Portland, finally. It was a grueling ten-hour drive from Boston. Jake didn't expect the traffic would be that heavy.
He slows down a bit along Springer Drive to look for a place to park. He finds a perfect spot at the roadside just across Diners Den Resto, the exact place where the document says Helen Lockhart is currently working.
He pulls over, switches off the engine, and checks his watch. It's 5:45 in the afternoon. Her shift will be over soon. He hurriedly grabs his badge and exits the car.
There's a slight drizzle of rain, almost as if the weather decided to be as gloomy as the bad sense of foreboding within him. Keeping his hood up and his head down, he makes his way to the door.
As soon as he enters, the smell of appetizing food assaults his senses making his stomach rumble. He skipped lunch and only had coffee for breakfast.
He beelines for the corner table and quickly catalogs his surroundings. A voice booms out from behind the counter as the sound of chattering customers drifts throughout the restaurant.
As he discreetly scans the surroundings, a woman with dark crimson hair tied up in a bun makes her way to a table on the other side of the resto to clean it up. His heart pounds. He takes another look.
It's Helen Lockhart alright, just as he expected. He squints at her name tag. It says, "Rita O'Hara".
Despite the masquerade, she looks the same as she did 11 years ago. She hasn't aged a bit. And those icy blue eyes. She has such an unnerving stare.
Almost... predatory.
Jake shivers at the thought as a disturbing memory jogs in his subconscious.
"What can I get ya, darlin'?"
Startled at the waitress' drawl beside him, he mumbles coffee and donuts for take-out. As he looks back in Helen's direction, their eyes meet.
Helen looks at him suspiciously. As a man's voice booms out again from behind the counter, she heads over to the tiny kitchen window and takes the cup of caffeine Jake ordered. She says something to the first girl that served him and makes her way to his table.
"Here you go, Mister. Your donuts will be ready in a few minutes. Can I get you anything else?", asks Helen as she puts his coffee on his table.
Not seeing any sign that she remembers him, he clears his throat,
"Helen?"
Her whole body stiffens and a hard expression passes her face so quickly, he would've missed it if he weren't paying such close attention.
"You're mistaken sir, the name's Rita.", she points at her ID as she squares her shoulders.
She gives him a strained smile before she tries to walk away but Jake grabs her wrist as he stands to his full height,
"I need to speak with you."
She scrunches her eyebrows as she whispers,
"Let go of me..."
She pushes his hand off her wrist and moves away but he tries to plead with her,
"Please, it's important."
She's softly shaking as she goes to the kitchen window. She appears to be anxious that her cover is blown. She subtly nods at the staff and takes the donuts Jake ordered, presumably to pack it.
Jake makes his way down the counter with his barely-touched cup of coffee. His brows furrow at the way she acted.
"That'll be $2.50", says the lady at the counter.
Jake reaches out for his pocket and pulls out his payment. Helen makes her way toward him and hands over his bag of donuts,
"You need to leave, Mister. You must have mistaken me for someone else.", she says in such a low voice that only he could hear her.
Jake shakes his head at her. He clasps her arm and whispers to her,
"Sorry, but I know you're Helen. I apologize for springing on you like this but you need to understand-"
"No, you need to understand. There is no Helen here. Now if you will excuse me...", she replies in a low whisper through gritted teeth, her icy-blue eyes flashing in annoyance.
With a force he never would have suspected in such a tiny body, she effortlessly pulls her arm off his grasp and walks away. Just like that
With a pointed look in her direction, Jake slowly makes his way outside Diners Den and around to the back part of the resto.
He starts pacing back and forth, as adrenaline rushes through his system. He needs to speak with her right now. But how? Time is running out. A lifetime seems to have passed when the restos back door behind him creaks open. Jake turns around with anticipation. It's her.
"Go away...", Helen hisses.
"Hey, I-I know Elizabeth..."
With lightning speed, she pushes him against the wall. His coffee spills off and donuts tumble down to the cold, wet concrete floor below. All acts of a nervous, perturbed female are gone as a tinge of yellow and a ring of black appear in her eyes.
He makes the mistake of looking down at her hand wrapped around his neck, only it's not a hand anymore.
It's a claw. A literal razor-sharp claw.
His blood runs cold as a menacing growl overrides her voice,
"Touch a single hair on her head and I will hunt you down. There are a hundred things worse than death."
He tries to pry open her claws off his neck and free himself but it's impossible. Jake feels himself slipping away into unconsciousness as he struggles to speak,
"S-she's...i-in...danger"
She slackens her hold a bit,
"Who's in danger?"
He gulps in a huge breath, his eyes watering,
"S-something called the Watchers are coming after Elizabeth. T-They have a kill order for you and a retrieval operation for her..."
She lets go and takes a step back. Jake falls to the floor coughing and gasping, catching his breath as he holds his neck to ease it.
"Who are you?"
"Precipice Trail, 2005. You were fighting that creature... that monster. You saved a boy."
