Come Get Me (27 page)

“My, my, my,” she said looking at him
thoughtfully, “we’re just all kinds of full of questions tonight
aren’t we?” she looked at Pete then continued, “Freak boy, here
figured out some of it. Isn’t big handsome Jimmy intelligent enough
to figure out the rest?”

Jim was sick of the games so he just gave her
a bored look and said nothing. He figured it was better to put on a
brave face. If she thought he wasn’t afraid maybe she wouldn’t try
to do anything.

“To answer or not to answer, that is the
question,” she said when she saw he wasn’t going to talk. She tried
to sound like she was really having a hard time deciding but he
knew she’d talk. He was right when he’d said it was usually hard to
shut her up. If there was a chance for her to brag about something
she would do it. Now he just had to wait and see what came out when
she started talking. “Well, I guess it won’t hurt anyone if I
explain everything to you. Except you that is, since you won’t be
leaving here alive. That usually ends up hurting a little bit.” Jim
didn’t find anything about the whole situation the least bit funny
but she must have since she started laughing. Johnny joined in but
he didn’t seem to think it was as good a joke as she did. Jim’d
almost forgot he was there he was so quiet.

“So where to begin?” she asked when she’d
calmed down. Jim couldn’t help but look her in the eyes when she
talked. He didn’t like what he saw. He’d heard you could see things
in people’s eyes but had never believed it. He did now. All that
was behind Maria’s eyes was insanity and hate and it was all
directed at him. He didn’t know what he could’ve ever done to
deserve something like that. He didn’t have time to dwell on it
though since she was still talking. “The story is so long I don’t
really know where to begin.” She glanced at Johnny from the corner
of her eye. “Johnny, where, oh where, do you think I should
start?”

“I guess you should start where ever you
want,” Johnny said sheepishly after a few seconds of internal
debate.

“That is usually where normal people start
isn’t it? But since when am I normal? Plus, it’s just oh so boring
to be predictable like that but I guess for speeds sake it will
have to do. So, Jimmy,” she said turning her gaze back on him, “let
me tell you a story. Let me take you back, way back to yesteryear,
not just yesteryear but all the way back to a time you should
remember quite well. Why would you remember it? I’ll tell you why.
Because it was back in your heyday, back when you were a big man on
campus, as it were. Its high school where my tale begins, and no
not a tail from my butt so don’t ask.” This was mostly directed at
Pete. At the mention of a tail he’d perked up and raised his hand
to ask a question. When his dreams had been dashed he sadly went
back to cleaning his finger nails.

Maria seemed to be taking quite a bit of
pleasure being the center of attention. She’d slowly started
walking around the room waving her hands in the air as if she was
trying to paint a picture of what she was talking about. If
anything it made her look even crazier. He couldn’t remember the
last time he’d seen a grown woman walking around in her negligee
telling a story surrounded by candles. It was almost but not quite
comical. There was no doubt she was just as gone as Pete but
whereas he was calm most of the time she was off the deep end. She
was totally gone. He shot a glance at Johnny to see what he was
making of the performance and was heartened to see he didn’t appear
as sure of himself as he had. Jim could tell just by the look in
his eye he still worshipped her but he also might be realizing she
wasn’t all there. Jim quickly turned his attention back to Maria as
she turned her attention back on him.

“Would it surprise you if I told you I had a
huge crush on you back then?” she asked. “You must’ve known. There
was no way you couldn’t. I mean I worshipped the ground you walked
on. I followed you everywhere. Basically I made a total fool of
myself but that didn’t matter to me as long as I was close to you.
Unfortunately, instead of returning my feelings you acted as if I
didn’t exist. Sure, you were nice if you saw me in the hall or
happened to notice I was stalking you. Sometimes you even deigned
to talk to me but usually nothing more than a quick hello or
something but oh, how I lived for those little things. I tried
working up the courage to actually carry on a conversation with you
a few times but you were always too busy with your mean, little
friends. I know they poisoned you against me. That’s the only
reason I can think of that you never talked to me. Because of
them.” She was becoming more and more excited as she spoke. Facing
him she took a deep breath. This seemed to calm her because when
she started talking again her voice sounded a little closer to
normal.

