Too Perfect
At
around
“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.
***
