Stubbs And Horrord (3)
Book 2: Natasha 1 Six months later, Lloyd and Chuck moved as far away from Comanche as they could with what money they had between them. They traveled around for a while trying to find a place that could help them forget, but every town had some way of reminding them of the experience, and every time there were too many things that brought but bad memories. They began by going north, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but after a month, they were introduced to a person who looked exactly like Andrea. Neither of them believed that there could ever be another like her, but they decided not to chance it. They both knew that she was locked away in the best Texas Mental Health Institute with a straight jacket will all the attention she could ever want. The boys tried other Midwestern cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Kansas City, but each had its own reminders. Unable to escape their past, they eventually returned to central Texas. Twenty five miles away from the C in a town known as Brownwood, they settled into new lives. A large step up from life in Comanche, Brownwood was a comfortable place to live. A town of about twenty thousand, B-wood was a college based town. Lloyd and Chuck had no problem making new friends, but kept close to their old ones. Chuck began school at the local college, Howard Payne, and life was good. The larger town kept them both busy and separate. Lloyd began working two jobs to pay the rent, other bills, and to save up money for the college he wanted to go to, and Chuck began taking classes day and night for his masters in technology. On weekends, they would see each other occasionally and get a pizza or see a movie, and they tried to throw parties ever few weeks, but they had they’re own lives. Ailee moved down to be with Lloyd and things began to look up for everyone. They had lived in Brownwood for three months when Chuck met Natasha. Tash had lived in B-wood for three years, and had many friends in the area. Natasha Gual had been born in El-Paso, and had moved around the world with her military father. She was somewhat tall, with a darkly burnt red mane and beautiful blue eyes. She had a very sweet and extremely addictive personality which made her easy to like. One weekend a month, she would go to Austin to visit an old friend of her’s, and on the following weekend she had to attend Army National Guard drills just outside of town. Tasha was perfectly fluent in English, German, Spanish and Chinese, a plus from her military brat life. Her father had been a linguistic translator during negotiations around the world, and had taught her well. A week after they met, Chuck and Natasha started dating. For reasons that Chuck didn’t question, she insisted they keep their relationship from Lloyd. They did, and Chuck quickly became wrapped around her finger. “So, who’s Natasha’s boyfriend?” Lloyd asked one day in Cici’s Pizza. “What do you mean?” Chuck replied timidly, believing that his secret was out. “Who does she go see in Austin every month? It has to be a dude, cuz that’s a long trip to take so frequently.” “I’ve got a confession to make dude.” Chuck set his pizza down and Lloyd looked up from his. “Me and Tasha are dating. I don’t know why we hid it from you. I’m sorry.” “What! Holy shit dude!” An elderly couple at a nearby booth looked at them. “Congrats! But don’t change the subject, who does she go see?” Lloyd grabbed a slice from his plate and took a large bite, becoming away that the people were staring. “You got me, but I’ll find out when she gets back.” “Oh yeah, that’s this weekend huh?” “Yeah.” They sat in silence and watched the Longhorns demolish Iowa State. Monday came quickly, and Natasha returned home. Lloyd’s words were still ringing in Chuck’s head as they met at the movie theatre. He had to find a polite way to ask who it was. Though he tried to hide it, Chuck was a really caring and sensitive person. He didn’t like violence, and strongly believed that it could usually be avoided. Yes, he had resorted to it before, but that was under extreme circumstances. He didn’t want to mess up his new found love with Natasha by just blurting out something stupid. He thought about it for a long time, and finally asked. “Who is it you go see each month, if you don’t mind me asking?” To him, time froze, and it seemed like an eternity before she replied, though it was only three seconds. “I told you, just an old friend.” “Does this person happen to have a name or do you just call him ‘old friend’?” “SHE does have a name, and it’s Shana.” “Shana?” “Yes, Shana Rogers. Why do you ask?” “I was just curious. That’s all.” Chuck was glad to have that cleared up, and he thought the discussion was finished. “Why? Did you think I was going down there to cheat on you?” There was a defensive sound to her voice. “Huh? No, I…” “Babe, I couldn’t do that. I have too much faith in us. I want to be with you forever. Relationships make people happier in general. I mean, just look at Lloyd and Ailee.” “Okay, I believe you.” Chuck said in a rather stupid voice. He had picked it up from Lloyd a few years back, and it always made Natasha smile. It usually ended or paused conversations too, which was good, because the