“Tommy, Rob, Pete, and Jim bestest friends
forever,” she said in a sing song voice. “Never letting anyone or
anything come in between their close knit group. You know a lot of
people thought you four might be gay or something. But I knew you
weren’t. You had all the time in the world for girls, just not me!
I would’ve treated you way better than any of them did. I would’ve
treated you the way you should’ve been treated. I would’ve given
you anything and I mean anything. But no, you thought all you
needed was them. What bullshit! You didn’t need them! All you
needed was me!” She’d become agitated again and had slowly been
walking towards him. Before she was finished speaking she was so
close he could feel the spit flying from her mouth as she yelled.
She stood looking at him for a few seconds, shoulder heaving from
her excitement before suddenly spinning and walking towards Johnny.
He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders as she
approached and whispered something to her. Jim hoped he was trying
to talk her out of continuing what she was doing. She shook her
head so whatever it was obviously hadn’t worked.

Jim took this break in the story for another
opportunity to look around and try to figure some way out of this
mess. He hadn’t had much luck before but maybe he’d missed
something. Peeking at Jill he saw she was still dead to the world
and Pete just continued rocking and mumbling. He was just getting
ready to give up when he noticed something odd. He’d seen Pete
rocking but he hadn’t seen him moving. Each time he rocked back he
used his feet to push himself a little closer to the wall. Looking
over Pete’s head Jim saw an open space with night and starry sky
behind it. He was slowly working his way to one of the windows. Jim
was sure it was just by accident but if it wasn’t and if he got
close enough he might be able to jump out and run for help. The
only thing tied on Pete was his hands. If he got out he really
might be able to find help and bring them back but Jim didn’t hold
much hope of that idea working. Pete wasn’t suddenly going regain
his sanity and save the day. He was just sitting there rubbing his
hands together and rocking back and forth without a care in the
world. Nothing else. There was no grand escape plan forming behind
those dark little eyes. He was in his own world where he was safe
and nobody could hurt him. Why come out now?

“Now then Jimmy boy, let’s flash forward,”
Maria said catching his attention. “When you left town, you just
left. No words of goodbye, no telling me how you really had loved
me all those years and would send for me when you could. No
nothing. You just left without a word or a backward glance. Do you
know how bad that hurt me? I was heartbroken. I couldn’t understand
why you’d left me. You didn’t bother saying anything least of all
goodbye. One day you were there then next you weren’t. I just
didn’t understand what I’d done wrong. What was I to do?” She
looked at him like she expected him to answer. Not knowing what
else to do, he just silently stared back. She was deep into her
delusion but as long as she was talking they were relatively safe.
All the stuff spouting from her mouth was sort of true but only
sort of. He remembered her from high school and how she was almost
always in the places he was but that was it. She must’ve somehow
gotten the idea that they’d had some type of relationship with each
other. He didn’t know how though. All he could remember saying to
her was hi.

“I knew we were meant to be together,” she
said as she walked over to Jill and slowly ran a finger down the
side of her face. “But we weren’t. You left to go God knows where
and do God knows what with God knows who and left me here with no
idea of when I might see you again. Then I thought maybe you were
testing me to see if I really did love you and would wait for you.
I knew I would but I also knew I had to figure out a way to get you
to come back. Then, one day, a few years ago it came to me. I had
an epiphany.” She brutally pushed Jill’s head to the side, spun and
walked back to the center of the room. Stopping with her hand
raised and looking up at the ceiling Jim almost thought she really
was having a true vision then he remembered who he was thinking
about and just shook his head.

“It was like a sign from the heavens. I
didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. I knew that day I
just had to make it so you had no choice but to come back. After
that the rest was easy,” she said smiling, “Do you want to guess
what my idea was?” she looked at him expectantly. He wasn’t about
to try to answering anything. He didn’t know what was right or
wrong in this situation so he figured being quiet was safest.
“Boy,” she said looking at Johnny, “I thought he was a lot smarter
than this. It’s a good thing we didn’t end up together; our
children probably would’ve made the freak over there look like a
genius. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, my idea. Well, since you
won’t guess I’ll just tell you.” She took a few seconds to gather
her thoughts. While she did this she just looked at him with
shinning, evil eyes. Her hands idly roamed over her body in many
provocative ways but Jim didn’t think she was trying to entice him
anymore. It seemed more out of habit than anything. He didn’t have
much time to think about it, which was fortunate.

