Epilogue

 

Sumyi stared at the phone and felt terror grip through her; it was time for the rat to jump ship. She went to Tracy’s room and stared at her sister’s comatose body. She kissed the clammy forehead and wrinkled her nose it smelled in this room.

            “Damn maid gets paid to clean up this room and she doesn’t do her job, oh sister dear I believe that your sons are going to be gunning for me and well I just need to figure out if you are collateral or a hindrance.” Sumyi tapped her crimson nails on her sister’s clammy face and chuckled, she stared into the glassy eyes and laughed again. Sumyi got off the bed and started pacing the room. The stink of piss and s**t lingered in the air and was making Sumyi sick, she should have been used to it considering that most of her tortured victim’s s**t and pissed themselves. Still the smell was nauseating and she turned back towards the beeping machines.

            “You know what sissy, I don’t think I’m going to need you after all. You see I took the liberty of going through the records and making myself your benefactor. If anything should happen to my poor sister.” She looked over at her sister and frowned, pretending to be sad and then she broke out into a smile, “well if you should happen to have an accident I get everything with the VanBastian name on it. Being your sister and all, and well the lawyers did give me a hard time but I agreed to their little tests and what not, plus there was that written statement from you that changed their minds.” She walked over to her sister’s side and caressed the tubes taped to her arm.

            “My poor sister, it seems though that things are about to take a turn for the worst for you.” She took a syringe out of her pocket and injected it into the line; the beeps monitoring her sister’s pulse and heart rate started getting faster and more urgent sounding. “A shame though about your boys, don’t worry they will know who their momma was I’m not sure they will find you in such a great condition but cheer up sis maybe they’ll bury you.” Tracy started convulsing on the bed and the one maid came running in to see what was going on. Sumyi put on her best, worried look, “Tracy! What happened? No don’t go!”

            “Should I call a doctor?” the maid was starting towards the phone and Sumyi watched the flat line, she pretended to perform CPR and then looked at the maid with tears in her eyes, as the machine started beeping faintly again.

            “She’s ok she’ll be fine I’m going to be dismissing everyone, let them know that I will be sending their paychecks and my sister sends her regrets.” The maid started to protest but a cold glare from Sumyi made her stop.

            “As you wish I will inform them but what about Mrs. VanBastian?” Sumyi kissed her sister’s forehead and cursed the maid.

            “I will be taking her to a facility where they will give her the best care.” The maid went out the door and Sumyi cursed. “That b***h, looks like I’m stuck with you sis. Oh well it may be more fun this way when your sons come to find me. I doubt they would care about you though. Even if you are their mother.” She patted her sister’s pasty cheek and walked out of the room it was time to start packing and to start moving, she didn’t exactly know where they were going though. Sumyi sat on the bed and stared out the window, it was time to start acting but where do they go from here, some of the places she was thinking were way too obvious, Mexico, Australia, England, Texas, Florida. No they would surely be found there, Sumyi thought and then smirked, well there always was New Jersey, the birth state of Miss Caine, wonder how she would feel about a homecoming.

            “Well looks like sister and I are off to the Garden State, look out here we come.” Sumyi started humming as she packed her bags, they would need the bare essentials and she would have to leave a clue, but now should that clue lead them directly to where they are or should she lead them on a goose chase. “I think it would be more fun to dump sissy in Jersey and then play cat and mouse with my nephews. It would be so much fun to watch as they hunt me down.” She didn’t need much for her cat and mouse game then, she would just buy what she needed, she had the VanBastian money now. She smiled and looked in the mirror, oh this game was going to be fun. The new chapter will begin really soon, Sumyi looked around her and said her final goodbyes to place where she came as a child and hello to the future.

            Tripp lay wrapped in bandages his mind hazy, he wasn’t sure where he was, he wasn’t even sure who he was anymore, the air smelled like antiseptic and the doctors and nurses were speaking a language he didn’t know. Every now and then someone would come in and change things, the machines would still beep and whir, it was just white noise to him as he lay in bed broken and battered.

