognize those who scored poorly. At the same time, those people who scored poorly also had problems identifying the rest of you. This suggests that there is a definite correlation between the two. What are some possible causes for this? Anyone? Mr. McGuiness?" "I think that if you make a positive impression, people will tend to remember you better. But at the same time, I think it's the desire to make that kind of impression, that desire to do well and be recognized that causes us to look for the same thing in others. So we pay more attention. It's like we give them the attention we want. It's wild but it seems to work." Mr. Shelby just sat leaning on his desk staring at him for a second, "Mr. McGuiness, would you like your diploma now or do you want to hang around just to see how much more trouble we can get into this year? Not the most eloquent explanation I've ever heard but the basic foundation is right. Well done." "I think I'll hang if you don't mind, I'm into trouble, especially this kind. Heck, I've gone to school with half the people in this room for years and never knew their names. Now I'm ready to ask some of them out! What do you say, Marsha? Doing anything tomorrow night?" "Okay, stop right there!" Mr. Shelby said as he sprang up. "Hold that thought, time to put Miss Ostren on the spot." Marsha looked like she wanted to die. "Miss Ostren, from a purely clinical standpoint, what do you think of Mr. McGuiness' request? Did it enhance or destroy your already established impression of him?" "Well," Marsha blushed, "destroyed may be a little harsh." "On a scale of one to ten, going from bad to good, and with him starting at five before he opened his mouth, where would you put him now?" "I don't know," she said, sounding a little embarrassed, "three?" She turned to Steve and silently mouthed, "Sorry. " "Speak up, Miss Ostren. What did I tell you the first day? We communicate in this class? Here is an important bit of wisdom for all of you: There is nothing wrong with being brutally honest as long as the honesty is more important to you than the brutality. If no one ever tells Mr. McGuiness why they won't go out with him then he may never think to improve his approach, thus leaving him lonely, depressed, and with no potential for offspring. While that may be good news for the rest of humanity, it would most likely really suck for poor Steve. Am I right, Mr. McGuiness?" "You got that right, dude. Sir." "So, Miss Ostren, would you place the problem more on what he actually said? The place and time he chose to say it? Or perhaps that he had the audacity to ask in the first place?" "Well, he could have said it better, but it was more the place and time that ruined it. I try to never fault a guy for asking." "And for that we are in your debt. The rest of you gentlemen take note; you are now indebted to Mr. McGuiness for taking the bullet and showing you that asking a woman out in front of thirty people, especially thirty people she hardly knows and has to look at every day, five days a week for the next nine and a half months is a really bad plan. Now, as to the rest of this week's lesson, any good stories about your adventures in meeting people?" It was concluded that on average girls did better than boys in the first impression area; this appeared to be due to the fact that they tended to dress better. It was also decided that the less public a venue was, the better your chances of making a solid impression. But there was a point beyond which this changed. People seemed to be much less approachable if they were alone. As long as there were witnesses around, they were usually okay, but to approach a solitary person in, say, a deserted parking lot was a really bad idea. Also, girls got name, address, and phone numbers a lot easier. But it was pretty much decided that this was for purely sexist reasons. Then the bell rang and it was time to get ready for the rally. "Mr. Matthews, a moment please." I hung back. "Jimmy," he began when everyone else had left, "are you that excited about going to the rally? Trust me when I tell you that this one is definitely not indicative of the rest. If you like, after you check in to your next class for attendance, you can come back here and we can talk." "I hadn't even thought about that, Bob, but if you are available then I would definitely like to get started. So I'll see you back here in a few minutes? Or should we go somewhere else?" "Here is as good a place as any. Unless you would like to do it over a milkshake, in which case we can meet out where we did for lunch." "I like milkshakes! See you there, gotta run." I headed out for my last class. Ten minutes later I was walking up to the table. Bob was already there, two milkshakes sat in front of him, warming in the afternoon heat. "Hi, Jimmy, would you prefer chocolate or vanilla?" "What, no strawberry? I thought you had pull around here, Bob?" He chuckled and said, "You're growing up quick, Jimmy. It's hard to believe you're the same boy that stopped me four days ago to ask about a class you didn't even know if you could get into. Of course you still blush like a stop sign every time you see Susan." I blushed on cue. "Thanks, Bob, sweet of you to bring that up. I'll be sure to remember that if I ever get a chance to perform an emergency root canal on you. And speaking of dental work, I'll take the vanilla." "I didn't know you wanted to be a dentist." I smiled. "I don't, so keep that in mind next time you decide to twist the knife." He smiled around his straw, and then toasted me with his cup as he tried hard to swallow without decorating the table. "As far as being more comfortable, I have had to learn to be very adaptable, very quickly of late. It's been an interesting week." "Does any of it have anything to do with what you wanted to talk about?" he inquired. "Very much so," I said, suddenly becoming much more serious. "I guess I should start at the beginning and give you what little I have been able to figure out." I took a deep breath <> before I said, "I told you I was a sleepwalker?" "Yes, I remember that. I thought we decided that wasn't a real problem? Unless you are looking for a cause, in which case I have to tell you that it can be hard to pin down. Is that where you are going with this?" "Not exactly." I took another deep breath and let it out. "Bob, I walk in dreams." Bob's brow furrowed slightly. "I'm not sure I follow you." "Other people's dreams." <> Bob sat silently, just looking at me oddly for a few seconds. <> "You're serious?" "Yes, very serious." "That's not possible," he said, looking at me skeptically. "How would you even know? I mean, how do you know that you're not just dreaming it? That it's not just a very elaborate dream sequence, a 'dream within a dream?' What makes you think that this is what's really happening?" "Funny, that phrase came up recently, and it was in a dream in fact. As to how I know, my sister confirmed it. Apparently she has known about it for years; I just figured it out this week." "Your sister, how old is she?" "Thirteen, but if you knew her I think you would have to agree that her age is not an issue. Bob, she has already studied and analyzed this in ways I hadn't even imagined. Like I said, she has known about it for years and has actually learned from our experiences. Did we talk about cognitive dreaming?" "We touched on it, basically controlling your dreams, or at least certain aspects of them." "Okay, let's back up for a second. For as long as I can remember, I am to my dreams what Neo was to 'The Matrix.' I told you I have never had a nightmare; well, I am the undisputed ruler of my dreams. When I dream, I see myself in one of two ways: an invisible observer or an active participant. When I say active participant, I mean I see through my own eyes. I have not experimented to any great degree as an observer, but when I am active in my sister's dreams I have control over the environment as if it were my own dream. Allison, that's my sister, actually learned to recognize the difference between when she was dreaming of me and when I was controlling the character. Not only that, she has learned to control her dreams as well. I was doing it automatically, I don't know if 'subconsciously' applies in a setting that is already believed to be subconsciously generated, but I didn't even realize that I was in her dreams rather than my own, or how I was affecting her dreams until this week. Bob, Allison 'dreamscapes, ' that's what we call it, like you wouldn't believe. She has been doing it for years, consciously. If she wants something, it's just there." "Jimmy, this is unbelievable," I could see he was getting excited just thinking about it, "and you are sure this is really going on?" "Very sure, we've been doing some experimenting." "And can she 'sleepwalk' too? I mean, into other people's dreams?" "No, she can't 'bridge, ' that's what we call it, 'bridging, ' into another person's dreams. So far, it's just me." "You said Allison's known about it for a long time but you just discovered it. How did you discover it?" <> "I bridged into someone else's dream, another friend. A good friend of ours that Allison says has a crush on me." I tried hard not to blush. It didn't work; I could feel the heat in my face. "I 'woke-up' if you can call it that, watching one of her fantasies. About halfway through it, she kissed me, she kissed her fantasy character of me, and I suddenly 'switched' roles and took over active control of my 'character.' I figured out afterwards what had happened. She, the other girl, called Allison and told her about the dream; I guess girls talk about his kind of stuff. Anyway, Allison confronted me after school and told me we had a problem and that we needed to talk. She told me about the girl's dream. Bob, it was exactly what had happened, and, just from the girl's description, Allison could pinpoint the exact moment when I took over. She then went on to hit me with everything I had already deduced and more that she had thought of." "Wow!" Bob said excitedly, "Jimmy, this is incredible! If this is real, I mean if this is really happening! Jimmy, this could be the biggest thing that has happened in the field of psychology since... forget since, Jimmy, this is huge. God, the paper I could write..." I cut him off, "No! Bob, you can't say anything! Not to anyone, ever!" I said with as much force as I could without yelling. "Why not? Jimmy, this is big stuff." "I know it is. And that is exactly why you can't let anyone know about it. Think about the reaction, Bob. You're a psychologist; you know how people think. How would the public react to the idea that some kid, or anyone for that matter, can just walk around in their deepest, darkest secrets and fantasies?" You would think that I had hit him with a bat, his face fell so far. "I'm sorry, Jimmy, I was just so caught up I wasn't thinking. You're right of course, people would freak. The paranoid fear that this could generate is unprecedented." "Don't worry about it, Allison had to explain it to me, too. Like I said, she's been thinking about it for quite a while. I guess as long as it was just with her, she didn't see it as a problem but as soon as Sh... as the other girl, <> became involved she decided we had to talk about it, and the first thing she said was that no one, no one, could know about it. Bob, how would the government react?" There was no hesitation, "You would be lucky if you ever saw the sun again, much less your family or any one else you knew. They would bury you so deep in top-secret red tape that you might just as well have been abducted by aliens. As far as that goes they might even use that to explain your disappearance, and that's what it would be, too, you would just disappear one day and no one would have a clue where you were, least of all you. Then they would turn you over to the worst sort of quote 'scientists' and you really would become that lab-rat that we joked about the other day. You would be tested, poked, prodded, then drugged and poked some more. Your life would be a living hell. They would want to learn if it could be controlled, or even better, if it could be duplicated, and if there was a way that it could be used as a weapon. God, Jimmy, the implications are staggering. I think I would like to meet your sister. You say she is only thirteen, and she already figured this all out? That is one smart girl." "Well, if nothing else, she'll be going to school here in about two years." "Damn, Jimmy! I was expecting something fairly tame. I've gotten a lot of kids over the years that thought they had problems. Usually it's just a bad case of overactive imagination. At worst, maybe dreaming about cutting the heads off of live ducklings or something. I figured it was something like that you were worried about. Jimmy, I don't even know where to start with this. It's going to take me some time to sort through all this. One thing is for certain though..." "What's that?" I asked. He got a really disgusted look on his face, "I should have charged you a hell of a lot more money! Damn! My mind is just running in circles. I wouldn't even know who to ask even if I could think of a legitimate question, and even if I think of a question and someone to ask, I can't." He looked deflated and suddenly very tired. He looked me in the eye, "I can see now why you were worried, why it was so important that you had to insure my trust and discretion. Even asking questions would be enough to attract attention you can't afford. Damn it!" he said again, slapping his hand on the table. He looked around quickly to see if he was attracting any unwanted attention before continuing more calmly, "On the one hand it's so exciting it makes me dizzy. On the other hand, it scares the shit out of me." "Welcome to my world. Only I don't find it that exciting. Don't get me wrong, it definitely has its good points, but right now the scary part casts a pretty big shadow. You have no idea how it has already complicated my life, and I just found out about it this week. I don't think it's exciting at all." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Fuck," he started then caught himself. "Sorry about that. Okay, look; I need some time to think about this. Let's take the weekend." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen. "Got any paper? What am I saying, you're a student, of course you have paper." I smiled and pulled a sheet out of one of my notebooks. "Here is my home phone number. But don't call me unless something else happens. I think I've already got all I can handle at this point. Write yours down for me as well. I may have a question or two for you that can't wait until Monday. The rally seems to be over; you better head for the bus. You do ride the bus? Never mind, it doesn't matter. Damn," he said again, shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair, "this is so confusing." "Like I said, welcome to my world. I'll only call you if I think it's really important." I started to walk away, then stopped and walked back. I stuck out my hand and said, "Thanks for your help, Bob. I really appreciate it. It's good to have someone to talk to." He stood and took my hand, shook it and held it. "No, Jimmy, thank you for trusting me enough to even consider bring this up. It's a lot and that's no lie. I can't even imagine what it must be like for you. I've got twenty plus years of experience on you and I don't have a clue where to begin. Jimmy, I will do everything I can to help you deal with this, and I will do everything I can to continue to be worthy of your trust. I promise." He shook my hand again and then I headed for home. I was still feeling pretty apprehensive about the whole thing. I had two homilies competing for space in my head. One started out "A burden Shared..." I couldn't remember the rest of it but it was encouraging. It was the other one that worried me, "A secret known by two is breached." I really wanted to talk to Allison. ------- Chapter 11: The Weekend--Friday Night Friday night. At last, a quiet evening at home! Some time to relax and reflect on the events of the week. Not! The parents had all been planning a big weekend for some time. Okay big may have been a stretch. Essentially, Mark's family was coming over to swim and barbeque and play cards tonight, and then we were all going over to their house to do the same on Saturday. Usually, the kids just played video games or swam or whatever and stayed out of the way. The biggest stress point in my life right now was that this was the first time I would see Shannon, in person, since the whole dream thing had blown up on me. I looked for Allison as soon as I got home. She was out by the pool and I tossed my stuff in the general direction of my bed and went straight out. "Hey sis, I talked to Bob. Did you talk to Shannon? What did she say? Did she tell you about the dream? What do you think? Did I do okay? Or am I in deep trouble again, or still?" Allison just looked at me for a minute, "Okay," she started, "I think I got most of it but it's going to take me a little bit to sort through it. Why don't you come back on Tuesday and we'll see how far I've gotten. Or you could just kiss me and tell me how much you missed me today and we can try it over again from the top." I blushed so hard you would have thought Susan was there. Then all I could do was laugh at myself for a few seconds. "Thanks. I needed that. I am so wound up I feel like I'm going to explode. I'm sorry. Let's try the 'start over' thing." With that I bent down and kissed her and whispered, "Hi, Allison. I missed you a lot today, and I am so glad that you are here for me to come to. Thanks." Then I kissed her again and pulled up a nearby chair to sit in. "Better?" "Jimmy, you're home! I'm so glad. I missed you a lot today too. By the way Shannon called and you are in really deep trouble now." "What!?" I couldn't believe it. "What did I do? How could I have made it worse? Oh this sucks!!" I couldn't decide if I was pissed off or depressed. Then I noticed that Allison looked like she was about to wet herself, "Oh you're cute. Thanks a lot! Like I haven't got enough stress in my life." "I'm sorry, Jimmy, I just couldn't help myself, and you really are in trouble, but it's a good kind of trouble." "Really, you're not just messing with me? So what's going on?" "Well, you know Shannon had a crush on you before?" "Yeah, I seem to remember you mentioning something about that. YES! Isn't that what got this started in the first place?" "Well, technically speaking no, but it was the most significant recent event. What I mean to say is that she had a crush on you before, but now she doesn't." "She doesn't." I was, well, crushed. "No, I don't think so. I think now I would have to say, what was that line Meg Ryan had in Top Gun? Oh yeah, 'She is one-hundred percent, prime-time, in Love with You'. Jimmy, your little chat with her last night just blew her mind. Before she just thought you were sweet. Now? You are the sweetest, most kind, wonderful, caring person to walk the planet since Christ. Of course she knows it was all a dream, just her mind clarifying the fantasy, but I think she is putting you up for the Noble Peace Prize." "You have got to be kidding." "Oh no, trust me; you scored some really major league points there. I tell you it was practically sickening the way she carried on. Okay, I'm making that part up, but the rest is true I swear. The question now is how are you going to handle it when she gets here, especially since Mark will be here too? The parents can pretty much entertain themselves, but there could be some major tension floating around the room and I don't know how you, we, are going to hide it." Crunch time and we, I, didn't have a clue. "Okay, we'll just have to wing it and pray. Let's talk about something else." "Okay, you said you talked to Bob. What did you tell him and how did he react?" "Well, I didn't tell him everything, I just hit the major stops around the diamond. He took it pretty much the way I'm taking this thing with Shannon. Meaning that he all but freaked out and has no idea where to go, if he should go, or what he should do or think about the whole thing. The good news is that after I explained my, okay your, reasoning about keeping it secret, he agreed. Boy did he agree, he basically said that abduction by hostile aliens would be preferable to what would happen if this got out." "Well, that's a positive sign anyway. Did he have any constructive suggestions?" "No, he said he was going to need most of the weekend just to sort it out. It kind of blew his mind. It's a lot to drop on someone all at once. At first he was terribly excited, I mean when you think about it, he's a certified psychiatrist, psychologist, and a researcher. This is Nobel Prize material. Then I hit him between the eyes and told him he couldn't tell or even talk to anyone about it. But he was cool about it. Once I brought up our fears and concerns he agreed a hundred and ten percent. He thinks you are absolutely right, especially about what would happen if the government got wind of it. I think he was a good choice, but then anybody who would turn their backs on the money they could make in private practice or the research end to teach High School students could never be accused of seeking glory, fame, or money. Anyway, we exchanged phone numbers. He will only call if he has an important question, and I will only call if something big happens, another 'escalation' or something like that." Allison just nodded and said, "Yeah, it's a lot to take in. I've had a lot more time to think about it just because I noticed it first. As long as it was just the two of us I didn't see a problem. In fact," she smiled and I thought I even saw a bit of a blush, "it really made me feel special, but then when you 'bridged' Shannon, well, you know the rest." "Yah, tell me about it. So, do you any suggestions on how I should handle the whole thing with Shannon tonight?" "Actually yes, I know this is going to sound really stupid, but the only thing I could come up with is, 'be yourself'." She looked at me apprehensively. "That's it? That's the best you could come up? Just 'be myself'?'" "Yes..." she said a little tentatively. "Allison, I've been counting on you to help get me through this!" I said, trying my best to sound angry and disappointed in her. I guess I'm just not that good an actor. "Sorry, I just can't keep a straight face. Don't worry about it. I've been wracking my brain over this and all I came up with was to do just that, be myself. Just let it go and see what happens. Just because I have been in her head doesn't mean the situation has changed. In fact, that was the whole point of the second visit, to try to get the situation back to where we could just act naturally and see how things went. One thing is for sure though." "What's that?" she asked. "I want to know how she tastes." Allison suddenly turned a bright shade of red and her eyes got big, "You mean?" she kind or pointed a finger at her chest and waved it back and forth. "No! Okay, maybe eventually, you little perv! I meant her kisses. I want to know how her kisses taste. I have a hunch but... well, never mind. One thing I've discovered over this week is that I really want to kiss her. You've made it clear that she wants it too, so the real challenge is how to do it without Mark finding out and wanting my head on a pole." Suddenly Allison grew one of those ear-to-ear grins. "Oh, I think I can arrange to take Mark out of the picture for long enough to give you two some free time to get better acquainted." "You mean you?... And Mark?" I was stunned. It had never occurred to me that Allison might be attracted to Mark. But then I never thought Shannon would be attracted to me either. "I know what you're thinking and the answer is no, I'm not hot for Mark. It's not that there is anything wrong with him but I'm not attracted to him. I certainly don't want to do the kind of stuff we've been doing with him, but hey, just because I don't want his bod doesn't mean I can't have fun kissing him. And he certainly can't say anything about you kissing his sister if he gets caught kissing yours, now can he?" she said. I knew that mischievous grin from past experience and I suddenly felt sorry for Mark. Okay, not that sorry. After all, I had kissed Allison and even if there was no future in it, Mark was in for a real treat. Even if it just lasted the weekend, he would have nothing to complain about. Apparently Mark had plans for the evening whether he knew it or not, which meant that I was going to be spending time with Shannon, whether I was ready or not. Suddenly I was nervous. Allison picked up on it right away. She reached over and put her hand on my knee and said, "Jimmy, you'll be fine. I know you will. Just relax, and let things work themselves out. Trust me, I know Shannon. She has a vision in her head of how she wants things to go, and if you let her, she will guide you right down the path to where she wants you to be. If things are going to fast, then just stop for a second and let it catch up. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity to just stop and enjoy the scenery before moving on. And remember, she is just as nervous as you are." I must have been holding my breath, because suddenly I let it out in a rush. "Okay, I'll try. Suddenly I like dreams a lot more. At least there I have some control." "Yeah, but just think about how nice it was for us the other day. Reality definitely has its positive points." I just looked at her and smiled, "Oh Yeah!!" We started getting things set up as much as possible for the evening. Not that there was a lot to do, the barbeque is gas but I made sure all the utensils were clean. Then I checked the chemical mix in the pool. Allison made sure we had plenty of towels on hand and that there was lemonade and iced tea in the refrigerator. Mom and Dad got home about 5:30, and the Davises would be here around 6:00. Once everything was ready we changed into swimsuits and just hung out, enjoying the time together. All the activity helped keep my mind off of what might happen later, but once I ran out of things to do I started to get nervous again. About ten minutes before time for our guests to arrive, Allison called me from the garage. "Jimmy, can you give me a hand with this?" Not knowing what she could possible need in the garage I just casually wandered out to lend a hand. The door was closed and the room was dark, my eyes had not adjusted to the room so I couldn't see anything. As I reached for the light switch a slender arm shot out of the darkness and grabbed my hand, pulling me to one side. Suddenly; a very soft pair of lips was pressing against mine and a tongue was demanding entrance. I may be slow but I'm not dead yet. I opened up and let the games begin. Allison and I spent a couple of heated minutes going two out of three for the Southwestern Tongue Wrestling Championship before she broke off. "There, now will you relax!" It was all I could do not to bust out laughing. I barely managed to keep it down to a chuckle. I reached over and turned on the light. "I hate to disappoint you, sunshine, but kissing you is definitely not a relaxing pastime, just the opposite in fact. Not that I'm complaining by any means, don't get me wrong. As distractions go it rates really high on my list, and it did a great job of taking my mind off of Shannon. In fact any time you feel like doing that again, I'm here for you. And it was fun, but now I have a whole different problem, at least before I could walk around the house without worrying about funny looks and questions; now look what you've done." Allison glanced down and burst out laughing. "Oh, I see what you mean. Sorry about that. Guess I wasn't thinking far enough ahead." Then she leaned in close and breathed into my ear. "I wish we had more time and less people, maybe I could help you out with that problem." "Oh thanks!" I said, grabbing her shoulders and pressing her away from me. "Sis, you're not helping!" I gave her a quick kiss on the nose before letting go, "but thanks for trying. Now run away somewhere before I get us both in trouble and let me figure out how to make this go away." She just giggled and flitted through the door. I had already figured out how to kill a little time and justify being in the garage so long. I took a minute to let the tent collapse then went in to get my dad's keys. Returning to the garage I hit the button and opened the door. Then I backed the car out and rolled our old ping-pong table out to the center of the floor. Mark and I used to play for hours on end but hadn't used it in about a year. After opening it up I dusted it off then started digging through cupboards looking for the net, balls and paddles. Eventually I had it all set up. I closed the garage and was just heading back into the house when I heard a car pull up. Our guests were arriving. It was show time. I took a couple of deep breaths to try to calm myself, and then gave up as it wasn't working. I decided instead that a good offense was the best defense and went to open the door, ritually greeting everyone as they entered, "Hey Mark, Mr-Mrs. Davis, hello Shannon." I tried hard to keep my voice and tone even but couldn't tell how I was doing. At least I hadn't blushed. That didn't last long. "Jimmy, don't you remember. I'm Karen," Karen said then she kissed me on the cheek. Mr. Davis took the exchange in stride and stuck out his hand. "I guess that makes me Tom. Or at least it better because I happen to know that's her husband's name!" he said, shaking my hand. "Good evening, Karen, Tom, you're right about the name. First rate guy from what I've heard," I said, shaking his hand. That cracked him up. "Really? Well, just in case, if you see him coming? Try to give me a quick heads up so I can make it over the fence before he catches me here with his wife would you? Thanks! You're a pal." With that the two of them headed for the back patio. Mark had never even slowed down on his way through. I could already see him with a soda in his hand talking to my mom and dad. Shannon had hung back though. "Good evening, Jimmy," she said shyly and kissed me on the cheek. I'm not sure if my blush matched hers but it must have been close. "Why good evening, Miss Shannon, I must say, you are looking quite lovely this evening." I took her hand, kissed it, and then turned and offered her my elbow. "May I escort you to the guest area?" She positively beamed as she took my arm, "Why thank you, sir!" and we were off to the back yard. As I opened the screen door and stepped through I thumped my hand sharply against the wall twice and said loudly, "The Lady Shannon Davis," and then passed her through. She stopped and dropped a passable curtsey. It needed work but then how many of us are used to formal introductions. Allison and the parents got right into the spirit of things and politely applauded. Mark just rolled his eyes and said, "Oh please." It was a good thing he had set his soda down because the next sound you heard was him screaming and hitting the water as Allison shoved hard. Then she turned back to the rest of us as if nothing had happened, stuck her nose in the air and said, "Cad." Everyone cracked up, except of course Mark; who came up spitting and sputtering. "Hey, whatja do that for?" Allison ignored him and said, "Did you hear something? Kind of a high pitched whining sound?" "Why you little..." Mark started, then swung and sent a huge splash her way, "I'm going to get you for that." Allison easily dodged the spray then turned on him, "Think so? You don't scare me tough guy. Shannon, I think this boorish young rouge needs a lesson in manners. Would you care to assist?" "Absolutely!'' A second later two more splashes hit the pool. The parents decided that more distance would be a really good idea and moved back toward the picnic table, shaking their heads and muttering about how it looked like it was going to be a long night. I just casually wandered over to the edge and sat down to enjoy the show. The girls were doing their best to drown Mark and he was quickly discovering that the size and strength advantage he had enjoyed over the years had suddenly disappeared into thin air. The girls were definitely getting the best of him. "Dude! A little help?" I just held up my hands in the universal gesture for denial and said, "What, you think I'm crazy? I warned you the other day, but would you listen? Nooo. Well, you got yourself into this mess and I still have a lot to live for." As I was going through this little speech he had been dunked twice more and was starting to get desperate. "Duuuude!" he yelled imploringly. The parents of course thought this was all just hysterical. I rolled my eyes and slipped into the pool, "Well, I guess if I must. Let's see, maybe if I just..." My hands shot out and I suddenly grabbed Allison by the waist and tossed her about four feet away. She 'yelped' and grabbed a breath before going under. I quickly turned my attention to Shannon, "And as for you..." Again my hands shot out but this time I made no attempt to pick her up and toss her. For one thing she is taller and weighs about twenty pounds more than Allison. Besides, I didn't actually want her farther away, you know. Instead I just grabbed her around the waist and began tickling hard and pulling her towards me. Immediately she started screaming laughter and struggling to break free. Mark started to move in but Allison landed solidly on his back and began trying to tickle him and pull him down at the same time. This did a wonderful job of diverting him and left me with only Shannon to worry about. I wasn't really tickling that hard and she wasn't really struggling that hard, but we put on a heck of a show. Allison did a wonderful act of her own. Of course, by herself she was no match for Mark, but then, she wasn't really trying that hard either. Before long the tables were turned and she was laughing so hard she seemed in danger of drowning. She finally yelled, "Okay, I give up! I give up! Stop!" She threw her arms around Mark's neck and swung herself up where he had only two choices, catch her and carry her like a little girl, or fall over. Apparently her plan worked as he caught and held her. Shannon and I took this as our cue to cease hostilities as well and we just stopped where we were, crouched down in the water with only our heads showing. To the casual observer everything seemed normal but closer inspection would have shown that we were in fact holding hands under the water. Good thing the pool doesn't have lights. "Are you going to behave yourself now?" Mark demanded of Allison. She surprised him by kissing him on the cheek and squeezing his neck more firmly. "I promise! I'll be good." Mark just looked shocked for a second then set her back on her feet, "You'd better, or there's more where that came from." Allison was facing back towards us and Mark had no idea of the smile on her face or wink she tossed our way. He was oblivious. If anyone had mistaken him for anything else they would have quickly been dissuaded as he yelled towards the parents' table, "Hey, when do we eat?" Everyone laughed and the evening was officially kicked off. After dinner the parents settled in to play cards. Allison yelled, "Clear." Shannon and I held back just enough to let Mark get in "Clear" ahead of us. This left us doing dishes. I complained just enough to not let on that I knew it was a set up. Allison challenged Mark to Mario Cart racing and the two of them headed off to my room. Since it was barbeque there wasn't that much to do and I decided that doing them the old fashioned way would give us more time. I broke the ice quickly by wiping suds down her arm, which led to a handful aimed at my head, which led to a complete breakdown and general mayhem. After a few seconds we were interrupted by Mom's voice from the other room, "You break it you buy it, and I just mopped that floor!" "Okay, Mom!" I yelled back, and then whispered to Shannon, "You're going to pay for that." I grabbed another handful of suds. She grabbed my wrist and did her best to keep me at bay. I 'gave up' and went back to doing the dishes. Two minutes later I reached past her for something and gave her a light 'hip-check.' She gave me a larger check back and I feigned major damage, mouthing an exaggerated "Ow!" at her and rubbing my injured hip. She mimed a pout. I pouted back and wiped an invisible tear from my eye. She gave me a silent "awe-poor thing" and kissed me on the cheek. <> I thought to myself. After she pulled back I waited a second then looked her in the eye and leaned in to kiss her mouth. Her eyes got big and then she closed them and leaned into me. I placed a delicate kiss on her lips, holding it for just a half second then pulled back. I watched as her eyes came open again and she blushed. We turned back to the sink as if nothing had happened. Then she 'checked' me again very lightly. I checked her back but left my hip against hers. We stayed that way and finished up silently, with much brushing of arms and touching of fingers. When we were finishing up I dried my hands and handed her the towel. As she took it, I reached up, put my hand behind her neck and gently pulled her face toward mine. Her lips were slightly parted when we met and I took the hint. I eased my tongue slowly forward to brush the surface of her lips and her tongue came out tentatively to meet mine. It was really nice! We held this for a few seconds, just gently exploring back and forth, not trying to move 'indoors' as it were, then broke apart again. I trailed my hand down from her neck to her hand and gave it a squeeze, then nodded with my head towards the door. She pouted again and I smiled, gave her a wink and kissed her on the nose. I was surprised. Through all of this I somehow had managed to actually keep calm. I wasn't nervous, my heart wasn't even trying pound its way out of my chest. We let go of each other's hands and tried to look normal as we headed out past the 'rents. They were engrossed in their game and probably wouldn't have noticed if we were naked. On a whim I stopped to ask if anyone needed anything before we abandoned them. After a general round of 'no thanks' I gave them a stern admonishment of, "Now you kids play nice and keep it down," getting the expected responses. The rituals now completed, Shannon and I went in search of our siblings. As we went down the hall, you could hear the sound of the video game but I could tell it was in pause mode as I recognized the music. I grabbed Shannon's hand and pulled her back slightly, putting my finger to my lips and 'shh-ed" her. Then, still holding her hand I crept forward. The door was just slightly cracked and we peeked in. Sure enough, Allison had a serious lip-lock on Mark and they appeared to be trying to extract each other's tonsils. Shannon and I just looked at each other and shared a silent laugh. Then straightened up and threw the door open. "Hey! Miss us?" You would have thought a rabid lion had charged in, ravenous and roaring. Allison and Mark jerked apart and both blushed. Allison was a little red, but Mark looked like a cartoon thermometer that was about to blow! Allison was enjoying this as much as we were and gave us a wink when Mark wasn't looking. "Oh, uh, hey guys. Uh, we were just talking, you know, while we were playing and uh..." Shannon interrupted, "Talking? And exactly what language were you speaking? Slobberanian?" I chimed in, "Yes, what is the native tongue there?" Allison cracked up and Mark just looked at me like 'dude, you are not helping.' I guess she took pity on him because Allison spoke up, "It was my fault, Jimmy. I was telling Mark about a boy at school and how at the end of the year he was 'puppy dogging' me, and that I had been thinking about kissing him but I didn't know what to do. So he said he would show me." Mark was trying hard not to look any more shocked at this explanation than necessary, but he took the bait. Actually it was more like watching a drowning man grab at a life preserver. "Yeah, uh, I was just trying to help her out, you know. You wouldn't want her to like, embarrass herself or anything. Anyway, like it was just a kiss." Shannon and I just looked at each other and smiled. "So, who's winning?" I asked, changing the subject and giving him a much needed way out. "Me," Allison said, elbowing Mark and hitting the start button on her controller, thereby releasing the game from pause mode. "No way, I'm up two games to one already." "Yeah but I'm way ahead this game, and you are going down this time." Just as she said this Mark caught up to her and she viciously cut him off, forcing him off the track and into a ditch. "Hey! That's cheating!" "Says you, loser!" Shannon and I slipped across the room and sat quietly holding hands watching the competition. Allison won the race, which put them tied. We decided to let them play one more to determine a winner. It stayed close right up to the end then Mark pulled out a last minute speed bonus to blow past her for the win. Being a guy he immediately leaped to his feet, proclaiming himself victor and high-five'd the adoring crowd, all two of us. Shannon took the controller and said, "Okay hot shot, move over and let some serious players race. We'll go best of five and you can then play winner." "Cool. Anybody want a soda?" "My hands were starting to cramp anyway," Allison said. "I think I'll go swim for a while. I can't swim alone though, could you come watch me please, Mark?" You'd think he had found money in his pocket. His eyes lit up and he said, "Sure thing. I could use a good stretch anyway. See you guys later." Suddenly we were alone. I picked up the abandoned controller and said, "She's good," with obvious pride in my voice. "Yeah she is," Shannon agreed, "poor guy doesn't have a clue." "So, you want to race?" I asked, turning towards her with the controller held loosely in my hand. "Eventually," she said, smiling as she put hers on the floor. Mine followed almost immediately as her arms magically snaked around my neck and she pulled me into another kiss. There was no hesitation in this one. No quiet teasing around the borders of propriety. She drove her tongue into my mouth with no warning and I found myself in a fight for my virtue. Thinking is hard to do when you are kissing and I didn't make much of an effort. Sitting sideways on the edge of the bed is not a very comfortable position though. I decided to take the initiative while letting her have the aggressor's position and laid myself back on the bed. Shannon shifted to a comfortable angle to one side and moved in for the kill. Something was tickling at the back of my brain and about a minute into the next round it hit me. <> A quick trip down memory lane confirmed that yes, that is what had been different about Allison's real-life kiss as well. She had tasted like Shannon had in my dream with her. Talk about mind blowing, Shannon and Allison had been making out! Once again memories cascaded and in a series of insightful flashes I understood more about both dreams. Obviously they were new to this and had not proceeded far. Just to kissing, probably into caressing but no further. Otherwise they would have projected the 'taste' of each other's breasts, just as they had projected the 'taste' of each other's mouths when I had kissed them. And, since the 'flavors' were so exactly like the real things, they were also each other's firsts. Otherwise the remembered sensations of tastes they projected onto the dream would have been blended with others before. <> came the warning into my head. I certainly wouldn't want Shannon to be disappointed with our first time together. I shifted around a little and wrapped one arm around her, stroking her back and side as we melted our way through the next kiss. This brought an appreciative sigh from her and her hand came up to stroke my chest. I have no idea how long we had been at it when the reality that there was no noise coming from the pool area made an impression on the edge of my mind. "They're coming." I said and started to sit up. Shannon shot up and around and we both grabbed our controllers and started a new race. We were about half way through when Mark and Allison came in. Both with towels wrapped around their wet suits. They both looked a little guilty although in Allison's case I knew it was an act. Mark said, "So, who's winning?" "I'm letting her win," I said without looking up. Shannon elbowed me and said, "Are not, like I need you to 'let' me win, loser!" Then she tried to force me off the track like Allison had done to Mark. Unfortunately for her, Allison had done that enough that I was ready for it and dodged away at the last instant and her own cart went skidding across the lane and off the track. "See!" I said. That got me full shove and I all but toppled off the bed, "Hey! That's cheating." The racing ended with Mark and me in the finals. Shannon and I had only run the one race but there was certainly no need to tell him that. I waxed him in short order. He really wasn't that good. Allison certainly could have trashed him if she had felt like it. She's a fierce competitor and it was all I could do to beat her when we raced. Once the racing was over Mark and I headed to the garage for ping-pong. The girls were headed to the 'ladies-room' and said they would join us shortly. They did eventually come out. Mark and I were on our third game by then so they certainly hadn't been in any hurry. I had a pretty good idea that they had been comparing notes. Even given my new certainty of the depth of their friendship, I doubted that they had gone any farther with so many people around. Ping-Pong kept us busy for another hour or so. Mark had beaten me 6 out of our 10 games. After that we paired up with the girls for doubles, want to guess the teams? That was fun. Especially after Shannon invented the rule that you had to keep your arm around your partner and move together the whole time. That was hysterical both to watch and to attempt. By the time they all went home I was feeling tired, but also very happy about the evening. I was pretty sure I had handled the situation well, but hey, I'm a guy and this was essentially my first 'date' if you could call it that, with a girl. I needed an objective opinion. Okay, not totally objective, after all, she was actually pretty involved, but I could count on Allison to not play favorites between Shannon and I. ------- Chapter 12: Interlude Allison was waiting for me in the glade. "So, how was your evening with Shannon?" "Allison, a gentleman does not kiss and tell," I chided her. "Right! Don't make me hurt you. It's up to you though. Either you can tell me, or I can stop helping you with her. What do you think, benevolent assistance or flying on a wing and a prayer? You might as well tell me anyway. You know she is going to and then it will be too late to get your side of the story in." "Okay, okay. I was just kidding. It was really nice. I think it went well. Thanks for your help with Mark by he way. How was he?" "Well, he's definitely not you. He needs a lot of practice. And after tomorrow I think he's going to need a new partner. I don't think I can keep this up very long. You've seriously spoiled me. What about Shannon?" I gave her a sideways glance to see if I could tell anything from her eyes, "Well, she was different. For one thing her mouth is a little, umm, fuller I guess is the word. I don't want to say big, but bigger than yours. Probably just a proportion thing, she is bigger than you period. I think your lips are softer, but it's hard to say? I'll need to do some more research and get back to you. Can I ask you a question?" "What's that?" She asked. "How long have you two been 'best friends'?" Allison just sat there, saying nothing... then finally said, "Figured that out did you? Not that long. What gave it away?" "You remember when I said you tasted different the first time I kissed you for real? Well she did too. The really interesting part is that the two of you tasted exactly opposite of each other in the dream versus the reality. Since I didn't have any experience to go by, it had to have been your experience projecting into the dream. Your experience therefore had to be with each other. That also means that for both of you, the other was your first, and since the taste was so exact, only real kisses... How did I do?" "You're getting better at thinking all the way through the data. That's important when dealing with something as subjective as 'dreamscapes". As far as the rest, we've been together twice. It started out one night when I slept over at her house. But it could have just as easily happened here. We woke up in the middle of the night spooned up really close together, I was practically on top of her, one leg over hers, my arm completely across her chest, my whole body pressed to her side. It felt so good, I just can't describe it. Well, maybe I can, you remember the other night when mom got home and I was crashed out in your lap? It was like that. Anyway, we both opened our eyes at the same time. We were maybe two, three inches apart max. I just looked in her eyes for a second and all I wanted to do was kiss her. So I did. It felt so good. Before you know it we were sucking face like there was no tomorrow. We just couldn't get enough of each other. That's when we really started talking, sharing all the intimate stuff. We're taking it slow, just kissing so far. But we both want more. I want her almost as much as I want you. You don't mind do you?" "No! Don't be silly. I am not any more jealous of you two than you are about each other being with me. I'm happy you found each other. You certainly could have picked a more dangerous way to experiment about sex, like some strange boy from school... or Mark." That got a smile out of her. "Not likely. Jimmy, you are the only boy I ever wanted to do anything like that with. So far, the same has been true for Shannon. But you weren't ready. And now we can all learn together." "Yeah, that's been really nice. In fact I'm looking forward to my next set of lessons, but not tonight. Maybe we can watch for an opportunity tomorrow. And thanks again for keeping Mark occupied." I kissed her again and said, "Wait here, I'll be back in a minute." I got up and walked out the door. Then I woke up and climbed out of bed and walked to Allison's room. She woke up when her door opened and saw it was me. She pulled back her covers and held them for me as I climbed in beside her. Then she snuggled close to me and laid her head on my chest. We passed the night silently together, just being together, nothing more needed. When I drifted off to sleep I found myself again in the glade. Only now a large hammock stood beside the blanket and Allison and I held each other here as well. And it was good. ------- Chapter 13: The Weekend--Saturday I woke early Saturday morning. Allison was still asleep, cuddled up close to me. Her warm breath gently tickled the fine hairs on my chest, her warm body pressed against mine. I decided then that this was a great way to wake up. As wonderful as it was though, Mother Nature was calling my name in a very loud voice. I tried to slip out without waking her but it was no use, her eyes opened, she gave a little stretch and then hugged me close. "Oooooh," she sighed. "Don't go; this is really nice." "Yes it is," I whispered, kissing her lightly on the forehead, "but I really have to make a pit stop. Besides, I think it would be better if Mom and Dad didn't find us this way. Don't you?" She sighed again and said, "Yeah, you're probably right. No sense making waves, but it sure is nice. I hope we can do it again soon." She perked up a little and whispered in my ear, "There are a lot of things I hope we can do again soon if you know what I mean." Suddenly I felt a different kind of pressure building in my groin. I decided I better make a break for it while I had the chance. I kissed her again quickly, "Me too, but now is definitely not the time." I crawled out of bed and slipped off to the bathroom. As I closed Allison's door, my parents' door opened and my mom stepped into the hall. I froze. Mom took in the scene, just looking at me for a second. She walked casually up, kissed me on the cheek and whispered, "We'll talk later." She then walked down the hall to the kitchen. I had no idea what to do, but I still had to go really bad, so I just resumed my interrupted journey to the bathroom. After relieving the pressure I decided to forego my morning run and jumped in the shower. By the time I was out and dressed, everyone else was up and scattered comfortably around the living room. Allison still had her bathrobe on. You could tell that everyone was still struggling toward consciousness. I got myself a glass of orange juice and walked out to join them. I looked around the room and all I could think to say was, "Man, you all look like death warmed over. Was there a party that I didn't know about?" Mom just shook her head, Dad grunted once, Allison just couldn't resist, "Yeah! We were hoping you would show up. We needed someone to run for ice and do clean up." "Gee, sorry I missed it. Any objections to pancakes?" The motion carried by a wide margin so I headed back to the kitchen and started making a mess. Not too much later we were all sitting around the table feeling much more alive, recapping the week and discussing what was left of the weekend. "I didn't really have much in the way of homework. I think they are going easy until we get settled into the routine again." "Wow!" said Allison. "What a coincidence, I didn't have any homework either!" I threw my wadded up napkin at her. It missed, but it's the effort that counts. "Careful, pumpkin," Mom chided her, "you may be eating those words in the near future. Just remember whom you have to turn to if you need any help with your schoolwork. Your father and I don't even speak the language anymore and you passed both of us a couple years ago. You don't want to have to grovel too much when it's time to start studying for those math tests again." "Yeah, better watch yourself, sunshine; you never know when I might suddenly develop temporary memory blocks or outright amnesia at just the wrong time." She stuck her tongue out at me and everyone laughed. Dad took over from there. "Okay then. I guess everyone has a pretty free weekend. We should probably all do our best to enjoy it, as it may be the last one we have for a while. Dinner and other good things are planned again tonight at the Davis'. The bus leaves at 4:30 or you are welcome to walk. Let me know if anyone is planning to sleep over." "And some of us," he looked at me, "have chores to do tomorrow. As long as they get done no one will care when. So, if you feel like doing them today and bumming around tomorrow that's up to you. Extra income is available to anyone who wants to wash cars. Your mother and I are seriously considering seeing a movie tomorrow so if you don't get it done today you probably would have to resort to bank robbery or extortion if you wanted to increase your cash flow." "I can do cars." I popped up; I'm always looking for extra money. "Can I help?" Allison inquired. "Oh, I'm sure we could negotiate an acceptable wage for training underage, unqualified, short people who want to get in the way. How much can you afford to pay?" I lit the fuse... ... and the bomb went off, right on schedule, "Pay! Un-qualified? Short! I'll show you who's un-qualified. How about you do one, and I'll do one and Mom and Dad will decide who did the better job. Winner takes all!" "Oh, I don't know sis, that seems a little extreme, I mean I would hate to see you do all that hard work for nothing." "Okay, Okay, that's enough. Let's not spoil a perfectly good weekend. And you are not putting your father and I in the middle. No way! You can both wash the cars, together. Try not to kill each other in the process. Now kiss and make up." I couldn't believe me ears. Did my mother really just say that? After what she saw this morning? I looked at Allison and she was blushing hard. I wasn't far behind her. We leaned together and brushed lips, and then sat back. Dad was right there, "You call that a kiss? Mother, I think we have failed in our child rearing. Would you assist me?" "Happy to darling, pay attention now children." With that they both stood up and went into overdrive. A full on spit-swapping, tongue duel right there at the kitchen table. All I could do was sit and stare. I mean PDAs had always been the norm around our family, but this was a whole new level of exposure. Allison and I had both seen, and done, just as much and more, but when it's your parents... I think Allison voiced it best. "Eewwwe!" she cried, "Mom! Oh, I am traumatized for life! I can't believe I just saw that. Gross! Get a room." Mom and Dad just cracked up; apparently Mom couldn't help twisting the knife. "Oh good idea honey, you know I have one available right down the hall, what do you say big guy?" Allison clapped her hands over her ears, "Oh! You did not go there! Hello! Young and impressionable here! Not to mention a weak stomach! Double gross!" Even I had to laugh there, "So what are you guys thinking of seeing?" I asked just to change the subject. "Actually we hadn't given it a lot of thought. I'm not even sure what's out. It's just that with you kids being older and able to be by yourselves without us worrying about you, we've decided that we want to take advantage of it and spend some more quality time doing something besides watching TV and doing housework. So get used to it. We'll most likely just pick something out of the paper in the morning. You two are welcome to come as long as you see something that is playing in a different theatre at about the same time." "That might be fun. What do you think, Sis? We could actually get to see a good movie for a change. Who knows, maybe even one from this century?" "Wow! Do you really think so? Cool." "Hey!!" Came the echoed reply. Parents in stereo, now there's an interesting sound. That pretty much ended the discussion. We cleaned up breakfast and then did our usual Saturday stuff. Change the beds, dust, vacuum, laundry, and that sort of thing. Then I threw on my trunks and headed out to get started on the cars. I rapped on Allison's door as I passed. "You ready, munchkin?" "Just a second." The door cracked open slightly, Allison glanced quickly to see if anyone else was near then threw the door back. She was stark naked! It was another 'deer in the headlights' moment. I suddenly realized I was having a lot of them lately. She closed the door after just a couple seconds, but the image had already burned itself into my retinas by then. I could see the afterimage, like a photonegative. Perky breasts with very stiff nipples seemed to dominate most of the scene, but the rest filled in nicely around them. Right down to the wispy growth of silky hair nestled right above God's greatest gift. I was instantly hard and headed out to the garage to try and distract myself from myself. Allison came out a few minutes later in her sun worshipping attire. I swear the little triangles of material covered even less today than they had just a couple days before. This was not helping my problem. I wanted to pull on a couple of well-placed knots and see what happened. Showing massive amounts of self-restraint I filled the wash bucket with water, added soap, and dropped in the big sponge that we use. About half way through Dad's truck, Allison took the sponge, looked me in the eye and squeezed soapy water down her front starting at her collarbone and letting it just run down from there. Wow, that was hot! A few seconds later she moved to the front where she couldn't be seen from the house or street and did it again. Only this time she dropped the sponge and started rubbing the suds all over herself. I thought I was going to shoot off right there. "Tease!" I whispered as I walked past. "It's only teasing if you don't follow through," she whispered back. "Oh, do you have a problem? Maybe I can help. She walked up to me and reached to put her hand around my neck. Then she suddenly reached down and grabbed the front of my suit, pulled it away from my body and sprayed the hose down the front of me. I jumped back like I had been scalded. When had she picked up the hose? "Oh, you are so going to get it! Are you crazy? You know what happened with Shannon after she did that!" "Oh, I know," she said with a wicked smile, "in fact, I'm counting on it!" Sometimes life is good. "Well, don't count on it today. Mom caught me coming out of your room this morning." She froze. "She did? Did she say anything?" "Well she didn't actually see me come out but there's really no other way you could interpret it. I mean I was standing there with my hand on the knob and it was obvious I wasn't going in. It was weird; all she did was whisper, 'we'll talk later' and then went off down the hall. I thought we were toast." We finished up the cars without too much more stress, then hit the pool for some relaxation before heading to dinner. Considering the morning events, we kept it clean except for a couple of underwater kisses. Fun enough, but I hate to rush something like that. Then it was time to head for the Davis'. Apparently no one felt like walking. Okay, I'll be honest. Mr. Davis is way better than my dad on the grill. Dinner was just plain fabulous. After dinner, the girls volunteered for clean up duty. While I was a little disappointed at not having the quality time with Shannon, it would have been pretty conspicuous if we had volunteered two nights in a row. It could easily have ended in a rush trip to the emergency room to be sure nothing was seriously wrong with either of us. Either way, Mark and I ended up in his room playing games. We were creeping through a jungle on a commando raid when he said, "Dude, about last night, are you cool with me and Allison making out like that? I mean it's just fun and all, I promise. There's like, nothing going on between us or anything." "Well..." I began. "Because if you're not down with it then I'll tell her we gotta stop. It might be a little hard on her but you know, friends are important. I don't want you to think I'm not enjoying it or anything. I mean she's a great kisser. Wow is she good. You might think about keeping an eye on her because she's definitely been getting some practice in somewhere. But if you..." He stopped as the girls came in. Allison plopped down next to him and stuck her arm through his. "Whatcha doin'?" "Commando raid," he explained, "we're trying to blow up this chemical plant without getting our asses shot off. "That's a dollar," Shannon said. "Oh yeah, sorry." He paused to sneak around a corner the explained, "I'm supposed to be trying to stop swearing. She gets me for a buck every time I say a bad word. It sucks man, we just started and I'm into her for like all next week's allowance already." Shannon smiled and said, "I'm hoping to have enough for a car by the time I reach high school. Even if I can't drive it right away it would still be pretty cool." "Dream on! I'm not that bad." Suddenly a siren started in the game, we'd been spotted by the sentries. "Shit! Damn, that's another dollar." "And now it's two!" Shannon piped up cheerily, "I like this game; it pays way better than Mario Cart!" "Bite me." "That's my job!" Allison popped in. Then she took his chin and turned his face toward her and kissed him right in front of us. She bit his lip gently as she pulled back. "Of course if you'd rather Jimmy did it instead?" We all laughed at that and I said, "No thanks. I think I'll pass. And Mark, as far as whether or not I'm upset about you making out with Allison..." I turned and pulled Shannon down onto my lap and we proceeded to do the tonsil dance for a few seconds. Then looked back at him, and said, "I'm okay if you are." You could see the shock on his face. "Well I guess you guys had to find some way to keep yourselves busy last night. And after all, we started it, so hey, I guess we're all cool. I'm gonna grab a soda, anybody else want one?" He left and the three of us waited until he was well down the hall before we lost it. "God girl, what did you do to him?" Shannon asked, "It's like you fried his brain or something. He is like totally clueless." "Come on now," I said, coming to Mark's defense, "how long would you last if she hit you with that kind of attack? I know I wouldn't last ten seconds, I don't think you would either. In fact, I doubt if you did." Shannon just looked at me for a second, and then looked at Allison. Allison just kind of shrugged and said, "He figured it out on his own. I didn't tell him anything." "Really?" She looked at me, "and it doesn't bother you?" I looked back at her. "Like I told her, it doesn't bother me any more than it bothers you about her and I, or her about you and I. If it makes you happy, I'm all for it. So no, it doesn't bother me." Just then Mark walked back in and said, "What doesn't bother you?" "Nothing big, Allison and Shannon are secretly lovers; they've been practicing kissing on each other when we're not around." "Dude, you are such a bad liar. Here's a tip. Next time, try not to go so far out into left field. A good lie has to be at least somewhat believable or it doesn't stand a chance. On the other hand, if you're not busy on Tuesday nights I would love to get you at a poker table. I think I could win back what I owe Shannon in one hand. Here, I brought you a DP. Allison and Shannon, get real." We played for another hour or so then went out to their pool. We splashed around for a while but eventually ended up coupled off at opposite ends. Shannon and I had the deep end furthest from the back door. After a few minutes of thermonuclear kissing, Shannon whispered into my ear, "Touch me." I was confused. I already hand my arms around her, "I am touching you silly." I tickled her gently to emphasize the point. She rolled her eyes, "No silly," she drew my hand from around her waist and moved it up to touch her breast, "I meant, touch me." "Oh!" I'm glad it was dark so she couldn't tell if I was blushing. "Are you sure, Shannon? I don't want to seem like I'm rushing things. It's not about that to me." Suddenly she reached back and popped the catch on her top, "Oh, Jimmy, you are just too sweet! Yes I'm sure. I want you to touch me. I want you to hold me, I want you to do all the things that you did with Allison, and I want to do them to you too." She covered my hand with hers, moved it firmly up to cover her breast, and then squeezed a few times to make sure that I got the message. Okay, I can take a hint, and it's not like I didn't want to. I squeezed and stroked and caressed her breasts. Taking turns with either hand, you know, so one wouldn't feel neglected. I rolled the nipples between my fingers. That got a sigh of delight from her. All the while we were trading hot kisses. When I pinched lightly and pulled one of them outward from her chest she moaned into my mouth and her hand dropped to stroke the bulge that had formed in the front of my suit. She stroked it up and down a couple of times. "Can I touch it?" she asked in a husky voice. I took her wrist and guided it to the waistband of my trunks. She slid her hand in slowly, teasing at my pubic hair a little before continuing down to touch my engorged member. Now it was my turn to moan appreciably. She wrapped her hand carefully around my cock and squeezed gently, marveling in the soft hardness of it. I thought my head would explode. When she started to move her hand back and forth, though, it rapidly became irritating and I started to wilt. She pulled back and looked at me. "Am I doing it wrong?" she asked, in some distress. "No, you're doing just fine. But water is a really poor lubricant and it kind of takes away from the whole experience." "Oh." She squeezed lightly a few times, just holding her hand in one place. As she felt me recover she giggled. "That's so weird, and sooo hot. I wish we could go someplace else." "Me too. Are you sure I'm not rushing you?" "You? Jimmy, if anything, I'm the one pushing you. Mostly because I don't think you would do anything first, you're too nice. No, you're not rushing me. If I had you someplace alone and private right now, I'd already have your clothes off and be doing a lot more than just this." She squeezed again for emphasis. "Would you do something for me?" "Sure, anything," I said. "Well anything that isn't going to get me arrested if we get caught." "We're not going to get caught. Touch me, you know, down there." "Really?" She really was setting a quick pace. "Yes really! I'd do it myself but I'm a little occupied, right now." She squeezed again. I moved my hand down from her breast and stroked down the front of her suit. I could almost feel the heat coming off the material. I could feel the indentation of her slit. She sighed and moved against me and her mouth sought mine. I applied more pressure as I continued to stroke up and down over her mound. Her breathing started to speed up. Her grip on my cock was starting to become dangerously firm. I stopped for a second and tugged at her wrist. She opened her eyes and looked at me funny for a second. "I'm afraid you're going to do permanent damage if you don't let go." She blushed and whispered, "Oh, sorry." I kissed her and returned to stroking her through her suit. I remembered something from my time with Allison and split two fingers to run down along the edges where her suit met her thigh. She gasped and tried to stick her tongue further down my throat. After a few passes I brought my fingers back together and pressed hard into the depression underneath, trying to gauge the location of that special spot. When I thought I was close I started rubbing harder and was rewarded as a low whine escaped her mouth. Within seconds she had both hands on my shoulders to steady herself and was biting her lip to keep quiet. I felt her muscles tense and realized what was about to happen. Her head went back slightly and her mouth started to open. Uh-OH! Not here! There was no way she could make that kind of noise without us getting caught! If Mark didn't kill me the parents surely would. I kissed her hard as her body started to shake and my mouth muffled the small scream she let out as her orgasm washed over her. I kept it up for just a few seconds, just playing with her tongue and lightly continuing to rub her crotch until I was sure she had finished then pulled back. "You okay?" "Yeah," she breathed, and then looked at me and more forcefully said, "No! God no, I want to do it again. Right now, and then again. Oooh, that was sooo nice. I can't wait to get you alone." She leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "And naked." I about lost it right there in the pool and she wasn't even touching me. I took a deep breath and said, "Are you sure? I mean really sure, Shannon? Because you don't have to do that, not for me. I mean I want to too, but it's not something I expect or that you need to do to keep me interested, or anything like that. Shannon, I'm not going anywhere, and I can wait." "Of course I want to do it for you silly, but I want to do it for me even more." She grinned and leaned her forehead against mine. "You don't mind if I use you for sex do you? Just a little bit?" "Shannon Lynn Davis, if it will make you happy then I am all for it. Just so long as it's what you want. And don't worry; I will be a very willing participant, but have you thought about birth control? As much as we may want to do this I don't think either one of us wants to take a chance that we may regret it, especially that kind of chance." "That must be why I'm falling so hard for you, Jimmy, you are always so thoughtful. Always worrying about me, and what I think, or feel. You always have been. Yes, and you don't need to worry. Last month when I saw my doctor for my physical we talked about it. She said that if I ever even thought that I might want to get active that she would approve me for one of those shots that keep you from getting pregnant for like three months. But she also gave me a box of condoms because the shots won't help with STDs and such. I don't think we'll need those though. I don't think there's any risk that you may have been exposed to anything is there?" "Not hardly, the only people I've been 'exposed' to, or even plan to be exposed to, are you and Allison." "Good. And the only other people we have been with is each other and that wasn't even that serious. I think I can speak for Allison when I say we are planning to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. So tell me, do her boobies taste as good as they feel?" "Better," I said, "they're like licking a silk ice cream cone. Only better because they are warm and you can't get cavities from them. And I can't wait to taste yours. I'll bet you taste just as sweet." "Ooooh, I think I'm going to like that. Want to know a secret?" She leaned in close again and this time she licked my earlobe and bit it gently. "Allison got her shot the other day." She pulled back to see the look on my face and was rewarded to see my eyes bulge. Speaking of bulges, the one in my suit, which had gradually faded away as we were talking, was suddenly and painfully back. She brushed her hand over it. "I thought that might get your attention." She reached up and reattached her strap and then said in a louder voice, "I think I'm going to get out before I turn into a prune." This brought Mark and Allison back to earth as well and we all headed for the patio to dry off and go inside. The rest of the evening passed more casually and soon it was time to head home. Allison announced that she was going to spend the night. Mom and Dad said it was okay as long as they didn't keep the whole house up giggling all night. I knew that giggling was not at all what they had in mind. ------- Chapter 14: The Weekend--Sunday 'Waking up' with Allison is nice, really nice. I'm not sure how much distance would make a difference, but the short way to the Davis's certainly didn't affect anything. Even in a dream. I don't know that you would call it sleeping but somehow spending time with her, even like that, left me feeling very refreshed and at peace. There was a certain 'rightness' to it that is just hard to explain. I'm not really even sure when it happened but at some point during the night, there we were, curled up together on our hammock in the glade. Despite my natural curiosity I made it a point not to ask how her evening with Shannon had gone. All good things come to an end though, and eventually I was back in my bed, waking up. I sighed and got dressed to head out for my morning run. Since I had skipped it the day before I took extra time stretching beforehand. I decided to bump it up a little and actually did two separate 'tracks.' Together they amounted to around 5 miles so it took a little longer but still wasn't enough to make me feel overly winded or tired. One of these days, I thought, I'm going to see what I can really do. But then, that is something that it would not be a good idea to do early in the morning when no one knew where you may have collapsed at. Maybe I should try out for the cross-country team. More stretching when I got back and then into the shower. Everyone was up and Mom was working on breakfast by the time I got out and dressed. We passed around the funnies, checked the football schedule to see if any of the games looked interesting, (we're not big sports fans) and generally passed a relaxing morning. Mom and Dad extended their invitation for us to join them at the movies again but I declined for both of us. My only plans for the day were to mow the yard and relax. Mark called a little after nine. It seems that David; another friend of his that I had met once or twice, was having an X-box party. 10 or 12 guys were coming to his house and bringing along their boxes and a couple of extra television sets for a day of mutual destruction and mayhem. Mark asked if I would like to come along. I thought about it but decided to pass. The parents couldn't decide on a movie. Once they had it down to two I dropped in my two cents worth to try to make the decision easier. "Didn't you guys always used to talk about this archaic event you used to attend frequently called a 'double feature'? So why not make a day of it. See one show, maybe grab some lunch or something, and then see the second one?" They just looked at each other, then at me and proclaimed me brilliant. I told them I got it from watching too much TV. Apparently the topic of a movie had come up around the card table the night before and the Davis' had asked if they could tag along. This of course meant that now Mom had to call Karen and coordinate things. You know, important stuff, like what to wear, where to eat, will we have time to shop? Somewhere in there she actually managed to convey the name of the films they were going to see, but I must have missed it. Must be a chick thing because somehow Tom and Karen managed to show up at the house in time to collect my folks. They brought the girls with them. Shannon and Allison's plans for the day was to do nothing but enjoy their last day of freedom. Basically, lounging by the pool and sharing each other's pain at the prospect of getting up early for school the next day. I guess misery does love company. I had finished the lawns and was relaxing in my room when Shannon called me from Allison's room, "Jimmy, could you give me a hand for a second." Not thinking that anything was up I walked in asking, "What's up?" Shannon was standing in the center of the room in her bikini bottoms and a bra. "I can't get this undone." She pouted, looking up at me with a wicked grin on her face. "The catch seems to be stuck. Can you try it?" Okay, hello! Clueless boy! You awake yet? The two girls, no, the two women that you love most in the world and want to spend time with more than you want to breathe are alone in the house with you, for a whole day, with no supervision, and you are reading a book! What are you thinking? Better hope word never gets out. Let's face it; you would never live it down. Now that the facts of the situation had hit me firmly between the eyes I resolved to do my best to make up for neglecting the girls, "I don't have a lot of experience with that particular system, Shannon, but let me take a look at it for you." I stepped behind her and began studying the mechanism. "Hmm, looks like it's jammed somewhere," I said running my hands along the strap. "Maybe there is a hidden release somewhere." I ran my hands around under her arms to the front, feeling cautiously as I went. Once my arms were all the way around, I hugged her close and then cupped her breasts through the material with both hands. "Can't seem to feel anything out of place, let me come around and take a look at it from the other side." I was careful to keep her fully encircled in my arms as I slid around her. I pressed my lips to hers as my hand traveled up and down her back for a few seconds. The bra was held together by a conventional hook and eye setup with two sets of hardware in the back. As my hands found the ends they unfastened both sets and the elastic began relaxing. "It seems to have been adjusted a little too tightly. Maybe I should check for damage." I rubbed my hands over her back, smoothing the lines left by the straps. Then I slid my hands back around to tenderly massage her breasts. She shrugged one arm out then let the garment fall off the other to the floor, sighing and pressing herself against my hands. Her nipples were already sticking out proudly from their lofty perch and begging for attention. "Doesn't look like there is any lasting damage, but things do look a little parched." I said. "I think I have just the thing." Saying this, I backed up, drawing her towards me as I sat down on Allison's bed. This felt just like it had in the first dream except my legs didn't have to get tired. She was obviously pleased with this plan as she stepped up and placed both her hands across my shoulders and around my neck. There was no hesitation on my part either, as soon as she was within range I planted my mouth firmly on her left breast and sucked hard, drawing her flesh into my mouth and lashing my tongue over her nipple. Just as quickly I broke the contact and licked my lips dramatically. "Mm, Chocolate!" I then attacked the other breast in a similar fashion, "And peanut butter. Two great tastes that taste great together." I pressed her breasts together. (As well as I could without hurting her. Neither of the girls are I what you would call large, but pressing Shannon's together you could actually create cleavage, on Allison it would have just hurt.) I pressed them together firmly and rapidly alternated licking both of them in turn. Shannon giggled but otherwise said nothing. After just a minute of this activity I stopped for second with a confused look on my face. "I just can't decide." I said. I don't know how long she had been there, neither Shannon nor I had been aware of her coming in, but from the doorway Allison's voice said, "Maybe I can help." She walked up to Shannon and took her left breast in her hand, cupping it lovingly and kissing her friend solidly on the mouth. I saw their mouths open and their tongues meet before they were fully engaged. Shannon just moaned into Allison's mouth. Allison broke the kiss and sat down next to me, "You concentrate on that one, and I'll take this side. Then maybe we'll trade for a while and compare notes." Shannon's eyes got wide and she bit her lip as she pushed her chest forward. Allison and I then attacked her breasts. Licking, sucking, kissing, caressing, and generally doing everything we could to convince her of just how much we loved the taste of her. It must have been working as her eyes closed and her head went back as she arched into us. I slid my hand down her back and began fondling her bottom. Allison must have felt the motion as her hand soon joined mine. Shannon made her desire known by spreading her feet apart a little further. Allison and I both took the hint and our free hands ran up the inside of either thigh until we ran into cloth. We began to massage the juncture of her thigh and pelvis, just along the edges of the material. Shannon started to breathe hard and fast and I saw her bite her lip again. I shifted my hand to the center of her crotch and rubbed firmly upward. She gasped and bucked her hips against my hand as tremors ran across her body. Allison seemed to take this as a good sign and pulled the string on her side. As the material fell loose, I undid my side and the whole garment drifted to the floor. Allison already had her hand covering Shannon's pussy and was massaging her gently. I slipped my hand in beside hers and resumed caressing along the edge. Allison then moved hers over slightly, caressing the edge with her hand while trailing one finger back and forth along Shannon's already damp slit. Her intention was obvious and with a small shift we were now both massaging her together. I applied pressure and trailed my finger through her valley just as Allison had taught me. Shannon gasped again and bucked her hips against our hands and the moisture level increased dramatically. I pressed back through the fold and moved my thumb to find the hard knot that Allison had expressed so much pleasure at having touched. It took very little effort to find it. Shannon's was larger than Allison's. Pressing my thumb to one side, I flicked it rapidly across to the other. You would have thought I had attached jumper cables. A huge spasm passed over her and she all but jumped. Her mouth opened and she started to moan more loudly, thrusting herself against our hands. Allison's thumb materialized along the other side and we began to massage the small bud between our two digits. Shannon's volume went up appreciably and she began to chant, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God." over and over again. Then Allison pressed two of her small fingers into Shannon's entrance and it was all over. Shannon squealed loudly and went into mild convulsions, not like a seizure, but definitely more than the tremors she'd had in the dream. Finally she stumbled against us and almost fell. I took her around the waist and sat her on my lap, holding her as she shook and stroking her back and hair until she recovered. "Oh, my, God. That was simply incredible. I have no words to describe how good that felt." Then she turned and kissed me, and then kissed Allison again. Then she got unsteadily to her feet and pulled Allison up, taking her spot on the bed next to me. "Payback time," she said and began unsnapping Allison's jean shorts. By the time she had the zipper down Allison had pulled her tank top over her head and unfastened her bra. She dropped both onto the rapidly growing pile of clothes and stepped forward to offer each of us one of her small breasts. Allison's breasts were smaller, but the nipples stuck out farther and I guess when you put it all together you get what they call champagne glasses. I wasted no time. I already knew what to expect. And apparently my suspicions about what may have gone on last night were correct because Shannon dove right in as well. Within seconds Allison had a hand on the back of both of our heads and was pulling us into her. At one point Shannon moved over and we shared a kiss across one of Allison's nipples. That was a magical moment all around. Allison was already very wet when we finally started rubbing her pussy. This got her going really fast. When I slipped a finger forward and massaged the delicate flesh right next to her opening She started trying to push harder against our hands and mouths, moving her hips in search of something she obviously felt was missing. Before long Shannon and I had repeated the performance that she had enjoyed. When it was over, Allison sat gasping on my lap. Shannon rose and left, but quickly returned with a water bottle, which we all shared. At an unspoken signal they both pulled me to my feet and began undressing me. Allison began by untying my shoes while Shannon started at the top. My shirt, socks, and shoes were all gone when they met at my belt line. I don't know how they decide these things but there must be telepathy involved because no actual words were being exchanged. Allison lowered my shorts and my very stiff cock popped out of the fly of my boxers. I then realized that this had to have been rehearsed or at least discussed at some length because ad Allison ran her hand up one leg to fondle my balls, Shannon boldly wrapped her hand around my shaft and began exploring the new toy she had found. It was hard, it was soft, and it was pliable, yet resistant. With her free hand Shannon pulled out the waistband of my shorts and the two girls pulled them down my body. Both went back to their appointed tasks but at the same time they both began to nurse at my nipples as well. This was an interesting combination of sensations. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend it. Shannon began to move her hand slowly up and down my hardness and I knew this wasn't going to last long. "You were right," she told Allison, "it's so hard and yet soft at the same time." "Take your hand off and watch what happens." Shannon let go and stared in fascination as my cock twitched involuntarily. It was actually embarrassing, as I could not seem to make it stop. Shannon just watched for a second and said, "Wild." Then took me in hand once more and resumed her soft ministrations. With all that had happened I was on a pretty short trigger. The whole scene had been just too hot. Getting to touch either of these girls was a gift beyond price, but to be able to touch them both, and watch them explore their growing passion for each other at the same time? Too hot for words. I was leaking pre-cum already. My underwear had absorbed some but now it had nowhere to go. Shannon stopped and touched a drop with her finger. Rubbing her finger and thumb together she marveled at the oily wetness. She then palmed the head and began spreading the viscous fluid over my cock, stroking me a few more times and enjoying the new sensation. I was just doing my best not to drop dead of sensory overload. A few strokes produced more of the fluid and she used this to lubricate the rest of me. After applying the new supply she again resumed her methodical journey of exploration. Allison had been gently caressing my sack while this was going on. I looked down and saw that her other hand was occupied between her own legs. Apparently this scene was just as hot for her. As we both got closer the tension in the room got thick. We were both breathing harder and it was only a matter of time. Suddenly she took a gasping, ragged breath, then, releasing my balls, grabbed Shannon by the back of the neck, drew her close and shoved her tongue into her best friend's mouth. Shannon returned the kiss with passion and, bless her heart, never slowed down in her attentions to me. Multi-tasking reaches a new high! Even through their joined mouths I could hear the high pitched whine that signaled Allison's release, that and watching them kiss was all I could I take. The sudden eruption took the girls by surprise and they could not escape. The first blast hit Shannon's cheek and splashed onto Allison's. They suddenly drew apart and Shannon did her best to point me in a different direction. It had been apparent from the beginning that the girls had planned this whole thing, but now it seemed that they had over-looked the ending. As Shannon got sprayed repeatedly, Allison stooped and picked up her discarded tank top. It was a nice thought but by the time she had recovered it the damage was pretty much over. All she could do was to dab at Shannon's chest and offer it to her to wipe her hand. They seemed to have forgotten for a second where the first shot had gone. Then Allison giggled and wiped Shannon's cheek. Shannon just laughed and said, "Oh my God, you should have warned me about how much there would be. It went like everywhere." She took the shirt back and folded it to a dry spot and then wiped Allison's cheek in return. "I guess I didn't realize. The first two went right past me in the shower and after that there didn't really seem to be that much. Oh god, Shannon, it's in your hair. Did it get mine too?" "I don't see anything, but you better wash it just to be sure." I was feeling somewhat left out at this point so I just reached out and grabbed them both by the back of the neck, bent down and kissed them each in turn. "I just wanted to say thank you, and I'm sorry about the mess." "Oh, it's not your fault," Allison said. "We just didn't plan far enough out I guess." She hugged herself to my side. This put her face just inches away from my now drooping member. "Shannon, can you believe that all that came out of here?" Shannon just shook her head. "Hard to believe, or that something that small was so big just minute ago." I just laughed and said, "Shannon, sweetheart? I love you to pieces but please, small is not a word a man loves to hear at a time like this." "I'm sorry, Jimmy." She giggled. "It's just that a second ago it seemed positively huge, and now it fits right in my hand." She put action to words, gripping me lightly and wrapping her fingers all the way around my flaccid penis. This of course had the expected effect. Well, at least I expected it. Suddenly I started to grow again. Shannon of course felt it at once. "Allison, look at this. My god I can feel it growing and getting hard. Here." She moved her hand so Allison could experience this new miracle. This provided a source of amused fascination for both girls as they marveled at the response. I just stood there trying not to be too embarrassed. Once again I had been promoted to lab-rat. Finally I just had to take a hand towards self-preservation, "Ladies, please! I know this is all new to you. I assure you it's fun and exciting for me too, and if I must be tortured to death I can think of no better way and no one I would rather die 'at the hands' of. But if you keep playing with that we're going to very quickly be right back where we started. And we're all out of clean shirts." "Oh no," Allison quipped, with a smirk, "we still have yours." "Maybe you should sit down?" Shannon suggested. I gave in and we traded places, with me sitting on the bed and the girls kneeling on the floor. "I feel like a life size teaching doll in sex-ed. I never thought I would say this naked in a room with the two women I love most in the world, but this, is no fun at all." Shannon looked up at me for a moment, "Okay, I guess it does seem kind of clinical. It's just that I've never seen one before. Promise me you'll let me have a better look some other time?" The sudden twitch didn't do much for my case. Shannon's eyes got really big and Allison just cracked up. It was funny and Shannon and I were soon laughing right along with her. This had the effect of deflating her little toy. When Allison finally regained her composure she put her hand on Shannon's shoulder and said, "Don't let it get you 'down, ' I think you can take that as a yes." This started the giggling all over again. I held my hands down to the girls and as I pulled them up said, "I really did enjoy this. Well most of it anyway. And I meant what I said about you two. But I think we've lost the mood. How about hitting the pool for a while?" At first they wanted to skinny dip but I put my foot down. It turned out I was right. We headed out to the pool. I quickly re-discovered the lesson that Mark had learned. The girls had grown up and I could no longer handle the two of them if they ganged up on me. I'm not sure why but gang up on me they did. Not good, but then, if they drown me maybe Shannon would give me mouth to mouth. Heck, maybe they would take turns. No, not worth the risk, I ran for my life instead. Even though there were two of them I was still quicker in the water. The battle ended when I finally got a hold of Shannon and used her as a human shield, threatening to tickle her without mercy unless they declared a truce. She wasn't really trying that hard to get away. Once the truce was declared I turned her around and kissed her. I didn't think it was that long but the next thing I heard was, "Get a room." I turned and Mark was coming out of the house. I glanced at the girls and suddenly they were really glad I had insisted on suits. "Dude, I thought you were doing video mega-wars today?" "Yeah, but I had to leave. A couple of Chris's friends started making comments about Miss Jenkins. I jumped them on it and told them they really had no business shooting off their mouths about people and things they didn't know. Chris got all defensive about it and asked why I was defending a couple of dykes. I told him that I didn't hang out with bigots and that he wouldn't be saying this if I had been defending him from someone calling him a nigger. And I left." "Right on!" said Shannon. "I'm proud of you, Mark," I said, getting out of the pool to shake his hand. "It takes a big man to stand up for what he believes. And a bigger man to stand up to his friends." Allison just walked up and put her arms around his neck and kissed him. "There may be hope for you yet." She then grabbed a towel and said, "Anyone hungry?" We all decided that food would be a good thing and headed inside. As we got to the kitchen the phone rang. It was Mom saying the movies had let out and that they were on the way home. Since it was late and everything was frozen, they were going to pick up Chinese take-out on the way home. That was certainly okay with all of us. The girls and I all took turns grabbing quick showers to get the chlorine off, then got set up for dinner. Dinner was fun. Mom and Karen recounted their favorite parts of the first movie while Tom and Dad did their best not to get caught rolling their eyes. Oh yeah, chick flick. Then it was the guys turn; telling us about all the cool stunts, gadgets and plot twists of the newest James Bond movie. We all talked about what we had been up to, at least the parent safe parts. When Mark told them about his day you could see Tom and Karen beaming with pride. My dad even shook his hand. The problem with Sunday nights is they come right before Monday mornings. Which of course meant work and school. We'd all had a pretty full day though, and everyone decided to make an early night of it. I couldn't resist getting in a dig at Allison. "Wow, first day of school. You better get to bed early, sis; you're going to have to get up pretty early to decide what to wear. Then there is hair, makeup..." I found myself the target of every woman at the table. Fortune cookies, soy sauce packets, napkins, you name it, anything that wouldn't make a mess on the floor if it missed. Not that much missed. ------- Chapter 15: Opinions and Observations It's amazing to think how quickly something can become routine. But that's what school had become in just one week. Things progressed just as expected right up to lunch, though I hadn't seen Bob or Susan all day. Then just as I thought it was going to be a complete bust, Mark caught up to me. He was really excited. "Dude, you are not going to believe this. David stopped me at break and apologized for all that stuff yesterday! It was so cool. He said it was that last comment that really made it stick for him, that prejudice was prejudice no matter what color you painted it. And he actually thanked me for standing up for what I believed! Is that cool or what?" Actually it was really cool. I felt a lot better about the day. I finally saw Bob when I got to class, but we didn't get a chance to talk as class was starting. At the end of the hour he announced that he had been asked to take over coaching the boys cross country team. He explained that he had coached the team for several years and was supposed to step down this year, but the new coach had been in an auto accident over the weekend and would be out for several weeks with a broken leg. Anyone interested in trying out for the team was welcome to attend tryouts either today or tomorrow after school. That at least would give me an opportunity to talk to him. After my last class I called my mom to let her know what I was doing, and that I would call her later. I went back to my PE locker and dressed out, then headed out to the track. "Hey Mr. Shelby, how was your weekend?" I asked, walking up to join about a dozen others standing and waiting. "Mr. Matthews, good to see you. Thanks for coming out. I had a pretty good weekend thank you. Mostly quiet with plenty of time to think and sort through some stuff I had on my mind," he said. It was pretty easy to read between the lines. "How was yours?" "It had its moments, but not many. Uneventful would be a good description." Then it was time to start. Tryouts consisted of a timed 5-mile run, beginning and ending on the track and winding throughout the surrounding area. Mr. Shelby would be observing here at the school and two others would be watching out on the course, specifically the assistant coach and Miss Jenkins. He started us in staggered groups. The idea being that it was a lot easier to observe a few people at a time rather than all of us running by at once. Running is of necessity a solitary sport, you can't really spare the breath for a conversation. Five miles wasn't far and didn't give me much trouble. Bob held me back to the very last group he sent out. It didn't matter to me; I just assumed he had a reason. The reason was pretty simple, and made sense. By holding me back to the last group I didn't need to manufacture a reason to wait to talk to Bob alone. I finished my run and began some stretching to cool down while the last runners came in. Then it occurred to me that I had an easy way to facilitate the opportunity I knew we both were looking for. "Mr. Shelby, when we're finished here, could I talk to about today's class?" "Certainly, just let me finish this up and we'll talk." He spent some time conferring with the other coaches as well as getting some input from two returning members of last year's team. Finally it was over. "So, Jimmy, smart move there; I was wondering if we were going to find a way to talk today. I had a counseling session at lunch. Are your parents coming to pick you up?" "I left a message telling them I would be late. I told them I would call back." "Here, use my cell phone. See if it would be okay if I brought you home. If nothing else, that should give us a few minutes." I made the call. "Mom says it's fine to catch a ride with you. She wants to know if you would like to stay for dinner." He snatched the phone out of my hand. "Mrs. Matthews? I am what most refer to as the perennial bachelor, and as such I would not even think of passing up a chance at a meal that I didn't actually have to cook myself. Just as long as you aren't going to any special effort, leftovers would be fine. We've got a few things to finish up here. We should be there in..." he glanced at me and I two fingers and a closed fist, "... about twenty minutes. Is that okay?" Rather than changing I just grabbed my stuff. I could catch a shower at home. I'd exaggerated a little on purpose, it's probably only about 8 miles give or take from my house to the school. Depending on traffic it's maybe a fifteen-minute drive tops. "We don't have a lot of time so let me just hit the high spots. I'm going to ask your parents if it would be all right for you to help me out in a research project that I am involved in. The idea is similar to what you did after tryouts; it's to give us a reason to spend time together outside of normal school hours. I thought about it all weekend and unless you want to tell your parents that you are actually a patient that's the best I can come up with." "So what's the project?" "I have no idea; I was hoping that you could help me think of something that it made sense for you to do rather than one of my more advanced students." "Hmm. I don't think that's a good idea. It's a long shot at best and almost certainly doomed to failure. Plus, I try not to make a habit of lying to my parents." "Normally I would say that is a good thing, but there has to be a way for us to get the time we need to actually talk about what is going on. I feel like I missed the whole weekend. To make matters worse I don't know that I'm any closer to really understanding it." "Yeah, I felt the same way. It's a lot to try to absorb. I still am not nearly comfortable enough with the whole thing. I miss a lot of really obvious stuff, just like you are doing right now." That got his attention. "How do you mean?" "We can have all the time we need to talk. That is of course if I can successfully 'bridge' into your 'dream space.' If I can't then we have not only a problem with time, but also another puzzle to try and solve." "Yes, that would be an interesting, if troubling, development. Okay, scratch the whole research thing. It would not have solved one of the other problems anyway." "Which one is that?" "Meeting your sister and sharing her perspective on things. Of the three of us, she seems to be the one that has the best handle on it. Not surprising since she is the one that has been thinking about and dealing with it the longest. Not that bridging into my dream solves that any better." "Actually it might. But I don't want to get into that right now; we're almost there. I'll just show you if I manage to make the bridge, okay? It's that one." I said, pointing to my house just up ahead. "That's fine with me. At this point anything you have is better than what I've got." He pulled up and said, "Nice place. Who's your gardener?" "Actually, that would be me." "Another hidden talent, at least you can take this one out where people can see it." "There is that." I sighed and we headed for the house. My parents of course met us at the door. Mom had dinner just about ready to hit the table so we did the introductions on the way to the dining room. Allison was just starting to pour drinks, "Please to meet you, Mr. Shelby. I've heard a lot about you." She stopped pouring iced tea long enough to shake his hand. "Would you care for tea? We also have water, milk and there may even be a little lemonade left." "Tea will be fine thank you. I've heard good things about you as well, Allison," he said. "For one thing, I understand you are quite the basketball player. Melinda is just beside herself thinking about getting you on her team. You just started school today, didn't you?" "Yes sir. Not much happening the first day though. Jimmy tells me it was pretty much the same last week for him. Nothing really gets going until about the third day." "Yes, it's pretty much the same every year. It takes a couple days before you settle into a nice routine, kind of a nesting phase. Drives some of the staff nuts but it's actually a pretty important step. You really can't get any serious learning done in a setting you are not comfortable in. Wow! Is that really home made sauce?" It was only spaghetti, how desperate could you get? Mom sure loved it though. "Is there another kind?" She smiled. "You look like you've been stranded on an island for twenty years and just found your first beer. How long have you been single?" "Actually, I wasn't kidding when I said I'm the perennial bachelor. But don't worry, I don't starve, I'm actually a passable cook myself. I just live for the opportunity to eat someone else's cooking. And I'm not really big on restaurants so mostly it's just me. Cooking for one is a real pain; it's hard to get excited about it when you are the only one you are trying to impress." "Hmm. I can imagine. Well, this is really pretty simple. I just put it in the crock-pot and left it all day. The pasta is the really tricky part. You know, boiling water and all that. So how did tryouts go?" "Actually, they went pretty well. Jimmy didn't see it today but we actually have a pretty strong team. Only two of the returning team came today. I like to have more experienced returning members check out the newer ones. Just an exercise in analysis really, I want to see how much they know about what they are seeing. There are only four spots available as of today plus a couple of alternates. But I can tell you already Jimmy won't have any trouble getting a spot on the team. If it came down to it, I don't have a problem with the candidates competing for spots. Sometimes an actual competitive run can bring out the difference. But in his case I doubt it will come down to that. Did he tell you about our little experiment?" "He mentioned something about it the first night," Dad said. "It had something to do with first impressions, didn't it?" "Well, that was what started it, but actually we are trying to see if we can get more people actually greeting each other when they meet. Just generally improving the social interaction. Making actual introductions when they bring a new person into a particular group, that sort of thing. At this age it can be surprisingly hard to meet people since even if someone 'brings' you to a group, they tend to just get right into their normal interactions and the new person is left out. So we're hoping to lead by example and effect some positive changes in the social dynamic." "And in English that means?" Allison asked. "Just kidding, I think it's a great idea. Look at the whole thing with Mark and Miss Jenkins for example. Speaking of Mark, did Jimmy tell you about what happened this weekend?" She went on to relate the story of Mark's trip to David's house. "That is a pretty sad commentary on today's climate," Bob said sadly. I jumped in, "No, actually it came out totally different. Mark just told me today, David actually stopped him this morning and apologized to him. He said that Mark's last comment had really bitten hard and made him think about what he was saying and doing. And he agreed with Mark. Prejudice is wrong, no matter what color you paint it. It was really cool." Everyone agreed that this was indeed a good thing to have happened. And this was still essentially an outgrowth of my meeting Coach Jenkins that first day. It was going to be interesting to see where it would go over the course of the year. Bob and I decided to start a journal to record the events in order to try and identify any results. After that it was mostly just general getting to know you stuff for about an hour. Then Bob headed off and I got started on my homework. Eventually it was late enough that I could go to bed without attracting attention. I really wanted to see if I could bridge someone on purpose. Up until now it had been strictly me wandering into other peoples dreams by accident. Of course I didn't have a lot to go on. I mean, I'd been doing it with Allison for years without even knowing it. The one time I actually recognized it was Shannon and that was still an isolated incident. Even though I had gone to visit her since, I had still gotten there on accident first. This was the first time I would try to enter a stranger's dreams that I hadn't already been in, on purpose. I'm not sure how much time elapsed but eventually I 'woke up' in my room and used my bedroom door as a gateway. I knocked gently and was rewarded by a voice saying, "Come in, Jimmy, I think I've been expecting you." I opened the door and found myself in the familiar surroundings of the psychology classroom. Bob was sitting behind his desk. "I hope you don't mind," he said. "I wasn't sure where you would be most comfortable, so..." "Don't worry about it, at least not on my behalf. Is there somewhere you would be more comfortable?" I asked. "Several places actually. Even though this is a construct, I still have a problem talking about all this in such a 'public' setting. But this is what I dreamed up. I mean this is where I found myself just now, and when you knocked on the door, I knew it would be you. Weird." "You will find many things are weird here, Bob. But if you would rather be somewhere else, just visualize the image in your mind. It may take a little time but you will be there." "I don't know, Jimmy, I'm an old man and I've never even played around with the whole cognitive dreaming thing. I don't know if I have the control necessary." "Well, either you do or I'm a catalyst in addition to everything else because," and I waved my hand around what appeared to be his living room. "Well I'll be," he said incredulously. "I never would have imagined." "That could actually be the problem you know. You have never really been in a position to concentrate in a dream like this before. Your dreams were comfortable on autopilot. But now you have an unknown, something your mind can't account for, but it's trying to cope and that is making it do things you didn't know you could do. Does that sound plausible at all?" "Hey! Which one of us is the teacher here? Actually, that's about a good an explanation as I could have hoped to give. Maybe you don't need me as much as you think." Suddenly I was serious. "No, Bob, I know I need you. It's just that all this is so new and none of us really have a handle on any of it. It's easy to feel like you are not contributing, but just being there to talk with is an immense help, believe me. "You and Allison seem to have a pretty good handle on things and I doubt very seriously if you gave me everything up front. In case you are wondering, I have decided to stick to my oath and anything, and I mean anything that is said will stay between just you and me unless and until you say differently. I just wish I could take some notes." "Oh that's easy." I walked up to his entertainment center, opened a drawer and pulled out a Tablet PC just like Allison had used. "Here, Allison uses one of these to make notes and stuff with. It seems to work pretty well. It has a super hand-writing recognition program as well." "How did you do that?" "Bob, it's a dream, remember? I didn't really need the drawer. At Allison's glade everything we need comes from a picnic basket. Except the rings, we went shopping for those. We got them at Tiffany's on Rodeo Drive out in Beverly Hills." "Huh? Okay, never mind, I get it. The problem is I have too narrow a focus and am still trying to treat this as reality, when in fact it's nothing like that." "Well, to some extent it is as real as we want it to be. For instance, did you notice how hot it is?" Suddenly we were sitting under an umbrella on a long stretch of white sand beach. Wherever we were, it was very warm, Tahiti maybe? Didn't matter, he got the point. I shifted us back to his living room to give him a comfortable point of reference. "Wow! That was really something. And what was that about rings?" "An idea Allison came up with. After my incident with my other friend, she thought it would be a good idea if I had a way to tell whose dream I am in. So we went shopping together and bought a couple of rings. They are ultra high tech or maybe it's dream tech. I think the CIA would really like to have them, we each have one. And they hide in other people's dreams. Very well too, I can't even tell it's there unless I am in my own dream. Then it is solid, heavy, everything you would expect in a solid gold men's ring. But if I am in someone else's dream, like now," I held up my bare hand, "then it is like it was never there. If I am in Allison's dream then mine disappears and hers appears so that I know that not only am I not in my dream but that I am really in hers. That way we know it's safe." "Safe from what? I thought you had control of your dreams, and the others you find yourself in." "Yeah, so far. But all this is so new, it's hard to just relax and assume it's all safe. I don't know, it's like we can't shake the feeling that there is more too it." "Only time will tell. For now, I would try to let it be and handle things as they come up. I'm sure you have heard the phrase, borrowing trouble?" "Yes." "Well the best advice I can give you is don't. There is plenty going on already. Don't look for more. Just take your time and try to get a grip on the stuff you already have. Lord knows I certainly don't feel ready to take on any more." "Okay. We'll just let it ride for now and see how it turns out." ------- Chapter 16: Busted I walked out the door from Bob's place and into the glade. Allison was waiting for me. "I thought you might come here," she said, holding her arms out to me. "I hoped you would." She was wearing what was fast becoming my favorite outfit. The long satiny robe with just a very small butterfly g-string underneath. The way the fabric peak-a-booed her body as she moved... What can I say, she just radiated sexy. Without hesitation she moved into my arms and began kissing me passionately; our tongues dueling in a hot, wet, open-mouthed free for all. I just couldn't get enough of her. My arm slipped beneath the robe and around her waist, pulling her to me. Her hard little nipples raked the skin of my chest. My naked chest? When had that happened? <> As she pressed herself hard against me, she began grinding her barely covered pussy against the bulge that had suddenly materialized in my jeans. God that felt good. My hands slid down her back to grab and squeeze her magnificent ass. I could feel the muscles strain as she began to grind herself even harder against me. Her breathing became ragged and labored "Oh, Jimmy, I want you so bad. I want to feel your hard cock inside me. I want to know what it is to be full and feel you come inside me. But we can't do that here. Because we haven't done it yet and it just wouldn't work." "I know; it's frustrating. When I have you here, like this, all to myself with no worries, no interruptions, when we are free to just be with each other, I don't want to stop either. But I'm still worried that I'm rushing you." "Rushing me? Oh, Jimmy! I feel like I've had to drag you kicking and screaming all the way. I told you how long I've wanted you here. I told you what I wanted to do to you, with you, here. Jimmy, you are in no way rushing me. If anyone is rushing, it's me. Am I trying to go too fast? Is that the problem?" "Whoa, I didn't say it was a problem. Don't even worry about that. That's what hormones are for! They do a marvelous job of overriding the logical centers of my brain. When I'm alone with you like this, I want to do all those things with you too, and more. I just want to make you happy, delirious with joy. One thing I've already discovered is that there is nothing like holding someone you love while they come hard. I don't know about you, but I get such a rush watching you when it happens, the sound of your breathing, those whining sounds you make, the feel of your body trembling and shaking, and knowing that it's me that caused it. It's like the most insane rush. I would almost rather do that than come myself. Almost." "Yeah, I'll bet almost." She suddenly broke away from me. "Oh!" She exclaimed. "I just can't take this." And with that she turned and went through the door. I just stood there wondering what I had done or said, and what I could do to help. Suddenly the scene shifted and I was in my room, looking up at the ceiling. I immediately knew what had awakened me as I heard the sound of the door being closed very gently. Then Allison was standing before me in one of her long t-shirts. She grabbed the bottom and tore it over her head. She was wearing simple white panties; I definitely liked the ones in the dream better. Not that it mattered as she skinned them down her legs and lifted the covers on my bed. All this happened very quickly. As it unfolded, my physical reality was rapidly catching up with the dream; I was getting really hard, really fast. I only wear my underwear to sleep in normally; I keep a pair of running shorts handy in case I need to go to the bathroom or anywhere. When she lifted the covers I automatically moved over to make room for her. With no more hesitation than she showed in the dream she moved into my arms and drove her tongue hotly into my mouth. I was overwhelmed and eager, but I had to push her back for just a moment. "Allison? Allison, I love you, but I have to ask. Are you sure? Is this what you really want?" She slid her hand down my stomach and gripped my erection through the thin material of my boxers and whispered in my ear, "This is what I want. I've wanted it for a long time and I'm tired of waiting. Is that okay with you? I want you bad, Jimmy, and that's no lie, but you have to want it too." I grabbed the back of her head and drove my tongue into her mouth this time. My hand came up and began fondling and squeezing her right breast, tugging at her swollen and distended nipple. She moaned into my mouth and began running her hand over the front of me. I knew I couldn't take much of that. I rolled us so that she was lying on her back and I was partly over her. The new position put me out of range of her hand, and I dropped my mouth to her chest, my lips taking over the task of worshipping her perfect little breasts. This had the added benefit of distracting her and allowing the wave of passion that had been building dangerously inside of me to recede a little; a break I desperately needed. As I began to suck hard at her nipple, my hand slid down her hard stomach. I stopped for a moment to play in the downy softness of her sparse bush, then continued down to slide my whole hand over her mound. She gasped into my ear and pulled my head hard to her. Her body began to vibrate as I stroked up across her delicate flesh and then split my fingers on the way back down, just the way she had shown me. I stroked quickly up and down a couple times. Moisture was already leaking from her opening. When I stroked my finger up along her slit it was like opening a floodgate. Suddenly my hand was drenched in her oily lubricant. She gasped again at even this slight penetration. I spread the hot wetness around to cover the whole area. Continuing to move down and around and then up and through the hot furrow of her flesh. When everything was slick with her fluid I sent two fingers in search of her clit. (Yes, I had learned the name for it.) I had no trouble at all finding it. It was swollen and very hard. As soon as I touched it her body shook and she let out three short, fast breaths. I stroked it a few times up and down and then started doing the little figure eights that she liked. Every few figures I would slide further down to gather more moisture from her now thoroughly soaked vagina. I noticed her opening was starting to relax and each time my fingers moved a little further into her. I decided to explore a little and slid one finger deeper into her. Her whole body clenched suddenly and I was afraid I had done something wrong. But then, she grabbed my wrist in a vise like grip and started moving my finger in and out, gasping and moaning softly with each penetration. "Two," she rasped, "use two." What can I say; I used two. I quickly discovered that the best way to do this was to use my two middle fingers and slide my pinky and index fingers along the outside of her lips. She was losing it fast. I had been doing my best to keep up a balance of some kind between her two breasts and they were both wet and slippery with a combination of perspiration and saliva. I glanced up and noticed that her eyes where shut and she was biting her lip. I'd seen that enough already to know that it meant she was getting really close. If she screamed we were screwed! Mom and Dad would be in here so fast... As her body began to stiffen and arch up I felt the muscles in her vagina start to clench on my fingers and I knew it was too late. Moving quickly I grabbed a pillow with my free hand and stuffed it down as hard as I could over her face. Without hesitation, her hand came up and she took control of the pressure. It was barely in time. Her body heaved and her pussy clenched so hard I thought my fingers were going to break. In spite of the lubrication I suddenly couldn't move them. She heaved and shook and, even through the pillow, I heard her familiar whine. It went on and on and then suddenly she just dropped; her body flattened out, her muscles relaxed and she went limp. I was freaked! I thought I had somehow suffocated her or worse. I tore my fingers out of her and jerked the pillow free. This was apparently enough of a shock to wake her back up. Her eyes opened and she took a second to focus on me. Then she smiled and purred up at me, "Oh god, that was good!" in a husky voice. I was still a little panicked. "Are you all right? I thought I hurt you! You collapsed and I thought maybe I'd suffocated you or something." "Hurt me? Oh, Jimmy, hurt me some more! Do it again! I'm sorry if I scared you, I must have actually passed out for a second. I've heard rumors that it can happen but I never believed them. God that was intense! You can hurt me like that again any time you want." "As long as you're okay." I sighed. "Okay? I am so much more than okay. That was simply the bestest, most wonderful experience of my life." "Better than Shannon?" "Oh, yes. Even better..." she stopped and cocked her head at me. "How did you know?" "Hello. Spent the night Saturday? Okay, I didn't really know until just now, but I suspected that keeping everyone up giggling all night was the least of your concerns. And considering the gross lack of hesitation from either of you during our little play time on Sunday, well let's just say it seemed like you were on familiar territory." "It was a long night. You want to know the best part?" "What's that?" "I got to be you." "Huh? What do you mean you got to be me?" She cuddled up close and whispered in my ear. "I was telling her how nice it was to spend the night with you. She jumped to conclusions and assumed that we'd done it. But I told her that you were just being sweet and that we had only curled up in each other's arms and slept like babies. She said she couldn't believe it, that if it had been her she wouldn't have been able to keep her hands off of you. I told her that if it had been her you probably wouldn't have been able to either. Then I just started pretending to be you. I kissed her hard and then whispered to her how hot she made me, 'Oh Shannon, I've wanted to be here with you for so long.' Then I kissed my way down her neck, 'your breasts are so perfect' and I started sucking and squeezing them. About then she got into the play, 'Oh yes, Jimmy, kiss my tits, suck on them, Jimmy, oh, oh, love me, Jimmy.' Anyway, it got really hot and then I just did her the way I showed you, because that's the way you would do it. All the while kissing her and sucking her tits; god she tasted good. I thought she was going to shake us both off the bed when she came. She had to use the pillow too. Then later, when she was being you, so did I. But you're better. Mostly because you do it exactly the way I would so it's what my body is sort of 'trained' to respond to." "Sounds like you had a great time. I'm surprised you got any sleep." "God did we ever! After all that we cuddled up close, passed out in each other's arms, and slept like forever. Karen had to come in and wake us up so we wouldn't miss breakfast, and they had already been waiting for over an hour. Good thing we pulled the covers up. So anyway, I'm fine. Really, really fine, thank you very much. But I'll bet you're not." She was right. When she dropped so dramatically like that I had 'dropped' with her. I went from raging hard-on to over cooked pasta faster than I had thought was possible. Allison rolled a little out from under me and when she had enough leverage she pushed me onto my back. Then she sat up and drew back the covers. She slid down, grabbed the waistband of my boxers and began drawing them down. That was all it took and I was on the road to recovery. This seemed to fascinate her; she stopped and took my growing erection into her hand. "It is so cool the way it does that," she said as I continued to swell. She stroked me up and down a couple times. Then she added her other hand. I found out much later that guys are really different this way. Some guys are always big, but not hard. Some guys get thicker but not longer. I'm the kind that starts out small and shriveled and gets longer, thicker, and harder up to the point I'm hard as a rock and lightheaded from the sudden lack of blood available to the rest of my body. Just out of the shower I look like a 10 year old with pubic hair. But the difference is very noticeable if I become even a little bit excited. Right now, I was as excited as I had been in the shower the other day. And it showed. "Oh, I want to do so much with this! But I promised Shannon that I would save something for her. So, you have to decide. Do you want to just ram this up inside me as far as it will go, take my virginity now, and make me the happiest girl on the planet? Or," and she looked me in the eye, "we can have our first blow-job together." I could feel my jaw drop and my eyes get big. Could this really be my baby sister? Was I still dreaming? "You mean you want to?" "Oh yeah. I told you, Jimmy; I've known for a long time what I wanted to do with you. And this is just part of it. Shannon too. We've been looking things up on the Internet, and we've got a pretty good idea of what to expect. You'd still be our first actual experience; we both wanted that. But we know we can't both have you first. So we decided that whoever got to go first would choose what they wanted and the other would get to do the other thing. Either way, we're both excited about it. And we're hoping that you can be our first time the other way too. That's one reason we haven't let things go so far between us. We want it to be you first, and then each other, always." My brain was fried. I just could not comprehend what I was hearing. They both wanted to this to me, with me, for me? And they wanted me to be the first one to... for each of them? I didn't have a clue. And that was what made my decision. I mean, either one would be beyond awesome, but if I let Allison perform oral sex on me, somehow I just couldn't think the words 'blowjob' and 'Allison' in the same sentence, then what would be in it for her? If this was going to be a first time then I wanted it to be just as special for both of us. And I had no idea what to do or how to go about going down on a girl. For that matter, where could I even find out? What had she said about the Internet? I knew there was a lot of pornography out there on the web. But it never occurred to me that there might actually be instructional material available. All this shot through my brain between heartbeats so Allison had no idea what was going on. And that was a good thing. I took her by the arms and pulled her back up to me, looked her in the eyes and kissed her gently. "Allison, there is nothing in the world I would rather do than make love to you. And there is no one in the world I would rather have my first time with. Shannon is close, but in my heart of hearts, I know I would still want you. So I guess I'm glad you got here first." She giggled at that. "Me too." And then she melted into my arms and we were kissing again. Passionately, but without the urgency of before; this was more a special sharing than an act of hormonal overload. As we kissed, Allison squirmed around a little until she was straddling my waist. I could feel the heat from her radiating down towards my once more rock hard penis. She rose up a little and then sat back with her wet pussy pressed firmly against my rod. I lay long ways between her nether lips. "Mmm. That is nice." Then she began to slide herself slightly back and forth along my erection, pressing herself down around its circumference, rubbing her clit back and forth as she went. "Ohhhh, that is really nice." All I could do was bite my lip and try not to explode. "Allison. Oh god. I'm not going to make it. I'm going to..." "I know, I'm counting on it. I read something that said this will help." She stopped long enough to lean over the edge of the bed and picked up her discarded sleep shirt. She then laid it in a heap on my stomach in front of her and she started grinding herself harder and faster along my cock. It was all I could do to hold out 30 seconds. Then it felt like my spine shot out the end of my dick. I went into what seemed like endless muscle spasms, thrusting up against her and spraying fountains of thick white semen all over her shirt and my stomach. "There, now we can take our time." She wiped up the remainder of the mess and tossed the shirt away. Then she took my cock firmly, stood it up and lowered herself until the head was just touching her outer lips. She began slowly moving her hips back and forth to spread the lubrication around and dropped herself down until just the head slid in. "Mmmmm. That feels good." I could only agree. I'm not sure but I guess it was the anticipation that had kept me up. Whatever it was, I was as hard as I ever had been. "Are you ready, Jimmy? Are you sure that you want this? I know I do but if you say no I'll stop. I won't like it, but I'll stop." I just smiled and tensed my stomach muscles, sending a little surge through my cock. Allison just giggled. "Okay, I'll take that as a yes." Then she began to move slowly up and down on my shaft, taking just a little bit more inside her each time. I wasn't in very far when I felt a pressure around the tip. "Okay, give me a minute." I just lay there and let her move at her own pace. She began tensing and releasing her vaginal muscles and slowly moving her hips in a circle. I liked that a lot! Whatever she was trying to accomplish must have worked because after about a minute she pushed down a little harder and the pressure was just suddenly gone. Still it must have stung a little bit because I detected a little spasm and for just a second her brow furrowed in concentration. All she said was, "That wasn't so bad." Then she began to take longer strokes. Her leg muscles would tense and she would lift herself until just the head was in and then slide back down, forcing more of me inside of her with each pass. She was incredibly tight, but also very wet so as long as she didn't rush things everything went along smoothly. Very smoothly, satin on glass smooth. Then she was all the way down. Her pussy lips were seated firmly against my pelvis and I was in heaven. It's a feeling I hope to never forget. I was fulfilled; I was complete; I had found my perfect place in the universe. All was well; I could die now. Fortunately, Allison had other plans for me. She paused for a moment to grind her pelvis against mine. I wondered what she was doing for a second then I remembered what was trapped between the two bones. She leaned forward and lay herself down along my body. It was a wonderful feeling. It was like suddenly we just couldn't get enough skin contact. The hard tips of her nipples dug into my chest, the surrounding flesh molding around them. She lay like that for a moment and then kissed me, no tongue wrestling, not hot and passionate, just loving, soft and delicate. "I love you, James Edward Matthews. Thank you for sharing this with me." "I love you, Allison Ann, and if anything, I should be thanking you. You have made me the happiest person on the planet. In just one short week, you have opened my eyes to a world that I had never seen, even though it had been right in front of me. I will treasure this moment always." "So will I. This is just so nice, and you're so sweet. Now fuck me, you big stud." It was all I could do to not burst out laughing. I couldn't suppress the chuckle, but I took the hint and started doing my best to thrust up into her. Unfortunately, my best wasn't good for much in our present position. She realized this at the same time I did and, placing her hands on my chest, she sat back up and began once again to move her hips up and down on my cock. It was exquisite agony to feel her flesh leave mine, then like being saved from certain death to once again slide deep inside her loving embrace. She tried several different angles and finally found one that let her drag her clit along the top of my rod as she moved. This really got her going and she started to pick up the pace. With each pass her breath rasped a little more. I could see a case of the squeaks coming on. Thank god I had already come or I would have been lost as she started to slam herself down on my hips harder and faster. I felt the first tremors start and grabbed the pillow, tucked it under my chin and across my chest. She fell forward into the pillow and screamed out her orgasm. I could only imagine the sound without the pillow, and I think she was actually holding back. Her rhythm was broken by the spasms racing back and forth through her body. Her pussy felt like it was going to rip my cock right off my body. I don't know if I could have moved it if I'd tried. I wondered if my face was swollen from the extra blood she was forcing out of my dick. Then it passed and she once again sat up. "Thanks." She smiled. "My pleasure." "Not yet, but soon I hope." "Not too soon, but soon enough." She started moving on me again. The motion was different this time, not so much up and down but also kind of a slide back and forth. She took my hands and pulled them to her breasts. Hey, I can take a hint. I started massaging her flesh, pinching and rolling her nipples between my fingers. Obviously I wasn't doing something right as she soon took over doing it herself. It seemed to me that she should have been in serious pain as hard as she was pinching and pulling and twisting her flesh. I settled my hands on her hips and tried to thrust up into her, meeting her thrusts. This had a very nice effect on both of us. I felt some tremors and she sighed real hard. I think that meant she'd had another orgasm. Not a soul tearing screamer like the first one, but pleasant anyway. On the edge of my hearing I noticed the bed was starting to creak. I stopped her and pointed it out. "Ughm, not good, and mine would be even worse. Living room?" she finally suggested. "No, I don't think it would be a good idea to go public just yet. Besides, those pillows are too small. Help me pull my mattress down on the floor." It's such a sad feeling when your lover suddenly abandons you. One second everything is so warm the next it's gone. Once the mattress was settled she put a pillow down and flopped on her back. "C'mere you!" She spread her legs and guided me back where she wanted me, then lifted her legs and wrapped them around my hips, her ankles crossed just above and behind my butt. This allowed her to pull me into her with her legs. Not that I needed much encouragement. I was definitely ready to get back to work. I began thrusting into her gently at first, just trying to get a rhythm going. "Harder." She moaned in my ear. "Harder." I picked up the pace and soon was driving into her hard enough that her breasts shook with the impact. "Yeah, just like that. Fuck me, you bad boy!" The words coming out of my sister's mouth drove me nuts. I don't know what it was but something about hearing that come from my sweet, innocent, little sister just sent me into a fit. I pounded into her with everything I had. I could actually hear my balls slap against the moisture-covered cheeks of her tight little butt. I learned a valuable lesson. It's much easier to control yourself if the girl is the one setting the pace and moving. Once a male's muscles get themselves set in 'reproduction' mode, things happen a lot faster. When Allison was doing all the work it was easy for me to keep control but as soon as my body started moving, generations of evolution took over and things heated up fast. I knew I didn't have much time. We both started gasping hard for air. She pulled the pillow over her face and began to shake and convulse under me. I could hear her screaming into the soft material. Then it happened; that sinking feeling like the world just changed directions and I came in a rush. I put my head down like I was trying to kiss her through the cushion and screamed right back at her. My muscles heaved and I shot load after load of thick semen deep into her body. Instantly the lubrication level went off the chart. There must be something in the chemical mix that when the male and female secretions are mixed turns it into the perfect lubricant. Of course the fact that she was so tight and such a perfect fit left the sudden influx of fluid no where to go, so the laws of hydraulics took over and as I drove into her the combined fluids were forced back out around my shaft. Once my muscles stopped twitching I collapsed on top of her and rolled us both onto our sides. She took the roll the rest of the way and wound up on top, with me still inside her. It was actually quite fun. I suddenly had this image of us joined and rolling over and over down a long hill. Weird the way your brain reacts sometimes. We lay together for a short while, catching our breath and just holding each other. Then I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 2:00. I reached up and pushed her hair back behind one ear. "Want to spend the night? Or do you think you should go back to your room?" "Both. I want to spend the night, and tomorrow night, and a lot more after that, but I probably should go back to my own room. Mom already caught you coming out of my room once and nothing was even happening. This time? I don't think it would be good. As it is, I, we have to get to the bathroom, and get cleaned up, and I don't even have a sleep shirt. I'm going to have to get that one into the wash before Mom finds it. But this was just so good. I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I don't care if they send me to a convent; I know you'll still be waiting for me when I'm old enough to escape." "You bet. But I'd rather they didn't. I couldn't live without you. I need you; I want you in my life, Allison. I know we can't make any long-term promises, we're too young and we don't know what will happen. But I can't imagine ever loving anyone as much as I love you. I just can't see a future for myself that doesn't include you." "Oh, Jimmy, that's so sweet of you to say that. I never realized what a way with words you have. I'm glad I got to you before any of the other girls discovered how wonderful you are. Well Shannon knows, but she's a special case, and I don't care if she knows. And I think you will soon realize that you feel the same way about her too. And I feel the same way about both of you. I just can't imagine life without either of you. I know that as long as I can wake up with one of you, or preferably both of you beside me, I will live a very happy life." "So you really see the three of us together forever? Kind of a weird arrangement don't you think? I mean it's a nice picture and I'm all for it, but I don't know how we could get it by the rest of the world." "Forever is a long time and I don't think we should try to make promises, but for now, I don't ever see myself wanting a life without you. As to the rest, who cares? I don't care what other people think. It's not like I'm going to run for president or anything. I plan to stay as far off the public radar as possible, for as long as possible. I think that would be a really good idea for both of us..." "Yeah, you're probably right, but, for now, we still have Mom and Dad to think about. Help me put my bed back together and I'll get you a shirt to wear so you can go get cleaned up." We got the mattress back on the bed and that's when we noticed the huge wet spot right where we had been. Definitely going to need time for that to dry out. I stripped the sheets off and tossed them into a pile with Allison's shirt. We could do them after school and have it all ready before Mom and Dad got home from work. I could get a towel from the bathroom to put between the spot and the comforter. We would have to plan better in the future. Evidence should probably be kept to a minimum. I gave Allison one of my shirts and she slipped out to the bathroom. She came back looking very pale a few seconds later. She had a sheet of paper in her hand. On it in big letters were the words: "Kid's, we need to talk. See you at breakfast. Love Mom & Dad" I looked at the note and then at Allison. Tears were already forming in her eyes. I hugged her and then kissed her nose and said, "Hey, it can't be that bad. If they were that upset they could have walked in. We certainly couldn't have denied anything. They didn't. I'd say it's one of those 'adult' conversations that we are going to have. You know, about how if we are going to do adult things we need to be sure that we think them through and are prepared for the consequences, that sort of thing. What's the worst that can happen? I go to military school; you go to a convent. Either way, we still have our dreams and we will eventually be old enough to make up our own minds and then no one can keep us apart. Besides, you're not looking on the bright side." She hugged me and whispered, "What bright side is that?" I just hugged her back, kissed her nose, and said "If they're going to kill us in the morning, we might as well sleep together tonight. Can we stay in your room though? Mine could use a visit from the good housekeeping fairy." ------- Chapter 17: Reality Check Despite the knowledge that this may be our last night together for a very long time, we slept well. I woke up at about my normal time and went back to my room to get my running clothes on. Considering what was on the schedule for the morning I took my shortest track, just something to wake me up. Everyone was still sleeping when I got back so I just did a couple of quick stretches, started the coffee, and hit the shower. Mom passed me just as I came out of the bathroom. "Good morning, sweetie," she said, kissing me lightly on the cheek. "Morning, Mom, coffee's ready." I shook my head as she walked away. It was like nothing had happened. I continued on into my room and got dressed for school. I heard the shower come on again and figured Allison was up. For just a second I wished I were in there with her. Down Boy! This was definitely not the time. I made sure I had all of my homework organized and packed my books up for the trip to school. Then I scooped up the dirty sheets from last night along with Allison's stuff and piled it all in my chair so that I could get it into the washer after school. One rule around our house was that laundry did not belong on the floor, not even dirty laundry. In the washer, in a hamper, in a closet, anywhere but the floor. Mom's idea was that dirty laundry should be in your way so you would be motivated to get it washed. It didn't matter if it was in my way, if it was on the floor it might be in her way, and that was a bad thing. Then it was time. I headed down the hall into the kitchen for my usual orange juice and toast. Surprise! There was a pan of those pop-up cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven. Last meal for the condemned? If so, then don't waste it. I grabbed a small plate and snagged a couple. Of course you can't properly appreciate fresh cinnamon rolls with orange juice, and I'm not really a coffee person, so I poured a couple of glasses of milk. One for me and one for Allison because I knew that is what she would want. What the heck, I got another plate and grabbed the last two rolls for her and took all of it to the table. Mom and Dad were talking quietly and sipping coffee. Allison came down the hall just as I sat down. She had her robe on and was toweling her hair. "Ooh! Cinnamon rolls! Thanks Mom!" She kissed both parents on the cheek. "Good morning, Daddy; thanks Jimmy." She kissed me on the cheek as well and sat in the empty chair. She indicated her robe. "I didn't want to keep you waiting, I can finish after Jimmy leaves for school." Dad started, "Good morning, sugar. Thanks for thinking of us. Okay, so, I guess it's safe to say that you to have discovered the joys of physical intimacy, and, now that you know that we know, you are wondering what is going to happen. After the other morning I guess we should have had this conversation sooner but with everything going on over the weekend; with company here, and then Allison spending the night at Shannon's, time sort of got away from us. But here we are anyway. So, there are several different lectures to choose from. I assume you know what society in general thinks of siblings having sex? There are few social taboos or stigmas that carry the weight of incest, whether it is siblings or parent-child. Then there is the whole pre-marital sex is a sin talk. You are both bright enough to know the physical consequences so we'll give you the benefit of the doubt and skip the birth control lecture. So do you want to choose one to start with or take what's behind curtain number one?" Mom cut in, "You're dating yourself dear, they aren't old enough to remember 'Let's Make a Deal'" "You're right, sorry. Okay, here it is. You are not... (pause for emphasis)... going... (again)... to hear any of that from either of us." Allison and I just sat there looking very stunned. Dad waited for our mouths to close before continuing, "We've known, or at least suspected that this was coming for a long time. You two have been so incredibly close practically since Allison came home from the hospital. I lost count of the times we found Jimmy asleep in your room when you were little. I don't think you've ever had a fight. You've had some pretty serious arguments over the years, and while some were pretty serious, always by the next day they were forgotten and forgiven. It was just a matter of time until this happened." Dad just looked at Mom for a second then squeezed her hand and got up and walked out. It seemed very strange. Once he had made it down the hall and the bedroom door closed, Mom continued. "There is more that you need to know, but I will have to tell you because your father can't. The most important thing you need to know is that I am not the love of your father's life." She waited a few seconds for that to settle in before continuing. Allison and I just looked dumbly at each other then back to her. "He had a sister that you never met, and that we never talk about. Her name was Sue Ann, that's where your middle name came from, dear. They were twins and he loved her more than air." I could see a glimmer of moisture forming in mother's eyes. "Sue Ann was a spirit given flesh. Bright, cheerful, always happy and she worshipped her brother the same way he worshipped her. They were never apart if it was possible to be together. Eventually, just as with you two, their love found physical form, and this just made them closer. One day she was walking home alone from school. Your father stayed late for baseball practice. Normally, she would stay to watch and they would walk home together but she wanted to get home early and bake him a cake. A car coming down the road swerved to miss a stray dog and lost control. She never even saw it coming. She was banged up pretty bad and never regained consciousness. Your father held her hand in the hospital for three days, only leaving for a few seconds when he had to go the bathroom. He wouldn't go to school. The doctors finally let them bring food into the room for him because he wouldn't even go to the cafeteria to eat. He was still holding her hand when she died. I was there with him at the end." She stopped to mop up the tears that were starting to leak down her cheeks, "She was my best friend. I'd had a crush on him for years but I never told either of them because I knew that there was no chance. I knew that no matter what, they would find a way to stay together. We cried together when she went. I told him then how I felt about him and that while I knew I could never, and would not want, to replace Sue Ann in his heart, that I was there for him. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. But he just turned to me and hugged me and we cried together for our lost love. Nothing really happened between us for some time, we have been together ever since." Her napkin was already soaked and more tears were creeping down her cheeks now so I handed her mine. "Thank you, dear. I knew that I could never replace her, that I would always be his second love no matter how long we were together. No one else knows, but after we were married, on the way to our honeymoon, we went to the cemetery and placed my bouquet on her grave." By now Allison and I were crying as well. Allison was using her napkin; I just used my sleeves. "So now you know why we are not surprised to see what has happened with you two. And we want you to know that it is okay. But... there are some important things that you need to always be aware of and keep in mind. To the rest of the world, not all of it, but most of it, what you are doing is a sin. It is a taboo that stems from the deepest past of almost every culture on earth. It is generally thought to have come about as a result of the need to avoid in-breeding when man lived in small nomadic bands. As long as you two never plan to have children of your own, it's not really a problem. However, if either of you should ever develop a desire for children, you will have a decision to make, adopt or split up. There is no middle ground in that arena. Otherwise, there is no biological reason for you to not be together. But always remember that you must not let others know. It may someday come down to moving away and leaving all of your friends behind and never looking back. But that is a long ways off so don't worry about it for now." "I am safe assuming you have taken steps in the birth control area? Yes? Good. If you choose, you may sleep together as long as no one else is here. When others are around, or you are in public, you are brother and sister only, no PDAs! No exceptions. You will probably be more comfortable in Jimmy's room as it has more room but you should leave your clothes in your room for appearance's sake. Keep it cleaned up so no one can tell that you aren't actually staying there, but otherwise, we'll leave it up to you. We're trusting you on this; don't let us down. Now give me a hug and get ready for school. And don't make a scene with your father. He hates to cry and it will kill him if he breaks down in front of you." Allison and I just looked at each other. We would have much to discuss later. For now we just hugged Mom and went to get ready for school. ------- Chapter 18: Advice for a Friend Another Wednesday at school; middle of the week, hump-day, we were almost halfway there. Something had been tickling the back of my brain and I had decided to go out on a limb and talk to Miss Jenkins about a very personal issue. I hoped that she would be able to help me. I caught up with her at break and asked her if she would be able to spare a little time at lunch. She had no plans and agreed to meet with me, so I met her outside the gym. I had picked up a burrito at the snack bar, and she didn't eat lunch. I finished it just as she arrived. "Thanks for meeting with me, Miss Jenkins." "No problem, Jimmy. I'm a little curious what kind of personal issue you may need me for. I know you are doing some work with Bob, I would have assumed that anything personal you would have discussed with him." "Not for this. Bob is helping me with something else entirely. A much bigger problem; this is just a little thing I hope you can help me with." I could feel myself starting to blush. "It's more personal, and a little embarrassing; it has to do with something I think you would have much more experience with." She couldn't help but smile at my discomfort. "I see, and what might that be?" "I have two friends that have recently discovered new depths to their relationship. They have been slowly exploring 'new territory' if you catch my meaning. I think they would benefit from a more experienced person to guide them through any rough spots they may encounter along the path they are exploring. I hope that is not too vague." "No, I think I understand your meaning, and I'm impressed with your phrasing. I think we could be having this discussion in a crowded restaurant and still not attract attention. Just to be sure that I am getting this correctly. You have two friends, two girl friends; that are discovering that they have lesbian tendencies and are uncertain of where to go or what to do about them. They need someone to talk to." "Yes, but they are not lesbians, as of now, they are clearly bi-sexual." "Ahh, I see. And you know this because..." "Yes." She shook her head and said, "You are an amazing young man, Mr. Matthews. You are what, fifteen? You have been here all of six days and in that time you are professionally involved with one of the top psychotherapists in the state. You probably didn't know this but Bob is extremely good. I don't know the nature of what you are doing with him but I get the distinct impression it's not that you need therapy, and no, I don't want to know any more. If at some point you feel like talking about it, I'm sure you will. Now you are involved with two women who are also involved with each other, a situation that men twice your age fantasize about, and you are concerned that they may need someone to talk to about their feelings, and for some reason you think it's perfectly okay to just walk up to me and drop all of this in my lap? You do realize that just having this conversation is a huge risk for me professionally?" "That's why we are having this conversation here, in a public place where no one will think we are trying to hide something. If we were meeting in private someone might think something was strange about it. Here, we are just a teacher and a student having a conversation. No one can hear what we are saying and we can see if anyone approaches, so there is no chance of someone finding out about it unless one of us says something. I think I made it clear that I think you are a person that understands trust and personal confidence. I hope that you would trust me as well. If you are not sure about my knowing how important that is, please feel free to ask Mr. Shelby if he thinks I understand just how serious an issue that is. I'm sure that he will tell you that I am familiar with the concept. How am I doing so far?" "Sounds like you've thought it out very well indeed. You read a lot of spy novels in your spare time?" I laughed at this. "No, not really, but between what I have read, plus TV and movies, you can't help but pick some stuff up. Lately I've been paying more attention to some of it. So do you think you can help them?" "I have no idea. I probably won't know unless they come to me. It depends on what kind of help they need. But if they do have any problems or questions, I will be happy to help in any way I can. I wish I'd had someone to talk to when I was just finding out about myself. I wish I'd had someone like you who cared enough about me to help find someone I could have talked to." She paused for a moment. "You know, Jimmy, the more time I spend around you the more impressed I am. You give me great hope for the future." "Well, I'm not sure why that would be but thank you anyway." "Jimmy, most young people your age would never even consider the possibility that a lover may have issues about their own relationship, much less a relationship with someone else. For that matter, they would never even tolerate the idea of sharing someone's affections, much less their bodies, with someone else. And yes, I understand that most guys would kill to be in your shoes but trust me, they would only be in it for the three-way fantasy sex and even then they would be broadcasting it to all their friends and the girls' lives would be ruined. But you, you're genuinely concerned about them, about more than just the sex, aren't you." I couldn't help blushing. "Well, the sex thing hasn't come up, but I like to think that I care more about them than I would about that. In fact, I know I do. I just want to make sure that if, or more likely when, something comes up, they have someone to talk to. If things progress then eventually it will come out, and, well, I'm sure I don't need to tell you about social pressures and problems." "No kidding. Being different always comes with a price. I remember dreading the day someone would find out that I was gay. I lost two of my best friends over it. They just couldn't deal with the fact that I might be thinking 'those' thoughts about them when we were together. So tell your friends that if they need someone to talk to I will be happy to talk with them." "Okay, at least for now though any questions may have to come through me. They don't attend here. Unless you're comfortable giving out your home number?" "No, I don't have a problem with them calling me at home, and if I'm not available I'm sure they could talk to Lynn." I had to stop and think about that one. "Would it be a problem for her if they were students of hers?" "Students of hers? I'm surprised they haven't gone to her directly." "Is she a counselor?" "No, you're right; she's not, so they probably wouldn't think of her as approachable." "If they were to consult her away from campus as a friend and not as a teacher would it be considered a conflict? For that matter, is it a conflict for you?" "I doubt it would be for her, it certainly isn't for me. They aren't students here. When I said it was a risk for me I meant having a discussion of this nature with you. Surprisingly, even though I'm openly homosexual, I would still be in more trouble for talking about sex to a boy than to a girl. My concern is what would their parents think of them calling a teacher up at home? Do their parents know about their leanings? Or their relationship? I'm guessing not, most parents aren't comfortable with the idea of their kids being gay, and they certainly don't want to think their kids are active." I paused, considering how far I could safely go. "I can only speak for one of them. While her parents do know she is active they do not know about her bi-sexual leanings. I can say without reservation that it would not be a problem for them. As far as the other girl, I really can't say any more without talking to her first." She nodded. "I understand, and I must say I applaud your discretion. Why don't we just leave it for now; I'll talk to Lynn, you talk to your girlfriend, girl friends, and we'll talk again." "Okay, but would it be better if I called and spoke to you at home? I don't think we could meet like this two days in a row without attracting attention." She shook her head. "Are you sure you don't read spy novels? You're right of course, but it's not what I expect from someone your age. I'm starting to think there is a lot more to your life even than what you have told me so far." Lunch was pretty much over by then. She gave me her home number and I headed off to finish classes. The afternoon was pretty much a mirror of the morning so it flew by. I decided to go out again for the second day of cross country try-outs. I didn't have to, but now that I knew what was involved I decided I wanted to see what I could do. I had kept a pretty standard pace the day before, this time I wanted to really push my limits. I changed into running clothes and went out to stretch. One of the same returnees from last year's team was there again. I told Mr. Shelby what I had in mind and asked him to pair us up. "I can do better than that. Tim? Could you come over here for a second?" "Tim Osborne, James Matthews." We shook hands. Tim was a little taller than me and just 'looked' like a runner. His hair was not short but not long either. It had obviously been cut for low maintenance. Kind of layered back so that no matter what it couldn't get into his face. "Tim? Is Angie still planning on dropping by today?" "Oh no! Coach, please say you're not going to make me run with her!" "Come on now, Tim, suck it up! Take one for the team! You saw Jimmy run yesterday? He wants to push it today and see what he can do. I would like you and Angie to tag along and evaluate him." "Tag along? Unless Anj has installed rear view mirrors she's not likely to be evaluating anyone." "Tim, it's a short run, push yourself. I'd like to see what you can do, and we both know that if you can keep up with her and still finish the race, you've run well. You've grown since last year, Tim, I think you may surprise yourself. Unless you took the whole summer off? No? Didn't think so. Oh, there she is now." Tim just kind of rolled his eyes at the figure walking towards us. Then he looked at me, "Dude, you are so going to regret this." I looked again at the girl walking towards us. Regret that? Not likely. She was gorgeous! If she wasn't six foot then it wasn't worth measuring how close. Golden skin? She must live in Hawaii and visit here for school. Long brown hair; she had it tied back in a braid and it reached to her waist. She moved like a lioness, strong and confident. Just watching her muscles as she walked was hypnotic, especially considering her attire. She was wearing a pair of those really skimpy track shorts and a half-shirt, and the shirt was tight fitting and really emphasized her breasts. Not huge, but larger than Shannon's. She must have had an industrial sports bra on because they didn't so much as quiver. A little voice in my head told me that I was looking at Shannon in four more years. Allison would never get there; she just wasn't built on that scale, but Shannon? Yeah, I could see this in her future without even flexing my imagination. "James Matthews, meet Satan's little sister. Ow!" Tim said as she slugged him in the arm, "I mean, meet my sister, Angela. Last year's state champion in girl's cross-country; two time gold medalist at the Junior Olympics and preparing to compete for the US track and field team. The evil witch that got me hooked on this damn sport. Can you tell how much I love her?" Actually I could. He looked at her like I looked at Allison. And she was just as blind to it as I had been. Oh, I'm sure she loved him, as a brother. As we shook hands, but all I could think was, "You poor unfortunate soul." "Nice to meet you," she said. Her handshake was firm but not strong. "An honor to meet you," I said, and I meant it. "It's all I can do to not drop at your feet in worship." She looked at Tim. "You put him up to this?" Tim backed away with his hands up defensively, "Just met him, honest!" "It's true, Miss Osborne, Coach Shelby just introduced us. Besides, nothing he could have said would have prepared me for you. If sunshine could grow legs and walk around, it would pale in comparison." "Oh! I like you! If I get you a long staff, could you walk around and announce me?" "I could only dream of being worthy." We couldn't keep it up. Tim looked like he was going to throw up. "Gag me!" We just stood and laughed for a couple minutes. "Seriously, it's nice to meet you, Miss Osborne, good luck with the Olympic Team. I would love to be able to watch the games and actually say I know someone there. And you!" I kind of shoved Tim, "should show a little more respect." "Give me a break will you. I don't care if she walks on the moon; she's still just my sister." What a load of crap. This guy had it bad! How could she not notice? "Anyway, Mr. Shelby wants me to run with the two of you today. I came out yesterday but I wasn't sure what to expect so I had of just treated it like a morning run before school. Today I wanted to see what I can do. Coach wanted your opinion. Now I know why. You don't mind running with freshmen do you?" "I don't mind running with anyone who can keep up. Kennel boy here, he does okay, but I personally think he dogs it on purpose. I think he just likes watching my ass." I leaned past her a little and looked. "I can see the attraction! He may have something at that." Tim turned bright red. Now I know what I looked like when Miss Swann shook my hand. "Boys! Well, if you want to get a good look, you're going to have to keep up because I'm not slowing down for you." She kind of nodded to Mr. Shelby who apparently had been taking in the whole scene. "You slackers ready? Let's do this. Same course as yesterday." And we were off. It was soon apparent just how horribly out-classed we were. The first mile wasn't bad and we kept up without too much trouble. I didn't realize how hard I was really running just to keep up. I hung in there, though I was starting to really feel it. Tim wasn't struggling as hard as I was but I could tell he was working at it. Angela began to pull away at about three miles. Tim looked like he wanted to go ahead but hung back for me. Oh well, it's not like this was actually competition conditions. He was there to evaluate me. Angela continued to pull away until by the time we reached the four mile mark she was about 100 yards ahead. Then it looked like she actually shifted it up a gear. At four and a half miles she had picked up another 50 yards. Then you could almost see the dust cloud and she was gone. It was like watching a Roadrunner cartoon, from the coyote's point of view. "Damn! She is awesome!" I managed to gasp out. "Yeah, but don't tell her I said so," he replied between breaths. At the half mile mark he said, "Okay, let's see what you've got left" And he kicked in his afterburners. It was immediately apparent that I needed to learn about properly pacing a race. I had nothing left to give. It was all I could do to hold my pace to the finish. If I had tried for more I would have never made it. Tim was walking around shaking out his arms and legs when I finished. Angie got up from her stretching to get us each a bottle of water. She handed one to each of us. It was cold so I just rinsed my mouth and set it aside to warm while I walked and stretched. That was the hardest I had ever run in my life. If that was any indication of what was to come, I suddenly had doubts about my future on the team. Angie came back as I was on the ground stretching. "You're doing that wrong. Here." She stood behind me and pressed on my back as I stretched one leg before me. "Don't bounce, ever, you can tear something before you know it. A good steady stretch is what you want. If you need help, ask. Better yet, find a partner early in the year. Someone you can meet up with at the end of each race. Arrange a spot before you go out. If you get back at different times, go to that spot until he shows up, just start your stretching and wait for him." As she said this she leaned into my back to hold me in position for a few seconds before letting me relax. "Alternate legs a couple times each right away and then work to longer stretches for each as you start to relax." She moved around in front of me and sat down. "Spread your legs wide." I did as instructed. She braced her feet against the insides of my legs and reached out her hands toward me. I held out my arms and she took a firm grip on my wrists and started slowly leaning back. "Now, keep your legs straight and tell me when to stop." If it hadn't been for my muscles complaining I would have really enjoyed it. Her running shorts gapped open considerably around her legs and her panty-covered crotch was clearly visible. She was apparently very well trimmed, as there were no stray hairs poking around the edges, but obviously not shaved as they didn't cling to her flesh either. "Say when." I looked up at her. It was obvious she was aware of what was going on. "From where I'm at? How about next Tuesday?" She just rolled her eyes. "Don't make me hurt you. Now you lean back." I did as instructed and quickly realized that there were other muscles in my body. One of which was now very apparent. I blushed. "Let that be a lesson to you, my gallant young gentleman. Don't let your glands get the better of you. I am of course flattered, but you probably don't want this to happen in front of a bunch of strangers. Especially a bunch of guys, you'll never hear the end of it." "Thanks, for the advice, and the rest. I will try to avoid it in the future, but I did enjoy the lesson. I assume you are used to the attention." "Since I was about twelve, I try to ignore it. Most guys get insulted and leave you alone if you make it known you're not interested and ignore them. Now forward again. Try to keep your mind on the stretch this time." "Difficult when the eyes are so pleasantly engaged. And since I've already embarrassed myself I have nothing to lose by enjoying the show." "You are a very naughty boy." "Gonna spank me?" She pulled a little harder. "Ugh! Or just try to rip me in two?" Should I say it? "Tim would probably stand in for the spanking." She looked hard at me. "Now back. What do you mean?" "C'mon, you must have noticed, Angela, he's got to be your number one fan." "Tim? He's my little brother, he's just a kid." I stopped and looked her hard in the eye, "Angela, you better take a closer look. He's not a little boy any more, and I would not want to be the fool that hurt you if there was any chance he would find out about it. Life is short enough. Trust me, I recognize that look, he loves you more than you know." "What do you mean, 'you recognize that look'?" I shook my head and mumbled, "Me and my big mouth." I looked around to be sure we were alone and no one was paying attention, "I recently discovered it in three different places. One was on my best friend's little sister. She is a year younger than I am. Apparently she's had a crush on me for some time. The next was on my little sister, two years younger, apparently she did too. I was as blind as you are. All I saw was two little girls. Then one day... I swear it was like getting hit by a bus. The last place I saw it was on my face looking in the mirror when thinking about either of them, and unless I'm mistaken, I see it on your face now. You feel the same way don't you?" She blushed and pulled back. I hung on and made it look like just another stretch. "I thought so. You have just gotten better at hiding it." "You're delusional." "Am I? Angela, look me in the eye and tell my you don't love him." "Of course I love him, he's my brother." "Now you're stalling and trying to evade the issue. You can't run from this, Angie. You have to face it and deal with, one way or the other. Society says it's wrong, evil, that there is something wrong with you for feeling that way. I say that's bullshit. You are the same person now that you were 2 minutes ago. Only now you have discovered something. It's no one else's business what you do with it, or if you do anything with it. I know it's a lot to think about. If you need someone to talk to about this, talk to coach Shelby. He's a counselor so it's all confidential, and he's very good. Or you can talk to me, I already told you about me. I recently discovered that the person I love most in the world is more than just the little girl living down the hall, and I have since begun to discover just how much I have missed, how much I was blind to, and just how wonderful that person really is. I would die for her, but I would rather live for her. If you want, I can arrange for you to talk to my sister. Whatever you do, don't try to hold this in, don't try to ignore it, Angie; you'll regret it." I pulled her back to center, let go and stood up. I noticed Tim was watching us. I moved so that my back was to him and reached to help her up. "Still think I'm wrong?" I asked quietly. "Hug me and watch his face." I pulled her up and hugged her. "Thanks for the stretch." I said more loudly. I felt it in her body even before she said it. "Oh my god," she whispered, "I never realized." She pulled away and walked past me, "See you around, rookie. Keep it up. I think you have real potential." Then she walked up to Tim, hugged him and said, "Good run, Timmy; I didn't realize how much you've grown." I looked over my shoulder, yep, deer in the headlights. I wished them well in their coming journey. It was sort of strange that this should come up now, considering the revelations Allison and I were having regarding our newly discovered relationship. I found Allison sunning by the pool and doing her homework. Not surprising, it was our favorite spot for doing homework. Quiet, warm, Allison was practically naked, I mean what wasn't to like about it. "Hey, sis," I said, leaning down to kiss her forehead, "missed you. How was your day?" "Jimmy, I was at school! How was yours?" "You have a point there. Mine had its interesting moments." I stayed kneeling next to her lounge chair. "I wanted to talk to you about part of it. I'm worried about what's going to happen when someone eventually realizes that you and Shannon are more than just friends. I asked Miss Jenkins if she would be okay with talking to either of you if you ever had questions about your feelings, or anything else." She just stared at me for a few seconds. I wasn't sure what she was thinking until she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. "Jimmy, I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you. That is so sweet of you to even think of it. What did she say?" "Well I didn't tell her who either of you were, I just said I had two friends who..." I went on to explain everything Melinda and I had talked about. As usual, Allison sat quietly until I had finished before speaking. "Shannon and I have talked a little and we are going to be very careful to keep our relationship under wraps. That will be a lot easier now that she has a boyfriend. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do yet but for now I'm just going to keep on being 'not interested' in boys. I don't know that we will need it, but it's good to know that we have someone to talk to if anything ever comes up. I'm not sure how Mom and Dad, or Tom and Karen, are going to take it when it comes out. But I don't think we have to worry about that any time soon. So how did try-outs go?" ------- Chapter 19: The Rules Change Nothing else major happened for a while. My budding relationships with my two new girlfriends continued to progress slowly and smoothly. Okay, smoothly may be a stretch. The 'relationship' part was smooth, the more dynamic aspects, you know, the sex, was getting very frustrating. Shannon in particular was really starting to show signs of stress. She really wanted to get physical. But between school starting for them, and my joining the cross country team, I didn't get to spend any real time alone with her. Of course Allison and I were free to spend as much time together as we wanted. However that did not include sex; Allison was adamant that we had to wait for Shannon. Even though she wasn't any happier about it than either Shannon or I, as she had some things she wanted to get to as well. Her self-imposed ban extended to dreams as well. We slept together regularly; all non-school nights and once in a while during the week if one of us really felt like being held. Otherwise, we cuddled a lot and tried not to get carried away making out. Far from perfect, but we tried to make the best of it when we had the opportunity. The girls of course could spend time together after school, and when the families got together for dinner or time on weekends I grabbed what time as I could with Shannon, but even this was more difficult than you would think. Especially since we were trying to keep our relationships off the parental map. The last thing we wanted was for the 'rents to discover there was more to us than just friendship. It was hard enough getting to see Shannon now, if either set suspected she might me having sex with one of us? I don't think the odds of our spending any quality time alone would be going up. Mom and Dad may be okay with the Allison and me, but I didn't think that would extend to either of us having sex with another girl. And while I don't know what Tom and Karen would think about Shannon having sex with Allison, I had a pretty good idea how Tom would feel about her and me. So, the one fabulous time with Allison was my most cherished memory and I held it close every day I had to wait. The girls were being fair about it, too; the ban extended both ways. They had spent a couple of more nights together but were avoiding new territory as well. Even though I'd made it clear that I would not care or be upset either way. I guess they were serious when they said they wanted me to be first in everything. I had to respect their resolve, and it was flattering in a way, but it was a frustrating situation all around. Meanwhile, I kept finding myself in some strange places. Frequently it was the result of meeting new people. I would meet someone at school; it didn't seem to matter who they were or even if I was interested in them. Their dreams didn't even need to involve me. I met that girl Marsha in my psychology class, and that night I watched her and her girlfriends storm the mall, and I mean storm the mall. It looked like the Marines storming a fortress. I met a guy named Rick in my social studies class and discovered that he dreamed of being an archaeologist and traveling the world digging through ancient sites. Maybe archaeologist was a little strong though. His dream was more reminiscent of an Indiana Jones movie. There was only one dream that was significant enough to garner any serious comment from Bob. It was a bad one. I was in a house I didn't recognize. A girl was hiding in her closet. She was not a little girl, but younger than Allison, maybe eleven. I'd never seen her before yet she somehow seemed familiar. A man's voice echoed through the house calling her name. It was weird, I couldn't actually hear it, yet somehow I knew that's what was happening. Eventually he found her. The closet door slid open and all I could see was a man's feet in work boots. An arm snaked through the clothes and landed on the girl's head. He grabbed her hair and pulled her roughly out of the closet. He slapped her several times then shoved her toward her bed. Tears streamed down her face as she began unbuttoning her dress and he began removing his belt. I never saw the man's face. Thankfully the scene faded, unfortunately the remembered images stayed with me. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Jimmy," Bob said. "I don't need to tell you that there are some bad people in the world, and bad things happen. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is not as uncommon as you might imagine. Statistically it's a small percentage but still too high for me because I'm one of the people who have to deal with the fallout from those statistics. The people whose lives are messed up for years afterwards, some never really recover. And it's not just the victims themselves. Many times it's the other parent who has to deal with the fact that this was happening right under their noses and they didn't see. Or worse, they let it go on. The guilt can be almost as bad as the abuse. "Many times the victim has to deal with false guilt. They somehow convince themselves that they did something to deserve the treatment that they got. This can lead to a lifetime of abusive relationships as they try to fix the problem they perceive in themselves. Like they are somehow doing something wrong and if they can just learn not to do it then everything will stop. The road to recovery is a long one. "And that's just the stuff we know about. You see, Jimmy, the largest part of abuse never even gets reported. In cases of non-sexual abuse it can be very difficult to stop. At best the first report would be dealt with by means of a simple intervention, to let, in this case him, know that the police or social services had been contacted and interviews would be conducted. Depending on the outcome of the interviews he may be required to go to anger management or something similar. If a second report comes in quickly he may be arrested and detained, but would most likely be out on bail or on his own recognizance very quickly with a stronger warning to behave himself. That's assuming he didn't already beat the crap out of someone or everyone until whoever ratted him out confessed. The other family members may turn on that person as well, blaming them for his kicking their asses. And of course if he is arrested, thrown in jail, etc. the family suddenly finds itself with greatly reduced or even no income at all and they are really screwed. Faced with homeless and hopeless as an alternative, many will simply shut up and put up. It's very frustrating. What you saw was clearly sexual assault, but it still takes someone to report it before anything can even begin to be done about it. "So what can I do?" I asked. "Honestly, not much. But there may be ways you can help. If you find yourself in a situation like that again? Look around if you can. Try to find an address, something we may be able to give to the police. Don't worry; you won't have to come forward to do it. An anonymous tip to a help line saying that a girl may be in danger, or is being abused at such and such an address. The police or social services can check it out. Unfortunately, in many cases, unless they literally walk into a situation, they can't always do much. In too many of these cases the victims will not admit what is happening to them, but there are signs that professionals are trained to look for. If they see them they can quietly begin watching for an opportunity to do something. They take molestation cases very seriously. If they see the signs they'll pursue it. I know it may not seem like much, but sometimes it's all we can do, so if you get the chance..." "I'll try. That shouldn't happen to anyone. I don't know what I would do if anyone ever tried something like that with Allison. Actually I guess that's not true. I'd lose it; I'd do whatever I had to and worry about the consequences later." "Well, at least we know that could never happen with Allison. You are far too tuned-in to her for something like that to happen and you not know about it." The weekend before Halloween things changed. It was a typical Friday night after another long week at school. It seemed like I had just pulled the covers up over me when I found myself standing in front of a door. Looking back, this should have been my first clue that something was not right. Normally if I use a door in a dream, it's as a transition point; usually it's the door to my bedroom. This was a different door, standing in the middle of my room. Still I didn't give it much thought. I opened the door expecting to find myself in the picnic glade. Instead I found myself on an empty sidewalk. I recognized the street from our shopping trip, but I doubt that Rodeo Drive was ever quite this empty. There was no one in sight. As I looked around I realized that I had been wrong. There was one other person present. Sitting on the bench that the girl in the white dress had occupied before was a woman dressed in dark jeans, a men's dress shirt and a dark windbreaker. Black shoes and sunglasses completed the look. She was not moving and as I realized this it occurred to me that there was no motion anywhere on the street, and no cars, not even the rustling of leaves on the breeze. It was just the two of us, alone. I walked towards her but she gave no outward sign to acknowledge my presence. I walked right up to her. Nothing. I realized then she wasn't even breathing. It was like I was walking through a photograph rather than a dream. She was seated on the bench much as a man would be. Legs comfortably apart, one arm draped across the length of the back. I started to examine her more closely, trying to determine who she might be. She had medium length dark brown hair. I couldn't see her eyes for the glasses. On a whim I reached to remove the glasses, expecting to have my hand slapped at any moment, but nothing happened. I pulled the glasses down enough to see and discovered that she had hazel eyes. Her hair was drawn back over one ear revealing a simple gold stud. I checked and the twin was set in the other ear. Unusual in today's society was that she only had one in either side. Many women seemed to have multiple piercing in at least one ear. Looking closely at her face I decided that she was no more than mid to late twenties. I glanced at her hand and noted that there was no wedding ring. More unusual was that there were no rings at all, on either hand. Something caught my eye as I looked back to her face. I took a closer look and there was something in the shadow of the jacket that looked odd. Opening her jacket I found that it was a gun. Drawing the jacket open further revealed a medium sized automatic. Both the weapon and the holster had a well-worn look. Curious. I closed the jacket back up and stepped back to study her further. But as I stepped back there was a rushing sound and suddenly the street was again busy. Traffic, people, cars, and noise; all the usual trappings of a busy downtown shopping district were back. The woman glanced up but seemed not to see me. She rose as a bus pulled up. The door opened and she stepped aboard. I followed, curious to see where this would go. As I crossed the threshold I found myself in a bank, a bank under siege. Two men in long leather jackets and ski masks were waiving shotguns threateningly at a small crowd of scared patrons. Across the room the security guard was lying in a pool of slowly spreading blood. Behind the counter a third masked man was holding a gun to the head of a very frightened man demanding access to the vault. "I told you, it's time locked!" the frightened employee said. "The monitoring system picked up the sound of gunfire and automatically closed and sealed the vault when your man shot the guard. There is no way to open it locally," "Then I guess I don't need you, do I?" The man with the gun took a step back so the man could see him, and then aimed his gun right at the man's head. "Wait!" came a voice from behind me. "I can open the vault." The gunman turned quickly and searched for the source of the voice. I turned as well. The clothes were different but it was the woman from the bus stop. I glanced back to the man on his knees who had suddenly been granted a second chance at life. He looked confused. "Who the hell are you?" shouted the gunman. "I work at the district office. I am a network troubleshooter. I designed the security system. I can open it. Just don't hurt anyone else." "Get over here." The woman separated herself from the rest and walked nervously across the lobby. When he shoved the gun up under her chin she cringed and tried to pull back. He used his free hand and grabbed her by the hair. "You better not be lying to me bitch or the last thing you see will be your brains hitting that computer screen." "I'm telling the truth. But I need access to the secure server station in the back office." The gunman looked back at the other man. "Get over there with the rest of them. You two, watch them, and keep away from the windows. Anyone sees us and it's going to get ugly quick." I didn't really understand the comment at first, and then I moved to the window and looked out. I was looking down from about the 4th floor of a mid sized building. This was obviously not a normal bank. The fact that no one had responded to the apparent gunshot said it was a pretty solidly constructed building. The main gunman shoved the woman forward and signaled for her to precede him behind the counter and into the back area of the bank. They went through a set of thick glass doors into a hallway. At the other end there were two desks, both with computers. The woman tried accessing one of the terminals but it was password protected. "I need the local password. It's probably either locked in one of these drawers or in the head of that nice man you were about to kill." "Don't be a smart ass, lady; I'm not in the mood." "I'm sorry. Hand me that letter opener. I should be able to jimmy the lock on the desk. Most of these people keep a password list close by. It's too hard to get everyone to remember the passwords when they change all the time." He turned and picked up the letter opener, handing it to her and then backing away to keep his gun on her. "You better not be conning me, bitch." "Hey, I don't have a death wish. I just don't want to see anyone else get hurt." The letter opener slipped and she swore. "Shit!" She pulled a knuckle up to her mouth and sucked at it. "I can't get it open, the lock's to strong." "Try it again." "I can't do it, my hands aren't strong enough. It's a new desk and the lock isn't worn enough to be loose. I can't get enough play in it to get in started." "Give me that thing," he demanded. She handed him the letter opener and stepped back. He waved her to one side and stuck the letter opener into the edge of the drawer. He tried it twice before he got really frustrated. He set the gun down next to the keyboard and grabbed the letter opener in both hands. He jammed it back into the drawer and that was the last thing he saw. As soon as he looked down she attacked. His head was already down, concentrating on the drawer. She kicked once behind his right knee to knock him off balance and as he started to fall she slammed his head into the desktop. He dropped without further struggle. She frisked him quickly and came up with a cell phone and two extra clips for the nine-millimeter automatic. She hit 911 and waited for the operator. "Listen closely, this is special agent Hampton of the FBI, ID #A163780, I have a hostage situation at," and she gave what I had assumed was the name and location of the bank. "They have already killed the security guard and threatened others. One suspect is down, two more still in play. I need backup and an ambulance standing by immediately. Suspects are armed with shotguns, handguns and are wearing light armor. There is probably at least one other outside the bank. We are running out of time. Do not call this number back, I am on the downed suspect's cell phone and I need this line clear. Do you understand everything I've told you? Good, then wish me luck and get on it" She hung up and placed another call. "Rod? It's Bex. Did you get this number or is it blocked? Good. Give me two minutes then call me back at this number. If a man answers the phone say 'This is the FBI, drop your weapons and surrender immediately.' No it's not a joke, don't screw this up, Rod, my life and about a dozen more depend on it. And Rod, if this goes wrong, look after my sister. Yeah, love to Celina and the kids. Talk to you later." She tucked the guy's gun into the sash that acted as a belt for her dress but it kept trying to fall out. "Shit!" It was obvious that it was not working. She looked around for a minute then swore again and reaching down, ripped the front of her dress open. She pulled the top completely down, then, pulling her arms out of her bra straps she slid the bra down a couple of inches. She pulled the dress back up and then working through the torn opening she suspended the gun in the strap of her now re-assigned under-garment and pulled the loose sides of the dress together to hide the grip of the pistol. She then ruffled up her hair and, licking her fingers, quickly smeared her makeup to make it appear as if she had been crying. With a last quick glance at her former captor she opened the glass door and headed down the hall. As she reached the far end her walk changed to that of a distraught and fearful woman. Phone clutched in one hand, the other holding her torn dress together, listing slightly to one side she staggered into the bank lobby. She did a very convincing job of holding the torn opening of her dress closed as if she were embarrassed. "What the hell are you doing out here?" One of the gunmen shouted as he saw her emerging from the back. "I... I couldn't get the terminal password. He said to come back out." She started extending the phone towards him, "He said to give you this and tell you to call..." She jumped as if startled as the cell phone rang on schedule and cut her off. "Gimme that god damn phone!" the gunman said. She handed him the phone and stepped back about four feet. She appeared to be trying to hold the dress closed but one hand was actually working under the edge of the tear. Transferring his shotgun to his off hand he opened the phone and said. "Hello?" Then he listened to the reply and started to look up. She smiled and said, "Surprise." Then took a half step and kicked him square in the crotch. I cringed at the force of the blow. He dropped his gun, both hands suddenly finding more important things to do. Before she had completed the move she was spinning away, tearing the gun from its improvised holster and rounding on the last gunman. He was trying frantically to bring his shotgun to bear on her. He never made it. The nine-millimeter barked twice and his head snapped back. He was dead before he even hit the ground. The man she had kicked was starting to rise, reaching for his weapon when she stepped on his outstretched hand and said, "Don't even think about it." She picked up the fallen phone and spoke into it, "Rod, you still there? Yeah, I'm good. I'll tell you about it later. Listen I got a mess to clean up so I'll call you back. Thanks for the assist amigo." She turned to the man who the gunman had threatened and called him forward. "You, call 911, tell them who you are, where you are and that special agent Hampton says it's clear to come in." She picked up the shotgun and handed it to a very severe looking older woman. "Do me a favor, sweetie, if this guy moves, shoot him in the leg, if he keeps moving, aim higher and keep shooting 'til he stops." She toed the guy on the ground. "Face down, arms straight out from your shoulders, feet apart. You heard what I told the nice lady? I suggest you remain very still because if she has to shoot you I will personally testify in court that it was self defense." She walked over to the guard's body and checked for a pulse. "Damn." She took his handcuffs and went back to the back office. A few minutes later she re-appeared with the last suspect. He was now bare-chested and she had his t-shirt on over the remnants of her torn dress. It appeared that she had also taken time to put her bra back in place. The man was still bleeding slightly from his nose and had a nasty bruise forming on his face from having it slammed into the desk. The doors opened suddenly and armed officers charged in. Special Agent Hampton of the FBI walked out into the hallway and started talking to a man in a suit. I followed, and as I crossed the threshold found myself walking across the picnic glade approaching the blanket. ------- Chapter 20: Catching Up Allison was asleep on the blanket. Can you sleep in a dream? I sat on the blanket beside her and pulled a bottle of water out of the picnic basket before gently shaking her awake. She raised her head and said sleepily, "Oh, there you are. I thought maybe you weren't coming. What took you so long?" I leaned down, kissed her lightly, and said, "You are not going to believe this." She didn't. "And you say you were headed here when it all happened?" she asked when I had finished. "Yeah, just like every other time. No, actually, now that I think about it there was one difference. I went through a door at the beginning. Normally I only use a door to transition when I am already here. You know, to go somewhere else from here, or to come back. Normally, when we get together, I just 'wake up' here, or I use my bedroom door. This was a different door entirely." "I guess that's something. Did you notice anything else unusual? I mean besides the whole thing?" "No, not really, I seemed to be in observer mode for the whole thing. Any ideas?" "Yeah, but the only thing that fits sort of scares me. It sounds like someone wanted you to 'meet' a certain FBI agent. The question is who? And just as importantly, how did they do it. Did you happen to notice your ring?" "What? Crap! I didn't even think of it. Sorry, guess I blew that one." "Don't worry about it. I will forgive you for being a little bit distracted. I don't know if we are really equipped to get anything more out of this. I think you better talk to Bob about it on Monday. I wouldn't bother him over the weekend. I doubt if it's that important, but definitely talk to him." I nodded. Allison seemed to collect her thoughts for a moment and went on. "I think you and Shannon are going to be on your own here pretty soon. I hate to say it but Mark's all hands. And before you even think it, I don't want you to say anything about it, or try to do anything. I can handle him just fine. It's nothing serious and he hasn't tried to insist, but I have to keep pushing his hands away from places they don't belong. Must be a boy thing." "I'm not like that," I said defensively. "Yeah, I know, and I shouldn't generalize that way, sorry. We'll just call it hormones and leave it at that. Anyway, get ready for a loud smacking sound next time he tries it. At least that will give me the excuse to stop being 'interested' in him. And hopefully the next girl that throws herself at him will benefit from it." That made me think, "You know, that's probably the difference. Mark wasn't interested in you and you suddenly attacked him. I was already interested in Shannon and have been thinking about how to be careful with her. Mark never had a chance to think. So the hormones just took the driver's seat and it's been downhill from there. Hmm. Well, I'm going to call it a night and go scuba diving or something to get my mind off all this until I have to get up. See you in the morning." Saturday was a typical southern California day. I did my homework, the regular weekend chores and the two of us washed both cars. Then we swam and generally had a pleasant day together. That night it happened again. Once more I 'woke up' to find myself facing a door. This time I checked my ring. It was there, solid and comforting on my hand. I turned away, crossed to my bedroom door and opened it. I was looking into the glade; I could just make out the corner of the blanket behind the stand of bushes. I went back, walked through the other door and found myself in a church. I was standing alone in a balcony alcove looking down. I checked again and my ring was gone. The groomsmen and bridesmaids were all in place and the Bridal March was just beginning. The scene jumped and I was in the aisle. The doors opened and a woman entered, resplendent in a flowing white gown. She stood for a moment while cameras clicked away, capturing the moment. An older gentleman offered her his arm and escorted her slowly down the crowded aisle. His expression was a mixture of pride and sorrow. His little girl had grown up, and now another man was taking her away. He did a masterful job of holding back the tears that I could see forming at the corner of his eyes as I backed down ahead of them. They reached the appointed place and it was time. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and said, "I love you, Daddy. I wish Amy could have been here." He hugged her and the tears came. "Me too, sweetie, me too. I love you, princess." He stepped back and joined a woman in the front row. Without a word she kissed his cheek and slipped a tissue discreetly into his hand. The ceremony continued; vows were exchanged: "Do you, Michael Robert Stiles, take this woman... 'til death do you part?" "I do." Turning to the bride... "Do you, Rebecca Jean Hampton, take this man..." He never finished. When he reached the line 'til death do you part' it thundered across the church in a booming echo. On the third echo I found myself staring down at the bleeding body of Michael Robert Stiles. His bride of six months, <> held his head in her lap and her tears fell on his face. Across the room were the bodies of the man who had killed him and the girl he had been trying to rescue. In a blare of sirens two cars screeched to a halt, followed shortly by four men crashing into the room with guns drawn. Shock was immediately evident on their faces. I don't know why but I recognized one of them as Samuel Rodriquez, the "Rod" she had called from the bank. He stepped slowly towards her, talking over his shoulder to the other three as he went. "Check the others, and see what's taking that ambulance so long." Then he slowly knelt by the dead body of his best friend and the woman who had loved him to the end of his days. "Bex, I'm sorry." Her tear-stained face turned toward him but it was hard to say if she saw him or not. "I was too late. He was getting ready to kill the girl. I heard Michael go through the door. He couldn't know that it was trapped. A simple wire, just enough to make him stumble. Before he recovered the bastard had pulled his gun and shot Michael twice. I was moving as fast as I could. His mic was still working. I could hear his breathing. Rod, he wasn't dead. Then the girl screamed, but it cut off when the bastard stabbed her. I heard Michael whisper, 'No, ' and then two more shots. When I got here they were both dead. I already knew Michael was dead. I heard him die. Oh, Rod! Why couldn't I have been faster? Just a little faster..." And the tears came again. He held her for a while as she cried, then went on to take the reports from the other agents. They were surprised to find the girl was still alive, seriously wounded, but the knife had missed her heart. It had punctured a lung though, that would have cut off the scream. She had passed out from the shock of the wound. The ambulance crew thought that she would make it, but they were rushing to meet a medical helicopter at the clearing halfway down the mountain. Then the coroner arrived and it was time to take Michael away. She held his hand until they closed the seal on the large black bag, and then followed them out. Rod held the door to the car as she numbly climbed into the back seat. The scene faded to a cemetery. An honor guard stood by. Rebecca stood with Michael's mother as husband and son were laid to rest. Tears were cried. Words were spoken, and the scene went dark. I was back in my room, my ring once again a solid weight upon my finger. I wondered, whose dream had it been? Why had I been there? Two nights in a row... there had to be a reason. I really needed to talk to Allison; maybe Bob too, but definitely Allison. I turned back to the bedroom door and for the first time I was apprehensive. Twice now I had walked through doors to find myself in strange places watching a woman I did not know. Even though there had been nothing threatening about any of those circumstances I found my self unsure for the first time. What was it Allison had said last night? Something about someone wanting me to meet this woman? Again, the question was who, and more important, why? How could it even be done? I opened the door and stepped through. I emerged not into the glade but onto my back patio. It was warm and sunny, another typical day in paradise. There were two lounge chairs drawn up next to the pool. Both were empty. Beside the chairs were glasses of iced tea, towels, and two bathing suits. The owners of those two suits were in the pool and obviously were not expecting me. Allison's back was too me, she hadn't heard the door. Shannon was facing me, but her eyes were closed so she didn't see me either. She was more than a little preoccupied. One hand was over Allison's shoulder, grasping the side of the pool, the other; well the other was obviously occupied below the water line and it looked like they were practicing their buddy breathing at the same time. So what do you do when you walk in on your little sister having a heated oral exchange with her best friend? There are essentially two options. You can pretend you were never there and exit quietly. Or, you can do what I did. Change into your birthday suit and cannonball into the center of the pool! By the time I came up again, both girls were spitting and sputtering and wondering what had just happened. Neither of them reacted as you would expect for having been caught stark naked in the pool while receiving a French lesson from her best friend. Shannon simply disappeared. Allison looked more embarrassed than I think I had ever seen her. "Jimmy! Oh my God! I was so not expecting you here." She blushed furiously. "I could tell. Relax, sis. I've told you, this is a non-issue. I have no negative feelings about you and Shannon what-so-ever. And I certainly don't mind you having fantasies about her. But since your girlfriend ditched you, and I just happen to be here, is there anything I can do for you?" Despite her embarrassment, she was obviously still feeling the effects of her interlude with Shannon. "Oh, I can think of several things you could do for me. Why don't you come over here and we'll discuss them?" Have I mentioned that I just love the way this girl thinks? I slid easily into the role just recently vacated by Shannon's ghost, where I spent the next several minutes enjoying the sweet taste of Allison's lips; the soft feel of her breasts pressed against me and was reminded that water is a horrible lubricant and that I really preferred the taste of her without chlorine. "Want to go to the glade?" she suggested. "That hammock might be a nice place to continue this discussion." "Yes and no. Yes, the glade would be a nice place. But no, I don't really want to continue this discussion right now. I'm sorry if I'm disappointing you, but I would much rather experience you in the flesh. This is fun, but only to a point. If that leaves you feeling unfulfilled then I can go and you can invite Shannon back for a while. I can always come back later. Or I can wait in the glade for you." "No, that won't be necessary. Shannon and I were on the border of undiscovered territory anyway. There were places I wanted to go, but like you said, there's no basis for experience and without that it's really not the same. Besides, we're still waiting for you to do that first," she looked at me pointedly, "hopefully soon." I dodged the issue, "Then here is fine, I can admire you just as well here and it's a pleasant change. I'm going to put my suit on but please don't feel obligated." With that I moved us both to the loungers with no transition, we were just suddenly there, and dry. I had my bathing suit on. Surprisingly, so did Allison. Well, it's not surprising that she had one on. What was surprising was that she had half of one on, just the bottoms. Leaving me free to enjoy at least part of the reason God felt he could still improve on the design after Adam. She caught me staring and said, "Hey, I can't look; you can't look, just trying to be fair." I put my head back and laughed, "No problem, I can always make them transparent when you're not paying attention." "That would be a naughty thing to do, Jimmy, and you know what happens to naughty boys." Suddenly my nice warm swimsuit turned into a creation of solid ice. I jumped up before I knew what had happened and then she returned it to normal, leaving behind just the memory of the sudden cold. She smiled sweetly and continued, "Don't forget, even though you can do stuff I can't, I've been doing this kind of stuff here for a lot longer than you have. Don't make me spank you again." "Point taken. I really do need to work on that. Maybe we should have some of those, 'Wizard's duels' like in that cartoon, just to sharpen the technique and reflexes." "That's not really such a bad idea. You are getting better but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Of course it's pretty unreasonable to expect too much at this point. We'll have to think about setting some time aside for practice sessions. You never know when it may come in handy later." "It's something to think about, but here's something else. It happened again tonight." Allison was suddenly very attentive, "Did you remember to check your ring this time?" "Yes, it was on in my room, then disappeared when I moved to the church scene. It's gone again now and yours is visible, that and the fact that mine comes and goes as I am or am not touching you indicates that we are in fact in your dream and not somewhere else." "Glad to see you're paying more attention. Was there anything else that was different, or that seemed to stick out?" "No, nothing that comes to mind. It seemed to be just another series of 'getting acquainted' scenes. I get the feeling you were right last time when you said it's like someone wants me to meet this person. Did I tell you I know her name now? It came out at the wedding. Rebecca Jean Hampton. Well, Stiles after she married. Oh, and she mentioned someone named Amy and wished she could have been at the wedding. I'm trying to decide if any of this would warrant calling Bob tomorrow." "I think it is definitely time to talk to Bob. I don't expect him to be able to do anything right way but the more I think about it, the more I feel he should at least know what is going on. He may see something we don't or simply come up with questions we haven't." She stopped for a second before continuing, "Obviously these are not random events. Someone wants you to know this woman. The question is who? And equally or even more important is why? Why would you need to know someone at the FBI? And why her in particular? Yes, I think you definitely need to talk to Bob about this. Once is unusual, twice is likely a pattern. It also tells us that somewhere out there is someone who knows about you, and that, more than anything, frightens me. Not just that they know, but that we don't know who they are, or how they found out. And, they seem to be able to 'bridge' you, without your consent. They aren't bridging into your dream, they're moving you into someone else's. I don't like that at all. If it happens again, and that is probably more 'when' than 'if', see if you can leave. Just turn around and walk back through the door, or any other door. Either it will work or it won't but we need to see just how much control this mystery person really has." She pulled her Tablet PC out from under her towel and made some notes, then put it away again. She looked over at me and said, "And you're waiting for?" "Oh, you meant now?" "Sure. Any reason not to?" ------- Chapter 21: Talking to Bob I bridged over to Bob and told him what had happened, that two nights in a row I had apparently been 'bridged' by someone else, into the dreams of someone I didn't know. "Have you considered that maybe it was really just a fantasy?" Bob suggested. "We thought of that after the first one, but twice in two nights, surrounding the same person, whom I don't know? And my ring was gone. If it was a fantasy, it was someone else's. Let me tell you about it and see if you come to the same conclusions that we did." I proceeded to tell him all about my meetings with "Bex" Hampton, including our conclusions that for some reason, some unknown person wanted me to meet her. He listened to the whole story then said, "Jimmy, you gotta stop doing this to me. Just when I think I've got some kind of grip on the whole thing, you spring this on me. Tell me this? Do you and Allison consider this an escalation?" "Escalation is a term we only use when it appears that I can suddenly do something new. Like the first time I bridged another person by accident, or when I started randomly bridging people I would meet, even the dream about the little girl in the closet. This time it doesn't appear to be something I've done. This time it seems I'm being moved by someone else. Intervention maybe... but not escalation. Allison is scared. She thinks that this means that someone we don't know actually knows about me, and apparently can exercise some level of control over me. Besides there have been other patterns to escalations." "Really? What kind of patterns?" I blushed. "Well," I began, but was interrupted when the phone suddenly rang. Bob picked it up, answered, and said with a shocked expression, "It's for you." I was just as stunned. I took the phone from him. It was Allison! "Tell him. Tell him everything." "How did you know..." I started. "You left from my dream; I stuck a remote receiver on you before you left and I've been listening. It was just an experiment to see if it would work but since it did... I think it's time he knew the whole story. If we can't trust him by now... you know what I mean. I think he'll have a better chance of helping if he understands everything. I trust him. Okay?" "Okay, you're right as usual. I'll talk to you in a little bit." I hung up and turned back to Bob. "She says to tell you everything. So here's what we know about the escalations so far." I went on to tell him all about registration and Miss Swann's affect on me, the water fight with Shannon, the garage, how that had led to the first episode of my 'bridging' over into her dream. How we had come to the conclusion that it was hormones that had triggered it. Without getting into graphic details, I told him how the changes since then had followed directly after more intense situations of a similar nature. I was sweating bullets and felt I like I was so red I would have glowed in the dark by the time I finished. Bob couldn't help but smile a little bit. "Okay, don't take this wrong. On the one hand that is all fascinating, but on the other, it's not at all surprising. In many documented cases of paranormal activity, the episodes followed times of severe emotional or physical stress. Puberty can be a bitch, no two ways about it. Granted it's a little late to call this puberty in your case, but this seems to be just another case where hormones have triggered more than a deep voice or a sudden demand for new wardrobe. I don't need to know the more intimate details but you may want to consider journaling this stuff to look back at it later. No idea where you could put that it would be safe but you may be able to learn from it later." "Allison has been taking notes." "Excellent. That is one smart girl you have there, Jimmy, I'm glad she's on our side. Well, figuratively speaking that is. There is certainly no need to go into the whole 'your-side, my-side' route just yet. Either way it's good that you have her to talk to. So, from what you've told me, I would have to agree that two things are happening. First, your love life is improving..." I swear I flushed to the floor. "... and that as a result of this, your, call it 'ability, ' is growing at a major rate. As for someone else's being in control, that's a little harder to pin down. On the up side, there is the coincidence factor, but that doesn't hold up well due to the fact that it was the same person, a person that you have never met, and have no prior knowledge of, and as you said, it happened twice. Also, and this is a key piece of information that you may have overlooked, I think what you were viewing was more likely memories than dreams." "Really?" This was a totally new thought. "What makes you think so?" "You have control in dreams. Yours and Allison's from way back, Shannon's from the very first time. I'm not surprised at any of that part of the story by the way; she is your best friend's sister, you've known each other for years, and you suddenly discovered that she is not the irritating little tag along you always saw her as. At the same time you discover that she has in fact grown up right under your nose into an attractive young collection of protein, and that she has the hots for you. Happens all the time. If your best friend doesn't kill you first, you may have just discovered, at the very least a very good friend for life or, something much more. If you screw it up, which I assume you haven't yet, you will wish you had never been born. "Anyway, from the first you had control, even though it was Shannon's established fantasy. In the new episodes, you are pretty well locked into your observer mode. The situation is similar to watching a movie or a stage play. In one there is absolutely nothing you can do but watch or leave, the other you can actually affect. Even if it is just to disrupt it and get thrown out. See the difference? Does this make any sense?" "Yes, not only does it make sense, but it answers some questions as well. Actually, just about anything I learn at this point is bound to at least be a hint to some question I have, or maybe to one I haven't even thought of yet. So because it's a person re-living a life experience in a dream I really don't have any effect?" "Not so far anyway, and let me tell you right up front that if you actually do start being able to affect dreams of this sort, tell me immediately! It's not so much that I'm worried, but I'm worried. At the same time I would be excited beyond measure. The therapeutic value of that just blows my mind, as do the possible dangers, but that's too much of a stretch at this point. We'll just have to wait and see how things develop. Back to your current problem, if it does happen again, do you have any idea how you want to handle it?" "Yes. Allison and I talked about it and she wants me to see if I can get out of a dream like that if I find myself in one again. You know, just walk away." "That sounds like a very good idea. You need to know how much control you really have. You may not be able to learn the actual limits of that control, but it would be nice to know you can leave when you want. Did you want to try and do that now?" "As long as you don't see a problem with it, I'm game. But I don't know if I could 'force' my way in, if you get my meaning. I don't know where the 'visions, ' dreams, memories, or whatever are actually coming from, so I think I'll just wait and see when it happens again. It does seem like the only way we are ever going to get more information though." I stopped for a minute, considering. "Bob? What if it is someone else? What if there is someone out there who knows about me and what I can do?" "Jimmy, I don't know. Until we have more to go on I just don't know. On the up side, I doubt if someone who meant you harm would be introducing you to an FBI agent." "Yeah, Allison and I pretty much came to the same conclusion. I just realized something. This isn't the first time this has happened, no that's not right, what I mean is, I think I've been in other dreams like this before. Remember the girl in the closet? I wanted to do something then but somehow I knew there was nothing I could do. I think that was a memory." "You could be right, it's hard to say." "Anyway, if it happens again, I'll try to leave first thing. I need to know if I have enough control to get out of a dream like that, one that someone else seems to have put me in. Speaking of control, Allison thinks it would be good idea to have these... we call them 'wizard's duels, ' to sharpen my skill and stuff. You know, teach me to think quicker and respond better and faster to situations in a dream. She thinks it may come in handy somehow, and I will admit I pretty much suck when it comes to that stuff. We've only horsed around with it a few times but she has pretty thoroughly kicked my butt whenever we have." "It certainly couldn't hurt. Anything that stretches the mind and helps it to work more efficiently is generally a good thing. Does she feel that at some point you may actually have to use this ability to defend yourself in a dream? Does she feel you may be threatened in the future?" "Kind of, yeah. Especially now, when I'm suddenly finding myself in a lot of unfamiliar places, and we don't know why someone wants me there. I kind of see her point. Of course, so far I'm there strictly as an observer and haven't run into any situations even remotely threatening so it may just be over-reaction. If nothing else it would be a lot fun, even if I never need it." "Yeah, I can imagine what kind of trouble you two could get into with something like that. Of course it's not like you are going to be trying to hurt each other. Just be careful and remember that the mind is very powerful tool. People die in their sleep, Jimmy, and some of the autopsy findings are incredible. The body can react to the stresses of dreams just as if they were real. Heart attacks, bruises, bleeding, these have all been documented through different research programs over the years. They have actually had to revive people who 'died' in their dreams. So be careful, and, if you have time, see me again when it's over and we'll see what we can learn." I started to leave, but then I sat back down, "Bob? You don't have a problem with Allison and I do you? I mean the whole 'incest' thing." He sat forward a little with his hands folded on the desk, "Yes and no. Incestuous relationships have many inherent problems, Jimmy. There are two basic categories that most cases fall into. The intergenerational type involves a parent or older member of the extended close family, uncles, aunts, or even grandparents. You two are in the other group. This is typically someone from your peer group, brother, sister, or most commonly cousins who are close in age. In many cases incest starts as rape. Not necessarily violent and abusive, but forced none the less. An older uncle, cousin, or brother forces or coerces a younger female family member into having sex. Sometimes seduction, but more commonly threats against her or someone else she loves, it can vary quite a bit, but the common thread is that out of fear, she submits. You have to realize that rape, and that's what this is, is not really about sex, it's about power, or control. Of course there are always the truly horrific cases." He shook his head dramatically. "There was one in particular that I read about. A much older boy began raping his little sister at the age of five. He threatened to kill her and her parents if she said anything. To make his point he made her watch as he mutilated and killed her cat. The abuse went on for many years until finally she was discovered by her parents not to be having sex with her brother, but in a relationship with another girl. They found this so horribly offensive that the age of 13, they kicked her out of their house. She was taken in by another family and eventually her brother's abuse was discovered. He was later caught participating in the gang rape of another young girl. They had panned to kill her when they were finished, but fortunately they didn't get the chance. Even after all this, his parents were still so blind to what a depraved and sadistic son of a bitch they had raised that they actually bailed him out. Shortly after that he killed both of them and then tracked his sister down and tried to make good on the rest of his threat. As I said, that's a really extreme case and has nothing in common with a case like yours. In fact I'd have to say it's about as far the opposite direction as you could get. "Like I said, you are in the other group, your sex is consensual and carries with it the normally healthy emotional attachments that go with that. The problem is that there is no future in it. Always in the back of the mind there is the knowledge that it's 'wrong, ' and let me clarify that its being 'wrong' is a social convention; rooted though it may be in perfectly legitimate ideology, but still a social issue none the less. There is nothing inherently evil about what you are doing. Biologically, however, there are serious problems with it. Eventually, or at least often, the natural drive to procreate comes in or the couple decides to move on to other relationships. This is the critical point. Too often jealousy and bitterness come in. One partner wants to leave the relationship; the other does not want to lose them; they become possessive, they feel threatened. Don't worry, that's actually a pretty rare occurrence. In most cases of peer incest between kids your age it's just a fling. It's a safe person to experiment with sexually, and it usually doesn't last because there is not the heavy emotional attachment. They aren't in love. They do love each other, don't get me wrong, but it's familial love, and not true intimacy. "Here is where you and Allison differ from the normal groups. You two have been intimate on an unprecedented level for most of your lives. While you have just recently discovered the depth of your feelings you have actually had them for a very long time. Allison is thirteen, and you've been bridging her and sharing her dreams practically since she was born. The two of you have already been together longer than most married couples in America." He paused briefly before continuing. I think he was waiting to see if had a question or comment. "As a professional I naturally have reservations about your relationship. As a researcher, I recognize that your situation does not fit conveniently into the little boxes. As a friend I'm glad you have each other. All of the time you have spent together, and now the realization of your ability and the risks inherent to it, have forced you to grow up and mature at an accelerated rate, especially Allison. She has known about it longer and spent more time thinking about the repercussions and risks. She started out by managing her dreams and learning to control the dream environment. She learned to tell when you were there or if it was just a phantasm she had created. She realized that you could do things she could not, that you were in fact a far more powerful force in her dreams and compensated by refining her control. At some point she became aware of all of this on a conscious level; she became consciously aware that you could move between dreams. She chose to keep that knowledge to herself, and in doing so she accepted the burden of responsibility while letting you just have fun without having to deal with the risk. When you eventually discovered the truth, she immediately made sure you understood the dangers. Tell me, do you resent her keeping the knowledge from you?" "Are you kidding? Sometimes I wish I still didn't know. I never used to worry about going to sleep at night. Now I have to be ready to find myself in the head of someone I met at school or at the mall or wherever. I have to be careful not to disrupt their dream or draw attention to myself. I have to sit in class next to two people who are going out, knowing that one of them is fantasizing about or even cheating with someone else." "Then you see what I mean about her being more mature. She knowingly took this upon herself so you wouldn't have to deal with. That is the kind of selflessness that comes with love, real love, not lust or infatuation. I don't even have to ask how you feel about her. Just watching your face when you talk about her is enough. Then there is Shannon, the fact that you and Allison share an attachment with the same other partner certainly eliminates the problem of jealousy. I'm far more surprised that Shannon is willing to share. Don't take this wrong, Jimmy, but I strongly suspect that if it ever came down to it, Shannon is far more in love with your sister than she is with you. That is not saying that she does not love you, but if she ever had to choose between you and Allison I think you'd lose. I've gotten way off topic here. Getting back to your original question; no, I don't have a 'problem' with you and Allison. I think you're both taking a very responsible approach to the whole thing. Most relationships of this type drift away or end horribly. I think you two, or more correctly, you three, will be the exception." I stood and shook his hand, "Thanks, Bob. I really appreciate your insight and encouragement. I think we'll make it too. If for no other reason than that we are all committed to making it work, and to doing whatever it takes to stay together." I wasn't sure what to expect when I went out the door, whether I would exit into the glade or into another series of memories? It turned out to be the glade. Allison and I talked about what Bob and I had discussed then settled into the hammock for a little cuddle time and to let the underlying stress of the whole situation wash back a little ways. It was sort of like waiting for the tide to go back out. ------- Chapter 22: Making a Difference Nothing unusual happened the rest of the weekend. Shannon and her family came over Saturday night for another round of cards and video games. She and I got a little face time, if you know what I mean, while Mark and Allison played games in my room, and no, not those kinds of games. It was actually pretty funny, now that she wasn't trying to butter him up she was kicking his ass on most of the games we had. His only chance was to bring something I didn't have and she hadn't learned yet. Monday was just a routine day at school. Okay, as routine as any other Halloween at school. About half the kids dressed up, mostly the girls. Mark and I and the girls dressed up for school and then handed out candy at our house. Our parents played cards until the evening wound down and then they all went home. One little boy caught my attention during the evening. While most of the kids were having fun he seemed to be more nervous about the whole thing. It turned out nervous was an understatement. I found myself alone on the street in front of a row of houses. It was so much like a scene from a bad horror movie that I knew what was coming next. Sure enough, a terrified scream split the night. A young boy bolted out the door of one of the houses on my left. He hid behind a car just as something large and furry crashed through a large picture window. The boy froze as the beast stopped to sniff the air, obviously searching for him. The door opened again and a man stepped out with a shotgun. He aimed at the beast and fired. The force of the blast rolled the animal across the yard but it immediately got back up and charged the man, one swipe of its huge paw knocked the man senseless and into the bushes. This was not going well. The beast paused and assumed a listening pose, waiting for the boy to make the slightest sound. I could see the terrified boy crouched behind the car holding his breath. It looked like he was about to either give himself away or else pass-out from lack of oxygen. I decided it was time to take action, and maybe see if we could have a little fun along the way. I concentrated and suddenly the sound of a dog barking interrupted the scene. The beast spun and headed off towards the sound. Apparently it thought that its missing quarry had disturbed the dog. I shifted myself into the scene and another young boy, about the same age, popped up from behind the neighbor's hedge, ran up behind the boy, and crouched next to him. I had used two of my favorite comic strip hellions as models. Sort of a Dennis meets Calvin look, but without Joey or the tiger. "Hey! Can I play too?" I asked in a whisper. The boy gasped and spun to face me, if anything he was even whiter than before. Apparently he wasn't expecting me, go figure. "Wh-wh-Who are y-y-you? Wh-wh-what do you m-m-mean?" "My name is Davey," I answered. "You're playing hide and seek with your dog right?" "My d-d-dog? Th-that's not my d-d-d-og!" he answered in a shaking voice. "I-i-it's-s-s a-a-a-a monster!" "A monster!" I exclaimed. "Cool! Where did you get him?" "Wh-wh-what a-are you t-talking ab-bout? I d-d-did—didn't g-get him anywh-anywhere. H-he crashed through the b-b-back d-d-d-ddd-door and has b-b-b-been t-try—inggg to k-k-k-kill me!" "Kill you?" I looked at him funny. "He's not trying to kill you. He can't even hurt you. What's your name anyway?" "B-b-bo-bb-bobby" "Well Bobby, he can't hurt you. He's not real?" He looked at me like I had grown antlers or something, "Y-y-yes he is." "No, silly, this is just a dream. He's not really real at all." "I-I-I know, it's-s-s a d-d-d-dream," he squeaked out. "B-But-t it-t-t-t-t k-k-kee-p-ps-s coming b-b-back. Ev-e-e-evv-rr-every night." "Yeah, but it's still just a dream. You don't have to be afraid of it at all, Bobby. Has he ever caught you?" "No! He ch-chase-es me a-and I wake, wake up." "See, a dream. He just wants to play. Watch!" I stood up and whistled really loud. He grabbed my hand to pull me back down. I could see panic in his eyes. "Wh-what a-a-are you d-d-doooing? He-he-he'll heeearrr y-you." A loud baying sounded and a dark shape charged past the corner of the second house down the row. "Watch this!" I whispered and I dashed out from behind the car and into the street. "Hey! Ugly! Over here!" The large shaggy head spun around towards me and I took off down the street. I stopped at the corner of the next house and looked back. The huge shape was tearing up the pavement towards me. No really... Chunks of asphalt were flying skyward as his claws shredded the pavement. Dreams are cool, cartoon dreams... even better. It had already past Bobbie's hiding place and I watched as he ran around to the far side out of sight. I ducked behind the house, disappeared and waited for the large creature to round the corner. I almost forgot but at the last minute I erased my scent as well. Finding nothing, the beast quickly went over the fence to find me. I gave it a few seconds then re-appeared and walked back to where Bobby was hiding. He looked at me like I was a ghost and asked, "Wh-whe-where d-d-d-did-d it g-g-g-g-o?" "He ran past me and over the fence. He'll be back in a minute when he figures out that I got away. Now, it's your turn. When he comes back I want you to run onto that porch and stop. Got it?" I pointed out the porch on the house across the street. "Are you c-cr-cr-cr, are y-you nuts? It'll k-k-kill me." "Kill you? Why would he do that? He's not here to hurt you. What makes you think he wants to kill you?" "D-did-did you ssssee what it d-d-d-did to my d-d-d-dad?" "Yeah, he knocked him out and into the bushes so he wouldn't get in the way. What did you expect him to do? Your dad shot him! But think about it? Couldn't he have finished him off he wanted to?" "W-well, I g-g-g-guess s-ssso." "Besides, the porch is base; he can't even come up after you. Of course you have to get there first. Can you run very fast?" He nodded yes. At that point the beast came back around the corner and started scanning the street. Knowing he would never go on his own I pushed Bobby into the street and yelled, "Go! Run for the porch!" He looked at me like I was insane for a second then bolted for the porch. The beast was hot on his heels and had almost caught him when he ran onto the porch and yelled, "Base!" The beast slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop at the base of the steps. Suddenly it stood up on its back legs and growled, "Base! Who told you this was base?" Bobby stood with his mouth open staring at the beast. The beast looked at him and clapped his front paws together, of course with all that hair it didn't make much noise but I guess you had to give him points for the effort. "Hello, Earth to Bobby? Come-in Bobby. Who told you this was base?" It was no longer growling but rather talking in a normal voice. Well, you know, normal for a big furry... thing, with jaws somewhere between a wolf and a bear. I stepped past the end of the car. "I did." The beast spun around to face me, a startled look on his hairy face, "Davey? How did you find me?" "Walter, I always find you. Now what are you doing here and why are you bothering Bobby?" "Heck, Davey, you know I don't have any idea who sent me." He sat down on his haunches like an over sized dog and continued, "As to why... You noticed he stutters?" "Yeah, kind of obvious," I turned to Bobby. "You can come down now. Walter won't hurt you. Will you, Walter?" The beast was suddenly acting very shy and embarrassed. "No, I won't hurt him. But I wouldn't have hurt him before." "Yes," I said in a stern voice, "but he didn't know that before. So let me guess, someone thought maybe you could scare him into talking straight?" Bobby interrupted, "Wh-who a-ah-are you?" "Oh, sorry. Special Agent Davey Jones, Dream Police," I answered, flashing him my badge, "and this mutt," I scratched Walther behind the ear and his leg began bouncing up and down like he was scratching, "is Walter Gyldenholt. Or at least that's who he was about 200 years ago." I stopped scratching and Walter recovered himself and pulled back. "Don't do that! Man, it's embarrassing," he said. "You know I hate that!" "Liar! You just hate that you love it so much. Now tell Bobby you're sorry." "Ah geez, Davey! Do I have too?" One look was enough. "Okay. I'm sorry if I scared you, Bobby," he said, rolling his eyes. "Good. Now as punishment I'm assigning you to watch over Bobby's dreams for one year." "What? A whole year?" "We could make it two," I began. "W-wha-what are you t-two t-tal-talking ab-about?" "I'm assigning Walter as your dream companion for the next year. He is in charge of making sure no one else gives you a hard time. You're in charge of everything else. You have to take care of him. He'll need a place to stay of course, don't worry about food he only eats for fun. And you'll have to brush him or he'll cover everything in fur before you know it. Other than that, just do whatever you want. If you get into trouble he'll show up. Or you can take him with you. You're in charge." "I a-a-m-mm?" "Of course you are. It's your dream. You can do anything you want here. Even talk without stuttering." "I-I c-c-can?" "Of course you can. You just never tried. You're used to it so you just keep doing it. But you don't have to. Try it." I concentrated hard on him as he replied. "I don't think I can. I've always stuttered." "Ah, but you just did!" "I did? I did!" He exclaimed. "See, nothing too it. Now, two things you need to know about Walter." I put my arm around his shoulders and started to draw him away. Walter started to follow us but I turned back suddenly and yelled, "Sit!' He dropped like a rock where he was. "I hate it when you do that!" he snarled at me. I smiled. "Yeah I know." I turned back to Bobby. "Now, if you want to stay on his good side, throw him a chocolate bunny once in a while." "A chocolate bunny?" he asked. "Yeah, like I said he only eats for fun but he is just addicted to those things. Also..." I pulled him in close and whispered into his ear. "Really?" he asked. "Oh yeah, big time! Here check this out." I turned back, one hand reaching into my pocket. "Ooohhhh, Waaaalter?" "Oh no," he cringed away, "you didn't tell him? You did. Awe, Davey, how could you do this to me? One of these days I'm going to get you for this." "Probably," I said, "but not today." I pulled my hand out of my pocket holding a small cellophane package. "Now, sit up! Come on, come on, that's a good boy!" The look he gave me was pure, "one of these days" but he sat up with his front feet in the air trying his best to look, I don't know, submissive. Not a look that came naturally. I tore the package open and tossed him the little brown snack. He snapped it out of midair, dropped to the ground, and began chewing. His eyes rolled and he just kind of shined as he mumbled, "Mmmm. Oh, I sooo hate you," around a mouthful of melting chocolate. "Yeah I know," I said walking up and scratching his ear again. "I hate you too. You two have fun." "Hey, Davey," he tried to whisper. "You didn't tell him about... you know, did you?" I turned to the door that was suddenly in the front yard as Bobby said, "What? That you're ticklish." "Oh-no, no-no, you didn't." Desperation was building in his gravely voice, "You wouldn't." He started backing away as Bobby slowly advanced on him. "Daaavveeeyyy! The anguished scream faded as I walked through the door. That was fun. The girls thought it was hysterical. I talked to Bob about it Tuesday at lunch and he didn't see any problem with my solution. He was a little disappointed that we didn't know who Bobbie really was. It would have been interesting to see how it affected him in the waking world. Tuesday night, my whole world changed. ------- Chapter 23: Into the Unknown Allison was out by the pool when I came home from school Tuesday afternoon. She was in her usual sun worshiping attire, apparently working on her homework. Her head was bobbing to the music on her CD player so she didn't hear me come in. I quietly set my things down and crept out the back door. Crawling as low as possible I made my way close up behind her. I lay down on the concrete, reached as far as I could under the chair and slipped my finger up through one of the gaps in the pattern of straps to tickle her along the edge where her suit met skin. She gave a shriek and flew out of the chair. There were paper, pens, and books flying every which way. "Jimmy! That's not funny!" <> She was furious. "Don't you ever sneak up on me like that again!" She looked like she wanted to kill me. Her fist was clenched at her side and I was pretty sure that if it was anyone but me it would not have stopped there. "Oh geez, sis, I'm sorry. I was just playing. I didn't mean to scare you like that." Suddenly she was shaking and tears were coming to her eyes. I jumped up and took her in my arms. She sobbed against my chest for a couple of minutes then pulled back. "I'm sorry," she said with a sniffle, "I didn't mean to react like that. I know you were just trying to play. It's just that with everything that is going on, I guess I've been more scared than I wanted to admit." "Scared of what?" "I don't know, everything, nothing. It's just this whole thing with you getting dragged off into someone else's dreams without any idea of what is going on. It scares me to think that someone knows about you, and we don't have any idea who, or how they found out, or what they want. Jimmy, I finally have you and now I'm afraid I'll lose you." She started crying again, clinging to me tightly. All I could do was to stand there, hold her, and stroke her hair. After a few moments I reached down and scooped up her legs, and then carried her into the house. I went to the living room to my mom's favorite chair. It was one of those rocker-recliners. I just dropped down into it and continued holding her and rocking her as she cried herself out. I hadn't even noticed but apparently she had been holding this in for a while, never a good idea when playing with emotions. Always best to let them out and deal with them in the open. Slowly the shaking and sobbing stopped and she fell into a light sleep. I just sat and held her and thought about what she had said. Right then I determined that one way or the other, I was going to find out who was behind these events. Allison woke up after just a few minutes. She stirred and looked around as if to remember where she was. "I'm sorry, Jimmy," she said, trying to sit up. I held her firmly where she was. "Why? Did you do something bad?" "I got you all soggy." She plucked at my shirt for emphasis. "It's just a shirt, it'll dry, and it's not like you're going to stain it. Besides, I started it." "No you didn't, you were just trying to play and I over-reacted. You couldn't know." "But I should have known," I said, and this time I sat her up so I could look her in the eye. "Allison, next time something is bothering you, tell me. Even if I can't do anything, I don't want you to feel like you have to handle it all by yourself. I'm always here for you, just like you are for me. That being said, there are a couple of things I need to talk to you about." She laid her head back down on my chest. "Okay. Like what?" "I'm going to try to go through the other door tonight." "Yeah, I figured you would be. Not that it would be tonight, but I knew it was just a matter of time. That's probably what's been making me so scared. Knowing that the only way to find out what is going on is to pursue it and either look for clues or hope to get lucky. Just be careful. First thing when you go in, I want you to try to come back out." "That's pretty much the plan. Go in, come out, if that all goes well, go back in and see what is on for tonight and if I can pickup any information. And I promise I'll be careful. Try not to worry. Do you want me to try and leave from the glade?" "I don't think you can. That's not where the door is." "Yeah, there is that." Then it was time to get up and start the evening routines, do the homework, set the table for dinner, start the laundry I had set aside this morning. Dinner was a reflection of the rest of the day. Before I even thought I was ready, it was time. I lay in the darkness of my room trying to relax and prepare for what lay ahead. Allison had wanted to be with me but knew that she was more likely to be a distraction and keep me from sleeping. Especially given her level of anxiety. I had gotten used to falling asleep with her snuggled to my side. Even though we didn't do it every night, I still missed her when she wasn't there. I eventually went back to the old trick of thinking about my social studies class. It worked, as usual, and once again I was standing in my room, facing an unknown doorway. I stepped past it to my bedroom door and out into the glade. Allison was there. She watched as I tried concentrating on the mystery door. Nothing. Apparently I had to enter the door from where it appeared. I kissed her cheek and stepped back through to my room. My ring had gone from here to gone in the glade, somehow it didn't seem to matter how I got to the glade, it was still Allison's dream and the ring disappeared. I felt the weight return as I stepped back to my own room. So this was definitely my own dream. I took a deep breath, opened the door, and stepped across the threshold. My ring faded out again and I found myself in a small glass-walled cubicle. The outer office was the usual scene of controlled mayhem one would expect in a busy environment. Fortunately, the glass did a pretty good job of sound-proofing and it was quiet in the small room. I was looking past a woman working through a stack of files from just behind her. I was pretty sure I knew who it was. The phone rang and she answered, "Hampton" in a crisp professional manner. "Yeah, I'm just finishing up the file now. Go ahead and send him up, it'll be ready by the time he gets here. Yeah, I know, it's nothing personal, standard procedure, blah, blah, blah. Just let me know when I can go back to work. I've got bad guys to catch. Thanks. Hey, how's your mom doing? She get through that surgery okay? That's great... She's still the same, no change but you know me; I'm not giving up on her. The doctors still don't know what to think, the EEG keeps changing so there is something going on in there. I'm going to go up this weekend and spend some time with her... Yeah, I know, kind of a one sided conversation but I actually get to work through a lot of issues that way. I'll tell her you asked." She hung up the phone and the scene froze, even the activity in the outer office stopped. I looked around to see what may have caused it. I stepped past the desk and turned to look once again at the face of Special Agent Rebecca Hampton. She was wearing a simple cream colored turtleneck shirt with long sleeves over a pair of khaki colored slacks. