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-A Mother’s Tale

-Chapter Twenty-four- Trickling Effects

The sun rays beams down on her bare arms as she folds the laundry, putting it on the makeshift table in her backyard. She just got the call that her boyfriend was potentially in danger during some car collision that occurred on the highway, taking him and his friend to the police station. Scratching the small itch above her upper lip, her bright sapphire eyes scan the backyard at the sound of a fallen branch cracking under the steps of someone. Frowning, she looks around to see she was the only one in the backyard and shaking her head goes back to finishing her laundry.

Again the sound of a branch breaking: sounds off again as she gulps scanning her eyes around. Makenzie had called her about the accident and after seeing what happened with Bethany and the house: Arianna was beginning to get worried. Is someone out there trying to scare them straight? She didn’t do anything wrong, she wasn’t the one that brought the dead corpse of the man for the ‘accident’ Roger had it all set up with Nick’s help and she offered to simply help out like the others did. But why is it that others are now getting involved. Could it be that they know something?

Arianna sighs, tying up her light blonde locks up in a small messy bun as she puts the folded clothes into a laundry bag tying it up. From the corner of her eyes, she sees a figure approaching her with a hoodie over his head. Snapping her head up in alarm, she sees the mysterious masked man running towards her as she gasps bolting from the yard into the house, locking the door behind her.

“Shit…ok…don’t freak out.” She whispers to herself, hurriedly making her up the stairs to the phone. She bolts down the wooden hallway making her go up the stairs two at time. Picking up the cradle off the wall she frowns to hear dead air at the other end. “The line is cut…” Arianna whispers out, trembling she runs into the bedroom searching for her mobile phone closing the door locked behind her. Snapping the small metal cell open, she dials 911 as she can hear a window crash open from the living room. Gasping, she whimpers as the operator comes on line saying the number she’s reaching is out of limit boundary and that it cannot be reached.

Grumbling, she flings the phone on the bed as she presses her ear to the closed bedroom door to hear whomever it was breaking into her house. Sitting down on the floor she crawls over to the cell, dialing her boyfriend’s number hoping he would pick up. “Come on baby…pick up.” She whispers out, quivering. She had no idea what was going on, but she assumed that who ever invaded her back yard was up to no good and hearing the strange reports of things suddenly happening to them in their circle of friends, she wasn’t taking any chance.

She gulps, shaking as she hears heavy footsteps in the hallway approaching her room. ‘Please…please…no.’ She closes her eyes a little as the door creaks open being unlocked. She fishes for an object to defend herself and clutches a sharp ball point pen in her right hand behind her.

She looks up at the man and exhales a sigh of relief: “Oh God its you…I was worried sick! Is he still here?”

Damien blinks, looking around: “What? You ok?” He goes over to her frowning, taking her in his arms: “Baby come here.”

“You didn’t see the guy?!”

Damien shakes his head: “He jetted the moment I stepped into the house.” He frowns, “I think we’re getting sent after…I don’t know what’s going on. But someone was trying to kill me and the guys on the road. Makenzie’s brakes were faltered with and Bethany and Orlando almost blow up at her place.”

“Why is Roger doing this?!” She cries out.

“Look I don’t know if is him, you said you saw a guy…did you get a good look at him?” He asks, his light eyes looking her over, holding her close.

“No…he had some hoodie over him covering his face and a mask but he didn’t look that tall. He was kinda average height and had a black sweatshirt. That’s all I got and he was light skin if it makes anything more clear.” She huddles into his arms, trying to calm down.

Damien sighs, sitting besides her: “I’ll call the cops, maybe they can start some investigation on this. We can just say recent events have been happening to each of us that could be endangering our lives. Did the guy have any weapons?”

“No. But he was packed with something I bet.” She shudders, looking up at him.

Damien leans back against the foot of the bed frowning, shaking his head: “I don’t know what’s going on either.”

