Virginia Gone (7 page)

 Virginia shoved past him. The backdoor slammed.

 She was gone.

 Possibly gone for good this time.

 Riley felt his temper flare transforming in to rage, blinding, mad rage, and his entire body shook with it. He always did have a possessive nature. Especially for the only family he’d ever known. 

 
Despised being in the same room with him,
she had said… she didn’t know shit about hate! He hated! He hated his parents! And he hated Virginia for making him feel like dirt! His fingers made a tight fist; he swung, his fist busting straight through the sheet rock. Blood gathered in the gashes inflamed across his knuckles.

 Fuck her!

 She was absolutely clueless.

 
Ten

“If anyone had been paying attention to the signs, they would have realized that air turns white when things are about to change, that paper cuts mean there's more to what's written on the page than meets the eye...” –Sarah Addison Allen, The Peach Keeper.

 “So, are you going to ever tell me what happened?” Lizzie asked pushing the wobbly grocery cart down the can goods aisle.

 Virginia led the way selecting soups from the shelf tossing them in the cart. “It’s nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”

 The cart came to a sudden stop. Lizzie glared over the basket at her friend. “Seriously, you’re not going to tell me. Am I not your best friend? Am I not a part of it?”

 Yeah, a major part of it—Lizzie was catching all the blame and had no idea she was even being blamed. It wasn’t fair keeping her in the dark, so Virginia filled her in on all the sordid details while they shopped.

 Packing the open trunk with their groceries, Lizzie was quiet as she processed what she’d heard. Her mouth fell as all the details settled in to place, “Oh my God! What are you going to do? If he orchestrated your mother’s accident....Virginia this is crazy! Do you think he would ever come here, to our apartment? Are we in danger?”

 “So you believe me?”

 “Of course! You’re my best friend and probably the most level headed person I know. If you say this guy is whacked in the head…then he is. I think you need to notify the police.”

 “If my own father won’t believe me…I don’t think the police will.”

 “You never know…maybe your fathers just bias to the whole situation. One thing is for certain, you don’t need to go back there until Riley’s been dealt with. As soon as we get home we’re checking all the locks on the windows….we’ll get a huge ass dog! Let that sucker come around then and he’ll get an ass full of canine teeth.”

 Virginia laughed. She didn’t care what anybody said, Lizzie was the
only
person she could count on.

 Five hours later, 11:35 pm.

 The entire studio apartment was on lockdown. It was quiet, the only sound was the occasional clacking of ice being dumped from the automatic ice maker. As nighttime approached, Lizzie had gone overboard setting booby-traps in every room: empty milk jugs towered in a pyramid blocking the pathway behind their cream colored couch, fishing wire stretched across doorways, tin cans tied to the front and back door. “No way is he getting past these without us knowing,”

 Virginia thought she’d gone mad, but she appreciated the concern, especially later as she lay submerged to the chin in a steaming tub of water. Horrible, ugly images of death flashed through her mind. Bubbles tickled her nose as she relieved an itch from its tip. Her toes caught hot drips from the sweating faucet. She felt anxious, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of her gut. She drew a breath and disappeared under the water, her hair floated out around her head. Her face came up, her mouth and eyes just above the surface. She blinked, allowing her entire body to relax. Even with her ears submerged, there was no mistaking the muffled sound as the milk jugs collapsed and scattered across the hardwood floor. She surged to her feet water pouring from her naked body. She batted disbelieving eyes, grabbed the towel from the hook on the back of the door. She slid on a pair of cut off shorts and a tank top.  The door creaked as she slowly opened it. Her voice was nothing more than a whisper, “Lizzie? Was that you?”

 No answer.

 Virginia darted across hallway to her bedroom feeling odd sense as if someone was on her tail. Her body shook. She dropped to her knees beside the bed, her hand slid under the mattress pulling out the butcher knife wedged between the mattress and box spring.  “
Just in case.”
Lizzie had said.

 She placed a hand over her racing heart.

 Deep breath
…

 You can’t go all silly.

 It’s only your imagination. You know how Liz enjoys a midnight snack. That’s it, tomorrow morning you’ll both laugh about it.

 Then she heard a plant stand being over turned and the deep growl of a man’s voice muttering profanity.

 The fishing wire…

 He’d stumbled through the fishing twine.

