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They were frantic and desperate to find Aaron. Their brains were racked with worry, trying to figure out where he could have gone. Chase was pacing and chain-smoking, not even bothering with going out onto the balcony, because every time he did he just ended up searching the streets around his building obsessively; anticipating Aaron to come around the corner at any moment.
It was dark now, and Aaron had been gone for nearly three hours. Sandra had called the police about the heart and by the time Chase had returned to his apartment after running around downtown trying to find his boyfriend, two uniform police officers, along with Detective Randy Kit were inside his living room while someone in clinical white took care of the removal of the organ.
They had collected the box and the heart and when asked about Aaron’s relationship to Andy, he had nodded at the answer and said that it was the textbook pattern of John Murphy. Remove the organs and send one to the victim’s family or friends.
Before leaving, Detective Kit assured them that they would put out an APB on Aaron, but that more than likely he was just getting some space and mourning his friend and he would be back when he was ready.
“We’ll find him, I’m sure of it...” Sandra said as soon as the police left.
“I’m sure we will too... but not in the way we hope.” Chase was so matter-of-fact about this that it scared everyone in the room; no one wanted him to be right.
Amanda and Carolyn sat on the sofa and Tammy stood at the kitchen island, drinking her fifth glass of wine and trying to stifle her tears.
“God, I hope he’s okay...” Amanda finally said.
She had said very little the entire time the police were there. Detective Kit had made her too uneasy. His eyes always having found their way back to her, no matter who he was talking to or where in the apartment he was standing.
“How is this happening? How is any of this real?” Sandra grabbed the bottle of wine and took a swig. “He’s gotta be out. He’s just walking around and he went in the opposite direction of where you looked for him, Chase.
“That’s all there is to it. He’s safe.”
Chase pinched the bridge of his nose as the tears came again. He shut his eyes tight against them and swallowed hard. He wanted to tear Bellingham apart. He wanted to take to the sky and soar above the city like some inhuman spirit, to astral project or some remote viewing. Some supernatural talent that could locate Aaron and go to him and bring him home.
...You don’t even realize that he’s already been taken from you.
How could any of this be real? How could Aaron’s roommate be dead, and how could he be missing? How could there have been these phone calls and the man stalking them? How was it that they were all brought back together?
Was there really some force—some mysterious malevolence that was pulling the strings on all of this? Had Bailey truly found some way to break out of deepest hell and take form? It didn’t make any sense. There had to be something logical—something tangible to all of it.
Fuck you, Bailey. Fuck you.
Chase’s phone began to buzz and the screen lit up. He raced over to the coffee table and felt his heart sink in his chest as soon as he saw that it was his parents’ number.
“Hey,” he said with a sniffle.
“Chase, what the hell is going on up there? Are you okay? It’s all over the news. It says she was a student at the university. Did you know her?” Cordelia asked him. Her voice was frantic.
Chase glanced at Carolyn and then shook his head. “No. I didn’t.”
“Oh, thank God. What about Aaron?”
The sound of his name felt like a punch deep in the stomach, and his insides trembled as he choked back his tears.
“Uh, no. No, he didn’t.”
“It’s just so terrible. You have to be careful. And for this to happen today of all days. It must be stirring up a lot of emotions.”
Chase’s brows furrowed and he cleared his throat before speaking.
“What do you mean?”
“With it being April sixth.”
Everything seemed to be slowing down. The lamp light seemed to tilt along with the furniture as Chase brought his phone down to his face so he could look at the date.
“I didn’t realize....”
It was the eve of Bailey’s death.
“Oh, really? Shit, honey, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Things have really been getting better for you—for all of you,” she corrected. “I hope this doesn’t fuck things up.”
Chase slowly shook his head and then whispered to Carolyn to look at the date on her phone, and he watched as her eyes grew wide with the realization.
“It’s okay, Mom. Um, did you know Pamela was pregnant with Bailey when she got married?”