“We need protection…”

He looks over her: “What kind?”

She gulps, slowly getting up as she opens the bottom dresser, pulling out a silver 9mm.

Damien blinks: “Are you crazy?! Do you even know how to use that?!”

“Relax. I have a license for it. I think its important we have some kind of protection don’t you think? Our phone line is cut off. Who ever broke in here, knew what he was doing. I’m not taking my chances out there.” Arianna cocks the pistol, putting it away in the dresser.

He gazes over at her: “I think you need to calm down, I’ll figure this out.”

“No! I’m tired of waiting around while you try to fix things. You can’t fix this! Whatever is going on is coming after all of us. So don’t tell me to calm down!” She hisses out, grumbling as she walks around her room, pacing nervously.

Damien clicks the roof of his mouth as he hears a loud crash coming from downstairs, he looks over at Arianna as she reaches for the gun heading to the door.

“You’re not shooting anyone, so put that away.” Damien hisses out, opening the door stepping out.

“You’re crazy. That guy came back and maybe isn’t alone and is armed.” Arianna hisses out, pushing aside her slick blonde strands across her face as she pushes past him.

Damien grabs her arm throwing her back in the room: “Stay here, you could get yourself killed doing this.”

Arianna growls: clutching the pistol in her hands. “Fine, go ahead and be stupid. Go down and see if I care.” She sniffs, nervously tugging at her tied up hair.

Damien nods and closes the door behind him as he heads downstairs quietly, grabbing a metal bat with him. He peers around the tarnished living room frowning as he sees the large front window broken into. Walking towards it, he sees a tattered note clinging to the broken shards of the window and pulls it out reading it. ‘The little son of a…” He holds the note in his hand, shaking his head as he reads over the small scrawled writing:

‘You got in the way…next time she’s all mine.’

Damien snorts, walking back to Arianna, tucking the note in his wallet as anxieties begin rising around him.
~*~

“I...I did it…” The quivering voice on the other line whispers out to him.

Roger nods, settling back in the parlor chair his eyes fixated on the small painting of France nailed to the wall besides him. “Good boy. You’re doing a good job on this. I didn’t think you have the balls to pull this off but I have to say, this is quite the accomplishment.”

“Yeah well…a lot of people underestimate me.” The soft husky voice on the other end of the line states.

“And that’s all changing now. I’ll take the guy out myself don’t you worry. I think we scared the hell out of the others though.”

“Yeah…so I’m done then right?” The soft tenor voice asks.

“For now…I’m sending you the payment now as we speak.” Roger seals a cardboard folder like envelope, jotting down the address. “I still have some stuff to do so I might need you for one more minor project. After all you’re close to them so it shouldn’t be a problem getting them all together.”

“I can do that.”

“Good boy, don’t worry about it for now. I’ll call you when I finalize the plan. Talk with you later.” Roger hangs up before the man on the other line had a chance to say farewell as he smiles, grabbing the yellow sealed envelope tucking it under his arm, exiting the room.
~*~

Howie groans, his eyelids flutter open surprised by the harsh lights gleaming down on him. He grunts, touching his bandaged head as he attempts to sit up, looking around the small hospital room he was placed in. He blinks over at the dark haired older man staring at him concerned, sitting besides him.

“Oh you’re awake. How you feeling?” The man asks gently, a soft touch of country accent mixed in with his sentence.

“Horrible. Its like having a hang over with no meds.” Howie grunts out, lying back on the bed. “Who are you?”

“Oh right I’m Kevin, I live in the building complex with you and I found you lying on the floor passed out. You were out for a while when you were brought in.”

Howie blinks, slowly nodding: “Oh ok…how long?”

“A good part of the night, its already late afternoon the next day.” Kevin sits up, eyeing the man.

“Ooohh…” Howie eyes the man curiously. “Normally for visiting hours its limited to family and close friends, did you say you know me for you to be here?”

