Drawing Blanks

A Story by 23sydneys

ENG153 June 8th 2006. Creative writing prompts prodded me into a direction with this one. I have yet to relive this story in entirety. my hope is that it may spark my creative imagination.

After being on repeat for about four hours the song starts to skip. Jesse’s train of thought leaks tears onto her expressionless face. The room feels about as empty as it really is and he sinks into his depression burning the memory deeper and deeper, replaying the events of the murders. He remembers her eyes, her sad eyes pleading for her life, but he was helpless. She trusted him with all she had, this was no mystery, she’s told him plenty of times.

On the day of Jesse and Lara’s third anniversary, it rained. Neither of them said anything about how disappointed they were. The beach where they first met was out of the question and so was the restaurant they went on their first date, it burned down three months before. As they sat in the parking lot of the Sun Grove apartment complex on 40th street Lara twisted her brown hair around her thin fingers, chewing her gum timidly waiting for Jesse to suggest something, advocate or to just start driving somewhere. Anywhere.

“Has it really been three years?” Jesse said, trying to shed light on the gloomy mood.

“Yeah, it seems like three months doesn’t it?” Sounding way too excited that Jesse broke the silence. It normally didn’t feel like that so Lara was ultimately intimidated and uneasy. As he put the car into reverse he glanced over, Lara saw out of the corner of her eye that he was looking at her so she turned and smiled. Jesse smiled back and put his hand on her upper thigh and pulled out of space 23 of the apartment parking lot.

“What are we going to do?” He asked.

“What ever you want to do. Is there anywhere you want to go?” Lara couldn’t think of any place other than everywhere they’ve gone the last two years; the beach and then to the Restaurant.

“Surprise me Jesse!” they drove silently for a while then Jesse put in a CD, one of the many mixes Lara made for him. The first song on it was Marilyn Manson, Dope Show. Lara picked at her manicured nails anxiously and wondered if Jesse even noticed. Red.

“Oh, S**t!” Jesse hit the breaks as hard as he could.

“What the hell is that!?” Lara, not wearing a seatbelt nearly flew out the windshield.

“It’s a f*****g Girl, what is she doing?!” a woman lay naked in the middle of the side street, in the pouring rain. Lara was too scared to get out of the car that had screeched to a stop and stopped Jesse when he put his hand on the handle.

“Wait, what if she’s dangerous?”

“Lara, she’s naked and all alone, she obviously needs some help.” Jesse grabbed his jacket out of the back seat and opens his door.

“Push all the s**t on the back seat onto the ground Lara.” Jesse runs out into the rain and wraps his jacket around the naked woman and talks to her for a second. It looked like she wasn’t responding so he picked her up and carried her back to the car.

“Open the back door!” He motioned down at the handle and Lara pushed it open. Jesse carefully put her in the car and got back into the driver's seat.

“Where are we going now? What are we going to do with her Jess?” Lara was frantic and afraid.

“We should take her to the police, they’ll know what to do.” The woman started to stir in the backseat. Lara and Jesse turned around and look at her.

“You can put this sweater on if you’d like to.” Lara shakily reached back to cover up the woman.

“Where do you live?” Jesse asked starting the car and turning up the heat.

“68th and Grove. Boney Brooke neighborhood.” The woman’s voice shook. Jesse started driving and the woman put the sweater on.

“What were you doing on the road?” Jesse asked.

“I don’t remember, the last thing I remember was waking up this morning and I was all alone. My boyfriend spent the night last night so I went to call him…” She was having trouble remembering.

“What’s your name?” Lara asked.

“Jenifer” Jesse made a sudden turn into the Boney Grove Estates and asked which one. They were all mobile homes and looked as though it doubled as a junk yard.

“It’s the 3rd house on the left, with the white Toyota sedan.” They pulled in and Jesse turned in her seat to look directly at the woman.

“Do you need anything? You’re going to be okay right?”

“Would you please come in, I don’t want to be alone right now.” Jesse looks at Lara, who is already glaring at him.

“Come on babe, it will only be a minute.” They all get out and fallow Jenifer into the rusty home. When she opened the door Lara stopped. Jesse smelled it too but Jenifer just ignored it. She disappeared behind a red drape hanging from the ceiling.

“Make your selves at home, please.” She comes out in less that a minute wearing a silky, red kimono and hands Jesse back his sweater.

“Would you like some tea?” Jenifer offered.

“What kind of tea do you have?” Lara asked.

“Tons. Herbal or black? Green?.”

“I’d love some chamomile please.” Lara sat on the stained sofa next to Jesse, who was looking at an old newspaper clipping on the side table. The mood fell drastically when they both looked at the column and saw a picture of Jenifer, 'suspected of kidnapping two kids from the neighborhood on 68th st. which happened to be where Lara grew up. Jenifer sat the Tea down and went back to the counter. Lara sipped her tea and nuged Jesse and nodded toward the door.

“ I think we should take off now,” Jesse said, “Today’s our anniversary and we where on our way to dinner when we saw you. So if you’re okay. We’re going to be on our way.”

“I can’t ever thank you enough for helping me.”

“It’s nothing don’t even mention it.” Jesse stands up and reached for Lara’s hand, when she didn’t take it like usual he looked down to see her drooling, her eyes looked up at him as if to snap into it.

“Whoa, Jesse I can’t move, something’s wrong, way wrong.” A tear bubbles in her eyes and runs down her cheek.

“What’s going on?” Jesse turns to Jenifer whose face turned to stone and she turns to open the fridge, she pulls out a bottle of “Diazepam”. Jesse remembers learning about this sedative in biology. It’s a drug they use in darts to sedate animals to bring them to the zoo, keeps them from putting up a fight.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Well I don’t have any ideas yet, do you?”

“Yeah.” Jesse picks Lara up in his arms and started toward the door, he kicked it open then felt a sharp pain in his neck. He looks down at Lara and her eyes looked back up at his, desperate. The drugs are quick; He could already feel the heavy drugs melting into his leg muscles. He takes a step back and falls onto the smelly floor of Jenifer’s home.

“Good idea.” Jenifer laughed. She grabbed Lara by the leg and drug her behind the red drape. Jesse crawled to the drape, loosing ability to hear, but still hearing Lara’s cry. He opened the drape and gasped. There where three other people back there, bound and gagged.

Jesses' eyes fluttered softly about a dozen times before ripping open so hard it hurt his eye balls. He jumped immediately to his feet, still weak from the drug. His eyes darting around desperately trying to recognize his something, anything. He was alone.