 She crossed the room in several long strides. Her fingers curled around the knife handle as she peered out in to the hallway. She heard footsteps coming towards her and yelped, not knowing whether to hide or fight.

 Fight.

 She would fight!

 Virginia raised the knife, when Lizzie face took shape out of the shadows. Seeing the knife in the air, the quick thrust just missing her right arm, Lizzie stifled a scream with the flat of her palm.

 “Shit! I almost stabbed you!” Virginia shrieked lowering the blade.

 “For goodness sakes, you scared the shit out of me!” Lizzie took hold of Gin’s arm dragging her towards the den. Both girls, glued to each other’s side,  stepped carefully, one light step at a time, neither stood to their full height as they neared the den. The knife glinted out in front of Virginia.

 “So you heard it too?” Lizzie muttered.

 Virginia nodded, the whites of her eyes flashed in the dark.

 “I told you my booby-traps were awesome, did I not? Now tell me how I over reacted. I only wish we had a huge beast with teeth watching our backs. You think this guy will do anything crazy?”

 “How the hell would I know Liz? Do I look like a crazy person?”

 “Shit! No need to be defensive. I just asked. You know this guy, I don’t.”

 Both girls paused at the doorway to the den. Virginia considered going back to her room and hiding, that was no longer an option the instant Lizzie shoved her in to the room first, out in the open, away from the safety the narrow hall provided. “He’s your psycho boyfriend!” 

 Virginia was horrified. She could make out basic shapes. Her vision adjusted to the light spilling in from the window and the play of shadows on the far wall. The tip of the blade touched her lips as she glance back at her roommate. “Shh…I think…”

 She saw him coming in low and fast. She had no reaction time.  An ear piercing scream erupted from her mouth. She kind of ran in place. His head rammed in to her right side knocking the knife free from her hand. Her back hit the wall hard expelling the breath from her lungs! The knife clattered, skipping and hopping over the hardwood floor until it spun several times coming to a dead stop across the room.

 “Get it Lizzie! Get the knife!”

 Riley pinned Virginia’s arms high above her head, he held her to the wall with the length of his body. “Stop fighting me!”

 “No, you’re a psychotic asshole. Get your hands off Me.!”  She rammed her knee in the region of his nuts. He dodged her best attempts and laughed, a sick twisted laugh that made her flinch.

 “That’s the best you’ve got?”

 “Let me go!”  She fought to break free, but soon gave in going still secured by his weight. She glanced over his shoulder and saw Lizzie approaching him slowly from behind. The knife was high and aimed toward the center of his shoulder blades. She had only a few minutes to regale the man who had been her first love, her only love. Virginia took her time memorizing the impressive planes of his handsome face caught by the stray light forcing its way through the window.  She closed her eyes with a kind of sadness knowing her roommate would be quick and precise. The nightmare would be over soon.

 Seconds passed, then minutes.

 “Open your eyes. Look at me,” Riley ordered. His grip tightened on her wrist. “Damn it…. Lizzie is not real. You’ve made her up.”

 Her eyes flew open. “You are insane! I feel sorry for you…you’ve lost your mind!”

 “If she’s really here…tell her to stab me with the blade.” When she done no more than gape at him, he added, “go on…tell her to do it. I’m not afraid, because Lizzie can’t be behind me. She is only in your head.”

 She jerked her gaze to over his shoulder, and he was right, no one was there.

 Virginia blinked, in a state of confusion. “You’re wrong. We share an apartment, we’re roommates.”

 “No. You’ve been staying in the old apartment over the garage behind your parents’ house
.”

 “Not possible…the apartment is where you stay Riley.”

 “Virginia…I’m in the same room I’ve always been in, next to your old bedroom.”

 Realizing she was too stunned to fight, Riley released her. He stepped back, shoved a hand through his hair on a long sigh.

 “You’re lying. This is a sick joke.” She took three steps, and stumbled disoriented by what he was implying. None of it made sense.

 “I wish I was lying …but I’m not. Virginia you’re the one that’s sick, not me.”  

 “You’re wrong….Lizzie and I went grocery shopping today. Here I’ll show you!” She led him to the kitchen, flipped on the overhead light, and started empting out her cabinets in an act of desperation. He was wrong! He had to be wrong!! “We bought soup, see.” Heavy cans clunked down on the Formica top. “And we bought steak for the grill tomorrow!”  She jerked open the refrigerator jabbing a finger at the raw meat still in its pack.