He clears his throat,
"You saved me. I've tried learning as much as I can about you since then...I have searched for you everywhere."
Her eyes grow cold as the realization dawns on her.
"Stop poking your nose into things you know nothing about. Believe me, it's best to stay away..."
Helen gives him one last look as she enters the back door to the Resto.
Jake hurriedly runs to his car and jumps right in. He slams the door and grasps the steering wheel tightly, trying his best to keep his frame from shaking. Cold sweat breaks out all over his body. He tightly closes his eyes as the memory from when he was a young boy comes rushing in.
It was getting dark. He got separated from other campers and was wandering off the trail when he saw a woman standing by a tree.
"Hey, do you know the way back to the camp?", he asked.
She turned around in response. Her beauty was ethereal. Her head cocked to the side as her wavy blond hair flowed in the cold wind. She's so beautiful if not for the thing that crawled out from between her chest. She opened her mouth in a creepy smile that twisted her features and it kept on opening.
Her hands grabbed the edges of her mouth, tearing it as she stretched them over her face and scalp, down to her neck to reveal another head emerging. A mix of coagulated blood and dark slimy matter made her skin slowly slide off what appeared to be a semi-elongated head.
Jake gasped.
Almond-shape, blood-red eyes fixed their gaze on Jake. He can't look away. His whole body shook like a leaf. He wanted to scream but he couldn't. It suddenly tugged the human skin off its shoulders and freed an arm and a long hand with needle-like nails. It pulls out another arm and like a garment, it tore the remaining human skin off its torso.
Its rib cage slowly opened sideways like a huge toothed jaw as tentacles crept out of it, slowly spreading like a cuttlefish. At the center is a fleshy proboscis-like that of a cone snail, about to strike on its prey.
It's so close now.
Its eyes seemed so... mesmerizing. Hypnotizing. Jake couldn't move his fingers. Something at the back of his mind screamed at him to run but it was just impossible.
The tentacles wrapped around Jake in a deadly embrace. The creature raises its proboscis above his face, aiming to stab at him when suddenly, hot, dark liquid sprayed all over him. Something has cut its proboscis into pieces. The creature's tendrils let go of him as it shrieked in agony.
He suddenly heard a woman grunt and in a flash, the creature was hurled through the air and crashed into a tree.
As Jake turned, she saw a woman with dark crimson hair cut off at the shoulders. Her glowing eyes stared straight at him. Instead of hands, she had razor-sharp claws dripping with what appeared to be the creature's blood.
She suddenly dropped on all fours and started to change. A huge snout bulged on her face, her ears started to elongate and coarse hair grew all over her. Before he knew it, a huge, crimson werewolf-like creature was right in front of him.
"Watch out!", screamed Jake as the creature suddenly appeared and jumped towards her from behind.
The wolf lady turned around and swung her claw upwards, causing the creature to stumble back. The creature swung open its jaw-like rib cage and a sharp tentacle shot out, hitting her in the shoulder. She grabbed the tentacle and snapped it off with her teeth, causing the creature to yelp in pain.
She snarled at the creature as she bared her claws.
She tried to slash at the creature but it swiftly evaded her. She howled in pain as the creature struck her back in retaliation. She reached for the creature's shoulder, maneuvered it down to its back, and with a savage rip, the creature's head came clean off of its shoulders.
The wolf lady cautiously approached and meticulously sniffed the carcass of the fallen creature. It was like she was making sure that her adversary was completely neutralized.
She suddenly turned towards Jake, sniffing him all over. He remembers tightly closing his eyes, petrified with fear as he would feel the warmth of her breath.
All of a sudden, she grabbed Jake and put him on her back like he weighs nothing. He remembers seeing an inverted triangle with a hint of double-ues tattooed on her. The same symbol he saw when he accessed the Watchers database. She proceeded to run as fast as she could, never looking back.
The wind howled in his ears as they raced through the forest. His heart raced just as fast, being so horrified by what he witnessed. But great relief outweighed his dread. He rested his head on her back, holding on tightly until he fell asleep.
Jake remembers waking up in an open field on the outskirts of a small town. He looked around him, bewildered as police officers rushed to him and checked on his vitals. His Camp Instructor and parents were there as well. Just along the edge of the forest, he saw the wolf lady gazing at him.
"Thanks", Jake mouthed.
Her eyes glowed as she looked at him one more time before turning and running back into the darkness of the forest. Pretty much like the way she looked at him when she went back to the resto a while ago.
He gasps at the realization. He smiles despite himself. He finally found her. All the sleepless nights and years of search have paid off.
He winces at the pain in his throat. Helen had such a strong grip. Crossing her again would be a bad idea. And who knows what other danger lies ahead.
"I guess that should be it, doing my part of warning her about the Watchers. We're even now...", Jake tells himself.
Now, if his hands would only stop shaking so that he can insert his car keys, step on the gas and roll out.
© 2022 C.J. Gracie Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
Comments (0)
See all