He didn’t know why he was asking about it. It had just stuck with him ever since Aaron had inquired about it on their ride back to Bellingham after seeing Bailey’s mother. He could have sworn the Nguyens had been married at least a few years before Bailey had been born, but perhaps that had just been a casual lie.
“I mean, I don’t think that’s right. How did you find this out?” she asked.
“We visited Pamela briefly before we drove back up.”
“Jesus, Chase!” Cordelia chastised.
Chase rolled his eyes.
“Mom, it was fine. Just a casual visit to see how she was doing. To see if she had gotten any better throughout the years, that’s all.”
His mother sighed.
“And she told you she had a shotgun?”
“No. Their wedding photo on the fireplace mantle. You can see that she has a baby bump.”
The memory of Aaron in the passenger seat looking at him with those sad eyes through the highway dark made his chest ache, as if his lungs were compressing—squeezing all of the air out of him like they were two balloons.
“Hmmm. I swear I still have their invitation to their anniversary party lying around here from when we first met them, back when you kids were in first grade.... I’ll have to find it and get back to you.”
Chase nodded.
“Thank you.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay?” she asked warily, as if she could sense the danger that her son was in.
“Yeah, I’m good. I’ll let Aaron and the girls know you said hi.”
“All right. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Chase hung up the phone and looked at Carolyn, who had by this time shown Amanda and Tammy.
“Why do you guys keep looking at your phones? What are you guys looking at?” Sandra demanded.
“Just the calendar,” Amanda said dismissively. “Just looking at the date in case we need to make flyers.”
Chase hated the lie. It wasn’t any better than the truth. But Sandra couldn’t be pulled into this anymore than she already was.
Sandra shook her head.
“No. No. Aaron is fine. He is out there right now probably drinking in the park, having one out for Andy. Which is what we all should be doing. You heard the detectives... John Murphy never went after his victims’ families. He just sent this shit to them to fuck them up forever or something!”
She crossed the kitchen back to the sofa and grabbed her purse and her sweatshirt.
“I’m not hanging here. You guys talking about making flyers and shit like you all think his ass is dead! Fuck you and fuck you, and especially fuck you two!”
She reserved the last two for Chase and Tammy.
“I’m going to go drink out Andy’s ghost and you all should be too. I’m going to go find Aaron on one of those benches in the museum park chugging some champs!”
Sandra’s words echoed down the hall as she made it to Chase’s front door, slamming it as she went.
“What the fuck are we going to do? What the fuck does it mean?” Carolyn asked. “How did we get sucked into this? How did we all get entangled together? Me and Tammy and then Tammy and Aaron. All before you and Amanda came along, and then Amanda goes to rent a room and just happens to pick Aaron’s?
“This is horror movie shit! Like The Ring or The Grudge. Some vengeful-spirit- Jason-Voorhees crap! Which, we had no idea what he was. In the second movie you think he didn’t drown at all and he was just living in the woods and is all crazy and avenging his mother, but then he’s like a murderous undead thing in a hockey mask!
“I mean, what the hell is happening?”
“I know.” Chase gave a defeated shrug and sigh. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to think or believe, and I’m fucking terrified about having to explain all of this to the cops because it’ll make it sound like we’re doing a really shitty job of covering up that we killed Andy or something....
“Because, you know, that’s what I would think if I was told this shit!”
Tammy ran her fingers through her honey curls and shook her head repeatedly.
“So what the fuck do we do now? We have to find him.” She said.
“I’ll give it one more hour.” Chase finally said after a moment of absolute silence. “One more hour to see if the cops are right. To see if this actually is about Andy and not about Bailey. One more hour to see if Aaron comes buzzing at my door.”
Chase walked over to the refrigerator and pulled the bottle of Grey Goose out of the freezer. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard followed by a can of tonic water from the fridge, pouring himself a drink and staring at the clock on the wall between the sliding door and the wall opposite.
“One more hour.” He finished, his glare set on those ticking hands, daring them to move without returning Aaron to him at the hour’s strike.