Comatose

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

                Angelica couldn’t help sitting there among the heavy fog and think over what she had told herself.  What had been the point she had failed to grasp?  It was a ballet class that she eventually quit when her interests had moved on to other things.  If she was recalling correctly dance lasted until she had watched an Indiana Jones movie and had wanted to go on her own adventure.  She remembered how for months no matter where she went, she would dream up some over the top scenario.  Even going to the store with her mom would turn into a great quest.

                At first her parents had found it endearing but the longer the stage had stuck around the more frustrated they had become.  They had tried to coax her into another interest but nothing they had come up with offered the draw that becoming an archaeologist had.  Angelica wanted to travel the world and uncover the secrets of the past.  Find hidden treasures and lost civilizations.  The movie that had started her adventure quest had only whet her appetite.  If she thought about it, the draw in ballet was traveling around the world and performing in front of so many people.  It was really her want to see the world that drew her young mind to both careers.  Angelica didn’t think that it was a love of travel that had been what she gave up however.  After all, she and Kevin had planned to travel after he retired so she really hadn’t given that dream up.  Not yet anyway.  Frustrated with herself she flopped back onto her back shifting the fog around her as she moved.  She lay there racking her brain trying to figure out the meaning behind the memory.  What had she missed exactly that was so important?  She felt like she was doing a hidden picture puzzle and was looking for the last piece.  It was always the last thing to find that was the hardest.  She had never considered herself to be a quitter before, but she just couldn’t figure it out.

                She screamed out in frustration just as the ground broke apart from underneath her turning her scream into one of shock instead.  Once again, she found herself plunged into the water of the lake they vacationed at.  Breaking the surface, she swam as close as the barrier would allow her to as she took in who was there this time.  Her husband Kevin and her son Tyler were standing there but her daughter was missing from the family scene.  Angelica sighed solemnly guessing that Tiffany wouldn’t be visiting while her husband was in the room.  Tiff usually wasn’t quick to temper but when it did rise, she didn’t forgive easily either.  She wished she would wake up so she could fix her family before things went to far.  There were two other grainy figures standing with her family this time.  Pushing her worries about her family aside she listened in to the conversation.

                “You don’t understand, she’s our only witness.”  The first figure growled out in aggravation.

                “I understand your frustration detective Jenkins but there’s nothing that can be done to wake her up.  Her body has a lot of damage to heal and that could be the reason for the coma.  There’s just no way to really tell the underlying cause for it we just have to wait.”  The doctor stated before he left the room making the detective growl.

                “How could no one know there was a serial killer in the area?”  Kevin gritted out in anger.

                “The killings were across state lines and the times between each victim were far enough a part that no one had put it together.”  The detective sighed out sounding genuinely exhausted as he spoke.

                “So why now?  Why was the connection made this time?”  Tyler asked.

                “The time between his last victim and Angelica was considerably shorter.  The computer kicked out a similar victim to her rather quickly.  On a hunch we let the program search further and found at least three more victims in the last five years.” 

                “So why did no one else do this search?  My wife wouldn’t be laying here if the other victims had been found earlier.”  Kevin accused.

                “We set up a search of recent crimes Mr. Bryant. In order to search through archives spanning years there has to be a reason.  We were lucky enough to have figured it out this early.”

                “Lucky.  My wife is laying in a coma and you think that’s lucky!”  Kevin shouted at the detective.  If Angelica had been there, she could have tried to calm him down.  She did find herself intrigued by the detective’s words.  She mulled them around inside her mind as she continued to listen in.

                “He was interrupted in the middle of killing her.  If he hadn’t been, you would be visiting a grave right now not a hospital room.  At least you have the hope that she’ll wake up and come home.  The other victims’ families weren’t that lucky Mr. Bryant.”  The detective pointed out making Angelica gasp as she realized how close she had come to dying that night.

                “What about the person who interrupted that night?  Why can’t they be a witness?”  Tyler asked with a hint of desperation in his voice.  Angelica wished to reach out and assure him she was alright.  It broke her heart to hear her grown son so broken.

                “The couple that found her that night said there was no one in the parking lot with Angelica when they saw her laying there.  My guess is he heard them coming and ran before they ever reached the lot.  It’s also the reason I’m asking all of you not to tell anyone that she’s alive.  We don’t know who this person is yet and if they find out she didn’t die that night they may try and get to her to finish what they started.”

                “Oh my God.”  Kevin whispered as the sound of him sitting down hard echoed around her.  She could only imagine the horror that was written across his face.  It probably mimicked her own horror at the news that even though she had survived so far, she was still in danger.  And here she was stuck inside her own body unable to protect herself.  Angelica could hear someone tapping furiously away on their phone.  It was probably her son.  The sound was so familiar to her after raising two children whose phones were attached to them nearly every day all day.

                “You didn’t tell anyone did you Tyler?”  Kevin asked confirming what Angelica had assumed earlier.

                “Of course not.  I haven’t been in contact with anyone since this all happened but I’m making sure Tiffany gets the message.”  Not long after the texting had stopped then the sound of his ringtone echoed through the room.  He excused himself to take the call outside.  Angelica wished he had stayed in the room to talk with the other person on the phone. 

                “Why do you think he tried killing someone so soon after his last victim?”  Kevin asked weakly.

                “We don’t know if he has started to escalate or if he was triggered.  All we know for sure is that it’s likely that Angelica knew her perpetrator and that she’s the only one whose seen his face and lived.”

                “You mean it was someone she knew personally?”

                “Not necessarily.  It could be anyone that met her briefly doing something as simple as errands.  There could have been anything that drew his attention to her and anywhere she could have crossed paths with him.  Maybe even more than once without realizing he was actually following her.  I’ll need you to give me a list of things that she did every day, so we have places to check into.”  Detective Jenkins told her husband.

                “I don’t know what she did every day.  For all I know she could have spent her days watching daytime talk shows or soaps.”  Kevin groaned.  Angelica was completely shocked by his words.  Everything she did during her days was in support of her family.  How could he have not known something like that?  It wouldn’t be that hard to figure out that it wasn’t gnomes that got things done around their house but her.

                “I would suggest you try and find out what her schedule is.  Most killers have a hunting ground and somehow she crossed into it.”  With the parting statement the detective left the room leaving Angelica alone with her husband.  This time however instead of trying to get closer to him to comfort his pain away she backed away from the barrier.  She watched as the image of him shrank away the further out she got from the dock.  She couldn’t find it in her to feel empathy for him when it seemed he barely even noticed her existence all these years.  The thought caused a stabbing pain to shoot through her chest as she began to realize how very little she meant to him.  All these years of marriage and she was no better then some ornament that sat on the shelf being ignored.  Something was quite wrong in her marriage and it had taken her falling into a coma to see it.  Her husband and children were her whole world.  They were her reason for getting up every morning and it was a crushing blow to realize that she hadn’t meant the same thing to him and probably hadn’t for some time.