Chapter21: Candy Remembers
1149 Words
Jason was down on the ground.
He tried to get Candy’s attention, but it was no good. She didn’t even look down at him. He waved his arms at her and tried to get her to notice him, but she continued to climb higher on the side of the building.
He’d been in a deep conversation with the detective about the abductions when someone nudged him. Jason turned around to see a police officer holding Candy’s shoes and socks. Jason felt the blood drain out of his body as this could only mean one thing.
“Where is she?” Jason asked the officer. The man turned around and pointed upward.
There Candy was, clinging to the side of the building, as she climbing to the top. She was at the third level already and on her way to the next one. For a second, Jason was transfixed over how well the woman could climb. He’d seen her crawl up the side of trees and to the roof of her house, but this was higher. And several degrees deadlier.
“Oh, sweet Jesus,” Jason mumbled to himself as he stood there and watcher her crawl up the side of the old building. He gave a prayer of thanks that the building was an old one and had plenty of irregular surfaces for her to grab.
“Did you give her permission to climb up there?” the officer asked him. He covered his eyes and looked again. “How the hell does she do that?”
“No I did not. As for the second question, she only weighs ninety pounds and its pure muscle.” He stood there and watched as Candy pulled herself up to a window ledge on the fifth floor.
She sat down on the ledge and looked down at them. Before anyone could say a word, Candy waved. Next, she looked at something in the window.
“It won’t make a difference how little she weighs,” the cop said to him. “If she falls from that level, your friend will be dead the same as if she weighed three hundred pounds.”
Jason had to do something, no matter how useless it might be.
“Candy!” he yelled at her. “You come down from there!” As he expected, she ignored him.
“Candy!” Jason yelled again. “Mrs. Majors will be very mad at you if you don’t come down right away!” She still ignored him and now Candy was talking to someone on the other side of the window.
“I’ve got someone on the fifth level!” another cop yelled out as he held out a smart phone. “Central patched a call to us from a lady who lives up there. She says that girl was talking to her daughter!” By now, the crime scene was old new as a crowd began to gather at the base of the building to watch Candy crawl upwards.
“s**t,” the cop with the smart phone swore. “The lady says she’s heading back up!”
“You want me to get a bullhorn?” the detective asked Jason. “Maybe you can talk her down.”
“It won’t do any good,” Jason spoke in a voice that displayed calm. “Once she has something into her head, she won’t stop until finished.”
As Candy moved upward, a thought entered into her mind that she’d buried a long time ago. She hadn’t climbed in this manner for a long time. She thought about the first time she tried to do something like this. It was a long time ago and she was very little.
It was the last time The Shape r***d her.
Candy’s hand tightened around one of the buttresses and she froze. Inside her, the wolf wanted to come out. She wouldn’t let it. Not until she reached the top of the building. She’d only allow it to come out under strict conditions and this wasn’t the right time. Still, the wolf continued to plead with her and beg for release. The wolf reminded her about the day she found it.
The wolf helped her that day. It helped her get out of the room where she’d lived all her life. Candy suspected there was more to the world than what was inside that small room with the drain in one corner. She’s witnessed the light stream in from the other side. Although she only saw a corridor behind it, Candy knew there had to be something else. She could hear the noises and see the shadows of what lay beyond it. Candy wanted out.
She woke up that morning and knew The Shape would come for her again that day. It didn’t give her any way to build a pattern; she suspected it might have a reason. Probably so she wouldn’t know when it would happen again.
This was the first time she saw the wolf.
It sat in the corner and looked at her with its big ice blue eyes. She was frightened and didn’t know what it was. The thing had fur all over it and sat on its haunches. It panted slow and continued to stare at her.
“What are you?” Candy thought. She’d never been taught to speak.
“I am a wolf,” it said to her. “I am here to help you.”
“What is a wolf?” she asked it.
“A wolf is a big thing that kills bad people,” it told her. “I am here to help you escape this cell.”
“The Shape will come for me today,” she thought. “Will you kill it?”
“No, but I can show you how to hurt it so that it won’t be able to stop you from escaping.” It proceeded to tell her how to pretend to be asleep when The Shape entered the room. It told her when and where to strike.
“Do what I say,” the wolf told her. “And I’ll guide you out of this place to somewhere The Shape can never find you.”
Candy lay down and looked up at the wolf. It stayed in the corner.
“It won’t see or hear me,” the wolf told her. “Only you will be able to see or hear me. Hush! I hear it coming. Lie down on your stomach and wait.”
Candy did as she was told.
- Writer