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face as she worked. I assumed her gun was in the desk somewhere. I sat down in one of the chairs facing her and just looked at her. I almost jumped out of my skin when a voice said, "She's my sister." There, sitting in the chair next to mine was the girl from the bus stop on Rodeo Drive. She looked just as I remembered; seven or eight years old, shoulder length blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing the same white dress trimmed with pink ribbon, and black patent leather shoes with white socks accented in pink to match the dress. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I'm not very good at this. Not like you," she said. This gave me time to recover some sense of composure. "She's your sister?" "Yes. That's my big sister. I miss her a lot. Do you like her?" I just stared for a second. It didn't appear that she was suddenly going to grow fangs. Could this little girl actually be the person behind all this? "Well, I don't know, I don't really know her. I'm sorry," I said holding out my hand. "I'm James Edward Matthews, but you can call me Jimmy. What's your name?" She smiled and shook my hand. It was a typical little kid handshake; she just took it and pumped it up and down once. "I'm Amy, Amy Lynn Hampton." "Well it's very nice to meet you Amy Lynn Hampton. Are you the one who has been showing me things about Rebecca?" "Yes, and I'm sorry for scaring you. And I'm really sorry for scaring Allison. I didn't mean to scare anyone. Would you tell her I'm sorry?" "Can't you tell her?" "No," she said sadly. "I can't go places like you. It's really hard just to do this stuff. I can't go to other people's places the way you can. I mean, I can go some places, but it hurts if I try to do it too much. It's easier if you are there though. But I can't go to other people's places even if you are there." "Then how do you know Allison was scared?" "I don't know. I just do." I should have known. "But you were on Rodeo Drive." I pointed out. "Where?" "Rodeo Drive, I was there with Allison looking for something." "Oh, the shopping street. That was a nice place. But it hurt a lot to be there." Her eyes clouded for a moment, "I don't want to do that again." "I'm sorry it hurt, Amy, is that why you ran away?" "Yes, I really just came to see you and once I did that I didn't want to stay anymore. So I went away so it wouldn't hurt. By then I already knew you were the right one so I didn't need to stay." "I'm the right one? What am I the right one for?" "To stop the bad man." "Really? What bad man is that?" This was getting interesting. She looked kind of sad for a second, "I don't know. I don't know who he is or why he is a bad man, but you can stop him. Rebecca can help. So you needed to meet her and stuff because you two are the only ones that can stop him." "Stop him from what?" "Hurting more people?" "He hurts people? And you think we can stop him, your sister and me?" "Yes! You have to stop him, Jimmy. He's a really bad man and if you don't, something terrible will happen!" She was getting very agitated now. "What will happen?" "I don't know, but it's really, really, bad." "Okay, I'll take your word for it. Do you know who he is going to hurt?" "Girls." "He hurts girls?" "Yes, he hurts them a lot. Lots and lots and no, no, you have to make him stop, you have to make him stop... stop him..." Her eyes were closed and she started shaking her head back and forth, she was covering her ears with both hands and getting louder and louder, practically hysterical, "Make him stop! Make him stop!" I grabbed her and hugged her close to me, "Amy! It's okay, Amy!" She threw her arms around my neck and sobbed. "Please make him stop, Jimmy. Please?" I held her to me until she recovered and then released her as she started to pull away. "Are you okay now? What happened?" "Yes," she said with a little sniff, "I'm okay. Sometimes I hear them screaming. Will you stop him, Jimmy?" "I'll try, Amy; is that what I need to meet your sister for?" "Yes, she can help you. You can't do it by yourself; you need her. And she needs you. She will want to do it by herself but you can't let her. Promise me you won't let her do it by herself, okay?" She suddenly sounded very anxious. "Will something bad happen if I don't help her?" Tears started forming in her eyes. She looked away from me and nodded her head. "Amy, will Rebecca get hurt if I don't help her?" Again she nodded and I had to ask. "Amy? Will Rebecca die if I don't help her?" She burst into tears and threw her arms around my neck again. "Help her, Jimmy. Don't let her die. I love her so much and I need her, Jimmy. If anything happens to her no one will read to me and I won't get better." I pulled her into my lap and rocked her while I tried to get a grip on all that she was saying. "I'll try, Amy. I'll try to help her. I don't know what to do, but I'll try. Okay? I promise I will try." I paused for a second. "Amy, you said you can't get better without her. Are you sick?" "Yes." "What's wrong with you?" "I don't know. You'll have to ask her. I just know I won't get better without her." "Have you been sick for very long?" "Really, really, long. I don't know what they call it, but it's when you sleep and sleep and you can't wake up." She was in a coma! Somewhere this little girl's body was lying in a hospital, unconscious and unresponsive. "Am I supposed to meet her here?" "No silly, this is just a dream. You have to meet her for real. I have to go now, Jimmy. I can't stay here any longer." She climbed down out of my lap. "Okay, but can I see you again?" "Maybe, I'll try. But for now I have to go. Find Rebecca. Help her. Remember, you promised." "I promised I would try, Amy. Are you going to be okay?" "Oh yeah, I'll be fine. Rebecca's going to come and read to me. Tell her to bring one of the Narnia Books; those are my favorites! Bye." And she was gone. No doors, no fading away, she was just gone. The scene in the room started moving again. Agent Hampton was putting some papers into a folder. As she closed it a young man opened the door to the office. "Hello, Miss Hampton, er, Agent Hampton, er, Special Agent Hampton. They said you had a file I was supposed to pick up?" "Yes, Paul, here you go." "Thank you, Miss... uh. How's your sister doing?" A cloud seemed to pass over Rebecca's face. "Paul? Did they tell you to ask me that?" "Uh, yes ma'am." "Paul, I'm going to give you some advice. Don't ever ask a field agent, or a former field agent, a personal question about any subject that they have not brought up and discussed with you personally in the past. Do you understand that?" Paul stopped and thought about it for a second. It was clear he was unsure of what to think. "Paul, you don't ever get personal with a field agent unless they do it first. You can talk about yourself and your life all you want, but don't ask about them unless they bring something up. You never know when you will hit a really bad spot, like you just did. You don't know me, you don't know my sister, and, until I say otherwise, it's none of your business. Now do you understand?" "Yes ma'am. I'm really sorry. I didn't know." He was practically tripping over himself apologizing. "That's okay, Paul. You didn't know any better. But the people who told you to ask do know better. Keep that in mind next time they give you advice." You could see the muscles in his jaw tighten. "I will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you, Agent Hampton. Will you require anything before I leave?" "No, that will be all." Then she stopped him as he went through the door. "Paul?" "Yes, Miss Hampton." "Amy's doing fine. I'm going to see her this weekend. Thank you for asking. I'll tell her you said hi." You could see his face light up and he stood about six inches taller. "Thank you, ma'am, I'm glad to hear she is doing well." The scene froze again but Amy did not reappear. I started to open the office door, but decided to try something else. I closed my eyes and pictured the glade. When I opened my eyes, I was in the glade exactly as I had pictured it. I was just inside the door I normally entered through. I stepped past the hedge and Allison was waiting on the blanket reading what appeared to be a textbook. She looked up as I approached, then set the book down and stood to meet me. Without a word she moved into my arms and hugged me. "I'm glad you're okay. How did it go? Did you find anything out?" "I'm fine. Sit down; this is going to take a while." I went through the whole conversation with Amy. As usual she sat quietly through the whole explanation before responding. "A little girl? All of the stuff that has been going on was done by an eight-year-old girl?" "Well, I'm guessing at the age, but that's about how old she looks. The outfit certainly matches. Oh, and she said she was really, really sorry for scaring you." "Well, that was sweet of her anyway. And she says that there is a really bad man that is going to do some really bad stuff if you and her sister, the FBI agent, don't stop him?" "Yeah." "And that if you don't help her, this bad man is going to hurt and maybe even kill her sister?" I sighed, "Yeah. That's what she said." "And you believe her?" "I think I do. You didn't see her, Allison, it was like she could see it in her mind, and hear it, like she was trying to block it out but couldn't. It really freaked her out, and watching it freaked me too. Regardless of what I think, she believes it." "And you think she may actually be in a coma somewhere in 'reality'?" "I'll have to ask Bob, but that's what it sounded like to me." "Weird. So what do you think we should do?" "I have no idea. So what were you doing when I got here?" "Reading my history homework, I figured that I could do it now rather than wasting 'real' time." "How can you read a history book 'here' if you haven't read it 'there'?" "Well, I haven't 'read' it there, but I went through the whole book one page at a time, so my mind has actually 'seen' all the pages. So when I read it here, I already have the images to draw from. The real question is will I remember it when I wake up? I'll let you know how it goes. Are you going to go see Bob tonight?" "No, I think I'll try to talk to him about it at lunch. Nice idea about studying though. Let me know how it works out, I may want to try it. Right now, I think I just want to lie down and relax and let my brain sort this all out. Want to join me?" "I already have, I snuck in after you went off to explore behind the mystery door, but if you mean here. I'd like that too, your hammock or mine?" Hers turned out to be a lot nicer. What else is new? We just curled up together and enjoyed each other's warmth. When I woke up back in my bed, it was like nothing had changed. There was Allison, spooned up against me. I tried not to wake her as I got up for my morning routine but it was no use. She lay and watched me get dressed. I kissed her lightly before heading off to the bathroom, and then out to run. Since making the Cross Country team I'd decided I needed to start working a little more. No more 'wake up' runs. I was running at least two tracks each morning. This put the shortest run at four and a half miles and could go as high as nine depending on which ones I combined. I decided to start out slow and only run the longer combinations on weekends. At first I wasn't sure how I was going to hold up, especially since I now ran after school with the team as well. And I certainly didn't want to run out of steam two miles from home and be late for school. Not to mention worrying the 'rents. This morning I ran six miles and by the time I got back I was sweating hard and my muscles were definitely awake. Not only awake, but protesting. I took extra time trying to cool down and stretch before heading inside to shower and change for school. I was already showered, dressed and coming out of my room when I ran into my dad just getting back from his run. "Either you're getting faster or you didn't go very far this morning," he said. "Normally you're getting back about the time I leave." "Both. I started a little early and I only ran six," I answered. "Only six miles? Ah to be young again. Well, I need to hit the shower or I'll be late for work. See you tonight." "Yeah, later." As we turned to go our separate ways, the bathroom door opened and Allison came out. "Hi, Daddy!" She bounced up to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Oooh, stinky." "Love you too, Sunshine, and I was just on the way to fix that. See you in a few minutes." Before I left for school, I called Bob and let him know I needed to talk to him. We agreed to meet at break to discuss events and then possibly at lunch to follow up. The morning passed quickly and I looked for him around the teacher's patio. As I was looking he walked up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped but then realized who it was. "You're getting kind of jumpy. Normally I would take that as a bad sign. Convince me otherwise," he said. The smile did little to conceal the concern in his voice. We found a quiet table and I filled him in on the basics. "Man! This just keeps going further and further over the left field wall. An eight-year-old girl, in a coma, has been dragging you all over La-La land because her sister's life is in danger because of a 'bad man.' Excuse me while I look around for a second, I thought Rod Serling died, but I keep expecting him to show up. What do you think of all this, Jimmy?" "I'm not sure what to think of any of it, Bob. That's why I have you," I said with a smile. "This way I can drop it all in your lap and sit back to relax." "Oh very funny, seriously, what is your take on all this?" "Seriously? I'm scared. Not a lot. Maybe scared is too strong a word, but 'concerned' just doesn't do it justice. Are you asking me if I believe it?" "Well, it's a place do start. Do you?" "I believe she believes it, but I don't know if I'm really sold on it or not. This all could be a 'dream' if you know what I mean, an elaborate fantasy. The question is how to find out? I can't very well just call up the FBI, ask for Special Agent Rebecca Hampton and tell her that her sister sent me. That's assuming that there really is a Special Agent Hampton to begin with. On the other hand, I have to consider the possibility that there really is such a person and that all this actually is real. But that is really frightening. The idea that there is this 'bad man' that is out there somewhere either hurting girls or about to start. And the word is 'girls' plural, more than one. Put that with the fact that the person I am supposed to be helping is with the FBI and the logical conclusion starts with the word 'serial, ' followed closely by either rapist or killer. Not an idea I am comfortable with." "Damn, Jimmy! You sure you still need me? You are getting incredibly good at this whole deductive reasoning thing." "I'd say it was an occupational hazard but I don't think this really qualifies as a job." "There is that. Okay, break's about up. Try not to dwell on this too much, but if you have a little time to kill, think about this. If it's all a 'dream, ' there is no harm in just letting it be, maybe try to find out more about the girl but other than that... eh, not really much to do. If on the other hand it's real; and I know that is a scary thought, but if it's real, think about how you could: a) Contact Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, b) Get her to listen to you without writing you off as some kind of crackpot, and c) Do either without labeling yourself as a suspect or exposing yourself to public scrutiny. d) I'm not sure what d is yet, but I'm pretty sure there is one." "Okay, thanks for your help, Bob. I know you may not feel like I need it, but really, it helps to be able to talk to someone about it." "Well, whether you need my help or not, I do know how important it can be to have someone to talk to and even to just bounce ideas off without fear of consequences. See you at lunch." I had a pop quiz in Algebra so I didn't have a lot of free time to think. I was pretty sure I aced it but I took my time to be sure of my answers. Given my general state of mind it would be too easy to just blow through it and make careless mistakes. I just had time to re-check my answers and turn it in. Then it was on to new work. PE was football so if I didn't want to get killed I had to pay attention. I may be fast -- okay, I am fast -- but I'm not that big and even in two-hand touch things can happen. I showered and got ready to meet Bob feeling like I had not moved from where we left off. He was sitting with one of the 'goon squad' when I spotted him. That's one of the security people that wander around campus making sure that no one is out stuffing freshmen into trash cans, smoking, or causing trouble. He saw me coming and waved me over. "Steve, this is James Matthews, one of our more promising students and a member of the JV Cross Country squad. Mr. Matthews, Steve Dennis, head goonie." I extended my hand but he hesitated. Obviously not used to shaking hands with students. Then he smiled and stuck out his hand. I shook it firmly, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Dennis. I'm guessing that 'head goonie' translates to some kind of supervisor?" "You guess correctly. I oversee the other proctors; collect the problems or complaints etc. I also investigate the more serious ones. Not that there is generally a lot to investigate. Given that we aren't really popular with the students there is generally not a lot of evidence available to work with." "Maybe you need to work on changing your image," I said candidly. "How so?" "Well, from what I've seen authority is what you make of it. I've seen a few of your people around. They strut around like they are lord and master of all they survey and everyone gets quiet and polite until they leave. Some of the others look like they are just trying to sneak from place to place. That may be great if you are trying to run a prison but it's hell on your opinion polls. Your people should be someone I know that I can turn to if something happens, someone that I can trust. Not someone I'm afraid of." He looked at Mr. Shelby. "And you say he's a freshman?" Bob just nodded. He turned back to me. "And how would you solve that problem." "Well, there is not an easy answer to that, Mr. Dennis, and I haven't really given it that much thought. But if you would like I can try to come up with some ideas, maybe get some input from friends, that sort of thing. Would that be okay?" "Sure. I'd love to hear any suggestions that may improve the environment. I just want the system to work and everyone to feel safe and free to do what they come here for." "Okay, I'll try to give it some thought. I'm guessing I can reach you through Mr. Shelby?" "Certainly, or just leave a message in the office." "I'll do one or the other. Now, I don't want to sound rude, but if you don't mind I have some personal things I need to go over with Mr. Shelby." "You sure you're just a freshman? I don't think I've ever been kicked out of the pool so politely in my life!" We all had a good laugh, then shook hands and he left. "Very well handled, Jimmy, I know adults who can't do that. So, did you come up with any ideas?" "No," I said dejectedly, "I didn't really get the chance to think about it. I had a quiz in Algebra and then I was just trying to stay alive in PE. So I really didn't get anywhere." "I understand. Well, I know it doesn't compare to your schedule, I was just teaching, but I didn't get far either." I just kind or rolled my eyes and chuckled at the joke. "So, square one? Any ideas at all?" I asked hopefully. "Well, a couple things percolated by themselves. Nothing concrete really, but I think it may be possible to determine whether or not there is an Agent Hampton. Some of the other things you have witnessed may be verifiable without exposure as well. The internet can be a great source of information. But, when accessing sensitive material on it you can flag people we may be trying to avoid. I'm going to see what I can do along that line tonight. Meanwhile, see if you can get more out of Amy." I started to protest but he held up his hand to stop me. "I know. You don't even know if you can find her again or if you have to wait for her to find you, but see what you can do. We need more information if we are going to approach the FBI about anything." "Yeah, no kidding, but the more information we get the greater the risk that they will think we, or more specifically I, may actually be involved somehow. Do you think you could use the doctor/patient thing to keep from revealing anything if you talked to them as a third party?" "Now there is a thought! Yes, I am pretty sure that I could shield you from direct involvement at least long enough to get a dialog started. But that doesn't help close the credibility gap. Or answer the question of how to keep them from finding you if they decide they want to talk on their own terms. We need, more specifically you need, to keep control of all contacts. You dictate where, when, and how you contact them. Not the other way around. If they set it up, they have control and they can catch you and start asking questions you can't answer. So assuming you go forward with any of this, you have to be very careful. But I'll think about how to shield you as long as possible. Short of hauling me before a federal magistrate on charges of obstructing an investigation there is not much they could legally do to try to force information out of me. And at the first sign of trouble I would have the ACLU and half a dozen other legal groups jumping over each other to get in the spotlight that kind of action would draw. The media would go crazy at the idea of trying to force me to violate confidence. And if it really got hairy, I could tell them that my patient was a minor. A federal judge might decide I had to talk, but I can't see anyone else wanting to pick up a grenade like that. Federal judges are appointed for life, so they can afford to make waves. State judges, though, are all just elected or appointed for limited terms and would not want that kind of skeleton waiting in the closet for the next election. I think there are some definite possibilities there." He glanced at this watch, "Well, better get off to class. I assume you will share all of this with Allison? If you hadn't planned to, I'd change your plans. She has proven very insightful so far and I would love to hear her take on anything we come up with before we do anything. See you next period." Another pop quiz in Spanish, but it was just the usual vocabulary so aside from having to watch out for a few spelling differences it was pretty easy. If Allison's trick of studying in dreams worked out, maybe I could dream up a Spanish tutor? Yeah, right. Like that will work. Bob must have had a long day with the earlier classes. We all just talked about what was going on in our lives. Ups, downs, jobs, parents, he drew the line at personal relationships but otherwise it was pretty open. It was sort of a group therapy session. We also got some feedback on the whole handshake and introduction project. Several people reported some interesting developments. In addition to McGuinness, two others had been offered jobs. One of the girls, who worked as a clerk at a local mall, had been poached by a one of the larger and more prestigious chain stores to work as a sales associate in their cosmetics area. If it worked out they were even offering to pay for her cosmetology school. They were very upfront with her. If she did well and enjoyed the position, they intended for her to eventually manage a department at one of their locations. This was by far the most impressive report. With so many quizzes, I didn't have much in the way of homework. As usual Allison was home and out on the patio sucking up sunshine and doing her homework. One of the larger perks of living in Southern California is that while the overall temperatures were steadily dropping, it was still very nice out in the afternoons. I put on my swimsuit and headed outside. I jumped into the pool far enough away that I would not risk getting her or her books wet. When I came back up she set her stuff down and came to sit on the side of the pool where we could talk. "What? I don't even rate a kiss anymore?" she said, looking down at me. "Oh, sorry about that, lost inside my head there for a while." I stretched up and she leaned down and gave me a little peck on the lips. "Well that was pretty awkward and unfulfilling, but I'll let it go for now. You owe me a real kiss later. Deal?" "Deal. But only if I get to hug you too." "Done. So how did it go with Bob? What did he think of Amy?" "Pretty much the way you would expect. Just another in a growing series of unbelievable events, I think we're all getting over the shock of just how weird this all is. So while it was another 'out of left field' kind of thing, he took it in stride. Other than that we didn't have much luck on what to do next. We can probably verify if there is a Rebecca Hampton working for the FBI but we don't have any information on what crime has been committed. You know, it just occurred to me, what if none of this has happened yet? Amy said the 'bad man' would hurt the girls, not that he already had. So even if I can get hold of 'Agent Hampton, ' I have nothing to tell her. Assuming that I do eventually have information for her, we don't know how to tell her any of it and help her without looking like suspects. The more we know, the more credible we can be with her, the more suspicious we become. So the big questions now are: a) When did, or will, something happen? b) How do we contact her when it does and make ourselves credible enough that she will trust us and let us help with her investigation? c) How do we do any of that without becoming suspects? Have I missed anything?" My neck was getting stiff from looking up at her. She must have noticed because she rearranged herself so she was lying by the edge of the pool. She must have been thinking about the question. Once she was settled she said, "I think you've got most of the big questions addressed. As far as the answers go, I think we need more information from Amy. It doesn't sound like she will be able to help much on the crime itself. She didn't seem to know any specifics before when you met her. Just that it was a 'bad man' and that he was going to hurt some 'girls' and that we had to get her sister to help us stop him, and that when we do contact her sister, she will want to do it all by herself, but that if we let her do that, then not only would she fail to stop him, but she would die trying. Does that sound right?" "Yeah, that's dead on. Pardon the bad pun." "I'll think about it, but don't do it again. As far as contacting Agent Hampton, let's just call her Rebecca for now, it will be easier. Have you thought about 'bridging' her?" "Bridging her? You mean just show up in one of her dreams?" "Sure. Why not? Here's what I was thinking. First off, she won't believe it's real to begin with. So talk to her and establish that you are a real person 'somewhere' but that you can't tell her who you really are for the obvious reason that you don't want to call attention to yourself. Tell her that you have information regarding a crime. Then find out when she will be somewhere specific the next day and arrange to call her there. When she gets the call, it will confirm that the dream was real. None of this can work though unless we can get some details from Amy on what is going on. What do you think? Do you think you can do all that?" "Hmm. It sounds like it 'could' work, assuming that I can in fact 'bridge' her and get her to listen to me. But what if she recognizes me later on somewhere while we are 'working' together?" "Jimmy, it's a dream, you can go as anyone you want. You don't have to look like yourself. Just go as someone else. But that's a tricky thing too. I'm thinking she will trust you more if you look older, but also be more inclined to consider you a suspect. If you stay about your own age, she may be less likely to suspect you but also less likely to believe you. Of course as far as that goes, you could show up just as yourself and tell her you were in disguise." I laughed, "Hiding in plain sight? You..." I kissed her, "are brilliant! That actually may be workable, but I don't think I want her to see my face either way. I'll think about that some more. So how was school?" "Okay. Shannon and I talked to Miss Hewitt about trying out for volleyball. She was really excited about it. We mentioned being concerned about being behind some of the other girls in skills. She's going to talk to Miss Jenkins about spending some time with us." "So what brought up the whole volleyball thing?" "Well, I don't think I really have much of a future in basketball. I mean, I may be good for my age but let's face it, there's like, no way I am going to be able to compete on the college level. Shannon maybe, she's already tall and I don't think she's done growing yet, but me? I don't think I'm going to get much bigger. Volleyball would open up some scholarship opportunities." "Wow, now that's what I call planning ahead. I'm already in high school and I haven't even thought about college. You're two years away and planning for scholarships." "Well, you have had a lot on your mind lately so I'm not surprised if you haven't thought much about the future. You've still got time, I'm not worried." "Hmmm. Am I supposed to kiss you again now?" I asked. "You'd better!" I leaned forward and we practiced our buddy breathing for a few moments. I slipped my hand out of the water and cupped one of her breasts, gently squeezing the nipple between thumb and forefinger. This got a nice moan out of her. I then slid my hand down across her stomach towards the Promised Land. She breathed more heavily through her nose but did not break the kiss. I slid my other hand under her neck and held her head. As my hand trailed across the front of her suit bottoms she bent her leg to create space. As soon as there was enough room I shot my hand through the gap and, scooping her up off the deck, fell backward into the water. As soon as she realized what I was doing she broke the kiss and started struggling to get free. "Noooooo!" she squealed as she tried to break away. Too late. Before she had a chance she was over the water and I was falling backward, taking her with me under the clear water. She just managed to grab a breath before we both submerged. She came back up quickly. "You brat! I was all warm and dry! Now look what you did!" "Really? You seemed like you were getting more hot and wet than warm and dry! I was worried you might overheat." "Well, there is that... but I think I would have been safe for a while." She put her arms around my neck and pulled us close again. "Besides, I thought you liked me hot and wet?" "'Sweetie, I like you any way I can find you." I kissed her again. She melted into my arms and pressed her now very erect nipples against my chest. The rock hard points felt like they were going to burn through the material of her suit. "Looks like the water actually made the problem worse," I commented, and then resumed the kiss. "No. You made it worse. Now what are you going to do about it?" In answer I slid one hand down the front of her suit again. She parted her legs for me and I moved directly between them and started rubbing her through the material. She pulled away from the kiss and sighed heavily, resting her forehead against mine. I slid three fingers through her special valley, two along the edges of her suit, the third right down the depression of her slit. She began lightly moving her hips and pressing hard against my hand. I took the hint and pressed harder against that special place at the top. A few seconds of this and she was breathing hard and biting her lip. In less than a minute she was moaning and thrashing in the water, trying hard not to cry out as her orgasm peaked. I slowed and stopped as she came back down. Moving my hand back around her waist and kissing her again. We played tongue tag for a few seconds then she pulled back. "That was really nice. Thanks. I didn't realize just how hot I really was. I don't think I've ever come that fast in my life." "My pleasure." "No, not yet. But if you'd like..." She trailed off, sliding one hand down my back and around to stroke the front of my suit. "I would like," I said, kissing her again. "I'd like a lot, but not here. Maybe later?" "Any time. Sure I can't change your mind?" She gave my cock a squeeze. "Oh, I'm sure you could. But we promised Shannon remember?" "Rats. Still maybe I could just..." She began to stroke lightly along my length. I grabbed her hand. "Yes, you could. But then we'd have a mess in the pool." "Okay," she pulled away and headed for the side, "but later I'm going to hold you to it." She pulled herself up and out in one flowing motion. I was fascinated by the play of her muscles. I never really noticed how sexy it was to just watch her move. "Need any help with your homework?" I asked. "I don't have much tonight so I will have time if you need it." "No, I'm not having any problems with it, that whole reading in my sleep thing seems to be working out pretty well, but thanks anyway. I need to get some stuff prepped for dinner. Set for me?" "Sure." I pulled myself out and followed her towards the door. Thankfully, the tent in the front of my suit was rapidly collapsing. ------- Chapter 24: Details Over the course of the evening I had formulated a few basic plans for proceeding with Allison's plan, as well as some questions for Amy. Everything was contingent of course on my being able to find her again. I lay back on my bed and started building a scene. I used Allison's glade as the basic idea, someplace quiet and safe where we could talk. A blanket was laid out on a stretch of white sandy beach. The water was crystal blue with light swells rolling onto shore. The sun was warm but not hot and a light breeze tickled the edges of your senses when you weren't paying attention. I 'woke up' on the blanket, rose, and looked around. Everything seemed to be just as I imagined it, right down to the picnic basket. My ring was a comfortable weight on my finger, verifying that it really was my dream. I sat back down on the blanket and thought of Amy. I opened my eyes and there she was, curled up asleep on the blanket next to me. I leaned over to wake her. "Amy?" I whispered, gently touching her shoulder. Her eyes came open slowly and at first she looked very confused. She sat up and looked around her, at the blanket and her dress, the beach. When she finally looked at me, her eyes got big for just a second. "Jimmy? How did I get here? Where am I? I mean where are we? It's so beautiful. How did I get here?" She gasped. "It doesn't hurt!" Then she jumped up. "Is that the ocean?" And she ran down to the water's edge. Kids. I rose and followed her. "Yes, that is the ocean. We're on an island that I saw in a movie once. Only this one doesn't have dinosaurs that are waiting to eat you. As far as how your got here, I guess I brought you. At least I wanted to talk to you some more and thought this would be a nice place to do it. Do you like it?" "Oh, Jimmy! It's wonderful! I remember playing on the beach when I was a little girl. Mom and Dad brought us sometimes, only it was colder and the water wasn't so sparkling and clear. But how can I be here and it not hurt?" "I don't know, maybe it's because I brought you here instead of you trying to come on your own?" "Oh I hope so! Then maybe you could take me other places too!" Then she stopped herself, "No, that wouldn't be right. You have more important things to do than drag me around. Did you talk to Rebecca?" "No, not yet? I wanted to talk to you some more first." "What for? I already told you everything I know! Now you have to stop him from hurting the girls and Rebecca! You promised, Jimmy! You promised!" It was obvious she was getting upset. Stomping the foot was big clue. "Whoa! Calm down, princess! I promised I would try to help and I will. That's why I'm here. Do you want to sit down and talk or would you like to walk and talk at the same time." "I'm sorry, Jimmy. I think I would like to walk if that's okay." "Okay, we'll walk. Maybe we can find some nice seashells along the way. But I don't want to get your dress all wet, so... How's this instead?" I switched her to a simple one-piece bathing suit. I had been thinking of red, but it came out as white with pink trim, just like her dress. Odd. "Oooh! Jimmy, it's so pretty." She took a few steps into the water and let the waves roll past her. She was up to just about her knees. I moved past her and put myself in between her and the waves in case there were any really hard breakers, then I took her hand, and we headed down the beach. "Allison and I talked about it and we need some more information from you. You see, we don't know anything about the 'bad man.' We don't know what he did? Or if he even did anything yet? So if I just call up Rebecca, I won't have anything to tell her. See what I mean?" "Oh. Yeah. I guess that's right." "Good. So, do you know?" "Know what?" "If the bad man already did something or if he is going to do it in the future?" "He already did it. I don't know how I know that, but I'm sure. Maybe I can show you?" "Show me? Show me how?" "I can't really explain it, but maybe I can let you see it. Not here though. I can't do it here." "Okay, fair enough. I'll wait and then you can try to show me. But I really can't call your sister until I have something to tell her. Otherwise she will just think I am some kind of nut." "Okay. Do you think it would be okay if I swim?" "Sure. Go right ahead. I'll be right here to keep an eye on you. Are you a good swimmer?" "Oh yes! I can hold my breath underwater and everything! I even go off the high dive at the pool! Too bad there's not a diving board here." I remember times with my family at the beach. "Well, maybe not a real diving board but let's try something else. Come here and climb on my shoulders. Okay, now hold on." I walked out until the water was about chest deep. Okay now, give me your hands and get up so your feet are on my shoulders like you are going to stand up but stay squatted down low. Now, I'm going to squat down and then stand up in the water. Like this." I bent my knees a few times, going up and down. "Okay, now when I say ready I want you to start counting. On the third time up I am going to push off really hard and then I want you to push really hard and jump off. Got it?" "Okay. One, two..." She started to count. "No! You have to wait until I say ready. Got it? Okay. Now, Ready! One... Two... Three!" I bobbed down into the water up to my chin twice and on three, I pushed off hard. I was just coming back up when she pushed off. She was way too early. Her push interfered with mine and she couldn't extend her legs for a good shove. She went about 2 feet then went splat, right down in the water! "No! You went too soon! You have to wait until I get to the top! Let's try again." I squatted so she could get back up. "Okay, here we go. One... two... Where are you going? I didn't say ready yet." "Jimmy!" "Okay! Ready... One... Two... Three!" This time she got it right and went arching across the sky and into the water about ten feet away. We had a great time for about 30 minutes. Then my legs felt like they were turning into tree stumps. Through much protesting I dragged her back onto the beach. "I have to go now, squirt. I had fun. Do you think you can stay here without me?" "I don't know. I want to but I'm not sure if I can." "Do you want to try? If it hurts you then go, but if not then you can stay for a while. But no swimming! You can't go into the water unless I'm here with you. Promise?" "Okay. I'll try. And no swimming until you come back." I dried myself off and made a door not far away. As I got to the door she called me. "Jimmy!." I turned back. "Yes, Amy?" "Thanks for playing with me. It's been a really long time." "My pleasure, sweetie. Remember you need to try and show me what you can about the bad man. But not right now. You see if you can stay by yourself for a while. I'll come back to check on you later. Okay?" "Okay! Tell Allison I said hello." "I will." And with that I turned and went through the door into the glade. Allison was already there, reading another textbook. She stood and stretched as I approached. "Oh, there you are. I was beginning to wonder. Did you see Amy?" I bent and kissed her hello then sat down. "As a matter of fact I did. She said to tell you hello. She couldn't tell me anything but said she may be able to show me. I'm not really sure how but... that's about all I have to go on. I left her on the beach I made to see if she could stay there on her own. I made her promise to stay out of the water though." "Good thinking. After what Bob said about people dying in their dreams it would suck big time for her to drown in a dream. Somehow I don't think Rebecca would be terribly forgiving." "Tell me about it. I got the impression that she is one woman whose good side I want to stay on. Does this mean your little experiment with studying is working out?" "So far. I'm trying English tonight. Major boring! How long do you think you should wait before checking on her?" "I don't know. Are you worried?" "Yeah, a little, I would just hate for something to happen to her." "Okay. I'll be right back." I walked to the usual door and back out onto the beach. It was empty. The blanket and picnic basket were still there but there was no sign of Amy. In the sand next to the blanket was the word, "OUCH!" written in big letters. Apparently she couldn't stay here without me. I went back and reported to Allison. "That's too bad. It would be nice for her to have somewhere nice to go. Maybe you can meet her there again some time." "Maybe. I guess that's pretty much it for tonight. I'll see you in the morning, sis." "Yeah. See you later. I'll let you know how English goes, if I can stay asleep long enough to get through this." Now that was a weird sentence. I stepped through the door into what I expected to be my room. Instead I found myself in a small room. I guess you would call it a theater, or maybe just a screening room. There were not more than a dozen seats. I sat down in one of the seats and the screen lit up. What followed was a high-speed series of images. Some looked like still shots, others more like video. They were all of a girl. I guessed she was about 17 or 18, maybe 5'10 with long blonde hair. Her clothes changed constantly, as did the scenes she was in. One second walking down the street in jeans and a t-shirt. Then running at a track meet in a tank top, shorts and track shoes; shopping; then in a restaurant with two other girls; eating at a table with a boy; driving a car. There were several other shots that I couldn't tell much about. Then the images changed. A folder with the name on it, but it was gone before I could make it out. A hypodermic needle. A roll of duct tape. Suddenly she was on a bed with her hands and feet bound, a blindfold over her eyes and tape over her mouth. From there the images really got ugly. Brutal, violent, and bloody; finally ending with her in a blue dress lying in the bed as if she were asleep. Her face was clean and make up had been applied. Her hair was fixed in two pony-tails. Somehow I knew she was dead. As bad as the pictures were, what came with them was worse. The images had been accompanied with wave after wave of emotion. They covered a broad range, cold and calculating through the earlier images; hot and passionate throughout the repeated rapes; loving at one moment; a burning hatred the next. Cold and completely devoid of emotion as he cleaned up her limp and lifeless body, dressed it and arranged it on the bed before leaving. Throughout the sequence she wept, she cried out in fear and pain, she begged, and she pleaded. Nothing helped. He let her scream until he was through with her, and then put more tape over her mouth. Eventually he killed her. A simple injection and she passed out. Then he put a plastic bag over her head and taped it closed. Two glimpses of a watch showed that he waited 30 minutes before taking the bag off. Then he untied her and began cleaning her up. Then the scene of her dressed and made up lying on the bed. The screen went blank, the lights came up and I found myself alone in my bed, crying. I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow and wept for a girl I had never met. Eventually I looked at the clock. Five more minutes and the alarm would go off. I got up and turned it off, put on my running clothes, started the coffee and ran... and ran... and ran. I didn't think; I didn't even pay attention to where I was going. I just ran. When I finally stopped, I was panting and gasping for air. I realized I had been running full out. No pacing, no controlled breathing, just trying to run away from the images I had seen. I took a few minutes to catch my breath and walk around a little. I recognized the spot. I was over a mile from home. Once I had my wind I started back at a more controlled pace. My legs felt like spaghetti by the time I got back. My dad met me at the garage door. He was already showered. "Hey, you okay? We were starting to get worried. And you look like hell. I thought you were going to take it easy..." There was more but I lost it as I fainted at his feet. The next thing I remember was waking up on the couch under a blanket with my mom pulling a damp cloth off of my face. My mouth was dry and in spite of the blanket I was cold. Allison was leaning over the back of the sofa looking very worried. "Is he going to be okay, Mom?" "I think he'll be fine dear. He just pushed himself too hard. How do you feel, James?" "Cold, what happened?" "Well, you passed out in your father's arms when you got back from your run. Want to tell me what happened?" I glanced at Allison for a second then back at my mom, "I guess I just got careless, pushed too hard and lost track of time. I have no idea how far I ran." "Well, that was a very foolish thing to do. And you were very lucky. What would have happened if you had collapsed before you got home? We wouldn't even have known where you were." "I'm sorry, Mom. It won't happen again." My dad's angry voice interrupted from across the room, "You're damn right it won't! I want maps of all your routes by tonight. I want them numbered and I want you to leave a note when you leave in the mornings stating which course you are taking and what time you left. And you will not change your mind while you are out. I am picking up a stopwatch on my way home tonight and you are to start timing your runs so we have some idea of how long it should take you." His voice softened as he continued, "Don't think I'm picking on you, son. I am going to do the same thing. This has made me think; I'm not as young as you, if something happened to me out there, twist an ankle, trip and fall, no one would know where to look until I limped up to the nearest house. Hell, I could have a heart attack and no one would know where to look. We're going to take a more serious approach to all this starting now." He paused now that he had given vent to his anger, then asked, "Are you okay to go school or do you want to stay home?" "No. I'll be okay. Did I miss the bus?" "Not yet, but don't worry if you do, I'll drop you on my way to work. Why don't you grab a shower and something to eat? And not just toast and juice this time. I want some real food in you before you leave. Allison, you better finish getting ready too, honey. You have to leave soon. He'll be okay. Tell her you'll be okay son." I just nodded to her. I'm sure she could tell something else was going on here but she just nodded and went off to her room. I got up and staggered back to the bathroom. I alternated hot and cold water until I felt more alive then scrubbed off the sweat. Fifteen minutes later I was back in the kitchen sitting down to a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, and a really huge glass of orange juice. I made the bus with seconds to spare and stared out the window all the way to school. The images I had seen just kept running through my mind. I really needed to talk to Bob. As soon as I got to school I went to the office and had a note put in his box. The morning classes were a blur. I headed for the teachers area as soon as I got out of history. Bob was leaning on a table waiting for me. Susan was there also. As soon as she saw me she stood up, smiled, and left. "Jimmy! What's the matter?" Bob asked as he ushered me to a seat. "You wouldn't have left the note if it wasn't important. Did something happen?" I tried. Really I did. I tried not to cry, but the tears just welled up as I looked at him and said, "He killed her." My throat was so tight and my voice so faint that I wasn't sure he even heard me. But then his face went white. "Oh my God. Jimmy, I'm sorry. Can you tell me what happened? I'm not going to ask questions, just tell me what you can." I wiped my eyes on my shirt-sleeves and was about to speak when I saw Mr. Dennis approaching at a fast walk. "Matthews! You okay, bud? Bob, everything okay?" I took a deep breath and reached to shake his hand. "Good morning, Mr. Dennis. I'm okay. It's nothing in your department, personal problem. But thanks for asking." "Yes, thanks, Steve. It's not a school issue. But thanks for checking." "No problem, Bob, part of our new policy. I thought about what Matthews said the other day. From now on, my people are talking to anyone who even looks like they have a problem. I wanted to talk to you about getting a schedule for all the counselors so if we run into anybody who needs someone to talk to besides us we know who to send them to. But this is obviously not a good time. I'll get with you later." "No problem, but no, this definitely isn't a good time. Check back with me at lunch. That may not be any better but I promise I will talk with you before the end of the day." He left and Bob turned back to me. "Damn, we're going to run out of time before class starts. Do you want me to sign you out of next period so we can talk?" "No. That's okay. I'll be all right. We can talk at lunch. I may have a problem with practice this afternoon though. I'll explain later." "Don't worry about it. We'll talk at lunch." Algebra was a breeze; PE was hell. We were still doing football and based on my past exploits they kept wanting me to 'go deep' on every play. After I dropped three passes in a row they just sort of got disgusted and ignored me the rest of the period. I dragged back up to the lunch area to meet Bob. Fortunately, my mom had packed me a bunch of fruit for lunch. Bob was waiting for me at a table that was fairly isolated. "Hey, Jimmy. Feeling any better?" "Not really. But I'll live." "Whenever you're ready. Just start at the beginning and tell me everything you remember. If you get to a painful spot just skip over it. We'll deal with the specifics later. I guess you saw Amy again?" "Yeah, I met with her last night. She said she couldn't tell me anything. Said she really didn't know anything more but that maybe she could show me. I wasn't sure what she meant. I met her on the beach at an island I conjured up so we played for a while and then I went to see Allison. We were also experimenting to see if she could stay there after I left. So I left her there when I went to see Allison. I remembered what you said about people dying in dreams so I made her promise to stay out of the water. Once I got Allison caught up I went back to check on her. She wasn't there. I guess she couldn't stay once I left. It must have hurt. She just wrote OUCH on the sand in big letters and left. I told Allison she was gone and when I left again I found myself in a small theater. That's when I saw it." I could feel myself start to choke up. I took a few deep breaths before continuing. "It was just a random series of images. Just a girl in different settings; shopping, out with friends, that sort of thing. Then she was tied up, then... other stuff... then he killed her." I shuddered and took a couple more deep breaths to calm myself before continuing, "The worst part was I could feel it as the images changed. The emotions he experienced throughout the whole thing. They were all over the place. I can't even begin to describe it." "I think you just need time to sort it out. Take as long as you need, try writing it down. No, scratch that. It would be bad if things go wrong later and the FBI found a written description of the crime. Use one of those PC Tablets Allison was using. Sit someplace and write it out. Everything you can remember. Don't worry about wording, structure, timing, nothing. Just whatever images you saw and the emotions that went with them. Did you ever see his face? Did he maybe look in a mirror? Do you remember anything about the house? Anything at all that comes to mind. You just write it down and we'll sort it out later. Bring it to me when you are ready and we'll see what we can sort out. Jimmy, I can't tell you how sorry I am that you had to go through this. We need to sort out what we can and then see if we can confirm whether this was real or not. Don't tell me anything else now. Just get it down as quickly as you can and we'll go over it. I'm going to start looking into the existence of a certain female FBI agent." "She's real Bob. It's all real. That was no fantasy. I could never have made up something like that in my worst nightmares. Let alone the emotions." I shuddered at the memory and I could feel the tears coming again, "She's dead and it's all real..." I stared at the table top and counted the little pores in the concrete surface, trying desperately to not see what was in my head. "I'm sorry, Jimmy. Try not to think about it too much. What's the problem with practice?" "After it happened I went for my morning run. I don't know what happened. I just ran and ran. I don't even know where I went. I finally found myself exhausted about a mile or so from home. I made it back but then collapsed in the entryway. I woke up on the couch. Dad was pissed that I was so careless but he got over it. We're going to map out the routes we use and number them, then time them all and leave a note when we leave, just so someone knows where to look if one of us is late getting back." "Have you told Allison yet?" "No." I whispered. "I didn't get the chance. I don't know if I can tell her. The things he did to her, Bob." I shuddered again, took a deep breath and this time I managed to hold the tears back. "Well, I've only met Allison once, but just from our previous conversations, you're going to tell her whether you want to or not. She'll drag it out of you. I would recommend you tell her as much as she wants to hear. Let her decide where to draw the line." "Okay." "Don't worry about practice. You can just walk a couple of laps and stretch. In fact, I think I'll use you as an example of what not to do. No details but just stressing the importance of running smart. You don't mind?" "No. I'm getting pretty good at playing lab-rat. And the last thing I want is for someone to do what I did. I'm used to a little public humiliation now and then. Just don't give them my real name." That cracked him up big time. "No problem! That's an inside joke we'll just keep for a while. We'd better start heading for class. What do you think about Steve's idea?" "I think it has merit, I just hope he doesn't expect it to work right away. Trust takes time. Or money if you know someone you can buy cheap. Say a buck or so..." "Oh, very funny! Ha ha ha. I'd call you a name but it's beneath me. Seriously though, you're probably right. They've got a lot to overcome. When I see him I'll stress the importance of making it a long-term project and not to be disappointed if they don't see results right away. It's good to hear a joke out of you, Jimmy; I was beginning to worry about you for a while there. This is some seriously traumatic stuff you're dealing with here. If you need to talk, come see me. Call me, drop-in in the middle of the night, whatever it takes. You don't have to face this alone." The rest of the day was routine. Practice after school went mostly as he said. I explained what I had done that morning by not paying attention and the dangers and consequences. I spent quite a bit of time stretching and walked a few laps around the track just to loosen up. I was finishing my walk when the team got back from their run. Tim headed straight for me. "Matthews! Can you stretch me?" "Sure, no problem." We picked a spot away from the others and started working on some stretches. I was pretty loose already and it was obvious he had something else in mind. "How you feeling?" he asked. "Like an idiot, but I'll live." I looked at him for a second. "But that's not what you wanted to ask me, is it?" "That obvious?" "That run wasn't enough to tighten you up. Not enough that you need any serious stretching. Something on your mind?" He thought for a second and finally asked, "What did you say to Angie?" "What do you mean?" "That first day, back at try-outs when we all ran together, did you say something to her?" "Nothing specific. You were there, we ran, we stretched, I drooled over her like an idiot, we made small talk while we stretched. Why do you ask?" "I don't know. She's suddenly acting different around me. She's more polite, always saying please and thank you. And she hugs me a lot more, for just about anything. This morning? She drove us to school like always but when I went to leave she kissed me on the cheek and told me to have a good day." "And this bothers you? Sounds kind of nice to me. I think a lot of guys would like to be in your position." "Yeah, but she's never been like this before. Don't get me wrong but..." He looked away and I could see that he was embarrassed. I decided to cut to the chase, "But you've wanted this for a long time and now that it's happening you don't know what to do?" He stayed turned away and I could see the redness spreading down his neck. "I thought that was probably it. What I did that day was to point out to her that you were her biggest fan. That you were not the snot-nosed little pain-in-the-ass that you have always been." He looked back at me. The blood was starting to drain from his face. I went on. "I showed her that her brother loves her more than she realized. She didn't believe me until I hugged her at the end and she saw the look on your face. I pointed out to her that you were more than just her brother. Tell me truthfully, Tim; is there anything you wouldn't do for her?" He dropped his eyes from mine. "Look at me, Tim. She asked how I knew. I told her I'd seen the look in your eyes before." He looked away. "Look at me, Tim," I repeated. He looked back up. "I'd seen that look in my own eyes, in the mirror, when I think about my sister and in her eyes when she looks at me. It's been there a long time, but I was just like Angie, oblivious. That all changed not too long ago. One day I realized that she wasn't just the little girl down the hall. That there is no one in the world I care more for. That is the look I saw on your face the moment Angie walked up to us. Am I wrong?" He looked away again. "Didn't think so. Tim, I understand what you are going through. You've wanted her to notice you for so long and now it seems like she has. Only you're not sure. And you don't want to blow it. Tim, listen to me, you're blowing it. Do yourself a favor, do both of you a favor. Next time you two have a moment alone and she hugs you? Hug her back. If she kisses you, kiss her back. Be honest with her. Let her know how you feel, talk to her. It will be hard at first but I think you'll find that it gets easier fast. She is feeling awkward with these expressions right now. It's hard for her too, because she doesn't know that it's doing any good. She's reaching out, Tim. Make sure she knows she's not wasting her time. If you wait too long she will give up. She'll feel like a fool and it will never happen again, ever. It will go back to the way it was before. Is that what you want?" "No!" he blurted out with some force. "Then let her know that." I glanced around. "Time to go. Good luck. I hope it works out for you and your sister as well as it has worked for Allison and me." Then it was home to talk to Allison. I expected to find her in her usual spot by the pool but she hit me as soon as I came in the door, throwing her arms around me and hugging me tight. "I'm so glad you're home. I've been really worried about you. Something happened last night after you left didn't it? Something you couldn't say in front of Mom and Dad? Tell me. Did Amy show you something? Talk to me, Jimmy. I'm scared. I've never seen you that upset in my life." I hugged her back just as hard, thankful that I had her to hold onto through this. It felt so good I didn't want to let go. "Thank you for being here, sunshine." I said, prying myself loose. "Let me set this stuff down and I'll tell you as much as I can." She followed me to my room and sat on the bed as I put my books out on my desk so I could do my homework later. "First of all, I don't remember all of it. Not all the details anyway. It's going to take some time to sort through all of it. But yes, Amy showed me something. At least I assume it was Amy because it fits what she said. She wasn't there but if it wasn't her then I don't know who else it could have been. And yes, it was bad, really bad. I may skip some stuff because it's just too awful. It's okay if you ask questions and I will try to answer all of them. But it may take a while to get through it." I took her hands in mine, looked her in the eye and did my best not to break down again. "I saw a girl die last night, sweetie. And she didn't die well, and she didn't die easy. She was raped and tortured for a long time before she was killed. The only positive thing was that she was unconscious when he finally killed her. But up till then," I shuddered, "it was beyond bad." I went on to describe everything I could remember from the dream. I left out the details of the rape, or repeated rapes, as was the case. I hadn't realized how much I had forgotten, or blocked out, in such a short period of time, until she started asking questions and wanted to make notes. "No. We can't write anything down. Not here. If something went wrong and someone found out who I was and where I lived and they found something like that it would make me look so guilty it's not even worth talking about. We'll go over it all again tonight and make all the notes you want on your tablet. But we can't do it here. I talked to Bob about it and he's the one who brought it up. He wants me to write out everything I can remember so we can go over it. But not where anything might be found. I think he's right. This is going to be tricky enough to do as it is. I don't know how I am going to be able to help without giving myself away and making myself look like a suspect. I have no idea when this all happened or what details may have been released and which ones weren't. If I say the wrong thing before I can convince her that I'm just trying to help I could find myself in really big trouble. I could casually mention something I 'saw' only to find out that it was a detail that only the killer would know. And that's another thing. If this was real then it has already happened. I was seeing it as a memory. And I was seeing it from the killer's perspective. I was observing 'his' view from my place in the theater. I could feel what he felt. Not sensations like touch or anything, thank you God, but all of his emotions. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it." "Do you remember what she looked like? You know, the physical stuff, height weight, hair, eyes, that sort of thing." "Well now that you bring it up yes, but it had slipped my mind just a few seconds ago. 5 foot ten or eleven, long blonde hair, athletic build, very attractive, nice smile, I don't remember the eyes. "That's good. It at least gives us something to start with. But start what? How do we find out what happened without attracting attention." "Actually I've given that some thought as well. I'm going to try to see Rebecca tonight." "And tell her what? Jimmy, you don't even know who it was. Without that how are you going to even convince her that a crime has been committed? She'll boot you out the door and write you off as some kind of crack-head so fast... Then where does that leave you? You, need to sit down, write it out like Bob said and then we need to go over it. See if we can find something to tell us who she was. With a name, Rebecca will at least have a place to start." "Okay, you're right. I need to slow down. I can't just rush in no matter how bad it was." "Right, and even if you did have a name, how are you going to convince her that you are innocent and just trying to help?" "The old fashioned way, I'm going to tell her the truth. Well, part of it anyway. I'll do like you said, bridge her, give her enough to get started, then contact her from a payphone somewhere. Then I will go back again and answer questions and try to gain her trust that way. I figure she is a professional, she'll see through a lie in a heartbeat. If she catches me in a lie she'll shut me out and then try to do it on her own. And according to Amy, she'll die. So far everything Amy has said has been true, and I promised I would try to prevent that. I figure this is the best shot I have. And I have to do something, Allison. They didn't catch this guy or Amy wouldn't be worried about him now. So her case is un-solved. She deserves justice. The guy is still out there somewhere. And it sounds like Amy thinks he is going to do it again. I'm going to help stop him or die trying." She practically screamed at me, "Don't say that! Don't even think it!" Then she softened again, "Just be careful, Jimmy. You can't help anyone locked in a cell with wires sticking out of your head." I settled in and did my homework. When Mom and Dad came home, the first thing they wanted to know was how I was feeling. Mostly I felt okay, but my muscles were starting to protest quite loudly. I did a lot of extra stretching before I went to bed. I set up what I envisioned as an office scene and went to see Bob. "Hi, Jimmy. Thought I might be seeing you when I found myself here. Nice place. I should hire you as a decorator. I presume you are here to talk about the murder. How are you doing?" "I'm okay for the most part. Talking to Allison really helped. It's kind of settled, a little too well actually, there are some details that I need to get that I can't seem to bring up. I am hoping that talking to you will help. If that doesn't work I was thinking possibly you might be able to use hypnosis to try for some of it." I went through everything I could remember from the dream. The file folder I had seen kept popping into my head but the name on the file eluded me. I could tell there was something written on it, but I just couldn't make it out. If it was the girls name, and it just seemed to me that it had to be, the this was, then it was the most critical piece of information that I needed right now. With that I could go to see Agent Hampton. Without it, there would be no point. Bob tried several different questioning techniques to try and 'sneak up' on it but nothing seemed to work. "Okay, let's try something a little different. It's a form of hypnosis often used as a relaxation technique. It's called a visualization exercise. I want you to just close your eyes and concentrate on breathing. In, and out, a little deeper now, don't try to expand your chest, just take it a little slower and hold it for just a little longer. Good. Now, I want you to picture yourself on the balcony of a tall building, not too tall, just about 10 stories. Now, get up from your chair and walk to the elevator. Now, press the button for the first floor. As the doors close, focus on the lighted display above the door. It now reads ten. As the elevator slowly descends the numbers will count down. You are at the ninth floor and you can feel your body start to relax. You are at the eighth floor and you can feel the tension from a long day start to flow out of your body. As the tension leaves, your muscles start to relax. You are at the seventh floor and your arms are now totally relaxed and hang heavy at your sides. You are at the sixth floor and you can feel the tension in your neck start to ease. By the time you reach the fifth floor your neck is relaxed and all the stiffness has gone. Your head feels light but not in a dizzy way. More like it is made of cotton balls rather than bone. Time seems to flow by un-noticed and you find yourself at the first floor, the doors part and you are facing an open patio. Beyond the patio is the sea. You can hear the waves breaking gently upon the shore. As you walk across the patio you spy a large brown folder on one of the tables. Walk over to the table and look at the folder. Can you see a name on the folder?" "Yes." "Good, read me the name exactly as it appears on the folder." "McKenzie, Diane E." "Good. Now, open the folder and tell me what is inside." "The folder is empty." "That's good. Now, leave the folder where it is, exactly as you found it, go back inside, and take the elevator up to the fifth floor. As the doors open you will feel fully awake and refreshed but still be in the dream state you were in when you first entered the elevator. Across from the elevator is a door. This door is the door to my office. Open the door and come back in to my office. How was it?" "Perfect. Thanks, Bob. That did the trick. I need to go try to find agent Hampton right away. I hope you don't mind." "No problem. Glad I could help. Anything else I can do?" "Not right now. I'm keeping the building so I can use it again in the future. I think I'm going to put a theater room on the fifth floor. With special equipment to let me slow down and even freeze the sequences. That may help with some of the details. I don't really think I need them now, but I may later. What do you think?" "Sounds like a great idea. Can you rig it up for cable so I can catch the 49er classic games on ESPN?" I chuckled. "I'll see what I can do. No promises though, I don't want to infringe on anyone's copyright. Talk to you later. Gotta go meet a lady with a gun." "Be careful, Jimmy. Try not to give away any hints as to who you are." "Trust me, Bob, careful is my new middle name." ------- Chapter 25: Confrontation I took my time constructing the framework for what I wanted. I wasn't even sure this would work; I'd never actually bridged her. All the evidence showed that I had in fact been bridged, first into her memories, if that's what they were, and then into the dream in her office, by someone else. But going at it with an attitude of failure certainly wouldn't have help, so I proceeded under the assumption that it would in fact work. With that in mine, I tried to remember every detail of Special Agent Rebecca Hampton's office. It must have helped that I had 'been' there before because the details started filling themselves in, the glass cubicle, the two chairs facing the desk; it snowballed quickly, the carpet, the printer behind the desk, filing cabinets, even the trash can. Then suddenly she was there at her desk and I knew I was ready. Today she was wearing a simple pair of black slacks and what appeared to be a men's dress shirt. I was 'observing' but this wouldn't work for what I needed to do tonight. I moved to the elevator and created my character. The doors opened and I walked across the busy room into her office. She glanced up as I entered the office. Then went back to what she was doing as she asked, "What can I do for you, Paul." "I'm not Paul," I said. This got her attention. She looked back up at me for a second. "Paul, I don't have time for games. Either tell me what you want or get the hell out." "I told you, I'm not Paul. Paul is at his desk. Call him if you like. I just chose to look like him because he wouldn't look out of place in the office. It wouldn't attract attention. I know this is going to sound strange, but a friend told me I needed to come and see you." "Fine, I'll play along." She picked up the phone and dialed. "Paul?" I could here the surprise in her voice and see the question behind her eyes as she looked sharply at me. She hadn't expected an answer when she called. But she covered well, "It's Rebecca Hampton. Actually, I was going to ask you about a report but I just found it. Sorry to bother you. By the way, Amy said to say hello... No Paul, not really, I'm sorry, you're still new and it's just something I do. I'm sure she would have wanted me to so I say it, so I did. I'm sorry... No, I wish it were true, but no, she is still the same. The doctors said there has been some increased activity in her neural pathways, especially the last week or so, it peaked last night for about 30 minutes, but then everything went back to where it was before, but thanks anyway." She hung up the phone and looked at me. "Okay. So you're not Paul. So, do you want to tell me who you are?" "I can't do that just yet. I need you to check on something." "Look. I don't know who you are, or who sent you here. Or why they went to so much trouble to find someone who looks like Paul, but I don't have time to play with you. So why don't you just toddle back to whoever sent you and tell them I laughed at their little joke and let me get back to work." "I'm afraid I can't do that. I promised I would talk to you about this and if you will just hear me out I think you will understand. As to why I look like Paul? I had to look like someone and he seemed like a good choice. You're not really in your office. This is a dream. You're asleep at home and I am here because I needed to meet you and give you a reason to believe me when I tell you what this is really all about. As far as names go, you can call me Jimmy." "But that's not your real name." "No, it's not. But it will serve for now. Should I call you Miss Hampton? Agent Hampton? I understand you dropped your married name. I don't know you well enough to call you Rebecca but I hope to one day." "Not unless I know your real name. How do you know I was married?" I hung my head a little. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up but I'm a little nervous. As to how I know? The person who sent me to see you showed me some wedding pictures." Well, sort of. I know it's kind of splitting hairs but no more so than Jimmy not being my real name. "As far as telling you my name, I don't know if I will ever be able to tell you. You'll understand why later but for now let's just say that I'm a little worried about what would happen if anyone found out who I really am." "Why is that? You have something you're trying to hide?" "Me, have something to hide? Like the fact that I just walked into one of your dreams? That I am sitting here talking to you in your sleep? At 3:00 in the morning. Yeah, I'm a little paranoid about who knows I can do this." "Well, assuming that I believed for a second that any of this is actually happening I could understand your rationale. For the record, I don't believe any of it, even for a second, I think maybe I had a little too much coffee and ice cream after dinner, but, since we're here, what can I do for you, 'Jimmy'?" "Help me stop a killer before he strikes again." "Oh boy, here we go," she said, shaking her head, "gotta switch to Vanilla, Rocky Road is obviously more than I can handle. Okay, I'll bite. So who is this killer you are so worried about? Charles Manson? The UniBomber? Bad news, we already got both of them. The head of Islamic Jihad? If I could bag him I'd have done it by now. Who's your killer?" "I have no idea. But he is a man. I'm hoping you can help with the rest." "The rest of what? So far you've told me nothing. You have more?" "I don't have a lot to go on, just a name and general description. Like I said I'm hoping you can find out more. The name is Diane E. McKenzie; late teens, maybe 5'10" or so; blonde hair, not sure of the eyes, athletic. I don't know where she lived. I know it's not much but like I said, that's what I need you for." "I thought this was someone you knew? That's all you've got is a name? What makes you think she's dead?" I could feel the tears starting to form. "Because I saw it happen." "You saw it happen? How could you see it happen if you don't even know where it happened?" "The same way I am sitting here in the middle of the night talking to you in your office, while you're asleep." "A dream, you saw all this in a dream? Thanks for coming by to waste my time. You don't even know if this is real? Get out of here." "Okay, I'll go. You're right, this is all just a little too much to believe. But tomorrow, when you get to the office, have Paul run the name anyway. Just for fun. I'll call you around 4:00 to see what you found. Thank you for your time, Miss Hampton." As I left the office she was shaking her head and muttering about two guys named Ben and Jerry. I headed back to Bob's 'office' to make arrangements for the next day. "How did it go?" he asked as soon as I came in. "Pretty well, all things considered. She didn't want to believe a word I said. I left her with what I hoped was enough bait to get her to start fishing. From what I've seen she takes her job very seriously. I'm sure she'll at least look into it. I'm going to need your help tomorrow after school. Are you busy?" "No, not really, what did you have in mind?" "I told her I would call her around 4:00. I need to go someplace where I can make that call without risking being recognized or traced. I think the easiest thing would be a pay phone. I need to find a location that doesn't have cameras around. So; no banks or convenience stores, no malls, that kind of thing. Also I would like it to be far enough away that we won't have people snooping around too close to home. I was hoping you could drive me somewhere. Not too far, but I think at least a half hour away." "I know just the place. It's about 40 minutes away depending on traffic. It's an auto parts store now but it used to be a liquor store. They have a pay phone on the side of the building. No windows, empty lot next door. It's up in the desert. The only problem is you forgot about practice." "Crap! It completely slipped my mind. I have to make that call. It will be virtually impossible to build credibility if I miss the first appointment that I actually set up." "Don't sweat it. I can get it covered for you. Think you could survive an hour and a half alone in a car with Susan? "Miss Swann?" "Well, yes. Unless you've met another Susan with a driver's license that you failed to introduce me to. And as far as practice goes, I'll tell them I had you take an extra day off to recover from your problem yesterday." "Miss Swann? How would I explain the trip?" "Actually they are holding a special order part for me so the trip has to be made anyway. She'll do it as a favor to me; you'll just go along to keep her company. While she is getting the part, you make the call. If you get done first, wait for her to go back to the car before you come back where you may be seen. If she gets there first she will just wait for you. Trust me." "Bob, if I didn't trust you we wouldn't be having this conversation. I was just worried about dragging more people into this. This could turn seriously ugly really fast if anything goes wrong. I don't want others to get hurt if I make a mistake." "Like I said, don't worry about it. Maybe some day you will be in a position to do her a favor." "Then thank you. I'm going to go spend some time with Allison and try to relax for a while. See you tomorrow." I went to see Allison. She agreed with what I had done so far but suggested that I leave Agent Hampton alone for the weekend. She needed to spend time with her sister and waiting would just allow her more time to become familiar with the details. And right now, we needed to know as much as we could. She also suggested I should spend more time with Bob to try to pull out as much detail as I could from the stream of images that I had seen. And see if Amy could offer any suggestions to help convince her sister to trust me. She suggested I try to get some personal details from her past. Maybe a few things from Amy's, and some more from Rebecca's, things a sister might know that wouldn't be common knowledge; who her first crush was, things like that. The next few days would be a critical time and I was having a really hard time relaxing. I guess she must have gotten tired of my pacing. "Would you relax? You're making me nervous," she finally said. "What? Oh, sorry. I guess I'm more nervous that I thought. I just can't help thinking about what's next and all the different ways it can go wrong." "I figured that was it. Maybe I can help you take your mind off of it for a while." Suddenly the scene faded and I awoke to find Allison climbing into bed with me. Without a word she began kissing me. I must not have reacted fast enough because after just a few seconds she took my hand and moved it to her breast. Hey, even I can take a hint if you wrap it around a brick and hit me with it. As distractions go, Allison is definitely at the top of my list. The focus of my concentration shifted to pleasuring her in every way I knew how. I slid my hand under her sleep shirt and started massaging her breast and rolling her nipple between my thumb and forefinger. She broke the kiss and quickly had the shirt off. She dove back into my mouth and rolled so that she was straddling my waist. I could feel the heat from her pussy through both sets of underwear and found myself wishing I didn't have to wait for Shannon. Allison slid forward and offered me a nipple. I took it greedily between my lips and began sucking hard. Allison gasped in a breath and moaned deep in her throat. After just a few seconds she pulled back and offered the other one in its place. As I am strongly in favor of equal opportunity I sucked just as hard on this one. My hands were now kneading Allison's ass, enjoying the feel of her firm flesh. I shifted slightly and began stroking her pussy from behind. She immediately began pressing back to rub herself against my hand and stomach. Within seconds I could feel the moisture starting to soak her crotch. Suddenly she stopped and rolled off to one side. I was afraid I had done something wrong but then she began stripping off her panties. I rolled onto my side and reached to touch her again but she slapped my hand away and sat up. "Uh-uh, not this time," she whispered. She grabbed the waistband of my underwear and practically ripped them off. My cock snagged on the elastic for a second then sprang loose to slap loudly against my stomach. She grabbed my cock and stroked it softly. "I want this inside me, now!" I grabbed her hand, "I thought we were waiting for Shannon?" "Trust me. If she knew the situation, she would understand." Then she threw her leg over my waist and sat up on both knees. She stood my cock up straight and began to rub the head back and forth between her soaking lips. Once she had the head liberally lubricated she placed me at her entrance and lowered herself down until just the head popped in. She closed her eyes and sighed, "Oh God that feels good." Then she moved her hand away and bracing herself on my chest she rotated her hips around a few times, working herself further down with each circle until she was about two inches down the shaft. At this point my only thoughts of Shannon were wishing she were here and hoping she was as good as Allison. At this point Allison stopped, lifted herself up until just the head was still inside, and then with a long moan of "Uuummmm," she sat down on me until her pelvis met mine, taking me all in one long stroke. I thought I would explode right then. She sat for a few seconds and we both just enjoyed the feeling of fulfillment, which came from our being joined. I don't know, somehow I just felt complete. Then without lifting up she began grinding herself against me. At first I didn't get it but then I realized the she was rubbing her little pleasure spot hard against my pelvic bone. As her motion sped up I began to slip in and out of her a little at a time. Her eyes were now jammed shut and she was moaning louder with every breath. She moved her hands off of my chest and leaned forward a little more. This changed the angle of intersection and she began taking longer strokes. Soon she was moving the length of my cock I could feel things building inside and knew that I wouldn't last much longer. I began thrusting up at her, meeting her on the down-stroke. Her motion immediately changed again and she began slamming herself harder and harder down onto my impaling rod. She was gasping at each breath and a light sheen of perspiration was forming all over her body. I was on the edge and afraid I would go over without her. Not wanting to leave her behind I tried to distract myself again by concentrating on her pleasure. I leaned my head up and captured one of her nipples between my lips and sucked for all I was worth. That was all it took. She took one final deep breath, and bit her lip as the usual high-pitched whine started to escape her throat. Then I was emptying myself into her. That wonderful feeling, like my insides were passing out through my raging cock and into her. The sensation so overpowering that it was all I could do to keep my muscles from locking into place as waves of rapturous pleasure threatened to override my conscious control. My vision blurred and I thought I might actually pass out for a few glorious moments. My hips were pumping on autopilot and my lips were locked to her breast. I thought I could feel the tip of her nipple scratching the back of my throat. Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard a lot of noise coming from both of us but I just couldn't bring myself to care. Finally it was over and we crashed back on the bed. My mouth relinquished its hold as my head flopped onto the pillow. I could feel the muscles in my neck protesting the effort of holding my head up for so long. Allison just melted down across my chest. I could feel the blood returning from my engorged member as it began to shrink back to its normal proportions. I tilted my head up and kissed her on the shoulder and started to whisper in her ear, "That, was..." "Shhh!" she interrupted. "Do you hear that?" I stopped and listened. At first all I could hear was the beating of both of our hearts in an uneven rhythm. Then another sound began to impinge on my awareness. As I concentrated on the new sound it became louder. Suddenly it hit me, "Oh my God!" Allison giggled. "Yeah! I think we woke up Mom and Dad." The sound continued to grow and I realized it was two sounds, moaning and straining bedsprings. Suddenly it stopped, and then a different moan could be heard and the creaking of springs started again. The spring noise was different though. Then yet another sound joined the first two. I knew instantly what it was. It was the sound of a headboard hitting a wall. The moaning sounds changed to a rhythmic series of grunts in time to the tapping of the headboard. Allison giggled again and I heard her whisper, "Way to go, Daddy!" as the sounds began to pick up speed. Suddenly I heard a sound I had only heard once before. Allison had made it our first night. It was the sound of a woman screaming into a pillow. The headboard gave two more much louder thuds against the wall then all was silent once more. I never would have thought the sound of my parents getting it on would be a turn on but I suddenly found myself once more fully erect. I hugged Allison close and rolled us both over. Her knees were still on either side of me and my weight forced them further apart. I had no trouble at all burying myself back into the depths of my sister's body. "Ummm," she whispered. "That feels sooo good," and she pulled me closer to herself. Her feet came up and she locked her ankles behind my butt and it felt like we were hugging with our whole bodies. We made love slowly and after we had both come again, cuddled up and drifted off to sleep in each other's arms. I woke up about fifteen minutes before the alarm feeling incredibly relaxed and refreshed. Allison was laying half on top of me. We were crammed over to one side of the bed to avoid the rather large wet spot we had created. She had one of my legs trapped between hers and I realized she had continued to ooze as we slept. By now we were practically glued together. There was no chance of getting up without waking her so I just hugged her tightly and kissed the top of her head. I knew she was awake when she started hugging me back. "Umm. What a wonderful way to wake up. Oh, Jimmy, I love you." "I love you too, and I have to agree with you; if there is a better way to wake up I can't think of it. But right now, I need to get up and turn off the alarm before it goes off. Then, assuming I can still walk, I think I need to go run a little and loosen up." She hugged me closer for a second then looked up, "Okay, but kiss me first." I rolled us onto our sides and leaned in for a light kiss. Apparently not what she had in mind; she pulled me close and rolled all the way onto her back and drove her tongue into my mouth. I kissed her back just as hard. Then she let go and pulled back, "Oh, I want you again! But, if I don't leave something for Shannon she'll never forgive me. No one is that understanding. We have got to find a way to get you alone with that girl, soon." I was instantly apprehensive again, "Are you sure she'll understand about last night?" "Relax. She'll be fine with it. I'll just tell her that something was bothering you and you couldn't sleep. And when I tell her about Mom and Dad, she'll even forgive the second time." I couldn't help but blush at the thought. I gave her another quick kiss and then jumped out of bed. Boy was that a big mistake. It was all I could do to stay standing. Pain lanced through my legs and my knees almost gave out. I staggered for a second then leaned on my desk to catch my breath. "What's the matter? Allison asked. "Still paying the price for the other day, you know how after a good hard workout it takes about a day for the aches to really settle in. Well, they've settled, believe me." I gave her a look and a wink. "I'll probably have all new ones tomorrow. But you won't hear me complaining about those." "I'd better not!" She smiled back and started to get up herself. She grimaced as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Oh! I take that back. I think you owe me a massage when you get home." Then she smiled again, "But what a wonderful ache. If I have to pick a pain, this is going to be my favorite." She grabbed my robe off the end of the bed and threw it at me, then pulled her long sleep shirt on. "Help me to the bathroom will you?" "Come on, sis, it can't be that bad." She shot me a look and said, "Tomorrow, I'm going to remind you that you said that. Now shut up and help me." Together we hobbled to the bathroom. I gave her first turn and ran some water in the sink to rinse myself with. I would shower when I got back. When she had finished she turned the water on in the shower and stepped back to let me use the facilities while the shower warmed up. It was hard to believe that we had become so comfortable with our new intimacy that we didn't even feel strange watching each other pee. She peeled off her shirt again as I flushed and then kissed me before getting in. "Take it easy out there. Don't push too hard. Love you." "I won't. Love you too. See you in a bit." I went back to my room to get my running clothes on. As I came out, Dad was just emerging from his room, dressed and ready. This was unusual as he usually wasn't up until I was coming back. He just smiled. "Top of the morning to you, James! I thought maybe that was you in the shower." "Nope, that's Allison." "Really? Imagine that, everybody just sort of bouncing out early today. What an odd coincidence. Are you running long or short today?" "I think I'll keep it short today. I'm not really what you would call recovered from the other day. I'm going to be doing more stretching than anything." "Good idea. I'm feeling pretty good this morning so I'm doubling up. One and five on the map, I'll leave a note for your mother." "Okay, three for me. I'll leave a note too. Thanks for reminding me. See you in little while." Mom was making breakfast when I got back from what was the shortest of my routes. I couldn't help noticing she had an unusually large smile on her face, especially considering how early it was. She glanced up from the eggs she was frying and asked, "Good morning dear, sleep well?" "Very well, you?" "I was sleeping well, but something woke me up. It sounded like an animal of some kind, but it didn't sound like it was in pain." I blushed but refused to back down. "You know, I think I heard it too. I thought for a minute it was trying to break in but then it went away. After that I slept better." Now it was her turn to blush. I kissed her on the cheek and headed for the shower. Yes, definitely going to be a good day. Reality hit when I got to school and I got more nervous as the day wore on. I didn't see Bob or Susan at break. At lunch Susan confirmed that she would be waiting for me at the end of the day. She said Bob was in counseling a student. After school the trip to the desert was uneventful. Susan went in and picked up the part that Bob had ordered for his car and I made the call. Susan never questioned what I was doing or why I needed to come along on the trip. The conversation with Agent Hampton was short and to the point. When she confirmed that she had in fact found something, I was both relieved and saddened at the same time. I was relieved to confirm that I wasn't just hallucinating all of this. But at the same time saddened because it meant that a young girl had died at the hands of a sadistic mad man. I had decided Allison was right and that there was no use in pursuing anything over the weekend. Rebecca needed her time with Amy, and even though she couldn't truly experience it, Amy needed her time with Rebecca as well. Come to think of it, did Amy even really know Rebecca was there? I was a little quieter on the trip home. Susan just left me to myself. The die was cast; things were at last now in motion. I spent the time convincing myself that the best thing to do was set it all aside for the weekend. Susan and I chatted about school in general and nothing in particular and then she dropped me at my house. ------- Chapter 26: A Night to Remember I was a little surprised that Allison and Shannon came out to meet me as Susan pulled up. I guess Susan's car is a little loud now that I think of it. She drives a 1998 Chevrolet Camaro-Z/28. Nice car. Okay, a really nice car. She got it with every option available, leather seats, t-tops, CD changer. It was the Flow-Master exhaust that made the noise. It wasn't really 'loud' per say, but it had a nice throaty growl when in came down the street. So naturally when it stopped in the driveway, it got the girls' attention. The sight of the two of them coming out the front door in sun worshipping clothes got my attention. It even got Susan's attention. "You get this kind of reception every day when you get home?" she asked with a smile. "It's a wonder you leave home." You know me. I turned as red as a stop sign. "That's my sister, Allison, and her friend Shannon," I stammered. "Would you like to meet them?" "Bob tells me good things about Allison." Then she put her hand on my knee and squeezed. I got another of those odd electric sensations. This caused my blood supply to make its usual U-turn and head south, and my breath to catch in my throat. "Maybe you can introduce us another time. Right now, I think they have something else in mind." And the blood rushed up once more. My vision started to blur from the change. I swear the woman has it in for me; she just couldn't leave it alone. She kissed me on the cheek and said, "Thanks for keeping me company. Enjoy your weekend." SLAM! My heart thudded in my chest and I almost passed out from the sudden exodus of blood from my upper body. Almost instantly I had the most painful erection of my life. Somehow I got the car door open, but I almost fell out of the car. What was it about her that made me react that way? Allison immediately saw my problem and whispered something to Shannon. I saw her eyes move down to the protrusion in my pants and get big. Then the two of them were giggling together. Now, I don't know about you, but having two beautiful young women in string bikinis pointing and giggling can have one of two effects. If they are the reason for the problem, that is a good thing. If on the other hand they are merely commenting on the problem it has a decidedly negative effect. I must have looked like a barber pole from the blood trying to decide where it wanted to be. It was all I could do to keep my balance as I walked up to them. Susan just casually backed out of the driveway as if nothing had happened. I tried to remain as nonchalant as possible as I reached them, saying, "Good afternoon ladies. And how are the two sexiest women on earth today?" It didn't work. "Let me guess," Allison started. "That was Miss Swann?" Yep! I was back to neon red. I just nodded my head. "Yeah, that's her." "I can see why my brother thinks she is so hot," Shannon said, then she glanced down to where the bulge had been just moments before. "I guess you do too. And here I was hoping that was a surprise for me you were hiding in there." "She must be hot!" Allison said. "I never got that response from just a kiss on the cheek. When I grow up I want to be like her! The car wouldn't be bad either. Oh, Jimmy! You really have to learn to do something about that blush. Come on, Sha, let's get this boy into the house before the EPA traces the radiation leak!" "Good idea, I certainly wouldn't want anyone else to show up right now. I have plans for him." As soon as we were in the door it became apparent what she had in mind. Once the door was closed Allison took my backpack, kissed me on the cheek and walked away. Then Shannon pressed me up against the door and proceeded to give me the hottest welcome home kiss I had ever imagined. Actually I don't think my imagination had ever been that good. The tent pole was back up in no time at all. When she felt me growing against her, she started rubbing the front of her suit against me. "Mmmm," she moaned, "maybe it was for me after all." She pulled away, grabbed the front of my shirt and began walking backward, pulling me down the hallway. "I have been waiting a long time for this. And before you say anything, Allison already explained about last night and all I can say is that I hope I feel just as sore when I wake up in the morning," Shannon stated huskily. She stopped at my door, kissing me again as she reached behind her to turn the handle. We sort of stumbled through the doorway together. How we managed to keep the kiss going without falling was beyond me. "About time you two got here. I was beginning to think you got side-tracked" giggled Allison. I turned and saw Allison already under the covers in my bed. Her suit was hanging on the bedpost. I raised an eyebrow at her, unsure of what was going on. Shannon filled in the blank. "I asked her to be here. This is a special moment for me and I wanted to share it with the ones I love most, and that's both of you. Now, do you think you could help me out of this?" She turned her back to allow me to reach the strings holding the tiny bits of fabric that made up her suit together. "I would be only too happy to assist you, Milady." I took her by the shoulders and turned her back around. She looked a little surprised but I just leaned in and kissed her lightly, barely brushing her lips with mine. I then kissed my way across her cheek to her left ear and nibbled the lobe lightly. From there I kissed my way down to the base of her neck, paying particular attention to the soft hollow of her collarbone. My hands were on her hips for this and now they moved up to her waist. I kissed over to the near shoulder, and then started back. When I got back to her neck I moved down across the front, kissing my way around the base of her throat. As she raised her head to make room for me to cross I turned and tickled my tongue lightly up from the base to her chin and then squirmed into her mouth. My hands went around her back, pulling her to me. I kept it short, then kissed my way back down her throat, up around the base to her collarbone, which I nipped at lightly with my lips. As I sucked and licked at the soft hollow I raised one hand and tugged the knot loose from the cross strap of her top. As the material fell loose between us I kissed my way up to her ear lobe. She squirmed a little, bringing her hands up around me. I gently pushed them back down to her sides and started working my way back down her neck. One hand went up to the back of her neck and I pulled her head to the side, working once more at the soft flesh at the base of her neck. She moaned softly as I started showering her shoulder with kisses. As she relaxed and her shoulder slumped I gently pulled the knot behind her neck free letting the material fall away from between us. With one arm still behind her I immediately cupped her breast with my free hand and brought my mouth down to suck hard at the exposed nipple. She gasped and her hands once again came up to cradle my head and pull my mouth harder into her flesh. I reduced the suction while once again pulling her hands free and back to her sides. Exactly the opposite of what she wanted. She whimpered in frustration as her hands were pulled from their task once again. I looked up for just a second; seeing that her eyes were closed, I opened my mouth wide to take in as much of the fleshy mound as I could reach, then raked my teeth across the delicate flesh with just enough pressure to make them drag a little at the skin. I nipped her rosy little point lightly before moving to the other breast. Once more caressing her breast I sucked the already hard nipple between my lips. I was rewarded by another sharp intake of breath as her body shuddered. I moved my free hand around to her back to cup and caress one cheek just below the bottom of her suit. Moving slightly to one side I released her breast and slid my other hand firmly down her stomach and across the material in front, fingers splitting to go around the depression that was her sex. The fingers of both hands met at the bottom and with more force I drew them back up the line that divided her. She gasped as two fingers crossed both her clit and anus simultaneously. I gave her breast the tooth treatment once more before dropping to my knees in front of her. I slid both hands up the outside of her hips to the little bows on either side. I looked up into her eyes as I gently pulled the two strings away from her body. I felt the material go slack as the knots untied. I gently pulled the remaining material away, leaving her beautiful soft mound exposed to my gaze. Still looking in her eyes I leaned forward to kiss her belly button, my hands moving back to cup her bottom and hold her gently in place. Kissing across to the hip joint on one side, I began running my tongue down the groove where hip met pelvis. I really had no idea what I was doing, I was simply following what her vocalizations told me felt good to her. On the nights I was alone I had played with a scene for our first time, just imagining what she would like and doing it. It seemed to be working. Her head fell back as she moaned again. When I finally reached the edge of her bush I stopped and licked harder in one spot. There is a soft hollow between the major tendons right there that is very sensitive. She moaned louder and trembled again. As I looked up at her, I saw that she was watching me again, her lower lip trapped between her teeth. With my eyes on hers I moved my lips to the far hip joint and started my slow trek inward again. This time I brought one hand to the front, starting at mid thigh I slowly moved it upward. As my lips and tongue reached that soft hollow again my fingers reached her slit. She was practically dripping, moisture beading on the silky hair. I slid a finger along her cleft, gathering moisture as it went. Her lips parted easily allowing the finger to slide inside. I quickly added a second and began running them in and out along the front ridge of her opening. As she leaned on my shoulders to steady herself, my fingers slid deeper causing her to jump slightly as I touched her virgin barrier. Okay, I'd done some basic research and I know it's not an actual barrier but neither is it a shower curtain. I personally don't want to force my way through either one. I'll open my own shower curtain, but I would rather let a woman handle this particular barrier in the time and manner of her choosing. So for now, I looked up into her eyes, then stood and kissed her. "Shannon?" I asked. "Are you sure? I know how much I want you. I know you've said you want this too. But are you sure? I don't want to do this if there is even the slightest chance you will regret it. I love you, Shannon. More importantly, I love you enough to wait." "Wait?" she said. "Are you insane? If I have to wait any longer I'm going to go crazy. You love me? Then love me! Now!" I took her hand and backed towards the bed. Allison moved over to make room. I stepped aside letting Shannon slide in. Shannon went straight into Allison's arms and kissed her passionately. I took advantage of the distraction to quickly remove my own clothes. "Thank you," she said, "thank you for being here, thank you for loving me enough to share the one you love." Allison stroked her cheek and kissed her nose. "No, Sha, thank you, thank you for loving me enough to understand. There is no one I would rather share anything with. I love you so much. I could never even dream of keeping something so wonderful from you?" Then she rolled Shannon onto her back and kissed her way down to her lover's breast where she began to lick and suck at the already stiff nipple. Taking this as my cue, I began to pay equal attention to the other one. As my hand crept to Shannon's sex I found that Allison had beaten me to it. As she continued to suckle at her friend she began to slide a finger up and down the length of her soaked pussy. Suddenly I felt a hand wrap itself around my cock and Shannon's breathy voice saying, "I'm ready. I want this in me, now. Please, don't make me wait any longer," Allison withdrew as I rolled onto my back and drew Shannon towards me. Shannon threw her leg over my waist and climbed on top of me. She kissed me and pressed herself against me. She began to slide down a little at a time. I could feel the heat and wetness of her as she moved. Suddenly a hand wrapped around me again. It was Allison. She aimed me at Shannon's cleft and as soon as she'd moved close enough, began moving me up and down across Shannon's opening. Shannon sighed and moaned as the head passed back and forth along the length of her slit. Then she moved again and the head slipped between her inner lips. She gasped at the sudden intrusion and pressure. "Oh, that feels good already. Please, sir, could I have some more?" "All you want, whenever you want." She looked up at me. "I'm going to hold you to that." She took a deep breath and pushed herself back farther and I could feel the increased pressure of her hymen. She stopped and waited until the sensation was more comfortable then began to move just a tiny bit back and forth. After maybe ten such movements she slid a little farther and suddenly the pressure disappeared. Shannon gave a little sigh and pulled back until just the head was in. "I guess it really doesn't hurt if it's someone you love." "And someone who loves you," Allison whispered. Then Shannon was moving again. She pressed back until I was about halfway inside of her. It was very difficult to remain still and let her proceed at her own pace. But I couldn't bear the thought of doing something to hurt her, or making this less special for her. Two more movements and I was all the way in. "Oooh God, that's good." Shannon sighed. "Can I just stay like this for a while? Say maybe 'til Monday." "Fine by me, but I don't think I could explain it to my parents." "Fine my ass!" said Allison with some force but more humor. "I love you a lot, Shannon, but I'm not going to be able to wait that long. I can hardly stand it now, just watching you two. Besides, if you don't move he's going to either drop dead or wilt. Now fuck him, girl! Or move over and let me do it." "Spoil sport. Just for that I'm not moving until you kiss me" Allison was all over her. She grabbed Shannon across the chest and pulled her up to a sitting position. When she did this my cock seemed to go in even deeper. "Whoa!" said Shannon. "Now that was interesting." Allison was now kneeling next us. She leaned around and shoved her tongue into her girlfriend's mouth. Shannon kissed her back and began moving up and down on my shaft. Allison dropped lower to suck once more at a nipple and Shannon immediately started speeding up. Not fast but a steady up and down movement covering the whole length of my cock with each stroke. As Allison moved back up and began kissing her again I slid a hand under my sister's bottom and began playing with her. She was already wet and in just a few seconds I had a finger probing into her. Then she began to pinch and twist Shannon's nipples, Shannon began to really heat up. Her breathing became more ragged, almost gasping for each breath. She began to slam herself up and down on my hips, grinding her pelvis against mine. I was getting very close when Shannon began to shake and her muscles clamped down on my cock. I suddenly felt like I was in a vise and the blood was actually being squeezed out. Her orgasm crashed around her and just as it appeared that she was about to come down another one seemed to start. She was rapidly losing her balance and toppling over. I moved to one side, letting her collapse onto the mattress between Allison and me, slid out just long enough for her to get settled comfortably on her back and then moved back between her legs and into her little slice of heaven. I moaned with satisfaction as I slid deep into her cavity. Then I couldn't take it any longer. She spread her legs wide and hugged me hard against her as I began to drive into her. Allison was still there but couldn't do much besides just watch. It didn't take long and I was emptying myself into her. It felt like I came for an hour. Really it was just a few seconds. Afterwards we lay quietly together with Allison across my back hugging us both. I don't know how long we lay there but at some point Shannon looked over at the clock. "Shit! It's almost time for your mom to get home." Allison jumped quickly off the bed and began to tie her swimsuit back on. I kissed Shannon lightly and then I too got up. I scooped my clothes up and dumped them in the chair and I reached into a drawer for one of my swimsuits. Shannon just lay there for a second before moving to get up. Suddenly Allison perked up, "The garage door!" Shannon grabbed her suit and the three of us ran out the door. I closed the bedroom door as I left. A second later I heard two splashes. I was only a couple of seconds behind. Shannon had moved down to the far corner and was tying her top back on. The side of the pool concealed that she was naked from the waist down. Allison had just climbed out the near end and was padding back toward the door firing off a typical teenage greeting. I couldn't really hear the other part of the conversation. What I heard sounded something like this... "Hi, Mom, we're out back. Shannon's here, can she spend the night? Cool! Do you need help with dinner? Okay, let me dry off and I'll set the table. Are we eating inside or on the patio?" Allison appeared to have everything well in hand so I moved down by Shannon who was looking around for something. It didn't take long to figure out what. I saw her suit bottoms floating behind her where she couldn't see them. I moved close then reached past her to grab the wayward garment. "Lose something? Allow me." I dove down and slipped the fabric between her legs. Despite the fact that my mother may appear at any moment it was all I could do to resist stroking the delicate flower hidden so close by. I had to tie the straps myself, as she needed her hands to hold onto the side in order to avoid sinking. I am sure I did a lousy job but I was more concerned with heading off my mom before she walked out and found us. As soon as I was finished I kissed her and climbed out, grabbing a towel and drying quickly before heading inside. "Hi, Mom," I said as I stepped through the door. "Hi, sweetie, how was school?" "Okay. Not much happening. Bob said to say hello and remind you how much he appreciated your cooking. It sounded a lot like a hint to me." "Gee, you think? Maybe we should invite him over for barbeque this weekend?" "Dad's cooking? Yeah that ought to solve the problem." "Jimmy!" "Just kidding, you want me to make lemonade?" "Sure, if we're getting low. Shannon dear, could you mix up some salad dressing for me?" "Sure, Mrs. Matthews." "Shannon? If Jimmy and Allison can call your folks Tom & Karen, I think it's time you started learning our names as well. I'm Cindy, and I think you've met my husband Richard." "Is he that hot looking stud I keep seeing hanging around the garage?" Mom laughed. "Yep! That's him. Just don't let him hear you say that, I have a hard enough time keeping his ego in check." "I'll do my best. Cindy, do you have more oil? This bottle's about empty." The evening progressed normally from there. The girls took dish duty, after which we all watched a movie, then Mom and Dad headed for bed. Being a weekend, the girls and I stayed up to watch another movie. Well, we watched part of one anyway, in between long make out sessions. I swear watching Shannon and Allison kiss was almost as hot as kissing one of them myself. As midnight approached we headed for bed, and I tried real hard not be jealous of the two of them being together while I slept alone. ------- Chapter 27: I Must be Dreaming I have recreated this part of the story from the accounts given later. I am just going to narrate them and try to stay as close as I can to what I was told about the events. This is how it started for Rebecca. Jimmy. Special Agent Rebecca Hampton woke from a most bizarre dream and looked around her bedroom. The clock said 3:18 AM. She reached into her nightstand for the pad and pencil she kept close to every phone in the apartment. She wrote the name Diane E. McKenzie, and the word, 'Unsolved?" on the pad before rolling over and going back to sleep. At 5:00 AM, when the alarm went off, Rebecca was already awake and ready to start the day, she finished tying up her shoes before heading out for her morning run. "Got to keep it short this morning," she thought to herself. "Got to get in early and finish up so I can leave." She was trying to get out of town before traffic got too heavy. With a little luck she could clear the valley before traffic got real bad, be there before dinner and take Amy an ice cream for dessert. The thought of her little sister always brought a heavy feeling in her chest. She told herself yet again that this could be the last visit. That Amy could come out of it any day. As much as it hurt to see her lying there oblivious to the world around her, she refused to give up. The doctors still reported consistent brain activity. Occasionally they reported periods of increased activity that could mean she was fighting her way back through to reality. So far it hadn't happened. But Amy was still alive and there was still hope. She still hadn't decided on a book to take. "Maybe I'll look for something new on the way." She was at her desk at 7:30 working on the final draft of yet another report she had gotten stuck writing. "Jeez," she muttered to herself, "am I ever going to get back in the field?" "Not with that attitude," came a voice from her doorway. She looked up to find Samuel Rodriguez, her best friend and supervisor standing in the doorway watching her. "Hey, Rod, what are you doing here this early in the morning? You don't usually grace us with your happy presence until at least 9:00. Selena kick your sorry butt out?" "Happy to see you too, Bex, Selena and the kids say hello. As to why I'm in early? I just wanted to be the one to tell you that you're finally being cleared for shooting that asshole at the bank. Sorry it took so long. Officially nothing has changed, but I thought I would let you know that starting Monday you can put the vacancy sign back up on your door." She jumped out of her chair and hugged the big Mexican. "Oh, thank God! I don't know how much more of this I could stand. I'm actually up to like 30 words a minute typing. Is that disgusting or what? You didn't have to pull any strings or have anyone 'hit' did you? I mean I already owe you more than I care to think about." "No," he chuckled. "I didn't have to pull strings. C'mon, Bex, everyone knew it was a clean shooting. You took out three perps single handedly and saved a dozen hostages. This was all just routine and you know it. The bad news is they aren't going to pay for the dress." He ducked away from the fist that was suddenly headed his way. "I'm kidding! Of course they're going to pay for it! Say, why don't you come by for dinner tomorrow night?" "Sorry. No can do. I'm visiting my sister this weekend. Can I get a rain check?" "Kind of hard to get a rain check on a standing invitation, so how is Amy doing?" "Well the doctors say there have been sporadic increases in brain activity lately, episodes that closely resemble normal dream activity. They say that it's times like these she is most likely to come out of it. So, I just wait and pray. It'll happen. I'm just not sure when." The phone rang and she picked it up, "Hampton. Good morning, Paul. Yes, I've got it right here. Okay, see you in a few minutes." She hung up and turned back to Rod. "I'll try and come by Sunday night if I get back early. If not, I promise to come one night next week, okay." There was a knock at the door. It was Paul and she waved him in. Reaching back she pulled the report off of her printer. "Here you go, Paul. Thanks. Oh, before you go, I need you to run something for me. The name is McKenzie, Diane E. She's about 5-foot-10, blonde; run it through the unsolved net, and let me know what pops up, thanks." Paul left and Rod asked her, "What's that all about? I don't remember seeing anything on a McKenzie?" "Probably nothing, I don't really expect him to find anything." "Where'd you get it?" "Trust me, Rod. You don't even want to know. Maybe I'll tell you if something pops up. Listen, I got a ton of stuff to finish if I'm going to beat traffic out of town. I'll try to make it Sunday night. I'll call you if I'm gonna miss, okay." "You'll call? Right, how many times have I heard that before? Say hi to Amy for me. Tell her everyone sends their love." She turned back to the daunting task of clearing her inbox. She was still at it at 10:30 when Paul called back. "Hampton." "Miss Hampton, it's Paul. I got several hits on McKenzie. Most promising is three years old, up in the Bay area. Eighteen year old female Caucasian, kidnapped, found dead a few weeks later." "You're kidding." "What?" "Oh sorry, just mumbling to myself, anything else." "Rape and torture from the autopsy, body was cleaned and staged. The scene was totally sanitized. No physical evidence at the scene. They think she was killed somewhere else and then dumped there. Real neat and tidy, bathed, hair done, dressed, makeup, you'd think she was headed out for a date." "Shit. Where was it?" "Santa Clara. You want me to see what I can get." "No. I want you to get what you can get. I want everything you can find. Today's Friday; call someone in the local office. I want as much as they can get today sent over-night by the end of the day. I want it on my desk by 10 AM Monday, the rest they can send as soon as they can put it together. Anyone gives you grief you call me. I'll give you my cell number... Really? Where did you get it? Never mind, I don't want to know. You call me. Midnight, I don't care. I want as much as possible by Monday morning, I want the rest by mid-week if they have to drive it down here. Bring me the preliminary stuff as soon as you can sort it out and get it printed. Thanks, Paul." Special Agent Rebecca Hampton hung up the phone and leaned back in her chair. She closed her eyes and strained to remember every detail of last night's strange dream that she could. She stared at the phone and wondered. Trap the line? No, not yet. Let's see what happens first. At 12:30 she returned from lunch to find a folder on her desk. McKenzie, Diane E. typed neatly on the label. She opened the file and started reading. At 2:30 she called Paul back. "Paul, get someone in tech to put a trap on my phone. I need it done within the hour, I am expecting a call around 4:00, I want it traced and recorded. Call me back when it's done. Thanks." A half hour later a tech showed up in her office and played with her phone for a few minutes. "Everything will come in through this line. If it's not the call you want, press this button and it will cancel the 'trace and record' and shunt it to a clear line to free this one up, any questions?" "Nope, I got it, thanks." At 3:45 Rod walked into her office. "Bex, there's someone named Jimmy on my phone for you? Did you give someone my number?" She flew out of her seat and grabbed the phone. The number came up blocked. <> "This is Special Agent Hampton. Who is this?" "You know who this is. Did you find anything?" "Hell yes I found something. You knew I would, didn't you?" "I thought you probably would. I hoped you wouldn't. I know you're in a hurry to go visit your sister so I'm not going to keep you. I'll see you again soon and we'll talk." "You son of a bitch, how do you know about my sister!?" "It's not like that really. I know that this is going to be hard for you to believe, but considering everything else that's happened so far it shouldn't be that much of a stretch. Amy told me to contact you. <> I could feel the blood drain from my face I'll explain later. By the way, Amy wants you to bring one of the 'Narnia' books. She said those are her favorites. I have to go so you can finish tracing this call before you leave." The line went dead. She grabbed the phone off her desk and dialed. "Paul, a call just came in to Rod's phone, I want to know where it came from and I want a team out there as soon as possible to go over that whole area. I doubt if they will find anything, but do it anyway. Do you need the phone? Let me guess, you already have the number. Yeah, thought so. I'm starting to like you, kid. Call me when you find something." She hung up and handed Rod's phone back to him. "What the hell is going on, Bex? Who was that?" "Short version? I have no clue. Not who he is, how he got your number, nothing. All I know is that he knows about that girl." She pointed to the folder. "He says he saw her killed. But he didn't know where it happened, who she was, nothing; just a general description and a name. Paul tracked the name to a three-year-old cold case up in Santa Clara. I've got a preliminary summary. He's getting the rest of it sent down. Be here early next week." "So how did you find out about it? She just shook her head. "Can't tell you yet," She looked up and met his eyes. "Trust me on this, you don't want to know and you wouldn't believe it if I told you. Let's wait and see how it plays out. It's an old case and we have nothing to go on unless Paul finds something," she paused before continuing. "My head says he won't, but my gut tells me he will." She caught the look in his eyes, turned, and stared out the door. "I got a bad feeling about this, Rod. So far the source is anonymous. On a case like this it usually means he's involved. Either he's the perpetrator or an accessory. The idea that either would have the balls to call us is not a good sign. I think what we have is the odd probability. I don't think he's either. I hope I'm right. Watch your back, Rod. The fact that he somehow got your cell phone number scares the bejeezus out of me. And, he knows about Amy." She was just leaving Irvine headed south on I-5 when her phone rang. "Hampton. Hi, Paul, what have you got for me? A pay phone? Shocking. Where? Where? Outside a parts store in Victorville? Any chance there was surveillance anywhere we may be able to get? Didn't think so but I had to ask. What did the team find? Anything? What do you mean nothing? No fingerprints? Not even a partial? They dusted the actual keys right. No footprints? Tire tracks? Witnesses? Any of the employees see who was using the phone at around quarter of four? Damn. Oh well, it's disappointing but not surprising. Thanks, Paul. Have a good weekend. I'll see you Monday." As she reached Mission Viejo she saw a Borders Book Store just off the freeway. She bought a new copy of, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis and got back on the road. An hour later she was eating a modest dinner at a small local diner. She got a piece of apple pie al a mode to go and drove the last two blocks to the research center that watched over her sister. After all this time, everyone knew her and pretty much ignored her as she walked the familiar hallways to Amy's room. She stopped at the nurse's station before going to see her sister. An elderly black nurse was making notes in a file as she walked up. "Hi, Bonnie, how's the world treating you?" "Good evening, Miss Hampton! It's so good to see you again. We're doing just fine, thank you. It's a good thing you came tonight. I leave noon tomorrow for two weeks in Hawaii! Now that the kids are finally out on their own David and I are finally taking that vacation we've been promising ourselves." "Good for you! Have a great trip. Do me a favor? Mail Amy a coconut. Here, let me give you some money." "Oh, don't bother. That's just a lovely idea. I'll do it first thing. No, really I don't want your money. I'm going to put my name on it so she has something to remember me by when she goes home." That was what she really liked about this place. Everyone, right down to the janitors took a personal interest in all the patients. And they were universally convinced that they would all get better one day. "Thanks, Bonnie. You have a good time. Be careful of the sun over there though. It'll fry you in no time." Then she headed off to Amy's room. Amy was propped up slightly in bed. Her hair was neatly combed to cover the patches leading to the machine monitoring brain activity and someone had even painted her finger and toenails. A small vase of fresh flowers sat on the table next to her bed. The soft jazz playing on the small clock radio covered the sound of the heart monitor. Rebecca kissed her on the cheek then settled herself on the edge of the bed and started eating her pie. "How are you, sweetie? They taking good care of you? You look very beautiful today. Sorry it's been so long since I've been down. I've been stuck at a desk typing for weeks. Rod came by this morning to tell me I could go back to work on Monday. He said to say hi and tell you Selena and the kids send their love. Paul said to say hi too. He's turning into a real asset." She paused for a moment, and then continued. "Sweetie, do you know someone named Jimmy? Someone called today. He said you told him to call me about something really bad. I'm a little worried about what he told me but I'm looking into it. I promise I'll be careful and I'm going to have someone keep an eye on you too, okay." She brushed Amy's hair back over one ear. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you, sunshine. And he knows who you are and that scares me a little bit, so I'm going to have to make sure you stay safe. Okay? Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. But we need to make sure that you are safe so you can get better. The doctor's have been telling me good things about you. But you're still not eating all your vegetables." She said, giving Amy's nose a little tweak. "So you promise to keep being good and eat all your vegetables and one of these days I'll let you share my ice cream, okay? Good. Now then, one thing my mystery caller told me was that you like the Narnia books. So I went today and bought a brand new copy. Think you can stay awake while I read it? Well let's just see, shall we." And with that Rebecca Jean Hampton, hard-boiled investigator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation sat down in a chair, opened the new book, and in between bites of pie and ice cream, began to read it to her little sister. For now, the cares and stresses of the world, the problems and complaints of the job, and all the criminals large and small were forgotten as she spent time with the most important person in her world. At 10:15 she was awakened as her cell phone went off. She pulled it from her purse and stood up to stretch the kinks out. The chairs were comfortable enough for sitting, but definitely not for sleeping. She thumbed the receive button and answered. "Hampton." "Hi, it's Paul. I hope I didn't wake you." "Actually you did, but don't worry, it's a good thing. Another couple of hours in that chair and I wouldn't have been able to move. What's up?" "I did some follow up on that McKenzie file. I contacted the doctor who did the autopsy; he's going to pull his copies of the file and go over them this weekend to jog his memory. He'll be expecting your call. Also, the owner of the hotel where she was found, not much help there. The manager at the time died in an accident last year. But he does remember the case and will be ready to answer any questions you may have. The parents are still at the original address. They changed the phone number to stop the calls but I got the new number. They were a little reluctant to talk about it. They've been doing their best to put it behind them. I told them that we were looking into some things involving the case and asked if they would mind being contacted if we come up with anything. They'll talk if you have something new, but if it's not promising they would prefer to be left alone. I left my name and number with instructions to call back if they changed their minds, got a call not five minutes later from a male identifying himself as her brother. Said he would be happy to help anyone who is doing anything to find the son of a bitch that killed his sister. San Francisco is packaging up everything they can find. They got the preliminary out today and will over-night the rest on Monday. Local cops asked us to keep them informed of anything that we found. Made it clear it wasn't a jurisdiction thing and they were just grateful that someone might be able to do something with the case. Said if we need any help up there, just to call and they would be happy to play 'legs' and chase for us. How's Amy?" "She's doing fine. Sorry to say you didn't wake her. I'm sure she would have forgiven you. Thanks for all the extra effort but it's Friday night. Don't you have more important things to do?" "My pleasure, Miss Hampton. I didn't have plans tonight, tomorrow, but not tonight. And it sounded like this might be important." "Not sure that everyone would agree but so far it's important to me and at least one other person." "Who's that?" He asked. "Diane McKenzie." "Yes, ma'am. Call me if you need anything. I'll leave you two alone unless something big develops. Enjoy your weekend. Be sure to tell Amy I said hi." "Sure thing, Paul, have a good weekend, I'll see you Monday." She broke the connection, turned to her sister and smiled. "Better watch yourself, sis! Looks like you may have a new fan." The rest of the weekend was uneventful. They finished the book early Sunday afternoon. Rebecca began packing up her things for the trip back to LA. "I have to leave a little early, sugar. I promised Rod I would try to make it over for dinner. I thought I would surprise him and actually show up this time. I'll come back soon. I love you." She kissed her sister on the forehead, then turned quickly and left so that Amy would not see her tears. Dinner with Rod and the family was a real treat. Everyone was interested in how Amy was doing. The kids wanted to know when she would get to come home. She wished she could give them an answer, but all she could do was to ask them to continue praying that she would get better soon. They both stated that they prayed for her every night. Rod shared the news that the internal investigation was finally completed and Rebecca would be allowed to return to regular duty on Monday. She helped Selena with the dishes. This gave Rod's wife the chance to ask her yet again when she was going to start dating. "You work too hard; in early and out until all hours. And that's just when they had you chained to that desk. Now, with you going back out in the field, well maybe you can find yourself a few descent prospects." "Selena, I chase down perverts and killers for a living. Not a lot of hope there. And I don't have time to date." "You don't make time to date you mean." "And even if I met someone, you think he's going to want to spend his weekends alone while I'm off with Amy, and I have to see her. I won't leave her there all alone. She needs me, and I need to be there for her." "Now no one is suggesting that you should not see Amy. But Samuel and I can go up one weekend and be with her. Who knows? The sound of Sam reading out loud may bring her right around just so she can laugh with the rest of us. I know the kids would like to see her. Even just to say hello. All I'm saying is that if you do find someone we'll be there for you. Besides, the right man will understand your need to be with her, and she will understand your need to be with him as well. You think it doesn't break her heart to see you all alone again since Michael died. She wouldn't want you to be alone, Rebecca; you know she wouldn't. Forgive me for saying it, but Michael wouldn't either." Rebecca sighed. "Yeah, I know. But I just can't bring myself to try. I wouldn't know what to do, where to start?" "Well you could start by just being a little less negative about the whole thing. Just let yourself open up to the idea. Where did you start before? You didn't. You just let it happen. Don't worry; it's like falling out of bed, or if you're lucky, falling into one!" "Selena!" She gave the smaller woman a little shove with her hip. Selena just laughed and refused to let up. "Do you good to spend a little time cuddled up to a good man. Yes, Ma'am, it would!" "You are just awful!" Thankfully Rod came to her rescue. "Selena, are you picking on Rebecca again?" "Oh no, we're just having a little chat about the finer things in life," Selena said innocently. "Yes, she is too. Not all of life's problems can be solved by sex," Rebecca accused. "Ha! See, you make my point! It's been so long you've forgotten! You just haven't spent enough quality time with a good man in too long." "Come on, Selena. Don't pick on her like that," Rod interjected. "Maybe she needs a good woman instead." "Oh thanks a lot Rod, you're not helping. Go away." "Okay, okay. Just trying to help out, come see me in the study when you're done. There's some stuff we need to go over." When the dishes were done, Selena went to get the kids ready for bed and Rebecca headed in to see Rod. "So what do you think, Bex? You got a live one here?" he asked as she closed the door. "I don't know yet, Rod. To soon to be sure, but it looks like it. And if it's what it looks like it's a really bad one. The McKenzie girl was about as clean a job as I've seen. Not a lot of people that can get a dead body into a hotel room and leave a scene that perfect. Whoever he is, he knows his stuff. I'll know more when I get the full package. Paul said a lot of it will be there in the morning and the rest will follow shortly after. If it goes that way, I want him on my team. That kid is damn good. Less than twelve hours and I've already got interviews set up with the coroner who did the post, the owner of the hotel, manager's dead so I don't know how much help he will be but he said he'd cooperate, the girl's brother wants to help, but the parents will only get involved if we find something workable. Local enforcement has even offered to play legs if we need anything." "What about your source?" She just stared at him, thinking about it. "Damned if I know, Rod. That's the strangest part. You still got that brandy hidden in the desk?" "Damn you, Rebecca! How the hell did you find out about that?" "How did Paul get your cell phone number? Or mine for that matter? It's my job, Rod. Don't fault me for doing it well. Anyway, you better pour us both one. You're going to want it." Rod looked at her for a second then reached into the desk drawer, moved some files around and finally came out with a small bottle of Napoleon Brandy. "Damn." He swore, as he got up to get two glasses from the kitchen. Rebecca just shook her head. "And he wonders how anyone knows?" Rod came back with two small snifters and quickly poured a small amount of the amber liquid into each. He handed one to Rebecca. "To Michael, may he rest in peace, and Amy, may she be here before the next round." "Amen," she replied. They both took a sip and Rod waited for her to begin. "My 'source' came to me in a dream." The response was exactly what she expected. "He what?" She held up her hands, "I know, Rod. I told you - you wouldn't believe it. I'm in my office sifting through another pile of paperwork and in walks Paul. Only he says he's not Paul. I'm ready to toss him out and tell him if he can't learn when someone is using him for a bad joke that maybe he should consider a different career. But he tells me to call Paul and verify it. I called Paul's number and so help me he was actually there. I'm thinking this is still some elaborate joke but he says it's not. Says the reason he looks like Paul is so it wouldn't attract attention in the office; tells me that this is all just a dream so he can look like whomever he wants. He said that a friend told him to come and see me. Me. Not the FBI, but me specifically. I ask him why and he tells me he needs my help to stop a killer. At this point I'm ready to open a window and toss him. It gets better. He says that all he has is a name and a general description of the victim. Quietly gets up and tells me he will call me the next day to see what I found out. Then just calmly walks out." "That's it, just drops a name and walks out. And you let him?" "Rod, it was a dream. After he walked out I woke up in bed. It was almost 3:30 in the morning, I scribbled the name on a notepad and went back to sleep. You know the rest. I had Paul run it and he hit the jackpot. Three-year-old abduction and murder from up in the bay. No attempt to extort. He didn't do it for money. The whole thing was carefully planned to be exactly what it was. No witnesses and no physical evidence. He wanted a toy; he found one, played with it until he got bored or broke it, then threw it away. This is a very bad boy." "You get a name on your source?" "Funny thing that. Said he was afraid to give me his real name. Worried about what would happen if anyone found out what he could do. Said I could call him Jimmy. That it wasn't his real name but that it would work as well as anything." "What do you mean?" "That's what he said. Then he pointed out that he was in my dream, talking to me while I was asleep. Think about it, Rod. How would you feel about someone being able to just walk into your dreams and poke around? If he really can do it, and the public got wind of it? How about NSA? I think I understand why he doesn't want it getting around. I don't know about you, but I was going nuts in that office after just a week, and I could get up and walk out any time I liked. He'd be lucky if he ever saw the sun again. I was still ready to write the whole thing off until Paul matched the name. I had my phone trapped and waited for the call. Still didn't really expect to get one. Then he calls, but not on my phone, on your cell phone. How the hell did he get your number? How the hell did he even know you existed? You heard me mention Amy?" "I would say mention is a little mild. I think if he'd been in the room you would have shot him." "I might have at that. Anyway, you heard me ask him, know what he said? He said Amy was the one that sent him to me! Rod, she's been in a coma for twelve years! She was a little girl when she went into the hospital. She couldn't even know what I do for a living. He knew I was planning to go visit her. That I read to her when I go. He told me what book to take. Said it was one of her favorites. Rod, it is one of her favorites! She got the whole set for Christmas the year before the accident. She went through the first one in a week, finished the set before Valentine's Day. I've got her original set in a box in my storage. Rod, how could he know?" "He doesn't know, Bex, it's a con, has to be. He's been checking you out, checking out the history. It sounds to me like he's tied up in this and is messing with you. You said to watch my back? Now I'm telling you to watch yours! This guy has been stalking you, Bex. That's the only explanation." "That occurred to me too. Something I haven't told you, Rod. I would never have associated it with anything but now I'm not sure. Rod, the doctors have been reporting increased brain activity in Amy. It comes and goes but they say it reads like she is experiencing normal dreams. Dreams, Rod. On the one hand the doctors say that this is a really good sign. That it is the best chance for her to come out of it. To just wake up from a dream like everyone else in the world does. But what if he really can do what he says, Rod? And from what I am seeing I can't discount the possibility. What if he has actually been talking to my sister, then what?" "Beats the heck out of me, I don't believe a word of it to begin with. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone about it. I'd never hear the end of it for even listening to a story like this. You? They'd have your badge and gun so fast you wouldn't even know what happened." "Yeah, that's what I thought. But so far the information has played out. You can't deny that. Dream or no dream, there is a very real, very dead girl out there. So what do I do now?" "Check out the packet when you get it. Wait for him to call you again? Hope we can get a line on him. I think he's your perp and he's playing you. I don't know how he convinced you it was a dream but there has to be an explanation. Wait for him to get over-confident, screw up, then you can nail him." "Call me crazy, but I think you're wrong. But I'm not stupid either. Until I have something a lot stronger to base this on, that's exactly how I'm playing it. I'm going to hit it. See you in the morning." With that she finished her brandy and stood to leave, "Rod, do you think Amy's in any danger?" "Not as of tomorrow when her new nurse starts." "Thanks. What are you telling Selena?" "Not a damn thing, nothing to tell, not yet anyway. Yeah, I know, he called on my phone. But I don't think he's the least bit interested in me. I think I was a means to an end. That end being to convince you that he was telling you the truth. But I'm not stupid either. I'll be keeping an extra watch on things." Then he finished his brandy and walked her out. She stopped off to kiss the children and hug Selena goodbye. By the time she got home the events of the last several days were starting to catch up with her. She treated herself to a long soak in a tub of hot water, checked over the apartment and headed for bed. Just another night like any other, unless you noticed the loaded automatic under her pillow. ------- Chapter 28: Closing the Credibility Gap The mind is an amazing thing. Sometimes you could make an intuitive leap from the smallest piece of data and instantly solve a complex problem. Other times you write d-o-g on a piece of paper and wonder if you spelled it right. I hadn't had any luck meeting with Amy all weekend. Sunday morning it occurred to me why. She was with her sister. Rebecca was visiting for the weekend and Amy would not leave. Even though they could not interact she would not 'leave' while Rebecca was there. Because of this, the rest of the weekend was normal routine. The high point was going to a movie with Shannon. It was our first 'date.' Kind of weird to look at it that way considering all the stuff we had already done. Okay, it wasn't really a date because we were both too young and no one really knew we were going out, and Allison was with us, but still, it was nice. The theater was at the local mall and we had about an hour to just roam around and goof off before Mom picked us up. We spent the extra time in the food court and just browsing around. Nothing special, we were just three friends out having a good time. We just hung around like three good friends. We all held hands as we walked, taking turns in the middle. It was fun, but all too soon it was time to go. As we headed for the door Allison said, "If you're going to kiss her you better do it now, before Mom shows up." And then she just walked out the door and left us behind. Shannon and I looked at each other, and then we both just cracked up. I took her hand and kissed it and told her I'd had a good time. She rolled her eyes and kissed me on the cheek and said she had too. Then we went out and waited with Allison. She just looked at us, smiled, and said, "That was quick." Shannon and I laughed again. Then the car was there and it was time to go. I crawled into bed relaxed and ready to get some sleep. I didn't even think about Amy or her sister, or the madman out there somewhere. I 'woke up' on the island in one of the chairs I had placed there before. Amy was in the other chair wearing her white bathing suit with pink trim. If you didn't know better you would think we had never left. "Sorry I didn't come before," Amy said. "Don't give it a thought, sweetie. It took me a while but I figured out what was going on. If I had thought of it sooner I would never even have tried. I'm sure your time with your sister is very precious to you. Was it fun?" "Oh yes! She brought "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe," and we read the whole thing!" "What do you do while she reads?" "Oh, I just sit in a little chair under a tree and listen. I just love her voice. I love that she comes and reads to me. I hate that she is so worried about me all the time and I wish I could wake up and be with her, but..." "I understand, and I'm sure that is what she wants more than anything too. Someday it will happen." "I hope so. I really want to see her again." She paused for a second. "Who's Paul?" That startled me. "Paul is a young man that she works with. Why do you ask?" "Because he called and they talked and then she told me he said hello. I think they were talking about you know what." "Hmm, probably so, and I need to talk to you about that too. Well not really about that, but about your sister and me working together. You know it's going to be hard to convince her that I am not the bad man don't you?" "Why would she think that?" "Well, because I know things that no one else but the bad man would know, and she is going to be scared that I know about you. And Mr. Rodriguez, her boss? Well, I called her on his phone because I figured she would be trying to find me if I called her on the office phone. So she's not going to trust me. She will still work with me, still listen to what I have to say, do things that I ask her to, but she will only be playing along thinking that I am the bad guy and it's the best way to catch me. Do you understand all that?" "Yeah, I guess, sort of. Why can't you just tell her that I told you?" "Well, I did tell her that you sent me to see her, and about the Narnia books. She must have believed at least some of it, because she brought one for you, but she still won't be sure, and she can't take the chance that she is wrong. So she will be worried about you; about me knowing who you are, or if I know where you are, and I don't want her to be worried like that. So I was hoping that maybe you could tell me some things that I may be able to tell her that will help her believe that I really am talking to you. Or maybe you could come to meet with both of us." "I can't do that. I've tried to go before and I just can't." "But you met me in her office," I pointed out. "Oh, I can go, but everything freezes, and she doesn't know I'm there. It's always like that. I thought it might be different with you there, but it wasn't, and it hurts unless you are there." She looked sad. I reached out and put my hand on hers, "That's okay. We'll just think of something else. Can you think of something that might help? Something maybe from when she was a little girl? From before you got sick that only you would know; something that happened or someplace you went, maybe something about her?" Her hands went to her mouth and she blushed and giggled for a second. "You thought of something already didn't you?" "Yeah." She smiled shyly and blushed. "What?" I asked in a playful tone. "Is it something about Rebecca?" "Uh-huh! I know who the first boy she kissed was," She whispered. I let me eyes get big, "Were you spying on your big sister?" She giggled and smiled and shook her head. "Amy! Shame on you! You are a bad, bad girl! She giggled some more. "Yep!" I grinned back at her and whispered, "Who was it?" She put her hands to my ears like we were telling secrets on a playground and whispered, "Robby Johnson!" I jumped out of my chair, "Robby Johnson!" I shouted. This caused her to burst out laughing. "Uh-huh! They were up in the tree house but I saw them from my bedroom!" "Well, I never!" I feigned shock, putting my hand to my cheek and staring at her in disbelief. She giggled some more. Suddenly I stood up straight and looked at her very sternly. "Amy Lynn Hampton, you little sneak! You know what happens to sneaks don't you?" I crouched down and started coming towards her. "We feeds 'em to the fishes! That's what!" I lunged for her and missed as she shrieked and went running off across the beach laughing hysterically. "Come back here!" I yelled then went lumbering after her like a troll. She just squealed more and tried to get away! I caught her in just a few steps and grabbed her with my huge misshapen hands. That got my attention. I froze for a second and she got away. I zapped up a mirror and looked at myself. I was a troll; long matted hair, beady eyes, protruding forehead, and big tusk-like teeth jutting up from the corners of my mouth on both sides. I was hunchbacked and hairy right down to my oversized feet. I was dressed in a Tarzan-like animal hide held up by a strap over one shoulder. I stood up as straight as a troll can and admired myself for a second. Amy stood a little to one side and just waited. I gave her a wink and said, "Handsome devil, don't you think?" She just giggled and pointed at me. I let out a loud roar of outrage, "What's so funny!" And the chase was on again. As before I caught her quickly and swung her up over my shoulder. I laughed triumphantly and headed for the water, bouncing her lightly with each step. When I was in about waist deep I picked her up over my head, then swung her down in a long arc and started to toss her out into the water. At the last second I pulled her back and yelled, "ONE!" I swung her forward again, "TWO!" Then finally, "THREE!" and I flung her out into the waves. She was holding her nose as she flew through the air. I guess troll strength came along with troll ugly because she must have flown a good twenty feet before splashing into the water. She came up a second later and screamed, "Do it again!!" "Again!" I shouted. "Why you little..." and I started stalking towards her. She came right at me and as soon as I got close enough she grabbed me around the neck and pulled herself up. I swung her up and around only this time I held on and started tickling her! She squirmed and squealed, "No! Don't tickle!" I kept it up for a few seconds and then swung her into another circle, "Ready or not... one... two... three!" Up and out she went. In seconds she was back again. We kept it up for a while longer then I knew it was time to move on. I picked her up and cradled her in my over-sized arms and carried her back to the beach. As I stepped back onto the sand she suddenly got heavy as I returned to my normal self. I set her down on her feet. "Did you have fun?" "Oh yes! It was the best. Do you have to go again?" "Yeah, I think so. I have a lot to do. Is there anything else that you can think of that might help your sister to believe me?" "Yes! When I was 7, we were all playing hide and seek. I hid in the basement and fell asleep. Everyone thought I was lost or hurt or something. They looked and looked and then when I woke up and just walked outside they all were really happy. My daddy picked me up and hugged me and cried. I didn't know I had been asleep that long. I didn't understand what the big deal was." "I'm sure they were all very worried about you. I know I would have been. Is there anything else?" She blushed and held her hands to my ear again and whispered some more. I listened carefully then pulled back. That little detail should be convincing if all else failed. Time to change the subject, "Amy, what's the last thing you remember?" She thought for a minute. "We were coming out of church, I had on my white dress and I saw this puppy in the street and I was afraid he would get hurt so I ran out to get him. After that I was, you know. Jimmy, do you know how long I've been sick?" "No, sweetie, I don't." "That's okay. Can we play some more later?" "Maybe not tonight but I would love to play with you some more. Now it's time for us to go. Are you ready?" I took her hand and we walked towards the door. She stopped me just before we got there. "Is he nice?" "Is who nice?" I asked. "Paul, silly?" "Oh Paul! I guess so? I don't really know him. Why do you ask?" "I don't know, just wondering." I let her go through the door first and then followed. I wasn't really paying attention and I stepped directly into Rebecca's bedroom. Not where I expected to find myself but then I hadn't really been thinking of anywhere specific just that I needed to get on with it. I looked down at my swimsuit and decided I had better change. The image blurred and shifted and suddenly I was Paul again. I materialized a chair next to the bed and sat down. I leaned in close and whispered, "Miss Hampton." Her eyes fluttered and opened, "Paul? What are you..." Suddenly she shot up in bed and reached under her pillow. Then she grabbed it and threw it aside. There on the sheet was a note that read 'CHILL! IT'S JUST A DREAM!" She stopped and stared at the note and then looked at me. I sat quietly throughout the whole process. "I'm sorry. It can take a little while to get used to. It was hard for me at first too. I'm sorry about the scene. I wasn't paying attention and just sort of ended up here by accident. Would you like to be somewhere else?" "What do you mean? Never mind. How do I know this is really a dream?" "Well it must be or things like this..." I suddenly shifted the scene to the beach I had just left from playing with Amy. You could see the footprints in the sand where we had walked and ran and played. "... wouldn't happen." To say the least she was stunned. I was still 'Paul', but I was now in a bathing suit and tank top. Two glasses of lemonade sat on the table. She was still in the long t-shirt she had worn to bed. "We have iced tea if you're not a lemonade fan." I pulled a pitcher out from under the table. She looked to see where it had come from. No depression in the sand, no wet circle of condensation. "This really is a dream, isn't it?" "Yes, ma'am, it is. Would you like to change clothes? You can just change them but it takes a little practice so if you would rather, you can use the..." I pointed to a closet sized changing tent behind her. "I don't need it?" "Not really, but it takes a little practice and most people's normal mindset is that you have to take clothes off before you can put new ones on, and well, I don't know if you really know me quite well enough to be willing to risk it." She blushed. "I didn't know FBI agents blushed," I teased. "I didn't either." She got up and walked to the tent. Inside she found a variety of outfits from her own closet; and her gun, in its shoulder holster. Hey, I wasn't worried but I thought she might be a little more confident. She came back out in a black one-piece speedo and a beach robe carrying the holstered weapon. "I was a little surprised to find this. Not that I'm not surprised by the whole thing, but why give me this?" "Because I thought it might make you more comfortable and I'm not worried about you having it. This is a dream. It started as yours but now I am in control of it." I stood and walked over to the tent and pulled a large portable target stand out from behind it. I walked about twenty feet away and set the target down, then walked about ten feet to one side. "Shoot as many shots as you want into the target and then, whenever you are ready, shoot me." "Shoot you?" "Yes, ma'am. I need to convince you that this is real, or rather not real, that it's a dream. I need to gain your trust. You're a trained investigator and naturally suspicious, so anything that I say or do will be questionable. If you fire at the target and see that the gun and bullets are real that is one thing. If I told you to shoot the target once, or five times and then shoot me, you would think it was set up. If I told you to just shoot me, same thing. By making it random and within your control, well, you may still question it, but it's a start. So, whenever you're ready." She pulled the automatic from the holster, popped out the clip, checked it, loaded one into the chamber and aimed the gun directly at me. She held for a couple of seconds then lowered the weapon, popped out the magazine, cleared the round in the chamber, loaded it back into the magazine then set both on the table. "I don't shoot innocent people. So far you haven't done anything to convince me you deserve shooting... yet. I need answers. Let's start with where the hell are we?" "Nowhere in particular, it's an island I dreamed up to meet someone." "Who?" "Your sister, Amy." "Not possible. I don't know how you know about my sister but you need to do more homework. Amy has been in a coma for over twelve years." I felt my mouth drop open, "That long? That poor girl," I said, genuinely saddened, "She's missed so much of her life." I shook my head. "I know this is hard to believe, but I really have met your sister here, twice. The last time was just before I showed up in your room." I pointed around the beach, "See these footprints? Those are from us just walking and talking." I pointed to another set, "Those, are from me chasing her around the beach. That set over there was from me leaving after the first visit." The first two sets had obviously been created by different sized feet. The last was just a single set of prints that went to an empty stretch of beach and disappeared. She looked around for a second. "What about those?" She pointed to the larger prints scattered around and leading to the water. I smiled. "We were playing. I turned into a troll and chased her around and then took her out and tossed her in the water for a while." "You turned into a troll?" Hey, she's a grown up and this is all new, give her a break. "Yeah, kind of like this." Suddenly I was a troll again. I took a couple of steps so she could see the prints for herself, "Do you believe me now or do I need to throw you in the water too?" "I still don't believe any of this, and before you try to throw me in the water, try to remember that I'm a trained agent and can kill you about ten different ways with my bare hands." I stood up as straight as a troll can. "Well there is that," I said thoughtfully, then I slouched back down and started towards her, "but you've never fought a troll before either." I shuffled towards her and she suddenly got very serious, "Don't do it! I'm warning you." I got a little closer and a foot shot out towards my stomach. I let it hit. She backed up a little further and the next shot came at my head. I ducked and she ran for the table. I followed and was only a few feet away when she grabbed up the gun, jammed the clip into it, and chambered a round. "Back off!" I stopped of a second, looked her in the eye and said, "No." Then I grabbed for her. She pulled the trigger and a little stick shot out of the barrel and unfurled with the word "BANG" on it. Her eyes got huge. I grabbed her hand, gun and all, and yanked her towards me. She screamed and kicked at me. Still holding the hand, I grabbed her by one thigh and swung her around and over my head, then stomped off towards the water. Just like with her sister, I took one big swing and swung her towards the waves, then into a spin, "ONE", another circle, "TWO", I thought I heard a giggle, "THREE", and I heaved with all my might. Trolls are apparently stronger than I thought, she flew even further than her sister had, flailing her arms and legs and then splashed into the water. Somewhere along the way she dropped the gun and it disappeared before it hit the water. A second later she bounced back up out of the water, laughing, "Do it again!" she yelled and swam towards me. I put back my head and roared with laughter. Somewhere in the middle of the laugh I changed back to myself. Not Paul, me. She stopped short and looked at me. Suddenly I realized what she was looking at and stopped. "Is that what you really look like?" she asked walking towards me. I thought about lying for a second, "Yes." "How old are you, Jimmy?" "Fifteen." She nodded her head, "That explains a couple of things. I'm guessing that pretty much rules you out as a suspect in the death of an eighteen-year-old girl who died three years ago. Even if you could have gotten up to Santa Clara there is not much chance that you could have over-powered a girl in that kind of shape when you were twelve. I don't know if you could do it now." "Why would I want to? Why would anyone want to?" "Oh, that's a question I wish I could answer. Let's go sit down. I think we need to have a long talk. Did you really do that with Amy?" "Yeah," I said, smiling. "We had a lot of fun. I like playing with her. I kind of figured she didn't get to play much." "Well, thanks for taking the time. You said you were talking about me?" By now we were back to the seats. She looked around, "No towels?" "Oh sure, if you want one." I reached under the table again and pulled out a large fluffy one. I handed it to her and she began drying herself off. "I prefer to do it this way." Suddenly I was totally dry, my hair combed, and back in my tank top. "How do you do that?" "It just takes practice. Nothing here is real, Rebecca. Oh, sorry. It's a dream, Miss Hampton. It takes a little practice but eventually you find you can do all sorts of things." "So all I have to do is think about being dry and I will be?" "Pretty much." She closed her eyes and suddenly she was dry. Her hair was dry and falling naturally. Her suit however was still wet and therefore a little cold on her now dry skin. I couldn't help noticing the effect this had on her nipples. Hey, I'm fifteen, what do you expect? I smiled. "Like I said, it takes a little practice." I dried her and materialized another robe on her. "Yeah, I guess so. So what exactly were you and Amy talking about?" "You, I wanted to know some things that no one else might know about you, something that I could use to try and convince you that I was telling the truth." "And what did she tell you?" "Oh, let's see. That when she was seven she fell asleep in the basement playing hide and seek and scared the heck out of the whole family. She said your father cried when she finally came out." "Okay. Not common knowledge but not impossible to find out if you have access to the right people and ask the right questions, anything else?" I blushed a little. "You have a birthmark on your right buttocks, Amy has one too, both are sort of in the shape of a smiley face only yours has ears and looks like it's frowning." She blushed back. "Okay, better. But that would show up on medical records." "Yeah, but that wouldn't explain how I knew she had one too, or how they differed. How about this, your first kiss was Robby Johnson in the tree house in your back yard." "How did she know about that?" "Ah ha!" I said. "Actually, she saw you from her bedroom window. I teased her for spying and that's when I started chasing her around the beach. By the way, her first words when I threw her in the water were the same as yours. Do it again!" I said with a smile. She smiled back. "I'm not surprised. God, no one has done that to me since I was a little girl. My dad used to do it when we were both little. Okay, I'm convinced, mostly. So how long have you been seeing my little sister?" "Not long actually. Today was the third time. The first time was in your office, and before you ask no, you would not have seen her. I'm not sure whose dream it was. It might even have been yours. She can move around on her own to some degree. If she does it too much she says it hurts, so she doesn't do it a lot. It's much easier if she is with me, in one of my dreams, then she says there is no pain at all. And no, I don't know why, but if she tries to come to you, it's like time stops. Everything freezes, so you can't see her. That's when she told me what was going on... Let me go back. I have only known that I can do this for a short time. Apparently I have been doing it for a long time but just didn't know it. At first it was limited to just one person, my sister. She realized what was happening but didn't say anything. Then I 'bridged' into her best friend's dream and the next day she told my sister about the dream. Apparently her friend had a crush on me and that's what drew me to her dream. Well, as soon as she told Allison. Oops, I wasn't going to tell you that. Anyway as soon as Allison heard about her 'dream' she realized what had happened and confronted me and we started experimenting to try to figure out what was happening. "Then one night, on the way to visit Allison I found myself on an empty street. The only other person around was you. The scene was frozen and you were waiting for a bus. When the scene started up I followed you onto the bus only instead of being in a bus, I was in a bank. There were three men with guns. The security guard was dead and they were about to kill another guy when you told them you could get them into the vault. You convinced the leader to take you into a back office where you took him out and then came out and took out the other two. That's where I got Mr. Rodriquez's cell phone number. I watched you dial it on the guy's cell phone. Anyway, you racked one guy and shot the second one. When I tried to follow you out I was back with my sister in this glade she dreamed up. The next night I was in a balcony watching your wedding." I stopped for minute and looked away. "Then I saw you when your husband was killed. I'm sorry for your loss." "Thank you. It's all right though. I've dealt with it. Go on." "Well the next time was in your office. That time, Amy showed up. She told me that she had been showing me the images of you because I needed to meet you so you could help me stop "the bad man." She said that I would need your help, and that you would want to do it on your own but that I shouldn't let you." "Why not? It's what I do. It's my job." I looked at her hard in the eyes for a second, "Because if you did try to do it yourself you would die." I watched her face as that sank in. "She can't know that." "Maybe not, but then I can't do any of this either. She couldn't know about any of this; she's in a coma, remember? Before you throw that away, she also said that if you died then she would not get better. She said she can't get better without you." I could see moisture forming in her eyes. She looked away for a second then turned back. "So she's the one that told you about the McKenzie girl?" "Not directly. She doesn't know the details. Thank God she doesn't know the details. All that she knew is that there is a 'bad man' out there that is going to hurt girls. That's girls, plural. When I asked her if she could tell me more, she said she didn't know anything else, but that maybe she could show me. I don't know how she does what she does, heck I don't even know how I do what I do, but later I found myself in a little theater watching a series of images flash by. I saw several images that must have been him stalking her, and then she was bound and gagged on a bed. Then," I looked away, but it didn't matter, the images were running again and the tears were on the way, "he... hurt her. And then he killed her." "I haven't seen all of the reports yet. How did he kill her?" I wiped the moisture from my own eyes and turned back, "Killing her was the nicest thing he did to her. He injected her with something and she passed out. Then he taped a plastic bag over her head and she eventually died from lack of oxygen. No more struggle, no more pain, she died in her sleep." "How did you get her name?" "Somewhere in the sequence there was a folder with a name on it. A friend helped me read the name." "A friend?" "Yeah, actually he's my psychotherapist, and I know what you are thinking but let me explain. I needed someone to talk to but I was afraid to tell anyone. I met a man whom I thought I might be able to trust. I gave him some of it, but he could tell that I was holding back and asked why. When I said I couldn't tell him, that I was afraid of what could happen if anyone knew, he volunteered to take me as a patient so that everything I told him was protected by doctor-patient confidentiality. I agreed and now I'm officially his patient. Once I told him about what was happening, not the murder, but my jumping in and out of people's dreams, he understood why I was reluctant to talk about it. Do you understand?" "Oh yeah, big time. You probably figured out that you might like to live your life someplace besides in a laboratory cage." "Actually Allison figured it out. Anyway, he had me do a relaxation-slash-visualization exercise that allowed me to read the name on the folder." "Was there anything in the folder?" "Yeah, we thought of that too. When I opened it it was empty. I guess because I couldn't see into it in the original flash I couldn't see into it then either. Anyway, that's where I got the name. I got the description from the earlier images. The rest you know. So what do we do now?" "We" she said, "don't do anything. You are going to let me do my job and stay as far away from all this as possible." "No," I shot back angrily, "I'm not. I promised Amy I would not let you do this by yourself. I promised her that I would try to help. I saw what that bastard did! Worse, I felt it. Not the acts themselves but his emotions when he did those things. It made me so sick I wanted to hurl. I ran myself sick trying to run away from the memory of it. I'm going to help you whether you want my help or not. Let's face it," I waved around the scene, "there's not a thing you can do to stop me here." "No, probably not, but I can stop you out there in the real world." "How, you don't even know who I am, much less where I am." "True, but now that I know about you, what you look like, the name of your sister, your age, I have the entire resources of the FBI to find you, and if you don't leave it alone I will expose you." "Miss Hampton, do you play poker?" I asked with a smile. "A little, why?" "I'm guessing you lose a lot. You may be a good actress in the line of duty but you don't bluff worth a darn. You won't do that and I'll tell you why." I ticked off the points on my fingers. "First, no one will believe you if you try. Second, if I thought you were the kind of person that would, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Third, this is a dream and I am lord and master here. If I want you to, you will forget every word we have said. But most importantly, you won't take the chance that Amy is right and that you may be killed. Not because you are afraid of dying. You would die in the line of duty, to protect others, to stop a maniac like this, without a second thought, but you won't risk that she is right that she won't get better without you." "Damn you!" she said angrily. "No, Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, damn the bastard that put us in this position; the guy who tortured and killed an innocent girl, then got away with it and according to your sister, remember she said 'girls' not 'girl, ' he's going to do it again. Damn him. I want him stopped as much as you do, but neither of us can do it alone. So let's skip all this and figure out how on earth we are going to work together without me getting caught. I can't drive to the middle of nowhere every time I need to give you information and you can't just pull it out of thin air. Have you told anyone else about any of this?" "I gave the name to Paul, you know Paul? Okay, dumb question or you wouldn't have looked like him when you showed up." I nodded and she went on. "Paul did the legwork. I talked to Rod about the first dream. He thinks it's all a load of crap, that you are the 'bad man' and that you are stalking me and playing with me. That you pulled some kind of 'Mission Impossible' trip on me to convince me that I saw you in a dream." "Let him keep thinking all of that. Can you come up with a way for me to contact you without it being traced?" "Not through normal channels but I know a guy that may be able to come up with something. I suspect Paul could do it but I'm don't know if I trust him to make it totally un-traceable. Then what?" "Then you do your job," I told her. "You try to find him and stop him. I'll give you whatever information I can come up with. So far all I've seen were flashes of memory. If I can get more I may be able to track him in here. If I can do that then maybe I can lead you to him. If not... then maybe I can try to stop him another way." "What do you mean?" "People die in dreams, Agent Hampton. If it's the only way to stop him... I'll try to kill him in his sleep." "Jimmy, that's murder. No one could possible prove it but its murder none the less. No different from what he did. I can't let you do that, Jimmy." "How would you stop me?" She looked at me hard. "Don't make me find a way, Jimmy. But that's not going to happen because we're going to catch this bastard. You're right; I won't expose you, I won't take the chance with Amy. Shit, how am I going to see her with all this going on?" "I wouldn't worry about that. Not yet anyway. Unless something else turns up we aren't really going to be that busy." "Unfortunately you're right. I get the rest of the information that is available this week. I have some people I can interview. Assuming I can convince my office to let me pursue it. Maybe I can find a place to start. So what do we do now?" "Well, as far as I can see. You go back to bed and then you wake up and decide whether or not all of this is real. You have to decide for yourself whether this is all just an elaborate fantasy that you're mind has made up or if I am really here, in your dream, talking to you. Of course, if it's all a fantasy then you have to come up with a different reason for how you know about Diane McKenzie and are suddenly interested in her death. "Once you get past that part we can start the real work. Then you try to find an untraceable way for me to contact you so everyone else will assume that you are playing cat and mouse with the bad guy and not look for me. If I come up with any more information I will get it to you. Either 'here, '" I waved my hand around to indicate the dream world, "or 'there' depending on how critical it is. I prefer here because there is zero chance of discovery, but whatever I come up with has to appear to come from a real source. You can't just be pulling leads out of your dreams or you'll be doing your investigation from a rubber room. One thought, though." "What's that?" "You can test Paul. Have him come up with the 'un-traceable' way to communicate, then take it to your other source and have them check it out to be sure. You get what you need and you find out how far you can trust him. Even if he puts something 'extra' in there, it doesn't mean you can't trust him. In fact it may mean that you can. Chances are he's just trying to watch out for you. I don't know much about him but he seems like the type. Either way you need to know. If he does throw something else in, confront him with it and verify his motives. That will let him know that you know what he did and that while you appreciate the thought, you need to know you can trust him to do exactly what you tell him to do. If he has doubts, he should bring them up to you, not try to get around behind your back." "You sure you're only fifteen? I know trained agents who couldn't pull a string of deductions out like that." "It's become a necessity. I can't afford to screw up and I've had to learn fast. Fortunately I have some really smart people helping me. Allison makes me look like a complete idiot. She says I'm getting better though." "Sounds like a smart girl. Good thing she's on your side." "Our side now, I'll talk to you again soon." I didn't bother with the door. Just let the scene fade. ------- Chapter 29: Second Interlude I let the scene fade back in, without Rebecca this time. Then I sat back for a second and sort of "invited" Allison to join me. Soon she came out of the little cabana that I had set up for Rebecca to change in. "Wow! This is nice. Is this where you met Amy?" "Uh-huh. I brought Rebecca here to talk too. I told her everything. I also let some stuff slip that I hadn't planned to." "Like what?" "Like your name and my face." "But not your name?" "That part was easy, she was already calling me Jimmy so at least I didn't screw that up. You think it will be a problem?" "I doubt it. What about you? Do you trust her?" "Yeah, I do. Enough that I am not worried about her causing problems for us. I think it actually made me more believable. Once she saw that I was really just a kid I think she immediately crossed me off the list of suspects." "How did it happen?" "I got carried away, I was telling her about playing on the beach with Amy, how I turned into a troll and throwing her around in the water. She didn't believe it so I changed and did it to her. When she came up she said the exact same thing Amy had, 'Do it again!' I laughed so hard I lost control." "I am inclined to trust her on this. Actually, not her so much as I trust Amy bringing you to her. I know it's weird but I just have this sense that we can trust Amy. Does that make sense?" "Actually it does. I feel the same way. Do you really like it here?" "Very nice, you're definitely getting better. How's the water?" I got a really big grin on my face, "Only one way to find out." Suddenly I was in troll form again and stalking toward her. "Jimmy! Don't you dare," she warned. I leapt at her and suddenly she was gone and I found myself falling into a deep pit. I was startled but recovered quickly. I made a trampoline at the bottom and sprang back up out of the hole. I closed it behind me as I bounced out and looked for Allison. There she was, sitting in one of the chairs with a very smug look on her face. I started toward her. She disappeared again. "Uh-uh-uh," I heard from behind me. I turned to find myself staring at a giant. She reached and picked me up then stepped toward the water. I tied the laces on her brand new tennis shoes together and flew away when she fell and her hand opened. I had shrunk to fairy size and was flitting around watching her as she fell. She disappeared in a flash of light as she hit the sand. From out of nowhere a butterfly net swooped in and I was caught. I looked up and there was Allison in a very fetching Captain Hook outfit. "Gotcha, me fine little flitter-bug! Now we'll have no more of your tricks or it's the plank for ye." I teleported behind her and changed into my Peter Pan outfit. "I don't take orders from codfish," I said and poked her in the butt with my cattle prod. With a very satisfying "EEEK!" she jumped around and I knew I was in for it. Ever see the movie "Fire Starter"? Or better yet, read the book? There is a scene at the end where Charlie finds out that she has been played by the bad guy and gets really, really pissed off. Mr. King describes it as something like discovering how a steak feels in a microwave oven. The look on Allison's face was all it took. I did the only thing I could do. I surrendered. I switched back to my bathing suit and dropped to my knees. "I'm sorry! Allison, I got carried away, heat of the moment, temporary insanity. Call it what you will. I'm sorry. That was a cheap shot. I didn't mean to hurt you." She stopped and looked at me like I was insane. "Jimmy, what the heck are you talking about? Hurt me? This is a dream. That was supposed to be practice, quick thinking, improvisation, tactics, control, that sort of thing. You didn't hurt me you big dope. I think you're getting better, too. That last shot did sting a little though. Here, tell me if it left a mark." She switched to her floss and fluff outfit and turned to show off her cute little behind. I gave her a very thorough inspection before we called it a night. ------- Chapter 30: I'm a Believer Rebecca I woke up in bed suddenly, hesitated for a second then reached under my pillow. My gun was still there. I didn't bother to look for a chair. This had to be the most bizarre series of events in history. "Jimmy" was real. Had I meant what I'd said, would I really work to keep him safely anonymous? Yes, unless he made me do otherwise. Would I try to do this on my own? Not if there was a chance it would hurt Amy. "Jimmy" was right, she had missed too much of her life already. I wouldn't risk the rest of it. I looked at the clock and it was 5:00. In spite of feeling like I had been up all night, I felt awake and refreshed. I crawled out of bed and stretched. It was going to be a busy day. I got on my running clothes and headed out to wake myself up. Jimmy had said something about running himself sick. So he was a runner too. One more fact to help me if I ever had to hunt him down. <> If he wanted to hurt me he had certainly had the opportunity last night. Could he really kill someone in their dreams? I didn't ever want to find out. I kept it short, just a quick mile to wake myself up. I promised myself a long workout in the gym at the office. Have to find myself someone to beat up. Maybe it's time I checked Paul's credentials. If he was going to be working with me I needed to know he can handle himself. Arriving at the office just before 8:00, I checked my messages, email, and 'in' basket. The only thing was a note from Paul dated Friday night. "If I reach you by phone then ignore this, otherwise call.-P." No problem there. Morning brief was at 8:30. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed into the conference room. Rod was going over the morning sheets to get the latest status of ongoing investigations and handing out assignments. Updates were given on those agents not present as well so that everyone would be at least somewhat familiar with any situation that they may be called in to assist on. A general call up like that was something nobody wanted. It generally meant things had gone wrong and someone needed to be bailed out. That generally meant shooting and that was something nobody wanted. He finally got around to me just before the meeting ended. "You all know Special Agent Rebecca Hampton. I'm pleased to report that she is returned to field duty as of this morning. And for all you slackers who think driving a desk is some kind of a vacation, she already has a case she is looking into. We don't know yet where it's going to go but from what we do know, you better all pray to God it isn't as bad as it sounds. She will be in and out of the office. At her request I am assigning Paul Freeman to assist her with her investigation. Most of the time he will be available to perform his normal tech duties, but when she needs him she has priority over anything else he has going. Keep that in mind if you need to task him something. If it's critical you may want to task someone else rather than risk him getting pulled off your project. Let's get to work, boys and girls. Paul followed me to my office. "You requested me for this?" "You heard the man. Yeah, I did. So far you've impressed me. I think you're ready. Don't prove me wrong." "I'll do my best, ma'am. How was your weekend?" "Paul, we're going to be working together. It's Rebecca. My weekend was fine, thank you. Amy said hello. I told her to watch her step, that I thought she may have a new fan. Oh, Paul, you blush so pretty. My goodness, you've never even met her." "I've met her sister. If she can command that level of devotion out of you she must be special. Any thoughts on the McKenzie case?" "Nothing concrete, I don't want to jump to any conclusions until I've had a chance to read the rest of the reports and maybe do some interviews. Keep a bag packed, we may be heading up to the bay area." "Yes, ma'am. I've got some files and minor projects I need to clean up so I can concentrate on being at your beck and call." "That's the spirit. You can bring me up to speed on what you've looked at and we'll start on what you haven't. Any idea when the rest will arrive." "Got an e-mail confirming it shipped on Saturday, should be here no later than this afternoon. At 3:01 we don't have to pay for it." I laughed. "That may be the first break we've had." By noon we had been through everything we had and still nothing new was presenting itself. We knocked off for lunch. We went to a sandwich shop not far from the office, ordered to go and then walked to a small park area not far away; a green oasis in the desert of concrete and asphalt. "I need something special from you, Paul, a cell phone, un-traceable. Think you can do it?" "Sure, it's not really that hard. Am I allowed to ask what for?" "You're my partner; you're allowed to ask anything you want. Just remember the guidelines I gave you before. To answer your question, it's for my source on this case. He wants a way to contact me. Don't bother asking, I won't tell you anything about him at all, nothing. Understood?" "If you say so, I was wondering where you were getting all this from? I guess you already know that everyone else will assume that your 'source' is involved? Don't bother answering. You're too good an agent not to know that. So why give him what he wants?" "I'll take whatever information I can get on this, Paul, from wherever I can get it. I already talked to Rod about it, that's Director Rodriquez to you, and if he is involved then we take what he'll give us and hope he makes a mistake. How soon can you have it ready?" "Is tomorrow soon enough?" "Whenever you can have it ready will be fine." The box from San Francisco was waiting when we got back. It wasn't much help; we were drawing a lot of blanks fast. There wasn't much more than we had at first. But this batch did include photos from both before and after she died, plus all the forensic and pathology reports. I flipped through the autopsy report. Cause of death was oxygen deprivation. None of the signs indicated she had died violently. The bruises and other marks on her body were at least a day old. Drugs in her system indicated she had probably been unconscious before she was killed. One fresh puncture in her arm suggested how the drugs got there. Lab tests confirmed a higher concentration of the drugs around the mark. No mention was made of tape residue around the neck area. Other than that, it was exactly as 'Jimmy' had described. Considering the body had been cleaned, dressed, and makeup applied, that wasn't surprising. Even her nails had been done. To outward appearances she was perfect. But under that pretty dress were marks that told a completely different story. Paul brought me the cell phone the following morning. We spent the morning making phone calls to everyone we could think of except the parents. After lunch I headed across town to an out of the way electronics hobby shop that I know of. It wasn't a big chain store and it wasn't in the nicest area. But the elite of the communications and hardware geeks in the greater LA area frequented it. This time of day there wasn't much going on. Most of the serious players only came out at night. I knew the owner from previous visits. We had a mutual non-aggression pact. He kept me up to date on anyone new or suspicious making specialized purchases and I made sure official people left him alone. "Hello, Dillon." "My, my, my, if it isn't Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI? Where you been hidin', sweetie?" "Chained to a desk." "IA giving you the once over? Assholes, everyone knew that was clean shoot, Bex. Oh well, I guess we all gotta make our sacrifice to the great gods of procedure now and then, they cleared you though, right?" "I'm here." "Yeah there is that. So what can I do for you? Got something special you need off the books?" "Already got it, my new partner is a geek on the side. I asked; he produced. Now I need you to make sure he did what I told him and nothing else. You mind?" "Hell yes I mind! I'm a busy man. But for you? Show me what you got." I produced the phone and told him what it was supposed to do. He took it apart and went through it. Pulled the sim card and ran a check on it as well. After a short while he declared it free and clear. "Thanks, Dillon. You're the best. I'll see if I can't throw you some paying projects now that I'm back to work. Anything going on that I need to know about?" "Nah, it's been pretty quiet. Some punks came through last week, looked like they were casing the place. I made a call to one of my better customers and they haven't been back. Tell Rod I called him something nasty." "You bet. Holler if you need anything." Paul was waiting in my office when I got back. "So how did I do?" "That obvious?" "Not really, but I figured you would have it checked out. Make sure I didn't throw anything extra in. The thought did occur to me, briefly. I figured it would be pretty stupid to try something like that the very first time. Naturally I'm worried about you working with this guy but you're good at your job. If your contact is the bad guy, then he has got balls of steel to try and play with the Bureau. Anybody that confident is either really stupid or really, really smart. A CSI team couldn't have left that crime scene any cleaner. The complete lack of evidence says that whoever did this is damn smart. And the first thing that he would do would be to check anything we give him. As far as that goes, he could probably build his own. Asking you to get it is an ego stroke, he'll be preening at how easy it is to make you hop when he says to, gives him a feeling of control. Either that or he really isn't the guy." "I knew there was a reason I wanted you for this, Paul. Damn good bit of deduction. I personally don't think he's involved, but pretty much everyone else including Rod will think so. I want to keep it that way, so this is between you and me. Okay?" "It's your case, Rebecca. As long as I don't feel you are compromising your safety anything you tell me will be between us. I'll tell you up front if I think you are taking un-warranted risk. If you can't justify it and convince me it's necessary I'll start to worry. If I get worried I'll do whatever I have to do. If that's going to be problem tell me now. I appreciate the opportunity but I'm not going to face your sister some day and tell her I let you get yourself killed being stupid." I couldn't help but smile. "Okay, I guess we both know where we stand. And on that happy note, let's hope my source can come up with something else, because as of right now we have exactly Jack-shit to go on." ------- Chapter 31: Waiting The rest of the week was a non-event as far as my part of the case went. I made a conscious effort to just relax and let Rebecca do her job. Between school, cross country practice, working on PR ideas for Mr. Dennis and the goon squad, homework etcetera, I felt I had plenty on my plate to keep me busy. Not too mention keeping my two girlfriends happy. It all kept me pretty busy. In fact I wished I could find a few spare hours to do some research on a subject I really wanted to look into. Both Shannon and Allison had made it clear that at the earliest opportunity 'oral exams' were going to commence. Allison was showing clear signs of getting frustrated at the wait, but she had promised Shannon. The only reason that Allison and Shannon hadn't tried to move to the 'next lesson' as it were is that Shannon hadn't been able to come over when we could be alone. We were being very careful not to attract any attention. That meant that besides the odd afternoon we didn't have a lot of quality time alone to explore new territory. And I still didn't have a clue. Wednesday I finally got my chance. The girls had gone to Shannon's after school instead of coming to our house. I got home from Cross Country practice and had about thirty minutes to myself, so I fired up my computer and headed out onto the web. Surely there must be something out there. After all, that's were the girls said they found their information, but where to begin? No matter what I did I was going to get bombarded with porn sites, but how to narrow the search. Okay, there's a good place to start. Search, don't be random, be specific. I pulled up my browser of choice, I use Mozilla as it is easily customizable and has built in features the other major browser 'who shall remain nameless at this time' just couldn't offer. I cleared my cache, zeroed it out so it wouldn't store any pages, shut off all cookies, pop-ups, etc and headed over to 'Google'. The guys who came up with Google deserve every penny it has made them. I clicked for an advanced search and then entered 'how to eat pussy' in the field for an exact phrase search. I figured that would be specific enough to start with. I know the polite and correct term is something with a 'C' but I couldn't even pronounce it, much less spell it. Holy Crap! I got over 83,000 hits! Fortunately, out of the first 10 only two were to graphic porn sites. The descriptions on the others all actually seemed to be 'how to' articles. One caught my eye. Written by three women! Score! I copied the text into a document and then closed my browser and disconnected from the Internet. I manually cleared both the cache and the history records of the search. Then I re-opened my stored document to see what I had. Women have been called many things, most of them hinting at soft, sweet, gentile, and such. There was no hint of that in this article. Talk about cutting to the chase! No soft sell here. Do this, don't do that. They had all but numbered the steps. I mean it was informative, but then, so was a phone book. They pretty much took any concept of romance out of the picture. They also seemed to take for granted that whoever was reading it had an awful lot of experience with women. Oh well, at least it was informative. I read it through twice just to give myself a general idea of what was what and where it was located and what to expect. Then I deleted the whole thing, re-started my computer and opened seven other documents to make sure the title didn't stay in record anywhere. I even cleared the 'recent' folder in Windows just in case. By now it was getting towards time for people to start showing up so I drug out my books to set up for handling my homework later and went out to set the table for dinner. Mom had picked up Allison on her way home so they arrived together. The discussion as they came out of the garage was the weekend activities at the coach's house. Apparently Shannon and Allison were broadening their horizons. "I can understand Shannon's interest dear; it's pretty obvious that she is going to be tall. You, on the other hand, I hate to be the one to break the news to you, sweetie, but there are no tall women on either side of the family going back several generations. I'm 5'6" and I'm the tallest. You will be lucky if you make it this far. I don't know that you have much of a future in basketball or volleyball." "Mom, you don't have to be 8 feet tall to play women's sports. Even men's basketball has short guys playing in the NBA. Look at Spud Web. Okay, I know. I'll never have his talent but that's not the point. And that's one more reason to try volleyball. Most of the 'setters' are short. And they are the key players! They are the ones who make the rest of it all possible. I know I'm never going to be a hitter. I don't need to be. Shannon and I are going to be a team. I set 'em up, and she knocks 'em down! So we want to give it a try. Anyway, coach wants you to call and give it your okay." "Why do we need to call? Miss Hewitt knows we support you in your sports. She's been your coach before now." "Mom, that's organized, public stuff, at the school, or at the rec center. This is private, at her home. She's gay and lives with her partner. They are both very insistent, everything has to be 100% open and approved or it doesn't happen. In fact, Jimmy," she said and turned to me, "Are you busy this weekend?" "Not really, what's up?" "Shannon and I are going to go over to Coach Hewitt's for some private instruction. We're trying out for volleyball and she and Miss Jenkins have agreed to help us get ready. But they will only do it if we have a chaperone. You know, the whole above suspicion, beyond reproach, appearance thing. So what do you say? Will you come along and protect them from us?" I had to laugh at that. Even Mom did. "Sure, sis, I'll come along and make sure you two behave yourselves and don't take advantage of those poor defenseless older women. If it's okay with Mom and Karen that is." Mom just rolled her eyes. "You two! I swear. It's fine with me and I am quite sure that Karen will be all for it. Who knows, a college scholarship? Maybe two..." "You think?" Now it was my turn. "As competitive as you two are? I think if you like it and can get the right coaching you have as good a chance as anyone. Maybe not a full scholarship, there's a lot of competition out there, girls who have been playing since they could walk, but I wouldn't write either of you off. And I think Mom is right, Shannon is going to be tall. In fact, I think I saw her future at my school." The both looked at me puzzled. "I don't get it," Allison finally said. "Angela Osborne. You remember me mentioning Tim Osborne, one of the guys on my team? His older sister, she's a senior, tall, beautiful, and some kind of an athlete. Bob had Tim and me run with her for evaluation the second day of try-outs. Cheetahs may run with that girl but not for very long. She is just plain awesome; totally blew us away. The only good thing about the whole experience was the view. If I have to run behind someone, she would be in my top ten. Ow!" I said as Allison hit me in the arm. "Anyway, she's trying out for the Olympic track team this summer. I took one look at her and the first thing that popped into my head was, 'That's Shannon in four years.'" "Wow," Mom said, "sounds like quite a girl." "Well, she's no Allison Matthews, but yeah, she's quite a girl." Mom rolled her eyes again and mimed gagging on her finger but it did get me a kiss from Allison. "Nice recovery. I think I'll forgive you." "All right you two. Don't start that now. Your father will be home any minute. How about tossing a salad for me, hot shot? Allison, you can 'set' some water on to boil and heat up the left over spaghetti sauce." "Very 'Pun-y, ' Mom." I groaned. Dinner was a fun event. We brought Dad up to speed on the weekend plans. He liked the idea of a possible scholarship in the future. It also gave him some other ideas. "Sounds like you kids have a full schedule and are going to be well supervised. Cynthia dearest, what would you say to a nice relaxing weekend in San Diego?" "You mean it? Don't you dare tease me, mister; I swear I'll make you regret it." "Tease? Moi? No, I'm very serious. I think the kids can handle a couple nights without us to watch over them. And it's been a while since we had the chance to get away by ourselves." Allison interrupted, "Uh, that sounds wonderful and I think it would be great for you to get away, but how will we get over to Miss Hewitt's?" My turn. "I'm sure Karen would drive. Shannon's going anyway. Heck, Coach Jenkins would probably pick us up if I asked her." "Okay, that settles it then," Dad said, gaveling the table with his hand. "I will expect you packed and ready to go by the time I get home. Any chance you can get off early?" "Never hurts to ask. But there's no point unless you are actually going to leave early. What are the odds of that happening?" "Oh, I think I could be persuaded to sneak out a little early. Make me an offer I can't refuse." Now it was Allison's turn to roll her eyes. "Jimmy, get the hose. I'll call and put the fire department on standby. Are you sure you wouldn't like us to spend the night at Shannon's?" Mom blushed and Dad just laughed. "Alright! Alright! We'll be good. Or at least I will try." He looked Mom in the eye. "I'll try really hard." She blushed harder. "Clear!" I yelled. Allison repeated it right behind me. "C'mon, sis, let's get this done. I feel the need for a long walk. I don't think I stretched enough after practice. Why don't you come along so I don't get lost?" "Good idea. I don't know if I can trust you out there by yourself, it will be dark in another 3 or 4 hours." With that we cleared the table, loaded the dishwasher, and headed for the door. There's a small strip mall not far from the house so we headed that way and picked up an ice cream at Baskin Robbins. From there it's a short walk to the park. We were talking about nothing in particular, just enjoying each other's company and our ice cream when I heard my name. "Matthews!" We turned around and two people were approaching. It was Tim and Angela Osborne. They were holding hands just as we were. I shifted my cone to my left hand to make introductions. I shook Tim's hand first. "Hey guys, great to see you. Allow me to introduce the most wonderful girl in the world; this is my sister, Allison." Tim actually kissed her hand as he said, "Very pleased to meet you." When it was her turn, Angela hugged her, "Yes, very nice to meet you. We owe you so much. Thank you." Allison just looked confused, "I can't imagine what for, but you're welcome." She looked at me questioningly. I glanced around to make sure we were relatively alone. "I recently had the opportunity to do for Tim and Angie what you did for me. It wasn't much, just pointing out the obvious." She took in the hands they were once again holding and their body language. Enlightenment dawned, "Ah, I see. But why would you be thanking me? I didn't do anything." I just rolled my eyes and laughed. "They are thanking you because if you hadn't opened my eyes, I would not have recognized what I was seeing in them and they would have continued missing a rare and wondrous thing, right?" They both blushed and Angela answered, "Too right. Jimmy opened up my eyes to my biggest fan." She gave his hand an extra squeeze, "And when I saw just how much this sweet young man loved me, I was surprised to realize that I loved him just as much. The really hard part was figuring out what to do about it. I spent several weeks just fumbling around trying to figure out what to do, trying to treat him better than I had, trying to show him how much I appreciated him. It's weird you know, I mean, I've had boyfriends before and never struggled with expressing myself, but with Tim it was like my first crush all over again." "And I had no idea what was going on," Tim said. "I couldn't figure out why all of a sudden she was being so different. I mean it was great but I didn't know what to do. I figured out it had all started the day we ran together, so I asked Jimmy what he had said to her. He gave me a verbal slapping around and told me that all he had done was point out the obvious to her. He suggested that maybe next time she hugged me I should hug her back. I did, and then she kissed me and I kissed back and then the world blew up and we sat down and talked until about 3:00 in the morning. And I discovered that I only thought I loved her before. Now... Words just can't cover it." By now Angela was blushing hard. "And now I finally met this wonderful guy that lived down the hall from me all those years and I'm discovering all sorts of things. Like that I had been wasting a lot of time on guys who just wanted my body and didn't care about anything else. Now, I finally have someone who loves me for me. Of course I'm hoping he loves my body too, but..." Tim lit up like, well like me shaking Susan's hand. "Angie! Geez! You know I've never... you know." Allison and I just laughed. Then Allison looked at Tim and said, "Jimmy and I hadn't either. We have had the privilege of being each other's first. It may be too late for that for Angie, but that doesn't mean it won't be just as special for you. Don't worry about it, Tim. You'll be fine." She looked at Angela. "Just don't hurt him too bad." "I'll try, but I'm getting desperate. The longer I have to wait the harder it's going to be to not just throw him down and fuck him to death." Tim was really blushing now. She hugged him to her side and rolled her eyes upward, "Please God! Let it be soon!" Allison and I just cracked up at Tim's embarrassment. Angela went on, "Seriously though? The biggest problem has been opportunity. I mean talking all night is one thing. Sex in the same house as your parents can be another issue altogether. If they caught us they would just freak out, and our mom doesn't work so one of them is always home. And I don't care how long it takes; my brother's first time is not going to be in the back seat of a car! Mine or anyone else's." Allison and I just looked at each other. Then I asked. "Do you guys live around here?" Tim answered, "No, we came here because it would be far enough from home that no one would recognize us. We just wanted someplace we could be together without attracting attention. Guess it wasn't far enough." "I don't think it's as big a deal as you think. It's not like you're going to be making out in public. And there's nothing wrong with a brother and sister walking in the park holding hands," Allison told them. She looked at me for a second before continuing, "Why don't you guys come over to our house this weekend? We can just hang out and talk and you won't have to feel awkward or conspicuous. Bring your swim suits, we have a pool." "Wow a pool!" Tim exclaimed. "That would be way cool? What do you think, sis?" "Sounds great to me? But what about your parents, won't they think it's odd?" Allison and I shared another knowing smile before I answered, "Don't worry about it. It won't be a problem. They're going to San Diego for the weekend. We just need to clear it with them to have you over. For now, it's getting a little late and I've got homework to do. If we could catch a ride with you, we can show you where we live." That settled that. We loaded into Angela's car and headed for the house. When we got to the house the porch light was on and the living room dark so we knew the 'rents had gone to bed early. "Looks like Mom and Dad went to bed already so we'll introduce you next time," Allison said as we got out and all shook hands again. "It was nice to meet both of you. I hope I'll be seeing you again this Saturday. Say around 6:00? We can have dinner and watch movies or something." As they drove away Allison said, "I see what you mean about Angela. She is really something. And now I understand what you meant about seeing that in Shannon's future. Too hot! I just hope she'll still be interested in a shrimp like me when she gets there." "I don't think you have anything to worry about." I took her hand and pulled her toward the door. "I've seen the way she looks at you. I recognize the look. Trust me. That's not a feeling that's going to fade. You won't love her any less for being tall and sexy, will you?" "I don't care how she turns out? She could stay just the way she is." She leaned her head on my shoulder as we went up the walk. "Tall and sexy works for me too though. There would just be that much more of her to love. I may need your help though. Can I count on you?" I opened the door and passed her through, then followed her into the living room. When the door was closed I placed my hand behind her neck and drew her to me. I bent and started kissing her gently at the base of the neck, slowly working my way up to her ear. I nibbled lightly and whispered, "Always," I moved to her mouth and brushed her lips lightly with mine. "Do you have homework?" "A little bit, shouldn't take long. You?" "Twenty-thirty minutes, tops. Think you can spend the night?" "Wouldn't dream of spending it anywhere else, see you in a little bit." She kissed me lightly on the cheek and we separated for now. An hour later we were curled together in my, well, our bed sound asleep. ------- Chapter 32: A Little Surprise I expected to find myself in the glade but found myself back walking through the park. I was disappointed when Allison didn't show up. Then I discovered why I was here. "Jimmy?" Uh-oh, I knew that voice. I turned and sure enough, there was Angela Osborn. A quick check confirmed that my ring was gone. I had bridged into yet another person's dream. But what kind of dream? After the mistakes I had made in Shannon's fantasy I was going to be very cautious. "Hey, Angie! How are you? Nothing wrong I hope? I don't see Tim. What brings you all the way out here by yourself?" "I'm fine. No problem. I came by hoping I would run into you actually. I wanted to talk to you." "Really? What about?" "About this," without hesitation, she walked right up, put her arms around my neck and kissed me. This was a little awkward for me as she is quite a bit taller than I am. I'd never kissed a girl taller than me before. She pulled back after a few seconds and said, "I wanted to thank you." It was pretty obvious where this was going. I put my hands on her hips and looked her in the eye. Okay, I looked up into her eyes. "You're welcome, Angela, but you already thanked me. What I did was no big deal? I merely pointed out what I saw. You and Tim did the rest." She kissed me gently again on the lips. I responded with equal pressure but no more. After a few seconds she gently parted her lips and I felt her tongue come out to gently seek mine. Again, I responded in kind. We played gently back and forth for a few seconds then I broke away and hugged her to me. "Angela, I appreciate this. Really I do. But it's not necessary. You don't owe me this." She kissed me again. "Shhhh, you're just as sweet as I imagined. No, I owe you all of this and more. A million dollars could not begin to repay what you have given me. Please?" It was becoming obvious that there was no way out of this without destroying her fantasy. "Then it's a good that you are worth so much more. But I think we should go someplace more private, don't you?" I shifted us back to the beach, only now I added one of those cabanas out on the water. We were inside and there was a huge four-poster bed made up with satin sheets already folded back and lots of pillows. She looked startled at the surroundings for a second. <> But then she smiled and reached to begin unbuttoning my shirt. She was becoming more urgent in her movements so I kicked off my sandals (another slight change I had made) as she tugged my shirt free of my pants. She undid the button on my jeans and began tugging the zipper down slowly. When she had it completely open she sank down to the floor and tugged them down and off. By now there was a pretty considerable bulge in my underwear. She stroked her hand over the front of my shorts and looked up at me with a smile. "Mmm, very nice." She pulled the waistband out and down and I sprang free only inches from her face. She quickly removed my underwear and then slowly slid her hands back up my thighs. She gently took my cock into her right hand and slowly slid it up and down the shaft. "Yes, very nice indeed," she murmured, as she opened her mouth and began to move forward. I pulled back and reached down to stop her. "Angela. Not that." She looked at me strangely and I knew I was pushing the limits here and had to be very careful. I gently pulled her up to stand before me. "It's not that I don't want it," I said, once more looking into her eyes, "but I've never done that before and I promised someone very special that they could be first, in all things. I hope you understand?" She smiled as she released my cock, stood, and once more put her arms around my neck. "Yes, Jimmy, I understand. It hadn't occurred to me. I have never done it either. One of my former boyfriends kept trying to push me into it, which kind of turned me off to the whole idea. But I was curious and just figured I could practice on you before I tried it on Tim." I shook my head and kissed her. "Then for that you can be each other's first and it will be that much more special for both of you. Now I would like to ask you a favor. Do you mind?" She pulled back and looked at me again. "What?" "Let me do it for you. It won't be your first time, will it?" She blushed and glanced away, then looked back with a smile. "No, it won't be the first time." I untied the belt on her beach wrap. She hadn't noticed that I had changed her clothes as well. The silky material fell away. She was naked under the light robe. I kissed her passionately and brought a hand up to cup one of her breasts. Her breasts were much larger than I expected. That really must have been an industrial sports bra she'd had on that first day. Her breasts were easily twice the size of Shannon's. I kissed the tip lightly and felt it harden. "What was her name?" She pulled back again. "Vicky. How did you know it was a girl?" I smiled and kissed her nipple again. "Because it's your dream, Angie, I'm just a figment of your imagination, so I know what you know." <> But she accepted the answer. The real reason was that she tasted completely different from Allison or Shannon, the only "tastes" I had experienced. The only explanation was her own past experience. I pressed her back lightly until she hit the side of the bed and had to sit down. She slid back and I followed. I lay down on top of her; one leg pressed between hers and kissed her hard and passionately. Again, she tasted different. Nice, but different. I kissed down her neck until once again I was in position to worship her magnificent breasts. Gravity had flattened them slightly and they bulged more to the sides but otherwise had stayed where they were. Not as hard as Allison or Shannon but still very firm. I caressed them with both hands before attacking one with my mouth. I kissed and licked and sucked the entire surface then slid gently to one side and began to do the same with the other. As I started lavishing my praise upon it I slid my hand down her stomach toward her sex. I could feel her stomach muscles flutter and her breathing began to sharpen as my fingers drew near. Though her bush was neatly trimmed into a single vertical stripe, it was still much denser than either of the others that I had experienced. I followed the same technique that Allison had taught me and her breath caught as I began to caress her most intimate parts. I had read in the article from the internet that pussies were as widely varied as the women they belonged to. I pulled back from her breast and moved down for a closer look. Hers was radically different from either of my girls'; her inner lips were much fuller and protruded past her labia. The flesh was darker and seemed to be engorged with blood. I stroked upward gently and they parted like a delicate flower opening to the sun, already glistening with moisture. No wonder she enjoyed running so much, she must get constant stimulation every time she moved. Angela began to press her hips upward as I did a couple of Allison's little figure eights around her most sensitive area. I bent and kissed her just below her navel and then trailed my tongue down and across to the juncture of her hip and pelvis. I was trying to remember everything the article had said as I began to lightly lick and kiss my way down towards her sex. She had a musky-sweet aroma that was really starting to make me light headed. Finally I was there. Her closely trimmed pubes tickled my nose as my tongue had reached the soft flesh between her labia and thigh. I pressed hard with my tongue and stroked up and down the full length of her crease being careful to stay away from her more delicate inner parts. She moaned and I felt her hand trail through my hair. I kept it up for a few minutes. Then, rather than repeat all the steps I just moved over and licked the same spot on the other side just as hard. Again she moaned and her breathing quickened a little more. The moment of truth, laying my tongue as flat as I could I ran it once up the full length of her sensitive flesh, her tender lips parted and I found my mouth seemingly drenched in a sweet, tangy wetness. I must have done something right because her back arched and her hips thrust up hard against my mouth. I could both see and feel the strain in her muscles. The tendons were standing out in sharp relief. I licked up past her clit and then back down to repeat the motion, coming up the next time on the other side. Again her hips flexed. She was already gasping for air and her other hand now joined the first on my head, pressing me gently but firmly into her. I tried to relax and let her guide me to where she wanted me. Apparently she wanted me to concentrate on her love button. I swirled my tongue around the area several times and her pressure became much more insistent. Her hands pressed me harder against her as her hips began to buck wildly. All I could do was keep trying to lick whatever was in reach. Suddenly it happened; her whole body seemed to go rigid and with one long strained exhalation her orgasm washed over her. Following one last instruction, I pulled free enough to ram my tongue as deep into her cavity as I could and licked hard upward toward her clit. She took another gasping breath and again seemed to have to exert all her strength just to breathe out. My jaw was beginning to tire but I kept licking deep into her and up across her clit until she finally began to relax. As she released the death-grip on my head I felt the strain in my neck and I began to shower her pussy with little fluttering butterfly kisses, then I worked my way back up her body. I kissed each of her breasts gently and then stopped to look down into her eyes. She seemed to take a second to focus but then she grabbed my head and pulled me down for a hot kiss. At first I hesitated, my face was practically dripping with her dampness. She obviously didn't care as she drove her tongue deep into my mouth. Kissing me hard she wrapped her arms and legs firmly around me and rolled us both over until she was on top. Then she broke the kiss and asked, "Where did you learn to do that?" I blushed and smiled up at her. "I read about it on the internet." "You read about it? You mean that was your first time?" I nodded. Apparently she was no longer noticing things that might have seemed abnormal or out of place in her dream. "But you still won't let me? No! Don't answer. You were right before. I want Tim to be first; there isn't much else left for him to be first at. But, since he can't be first at everything, I can still do this." She pushed herself up and reached between us to grip my cock firmly. I had not even noticed before how hard I was through the whole adventure. Suddenly it was foremost in my mind. She stood me up straight and placed me at her entrance then let go. There was just enough pressure to hold me upright. She looked down at me with a wicked gleam in her eye than slammed herself down on my cock and ground her self against the base. I thought I would die. Talk about an intense sensation. One second you are out in the soft cool air waiting in anticipation, the next you are buried deep in a hot, damp, wonderful place. She ground herself against me and I could feel her squeezing me with her inner muscles. I thought she was going to rip my dick off. God it felt good! Tim better watch himself; I don't think she was kidding when she said she was going to fuck him to death! Without hesitation she began bouncing up and down hard on my cock. Her rhythm and timing were perfect; she rose up just far enough to keep me firmly seated and then drove back down until I felt like I was going to poke through her back. The bed creaked loudly and shook with each impact. She seemed to be using the rebound of the springs to help propel her self. Firm as they were, her tits were bouncing up and down in time with the rest of her. I reached up and grabbed them and she immediately changed her motion. Her hands came up to cover mine and began using them to squeeze herself harder than I would have ever done on my own. She began taking shorter strokes up and down but moving forward and back at the same time. This caused a very different sensation. With each stroke she was now dragging her clit across the top of my cock and also grinding it between us when we came together. She also started getting very loud. "Oh God! Yes! Like that! Oh God! Mmmmm!" She bit her lip and started a humming sort of grunt with each stroke. I don't know how I had lasted this long. Probably because it was a dream and she was exerting more control subconsciously. But I was getting really, really close. "Angie? I'm going to..." "Yes! Oh yes! Come for me, Jimmy. Come inside me. Now! Do it now! Yes!" That was all it took and my insides melted and shot out the end of my cock. I felt like I could have launched her through the roof. She was coming hard herself, still crushing her breasts with my hands. It just seemed to go on and on. It was real easy to see why she and Tim didn't want to try sneaking into each other's rooms. When this girl goes off, the neighbors need a cigarette. I couldn't see their parents sleeping through it. Finally it was over and she collapsed on top of me. I slid my now free hands around her and hugged her tightly to me, feeling her large tits compress against my chest, luxuriating in the sensation of her tight pussy still lightly squeezing at my rapidly fading cock. I slid my hands down to caress that wondrous ass. "Thank you, Jimmy," she whispered. "Thank you for everything." "No, Angela, thank you. I told you before you had nothing to thank me for." "Oh but I did. And I will remember this always." I sighed and pushed her up to look once more at her face. I caught her eye and said, "No you won't, it was all just a dream and the details will quickly fade, but you will no longer feel that you owe me anything. You may still feel grateful but you will also know that I could never really take advantage of you this way." I kissed her lightly one last time. "Good night, Angela." And I was gone. ------- Chapter 33: Aftermath I awoke to find Allison leaning on one elbow looking intently at me. "Must have been some dream." I smiled dreamily at her, "What makes you say that?" She laughed and slid a hand down my stomach to rest on my crotch. "Well, this for one thing. You were up, you were down, you were up... The sounds you were making for another thing. Fortunately you weren't thrashing around that much. I thought about waking you up but decided it might be best not to interrupt whatever was going on. If I'm not there with you I never know when it might be something really important. So what happened?" "I bridged." "Really? Shannon again? That little minx! Just couldn't wait her turn, huh?" "Not Shannon. Angela Osborn." She pulled her hand off me and sat up straight. "What happened?" She must have caught my panicked expression because she went on, "Don't worry I'm not upset or jealous or anything, it was a dream, didn't really happen. This is research. Now give." I sat up and relayed the basics. I didn't feel the need to get into all the details, especially one in particular. That one I planned to share with her in another way at another time. I told her about finding myself in the park, then meeting Angela. What she had said about thanking me. I was a little worried at this point but I explained that after the mistake with Shannon I was not taking any chances with anyone's fantasies. "You did the right thing. The last thing we need is a rash of people having really bizarre dreams and fantasies running wild. If anyone ever put together the fact that you were a central player in them we would up the creek in short order. Do you really think she'll forget the whole thing?" "Pretty sure. We'll know for sure by the weekend either way, maybe sooner." "Why sooner?" "Angie's a pretty straight forward person. I think if this hadn't happened in a dream already, she would be pushing for it in reality. I think I may have just dodged a very real bullet." "How so?" "Like I said. This was something she felt she needed to do, right or wrong, good or bad; she felt that this was appropriate and acceptable. That's what generated the fantasy. I don't buy for a second that she is really that hot for my body. And while it would probably be every bit as wonderful in real life I don't think she could do it without regrets, and I know I couldn't. I just couldn't let her do something like that as a thank you. So I would have to say no, which would create an even bigger problem. No matter how her subconscious may feel about it, no girl is going to like getting 'no' for an answer when they offer a guy sex for any reason. A girl as hot as Angela, offering it to a skinny little freshman runt like me? Unlikely. Getting turned down? Not going to go over well. So she would be angry at being rejected. She would also feel stupid for offering in the first place, making her even angrier. So the only alternative would be to go along with it, and I would feel wrong about that. Not to mention that I don't think I could ever face Tim after having taken advantage of his sister that way. That's one reason dreams are such an important outlet for so many things. No guilt." "Okay then. We're agreed. You did the right thing." She slid back down under the covers. "And you've learned some things. Like the need to be more careful when you find yourself in a stranger's fantasies. Your control is obviously improving. The whole cabana over the water sounds really romantic. Would you take me there some time?" she asked, snuggling up close and kissing my shoulder. "Anywhere, anytime for you, Allison, I'm so lucky, and grateful, to have you here to help me with all this stuff." "Just one thing." "What's that?" "Change the sheets first." I had to pull my pillow over my head and laugh. Then we snuggled back up and went back to sleep. I woke just before the alarm as usual and, for a change, managed to slide out of bed without waking Allison, picking up my running clothes and sneaking off to the bathroom. I left a note saying which track I was taking and what time I left and headed off. I passed my dad heading out just as I got back. I took a few minutes to stretch and realized I was feeling really good. I wasn't even breathing hard. Allison was just coming out of the bathroom as I came in. I kissed her in passing and headed into the shower. I had just popped the button for the shower when I felt a draft. I heard the door close and a second later Allison stepped into the shower with me. "You call that a good-morning kiss!" she said, grabbing me and hugging herself hard against my body. "You spend the night making mad passionate love to a sexy senior and suddenly I'm nobody, is that it?" I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. Then I noticed the look on her face. "You! Are going to give me a heart attack," I said sternly. "I thought you were serious for a second there." "Why? I told you last night it was okay. Don't doubt yourself, Jimmy, I don't." She gave me a squeeze, "Now, what about my kiss? "Coming right up!" We spent the next minute or so in serious lip lock. "Hmm. Not the only thing coming up either!" she said with a smile. "Don't make offers you don't have time to keep. Maybe if you're good we can do that after school. Right now we better get with it before Dad discovers we used all the hot water." We did manage to get through the shower without too much damage and caught up with Mom and Dad at breakfast. I gave Mom a kiss on the cheek as I sat down with my orange juice. Dad didn't say anything about the hot water. "Everyone sleep alright?" I asked. Dad just glanced up at me with a smirk; Mom actually blushed. Allison giggled. "I'd say that was a yes! Mom, you remember that girl, Angela, that Jimmy mentioned yesterday? We met her and her brother out walking last night. Jimmy's right; that's Shannon in four years. We invited them over for dinner and swimming Saturday night. Is that all right?" "Sure, honey. We trust you guys to not destroy the place while we're out, but no one else." "Not even Shannon?" Allison asked with some concern in her voice. "We thought it would be easier if she spent the night so we're all in one place. Plus it would give us a chance to talk about what we learned at coach's." "Okay, Shannon too, but that's it. Maybe she can keep you two out of trouble." "Thanks, Mom. We'll be good." "I am a little surprised though; I thought you two might like to have some time alone." "Well, we appreciate the thought on your part, but I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say we're both happy with the time we get to spend together." I just nodded my agreement. When I felt Allison's foot run up and down my leg, I almost choked on my juice. "I'll ask Miss Jenkins about a ride today. I'm pretty sure she'll be okay with it." "I called Karen last night," Mom answered. "She'll take you and pick you up if you can't find a ride." I caught up with Bob at break. He was sitting with Susan and Coach Jenkins. "Hi, everyone!" Handshakes were exchanged all around, we chatted for a few minutes, and then it was time to go. "Oh, Mr. Shelby, can I have a few minutes at lunch? I have some news to share with you." "Anything serious?" he asked. "These lovely ladies have agreed to have lunch with me. Perhaps you could join us?' "That would be great. Maybe we can talk about it before practice." Susan put her hand on mine. <> "How long do you need? I can pick up something from the snack bar for Bob and meet you out here. Would that be long enough?" I fought down the blush, and tried to forget about other things. Ever try not to think about something? Yah, didn't work. "Thank you, that should be plenty of time. Like I said, it's nothing serious, just a minor development." I stood carefully so as not to make my discomfort too obvious and shook everyone's hands again. Coach Jenkins looked like she was fighting hard not to break into giggles when she shook my hand. It was pretty obvious she had noticed my problem. I rolled my eyes and tried not to blush all over again and said, "I'm supposed to ask if you or Miss Hewitt could maybe pick the girls up and drop them back off at home this weekend. Mom and dad decided to go out of town. Mrs. Davis said she would if do it if it was a problem." "No problem at all. I'll call you before I come over. Lynn's got the number. See you at lunch." Classes were a blur and before I knew it, I was back at the table meeting with Bob. We didn't have a lot of time so we got right to it. "So what's up, Jimmy, something happen?" "Nothing serious, I bridged another person last night." "A new person, were you trying to do it or was it an accident?" "I guess accident is as good a word as any but I think it may be a little misleading. And I'm wondering if we need to be able to distinguish between 'bridging' and being drawn in. In this case, just like Shannon, I was drawn into someone else's fantasy about me." "Another girl has the hots for you? Damn, Jimmy! How do you do it?" "It's not like that really. She is a very nice girl and she is actually very much in love with someone else. But since I sort of introduced them she felt that she owed me big time and was dreaming about an interesting way to pay that debt. Is that clear enough without getting into details?" "Yeah, I would say I have a handle on what happened. Some girl was fantasizing about you and you showed up. I trust you didn't make a complete hash of it again this time." "Not a chance. No really obvious tricks or anything." "So what did you do? "Well, with certain limitations I let it play out. My thought was that rejecting such an overture in reality is bad enough, to do so in someone's own dream, beyond bad. I don't know that any such offer would be made in reality or not, but I didn't want to take the chance that shutting down the fantasy might actually lead to that happening. I would be seriously uncomfortable taking sex as a thank you. If the offer were made I would have to reject her, still not a good option. I'm not in love with her but I wouldn't want to lose her as a friend either. Not to mention doing that to her self esteem. If she went to the extreme of deciding she needed to 'prove' herself? Ugh! Too ugly for words, but the other alternative would be to go along with it. Then I would feel bad for taking advantage of her, and that's what it would be. So I let it run itself out, when it was over I tried to erase the bulk of the details but leave behind the certainty that the 'thank you' was not necessary, but that it had been accepted in the spirit that it had been intended. Basically I tried to leave the impression that while it may be okay to do in a dream I wouldn't be comfortable accepting such an offer in reality. So how do you think I did?" "You are really getting good at thinking this stuff through. I'm guessing you're looking for a report card here? A little how did I do, coach? Well, you did pretty well; but, I have to warn you, she may go the other way and decide that the dream was a successful 'test run.'" He suddenly had the original shark-tooth grin on his face. "I don't suppose it occurred to you that it might not be smart to be 'too-good' in the sack when you're trying to talk someone out of sex? If she woke up hot and sweaty from that dream and even vaguely remembers that it was you, then she may decide that she wants to see if the reality lives up to the dream." The shock must have been plainly written on my face, "Please tell me you are joking." "Afraid not, kid, I take it you treated her exactly as you would Allison or Shannon in similar circumstances, performance wise?" "Well, yeah, even in a dream I want a girl to have the best experience possible." He just shook his head and chuckled. "Well, it may still work out, but I think there's a good chance that you may have set yourself up. I'll be very surprised if she doesn't come looking for you." I dropped my head in my hands and groaned. "What am I going to say to Tim?" <> I jerked my head up. Apparently I had. Bob's jaw was on the table. "Angela Osborne?!" he exclaimed in an astonished whisper. "Holy shit, Jimmy!" Again he shook his head and laughed. I just wanted to crawl away and die. "You, my young friend, are amazing. I can't even begin to imagine what anyone could do to make Angela Osborne feel that indebted to them. Wait, you said she was very much in love with someone and you introduced them? I didn't even think Angie had a current boyfriend? Never mind, we're headed for personal issues that are none of my business. Nothing I need to know or care about. And while I know this has to be personally agonizing for you, it's hysterical from my outside perspective." He was still chuckling and I was still looking for a hole to crawl into when Susan and Coach Jenkins arrived. "What's wrong, Jimmy?" Susan asked in a concerned voice. I just held my arm out with my hand up to ward off the question and groaned again. Bob busted up. Susan was not amused. "Bob! What's so funny? What's wrong with Jimmy?" He dropped back to a chuckle and wiped at the tears forming around his eyes. <> "Jimmy may have become the victim of his own good intentions. By trying to avoid a mud-puddle, he may have stepped into a lake." "I don't get it? What are you talking about?" The two ladies sat down and started handing out food. Susan had brought me a milkshake. "Now, Susan, you know I can't talk about patients. But let me ask you a question, both of you. Okay, someone did something really nice for you. This is not someone that you are really interested in but you wouldn't kick them out of bed. But what they did for you was so wonderful, made such a huge difference in your life that you invite them over for a little naked thank you party. If this hypothetical person tried the old, "I love and respect you too much to take advantage of you that way" what would you do?" Susan blushed. Melinda threw her head back and roared with laughter. Then she looked over at me. "Oh no! Jimmy, you didn't?" I just groaned and rolled my eyes. "Oh my God, he did." Susan laughed. "Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy." Bob was howling again, and people were starting to stare at our table. From my face down position I said, "I didn't know!" By now they were all just about falling out of their chairs. Finally they started to settle down and Melinda put her hand on my arm. "Jimmy. I'm sorry. Let me give you one piece of advice that may help." I looked up with new hope and asked, "Really?" "Yes. Wear old clothes for the next week. Something that you can afford to lose, 'cause when she catches up with you there isn't going to be much left!" They all cracked up again! What was I going to say to Allison? ------- Chapter 34: Damage Control I watched Tim closely during practice but could see no sign that anything unusual may have come up. Then it hit me. Duh, like she would talk to him about it. Bob had us running a seven-mile course over varying terrain and while we made good time we were definitely feeling it by the time we finished. We chatted while we were stretching. "Talked to my parents this morning. They said it's okay for you and Angie to come over on Saturday. Everything okay on your end?" I asked. "Yeah, we'll be there. Can we bring anything?" "Just your suits. We're probably just going to do burgers and chips and stuff. We have some soda but if there is anything special you want to drink then bring that. Or if there is a special movie you want to watch, or I have a PS2, so if there is are any games you guys like, whatever. We're not big on planning." He grinned at me. "So, you think you can handle Angie in a bathing suit?" I grinned back and said, "Think you can?" "Come on, I grew up with her. I've seen it before." I had to laugh at that. "Dude, don't even tell me what you've seen before. This is a whole new ball game and you're not looking at her as "just your sister" any more than she is looking at you as "just her brother." As for me, I'll be fine; I've got Allison to distract me. This ought to be fun to watch." Allison was in her usual spot out by the pool doing her homework when I got home. Not wanting to repeat past mistakes I made sure she knew I was coming. And, to make a proper greeting before I started talking, I leaned over the back of her chair, shielding her from the sun with my body and kissed her. Upside down kisses are very different. I broke off after a few interesting seconds. "Well that was certainly different," I said. "Missed you, sunshine, how was your day?" "Okay I guess, for a school day," she said without looking up from the equation she was working on. "I thought I was going to have to hurt Shannon though." "Yeah, what's up with her?" "Bad case of the hornies. She can't wait for the weekend. I had to pinch her twice in PE. Like I said, I may have to hurt her." "Well, you may feel like hurting me too." That got her attention. She looked up. "Why? Did you do something?" "Not intentionally but, you remember what I told you about last night?" "Your little trip to Angela's? I told you, that's not an issue. Why do you keep bringing it up?" "Because I talked to Bob about it today. Nothing specific, just that I bridged and what the circumstances were, how I handled it and why. You know, just bringing him up to date on latest developments." "And?" "Well, he thinks I may not have been successful in defusing the situation. In fact, there is every indication that I may have made it worse." "How? I thought you did pretty well." "Yeah I thought so too. Apparently it's the usual problem guys have of not understanding women. Without naming names or anything he posed a hypothetical to Susan and Coach Jenkins and they were not encouraging." "What do you mean?" "Well let me give you the hypothetical he used and see what your reaction is. Okay, you have a friend, not one you're hot for but you wouldn't kick him out of bed either. This person does something really nice for you. So nice that you decide to invite him over for a horizontal thank you party. Being the really nice guy that he is he tells you that he loves and respects you too much to take advantage of you that way." I could see the gears turning in her head as I talked and the grin wasn't far behind. "Oh yeah! You're in trouble." "Thanks a lot! Coach Jenkins told me I should wear old clothes for the next week because whatever I'm wearing when "she" catches up with me is going to need replacing." "Big time! Ooh what she's going to do to you!" "So you agree with them. I blew it. I'm sorry, sis. What am I going to do?" "Not much you can do, and it's not that you blew it. It was a no win situation from the beginning. You did the best you could. Just wait and see what happens. It may go away by itself but I kind of doubt it. One thing though?" "What's that?" "If it does happen, don't worry about what I'm going to think, okay. It's not your fault and I'm not going to be upset. And whatever you do, don't hold back. If she says "Thank you" make darn sure you say "You're welcome." You know what I mean?" "So treat her the way I would treat you if it was you with me?" "Yes. Like I'm sure you did in the dream. Do your best to make it just as special for her as you would for Shannon or me." "Bob suggested that was what got me in trouble in the dream. My God, what am I going to say to Shannon?" "Jimmy! It's Shannon. She'll be fine. But while we're on the subject, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I think we need to tell her the truth." "You mean?" "Yep, everything. Like I said, I've been thinking about it. I feel like we've been lying to her and I don't like it." "Yeah, when you put it like that. Mom and Dad is one thing, they just don't need to know. But when it's someone you love..." "Exactly, and love is the key word. Not that we don't love Mom and Dad, but that's different. We love Shannon and it hurts us to deceive her even a little bit. I don't like keeping secrets from her. Besides, she loves us just as much and would never do anything to hurt or betray us." "Okay. So how do you want to do it?" She sat up and put her books down. "Well, I've been wondering, and this will also be a bit of an experiment. You know how you brought Rebecca and I and Amy to the beach? Do you think you could bring Shannon to the glade? Or maybe take both of us to the beach, at the same time?" "Wow. I have no idea. I hadn't given it any thought. Going to the glade is no different than going into someone else's dream. Taking one of you to the beach is bringing you basically into my dream. I never thought about bringing two people at once, I guess it should be possible. Taking someone into a "third party" dream? I have no idea whether I can or not. It's an intriguing idea and definitely worth experimenting though. How about this? I'll try to bring her to the glade first. If that works then the other should be easy. If it doesn't work then I can take her to the island and then see if I can bring you too. How does that sound?" "Sounds like a plan, you thinking tonight?" "Might as well." "Bad idea. Well, not a bad idea, but maybe I have a better one. Wait until she's here for the night. We can spend a little quality time ravishing her and then while she is coming down from the endorphins we'll give her the basics. She probably won't believe it but will at least listen. Then, when we all go to bed, you do your thing. Hopefully you can bring her to the glade because she should recognize it from the many times I've described it to her. And this way she won't wake up in bed all alone and wonder if any of it was real. This way, if she wakes up and wonders, we'll be here to talk to her about it, and to apologize in person for deceiving her all this time. You know, a little 'make up' time." The way her eyes lit up when she said that left no doubt as to what she meant. "Okay," I said, weighing her words in my mind. "I guess that does sound like a better way to do it. I wouldn't want her to wake up alone and wonder if she was losing her mind. I'd at least like to be around to help her find it." Shannon was spending the night Friday so it was only one more day either way. My "friends" at school were still laughing at my dilemma the next morning at break. As I walked up to the table Susan grinned and said, "Still standing. I'm impressed." That was enough to set Bob and the coach off. "Very funny!" I said, setting my books down and taking a seat. I turned and confronted her as seriously as I could. "For your information, Miss Swann," I let the attitude balloon deflate, "she hasn't found me yet." That set off another round of laughter. Suddenly Bob stopped and looked hard past my shoulder, "You may have spoken too soon." I whipped around like I'd been stung. No one was there. They were all in danger of convulsions by now. I turned back and glared at him. "Oh, very funny!" Coach Jenkins poked me in the arm and said, "Lighten up, Matthews, it's not like you're waiting to be executed. For goodness sakes; someone wanting to jump your bones is not the worst thing in the world. What's the matter? She fat and ugly?" Bob stopped laughing and said, "Melinda, you don't even want to go there. You'll regret it." She looked back at him. "You bastard! You know who it is, don't you?" Now Susan turned on him, "You do know who it is! That is so not fair." "Now, ladies," he said, the shark's grin once more stretched across his face; "the personal lives of our students are none of our business unless they come to us with a problem. And if a student comes to you with a problem it should be kept in the strictest confidence." Coach Jenkins looked at Susan. "That's asshole for 'yeah, I know and I'm not gonna tell you.'" "Well I for one am glad," I said, "considering how you've handled the part you already know I sure don't want you to find out who she is. I thought I was your friend and look how you've treated me." Susan looked sad for a second and put her hand on mine. "Jimmy, of course we're your friends. Why else would we be doing it?" "Yeah, what else are friends for?" asked Bob. I just laughed and nodded my head. "Just checking, but I'm giving you fair warning. I've got four years at this school and someday my chance will come and it'll be payback time." We had one last laugh and headed for our afternoon classes. Shannon and Allison were already at the house when I got home. There was a note from Mom on the counter with the phone number of the hotel they were staying at along with the usual stuff about not wrecking the place and to have a good weekend. They had left us some cash for emergencies as well as some extra for snacks and movies. I put on my suit and went out to look for the girls. I expected to find them soaking up sunlight. Instead I found them at the far end of the pool trying to extract each others tonsils. Shannon had Allison backed against the end of the pool supporting her against the side. There was something wrong with the whole thing but I couldn't place it. You know, it's that feeling you get that something is missing from a room, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Allison's eyes were closed and she was obviously concentrating on the task at hand. Suddenly I realized what was missing. There was no strap around Shannon's neck. I looked closer. Nope, none on Allison's either. I glanced down into the water and confirmed what I suspected. No bottoms either. Neither of them had noticed me yet so I quietly slipped into the near end and went submarine. The pool is not that big so it didn't take long and I was underneath them. I decided that safety may be preferable to surprise so I discarded my first idea, tickling, and instead just reached out to stroke my hands over the two most perfect bottoms I've ever seen. Keeping my hands full, I surfaced next to them. "Hi, girls! Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" They both turned to me, smiling. "As a matter of fact you are, and if you were anyone else we would probably hurt you. But since it's you, why don't you join us?" With that they opened their arms on the near side and drew me in next to them. I kissed Shannon first since it had been longer since I had seen her. I felt Allison's hand sliding down my side. I turned to kiss her just as it reached my suit. She pulled back when I tried to kiss her. "Oh, this just will not do!" "What?" I asked. "Did I do something wrong?" "I'll say you did! Shannon! He's got his suit on!" "He what? Eeewww, and I kissed him!" She started to pull away but I still had a hand on her butt and I held on tight. "Okay, okay," I laughed, "I get the message, but there's nothing I can do about it. My hands are full." I gave them each a gentle squeeze. "Very nicely full at that." Allison smiled and said, "Maybe I can help." With that she ducked under water and I felt hands at my waistband, struggling to untie the knot holding my suit up. It must not have been going well because she came back up sputtering. She took a breath and dove under again. This time I just felt hands pulling and tugging. It may have worked except for the fact that my erection was in the way. She came back up. "Shannon, dearest, could you give me a hand with this?" "Love to." She kissed me and then went under with Allison. A hand snaked into the waistband and pressed my cock up against my stomach and suddenly my trunks were pulled so hard they almost took me under. A second pull had them around my knees and from there they just drifted off. The hand on my cock began playing with my balls lightly. It would have been an interesting sensation if not for the normal reaction to being immersed in cool water. Again I was reminded that water is a really poor lubricant. Fortunately, she gave up quickly and both of them returned to the surface. "That's better." Allison declared as she brushed her hair back. She then plastered her body against me, throwing her arms around my neck and twining her legs around mine. It felt great but I had to grab the side of the pool to keep us from sinking like rocks. She didn't seem to care as she started rubbing herself all over me and attacking my mouth. After about 30 seconds she pulled back just long enough to say, "Welcome home, sweetie, I missed you so much." She began showering my face and neck with kisses and went on, "I was so lonely, I don't know what I would have done if Shannon hadn't come over, why, I might have just died." All the while she was pressing and rubbing herself all over my body. It was really nice. "Well then, we should thank her for saving you. Don't you think?" "Absolutely. Come here, cutie." Allison kind of rotated around to one side and now Shannon moved in to tangle herself up with the two of us. She kissed Allison hotly and then the two of them started on me. Shannon worked my mouth over while Allison nibbled at my neck and ear. It was awesome. Four firm breasts mashed against me, four hard nipples tickling gouges of fire across my chest. If it weren't for the fact that I was having a hard time keeping us above water I would have really enjoyed it. "Thank you for keeping Allison safe." "My pleasure," she said as she kissed my neck. "No mine," Allison argued as she lightly bit my ear lobe. By this time the cool water and the distraction of trying to stay afloat was the only thing keeping me from defiling the pool. "Oh God I love you two! I love you so much that I am going to suggest that maybe we should move this somewhere less life threatening before we drown." "I'm not afraid," Shannon said. "My big strong Jimmy would never let that happen." "That's true but I have two words that I would like you to consider." The girls kissed hotly, tongues flashing back and forth and Allison said, "What's that?" "Suntan oil." Shannon jerked back and her eyes got wide, "Ooh yeah baby! That does sound like fun." She pulled free and immediately climbed out of the pool. Now that was an interesting sight and I said so. She just looked back and smiled. Allison followed right behind her then turned and squatted down on the edge of the pool. That view was even more interesting. "Need a hand?" "Sure." I reached up and grabbed her arm with both hands and pulled. "Noooooo!" Splash. She came back up a second later. "Ooh! I'm going to get you for that." I was already half way out and turned to sit on the side. "I'm counting on it." I stood and reached to help her back out. By now Shannon was finishing up drying herself. She tossed towels at us and began untying the cushions on the lounge chairs. We have four big padded chairs and one was a double. Allison and I dried quickly and started tying them all together. This was going to be fun. We placed the big double cushion on the bottom then the other three, now tied closely, across it. Allison picked up the bottle of suntan oil and squirted a stream down Shannon's front. The two of us then began to rub it all over her soft flesh before it could get away, Allison adding more oil as needed. Shannon just cooed and squirmed under our fingers. Then Allison kicked the heat up a notch by squirting a thick stream across Shannon's back and using her body to rub it in. She pressed herself to Shannon's back, wrapped her arms around her and started squirming her whole body against the taller girl's. While she was doing this, her hands were busy rubbing and squeezing and pinching the older girl's tits. Hot! I picked up the discarded bottle of oil and, squirting some into my hands I knelt and began rubbing it in and around Shannon's legs and thighs. As I slid one hand up each side to oil both her ass cheeks while planting soft kisses around her tummy, I felt the muscles there begin to flutter. I re-oiled my hands and, still kissing Shannon's abdomen, reached past her to oil Allison's backside. I grabbed on as hard as I could, pulled us all together and swirled my tongue around and into Shannon's belly button. Normally suntan oil isn't my favorite flavor but considering everything else that was going on I wouldn't have cared if it were motor oil. Allison slipped a well-oiled hand down and began rubbing her palm up and down over and through Shannon's crotch. This elicited a loud moan and sharp intake of breath. I pulled back and Shannon instantly spun around to face Allison. Their arms wrapped around one another and their mouths hungrily sought each other. The kiss was hot, wet, and loud. It's a good think we have a well protected yard or the neighbors would be wondering what was going on. I got up and moved behind Allison, squirted a generous amount of oil on both of us and wrapping my arms around both of them pressed myself hard against her back, using my body to spread the oil around as she had with Shannon. My hard cock slipped between her cheeks and along her ass crack. A little "oohm" escaped from her mouth around Shannon's tongue and she wiggled her ass against me. I walked us forward until we were on the mound of cushions and we all just started sinking down in a heap of writhing flesh. The girls were glued together and grinding their bodies against each other; breast to breast, bush to bush. I pulled back and looked for a way to help either of them. My cock was on fire and it only took a second to come up with an idea. Shannon had rolled on top of Allison, kissing and licking her way down her neck to her tits. This left Shannon's ass sticking up. I moved behind her and pressed myself forward between her legs. My cock slid down along the length of her soaked pussy. Her head immediately came up and she gasped for air. Suddenly a hand was grabbing my dick; she rubbed the head up and down her slit twice before lining it up with her center and pressing back. That was all the encouragement I needed, and I pressed forward. Despite how tight she is, between the oil and her lubrication I slid deep into her with almost no effort. It was the most intense feeling, and we both groaned loudly. Allison suddenly realized what was going on and grabbed Shannon's head to pull her down into another steaming kiss. I started moving in and out of her with full measured strokes. I didn't dare move fast. It was all I could do to not explode instantly. This was apparently not what Shannon wanted though as she began to press back at me insistently. After about five strokes I just couldn't take it any more. The end was coming and nothing was going to stop it. I began hammering into her for all I was worth. You could hear the slapping sound of our bodies coming together. Shannon had stopped kissing Allison and instead had her head down on her lover's chest. Her eyes were closed and she was gasping and panting and humping her hips back at me as hard as she could. Her orgasm hit without warning. With none of the usual tremors and flutters that I was used to seeing, she just suddenly went rigid and her pussy clamped down around me like a vise. The oil was all that allowed me to keep moving. Her body shook and I too came, and came. I poured myself into her. The lubrication level went off the chart, as the excess had nowhere to go and was forced back around my pistoning cock and out her opening. Finally my muscles gave out and I collapsed forward on top of her, pressing her down flat between us. Allison hugged her hard, and one hand came up to brush my hair and caress my cheek. "You guys, that was so hot! Next time I want to be in the middle!" Shannon just laughed and this caused an interesting sensation where we were still joined. I started to swell inside of her again. Shannon felt me growing, smiled and said, "How about now?" Allison's eyes got wide. "Really!" I nodded and suddenly she went crazy trying to get out from under the pile. I pulled out of Shannon, my cock, an angry red and glistening with the combination of our natural fluids and suntan oil, was visibly growing and twitching. Shannon rolled over to one side to give her room. Allison took one look at my cock and just said, "Yeah!" She quickly pushed Shannon over onto her back, crawled between her legs, stuck her ass into the air, and said, "Oh do me! Do me now!" Shannon cracked up. Allison instantly started kissing her girlfriend hotly. "Gosh, Al, you seem kind of desperate." Shannon giggled between kisses. "Hey, next time I'll go first and see how you like it. Hey! Stud! What's taking so long? You get lost?" Not the most romantic sentiment, but then, this wasn't really about romance. I had been admiring the view of Allison's glistening little butt and pussy lips framed just above Shannon's red and swollen ones, still wet and oozing cum. I moved forward and as soon as I was close enough, Allison grabbed me without hesitation and guided me to heaven. She moved me around to make sure everything was still lubricated, lined me up and pressed herself back. I took the hint and pressed forward. The sensation was just as it had been with Shannon. Allison is even tighter than Shannon due to the size difference but it didn't matter now. Our combined wetness, plus the remaining oil made for a slick and easy passage. Again we both groaned at the sensation. If I hadn't just come I would have now. It was un-believable. I began to stroke into her with slow, smooth motions but she would have none of that. "Uh-uh! Harder! You can love me later, right now, just fuck me!" "Allison!" Shannon said, surprised at this kind of language from her friend. Allison snapped at her, "Either find something better to do with your mouth, or close it!" Then back at me, "Harder." Shannon giggled and wiggled her body down until she could reach a nipple, and then bit down on it hard, raking her teeth across the sensitive flesh. Allison gasped, her head snapped back as her back arched and her pussy squeezed down hard around my cock. It only lasted a second and I was shocked to realize that she had just had a small orgasm. Shannon realized it too and started sucking for all she was worth; bringing a hand up to pinch and squeeze her lover's other breast. In seconds I felt the familiar tremors begin. Allison's breathing was already getting ragged. Her head was back and her eyes were closed as she concentrated her senses on the various assaults taking place. She was rapidly building to a huge climax, and despite my earlier release I was right behind her. My thrusts were slowing down a little but getting more forceful. With each stroke I pulled all the way out until only the very tip was inside then slammed forward against her firm backside, my balls slapped against her with each movement. Normally it would have been painful but right now I was beyond caring. Suddenly Allison dropped her head to Shannon's shoulder, pressed her mouth to the older girl's neck and screamed. The walls of her vagina clamped down painfully around me. I wouldn't have thought it possible but I couldn't move. Fortunately I didn't need to. The spasming of her muscles was all it took and I was once more spraying fountains into the woman I loved. I felt the pumping action of my muscles forcing the fluid along and a similar action from hers as she milked me for every drop. I never would have believed I could come so hard twice in so short a period of time. I guess when the women are as hot as my two angels anything is possible. As before, we collapsed into a heap, on Shannon this time. Allison and I were still trying to catch our breath when I felt two arms come up and hug us both. "That was fun," she said. "Hey! No hickeys, you!" Allison giggled and this caused my rapidly diminishing penis to slip out. I sat up and immediately felt the effects that our little party had had on my back and thighs. "Ugh! Ow! Okay, pain." Shannon's head came up to look over Allison's shoulder. "What's the matter?" "I just realized who was doing all the work. Ah, I don't think I can stand." They giggled together then Allison slid off of Shannon and crawled toward me. "You poor baby. Did we work you too hard?" She kissed me and stroked my arm. "Does it help to know just how much we appreciate your effort and sacrifice?" "Mmm, the satisfaction of a job well done. As long as you enjoyed it, then it was worth it and I would definitely do it again. Just not real soon, okay." She laughed. "Okay, you can rest for a while. Here. Roll over and let me work on your legs for a minute." I gratefully rolled onto my stomach and my sweet sister began to gently massage the backs of my legs. Shannon immediately moved to join her. I soon had one girl gently massaging each leg. Definitely worth the effort. "Mmmm," I sighed. "That's nice. Yep. Definitely do it again." Shannon leaned down and whispered in my ear. "We're going to hold you to that." She slid a hand up my thigh to caress my butt, and then slipped down to cup my balls. I wouldn't have thought it possible but things began to stir again. "Allison, look! It's still alive." "Oh good, no permanent damage. But why don't we let him rest for a while. I don't know about you but I need something to drink." On cue my stomach rumbled. She slapped me gently on the butt and turned it into a loving caress. "And the motion carries." They helped me up and we all moved into the house for some much needed refreshment. I took along a couple of towels so we wouldn't get oil on the furniture. Shannon opened the refrigerator to get a couple of bottles of water. "Ooh!" She said as the cold air suddenly hit her. It had the expected effect, by the time she closed the door her nipples were once more rock hard. When she handed me the water bottle I just pulled her in close and pressed my body against hers to warm her back up. She laid her head on my shoulder and we just sort of swayed together to music only we could hear. It only took a second and she was back to normal. She reached up to kiss me. "Thanks, I needed that." Then we moved to join Allison on the couch. Allison had the towels spread out and was sitting back with her feet up on the edge of the coffee table. And looking very fetching I might add. "So what do you want to do about dinner? We could order out for pizza or Chinese, or there are leftovers, or we could throw something together." "Why don't we order out?" I suggested. "Tim and Angie are coming tomorrow so we'll be cooking for them. And I for one," I ran my hand down one of her shapely legs, "want to save my strength for more important things." I took one of Shannon's hands and brought it up for a kiss. "What do you think, princess?" "That sounds like a great idea, especially the saving your strength part. Chinese would probably be better. Pizza is okay, but I think the veggies and protein would be a better choice than all that dough." "Okay. That settles it then, Jimmy, why don't you show Shannon how to work the shower and help her rinse off some of that oil and I'll set the table and order." "My pleasure!" I stood and pulled Shannon to her feet. We took turns kissing Allison, Shannon taking an extra moment to caress a breast, and then we headed down the hall hand in hand. I paused outside Allison's bedroom, "Hold on a second." I stepped inside, grabbed her robe and walked back to the living room. "Here, cutie. Just in case the door bell rings." I held it open and then hugged her as she slipped into it. "Besides, I wouldn't want you to get cold." I kissed her neck and headed back down the hall. Shannon and I continued down the hall and had a wonderful time cleaning each other up. It was our first time alone together in the shower and we made the most of it. I don't know how long it was before Allison came in, "Hey, save me some hot water you two." "Okay." I chuckled. "But you better hurry." "I ordered already; they'll be here in about 20 minutes. If you two are finished maybe I could do something about this portable oil slick I'm carrying around." Shannon stuck her head out. "Want to join us." Allison laughed. "Yes! But I don't think that would be a good idea just now. Like I said, they'll be here soon and I think it would be a better idea if we all had real clothes on when they arrived. Don't you? I turned off the water and pulled the curtain back. "Spoil sport." Thirty minutes later we were halfway through several boxes of take out feeling much better when Shannon asked. "So, who did you say was coming over tomorrow?" "Tim and Angela Osborn," Allison answered. "Tim runs Cross Country with Jimmy. We met them at the park the other night and invited them over for dinner. Nothing fancy, we're just doing burgers and chips. We thought we might all watch a movie or something." She winked at me but Shannon caught it. "Or something, huh?" she giggled. "Why is it that I think there is something you're not telling me?" ------- Chapter 35: Truth and Consequences Allison and I looked at each other for a moment. It was time. Allison set her fork down, turned and put her hand on Shannon's. "Shannon." Something in her voice instantly got the girl's attention. Shannon stopped and swallowed hard as their eyes met. "What? Did I say something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" I set down my own fork, stood and moved around to where she was sitting. I took her hand and pulled her to her feet. I could feel the tension and knew she was starting to panic. Not knowing what she had done to spark this sudden change. She started to shake as I hugged her to me. I stroked her hair and said, "No, sweetie. You didn't do anything wrong. Come with me." I walked her back to the living room. Allison rose and followed. I sat her in Mom's rocker and knelt at her feet, still holding her hand. Allison knelt next to me and placed her hand on top of ours. By now I could see tears forming in Shannon's eyes as she struggled to understand what was happening. "Shannon," I began, "there is something we need to tell you, something that we have been holding back from you. But before we do we need to make sure that you understand something, several things actually. First of all, we love you. That is the most important thing you need to understand in all of this. Second is that this is a long story and it will take time to get through all of it. We need you to be patient and listen to the whole thing. Once you've heard it all you will understand why we have been holding it back." Allison took over, "If you start to get confused just focus on the fact that we love you. We feel bad about not telling you sooner but once you know the whole story I think you will understand why. And remember that not telling you has been very hard for us. Can you do this for me, sweetie? Can you be patient and remember I love you? And Jimmy loves you too, maybe even more than I do except I don't know how anyone could love you more than me? Can you be patient and listen to everything first?" "Guys," Shannon whimpered, "you're scaring me. What's wrong?" Tears began to leak down her face. I grabbed a tissue and handed it to her as Allison continued, "Don't be scared, sweetie. I'm sorry there is no quick way to do this; you just need to be patient and listen. Can you do that for me? Please?" Shannon dabbed at her eyes. "Okay." "That's my girl." Allison said, kissing Shannon's hand. "One other thing, what we're about to tell you no one else can know. Only two other people in the world know about it, well three but I'm not sure if one really counts. Remember the night you had the first dream with Jimmy, the one in the garage?" "Yeah." I took a deep breath, "It was real." She looked at me with a very confused expression. "What do you mean it was real? It was a dream it couldn't be real." "Yes and no. It was a dream, so from that stand point it wasn't real. But Jimmy was in it so that part was real." "I don't understand." "Jimmy really was there in your dream. Shannon, this is going to be hard to understand but the Jimmy in your dream was actually Jimmy." "I don't get it." "That's okay." I said. "Let's start further back. Shannon, I'm a sleepwalker. You know how Mom and Dad say they used to always find me in Allison's room? Well, I don't just walk around physically. In fact I almost never do anymore. I walk around in dreams, mostly Allison's, and, until you, only Allison's. She realized it years ago; I didn't realize it until that night in your garage. Shannon, I move around in other people's dreams." "He's been doing it with me since I can remember. If I had a bad dream, he would come to chase it away and comfort me. Other times he just came to play. Oh how we played." She stroked my arm. "He was my knight in shining armor, my pirate captain, you name it. We went everywhere together. Over time I learned to tell the difference between just dreaming about Jimmy or if it was really him there." "When I'm in a dream a lot of the time I am just watching, kind of like an invisible audience. That's how it started out that first night with you. But when you kissed me, suddenly that changed." "Yeah, remember how you told me it seemed different from the times you had dreamed about kissing him before? When you kissed him, he stopped being an observer and took over the Jimmy in your dream. That's why the kiss was different, because this time it wasn't just you dreaming about how he would kiss, it was really him controlling it. That made it different. And you realized it was different but couldn't figure out how. From that moment on Jimmy was real, even though it was a dream." "You're joking, right? I mean, how could he be real in a dream?" "We don't know how it happens?" I said. "That was the first time I ever realized that I could do it. But when I woke up the dream just didn't make sense. I would never in a million years have realized that you actually felt that way about me. I had only just that day realized that you had grown up into such a beautiful woman," I blushed, "and I certainly would have never thought you would have those kinds of thoughts about me. The only explanation was that it wasn't my dream. As soon as I realized that several things from the past came to mind and I realized that I had been doing it with Allison, I mean, not DOING it, but moving in and out of her dreams, for years. The next day she told me you had talked to her about the dream and she already knew what had happened. That she had known about it for years but since it was just us she just left it alone. But that now that I had jumped into someone else's dream that I had to start being more careful." "Yeah, it really blew his mind that I knew about it. At first he tried to deny it but I made it clear that wasn't going to work. Shannon, his first thought, the very first thing he wanted to do, and the first time he ever went to someone's dream on purpose was to go back and make sure that you knew that he didn't think of you as 'that kind of girl' and to somehow make sure you understood that he loved you for you, and not the sex you were suddenly offering. You have no idea how worried he was about hurting you or having you think that you had to throw yourself at him to get his attention." "So, that night in my room, that was really you saying those things? You really came just to tell me that you loved me? That the sex stuff was nice but that you didn't want us to be about that?" I just nodded and said, "Yes, that was really me. Only that was the first time I ever did it on purpose, I was so scared I was going to screw it up. That I was going to say the wrong thing and make it worse. And then, I stayed away. You have no idea how hard it was to be with you that first weekend. To not let on that I knew about any of that and just try to let us 'grow' naturally. I mean, Allison had told me that you'd had a crush on me, but that was a reality thing, something any sister may have told; but the other stuff? Well, I didn't want to take advantage of anything that I learned in a dream. I wanted it to come naturally. Does that make any sense?" She squeezed my hand and answered, "Yes. I understand what you are saying. You didn't want to feel you had cheated?" "Yeah, I guess that's it." "Is that how you found out about Allison and me?" Allison cracked up at this. "Not like you think but yes. I told you he figured it out on his own? Since this whole thing started he has gotten really good at figuring things out. Anyway, after the dream with you, I took him to the stream, you remember me telling you about all that right?" Shannon blushed bright red. "Oh yeah! I remember that." "Anyway, one thing he discovered was that in both of the dreams, our boobies had no flavor; he could feel them but not taste anything at all. Well he figured out that the dreams had no basis in any of our lives for reality to impact the dream. Then, when he kissed me here in reality for the first time he noticed something was different but he couldn't figure out what. That weekend, when he kissed you the first time something clicked and he realized that I tasted like the dream you, and you tasted like the dream me. He put two and two together and figured out that since he had not kissed a girl like that then the 'taste' of our kisses in the dreams was actually what each of us experienced kissing each other. Your brain associated the taste from the only source it had to work with and overlaid that on the dream, and the same with me. And since the taste was so identical a match he also figured out that the only one either of us had kissed like that was each other. Get it?" "Too weird," she said and shook her head. "Is everything this complicated?" "No, not really," I said. "It's only new experiences that get weird. It's like somehow the collective subconscious of everyone 'in, ' and I mean really 'in' a particular dream, combine to establish the 'reality' of the dream. That's why your kisses had a 'taste' but your oh so lovely breasts did not. I certainly didn't have anything to base it on, and since you two hadn't gone that far yet, neither did you." "Oh, I get it. Is there more?" "Oh there is a lot more," Allison said, "but I think that is enough for now. A lot of it will have to wait. Maybe we should wait and let this all settle in and see if you have any questions then we'll move on. Do you have questions?" I could see her thinking about it. "I'm not sure. I probably should have but I'm not really sure where to start. So maybe we should wait for a while. So why is all of this, such a secret? I would think it would be really big news." Allison got really serious. "That is exactly why we can't tell anyone about it. Shannon. If it was anyone else besides Jimmy, would you be comfortable with the idea that they could just walk around in your dreams?" Suddenly it dawned on her. "No. Well, you." "Right, someone you love and you know loves you is one thing. What about Mark?" "Eww! Like NO!" "And if people found out Jimmy could do this? Or if maybe the government found out." She went white. "Oh my God! Jimmy!" "Exactly!" "But you said there are others." "There are three others. One is legally bound not to discuss it. The other two are part of what we will discuss later but there is no danger that either will be telling anyone about it. Is there anything else?" "Well, not really any questions. Not right now anyway, just a statement." "What's that?" I said. She slid down to kneel between us. Once she was settled she took Allison's face between her hands and kissed her gently. "I love you." She then turned to me and took my face between her hands. She looked me in the eye, "I don't know if 'I love you' even begins to cover how I feel about you. The more I get to know you. The more I learn about just how wonderful you are. I can't say that I love you more than I do Allison, but there is just so much..." She kissed me and then pulled both of us into her arms. "Thank you. Thank you both for everything, for loving me and for trusting me. I understand now why you held this back. And knowing how much you love me, I understand how hard it must have been." "We love you too, sweetie," Allison said. "And we feel the same way. You really can't compare my feelings for you to my feelings for Jimmy, and I know the same is true for how he feels about us. And it has been hard. And there is so much more that we haven't told you yet. But that will come soon, I promise. Meanwhile, how about if we just change the subject. Maybe watch a movie and decompress for a while. All this tension is starting to give me a headache." We put in "Sleepless in Seattle" and settled back of a few hours of mindless entertainment. I took a few minutes to massage Allison's back and neck. That dealt with the tension headache that had been creeping up on her. Then I gave Shannon the same treatment. She hadn't realized it but the same thing had been happening to her. Then I sat on the floor in front of the couch and they each took a side and did the same for me. It was only about 10:00 when the movie ended but we all decided to call it a night anyway. It was nice falling asleep between them. Once asleep, Allison and I immediately met in the glade. We had all gone to bed naked but she had showed up in my favorite outfit, the butterfly g-string and peak-a-boo robe. I was in a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt. "Well, how do you think it went?" I asked. "Jimmy, that is about a stupid question. What you mean is do I think she's ready for the rest? And the answer is yes. We said we would tell her everything. Do you really think you can bring her here?" "Only one way to find out, I'm going to bring her sort of like I did Amy the first time, asleep. Do you want to change?" She slid her arms around my waist and pressed herself against me. "Do you want me to change?" I slid a hand under her robe to caress her breast and kissed her lightly, "Never. You are perfect just the way you are." "I love you too," she said. "Can I wake her up?" "Sure, assuming I can get her here." We sat down on the blanket and I concentrated on Shannon. I pictured her asleep in my mind but other than that added nothing else. Suddenly she was there, curled up asleep. She was wearing one of the long shirts she normally slept in. "Cool!" Allison said. "Okay, I guess that answers that question. We can experiment with the other stuff later. Do I need to leave for a while so you can 'wake her up'?" "No, silly. Besides if you left she would go too. Remember what happened with Amy? She couldn't stay at the beach without you and she can move on her own." "Oh yeah, then go ahead I guess." Allison bent over her girlfriends sleeping form and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Shannon?" she whispered and stroked her hair tenderly. Shannon's eyes fluttered and she looked up at Allison. "Mmm. Good morning. Wow, it feels like I just..." She stopped suddenly as she realized that it was daylight and she was not in a bed. She sat up and looked around wonderingly. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, suddenly excited. "Am I where I a think I am? Allison? Is this your glade? It is your glade. I recognize it from your description. Wow! Love your outfit! Is Jimmy..." "Yes," I answered from behind her. She turned and saw me and I could see the wonder in her eyes. "It's really all true. I mean, I believed you, but it all seemed so..." "We know," Allison said. "You can tell yourself you believe, but until you actually experience it you really can't." She reached to help Shannon to her feet. "Welcome to our world. Well, more Jimmy's world really, this is just my little corner. How do you like it?" "It's beautiful. It's everything you described. Are there really horses here?" "I guess they are around somewhere. Honestly I haven't thought about them in ages. Do you really like my outfit?" Shannon stroked her hand down the outside of the robe, "I love it! Where did you get it?" "Just something I dreamed up? Would you like one?" "Can I?" "Sure." I could see her concentrate but nothing happened. "That's weird." She looked at me for a second. She turned back to Shannon, and I could see the concentration on her face, but still nothing happened. "That's interesting. Jimmy? Would you please?" "My pleasure." Suddenly Shannon was wearing an outfit identical to Allison's but in pink instead of white. Shannon took in the change, stroking the material and twirling around once. She ran her hand down past her breasts and down to her little butterfly briefs. "Ooh. This feels so good. It makes me all tingly just having it on." "Then you can imagine what it does to me just seeing you in it," I said. "Me too," said Allison. "Now change her back." Shannon's face fell. Allison rolled her eyes. "Just for a second, girl, chill, trust me, this is research. Jimmy? If you please." "Do I have to?" I whined. "You know how much I love that outfit." "Jimmy..." she warned. "Okay, just asking." I returned Shannon to her sleep shirt and Allison turned to her. "Okay. Now, Shannon, You do it." "Do what?" "Change your clothes." "But I don't have anything to change to." "No, no," Allison said. "I don't mean take that off and put something else on, I mean change your clothes back to what you just had on." "I can't do that," Shannon said. "Yes you can. You just don't know it. Look at mine. Yours was just like it only in pink instead. Now picture yourself in that outfit and concentrate." You could see she was trying but nothing was happening. "Hmmm. You're trying hard?" Allison asked. "I think so. Am I doing it wrong?" "I don't think so. Let's try something else. Jimmy. Take us to the island." The scene blurred and suddenly we were all standing on the beach next to the little table. The scene was exactly as it had been with Amy and Rebecca except now a boardwalk led out to a covered hut over the water in the middle of the lagoon. It was high enough that the waves just rolled gently under it. The girls looked around, Allison with interest, Shannon with wonder. "Wow!" Shannon said. "That was awesome. And this is beautiful. Where are we?" "Just an island in the middle of nowhere, I based it on the one from Jurassic Park, but without all the dangerous stuff. So what's up, Allison? Why did you want to come here?" "Research. Give me a minute." She looked hard at Shannon for a second and I knew she was once more trying to change her outfit. Still, nothing happened. "Okay, Shannon. Try to change your clothes again. It doesn't matter to what; it can be what I have on or just to your bathing suit." "Okay." Almost instantly she was in her bathing suit. She gasped as she felt the change on her skin. She looked down at herself then tentatively ran her hand over the top to confirm what she was seeing. "Did I really do that?" "Yep, you really did," Allison said. "Very interesting, I can't affect Shannon, even in my own dream... She can't affect herself in my dream either. But now that we have shifted to a "Jimmy" dream, she can. Not surprising when you think about it, but useful to know. Do you guys want to stay here or go back to the glade?" Shannon changed her outfit to the pink version of Allison's. "Can we stay here?" she said. "This is fun." "Of course we can," Allison said. "But why don't we move to the cabana. We have a lot to talk about. Jimmy, did you, uhm." I chuckled. "Yes." I knew what she was asking, 'Did I change the sheets?' I took a pretty girl in each hand and headed off across the beach. Shannon noticed all the footprints. "You guys must come here a lot." Now it was Allison's turn to chuckle. "Actually, it's only my second time but we'll explain that with the rest when we get inside." I opened the door to the cabana and passed the girls inside. It was a really nice room. The view out over the ocean was beautiful, and there were transparent panels scattered around the floor so you could see down into the water. There was even a sunken seating area that allowed you to sit and dangle your feet in the water. I led them over to it and we sat down. The girls changed to bathing suits so their robes wouldn't get wet. I pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and poured us each a glass. "This is going to take a while so get comfortable. What we are going to bring up we only talk about here because there is no chance of anyone overhearing any of it. It's complicated and it's not all pretty, so be prepared. We said there were three others who know about all of this. One we've already told you about but I'm not going to give you the name. It's not that I don't trust you but the confidence thing works both ways to some extent. Until I talk to him about all of this I won't disclose who he is. That will be up to him to decide. The other two are both easier and more complicated. The first is a woman, Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI." "The FBI! I thought you said you were worried about the government finding out?" "We are. She is necessary. And she has to know because we are working on a case together." "You're working on a case with the FBI?!" "Yes, that's the not pretty part. I'll get to that in a minute. The other person is Rebecca's little sister, Amy. She is the one who 'introduced' me to Rebecca." Over the course of the next, well it felt like hours, but its dreamtime so it really doesn't matter, anyway, we brought Shannon up to date on what was going on. As you can imagine, she was stunned. "This is just too weird. Okay, the ghost of an eight year old girl, who's been in a coma for 12 years set you up to help her sister catch a guy who killed a girl three years ago." "She's not a ghost. But she is frozen at the age she was hurt at. Even I can't change much about her. But yes, that's the short version." "And you're okay with all this?" she asked. "No I'm not okay with it. It scares the crap out me. I'm a fifteen-year-old kid and I watched this maniac rape, torture, and kill an innocent girl. And I felt him do it. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. But I can't turn my back on it and just walk away. According to Amy, and she is the strangest part of the whole thing, I'm the only one that can stop him. And I need her sister to do it. I can't let him do this again." "How do you know he hasn't already?" I stared at her. "What do you mean?" "Well, Amy didn't know anything about the crimes. Except that she seemed to know that there was more than one. You are assuming that he is going to do it again. What if he already did? Amy didn't show you anything until you asked. Maybe she didn't know anything. Amy may be like a computer. The information is there, but until you ask the right questions..." "I never thought of that. God, I hope you're wrong. Give me a minute. I want to try something." I got up and walked to the bed. By the time I got there, Amy was sleeping in the middle of it. I sat on the bed, bent and kissed her cheek and she awoke. "Jimmy? Jimmy! Oh Jimmy! I'm so glad to see you." She stopped and looked around. "Is this your bedroom?" she asked. I smiled and tweaked her nose. "No, silly. Come here for a second, I want you to meet someone." I took her hand and helped her down from the bed. I stepped back and she saw Allison and Shannon sitting in the 'pool'. "Who are they?" she asked. "They are who I want you to meet." I walked her over to them. "This is Allison." Her eyes got huge and she launched herself into my sister's arms. "Oh, Allison! I've wanted to meet you I'm so sorry I scared you please say you forgive me pleasepleaseplease." Allison just laughed and pulled her into her lap, hugged her close and kissed her on the cheek. "It's nice to finally meet you too, cutie. And I don't' need to forgive you, baby; you didn't do anything bad or mean to me. I know you didn't mean to scare me so it wasn't your fault. A sweet little girl like you could never do anything like that on purpose, could you?" "Oh no! I would never do that." "That's good. Because you know what would happen if you did." She looked her very sternly in the eyes. "What?" she asked fearfully. "This!" Allison said and began tickling the little girl. Amy screamed and squirmed and laughed until she was gasping for air and Allison finally stopped. She hugged the little girl close and kissed her again. "So you better be good." She turned the girl in her lap and said. "This is my best friend, Shannon." Shannon held out her hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Amy. Allison and Jimmy have told me so much about you. But they didn't tell me that you were such a pretty girl. Can I have a hug too?" Amy blushed and said, "I guess so, but no tickling, okay?" She got up and stepped into Shannon's arms. As she stepped into the water her dress got wet and when she stepped back she looked at me. "Jimmy? Would you?" She pointed down. I was surprised she couldn't do it herself. I looked at her for second and said, "Sure, sweetie. But I've got a better idea." "What's that?" she asked. I picked her up and dream-jumped all of us out into the water. I was once more in my troll suit, she in her bathing suit. I swung her up in the air and yelled, "One!" The girls and I spent the next 30 minutes of dreamtime splashing and playing in the waves with Amy. Then somehow we knew it was time for her to go. It seemed somehow like there was a time limit on how long she could stay. We all hugged her and started for the door. "Amy," I said as we walked hand in hand to the door, "Shannon was wondering if the bad man had already hurt any other girls. I was wondering if you could tell me, or maybe show me again?" "I don't know. But I could try." "Thanks, sweetie. It was fun playing with you again. Someday I hope we can all meet you and play together for real. Is there anything you would like me to tell Rebecca?" "Just how much I love her and miss her." "Oh, I'm sure she knows both of those things, but I will tell her anyway. I'll see you again real soon okay?" "Okay, Jimmy." She hugged me and then waved goodbye to the girls. They waved back and then she went through the door and was gone. I walked back to the girls. "She is just the sweetest thing," Shannon said, wiping a tear from her eye. "It's so sad to think she has been sick for so long." Then she broke down and started sobbing. Allison and I just took her in our arms and hugged her close and held her. "Come on. I think it might be best if we call it a night." Instead of going back to the glade I just let it all go and woke up back in bed, still snuggled between my two beautiful lovers. Allison was still asleep but I felt Shannon stir. She sat up slightly and looked around. "Wow," she whispered, then lay back down and cuddled in close. She hadn't even noticed that I was awake. I thought she was going to go back to sleep, but then I felt her hand slide down to my groin. Her fingers began to play gently back and forth through my pubic hair. Naturally, my cock immediately began to swell. She felt it happen and her hand went down to lightly surround my rapidly stiffening member. She didn't move, just lightly held me as I grew to full arousal. I felt her head tilt up and I suspect she was checking to see if I was awake. I lay very still and waited to see what she would do. She drew away slightly and began to slide down the bed. I waited until I felt her start to sit up and just cracked my eyes lids open to chance a glimpse. She was trying very hard to get up on her knees without shaking the bed. She glanced up at my face several times. Once she was sitting up she pulled her hair back and tied as much as she could into a loose knot. She looked up at me again and tentatively reached her hand out to once more lightly touch my now hard cock. She just laid her palm along the length of it, resting lightly along the shaft and balls. Watching me closely she began to move her fingers slightly up and down and around to see it I would 'wake up.' She jerked her hand back as I kind of gave a sleepy sigh and moved a little bit. What I had really done was to bring my leg on her side up and away slightly, thereby creating more room between my legs and giving her more room to play. When it was obvious I was not waking up she returned to touching me. She began moving her hand more forcefully this time. Testing just how much freedom she had without waking me. Hey, I'm not stupid; I wasn't 'waking up' for anything. She got bolder, wrapping her hand all the way around the shaft and jacking me up and down slowly. I waited. After a half dozen strokes she stopped and held me up straight. Staring at my face the whole time she leaned in and lightly licked the tip once then withdrew. My cock twitched involuntarily but that was all. She did it again, this time taking a longer swipe with her tongue. Another twitch. Then she did it. Opening her mouth she lowered it over my cock until just the head was in and then closed her lips over it. I couldn't help but twitch this time. Still holding me in her mouth she licked around the head with her tongue. I sighed 'in my sleep' but otherwise held still. Sure that I was not going to wake up now she began to slowly move her mouth up and down on my shaft. I was dry and so was her mouth and she must have realized it. She stopped for a second and withdrew. I saw her working her tongue around her mouth for a second and knew she was gathering saliva. She held her mouth over me and let it drip out onto the head. She then pursed her lips and gently kissed the tip. Pressing down gently she slowly opened her mouth to take me back in, her lips pushing the wave of spit ahead of them. Did that ever feel good! Her lips passed over the crown and closed around the shaft. She paused for a second and I could hear her breath in through her nose. Then she pressed on down the shaft until she had about two inches of me in her mouth. I was in heaven. She pulled back up and off. Her mouth worked and again she dripped a large amount of spit onto the head of my cock. Once more her lovely mouth descended and pushed the precious fluid downward. This time she took me as far as she could. She had all but about two inches in her mouth when she convulsed slightly. (Hey, I'd never even heard of a gag reflex ) She backed off a little, and then began bobbing up and down slightly. She was only moving about an inch up and down but I thought I was going to lose my mind. By now her eyes were closed and she was concentrating on what she was doing. Allison took this opportunity to let me know she was awake by blowing gently on my ear. I glanced to the side to see her eyes open and staring at mine. She winked and closed her eyes back down to slits to continue enjoying the show. By now Shannon had begun taking longer strokes, coming up to just below the head before moving back down. She had apparently gotten more comfortable as well as she seemed to be taking a little more in with each downward movement. Her tongue was working to keep the surface slick as she went, moving gently back and forth. My control was fading fast and I was rapidly reaching the point of no return. My breathing was speeding up and my hips were making little involuntary flexing motions in time to her movements, seeking to move me in and out of her mouth a little quicker. She took this as a good sign and sped up slightly. I was so close. She paused at the top for a second. My guess is to rest her jaw. Her tongue swirled around the trapped head a few times, leaving more moisture behind as it went. She checked my eyes and then started again, this time taking shorter, faster strokes. She was only taking the top half in each time but she was doing it at a must faster pace. That was it for me. I lasted about another ten strokes then I could feel my balls tighten up. She apparently felt it too. She stopped for a second in anticipation. When nothing happened she started again, moving even faster this time. I didn't make it to ten this time. Suddenly I felt my stomach drop through the back of the mattress onto the floor and my balls erupted. The muscle contraction was the only warning she got. She was stopped just below the head and was rewarded by a huge jet of cum splashing against the roof of her mouth. Her lips seemed to tighten and I could feel the suction increase as she slowly resumed her up and down motion. After about the third blast things tapered off considerably. <> She hesitated for a second and I suddenly felt her swallow. I don't know what it was about the action, but that was about the sexiest feeling I could ever remember. She resumed bobbing slowly up and down and the suction increased again slightly, I could feel her hand moving with her now as she milked my cock for the last of the precious fluid. As I began to wilt in her mouth she released me and sat up. I heard rather than felt her swallow the last of what was in her mouth. She looked up at my 'sleeping' face again and smiled smugly. Then I felt her start to stretch out next to me again. Soon she was pressed against me with her head on my shoulder again. About five seconds later Allison asked in a loud whisper, "So how was it?" "Fabulous!" I answered. "Absolutely Fabulous!" Shannon shot up and hit me. "You mean you were awake the whole time?" "What?" I said defensively. "You really thought I could sleep through that? I would not have missed it for the world." I sat up and grabbed her roughly, then spun and pulled her down between Allison and me. Allison had pulled back when I sat up so fast; probably she knew what was coming. "That was the sexiest thing I have ever experienced in my life and you wanted me to miss it? How could you?" I had her pinned by now and Allison and I attacked her ribs, tickling her mercilessly until she practically couldn't breathe. She screamed and flailed for all she was worth but she was no match for the two of us. Eventually we stopped and let her catch her breath. Allison leaned in close and whispered, "Do you have any idea how sexy it was watching you do that? Or how hard it was not to reach down and play with myself?" She covered Shannon's mouth with her own and drove her tongue deep inside. She swirled her little serpent all around her girlfriend's mouth, over her teeth and gums, and across and around her tongue. It took a second before Shannon realized what she was doing, exploring for flavor. Shannon pulled back. "Hey! Get your own." Then she cracked up. Allison gave her a little shove and said, "Right! Like you left me anything. I saw you, you greedy little witch. You drained him dry. I felt the sheets start to go up his ass." "Eww, Allison, gross," Shannon said. Then they both cracked up again. "It was fun though. Was it really sexy to watch?" "Oh yeah! Next time you can watch and find out for yourself. Same rules, no touching yourself." "Uh-uh girlie. No deal. I didn't force you to be still. You did that on your own. It's not like I was going to stop once I got going. It was sexy thinking you were both asleep though." I had been lying next to Shannon, tracing little circles around her arm and chest, letting them have their fun and waiting. Now that the conversation was slowing down I decided it was time. I leaned in and took her nipple in my mouth and sucked hard. I pulled back and released it with a loud popping sound and said, "My turn." "Your turn what?" she said, looking at me like I had grown antlers. I didn't say anything. I just leaned in to kiss her and reached across to massage her other breast. I kissed her forehead, nose, and mouth, then continued south with little kisses across her chin, down her throat and eventually back to her boobs. As I sucked the nearest nipple, Allison took the other one, the one I was massaging with my hand into her mouth and treated it similarly. I didn't linger but began kissing my way down her stomach to her belly button. As I kissed a circle around her navel my hand began to slide up her thigh. I cupped her mound in my hand and began kissing down to it. I massaged her labia with my palm a couple of times and then withdrew it to once more stroke her thigh. The angle was wrong for what I wanted so I slid down to the end of the bed. Staring into her eyes and starting at her knee, I began kissing my way up her leg. I could see her eyes getting bigger as I got closer and closer to her sex. I stopped a few inches away and once more placed my palm on her labia and massaged it gently. With my other hand I gently moved her right leg further out to allow myself more room. I then lay down between her legs and used both thumbs to gently stroke and massage the delicate skin on either side of her lips. After a couple of passes I gently pulled the skin to the sides, exposing her delicate inner surfaces. Once more staring into her eyes I asked, "Has anyone ever told you what a beautiful pussy you have?" Her mouth opened and moved but nothing came out. She closed her mouth, swallowed hard and tried again. It still came out a little breathy. "No." "Well you do. It's very pretty. Kind of like a little flower." I stroked one thumb up the center, separating the folds and freeing the moisture that had accumulated. I glanced at Allison and she was staring wide eyed at what was happening. It was clear that both had a pretty good idea what I was about to do and neither one could believe it. I looked down at Shannon's center again, then back into her eyes. I stared deep into her dark eyes as I lowered my mouth and said, "In fact, it looks good enough to eat." Then I raked my tongue the entire length of her slit. Her head snapped back and her whole body went rigid as my tongue passed over and through her sex. Her mouth moved but all that came out was, "UHGN!" She sucked her lower lip in between her teeth. Her flavor was similar yet entirely different from Angela in the dream. There was a delicate sweetness to it, with just a hint of the heady musk that I remembered from the older girl. Tremors raced down her abdomen. Allison just whispered, "You lucky, lucky girl." I was still locked on Shannon's eyes. "I always knew you were a sweet girl," I said and took another long lick. Another tremor ran down her body and she moaned around the flesh she was still biting. I lowered my eyes and bent to my task. I strained to remember everything I had read and everything I had done in my dream with Angela. It must have worked because Shannon was having a terrible time staying still. After just a few seconds she started rocking her hips upward against my mouth. Her breathing was punctuated with sharp breaths and squeaks each time my tongue passed near her little bud. When her legs started to shake I puckered my lips around her clit and sucked gently, as if trying to pull into my mouth, and flickeded my tongue rapidly across and around the sensitive area. That was the end of Shannon. Her body tensed and her breathing stopped. For two seconds it seemed that she had lost the ability to move or breath. Then she exploded. Her hips began to buck wildly, her thighs clamped to the sides of my head and a high keening escaped her throat. It went on for a good ten seconds then she just collapsed on the bed. I released her and began gently kissing and licking her labia and the insides of her thighs. Allison just stared at me. The look of unbelieving amazement on her face was priceless. I took a long lick along the side of Shannon's over-worked pussy and winked at her. That seemed to break the spell. "My God, Jimmy, please tell me I'm next. Please, please, pretty please." "Sure, princess. You can do it next. Are you sure you were paying attention? Think you can handle it or do you want me to guide you through it the first time." Her eyes got positively huge at what I had said. I knew it was not what she meant but it made her stop and think none the less. She didn't have to think long. Suddenly she was scampering for the end of the bed. She immediately grabbed my head and began kissing and licking my face. When she was done with the immediate surface she drove her tongue deep into my mouth and searched for more. I stuck my tongue out a little and she began sucking on it gently. After a few seconds she pulled back. "You know that's not what I meant but yes, I want to do that too. I think I better give her a little time to recover though. What do you think?" "Seriously? I can't wait to do it for you too. But I think it would totally blow her mind if you were doing it when she wakes up again." She giggled. "Oh yeah. That would be so cool." She began crawling down the bed and I moved to give her access to the woman she loved. "So what should I do?" "Well, I could go into detailed explanations but I think the best thing to do is try to imagine what you would like and do that to her. I would suggest starting slow though, small kisses and licks around the outside and work your way in." Her head dropped and she took a deep breath through her nose, experimenting with the aroma. "Ooh, that's nice," she said, then dropping her head further she began to tentatively lick and kiss her way around the edges of Shannon's pussy. She looked back up at me, "You're right! She does taste kind of sweet." Shannon was still out of it and I moved up to sit next to her and began stroking her hair. I turned her head up and kissed her gently. She took a deep shuddering breath and her body sort of clenched again. "UUGHMM!" she groaned. Apparently her mind had stuck at the point she passed out and the new sensations were just an extension of where she was before. Without opening her eyes she moaned, "Oh Jimmy." "Yes," I said. When my voice didn't come from where she expected it her eyes shot open. "Jimmy!" Her head shot up and she looked down to see Allison grinning at her as she took a long slow lick deep in and up her girlfriend's sweet pussy. "Allison! Ohmigod!" Allison stopped and looked at her, "What? Am I doing it wrong?" She dropped back down and took another long lick. Shannon shuddered and then giggled. "No, baby, you are doing it just fine. I just didn't expect it. What happened? Did I really pass out?" "Afraid so, sweetness, I hope I can take that as a compliment." "Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes. Ughn! Oh Allison, you were paying attention weren't you? Oh! Oh, baby, do that again." I saw her hands start to reach for Allison's head and I grabbed her wrists and pinned them down. "Uh-uh. Let her do it. She's enjoying this just as much as you are." A muffled but emphatic "Uh-hmm" came from the vicinity of Shannon's groin, "and I see no need to rush things." I pulled her arms up around my neck and then lowered my mouth to take an already very erect nipple between my lips. I chewed at it between my lips for a few seconds then opened wide, sucked in as much flesh as I could and raked my teeth back in towards the center. When I got there I gently bit down on the areola and pulled it out away from her. Another 'Uhngh' of pleasure was my reward. Her breathing was starting to become labored again and I glanced to see what Allison was doing. She was licking Shannon's clit and running two fingers in and out of her pussy at the same time. She winked at me, clamped her mouth around Shannon's clit and sucked much harder than I had. From the muscle play along her jaw line I could tell that she was seriously abusing the little love button with her tongue at the same time. Shannon went into overdrive again. Not as bad as last time but still. The high-pitched, keening, whine came forth, her hips bucked and humped like they were trying to shake Allison free. Her hands around my neck felt like she was trying to pop my head off. I sucked hard at her nipple and she gave a long shuddering moan that sounded like it came from her toes. The tone was deep and strained. Then it passed and she released her hold on me. Allison had also released her and was once again just gently kissing and licking the surrounding tissue. She then crawled up and lay full out, once more breast-to-breast and bush to bush with her friend. Shannon took her head in her hands and kissed her with gentle passion. Their mouths were open just enough for their tongues to caress and tease each other. Allison whispered, "Jimmy was right. You do have a beautiful pussy." She kissed Shannon's cheek. "Good enough to eat, again, and again, and again. And you really do taste sweet. And I love you, Shannon Davis." At this Shannon hugged her young lover hard to her chest and wept, tears of joy rolling down her cheeks. "Oh, Allison, I love you so much." I slid down next to the two of them and whispered, "And I love you both." I pulled the sheet over us and we all just cuddled and slept. ------- Chapter 36: Volleyball Lessons I woke Saturday morning at my usual time. Sometime during the early morning Allison had rolled off of Shannon but the two were cuddled up as close as possible. Shannon was sort of half curled around Allison's head with one hand resting on Allison's left breast and Allison's head was tucked under her chin. It looked really awkward but they obviously didn't mind. I slipped out of bed, grabbed my running stuff, and headed for the bathroom. Shannon's a coffee drinker; I know, odd for a girl her age but hey, there are a lot of worse things a fourteen year old girl could be addicted to besides caffeine. I started the coffee pot and left a note telling Allison which route I was running and the time I left. A few minutes of light stretching and I was off. I felt fantastic but I really just wanted a good wake up for today. Not knowing what the day would bring but worried about what could happen; I felt an urgent need to save my strength. The girls were still out of it when I got home so rather than hit the shower I hit the refrigerator. I popped some cinnamon rolls into the oven, scrambled some eggs and made some toast. Mom and Dad have a couple of those lap trays tucked away for special occasions. Once in a while they would bring Allison and I, or each other, breakfast in bed. Twenty minutes later I had one tray sitting outside the door in the hallway as I took the first one in. I love Shannon beyond measure but as Allison is still first in my heart I took hers in first. I set the tray down, picked up a cinnamon roll and waved it gently under her nose. On the second pass her nose crinkled and her eyes fluttered open. I set the roll back on the tray and picked it up as she started to stir. She sat up a little and looked around, trying to get her bearings. The movement was enough to wake Shannon as well. Allison spotted me and smiled. "Oh, Jimmy," she said around a yawn. "You are just too sweet for words. Shannon, look what our loving man has gone and done." Shannon sat up and looked and a shy smile crept across her face. "James Edward Matthews." She smiled. "It seems every day I wake up and find another reason to love you." "The pleasure is all mine, ladies." Shannon just smiled. "That's not the way I remember it." I did my best to ignore her but I could feel myself blushing. "Lovely, if you would move to the other end I will bring yours right in as well." When she was clear I set Allison's tray over her lap and kissed her on the cheek. "Good morning, Princess." I hurried to the hall to get the second tray. Shannon smelled the coffee before I cleared the end of the bed. "Coffee! Oh you dear, sweet man." I set the tray across her lap and kissed her as well. She grabbed my head, moved my mouth to hers and without being invasive, thanked me thoroughly. "Good morning, Princess," I repeated. "As I said, the pleasure is all mine." "Okay, but only if you let me pay you back later." She picked up the steaming mug, took a sip and breathed a huge sigh. "Allison, how did we ever live without him?" "Poorly," she replied. I headed for the shower and made it a point to get in and out quickly. It's not that I didn't want company but I knew where it would lead and I had the feeling we would need that energy later. I dried myself and realized I had forgotten to bring clothes. I wrapped a towel around myself and headed for the kitchen. I poured Allison a second glass of orange juice and took it and the coffee pot back to my room. Without a word I poured Shannon a refill and placed Allison's new glass on her tray, then turned to get some clothes out of my dresser. My towel fell off as I opened my underwear drawer. Allison gave a little whistle and said, "Would you look at that ass! Shannon darling, do you think that's on the menu?" "If it is I want two pieces!" Shannon answered. I pulled on a fresh pair of boxers and said, "Maybe later. But for now, it's off limits." "What?" cried Allison. "We're about to spend an entire day in the care of two very demanding women. I don't know about you, but I want to save my strength. Besides, after last night, I don't think I could take it." "You're right, after last night," Shannon said sounding very serious, "I don't know if I could take any more just yet either." She smiled and continued, "But I would be willing to try." "Well some of us," Allison pointed out, "didn't get any last night. So if I have to wait, somebody owes me big time later." I smiled and kissed her. "I promise to give you all you want later, if you have the strength to ask." I held her eyes with mine and flicked my eyebrows up and down, "Be careful what you wish for. You saw what happened to Shannon." "Yes, I did!" She said, staring back at me. "And that is exactly the kind of effort and attention I want! And if I can't have it now, I plan to collect it later, with interest!" Shannon giggled and ran her foot up the side of Allison's leg, "okay, but later I want you to remember that you asked for it." She gave me a wink as she said it. I left Shannon the coffee but took the tray. I cleared Allison's dishes onto Shannon's tray then folded it up, picked up the one with the dishes and headed for the door. "You two should probably think about getting ready. While they may sleep in a little on the weekends I know Miss Jenkins is anxious to see what you two can do, I expect her to call early." "What do you mean us two?" Allison asked. "You don't seriously think you're just going along for the ride, do you?" "As if," I replied. "I think I know those two well enough to know better than that. Besides, you two had valid points about the whole scholarship issues and I have the same size problems as you do. Well, the same as Allison anyway, I don't think size is going to be that much of an issue for you, Shannon." Shannon answered. "Jimmy, trust me, size is not an issue for you either. And after last night, you have absolutely nothing to be nervous about. Where on earth did you learn to do that? That was your first time, wasn't it? I mean it was obviously just as much of surprise to Allison as it was to me." "Shannon, that is not what I was talking about it and you know it. I don't think they give scholarships for that. To answer your question, yes, that was the first time I ever did it. Well, not counting once in a dream. As to where I learned, it was the same place Allison said you two have been studying, I looked up some articles on the Internet. I found one co-written by three women. I figured they would know what they were talking about." "You did it in a dream?" She looked at Allison. "Let me guess, the FBI agent?" "No!" I said. Allison snapped her fingers, "Angela! You did it to Angela." Shannon looked shocked. "Who's Angela?" Then her eyes got big, "Angela that's coming over tonight?" "Yep," Allison answered. "It's a long story, but it's not what you think. Come shower with me and I'll bring you up to speed." With that the two of them headed off to the bathroom. The view from my position was heavenly. I made the bed, picked up the stray bits of clothing, folded them and laid them on the chair thinking that one nice little bonus of oral sex was no wet spot, cuts down on the laundry. I chuckled to myself and headed out to do the dishes. By the time the girls were out I was relaxing on the patio with a large orange juice and a couple of pieces of toast. The girls eventually came out dressed in workout clothes. While practical considering the activities planned for the day they also afforded a stellar vision that any teenaged boy could appreciate. I gave them each a thorough visual going over and said, "Boy, you two look great." Allison walked over, stroked my cheek and said, "Good enough to eat?" Shannon slapped her on the butt and said, "Hey! None of that, young lady! You behave yourself or so help me I'll spank you 'til you can't sit down." Allison gave her ass a little wiggle, looked over her shoulder, and said, "Promise?" I couldn't be sure if she was serious or not, so I decided to change the subject. I looked at Shannon. "She told you?" "Yeah, she filled me in." She shrugged. "You lead a very bizarre life, Mr. Matthews. I guess in the over-all scheme this is actually pretty mild. I have to give you credit though. You tried to do the right thing. And it still may work out. But if it doesn't, I know you'll do your best to make it right. I don't think you're capable of giving less than 100%." She put her arms around my neck. "And I won't be worried or jealous or anything like that because I know that you love us. It may be fun, it may even have an emotional component but it won't be love. So no matter how good it is, what you save for me is better. Allison is right, it's just someone saying 'thank you, ' and you should always say 'you're welcome.'" Just then the phone rang. It was Coach Jenkins and she was on her way. We had packed a bag with bathing suits and a change of clothes. The idea being that the ladies had a spa and we may get a chance to use it. If not, we at least wanted to try and get a shower before we left. I don't know about you but my skin starts to itch if I wear sweaty clothes. Both the girls had worked with Miss Hewitt before, Allison in camp and Shannon all of the previous year, and of course they both played for her now, so they knew they would be working hard today. And like Allison said, it wasn't like I was just going to sit on the sidelines and watch. When the car pulled up 20 minutes later I was expecting Coach Jenkins. I don't know why but I had not expected Coach Hewitt to be with her. I had vague recollections of her from Allison's younger days playing basketball. I had only seen her at games, so all I had were random images of a woman in slacks and a collared shirt standing courtside encouraging the girls. I had never seen her in her working clothes. Coach Jenkins had really good taste in women. Lynn was almost exactly my height. Last time I checked that was 5'6". But where I was wiry and slim from running she had a pleasant softness to her. I was soon to find that this was misleading, and that underneath she was muscled like a dancer. Again I had one of those insightful flashes. If Angela was Shannon's future, Lynn Hewitt was Allison's. And from where I stood, the future was looking real good! I did my best not to drool too much as I shook her hand. When I held on too long Allison elbowed me in the ribs. I blushed and muttered, "Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought for a second there. My feeble memory did not do you justice." "Well I'm flattered. It's nice to see you again, James." "No please, call me Jimmy. It's funny, not too long ago I met a girl and the first thing that popped into my head was 'That's Shannon in five years.' Now, seeing you again, my first thought was, 'That's Allison in ten.' Weird." Allison smiled and said, "Jimmy, I only dream about being that pretty when I grow up." Coach Hewitt was all over that, "Allison Matthews! You are a very beautiful young woman. You're going to be quite a catch when you grow up." "Actually, Miss Hewitt," Shannon said, sliding her arm through Allison's, "she's quite a catch now." I was just as surprised as Miss Hewitt by Shannon's action. I had not anticipated Shannon being willing to 'out' the two of them just yet. Well, it was just the coaches for now, but still. I glanced at Miss Jenkins to see if this revelation may have led to another. She was looking directly at me and there was no doubt that she had made the connection from our earlier conversation. I was trying hard to gauge her reaction. She raised one eyebrow and a little grin crept on to her face as she read my discomfort. The moment hung in the air and then she swung into action, "What do you say we get going? We've got a lot of ground to cover and it's already late." "Mel, it's only 9:00 on a Saturday for goodness sake. We don't need to do the crack of dawn every day." "We did that already, sweetie. And I for one could do it twice a day." And I thought I blushed. "Melinda! Oh my god! I can't believe you said that! And in front of students!" "They're not students today, Lynn. It's Saturday. Jimmy's not a student of ours at all, and the girls certainly don't think we sleep in separate beds. Do you girls?" "Duh! Where's the fun in that?" Allison stepped up and kissed Miss Jenkins on the cheek. "In case I forget to thank you for the ride later." Then she stepped to the car and climbed into the back seat. Now it was Miss Jenkins's turn to blush. Shannon took advantage of the moment by winking at Miss Hewitt and kissing Miss Jenkins's other cheek. "Ditto me," she said, and she followed Allison into the back seat. I thought Lynn was going to explode trying to hold the laughter in. I stepped up and shook Miss Jenkins hand. "Really, Coach, thanks for the ride." "My pleasure, Jimmy, and, by the way, if it's Bob and Susan when no one's around then I'm Melinda under the same circumstances, Mel for short." Miss Hewitt extended her hand. "And I'm Lynn." I took her hand and kissed it gently. "Nice to meet you, Lynn. Thank you for helping the girls. I'm sure you have better things to do with your free time." She sure is pretty when she blushes. Only this was more of a flush. A blush tends to start at the face and spread. This started at her chest and moved up her neck. Over her shoulder I saw Melinda smile as the tables turned yet again. I went around and climbed in on the other side of Allison and we were off. Mel was driving and, once we were moving, Lynn turned around and asked, "So? Why the sudden interest in volleyball?" Shannon took the lead, "Well, it's a fun game and while I may wind up taller than most girls I don't know that I really have that much of a future in basketball. Volleyball requires a lot of the same skills so I thought, actually we thought, we may be able to open some scholarship opportunities by broadening our horizons, especially for Allison. She's good but I don't see her competing at the college level on the basketball court." Allison took over from there, "Yeah, 5'2" may be okay for seventh grade but the women in my family tend to mature early, and we're not known for our height, I may not be done but I figure I'll be lucky if I reach 5'6". That isn't likely to get me very far jumping against most high school girls, let alone college. But being short is an advantage for a setter." "Well said, both of you," Lynn replied. "I'm impressed that you are even considering college at your age, much less actually making plans. Good for you. And your reasoning is sound. Shannon may compete but it's very unlikely that you will, Allison. And you are also correct about your height, or lack of it, being an asset in the right position in volleyball. The setter is like the catcher on a baseball team. They're the captains on the court. They set everything up. They decide who gets the ball and what they do with it when they get it. Their job is to run the show. Let the big girls worry about defense. The setter is the one who turns that defense into offense. It takes a special kind of talent to get people a foot taller than you to do what you tell them. So here is the plan. We're going to start out with some basic theory, look at a little tape, and then move outside to go through the various positions and responsibilities. Then we are going to work out with a little two on two. Jimmy, I hope you weren't planning on watching because I don't allow spectators." "No, ma'am," I said. "I have heard enough about you over the years to know better. When I agreed to come along I had a pretty good idea what was going to be expected of me." "Well, we'll see if you can keep up your end. You come to play with my girls; you better bring your A-game." "Miss Hewitt," Allison said with some intensity, "you will find that Jimmy doesn't have a B-game. He gives 110% to everything he does. I don't think you'll have any regrets inviting him to play." The day was just as brutal as we had anticipated. Coach Hewitt had keys to the gymnasium at the city Parks & Recreation Center. It turned out that the projector was broken, so we skipped the film, set up a court and got to work. We all picked up the basics very quickly. The new stances were the hardest part. Moving and standing in a wide based crouch teaches you where your muscles are very quickly. Not to mention all of the jumping, diving, blocking... By 1:00 everyone's thighs were complaining. Okay, mine weren't that bad but none of the others ran 5 miles a day as a warm up. After lunch we started playing for real. Two on two is a tough, tough, game in volleyball. You have to move constantly. The teams stayed pretty even until Lynn and I teamed up. We chewed Melinda and Allison up. For her height, Lynn had a very impressive vertical jump. When we were up 10-zip Shannon joined their side. This made it harder but we still won 15-8. I hugged Lynn and spun her around in a big circle when she crushed the last point. Then I set her down and blushed and apologized. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... uhm..." "That's okay, Jimmy. There's nothing quite like a crushing victory to get the blood going eh? I have to tell you, I'm pleasantly surprised. You may want to consider taking a more serious look at volleyball for your own future. Mel told me you're a runner but track and field is a killer at the college level, you have no free time. You have a natural sort of rhythm that lends itself to this sport." "Lends itself to a lot of things," Shannon muttered just loud enough to be heard clearly. Allison shushed her and they both giggled. I blushed and gave her an evil look but when I looked back I couldn't help but notice Lynn's nipples were getting hard as she continued, "I don't see you hitting but with a little more instruction you could easily set for several club teams I know. A little hard work and experience and you could find a scholarship in your future as well." "Thanks. I'll give it some thought. For now though, I would really like to get out of these clothes." Her nipples popped out a little further. It was obvious she hadn't missed any of the innuendo flying around. I wasn't sure how I felt about our relationship being made even this public, but if anyone knew the value and importance of discretion it would be two gay school teachers. Melinda chimed in, "Okay, let's get this stuff put away, and then how about a little quality time in the jacuzzi? I think we can all fit." Shannon pumped her fist and said, "Yes! I knew there was a reason I packed that swim suit." We all laughed. It only took a few minutes to get the equipment put away, and then we piled into the car for the ride back to their place. They have a really nice place. The dècor was tasteful and understated. The landscaping was immaculate. Apparently Melinda was quite the gardener. The master bedroom opened onto the screened porch area and the jacuzzi. We took turns rinsing off and changing. Full showers could come later to remove the chlorine, for now we just wanted to get the sweat off before getting in. The warm, swirling water was very welcome and I wished we'd had more time, especially since it was me alone with four gorgeous women in a hot tub, but Tim and Angela were going to be at our house in just a few hours. Lynn was the last one in the shower and seemed to be taking her time. When she eventually joined us she was wearing a bikini that wasn't much bigger than Allison's and she looked much more relaxed. Must have been some shower. I did my best to not notice the flush she got when Mel cocked her head in one of those little poses that you just know has hidden meaning. It had, "have a good time?" written all over it. Nah, I'm sure it was just the hot water that caused her to turn so red. ------- Chapter 37: New Friends Soon it was time to go. The girls hugged both coaches to thank them for their special efforts and attention. Lynn looked at me with surprise when she found me in line for a hug. "Hey, if a beautiful woman is handing out free hugs, I'm getting in line." I hugged her briefly and continued, "Besides I learned just as much as the girls did." I then hugged Melinda as well. "Hey, you're not my teacher and I like hugging my friends." They took us home and we began getting ready for our guests. "Man, my legs feel like they are going to fall off," Allison complained. "Mine too. I thought we were in pretty good shape," Shannon countered. I put on my best deadpan expression and said, "I think that any time you spend time in new positions things tend to get a little stiff and sore. What do you think, Allison?" She turned beet red and then hit me when Shannon and I both busted up. She recovered quickly. "Well, you know what they say, no pain, no gain." We all cracked up at that. As I was making patties for the grill I said, "Well, I for one had a really good time today." "Yeah," said Shannon. "I hope you saved your strength." She smacked me on the butt and added, "'Cause you promised me some of this for later." "After last night, there isn't much left. Don't get me wrong, I'll go my best, but..." Allison stopped on her way past with plates and kissed me on the cheek. "Your best is always good enough for me." Shannon rolled her eyes. "Suck up." Allison just grinned. "Who? Me? Every chance I get!" She walked slowly away swinging her cute little butt in exaggerated arcs as she went. I looked at Shannon who was following the motion with her eyes. "Dessert?" "Definitely. As for the appetizer..." She put her hand behind my neck and drew me in for a hot kiss. We were still at it when Allison got back. "Hello! Company coming, lots to do, busy, busy... Ah, who am I kidding? Seconds!" Shannon and I broke when she couldn't hold back the giggle any longer. She pushed Allison up against the counter and began ravishing her mouth while her hands ran all over the younger girls body. Allison finally had to push her off, "Stop! Oh baby you gotta stop or I'm gonna start tearing clothes off and do you right here in the floor. And we have guests coming." Shannon ground her pelvis against Allison's hip and started showering her neck with little kisses. "Okay. I'll stop if you want me to but just so you know." She dropped one hand and rubbed it hard over Allison's crotch. "You're on my private dessert menu. And I'm really, really, hungry." A tremor ran over Allison's whole body and she leaned hard against Shannon's shoulder to steady herself. Shannon caressed her cheek and walked around me to finish the salad she was working on. I was as hard as Japanese scrabble by now just from watching. I started running through a list of movies I might like to watch tonight. It was obvious that I was going to have several hours to kill. It was either that, or going to bed alone and I had gotten seriously attached to waking up with Allison. Angela and Tim arrived right at 6:00. Shannon was closest so she answered the door. This confused them as they didn't recognize her and thought they had the wrong house. Shannon just stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Shannon. You must be Tim and Angela. Come on in, Allison is changing and Jimmy is watching the barbeque. You brought your suits, right?" And the evening was underway. Shannon showed Tim to my room to change. Allison came out just as they were passing her door. "You're here! We're so glad you could come." She grabbed Tim and hugged him, then hugged Angela and pulled her into her bedroom. "You can just put your stuff anywhere. Take your time and just come out to the pool whenever you are ready." Twenty minutes later we were all sitting around the picnic table stuffing ourselves on burgers, chips, and potato salad that they had brought with them. "Angela, this is like the best potato salad I have had in my life, where did you get it?" Allison asked. Tim answered, "Original recipe. She whipped it up last night. And before you ask, my mother, my aunt, and every other woman we know has been after her for the recipe. She's not talking." "What? No! You have to tell me. Angela, this is great. Please?" Angela just laughed. "Nope. Sorry. If I tell you, then I have to tell everyone. It's my one claim to fame. Trust me, and Tim can attest to this, I am a terrible cook. I've actually burned macaroni and cheese." "Oh everyone's done that," Shannon said. Tim shook his head. "In a microwave? With a timer?" "Now that takes talent," Allison said as we all laughed. "Don't let it bother you though. We can't all be Martha what's-her-name, domestic goddess. I'm not allowed near the washer. I left a red top soaking in the washer and forgot about it. Then Saturday morning rolled around and I threw my mom's brand new, 600 thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets in and ran it." Angela almost spit soda all over the table, "Oh my god, you didn't." "Oh yeah. Mom wasn't so bad; she was just sort of naturally cranked. Dad on the other hand, I mean what's the big deal about sleeping on pink sheets? They were still just as soft as before. What? You're afraid the guys on the bowling team are going to see them?" Everyone had a good laugh at that one. Allison stood and started stacking up plates. "Jimmy," she asked, "could you give me a hand?" "Sure." I wasn't sure what was up but I knew a 'we need to talk' when I heard one. I started gathering up the condiment bottles and followed her into the kitchen. Once we were inside I started putting bottles and jars away into the fridge' and asked, "What's up?" "I think they're nervous about Shannon." "So that's it. I thought something seemed off. They haven't so much as touched each other since they got here. What did you have in mind?" It was obvious she wanted to break the ice. "I'm going to kiss Shannon. Think it will be a problem? I mean, they already know about you and me; you think it's too much?" "I doubt it. Angela's been with other girls. I can't be sure about Tim but my guess is he knows about her history so no, I don't think it will be a problem." "Angela's been with a girl? How do you know?" I just smiled. "Came to me in a dream." And I headed for the door. As I hit the porch she caught up to me and tried to take a chunk out of my butt. "Hey! Watch it! That's tender back there." "Smart ass." We reached the table. "Anyone want dessert?" Then she turned to Shannon. "Not you! I know what you want and I told you, l-a-t-e-r. So behave yourself." Then she leaned in and kissed her hard on the mouth. Shannon didn't hesitate, just went with it. When they broke apart she said, "Okay, but you promised." Allison turned back to Tim and Angela. "Anyone else." Tim answered, "Sure I'll take one." Angela slapped him on the shoulder and Allison turned bright red. "She meant dessert!" Shannon and I just cracked up. "That's okay, Angela, I don't mind. Is he any good? I mean, between Shannon and Jimmy I have pretty high standards." Now it was Tim's turn to blush. Angela turned up the heat, "Well, he was a little tentative at first, but he's been getting better. I don't know if I'm really the best judge though. Maybe we could use a second opinion? Would you mind?" Tim just stared at his sister. Then the testosterone level rose to a high enough level and he shifted to 'bring it on' mode. He rose and took Allison's hand, kissed it and said, "Pardon me, my lady, but I am new to the romantic arts and need an unbiased opinion of my progress. I know that it is much to ask of a lady of your obvious high station in life, but if I may impose upon your grace?" Allison beamed. "Why it would be my pleasure, young sir? How may I be of assistance?" He dropped to one knee. "My lady fair, it is no small thing to ask one so far above me, but would you grant me a kiss?" "Nay, gallant sir, it is not so much to ask. For one so bold and courteous is surely destined to be a knight. And one day as you ride past the palace, resplendent in your armor for all to see, I shall harbor a secret smile and know that I have been before where so many will surely wish to be." With that she drew him to his feet and slipped her arms around his neck. He drew in slowly and pressed his lips to hers. They started soft and slow and eventually just opened their mouths enough to tease at the tips of each other's tongues, then broke apart. "So what do you think?" Angela asked with a smile. "I don't know," Allison said. "Hard to say on such a small sample. I may need more time for study." "Bullshit! You little tramp." Shannon laughed. "Anybody that good with his tongue has to be a great kisser! Now behave yourself. Don't make me spank you in front of company." "But! But! But!" She stuttered. "Oh! You are so mean! I never get to have any fun." And with that she flopped down on the bench and sulked. While Tim and Angela were already laughing, I decided it was time to turn it up a notch. "Allison Ann! I am ashamed of you, acting this way in front of our guests. Shannon? I think someone needs an attitude adjustment. Could you assist me please?" "Absolutely." Allison was already up and looking for a place to go but it was too late. Shannon headed her off as she got the far end of the table. I grabbed her from behind and Shannon grabbed her feet and we headed for the pool. As you would expect Allison was kicking, screaming, scratching and trying to bite me all the way there. But it was no use. Being the smallest of us she was just no match. Besides she wouldn't hurt us on purpose over something like a simple dunk in the pool. We didn't see Tim and Angela follow us. Just as Allison came up sputtering for air two sets of hands shoved hard and Shannon and I joined her. When we came back up Allison was laughing along with them. Tim pointed his finger at me and said, "Next time pick on someone your own size." He should have known better. As soon as he was distracted, Angela nailed him from behind and he joined the rest of us. Angela jumped in on her own and soon we were all laughing and splashing like little kids and having a great time. The ice had definitely been broken. That was especially obvious when our game of 'Marco-polo' was ended because we caught the two of them taking advantage of the fact that our eyes were closed to make out. It seemed to be taking quite a long time for Tim to catch anyone and eventually they got a little too worked up and Allison heard something that caused her to look. "Hey! That's cheating!" Shannon and I opened our eyes to see them still embracing. "All right, all right!" Angela said. "So what was that dessert you mentioned?" "Actually," Allison said, "I have no idea. That was just a reason to kiss Shannon so you two would lighten up a little. Sheesh. I finally figured out that her presence was making you nervous. And as you can see," she put her arm around both Shannon and I; "we don't make judgments about who people choose to love. Love happens. No one knows why or how, it just does. I love these two more than I can even express. I don't think I could live without either of them in my life. And I certainly don't think it's fair that the world expects me to choose. So relax. You're among friends and we all think it's wonderful that you have each other. Don't we guys?" Shannon and I just nodded. We all took turns getting the chlorine off. Out of deference to our guests, we went one at a time. Eventually we ended up in the living room watching 'Young Frankenstein' and eating popcorn. About half way through the movie Allison got up and walked towards the hall. As she passed Angela she tapped her on the shoulder and motioned her to follow. She told me later what happened. As Angela reached the hall, Allison took her hand and pulled her into her bedroom. She set her on the bed and sat next to her. They talked for some time and then Angela burst into tears and hugged her. Allison held her for a few moments then pulled her head up, kissed her gently, stroked her hair and left. She waited a few moments then came back to the living room. "Tim, can I see you for a second." Tim stood and stepped towards her. "Sure, what's up?" She just motioned towards the hall. "It's Angela. She needs you." She led him down the hall to her room and opened the door. The light was off but when his eyes adjusted he could just make out his sister's swimsuit neatly folded on the chair. Glancing to his left he saw his sister in Allison's bed with the sheet pulled up over her breasts waiting for him. He froze. You could almost hear his heart pounding from the living room. Allison took his hand and gently pulled him inside. She kissed his cheek and then turned and left, pulling the door closed behind her. When she got back to the living room she picked up the remote and turned the sound up a little, then sat down between Shannon and I and pulled us both closer to her. I don't know what happened in that room over the next two hours. Or if anything did. And I don't care. But when Tim and Angela Osborne came back out they practically glowed in the dark. They were holding hands and it was apparent that whatever had transpired had taken their love for each other someplace special. We were half way through another movie by then, but I don't even remember what it was. We all rose to say goodbye. Tim and I shook hands; the girls hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Angela's hug was very firm and lingered a little longer than I expected. She kissed me on the cheek. Something in her eyes told me that this wasn't over yet. Then she hugged Allison and I thought she would never let go. No words were spoken but by the time she let go they were both a little teary. Angela laughed at herself and blushed as she wiped at her eyes. We walked them out to the car and waved as they drove away. We headed back in to clean up. The glow surrounding Tim and Angie had somehow spread over all of us. Without a word we all just stripped and climbed into bed. Allison lay on her side with Shannon spooned close around her. When I wrapped myself around Shannon, Allison tugged my arm as far as it would reach around her and we all drifted off to sleep. What happened next was the biggest surprise I'd had in weeks. ------- Chapter 38: A Quiet Day At Home It felt like I had just lay down and snuggled up to Shannon and suddenly it was 5:30 and the alarm was going off. I rolled quickly to shut it off. I must not have moved all night. I stretched to relieve some of the stiffness. Normally I'm up early and shut it off, but this morning the alarm had already done its damage; the girls were awake and stirring as well. Shannon voiced what we all must have been thinking. "It can't be morning." Allison stretched and groaned. "It must be, or I wouldn't be this stiff. I don't think I moved all night." "Me either," I said. "But that's okay." I kissed Shannon's shoulder. "I was fine right where I was." "Hmm, me too. Good thing, because I couldn't have moved unless one of you moved first." "The weirdest thing is that I don't think I dreamed at all," I said. Allison turned toward me with a curious look on her face, "Now that you mention it, neither did I. Or if I did I don't remember it. What about you, Sha?" Shannon stretched again. "Nope. Don't think so. Nothing I could have dreamed would have been as nice as where I was anyway. But all good things come to an end. And right now, I gotta pee something awful." She climbed out and a few seconds later we heard the bathroom door close. I rolled over so I was face to face with Allison. "Good morning, Princess," I said and stroked her arm. "Good morning yourself, handsome," she said and caressed my cheek. "You know, I'm getting attached to waking up next to you. I don't know if I want to go back to waking up alone again." "Yeah, I know what you mean. I kind of feel sorry for Shannon." "I plan to make it up to her later," she said with a smile. "I'm thinking maybe today we might like a little solo time together. Do you mind?" "No, don't be silly. You two have the same problem Tim and Angela have, well, had anyway. That was a really nice thing you did last night by the way. Anyway, we all need a little one on one time now and then. Shannon and I will need ours now and then as well. I have some chores I need to get done anyway. Take as much time as you need." Shannon was just coming back from the bathroom. "In fact, why don't you two talk about it while I start breakfast?" I started to get up but Allison grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. "Oh no you don't, bucko, you did all the work yesterday. You can get up if you want but breakfast is on me. Are you running today?" "Yeah, I really should. I took it easy yesterday. Can you wait that long?" "Not a problem. Where are you going?" "Four I think." It was the longest individual course at just under 5 miles. I wanted a good solid run but didn't feel the need to double up. "Fine. I'll get things ready and then start cooking when you get back. I think it's my turn in the bathroom. Kiss me." I kissed her and she bounced off. Shannon had been waiting patiently. "What were we supposed to talk about?" "Allison thought you two could use a little quality time for just the two of you today and I was agreeing." "And I don't get a say in this? Just kidding. That's sweet of you to think of us. You won't be lonely?" "Of course I'll be lonely," I said as I climbed out of bed. "And when you go home you will be lonely. And when you and I need time together, Allison will be lonely. But one on one time is something we all need once in a while no matter how much we enjoy being together. We all know it, we all accept it, and most importantly we all love each other enough to not be threatened by it." She just stared at me for a second. "Jimmy, you are just about the most amazing, smartest guy I have ever met. Every time a question comes up you seem to know exactly what to say to explain it. And you are right every time. Just another reason to love you I guess." "I'm not all that," I replied as I pulled clean clothes out of my dresser. Shannon grabbed my arm and hauled me back around to face her. "Yes you are," she said with some heat. "Don't sell yourself short, Jimmy. You really are the most insightful person I have ever met. You have an intuitive grasp of interpersonal relationships. I don't even know adults that do it as well as you do." "Yeah? Then why did I blow it so bad with Angela?" "Jimmy, that's just lack of experience. Don't confuse the two. You did the best you could with the experience you have. And you don't know that you blew it. That situation is still up in the air. You are that good. Don't let me hear you putting yourself down like that again or you're likely to meet a side of me you don't want to get know better. Understood?" I smiled. "Yeah. I got it. I may not buy all of it, but thanks for believing in me." I finished getting dressed and turned to leave. Allison was leaning in the doorway. "And that goes double for me, mister," she said and gave me a hard swat on the butt as I went passed her. I stretched and checked the time, then headed out. I kept my normal pace until I had about a half mile to go then punched it up a little. The first turn that I can see home from is about a quarter mile away. From there I gave it everything I had. I hit the garage and found that I had taken a full minute off my usual time. And I wasn't even that tired. I took some extra time to walk around the yard and loosen up. A few slow stretches (Angela would be proud) and I hit the shower. Breakfast was omelets. Allison makes a great omelet. I was half way through with it when a police car pulled into the driveway. A second car pulled up in front of the house. Thank God it was Shannon who answered the door. "May I help you?" she asked. "Are you," he checked a card in his hand, "Allison Matthews?" "No sir. I'm just watching the house for the weekend. Is there a problem?" "I'm sorry, are Allison or James Matthews here." Something in his tone bothered her. "One moment, please." She started to close the door. The woman from the second car shoved her way to the front between the two officers. "I'm Mary Sampson with the department of social services and I want to see James and Allison Matthews right now. Now I don't know who you are but you better let us in right now." The officer in front rolled his eyes and stepped back. Since they were all outside, we were shielded from view but I could swear I could see the hair on the back of Shannon's neck rise. She held up her hand to stop the woman from entering and said, "Excuse me. Officer..." she looked at his name badge, "Thompson, do you have a warrant to enter these premises?" The office smiled. "No, ma'am." "Then please escort this woman off this property; she is not welcome here." "I beg your pardon?" The outraged woman began. "Just who do you think you are?" Shannon interrupted her, "Who I am, is not your concern, what I am is someone who is here at the owners request and confident enough in my authority to ask you to leave immediately." The woman started to interrupt but Shannon rolled right over her, raising her voice slightly as she went on, "I will only ask you once. The next request will include a long legal term beginning with the letter 'T.'" She turned back to Thompson, "Officer Thompson, if you would please remove her. If she resists please knock and I will swear out charges for trespassing. When she is gone, if you will please wait here, I will be with you in a moment. Thank you." And she closed the door. She walked quickly to the kitchen and said, "You two, Mom's room, now!" in an urgent whisper. "Stay there unless I come for you." She picked up the phone and dialed. "Mom? It's Shannon. I need you and Dad over her right away. You know that emergency power of attorney the Matthews' left you? You better bring it, the police and Child Services are at the door and I've got a really bad feeling about this." She hung up, took a moment to gather herself. Thankfully she had dressed while I was gone. I don't think it would have been as easy in a bathrobe. It took a second to steady herself, to push back the subtle shake in her hands. "I can do this." She told herself, and returned to the door. Looking past the officers she could see Mary Sampson in her car screaming at her cell phone. "Thank you officers, if you would like to come inside while you wait, someone will be available shortly to assist you." She opened the door. Mary Sampson saw the movement and started to get out of the car. The second office saw Shannon's eyes flicked to her, turned, and walked towards the car. As she started to step out of the car he said, "Mrs. Sampson, please remain in your vehicle. If you come back on the property I will have no choice but to arrest you." The woman slammed the door shut. It was all Shannon could do to keep a straight face. "Thank you, officer." "Oh no, my pleasure, ma'am. It's just everyone's bad luck that she was on call this weekend. This is not a happy visit to begin with. 'Steel-Heart Sampson' isn't going to make it any easier. I assume you've called someone." "Yes sir, my parents. They have emergency power of attorney for Jimmy and Allison. The Matthew's have one for my brother and I as well. In case something happens." She took a deep breath. "Officer, did something happen?" "Miss?" "Davis. Shannon Davis." "Miss Davis. I can't discuss anything with you at this time. When your parents arrive it will be up to them to determine if you will be allowed to be present. Until then, I'm sorry. But I will say that was sure fun to watch. I don't think I ever remember anyone getting the best of that woman. The boys down town are going to roll when I tell them. You handled yourself very well. Where did you learn all that? Your daddy an attorney." Shannon knew it was bad, but she also knew that she had to be there for Allison and me. She took advantage of the turn in the conversation to distract herself, "Actually he's an accountant. I read a lot, and I just did a mock trial in government covering search and seizure, I took a chance." She got up. Would either of you care for some coffee? Or water?" "Coffee would be fine. Black, please." He chuckled and said, "Nice bluff. Remind me never to play poker with you." Shannon smiled, "And for you, Officer... ?" She looked closer but didn't want to even try to pronounce the name. "It's okay. Just call me French. I'm not but that's what everyone calls me. Coffee would be fine, thank you, Shannon." She poured them both coffee and they all sat down and waited. Shortly another car pulled into the driveway. Tom and Karen Davis came up the walk and entered without knocking. At the curb Mary Sampson started to get out of her car but then apparently thought better of it and slammed the door shut again. Shannon couldn't hold it in any longer. As soon as he was through the door, she rushed to her dad, hugged him and started crying. Tom held his daughter and reached out a hand to officer 'French.' "I'm Tom Davis, officer. My wife can show you the paperwork; we're legal guardians of both James and Allison Matthews in the absence of their parents." Karen handed French the paperwork. He glanced at it and gave it back. "Thank you. If you could all have a seat, please, there is no good way to say this..." Karen held up her hand. "One moment, please. Shannon dear, would you go get Jimmy and Allison please." "Yes, ma'am." She went back to the bedroom and knocked. "It's me." The door opened and Allison flew into her arms. "Shannon! What's the matter? What's going on?" Shannon took her hand and pulled her gently toward the living room. I followed silently. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. The officers waited until everyone was seated and French continued. "James, Allison, I am afraid I have some bad news. We were notified earlier this morning. There was an accident at your parents' hotel last night. We don't have all the details but at some point early this morning carbon monoxide built up in their room. The detector in their room failed. I'm sorry to have to tell you that your parents are dead." I'd known it was coming. From the moment he started talking. Probably even before that. It didn't make it easier. All I could do was hold my sister while she wept. Why wasn't I crying? What was wrong with me? My parents were dead and I couldn't shed a tear? I stroked her hair and that's when I saw it. My ring! I was wearing my ring. Why hadn't I seen it before? This was a dream! ------- Chapter 39: Miracles Do Happen I jerked awake. I was in my bed snuggled up to Shannon. Allison lay just beyond her, still asleep and facing the wall. I turned to see the clock; it was just after midnight. Jumping out of bed I raced to the kitchen, flipped on the light, grabbed the phone, and quickly dialed the hotel number from the note on the counter. A woman's voice answered. "Hello. My name is James Matthews. My parents are Richard and Cindy Matthews; they are guests in the hotel. I need to speak to them immediately." "Mr. Matthews, it's late, perhaps in the morning would be better." I yelled into the phone, "I need to speak to my parents now!" "One moment please." Elevator music filled my ear, punctuated with encouraging advertisements for the hotel. The woman came back on the line. "I'm sorry, there is no answer in the room; they must not have returned yet. Would you like to leave a message?" <> I could argue with this idiot all night and get nowhere. "No thank you." I hung up and redialed. I adopted a slightly British accent and re-pitched my voice. "Yes, good evening, hotel security please." More fake music. "Hotel security, my name is Martin Sloan, how may I help you." "Mr. Sloan, my name is James Matthews, my parents are staying in the hotel, I can't reach them. The woman at the desk tried the room but there was no answer. She said they hadn't come back in yet. Mr. Sloan, my parents aren't party people; they came down there to relax. I think something is wrong and I would like you to please go up and check their room." "Slow down. You want me to go up and possibly wake up your parents in the middle of the night? What should I tell them?" "Tell them their daughter had a bad dream and their son asked you to check on them when they didn't answer the phone. Ask them to call me right away. I'll apologize if necessary. Please, Mr. Sloan, I think something's wrong. Please! Just go check on my parents." "Okay. Okay. I'll have your parents call you, but if you're wrong I expect you to do a lot of explaining." The line went dead and I waited, and waited. I paced, and waited some more. Finally I couldn't wait any longer. I dialed the hotel again. This time a man answered the phone. "Martin Sloan, please." "I'm sorry, Mr. Sloan is not available at this time. Can I take a message?" "What do you mean he's not available?" I yelled. "I just spoke to him. He went to check on my parents." "Are your parents Richard and Cindy Matthews?" "Yes, sir." "What's your name, son?" "Jimmy." "Jimmy, my name is Marcus Roberts. I am the night manager. How old are you, Jimmy?" "Eighteen," I lied. "Jimmy, we think your parents are going to be okay. We have them on oxygen and the paramedics are en route now. When Mr. Sloan didn't get an answer at your parents' door he used his passkey and entered the room. It was clear immediately that there was a problem with the air. He called for assistance and pulled your parents from the room. They will be taken to a nearby hospital shortly. I was just looking up your phone number from their check-in slip to call you but you beat me to it. I have to go make sure everything is okay, but I will call you again when I have more details. Jimmy? If you don't mind me asking, how did you know something was wrong?" "My little sister had a bad dream and made me call." "Well, Jimmy, most people would think that was strange. But then most people never met my Aunt Alice. Jimmy, if your little sister has any more bad dreams, you listen to her. Try to get some sleep son. I'll call you when I have more information." I hung up the phone and turned to find Allison and Shannon standing behind me. They were both wearing robes. Shannon handed me mine. Allison simply said, "What happened?" I hugged my sister close and I could feel the tears in my eyes, "I had a bad dream." She stroked my neck and waited for me to recover. Then she drew me to the kitchen table and sat me down. She took one of the other chairs and said, "Tell me." Shannon stepped behind my chair and began to lightly massage my shoulders. I told them everything. As usual Allison waited patiently while I repeated the story. Then she got up, walked around the table, sat down in my lap, and put her arms around my neck. Shannon leaned over and put her arms around both of us. We stayed that way for few minutes. We may have stayed that way all night but the phone rang. Shannon handed me the cordless. "Hello." "Jimmy? It's Marcus Roberts. I just got off the phone with the hospital. It looks like your parents are going to be okay. They are going to have to spend some time getting some special treatments to clear the toxic gases from their blood, but all indications are that they are going to be just fine." He went on to give me the name and address of the hospital. I wrote it down, thanked him for all of his help and said, "Mr. Roberts, I think you will agree with me when I say that it would be best if as few people as possible knew about this. I for one would not want the press to get a hold of it. Thank you for your assistance." Then I hung up and told the girls what he had said. I was suddenly exhausted, physically and emotionally. There was nothing more that could be done tonight so we decided that the best thing to do was to go back to bed and try and get some sleep. Allison must have turned off my alarm because it was almost 8:00 when I finally woke up. Considering I am normally up by 5:30 that's a long time to over sleep. Sometime during that time the girls had left. I didn't hear them so I figured they must be outside somewhere. After a quick trip to the bathroom I made my way out to the living room. I could see Shannon sitting reading a book on the sofa. There was no sign of Allison, but it didn't take long to find her. Shannon must have heard me coming because she turned and put her finger to her lips indicating that I should be quiet. I soon discovered why. Allison was stretched out on the couch under a light blanket, her head pillowed in Shannon's lap. She looked very peaceful. You had to look close to see the tear tracks. I leaned over to kiss Shannon good morning. I saw an empty cup on the coffee table and guessed that she had long ago run out and didn't want to wake Allison. I got the pot from the kitchen, re-filled it and handed it to her. She mouthed a silent thank you as she took it. She looked really tired. After she'd had a sip I mouthed "How long?" and pointed to Allison. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear. "She's been out for a couple hours, but I thought she would never go to sleep. We got up about an hour after you fell asleep. She just wanted me to hold her. She cried off and on most of the night. Could you hand me that pillow over there? I want to try and sneak out from under her before I wet myself." I smiled and reached for the pillow. Between us we managed to get it in place. I gently held Allison's head while Shannon slid out from under her, and then wedged the pillow in place. Shannon headed immediately for the bathroom. I went to the kitchen for some juice, and then took it and her coffee cup, along with the pot, out to the back patio. She joined me a few minutes later. "So how is she doing?" I asked. "I think she'll be okay. The whole thing just scared her. I mean gosh, she almost lost her parents last night. They're not even my parents and I wanted to cry just as much as she did. And if that isn't bad enough then there is what might have happened to the two of you if it had happened. It shook her pretty bad but I think it was mostly the shock and I think she'll be okay. So what are we going to do?" "Well I think the first thing we better do is call your parents. They have to know. Most likely we are going to spend the day in the car. I hate to do it but I really am going to need to talk to Allison about damage control. If the story gets out it's going to draw attention. What the papers would do with something like this. We'd be on the front page of every tabloid in the country, 'Girl's dream saves parents!' Every ESP nut in the world would be camped on our doorstep wanting an interview. Thank you but that is exactly the kind of publicity I don't want." "Well at least you told them it was Allison's dream, not yours." "Yeah, but that still puts the family on the front page. I don't want there to be something that someone may later think of when they are trying to put two and two together. But how do we stop that." A voice came from the doorway. "We threaten to sue their asses off if word one shows up in the paper or anywhere else." A very bleary eyed Allison closed the door behind her and joined us in the warm sunlight. "Ugh! That's bright. Feels good though." She planted herself between Shannon's legs on the lounger and asked, "How much have I missed." "Not much, we just got started. Sorry we woke you up. I thought we were careful enough." She yawned. "You were. I missed this." She rubbed her hand on Shannon's leg. "After Shannon's lap, a pillow is like sleeping on a rock. It's soft enough, but there is just something missing." Shannon pulled her back for a quick 'thank you' hug as she continued, "Anyway, you're right, we need to get Shannon's parents involved, and the sooner the better, but they're really only the first step." "Do you think threat of legal action is going to be enough? And how do we justify the need to hush it up? An attorney is going to want this on the front page for maximum effect." "Not if you get the right attorney. The people we really need to justify this to are going to be Mom and Dad. They are never going to buy that it was my dream that triggered this. They'll know it was you. There are simply too many past incidents. They'll want to know everything, especially Mom. And I don't see how we can tell them less than that. Any part of the story we tell them just brings up questions and they won't stop until they have answers. Mom is going to flip when she hears about what you are doing with Rebecca. I think maybe we need to talk to Bob first, and then, depending on what he says, Rebecca. I'm sure she could slam a lid on this if we convinced her that it needed one. But the FBI showing up would generate exactly the kind of attention that we are trying to avoid. So I think we need to keep them out of it." She paused for a moment, it was obvious she was thinking about something. "I think Mom is going to want to meet Rebecca." "You think so?" I asked. She gave me her, 'oh please' look and ignored me. "Well, now that I'm up I'm hungry. Those omelets you almost had last night sound like a good idea so why don't you call Karen and get them headed this way and I'll start breakfast. Shannon, would you be a love and just touch things up and make sure we haven't left any big red 'kids having sex' signs anywhere?" "Sure, I think I'll start changing the sheets on Jimmy's bed. Maybe yours too." Allison giggled at that. "Couldn't hurt. Let's get to it, kids; it's going to be a long day." Tom answered the phone but as soon as I started talking he had Karen on the extension. I gave them the basics, leaving out the part about dreams and just saying that the hotel had called us. Karen immediately went on the attack. "Jimmy, you should have called us immediately!" she began. Thankfully, Tom intercepted her. "And that would have accomplished what, honey? Instead of being rested we could have rushed down at 2:00 in the morning and spent the night in a hospital waiting room wondering what was going on? I understand where you are coming from, honey, but I think Jimmy did the right thing. How is Allison?" "She's okay now. The little brat waited until I went back to sleep then had a meltdown. Shannon held her and let her cry it out, and then got stuck playing pillow for her while she slept. I think she just needed to get it out. I think poor Shannon was about to burst a kidney before I finally got up and helped her slip away." "Well, I'm glad Shannon could be there for her," Karen said. "We'll be over in a little while. I assume everyone wants to go see them." Tom jumped back in, "Actually, honey, I think we should wait until we hear something more. If it was carbon monoxide then they are going to be sitting in a hyperbaric chamber and we won't be able to see them anyway. Jimmy? I assume you have the number of the hospital. Why don't you get that for me and we'll call first and see how they are doing. No sense driving two hours for nothing. We'll call you back in a few minutes. You did well, my boy. Give the girls a hug for us." I gave them the number and went to update the girls. Allison was just taking the first omelet out of the oven where she used the broiler to melt the cheese on top. Did I mention she makes great omelets? Maybe she could give Angela some cooking lessons. I called Bob while I ate. "Bob? It's Jimmy. Are you busy?" "Jimmy? Hold on a second." I heard some background noise for a few seconds and then there was a click and he came back on the line. The beep that followed told me that he was changing phones. "Okay, I'm on a regular phone. Obviously something happened or you wouldn't have called. What's up?" I gave him the short version and my concerns about publicity and the probable reaction of my parents. "Shit! Oh, sorry. Okay, I know just the guy to handle the hotel. He's not an ambulance chaser so he'll do what we ask him to without trying to talk us into anything we don't want to do. I wish I could talk to your parents first but I think we need to try and put a lid on the hotel first. Unfortunately that is going to be just one more reason that we need to tell your parents everything. The biggest question mark is Rebecca. I don't see how we can keep her out of this. Allison is correct; your mother is most likely going to want to see her. She'll probably want you to just drop the whole thing and let Rebecca and the Bureau handle it on their own." "No! Not going to happen," I said. "Whoa, down boy! I understand your feelings on this. I'm just pointing out that you better be prepared for it because it's a natural parental response. How much does Rebecca know?" "Well, she knows Allison's name and my face. A few other scattered facts and whatever deductions she's made on her own." "Not a lot but maybe enough. I guess the real question is do you trust her? Specifically do you trust her enough to tell her everything? On the one hand it would make it a lot easier for you two to work together." "Yes. I trust her. She understands the need for secrecy and was already working on a way for me to contact her without being traced. It sounds weird to say it, but I don't know how to reach her when I'm awake. Not without getting caught anyway." "Leave that to me. Give me her boss's cell phone number. What was his name again?" I gave him the name and phone number and he said he would call me back in a little while. I finished my omelet and contemplated the next move. All I could come up with was to wait. I didn't have to wait long. Tom called back first. "Jimmy, it's Tom. Okay, I talked to the doctor handling your parents. They are doing great. They'll be in isolation for the rest of the day and they want to keep them another night for observation, so there is really no point in going down unless you want to have dinner with them at the hospital or something. Karen and I are going to take tomorrow off and drive down to pick them up. That way one of us can drive each car on the way back and they don't have to. If you kids want, we'll call you out of school and you can come along. Think about it and let us know. Hold on, Karen wants to talk to you." "Hi, Jimmy, I'm sorry about before. Tom was right; you did the right thing. God, I hate to say that where he can hear me; I'll never hear the end of it. Anyway, I thought maybe Shannon could spend the night again in case Allison has any more problems. We don't have to tell her that's why but I think it would be a good idea. We'll bring her school stuff over later and she can just catch the bus there in the morning, okay? Unless of course you change your minds and decide to come with us." I had to laugh to myself over that. Allison was about the most level and stable of the three of us. Now that she had worked it out of her system I wasn't worried about a relapse. No need to tell Karen that though, especially if it meant that Shannon could stay with us for another night. "That sounds fine, Karen. Why don't you guys come over for an early dinner, say around 4:30 or so? By then we'll probably know more and be able to make better plans." "Oh, that's a delightful idea. We'll bring some steaks and corn on the cob. Maybe the girls can whip up a salad or something. We'll see you later, honey." I could do her one better on the salad. We had Angela's left over potato salad. I brought the girls up to date. "Cool," Allison exclaimed, "we get to wake up with Shannon again tomorrow. The reason sucks but I sure like the result!" She reached over and pinched the object of her affection on the butt as she passed by on the way to the laundry with the sheets from Allison's bed. "Hey! Watch that, shorty, or you'll be sleeping on that couch alone." "How about if I kiss it and make it better?" Allison crooned and pressed herself against the older girl. "Well, in that case I'll let you do the other side too." Shannon dropped the sheets and the two of them began an interesting dance composed mainly of tongue and hand movements. "Okay you two," I interrupted when things looked like they may be on the verge of escalating right there in the kitchen, "work now, play later. Don't make me separate you." Allison slid her hand up under Shannon's top and pinched a nipple, "Think you're man enough?" she said with a gleam in her eye. "Allison," I said warningly. "Spoil sport," she muttered, but she did take her hand back out of Shannon's shirt. Shannon just kissed her on the nose, picked up the dropped load of laundry and continued on her way. "Meany," Allison said, and headed into the kitchen to clean up the breakfast dishes. The phone rang and she answered it. "Hello? Hi, Bob. Yes, he's right here. Talk to him will you, he's being a stinker. He won't let Shannon and me play until we do our chores first!" I slapped her on the butt. "Give me that. Back to work, wench. Hey, Bob. I tell you it's so hard to find good help these days. I'd fire these two in a second if I wasn't so desperately in love with them." Allison blew me a kiss from the sink for that one. "So what's up?" "Well, we're pretty well committed at this point. I called the attorney I mentioned. He is going to call the hotel. He said not to worry, that they will already have someone standing by to handle anything that comes up. He is going to tell them they have one shot to get this right. Their instructions are to draw up a settlement agreement, which must include a gag order for all involved parties. With significant penalties if either side violates it, up to and including a complete lack of responsibility for the other side if it's violated. Essentially, if either side says anything, it costs them a fortune and the other side is then free to say whatever they want with no penalty or fear of repercussion. The agreement must be binding on all their employees as well. Then they get one shot at a settlement offer to your parents. No negotiation, get it right the first time or we go straight to court, the gag order is contingent on acceptance of the settlement offer. Should be a slam-dunk. You could get more by going to court but then there would be no way to keep this quiet. He said not to worry, if their attorney doesn't know just how much this is going to save them and jump at it, he will personally call their CEO and explain it. I hope your parents don't pop a gasket over the way we are handling this." "Don't worry about it, Bob. My parents are not the least bit interested in suing anybody. Neither of them have a litigious bone in their bodies." "Ooh, big word, I'm impressed. Okay, then on to part two. I called Rebecca's boss from a pay phone at the school. I'm sure they will trace the call and considering she knows your age I figured that should be a hint she couldn't miss. I told him to tell her that 'Jimmy' needs to talk and to have her call back to that number. I gave him a three-minute time limit. She called. Once she assured me that the line was safe to talk on I told her that I was your therapist and that something had come up that you may need to talk to her about on short notice. She gave me her cell phone number and said not to call back from the same pay phone, as her boss would probably have it watched. I then dropped the hint that you may actually want to talk to her in person. At first I thought the line had gone dead. Then she asked if I was serious? I told her nothing had been decided but that you felt you could trust her and that it looked very much like that may become necessary. She said to call back any time. She stressed the 'any' twice. So from here it's up to you. I'll help any way I can." Something had been tickling at the back of my brain, "One thing you may be able to do. Do you have any contacts in social services? Specifically, Child Protection?" "Sure, being a counselor at the school I unfortunately have to talk to them once in a while. Why?" "Do you know if they have someone named Mary Sampson over there?" "Steel-heart Sampson? Oh yeah, I know her. How do you know about her?" "She was in the dream. What do you know about her?" "Well, she is practically a force of nature. Got the bedside manner of a pit bull with AIDS but she gets results. I wouldn't want to get between her and one of 'her kids, ' that's for sure." "So no one likes her but she is too good at her job to get rid of her?" "That about sums it up, why?" "Just something in the back of my mind. I'll let you know if it develops. Thanks for everything, Bob. You'll be available if we have to get everyone else together?" "Absolutely, just tell me where to show up." As I hung up Shannon was just coming back in from the laundry. I stopped her and pulled Allison away from the sink. I sat them both down at the table to go over where everything stood. "Okay, so now we all know what's going on. I'm going to talk to Rebecca tonight. Who knows? She may actually have a valid reason for not wanting to meet at this point. Anyway, I'm going to tell her everything that has happened and get her input. I don't see how meeting face to face can be avoided. Mom, for one, is going to take a lot of convincing. I don't see how it can be done without sitting everyone down together. Do either of you see another option?" Neither of them could see anything even remotely resembling an alternative. Again we were back to the most basic of questions. How much did I trust Rebecca Hampton? Could I afford to completely expose myself, and my family to a woman I had never actually met? I felt pretty confident that I could, but this was a big decision to make and deserved all the consideration I could give it before I decided. "Okay. I think we're pretty well caught up." I made a point of making eye contact with each of them briefly as I said, "I'm going to put on my headphones and go do the pool, then I'm going to do the yard work. I'm sure I can count on the two of you to let me know if anything comes up that requires my attention. Otherwise I expect to be outside for at least the next couple of hours. It's been a long weekend, and you might want to consider getting a little rest to make up for what you missed last night." Shannon blushed a little; Allison just rolled her eyes. "Ooh, subtle. Don't worry about us. I think we'll manage to find some way to occupy our time while you are doing your chores, Jimmy." I got my portable out of my room and headed outside. I'm not sure what they did while I was busy but when I finally came back in they were curled up asleep together in my bed. I'm sure it was the unseasonably warm weather that made them decide to sleep in the nude. I kissed each of them gently on the hair and went to shower off the yard grit. It was only 2:30. Plenty of time before Shannon's parents arrived. I had just finished rinsing my hair when Allison climbed in with me. "Mind if I join you?" "You're kidding, right?" I noticed she was moving a little gingerly. "You okay?" "I'm fine, just a little tender in certain areas. Let's just say that Shannon was very enthusiastic about learning new ways to express her affection and once she got started she didn't want to stop. I practically had to beat her off with a shoe to get her to stop. It was incredible but you know what they say about too much of a good thing." "Perhaps a massage?" "Maybe a very gentle massage, special emphasis on gentle, maybe just thinking about touching me for the first hour or so and then working up to it slowly." I just laughed and began soaping her up, gently holding her against me as I went. She only winced a couple of times. The rest of the time she just sort of melted against me and enjoyed the attention. Just as I was finishing up Shannon came in. "Where does the line form?" Allison said, "Come on in, sweetie; I'm done, he's all yours." A quick kiss in passing as they traded places and I started on Shannon. I had to rush a little bit as I knew the hot water wouldn't last much longer. We barely made it. Then it was time to start getting ready for Tom and Karen. Mark had put off all of his chores so they left him home to do them. He had complained loudly but it had fallen on deaf ears. They brought all of Shannon's school stuff, books, clothes, gym bag, etc. They also brought some killer steaks and fresh corn on the cob. I was only too happy to relinquish control of the grill to Tom. Karen asked about salad and Allison gave her a sample of Angela's potato salad. It was an instant hit. She wanted to know where we bought it and Allison explained that it was a secret recipe and the girl wasn't talking. Karen stopped just short of suggesting physical torture to get it out of her. While this was going on I was observing Tom's mastery of the open flame. He gave me some pointers as he went as well as touching on the events of the weekend. "So, seriously, Jimmy, how are you and Allison doing?" "We're doing okay, Tom. As well as I think could be expected under the circumstances. I'm sure glad Shannon was here last night. Allison acted like she was all under control right up until I was safely asleep. Then Shannon says she broke down. It's bad enough to think you almost lost your parents. Add in the likely results of that, CPS, foster care; most likely the two of us would be separated. It just all caught up with her at once. Shannon just sat on the couch and held her and let her cry it all out. You know Allison. She dealt with it and put it behind her. She was fine when she woke up. "Glad to hear it, and what about you?" "Well, I thought of all that and a lot more. But since I knew that it was going to be okay I didn't really let the "what ifs" get to me. It didn't happen, so now I'm more concerned with how we can plan for if it does happen? How can we prepare so that we don't have all those worries?" "Funny you should mention that, Jimmy. Karen and I talked about that all day. When your folks get home we are going to talk to them about having legal documents drawn up and things put in place so that if anything should happen, Karen and I will become your legal guardians. And so that if anything happens to us, the same will be set up for them to be named guardians for Mark and Shannon. As well as setting up things financially so that it's not a burden." "That's what I was thinking about. It would be bad enough to lose my parents, but to lose my sister, too? I couldn't imagine life without her. Not to mention Shannon and you guys. You're like family to us but the courts and the whack jobs at social services wouldn't see it that way. Without proper legal protections already in place they would rather pawn kids off to foster care than send them to people they know. I think if nothing else this whole thing should serve as a good wake up call for all of us." "You can say that again. Karen and I haven't talked this much since we tried to figure out where to send the kids for school." "Nothing like a near miss to bring a family together," I said. "It's funny, here we are all planning for the future on Saturday, the girls are looking at scholarship possibilities, Miss Hewitt even suggested I may have a future in the sport, and just like that we're looking at the possibility of being separated and shipped off to Lord knows where." Tom just looked at me, "I know what you mean. It's a sobering and humbling experience. But as you say, it was a near miss. Now we just need to make sure we take advantage of the lessons and opportunities we have been handed. When the papers hear about this..." I interrupted, "The papers aren't going to hear about it." "What do you mean? You think the hotel is going to try and hush it up?' "I think I made it clear that they'd better," I said. "You what?" He stared at me. "Jimmy? You've made some pretty good decisions up to this point but I think you better just stand back and let the grown ups finish it. I know your dad's not a lawyer kind of guy but damn it, they could have died! You kids were traumatized. You said yourself, Allison practically melted down last night! I think your dad is going to sue the doors off that place." I thought carefully for a moment. "Tom, I think I know my dad a little better than you do on this one. I don't think that will be the case. In fact I think that he will agree with everything I've done. Maybe not right away but after I explain why I did it that way. Besides, it's not like I did it all on my own. I called a friend and he called a lawyer he knows. Everything is contingent upon my parents accepting the settlement offer the hotel is drawing up." "Settlement offer? How much?" "Their instructions were to draw up an offer. One-shot deal? If they screw it up we go to court, the press, everything. If they do it right and Dad accepts it, then it also includes a gag order for all involved parties including all hotel employees." "Wow! I take back what I said earlier. I thought you were just running wild there for a second. You really thought this out carefully, didn't you?" "Not really, I called a friend, he called a friend. The friend called the hotel. The rest? We'll just have to wait and see. How long before we're ready. The women are going to want to know so they can start the corn." "James, my boy, you will find that when you have been married to the same woman for a few years you develop almost psychic connections. I can tell you without reservation that the corn will be ready within one minute of these steaks coming off the grill. Want to make a small wager?" "Nah, I haven't got my allowance yet this week. And somehow I don't think it would be the smartest bet I could make." It wouldn't have been either. Karen came out with a steaming plate of hot corn just as Tom pulled the last steak off the grill. Everything was fabulous. Tom went nuts over the potato salad. He was then depressed to find out there was no way to get the recipe. After dinner we set up and played cards for a few hours. Around 7:30 the phone rang. Allison went in to get it. I could just make out her voice as she answered, "Hello? Mom! Oh Mommy, I miss you! Please tell me you're okay. How's Dad?" She was crying into the phone by the time she came back out. We passed the phone around and everyone got to talk for a bit. Karen and Shannon were both crying when they finished and my eyes were threatening a little as well. Tom spent some time talking to Dad about the details for picking them up. Finally he said my dad wanted to talk to me and handed me the phone again. "Yes sir?" "Jimmy, a man from the hotel just called to set up an appointment with us. He said that he had been contacted by a Mr. Caruthers, at your request. Jimmy, what's going on?" "I can't explain that right now, sir. I would prefer not to discuss it on the phone. I promise I will explain everything tomorrow. What time do you think you'll be home?" "Well that's pretty darn vague, son. The doctors won't release us until 2:00. We should be home around dinnertime. I suggest you have your story together by then." "Oh, you won't be disappointed, believe me. Allison and I have talked about it, and since you are coming home so late there is really no point to missing school. Don't get me wrong, we would love to see you sooner even just to reassure ourselves that you are really okay, but then you are going to have questions and we need to all be together to answer them. Just us." "Just us?" "Yes sir." "Sir? That's twice. Jimmy, is something going on? This doesn't really sound like you. What's wrong, son?" "I really can't go into any detail right now. Not on the phone. I promise we will answer all of your questions when you get home. Dad, I need you to trust me on this. It's important." "WE will answer your questions? You're telling me that this involves more than just you. Allison?" "Yes." "Do Tom and Karen know about this?" "Actually Dad, this phone is dying; let me get to another one." I took the phone into the house and picked up the regular phone. "Are you still there?" "Yes, I'm still here." "Great." I broke the connection on the cordless. "Dad, are you on a regular phone or a cordless?" "What? I'm on a regular phone. What the hell difference does that make?" It was obvious that he was starting to get seriously irritated at my evasiveness. "Okay, Dad, I can't tell you much now, if you are unsure, call Bob Shelby. He set up the attorney for me. Of course, he won't tell you anything either but he will tell you that this is important and that you should do what I'm telling you until we can get together. And when I say get together I mean just us; you, me, Mom and Allison. Bob is a possibility and I have one other person that will be available if necessary. Dad, you have to trust me on this. Please? Can you just wait until tomorrow night? And if you can, I mean I love them to death and they've been great through all this but I need you get Tom and Karen to go home after they drop you off. What we have to discuss they don't need to, and should not know. Too many people know too much already." "Does Bob know?" "Yes." "But he won't tell me even thought I'm your father?" "No." "Why not?" "Professional restriction, he's not allowed to discuss patients." "Patients! I thought he was your coach. Jimmy, what the hell is going on?" "It's not like that Dad." I chuckled. "Trust me, that part of the story you're going to get a real kick out of. Seriously though, I need you to wait until tomorrow. Can you do that for me, Dad? I'll tell you what, call Bob and talk to him about it. He won't answer specific questions regarding me but he will reassure you that it's nothing that you need to be worried about. And that once you know the whole story this will all make perfect sense. And I'm serious about Tom and Karen. I can't tell you anything until we are alone. Okay?" "Okay, son. One question though, Jimmy, does this have anything to do with your little problem that morning a while back?" "Yes it does, but not in the way you will expect. Dad, if you keep asking questions, they are going to generate even more questions. And I can't answer them now. So please, make a list if you need to and, I promise, when we are alone I will explain everything. Okay?" "Okay, son. I'll wait, but this better be good or you're going to be... never mind. Here, say good night to your mother, she just took her pills and she's fading fast." "Hi, Mom, love you. I'm glad you're okay. We can't wait to see you." Her voice came back a little drowsy. "Oh I love you too, sweetie. Thank you, Jimmy, it was you, wasn't it? Not Allison?" "Yes, Mother, but whatever you do, please do not repeat that to anyone! Let me say goodnight to Dad." "Okay, sweetie, kiss your sister for me." She giggled and then my dad came back on the line. "Maybe I should see if I could get a few extra of those from the doctor. They could come in handy now and then." "Dad," I said very seriously, "did you hear what Mom just said?" "You mean about it being you, not Allison?" "Yes. Dad, it's very important that you don't say anything about this to anyone! Not the doctors, nurses, Tom and Karen, the attorneys, I mean no one." "Wow, that important?" "Ask Bob." "Okay. Well, I guess we better say goodnight so I can call him before it gets too late. Hug your sister for me, son. Give her our love. Goodnight." I hung up and headed back out to the patio. Everyone was still engrossed in the cards so I just plopped down on the bench next to Shannon and said. "Mom and Dad said to say goodnight to everyone. I even have to kiss Allison for them." I rolled my eyes and Shannon elbowed my side. "Ow! Don't worry, I'll save one for you too." The next one hurt a lot more. "Anyway, thanks for being here for us through all this. I kind of have a favor to ask though if you don't mind." "What's that, Jimmy?" Karen asked in her concerned mom voice. "Well, when you bring them home I'd, we'd like to spend the evening just by ourselves. I mean..." She cut me off, "Don't give it another thought, Jimmy. You don't need to explain anything. We'll be talking all the way home anyway, and you all deserve a little quiet time together after this ordeal. We understand, don't we, Tom?" There was no answer and I learned where Shannon picked up the elbow thing as Karen gave Tom a quick jab, "Don't we dear?" He cringed and looked up from rearranging his cards. "Huh? Oh, yeah, sure. No problem." Karen looked at her watch. "Actually, it's getting a little late anyway, and you kids all have school tomorrow, so why don't we just pack it up and let you get ready for bed?" "What?" exclaimed Tom. "Now? This is the best hand I've had all night and you want to leave now?" Karen rolled her eys and 'looked' at him. "Okay, fine, we'll leave now." And they did. The girls and I walked them to the door, then just sat in the living room and stared at nothing for a while. It was good to just enjoy the silence. "I don't know why," I finally said into the silence, "but I just feel completely wrung out, emotionally, and physically." "Ditto." Came a voice from somewhere near where Allison's head was resting on my shoulder. "How about you, Shannon? Shannon?" Her head came up and she glanced over to see her friend asleep on my other side. "Okay, that's a yes. Jimmy, I think you're going to have to carry her, and if we don't go soon, you're going to be carrying me too." "Uh-uh," I said. "I'm going to wake the two of you up and let you carry me instead." I moved to get up and Shannon jolted upright. "Oh! Sorry. Did you say something?" "Yeah, we said let's go to bed," Allison answered. "Come on, sleepy head." She tugged Shannon's arm to help her up. We staggered down the hall and Allison broke off to go to the bathroom when we got close. Shannon followed and leaned against the wall to wait her turn. She looked like she was about to fall over so I stopped and started tugging her shirt up over her head. She started to say something then apparently thought better about it; instead just raising her arms up over her head. When the shirt was clear she reached back for the fastener on her bra. While she was doing that I knelt and started un-tying her shoes. A few moments later and she was standing in just her panties waiting for Allison to come out. It seemed to me that it was awfully quiet all of a sudden. I opened the door and peeked inside and sure enough, Allison was passed out sitting on the john. I went in and piled Shannon's clothes on the sink and then reached down to tug at Allison's shirt. She came awake enough to pull her arms out but that was about it. "Lean her forward a little," Shannon said. I did and she took care of the hygiene issues. I didn't even bother to pull up Allison's pants. I just scooped her up and carried her out to my room. Again, she woke up just enough to put her arms around my neck and lean into my shoulder. I laid her out on the bed and finished undressing her. I'm not that good at putting girl's clothes on, and I couldn't see how I was possibly going to get her panties back up without help so I just left them off. Heck, she usually slept with me in the nude anyway. I pulled back the covers on the far side and rolled her in, then took off my own clothes as well. I was starting to worry about Shannon when I heard her flush. Soon she was staggering into the room to crawl in with us. I slipped into the middle position. Allison was facing the wall, I lay on my back and Shannon snuggled into my other side and within moments we were all unconscious. ------- Chapter 40: An Old Friend One of the really nice benefits of dreams is that it doesn't matter how tired you are when you go to bed; once you're in 'dreamland' everything is as new and fresh as you want, or in my case, as you can make it. Going in, I knew it was going to be a busy night. There was so much to do. I decided that the first thing to do was go see Bob. Unfortunately I couldn't. When I knocked on the door to his office as usual, there was no answer. I opened it anyway but the room was empty. I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Apparently the girls and I had been so wiped out that we had gone to bed much earlier than usual. Bob was still up. Most likely, Rebecca was too. Well, that at least opened up one possibility that I had not expected to be able to get in, a little rest and relaxation. I closed the door and then re-opened it to enter the glade. I found Allison and Shannon curled up on the blanket asleep. I was a little surprised to find Shannon there. The fact that they were asleep gave me time to arrange things for them. I took a moment to re-create a certain castle in the distance. Once that was done, I called the horses, within just a few seconds you could hear hoof beats in the distance. I dressed the girls in frills and lace, and myself in the garb of a knight on his day off. The usual Robin Hood look, dark, forest green breeches tucked into high, soft boots, a tunic of a lighter green, a belt of fine leather supporting my favorite sword at my hip. And of course a pointed hat complete with feather. Okay, let's get this party started. "Come fair, maidens, we shall surely be late if you do not rise and get to moving," I said in a booming voice. The girls both started awake and then looked in wonder at the finery in which they found themselves. Okay, so I'm a little entranced by layers of sheer silk trimmed in lace. Shannon spoke first, "Ooh, I like. Where on earth did you find this?" "I had both specially made by a fine tailor who owes me a favor or two. I had to guess at the sizes, I hope I did not disappoint." Allison was already slipping into her role. Of course, we had played these games for years so she had a bit of an edge. "Nay, gentle sir, once again you have outdone yourself. 'Tis the finest and most comfortable I think I have ever worn. But you spoke of being late? Pray, what is this engagement you speak of?" "Ah, but that would be telling and I do wish to keep it as a surprise. Especially to your young, and, might I say, quite beautiful, friend. No, indeed I must say, fair Allison, your taste rivals my own. Guard her well or I shall surely steal her away." "Oh James, you are such an unconscionable flatterer. As to my young friend here, her name is Shannon, and you should be on your own guard or she will surely steal your very heart." She took Shannon's hand and held it to her cheek. "Much as she has stolen my own." "Alas, then I am too late." By now Shannon had been given enough time to grasp the scene and joined in. "Never too late for such a dashing young man as yourself, sir. For in truth I am blessed with more love than my heart can contain, and fair Allison understands this and gives me leave to share it to its fullest. I pray thee, do not give up hope just yet,?" I dropped a courtly bow. "Then prepare yourself, fair Shannon, for I also have more love than my breast can contain. And it will be my intent henceforth to shower you with it all the days of your life." I stood back up and continued, "Now then. As our steeds stand ready, we must away to yon castle ere our host become impatient at our dalliance." And so, mounted upon three fine white horses, we rode towards the castle. The horses were spirited but well behaved. The girls could not resist the urge to let them run a little and so we raced a short ways and soon found ourselves at the drawbridge. As we crossed into the courtyard, grooms appeared to take our mounts and we climbed the steps to the main keep. Once inside the well-lit entryway a houseman led us to the throne room. As we entered a voice to the side announced us, "The ladies, Allison Matthews and Shannon Davis, along with their escort, Sir James Matthews, greet the queen and thank her for her invitation to tea." A large table with four chairs had been placed in the center of the otherwise empty room. Everything just reeked of royalty; the tablecloth felt like someone had spun it from a cloud. The cups were all gleaming white porcelain with intricate floral patterns. Each place setting was different while still managing to share a common motif. I seated the girls on opposite sides and then took the chair facing the throne. "But James, where is our host?" Allison asked, turning towards me. "I'm right here." A voice boomed from the direction of the throne. Allison turned back quickly but the throne could no longer be seen. Instead, blocking the view was the Pink and Silver armor plated hide of a medium sized dragon. Shannon jumped out of her chair and began backing towards me but Allison jumped up and ran towards the dragon. "Brandiy!! Oh Brandiy!" She threw herself forward and embraced the dragon's foreleg. "How have you been? Where have you been? Oh, I have missed you so much." There came a rumbling chuckle that rattled the teacups and the dragon said, "Hi, cutie! I have missed thee also. Mayhap and introduction is in order, ere thy friend faint?" "Oh! I'm sorry! Brandiy, this is my best friend, Shannon Davis. Shannon, this is the world's most wonderful dragon, Antoinette Elizabeth Soleil-Montes! But if you ever call her that you're going to need someone to rescue you. That's how Jimmy ended up in that dream when I was little in the first place." I took Shannon's hand and led her around the table and up to the dragon. The shock of meeting the dragon again had blown Allison completely out of character but she recovered quickly as she went on. "And of course your Highness knows my brother, Jimmy," Allison continued. "Oh yes, I remember this gallant young knight. It seems but yesterday that he was charging through my garden seeking your rescue. Indeed, twas the most enjoyable afternoon I rememeber in decades. How hast thou been, James?" I bowed low. "I have been well, Majesty. Fate has favored me with the company of these two most beautiful and intelligent young ladies, and of late I have begun to discover much about myself that had been hidden from me before." I rose again. "Though truthfully, 'hidden' may be a poor choice. Say rather that I had been blind to it, until this one," and I kissed Shannon's hand, "opened my eyes to the world around me. The revelation of my own blindness led to another, the discovery of my unique place within this realm. Twas at first overwhelming and I was lost. But fate smiled once more, and provided me the perfect guide," now I kissed Allison's hand, "in my journey of self discovery. What of yourself, Majesty? It is plain the years have been most kind to Your Highness. You are more radiant than ever." "Ooh," she said with a smile. "I see thy tongue has learned a few new tricks along the way. Do say on, but first, allow me a moment to change and perhaps we can enjoy that tea before it gets too cold." Allison stepped back. There was a shimmering in the air and the dragon was gone. In her place was a slender young woman of perhaps 18 or 19 with long silver, yes silver, not white, not gray, but true silver, hair in a gown seemingly composed of silver sequins and trimmed in pink. A pink belt, pink slippers, and a thin circlet of white gold holding her hair back from her face completed the ensemble. She was by far the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. And that said a lot considering I was standing between Allison and Shannon. Allison gasped, "Brandiy, you are beautiful! But how did you do that? You couldn't do it before, could you?" "No, it's an ability dragons acquire as they get older. Makes it a lot easier to move around, let me tell you. It's amazing how much easier it is to meet with friends when you don't need a stadium to stay out of the rain. And the things you can do with it. I am having so much fun. There are a few other tricks that come along with it, but I don't want to look like a show off. Let's have some tea and catch up, shall we." We spent the next, who knows how long, chatting and getting re-acquainted with Brandiy. She wanted to know everything that had happened since we last met. Then apparently it was time to go. Watching and listening, I got the impression that she already knew all of it but she seemed to truly enjoy hearing it from us. Brandiy interrupted Allison talking about how boring school was and said, "Sweetie, I would just love to sit here and chat for the rest of the night but we're going to have to cut this short. Jimmy has an appointment." "I do?" "Yes, that matter you were working on before you decided to take a little detour here is ready now." I stood and placed my napkin on my plate. "Then I guess it's time to go. Thank you for your hospitality, Majesty, especially on such short notice. If you don't mind my asking, how did you know about... ?" "My pleasure, Jimmy, thanks for stopping by. As to the rest, I'm a dragon, I try to keep up on what's going on and one of our little tricks is that our ears always hear things that interest us. So I keep up, but it's still nice to hear it from you all as well. Lends a different perspective, you know." She rose and reached to take Shannon's hand. "Very nice to meet you, Shannon. You take good care of the boy wonder here; he's going to need all the help he can get." She turned to Allison, and hugged her tightly. "Allison. Oh my sweet Allison. It has been so good to see you again. I know I don't need to tell you what to do. All I can say is that when in doubt, follow your heart, Princess. It will never lead you astray. I wish the three of you much happiness together. Come visit if you're in the neighborhood again." She kissed the girls each upon the cheek then turned to me, "James, trust your sister's judgment, she has a rare gift of insight, and trust in the strength of Shannon's love, for truly she has more than she can contain. When you need it, it will always be there. You face a difficult path in what lies ahead, but with the help of those around you, I believe you will succeed. There will be pitfalls to be sure, as on any road, but do not let them discourage you. Much depends upon your perseverance and courage. And while you are right to trust Rebecca, be wary of those around her. Do not reveal yourself unless absolutely necessary, for there are always those in power who would use your gifts to their own benefit. And guard her well, for Amy is correct, she will not recover without her sister. Farewell, my friends." The scene shimmered and we found ourselves once more in the glade. Allison swept me into a hug, "Oh thank you, Jimmy. That was so much fun! I haven't seen Brandiy in years." "Well, I actually started out trying to get to Bob, but I think I, we, went to bed too early. So when I found myself with extra time on my hands I thought that maybe we could take some time to play. After all the stresses of the last day I needed a little time out. I figured maybe you did too." "And you were so right! I was a wreck. Wait a minute, where am I? The last thing I remember was walking into the bathroom." Shannon stifled a giggle and said, "Don't worry, Jimmy found you and between us we got you cleaned up and into bed. Right now you are snuggled up on one side of "Sir James," and I'm guarding the other. So that was the dragon you two had tea with all those years ago?" "Yep, that's her! Isn't she just the sweetest thing? And she is sooo beautiful! Odd that she seems to know what is going on though?" "Not really, I mean you dreamed her up originally. She is therefore a construct of your subconscious and would have access to your knowledge." "I like her explanation better," Shannon said. "Magic just sounds more plausible in her case. Besides, how do you explain what she said before we left?" "That is an interesting question. One which we can talk about later; I have to go see Bob, and then Rebecca. Tomorrow is going to be a big day and I need to talk to both of them about it. Are you two staying here?" Allison looked at Shannon. "I guess. Do you think we can? I mean, do you think she can? Stay that is." "I'm not sure. You were both here when I got here. It seemed odd to me at the time. Let's try and see how it goes. If you want to that is." "Oh gee, let me think. Do I want to stay here with Shannon? Or wait here all alone for you to get back? Hello." "Yeah, that's what I thought." I kissed them both and told them I would be back to see them if there was time. Then I headed off to the door. ------- Chapter 41: A Time to Trust This time Bob was in his office. "Jimmy. Obviously I've been expecting you. Nice outfit." I looked down to discover that I still had on my Robin Hood suit. I blushed and laughed, then switched to something more appropriate, jeans and a tee shirt. "Sorry about that. I took Allison and Shannon to see an old friend of ours." "Whoa, back up. You took Allison and Shannon? How did that work? And when did you find out you could do this?" "Oh yeah, sorry, uh, Friday night, Allison and I were talking about the situation with Angela and what may happen and I was worried about how to explain it to Shannon if it did. Allison said that Shannon would be okay with it. Then she said that it had really been bothering her that we had been deceiving Shannon, and considering some of the stuff that was going on, especially things like the situation with Angela, that she thought we should tell her everything. As soon as she said it I knew she was right. I know it sounds strange coming from a fifteen year old, Bob, but I love Shannon, and Allison. They love me, and each other. I can't picture a life without either of them. We all seem to feel the same about this. We all truly believe that we will always be together. It just didn't seem right lying to her." "Well, on the one hand, Jimmy, there isn't much about you that couldn't be labeled strange. From the moment we met you stood out as different. Every time something new comes up I am just as amazed as you are by it, and new things seem to come up quite a lot. Like this newest development, which you haven't explained yet. On the other hand, you are all young and in love, and it's pretty normal to feel like it will never end. Who knows, maybe in your case it won't. The odds are against it, but then your relationships are certainly off the chart when it comes to figuring the odds. So I won't even suggest that it won't. So you were telling me about Friday." "Yeah, anyway, we decided to talk to Shannon, just tell her the basics, starting from the first time I 'bridged' into her dream. Then see if we could all get together in a dream. I had been able to 'bring' Allison, Amy, and Rebecca to different locations. You remember that beach we popped into that first night when I came to see you?" "Vaguely." "Well it's grown. It's now an island lagoon with a white sandy beach, crystal blue water, and a very nice cabana out over the water. Oh yeah, I took Angela there from her dream. I thought we might want to be somewhere a little more private than the park we met in. She hasn't seen the island, just the inside of the cabana. In fact, that was the night I added it." Bob seemed to actually be blushing at this, "Yes, well. Again, we're getting into things that are none of my business. Go on." "Anyway, Allison wondered if I could bring Shannon to the glade. I didn't see why not but wasn't sure because I had only taken people places in my dreams. This was bringing an outsider into a 'third party' dream, if you get my meaning." "Yes, I follow you. So I'm guessing it worked?" "Yes, and we actually learned a lot that night. Once we got there, Allison tried to change Shannon's clothes, but it didn't work. Even though it was her dream, she couldn't affect Shannon. I tried and it worked fine. Shannon tried to do it herself and that didn't work either. Then I moved us all to the beach and we tried again. This time Shannon could change her clothes but Allison still couldn't affect her. Of course, I could affect both of them. We went out to the cabana so we could be more comfortable while we told Shannon the rest of the story. "We were talking about the case and trying to stop the 'bad guy' from killing again when Shannon suggested that he may have already done so. I asked her what she meant and she pointed out that Amy didn't know the specifics of any of it. That she hadn't been able to tell me anything and hadn't 'shown' me anything until I asked. She suggested that maybe Amy worked sort of like a computer, that maybe she could only give us information if we asked the right questions. I brought Amy into the cabana and we talked to her about it. She said that she didn't know but that if there was more she would try to show me. "Then I changed into my troll suit and popped us all outside to play in the lagoon for a while. I try to play with Amy any time she shows up. I hate the thought of how much she has missed over the years. Then it was time for her to go and we all called it a night. "Another weird thing happened tonight. I'm not sure what to think of it. I tried to see you earlier, but you weren't here. I figured out that we all went to bed earlier than usual and that you were probably still up and therefore not available. Anyway, when I went to the glade, Shannon was already there with Allison. They were both asleep but I don't understand how Shannon got to Allison's dream by herself." "Maybe she didn't." "What do you mean?" "Well, there are a couple of possibilities. Number one, you wanted them both there even before you went, so you may have brought her without realizing it. The other possibility is that it wasn't Allison's dream." "But it was her glade." "Which you have certainly been to many times, you may have recreated it in your own dream or even taken it away from Allison. Either way, you may have all been in 'your' dream, not Allison's. I'm guessing you didn't check your rings?" "No, damn it, I forgot again. Not actually forgot, but it never occurred to me that I should. Why am I the only one who never thinks of that?" "Well, considering last nights dream and the importance of it, I would think you would be paying more attention. By the way, there is another possibility for why you didn't notice your ring sooner in that one." "What's that?" I asked, intrigued. "Jimmy, that dream was so far removed from one of your normal dreams that it doesn't even bear thinking about. Suffice it to say that a precognitive dream like that is something I doubt even you could control. It's kind of like the 'memory' dreams. Only in this case it's a memory of something that hasn't happened yet. Wild idea, I know, but do you understand what I'm saying? And calling it precognitive may be a stretch here, it may be something totally different." "Well, I'm not sure what else it could have been, but that makes a lot of sense. It's like the fire when I was a kid. It wasn't a normal dream. It felt like reality right up to the point that it became clear that it wasn't. This was the same thing. I couldn't tell it was a dream until it was necessary that I know that it was. Weird." "Like I said earlier, weird seems to follow you around. I'm starting to get used to it. As to what else it may be, I suspect somehow you picked up your parents distress even though they were over a hundred miles away. Your subconscious, still connected with theirs, somehow identified the threat and then created a scenario which allowed you to realize the danger and take action. I know it sounds far fetched but that makes it very similar to your dream of the fire, and it's certainly no more far fetched than precognition. "Meanwhile, on to the purpose of this visit, I'm a little surprised you felt it necessary to see me. I thought you had decided what you were going to do already. You're not having second thoughts are you?" "Well, I may have been earlier but I'm not any more. I may need your help setting things up for tomorrow. I'm going to talk to Rebecca tonight and explain what's going on. I'm going to see if she will come to the house tomorrow night to meet my parents and help me explain all this. I think it would be good to have you there as well." "Okay. If nothing else I need to explain to your father about the attorney I called and answer any questions he may have." "Right, plus other questions that may come up, I don't have any idea what, but you never know. This way, with the exception of Amy, who obviously can't be there, and Shannon, everyone who knows about this will be in one place. If nothing else it should make for an interesting evening." "Oh yeah, you can say that again. How do you think they will take it?" "Oh, no question about it, they are going to freak out, especially my mom. Allison was the one who pointed out that Mom is going to want to meet Rebecca. She's probably going to want to kill her for dragging her son into all this. I have to somehow convince her that it was the other way around. She is not going to be happy about me trying to track down a serial killer." "Well, I think we have to give her that one. She's a mom. What mother would be in favor of it? Rebecca's mom probably doesn't like her doing it. But someone has to do it, and, apparently in this case, that's you, and Rebecca of course. So I'll be there. What's for dinner?" I laughed hard at that one. "What's the matter? Are you getting tired of your own cooking again?" "Hey, I'm a good cook. I just like a change now and then." "Well, they won't be home until after 5:00 and I don't see Mom being ready to just jump in the kitchen and get to work. Most likely we'll order something in. I'll ask Allison about it. Okay, I guess I've stalled long enough." I rose and shook his hand. "Thanks for everything, Bob; I'll see you at school." "No problem, Jimmy. Just to simplify things, I'll give you a lift home after practice." I didn't want to walk into Rebecca's bedroom again, so instead I went back to the cabana and then 'brought' her in. She was in a lacy red outfit, sort of a short wrap and matching panties. Very sheer. I tried hard not to look and quickly moved her under the covers. The last move seemed to be enough to stir something and she 'woke up.' I turned away as she sat up in the big bed. "Uh, sorry. I wasn't ready for your, uh, attire and I, um..." She smiled and shook her head. "That's okay, Jimmy. It was very gallant of you to move me under the covers. Most boys your age would have taken time to get a good look first. Thank you. Now, if you will hand me a robe I will get up and we can talk. I assume that's what you brought me here for. By the way, your therapist called earlier today. That was your idea, wasn't it?" "Actually it was his idea. I know it sounds strange, but I needed to get hold of you and didn't know how when I was awake. He said he would handle it. Since it meant calling your boss first he moved to the school to do it. Public place, public phone, plus he felt the school might be a hint for you to believe what he said." "It was. So why the sudden change? You wanted to keep everything hidden before, now it seems like you want to go public." "Not public. But something happened this weekend. Something which complicates things and there is just no way to keep a lid on it without at least some explanations. My parents were almost killed Saturday night." "What? How? What happened? Was it an accident or do you think someone was actually after them?" "No, it was nothing like that. It was definitely an accident. There was a problem at their hotel, the room filled with carbon monoxide and the detector failed. The problem is I'm the one who reported it to the hotel and had them send someone to check on them." "That doesn't make sense, how did you know about it?" I explained about the dream and calling the hotel. "Holy shit! You dreamed the future?" "Yes, well, maybe, we're not sure, but it's one explanation." "I take it this is something new, even for you?" "Pretty much, the only other time anything even remotely like this has happened was when our house caught fire. That was a dream about reality but it was happening then in real time, not in the future. We're not sure if this was the same thing or actually in the future. Either way, it could just be an isolated event and may never happen again." "Still, I can see where it would complicate things. I take it your parents didn't buy the explanation that it was Allison's nightmare?" "No, too many strange things in my past would have pointed out the lie to them right away. Then, when we immediately took steps to try to make sure word didn't get out about it... well, I have a lot of explaining to do when they get home. And once the questions start, there will be no stopping short of a full explanation. My mom is going to freak out about what is going on with the investigation. Allison thinks that meeting you and talking to you could be the difference. I agree. So I want you to be there." "There? You mean, in your home? I thought you wanted to keep this secret." "Rebecca, Allison and I talked about it." I suddenly remembered Brandiy's comments. "We know we can trust you. We're not sure how or why, but for some reason we trust that Amy led us to you. So do you think you can come?" "Oh, I'll be there. If nothing else I can bring you your phone. I had Paul modify a cell phone to be completely untraceable. I took your suggestion and had someone else I trust go over the work. Seems that Paul anticipated that move as well. We had a long talk about what to expect in the way of trust in our working relationship. I don't know that I trust him to stay away if I tell him I'm going to meet with a source though. Especially since everyone is convinced that my source is in fact the killer. I'll have to give him something to do. What time do you want me there?" "Probably around 4:30 or so, my parents are being released from the hospital around 2:00, which of course means 3:00. I figure depending on traffic they should be here around 5:00, maybe 5:30 at the latest. I'm going to stash you in my sister's room while we go over the basics then have you come out as sort of my ace in the hole for the last part. Answer any questions they have about my working with you. How does that sound?" "It sounds like you've thought this through pretty thoroughly. You have a keen mind and good attention to detail. Okay, give me the address. I'm going to send Paul on a little trip up to the bay area to interview the coroner and visit the crime scene. I'm going to have to manufacture a reason not to go along. Not sure what, but I'll think of something." "You need to go see Amy's doctors." "What?" "Tell him you need to go see Amy's doctors; it's something he will understand and not question." "Damn, kid, you are good." I sent her back to her bed and then headed back to the glade. But when I walked through the door I was once again in the little theater. <> Without thinking I charged back through the door. Only instead of the beach, I was in Rebecca's bedroom again. "Rebecca!" I shouted. Instantly she sat up in bed, once again wearing her red lace outfit. The difference was that this time the gun from under her pillow pointed straight at me. Even staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, I couldn't help but notice her erect nipples through the shear top; must be a guy thing. Of course it was still a dream and the gun wasn't real, but still... "Jimmy?" she said, lowering the gun. "What the hell are you doing here? Didn't you just leave?" "Throw something on and come with me. I think things are about to get worse." "Shit, give me a second. Well, turn around, this isn't a peep show." She threw on some jeans and a tee shirt; I stopped her as she started to put on her shoulder holster. "You won't need that." "Jimmy. I don't go anywhere without my gun. The farthest I get from it is in the shower. I don't care if this is a dream, I'm taking my gun." "Fine. Give me your hand." "What? You want to hold my hand?" "No, I just feel like I need to in order to take you with me this time. We're going into something that's a little different." I pulled her through the door and into the theater. What a relief. I hadn't been sure that I could take her with me. "What the hell is this? I thought you wanted me at your house, now we're going to a movie?" "Rebecca, this isn't a movie. This is where I saw Diane killed. Shannon wondered if maybe we weren't asking Amy the right questions, she wondered if maybe the killer had already struck again. I asked Amy if she could find out and show me. It looks like she found something. I figured it would be better if you could see the original. You may see things that I would miss." "Good thinking. After all, I do this for a living. So what exactly are we going to be seeing?" "I don't know, I just got here, but if it's like Diane's then it's a string of memories." The lights went down. "Here we go." I was right. It was another string of memories. Worse, there were two sets of them this time. The first was a Hispanic girl. Like Diane, she was tall, long hair, athletic build, and very attractive. The images followed the same pattern as with Diane. There were images that were clearly him stalking her. Again the image of a folder, then she was bound and unconscious on a bed. Then it got ugly. She fought hard, never giving him anything. He seemed to enjoy it that much more. I could feel his elation each time he dominated her. It's not like she could win; she was tied up the whole time. But she never gave up, fighting to deny him at every opportunity. Unfortunately that seemed to be exactly what he wanted. Twice he used intricately designed devices to force her into the positions he wanted. An elaborate framework of steel and straps pulled her arms and legs out and apart. At one point he actually had to reset her shoulder because she had dislocated it in her struggles. I got the impression it took longer this time. But the ending was still the same. The second girl was another white girl, very similar to Diane, but with a slighter build and darker hair. She went the opposite way, submitting to him totally. Anything he wanted, she did. I could feel her emotions as well. I hadn't realized it but I had felt both of the previous girls' as well, the fear from Diane, the anger from the second girl. The emotional charge from the killer had just sort of over-powered them, but they had been there. This last one just submitted, it was like she had been trained to it. It enraged him. There were only a few scenes and then he killed her. I could sense his rage, frustration, and disgust at her. When the lights finally came back up it was all I could do to move. Rebecca sat for a moment looking at me. I could see the anger in her face yet she sounded concerned when she spoke. "Are you okay, Jimmy?" "No. Not really. But I'll be okay this time. Did you feel it too?" "Yes. Your therapist friend was right. You were reliving memories. Did you feel this when Amy showed you my memories, at the bank and the wedding?" "No, but they were different. They weren't a normal dream, but they weren't like this either." "Jimmy, I know this is painful and I'm sure you would just like to get away from it, but if you can, we need to see it again." "Again?" I said. My voice cracked a little and my eyes felt like I had been crying for an hour even though so far I had managed to hold back the tears. She put her hand on my arm. "Yes. I know it's difficult, but, Jimmy, if we are going to avenge these girls, and keep this from happening to others then we need all the information we can get. Do you think you can do it? Or do you need some time?" I looked away and took a few deep breaths. "I don't know. I can try, but I won't promise anything." "That's all anyone could ask. Don't think badly of yourself, Jimmy. These images would be painful enough by themselves. To have to sit through the emotions of the man who did these things? I know trained agents who would have broken down. You're only fifteen. I can't imagine how much this must hurt you, but we need to try to get the names on those files. I would love to see inside of them. I find it very interesting that he had a file on each girl. It shows a strong methodology, a pattern of activity, and that could be helpful." "That's all you need, just the names? We don't have to watch the rest?" "Not the whole thing. I doubt if we will be able to determine the place where this was done. It must be a place he owns. It was obviously well equipped for what he planned. The machines he used to force the first girl's legs apart and maneuver her into the positions he wanted took up a lot of space and were designed and built just for that purpose. It's too bad this is all a dream. If I had photographs to work with I could take them to some of the bondage supply places and maybe identify the manufacturers and get a list of who purchased them." "Manufacturers, you mean there are companies that make that stuff?" "Yes there are. I know it sounds weird, Jimmy, but there are perfectly normal seeming people out there that get off on this sort of thing. The difference is that they do it voluntarily and in a totally safe and controlled environment with people that they trust not to go too far and to stop when they tell them. Do you think you can sit through this again?" "I could if I had to, but I don't think that is going to be necessary." "Why not?" "Because I've already seen it so it's in my head and I think I can get the names another way. When I saw the first one, the one of Diane, I couldn't get the name. My friend, okay, my therapist, ran me through a relaxation exercise that allowed me to visualize the folder and read the name. I'm sure he could do it again. Even if he can't I think I can run the images in a setting that I have more control over. Maybe even fast forward and pause the images." "You can do that?" "I'm not sure; I know I can't do it here, though. In fact, we can't stay here much longer. I am already feeling pressured to leave. I don't think I want to be here if the environment starts to collapse. Let's go." I took her hand again and led her out of the theater. Instead of returning us to her room, the door led to an elevator. "What's this?" "It's the elevator in the building that he used in the visualization exercise. It's a really nice area. Diane's folder was on the patio at ground level, but I want to try the other thing first. I put a viewing room on the 5th floor." "You think it will work?" "I'm reasonably sure it will work. After all, we're back in my dream now. In my dreams, things work the way I want them to. But this is outside material so I can't be sure." The elevator stopped. "I guess we'll know soon enough." There were two chairs in the 'viewing room.' Each chair was equipped with controls for adjusting playback. The 'movie' was already cued up to begin. We sat down and Rebecca hit play. The scene began with the stalking of the Hispanic girl. The scenes were more varied than they had been with Diane. Apparently he had watched her longer. Some of the scenes were the same as before, shopping, out around town with friends, etc. Then there were scenes of her in her softball uniform. She had played first base. There were scenes of her on the field both in offense and defense. I noticed one significant difference between now and the 'original' scenes. There was no emotional feedback. Here, we were simply viewing the scenes without having to deal with the overwhelming emotional volcano that was the killer. Still I got the sense that I knew when he had made up his mind. I was pretty sure it was her athletic prowess that drew him to her; her competitive drive and refusal to back down. In one scene she powered a ball a good 20 feet over the left field wall and coasted around the bases. The next scene appeared to be from the same game. A member of the opposing team blocked her hard off the bag at first even though she was clearly out on the throw. Our victim jumped up and the benches cleared. The next scene was just a brief flash and I hit pause. "Did you see something?" I asked. "You mean besides that right cross?" "Yes besides that. Just after, hold on a second." I ran it back to the middle of the fight and then forward. As it reached the right point I hit pause and rolled forward slowly. There it was, just a brief flash, our victim in a hospital gown. The scene jumped to the folder we had seen, then darkness. It took a second to realize what we were seeing. "Damn," said Rebecca, "that's him looking through her bedroom window! Back up and stop it again." I did then forward again slowly. "Nope, no good, I was hoping we could catch a reflection of him off the glass." The next scene was the abduction. An early 70s midsize two-door; maybe a Chevy Malibu or Olds Cutlass, sat in a parking lot. The girl appeared wearing work out clothes. She unlocked the car and got in. She closed the door and the brake lights flashed like she had put her foot on the brake. The view zoomed slowly in and after a second I realized it was our killer's view changing as he approached the car. When he got close enough you could see that she was slumped against the wheel. He shoved her over in the seat, quickly swabbed her arm and injected her with something. He was wearing latex gloves. He then rolled down the window and got in. The key was in the ignition, he started the car and as he pulled away he tossed a portable oxygen bottle, the type that divers carry for emergencies, into the floor of the passenger side. The next scene was of her tied up on the bed. I hit stop and looked at Rebecca. "I don't have to watch that part do I?" "No, you don't have to. I can watch it again later if I need to. You'll probably have to be here but maybe you can just read a book or something. Can you go back to the folder?" "Sure." I scanned backward to the fight scene and then forward again. It only took a second and I hit pause. There on a table was the folder. I couldn't quite make out the name. I played with the controls for a second until I figured out how to make it zoom on the area I wanted. It still wasn't very clear. We both stared intently at the screen trying to make it out. "It's hard to read, it seems to have distorted slightly as you zoomed in. Can you make any of it out?" she asked. "Well, the first letter looks like a 'B, ' I can't make out the rest. Then that looks like Mary, or Marie, the initial is a 'V'." I have to hand it to her; she is good at her job. "That's a 'P', not a 'B'. The last name is still hard but it looks familiar, got it! It's Pena. That makes it Maria V. Pena. And then there is the folder itself? There is something familiar about it but I just can't pull it out of the back of my skull. Can you skip to the next one or do we have to fast forward through the nasty part to get to it?" "No, it's okay, it's on a separate bookmark. Give me a second." The scene skipped and we were watching a girl dribbling down a basketball court. The uniform was blue with white stripes but otherwise gave no indication other than a number. She was good. Not great, but good, for a girl that is. Okay, she would have wiped the floor with me. But then, so would Shannon, only I would have a lot more fun losing to Shannon. As with the Hispanic girl she was an aggressive player, she drove hard down the middle scoring and drawing the foul. She made the free throw look easy. Again the shots moved around, tracking her. The folder appeared to be on a desk or counter top this time, and while the view was not direct (It appeared to be partially hidden or covered) the name was visible. Watkins, Amanda S. At this point Rebecca took pity on me. "Okay, that's enough. You don't have to watch the rest if you don't want to. I would like to see if you can get that disk to my apartment. I can't believe I'm saying this. 'If' you can get it there and 'if' it will stay there when you leave then I can go over it without you. I promise I'll let you know if I find anything. I understand that you don't want to have to see it again. Hopefully this will work. Have you ever done anything like this before? Left something in one dream that you brought from another?" "I don't know. Let me think." I took a minute to see if anything would pop to the surface. "I can't think of anything." The only 'thing' I had ever tried to leave in another dream was Amy and that had been my dream, and it hadn't worked. But that was a person; this was an object, and one that I had 'made' at that. "Then I guess we'll find out together. Regardless, I'm going to have Paul trolling the unsolved net in the morning for these two girls." She put her hand on my arm. "Jimmy, why don't you go back to the beach and try to relax. Maybe get some sleep." She chuckled. "Oops, I forgot, this is a dream. Where do you go to relax?" "I have a few options." I said. Fortunately she couldn't see me smiling inside. Hey, there are some things that even Rebecca didn't need to know. "What about you?" "Either I go to the range and shoot things, or I go to a dojo to see some friends and do my best to not let them beat me up." "Different strokes, I guess. Did Michael go with you? <> I'm sorry! I am so sorry! I had no right to ask that. I wasn't thinking." She was staring at me, "That's okay. Just try not to do it again, maybe some day, but not now. To answer the question, when Michael was alive I had other options." I stood and started for the door. "Rebecca, when I leave, you're going to find yourself at home in bed. I know I don't know you and it may not be my place but I can't help but think that Michael wouldn't have wanted you to live your life alone. And neither would Amy." Without looking back I walked out the door and into the glade. It was empty. I checked my hand, no ring. I concentrated on Allison and Shannon and walked back through the door. I found myself in a duplicate of the glade. The girls were sitting on the blanket studying. Allison looked up as I approached, at first I could see she was happy to see me, but then her face fell. I guess I'm not much of a poker player, either. She set her book aside, rose to her knees and held her arms out. It was a very motherly gesture, and it was just what I needed. I fell to my knees and buried my face in her neck and cried. Shannon had no idea what was going on, but she knelt behind me and wrapped her arms around the two of us. Neither said a thing, they just waited for me to finish. I don't know how long I cried. I had been holding it back for a long time. Eventually I stopped and they slowly released me. Allison stroked my face and gently asked, "Can you tell me?" I took a deep breath and thought about it. "Yeah, I'm okay now. Thanks to you two. I don't know what I would do without you." I looked at Shannon, "Both of you." Shannon jumped right in, "Then it's a good thing we'll always be here for you. So I'm guessing it was bad?" "There were two." "Two? You mean two more?" Allison asked. "Yeah, a Hispanic girl named Maria Pena, and another white girl, Amanda Watkins. Rebecca is going to have Paul check on them in the morning." "You talked to her already?" "As soon as I walked into the theater I went and got her. She watched with me. I was glad she was there. We, well I, transferred it to a DVD and took it to a viewing room I set up in the building with Bob's office. We slowed it down and zoomed in enough to pick out the names on the folders." "Okay, so she's on it. What about tomorrow?" "She'll be at the house between 4 and 4:30, we'll stash her in your room until we get Mom and Dad caught up on the basics then we'll bring her out to answer questions." "Okay." Allison said, standing up and held out her hand. I took it and she pulled me up. She looked at my hand and realized my ring was there, but hers was not. "Oh yeah," I said. "I meant to tell you that. This isn't your glade. Somewhere along the line I duplicated it. That's why Shannon could be here in 'your' dream without me 'bringing' her, and how she could stay here after I left. I went to your glade before I got here. Everything was the same but you two weren't there. Apparently because I wanted to see the two of you, I 'drew' you here even before I came myself. Shannon, give me your hand please." I took her hand and closed my eyes and concentrated on the other glade. I didn't feel anything but suddenly Allison said, "Wow." I looked and her ring was on her hand. "I think we should change the programming on your ring. I think it should be the opposite of mine. Yours should be visible when you are in anyone else's dream. Programming should still require us to be in your dream. That way we still have a check that works. In my dream, both rings are visible. Unless we are touching in your dream, both rings would be invisible." "It's starting to get a little complicated. Let me think about it. Meanwhile, we've done all we can tonight. Why don't you take us all to the beach? We can all cuddle up in the cabana and get some rest." That was the best idea I'd heard all night. ------- Chapter 42: Dots on a Map Rebecca As soon as Jimmy left I found myself sitting on my bed, still dressed in the jeans and shirt I had pulled on before he took me to the theater. Next to me on the bed was a DVD. I took it out to the living room and inserted it into my player. No good, it was a recordable; my player would not recognize it, and I don't have a DVD-ROM in my home computer. So now what? Well, there was always the computer at work. Okay, think Rebecca it's a dream; Jimmy drags you all over the world; hell your sister moves around on her own, just try it. I sat down and closed my eyes and concentrated on getting to my office. I opened my eyes and found myself in my car. Okay, that is how I normally start out for the office. I closed my eyes again and when I opened them I was in the lobby of the Federal Building downtown. The building was empty, so I walked to the bank of elevators, pressed the button and a few seconds later the door opened. I entered the elevator and pressed the button for my floor. The doors closed but nothing further happened. I pressed the button again. Still nothing. Damn! What was I doing wrong? Jimmy made it all seem so easy. I certainly didn't remember ever getting on a plane to go to that tropical island of his. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my office once more. When I opened them again I was standing just outside the door to my little glass walled cubicle. About time! I pulled on the door. Damn!It was locked. I checked and sure enough, my keys were still on the hook in my kitchen. Enough of this shit! I pulled my 9mm out and put three rounds through the glass door. The glass is thick but not bulletproof, there were three nice, neat, holes and a lot of shattering. I kicked through the now sufficiently weakened barrier until the hole was large enough to get through and went in, sat down at my desk and inserted the disk. For the next, who really knows, but it felt like two hours, I sat and watched, and re-watched every second of the kidnapping, torture, and murder of two innocent girls. I made myself some notes, a long list of questions and then popped the disk out. I was tired; emotionally, physically, pick a category. Okay, maybe not physically since this was a dream after all, but I felt worn out. Have you ever had to sit for hours in a waiting room while a loved one was having surgery? The interminable waiting, wondering, and worrying, trying to keep a lid on yourself when you just wanted to do something? Not even close. I wanted to kill someone. I'm not sure who or where he was, but I wanted this bastard's head on a pole. I wanted to personally reach in and pull what passed for his heart out of his chest and hold it before his eyes as he died. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do. Not tonight anyway. Tomorrow? Well, tomorrow was tomorrow, and at the very least I could start gathering up some more of the scattered pieces that eventually I hoped to assemble into a picture that would help me find this piece of human debris, drag him down to the darkest hole I could find this side of hell and leave him there forever. If it were up to me I would lock him up with some others I knew from over the years; family members of former victims who had taken the law into their own hands, not trusting the system to do its job right. Men, and occasionally women, who had found and killed the human nightmares that had destroyed their lives, fathers, husbands, boyfriends, siblings of people just like Diane McKenzie, Maria Pena, and Amanda Watkins. I rested my head on my desk for what seemed like just a few seconds. I woke to find myself back in apartment, in my bed, once more wearing my nightclothes. I reached instantly for the pad in my nightstand and wrote the girls names down. I started writing down all the questions I had come up with in the dream. Then I got up. I thought about starting coffee but decided to pick something up on the way in instead. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed Paul. A voice answered on the third ring, "Freeman." "Paul? It's Rebecca. How soon can you be in the office? Scratch that? How soon can you be packed for at least one, possible several days away and be at the office?" "I keep a bag packed. Don't you?" "Well, yeah, but I figured since this was your first field assignment you may not have had time to pick up some of the tricks. So how soon?" "This time of morning? Maybe 30 minutes? A little longer if I hit traffic. What's up?" "I need you to check two more names?" "Two more? Tell me you're kidding." "I wish I was. I got two more names from my source last night. I want them checked as soon as possible. I'm going to shower and grab something on the way in. I'm hitting Starbucks on the way; you want me to get you something?" "Carmel Macchiato with an extra shot. How soon should I expect you?" "An hour if I run into traffic. Don't forget your suitcase." I gave him the girls' names, then headed for the shower. I should take my bag along just for show. I could make up a reason later why I couldn't go along. Or just tell him I wanted to see how well he did on his own. Worry about that later. I was dressed in my usual slacks and polo shirt, but I grabbed my 'bank' dress to take along for later. Jimmy should have no problem recognizing me in it. I checked my Glock and headed for the road. Fifty-three minutes later I pulled into the parking garage and took the elevator up to the office. "Oh sure, you work now," I thought. "Where the hell were you last night?" I half expected to find maintenance replacing the door to my office. That and Rod wanting to know just what the hell was so important that I felt it was necessary to destroy a perfectly good $600 glass door, a door that was coming out of my paycheck by the way? Fortunately, that was all just part of the dream and, with a quick twist of the key, my office door let me in. There was a message taped to the door. "Call me.