“I thought about it for what seemed a long
time but actually wasn’t,” she began, “Finally, I figured out just
what it would take. I knew if something happened to one of your
precious little friends you would probably coming running home
right away. I could’ve gone after your mother but I figured that
was too old hat. You know something that someone else would do but
not me. I’m better than everyone else so my plan had to be better
than what someone else might come up with. The thing about my plan
though, was that it had to be something drastic. It couldn’t just
be some little accident. Why would you rush home for that? It had
to be deadly. So the logical choice was killing one of them. I
figured that would do the trick. Then, once you were back I would
be here to comfort, console, and love and nurse your damaged
emotions back to the way they should be. Then you would finally
love me and we would be together forever and ever!” She sounded
like she really believed her plan would work. Jim cast a quick
glance at Pete to see what he was doing. He was a little closer to
the window but still not close enough to jump out. Pete’s eyes
flicked in his direction and Jim saw one of them wink at him. He
thought he was seeing something at first but decided he hadn’t when
he looked at Pete’s hands. His bonds were loose. Almost loose
enough for him to get free. In a few more minutes he probably would
be free. Then he could make a break for it and get help. At least
that was what Jim was hoping for.

“Ok, at least I know why I’m here now,” he
said trying to give Pete as much time as he could. “But why did you
take Pete and Jill? They didn’t have anything to do with any of
this. Well, I guess Pete did, but he was out of the way stuck in
jail and probably on his way to the loony bin.”

“Well,” she said looking towards Jill,
“little Jilly over there is here simply because she’s just like all
those other girls you used to date. She was trying to take you away
from me. See, you did everything that you were supposed to do as
part of my plan. You came home and we reunited with each other but
then you made a mistake. You went and met Jill and picked her
instead of me! How could you go and do something stupid like that?
You’re mine! Don’t you understand that? She sure didn’t seem to.
When I found her earlier I tried to explain it to her nicely but
she just got all smart and started asking all kinds of dumb
questions so since she wasn’t cooperating I brought her out here to
explain things a little better.” She looked at Jill angrily for a
minute before continuing.

“Freak boy over there is here because my
loving dolt of a partner got just a little bit ahead of himself. He
thought it would be a good idea to change the plan from what I’d
originally designed. I actually was content to leave Petey sit in
jail and rot but Johnny boy thought of something else. It’s
something I don’t really like, but I guess it might work. We don’t
really have much of choice now either way but he can tell you
that.” Maria was beginning to go into pout mode again but she
surprised him.

“Why don’t you tell them what you had planned
lover boy,” she said teasingly.

To Johnny’s credit that looked like the last
thing he wanted to do but he took a deep breath and fixed Jim with
a glare. “Well, let me tell ya, when you left all that while ago
she was pretty messed up. I’m talking not eating, not taking care
of herself, stuff like that. She was bad. Hell, all she really did
do was drink and cry. Other than that she just sat in her place day
in day out doing nothing. I didn’t really understand why until one
day when I went over to check on her she finally told me. She was
drunk as a skunk and was barely coherent but I understood enough to
know what you done. I thought that was a pretty mean thing for you
to do leaving her like that but then again I was happy too. See, I
was there and you weren’t. I was there for her when she needed
somebody. You weren’t. I’d loved her for as long as I could
remember but every time I tried to tell her, all she wanted to talk
about was you. But now all of a sudden you weren’t there anymore.
You left. I knew she and I would finally end up together now. But
no, she said she wasn’t going to let you go that easily.” Johnny
paused here like he was remembering something he didn’t really want
to and Jim guessed he was. He actually felt somewhat sorry for the
guy. Johnny’d been in love with the crazy bitch all these years and
all she’d ever wanted was Jim. If it’d been him he would’ve just
moved on but it didn’t seem Johnny was able to do that. He held out
hope all those years she would eventually love him back and she
never did. Johnny himself was probably half crazy by now.