“This isn’t the way to the police station, Jack. You said we would go straight there and tell them what we know.”
“I’ve got something I have to do first. It’s important.”
“What’s so important all of a sudden?”
“You’ll see. We’re almost there, and it won’t take long.”
“What about Hillary? She’s being framed. We have to get her out before something bad happens. She doesn’t belong in a jail cell. You know she won’t last long in there.”
“Don’t you worry about Hillary. She’ll be fine. I promise.”
Jack wasn’t making sense. He and Hillary started getting serious in college. They were going to get married right after she had finished the bar exam. The three of them had known each other since high school. They were so close people joked that they should move to Portland and join the polys. Jack graduated a year before Hillary, and was already enjoying the life of an overpaid associate in a high profile law firm in Beverley Hills catering to Hollywood stars.
Why was he being so nonchalant? Ben thought about what had occurred the night before. The Times Online had reported that Hillary was found unconscious in the living room of her parent’s house. They were found dead in the kitchen, stabbed in the side of their necks, clean through their carotid arteries. Whoever was killed last was probably too shocked to move before the killer got to them. But there was a scream. A neighbor overheard and went to the door. He told the reporter the lights went out as he approached. He tried to peer through the living room window, but the curtains were closed. He ran home and called the police. The cops found a bloody knife lying next to Hillary.
Ben arrived around 10 pm, just after the murders. They were all going out to give Hillary a break from her grueling studies, which went on for nearly twelve hours a day. The California bar was no joke, and she was determined to pass on the first try. He was parking in the driveway in the back when Jack came running out of the house. He said, “Did you see the guy?” He was panting, but Ben didn’t recall that he was sweating.
Ben asked, “Who are you talking about?”
Jack leaned into the car and said, “The guy who just killed Hillary’s parents.”
The strange thing was he didn’t look like someone who had just seen the dead bodies of the people who were about to become his parents-in-law.
Before Ben could respond, Jack said, “C’mon. We might be able to catch him. He ran that way,” pointing down the dark alley, lit only by the moonlight.
“What about Hillary? Where is she?”
“I didn’t see her. Look, we need to get out of here and find this guy. If the police show up, they’ll think we did it.”
“How? We don’t have a motive.”
“LA cops don’t need a motive. They’ll make one up.”
They drove around the area but did not spot anyone. The next morning, the news of the murder popped up on Ben’s ‘Breaking News’ feed. He called Jack while the story unfolded on his laptop screen.
“Have you seen the news? They arrested Hillary.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“We need to tell the police what you saw.”
“You mean what we saw. The story will be more credible if we both say we saw someone. Cops love corroborating evidence.”
“You’re right. You’re the lawyer.”
“Cool. I’ll come over and pick you up.”
As Jack drove, Ben noticed he had the same vacant stare he had seen last night. There was a deadness in his eyes that he had chalked up to shock and probably lack of sleep. Then Jack’s nose began to bleed.
“Not again,” he complained.
“What do you mean? You don’t get nosebleeds”
“Just happened recently. How can I help it?”
He wiped the trickling blood away with his sleeve before turning into an empty industrial parking lot. That was not something Jack would normally do. He was meticulous about his clothes, which were expensive, as was his car and the apartment that he bragged overlooked Laurel Canyon but was actually in boring Studio City.
“Here we are,” Jack announced in a flat monotone.
“Are you alright Jack? You’ve been acting strange since last night. You don’t seem concerned about Hillary at all. You didn’t even want to go back to the house to check on her. Did you even call?”
Jack looked at Ben as if he hadn’t heard him at all. Suddenly his eyes became snakelike, turning red and green. Strange bluish spikes appeared on his arms. Ben recoiled and clutched at the door handle, but the locks engaged, trapping him inside. Jack leaned toward him, his eyes glowing with hunger. Ben tried to fend him off, holding his arms in front of his face. He screamed, “What are you? You’re not Jack! Get away from me!”
Jack calmly responded, “No. I’m not.” He slashed Ben’s neck and drained the blood from his convulsing body. He pushed the corpse out the car and drove away. In the fading recesses of its mind, the creature felt sorrow for someone named Hillary.
Photo credit: David Nunuk
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