At first their was so much pain that Jamie couldn't even breath, it was so intense. But the pain in her body convinced her that she was alive. Her eyes slowly fluttered open.
She was in a small unfurnished room with people that looked familiar, sitting around her. The faces blurred but began to take shape slowly. The face that took form first, the one closest to her, Jamie recognized as Tripetta.
"What are you doing here?" Jamie gasped. It was hard to talk. She suddenly remembered why she was so sore.
Lulu. Of all people it had to be her. She was dead.
"Keeping you company," Tripetta said.
"She doesn't look very well," Mariette whispered.
"That's because she was almost killed," JC said.
Except for Justin and Lulu, everyone was there. Each was bound with an interlocking pair of handcuffs, herself included.
They all looked as though they had been crying. September looked incredibly thin and pale but she was alive, and wearing a shirt that Jamie recognized as Lance's. JC was wearing a pair of boxers with four leaf clovers on them and a wifebeater.
"Oh God," Jamie whispered. She had known that it would be horrible, just not this bad.
She was dead.
They were all dead. The Caretaker had managed to kill them all.
Chris smiled and held out his hand, (as much as the handcuffs would allow) towards Joey. "Told you she'd think that she'd died and gone to heaven," he smirked at Joey who grumbling, handed over several dollars.
"Do you feel well enough to start being afraid again?" September asked.
"How long have I been here? And where is here?" Jamie asked.
When she moved her face she could feel dried blood. She could also feel a cut on her lips reopen from speaking and blood began to coat her lips.
"About four hours. Several houses down the street from yours," Mariette told her.
JC looked at Jamie hopefully. "Would you like to hear our stories? We're tired of telling them to each other."
"Fine," Jamie mumbled, trying to stay as still as possible. If she didn't move the pain was less.
"You go first September," JC said nudging her with his foot.
"She's going to kill us. She's going to take us out to where we hit the man, dump us on the road, and run us over," September said simply.
"Now, now, don't ruin the surprise," Joey chided. "Start with how you were kidnapped."
September only looked at Lance and she began to cry. Jamie was unfazed by September's announcement that Lulu was going to kill them, that was old news.
Lance took up where September left off. "It's not really that interesting. We were in bed, at her grandmother's house, when the Caretaker dropped by. I never even heard the knock on the door. She got up, went to the door, and let Lulu in. They talked and it didn't even faze September that Lulu knew where she was. September got them some coffee and Lulu slipped codeine into September's. End of story."
"Tell them what you were doing before you got kidnapped. That might also explain why you're wearing Lance's shirt. Only Lance's shirt," JC laughed. He seemed to be in incredibly good spirits, considering that they would all be dead soon.
September and Lance blushed. "We. . .ummmmm. . .I don't have to explain to you! " Lance mumbled.
"At least I was drunk when I got the drugs," JC laughed. "Personally I think that. . ."
"Just the facts!" Mariette silenced him.
"Aren't you happy that we're still alive?" JC questioned.
Mariette silenced him with a kiss. For Jamie it was comforting to know that two of her best friends were as horny as rabbits, even in a situation like this.
"Actually none of the stories are really interesting," JC said when he and Mariette had broken their kiss. "I went to sleep in my bedroom. I woke up here. September and I have been keeping each other company. She's not the girl I thought she was. Did you know that she once painted a nude picture of David Boreanaz?"
"JC!" September whined.
"You painted a nude picture of David Boreanaz?" Lance asked, amazed that shy, sweet, innocent September had painted a nude picture of anybody.
September blushed. " I gave it to Tripetta for her birthday," September said.
Tripetta blushed and Chris stared at her. "You have a nude picture of David Boreanaz?" he asked, stunned.
Tripetta only shrugged her shoulders.
"How can you expect me to compete with him?" Chris pouted dejectedly.
"Oh Chris," Tripetta said, kissing him lightly. "I love you! It was this joke we had while you guys were away."
Joey looked up. "You guys actually hung out?" he asked, surprised.
The girls nodded. "We had a common bond. When we needed someone the others were always there. Despite the age thing," Tripetta said.
"Even Lulu?" Joey pressed. Tripetta nodded.
"Lulu's been feeding us," JC continued, hurt that he had been left out of the conversation. "For lunch this afternoon we had apples, for breakfast this morning we had apples, for dinner last night we had apples. She's not big on giving delicious final meals to condemned prisoners. Although several days ago we did get some peaches. And she even lets us use the bathroom whenever we want."
"She flagged us down a few hours ago, about a block from your house. Sacre Bleu! I was so frightened!" Mariette shuddered.
"I wasn't scared," Tripetta protested. "Well. . .at least not until she pulled out that gun."
