Chapter 31
Tina awoke, sitting in the dark.
How on earth did she allow herself to fall asleep?
She wasn’t sure this was therapeutic anymore. She was frightened. They had come to Jeff’s office to stop her fears, but it wasn’t working. She wasn’t getting any better.
“Okay, turn on the lights.” She didn’t know where the monster was. How could she have fallen asleep in the middle of the day in Jeff’s office with the creature crawling about? It didn’t make sense. Something was very wrong.
The room remained dark.
“Jeff?” she called, voice quavering. “Dad?”
No answer.
Terror trickled down her chest. She wondered whether the creature had attacked Jeff and Dad instead of her. Maybe this was a new type of torture—eating adults first, then going after her, alone and vulnerable.
How long had she been asleep?
She stood and moved forward, her arms guarding the front of her. But she bumped into something anyway, startling her. “Oh.” She stepped back and bumped into something else, then turned and kicked it hard. “Ouch!” Her shoeless foot stung. What was she doing barefoot in Jeff’s office? And there hadn’t been anything in front of her chair to bump into!
Where was she?
Chills shook her body. She was not in Jeff’s office.
She carefully stepped to her left, arms outstretched in that direction. Nothing. She kept moving and touched something solid, perhaps a wall. Yes. She headed along this, taking small steps, in case something was in front of her …
… and fell into a furry creature!
Punching, screaming, and kicking didn’t seem to hurt the thing. It didn’t even squeal. She rolled off of it, her heartbeat filling her ears. The furry thing was silent. She wanted it to howl or whine or something so she could tell where it was.
Quiet monsters were worse than noisy ones. The thing surely could hear her thundering heartbeat.
Tina had now lost her sense of direction. She just stayed put, listening, trying to slow her heart, but it was hopeless.
Footsteps came from somewhere to her right. Coming closer. Closer.
A phone shrilled in the distance.
Footsteps closer. Where was her father? What had happened to him and Jeff? She hoped they hadn’t been harmed.
A door opened just to her right, almost hitting her. Blinding light flooded the room. “Tina!”
She blinked.
Arms surrounded her, hugging. The musky smell of her father. “Dad?”
A phone still rang in the distance.
“I’ve been so worried, pumpkin. Where have you been?”
Her eyes began to adjust enough to the brightness for her to see some things: her bed, her giant teddy bear sprawled on the floor—which must have been the “monster”—and her computer desk and chair.
“How did we get home?” She noticed she wore her light gray, baggy pajamas.
“You disappeared in Jeff’s office.” He paused. “Don’t you remember?”
“Disappeared? What do you mean?”
“Where did you go?”
She had no answer. “I didn’t go.”
The phone kept ringing.
He looked totally confused as he asked, “And how did you get back here?”
She just remembered being asleep, and … yes … a girl … a beautiful brunette girl, a few years older than herself. The girl must have been from a dream. “Why was I sleeping during the day?”
Her father squeezed her so tight she couldn’t breathe.
“Awwhhh, Dad, stop.”
“I was so scared for you.” He moved just far enough away to look at her, still holding her firmly by the shoulders. “You alright? Nobody hurt you?”
“I was only asleep, Dad.”
“Don’t ever leave again, pumpkin.”
The phone continued ringing.
***
Jeff hung up. It was useless.
Charlie would have definitely answered the phone if Tina had still been missing. He would want to find out if the caller was Tina, the police, or a kidnapper. Charlie would have answered, unless he couldn’t sleep and left to search for his daughter on his own, which was a possibility. But then, who would be left at his home if she called or came back? So maybe he would still be waiting or have someone at his house who could—
“Well, what now?” Laura interrupted his train of thought.
Ashley looked at him with big, blue-gray eyes.
He held his head in his hands.
He considered driving to Tina’s house. If she had returned, it was possible both her and Charlie had slept through the ringing phone. But if Jeff showed up at this late hour with Tina still absent, Charlie would not be happy to see him, perhaps even react with violence. Jeff was, after all, at least partly responsible for her disappearance. On the other hand, her father might be grateful Jeff was worried and still looking for—
“Wait a second,” Laura interrupted again, “if Ashley reappeared in the same room that she disappeared in, then wouldn’t Tina do the same?”
“In my office.”
She nodded.
He already slid his phone back into his left pocket and reached for the door before the phone began to vibrate against his leg. He dug it back out and looked at the screen. It was Charlie’s number. His breathing slowed. “Hello?”
“Who is this?” Charlie asked.
“Jeff.”
There was no reply.
“Charlie?”
“Yeah. You just called here.”
“I’m sorry, I did. I thought I’d check in to see … if …”
“She’s here.” He laughed with relief. “I don’t know how, but she’s here.”
“I’m so glad!” Jeff sighed. He looked at Ashley. Her eyes were shimmering. “Something strange is going on. Would it be okay to come by?”
“At 11:25 at night?”
“I know it’s late, but another girl had the same experience as Tina. I don’t want them to spend another minute in the dark without answers.”
“What did happen?”
“Exactly. And what if it happens again? What’re we going to do?”
No response from Charlie.
“What if they don’t come back next time? What if they’re getting hurt?”
Still no response.
He wondered if his phone had lost the connection. He looked at the bars that measured the signal strength, and they were still full. “Hello?”
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Look, I know I’m partially to blame. I shouldn’t have pressed Tina to face her fear. But I didn’t actually cause her disappearance. Something else is out there, Charlie. I don’t know what. But wouldn’t it be better if we knew?”
“I don’t want to put my daughter in danger again.”
“We won’t do anything with the dark. We’ll keep the lights on.”
No response.
“The other girl has a memory block.”
Silence.
“I just want to talk to get answers, Charlie, for both girls’ sakes.”
No response. Then, slowly, “Yeah ... Tina doesn’t remember either.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing … except for a pretty brunette girl in a dream.”
Jeff looked at Ashley again. “I think I know who she saw.”
“Who?”
“We’ll be right over.”
Marie was watching television in the living room. He told her they needed to take Ashley to a psychiatric hospital to assess whether she required admittance to keep her safe.
Marie didn’t appear worried. “She’s just cutting and running away for attention. She’s not going to kill herself. Are you, Ashley?” She snickered. “She wants to be the center of attention. With Ashley, it’s always about her.” She glared at her daughter. “So selfish.”
Ashley looked at the ground.
Jeff felt terrible. He didn’t know how this girl could stand to be spoken to that way. If she had really been suicidal, her mother’s words could have driven her to act. Marie couldn’t escape her own psychological issues even when her daughter needed her the most. She was the quintessential hypocrite. Really, it was always about Marie, and never about her daughter. This disgusted him.
She continued, “I guess I spoiled her. I gave her too much attention, now she’s never satisfied. If I could go back and change it, I would. I would give her nothing.”
Jeff looked just behind Marie’s head, unable to look her in the eyes any longer. “It’s a precaution I need to take. We’ll probably be back later tonight, but I have to make sure she’s going to be safe.”
Marie turned to the television and yawned. “Well, she’s getting what she wants—more attention.” She groaned as she slowly rose off the couch to walk them out. “Call me as soon as you know what they’ll do. Leave a message because I’ll be asleep."