—P" I set down the coffee and picked up the phone. "Paul? Rebecca. Coffee's ready, what have you got?" "Two hits: Amanda Watkins, Henderson, Nevada, two years ago; Maria Pena, Ventura California, last summer." "Shit! Okay, bring me what you have and let's get started. My office isn't going to be big enough. I'll see if I can commandeer a conference room." It was going to be a long day and I had to be in the Inland Empire by 4:30. With traffic that meant I had to leave no later than 2:00 to get there early. By 2:30 I would never make it. Traffic in LA goes up on a logarithmic curve starting at about 2:00. It tended to double about every 10 minutes after that. Since there were very few people around it was easy to find a room to work in. We might get booted later but for now space was ours for the taking. We laid out what we knew. My respect for Jimmy was going up quickly as I realized just how hard it was to try and work with what you had without giving away what you already knew. I'd seen the images, I knew what had happened, if it was anything like the McKenzie case, (and I had no reason to think that it wouldn't be) then it was accurate. But I couldn't 'know' anything until we 'found' the information. We took a break to attend morning briefing. I caught Rod's eye at one point and let him know that I needed to talk to him. When it was over I followed Rod to his office. "What's up?" he asked as I closed the door to his officebehind me. "I've got two more dead girls." His head snapped up and he looked at me. "You're serious?" "Afraid so." "How'd you find them?" I just looked him in the eye and didn't say anything. After a second he started shaking his head. "You're kidding? No, don't tell me. What do you need, more people?" "No, not yet, so far all we have is bodies. The newest one is a year old. Paul and I can handle the legwork unless something new happens. Right now I was wondering if you could do me a favor. I need you to take Paul to Ventura to interview the Pena girl's family. They're Hispanic and I figure they'll respond better to you than to the goody-two-shoes-white boy. We don't even know if they speak English." "Just Paul, and just where, may I ask, are you going to be while I'm schlepping your partner around?" "I have to meet with someone," I said in my most serious deadpan voice. He looked at me for a second. "Rebecca. I've known you long enough to know that I'm not going to get a better answer than that. Just promise me one thing? Promise me you're not going to be doing anything stupid." I smiled at him. "I won't be in any more danger than anyone else caught in rush hour traffic if that's any reassurance." "Rush hour traffic, you? This must be important. Where are you going? Never mind, stupid question, I should know better. Okay, on one condition." He was suddenly growing a huge smile. My screens went up and a 'red alert' siren from the original Star Trek TV series started in the back of my brain. "Don't you dare!" The smile got wider. "Oh yeah. I've been waiting for this chance and now that you have wandered into my trap I'm taking full advantage. I'll nursemaid your little prodigy on his first road trip. In exchange, you have 14 days to go on real date. Your escort must be of legal age and eligible, meaning both single and straight. If you cannot find your own escort then Selena has volunteered to assist you in locating one. Do we have a deal?" "Sam..." He cut me off, "Don't you 'Sam' me, do we have a deal or not? I've got work to do if I'm going to be able to break away to assist in your ongoing investigation. Ten seconds, Hampton, what's it going to be?" "Damn you, Rod! Fine, I'll do it. But if I end up killing him it's on you." "Good," he said, with his big fat Mexican grin on his face. "Now I suggest you get back to your case before your partner comes looking for you. I have to call my wife and give her the good news." I flipped him off and stomped out the door. One look and the normally crowded aisle parted like the Red Sea. Where the hell was I going to find a date? Practically every man I'd met since Michael died was dead or serving life sentences. And there was no way I was dating anyone from work. When Michael was killed I vowed I would never again get involved with another agent. I made it back to the conference room without any bloodshed. Paul was just hanging up the phone. "No answer at the Pena home. I called the locals and asked to speak to the officer who handled the case. I think we're going to have problems on this one. I was politely informed that the officer was in the field and would I care to leave a message. I asked if I could speak to the supervisor and spent the next 10 minutes on hold." "You can straighten it out when you get there," I said. "Don't you mean when 'we' get there?" "No. I have somebody I have to meet. Director Rodriguez will be accompanying you on this trip. I figure he'll have better luck with the family than you would by yourself. There may be cultural and language problems that he can get past that you can't." "Yo quiero Taco Bell," he said with a smile. "Mas Cervesa por favor," I answered. "So much for the language lesson. Get anywhere on the Watkins girl?" "My next call. Should I ask where you are going to be while I am being escorted to Ventura by the boss?" "You could ask, but you wouldn't get much of an answer. I have to meet with someone, and before you ask, no, I'm not going to tell you who. And I've already gone over this with Rod, and I will tell you the same thing I told him. I promise I am not putting myself at risk, unless you count rush hour traffic." He held my eye for a second and then nodded. We spent the rest of the morning on the phone trying to get as much information as possible together. We ordered sandwiches brought in and then Paul and Rod left right after lunch to try and see what they could find out from the family and friends of Maria Pena. I spent a couple more hours on the phone then retrieved Jimmy's new cell phone out of my desk, changed clothes, and headed down to my car. I reached San Bernardino with almost an hour to spare. The address led me to an older middle class neighborhood, one of those pockets of residential bliss that you sometimes find tucked away in different cities. One minute you're driving through urban chaos, then you make a couple of quick turns and you are suddenly passing clean sidewalks and well-manicured lawns. I found the house but didn't stop. I cruised around and found a small strip mall and a park a couple of streets over. I got myself an ice cream and found a bench in the shade to kill some time on. I couldn't help but think that this was going to be a very strange evening. I was anxious to meet 'Jimmy.' To see if what I had 'seen' in my dream matched the reality. But I was also nervous. Over the years the job had required me to meet people in many unusual circumstances. Never before had I been asked to help keep someone from getting grounded. Okay, that was a little trite, but that's what it felt like. On the other hand, I could understand that his parents would be more than a little reluctant to believe the story when they heard it. And even more reluctant to let their son continue to be involved in an investigation of this type. I looked at my watch. It was time. ------- Chapter 43: Coming Clean Monday was mostly a blur. I met with the gang at lunch. It was pretty obvious that something was wrong. Fortunately the other problem explained it. Bob started the story. "What we're about to tell you cannot leave this table. Jimmy almost lost his parents yesterday." The news had the expected affect. The questions started flying. Bob shushed them and continued. "Everyone is alright. Tomorrow we wouldn't be able to tell you this because there will more than likely be a gag order in effect. There was a problem in their hotel room, security got them out in time and they are coming home today. There is a settlement offer on the table, which will include a gag order for all involved parties, all hotel employees and anyone who has prior knowledge of the event. So if you ever speak of this to anyone, Jimmy and his family stand to lose a lot. He's letting me tell you this because he knows he can trust you to forget all of it. Well, not forget, but at least not bring it up again or discuss it with anyone." I didn't need to hear their confirmations but it was good to hear them anyway. "Bob," I interrupted, "do you think you could come by the house tonight? I'm expecting an emotional night, and as a therapist I figure you may be able to help if anything comes up." "Sure, Jimmy. How about I give you a ride home after practice? Any chance your mom is going to feel up to cooking?" "Bob!" Susan slapped his arm. We all laughed. "Okay, okay, never mind." I noticed Tim was looking at me strangely during practice. He caught up with me after and started stretching. "You're kind of quiet today, Jimmy, everything okay?" "Truthfully? No. Family problem over the weekend. It worked out okay, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. I'm just a little nervous about a conversation I have to have with my parents tonight." "Sounds serious?" "Yeah, it probably qualifies in that category. I just hope I don't end up grounded for the rest of the year." He cracked up. "Geez, dude! You had me thinking it was something bad. If getting grounded is all you're worried about then you're worrying too much. What happened? They catch you with the babysitter?" Now it was my turn to laugh. "Which one?" He really cracked up at that. I tried to keep a straight face but it was a lost cause. "Thanks, Tim. I needed that." "Hey, no problem." He put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. "And after Saturday night, I am the one who needs to be thanking you, for many things. I owe you a great debt, my friend. One that I don't know how I will ever repay. Angela feels the same way." I felt a cold shudder run down my back. "Tim, I didn't do anything, really." "Yeah. You're right. You just changed my life and made me the luckiest, happiest, guy on the planet. No big deal; happens every day." "Second luckiest." I said with a grin. "We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. How do you keep up with two?" "Simple, I don't try. I just show up and do my best. They're very forgiving." "Well, good luck with your parents. Oh no! That's not what this is about is it? They didn't find out did they?" Tell the truth? Stall. "No, it's not that. Something else happened yesterday. I don't know what's going to happen for sure." Not a complete lie, I had an idea of what would probably happen, but you never know. "But I'll find out soon enough." "Well, let me know how it turns out, or if there is anything I can do for you. And I mean anything. See you tomorrow." Tim headed for the locker room. It only took a few moments to pack my stuff in my bag, and then Bob and I headed for his car. "Nervous?" he asked. "Bob? You're one of the top psyche people in the state, or so I've been led to believe. I would think you could come up with a better question, or at least something a little less rhetorical." We both laughed at that. "Okay, you got me. I guess I'm just as nervous as you are. This could potentially be a disaster of biblical proportions. I mean your folks seem like decent people, but if they wanted to they could crucify me for my involvement in this. Well, not all of it, but at least my part over the weekend." As we pulled into the driveway and got out, a woman crossed the street. I knew who it was instantly. She was wearing the dress she had worn at the bank shooting. Okay, maybe not that one, but another one just like it anyway. I shouldered my bag and walked down the driveway to meet her. I held out my hand and said, "Thank you for coming. Please allow me to introduce my psychology teacher, psychologist, and cross country coach, Robert Shelby. Bob, this is Rebecca Hampton." Bob shook her hand. "An honor to meet you, Miss Hampton. I've heard a lot about you, but Jimmy never told me you were beautiful, too." He bowed over her hand and kissed it. "I guess FBI agents really do blush," I said. "Why don't we go inside before the neighbors start getting too curious?" I led them into the house. I had expected to find the girls out by the pool. Instead they were at the table doing homework. They looked up when the door opened. "Hi, Mr. Shelby, thanks for coming," Allison began, then Rebecca entered and her eyes got big. She got up and walked into the living room. "You must be Rebecca. I am so happy to meet you." Rebecca held out her hand but Allison ignored it and swept in to hug her instead. She let her go after a second. "That was from Amy. I promised her I would deliver that if I ever got the chance." Then she stepped in and hugged her again. "That one is from me. Thank you for helping Jimmy, for believing him, and for coming tonight." Rebecca was overwhelmed. She just stood there speechless for a second. Then shook her head to try and clear it. "You said that hug was from Amy?" "Yes!" Allison said, "She is just the sweetest thing and I feel so bad about her being stuck in a hospital somewhere all this time." "Well, she's not really that little anymore. She's twenty years old." "Not to us," Shannon said from the dining room. She got up and came into the living room with the rest of us. "And not to her either. Rebecca? Miss Hampton, I mean. One thing that will be very hard but very important to remember when she wakes up is that she will still be that sweet little girl inside. She won't know that any time has passed at all. Isn't that right, Mr. Shelby?" "I'm sorry. I don't think we've met, you must be Shannon?" He reached to shake her hand. "I'm sorry," I said. I turned to Shannon. "Please forgive me, I didn't mean to be so rude." I took her hand and turned back to face Bob and Rebecca. "This is my girlfriend, Shannon Davis. And this is my sister, Allison. With the exception of Amy, everyone that knows about this is now in this room. Why don't we sit down and if anyone has questions now would be a good time, before we have to send Rebecca into isolation." Rebecca shook the girl's hands. "Very nice to meet you both. So you've all seen Amy?" "Well, not all of us." Bob answered. "I have not yet had the pleasure. However, what Shannon said is actually correct. When Amy wakes up, unless she is the rare exception, she will not know that any time has passed at all. The longer they have been 'out, ' the harder it can be for coma patients to adjust to the hole in their lives. In this case, Amy will wake to a fully functional adult existence with, most likely, no knowledge that any time has passed. She will have a lot of catching up to do." "But, you've all seen her. Won't she remember that?" "Not necessarily. She has met Jimmy and the girls only in dreams. She has apparently seen you. She somehow knows about your life, what you do, and a few other things. But this is all happening in her subconscious. More than that, it's happening so far down in her subconscious that it is not even registering on her conscious mind. If she were to meet Jimmy she would at most think that maybe he looked a little familiar. But it would be the kind of feeling you have from passing the same person on the street twice in one week. So when she wakes up, try to remember that she may be twenty something on the outside, but on the inside she will just be a frightened little eight year old girl wondering what happened. And most importantly, don't take it personally if she doesn't remember you. I'm sure you've changed a lot since she last saw you." "Thank you. I'm sure the doctors would have gotten around to telling me this sooner or later. Why they didn't do it five or six years ago is a question I will have to ask them." Allison jumped in, "Most likely it's a familiarity issue. They see you so often and you are so involved that they just assume that you know all of this. I mean, how many doctors have you been through?" "You have a very good point there, Allison, must run in the family. With the different locations and all this time, I've been through quite a few. You're probably right. Mr. Shelby is it? Perhaps you could steer me towards a good book on the recovery process." "Please, Miss Hampton, call me Bob. I would be happy to assist you in preparing for your sister's return, the sooner the better. Perhaps we could discuss it over dinner some time?" I glanced at Allison and saw a huge grin on her face. Bob was apparently quite taken with our new friend. I glanced back at Rebecca and saw a very puzzled look on her face. Bob caught it too. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I being too forward? I realize we just met but..." "No, no." she interrupted. "That's quite all right. It's just a very odd coincidence. I don't want you to take this wrong so let me say right off that I would love to have dinner with you, Bob. Now let me explain. You all know about Paul, my partner?" We nodded. "Well, my boss and his wife have been badgering me to start dating again. This morning, Rod cornered me into agreeing to go out on a real date within two weeks as his price for getting Paul out of my hair so I could be here." She looked at me and said, "They are out interviewing Maria Pena's family." I nodded and she continued, "Bob, please don't think that this is why I'm agreeing to go out with you, because it's not. It's just that I've been wondering where in the hell, sorry, where in the world I was going to find a date and suddenly here you are. It just seems like a very odd coincidence is all." "Ah, but perhaps it is not coincidence," Bob answered. "Call it rather divine intervention. I've been a very good boy lately and perhaps I'm being rewarded. And about time too, I might add. Did Jimmy by chance tell you how I got involved in this whole mess?" "No, he mentioned he had a therapist he was talking to but never a name or the circumstances." "Well, it happened like this..." He steered her towards the couch. Shannon interrupted, "Before he starts crying on your shoulder, can I get you something to drink, Rebecca? We have water, ice tea and lemonade?" "A glass of water would be fine, thank you, Shannon. Oh, and since we appear to all be on a first name basis now," she looked at me again, "what is your real name?" "I'm sorry, I forgot you didn't know. James. James Edward Matthews." "Jimmy's not your real name. Clever, not a lie, just enough partial information to handle the situation and easy enough that you would not be tripped up by failing to notice if someone called you by name. Thank you, Shannon." She took the glass Shannon had brought and turned back to Bob. "You were telling me how you got sucked into this..." The girls and I went to the kitchen. We were working on a salad to go with the pizza we were planning to order. A few minutes later we heard a roar of laughter and, "You're kidding! One dollar!" They chatted on amicably for a while longer then Rebecca's watch chimed once and suddenly she was all business. "I guess that means it's time for me do my vanishing act. Did you have a specific plan for how this whole drama is going to play out?" "Not really, to start with we thought we would just park you in Allison's room until we get through the basics. The door will be left ajar and you can listen to what we discuss. At this point I feel like you need to know everything. And you can ask Shannon, it's a lot." "I'll say," Shannon said, "I've known these two for years and it still blew my mind." "Anyway," I continued, "at some point we will be ready for you. Either one of us will come and get you, or, if you hear a good opportunity, come on out. We'll introduce you and you can answer questions. I expect it to be an uncomfortable situation; my mom is not likely to take this part well." She smiled at this. "I've seen it before. I would be shocked if she didn't react that way. Parents don't like their kids to even hear about stuff like this, much less be involved. So when do I get sequestered?" "They could be here any time. We'll just have to watch for the car I guess." Allison rolled her eyes. "And that's why you're not the brains of the outfit." She picked up the phone and dialed. "Hi. Karen? Where are you guys? We were going to order pizza and we thought everyone might like to get a shot at it while it's still hot. Oh, okay... are you sure? Well, all right. Do you want us to order enough to take with you? All right, I'll tell her to get her stuff together. Are you sure you can't stay? Okay, we'll see you in a little while." She hung up and turned back to us. "We've got about 30 minutes. We'll give it a little longer and then order. Rebecca, I hate to think of you sitting in my room while we're scarfing down on pizza. Can I fix you something before we lock you in the closet?" "Thank you, Allison. This may sound strange, but if you have any strawberry jam, I would love a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." "That's it? Done! Do you want anything with it?" "I'm not really into chips and things. You eat enough of that sort of thing on a stakeout to last a lifetime. I'll take an apple if you have one. And if you don't mind, I would like to use your bathroom before it gets too close to time." "No problem, end of the hall, the room with all the porcelain furniture. Your gourmet meal will be ready when you get back." Twenty-eight minutes later two cars pulled into the driveway. Tom and Dad were riding in ours, Mom and Karen right behind them in the Davis'. Rebecca was in the bedroom and Bob had gone for a short drive so as to not attract attention. Tom and Karen were our best friends. It just wouldn't look right to ask them to leave if Bob was here. ------- Chapter 44: Welcome to My World The scene at the door was as emotional as you would expect. Mom and Dad barely made it in the door before Shannon and Allison hit them both. Tears flowed freely as the pent up emotion of the last few days was finally able to dissipate. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. At first Tom, Karen, and myself were just responding to the scene, but when it was my turn to finally hug and hold the parents I had almost lost... well, use your imagination. Finally Tom stepped in and took Shannon's arm. "Sweetie, why don't you get your things and we'll leave our friends to catch up and get re-attached okay?" "Sure thing, Dad." She gathered her bags from Allison's room, and I noticed that she left it ajar as she came back out. She caught me watching and held my eye for just long enough to acknowledge that I knew what she had done. A final round of hugs was exchanged and they were gone. I took my parents' bags to their room and as I was coming back I heard Allison telling them pizza should be there any time. I caught my dad off guard when I shook his hand as I came back into the living room. "Thanks for trusting me and waiting. We have a lot to discuss. Do you want to get started or wait for food?" I asked. "As this is going to take a while, I would suggest maybe starting on the salad now and then the pizza won't get cold." They looked at each other for a second then we all moved to the table. Mom noticed that we had set a fifth place at the table. I think she was about to ask when the doorbell rang. Allison answered it. It was the pizza guy showing up early. Any other day that would have been a good thing. She paid him and when she came back she was escorting Bob, who was carrying the hot boxes, into the dining room. I saw Dad start to ask a question but Mom put her hand on his and we all sat down. Once everyone was settled and eating Allison nodded at me and I started. "Okay, the first thing that you need to know is that there is a lot going on and it will take time to bring you up to speed on all of it. Please, if you will be patient, I think that a lot of the questions will answer themselves. Bob is here to help answer questions as they arise. He has been a valuable resource for me this year as I've tried to get a grip on everything that has been happening. We'll start simple. You know how close Allison and I have always been?" "Of course, dear," Mom answered. "We've talked about it many times." "Well, actually you don't," I responded. "Not fully anyway. Exactly when this all started I don't know. Allison realized the truth long before I did. I didn't figure out what was happening until the first day of school. That's this year, and what has been happening is that for a long time, years in fact, I've been visiting Allison's dreams." "You've been what?" Dad asked, puzzled. Allison clarified, "What he means is that for as long as I can remember Jimmy has been in my dreams. We've played, had adventures, all the normal stuff you do in dreams but in this case, Jimmy was actually there. It was probably three or four years ago that I figured out the difference between when it was just me dreaming about Jimmy, or if it was actually 'him' in the dream." Dad turned to Bob and asked, "Is this even possible?" "Hold that thought for a second," I said. "The first day of school things changed. That night, for the first time, I was in someone else's dream. Someone else besides Allison, that is. Things happened in that dream that I knew could not possibly happen. You may have noticed that I've been studying dream stuff on and off over the years. I never really knew why but it always interested me as a subject. What happened in that dream was not possible based on what I knew from even my limited research. The only possible explanation was that it wasn't my dream; that somehow I had actually been 'in' someone else's dream. That someone was Shannon." "Shannon?" Mom said. I nodded and continued, "Shannon naturally told Allison all about this amazing dream she'd had. As soon as she started Allison realized what must have happened. She confronted me as soon as I came home from school that day. That's when I found out that she already knew about it. At first I tried to deny it, but she quickly convinced me that she not only knew about it, but knew a lot more about it than I did. The first thing she made clear to me is the importance of making sure no one else knows about it." "What do you mean? Why would that matter?" Mom asked. Bob popped up, "My turn. Jimmy approached me with questions about dreams in general and a few specific questions relating to them. We talked about some things but as a professional, it was obvious to me that he was holding something back. I tried to reassure him that as a school counselor just about anything he could talk to me about was confidential. That wasn't good enough. In my infinite wisdom, I suggested that maybe he consider letting me take him on as a patient. That way whatever he said was actually protected by law. He discussed it with Allison, and they decided that this was satisfactory. Jimmy paid me my agreed price, one dollar," my dad sniggered, and Bob continued. "Yes, my thoughts exactly, one dollar, a price for which I've been kicking myself ever since. Anyway, he then went on to tell me what was happening. I was just as floored as I'm sure you are. Before I met him my answer to that question would have been, "No, it's not possible." I now know different. All I could see was the Nobel Prize I would surely get for the research paper I could write. Jimmy stepped on that idea immediately. "It didn't take long for me to realize that he was right, not only can nothing be said; very few questions can even be asked. If the wrong people found out about what Jimmy can do, and, I'm sorry to say that many of those people are in our own government, Jimmy would most likely spend the rest of his life in a closely guarded research facility with no visitors. They would do whatever they had to in order to make it look like a normal disappearance, or maybe even a tragic accident, complete with a body close enough to the right size, weight, etc to pass casual inspection. Which they would control all access to and make sure that everyone drew the right conclusion. No one wants to admit that this sort of thing is even possible, or that our own government would be party to it, but I don't think anyone actually believes that all of those stories are fiction either. I certainly don't. "I believe, strongly, that Allison is right on the money, and that if word ever got out, Jimmy would most likely never be seen again. Our government would do whatever it took to make sure, if nothing else, that no other government would ever be able to get him, among other things." My parents' faces had gone white as the truth of Bob's words sank in. I continued. "Up until this weekend, the truth was known by 5 people in the world. As of tonight that number is up to eight. You two are the last that we think will ever have to know. We told Shannon Friday night because of some things that were happening that we were uncomfortable hiding from her. And we really didn't like doing that. Allison and I talked about it and we trust Shannon. The basics are that I bridged into Shannon's dream because she had a crush on me and it somehow drew me in. Since then, Shannon and I have been getting closer. Being in her dreams gives me a kind of unfair advantage and I felt that I would be deceiving her to continue on without her knowing the truth. She was just as shocked at all this as you are, and as you will be when you've heard it all." "You mean there's more?" asked my dad. Allison and I both nodded and I continued. "Since she now knew the truth we told her everything. It turns out that this was a good move as she has already had some very helpful insights. But we'll get to that later. Back to this weekend, I knew that neither of you would believe that it was Allison's dream. And I'm sure you knew the truth as soon as someone told you that. Late Saturday night, I had a dream in which Sunday morning the police and social services showed up to tell us that you were dead. Right after they explained how you had 'died' I realized that it was a dream, I'll explain that later. But I woke up in bed and immediately called the hotel. Hotel security got you out and you know pretty much what happened after that. And that brings us to the attorney." I looked at Bob. "Jimmy contacted me first thing Sunday morning about what to do to keep this quiet. This was exactly the kind of attention he most needed to avoid. "Girl's dream saves parents" on the front page of a newspaper and the story behind it would be the worst sort of disaster. Even though it would focus on Allison as the source, it's just too close for comfort. And most attorneys would push for all the publicity available. I have an acquaintance that I trusted to handle it with the level of discretion necessary. As I told Jimmy, he's not an ambulance chaser; he would do what we told him and not be worried about the money. As I'm sure you know, that's rare for the breed. "I had him contact the hotel; he assured me they would already have someone assigned from their legal department to handle damage control. The key was to offer them a deal that would allow them to keep it quiet, which he assured me they would jump at. You should get a response very quickly as the longer they take the greater the chances that word of what almost happened to you would get out. Any settlement must include a gag order and the gag order is contingent on your acceptance of the settlement offer. And they were instructed that they only get one shot at a settlement. After that, everything goes public. It's a hollow threat from our end but they don't know that. I think you will receive a good offer very quickly." "Actually," my dad said, "I think I have it already. I was given a sealed package before we left the hospital. I was waiting until we got home to look at it." He glanced at me, then Allison, then back to Bob. "So this is all really happening? Or did happen?" "Yes," Bob answered. "Even I was skeptical. The real clincher was Jimmy visiting me in my own dreams." He shook his head. "It's not that I didn't believe him, but your mind simply won't allow for this sort of thing. Especially since I know through years of study and training that it is not possible. But he really is moving around in other people's dreams." My mom asked, "Then why has he never done it with us? I mean he was apparently with Allison all those years but I don't think he's ever dropped in on one of us. Wouldn't he have come to us before 'going' somewhere else?" "Actually, I asked myself that very same question the first night. The answer is so obvious it's almost ridiculous." I smiled. "I'm not allowed in your room when the door is closed." My dad just burst out laughing at that. My mom blushed and then smiled. "Well, there is that. I'm just surprised that that stopped you." "I'm not," Bob said. "Early childhood lessons and restrictions are the most deeply etched most of us will ever have. Did you know that getting someone to break training and wet themselves is one of the basic steps in breaking down most captured intelligence people? Anyway, that's another subject. Now that we've covered the basics we can tell you the really weird part." They just looked at us like we had all suddenly sprouted antennae. "You mean it gets weirder?" Dad asked. "Oh yeah," Allison said. "A short while ago, someone started "hijacking" me for lack of a better term. I 'woke up' if you will, in a dream one night to find a door in my room. I went through it and found myself in a freeze frame of another person's dream. I was the only thing moving, and there was only one other person in the dream, a woman. I checked her out and figured her for some kind of cop as she was carrying a gun. The scene suddenly came to life and I followed her onto a bus, only instead of a bus, I found myself in a bank. There was a hold-up in progress. The woman I had followed was there, in different clothes. I watched as she tricked the leader into taking her to a back office where she took him out, then came back out and took out the other two, one of them permanently. During all this, I found out she was an FBI agent. "The next night it happened again. This time I found myself in the balcony of a church, at her wedding. The second scene that night was of her husband, a fellow agent, dying. Allison and I discussed it and I went to Bob with what I had seen. He determined that what I was seeing was not actually a dream, but rather a recreation of someone's memories, in a dream. This was totally new and it explained a few things that had happened. He also agreed with Allison that someone wanted me to meet this agent. "Allison and I were scared because all of this pointed to the fact that someone we knew nothing about, knew about me. Knew about what I could do and could apparently move me around. Bob pointed out that someone with bad intentions was not very likely to be trying to introduce me to an FBI agent. "Now we come to the strangest part of the whole thing. The next time I went through one of the doors it was on my own initiative. I found myself in her office watching her work. The scene froze and I met the person who had been doing all of this. Her name is Amy, and she is Rebecca's little sister. I'm sorry; Rebecca Hampton is the name of the FBI agent. In my dreams, Amy appears as an eight-year-old girl. I recognized her as someone I had seen once before in an earlier dream. "She said she had been watching me to make sure I was the right one. I asked her what I was the right one for, and she said I had to stop 'the bad man, ' and that I needed her sister's help to do it. I know, it sounds bizarre, and it is, believe me. She told me some other things. She has, thankfully, no actual knowledge of what this guy has done. Just that he was a bad man and that he was going to hurt some girls. At first we didn't know either. Then, when I asked Amy if she could tell me more, she said no, but that maybe she could show me. Well, she showed me. This bastard, sorry, Mom; kidnapped, raped and tortured a girl. I relived the whole thing, well bits and pieces of it anyway, through his memory. It made me sick. That was the morning I collapsed after my run. "I woke up that morning right after seeing, and, worse, feeling, him do all of this. After I finally stopped crying, I went out for my run and I don't know what happened, but it seemed like I was trying to run away from the memory of what I had seen. I finally stopped about a mile from here, I still have no idea how far I actually ran but I was exhausted. I barely made it back. As soon as I was 'safe' at home, my whole body just shut down. I talked to Bob at lunch to let him know what had happened, what Amy had 'shown' me. "We then had to figure out what we could do with the information. He helped me kind of zoom in on one scene and this allowed me to get the girl's name. That night I 'bridged', that's what we call it, into one of Rebecca's dreams and asked her to check on the name. I gave her some other hints. Of course she didn't believe a word of it, but she is too much of a professional not to at least run the name." A voice from the hall interrupted, "What I found confirmed what he had seen. Three years ago, the girl he described was kidnapped, raped, tortured and eventually killed up in the Bay Area. Hello, Mr. & Mrs. Matthews. My name is Rebecca; officially Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, United States Federal Bureau of Investigation." Bob actually stood up and held a chair for her, Allison and I just looked at each other. "You've been hiding in the back all this time?" Mom accused. "It was my idea, Mom," I answered for her, "and she was not so much hiding, as waiting for us to get you caught up to a point where you wouldn't be questioning who she was, why she was here, etc. I asked her to wait until we came to get her or until she heard an opening that made sense to introduce her. Allison figured out immediately that you would want to meet her when you heard that I am working with the FBI." "You mean you were working with the FBI," Mom said. "It's their investigation now; you've done your part. Now they can do the rest." "I wish that were true," Rebecca said. "Unfortunately, with the exception of what Jimmy has been able to tell us, we have virtually nothing to go on. The girl who was killed was named Diane McKenzie. As he said, Jimmy gave me the name and we matched it to an unsolved case from Santa Clara. The reason it was unsolved is that there was virtually no evidence to go on. Nothing; not a single lead to trace. Her body was discovered in a motel room, but it was obvious that she had been killed somewhere else and then placed there." "Then it's just an unsolved case. I'm sure there are a lot of them. I'm sorry about what happened to her, but I don't understand what you think James is going to be able to do about it if you can't." "Mrs. Matthews, right now Jimmy is the only lead we have, and, just so you know, I am the only one at the Bureau that even knows he exists, and it's going to stay that way. This poses a unique set of problems all by itself. I can't very well tell people where I'm getting my information. And in a case like this, an anonymous source is usually the killer. That's what everyone thinks, that he, meaning my source, is in fact the killer and he's stringing me along to play with us. I can't tell you how hard it is to use the information that Jimmy is giving me without disclosing anything about him. And unfortunately it looks like we're just getting started." Suddenly my dad looked pale. "What do you mean?" "Last night I 'found' two more girls he's killed," I answered. "Oh my God!" Mom gasped, as they both paled. Bob looked surprised but didn't say anything. "Jimmy came to see me last night," Rebecca continued. "He took me to this island he has dreamed up to discuss talking to you about what had happened this weekend and about coming here to speak with you tonight. After he left I thought we were done. The next thing I knew he was dragging me out of my bedroom." "Your bedroom!" Mom asked and looked sharply at me. Rebecca chuckled as she continued. "It's nothing like that, Mrs. Matthews; I assure you Jimmy has been a perfect gentleman in all of our dealings. Well, all but one, and he has been absolutely wonderful to my sister, but that's not really what we are talking about. He took me to a sort of a theater where we watched as this sick son of a bitch, sorry, did the same thing to two more girls. With a little work we managed to pin down the names and this morning I ran the names and matched them to two more unsolved cases. I have two agents interviewing the parents of one of the girls right now. We're just starting to gather the information but I'm very much afraid that we are going to find the exact same thing, nothing, which means that Jimmy will still be the only source of information we have. "No, I will not allow it!" Mom said, looking directly at me. "You are not getting further involved in this." She turned on Rebecca. "My son is fifteen years old. You have no business involving him in your case. No. This stops now. You and the rest of the FBI can deal with this." "No, Mother." That got her attention, I never called her mother. "They can't, for several reasons. First of all, you're being unfair to Rebecca; she didn't involve me, I went to her. And whether I work with Rebecca or not I am still seeing what this guy does. If I don't pass the information on to her then they can't catch him and he will just continue to do this to more innocent girls. Mom, I can't let that happen. I can't begin to tell you just how horrible it is to live through that." I could feel the tears starting to form and this time I let them. "I don't just see it happen, Mom; somehow I actually feel what he is feeling through the whole thing. The thrill of the hunt as he stalks them, his elation as he dominates, rapes, and tortures them and the cold nothingness when he finally kills them." I couldn't help but shudder just remembering it. "It makes me sick just to think about it. If there is any chance, any chance at all, that I can help stop this guy, Mom... ," I could feel the tears starting to run, looked away, and whispered, "I have to stop him, Mom." "No you don't. They have to stop him. She has to stop him," she said, but more softly this time. I could hear it in her voice, she could feel the pain I was in, and she knew I was right. "She can't. Not without me," I said quietly. "How do you know that?" Dad asked, placing his hand on Mom's arm to stop her from continuing. I took a second to dry my face. "Amy said so. She told me that Rebecca would want to do it on her own but that I shouldn't let her. There was something about the way she said it. I asked her if Rebecca would get hurt. When she didn't answer I asked if Rebecca would die. She said yes. She begged me to help her sister. Not to let her try to do it herself. I promised her I would do everything I could." "Son, she can't know that," Dad said. "No one can..." his voice trailed off. "Right," Allison said, "no one can know the future. But all those years ago, Jimmy knew the house was on fire. He saw it in a dream. He knew you were going to die Saturday night. He saw it in his dream. No one can know these things? Amy does. And she shouldn't know anything at all." "What do you mean? Why shouldn't she know?" Mom asked. Rebecca answered, "Because she's been in a coma for twelve years." Both of my parents' jaws dropped. "The little girl Jimmy described from his dreams is my little sister the day she was hit by a car trying to save a puppy outside our church. Right down to the dress she was wearing. She can't know any of this. She can't even know that I am an agent, but she does. Jimmy asked her for some information to help convince me that she really had been talking to him. She told him things from our past that no one would know but me. He convinced me. On the one hand I'm jealous that he gets to see her and I can't. By the way, your son is a very special young man. He takes Amy to the beach to play with her." "He does?" Mom asked, looking at me. I blushed. Allison rescued me. "Yes, he really does. He made this island in his dream where they could talk. Then when he found out she had been spying on her big sister, he turned into a troll and chased her around the beach and picked her up and started throwing her around in the water. She really likes the beach. This weekend he took Shannon and me there and we all played with her." "He took you and Shannon with him?" my dad asked. "How does that work?" "I have no idea, but he did it. Dad, Jimmy can do things in dreams that are simply amazing. Most people can control at least some things in their dreams. I can do a lot of stuff. I think it's because I've been doing it for so long, and because Jimmy was there. I'm a lot better and faster at some stuff, but only in my own dreams. Jimmy can do it in anyone's dreams. I can't go to other people's dreams, or do much to affect them if they are in mine; Jimmy can, even when it's not his dream. Like this weekend, I tried to change Shannon's clothes from PJs to a bathing suit. Only it didn't work. Oh, we were in my dream then, in this glade I made a while back. She couldn't change them either, but Jimmy could. Then he took us to the island, which is in 'his' dream, then Shannon could change her own clothes but I still couldn't. Jimmy could change everything. Anyway, this was all when we were telling Shannon about everything and convincing her that it was really happening. She sure believes now, let me tell you. Anyway, while we were in the cabana..." "Cabana?" Mom interjected. "Yeah, it's one of those rooms built out over the lagoon like they have in Tahiti and places like that. It's really cool. Anyway, while we were there, he invited Amy to come and see us. It was something Shannon had said that made him want to talk to her, but she came and we talked for a while then Jimmy kind of 'moved' us out into the lagoon and we all played until she had to leave. She is just the sweetest little thing. It just kills us to think that she has missed so much of her life." "Because she's in a coma," Dad said. "Yes," Rebecca answered this time, "she's actually 20 years old lying in a bed in a special facility down between Irvine and San Diego. The part they haven't told you is that when Amy told them I would die, she said that she could not get better without me. That's the only reason I let Jimmy do any of this. I tried to kick him off the case as soon as I had the first girl's name. He actually hard-balled me with that one single fact to force me to let him help because he already knew that while I wasn't afraid of dying, I would never take a chance with Amy's future. I can't tell you how much I wanted to strangle him when he said that to me. Because he was right, I would do almost anything for Amy." She looked down at the table and I knew it was so we wouldn't see the moisture forming in her eyes. Bob took the ball, "And that, in a very large nutshell is where we are. The six of us, plus Shannon, and of course Amy, are the only people who know what Jimmy is capable of. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, I am not a deeply religious man. I don't think you would find too many people in the mental health field that are, most are either agnostic or full fledged Atheists. I, however, have great faith that God is in fact out there somewhere. I am also convinced that for some reason he has chosen to give your son this very special gift. I don't think I have met two people in my life that I would trust with this ability. Not in the clergy, and definitely not in the government. I don't think it's an accident that Jimmy can do the things he can do, and I don't believe God would give him a gift like this and expect him not to use it. Just as He entrusted the two of you to raise Jimmy, and to give him the kind of upbringing and guidance necessary to make him a person that could be trusted with this gift. So, please, I encourage you to trust in your work so far and to let him use this gift that God seems to have given him specifically to handle this situation. I am sure I can speak for Rebecca in saying that everyone will do everything in their power to keep him safe." "Absolutely," said Rebecca, "I would never allow your son to be in a position of danger if I could possibly prevent it. "What if it came down to him or your sister?" Mom asked. "Mrs. Matthews, I love my sister very deeply. I could never lie to you about that. But as much as I want to see her get well and be able to run and play in the sun and do all the things she should be able to do, I would never risk an innocent person's life or safety, not even for Amy. I could never face her if I did. She would never forgive me." That pretty much ended the discussion and we decided to called it a night. Bob offered to take Rebecca to her car. She tried to tell him it wasn't necessary but he pointed out that it was already dark. She pointed out that she was a heavily armed FBI agent and therefore not in any danger. "Oh good, because I'm afraid of the dark and I'll feel so much safer having you with me." Allison rolled her eyes and mimed gagging on her finger. "Please, let him take you. I don't know how much more I can take. Why don't you just ask her out and get it over with?" "Allison!" Mom said. Rebecca laughed and said, "It's okay, Mrs. Matthews. If he doesn't ask me soon I'm thinking of shooting him anyway." Bob looked at her. "I asked you out earlier. Remember, we discussed what an odd coincidence it was that we should just happen to meet today?" Now it was Rebecca's turn to blush again. "Oh, that's right. So your offer for dinner still stands?" "Absolutely, anywhere you like. Or we could come back here; Cindy's really a wonderful cook." "Why thank you, Robert," Mom said, "but I don't think this zoo is the right place for a first date." Rebecca took his hand. "What's the matter? Worried about being alone with an armed woman? I promise not to hurt you as long as you behave yourself." Bob turned bright red. "Oh yeah! Now I know what I look like when Susan touches me." I laughed. "That bad?" he asked. Allison and I laughed at that. "Who's Susan?" Mom asked. "I'll explain later, maybe." I stood. "Rebecca, thank you for coming, I'll let you know if I find out anything else." "Oh yeah, almost forgot. Here is your phone. It's been specially modified so it's completely untraceable. Also, you can call out, but no one can call in. The idea is for you to be able to reach me, not the other way around. And yes you can use it to call anyone you want; it's paid for out of a special discretionary fund. I'm programmed into the speed dial under number seven. I don't expect you'll need it very often but just in case there is something that can't wait until we're both asleep. Gosh that sounds weird." "It certainly does," Dad said. He turned to me. "Does this mean we can expect a visit from you later?" "It seems to be the most effective way to convince people that what we've said is true. But if you would rather not..." "No, no. That's quite all right. Like Bob said, you can tell yourself you believe but..." "Well then," Rebecca said. "Goodnight everyone. It was nice to meet you all," She shook everyone's hand. She saved Bob for last and pulled his hand through her arm and said, "It's not too late to change my mind about that lift is it?" "It would be my pleasure. See you tomorrow, Jimmy. Goodnight Cindy, Rick, Allison." Once they were gone we all realized how late it was, how tired we were, and headed off to bed. I knocked on my parents' door some time later and my dad answered. He found himself standing in the doorway to his bedroom, in his underwear, looking out at a white sand beach with a little hut out over the crystal blue water. All he could say was, "Wow." My mom stirred behind him, "What is it, dear?" "Come see for yourself." She got up and put on her robe and walked to the door. I was just outside the door. Behind me, at the end of the walkway leading to the cabana, she saw Allison and Shannon, standing, holding the hand of a young girl in a white dress with pink trim. Her face turned white and she gasped, "Oh my God!" I took her hand and pulled her gently through the door, shifting her to her bathing suit as I did so. Dad followed behind and his shorts also changed to a swimsuit as he joined us. We walked in silence until we reached the little girl, who reached out her hand and said, "Are you Jimmy's parents? I'm so happy to meet you. My name is Amy." ------- Chapter 45: Third Interlude-The Morning After 'Waking up' with a beach outside your bedroom door can have a major impact on your world view, especially when you live at the base of a small mountain range 80 miles from the nearest ocean. Having your teenage son lead you out onto that beach with your daughter and her best friend waiting for you can be a bit of an eye-opener. Getting a hug from an eight-year-old girl you've never met but that you know is actually a 20-year-old woman in a coma -- that tends to put big dents in your skepticism. Meeting Amy was the final straw for my mom. She could deal with me "waking her up" in a dream, taking her someplace she's never been; walking on a beach she's never been to with her family. All of those she could rationalize. But when Amy shook my fathers hand then threw her arms around my mother's waist and begged her to let me help her sister, well that was it for her. What mother could say no to that? Not mine, that's for sure. As usual Amy could only stay a short time. And without a word, we all knew when it was time for her to go. I stepped out of the shower the following morning with a strong sense of relief. I no longer had to hide from or lie to any of the people I loved. Mom was sitting at the table sipping her coffee when I reached the kitchen. She watched as I dropped my usual 2 slices of bread in the toaster and started it; waited patiently as I poured my orange juice, and then patted the spot next to her for me to sit down. "That was the most amazing experience I think I have ever had," she said. "Bob was right, you can tell yourself you believe, and I really didn't, but then to actually have it happen." She shook her head and when she turned to me something had changed. "That means the rest is true too, doesn't it?" She didn't wait for a reply. "All of it; the FBI, the murders, everything. Jimmy, it scares me to have you involved with these things." Mom never calls me Jimmy. "I know, Mom. It scares me, too. But..." She cut me off, "I know. You have to do it. I don't like it, but I know you have to do it. I didn't sleep a lot after we got back from your little island. I spent more time talking to God last night than I have spent in a very long time. I don't know why He chose you for this Jimmy, but Bob was right there too, I don't know too many people I would trust with something like this, and it makes me very, very proud to see how well you're handling it. To know that you are putting it to good use and not doing the kind of things that most anyone else would do. And I promise that I will try to be understanding and supportive. No guarantees, but I will try. Just promise me you will be careful. Please, don't take chances. I know it sounds awful but let Rebecca take the chances, that's her job." "I know that, Mom, and trust me, I have no intention of doing anything in the real world that I don't have to. It makes me nervous every time I think about how many people already know about what I can do. I've learned to be very careful anytime I find myself in a new person's dream. Mostly I just observe and leave things alone. I rarely have to actually do anything, and then I try not to do it as myself. As far as reality goes, I don't think Rebecca would let me anyway. She knows what is at stake if the wrong person finds out. She doesn't even want to see me when we're awake. As far as anyone knows, she is playing cat and mouse with the bad guy and we're doing everything we can to keep them thinking that." "Well, that's all good then. Now, tell me about you and Shannon." "What do you mean?" "James Matthews, do not play that game with me. I saw the look on your face when you talked about her, and looking back you two have been spending a lot more time together than you used to. Used to be it was you and Mark hanging out, now it's all of you or just you and the girls. Is there something going on that..." I cut her off, "Mom, before you go there let me ask you something. Is anything you are about to ask me something that you would feel obligated to tell Tom & Karen about?" That stopped her. "Damn, I hadn't thought about that. Okay, we'll stop there because if it does, or more likely when it does come out, I want to be able to tell them honestly that I didn't know anything. Just one thing, does she know about you and Allison?" "Yes." "And she doesn't mind? It doesn't bother her." "No more than it bothers me about her and Jimmy," came Allison's voice from the hallway. She yawned as she came into the kitchen. She kissed Mom on the cheek and then wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight from behind. "Didn't mean to eavesdrop but I was walking out of my room just as you mentioned Shannon. Shannon and I tell each other everything, Mom. I knew about her crush on Jimmy long before he did. It was sort a "You too?" moment for us. I don't even remember who said something first, but one of us mentioned wondering if he was a good kisser and suddenly it was all out in the open. We were up all night giggling about all of our little girl fantasies. That was years ago. It was such a relief when he finally noticed Shannon wasn't five any more. The only part she is jealous about now is that I get to spend so much more time with him than she does. Most of that was in that little glade I made up. Even before you told us it was okay we were spending nights there cuddled up in a hammock. Now that she knows it's all real he can spend some of his nights with her as well. Jealousy is something we don't have a problem with. Well, I gotta get in the shower or someone's gonna have to drive me to school and Shannon will freak if I'm not on the bus." She kissed me on the cheek and headed off down the hall Mom and I just looked at each other for a second then she cracked a smile and said, "What was the question again? I think she answered it somewhere in there, but I'm not sure where." ------- Chapter 46: Needles and Haystacks Rebecca Sending Rod along with Paul to interview the Pena girl's family had turned out to be a very good idea. The parents' English was sketchy and they dropped in and out of Spanish. They had decided ahead of time that Rod would play interpreter to Paul's agent. When he introduced Paul as being with the FBI they were openly nervous but when he said they were there about Maria the door opened wide and they were ushered inside. Apparently the locals had been less than enthusiastic in their pursuit of the case. They had asked some questions, taken some notes and told the Pena's that they would be contacted when they had more to go on, and that was it. Mrs. Pena wept openly and begged Paul to find whoever had done this to her baby. Paul assured her that we would do everything we could. The parents answered every question, even bringing Maria's brother and sisters in to tell what they knew about her life away from home. Did she have a boyfriend? Her little sister rolled her eyes and said, "Boyfriend? More like boyfriends. She had her own posse. All the boys wanted to date Maria. She had a reputation for being easy. Sorry Momma but she was. Where do you think she kept getting all that stuff? It was like a contest. Whoever bought her the nicest gift got a date, and you always had a good time on a date with Maria." No one had noticed any strangers suddenly being around; none of the hopeful boyfriends seemed to be jealous or angry about the situation. No one would ever even think of getting physical with her or all the others would kill him. That's if she didn't do it herself. They thanked the family for their assistance and headed over to see the locals. They asked to see the officer in charge of the case and got the runaround until Rod flashed his ID and insisted on seeing someone who knew what the hell was going on. This moved them from the lobby into a private room with a surly Lieutenant who made it clear that they did not need or welcome outside interference with their case. When they asked to see the latest reports they were politely informed that no information could be shared without consent from the chief of police himself and he would not be in until tomorrow. It was easy to see why the Pena's were so happy to see someone, anyone, doing something. Vegas turned out to be a whole different set of problems. The field office in Las Vegas walks a very fine line. They know who the bad guys are, and the bad guys know who they are and everyone works real hard to make sure they don't ever have a reason to spend any time together. On the one hand the office was very up to date on just about anything that happened involving any of the major players in the area. On the other hand, many of the more serious problems had a way of disappearing before the local office found out about them, and of course witnesses were a myth propagated by other departments to make them look bad. In Vegas, there was no such thing as an eye witness. But they knew the name Amanda Watkins. Her body had been found by the cleaning staff of one of the larger casinos. A team of maids had gone in to prep one of the big VIP suites for an arriving 'special guest' and discovered the girl apparently asleep on the bed, fully clothed. One of them tried to shake her awake and it went rapidly down hill from there. The poor girl had been in therapy for two months trying to deal with touching a dead body. Casino security is about as high tech and up to date as you can get. Sure, you can get in and out okay, but not without being seen. Cameras record everything; the hallways, bathrooms, public areas, restaurants, elevators, even the rooms. Special computers monitor the guest areas for any sounds that could be a problem. If a computer flagged a room a high level security 'associate' was available to authorize activating hidden cameras in the rooms to make sure nothing too bad was happening. 'Too' bad leaves a lot of room, especially in a VIP suite where just about anything goes and the people involved are given lots of leeway to enjoy their private entertainments. It was touch and go for a while between the casino in question and the local field office. A dead body in a VIP suite is not the kind of publicity a big casino wants. The fact that she was not killed there but rather dumped there complicated things even more. Insinuations of 'inside assistance' were tossed around. How else did someone get a dead body into a locked and secured VIP suite without being caught on any of the cameras, tripping the room alarm, or being seen by any of the several hundred employees on duty at the time? The local office wanted detailed information, including prints and DNA on everyone employed there, including security staff. Most of the staff was not a problem. High level "associates", however, tend to be, oh, let's say that their records are less accessible. In some cases they don't exist at all. Not just the records but the people. Sure, a lot of people see them around from time to time, but they don't know their names or what exactly they do, and they don't want to. No one died but there was a sudden rash of employees showing up after falling in the bathtub, down a flight of stairs, into the bushes while jogging... Casinos had a lot more leeway when it came to internal investigations than law enforcement offices do. The local office had a choice of letting them do the job or forcing a power play. The long-term repercussions would be significant. Eventually both the local and federal CSIs hit the wall. Unless the police came up with solid evidence to go on the casino was not turning over anything that could come back to bite them. So the case was filed in 'unsolved' by both departments. The casino would still carry on their internal investigations. This kind of thing should not have been possible and they wanted to know how it had happened so they could make damn sure it never happened again. The results of that investigation were never released to either Vegas PD or the local FBI office. Whatever the casino discovered they were keeping it to themselves. The local branch suspected an inside accomplice. How else do you get around that kind of security? So I did what any good agent would do at a time like this. I called a friend. A very professional voice answered, "Mr. Girard's Office." "Hi, Shirley, it's Becka Hampton, how's things on the shore?" "Rebecca! Oh, it's so good to hear from you. Tell me you have good news." "I wish I could Shirl, there has been some change and it's the good kind but we're not there yet." "Oh darn, I so hoped you were calling to tell us our prayers were answered. Well, I'll just tell all the girls to keep praying. What can I do for you?" "Is Rico in?" There was a pause. "Rebecca, this isn't an official call is it?" "No, I would have told you up front if it was. More like an unofficial call, off the record. Is he in?" "Officially, no. Unofficially, he's in conference." "Interviewing a new maid?" "Rebecca, shame on you! Actually he's in with Manny and Charlie. Brazil is tied 1-1 with Mexico, 8 minutes to play in overtime. Mexico was favored by two and they're covering Brazil to a two point spread." She dropped to a whisper, "If it were the maid, I'd put you through. How important is it?" I laughed. "It's not that important, Shirl, just ask him to call me when it's over. So how're your mom and 'The Bull?'" "Oh, you know them; if they weren't so madly in love they would have killed each other decades ago. We're planning a 50th for them year after next, God willing. Think you can make it?" "Wouldn't dream of missing it, let's see, they got married on Halloween didn't they?" Shirley roared laughter at that one, "Oh, Rebecca! I'm going to tell them you said that. You know very well it was Valentine's Day, you send them a card every year. So you'll come?" "Of course I'll come. Well, you know what I mean; I'll request vacation and hope I'm not up to my ass when the time comes. Hey, how about if I have someone dummy up a fake birth certificate for Felicia and arrest the old buzzard for robbing the cradle?" She roared again, "Oh Rebecca! You are too much! That would be great! Could you?" "Sure, and I'll hire a couple of male strippers to dress up as my backup." "You would do it too, wouldn't you, bad, bad girl. Mom would have a heart attack right there in ball room." "Oh, I'm sure she'd make a scene alright, but I doubt she's the one who would need the paramedics." "Well, there is that. Listen, sweetie, I have to go, I've got some asshole coming up the elevator, I'll have Mr. G call you as soon as the game is over. Give Amy my love." "I will, Shirley, it's good to talk to you again. I'm putting it on my calendar but send me an invitation anyway. Tell the family I said hi." I hung up and went back to reviewing the file on Amanda Watkins. Looking for anything else that would help build a profile on our killer. Searching for a few common threads, anything that we might somehow be able to pull into a pattern to help us find him. Physically the girls all shared certain characteristics. All were young but of legal age, they had each turned 18 within four months of their deaths. All were athletic, and not just athletic but stars in their respective sports. Strong physically, aggressive, self-assured, and all were good students. These girls would have had solid futures. All were set to head off into college with full or partial scholarships. Maria Pena's was a split ticket. Most of it was softball; the balance was being picked up by two different programs based on her Hispanic heritage. I started a list of things I wanted to see. School entrance requirements, the list of scholarship qualifications, transcripts for all three girls, the names of all their teachers as well as anyone working at the schools at the time they were killed. I was still working on it when my cell phone rang. "Hampton." "Hey, baby, you got the cuffs that go with that badge?" "Hey, Rico, how'd you do on the game?" "Couple hundred grand, Brazil took it in a sudden death shootout. Why don't you fly out this weekend I'll buy you a nice dinner then we can go back to my place and you can strip search me?" "Hmm, tempting. What's Sylvia going to have to say about that?" "Ahh Rebecca, you take all the fun out of it. How's your sister? Shirley said you had some good news. Not great news, but good, what's the deal?" "Oh Rico, I wish I could tell you more but for now it's just some spikes and fluctuations in her EEG." "Hey, don't say it like that. I'm not just some hired thug here. I went to college too. Those spikes and fluctuations mean she's still alive in there and, God willing, one of these days I'm going to throw that girl the biggest fucking birthday party this place has ever seen." "You mean that?" "Damn right I mean it. Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your voice? Shirley said it wasn't official and you didn't call 'cause you want my body so what's up?" "Rico, you know it's not that I don't want your body, it's just that I don't want what Sylvia would do to mine if she ever found out. And I don't even want to think about what she'd do to you." "Yeah, no shit! So what can I do for you?" "Information." "I thought you said this wasn't official." "As far as I'm concerned it's not. I promise, nothing goes into any reports. I may have to tell Sam I talked to you but for now that's about all." "Yeah, you tell that Fat Mexican I said to go fuck himself. So what do you need?" "I need to know about an internal in Vegas from two years ago." "An internal? You're shitting me right? What are you crazy? No one talks about internals." "I know. But this is a bad one, Rico, and I need to know what they found. Does the name Amanda Watkins ring any bells?" "Amanda Watkins, as in the dead girl from the VIP?" "That's her." "How'd you get on her case? I thought they stuck that one in the icebox." "I found two more girls killed under the same MO." "Holy God, two more? Tell me you're fucking kidding." "I wish I was Rico, I really wish I was. I got one in Santa Clara the year before and one in Ventura last year. There may be more, but those are the ones I know about." "You think it's a serial?" "You think it's not?" "Just hoping, okay, but you didn't hear it from me. We got dick! Whoever did this was a fucking genius. We popped a couple of high profile guys from the security staff just because they had the misfortune of being on duty when it all happened. All hush-hush, just to scare the rest, truth is we moved them to better positions at other locations. It was strictly a political move. The coroner confirmed that she had been dead for at least a day. I sent a team in and they actually managed to narrow down the time she was dumped to a two-hour window. This was after we went through a small mountain of very obscure data. We also had them go through the security network. They found where someone had spliced in and hacked their system feeds for several areas, including the cameras on that floor, the door monitor, which kept track of when that particular door opened and how long it stayed open. Whoever this asshole is, he really knows his shit." "Any idea why he picked your place to dump her?" "We went back and checked every major loser for five years prior. If it were a grudge case we'd have found him. Besides, who kills an innocent girl to make a hotel look bad? I don't think it was random, but I don't think it was personal either. I think he did it to prove that he could. He gets off on getting away with it. It's like sex for him." "Not this guy, Rico. This guy makes Ralphy look polite." "Hey, nobody could make Ralphy look good; that guy is fucking sick." "Rico, he stalked these girls, and then he tortured and raped them for weeks before he killed them. He had Amanda for about a week. The other two were three and four weeks. The girl in Ventura had three broken fingers, a dislocated shoulder, bruises on top of bruises, a ruptured..." "Okay, okay! I get it. Sheesh, let me sleep tonight wouldja? If you need anything else you call me. One more thing, you find him, you better make it stick because if I find out who he is..." "Don't say it, Rico. You know better than to say something like that to me, and especially not over the phone. I'm going to find him, and I'll make it stick. How's Tony?" "Ah, he's doing great. He's cleaning out the pigeons down on the panhandle. I think the PGA's gonna put a hit out on him if he don't stop." "That's our Tony. Tell him I said hi." "Yeah, and you kiss that sister of yours for me. They takin' good care of her?" "The best, Rico, thanks for your help, you'll be the first to know if anything changes." I did have to tell Rod about my conversation with Rico. FBI agents don't talk to high level Casino executives without telling their bosses. Makes people ask questions. As my partner, Paul was entitled to know as well. "Rico Girard? The Rico Girard? How in the world did you get anything out of him?" Rod asked. "We're old acquaintances. I told him I'd keep whatever he told me out of any official reports. If it was any other case I doubt if it would have done any good. But this case was special. They want this guy as bad as we do. He made it clear that if we find him we better get a conviction." Rod looked surprised. "He actually said that?" "Officially? We never spoke. Unofficially? We better make damn sure we have the right guy before a name appears anywhere. This one's personal for them." We sat for a second contemplating the ramifications that came along with that statement. Paul took advantage of the silence to ask, "So how did you get hooked up with someone like Girard?" His voice made it clear he didn't think too highly of Rico. "Someone like Girard?" I asked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rod shaking his head as I rounded on my new partner, "What exactly do you mean by that, Agent Freeman? You would not by chance be making a generalization regarding Mr. Girard based on his profession would you? You would not be letting the fact that he is a high level executive controlling over a dozen casinos coast to coast, casinos that generate more income tax to the state, local and federal governments in a year than the three of us will make in our lives combined, CEO of a corporation that has been under the closest scrutiny of practically every governmental regulatory and law enforcement agency in existence since it was founded, and that despite this scrutiny has not had a single charge made against them stick? "This from a representative of a federal agency with 14 separate major lawsuits pending against it at this very moment. This from an agent that is sworn to uphold the laws of this country despite how he may feel about those laws and the people they protect? Sworn to protect the spirit of "Innocent until Proven Guilty" from all entities equally and without bias or prejudice? You aren't making generalizations of that type, are you, Agent Freeman? Because if you are then I suggest you reconsider your choice of career, because you obviously aren't cut out for this kind of work." With that I turned and left Rod's office without looking back. Rod told me later what happened after I left. Paul just stood there looking like a deer suddenly caught in the headlights of a very large truck; fully aware that he had made a mistake but still not sure what to do about it. For his part, Rod just sat there and waited to see what Paul would do. Finally Paul turned to his supervisor and said, "I guess I blew that one." "I see you also have a gift for understatement. In the right circumstances that could come it handy. Unfortunately, now is not one of the times. Fucked up royally would be a bit closer to the reality of the situation. The question is what are you going to do about it?" "Apologize I guess. She warned me about asking field agents personal questions. I guess I just wasn't thinking." The director gave him a questioning look, "Was there something personal about that? I didn't hear anything personal just now. I heard your partner, a senior agent correcting your mistake of making broad generalizations. I heard your partner making it clear to you that making generalizations of that type can lead to wasting a lot of time pursuing dead ends. Pointing out to you that just because someone works for a bad company does not make them a bad person, and that a great man can still head a disreputable company. Although I don't think that is the case this time. Did something sound personal to you?" "Yeah, it did. I mean, sure the stuff she said was all true and appropriate. But I don't think for a second that she believes that is what I meant by the question. That sounded a lot more like she was telling me to mind my own fucking business." Rod smiled. "You're not as dumb as you look. But the question is what are you going to do now?" "Probably get my head bitten off or my ass kicked. You may want to have a couple of people standing by in case this goes wrong." He left Rod's office and walked down the hall into mine. I didn't look up as he entered and closed the door. "Excuse me, Special Agent Hampton, did I miss something back there?" I looked up at him sharply. "Paul, do you remember what I told you about field agents and questions?" "Yes, ma'am, I do. But I don't think that applies to this situation." "Why is that?" "I wasn't asking a field agent a personal question. I was asking my partner in this investigation a question about a party that is involved in this investigation. Perhaps not personally but as a representative of the company on whose property the body was found. If I have over-stepped myself then I apologize, but if I should find myself in a room with both you and Mr. Girard I need to know whether I should be aware of anything? I would hate to shoot him by mistake because I thought he was trying to assault you when he was just after a hug. My question was intended professionally, as your partner. Your answer suggests something more personal, and if that is the case, then as your partner I still think I am entitled to know where I stand." I had to stop and think about that for a minute. He was right. As my partner it was a fair question. "Okay, I'll give you that one. In answer to your questions, I got hooked up with Rico Girard after his father ran over my little sister." Okay, so it wasn't a nice thing to do but he asked for it. The shock on his face showed exactly how badly he knew he'd blown it. "I'm sorry. I had no idea." "No reason you would. We didn't exactly live in the same neighborhood, but we lived close enough that we attended the same church. Antonio Girard, Rico's father, owned a casino. He had worked there since he was a kid, knew the business inside and out. The previous owners had basically mismanaged it into bankruptcy. Tony found some backers and basically bought it for a song. To make a long story short he turned it around and was doing very well. One Sunday morning leaving church a little girl ran out in front of his car. His driver had been drinking while he was waiting for the family. It was questionable whether or not the alcohol contributed to the accident that much but Tony didn't care. He set up a special fund to cover any expenses that the insurance didn't cover, and when the insurance ran out the casino took over. "Rico and I really didn't know each other that well, but we ended up in high school together. My boyfriend at the time made a crack in gym class about how he was going to dump me if I didn't stop spending all my free time tending my vegetable garden. When someone didn't get the joke he told them about Amy and said that if it was him, he'd just pull the plug and let her rot. It took three students and both coaches to pull Tony off of him. We've been friends ever since. He ended up marrying my best friend, Sylvia. "He majored in business and after college he went straight to work for his dad. He worked six days a week, mostly in the office, but at least one or two days a week working every job you can have at a casino. From cleaning rooms to dealing, bus boy to cook, laundry, maintenance, you name it. He knows the business inside and out, top to bottom. He has been the guiding force that has moved them from a single owner operation to a multi-state corporation. That little fund they set up to help with Amy's care has now grown to include research facilities in 5 states. All non-profit and all dedicated to studying and treating coma patients. Anything else you feel compelled to ask or comment on?" "No," he said quietly, "I think that about covers it. I'm sorry I let my mouth run away with me. You were right about generalizing and stereotyping people, especially considering the job. Mistakes like that can blind you to things that can get you killed. You were right to call me on it." "Then we'll just call it even. Get us a flight to Vegas. I want to talk to the girl's family. Maria Pena's sister said she was a loose cannon, did anybody suggest anything similar for McKenzie?" "Nothing mentioned in any of the reports. The family wasn't really talking. Not the kind of question I would have brought up. The parents were hostile enough." "Yeah, but now it's not just an isolated case. Sure, it hurts but it could make a difference. How old is the brother now?" "Twenty-five. He was four years older, twenty-two when she was killed. I don't know that he would be thrilled to hear anyone talk about his sister that way but if there is even a chance that it will lead to her killer, I think he'll tell us." "Actually, he'll tell me. Does he still live at home?" "No. He moved out the year after she died. He had been living at home going to college. Said he couldn't take it when she died. Graduated the next year." "Good, no chance of getting the parents when I call." My office phone rang. I recognized the area code on the Caller ID as Jersey. I hit the speaker phone, answered, "Hampton." And was rewarded with a nasally, high-pitched, Puerto Rican voice yelling, "You stay the fuck away from my husband, you stuck up white bitch, or I'll..." Paul had a very interesting look on his face as I cut her off. "Hi, Sylvia, say hello to my new partner, Paul." The accent evaporated, "Oh my God, I am so sorry! Why didn't you pick up if you weren't alone?" "Don't worry about it; he's not the sensitive type. I figured it had to be you and decided to have a little fun with you." "Well, you little bitch. I'll remember that next time I see you. Hi, Paul!" "Hello, Mrs. Girard, nice to meet you. I have to go make some reservations for your friend the bitch so feel free to chat away." Then to me he added, "When do you want to go? It's a short week so I'm guessing Monday?" "What are you insane? Fly the Monday after a four day Holiday! Make it for Tuesday." "Okay, I'll call or email when I have the flight information. And I'll see if I can get you an appointment to talk to the brother as well. " "Thanks, Paul." I picked up the phone as he left, "How you doing, Sylvia? How long has it been?" The conversation went on as you would expect between two women who were once inseparable and hadn't seen each other in over three years. Eventually we said goodbye with all the appropriate verbal hugs and kisses and I returned to the business of bad guys. I checked my e-mail and discovered that Paul had not only booked airline tickets but also arranged to have a Bureau car left at the airport for us. He had also called the current head of security at the casino where Amanda Watkins had been found and arranged for us to meet with him. He had assured us that any time would be fine. As long as he had about 20 minutes notice he could meet us at our convenience. Since our primary goal was to interview the parents this worked out nicely. We would try to see the Watkins' early, but if that didn't work we could see the casino people then go back to see the family later. Around 4:00 the phone rang again. When I answered it a hushed voice said, "Good afternoon, Miss Hampton, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to secure a night out with a certain psychology teacher. Dancing will be considered optional as this is the first of what we hope will be a long series of very close encounters. As always, should you kill or seriously injure your date..." I couldn't hold it any longer I just had to cut him off, "Bob! I'm not going to shoot you on the first date." Naturally Rod picked that moment to open my office door. He stared for a moment with one eyebrow raised significantly, then backed out and closed the door. Oh, I was going to hear about this. I turned my attention back to my call. "Oh good," Bob answered, "I wasn't sure what passed for foreplay in the FBI." "Foreplay? Getting a little ahead of yourself aren't you?" "Come on now, Rebecca, you're a big girl and you know that's not what I meant." "Oh, you mean you're not interested?" "Okay, okay, I give up! God, I thought this was supposed to get easier after high school. So, what's the plan? Or do we plan? Would you rather I just surprise you? Do you have a favorite restaurant you'd like to go to? And if I may be serious for just a moment, is there anyplace you would rather not go just yet? Someplace that may have been special for you and your late husband?" That caught me by surprise and it took me a second to recover. "That's very thoughtful of you, Bob. I hadn't really considered it. Thank you for asking. In answer to that, no, there is no place you need to avoid. I buried my husband before I moved to California. He will always hold a certain place in my heart but other than that, well, I'm sure you know all about compartmentalizing." "That's a big word for a cop. I'm impressed. Okay then, if you have no objections then just tell me when and where and I will do my best to provide an evening to delight the senses and impress you with my charm and good taste." "Oh God, not one of those, couldn't we just go out instead?" "Oh, all right. Have it your way. When is a good night for you? I'm pretty flexible, my parents lifted my curfew way back when and no one really cares if I grade these reports or not." "I get off Wednesday at 4:30, I'm spending Thanksgiving with Amy. I have to be back Monday morning. Other than that I'm pretty open." "Great, Friday night it is. That way you'll have the rest of the weekend to tell Amy what a great time you had. I don't know where Amy is so you need to decide if you want to drive back up here or if it would be easier to meet you somewhere in between. Neutral territory or can I pick you up at your place?" "That's very thoughtful of you. Let me give you my address..." I gave him the address and my cell phone number so he could call when he got close. Then I knew I'd better get into Rod's office before he came looking for me. Whatever he wanted probably wasn't that critical but he'd heard me use the word date, and that meant details. I couldn't blame him really. Selena was hammering him every night about whether she should find me a date or not. I flopped into one of his oversized chairs, it's nice to be the boss I guess, and started to swing my feet up onto his desk. "Don't even think about it." He growled without even looking up. Rod's downright anal about his desk. In all the time I'd known him I don't think I'd ever seen more than a notepad and a pen on it at the same time. Well, that and whatever case file or personnel record he was working on at the time. He closed the folder and set down his pen. "How's your case coming?" "Damn, I was betting you'd want the juicy stuff first." "We'll get to that. Talk to me." "Nothing much to tell; you talked to the Pena's, and you looked at the reports. Granted the locals did a shitty job, but their forensic people were thorough. Nothing, not a shred of anything. She was found in her own car, which had been on the hot sheet for over three weeks. The car probably hadn't been that clean since it was new. Her gym bag and clothes from the night she disappeared were in the back seat. The son of a bitch even washed them. No foreign material anywhere that might tell us where she was. Hell the tires didn't even have dirt on them." "People are starting to notice this one. I got a call from Washington this morning. Director Wallace wanting to know what we'd found. He's putting it on the bureau board to see if there are any more similar cases that we haven't heard about. He asked if we wanted a profiler sent out. Do we want a profiler sent out?" "Sure, why not? Maybe we can take him to Disneyland. I mean, what we have to tell him should take all of about five minutes. After that I think we'd be racking up expense hours for nothing. Paul and I are flying to Vegas to speak to the family of the Watkins girl. We're also going to stop by the local office and talk to the original agents on the case. I've also got the names of two of the security people that were with the casino at the time." "They're going to talk to you?" "I told you, Rod, Rico wants this guy caught. He takes this kind of thing personally. Not to mention that it's bad for business. We haven't got carte blanche but they've been told that it's okay to talk to me. Honestly though, I don't know if it will do any good. This bastard is slick, Rod. The other ones were good, clean jobs, but this one, he got past casino security." I stopped for a second, "You know, there's a thought, maybe we can ask Wallace to check into who we know that is good enough to bypass that level of security. That might at least give us a list of people to start eliminating. It's a long shot but..." He cut me off, "Long shot? Hell, Hampton, your source only shows up in nightmares, and you can thank me for not telling Wallace that. But if we don't see some action on this people are going to start asking questions we don't have answers for. What was that phone call from Sunday?" "I can't talk about that. It was related to my source and my trip yesterday but did not directly involve the case. Is that clear enough?" "Clear enough! You didn't tell me a thing. Related to your source but didn't directly involve the case? How the hell can contact with your source not involve the case? Rebecca, you know damn well who I think your 'source' is. You told me it wasn't anything dangerous and now you're telling me it involved the guy most likely to be the killer. Now what the fuck is going on?" "Director Rodriguez, sir," I started very formally, "I cannot answer your question regarding my source at this time. I understand your concern and I can assure you as I have assured my partner that I will not be going into any dangerous situation without proper authorization and backup." "Don't do this to me, Rebecca." "Rod, I'm asking you to trust me on this. I swear to you on Michael's grave I was in no danger." He stared at me for a few seconds while that sank in. "Alright fine, I'll let it go for now, but people are starting to take notice of this and I can't shield you for long. So tell me about this date you have." "I met him last night." "You what? I thought you said you were meeting your source? If you put me up to play babysitter to your new partner so you could... so help me, Hampton, I will make your life hell." Ah, sweet revenge, I put on my best shark's tooth grin, "Fine, I'll just call Selena and tell her that I had a date set up and you told me I couldn't go out with him." "You wouldn't dare!" "Watch me! Rod, everything I've told you is true. I met Bob last night, he's a nice guy, and he asked me out. Considering the pressure I was under to find a date and the chances of running across another eligible bachelor in the next two weeks I said yes. We're going out Friday night and before you ask, no, I don't know where we're going and if I did I wouldn't tell you because it's none of your business. And while we're on the subject if I so much as think I smell a tail I will call Selena and tell her you had me followed." "Damn, girl! There's no need to get nasty about it. Selena would skin me just for thinking of it. So what's his name?" "Oh yeah, so you can run a background check on him? I don't think so. Don't worry, papa, I'll carry my gun like a good little girl." He had to laugh at that. "Okay, okay, as long as you're sure about him. And I may not be your daddy but you call me when you get home or I'm sending someone over to check on you. You're sure about him?" "Very sure, Bob, and that's all you're getting, is okay." I got serious. "Rod, you have to believe me when I say that there are very real reasons why I can't tell you more about all this. Lives are at stake and I don't mean just more girls. Are we done here?" "Yeah, let me know what you find in Vegas." Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, it was a short week. Bonnie insisted I have dinner with her and her husband. They told me all about their trip to Hawaii. I took dessert back to the hospital and split it with Amy. I live for the day she actually gets to eat her half. The coconut on the night table made me smile, then it made me cry. Don't' tell anyone. My date with Bob was very nice. After so long I had forgotten how nice it was to share an evening talking about something besides scumbags. Naturally, it reminded me of Michael, but that was in the past, and it was still very nice. I picked up a new copy of "A Horse and His Boy"; the third book of the Narnia series, and took it back down to read to Amy. Somewhere in there we had a long talk about Bob and Michael and moving on. It was one of the best weekends I'd had in a long time, and the best holiday I'd had since my parents had died. I had a standing invitation to spend the major holidays with Michael's parents, but I knew how much it hurt them to be reminded, so after the first time I stayed away. Pain like that tends to multiply and spread like the flu. Before you know it everyone in the house feels like shit and the holiday is just another bad memory. I'd rather be alone. Monday was spent tying up loose ends. I expected to be in Vegas for at least two days. We stepped off the plane in Las Vegas and things finally started to look up. What we found in Las Vegas was the beginnings of a pattern. A tiny piece of the puzzle; Amanda Watkins was in line for a full ride at UNLV. Basketball was her primary sport but she also played volleyball. The good feeling didn't last long. The interview with her family was difficult to say the least. Frank and Irene Watkins had no problem inviting us in. Amanda's younger sisters; Samantha and Rachel, were also there. The family resemblance between the girls was strong, especially in little Rachel who bore an uncanny resemblance to her dead sister. I expected she would hear that a lot as she got older. The interview itself was the worst part. Frank answered all of our questions; regardless of whom we addressed them to. About the third time I asked Irene a question and Frank answered I got irritated. "Mr. Watkins, I keep asking your wife questions and you keep answering. Is there a problem with Mrs. Watkins speaking to me?" "Yes there is. I am the man of this house; if you have questions regarding anything or anyone in this house you are to address them to me. I speak for my family." That was it, I knew immediately that short of a warrant there was not much I could do, and in all likelihood this was one of those fringe religious group things so the warrant may accomplish nothing more than to move the venue for the conversation to an interrogation room rather than the comfortable living room. When I brought up the subject of Amanda's social life the conversation abruptly ended. "Miss Hampton, my daughter had no boyfriends. As I told the officers who spoke to us after her death, she was a good girl and was saving herself for marriage. I will thank you not to shame her good name with these accusations of promiscuity. Now if you have no further relevant questions then, I believe this interview is over." "Thank you for your time, Mr. Watkins. I meant no disrespect towards Amanda; the majority of girls her age, especially those that are active athletically, are also active sexually. This is a sex crime and any information we can obtain..." He cut me off. "I am well aware of the moral failings of my daughter's peers. It was a mistake to let her mingle with those harlots in the first place. But Amanda held herself apart and did not give in to the weaknesses of temptation. Please call again if you there is anything else we can do. My wife will show you to the door." Mrs. Watkins immediately got up and escorted us out. I made one last attempt. "Thank you for your time, if you think of anything else please call me." I handed her a business card. She started to answer but his voice echoed down the hallway, "Irene!" She shook her head and handed the card back before closing the door. Paul and I walked in silence to the car. We were a block away before either of us said anything. Then Paul broke the silence, "My interview with the Pena family went better and we didn't even speak the same language." "No shit. So, in your professional opinion you think they're hiding something?" "Gee, you think? The question is whether or not it's related to the case. I thought you almost had something there at the door. Maybe we need to find a more personal setting to talk to them individually." "Not going to happen. I've seen his sort before. He's never going to let us talk to her alone without a court order. We don't have grounds and if we did he would charge that we were violating his civil rights. I guarantee you he'd scream religious infringement." "I know what you mean, but I don't think God spends a lot of time in that house. Did you notice the girl?" "Which one?" "Samantha. She watched every word; her eyes tracked both of you every time you spoke. She wanted to say something, especially when you started asking about her sister's social life. But it was pretty plain she was too scared to open her mouth." "Well, unless she finds a way to call we'll never hear it. And somehow I don't see that happening. I doubt if it's related to Amanda's death, but it's pretty obvious there is something going on and there is not a damn thing we can do about it. You know, partner, there are some aspects of this job that I really hate." We interviewed a few of the former hotel security people. These were the ones that Rico had moved to other positions with other hotels rather than fire them. They all said the same thing. Whoever our guy was, he was really good. The work to bypass the electronic surveillance had to have taken hours to do. No way had he done it at the last minute. He had prepped that room some time before he needed it. That means that he had actually been avoiding security for quite some time, and then just waltzed in when he was ready. This guy had a lucrative future as a thief if he decided to go that way. Hell he could stay legit and knock down six figures consulting. Rod wasn't going to be happy. He wasn't. "Nothing! You blew two days in Vegas and you got nothing." "Well, we didn't come up completely empty. All three girls were preparing to go to college on fat athletic scholarships. I suspect that they had something else in common but I can't confirm it. I called Mark McKenzie when we got back. According to him, Diane was in the same league as the Pena girl, very popular with the boys. He said you'd never know it; her parents certainly didn't have a clue. On the surface she was the picture of discretion. But alone in a bedroom, or anywhere else, she was a teenaged boys fantasy. She was a party girl. She liked lots of attention. He said he had stepped in a couple times when guys started getting out of line but otherwise left her alone. She was very selective and she made it very clear to the guys that she was with that if they ever breathed a word about it she would cut them off." "Are you thinking this has something to do with how he picks them?" "I can't be sure about the sex part but he definitely likes the athletic type. He likes girls that will put up a good fight. He gets off on dominating them. There was certainly evidence of that with McKenzie and Pena." "But not the Watkins girl?" "Amanda's case is a little different. While there was obvious evidence that he had been raping her, there was very little sign of trauma. He killed her within a week. McKenzie lasted almost three weeks, Pena almost a month. And they were getting the shit beat out of them the whole time. There was a ton of bruising that appeared to be made trying to escape bondage. Watkins showed very little bruising." I'd finally worked the conversation to the point that I could put forth a suspicion about what I already knew from the dream. "You know, Rod, that could be it." "What?" "Why he killed her so much sooner and why there was so little bruising. Maybe she was too submissive? Maybe she didn't struggle? Maybe she just went along with everything he did? This guy likes to dominate and that would have really pissed him off. To have her just lie there and take it would have taken all the fun out of it for him." Rod thought for a second. "You may have something there. But that doesn't fit with what we know about her. She was certainly aggressive in her sports. You don't generally find someone that competitive who just gives up." "I know. That is the part that doesn't fit. Her father insists she was a good girl but I don't buy it. Paul agrees, based on the reaction of her younger sister when the subject came up. I wish there was some way to get her alone and talk to her; sisters always know." "I'll keep that in mind when mine get older." I laughed. "Forget it, Rod. Sisters always know, but they stick together, too. You'll never get a word out of them, and believe me, you'll regret it if you try. Take my advice for the future: If you want to know what's going on with your girls when they get older, you need to make sure they know they can talk to you. That you won't fly off the handle if they tell you something you don't like." ------- Chapter 47: The Dating Game Thanksgiving is the official kickoff of 'The Holiday Season.' Not a big event around our house. The holidays are officially family times. Mom was an only child. We had always assumed that Dad was too, and knowing that he had once had a twin sister didn't really change the present. The last of our grandparents had died over five years before, so we pretty much were the family. We made the best of it. The Davises were out of town for the weekend. Tom's parents had invited them to Denver. The only good part of this was discovering that distance did not seem to make a difference when it came to bridging. We spent time every night catching up on the latest events. They were having fun catching up with aunts, uncles, and cousins they hadn't seen in years. And then there was the whole "Mark broke his leg skiing today" thing. Yeah, the holidays were officially off and running. The hotel's settlement offer was good and my parents accepted it. The offer of the mutually binding gag order was something they weren't taking a chance of losing. Allison and I were not privy to all the details and we really didn't care. All that mattered to us was that no one would be asking questions. School was going smoothly, the cross country team was running well but we just didn't have the talent as a team to compete at a higher level. We had our stars of course. Both of the Osbornes were going to regionals, and Angie was again the favorite for going all the way to state. Rebecca was working hard on the latest developments in the case. Everything seemed to be running along smoothly. I should have known better. Wednesday during practice the bubble popped. We were just getting in from a seven mile trek through the local foothills and Angie was talking to Coach Shelby. She was dressed in slacks and a light sweater. When you're running you don't notice the cold, but suddenly I felt a chill and had a sinking feeling in my stomach. <> I told myself as I settled in to start stretching. I looked for Tim but he was a short ways off working by himself. Not a good sign. I tried to ignore it and continued stretching but somehow I knew what was coming. "You're doing that wrong." A familiar voice said. I shook my head as I sat up. "Well, maybe if I had a partner." She chuckled as she squatted behind me to help hold me in my next stretch. As I relaxed back, she began to massage my shoulders. "Jimmy? I..." she started, but faded off. I took a deep breath, "Angela?" I said. "God," she laughed, "now I know how guys must feel." "Feel about what? Something on your mind, Angie?" "Jimmy, would you go out with me?" "Would I what?" I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Angela Osborn was asking me out? She dropped down and hugged me from behind, "I said, would you go out with me?" I glanced over and saw Tim looking at us. He nodded once and turned back to the guy he had been talking to. "Angie..." I started, but she cut me off. "I just wanted to thank you for all you've done, and there are some things I wanted to talk to you about and it just seemed like the easiest way to do it. Is that all right?" She sounded a little nervous. I guess that was only fair, since I was a whole lot nervous. I turned and patted the ground next to me. She sat next to me and pulled her knees up to her chest. I reached out to take her hand in mine and asked, "What's going on, Angie? I mean, I'm flattered; you are probably the most beautiful girl I've ever met, but I know for a fact you're in love with someone else. Just as you know that I am in love with two other women. So what's this really about?" She tried to pull her hand back but I didn't let her. "Yes, I am in love with someone else, and without you I never would have even met him. Without your sister I never would have... I just feel like I owe you this huge debt that I will never be able to repay, but I want to try. Every time I think about how close I came to spending the rest of my life without Tim? I just want to grab you and hug you and... and Allison too." That got my attention. "Allison too?" "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I mean I know..." She started to pull away and stand up but I pulled her back down. "Angela," I said. She wouldn't look at me. I gently took her chin, turned her face to me and said, "I would love to go out with you." "You would?" "Of course I would, but what does Tim have to say about all this? Have you talked to him?" "Yeah, we talk a lot." She rolled her eyes. "It's not like we have a chance to do anything else. Well, not very often anyway. Oh, Jimmy, you don't know how good you have it." I smiled back at her. "Oh, trust me; I know exactly how good I have it. So, when did you want to go out? Did you have anything special in mind? I need to know how much money I need." "Hey, I asked you out, so it's my treat. I was thinking maybe we could go for pizza or something, maybe see a movie." "Sounds nice, I'm a big fan of pizza, but can we maybe do something besides a movie?" "You don't like movies?" "No, I like movies, I was just thinking we might want to talk, and you can't really do that in a theater. Even whispering in a theater attracts attention. How about pizza, and maybe a trip to the mall?" "The mall? You want to go shopping?" "Well, yeah. I mean, it's getting close to the holidays and I hate fighting the crowds, and in a crowded mall, no one pays any attention to what other people are saying or doing as long as they're not in the way. If we run into anyone we know, we'll make small talk for a few minutes and then they'll move on, and I think we're going to have a lot to talk about." She looked at me like for a second, then nodded her head, "That's good, that's really good. Wow, you're the first guy I've ever met who..." I interrupted, "Didn't want to get you alone in a dark place as quickly as possible?" "Well, no, that's not what I was going to say. I was going to say, you're the first guy I've ever met who wanted to go shopping." She smiled, "and the other thing, too." "Okay then, we're set, when?" "Well, I'm pretty much free Friday or Saturday; do you have a preference?" "How about Friday? That way if it's a total disaster you've got the rest of the weekend to forget it ever happened." She cracked up. "You are too much. Like there is any chance of that happening." She stood and pulled me up. "Okay, Friday it is. I'll pick you up around 6:00." She started to turn away but I pulled her back. "Hey, what about that hug?" I asked as I slipped an arm around her waist. She pulled me in close and hugged me to her. I felt the play of her muscles under the sweater and blood began to flow. I let her go before things got too serious. "I'll see you tomorrow night; right now I have to go kill someone." I kissed her cheek and walked over to where her brother was now stretching. I kicked the bottom of his shoe. "Asshole! You knew that was coming. You could have warned me." He reached his hand up and I pulled him to his feet. "Nah, but I did think about it, Jimmy." He stopped and put his hands on both my shoulders. "It's okay. Whatever happens, it's okay. Okay?" I looked at him sharply. "Nothing's going to happen, Tim, it's just a date. Our first date. But thanks. It's good to know that whatever doesn't happen is okay." I talked to Allison as soon as I got home. She wasn't nearly as surprised as I was. Until I told her what Angela had said about wanting to thank her too. She blushed scarlet. "You mean she wants to... , with me? I mean, oh my gosh, I never, I don't know if I could..." "Hey. What was it you told me about when someone says 'Thank you'?" She punched me in the arm. "That's not fair. Besides, what would I tell Shannon?" "Well, we could ask her?" "No! We are not going to ask her, I will talk to her." She bit her lip and thought for a second. "Do you think you could bring her to the glade tonight and then maybe give us some time?" I slipped my arms around her from behind and kissed her on the neck. "Sure, would you rather go to the island?" "Hmm, tempting, but I think the glade for tonight." She leaned back into me and sighed. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" She turned in my arms and slid her hands around my neck. Tilting her head up, she kissed me softly, the tip of her tongue just sneaking out to caress my lips. Within a few seconds we were attacking each other's mouths and I was starting to get light headed from the lack of blood to my brain. ------- Chapter 48: The Worst That Could Happen Friday morning at breakfast I told Mom and Dad about my upcoming date with Angela. I guess waiting until the last minute wasn't the brightest idea I'd had. They looked at each other for a second, and then they looked at Allison to see what her reaction to this was. I can't say they were disappointed, but they obviously were not getting the reaction they were expecting. "What?" Allison asked, when she saw them staring at her. Mom shook her head in confusion and said, "Your brother just announced that he has a date with another girl and you didn't even blink? Doesn't it bother you?" "No, I already knew about it, we talked about it yesterday. Why would it bother me?" Now it was Dad's turn, "Well, I think we just assumed that you two were still very much in love and that you may be jealous or at least upset at the idea of your brother spending time with another woman?" "Oh, I get it. It's not like that. Angela's in love with someone else. They're going to the mall to do some Christmas shopping and talk." Mom turned back to me, "Wait a minute? This girl, Angela was it, is in love with someone else? You are in love with someone else, at least we thought so, and you asked her out?" She glanced at Dad, who just shrugged and then asked, "Are we missing something?" I looked at Allison, who just shrugged and left it to me to explain. "Angela is in love with someone else, and yes, I am still very much in love with this really cute girl I met that lives down the hall," I took Allison's hand and kissed it, "and I didn't ask her out, she asked me out. We're not 'going out' as in 'going steady' or anything like that. She wanted to talk about some stuff and we figured this would be the best way to do it. Besides, it'll make it a lot easier for me to get my shopping done without having to make separate trips because one of you had to take me." "And what does her boyfriend think of all this?" Dad asked. "Oh, he's okay with it." "How do you know that? Just because she said it was okay with him doesn't make it true, sometimes..." I interrupted him before he could finish, "He told me." Mom jumped in again, "He told you! Okay, now I'm totally confused. Wait a minute; is this the girl you were talking about that reminded you of Shannon?" "The one I told you that the first time I saw her I thought, 'that's Shannon in four years?' Yeah, that's her." Allison held up her hands and said, "Okay, stop. This is getting ridiculous and going nowhere. Yes, Angela is the girl you are thinking of, and, having met her, I totally agree with Jimmy, I can so see Shannon when I look at her, and if it were anyone else we wouldn't be having this conversation because Jimmy would never even consider going out with anyone else. The only reason he is going out with her is because he knows that she is in love with someone else and not really interested in him. What you don't know is that the person she is in love with is her brother, Tim, and Jimmy sort of introduced them." "You introduced her to her brother? What, they were separated at birth? Is this some dream thing that you did?" Mom asked. "No, not this time," I answered. "Let me explain." "Oh, by all means, please do." Dad responded. It's really hard to follow them when they start talking like one person. They'd been doing it all my life but it still drove me nuts. I couldn't help but think they would make one hell of an interrogation team. They'd confuse the crap of almost anyone. "The first time I met Tim was at cross-country tryouts. It was the second day and I wanted to push myself to see what I could do. Mr. Shelby had me run with Tim, and Angela. Tim was returning from last year's team and Angela was just coming out to help evaluate the new kids so he had the two of us run with her. I was standing next to Tim when she came up and from the very first it was obvious to me that Tim was hopelessly in love with her. Unfortunately, as is often the case, she was completely blind to it. After the run, Angela was helping me stretch and I pointed it out to her. I don't know why, but something about the situation and the feelings I was getting from her just made it feel like it was the right thing to do. At first she didn't want to believe it, but then I set it up so she could see it and she was instantly a believer. It took a little while but they eventually started talking and... well, there you have it. "Anyway, because I was the one that pointed it out to her and thereby was responsible for 'hooking them up, ' suddenly I was the hero of the hour and now Angela wants to take me out to say thank you. She wanted to do a movie but I figured we may want to talk and the mall is a great place because everyone pretty much ignores you the whole time unless you are buying something from them. Tim was actually there when she asked me out, I talked to him about it and he said it was cool and that they had already talked about it. So, it's not a big deal to anyone, no one is going to get their feelings hurt or anything, so, can I go?" "It was never an issue of whether or not you could go," Dad said. "I'm not sure we're done with the conversation, though. I for one am still a little unclear on several points but it's nothing we have to go into now. Have a good day at school. I'm off to work. I'll see you all later." He kissed Mom, grabbed his briefcase, and headed for the door. Mom was still looking like she may have more to add. Finally she said, "Allison, could you give us minute please?" "Sure, if you want. But do I have to go? I mean..." she stopped and stood up to leave. "It's all right dear, no one is in trouble. I just want to talk to your brother for a minute, please." "Okay." It was clear Allison wasn't happy about it but she turned to go. I grabbed her hand, kissed it and gave it what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze before she disappeared. Once we were alone, Mom continued, "Okay, what aren't you saying. There is more isn't there?" I thought carefully before answering, "I'm trying to defuse a situation. A while back I 'bridged' Angela and she made it clear just how deeply indebted to me she felt and exactly how she wanted to express her appreciation. I didn't want to take the chance of doing any damage in her dream so I let it play out, thinking that if I let her... I don't know, get it out of her system, that maybe I could avoid it happening for real. Well, she was very expressive with her thank you, if you know what I mean, and then I sort of suppressed her memory of it..." She interrupted, "You what?" "I sort of blurred all the details of the whole thing." "You can do that?" "Mom, there isn't much I can't do in dreams. Not that I've found anyway. There is a lot I won't do, things that are just wrong. I don't like to take chances with people's minds if it can be avoided. Most people don't really remember all the details of their dreams anyway. I don't know if I could make her forget the whole thing, and in this case I didn't want to. Instead, I left her with the feeling that while I had very much appreciated the sentiment, that I would not want to take advantage of her that way in real life." "Oh, no." I shook my head. "Yeah, why is it everyone figured that out right away but me? I talked to Bob about it the next day. He suggested that I may have made matters worse. When Miss Swann and Miss Jenkins joined us later he gave them the hypothetical situation of me basically turning a girl down because I didn't want to take advantage of her, without giving away any details of course, and they both about busted a gut laughing at how much trouble I was in when this girl caught up with me. I still don't know what may happen. Allison and I had talked about it right after the dream and she agreed with my solution. I talked to her again after talking to Bob. She said not to worry about it, that there was really nothing to do but wait and see what happened, but that if it did happen, she would be okay with it. I don't know what to do, Mom. I can't just reject her, and I really would feel like I'm taking advantage. I mean sex isn't a thank you." "Sure it is. But not normally between relative strangers." She raised her voice a little, "Allison? You can come back in now; I know you're just listening in the hall anyway." Sure enough, Allison edged around the corner almost immediately. "I'm sorry, Mom, it's just..." "It's okay, dear, I didn't expect you to just walk away and pretend nothing was happening. But next time, please do give me a little more credit when I say I need to talk to your brother. I am sure there are things that the two of you discuss that you would not if I was there, and while I am sure that Jimmy will discuss anything we talk about with you later," she looked me in the eye and said, "unless I specifically ask him not to," I nodded my agreement, "that does not mean I want to discuss them in front of you, okay?" "Okay, Mom. I'm sorry." She sat back down in the chair next to me. "You're forgiven this time. I'm a little puzzled by your whole attitude towards your brother having sex with other girls. Now that I know what is going on with this particular incident I understand a little more, but I still don't understand why this doesn't seem to bother you. How can you be comfortable with the idea of him possibly sleeping with Angela?" "That's easy, because he loves me. Mom, Jimmy is special; he has this gift that no one understands; he has no one to talk to about it to help him, and no way to learn except by trial and error. He tried his best to stop this from happening. It may work, it may not, but even if it doesn't, he will not be with Angela because he loves her. It's just sex. It may even be really great sex, but it won't be love. She is not a threat to me, any more than Shannon..." Mom held up a warning hand to stop her. Allison took the hint and skipped ahead, "He could refuse, but it would hurt her to be rejected like that, and that has its own set of problems, some of which are too bad to even go in to. Not to mention that no one would believe that a boy like Jimmy would ever refuse a chance to 'do it' with someone as hot as Angela. It would attract attention. He couldn't refuse in the dream because of the possible psychological damage. I mean, who gets turned down in their own dreams? So that leaves us back where we started. What's the worst that could happen? She says 'thank you, ' he says 'you're welcome, ' she now has a clear conscience about this debt she felt she owed, everyone is still friends, she still loves Tim, Jimmy still loves me, no one gets hurt and we all move on. "Mom, I've known about Jimmy's gift for longer than anyone. I didn't see this specific situation coming but I knew there would be problems. My only choice is to accept them and try to help, or to cut off my love and support and let him deal with it on his own. That's not any more of an option for me than it would be for you. I love him, I want to be with him, and I want to help him as best I can. If I were to cut him off and he couldn't handle it, then what? I couldn't live with myself if something happened to him because I refused to be there for him. I know that no matter what problem I might face, he would be there for me. He's been doing that all my life." I hugged her to my side. Mom got up and walked around the table to hug us both. "I'm very proud of both of you. It's hard to keep up with how much this whole thing has forced you two to grow up, or how fast. I'm glad you have each other to lean on. If it comes up again I'll talk to your father so you don't have too. One question though, and I know I'm skating on thin ice here but what about Shannon?" "We told her about it the weekend of the accident," Allison answered. "We don't have any secrets from Shannon. It felt too much like lying to her and we love her too much for that." Mom eyed Allison closely. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. The word 'we' seemed to be getting stuck every time it came around. Finally she looked at me and asked, "I have the feeling this is another of those 'plausible deniability' things that I really don't want to know. You two need to hurry or you're going to be late for school." She kissed us both and started clearing away the remains for breakfast. School was a non-event. Angela picked me up promptly at 6:00, and we headed to the local mall. The pizza place in the food court is actually very good. We were sitting, eating pizza and planning our shopping when Angela suddenly stiffened. She was looking over my shoulder at someone and it was apparent she wasn't happy to see them. The reason made itself known a few seconds later as a voice came from behind me, "Well, if it isn't Angela Osborne?" "Go away, Brad." "What? Not happy to see me. Hey, you had your chance, babe; don't be bitter just because you let me get away." "I didn't let you get away, Brad. I dumped you like the trash you are, I have nothing to say to you, so if you don't mind, I'm with someone and you are interrupting." "You're on a date? You're kidding; I thought maybe you were babysitting? Angela Osborne, reduced to robbing the cradle, now that's sad." I'd had about all of this I could take. I ignored the voice and said, "Let me guess, ex-boyfriend?" She picked it up right away, "Yeah, one of my darker moments. I've been trying hard to forget it." "Hmm, I understand. Let's see... uh, football?" "Naturally." I grimaced, "Quarterback?" "Oh, of course." "Figures," I said, shaking my head sadly, "let's see, hmm, tall, medium build, God's gift to women." She giggled around a bite of pizza and nodded. I was on a roll, "Life is a contact sport, a relationship is like a pass-rush; you don't want to be trapped, so you gotta move around a lot?" She covered her mouth with her napkin as the giggle escalated and threatened to break out in full laughter. The voice was apparently not taking it well. "Hey!" I ignored him and continued, "Quick on the trigger? Specializes in the short pass? Decent enough in the huddle but collapses under pressure, low completion percentage?" Angela lost it and the voice was really feeling the pressure to get back in the spotlight. "You little prick, you watch your mouth. Hey! Midget, I'm talking to you." I set my napkin down and stood up. Angela stopped laughing and got a real worried look on her face. I turned and stuck out my hand, "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Edward Matthews, and you are?" Lost is what he was, he stood there with a confused look on his face staring at my hand. I waited a couple seconds and spoke over my shoulder, "Angela?" She stood up and came around to my side, "I'm sorry, Edward Matthews, Brad Russell, we dated briefly. Brad Russell, Edward Matthews, my date for tonight." I think Brad had been up close and personal with one too many linebackers; he really wasn't picking this up very well. He slapped at my hand. "I don't care who he is, you just tell him to watch his mouth. You're really slipping, Osborne. I can't believe you're this desperate. You know all you had to do was ask, I'd have thrown you a bone." "Brad, you are such an ass. Don't flatter yourself, you weren't that good. What little I remember of it. Now why don't you just go away?" He started to answer but I intervened, "Oh, I get it; that explains why you got so upset at the crack about being quick on the trigger. I'll bet you leave all the girls wanting more, don't you." "Damn right I do, and this little ice box was no exception." Angela just rolled her eyes and looked embarrassed by the whole conversation. I moved a little to the side, put my hand on his shoulder, and said, "You see, Brad, that's your problem. The trick isn't to leave them wanting more," I signaled the security guard that was approaching behind him, the guard headed our way as I continued, "if they want more it means you didn't do the job very well. What you should be doing is making sure they want it again. Now, I know those sound a lot alike, but they're not the same thing. Tell you what; why don't you go somewhere and think about it and let us enjoy the rest of our evening." It took him a second to process what I had actually said, he shook my hand off and shoved me toward the table. "You little fucker." A voice cut him off, "Is there a problem here?" "Officer..." I stuck out my hand and looked at his badge, "Simpson, thank you for coming over, I'm Edward Matthews," he shook my hand, "this is my date Angela Osborne," I indicated Angela and he shook her hand as I continued, "and this is Brad, uh, Russell wasn't it? Mr. Russell is Angela's ex-boyfriend and he apparently couldn't resist the chance to stop by and annoy her. We've been trying without success to convince him to leave and let us enjoy the rest of our meal before we begin our Christmas shopping." "I see. You're Angela Osborne? You ran against my cousin at regionals last year. You're good. I always thought Stephie was something but you really tore her up. What did you have, a minute lead in the 10k?" "Fifty-four seconds, Stephanie Miller is your cousin? Didn't she get that track scholarship at Scottsdale? How's she doing?" "Great, took her a little to get used to the climate but she made the adjustment okay, 3.8 GPA, still hasn't settled on a major though. What about you, you must be getting offers?" "A few, I haven't really decided yet. And there is still the chance of a better deal in the spring." "Right, well, it was nice to meet you, Angela, Mr... Matthews, was it? Enjoy your evening." He lost the smile as he turned to Brad. "Mr. Russell, why don't you take a walk with me? Tell me, Brad, was there a particular store you needed to visit before you left?" He took Brad's arm and began escorting him out of the food court. Several of the nearby patrons were chuckling at their tables as he left; one older gentleman approached us. "That was incredible. You handled that very well, young man. My name is Stevenson, I'm with the mall office, I called for the guard, but I was afraid it was going to get out of hand before he got here." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a business card. "When you are finished with your meal, please stop by the service counter in the courtyard and give them this card. They will be holding something for you. I know you've got plans so I won't be taking up any more of your time. Enjoy your evening." I took the card and turned it over. He had simply written 'Matthews' on the back, and signed his name. I showed it to Angela and she just shrugged. We finished our meal and headed off to the courtyard to find the service desk. When we got there a young woman I had seen at school was working behind the counter. I didn't know her name but she apparently knew Angela. "Hey, Angie! Whatcha doing?" "Hi, Cindy, just out for dinner and little shopping. This is my date, Jimmy. Jimmy, Cindy Sheppard." I reached for her hand kissed it when she extended it, "Very nice to meet you, Cindy." She blushed and said, "Hi, pleased to meet you. So you two are on a date? Here? Are you like, catching a movie or something?" "No," I answered, "we thought about it, but since it's our first date, I thought it would be easier to talk if we weren't stuck in a dark theater. I have some Christmas shopping to do, and of course," I paused for effect, "being a guy, I'm not really genetically equipped to do it by myself." They both appreciated the joke. "Fortunately, Angela has agreed to act as chaperone." "Taking one for the team, eh, Ang? What a trooper!" She laughed. "I can't believe you found a guy who wants to shop on a date? Does he have a brother?" We both laughed and Angela said, "Nope, sorry. Listen, we've got some serious shopping to do so we need to get on it. There was this guy at the food court that said we should stop by. He gave Jimmy his card." I handed her the card and her eyes got big as she read it. "Mr. Stevenson?" "I believe that was his name, yes. Is there a problem?" "A problem? No, no problem. It's just that he came by a while ago and said to be expecting someone to stop by. Your last name is Matthews?" I nodded, and then she opened up a drawer, pulled out two small envelopes and said, "He told me to give you these." We opened them up to find they contained two Twenty-five dollar gift cards. "They're good anywhere in the mall," Cyndi explained. "What did you do? I mean if you don't mind my asking? It's not every day the president of the mall gives away money." Angela gave her a brief run down of the events at dinner. Apparently Cindy knew Brad as well, and her opinion of him wasn't any higher. When they were through laughing we headed off to roam the stores in search of Christmas treasure. We talked as we shopped. The conversation took the turn I had been waiting for when we went into Victoria's Secret. I wanted to pick up some sleepwear for the girls. She was helping me select colors and determine sizes when she held a very interesting ensemble up against her and asked, "What do you think?" It was eye-catching, I'll give it that, but that was at least partly due to the fact that you had to look closely to even see it. "Very nice, are you thinking of a little surprise for Tim? I don't think I could get away buying something like that for Allison or Shannon." She leaned in a little and whispered, "Actually, I was thinking of wearing it for you." I blushed and looked away. "Yeah right, like that's going to happen." "What? You don't like it?" "Oh I think it's very cute, and I'm sure it will look wonderful on you. I'm sure Tim would agree. But I don't think I'm going to ever find out." She stepped closer and whispered in my ear, "What if it could happen? Would you like that?" She nipped at my ear, "Because, I'd really like to show it to you." I stepped back and shook my head a little; her breath had tickled my ear. "Angela, what are you saying?" "I'm saying I want to thank you for what you've done for me." Even though I knew it was coming and was trying to avoid it, my body was reacting to all this in the expected fashion. I needed to leave while I could still walk. Picking up the two items I had selected for the girls I said, "I think this is a conversation we need to have somewhere else, don't you?" "Yes," she said with a smile. "I think that's a very good idea. Let's get out of here." I paid for my purchases, gathered up the rest of my evening's acquisitions and we headed for the parking lot. We stowed the packages in the trunk and headed for home. At least I had assumed we would be heading for home. Now I wasn't so sure; home was the other way. "Angie, where are we going?" She just smiled and said, "Someplace we can talk. Just wait, you'll like it, I promise." A few minutes driving found us on a two lane road that topped the ridge of hills overlooking the city. She drove a little further and then parked in a turn-out with a spectacular view. It was a large lookout and there were a couple of other cars already there, but there was plenty of space. I'd heard of the place, it was sort of the local lovers' lane. The official name was Evans Point, but around the school it was referred to as 'Heaven's' Point. She parked and left the engine and heater running then slid across the seat next to me. (Her car is her dad's old Chevy Caprice; it has the old style bench seat in the front.) Putting her hand behind my neck she leaned in and started kissing me. I kissed her back but when her tongue showed up I drew back. "Angela? What are we doing?" "It's called making out," she said. "I'm surprised you've never heard of it, it's all the rage these days." "Very funny, you know what I mean." "You don't want to kiss me?" "Don't be silly, of course I want to kiss you." I gave her quick brush on the lips to emphasize my point. "I'm flattered that you want to kiss me. The question is why do you want to kiss me? I know that you are in love with Tim. You know that I am very much in love with Allison and Shannon. So, as much as I would love to tongue wrestle you two out of three," I kissed her again, "I have to ask, why?" She pulled back and I could see she was distressed. "I'm sorry, Jimmy. I never should have asked you out. I can't believe I was so stupid." She moved back behind the wheel and started to put her seatbelt back on. I quickly reached over, killed the engine, pulled the key out and said, "No you don't. Talk to me, Angie. I promise I won't think it's stupid." "Jimmy, just give me the keys, I'll take you home and we'll just forget this ever happened." "I'm sorry, but I can't do that." "What do you mean you can't do it? Just give me the key." "Nope, not until you tell me what this is all about. For one thing, I don't want to forget kissing you. I liked it, and I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it even more if we get the chance to practice a little." "Give me the damn key!" she screamed. "Talk to me!" I yelled back. I dropped the keys down my shirt. She leaned on the steering wheel with her eyes squeezed shut and started to tremble, I could see she was fighting it but soon little tears were forming at the corners of her eyes and her breathing had little stutters in it. I slid across the seat next to her, lay my arm across her shoulder, gently took her hand, kissed it and very quietly said, "Angela, please talk to me. Just tell me and I promise we can make this right." I hugged her too me gently, let her hand fall and gently brushed away a tear on her cheek. "Better hurry or these will start to freeze with the engine off." She gave one of those barking sort of bursts of laughter, you know the kind you get when you're crying but you can't help laughing. I touched her chin, and turned her to face towards me and brushed away the one on her other cheek. She started to pull away a little but I held her face as I leaned in and kissed her gently on one side of her mouth. "Please?" Her arms came up around me and she buried her head on my shoulder. "I wanted to thank you," she started in a shaking voice. "I feel like I owe you this huge debt and that the only way I could ever repay it was to..." her voice faded out. She pulled back and this time I let her go. She sat up and wiped her face with her hands. She doesn't wear much makeup but what she had was shot. "It was a stupid idea and now you must think I'm such a slut. God, I feel so cheap." She wiped at the new tears that were coming faster than she could stop them. I reached over with the cuff of my jacket and tried to wipe her eyes but she pulled back, "No, I'll get mascara all over your jacket." "It'll wash off." "It's waterproof." "Doesn't look like it. I think you've been had, now wipe." She barked the little laugh again and wiped her face on my sleeve. It left a couple of black lines but that was all. When she was done I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her around to face me. I drew my leg up on the seat so I could turn further sideways. "Cheap? You said you feel cheap? You offer me the most priceless gift a woman has to offer and you feel cheap? Angela, why would you feel like that? Cheap! Don't be ridiculous. That's like buying me a Ferrari because you ran over my skateboard." "But I..." "Don't owe me anything," I interrupted in a stern voice. "Angela, all I did was point out the obvious. If you were blind walking down the street and I told you there was a puddle in the sidewalk three feet to your right, would you owe me anything? All I did was point out something that was obvious to me, but that you couldn't see. Would you sleep with me because of it?" "Of course not, but that's not the same. What you did was so much more. You took a huge risk to show me what I was missing. What if I had been grossed out by it? You know what the world thinks of our relationships. I could have rejected it, but then you'd already told me about you and your sister. I could have told people. I could have ruined your life." "Okay, I'll give you that. I took a chance, but that doesn't mean I deserve this. It's not like I saved your life." "But you did! A big part of it anyway, and I wanted to pay you back." "And you thought this was the best way?" "It just felt like the right thing to do. I even had a dream about it." "You had a dream about it? Was I good?" This time her laughter was more real. "Oh, Jimmy, you were amazing," she said. "I woke up feeling like I'd wet the bed. I had to get up and change you were so good." "Well then I'm glad we didn't get any farther here, I doubt if I could have lived up to it. Especially in the front seat of a Chevy, or were we in a car then too?" "Oh no, we started out in that little park where Tim and I met you and Allison, then we wound up on this island in one of those huts they build out over the water." "Sounds like a nice place, sorry I missed it. Especially considering what we were doing." "I thought you weren't interested?" "Not interested?" I took her hand and placed it on the swelling in my lap. Listening to her talk about the dream, along with my own memories had made me hard as a rock. "I am most definitely interested, but not like this. Don't get me wrong, this would do in a pinch, but I don't think I would ever want my first time with someone to be in the front seat of a car." I glanced toward the back and said, "Maybe the back seat, but even then I wouldn't do it for this." Her hand was still in my lap, she massaged me and gave a squeeze, "You're sure about that?" I grabbed her hand and pulled it away, "Yes, I'm sure. I'll regret it later in the cold shower I'm going to need, but yes, I'm sure. Angela, you are one of the most beautiful girls that I have ever met and under any other circumstances I would be flattered. What am I saying? I am flattered, but I won't take sex as an obligation, not because you owe me. If I'm going to make love to you I want it to be because you want me, not because you feel like you owe it to me. If you ever feel that way, I would be honored and delighted to try and do my very best to live up to your dream." "You are a very strange young man, Jimmy Matthews. Okay, it was a stupid idea and I'm glad you talked me out of it. Would you do one thing for me though?" "What?" "Give me the damn keys, I'm freezing." I cracked up. It looked like I had successfully dodged the bullet, or at least diverted it enough that I would walk away from this encounter. Now we could relax and have a little fun. "Keys? What keys? I don't have any keys, heck I don't even drive." "Jimmy," she said in a very threatening and yet not so serious voice, "give me those keys." I jingled the keys under my shirt, "Oh, you mean these keys? You want 'em? Come and get' em." She attacked me. It was fun. It's a pretty big car but there's really not that much room in the front seat for two people to wrestle. It was actually a pretty bizarre scene when I think about it. I mean, here I have a beautiful young woman trying to tear my clothes off and I'm actually trying to stop her? Not a situation I would have pictured myself in. I was holding my own pretty well, but then she decided to play dirty. One minute she's struggling to get my shirt pulled up, the next thing I know there's a warm pair of lips pressed against mine and a tongue trying to count my fillings. My brain made the reasonable conclusion. She wasn't able to master me physically, so she was switching to tongue wrestling. Hey, I could go two out of three with Allison and Shannon at the same time and hold my own; I could handle Angela Osborne. At first it was a high-speed assault, her tongue was everywhere, I pulled back for a second and said "Wait." She looked hurt again and opened her mouth to speak. "Shhh," I said. I scooted around to a more comfortable position, and then, reaching under my shirt, I drew out the key, reached past her and started the engine. Once the engine was idling and the heater was going, I started to move her around a little, searching for a better angle but it was difficult with so little space. "Stop," she said. "Okay, now move this way about six inches, that's good." She reached past me and down and suddenly the back of the seat collapsed, "Too far, lean up a little." I sat up a little straighter and the seat back came with me. "I said a little!" I leaned back again as she mumbled, "Rookie." Finally the seat seemed to be where she wanted it. She settled herself on the seat with her legs drawn up so she could face me, leaned in close and whispered, "Where were we?" I slid my arms around her to help support her upper body at the odd angle and said, "I think you were a little more to the left and I was just about..." I kissed her gently on one side of her mouth, "here." I kissed her again and when her lips parted I teased gently at the opening with just the tip off my tongue, exploring the fleshy softness of her mouth. I really wanted to keep it slow this time. For one thing she was only the third girl I'd kissed and they all seem to be slightly different. I was discovering that I liked learning the differences. I suddenly had a flash and realized that just as with Shannon and Allison, her kiss tasted different than it had in our dream. Interesting, but I let thoughts of the past go and concentrated on the now and what I was doing. Angela sort of sighed through her nose and the vibrations made for an interesting sensation. Her body was starting to relax more and I was expending more energy supporting her. This made it harder to focus on the more delightful aspects of our position. I had a flash of insight and dropping my hand down I found the lever on the side of the seat that controlled the back. Without breaking the kiss, I pulled the lever and leaned forward. Our bodies turned together and now she was sort of half lying across my lap and facing upward. She broke the kiss and said, "You're a fast learner, for a rookie." Then she wiggled a little to get comfortable, stretched out as far as the confined space would allow and reached her arms up and around me to pull me down to her. I spent several minutes exploring the softness of her mouth before I couldn't stand it any longer. One hand was behind her head helping to support her; the other was resting on her ribcage between her waist and one of the pillars of heaven. I mentally held my breath, (I needed the oxygen too much to do it for real) and slid my hand up towards her breast. Lightening fast her hand came down and grabbed my wrist. I started to pull away from her mouth to apologize but she held my head firmly while she moved my hand down to her waist. I figured I'd blown it, but suddenly she was pulling her shirt bottom out of her pants. Once it was loose she gently took my wrist again and guided it under the fabric. Now, I know what you're thinking. I'd just spent all this time explaining and justifying why I didn't want to have sex with her under these circumstances, and I meant every word, but give me a break; a beautiful, sexy, older girl with huge breasts is laid out in my lap and I'm supposed to be the perfect gentlemen? How long has it been since you were fifteen? Besides, it's only second base, it's not like I was reaching down her pants. Although... never mind. My mind whirled with excitement and anticipation. The material of her bra was like nothing I had felt before, incredibly soft to the touch, and I marveled that something this soft could keep her ample endowments in check, but it did and that's all that mattered. Her nipple was very prominent against the fabric and I traced a line around it just to gauge its dimensions before moving on to explore the scope of this new terrain. Of course I knew it was large from our time in the dream we had shared. Even though their breasts are different sizes, Allison and Shannon both had almost the exact the same sized nipples. Almost quarter sized when they were relaxed. Angela's were at least the size of fifty-cent piece, if not a full silver dollar. Angela broke the kiss and started to squirm around a little; wiggling her arm behind her she undid the clasp and then settled back down in my lap. She smiled up and said, "Feels like I'm laying on a rock." "I'm sorry, maybe we should..." She raised her finger to my mouth and 'shh'd' me, "I wasn't complaining, I happen to like this kind of rock. I've recently learned that it all depends on whose lap it's in. You're a really good kisser, did you know that? I don't know what it is but I really seem to enjoy kissing you. I've decided something, well, two things really: want to know what they are?" "Sure." "Well, first off, I've decided that I don't want to fuck you." Okay, so a part of me was disappointed, "Oh?" "No, definitely not. No, no, keep doing that." My hand had stopped stroking the side of her breast. She put her hand over my mine and rubbed gently through the material, encouraging me to continue. When I resumed my movement, she continued, "No, I have decided that I would very much like to make love to you. You were right; it was a mistake to think of doing it as payment for a debt, but I think if the opportunity ever presents itself, I would very much like to do it the right way, for the right reason." "I would like that too, Angela, a lot. To quote a movie I saw some time ago, under the right circumstances and for the right reason, 'I would kill or die to make love to you.' What was the other thing?" "Well, I was just thinking," her voice took on a harder edge and she said, "if you don't stop teasing and start paying more attention to that nipple, I'm going to break your arm." I almost hurt myself laughing, which of course made her laugh, which caused some very interesting seismic activity in the palm of my hand. I finally settled down and started pulling and twirling her nipple, she seemed to really like this. She sighed, "Much better," and pulled me down for another kiss. I mumbled, "You're welcome," before my lips became otherwise engaged and conversation became impossible. We kept this up for a minute or so before coming back up for air. I cupped her breast and gave it a little firmer squeeze and asked, "Angela? I was just wondering something, well, two things actually." "Hmm, that's original, what?" "Well, first of all, what does Tim think of all this?" She looked at me very seriously. "Jimmy, Tim and I talked about all of this. He knows how indebted I feel to both you and Allison for what you've done for us. He feels the same way. And he knows that I've been with other girls, well, one other anyway, so he's not surprised that I want to thank Allison too. Don't worry, you're not his type; he's leaving the 'thank-yous' to me." I thought for a second. I knew Allison was all for saying please and thank you and I was pretty sure you would want to exchange pleasantries with Angela. But what about Tim? Would she prefer to get her thank you in person?" Suddenly a voice was saying, "Hello? Jimmy? Anyone home?" "Oh, sorry. I got distracted thinking about something?" "Must have been good, mind if I ask?" "No, I was just thinking about Allison?" "You mean Allison and me? Jimmy, if it bothers you..." "Don't be silly. Of course I don't have a problem with you and Allison. Actually I was thinking of her and Tim." "Allison and Tim? What brought that up?" "Well, I mean, if you get to say thank you to me, I was just wondering if she might be a little put out about getting her thank you secondhand?" "You mean she might want to... Oh I want to see the look on Timmy's face when she says that! You wouldn't have a problem with that?" "Angela, I have to be honest with you. <> I knew that this might come up tonight. Allison and I talked about it already. Not about Tim but about you. I told her I was worried about how to handle it. I meant it when I said I wouldn't take sex as a payment, she understood how I felt but she said the most important thing to remember is that all of this is just sex. I don't love you, Angela. You don't love me, and Tim doesn't love Allison. This is just sex. I'm sure if and when it ever actually happens it will be wonderful sex, but it's not love. You are not a threat to Allison. She knows that. And Tim would be no more a threat to me. She told me that however it worked out, if you said 'thank you' I was to say 'you're welcome.' I don't have any more of a problem with Tim and Allison than I do with you and Allison. If it's what she wants, then that's the way it will be. Truthfully, we don't know if either one of them would want that. But if it works out that way, it's not a problem with me. Besides I still get you either way." "Thank you. I guess that means you've decided that it's no longer an if but a when?" "Oh, trust me I always had 'when' in my head even if I was saying 'if', I'm still just a normal, horny, teenage guy; when it comes to sex, if and when pretty much have the same meaning." "So what was your other question?" "Oh that, it was nothing important, forget it." I gave her a shy smile. She fell for it, "No really, I want to know? What was it?" "Well," I started in an embarrassed tone, "I was just wondering..." "Yes?" "If you were ticklish!" I put action to words and attacked her with a fury. She squealed and squirmed and kicked, but she was in a totally helpless position. Finally she ended up face down in my lap with her arms clamped to her sides and still she couldn't protect herself. I'm not sure if it was desperation or what but suddenly I felt her mouth clamp lightly over the shaft of my erection through the material of my pants. Can you say, 'freeze-frame?' My entire body turned to stone in an instant. I mean it wasn't life threatening, she probably couldn't even do a lot of damage; my brain knew all of this. My body, on the other had, didn't care one bit what my brain knew. She mumbled around her mouthful, "Ahm-Hahm! 'ow I 'ot ew." "Angela? Angels? Sweetheart, please say you're not mad." I could feel sweat beading on my forehead. " 'aad? Oo? 'e?" She started to move her lips back and forth along the shaft, biting down just enough to give a good squeeze as she went. The human body is an amazing piece of work. One second I'm fearing for my manhood, the next I'm about to explode in my underwear. She kept it up for a few more seconds until she found the end and then it felt like she was trying to force the head into her mouth, jeans and all. Finally she pulled back and gave it a kiss before rolling back over. "I think we better quit, okay? Right now I really want to find out what that tastes like without the denim and while I think we both want that to happen, and for much better reasons than I started with, I think we are both agreed that this is not the place for it, and tonight is not the time for it." I sighed, chuckled, and finally said, "There is this little voice inside of me right now screaming, "Lie! Tell her she's wrong! Tell her you've changed your mind! Tell her anything! Just don't let her stop!" at the top of his little lungs." I sighed again. "And as much as I would like to get much better acquainted with certain parts of your anatomy as well," I gave her nipple a pinch through her sweater, "you're right. Not here, and not now. I know that tomorrow there is every chance that one of us may look back on this and decide it was all a mistake, but I'll risk it. Because you," I kissed her and sucked at her lip for a second, "are worth waiting for, and far too good to waste on a rush job. When it happens, I want to be able to take as much time as necessary to do it right. I think you better take me home." She kissed me and sat up. As she was refastening and adjusting her clothes, she said, "You're an amazing young man, James Matthews. If I wasn't desperately in love with Timmy I think I would be trying hard to steal you away from Allison and Shannon. Sometimes I don't understand how they can stand to share you, other times, like now, being with you, I don't know, it's like I'm the one who's missing out by not being a part of it." She tucked in her sweater and pulled her seatbelt on. As I reached for mine she playfully reached over and squeezed my cock one more time. "Oh yeah, I'm going to regret this tomorrow, but I'm going to dream about it tonight." In the dark she couldn't see my smile. She put the car in gear and as we swung onto the road to head back the lights flicked over a van parked at the end of the turn-out. It looked like one of those cable installation vans, with ladders and one of those tube things on top. I assumed it was just another couple parked and having a good time and didn't give it another thought. Looking back I could have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble if I had only paid more attention. I never thought to ask why the front of the conduit tube looked strange, or what that red light was, or why it just happened to be parked facing exactly at the spot we had just left. ------- Chapter 49: Revelation and Relaxation Time flies, but we still made it back to my house by 10:30. I invited Angela in to meet my parents, but they had already gone to bed. I apologized for dragging her out of her nice warm car. "That's okay," she answered, "I was kind of hoping Allison would be up, though." She blushed as she continued, "I wanted to talk to her about all this and make sure this was all, you know... I think I just wanted to reassure myself..." I put a finger to her lips and said, "You don't need to explain, I understand. I'm pretty sure she's still up. Give me second." I walked down the hall and tapped on Allison's door before opening it. She was sitting on the bed in her usual long shirt and panties. I motioned to Angela to wait and stepped inside. Allison was immediately up and hugging me. She gave me a quick kiss, pulled back and stared into my face for second. "You talked her out of it, didn't you? How on earth did you do it? I mean..." I cut her off, "Later, I promise. Right now Angela is out in the living room. I invited her in to meet Mom and Dad, but they already went to bed. She said she was hoping to talk to you." "She's here!" she said in an excited whisper. She was past me and out the door in a blur. I stood there stunned for a second then followed. By the time I reached the hall she had thrown her arms around Angela in death-grip hug. She let go after a second and taking her hand, began pulling the startled senior down the hall. I turned to follow as they passed me in the hall but Allison put her hand on my chest and said, "Girl talk, no boys allowed." She kissed me on the cheek and dragged Angela through the door. Angela just smiled at me and shrugged her shoulders before disappearing. I shook my head and went to get myself a bottle of water. I knew from experience that 'girl-talk' came with a widely varying time table so I turned on the TV and found an old episode of Seinfeld to distract me. I was finished with that one and well into the next episode (they ran two back to back on Friday nights) before Allison's door opened and they emerged. I wasn't sure what all they had "talked" about but judging from the four nipples fighting hard for freedom, it must have been a very interesting conversation. Angela blushed when she realized what I was staring at. She hugged me and said, "Thanks, I had a really good time tonight. I better get going. I'm sure Tim is waiting up for me." I took her hand as we broke, "Let me walk you out." I escorted her to her car and gave her one final kiss to end the evening. Both sides of the kiss seemed to hold promises to be kept at a later date. I waited for her to pull away before going back inside. Allison was waiting just inside and wrapped herself tenderly around me as I closed the door. I turned within the circle of her arms and she buried her head against my chest and said, "I love you. Have I told you that lately?" "I love you, too. Did I miss something? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining or anything, but what did I do?" "Nothing, you were just being your normal, wonderful self. C'mon, I need some cuddle time and I'll tell you all about it." "Okay, but I have to make a pit stop on the way." "No problem, I'll go see if I can warm up a spot big enough for both of us." She kissed me gently, caressing my lips with hers and then with one arm holding me tight, guided me towards the hallway. I took care of my evening ablutions, stripped, and climbed in beside her. "Make love to me, Jimmy," she whispered softly into my ear. I rolled into her arms and we danced the two-back long and slow. Eventually we just lay together, sated and happy. It had been an evening of ups and downs, both emotionally and physically. Being with Allison sapped the last of my stress and energy, I was relaxed and dozing in the warm glow when she said, "You did a wonderful thing tonight. I'm very proud of the way you handled everything." "I didn't really handle anything," I said. "The situation really hasn't changed. All I accomplished was postponing the inevitable." "Oh no, you did much more than that. You kept her from doing something she may have regretted and made it into something wonderful. I know that you may still, probably will, have to make good on it one day but now that's just a promise for someday and even if it never happens it won't bother her. I was worried how it would all go, but you fixed it, just like you always do. I'm so very proud and happy to have you. We have a lot to talk about so help me get to sleep and then I need you to take me to see Bob." Any other time that may have set off alarm bells but right now I just couldn't bring myself to care. I hugged her to my side, her shoulder nestled into the crook of my arm, her head on my chest, and it didn't take long before the slow rhythm of our breathing had put us both to sleep. We woke in the glade, cuddled in the hammock, I was naked and Allison just had on a long satin robe that draped invitingly across her body. I reached in to cup her breast and kissed her 'awake' into the dream. "Mmm, I love waking up with you no matter where we are. I see you gave my glade back." As soon as she said it I realized that our rings were both visible, indicating we were in fact in her dream. How did I get to her dream ahead of her? Sounded like a question for my resident expert so I asked it out loud. "Well, actually I think it's tied into what I wanted to talk to Bob about." She unwrapped herself from me and stood up. By the time she turned around she was dressed in dark blue shorts with a pink top, white tennis shoes with blue and pink piping and matching socks. Once again all I could do was marvel at how good she was at this stuff. Of course I'd had a bit of practice by now and had gotten better myself. I rolled out of the hammock and was dressed in black shorts and shoes, a gray shirt and gray crew socks. The difference is I hadn't thought of it until she had already done it. Normally I didn't think about wardrobe, mine just changed with the scene. I materialized the familiar door, extended my hand and said, "Ready?" She took my hand and kissed my cheek and then knocked lightly on the door. There was few seconds' hesitation and the door opened. "When the scene froze, I knew it was you, Jimmy, and I was all set to tell you your timing sucked but then I realized this was just a dream anyway. Since you brought Allison with you I assume it's important. Allison, lovely to see you again, won't you come in?" "Good evening, Mr. Shelby," she replied. We stepped into Bob's office except this time it was a little different. One wall had been expanded outward and now contained a restaurant dining room. Most of the tables had people at them. One was set for guests that had not arrived, the last was set but empty, both chairs were pulled out, one further than the other, I assumed that was Bob's, the other chair was back but not 'out' if you know what I mean. Bob's napkin was in the plate, the other sitting on the chair. I assumed the chair had held a person before we arrived. A waiter stood poised in the act of pouring wine. "I'm sorry," Allison said, "are we interrupting something? We could come back." "No, that's quite all right. Like I said, it was just a dream. I had a date tonight and I think I was just going over it again to see if I did anything wrong." "Kind of a post test?" asked Allison. "Something like that. Now that I'm playing with Jimmy I'm working on making better use of my own dreams. In this case, trying to make sure I didn't do anything really stupid tonight. I think I did okay." "I'm sure Rebecca had a very nice time," I said. "Hey," he said, "who said it was Rebecca?" "Oh Bob!" Allison said with a giggle. "You're too cute. If you'd like to finish dinner, we could come back. Or we could go to your office" "I already ate, thank you," he said in dry voice. "The office will be fine." The scene slowly started to fade and after a few seconds the office was back to its normal appearance. Bob looked a little winded if that's possible. "I don't know how you two do it. I'm getting better, but that's still hard for me. Half the time I wake up part way through a scene change." He indicated the couch. "Please." Allison and I sat down as he took a matching chair for himself. "So what's up?" "I think Jimmy is projective," Allison stated. Bob's eyebrows tried to crawl over the top of his head. I just looked at her and asked, "I'm what?" I might as well have stayed in the glade; it was like I had suddenly become invisible as they both just ignored me. Bob sat forward in his chair, looking intently at Allison. "What makes you think so?" "It's been tickling around the back of my brain for some time. It finally came to me a couple days ago and I think I confirmed it tonight. I think he projects directly into the subconscious of people he is in contact with." "Go on." "Okay, it first struck me a while back when Shannon and I were talking. We were trying to figure out why kissing him was just so, I don't know, satisfying I guess. I don't know what it is, but there just seems to be something extra to kissing him. When it's just Shannon and me, it's just as fun, and it can be just as hot, but... I can't really explain it. Anyway, that got me thinking, and I realized that kissing Shannon also seemed better when Jimmy was with us. I just seem to get more out of it, and being with Jimmy is somehow more fulfilling than being with Shannon even though I swear I love them the same." "Well, that could just be biology." "I thought about that, but I asked Shannon and, once she thought about it, she said the same thing only she says she loves me more. Then tonight after their date I asked Angela about it, and..." Bob looked at me like I had just materialized out of thin air. "You had a date with Angela Osborne? How did it go?" He caught himself, "No, never mind; forget I asked, none of my business." Allison corrected him, "Actually, it is your business this time. You already know the situation but tonight, as determined as Angela was; Bob, he talked her out of it. Not only that but he made her feel good about it and still spent the rest of the evening making out with her." I was blushing like a stop sign. Fortunately they were both ignoring me again. Allison went on, "I talked to her about it when they got back. Thank God my parents had already gone to bed or I don't know when I would have had the chance. Anyway, I got her started on it and she eventually filled in the details. At first she was upset, but then Jimmy explained how he felt about it. She was still upset but he teased her into a little friendly front-seat wrestling match, basically he stole her keys and dropped them down his shirt and told her if she wanted them she would have to take them. For the record, I wouldn't suggest trying that with Rebecca." We all laughed, but I thought Bob was going to fall out of his chair. Eventually he wiped his eyes and said, "I'll keep that in mind. You were saying?" "Well, they struggled back and forth for a short time and then suddenly she's trying to take his tonsils out. Next thing you know, they're settled down into a long meaningful conversation and make-out session, it all ends with her saying how someday she really wants to jump his bones but that now it's for a completely different reason. I think that, somehow, Jimmy is influencing the subconscious of people when he touches them. I mean look at the evidence," she began ticking off points with her fingers, "Shannon and I both like kissing him better, or just kissing each other if he is there with us, and neither of us can say why. Angela goes from pissed off and crying at being rejected one minute, to being totally relaxed and looking forward to spending a blissful evening of mutual gratification at some point in the unknown distant future and is perfectly happy with the decision." Bob sat back in his chair, elbows on the arms, hands steepled before his face, thinking hard. "I'm not saying I'm sold, and it's probably too soon to say for sure, but the evidence you have so far fits the conclusion. Is there more?" "The first time Jimmy met Rebecca was in her office in a dream, no contact. She ruled the whole thing out as a hallucination but did the follow-up anyway just because she's too good an agent not to. The next time is right after he met Amy at the beach; still in a dream of course. She's started out skeptical; open but not believing." She turned to me and continued, "She actually threatened you and tried to shoot you when you went troll. You picked her up and tossed her in the water and suddenly she trusted you. She never even questioned that it was really you when you lost control of the troll and reverted. She's suspicious by nature, but rather than think maybe you had changed shape yet again to fool her, she accepted that this is your true form and age, ruled you out as a suspect and was ready to believe everything you said. The whole purpose of the visit and the thing you were focused on was getting her to trust you. What changed and when did it change? You changed shape, so what, you started out looking like someone that she knew you weren't. What else changed? You touched her." She sat back and looked at Bob, then back at me, "If anyone else has a better theory I'm all for hearing it." Bob leaned forward again. "Let me get this straight. You think that the physical act of touching her allowed him to implant a subconscious, compulsion is too strong a word, idea that she should trust him?" "Exactly. Go back to me and Shannon, when he is with either or both of us his one goal above all other things is to please us, to bring us pleasure, to make us feel loved by him and each other. My parents recently pointed out that we've never had a serious fight and that when we did have a disagreement, it never lasted, by the next day it was over and in the past, and we were going on like it never happened. And it certainly helps explain why we tend to pass out during sex with him. Overload. Does this sound normal to you, Bob?" "Well, your case is not 'normal' by any standard, but no, not for 'normal' siblings. You pass out during sex?" "Yeah, it's happened to both of us. I'm still waiting for a better suggestion," she said smugly. "Well, I'm not willing to concede the point just yet, but what you say does have merit." He turned to me and asked, "Jimmy? The boy on Halloween night, Bobby, did you touch him at any point before you shoved him into the street?" I thought about it hard for several seconds. "I don't think so?" "And up to that point he was still afraid and didn't believe you?" Allison asked. "Yes." Bob sat considering for a second before saying, "Allison, I think you may very well be on to something. I'm still not convinced and I'm going to put in some time thinking how we could actually verify this, without getting caught of course. The ramifications of this are huge, and they make it that much more important that no one find out about you. Both of you; do not discuss this with anyone. Especially not your parents; this is the kind of thing that would make anyone apprehensive about spending time around you. Not Rebecca either, I'll leave Shannon up to you, but I personally don't think she needs to know." "But," I started, "what if I somehow influenced her to feel the way she does?" Allison shot that down in an instant, "Not a chance. Think about it. When did you realize how you felt about her? After you found out how she felt about you. Not the other way around. You may have influenced her since, but those were all good things, trust me, I speak from experience." I blushed neon. Bob cleared his throat. "Well, obviously we are agreed here. Anything else going on that I need to know about?" There wasn't so we called it a night, or a morning; whatever, we left. Back in the glade Allison said, "I think Bob is falling hard for Rebecca, what do you think?" "I'm not sure I can even trust what I think. Sis, this worries me. I mean, how do I know... what if I'm doing it to you?" "Oh you are!" She plastered herself against me. Suddenly she was wearing the silk robe and butterfly g-string I liked so much, and I was in red satin boxers. Like I said, my clothes seem to change with the scenery. She ground herself against me. "And I love what you do to me." I pushed her back to arms length and said, "I'm serious. How can I trust what you are feeling for me when I may be causing it?" She sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "Weren't you paying attention to what I just said about Shannon? Who seduced whom here? I'm the one who dragged you here, remember? I'm the one that practically raped you in the shower. I'm the one that decided we'd waited long enough and snuck in to your room in the middle of the night. You've resisted and hesitated and questioned the whole way. Are you influencing me? Absolutely. I already told you that kissing you or just kissing Shannon when you are there is more satisfying. Do I have a problem with being influenced to love you or Shannon more? Absolutely not. Jimmy, when was the last time that you remember actually winning an argument with me?" I didn't even hesitate. "I gave up trying to out-think you ages ago." "Right, and when that happened you conceded that I was better able to analyze what was going on, and since then what's been going on? You've been encouraging me to do it. I think, subconsciously, you've been encouraging me to be better at it. The better you get at deduction, the more you encourage me because you still feel I'm better at it. So, yes, you are influencing me, but it's all good and I don't have a problem with any of it." She suddenly shoved hard and I was falling into the swimming pool that was suddenly behind me. Quick as a flash she was naked and diving after me. I was halfway under water when I held up my hand and she froze, literally in mid-dive. She was fully suspended in mid air, arms outstretched, aiming for the water. The water was now more like very thick Jello, with me about halfway embedded in it. I pulled myself free and, standing up, I walked back across the surface to where she hung motionless in the air. It was kind of like walking on a waterbed. I turned her over in the air like she was on a barbeque spit and admired her sleek form. I then knelt down and kissed her softly. As our lips touched her upper body came back to life. Her arms dropped around my shoulders and she opened her mouth to me. We kissed for a few seconds with her suspended in midair, then suddenly a couch materialized under her and she settled down onto the surface. As she sank into the soft material the couch kept changing, the back folded flat and the whole thing slowly converted to a nice four poster bed draped in silky curtains. She broke the kiss and whispered, "Oh yeah, and your control is getting better too. I thought maybe we needed to change the subject. You don't mind do you?" She moved over and patted the mattress for me to join her. I crawled in and she cuddled to me and whispered, "Jimmy, I don't want you to let this bother you. I would have preferred to talk to Bob alone about it but I didn't think I would get the chance any time soon. It's not like you're taking over people's minds and emotions. It's more like a little nudge, although it does seem to be a lot stronger in dreams than in reality. You seem to need longer contact to make smaller changes in the real world. Try not to think about it. I know that's hard, but just try to forget it for now. I could still be wrong about the whole thing, you know? Until Bob comes up with some way to verify it, it's just a theory." "Yeah, but it's your theory, and you haven't been wrong yet." "Of course I'm never wrong, I'm a woman, and if I am ever wrong it's just a mistake. Now shut up and just hold me. Or we could..." She trailed off as her hand slipped down over my abdomen. One of the really nice things about the dream world is that normal physical limitations do not necessarily apply. With practice, anything is possible. As with so many things, it was Allison who came up with the idea. We had just spent some quality time helping each other get to sleep, and when we got to the glade she wanted to do it again. I had pointed out that I was a little depleted at the moment. To which she had replied, "Hello, dream world." She then ran her hand down my stomach and suddenly I was almost painfully erect. It happened so fast I flinched a little. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you? How about if I kiss it and make it all better." Boy did she make it better. It was a very fun night. Fortunately for me, both the girls are just fascinated by the process and like to see, and feel me grow erect at a normal pace. She began caressing me and the normal processes kicked in. She licked at one of my nipples and trailed her tongue up to my ear, which she delicately bit before whispering, "I have an idea." "Mmm, what's that?" I asked. Suddenly she had a cell phone in her hand, or something that looked like one. This one just had one big red button in the shape of a heart with flames painted around it. She pressed the button, waited a few seconds and then said, "Hey baby, it's your favorite crack addict and I really need a fix. Can you help me out?" I heard giggling on the other end and then she continued, "Don't take too long, we might start without you." She closed the phone and tossed it behind her where it disappeared somewhere in the covers. Her hand returned to stroking my stomach and she said, "It's been a while since we played "three on a mattress," and we have all this room. It would be a shame to waste it." What? Like I was going to complain? When she figured out she could do stuff like this in my dreams I have no idea. I doubted that it would have worked in one of her dreams. I'm sure I could do it there, but I'm not sure about her, apparently in my dream... I remembered I had better things to think about. I concentrated on Shannon; there was a quick knock on the door that suddenly appeared, and she walked in without waiting for an answer. She was wearing her version of Allison's outfit, (hers is pink) and the robe opened and closed enticingly as she walked towards us. Without hesitation she crawled over me, pressed Allison to the mattress and tried to drive her tongue through the back of her girlfriend's head. Apparently Allison was putting up a pretty good fight though. I rolled toward them and slid my hand inside Shannon's robe. With their bodies pressed together there wasn't much room so I just vanished all of our clothes and began caressing her back, slowly working my way down toward her shapely ass. She broke the kiss and leaned over to give me the same welcome treatment that Allison had received. As her body shifted Allison moved down and began licking and sucking at the now available orb dangling above her. As Shannon and I played tongue tag, Allison captured the nipple and sucked hard, drawing a moan from her lover that resonated in my mouth. Shannon pulled back and hugged us both together and said, "I've missed you both so much." It had only been a few hours since she had seen Allison, and she and I had spent a dream night together two days earlier. Some weeks that was all we could do; once in awhile I would leave the two of them in "my" glade where they could have a little one on one time, but still, it's not the same, and I knew what she meant. "I've missed you too," I said. "No matter how much fun it is to be with you here, it doesn't compare to waking up with you. We don't have to do this if it makes it harder for you." She gave a derisive snort. "As if. I'll take what I can get, thank you. Yes, I'd rather wake up with either of you, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pass this up." She wrapped her hand around my hard-on to make sure I knew what she meant, at the same time she sat up and slid her other hand down across Allison's silky bush, "Or this." Since our first time the night my parents almost died, Shannon had developed an outright oral fixation. It didn't matter which one of us she was with, conversation was minimal as she was usually busy doing something else with her mouth. She bent down to suck at Allison's nipple while manipulating both of us. She then turned back to me and took a long lick of my cock, stopping to suck at the head for a second before crawling between Allison's now wide-spread thighs and taking an equally long lick of her treasures, with a little nibble at her hot button as well. "God, I just can't decide. All my favorite flavors in one place." "I think I have just the thing," Allison said. She pulled Shannon down, kissed her, and rolled them both over. Once she was on top she kissed her way down and across the older girl's chest, licking and sucking as she went. Sliding around to one side, she cleared the breasts and continued south, re-orienting herself into the classic sixty-nine position. She took a long lick of Shannon's rapidly dampening crotch and, looking over at me said, "Fuck me." Being the ever obedient and self sacrificing servant that I am I immediately straddled Shannon's head and moved myself towards Allison's opening. I was almost there when I was intercepted by Shannon's mouth. I mentioned the physical restrictions in dreams are different? Shannon's favorite difference was that in our dreams there is no gag reflex. In reality, both girls were still struggling with it; I think it's mostly a physical problem on my part. I'm not quite long enough to get past that 'point' on either of them. I was close on Allison as she is slightly smaller and as I still had some growing to do I was hoping to get there for Shannon as well. In dreams it didn't matter. Shannon merely captured me with her lips, tilted her head back and sucked me down to the root. When I was in as far as I could go she gave a moaning sort of hum and pulled back to signal for me to withdraw. Again, I am only here to please them, no selfish motives on my part at all, I pulled out and she guided me back on the path to Allison's beautiful little flower and said, "Oh, I am so going to enjoy this. I think this could be one of your best ideas yet, baby girl." She then pressed her tongue flat against me and let me slide across her surface as I went in search of buried treasure. When I was in far enough she licked across my balls, delicately sucking each of them into her mouth before allowing me to begin my assault on my sister. Allison tends to like it rough when she has me behind her. As I started stroking into her, Shannon rotated her head slightly to one side and began licking as far around the point of our joining as she could reach. Every time I moved back far enough she would take a quick swipe at Allison's magic button. For her part Allison was doing her best to keep up and return the favor. But it wasn't long before she gave up. She laid her head across Shannon's thighs, bit her lip and rode the approaching wave. It was only a short time before she was gasping for air and then the familiar trembling began. As the wave crested, Shannon slid a little further down, somehow managed to lock her lips around Allison's clit, and started sucking for all she was worth. Allison promptly went into orbit, if it hadn't been for Shannon's arms now locked around her waist holding her down I would never have been able to stay inside her. Her spasms pushed me over the edge and I came hard inside her. Two, three, four massive spurts before I started to subside. Allison was now collapsed on top of Shannon and I gently extricated myself. As soon as I was clear Shannon surprised me by clamping her mouth over the exposed opening and driving her tongue in as far as she could reach. Allison's head snapped up and she groaned as Shannon began sucking and licking for all she was worth. In seconds Allison was once again gasping for air as she ground herself all over Shannon's face. She all but screamed as another orgasm washed over her. Shannon finally relented and began taking slow delicate licks as Allison coasted down. From somewhere near Shannon's belly button a small voice said, "That was amazing." Shannon laughed and said, "Yeah, and I have a new favorite flavor! Mm-mm-mm." "Really," Allison asked, "that good?" "Oh trust me, you gotta try this." "I'm game, how about you, Ji..." she cut off as she looked at me. I was sitting with my eyes closed trying to capture something that was tickling at my brain. "Jimmy, are you..." I held up my hand to stop her. The two of them now sat quietly looking at me as I continued to try and pin down the new sensation. It was a kind of tug on the edge of my awareness. It came to me in a flash; I smiled and said, "It's Angela. She's dreaming about me again. This is weird, if I concentrate, I can actually see her dream." "What, she didn't get enough on your date?" Shannon asked. "They didn't do it; I'll tell you about it later. Where is she, Jimmy." "Walking down a beach towards a cabana, not ours, but she never saw the outside anyway." "Cool! This'll be fun. Are you with her?" "No, I think she expects me to be inside," I answered. "You mean..." Shannon started. "Yes," Allison interrupted. "Jimmy, can you move us all to the cabana, just sort of overlay your cabana inside hers?" "Yeah, I think so." "Cool, we're going to give Miss Osborne a little surprise." I mentally shifted us all to the big bed in the cabana; I must be getting better because the bedding was rumpled up just the way it had been in the glade. "Okay, where is she?" "On the walkway." "Freeze her when she gets about five feet from the door." She waited. "Got her? Good. Now we can get ready." "What exactly did you have in mind?" I asked. "We're going to go ahead just as planned, only about halfway through you let her walk in. As soon as she gets in, lose the door and seal up the wall. Hmm, put a nice big chair right, there." She pointed to a spot about 5 feet from one corner of the bed. I dutifully added the chair. "Why the chair?" "Because when she walks in nobody is going to see her. I want it to appear to her as if she is a ghost and we can't see or hear her. I want her to have a good seat for the show. Jimmy, can you put up some kind of barrier that she can see and hear through but can't get through?" "Sure, kind of a force field? How about if I make it one way so we can't actually see her either, that way we won't give it away by looking at her?" "You," she kissed my cheek, "are too clever. Okay, now then, I think we were about to reward Shannon for all her hard work on my behalf." "What about all my hard work?" Shannon looked indignant. "I'm not enough of a reward?" "You," I took her gently into my arms and spent several seconds exploring her mouth with my tongue, "are more reward than I could ever earn, forgive me if I sounded less than properly appreciative." I slid down and nibbled the base of her neck. She gave a shuddering sigh "Okay, but only if you promise to do it again sometime." "Your command is my only wish." As I was nuzzling her neck I felt Allison's hands creep in between us to caress Shannon's breasts. I slid back up to the top of the pile, reached around both of them, and kind of squished us into an Allison sandwich. My little soldier was rapidly going from parade rest to full attention. As he was positioned directly between her legs he was soon pressing against her still very damp bush. A second later a hand slid up and began to play with both of us at once, moving me around so that I was soon snuggled between Allison's outer lips and putting pressure on her more delicate surfaces. We both rolled down and to the sides, putting Shannon between us. I looked up at Allison and asked, "Do you mind?" She knew exactly what I was asking. She simply nodded her head and said, "Help yourself, it's not like we're going to run out and my turn is coming soon enough." I slid down between Shannon's legs and immediately began nibbling at her outer lips. Allison moved up and around behind her head, then leaned forward and began pinching and tugging at her nipples. Shannon arched up into Allison's hands and reached to fill her hands with her lover's charms as well. Allison gently pushed her hands away and whispered, "No love, this one is for you." She bent and took Shannon's face gently in her hands and the two of us made love to two sets of lips at the same time. It wasn't long before Shannon was breathing heavily through her nose and bucking her hips against my face. I kept it up until she was right on the edge, the tremors just beginning and the high pitched whine about to burst forth, then stopped. "No!" she cried. "Don't stop." I winked at Allison and said, "Your turn." Allison kissed her way down Shannon's abdomen and when she was in position slid her arms around her waist and rolled them both over so Shannon was now on top where Allison had been the first time. I moved to her nether end, placed myself at her opening and slowly pressed forward. "No," she cried, "do me like you do Allison. Do me hard." Unlike Allison, Shannon just could not bring herself to use that kind of language, even when it was just us. As I said, I live to serve; I drove myself into her and released Angela. I could sense her walk in the door and freeze, staring at the scene before her. Since it was my barrier I could do whatever I wanted with it, so I allowed myself to hear her say, "Oh my God! I am so sorry." She turned to leave but the doorknob vanished magically from her hand and the wall closed up behind her. Finding no exit she had no choice but to turn back. I smiled to myself and then focused on the task "before" me. Allison was merciless in her assault on Shannon's pussy, sucking hard at whatever she could reach. Shannon got close and Allison forced me back and took me in her mouth. Shannon made her feelings on this very clear. "Nooo!" she whined, "Allie that is so unfair, please don't stop." Allison just chuckled around her current mouthful. "Oh! If I wasn't afraid you'd bite that off I would so hurt you. Please, oh please, give it back." Allison relented and guided me back into her girlfriend. Shannon gave a contented sigh as I entered her once more. "Now fuck her hard, Jimmy." I slammed forward, I could hear my balls slapping against her flesh, "Harder!" Allison demanded. I gave her everything I had. My balls slapping back and forth made it impossible for Allison to get her mouth back in so she snaked a hand between us and began fingering Shannon's clit hard and fast. Shannon began to whine almost immediately, the sound broken by a grunt each time I slammed forward. As her pitch went up and her body started to shake Allison snaked her other hand up and stuck the end of her middle finger into Shannon's little rosebud. A branding iron wouldn't have gotten a more dramatic result. With a scream Shannon went into shuddering convulsions. It was all we could do to hold her still enough for me to finish. And finish I did. If I'd come any harder it would have leaked out of her ears. I thought it was never going to stop. Allison had pulled her fingertip back out after just a second or two as she needed the hand to help hold Shannon still. She then wrapped both arms around her girlfriend and forced her head between her legs. I pulled out and the floodgates opened. Allison did her best to keep up with the flow but some still got past her, dribbling down both sides of her face. Shannon began grinding herself against Allison's tongue, trying to force it deeper inside. When she had all she could get, Allison clamped onto Shannon's clit and sucked hard. Immediately the whine was back and within seconds Shannon was shaking with another climax. Allison pulled back and kissed her lover gently on the inner thigh, then looked at me and mouthed the word, "now." I dropped the invisible wall and we all turned to see Angela sprawled in the chair, one hand pinching a breast, feverishly masturbating herself with the other. She had obviously enjoyed the show and was apparently getting very close herself. Her eyes were closed, so she couldn't see the three of us looking at her. Allison pushed against Shannon and the older girl took the hint and moved. With a finger to her lips Allison motioned us to follow her. Angela was oblivious as we snuck up to stand around her. Allison pointed me to stand at her feet, and Shannon to one side. When she had us where she wanted us she leaned in close to Angela and said, "Let me help." Angela's eyes flew open as Allison's hand covered the one massaging her breast. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry..." suddenly she was scrambling to get up but by then Shannon had a hand on her other shoulder to help restrain her. Allison pressed forward and kissed her gently then said, "No you're not. You enjoyed watching us, you wouldn't be dreaming about it if you didn't want it. Relax; you know this is what you want." She cupped her hand around as much of Angela's large breast as she could get and kissed her passionately, gently pressing her tongue into the girls mouth as her free hand came up to cradle her head in a loving embrace. Shannon dropped to her knees and began sucking at the unoccupied breast, caressing the excess flesh with both hands. She quickly dropped one hand and began stroking between the girls legs. As soon as her fingers brushed the full lips Angela shuddered and her arms came up to clutch at the both girls. Shannon's activity caused her to spread her legs and that was my cue to join in. Shannon used her fingers to open the delicate petals of her flesh-flower and I began licking up the heady dew that had accumulated. Angela reached for me but the girls gently took her hands and guided them in different directions. Allison led one to her own tender sweet-spot and Shannon began kissing and sucking on the fingers of the other. The three of us quickly had Angie back to where she had been before we interrupted. It was a short trip from there to ecstasy. Her upper body rigid, muscles taught in legs and thighs, she humped herself against my face as I gently took her over the edge. We all backed off as she coasted down to recovery. She gave a huge sigh of relief and then said, "You knew I was here the whole time, didn't you?" Shannon laughed and said, "Of course we knew, it's your dream, you're the one who brought us here to do all those nasty things just so you could watch," she tweaked one of Angela's nipples, "you bad girl. Not that we're complaining mind you." Angela giggled. "Yeah, I guess you're right. And since it's my dream, there's something I've been wanting all night." She slid out of the chair onto her knees and kissed me hard and strong. She pressed her body against me and a hand slid between us in search of my erection. Finding it was certainly no problem. It was not quite as easy as finding water by falling out of a boat but it was almost that obvious. She broke the kiss and whispered, "Stand up; I want you in my mouth." "Are you sure?" "Hey, whose dream is this anyway?" she asked, her hand never released me as I struggled to my feet. Not as easy as it sounds with someone holding your tender parts. "Oh," she whispered to herself more than anyone else, "I have wanted this for so long. You have such a nice cock." She leaned in and took the head in her mouth, laving the head with her tongue, moving her head side to side as she tried to roll it around in her mouth. She withdrew and began licking and sucking up and down the shaft all the way to the base. "Mm, Shannon, is that you I taste? God, it's been so long since I tasted pussy. I miss you, Vicky, wherever you are." She took one of my nuts into her mouth and rolled it around as her hand began sliding up and down the shaft of my cock. I glanced at Allison and Shannon. They were rooted to the spot staring intently at the scene before them. Apparently Angela had been taking advantage of some different instructional material than they had. Her technique was very different. I saw Shannon lick her lips and then blush when she realized I was watching. My attention was wrenched back to the girl at my feet as in one motion she impaled her mouth on my cock. Forcing the head in as far as it would go, her tongue sticking out to lick at my balls when she reached the bottom. She held this for a second then came back up and began slurping loudly on the head again. Shannon was starting to fidget noticeably. Allison caught the movement, reached for her hand and pulled her down to the floor. She guided Shannon over her mouth, and then pulled her down until she was in reach and began gently kissing and licking her lover once again. Shannon's eyes were glued to Angela as she once again drove down to engulf my member and began... well, not really sucking so much as fucking me with her mouth, swallowing me whole and grinding her nose into my pubic hair with each thrust. It was a very... interesting sensation. One of Shannon's hands came up to pull at a nipple; the other reached down behind Allison's head and pulled her harder into her pussy. Allison planted her lips around Shannon's clit and began to suck hard, torturing her with her tongue at the same time. One hand snaked up and, shoving two fingers deep into her friend, she began working the already abused flesh even harder. The sight of this was all I could stand and I warned Angela of the impending explosion, she never slowed down but was no longer taking me as deeply into her mouth. Instead she started massaging my balls with one hand; the other was wrapped around holding my ass firmly in place as she started sucking fast and hard. In seconds it was all over and for the third time I felt that wonderful melting sensation as I unloaded into yet another willing female. Thank god for the dream world because there is no way I could have done this in the real world. I couldn't really focus well enough to see but I'm sure I heard Shannon going off at the same time. Angela milked me for all I was worth. She kept me in her mouth, gently massaging me with her lips and tongue, not enough to reawaken the beast, but just enough to keep him from falling asleep. It was very nice. Shannon had collapsed on the ground next to Allison, who had rolled over and was lying with her head on her arms just looking up at me with one of those "I'm so smart" smiles of hers. I winked at her and she blew me a kiss. Angela stood and stretched and I took the opportunity to move in for a hug and kiss. She started to pull away from the kiss; I gave her a questioning look and asked, "What, now I don't even rate a kiss?" "But I just..." she began, but I quickly cut her off. "So what, you swallowed it. I'm not afraid, I kiss these two all the time, haven't died yet." "Tim never wants to." "He'll get over it," I kissed her gently on the cheek, "besides, I'm not Tim. You may have noticed." "You're definitely not Tim; I can't do that with him." She blushed and started apologizing, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean, it's just..." Allison burst out laughing and started rolling around on the floor. Shannon was soon giggling right along with her. I couldn't help a chuckle myself. "He's bigger?" She was bright red by now, "Well, longer anyway. You're thicker. He either needs to be longer or shorter because he kind of gets stuck at the wrong spot and if I'm not careful..." Allison stopped laughing just long enough to point out, "How do you know Jimmy's really shorter? It's a dream, he could be a foot long in real life and you'd still make him the right size in your dreams." "No he couldn't," she said indignantly, "I haven't seen it but I've felt it and it wasn't that big. You've seen it? Is it the right size or not?" Allison cracked up again. "Angela, it's a dream, I'm not any more real than he is, you made me up, I don't know any more about the real thing than you do. I don't even know if he's really circumcised or not." "You know," Angela went on, "for a figment of my imagination you sure are a smart ass. I think someone needs to take you down a peg." She started to advance but Allison was faster. Before she even got close Allison was up on her feet and swinging a pillow at her. "You want a piece of me, princess? Come and get it!" At least she was fair about it; she materialized pillows all around and the feathers started flying, literally. In seconds the air was full of downy white snow and the sound of laughter. I'm not sure what the signal was or how it was passed but it seemed like all at once they all turned on me and I found myself ducking and dodging for all I was worth. I thought I was being successful until suddenly Allison stopped and glared at me, and I suddenly realized what I was doing. What I was doing was impossible. Without realizing it I had gone into "Matrix" mode and was moving faster and faster. I immediately stopped and was rewarded by being pummeled by all three of them. Talk about taking one for the team. I took it stoically for a few seconds and then fought back the only way I could. I grabbed Shannon and started tickling her. The pillow disappeared like a puff of smoke and she became a blur of arms and elbows as she struggled to keep me at bay. Allison took one more shot with the pillow then attacked to try and save her girlfriend. I was quickly at a disadvantage. Salvation came from an unexpected source as Angela came to my rescue. Her attack took Allison completely by surprise but she recovered quickly. Shannon was closer to my size so we were actually more evenly matched. Allison stood no chance at all. As was usually the case, my struggle with Shannon was more show than actual conflict. Angela wasn't used to playing the game with another girl. Eventually Allison, just as with Mark in the pool, had to resort to foul play. She squirmed free for just a second and, before Angela could recover, she threw her arms around the big girl's neck and kissed her passionately. Suddenly the room was quiet but for the gentle sounds of lips caressing and tongues dancing the timeless ballet that for millennia has insured the survival of the human race. Taking Shannon's hand I walked us over to the little sunken area, sat down and pulled her into my lap. Allison pulled Angela over and plopped down in her lap with her head snuggled under her chin. Angela looked very happy to have her there. I caught Allison tossing a wink at Shannon and tried not to smile as I felt Shannon suppressing a giggle. We sat in silence for a long while, just holding each other, and then Angela sighed and said, "I wish this were real." She kissed Allison's hair and, stroking it gently, continued, "I would so like to make love to you all. Not all at once, but all of you. Okay, maybe all at once, just one time to try it." "You sound like you don't think it will ever happen," Shannon said. "Don't you believe that dreams can come true?" "Sometimes I guess, but this? This just seems too good to be possible. It's just a dream and soon I'll wake up and you'll all be gone." "We'll still be here, Angel," I said softly. "We'll always be here, in your dreams. But for now, you're right; it's time for us to go." One by one we stood and kissed her, and I let the scene fade. ------- Chapter 50: Fourth Interlude Allison and I slept late Saturday. Okay, I slept until 6:00 before getting up to run instead of my usual 5:30. Allison generally just snuggles in and waits for me to get back and showered before starting her day. This morning she decided to start her day in the shower with me. I took my time gently soaping and caressing her awake; when her eyes looked like they were finally focusing correctly she did the same for me. Finally there was a pounding on the door and Mom's voice said, "You'd better save some hot water for your father." We chuckled and got out. I took a little extra time holding her close and buffing her delicate parts with the soft cotton towel. Once I had their attention I gave them each a little kiss and lick, then dabbed them dry again, wrapped the big fluffy towel around her and held her close to me. It had been a very quiet morning. Neither of us had said a word the whole time. At last Allison broke the silence, "I think we should go to a movie." "Okay." "All of us." "You mean the whole family." "No, just our family." "Ah, I see; just you, me, and she?" "Yeah," she said softly against my chest, "after last night, which was amazing by the way, you outdid yourself, anyway, after last night I feel a strong need to just be close to both of you for a while. A dark bedroom cuddled under a sheet would be better, but I'll settle for a dark theater and holding both your hands." "Hey, I can't take credit for last night. You're the one who came up with the whole thing. Boy, when you decide to have a little fantasy, you really get into it." I got more serious and continued, "Do you think Angela noticed anything?" "I doubt it." She poked her finger in my side. "I think I stopped you from showing off before she caught it." "Sorry about that. Thanks." "It's okay, like I said, I don't think she noticed. The rest of the time it was just a really hot dream. I'll bet she needed a cold shower when you finally sent her home." "Yeah, that part probably wasn't nice. At least with us we get to be together so we can work it off if we wake up that way. What about Shannon? You think she woke up frustrated?" "You know, we talked about that once. Shannon is different. She doesn't wake up horny and hot after you two spend a night together that way. She'd still rather have the real thing but she's very satisfied with your dreamtime. I don't know how she does it." "You think it's that whole projection thing you were talking about?" "Hmm. Good point," she said, then stopped to think before continuing. "You know that could very well be it. Damn, I wish I could call Angela and ask how she slept. I'd bet good money that she slept very, very well and for some reason felt very satisfied." "I hope so, and I'm glad that it's not a problem for Shannon, it's hard enough already." She reached playfully down to fondle me. "No, not yet it's not, maybe later." She gave me a squeeze and said, "How about some breakfast; we'll see what's playing and talk it over with the powers that be." The subject was discussed over breakfast, the motion carried under the stipulation that we get all our regular chores done first. Mom called Karen and Shannon was invited to tag along. Out of pity we made a last minute decision to invite the cripple along. Hobbling around on crutches was bad enough, but cabin fever was starting to set in; he was getting better at video games though. The movie was good. Mark sat on the aisle since he couldn't get the cast into the row anyway. I sat next to him with Shannon on the other side and Allison beyond her. Shannon held both our hands throughout. As it was a weekend, Shannon spent the night, which left poor me all alone in my bed. Okay, I'm spoiled. I like waking up with a warm girl in my arms. My night became wonderful a little after midnight when Shannon snuck into my room and cuddled up to my side. As much as I wanted her it wasn't worth the risk of getting caught. Fortunately we still had dream space and we took advantage of it. At 3:00 her cell phone vibrated. She had set the alarm to vibrate so we would be sure to get her back to Allison's room before anyone was even close to getting up. She kissed my cheek and thanked me for a wonderful evening, then slipped under the covers and thanked me again. It was very difficult not to make noise or move around as she demonstrated her affection. She had gotten really, really good at it. Her technique was totally different from Angela's. Where Angela was basically a hard and fast face-fuck, (sorry but that's the only term I could think of to describe it) hot and to the point, Shannon was loving and soft. She didn't so much suck me off as tease me until I exploded. Angela was fun but I think she could learn a lot from Shannon. ------- Two months later Whoever said time flies wasn't kidding. The last two months had gone by in a blur. Our family spent Christmas at a resort down by San Diego. Apparently my dad had bargained away a large chunk of the settlement for future privileges. Before we left he sat us down and explained that from now on, all vacations would be working vacations, sort of. When the family traveled we would be staying at various hotels and resorts owned by, let's just call them Resort X. We would pay for everything as usual, as far as anyone was concerned we were just ordinary guests. In truth, we would be refunded any monies spent during our stays. We even had a limited budget in the gift shops. In return, we would evaluate and give our opinions of our hosts, their facilities, and their staff. We would have at least one full meal, breakfast or dinner, or even both at our discretion, per day during our stay, use the various facilities, etc and then when we returned home report on our experience. Once in a while we would be asked to do the same for their competitors, just to see how they stacked up. San Diego was their top west-coast destination in the United States. There were several five-star resorts in Mexico, as well as places in Hawaii that probably would have been nicer, but still, it was a very nice place. New Year's with Shannon's family, mostly listening to Mark complain about his leg. He was supposed to get the cast off right after Christmas and was not happy when the doctor said no. Apparently his typically teen-aged diet was not helping his bones to mend. He was put on a strict diet and a vitamin regimen to promote bone growth and strengthening. When he started to complain the doctor had informed him that if the bones didn't show signs of improvement they may have to go in surgically to scrape the ends of the break in an attempt to stimulate the process. He shut up quick and was very good about taking his pills. The one real bright spot in his life at the moment was Theresa, a sophomore from his AP history class. She had taken an interest in him when he broke his leg. Apparently she had done the same thing two years prior and was sympathetic to his plight, carrying his books to the classes they shared, opening doors, and such. She hung out with us for a few hours but her parents wanted her home by 11:00. We played board games, ate junk food and generally had a good time. It was mid January, four more weeks until Valentine's Day and then one more until my birthday. I would be sixteen. Being small and having early birthdays had conspired to keep both Allison and I out of school an extra year. I was hoping to soon be the only freshman in my school with a driver's license. I had about $2000 in my savings account and was looking forward to going car shopping with my dad. Rebecca I needed a break and I needed it bad. After the interview with the Watkins family Paul and I had started working with what he knew to try and narrow the list of potential targets as much as possible. Working with minors is a nightmare. No one will talk to you. Then there was the whole problem of not attracting attention to our investigation. The most promising thread to follow was sports. All the girls had been scholarship winners. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a list of girls being "considered" for college scholarships? I was fast becoming an authority on girls' high school athletics. Mostly due to the fact that I read every game stat, article, and clipping I could find; you name it, if it had to do with girls' sports, I read it. I had spreadsheets of statistics. The killer liked them smart as well; all the girls had been in the top five percent of their classes. It would have been a little easier if I could have cross referenced grade averages, but getting the scholarship lists would have been child's play compared to getting information out of the public school system. Nothing short of a court order stood a chance. The gun would have helped, but only if they let me shoot the lawyers from the ACLU who got in the way. We had the list down to 20 within a 250 mile radius. Fifteen from public schools, five from private; of those five, two were from private Christian Schools. Having gone to school in a predominantly Catholic area I knew better than to write those girls off because they attended religious schools. Sylvia had gone to Our Lady of Pain and Suffering all the way through high school. Okay, it was actually called St. Augustine's, the point is, and you can trust me on this, girls are girls and boys are boys whether you let them pray in school or not. The nagging point of irritation in my life was still Samantha Watkins. I wanted to get that girl alone so bad I could hardly stand it. I had called once during the day to try and talk to Irene. No good. She simply asked me to call back in the evening when her husband would be home. At that point I was obligated. I called back and spoke to Frank and he politely answered my questions regarding Amanda's scholarship to UNLV. That was a strange conversation. On the one hand, there was obvious pride in his voice over her achievement, but at the same time, I got the impression that somehow it just wasn't important. I wanted to drive up to Vegas and shoot him in the knee just for fun. I didn't even care if he was holding something back. I was already convinced he was holding something back and I did care, but still, just one shot, please? I didn't even care if it helped the case, something about that man just made the hair on my neck dance and it irritated the crap out of me. Rod was being as patient as you could expect considering how little we had to go on. Paul was spending the bulk of his time these days back in the tech lab. We met several times a week to go over developments so that when we caught our break we would both be prepared to make the most of it. Meanwhile I was filling time with minor case work here and there, field support for other ongoing cases when necessary, I hadn't had to shoot anyone lately and that is always a good thing. Jimmy was leaving me alone for the most part; he called or bridged me at least once a week just to let me know he hadn't had any more flashes. Sometimes he just let Bob tell me. Bob, now there was a subject I could get into. I was starting to think there may be something to this whole dating thing that Selena had spent so many hours beating me up over. He was the bright spot in my day, week, whatever. He called at least a couple times during the week. We weren't little kids in love, he had no problem giving me my space, but if the truth be known, I missed hearing his voice and on the days he didn't call me, I invariably called him. Amy and I had spent many hours talking about him. In fact, I was thinking of taking him to meet her soon. He was a real gentleman when we went out. Holding my chair, opening my car door; I think there may have been an ulterior motive to walking me to my door, but he hadn't tried to push anything. He was a good kisser and recently it had been hard to get to sleep after he brought me home. If he didn't make a serious move soon I may have to do it myself. The only thing stopping me now was the fear that I may scare him away if I got too aggressive. Rod and Selena invited me over every weekend in hopes that I would bring him. I don't know about Rod but Selena was already picking out names for our children. Actually I do know about Rod. He wanted to know who the hell Bob was. Only my threats of repeating his veiled threats to Selena had kept him from putting a tail on me. At least I assumed it had stopped him, if there was someone tailing me, he or she was pretty damn good because I hadn't spotted them yet. Bob was even helping out where he could. As a coach and a teacher no one thought twice about him attending high school sporting events. We had been to several tournaments over the holidays to watch some of our potential victims and see if anyone in the stands happened to be paying what appeared to be extra attention to any of them. He picked up information from the other coaches whenever he could. It wasn't much, but you never know what seemingly insignificant piece of information will lead to the break you need. And I really needed one. ------- Chapter 51: Valentine's Day There aren't too many Valentine's gifts that work for three people. All the little lockets, hearts and "couples" jewelry were just that, intended for couples. I finally settled on two necklaces. They were the type that had two hearts intertwined, designed for you to break apart and each keep half. The problem was when to give them to the girls? Allison was no problem, and I could have just had Allison give one to Shannon, but that didn't seem right. The problem resolved itself when my mom suggested that the adults go out for a romantic evening of dining and dancing. Mark was still seeing Theresa from his history class; over two months later they were still together, I was impressed. Mark had asked her out for the evening. It's a good thing she drives. Since this left Shannon at home alone, they naturally dropped her at our house. Allison was up to something. As soon as she arrived, Shannon and I were banished to my room for two hours before dinner. We played games, did homework, and took turns wondering what Allison was up to. At 6:00 there was a knock on the door, but when I opened it no one was there. Outside the door was an invitation to dinner. Shirt and tie were required. A separate note told Shannon that a dress was waiting for her in Allison's closet. Shannon kissed me and went down the hall to change. I went to my closet in search of a decent shirt, and then to my parents room to borrow a tie from my dad's closet. Allison was waiting when I came back out. She straightened my tie and kissed me on the cheek. I offered her my arm and we headed down the hall. We picked Shannon up and continued on to the dining room. Two candles lit the table and Allison had gotten permission to use my mother's china. Apparently Allison had saved up her money and then had Mom pickup dinner from one of our better local restaurants on the way home from work. She served the two of us and said she had a plate for herself as well, but that she was eating in the kitchen, a nice dinner together was her gift to us. We even got wine. That surprised me but when I started to say something she raised her hand and said, "Don't ask, don't tell." Dinner was wonderful, and so was Allison, of course we thought she was pretty wonderful all the time. When we were finished she bustled us into the living room and within just a few minutes she had finished cleaning up and joined us. Truthfully it was little overwhelming. "Allison, this was amazing. How did you manage to do all this?" Shannon asked. "I'm glad you liked it. Actually I had help. I mentioned to Mom that I wanted to do something nice for you both. I thought it would be nice to take you out to dinner but then one of them would have had to drive. Mom suggested doing it here. We just can't say anything to anyone else about it. Dad, Tom, and Karen don't know." "You mean your mom knows about..." "No," I interrupted. "In fact she is very careful to not know anything that is going on between us, you and me that is. She really doesn't know about you and Allison." I turned back to Allison, "This really was very nice, sweetie. Thank you." I kissed her on the cheek and then got down on one knee in front of her. "I have something for you, close your eyes." Shannon looked a little nervous but I quickly added, "You too." Allison closed her eyes and asked, "Jimmy, what are you doing?" "Shhh." I reached in my pocket and pulled one of the necklaces. I held it out in my hand between them and said, "Okay, open your eyes." It was a very nice piece and they oohhd and aahhd appropriately. I broke it in half, took the half that said "Love", and reached to put it around Allison's neck. She leaned forward and I clasped it around her neck, carefully moving her silky hair so that it wouldn't get tangled. Shannon reached for the other half, which said "True", and asked, "Is this one for me?" There was no way to even joke about it without risking hurting her feelings so I just said, "No, silly. That's my half." I reached back in my pocket and said, "This one is for you," and I pulled a second, identical necklace out. I heard Allison's breath catch as I broke it in half and this time took the "True" half and extended it towards Shannon. She leaned forward and again I carefully secured the chain. Now each of the girls had one half of a matching set of necklaces. Allison choked a little as she said, "I get it, no matter who we are with, the necklace is complete." Shannon finished the thought, "And if we are all together then both are complete. Jimmy, it's beautiful." She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me close. Allison was right behind her and turned it into a group hug. "Yes, and I get both the other halves, because I need both of you to be complete," I gave them each a squeeze and kissed their cheeks as I said it. Shannon pulled away, "I feel bad. I didn't get you guys anything." I kissed her hand, looked into her eyes and said, "I don't need a gift from you, Shannon. Having you in my life is all the gift I could ever want." Tears were now leaking down Allison's cheek, but she did manage to choke out, "Me too." Then she hugged us both again. The natural temptation to run back to my room and start tearing each other's clothes off was very hard to resist. But it was still a school night and we had no idea how long the 'rents would be out. We changed back to regular clothes and sat on the couch together to watch a movie. Somewhere in the middle of "Somewhere in Time," we all dozed off. I woke to the sound of the front door opening. The girls were still asleep. Allison's head on my shoulder and Shannon's in my lap. Any other time it would have at least been worthy of a joke, but not tonight. I helped Shannon out to the car and then went back for Allison. Minutes later we were snuggled together fast asleep. I fell asleep thinking how much nicer it would have been if Shannon had been able to stay. It's a good thing the evening had gone well, because the night went down hill from there. A mixed blessing if there ever was one. On the bad side, I guess I should have known things were going too well. On the good side, that was the night we got our first real break. Darkness; cold and darkness were everywhere. A flash like lightening split the blackness, an instant of light, which left an impression burned on the retina. But there was no thunder. I searched for meaning in the patterns of color it briefly revealed. Were those people? A street? From a new direction the flash again tore away the veil of night. The colors were different this time. Not so bright, motion and glimpses of blue and white. Before I could define them it came again. This time in the same spot, but lightening didn't strike the same spot twice, did it? The colors were the same but somehow something was different. I was in a dream, I had to be. My last memory was crawling into bed and the warm feel of my sister's body pressed against mine; her warm breath on my neck, one hand draped across my chest, my own arm protectively around her shoulder. But where was I now? Another flash, a pattern of colors that I felt I should know. This was not my room and Allison was not here with me. It was a dream. But where was I? It didn't matter, it was a dream and dreams are my own special world. With a thought the cold no longer mattered. Though I felt no floor, I arranged myself tailor-fashion and assumed a relaxed, meditative pose. Closing my eyes I opened other senses, dreams are great for this sort of thing, and "saw" in 360. I waited. Shortly there was another flash and I froze the lightning in mid-strike. It was not truly lightning. More like a tear in the fabric of the darkness. I held the tear open and looked through. Daylight warmed a baseball diamond. I was in the stands at a softball game. Before I could find more detail the tear closed. I felt the edges being pushed together. I had not stopped the scene, merely slowed it down. I waited again. Another tear, I was at a small outdoor table, across the street was another, similar restaurant. A number of people were dining but the two girls drew my attention. The dark haired one was not important, but the blonde... The tear was sealed again. I was driving a car, following someone but before I could figure out which car I was supposed to be watching it was gone. Snatches of visions came and went; none lasted long enough to do more than tease my awareness. On and on it went and my frustration mounted. Not all the scenes were light. Some are nearly as dark as the blackness I sat in. I held one of the dark scenes tightly, forcing the darkness back as I struggled for some meaning. Movement. It was a window, and beyond the glass someone was stirring. A girl rose and moved to a door across the room. White panties contrasted to her darker skin. A light flared and in the flash I glimpsed her tan breasts before she closed the door. Time jumped, and the door opened again. She reached for the light and I knew; suddenly I knew where I was. Knew without a doubt, because after she turned out the light, Maria Pena climbed back into bed, hugged an over-sized stuffed bunny and drifted back to sleep. I jerked upright, no longer sitting in the cloying darkness. It was lighter and I realized I was back in my room. Allison stirred beside me; the sudden movement dislodged her arm and woke her. "What's the matter?" she asked in a sleepy tone. I glanced at the clock and it was almost 3:30. Dreamtime is subjective but I'd been asleep for over five hours. I lay back down and Allison arranged herself once more against me. The warmth of her flesh brought a comforting sense of peace and closeness. I lay awake in the twilight of my bedroom and thought about the images I had seen. Before I could make any sense of them sleep claimed me once more. The alarm sounded and I once more jerked awake. I almost never slept all the way to the alarm. Allison groaned as I hit the button and the sound cut off. I rose and tucked the covers around her. She snuggled into my recently vacated warm spot and, eyes still closed, reached with her mouth for the kiss she knew was coming. I kissed her lightly and stroked her hair before picking up my running clothes and heading off to the bathroom. Five miles later I still hadn't come to any conclusions. I needed to talk to someone. But what could I tell them? It was just the same thing over again, wasn't it? What was different? The images were the same as before, they just weren't bundled together in convenient little film strips. I wasn't in the theater reliving... suddenly, it came to me; they weren't the same. I wasn't in the theater, some of the scenes were new... , and I had not felt them. There were no emotions accompanying the flashes. The scene at the window had not been the same as the scene from the theater. In that scene no one had moved. It had just been him looking through, presumably, Maria's bedroom window. There had been no mostly naked girl standing framed in a lighted doorway, and tonight, the girls had all still been alive. No images of torture or violence of any kind. These were all new images, similar to the first set, but not the same. Allison lay quietly watching as I got dressed. Something in the look must have caught her eye. "What's wrong?" she asked, one hand playing with the new chain around her neck. I moved over and sat on the edge of the bed staring down at her. "I'm not sure. I had a dream but I'm not sure what it means." "I had a dream too," she said with a naughty smile. "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." "Mine had images of dead girls." That changed everything. Suddenly she sat up in bed, the sheet fell down revealing the most beautiful... I broke the momentary trance, forcing my eyes away and back to her face, which had gone white. "Was it the same as before? Is there another girl?" "No, this was different. I wasn't in the theater, and no one died." I began to describe what I had seen. I was about half way through when a knock came on the door and a voice said, "You two better get moving." Allison glanced at the clock and suddenly she was a blur of motion, "Oh my god, I've got to get in the shower or I'm going to miss the bus." She kissed my cheek and bolted for the door, calling back, "Talk to Bob, let me know what he says." I had already come to the conclusion that I needed to talk to Bob. From there I would decide if I needed to bother Rebecca. I grabbed up my scattered homework and stuffed it and my books all into my backpack, and headed down the hall to get some breakfast. Mom was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a plate of toast. "Talk to Bob about what?" she asked. I poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat down. "I had a dream," I said, as I reached for a piece of toast, "not sure what to think about it." She paled. "Not another one." "No, nobody died, if that's what you mean. Just random images, mostly, it took me a long time to realize what I was seeing. Anyway, I was telling Allison about it when you knocked. Good thing, too, or we'd both be late. Thanks." "You're welcome, dear. So this isn't anything I need to worry about? You're not going to try and run the marathon before school again?" I chuckled. "No, nothing like that. I'd come to you and Dad before that happened." "More likely you'd go to your sister," she answered. "How was dinner?" "It was great. We all had a wonderful time, thanks, how was yours?" "Don't thank me, all I did was make a couple phone calls and spend your sister's money, it was her idea. I'm glad you enjoyed it though. Ours was good too. I don't think we'll be doing that in the middle of the week again soon though. I feel like I need to go back to bed." I glanced at the clock; time to go. I stood up and kissed her on the cheek. "Gotta run; I'll see you tonight." I caught up with Bob, Susan, and Melinda at break. I thought Bob looked particularly chipper this morning and I had a suspicion as to the reason but I decided to just leave it alone. Susan sat quietly sipping a cup of coffee. She didn't look like her usual self. Her eyes had an almost haunted look about them. Melinda had a slightly embarrassed look on her face. Probably had something to do with the hickey on the side of her neck. That I just couldn't pass up. "New curling iron?" I asked. Susan spit coffee across the table, Bob roared with laughter, and while Mel's look probably wouldn't have killed me, I'm pretty sure it had serious bodily injury in there somewhere. She couldn't keep it up. "Asshole," she said, shoving my arm hard enough to almost knock me off the bench. But she was laughing with the rest of us. "Thank you, Jimmy," Susan said as she wiped coffee off of her chin and began toweling up the mess on the table with napkins, "I needed that." "Me too," said Bob. "I hadn't figured out a way to bring it up without getting killed. Do anything special for Valentine's day?" "Just dinner at home with Allison and Shannon, Mark had a date and the parents all went out, so it was just the three of us. How about you? Did you and Rebecca do anything special?" I don't think I'd ever seen Bob blush before. Melinda was all over him. "So that's why you look so smug and happy this morning; you sly old fox you," she said. Susan just asked, "Who's Rebecca?" She poked her finger hard in his arm. "And how come Jimmy knows about her and we don't?" Oops! I hadn't realized that I was the only one who knew. Bob threw me a look. "Thanks a lot, pal. What ever happened to confidentiality?" "Hey, who's the patient here? You never said anything about me not talking about you, just the other way around. I don't blame you for keeping her a secret though. I don't think she's Susan's type, but a woman like Rebecca, coach here might be tempted." I glanced meaningfully at Mel's neck again. "Nah, probably not." "You miserable little..." She reached a hand to tickle me but I dodged away and slid a little further over. "I am going to rip your arms off, Matthews, right after I kill Lynn. I haven't been this embarrassed since I was your age. I've been getting 'point and giggle' from half the girls in my morning classes. Some of the others were even worse. I just can't wait for basketball practice," she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm and rolling her eyes. Then she stood up and said, "Almost time for the bell, maybe I can put a little cover-up on and tone it down a bit." "No, don't hide it, it's a battle scar, wear it proudly," Bob said, he stood suddenly and held out his empty cup, "to Melinda Jenkins, who fought bravely in the face of overwhelming odds." "There, you see," I said, "we're all proud of you, coach. At least I am, and I'm sure you gave it your best and went down fighting." Susan gasped, blushed and slapped her hand over her mouth. Bob burst out laughing again and Melinda turned beet red before moving in to attack my ribs, tickling me hard. "All right, that does it! I've had about all I'm going to take from you, Matthews." Being trapped with my feet under the stone table I was at a serious disadvantage. I struggled but she's a grown woman in really good shape and my ribs were in serious trouble. Fortunately I was rescued by my guardian angel. "Is there a problem here, coach?" Mr. Dennis's voice asked. "No, Steve, no problem. Just minor disciplinary action with our resident wise ass here," she replied. "Good. As long as you have the situation in hand I'll get back to work," he said. "When you're done though, you may want to see the nurse about your neck." That did it. She released me and rounded on him, blushing furiously again. Bob and Susan were in hysterics once more. You could see in her face that she wanted to explode, but the whole thing was just too much. She stood frozen for a second, finger poised like a mother scolding her child. Her face looked like she was about to do one of those werewolf transformations you see in the movies. Muscles jumped and twitched as she fought not to smile. It was a valiant effort, but a vain effort none the less. Eventually the smile won out and then she could no longer contain the giggles. "I am so going to kill her when I get home. See you guys at lunch." Mr. Dennis gave vent to a huge sigh of relief. "That was close, for a second I thought I was a goner. You guys must have really been working her over before I got here." Bob just smiled and pointed the finger of blame at me. "He started it. Susan and I were just sitting here minding our own business, honest. Then he showed up and started causing trouble." I was starting to feel picked on about then, this time Susan rescued me, "Speaking of causing trouble, who's Rebecca?" Bob suddenly looked like a rabbit caught in the middle of a field when a hawk's shadow passes over. Before he could answer he was quite literally saved by the bell. "Well, gotta go, inquiring minds and all that. See you guys later. Jimmy, did you need to see me for something at lunch?" I nodded. "Susan, we'll have to catch that one later." To tell the truth, most of my classes were getting pretty boring. Since Allison had discovered the benefits of studying in dream time I was acing all my classes except Spanish. I was still holding a strong B though, so I wasn't concerned. Bob and I met at a table farther out from the crowd for lunch. I looked around while I was waiting for him and noticed there seemed to be a lot more students eating with teachers these days. One of the history teachers was at a table with seven students and if I wasn't mistaken those were decks of "Magic" cards they had. Almost everyone shook hands as they came together. Well, mostly they shook hands with the teachers; teenage greetings ran more toward the hi-five, thumbs up, head-bob-how-ya-doin' stuff. But still, it was progress from the first of the year. Off to one side I saw two guys hi-fiving one of the "goonies" as they passed him going the other way. I was just starting on my lunch when Bob showed up. We shook hands and he settled himself across the small table. "Do you realize how much trouble you got me in this morning?" he asked. He was trying to sound serious but I wasn't buying it for a second. "Trouble? Moi? I have no idea what you're talking about? Have you been keeping secrets from your friends again, Robert? Shame on you, young man. Is that why you're late? Susan ambushed you outside your classroom?" "No, that would have been fun. Disciplinary issue, another student, so I can't talk about it. So what's up? What did you need to talk about?" I described the strange dream I'd had and my realization that the images were different. Bob sat and listened through the whole thing before asking questions. "So the images were similar, but not the images that you saw in the original viewings?" "Right, they were all different. At least I think they were. I mean, some were close but it wasn't until Maria Pena got up and walked to the bathroom that I realized they weren't the same. Up to that point I thought I was just having an unusual dream about the event. But then I realized that they were similar to what I had seen but not quite the same." "Was there any emotion this time?" "No, just the images." "And a lot of darkness? Like you were sitting in a dark room and someone was opening windows?" "Yeah, or maybe like I was the only person in a sports bar late at night and someone was channel surfing by turning on different TV sets." "Okay, I have an idea what it may be, but I don't want to talk about it until I know more. When you get the chance, tonight, tomorrow night, whenever but as soon as you have the opportunity, I want you to write down everything you remember in as much detail as possible. If it happens again, see if you can bring me to you. If you can't, don't worry about it, but either way, I want you to write it all out immediately, before you come to see me. I want as much detail as you can get." "Sure, okay. Do you think I should tell Rebecca about it?" "Yes, I don't think it will mean anything to her either but tell her anyway. You and I aren't qualified to judge what details may or may not be important to a case. What seems inconsequential to us may mean something to her. If there is one thing I've learned talking to her the last few months it's that you never know what is going to be the clue that breaks a case." "Okay, do you think I should wait and bridge her tonight? Or should I call her?" He looked at his watch. "I'd say call her now. If nothing else it would help justify her spending all the time, energy, and tax money getting you that phone." I fished the phone out of my back pack and turned it on. I kept it powered down since there was no possibility it was going to ring anyway. I hit the speed dial for Rebecca's phone and waited. The familiar voice answered, "Hampton." "Rebecca? Hi, it's Jimmy. Are you busy? Am I interrupting anything?" "Nothing so important it can't wait. What's up?" "I had another dream last night, but don't worry, it wasn't a new murder, just some new images. I talked to Bob about it and he said I should call you and let you know." "New images, but of the same girls, what was different about the images?" "I think it was different images of him stalking them. I didn't even realize they were different until the end. You remember the scene of him looking in Maria Pena's window?" "Yeah, what about it?" "I thought at first it was the same image but then she got up and walked to the bathroom." "I don't suppose you noticed if there was a reflection this time?" "I don't think so, but at the time I was struggling just keeping the scene steady so I could see what was going on." "What do you mean?" "It's hard to describe, it was all new and I had to do things differently to control it." "Okay, let me know if you come up with anything. Is Bob there with you?" "Yeah, he's right here, here." I handed the phone to Bob. I only got to hear one side of the conversation from that point. "Hello. Well thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it; I had a good time too. It's your turn to pick the place next time. Sure, anything would be fine as long as you are going to be there. No really, just tell me when and where. I look forward to it. Did you need to talk to Jimmy again? No, okay then I'll talk to you later." He closed the phone and handed it back to me. I just smiled, turned it off and put it away. He wasn't talking but the blush that was creeping up his neck said plenty. The afternoon classes passed quickly and then it was time to talk to Allison. As usual she sat quietly through the whole story. What was unusual was that she didn't really have any comments or suggestions afterward. She sat quietly for a few seconds then got up and paced over to look out the window before she spoke, "As disjointed as everything was, it sounds more like you were bridging him directly rather than through memory, and that's encouraging. If you can reach him, maybe you can find something that will help us catch him. That's the good news." "And the bad news?" I asked "I don't want to go there yet. I have an idea but I want to wait for now. If you have any more dreams like that, bridge me or wake me up when it's over." "It's going to get awfully crowded in there. Bob wants me to bring him in next time too. Do you have any idea what he's thinking?" "I don't want to say -- maybe, but I think we should let him decide when to bring it up. Either way, just let me know what you see as soon as you can." She paused again. "Jimmy, promise me something." "What?" "Promise me you won't try to do anything if you get in. I mean if you get all the way into this guy's dreams, promise me you will just stay invisible and observe and talk to everyone, me, Bob, and Rebecca, but that you won't try to do anything else by yourself. Will you promise me that, Jimmy?" I had to stop and think. "That's asking a lot. What if I see a chance to stop him? What if he's about to hurt someone again? Do you want me to just stand there and let it happen?" "Jimmy, it will just be a dream. At most he may be thinking about doing something, and you can see the plan and maybe who it is and tell Rebecca and she can stop him. Or it will be something he has already done and you can't do anything about it. So yes, I want you to just stand back and let it happen, or leave, or turn away, or whatever else you have to do. But don't try to stop him by yourself. Please, Jimmy?" I could see moisture gathering in her eyes as she whispered, "Promise me." I stood and went to her, took her into my arms as she began to cry. Allison doesn't cry often. I stroked her back and held her to me, kissed her hair and said, "I promise." It was almost a week before the strange dream came again. Don't get me wrong, it's not like all my dreams every night were playtime with the girls or anything. I had interesting things happening all the time. The recurring dream of the girl in the closet was the most frustrating. There were variations on the theme, but at least once a week I had a dream of the young girl being beaten, raped, or both by the man who should have given his life to protect her. I tried to move around and find a way to identify the location or the people but it never worked. I had been right when I told Bob that this was a memory and not a dream. It was a memory and I couldn't change it; maybe some day, but not now. There were all sorts of things involving people from school, mostly romantic fantasies with the occasional adventures thrown in. Hey, they're teenagers, what else is on their minds? Fortunately I was just an observer on these and I generally left once it became obvious that there was no real reason for me to be there. They were just people I had met who happened to be in a heightened state and somehow drew my attention. Most weren't serious; but a few caught my attention. Apparently one of the senior girls was developing a pretty serious crush on Coach Jenkins, and it had evolved into some pretty graphic sexual fantasies. I took over Melinda's character one time to make sure things weren't going in a bad direction. "You do understand we can never really be together, don't you?" I asked the dark haired girl. "You're a student and even if you weren't, you know I could never leave Lynn." Tears welled in the girl's eyes; I took her in Melinda's arms and stroked her hair, "Don't cry. It doesn't mean you're not important to me, it just means that I'm not the one for you. There will be someone out there for you. In fact, she's out there right now, probably wondering where the hell you are. Just be patient." The girl sobbed gently against my/our chest. "But I want you." I pushed her back to arms length and said, "Look at me. Are you listening? You don't want me. You deserve someone who loves you. We all do. I have already found my life partner." She started to cry again so I gave her a slight shake for emphasis and said, "Stop that, right now! If I were the type who could up and walk away from the love I have with Lynn, how could I possibly be worthy of your love? This is a fantasy, nothing more. You want, and you deserve, someone who loves you, nothing less, and you will find them someday. Now stop this nonsense or I'm leaving." She took a deep shuddering breath, let it out in a big sigh, wiped her eyes and answered, "You're right. I know you could never leave Miss Stewart, and it's wrong for me to want you to, and I probably wouldn't want you if you did, not really. It's all just a school girl crush. I need to move on, but, do you think we could... you know, just one more time before you, before I... let you go." I moved in close, kissed her passionately, and then left as soon as things started to escalate. I doubt if she even noticed the change. It finally happened as the girls and I were relaxing in the glade following an intensive session of volleyball practice. The girls had both tried out for, and made the team at school. The coaches were thrilled with how far they had come in such a short while. Of course they had help; tonight we had been playing three on two against two women from the professional beach volleyball circuit, rotating the teams and being coached by the two women, when I felt a tug. Allison noticed my reaction. "What's up?" She asked. "I'm not sure." I shifted us from her glade to mine. Her ring dutifully disappeared while mine stayed on my finger. "Wait here." I got up, opened the door and stepped through into total darkness. I pulled out my cell phone and punched the speed dial for Rebecca. Now that Bob and Rebecca's relationship seemed to be getting more serious I didn't want to take the chance on walking in on them or anything so I always called before I did anything. "Jimmy?" asked the sleepy voice on the other end. "Hi, Rebecca, are you free right now?" "Well, yeah. I mean I was asleep but..." "Actually you're still asleep. It's happening again. If you could put something on, I want to bring you in. Do you need a minute?" "No, I've been practicing, give me a sec, okay, I'm ready." I put the phone away and opened the door to let her in. I was impressed, her bed was actually made and there was no sign that she had just changed clothes. I closed the door and was about to try to reach Bob or the girls when I sensed something change. I knew that if I opened the door again, this opportunity was going to be lost. I took a few steps into the emptiness and settled myself in a meditative position. In my head a recorder clicked on and I waited. We didn't have to wait long as almost immediately a scene formed in the blackness. I knew instantly that it was different this time because the image seemed clearer, stronger, more real somehow. Also, it followed the analogy of a television in a sports bar more closely as the image was very clearly defined. Not so much a tear in the darkness as a picture on the wall of a dark basement. The images were just as varied as before but this time he was clearly stalking the girls. There were several images of the girls involved in various activities; Maria Pena's car pulling into the parking lot of the gym he would eventually kidnap her from; Diane McKenzie's car parked at the mall she worked at, Amanda Watkins had apparently worked nights at a theater. Other scenes of the three girls and every scene showed him checking his watch and writing down the time. The scenes changed and soon I was looking at random shots of the three girls involved in various sex acts. Maria Pena going down on a guy in the front seat of her car; Diane McKenzie at a sex party, naked people everywhere around a very large pool, Diane was bouncing on one guys lap while alternately sucking off two guys standing in front of her. Both scenes had obviously been viewed from quite a distance away. The most disturbing image was of the Watkins girl, lying naked on what appeared to be a large ottoman. A man was kneeling between her legs, pounding himself into her. Another man was holding her head back over the edge of the ottoman and forcing himself repeatedly down her throat. All the while she laid very still, hands at her sides, making no effort to participate in or to stop the assault on her body. Never even flinching as the men alternately pinched, squeezed and sometimes slapped her breasts. What disturbed me most was that this scene was indoors and appeared to have been taken at close range from a point behind and to the side of the man raping her mouth. There was no other word for it. She may not have been fighting back but I somehow knew that this was not a consensual act on her part. She just didn't have a choice and she knew it, this was going to happen and her only choice was to let it. The fact that she never once gagged at the man's intrusion said clearly this was not the first time it had happened. How had the killer gotten so close? Had it been someone she knew? When the scenes started repeating themselves we simply stood and walked out. We exited into Rebecca's apartment. I noticed she'd redecorated but this was hardly the time to bring it up. "What do you think?" I asked. "I'm not sure yet. It gives me confirmation of something I already suspected but that's about all. I knew there was something going on with Amanda, but this... Jimmy, the man in her mouth was her father." She stopped to let that sink in and a cold chill crawled up my spine. "I need to think about this. Thanks for calling me, I'll get in touch when I've got a better idea how this fits. Come and get me if it happens again." I headed back to the glade where the Allison and Shannon were doing some simple passing exercises with a volleyball, apparently waiting for me to return. Shannon spotted me almost immediately and just walked away towards me, the ball, now in mid air between them just vanished and Allison was right behind her. Both girls were watching my face intently. "It's okay," I assured them, "no one new died. I tried to come back for you but by the time I got Rebecca it was too late to bring anyone else in." "Do you want to talk about it?" Allison asked. "Not tonight. I think for tonight I just want to find a quiet place so I can write the details down. I promised Bob I would write it all out. I sort of recorded it but it does stick with you better if you write it out." I took us to the beach, set up a comfortable desk for myself under the little awning that had been there since my first visit and wrote out what I had seen. ------- Chapter 52: There Has to be a Way Rebecca We were stuck, dead in the water, up the proverbial creek without a paddle. I'd been going over and over the images Jimmy had shown me. The working hypothesis was still that the killer liked young, athletic, naughty girls. The gaping hole in that hypothesis had been Amanda Watkins; now I knew the truth, thanks to Jimmy I finally had the confirmation I needed to pin the sex button on my killer. Unfortunately, I couldn't use it as there was no supporting evidence of any kind. No real, physical evidence I could wave around and point to, and without a bona fide lead I couldn't take the investigation down that path. Frank Watkins was my problem. I was convinced Samantha knew something. Irene Watkins probably knew more but if what I suspected were true, then I doubted that anything could get her to talk. It was a circular puzzle. With Irene's knowledge I could probably lock the husband in a pit somewhere but unless or until he was safely locked away, she would never talk. At six, Rachel would be of no help, which left me back with Samantha as my only possible source; if I could only get her to talk... but how? It seemed like an impossible situation. The higher ups in Washington had been turning the heat up on Rod to come up with some answers. You know what they say about things rolling down hill... I needed a break and I needed it bad. I needed to get that girl alone so I could talk to her. Yeah, in my dreams. Whoa! Back up! What did you just... ? Maybe that was the answer. Could he do it? I checked my watch, 11:30am; damn I wouldn't even be able to ask him for hours. Then I had a thought. I was not sure just how safe my office phone was at the moment. Rod can be a little overprotective at times and between his curiosity over Bob, and his fears about my source, I wouldn't put it past him to have it tapped. I placed a quick call to the deli on the corner and posted myself as out to lunch. As soon as I was out of the building I called Bob on my cell phone. Ah, the joys of having a secure cell phone. I knew of about three people who may be able to tap it without setting up shop in a cell tower and waiting for me to route a call through it. Dillon would never consider it, not my phone anyway, Jesus Escobar-Ortiz was behind bars and Paul was my partner. Okay, that didn't make him one hundred percent safe but I doubt if Rod would ask him for fear he might tell me. Bob's number began ringing. I didn't expect him to answer since he was in class, but I knew he kept the phone in his desk drawer and checked it for messages before break and lunch, and once again after his last class. "Bob, it's Rebecca. I need to talk to Jimmy, it's not an emergency but it'll keep me up tonight if I don't talk to him sooner. Ask him to give me a call as soon as he can. Thanks." I hung up and thought some more about what I had in mind. I don't know how I got all the way to the deli and back without walking into someone. I was just walking into my office again when my cell phone went off. "Please let it be him." I prayed before answering, "Hampton." "Rebecca, it's Jimmy, Bob said you needed something." I mouthed a silent thank you to God, before I answered. Hey, I prayed, and it was him, maybe it was him anyway but then again, it never hurts to give the Big Guy his due. "Hey Jimmy, thanks for calling back. It's nothing serious, just an idea I had. Are you somewhere you can talk?" "Yes." "I'm pretty much dead in the water. I don't have anything concrete I can use to tie the girls' sex lives to the killer's profile. We have confirmation of McKenzie and Pena, but old man Watkins is stonewalling. I think the sister would talk if I could get her alone but there's no way he's going to let that happen. Even then it's just a piece of the puzzle. I don't know that it's really going to help move the case along, but something about all this bugs me and I had a thought. Do you think you can, what do you call it, "bridge" her?" The line was quiet for a time before he answered, "I don't know. I've never intentionally bridged a stranger before. It's almost always someone I've met." A little ray of hope, and I jumped on it, "Almost always?" "Well, besides you I can only think of one other time I've seen someone I don't already know." "Who was that?" "I still don't know." "Oh. In my case you had help. Do you think someone is 'helping' with this other one?" "No, I don't think so, it's totally different." "So it's possible?" Again the line was silent for a few seconds. "I just don't know. But let's assume that it will work, what do you have in mind." "I want to talk to Samantha, that's her sister, about Amanda's sex life. We both know there was some serious shit going on. I need a reason to point the investigation in that direction, even if it ends up not helping with this case; I want a reason to look into what is going on. There are still two girls living in that house, they could be in danger. I want..." He cut me off. "Stop. You don't need to explain further. I saw what her father was doing to her. It didn't look forced but it didn't look voluntary either. Inevitable is more like it. I'll help any way I can. How do you want to approach it?" "I'm not really sure; everything rides on you being able to do it, but I figured it was the best shot we had." "Okay then, we'll assume I can do it. Give some thought to how you want to approach her. I think we need to ask Bob about this, if she is being abused then we have to be very, very careful with what we do or say to her. I'll talk to Shannon and Allison and see if they have any ideas. They're a lot closer to her age so they may be able to see things we don't. I'll gather everybody in Bob's office for a little brainstorming session." "Jimmy, I specialize in sex crimes, you don't need to explain the dangers to me. And while he is a professional, I probably know more about this than Bob does. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem consulting with him or having him in on what we are doing, but... well, I'm sure you know what I'm saying. The rest sounds good but can we go to the beach instead?" He laughed and said, "I thought we were supposed to be working? I don't know if Bob is ready for you in a bathing suit yet. We may not get much out of him?" He laughed some more. "Wow, I never knew you could actually hear someone blush before." There was more laughter. Damn him, he was right, I'd felt the heat start creeping up my neck and into my face as soon as he mentioned it. "Smart ass. You know, one of these days I'm not going to need you any more and we're going to have a little talk, just the two of us. What I was thinking was that maybe when we were done I could leave and you could spend some time playing with Amy." He was still laughing but it was tapering off. "Yeah, sure you were." I couldn't keep a chuckle out of my voice, "Yeah, see you tonight." Then I said more seriously, "Thanks, Jimmy." "You don't need to thank me, Rebecca. You know I'll do whatever I can to help. And even if it's not going to help this case, those girls have gone through enough already losing a sister, he should be protecting them, not..." It was my turn to cut him off, "Yeah, I know, I feel the same way. See you tonight." I hung up and sat contemplating our options. Jimmy was right; if what I suspected was true, we had to be careful not to hurt the girl we were trying to help. Jimmy I put the phone away and went in search of Bob. I had been in the grassy area out by the gym. It wasn't empty but there weren't too many people, just enough that no one was going to be paying much attention to me. As I started to walk away something hit me in the back. I turned to find a large guy jogging towards me, following his gaze I saw the football that had hit me. "Sorry about that," he offered. "You'd think a quarterback would have a little more control." I looked beyond him to see Brad Russell watching the scene unfold. I picked up the ball and handed it back to the player coming towards me, "You're Neskie aren't you? Uhm, let me think, outside linebacker, but you also play fullback." I could see the mixture of shock and gratification settle into his eyes. Nothing boosts the ego like a little unexpected recognition. I held out my hand. "Edward Matthews. Weren't you up for All-League?" I said, as I handed him the ball. "Pat Neskie," he replied as he shook my hand. "I had a shot at League MVP too, but when the guy you're up against is on a winning team and you're not, it's hard to get the nod. They couldn't very well give me All-League when Conroy's team beat us both times we played them. Sorry about the stray shot." "Don't worry about it, kind of explains why our offense fell apart at the end of the season." He laughed and said, "Nice to meet you, Edward. See you around." He jogged back over to where Brad was standing and handed them the ball, I guess he repeated my comment because suddenly Brad was staring daggers at me. I saw his eyes flick to my left, following his gaze I saw one of the goonies standing with a group of girls, talking and keeping an eye on the field. If she hadn't been there I think Brad may have tried to do something. I looked him in the eye, nodded, and walked away. I swear I could hear his teeth grind. There wasn't much time left to talk to Bob. Not that it mattered as the ladies were having lunch with him anyway. I picked up a milkshake at the snack bar and sat down with them for the rest of our time. We chatted about nothing for the remainder of lunch and then headed off to class. Once we were alone, Bob asked, "Everything okay? Rebecca sounded like it was urgent." "She wants me to try and bridge Samantha Watkins." "Who?" "Amanda Watkins' younger sister." "What for? Does she think she knows something she's not telling?" "Not being allowed to tell is more like it. Amanda's father swears she was not sexually active but obviously we know better. Rebecca wants a reason to use that information. It's a piece of the puzzle that doesn't fit into her pattern for the killer. I don't know exactly what she can do with it, but I assume she has her reasons. She thinks there is more going on and that the other daughters may be in danger of, or already be, being abused as well. From what we saw of Amanda, she'd been being used for a long time, and not just by her father, there were two men in the scene we saw." "So you don't think what we saw may have been voluntary?" "No way, more like inevitable." "What do you mean?" "Well, you couldn't see her face real well, but from what you could see, plus body language, I got the feeling that this was going to happen whether she wanted it to or not and she had no say in the matter. I'd say this sort of thing had been happening for a long time. She had no resistance left; she was totally submissive to whatever happened." I paused before continuing, a new thought was working it's way through my head. "I think that may be why he killed her quicker than the other girls. He would have killed her anyway, but I don't think she cared. It's weird; she was like two people. You know there's a thought; do you think she could have been schizoid, Bob?" "What do you mean? Scratch that, I know what you mean; a little surprised you knew the word. You been studying with someone else behind my back? Never mind, I want you to explain what you are thinking to me. Give me your rationale." "Well, I just suddenly wondered if she had a place she went to hide when this happened. During the day, at school, she was normal, on the basketball court, she was aggressive, competitive, all of the things the killer wanted. When she was in a sexual situation, she hid. She somehow went away and left her body behind. I mean, I only saw the one scene in this latest dream, but she wasn't participating, it was just her body. I don't know, it's hard to explain, and it's not like she was totally gone, the expression on her face said she was aware." I paused to consider that for a second, then said, "Nope, doesn't work. It was her. If she went away, whoever she left behind would not have reacted that way." "Pretty good," Bob said. "Wrong, but still pretty good. I think you may be onto something, and I certainly wouldn't discount the possibility. As far as the facial expression, whoever she left in her place to take the abuse would be there to let her hide. She would not have left someone who could be caught protecting her. The replacement persona would have to be convincing enough to fool her father. Because if she got caught I suspect it would have been bad, very bad. If she was so desperate to get away then she would have made sure she couldn't get caught. Good analysis. So what now?" "I need ideas for how to approach Samantha. How to get her to tell us what is going on, what happened to her sister, and maybe what's happening to her. But we have to be careful. Society has taken serious steps to give people, particularly kids, a way to escape situations like this. Teachers, counselors, coaches, friends; there were a lot of people in Amanda's life she should have been able to go to. Why didn't she use them? This girl was a fighter; you can see it in every other part of her life except this one. What could have scared her enough to keep her quiet? If the same thing is happening to Samantha then we have to make sure we don't put her in danger. After all, the same safe guards are in place for her, if she is being abused and she's not taking advantage of them then there is a reason. We have to make sure she knows that she is safe or she won't talk to us at all." "You just keep getting better at this. I'll give it some thought and see what I can come up with by tonight." As usual I couldn't wait to see Allison when I got home, but today there was more to it. The upcoming situation with Samantha Watkins was weighing heavily on my mind. Frankly, I was scared. Scared to the point that I almost wished it couldn't be done, that I couldn't bridge someone that I'd never met. Fortunately I was more scared of what might be happening to this girl. I wanted to say little girl but she was older than I was -- okay, not by much, but she was not a little kid either. My anxiety must have been bleeding into other things because as soon as I hugged Allison, she knew something was wrong. It might have been that whole subconscious projection thing she had talked about. I think it was just that I didn't want to let go. "Jimmy," she said, as she held me, "what's wrong?" She hugged me a little tighter and kissed my neck, "Talk to me." I pulled back and let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "I love you." "And?" "Sit down; this is going to take a while." I carefully went though everything I knew. I explained about Rebecca's interview with the Watkins family and her suspicions of what might be going on. Her need to be able to use the information on Amanda's sex life as a building block for the killer's profile, to justify the need to search down some different lines. Everything I could think of, and, finally, my apprehension at trying to get Samantha to open up to us by invading her dreams. Not so much the necessity because I saw it as a pretty clear case of the ends justifying the means, within certain limits. I didn't want to take a chance with her safety and I certainly didn't want to risk her mental health either. I could just barge in and interrogate her if all I cared about was the information. The question was how to get her to open up voluntarily. "You need more information," she finally said. "I just spent half an hour saying that." "No, no. You need more information about her. You need to study her." "How?" "Jimmy, you're not thinking. You've let all this cloud the obvious. If Rebecca were here she would get it immediately. You need to go into her dreams as an observer and study her. It's a bad analogy but it works for this situation; you can't form an effective battle plan without good intelligence. You need to see where she is and where she is going before you can even think about steering her in any kind of direction. Do you think you can get everyone together tonight while you're invisible? Not just invisible but actually in 'observer mode?'" "I have no idea. It never would have occurred to me to try." "That's okay, here's the really hard part. Do you think you can do it with me there invisibly as well?" "You? Why would you want to be invisible?" I asked. "To see if you can do it. I want to find out how much control you have in 'observer' mode, and I want to know if you can take me along with you into someone else's dream to observe with you." "You have an idea?" "Maybe, it depends on whether or not this works. Tell you what, let's try this tonight; see if you can take me to Bob's office without him knowing we are there. Then we'll leave and go back in, only then I want to see if you can just hide me. I don't want to go in by myself because Bob would immediately recognize what is going on. He would know that if I'm there, you have to be. I don't think we need to let everyone know what you can do all the time. So for now, let's just see if it works and then we'll go on from there, okay?" "You're the boss. It certainly can't hurt to try." The evening proceeded in the time honored fashion. Homework, dinner, dishes, a little relaxation time reading or watching television and then it was time for bed. For some reason I had anticipated Allison wanting to sleep with me for this experiment, but she quickly shot that idea down. "As much as I love falling asleep on you, I don't want to take the chance that physical contact may alter the situation. If this works you may someday need to do it when we're not together, we need to be sure that it will work that way. Have you ever been in "observer mode" on purpose before?" I had to stop and think about that, "On purpose? Wow, that's a tough one. I don't know that I have done it on purpose." "One more thing we'll learn tonight. Kiss me." I kissed her goodnight and reluctantly watched her walk away. It wasn't like we slept together every night, why should this night feel different? I turned and headed for my own bed, ran through what I remembered about my social studies lecture and was out in no time. Man that class is boring. ------- Chapter 53: This should be Interesting Allison had brought up some interesting questions. Looking at it now there was a lot we still didn't know just because we hadn't really been making any effort to study and discover what I could do. Somewhere along the line we had stopped trying new things. What she was asking seemed like very simple and basic things. I made a mental note to talk to her and Bob about setting aside some time to discover things like this. Shannon may have some insight as well. I didn't want to involve Rebecca in this. I trusted her but I didn't think that it was important that she know everything I was capable of. The less she knew the less chance of a conflict later if someone higher up ever discovered what was going on. Start simple; could I be an observer on purpose? I thought of the glade but pictured it without me in it. The scene took shape around me. Allison was already there, sitting patiently on the blanket making notes on her tablet PC. I thought about reading over her shoulder and suddenly I was. I looked at the tablet to see what she was writing. Jimmy, if you are here then we now know that you can observe on purpose. I'd like to see how far this goes, so to start with, see if you can touch me without my knowing it. If that works then see if you can interact with anything else. Try writing something on the tablet. If it doesn't work, then come into the scene and we'll move to the next step. Leaning in close I kissed her neck, I was trying hard not to think about her not feeling it. I didn't want to make her not feel it. When there was no response to the kiss I ran my hands up either side of her, then together and up over her shoulders. I could feel her although it did not feel the same as actual contact, the pressure on my fingertips was somehow different. Again she didn't respond, so far so good. I materialized a stylus for myself, but made it one she couldn't see, then leaned in and drew a heart with a smiley face on the screen. She perked up immediately. Did you touch me? I put a check mark next to the question. Do it again, only this time try to make me feel it. I reached under her arm, cupped her breast and gave the nipple a little squeeze. Mmm, I like that. This has possibilities, but we can try that later. Exact same motion, only this time, only let me feel the pinch. I repeated the action. She gave a little twitch when I tweaked her nipple. I then ran my tongue up the side of her neck to her ear. Stop that! We can play later. ;) Now switch us to your glade. I made the change and felt my ring suddenly appear on my finger. Hers disappeared at the same time. Good. Now see if you can make me invisible. I concentrated for a moment then wrote again on the tablet, "I think it's working but I can still see you." That's okay, we can test it with the next step. Bring Shannon in. I concentrated on Shannon and her sleeping form appeared on the blanket. Can I wake her up? I kissed a yes onto her neck. She leaned in to kiss Shannon's cheek. Her lover's eyes fluttered and she gave a stretch saying, "Oh I just love waking up here with you two. I could just..." She stopped and looked around. "Allison? Jimmy? Hello, anyone here?" Allison answered, "Yes, I'm right here." Shannon caught on immediately, "You're invisible? Cool! Wanna play ghost? You can be Patrick Swayze and I'll be Demi Moore." She sat up and waited. "As much fun as that would be, sweetie, this is a working trip, sorry," Allison said. "Jimmy, could you make me visible please." I faded her back in but left her clothes invisible. Shannon gave her a look and said, "Work, huh?" Allison looked down, she could still feel the cloth on her skin but she couldn't see it. "Not funny," she said. "What?" Shannon asked. Allison took her hand and guided it to her left breast. The hand stopped a tiny ways from her flesh and Shannon's eyes got big as she realized what she was feeling. "Oh, I get it," she said with a giggle. She tweaked the nipple and then pulled the material outward between her fingers. "The Empress really does have clothes. You're a naughty boy, Jimmy. I like that." She let go of the fabric then tweaked the nipple again. Allison slapped her hand and said, "Behave yourself. Jimmy, front and center please, I'll feel better explaining the next phase without feeling like I'm talking to God." I kissed them each in the cheek then faded myself into the scene. I put Allison's clothes back to normal at the same time and faded out just the cloth covering Shannon's chest. Allison giggled and put her hand to her mouth, this caused Shannon to follow Allison's gaze and she realized what I had done. She looked at me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, "See anything you like." "Actually yes," I answered. "I see something I like a lot." "Good, but unless you're going to be fair and give us a peek..." "No," Allison interrupted, "we have work to do." I put everyone's clothes back to normal as Allison explained what was going on. "So we're experimenting a little, to see what we can do. I wanted you for the next step so I had someone in the scene who would know what was going on. The next part involves Jimmy trying to take me with him into someone else's dream, in observer mode, so no one can see or hear us, but where we can see and hear everything. You'll be there too so you can let us know if it is working. Take my tablet with you and we can communicate through it." Shannon jumped on that. "But they'll wonder how I got there without Jimmy." "Good point. I guess we'll see if Jimmy can take both of us and still leave me as 'observer.'" "Okay, that sounds good," Shannon said, "but I want to try that ghost thing sometime just for fun, okay?" Allison just laughed and said, "Oh, yeah!" I dreamed in an elevator and we took it up to Bob's office. As we passed the third floor I pushed Allison into observer mode. Shannon noticed her fade out and asked, "Did you make her invisible again? Or, is she really gone?" Actually as far as I was concerned, neither was true. I could still see her, but she appeared as a ghost to me. I could even read the advertisement on the wall behind her. I stopped the elevator between the fourth and fifth floors. "You can't see her at all?" "No." I looked at Allison and said, "She's actually standing right here. See if you can touch her." Shannon reached towards the spot and I saw her fingers pass through Allison's arm. Allison was watching the whole process with interest. Shannon pulled her hand back, "Nope, nothing." I glanced back at Allison, "Say something." "I love you," Allison responded. Shannon stood waiting for a second and then shook her head no. "Very interesting," Allison said. "You can hear me, but no one else can. She walked forward and stepped right through Shannon. Shannon watched my eyes as I tracked Allison's movement, "Did she just do what I think she did?" "Probably, did you feel it?" "Nope, just a guess, it's what I would have tried next. Jimmy, you're going to need to be careful not to give her away, don't watch her and try not to respond to anything she actually says. Can you feel her?" "Hadn't tried yet." I reached out and touched Allison's arm. It didn't feel the same but I could feel it. I took a breath and pulled her toward me. I staggered as she tried to pass through me but bounced off. Good thing she wasn't really solid or it would have hurt when our heads banged together. "Okay, that's a yes, I can definitely feel her." "Weird, bet you didn't notice this part. When she ran into you, your clothes didn't flatten out or move at all." Allison got a huge grin on her face, reached down and began caressing her favorite parts. This had the usual reaction, which Shannon noticed immediately as I got a startled look on my face. "Allison! We're working, remember? If I can't play, you can't either." She couldn't see it but Allison stuck her tongue out and then dropped to her knees in front of me. "If you do that I am going to let the elevator go up and make you visible to everyone in the room," I said. She stood back up and said, "Spoil sport. Okay, let's get this show on the road." I released the elevator and shortly we stepped out onto the 10th floor, just opposite Bob's office door. He had added a nameplate and a hand written sign that said, "The Doctor is" with two boxes for in or out. The box marked "IN" was checked. I knocked twice and opened the door. Bob was at his desk with his feet up watching a football game on television. He rose as we entered, pulled out a remote control and turned off the game. "Jimmy," he said, shaking my hand, "Shannon, nice to see you again." He kissed her hand and looked past us. "Where's Allison, I thought sure she would be here for this." Allison was actually standing behind me looking out the window, but I just said, "She's working on something right now, she'll be along shortly." I pulled out my cell phone and called Rebecca, "Ready?" I asked when she answered. I closed the phone and concentrated for a second and Rebecca walked in wearing black jeans and a dark blue polo shirt. She didn't have her shoulder holster on but I knew the gun had to be there somewhere. She too noticed that Allison was missing. "Where's your sister?" "She was finishing up an experiment; she should be on her way to the elevator about now." Allison took the hint and disappeared through the wall. I dropped her back into reality; she knocked once and walked in. "Sorry I'm late. Did I miss anything?" "Nope, we're just getting started," Bob answered, waving everyone to seats. Shannon and I sat on the couch, Allison took the chair; Bob sat down on the love seat next to Rebecca. "Where do you want to start?" Rebecca took the lead, "I think the first thing we need to do is make sure everyone knows the situation. Then we need to come up with a plan of action. Jimmy and I recently witnessed, if you will, events in the life of Amanda Watkins, which confirm our suspicions regarding the pattern of our killer. The pattern seems to be that he likes girls that are young but over eighteen; all of the girls turned 18 within the four months prior to their abduction and murder; athletic as well as intelligent; all three girls were going to school on full scholarships which were all or in part sports sponsored; physically aggressive, and sexually active. In addition he seems to like girls who are into unconventional sex. Diane McKenzie was into group sex, Maria Pena was trading sex for presents, and apparently Amanda was screwing her father and his friends. Jimmy and I have concluded that, in Amanda's case, this was not voluntary. I think the killer made a mistake in selecting her and killed her as soon as he figured it out. "Unfortunately her father denies that she was sexually active, so while we know the truth, we cannot introduce it to the publicly known behavior. I don't know how much it would actually help since it's not something we can go around asking potential victims. But since the case is stalled anyway, I wanted to pursue what was happening to Amanda. I, we, are concerned that her sisters may be in danger of, or already being abused in a similar fashion. We need a way to talk to the older of the sisters, Samantha. There is no way her father is going to allow this. He wouldn't even let his wife answer questions when we talked to him. She is so far gone she wouldn't even take my card when I offered it to her. It occurred to me that Jimmy might be able to contact Samantha in a dream and somehow convince her that it was okay to talk to me. I thought maybe he could get us together at that little beach of his when she's ready to talk." Shannon held up her hand. "You mean her dad was raping her? Why wouldn't she have gone to a counselor or the police? How do you know it wasn't voluntary? I mean, it does happen." Rebecca looked at me. "Can we show them? I nodded. "This is pretty graphic stuff you're about to see," Rebecca said. "Are you sure you want to do this? Allison, are you okay watching this?" "Jimmy's already told me about it, and I know he's talked to Bob. Shannon is the only one who doesn't know the details and that may be a good thing. You may have noticed she has this way of asking new questions. No one is being tortured or killed, so we'll both be okay, go ahead." I picked up a remote control, that hadn't been there before, off the table and aimed it at the book case. Two sections pulled out and slid aside, revealing a large screen. A projection unit dropped from the ceiling and the lights dimmed. Bob leaned across the coffee table and whispered, "I get to keep this, right?" Rebecca elbowed him and the scene started. We ran through the whole set even though we were primarily focused on Amanda at the moment. When it was over Rebecca stood up and asked, "How are these different from the earlier images?" "This is more detailed, plus I never saw the sex stuff before. Only the rapes after he kidnapped them. This is all new stuff." Bob spoke up, "I know some of this is going to seem like review but we need to make sure everyone is on the same page, are there other differences?" "Yes, there's no emotion this time, nothing. Almost like he's..." "Reliving his conquests?" Rebecca finished for me. "More like he's reliving the hunt," Shannon said. Everyone stopped and looked at her. "What do you mean?" Bob asked. "This is all from him stalking them. He's studying them, learning their habits, their patterns. I don't know how the sex stuff ties in, but the rest of it is him planning the best time to take them." "You're right," Rebecca said. "The sex is part of his pattern. Paul and I suspected it before. We got information from two of the girl's families that they were sexually active, very active. As you can see, the McKenzie girl was into the group scene and liked it wild. Her big brother had to step in a couple times when people got out of line. Maria Pena had her own private little herd of studs following her around for their chance. The Watkins girl broke the pattern. Her father insisted she was pure and saving herself. It's pretty obvious that wasn't the case. Her father lied, and this explains why. That all took place inside her house and one of those men was her father." "So it had to be someone she knew, because he watched the whole thing," Allison said. "I don't think so, not necessarily anyway. Jimmy, give me all three scenes again. Not the whole thing, just a quick piece of each. Tell me if you notice anything different." We watched again and it was clear what she had noticed. "That was a camera on the Watkins girl," Allison stated. "All three were through a round aperture, telescope, binoculars or maybe a really big camera, but Amanda's was grainier, almost blurry at the edges, even though it was shot from a closer distance." "Exactly," Rebecca agreed. "At first we thought that the killer could be someone she knows, but the view doesn't wander or focus on any individual part of the scene the way a person would follow it with their eye. The image is stationary meaning that the view is from a fixed point. In addition to that, notice that the image is grainy, it's more noticeable now than when we first saw it due to the size of the screen. I think what we are seeing is the image captured by a hidden camera, being reviewed by the killer after it happened. The man in her mouth, sorry girls, no easy way to say it, is her father, Frank Watkins; the other dick is an unknown. I'll bet my next paycheck there is a smoke detector right where that shot was taken from. Anyone else see anything?" "Yes," Bob said. "Jimmy, start it over and I want everyone to watch her face." I ran the scene again and we all watched Amanda's face. I don't know what the others were focusing on but I was looking at her eyes, she hardly blinked, just staring past the object in her mouth as if looking at something far away. I heard Shannon say quietly to herself, "How does she do that?" Apparently Rebecca heard her also as she responded without thinking, "Lots of practice." I glanced at her and saw her eyes get huge and her face turn bright red as she realized she had said it out loud. Bob just glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and got a huge grin on his face. I thought everyone was going to just let it go but Allison suddenly went into a fit of the giggles. I stopped the replay and the wall closed back up. By then Allison was sitting clutching her sides, biting her lip, and stomping her feet to keep from bursting. Rebecca looked like she wanted to crawl under the couch. I looked at Shannon, shrugged, and said, "You want to do it?" She rolled her eyes and nodded affirmatively. I handed her the bucket and she threw cold water on our mutual girlfriend. Allison sputtered for a second, a look of murderous outrage on her face, but then she just smiled, wiped her eyes and said, "Thanks, I needed that." She quickly dried herself, but unfortunately she could only dry herself and not the chair, carpet, table, or anything else. She glanced at me and without a word I dried the rest. "Shannon? What do you think now?" "You're right, she wasn't having sex with her father or his friend, she was being screwed by two men, and that's all. But why wouldn't she fight back? She looked like she'd given up and that just doesn't fit with everything else we know about her." Rebecca answered, "That's something I would very much like to find out, but I'll save that for another time; any more thoughts on any of this?" "Yes," Bob answered, "if he's reliving the hunts for these three girls he may be preparing to hunt again. Or, he may have already started." "Exactly what I was thinking," Shannon said. Allison nodded agreement. "Then we're all on the same page, because that's what I thought too," Rebecca continued. "Paul and I had narrowed his search parameters down to athletes going to college on a sports scholarship. Unfortunately there is no way in hell I can narrow it down to sexually active girls, much less girls involved in deviant behavior." "What do you mean deviant behavior?" Allison asked. "McKenzie was into orgies, according to her sister; Pena was whoring herself for presents. Now we know the Watkins girl was fucking her father, and his friends, though being molested by them is more accurate, anything else?" Bob answered, "Jimmy and I discussed some of this, it may not mean a lot to the case, but he theorized that she may have actually been schizophrenic. That she may have created a clone to leave behind and that she "went away" somewhere in her mind and hid until it was over. Without seeing the whole thing start to finish I can't say for sure, but from this clip I think that's a strong possibility. My guess is that this has been going on for a very long time and that she gave up on fighting it. I suspect that in the early stages there were physical consequences to resisting, painful ones. I also have no doubt that her sister is being abused as well, or that her mother knows about all of it. This was happening in her home. I can think of no way that you could train and condition a person to this extent in a home setting without the knowledge of others in that home. As to how he is keeping them all quiet? There are many possibilities that come to mind, all of them bad. The end result is the same, fear. They are so afraid of what will happen that they don't even consider blowing the whistle." Rebecca took over again, "So now we need a plan. The big question is can Jimmy bridge someone he's never met? If he can't then we all go home and I try to come up with another way to get to Samantha without putting her in danger. So for now, we assume that he can. What's our first step?" "We're not ready for our first step yet," Allison said, "not even if he can do it." "What do you mean?" Rebecca asked. "If he shows up I'm sure he can talk her into it. I for one found his arguments very convincing." "Yes, but you were not in fear of your life at the time. He needs to study her, observe her, get to know her, find out what will make her comfortable enough to let her guard down. You mentioned when you first talked to your boss, Mr. Rodriquez, that he thought someone had pulled a "mission impossible" on you?" "Yes?" "Well, we don't have to do that, but it will be similar. In all those Mission Impossible re-runs I saw, they are always trying to scam the bad guys, so they didn't have to worry about what would happen to them. We don't have that luxury. We're dealing with a girl who has most likely been undergoing physical and mental abuse for a long time. We need to win her confidence, make her feel safe; convince her that it's okay to open up. And most importantly, we have to make sure that it's all true. She can't just feel safe; we have to make sure that she is safe. Rebecca, no matter what we find out, you can't do anything with it unless and until you can be 100% sure that any potential threat to her is accounted for." "Should be easy enough, she confides the abuse to us, we arrest the dad and anyone else she identifies and boom, it's over." "No." said Bob. "I think Allison is right on this. It's not going to be that simple. All we saw was a scene of her father and one other man assaulting her sister. There may have been more. She may not know their names. If it were as easy as naming names someone would have done it by now. The mother, Amanda, Samantha, someone would have talked by now. There has to be more to it. Whatever the threat is, they had convinced Amanda that the police couldn't stop it. That same threat is most likely being used against her sister now. We have to find out what that threat is. Assuming Jimmy can bridge Samantha and get her to talk, that's just the beginning. After we discover what the threat is we have to find out who knows where it is. Is it the father? Is it the other man molesting Amanda? Or is it someone else? We have to find that out or we can't guarantee Samantha's safety. I say it, but I don't think it's a thing. They're not being blackmailed; they're being intimidated. We need to know who it is and until then, she isn't safe and you can't protect her. Her safety has to be our first concern." "There's always witness protection." "Okay, I'll give you that. But I think it's a last resort. Uprooting them and putting them in hiding for the rest of their lives is a shitty solution at best. It's like putting them in prison because we couldn't catch the real criminal. Besides, if her mother knows then wouldn't she be an accomplice? Does witness protection have foster care?" "Great, so what do we do?" "We don't," I answered. "I try to bridge Samantha Watkins and I spend some time watching her dreams, and probably her nightmares. I should be able to pick up quite a bit just doing that. I'll keep everybody up to date on what I find and when we think we have enough to work with; then we can plan the next step. Unless anyone has a better idea?" Apparently no one did. Everyone said goodbye and I took the girls to the island. No sooner had we arrived than Shannon and I found ourselves being slapped by a huge wave. It caught me off guard but I recovered quickly and looked around for my sister. She was sitting in one of the chairs with a "gotcha" grin on her face. I was about to do something when suddenly the chair collapsed and she fell into a pool that suddenly appeared behind her. A very cold pool. She screamed as she hit the icy water. A second later she jumped out again, shivering, but dry. I figured I better do something before things got out of hand. Suddenly a flock of baby penguins started hopping out of the water and cuddling up around her feet, rubbing up against her like their long lost mommy. It was just too cute a scene to stay angry. She smiled as she reached down to pet one of them, "Oh, they're so cute." She glanced back at me and said, "Not cute enough to save my dear brother, but that's not your fault." "Hey, it wasn't me," I said, pointing at Shannon. Allison perked up immediately. "Really? You did that. Damn girl, you learn fast, and you fight dirty too. That was cold!" She picked up one of the baby penguins and cuddled it. "You know little guy? I know someone who would just love to meet you. Jimmy, can Amy come out and play?" Amy was in heaven. Very quickly we had an entire petting zoo there on the beach. In addition to the baby penguins, we had baby tigers, kittens, puppies, a polar bear cub, seals, and a pod of dolphins waiting for us out in the lagoon. I had some other business to take care of so I wanted to try something new. "Amy, sweetheart, I need to go talk to Rebecca for a little bit. I'm going to leave a door behind just in case, but I want to see if you can stay here with Allison and Shannon. They can stay without me and I'm hoping that you can stay if they are here with you. Do you want to try it?" You could see her hesitate which said a lot for how much it must hurt her when something goes wrong, but she nodded her head yes and went to sit in Allison's lap. Shannon sat with them and took her hand. I put a door a few feet away and leaned down to kiss her. She reached up and put her arms around my neck, hugging me for a second before letting me go. I stood and stepped through the door into the glade. Immediately I turned and went back to the beach. Amy was already standing up. The look on Shannon's face said it hadn't worked. I could see tears forming in Allison's eyes. Amy saw them too and said, "Don't cry. It's okay. It hurt, but it doesn't hurt any more and I wanted to do it. It'll be okay. I can still come and play when Jimmy is here, and I understand about him needing to be with my sister; that's more important." She brushed a tear off of Allison's cheek and repeated, "Please don't cry." Allison gave one big sob, sniffed and hugged the little girl, "Okay, sweetie. I won't cry." She wiped her eyes, "Not much anyway." She gave a little laugh and kissed Amy's cheek. "I just love you to pieces, do you know that?" "Really?" Shannon grabbed her from behind and pulled her down into her lap, "Of course she does! And so do I, otherwise I wouldn't do... this!" And she started tickling the little girl. Amy screamed and squirmed to break free but she was no match for the bigger girl. I knew just the person to help. I reached a huge hairy hand out, grabbed Shannon's arm, and pulled. She went from sitting with a squealing girl in her lap to over my shoulder in nothing flat. I stalked toward the water but suddenly she was gone and a little pixie with her face was buzzing around my head. A butterfly net caught her quickly enough but no sooner was she in the net than she began to grow and soon I was holding what was left of the net around the neck of a large lion. I materialized a cage around her just as she was preparing to leap at me. I mentally keyed the cage to her size, so no matter how large or small she tried to make herself, the cage would remain proportionally sized. Two quick changes and she realized she was caught. "No fair!" she protested, switching back to herself. "No? What about 'all's fair in love and war?' I love you an awful lot," I answered. "You did very well though, Allison's right, you're picking this up pretty quickly. Now promise you'll behave and I'll let you out." She lowered her voice, looked me in the eye, and whispered, "Let me out and I promise, I'll be really, really, good." I vanished the cage, reverted to myself, and, taking her hand, walked her back to the little shaded area. Sadly I still had to leave. I looked at Amy who had crawled back up into Allison's lap to watch the show, and said, "I still need to go see Rebecca." She got up. "That's okay, I have to go soon anyway, and it was fun watching you play with Shannon." She hugged me, then each of the girls and, still waving goodbye, walked through the door. I glanced at the girls and said, "You two behave yourselves while I'm gone," then I stepped through the door once more. ------- Chapter 54: Where to Begin Rebecca was waiting for me in her living room. She was still in the jeans and shirt she had worn to the meeting. Her gun was now sitting on an end table next to the couch. I still didn't know where she had it before. "I hope you haven't been waiting too long," I said. "No, actually just a few minutes," she said with a puzzled look on her face. "Dream time takes a little getting used to. I've actually had time to take the girls to the beach and spend some time with Amy." She got a pained and wistful look and said, "I wish I could see her. How is she?" I thought for a second. "She's fine. I was hoping she could stay with the girls while I came here but it just won't work. Unless I'm there it's painful for her to try and remain." I paused. "Rebecca, I can show her to you if you want. It will just be a memory of my time with her but I can give you that, no problem... but, are you sure you want to?" This was not how I had I foreseen this meeting going. It was clearly a painful subject for Rebecca. I could see the debate raging behind her eyes. Finally she answered, "I may regret it later, but yes, I want to see her." "All right. This will be similar to what I have in mind for you to try later. Hopefully it will work." I sat next to her on the couch and the scene changed around us. I had chosen the time when the girls had first met Amy. We started out sitting in the little sunken area of the cabana. I stood and went to the bed and Amy was there, asleep. She watched as the little girl woke and walked with me to meet the girls. I heard a sharp intake of breath as Amy launched herself into Allison's arms. Amy asked me to change her dress and the scene jumped to the lagoon outside, with me in my troll suit tossing Amy around like a little giggling beach ball. Then it was time for her to go, we walked her to the door, and the scene faded. Rebecca stood and turned away from me. I sat for a moment and concentrated on not noticing as she dried her eyes. She took a moment to collect herself and then sat back down. "So what did you want me to do?" "I want you to replay your interview with the Watkins family." "You want me to what?" "Do just what I did. Basically, it's just re-living a memory. Just think about the interview, focus on it, and let the scene play out in your mind." "You make it sound so simple." "I know, and I'm sure if we were at the shooting range right now, I'd be saying the same thing to you. Just relax. Try closing your eyes." "I'm asleep, my eyes are already closed." "Funny. I could bring Bob in; maybe he could do one of those relaxation exercises for you." She blushed and said, "I don't think that would work." I grinned and said, "You're saying being with Bob wouldn't exactly ease your tension at this point?" She was trying hard not to smile. "Not exactly." I took her hand. "Rebecca, all kidding aside, I'm very happy for you. I'm sure Michael would be happy, and Amy will be doing cartwheels when I tell her. How's your boss taking it?" She laughed. "Rod? He's going out of his mind. I haven't told him a thing. All he has is "Bob" and that's it. Selena has been on him every day for details and he doesn't know shit, it's killing him." We chuckled together for a few moments before I continued, "Okay, close your eyes. You're in Amanda Watkins' living room. You've just sat down to interview her parents regarding her death. Without opening your eyes, describe the scene." "I'm sitting on a sofa..." "What color is it?" "It's a light beige with patterned sections to give it more texture; the carpet is an off white color. Paul is with me on the sofa. Mrs. Watkins and Samantha are to my right on a matching love seat. Frank Watkins is in a dark brown easy chair opposite me to the left." "Is there a coffee table?" "No. Two large ottomans take up most of the space. There are three small tables around the sofa and love seat, another next to Frank's chair." "Open your eyes." She opened her eyes and found herself in the Watkins' living room exactly as she had described it. Including one detail she had left out. Rachel Watkins sat at her sister's feet clutching one of Samantha's legs and looking somewhat frightened. Samantha had an anxious look on her face as well. Irene was practically without expression as she sat watching her husband. "Wow, I did that?" "Yes. Now just think about the whole thing, the questions, answers, don't try to focus on any one thing or it will blur the rest. Just let your memory run. I want to concentrate on Samantha." The scene played out just as she had described it before. Samantha's reaction to the questions was mostly as you would expect it to be; sadness at the thought of her sister being dead; hope that these new people might be able to find her killer. When the subject of Amanda's sex life came up that changed. It was subtle; I guess in her situation it would have to be. I didn't even want to imagine what the consequences of making a scene would be. To the casual eye she would not have appeared any more interested in this part of the interview than any other. But her eyes told a different story. Suddenly she was alert, tense, scared. Several times she would look at Paul or Rebecca as if she wanted to say something, but when they would look at her, she would quickly turn away. I noticed something else as well and mentioned it to Rebecca. "Every time she dodges your gaze she shields Rachel." "What?" "Watch her. When you or Paul turn to meet her eyes she turns away and you can see her hand tighten on Rachel's shoulder. Rachel hugs her knee a little harder too. She's scared to death that you might ask her or Rachel something." "You're right. What do you think? Is this enough? Can you reach her from just this or do you need more. We could watch it again," she suggested. "No, I'm not going to know her any better without seeing more. Seeing it again won't make the difference. Either I can do this or I can't." I stood and reached for her hand. "I'm going to go find somewhere I can relax. I don't know when I'll actually be ready to try it but I won't wait long. At the latest I'll try it this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes." I shook her hand and headed for the door. The door of course led to the beach, Allison, and Shannon. I expected to find them studying or maybe snuggled up on the blanket, or perhaps more actively involved in the cabana. I certainly didn't expect them to be fighting for their lives against a gang of thugs. My first thought was to rush in and do something. Immediately I knew that would be a mistake. One thing Allison had been successful in doing over the many years we had been playing together, and even more so over the last several months, was to teach me to think before doing anything stupid. So I took a moment to look the scene over. The girls were in skin-tight spandex outfits; Allison's in a vivid pink, Shannon's an electric blue. The bad guys were all decked out in ninja black, go figure. I felt sorry for the bad guys; it was kind of hot to be running around in head to toe black. Most of the bad guys were already out of action. There were only four still menacing the girls. Allison was sporting a decent bruise, which, if left alone, would eventually be a hell of a shiner. Apparently they were being at least a little fair and letting the bad guys get in the occasional lucky shot. Very lucky considering the speed and precision with which Allison was wielding her bo-staff. As I watched one assailant feinted at her to get her attention, she moved defensively to block a blow that never came, leaving her open to attack by his partner. I read Dune once, they kept mentioning 'feints within feints, ' I guess this is what they meant. She managed to make the opportunity look real enough that the second attacker made a serious move toward her. Once he committed himself, rather than try to pull back and defend herself from the new attack, she followed her original block into an attack on the first assailant, hooking his leg with one end of the staff and taking his feet out from under him. As his feet came up the staff came free and slammed butt first into the solar plexus of the second attacker. He doubled over and Allison all but took his head off with the other end, sweeping upward with such force that I'm sure his jaw was broken before his feet left the sand. Continuing the movement, she took advantage of the momentum to sweep the staff into a high arc and down onto the chest of the first man. He was just starting to rise and was out of position for any kind of defense. The staff caught him full force across the chest and it was all over. Shannon had been using a pair of tonfa, the weapon modern police batons were modeled after, against two attackers armed with nunchaku. The tonfa is a great weapon for defense; allowing the wielder to easily block blows that would shatter the bone of an unprotected arm, at the same time extending the reach of the user for offensive strikes. Given the speed of the whirling nunchaku it was likely only luck that was keeping her in one piece. That and the fact that her two assailants had obviously never practiced together as they continuously got in each other's way. It was this more than anything that gave her the advantage. Her opportunity actually came as a result of random chance lining up both of their attacks at the same point. As the two speeding sticks came at her simultaneously from directly in front she was able to put all of her weight into a forward vertical block. As the two weapons rebounded she used the momentum of her thrust to bring the second weapon forward and into play. In this case, she played it across the ribcage of the man on her left; as her weapon rebounded she took the momentum and spun into a tight arc swinging the long end out and down and into the knee of the other guy. His cry of pain was cut mercifully short as she completed the turn and drove the other staff, short end forward, into his stomach. Sadly this left her with no defense against her other attacker who had not been as badly hurt as she had hoped. A loud crack was heard as the blow that was aimed at the back of her head instead landed on Allison's staff. Being focused on his victim he never saw Allison coming and shortly he was laid out on the sand with his friends. The girls still had not noticed me so I shifted myself to a blindingly white costume complete with mask and a pearl inlaid Naginata (kind of a long staff with a curved blade on the end, a cross between a spear and pike) and spoke into the silence, "Very good, young ones, but now you must face me." The girls spun around, weapons at the ready. Allison looked at me for second, turned to Shannon and said, "We're in trouble. There's only one way to defeat an enemy this powerful." Shannon hadn't caught on that it was me. I could see her swallow hard as she asked, "How?" Allison smiled and said, "Cheat!" With that she tossed her staff behind her and changed her clothes. She went from pink spandex to just her pink butterfly g-string in the blink of an eye. Suddenly Shannon realized what was going on. Instead of mimicking Allison's choice she opted for the other half of the outfit, just the silky-soft robe. God what a sight; Allison in nothing but a baby butterfly covering her most intimate area, Shannon with nothing but a robe billowing around her playing peek-a-boo with my eyes. Both of them stalked towards me and I did the only thing a man can do when faced with overwhelming force and no hope of victory. I surrendered. "Ladies, I commit myself to your mercy," I said, as I was kneeling in the sand before them. "And while normally I would really be looking forward to that, unfortunately we really need to talk about the situation with Samantha." Without hesitation they were both back in their bathing suits. Shannon reached out a hand to help me to my feet. As soon as she touched my hand my outfit changed and I was back to just my usual bathing suit. "Other than that," Allison said, "I can't think of a single thing you could have said that would have gotten you off the hook. What did you find out from Rebecca? Do you think you're going to be able to pull this off?" "I never really had any doubts about being able to bridge her. I've bridged others before that I haven't met. I see that girl in the closet at least once a week and I certainly don't know who she is. It's what I do after I get there that has me worried. I can't afford to make a mistake on this." "Then we're just going to have to make sure we don't make a mistake," Shannon said. "We'll start with simple reconnaissance, just go in and watch. Some of it will undoubtedly be as bad as or worse than what you saw with Amanda. The hardest part I think is going to be not doing anything too soon. I know you, Jimmy. If what we suspect is true; when you see what is happening to her, you're going to want to sweep in and fix it. It will hurt you to have to watch and not act. I think one of us should be with you at all times. Allison?" "Definitely," she answered, turning to me as she continued. "You don't need us to see what is going on but a second perspective on things couldn't hurt, and this way, we can keep you from jumping too soon. Shannon's right, this may be very hard for you to watch. That's not saying it will be any easier on us, but... well, you know what I mean. When do you want to start?" "Yes, I know what you mean. I told Rebecca no later than the weekend. So, uh, what do you say? You girls busy this weekend?" "Oh, I think I could fit you in somewhere," Shannon said with a smile. "I can think of several places I can fit you in." Allison then she put her arm around Shannon's waist and said, "I think I've got a slot for you, too." Shannon just blushed at the remark. The three of us walked arm in arm to the cabana and spent the rest of our time curled up together. Why couldn't everything be this simple? ------- Chapter 55: The Dark Truth Human literature is full of stories and tales dealing with the loss of innocence. There are many themes, many variations; the first loss of a loved one, the first betrayal of trust, the first heartbreak. Some are truly acts of evil; rape, murder, the senseless violence that mankind has forever heaped upon its fellows. Not all are dark and tragic; many speak of the first sexual act, the loss of virginity to a true love, leaving home for the first time. I thought mine had been one of these simple fairytale events when I first truly met and fell in love with Allison. The dream continued when as I discovered the depths of my feelings for Shannon as well. And the unbelievable satisfaction and warmth that came from knowing that they shared my feelings. Now I knew what a loss of innocence truly was. Seeing Diane McKenzie raped and tortured had been a horrific experience. To see a young life abused and snuffed out by a sadistic madman was pain beyond my experience. The veil of truth had been torn aside and the cruelty of the world exposed before my young and unprepared senses. I will always remember that day. Well, most of it. I still don't know what happened while I was running. As bad as that had been it was but a shadow of what I had seen in the last three weeks. It's a good thing that Shannon had suggested, and Allison agreed, that one of them should always accompany me on my visits to Samantha Watkins. What had originally been a simple idea of finding a way to convince her to come forward with what information she had regarding the death of her sister had turned into a nightmare. The rape and torture of Diane McKenzie had lasted twenty days; just under three weeks. Maria Pena had been missing almost a month. Twenty-nine days to be exact; over a month if it had been February instead of June. Amanda Watkins had been missing for only a week before being found dead in a Las Vegas motel room. We had assumed that this had been a blessing. That she had not been subjected to the kinds of abuse and mistreatment the other girls had endured. We were half right. Amanda had died quickly at the hands of her kidnapper, but her rape and torture had lasted eleven years. It's no wonder she didn't fight. There was nothing left to fight for. It probably never occurred to her to try. She was broken. Resistance had been systematically worked out of her conscious options. Worked, coerced, beaten, trained; it didn't matter what word you used, it didn't matter that pain was not always employed, sometimes but not always, it was still torture. Her sister Samantha, now sixteen, had a little over two years to go before she broke her sister's record. Not at the hands of a madman like the one that killed her sister. No. This was much worse. Amanda before, and Samantha still, had suffered at the hands of someone far more evil than our mystery killer would ever be, for their suffering had come at the hands of their father. The one man on earth that they should have been able to count on above all others to protect them. The man into whose care God had placed their little lives. The man I wanted most to kill every time I thought of what he had done; what he was still doing. It had now been three weeks since my first visit to Samantha Watkins' dreams. Maybe I picked a good night; maybe I somehow influenced how I would see her first. Looking back I think that is most likely the case. We know through experimentation that distance is not a really big factor. In setting up my, actually our, first visit I had met Shannon in the glade with Allison. "Okay," Allison began. "I think for the first visit you should just keep it short. We don't know how much impact the distance will have. Or if staying too long will influence things in ways we haven't thought of. So just a short visit, okay?" Shannon and I nodded agreement and she continued, "Okay, Jimmy, you go first, make contact, be sure everything feels okay. I don't know what 'okay' will really feel like since this is the first time you've ever tried this, but if anything feels wrong just get out. And make sure you're going to her, and not actually bringing her into a dream of yours. Check your ring. Experiment a little, very carefully, of course, to make sure that you are 100% in observer mode. Once you are sure, bring Shannon over. Make sure you are somewhere that Samantha won't notice anything if it goes wrong, somewhere where she can't see you. In the closet, down the hall, behind a bush, wherever, just so she can't see it. The last thing you would want to do is materialize Shannon in the middle of one of the poor girl's dreams. Confirm that Shannon is invisible and then just stay a few minutes and get comfortable. It doesn't even matter if you see anything. For now you just want to make sure everything is working. Whatever you do..." "Okay," I cut her off. "I get it. I'll be careful. Geez, Mom, I'll look both ways before I cross the street." Shannon hid a giggle and Allison tried but couldn't suppress the grin. "I'm going to tell her you said that." "Not if you want to come with me next time you won't." Her eyes narrowed. "Don't even think about it, mister. I know where you sleep, alone. And unless you want it to stay that way..." "Alright you two!" Shannon interrupted. "Kiss and make up right now or I'm leaving. Come on, we haven't got all night you know. Let's go." Allison muttered, "He started it." "Shut up and kiss him, now." Allison leaned in and gave me a peck then leaned back. "Nice try. What is he, your dead grandpa? I said kiss him. Let's see a little tongue in there. What, do you need remedial training? Jimmy, don't just sit there, suck a little face here, this is the woman you love and you need to do a little making up here. Come on; let's see you make her panties wet. Show her you care." It was all I could do to keep a straight face. Allison was actually blushing. I just shook my head and froze Shannon where she sat. I left everything else working but she couldn't move or speak. I then proceeded to do exactly as she had suggested and more. Allison's panties got wet all right, then they came off, along with mine. An un-determined amount of time later I released Shannon. She just shuddered all over. "That was so not fair. Here I'm trying to get you two to stop acting like three year olds and now I'm the one frustrated. Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to touch myself? Do you?" She shuddered again. "Well, I wanted to touch both of you more. That should be listed as cruel and unusual punishment to make someone sit and watch that with no hope for relief. You guys owe me big time. But right now we have work to do. Jimmy, off you go; take your time getting settled and ready and let me know before you bring me over, I'm going to be busy collecting your sister's part of that debt. Kiss me." I kissed her and left. I didn't really have anything planned. I had pictured myself watching Samantha in a variety of peaceful settings; watching her sleep, maybe watching her at school, in a park, that sort of thing. While I didn't have any real expectations, looking back I think I must have influenced her even then. She was younger, counting backward she must have been about ten. Sitting on the floor watching her big sister change baby Rachel's diaper. That put Amanda at maybe thirteen tops. Rachel was a cute little bundle of giggles; laughing and smiling as her big sister tickled and played with her. As much fun as it was to watch, I had work to do. I thought for a second and in my mind a bell rang in the glade. I waited a few seconds and brought Shannon into the scene with me. I knew she was invisible as soon as I saw her. I could pretty much see the room through her. "So I'm invisible, cool," she said. "And they can't hear me either?" "If they could I'm sure they would have reacted when you spoke. Walk around a bit, touch things, see if they notice anything." Shannon moved around the room, touching things as she went. A lamp, a magazine on the table, and finally she stroked her hand over Samantha's hair. The girls gave no sign that they were aware of her. She reached past Amanda and tickled the baby. The baby giggled, but then she'd been giggling since I arrived so I don't think it had anything to with Shannon. Finally, she stood back and shouted, "Hey!" from about two feet in front of the two girls. There was still no reaction. Not surprising when you think of it. This was obviously a memory after all. We'd need to be just as careful when we went into an active dream. Something new and "live" may be different. As Allison had suggested we kept it short. The second night I took Allison with me. No preparation, just the two of us popping in to see what we could see. What we could see was horrible. Not like torture and killing horrible, but somehow this felt almost as bad. Samantha was on her knees in the living room floor, completely naked, as if she were waiting for something. She was older now, no longer the young girl watching her sister; this was the girl from Rebecca's interview. That put her at sixteen. She was a very pretty girl. Blonde hair like her sister, I guessed her somewhere close to my height, trim athletic figure, breasts somewhere between Shannon and Angela, not large, but proportioned to her body with large areolas of a dark brownish pink. Even though she was kneeling with her feet under her you could see enough to know she was in fact a natural blonde. A few feet away, behind and to the side, six year old Rachel sat in her mother's lap. The door opened and what the young girl was waiting for became apparent. Frank Watkins walked through the door like any businessman coming home from work. He set his briefcase on the floor, hung his light jacket in the small coat closet, straightened his tie and proceeded into the living room. He walked past Samantha like she wasn't even there. Kissed his wife and swung his youngest daughter up in the air like a rag doll. He kissed her, tickled her, and then set her back in her mother's lap. Then he went to stand in front of Samantha. "What of you? Are you happy to see me as well?" "Yes, my Lord," She said with a smile. It was a nice smile, a smile that said all the right things, as long as you didn't look at her eyes, as pretty as the smile was, as happy as the voice sounded, neither reached her eyes. "How was school?" "Satisfactory, my Lord, I received good marks on my two exams and am advancing in all subjects." "And your other assignment?" The smile faded some as she answered, "I observed her making no unauthorized contacts today, my Lord." "You are sure?" "Only during the times that I am assigned, my Lord, I cannot speak beyond those periods. I know not what others may have observed." "And yourself? Did you speak to anyone outside your permitted circle?" Fear flashed across her face but she quickly regained her composure "No, my Lord!" she declared emphatically. It was then that I realized that her position was such that only from our vantage point could you see the panic in her eyes. The whole scene was contrived so that Rachel could see only her sister, happily humbling herself before her Lord. A cold chill crawled down my spine. For his part, he knew she was scared. The smile on his face reached not just his eyes, but all the way to his soul. "You were seen conversing with a young man." "My Lord, his name is Joshua, he sought to invite me to the dance this Friday." "And?" "My Lord, I politely declined and removed myself from the conversation as quickly as I felt possible without attracting undue attention." "This is the first time he has asked?" "Yes, my Lord." "Do you believe that he will ask again?" "My Lord, I do not know, but he seemed as if he wished to persist." "Very well, we will discuss it further if he asks again. You may please me now." "Thank you, my Lord." The voice was perfect. If you couldn't see her face you would think that there was nothing more important to her in life than pleasing the man in from of her. Rising slightly on her knees she unzipped his pants, very carefully pulled his cock and balls out, and began to service him. Over on the chair with her mother Rachel watched as her sister expressed her joy at her "Lord's" return. Despite Frank's ample endowment, within just a few moments she was taking all of him down her throat smoothly and evenly with no signs of hesitation or discomfort. It was obvious she had been doing this for a long time. At one point, just as she reached the base he simply said, "Hold," and she held, and held. Unable to breathe her distress quickly became evident yet she made no effort to withdraw. As her eyes began to glaze and lose focus he said, "Resume," and with only a momentary hesitation she resumed as if nothing had happened. I think the hesitation must have been a pause while her oxygen deprived brain processed the word. She took deeper, almost gasping breaths through her nose but otherwise showed no signs that anything had happened. Eventually he reached his climax. Apparently she knew his rhythm well enough to gage the timing. One moment he was down her throat, the next she had pulled clear and he was spewing his seed all over her face. White fluid splashed on cheeks, lips, and nose before oozing down the front of her body. As the flow diminished she once again took him into her mouth and began to milk his cock of any remaining fluid. She licked all around him until she was sure he was as clean as possible, then very carefully tucked him back into his pants, and then returned to her kneeling position. She finished and sat once more with downcast eyes. If not for the streaks of pale white fluid covering her face and torso you would not be able to tell that anything had happened. "You have done well. Now, clean yourself and help your mother with dinner." "Thank you, my Lord." With that, she very carefully stood and left the room, never raising her eyes as she did so. Allison and I followed her to the bathroom where she quickly locked the door, turned on the water in the sink, and broke into tears. The sound of the water covered the sobbing as she washed her face and chest. As quickly as they came the tears vanished. She dried herself, went to her room, dressed, and then hurried to help her mother with dinner. Allison and I could only look at each other in shock when we returned to the glade. Shannon was waiting and immediately knew that something was wrong. I can't speak for Allison, but, for me, shock turned to rage almost immediately. I don't know if I have ever been so angry in my life. My feelings were reflected in my surroundings. The bright sunshine dimmed and the always clear sky looked somewhat hazy. A bit of chill crept over my skin. Shannon looked at me in amazement for a second, then without a word swept into my arms. She hugged me to her and kissed my neck, "Jimmy? Are you okay?" All of this had broken Allison out of whatever shell she was in and she wrapped her arms around me from behind, "No," she said. "He's not okay. It's bad Sha, really bad. This is going to be a lot harder than we thought." I could feel the rage slowly flowing out of me. The sky cleared and the sun shown brightly once again. I wanted to cry, but I wouldn't let myself. I turned slowly within the circle of their arms until I could put an arm around each of them. I kissed them each on the forehead and said, "I'm glad I had you with me. Don't ever let me go there alone. I don't know what I would do." Allison just grunted, "Hhmf, I know what you'd do, and it wouldn't be pretty." "Yeah, well we certainly can't stop you from going without us, Jimmy. It's up to you make sure one of us, or both of us, is with you," Shannon added. "She's right. What now?" "Now," I answered, "we get the experts involved." I raised my voice, "Rebecca!" A disembodied voice answered, "Jimmy?" "Sorry, my hands are full and I didn't feel like digging out my phone. We need to talk." "Give me a second. You don't sound good, Jimmy; what happened?" "I'd rather tell you in person. Let's just say our problems just got bigger." "Shit, like they weren't big enough already. I need a door here, Mr. Wizard; I can't just walk around wherever I want like some people." "Be careful what you wish for, Agent Hampton," Allison said. "What's that supposed to mean?" Rebecca asked as she walked out of the changing tent. "I think it means you've got enough problems already," Shannon answered. "You may have noticed that Jimmy's gift didn't come with a free pass to Candyland." Rebecca looked at the three of us for a second and said, "I'm not going to like this am I?" She didn't. Shannon didn't either but she was still in shock when Rebecca made her feelings known. "Where do these fucking people come from?" Rebecca demanded as she stalked around the cabana. I had replaced the furnishings with something a little more appropriate. A rattan version of Bob's office now occupied most of the space. A clear cover kept anyone from accidentally stepping into the sunken area. "Let me get this straight. Frank Watkins is using his daughter as his personal sex slave while his wife and his other daughter watch? In addition to that he is not only having her watched at school, but also having her watch other girls as well?" I nodded. "Son of a bitch! This is just what I need. I'm bordering on jurisdictional infringement as it is with the murder cases. Now I've got this shit on top of it. Do you realize what this suggests." I don't think she was actually expecting an answer but Allison gave her one anyway, "I think so. It suggests that there is a group of men, or men and women, using their kids as sex toys. No names were mentioned so we don't even know if Samantha knows the girl she was watching. She may or may not know whoever was watching her, but it doesn't matter because we don't know who that is. Whoever it is managed to get a report to her father before he came home. The look on her face when he brought it up shows that she was very worried about what he had been told." "Very good, perfect, on the money, you got it first try. Now, do you also have a clear understanding of why I can't do a damn thing about it?" Rebecca asked. "What do you mean you can't do anything?" Shannon demanded. "He's molesting his daughter, in front of a little girl. I can only assume he was doing it to Amanda before she died as well. Put that all together and you have to assume that he has every intention of doing it to Rachel as well." "It's not an FBI issue," I answered for her. Allison and Shannon both turned to me as I continued, "It's a case for the local police. Rebecca can't get involved unless she can show cause. As it stands, she can't even tell them what is happening, much less justify getting involved. Even if she convinced them to start an investigation she can't be involved. It's not a federal case. Right?" "Yes, dammit!" She kicked the couch for emphasis, good thing it was only wicker and she had shoes on. "There is not a god damned thing I can do about it. Allison, I apologize for my attitude when you said, 'Be careful what you wish for.' Jimmy, I don't know how you stay sane. I haven't even seen it and I'm already frustrated and pissed off. I can't even imagine how hard it must be for you, I'm sorry I asked you to bridge her. Do you want to quit? I need the information on her sister, but I already know the truth, and I'll find a way to work this without it if I have to." "No!" There was a slight echo as the three of us all answered together. "No," I repeated. "I'm going to find a way to help that girl if it's the last thing I do. And not just her. I'm going to haunt that bastard's dreams until I find out who else is involved. Then I'm going to haunt them and anyone else I can find until I've found every last stinking one of them, and then I'm going to put a stop to this." With every word the anger grew within me. By the time I finished those few short sentences, it seethed within me like a living thing. Once more the atmosphere reflected my mood. The sky had grayed and clouds now darkened the horizon, the usually cool breeze was now an icy barren wind howling around the little building and tugging at the leafy covering that served as a roof. Rebecca suddenly looked concerned, "Jimmy! Stop it!" She came to stand in front of me. I did my best to ignore her. "Look at me." I glanced up and once she had my eye her voice softened. She knelt in front of me and said, "Jimmy, you can't let this get to you. You have to learn to keep it separate." She looked around at the girls. "Listen to me, all of you. It's called compartmentalizing and it's part of my training, part of every agent's training. I will help you, Bob will help you, but you have to learn this or you have to quit. There is no middle ground. If you don't learn to keep things like this separate," she looked each of us hard in the eye as she said, "they... will... kill you." She paused to let that sink in. "If you can't do this, learn to keep it separate from who you are, then these feelings will eat you up until there is nothing left. I have seen it. I met a man during my training that cracked because he let it get to him. He wouldn't ask for help, he ruined his marriage, lost his family and eventually almost killed himself. He shuffles papers for the bureau now. Twice a year he speaks to groups of new recruits. He could have been medically retired if he wanted to; the stress was that bad. He wouldn't do it. He's never learned to deal with it. He speaks for about an hour and as he speaks you can watch the change in him as he talks about what happened and what it did to him. Trust me, it's not pretty. He's been a file clerk for fifteen years and it still haunts him. He gets a week off every time he speaks. He spends it in a local hospital where they make sure he doesn't hurt himself. He's not allowed near anything sharper than a crayon at work the rest of the time." "Jimmy, Allison, Shannon," she again made eye contact with each of us, "if you can't do this, then quit. There is no shame in it. Find another way to help or just walk away. Watch each other, talk to each other, if there is a problem talk to me, or talk to Bob. I will be watching you from now on. If I think you have a problem I will confront you. If I find there is a problem I will go to the others and you will be out until such time as you are ready to try again. I don't know what the hell we'll do if it's you, Jimmy, but I'll think of something. I guess I can always tell your mother." I couldn't help but smile at that. "But I'll think of something. Now, can you do this? Can you put this aside and just focus on what needs to be done?" I started to say yes automatically but stopped myself, "I don't know." "Good boy," she said. "You just passed the first test. I think we should call it a night. Think about what I've said. Be honest with yourself. Talk to each other and be honest with your answers. We'll take it from there tomorrow." She stood up and said, "Now, I'm going out that door and back to bed. You guys do what you want." She walked to the door and found it locked. "Not funny, Matthews!" I let her go. The girls and I had some serious talking to do. As I said, it's now been three weeks since my, sorry, our, first visit to Samantha Watkins. We don't go every night. I don't know if I could deal with it that frequently. Don't get me wrong, it's not all horrific, just most of it. And it's not like she's being beaten, tied up, gang raped, or tortured every night. That kind of abuse, if it took place, took place a long time ago. It was no longer necessary because Samantha Watkins was already a broken woman. She did what she was told, when she was told to do it. Many things she did automatically and without instruction. The evening greeting was one of these standard rituals. Granted we weren't there every night, and what we were seeing were just nightmares with the occasional flash of a happy moment that I re-qualify as a dream. But that scene played out on a regular basis with only minor variations. One night she had almost passed out from lack of oxygen. That one had been particularly hard to watch. Despite being deprived of air for over a minute she never once attempted to pull back and breathe. Finally her consciousness began to fade and her body to collapse. As her eyes rolled up, her head moved and her teeth dragged on her "Lords" precious manhood. Her reaction was automatic but still too slow. I can only assume it was an adrenaline surge that caused her eyes to fly back open and her to struggle to hold her position. Regardless of what provided the flare of energy, it was not enough to save her. Grabbing her hair with one hand Frank literally tore himself from her mouth. "You dare!" he accused. Eyes downcast, body shaking as she gasped for air, Samantha knelt on the floor without speaking. Frank turned to his wife and ordered her to take Rachel out of the room. Without a word Irene stood and, taking Rachel's little hand in hers, escorted her from the room. Once they were gone and the intervening door was closed he once more turned his attention to Samantha who had been slowly recovering. "Explain yourself," he commanded. "My Lord, I beg your forgiveness. The fault was mine. In my efforts to please you I failed to control my breathing properly. I tried, my Lord, truly I did." "Stand." "Yes, my Lord." "Ankles." "Please, my..." "Do it!" he barked. With no further word Samantha Watkins turned around, bent forward at the waist, and firmly grabbed her ankles. "Wider." Without letting go she took a wider stance. Her loving father stepped forward, took her hips firmly in his hands, and with no warning or preparation shoved his entire length up her ass. Though the pain was etched on her face and written in her suddenly tearing eyes, she never made a sound. With hardly a moments hesitation he began pounding himself in and out of her. Each stroke wrote a new line of fire on Samantha's face. The torturous passage went on for several minutes before he finally emptied himself into her. Eventually he was through and the final degradation came. "Kneel." Samantha once more knelt on the floor. You could tell from her body language that she was clenching her butt as tightly as possible. Without a word, her loving father stepped in front of her and waited patiently while she licked him clean, taking him once more into her mouth several times and then bathing his cock with her tongue like a mother cat cleaning a kitten. After she had finished he walked away and left her there. Some time later, I don't know how long but at least an hour as he had apparently eaten and changed clothes, he returned. Rachel was with him. She was dressed in her nightclothes. If nothing else spoke of his plans for his youngest daughter, her bedclothes screamed it. How many six year olds do you know who sleep in sheer red panties and a negligee? Rachel hugged and kissed her big sister goodnight before being led away again. If Allison had not been with me... Thankfully she was, and she took me away, well, she made me take her away. Our time was productive though. On two separate occasions other men took her. Once was in her living room with her father watching, the second time in an office complex downtown. It was a Saturday and she took a bus into the city. She walked two blocks and sat on a bench. She did not look around, she spoke to no one passing by, she just sat. Eventually a man approached her. He stood behind her. Apparently she never saw his face as it was just a blur. "I am of the royal blood and seek a consort," he said. "It is my pleasure to serve you, my Lord." "Wait three minutes, rise and proceed to the 18th floor of the gray building on the southwest corner. You will take the elevator with the blue doors. Push the call button twice, wait one second and press it again. When the door closes you will immediately remove your clothes, fold them neatly and place them on the floor. There will be a blindfold taped to the panel, put it on. Be quick, I will expect you positioned and ready when the doors open." "My Lords will," she responded. Checking her watch she rose at exactly three minutes and proceeded to the appropriate building. She was kneeling with the blindfold in place when the doors opened. I now had three targets mapped out. Frank Watkins, his guest, and the man with no face. This could be problematic as I wasn't sure if I could bridge him without more detail, but I was looking forward to the time I would be able to try. When we returned to the cabana we met with Rebecca and Shannon to discuss what we had so far. It was decided that we would learn nothing further without direct interaction. How to proceed was the question. Rebecca and Shannon suggested that I create a place to meet her, someplace pleasant and quiet where we could talk. Allison and I looked at each other and I shook my head. "She will never trust a stranger no matter the setting," I said. "She probably won't realize it's a dream and would assume that it was a test of some kind, and that she was being watched." "I think Jimmy is right," Allison said. "I don't think that would work. We have to make her feel safe and secure, but her idea of safe and secure is going to be something totally different. Once he can explain and convince her that it's all a dream and no one will know, then he can take her wherever he wants, even here, but first he has to gain her trust." "What do you suggest?" Rebecca asked. "I'm going to chase away the nightmares," I responded. The smile on Allison's face told me she understood. Shannon looked at me for a second, considering what I had said. Suddenly she was growing a smile like Allison's. "Let me guess, something a little more dramatic? Something that will leave no doubt that it is a dream and that you are a force to be reckoned with?" I nodded. "She'll certainly know it's a dream." "You're not actually going to show yourself are you?" Rebecca asked. "No. I think I'm going to make up a new face. No one she will recognize. Something like... this." I concentrated for a moment and suddenly I was taller, with pale blonde hair and a face blended from Mark, Tim, and Steve McGuinness. "What do you think?" "Cool," Shannon replied. "If I hadn't watched it happen I would never for a second think it was you." "That's all well and good," Allison said, poking me in the chest. "But this time, just make sure you stay that way, we don't want a repeat of you and Rebecca at the beach that first time." "I'll maintain control. You'll be there to help me, both of you. I just haven't decided if you are going to be visible right away or not. Any thoughts?" "Definitely invisible." Shannon looked at Allison and then back at me before continuing. "You've waited very patiently through all this. I know how much you wanted to do something from the very first time you saw the truth. I think you deserve the chance to kick a little ass. Just one thing." "What's that?" "Can I look like Angela?" I had to laugh at that. Allison was giggling right along with me. "What?" Shannon said, "You're always saying how she looks like me in the future, so why can't I look like her now?" "Fine, no problem, no reason at all," I said. "If you want to look like Angela Osborne, that's fine with me. What about you, sis?" "For now, leave me invisible. I'm going to be your ace in the hole." "What do you mean?" "If anything goes wrong or doesn't work, I'm going to be Amanda." I wanted to argue but Rebecca was already nodding her head. Damn. She was right and I knew it. If nothing else would work, then Allison coming back and talking to her as her dead sister might be just the little push we needed. "Okay. When?" Given the option I would have gone to Samantha immediately, that night, but it was already late. I wanted to be certain that once I started I would have all the time necessary to convince her that not only was I there to help her, but that I could protect her at the same time. As anxious as I was I managed to let it go for one more night. If nothing else it gave me something to look forward to. I was going to enjoy this. Rebecca Only years of training kept my face straight when Jimmy mentioned Angela Osborne's name. Angela was in our top twenty victims list. Several schools had offered her full rides. She would have scored higher but Bob said she had no current boyfriend and there was no hint of unusual sexual behavior. She may have been active in the past, but this year she had dropped off the map. It was a little unusual for a high school senior to just stop suddenly like that but it certainly wasn't unheard of. Usually a string of bad boyfriends was all it took. That or one that couldn't keep his mouth shut. She wouldn't be the first girl to quit over a reputation. I didn't, couldn't say anything to the kids any way. If they knew her, there was too much chance that one of them might slip and tell her something; try to warn her of the danger. If she was on the killer's list and she suddenly started acting paranoid then he would know something was up. Our killer was smart, at the first sign that something was wrong he would pull up stakes and ride into the sunset. God only knew how long it would take us to pick up his trail again. If Jimmy hadn't pointed us in the right direction we still wouldn't know there was any link between Diane McKenzie, Maria Pena, and Amanda Watkins. Were there more? We had stopped short of asking for a nationwide broadcast to check for similar cases. We couldn't take the chance that our killer was watching any of his other kill zones for activity. I had a nagging feeling that there may be more bodies somewhere but my focus right now was preventing any more killings, not counting old ones. Jimmy Frank Watkins arrived home at his usual time. His family was in their accustomed positions to welcome him home. His wife Irene sat in the large chair with his youngest daughter on her lap as she was every day to watch as her older sister made proper welcome. Samantha was, as usual naked and kneeling, eyes downcast awaiting his presence. He kissed his wife and then swept Rachel up into his arms. She was growing up fast. Soon it would be time for her to begin learning her place. He set her back on her mothers lap and stood before his oldest daughter. Once again he wished her sister had not died. He missed the sensation of the two girls sharing him in the evening. Oh well, soon enough that problem would be corrected. The ritual greeting was spoken and Samantha unzipped his pants and gently removed his manhood from the encumbrance of his pants. As she opened her mouth to receive him a voice rang out. "HOLD!" Samantha froze in place, terror written on her face. She had thought the voice was his. Frank's head spun in search of the source, but no one was apparent. Suddenly the sound of a rushing wind came from outside and the very house shook. He looked to his wife and found her frozen in her place, Rachel still sitting quietly on her lap staring at her sister. Looking down he found Samantha once again kneeling with her head down, awaiting his instruction. The wind could still be heard outside but the house no longer shook. He did not recall the weather report and had not paid particular attention on the way home, but it seemed that the day had been clear. No matter. It was only a storm. "Resume," he commanded. As Samantha rose obediently to her task there was a sudden flash as lightning struck, the resultant crash of thunder was accompanied by the double front doors exploding into the entryway. The force of the explosion caused him to stagger forward, his cock slid into and out of Samantha's mouth, the force of its sudden passage turning her head and dragging him painfully across her teeth. Catching his balance he turned on her, one hand raised to strike. "Fool!" he yelled, and the hand descended. "NO!" The voice boomed forth again and Frank Watkins was frozen in mid strike. Samantha sat quietly waiting for the blow to land. When her father suddenly stopped moving she looked upward and found his eyes sliding around in search of the problem. The voice came again, "YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HER!" This time she could judge the source. Turning to the entryway she saw a young man standing framed in what used to be the entryway. Small flames licked at the edges of the hole where moments before the double doors had stood. Behind him dark clouds rolled and boiled in a sky suddenly gone dark. I was only slightly taller than she, 5 foot-eight inches, perhaps 180 pounds, with blonde hair neatly cut and combed to one side. I wore black jeans, a dark shirt and black tennis shoes. I would have blended further into the outside darkness if not for the blue flashes of electricity crackling all around me. According to Allison, my eyes literally blazed with the power of my fury. Shannon and Allison stood watching invisibly as I made my entrance. They could feel the almost sexual release as I was finally allowed to give vent to the anger and frustration that I had been carefully setting aside for weeks, and blasted the doorway into so much kindling. No matter how good it felt to watch it, they could only imagine how it felt to finally get to do it. I reached out my hand and suddenly Frank Watkins felt himself held in the grip of an invisible force. His body was no longer paralyzed and he grunted and fought as I began closing my fist and he felt the air literally being squeezed out of his chest. I pushed and his body flew the ten feet into the far wall, shattering the front of the china cabinet when he hit. He didn't have to worry about falling glass because he wasn't falling at all. Rather he was pressed against the wall a full foot above the floor. He could feel pieces of something pinned between his body and the remaining wall. A sharp pain in his left shoulder indicated that something had penetrated his back. Samantha sat in her accustomed place as the boy stalked toward her. The tile flooring shattered with every footstep. When he reached the carpet it literally burst into flame as he walked. Fortunately the fire did not spread, but the blackened prints of his passage smoldered and smoked. "Show off," Allison whispered. I stopped in front of her and kneeling took one of her hands. As I did I released Frank and his body crashed to the floor. "Look at me," I said softly. She lifted her eyes to meet mine. Where moments before fire had burned, now two eyes like a clear blue sky stared back at her. I kissed her hand and whispered, "Stand up." What happened next surprised the hell out of me. Samantha Watkins leapt to her feet and threw her arms around my neck. Suddenly tears were streaming down her face as she said, "You came. Oh, thank God, you finally came. I'm sorry I doubted you, but I've waited so long." As she shuddered and sobbed against my shoulder I looked past her to where Shannon and Allison stood staring in disbelief. ------- Chapter 56: A Night of Surprises "What is she talking about?" Shannon asked. "I have no idea." Allison answered. "Okay, Jimmy, you've had your fun, now put the house back together and let's see if we can find out what's going on here." "And you may want to consider putting some clothes on her while you're at it." Shannon added. "One thing at a time," I thought as I pressed Samantha gently away. Despite the tears her face was almost shining with something I had never seen in any of my previous visits. Hope. "Samantha. What are you talking about?" I asked. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and said, "She said that a boy would come to help. I kept waiting and waiting and you never came and I had given up, but now you're here. Can you really help?" "That's what I came here for. You knew I was coming?" "Well, not you specifically but someone. Where are the others?" "What others?" "Your two girlfriends," She stopped and suddenly pulled away, fear frozen on her face. "Oh God! You're not him." She started backing further away. Her voice took on a hysterical edge as she went on, "Oh god, this can't be happening, I should have known. Please don't hurt me, don't punish me again, it was a mistake..." I grabbed her and crushed her to my chest as I said, "It's okay. No one is going to hurt you. They're here. See, look." I turned her toward the door way and Shannon was standing there in Angela's body. I took a moment to disguise Allison in Marsha Ostren's body and she too stepped through the still smoking doorway. The girls moved quickly over and without hesitation wrapped their arms around us. Allison began stroking Samantha's hair and whispered, "It's okay, Samantha, we're really here to help, we just don't understand how you knew we were coming. Do you know who we are?" "No, she didn't tell me your names, only that a boy would be coming and that he would have two girls helping him." "Who told you this?" Allison asked. "Mandy," she answered. Talk about being blown away! I was speechless. Shannon and Allison were staring at me, apparently waiting for me to explain it. All I could do was shrug and shake my head. I slowly released Samantha and asked, "Mandy? You mean your sister, Amanda?" "Yes." "When..." I started, but Shannon interrupted. "Hold on a second. Obviously there are a lot questions that are going to need to be answered on both sides, but I don't think this is the place. Samantha? Do you have a bathing suit?" "Of course, it's in my..." "That's okay," I said. "Just picture yourself wearing it." "But..." "It's alright." Allison said, "He's going to take us some place we can talk and we don't want you to sunburn. Besides, it'll help him concentrate. Otherwise he'll spend all of his time wondering why your tits aren't answering any of his questions." "Hey!" I said. "Oh yeah," Shannon said. "Like you've got another reason for leaving her standing here naked all this time?" "I don't mind," Samantha said, her eyes suddenly downcast again. "I'm used to it." "No." I said, gently raising her chin until she once more met my eyes. "Samantha, I am not now, nor will I ever look at you like that. Here." I handed her a terry cloth robe, "We'll worry about your suit later. Now get dressed." I then turned my back, waited and said, "Ready?" "Yes." By the time I turned back we were all standing on the beach outside the cabana. "How did you do that?" Samantha asked as she looked around in awe. "Didn't you know?" Shannon said, "This is a dream." Her face fell. "It's not real? You didn't come to help. I just dreamed you up?" Suddenly she began to cry. "I can't do this anymore!" Again Allison and Shannon rushed to comfort her. Allison stroked and kissed her hair and whispered, "It's okay, baby. It'll be okay. Just let us explain. Yes, it's a dream, but it's real too. Be patient. Here, come in and sit down." Taking her hand she walked the distraught girl to the cabana. I took Shannon's hand in mine and we followed. I felt Shannon squeeze my hand and turned to look at her. She had a pout on her face and a single tear had leaked from her watery eyes. I hugged her to my side and continued up the walkway. Fortunately I hadn't changed the furnishings from the last time we were here with Rebecca. I don't know how well Samantha would have reacted to the bed. I suspect she would have thought she had been set up again. Allison walked her directly to the chair and pulled her down into her lap. I froze Samantha for just a moment and quickly asked, "Names? Are we using our own or changing them?" The girls exchanged glances and Allison answered. "I think changing them would be best. I'm Alice; she's Sharon. Jimmy is still close enough, so you can keep using it." I unfroze the scene and as far as Samantha knew nothing had happened. "Okay, Samantha, this is going to take a while to explain. If you can save your questions until later I may answer them as I go. My name is Jimmy, this is Sharon, and you're sitting in Alice's lap. I'm working with someone investigating your sister's murder. You've met her once already, her name is Rebecca Hampton and she is with the FBI." Samantha's eyes got big and she started to get up but 'Alice' held her tight and whispered, "It's okay." I continued, "When Rebecca came to interview your family it was obvious that something was wrong. Let me back up for a second. The man who killed your sister has killed two other girls as well. The first was a girl from northern California, Amanda was the second, the third girl was from Ventura, out on the coast of Southern California. I can't tell you all the details but there are several things that the victims all had in common. They were all young, recent high school graduates; all athletes at the top of their sports who were going to college on full scholarships; and they were all sexually active in some unusual fashion. One girl was into group sex, the other was trading sex for presents. When your father insisted that your sister was not active it meant that she didn't fit the profile, so we knew it wasn't true. We didn't find out about her having sex with your father until after Rebecca came to see your family. Once we found out the truth she knew he was lying but she had no way to find out what was going on. So she asked me to try and talk to you and convince you to tell us what's happening. "Samantha, I have a very special gift. I can move around in other people's dreams, and I can move them around as well. It's how I found out about your sister and the other two girls. It's also how we knew your father was lying. Tonight, when this all started, we were in your dream, or nightmare. Now, we have moved to one of my dreams. This is a place I created a while back to relax and talk to people. So when we came here, we left your dream and entered mine." I faded myself to invisibility, "I can be invisible if I want." I faded back in. "I've been watching your dreams for about three weeks. I've seen what's been happening to you. I've seen two other men take advantage of you. I have a pretty good idea of what your father has in store for Rachel when she grows up. Samantha, look at me. I'm going to stop this. It will take time and I have to stop your sister's killer first; he is my number one priority right now because it's coming up on time for him to kill again. The FBI is working on that with me. But for now, it's only me working on this for you. The FBI can't get involved unless I find a reason that they can show someone. From what we've seen, this is a lot bigger than we thought. Samantha, do you know how many people are involved?" "No. But there are a lot. No one knows everyone. Even my father doesn't know them all. I don't..." I held up my hand. "That's okay. Now, from what we have seen, they are threatening you to keep you from talking. They're having you spy on other girls and other people spying on you that you don't know, is that right?" She nodded. "What happens if someone talks?" "They die or disappear." "You mean they're threatening to kill you if you tell anyone?" "Not just you, your whole family." "But they could never get away with it." "They already have. The year before Mandy died, one of the girls went to the police. They arrested her father. He was murdered in jail. The very next day she, her mother, her sister, were all found dead in their house. The paper said her mother flipped out and killed the girls, then committed suicide. My dad showed us a copy of the paper." "Everybody was scared when Mandy disappeared. They were afraid she had turned. My father was actually happy when they found her dead. Well, maybe not happy, but relieved. There was another girl, Cindy, who talked. I didn't know her, but she disappeared. The paper said she ran away from home but it's not true." "How do you know?" "My dad showed me pictures. She was holding a newspaper but it wasn't printed in English. I think she's in the middle-east somewhere because she was wearing one of those "I dream of Jeannie" outfits and had a big gold shackle with a padlock around one ankle. She had a black eye too. They sold her." "How do you know she told someone?" "She told another girl she was going to run away, they caught her and made her tell the name of the girl. Theresa was her name. They put her in the chair for a whole weekend for not turning her in before she did it." "The chair?" Shannon asked. Samantha shuddered and seemed to shrink into Allison's lap. "That's what they call it. It's this thing they strap you into, with your legs out wide and your hands tied behind your back. They can turn it all different ways. Usually they just suspend you in the air flat, and then they take turns with you, lots of them. They wear robes and masks so no one knows who anybody is. They just leave you there with no food or water; they just keep fucking you, over and over, sometimes two and three at a time. With Theresa, they started Friday night and went until late Sunday. They made us watch. By the time they took her out she couldn't even stand up. They had to keep mopping the floor because it got slippery from all the stuff running out of her. "Someone had to notice something was wrong with her? Didn't she miss school?" She shook her head. "She was out for over a week. It still hurt to walk and her voice was gone for another week after she came back. One of them is a doctor, I think. He has a room in his basement where they take you if you need a doctor. He's who we see for checkups and stuff. He gives us our birth control pills too. Every two months we get an exam, he fucks us and gives us our pills and then we go home." "Could you identify him?" "Sure, if I saw him, any of us could, I even have the address, but no one would dare. I usually take the bus when it's my time to go." She turned and looked out the window. "You have to find them all or it's not safe, and they know you can't catch them all." "I already figured that part out. Samantha, I promise you, I am going to find them, all of them. I don't care how long it takes, but eventually I will find them. I will find a way to stop them. But it will take time and until then I can't stop what's happening to you. I hate that I can't stop it sooner, but I can't. Will you be okay?" "Yes. I'm used to it. Just don't tell me what you're doing. I don't want to know what's happening, that might give me hope and that might make me careless. I don't want to be punished again. I'll be fine." I looked at her sitting there in Allison's lap, eyes once more downcast and I wanted to kill someone. "Tell me about what Amanda told you." "It was the day after they found her," she said. Tears began to form and her voice began to crack as she spoke, "She came to me in a dream that night. She was worried about Rachel. She made me promise to look out for her and protect her. She told me that a boy would come to help me. She didn't give a name, just that it would be a boy with two girls that helped him. She made me promise that I would be strong, and... and I tried but it's been so long... and I miss her so much." She finally broke down and cried. Huge wracking sobs tore over her body. "She was all I had. The only one who understood; the only one who loved me, and soon they will come for Rachel and I can't stop them." She cried for a long time. I don't know if she had ever been allowed to cry when her sister died. From the brief glimpses we had had, I don't think she was allowed to cry at all. Finally she had her chance and once she started all you could do was let it run its course. Allison just held her and stroked her and rocked the chair back and forth. It took me a second to realize that she had added the rockers. I glanced at Shannon and tears were streaming down her face as well. I pulled her too me, stroked and kissed her hair, and then stood and crossed the room. As I moved toward them Allison's chair stretched and changed until it was big enough for all of us. I sat on the edge as it continued to reshape itself. Soon they were lying together on a soft double bed. Allison on her back with the sobbing girl nestled in her arms. I motioned to Shannon. She promptly came over and cuddled up close behind Samantha, wrapping her arms around her and spooning up close. I kissed Shannon's cheek, stroked Samantha's hair and whispered, "Rest." She gave a final sigh and settled into Allison's arms, asleep. Okay, technically she had been asleep the whole time but I kind of pushed her into relaxing and resting. I left them there and went outside, pulling my phone from my pocket as I closed the door. I hit the button and waited for Rebecca to answer. "Hi, Jimmy, what's up?" "We need to talk. Bring Bob with you." "How did you... very funny wise ass. You know damn well mine isn't real, and it's none of your... just a minute." She closed her phone as she walked out of the little changing tent next to the table and chairs. She set the phone and her gun on the table then turned back to me. "Alright, wise guy, you and me, right here, right now. No trolls, no cartoon tricks, just stand there like a man so I can kick you ass!" "Now Rebecca," Bob said as he came out behind her. "You know you can't just beat up children whenever you feel like it. It's called assault and it's against the law." He started to slip his hands around her waist. She shrugged him off. "It's a dream and no one will ever know." "You'll know," he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "And even in a dream you know it's wrong. And eventually you will admit that and then you will have to endure me saying I told you so. Now, is it really worth all that?" He hugged her and swung her in a circle. She almost fell over as he flung her out in a little dance spin. Suddenly there was music playing and he pulled her back in. The black tux was a nice touch, but those shoes weren't going to last long in the sand. When she hit his chest she was wearing a long evening gown split high up one side. Fortunately she'd stayed with bare feet instead of the matching heels. "Okay," she said, "but can I kill him when he turns eighteen?" "If you still want to," he said. He kissed her nose and she blushed. Then he turned to me. "James, methinks you've been being bad again. Haven't you learned not to pick on women with guns yet?" "I think I was sick that day. You guys are really getting good. Rebecca, I'm sorry for teasing you. And just so you know, I wasn't spying, I guessed." "Oh ho!" said Bob. "So that is what started this. I am flattered, my dear. Thanks for the compliment. Now, what is it that you needed to see us about, Jimmy?" I told them everything that Samantha had told us about life in sin city. Yeah, kind of gave new meaning to the nickname. Both of them were appropriately upset by the whole thing. "God, this just keeps getting worse." Rebecca said. "Do you think she'll talk to me?" "I don't know, maybe. Why?" "I still want to talk to her about her sister. See if there is any kind of usable information she can give me." "I don't think there is, Rebecca. Anything she can tell you now is still just information you can't use. You need a real world contact, and she is being watched by people she doesn't even know. She could never risk it." "But if she could contact me and tell me what is going on..." "You still couldn't use it," Bob said. "There is no evidence to support any of it. The killings were already explained; the other girl was listed as a runaway. The third one was held and treated until all signs of what happened were gone, physically anyway. All you have is the word of a sixteen year old girl against a bunch of honest, law abiding citizens. And if what she said about the family that was killed is true, then these people are well connected and very well protected. Jimmy's right, this is all or nothing. We have to be able to ID and apprehend all of them almost at the same time to have a chance of stopping this, or at least enough of them so that the rest go into hiding. Even then, if they have a mutual revenge pact of some kind, whoever we miss may start killing people so that the one's locked up will know he is keeping up his end. Eliminate a few witnesses or potential witnesses and suddenly the rest decide it's safer to shut up again. You have to get them all." "Do you have any idea of the manpower that would take? It's task force stuff and you can't hide a task force. Not one that size." "Then it's a job for me. I'll just keep bridging people until I run out of links. I'll build you a map as I go. I'll put together lists of the victims as well as the abusers. If we could round them all up at once and put them in a room, we could have the victims tell us if we missed anyone." She thought for a second. "That could work, provided we can get them all. I don't think this can be that big. Too large and it would almost fall apart on its own. I'm betting we're going to end with a maximum of thirty or forty principals here.' "That's not exactly small," Bob said. "There are over two and a half million people in greater Las Vegas, Bob." "We'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now I need to go back inside. Thanks for coming." I went back inside. The girls were still cuddled up together. Samantha seemed to be asleep but there was still work to do, and I had an idea. I motioned for Allison to come over by the door. I made sure Samantha didn't wake up as she crawled free. She just rolled over and snuggled up to Shannon instead. I told Allison what I was thinking and she got a huge grin on her face and said, "I love you. Thanks for letting me do this." I hugged and kissed her and then we went back to wake Samantha up. It took her a minute to reorient herself to her surroundings. She was a little frightened at first but that passed quickly as she remembered what had happened. "Samantha," I began, "there is no way of knowing how long this may take. I don't know how many people are involved. I only know of the two men I saw you with besides your father. It would help if you could show me all of the people that you know to be involved. That will give me a broader base to begin with. I'll be able to start linking people together quicker that way. We're not going to do that tonight though. I want you to have time to let all this sink in and be comfortable that we are telling the truth and that you are safe talking to us. Meanwhile, I want to do something for you. Two things really; first, I want to stop the nightmares. It's bad enough that you have to live it during the day; you shouldn't have to relive it every night. Alice?" Allison produced a box with a bracelet inside. Samantha recognized it at once as being Amanda's. "That was Mandy's. Where did you get it?" she asked. I tapped her forehead and said, "Right here, I just wanted something that would mean something to you. I thought something of hers would be best. Put it on." She slipped it onto her wrist and I continued, "Watch this." I took her hand and concentrated for a second and the bracelet changed. It was now a gold charm bracelet with perhaps 15 little charms hanging from it. "Mandy's charm bracelet! My dad wouldn't let me have this. I don't know what he did with it." I let go of her hand and it changed back. "This will do two things. First it will tell you when you are dreaming one of your dreams. From now on, anytime you dream, that charm bracelet will be on your wrist. If I move you to another dream, mine or someone else's, it will change back to this one. Whichever dream you are in, yours or someone else, if I touch you, it will switch to the other one. That way you will always know that it's really me. Got it?" She threw her arms around me. "Thank you, Jimmy. And it stops my nightmares too?" "Yes. From now on, no more dreams about sex unless it was sex you wanted to have. And you may find yourself dreaming about your sister more, that's so you don't forget her." "Oh! Can you do something for Rachel too? She was crying the other day because she has trouble remembering her m... remembering Mandy." I glanced quickly at Allison to see if she had caught it too. She gave me a 'we'll talk later' look as I said, "I'll come up with something for Rachel as well. But I wont' let her see me or talk to me because she might say something. One more thing, if you ever see Alice or Sharon in a dream and you don't see me, don't trust them until you are sure I am there too. If I'm invisible I will touch you so your bracelet will change. If you're not sure, don't take chances, I don't know for certain if I'm the only one that can do this and I wouldn't want you to say something that might get you in trouble just because you thought it was us. Now, it's time to take you back and then the girls and I have one more stop to make. You're going to be woken up early in the morning, probably everyone will be. Rachel may get scared so be prepared in case you need to take care of her." "What's going to happen?" Allison grinned wickedly and said, "Daddy's about to have a bad dream." With hugs all around I sent Samantha back to her own now much more peaceful dreams. Allison was practically bouncing in anticipation. "What are you up to?" Shannon asked. "Will the bracelet really stop the nightmares?" "It will if she believes it will." I said. "Jimmy's taking me to play with Frank. Wanna join me?" Allison answered with an evil grin. "Eww! Like no! I don't want to touch that guy even in a dream." "Chicken," Allison scoffed. "You should at least come along and watch. You're not going to want to miss this." "Jimmy?" Shannon glanced at me. I just held up my hands. "I'm just driving her there and picking her up. You're welcome to come along and keep me company." "Well, okay. But if it gets too gross, I'm leaving." "Cool!" Allison said. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the few images she had of Amanda Watkins. Within a few moments she had achieved a really good likeness. "Okay, I want the scene with Samantha in the living room waiting for dear sweet Daddy to come home, only no Rachel or Mommy dearest. You remember that book you were reading where the vampires could, like, go all zombie, any time they wanted?" "Yeah, what about it?" I asked. "I want you to zombie me. You'll know when to start and then just start rotting me away. Make it a fast transition. Start slow but then accelerating until parts start to fall off, then hold me there." Shannon began to chuckle. "You are a sick, sick, girl! I love it. Oh I can't wait to see that bastard's face. Is there any way to video tape this?" When we arrived in the living room of the Watkins's home, Allison was naked and kneeling in the appointed place, Shannon and I stood invisibly nearby. A few seconds later the door opened. Immediately Frank knew something was different. It only took a second to realize what. Irene and Rachel were missing, and that was not Samantha. The hair was too light. In fact it looked a lot like... "Amanda?" "Yes, my Lord." "Ah, I have missed you; it will be so nice to have you again. I was beginning to forget just how good you were." He came to stand before her like so many times before. "Yes, my Lord." She reached up to unzip his pants and pulled out his prize possessions. I couldn't help but notice how much larger they seemed in his dreams compared to Samantha's. Shannon just pointed and laughed. She arranged him carefully and took him in her mouth a few times, one hand cupping his large hairy balls. "It has been a long time, my Lord, I did not want you to forget me. In fact, I came back to make sure you would never forget me. I want you to remember me just as I am, you disgusting arrogant pig." "How dare y..." he froze as his eyes met hers. Her eyes had gone a milky white, her skin a mottled gray-blue color. He started to back away but the grip on his nuts suddenly became painfully tight. "What's the matter, Daddy? Don't you love me any more?" She opened her mouth and sucked him in again. He screamed as the jagged broken teeth bit hard into his manhood. She bit it completely in two and spit the bloody hunk to one side, a piece of her lip went with it. By the time she turned back her face had become a thing of nightmare as the decomposed flesh became more desiccated. Her eyeballs now rolled loosely in hollowed sockets. I stopped the decomposition at this point. He tried to run but an inhumanly strong hand knocked his feet out from under him. Immediately she was on top of him, plunging her mouth once more into his crotch, she tore the rest of his cock and balls off along with most of the front of his pants. She chewed them a few times as he watched, spat them out and began pulling herself up his body. He tried to kick her loose but she was covering his legs and he couldn't get them free. Blood flowed freely down the front of what was left of his pants. He hit her twice in the face, the rotting flesh splashed around the impact and oozed free, revealing the bone of her skull underneath. She grabbed his hand and wrenched it painfully out and down, the bone crushed in her hand and the elbow exploded from the socket. Flesh tore as she used the arm to pull her body further up his, without the support of the now broken bone; the flesh could not handle the strain and blood fountained as the whole lower arm finally tore loose. She cast it aside, buried her face in his abdomen, and began to chew her way through his flesh, violently tearing skin and muscle to reach the tender organs within. The early morning quiet was torn by a horrified scream. Frank Watkins fell and hit his head on the nightstand while trying frantically to escape the thing in his bed. By the time Irene got the light on he was huddled in the corner next to the closet with blood leaking in a line down his face from the small cut. More screams split the night as little Rachel responded to the sounds her father was making. Her cries stopped abruptly as Samantha went to comfort her. Samantha picked her sister up and took her back to her room where she snuggled the little girl back to sleep, smiling all the while It was still early and Frank, realizing it was just a nightmare, put a band-aid on his forehead and tried to go back to sleep, but every time sleep started to claim him he would jerk awake again and reach to reassure himself that all was still well down below. ------- Chapter 57: Baby Steps The look on Frank Watkins's face when Allison began ripping his guts out didn't make up for the atrocities he had visited on his daughters, but it was a good start. And it felt really, really good. I guess that qualified as ending on a high note. Saturday morning I made a surprise announcement to the family. For several weeks I had been watching the paper, going online to check values, checking maintenance schedules, and checking insurance rates. I was now sixteen years old and having passed the test my driver's license would be coming in the mail sometime soon. I had been diligently saving for quite some time in the hopes of being the only freshman at my school with a car. I had around $2000 in my savings to spend and my dad had graciously consented to take me out this weekend to look for something. As everyone was gathered at breakfast I dropped the bomb that I had decided not to buy a car just yet. "What?" asked Allison, "Why not?" "I can't afford it," I answered. "Jimmy, you've got two grand, there are a lot of cars out there you could buy." "True, but it's not that simple. I've been looking and anything descent would take pretty much everything I have. Taxes and registration eats up about ten percent right up front, which drops me to eighteen hundred, even minimal insurance for a teenage driver is a hundred a month with two months up front. That drops me to barely over fifteen hundred." "But you see ads all the time for insurance for like, twenty nine dollars a month," she argued. "Oh sure, you can get insurance that cheap, but you might as well not be insured. I checked them out; those rates get you the bare minimum of liability coverage required by the state. If I got into an accident that was actually my fault it wouldn't cover much of anything. If someone got injured it would almost guarantee that Mom and Dad would get sued because the coverage is so minimal and it wouldn't cover my car at all. Even if the accident wasn't my fault, if the other driver was un-insured, I still wouldn't be able to afford to fix my car. Add it all up and no matter what I buy, with insurance, gas, and just basic maintenance, it's going to cost me between 100 to 150 dollars per month to drive. I'd have to get a job." My parents were looking at each other as I continued. "So in order to drive, I have to gut my savings, and give up all my free time after school and weekends. When I got to thinking about it, there is no place I need to go that badly. I can keep taking the bus to school and back. I'm not really into hanging out in public for the sake of it so it's not a big deal if I can't drive to the mall to hang out with everyone else that couldn't come up with better plans. If I have something important to do I'm sure Mom or Dad would still take me." "Actually son," my dad said, "I'm sure if it's something important, or if you have a date of something, you could just borrow one of our cars. We can add you to our insurance as an occasional driver; the cost is minimal if you're not listed as a primary driver. I must say I am very impressed with your decision, and the reasons behind it. I am curious though, is there more to this than you are saying. Maybe another reason you don't want a job?" "Mostly I just don't want to give up my time with Allison after school in the afternoons. I've gotten really attached to being able to just sit and talk to her. It really helps when there is a lot going on. I think that may be very important in the near future." That got their attention. "What do you mean?" Mom asked. "Well, this is going to sound strange, I probably shouldn't say anything as it's an active investigation but then, I'm not an officer of any kind so it's not like they could do anything to me. The killer is most likely stalking his next victim as we speak. The girls have all been kidnapped shortly after graduating high school. You remember those weird dreams I started having? We've decided that I am most likely picking up images directly from the killer. I'm trying to watch for anything that may give us a clue as to who he has in mind. I spend a lot of time talking to Allison and Bob about what I see as a way to try and sort it out and make sure I'm not missing anything that may help us catch him before he can kill another girl. If I could identify the victim he has selected then maybe we could catch him in the act of trying to abduct her. It's a stretch but right now it's all we have." I didn't feel like elaborating on my new project. If working with the FBI to catch a serial killer freaked my mom out, working alone to catch a ring of sociopathic assholes who were using their daughters as sex slaves and passing them around like party favors would certainly not go over well. Especially if she found out that the FBI couldn't even get involved. No, that was something I felt no desire at all to share with my parents. My mom got up and hugged me, "Jimmy, I'm so proud of you I just can't find words. Of course you can use my car if you need it. Just try and let me know as far in advance as you can and I'll make plans around you as much as I can." She kissed me on the cheek then turned and kissed Allison as well. "Help him where you can, Sweetie." "Cool, then can I take Allison and Shannon to the movies today? I mean after I do the lawns and my regular chores of course." "Certainly dear." That pretty much settled the car issue for the time being. The girls and I headed out to the mall and did a little shopping as well as catching an afternoon show. Then we spent an energetic night at the beach. Sunday morning was a family outing. We were taking the girls to meet Lynn & Melinda at the park for volleyball. The five of us would start a little rotation 2 on 2 and see if we couldn't pick up some pigeons, I mean players. It didn't take long and we had a pretty good line of volunteers. Eventually we ended up with the five of us and another guy, Stephen, taking on pretty much all comers. It was a rotation event. Winners kept playing as long as they could hold the court. After 5 straight victories we finally lost but I credit that to exhaustion. It turned out Stephen was a hitter for one of the other local high schools. He and the coaches recognized each other. He was a senior and already had offers from UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State. He had other offers but they would mean moving out of California. The only one currently tempting him was Hawaii but he didn't think he wanted to risk being trapped in the islands for four years. It sounded like a dream trip but it's still an island and most of the people there were just visiting. Besides, he was a business major and unless you were interested in the hospitality industry, the prospect of an internship or work related position was pretty limited. The dream time the girls and I had been putting in practicing had been paying off big. We had all improved dramatically, both the coaches, and Stephen, were very impressed. Allison and I spent most of our time alternating between setter and back court defender, shagging balls that got past the blockers up front. With both of us on the same team it meant one of us was almost always available to set up the next attack. The parents had come along to watch, Tom and Karen brought an ice chest packed with hamburgers they had prepared in advance. Tom's mastery of the grill netted us a great meal. We invited Steven to join us but he declined stating he had report due the next day and he had to finish proofreading it and making any last minute changes. We shook hands, said goodbye and then settled in to make the most of lunch. "I can't believe," Lynn said, "how much you guys have improved since we started." "Yes," Melinda added. "It's hard to believe you just took this up four months ago, you girls, and you especially, Jimmy, are awesome. I can't wait until fall. We are going to kick ass this year!" In case you were wondering the sports schedule for the two schools were different. Junior High played volleyball in the spring, High School played in the fall. Lynn just gave her a condescending smile and said, "You're welcome. You know I'm getting a little tired of giving you all these great players just so you can come home and rub your winning records in my face." "Come on now, Lynn, it's called growing up, maybe you should try it." "Oh!" Shannon sputtered around a mouth full of chips. "She did not go there!" Allison was stomping her feet and trying hard not to spit food all over the table. Just watching her almost made me lose my mouthful. I swallowed hard and said, "Alright you two don't make me separate you." I found out later it was all a set up. I never saw the wink but suddenly Mel got very defensive. "She started it." "Did not!" answered her partner, and she elbowed Mel in the ribs for emphasis. Mel started to respond and then I made the mistake of the afternoon. I got up and forced my way onto the bench between them. Huge mistake. I saw Allison roll her eyes at Shannon and realized something was up just as four hands found my ribs. Dèjá vu times two. I sat there with my legs pinned under the table and two of the most physically fit women I have ever met working in tandem to tickle me senseless. It didn't take long. I'm not sure how long it lasted or if I passed out at some point but when I regained my senses the two teachers where doing there best to extricate themselves from the table enough to put up some sort of defense against my two little angels. The girls had taken pity on me and jumped in to save me at the last minute. Eventually Dad and Tom stepped in, each picking their daughter up by the waist and pulling them out of reach. Mom and Karen were laughing too hard to do anything. It only got worse when the two women jumped up and each attacked one of the men telling them that if they had wanted their help they would have asked for it and to mind their own business. The girls of course took advantage of the distraction and the two dads each found themselves double teamed. I was in no condition to help and had learned my lesson. I stayed where I was. Finally Mom picked up Mel's keys and blew her whistle. Karen yelled, "Time out! Neutral corners!" And we all dissolved into laughter. Fresh water bottles were passed around and the meal resumed as if nothing had happened. Sunday night I took Allison and went to visit Samantha again. She was just... drifting I guess was a good word. No real pattern or reason, just sort of floating in sleep. I decided for simplicity sake we would take her someplace familiar so we went to the cabana and I was about to wake her when Allison stopped me. "Let me do it." "Okay, but why does it matter?" "Because I want you invisible, I want to see if she remembers what you told her." "Allison, what are you..." "Jimmy, don't. I have to make sure she takes it seriously. You know what could happen if she gets caught, if she makes a mistake. They will try to find out who she's been talking to and she doesn't know who or where we are. Do you seriously think they will believe that she doesn't know? Do you want to be the reason she gets to spend a weekend in that chair? And that may not be the worst that they have. If she doesn't answer they may decide they can't risk it and do something permanent. She could be another 'runaway' or 'teenage suicide.' And what if she does talk? It's unlikely that they will believe her story but then where does that leave us? Do you really want an unknown number of these people to hear about a boy that walks around in other people's dreams? How long before someone starts putting rumors together and thinking there may be more to it than just a few wild stories. We have to know. She has to know. I'm sorry, but we have to do this. Now kiss me and try to behave yourself until it's time." "And how will I know it's time?" "If she does it right, then fine, if not then stay out and wait for something to happen." I thought about what she had said. Sometimes I really hate her being right all the time. I really didn't want to do this but, at the same time, I knew it was necessary. Not just for Samantha's sake, but for my own, our own, safety as well. I brought Samantha in asleep on the bed, then faded out, and let Allison get on with it. Samantha was sleeping in just her panties, I started to put a long shirt on her but that might hint that something was wrong. If this was how she saw herself... the fact that she had really nice breasts didn't hurt either. I watched as Allison transformed into Alice in just her panties as well, then spooned up close, and wrapped her arms around Samantha. I released the girl from sleep and 'Alice' kissed her hair and gave her a firm hug to wake her. Samantha's eyes opened and she looked scared as she took in her surroundings. Recognition dawned and a smile started to crease her face. Before it reached her eyes the smile froze and then faded as fast as it had come. She gently hugged the arms that enfolded her then pulled way enough to turn and face the owner of those arms. "Good morning, sunshine." Alice said. "I thought you were going to sleep all day." Samantha lay with eyes downcast, seemingly staring at Alice's breasts but in reality just not looking at her eyes. "Forgive me, my lady, I did not mean to keep you waiting." "My Lady? Samantha, it's me, Alice. Hello, dream, cabana in the middle of nowhere. Any of this ring a bell? I just wanted to see how you were doing, that's all. The others were busy so I came by myself." "As you wish, my Lady, how may I serve you?" Allison reached out a hand, caressed the girl's face, and said, "You don't need to do this for me, sweetie. We're friends. I'm on your side, remember?" "I do not know what you mean, Lady, please, I only wish to serve, how might I please you?" "Stop it. Stop pretending you don't know me. Look." She changed to my likeness. "Now do you believe me?" "I would never doubt you, my Lady," Samantha said, eyes once more downcast. "I simply do not know you. Please tell me what you desire and I will do my utmost, you are new to me and I do not know your whim." Allison's face softened and she took Samantha's hand in hers and kissed it gently. She changed back to 'Alice' and said softly, "I'm sorry, Samantha; I had to know that you wouldn't fall for a trick." She raised her head and said, "Jimmy." Still invisible I placed my hand upon Samantha's shoulder and the bracelet changed. Samantha's eyes got wide and she launched herself into Alice's arms, hugging her fiercely. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for truly being here. I so wanted to believe it was you. But I feared that it would be a trap and I didn't want to give you away." I faded back in and she left Alice to hug me instead. She kissed my cheek and pulled back again. "Thank you for testing me. You don't know how important it is that I don't fail. You think you do, but you don't, you can't. Please, test me, test me often, keep me sure." I didn't know what to say, so I put shirts on both of them and changed the subject to the point of the visit. "I came to talk to you about Rachel. I want to help her but I need something that I can give her without her knowing it. Something that I can tie to Amanda's memory, something that will mean something to her and help her to remember. Is there something like the bracelet that would mean something to Rachel? I think she is too young to use jewelry, and I can't tell her what it is." Samantha's brow furrowed in thought. "I don't know. Father took almost everything that was Amanda's when she died, pictures, jewelry, clothes. Even stuff of hers that I would borrow, he got rid of it all, or hid it away." "Pictures!" Allison said. "That's it, Jimmy. You can make her a photo album. We can use Samantha's memories and some of Rachel's too. Then anytime she wants she can just open it up and look at it." "Can you really do that?" Samantha asked. "Oh, I hope you can, it would mean so much to her." I smiled and said, "Yeah, I really can, let's go make some memories." I took her hand, concentrated, and moved us all into Rachel's dream. It was kind of cartoony in a way; very simple, almost two dimensional with a lot of bright, primary colors, and a tendency towards pastels. We watched invisibly as Rachel played with her dolls in her room. She wasn't alone but the figure was at best a shadowy image of Amanda. I turned to Samantha and said, "I'm going to put you outside the door and I want you to walk in and play with them. While you are there concentrate on the image of Amanda and we will use your memory to bring her image back. Once she is solid I will fade her out of the scene again. I'll move everyone into one of my dreamscapes so we can work. Talk to Rachel about Amanda; get her to picture places they went and different memories of her. Picture them in your mind; picture scenes where she was with Amanda and they will form around you. Alice and I will be invisible but we will start taking pictures of you in those different scenes. Then maybe we can start a scrapbook for her." Samantha's eyes began to tear as she hugged me said, "Thank you. This will mean so much to her." She hugged Alice and drew back. "What do I do?" "Just walk through the door and when you get to the other side you will be solid and visible, then just walk back in and take it from there. You will be able to hear us, even see a shadowy image of us, so if we need you to do something specific we'll tell you. Just be careful not to look at us too often or stare; it would attract attention, Rachel might realize something was wrong. And don't worry, Rachel won't remember any of what we are going to do or see. She won't mention to anyone that Samantha came and took her to see her big sister again. When we're done and everything is ready she will have a dream in which she finds a picture album of time she spent with Amanda." We spent the rest of the night moving around with Samantha and Rachel as they remembered Amanda. We took lots of photographs; dream cameras are great, unlimited film. Eventually we faded the scene with a promise to Samantha that we would be back to help her put it all together. Then we headed off to spend some time with Shannon. When we told her what we had been doing she came up with a truly fabulous idea. "Can you make the pictures magic?" "What do you mean magic?" "Well, it just came to me when you said what you were doing that it sounded like magic. I got this flash from when I was little; we used to watch old reruns of that TV show, Bewitched. Every once in a while one of the pictures would come to life and move or talk. I just thought it would be cool to do that with Rachel's pictures." Allison jumped up, kissed her, and said, "Oh, you are just sooo smart! I love you! I'm so glad we have you!" I figured the best use of my time would be to just let the girls get creative, so I left them in the cabana and went to play with the dolphins for a while. Something was nagging at me about Rachel, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but something just seemed out of place. I was hoping that maybe if I left it alone it would just come to the surface by itself. Dolphins are a great distraction. Monday Much to the disappointment of the coach, I had opted not to try out for the track team. I enjoyed running but I'm really not that competitive a person. And as had been pointed out before, track and field was a brutal place to compete. It wasn't so much a sport as a lifestyle. Tim and Angie, on the other hand, lived to run. Over the course of the year Tim had been pushing himself harder to try and keep pace with his sister. It was a valiant effort but keeping up with an Olympic level athlete was a tall order. He was good for about five kilometers and then she left him in the dust. Some afternoons, if the girls had plans, I would hang out and watch the track team practice. The girls were going to Shannon's to work on a report after school; they seemed to think I would distract them if they used our house, go figure. I was meeting with Bob and Steve Dennis to discuss some ideas for improving relations with the school and his security staff. Things had been getting better as the year progressed. There were problems of course; there are always problems, people that just don't want to play nice with others, gang members trying to throw their weight around. The lost groups that were struggling to fit in somewhere. These were the ones that frequently found themselves in trouble. The solo kids that played on the fringes of the bad groups, they wanted to belong but they didn't understand the game. They didn't know the rules. Learning the rules can be painful, forgetting the rules can get you hurt. Breaking the rules could get you killed. There had been two students killed this year. Neither one on campus but both deaths had been gang involved. One had died on an initiation gone wrong. He had boosted a car but been spotted doing it. He had died in a fiery crash at the end of a high speed pursuit. He had been too afraid of going to jail to just stop and surrender. A wrong turn took him up a mountain road; a missed turn had taken him down an embankment. His neck had been broken when the car flipped. The second one had been just the previous week and was even more tragic. A kid dressed up like a gang banger had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been shot by a police officer when he ran from officers that had only wanted to question him about a holdup in the area. He had run, eventually he had stopped and reached inside his sweatshirt for his ID. After running for several blocks the cops were not in a second chance frame of mind. Both of the officers involved were on administrative leave pending the outcome of the internal investigation. A traffic helicopter had been in the area and gotten the whole thing on video. The officer who had shot him, a fifteen year veteran who had never fired his gun on duty, had wept at the scene when he found out the young man had been un-armed. The other officer, according to Steve, was in counseling and considering quitting the force. You can imagine the media frenzy that had ensued. All the usual questions were being asked, "How could this happen?" "How could a descent kid from an outwardly normal family have been mistaken for a robbery suspect?" The papers and the news media were making the cops out to be bloodthirsty, trigger-happy thugs with badges. It was a sad situation. "I think he just panicked," I told Steve as we sat with Bob at the table we usually used for lunch. "He saw the cops coming towards him and he didn't know what to do." "Don't take this wrong, Jimmy, but, duh! Of course he panicked. The question is why, and how do you keep it from happening again? How do you get through to these kids that the cops aren't out to get them?" "It's an image problem, Steve," I said. "No different than the one you face here, just on a larger scale." "Oh come on," he shot back. "You cannot be serious, how can you even compare..." Bob held up his hand and cut him off, "Hold on a second, Steve. Go ahead, Jimmy, how is it the same?" Uh-oh, I really stepped in it this time. I stopped for a moment to collect my thoughts and then plowed right in, "Well, the police have been pretty much vilified by the media at every opportunity for as long as I can remember. The only time you ever see them on the news or in the paper is if something goes wrong. Then that's all you hear about unless there's a disaster somewhere. You almost never hear them referred to as 'officers' in conversation, cops is about as good as it gets. Heck, we both just called them that. Most of the things you hear them called are far from complimentary and even the best still carry some negative connotation. You'd think all the police ever did was shoot people and make up excuses for pulling over good drivers. I realize no one is happy about getting a ticket but even if they were speeding most people think the officer involved should have more important things to do than hassle them. I mean aren't there actual criminals out there they should be catching?" Bob and Steve just rolled their eyes at that one. "So they have the same problem with image but on a much, much larger scale. They are dependant on the major media for any attention they get, and no matter what they do they either did it wrong or didn't do it well enough or fast enough. Say they catch a serial killer, that's great, but why did it take so long? Why did so many people have to die before they put the clues together and caught the guy? Oh gee, do you think maybe it had something to do with all the bad press they get, that maybe that's why nobody wanted to talk to them, or give them any information? Oh no, that couldn't be it, and even it was, that's not the media's problem, they only report the news. Your problem is similar; most students' experiences with you are negative. It seems to be getting better; people don't shut down as soon as you show up. But I wonder if you could be doing more." "Like what?" Steve asked. "Oh, I don't know. I don't really know what you're doing now. I'm one of the lower profile people around here; I avoid trouble so I don't run into you or your people in a professional capacity. What are some of the common problems?" "Oh, let's see, vandalism, theft, and people breaking into lockers or cars. Then there is the really serious stuff, the gang crap, drugs and violence." "Is there a lot of that stuff going on?" "It comes and goes, but there's always something." "Okay, let's take theft. If someone sees someone else breaking into a locker, or into a car, what do you do about it?" "Usually? We take a report after it happens and wish them luck. No one ever sees anything. And if they do, they are afraid to come forward with the information. The first we hear of it is when the victim or their parents come screaming to us that they got ripped off or their car got trashed." "Okay, and then who else knows it happened? Or where it happened?" "Just my staff and whoever else they scream to." "Why? Why not tell everyone? Why not put up a notice somewhere? Say a car gets broken into, why not take a picture of the damage and put it up with the information of whose car it was, when and where it happened, what was taken, everything. Put a sign under it that says, "You could be next!" Put a drop box somewhere that students can use to drop anonymous tips in. Put up a couple of them so that no one can just watch the box to see who puts stuff in it. Set up a post office box, in case someone is worried about being seen. I don't know; make up a different reason for the boxes all together. Take a weekly poll, school improvements, best couple, best hair, hottest car, most boring class, worst dressed, whatever else you can think of, just make them dual purpose and let everyone know that the boxes can also be used for anonymous tips as well. Anyone trying to watch the boxes wouldn't have any idea who was putting what in it. Oh, but be prepared, you're going to get a lot of stupid stuff in there as well, especially trash at first, but then the novelty will wear off. And if you catch someone, make sure it gets out. I know you can't name names or anything, but it's amazing how fast rumors spread around here. If the right students found out it wouldn't take long for the whole school to know. Heck, a little anonymous graffiti in the right rest room would do it." He laughed at that. "Oh yeah, I'm sure the janitors would be thrilled at that suggestion!" Bob was looking thoughtful as we laughed over the janitor's probable reaction. "What's up? Why so serious?" I asked. "Just had a thought, an idea in radical alternative education." "How radical?" "Well, I was just wondering something, how would you feel about being arrested? Say, in front of the whole school?" Steve really perked up at this. "You can't be serious." "Actually I am. I think we have a real opportunity here. I am going to talk to Jason's parents about it first and see if they would mind if I try to use their son's death to try and prevent the same thing happening again." "And exactly how is this going to help?" Steve asked. "Jimmy said it. Jason panicked and ran. How different would it have been if he had just stood his ground and cooperated? What's the worst thing that would have happened? He would have been taken in for questioning. His parents would have been called. But he was innocent. The clerk from the store would have come in and said it wasn't him. Heck, his prints wouldn't have matched. They caught the kid the next day when they ran the prints he left on the counter and on the door. Jason wouldn't even have been charged. He'd have been home for dinner and back in school the next day telling all his buddies what assholes the cops were. I think a little show and tell with the police could keep this from happening again." "The school board will never let you do it; too worried about negative press." "I think it's a great idea," I said. "And if Jason's parent's requested it... I don't know, it could go either way, but I think it's now or never. I know it sounds awful but at least he was white, no one can scream racism." "Yeah, no shit," Steve said, rolling his eyes again. "If it had been a black or Hispanic kid... we'd have to lock this place down." He paused for a second and then started chuckling to himself. "What's so funny?" I asked. "Just something that came to mind. I need to make some phone calls. If it works out and Bob can get this thing set up I may just have a little something to contribute. It's a long shot but if it works out... Oh yeah, this could be good." He looked at his watch. "I gotta run or I'm going to be late for dinner, and Momma don't like when I'm late. See you guys around." "Wonder what he's up to?" Bob said. "You need a ride home?" "Sure, my mom was going to pick me up but I'm sure she wouldn't mind. We can go over the latest news on the way. I'll give her a call." I dug the phone out and speed dialed her office. "Hi, Mom, Bob offered to bring me home... I don't know; hold on... She wants to know if you're staying for dinner?" I spoke back into the phone, "What are we having?" I asked. Bob smacked me in the back of the head and took the phone away. "Forgive me, Cyndi, I had to smack your son. I would love to stay for dinner and it doesn't matter what it is. Yes, I'll instruct him further on the way. Kids! Maybe we should introduce an etiquette class. Thanks for the offer, we'll be there shortly, can I bring anything, perhaps some wine? Would that be alright? Okay, without getting into details, red or white?" He paused to listen and then started to laugh, "Chianti? Oh, that's keeping it vague? I'll pick some up." He closed the phone and handed it back to me. "What was that all about?" I asked. "James, my boy, you just committed a serious breach of etiquette. If someone offers to feed you, you do not ask what is on the menu before you decide. It's very rude. You either accept or decline and take your chances. If they offer the information that's one thing, but you never ask. You can always do what I did, offer to bring something and then ask what may be appropriate. Wine is always a good choice; salad is another one although that takes a little more preparation and planning. Dessert always works, and most women will turn it down anyway so you score brownie points for being polite enough to ask and still don't have to spend any money." "Wow! You've got this single thing down to an art." "Nothing like experience my boy; practice, practice, practice. I've done my share of dining with friends over the years." "Well thanks for the tip. I take it we have to stop on the way." We did. I stayed in the car while he ran into a small Italian deli and came out with two bottles of Chianti, a couple of baguettes, a small bottle of garlic oil and a bottle of seasoning. I wondered what the oil and seasoning were for but figured he would tell me or I would find out with everyone else. The oil and seasoning turned out to be for the bread. I had missed the small package of roasted garlic pieces in the bottom of the bag. He poured it into a shallow dish with the seasoning before adding the oil. Voila, instant bread dipping oil. It sure beat butter which is all I'd ever had on French bread before. Mom had pulled out some marinara sauce and whipped up chicken parmesan for dinner. It was perfect. Allison and I each got a glass of wine as well. It was a wonderful evening. Bob and I never actually got a chance to talk but we could always do that later. I also found out that alcohol really makes Allison horny; something to keep in mind for the future. It was pretty late before I got to talk to Bob. ------- Chapter 58: Detective Work Rebecca and I had gotten into a pretty good routine. I would monitor and record any unusual dreams that came my way, then once a week, usually Friday or Saturday night depending on whom had a date on which night, we would get together and go over the highlights of the week. I would run the 'footage' I had acquired over the past week, she would compare the images to the girls she had been monitoring for the past several months. So far we had three very likely candidates. I had received many more images originally but now the field was beginning to narrow. I had begun to have recurring visions of a select group. It was immediately obvious that he had found what he was looking for. It was also very frustrating. Here I was a key player in a major investigation and she couldn't tell me squat. I was getting pretty pissed about the whole thing. The situation was getting tenser as our deadline approached. Once more I found myself covering familiar territory as our weekly shouting match got into full swing. "We've been over this, Jimmy, I can't tell you their names, they're minors; it's privileged information. I can't even acknowledge you exist in an official report, how the hell could I justify giving you information? They are part of an ongoing federal investigation, I couldn't even tell their parents. Not that I would if I could, they might do or say something to scare him off and then we'd never catch the son of a bitch." "It's bullshit, Rebecca, and you know it. You wouldn't even have an investigation without me. You know I could just stop showing you all this stuff." "Now there's a hollow threat if I ever heard one." She had point, what really sucked was that we both knew she was right. "Dammit Rebecca, it would be a lot easier if I knew what was going on. I might be able to do more." "How? What difference would knowing their names make? Would it open up other information?" "Maybe. With their names and some real photos to work with I might be able to bridge them and find something..." She cut me off, "Like what?" "Like why he's picking them out." "We know why he's picking them out." "No we don't. We've seen a little hint here or there. We know they're sexually active, so's my sister and she's in seventh grade." "You know, I could tell her you said that." I glared at her before continuing, "Dammit Rebecca, he picked them for a reason. He knows something we don't. If we knew what they were involved in we may be able to figure out who his ultimate target might be." "You think I don't know that? Jimmy, it's not that I don't want you to know. I can't... tell... you. It's an ethical violation, it's morally disrespectful, it's a legal policy and procedure violation, it..." I cut her off, "could save their lives!" "I know that, dammit! Here, let me spell it out for you. I, me, Rebecca Hampton, FBI, cannot and will not disclose information regarding this case to you, James Matthews, civilian, a person who does not exist. There are exactly three people besides the killer who knows those names, myself, we covered me, Paul Freeman, my partner because he needs to know to do his job, Samuel Rodriguez, our boss, because I have to justify my involvement in this case and the amount of time I spend on it. There are other cases I could be and probably should be working. I'm not. I take the odd case here and there in the slow times, simple stuff, nothing that will require a long term commitment in time because I've been able, so far, to justify the man hours on this job. Paul does tech work when I don't have something for him. Rod has the unhappy job of kissing the necessary asses to keep the hours free for me to do this job. Everyone understands that it's getting real close to time for this psycho to kill again. Now, I'm not telling you shit. If you want information, you're going to have to get it somewhere else." A light bulb went on in my head. I don't think one actually appeared over me but she suddenly had an interesting grin on her face. I think she knew that I had finally figured out what she had been trying to tell me. "Are we done here? I need to go see my girlfriend for a while." "Sure kid, I can handle it from here. Go ahead, take a hike, I'll call you if anything comes up." I smiled and walked out the door. I could have just faded or even just disappeared but it tended to bother people. I was especially careful to use doors and knock when I came to see her. I'd walked in on Allison and Shannon several times, but there is difference between walking in on your girlfriends and walking in on others. Rebecca and Bob had become a pretty serious item and the last thing I wanted was to cause them embarrassment by magically interrupting their private fantasies. I'd learned my lesson there. They were my friends; I made it a point not to spy on them. In fact, I tried to not even think of them unless I wanted or needed their immediate assistance. Not wanting to be guilty of lying to Rebecca I headed over to the beach where I had left Allison and Shannon working on their volleyball games with a select group of assistants. These included the top five men's and women's pairings in Olympic Beach Volleyball from the last summer games. We alternated indoor and outdoor play to round out all of our educations and abilities. We also invited a couple of trainers in to assist in our physical development. Not that it was necessary in dream play; any of us could have had a 20 foot vertical jump if we wanted it. We needed to learn what we could do in real life exercise to improve our conditioning and performance. Allison and Shannon had been putting in extra time in activities designed to help strengthen their bodies for the rigors of the sport. Shannon could now clear a regulation eight foot net to attack or defend. Allison could get both hands to the wrist over to block but so far that was it. At a casual glance, standing still you would never realize the muscles hidden beneath those soft curves, but as soon as they started to move it became evident. People say that ballet dancers are muscled with wire. In a casual pose you would never know they were there. So were my two little angels. Shannon had apparently hit a growth spurt and shot up three additional inches in the last 4 months. She had filled out nicely in other areas as well. She still had a ways to go before she would be borrowing my Angels' clothes, but it looked like my prediction had been closer than we knew. Oh sorry, 'Angels' was my new private nickname for Angela, I had called her that on our long ago date when I thought she was about to seriously injure me and somehow it had stuck. Not really sure why it came out plural but... As soon as I appeared I froze all the extras and walked across the sand to hug the girls. They were both hot and sweaty from their exertions. Without a word I sent everyone else away and moved us to a point in the middle of the lagoon and five feet above the water, then let gravity do the rest. Allison shrieked and came up mad as a wet cat. "That's c-c-cold," she stuttered. It must have been because her nipples suddenly looked like something out of Madonna's wardrobe closet. "It's not that the water is so cold, Princess," I reached over and tweaked a nipple as I continued; "it's that you're so hot." She took a playful swipe at my hand. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, you say that now." Shannon cut in, "He's not just saying it, sweetie, I think he's absolutely right." She moved in close and grabbed a bikini covered cheek. "He could have dropped us into a hot tub and it still would have been cold to you." She grabbed the back of Allison's head and brought her in for a kiss that had the water bubbling around us in no time. The tent was already going up when I suddenly remembered what had brought me here in the first place. "Damn," I swore softly. Allison broke the kiss and looked at me. "What? You know you're welcome to join in any time." "That's not it. I just remember why I dropped by in the first place." "That's right; you were supposed to be playing with Rebecca tonight. What happened, she sleeping over at Bob's again?" "Not that I know of and it wouldn't matter if she was; we meet in a conference room." Shannon kissed my cheek. "My knight in shining armor." I kissed her back before continuing, which didn't help the tent problem at all. "Well, we were arguing, again, about her telling me the names of the girls she thinks are targets. She still won't talk but I think she gave me a clue as to where to go to get the information." I explained what Rebecca had told me. As soon as I mentioned Rod and Paul, Allison started in with the Mission Impossible stuff, "dunt-duh, da-da-dunt-duh, da-da dunt duh." Shannon picked it up immediately, "Cool! Mission Impossible time! Who's the target? You're not going to try and scam Rebecca are you?" Allison rolled her eyes. "Oh right, she won't see that coming. Hello! Hey, who's the blonde here anyway?" She looked back at me. "I'm guessing Paul?" I nodded affirmatively. "I don't think I want to try anything with Mr. Rodriguez just yet." "So you're picking on Paul?" Shannon asked. "That's not fair." "You don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm sure Allison and I can handle it, I just thought you might want to join in and I could use an extra person for what I have in mind." "Just teasing, I wouldn't miss it. I learned my lesson when I passed up the chance to help you screw with Frank Watkins. You guys don't get to have all the fun any more. So what did you have in mind?" "Well, someone gets to be Rebecca, I'm going to be Rod, and someone gets to be a new person." "Who?" "Lindsey Hearne, I made up the name, but she is an FBI profiler who happens to be in the area on the way back from another job and has been volunteered to look at what we have so far." Shannon's brow furrowed in thought. "I think I'd better be Rebecca, I'm not much of an actress and profiler sounds like a job for our resident intellectual." Allison giggled. "Frightening to think the blonde is the brains of the outfit. So what's the plan?" ------- Paul answered the phone on the third ring. He could have gotten it on two but he had to take off the magnifying headset first. "Freeman." "It's Rebecca, Paul. I need you to set up conference room 3 for a meeting. Bulletin board, time line, photographs, everything, you need to have it ready in about 30 minutes, 45 tops." "What's up?" "Out of town guest. Lindsey Hearne. Ever heard of her?" "Should I have?" "She's a profiler from Washington." "What's she doing here? And why does she want to look at our case. I didn't think we were ready for that yet. They don't usually call in someone like her until the body count gets higher." "I know. But she just finished up a conference in San Francisco and she just happened to have a layover in LA before she catches her connection back to Washington." "Yeah right, and that's going to give her time to come all the way into downtown LA?" "Well, as luck would have it, her connecting flight isn't until tomorrow morning." "That's convenient." "Isn't it though? Anyway, better drop whatever you're playing with and get things set up. It's time to play show and tell for the brass." 'Rebecca' led us in. Introductions were made and Paul started the presentation. Since I was playing the supervisor I just sat quietly and let my people do their jobs. I answered questions but otherwise did not get involved. It was pretty impressive. He started with the details of the three dead girls, everything they knew. When he had finished with the factual presentation he went into supposition and where 'our' chief suspicions lay. The common factors of the girls lives, age was an obvious factor, but 'Miss Hearne' challenged it right away. "Three is very narrow sampling to base an assertion on don't you think?" To his credit Paul did not back down. A quick glance at Rebecca and he shot right back at her, "Yes ma'am, we know that, we've done a national search for unsolved cases and come up blank. Yes, we're grasping at straws here, but we are hoping that if we catch the right one we can stop this before we have a bigger sample to work from." She smiled and nodded for him to continue. "From our interviews we have decided that sexual deviance plays a role." "Why?" She asked. "Just another consistency between the three. Diane McKenzie was a party girl, Maria Pena was essentially whoring herself for presents, no disrespect intended." "I would hope not," she responded. "But you are essentially correct. What about the second girl..." she glanced at her notes, "Amanda Watkins." Again he glanced at Rebecca. This time she took the lead. "That's a problem area. At this point we have only suspicions to go on. Her father insists that she was not active but saving herself." "What about the mother? Or better yet, the sister?" she asked. "Mr. Watkins answered all of our questions. He refused to let us talk to the others." "You're kidding." "I wish to God I was kidding. He stonewalled every attempt we made to bring them into the conversation. But body language alone says he's lying." "His body language or someone else's?" "Mainly the oldest surviving daughter, but also the mother. I could tell they wanted to speak up, especially the sister." "Did you ask for a warrant?" "I didn't think it would do any good. I've seen the type before; the second I showed up he'd scream religious infringement and lawyer up. I tried to leave a card but the wife was too intimidated to even take it." "And the sister?" "She was present during the interview but actually looked like she was terrified we would ask her something." She nodded and turned back to Paul, "Please continue." "Athleticism seems like a primary attribute that he searches for so we started our search there. All of the girls we're watching are top athletes in their respective sports and are in line for college scholarships. All of our top ten have multiple offers from competing schools. They are also academically solid students, and have either recently turned eighteen or will within the next two months. They are physically strong and aggressive competitors in their respective sports. The sexual aspect is the biggest challenge." "I can imagine. You can't exactly just walk up and ask them about their private lives. So how are you rating them?" Paul actually blushed at this point. "Not all of them are shy about their sex lives. Not all of what we have is confirmed fact. We have had to rely on rumor in some cases. Most we just don't know about." "Go on." "All of them?" "How about just your top five for now and I'll take summaries on the rest. How big is your pool at this point?" "The total pool is around 50, we've concentrated on California, Arizona, and Nevada, and we're concentrating on the top twenty from that area. For the purposes of this meeting, I'm going to focus on the top ten. Before I start let me explain that our top ten is broken into two groups of five. The top five represent those that we have sexual history on, the next five are unconfirmed rumors, and the rest are just, well, we have no information on that aspect of their... qualifications?" Rebecca laughed out right at that, Miss Hearne just did her best not to smile too much. Even I had to smile. "Delicately put, Paul. How about if you just start with your top ten? Will that be alright for you, Miss Hearne?" "Yes, that will be fine; I can take summaries on the rest and call you if I have questions." "Okay then, starting off with number five, we have Bethany Armstrong, she plays field hockey, total of five strong scholarship offers, the top two are looking at switching her into Lacrosse as well. She's a serious competitor in a rough sport and an acknowledged and very outspoken lesbian." Miss Hearne interrupted, "You consider her being a lesbian as constituting a deviant sexual lifestyle?" "No ma'am. But we do not know what the killer considers to be deviant so we have to at least consider the possibility." To his credit he did not wait for her to reply before moving on, pretty much blowing off the question. "At number four; Elizabeth Street. Basketball player, four full-ride scholarship offers, nicknamed 'Easy-Street.' Pretty self explanatory. Number three is Rosa Sanchez, softball player, also four full rides on the table, apparently likes to have sex in public places. She's been caught several times; the worst was in a gingerbread house at a shopping mall last Christmas. At number two; Stephanie Carswell, volleyball and softball, acknowledged lesbian and considers herself a seductress. Particularly likes to seduce other young girls. That takes us to the top of the hill, Miss Alicia Sanderson, She is a competitive swimmer; 400, 800 and 1000 meter individual medley, but her top sport, and what most of the schools want her for is Water Polo. Easily the top female player in the state of California. Seems straight on the surface but there are rumors that she is actually bi-sexual, the main reason she is number one is that she is a martial artist and therefore a physical threat. We think he might consider her a worthy target." "So you think he may be more interested in dominating a strong woman than in the sexual aspects?" "Given how quickly he killed Amanda Watkins, who was apparently the most docile of the girls, yes, we very much feel he is looking for someone not only to dominate but to break. A girl that he perceives as a threat would be a likely target in our estimation. Miss Sanderson is number one for that reason. She is in the top group because we have confirmed she is active, we just don't know how active if you catch my meaning. There are rumors aplenty about her non-traditional life-style but they are still just rumors." "Go on please." "Moving into the next group' these are the ones that we do not have confirmed sexual history on. I'm going to start with number six and just go down the list in order from this point. Patricia Sarducci, another basketball player, there are unconfirmed rumors that she may be having an affair with one of her teachers. We don't think she is, but her parents actually operate a website called 'Patty's Playpen.' The site consists mostly of a webcam from what appears to be Patricia's bedroom. Patricia herself actually narrates some scenes as well as commentary and interviews. The people on camera change frequently, every one of them wears a mask when on live. If Patty is not actively participating then they have a very strong body double pretending to be her. The masks alone suggest that we're dealing with an underage person, or at least a bunch of people that don't want anyone to know who they are. If it is Patty then it's a serious problem because she is still under age. There are occasionally scenes from other locations, but they seem mainly to be shots from inside the same house or studio. The scenes also include some light S&M, Bondage, the usual range of subjects you would expect form this type of site." "Why didn't she make the top five?" "Not an aggressive player. The scenes on the website, with the exception of the live web-cam images, appeared to be staged and acted out as opposed to being real. The girl in the mask we believe is actually Patricia but so far we have not seen her have actual sex with anyone; other than herself that is. "Moving on, number seven is Tiffany White, track and field, unconfirmed rumors that she is into group sex, apparently not as extreme as Diane McKenzie or we would probably have been able to confirm. Number eight; Tanya Baker, she is the only swimmer on the second list. She also plays volleyball, also rumored to be a lesbian. Leslie Prescott; softball player, not much to go on, rumors that she is sexually active, one very visible fight this year during a game. An altercation over being blocked off the bag at home plate. Last but not least, Celeste Boudreaux, another track runner, nothing confirmed, just rumors that she is active. Serious competitor; those alone wouldn't be much except that she comes from a strongly religious family and if she is active it's a serious risk. Her family is one of those extreme types that might throw her out and disown her if she couldn't prove she was a virgin on her wedding night. And I do mean prove." "I don't see how that earns her a spot on this list?" "It labels her as a risk taker and person that will fight for her right to make her own decisions. We believe that her aggressive personality and being willing to back it up physically will be enough to interest the killer." "Thank you, Agent Freeman. I assume all of this is covered in the summaries as well?" "Yes ma'am, along with everything else we could find. I will tell you up front that some of our sources had to be listed as anonymous, they were at risk of losing jobs if any of this came out." Hearne rose and shook hands all around, "Thank you all for your time. I'll start going through this on the plane back to Washington and let you know if I come with any suggestions or additional questions." With that she left and I figured it was a good time to let the scene fade before we got into any serious question and answer with Paul. The last thing we wanted to do was try and talk shop with him. We took the files we had and head for the cabana to sort it all out and come up with a plan of our own. Rather than lay it out and try to make something of it we decided to start with just reading the individual profiles. There was just too much information to go over in the time we had left so we agreed to save them until the next night, then go through them and discuss our thoughts on each. Besides the place was still littered with all the pictures we had taken for Rachel's photo album. We still had to get them organized and packaged up for her. They took up a lot of space as we had taken the approach of shooting lots of pictures and then picking the ones we thought best, versus trying for that one in a million photo opportunity. You know, the one all the photography magazines tell you to look for, that even if you find it neither you nor your equipment are up to the challenge of making it come out right. We had pictures everywhere, the floor, the tables, in the seating area... Shannon looked around and stated the obvious, "We need to put those in an album or something." Allison made the obligatory follow up, "You think?" I looked at the semi organized madness and shrugged, "I don't even know where to start." Once again Allison had the answer, "We need professional help. Let me see your phone." I handed the phone over and she dialed without further comment. Shannon and I waited patiently. "Hi mom! Are you like super busy right now? I mean, I'm not interrupting anything important am I? Cool. We kind of need your help on a little project. If Jimmy sends you a door; can you come to the cabana? No, I don't think bringing Tom Selleck would be a good idea. Mom, he is like... old. Okay, okay, whatever, but can you come? Cool. Just walk through the door when it shows up." She closed the phone and handed it back to me. "Mom needs a door." "Yeah, I got that, thanks." I dutifully sent Mom a door and a few moments later she walked in wearing a bathing suit with a sarong wrapped around her waist. "Hi kids. What's up? What is this mess? Wait... are those photographs? Why are they moving? Hello, Shannon, how are you, dear?" "I'm fine, Cyndi, thanks for coming. We're in kind of a bind and we need serious help. We took all these pictures for Rachel and we have no idea how to get them all organized." "Who's Rachel?" "Amanda Watkins' little sister," answered Allison. "Well, her youngest sister I guess since she actually had two." "Had? She only has one now?" Her face paled as she realized what she had said and how close to the truth she had come. "You mean she's one of the dead girls?" "Yes, the one from Las Vegas, two years ago. Anyway, her youngest sister is having trouble remembering her, so Jimmy and I helped Samantha, that's the other sister, help Rachel remember some stuff and we took lots of pictures. Now we need to put them together in some kind of album so she has them to help her remember Amanda, at least in her dreams." She looked right at me. "Wait a minute. Back up. How exactly did you end up talking to the sisters of one of the dead girls? Jimmy, what is going on?" Have you noticed how smart Allison is? I mean, I'm pretty good but she just has these flashes of brilliance that are amazing. "Shannon! How about you and I go work on some drills for a few minutes?" "Right behind you, girlfriend!" I took Mom's hand and pulled her over to the sunken area to sit down. I pulled a pitcher of iced tea out from under the bed and poured her a glass. "First off, I can't tell you everything, you understand that?" "Of course I understand, sweetie, I just want the basics, please." "Okay, Rebecca and Paul went to visit Amanda's family to see if they could get more information. Anything that might help establish a pattern for the killer. For Rebecca that part was more going through the motions than anything else. We already knew what we needed to from what I had seen and then shown her. But she needed to establish it in the real world before she could use it; you understand that part, right?" She nodded and I moved on, "Anyway, the interview with the family was something out of a bad cult film. Her dad totally stonewalled the whole thing. No one else was allowed to talk to them, if they asked her mom a question, her dad answered it. On top of that he insisted she was saving herself for marriage. Totally didn't fit the pattern and we already verified that she was active, and that he knew it." She gave me a look and I just held up my hand to stop her from asking, "I can't tell you and you really don't want to know. Rebecca had the idea that I could maybe bridge the sister and get her to tell us what was going on. We replayed the scene of her interview and it was pretty plain that something was going on. Anyway, I bridged her and the girls and I talked to her. One of the problems that she is having with is that her little sister, Rachel, is having trouble remembering Amanda, and it's really upsetting her. Seems her dad got rid of all of her stuff, including any pictures of her. So, we came up with this idea. We took Samantha into one of Rachel's dreams and started recreating memories of her with Amanda. Allison and I were there, invisibly, and took lots of pictures. Shannon came up with the idea of making them "magic pictures" that would move. She got the idea from an old episode of Bewitched. Anyway, we took all these pictures and now we need help organizing them into some kind of album that Samantha can give to Rachel to help her remember her sister." "Okay, let me see if I have this straight. You took your sister and your... sister's friend, to talk to a girl in her dreams. So now she knows that you can do this little dream trick. I thought you didn't want anyone to know." "She doesn't know who we are or what we look like. We don't go as ourselves or use our real names. There is one thing about this one that sort of freaks me out." "What's that?" "She knew we were coming." "She what? How could she know you were coming?" "Yeah, that's exactly what we thought. And when we asked her? She said that Amanda showed up in her dream the day they found her body and told her that she had to wait and a boy and two girls would come to help her." "Help her with what? What are you supposed to be doing?" "Protecting her for one thing," I kind of stretched the truth here, okay I stretched it a lot. "Remember, this is a girl that had already died at the hands of this whack job we are trying to catch. Maybe she was afraid he would come back for her sister?" "James, don't do that?" "Do what?" "Don't lie to me like that. If it's something you can't tell me, just say so." I flushed a deep shade of red. When I had recovered enough I hugged her and said, "Thank you." "You're welcome; I understand that you are trying to use your gift to help people where you can. I know that this will sometimes entail things you can't tell me about. The stuff you are working on with Rebecca, and I assume this is part of that, is confidential so I understand that you can't tell me. But lying to cover up is a bad habit to get into. You are much better off telling someone that you can't tell them than lying to them. A lie will come back to haunt you almost every time. And it's always worse by the time it finds its way back." "Okay, Mom. Thanks." "Great, then call the girls back in and let's see what we have to work with." It sounded like such a great idea, my mom had been doing scrapbooks for a long time. She did little scenes and captions for the pictures. She could really make you relive a vacation or special day just by turning pages. Unfortunately that requires details. When and where something happened, was it a special occasion? Did something special happen while your were there? She had lots of questions and we had no answers. Finally she just stopped in disgust and said, "You can't just make stuff up and hope it goes with the pictures. It won't make sense to her." "But we don't know any of that stuff. Can't we just do a normal photo album?" "How? You don't even have the dates. People put dates and notes on pictures to help remember them, to keep them in order, to say where they were..." "Mother," Allison said. Uh-oh! Suddenly I had a television flashback of the robot on Lost in Space, "Danger! Danger! Warning!" Allison never called Mom 'Mother' unless she was mad. Mom didn't back down, "Don't 'Mother' me, Allison Ann," in my brain the red alert siren from the old Star Trek now drown out the robot, "I can't just wave my magic wand and make the photos jump into a neat little story book package." Suddenly the alarms were quiet and angels were singing as the solution popped into my head. "Wait!" I interrupted. "Time out! Mom, that's it!" "Huh? What? What are you talking about? I just said, for the two hundredth time that I can't do it." Shannon caught on immediately, "No, you said you can't waive your magic wand. And here... you can." "What are you talking about?" Suddenly Allison got a case of the giggles as she quickly caught on. The giggles escalated to chuckles and seem to be getting worse quick. Finally, in between burst of laughter she said, "Oh, please, can I tell her?" "Tell me what?" Mom demanded. I interrupted my suddenly giddy sister's fun before Mom blew a circuit. "I'll do it. Mom, how would you like to play Fairy God Mother?" "What?" Shannon jumped in to help, "Don't you get it, Cyndi? It's a dream, more, it's one of Jimmy's dreams, so here, you can wave your magic wand, if you want to." Allison finally settled down enough to speak coherently, "I think what they are saying, well, asking really, is if you would like to do a little field work?" She glanced at me and I nodded for her to go on. "You could take all these pictures, and go to Rachel, and the two of you, with maybe a little help from Samantha, could make her a scrapbook of her sister. Mom, it would mean so much to her, you just don't know." "I could really do that?" "Well, you can't go on your own." I said. "But I could take you and then pick you up. Or maybe I could leave a magic door that you could use to get back. If you want to go that is." "I don't know," she said thoughtfully. "I mean, I don't even know this girl." "Well obviously we don't either," Allison said, indicating all the pictures that we knew nothing about. "And you don't really need to know her. I mean, you're just the picture fairy come to help her with her memories. Ooh, Jimmy, you could give her a magic bag like Merry Poppins had! Any time they needed something she could just reach in and pull it out." "Yeah," added Shannon, "but if Rachel opened it or reached inside it would just be an empty bag. Ooh, this will be so much fun. If I had the slightest idea how to make a scrap book I'd do it. Please, Cyndi, it would mean so much to her." "You know, even if you just got her started, it might be enough to let her finish the rest of the pictures by herself." I said. "What do you think?" "Well sure, how old did you say she was?" "I don't think I did." "That's okay, it's not hard. I'm sure that once I show her the basics she should be able to do the rest." "Does that mean you'll do it?" I asked. "Yes, I'll do it. Like Shannon said, it will be fun. Not every night though, I do want to leave time for other things. And I don't want her to obsess over it either." "Okay, do you think you'd like to go now or wait until tomorrow?" "Well I don't know? I think the best time would be when she is thinking of her sister, or dreaming about her, don't you?" "That probably would be best," Allison said. "If she is having trouble remembering her then she would likely be sad and that would be the perfect time for you to show up and help her!" That seemed to settle the issue. At least as far as Mom's participation went. There were however several new items that had suddenly popped into my head. Like how to get Mom and Rachel together. Could I really take her to Rachel and leave her there? The only other person I had ever tried to leave somewhere was Amy and that had not turned out well. Was I going to have to play shuttle service to take her to and from Rachel's dream, or was there really a way that I would be able to let her go on her own? That had possibilities! ------- Chapter 59: Researching Developments The idea of Mom playing memory fairy for Rachel opened up a whole string of questions and problems. Answering those questions proved to be more complicated than I expected. As usual, the first step was discussing the whole thing with my resident genius. "I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew here bringing Mom in," I said as we stood waist deep in the lagoon petting Zeus and Hera, the two dolphins that had come to play with us. The rest of the pod was off doing whatever dolphins do when their alphas are away. "Oh, now why did you have to go and bring up work?" She bent down and kissed Zeus on the end of his snout. "Okay, kids, Mr. Killjoy has gone and spoiled the mood. You guys run off and play and we'll see you again later. Okay?" Zeus did a tail stand, spun around, and headed out, Hera spit water in my face then took off after her mate. I wiped the saltwater from my face and tossed Allison an evil look. She was going to extremes to appear as innocent as possible; I thought the halo appearing over her head was a little much, but I let it go. After all, she was right; I had kind of blown the mood. "I'm sorry if I spoiled the night for you. I'm just worried about making a mistake. Once I started thinking about it the questions just sort of snowballed on me." She sighed, "I know. And I understand what you're saying. There is a lot of new ground to cover for this; a lot of unanswered questions. Can you leave Mom in someone else's dream? If you can't, then can we risk leaving her and Rachel in one of your dreams? If you leave them in your dream will Rachel be able to affect it? Can you prevent her from affecting it? If you can leave Mom in Rachel's dream, can you make a way for her to get back on her own or is she stuck there until you come and get her? Can you make a way for Rachel to leave your dream? Even if you can, should you? After all, you don't really even want her to know that she is not in her own dream. So if we have to use your dream, can you set it up so Rachel can leave on her own whenever she wants? I'm sure I missed something, did you think of any others?" "That covers a lot of the basic ones. Then there are the dangerous ones." "Dangerous?" "Yeah, like what happens if Mom is in Rachel's dream and Rachel wakes up?" "Wouldn't the dream just fade and Mom go back to her own dreams?" "That's just it, I don't know. What if Mom doesn't go back to her own dreams? What if she's stuck there? I've never left anyone in a dream that wasn't my own before. I don't know if I even can. What if it's like what happens to Amy when I leave her? You've been with her when I did it; it hurt her, a lot. What if I left Mom in Rachel's dream and she cried out in pain? Rachel wouldn't know what to do, she would be scared, it might wake her up; would Mom be stuck there in pain until Rachel went back to sleep? Could she be stuck in limbo someplace until Rachel actually had the same dream again? There are so many things that could go wrong." Allison had gone practically white as I had spoken my fears. I watched as she started mulling them over in her head. Once she got over the initial shock of the possibilities and started attacking them one by one, thinking about them from a more analytical view, she calmed visibly. I could almost see things turning in her head. Finally she said, "We're going to have to do some very careful experimenting with this. I see some real possibilities here; things that would be very helpful but that it would be dangerous to let others know." "Like what?" "Like what if you can trap someone in a dream? Trap them so they can't wake up? Would that be like an induced coma? We don't know what you are moving when you take someone into a different dream. Is it their actually consciousness? Sub-conscious? How much is left behind? Jimmy, this has so much potential for someone to do truly evil things. We have to be very, very, careful." "Yes. I think we need to talk to Bob about safe ways to experiment." "I'm not sure I even want Bob to know about it." That surprised me. "You don't think we can trust him?" "It's not that. It's just that this... it's so big, I'm not sure I would trust anyone with it." "Well, if not Bob, then who?" "I don't know. But we can't just go in blind and hope everything works out." "We couldn't anyway." Now it was her turn to be surprised. "What do you mean?" I hugged her close to me and answered, "Because I won't risk you or Shannon, and there is no one else to experiment with." She hugged me back. It was warm and reassuring but it didn't get us any closer to an answer. In the end we both knew we were going to have to trust Bob to help guide us and try to keep us safe. Bob didn't see it that way. "Guide you? Keep you safe? You're just looking for someone else to pin it on if something goes wrong." The shock must have been evident on our faces. He smiled and continued, "Relax, I'm kidding. I know you mean well and you're trying to prevent anything tragic from happening. I wish I could be more positive, but, honestly, I don't have a clue. I don't even know where to start." We sat looking at each other for a moment before Shannon made her usually brilliant and insightful suggestions, "Then maybe we should start there." Bob just sort of cocked his head and looked at her for a second, then looked back at Allison and I before he said, "You know? I think you two are contagious. You all give me great hope for the future. That, young lady, is exactly correct." He stood up and went to the closet, pulled out a large easel, white board, and markers, set them up quickly and continued, "You can't really be sure where to start until you know where you want to go. So," he looked back at us, "where do we want to go? What are we trying to do?" He put a big number one on the board and beside it wrote as he spoke, "Can we, or more specifically, you, leave someone in another person's dream world without causing them pain or harm? There are two possibilities; first, you can. If you can then we move on to the next question, if not, then we need to define the next question; i.e. Why not? What happens? Is your presence required? Or just your attention? If it's just your attention, then the question we need to consider becomes... How much of your attention is necessary to keep them safe." "What do you mean how much attention?" I asked. "Well, we know you can leave the girls alone in one of your dreams while you are in a different one, even in someone else's entirely, without them having a problem. To my knowledge, you have never left, say Shannon in Allison's glade. Have you?" "No, I don't think so. It's easier just to meet in mine and then leave from there if I need to, that way I know they are safe." "Safe from what?" "I never really thought about it, just that they were safe." "Okay, then that's one place to start. Take Shannon to Allison's glade, then go to the beach or come back to my office, or anywhere else, heck just walk out the door and then go back. You said with Amy the pain starts as soon as Jimmy walks out? Then you don't need to spend much time on that aspect. From there we can look at the question of whether or not she can leave on her own. If she can, then what are her options? Can she follow you? Or is she limited to just going back to her own dream? Will she go back to the last dream space she was in before the glade?" Allison jumped in, "There's a problem spot right there. We shouldn't start out in the glade. What if the she goes back to the last dream she had and it wasn't one where we were with her?" "I don't think that would be a problem." Bob answered. "If she went back to a prior dream then it would still be her own dream and she should be able to wake up normally. I think it's going to be much more complicated if when leaving she just goes to whatever space Jimmy went to. What if he goes through several spaces? Would she be able to track him through multiple dreams? For the record I think she will just go back to her own dream space, whether a past dream or something new or just normal sleep is all that we'll have to see. Is there anywhere else to go on that line?" I answered, "I don't think so. Once she exits into her own dream space we can probably move on to the next experiment." "No," Allison said. "We have to re-run it to see if it is the same every time or if she can change it." "Very good, Allison, in order to be sure we know what is going on we need to see if we can duplicate our results. Okay, so here's what we have for the first experiment. Jimmy takes you both somewhere, maybe the beach, whatever. From there he takes you both to the glade, Allison's glade, not his. Then he leaves and returns, assuming Shannon did not feel any discomfort then he leaves again and she leaves shortly after. I know dream time is subjective so you need to try and establish a time frame before Jimmy goes back to check on her." "That's not a problem. We've already proven that I can communicate with Jimmy even after he leaves. Remember the night he came to your office and I called him? I stuck a bug on him just to see if something I created would stay with him, and work of course." "Good," said Bob. "Then once Shannon leaves you can just tell him she is gone. Even better, give Shannon something that she can use to describe or tell you where she has gone." He stopped for a second. "Try that both ways, have Jimmy give her something the first time, then re-run the experiment and this time have Allison give her something. See if they work the same." "Why wouldn't they?" Shannon asked. Allison had the answer already, "Because sticking an invisible bug on Jimmy may work differently than using one on someone else. For one thing, he's Jimmy, and the rules for him are always different. Second, he left the glade to go into one of his own dreams, not Bob's. They started out in Bob's classroom, but Jimmy said that was his idea just to give Bob a familiar reference. Then when they moved to the new office, again, that was something Jimmy created. I think the office is like the glade, there are two, one of Jimmy's and a twin of Bob's. Maybe not even a twin. Bob, I'm guessing you never explored the rest of the building when Jimmy wasn't around." "Actually, now that you mention it, no, I've never left the office once I was there. So you're saying for me there may not be anything else. Even the view from the window may be imagined. I could be in a little box on the ground floor and still see what I expected out the window." "Pretty much. The point is we need to see if something I give Shannon will still work, or even still exist once she leaves. Is there anything else we need to cover in this sequence?" "Yes." I answered. "What?" asked Shannon. "Well, let's say you can leave, can Allison prevent you from leaving?" "Yes," said Bob. "I think we're going to discover that since she is in Allison's dream, Allison can hold her there if she wants to. That points out a serious danger to be aware of. When you first took Shannon to the glade, she couldn't change her clothes. For that matter Allison couldn't change them either, she could not directly affect her. But it was Allison's dream; she had control of the rest of the environment and can likely affect Shannon indirectly. We need to verify how much she can affect her. Could she hurt her indirectly? Say she envisioned Shannon in a burning building? Shannon can't get out and has no control over the environment. By the way, once we do all this and run it a second time we need to do the whole thing over again, only this time Shannon and Allison change places." "Why?" I asked. Shannon answered this time, "Because Allison has more experience in dreams and we need to see if that broader experience will give her any better control or allow her to protect herself, or if it will change anything else." "I don't think it will," Allison said. "Shannon has really been picking this up quick. I may be faster and more willing to push but probably not by much." "You're probably right, but there is certainly no harm in trying it anyway, it may tell us nothing, but then again... you never know." "So, what comes after all this?" Shannon asked. "Then we get to the dangerous stuff," I said solemnly. "Dangerous?" "Yes, well potentially dangerous stuff anyway, and depending on the outcome of the first set we may not need to try them. That's what I'm hoping anyway." "Dangerous how?" she asked. "Or maybe why would be a better question." "The answer is the same, because there is no safe way that I can think of to find out except to do it." "Do what? What answer are you looking for?" I looked away and softly said, "It's not an answer that I'm looking for, it's just one that I need to know." Bob looked on as Allison took Shannon's hand; we hadn't gotten this far in the discussion with him yet either. "Shannon, what happens if you are in someone else's dream and they wake up?" "I don't know, wouldn't you just go back to where you were before? Or maybe just into your own dream." "And if you don't? What happens if you can't get back? Where do you go if you can't leave that dream? Is it like being in a department store and having it close while you're inside? Do you just wander in the dark until they come back? Do you have to wait until they have that same dream again? And if you are stuck there, what happens to your body while you wait?" "Well, you'd just wake up when your body woke up, wouldn't you?" By now Bob was looking a little white. "Not necessarily, Shannon. I think I see where they are going here? What if you can't get out of the dream? Can't get back to your body? What happens to your body?" "Exactly," I said. "Would it be like a medically induced coma? The lights are on but nobody is home." Allison continued from there, "The thing is we don't know, can't know unless we push the button and see how it unfolds. No safety net, no do-overs, just do it and hope nothing goes wrong." "Why do you need to know?" she asked. "Because," I answered, "I'm sending my mother into Rachel's dream, what happens if she wakes up before Mom gets out?" Shannon turned a little white at the thought. "Oh," was all she said. "Yes," said Bob. "I'm not sure I can really help with all that. I agree that you should know it's safe before you trust Cindy's life to it, but I have a real problem with the fact that you have to risk someone else to find out. So let's give some serious thought to how we might be able to work around it or make it safer. Meanwhile I guess you may as well get started." We shook Bob's hand and thanked him for his help and then I took the girls to Allison's glade. We spent some time getting the monitor and communications laid out. It turned out Bob had been right. Either of the girls giving me something worked; giving something to each other didn't. Once again, everything worked differently because it was me. Then it was time to get serious. I made a quick trip to the beach and back during which time Shannon felt no discomfort at all. Then I went back to the beach and waited for Shannon to try leaving on her own. It wasn't long before Allison's voice spoke in my ear. "Okay, she's gone." "Shannon? Can you hear me?" "Yeah, I can hear you. I'm in the mall. Now what?" "Just pick a door to go through and I'll bring you back." It only took a moment and we were back in the glade with Allison. She hugged us both and said, "Okay, so far so good. What do we want to try next?" I looked at Allison. "This time see if you can keep her from leaving." "How?" "Nothing fancy, just basically think that you don't want her to be able to get out." This time I went to Bob's office, my version so he wasn't there, and waited. On a whim I mentally turned on the television and watched Allison and Shannon embracing in the glade, "All set here, go ahead." Shannon tried the door and this time it was locked. It didn't matter which way she tried it, or how hard she pulled, it wouldn't open. "It won't open," she finally said. "Wow, this is a little scary, I mean it would be if I was stuck with anyone else." I concentrated for a moment and said, "Try it now." She turned the knob and the door opened normally. The set automatically went to split screen and I watched her emerge back in the mall. This was an interesting development. I was actually watching two separate people in two separate dreams at the same time. This was one development I knew I wouldn't be sharing with many others. "You did that?" Allison asked. "Yeah," I said. "I wanted to see if I could affect your dream from here. I guess I can." I concentrated for a second and her clothes disappeared. She started and then struck a pose, one hand on her hip and just staring up with a look of "very funny" on her face. "Cute, so now what?" "See if you can follow her." "See if I can follow her, stark naked into a shopping mall. I don't think so." "Okay, okay. It was just a thought." I put her clothes back on and she walked through the door but did not appear in the mall with Shannon. She was in a mall but not the same one. "That's what I thought would happen, you're in a mall, but not the one Shannon is dreaming of. I want to try something, go through again." I concentrated as Allison walked through the door to the nearest shop and this time she appeared in the mall with Shannon. "Cool!" she said. "You moved me into Shannon's dream without actually having to be here. This has possibilities." "Yeah. Okay, everybody back to the glade." "Can't we shop for a while?" Shannon asked. "There is this cute little lingerie store I'm just dying to take her to." I chuckled and said, "Maybe some other time." They whined a little more but then walked back through the door and appeared back in the glade. "I want to try something else. Shannon, there is a key in your pocket. Close the door and try it again. I'm going to occupy myself with something else and not think about it this time, see if the key will open the door. Allison, I want you to still concentrate on holding her there, okay?" "You got it, Mr. Wizard." I turned off the TV and sat back in my chair, thinking of nothing in particular. A few seconds later the door opened and Shannon walked in with Allison right behind her. Allison looked around and said, "So, you do have your own office after all. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was in Bob's. But why did we come here?" Shannon was all business. "I was thinking of Jimmy when I used the key." "Really?" asked Allison. "That's interesting. Let's do it again." She grabbed Shannon's hand and practically dragged her back through the door. I watched as they emerged back in the glade. Allison checked the door and it was locked again. She looked down and changed her clothes, then looked at Shannon but nothing happened. Satisfied that she was in her own dream she turned and whispered in Shannon's ear, then stepped back as Shannon tried the door. It was still locked but when she tried the key it opened right away. Sunlight streamed in through the open doorway. She stepped through and the screen split to show her emerging onto the beach. But which beach? I continued to watch and suddenly she was in her bathing suit. Allison again followed and then she also switched to a bathing suit. No doubt about it, they were at my beach. "How did you do that?" I asked. "I told her to concentrate on the beach when she unlocked the door to see if we could go somewhere else using your key. I didn't really expect it to work. At best I thought we would end up back in one of her dreams. Interesting though." "Yes it is. And it opens up all sorts of new possibilities. Could you go back through and try it again, please." "Sure, but why?" "Just something else I want to try, think of some place else this time." They returned to the glade, closed the door, and went through the steps of confirming where they were. Once they were satisfied that they were again in Allison's glade they tried the door. As they expected, the door was locked but this time when they tried the key it didn't work. "Hey, what's up with that?" Shannon asked. "Why isn't it working?" "My fault, I'll explain later. Try it again." This time the door opened but when they stepped through they found themselves once more in my office. "Good, one more time please." "Why aren't we at the beach?" Shannon asked. I started to answer but caught Allison looking at me very intently. I glanced away before Shannon caught it. "One last time and I'll explain everything when you get back." Once they were back in the glade I gave them further instruction, "Okay, this time, Shannon, give the key to Allison." I saw Allison nod slightly and knew that she had figured out what was next. I could also see that Shannon had not yet caught on. When Allison tried the key, nothing happened, the door was still locked. Without asking she handed the key back to Shannon and when she tried it, the door opened and they came back into the office. By now Shannon had realized what I was doing. "You made the key person specific, didn't you?" "Yes. I wanted to see if I could restrict its use to one person. If using a key can allow you to move around I wouldn't want to lose one and have someone else find it. Or take it from you and use it." "What difference does it make if you can lock the key to a specific location?" Allison asked. "That is what you did before isn't it? Locked the key so that it would only let us come here instead of to the beach?" "Yes, but I still wanted to see if the other would work." "That's okay, but here is one more thing you need to do. We can't have people seeing us opening doors and leaving. Make the doors 'pass through' so we don't have to open them to walk through and make it so the key can be in our pocket. What am I thinking? The key can be anything you want it to be, but the idea is the same, make it so we don't have to physically use it. Just set it up so that we can walk through the door and as long as we have the key on us it will work." "That's a good idea, and you're right, as usual, we don't want people to see us coming and going though doors. For me the door isn't necessary, but I think for you the door, or some sort of definable threshold will be. But we can make the doors invisible or only visible to you. Since it's an exit point you could put it in front of a brick wall and it wouldn't matter." "Can you make them portable?" Shannon asked. Allison and I just turned and looked at her. "What?" I asked. "You know, make them so that no matter where you go in the dream the door will stay close by. Say you're, or rather we're, in someone's dream and something goes wrong, they have a nightmare and we need to get out in a hurry, I don't want to have to retrace my steps and hunt for a door before something eats me." "Or rapes you," Allison added. "That's a good idea. You catch on quick, girlie." "Not as quick as you. You figured out what he was doing way before I did." "Don't let it bother you, I just have more experience." She got up from the chair she was sitting in and sat on Shannon's lap, turned to me and said, "If we're done here," she turned back to Shannon, "maybe we can go share some of my experience." She leaned in and kissed Shannon very tenderly. You could almost see Shannon just melt into the moment. I shifted the two of them to the bed in the cabana and sat back to think about what we had learned. The night's experiments had gone farther than we had planned. We had confirmed everything we set out to discover and more. The more was what troubled me. Some of this had serious implications. For one thing we were going to have to be real careful not to ever lose our keys. Most of them wouldn't be a problem; after all they could be made place and person specific. But I could see situations where an unlocked or general key would be useful or even necessary and those we would have to be very careful with. Could a general key be made person specific? I made a note to find out. If it could then I was worrying for nothing. Oh well, it wasn't anything worth disturbing the girls over. That just left the big question. What happened if you were in a dream and the dreamer woke up? It was a question I needed answered but I had no idea of how to go about answering it without putting one of the girls at risk. I caught up with everyone at break the next morning and let Bob know I needed some time later in the day to bring him up to speed on our experiments the night before. Melinda had borrowed a stopwatch from one of the boy's PE coaches and asked if I would drop it by the locker room on the way to class. She didn't want to take the chance of just leaving it in his box in the office. Things, especially expensive things, had a way of going astray despite the locked door. My day went rapidly down hill as soon as I hit the locker room. Brad Russell was shooting his mouth off about his latest conquest. I couldn't believe there were that many girls left in the school that were still willing to go out with him. He saw me coming and apparently just couldn't resist twisting the knife. "Yeah, she was pretty good but if you really want a good time all you have to do is get 'legs' Osborne into your back seat. Let me tell you she is one wild ride. And don't let her fool you, that girl is desperate for a good fuck. You should see the dweeb I caught her at the mall with. Hey, speak of the devil, here comes the little twerp now. Yo, Matthews! I was just telling the guys here what a great blowjob Angela gives." I know, I should have kept walking and ignored him but that really pissed me off. "Well, she's not as good you, Brad, but she is pretty good." Howls and cat calls filled the air and Brad's face looked like he was ready to explode. Two quick steps put him in my face and the next thing I felt was my back slamming into a row of lockers. "You calling me a cocksucker, you little prick?" I shoved his hand away. "Russell, we both know that I don't have any more experience with you than you have with Angela Osborn. I was just making a point. If you don't want people making up lies about you, then maybe you should think twice about making them up about others. I'm surprised there is a girl in this school still willing to be seen with you much less go out with you. You're an instant bad reputation waiting to happen." I moved forward to leave but he slammed me back against the lockers again. "You've got a big mouth for such a little shit; I think it's about time..." He never finished the sentence as a deep voice said, "Let him go, Brad." Everybody turned to find Pat Nesky standing at the other end of the row. "This doesn't concern you, Nesky." "Slander concerns everyone, dickhead. I can't believe the rest of these guys are stupid enough to hang around you. Wilson, you've got two sisters, would you want some asshole like him talking this shit about one of them? Edward's right. Now let him go, Brad, I'm not going to tell you again." For a split second I think Brad actually weighed the idea, but then he shoved me down the aisle and said, "This isn't over, Matthews. You and I are going to have a little talk real soon." "As long as it's not in the back seat of your car," I said, and turned to go before he decided to press his luck. I turned the corner and ran into Coach Barnes leaning against the lockers at the end of the row. He put his finger to his lips and motioned me to follow. He led me into the coach's office and closed the door. "You got balls, son, I'll give you that. Good thing Nesky was there, I was afraid I was going to have to step in. I've been watching Russell all year to make sure he doesn't ruin his life because he can't keep his mouth shut. Six more weeks and he becomes somebody else's problem. But he has friends that are going to be here again next year so do yourself a favor and steer clear of him if you have the choice." "Yes sir, Coach Barnes. I've been doing my best to stay away from him and so far I've managed. I wouldn't be here now if Mel... I mean Coach Jenkins hadn't asked me to bring this by on my way to class." I reached in my backpack and pulled out the stopwatch. Just as he took it the bell rang and I realized that the delay with Brad had made me late to class. He caught the expression on my face and waved it off. "Here, let me give you a pass. What class are you going to?" Three minutes later I was safely in class and trying to forget my little adventure with that paragon of human virtue, Mr. Brad Russell. As bad as the whole thing had been and how close it had come to being a lot worse; the look on Brad's face when I suggested that he was better with his mouth than Angela had been worth it. I only hoped that some of the others would take to heart what had been said about letting people gossip like that. Bob and I talked for few minutes at lunch before joining Susan and Mel. I let him know how it had gone leaving out only the details I had decided to keep secret, like keys and my ability to monitor and influence a dream I was not actually in. He asked if we had come up with any ideas on how to safely experiment with the bigger issues. I just shook my head and we went to join the ladies. Sometimes not thinking about something will actually let it work itself out. Going on that assumption I decided to work on other issues for the next couple of days. I left the girls alone and went to the cabana to review the files on the FBI's most likely targets. It didn't really matter where I started as long as I got through all of them. I just read a file and looked at the picture long enough to be able to build up a clear image in my head of who it was I wanted to see and then walked into their dreams for the night. I couldn't help but think that the next few weeks should prove interesting. I was, however, suffering from a bit of a moral dilemma with the whole thing. Using my ability to spy out the intimate details of these girls' lives bothered me, a lot. Normally I talk such things over with Allison, but this time I didn't need to, the normal human gift of rationalization came to my rescue. No matter how wrong it felt, spying on their dreams wouldn't bother me nearly as much as watching one of them being tortured, raped, and killed, especially when I might have been able to prevent it. I knew it would take time, it's not like I could just walk in and find out everything I needed to know the first night. Heck, look what happened with Samantha Watkins. So I planned for a few nights each, I hoped to have enough information on at least one of them to present some real facts to Rebecca when I saw her on Friday. Thursday night I decided to make sure my two girlfriends were not feeling neglected by my recent night work. My ability to move them around had grown quite a bit. They say knowledge is power and perhaps the experiments we had been doing had made the difference. I don't think it actually increased any ability but it did give me a level of surety that I had not had before. I trusted it more. In any event I no longer had to consciously move the two of them around. All they had to do was tell me where they wanted to spend the night, in the glade, at the beach, or, their new favorite, at the mall, and they would automatically be sent there. As a precaution they each had their own personal key allowing them to escape to their own dream space if necessary. That part had been easy; we just used their valentine necklaces as the key. Simple, unobtrusive, and hidden in plain sight. Even though the environment was actually mine and they both had enough control over it that we didn't feel we had to worry about anything going wrong, still, you just never know. Safety first. Tonight I walked out of the tent at the beach to find them on the sand court working out with two really big guys that I recognized from earlier training sessions. I couldn't remember their names, but knew they were somewhere in the top ten pairs in the world. They were drawing different plays out in the sand and discussing the advantages of each in different situations. Shannon glanced up and spotted me, I saw her nudge Allison, who also glanced my way and then went back to the diagram they were working on. Silly me, I just walked up like everything was normal. The next think I knew four strong arms grab me and slam me down on the... bed in the cabana; that was unexpected, I had been bracing for sand, the next sensation was two warm and well oiled bodies pressing themselves up against me and trying to stick both their tongues into my mouth at once. The beefcake holding my arms faded to nothingness so I reached up and hugged the two loves of my life. "I missed you too," I managed to mumble somewhere between kisses. Allison shut me up by shoving her tongue in my mouth. It only took a second to discover where Shannon had disappeared to. Within seconds I was hard as a rock and she withdrew. Apparently they had this well planned because Allison immediately scooted around and impaled herself on my shaft. I closed my eyes, arched up into her and let out a loud groan as she reached bottom and began to grind herself against my pelvis. I started to say something but when I opened my eyes it was to see Shannon's leg swinging over my head. She settled herself above me and I immediately dove into her treasure, licking and sucking at every surface I could reach. Reaching up with my hands I stroked the sides of both of their breasts. I couldn't really do more because they were pressed together firmly sharing an intense kiss at the same time they were grinding themselves to orgasm on me. If you have never been used as a sex toy by two really hot women, you just don't know what you are missing. Allison stayed firmly seated on my hips and just continued to grind herself harder and faster against my groin; Shannon was doing her best to not suffocate me. I spent some time burying my tongue as far as I could reach inside her while she ground herself against my chin. When she got close I slid forward a little, or rather, she slid back as there was really no way for me to move, either way, I planted my lips firmly around her most sensitive area and drove her forcefully over the edge. The high pitched whine was muffled both by her thighs covering my ears and Allison's mouth covering hers. This seemed to allow the whine to move into Allison's body as well and trigger her own release. After a few seconds they both relaxed and withdrew. I thought they may be going to change places but Shannon immediately swallowed me again and began taking long, slow trips up and down my shaft. While she was doing this Allison slid down and took my balls into her mouth one at a time, gently massaging them with her lips and tongue. Once both had been thoroughly cleaned she used her tongue to follow Shannon up the length of me, when they reached the top they did their best to French kiss each other around the head. A few seconds was all I could take. I was ready to burst when Shannon withdrew and Allison took over, gently sucking me deep into her mouth and throat. With her nose pressed into my pubic hair, she stuck out her tongue and licked the swell of my balls. That was it for me. I gave a grunt, arched up and exploded. Allison immediately backed off to a more comfortable depth, caught the first blast in her mouth and then withdrew. Shannon was right there to take over, covering the head as the second eruption hit and then sucking gently up and down until she had every drop. She then pulled off and turned her head to meet Allison in a deep kiss. They shared my spending between them for a few seconds before they broke apart and swallowed their portion. Without a word Shannon slid off the bed. Allison whispered, "I'll be right back," then rose and walked her to the door. The dream dissolved and I woke to find Allison gently kissing her way down my chest as one hand massaged my hard-on. The dream then turned to reality as she took me into her mouth and began softly working her way up and down, each time taking more of me into her while her hand gently cupped, squeezed, and caressed my balls. She stopped at the top and spent a few seconds swirling her tongue around the head, then, sitting up a little, she shifted her position, looked up to catch my eye, and then slowly pressed herself down. She held my eye until she was almost to her limit then paused, took a deeper breath, stuck her tongue out along the shaft and pressed me into her throat. Her muscles convulsed a little and she withdrew slightly, took another breath and did it again, this time staying down longer. She withdrew again, this time retreating all the way up to once more lavish the enflamed crown. Catching my eye once more she winked and then in one slow, smooth movement took me all the way in and, just as she had in the dream, gently licked my balls. If there had been anything left it would have been driven in as my body arched in response. There wasn't, so she just rode the motion then let me slip back out as I relaxed. Her hand came up to stroke my shaft gently as, just in the dream she gently took my balls one at a time into her mouth. My response told her that the rest of the dream was about to repeat itself, and she quickly returned me to the warmth of her mouth. She didn't try to repeat the deeper motions but switched back to her usual technique. It had always proven successful and this time was no exception. When she had finished and was sure that she hadn't missed anything she slid up my body and snuggled gently against me, resting her head in the hollow of my shoulder. "Thanks," she whispered. I chuckled and kissed her hair. "No, thank you. That was incredible." She giggled back. "Yeah, it was. I finally got the whole thing in. Better watch out, Shannon says she's ready and I think she's got a surprise or two in store for you." "You think? You mean you don't know?" "Not really. I mean I'm sure she's ready, but I get the idea she's been planning something." "Well, whatever it is, knowing Shannon, I'm sure it will be wonderful. Meanwhile," I said, stroking her arm and then moving to caress her breast. "Can I do anything for you?" "Just hold me." "That I can do," I said. I drew her in close and kissed her softly on the mouth. She snuggled in against me, with her head tucked into the hollow between my chest and shoulder. It didn't take us long to get back to sleep. I left Allison to her own dreams for the rest of the night. I was still concerned about the upcoming weekend. Shannon was coming over tomorrow night. That meant it was time to decide if we were going to move forward to the next experiment. I still didn't have a clue about what to do, or how to keep whichever one of them went into the others dream, safe when the dreamer woke up. The easiest thing to do was just go myself, but whether or not I would be safe was not the issue. I stepped out of the elevator outside my office, well, my version of Bob's office. I don't know why I had chosen the elevator to get here. I hadn't even paid attention to the fact that I was in the elevator until the doors opened. Crossing the hall I opened the door to find an envelope had been slid underneath. I picked it up and turned it over. It was blank. Crossing to the desk I pulled out a letter opener shaped like a long slender sword with a basket hilt, cut open the envelope and pulled out the contents. It was a simple folded piece of paper with a single line written on it in elegant flowing script; "Fear not, she will be safe." E. I turned the paper over to check the back, why do people do that? Why did I do that? I'd seen it in movies all my life and always thought it was stupid. What, you think suddenly there will be writing on the back just because you read the front? It was blank when you pulled it out; it's going to be blank when you turn it over. But I did it anyway and, surprise, it was blank! Duh! I turned it back over and stared at it for a while, trying to think. Where had it come from? Was it just a message from my own subconscious or had someone actually sent it? And if it was someone else, how did they know to send it. That pretty much let me rule out the someone else idea. That left it as a message from myself. But how did I know it would be safe? What part of me was so convinced that I had reassured myself to assuage my own anxiety? And why sign it with an E? E for Edward? I was always Jimmy in dreams. Was there a part of me that identified itself by my middle name? Was my subconscious using my own name to talk to me? Could I talk to myself in a dream? I decided that was a question for another time. I had enough experiments going right now. Regardless of the source I now had the reassurance that I had been searching for and that was all that really mattered. ------- Chapter 60: Crunch Time Originally posted on: Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:29 pm Last edited on: Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:22 pm "I really don't like this part," Shannon said. "I don't want to risk Cindy but I don't want to risk Allison just to find out either." We had started the night in the usual fashion. You know, dinner with the family, dishes, the 'rents playing cards, the kids playing video games, and swimming of course. Then it was time for Tom, Karen, and Mark, to say goodnight and leave. Now we were standing in my version of Allison's glade. "What do you mean, risk Allison?" Allison asked. "Oh come on," Shannon answered. "Like you would let me try it first? I know you better than that. You've already made up your mind that you will be the one to take the risk, haven't you?" Without waiting for a reply she moved in close, slid her arms around the shorter girl and kissed Allison's forehead. "Haven't you?" she repeated. Allison still didn't answer. I thought Shannon had guessed right; Allison had made her mind up but she had not prepared her arguments yet. Still hugging Shannon she looked to me for help. I noticed her eyes beginning to tear and moved in to join the group. "Hey now," I said, kissing her hair. "We're letting our own fear cloud our thinking. This is going to work, and do you know why it's going to work?" I asked, looking from one to the other. Shannon still looked apprehensive but Allison was looking intently at my face, as if looking for an answer in my eyes. She must have found one because I saw a change in hers. She finally cocked her head to one side and asked, "Do you really think it's that easy?" Shannon was still looking confused when I answered, "Yes. In fact I'm sure it will be." "So it will be?" she countered. "Exactly." "Oh, well then we don't need to worry about it." She pulled free of Shannon's embrace. "We can do it later. That works for me. Did you have something else in mind?" "I get the impression you do?" A huge grin suddenly split Shannon's face as she realized we were talking about postponing the night's planned experiments and said, "Definitely." "Okay, I thought I might go take care of my weekly reporting just to get it out of the way. Can I drop you two at the beach." "You're not coming?" Shannon asked "No, I'm not even breathing hard." It was something I'd read in a book and it was just the right thing to say. Shannon took a second to get it but Allison was standing there with her hand over her mouth stomping her foot to keep from exploding. When Shannon finally got it she turned beet red. "That's not what I meant!" she said, slapping my arm. At this point Allison could no longer contain herself. Apparently she had been having trouble breathing with her hand over her mouth because she just sort of flopped on the blanket gasping for air. "It wasn't that funny," I said. "Actually it wasn't," Shannon said. "I think it was partly about me not getting it. It sucks to be the brunette and not get the jokes, you know that! Especially when the blonde gets them first. Hey! You! It wasn't that funny." Allison just laughed harder. "Oh this is ridiculous," Shannon said. Suddenly the ground dropped out from under us. Before I had time to react we all fell into the crystal water of the lagoon. When I came up I saw that Zeus and Hera were already there waiting for us. Allison came up a second after me, sputtering and looking about as happy as a wet cat. "What did you go and do that for?" she asked. "I didn't," I responded. I turned to face the shore and confirmed my suspicions; Shannon was standing on the shore, dry and smiling. Allison had followed my gaze and now understood what had happened. "She really is getting good at this. We're going to have to start being more careful with her when we're in your dreams." "I guess so." I raised my voice and said, "You're really getting good at this. I never even saw that coming." She gave a slight bow and said, "Why thank you. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to... EEEEK!" she screamed as the bucket of ice water emptied itself over her head. "Why you..." she began before I cut her off. "Uh-uh-uh," I said, shaking my finger. "Behave yourself, young lady. Don't say anything you're going to regret." With a thought she was warm and dry. With another thought the ground suddenly mounded under her and she found herself on a water slide rushing out into the lagoon to join us. She splashed down a little to one side and when she came up Hera was laughing at her. "Truce?" I offered. She frowned and stuck her tongue out at me but then shrugged and said, "Truce." "Seal it with a kiss?" I asked. "Hey!" Allison interjected. "What about me? I'm the one who was being good and she gets a kiss? What do I get?" I rolled my eyes and said, "Come here, you can have a kiss too." I pulled her in close and as our lips met we were all suddenly sitting in the sunken area in the cabana. You could hear Zeus and Hera chittering outside. I dropped a couple of anchovies out of the sky to them and they got over their abandonment and went off wherever it is dolphins go when they get bored. "You really are getting better with your control, Shannon. But a sneak attack like that... not fair." Allison said. "I'm sorry," Shannon replied. "I was just feeling a little defensive I guess. I love you to pieces but sometimes your brains get to me. I mean, you are just so damn smart. I feel like, I don't know, like I'm the younger one. Like the other night, you figured out what Jimmy was doing with the key before I even noticed anything. And I still don't know what you were talking about before. I guess I was feeling sort of useless." "Useless?" I asked. "Shannon, don't put yourself down like that. You're looking at it wrong. Yes, Allison is smart, downright brilliant at times; her mind just seems to work faster than mine or yours. That's one of the many things that make her special. It's her gift. Just like my gift is being able to do all this. We all have gifts, Shannon. And they are all different. That's why we work well together, why we get along so well. It's our differences that attract us to one another." "So what's my gift? Comic relief?" Now it was Allison's turn. "No, silly. You have two very important gifts. For one thing, you are very insightful. Sure, I can think things through faster, but I miss things. You have a gift for seeing what others miss. They jump out at you like big red stop signs. You ask questions no one else thinks to ask. And when you ask them everyone else just looks at each other with stupid expressions on their faces and says, 'Why didn't I think of that?' You were the one that suggested that the killer had already killed again, the one that said maybe we just weren't asking Amy the right questions. You keep your head when things go wrong. You don't get overwhelmed. Don't ever let yourself feel like you don't contribute, sweetie; ever. We need you, I need you." She pulled her lover close, kissed her forehead and said, "Without you whose tits would I play with, Jimmy's?" Shannon had to chuckle, and I knew an opening when I saw one. I switched to my troll suit, added a two piece bikini, stuck out my non existent chest and said, "What's wrong with my tits?" By now, Shannon was reduced to outright laughter, "Well for one thing, there's all that hair." Allison laughed and said, "Maybe we could wax him." That was it for me. I was back to just plain me in baggy shorts so fast you wouldn't believe it. "No thank you! I'm fine, thanks." We all laughed and then it was on to more serious matters. "I still have to go see Rebecca. Do you two want to stay here or should I drop you somewhere else?" Shannon looked at Allison, then back at me. "Here is fine. Play nice with the FBI then come back and join us. Meanwhile the blonde can explain to the brunette what she missed in the last scene." I kissed them both, changed clothes and prepared to head for the office to see Rebecca, and probably Bob, too. I should bring him up to date on what we had discovered over the course of the week. Well, most of it anyway. I sort of felt like I should ask him about the note, get his thoughts on it, but I wasn't sure I wanted to share that little detail yet. Wait and see on that one. Some of the other stuff I was definitely keeping to myself. I stopped at the door, pulled out my phone and dialed. "Hi, Jimmy." Rebecca answered. "Ready for our weekly meeting?" She sounded positively chipper for the middle of the night. I mean sure it was a dream, but still, it made me wonder if there might be more to it. "Yep. Do you mind if I invite Bob along? I have a couple things I need to bring him up to date on as well." "No, I don't mind. Where did you want to meet? The beach?" "I was thinking about Bob's office. You two don't seem to concentrate well in beach attire." She chuckled and said, "Well aren't you Mr. 'all work and no play' tonight? Okay, the office it is. Hey! Where are you? I just walked in and you're not here yet." I stepped out of the elevator behind her, closed my phone, and said, "Just one of the things I wanted to talk to your boy-toy, er... I mean gentleman friend, about. I was just getting ready to call him. Or do you want to?" "Ooh, can I?" She had the most evil grin on her face. She dialed her phone and muttered, "I wish this worked all the time instead of just when you're here." Before I could say anything she started whispering in a voice just dripping sensuality, "Hey handsome, my partner and I just finished up and he said that since I've been such a good girl he'll make me a special place for the night. I'm soaking in a large tub of warm, bubbly water, but it's really too big for one. Why don't you put on a towel and come over?" She had to work hard not to giggle at his answer and said, "No, wear the towel. I'll help you out of it when you get here. Oh, and don't forget the wine." She closed the phone and cracked up. "You've got a serious evil side, don't you, Agent Hampton?" "Oh, come on, I told him to wear the towel. If I was really evil I would have told him he didn't need it." Suddenly there was a knock at the door. In a sultry voice she called out, "Come in." The door was suddenly flung wide and there stood one of the top psychologists in the state, a bottle of wine in one hand, two glasses in the other, a rose in his teeth and the classic 'deer in the headlights' look on his face. He recovered quickly, spitting the rose out and catching it with the hand holding the wine, a wry "I've been had" look on his face. "Oh, you're funny." She must have been because the two of us were almost rolling on the floor by now. "Well, if you'll excuse me I'm going to put on something a little more appropriate. I'll be right back." He set the wine and glasses on the tall cocktail table that I materialized next to the door. Then, placing the rose carefully in a tall bud vase, gave a slight bow and nod in our direction before disappearing through the door. He was back immediately, still wearing the towel but pulling the tie he had added into position. It was an interesting effect, the tie came with a built-in collar; sort of like the ones male strippers wear, and had a picture of a hula dancer on it. He picked up the wine and glasses, but left the rose by the door. By the time he got to us there were three glasses, which he promptly set down. He pulled a corkscrew from somewhere and opened the wine. He poured himself a glass, then handed one to me, then from the same bottle poured some bubbling concoction into the last glass. It looked like something out a 1950s Halloween movie, the steam on top did not really evaporate, it just spilled out and down the side of the glass. I know in the movies they used dry ice to get the effect, I wasn't sure how he was doing it but the message was clear. In fact he made sure of it, saying, "I noticed on the way in, your broom was double parked, I hope you brought your badge." Rebecca just pulled out her Glock, jacked a round into the chamber, tilted back her sombrero and said, "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" It was then I realized my mistake. When I said Bob's office I was thinking about my version and that's the one I let Rebecca into. I moved us seamlessly to Bob's office, then switched Rebecca back to her previous outfit. I left Bob in the towel, after all, Rebecca had had her little joke and he deserved the chance to get even. I'm not sure what had been in her glass before, but I switched it to raspberry créme soda just to be safe. I switched mine to a root beer float. That turned out to be another mistake. "What? I don't get ice cream?" Rebecca demanded. Bob intervened, "No Rebecca. Bad little girls don't get ice cream in my dreams. Now maybe if you behave yourself and play nice..." She cut him off, "Don't you start with me, I know exactly what bad girls get in your dreams. You told me about it in some detail in fact. You behave yourself and maybe I'll sign up for detention when we're done." Bob's entire face, neck, and the top few inches of his chest were flaming scarlet as she turned to me with a smile and said, "Now then, Jimmy, you had some things you needed to discuss?" I decided that I really wanted to get down to business and get out of here before these two started mud wrestling on the floor. Apparently their relationship had turned a major corner and I was in no hurry to catch up. "Yes, actually I had news for both of you. First off, as you just saw, we've discovered some new wrinkles in my ability. Apparently I can move people around without really thinking about it. The girls and I did some experimenting earlier this week and discovered that I don't actually have to be present to move people around. When I said I wanted to meet you in Bob's office it automatically keyed the next door you went through to take you there. Where you ended up was actually my copy of Bob's office, not his. That's why you were still able to change your outfit when he decided to get cute. Speaking of cute..." I changed Bob into khaki shorts, a polo shirt, and Birkenstocks. "... I could just as easily have made it Bob's office." Bob leaned forward. "You mean you can move Rebecca into my dream, or vice versa without actually being present in either dream?" "Yes, when I was working with the girls I moved, or rather let them move directly into one another's dreamscapes without being present. I just sat in my office and thought about it. If I didn't think about it they went nowhere. Okay, that's not really right. It's not that I don't think about it, what I mean is I don't have to like, concentrate on it like I used to. Before I had to concentrate on sending you a door to bring you to wherever I was, now I just have to want you there and the rest takes care of itself." Rebecca's pretty smart, she asked the obvious question right away, "Can I leave again on my own or am I stuck here?" "Yes and no. You are not really stuck there automatically. For instance you could just get up right now and walk out the door and be back in any of your own dreams that you want, or just asleep between dreams." "That answers the yes. What's the no?" Bob answered, "You mean I could stop her from leaving if I didn't want her to?" "Exactly. As long as the dreamer does not consciously try to stop you, you can leave." "Jesus!" said Rebecca. "That is scary." She stopped for a second. "Although I can see some serious benefits to that. Please, Mr. Wizard, pretty please, can I have just ten minutes alone with Frank Watkins? Please oh please oh please?" I rolled my eyes and said, "No. I don't think that would be really good idea. We don't want him waking up and telling anyone about the mean lady from the FBI now do we?" I had other reasons for not wanting her alone with Frank Watkins. I was mostly concerned with what would happen if someone started noticing a pattern of bad dreams in a certain group of upstanding citizens in Las Vegas. I was planning to spend a lot of time in their dreams in the near future and I didn't want any lingering images or memories getting in the way. "Alright, alright, it was just a thought." "A bad thought, Bex," Bob said. "You don't want to start having those kinds of fantasies playing out in your subconscious, not even just for fun. You never know when it might spill over into your real life and you realize you just shot someone for the wrong reason. I know it sounds simplistic but it's important that you not let yourself do things here in this world that you would not do in the real world. It's not that you can't have fantasies, but you have to be sure they are only fantasies. Otherwise the lines could become blurred and then... well, you get my meaning." "Yeah, I get your meaning, and you're right, it always starts small. They beat that into us during all our training; never break the rules, one break invariably leads to another, before you know it procedure breaks down and then you are sunk, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, just the media waiting to pull you in like a drowning swimmer. I'll be good, girl scouts honor." "Nice try," Bob said. "You already told me about you and Sylvia in the Girl Scouts." Now it was Rebecca's turn to blush. Bob just went on. "Just look me in the eye and promise you'll come to me if you ever even start dreaming about it." She looked up at him and their eyes met. She held his gaze for a second then nodded once. He reached out and took her hand, kissed it, and turned back to me. "Any progress on the other issues?" "Nothing really. We haven't come up with a safe way to experiment but I don't think we'll really need to for now." "Really? Why not?" "Keys." "Keys?" "Yeah, we found out I can make the girls keys so they can leave anytime they want, whether the dreamer wants to stop them or not." He sat forward. "That's interesting. That should make you feel better anyway, Rebecca." He glanced at her and found her staring blindly forward. He glanced back at me. "I don't think I want everyone to know about all this. I don't want Rebecca to ever be in a position where it may create a conflict for her." We stared at each other for a few seconds before he nodded his agreement. "You're probably right." "I know I'm right, Bob, so do you. I trust Rebecca almost as much as I trust you. I don't trust the people she works with. We're getting into dangerous territory with a lot of this stuff as it is. There are people who would abuse this kind of thing without a second thought. We both know I'm right. Now, before the time thing drags out to long, sit back where you were and we'll start over from where you kissed her hand. She is frozen at the point you turned to ask me about the 'other issues, ' just take it from there." He reset himself in the chair and took her hand again. Looking up at me he asked, "So, anything else going on?" "Just some stuff I needed to bring Rebecca up to date on. I've started bridging some of the potential victims in an attempt to confirm some of the data you've been gathering. I'm hoping we can narrow the list and concentrate on the ones who are really at risk." Rebecca grinned. "Really? And just how did you get a list of the girls we are looking at." I answered with a smile of my own. "Independent research project. Anyway, I hope to be able to concentrate on the ones that are unconfirmed first. I should be able to just observe their normal dreams, maybe throw out a little bait here and there and see what happens." "You better be careful with that, Jimmy, just because a girl isn't active in reality doesn't mean she doesn't have fantasies that she is perfectly willing to run wild in." "I know, but you forget, I have expert helpers. I'm sure that the girls and I can come up with some ideas to sort them out. Once I've confirmed them one way or the other you'll know whether or not you need to keep them on the list or dump them and look at someone else. I would hate to see us concentrate on the top five and have him snatch number seven because we had written her off as safe." I caught Rebecca looking at me funny when I mentioned the top five. The look turned to a smile and I knew she had figured out where my independent research had taken place. "You scammed Paul, didn't you?" "Scammed Agent Freeman?" I asked innocently. "Why, Agent Hampton, I cannot believe that you would suggest such a thing. I'm sure Agent Freeman is far too smart to fall for such an obvious ruse and would never divulge classified information regarding a case to anyone not directly involved." Bob gave a barking laugh. "Oh yeah! He scammed Paul alright! Don't ask how he did it, Rebecca, you may be forced to arrest him." "I don't know what you are talking about, Dr. Shelby," she said. "Agent Freeman is far too smart to fall for any kind of ruse and would never divulge classified information regarding a case to anyone not directly involved or authorized to have that information. However, Jimmy, if you should come across any information that you think would be valuable to this investigations, please feel free to share it and we will just treat it as an anonymous tip. Hey, there's a thought. When the time comes, maybe Jimmy could make a call to the tip line and earn some of that reward money laying around on these cases." "You're serious?" I asked. "Absolutely, Jimmy, the shit you're having to go through for this? You deserve every penny. The casino alone has a standing hundred grand for information that convicts Amanda's killer. I haven't checked any of the others but I'm sure there will be funds somewhere. There almost always is when a child is killed." "They weren't exactly children, Rebecca." "They were pretty girls, well known in their communities, top students and award winning athletes who were kidnapped, tortured, and killed, Bob, trust me, the communities put up some money. And if Jimmy leads us to him, he deserves every cent. You forget, I sat through the second viewing with him. I know what he went through. No reward will make him forget what he saw, and money can't buy happiness, but it makes for a hell of a distraction." I had felt the blood draining from my face as she spoke. "Catching him will do more for me than all the money could ever do. I just want him stopped," I said quietly. "That makes two of us," Rebecca answered, placing her hand on top of mine. "Three," Bob echoed, and he added his hand to the pile. I stood up then and said, "Thanks. I'll let you know what I find out. I need to go see the girls but will leave you this..." I transformed the office into a clichè classroom with only a dozen of so desks scattered around the room. I changed Rebecca to one of those naughty schoolgirl outfits, checkered skirt, white blouse tied off under her breasts, black pumps and bobby socks. There were a half dozen other kids sitting frozen at their desks. I called back as I walked out the door, "Have fun at school, kids." I started to leave but stopped, "Oh yeah, one more thing. Rebecca? No guns at school." I saw her eyes go wide as she felt the gun disappear from the holster in the small of her back. "And no cell phones..." "You little bastard, you give me back my..." "Miss Hampton!" Bob's voice boomed out as the scene came to life. "How many times do I have to remind you that young ladies do not use that kind of language? The rest of the class is dismissed; your homework on Chapter fourteen is due tomorrow. Miss Hampton, you will remain." As the elevator doors closed I heard a small voice answer, "Yes, Mr. Shelby." I hadn't really decided if I should head back to join the girls yet or not so I wasn't concentrating on a destination. The elevator doors opened onto the now familiar blackness. Without hesitation I let the elevator fade behind me and settled myself to wait. It was a short wait as almost immediately the short bursts of color began appearing in the darkness. I picked one and froze it for a closer look. I was in the stands at a swim meet. It was impossible to tell for sure but either it was Tanya Baker or there was a swimmer somewhere on the list that I didn't know about. The scene closed and without waiting I moved to a new one. This one was much easier. Alicia Sanderson was in the ring with a guy that must have out weighed her by thirty pounds. She feinted once and landed a solid blow to his midsection. When he countered she caught his punch, turned her body into his and threw him hard to the mat. When he landed she stomped his abdomen and retreated. He stayed down for the obligatory count and the scene faded. The next scene was another of the eerie bedroom shots. It took me a few seconds to realize that there was no window this time. The shot appeared to be from across the room and just a little higher than the bed itself. Just as my mind said web-cam, the scene faded. There had been no movement and the bed, a large four-poster, had been empty. The next scene was so totally unexpected that I didn't understand what I was seeing. I was standing in a darkened hallway. The only light came from three slits set head high in one wall, my mind filled in the details and I realized it was a door with a barred window. A low voice kept repeating, "Somebody help me. Anybody. Please, somebody help me." Over and over. I crossed to the window and looked in to see a man lying on the floor, from what I could see he was wearing only hospital pants and a straight jacket. He was turned away so I couldn't see his face. His hair was cut short and looked like it had not seen shampoo in some time, much less a comb. Besides his head only his feet were visible; the rest was covered by the pants and straight jacket. The feet were bloody; what I could see of them anyway. Bloody footprints could be seen here and there on the floor along with some smears that marked where he had probably slipped while trying to stand. The scene faded and I sat alone in the darkness contemplating what I had just seen. I thought about calling Rebecca or Bob but I immediately thought better of it. No telling what was going on back in the classroom. That left Allison and Shannon but I was very certain what was going on at the beach. I decided to wait and see if I could learn more. The next scene to present itself was the most graphic I had witnessed in these sequences. Elizabeth "Easy" Street was demonstrating how she had acquired her nickname. And doing an admirable job of it I might add. A young man, or boy, okay, he looked to be about my age but he was dressed in a uniform, and the large flat box he was still holding made it clear what the uniform was for. Elizabeth is apparently a really nice tipper. In his case the gratuity required her to be on her knees and his pants to be around his ankles. The scene jumped and now they were on a bed much larger than you would expect for a high school student. A casual inspection of the room made it obvious that she was taking advantage of the larger accommodations in her parents' room. The young delivery boy was doing his best to keep up as Easy rode him like an eight second bull. It was pretty obvious that she deserved the title of 'top athlete.' Something tugged at my attention and I realized that there was something familiar about the scene. As it faded I realized what it was. Both of the scenes had been from a stationary point above the couple. There were cameras in the Street home. We had only seen the one shot in Amanda's house but this made me wonder if there may have been more cameras there as well. The difference in this case was that while Amanda seemed to be resigned to what was happening, Elizabeth was a willing participant, very willing. Sitting alone in the dark I wondered how many of the girls' homes may be wired. The next scene put me back in the darkened hallway. This time the man's face was pressed against the bars. He appeared to be wearing a mask. Sort of like the hockey mask Jason wore in those old Halloween movies, only this one had no eye holes. I couldn't tell how it was held on but it certainly didn't stop him from breathing or speaking. At this point he wasn't so much speaking as screaming. "You have to let me out! You don't know what you're doing! He's going to do it again! Don't you get it! I'm the only one who can stop him!" I heard him kicking the door as he ranted on. "Dammit! Let me out of here!" He banged his head on the door a couple of times. If not for the mask I'm sure he would have busted his head open. Suddenly it was like he could take no more and he leaned against the door and began collapsing to the floor, still muttering, "Let me out, I'm the only one who can stop him. Please, God, don't let him do it again." Once more the scene faded and I felt compelled to leave. I exited to my office and started making notes on what I had seen. I had seen three different girls and one empty room, but had only made positive confirmation of one, Elizabeth. The match with Alicia only proved that he was interested in her and knew of her prowess, not that she met any of his other known criteria. As for the man in the cell, I had no idea where to go with that set of images. I was considering calling in Bob to talk about it when I woke up. It was morning. I lay in bed for a second and muttered to myself, "I guess I'll talk to him later." I rolled out of bed, got dressed and went for a run to wake myself up and clear my head. Everyone was still in bed when I got back so I hit shower, then started destroying the kitchen. The smell of sausage began wafting through the house and doors began to open. Allison kissed my cheek and headed to the bathroom. Shannon took advantage of the time to give me a much more thorough greeting. We shared the few moments we would have before the parents got up and we had to go back to just being friends. I really hated playing at it, but I knew that if my parents, well my dad anyway, and her parents, ever found out there was more to our relationship she wouldn't be allowed to spend the night any more. Sad really, it's not like we needed to be together to have fun, but Tom and Karen didn't know that so I'm pretty sure they would just take the necessary steps to make sure we didn't spend time alone together. Allison returned and Shannon went to take her turn in the bathroom. By the time she came back, Mom and Dad had joined us and were sitting at the table sipping coffee. I handed her a cup as she passed. "Thank you, Jimmy," she said. Then she gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "You're going to make some lucky girl a good wife some day." Dad choked on his coffee trying not to spit it all over the room. Mom and Allison just shook their heads and giggled. "Very funny. Just for that I'm nominating you to set the table." I handed her a stack of plates and returned to my duties. A short while later we were all enjoying French toast with sausage and discussing our plans for the weekend and upcoming events in general. Spring break was coming up and the girls wanted to go to the beach a couple days. In a perfect world we could just stay at one of the hotels we were supposed to evaluate but somehow I just couldn't see that happening. "After spending time at that little place Jimmy dreamed up I think you'd be pretty disappointed with the real thing," Dad offered. "Most public beaches now a days are packed so full of people you can hardly walk. And when they leave at the end of the day it looks more like a dump than a beach." "That's just sad," Allison said. "Why can't people just pack up the stuff they brought and take it with them when they go? I mean, it all fit in the car on the way there, and there should be less to go back." "Well dear," Mom started, "you may have noticed people tend to be a little on the lazy side if given the choice. And too many seem to have the attitude that picking up the trash is somebody else's job." "But you can still go if you want, I'm sure you'll have a good time, I'm just saying that you might be a little disappointed with the reality versus what you are used to." "What?" Shannon said. "You mean they won't have dolphins to play with?" "Dolphins?" Dad asked. "Oh yeah," I said. "You guys haven't met Zeus and Hera. They were part of a little petting zoo we put together for Amy one night and they just kind of stuck around. They're a lot of fun." "I'll bet. Maybe you can take us to meet them sometime. Speaking of trips and meeting people; your mother says you are taking her to play fairy god mother for someone." "I'm not playing fairy god mother! I told you, I'm just going to help her build some scrap books of her sister so she doesn't forget her. She's been very distraught lately because she's having trouble remembering her since she was killed." "Oh yeah, right, sorry, my mistake. I was just hoping to see you in a Tinkerbell suit. I think you'd make one hot little pixie." "Richard!" Mom had a serious flush going but Dad just wouldn't let it go. He leaned back and ran his eyes over her in typical guy fashion. "Oh yeah, that short little outfit and some high heels... Baby!" I was chuckling quietly but it was all Allison and Shannon could do to stay in their chairs. Mom was a bright scarlet by now, but she couldn't completely suppress the grin that was trying to crawl across her face. "Would anyone like some more coffee or juice?" she asked as she stood and started gathering up dishes. "I would love some more, thank you," Shannon answered, holding up her empty coffee cup. She stood and started gathering things up as well, "but let me help you with those and I'll get it myself. Did you want more, Rick? I could just bring the pot back." "Thank you, Shannon, I would love another cup." He turned to me before continuing, "So how exactly does this work? How does your mom get into this little girl's dream? I mean, won't she be a little disturbed by some stranger just showing up?" "Well, despite what she says, I think it is going to look more like a fairy god mother thing than anything else. I'm going to go in and monitor what Rachel is doing first, if she isn't already dreaming of Amanda then I'll steer her that way. The first time I visited her she was having a little tea party and Amanda was there, but she was just a shadowy image at best. Once she's on the right track I'll let Mom come in and introduce herself as someone that has been sent to help her remember her sister. She'll take it from there." "You think she'll be able to do all that in one night?" "I doubt it. I'm guessing it will take several trips but I'm hoping that eventually they'll have a good collection that she can keep and look at any time she wants, at least in her dreams anyway. And that should strengthen her overall memory as well. One thing we've discovered is that dreams can help your waking memory as well. You wouldn't believe how much time we actually spend studying in dreams." "I noticed you didn't seem to be spending as much time on homework this year." "It was Allison's idea, as usual. She started out studying her English just to see if it would work. When it did we moved on to other things. Now we do most of our serious studying that way. So all we have to do is the actual work we have to turn in." "Yeah, it's great!" Allison said. "I don't have to waste valuable sunbathing time on homework. And it makes it a lot easier doing sports; I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep in my history class because coach ran our butts off all afternoon." "Well maybe if you ran a little more often..." I started but never got to finish. "Not on your life. Just because you guys are psychotic doesn't mean I am. No way am I getting up at five o'clock in the morning to go running. Why anyone would want to give up a nice warm bed to go out into the cold and rain is beyond me; no thank you." "Come on now, sweetie," Dad answered. "It's not like we get a lot of rain. We are on the edge of the desert here you know." "But when it does rain, you two nutballs go right out there anyway. I'm sorry, but that's just twisted." I looked at Dad and we both just rolled our eyes, then he picked up the conversation again. "So how does she get back when she's done? Do you have to go and get her?" Allison and I had talked about this before and decided that for now at least we didn't want everyone knowing just how far my abilities had come, but we knew explanations would have to be made. "No, she can leave any time she wants. There will be an invisible door, well, one that she will be able to see that no one else will, that will take her back to her own dreams when she is ready to go." "You're sure about that?" he asked. "Absolutely," Allison answered. "When this idea first came up Jimmy insisted that we do some experimenting to make sure she would be safe. He wanted to make sure that she could get out whenever she wanted to even if he wasn't available. So he's been working with Shannon and I all week to make sure it was going to be safe to let her go." "You almost make it sound dangerous." "It's not that we expect it to be dangerous," I said, "but dreams can be very random. You never know what may trigger a change from dream to nightmare, I just wanted to make sure she wouldn't be trapped in a bad situation if something changes and I'm not there to get her out." Mom came up behind me and kissed me on the cheek. "That's very thoughtful of you, dear." She kissed both the girls as well. "Thank you all very much for thinking of me." "We would never risk something bad happening to you, Cindy." Shannon said. "We wanted to be a hundred percent certain that no matter what happened you would be able to get out even if Jimmy wasn't there." "Well, like I said, thank you all for the effort. But she's just a little girl; I doubt that there is anything truly terrible or dangerous that she could dream up that would hurt me. Besides, we're working on building happy memories, not bad ones." "Yes but sometimes a happy moment may follow on the heels of, or come just ahead of something tragic or painful," Dad said. "And you weren't there when these events happened. Then there are just the normal childhood fears. The monster under the bed sort of thing. I don't know about you but my own monsters were scary enough, I don't know that I would want to face someone else's." "And that," I said, "is exactly what we were concerned with; that one of those pictures might spark a memory of something bad and it may manifest in her dream. Remember, Mom, you have no control in another's dream; you can't affect your surroundings, protect yourself, or even hide. People die in dreams, Mom, I couldn't let you do this if I wasn't sure it was safe." "Well now that you know it's safe. When can I start?" "Well, we do have to wait until you, and Rachel, are actually asleep. Other than that, whenever you are ready. Which you obviously are, so, I guess tonight's the night." ------- Chapter 61: On the Job We were so used to starting out in either the glade or the cabana that it felt really weird starting in the living room. But Mom sort of needed an easy reference point. For starters she had to survey all of her scrap-booking paraphernalia, and there was a lot of it. Then we had to come up with the right 'magic bag' for her to put it all in. Then of course she had to organize it all so she could find it. At this point Allison could no longer contain herself. "Mother!" she said in exasperation. (Uh oh, not a good start.) "It's a magic bag. All you have to do is think about what you want and stick your hand in; watch." She stuck her hand in and pulled out a sign that said, "SEE! It's easy." Mom actually giggled. (Whew!) "Okay I guess I'm just a little nervous about all this. I don't even know this girl and I want to do it right." Shannon was standing next to her and hugged her side. "You'll be just fine, Cindy. Just have fun. Think of every favorite aunt, Mary Poppins, fairy grandmother, wacky old bat you've ever seen or read about and just roll them all together. Remember, you're going to be a magical person, she'll be expecting you to do and say odd things. Pulling these things out of an empty bag is just the beginning. It will impress her at first but the novelty will wear off. Pulling out things that won't fit in the bag; remember the lamp and the plant Mary Poppins pulled out of hers? That will last a little longer. But when you really want to impress her, pull out an ice-cream sundae. Now that will make an impression on a six year old." "What a wonderful idea. Yes, we'll have a snack after we finish the first page. Okay then, I guess I'm just about as ready as I will ever be. James, you run off and get things ready while I slip into my fairy godmother suit. And don't you dare tell your father I called it that." That was the invitation I had been waiting for, but rather than move directly to Rachel's dream I stopped in to pick up Samantha first. It was a poignant moment. She was curled up in bed with Amanda; just spooned up in her sister's arms. They had the sheet drawn up covering most of them but their shoulders were bare so I wasn't sure what else they may have on. I made a mental note to stop dropping in on girls unannounced whenever possible. I stepped through the wall and then knocked on the door. Faster than I thought possible the door opened and Samantha stood naked before me. Her eyes were downcast as she stepped to one side to allow me to enter. It really pissed me off that she didn't even know who it was, but it didn't seem to matter. I stepped into the room and she closed the door behind me. As soon as the door was closed she began to drop to her knees, still without looking up. "No, Samantha," I said and stuck my hand under her chin, "never for me." As soon as I touched her she felt her bracelet change and knew it was me. She launched herself into my arms and hugged me close. The relief in her voice was wonderful to hear. Her naked breasts pressed against me were kind of nice too... but... I put a long shirt on her anyway. "Oh, thank you for coming," she said as she pressed herself against me. "You have no idea how good it feels to know I am safe. That for a little while I can relax and not be afraid. I could just kiss you." She pulled back suddenly as she realized what she had said, "Oh God. I'm sorry. I didn't mean... I know you have two... I mean..." I let my face fall and put on my best whipped puppy expression, "You mean... (sob)... you don't want to kiss me?" I let a tear trickle from my eye. Oh sure, I could have wiped away an imaginary one, but why bother when the real thing is available on demand. Then I laughed as she realized I was playing with her. "Don't worry about it, Samantha. I'm not going to be offended. Neither would Alice and Sharon. I make it a point to never turn down a kiss from a pretty girl. In fact, if one of them was here, I doubt they would turn you down either. Just as long as you're doing it because you want to and not because you feel you owe it too me or anything like that." I thought I caught a bit of a glimmer in her eyes. "Really? They wouldn't care if I kissed you?" "Not as long as you did it for the right reason. They'd be royally pissed if you did it for the wrong reason. So would I for that matter." "And you wouldn't be upset if I kissed one of them?" "Of course not, they kiss each other all the time. We don't really worry about things like that. Meanwhile, the reason I'm here..." She cut me off, "Wait a minute. I mean... if it's okay, then..." Without another word she pulled me in close and kissed me very thoroughly. Her technique was very different from Allison and Shannon and I really enjoyed it. Fortunately it was a dream so it wasn't so obvious just how much. If I had been awake she would have gotten the message loud and clear. She finally pulled back and said, "I have wanted to do that since the first time I saw you. I do feel that I owe you, but more importantly I feel that you deserve it. Just by being here and trying to help you have earned that and anything else I could give you. No, don't say it..." She stopped me before I could say what was building on my tongue. "I know that you do not do any of this for such reasons and that you do not desire that I feel obligated to you in any way, but I do, and this is the only way I have to even begin to repay you for what you are trying to do. I know that that bothers you but please, allow me to do what I can to express my gratitude. No one in all my life has cared enough to do what you are doing out of sheer kindness. Doctor Hendricks comes close, but he is the only one." "Doctor Hendricks?" I asked. "The doctor we see for our pills and checkups and such. He takes very good care of us; of me I mean, and Amanda before... you know. Not for sex, but just because that is who he is. He is a gentle and considerate lover. He is different from most of the others. I do not believe he does what he does by choice. I think he regrets being involved in it all of it but does the best he can for us." "You think he is being forced to do this just as you are?" "Well, not like I or any of the girls are, but yes, I think he is doing this against his will. Others may think differently, but I have seen it in his eyes, he would stop it if he could. I cannot speak for how he treats the other girls but he has always been decent and respectful to me. And I know he was that way with Amanda as well." "Thank you for sharing that with me. I think it might be important later," I said. I thought before continuing, "Tell me, do you think the reason he lets you see it is that he trusts you? Or maybe wants you to trust him?" "Yes. I mean, I think he trusts me not to tell anyone that he treats me nice. Do I think he wants me to trust him? Probably, I mean, doesn't everyone want to be trusted." "I think so." "Well, if he wants me to trust him he is going to be waiting for a long, long, time. I will never, ever trust anyone that is part of that group. It's one of the tricks they use most. They lull you into trusting them, sharing some secret with them, then wham! They turn on you. You go from trusted friend to object lesson with no warning. One day you are sharing secrets, the next you are in the chair, or worse." "I don't know what could be worse than that chair thing you told us about." She looked at me hard and for just a moment I had a vision of something in her eyes. "I pray you never have to find out." I decided based on the look alone that I didn't want to know. "The reason I came is that we are starting a little project with Rachel tonight and I wanted your help setting it up." "Project? What kind of project?" "You remember those pictures we took?" She nodded. "Well, tonight we are having an expert come in and start working on scrapbooks for her. I need to get Rachel into the right dream state to think about Amanda. Based on what I've seen she won't have a very clear mental image of her, and that is when the fun starts. I thought you might like to come along. Tell me, has Rachel ever seen Cinderella? The cartoon version, from Disney?" "Yes, it's one of her favorites." "Well, tonight, Rachel gets her very own fairy godmother, sort of. She's just another friend who will only be here to help Rachel with her memory of Amanda, but that's the approach she's going to take." "Really?" "Sure, it should be fun to watch. So do you want to come along?" "Of course, but where are we going? Do you have to take her somewhere? Are we going to the place you took me?" "Nope, because the scrapbooks are for Rachel, to improve her memory, they need to be made in her dream. So you take me to her room, and then I'll take you to her dream, invisibly of course, wouldn't want to scare her; and then we have fun." I took her hand and indicated she should lead. She hesitated only for a second and then took me down the hall to the next room. She opened the door and there was little Rachel holding a large stuffed octopus, asleep. I stopped her as she started to enter, pulled the door shut and said, "Now watch when I do it." I reopened the door but this time there was no bedroom on the other side. The door opened into a park where little Rachel was swinging. Behind her was the shadowy image of Amanda, but the image in Rachel's dream had faded to the point that instead of laughing and pushing her sister as she should have, she stood silently and watched. You could almost see her fading away as you watched. "Perfect," I said and pulled out my phone. "All set?" Allison asked. "Ready when you are." Down the hall Samantha's door opened again and out walked Alice, Sharon, and my mother dressed as everyone's favorite grandmother. I thought the little round glasses were an especially nice touch. When they had joined us I widened the doorway so everyone could see. "Oh, that's so sad," Sharon said, looking at the scene. "Yes it certainly is. Jimmy, watch for my signal to make me visible, I may need you to help her a little setting up a place for us to work so don't leave right way." Without hesitation she crossed the threshold, disappeared, and entered Rachel's little park. She immediately started speaking. "Tch, tch, tch, now that's not right, dearie. Why that's not how it was at all." She signaled me and I started her fading into the scene. "Now let's see, I know I have it here somewhere..." Rachel was now staring at her as she became more solid. "... Oh, now where did I put that? Oh! Here it is!" She pulled a photograph out of her bag; it was a carpet bag just like Mary Poppins had used. She walked over to Rachel and showed her the print. I knew which one it was because I had taken it myself. It showed Amanda laughing and pushing a much younger Rachel on the swing set. "See, dear, this is how it was, don't you remember." "No, ma'am," Rachel answered in a sad voice. "I can't remember her that well anymore and it makes me sad." "Sad? You can't be sad in your own dreams. Why, I'm almost certain it's against the rules. Here, you hold this while I look it up." She handed Rachel the picture and started rummaging around in her bag again. She started pulling out a book the size of a small table. It was clear immediately that it could never have fit in the bag. Rachel stared in awe as this strange little old lady set the bag on the ground, sat in the next swing and opened the huge book. She thumbed through a few pages before saying, "Ah, I was right, see here." When she turned the book so Rachel could see, a face in the corner came to life and said, "Rule 42; It is against the rules to be sad in dreams." "But Mandy is fading away. I can't remember her so well any more, and I miss her." "Well sure you can, muffin, you just need a little help. Everyone needs help sometimes. That's what I'm here for." She reached into her bag and pulled out some more pictures of Rachel and Amanda in the park. "We're going to make you a memory book." "A memory book, don't you mean a picture book?" "Why it's the same thing, child. Isn't that what pictures are for, to help us remember things? Here, let's go over to that picnic table in the shade and see if we can't make some sense of all these." She handed the pictures to Rachel, closed the rule book and stuffed it back into her bag, then picked it up and, taking Rachel's little hand in her own, began leading her over to the little table. The situation seemed under control so I closed the door and left them to their task. I was shocked when I turned and found Samantha with tears running down her face. Seeing my expression Alice turned to see what was going on. You gotta love my sister; she has this knack for doing the right thing. Without a word she hugged Samantha to her. Sharon stepped behind the older girl, and wrapping her arms as far around both of them as she could, hugging her hard from behind, and pressing herself hard up against her for maximum contact. Samantha wept for a few moments and when she finally pulled back a little. The girls released her and Alice reached up and gently began to brush away the remaining tears. Samantha started to speak, "Thank..." but Alice put a finger to the girl's lips. "Shh. You don't need to say it. You're not used to seeing people do nice things for others, you've never had someone just be nice to you, have you?" Samantha shook her head slightly. "Not since Mandy died." "Well, there really are a lot of nice people in the world. People who just want to help. That's all we're doing here, not because we want something, but just because something needs to be done, and we can. You don't need to thank us for doing the right thing, everybody should. C'mon," she said, taking the older girl by the arm and turning her around, "I think you've had enough for one night. Why don't you come back to bed and I'll snuggle you for a while, okay?" Samantha looked at Sharon and I to see if it really was alright. We both just smiled and nodded, and then Alice led her by the hand back down the hall to her own room, back to the bed she had never really left. Shannon moved up close, slid her hand around my waist and said, "I really love her. Allison I mean. She just has the biggest heart." I kissed her hair and said, "Yeah, she does. And an ass to die for." She pinched my side and said, "That's not what I was talking about and you know it. Take me somewhere and make love to me. Cindy will be fine and Allison can join us when she's ready. We moved to the island, but instead of using the cabana, we made love on the beach. We were cuddled up, basking in the afterglow when Allison showed up. She lay down beside me and hugged us both. We spent the rest of the night just enjoying the closeness and warmth. Spring break was a bit of a bust. We ended up just staying home. The parents had to work and while we could have gone to one of the resorts on our own, that would have required pulling strings and would likely have attracted attention we didn't want. What really sucked was that we had a whole week off but Shannon and I still couldn't get together. Mark's love life had taken a dive shortly after Valentine's Day. Theresa had eventually left him in search of someone a little more mature emotionally. He had had one brief hook-up since but now was single again and therefore ended up hanging around with us all week. It was mid April, not quite eight weeks until school ended. Time seemed to be both crawling and flying at the same time. The days were flying; school seemed to be rushing past at breakneck speed as we prepared for upcoming finals, while the nights seemed to crawl by. I had spent weeks, literally, getting to know the top ten potential victims on the FBI's list. My first encounter with Elizabeth Street had made the job seem easy. I should have known better. Bob had warned me that it may not be as easy it is sounded. I should have listened. Separating fact from fantasy in the dream world is not easy. 'Easy' it turned out, was a nickname Elizabeth Street had picked out for herself. Paul had glossed over her profile by saying the name was self-explanatory. He was right but I now knew that everyone was selling this girl short as a target. Elizabeth had to be the most uninhibited, self assured girl I had ever encountered. She knew exactly what she wanted and didn't care who knew. She was a damn good basketball player. The only reason she didn't have more offers was that she played in a soft league that didn't challenge her and she played on a team made up of weak players who did nothing to help her. She had as many girlfriends as boyfriends, having slept with most of the athletes in the school at one time or another. At one time she lost a bet with the captain of the boys team and had blown the starting five players one day after practice. What he didn't know is that she staged the whole thing and lost on purpose just because she wanted to do it. I personally had moved her to the top of the list. My only reservation in doing so was that the killer might not see her as enough of a challenge. That changed when I found out she had beaten up two boys that decided that 'Easy' meant easy for everyone. They were just two of the local losers who spent most of their time loaded and were barely scraping by academically. They had decided that they deserved a little better treatment and respect and since the hottest chick in school seemed to be a free for the taking... They watched her long enough to figure out her schedule, and then caught up with her leaving work late one night. They weren't the brightest bulbs on the family Christmas tree, that's for sure. 'Easy' decided who, when, and where she dispensed her favors, no one else. She beat the crap out of them, and then pressed charges for attempted rape. They tried to claim that she attacked them, but the surveillance video from the camera they failed to notice clearly showed them grabbing her. One held her while the other tried to kiss her. She bit his tongue almost off. He slapped her and tore her blouse. She went nuts. She was still kicking one of them when the cops arrived and pulled her off. It took two of them to hold her. One of the boys, the one that tore her blouse, needed emergency surgery to save the testicle she hadn't ruptured, the other spent several months with his arm and hand in a variety of casts and splints as they tried to get all the bones to line up correctly. She had stomped his hand repeatedly and crushed several of the bones. Their parents made threats of lawsuits until the video came out. It never made the papers because both she and one of her attackers were minors. Like I said, 'Easy' Street had made my job seem simple. I had thought I had a pretty good grip on the female psyche; nope, not even close. I tried different scenarios; actually going into a dream and taking over a character; fly on the wall observation; all kinds of stuff. I just could not tell whether the scenes were reality based or just fantasies. I pulled the girls into a couple and that helped. They laughed their asses off at me over a some of them. The comments ranged from things like; "Oh yeah, that would happen..." to things like, "You're sure this is her fantasy and not his?" Eventually Allison took pity on me and suggested that since I couldn't affect memory dreams, to either push them that direction or just test them to see if I had control. Yeah, sounded pretty obvious to me too. So why didn't I think of it? Or even better, why did she wait so long to suggest it. I actually asked her that, and I quote, "But it was just so much fun looking at their fantasies and seeing you standing there without a clue. And then I remembered that you were actually working and doing this for a reason. Sorry I made fun of you like that. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" There was, and I forgave her. It was almost the end of May, six weeks of crawling around in the girls' minds had eventually paid off. I finally had the last report ready for Rebecca. Most of the girls had been pretty much what they expected and deserved the slots they were given. The two big surprises were Patricia Sarducci and Celeste Boudreaux. Patricia was the girl whose parents owned and operated a website called Patty's Playhouse and was rumored to be having an affair with one of her teachers. The website was actually front run by her parents for her. Little Patty was the brains behind the whole thing. The really big four poster I had seen in one of my visions was actually hers. The girl in the mask that you could watch doing all kinds of fun things with her friends was actually a girl working her way through college. They had hired her to body double Patty, who actually did promo work for the site. She introduced videos, interviewed some of the people on screen. Oh, by the way, in case I didn't mention it, everybody wore a mask; it was part of the mystique of the site. Supposedly nobody knew anybody else's secret identity and the hook-ups were random. Patty was the only one you ever saw full face and that was only in her hosting role. She wore some very interesting outfits for her on screen role, and the girl that doubled her wore the same outfits on-screen but it wasn't Patty. Patricia Sarducci was a virgin and planned to stay that way until she was married. The guy she married was going to be very lucky because little Patty really knew her way around the bedroom. She described scenes, techniques, you name it, but she didn't actually do anything. Her parents had all but retired off the money her little enterprise was making. My other big surprise was the one I was planning to drop on Rebecca the next day, well, night really. She and Bob had a date tonight and I think someone may have been planning to actually sleep over as they had asked for the night off from anything less than a real emergency. So I was taking Allison to the mall. Shannon's graduation was in a few weeks and we each wanted to get her a little something. We had thought about pooling our resources and getting something bigger but we decided to go for personal and affordable instead. For one thing Shannon feels bad if you buy her something that she perceives as expensive. Or like what had happened at Valentine's Day, when we got her something and she had nothing for us. We were still working on convincing her that it wasn't a competition. Since Mom and Dad were going out we decided we would eat out as well, then do our shopping and maybe catch a movie. Our first stop when we got to the mall was the ticket window. Hey, it was Friday night and it's a small theater, things sell out quick. After securing prime tickets to the ten o'clock show we split a small pizza and headed off in search of the perfect gifts. Shannon is a big reader so my gift was easy; our little corner of reality had been blessed with a Border's Book Store just before Christmas the previous year. As I said, you have to be careful picking up gifts for Shannon so I limited myself to a $25 gift card. As I was headed for the register to pay, something on one of the islands in the main corridor caught my eye. Shannon is big time into Fairies. She's even thinking of getting one, or more, tattooed on when she is old enough to do it without her parents' consent. There in the isle was a coffee table book of fairies and other fanciful things by her favorite artist. One look at the price tag convinced me that yes, she would in fact kill me if I bought her the book and the gift card. Suddenly I had a flash of genius; I must have been channeling Allison. I headed over to the service desk and made an unusual request. "I'm sorry, I can't do that," the girl said. "Not unless it's actually on sale." "No, no. I'm not asking you to... never mind..." I looked at her name tag. "Lisa, could you do me a favor and call your manager, please?" "It won't do you any good to complain," she said in a voice somewhere between insulted and 'you're so stupid it should be illegal.' "Oh no, I'm sorry, I don't want to complain. I understand that it's policy and you can't help me, I'm just hoping your boss can. Could you call please?" She picked up the phone, dialed, and waited. When someone answered she turned away and covered the phone and her mouth with her hand. I guess no one ever pointed out that that just makes it echo, which makes it harder for the person on the other end to understand what you're saying. After a few seconds she hung up the phone and politely said, "I'm sorry, my manager is out to lunch at the moment, but the shift supervisor will be right out." "Thank you, Lisa. I'm sorry to put you to all this trouble; it's just that I'm getting..." A voice behind me cut me off, "Edward?" I turned around and there was Marsha Ostren crossing the aisle towards me. My first thought was, 'Wow! Marsh cleans up nice!' but then she stuck out her hand and said, "How are you? Can you believe school is almost over? I can't believe graduation is only three weeks away?" I shook her hand firmly as I answered, "Well, for you maybe. For me it still seems like forever away." "Oh yeah, you're still a freshman. Lisa says you wanted something?" "Well, I'm buying my girlfriend something for graduation." "Your girlfriend is a senior? I didn't even know you were dating. Wait a minute; are you the boy Angela's been seeing?" "Angela Osborne? You know her?" "Of course I know her, everyone knows Angie. So you're her mystery man?" "No, not really. We went out once back around Christmas but she's not my girlfriend. My girlfriend is graduating from eighth grade. I was just going to get her a gift card but then I noticed you had this." I held up the book I had found. "The problem is that she'll kill me if she thinks I spent that much money on her, so I was wondering if you could put one of your markdown stickers on it," I held up my hand to stop her from answering too soon, "after I buy it. I'm not looking for a discount, but she's real sensitive about me spending money on her, and if she knows what I really paid she'll be upset." "Okay, so you just want to buy the book, then put a discount sticker on it so she doesn't know how much you really spent, then 'forget' to take the price tag off?" "That's it." "No problem. I'll ring you up myself. Do you already have your gift card picked out?" she asked as she turned towards the front of the store. I had the card already and handed it to her, then turning back to the girl at the service desk I held out my hand. "Lisa, thank you very much for your help." Her face lit up at the gesture. "You're very welcome... Edward was it? It was my pleasure." Her handshake was very tentative; it was very apparent that she didn't do it often. I stopped for a moment. "Marsha, hold on a second." She stopped and came back. "Something else?" "Could you shake Lisa's hand for me?" "Ah... we have a problem?" "I'll let you decide." Lisa was looking very apprehensive at this point. She was clearly embarrassed at the sudden and unexpected attention. Marsha stuck out her hand and Lisa shook it, if anything it was even worse than when she shook mine. Marsha frowned deeply. "Girl, you need help," she said. "Come with us." She took Lisa's arm in hers and we all strolled casually up toward the front of the store. "Lisa, a firm handshake and strong introduction can be the keys to many doors in life. For instance, this young man that you are helping is the only freshman in my psychology class; the rest are all juniors and seniors. The class was full, but his handshake and intro got him a spot in the class. It also started a project that has been going on all year. About half of the class has either landed a job, a better job, or a promotion since the experiment started. My boyfriend; you remember Steve?" Lisa nodded and she continued, "Steve was delivering pizzas, earning tips and ruining his driving record until Edward came along. He is now interning at a marketing and advertising firm in Riverside. And he is just one of many such success stories, including myself. Starting today, you are going to be taking a more active role in customer service." We had reached the registers by now and she paused for a moment, "David?" she called. "Yes, ma'am," said a dark haired boy at one of the checkouts. She motioned him over. "This is Edward, he needs a gift card for twenty-five dollars. Your sister bought the new Fairie Book didn't she?" "Yes, ma'am." "Pick him out the card you would get for her." She looked at me. "Are you a member of our preferred reader's club?" I shook my head. "Hook him up with a membership, waive the fee, and give him an extra ten percent off on the book. I'll be up to sign it off in a few minutes." "Yes, ma'am." He started to turn away. "Before you go, shake Lisa's hand for me? Now Edward's? Edward, please shake Lisa's again. What do you think?" "Well, hers was a little firmer this time, other than that..." "Wait," She interrupted, "Lisa, what did you notice different about Edward's handshake compared to David's?" "Edward's felt better, it was... I don't know... stronger, but not like, you know, strong. David's felt... funny? Is that the right word?" "David. What was different between Edward and Lisa?" "Night and day, his felt very natural and open; hers felt very forced and awkward." "Good. Thank you, David, go ahead and get back to work, but when Edward gets to the front, make sure you get him. I'll be along in a minute." He started to leave but again she called him back, "On second thought, hang out with us for another minute. Lisa, for the next hour you are going to stand by the door and greet people as they come through. You are to offer a handshake to everyone, male or female that comes through the door, introduce yourself as a member of the customer service staff, find out if this is their first visit and if so direct them to what they are looking for. David, what is Lisa going to be doing for the next hour?" "Greeting people, shaking hands, asking if they have been in before and offering to assist them if they need any help finding anything." "Good, glad you were paying attention. In one hour you and Lisa will trade places. Starting tomorrow you will trade places every two hours until I tell you otherwise. I'll talk to Chris and get it set up. If either of you feel you are ready for critique, ask some of the customer's to rate your handshake. Trust me, most will understand immediately what you are asking and will be very honest with their evaluations. All set? Good. Lisa, you're on your own. David, make sure you don't forget her or you'll spend the rest of the weekend dusting. Now let's go sell this guy a book before he misses his bed time." "Ouch! Cheap shot!" "Yeah, it was. But I think I can trust you not to take it personally. I'm glad you came in, Edward. It never would have occurred to me to have my employees work on this. Thank you." "You don't need to thank me; I was in the neighborhood." "You're too modest. David will ring you up while I go find you that discount tag." A short while later I was sitting in the food court with a frozen yogurt waiting for Allison. I had been concerned that she may have been waiting for me and wondering what was taking me so long, but I had time to spare before she arrived. I offered her a bite as she walked up and she said, "Trying to fatten me up?" I rolled my eyes and grinned. "It's yogurt." "Oh, well in that case..." I handed her the cone and she took a huge bite then covered her mouth and started stomping her foot. "Mm. Mm. Ooh... code," she mumbled around her mouthful. "Oh, I'm sorry," I said with a smile. "I guess I should have specified, it's frozen yogurt." "Um. Ooh," She finally swallowed the bite. "Oh, that was a mistake." "Brain freeze?" "Big time. It was good though. What flavor was it?" "You didn't notice?" "I was too busy trying to get it to melt." "Strawberry banana," I answered. "Well, it was good." "You want one?" "No, but I'll help you finish yours." I handed it to her saying, "I've got a better idea. Why don't you take this and I'll go drop these in the car so we don't have to worry about them during the movie or anything. We've got about forty minutes until the show starts. I'll be right back." I took her package, it was small and solid, but not very heavy; jewelry of some kind, due to the shape of the box; I guessed necklace or bracelet, and headed for the parking lot. We had parked in the back lot so that the car would be close by when the movie let out. The lot was already filling up fast but I didn't see anyone in the parking lot at the time. I walked quickly to the car, opened the trunk and put the items in the cargo net so they wouldn't roll around. I had just closed the trunk and was turning to go when pain exploded in my cheek. The force of the unexpected blow spun me around and practically drove me to my knees. I caught myself on the trunk just as strong hands grabbed me and swung me around again. Two sets of hands held my arms and something slammed into my stomach. The blow was unexpected and I doubled over it, but my abs were in pretty good shape so the blow had not hurt as much as it probably appeared. Brad Russell's face loomed near as I stood up once more. He looked surprised more than anything else. "Hello, asshole," he said, drawing his fist back again. I never felt the blow land. Somewhere I thought I heard a scream, there was brief flash of pain and I saw the blow land. The next thing I saw was Brad drawing his arm back shaking his hand. The human head is mostly bone; the forehead is a really hard way to get in. It was the most bizarre sensation. After the screaming sound and flash I found myself looking down at the whole scene. I watched as my body actually leaned into the blow, causing Brad to impact the thick part of my skull instead of the softer tissue of my face; and much sooner than he was prepared for. As he drew his hand back, shaking it at the sudden pain, I kicked him in the nuts and as he doubled over my foot came down on the instep of the guy holding my right arm. At the same time I grabbed the shirt of the guy on the left and was pulling him into me. The rapid shift had caught him unprepared and he was off balance. As he started to pull back I shoved hard and he lost his grip. My arm now free I spun and slammed my left palm into the face of the guy on the right. His head snapped back and he too lost his grip on my arm. I spun into his body as he pulled pack and drove my right elbow into his solar plexus, and as he doubled forward I swept his feet out from under him. It was like watching a movie. I was seeing all of this from a point above and to one side. Brad was throwing another punch but it never landed, my left hand came up but instead of blocking pushed it off line to the right side of my face just enough to miss my head, his momentum carried him into my right fist which was driving forward into his stomach. I stepped past him and kicked the back of his right knee, which collapsed and took him to the ground. I could see the third guy moving in to grab me again. It was beyond weird, it was like I was seeing everything from overhead and reacting to it at the same time. Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I've never taken a martial arts class in my life. I can't do this stuff, but I watched and as his arm came over my shoulder to capture my head, watched as I grabbed his wrist, pulled him in closer and flipped him onto the hard pavement. The air whooshed from his body and he lay stunned. As he started to take a recovering breath I stomped hard on his chest and what little air he had left was forced out. It was the exact same move I had seen Alicia Sanderson use in the ring weeks before. Mr. right-arm was back up and the blood streaming from his nose seemed to have really pissed him off. He made a mad rush toward me but I sidestepped, ducked under his arm and shoved him face first into the back door of the van behind me. He bounced off and lay still on the pavement. Brad was up again and looked like he may have decided to quit the fight. My perspective changed and I was once more looking out from my own eyes but that's all I was doing. I watched helplessly as my left fist shot forward with two quick jabs, the first snapping his head back and bloodying his lip; the second caught him coming forward again. I felt something give and blood fountained from his nose. My right fist shot forward, driving deep into his abdomen again; he was completely unprepared and doubled over again. "Enough!" I screamed, but the sound only echoed in my head. Brad stood up once more; right hand stretched forward blindly trying to keep distance between us. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as my right hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling his already straight arm straighter, and holding it tight as my left came forward. It was textbook perfect, the fingers and thumb pulled back exposing the heel of my hand, aligning it with the bones in my arm. There was a wet popping sound as I hit his elbow at a near perfect ninety degree angle and the joint shattered. His arm went limp and time sped up once more. Brad screamed and dropped to his knees, eyes wide and cradling his arm. I could feel my weight start to shift and I knew what was coming. He was helpless before me, defeated, I should have stopped; to continue was beyond reason, but I had no control. My focus narrowed, my eyes drawn to the point at the base of his skull where it joined his neck. I could only watch in horror as my body moved into a new position and my leg started to move. From somewhere to my right I heard Allison scream, "Jimmy, NO!" The movement stopped, and I turned to see her running towards me, behind her a security guard was just clearing the mall doors. Then everything went dark as I collapsed to the ground. ------- Chapter 62: What Happened? Allison I was standing by the "Hotdog-on-a-Stick" in the food court, when someone yelled fight. Everyone rushed the door but they were just crowding around trying to see; no one was going outside. Knowing Jimmy was outside I forced my way to the front to see if he was okay. I saw him punching a boy and I was starting to push the door open when the guard grabbed my arm. "Whoa there, young lady, you don't need to get any closer." I whirled and screamed, "That's my brother!" I could see the shock on his face as I tore my arm from his grip and hit the panic bar on the door. By the time I got through the breezeway it was almost over. Actually it was over, should have been over; the boy was kneeling on the ground screaming and cradling his arm. I knew I had missed something while I was getting free of the guard. Jimmy was standing over him and I saw him step back into a fighting stance again. What is he doing? Oh my God! He'll kill him. I screamed, "Jimmy, NO!" He turned as if in slow motion and the look on his face almost stopped me in my tracks. I'd never, ever, seen that look before; and I never want to see it again. It was... indescribable. It wasn't anger, or fear, or anything I could point to. The eyes were the worst; they were... empty somehow. It was like staring into two dark holes in his head. On one of our family vacations we went to the big museum in Denver. It was amazing. They had all sorts of displays and exhibits. A lot of their stuff was done in life size recreations, dioramas, only in life size. They had one of a group of cavemen with spears trying to bring down a wooly mammoth. It was all so lifelike you just expected them to start carving it into steaks right before your eyes. The one thing that stood out and said, "This isn't real," had been the eyes. The expressions were good, the fear and rage of the mammoth at being attacked. The fear mixed with desire on the faces of the cavemen stopped at the eyes. There was something missing, some spark that they just couldn't capture using artificial materials. For all their being focused and determined on their prey, their expressions were still somehow blank. Seeing that look in Jimmy's eyes confirmed my worst fear. He was going to kill that boy. We've all heard the expression of your blood running cold and we think we know what someone means when they say it. I always thought I understood it. Well, I was wrong. I think most people are wrong. Ever since that night I can tell when someone knows and when they are just saying it. It's a feeling I'll never forget. It was like being in the shower and suddenly the water goes from hot to ice cold. Not the gradual change as the hot water runs out, more like they suddenly switched the water line and the new one came straight from the refrigerator. You know how if someone flushes the toilet when you're in the shower and the water suddenly changes temperature? How your heart kind of jumps and you catch your breath at that first rush of cold? This was like that only a thousand times worse. Suddenly my chest was so tight I could hardly breathe and my heart seemed to hammer against the sudden constraint. Time seemed to slow down and I could hear each individual beat echo through my head. My muscles seemed to not want to work and I felt myself slow. But I couldn't slow down, I had to get there, I had to reach him, to stop him before it was too late. Then suddenly, inexplicably, he just wilted. I saw a brief flare of what seemed like recognition in his eyes and he just fell to the ground like his bones had evaporated. Suddenly I could breathe again. Time sped up and I could hear the guard's feet pounding on the pavement behind me. As we cleared the last line of cars and the rest of the scene came into view, four bodies were scattered across the ground. "Holy shit!" he said and I heard him key is radio. "Dispatch this is mall two, I need an ambulance and paramedics code 3, better make that two ambulances, I've got three down and one more that might as well be. And send me some crowd control; I got a hundred kids trying to make it out the doors already." I went to my knees and cradled Jimmy's head but there was no response. I could feel the tears starting and shoved them back down, hard. I didn't have time for tears. I felt his neck and his pulse was strong and steady, my cheek against his confirmed that he was breathing okay. I laid his head carefully on the ground, checked him over quickly for any signs of damage. There was no blood or other obvious injury. What was wrong? I shook him gently. "Jimmy. Jimmy, wake up; it's me; it's Allison." I kissed him but it was like kissing my arm, there was nothing there but flesh. Fishing in his pocket I got out his cell phone and turned it on to call home. I felt the tears trying to break free again as I waited for it to finish powering up. Since it was only used for outgoing calls he left it off most of the time. When the recorder picked up I realized my parents weren't at home. Moisture clouded my vision as I broke the connection and dialed my mother's cell phone. I wiped at my eyes but I could still hear the tears trying to break into my voice when my mom finally answered the phone. "Mom? Mom, we're at the mall and Jimmy's hurt! He went out to put some stuff in the car and three boys jumped him. Security called for an ambulance but it's not here yet and I don't know what to do. He doesn't look hurt but he's unconscious... Mommy I'm scared... I..." She interrupted in a firm voice, "Allison! Allison, listen to me. You need to calm down. You need to focus. Do you have a coat or sweater or anything in the car?" "I just have the sweatshirt I brought for the movie because the theater is always cold." "Are you wearing anything under it?" "Mother! Of course I'm wearing something under it." "Good. Take it off and try to spread it over him as best you can. But don't move him, you don't know if he has back or neck damage." "No, he was up when I first saw him, but then he just sort of collapsed. He seemed to be moving fine up to then." "Okay, dear, then cover him with your sweatshirt and find something to put under his feet." "His feet?" "Yes, his feet; elevating his feet will increase the blood supply to the brain. Did he hit his head when he fell?" "I don't know. There no blood or anything," I felt his head carefully and felt what would later be bumps on his forehead just beginning to form. "There is swelling on his forehead and it's red but there are no cuts or anything. Mom, why won't he wake up?" I could feel panic starting to sneak up on me. "Allison! Allison, you have to focus, hang up the phone and do what I told you. Is anyone else hurt?" "Yes, there are three other boys. Two of them are unconscious and one looks like his arm is broken." "Really? Well, try and help out as best you can until the ambulance gets there. Do what the security people tell you; we're on our way. Your father is tracking down the manager, as soon as we pay for dinner we'll be on the way. If the ambulance gets there first call me back and let us know where they are taking him. He'll be alright, sweetie." "Okay, Mom. I'll try, but I'm scared." "Of course you are, dear. I'm hanging up; we're on our way." I put the phone away, pulled my sweatshirt off and started tucking it over Jimmy as best I could. I suddenly realized how big he had gotten. The shirt lay on his body like I had tossed it on a couch. I wished then that I had brought one that zipped up so I could open it and cover more of him, but I really hate those; no matter how careful you are, after a couple months they started bunching up around the zipper as the material stretched, then they just wouldn't lay flat no matter what you did and they looked dorky. I fished his keys out of his pocket and opened the trunk. We have these really neat roadside blankets that my mom found a while back. They are designed to let you change tires and stuff on the side of the road without your clothes getting trashed. They are lightly padded to protect you from road grit, have a heavy mylar pad on the bottom but are soft cloth on top, and roll up into a neat little bundle about six inches high and maybe a foot long. The only drawback is the size, they may call it a blanket but only if you're covering a baby. They're only about three feet across when you open them up. When I opened the trunk the first thing I saw was the gifts we had just purchased for Shannon, and I felt the tears suddenly trying to fight their way to the surface again. These were the reason he was out here in the first place. I stepped on the tears again and forced them back out of the way. Mom was right, I needed to focus, I needed to help; I could break down later, but right now I had work to do. I grabbed the blanket, closed the trunk and turned back to the task at hand. I tucked the blanket under Jimmy's feet like Mom said, and checked to make sure he was breathing okay. Suddenly he looked like he was asleep on the couch in the living room; peaceful and cute, just taking a nap with not a care in the world and the tears welled up again. "Dammit, Allison Ann," I told myself. "You are almost fourteen fucking years old! Knock this shit off and get to it." I turned to the security guard to ask if there was something more I could do and discovered that others had arrived while I wasn't paying attention. There were two officers stringing barrier tape across the aisle between two cars to keep people back, a third was now talking to the one that had arrived first. The only boy still conscious was on his knees, body rocking slowly forward and back, cradling his right arm like it was his new puppy and it had died. Tears leaked from his closed eyes and he just kept repeating, "It hurts; oh god, it hurts," in a low whispery voice. If anyone here was in shock, it was him. "Excuse me," I said. The new guard looked up as if noticing me for the first time. "Is there something I can do to help?" "You know him?" the new officer asked, indicating Jimmy. "Yes, officer," I followed Jimmy's lead and read his name tag, "Simpson, he's my brother; his name is..." "Edward. We met at Christmas. Do you have any idea what happened here?" "No sir, not really. He came out to put some things in the trunk, then we were going to go to a movie. I was waiting inside and someone yelled fight and I ran because I knew he was outside, and I yelled, and he just fell, and now..." There was no stopping the tears any longer. I just stood there and cried. I don't know why but I reached out and hugged him and cried against his chest. He was obviously shocked at first but then the parent genes kicked in and he put his arms around me and began stroking my hair. I started to pull away after a few seconds and he let me. "I'm sorry," I said, wiping my eyes. "I didn't mean..." He cut me off, saying, "It's okay, sweetie. It's just a shirt; tears won't hurt it. And don't be ashamed of crying, there's nothing wrong with it. Why don't you just go stay with him until the ambulance gets here and they can check him out? Just check his pulse now and then and let me know if it changes or if his skin starts to feel clammy." It was only about a minute longer before the paramedics showed up. There's a fire station just a couple blocks from the mall so they got there first. The one boy was still rocking in place clutching his arm, but the tears had stopped and he was quiet now. One of the paramedics threw a blanket to the security guard and told him to wrap him in it and they would get to him as soon as they could. Then they moved to the other two and started checking them out. The one by the car was a bloody mess and still unconscious, there was a huge dent in the back door of the van above him. The paramedic tried to get one of the guards to hold a bandage to the large cut on the boy's forehead but they were starting to have problems keeping the crowd back. "I can do it," I said. "Thank you. The cut's not that bad but I need to get the bleeding stopped long enough to dress it. How's he doing?" he pointed with his chin at Jimmy as he asked. "His pulse is steady and he doesn't seem to be getting cold. But he's not bleeding or anything so I guess that's a good sign." I moved over and started to take over holding the large gauze pad. "Uh-uh. First grab a pair of gloves out of that box. They're too big for you but put them on anyway. I pulled two of the latex gloves from the box and put them on, they were huge on my little hands but this wasn't a fashion show. When I had them on I moved again to take over and this time he let me. "Steady pressure, right?" I asked. "You got it; a little harder... that's it. You see what happened?" "No, I think they jumped my brother." "Is he your brother?" He looked over at the boy rocking on his knees. "No, that's my brother." I indicated Jimmy. "Then who did all this? Usually it's the last one standing who won, and since he's still conscious..." "Jimmy was standing when I came out; he collapsed as I was crossing the parking lot; the other two were already down before I got here." "He did all this? Damn! He's good. What belt is he?" "I'm sorry?" "What belt? You know, karate, tae qwon do? He's gotta be at least a high brown to have trashed three guys twice his size?" "I don't know what you mean; Jimmy's never taken any karate lessons or anything like that." "Let me see that cut." I pulled up the gauze and he checked the wound. "Good." He tore the top off a new gauze pack and held it out to me. "Take this one and hold it steady so I can tape it. You're kidding right? This looks like a scene from an old Bruce Lee movie. He doesn't practice?" "No, I don't even remember the last time he was in a fight." He shook his head. "Okay, that's got it, there's a stack of blankets in the top compartment on the passenger side, right behind the cab, why don't you grab three or four. Don't move his head, just pack one close on either side, then roll one up and put it under his feet, spread another one over the top of him. I'm going to check on your brother. You said his name is Jimmy?" "Yes sir," I answered, moving to the truck trying to figure out the latch on the door. "The ring pulls up; turn it counter-clockwise to open. How you doing over there, Dave?" he called to his partner. I pulled out a stack of blankets and closed the compartment again. They were what we used to call army blankets, thin but very heavy. They were folded down to about twelve by eighteen. I folded one again and stuck it under the boy's feet then spread another over him. One more on either side of his head and I moved back to wait for further instructions. "This your sweatshirt... I'm sorry, what's your name, sweetie?" "Allison Matthews." "Nice to meet you, Allison, I'm Bobby Robbins and that's my partner, Dave Wright, over there, could you bring me a couple more of those blankets?" Dave called over, "Nice to meet you, Allison, this one's looks like he's got a couple broken ribs, chief. BP and pulse are good but his breathing is real shallow. He's in and out of consciousness, moves his head around when he starts to wake up so at least that works. Going to hurt like hell when he wakes up." "Watch you language." "Sorry sir, miss." It didn't bother me but I wasn't sure if I should say so, so I just nodded and handed him a couple blankets. Across the parking lot I could see the flashing lights of two ambulances coming our way, further back I could see another set of lights reflected off of a wall and knew that a third was on the way. Bobby and Dave moved to the boy on his knees, he acted like he didn't see them at all, still rocking gently, cradling his arm and staring blindly forward. They knelt down on either side and Bobby started checking his eyes with a flashlight and talking to him, "How you doing? You doing all right?" he asked, then said to Dave, "Pupils are fixed and dilated; he seems to be in serious shock; I don't think he even knows we're here; let's see if you can get that arm free, find out what's going on." The boy was still clutching the arm tightly and Dave had to pry the fingers loose from the upper arm. When he did the arm swung free and they could see what they were dealing with. "Holy Jesus!" Bobby exclaimed. The arm appeared whole but the elbow was completely collapsed and the lower half bent the wrong way. The swelling seemed to be the only thing keeping it from flopping around. Pulling it free caused it to move; when it did the boy screamed in pain and then his eyes rolled up and he melted to the pavement. They laid him out on the ground just as the first two ambulances pulled up and started pulling out gurneys. Dave was taking the boy's blood pressure, from the other arm, as Bobby started shouting instructions. "That one's got chest damage but no apparent head or neck trauma, the one by the van and the other one are going to need boards just in case. I need a short board for this arm; I don't want to risk a splint until they can x-ray. We'll just immobilize and let the ER deal with it. Allison, is someone coming for you?" I called my mom again and they were stuck behind an accident and still too far away. I told him so. "Ask your mom if it's okay to ride in with us." I did and gave him the answer, "She said yes." He keyed his mike and started talking, "Dispatch, this is EM seven. We're about done here. We'll be ten-nineteen to Arrowhead Regional assisting with transport, please note we will be transporting a female minor to the ER. Her parents will meet us there. Copy?" "Ten four, EM-7; what's your ETA to Arrowhead?" He pointed to Jimmy and snapped his fingers twice; the driver helping Jimmy glanced up and said, "Twenty." "Twenty minutes, Dispatch." "Ten-four." Within a few minutes they had everyone loaded. The third ambulance took the two who had been unconscious all along. I wanted to ride with Jimmy but they wouldn't let me. Dave walked me to their truck and had me get in while he checked to make sure everything was secure. When we got to the emergency room he waited with me while Bobby gave the doctors all of their information. I gave one of the nurses all of Jimmy's information, when I told her he had a medical card in his wallet they cut the side of the pocket out so they could get it without moving him. They handed it to me and I found his card. Then they were gone down the hall. Bobby waited with me until Mom and Dad showed up. Dave mumbled something about "It's good to be the king" when Bobby sent him outside to re-pack the truck. I was doing okay until Dad came in and then I lost it again. I hugged him and cried as he shook hands with Bobby. "Thank you for watching out for her," he said as he shook Bobby's hand. "No problem at all, sir. She was a big help. I hope your boy's okay." I turned and shook Bobby's hand, and thanked him for everything he had done and he left. I made a mental note to call him or send him a thank you so he would know how everything turned out. After that they wouldn't tell us anything about the others. Jimmy had them puzzled. He didn't appear to be seriously injured, no sign of concussion or other head trauma, but they couldn't bring him around either. Eventually they moved him to a room and then all we could do was wait. I stayed with him in the room as much as possible. Someone tried to make me leave after visiting hours were over but I told them flatly that I wasn't leaving. Mom looked at Dad, and Dad asked who he needed to talk to for me to stay. A sweet little grandma looking lady named Wendy came in and laid down the law about what was expected of me if I stayed and made it clear that if I did not hold up my end she would personally come back and drag me out, by the ear if necessary. Mom asked if I wanted a book to read. I ask her to bring me "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I figured if it was good enough for Amy it was good enough for Jimmy. I read it out loud, concentrating on the words to keep the tears out of my voice. When I fell asleep I went to the glade and tried calling him, but he didn't answer. I sat on the blanket under the tree and cried until I woke up. Then I picked the story up where I left off and started all over again. When the nurses came in I took advantage of the time to go to the bathroom and stretch my legs while they did their work. At the very first opportunity I called Rebecca to let her know what had happened. It was still early on Saturday so he hadn't missed their appointment yet, but I thought she deserved to know so she wouldn't be expecting him. I gave her all the information I could before hanging up on her. Rebecca There's nothing quite as effective as making plans to insure that something will happen at work. It's a universal constant. I have acquaintances in sales for instance; you want to get a customer to come in unexpectedly, order something hot for lunch. Or just pour yourself a nice hot cup of coffee. Bob had a big evening planned. How big? Pretty big. He told me to buy a new dress, preferably black. I took a half day off just to make sure I would be ready. Time off isn't usually my problem. I have enough accrued vacation and sick leave that HR complains about it, frequently. I do it on purpose. One day my sister is going to wake up and she's going to need someone to be with her and help her acclimate to the twenty-first century. I plan to be that someone. Bob had said to be ready no later than six. I was ready and waiting, nervous as hell, at quarter of six. I paced, I thumbed through a magazine, I checked my watch, I paced some more, I checked the headlines in the paper, I checked my watch again. Promptly at six there was a knock at the door. I yanked the door open and said, "It's about ti..." It wasn't Bob. Okay, technically it was a 'Bob', just not the Bob I had been expecting. "I apologize if I am late, Miss Hampton. My name is Robert and it is my privilege to be your driver for tonight." "Oh, I'm sorry, Robert, just let me get my coat and purse." I grabbed my things and we headed out the door. The downside to being with the bureau is that you really can't just 'go out.' I have to carry my ID with me everywhere and I'm usually armed. It's so hard to find a sexy dress that will hide my Glock. The Sig Sauer P-230 is my weapon of choice for formal occasions. At just over six and a half inches it fits easily in a small handbag as long as you don't have to carry more than a driver's license and maybe a lipstick with it. My ID fit comfortably. I carry the .38 caliber model. It holds six rounds in the magazine. You can have seven if you're crazy enough to run around with one in the chamber. I've never found it necessary, besides, nothing gets someone's attention and say's "this bitch is serious" quite like the sound of the slide cocking the hammer back right before you point it between their eyes. The .32 will allow you one extra round but I've found that anything smaller that the .38 runs the risk of pissing someone off when you shoot them rather than actually stopping them. It only weighs eighteen ounces so you don't even really notice the weight. A purse with a heavy enough liner will even disguise the shape. If you're going to carry something like this in a small clutch I suggest having a really heavy and well attached shoulder strap. If you do that it doubles as one hell of a blackjack. My second choice was the Walther PPK. It's a fraction shorter, weighs about 4 ounces more, which gives it a more solid feel in your hand. I considered it for about two and half seconds. I like the gun, don't get me wrong. It's a nice weapon, but I have enough trouble with people who think working for the FBI makes me a spy. I am not carrying James Bond's gun. I kept a locking steel travel case by the door. I keep my tactical gear inside along with my main gun and ammunition when I'm traveling. Its other home was my trunk. Trust me, when it comes to being prepared, the boy scouts have nothing on the FBI. After the episode at the bank I made myself a promise to never be unarmed again. The rest is just in case. I could have gotten away with a slightly smaller case but I added some tennis shoes, socks and a rolled up jumpsuit as well. I didn't want to be caught in a bad situation wearing heels. Besides that you just lose so much credibility with the bad guys when you're standing there pointing a gun at them and flashing them your panties at the same time because your dress blew up in a sudden gust from a passing bus. Robert reached to take the case and I handed him the wrap that went with the dress instead. When we got to the car I asked him to open the trunk. Once the case was stowed I also asked him to show me exactly where the inside release was just so I would know. To his credit he never asked about it. Bob was standing by the door looking very dapper in his black suit and tie. God that man is handsome. And the way he looked at me just made me want to drag him back inside and bar all the doors. Dinner was fabulous; I was going to need some serious time at the gym. The cheesecake alone was going to take hours to burn off. The next stop was the Shubert Theatre downtown. I'd been there on occasion for various security details I had been assigned to but it looked completely different from a patron's point of view. We had a glass of wine while we waited for the show to start. The evening was looking like it would turn out to be everything I had hoped for. I should have known better. The best I can do is turn my phone way down or set it to vibrate. It's never off unless I'm in a situation that it may blow cover and then I have an earpiece and am connected to the team anyway. The lights flickered, signally a five minute call to curtain and like clockwork my phone went off. I had left strict instructions that unless it was a real emergency someone would bleed if we were disturbed. I had even asked Jimmy not to drop in tonight after hours. I flipped the phone open and Paul's number was on the caller ID. Shit. This was bad. I'd expect Rod to call me on a date before Paul and Selena would kill him for it. "Hampton." "Celeste Boudreax is dead." No pleasantries just cut right to the chase. The boy does have potential. If he'd tried making polite overtures I would have chewed him out. This definitely qualified as a good enough reason to call. The crowd was thinning and I could see two ushers converging on me. Cell phones and theatre don't mix. I started fishing in my purse for my ID with my free hand. "Where and when?" "San Diego, about two hours ago." "How'd you hear about it?" "A fluke. I added all the girls to a watch program. Monitoring caught the name on a police scanner and flagged the recording. Simmons called me." "What do we know? Was it our boy?" "No idea. I tried calling but they won't talk. Not on the phone. They want to see ID and they want to know why we're interested." The ushers arrived and one of them started to interrupt, "I'm sorry, miss, but I'll have to ask..." I flashed my ID and he shut up. His eyes got wide and he swallowed hard when he read it. Bob stepped in and distracted them. "Thank you, gentlemen. Any other time I would stand and applaud your efforts. Could one of you please get the manager for me? And I don't have my phone on me so if you could please call this number for me and tell my driver that something has come up and I need him immediately. Thank you." One took the card from Bob and they both left in a hurry. "Okay, Paul, where are you?" "Southbound on 110 headed for I-5." "Good. I'm downtown and it will take a little while to get out of here but I'll be right behind you." The manager was approaching with one of the ushers. I had expected to see the arrogant swaggering jackass in charge but instead he looked like the picture of quiet civility and service; bad girl Rebecca, weren't you just talking to Paul about not judging people by their jobs. "Good evening, Sir, Madam. David says you for asked me, how may I assist you." "Good evening. I'm Robert Shelby. This is Rebecca Hampton. I'm sure David told you who she is. We were very much looking forward to the show tonight but unfortunately she's been called away on a case. I was wondering if perhaps you have anybody who may be able to use our tickets. We're not looking to sell them or anything but it would be a shame to see them go to waste." "Most generous of you, sir. As a matter of fact one our season ticket holders inquired earlier if we had seats available for some out of town guests. They have been waiting just in case something should come available." "Please give them our seats with my compliments." "I would not think of it, sir. I insist you be compensated for them. These are very nice seats." "Yes, but we will not be using them either way. Really, I see no point..." "Please, sir. It is not as if you changed your mind. But if that is your desire, I am sure our guests will be most grateful for your generosity. May I have your name and address in case they wish to send a card?" "Certainly." He wrote his information on the back of one of my business cards and the manager gave a small bow and left to find the lucky couple. As he was leaving, the other usher arrived. "Your driver said he will be here in a few minutes and that it would be faster if you met him at the southeast corner." Bob thanked him, tipped him five dollars that I had not seen him pull out and we headed for the door. Twenty minutes later we were headed down the I-5. Traffic was still heavy. I don't know about your neck of the woods but Los Angeles on a Friday night? I had tried to talk Bob into letting me go home to change and get my car but he insisted that the limo was already paid for anyway. I keep the non emergency numbers for all the local law enforcement agencies on my phone. I punched up the California Highway Patrol and rolled down the partition so I could talk to Robert. I listened to the recording telling me to call 911 if it was an emergency, when I didn't opt out it rang me through to the dispatcher who answered promptly on about the eighth ring. I'm sorry, did that sound sarcastic? "Highway Patrol Dispatch, is this an emergency?" "This is special agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI. I'm en route to a crime scene in a private vehicle and we're going to be bending some rules. It's a black Lincoln stretch license number..." Robert gave me the plate and I read it back to her. "You're in a stretch Limo going to a crime scene? I am so in the wrong department. Are you hiring?" She actually sounded serious. "Trust me, this is a special occasion. I was on a date." She moved from serious to incredulous, "You were on a date, in a limo, and they called you? Oh this cannot be good." "It's not. We're head south on I-5 for San Diego." "Sorry about your date. I'll let everyone know to keep an eye out for you." Everything went pretty smoothly from there. It turned out the limo was equipped for diplomatic work. Robert keyed the lights to flash and stepped on it. We made good time but the crime scene was still over a hundred miles away. I called Paul when we hit Temecula and figured out we were only about fifteen minutes behind him. The crime scene was a motel in Escondido. Not a good sign. Diane and Amanda had both been discovered in motel rooms. But this still didn't make sense. It was too soon. The killer had never struck before graduation; that we knew of anyway. And Celeste was still two weeks from turning eighteen. Something just didn't sound right. I called Paul back. "Paul? Something doesn't sound right." "A lot of things don't sound right. It's too soon, she's still underage, and it's before graduation, pick one. Besides, she wasn't missing, not that we know of any way. I think this is a wild goose chase, but... we have to check it." "Yeah, we do. Alright, I'll see you in a few minutes." Robert's voice came over the intercom. "We've got company." I tried to look out the back window but it was no use, I couldn't get any definition through the heavily tinted glass. Then suddenly there was a black and white Ford with the distinctive gold badging of the California Highway Patrol along side of us and waving us to follow as he went by. He pulled into our lane and accelerated. "Oh yeah," Robert said as he hit the gas. We had been doing someone in the 85 to 90 range most of the way down, a little more or less either way depending on traffic here and there. With the escort we quickly hit triple figures as everyone hurried to clear the fast lane. We only had to slow down once as we came up on one of those most dangerous of drivers. You know the one I mean; tunnel vision, eyes glued to that strip of lane just ahead of his car and completely oblivious to anything else going on. Even with the lights going, the black and white finally had to shine a spotlight in the back window and tweet the siren before he realized there was anyone behind him. You could see him looking frantically for somewhere to go before swerving into the next lane. Robert hit the gas again and we roared past. Within minutes we were pulling off the freeway on the outskirts of Escondido. Our destination was easy to spot by the crowd gathered outside the barrier tape dividing the parking lot. The lot itself had no less than three patrol cars with lights still flashing, at least two unmarked cars that I could see right away, and an ambulance standing by. If they were just standing around then their presence was superfluous. If the people inside were still alive then they needed to be working to keep them that way. If they were dead then everyone was waiting for the coroner to arrive. Only the coroner could legally declare the victims dead. Once he made his magic pronouncement they stopped being people and became just bodies. Yeah, it sucks but that's the way it works. There was also a Suburban labeled Crime Scene Investigation so the pros were going over the scene now. Our escort had to chirp his siren to clear a path for us into the parking lot. I could tell that several of the onlookers were with the press and as we crossed the intersection I noticed the news van parked just down the block. Media I didn't need. A suit separated itself from the pack and headed for our car as he heard the siren chirp. The body language told me all I needed to know. The only thing missing was a tattoo on the forehead that said asshole. This was not going to be a fun visit. Off to one side I saw Paul get out of his car and head our way as well. Robert held my door as Bob helped me from the back seat. The Chippee was already out and walking back to our car, a huge grin on his face. "How you doing, Bexs?" I hadn't really paid attention to the face, but turned sharply at the voice. I couldn't believe my eyes. Nicolas Carmichael had been my steady 'not my boyfriend' all through college. He had introduced me to Michael. We lost touch after I passed the entrance for the Bureau. We had gone in together but he didn't make it. He just didn't have the personality for the job. Now here he was three thousand miles away escorting me to a murder scene. "Nicky!" I threw my arms around him and hugged him tight. "Ow! Is that any way to treat an old friend who just risked life and limb to get you to your destination?" "Fuck you! Hug me, asshole, before I shoot you." He swept me off my feet and spun me in a big bear hug. "It's good to see you again, Becky Boo." "Becky Boo?" Bob's voice inquired behind me. "You didn't hear that," I answered as Nick set me back on my feet and released me. I smoothed my dress and reached a hand out to Bob. "Bob, this is Nick Carmichael, an old and dear friend. We went to school together. Nicky, this is Robert Shelby. He's a psychology teacher from San Bernardino. We were supposed to be on a date when all this came up." "Very pleased to meet you, Office Carmichael," Bob said, extending his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Bob. I always knew Becky needed therapy but I didn't realize she would be needing it full time." "Oh, Becky Boo and I aren't seeing each other professionally. I make it a point not to date patients; makes the neighbors gossip something fierce." "Just dating? Well, you better run while you can, Bob. I've only seen that look on her face once before and he was staring into space muttering 'I do' before he knew what hit him." "Nicky! That is so not true." An irritated voice sounded behind me, "If you three are through playing meet the family I'd like to know just what the fuck you're doing here?" Damn, I'd forgotten about Officer Smiley. I put on my game face and turned to meet him. "Officer..." I searched for the nametag but he cut me off before I found it. "Detective Sergeant Mikkelson." "I'm sorry, detective. I got distracted running into an old friend." I flipped open my badge. "Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, FBI, Los Angeles Bureau. I need to know what happened here." "Oh really? And just why exactly do you think you need to know what happened here? I don't remember calling anyone to ask for federal assistance with my case. So let's try that again. What are you doing sticking your nose into my case?" I turned back to Bob and Nicky, "If you'll excuse us." "No problem, Beebee," Nicky said with a grin. If there was one nickname I hated worse than Becky Boo is was the abbreviated version, and he knew it. "I can see you're going to be busy for a while so I'll just head back out to the highway. I'll give Bob here my information. Give me a call. We really need to get together and catch up." We shook hands, Nicky went to his car and Bob went to stand with Robert at the back of the limo. I turned back to Detective Mikkelson, and said, "I understand a girl named Celeste Boudreaux was killed here tonight." His eyes narrowed and his face got red. "And just where did you hear that? We haven't released the names of any of the victims and Miss Boudreaux is a minor so we wouldn't have released hers anyway. Christ, we haven't even told her parents yet." Well, at least that confirmed that Celeste was in fact the dead girl. "So there are other victims besides her?" "I'm not telling you shit until you answer my question. Where did you get that name?" What a dick. This guy didn't have a chip on his shoulder, he had the whole tree. "Paul," I said. "Monitoring picked up the name on a scan. They matched it to a watch list on a case we're following. I notified Special Agent Hampton when I couldn't get any information." "Why was a seventeen year old girl on a federal watch list?" He was staring at me and ignoring Paul. As the obvious junior officer I guess he felt he wasn't worth the attention. "She met the profile in case we are working on." "That's twice you've mentioned your case and you still haven't given me any justification for sticking your nose in my case. If there is something going on with that girl I need to know it. Now are you going to stop beating around the bush and tell me what the hell you're doing here or do I need to start talking about things like impeding a murder investigation?" I could see we were going to get nowhere with detective sergeant Macho here. I weighed the possible information to be gained against the importance of keeping a low profile. I needed to know what had happened in that hotel room. I could wait for copies of official reports to come through proper channels but time was my enemy and there were only a few more weeks until the girls started graduating. There was only one other high risk girl that had not already turned eighteen. "Could you excuse us for a few minutes, Paul?" He dutifully headed over to stand with Bob and the guys at the back of the limo. That caught my attention. Why was Nick still hanging around? Later. I motioned Mikkelson to follow me and headed for some unoccupied real estate. Talking privately with reporters in the same county is a tricky business. I picked a spot where the area behind us was empty for a good hundred feet. No reflecting surfaces made it a lot harder for things like parabolic microphones to get a usable signal. Facing away from the people and towards that empty space made it impossible to read lips as well. "It is critical that what I am about to tell you not get out. We're tracking a serial. I've got three dead in three years. Kidnap, rape, torture, and murder. Celeste meets the killers target profile. She was in our top ten list of potential targets. Not at the top but she was on the list. Two of the dead girls were found in hotel rooms." I could see the wheels turning in his head. He still didn't want to tell me anything. Bastard. "It's not your boy." "How do you know?" "It appears the girl was having an affair with a married man and his wife caught up with them. Killed both of them and then herself. We're still gathering evidence but that seems to be what happened. The manager on duty says the man got here a couple hours ahead of the woman. He never saw the girl. When the wife showed up and said her husband was expecting her, he gave her a key to the room. Looks like she walked in on them. Hell of way to go." "Yeah it is. But believe me, it could have been a lot worse." "Your guy that bad?" "The average time the girls were gone was three weeks. They had bruises on top of bruises, broken bones, and they were being raped by him the entire time they were missing. So yeah, he's that bad." "Yeah, that's pretty bad. Now then, that seems to be everything. Since it's not your guy you won't be needing to see my crime scene. Sorry to say it, but it seems to me you wasted your drive down." His voice said he was really enjoying telling me all this. To make matters worse, he was right. It wasn't our boy and we didn't need to see the crime scene. Figures, what had been shaping up to be one of the nicest dates I'd ever been on was now completely blown and I had nothing to show for it. I thanked Detective wonderful for his help and went to gather up my posse and get the hell out of Dodge. I took Paul aside and quickly brought him up to speed. "It would have been a hell of a lot easier if he had just told me this over the phone," he said. "Yeah, it would have. Welcome to the wonderful world of inter-departmental co-operation. Let's just be grateful that it wasn't our guy and we've still got time." "Amen," he answered. "Sorry about your date." "Don't worry about it, you did the right thing." "Oh sure, you say that now..." I rolled my eyes and walked away. "Get out of here, Paul. I'll see you on Monday unless something else comes up." He laughed, got in his car and pulled away for home. Nicky and Bob were still chatting away aimlessly, but they stopped as I got there and Nicky said, "Damn, Beebee, you clean up nice for a Feebie." "I'm going to ignore that and just tell you how nice you look. So how long have you been in San Diego? And not that I mind or anything, but why are you still here? I thought you had to get back to work?" "I decided to call out for a break. As to the rest, I've been out here a couple years, started out in Bakersfield, then doing the east-west run from El Centro to the Arizona border. Man, did that one ever suck. Now I'm here and missing the boredom. I usually work days, but someone called out sick and Cheri is out of town so I'm filling his spot." "Who's Cheri?" I swear his whole face changed. It was like you waived a magic wand and he was thirteen with his first crush all over again. "She's my wife. I met her at an accident scene. She witnessed it and actually stopped. That alone was enough to tell me how special she was." God! He had it bad. "She's a very lucky girl, Nicky, and I'm very happy for you both. We'll have to get together sometime." "Hell yeah! You guys will have to come down for a barbeque one weekend." His watch chimed. "Well, break's over, gotta go make the roadway safe." He leaned over and hugged me, kissed me on the cheek and then lightly flicked my nose with his finger as he pulled back. "It's great to see you again, Boo. Come visit soon." He turned and stuck out his hand to Bob. "Nice to meet you, Bob. You take care of my girl; make her take some time off now and then. She's a special lady and I'll take it personally if you do anything to hurt her." "Nice to meet you, Nick. All I can do is my best, as far as hurting her; she's armed twenty four hours a day, crazy I'm not. If I ever do anything that stupid I'm going straight to witness protection, making up a story, and hoping they'll hide me somewhere in the Amazon rainforest." Nicky looked thoughtful for a second. "I don't know, Bob. That's still on the Earth. It may not be far enough." We all shared a last laugh and then he got in his black and white and left. He didn't get far, just as he pulled out of the parking lot somebody in a Honda blew the light for the onramp a block away. There was squeal of rubber and Nick was gone into the night. I turned back to Bob. He kind of shrugged and spread his hands in one of those universal gestures that seem to cover such a broad spectrum of concepts. I think this was supposed to be "so now what?" "We'll talk on the way back. Robert? Let's get out of here, and be sure I get the bill for tonight. The bureau will be picking up your tab. Be sure to include a decent tip in the price. Don't do it as a separate item or you'll get stiffed. Mr. Shelby, I noticed a bottle of something red in the cabinet. Would you be kind enough to poor me a glass? I feel the need to relax a little." Robert was holding the door as we were getting in. "If you really want to relax, I know a place that rents hot tubs by the hour. They are all in their own privately screened areas, totally private. I could call ahead and reserve one for you." Bob answered, "I don't think so. I think I'd rather take my chances having unprotected sex with a hooker in Hollywood." I couldn't believe he had actually said that. I think my look accurately communicated just how rude I thought that was. Robert just laughed. "Most of those places I would agree with you. I trust this place, all the lights in the tubs are a high intensity UV and between guests they crank them up to maximum. Thirty minutes minimum between guests, and one of the attendants wipes down all the surfaces with a viruscidal cleaner." "Well, that is reassuring but there is also the problem of suits," Bob argued. Now it was my turn to laugh. "I think we're safely past that point, Bob, but thank you for thinking of it. It sounds like a nice place but I'm not really in the mood for hot-tubbing tonight. How about we just go back to your place?" I had planned to invite him to spend the night at my place after tonight anyway. Bob stared at me for moment and then bent and kissed my hand. "As my lady wishes, but perhaps your place would be better, if you get called again you would at least have your car available." He opened the wine and Robert rolled up the privacy screen. Time seemed to stretch and vanish into that place it goes when everything just seems right with the world. We talked but I couldn't tell you what about. The next thing I remember was Robert's voice over the intercom warning us we were about ten minutes out. When we arrived he opened the door and, as Bob exited, extended his hand to help me out. Bob stopped him and extended his own hand to me instead. I didn't actually see it but I'm pretty sure he tipped the driver even though I had already instructed him to include a tip in the bill. The rest of the night... well, it was very, very nice. Saturday morning reality reared its ugly head. I had gotten up early and made a special breakfast for us. One of my few culinary accomplishments is the ability to make a really good crepe. I had fresh cut strawberries, and I whipped the juice that had drained from them into a combination of cream cheese and whipped cream, then stuffed the crepes and served them on lap trays in bed. Fresh ground coffee added just the right touch. The day was starting out almost as well as the night had ended. Then the phone rang. I was surprised to hear Allison's voice on the line. I wasn't even sure where she had gotten my number. The mystery solved itself. "Rebecca, it's Allison. Jimmy's in the hospital." "Jimmy's what?" I wanted to scream it but instead I put on my work face and asked, "What happened?" Bob caught the change in my face and the tone of my voice and raised an eyebrow at me. "He got jumped by three guys at the mall and he's been unconscious ever since." "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm okay, but I'm worried about Jimmy." "What happened? Were there any witnesses that might be able to identify his attackers or did they get away?" "I'm not sure what happened. It was all over and they were all on the ground before I got there. They needed three ambulances just to get them all to the hospital. One of them..." "Whoa, back up. You're telling me he got jumped by three guys and he put them all in the hospital? What, he had a bat in his pocket?" "Yes, no, I mean, no, he didn't have a bat or anything, but they were all on the ground when I got to the parking lot, and then Jimmy just sort of collapsed, and..." "He collapsed after you got there? How did he..." "Rebecca! I don't know what happened." Shit! Suddenly I could hear the desperation in her voice. Pay attention, Hampton. "He was standing over the last one when I came out and then just passed out and he's been unconscious ever since." "What are the doctors saying? Are there any signs of concussion or head trauma?" "They can't find anything. Rebecca, I'm scared. I thought if nothing else he would come to the glade when I went to sleep. I waited but he never came. I tried calling him but he didn't answer. Rebecca, I don't know what to do..." I could almost see the tears she was trying to hold back. "Allison? Allison, it's okay to be scared. It's okay to cry. It's okay to be angry, or upset, or hurt or anything else that you're feeling. Don't be afraid of what you are feeling. The only thing that it's not alright to do is give up. Where are you?" "I'm at the hospital. I stepped out while the nurses where doing their readings and stuff. I would have called sooner but I know you had a date last night and I didn't want to intrude or anything. Besides, it's not like you could do anything about it. But I wanted you to know because he's probably not going to be able to meet with you tonight and I didn't want you to worry." "That's very thoughtful of you, Allison. Thank you for thinking of me, but don't worry about me or anything else right now. You just do what you need to do to get through this. Is there anything I can do for you? Do you need me to bring you anything?" "No, I'm okay. Mom will bring me anything I need. I had her bring me "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I've been reading to him." I choked up and felt tears filling my eyes when she mentioned the book. It took me a moment to compose myself before I could answer. "Okay then. But you call me if you need anything and let me know if there are any changes." I hung up the phone. Somehow telling Bob was worse; it was a lot easier to be brave and strong with Allison on the phone, it was what she needed, and what she expected of me. I didn't do so well telling Bob. "What happened?" "Jimmy got jumped at the mall. Sounds like he did okay; he's in the hospital but so are all three of them." "Three?" "That's what she said. Never would have guessed he had it in him. He never mentioned any classes. It only got harder as I repeated the story; I should have left out the part about the book. I managed right up to that point and then I just needed a hug. He did a really convincing job of not noticing the tears. I knew I could trust him not to say anything, wouldn't want word getting out that FBI agents cry. I'd have had to kill him if he talked. "Anyway, she's upset because he's been unconscious since it happened." "She's seeing visions of Amy." "Yeah." It wasn't much but it was all I could think to say. I whispered a silent prayer, "Please, God, don't let it be that." Allison All day Saturday and Saturday night the cycle repeated itself; read, sleep, and hope. My parents had gone home early Saturday morning. Mom had come back a couple times, once to bring me clean clothes and then again to make sure I got something to eat. She said Dad really wanted to be there but that it was too hard. It was too much like what happened before, with his sister. I told her to tell him that I understood and that it was okay. I had fallen asleep reading again, then cried myself to sleep in the glade, when I was awakened by what felt like the breeze tickling my hair. It took everything I had not to cry when I opened my eyes and saw he was finally awake. The nurses moved in and I struggled not to run out of the room. I wanted so much to stay but I knew that if I did I would cry and make a fool of myself. Besides, I promised Mom I would call no matter what time it was if there was a change. I still had Jimmy's phone. Rebecca said it was okay since no one was going to be calling him either way. She made me promise to call her when there was news. I was just hanging up on her when I got back to the room and things fell apart. I closed the phone and stuck it in my pocket just as I cleared the corner to find a large group of nurses and a crash cart outside Jimmy's room. A light was flashing outside the door and from somewhere inside an alarm was ringing. Panic was instantaneous and I bolted for the door screaming for answers. Someone grabbed my arm, jerking me back from the door. I turned and punched without thinking and suddenly my arm was free and I was moving through the door. Jimmy was lying on the bed as before, but the monitor was screaming, the nurses were doing something with the tubes and wires running everywhere. From out of nowhere two black arms closed around me, pinning my arms to my side and sort of pulling me toward the ground. It was the right thing to do; if he had picked me up I would have kicked my feet and tried to get free, this way if I had tried to pick up my feet, I would just fall, probably with whoever was holding me on top of me. I didn't know it was a man, but those arms had guy, big guy, written all over them. ------- Chapter 63: Waking Up I lay in darkness. No stars, no sound, no sensation of any kind. At first I expected to start seeing the usual flashes of scenes from the killer's mind, but I quickly realized that this was a different place. For one thing there was no place to stand or sit, no up or down to orient myself to; I just seemed to be drifting. I tried to lift my head and look around but it didn't work. As soon as I tried and failed I realized that I couldn't even see my nose. You never seem to notice it unless you're thinking of it but it's usually there between our eyes. That mine was gone suggested that here, as in the place where I watched the killer's memories, I was once more seeing with senses other than my eyes. Maybe I was. It didn't matter as no matter where I tried to look there was still nothing to see. I felt a slight panic try to rise but as quickly as it came it faded, and I faded with it. I had no idea how much time had passed. I knew I had been out, but not how long. I didn't even realize I was waking up until a sound made itself known. It was a small sound, just a faint rhythmic pulsing that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. I opened my eyes. At least I thought I did. I couldn't really tell. Everything was still black. The sound felt drawn out, as if you were listening to a recording played too slowly. As soon as I thought it, the sound began to speed up and I knew the recording analogy was a good one. There was that distorted, 'trying to catch up, ' sound to it. Then I recognized it. It was a slow steady beeping sound. Something in my brain said 'hospital and then other sounds crashed in. The soft whisper of ventilation, distant voices, a television set, and at least two radios set on different stations. There was a sensation of light low on the horizon and I realized it was just the bottom of my eyelid as it tried to open. Instead of black, everything was now a deep, smoky, gray. My eyes fluttered and finally opened. Everything was blurred but I could just make out the shadowy shapes of two people standing in my field of vision. They appeared to be standing at an odd angle but I quickly realized that I was laying on my back with my head turned to the right and I was viewing them down the length of my body. Perspective returned and I saw that they were actually two nurses standing several feet past the foot of my bed, looking at something and talking in low tones. Not too low as I could just make out their whispering. "She's been here since he came in, won't leave," one said. "Someone should love me so much. David was in the waiting room watching football when I had Carrie." "She's his sister. Her mom's been coming in to stay with him so she can use the bathroom and eat. Otherwise she only goes if I'm here. Doctor drew the line at bringing in food." "Let me guess, Houston? What an ass. They're going to feed him in here when he wakes up. What's the big deal?" The next sensation to hit was the dryness of my throat, I tried to swallow but there was nothing there to swallow. My right arm was trapped under the blanket that covered all of my body that I could see. My head felt like it weighed several hundred pounds but I managed to roll it to the left and realized what they were talking about. My left arm was bare from just above the elbow to just above the wrist. At the wrist the bandages started again with the one holding the IV in place and continuing down past my knuckles. Just at the edge of my fingertips a mess of blonde hair started. I knew that hair; knew the touch and feel and smell of it instantly. Allison slept on the side of my bed, one arm folded to support her head, fingertips just barely touching mine. My first thought was that her back was going to hurt when she woke up. I tried to speak her name but nothing would come out. With an effort I got my fingers to move and touched her hair. It hurt like hell to move my fingers and that triggered something inside. My heart thudded in my chest and the heart monitor picked up speed. At the first touch of my fingers Allison stirred, and by the time the nurses turned to check the change in the monitor she had turned her face to look at me. I could see the salty tracks where she had cried herself to sleep. Her hair was a mess, her eyes red and bloodshot, and I don't think I had ever seen her look so beautiful as she did at that moment. My heart gave an extra thud, my chest tightened and things began to hurt as I felt my own tears trying to break free. She kissed my hand, squeezed it once and stepped back as the nurses moved to either side of the bed. She mouthed a silent 'I love you, ' blew me a kiss and pointed toward the door as she headed for the hallway. I knew where she was going and just nodded slightly. One of the nurses began checking all of the various wires and tubes plugged into me while the other picked up the phone and dialed a quick series of numbers. She said something but the other nurse began talking so I didn't hear what it was. "How are you feeling?" I rolled my eyes and she said, "Okay, dumb question. Are you having any pain?" I tried to answer but nothing came out. I nodded yes. "Mouth dry? Oxygen will do that. Here, suck on this. Don't chew it, just let it melt." She picked up a plastic cup and scooped some crushed ice out of a container near by, and then tipped the cup into my mouth. I suddenly knew how a man dying in the desert felt when he finally found the oasis and water. My mouth seemed to suck up the moisture like a sponge. The wetness seemed to act as a catalyst to get my own systems working again. The first swallow hurt, a dragging pain like I just tried to swallow a rolled up ball of barbed wire. The second was easier; by the third my salivary glands had come back to life and things started to lubricate themselves again. The second nurse began pulling the blanked carefully back, exposing my upper body. She lifted my arm and I grimaced as pain radiated up from my hand all the way to my shoulder. "Sorry," she said with a bit of a smile. "This may hurt a little but I still have to do it, okay?" I nodded and she slid a blood pressure cuff up my arm. She was right. When she pumped up the cuff I thought my arm would fall off. Actually, at that moment, I wanted it to. The thudding of my pulse when she pressurized the cuff didn't help any. The first nurse distracted me by gently turning my head back towards her and shining a small flashlight in my eyes. "Doctor Houston will be along in a few minutes. Any sharp pains?" I shook my head no and she moved down her list. "Any numbness or tingling? Headache? Blurry vision..." I kept shaking my head until she was interrupted by a voice from the door. "I'll take it from here, nurse, thank you." She rolled her eyes and pulled back out of the way. The doctor picked up the chart, checked his watch and asked in an irritated voice, "Why are there no updated notes on this chart?" "He just came to a few minutes ago, doctor. We're still doing the preliminaries, blood pressure is 112 over 68, pulse is strong and steady. I was just about to write it down when you came in." The second nurse took over immediately, "His eyes are still a little dilated and slow to respond, but otherwise he is responsive and has not indicated anything unusual..." "Unusual? Nurse, he's sixteen years old, how would he know what's unusual? That's your job, was your job, excuse me while I see if perhaps we can do something positive for our patient. We'll discuss this further later." She started to pull away and I forced my first word out, "Nurse," I croaked and lifted my right hand slightly. The nurse on my right took my hand gently and said, "Yes." "Thank you," I said, my voice a little stronger this time. I read her name tag and added, "Cindy." Turning back to the other one I saw that her name was April. "Both of you." They both smiled, the one on my left winked where the doctor wouldn't see it, the other one gently set my hand back down, patted it and said, "You're welcome. Now be a good boy and don't give the nice doctor a hard time. We'll be back to check on you later." "Allison?" I managed to squeeze out one more word. "I think she stepped outside to call your folks. She'll be right back." "Who's Allison?" the doctor asked, then he seemed to catch himself. "Oh, the sister." This guy was losing points fast and his next statement cost him everything he had left. "Tell her to stay in the waiting area until her parents get here." "But doctor..." He shot her a look. "Yes, nurse?" She cringed at the way he said it and I had had enough, "No," I said. The doctor turned back to me and started to say something but I just plowed ahead. "I want her here." The doctor's face began to get red. "I am in charge here! I will decide who stays and who... what are you doing?" he asked as I brought my right hand up and grabbed two of the wires coming out of my shirt. I yanked hard and several things happened all at once. The heart monitor went to zero and started the characteristic level tone you hear on all those hospital shows when someone dies. At the same time an alarm rang somewhere down the hall and you could hear voices as people rushed to answer it. A light just outside my door began to flash. The doctor had gone white. I reached for the tubes coming out of my left arm and he suddenly came back to life, grabbing my arm to hold it back. I was very weak but I did my best to keep reaching. "Nurse! Take his arm. Calm down... Stop this immediately!" By now Cindy was back and she grabbed my right arm and began pulling it back down to my side. I tried to raise my left arm and discovered it was actually tied to a board of some kind. I strained and the whole thing started to rise. The doctor grabbed my wrist and I cried out as pain flared up my arm. He had grabbed right on top of the IV. He dropped my wrist and a fresh flare of pain hit as my arm slammed back down on the bed. My vision swam red and I thought I might actually pass out. The feeling passed quickly but by the time my vision cleared the doctor was gone and April was checking the IV. The room suddenly got crowded as the crash team arrived. They stopped just inside the door as they realized that I was struggling and apparently not dead. A huge black guy in bright red scrubs with little yellow smiley faces all over them stopped the cart and said, "False alarm everyone. He's fine, looks like he just wanted a little more attention from the ladies." He actually winked at me. "Everybody back to work." Just as they were trying to get back out Allison ran up demanding to know what was going on. Somewhere in the middle the doctor had apparently stepped out because he intercepted her, grabbing her arm and trying to drag her out of the way. There was a blur of motion, the sound of flesh hitting flesh, and Allison shot through the door. The ambulatory black mountain in the red scrubs was right behind her and grabbed her around the waist, pinning both arms to her sides. "Jimmy!" she screamed. "Whoa, girl! Hold still there. He's just fine," the black nurse said in a strained but soothing voice. He started chuckling as he looked at me and said, "Man, tell her you're alright before she hits me next." My mouth was suddenly too dry to speak again but I nodded to Allison and she visibly relaxed. The nurse let her go and stood up to his full towering height again, "Alright then, now if..." Dr. Houston bellowed, "Get herout of here!" from the doorway. I looked and saw blood leaking from his nose and fire in his eyes. The black nurse stepped back and said, "Knock yourself out, doc, but you want her out, you're gonna have to do it yourself. Crowd control ain't in my contract." "Fine!" The doctor started to reach for her again and I started trying to sit up in bed. Cindy was just reaching to reattach my missing monitor leads and out of position to hold me. Allison saw me start to rise and screamed, "Jimmy! No!" She took three steps and grabbed my free hand. "Be still," she said. I relaxed back on the bed but then Houston grabbed her arm. I thought she was going to hit him again when a new voice rang out from the doorway. "Doctor Houston!" Everyone turned to find a tiny little woman in a white smock standing in the doorway. I saw the black nurse's eyes suddenly get very large and round as she entered the room. He stepped back and practically stood at attention, tracking her with his eyes as she passed. "Thank you, Stuart. I think we can handle it from here." "Yes ma'am," he said and promptly slid out the door. He stopped and tossed me a huge smile before disappearing. "May I see you in the hall for a moment, Dr. Houston?" the little woman asked with a smile. "Cindy? Do something about that alarm, would you please? Thank you. After you, Doctor," She motioned to the hall and Dr. Houston dutifully led the way. April whispered, "What I would give to hear that conversation." Then in a louder voice she asked, "Do you think you can behave yourself while we get this all hooked back up?" "He'll behave himself," Allison assured her. I nodded my compliance and relaxed back into my pillow. Suddenly I ached all over. Cindy pulled the top of my smock back and began reattaching the misplaced leads. The heart monitor stopped squealing and resumed its rhythmic tones. A voice came from the hallway, "Thank you, Cindy." April cringed a little and whispered again, "Do you think she heard me?" Cindy just shook her head, hooked up the rest of the leads, and said, "Excuse me, Allison, I need to fix these blankets. You're not going to hit me if I make you let go are you?" Allison turned a pretty shade of red and let go of my hand. I could see her knuckles were reddened and starting to swell a little bit. She seemed to notice it about the same time and shook her hand a couple times as she stepped back. "No, that hurt." "I'll get you some ice for it," Cindy said as she reset the blankets. Just then Stuart came whistling back in the door crushing and flexing a cold pack in his big hands. "Here you go, sweetie. Wouldn't want anything to happen to that right. I got a hundred on you, three to one, for the rematch. Lord, that was sweet." Allison iced her hand, I did my best to relax, and April reset my IV. That stung a little but it wasn't really that bad. Cindy finished reattaching all of my monitors, rechecked my pulse and blood pressure, and then said she had to go drop in on some of the other patients so they wouldn't feel neglected. A few minutes after she left the little old woman in the white smock came in. "Well, young man, you're creating quite a stir. You come to us unconscious for no apparent reason, then wake up with no warning and throw the entire wing into an uproar. Dr. Houston is making noises of incompetence among my nursing staff, and actually considering filing assault charges against your personal body guard." Allison started to say something but she cut her off and continued, "Don't worry, my dear. I pointed out to him that if he actually wanted to appear in court and explain how that tiny little slip of a girl beat him up that I would gladly sell tickets to the event and retire on the proceeds, but that he would also have a to find someplace else to practice medicine and that he could expect no help or recommendation from this hospital. As for my nursing staff..." "Doctor Whiteside, I..." April began. "Should not interrupt your chief resident when she is talking," the little doctor continued. "I prefer to get my information from unbiased sources whenever possible. Why don't you give our little problem child here some more ice to wet his mouth and he can tell me what really happened here." "Yes, Doctor." April gave me the cup with ice chips in it and Allison relinquished control of my free arm so that I could hold it. "Whenever you are ready, young man," Doctor Whiteside said. "Well..." I croaked. "I'm sorry, Doctor Whiteside, I'm..." "Don't apologize, and my name is Wendy. You don't work for me; I'm a doctor, I work for you." I was really starting to like Doctor Wendy. I gave Allison the cup and held out my hand, "James Matthews, a pleasure to meet you, Doctor." Her eyebrows went up as she reached for my hand. She had a good handshake. Which is unusual for most women, in my limited experience that is, and especially in those with such tiny hands. "The pleasure is all mine, young man; you give me great hope for the future. Now, please tell me what you can of what just happened. "Well, Doc... Wendy, I awoke to find April and Cindy looking at my chart, and Allison asleep next to me. When I moved to touch her, it hurt and that triggered the heartbeat monitor and they turned just as she was waking up. She left to make room for them to work; I think she went to call my parents." I glanced at Allison and she nodded. "One of them called Doctor... Houston was it? Right away and then they began doing all the stuff they do on all the TV shows, blood pressure, pulse, all that. By the way, why do they take my pulse when the monitor records it anyway?" "Old habits die hard, when they die around here I tend to fire the nurse that failed to nurture them, go on please." "The doctor showed up as they were finishing up the tests and started berating them for not writing things on the chart. Then they mentioned Allison had gone to call my folks and he said he didn't want her back in the room. When Cindy and April started to protest he got even more rude. When I told him I wanted her here he started on me, so I started pulling wires out." "And why would you do that?" "I don't really know, but I figured I had had just about all of him I could stand, and if he was my only choice of doctor I could do without. If he wasn't my only choice, then by causing a scene I might attract someone in a position to give me a choice." Again, her eyebrows went up. "Really, so you weren't just going to jump up and beat the shit out of him?" This time April's eyebrows went up and she stared in awe at her chief resident. "No ma'am," I said with a smile. "Actually I feel like I'd be lucky if I could stand. Besides, I'm not much of a fighter. I do my best to avoid violence whenever possible." "Really? Considering how you got here, I find that hard to believe. Not to mention the evidence I can see with my own two eyes." I must have had one of those looks on my face because she said, "You haven't seen yourself yet have you?" "No ma'am," I said. I was starting to have a bad feeling about where this was going. "Allison, if you go out the door to the right you will find the nurse's station, please ask Stuart for a hand mirror. It's okay, dear; we'll take good care of him while you're gone." Allison left and Dr. Wendy moved over where she had been and began loosening the bandages on my right hand and wrist. "April, take the bandages off of his left hand please." As she started unwrapping my right hand and I realized that it hurt. She was very gentle but still, the tiniest movement sent throbbing pain through my wrist. "Hurts to move it, doesn't it?" I nodded and she continued, "You have a pretty good sprain here. You can still see the swelling though it does look much better today than when they brought you to us. Let's see that other hand. Oh, nice color. What were you hitting, granite?" "Brad Russell." "Ah yes, Mr. Russell, front runner for this years 'Most Likely to Never Masturbate With His Good Hand Again' award. He also won't be blowing his nose for some time. We've managed to reset it but it will never go back to what it was. Did you have a running start when you hit him?" "No ma'am. From what I remember it was just a couple quick jabs." "Well, James, George Foreman would be proud of those jabs. I'm betting those bruises on your forehead match very closely to the bruising on his knuckles. Considering that and the damage to the other two boys I'm guessing the only reason you got that black eye is that you didn't see it coming, am I right?" "Pretty much, I was just putting some gifts in the trunk and when I turned around he hit me." "Hmm, I thought as much. Remind me never to jump out of a dark alley at you. Tell me, how does your leg feel?" "Okay, I guess. I mean I haven't tried to stand up yet, much less walk. Why? Is there something wrong with it?" "You stomped on that other boy's chest so hard you broke two ribs, I thought you may have wrenched your knee. The other one needed five stitches to close the cut on his forehead. According to what the paramedics said, it will take more than that to get the imprint of his face out of that car. How's that eye feel?" She touched my cheek for emphasis and I jerked away from the contact. "Don't worry about it, just leave it alone and the last of the swelling will go down on its own. These things don't happen over-night. Two days isn't enough to cure everything." That got my attention. "Two days?" "Ah, no one had a chance to tell you? It's Sunday afternoon. You've been unconscious for over thirty-six hours. Why else do you think your parents went home? They needed to shower, sleep in a real bed, and eat real food. They were going to bring something back for Allison. Along with some more clothes. I expect them to be along soon to see you." "They should be here in a few minutes," Allison said from the doorway. She entered, carrying a small hand mirror. She handed it to me and I looked at my face in the small surface. My left cheek was an angry bluish purple color. But you could see that it was already starting to fade. It still had that vibrant "just got my ass kicked" look to it, but there was just a hint of yellowing around the edges to show that it was starting to break up. I saw there were three smaller bruises on my forehead where Brad's fist had landed the second time. "Ouch," I said. Dr. Wendy chuckled. "Ouch indeed. But there is no sign of concussion and besides the wrist sprain and bruises on your knuckles there are no other signs of serious injury. So the question we would like answered is, why are you here?" "What do you mean? I got jumped by three guys in a mall parking lot." "Yes, so I've been told. Now let me see; one boy has two broken ribs, another has a concussion and a broken nose, the third also has a broken nose and required six and half hours of surgery to put everything in his arm back where it belongs. You, on the other hand, have a black eye, which you apparently got from the first blow and, other than that, only superficial injuries, yet you come to us unconscious and remain that way for almost two days. According to your sister and the other witness you collapsed at the end and you do have a small bump where your head struck the pavement but you didn't even break the skin when you hit. I would ask if you were sure that you were not hit in the head more than once but the MRI shows no injury to the brain. It's as if someone flipped a switch and turned you off. So we are all curious to see if you can give us any explanation or information that may shed some light on the subject. Either of you?" I sat there and tried to go over everything that I could remember about the fight. Had I been hit? No, actually they hadn't laid a hand on me other than Brad's first two punches. Well, three if you count the one to my stomach but that one barely registered. I had ducked most of the force of the blow and my abs were solid enough that what was left hadn't really hurt. I went over it all twice and there was nothing. I looked at Allison as I answered, "I can't think of anything. It all happened so fast I'm not even sure I remember it all. I remember Allison running towards me across the parking lot, and then I just woke up here. You said there was another witness?" I could see from Allison's expression that she had gotten the message and knew I was holding something back. Doctor Wendy ran me through some mental exercises to make sure everything was functioning correctly, memory questions, counting to a hundred by seven, who's the president, that sort of thing. Then she left saying that she would be back to see us again when my parents arrived. She had Cindy remove most of the monitors along with the oxygen and IV. Since I was awake and seemed fully functional she deemed most of it unnecessary. She returned shortly after Mom and Dad arrived to give us the game plan. "Well, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, you have in interesting pair here. I'm glad I met them here and not in a dark alley somewhere. Here's the deal: we still don't have any idea why your son passed out; exertion, adrenaline depletion after the sudden surge, no clue. None of the tests we have done have been conclusive in any way. He reads as just a normal sixteen year old boy, actually a bit healthier than most we see. I'm tempted to keep him another day and see if we can think up any more tests that may work better with him conscious but I don't put much stock in that. The little drama we had when he first woke up should have been more than enough to trigger any lingering problems into revealing themselves but again, nothing. Just the excitement of the moment, and then he was back to reading normal. I would like to keep him over night just because, but I do not expect to learn anything from it and I don't think he is in any more danger being home than he would be staying here. Home is just a heck of a lot cheaper. So I'll leave it up to you. What would you like to do?" I didn't give anyone else time to answer. "I want to go home." "Of course you do, dear," Mom said. "Who wouldn't? Now, Doctor Whiteside..." the old lady started to protest. "Doctor Wendy, you really think he's okay to go home? There is no danger that he may suddenly slip back into unconsciousness again." "No, not really. Is it possible? Yes, of course it is. Do I think it's likely? Absolutely not. And if I were him, I'd want to go home too. I would suggest someone stay with him the first night, just a precaution to make sure nothing serious happens, do you have someone that could sit with him?" Allison started to speak up but the doctor went on. "Never mind, stupid question. But you should try to get a little sleep in there somewhere too, my dear. You've been dozing in and out here and that helps some, but it is no substitute for real sleep. So..." she looked around, "home it is then" The medical machine went into check out mode and before too much longer we were headed home. Just as we got to the car and I was getting out of the wheelchair, I don't know why they make you do that, anyway, just as I stood up my stomach growled and everyone laughed. ------- Chapter 64: Changes "I know, Mother." Allison said, again. It was going to be a long night no matter what and it was already off to a bad start. Since we had returned home from the hospital Mom and Allison had been arguing about whether or not she should spend the night with me. The idea was that I have someone to keep an eye on me and make sure I didn't have any further problems. Mom seemed to think that perhaps Allison had other ideas about sharing my bed. "I'm just saying that you are supposed to be there to keep an eye on him. That's all." "Mother," there was that word again; "I know that. Geez, I am not some sex starved little nympho just waiting to get his clothes off so I can..." "Stop!" I said. "Please? Enough already, there is no need or reason for you two to be at each other like this. You're both just upset and taking it out on each other isn't going to help. Mom, I really want Allison with me tonight and I promise we'll be good. I'm a little wrung out from all this and I don't think I'd be up for anything strenuous anyway. Don't look at me like that, Allison! It wasn't meant as a challenge. As far as keeping an eye on me, that's actually going to be pretty easy. When I was out, Allison said I wasn't in her dreams either. So once we get to sleep, I'll head straight for the glade and we'll just stay together all night. If I suddenly disappear or start acting strange, she can wake me up. How does that sound?" I could see her thinking about it, finally she answered, "Okay, I guess that will be alright. And you're right, it's the stress talking." She turned to Allison. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Forgive me?" She held out her arms and Allison slid in and hugged her. "I'll forgive you if you forgive me," she said. "You know sometimes it's really irritating that he's always right about this stuff. It's the stress and lack of sleep that's bugging me. Going without sex doesn't help any either." "Allison!" Mom pushed her back and rolled her eyes. "Don't you Allison, me. I'm pretty sure I get it from you. I've seen how you get when Dad is sick." Mom blushed scarlet and argued, "I do not! James, tell your sister she's delusional." "Uh, sorry Mom, but she's got a point. When Dad had his appendix out it was pretty scary around here. I guess it runs in the family." "That is simply not true. I can't believe you two." "We could call Karen and get an un-biased second opinion," Allison offered. Mom started to answer but then apparently thought better of it, which of course Allison just couldn't leave alone. "Ah-ha! Chicken! You know I'm right." She hugged Mom tight again. "I love you, and I know that's as close to a confession as I'm going to get." "That was not a confession, admission, or anything even remotely like either. I still think you're making this up just to throw me off. But I will grant that you can keep an eye on him and I am sorry for suggesting that you had other ideas. Now, set the table, dinner should be hear any..." the doorbell rang, "... second. Off you go. Allison, you set the table. James, pay the nice man and as an extra treat, I'll do dishes afterward." Allison and I high fived each other as we headed for our appointed tasks. "Oh, and Allison." She turned back to see what Mom wanted. "Yes, ma'am?" "Paper plates." Allison just rolled her eyes and bowed low. "Oh yes, your Majesty, thank you, your Majesty." She turned and walked away mumbling just loud enough to be sure everyone heard, "We never use paper plates when it's my night to do dishes." "What was that dear?" she sounded stern but they were both just playing the game. "I was just wondering if I should try and find chopsticks for everyone." Allison said sweetly. Yeah... sure she was. The evening progressed smoothly from there. Even after sleeping all weekend I was still worn out. I was also very stiff. My muscles seemed unusually tight and I had no idea why. Allison cleared up the mystery when I said something about it. "Jimmy, you hit Brad so hard you sprained your wrist; you broke two ribs on another guy; you were operating at about two hundred percent and then stopped cold. I'm surprised your whole body doesn't hurt. You probably slept through the worst of it." "That certainly makes sense." I took a lot of time stretching before bed. Allison helped me with some of the more difficult ones, then we finally headed off to my room to catch up on some long overdue snuggle time. If there could be a more right feeling than her laying her head in that hollow between my chest and shoulder I can't imagine what it might be. We lay together in silence and each pretended to not notice the tears the other cried, though I felt each of hers on my chest and I'm sure she felt mine on her hair. Once we were past the initial emotional rush there were things we had to discuss. I knew I wanted to talk to Bob about what had happened. The question was whether to bring it up in front of Rebecca. Don't get me wrong, I like Rebecca, and I trust her, but lately I just felt like the less people knew the better. "I don't see how you're going to get around telling her," Allison finally said. "You trashed three guys bigger than you and she knows about. She's going to want to know how." "Yeah, so do I, but I don't want her to know that what happened was basically me losing control and almost killing someone. That I really don't want to have to explain." "Well I don't see how you're going to be able to get around it. You know she's going to want to see, at least I assume you're planning to do the whole 'instant replay' memory thing so we can see what happened before you start pumping Bob for answers. You were planning to let Shannon and I stay for that part, right?" "Of course, don't be silly. You most of all because I need to know why what happened happened." She looked at me for a second. "You're really nervous about this aren't you?" "Sis, I'm scared to death of this. You don't understand what..." She held her hand up to stop me. "You don't either, that's why we're seeing Bob. I know you're upset; no one likes losing control. Jimmy, I do understand what you're saying. I think I understand what you're feeling. I know you trust Rebecca, so do I, and I don't see how you can not let her see this. In fact, it might be better if she does see it, and hears whatever Bob has to offer by way of suggestion. If we exclude her there will be this huge question hanging in the air. I don't know if you've noticed, but FBI agents and unanswered questions are a bad combination." I had to agree with her on that. Still, I just didn't like the idea of having this known by any more people than necessary. I was still anxious about it, but fortunately Allison is really good with stress relief. The rest of my anxiety vanished when I woke up in the elevator and found an envelope taped to the inside of the door. I opened it and found a note which said, She needs to know. E. It was written in the same flowing script as the previous note. I can't say for sure where it came from but I chalked it up to my own subconscious sending me messages again. Waking in the elevator was unexpected in itself. Normally if I already have a destination in mind I just wake up there with no need to "go." I dropped the note before the doors opened and it evaporated before it hit the floor. I stepped into the glade and for a change I actually noticed that my ring was missing. Allison was there waiting for me and as soon as I touched her both rings faded in. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here," she said as she stroked my chest with her hand. "I guess it never occurred to Mom that if I wanted to have my way with you we could do it here just as easily. And I would love to make love to you right now, but there is someone who needs you more. Either bring Shannon here or take us all to the cabana, and brace yourself, she's really going to be a mess. I got to stay with you at the hospital, but she had to just sit at home and endure. She couldn't even talk to anyone or tell them why she was upset. So it's all been bottled up inside and that's never a good thing." I closed my eyes and thought of Shannon and I knew she was crying. Behind my eyes I could see her sitting alone; staring out the window at a dark, cloudy sky, her dream reflected her mood and raindrops fell against the windows as tears fell upon her face. Something inside me wept for her and the sky over the glade filled with clouds. "Hey," Allison said, bringing her hand up to gently cup my face, "don't do that," she said. "Shannon needs you to be strong and healthy and looking like nothing in the world is wrong or she will panic. She's hurting right now, not knowing what's happening, or even if you're okay. Be strong for her. We can all cry later, but right now she needs you whole." She kissed me softly on the cheek. "Okay?" I didn't answer but as fast as it had come, the sad mood was gone, and the sun shined clear and bright again. I stood and pulled her to her feet and suddenly we were standing on the beach in our swimsuits. I held her hand and turned away from the water. A window appeared in the air and through it we could see Shannon sitting alone in a chair staring out at us. She was wearing the nightgown that I had gotten her for Christmas and playing idly with her Valentine's necklace. Her eyes were red and puffy and you could see the shiny trails where teardrops had dampened her cheeks. We could see her eyes as she realized that the scene in the window had changed and then she was moving, rushing the wall as if it were a doorway, she passed through the makeshift portal like a ghost and practically bowled me over when she hit. Dream strength alone kept me on my feet as I caught and held her, my arms closing around her and I hugging her as hard as I dared, pressing her body against mine like I would pull her inside of me. Through the sobbing she managed to speak, "You're here; oh you're here, thank you God. I prayed and prayed that you would be okay. That you would come back to me... Oh, Jimmy, I've been so worried." All I could do was stroke her hair and hold her and try not to cry too much myself. I finally let go and pulled back just far enough to kiss her. Our mingled tears only sweetened the taste as our lips met and our tongues danced with joy at being together again. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but that kiss held volumes for both of us. Allison finally put her arms around us both and we took turns kissing her as well. I'm not sure when it happened but somewhere in there we moved onto the big bed and just cuddled together for a long time. All good things come to an end though and this was no exception. There was much that still needed doing and as much as I wanted to just lay there and hold my two angels I was two days behind in my appointed work. I left the girls lying on the bed in each other's arms and walked outside. Hey, it was a nice try anyway. I had barely closed the door when it opened again. "And just where do you think you're going?" Allison asked in a very irritated voice. "I was just stepping outside to call Bob and Rebecca and set up a meeting. What's the big deal?" "You're forgetting that you promised Mom we would stay together all night. That means everywhere. Or I'll wake up and go get her right now. For that matter, I don't even need to wake up, I can just call her." "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. You think I wanted to leave? I was in the middle, remember? I liked it there. But this is more important." "Yes, it is," Shannon said, "so are we staying out here, going back inside, or maybe moving to the office? Make the call; let's get going, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to some serious snuggling." She hugged me hard and continued, "And just so you know, I have plans for you next time we're alone." Allison didn't say anything, just nodded her agreement. I flipped my phone open and dialed Rebecca and Bob simultaneously. One touch conference calling; now there's a dream for you. The answer came in stereo, "Jimmy!" "Yeah, I'm back. We need to talk, beach or office?" Bob said beach; Rebecca said office. "You letch; you just want to see me in my bikini. This is business." "When did you buy a bikini?" I interrupted, "Okay, office it is. Pick a door, we'll meet you there." I closed the phone and led the girls over to the changing tent. I held the flap open and we all walked into the elevator. The doors closed behind me and the car started up. It stopped at the next floor and Bob stepped in, the doors closed and reopened again almost immediately and Rebecca was waiting for us just outside the office door. "Wow, I never get here first. It's kind of nice for a change. So what the hell happened?" "Rebecca," Bob chided her, "the polite thing to do would be to let us all go in and sit down before you begin your interrogation." She rolled her eyes, took a deep breath and said, "Fine, but can we get to it." She held the door as we filed in. Since I was likely to be the center of attention for a while I took the chair. Bob and Rebecca took the love seat and the girls, the couch. "So, Jimmy," Bob began, "before we get started let me just say, and I'm sure that I speak for everyone, when I say that we are all very glad that you are okay. Both Rebecca and I were very concerned when Allison called. Now, I'm guessing something new has occurred?" "You could say that. I almost killed Brad Russell Friday night. If Allison hadn't shown up when she did, I think I might have." Bob was obviously shaken by this news; the look on Rebecca's face was even more shocked if that was possible. "You're serious?" she asked. Bob waived her off and looked at Allison, "Allison?" "I couldn't say anything before but yes, when I saw him standing over Brad, saw him start to shift into a new stance, the thought that went through my head was, 'Oh, my God, he'll kill him.' Bob, it was the scariest moment of my life. I screamed and he turned to look at me, and his face..." she shuddered, "... then he just sort of... wilted is the only word that I can think of. He didn't fall, or collapse. It was like watching a puppet with his strings cut." Bob had been watching her face very intently and hanging on every word. "What about his face?" "Well, it was like... like it wasn't him... I mean it was his face, but it was like there was no one there inside. It's like... okay, have you ever seen those full life scenes they do for the museums of like, cave men and early Indian tribes and stuff?" "Yes, what about them?" "Well it was like one of those. Just for a second. You know how the whole scene just looks so real that you think it may spring to life at any moment. Then you see their eyes and you know that no matter how real the scene looks that they're not. You can see the emotion on their faces, but their eyes are just empty." "And Jimmy's eyes looked empty?" "Yes. But just for a second, then it was like suddenly he recognized me and then he just sort of... wilted." "That's not the half of it," I said. "What do you mean?" Bob asked. "It wasn't me that beat those guys up. I mean it was, but it wasn't." They were all looking as confused as I felt. "Okay, here. Give me second." I closed my eyes and concentrated on the events of Friday night. I figured I was ready when Shannon suddenly whispered, "Whoa!" I opened my eyes and I was standing in the parking lot, closing the trunk of the car. Just as before the first blow hit just as I turned, fortunately I didn't have to feel it again. Everything went forward as before, then, just as Brad pulled his arm back, the scene shifted. "Stop!" Bob said. I froze the image. "Whoa!" again, this time from Allison. "What just happened?" "My question exactly," Bob said. I couldn't see him but I knew he was still sitting in the same spot. "What just happened, Jimmy?" "I have no idea. Suddenly I felt like I was fifteen feet in the air and watching the whole thing." "Like you were suddenly in observer mode?" he offered. Realization dawned; I snapped my fingers and said, "Yes! Like that, but this was still different. Watch..." I let the scene play out and talked over it. "My body is reacting to what I am seeing, but I'm not controlling it. I'm just observing. Bob, Rebecca, I've never taken a martial arts class in my life. It's about to change again... there." I stopped the action when my perspective suddenly jumped back into a first person view. "Here my perspective has moved back to first person, but look at it... It's like I'm looking backwards through a telescope or binoculars or something... this is going to be messy." The focus zoomed on me grabbing Brad's outstretched arm and breaking it. Shannon and Bob cringed physically, I know, weird that I would sense that when I couldn't actually see them. Allison just said, "Ugh! That is so gross." Then, just like before, things seemed to slow down and I saw my focus narrow until I was concentrating on the place where Brad's neck disappeared into his skull. "Oh... my... God," Shannon said. "Shit." That last was from Bob. Allison's scream sounded right on cue from somewhere off to the side and my view spun until I could see her running across the parking lot. Then everything faded. I closed the scene down and it vanished like switching off a television set. We all sat for a moment and then Allison got up, climbed into my lap and hugged me. Shannon was right behind her, kneeling on the floor and wrapping her arms around both of us. I really wasn't sure what the sudden display of affection and support were for. Shannon pulled back and climbed up to sit next to me on the suddenly larger chair. Well, actually it was more a love seat now. Allison took the hint and the love seat was suddenly a sofa and she was sitting next to me. Bob gave a sudden shake of his head. "That was weird. Sometimes this all seems so real, then you see something like that, the furniture just rearranging itself to meet your immediate need, and you realize that it's not. Okay. Let's look at a couple things. You say you've never taken a martial arts class or anything like that?" "Nope, never." "Ever play ninja games in your dreams? Relive things you saw in movies, make up your own little adventures where you get to play Shaolin warrior, that sort of thing?" "Yeah, sure, all the time. Haven't you?" "Of course I have, I'm a guy. I'm sure the girls have done it too. In fact you told me about one of those dreams. I think there is something different going on here. Let me explain. You said Allison discovered that you could all study in dreams and actually retain what you had learned." I nodded. "I think you, are actually doing more than that. Melinda has commented to me several times on how fast you picked up volleyball. Not just the basics but the whole game, including the physicality of it. When you started with her back on that first day, could you clear the net?" "No. It was all new to us. I mean, we knew the basics from PE but that was about it." "What kind of specialized physical training have you done since then?" "Well, we've picked up some exercises and stuff from people we've worked with. I've brought in some very advanced people to teach us." "Okay. Allison, can you clear the net? Volleyball, not basketball." "Yeah, as if... Not quite, but I'm shorter than he is." "Yes, but not really by that much, I don't know if you've noticed but that whole 'girls mature faster' thing has been working and you have actually gained on him this year. Not as much as Shannon but you are growing faster than he is. You also play basketball which uses a lot of the same physicality. So I think it's safe to say that your legs were at least as developed as Jimmy's when you started." "What are you getting at?" I asked. "What I'm getting at is that where you can all study and remember things from your dreams, you, Jimmy, are actually doing more than that. I think that somehow when you do things in dreams, your body is actually learning as well, you're actually building muscle memory, strength, stamina, agility, all of those things, as if you were really doing it in the real world. Melinda says you're not just getting up to the top but actually getting up enough to attack. Neither of the girls has progressed nearly as far, even Shannon and she is actually taller than you now." "Yeah, but I'm not in the kind of shape he is either," Shannon argued. "I mean, did you see the way he shook off that punch?" "Yes, I did. And that just makes my point. How did he shake off a punch like that? I don't care if you do a thousand sit ups a day, if you've never been hit like that, you're going to feel it." I thought about what he was saying for a second, "Okay, let's say that's true. I think it's a little... out there, but then what isn't in my world. But let's say that you're right, how do you explain the rest of it." "Id." "What?" "Id. What, you were sleeping that day? Id: One of the primary parts of your theoretical subconscious, the other being the Superego. The Id is the primal core, the throwback to the dark days of living in caves and hiding from things that could eat you in one bite. It's the part that comes out today as the 'fight or flight' response." "Wait a minute." Shannon interrupted. "You're saying that when Brad and his goons jumped Jimmy, that he suddenly felt trapped and this... Id, took over, kicked him out, and beat the crap out of them?" "Exactly." "Why did it stop when Allison yelled at him?" "Good question. I can't wait to get you in my class. You may be the second freshman I let in; maybe I need to change my policy. Okay, it's like this. 'Id' is primal, it doesn't know good or evil, right or wrong, its one goal is survival at any cost. It's different in different people; most of us will run if given the chance. But if we can't run... 'Id' doesn't have a conscience to control and guide it. Jimmy would never have done what he did to Brad on purpose. There was no need to break his arm unless you still perceived him as a threat. And certainly no need to kill him when you had already won. But 'Id' doesn't see that, all it sees is a threat, someone or something that attacked it. As to why it stopped... I think when Allison screamed it recognized her; saw her as someone it trusted. If she had just screamed his name..." He shook his head. "I don't know, maybe it would have stopped, but maybe it would have turned back and finished what it started. "But Allison also screamed 'No, ' a command to stop. I think it accepted that command because it came from Allison, because she was a known and trusted figure. If the security guard or anyone else had been the first out the door, I think Brad would be dead right now. Without the name to get Id's attention it would never even have hesitated. Even with the name, if it was not a recognized authority figure... umm, he may have stopped for the security guard if he could have gotten his attention. He may have perceived him as an authority figure. Anyone else would have risked being seen as an additional threat." "That is scary," Allison said "Yeah, no shit," Bob answered. "So how was I able to see from one perspective and react to what I was seeing?" "I don't even know where to begin with the perspective change. How you could see from an outside viewpoint? That's just beyond me at this point. My only suggestion is that your subconscious is more... powerful is the only real word that comes to mind. Just look at what you can do; all of this, the ability to create and control this environment, speaks of a very strong psyche. In the latest visions you've been having, you say you sit in the dark and 'see' everything at once, from all directions. I don't know if you realize it but when you took Rebecca with you, you extended that vision to her as well." That part really was news to me. I looked at Rebecca. "So you could see everything at once too?" "Actually, I don't think you so much extended it to me as brought me along sort of piggy-back. I saw what you saw, and only what you saw." That was interesting, but it was something for another time as Bob went on with his impromptu lecture. "As to the rest, 'Id' is you, or at least part of you; it can do anything that you can do, access any knowledge that you have. It, I don't know if 'saw' really applies, but perceived what you saw and used that knowledge. This is a major league escalation. Actually it may be a major league fluke because we don't know if you could ever do it on purpose. Kind of like your dream about your parents dying. Was it precognition? Or an unconscious response to stimuli received from them over a hundred miles away? I can't even think of a way to safely test or experiment with this." "Experiment, do it on purpose? I don't want to be able to do it on purpose." I was freaked. I stood up and began pacing as I continued, "I almost killed someone. If Allison hadn't been there, Brad could be dead right now. How do I know it won't happen again? I could get tackled in PE and blow up." "No," Allison said. "Jimmy, think about it. This happened because you were surprised, attacked from behind; you were trapped, no way to run if you wanted to. You had no options. Look at when Brad hit you with that football; you turned around and that Nesky guy was running toward you. Nothing happened because nothing needed to happen, it was just something that happened, it wasn't a real threat. You didn't feel threatened even with this big bruiser of a football player charging you." "Well... he wasn't actually charging me?" She turned to Bob. "Would 'Id' have perceived the difference?" "No. It would have only registered the attack, seen the approaching threat and reacted." "See, totally not going to happen. I doubt if we could even force this to happen again. If we experimented with it, you would still 'know' that it was an experiment and retain control." I looked at Bob. He just shrugged and said, "She's right. I think you're worrying for nothing." "You think, but you don't know," I said. He took a deep breath and let it out. "No, I don't know. No one could know. There is absolutely no prior experience to base it on. But that fact also says that it's not likely to happen again. You've been frightened, threatened, felt trapped before, we all have. I'm not saying I'd want to jump you in a dark alley, but I wouldn't worry about sneaking up on you in one either. "But you're not sure," I said again. "I'm sure," Rebecca said. "What do you mean?" Shannon asked. "I've seen something like this before. Not exactly like it, but very similar. Bob's explanation is reasonable and very likely to have been a big part of the whole thing. But the rest has a different explanation. I've seen it twice before, both were agents of very advanced martial skill. For them, it was like flipping a switch. You would never want to be the reason the switch got flipped, but you would never be able to flip it on purpose. It was something that they turned on or off at need. From what Bob is saying, you may have learned the physical part, but you have not learned the mental discipline that goes along with it. You're like a loaded gun sitting in a desk drawer. You're not dangerous unless the wrong person gets their finger on the trigger. Am I making any sense?" Allison was the first to answer, but she barely beat Bob to it, "Yes. Yes you are. At least I think so. What you're saying is that it's just another area that he needs to learn to control. He needs to bring the knowledge to a place where he can use it without losing control of it. If it had been him, instead of, as Bob says, his 'Id, ' in control then he would have been able to stop sooner, before he had done so much damage." Bob was nodding his head as Rebecca answered, "Exactly. He needs to make sure that he is the only one who can pick up the gun. Not hide it away where no one can find it, because that never works, but rather to put the gun in a safe place and put a lock on the gun so that it's there if he needs it but no one would be able to pull the trigger by accident." As usual it was Shannon that brought up the part that everyone else had missed, "Okay, that's all well and good and it sounds great, but why did he pass out at the end and why was he unconscious for two days?" Bob's shoulders slumped. "I have no idea." Allison looked at him. "Seriously?" "I'm afraid so. I could throw out a couple of suggestions but nothing that has any real merit. I assumed he'd been knocked out or taken a head shot somewhere in the fight. But watching the whole thing just now, it was over too fast for it to be exhaustion and he only took two reasonably harmless blows. Neither of which justified his collapse in the slightest. If either had produced sufficient trauma to cause his blackout it would have showed up in one of the hospital scans. I'm sorry." We all just sat for moment digesting what he had said before he went on, "All that being said, if you're willing, I'd like to try an experiment on the physical part, if you want to that is." "What kind of experiment?" I asked skeptically. "Very simple; sometime tomorrow, take off all your clothes and have Allison measure you." "Oh I can tell you already, he's..." "Hey, hey, hey!" Bob cut her off. "None of that you naughty little girl! Measure the rest of him; all the major muscle groups. If you can do it in the morning that would be best," He paused for a second, "Yep, definitely morning; if not tomorrow then the next day, but before you come to school. Measure him at rest and flexed and write them all down. Before you go home from school we're going to take you down to the gym and see what you can lift. No more lifting after that. Then I want you to find a mentor and start working out in your dreams. In fact, let's go a step further, forget the gym, forget measurements; I want you to have a physical. I'll talk to your mom about it. Nothing specific just that we're experimenting with something and I need the information for a baseline comparison." Allison stood up and stamped her foot. "You mean I don't get to take his clothes off?" Shannon just rolled her eyes and said, "Sit down before I hurt you." Allison jumped into her lap, batted her eyes, and said, "You wouldn't really hurt me, would you?" She then kissed her and laid her head on the older girl's chest. "All right you two, knock it off," I said. Suddenly a very wet blanket appeared around my shoulders. I shrieked appropriately, flung it away from me and rounded on the girls. "Which one of you did that?" They of course both pointed at the other and tried to look totally innocent. They were pretty convincing, because I couldn't tell which one had done it. Rebecca had been watching the whole exchange with a strange look on her face and it occurred to me that she didn't know about our relationships. I noticed Allison staring at Bob. One look told me that he had noticed Rebecca's look as well. I caught his eye and gave him a slight nod. He nodded back and turned to look at Allison. He found her already looking at him and when she nodded he gave a slight nod in return. I guess it was time Rebecca knew the rest of the story. I couldn't see what difference it could possibly make whether she knew or not. "Oh yeah, before things went wrong on Friday I was going to tell you that you can take Patty Sarducci off the list and you need to move Celeste Boudreaux way up." Rebecca paled a little. "Celeste isn't on the list any more." "Well she should be, she's..." "Dead." I stopped, not sure what I had just heard. "Come again." "You were about to tell me that Celeste Boudreaux is having an affair with a married man." "Yeah, actually it was one of her teachers. How did you find out?" "His wife killed both of them, then herself Friday afternoon." We sat there stunned as she recounted her weekend adventures. Well, not all of them, but the part about the dead girl anyway. I'm not sure why but the girls and I were huddled up close on the couch by the time she finished. There was a knowing look in Rebecca's eyes as she looked at us and I knew that she had figured out what she had been missing. "I think it's time for us to beat a hasty retreat," Bob said, rising and reaching out his hand to Rebecca. She took it and he stood gracefully. He then held his hand out to me and I shook it. "Jimmy, this has all been very fascinating and I am serious about the experiments, but I am just as serious when I say that I think this was a freak circumstance and that you don't need to worry about anything like this happening again. Not unless you should suddenly find yourself in just as dire a situation, but I don't see you having an accidental reaction of any kind. I just don't believe it's possible. So don't worry about it." He turned to the girls. "Ladies, a pleasure as always. Try to remember tomorrow is a school day and the boy wonder here has had a rough weekend, so go easy on him. One of you should probably tell Cyndi to expect a call from me. Give her whatever information you think necessary. Have you told them what happened, Jimmy?" "No, for the most part I'm telling people I don't really remember much of it." "Probably just as well, but I don't know if that will work with your mother. Anyway, tell her I'll be giving her a call about setting up a physical for Jimmy." With that they headed for the door and were gone. I turned back to the girls and asked, "So now what do I do with you two?" Allison smiled innocently and said, "Well, normally I could think of several things, but since you're supposed to be resting quietly most of those are out of the question. Besides..." she hugged Shannon then slid one hand down to cup a breast, "I've got my hands full right now." Shannon slapped her hand away. "You are a naughty little thing tonight. It's only been a few days, girl, you act like you haven't been laid in weeks. I'd do something about it but I'm afraid I'd be rewarding bad behavior." Allison started to pout but Shannon put a finger to her lips, silencing her. "I'll make you a deal. You're supposed to be keeping an eye on Jimmy, so why don't we all go to the cabana and snuggle up, if you think you can behave yourself, that is." Allison kind of sulked a little bit and whispered, "Okay, I'll be good." "All right then," Shannon continued. "You be a good girl and I'll make it up to you. Maybe do something special for you next time we get some time alone." "Really?" Allison asked. "Promise." Allison hugged her close again and said, "Okay," in a much more perky voice. At times like this I couldn't help but feel a little left out, but I'm sure there were times that they felt the same way. Well, maybe not Allison, she seemed to have the best of everything when it came to our unusual relationship. She could be with Shannon almost any time she wanted, and she got to be with me pretty much every night as well; when I wasn't working anyway. I moved us all to the cabana, our clothes all got lost somewhere in the transition and we cuddled until morning. ------- Chapter 65: A Long Day My shiner was in full bloom for school Monday morning. That and rumors of the fight at the mall got me a lot of very strange looks. I met with my usual group at break and Melinda whistled when she saw my eye. "Ouch. That's a beauty. So I guess the rumors are true." "I've been trying not to listen. I'm sure they're all pretty exaggerated." "They certainly didn't exaggerate about that eye. Rumor has it there were three of them, that was the only punch they landed, and you put all three of them in the hospital." Someone had obviously seen the whole thing start to finish. "There was one other punch and while they all went to the hospital two of them went home that night." "Jesus, Jimmy, I thought you said they exaggerated. I saw Roger Elliott earlier, someone who hadn't heard about it patted him on the back and I thought he was going to faint. Yeah they sent him home but he can hardly move. Driscoll didn't even come to school today and they say Brad's got a cast covering most of the right side of his body. If that's true he can kiss his scholarship goodbye." I took a deep breath and answered in a very quiet voice. "I'd really rather not talk about it if you don't mind." She looked at me for second before answering, "I understand, but can I ask you one favor?" "What's that?" "Lynn and I are thinking of going to Mardi Gras next year. Would come along as our body guard?" "Melinda!" Susan said in an outraged voice. "It's not funny. Jimmy could have been seriously injured. Three to one is not good odds no matter how good you are. And from what I heard, Brad has been after Jimmy for months. I don't know how he got Elliott and Driscoll to play along but as far as I'm concerned they got what they deserved. Every one of them outweighs Jimmy by a good thirty pounds; Driscoll by more than that." "No," I said quietly. "They didn't get what they deserved. Nobody deserves what I did to Brad." I got up, picked up my books and left. "Jimmy, wait," Susan called. "Let him go," I heard Bob say. "We've already talked about this but he's got to deal with it on his own. It wasn't his fault, he didn't start it, but he still feels bad about not stopping sooner. He'll be all right; he just needs some time." The day kind of continued in that vein all day, walking down the hall people would step back out of the way like I was going to go postal on them if they touched me. I did have one bright shining moment at lunch when Angela showed up and asked me to be her date for the prom. Prom was a big event at our school. There were so many kids that they limited ticket sales to Juniors and Seniors. The only way underclassmen could get in was by being someone's date. I was more than a little surprised but we went for a walk and she explained it all to me. "I can't take Tim, I mean, how would that look. He's going with Cindy Sheppard, you remember her from the mall? She's been kind of lusting for him the last couple months so we talked about it and he's taking her. So I needed a date, and I kind of wanted one that wasn't going to try to feel me up all night. You know; someone who wouldn't be disappointed at not getting laid on prom night." "Whoa, I don't get to feel you up and I don't get laid?" She shoved me and said, "You know what I mean. And you know I want to jump your bones, so you never know." She grabbed my hand and pulled me in close. "Be a good boy and you might get lucky." "Ah," I said, sliding an arm around her waist, "but will I have a better chance if I'm a bad boy? That's the question. What about Tim? I mean, don't you think Cindy's going to have a few expectations." "Oh trust me, unless Tim does something really stupid he's going to score." "How do you feel about that?" "How do I feel about it? Are you kidding? I told him to fuck her brains out. Look, Timmy's a sophomore; he's got two more years here and I'm going to be away at college. I can't expect him to be celibate for two years while I'm gone, and Cindy's a senior next year, so who knows... "Jimmy, what Tim and I have is special; I think I could spend the rest of my life with him and be happy. But that's for the future. Right now, we have to live in the real world. I don't know that I might not meet someone while I'm away. We've talked about it and decided that if what we have is real, then it will survive, if it's not, then it's not and we won't regret any of what we have had. So for now, this is reality. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I just have one question." "What's that?" "You can dance, can't you? "Oh sure, I do the standard guy thing. You know the kind of fake boxing thing where you stand in one place, hold your hands up like this, and kind of shuffle your feet." I demonstrated the moves. "I do that." "You're kidding, right?" The bell rang and saved me from having to come up with a decent answer. I gave her a quick kiss and made a note to try and dream up a reasonable dance tutor. I told Allison about it after school. "Ooh prom, cool. You should be honored; there aren't a whole lot of freshmen that get invited to the big senior gig. And you get to go with the prettiest girl; you'll be the talk of the school." "Come on, sis, give me break. You're laying it on pretty thick don't you think?" "No, not really. You just wait. There's going to be a lot of girls wondering why she's going with you. They'll be wondering what it is she sees that they're missing. I expect you'll find yourself very popular with the ladies next year." "Well, they'll just have to keep guessing and get used to disappointment, Shannon starts next year, so I'm taken." "You really want to go public next year? Don't you think Tom and Karen might be a little... I don't know, leery of letting her hang out over here so much." "I don't care. I love her and I'm tired of trying to hide it. This year it would still raise eyebrows. But next year, when we're both in high school, I don't think it will be such a big deal." I took her hand. "If I could tell the world about you too, I would." She hugged me close and said, "I know you would. But the world wouldn't understand that. They could live with me and Shannon, but they'd never accept you and me. Sucks, but it's true. Don't worry about it, we'll figure something out. So what do you think about Tim and Angie? Think it will work out?" "I hope so." I paused for a second. "You know, we're going to be facing the same thing someday; maybe even sooner. I mean, I'll be public with Shannon, but where does that leave you? I don't see you playing the shy little wallflower for four years." "Five. You forget I'll still have to deal with it next year. I've got invites from three guys already for grad night and it's still a year away." I hadn't thought about that. I took a minute to think about how I felt about it. I was happy to be able to confirm that it didn't matter. "Good, just try and pick one that you won't have to hurt if he tries to get out of line, but that you can hurt if it becomes necessary." I broke the news to my parents at dinner. They still had a hard time accepting that Allison was okay with it all, but other than that they didn't have any problem with it. After dinner things kind of went down hill. I just happened to be closest to the door when the bell rang so I answered it and found the police waiting outside. "Officer French? Come in; is there something we can do for you?" He looked suitably startled. "Do we know each other?" Stupid! Think fast... "I don't know," I said. "I must have met you somewhere because all I could think was 'He's the officer with the unpronounceable name' when I opened the door." I stuck out my hand. "Just to be sure, James Matthews." "Jean Megniout, a pleasure to meet you. I wish it were under better circumstances. Are your parents home by any chance?" This was weird even by my standards. When I had my dream last year, how had I pulled an actual police officer out of a hat? I certainly hadn't met him anywhere else. Something to ask Bob about next time I saw him. My father showed up about that time. "I'm his father, Richard Matthews, how do you do officer..." I could see him struggling to figure out the name. "Just call him French," I said. "He's not, but that's what everyone calls him." He chuckled at that. "I guess we have met, but I can't for the life of me remember where." "No point standing out there either way," Dad offered. "Please, come in. How may we help you?" We moved back into the living room. Mom and Allison were watching from the kitchen. "Actually, Mr. Matthews, we're here to see your son about the fight at the mall last Friday. One of the boys' parents has filed assault charges against your son and we need to get a statement from him." Dad was pissed. "One of them is pressing charges? You have got to be kidding. Those three thugs jumped my son in the parking lot and now they want to press charges? That's just great. Of all the nerve! My son spent two days in the hospital and they want to press charges? On what grounds?" "One of the boys claims he attacked them." "He what?" If he was incredulous before, he was downright stunned his time. "Officer... French, does my son strike you as stupid?" "No sir. We've only just met but he seems pretty level headed to me so far." I interrupted for a second, "Can I get you something to drink, Officer? Water, coffee..." "A glass of water will be fine, thank you." "Dad?" "No thank you, son." He turned back to French to continue, "So they are actually suggesting that my son jumped three guys twice his size in a mall parking lot? Do they have any idea how stupid that sounds?" "I pointed that out when they filed the complaint, but the boy is insisting that's what happened. Ludicrous or not, once the complaint is filed, we have to follow up." He took the water from me. "So if you don't mind, I need to get your statement of what happened." "I don't remember a lot of detail," I started. "I was shopping with my sister, looking for graduation presents for our friend Shannon, then we had tickets to see a movie. We met at the food court; I took the stuff out to the car so we wouldn't have to take it into the theater with us. I put it in the trunk and as I turned back something slammed into my face. Then two guys grabbed me and turned me around and I found out it was Brad Russell's fist. He punched me in the stomach once and then started to hit me again. I'm not really sure what happened after that. I woke up in the hospital two days later." "So you don't remember the rest of the fight?" "Not really, it was all sort of a blur." He turned back to my father. "Do you mind if I ask your daughter a few questions? I understand she was there as well." "No, it's okay with me if she wants to talk to you. Allison?" She came into the living room and shook French's hand. "I don't know what I can say, really," she said as she sat on the couch next to my dad. "I didn't actually see the fight, by the time I got there it was pretty much over. Two of the boys were already on the ground and the third, Brad I guess, was sort of on his knees screaming about his arm. I screamed for Jimmy and he turned towards me and just sort of fainted. Then the paramedics came and took us all to the hospital." "I see. Do you know if anyone else there may have seen what happened?" "Probably, Jimmy said there were rumors flying around school about it so someone must have seen more than I did." "Is there anything else either of you can think of?" I shrugged my shoulders; Allison just shook her head. "No, nothing." "Well, thank you for you time, sorry to interrupt your evening. I doubt this is going to get far. The whole thing sounds pretty unlikely to me, but... oh, Mr. Matthews, has you son ever had any kind of martial arts training?" "No officer, we're a pretty non violent group here. I don't even remember the last time he got in a fight." He thanked us again and as Dad walked him to the door I stood there watching with no idea what to say, but feeling like I should say something. "I'm sorry, Dad, I..." "Don't!" He cut me off harshly. I don't think I had ever seen him look so mad. "Do not apologize. You did nothing wrong. You were the victim here, not them; they jumped you. I don't know how you managed to not get the shit beat out of you but whatever it took, whatever you had to do, I don't ever want to hear you apologize for it again. Not to me, and by God in heaven, never to one of them." Allison and I could only stand speechless as he turned and left the room. Mom just stared at us, apparently equally dumbfounded, before setting her towel on the table and following him to the bedroom. Allison and I moved silently to the kitchen and finished what little cleanup was left, then went to our rooms to finish up our homework before bed. We spent some time looking up dance instructors online and settled on a couple that worked on Broadway as choreographers. The plan was to work out with them at night and practice after school. I called Angela and asked her if she would consider taking a class with me locally after school for a week or so until we got comfortable with each other. That kind of blew her mind. It was a good idea though. Dancing with a girl taller than you comes with some special challenges. Mom called me that night and asked to speak to me privately, so I met her at the beach. "I guess you figured out that your father is pretty upset?" "It did cross my mind. I don't know that I've ever seen him like that." "It's been a very hard weekend for him, Jimmy." Her calling me Jimmy was a clear sign of just how serious this was. "You don't know how hard it was for him; seeing you in the hospital like that, Allison sitting there holding your hand, reading to you, praying that you would be alright. You're his son, and he loves you. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Understanding dawned and I felt tears well up. "His sister." "Yes, Sue Ann; he looked at you and Allison and saw himself holding her hand while she died. Your father is a proud man, in a humble sort of way, if that makes any sense. He cries at movies and laughs at himself for doing it. But this... this hurt him. It's been over twenty years; but some wounds never really heal. He was so afraid he was going to lose you, but more than that he was afraid that Allison was going to lose you. The thought of her going through that..." There really wasn't much to say. I got up and knelt by her chair and hugged her. We shared a few tears and then she said, "Now, tell me what's really going on with Rachel and Samantha." I pulled back and met her eyes. "What happened?" "Thank you for not trying to deny it. We were finishing up a set of pictures from a trip they took and there was a picture of Amanda kneeling on the sand in her bathing suit. Rachel got real quiet for a second and the next thing I know the scene is changing. Amanda is buck-naked sucking a man's cock. It looked like they were in the living room and I can only assume that Rachel saw the whole thing. The scene changed again only this time it was both girls, Amanda and Samantha, side by side... servicing is the only word that comes to mind, the same man." "What did you do?" "I told Rachel that I didn't think this was how she wanted to remember her sister. It took a little work but we got back to the workroom and finished the book. Is it really as bad as it looked?" I sat back in my chair and thought for second. "It's a lot worse than that. That was most likely their father, but it could have been any number of other men. Amanda, Samantha and I'm not sure how many, but probably a lot of other girls are caught up in a group of people, I don't know how many yet, but I'm guessing it's a good sized group, that are using them as sex slaves. They do what they're told to whoever they are told to do it with, no questions asked or else." "Or else what?" "Samantha knows of at least one girl that was killed, along with her entire family because she told someone what her father was doing to her. They arrested him but he was killed in jail. The paper said that her mother killed her and her sister before committing suicide. There was another girl that got caught trying to run away, she's now a party favor somewhere in the Middle East as far as Samantha knows. They showed her a newspaper in a language she couldn't identify. The girl was dressed up like a harem girl with a black eye and a gold shackle around her ankle." "Jesus! Does Rebecca know about all this?" "Yes. We told her about it as soon as we found out." "We?" "The girls and I; we discovered it while trying to find a way to approach Samantha about Amanda's death. Rebecca's pissed, because there's nothing she can do about it; not right now anyway." "Why not?" "Well, for starters she can't even tell anybody she knows about it. How do you explain knowledge like that? She can't ID anyone without the risk of them getting killed. Even if she could, it's not an FBI issue. She has no reason to get involved. The group would have to be extremely well connected to get away with the things they're doing. Even without the jurisdictional problem, who do you tell without risking telling the wrong person?" "So it's up to you?" I stared at her for a long time before I finally nodded. "Yeah, it's up to me. But for now it has to wait. I have to catch Amanda's killer first, hopefully before he kills again. I can worry about her sisters later." "Then there is something else you need to know." "What do you mean?" "Amanda was not Rachel's sister." "What are you talking about, of course she's her sister, Samantha said so." "Then either Samantha doesn't know or she lied. Amanda was Rachel's mother." I was stunned. "What? I mean, are you sure? How do you know? Did Rachel tell you that?" "No, she didn't say anything. I don't think she even knows, and while I'm not a hundred percent certain, I'm sure enough that I'm telling you. That wasn't the first memory that the pictures triggered. There have been many other visions of Amanda that have come out while we were working. It's hard to explain, son, but trust me, I know a mother holding her daughter when I see one, and there is a big difference between an older sister changing a diaper and a mother doing it." "But, how could she not know?" "Jimmy, think about what you told me; considering what was, is, going on in that house, what are the odds that it was anyone besides her father that got her pregnant? I doubt if anyone outside the family knows. I'm sure Samantha does; there would be no way to hide it." "She does," I said. Memories had come rushing back as we talked and I was certain. "It all makes sense, now. There have been a couple of times talking to her when it seemed like she almost said something but stopped herself. Like when she first told us about Rachel not being able to remember her sister and being upset about it. It seemed like she started to say something else. Allison caught it too but we never really talked about it. I'd forgotten about it until just now. Samantha knows, but it's a big dark secret so she automatically covers it up." "Does this change anything?" I thought about it for a second. "Nope, doesn't change a thing, just explains a few little mysteries. Did I tell you that Samantha knew we were coming?" "Yes," she said. The way she was nodding her head it was clear she had thought of the same thing I had. "This is very interesting. It seems that once she died, Amanda had access to the future and knew that you were coming. Her desire to find a way to keep her daughter safe and find a way to get her away from the people who were abusing her and Samantha, and surely would be coming for Rachel one day, gave her the motivation to stay long enough to tell Samantha." "Freaky." I said. Allison was going to love this. "So tell me about these dolphins of yours." I guess it was time for a change of subject. Talk about changes; Mom knew about what was happening with Samantha and the danger to Rachel, she now knew that I was the only one in any position to do anything about it; not how, just that I seemed to be planning something and she was okay with it. Hard to believe this was the same woman that six months ago freaked out when she met Rebecca and wanted me off the case. I stood and pulled her to her feet, put on a happy face; you can actually do that in dreams, and called the girls. We headed out to the lagoon and by the time we got there Zeus and Hera were swimming in with the rest of the pod. I put a water slide, a big one, on the beach, with the outlet far out into the water and then concentrated for a second. I don't know where he was or what he was doing but a trap door suddenly opened under my father in his dream and he fell into a dark tunnel filled with swiftly moving water. The tunnel flattened out into a shallow trough and I added just enough light so he could see what was happening. A hole suddenly opened in the air above, his slide met mine, and then the turns and twists began. A few seconds later he shot off the end and splashed into the warm water. He came up surrounded by dolphins, laughing and chittering at him. I moved us all to the top of the slide; there were now five separate entrances and exits, dropped us all at once. And we raced for the exit. When we got to the bottom he splashed more water at me. "Very funny! You scared the crap out of me." I dropped him back into the tunnel, hoping he'd come out with a better attitude the second time. Then I dropped the rest of us in behind him. It was a fun night. French called a few days later to let us know that all charges had been dropped. Both Elliott and Driscoll had told the police versions that matched mine, that and the video from the mall security cameras had been more than enough to convince Brad's parents that he was in fact lying. Mom's revelation about Rachel had been a real bombshell. Allison and Shannon were just as floored as I was; but just like with me, suddenly a lot of things made sense. We were sitting around the sunken spot in the cabana when I told them. "I knew she started to say something else that first trip," Allison said. "When she first told us Rachel was upset about forgetting Amanda; it just seemed like she started to say something else and then caught herself and said sister." "But is there any reason to tell Samantha that we know?" Shannon asked. "What do you mean?" Allison asked. "Does it change anything that we know the truth?" Shannon answered. "There is a reason that she didn't tell us. It may have been an automatic response. I mean that is not the kind of thing most families would want getting out. How will she react if she thinks she slipped up and that's how we found out?" "It doesn't really change anything," I said. "At least not right away, it may make a difference in how we handle things later but for right now, it's just a case of knowing the truth. I think we can tell her as long as we make it clear that she didn't give it away. We tell her exactly how Mom found out. She can't think that she is slipping. The risk is too great and that's stress she doesn't need. I think you're right about why she didn't tell us. It's all part of the big, dark, family secret. Just something else no one is supposed to know about. But you can't blame a rape victim for getting pregnant, and I don't care what you say about it, what's going on over there is rape. Torturing the resistance out of someone doesn't make it consensual." "So we tell her and make sure she knows how we feel about it. That we know the truth and it's okay," Allison said. "And, that no one is going to find out from us," Shannon added. "I think we let it go for now," I said. "There is a reason she didn't tell us. Doesn't really matter what it was, although I do suspect that it's guilt. Just like she hasn't told us how close she and Amanda really are. I think she's feeling guilty or ashamed of that. The usual reaction considering social taboos; she can forgive herself all the rest because it's forced, but her relationship with Amanda was voluntary, so she feels guilty about it." "You think that's it?" Allison asked. "I'm not certain, but I feel pretty confident that's the reason." "Then first chance I get I'm going to tell her the truth about us." Allison said. "Maybe if she knows about our relationship she'll be willing to trust us about hers." "I think you're right, although I think for her, trusting will take a long time. She's kind of conditioned against it," Shannon said. "Then that's settled, so what do you want to do now?" I asked. "Gee," Allison said, looking thoughtful. "Let me think..." ------- Chapter 66: A Night to Remember Originally posted on: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:27 pm Prom night was one week before graduation. The four of us; Tim and Cindy, Angie and me, doubled for dinner and then headed for the big party. The night before I had a long talk with my dad and he set up a room for me at one of the hotels that we 'worked' for. I explained that I didn't have any expectations but that I didn't think that was a good excuse for not planning ahead anyway. If something was going to happen between Angela and I there was a good chance it would be this night. He didn't understand how Allison and I could be okay with all this but he went along anyway. He booked us a two room suite. Thanks Dad. The dance was the bomb! Tim and I both rented tuxedos. Mine was the traditional black; his was a dark blue over a lighter blue shirt that was the exact shade of his eyes. I made a note to be a little more flexible in my formal attire in the future. The girls? You know women and a chance to dress up... They were spectacular! Cindy has what some call dirty blonde hair; it's too dark to be blonde but not really dark enough to be brown. And she has hazel eyes. She was wearing a deep green dress, with lighter green trim; the dress really brought out the green in her eyes; to the point that the brown almost disappeared. I wondered if maybe she had helped Tim pick out his shirt. As good as Cindy looked, she paled in comparison to Angela. Stunning, absolutely stunning; her dress was a deep plum and she had worn her hair down straight. I realized later that she did that so I wouldn't look like a midget standing next to her. I don't know what they did to her hair but it seemed to catch every ray of light. Highlights danced up and down the length of it every time she moved, and she moved a lot. We had only managed to take three dance lessons together but it really helped to ease my natural intimidation level and keep me from feeling and looking like, well, a kid. There was one tense moment when Roger Elliott came over to our table. I was afraid it was going to get ugly but he said he just came by to apologize for the whole thing at the mall and to make sure I knew that he had no hard feelings about it. He said he deserved to get his ass kicked for even being a part of it. We shook hands and he went back to his date. Cindy was all over Tim. I thought she was going to start tearing his clothes off on the dance floor when the music slowed down. When it started looking dangerous I cut in and danced with her for a few songs. Tim danced with Angela and while everything looked proper and normal; they both had dates after all, I knew that it was a special time for them. Afterward while I was dancing a slow song with Angela again, I suggested that maybe we better think about leaving before anyone got arrested. "No kidding, Jimmy, that girl is some kind of horny right now. I've never seen her like this. I mean, I've known her for years and I know she likes a good fuck as much as anyone but I've never seen her like this. She's got it bad. I'm a little afraid she might do him in the back seat with us watching." "If we don't get her out of here, she's liable to do him under the table." I glanced over at them. "Or on top of it." "There is that. I guess we could find someplace to park and you and I could go for a walk or something." "I have a room reserved at the Suites." She stopped dancing, pulled back, and looked at me. "You do?" I pressed just enough to remind her where we were and what we were supposed to be doing. Once we were moving again I answered, "Angela, before you say anything let me make something clear. I have no plans and no expectations, but I thought it might be best to be sure that if things went that way we weren't going to have a problem with locations. It's a two room suite so there's room for all four of us if we need it." "You never cease to amaze me, Jimmy." She looked past me to where Tim and Cindy were dancing. "She's trying to chew the buttons off his shirt. Not a good sign. I think it's time we took a trip to the ladies room. You talk to Tim." She kissed me on the cheek and we headed over to break up the floor show. Angela whispered something to Cindy and they headed for the ladies room. Tim and I headed back to our table. "How are you holding up?" I asked. "I think I'm going to sprain something. I feel like I've got a tree in my pants and I'm afraid everyone is staring. It's not that bad most of the time but when the music slows down and she starts humping my leg on the dance floor..." "How would you feel about maybe moving to a more private venue?" "What do you mean?" I explained about the room. "You're an amazing guy, Matthews. You should give lessons, write books, or something. I know you; you weren't expecting or anticipating, you got the room just in case didn't you?" "Pretty much, yeah. Angela made it pretty plain some time ago that she wanted my body. I've discovered that once a girl makes up her mind it's really just a matter of when, not if, it's going to happen. If it was going to be tonight I wanted it to be someplace nice." The girls were threading their way back through the crowd toward us. We gathered up our stuff and headed for the door. In the interest of safety we put Cindy up front with Angela. When we got to the hotel, I was going to go in alone to get the keys but Angela just laughed and said, "Don't worry about it; it's prom night and everybody knows exactly what's going on." So we all strolled into the lobby together. Cindy was managing to behave herself now that it appeared she was going to get what she wanted. "Reservation for Matthews," I said as I reached the desk. I handed her my license for identification. The girl behind the desk looked like she was probably in college, she just grinned as she pulled the information up in the computer. "Yes, Mr. Matthews, we have you in one of our salon suites. Enjoy your stay." She handed me two electronic key cards. "Thank you. How late is the kitchen open, and what time do they open the restaurant for breakfast?" "We begin seating for breakfast at 5:30. The full menu is available until 10:30 PM and there is a late night section available 24 hours a day. Menus are in your room." "Thank you," I looked at her name badge, "Abbie." "My pleasure, sir. Enjoy your stay." Our room was on the tenth floor, the double doors off the plush hallway were the first clue that my dad had gone all out. The doors opened onto a seating area that was very nicely furnished with two love seats, tables, reading lamps, a desk, and over to one side a full table with four chairs. It wasn't a two room suite; it was a two bedroom suite with the bedrooms on opposite ends of the living area. I recalled our path and the general layout and realized that this room took up one whole end of the floor. I checked the drapes and found a breathtaking view of the city laid out below us. "Wow," said Angela as she joined me at the window. "Timmy, you gotta see this." There was no answer and when we turned to check on them we found Cindy had pushed him up against the closed doors and pinned him there with her tongue. Not being stupid he was making no real effort to escape. I checked Angela's face to see her reaction and found a strange combination of, joy, sadness, and lust. I took her hand and squeezed it to let her know I understood what she was feeling. I sometimes felt it when Allison and Shannon were together. Joy that they were happy, sadness that they were happy without you, and lust because you wanted to join them. As we stood watching, Cindy began backing into the seating area, pulling Tim with her as she came. Tim was kind of looking past her head and guiding her around the furniture. When she was in the middle of the two love seats she turned ninety degrees, broke the kiss, dropped to her knees, and started undoing his pants. Tim looked appropriately stunned. "I think that's our cue, Jimmy," Angela said. "Come on." Cindy stopped what she was doing and turned to us, "No, don't go." She looked at Angela. "I want you to watch me fuck your brother. It'll be so hot!" "You're serious?" Angela asked. "Oh God yes!" Cindy said. "I want to do everything. I want to make this a night we never forget; I want to suck his cock while you watch, then I want to ride him till he explodes. Later I want them both to fuck me at the same time; if you don't mind that is. It's a fantasy of mine and I finally have the chance to do it. And some time before we go home, I want to eat your pussy." Angela's eyes got huge. "Really? I didn't know you liked girls." "Yes, really; God this is like a dream come true. I never thought I'd get a chance like this. I don't know if I like girls but think I might, and I know you've been with girls before, well, one at least, so I want to try it. I want to take advantage of this moment. I may never get a chance like this again. Please?" Angela looked at me to see what I was thinking; I just shrugged, then moved behind her and unzipped her dress. "What about me?" Tim asked. "Don't I get a say in this?" There was an echo as we all answered at the same time, "No." He just smiled. "Just checking." He shrugged out of his jacket and Cindy started untying his shoes so she could get his pants off. I couldn't help but smile when I saw that Angela was wearing the exact set of underclothes that she had shown me in Victoria's Secret on our first date, way back before Christmas. They were plum satin to match the dress, with black lace trim. The thigh high stockings she wore were trimmed to match. She gave me a wink and a smile when she saw that I recognized them. That pretty well confirmed that while I may not have had plans or expectations for this night, she certainly had. The best part was I got to take them off bit by bit as the night progressed. Except the stockings, when she eventually lost the rest Tim and I both decided she looked too hot in the stockings to just cast them aside without a really good reason. It was a very long night as we helped Cindy live out all of her fantasies. Tim and I sat on the love seats and the two girls took turns demonstrating their different oral techniques. Apparently Cindy had figured out where Angela had been getting her itch scratched all these months. She didn't have a problem with it and admitted that her first time had been with her cousin and the two of them still humped like bunnies any time they were together. I thought Tim was going to die when the girls teamed up and began sharing his cock. It brought back fond memories of the first time Allison and Shannon had French kissed around the head of mine. The kiss grew all on its own, and soon Tim was forgotten as Angela slowly shifting her position: she pulled slowly away from the kiss and Cindy followed her, trying to keep the contact as Angela rolled down onto her back. Then she sat up and let Angela draw her into position over her mouth. Angela demonstrated the value of experience and as Cindy's orgasm drew close I stepped in front of her and she took me into her mouth. She reached with her other hand and Tim moved to stand on the other side of her. She went back and forth until Angela took her over the edge in a wrenching orgasm. As soon as she recovered she indicated that she wanted Tim on the floor in front of her and me fucking her from behind while she finished him off. "Okay, forgive me for being the voice of sanity here but maybe we should move to one of the bedrooms before we all get terminal rug burn." I suggested. As soon as I mentioned it she looked at her knees and saw that they were already red from kneeling over Angela. "Ooh, yeah that's probably a good idea. Oh, and I've got to call my mom and tell her I won't be home." "Good point," Angie said. When I asked if her parents were going to be okay with it I found out that she was an only child and had been raised solely by her mother. Her mom respected and trusted her enough to make adult decisions about adult issues. Angela just shook her head and said she wished her mom could be so enlightened in her approach. Cindy called her mom and told her where she was and not to worry or wait up. Then Angie called her folks and told them that we were all going to a private party at one of the local hotels. I guess her mom said something because Angie got a little irritated when she answered. "What, Mother, you think I'm taking him to an orgy or something? Don't worry; we'll be fine. We'll see you in the morning. Yeah, love you too. Good night." She hung up the phone and Cindy took her hand and started leading her toward the bedroom with Tim close behind. I held back just long enough to call down to the kitchen and order some snacks; nothing fancy; just two orders of hot wings and a vegetable plate. The voice on the phone said that it would be about thirty minutes and that they would just leave it in the entryway. By the time I joined them in the bedroom Angela was taking a turn on Cindy's face while Tim watched. I closed the doors behind me, moved to the open side of the bed and began licking Cindy. She gave a startled gasp at the sudden assault then dove back into her chosen task with new energy. Tim moved in front of his sister and now everyone had something to do. We broke for snacks some time later. Resting and regaining energy. Cindy was one of those girls that peaked quickly and often. She had at least one orgasm for each of ours. She came the hardest when I suggested we try Allison's trick of putting the girls into a sixty nine position, I fucked her while Angela ate her around me. Tim was resting at the time. After we had finished with the food Cindy took the left over ranch dressing and began finger-painting trails on all of us. This led to another tongue party and everyone got back in the mood quickly. This time it was Angela on her back under Cindy, with Tim between her legs and me in Cindy's mouth. Again, Cindy came twice before I finally released my load into her mouth. Both girls were on the pill but we had been using condoms for any penetration other than oral. Cindy had brought a twelve pack with her and we had gone through a little over half, when she said there was one more thing she wanted to try. Tim had regained his strength by now and she took him into her mouth a few times, then unrolled another latex over his length. "I want you to fuck my ass," she said. "Won't that hurt?" Tim asked. "Probably at first," she answered. "That's why it gets to be you. You're longer but he's thicker and I think I'd rather not risk it the first time." "Let me help you get ready," Angela offered. Cindy just smiled and said, "There's a small bottle of oil in my purse." Angela retrieved the oil and positioned Cindy on all fours and began dripping the oil on and around her little pink rosebud, rubbing it in with a finger as she went. By the time the area was liberally coated Cindy was starting to relax to the sensations. Angel dripped some extra oil on her finger pressed it inside the girl's opening. You could see Cindy tense again at the invasion but she let out a long sigh at the same time. "Umm, that feels good. More." Angela added more oil and soon had her finger all the way in. Then it was her thumb and she pumped it in and out until the ring of muscle had completely relaxed. Cindy was breathing hard and humping back against her hand by now. "Now," Cindy said. "Oh God, fuck me now." Tim and I were both standing at full attention just from watching all this. Angie moved aside and Tim moved into position. Angling down he positioned himself at her opening and pressed forward slowly. Good thing she'd bought lubricated condoms. Angela's ministrations had done their job and she opened smoothly to his advance. Cindy's head snapped up and she gasped as the head popped through her outer ring. "Oh yeah," she panted. "Oh god, more." Her hands balled into fists, bunching up the sheet as he pressed himself deep inside her. Soon Tim was balls deep and she was writhing on the mattress, face and chest pressed to the sheets with her ass arched high in the air. I couldn't believe she had just had an orgasm from the first insertion. But the look on Tim's face confirmed that those were very real spasms he was feeling. He looked like he was about to explode. As Cindy recovered and relaxed, you could see from his face that the crisis was passing. "Now fuck me;" she said. "Fuck me hard; take me, make me your bitch; pull my hair and fuck me 'til I can't walk." I thought she was kidding but she pressed herself back up to all fours and flipped her head so her hair trailed down her back. Tim gently took her hair into one hand and began sliding slowly in and out of her. "No! Harder. Hurt me, show me that I'm yours." She pulled her head down so her hair was taught in his grip. He got the idea and jerked her head back as he drove hard into her. "Yes, oh god yes, fuck me harder, hurt me." All hesitation disappeared as Tim reached up with his other hand to grip her hair harder and began slamming into her for all he was worth. "That looks like fun," Angela said, motioning me over and climbing up onto all fours next to her girlfriend. "Not my ass, but fuck me like that." I reached for a fresh condom but she stopped me, "No, I'm safe and I know where you've been. I want to feel you come inside me." I bowed slightly and said, "As my lady desires." I climbed behind her and positioned myself to enter her. "Hurry," she said. The sound of Cindy approaching yet another orgasm was making her crazy. Grabbing, I slapped her ass hard, the report of my hand striking her firm flesh ringing in my ears. I then yanked her head back hard enough that her back bowed and her body pressed back but I did not let myself enter her, "Shut up, bitch, I'll fuck you when I'm good and ready. You just lay there and take it." As I said 'take it' I thrust my hips forward and plowed deep into her wet box. I decided then and there that this kind of role-playing was something I was going to have to talk to the girls about. She groaned and just as with Cindy, she climaxed at the first thrust. Not as hard or long as Cindy but I felt the spasms. I wound her hair around my hand for a firmer grip and, placing my other hand on her hip for balance, began pounding her hard and fast, the room suddenly seemed filled with the sound of balls slapping ass and people gasping for breath. The girls seemed to be feeding off of each other's energy and racing for the next orgasm. I'd had a full night so I knew it was going to take a while for me to get there. My thighs were beginning to burn when I felt the final stage begin. Angela started her third orgasm. The second had been a long and shuddering ride as I fought my way through her spasms. It seemed to last longer for her because I didn't slow down. The third hit and she clenched hard around me, moaning and gasping, face pressed to the mattress as she screamed her pleasure. Mine started about halfway through hers and on a whim I sucked my thumb into my mouth, wet it thoroughly and jammed it into her sphincter as far as it would go. Her body went rigid and shook like she was having a seizure as I spent myself deep inside of her. Cindy was now screaming her orgasm into a pillow as Tim finally filled the latex balloon in her ass as well. Suddenly Angela collapsed under me and I rode her down onto the mattress, my hands coming free to catch my weight. I thought her energy had just given out but then I realized she was totally limp under me. She had passed out. "Jesus God that was good," Cindy said, turning her head towards us, a languid smile on her face. "I may not walk for a week, but it was worth it. How you doing, Ang?" She leaned up a little. "Angie?" She saw the closed eyes and slack expression on Angela's face. "Shee-it! She passed out? Damn, and I thought Timmy was good. No offense stud," she said, grinding her ass against him. He just laughed and slowly pulled himself free of her. "No worries. He gets more practice than I do." She rolled onto her side, clutching the pillow against her chest, "You're kidding? I didn't even know he had a girlfriend." "He has two." She looked at me in amazement and I blushed and turned away. "Oh don't go all shy on me now, cutie. I'm grateful to them, whoever they are. Lord you do know how to make a girl happy." She rolled carefully to face Tim. "Both of you. Thank you both for helping me make this all come true." She pulled Tim down to kiss him. Angie stirred under me and I sort of pressed myself around her in a full body hug. "That, was incredible? Did I really pass out?" "Oh yeah," Cindy said. "Up you go stud, I need to pee." Tim pulled back and she bounced out of bed and headed to the bathroom. As soon as she said it I realized I needed to go as well. I headed for the other bedroom to see if there was a second bath. I was pleasantly surprised to find not only a bathroom but a small hot tub as well. It would be a tight fit but I was pretty sure we could all fit. We'd been using the other bathroom all night. It had a walk in shower we could have all fit in. I didn't say anything, just started the water and went in to relieve myself. It was a fast fill but it was still going to take a while. I adjusted the temperature on my way out and went to find my date. She was just coming out the bathroom. Tim was headed in. Cindy was laying back on the bed looking suddenly tired. I put a finger to my lips, and motioned for her to stand up. When she did I took her hand and Angie's. "Close your eyes." I led them through the living area and into the other bedroom. The tub was almost full so there was very little sound from the water. "Open." "Sweet!" Cindy exclaimed and made a bee line for the tub. She shut off the water and reached for a bottle that I hadn't noticed on the back edge. She upended the bottle into the tub and hit the button to start the jets. In seconds the surface was covered in a thick layer of bubbles. She shut the jets off and stepped in. The water was obviously hot as she winced a little at first. "Oh, I really need this. Come on, guys, what are you waiting for?" We laughed and moved to join her. As I stepped in I heard a voice call, "Marco?" from the other room. Cindy giggled and yelled, "Polo!" Tim strolled in a few seconds later to find me in the water with a girl under each arm. Cindy blew him a kiss and said, "Hurry up, I saved you a seat. Hey where you going?" Tim had walked off into the bathroom but quickly returned with an armload of towels. He set them down and climbed in. It was snug but we managed to all fit. We relaxed into the warmth and I could feel my muscles relaxing. We had been in for maybe twenty minutes when I felt Cindy's head drop onto my shoulder. Someone drowning would be a bad way to finish the evening, so I worked my way free and pulled her to her feet. Tim stood and helped Angie up. The social dynamic changed and I ended up sharing a bed with Cindy while Tim and Angie took advantage of the rare opportunity to spend the night together. Actually it was well into morning by now, but still, it wasn't something they got to do and I couldn't see letting them pass up the chance. Cindy curled into my shoulder and was asleep almost immediately. The rhythmic sound of her breathing lulled me off shortly after. I knew Allison would be waiting in the glade so I headed there straight away. She was sitting in her usual spot on the blanket, studying. She hadn't noticed my arrival and I considered turning invisible and sneaking up on her. The fact that I didn't just shows that wisdom does occasionally come with age. A year ago I would have done it without thinking. One thing I had learned over the last year was to consider the consequences of my actions. "Hey Princess, how you doing?" "Hello my Prince Charming," she said, looking up with a smile. "History final Monday, I'm using it as an excuse not to miss you too much and wonder just what you've been doing to Angela." "Well, actually..." I began but she held up her hand to stop me. "All I want to hear is that you are doing your best, no holding back. Just tell me that you're making her..." It was my turn to interrupt, "Them." That stopped her alright. "Them?" "Angela, and Cindy Sheppard, I told you about her. She's Tim's date." "I remember that part. I'm guessing you got more than you bargained for?" "You could say that. I told you Cindy's had the hots for Tim for a while now?" "Yeah, you said Angela told you." "Well, once we got the hotel..." "Hotel?" "Yeah, while I didn't have any plans or anything, I kind of had the idea that Angela may have, so I talked to Dad and had him book a room just in case." She stood and sort of flowed into my arms with the most beautiful smile on her face, "You are just the sweetest thing in the whole world, do you know that? That was very thoughtful of you." She kissed me and drifting back to the blanket, patted the spot next to her. "So what happened?" I took the hint and sat next to her before continuing, "Well, Cindy was all over Tim at the dance, we were starting to worry she would start tearing his clothes off at any second, so we decided that maybe we should find someplace a little less public. I told Angela I had a room reserved. She took Cindy to the lady's room, I told Tim, and we left. "When we got to the hotel things took an unexpected turn. Cindy had already figured out about Tim and Angie, but it didn't bother her. In fact, she saw it as a perfect opportunity to live out a few fantasies she's had for some time." "Ah, I see... Cindy's a bit of a party girl?" "Actually no, and that's why she thought this would be the perfect time. She knew she could count on us not to talk about what happened." "And what did happen?" "God, what didn't? That girl wanted to do everything, every combination you could think of for four people we must have done." "Angie too?" "Oh yeah, Angie too. I gotta tell you, sis, I hope you and Shannon don't have high hopes for a busy weekend. I don't know if I'd be up to it." "Oh-ho, I see. Had a busy night have we?" "You could say that." "That's okay baby," she said with a grin. "You're in my world now, and I know just how to fix that problem." She stroked her hand up my leg and I sprang to attention so fast it almost hurt. "You see? No matter how much fun you have out there, I know that you'll save some for me here." Suddenly my pants were gone and she was stroking her hand over me like she'd just found a new toy. "So," she said. "Try anything new?" "Not really, unless you count Tim and me tag-teaming them." I stopped as a thought crossed my mind and I must have blushed or something because she knew I had thought of something. "What?" "Well, it wasn't me, actually. At the end, Cindy decided that she wanted to finish the night out with Tim doing her in the butt." Her eyes got big and she sort of gulped. "You mean?" "Yeah." "Didn't it hurt?" "Tim asked her that and she said that's why she wanted him instead of me. She said he was longer but I was thicker and it kind of scared her. But Angie sort of helped prep her and she really seemed to be enjoying it." "Really?" "Yeah, it was one of her more serious fantasies. She got down right nasty about it. Wanted him to pull her hair and really pound her." She giggled. "Really?" "Oh yeah, she was really into it." I pitched my voice up and mimicked Cindy as best I could, and since it was a dream the voice was exactly hers, "Harder! Fuck me. Make me your bitch. Show me I'm yours." "God that sounds so hot. And just what were you and Angie doing while this was all going on." "I guess it was contagious because Angie decided she wanted it too." "You mean, you... with Angie?" "Oh no, she didn't want to do that. But she liked the role playing, told me to do her the same way, but not in her ass." "And did you?" I blushed so hard I couldn't speak, I just nodded. She gave my cock a squeeze and said, "You did! All that energy running around the room, you all excited... did you put her out?" She gave me a long lick from base to tip and then took just the head in, swirling her tongue around it a few times before releasing me and staring up into my eyes, "You did, didn't you? She passed out." I smiled and blushed and she sucked one of my nuts into her mouth and rolled it around. "You have to do that for me sometime, okay?" She started sucking the other one. I stared down into her eyes and all I could do was nod again. She released me, licked her way to the top and kissed the head wetly, all the while staring into my eyes, "Promise?" I nodded again and she slowly pushed her mouth down the shaft, washing me with her tongue as she went. "I'm going to hold you to that," she said when she came up once more. "Stand up." I stood and she climbed to her knees and then got serious about her work. She's really gotten good at it. In no time at all I felt that unmistakable feeling and then the rush was upon me. She sucked up every drop and when she pulled back she showed me that she had held it all in her mouth. She closed her mouth and swirled it around like she was tasting a new wine before swallowing it all at once. "I just love doing that. I love the taste of you, the feel of you on my lips and tongue. Let's do it again." I laughed and dropped to my knees. "You are too much. I love you, and I love that you love to do that. But fair's fair, how about I get a little taste first?" Suddenly something felt strange. It was like I was in two places at once. I realized what it was and said, "Have to wait. I'm waking up." And I was gone. I awoke staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. It only took a second to realize what had awakened me. I lifted my head and sure enough, there was Cindy bobbing her head slowly up and down on my erect shaft. She noticed the movement, looked up and when she had confirmed I was indeed awake, she pulled off. Normally, waking up in a girl's mouth is a one of my favorite things, but right now I was more overwhelmed by the transition that had just occurred. Fortunately the look on my face was the same either way, and she took it in the best possible way. "Seemed like such a shame to let it go to waste. I was surprised when I felt it poking me? You're an amazing guy, Jimmy. I'm impressed you got it up again so soon. You don't mind do you?" I rolled my eyes. "Gee, let me think? Hell no! But can I do you too?" She grinned and slid up to kiss me. From there we took our time exploring and getting to know one another. We didn't sleep much after that. When I finally looked at the clock it was almost 5:30. I set the clock for 8:00 and we snuggled back up to try and catch a little more sleep. I went immediately to the glade to let Allison know what had happened. She had apparently finished her studies as she was now working on her volleyball serve. I popped into the middle of the court and took the next serve. "Sorry about that," I said. "Apparently what we were doing here, had the usual effect there, and when it poked her in the side she woke up and decided it would be a shame to waste it. Her words, not mine." She ducked under the net and slid her arm around my waist. "Sounds like my kind of girl. You'll have to introduce me sometime. Maybe Shannon too, or are you planning on keeping her all to yourself?" "Hey, she's Tim's girlfriend, not mine. I've got all the women I need in my life already." She started to stroke her hand down my stomach, "You sure about that?" I grabbed her wrist to stop her. "Don't do that. I don't know if I could take any more tonight. Trust me, you and Shannon are more than enough for me. Tim's in for a rough year if they stay together. Speaking of Shannon, do you think she'll be okay with all this?" "Jimmy, it's Shannon. She'll be fine. Jealous, because she couldn't be there, heck I'm a little jealous, but she'll be okay with it. In fact, you should probably start now on figuring out how we're going to be able to do something like that for your senior prom because once she hears about this, she is sooo going to want it. Talk about going out with a bang! Now, let's talk about what happened before you left." "You mean the fact that I knew I was waking up? That was the weirdest feeling. It was like just for a second I was in two places at once." "Yeah, that's what I thought was happening? Could you actually... I guess perceive is the right word, what was happening? In both places at once I mean." "I don't know. The transition was so quick and unexpected that I really didn't have time to explore it." "But you could, even just for a second?" I nodded. "Jimmy, this is big. We're going to need to try and explore this if we can. The question is who do we want to know about it? Before you answer, I just want to say that I think too many people know enough already." "So you think we should keep this to ourselves?" "Yeah, I do. This looks like another major escalation. In fact, it looks a lot like what happened at the mall except you weren't asleep when that happened. If you had told me what had happened at the mall first, I may have hesitated to bring Bob in on that either, but considering everything that happened I think you needed his professional opinion on that one. You needed the reassurance that it wasn't likely to happen again. But I really think we would be better off if we just tried to keep a lid on things from this point forward. Unless we run into something that comes with big red 'danger' sign on it at least. That's my opinion; what do you think?" I thought about what she had said; rolling the different changes over in my mind. She was right about needing to hear Bob's take on the mall, but she was also right about too many people knowing what was going on. I think we had lost sight of the importance of secrecy once we reached a certain level. "I think you're right. Let's just try to leave everyone else where they are. Rebecca and Bob know what they need to know in order to work with me. If we run into anything that's a problem we can approach Bob, carefully, with what information he needs to deal with that problem. We, meaning you, me, and Shannon, can experiment with this without too much trouble. We'll deal with anything else that comes up when or if it does." ------- Chapter 67: The Countdown Begins There's nothing quite like the last day of school. You've spent the whole year waiting for it to arrive, suddenly it's here and everywhere you look you see people crying at leaving. Not everyone of course; there are always, for example, the ones who can't wait to get to the first party of the summer. They will likely discover that it bears striking resemblance to the ones they've been attending practically every other weekend. Then there are those sad unfortunates for whom the last day of school heralds nothing more than a short recess before they have to come back and make up that class they just failed; the really sad cases in this group are the seniors that have to make up a class just to graduate. Then there are the seriously disturbed individuals, both male and female, for whom summer means taking extra classes and getting a jump on next year. The really scary thing about these twisted souls is that in a few years most of us are likely to be working for one of them. And then there were the college bound for whom this was just to be the first of many partings as they leave home and friends to venture into their futures. For me the last day of school was a bittersweet affair, my last day sharing lunch with three people whom I had come to admire and appreciate a lot in the last year. This was tempered somewhat by the knowledge that I would be sharing that same table with them again next year. Only then there would likely be another member of our little group. I hoped to be sitting next to Shannon at that table next year. Summer school was nothing I had to worry about, having gotten A's in all but one class. Social studies had been the only blemish on what was otherwise the best report card I had ever had. I considered it a personal victory having just managed to stay awake the entire year For the summer, Shannon and I were content to keep our relationship in the dark corner that it had lived, and thrived in all year. After all, if her parents found out what was really going on between us it would likely kill the summer. I doubt that they would allow her to spend nearly as much time at our house, especially without parental supervision. I personally was looking forward to having both my loves around the house, both in, and out of their bathing suits, all summer. Of course Mark would be around now and then but he was actually working part time now at one of the local fast food places. Most of his spare time was now being spent hanging out with his other friends playing video games or trying to pick up girls. He'd had a bit of a hard time this year adjusting to the fact that I had lost most of my interest in video games. The fact that I was interested in his sister took care of the rest. Fortunately he didn't even suspect just how interested we really were in each other. The girls were both apprehensive about my wanting to make it public knowledge in the fall. They felt that the current situation was working just fine and saw no need to rock the boat. We were still discussing it. For now we continued to be who we had always been. Shannon was my little sister's best friend, and I was just her best friend's big brother. Exactly how best friends they were was something we didn't want to get out either. Let's face it, if finding out about Shannon and I was a problem, finding out about her and Allison could be a disaster. And of course, since there must be balance in the universe there was a downside to summer vacation. In my case it was the king of all wet blankets; the last day of school meant that the countdown had begun. It was killing season. Somewhere out there was a madman who most likely already had his victim picked out and was waiting for the right moment to take her. He had a perfect record of success, not a single blemish or mark on it. He was three and oh; three perfect crimes, zero leads or clues. He had the hat trick, now it was up to me to keep him from trading it in for a grand slam. Yeah, I know, you shouldn't mix metaphors, especially sports metaphors. I was a little nervous, feeling, fearing rather, that I was in over my head. Let's face it; he held... most of the cards. We had no idea who he was, or where he was, and we only had the barest idea of who his next victim may be. The geographic area we had to work with was huge, and there was no guarantee that he was even in it. He'd already been out of state once. He could be anywhere. Even if the geography was right we could still be wrong in our choice of possible targets. Was there something we had missed in setting up our profile? Was there some tiny little thing that we had missed that would have him fishing in a different demographic pond altogether? I had brought all of this up to Rebecca. "Jimmy, that's just something you have to learn to live with. All we can do is all we can do. We give it our best effort and hope it turns out okay. You're right; there is every possibility that we still don't have the right girl. He, they, could be anywhere. In another state, I doubt if he would be in another country, but it's a possibility." "I don't think so," I said. "Really? Why not?" "Background images in the visions; street signs, billboards, things like that are all in English. The street signs in particular, stop signs and such, are American. And any visions that involve driving are on the right side of the road" "You know, you're getting really good at this. You could probably have a future in it if you wanted." "I don't think so," I said. I could see her starting to answer but I went on, "I mean, I could probably do the work, I am in a rather unique position to help. What I mean is I don't think I could deal with the hierarchy involved without risking someone finding out. And I can't take that chance. Too many people in that world would want to use what I can do. And if I didn't want to play along..." "Yeah. I guess... no, I know you're right. I guess we'll just have to stick to you being my ace-in-the-hole private source for special information. Think you could do that?" "I'll give it some thought. Right now, let's just see what we can do about catching this guy." Our ongoing experiments were paying off as well. On Bob's advice I had gotten a physical and then hooked up with a couple of physical trainers at night. It turned out Bob was right. My body reacted to the dream stimuli and within a few weeks the difference was noticeable. I had no interest in looking like a body builder so I toned down the regimen when we hit a certain point. The increased definition in my arms, chest and abs was kind of nice. Shannon really liked the new abs. She loved to lay next to me and run her hand up and down the new six pack, tracing over and around the muscle groups. She had a tendency to get carried away though so it quickly became just a new form of foreplay. I didn't mind. Allison, on the other hand, seemed fixated on my ass. Both wanted to know if there was any way I could get the whole dream workout thing to work for them. I pointed out that if it was going to work for them that it probably already would be. They both had to agree with me on that part. The other experiment was far more interesting. After prom night we immediately brought Shannon up to date on everything that had happened. With the expected results; she immediately started making plans for the future. Well, not really immediately. First she attacked both Allison and I and we pretty much killed that night as far as productivity went. Sunday we started working on experiments with overlapping realities. First we had to find a place to work. We decided the best place to start was in Shannon's dreams. Since Allison would be the one waking me up we wanted it to be some place we could leave her without problems. We went to that cabin she had retreated to when I was in the hospital. It was a place she had once gone to on a youth retreat years before and now she went there to relax, study, or even just to sit and think. Once we were in and settled, Allison left and woke me up. The first few times it didn't work. I woke up too quickly, no transition. We decided I was anticipating too much, so the next time she tried it she worked on making sure she didn't shock me awake. Shannon said she had just the thing to take my mind off of what Allison was doing. I should have known, but it did work. In fact it worked exactly as it had the first time. I went from being focused on what Shannon was doing to perceiving that Allison was doing the exact same thing. But their rhythms and techniques were different. Eventually I went from the dream with Shannon to being awake in the reality with Allison. But then she stopped! "Oh, do you have to stop?" She gave me a long lick and squeeze. "Probably not, but you need to tell me exactly what just happened. Then we need to see if we can do it again, only this time Shannon and I need to be doing different things just to see if we can duplicate it under different stresses. If that works then we need to see if you can make it last longer, the transition that is." "And how do I do that?" "Once you feel yourself starting to wake up, resist. Try to stay in the dream." "How?" She crawled up and kissed me, you know kissed me. "Find something to concentrate on. Something that will hold your interest; I'm sure you can think of something if you put your mind to it. If not, ask Shannon, I know she can come up with something. Now, cuddle me and let's get back to sleep." "Sure, like that is going to work," I muttered. It took a while but eventually we both got back to sleep. We decided to let Allison sleep a while before trying again. She did have school in the morning after all. No point in having her tired for school; with only one more week to go both girls were in the middle of finals. Shannon was very helpful in finding something for me to focus on. As soon as Allison was gone she decided it was time for a long, slow, intimate love making session, just the two of us. It had been a while since we had been able to spend any quality time together just the two of us. We were pretty involved by the time I started to feel Allison. At least she had decided on a different approach this time; a gentle back massage. I could feel her hands sliding up and down along the larger muscle groups along my spine. Shannon noticed the distraction and pushed me up. "Oh no you don't! You are not leaving me in the middle again. You are damn well going to finish what you started first." She rolled up to all fours. "Fuck me you big stud." Wow, Shannon swearing; this was serious. I entered her and began stroking with earnest. "You call that fucking? Harder. Here, maybe this will help." She flipped her hair back over her head and sort of gave a wiggle. I took the hint, grabbed her hair and started pounding into her. "Oh yes! More! Give it to me! Oh, God, Yes!" This was definitely a new twist for Shannon and I felt it was safe to say my concentration wasn't going anywhere else anytime soon. Wrong, it wasn't that easy. I could still feel Allison working on my back and she was starting to press harder. I could feel more of myself being drawn toward her. Suddenly something shifted and I was back in my bed with Allison, I could still perceive Shannon as well, but she was starting to fade. "No! Not now, don't go now!" she pleaded, squeezing herself around me and thrusting back against me. Quickly I grabbed Allison and rolled on top of her. I think she figured out what was coming and stopped me. "Wait, I'm not ready, in my mouth." I knelt and she quickly took me into her mouth and started working her tongue around my shaft, getting it as sloppy wet as she could, then she pulled back. "Okay, now." I was feeling Shannon better now but it still wasn't a good connection. I slid down between Allison's legs and she guided me in as best as she could without risking wiping off any of the lubricant she had applied. That was all it took. Suddenly I was doing the same thing in both places; not the same position but the same basic motion and it was like I was in both places simultaneously, neither here nor there. Having two girlfriends and even the many rounds of three-way playtime we had indulged in was nothing like what I was feeling now. I was literally making love to two girls at once. Two words; Fucking Incredible! When the end came it was just too much; simultaneous orgasm in two realities. That whole subconscious projection thing must have been running in high gear because both Allison in the real world and Shannon in the dream world, passed out. The big difference was that I passed out as well. It only lasted a second or two, just long enough to realize what had happened. I awoke to find myself sprawled across my sister's unconscious body. I was still inside her but things were fading fast and I was already sliding out. I pulled free and rolled next to her, spooning against her side and waiting for her to come back to herself. She took a sudden breath, her eyes fluttered and she let the breath out slowly, stretching her arms up to the headboard as she did. I gave her a gentle kiss on the arm closest to me so she would know where I was. When she relaxed back out of the stretch she rolled toward me, propping herself up on one elbow and draping the other arm over me. "I love it when you do that to me. So, let me guess and then you tell me if I'm right and fill in any blanks. Getting inside me allowed you to duplicate your basic motions on both sides at once, this allowed you to not have to concentrate on one or the other and you stayed, sort of, in both?" "Exactly. Before the physical world had more pull. Your back rub was drawing me back from Shannon even though I was more physically involved there. I almost slipped all the way back." "Bet Shannon wasn't happy about that. Me stealing you away twice in one night, I mean. I'll have to do something special for her. I'm thinking we can call this a success. Now we'll wait and see if it takes as much effort next time or if it gets easier." It did get easier but there was still a tendency to wake up unless I really worked at it; which was difficult, because the harder I tried to concentrate the more my mind wanted to wake up to do it. Out of deference to Shannon we found other things to do besides Allison stealing me away in the middle of sex. I didn't ask what Allison did to make it up to her, but apparently Shannon forgave her. As much fun as it was, Allison, ever the practical one, insisted we start experimenting with other things besides sex. It gradually became easier to keep my focus in the dream and still see in reality. My biggest success was actually getting up and getting a drink of orange juice from the refrigerator without waking up. That was a weird experience. The girls both finished the year with straight As and took great delight in rubbing in my one B at every opportunity. I informed them both that I would be expecting full apologies at the end of their freshman years unless they did better in that class than I did, not just the grade, they both had to go the entire year without falling asleep in class as well. Rebecca Everything I had told Jimmy was true. From here on out it was out of our hands. All we could do was hope that we had followed the right path and that somewhere in our target group was his next victim. I know that sounds bad, but the alternative, that he picked a different girl, was beyond bad. Even if he picked one of our target girls it could be days before we knew what happened. We were down to the wire and we couldn't afford to make any mistakes. Someone's life quite literally depended on it. "I don't know what else I can do, Rod." We were in his study after Sunday dinner sharing a brandy and going over everything one more time. "Missing persons' reports have a tendency to accumulate at the bottom of the to-do list in most departments." "That they do," he answered. He took a sip of his brandy and stared down into to the swirling amber liquid. "You've got what; twenty girls on your A-list, in how many cities?" "Seventeen cities. Most are in major Metro areas, you don't tend to get the kind of competition you need for that kind of talent in rural areas. But there are a few here and there." "Too many; your top ten, how many cities?" "Ten." "Not much better but at least it's a workable number. Of the top ten, any in rural areas?" "Just one, what are you thinking?" "I'm thinking we need to have someone keeping an eye on them." "No way, Rod, we can't risk it. For one thing, we don't have the available personnel. Besides, this bastard is too damn smart. If he smells trouble he may run and then we lose him completely. How long before he sets up shop somewhere else and does another girl? He's been in three cities hundreds of miles apart already. We didn't even know about any of them because they were single incident, isolated cases. We can't afford to lose him." "Lose him? Rebecca, he doesn't want you to lose him. Hell, he's been playing with you for over six months. I say he's going to hit somewhere close. If you don't have a chance to catch him then it's no fun for him. Why else would he be feeding you clues?" "He's not feeding me clues." "Bullshit! Now I'm tired of playing this game, Bex. You either tell me what the hell has been going on or this conversation is over. How do you know he's not your source?" "Because I've met my source and it can't be him." He stared at me for a second and then set his glass down on the desk. I sat patiently and waited for the explosion. It was worse than I expected. Rod leaned forward in his chair and growled, "What do you mean you've met your source?" I took a deep breath. "Just what I said." I held up my hand. "Rod, it can't be him." "Who is he?" "I can't tell you." He stared hard into my eyes. "Agent Hampton, do not play with me. Right this moment I am not your friend, I am your superior within this agency and I am not asking you to tell me, I am telling you." "Ask me why it can't be him." He blew! "Do not tell me what..." I blew back, "Ask me!" That shocked him enough to stop him. He sat back in his chair, folded his hands and stared at me. "Just ask me," I whispered. "Please." He picked up his brandy and downed the remaining liquor in one swallow. He grimaced as the fiery liquid burned its way down his throat then sucked in air to cool it. "Why can't your source be the killer?" "He's fifteen years old." His jaw dropped. He looked away and shook his head, then he did something I have never seen him do in all the years I have known him. He reached into the desk drawer, pulled out the bottle and poured himself a second drink, setting the bottle back in the drawer and closing it before he turned to me once more. "This had better be good. I want it all." "I can't give you much..." He started to lean forward but I put up a hand to stop him. "Rod, you don't understand the risk. The danger he could be in. Just wait a second." I reached in my pocket, pulled out my phone, hit a speed dial and waited. "Bob, it's me. I've got a problem." Rod's eyes got big but he didn't speak. "I'm at Rod's house. We've been talking about the case. I'm in a jam. I need you to assure him that what I have told him is true." Bob's voice sounded very flat when he answered, "That depends on what you have told him." "Don't sound like that, I haven't told him much. He's still convinced that my source is the killer and on the one hand that's good. But we're down to the wire and I need options. I told him my source couldn't be the killer, that he was fifteen years old and he could be in danger if... well, you know." "That's all you told him?" "Yes, that's all I've told him." I looked Rod in the eye. "That's all I'm going to tell him. That's why I need you. You need to convince him I'm telling the truth. I'm going to give him the phone now." I handed Rod the phone. Bob When my phone rang and I heard Rebecca's voice I thought it was just a routine call. That went out the window pretty much immediately. This was not good. "This is Samuel Rodriguez, deputy director, United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles Bureau. To whom am I speaking?" "Director Rodriguez, Rebecca speaks very highly of you. I've been looking forward to meeting you. I'm sorry it had to be this way. My name is Robert Shelby. Doctor Robert Shelby, actually, and everything Rebecca has told you is true. Before I say anything else let me say that the young man in question is a patient of mine and therefore I am very limited in what I can tell you without consulting him first." "Good evening, Doctor Shelby. Thank you for warning me in advance. What is the nature of your medical relationship with this fifteen year old boy?" "I am a licensed psychotherapist and he is a patient." "I see. So how much can you tell me?" "Not much more than you already know. My patient is a fifteen, well actually sixteen now, year old boy. He came to me some time ago for advice on... a concern he was having. He would not tell me anything about it until I agreed to take him on as a patient and could protect him legally. When he told me what was happening, I understood the nature of his concern immediately and I cannot stress enough that secrecy is the only thing preventing him from being in extreme danger; danger that could easily spread to others around him." "You can't be serious. You're aware of the nature of Agent Hampton's current case?" "I'm very serious. As to how aware I am of Rebecca's case, intimately. We talk about it quite a lot. Actually, I've known about it longer than she has." "Excuse me? You do realize how that sounds?" I don't think he was ready for what came next. I laughed. "Yes, actually I do. Except that the reason I've known longer is that he told me before he told her. It's a very bizarre tale, but I assure you, my word of honor, sir, that it is the truth." I got very serious after that. "It's been very hard on him. You can't begin to imagine. More than anything in the world he wants to stop this guy before he kills another girl." I took a breath. "We've spoken before you know?" "I thought your voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't pin it down." "Sunday morning late last year, before Thanksgiving; I was a little abrupt on the phone." "Yes you were; you told me someone named 'Jimmy' needed to speak to Rebecca. I recognized it as the name she said her source gave her to use. 'Jimmy' is your patient?" "Yes sir." "And he told Rebecca about all this in a dream." I was silent. Surely she hadn't told him... "Dr. Shelby?" "I'm here. How did you know that?" "She told me about it when she first got involved with the case. Wait a second. That's when she met you, the day after you called." "Actually, now that you mention it, yes, it was the day after we spoke. That was the first time; the only time in fact, she's ever actually met him. I just happened to be there at the same time." "And why were you there?" "Advice. It was a... difficult weekend. Things happened that had to be explained. Rebecca was part of the explanation." "Explained to whom?" "His parents." "His parents? What could she possibly have to explain to his parents?" "Why she needed his help. For some reason parents don't like the idea of their kids playing around with serial killers. That was also the day we found out about the second and third victims. There were other things I had to help explain to them as well. The most important of which is why no one can know about any of this." "His parents didn't know?" "There was no need for them to know. That's how important it is, Sam, until circumstances forced it, he couldn't even tell his parents. It's really that critical that no one know." "Why?" "Mr. Rodriquez, before I answer that I need your word of honor that you will never, ever, repeat a word of what we are about to discuss." "I beg your pardon?" "I need you, Samuel Rodriguez, to swear to me that you will not ever divulge what I'm about to tell you. Lives quite literally depend on it and I believe you will understand that before we are finished." "Very well. You have my word." "First let me tell you that the only reason I can even discuss this with you is because you have prior knowledge. Otherwise, it very much falls under doctor-patient privilege. That being said, how would you feel if a total stranger showed up in your dream and told you he needed your help to stop a serial killer?" "How would I feel? Are you serious? I wouldn't believe a word of it." "She didn't either, but he's very convincing. You wouldn't be a little freaked out about the fact that a total stranger walked into your dreams with enough information to convince you that it was really happening? Would that bother you at all? The idea that someone could walk into your very dreams, your most intimate, private, moments?" "When you put it that way, yeah, it probably would. Actually when you put it that way, it would bother the shit out of me." "Sam, it would bother the shit out of any rational human being." "And this puts him in danger?" "Sam, you work for the government." "Obviously." "If you were him and you could do those things, can you think of a single person in the government that you would trust with that information?" Silence; I waited. The empty seconds ticking by seemed to take forever, "Sam?" A soft voice came back, "Only one." "Really, I couldn't think of any, which one?" "The one I'm looking at. Doctor Shelby, Bob, since we're obviously on a first name basis here, you're right, and you've convinced me." I could hear him take a deep breath and let it out. "Listen, Bob, since we're such good friends and all now, how about coming to dinner next Sunday. My wife is dying to meet you. Hell, I've wanted to meet you. Uh-oh, listen don't answer that right now, I'm getting 'the look' from a lady I happen to know is armed. Just talk to her and if she says it's okay, show up. I have to go. And don't worry; short of torture, nothing could get me to repeat any of this." The line went dead. I hung up and dialed Jimmy's house. We needed to talk. No one answered. I was a little surprised considering it was a Sunday night. But then, it was summer break and there was no school tomorrow. I left a message on the house phone for him to call. Rebecca The look on Sam's face as he handed me the phone said it all. He was convinced. "So it's all real." I nodded. "I'm sorry, Sam. I couldn't tell you. I promised to help him keep his secret. Did you mean what you said when you told Bob I was the only one you would trust?" "Yeah, I did. I'm sorry I doubted you. But I don't think this gets us any closer to solving your current problem. You were right when you said we don't have the manpower to have these girls watched. Not without pulling people off of every other ongoing investigation on the west coast. The only thing I can suggest is that we need to tell a few people what's going on. I don't mean the rank and file. But the chiefs in the major metros could put the word out that attention needs to be paid to any missing persons reports that match your target group. All we need is to be advised immediately if someone goes missing. That would at least allow you to get on the trail before it got cold." "I don't want to give out the names. If anyone passed them down and started watching specific targets it might spook him. I can't afford to lose his trail and try to pick it up cold somewhere else. It could take years before we got this close again, if we ever did." "Couldn't your boy find him again? For that matter why hasn't he found him now?" "It's complicated. And forgive me for saying it, but you know too much already." "I gave my word, Bex." "I heard you, Rod, but if Washington called you in tomorrow and started asking questions? How far are you willing to go to keep it? Don't answer, I don't want to know, but think about it. Because your word in this case means you don't ask questions." "So how do you contact him?" "I don't. He calls me. I had Paul rig a cell phone to be untraceable, or as close as he can make it. I've only seen him the one time. He trusts me, Rod. That means a lot to me." "Get me a list of cities and I'll start working on a list of who I think we can talk to." That was something anyway. Now I needed to talk to Jimmy. I was sure Bob was already calling him. I hoped he would call, and I really hoped he would understand. I thought about calling Bob back but I really didn't want to try to explain this over the phone. One of the reasons Rod had made deputy director was because he had an unbelievable memory for stray facts. Along with an uncanny ability to turn random bits and pieces into something that made sense. I'd forgotten about telling him the details of Jimmy's first contact way back when this all started. It was before we met and before I agreed to keep his secret, but considering the stakes, that fact didn't make me feel any better. Jimmy We're not really a restaurant kind of family. If we're not cooking it ourselves we usually just order in Chinese or something. So we were all a little surprised when Dad announced that we were going out. Surprise turned to excitement when he announced that we were finally going to try out the new Aussie Steakhouse that had recently opened up over on what all the locals referred to as Restaurant Row. I'm happy to say it lived up to its press. The service was good and the food was better. And there was a lot of it. I think in the future Allison and I will just split something. It was all I could do to finish my steak. Allison didn't even try. It looked like we were probably having steak and eggs for breakfast. I don't know what was up with my dad; it was like he was possessed. After dinner he actually wanted to go over to the park and walk around for a while. When we got there Allison and I started lagging behind to give Mom and Dad some space. They hardly noticed, just walking off holding hands and pretty much forgetting about us. After a while we just stopped and let them go. The park isn't that big and you pretty much walk in circles so we decided to just hang out close to the parking lot and wait for them to come back around. We picked up some food for the ducks and looked for a place to sit. It was really nice to just sit and watch the ducks zip around in pursuit of the crumbs we tossed in the water. There was a message on the recorder when I got home, so I called Bob to see what was up. I got his voice mail so I left a message to tell him we could talk later. Allison and I spent the rest of the evening curled up on the couch reading. I called Bob as soon as I was asleep, Allison hadn't shown up yet but I was sure she would be along soon. Both the girls' keys were set so they could come to where I was as soon as they hit dream space no matter where they started. One of those little things we were keeping to ourselves. "Jimmy. Thanks for calling. I got a call earlier from Rebecca and..." My phone beeped. "Hold on, Bob. I think that may be her calling in." I hit the button and answered. "Rebecca?" "Hi, Jimmy, we need to talk. I had to call Bob earlier because..." "He's on the other line now, hold on." I hit the button and conferenced the calls. "Okay, why don't you both find a door and we'll talk. I'll meet you in the office." Allison walked in just as I hung up. "What's up? I figured we'd be at the beach." "I don't know. Both Bob and Rebecca called as soon as I got here." "You don't think..." she said, going a little white as she asked the question. I realized what she was thinking and got a sinking feeling in my gut. "I don't know. It never even occurred to me that it might be that. They'll be here in a second so we'll know soon enough." "No, it's not that. No one has gone missing yet," Rebecca said as she entered the office. Bob was behind her but something was wrong. I could see it in their body language. They weren't touching; they were close, but still not touching. I could almost see the tension in the air around them. Something had happened. "Then what's got you two so upset?" Allison asked. Bob answered her question with a question, "What makes you think we're upset?" "Oh please!" she replied. "I can see it on your faces, your body language, everything. The air around you is practically screaming that something is wrong." "It's my fault," Rebecca said. "Everybody sit down and I'll try to explain. I had a meeting with my boss earlier today." "Mr. Rodriguez?" Allison asked. "Yes, I had dinner with the family and we talked afterward. It's become sort of a ritual weekend event. I usually have dinner with Rod and Selena and the girls on the way back from seeing Amy." "How's she doing?" "She's doing... okay I guess. Anyway we were talking about the case and what could be done to try and keep a lid on things without blowing it up. We can't have the girls watched because we can't risk scaring him off. That and we just don't have the manpower. And missing person's reports tend to move really slowly, it could be days before we even know anyone is missing, a week before the news got back to us. I mentioned what Jimmy said about the possibility that the killer may even be in another state, or that he might bolt if he thinks something is wrong. Rod said that he couldn't be far away and that he wouldn't just run. He said if he wanted to do that he wouldn't have been feeding me clues and information all year. I told him that the killer hadn't been feeding me clues. That got us into an argument about my source. He pinned me down, wanted to know about my source and he wasn't taking no for an answer. I had to tell him that I'd met my source and he couldn't be the killer." She glanced at me to see my reaction. I'm sure she saw what she expected. I was starting to feel a little nervous, but I was watching Bob's reaction and it was obvious he wasn't happy. She only hesitated for a second before moving on. "As you can imagine he was really pissed at that. He ordered me point blank to tell him about you. I told him I couldn't, and it started to get ugly. I distracted him by telling him to ask me why my source couldn't be the killer. He took the bait and I told him you, my source that is, couldn't be the killer because you were only fifteen." I felt my face get red and I could see the tension go up in Bob's face. "I knew that wouldn't be enough, that he would keep pushing and I would have no choice but to either tell him everything or refuse to answer. I threw him a bone and gave him something else he wanted. I gave him Bob. I called him and asked him to convince Rod that I was telling the truth. They talked and Bob convinced him." Allison looked at Bob, "What? She told him her source was fifteen. She didn't give him any names or anything." "He already knew more than he should. He knew your name and that you spoke to her in dreams." She looked back at Rebecca for explanation. "Back when you first bridged me and I started looking into the case I had to tell him about the dream and where I got the name. He blew it off as me getting scammed by the killer. I told him what you told me, that I should call you Jimmy but that it wasn't your real name. Rod has an incredible memory. As soon as he and Bob started talking things started coming out. He knows when we met, that I met your parents and Bob that same day. He knows now that I know where you live." "Well that part is not reassuring," Allison responded, "but other than that you didn't..." She looked at Bob. "She didn't tell him anything that he didn't already know. The only difference is that now he believes her. Is that what this is about, Mr. Shelby? You think she betrayed our trust, your trust and told him about Jimmy?" He didn't answer. "If that's it then you're not being fair. Everything she told him happened before we met, before the two of you met, before she even knew how serious all this was. The only thing that is different is that now he believes. Which means that he's accepted that Jimmy really can do what she said he did, and that's one more person who knows, but it's not horrible. She didn't do anything wrong, Bob. She tried her best not to tell him anything." He looked back. "That's not it." He gave Rebecca a look and suddenly I knew what it was. "You're angry with yourself because you doubted her," I said. "That's it, isn't it? She called you for help and you thought she'd betrayed us." He sat for second just staring at me then dropped his eyes and nodded. When he looked up again it was at her. "Rebecca, I'm sorry... I..." She stepped over to him and put a finger to his mouth. "Shhh." She moved her hand to cup his face. "I understand, and it's okay." She knelt in front of him and hugged him. "I don't blame you for thinking that when I called. What's important is that you don't believe it now. I was so afraid that you would think that, but you didn't, not really. You doubted for second, but you did your best to help. You found out the truth and now you don't doubt me. It's okay, Bob. I would have done the same thing." She took his face gently in her hands and kissed him. Bob hugged her back and the kiss grew, I think I heard someone whisper, "I love you," in there somewhere. I glanced at Allison and she had the biggest smile on her face. She turned to look at me and nodded towards them. I sent them to the cabana so we could talk. "What do you think?" she asked. "Well, I'm not happy about someone else knowing, especially someone higher up in a government agency, but..." "But it could have been a lot worse and she really didn't tell him much that he didn't already know. Do you think we can trust him?" "Rebecca does. That means a lot." "Yes it does. Maybe you should talk to him." "I was just thinking that. Want to come along?" "You mean now? How, we don't know him." "I saw him at Rebecca's office and in the dream at the bank. I think I can reach him." "Hmm, and you were him in that little production we did for Paul. Okay, what's the plan?" "No real plan, just go see him." I closed my eyes and it was like a window opened in my mind. "He's fishing, a place he used to go with his father, now he goes there to think and unwind. What would you rather be? My dog or a mermaid?" She slipped into my arms, kissed me and whispered, "Make me your bitch, you bad, bad, boy." I just rolled my eyes, kissed her and snapped the collar around her neck. Suddenly a large golden retriever was licking my face. I picked up my rod and tackle box, put on my dream face, the one I had manufactured for Samantha was now pretty much my standard, and headed for the elevator. Allison ran ahead, jumped up, pushed the button, and then barked for me to hurry up. When the doors opened I let her go ahead of me and she sat down patiently. As soon as the doors closed she jumped up and started humping my leg. "Down girl! Behave yourself." She dropped down, turned to face the wall and sat down, pointedly ignoring me. "You're supposed to be a dog, not a cat," I reminded her. The doors opened and we exited near a small pond. A man sat in a lawn chair watching a small red and white bobber float around the lake. Allison ran ahead and started licking his hand and rubbing up against his leg. "Princess, stop that! Sit." She obediently sat down but kept wagging her tail and rubbing her head against his hand. Rod scratched her ear as he turned to look at me. "Sorry about that." "No harm done. Pretty well trained for her age." "I spoil her, so she tries to stay on my good side. Any bites?" "Nothing so far, but then I didn't really come here to fish. You must be Jimmy." "That obvious?" "No one ever comes here but my dad and me, and he hasn't been here in years." "Do you miss him?" "Of course I miss him. We had some good times here. There were six of us, my brother didn't like to fish and the girls quit coming when he started making them clean their own fish, thought it was too icky, so it was the one place we could go where I had him all to myself." "How long has it been?" "Not exactly how I thought this conversation would go. Ten years. He and my mother were killed by a drunk driver coming home from my sister's house after Sunday Dinner." "I'm sorry for your loss. I figured you would have questions?" "Not a lot. I trust Rebecca more than I trust anybody else on this earth. If you convinced her... I thought you were fifteen, you look older." "Sixteen actually, Mr. Rodriguez, I don't look anything like this at all. Too many people know what I can do already. I wouldn't want to pass you on the street and have you recognize me. Besides, what you don't know, no one can make you tell. This is a composite of several different people. I use it when I have to talk to someone. When Rebecca first met me I looked like Paul." "She told me. Said you walked into her office bold as brass and told her you needed her help to catch a killer. If you can do all this why do you need her?" "I'm a sixteen year old kid. I have no authority in the real world. What could I possibly do?" "I don't know. I don't know what your limitations are. You're already doing the impossible. Why can't you just tell her who he is and where to find him?" He was really shocked when Allison answered, "And what would you charge him with? There was no physical evidence at all found at any of the crime scenes. You have nothing to link him to any of the killings." He looked at me. "You do ventriloquism in real life too?" "It's not ventriloquism. She decided on the dog disguise rather than the mermaid." "You mean there's a real person in there?" "Very real, she helps me here and there. She's one of the smartest people I've ever met. Mostly she keeps me out of trouble." "Is that a big job?" he asked, looking down into her big brown eyes. "Keeps me busy. You going to answer my question?" "You're right; knowing who did it wouldn't help without proof. But why can't you tell Rebecca who he's after so she can be ready for him." "Because I can't reach him directly, not like this anyway; for some reason he's different. Most people I can bridge without effort, but not him." "Most people." "I have to know enough about them. You for instance. I got enough from Rebecca's dreams to... I don't know; locate you I guess is a good word. Anyway it was enough to open up a path to get to you. I can't get to him. There are a few others I can't reach but for most, even casual acquaintance is enough." "Then how did you find out about all this?" "I guess you really did come here to fish," Allison said before I could answer. "Rebecca already told you that." This was her way of telling me to watch what I said. "Sorry, I'm professionally suspicious. She said you spoke to Amy. Now that's a neat trick considering her circumstances." "Amy is a very special case. The normal rules don't seem to apply to her." "Ever consider maybe she and the killer have something in common?" Suddenly Allison sat up very straight and her ears went up. I could see we were going to have something to discuss after we were done here. "I'll have to give that some thought, but it does offer a possibility. Is there anything else I can do for you, Mr. Rodriguez?" "Not unless you want to tell me who you really are." "I don't think that would be a good idea. The less you know, the safer it is for everyone involved." "Then I guess not, I just have to kind of come to terms with the whole thing. The impossible takes a little getting used to." I stood and reached out my hand, when he stood up and shook it I said, "Sounds like you need someone to talk to. Maybe he can help." I nodded toward the trees not far away. He let go of my hand and turned to see an older man getting out of a battered old pickup. By the time he turned back we were gone. Not really gone but as far as he was concerned we might as well have been. Allison was back to normal standing beside me but no one else could see either of us. "Pappy?" Rod said, disbelief evident in his voice. "Hello son. You must have got here early. Say, you better do something before your pole gets away." Rod turned back to the lake to see his pole straining against the stand as out on the water the little red and white bobber danced back and forth across the surface of the pond. He lunged for the pole as the stand fell over, grabbed it and looked around to see where we had gone. "Bet I know what you're thinking," Allison said. We were back at the office by now. "Just wishing that I hadn't sent Bob and Rebecca away so soon. I'd like to bounce some thoughts off of him." "Yeah, about why you can't bridge the killer. You really think that's it? Some kind of mental illness that's blocking you from reaching his subconscious." "Specifically, I'm suddenly wondering if he's schizophrenic and that's why I can't reach him. His mind is so fragmented and compartmentalized that I can't reach it the normal way." "Call him." "You don't think it may be too soon?" "He's not you and she is definitely not me or Shannon. I think there's a good chance they didn't even take their clothes off." "I wouldn't bet on it," Shannon said, walking in the door. "You are talking about Bob and Rebecca, right?" She looked normal but just like with Bob and Rebecca, some indefinable something was screaming "wrong" at me. What the hell was happening tonight? Allison obviously saw it too. "Yeah, but we'll get back to that," Allison said. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, why?" she asked. Her face betrayed her and Allison wouldn't let up. "Don't give me that, something's wrong." Shannon's already upset face crumbled and she burst into tears. Allison rushed to her side and hugged her as she began to weep uncontrollably. I was quickly on the other side and suddenly the couch was behind us. I pulled us all down and together Allison and I tried to calm her down enough to tell us what was wrong. Eventually it came out. "My dad has cancer." Suddenly I could feel tears pressing forward as well. I pressed hard and they went away. Allison wasn't having as much luck with hers and I figured two of us in tears were quite enough for now. I slipped down to kneel between them as Allison sniffled and Shannon sobbed. It took a while but they eventually slowed down enough to talk coherently. "When did he find out?" I asked quietly. "Yesterday, well today really; he went for his physical yesterday and his doctor sent him for tests. They got the results this afternoon. He has prostate cancer." "I'm sorry, Shannon," I said. "What did the doctors say?" "He has to start radiation and chemo immediately. They're rushing the paperwork through to get him started." She started to sob gently again. Allison hates to cry and I guess she'd decided it was time for a little tough love, "Stop it. Shannon, you stop that right now. He's not dead yet, you can't give up on him like this. He's going to need you to be strong and encouraging." "I know," she said with a sniffle. "I didn't do this when they told us, I didn't." She wiped her eyes before continuing, "I wanted to, oh how I wanted to just run to my room and throw myself on the bed like a little girl. But I didn't, I just sat there and asked him how long until he was cured." "Good girl," I said, kissing her forehead. "But when I went to bed, I couldn't hold it back. That's why I'm so late. I pretty much cried myself to sleep and it took forever. Then you..." she shoved Allison gently with her shoulder, "have to go and get me started again." "Only because I love you. I hope you'll do the same for me someday. You don't have to hide your feelings from us, sweetie, not ever." "I know," she said, suddenly hugging us both. "Thanks guys. So what did I miss?" "Not much. Rebecca's boss knows about Jimmy." "What? Rebecca told him?" "Yes and no," I said. "She told him about me visiting her in a dream back when all this started. He didn't believe it so we just left it alone. They were talking about the case and he got on her about her source, actually ordered her to tell him. Well, she dodged the bullet by having him talk to Bob and explain why she couldn't tell him. We went to see him earlier and I think we'll be okay. He understands the risks to Jimmy and that he can't really be the killer. You should have seen his face when the dog started answering questions." "You were a dog?" "No, I was," Allison said. "What kind? Never mind. So what's up with Bob and Rebecca? Why were you talking about them when I got here?" "Something Mr. Rodriguez said when we were talking. I wanted to talk to Bob about it but I thought maybe we might be interrupting something. I sent them to the cabana before we went to see Rebecca's boss. They were making up." "You mean making out, like right there in front of you?" "No, making up, but it looked like it was headed that way so I moved them." "Well, either way as long as you call first I'm sure everything will be all right. They're still in your dream so they can have everything looking tidy before we get there." I called and Rebecca assured me it was safe. We were surprised to find them playing backgammon at the table on the beach. "What's up, kids?" Bob asked as we all came up out of the changing tent. "I needed to talk to you about something Mr. Rodriguez said." Chairs had appeared for the rest of us. Rebecca perked up. "You went to see Rod?" "Yeah, I figured he might have questions. Seems like a nice guy. I did him a favor before I left. Anyway, we were talking and he asked why I couldn't just tell you who the guy was after so you would be ready for him. We talked back and forth about how different people seem to be outside the normal rules; when I mentioned Amy in particular seemed to exist outside the rules he asked if maybe the two might have something in common. It was like someone slapped me. Allison too, her ears popped up like they were on springs." They both looked at me funny. "I was a dog at the time," she said. "Like this." Suddenly she was a dog again, complete with collar and a little tag that said, "Princess." She started rubbing her head against Shannon's hand. Shannon scratched her ear and she laid her head in her lap and wagged her tail. "You're even pretty as a dog, Allison." Bob said. "So you think mental illness or some other mental disorder, like Amy's coma, may be a natural barrier to you?" "Sort of, but then I got to thinking. You know how I started getting flashes that seemed to be directly from him? I'm wondering if I can reach one persona but not the other. You know, like one is actually a subconscious projection so it doesn't have dreams I can reach, but the other does. Does that make any sense to you?" "Yes, it does. It's something I wondered about when you first started having the new visions but I didn't want to say anything because it was such a stretch. I didn't want to color your perceptions one way or the other." "The guy in the cell," Shannon said. We all turned to look at her. Allison's ears stood up as she pulled her head back off Shannon's lap. "What?" Bob asked. "In Jimmy's dreams, one of the visions was of a guy locked in a cell. He kept saying things like, 'he's going to do it again' and 'I'm the only one that can stop him.' Stuff like that. I'm not a psyche major or anything but could that be one of the personalities, trapped and trying to get out?" Allison said, "I love you," which was very interesting coming from a dog, then she jumped up and started licking Shannon's face. I guess that's the doggy version of showering her with kisses. "Princess, sit!" I said. She sat back down then stuck her long red tongue out at me. I didn't know you could do a raspberry with dog lips but she managed. "You have to sign up for my class," Bob said. "That sounds very likely indeed. That explains a lot.' He stood up and started pacing the sand. "This is what I think is happening; the flashes are just that, flashes in the dark. I think what's happening is that somewhere one of the alternate personas is applying pressure and somehow allowing you to see. That's why they are so intermittent. Most of the time he is just locked up and ineffectual, but when he starts exerting himself, he comes close enough to the surface for Jimmy to reach him." "The Man in the Iron Mask?" the dog asked. Bob snapped his fingers. "Yes! That would explain it. The alternate person is in control. The primary consciousness is locked away. And that's why you can't find him. You can't read the secondary persona. If he dreams at all it's not the same as a normal person's dream. The way you are changing and growing you may be able to someday, I certainly wouldn't rule it out, but for now, you can't touch him unless the primary can force a way through." He thought for a second. "I hate to say it but I think that is going to get harder as he gets closer to striking and especially once he's taken the girl." "Why do you say that?" Rebecca asked. "I think his control will get better as he gets more focused," Bob answered. We all just stared at him for and eventually the dog said, "Shit." ------- Chapter 68: Showtime Rebecca "Hampton." I answered the phone on the third ring. I would have gotten to it sooner but I was distracted reading a case file. It was just background on one of the cases currently ongoing in the office. I tried to keep up just in case I got called in to assist. "Special Agent Rebecca Hampton?" "That's me, who's this." "Ms. Hampton, this is Sheriff Dobbs with the Fresno County Sheriff's Department. I just got a missing person's call that fits the profile you asked us to watch for." My heart lurched at the sudden surge of adrenaline. I slapped the folder closed and grabbed for a notepad. "Thank you for calling, Sheriff. What do you have?" "A young lady by the name of Elizabeth Street didn't come home last night. Actually her car came home but when she didn't show up at breakfast her parents checked her room and she wasn't in it. They called us, and I've got a deputy out on site right now. I'm sure it's probably just routine but I thought I'd better call you just in case. Miss Hampton, is there anything going on we need to know about?" Fresno. Shit! That was a five hour drive. If I could fly I could be there in three but then I'd have to use a rental. "Sheriff Dobbs, it is imperative that what I am about to tell you stay under wraps until we are sure. Is your line secure?" I grabbed my cell phone out of the desk and sent a text to Paul. "Grab your bag. It's show time." "Yes ma'am. I'm calling on my private line in my office with the door closed and I am alone. Is it really that bad?" "Elizabeth Street is in the top ten on a list of potential targets for a serial case I'm working on. She fits the profile of all three previous targets. Do you have a CS unit in your department?" "We're not completely in the dark ages here, Agent Hampton, although I usually wouldn't send them out on a missing persons. They're a little busy right at the moment. We had an officer shot last night and they're going over the area." "That's okay, Sheriff. If it's my boy they wouldn't find anything anyway." "Excuse me? Agent Hampton, I resent..." "I'm not trying to belittle your personnel or their abilities, Sheriff, but this guy has killed three times and not left a single piece of physical evidence behind." "Then how do you know they were even related? I think I'd have heard about something like this going on in my back yard." "Not likely, the girls were in locations much too far apart to be connected. But the crimes are too identical for it to be coincidence. As to how we know they're connected, I'm not at liberty to discuss that. Hold on a second..." Paul was just coming into the office; he had a small duffle bag over his shoulder. I waved him to a seat. "This may all be nothing, Sheriff, but I need everything you can find out about where this girl was last night. My partner and I are leaving now, call me back with whatever you find out and they'll forward you to my cell phone. If you can spare the time, have your man dust the girl's car. I don't expect him to find anything but you never know when you might get lucky." "Shit. I'll get you what I can. I'm serious about my CS team being tied up; any chance you can bring someone with you?" "I'll see if I can get someone over there from Sacramento or San Francisco. Thanks for calling, Sheriff. I know it's a lot to ask, but try to keep a lid on this if you can. If it turns out to not be my guy I don't want to tip him off that we're on to him." "Anything else?" he asked in voice dripping with sarcasm. "Not unless you've got car I can use. Then I can fly up. Save a couple hours driving time. Otherwise, just call me right away if anything else comes up." "I'll have a car for you at the airport. Keys will be in the security office." I was more than a little shocked at the offer. Most locals don't like us poking our noses into their back yards. "Thank you, Sheriff. That's very generous of you. I'll see you in a couple hours." Rod was standing in my door by the time I hung up. I gave him the run down as I gathered up my necessities and then Paul and I were in the elevator. Eleanor, Rod's secretary and right hand was already on the phone to get us a flight out of Burbank. LAX was geographically closer but you never know what traffic is going to be like around the airport. The 405 is an iffy freeway at the best of times. Burbank is a nice place to fly out of if you can find a flight that meets your needs and don't have a problem boarding the old fashioned way, meaning outdoors rain or shine. Even on a busy day, they got you through security in reasonable time. Parking could be a problem. The airport itself demanded premium rates but there were several places that took advantage of that to offer extra services for comparatively reasonable prices. Just give them your flight information and they would make sure your car was washed and ready when you got back, and shuttle you back and forth, all for a fee that only seemed excessive rather than exorbitant. We had barely cleared the parking lot when she called with the bad news. No one flies direct from Burbank to Fresno. The best you could get had a stop in San Francisco and estimated flight time of over three hours combined, plus a layover. Out of LAX, United could have us on the ground in just over an hour flight time plus taxi at both ends. She gave us the terminal and gate information and said she would have someone meet us at the curb to take us through. We made the plane with ten minutes to spare. Two uniforms met us at the curb. I left my keys in the ignition, grabbed my travel bag from the trunk and followed the other uniform through the terminal. I called Rod and told him we were airborne and my phone would be off. LA to Fresno in June is bit of a traumatic climate change. LAX is right on the coast. The temperature difference alone was over thirty degrees. And there is a big difference between a breeze coming in off the ocean and a city landlocked by agriculture. I felt like I was melting before we got to the car but there was no place for the sweat to go with the extra humidity. Eleanor had called Sheriff Dobbs with the flight information. I was surprised to find him waiting at the gate for us when we landed. I was also surprised to find that Dobbs was a fifty-ish man in excellent shape. The name and voice had conjured up the image of an overweight country stooge waiting for his retirement. A lot of top brass wore suits. Dobbs wore the uniform and it was obvious he wore it proudly. He looked like he just stepped off a beat somewhere to meet us. I shook his hand and introduced Paul. "I'm surprised to see you here in person, Sheriff." "You asked me to keep this quiet. If I have to explain to a uniform why he had to pick up the FBI at the airport, how long do you think it would take to get out?" "I see your point. Have I missed anything important while I was in the air?" "Parents say she went out with friends last night, said she'd be home by midnight or call. She's always been good about being home when she said so they didn't think anything of it. Her car was in the driveway when they got up. She runs in the mornings so she gets up early. She was supposed to be to work at eight o'clock this morning and when she hadn't shown up by six thirty they started to worry. She runs parts for one of the local shops and she dresses up to thrill the mechanics. Only parts girl I ever heard of that makes tips. Anyway, her mom knocked on her door and when she didn't answer she looked inside. The bed hadn't been slept in so she called us. I left instructions with the department that I was to be personally notified of any and all missing persons calls until further notice." "Didn't they want to know why?" He smiled. "Of course they did. Fortunately around here, 'because I said so' still means something." He laughed. "Assholes called me on a missing dog and emailed on a cat that missed his bedtime." "Sounds like you run a pretty tight ship here, Dobbs. You're a credit to the uniform." "Thank you. CS says they'll have someone free by the time we get there. I've taped off the whole house and yard until you get there. We cleared a path in and out through the neighbor's yard to their back door. No one in or out any other way, until you say so." "Do the other Sheriffs know you play nice with feebies?" Paul asked. "Fuck 'em. We're all on the same team. I don't care who makes the big plays as long as we win. Be a shame if this girl died because I was worried about you hurting my feelings. You're in the Black Marquis. There's a light in the glove box, but I imagine you don't want to draw a crowd if we can avoid it. I'll lead you in. Key's on the visor." We arrived at the house shortly after 1:00. Not bad considering I'd only known about the case for four hours. The girl had been missing less than 24 and I was already at the crime scene. I had to wonder how much different the world would be if every missing persons case got this kind of attention. It was a nice quiet neighborhood. The lawns all nicely mowed and struggling not to turn brown in the summer heat. The houses ran in three or four different floor plans and almost every yard had at least one good sized tree in it; a planned community that had grown up. Even money said there was a park not more than a couple blocks away. The house across the street had a real estate sign in the front yard proclaiming its availability. A cable van was parked down the street and the driver was on a ladder checking connections. A dark skinned woman with arms bigger than Dobbs's, hair cut short, wearing 'cop glasses' and carrying what looked like a tackle box walked towards us as we came up the sidewalk. "Sheriff," she said. "Good afternoon, Helen. Sorry to pile on the work today. This is kind of a special case. This is Special Agent Hampton of the FBI and her partner, Agent Freeman. You will be working directly with them on this case. You are at their disposal until further notice. Any and all conversations are strictly confidential. You are not to repeat or discuss anything you may hear. Also, Agent Hampton has sole discretion on what is done with anything you collect." She whistled and said, "That's not going to make Armstrong happy." "I'll deal with him when the time comes. Agent Hampton, Helen Ford, she's all yours." "Nice to meet you, Ford. How'd you come out on the shooter?" She shot a startled glance at Dobbs. "It's okay, Helen. I don't care about what you tell her, just about what she tells you. I already told her why you were tied up this morning." "We know where he was, what he was firing, and that he is fucking good with a rifle, other than that we got pretty much nothing. No footprints, no fingerprints, no shell casings, nothing. He might as well have flown in, shot Joey and flown out again." "Any idea as to why?" I asked. Hey, a cop got shot, a friend of theirs. I wasn't going to blow it off just because it wasn't part of my case. What do you think I am, CIA? "None," Dobbs answered. "Henderson is new to the force. He hasn't had time to make those kinds of enemies. He was shot while finishing up after a routine traffic stop. Another few seconds they wouldn't have gotten him. He was waiting for a semi to go by before walking out street side to get in his car. Trucker said he suddenly jerked and went down. Driver was a vet. He'd seen men get shot before so he knew what he'd just seen. Slammed on the brakes, stopped the truck between Henderson and his best guess where the shot had come from, then climbed out the passenger side to check on Henderson. Joey was down and not moving. Driver called it in on the car radio. Took the shotgun out of the rack and dragged him behind the car so he could do basic first aid. It was a clean shot, in and out. Soft spot on the shoulder, just missed the collarbone. He was only out because he hit his head when he went down. Driver did what he could then settled in to guard him until help arrived." "Only one shot?" Paul asked. "Just the one. I talked to him this morning in the hospital. He said he never heard the shot." Paul gave me a look and asked where this all took place. Dobbs looked hard at Paul for a second. "You're not thinking this was a diversion to get to the girl, are you?" "Just speculation, Sheriff. It may be coincidence. How far away was it?" "Shit. Four, maybe five miles tops." "And I'll bet every cop on this side of town burned rubber to get there. What time was it?" "Eleven thirty," He answered in a voice suddenly hot with anger. "God dammit! Easy's always home by midnight. Fucker shot my boy to get his hands on her. Ford, you didn't hear any of this. You hear me? I hear one word; I'll know where it came from. Let's get to work." I filed Dobbs's use of Elizabeth's nickname away for future consideration and got to work. We started with the car. It had prints all over it, except on the driver's door. The area where you would normally put your hand to close the door was blank. No prints at all. Ford was good at her work, I'll give her that. She collected several hair samples and a used condom from the back seat. I doubt it would do us any good. Looking at it, it had been there for a very long time. The trunk had the usual tools for changing a tire and a duffle bag with a complete set of toiletries, a complete change of clothes consisting of jeans, t-shirt, socks and two changes of underwear. We had just closed the trunk when a woman screamed. We all spun in search of the sound when it came again. There was beige Ford Explorer with real estate placards on the doors, and a compact sedan parked across the street. I remembered seeing the two cars pull up but my brain had written them off as normal. Suddenly the front door burst open and round woman of about fifty came running out. "Help, somebody call the... Sheriff! Sheriff, come quick she's not moving." Ford dropped her collection box and the four of us, guns out, ran across the street. A young woman was ushering a small boy out the front door. If he was her son then he was close to having a baby brother or sister to play with. She bustled the boy out to the car and the two of them got in. He in the back seat; she in the passenger side front. That meant there was at least one more civilian in that building. The real estate agent intercepted us before we got to the door. "She's in the master bedroom, Sheriff. End of the hall on the right. My client is a paramedic and he says she's alive. "Anyone else inside?" I asked. "No one." I put my gun away. "Better call an ambulance, Dobbs. Ford, go get your toy box and let's see what we can find. How long has the house been empty?" "About a month. He was killed in Europe while he was on business. They only had the one little boy and she took him with her to her mother's house up in Lodi. We just got the listing a few weeks ago. We made it through the front door; the entryway was tile. We stopped there and waited for our eyes to adjust to the reduced light before proceeding down the hall. I figured we might as well let the guy know we were coming. "Federal officers. Sir, please do not move. We'll be right there." We were waiting for Ford to show up with her box and clear us a path to the girl. She handed out rubber gloves and those little paper slip covers for our shoes. "I doubt this is going to do any good, we've already had three adults and a kid roaming through the house. I'd like to talk to the agent before we move and see if we can determine the route they took before we go further." "Can I come out?" "Not yet, sir. How's the girl?" "Seems to be sedated. I've only touched her enough to verify she's okay but it'd have woken her up if she was just a sleep. Besides, I don't see how she could sleep like this." "What do you mean?" "She's bound up pretty loosely, but it's still an unnatural position, wouldn't be comfortable. Most people don't sleep well if they're not comfortable. Besides, there's a difference between unconscious and asleep." He had point there. Unconscious and asleep look very different. It's a subtle difference to be sure, but if you've been around enough, you learn to tell the difference. Experience makes all the difference. You cross a hurdles like that in this business. Like when you can tell a dead body from an unconscious one without checking the pulse. Dobbs brought in the agent and she pointed out how they had moved around the house. They had started with the kitchen because if the woman doesn't like the kitchen you're not going to sell the house. It's a quick way to qualify your buyer and see if you're wasting your time. The kid had been into everything, opening cabinets, playing with the back door. The kitchen passed inspection and since they were that close she took them out back to see the yard next. Then they came back in and she started down the hall. The master bedroom door had been closed so they did that room last. When she opened the door she found the girl, screamed, and rushed out. That pretty much settled it. They'd tracked over the whole house, including bringing in dirt from the back yard. I could see Ford losing hope as the woman went on. She'd still do her job but there was not much chance she was going to find anything. "Go ahead and go in, the hallways going to be a total loss by now; the carpeting has had plenty of time to relax and then they all traipsed through. No chance of picking up a residual footprint pattern." We proceeded down the hall to find a man in his early thirties kneeling next to Elizabeth Street. The girl was lying on her side and it was instantly obvious what he meant. No one sleeps with their arms behind them taped from elbow to wrist. Her shoulders were going to hurt like hell when she woke up. Her legs were taped over her jeans at the knees and ankles. There was more tape over her mouth, but she was breathing easily. Ford took a couple pictures, then had the man ID any spots he'd touched. More pictures once he was out of the way then she started dusting the tape for prints. Why was I not surprised when she didn't find any? She took a pair of scissors and very carefully cut the tape away, starting with her ankles. She took care to get it off in one piece, working slowly to make sure the surfaces and edges were as intact as possible. She bagged each piece separately for examination in the lab later. Street never moved, not even when she peeled it off of her arms. You ever pull a piece of duct tape off your arm? I'm a tear it off quick kind of girl. Most people are if given a choice. Yeah it stings but it's over quick and then it goes away. Ford peeled it off little by little and my arms hurt just watching it. When she got the piece around her mouth and head she cut it next to the jaw and laid it out so she could try and peel as much of the girls hair free as possible without cutting any of it. The ambulance showed up while she was working on the hair and waited for her to finish. I think one of them knew the girl. He was kind of jumpy and nervous the whole time and kept glancing from her to us. When Ford had everything she could get, including scrapings from under the girl's nails, she let them take her. Dobbs told the paramedics to tell the hospital that he wanted a full rape kit done. We left Ford to her work and went to tell her parents the good news. They were huddled on the front porch with her younger sister, probably fearing the worst. I was pretty sure we weren't in danger of disturbing anything but I let Dobbs lead us around through the neighbor's yard to the back door anyway. My head was starting to hurt from all that was going on. I had a gut feeling that this was our guy, but it made no sense. He had taken her in his usual style, no witnesses, no evidence. Yet he had gone out of his way to attract attention. If Paul was right about the shooting, then it really made no sense. Unless... Suddenly I had a bad feeling about this. Mrs. Street burst into tears and hugged Dobbs when he announced that Elizabeth was alive. The little sister hugged her daddy and I made it a point to ignore the moisture in his eyes. "She's okay as far as we can tell," Dobbs said. "I'm having her taken to the hospital so they can check her out and keep an eye on her until she wakes up." He glanced at me and I took the cue that it was my turn at bat. "Mr. and Mrs. Street, is there some place we can talk privately?" I glanced at the little girl. She couldn't be much more than ten. I definitely didn't want her to know what had just happened. If I was right, it no longer mattered if anyone knew we were here, but there was no point in scaring her any more than necessary. "Molly," Mr. Street said, prying his daughter off of his leg, "why don't you go clean up and then we'll head over to the hospital and pick up Lizzy, okay? Go on. We need to talk to the detectives before we go." When the girl was gone he came back to me. "You're not detectives are you?" "No sir," I answered, reaching out my hand. "Special Agent Hampton, FBI. This is my partner, Agent Freeman." "What's going on here, ma'am? Don't get me wrong. I appreciate your being here and everything you've done, but I watch the cop shows and they don't even take a missing persons report until they've been gone for twenty four hours." "Maybe we should sit down," Mrs. Street offered. We all took chairs around their kitchen table. "Thank you. The first thing I have to do is ask you not to repeat anything that we are about to discuss. Excuse me," I turned to Dobbs. "Can you put someone with Elizabeth at the hospital; I don't want anyone besides the doctor near her until I talk to her." He nodded and I turned back to the parents. "My partner and I are tracking a very bad person. He has killed three girls that we know of over the last three years. Your daughter fits the profile for his targets." "How closely?" Mr. Street asked. "She was in my top ten of potential targets." He got angry. "Then why the hell wasn't someone protecting her? Why weren't we told?" "The geographic area that we are watching covers all of California, Arizona, and Nevada, Mr. Street. There aren't enough officers to watch everyone. And in this case watching any of the girls could cost us the trail. The killer is very careful, Mr. Street. If he spotted any of his targets being watched he might pull up stakes and leave and it may be years before we get even this close again. How many more girls are you willing to let him kill to save yours?" "That is not..." Mrs. Street started. "I know," I interrupted. "It is not a fair question. But it's reality." She started to say something else but her husband put his hand on hers and she stopped. "You could have told me. I could have watched out for her." "And what would you have watched for?" I asked. "What would you have done if you thought someone was after her? How would you have protected her?" "I was an army Ranger for seventeen years. I can protect my family." Dobbs spoke up, "We think he shot an officer last night just to distract us." Street sat up a little straighter at that. "How can you be sure it wasn't a coincidence?" "We're not sure yet, but from what Ms. Hampton has told me about this guy I think it's pretty likely. Mr. Street, if he shot a cop to distract us, do you think he'd hesitate to do anything at all to you if you got in his way?" "I don't..." he let the sentence fade. "I appreciate what you are saying, Mr. Street." I said. "But this guy is very smart, very careful, and very, very, bad." "How smart?" "I'd bet you my next months pay he's been in your house." They both froze at the thought. I stood up. "May we look around?" He hesitated, then nodded and got up to follow. "Paul." I said. Paul opened the case he had brought and pulled out a sweeper. We swept the kitchen and then moved into the dining room. I already knew what I was looking for but I let Paul find it anyway. The dining room was clean but the wand lit up when we hit the living room. The smoke detector was right where I expected it to be. "Where did you get this?" I asked. "A man came around a while back, said they were a new design and would we be interested in doing some testing for the company," Mrs. Street said. Paul pointed out the little lens on one side. "Did you wonder what the lens was for?" "Yes, he said it worked by special laser and could actually see smoke before you could smell it." "He lied. It is a smoke detector, but that's not a laser emitter. It's a digital video camera." He got a chair and pulled the cover off and looked at the insides. "That," he pointed to the inside of the device, "is a smoke detector. This part, over here, is a short range transmitter. I'm not sure just looking at it but I'd say it has a broadcast range of at least a quarter mile. He could sit in his car a block away and see everything that went on in this room. "Or," Paul went on, "more likely, is that he had a receiver set up somewhere nearby that recorded what it sent. He came by later and picked it up or had it transmitted to him wherever he was. Are there more of these in the house?" Mrs. Street was now several shades of red. "Three more, one in the upstairs hall, Elizabeth's room, and..." she looked at her husband. He was staring hard at a spot on the table. "Don't worry, Mrs. Street. You're not likely to show up on the internet anywhere. He wasn't the least bit interested in anything you and your husband may have been doing. Could you show Paul where they are please?" She headed off with Paul in tow and I continued, "Mr. Street, Sheriff Dobbs, we dodged a serious bullet here. I want to talk to Elizabeth about what happened but I don't expect to really discover anything new. I don't think there is any chance that he'll be back. I think that somehow he found out that despite his caution, we are on to him. I think he used Elizabeth to smoke us out. Dobbs, I'm predicting that your rape kit is going to come back negative." I looked the other man in the eye. "He didn't hurt your little girl, Mr. Street. He just used her to see if I was really watching or not. This is how bad this guy is, gentlemen, and why we couldn't risk watching any of the girls. And why we don't want any of this getting out. Mr. Street, just so you know, your daughter was not that close to the top. If he had really wanted her he could have taken her and been hundreds of miles away by now. You can offer up some special thanks that he wasn't really after her. If he had wanted to hurt her, he would have. Trust me; he knows how to hurt people." Paul came back with the three other smoke detectors. "Limited range, I'm betting there is a receiver on this street or the one behind, somewhere close." He went to put them in the car and walk around the neighborhood. Dobbs's phone went off. It was the officer at the hospital. Elizabeth Street was showing signs of waking up. He offered to take me to the hospital so I left Paul the car. "You really think this was all done just to smoke you out?" "Truthfully... yeah, I'm afraid I do." "Thanks for not telling him the rest." "The rest of what?" "You didn't say it but this guy hurts the girls before he kills, doesn't he?" "What makes you say that?" "Things you said, things you didn't say. So what, he didn't rape Elizabeth because she was unconscious?" "He doesn't like it unless they can fight back." He took a deep breath, then asked, "How long?" "The first girl was in Santa Clara. She lasted three weeks. Number three was in Ventura, he had her for a month." "You skipped number two on purpose." "She didn't fight back. She was dead in a week." "Let me guess, minimal damage but he beat the shit out of the other two?" "That's about it. Like I said, he's a bad boy. I guess you know why she was a target?" "He likes a girl who likes to fuck." "And..." "'Easy' sure likes to fuck." "Sounds like personal experience, Sheriff." "That girl is something else," he said. His eyes never left the road as he spoke. "I've never met anyone like her in my life. Couple months ago she was in her delivery truck running parts. It was a Saturday morning and she followed me for three miles until we hit a spot with almost no traffic around, then she runs her truck up, tags my bumper, then pulls over into an empty parking lot and just waited for me to come back. She was sitting on the back tailgate kicking her feet like a little kid when I got there." "Took you long enough to get here." "Young lady, what the hell do you think you're doing?" "Trying to get your attention; looks like it worked." "You wanted my attention?" "Of course, do I look stupid? Did you think I waited that long by accident?" "What are you talking about?" "Hello, empty street; this place is closed on weekends, no one around. You think this was an accident. I've been watching you for three weeks." "Why?" "God help me Hampton, she jumped off the tailgate, unzipped her sweatshirt, not even a bra on under it, stared me right in the eye and said, 'because I want to see if I can fuck you to death right here.'" "You're kidding." "Swear to God. Said she wanted to know what thirty some years of experience felt like between her legs. She strolls right up, presses herself up against me and kissed me right on the mouth. Once I'd recovered I asked her why and she said that I was probably the best kept old man she'd ever seen and she knew that I wouldn't tell anyone." "So you gave her what she wanted." "I'm fifty-two years old, Hampton. I hadn't seen a body like that up close in thirty years, much less touched one. My wife died four years ago, breast cancer. I tried to date a couple women but it just wasn't the same. I've pretty much lived the job since she died." He paused before continuing, "She set me free, Hampton. We fucked for an hour right there in that parking lot. Once she got my attention she just turned around, dropped her pants and bent over the tailgate. When I didn't move she said, 'Don't you think you better do something before someone shows up? You're screwed one way or the other if we get caught so you might as well go for it.' What can I say, she was right; I went for it. Then she said she had to get back to work, made me give her my address so she could come by later and finish the lesson. She showed up around six o'clock with a pizza and didn't leave until almost eleven thirty. I don't think I've ever felt so alive. Like I said, she set me free, showed me that my life wasn't over. I'm getting married again in December and she's going to carry flowers at the wedding." "Why are you telling me this, Sheriff?" "Because I figure you already know about how she got her nickname and I don't want you going in there thinking she's the town well and everyone gets a drink." "I do know. I can't tell you how, but trust me, I know, and I don't think that about her. But I must say, Sheriff; it says something about her that you feel that way. For what it's worth I'm glad he wasn't really after her even though it means I've lost the one advantage I thought I had." "What's that?" "I didn't think he knew we were after him. I still don't know how he found out. I hope Elizabeth can tell me something." "We'll find out soon enough. There's the hospital." He chuckled. "You be careful with her, Hampton. She might decide you're the flavor of the month." "Bet you'd like to see that show, wouldn't you? You're a dirty old man, Sheriff Dobbs." "That I am, Special Agent Hampton. That I am." The girl was still a little groggy when we got there, but she was awake and not the least bit happy that no one would talk to her. At Dobbs's request they had her in an isolation room. There was a uniform outside the door. When we opened the door and she saw Dobbs she jumped up off the bed and yelled, "Grandpa!" Then almost fell on her ass as she lost her balance. The standard issue hospital gown covered just about as much as they always do. I now knew that the standard visual test to see if she was a natural blonde wouldn't work with Easy Street. Dobbs caught her as she tried to step away from the bed again. "Take it easy there, Lizzy. You've had a long night." She looked askance at him. "Who told you? You been checking up on me again, Gramps?" She seemed to notice me for the first time. "Who's your cute friend?" She tried to move toward me but he grabbed her and sat her back down on the mattress. "Damn it, Easy, would you just sit your ass down and behave for once? Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, meet Elizabeth Street." "Holy shit! She's a fed? Why didn't you say so? He's not really my grandpa, Mrs. Hampton, just a special friend." Then she whispered to Dobbs, "Why is she here?" I don't think the guard outside heard the question but I was much closer. It was pretty obvious that whatever drugs had been used had not completely dissipated yet. Her attention span was practically non-existent. I reached out a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Elizabeth, and it's Miss Hampton, or Agent Hampton. Why don't you just call me Rebecca? Can I call you Liz?" "Whatever, I'm easy." "That's what I hear but I don't think I know you well enough to use nicknames." She laughed at the joke and elbowed Dobbs, who was still standing next to the bed, "Someone has been spreading lies about me again. You should go arrest them for slandering my good name, Sheriff." "Yeah right. Hampton, you're on your own. I'm going to go outside so you girls can talk." He glanced at the door and seeing only the back of the guard, leaned down to gently kiss her cheek. "I'm glad you're okay, Lizzy. I still need you to be my flower girl come December." "Oh, Rusty, I wouldn't miss it for the world." She reached up and stroked his cheek. When she felt it was wet she looked closer and noticed the tears. Her face suddenly got serious. Maybe she wasn't as high as she pretended to be. Dobbs turned away before she could say anything else and headed for the door. He stopped as he reached for the knob. "Tell her everything, Hampton, all of it. She can take it and she deserves to know. Lizzy, you can trust her, answer all her questions. Tell her everything you can remember. It's important." He looked back at me. "I'll be in the cafeteria when you're ready to go." I waited for the door to close before asking, "What can you remember about last night?" "Oh I can remember a lot about last night. But I don't think it's stuff that you're going to want to hear about. Unless the idea of hearing all the juicy details of me and Stacy tying up Paula and giving her a cat bath turns you on, in which case I'll be happy to tell you all about it." She raised her eyebrows and looked at me hopefully. "What can you tell me about what happened when you got home?" "Nah, didn't think so. Hoped so, but... maybe some other time. I left Stacy and Paula cuddled up around eleven-thirty. It's not that far and I came straight home so I was here by quarter-til. I pulled into the driveway, set the brake like a good girl, not making that mistake again; got out of the car and just as I reached to close the door I felt something hit me in the ass. It was like I sat on a tack or something, only I was standing up. I sort of jumped when it hit me. I remember starting to turn and bringing my hand up the see if I could feel anything and the next thing I know I'm waking up in the hospital with half the skin and most of the hair on my arms missing, and my shoulders hurt like hell." "So you never saw him." "Nope, but it wouldn't have mattered if I had." "What do you mean?" "I mean I could have been this close to him and I wouldn't recognize him on the evening news." "You're kidding?" "Nope. I can't see people; well, I see them, just not the way you do." "Okay you lost me." "Rebecca, do you believe in God?" "Yeah, but why are you changing the subject." "I'm not, I'm explaining. So you do believe in God. Do you believe in spiritual gifts?" "I know I don't have the gift of patience." She laughed at that. "That's a yes. Do you believe God gives some people special gifts?" "Yeah, sort of, I guess. Where are you going with this?" "I'll get back to that. First you tell me all that stuff Rusty told you to tell me and then I'll explain it all for you." "Rusty?" "Well that's not his real name. He told you about us right?" I nodded. "Yeah, I figured he did. When I cornered him in the parking lot and then insisted on seeing him later he was worried he might be a little rusty. He's not," she said with a smile, "but that's my nickname for him. So tell me the bad news." "Well I don't know that it's bad news for you. Because from here out I think you're safe." I proceeded to tell her the whole story, the three dead girls, why we picked her as a possible target and what we think was behind the attack that landed her here. "So you think your killer picked me to see if you would come running to save me?" "That's pretty much the working theory for right now." "You're right, but he didn't pick me, God picked me." "God picked you? Why would God pick you for something like this?" "Because he couldn't hurt me." I started to say something but she held up her hand to stop me. "Rebecca, I told you I don't see people the way others do. I never have. You're right in front of me, but I can't even tell you what color your eyes are. I'd have to see a picture or video or something. I have a God given gift to see people in a different way. You know my nickname?" "Easy Street." "Yep, picked it out myself. Gives me a certain reputation and keeps people from paying too much attention to what I'm doing. It's a well earned rep and I enjoy it to the max but it's not who I am. Rebecca, I see the truth in people. I see who they are. I see who they can be. I see if they are hurting inside, I see... them. Take Rusty, Sheriff Dobbs, for instance. The first time I saw him I almost cried. He was so... lost. He had this big hole right where his heart should be. And it was growing; it was slowly eating away at him. I saw all that, and I also saw that he could be so much more. But it was like he had lost something. And he had. But what he lost God gave to me, and I gave it back to him." "Through sex." "Hey, you gotta work with what you got. God gave me this body and the ability to give and receive great pleasure through it. I am just a tool in His great hands. I do nothing but the work He has blessed me with. And I have a lot of fun doing it. Fucking Rusty didn't save him. But while I was fucking him, God worked through me to fix what was wrong with him. To give him back what he had lost. I was like this human funnel that He used to fill Rusty's heart back up. I could see it happening; see the hole closing bit by bit. Sounds crazy doesn't it?" "Oh yeah." She laughed again. "Yeah, I know, sometimes it even sounds crazy to me. But it works. I watched it happen. It is the most awesome feeling in the world to help someone that way. When we were done, he was whole again. We haven't ever done it again and I don't expect we ever will. He doesn't need me any more. You know I prevented two suicides this year at school?" "Really?" "Swear to God. There was this one girl who was just convinced that no one on earth loved her or wanted her, and worse than that she was convinced that it was somehow her fault and that there was something wrong with her. She was giving up on life. Now she looks forward to every day. She got her grades up, pays attention in class and to what's going on around her; she's even got a boyfriend." "All because of sex?" "No, not because of sex!" She said in an exasperated voice. "Don't you get it? Sex is a tool. Because I could see the problem. Okay look, Dave, my boss? Everyone is just sure he's fucking my brains out. We've never done it, but everyone thinks we are because of who I am and that there's not much he wouldn't do for me. That part's true. There isn't much he wouldn't do for me, and everyone just assumes, because of who I am, that that's the reason." "Okay, I'll bite; what's the reason." "I saved his marriage." "Oh this I have to hear. Everyone thinks you're screwing your boss and you saved his marriage. How did that happen?" "His wife was having an affair. I knew something was breaking that poor man's heart. I could see it, and one look at her was all it took to tell me what it was. Some guy had led her down the nasty path and convinced her that Dave was no good and that he loved her more and she should leave Dave and take him to the cleaners." "And?" "I found out who the guy was. One look and I knew he was playing her. So I went to see her. Oh, she was not happy to see me! But God gave me the right words and I told her I knew all about what was going on and that I would prove that the guy was lying. That he was just using her." "How did you do that?" "I introduced myself, turned on my natural charm, set up a time and place to fuck him. Actually it wasn't far from where I did Rusty the first time. I know someone who had a key so I told Sandy to wait there and watch. Sure enough, loser boy shows up and fucks me right there on the hood of his car. She walked out as he was pulling his pants up and slapped the shit out of him. He left. She broke down and cried. The usual chick stuff; you know, 'how could I be so stupid? Dave will never forgive me. I'm such a horrible person he could never want me again, ' all the typical bullshit. I held her and told her that she was doing Dave a greater injustice by thinking that than she ever had by sleeping with loser boy. Well, she went straight home, and when Dave got there she confessed everything, begged for forgiveness, swore to love him forever and never be that stupid again. He asked her what had made her come clean with all of it. She told him exactly what I'd done. He brought me flowers at work the next day and the rumors went wild all over town. Dave denies them, says he's a one woman man, and he is. His wife hugs me every time she comes by the store. Now the rumor is I'm doing both of them." "What happened to loser boy?" "Oh him, I told him I was seventeen and that Sandy'd seen the whole thing so if I ever saw his face in town again we'd have him arrested for statutory rape. He left and now he's someone else's problem. I'm doing a calendar for Dave as soon as I get to school. It's all set up already. Typical shop calendar; tools and parts, and me looking sexy in just enough clothes to keep it legal. He's pre-ordered ten thousand that he's going to send out to all his customers, distributors, pretty much everyone. I'm going to sign a hundred of them for him. In a couple years, if everything works out, they'll be worth money. Meanwhile I'm making fifty a copy after expenses on the first ten thousand. Almost double that if he orders that many more." "And you believe all of this is because you have a gift from God." "I don't 'believe' it, Rebecca. I believe it. Your killer got me because he had to get someone and I was someone he couldn't hurt. I am a chosen child of God and He watches out for me. I believe you know another of His chosen ones." "And who might that be?" "The boy who's been watching my dreams." I was stunned and it must have shown. "Oh, weren't expecting that now were you? Yes, I've seen him. How could I miss him? You see God has touched him as well, except that where He just gave me this gift, He gave your Jimmy a greater burden." "How do you know his name?" "He and Allison talk when they think no one can hear. Don't worry, I could probably pick them out of a crowd but I wouldn't know their pictures if you handed them to me. I see them as these big white shadow-shapes. In my head they glow like you can't believe. Actually he glows; she both reflects his glow and feeds it. God would I like to get the two of them together for a night. They're sexy as hell just to look at, really something." "They are special. I'll give them that. And you can see all this by looking at them?" "Yep, I see all sorts of things." She reached out a hand toward me and moved it around over my chest. "I can't tell you what color your hair is, but I can tell you that you've lost someone very important to you, so special that you carry them with you everywhere you go, right here." She moved the hand. "There is a great hope in you, an unwavering belief, but it's shadowed by sorrow and longing at the same time?" She looked at my eyes. "Someone in your life sick?" She moved again. "And over here," she put her hand on my chest and moved it outward across my left breast, "is someone new that you are starting to care a great deal for. It's new but it's growing, you carry it in your heart and it gives you great joy. You haven't admitted it to yourself yet but you're in love with him. And one more thing," she said as her hand continued to move over my breast. It was unnerving to sit here and listen to her telling me all about myself. Especially since she was right about every bit of it. "What?" I asked in a whispery voice. She cupped my breast and squeezed, "You've got great tits." I slapped her hand away and said, "Fuck you." She fell to the bed laughing, "I know you don't mean it, but if you ever change your mind give me a call. I'd do you in hot second, Rebecca, just for the sheer pleasure, but you never know; God just may have something special he'd like to pour into you through me." She laughed again. "And that thought is going to drive you crazy just thinking about it." She sat up again. "Now would you tell them to let me the fuck out of here, please?" I spoke to the doctor in charge of her case. He confirmed that she showed no vaginal trauma or other signs that she might have been raped. The lab was analyzing the drugs in her system. They suspected some type of time release sedative, like what the dentist gives you for a long procedure rather than put you completely under. They had also taken a scraping of the area on her butt where she said something had hit her. I left my office number and asked him to call me as soon as they had the results. ------- Chapter 69: Now What? Rebecca called Bob while she was awaiting her return flight. She was leaving Paul behind for an extra day to co-ordinate and oversee the efforts of the CS team. They still had Easy's car to go over, the neighbor's house, and of course trying to track down the receiver for the remote cameras they had found in the house. Bob called me at the house and said we needed to meet. I gathered us in my office as soon as we were all available. "We've been made," Rebecca said plainly. "What?" Allison asked. "How?" "I have no idea, but he knows we're after him." "Are we even sure it was him?" I asked. "Looks like it so far. No prints on the car; no prints, hair, or skin on the tape we took off the girl." "What do you mean the tape you took off the girl, which girl?" Allison asked. "Elizabeth Street. He grabbed her late last night." She shook her head. "Shot her in the ass with a tranquilizer. She never saw his face." She looked me strangely for a second before continuing, "He stashed her in the house across the street. It was empty and for sale. If we hadn't found her she still likely would have been home by nightfall. Doctors say he gave her some kind of time release sedative; it wore off a little after lunch. She was bound but I think she would have been able to either get up and hop to the door or at least attract attention. He used her to smoke us out, see if we would come running. And we did." "But she's okay?" I asked. She laughed. "As far as she's concerned she was never in danger." "What do you mean?" I guess it was Bob's turn to ask a question. "Elizabeth Street," she said, "is convinced that she is a chosen child of God Almighty. Once I'd explained what had happened she told me that the killer didn't choose her, but that God gave her to him because he couldn't hurt her and that way he wouldn't hurt anyone else. We had a very interesting discussion. After Jimmy, she is about the most interesting person I've ever met, no offense there, stud." "None taken," Bob answered with a laugh. "Does this mean that it's okay to go ahead and tell the others they're in danger?" Shannon jumped on that one. "And let him know which one's we're watching? That would virtually guarantee that he'd grab someone else." "But he knows who you're watching already," Bob countered. "No," I said. "He knows that we know what type he is interested in. Shannon, Allison, you both know how important it would be not to let on that you know you're a target. Even with that knowledge, do you think you could not change your behavior so he wouldn't know?" "Not a chance," Allison said flatly. "Considering what he does to his victims, I think I'd want a cop escorting me everywhere I go. Someone big at the very least, either that or I'd lock myself in my house and not leave until someone told me he was caught." "Hell, I don't think I'd be able to do it and I'm the one trying to catch him," Rebecca added. "Yeah, it was a dumb idea. I guess I just want this over with no one else getting hurt and I didn't think it through. Scary considering I'm the resident psych here. So where does that leave us?" Bob asked. "Right where we were before he took Lizzy. Nothing has really changed; the game is still the same," Rebecca said. "Not exactly. One thing has changed," Shannon corrected her. "What's that?" "He's nervous, and that might lead to him making mistakes. Personally I think this was his first mistake." "How was this, a mistake?" Bob asked. "The same way it would be a mistake for us to tell the girls. Knowing that you are being watched changes your behavior. You do things differently. If you let the people watching know that you know who the watcher is, all they have to do is change the watcher. If they don't know that you know, you can watch the watcher and know when it is most likely to be safe to act." "Very good, Shannon," Rebecca said, "but I think that in this case, looking at how careful he has been in the past, he always acts as if he is being watched. What he just did is identify who the watcher, in this case me, is. So now he can watch the watcher, as you put it. At this level and this far into the game, you can't just hand it off to someone else. And he knows that, so I think it was more of a calculated risk. It would be interesting to go back and look for similar incidents before each of the previous killings. I may have to look into it. No, for now, we just continue doing what we were already doing, waiting for him to make his move." "Well that sucks," Allison said. "Tell me about it," Rebecca said. She paused for a second and let the silence stretch out. I think she may have been hoping that someone else would say something. Finally she said, "There's something else you need to know. I told you Elizabeth said she is a chosen child of God?" "Yeah, considering what we know about her it sounds a little nutty," Allison said. "I mean, most of your Christian fanatics don't go around fucking everyone in sight." "I'll admit it sounds strange but I have to tell you, whether it's a gift from God or not, what she has works." Bob eyed her speculatively. "What do you mean, what she has? She claims she is gifted?" "Oh yeah, let me just try to explain it the way she did and then you can tell me what you think. When I asked her about the night of the attack she said that it wouldn't have mattered if she had seen the killer or not." "Wouldn't have mattered..." Shannon started to ask the obvious question, but Allison put a hand on her arm and she quieted. "Yeah, I asked that. She says that even if she had seen him, she would not have been able to ID him if they ran his picture on the front page of the paper. She says that she can't see people the way we do. She was sitting right in front of me and said she couldn't tell me what color my hair or eyes were." She had all of our complete attention now. "She says that what she sees when she looks at people is... well... truth. She sees who they are, and who they can be. We'd only been in the room together maybe fifteen minutes total, yet she looked at me and told me that someone in my life had died but that I carry a piece of them with me always. Then she told me that I carry an unrelenting hope and certainty but that it is colored by suffering and longing." "Wow," said Allison. "That's almost scary." "I don't know if scary is the right word but it is certainly accurate. The first would be Michael," Bob said. "The second has to be Amy." Rebecca nodded. "She says that this sight is the gift that God gave her and he uses her as a focus. She sees what is truly wrong with people and then acts as a conduit for God to work directly to fix the problem. She gave some examples and I gotta tell you, she's convincing. I met one of the examples and he told me about their relationship. She uses sex as a tool to get to the people she needs to reach. She uses her reputation as a cover so no one pays close attention to what she is doing. In this case, she seduced a fifty two year old man because when she looked at him he was dying inside. His wife had died a few years before and she said when she looked at him there was this hole where his heart should be, and it was growing, slowly eating away at what was left. She seduced him; lured him to a secluded place and screwed him in broad daylight. It may have been secluded but it was still a public place and she not only screwed him without getting caught, but got him to give her his address, and then went to his house that night to finish the job. She said she could see the hole filling in again while she was doing him. "He said that she had set him free; that he'd tried dating since his wife died but that he just couldn't make it work. He's getting married this December and Lizzy's his flower girl for the ceremony. And just so you know, he told me the story of how she seduced him first, she filled in the why later. He said he didn't want me going in to see her thinking she was a public utility, or words to that effect." "But, you would never think that," Allison said. "Why thank you, Allison. No, I wouldn't. I make it a point to not judge people. As long as they aren't breaking the law and hurting people I don't really worry about it. And of course he had no way of knowing that." "But you believe her?" I asked. "She's very convincing. She read me like a well worn book, that's for sure, and it gets better." She paused and looked at me. "She knows about you." "She what?" Allison asked. "She said she could see you when you watched her in her dreams. She said Jimmy glows like a white shadow... and that you, both reflect his glow and feed it. She even knows your names. When I asked her how she said you and Jimmy talk when you think no one can hear." "No one should have been able to hear," I said. "Obviously the rules don't apply universally," Bob said. "Just as you surmised that certain types of mental illness may interfere with you bridging people, certain other gifts may limit your... influence in those people's dreams. In this case, something in the way Elizabeth perceives people allows her to see you even when you are observing. Interesting that she sees you the way she does; in dreams anyway. I wonder if she would see you the same way in person. Oh well, just another Nobel Prize winning paper I'll never get to write. People knowing about her gifts would be almost as bad as people knowing about yours. I wonder that no one has noticed her perceptual differences." "Really, I don't think it's that surprising," I said. "I mean where would it come out, art class? Most of us suck as artists to begin with and portraits are the hardest for beginners. She may have been seen as working in abstract at the worst. And even then it would only come out if you were working in class with a live subject. Working at home or from an image she should be fine. I mean I think if her gift extended to pictures of people it would likely have driven her insane years ago. Besides, how would a camera capture that?" "I think I'm going to kick you out of my class, I'm starting to fear for my job. So now what? Are you going to go pay a visit to Easy Street the way you did to Rebecca's boss when he found out?" Rebecca laughed. "If you do, you better take Shannon along for protection. She made it very clear that she is very interested in getting the two of you alone some time; specifically, naked and alone." "Ooh, then you should definitely take me along," Shannon said. "Sounds like fun. I was sitting here wondering why I couldn't put a face with the name. I thought I'd been with you at least once when you were bridging all the girls, but I must have missed this one or she would have known about me too." "Apparently so," I answered. "Since she obviously had no trouble perceiving Allison or I, I doubt that she would have missed you. It would be interesting to hear what she sees when she looks at all of us." "Yes, and it would be very interesting to hear what she sees if you are each there alone," Bob added. "You mean to see if being together changes us somehow to her perception?" Allison asked. "Yes, exactly," he said. "So, I guess since nothing has really changed and we're back in our holding pattern, that we're pretty much done here? I don't supposed we could impose upon you to borrow your little island getaway?" "Fine with me," I said. "We could go to the glade or Shannon's cabin or something," Allison said. "Yeah, but change the sheets this time or it will be the last time you get to borrow it," Shannon joked. Rebecca turned bright red and Bob simply roared with laughter. I was surprised it didn't echo after I sent them on their way. Of course I was laughing so hard you probably wouldn't have heard it anyway. "Now that was priceless." Allison said. "So what now? Do you want to go somewhere or did you want to try and drop in on Easy Street." "Either is fine with me," I said. "I get to be with both of you either way. Shannon?" "I think we need to go talk to her. From your description before she just sounded like this walking sex machine. I think if nothing else I owe her an apology for thinking that." "Yeah, I know what you mean," Allison said. "I kind of had her pegged as the school slut, weird to think that she actually promoted the image to use as a sort of smokescreen." "Pretty smart though if you ask me," I said. "We all had exactly the reaction she wanted. We didn't look any deeper than the public image. And here I'm the one who was trying to look deeper." "No you weren't," Allison countered. "You were trying to confirm if she was the kind of sex machine this whack job is looking for. You confirmed what you needed to and moved on." "Yeah, when you put it that way, I guess that's exactly what I did. I guess maybe we all owe her an apology. So how do you want to do it?" "Well personally," Shannon said, "I want to be on my back, with Jimmy..." Allison giggled and then caught herself. "You know very well that is not what he meant. Although..." They both glanced at me. "Hey, don't look at me, I just arrange locations. Beyond that I just do what I'm told, when I'm told, to whomever I'm told to do it to, or with." Allison slid up close to me and sort of purred, "And you do it so very well. Doesn't he, Shannon dear?" Shannon slid up on the other side and kind of melted up against me, her robe hanging open so she could press her suddenly naked flesh against my arm. "Yes, he certainly does, he just doesn't do it nearly often enough." "Does this mean we're not going to talk to Elizabeth?" Apparently it did. Maybe we could talk to her tomorrow. Wednesday dawned bright and full of untapped potential. Life was grand and all the world was my playground. Yep, Shannon was spending the night tonight! In fact, Karen would be bringing her over a little before lunch time. I started the day with my usual run then changed into my bathing suit and headed out to the pool to catch up on some long overdue sunshine. Okay, so I was there yesterday. Allison came bouncing out a few minutes later and caught me completely off guard. She had told me she'd gotten a new bathing suit and I thought I was ready for it. I might have been, if she'd worn it. I was a little overwhelmed when she slipped into my lap stark naked and ask me is I could rub some oil on her. "Sunshine, you know I would love to rub just about anything on you, including me." "Oh, you're so sweet," she said. She kissed me on the nose and then changed the subject, "I was thinking; you remember when we were experimenting with whether or not we could move between dreams without you being there? Or be trapped in someone else's dreams?" "Of course I remember. I was nervous as hell until we figured out how to keep you all safe. I'm still not sure exactly how I figured out that it would be safe." "What do you mean? Oh yeah... what did convince you? I mean, you were right, but how did you figure it out." "I'm not sure but I think I sent myself a note." "You what?" "You remember when we were going to the meeting with Bob and Rebecca that weekend? Well, when I got to the office there was this note that said, 'She'll be all right.' It was signed E. I assume that somewhere along the line my subconscious must have figured it out and I sent myself a note and signed it E for Edward." "You're weird," she said. "I love you, but you're weird." "You say the sweetest things." I stroked a hand over her shoulder and cupped her right breast. I suddenly noticed it was different. "You've grown, sweetie, you seem... fuller... rounder..." I leaned up and sucked gently at the pert little nipple. "And the nipple's bigger. I like it." "Who says the sweetest things? Oh no, don't stop." She gave a deep sigh. "Thanks for noticing. I need to hit Mom up for some shopping money. I need to buy some new bras." "No you don't, I'll just follow you around and hold them up for you." She rolled her eyes. "Oh sure, that would work. You're a silly boy." "Nah, I'm not silly; I'm just plain crazy, about you." I gave her kiss on the nose and said, "So what was it you started to tell me." "Oh that. You remember how you had the televisions set up to watch us?" "Yeah, it was just an idea I had. I was nervous about not being there with you." "Do you think you could do that with the other girls on the list?" I sat up suddenly, almost dropping her off my lap. "Whoa, big boy! Careful there, it was just a thought." "A thought? It's brilliant. God, why didn't we think of it sooner?" "We?" "Okay, I wouldn't have thought of it at all. But you're the brains of the outfit. I'm surprised you didn't think of it sooner." "Okay, here's the down side, do you want to sit in your office every night monitoring the dreams of ten or twenty girls in the hopes of seeing something out of the ordinary." That brought up an interesting point. In every kidnapping the killer had drugged the girls. We had no idea what with, but he had knocked them out with something. I suddenly had an idea. "I need my phone," I said, kissing her and starting to get up. She bounced out of my lap and said, "That's okay, I'll get it. I was going in anyway. I had my fun and now I want to put something on before I burn anything delicate. You'll still need to oil me though." She gave me a kiss that guaranteed I would still be sitting there catching my breath when she got back, and headed into the house. I sat thinking about what it would take to make this work. I hadn't gotten far when she got back. I had expected something really racy in a bathing suit but the new one actually covered more than last year's model. I was trying not to act disappointed but I guess a little showed anyway. "Ah, disappointed? You were hoping maybe I got one of those eye-patch and floss jobs they wear in like, Brazil or Japan. To be honest I did think about it but then I would have had to buy two suits because there is no way Mom would let me wear something like that when we have company, which we do a lot of the time. For that matter I wouldn't want to either. I wouldn't even want to wear something like that in front of Dad or Tom, and especially not around Mark. You're the only one I would want to show that much skin to and if I did it wouldn't be long before I was naked anyway, so why spend the extra money. If I want that kind of attention from you I doubt I'd need a bathing suit to get it." "Not likely. This one's cute though; looks more comfortable that last years." "Yeah, tell me about it. By the end of the year I had to tie it on so tight just to keep it in place that I was afraid something was going to snap at any moment. This is much more comfortable. Shannon got a new one too, and I think maybe you're about due for an upgrade too." She said, tugging at the frayed leg of my favorite suit. "This one's about had it." She handed me the phone and I scooted over a little bit on the lounger to make room for her. She shook her head and pointed to the big double lounger instead. I nodded my approval and started to get up just as Bob answered the phone. "Hi, Jimmy." "Hey, Bob. How'd you know it was me?" "You're the only one who comes up with no number. Everyone else either comes up under caller ID, blocked number, or something else. Yours is just a blank screen. So what's up?" "The drugs the killer uses when he kidnaps the girls. Would those prevent them from dreaming?" "Oooh, now there's a question. I don't know. It depends not only on the drug, but also the person. Most drugs of that type put you into a deep sleep well beyond the level required for dreams. That's why people generally don't dream during surgery. They just have this huge time gap. They were one place and then suddenly they are somewhere else entirely. It's part of what causes the disorientation when they wake back up. Their brain is trying to reconcile the changes. However some people will recover from anesthesia more slowly and rather than go directly from deep sleep to waking up, will actually 'climb the ladder' up through the various sleep states. In these cases they may drop into a REM period briefly before waking up. There haven't been any actually studies that I know of but I think this would cut down on the disorientation that most have. The brain gets to adapt a little, plus they will start receiving input, even subconsciously from their surroundings before becoming fully awake. Knowing the drug would really help." "I'll call Rebecca and see if they have any results from the lab work yet. Thanks, Bob. How's summer school going?" "Don't repeat this but I hate summer school. It's always the same. The idiots that didn't pay attention all year trying to make up the class and are bored because they're redoing work; or even worse, the getting ahead crowd that think they are smarter than everyone else, including me, and want details on every little thing you try to cover. It's high school psychology for God's sake. The doctoral exams are years away. But you didn't hear that from me." I laughed. "Not to worry, my lips are sealed. I still have to worry about next year's grades. Thanks for your help." I hung up and hit the speed dial for Rebecca. "Hampton." "Hi, it's me; got a minute." "Sure, what's up? "Just wondering if the lab figured out what he drugged Elizabeth with." "Excuse me? You want me to share classified information in an ongoing investigation?" "Yeah." "Just checking. I haven't seen the reports yet. Why the interest?" "Allison had an idea on how to keep an eye on our target group but we're not sure if it's workable or not. I asked Bob about it and he said he would need to know what drugs we were dealing with. I thought you might know." "I'll put in a call and see if I can find anything out. I do know they gave up on the tranquilizer he used. They've narrowed it to a few choices based on how fast it acted and how thoroughly it was absorbed. Whatever it was didn't leave a trace around the contact point so they had no sample to work with." "Did they check her pants?" "What?" "Her pants. He shot her in the butt with a tranquilizer, makes sense that some may have been absorbed by the pants on the way through or as it was released." "They're trained professionals. I'm sure they would have thought of that but I'll ask. What made you think of it?" "Just seemed logical to me. Whatever hit her had to go through her pants, and depending on her preference, possible her underwear as well. In order to work as fast as she said it had to discharge on impact. Depending on what the pants were made of or how tight they were it may have actually started discharging on contact with the material instead of skin. Hmm. You know if she was wearing something loose like a skirt it may not have gotten to her at all. He would have to be very sure he was hitting a spot where the material would not relax around the dart and absorb the momentum before it could penetrate. Like throwing a baseball at a safety net compared to a brick wall." "Sometimes it scares me how good you are getting at this stuff. Give me a call back after lunch and I'll let you know what I find out." Allison and I spent the rest of the morning swimming, sunning, and discussing the possibilities of monitoring the dream activity of ten or twenty different people at once. Karen pulled up just before noon. We met her out front and while Allison helped Shannon get her things inside I took the opportunity to chat with her about all the latest happenings. "How's Tom doing?" I asked. "Okay, I guess. It's been kind of hard on him. The radiation burns and irritates but he can't scratch it. He finds it hard to believe that, as he puts it, 'microwaving his balls' is going to help anything. He's got two more treatments then he has to start going into LA twice a week for chemo. God, is that going to suck. Twice a week in rush hour traffic. Naturally he can't drive so I'll have to take him." "Maybe they can schedule him for off hours," I suggested. "Jimmy, this is the American medical machine you are talking about. Do something convenient for a customer just because they don't make millions a year and live in Beverly Hills? I don't see that happening in my lifetime, but keep dreaming kid." "Okay, I see your point. Well, give him our best and let him know we're thinking of him." "Of course I will. You kids have a good time. I told Shannon to go easy on you. Two against one isn't really fair." Then she backed out and was gone. I stood contemplating what she had said. Was it innocent banter or was she trying to tell me something. I was still wondering as I walked back into the house, but decided not to say anything. I found the girls already out at the pool. Shannon's new suit was similar to Allison's but in colors that more complemented her skin and hair tones. We caught her up to date on what we had been discussing. "Sounds like it might be a good idea if you can make it work. I hope there's some way to do it without sitting in the office all night. That would be a serious waste of valuable dream time. I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be doing. Speaking of which, I'd like to get in a little quality time with the both of you in the flesh, for a change." "I thought you'd never ask," I said, moving in close and nuzzling her neck. I laid a gently kiss below her ear and whispered, "May I have this dance?" She slid her fingers up around the sides of my face and into my hair, pulling me in for a gentle kiss. A sarcastic voice said, "Get a room." "Someone's feeling neglected," I said. "Hardly; I'm serious. Go, both of you. You're overdue for a little one on one time. I'll find you later if I get bored. Don't worry about me; I'll have her all to myself all night. Kiss me." We kissed her and disappeared into the house. She woke us up with a tray of sandwiches for lunch and then we all went back out to soak up some more sun. There was an almost noticeable feeling of quiet contentment that just seemed to fill the space around us. The girls took the big double lounger and I dragged one of the singles over next to them just to be close. Every once and a while one of us would take a quick dip to cool off, but otherwise we simple relaxed in the warm sunshine and talked about nothing in particular until time to start getting things ready for dinner. Now that Allison and I were out of school, we were taking turns cooking every other week. It was my week to cook so the girls set, cleared and did dishes. I was passable at breakfast but I was earning a new respect for my mother and her ability to bring a meal together. Pancakes or even French toast are actually pretty simple up to a point. And they are still a single item. Multiple dishes cooking at different temperatures and cooking times, all finishing within minutes of each other, with some still requiring additional work after cooking is a lot more complicated. So far I hadn't set anything on fire or needed to actually replace any of my mom's cookware, but it had been close. Shannon brought us all up to date on Tom's condition and schedule. Dad suggested that rather than fight traffic maybe he and Karen should just drive down and stay at a reasonable inexpensive hotel the night before his treatments. She said they had talked about it but really didn't want to spend the extra money with Tom off work. He had disability insurance but it didn't cover his salary and things were tight. The conversation stalled at that point but I noticed a look passing between Mom and Dad and knew that another conversation would shortly be taking place. One which us kids would not be included in or privy to the details of, which was as it should be. I felt a swell of pride that my parents were the sort of people that would look for ways to help rather than just nod and say things like, "That's too bad. I hope it works out. I'm sure it will be okay," or my personal, all time favorite, meaningless platitude, "God will provide." I just want to smack people when they say that. Hello, God doesn't rain blessings out of the sky for things like this. He works through people, some you know, some you don't. Ever think just maybe that's why the Big Guy put you here, close to that person, right now, this moment? Or that maybe it was Him that gave them the courage to swallow their pride and tell you they needed help? How about just doing something! Now, there's a thought. Cook a meal and take it over so she doesn't have to worry about feeding her family after being at the hospital all day. Call the electric company and anonymously pay their utility bill. Hell, offer to walk their damn dog while they're gone; anything would be more productive than flapping your lips and spouting meaningless encouragement. Sorry, but people like that really piss me off. Where was I? Oh yeah, dinner. The conversation turned to other topics; Mom complimented me on dinner. Dad of course said, "What, no dessert?" Allison offered to put some cake frosting on a saltine cracker for him. That got a good laugh from everyone, including him. We went out to the pool while the girls cleaned up and I headed for the water to give my parents time to talk. They sat at the picnic table and talked softly back and forth until the girls came out and then we all played "Sorry" for the rest of the evening. It's amazing how many different ways you can say that word and still never actually mean it. Eventually it was time to call it a night and we all went our separate ways. I knew the girls would be occupied for a while so I headed for my office to start working on the monitor system. It was an interesting project. How do you key different make believe monitors to watch the dreams of different people in different places? How do you know whether a monitor is dark because something is wrong, or if that person is just not dreaming at the moment? And then there is the issue of how to monitor all of it without being chained to my office every night for who knew how long. I was still working on it when the girls showed up. I was showing them what I had done so far when Rebecca called. She said they had identified the drugs he had used both to take Elizabeth, and to keep her under. They weren't exactly sure how he had pulled off the latter task. It was being suggested that he had 'layered' a time release system; literally using a capsule inside a capsule to keep the flow regulated. The initial tranquilizer had probably been sufficient to keep her out for several hours. They speculated that he'd gotten her to swallow a capsule that would slowly break down over several hours before releasing its contents, and that part of that one's contents was another smaller capsule containing the same dosage which would break down at the same rate. So the shot lasts, say three hours, somewhere in there he gives her a large capsule, not hard, your body will pretty much swallow on reflex if it needs to. If the capsule takes another three hours to break down to the point of releasing its contents then the new drug, along with the smaller capsule start the cycle all over again. They couldn't really know the dosages used but it seemed like a reasonably reliable system. That bought him a lot of time before she woke up. If he had wanted to take her he could have been hundreds of miles away before she woke up. She had already confirmed with Bob that the drugs in question would, for the most part, keep someone so far under that they would not dream until they started coming out of it, and even then, the window for normal dreaming would be short. They were likely to wake up quickly once the drugs wore off. Not what I had hoped but it did make monitoring easier. I rigged timers to the monitors and if one of the girls should go an entire night without dreaming then it would flag a warning. Either she was in trouble or was someplace having a really good time and not worried about sleeping. The trouble was how to know? Given the group we were working with an all-nighter was not exactly an unheard of event. And how would you find out which it was without tipping your hand. And of course all I could do was check back to see if it had flagged anyone. It was a weak solution at best. I could see I was going to have to find a better way. By the end of the night I at least had the top ten "wired" in. It was hard not to get distracted considering some of the dreams they were having, especially Elizabeth. I wondered if she could tell I was monitoring her or if she only "saw" me if I came into her current dream. More questions I didn't need. What I needed, were some answers. ------- Chapter 70: Here We Go Again The night monitoring system had turned out to be a complete bust so far. Dream activity is not particularly regular in a lot of people under the best of circumstances. Made me wonder that we all seemed to fall into it so easily and spend so much more time at it with no ill effects. I made a mental note to talk to Bob about it next time I talked to him. School had been out for almost three weeks and there had been no trace of activity since Elizabeth Street's little adventure. For some reason I had been putting off going to see her. Eventually I had to sit down and talk about it with my favorite counselor to figure out why. We were having breakfast out on the pool deck when finally I brought it up. "You're afraid of her," Allison said. "Why would I be afraid of her?" "Good question, why would you?" "That's not helping. I can't even say that I am, much less put a reason to it. What makes you say that's the reason?" "Basically it's the only reason I could think of. She knows about you, us. Knows our names, not our faces but still more information than you are comfortable with. She's the only person that knows about you that you didn't tell." "That's not true, what about Mr. Rodriguez?" "Okay, besides him, but you had no problem talking to him right away. So again, the same question comes up. Why would you go talk to a member of the FBI with no second thought, a man in a position of authority and power who could in fact cause problems if he wanted too, but you won't go see an eighteen year old girl who still wouldn't recognize you on national television after you've met her?" "Rebecca's boss wouldn't recognize me either; he's never actually seen my face. He may be wondering about you every time he passes a golden retriever though." She cracked up at that. "Wouldn't that be funny? To see him pass a dog on the street and look at it twice wondering if it was suddenly going to talk to him." "Yeah, it would be funny to see. Good thing you went with the dog instead of the mermaid, he may never fish again." "You know, that may be part of your fear of Elizabeth." "What? You lost me there." "She wouldn't recognize you on the evening news but if she passed you on the street she might know it was you even though she has no idea what you look like." I had to stop and think about that. It had a certain flavor of truth to it. "Well, the same would be true with you." "Not necessarily. She's only seen me with you. She said I reflect and enhance your 'glow.' Maybe she can't see past that. Maybe she wouldn't recognize me without your glow there to reflect. Just another reason to try and see her individually, as well as together. I know Shannon is dying to meet her, but sometimes I question her motives. You'd think that between the two of us she'd be satisfied." "Well, in all fairness, sweetie, she doesn't have us that often, not really anyway. You and I can be together any night we want. Shannon really only gets to be with us now and then. I know she says she is satisfied with the time we have in dreams but I don't know that her body is really satisfied with it. No matter how elaborate and realistic a dream may be, it's still just fantasy." "Yeah, that part really sucks. But I don't see it getting any better any time soon. And I know I've said it before but I really do think you should reconsider going public when school starts." "I've been having second thoughts about that as well. But we were talking about why you think I'm afraid to see Elizabeth." "So you admit it?" "No, I said why you think that's the case; I never said I agreed with you." "You have a better suggestion?" "You still haven't come up with a valid reason why I would be afraid of seeing her." "I don't know why. I have some ideas but I don't really know. I gave you one suggestion but I can think of others." "Like what?" "You're afraid of what she'll tell you." "Okay, now you've really lost me." "You heard what she said to Rebecca, and she was dead on. I think you're afraid of what she may see in you." She stopped for a second and got a strange look on her face. "Or you could be afraid of what she will see in us." "I'm still not following you. What could she in us, besides..." my voice trailed off and I could feel the blood draining from my face. "Besides the truth?" Allison said, finishing my thought. "She could see that I'm not just your partner, helper, or whatever else she sees, but that I'm your sister, and your lover." I turned and stared at the sunlight reflecting off the water in the pool. Could that be it? Was it the incest problem raising its head? Would Elizabeth be able to tell? Rebecca had said that when she looked at people she saw the truth about them, the truth about who they are. "Jimmy?" "I think that may be it," I said, still looking away. "What else could it be? She knows about my gift, so that can't be it. She hinted she wants my body but so does Samantha and that doesn't bother me." "Samantha wants your body alright, but then she wants Alice and Sharon too. The times I've snuggled with her I've been tempted to let it happen, she's so wounded and I just want to hold her and touch her and just for a little while make it alright. I keep telling myself that it's best to wait, but it's hard." "Yeah, I know what you mean. I can't help feeling protective and wanting to show her what it's like to be loved by someone who cares about you and doesn't just see you as a sex toy. But I've told her I won't until this is all over and I know she won't feel like it's something she has to do, that we won't help her if she doesn't. I don't ever want her to feel like she owes me anything. I would feel like I was no better than the bastards that are using her now." "Well, they are all bastards, but some of them are bitches too." "What do you mean?" "You mean you didn't know? It's not just men, Jimmy. Some of them are women. Hell, some of them are couples, like Frank and Irene. Sure, we've never seen Irene do anything to Sam or Amanda, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do anything to any of the others. She certainly doesn't have a problem sitting back and watching it, not even when it's happening to her own daughters." "I hadn't realized. When did you find this out?" "The first night we took Mom in to do the fairy godmother thing. She was pretty overwhelmed by all of it. Remember, she hasn't had people do nice things for her that often. We cuddled and talked and I kissed her and it was pretty obvious she had kissed other girls before. I felt like she wanted to crawl into my mouth. I asked her about it and she said that sometimes they had the girls do each other and they watched, sometimes, and she shuddered when she said it, they did other things with them. I got the impression some of the women are a little on the sadistic side. I don't think they would be stupid enough to leave a visible mark but there's a lot of ways to hurt someone without leaving evidence. Not the kind you can see in a shower anyway." "We've gotten a little off subject. How do you feel about Elizabeth knowing the truth about us?" "Well, for starters, I don't care if she does think she's doing God's work, she'd be in no position to point fingers. Other than that, I don't really know. I mean, our relationship depends almost as much on secrecy as your gift does. But obviously she knows the importance of secrecy. She is open about her sex life but not the reason behind it. She deliberately, well not really deceives people, but allows them to be misled about it. She has her purpose, and that's all that matters. I expect she will feel the same about us. Since she sees you as someone else chosen and touched by God. You have a purpose. Since I help you, I expect she will see our relationship as being part of that purpose, or at least facilitating it. Ah heck, let's just go see her and find out." "We have nothing to fear but fear itself?" "Something like that, the greatest fear, the one that will have the most control over your life is the one you won't face." "Okay, maybe tonight we'll take Shannon and go for a trip. Of course, given the destination it may be a late trip and short. She tends to keep late hours." "Well, so do we... sometimes. If Shannon was here more, we'd probably keep later hours more often. You running with Tim today?" One of the new additions to my schedule was running with Tim. Since Angie was going away to college soon he needed someone to run with so we got together a couple times a week to push ourselves a little. "Yeah. Angie's going to Phoenix to tour the University. She leaves tomorrow and comes back Monday. She's touring the campus and checking out some of the sorority houses over the weekend. She has a breakfast meeting Monday morning, then she comes back. They offered to fly her but she wants to see what the drive is like so she'll know what she's facing to come home on holidays and stuff." "Well," she said, patting my cheek, "you two screwballs have a good time. I'll be right here by the pool when you get back." Tim showed up after lunch and we headed out for a ten mile run through the surrounding area and local foothills. He brought his suit along so we could cool down when we got back. Shannon was there when we returned but she wouldn't let me near her until I showered. Once we had gotten the sweat off the four of us relaxed, swam, and generally hung out for the rest of the afternoon. Allison suggested cards when it got really hot and we moved to the shade of the picnic table to play and talk. Shannon jokingly suggested strip poker which made Tim blush. Allison just rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, yeah, that would be fun. We've each got two pieces of clothing, they've each got one. If you want to flash your tits at Tim just do it and get it over with. But remember who he normally plays with. You've grown and I love what you've got but you've still got a long way to go before you're in Angie's league." "Now Allison, that's not fair," Tim said. "Shannon is a very pretty girl and has a very nice body. Angie is four years older than her, but Shannon has nothing to be ashamed of. From what I can see, everything is exactly where it belongs and is developing quite nicely." Now it was Shannon's turn to blush. We both laughed as she dropped an awkward curtsey and thanked him for the compliment. "So, Jimmy tells me you and Cindy may be an item at school next year?" she said, changing the subject. "Looks that way, she's a nice girl and it would certainly take the pressure off not having to date someone just so no one would notice something was out of place. It was tough this year to not be able to touch Angie or even spend too much time around her at school or in public." "I'll bet. I have the same problem with Allison. There are times when I see her walking down the hall, that cute little ass waving back and forth like a big red flag, and I just wanted to shove her up against the lockers and... Uhm! It was tough." "Why thank you," Allison said, leaning across the corner and kissing her cheek. "It's nice to be wanted." "I'm thinking of going public with Shannon this year," I said. "They both seem to think it's a risky idea." "I can see their point. It may take the pressure off of you; both Cindy and Angie have said you'll be getting more attention this year after going to prom with Angie." Allison dropped in, "Told you so," before Tim continued. "But it's a trade I don't think I'd make. If I had your arrangement here, I don't think I'd risk losing it just to reduce the social pressure. I have to ask here, and I may be out of line but, your parents know about you and Allison, don't they?" "Yes," Allison answered. "It's a long story but it's not a problem for them as long as we're careful and about it." He just shook his head. "My parents would totally freak out if they knew. What about Shannon's parents?" "Completely in the dark," Shannon said. "We're all just best friends as far as they know. I'm afraid that even just announcing Jimmy as my steady boyfriend would ruin everything. I don't see them approving of me having sex at my age. Dad had a talk with Mark last year when he started getting serious with Theresa. They were gone for like hours. Mom would probably be okay with me and Allison. She's real liberal when it comes to the whole gay and lesbian thing. But I'm not so sure what she would think about me and Jimmy. I mean, Allison can't get me pregnant." I flashed back to Karen's comment from earlier in the week. I wasn't so sure Karen didn't already know but I wasn't willing to share that particular piece of information. What possible use would there be to bringing it up? It's not like we could ask her for confirmation and it might make us careless if we took it for granted. And if we were wrong we could really screw things up. But then, wasn't that what I as contemplating doing in a couple of months anyway? Maybe I should rethink the whole thing before doing anything rash. Maybe it was time to sit down with Mom and have a little heart to heart. It was definitely something I needed to think more about. The whole monitoring thing turned out to be a colossal waste of time. Alicia Sanderson disappeared Thursday night. Looking back, I'm surprised it hadn't happened before. I guess we were just good at finishing up before it got near time to get up. We were sitting in the office discussing the events of the week. I was planning to take the girls to see Elizabeth if she ever went to bed and made it possible. Abruptly, Rebecca just disappeared. Bob was a little freaked out by it, but I explained that most likely something had awakened her and it was nothing to worry about. I guess we should have expected it to happen sooner or later. Rebecca The phone ringing in the middle of the night was never a good sign. It was a typical transition. One moment you're dreaming, sitting in a place that seems so real, having a conversation about work and vacation; the next moment your back in bed wondering what woke you up, while your hand is already in motion to stop the offending sound before it can strike again. "Hampton." "Special Agent Hampton, this is Simmons with night watch. I've got a call from Kern County regarding a missing person on your watch list, one Alicia Sanderson." Suddenly I was wide awake, scribbling notes on my pad. I check the time, 1:18. "Thanks for the call, Simmons. What do we know?" "Girl was at a party, left a little before midnight. Parents called looking for her about a half hour later. A girl at the party told them she had left about a half hour earlier. Everything went back to normal until someone else left and the girl's car was still there. They went back inside and told the hostess about it and she went to check. Spotted the girl's purse in the front seat, went back in and called the parents. Parents tried the girl's cell phone and it was still in her purse. They called 911 and reported it as suspicious. They got a description out on APB, gotta love those new cell phones. Several friends had taken pictures of her at the party so they knew exactly what she was wearing. As soon as the call went out it flagged your watch list." "I'm on it. Good job, Simmons. Call Agent Freeman, give him what you have and let him know I'm on my way to pick him up. See if you can find out who's running the show in Bakersfield and get me a number. Just give the information to Freeman, I'll get it from him when I get there." Bakersfield was where the girl lived, but not necessarily where the crime had occurred. "Where was the party?" "Rural area out on the north end of town. I'll get the address and give it to your partner." Paul had only gotten back from Fresno the day before. I hung up the phone and started getting dressed. I would have preferred jeans but the Bureau has certain requirement when it comes to dressing for the public. Black slacks, shoes, I could get a way with a white polo shirt where a man would be forced to wear a tie. I slid into my shoulder holster and tied the bottom end down to a clip on my belt. A shoulder holster is by necessity a lightweight affair and if you don't have it tied in correctly it tends to try and flop around at the worst possible times. Like when you are trying to draw your weapon. Any time you find it necessary to pull a weapon you want it quick and easy. Hesitation in the field can get you killed. I was dressed and out the door with my field kit in just under five minutes. I called Bob as soon as I got in the car to let him know what was going on. Under any other circumstances the conversation would have been funny. Having him tell me that as soon as he got back to sleep he'd let Jimmy know so he could start trying to bridge the missing girl just sounded like it should be funny. If a life wasn't at stake I might have laughed. Paul's apartment is further north than mine, which worked out very well for this trip. Thirty minutes after the call came in we were both in my car headed north. Bakersfield is a straight shot up the freeway from LA. It was a long boring drive but at 2:00 AM on a Friday morning we didn't have to worry about traffic. Seemed kind of odd to be having a big party like that on a weeknight, but we were talking about high school kids on break. In some cases, college kids getting ready to leave home. Once we cleared Magic Mountain we made good time. Paul was on the phone with the local cops, getting the ball rolling. Now that the killer knew we were in the game we didn't have to worry about stealth. The Sanderson girl's parents were out of the loop for right now but I had local cops getting a complete list of everybody that was at that party. No holding back the names of the kids that weren't supposed to be there. I wanted names, addresses, phone numbers, cell phone numbers, any way we could contact them. Despite what you see in the movies and on TV, local cops don't really have fed-o-phobia. It's not always about department politics and who gets the credit. Sometimes we just want to keep people from getting hurt. The local cops were already out in force, knocking on doors and waking people up. Hopefully someone would remember a face that didn't belong or a car parked in the wrong spot. Wherever possible, and if the kids complied, pictures taken on their cell phones were being forwarded to a central database for comparison. For the most part I was content to let the locals run the show but I made it clear to the detective in charge just exactly what he could be dealing with. To their credit they were pulling out all the stops. By the time we arrived I had two detectives on site finishing up interviewing the kids that were still at the party when Alicia was discovered missing. They only had a few left and so far it seemed like a pretty normal, even mild teenager party. The hostess was a recently graduated senior taking advantage of her parents' absence to have a little fun. Mom and Dad were out of town and had given their consent for a few friends to come over as long as she kept a lid on things. A few friends quickly turned into about forty total including boyfriends, girlfriends, guests and dates. It was actually pretty tame for a change. With the exception of a few dates everyone seemed to know everyone else who was there. The unknowns were quickly accounted for. Cars were a little harder to account for. Who rode with whom and what did they drive. Do you remember whose car you were parked next to. If you were parked next to a car you didn't recognize, what do you remember about it? Make, model, color, license plates were pretty much a lost cause but we were able to built up a reasonable map of the neighborhood, who was parked where and if there were any cars unaccounted for. Then there were the usual questions, what time did you leave, were you alone, did you see anyone? Suspicious or not, did you have contact with anyone else when you left. See anything you hadn't noticed on the way in? Did you at any time hear anything unusual? By 8:00 AM we had managed to get two kids grounded for being at a party without permission and one for driving her mom's car without permission. One young couple was in serious trouble since the cops had awakened the girl's parents and she had not been home. Apparently she had snuck out and met her boyfriend who took her to the party and then apparently took her somewhere else as well. Needless to say her parents were not happy when they finally pulled up at around 4:00 AM. The girl knew something was up when her boyfriend brought her home and found a black and white parked out front. To her credit the girl was more concerned that everything was alright with her family than about her own skin. That may have helped but she still had some serious explaining to do. It was not looking good. It had been a long night and all the interviews, all the man hours, all the overtime had gotten us nothing. No one had seen anything; no one had heard anything. No one remembers seeing any cars that looked out of place. To all outward appearances everything was just as it should be. Except that Alicia was missing. Someone eventually brought up the idea that maybe she had gone off with a guy somewhere voluntarily. Her girlfriends shot that down immediately. Alicia would never, ever go off with a strange guy. In all the years they had known her she had always at least introduced a new guy to everyone. And under no circumstances whatsoever would she go anywhere without her cell phone. The girl slept with the phone, literally. She set the alarm on her phone and put it under her pillow if she had an early appointment. She answered it twenty-four/seven. The only exceptions were when she was in class or in church. She carried it to the gym where she worked and even answered it when working out. She had someone ringside answer if she was sparring or training with someone. If not for the fact that the girl was in fact missing, the locals would have wanted my blood. As it was they were starting to ask why someone hadn't informed them that the girl may have been a target. I explained that the only reason the girl was a target is that she meets the requirements of the killer and pointed out the number of girls from the local schools who also met those requirements. Okay I stretched the truth a little so the pool was reasonable large and there was no way they had the manpower to watch them all. I added in a known target area of several thousand square miles and they finally backed down and admitted that it was just bad luck that he came after their girl. Paul and I started checking backward from the day of the party, interviewing family, more friends that had not been at the party. The people she worked with, had she been training anybody new recently? Anyone suspicious hanging around the club? We went through the lists of new members in the last six months. We got one unregistered sex offender who was wanted by the locals on another matter but that was sheer coincidence. He was new to the club, hadn't registered his latest move and was wanted for questioning for something that had happened in his old neighborhood. We interviewed him anyway and he made it clear that he had changed his ways and that even if he hadn't; he wasn't stupid enough to even think about trying anything with Alicia. He had no problem admitting that she would kick his ass without breaking a sweat. Besides, background showed him in jail two years prior so he couldn't have been our guy anyway. Bakersfield PD took him from us when we were through. In the end he was cleared and released contingent upon updating his address with the state and local offender databases. By Sunday night we were no closer to an answer than when we'd started. And we were running out of avenues to check. The cops came up with exactly what we expected from her car. Nothing, not prints, not even a spot that was wiped clean like the one on Street's car. The family had missing person's flyers up all over town asking for help. They were starting to get desperate. Paul swept the house and came up with two cameras; one in Alicia's room, one in the living room. The only difference was that these were not in brand new smoke detectors. The one in the living room had been carefully fitted inside an air conditioning vent. The bedroom camera was actually in a teddy bear on one of her shelves that looked like it hadn't been moved in years. One of the buttons had been replaced with a well disguised lens. As with the one's found in Fresno, they were short range transmitters going to a receiver somewhere in the neighborhood. It was 9:30 PM and I was just eating the last few bites of my gourmet meal at the local Denny's when my phone went off. "Hampton." "Special Agent Hampton, this is Sergeant Reynolds, what's your twenty?" "Denny's on White Lane." "Great, you're not that far away, I'm currently at the U-Store on Union Avenue. If you just take 99 north and head west on 58, take the Union exit and go north, you can't miss it. I think we may have found your girl." I took a deep breath. "Please tell me you mean alive." "Yes, ma'am, I mean alive. I got a disturbance call a little while ago and I rolled by to check it out. Caller said it was someone screaming. I thought it was a crank call when I got here, but when I got out of my car I could hear it. Hampton, I've got a girl locked in a storage unit screaming her head off, and she says her name is Alicia Sanderson." "Son of a bitch. We're on our way. I don't suppose there is anyone working there?" "Actually yes, they have an older couple that lives on site managing the place, but I don't think they'd have heard her if she was in the next room. They show this particular unit as being empty, but it's locked up tight. Real tight. Unless someone can open that lock I don't see us getting in without destroying the door." "We're on the way. Be there in a few minutes. Do you have a good locksmith on call?" "Already called him. You want the bad news?" I took deep breath. "Go ahead." "I think the door may be booby-trapped from the inside." "Shit, how do you know?" "The girl says there's something attached to the inside of the door." "Great, just great. I assume you have the bomb squad on the way as well?" "Oh yeah, big time. Just thought you might like to come down and join the party." "Thanks, Reynolds. See you in ten." The locksmith said he couldn't do anything for us on the lock. It used a type of key that made it virtually pick proof. The bomb squad was talking to the girl through the closed door trying to see if they could ascertain what type of device they were dealing with by description alone. Sanderson wasn't much help. Apparently she was tied to a bed or table of some kind and couldn't see the whole room. The single light bulb in the unit didn't shed a lot of light. The onsite mangers were trying to contact the holders of the surrounding units. From what she could see there was no indication of anything wired to the side walls so they were considering going into one of the adjacent units and then through the wall. The bomb squad was examining a nearby vacant unit to see what would be involved in getting through the wall. It was heavy gauge steel construction. A lot of places used screws for simplicity but this particular company must have figured out it wouldn't take much for someone to rent a space then start dismantling the ones around it and helping themselves to what they found. They used pop rivets instead. Now that's a deterrent if I ever saw one. Ten minutes tops once we were in an adjacent space. The nice little man from the office came back and said they couldn't reach either of the neighboring renters. The one behind this one was available but there was a block wall separating the two sides. I made an executive decision and had the locksmith open both units. The one on the left looked like it was long term storage for a serious packrat. Fortunately the right side had very little in it. Granted it was all stacked against the wall I needed to get through, but still, less to move. Anytime the bomb squad is out playing, the fire department sends someone along just in case. The crew from engine company twenty-three made short work of clearing the wall. Six minutes with a cordless drill and the steel sheet was free. Everybody cleared back and a bomb tech moved in with a micro camera on a stick which he stuck through the smallest crack could find and began scanning the back side of the steel panel, just in case. He declared it free and two firefighters in heavy gloves moved the sheet. I was standing in the opening gun drawn and really wanting to kill something when the space opened. I didn't really expect to get the chance but we all would have felt really stupid if we were wrong. As soon as I could see I ordered everyone out. Apparently one of the firemen had peeked because he immediately handed me a blanket. Alicia Sanderson was strapped to what appeared to be a hospital gurney stark naked. One of the firefighters was a woman and I asked her to help me. The fireman offering the blanket laughed and I gave him a questioning look. He shut up but the woman in question laughed and said, "If that's for what I think it's for and you're trying to protect her virtue then I'm not going to be much help. I'm the company dyke. Steve there's your best bet, he's got four sisters." Steve turned out to be the guy with the blanket. He was a true gentleman about it, holding the blanket up in front of him as he moved in. I had a thought just as he started to lay it over her. "Wait." He froze like a good boy. "I want a bomb tech to look at the gurney before we cover it up. Hang in there, Alicia. We'll get you covered and out of here as quick as we can but I'd hate to go through all this and get you killed because we rushed." "Thank you," she said. "Really, thank you, but can you hurry. I really gotta pee." That got a pretty good chuckle from the crowd. The gurney was rigged with a bedpan but now that she was awake... I could understand how she felt. The bomb tech made short work of the gurney and cleared us to move it. Steve, who had been standing with the blanket held up and open between Alicia and the hole in the wall, moved forward and carefully draped the blanket over her. He was very careful so that he wouldn't jostle the IV needle in her arm. He then wheeled her out and the paramedics got started removing the needle and checking her out. The bomb tech handed me the bomb mechanism from the door. It was a fake. The block of explosive was crumpled up paper in a cardboard wrapper carefully painted to look realistic. A small black box with a single red LED was just that, a box with an LED sticking out. The only thing inside was the battery for the light. It had all been designed to slow us down. This asshole was really starting to piss me off. The IV was attached to a med-pump that had been programmed to feed a measured dose of whatever was in the drip bag. I guess the pill he had used for Elizabeth had its limitations. That one had worn off in just over fourteen hours. He had planned ahead to keep Alicia out for a much longer time. The obvious question was why. The just as obvious answer was to make sure we were there for a while. Not a good sign. I put a call in to Monitoring to let me know if we got any more hits. After the paramedics had removed the IV and given her a once over, I rode with Alicia in the ambulance to the hospital, explaining what was going on, what we needed to do at the hospital, and why. She was crying by the time I was half way through; certainly a far cry from Easy Street. She didn't remember much about what happened. She said goodnight to everyone at the party. Two different guys had tried to walk her out. She really didn't want to give either of them any hope so she said no. They tried the whole macho protective thing until two of the other girls bet twenty bucks each that she could kick both their asses without messing up her makeup. They dropped it when no one would take the bet. She walked to her car. It was beautiful night and she had been enjoying the fresh air. She unlocked her car and tossed her purse in the front seat. She started to get in when she felt a sharp sting on her right hip. She woke up naked, strapped to a gurney with a needle in her arm. She started screaming, hoping someone would hear. Then the police showed up and talked to her through the door. She asked the name of the fireman with the blanket so I told her what I knew, Steve from company twenty-three. Who says chivalry is dead? Something had been tickling at the back of my brain and it finally surfaced. I pulled out my phone and called Reynolds. "Reynolds? It's Hampton. Who called in the disturbance? I assumed it was the managers but if that was the case he would have said he had someone locked in a storage unit. So if it wasn't them, then who was it? Yeah, check on that and get back to me. Thanks." I closed the phone and made small talk with Alicia until we reached the hospital. I waved the federal wand and got her on the fast track for all the tests we wanted. It occurred to me that her parents probably hadn't gotten the news yet. I pulled my phone out and called to give them the good news, told them where we were, assured them that she was all right but that we needed to have her checked out, and that she should be ready to come home in a few hours. I told her mom she would need a change of clothes and she understood without needing details. Just stretching the truth enough to cover the situation, leaving the impression that her daughter had been wearing the same outfit for four days and needed something clean to wear. It was going to be tough enough on them as it was, telling them that she had been found naked strapped to a bed wouldn't help the situation. She thanked me between the tearful sobs and said she would bring something. Reynolds called back and told me that the call had been filed by one Jonathan Smythe with a 'Y' and an 'E', the caller had stressed the spelling. Great, John Smith; I guess John Doe would have been just a little too obvious. Caller ID had been blocked. The call back number given was for a convenience store next to the storage facility. Back tracing the call through the phone company said it was from a cell phone. Attempts to back trace the call further had failed. I had expected that part. So my killer had a secure, untraceable cell phone, which meant he could have been calling from anywhere. While we were on the phone Reynolds was interrupted by someone. Apparently he was signing in the evidence from the scene over at the lab that would be checking it all out. "You better get over here. You'll want to see this." ------- Chapter 71: Games People Play Rebecca This weekend was going downhill fast. The first wild goose chase, using Elizabeth Street to flush me out, had been bad enough. Now he had used Alicia's disappearance for a completely different purpose. Being set up is never fun; having your nose rubbed in it was another thing. What other purpose could he have for leaving a letter behind? That the letter was specifically addressed to me confirmed what I already suspected. On the other hand, being cocky meant that now his ego was involved, and ego had been the downfall of some of the greatest bad guys in history. I called Bob on the way to the police lab. It wasn't too late to have him contact Jimmy to try and monitor the other girls. It hadn't done any good so far, but if someone suddenly didn't show up at all, or had been missing the past few nights, it was a good bet that our man was responsible. So far he had done a masterful job of both wasting my time and making me look like an idiot all at once. How many times can you show up and make the locals dance around without losing credibility? I hadn't even told Rod yet and it was a conversation I was not looking forward to. On the other hand, these two set ups pointed out very clearly just how good the killer was and justified the time spent trying to track him down. The problem is the local authorities didn't know any of this and being played by the bad guys wasn't good for my image, or the Bureau's. We arrived at the lab, flashed our IDs and were escorted into a back work area where the envelope in question was already being examined by technicians. Aside from dirt smudges there wasn't much on the outside. It was a letter size manila envelope sealed with the standard clasp and the edge taped shut. The technician was thrilled, there appeared to be at least a partial fingerprint in the tape that the envelope was sealed with. I didn't get my hopes up. I'd be willing to bet that the print wasn't the killers. If it was on file anywhere at all we were probably about to bust some clerk at Staples. But still, you have to take what you can get and hope for the best. He carefully cut away the section with the print before offering me the envelope to open. I deferred and told him to continue. He carefully unsealed the envelope and spilled the contents out onto the tabletop. There were two sheets of paper inside. One held a carefully typed message; the other appeared to have a newspaper clipping pasted to it. The technician flipped over the sheet with the clipping so we could see it. As I read it I could feel my heart start to beat harder and my face began to redden. By the time I was done my jaw ached from clenching my teeth. The clipping was from a San Diego newspaper; the subject of the article was the death of Celeste Boudreaux. Underlined in the article was a line which read, "According to sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, Miss Boudreaux was also under the watchful eye of the FBI." It went on to speculate that perhaps if we had watched a little closer, the girl might not have died. That bastard cop had shot his mouth off to the press. That's how the killer knew we were on to him. Frank Watkins just got bumped out of first place on the list of people I most wanted to hurt. If there is a special space in hell reserved for "anonymous sources," I hope we get visitation from heaven so we can watch the bastards fry. Of course, that was probably a sinful attitude but... not as sinful as what I wanted to do to him. I moved to the letter and read what the killer had written; Special Agent Hampton, I must admit, you're quite good. To have stumbled upon my work at all shows some special talent. I'm not sure how you accomplished it but please accept my congratulations for your work to date. The nice gentleman at the paper was kind enough to let me know that you had made some progress in my direction. I must remember to send him something, without his efforts I would not have even known of your pursuit. Your adventure with the Street girl in Fresno gave me a face for my adversary, always a bonus to be sure. It also showed me just how close a watch you were keeping. As you can see, it makes no difference. No effort you can make will hinder me in the slightest. I will have what I want, when I want. I imagine by now you are quickly becoming "The Agent Who Cried Wolf," and I expect your level of credibility, as well as the level of assistance you can expect from local enforcement should be dwindling rapidly. Not to mention the opinions of your superiors. I do hope this does not mar your permanent record too seriously. By the time you receive this you will already be too late to save my chosen playmate from her destiny. Perhaps next year? Fuck. The news wasn't all bad. We did catch one possible break. The convenience store next door to the storage place had a camera on their dumpsters. Apparently they had a history of problems with local homeless people and were concerned about possible lawsuits if one got hurt. Beyond the dumpster area was the storage yard. You couldn't see much because it was surrounded by a seven foot block wall, but the camera was mounted high enough on the building that you could get a partial view of the area. It was also date and time stamped. The store ran a separate tape for each day, rotating through a month before overwriting the previous month's tapes. We'd gotten all the tapes from the time of Alicia's disappearance. There on the tape, less than an hour after she went missing, a van pulled in front of the empty unit, rolled up the door and then closed it about fifteen minutes later. It was hard to make out a lot of detail as the focus was on the dumpster and we could only see the top edge of the van in the very top area of the feed. Fortunately the van itself was discernable. Of course in this case, the model range covered over fifteen years. The distinctive design was quickly recognized as either a Chevrolet Astro or the comparable GMC Safari. The cargo model, not the passenger; there were no windows on the sides beyond the driver and passenger doors. There was a ladder rack on top with some kind of tube down the center. Reynolds identified it as a conduit carrier. He had a brother-in-law that was an electrician so he knew what it was called. Beyond that it was a non-descript white van. There were probably not more than two or three hundred in the local commercial fleets. We could rule out a lot of companies right away based on the lack of signage or company logos. That should cut the list considerably. Paul made a call to the office to start getting private registrations within the target area. That would push the numbers up considerably higher than the local fleet total, but it was a place to start. Sorting by color would narrow the list further. Not much to be sure, probably ninety-plus percent of these vans were white. I looked back at the letter and realized that I had seen that van, or one just like it, recently. The bastard had been in Fresno watching every move we made. I had a call routed to the Fresno Sheriff's office and left a message for Dobbs or Ford to call me as soon as possible. I was surprised when the dispatcher put me on hold and then Dobbs came on the line. "What's up, Hampton? Did you find something?" "The killer was watching us at Street's." "You're shitting me." "Remember the cable van?" "That was him?" "I think so. I got a piece of a van on a video at the scene of my latest headache. Don't worry, we found her; he was just fucking with me again. I'm betting if you get Ford out there with someone from the local cable company, you're going to find that the equipment on that pole has been tampered with. I think he was down there removing the remote link to the cameras in the Street home. That and checking me out. He left a letter at the scene this time, addressed to me. In it he says that my trip to Fresno put a face to the name of his adversary." "Cocky bastard." "You don't know the half of it. This whole trip was designed to pin me down so he knew where I would be. I think he left right after he locked her up and that there is another girl missing somewhere that we don't know about yet. She's the one he was after all along. All this was nothing but smoke." "Well, I can tell you one thing. He's not the one that shot my officer. We found him. Apparently Henderson has a new girlfriend and her ex wasn't happy about it. He paid her a call to try and win her back, mentioned something about the competition being eliminated. The news of the shooting hadn't broken yet. As soon as she saw it in the paper she called. We found the gun wrapped in a sleeping bag in his attic. So your boy isn't quite as ruthless we thought." "Actually he is; he just doesn't feel the need to draw the kind of attention that would bring. If he'd wanted to, he could have killed Street and my current victim just as easily. But murder investigations garner more attention and resources. He wants to keep this on a more personal level. I think to a certain extent he sees this as a game, with me as his opponent." "I'll have Ford check out that pole first thing in the morning. No reason to wake her up for a look sooner than that is there?" "No, I don't expect her to be able to do more than confirm my suspicions. Morning is soon enough to do that." "We'll let you know what we find as soon as we can. You call me if you need anything else. Easy said to tell you 'Hi' if you called, so 'Hi.'" Jimmy It was a long tense weekend waiting for word from Rebecca. Every night I tried repeatedly to reach Alicia Sanderson. Every night I failed. I was in the office Sunday night when Bob called to let me know the girl had been found. He passed on Rebecca's assumption that this had in fact been a diversion. I tried to remember if any of the others had been missing from the monitors the past few nights. No one came to mind. The night ended fruitlessly all around. I can't say I was as frustrated as Rebecca must be, but I was beginning to feel less than optimistic about the future. "Jimmy, stop it," Allison said. It was Monday morning and we were sitting at the table discussing it over toast and juice. "Beating yourself up isn't going to help. You're being unrealistic about all of this. We've been waiting all year for this to start. The last couple weeks you were concentrating on a way to get a jump on him, that's all. We never expected you to be able to keep him from taking someone. We just hoped that you would be able to tell who as quickly as possible. It didn't work. So now we do it the hard way." "But he's probably already got her," I answered. "He could be torturing her right this moment." "Then pray that he got a real fighter this time," Mom's voice came from the hall. "Someone that can hold out until you can find her. Otherwise we'll be waiting another year to try again. Your sister is right, James; you can't let this get you down. Whoever she is, she is counting on you to save her. Nothing has changed." "Gee thanks, Mom," I said. "No pressure there." I was trying for sarcasm but the smile gave it away. She kissed me on the cheek and said, "Anytime slugger. I'm just glad she has you working for her. Even though she'll think it was Rebecca, we'll all know the truth." "Hey you never know it may be Rebecca that saves her. I may still strike out." "There's that negative thing again. Must be something in your orange juice, maybe I should switch to buying apple instead." "Yuck. I hate apple juice." "Yes, I know. Try to keep that in mind before you open you mouth again." I actually started to say something, but thought better of it and stopped. "Um-hmm, that's my smart boy," she said proudly as she filled a mug with coffee. My dad hit the door about that time and she gave him a quick kiss on his way to the shower. "You running with Tim again today, dear?" she asked when she turned back. "Yeah, we're doing every other day for now. I'll run my normal stuff on the off days. We're pushing to hit 20K by the end of summer. Some sadistic coach somewhere suggested that the team should consider entering some of the local marathons in the off season. We're taking up a collection to have him knee-capped when we figure out who it was." "But running is so good for you," Allison added with smile. I threw a napkin at her and she burst into a fit of the giggles. Mom kissed us and went to get ready for work. I had some stuff to do around the house before Tim got there so I headed out to get started. Tim showed up on schedule and we headed out. We took the same course we had been running for the last week but today we were actually going for time. I actually kept up for most of the course. At about eight kilometers he started pulling ahead. I picked up my pace a little but still couldn't keep up. He had almost a quarter mile on me by the time he finished. I was getting better but I still couldn't keep up. Maybe I should start running in my dreams. The thought of what Allison would have to say about that put a smile on my face as I crossed the finish. The smile got me a really strange look from Tim. "What are you smiling at?" "Oh, just thinking that despite your lead at the end, I have actually improved; and that if I have to run behind someone, I prefer the look of your sister's ass to yours." "Amen to that." "So how's her trip going?" "She must be having a good time. She hasn't even called. I figure she spent the weekend partying it up with the sisterhood. She hinted that she might but promised to make it up to me when she gets back. We're going to take in a 'movie, ' together tomorrow." He hung air quotes around movie and it wasn't hard to figure out what was really going to be going on. "Sounds like my kind of flick. But I have cable so I get to watch at home," I said with a smile. "Fuck you." "Sorry, no can do. My dance card is full. Now if you can talk your sweet sister into it, I'm sure I can make room." "Yeah, I'll bet you could. Good run, though. You really are getting better. I think we're going to have a strong team this year." We stretched, showered, and headed for the pool to watch the girls. And to think I almost gave all this up for a car. One of my more brilliant moments, if I do say so myself. Yes, with enough days like this my summer was looking really fine. That lasted until just after midnight, and then the world came crashing down around me. We were meeting with Rebecca to catch up on the latest developments. She told us all about the weekend events. When she told us about the letter and that the killer had been in Fresno watching her, it kind of creeped us all out. She mentioned that he was pretending to be a cable repairman. I didn't think much about it at the time. She mentioned the van on the tape and I got a cold feeling as something tickled at my brain. "Can you show us the video?" I asked. Everyone looked at me strangely for a second then turned to her. "Sure I guess. Bear with me a second guys, I've only done this once." She closed her eyes and the scene from the crime lab formed around us. We ran through the whole scene once but her viewpoint was too general. I had an idea. "Try it again." Again everyone looked at me strangely, but she rewound the scene and this time when it replayed I tried moving the viewpoint toward the monitor. It worked and soon we could all see a blown up, if somewhat grainy image of what appeared to be the killer moving Alicia into to empty storage unit. He already had her on the gurney. He made two trips so she speculated that he had gone back for the IV unit. You couldn't see his face in any of the images, just the top of his head moving past the van. The chill creeping up my spine got suddenly colder. Something about the van... "Rebecca, show me Fresno. I need to see the van better." "What? Why do you need to..." "Just do it! Please." "Okay, okay. Hold on a second. I never really paid much attention to it so..." "Just run the whole thing! There's something about that van." She closed her eyes again and I felt Allison's hand on my arm, "Jimmy? What's..." she stopped as the scene took shape around us showing Rebecca and Dobbs driving onto the street where Elizabeth Street had disappeared. There, straight ahead, was a man on a ladder above a van, he was obscured by the pole but it was the van that had my interest... something about the tube on top... Memories cascaded as I flashed back to a cold night last fall. I jolted upright in bed. It took a second to orient myself and then I was scrambling for my phone. I hit the speed dial and it was already ringing when Allison came in. I wasn't sure what effect my disappearing in the middle of a dream would have on everyone else, but it obviously let them know something was seriously wrong. Rebecca answered on the second ring, "Jimmy, what the hell just happened? What did you see?" I could already feel the tears coming as I answered, "The van. I've seen it before and I think I know who he has." Beside me Allison stiffened. "You what?" "Is Angela Osborne on your list? She's a runner at my school, state champion last two years, four plus g.p.a..." "Osborne? Yeah, she's on it but she's like fifteen or something, no boyfriend, no history of violence, too clean." By now Allison had her face in her hands, sobbing quietly. I wiped my own eyes, put my arm around her and pulled her to my side, stroking her arm, comforting her as much as myself. Rebecca's voice came again over the phone, "Jimmy? Talk to me, Matthews. What do you have?" I took a deep, shuddering breath and answered, "I was on a date with Angela last fall. We were parked out on an overlook talking and fooling around. We weren't doing it or anything but we had some issues to deal with. The van was parked off to one side, facing where we were parked. Think about the van for a second. There is something strange about the tube on top. It curves the wrong way." "Shit, a parabolic microphone! If it's even a little bit movable he could have heard every word Dobbs and I said in Fresno. So what did he hear that got him interested in her?" "The reason she doesn't have a boyfriend is she's sleeping with her brother, Tim." "Oh yeah, that would do it. Are you sure it's her?" "Not sure, but pretty sure. She went to Phoenix this weekend to check out the university. No one has heard from her since. She was supposed to be back yesterday. I ran with her brother today and he said she still wasn't home." "And she's not even one of the girls that you've been watching." "That wasn't really working anyway." "Hey, don't do that. Just because it didn't work doesn't make it a waste of time. It could have worked. It would have been a lot worse to not think of it until after someone was missing and wonder if you might have prevented it. No effort is wasted, if nothing else it kept you busy so you didn't dwell on it. This could be a break for us." "How can him having my friend be a break for us?" Allison answered, "Because it's someone you know and already have a link with." I guess Rebecca heard her, "Exactly. It should be, may be, easier for you to find her than one of the other girls. Okay, let's assume that it's her. No one really knows she's missing yet and we can't just call over there blind. I need a reason to call. I'm guessing she parks on the street?" "Or the driveway, her dad has so much stuff in their garage there is only room for one car and her mom parks there." "Okay, I'm going to call Bob and have him drive by and see if her car is there. This late he should be able to get there in no more than twenty minutes. Call me back in thirty minutes and I'll let you know if she's there or not. What does she drive? Just in case he doesn't know." "Older Chevy, one of the bigger ones. I think it's a Caprice. It used to be her dad's. He's got a newer one now." "Okay, got it. Call me back in half an hour, and Jimmy?" "Yeah." "Don't dwell on this. Even if you had known she was on the list, there is nothing you could have done to stop it. The only difference is that it's someone you know, and I think that's an advantage for us. Hug your sister for me and remember, even if he does have Angela, we're going to get her back." I closed the phone and hugged Allison to me, kissing her hair, holding her as she wept and trying to hold back my own tears. I wanted to call Tim so badly I could barely contain myself. But I couldn't, the questions and problems that would generate were beyond bad. I could never justify my knowledge to Tim. I moved back onto the bed, pulled Allison down beside me and held her while we waited. We didn't even speak. Time seemed to crawl by until finally a half hour passed and it was time to call. She answered on the first ring. "Hampton." "It's me." "Looks like you were right. Her car is still gone. Any chance she's just out late?" "She's been out or town for four days, no boyfriend that anyone knows about. The only person she wants to spend that kind of time with is Tim and they would never stay out this late. She's gone, Rebecca. You know it. I know it. The question is what do we do now?" "The first thing we do is you call in a tip." "Isn't that what I'm doing?" "No, I need something traceable. My cell phone will show several anonymous calls in a row if they pull the record. I want something public that I can point to before I call her parents. Will your parents freak out if you leave the house in the middle of the night?" "Probably, if they wake up, but it'll be alright. Allison can tell them what's going on." "Okay, then go to a pay phone somewhere, preferably one that's not too close to anywhere there might be a camera. Do you know any place closer than the parts store you called from the first time?" "Couldn't we just use one of those tip hotlines?" "Yes and no. I do want you to call one of them, but they won't necessarily call the Bureau, they'll pass it to local PD first. There isn't even a missing person's report on her yet so no one would act on it. But call them anyway, that way when I push the button on my end they'll take it seriously and jump." "If I told them it was connected to the other girls that were killed, would they move faster? Maybe call you right away? I could even mention you by name." "Certainly couldn't hurt, go ahead and do that, but when you're done with that call, call the Bureau hotline and leave the information with them as well. Do you have any gloves?" "Yeah, I can use the one's I use when I'm working in the yard." "Good, because when you call it in to us the call will be traced and they'll send someone out to go over the area, dust the phone, etc. I don't want your prints or your face to show up anywhere. Gloves will take care of the prints; it's just the camera I'm worried about." "There's a pay phone at the park not far from here." "Yeah, and I'll bet the lights around it have a tendency to not work. That's not an accident, Jimmy. There are likely people around there who make sure it stays that way. I'm really not comfortable with you being alone in an area that remote. Anywhere else you can go?" "I'll be fine. I promise I'll be careful, if there is someone around I'll wait until..." I was interrupted as my door opened. My dad stood framed in the doorway. "I'll take you. What do you need to do?" "Hold on, a second, my dad just walked in. He said he'll drive me, would that be okay?" "Let me talk to him." I handed my dad my phone and waited. It's always weird listening to one side of a conversation. "Hello... that's okay, I'm sure it's important... Yes... I can do that... Okay... here he is." Then to me; "I'll be ready in ten minutes. Allison, would you start some coffee, please. I think it's going to be a long night." He handed me the phone, left, and closed the door before she could answer. "It's me," I said. "Okay, your dad is going to drive you to the park. It's a bit of a risk, but I told him to take the license plates off the car. If he gets pulled over he can play dumb and say they were stolen. I'll take care of it if anything comes up, but I don't think it will be a problem. I'm more concerned with someone writing your plate number down. Wear a hat, a sweatshirt with a hood would be better, anything to keep your face covered. Call me when you get back. I may not answer right away; night watch will probably call before you get home. If you don't reach me just try back." It was almost 1:30 in the morning by now. Dad was in his pajamas, robe and slippers when he came back for me. He had already taken the plates off the car. I started to dress but he told me to stay in shorts, my sweatshirt, and just sandals. "If we get stopped, wheeze a lot, I'll tell them you're having an asthma attack and I'm taking you to an all night pharmacy for an inhaler. It won't look real if we're dressed. Don't tell me anything. Allison, I told your mother I had to take Jimmy out to call Rebecca, no details. We don't want to know anything until after the news is released. I don't want to risk either of us saying something at work." Ten minutes later I was on the phone to the WeTip hotline telling them about a missing girl and three previous murders. They gave me a fictitious name, Raphael Swenson, and a case ID number. Raphael Swenson? I guess there weren't likely to be two of those around. There were probably a couple thousand Raphael's in Southern California, but I doubted any of them had Nordic last names. The call to the FBI was a little trickier. I named Rebecca specifically as the person the information was for, listed all three dead girl's names, and then finally gave them Angela's name. They also gave me a reference number but wanted more information. It seemed to me that they were trying to keep me on the phone as long as possible so I hung up and got back in the car. Dad took a longer route home, actually driving away from the house and then looping around on the freeway to come in from the other side. He seemed to be looking in the mirror a lot more than usual. We didn't talk the whole time we were out. I called Rebecca as soon as we left the pay phone. Rebecca I was ready for the call from the night monitor when it came in. I feigned sleep when I answered and took the information. In truth I already had my copy of the girl's file out. I hung up and dialed the number. A male voice answered on the other end. "Angie, is that you?" "This is Special Agent Hampton of the FBI, to whom am I speaking?" "What? I'm sorry. I thought you were my sister calling. Did you say FBI?" "Yes sir, Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, FBI, Los Angeles. May I have your name, please?" "Tim Osborne. What's going on?" "I'm sorry, I can't answer that. Tim, are your parents home?" "Yeah, hold on. There was silence for a second, the sound of someone knocking on a door. "Dad? Dad, wake up. It's important." "Wha? Tim, what the hell are you doing? It's the middle of the night." Then a woman's voice, "What is it, dear? Is it your sister?" "No, she said she's with the FBI." The woman's voice, "Oh my God, what's wrong?" Then the man answered, "This is David Osborne. This better not be a joke." "I'm afraid not, Mr. Osborne, this is Special Agent Hampton; FBI; Los Angeles. We have reason to believe that your daughter has been abducted. I'm hoping we're wrong. Mr. Osborne, do you know where your daughter is?" "What? No, she was supposed to be back this afternoon. Are you serious? This isn't a joke? How do you know she's missing?" "We received a call from an anonymous informant, Mr. Osborne. When was the last time you had contact with Angela?" "Uh, let me think. She hasn't called since she left." "Left for where?" "Uh, Phoenix. She's going to the University this fall. She went to tour the campus and interview with some people. What's going on?" "It didn't seem strange to you that she didn't call?" "Well yeah, but she's a big girl, going away to college. We just figured she was having a good time and didn't think to call." "Mr. Osborne, I need the name of the person or persons she was to see at the University. Do you have that information available?" "Hold on." I could tell by the change in his voice that he had turned away, "Honey, do you know who Angela was seeing at the college?" He came back, "No, we don't..." Tim's voice interrupted, "I've got it. She left me her schedule." "Hold on, I'm going to give you back to my son." "Mr. Osborne, your son is a minor. Do I have your permission to talk to him about this?" "What? Oh, of course. Yes, anything that will help. You're sure something's happened to her? There's no chance this is all just a mistake? This is really happening..." "I won't be one hundred percent sure until I talk to the people she was seeing, but yes, Mr. Osborne, every indication is that you daughter has been taken." "Oh God, but why, I don't..." "Mr. Osborne, I don't have time to go into that right now. I need that information from your son." "Right, yes, here... Timmy, talk to her." "Hello." "Hello, Tim. I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you before, but I needed your parent's permission first. I know this is going to be upsetting but I need everything you can give me. Names, appointment times, everything." "What? What's going on? Did something happen to my sister?" "Tim, I understand your concern, but I can't go into that right now. I don't know anymore right now than you do. All I have is an anonymous tip. I need whatever information you can give me before I can find out. This could still all be a mistake." "Okay, hold on." Tim gave me two names; the first was a new student liaison that was to handle her orientation. The second person was with the scholarship office. I called information to get the number for the university and immediately hit a road block. The University of Arizona isn't in Phoenix. They have several campuses but the main one was down in Tucson; about a hundred and twenty miles away. I had her get me the number anyway. Calling the main switchboard got the usual recorded greeting offering general information extensions for various departments. I hit zero in hopes of being transferred to a live person, hopefully someone in security. No such luck, the message changed to another recording giving hours for the school offices. I hung up, dialed my office and had them put me through to the bureau's Phoenix office. "FBI Phoenix, Walters." "Special Agent Hampton, Los Angeles, I need a number for the main security office at the University of Arizona." "In Tucson? Are you sure you don't mean Arizona State?" "Is it in Phoenix?" "No it's in Tempe but that's like saying Hollywood isn't in LA." "Okay, give me that one too, and you may be getting a call to check on me, I'm about to wake some people up." "No problem, Agent Hampton. Anything else we can do for you." "Probably, but I won't know until I talk to someone." "UA security, Jenkins," a youngish voice answered. "This is Special Agent Hampton with the FBI. I need to speak to whoever is in charge." "Yeah right, next time why don't you try saying you're the first lady and you're calling from the White House? We've warned you kids about crank calls..." "Officer Jenkins, before you dig this particular hole any deeper I will give you a couple choices, you can put me on hold and call the bureau's Phoenix office and verify that they just gave me this number, or you can try to save a little face and put me though now, or we can discuss the penalties for obstructing a federal investigation. Please decide quickly because I don't have time for this." I paused. "What's it going to be, Jenkins?" I literally heard the gulp. "One moment please." He put me on hold and I got to listen to the recap of the schools sports record for the year. A surly voice came on the line, "UA security, Sergeant Bennett." "Sergeant Bennett, this is Special Agent Hampton; FBI; Los Angeles. I need to know if you have a liaison by the name of Louise Garcia, or, a gentleman by the name of Eugene Simmons working with the scholarship office?" "Not sure about Garcia, we've got a couple, but I know we don't have anyone named Simmons." "Thank you Sergeant." I hung up and called Arizona State. I very chipper woman's voice answered. "Arizona State University Security, my name is Sergeant Bennett, how can I help you?" What were the odds? "Sergeant Bennett, this is Special Agent Hampton; FBI; Los Angeles. I need to know if you have a liaison by the name of Louise Garcia, or, a gentleman by the name of Eugene Simmons working with your scholarship office, and if you do I need to reach one or both of them immediately." She went from chipper to professional, "I'm sorry, I can't give out personal information without..." "I understand, Sergeant. Here is the number for the Bureau's Phoenix office. Please call them, verify who I am, and either give them the numbers, call me back with them or call those two people and have them call me immediately. It is critical that I speak to one of them immediately and, no, it can't wait until morning." I gave her the local office number and my cell phone number before hanging up. All I needed was confirmation that Angela was missing and I could get serious. After the last two incidents I wanted to be sure before I jumped. The killer had been right about one thing, crying wolf was a reputation I couldn't afford, and he had done an excellent job of tearing down my credibility. It wasn't completely shot but it had suffered quite a bit in the last week. The letter in Bakersfield had actually helped me somewhat in that regard. It showed Rod that the recent events had been intentionally designed to do exactly that. I was okay within the Bureau, but rumors run quickly through the municipal departments. I don't know how responsive local law enforcement was going to be the next time I called. Finally my phone rang. "Hampton." A female voice asked, "Is this Agent Hampton with the FBI?" "Yes, are you Louise Garcia?" "Yes ma'am. Are you really with the FBI?" "Yes, Ms. Garcia, I'm really with the FBI. I believe you met with an incoming student, Angela Osborne, this weekend." "No, actually I didn't. She emailed Friday morning saying something had come up and she would have to reschedule." "Do you still have that email?" "I think so, I don't remember if I deleted it or just tagged it for follow up and reschedule. Is something wrong?" "Angela is missing." "Oh my god, are you serious?" "Thank you for your time, Ms. Garcia, I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Someone will be in touch with you shortly about the email." I hung up and called Rod. He was exactly as grumpy as I expected, "Rodriguez, this better be good." "Rod, it me. I know who he's got." "Rebecca, this better not be another one of your wild goose chases." "Not this time. Angela Osborn, runner from out in San Bernardino, she was supposed to meet with staff at Arizona State, but she never got there. They got an email saying she had to cancel. It was fake; she left home as scheduled, hasn't been seen since Friday, never called to check in with the family." "Sounds like your boy. He made sure no one would miss her for a couple days before he took her." "Oh it's our boy. You ready for the good news?" "There's good news?" "Maybe, Jimmy knows her." "And that helps how?" "He may be able to help find her. He's... bridged is the term he uses, anyway he's been in her dreams before. There's a personal connection. We're hoping that will make it easier to connect with her, possibly track down where she is." "He can... hold on a second," there was a pause, "okay, I'm in the study, Selena was giving me the stink eye. You're saying he can track her through dreams, find out where she is?" "We're not sure, but that's the hope." "On this case, I'll take all the hope you can offer. Okay, let me know if you need anything. Or, is that why you're calling?" "I don't need anything yet, but you know what my reputation is like right now. I may need help... motivating others." He chuckled. "Yeah, you might. It's your show, Bex. I'll back you up, but it better be for real this time. You can't afford another practice run." "This is it, Rod. He said so in the letter. That by the time I got it he would already have her. Well, he has her. Now I've got to get her back." "Go get him, kid. Let me know what you need. Tomorrow, not tonight." I chuckled. "Yeah, kiss the girls for me, boss. I gotta go wake some more people up." I hung up and then called Paul and woke him up. The hunt was officially on and it was time to get everyone going. A sleepy voice answered, "Freeman." "Paul, it's Rebecca. We're on. We got a lead on who he grabbed while we were chasing shadows in Bakersfield; Angela Osborne, out in the Inland Empire. Monitoring got a call-in tip a few minutes ago." "Osborne? She was way down the list, active but no current boyfriend. Why would he take her?" "I'll ask him when I catch him. Right now, I need you to go to Phoenix..." Paul was on plane to the Phoenix first thing in the morning to see what if anything he could learn from the email Louise Garcia had received. I could have had someone from the Phoenix branch do it but since Paul's background was tech he could do the job. Besides, if you ever have to justify evidence in court it helps to have as much first hand knowledge of the case as possible. As for me, I had a date with the Osbornes. I called the family back and made arrangements to meet with them later in the morning. Later being sometime after the sun came up. Mrs. Osborne was a stay at home mom so she wouldn't be a problem. Mr. Osborne was going to call in to work and arrange to be late. It was going to be a really long day. It had already been a week of long days and I was feeling the strain. Less than a week ago I had been on a plane to Fresno, then a midnight run to Bakersfield; three days in a hotel there had not been restful. Now the real show was finally starting and I was already tired. The only consolation was that the killer had been keeping a pretty busy schedule as well. Hopefully he would be tired too, because tired led to careless and careless led to mistakes. The challenge was for me not to make one before he did. A life depended on my not making the first mistake. My day improved when I called Bob and made a date for breakfast before going to see them. Maybe Easy was right and I was just in denial because it sure sounded like a good idea when he said I should just come out now instead of waiting. It turned out to be just what I needed. I felt much more relaxed and ready when I finally had to talk to Angela's family. ------- Chapter 72: The Hunt Begins Rebecca The nightmare I had been hoping to avoid had come true. In my wildest dreams I never really thought Angela was in danger. She was so far down the list... In the back of my mind I had to wonder if Amy had known this would happen. She seemed to know so much. Her warning to Jimmy that I would die if I tried to do this without him... One had to wonder. But for now all I could do was to try and make it easier on my young friends as they tried to deal with the knowledge of what had happened, was happening to their friend. That and try to catch the bastard in time to save her. The problem was that this particular bastard was being just as careful as he had always been. The letter he had left for me in Bakersfield had turned up exactly nothing. Not a shred of anything. You know that neat trick they always show you on the TV shows where they can identify the type of printer used to make the note? Sounds good, but it doesn't work so well when the note is photocopied on a bad machine, especially if it's not an original copy. Our best guess was that the note had been run through a scanner or fax machine to reproduce it, then that copy had been photocopied again, and then that copy had been stuck in the envelope for me. The only thing we were sure of was that at least one of the copies had been done on thermal paper. Oh yeah, that narrows it down. The partial fingerprint hadn't gotten me any closer either, not enough to work with. Tracking credit card purchases only works when your victim uses a credit card. Angela didn't even have a debit card. Fortunately she is a creature of habit and filled up her car at the local mini-mart before leaving. Not a lot of help but it did give us a time frame. Store video was useless. Most stores recycle their tapes or video feeds if nothing out of the ordinary happens. This particular store recycled theirs every 72 hours. Thursday had been a slow day, not so much as an attempted shoplifting. The tape had been recorded over at least once but we took it and sent it to the lab anyway. Sometimes there is enough residual signature left behind to catch an afterimage even after you have recorded over it. Kind of like deleting a file on your computer only this is a visible image. Fixed position cameras make it easier because most of the scene never changes, only the areas where someone moves