"Tell us how she captured you," JC implored. "We heard music and party noises."
"I thought I was safe," Jamie muttered.
"We heard a shot," Chris said. "What happened?"
"I missed twice. Another shot went to blasting out the door panel. It's a long story." She turned to JC. "How did you survive the loss of all of that blood?"
"Marie told me about that," he nodded. "I didn't lose any blood. Not that I know of."
"It's hers," September said quietly. "I saw her siphoning it out of her arms a couple of times."
"Has she talked to you?" asked Jamie curiously. "Like about what she's doing?"
JC shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think that she knows what she's doing. She's obviously sick."
"Where is she?"
"Downstairs," said Joey softly. "I think that she's been taking drugs. I think that she's dying."
"Let's pray that she hurries!" Mariette muttered.
"That's horrible!" Chris balked.
"Well it is the truth. I do not want to die. I don't think that you guys do either," she shrugged.
"Has she talked to you using the Caretaker's style of language?" asked Jamie. She still couldn't associate Lulu with the Caretaker.
"My my my, aren't we inquisitive tonight?" JC giggled.
"Just answer the question!"
JC shook his head. "No. But she keeps saying stuff like having to, 'Purge our filth', ' Balance the scales', and ' Atone for our crime'."
"Have you tried to talk some sense into her?"
JC nodded. "And she sits and listens attentively to every word that we have to say. But she doesn't argue with us. Just brings us more bags of apples."
"Do you really think that she's gonna kill us?" Jamie asked pitifully.
"I'm afraid so. I think that she's just been waiting to get us all alone."
"But we aren't all here! Where's Justin? She said something about it being my turn now. . .Where is he?" Jamie asked, somewhat frantically. Seven pairs of dread filled eyes, met hers.
"Dead," said Lulu from the doorway. She was holding a gun in her hand.
Jamie felt tears slide down her cheeks. Everytime that she was done, she always got back up. But not this time. Her heart refused to accept it. She heard crying and she realized that it was Mariette, and not herself.
In one hand Lulu held the gun. In the other hand was a hypodermic needle and a bottle of colorless solution. Obviously she planned on sedating them before dragging them down to the van.
Lulu kneeled down next to Tripetta first. She arranged some cotton balls in a neat row.
"Lulu, did you really kill Justin?" asked Jamie.
"He killed himself," Lulu muttered.
"Is Justin really dead?"
Lulu didn't answer.
"Lulu we care about you and we want to help you," Joey said.
"No one cares about me. Only him," Lulu said, fiddling with the syringe.
"The man?" Chris asked confused. "The man was a stranger."
"He would have been my lover."
"Hurting us won't bring him back," Jamie said.
"I don't want to bring him back," Lulu replied. "I want us all to be together. He's lonely."
"I think that you're lonely, Lulu," said Chris. "If you let us go, we'll stay with you."
Lulu looked pleased, but mildly doubtful. "You would?"
They all nodded their heads solemnly. Lulu looked pleased and for a moment Chris could have believed that she would release them. But then her eyes darkened and she gripped her ears tightly. In a moment she let go and looked at them squarely. "To understand we must return to where this started. To the road."
Lulu filled the needle with the liquid and picked up a cotton ball. Tripetta backed herself against the wall and Chris. But it was useless. Lulu raised her arm and stabbed viciously into her leg.
Almost immediately Tripetta's eyes began to droop. Soon she slumped over Chris's side. Lulu looked satisfied with her work.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Jamie.
"Because I knew I was going to end up like the man. You took everything Jamie. You were always what I wanted to be. We could have been friends. I. . ." Lulu said.Jamie lunged forward and grabbed the gun out of Lulu's grasp.
"Sorry," she whispered. Lulu just stared. "I want the keys to the handcuffs," Jamie continued. "That's all I want."
"That's all you want?"
"Lulu, I've shot you twice tonight and missed. Third time's a charm." She shook the gun. "Give me the keys!"
"No."
"Don't be a moron!"
Lulu raised the needle. She had refilled it. She wasn't afraid of Jamie. "I don't have it," she said finally. Several drops of the drug dribbled onto the floor.
"Get it!" Jamie commanded.
"The man has it."
"You're gonna be worse off that him if you don't get it!"
Lulu just looked at her and swabbed her leg with the cotton ball. Jamie tried to squirm away but couldn't without losing the gun.
"Whatever you do Jamie, don't give her the gun!" JC warned.
Lulu looked at JC and began to laugh. "It's all a game!" she gasped out, between laughs. "Don't you see?"
Jamie looked at her and she suddenly understood. Lulu continued. "There's only one bullet! And I spun it! You can shoot but by the time it hits me you might already be dead!" Lulu continued to laugh her psychotic maniac laugh.
