Too Perfect

 

Chapter 10:  Death

 

At around 3:15 p.m. that afternoon I began my act.
    

“Oh God!” Anita cried.  “Give her room.”
   

She quickly began moving away the coffee table and any other object that appeared to be in my way.
    

“What are you doing?” Rick insisted, his gun out in front of him.
   

His eyes darted from Anita to me.  For once he looked panicked.
    

“She’ll hurt herself if I don’t move this stuff!”
   

I was impressed Anita sounded genuinely scared.  Rick pointed the pistol at me.
    

“Don’t shoot her!” Anita wailed.
   

At that moment I was so tempted to stop.  But I couldn’t we were too far in now.  Instead I laid it on thicker.  My body spasmed frantically, my limbs thrashed everywhere.
    

“What do we do?!” Rick bellowed sounding scared.
   

But Anita never got the chance to answer.  There was a loud thwack and Rick landed at my feet.  A.J. stood triumphantly in his place with a lamp in his hands.  For a moment I couldn’t believe it, our plan had worked.  I got up and hugged Anita.
    

“You had me so scared,” she said, “For a minute I practically forgot you were acting.  It was so real.”
   

“That was the idea,” I replied smiling at her for the first time in awhile.
   

She sighed.
   

“It’s not over yet.”
   

A.J. quickly grabbed Rick’s gun and searched for any other weapons on him.  There were none.
   

“What do we do now?” I asked him.
   

“We look for a phone,” he stated.
   

It only took us several seconds to find a cell phone tucked away in a drawer.   A.J. hastily dialed 911.  He talked to the operator who knew of our situation and immediately hooked him up with the police.  I stood watch at the front of the cabin and Anita at the back.  We had no idea when Jeff or Paul would be returning.
   

“No, I don’t have any idea where we are,” A.J. said helplessly.  “If I did I would tell you. Can’t you trace my call or something?”
   

The police desperately tried to trace the virtually untraceable cell phone signal as A.J. tried desperately to describe our location in any way he could.  I nervously watched the front yard, Rick, and Brian.  Anita had made periodic checks on Bri to make sure he was still with us.  But at this point I wondered if he would ever wake up and it was scaring the hell out of me.
   

“All right,” A.J. growled into the phone. “I’ll go outside and see if I recognize anything.”
   

“Be careful,” Anita said to him.
   

“I will,” he promised and exited through the front door.
   

I gasped as I peered through the front window.  I whipped open the front door.
   

“A.J.!” I screamed, but it was too late.
   

Jeff shot the gun, the bullet hit A.J., the cell phone slipped to the ground and seconds later his body crumpled hitting the gravel.  Anita had raced to my side.  Her eyes widened as she saw A.J.’s body, motionless on the ground.
   

“NO!” she shrieked running towards A.J.
   

For one horrible moment I thought Jeff was going to shoot her too.  I saw him raise his gun, but he almost immediately lowered it.  Anita fell to the ground beside his body.  I felt sick.  He was dead.  Anita’s gut wrenching sobs echoed through the woods.  I too fell to the ground on the front porch.  It was too much.  First Brian and now A.J.
   

“Why!?” Anita screamed as she cradled A.J. in her arms.
   

“A.J., oh, A.J.” she moaned. “My A.J.,” her voice trailed off to tears, endless tears.
   

The police arrived only moments too late.  They jumped out of the trees from every direction, surrounding all of us.  Jeff had no choice but to surrender.  Kevin, Howie and Nick had accompanied the police in their search.  Kevin ran to me and pulled me into a hug.  I cried on his shoulder.  My strength gone, he carried me to one of the police cars just beyond the trees on the road.  A helicopter flew in and picked up Brian and the still unconscious Rick. I had wanted to go with them but there had been no room.
   

The helicopter also took away A.J.’s body.  I will never forget the image of the paramedics zipping up the black body bag.  Now I sat in a police car leaning on Kevin.  Anita had gone in another.  The last time I saw her she had still been in hysterics.  I couldn’t believe he was dead.  It wasn’t supposed to happen.  A.J. was never coming back and I didn’t know if it would ever sink in.  I prayed the whole ride to the police station that Brian would live.

 

***

 

 

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