Candice stood wearily at Brian’s side, holding his hand and trying her best to stay awake as he got a room for them. Brian looked down at her for a moment and saw again how tired she was. He then picked her up and grabbed the key the man was holding out for him.
Their room wasn’t as bad as Brian thought it would be. It didn’t look lived in, but the place was finely dusted. It made Brian wonder if the motel got a lot of visitors, or if the man saw the BMW parked outside and gave him the best room in the house.
He hurried Candice to bed, and she fell asleep almost instantly. Then he decided that he should call his mom’s house. It was eight o’clock and he would be bored for a while anyway.
“Hello?” Came the cheery voice at the other end of the line.
“Hey mom, it’s Brian. I found her.”
“That’s great news! Where are you?”
“Uh, it took me so long to find her and my cell was out of batteries so I had find a payphone. By the time I found a phone, it was already dark. We found a motel, so we should be alright for the night.”
They talked for about an hour and when Brian started to yawn, his mom sent him straight to bed. Even though he was so far away from her, she still had influence on him. He got ready anyway, because he needed the rest.
The bathroom was relatively clean as well, but when he needed to use the bathroom, he put toilet paper around the rim. He got lots of practice doing this at McDonald’s, where the condition sometimes was way worse. It wasn’t that he was germaphobic or anything, he just had to be careful. Toilets contract diseases you know.
Brian closed his eyes and starting thinking. He wondered if he could wake up in time in the morning. This was the first time he’d been to bed this early in ages, but he still had the capability of sleeping in.
The next morning, Brian woke up to find Candice dressed and ready to go. She was sitting patiently by the window, trying not to disturb her famous cousin. Brian smiled and called her name. She turned around shyly and waited for him to say something.
“How long were you sitting there? You could’ve woken me up, I don’t bite like Kevin does!” She laughed and Brian took this as a good sign. “Ready to go home I see. Well just give me a minute or two and I’ll be ready.”
Brian headed out to the bathroom and got ready. He tried to leave it as it was when he came; it was the least he could do for getting such a great room in a motel like this. He didn’t really mess it up anyway. If Nick were there, he’d be left cleaning for hours!
A few minutes later, Brian was leading the little girl down into the lobby. She grasped his hand when she saw a run down looking man staring at her from the chair he was sitting on. When he didn’t stop looking, even after she met his gaze, she ducked behind Brian’s legs.
Brian wondered what was wrong until he met the scruffy-looking man’s gaze. In one hand he held a crow bar and when he smiled he sported several gold teeth. Brian picked Candice up from the ground and she buried her head in his chest. Clearly, she felt threatened and Brian worried about the man. What the hell was his problem?
The desk clerk noticed Brian’s discomfort and turned to the ugly man. “Brutus, screw off, you’re scaring the customers!”
“Shut up you fag!” he shouted, but got up from where he was sitting.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s harmless,” the clerk told Brian. Brian just nodded and smiled. Somehow he wasn’t so sure. He could hear Brutus scoffing at the clerk’s remark somewhere around the corner.
Brian checked out safe and sound then went to look for his car. He was still carrying Candice as he searched for the car. Funny, it wasn’t where he thought he parked it…Brian started to waver a bit on his feet in exhaustion. He was tired of this nightmare; it just wouldn’t end.
Candice felt Brian shift and placed a hand at the nape of his neck to keep herself from toppling backwards. “You don’t have to carry me Brian. I can walk, really.”
Brian looked stunned from the sound of her voice for a moment. It was almost as though he’d forgotten she was there. “Oh no, no, it’s okay,” he muttered almost inaudibly. Candice squirmed down anyway and took his hand instead. She had seen her mother this way many times before and she also knew that in this state, when the victim said no, they usually meant yes.
Candice understood that the car was gone all right. She also understood the consequences behind it. But she was afraid to talk to Brian about what she was feeling. They had only seen each other a couple of times, but that wasn’t the reason. Her mother had a long conversation with her about Brian when she left. Candice remembered it well; sometimes it was her mantra. “Brian is very rich honey, and if you get him upset, mommy will be very upset too. Just leave him alone and it should be fine.” She didn’t want to make her mother mad.
Candice just knew things. She had a guess where the car was too, and what kind of condition it would be in. It wasn’t that she was psychic or anything, it was that she saw everything. She saw the man in the lobby with the crow bar early in the morning. Since she had already caused some trouble in the terminal, she just couldn’t pull herself together enough to wake Brian up. The man saw her in the window, watching him beat down on Brian’s car part by part. She stopped watching, but an hour later a tow truck came and it was all over. That’s why the man was smiling. And that’s why she thought he was after her.
But she also couldn’t let Brian look for his car until he got blue in the face. Right now he was turning a deep shade of red. Candice wondered if she was hurting his heart from the pressure of what was happening. She had to tell him.
“Brian,” she called softly, “Brian?” At first she thought that he wouldn’t turn around right away because he looked deep in thought, but to her surprise, and perhaps her dismay, he did.
“What’s wrong honey?” he asked. He knelt so that they were face to face and Candice saw the sincerity in his eyes. She knew that she could do no wrong around him.
“Um, I know where your car is.” Tears were starting to well inside her eyes.
“Really? Can you tell me?”
“Well, remember that man in the lobby?” Brian nodded slowly, “He beat up your car with his crow bar. The tow truck has your car.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Brian asked calmly. Candice started to see the red color on his face fade.
“Because…because I was scared. That man saw me looking.” Brian put his arms around her and hugged her tightly.
“It’s all right,” he comforted her, “I’ll just rent a car and we’ll be outta here and away from that freak in no time.” He lead her back into the motel and they approached the clerk.
“I need to use the phone again,” he told the clerk.
“Really? Well, I’m sorry bud, just can’t do that for you.”
“And why not?”
“Because I’m sure that you’ll report Brutus and my motel can’t afford that, sorry.”
“It’s not about that! Please…” Brian stopped short as the clerk pulled a large shot gun from behind the counter and held it in Brian’s face. Brian ran out the door and for several blocks, trying to get away. He held Candice in his arms once more as he ran madly.
Part 4
Back To Table of Contents