            “Hello Mr. Taylor and how are you today?” Tripp opened his eyes and the man looked fuzzy, he squinted and the man still wasn’t coming into focus. The doctor opened his lids and shined the light in them, “Well Mr. Taylor you are still having some vision problems but I’m sure that is just a side effect of the drugs and the fact that you had so much debris in your eyes when they brought you in.” The doctor checked his pulse and Tripp tried moving his fingers, everything hurt, and it burned when he was able to move anything. Tripp felt like battered meat, he probably looked like battered meat. He listened to the doctor drone on and on but he wasn’t paying attention. He licked his dry lips and made a rasping noise.

            “What was that Mr. Taylor?” the doctor let him sip some water and Tripp cleared his throat, it hurt and he wished the damn morphine would hurry up and numb him.

            “I said why do you keep calling me Mr. Taylor that is not my name. Is it?” Tripp’s head started feeling fuzzy and he wanted to slip back into the coma, there he wouldn’t have to deal with the pain. So he slipped into the blackness that surrounded him, eventually he may figure out who this Mr. Taylor is until then he just wanted to sleep and not worry about anything. Tomorrow will be another day of lying in bed listening to the machines and not knowing who the hell he was.

            Lena walked into the 24-hour convenience store, it has been a month since they arrived in Jersey and still no sign of the VanBastians, she was beginning to believe that it was just a hoax and Sumyi was elsewhere in the country. It was good to be back in her home state though, not a lot has changed. She enjoyed living with Vincent and started to get to know him as Vincent and not as Brandon. She still thought about Tripp though and wondered if he’ll ever come back to them. She was settling into domestic life with Vincent pretty well, things were still strained because they didn’t know when and where Sumyi would attack so they were always on their toes. She had to be even more careful now especially if her suspicions were confirmed.

            “That would be $10.89 please.” The man’s heavy accent could have been comical but this wasn’t a time for comedy. The pit of fear in her stomach was getting tighter and tighter. She paid the man behind the counter who smiled at her a little too knowingly, smug son of a b***h what the hell is he smiling at. She got back into her car and drove back to the bungalow they rented on the beach. She went inside and scratched the golden retrievers ears and looked around for Vincent he wasn’t around and that was good it was bad enough she was going to have to explain to him once she knew the results.

            “How could I be so stupid?” she walked down the hallway and into the bathroom, she opened the box of the pregnancy test and read the directions, it could have been stress related that was a reason why her body was acting the way it was. But that was the little voice in her head that always denied the cold hard facts. She peed on the stick and paced the hallway for fifteen minutes, after the timer went off she went back in the bathroom and saw the result. “Oh holy s**t! No!” the front door opened and she hid the pregnancy stick behind her back.

            “Hey Lee I heard from the doctor’s today, down boy I’ll feed you in a minute, Lee?” she couldn’t trust her voice but let out a harsh sob, oh this really wasn’t happening was it? Vincent came in and saw her slouched on the floor with a look of shock on her face. “Lee? What happened?” she handed him the stick and his face went as white as hers.

            “Vincent, we’re pregnant. Damn it all to hell we’re pregnant!” he stared at the stick and then kneeled in front of her and hugged her.

            “This is some shocking news, but you know what we’ll get through this.” She looked at his face, he was happy, the b*****d was actually happy that he knocked her up.

            “You’re happy about this?” she felt pounding in her head, it was just too much of a shock how could it happen?

            “Of course I am, you and I are going to have a baby, I always wanted to be a father. Now how are we going to tell Tripp when he gets here?” she looked up at him, oh yeah more shock on top of the already traumatizing news.

            “What do you mean when he gets here? I thought the doctors said that he was going to be there in Bangkok for awhile.” Vincent kept holding her hand and she really didn’t want him touching her right now, its because he touched her, it was all his damn fault!

            “Well he is coming back to the states, the doctors said that their limited technology can only do so much. He’ll be in a rehabilitation center for awhile. He still has partial paralysis, blindness and well I’m not sure how it happened but apparently he has amnesia now.” Vincent looked worried and Lee couldn’t help but feel the pangs for Tripp that she always felt. She squeezed his hand and shook her head, he would have a special place in her heart, they both would so how was she to choose between her partner and the father of her baby.

            “We’ll make it through this somehow, we always do, let’s go get some food I’m eating for two now.”

Reviews

[Marie]

Whoa! That was great! I think I'd probably react that way too.