THE TERROR ZONE

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Good morning, Lover,” I said, as Paul opened his eyes, to see me staring at him.

“Did you even sleep?” asked Paul, rubbing his eyes.

“Yes, and I feel great. This is the best camp out I’ve been on in weeks,” I said, giggling.

“Very funny, honey, but I haven’t seen you happy, since… well, I can’t remember. I love you today, honey,” said Paul.

“Just today?” I asked.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I am not sure, I can take too much more head spinning and flying in the house,” he snickered, let’s just give this some time, ask me again tomorrow.”

When Paul and I arrived at the station, Officer Beck, was nowhere to be found.

“Officer Beck is out on a call. Can I help you?” asked Officer Stewart.

“Sure,” said Paul, as he hesitated, under the circumstances.

We told Officer Stewart, what happened last night and what’s been happening lately. He took our statements, looking at us like we were absolutely, bat shit crazy, and then said, “So, what you’re telling me is, there’s these brothers, identical triplet brothers, that have special powers, and they’ve been harassing you two and terrorizing you while entering your subconscious and forcing you to do things you don’t want to do?” Officer Stewart asked, inquisitively.

We nodded…

“All righty then, I’ll get right on this,” said Officer Stewart, holding out his hand to shake good-bye. “You’ll be hearing from us,” he said nonchalantly laying the paperwork on top of a large stack of files, sitting on his desk.

When we got into the Jeep, I said, “What do you think, honey?”

“I think Officer Stewart, isn’t going to drink the Kool-aid, and as if preaching, Paul, made a fist, slammed it on the dash board and said, “He’s a non-believer!”

“Let’s go visit George, so I don’t have to do it later on today.” I said.

We didn’t stop at the front desk, we went directly to room 607, to see George.

“Hello, George. How are you feeling?”

“Dr. Skyler, Paul. What a nice surprise. I feel marvelous. I was just getting ready to leave this establishment. The rent is to high, he said,” while setting his belongings on the bed.

“That’s great George. Have you seen Alex?”

“Yeah, he was here yesterday,” said George.

“We just stopped in to see how you were faring. We’ll let you go. I’ll see you tomorrow at your appointment,” I said.

“Oh, Dr. Susan,” said George, nervously, I was going to call you. Um, Alex and I decided we wouldn’t need your services any longer.”

“George, what are you saying? Is it because I moved? I mean, it’s not that far away. I’ll just have to drive a little farther, that’s all.”

“No, Dr. Skyler, it’s not that. We figured we could work out our problems between the two of us.”

“I see,” I said. “What about the rest of the children and other the people who might be in danger? What happens to them?”

If we need to contact you, we will,” said George. He grabbed my arm, with both hands, shook my hand, picked up his belongings, and left the room.

I just stood there, not really believing what had just happened. “Come on, Susan, let’s go,” said Paul.

“Huh?” I said.

“Let’s go honey,” said Paul.

I screamed a horrifying shrill, and George ran back into the room.

“Doc, are you all right?” asked George.

I grabbed my head and my face got all twisted out of shape from the pain. “Get out, I screamed. Get out of my head, please,” I begged. “What do you want from me?”

As George and Paul caught me before I fell to the floor, Alex walked in. “What the hell?” exclaimed Alex. “What’s wrong?” he asked, while I shrieked in pain.

Alex and George looked at each other and shook their heads. They held hands, and each grabbed me by a shoulder, while Paul held me by my waist. “Don’t be scared,” comforted Alex. “In a few minutes, the pain will fade away.” Alex and George closed their eyes, and in a few minutes, I felt like they were sucking the pain out of my body; and all within a few seconds, I felt relief.

“I’m sorry, Doc,” said George, as tears filled his eyes. “Our brother lied to us. He said if we stopped seeing you, he’d leave you alone.”

“He lied,” said Alex, sadly.

“What are you going to do?” asked Paul.

“I have someone looking up your background,” I said. “Let’s all take a ride to my office. Maybe we will have some information on the fax machine.”

When we arrived at my office, the door had been jimmied.

“Stay out here, Susan,” said Paul. “I’m going to check this out. Someone might still be in here.” George went with Paul and Alex stayed by my side.

“It’s safe, sweetheart, you can come in,” said Paul.

There were papers on the floor near the fax machine. “It doesn’t look like anything was tampered with, except the fax machine,” I said.

We all just stood there, wondering, “what’s next?”

I picked up the phone, and dialed Larry Krieger’s number. I got his answering machine. “Larry, pick up the phone, it’s Dr. Skyler.”

“Hello, Dr. Skyler,” whispered Larry. “What can I do for you?”

“Why are you whispering, Larry?” I asked.

“Someone’s been following me. I don’t know if I’m being heard or not,” he said. “If you know what I mean.”

“Can you meet me somewhere?” I asked.

“How about my brother’s place?” said Larry.

“Okay,” I answered. I hung up the phone, and all three men were staring at me in curious silence.

“I think we’re supposed to meet Larry at the police station,” I said.

“What do you mean, you think,” asked Paul?

“Larry said I should meet him at his brother’s place. Since I’ve never been to Greg’s house, I can only assume he meant the station,” I explained.