through will change. The tech boys can sometimes read through the "white" to see the older shadows. I don't pretend to understand it. All I know is that sometimes you get lucky and I'll take all I can get, thank you very much. The fact that she is a regular, and a very attractive regular at that, made it a little bit easier. The clerk on duty Tuesday morning when we got there was also on Thursday. Usually the day shift is an older person; summer break had opened up extra hours for one of their younger employees. The fact that he practically drooled on the photo when I showed it to him was a positive indicator. "Angie? Oh hell yeah, sorry, I mean, yeah, she came in around... oh, maybe 9:30 or so." "Do you remember what she was wearing?" "Yeah, too much." "Excuse me?" "I'm sorry. It's just that she is sooo beautiful it's a shame to cover her up. She had on beige shorts, a white shirt with half sleeves, crew socks, and her running shoes." "Anything else?" "Thong panties and no bra." I gave him dead eyes, "And you would know this why?" He just blushed and gave me one of those 'guy' looks that said, "I can't believe you even asked me that," and I shook my head. "Yeah, I should know better." "You asked." "Never mind. What I meant was, do you remember anything else about her being here, did she say anything, buy anything..." "She picked up a pack of gum, a bottle of water, and a quart of oil for her car. Said she was heading for Phoenix. Is she all right?" "She's missing. We're trying to figure out when and where she disappeared." "That sucks. I hope she's okay." "That makes two of us. Did you happen to notice if there was a white mini-van anywhere nearby when she was here? Older Chevy or GMC, ladder rack and conduit tube on top?" "Nah, most of those are company rigs and they contract with the majors, someplace they can use their gas cards." "Thank you for your help, if you think of anything else, please give us a call." We had a little better luck when we pulled her cell phone record. She had made a call to the auto club from her cell phone about an hour after she left the mini mart, probably somewhere out past Indio. It took a while but we finally found someone who could access the right files and tell us that she had reported car trouble. They had dispatched a truck but she had been gone when they arrived. Apparently it happened often enough they didn't think it was that unusual. Sometimes the car would miraculously start again; sometimes a local competitor would stop and steal the call. Considering their response times were frequently over an hour that was happening a lot more often. But they did have a location. It was a long shot, but sometimes you get lucky. Another one of those little television tricks that doesn't always work is the one where they find that perfect imprint of the tire at the crime seen. Have you ever noticed that the imprint they get is exactly that part of the tire where someone ran over their kid's lego and it left a perfect imprint that they could match up later? Angela Osborn broke down in the desert east of Palm Springs. The only dirt for fifty miles was sand, lots or fine, powdery sand. Any imprint that may have been there was likely gone fifteen minutes later. Interstate 10 is a major artery for travelers and trucks. We had passed the Highway Patrol scales about thirty miles back, a rest stop about ten miles before that and an Indian Gaming Casino near the scales. We talked to the officers at the scales, they made notes and promised to ask the regulars if they had seen a late model Caprice broken down out near Indio. The Indians put up flyers in the entryway, the restaurant, and the big gas station next door. I don't agree with their state wide monopoly on gambling, but the Indians are good people. The FBI doesn't put up flyers for missing persons, but somehow a few of them found their way to the rest stop as well. Tuesday ended with us no closer than when we started. The Osborne's had filed a Missing Person's Report with their local PD shortly after I called and it had immediately been flagged and matched to the call from the WeTip hotline the night before. It wasn't much but it did put a few more people on the case. As soon as the local cops found out we were already on the case they handed it off to a junior detective; one Raymond Turner, whose sole responsibility was pretty much to keep up with what we were doing with the case. I didn't care, as long as they shared any information they got I would be happy. I decided early on to let their man field any press inquiries that might come up as well. It didn't take him long to figure out he was over his head. As soon as the press asked about the previous murders he clammed up and hid behind the old tried and true, "I'm not really at liberty to discuss it at this time. It is an ongoing investigation and we will let you know as soon as more information becomes available." He even managed to keep my name out of it. I was starting to like him already. If he could keep it up he had a bright future ahead of him. Jimmy Tuesday was a tough day. I don't think I've ever wanted a day to end so much in my life. My friend, a girl I cared a great deal for, was in the hands of a sadistic killer being tortured and raped and I couldn't do a thing about it while I was awake. Asleep I at least had a chance to reach her, let her know we were, or at least Rebecca was, looking for her and hopefully give her some kind of comfort and relief from her ordeal. Awake I was useless. It gave me a whole new perspective on the limitations of my abilities, and a new respect for people like Rebecca who could at least do something. We still hadn't even told our parents the details. On days when I'm supposed to be running with Tim I just do a quick mile or so to wake myself up. After so many years of starting my day that way I just didn't feel quite right if I didn't run. When I mentioned it to Allison she just shook her head, called me a junkie and suggested I seek help before it destroyed my life. I called Rebecca when I got back. I got her voice mail so I left a message and called Bob to see if he knew what was going on. He told me that she was over meeting with the family already. He also passed on what Rebecca had learned so far. The fake email was pretty much the clincher. I had been right, and the killer had Angela. The police had been called early in the morning and the report filed. Since the killer already knew Rebecca was involved and there was no longer any need for secrecy, the story had already made the morning news. The local detective handling the case had met with reporters early and released the basic information of Angela's disappearance. The media immediately tried to reach the family but so far the Osborne's weren't seeing anyone. The yard had been taped off and the reporters were currently camped out on the sidewalk waiting for the next bone to be thrown their way. Bob said he'd call me as soon as he heard anything but that for now he had to go to the school and pretend he didn't know anything about any of this. I thanked him and hit the shower. By the time I got out of the shower Allison had my toast and juice waiting for me. Mom was up having coffee and Dad had skipped his run and gone to work early. "So, can you tell me what's going on yet?" Mom asked. "It was a bad night," I said. I took a long drink of my juice and sat down. "We were meeting with Rebecca, going over the latest developments. The good news is she found the missing girl. The bad news is that it was another setup by the killer. He took this girl just so Rebecca would go looking for her, stashed her in one of those rental storage places with a machine pumping drugs into her to keep her quiet for the weekend. When she woke up she started screaming her head off and they found her. They think he may even be the one that called in the disturbance." "You're kidding." "No, Rebecca said the call trace came up blank. He even left a note, addressed to Rebecca personally. I still haven't figured out how he found out she was on the case. Anyway, he said he was watching her in Fresno and that by the time we found this girl it would be too late to stop him from getting the one he really wanted." "So this was what, a diversion?" "Yeah, seems to be. He just wanted to make sure Rebecca was out of the way, and it worked." "So you got the girl back but now he's got someone else you don't know?" "Worse," I said. I could feel tears forming, "We know who he has." I took a deep breath to try and calm myself but it didn't work. I knew if I tried to speak I'd lose it. Allison rescued me. "He's got Angela." Mom was just starting to take a sip of her coffee and almost dropped her cup, "Oh my God! Your friend Angela? The one you went to Prom with?" That was it. I lost it. Tears poured from my eyes and all I could do was nod. Allison was leaking a little too as she held my hand and tried to comfort me. Mom waited patiently for me to recover, sipping her coffee and wiping her own eyes to clear the moisture that had formed there as well. Finally it passed and I could speak again. "I'm sorry, I just..." She cut me off, "Don't apologize. You needed that. Better to do it now and put it behind you so you can focus on what needs to be done next." "What's that?" Allison asked. "I don't know, but whatever it is, you can't afford to break down in the middle of it. Better to do it now, get it over with, so you don't have to worry about it later. I'm sorry if that isn't the 'mommy' thing to say, but this isn't a 'mommy' moment. This is the real thing and this is how you have to play if you don't want to lose your mind. How did you find out who it was? You're sure it was her?" "Not a hundred percent at first but we are now. She was supposed to be going to Phoenix to tour the University, and then back early yesterday. No one has heard from her since she left. Rebecca called the college and they got a fake email saying she couldn't make it and had to reschedule. That pretty much clinched it. I figured it out last night; they caught some footage from a nearby convenience store that appeared to show the killer putting the missing girl in the storage unit. The wall blocked most of it but you could make out the top of the van he was using. I recognized something on the van. He was watching Angela and me the night we went out back before Christmas. I called Rebecca and told her everything I could think of, including that Angela hadn't made it back yet; Tim told me that when we ran yesterday. She had me call it in on the tip line so there was an official record. That's what I needed Dad for last night. Once the tip was on record, she called the family and got the name of the people in Phoenix Angela was supposed to meet with. They told her about the email, like I said, that pretty much sealed it. I need to call Rebecca back to see what's going on and what else I can do." "Well then, call her. I have to get ready for work. Allison, why don't you make him an omelet or something? This kind of stress takes a lot out of the body and he's going to need to keep his strength up. You should eat something too. Try not to worry, from what you've told me, you still have time to find her. She has something that the other girls didn't. She has you and Rebecca looking for her. You'll find her. I know you will." She kissed us both and left. At least I got one of Allison's killer omelets. Rebecca couldn't call the house and I knew she was busy so I tried not to stress about it. When she was ready to talk she would call Bob, he would call me, and then I could call her. It was a pain, but we just couldn't risk the house number showing up on her call record anywhere. The worst part of my morning was that I had to pretend to not know about any of it when I called Tim to see if he was coming over to run. After all, how many sixteen year olds do you know who watch the morning news? "I... can't make it today. Something's come up." His voice was shaky as he tried to talk. "Tim, what's up? You sound like crap. Is something wrong?" "It's Angie?" "Angie? What's wrong with Angie? Is she sick or something?" This part really hurt, "She party a little too much with the girls in Phoenix?" "No! God I wish it was just that." He paused and took a deep breath. I knew what was coming and how hard it was for him to say it. "Angie's been kidnapped. She never..." "Oh, yeah right. Let me guess, your mom went out and the two of you are making up for the weekend. It's me; you don't have to make up..." His angry voice cut me off, "Listen to me, asshole! My sister is fucking missing! She never made it to Phoenix. The FBI woke me up at 2:00 in the fucking morning. They were at my house all morning." "Oh my God! Dude, I thought you were pulling my chain. What happened? Wait. Don't answer. Listen, I'm sorry, why don't you come over anyway so we can talk. If you try and talk about this in front of other people it's going to kill you. Just grab your running stuff, tell them you have to get out for a while. I'm sure they'll understand. Jesus!" I turned away from the phone, god I hated this. "Allison," I called. "Angie's missing... Yeah, Tim's coming over." Allison made all the appropriate noises in the background and I spoke back into the phone. "Dude, beat it over here so we can talk. We don't need to run if you don't want to, but you need to get out of there." That was my dirty deed for the day. Allison's was almost as hard. She had to tell Shannon. Poor Shannon always seems to be the last to know anything. I couldn't get back to sleep to bridge her, and we certainly couldn't call her up in the middle of the night and tell her what was going on. Especially since it was information that hadn't been released and we weren't supposed to have. I had standing permission to drive Shannon anywhere we were going so rather than tell her on the phone I asked my mom if I could take her to work so I'd have the car, you know, just in case, then I picked Shannon up on the way back, and brought her back to our house. Well, I tried to anyway; she immediately wanted to know what was going on, so once we were a couple blocks from the house I pulled over and gave her the basics. When I told her that Angela was the one the killer had taken she gasped and burst into tears. Suddenly I found myself repeating all the positive comments I had heard over the course of the morning. They sounded different repeating them to Shannon versus hearing them spoken to me. There was a definite positive feeling that seemed to come with repeating them and I decide that if necessary I would repeat them to myself when I started feeling negative. Tim hadn't arrived by the time I got back and both girls cried again when we got back into the house. "Okay," I said, after the initial tears had passed. "We have to be careful when Tim gets here. Remember, we don't 'know' anything. We didn't see it on the news, so we don't know what has been released to the public, so when Tim gets here we ask questions and act shocked, surprised, angry, or whatever else we need to as the information comes out. Whatever you do, don't answer any questions or mention Rebecca's name. I'm going to have to go online and see if we can find a copy of the news reports that have been released so we don't make any mistakes talking to anyone later, but for now, we don't know anything. We can try to steer the conversation into specific areas so he can tell us what he knows and then it will be safe to talk about it, but we need to pay attention so we don't mention anything that he hasn't already covered. Just be careful. I don't think it would go over well if he found out we knew about all this before he did, much less knowing about it all year and not saying anything to him or Angie." "But we didn't know she was on the list," Shannon said. "We should have guessed," Allison countered. "We knew the requirements; we knew the situation and how closely she actually fit. If Rebecca had known about her and Tim she would have been a lot higher on that list. She's been State Champion two years running, top student, scholarships offers coming from everywhere. We blew it assuming that 'no one' knew about their relationship." She stopped for a second before continuing, "And now she's paying the price." "That's not fair, Allison," I said. "Whether we had known or not would not have changed anything. In fact it would have been a lot harder on us if we had known." By now they were both looking at me. "Rebecca knew she was on the list, she also knew that she was a friend of ours. When we first discussed going to see Samantha, Shannon asked if she could look like Angela. So she knew then, but she couldn't say anything to us because we might have said something or done something that made a difference. And then the killer might know we were watching for him and move somewhere else. Even if we had known, and somehow managed to not react to that knowledge, there is still nothing we could have done to prevent this. Even with Rebecca on his case, he still managed to kidnap two girls in the top ten; Angela wasn't that high on the list so even if the FBI had tried putting watchdogs out on the girls they probably wouldn't have covered her anyway. We had no way of knowing that the killer knew about Tim and Angela. What ticks me off is that he probably found out from Angie and me that night we went shopping. I wish I knew how he found out about Rebecca." "Well you could always try asking her," Shannon said. "I plan to. Next time I see her, which should be tonight." I caught a flash of light reflecting on the wall and turned to see Tim's car pulling up outside. The girls met him at the door and I stood back as they hugged him and asked what happened. They eventually pulled him onto the couch and sat on either side of him as he told us everything he knew. He mentioned Rebecca early on so at least we didn't have to worry about dropping her name by accident. In fact I got to have a little fun with it when he started to run out of news. "So, this FBI chick, is she like, hot or what?" The girls quickly emptied the couch of pillows as they showered me with everything they could reach but it did help to lighten the mood. Once we had all had a bit of a laugh Tim got serious again. "Dude, I'm really worried about her, the FBI chick..." "Please, let's just call her Rebecca, or Agent Hampton, or something. Anything is better than 'the FBI chick, '" Shannon said, rolling her eyes and giving me a wink where he couldn't see it. "Okay, anyway, Rebecca said they think he's already killed three other girls and never got caught." "That may be true," Allison said. "But chances are he didn't have the FBI working on the case either." "There is that," Tim admitted. "She said they just figured out this year that it was the same guy. The girls were hundreds of miles apart so no one connected them." "There, you see. Angela has an ace in the hole. The big dogs are on his case this time. I bet this Rebecca chick nails his ass." Tim blushed and mumbled, "I'd let her nail mine." The girls promptly picked up the nearest two pillows and started beating him. We all felt better now that the tension had been released a little bit. Tim and I did go for a run and it was all I could do to keep up. He ran like he was possessed. I finally had to stop him. "Whoa, hold up there a second," I said after putting on a burst and grabbing his arm. "What are you doing? You're going to run yourself out; you're not paying any attention to anything." He realized I was right as he tried to catch his breath enough to answer. Finally he got enough wind and said, "Dude, you're so right. I don't even know where we've been. I haven't paid attention to anything since we left your house." Boy did this sound familiar. "Right, that's what I mean. It's like you're trying to run away from this. Like if you run far enough fast enough it will be different or something when you stop. Let's take a fiver and walk around for a bit, then we'll just head for the house and get in some extra stretching. This isn't doing either of us any good running like this." Karen stopped by just after dinner, on her way back from Los Angeles. Tom waited in the car while she came in to give us the latest updates. When she had finished we gave her the news about Angela and she hugged Shannon as she cried again. She decided to just let Shannon spend the night since there wasn't really much she could do at home anyway. The rest of Karen's day would be spent helping Tom deal with his latest treatments, trying to get him to eat something and eventually helping him get to bed. We all went out to the car to see him. He really didn't want anyone to see him like this but we made it clear that we really didn't care what he wanted. Dad shook his hand, everyone else hugged him, the ladies all kissed his cheek and we tried to be convincing about not noticing the tears in his eyes at the outpouring of love and support. He didn't look good. Karen had said it was hard to get him to eat anything. He had no real appetite and food just felt and tasted bad in his mouth. It was all you could do to get him to swallow it. I suddenly had an idea I wanted to talk to Bob about when we got together later. So now there were two good things about the day ending. Shannon was spending the night, and I could finally get started trying to find my friend. Getting to sleep proved to be a bit of a problem. I was so keyed up about everything even social studies couldn't distract me enough to relax, and since Shannon was there Allison couldn't come in and snuggle me to sleep either. If it had been later and the parents had had time to fall asleep they could have both come in but that was not really an option until much later. Eventually I did fall asleep and the very first thing I did was 'feel' for Angela. I couldn't pick up the barest hint of her anywhere so I headed for the office to meet with the rest of the team. Rebecca brought us up to speed on all the developments of the day. She also made sure we understood the importance of not 'knowing' anything that had not already been released. Once that was done and we were all caught up I sent everyone but Bob to the beach to play with the dolphins so we could talk. "So what's on your mind? I get the impression this is nothing to do with the case. Even if it was something you didn't want to share with Rebecca, you would have let the girls stay. What's on your mind?" "It's Shannon's dad. He's having a tough time with chemotherapy and I had kind of a radical idea. You know how Allison had that theory that I was subconsciously manipulating people, particularly in dreams?" "The projection thing, yeah I remember it." "I was wondering if maybe if I bridged him I might be able to do something about his appetite. Karen says he's just not hungry and it's all she can do to get him to eat. He's lost a lot of weight already. I don't know if it would work but if there's any chance..." "That's a very interesting question. From Allison's description, you have been affecting people two ways. You seem to be broadcasting your own emotions onto your sexual partners and overloading them to the point of passing out. You also seem to be, I don't want to say coercing, but influencing people you come in contact with. I'm guessing you're thinking more along that line." "Yeah, pretty much." "Well, I think in that case you may in fact have something. What you are doing, or seem to be doing is like an instant post-hypnotic suggestion. Do you understand what that is?" "Well, I've heard the term but..." "Most people have. What it comes down to is planting an idea in the subconscious that the subject has no knowledge of and therefore no conscious control over. It's been used in therapy for many years, usually in the area of substitution. Take smoking for instance. You subconsciously substitute chewing gum for cigarettes so instead of craving a cigarette, they pull a stick of gum instead." "Okay, that's kind of what I what I had in mind. I wanted to see if I could actually make him hungry after chemo instead of losing all of his appetite." "It's a radical idea and I would love to see you try it. Do you want my help?" "Yeah, I'm really nervous about trying it." "Well, you couldn't have picked a better case to try. I don't want to sound negative, but you literally have nothing to lose. The recovery rate for cancer patients who maintain even a halfway decent diet during treatment is much higher than those who don't. Chemo is hell on the body. On a body that is malnourished and can't fight back it's practically a death sentence." I ended up bridging Tom invisibly and taking Bob along for the ride. We put together a scenario in Tom's mind where chemo was actually seen as an intense workout and left him hungry. I also implanted the suggestion that food tasted better after chemo instead of losing its flavor. Instead of actually tasting the food he would experience vivid memories of what it tasted like. The mind is a powerful tool. We were about to see how powerful. Could the suggestions we implanted over-ride the reality of Tom's taste buds? We would know soon enough. The rest of the night was too depressing for words. When we left Tom we went straight to the beach to play with Rebecca and the girls. I kept searching for signs of Angela all night and never got a single hint that she was anywhere out there. It was beyond frustrating. Was I trying too hard? Did he have her drugged? The one thought I clung to was that she couldn't be dead. Angela would fight; there was no doubt in my mind about that. The question was, for how long. By morning I was bordering on depression. Everyone was very supportive over breakfast. It was nice not having to try and hide anything from anyone for a change; everyone here knew what was going on. "Don't let it get you down, son," Dad said as he downed the last of his coffee before heading off for work. "It's still early in the game. I'm sure there could be a lot of things that could be causing it. Your own stress being one of them. You'll find her, son. I know you will." He kissed my mother and left. "On top of everything else I forgot to talk to Rebecca about how the killer figured out she was looking for him." "Oh, didn't I tell you?" Allison answered. "It was the girl in San Diego; the one that was killed. Somebody leaked that she was on an FBI watch list to the press." "What? When did you find this out?" "Last night. While you stayed behind to talk to Bob, Shannon and I asked her about it while we were playing with the dolphins. He said it in the letter, even included a clipping from the paper. She figured it had to be that idiot cop that gave her a bad time. He's the only one she told why she was there." "So what's she going to do about it?" I asked. "There probably isn't anything she can do," Mom said. "If the paper cited an anonymous source; she has no proof that it was him. The paper won't admit it and even if they did, it's their word against his that he talked. They'd be fools to talk; they'd never get another story as long as they lived. Sadly it seems to be happening more and more these days." I was more than a little ticked off. "So he tips off a serial killer that the FBI is on to him, as a result of which two innocent girls are kidnapped just for fun and the killer is going to be even more careful, and the cop just walks? He may decide to kill Angela sooner just to cut the risk. I'm sorry but that just sucks." Mom put her hand on mine. "I know, son, but there's nothing you can do about it. They have the full protection of the United States Constitution; freedom of the press, self incrimination. No one can touch them." I didn't say anything out loud but a voice in the back of my head said, "Want to bet?" After Mom had gone to work I fired up my computer and went surfing. I tracked down the article on the death of Celeste Boudreau and then did a search for all articles by the same writer. I hit the jackpot first try. He had an entire page dedicated to him that included all the usual stuff you would expect from an arrogant, self-centered, pompous windbag. Oh, sorry, from a highly respected journalist; awards, opinions, past columns, and the one thing I wanted most of all. A nice big portrait. I sat for several minutes absorbing as many of the details as I could about the man and then did a little research to find out who he submitted the story through. A call to the paper's toll free line got me the name of his editor and I looked up what I could about him as well. The girls were in their accustomed position out by the pool. "What have you been up to all this time," Allison asked, "while we sat out here all alone and wishing we had a good hard man to care for us?" "A little research project." I answered. "Really? And what were you researching?" Shannon asked with a smile. "Just some information I wanted for tonight." "Tonight? You mean like after we're asleep tonight?" Allison asked more intently. "Can we play too?" "Actually, no. This is pretty much a one man operation. You're welcome to come along and watch but you'll have to be invisible." I gave them both a look. "And behave yourselves." "Oh, come on, now where's the fun in that. What are you going to be doing while we're being good?" "Dispensing a little personal justice and teaching someone to keep his mouth shut." "Ooh, going to play Mission Impossible with a certain San Diego County lawman?" "Not exactly what I had in mind. The mission impossible part is going to be getting the guy from the paper to admit it was him that leaked the story. That and I need confirmation from Rebecca on the guy. If she gives it to me, that's one thing, otherwise I'll have to get her to relive the memory so I can get enough on him to bridge him directly. Then I've got a little surprise for him." "Sounds like fun," Allison said. "You know I always like to play with you. What about you Sha? Want to come along?" "Oh, I don't know... I was going to wash my hair but... Are you kidding? I learned my lesson letting you have all the fun with that bastard, Frank Watkins. Besides, I love to watch the master dreamweaver in action. Where are we going to start?" We started out with Rebecca as usual. The latest developments in the case were not encouraging but she had gotten a few leads. The casino people had put all of the available information on Angela on their website and broadcast an email to their player's club members. They had gotten several promising contacts which Rebecca had followed up on. One couple remembered seeing the car on the side of the road, another had actually seen a tow truck backed up in front of it with the bed rolled back and ready to load. They had seen the driver of the tow truck hooking up the Caprice to the cable but there had been no sign of anyone else. The placards on the side of the truck had turned out to be for a tow service that did not exist in southern California. Early this morning, the Highway Patrol had recovered a stolen tow truck that had been missing for over a week. Or what was left of it anyway. The truck had been located by the fire department, on fire in an empty parking lot behind a closed up building about two blocks from the tow yard it belonged to. As the truck had burned the new layers of paint had pealed away first, revealing the old badging underneath. The techs had the truck and were going over it but it could be days before they found anything. Rebecca's personal opinion was that they would not find anything and that is was a stall to try and get them to waste time. The only thing they knew for sure was that the firebomb had been remotely triggered. No telling how long the truck had actually been sitting there. The bureau was also following up with local electrical and cable companies to see if any drivers had suddenly quit or disappeared. Neither the camera at the mini-mart nor Rebecca's dream had contained a license plate. Yeah, shocking. "So who was this cop that leaked the story to the press and what are you going to do about him?" I asked after we had run out of new information. "His name's Mikkelson, and there's nothing I can do. We made the obligatory call to the paper and they made the standard refusal to reveal their source but he's the only one I told about her involvement in our case. So unless he told someone else and they told the paper... Somehow I don't see that happening, but we can't prove anything. Unless he has a sudden attack of guilt and confesses, there's not much chance of anything happening. And considering what most law enforcement and government agencies think of people who talk to the press it would be career suicide to admit it, so I don't see that happening any time soon." "I don't know about getting a confession but I think I may be able to make him regret doing it and think twice about doing it again. I don't suppose I could get you to show him to me? Maybe replay your conversation so I can get a feel for him." "It won't do you any good, Jimmy; people like him don't care what you say. You can talk to him until you're blue in the face and he won't care. Are you sure you would want to risk the exposure on a dead end like that?" We hadn't shared our little adventures rescuing Samantha and then later messing with Frank Watkins. All Rebecca had ever seen was our conversations, moving here and there, and me going troll at the beach. She still didn't realize exactly how far my abilities in dreams extended. I caught Bob looking at me intently and it was obvious he knew I was up to something, but he didn't say anything and that's all that mattered. "I'd like to try anyway. It's fairly simple to make sure he doesn't know it's me. I've been researching the article and found a picture of the guy at the paper, so I'll just go as him." She still thought it was a waste of time but she showed me her conversation with Sergeant Mikkelson. We ended up not needing the information on the guy from the paper at all. Mikkelson was a thirty five year veteran of law enforcement. If he had been a better cop he could have retired a long time ago, or at least been promoted to a higher level. He still had three years to go with San Diego before he reached his pension. A career in law enforcement had been his goal since he was a young teenager. The problem was, he wanted it for all the wrong reasons. Two years taking college classes, then the academy, and he was on the street with a badge, a gun, an ego and an attitude. He went through three departments in five years, each time leaving just ahead of administrative action for various problems. He seemed to settle down after that but in truth he finally realized that if he kept going the way he was he was going to be out of a job at best, and in jail if he wasn't careful. He got smart. He still barely dodged a bullet in an internal investigation into graft and bribery. The only thing that saved him was that the primary witness against him had died when they raided his drug operation. That had been eighteen years ago and Mikkelson had left the department the following year when it became clear that he had hit the ceiling as far as promotions were concerned. They couldn't prove anything and he wasn't going to stick around until they could. He had put out resumes all around the country and jumped when he got the offer from San Diego County. His years of experience had started him higher up the ladder and kept him out of a lot of the entry level jobs, as well as the entry level shifts. On the surface he had kept his nose clean. He made detective quickly and the attitude got promoted right along with him. He was a fairly good cop though; he had a good success record on his cases and hadn't gotten into any serious trouble. He was clearly biding his time and hoping to either retire or perhaps land one of those brass ring cases that would open the door to bigger and better things. His boyhood dreams of being the sheriff had been twisted, bent, abused, and mistreated, but they had never died. He was three years older than Sheriff Dobbs up in Fresno, but he never had been, and never would be half the cop. Steven Mikkelson often dreamed of work. Usually he dreamed of a department with him in charge. Tonight his dream was starting out along far more mundane lines. He was at his desk when the phone rang. He didn't recognize the number on the caller ID but he knew the voice. "Don't say my name," the familiar voice said. "Something weird is going on. I just got out of a meeting in my... with my boss and two lawyers. It was about that dead girl from a while back. Someone is putting on a lot of heat to get to my source. Watch your back." There was a click and the line went dead. As he started to hang up he thought he heard something and put the phone back to his ear. There was just the normal dial tone but for just a second he thought he had heard a second click. He passed it off as his imagination but a few minutes later the phone rang again. It was his boss. "My office, now." This time he was sure he heard a second click. He got up, locked his desk and headed across the floor to the glass office in the corner. The conversation didn't improve when he got there. "Close the door." This was not starting well. "Mikkelson, you've been a pain in my ass since the day I walked through the door. I just spent twenty minutes on a conference call with the Sheriff himself and one Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FB fucking I. Why didn't you tell me the feds were interested in the Boudreaux girl?" "I met Hampton at the scene; she showed up in a stretch fucking limo with a CHP escort and wanted into my crime scene. I politely inquired why she wanted in; she told me the girl was on a watch list for a serial she was tracking. The MO didn't fit her guy so I denied her access. Seemed pretty cut and dried to me." "Did it also seem pretty cut and dried when you told her partner to go fuck himself when he called you in the first place? She was only there because you wouldn't answer some simple questions." "He was a junior pencil neck..." "Shut up! He was federal officer tracking a killer who may or may not have been involved in the death of that girl. All you had to do was tell him the details and he would have known it wasn't their guy. Then you wouldn't have known the details of their case and those details would not have ended up in the paper and I would not be getting my ass reamed for breakfast!" A desk drawer opened and closed and a plastic bag with the newspaper article zipped into it landed on the desk. "Do you know what this is?" "Yeah, it's a copy of an article on the Boudreaux girl. There's one in the file." "Well this particular copy is from a different file. I got it via Fed-X this morning. I have to send it back by tomorrow. The file it belongs to is on a girl named Alicia Sanderson. Miss Sanderson was also on the hot list for the FBI's killer of the month. She disappeared last week. Your girlfriend from the FBI spent three days chasing all over Bakersfield before they found her. She had been strapped to a gurney and locked in a storage unit with a med-pump full of sedatives stuck in her arm. This particular copy of that newspaper article was left in an envelope addressed to 'Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI, ' not just the FBI, but her specifically, along with a note identifying this article as the reason he knew she was looking for him. All because you blew her cover! You outed a federal officer working a serial killer that has already killed three fucking times! As a result of you shooting your mouth off to the press, he kidnapped a girl in Fresno. She was bait to smoke the FBI out. They found her unconscious in an empty house across the street from her own home. Then he took the Sanderson girl. Guess why he took her?" "I have no idea why he took either of them. What is all this? I didn't tell anybody anything." "He took the Sanderson girl because he needed to make sure that the FBI would be busy while he was kidnapping the girl he really wanted all along. A girl that has spent the last five days in the hands of a man who has tortured, raped, and killed three girls already. And it's your fucking fault, asshole!" "It is not my fault, I didn't do anything." "Bullshit! You don't get it do you? You haven't figured it out yet. You think this is as bad as it gets when you do something this stupid. You think you're just going to have a bad dream about getting chewed out by the boss, wake up and walk away. I got a hot news flash for you Stevie boy; you're not walking away from this one." Suddenly the room darkened, the desk and the man behind it vanished and Mikkelson found himself in a chair facing a large movie screen. Images began appearing on the screen. At first they were simply images of a girl; late teens, blonde, athletic build. She reminded him vaguely of the Boudreaux girl. The scenes showed her in different settings; shopping, eating at a restaurant with friends, working in a department store at the local mall. There was no sound, but there was something else going on. He was feeling weird when he watched her. Anticipation, lust. Emotions he had never felt before, not like this anyway. Mikkelson tried to get up and leave but found he couldn't move. Suddenly it was late at night, the mall parking lot was pretty full and the girl was walking to her car. When she got to the car her key wouldn't work so she walked around to the passenger side to try the other door. As she opened the door and leaned in to unlock the driver's side she suddenly collapsed onto the seat. A thrill of triumph shot through Steven Mikkelson as the sliding door of the van opened and two strong arms pulled the girl inside. The images that followed and the accompanying emotions were almost more than the veteran police officer could take. He watched helplessly as the girl was brutalized physically and emotionally. With each conquest her resistance was beaten down. She fought, she struggled, she screamed, threatened, pleaded, begged... First he beat her into submission, then he raped her, then the cycle started over, and over. Mikkelson felt it all, every conquest, every penetration, every rush of climax, all of it. Steven Mikkelson, thirty-five year law enforcement veteran awoke sweating and sobbing in his bed. His wife of fifteen years lay staring at him. She had been trying for several minutes without success to wake him up. Gasping for breath, Mikkelson scrambled out of bed and lurched drunkenly into the bathroom. A cold washcloth on his face and the back of his neck seemed to break the last of the tension and he told himself it was only a dream. Just a dream, no one could prove it was him that talked to the paper. This was just a bad dream. A guilty conscience telling him he screwed up. But if it was only a dream, then who was that girl, and why could he still hear her screaming? "I hope you're never that mad at me," Shannon said as she hugged me. It had been tough doing that to Mikkelson. Sure he deserved it, but still, it was a lot to put someone through. I should know. Allison must have known what I was thinking. "He got off easy," she said. "He deserved a lot worse than that." "Yeah, he probably did," I said. "But it was hard doing that to him. I know what it's like, trust me. He'll remember that for a while. He should think twice before leaking information again." I hugged them both to me as we sat in the cabana with our feet dandling into the warm water. "I'm glad you two decided to come along. A part of me wanted to do more. I might have if you hadn't been there." "More?" Shannon said. "I think you made your point. Like I said, I hope you're never that mad at me." I kissed her hair and whispered, "I could never be that mad at you. You would never even consider doing anything bad enough to deserve that." "I know that, but the guy's going to be having nightmares of that for a while." "Good," Allison said. She paused as we both stared at her. "Don't look at me like that. That fucker is the reason Angela is not here right now." "Allison, that's not fair." Once again I found myself repeating what others had told me, "We don't know that. We may not have been able to prevent him from taking her no matter what we did. And even if we had, he would have just taken someone else." "That doesn't make it right. He spilled the beans on an investigation that may have caught this guy, granted that's a long shot, but I'll take a long shot if it means no one else has to be tortured and killed. Who knows what other damage he has caused over the years?" Shannon finally gave in, "Okay, okay, so maybe he deserved it. Not to change the subject but speaking of Angela... any signs?" I shook my head, "Nothing." I had been sort of feeling for Angela all night. Sometimes I just tried to bridge her, or bring her to me, most of the time I just tried to 'sense' her. I'd felt her before when she was dreaming of me. It seemed that once I'd bridged someone all I had to was think of them and I could sense them even if they weren't dreaming of me, even tell what they were dreaming. I should have still been able to find her. She just wasn't there. I was really starting to worry that this wouldn't work. We went out to play with Zeus and Hera for a while. I'm not sure how long we were there but suddenly someone screamed in my head. I heard it and felt it at the same time, I knew without thinking who it was. Angela! Suddenly I was awake in my bed with the alarm screaming beside me. ------- Chapter 73: So Close and Yet so Far "You don't understand; I had her, it was just for a second but I'd swear I felt her." I had tried to get back to sleep after my alarm went off but the adrenaline rush it had generated wouldn't allow it. Eventually I had given up and gone for my morning warm-up run. I was talking to Mom and Allison before getting in the shower. "I do understand that," Mom said. "And I understand that you're upset that you woke up and couldn't try to actually, what do you call it? Bridge her. But beating yourself up over it isn't going to help. You need to be thinking about what this means." "What?" I asked, shaking my head, "I don't know what you mean." She shook her head and answered, "I don't know what I mean. Looking for a reason I guess. I don't know how all this works, how any of it works. Why would you not be able to reach her at night for two days but suddenly this morning she shows up?" Allison gave her head one of those funny twists as she thought about it, and then said, "Maybe she hasn't been asleep." "What?" I asked. "Maybe the whole reason you haven't been able to reach her is just so obvious we never even thought of it. Maybe the reason you couldn't reach her is that she wasn't dreaming, either because he's done something to her, drugged her maybe, or because she wasn't asleep, or at least not long enough to reach a dream state. Call Rebecca. I wish that conference calling thing worked here like it does in your dreams. We could really use Bob's advice on this as well." Mom stood up and poured herself another cup of coffee. "See, there you go, just like I said. All you had to do was think about it. I have to get ready for work." She set her coffee cup down and hugged us both from behind. "I'm very proud of you both. And I'm sure you'll figure this out." I went to my room, got my phone and called Rebecca. I had no fear of waking her; she's a five o'clock flower like me. I was surprised when I discovered she runs in the mornings too. She answered on the second ring. "Hampton." "Hi, it's me. I almost had her this morning." "Really! That's great, but what do you mean almost?" "Just what I said; I tried all night but couldn't find her, then this morning I got a sudden flash, but just as I got it my alarm clock went off and woke me up. We've been talking and we think maybe the reason I haven't been able to reach her is because he's either done something to her, like maybe drugged her, or that she just hasn't been asleep. Like he's keeping her awake or just not letting her sleep long enough to dream." There was a pause before she answered, "It could be either of those. Sleep deprivation is a classic technique for breaking someone down, and it fits his pattern; methodical, careful, systematic in what he does. I'm worried if that's the case, the level of disorientation that can cause may stop her from fighting back. We certainly don't want that." "No, we certainly don't. Assuming I can get through to her is there anything I can do that will help." "Surprising as it may seem," she answered sarcastically, "I'm not an expert on torture. Believe it or not the FBI doesn't actually do that sort of thing; perhaps you could try the CIA? Just kidding, ask Bob, maybe he will have some answers. The only suggestion I have is that if you get through to her, stress how important it is that she keep fighting." "Yeah, I figured that one out already. I'll call Bob and see if he has any ideas." Actually I did have an idea, but it depended on how my other experiment was going. I had another call to make before I tried Bob. I picked up the house phone and dialed. Karen sounded tired when she answered the phone, "Hello." "Hi, Karen, just wondering how Tom is doing this morning? He didn't look good last night and I was worried about him." "Well thank you, Jimmy. I truly appreciate your concern. Actually he seems to be doing much better this morning. Not only did he finish his breakfast he actually asked for more. It's very encouraging. I called the doctor to make sure it was okay to give him extra and they were thrilled." "That's great, Karen. Well, give him our love. I think Allison wants to talk to Shannon. She's giving me 'the look.'" She actually laughed at that one, "Oh no! Not 'the Look.' Let me get her for you. Thanks for calling, Jimmy, really. It means a lot to me." "Well, hearing you laugh means a lot to me. Here's Allison, you can talk to her while you're hunting for Shannon." Allison had been looking at me like I was insane but she played along, "Hi, Karen. So Tom's doing better? Cool..." I was already walking away and dialing Bob's cell phone. He didn't answer so I left a message for him to call me back. Odd that he wouldn't answer his phone but I didn't have time to dwell on it as Allison was finishing with Shannon. "So what was that all about?" she asked. "I don't know. I just needed a reason to get off the line so I could call Bob. What did you and Shannon talk about?" "Nothing. I told her I was covering for you because you were up to something and we made girl talk for a few minutes. She's coming over tonight. So what exactly are you up to?" "I was checking on something I did last night with Tom. I kind of tweaked his subconscious to try and improve his appetite and how he perceives food." "You did what?" "Well, you know that whole subconscious projection thing you brought up and how it seems to be a lot stronger in dreams?" "You went into Tom's dream and played with his subconscious? I hope that's what you were talking to Bob about. It sounds kind of risky. What exactly did you do?" "Of course I talked to Bob about it first! I'm not stupid enough to try that on someone without professional advice. In fact, I had Bob come along and watch what I did." "Which was?" "Well, Bob thinks that what I'm doing is sort of an instant post-hypnotic suggestion, so what I did was plant the idea that Tom's chemotherapy is like a workout so he gets hungry afterward. I also sort of changed the way he tastes food; instead of actually tasting what is in his mouth at the moment, he remembers what it is supposed to taste like. It's like I bypassed the taste buds entirely." "Wow, I never thought you could do something like that. I wonder if you gave him something blindfolded and told him it was something else, what he would taste? You know that has serious potential." "Yeah, it does. The reason I called just now was to see if it was working or not. Rebecca is worried that the killer may break Angela down sooner if he's doing what she thinks he is. I need to talk to Bob about whether there is anything I can do that will help her fight off the affects of sleep deprivation. That's our best guess at what he's doing and why I haven't been able to bridge her." "And it's working?" "Karen said not only did he eat all of his breakfast this morning, he actually asked for seconds." Tears formed in her eyes as she hugged me. "You are just too wonderful for words. I love you." She pulled back and wiped her eyes just as Mom came around the corner. "I love you too. Why the tears?" she asked. "Your son talked to Bob last night, then he bridged Tom and sort of hypnotized him so that he eats more. We just found out it worked. He ate all his breakfast this morning and asked for seconds." Suddenly I was surrounded by arms. "That is wonderful news. Your father and I were so worried about all the weight he has lost. Maybe someone needs to suggest that as a standard therapy tool for cancer patients. Well, I have to go to work. Jimmy, you may want to think about trying to take a nap sometime today. If he's not letting Angela sleep at night you may get lucky and reach her during the day." She disappeared out the door, leaving Allison and I staring at each other. It never occurred to me to try during the day. "That's actually a good idea," I said. "Yeah, and I've got a better one." She took my hand and started pulling me toward the hall. "Let's see if I can't help tire you out." It didn't work, the first time. I did doze off for a few minutes but there was no sign of Angela. When I woke up Allison was already hard at work getting me ready to try again. If there is a better way to wake up than in a girl's mouth I haven't found it yet. I felt a small twinge of guilt that I was happy we got to try again, but I tried not to let it bother me too much. The nice thing about the later rounds is that it takes longer and you have to work harder at it. We didn't take a nap again right away, but broke for lunch and then started over again. I had no trouble falling asleep after that. Walking may have proved beyond me at that point, but sleeping I could do. Jackpot! Almost as soon as I closed my eyes I felt Angela's fear and pain. I found her in a little room with no windows or doors, huddled naked in the corner, crying softly. The wave of sympathy was almost instantly wiped out as intense rage washed over me. It took a few seconds but I managed to set the rage aside as Rebecca had taught me, I just shoved it into the little box I had created for it and tried to think. This was going to be tough. I didn't know her mental state but I wasn't sure at this point that she was going to be receptive to anyone suddenly appearing out of no where. And I really wasn't sure how well she would respond to any guy right at the moment. I realized then that I should have asked Bob and Rebecca about this part. Allison appeared beside me, and started to move toward her, but I stopped her. We were still invisible so we had a little time to try and figure out what to do. "I don't know what to do. I should have asked Bob or Rebecca what to do when I found her. I don't have any idea how to comfort a rape victim." She tore her arm away from me and stalked towards Angela. "She doesn't need comfort. She needs her ass kicked. Make me look like her." "Allison don't you think she..." She almost shouted, "Do it! Now! We may not have much time." She turned to me, tears in her eyes, and whispered, "Please?" The look on her face said it all. This was going to hurt. I nodded and suddenly a second Angela appeared in the room. She was dressed in her running clothes, with her hair back in that long braid I always loved to watch bounce back and forth over that gorgeous ass as she ran. Focus, Matthews! Jesus. I waited to see what Allison had in mind. It was a very short wait. The new Angela kicked the foot of the trembling husk on the floor. "Get up!" When she didn't move she kicked her again. "Get up, god dammit! What the hell is wrong with you?" The naked girl looked up finally and her eyes started to focus on the girl before her, "Who are you?" "You know damn well who I am. I'm you, only right now, you, are making me sick. Since when do you give up like this?" She reached down, grabbed a handful of dirty hair, and screamed, "Get up!" Oh yeah, that got a reaction! The naked girl swung her arm and screamed, "Let go of me, you bitch! I'm fucking tired." Allison knelt before her and cupped her face, "That's more like it. You're not tired, Angela. You're asleep. This is a dream and, here, no one can hurt you. Here you're never tired if you don't want to be." Her voice softened and she said, "Please get up. You don't belong here." She took her hands and gently pulled her to her feet and hugged her. By the time she stepped back I had cleaned Angela up and dressed her to match Allison. "You see, it's a dream and you can do anything you want here. Hell, you did Jimmy and the girls here." I took the cue and changed the scene to the cabana. "You don't have to be tired. Not here. Now listen to me, you're in trouble here and that's the truth. But you're not alone. Right this second there are people who love you looking for you. The FBI is looking for you. Total strangers are looking for you. I've been looking for you." "What do you mean you've been looking for me? I thought you were me." "I did, but I lied; I just needed to get your attention. I'm not really you, just like he isn't really Tim." She pointed to me and I dutifully stepped into the scene looking like Angela's brother. "Where did you come from? Who are you? What's going on?" "We're your friends," I said. "We've been trying to find you. We would have found you sooner but he, the guy who kidnapped you, has been keeping you from sleeping." I waved my arm around. "I only work in dreams. I couldn't find you because when I was asleep, you were awake. He's been keeping you awake to break you, Angela. He's trying to wear you down. You can't let him do that. No matter what he does, you have to keep fighting." "But how can I fight if I can't rest." "I can help." I stepped up and took her hand. "I want you to pick a place. Any place you want, any place you can think of, just close your eyes and think of it. Go ahead, do it." She closed her eyes and the scene changed. We were at the picnic table in my back yard the night my parents almost died. I smiled at Allison and turned back to Angela. "Open your eyes. From now on, every time you fall asleep, you will come here. No waiting, just straight here, and no matter how long you're here you will rest." "You're serious?" "Yeah, I'm serious. You'll rest and your body will recover much faster than normal. The body does need sleep, but it can get by on a lot less than normal for short times if it has to. You just need to manage it better. That's all I'm doing, letting you manage it better. Now, what can you tell us about what happened to you? Can you tell us, or better yet, show us, what he looks like?" She pulled away. "I've never seen him." "Not even when he kidnapped you?" "No, not even..." Suddenly I was standing in the glade still looking like Tim, with Allison still looking like Angela. The likeness faded as she stepped in to hug me and the tears flowed freely. I took her in my arms and held her to me as she wept. "Fight Angel, wherever you are, fight hard." We woke to the phone ringing. The recorder picked up before I got it and Bob's voice came over the machine. "Hey, Jimmy, I got your message, I would have called sooner but I left my phone in my desk last night, then when I got here the battery was dead, anyway, give me call when..." "I'm here," I said as I finally reached the house phone. "I found her." "What? You found... Angela! You reached Angela? Why didn't you say so? You should have called the switchboard and had them send someone..." "No, no. That's not why I called. I just found her this afternoon. We figured it out this morning. He's been keeping her awake. The reason I called you was because what we did with Tom worked, and it gave me an idea. "It did?" "Yeah, I called Karen and not only did he eat breakfast, he asked for seconds." "Jimmy, that's great! In fact it's beyond great. You, my young friend, may have just opened a whole new door in cancer treatment. If even some of the people respond to hypnosis, it could make a huge difference. But what about Angela? Do you know where she is?" "Bob, if I knew where she was I wouldn't be talking to you, I'd be talking to Rebecca. Let me back up. I called this morning because we figured out why I couldn't reach her. He's been keeping her awake, depriving her of sleep to help break her down. I wanted to talk to you about maybe trying something like what we did with Tom, and sort of, I don't know, programming sounds bad but it works for this, programming her to get more out of what little sleep she does get. You know how in class we talked about how the body can get by on a lot less sleep if it has to? Well, I reached her before I reached you so I had to just try it on my own. I tried to set it up so that as soon as she falls asleep she will go immediately to a dream environment and she will rest more, if you know what I mean." "I think I do. You've basically hot-wired her brain to skip a few normal sleep steps and go straight to REM sleep every time she falls asleep." "Right. I had her pick a place and then sort of locked her into that scene. So when she does fall asleep she will know where she is. I figured it may also help her to tell the difference between true sleep and the hallucinations that can be caused by sleep deprivation." "You really were paying attention in class. That's very good. If it works at all, it will likely be the difference in keeping her going. Her brain will be able to re-orient itself by having a period that it can identify. But there is a danger." "Yeah, I know. The brain needs those other sleep periods as well." "Yes, and if it is deprived of them for long periods of time there are other problems that can crop up, not the least of which is that she may stop dreaming altogether." "Why?" "The different sleep cycles are caused and regulated by chemicals released by the brain. In a normal person, they release in a set pattern, in a set order and for set periods of time. Messing with the order or timing as you have done, throws off the balance. We don't know for certain what triggers the different chemicals to release the way they do, or if there are minimum levels of one that are required for the next one to work properly. What you have done may cause her brain to use up certain chemicals or compounds faster than normal. "Regardless of all that, you did the right thing. It's only a short term solution and the alternative could be Angela dead so you certainly haven't put her in any greater danger. I'll worry about side effects later. One way or the other it's likely that you have just thrown a major wrench into his plans. Sleep deprivation, if that's what he's doing, is generally to prevent REM sleep. "If you repeatedly wake a subject up before they reach that stage, they very quickly become disoriented, even delirious. It takes longer and longer for normal cognitive functions to return. In a short time they start forgetting where they are. They don't recognize everyday objects or even people they have known. Not right away and they will recognize them if given enough time, but the more you do it the longer that time interval gets. By jumping Angela directly to that stage you may very well have bought her some extra time. Her brain will go to REM long before he interrupts her sleep cycle so she will remain much more cognizant than he expects. Were you able to get any information out of her?" "No, there really wasn't time. She woke up before she could tell us anything. She did say that she has never seen the killer's face. Not even when he kidnapped her. That's a pretty neat trick considering he took her in her car, on the side of a freeway." "He took Maria Pena in her car in a parking lot. It appeared to be some kind of gas; my guess would be he did something similar to Angela." "But how?" "She parks her car on the street. He could have planted something in the car that he could activate remotely. For that matter, I'd almost bet that he also did something that would allow him to shut the car down." "You're probably right. He waits for her to leave; when she gets far enough away, he disables her car, then waits as she calls it in. Now he is free to show up in a tow truck with no questions asked. When he's close enough he hits a button and releases something into the car. She's out cold while he hooks the car up to the tow truck. It sounds exactly like something he would do. No suspicious activity, no witnesses and she never sees his face. We did get that out of her. She has never seen his face. She woke up just as we got to that part." "You know, we've been playing around with this dream stuff for almost a year and it still sounds weird when you say stuff like that." "You should try living it." "Well, personally I think it would be a kick, but obviously the old adage of, 'With great power comes great responsibility, ' kind of queers the whole thing. You remember what Rebecca said about Elizabeth Street?" "About her saying she was a chosen of God?" "Yeah, did she tell you what Elizabeth said about you?" "You mean that she knows what I can do and my name?" "There was more. When she told Rebecca she was a chosen child of God, she said that Rebecca knew another one of God's chosen ones? Want to guess who?" "You're kidding?" "And I quote; 'The boy who's been watching me in dreams' or something close to that. She said that where God had gifted both of you, He had also placed a great burden on you. If this is the burden, I'll pass on the gift." "There was a time I would have too, but I'm over that. Regardless of where it came from, random genetic fluctuation or the touch of the Almighty himself, and I am enough of a believer to not just blow that statement off, I just want to make the most positive use of it that I can. I want to help people. My first priority is saving Angela and stopping this guy. Then I'm going to work on the problem in Las Vegas. Who knows what else may come up? Just as long as it isn't any worse than that situation." "I don't know what could be worse than that situation," he said. "I don't either; and I don't want to. This is bad enough, thank you very much." "Amen, my young friend, amen." We said goodbye and I brought Allison up to speed on everything he had told me. "You know, we really need to make it a point to meet this girl. She is turning out to be a very interesting person." The phone rang and it was Shannon calling to let us know that Karen was bringing her over to spend the night. Shannon spending the night was always good news, but lately it was even better. It sucked that she was always the last one to know what was going on. At least when she was here no one felt like she was being left out. She already struggled with not feeling useful, and never knowing what was going on didn't help any. Karen was going to bring her by right after dinner. Mom and Dad were very excited when I told them about finally reaching Angela. "That's wonderful!" Mom said, coming around the table to hug me. "See, I knew you would do it. So, is she okay? Did you find out where she is so Rebecca can get her back?" "She wasn't doing so well," I said in a rueful tone. "When we reached her she was huddled in this little room, naked, dirty, bruised and discouraged. She's doing better now though. I didn't know what to do, but this one," I pointed to Allison, "seemed to know exactly what she needed to hear. She gave her some tough love and snapped her out of it." "How did she do that without giving away who she was?" Dad asked. "Jimmy made me look like her, only clean and in her running clothes, and I made it look like she was talking to herself. We were right about him keeping her awake. She was very tired, but once we pointed out that she was actually asleep and that she couldn't be tired in a dream unless she wanted to she snapped right out of it. We gave her the run down on just how much trouble she was in and how important it was that she keep fighting him. Jimmy kind of hot-wired her so that she goes straight to dream sleep as soon as she falls asleep instead of taking the normal route, which takes longer. Bob says that will really screw up his attempts to break her down through sleep deprivation." "That's a neat trick," Dad said. "I had no idea you could do that?" "It's kind of like an instant post hypnotic suggestion. When I'm in someone's dream I seem to access their subconscious directly." "So it's just like what you did with Tom last night," Mom said. "Yeah, pretty much." "Whoa, back up," Dad said. "What did you do to Tom?" Allison jumped in with the explanation. "He implanted a suggestion that chemo was like a hard workout so he would actually be hungry when it's over, and he re-wired his taste buds so that instead of tasting the food when it's in his mouth, which has been the biggest part of the problem because I guess everything tastes awful. Now when he eats, instead of tasting the food, he remembers what the food is supposed to taste like." "And it worked?" he asked. Mom's turn, "Karen said he actually asked for seconds at breakfast." "Incredible. Do you think you could make your mom's potato salad taste like Angela's?" "And what is wrong with my potato salad?" Uh-Oh! "Oh, nothing dear, it's just fine. But come on now, you have to admit, hers was something else. Even you said so." "Don't you go trying to put this off on me. You don't hear me asking to make your barbeque taste like Tom's do you?" "You've said before he was better on the grill than I am." "Don't try to change the subject. You owe me an apology, mister. A big one. I'm thinking a movie would be a good start." "Oh, now it comes out!" he said. "Honey, if you wanted to go to a movie all you had to do was say so. Tomorrow's Friday, we could..." "Tonight." "Tonight, but tomorrows..." She gave him a look. "Okay, tonight it is. Why don't we take a look at the paper and see what's playing." By the time Shannon arrived they were headed out. As they were leaving Mom stopped and said, "Now, I know you rested today, but I really think you should try to get to bed early in case you have another chance to reach Angela. I'm sure Shannon understands how important it is, don't you dear?" Shannon smiled and said, "Don't worry, Cyndi. I'll make sure they don't stay up too late." Mom kissed her on the cheek. "I knew I could count on you, dear." Then she whispered something in Shannon's ear that I couldn't hear. Shannon just blushed and kissed her back before she hurried out the door. "Well, that was subtle," Allison said. "I guess she's not so worried about being able to deny knowing what's going on any more." "What do you mean?" Shannon asked. "Mom has been going to great lengths to not know what is going on between you and Jimmy. She started to ask once but stopped when we asked her if she really wanted to have to explain to your parents that she knew about it if they ever found out what was going on." "So she knows, but she doesn't know?" "Yeah, at least that's the way we've been treating it. Now I'm not so sure. Can we ask what she whispered?" "She just said that she was glad I could be here for you." "For me? Didn't she mean him?" "I think she meant both of you?" "You're kidding?" "No, she actually used the word 'them.'" "Do you think she suspects about us?" "I think she's suspected for quite a while," I said. "Really?" "Afraid so, but I wouldn't worry about it. She obviously doesn't have a problem with it. I suspect that you and Shannon may be easier to explain and justify than she and I. For starters, you can't get her pregnant. And while I can't say for sure about Tom, Karen is certainly not homophobic. I told you what happened when Mark made a comment about Melinda last year after registration. Man, she went off on him." "You never told me about that," Shannon said. "Mom would be the last person to say something like that in front of. Mark doesn't know it but Mom had a girlfriend one year in college. As for Dad, his best man was gay. No one else knew about it because he hadn't come out. Everybody was shocked when they found out he had AIDS. He died when I was about five. I still have a picture of him tucked away somewhere. He was my favorite uncle when I was a little girl, even though we weren't really related." Her eyes had gotten a far away sort of look as she spoke about him and I knew he was very special to her. Suddenly she shook her head and said, "So, I think we should start with a nice long bath, but since you don't have a tub big enough I guess we'll just have to squeeze into your mom's shower. Then I think someone should have a nice relaxing massage." She looked at me and said, "Don't even dream about it, bucko, I was talking about me. I've been stressed out all week wondering what the hell was going on and not able to even call for an update. Don't' get me wrong, I understand you had a lot going on, but it seems like every time something breaks I am the very last person to know. So, nice hot shower, a little hands-on, full service pampering, and we should be able to have everyone in bed in no time. Shall we get to it?" What do you say to that? "Will that be oil or lotion for your massage, milady?" I asked. ------- Chapter 74: Scheduling Actually Mom's idea of getting to be early was just the opposite of what we needed. We were all for getting to bed early, but instead of trying to get to sleep on the off chance that I would be able to bridge Angela again, I felt my best chance would actually be to stay up as long as possible and sleep the next day. In the week that she had been missing my only successful attempt, not counting the near miss this morning, had been in the middle of the day. Granted I didn't know she was actually missing the first four days, but looking back I think I would certainly have felt her distress even if I wasn't looking for her. So I think Mom and Dad were a little surprised to see us all up watching a movie when they came home. They didn't actually say anything, just gave us a general round of hugs goodnight, but I could tell Mom was wondering what was going on. Rather than let her wonder I explained my concerns. "So far the only time Angela has even been on the dream map was early this morning and then again this afternoon, so rather than try and get to sleep early on the off chance I might run into her, I decided to play the odds and try to reach her during the day. I think he's been keeping her up nights mostly to screw up her sleep patterns but there may be other reasons." Suddenly Allison sat up on the couch and smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh course! Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's so obvious. Jimmy, of course there are other reasons. He doesn't want to draw attention to himself. He probably works during the day! Rebecca said something about checking the local cable companies and others that might have drivers in vans to see if anyone had suddenly disappeared or started calling in sick a lot. He's keeping his cover by going in as usual. I'll bet that's why you reached her. He wasn't there to wake her up." "Then when is he sleeping?" Shannon asked. "I mean, if he's torturing Angela at night, and he works during the day, when does he sleep?" Something clicked in the back of my brain. "That's a very interesting question, Shannon. And I think I may have the answer. If I'm right, it would answer or confirm several other questions and theories we've been wondering about. I need to talk to Bob about it but I think the answer is, he doesn't, at least not much." "How is that possible?" Mom asked. "Everybody needs sleep." "Yes, but not as much as some people think. The body is very adaptable. Sleep is basically a cleaning cycle for most of our systems, mental and physical. The physical can take care of itself in many ways, not as well, but it can get the job done. The mental side is totally different. The brain is more complex and therefore more delicate. Neglecting its needs can cause all kind of problems and imbalances. Insomnia is a recognized medical condition and affects people differently. More importantly, there are many documented cases of sleep dysfunction being a common side affect of different psychological problems." "It would explain a lot," Allison said. "Yeah, like why my contact with him is so unpredictable. Bob and I have suspected a mental illness for some time but it's not like we can call him in for a check up." "So you'll all be staying up for awhile?" Dad asked. "As much as possible yeah," I answered. "I know it's a long shot but if what we suspect is right then my chances of reaching her are much better during the day." "Okay, try to keep it down; some of us have to work tomorrow." They headed down the hall and we returned at least part of our attention to the movie. It was only a few minutes before Allison stopped it again. "So, do you still think it's some kind of mental problem that's keeping you from bridging the killer directly, or just that he doesn't sleep much?" she asked. "I think it's actually a little bit of both," I answered. "The not sleeping part would explain why my flashes from him are so intermittent. But even when I'm getting them I can't get to him, only watch. It's obvious the images are from him, but I can't interact with any of it. It's always been memories, and even those are more like watching television. It's not even like the girl in the closet where I'm sort of there with her. So, for now I don't think there is any reason to abandon the current theory of mental illness. It seems to fit." "That's not true," Shannon said. Allison and I both turned to look at her. "What's not true?" Allison asked. "The part about only being able to watch like on television, what about the guy in the cell? You said you were in a hallway or something and could look in the window, or through the bars, or whatever it was, but you were in the scene." She was right. Allison and I stared at each other for a second and then Allison hugged her. "Don't you ever tell me you're useless again, girlfriend. It's just like I keep telling you. You see things we don't. You ask questions we don't think about." "You mean I'm right? I was just asking..." "Yes," I interrupted, "you were just asking... the perfect question, as usual. One that I, we, should have thought of before. I was in the scene, even if it looked like I was on the outside looking in. I just didn't try to see if I had any control." I stopped for a second to recall the dream I had been in. "I didn't realize what I was seeing until afterward. I was so used to only seeing images of the girls, past and present, that I never questioned whether that particular scene was something more. I can't believe how stupid I've been." "Oh stop," Allison said. "It's just like you said, everything you've ever gotten from him, all the way from the first images Amy showed you, were memories; past or present they were still only memories. You didn't even understand what it was you were looking at, how could you possibly jump past that to experimenting in the time you had. The important thing is, now that my lovely young friend here has pointed out the obvious, you can be ready to take advantage if or when you get the chance." "And what if I don't get another chance?" I asked, still not willing to concede the point. "Then you never really had the chance to begin with," Shannon answered. "Whether or not you get the chance again, you didn't have time to do anything in the short visions you had. It's all you can do to keep the windows open long enough to figure out what you're seeing most of the time. There was obviously nothing happening that you perceived as being important enough to even try to get a longer look at than you were getting. Besides, you may not be able to keep those open any longer than you do the memory pieces. Remember, according to your working theory, his mind operates differently than what you are used to. Even if you had been able to tell it was not the usual memory image, there is no guarantee that you would have been able to do anything with it. All you can do is try again next time you get the chance." "You mean if I get the chance?" "Well, personally I hope you don't get the chance, because from what you and Bob have said his control was getting better as the deadline approached. The only way you may get a chance again is if he gets away," Shannon said. "Oh, don't say that," Allison answered. "I don't even want to think about that." "Right, none of us do," Shannon continued, "and since in all likelihood he will be too focused to allow Jimmy to really do anything, then we don't want him to have another chance because it will mean it's too late for Angela. If he gets a lucky break and has a shot, he can take it, but hopefully we'll get what we need another way and Rebecca will nail this bastard before we have to worry about it." "I can certainly live with that," I said. It was pushing midnight by the time the movie ended and I could no longer keep my eyes open. Allison was already snuggled up asleep next to me. Shannon was laying with her head in my lap and I thought she was out as well but she turned her head up to look at me. "How are you holding up?" she whispered. I gave a long slow stretch so I wouldn't disturb Allison, "I think I've about had it, I can barely keep my eyes open." She got a mischievous gleam in her eyes and said, "Maybe I can help." She rolled off the couch and immediately began untying my shoes. It took no imagination at all to understand where she was going and suddenly I was very awake. "What are you doing?" I asked in an urgent whisper. She didn't answer, just rolled her eyes and gave me a look as she pulled off my second shoe and then reached up and started unbuttoning my jeans. "Are you crazy? You want to get us caught?" "No," she whispered back, "and if you don't either then maybe you should just shut up. Nothing attracts attention like a whisper." She started tugging my pants down. "A little help here?" I lifted my butt up off the couch and she pulled my pants down and off. As soon as the pants cleared my hips the tent pole sprang straight up and out the fly of my boxers. "Oh goody," she said. "Look what I found!" Suddenly Allison stirred beside me. It looked like she was still asleep and just moving to a more comfortable position. Apparently she'd gotten to be a pretty good actress. Neither of us realized she was really awake as she sort of snuggled down towards my lap, but when she opened her mouth at the last second and swallowed the top half of my erection the jig was up. "Hey!" Shannon whispered. "That was my idea!" Allison giggled around her mouthful and slowly worked her way up to the top, massaging me with her tongue all the way. Finally she let me go and answered, "See, I told you, you always have these great ideas and you just wouldn't believe me. I must say though, this..." she gave me a quick little lick, "was one of your better ones." "Yes, it was, so why don't you give it back and let me finish what I started?" Allison kissed the head and said, "I'll tongue wrestle you for it." And she started licking hard around the top of my shaft, working her way back and forth around the head. "Bitch!" Shannon said, but she was smiling as she moved forward and began playing tag with Allison around my shaft. When they suddenly met at the top and started frenching around the head I thought my other head would explode. They started pressing harder, each trying to force the other one far enough away to allow them to capture the tip. Suddenly Allison gave a start and pulled back, which gave Shannon the opening she had been wanting and she quickly took me into her mouth. I looked at Allison to see what was up and saw Shannon's hand up under her sleep shirt, massaging her through her panties. "Cheater," Allison complained. She might have said more, but just at that moment Shannon got a finger inside her panties and shoved it deep into her already moist box. Allison's head snapped back and she bit her lip to keep from crying out as Shannon began to work on both of us at once. Suddenly Shannon released me, moved over, and started tugging Allison's panties down. Allison lifted up enough to help and placed her hands on Shannon's head as the older girl leaned in and began taking long licks of her lover's suddenly very wet nether regions. Shannon took Allison's wrists in her hands and pulled them away, placing the left on Allison's own breast and the right in my lap. My younger lover took the hint and began slowly stroking my shaft. I thought she was going to rip it off when Shannon started sucking hard at her little love button. Fortunately she realized what she was doing and released the death grip, moving the hand instead to her other breast she began pinching and massaging herself as Shannon continued her assault. This left me suddenly out of the loop. I decided it was time for a little turnabout and slipping down to the floor, I tugged Shannon's panties down over her shapely butt. She lifted her knees up to allow me to remove them completely without missing a lick. Once her treasures were bare I rolled onto my back and began licking in earnest. As soon as I hit her love button she gave a groan that would have awakened the whole house if it had not been for the muffling affect of Allison's muff. Even I had to chuckle at that play on words. Suddenly Shannon pulled off my face and whispered, "Fuck me." The fact that she even used the word was clear indication of just how badly she wanted it, and, being the ever faithful servant, I immediately slipped out from under her and got up on my knees. I figured out a while back that when Shannon starts talking like Allison she expects me to treat her like Allison, so as soon as I was in position, the head of my cock just parting her now soaking lips, I grabbed her hips and slammed myself forward as hard and as deep as I could. The impact drove her mouth hard into Allison's crotch and I thought my sister was going to jump over the back of the couch. Her back arched, her hands shot down and, grabbing Shannon firmly by the hair, she began grinding herself against the older girl's mouth. It was obvious how close Allison was and then Shannon administered the coup-de-gras by first shoving two fingers deep into Allison's wetness then pulling them out and shoving forward again, only this time one went straight into Allison's cute little rosebud, all the way in. Several things happened at once; Allison's eyes, which had been closed in concentration, flew open wide, her head snapped back, causing her to arch her back up off the couch, and she took a huge gasping breath. She then bit her lip as orgasmic convulsions shook her body, her hips pumped up and down, still grinding themselves against Shannon's hungry mouth like she was trying to pull the girl inside of her. This went on for some time and I didn't realize she was still holding her breath until her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed down onto the couch. Somewhere in the middle of all that Shannon's own spasms started and I felt the contractions around my cock, which was still buried inside of her. This reminded me of what I was supposed to be doing and I began thrusting into her again. She leaned her head on the couch next to Allison as I renewed my assault but stopped me after a few seconds, whispering, "Thanks, that was fun, but before we were so rudely interrupted, this was supposed to be about you. Come here," she said, indicating the cushion on the couch that was not currently occupied by Allison's still unconscious form. I took a seat and she quickly resumed what she had started before. What can I say? It was wonderful. The brief interruption was enough to diminish my level of urgency and allowed her to take her time and really enjoy one of her favorite activities. She had explained once before that it didn't matter which one of us it was, Allison or me, she just loved going down on us. The feeling she got from giving us such pleasure was something she just couldn't get enough of. Surprisingly she said she liked doing me just a little bit more because there was more to it. It was more physical and more challenging. Especially once she learned how to deep throat me. Her latest trick was to swallow me all the way to the base and then try to stuff my balls in her mouth at the same time. There were very few angles that allowed this and she probably wouldn't be able to do it much longer regardless. I hadn't really noticed but both of the girls insisted that I had been getting bigger and Shannon said that pretty soon it just wouldn't be possible for her to fit it all in at once unless I was soft. Me staying soft in Shannon's mouth is not likely to happen anytime soon so... she was making the most of it while she could. I noticed Allison had rejoined us when she gave a sigh of contentment and reached out to stroke Shannon's hair as she bobbed slowly up and down on my slick shaft. "That was wonderful, Sha, thank you." She lay watching for a few seconds then crawled up on her knees and stuck a breast in my face. Oh yeah, I can take a hint and I began paying homage to the parts of her that had been growing this year. I suddenly realized that I was not the only one who had grown and Allison had now reached the point that Shannon had been at when we first started exploring each other the previous fall. She was now a firm half a grapefruit, up from her original orange. The biggest difference was that Allison's nipples were more prominent, having grown proportionally with the surrounding flesh, where Shannon's were still somewhere in the quarter to fifty cent range, Allison was a solid Silver Dollar. I sucked a buck and half's worth of flesh into my mouth and tried to make change while rolling the twin between my fingers. The extra stimulation of a nipple on my tongue pushed me right over the edge. The spasms started and I was suddenly filling Shannon's mouth as she locked her lips around the head and gently massaged my cock and balls with her hands. When the flood finally stopped she climbed up, pulled Allison's mouth to hers and shared the bounty of her personal harvest. This was another of their favorite activities and they spend over a minute slowly exploring each other's mouths for the last little bit of flavor. By now it was well on towards one o'clock and we were all pretty awake so we got dressed again, Allison dug out "Victor Victoria" from the DVD cabinet, and we settled back onto the couch to watch. I'm not sure what time I actually fell asleep but I suddenly found myself in the glade with both of the girls cuddled up next to me on the blanket. I reached for Angela but she was no where to be found. I lay back in the cool shade and let my mind drift. Before long I felt a tug, getting up I moved to the nearby door and stepped into the hallway outside my office. I was getting used to these feelings; more and more often if someone was thinking of me in dreams, I could feel them. I was pretty sure I knew who it was before the elevator opened and Bob and Rebecca stepped out. "Thought you'd never get here, Matthews," Rebecca said. "What kept you?" "I've been trying to stay up as late as possible in hopes that I'll be able to sleep more tomorrow." "Why would you want to do..." she stopped and looked at me. "You found her! Why didn't you call me?" Bob came to my rescue, "There was nothing to report that couldn't wait. Nothing we would all want discussed on an open phone line anyway." "So what happened?" she asked as we moved through the door and into the office. She and Bob took the love seat. "I'm surprised the girls aren't here." "We were cuddled up in the glade, since we weren't going to be discussing anything new I figured I'd just leave them there, they can join us when they want." I sat in one of the chairs, and quickly brought her up to date on what I had been doing. "Do you think it will work?" she asked. "Oh, unless something goes wrong, it should work very well indeed," Bob answered. "The mind is very powerful and if it can get the time it needs to rest, which Jimmy seems to have given hers, at least temporarily, then I think his personal time table may be somewhat upset." "Great, any time you can buy us is good. So far we're coming up empty on everything we look at." "No luck with trying to find the van through local companies?" "How local? We're assuming he's still in southern California because he dumped the tow truck back in the local marketplace, but that's still a huge area, and we can't pin it down too closely or we could miss him. Do you have any idea how may companies use those vans? Here's a hint. A lot! I hate to seem like I'm putting pressure on you, Jimmy, but it's beginning to look like you may be the only shot we have." "That's why I stayed up so late. We figured out that he is still working whatever day job he has so as not to attract attention by his absence. That means that he's home with Angela at night, and that's why we haven't been able to reach her. We're hoping that if I can sleep during the day, I'll be able to get to her more often and for longer periods of time. There's only one thing that worries me." "What's that?" Bob asked. "It's almost the weekend again and if he's off then he'll have several days to devote to her without interruption. If I don't reach her today, I may not get another chance until next week." Rebecca reached and put her hand on mine, "You can only do your best, Jimmy. Just don't give up." "No chance of that happening. I'm going to find her, whatever it takes." I turned to Bob. "So far we've been working under the idea that there is something in his mental makeup that is keeping me from bridging him directly. We came up with something else as well. Allison figured it out earlier. Isn't insomnia or an inability to sleep normally symptomatic of several different illnesses?" "There you are ladies and gentlemen, a perfect example of a rhetorical question. You know very well it is; you're probably the most attentive student I've had in my class in years, especially when it comes to anything related to sleeping and dreams. It narrows the list of possible conditions that could be causing you, or more correctly preventing you from reaching him. That could also explain why the few contacts you have had have been so random and intermittent." "That's what we were thinking. We also figured out that I may have blown at least one opportunity." "Really, how so?" "You know that image I got of a guy in cell, the one in the straight jacket and mask?" "Sure, I think we talked about it, at least we discussed the idea that he may be schizophrenic and that maybe one of his alternate personalities is in control and that's what keeps you from bridging him. 'The Man in the Iron Mask, ' I think Shannon called it. The suggestion being that the guy in the cell is the primary or original personality and that he's the one that's opening the door for you." "Right, well I didn't even consider it at the time, but looking back, I don't think that part was just a memory vision. I think if I had tried I might have been able to do something during that part of the sequence." "Interesting idea, but be very, very, careful if you get the chance. Sometimes the personalities are completely separate and know nothing of each other. That does not seem to be the case here. The image of the cell and being locked up against your will is an indication of intent. It is entirely possible that interacting with the primary may give you away to the alternate; you could lose your one advantage." "I'll keep that in mind, any other suggestions?" There weren't any so I headed back to the glade to see the girls. Once I was there I woke us all up so we could try again later. I hoped I wouldn't have to spend the entire weekend on catnaps trying to get lucky. For one thing I wasn't sure how long I could survive their attempts to alternately keep me awake or put me to sleep. By late Sunday afternoon I was a wreck. I had not slept for more than a couple hours at a time all weekend. I hadn't been really awake for much more than that either. The sudden radical change on my schedule was taking its expected toll on my body. I was in that lethargic state they make fun of anytime they show country folks on a porch; an image that never made sense to me. A rural lifestyle tied to the land is anything but restful. Crops and animals required a lot of attention and a lot of work; those people were just plain tired. The only reason you always see them on the porch is because the photographers were too lazy to go out to where the actual work was being done. I had somehow ended up on the couch watching golf of all things. Now that's a recipe for excitement if I ever saw one. There seemed to be two basic scenes, the first was a shot of a camera trying to track a tiny white ball across a blue and white sky. The second was usually of someone imitating a mime imitating a statue... badly, while someone else whispered the commentary in a semi conscious tone that was apparently supposed to add excitement and meaning to the scene. Allison had given up trying to match my schedule late Saturday. She had stayed up with me late into the night but otherwise she appeared to have taken the path of leaving me to sort it out on my own. They say that necessity is the mother of invention and that desperate times breed desperate actions. It was mid afternoon, somewhere around 3:00. Mom and Allison had gone to the store to do the grocery shopping for the week. Allison was getting in a little domestic training. It was her week to cook so Mom made her plan a menu of sorts and then go through the cupboards to make sure she had everything. I had commented that it sounded like a good idea and Mom assured me that I would get my chance next week. Dad had fallen asleep in the chair while reading a book and trying hard to ignore the television. I'm not sure exactly what happened. You know that place you get in when you've been napping but not really sleeping, where you're not really asleep but not really awake either, and you have to keep looking for clues to tell you where you are. I found myself staring at the television to try and determine if I had actually dozed off and missed something or if I'd just imagining it. Golf is not a great sport for that. I didn't know the players so I couldn't tell who I was looking at or remember who I had been looking at before, and the announcers all sounded the same. So unless I had dropped off in the middle of a commercial, or woken up during one, I really couldn't tell the difference. It's kind of like when you're reading and you finally figure out that you've read the same paragraph or even the same line in a paragraph like twelve times and you still don't know what happens next? That's were I was. I'd swear I wasn't asleep, I'm pretty sure of that, but suddenly I felt a familiar tug, the kind I get in dreams that alert me to people I'm interested in or are interested in me, and the suddenly I was standing by the pool. I didn't remember walking out the back door, but suddenly there I was. I looked around but everything looked normal. I even had on the same clothes I'd been wearing inside. Suddenly a body erupted from the surface of the water. Oh shit! It was Angela, and she didn't just pop up out of the water and look around. She exploded out of the water and landed on the patio in front of me. I reacted without thinking and caught her as she began to fall. "Jimmy!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" Before I could answer she rambled on, "You can't be here, you're not supposed to be here, this was supposed to just be a place I could come to rest, and I'm so tired, and oh god, Jimmy, he hurt me, it hurts so much, and I'm so tired and..." "Angela!" I yelled and gave her shoulders a shake. I was in deep shit here. I'd been drawn to Angela's dream before she even arrived, which was not totally unprecedented, I'd done it with Allison before but never with Angela. But I wasn't prepared and now I couldn't change. This was bad. What to do? "Angela, what are you talking about? This is my back yard. I live here. What are you doing here? How did you get in my pool? And how did you jump all the way out of the pool and land on the side? And you're dry? This doesn't make any sense. It can't be real." She caught herself then and stood up a little straighter, caught her breath and stopped crying long enough to answer, "Of course it's not real. It's a dream. They set it up so I could come here to rest. But why are you here?" "How should I know? You said it's a dream. Whose dream is it?" "Mine, of course." "Then why are you asking me why I'm in your dream? If I'm here it's because you wanted me here." "No, I didn't want you here, I mean I wanted someone but it wasn't you, not that I don't want you here, but you're not the one I was thinking of. It was supposed to be that other guy, the one that set up the whole thing, but you're here now so maybe I wanted someone familiar so I could... Oh God, Jimmy, I'm so glad you're here." She buried her head on my shoulder and the tears rushed back to fill the sudden silence. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as she cried. Think, Matthews, there's got to be a way out of this, I needed to be someone else but I couldn't just change. Duh! Suddenly the proverbial light came on. Behind me the door opened and a second me walked out as the image of Tim I had used when I appeared in her other dream. He didn't hesitate but just walked up and said, "Angela, I'm glad you finally made it. I've been waiting all weekend for a chance to meet with you. I see you found a familiar figure to comfort you, but we really need to talk before we lose the opportunity, so if you don't mind..." My original self began to fade from her arms. "No, wait. I mean, please, can he stay? I need someone right now and I know Jimmy cares for me. I guess I just didn't want Tim to see me like this." Boy, I really hadn't been paying attention. Suddenly I realized that Angela was, and had been, naked ever since she jumped out of the pool. Now that I looked it was impossible to ignore the bruises. Her face was okay, but there were bruises of various sizes scattered down across her body. Mostly they were small, but there was a really big ugly one on her thigh. There was another one that looked like a hand print on her hip. It didn't take much to imagine what had been going on when that one was made, the angle pretty much said it all. "I understand, Angela, you don't need to explain. Certainly your friend can stay if you want him too, but we need to talk. First of all, how are you holding up? I have to say I'm a little surprised how you're handling all of this. I mean, I was expecting at least a little bit more panic." "You mean the whole, 'Thank god you found me. Get me the hell out of here. What do you mean you can't find me?' thing?" "Something like that, yeah." "I got my panic out of the way early. It didn't take long to figure out that I was in deep shit. After a while I realized that if someone knew where I was, they would have gotten me out already and that barring a miracle, I was on my own. When you're all you've got, you quickly figure out that panic isn't going to do you any good. By the time you found me the first time I was already past panic and headed towards a pretty serious depression. Being raped for hours on end and not being allowed to sleep can start making things look pretty hopeless fast. I was just trying to survive at that point. I'm doing better now, thanks to you. The last several days the little bits of rest I've been able to get here and there have totally made the difference. I think it's confused him a little as well, because suddenly I seem to be getting better rather than worse. As you can see, it's not easy, but knowing that you're out there looking for me keeps me going." "Maybe it would be easier if we cleaned you up a little and maybe put some clothes on you." Stepping close I ran my hand over her arm and the bruises disappeared. I didn't say it, but I knew the pain had gone away with the bruise. Angela breathed a sigh of relief and I reminded her, "Remember, it's a dream and none of this is real, your bruises don't hurt, you're not really tired, and your body is actually resting. Now, do you know where you are resting?" She paused for a moment to digest what I was saying. I took advantage of the moment to eliminate the rest of the bruises and put a sundress on her. "No," she said. "I don't know where I am. It could be a house, or a garage or even a basement since there are no windows." Rebecca and I had talked about the kinds of questions to ask so at least I had a roadmap of sorts to follow. "That's okay. Why don't you sit down?" The copy of me holding her pulled her onto a lounger and I held her in my lap. It was weird being two people at once. "Now, I want you to close your eyes and think for a moment. I want you to think about noise; a dog that barks a lot, maybe a plane going overhead, cars, anything at all." "A train, there's a train somewhere nearby. At first I didn't know what it was and I thought it might be an earthquake. It was just that low rumble, but it stayed steady and then I could make out that rhythm you get with trains. Then the horn, just before the rumble fades away. I think I hear the horn but it's so faint I'm not sure if I'm imagining it." "That's good! It's not much but it's something. Anything at all helps. Now, how long does it last? Is it a long train, or a short one? How often do you feel it go by, and how strong are the vibrations? Do you ever hear the crossing signals? You know, the bells that go off where a street crosses the tracks and the barrier arms come down." "No, there are no bells, but there's, I don't know, kind of an echo. I think it must be a basement because the vibration seems to be everywhere, not just in the floor. It's hard to explain." "That's okay, you're doing great. Is there anything else you can tell us about the room you're in? When we first found you it looked like you were in a small cell. Is that where you're being kept?" "No, that was just something I created in my head. The room is actually very clean and neat. I have a bed. Most of the time I'm chained to it" "How are you chained?" "I have this collar around my neck. It's metal riveted to leather. There is short piece of chain and then the chain attaches to a cable. The cable is on a retractor, or a winch or something inside a steel box. I have a remote control so I can let out enough cable to go to the bathroom, but it only goes out so far, and it automatically starts to reel back in after a few minutes, then I have to wait a while before it will let me use it again." "Do you wear the collar all the time?" "No, there are other restraints on the bed, sometimes he uses them. There are other... things he uses but they all have restraints of their own. He only takes them all off when I shower." "He turns you loose when you shower?" "Yes, he likes to watch and the cable spoils the illusion. I can't see how the collar latches but he uses some kind of key to get it open. I tried to run the first time he took it off but I didn't get far. He beat the shit out of me for trying it." "Did you fight back?" "Of course I fought back, for all the good it did. It was like trying to hit Jackie Chan. He hit me about four times before I knew what happened. I think he had the whole thing planned. He expected me to try and run and he was ready for it. That was the first time he fucked me in the ass. God that hurt; I wished I'd let Jimmy do it prom night so at least I would have known what to expect." She turned to the copy of me that was holding her. "At least you would have been gentle." I kissed the back of her head but didn't say anything. "He wanted it to hurt and it did. I could hardly sit down for hours." "I'm sorry, Angela. Sorry that he hurt you, but you have to keep fighting every chance you get. The smallest opening, anything at all that you can do to resist him. It's very important." "I try, but sometimes, when I'm really tired, I think it might be better if I just went along, at least then I wouldn't be getting my ass kicked all the time." "No! You can't give in, Angela. No matter what, you must keep fighting. There is no easy way to say this, Angela, so I'll just say it; if you give in, he'll kill you." "What? What do you mean? How do you know... oh my god, he's done this before, hasn't he?" When I didn't answer she yelled, "Hasn't he? Tell me, dammit!" I nodded affirmatively as I answered, "Yes. Three times that we know of. All three times he beat and tortured the girls. Two of them fought back, one lasted three weeks, the other almost a month. But one of the girls didn't fight back and she was dead in a week. You can't give in, Angela. If you do, you die." She stood up and paced away from the lounger. I took the opportunity to let my double fade away. It was obvious she no longer felt the need for comfort. "Shit! Just my fucking luck, I have to go and get kidnapped by a fucking serial killer! Couldn't be just some nut case out for a thrill, oh no, I have to go and run into Ted fucking Bundy's psycho brother. You have any more good news?" "Not much I'm afraid. He's very smart, and very, very careful. The FBI only found out about the three girls in the last year. The killings were spread so far out that no one put them together until recently. We've been working on it for over eight months and there's still not much to go on. I don't want to depress you with the details so maybe we can move onto something else." "Oh no, please, don't tell me what he has in mind. I like surprises," she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "What else do you want to know?" "What does he look like?" "I don't know. I've never seen his face." "Really? Not even when he kidnapped you? So we were right and he had something rigged in your car to knock you out." "Yeah, it was rigged up to the seat belt on the passenger side. I called the roadside assistance number, then a few minutes later I get a call telling me someone is on the way and telling me it would be safer if I wait in the car, so could I buckle myself in on the passenger side until the driver gets there. Stupid me, I just slid over and buckled in. Well, started to anyway, I pulled on the seat belt but it was like it was stuck or something, I pulled harder and it came free but there was this hissing sound and the next thing I know I wake up naked with my arms over my head and this guy in a mask slapping my face and pinching my tits." "He wears the mask all the time?" "He takes it off some times, but he blindfolds me first. Not really a blindfold, more like a set of really dark goggles in a mask or hood. I've never even tried to take it off. I'm afraid of what he'd do if he caught me, of what he might do if I ever actually saw him." "Why would he blindfold you and take off the mask?" She blushed. "Come on, use your imagination. You can't use your mouth with a full-face mask on." She reached up to bounce her breasts with her hands. "If you had a shot at these wouldn't you want to suck on them a little now and then?" "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Of course, who wouldn't? It is curious that he uses the mask or goggles if he's planning to kill you anyway. I'm glad it's not all torture though." "Aside from the whole forced against my will thing? No, not all the time. He's actually pretty good when he wants to be. He certainly shouldn't have to force it on anyone. If he's as careful as you say then he probably wears the mask just in case." "Have you seen the rest of him?" "Everything but the face." "That's good. Close your eyes and think of him. Picture him as clearly in your mind as you can. Try not to influence the image. I need to see it as exactly as you can remember it; and when you open your eyes, try to remember that he's not really here." Before me a man was taking shape. I made sure he was only an image, certainly didn't want her bringing him to life here. He was taller than me, but not really tall. I doubted if he topped six feet. His body was lean and muscular. Structurally he reminded me of myself; wiry and solid rather than bulky. His hair seemed to be cut very short. It was hard to tell much about it besides that it was short. It seemed to be blonde but as short as it was it could have been a light brown. The mask came far enough up that you couldn't tell the shape of his face or any of the features. On his right pectoral, an inch or so above his nipple was a tattoo of a broken hour glass lying on its side with the sand spilling out. "Very good. Are you sure this is everything? No other tattoos or scars anywhere?" I had my doubts since she had left off certain features. Basically I was staring at a large Ken doll if you know what I mean. "Nothing worth mentioning." "Okay, you can let him fade, or carve him into sushi if it will make you feel better." "If I can't do it for real then I'm not going to waste the energy." "Fine. Has he said anything? Talked about why he's doing this to you?" "He's not much on conversation, mostly he ignores me. When I first woke up there was a ball gag in my mouth. He told me if I would be quiet he would take it out. Of course I said yes, and then I screamed anyway. He beat me up and I stopped. When he left I waited until I thought he was gone and screamed some more. He wasn't gone. He came back in and hooked me up to this machine that shocks the shit out of me if I make too much noise. It's got a db meter like they use in recording studios, and if I go past the mark he sets it at it fires off a jolt. He's very creative about where he leaves the electrodes. The first time he attached them to my nipples. Sometimes he leaves it hooked up while he's raping me. Sometimes he just lets me scream. If he puts the ball gag back in before he starts I know I'm in trouble. But at least I know if the ball gag is in he isn't going to be throat fucking me." "I'd think he'd be worried about you biting it off." "He has these clips he attaches to my teeth to wedge my mouth open so it can't close. They're even adjustable. Bastard played with them until my mouth was open just far enough for him to safely clear my teeth but still feel my lips. If I try to bite down it feels like my jaw will dislocate. If I don't use my lips and tongue and do a good job he punishes me. If I live through this, I've got a great future as a porn star. I think I could swallow your arm without gagging, bastard is hung like a fucking horse. He calls me Angela or his little Angel a lot, sometimes 'Angels.' I really hate that one. It's Jimmy's nickname for me and to hear it coming out of his mouth just makes me want to cry. He called me Katia once though." "Kathy?" "No, it was more like 'Cat-cha'. It's a European variation, Russian or Slavic I think. I met a girl with that name once; she was an exchange student here for a year. She said it can be short for Catherine or Katrina. That was the day I heard the gun shots." "Gun shots? You didn't mention gun shots before." "I'd forgotten about them. It was recently, maybe a day or so ago, day and half maybe." "That's important. If there was a shooting near you it would help pin down the location. I need to get that to Rebecca as soon as I can." "Who's Rebecca? Is she the girl you brought before?" "No, she's the FBI agent in charge of your case, the killer's case actually." "So who was the girl, your partner?" "I don't really have a 'partner.' She's one of my girlfriends. She's one of the smartest people I know and she helps me with a lot of things. In your case she seemed to know just what you needed to snap you out of your depression. I didn't have a clue what to do once I found you. I hadn't thought to ask Rebecca or... anyone one else about what to do once I finally reached you. "Angela, there's not much more I can do right now. I can stay but if you would rather be alone to rest..." "Actually, I have a couple questions, if you don't mind that is?" Something about the way she was looking at me made me hesitate, "I can't promise I will answer them but within certain limits I will try to answer what I can." "Are you a cop?" "No, I'm not affiliated with any law enforcement agency. I have been working with the FBI since I discovered what he was doing. That was last fall." "You discovered it? How did you find out about it?" "That's a long story, let's just say I had help and leave it at that." "Okay, you brought your girlfriend, the one that looked like me, with you before, can you bring anyone or only certain people." "As far as I know I can bring anyone, but I generally only move people that I know and that know what I am doing. I try not to take unnecessary chances. It's more dangerous than you know. Is there someone you want to see?" "My brother, Tim," She said without hesitation. "I know he must be worried about me; Jimmy, the boy that was here earlier, he's very special and I'm sure he's worried as well." "Yes they are, and if you really want me to I'll see what I can do. No guarantees; and it's going to be hit and miss to see you. We don't seem to be on the same sleep schedule. I've been waiting all weekend to try and hook up with you again. Would it be easier for you if I stopped looking like Tim?" "No, that's okay. But I would like to see the real one if I can, is it the weekend already? I lost track of time a while back, maybe this will get me back on track. That explains why he's been around so much." "It's late Sunday afternoon. Have you been here at all recently?" "A few times, but never for very long. I swear that man never sleeps. At most I doze off for a few minutes here or there. Never more than a half hour or so, but it has helped. I feel better when I wake up even if it's only a short nap, so thanks for that." "Good, I'm glad that it's helping. I'm going to add a clock and a calendar over there so you can keep better track of time. I don't know how well it will work but we'll try it for now. I need to go talk to Rebecca, let her know what you've told me, which means I have to wake up. You will stay here as long as you are asleep but it's your dream so you have control. It takes a little practice but you'll find you can do a lot. You can bring Tim here to be with you but it'll only be a figment of your imagination. If the opportunity comes up I'll bring the real one to see you. The most important person I need to bring if I get the chance is Rebecca. After her I'll try to bring Tim, or your friend Jimmy, but it's tricky. They won't know that the dream is real, more like they are dreaming of you. I try not to let too many people know I can do this stuff. Like I said, it's dangerous for others to know." "I can imagine. I don't think most people would be comfortable with a stranger crawling around in their heads; but nobody would believe them if they said anything." "But if enough people started saying it, someone might listen. There are a lot of people in the world that would want to abuse what I can do." "Abuse it how? I mean, it's a dream. You're like the ultimate voyeur, but that's about it." Suddenly the sky darkened and the wind picked up. Angela jumped as a bolt of lightning struck the pool and ignited it. Flames shot skyward briefly then, as quickly as it happened I put it all back to normal. "Oh. I see what you mean. So why can't you just move into the killer's head and find out who he is or where he has me?" "I can't reach him. Something about his mental configuration that won't let me get to him. Plus, in order for me to reach him he has to be asleep. You said he doesn't do that much." "Oh yeah, I guess that would be a problem. Okay, go tell your FBI friend, Rebecca was it? What you've found out. I'll be fine. I just have one more question before you go." "What's that?" "You got a name?" I laughed. "Not that I can tell you. Pick one, it doesn't matter what you use." I got serious again. "I'm going to find you, Angela. I'm not going to let him kill you... but I need time and that's up to you. I'm sorry it means he's going to keep hurting you, but you have to keep fighting." She moved in close and hugged me. "Thank you. Thank you for trying. I'll do my best." She squeezed me and I hugged her back and kissed her neck. She let me go and as stepped back I thought I saw something in her eyes but then it was gone. "I'll see you again as soon as I can. I'll bring Rebecca if I can; then I'll see what I can do about Tim and your other friend." I woke up in my living room. It took me a second to orient myself as things had changed. The television was off and Allison was sitting on the floor watching me. "You reached her again didn't you?" she asked. "Yes," I said, standing up and stretching. "I need to call Rebecca and tell her what I found out. What time is it? And how did you know I found her again?" "It's almost six. I've been waiting over an hour for you wake up. That's how I knew you reached her. You didn't wake up when I shook you. I would have tried to join you but I wasn't sure if that would be the right thing to do or not. Call Rebecca then come out back. Dad's getting ready to start dinner." She stood up and hugged me. "I love you, Jimmy." I hugged her back and kissed her hair just like I always do and it hit me. Is that what was in Angela's eyes? Had the hug felt familiar? Shit. Allison must have noticed the change. "What's the matter?" "Angela hugged me before I left. I hugged her back and she had a funny look in her eyes when we broke apart." "You think she recognized the hug? It's very possible, Jimmy. You almost always do the same thing. I've noticed it with Shannon, too. Your hands are always in the same place; you always kiss us on the neck and then tuck your head down on our shoulders. I haven't seen you hug Angela recently so I don't know if you do it with her, but if she just reached in and hugged you then you probably went on autopilot. I doubt if she'll figure it out. It's not much to go on, but... I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. You need to be more careful." She kissed me on the cheek, turned me around and gave me a push and a swat on the butt. "Go call Rebecca, we'll talk more later." ------- Chapter 75: Desperation Setting In Rebecca was excited to hear that I'd reached Angela again. We didn't talk much on the phone but I did give her all the information on the sounds that Angela had remembered. The gun shots were the most promising for giving us a place to start. "Three shots, closely spaced, means it was intentional," she said. "No one fires a gun accidentally three times; you don't target shoot in groups of three, or in a single group. Something, or more likely someone, died of those shots. "I hope you can take me with you one of these times. If we had time I'd like to have her do one of those re-run things that you do. It would be ugly to watch but I'd like to see everything he's doing, more importantly, I'd like to hear him. Voice and speech patterns could be helpful in giving us some shot at a background on him. Visuals are nice but unless it's something that really stands out and might have shown up on a police report somewhere and be recognized then they don't help much." "He has a tattoo." "Really, that's something anyway. Just one?" "As far as I know. I only saw the one. If he has others either Angela hasn't seen them or she didn't notice them. When we get together tonight, I'll show him to you? "Great, how's she doing?" "All things considered I'd say she's doing great. She knows the truth about her situation. We were right, by the way, about how he took her. She said there was something rigged to the passenger side seatbelt. After she called roadside assistance, someone called back and told her to belt herself in on that side. When she pulled the seatbelt out she heard a hiss and the next thing she knew she's tied up naked somewhere else. She knows how serious her situation is and what happens if she gives up. She's trying to stay positive. She asked me to bring her brother and 'her friend Jimmy' if I could. I told her my first priority was getting you in to see her but after that I'd see what I could do." "You're not worried about her finding out about all the things you can do?" "Of course I am, but considering the alternative is she dies, what would you do?" "Just asking, glad to see you've got your priorities straight. So you're going to grace us with your presence tonight." "My goal is to try and get back some of the sleep I've been missing. This weekend has been killing me." "Great, then I'll see you tonight. You're doing a great job, Jimmy." I brought Allison and the rest of the family up to date over dinner. "I'm glad you finally reached her again," Mom said. "It would have been horrible to spend the whole weekend like that and have nothing to show for it. Do you think you'll be able to sleep tonight?" "Trust me; I'm going to sleep just fine. I am so looking forward to tonight. All I need is someone to snuggle up next to and I'll be all set." Allison volunteered; with my schedule over the weekend we hadn't really been able to spend that much time together, asleep or even just snuggling. Since I was tired already it was a matter of trying to stay awake rather than falling asleep. At most I'd wanted to sleep for a few minutes every hour just to see if Angela showed up. If she didn't then I wanted to wake up as soon as possible and stay awake until it was time to check on her again. Allison quickly got tired of my waking her up by fidgeting around the bed in between checks. She had quickly decided to spend the bulk of the weekend in her own room, just one more thing to add to the list of things that sucked about this weekend. Now that it was over I wanted nothing more than to sleep the whole night through. Well, that and wake up with Allison curled up next to me. When we reached the office I replayed my time with Angela, everyone was impressed with my playing two roles in the same dream. Rebecca was happy with the results of my questioning Angela about her surroundings. She spent a lot of time studying Angela's image of her captor and getting the details locked into her mind. Unfortunately we couldn't really use it for much. Without the face it just wasn't much use, it was pretty unlikely that he wore the mask around town in public. Bob seemed very quiet throughout the whole thing. As usual Allison picked up on it as well. She caught my eye at one point to be sure I had noticed. When we were all up to speed on the latest developments I asked him, "What's wrong, Bob?" "What do you mean?" he responded. Allison gave one of her signature eye rolls and jumped all over him, "Oh please, you have hardly said two sentences since we started. You're just sitting there with this look that just screams, 'something's wrong, ' on your face." We were still looking at Bob and waiting when Shannon answered instead, "It's Angela, isn't it?" Now it was my turn, "Huh? What about Angela?" "She's faking it." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bob nod in agreement as Shannon continued. "She's been kidnapped by a total whack job and is being beaten and raped on a daily basis. No way is she that calm about it. Don't get me wrong, Angie's strong, she's a fighter and I don't think she'll quit easily but you don't shrug off this kind of abuse. Rape is still rape even if you've fucked a hundred guys. She's hiding it from you." "Why would she hide it from me? She has no reason to. She knows it's a dream and she is safe there, she said so." "Bob?" She said, looking at him as if for confirmation. "She's right," he said, nodding in agreement, "it's an act. As far as why, I see two strong possibilities. The first is that she knows it's you and is shielding you from it; she's trusting you to help her but she doesn't want you to see what's really happening." "But I have seen, we've seen, what's happening. The first time I found her she was huddled in that little cell all beat up and depressed." "And I'm sure that was the truth," he said. "I doubt that she knew it was you when you first showed up. She was probably just as shocked to see you as she appeared, and just as relieved. She's probably telling the truth about how much of a benefit what you have done for her has been as well, but if she knows it's you, then there is a strong, very strong, possibility that she doesn't want you to see all that is going on. I was surprised that she accepted two of you in the dream. More surprised that she took for granted that you could really bring 'you' and Tim, into a dream to see her. It would explain why she took it so easily. She said she wanted to reassure you both because you were worried. All true, but I think she is already working to reassure you. You can't trust what you're seeing, even in your dream she has some control unless you take it away from her, and this is her own dream, so she has even more." He paused for moment, "Jimmy, whatever you do, don't take that control away from her." "Why not? I know what he's doing. I've seen it before." Shannon's turn again, "That doesn't mean you need to see it again. Part of it is vanity on her part. She just doesn't want to be seen like that. The other part," she glanced at Bob, "she's afraid you won't love her any more if you see what's being done to her." "What? That's insane! I'm not going to care less for her because of something totally out of her control." "She's right," Rebecca said. My neck was starting to get sore from turning all over the room trying to keep up. "It's a common dynamic in rape cases; quite often spouses, boyfriends, even close family members turn their backs on the victims. Even with no visible evidence they somehow see the victim as different, even tainted somehow. People who they've known for years suddenly won't stay in the same room with them. People that didn't know what happened suddenly start treating them differently when they find out. Don't take this personally but it is much worse with men. Suddenly you go from the pretty girl next door to the slut down the street. I've met a couple of real assholes over the years. One girl was raped a second time, this time by a long time acquaintance because she wouldn't sleep with him. He somehow got this ridiculous idea that sleeping with him; a long time friend certainly beat getting raped by a stranger, so why wouldn't she want to do it with him? When she still didn't want to he took it as a personal insult, like he was somehow unworthy. Next thing you know she's back in the hospital and he's Bubba's new playmate at the county lockup." "Serve's him right," Allison said. "Yeah, it did, and maybe more, but that didn't help her any. She tried to kill herself in the hospital. The crash team saved her and they put her under watch. She spent a year in women's shelter, with therapy three times a week. A month after they released her she hung herself from her apartment balcony. Bottom line is that if Angela thinks it's you, then what they are saying makes sense. Don't take that away from her. If you do take Tim, don't confront her, let her play it her way. If you take this away from her, she may decide that there is no point in keeping it up, no point in living through it if she is going to lose the people she loves. She may give up just to get it over with." Bob was nodding again. Then he turned to Rebecca and changed the subject, "The real challenge is getting you in to see her. I have a radical suggestion I'd like to try. Do you think you would be willing to let me try and hypnotize you?" "What good would that do?" "Well, the problem is that you need to be asleep when he reaches Angela. I'd like to try and implant a sleep command in you that would allow Jimmy, or more likely Allison, or even perhaps myself, to call you up and put you out when the opportunity presents itself, allowing you access to her without delay." "You mean like pick up the phone and tell me to go to sleep and I just keel over?" "Nothing quite that drastic, it would have to include certain built in safeties. We wouldn't want you to pass out while driving or anything like that, but assuming you could put yourself in a safe environment quickly, yes, something like that. And it would only be necessary if you weren't asleep already, which of course is likely since Jimmy has only been able to reach her during the day." She thought about it for a few moments before answering and I could see the conflicting emotions chasing each other around her eyes. Finally she answered, "If it was anyone else, or for any other reason, I'd say 'hell no, ' but we're running out of time and options here." She took a deep breath. "I'll do it, but you have to promise me you'll take it off when this is done." "That's easy," Shannon said. "He can just set it up so you can turn it off whenever you want." "Can you do that?" Allison asked, turning to Bob. "I don't see why not. We're not looking for behavioral changes or forcing you to do something against your will. We just want you to be accessible to Jimmy on short notice." During the course of the conversation, Bob had caught my eye several times and I knew he was not talking about him hypnotizing Rebecca, but rather for me to do it. After my successes with Tom and Angela, I had no doubts about my ability to do this. The tricky part was not letting Rebecca know that it was really me, or just how easy it would be to do it. Shannon chose this moment to remind us all of why we keep her around. "You said there were two possibilities that came to mind. Was the other one that she suspects that this is all a weird mission impossible trip set up by the killer?" "Something like that, yes," Bob answered. "Just checking. You said there were two and I was wondering if it was that or if you thought she might be thinking that the killer was somehow able to get to her even in her dreams." "The thought occurred to me, but if he could do that he certainly wouldn't need to torture the girls physically. He could have a whole lot more fun and the girls would last a lot longer if he just invaded their dreams. If he wanted his playmates to last longer that would certainly help." Allison's turn to be brilliant, "Unless the kill is just as important to him as all the rest." "That's a scary thought," Shannon said. "Yes, but it wouldn't surprise me at all," Bob said. "He puts too much effort into planning all of this. He enjoys the game too much. It all means something to him." "What do you think would happen if we interrupted the pattern?" I asked. "It's hard to say. I think he would likely just start over, but I don't know if he would start the whole cycle over or just grab someone else that's already on his list and pick up where he left off. Personally I would rather catch his ass than just interrupt his cycle and see what happens." "Well, I don't see it as very likely that we're going to be able to find Angela and not find him at the same time," Shannon said. "I don't either, but he's too damn careful for me to take it for granted that finding him means catching him, and finding one of them is not really an option. We find one, we find both," Rebecca added. "So you're up for the hypnotism?" Bob asked. "Like I said, if it was anyone else asking... let's get this over with." "Have you ever been hypnotized before?" he asked. "It's part of our training, mostly on how to resist. The whole idea makes me nervous. But I trust you, and at this point I'm willing to try almost anything if it will give us a better chance of saving Angela." "Okay then, Jimmy, would you mind moving us to my office? I think it will be easier for her to relax if she doesn't have so many people sitting around watching her." His words said one thing but I was pretty sure he had something else in mind. "Sure, no problem. Give me a call if you think of anything I need to know, like maybe the trigger phrase we're using." I sent them off and turned to kiss both of the girls. "I'm sure you both know who he really wants to do this. I'll be back in a little while. Would you rather to stay here or go somewhere else?" Allison looked at Shannon and asked, "Dolphins?" Shannon shrugged and nodded and I sent them on their way as I disappeared. This took almost no time and as far as Bob and Rebecca were concerned there was no lapse at all. They had barely moved by the time I got there, invisibly of course. I planned to set up so that Bob could see and hear me but Rebecca couldn't. It must have worked because suddenly she stood up and reached for Bob. "Hug me." "Nervous?" "A little. The whole damn thing has been getting to me. I hate feeling so damn helpless while he's doing whatever the hell he wants. If this will help then I'll do it. You're not going to take advantage of this and make me like Brussels Sprouts or anything sick like that are you?" "I wouldn't dream of it." "No kinky little plans you're not telling me about?" "I can't think of a single thing that I would want to do with you that would require more than asking. Besides, if I did something like that and you ever found out... no thanks." I made myself visible to Bob and said, "You know I am still here, and as fascinating as this is, it's nothing I really need to know, so can you maybe change the subject or move it along before you cause permanent damage to my young psyche?" He grinned at me over her shoulder. "Okay then, why don't you get comfortable and we'll get started." "Oh, I get to get comfortable. I think I'm going to like this." She started to pull her shirt over her head and he grabbed her arms. "Now, sweetheart, you really don't want me distracted for this, do you? Maybe we should wait until I'm done for that. You know, I just had a thought. Maybe you should stay at my place for a while. If something does break I'd hate for you to miss an opportunity because you got stuck in traffic." "That's actually a pretty good idea. Is that the only reason you want me there?" "Are you suggesting ulterior motives on my part?" "Suggesting? No. Hoping maybe, but not suggesting." "Okay, that's different. Now, would you be more comfortable sitting up or lying down?" She settled herself in the chair and I moved invisibly behind her. Bob pulled a chair in front of her and started running through a simple relaxation exercise to put her in the right frame of mind. With her eyes closed she said, "You know I've been trained to resist this sort of thing right?" I placed my hand on her shoulder and she slumped down, unconscious, in the chair. I faded into full view and said, "So what now." "Hey, you're the dream doctor, not me. You need an innocuous phrase of some sort, and you need to include safeguards so she won't just keel over when you call and drive into a semi or something stupid like that. That's about it. Just work your magic and wake her back up." He was right. In a dream state, actively touching my target, this was a piece of cake. All I had to do was to explain the steps to her and have her confirm that she understood them. I gave it a built in time limit of thirty days or when the case was solved. There was also a nonsense phrase that either she or Bob could use to turn it off completely. Best of all, she never knew it was me, as far as she was concerned Bob had done the whole thing. When it was all done and 'Bob' brought her back around she never even knew she was out. "Come on, we haven't got all night here," she said. "Actually we do," Bob replied. "And it's already done." "What? When? You never even moved. You're kidding me right?" "No, I'm serious. It's all over and ready to go. Why don't we test it and see how it works. You wake up, and call me, I'll use the trigger and Jimmy will be waiting for you to confirm the results." Perfection. In less than two minutes Rebecca was back in the dream with me. Now we were back to waiting for opportunity to knock. Unfortunately I only had Rebecca back and not Bob. I had wanted to talk to him more about the situation with Angela and how to handle it. Before he could make it back morning came and it was too late. I wasn't too worried, if things continued the way they had been going I would have plenty of time to talk to him before I bridged her again. Sure enough, Monday came and went with no opportunity. I wasn't trying so hard to stay up any more. I stayed up later, got up early and took a nap in the middle of the day just in case. Shannon was spending the day with us so I had no trouble finding someone to help snuggle me to sleep. That night I met with Bob and we decided that the best way to find out the truth was for me to just disappear instead of actually leaving next time we met and see what happened. Independence Day came and went in a shower of glowing sparks and thundering explosions. Karen brought Tom and the kids over. My dad sacrificed some kind of ribs on the barbeque, and we all generally had a good time. Tom looked a thousand percent better but he was still very weak. The 'rent's played cards, the kids swam, did video wars in my room, and generally everyone had a pleasant afternoon. We walked down to the park and watched the fireworks from the stadium. We have a minor league baseball team in town and they put on a descent show every year. The walk to the park and back was almost too much for Tom but we took our time and waited for the crowd to thin out before heading back. Still, he was leaning on Karen pretty hard by the time we got home. The latest news from the doctors was all good and we were looking forward to the last of his treatments. There was no sign of Angela all weekend. I tried not to think about what the killer might be doing to take advantage of the holiday weekend and waited for a chance to get Rebecca in to see her. Wednesday afternoon we got our chance. Allison and I were taking a nap and swimming with the dolphins when suddenly I felt Angela. And I do mean swimming. Allison makes a very fetching mermaid. Not surprising, even with fins she still has a really nice tail. The fiction of the sea shell bikini top was dispelled almost immediately. For one thing they don't stay on when swimming. And they tend to chafe. So she went topless, which I think is more realistic anyway. We were playing tag with the whole pod when I suddenly stopped and the dolphins started jumping and chattering very excitedly as if they knew something was up. One look at my face and Allison knew what it was. She faded almost immediately and I dove under the blue water, re-surfacing in the pool in my back yard in my guise as Angela's new guardian angel. I was suddenly struck by the thought that from the very beginning she had accepted me looking like her beloved brother without question. She was stretched out asleep on a lounger, naked and bruised as usual but she didn't look quite as bad as last time. That in itself suggested that Bob may be right and she was hiding things. I stepped out of the pool and moved to stand over her. I put a bathing suit on her and waited for Rebecca to call. It didn't take long and my phone vibrated in my pocket. I guess I really was worried about waking her. I'd never worried about the phone making noise before. I opened the phone and Rebecca's voice said, "I'm here, give me a door and I'll be there in just a second." As she spoke the back door opened and she stepped out while still putting her phone away. As she came toward us I reached down and shook Angela gently awake. She cringed away from my touch at first but then she realized where she was, relaxed, and rolled over to look up at me. "Oh, it feels so good to truly rest. I'm glad you're here this time." "This time?" "Yeah, I've been here a couple times but you weren't here. They were just short naps though. He must have taken off work or something because he's been around a lot lately." I didn't tell her that she'd missed the Fourth of July. The fact that she hadn't heard any fireworks confirmed that she was being held some distance from the main heart of the city. That fit well with what Rebecca had discerned regarding her possible location. She was facing away from the door so she hadn't noticed Rebecca yet. "Angela," I said, reaching for her hand to pull her up, "I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI." I stretched my free hand toward the porch area and she turned to see Rebecca waiting a few feet away. "Hello, Angela," Rebecca said, extending her hand. "It's nice to meet you. Forgive me, but I don't want to waste any time. Especially since we don't know how long you have, I'd like to get right to work. Have you heard anything unusual since last time? Anything at all that might stand out and help us pin down where you are being held?" "It's nice to meet you too, but I would have preferred to meet you kicking in the door and shooting that bastard," Angela said, shaking Rebecca's hand. "But I know you're doing your best. I really don't hear much from outside at all. Maybe if there were windows..." "That's okay. I would have preferred to meet you that way too. We're getting closer but we're not there yet. Our friend here has a neat little trick he's used before that I'd like you to try. This may be somewhat painful but I'd like you to relax and try to remember everything you can about what's happened to you. I understand that you've never seen your captors face, but as much as you can I'd like you to try and remember as much of the other details as you can remember, everything he's said, any other details that you can remember as far back as you can go." "I don't know what you mean," Angela said. "Think of it as a visualization exercise," I said. "I think it might be easier if we go inside first. It will be easier to form the scene without the distraction of sunlight and the pool and stuff." Without even moving we were suddenly in my living room. Angela was a little startled at the sudden change. "How did you do that?" she asked. "It's just a dream. You can change just about anything if you want to. You can also do other things. Have a seat and try to relax." I steered her over to the couch and sat her down. "Now, close your eyes and picture a scene. I realize you aren't going to see much at first, so just concentrate on the words. Rebecca would like to hear as much of what he's said as possible. You don't have to relive everything, just skip over anything that's too painful..." The afternoon went on from there. There were a lot of gaps. I suspected these were times when she was being raped or abused. Rebecca listened intently and I tried my best to concentrate on the words and not the images. It was hard not to let my own imagination fill in the gaps. As the scenes went on it became harder and harder to contain the rage that was building inside of me at the thought of what my friend was going through. I realized then how much I had been suppressing my feelings about this, compartmentalizing them, basically just sorting them out and stuffing them in a box. It was getting harder to do and I couldn't help but wonder if the box was just getting too full and what would happen if it ever filled up and overflowed. Finally it was over and I let Angela drop into a deeper sleep while I talked to Rebecca. "What do you think?" "He's European by birth, most likely eastern block. He covers the accent very well, but there are words and phrases that really give it away. Names are always the hardest. You can't help associating the name with the person, and when you do, you tend to pronounce it the way it's supposed to be spoken. I would love to know who Katia was. I think she was important to him. Something about the way he says it. I've done all I can here. Are you going to stay with her or just let her sleep?" "I think it would be hard to explain staying with her if she woke up. I'm pretty much holding her in sleep now so we can talk." "Okay. Well, I need to go makes some notes on all this. Physically there isn't much to go on. I wish there had been more to that tattoo. It was different but not in a striking way that I think someone may remember it. Plus it's small so it would be easy to cover up and hide. If no one has seen it, then it doesn't really help with ID, and considering where it's at, I don't think that many will have seen it or would recognize it if they saw it from a distance. Is that mask the same one your guy in the cell was wearing?" "Pretty much except that in the dream the guy's is completely blank, not even eye holes. Huh, now that I think of it, did you make out his eye color? I don't remember seeing enough of it." "No, she skipped over anything close enough to see them, I'll probably sleep better not knowing what was going on then and it wouldn't have helped much anyway without the rest of the face. I'm getting worried, Jimmy. It's taking too damn long to find her. It's been almost three weeks. I don't know how much longer she can hold out." What could I say? I had been having the same thoughts. I nodded and sent Rebecca back to wherever she was sleeping so she could wake up. On a whim I moved Angela to the cabana and held her while she slept. Not for long, and it was hard to say who I was really trying to comfort more, her or myself. After a subjective half hour or so I got up, faded to invisibility and released her to wake up. I was in observer mode, just floating above her, watching her sleep. She lay there for a few minutes before starting to stir. As my influence faded her bruises started to reappear. Bob had been right, she was hiding a lot. She started to toss and turn on the bed as more bruising appeared, one eye suddenly turned dark and she coughed around a suddenly split lip. Her breathing became labored and rasping. Suddenly she was awake, hugging a pillow and crying into it. She started to curl up and gasped in pain as she bent her leg. One knee and the foot below it were hugely swollen. Something inside me broke and I cried for my friend and lover. I felt a presence beside me and Allison's voice said, "Oh my god!" I shifted us out onto the beach and gave us bodies. We came back into solid form hugging each other and crying. "Bob was right," she said against my chest. All I could say was, "Yeah, he was. She's fighting hard and paying for it. But she's still trying to keep it in." "Did you notice the bruises?" "How could you miss them? Of course I noticed them, they're all over her." She pushed me back and looked up into my face, "No, you didn't notice. Jimmy, they're old, all of them, they're fading. Do you realize what that means?" In an instant we were back over the bed looking down at Angela as she struggled to rest through her pain. I looked closer and Allison was right. These were all old bruises. The colors were fading. The black eye was one of the newest but the swelling was going down and it was yellowed slightly around the edges. A quick check showed the same was true around the rest. He was letting her heal. This was bad, very bad. The other girls had been outwardly perfect when they were found. It wasn't until you got the pretty dresses off that you found the damage that was hidden underneath. We were running out of time. Beneath me Angela struggled to roll over, wincing at the sudden flares of pain. She took a gasping breath as she reached with both hands to carefully turn her leg to a new position. Fresh tears filled her eyes and she bit her already split lip to keep from crying out. When she finally settled into a new position she spoke and the words tore my heart. "Oh, Jimmy, you have to find me soon. I don't know how much more I can take." I felt Allison's reaction and moved us back to the beach and real bodies again. "Bob and Shannon were right, she figured it out. Jimmy, what are we going to do?" "I don't know. I know I have to do something, but I don't know what else to do." I could feel my emotions shifting from pain to anger. Allison noticed it and whispered, "Not here. You can't let her see it." I shifted us into my dream and let hell break loose around us. The sky was instantly dark and lightning flashed around us as I released the pent up emotion. It felt really, really good but I didn't wallow in it. I let it run for a few seconds then chased it away and let the sunshine return. "Thanks," Allison said. "I needed that. It felt good just watching it. So what do we do now?" "I don't know. I'm out of ideas. Rebecca's got the area pinned down based on the gunshots. A guy was executed out on the north end. They found his body, three shots to the back of his head. They had to wait for fingerprints to identify him. Whatever they shot him with was big enough that the exit wounds pretty much tore his face off. But that still leaves a huge area to search and she can't just start kicking in doors at random. There's no hard, presentable evidence to even justify pointing a finger in that direction." I turned away. "Dammit! If only there was some way to track her." "Are you kidding, bloodhounds couldn't find her without a place to start and she's been locked up for weeks, any scent that may have been left when he took her inside wherever he's got her would have faded ages ago." My head snapped up as I got the visual of bloodhounds searching for her. "That's it." "What? What are you..." I didn't wait for her to finish but put my fingers to my mouth, gave a piercing whistled and yelled, "WALTER!" "Jesus, you don't have to yell," a gruff voice answered and we turned to see the beast from young Bobby's nightmare walking out of the changing tent. "What do you want; it hasn't been a year yet. Hey, who's the babe?" "My sister, Allison, and she knows your secret so you better behave yourself." I reached in my pocket and tossed him a chocolate bunny. The wrapper evaporated halfway to him and he snapped it out of the air and began chewing. His eyes rolled as he savored the taste. "Oh, that's good." He swallowed once and licked his snout for any chocolate that might have leaked out. "Thanks for losing the wrapper, cellophane doesn't do much for the flavor and they're a bitch to open with these damn paws. So what's going on? Why am I here?" Allison had been staring wide eyed the whole time but she finally found her voice, lunging forward she hugged the shaggy thing around the neck so hard his eyes practically bulged. "Jimmy, he's perfect." She stepped back and stuck out her hand, "I'm sorry. That was probably rude of me. I'm Allison, how do you do?" "Oh God! Please, don't apologize! You have no idea how long it's been since a pretty girl did that. I don't care what you need; I'll do it, just promise me you'll do that again." He extended a paw for her to shake, "Walter of Gildenholt, at your service fair maid, how may I be of service?" "I need you to find someone," I answered. I tried to shift us all back to Angela's dream but it was too late, she was gone. "Damn, too late. She's gone." "Oh no," Allison said. "Do we have to wait and try again later?" "Who's gone?" Walter asked. "Come inside and we'll explain," I said and began walking towards the cabana. "My friend has been kidnapped. She's being tortured and raped by a guy who will kill her if we can't find her in time." A low growl escaped from his throat as I continued, "We're running out of time but we don't have enough to go on. Allison mentioned bloodhounds and I thought of you." "Oh gee, thanks," came the sarcastic reply. "I'm sorry, but you are part dog. I thought you might be able to track her." I opened the door to the cabana and held it as he entered; on the small table was a tea service with two cups and matching large bowl. "Tea! I forgive you." He rushed to the table and sat on his haunches with his big tail sweeping the floor behind him. Allison giggled as she moved past me and poured the steaming liquid into the bowl, "One lump or two?" "Three please, my dear. It's a rather large bowl." "Cream?" "Of course... perhaps a bit more... thank you." "Drink up," she said, stirring the bowl before placing it on the floor in front of him. "Never before a lady," he answered and waited patiently while she poured each of us a cup. "You are too kind, sir." "Nay, it is you who are kind to an old soldier. Could I trouble you for one of those sandwiches?" "Of course." She picked up a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich and placed it on a small plate next to his bowl. He took a nibble of the sandwich, no small feet considering the snout, and lapped at the tea. "Oh, it has been a long, long time. You make a wonderful cuppa, my dear." "Why thank you. I had a wonderful teacher. You should meet Elizabeth sometime." "If she is even half so fair as thee then it will be my great pleasure. Now then, who is this damsel in distress that you wish me to locate." I pulled one of Angela's graduation pictures out from under the table and showed it to him. "Her name is Angela." He gave a howl and said, "I need to hang out with you more often. Don't get me wrong, Bobby's a nice kid but he's a little young. I like your friends a lot better. You realize the picture isn't really going to help though, right? I could probably locate the nearest box of Kodak paper off of it but that's about it. Show her to me, this is no time to be squeamish. You're a big boy and your fair sister has the scent of experience about her as well. She knows the ways of men and women. If what you say is true then a life is at stake and I wager your Angela would rather you save her life than her virtue." I closed my eyes and recreated the scene of all of us in the cabana; the scene frozen with the girls and me still on the bed and Angela masturbating in the chair. "Perfect, that's more like it." He rose and crossed to Angela's frozen image, "Forgive me my lady," he said before burying his snout in her crotch and sniffing hard a few times. "Definitely need to spend more time with you two. You've got great taste, kid. Can you show me more?" I ran through the rest of the scene, then switched to images from prom night with Tim and Cindy. Walter paced around the images and sniffed all around Angela until he had had enough. Allison watched the scenes from that night and whispered, "No wonder you were so tired." Walter must have heard her because he chuckled. "Nice try, Allison, but you forgot that the ears work almost as well as the nose. That's enough. It may take a while but I'll find her." "We don't have a lot of time, Walter," I said seriously. "My best is all I can do. Do you have an area in mind? The world is a big place and it will go faster if I have a place to start." I opened a view of the area in one wall. "You will know when I find her," he said and leaped through the wall, his body shrank and faded into the scene and he was gone. I closed the wall back up and turned to see Allison staring at me. "You're brilliant," she said. "It was you who gave me the idea. Do you think it will work?" "More importantly, do you think it will work? Sending an imaginary monster to track a real person through a dream? Kind of out there, even for you. But I think if you believe, then it has a chance." "I have to believe," I said, hanging my head and setting my tea cup down. "It's all I've got." "Do we tell Bob and Rebecca?" I rolled my eyes. "They'll probably think I'm nuts but yeah, we tell them. Tonight should be soon enough. I don't know how long it will take Walter to find her. It's still a big area and I have no idea how he is going to do it." "My guess is that he will have to wait until she re-enters another dream. As far as he's concerned she doesn't exist until then. From there... who knows? The bigger question is, how will him finding her help us to locate her in the real world?" "I don't really know, but it was all I could think of at the time. And at this point I'm willing to try just about anything. We're running out of time." Rebecca Waking up in Rod's office was what I expected, after all that's where I went to sleep. It is a little unnerving to wake up with your boss staring at you though. I'd been keeping Rod up to date with all that was going on with Jimmy's attempts to track and contact Angela, along with everything else we could come up with to try and track down our elusive killer and this year's victim. So far he hadn't been impressed with much that we had reported. "That was interesting," Rod said. "If I hadn't seen it myself I never would have believed it was possible, but you were out as soon as you hit the chair. Good thing you closed the blinds when you came in. I wouldn't have wanted to answer questions if anyone had come in. Did it work? Did you get to see the girl? Are we any closer to actually finding her?" "Yes and no. I saw her. She looked pretty good but you have to remember that it's a dream and she may be hiding the true severity of her injuries. As far as finding her, I had a general idea after that gang execution she heard. She's out on the north end somewhere. Not hearing the fireworks the other night confirms she's outside the city proper. She's out north in those houses along the freeway out past of the college." "That's still a big area." "Yeah, I know. But she mentioned there are no windows so I'm wondering if maybe she is underground. From her initial description the room seems pretty finished and it's not that easy to make a room look finished. There's plumbing since she obviously has to use the bathroom and she mentioned he likes to watch her shower. So wherever she is the room must be at least an approved addition. The shower hurts the underground argument though." "Yes and no," he answered. "If the building is on a hillside, it still allows for drainage without the need for pumps. Maybe you should get over to planning and see what's in the area with a basement. It's a long shot but I think it's worth the hours. There aren't that many cellars in southern California period." "That's certainly true, and at this point I'll take anything I can get. We're running out of time, Rod. She's pushing three weeks. Another couple days and she'll pass McKenzie. Pena barely made four. He could kill her any day." "I know that. I don't want to be morbid or defeatist but you have to accept the fact that you may not be able to save her. That doesn't mean he has to get away with it. Have you found anything else out about him? Catching him won't bring any of them back but if that's the best we can do I can live with making sure he can't do it again." "So can I, but I'd rather save her. European by birth; I'm guessing eastern block, five-ten, maybe a hundred seventy pounds. He's in good shape. Late thirties to mid forties, hard to tell without seeing the face and head, maybe even then, like I said he's in really good shape. No distinguishing marks other than the tattoo and, according to Angela, a really big dick." "I don't see that making the wanted poster," he responded dryly. "What about the tattoo? Anything useful there." "Well it was original, I'll give it that. Probably unique, but considering the location, size, and the fact that it's the only one I saw, I think you'd have a hell of a time finding the artist that did it, there's no telling how long he's had it or how many people may have actually seen it." "Get me a more usable description and I'll send it to the net and see if we get lucky, I don't think the tattoo alone would be enough to get a response though." "Not without a lot more detail. Aside from being in really good shape, there wasn't much to distinguish him. Short hair and physically fit isn't much to go on. Even if it eliminated ninety percent, the other ten percent is still a huge group to draw from. And I don't see a judge giving us a blanket search warrant to go door to door asking guys to take their shirts off." "How are you going to explain enough of any of this to get a warrant in the first place? You need to give that some thought, because if we do get lucky and a house with a basement in your target area, you're still going to need to convince a judge, and that means verifiable evidence. 'My invisible friend talks to me in my sleep' isn't going to play well with the courts. The media would probably love it." "Don't even go there. I'd be laughed out of the state. The bureau would have to dump me just to save face. That's not something I want getting out even when we do catch him; "Rebecca Hampton: Psychic Detective" is not a label I'm ready to live with. Sounds like a bad Saturday morning cartoon. Can you imagine the kind of crap that would be laid on my desk over it? Gives me hives just thinking of it." "At least you're still in 'when' and not 'if.' Maybe you could have Jimmy phone in another tip. Out walking his lizard and thought he heard a girl scream or something like that. You're sure your friend Bob is going to be able to clip this sleep suggestion when the time comes? I don't want you going to sleep at your desk when this is over." "I've thought about that already; we can use the tip line if we need to. As to the rest, we'll know when the time comes. It's got a built in expiration when the case is done or a one phrase key any time I decide I don't want to do it any more. Use the phrase, have someone try the trigger phrase and see if it still works. If it does, I'll go take his kneecaps off with a rusty hacksaw. Well, one anyway, that may be enough to motivate him to find a solution that actually works." "Ouch. You're sure he didn't put any other little suggestions in there while he had you in such a willing state of mind? You don't feel a sudden compulsion towards skimpy lingerie, short skirts, sex in public places, or anything like that?" "Too obvious; I can't hide my Glock under a short skirt, I don't even make out in public, and my lingerie is none of your damn business." He chuckled and waived me out the door. I opened the blinds as I left and ignored the stares of people wondering what I was doing in the boss's office with the blinds closed for so long. Enough people were already jealous of my relationship with Rod as it was. This wouldn't help, but I really didn't have anywhere else I could safely retreat to when the call came in. Sleeping at the office, even in an empty conference room, was not something I would like to have to explain. Not to mention that whoever found me would probably feel obligated to wake me up before I got 'caught.' The last thing I wanted was for someone to do me a favor and wake me up right in the middle of interviewing Angela. There was no way of telling how long it would take to get a second chance. We were running out of time already. I couldn't afford, she couldn't afford, any set backs. ------- Chapter 76: End Game Allison and I spent a large part of the afternoon discussing whether or not a dream created character; one essentially stolen from someone else, could actually track another's dream back to its source. While there didn't seem to be much that I couldn't do in dreams, finding Angela had proven beyond me. If I couldn't do it, could I make someone else do it for me? "You don't know that you can't do it, find her I mean. Maybe it's just something you can't do yet? Or it could be that you need to learn to do it." "Sounds a little too much like mind reading to me. I mean, once I've interacted with someone in a dream I can find them again any time I want, bridge them with no effort, even know when they are dreaming, feel it if they are dreaming of me. But that's all happening in the dream environment. This would be actually finding some sort of dream... emanation I guess is the right word, like a brainwave and actually tracking it backward to the source in the real world. That just sounds way too sci-fi." "But isn't that exactly what you set Walter to do?" "I don't know. Sort of, I guess, but it's not what I was thinking, I'm not even sure what I was thinking, just that I wanted him to find her. I don't know what he is actually tracking." "Well, it certainly wasn't her brain he was sniffing to get on the trail. I don't know if brain waves have a scent but somehow I doubt that's what they smell like. Let's assume he does find her, then what?" "He leads me to her and I try to find an address or something I can use to lead Rebecca and the cavalry to her." "And if it doesn't work?" "Then I'll think of something else. I have to find her, sis. I have to find a way to save her. I can't give up." She moved in and hugged me. "I know. You'll think of something, I know you will. C'mon, I've got to get dinner started. Why don't you peel some potatoes for me and then you can set the table." "Oh, is that all? Maybe I could just cook dinner for you and you could supervise?" "Oh, poor baby. Am I making you work too hard?" She slid a hand down and gave my butt a squeeze. "Work hard, do a good job, and I'll make it up to you later." I spent most of the evening floating around the pool, trying to relax, and working very hard at not thinking about the problem I desperately wanted to solve. Anxiety was an enemy I didn't have time for tonight. I needed to be able to relax and get to sleep so I could get to work. Allison and I were laying on opposite ends of the couch reading when the phone rang. Mom and Dad were still outside listening to the stars or whatever it is parents do when they are alone and rapturously enjoying each other's company without touching or speaking. It was Shannon. "Hi, Jimmy. I just had a thought." "Yes, oh fountain of brilliance," I answered. "What? No, it's Shannon, I thought Allison was there with you? Just kidding. I was wondering though. What you did with Rebecca, why can't you do that for yourself?" Suddenly she had my undivided attention. "What did you say?" "I said, why can't you do what you did to Rebecca, you know, implanting what amounts to a sleep button, in yourself? It would solve the problem without you needing to be on the edge of exhaustion when you're trying to work, wouldn't it?" Allison had called Shannon with the latest updates after we had sent Walter out in search of Angela and obviously her brain had been working its usual magic on the latest developments. The result of which was another uniquely Shannon-esque stroke of genius. Why couldn't I? Auto-hypnosis is a well established fact, from stop smoking programs, to bio-feedback, all the way to the eastern mystics of legend and folk lore. Could it be that easy? "I love you, you know that, right?" I said in a dazed voice. "I have to call Bob, now. I'll get back to you on this. You're brilliant. You're just... I love you." I hung up the phone and turned to find Allison giving me a look. If the look on my face was half as stupid as I felt at the moment... what can I say, I was in awe. My girlfriend was a genius. My sister was a genius. I was an idiot and I probably looked like one at that particular moment, and I didn't care. What was I doing? Oh yeah, calling Bob. Where was my phone? I really needed my phone. "What is wrong with you?" "It's Shannon," I mumbled incoherently. "Shannon? What about Shannon? Nothing's wrong is it?" she asked, sitting up straighter. The sudden concern in her voice did a lot to snap me back to reality. "No, no, she's fine, everything's fine, she's just... brilliant." "Yeah, I got that part. Was there some particular spark of her brilliance that you wanted to share with me?" "It's so simple; you'll feel so stupid if I tell you." "That good, wow! Okay tell me. I'll risk an inferiority complex for this one. Dazzle me." "The thing I did with Rebecca?" "The sleep suggestion, or did you do something else to Rebecca that you haven't told me about?" I ignored the suggestion and just said, "Why can't I do that to myself?" "Why can't you..." She stopped and cocked her head to one side as what she had just heard raced around inside of her head. She finally looked at me and said, "I love that girl, really I do, and so help me God if she ever says anything about not contributing or feeling useless again I am going to kick her pretty little butt. I can't believe we never thought of this. Call Bob. This will work but call him anyway just so he can feel as stupid as the rest of us." He did. We decided that since working in dreams seemed to be so much more effective, that we would wait until we got together that night to set it up. I picked out the appropriate safeguards, the trigger phrases I wanted to use, etc. and debated with Allison about who would have access to the information, and I tried really hard not to feel stupid for not thinking of it sooner. We were all set by bedtime. You know what they say about the best laid plans. As soon as I was asleep I felt Angela. That should have been my first clue. I never found her at night, but I didn't give it a second thought and went straight to her. She was lying in the shade on one of the loungers looking tired but still better than the last time I'd seen her. There were no signs of fresh injuries, but somewhere in the back of my brain I wondered if she was hiding anything. She sat up as I stepped out the back door. "Hello, Angela." "Hi," she said sleepily. Another alarm bell went off in my head, she didn't sound right. "How are you doing? You look better, but you sound... not tired, but sleepy." "I am sleepy. He gave me something. Not sure what it was but it helped with the pain and let me sleep." "The pain in your knee?" "Yes, and my ankle, I was having..." She sat up a little straighter. "How did you know about my knee?" Suddenly there was a note of panic in her voice. Before I could answer a shaggy shape exploded out of the pool and landed on the deck. Angela screamed and jumped out of the chair, running for the door. Behind her Walter began shaking the water out of his coat and drops sprayed everywhere. I intercepted Angela and hugged her to me. "It's okay, he's with me," I said then raised my voice, "Walter, you're getting everything wet, not to mention scaring Angela. Couldn't you just dry your fur?" He gave a final shake and then padded toward us. "Anybody could do it that way, trust me you wouldn't, couldn't, understand how good that feels. Now what the hell are you doing here?" "What do you mean?" "I mean if you already knew where she was then why do you have me chasing all over looking for her?" "Because I don't know where she is. This is a place she comes to rest. I just came because I felt her here. Finding her here isn't the problem; I need to know where she really is." "Oh. That explains why everything was suddenly different this time." "What do you mean?" "Well I had been working my way through a different area. She dropped in and out a couple times but never for long enough to get close. I was waiting for her to show up again and suddenly the scent was stronger over here. It was like there were two trails and this one was fresher. Now I know it's because you're here." Suddenly Allison's voice came from behind me. "Can you follow the other trail and ignore this one." She walked through the door in her new bathing suit and immediately moved to hug Angela. "Hi, Angela, I'm glad you're here. Jimmy, drop the disguise, she already knows and we don't have time to play around any more. Walter?" "Sure I can. Do you think you can keep her here for a while?" "What do you mean?" I asked. "I don't keep her here. She leaves when she wakes up." "Well duh! Can you keep her from waking up long enough for me to follow the other trail? If she wakes up again, I'll lose it and I'll have to wait until next time." "I don't know if I can keep her from waking up." "Then I'd better get back to it right away." Turning to Allison he said, "Good to see you again, cutie. Thanks again for the tea." Then he dove back into the pool but there was no splash. He just sort of disappeared into the surface of the water. "How long have you known it was really us?" Allison asked as she led Angela back to the lounger. I noticed she was wearing a bathing suit similar to Shannon's new one but in a different color. "I figured it out after the first time. When you found me in that cell and brought me here. At least I suspected it then. When I got here and Jimmy was already here I was almost certain. It wasn't until he hugged me that I was a hundred percent sure." She turned to me. "It was all real wasn't it, the three of you in the cabana? Even that first time, when I dreamed of you in the park and you took us there?" I blushed at the memory, nodding a yes as I answered, "It was real. How did you figure it out?" "It didn't make sense. At first I couldn't really remember it all, but after the second time the memories were clearer. Who gets turned down in their dreams, especially by a fifteen year old? High school guys don't turn down blowjobs, they practically beg for them; but you did, and then you offered to go down on me. I probably could have written it all off as just a wild fantasy if not for that. Then the next time I dreamed of you I got all three of you. I wasn't dreaming about all three of you. I wasn't dreaming of the girls at all, just..." Suddenly she stiffened and the bathing suit disappeared. "Angela, what's wrong?" Allison asked. Angela's black eye faded back in. It was lighter than before and the swelling was gone. She shuddered and as she did a weird sensation shot through me. I suddenly realized what was happening. Without intending to I had apparently taken Walter's suggestion that I try and hold her here. Angela was trying to wake up and I was struggling to keep her here. And apparently it was working. I moved to the lounger and drew her close to me. Her body convulsed, her head tossing limply from side to side, before my eyes her knee swelled and if anything it was worse than before. Another spasm seemed to pass through me at the same time; nothing physical, just a quick sharp pain. Allison quickly moved in on the other side to help me hold her. Suddenly Angela's head came up and she screamed and clutched at her knee. This time the pain was more intense as a wave seemed to pass through my whole body. Angela screamed again and her ankle suddenly showed fading bruises and new bruises appeared around her wrists. I held her tightly as she suddenly tried to fight her way free. Waves of pain now accompanied her every movement. "She's trying to wake up, isn't she?" Allison asked. "I think so. He must be trying to wake her up." "But you're keeping her here, too weird. Can you do it?" "I don't know. I'm trying but it hurts. It's like the harder she tries to wake up the more it hurts to hold her here." As I spoke Angela convulsed so hard it threw Allison off the lounger and she almost broke free. A burning wave seemed to crash into my chest as Angela screamed. There was sudden tearing sensation and I was standing in a room looking down at Angela's naked body. A man's voice screamed, "Wake up!" She was on her back on a bench. It was similar to the ones that come with those cheap weight sets you get at the sporting goods stores but had a lot more stuff attached to it. Her arms were handcuffed to a pair of uprights; the collar she had described was apparently anchored to the bench somehow and she was struggling against both as she tried to get free. Her legs were securely fastened in a set of those stirrups that they use when they examine women's intimate areas. Only these were adjusted so that her knees were spread wide and pulled high toward her chest. Turning around I found a bed against the far wall, mounted to the bed frame and the floor was a steel box with a thin steel cable feeding through a slot in the front. Rage flared through me at the sight of the naked man crushing Angela's toe in a pair of pliers. He screamed again, "Wake up, you bitch!" He gave one last squeeze, twisting the pliers and Angela cried out around the red ball in her mouth. He tossed the pliers to one side. "That's more like it. Playtime's almost over Angel. You wouldn't want to miss the last of the fun." Suddenly I could feel my body stirring and the scene around me started to fade. I closed my eyes and concentrated on staying where I was, but when I closed my eyes they opened in my room and I was staring up at Allison's anxious face. I closed them again and they opened in the room with Angela. As the view shifted I felt a pull as if there were a wire between the two parts of me. Most importantly, I could feel the direction of the pull. Without opening my eyes, I whispered to Allison, "Don't wake me up." Back in the dream I pulled out my cell phone and called Rebecca. "Hey, Jimmy! What's up? Did you reach her again?" "Sort of, something weird happened and I'm standing in the room with Angela and the killer, only they're not in a dream, they're real. I'm going to try to move around and see if I can find an address." I started to walk away and almost immediately I felt myself slipping back into my body. I quickly moved back and the feeling passed. On a hunch I moved slowly around Angela's bound form, everything was fine as long as I didn't move away from her. I was still connected to her from the dream. Somehow my dream self was still tied to her subconscious. "No good, I can't move away from Angela or I'll lose the connection. Get to my house right away. Get me in the car and I think I can guide you here." "Guide me; how the hell can you guide me there if you're asleep?" "I can't explain, but if you don't come and get me it's going to be too late. I think he's planning on killing her tonight." "What makes you say that?" I repeated what he had said to Angela. "But it's too soon. Why would he kill her so soon? Did she suddenly give up?" "Not yet, but she's close. I think maybe he's been working harder on breaking her. That and he knows that this time someone is looking for him. Not just the local cops searching for a missing girl, but the FBI looking for him." "Shit, I'm on my way. Is Allison with you?" "No. She was but I lost her when I transitioned. She's waiting to see what happens." "Damn, I need someone to call in a tip. If I run off and do this without a reason it's going to cause problems." "I think I can arrange that." "You can? How are you..." "I can't explain, but I'll take care of it." The connection dropped and all I could do was stand and watch as a madman abused my friend. Suddenly a familiar furry shape stepped through the wall. "You again, why am I not surprised?" he said with a frown. Don't ask me how a face like that with a snout full of teeth can frown but he pulled it off. "Explain to me again why you needed me." "It was an accident. I was doing what you asked and trying to keep her asleep, but he was torturing her and the pain woke her up. When she did, I got pulled here with her. Hold on a second." Closing my eyes I whispered to Allison, "Call the FBI number on my phone. Give them the name and ID number they gave me before. Tell them you need to speak to Rebecca. They'll want to put the call through. Tell them you know where Angela is but you'll only tell Rebecca. Make them give you the number. She's already on the way but she needs the tip to avoid problems later." "Okay," she answered. I heard her dialing the phone and turned my attention back to Walter. "Sorry about that, calling the cavalry." "Good idea, but do you even know where you are?" he asked. "No, I can't move far from her without losing the connection. What about you, can you find me an address or something?" "I'll see what I can find." He leapt to go back through the wall but suddenly it was solid and he slammed into it. Not really slammed so much as bounced off. "Ow!" he said, rubbing his nose with a hairy paw. "Okay, that would be a no." The killer was still talking to Angela and with every word he confirmed my worst fears. "You've been a wonderful playmate, Angela. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed our time together. You should be happy to know that after tonight you'll never see me again. But before I go, I thought we could have one last fling together." Angela screamed around her gag and shook her head violently. Her body arched again as she pulled hard on her restraints. The sharp edges of the steel bit into her wrists as she pulled and the pain made her cry out as she realized that these must be different from what he had used before. "Ah yes, I forgot to tell you, I've gotten you some new bracelets for our last night together. I know how much girls like new jewelry and these are much shinier than the other ones. But they're not as forgiving and you might hurt yourself if you're not careful. Now then, be a good girl and open wide..." He unclipped one of the straps holding the ball in her mouth and she quickly spit it out, "You fucker! You pathetic little..." her tirade was cut short as her grabbed her hair and wrenched her head back and down over the edge of the bench. In his free hand he held a slender instrument about eight inches long with something attached to the end. "Uh, uh, uh, such awful language from such a pretty girl; I think we'll have to wash your mouth out. Fortunately I have just the thing." He set the instrument down and placing his hand on her upper throat pressed her head back while squeezing her jaw. Her struggles bought her a little time but eventually he was able to force her mouth open. "There's a good girl." Picking up the instrument again he quickly stuck it in her mouth. She tried to bite down again but he increased the pressure on her jaw to the point where she cried out again. I could see his fingers biting hard into the flesh of her face. Given her general condition it didn't take long for her muscles to fatigue and her mouth to open again. It took him only a second to maneuver his tool into the position he wanted. He pressed something near the tip and twisted and then he was pulling it out. He released her and moved to a cabinet on the far wall. Opening it he pulled something out and began fitting it to the end of the slender tool. I moved as close as I could and saw that it was wedge shaped and appeared to have slots cut in it to fit over the teeth. I wasn't sure how it was held in. Angela said they were adjustable so there had to be some mechanism for securing them besides pressure but I couldn't see it from where I was. There were several other things inside the cabinet as well. A computer monitor showed Angela's still struggling form behind him. By following the angle of view I was able to spot the camera on the ceiling. A quick glance around the room showed four more; one in each wall. I guess he got bored watching the same angle... He stepped back and closed the cabinet and as he did I caught a glimpse of something that made my blood run cold. Tucked in next to the computer were a syringe and small bottle of clear fluid. "Open wide, sweetie," he said, placing the tip of the device where it would just touch the lips of her half open mouth. One side was relaxed and trying to close, but the other couldn't because of the obstruction in her jaw. She pulled her head hard to one side but he just grabbed her nose and pulled her head back again. Resigned to what was coming she opened her mouth and he quickly inserted the second clip. Her mouth was now unable to close more than half way. The killer walked back and placed the instrument carefully back in the cabinet, then clicked something in the computer, bringing up a split screen display showing all five cameras at once. A few more clicks turned several red lights to green and he closed the cabinet once more. When he turned back to Angela something in his demeanor had changed. He began whispering softly to her as he started stroking his hands over her body. "Oh my love, I cannot tell you how much it pains me to hurt you so. You are so lovely. I cannot look at you without remembering our times together. I love you so very much, but I cannot delay any longer. I promise to make this last day as easy for you as possible, my love." Beside me Walter commented, "Sick bastard, isn't he? Do I have to watch this?" Without a word I let Walter fade from the scene and I was alone again. Weird that he could fade out of existence but couldn't pass back through the wall. Taking off his mask, the killer bent forward and began sucking at one of her breasts as his hands explored her soft flesh. Angela did her best to pull away but there was not much she could do. Watching it made me sick to my stomach, but I wanted to make sure I remembered every detail of his face. No matter what else happened I wanted that face etched into my memory as deeply as possible. His mental condition may be hindering my efforts to bridge him, but now that I had a face to go with the image, maybe I could do more, assuming I ever got the chance that is. Suddenly I heard Allison's voice, "Rebecca's on her way. She was staying at Bob's so it won't take long. I have to get some clothes on you. Just relax and try to help me if you can." She carefully lifted first one foot and then the other and I felt the texture of the sheets change to something softer. I recognized the feel of the opening and I lifted my legs a little so she could slide my sweats on. When she had gotten as far as she could she pulled the legs up so my feet stuck out. I pressed down and arched my back so she could pull them the rest of the way on. Socks and shoes quickly followed. It was weird to experience so much sensation and control and know that I was miles away at the same time. "Can you sit up?" she asked. I tried but as soon as I did I felt myself slipping back again. I whispered, "No, if I try too hard I start to wake up. "That's okay, just don't fight me and I'll try to move you around." She swung my feet toward the edge of the bed and I let the momentum carry me to an upright position on the edge. "That works better," I whispered. "Just try to guide me around." "Great, my very own full grown puppet to play with; puts a whole new twist on the term 'boy-toy'. Can you at least look and see what I'm trying to do so I don't have to tell you everything?" "I think so." I cracked my eyes open and saw her sticking her hand backward down the sleeves of one of my sweatshirts. She bunched the material over her arms, took my hands in hers, raised them and ran her hands up my arms until they were as far up the sleeves as they would go. I grabbed material in both hands and held on as she pulled her arms free. A few more seconds and I was fully dressed. "Don't fall over," she said as she set my hands back in my lap. I heard her opening up my phone again. "How long? Okay, I'll meet you at the front door. Yeah, right! And how are you going to keep an eye on him and drive at the same time? If he wakes up we're screwed. He's responding to me okay. I got him dressed but I don't know what will happen if someone else tries it... Well duh! You couldn't get me out of that car with dynamite. Is anyone with you? Okay. I'll meet you out front." "You'll meet who out front?" Mom's voice came from the doorway. "Jimmy's found Angela. He told me to have Rebecca come and get him. I don't know what's going on but if he wakes up we'll lose her again. Bob is following her so when we get there we'll go with him. Mom, Jimmy thinks he's going to kill Angela tonight. "Why do you have to go at all?" "It's hard to explain. Somehow Jimmy is there. He was trying to keep Angela asleep so Walter could find her but he couldn't and somehow he got pulled to wherever she is. He's kind of like half asleep right now. I can move him around and stuff without waking him up but that's all. Don't ask me to explain but he can 'feel' where he is in relation to where his body is, so he's going to try and guide Rebecca there. Mom, I have to get Jimmy to the door. She'll be here any minute. We have to go. Please?" "They'll be alright," Dad's voice this time. "Rebecca would never let them get in harm's way. Who's Walter?" "Not on purpose. Richard, I don't like this." "Neither do I, but if they don't go Angela will die. She may die anyway, but at least they will know they tried, and we will know we did everything we could to help. Cynthia, if it was Allison and someone else was trying to save her, you know you would want them to take the chance." I could hear the tears in Mom's voice, "I know, it's just... (sob)... go, just go, but... be careful." "We will. C'mon, hotshot, time to go," she took my hand and pulled me to my feet. "Okay, now just follow me." She took my other hand and started backing toward the door. I let myself just stumble along behind her. There was a squeal of tires out front and I guessed that Rebecca had arrived. "I'll get the door," Dad said. I felt Mom's hand stroke my head as I passed. "Be careful." "I will," I mumbled back. Then we were at the door and the cooler night air started to tug at me. I concentrated on Angela and managed to ignore it as we stumbled out the door and down the walkway. "Both of you in the back, and as soon as we get there you're in Bob's car and out of there, no arguments, understood? Let me know when we get close, if I try to go in without backup Rod will have my ass. I'll protect them, Cyndi. I promise." I felt myself brush against the car door as Allison turned me around and sat me in the back seat of the car. She quickly buckled the seat belt, then closed the door and got in on the other side. Another door slammed and Rebecca's voice said, "North on 215, right, out by the new developments?" "Yes" I whispered and Allison repeated it to her. That was the area that police records showed a young man had been gunned down not so long ago. The car lurched and my head tossed from one side to the other and I felt myself pulled hard back toward my body. "Shit!" Allison said. She pulled me over sideways until I slipped out of the shoulder harness and lay with my head in her lap. "I'm losing it," I whispered. She kissed my cheek and whispered, "Dandelions taste best with champagne." It was the trigger phrase we had decided on. I guess even though I had never actually gotten the chance to try the suggestion, the fact that I wanted it to work had been enough. I know I've mentioned how smart Allison is, apparently she had decided to take the chance and it had worked. Suddenly I was solidly in the room with Angela watching the killer as he licked at her sex. Angela was whimpering but unable to do anything to stop him. He then pulled a small vibrator from somewhere and started working her sex earnestly. At first I didn't know what he was doing but then he angled it a little and I realized he was trying to stimulate her g-spot. Allison and Shannon had made sure that I learned all about how important that little hidden trigger was; once active and stimulated, orgasm seemed to be only a matter of time. I don't know if thinking of other things will distract a girl and slow things down for a girl the way it does for guys, but then, the girls weren't exactly trying to slow down when we were together. Angela was still fighting her bonds but her hips were starting to fight a completely different battle; no matter what else was going on, a part of her wanted what was building inside of her. Her breathing became more ragged and I could only watch as he drove her over the edge and her orgasm crashed around her. Her head rolled from side to side and she was taking gasping breaths as it rode over her. As I watched she just sort of deflated and lay quiet, her resistance finally gone. Being raped was bad enough, being forced to actually feel pleasure must be about as demeaning as it gets. I couldn't think of a better way to show someone just how helpless they are than that. The look of triumph on his face made me ill. I had to do something. Bending down I placed a ghostly kiss Angela's lips and as I did I felt something stir inside of her. As if a tiny spark had responded to my need. But what was it? I reached for it and it was like looking into one of those tears in the darkness of the killer's visions I had sat though. A daydream? Delirium? I didn't know and didn't care. I pulled the tear further open and when I looked inside I saw Angela looking back at me in shock. "Jimmy?" "No time, I don't know how long I can keep this up; they're on their way. I'm bringing them to you. You have to hold on. Don't give up now or it's all over. I've seen the needle, Angela. He sedated the other girl's before he killed them. That means he's going to kill you if we don't get here first. You have to buy us the time." She cried and said, "I can't do it, Jimmy. I'm sorry. I just can't." Without thinking my hand slashed forward and slapped her hard across the face, a look of shocked outrage lit her eyes. "You can!" I hit her again and shock turned to anger in her eyes, now she was pissed off. I hit her again and yelled, "You lazy little cunt, fight!" I hit her again and this time something in her shifted and I was forced back out as her body once more arched and bucked on the bench before me. "I'm sorry, Angels, but I love you too much to let you give up." It was all I could do to keep the tears back. Suddenly Angela was struggling again and doing her best to scream obscenities at him without moving her mouth. He apparently got the point as he stood up and went back to the cabinet where he extracted a strange looking device with straps all over it. I couldn't figure out what it was until he started strapping it on her. Then the purpose became obvious. It took him no time at all to secure it tightly to her hips. Once it was secure it held the vibrator in place inside her and a second, different unit mounted above the dildo began pulsating directly on her love button. "Now let's see if we can put that dirty little mouth of yours to better use," he said as he moved to stand before her. Angela wasn't kidding when she said this guy was big. Even flaccid he was bigger than me at full arousal. If that thing got any bigger when it got hard... Taking himself in hand he began slapping and rubbing it all around her face. I wouldn't have thought it possible but it actually grew as it got harder. He began running the tip around her mouth. I don't know how much time passed but Rebecca's voice suddenly seemed to echo in the room around me, "Where now?" And I realized I had other things I needed to be doing. I concentrated on the wire connecting me to my body and felt it moving. I could somehow tell I was closer now. I closed my eyes and now instead of looking out at Allison I was looking down at her. The line was more tangible now and easier to follow. It was fascinating to watch myself speak as I said, "Keep going north." My voice was stronger now and there was no need for Allison to repeat it. There was still a tug to return and wake up but it was much easier to just push it aside and ignore it. "Shit, it would be." Then she was speaking to someone else. "North of San Bernardino, we're headed toward 15, we already know the general area... dammit, Rod, that's all I know. Just get moving and I'll let you know when I know, but you have to keep them back until I get the kids out of here. Yeah, Bob is following me and as soon as I can swing it they're in his car and out of here, then you can send in the troops... I know that, but I can't risk them being seen... No! Absolutely not! It's my way or I go it alone and you can fire my ass if I live through it. I made a promise. I won't risk them. Fine! Goodbye, Rod, wish me luck, and take care of my sister." I heard the phone snap shut. "Fuck. How much further?" "I don't know, a couple miles at least," I answered. I flashed back to find Angela thrashing in her bonds as the killer forced himself in and out of her mouth and throat. She was gasping and struggling to catch her breath. Saliva and mucous covered her face and dripped past her hair to puddle on the floor beneath her. Suddenly he pulled out and she coughed fluid out and took several gasping breaths before he rammed himself balls deep into her again. I could watch her throat distend to accommodate him with each plunge. Blood was beginning to run down her wrists where the hard steel of the cuffs were cutting into the soft flesh. The pull changed and I knew we had passed our turn. "Stop! Too far. We have to go back." The car skidded as she slammed on the brakes and angled toward the edge of the road. "It's a freeway, Matthews. We can't just... hang on!" Suddenly the car was accelerating and she whipped the wheel hard to the right. Fortunately the onramp she was now going the wrong way on was empty. "Which way?" "Left," I answered. Allison, "Call Bob and tell him where we're going." "He wants to know if you'll teach him how you did that turn?" "Tell him some other time. Keep him on the line. Take my phone..." she handed it back over the seat. "Don't turn it on until I tell you to. It'll start ringing as soon as you turn it on. It'll be Rod. Tell him to take the Palm exit off 215 and go east. Where to now?" "Slow down, we're getting close. It's somewhere on the right side." "We're coming up on a housing tract. Tell me where to turn." "Right, turn right." The car eased around a corner and as it did the wire shifted like a compass. "Left." The car moved again and the line moved with it, "Straight ahead. I think it's on this street." "Allison, turn the phone on." She did and as soon as it was powered up it started screaming for attention. "Answer it, tell him where we are, then turn it off. Tell him I'll have my radio on before I go in; four-one-two, he'll know what it means. Tell Bob to wait here until we find the house. Then I'll come back and drop you off. As soon as I stop I want the two of you in Bob's car, got it?" "What about you?" Allison asked. "I've got a job to do. You did your part. Jimmy did his. From here out it's my turn. That's the good part of this job, baby. I get to save the damsels in distress. How are we doing, Jimmy?" "Close, it's on the right, coming up quick." "Tell me when we pass it." Seconds passed, "Now." Inside the room with Angela and the killer a bell chimed as I felt us passing the house. The killer instantly pulled out of Angela's mouth, leaving her gasping for air and trying to shake fluid from her mouth. Blood streaked her left arm from the cuts on her wrist. Hurrying across the room the killer flung open the cabinet and started checking displays on the computer. Visual images from several outside cameras came to life and he quickly found the tail lights of Rebecca's car as she stopped further down the street. Apparently the lot next door was empty as the car was some distance away but still clearly visible. I watched as she made a U-turn and headed slowly back down the street. He tracked her as she passed from one camera to the next. He clicked a display and the image zoomed out toward the street. The car came into view and I recognized Rebecca looking at the house as she passed by. Suddenly he was as blur of motion. Opening another nearby cabinet he grabbed a black jumpsuit and started putting it on. When it was up around his waist he pulled on a black t-shirt before zipping the suit up. Then he reached back in and pulled out a shoulder holster. "He knows you're here. He's got cameras everywhere. He's getting dressed, black jumpsuit, black t-shirt. He's got a gun." She hit the gas and pulled around the next corner. Bob was waiting at the end of the block. "Everybody out." Back in the room the killer opened a second cabinet and pulled a key off of a hook. I watched as he stuck it into something in the back of the cabinet and turned. Something clicked and he hung the key around his neck. Allison was maneuvering me into the back of Bob's car as he talked with Rebecca at the trunk of her car. She checked her gun and fitted an ear piece into her left ear and then pulled her FBI windbreaker on over everything. She hugged Bob, and then headed up the street toward the house. Back at the house I watched as the killer moved the computer monitor to one side. A red box with several wires coming out of it was mounted into the back of the cupboard. He flipped open a clear cover, then removing the key from around his neck, he inserted and turned it until a light came on and started blinking. He snapped the key off and moved the computer back into place. He then picked up the syringe and drug bottle and went to stand next to Angela. "You've got a fan Angel," he said as he began filling the syringe. He didn't use much and the bottle was still almost full when he put it in his pocket. "She's very good. I don't know how she found us here but she did and that is all that matters. I'm sorry it has to end like this, but I promise you won't suffer." She struggled as he grabbed her arm and drove the needle in. It only took a few seconds before she settled down onto the bench. The killer dropped the needle on the floor and moved back to the cabinet. He clicked something and the display flashed to a clock reading 4:40. 4:40? That can't be right I thought. Then the display changed to 4:39 and I knew what it was. He typed something into the keyboard and suddenly a door opened on the far wall that hadn't been there before. He closed the doors on the computer cabinet and left, disappearing into total darkness almost immediately. The panel closed again and if I hadn't been watching I couldn't have told you where it was. I jolted upright in the car, suddenly very awake. Bob was almost at the entrance to the development already. "I need the phone, quick." Allison handed it to me and I hit the speed dial. "Shit!" I swore as Rebecca's voice mail answered. "Go back. Bob, turn around." "No chance, we're out of here. That was the deal." "There's a bomb in the house. We have to warn her." "Shit," he said. He pulled over and stopped but didn't turn around. "Call Rod. You still remember his number, don't you? Never mind, she called him from my phone once." He pulled it out and started scanning through his call list. He started to hit the dial but I stopped him. "No don't! He'll have to explain the call. Just give me the phone so I can get the number." I quickly dialed the number on my phone. "Rodriguez." "Mr. Rodriquez, it's Jimmy, where are you." "We're five minutes away and you'd..." I cut him off. "You don't have five minutes. There's a bomb in the house and it's going off in less than four. Rebecca's not answering; can you get her on the radio?" "There's a what? Shit! Jenkins, radio! Hampton! Hampton, do you copy? Shit! Jenkins, what the fuck is going on?" "Jammer." I didn't wait any longer. "He can't reach her. The guy said the signal was being jammed. Bob, we have to go back." "She'll never speak to me again," he said as he spun the wheel and hit the gas. "If we don't get there, she'll never speak to anyone again," Allison said. "Move it, Shelby!" I was out of the car and moving before he had come to a complete stop; yelling Rebecca's name as I hit the front door. It's a good thing it was already ajar or I probably would have broken something. What had looked like natural wood was actually steel. A shadow stood up near the hallway, I could see the gun held in a two-handed grip and pointed at the ceiling. "Jimmy, what the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be gone by now." "No time to explain. He's gone, but there's a bomb. We have to get Angela and get out of here now." She never questioned that I might be wrong about the killer being gone. "How long?" "About four minutes." She clicked a button on her watch, "Two minutes and we're out of here. No arguments, you hear me? Do you know where Angela is?" Suddenly I did know. It was like suddenly the wire was back only this time it ran between me and Angela. "This way." I started down the hall towards the bedroom in the back right corner. The door opened without too much effort and we entered the well lit room. Angela lay unconscious on the bench. Rebecca holstered her gun and moved to examine the restraints. I moved to the cabinet and as I opened the door the timer changed to 3:00. "Three minutes," I told her. "Where did he go?" she asked as she fished her keys out of her pocket and started unlocking Angela's cuffs. "There's a door in that wall. It must be electronically controlled. He did something on the computer to open it." "See if you can get the computer unhooked. I'll have her free in a second." Working quickly I clicked the necessary buttons to shut the machine down. As it started its power down cycle I began disconnecting wires. "Got her, give me a hand." I looked back and Rebecca was struggling to find a way to hold onto Angela's limp form without her slipping through her hands. The collar was still around her neck. Without hesitation I stepped back and pulled hard on the main computer housing. Wires snapped and it came free. I set it down and helped stand Angela up so Rebecca could get her in a fireman's carry. Taking off my sweatshirt I tore it in half, then carefully used the sleeve to pick up the syringe from the floor, placed it on the keyboard and wrapped the shirt around both of them. "What's that?" Rebecca asked. "He gave her a shot. Remember in the visions, he knocked the girls out before he taped the bag over their heads; I think he just knocked her out so she wouldn't feel the explosion or fire. It's got his fingerprints on it. So does the keyboard. I'll have to wipe the case to get mine off. I'll do the door knobs on the way out." "Sometimes you scare me, get the door." I laid keyboard on top of the computer, picked up the stack under one arm, and held the door so she could get through. It's a good thing it was desktop instead of a tower, I would have had to set it down every time I opened a door. "Go, go. Tell Bob to open the trunk." When we hit the living room I ran ahead and found Bob's car now parked across the street. Opening the back door I stuck the computer in and told Bob what Rebecca wanted. I turned to see Rebecca glancing at her watch and hurried to the back of the car to help. We laid Angela's naked body in the trunk as gently as possible. Rebecca closed the trunk and then pulled me behind the car and motioned Bob and Allison to get down as well. Bob lay down in the front seat and Allison huddled on the floor. I counted about a dozen heartbeats before the sky lit up and thunder shook the car. Bits and pieces of debris peppered the side of Bob's car. When the thunder ended I looked to see the house already starting to burn. Another Hollywood myth shot down. An explosion does not instantly set a house on fire. Not unless you dowse it in something really flammable first. The heat will cause combustion but the farther you get from the blast point the less concentrated the heat. In most cases the resulting fire is then fueled by gas lines that ruptured in the blast. But it takes time to catch the whole structure. Rebecca opened the back door and ushered me in, "Stay low. Take them to your place. I'll be there as soon as I can." Without a word Bob put the car in gear and headed off. I glanced back just in time to see Rebecca lay herself onto the lawn in what appeared to be a very awkward position, feigning unconsciousness. Lights began coming on in houses up and down the street. We were just leaving the development when a line of cars with flashing lights came speeding down the off ramp a half mile away. Allison and I got down on the floor as Bob pulled over to wait for them to pass. As soon as they were by he pulled out and we were gone. Rebecca's boss, director Rodriguez, arrived at Bob's house less than an hour after the explosion and took Angela to an ambulance waiting in a local mall parking lot. Allison and I waited anxiously in the back as he explained to Bob that as the Agent in Charge, Rebecca was being too closely watched to come. For now, Angela would be taken to a private hospital and kept under guard until decisions could be made about her future. I had called my parents as soon as we arrived to let them know we were safe. We hid out in Bob's spare bedroom until Rod was gone. ------- Epilogue "Tragedy struck this morning as federal agents moved in on the man suspected of kidnapping young Angela Osborne. Miss Osborne has been the focus of an intense manhunt after she failed to show up for an appointment with officials at Arizona State University where she was to attend classes this fall. The FBI's lead investigator on the case, Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the Bureau's Los Angeles office, was on the scene waiting for additional agents to arrive when an explosion destroyed the home of the suspected kidnapper. Agent Hampton was found unconscious but unhurt in the yard of the house across the street by a startled home owner when he came out after being awakened by the blast." There was the obligatory interview with the man who had found Rebecca apparently unconscious in his front yard, and then the scene shifted to show firefighters still working to extinguish the burning structure as the voice went on, "The body of an as yet unidentified female was discovered in what was left of the house. The girl's body was found handcuffed to a bench and has been taken to the county coroner's office pending the outcome of an autopsy to confirm her identity and notify relatives. Several nearby houses sustained minor damage from the initial blast but quick work by firefighters prevented the fire from spreading. Agent Hampton assured the press that the hunt for the girl's killer would go on and that she would catch the person responsible. In other news..." Angela Osborne was dead. Only six people in the world knew differently, seven if you counted Angela herself. Her family had taken the news as well as anyone could expect. Her younger brother seemed to take it the hardest. Amber Olsen was scheduled to be released in a week or two from the private facility near Santa Monica that had been treating her for a variety of injuries and trauma. From there she would be moved to an unknown location where she could meet with counselors to help her deal not only with the events of the last month but also to prepare her for her new life. Angela's Olympic dreams had died with her. Doctors had had to remove two toes from her left foot or risk losing the whole leg if the gangrene spread further. Even if she had kept the toes, it would still take months of therapy and training to learn to disguise the permanent limp caused by the damage to her knee. Amber had no Olympic dreams. She was just looking forward to starting college in January, after she had recovered from the automobile accident that had prevented her from starting at the beginning of the fall term. She had been wearing sandals in the accident and had lost two toes on her left foot. Los Angeles, CA In the Los Angeles offices of the FBI, the reality of the situation was still very much under discussion. "We don't have a choice, Bex," Rod said. "I sent out a composite of Jimmy's description of the killer attached to a different case. Interpol tagged him. The tattoo was the clincher. He's former European intelligence of some kind, and he's been dead for five years. Or at least he was presumed dead. They won't say why they were interested in him, but they're sending someone out to talk to us. Washington has made it clear that we are going to do everything in our power to cooperate with whomever they send. You know what this means?" "Assassin," came the reply. "They call him 'The Sandman.' Like I said, the tattoo was the clincher. Their agent is bringing what they have, fingerprints, photos, etc., if they have DNA we should be able to match it to what we took off the girl, fingerprints too thanks to Jimmy grabbing the keyboard and syringe. He'll kill her if he finds out she's still alive." The killer's former residence was a work of technological artistry. The room he'd kept her in, and the adjoining bathroom, where actually built inside of the originals. The walls had been layered with sound deadening material. The final step was a two inch gap between the new wall and the original. A separate white noise machine had been set up in each wall, broadcasting into the space to cancel out any stray sound waves that got through. The only avenue not completely protected was the exit by which the killer had left. The door had opened onto a short set of steps, which led to a tunnel. The tunnel led to a service junction in the drainage system under the development. From there he could have exited at any of the several manholes on the surrounding streets. The fact that the white noise could not blanket the escape route was the only thing that had allowed Angela to hear the gunshots that had helped pin down her location. The vibrations from the train passing less than a mile away had come through the ground and up through the buildings foundation. The execution had taken place in an as yet undeveloped lot not far away directly in line with the hidden door. The home was listed as belonging to one Kenneth Riley. A well respected representative for a pharmaceutical and medical supply company. His territory included most of the southwest, including Arizona, Nevada, and California. It also explained his easy access to the drugs and other materials he had used. Kenneth Riley had moved out from the east coast four years earlier and bought the house during the first phase of construction. He hadn't been back to visit his family since he left. When they were shown Ken's California driver's license photo, his parents did not recognize him. Interpol said our killer was in his early forties; Ken Riley would turn thirty-three this summer. Neighbors knew Ken traveled a lot on business, that he was rarely home on weekends, and it seemed like he had really bad luck with his cable because there was frequently a white van parked out front. Ken's company car; a late model Oldsmobile, had not survived the explosion and fire. The contents of the trunk were still under study. There was no sign of the white van. Back tracing Ken's credit cards got the feds nowhere. Apparently Ken used cash for almost everything except his company expense account. But the expense records showed he had been in all three cities at the time the three dead girls had disappeared. A dozen roses were delivered to the fifth floor of the federal building in downtown Los Angeles addressed to Special Agent Rebecca Hampton. When they arrived at her desk, she assumed they were from a certain teacher she had been spending a lot of time with, but then she opened the card. The next hour was spent tracking the flowers to the florist who could only say that an envelope had been slipped under his door sometime during the night containing a hundred dollar bill and instructions to deliver the enclosed card along with a dozen long stemmed roses to her office. Agents descended on the area to confiscate the envelope and the hundred as well as go through any footage that may be available from security cameras in nearby stores. The only one that may have picked up an image of the killer had mysteriously malfunctioned. There wasn't really anything wrong with it, technicians quickly confirmed that an intense light had been shined on the lens for about fifteen minutes and then everything had gone back to normal. The time stamp told them when the killer had made the drop but that was all. The note with the flowers was very short and to the point. You are more gifted than I gave you credit for. I accept your challenge and look forward to our next encounter. San Diego, CA Detective Sergeant Steven Mikkelson was seeing a department psychiatrist about a string of recent nightmares that wouldn't go away and seemed to be getting both more intense and more frequent. The images of three different girls being tortured and raped had gotten so intense that he was afraid to go to sleep at night. He had tried sleeping pills, alcohol, and a combination of the two, but nothing seemed to help. A week earlier a new girl had been added to the mix. He recognized her as the Osborne girl who had been the killer's most recent victim. San Bernardino, CA In San Bernardino, the fictitious Raphael Swenson received twenty-five thousand dollars for the tip that had eventually led to Angela. Apparently the reward was worded for information on the whereabouts of Angela, not the arrest of her kidnapper. When the authorities officially released the news of her death, the Indian Casino had sponsored a weekend slots tournament to raise money for a reward to be paid for tips to locate her killer and bring him to justice. They wanted to post it as being for the capture or killing of, but that sounded too much like a bounty and that's just not allowed. Eventually the wording had ended up closer to "positive identification and apprehension of..." Angela's parents had been members of their player's club at the casino and her mother, tears running down her face, had pulled the lever to open the tournament. They raised a quarter of a million dollars in three days. The FBI cashed the reward check and delivered the money to the mysterious Mr. Swenson. Eventually it would find its way into the account of a young man that did not officially exist. He planned to start looking for a much better car than he had been considering for his birthday. According to his contact at the FBI there may be other reward monies due from the previous killings. There was detailed information in the killer's computer regarding all four girls, plus others that the killer had been considering before settling on these particular girls. Once they had it all sorted out they would see. Jimmy, Allison, and Shannon, met with 'Amber' in a cabana overlooking the ocean. Tears were shed, first in joy that Angela had survived, then in sadness at the fact that she hadn't. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, Angela, but from what little Rebecca has told us about this guy..." She nodded. "I know. He'll kill me if he knows I'm alive. I just wish... (sob) I just wish I could see Timmy again, just once." Jimmy took her in his arms and held her as the tears took her again. "You will, Angela. I promise you will. This isn't forever. We're going to get this guy. There is nowhere on earth that he can hide from me. I've seen his face. I know his secrets. He has some natural protections but I've gotten through to him before. Sooner or later I'll do it again, once he's no longer a threat you can have your life back. All of it." "Couldn't you just bring Tim here?" "I don't think that would be a good idea, Angels. The killer knew about the two of you. If he suspects that we may be pulling a fast one then Tim would be the first person he would watch. Tim has to believe you're dead. I know it hurts, but at least you don't have to look at him every day, see his pain, and live a lie. I have to face him every day, and lie to him. If there were any other way..." She turned to the girls. "Could we have a minute?" Allison hugged her and cried on her shoulder and told her how much she would miss her. Shannon surprised us all when she ran a hand up into Amber's shoulder length hair; yeah, they'd cut it and colored it as part of changing her appearance, no more long sexy braids swaying back and forth over her ass as she walked. Shannon slid a hand up the back of her head and kissed her passionately. Angela was just as surprised as we were but she recovered quickly and kissed her back just as hard. "That's from all of us. Anytime you need another one just ask whoever is closest. I know it's going to take time for you to recover from what happened, Angela... sorry, for Amber to recover from the accident, but anytime you need someone, even just to hold you, we'll be here, and once that fucker is dead I want a real one. Deal?" Amber didn't answer, but she hugged Shannon again before she left. Once the door was closed she turned back to Jimmy. "I love you. You know that right?" "You feel grateful to me. I saved your life. It's normal. Wait..." He stopped her as she started to protest. "I'm not saying you don't love me, I know you do. I love you, too. I have for quite some time." "Oh, I know you love me. In some ways you love me more than anybody I have ever known. Tim could never have hit me and said what you did to me." This time it was her turn to stop him as he started to object. "Don't apologize. It was the right thing to do. I needed it. If you hadn't done it, I would most likely be dead right now. I know how much it hurt you to do it, but you did it anyway. That takes a special kind of love and I will always remember that. While I don't ever want to be in a situation where I have to, I pray that if I ever am, I have enough love to do what you did." She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "Jimmy, I... I want to... but I... can't... not yet." "I know," he said. "That's just another reason you shouldn't see Tim right now. Angela, I understand that you really just 'can't' do that right now. No matter how much you may want to. One minute you hug me, the next you can barely touch me without shivering. I don't know if Tim could handle it. I've talked to Rebecca about it and very often those closest to the victims have the hardest time dealing with the aftermath. A husband or boyfriend can't understand why the woman suddenly won't have sex with him. They feel like they're being punished for what someone else did. Tim is going to want to hold you, touch you, kiss you, all the usual physical parts of showing you how much he cares. Do you really think you are any more 'ready' for it from him, than you are from me?" She turned away and a teardrop escaped from her eye to trickle down her cheek. He gently took her chin in his hand and turned her back to face him. Leaning in he kissed away the tear. He could feel her shudder at the touch of his lips. "Angela, I promise, there will come a day when I will do that and you won't cringe. I'll help you, Bob will help you, we'll all be here to help you get through this. Meanwhile, we'll be working on catching the bastard that hurt you. "Try not to let it bother you; it's never been about sex with us, Angela. It was never even about really, really great sex with you." That got a smile out of her. "Take your time, small steps. Don't try too hard. It'll come when it's ready, and I'll still be here." He took her hand and placed it over his heart. "You're in here, Angela," he placed his hand over her heart, "and I'm in here." She nodded and he touched her forehead, "but I've also been in here, and just as our hearts will always carry a piece of each other, we also have a connection deep inside here. Any time you dream, all you have to do is think of me, call my name, pick up a phone, whatever, and I will know. And through me the girls will know; and we'll be there for you, either I or one of the girls will come, maybe not right away, but as soon as we can. We've got another... problem we're working on. You won't be alone, Angela." He paused, "Shannon's right, we have to start thinking of you as Amber. For now, you can work on building the kind of future you want to come back to." He took her in his arms, hugged her and then kissed her neck without thinking. She laughed and said, "You have to remember to stop doing that. It's a dead giveaway. Thank you, Jimmy, for everything. Keep an eye on Tim for me." She turned and left. Allison and Shannon didn't actually see her leave, but they somehow knew she was gone. ------- Dreamweaver Sleepwalker Chronicles--Book 2 Las Vegas, NV In his penthouse apartment on the eighteenth floor, Elliott Bastion, founder and high priest of the Church of the Inner Circle, brooded. Something was wrong. It was nothing he could put his finger on, point to, or even define, but something was wrong. Staring out at the Las Vegas skyline on a hot summer's day, the sunlight reflecting from a thousand windows, the teaming crowds swirling along the streets below were not sufficient distraction to bury the notion that something was amiss, and so, Elliott brooded. Bastion's life was founded upon the time honored principle that 'Knowledge is Power' and since he had the power to gain knowledge, the life he had founded was very good indeed. The church was the perfect business, affording legal protections that most could only dream of, and a lifestyle that if the details were ever truly known, would be the envy of many of the world's so called rulers of old. In an age of restraint, political correctness, fairness and equality, Elliott lived like a temple priest of the pagan past. Nothing, and more importantly, no one, he desired was truly out of his reach. Given time and the appropriate contacts he firmly believed that there was nothing he could not do. The old idea of 'getting away with murder' had proven no challenge at all. Bastion had accomplished that feat twice already. The smoking gun proved to be nothing more than a bump in the road. But that was in the past, buried with his former name. Not forgotten, oh no, he never wanted people to claim he was hiding his past, that would be lying, and priests don't lie. The church members knew his past. They grieved at the unfortunate reality of his having to change his name in order to make a new start. Life is a journey of exploration and learning. Christian Wallace had learned that while the legal system posed no threat to him personally, it was better to avoid the spotlight that came with it whenever possible. It had been years since he had been forced to endure the scrutiny of the masses; years in which he had used his unique gifts to build his own private world of hedonistic delight. All tax free. The apartment itself was not even the property of the church, but rather donated by one of the faithful. Not for his personal use, but for the head of the church, and it was tax deductible after all. Yes, religion in America did have its perks. Still, something was wrong. There was a feeling of unrest in the congregation that was almost touchable. Again, nothing you could put a finger on, but enough that he almost felt he could reach out and touch it. It had been growing for some time, slowly to be sure, but eventually it had reached that critical point where he had noticed it. The question he now struggled with was whether or not it required his personal attention, and if so, how much attention and energy it deserved. His silent reverie was interrupted by a single chime, signaling the arrival of his afternoon appointment. With a last look down at the busy street he went to greet his guest. The elevator doors were tastefully hidden in the ornate mosaic which covered the inside wall. One had to know exactly which tile to depress in order to open the hidden doors. Very few knew which rock in the ceramic tiled stream to press. That was partly due to the fact that there were actually four switches and he rotated the activator randomly each week. The correct switch was activated, the twin panels sliding forward before parting to reveal the polished hardwood interior of the elevator. A young woman knelt in the center of the floor, eyes downcast despite the blindfold covering her upper face. She was otherwise naked save for a single yellow ribbon holding her long dark hair in a loose pony tail. The clothes she had worn making her way to the downtown building were now neatly folded and stacked to one side. She knelt, without motion or sound awaiting her Lord's first command. She knelt upon the polished floor as if she were a statue carved of flesh, her feet carefully tucked under her, knees and ankles carefully aligned, hands neatly folded in her lap, her only thought was to breath quietly so that she would not miss the slightest whisper that may come her way. If not for the rise and fall of her breast a casual observer may mistake her for a piece of artwork waiting to be moved for display. "Rise." She stood in one fluid motion, seemingly without effort, her hands never leaving her lap, eyes never rising. Even blindfolded she had perfect balance. Years of ballet training had honed her every movement to a flowing grace that could truly be called poetry in motion. "Your hand." Another graceful play of muscles brought her arm to shoulder height, the delicately boned fingers extended for him to grasp. "You are truly lovely," he said as he took her hand and led her forward into the room. "My Lord is too kind." She followed without hesitation as he led her forward, trusting him to guide her around any perils that may be hidden from her. She counted the steps as she went and was ready for the feel of the thick carpeting when she reached it. Elliott watched her every movement like a cat watching a mouse. The troubling thoughts that had occupied him earlier were, for the moment, forgotten. There would be time later to deal with that, for now... "Kneel and begin." "My Lord's will," she replied. With practiced ease she melted to the floor before him, her hands sliding down his chest to untie the silk robe he wore and find his manhood. Finding him already partially aroused she rose slightly, took him gently into her mouth and sucked him in until there was no more, and then retreated to begin again. With each pass he grew harder and longer, within moments he had filled her mouth and was beginning to press at the entrance to her throat. Without hesitation she altered her position to allow him easier entrance and continued to press forward with each pass, taking his length seemingly without effort. Her only thought, the focus of her entire being was to please the man before her, whoever he was. She gave no thought to whether there were others in the room who may even now be witnessing her actions, it didn't matter whether others were present or not, if her Lord wished her to know, he would tell her. If he wished them to partake of her pleasures, they would, it was not important that she know in advance. All that mattered was the now. Elliott Bastion, founder and high priest of the Church of the Inner Circle, smiled as his afternoon guest brought him quickly to a fully erect state, marveled that she swallowed his full length without effort or strain. All other thoughts were put aside as he gave himself over to her skillful ministrations. It was indeed an impressive performance, but women of such skill could be found in most major metropolitan areas, a city such as Las Vegas that prided itself on its hospitality and the variety of entertainments available, could probably boast more than most cities. It was however, not everyday that you found such skill in a girl only fourteen years old. ------- The End ------- Posted: 2007-06-23 Last Modified: 2007-11-19 / 08:40:44 am ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------