previews had just finished and the words “Now, the Feature Presentation” appeared on the screen. Greg was drunk as he lit his last joint. The party was over, and only a handful of guests who were too drunk to drive home remained at his house. As he took the first hit, there was a knock on his bedroom door. He got up and opened it and there was a beautiful red-head eyeing him and the joint. She was rather underdressed, with only a mini-skirt and the remnants of a V-neck. Greg hadn’t seen her at the party, but then again, there had been well over a hundred people come and go. She moved in gracefully, and sat down on the bed where he had been sitting. She motioned for the joint, and took a small drag. Greg turned to the door and closed it. He always had loved the automatic lock on it. By the time the joint was gone, they were all over each other. The mysterious beauty got up, went to the mini- fridge, and poured them another whiskey and coke apiece. She glanced at Greg, and saw he was too busy removing his robe to watch her. She carefully dropped two small gel-tabs into his cup, and walked back to the bed. She handed him his glass and proposed a toast. “Here’s to one hell of a good time.” “Fuck yes it is.” Greg chugged the entire glass and watched eagerly as she sipped on her’s. Ten minutes later, they were in a magical moment. The kind of moment that is cautioned to only be experienced after marriage, but never prevented beforehand. It became apparent that she had overestimated Greg’s sexual abilities, because he had time to finish inside her, pull his robe on, and smoke half a cigarette before the poison took affect. When it did, it hit hard. She had just taken the cigarette from him when it began. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he went into convulsions. His heart began to race, and every nerve in his body began to shut down. She calmly got out of the bed, put her clothes on, and left. The next day, Lloyd met Chuck outside of the Computer History class. The look on his face was one he had only seen once before, at the Subway almost a year before. “What happened?” Chuck knew this was no time for the customary ‘What’s up dude?’ “Stewie just called me. Greg’s dead.” A single tear rolled down Lloyd’s face as he delivered the news. “What?! How?” Chuck knew that of all things in the world, the death of friends was one thing that Lloyd wouldn’t joke about anymore. “They found him this morning. At first it looked like alcohol poisoning, but blood tests have shown some other chemicals in him.” “Everyone knows he smoked. That’s old news. Is that what it was?” “Please let me finish.” Lloyd had never told him that before. “Aside from the marijuana, there was a chemical agent that causes symptoms like A.P. They place the time of death around 6 a.m. this morning.” “Who would poison Greg? That doesn’t make any sense. The only enemy he ever had is locked up now. There weren’t too many people there when we left last night, but they were all good friends of his.” “I know dude, but be on alert.” Lloyd walked away, trying to stay on time for his next shift at Hastings Music and Books, and Chuck went home. He would make up his assignments later. As soon as he made it home, he heard the MSN Messenger tone ring through the surround sound. Lloyd had just received a message. He went to the computer to check it out and inform whoever it was that Lloyd was at work until 10. On the screen was a simple message. Hello Chuck. Chuck looked around, then at the email address. He knew that Lloyd’s computer always had Lloyd signed in, so who could know that it was Chuck that just came in the house? I_will_not_regret@hotmail.com. Who was that? He’d never seen it before. He sat down and typed back. Who is this? Did you hear about Greg yet? Yes. Who would do something like that? I would. And you are? Let’s just say, I’m an old friend. How did you know that it was me and not Lloyd? Lloyd works until 10 tonight. Okay, seriously, who is this? I can also tell it’s you because Lloyd would have believed me already. What would happen after that? Do you believe that it was me that killed that stoner? Okay, I believe you. Now you sound more like Lloyd. What happens now? I tell you who’s next. Okay, who? You. Me? Yes. Now that you have something to live for, I’m going to take it away. Okay, you kill me then what? Why Greg? Greg was just practice. After you, then Lloyd. Is this Andrea? How the hell did you break out of TMHI? Andrea is dead. Well, brain dead. How? The drugs she takes keep her from being able to think. How do you know this? Me and her go way back. We’re old pals. That was it. The sender signed off. The conversation puzzled Chuck, and he decided to ask Lloyd about the sender when he got home. Lloyd had to work late that night, as assistant managers sometimes do. Some kid had been caught shoplifting and he was filling out the paperwork on it when his phone rang. He checked the caller-id and saw it was Chuck. He glanced at the clock, noticed he was an hour and a half late, and decided to leave. He would talk to Chuck when he got home. Five minutes later, he was walking in the door when he was ambushed by Chuck. It was apparent that something had happened, but he didn’t know what. Chuck began talking quickly. “Why didn’t you answer my call?” “The phone was on silent, you sound like a nagging wife. What’s wrong?” “Who is ‘i_will_not_regret at hotmail.com?” “That’s the email address that Andrea used to talk to me. Why?” “Someone used it to talk to me.” “WHAT!? When?” “Just after you met me outside of class, I came home and as soon as I walked in the door. I heard the message tone on the surround sound so I was going to be nice and tell whoever it was you were not home so they wouldn’t be waiting for a reply. But when I sat down, it said ‘hello chuck.’ So I talked back. You should just read it.” Chuck guided Lloyd to the computer and sat him down. The conversation window was still up, but the sender was offline. Lloyd read it quickly; unable to believe it was happening again. He grabbed his phone and called TMHI in Austin and made them check on Andrea. He was told that she was still there, so what was going on? A mirror crime, maybe? “Well, dude, until we figure this out, you should be careful. Don’t drink what you didn’t pour; that kind of stuff. Get some sleep too; you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” And that’s what they did. They went to bed and closed the day. 2 Lloyd walked into the courtroom as he so many times before. He had done it well over three dozen times since that night at the daycare. He was dressed in his only suit, which he originally had bought only for his senior prom, but it had proved more useful. He took his seat next to Chuck and Stewie, and looked around. Though he had done it before, something always struck him as new. Andrea was sitting behind the defendant’s table with her court-appointed lawyer next to her, and the prosecutor was preparing his opening statement. What was different? Everything in the room looked the same. Andrea’s parents were sitting in the row behind her, and most of the crew was sitting behind the plaintiff’s table. Ally was the only one not there, but she had never been there, even during the real trial. She had said she couldn’t face Andrea after what she had done. The two of them had been best friends for years, and she still tried to kill her. Lloyd took another glance around the room as the prosecutor, Jerry Heisenberg, stood up to make his case. Lloyd looked at every face behind Andrea, who were her only supporters, and saw the same thing he had every time before. But this time, he recognized one person from the rest. She was sitting three rows back, with her auburn hair pulled back into a bun, watching Jerry intently. He had just begun his statement, telling the jury about how he planned to prove that Andrea was of a sane mind when she did everything. “And so, ladies and gentleman of the jury, I intend to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the defendant, Miss Andrea Aldright, was of a sane and reasonable mind when she committed the crimes she has been accused of. I plan to show you the evidence that she did want to kill Lloyd Stubbs, and made several terrorist threats to him before kidnapping him. To top it all off, I will show you that it was not only Mr. Stubbs that she intended to hurt, but a number of his friends.” Lloyd was the first to be called to the witness stand. He walked up there calmly, as usual, and swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. As he sat down, Jerry turned away form his table and faced him. “Is your legal name Lloyd Scott Stubbs?” Jerry began. Lloyd knew what he was really trying to do. It was rather obvious after seeing it so many times. He was working the jury. He wanted them to see Lloyd speaking in a purely truthful state, so that they would believe the story that was about to unfold. “Yes, it is.” Lloyd didn’t need to lean into the microphone that was in front of him. He knew all too well that his voice would carry itself to it. “Do you know the defendant?” “Yes, we have hung out before.” “How often did you socialize with the defendant?” Jerry turned to face the audience. “Not too often. She would be at a party I happened to be at, and we talked on occasion on the internet.” Lloyd looked out into the crowded court room and once again, the mystery woman stood out. He looked back at his friends, but something else was wrong. “To your knowledge, did the defendant seem to like you in any way beyond friendship?” “During the parties or up until now?” Lloyd couldn’t help being a smart ass sometimes. He knew perfectly what was expected of him. He glanced at his friends once more, and saw that it was Greg that was different, wrong. He was shaking violently, but no one seemed to notice. This wasn’t right. “Mr. Stubbs? Your answer, please?” Jerry knocked on the witness stand. “Not that I was aware of, no. If she did, she hid it well.” Jerry continued to question him for an hour, then the court was called into recess. She had a great look of compassion when she watched Andrea on the stand. When the court went to recess, she wrote notes about everything she had seen. After the recess, she had moved up to the first row and sat right behind Andrea. During the jury’s rather short deliberation (Jerry had done his job extremely well), she gave Andry a soothing pat on the back and whispered something in her ear.
Copyright © 2006 Brandon Colcleasure |