“Ohh no no. I’m a witness, I was worried about you so I got a chance to stick around and I asked if it was alright to see if you were ok. I hope you don’t mind. I’m doctor Richardson. I work in the clinical psychology office off main street.” Kevin eyes him innocently, sitting back in the uncomfortable wooden chair.


“Right…so any suspects? I mean…did you see anyone when you came for me? Cause I was pushed down the stairs when the lights went out.”

Kevin shakes his head: “Sorry, the lights were still out when I found you and there was no one from what I heard around when I reached you.”

“Oohh…” Howie frowns, sighing as he sits back wondering what could have went down and he couldn’t wait to find the bastard that pushed him down almost to his death down the stairwell.
~*~

Brian taps his foot on the linoleum floor as Nick reaches him: “So everyone is ok right?”

“Yeah…the accident is fine. No one is critically hurt.” Nick yawns out tiredly, “I tell ya this is looking more and more like some kind of shit from the movies.”

Brian rubs the back his neck, slumping into a seat: “Everyone was already attacked…I know I’m next…this is Roger’s doing. I know it is.”

“No kidding, it has his name written all over it. You know the bitch Damien was taking his side after he himself was almost killed in the car accident.” Nick smirks, leaning against the white walls of the police station.

“So…everything is ok…right?”

Nick exhales, shaking his head: “Until Roger is behind bars, we’re not ok.”

“I just don’t get it, why would he do this to us when we all offered to help him out before hand?”

“Cause he’s an ass. He thinks we’ll crack and turn him into the 5-0. Which if I had a fuckin’ conscious I would have told. But at this point, I don’t even care anymore.” Nick pulls out an unlit cigarette, placing it between his purse lips.

Brian frowns: “I didn’t have anything to do with what’s going on just to let you know.”

Nick looks over at him smirking: “Yeah I know B. You’re too much a nice guy. It’s all good here. How’s wifey?”

“Pretty shook up from these recent news but doing good.”

“Ahh good good. Sorry about all this mess. I thought it was be a quick operation and we’d go back to our normal lives. Instead Roger is screwing with us now.” Nick grumbles out, taking a seat besides his friend.

“Well life in Oakland was boring before he came in. Though I didn’t think he would bring all this with him. If I knew then what I know now, I would have said no to the whole thing and walked away.” Brian exhales, leaning back on the chair: his arms sprawled out on the arm rests.

“Yeah…I think we would have all said that man.” Nick leans back lighting up his cigarette, taking a puff of it.
~*~

Jasmine cuddles Eliez in her arms singing to her softly in the living room as Eliez watches the misshapen cartoons running across the screen.

Eliez slides off her mother’s lap taking a black crayon in her hands scribbling across a blank page in her coloring book bored.

Jasmine exhales, getting up from the couch as she exits the house to check the mailbox stationed in front of her house. Walking slowly down the cement pathway to the mailbox she smiles as the late afternoon sunrays beam down on her. Humming quietly, Jasmine opens the mailbox, taking out some letters and a small package for Roger. Carrying the items in her hands, she makes her way back to the house as the small box falls out of her hands sliding across the floor. Placing the letters down on at an end table in the living room, she goes to pick up the small box that now seemed ripped on the side. Looking around to see if her husband was around, she jiggles the box around to see what looked like packaged needles at the ripped side of the box.

“What is that?” She murmurs out, wondering why her husband called for hospital equipment at their house when its normally delivered to the clinics he would work in. Shrugging, she puts the box on the coffee table, picking up Eliez who was giggling happily kissing her mother on the cheek as she looks to the cartoons on the TV.

Settling down on a couch with her daughter, she smiles softly holding her child to her chest as she yawns wondering if she can find the blanket with the wretched words her little girl scrawled on. She wasn’t crazy that she knew. She knew something was going on, but until she can place a finger on it, she would have to deal with it for the time being.
~**~

**~To Be Continued…~**