Jamie closed her eyes. "I'll give you the gun. . .if that will prove that we do care," Jamie whispered.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!" screamed everyone. Lulu considered then nodded her head. Jamie handed over the gun.
"Thank you Jamie," Lulu said. She smiled. Jamie smiled back. Lulu raised her arm and plunged the needle into Jamie's leg.
As Justin drove he remembered that night. It was eerily similar. With shock he realized that on Monday, Graduation Day, it would have been one year since then.
He pulled into Jamie's development. He hadn't spoken to her all day. Justin noticed lights on a couple of houses down from hers. He assumed that another family had finally moved in.
Her house was dark. He ran out of his car. It was near midnight and he knew that he would scare her by pounding on the door when there was probably nothing wrong.
The front door was hanging open. The glass panel next to the door was cracked. Dark red stains tipped the jagged glass. He ran inside. The lights didn't work but he didn't need them to know that the house was empty.
Justin ran up the stairs to her bedroom. Not one of the steps wasn't smeared in blood. He sat on her bed and noticed a picture of himself on her night table.
Justin glanced out the window and the house with the lights caught his attention. He realized that his mistake, may have cost her her life.
Justin tore down the stairs and out into the street. He began to run but stopped when he saw the soggy sock laying in the middle of the road. It was baby blue.
It was Jamie's.
Justin approached the house. There was a gun laying on the front lawn.
He didn't bother knocking. The door was open. He slowly made his way inside and up the stairs.
Justin heard voices coming from one of the rooms and pressed his eye to the keyhole. Everyone was there.
September looked fine, albeit a bit skinny and JC's big nose had never looked so good.
Only Jamie looked bad. Her right arm looked as though it had been put through a meat grinder, but she was alive and that was all that mattered to him.
"Thank you Jamie," he heard Lulu say.
Justin jumped into the room just in time to see Lulu push the needle into Jamie's leg.
Lulu took one glance at her unexpected company and she dragged Jamie across the room by her throat. The needle hung out of her leg, half of its dosage administered.
The gun lay forgotten on the floor, but Lulu no longer had any need for it.
Justin was a bit surprised to see the switchblade appear in her hand. There was no doubt in his mind that the tip was razor sharp.
Lulu had the tip pressed against Jamie's throat. Jamie's eyes were wide but she stood perfectly still.
"Hello Lulu," Justin said.
"Hello," Lulu replied warily. Justin took a step forward and Lulu pressed the knife into Jamie's throat.
"I read your secret message in the paper," he stopped. "Can we talk about it?"
"We have talked," Lulu replied stubbornly.
"I'm willing to go to the police," Justin offered. "Just let Jamie go."
"It's too late for that."
"It's not too late. We're still friends. No matter how you feel you're still one of us."
"I am not one of you!" Lulu screamed. Her knife hand trembled and a pinprick of red appeared beneath Jamie's chin, streaking a thin line down to her sweatshirt. "I would never have done what you did! The man. . ."
"Forget the man!" Joey said. "This isn't about them! This is about you and me!"
Lulu just stared.
Justin walked over to Joey and opened the handcuffs with the key that he had taken from downstairs.
"Go get Jamie," he told Joey. Joey nodded and got up. He moved toward Lulu.
"Stay back!" she screeched.
"He just wants Jamie," Justin called, freeing Chris and an unconscious Tripetta.
"I won't let go! I can't let go!" Lulu cried desperately.
"Hold me instead," Joey offered.
He opened his arms, wide, and waited. Lulu's arm fell from Jamie's throat and the knife clattered to the floor. Without the support of Lulu's arm, Jamie staggered and fell but Justin caught her before she hit the ground.
Tears streamed down Lulu's face as she cautiously stepped into Joey's arms.
Justin freed everyone and shooed them down the stairs.
Lulu pushed against Joey's chest and a bleak look filled her eyes. "Leave," she said. "Please?"
"I'm not leaving," Joey said, firmly.
The realization that he loved her hit him like a ton of bricks. He did love her and those feelings had scared the hell out of him. He had run from her because he was scared, but if he hadn't run, none of this would be happening.
"I love you Lulu," he whispered, stroking her hair.
She just stared at him. "I can't go on, knowing what I've done," she whimpered. "I'm so sorry. It was this voice in my head, telling me what to do. I didn't want to listen but I couldn't help it. I tried not to but. . .I'm so sorry."
The drugs and the loss of blood seemed to be taking their toll on Lulu. Her eyes were glazed and she was wavering. She stumbled and Joey caught her before she fell.
"I'll take care of her," he told Justin. Justin nodded as Joey carried Lulu out of the room.
