~ 36 ~

Reviving Ophelia

It turns out the click wasn’t a gun, but a latch. He opened a door and led me inside one of the buildings. I still had my eyes closed as he pushed. “Open your damn eyes!” He ordered as he threw me up against a wall, pinning me there by my shoulders.

I chocked back another sob and opened my eyes, trying to compose myself. He was staring at me with a look of pity and satisfaction.

“I think you wet yourself!” He said as he grinned and let go of me.

“What now?” I asked slowly walking behind him and rubbing at my shoulders. They were sore and I’m pretty sure bruising underneath my shirt.

He shook his head and started walking down the hallway. “Just follow me.”

Once again, I thought about turning and running. It was the perfect opportunity for me to do that. I knew I could probably outrun him but I also knew in my current mental state I might not be able to function well enough to get away. I wish I knew how to drive. Then I could at least jump into his car and drive off. How many times did I beg Brian and Kevin, even Howie to please take a second and teach me the basics? None of them would. Kevin would say things like he’d rather teach a retarded gopher how to play tennis. What the hell does that even mean? Is that some kind of stupid saying in Kentucky?

Why am I thinking about this?

“Come on!”  I’m not sure how he ended up behind me, but now he was pushing me towards where he wanted me to be, served me right for zoning out.

“Where are we going?” I asked again, this time finally sounding less shaky.

“Do you remember when you were a little kid and I threw your stupid stuffed animal into the water?”

I do remember that. One day the three of us went on a ‘picnic’ by the lake and when Nicole wasn’t looking, he took my pig and threw it into the water. I started crying hysterically and he used that as an excuse to pick a fight with her and leave us alone. I wanted to say no, but I nodded.

“I was hoping you’d go in after it and drown!”

I’m not sure what kind of reaction he was expecting from me but it wasn’t the one he wanted because he pushed me again, this time knocking me down to the ground.

That’s when something snapped. He walked towards me and was ready to drag me back to my feet by my shirt but instead I surprised him with a kick to his shins. I immediately stood up at that point and tried to take off for the door. I’d take my chances with whatever I found outside.

He grabbed at my ankles as I tried to run past him so I kicked at his hands but I lost my balance and ended up falling back to the ground. He was getting up slowly now and making his way towards me so I stood up and started to run again. I heard his footsteps quicken but I didn’t turn around to look. He was mumbling under his breath.

When I got to the door I flung it opened and ran out into the cold with Roger right on my heels.  I stopped for a second to get my bearings but that’s all he needed to catch up to me and drag me back to the ground. He had me in his arms in the snowy, cold alley. It looked like he was giving me a great big bear hug, but it definitely didn’t feel like that.

“Get off of me!” I shouted, hoping someone would hear and come to my aide but he quickly covered my mouth.

“If you don’t shut up I will strangle you right here!” As if to show me he wasn’t kidding, he took his other arm and wrapped it around my throat, making it almost impossible for me to breathe.

He rolled over so I was underneath him and then slowly got himself up, never losing his grip on me. He wasn’t that big of a guy but he overpowered me as if I was just a sack of potatoes in his hands.

My father would have been so disappointed to see that I couldn’t even manage to make it out of the alleyway, after all that training we had. This guy was basically able to over take me with one arm.

He opened the door and shoved me inside once again, but this time he didn’t let go of me or my mouth. “I don’t have the time or patience for this kid!” He growled as he walked me back towards where we were going in the first place. I tried to struggle but it was no use. I couldn’t move and was doing nothing but exhausting myself in the process.

“I should just throw you in the Goddamn furnace!” He said as we turned a corner and there it stood in its huge fiery glory. “No one would even care. They’d probably thank me!” 

I started struggling even more and panicking. I’m pretty sure I was crying too. I was a complete mess. Death by being burned alive wasn’t on my list of ways I’d like to go out. “Yeah, that’s sounding like a good idea, you like that don’t you?” He whispered in my ear as we got closer to the heat.

There was a sudden impact and we were both thrown to the ground. He was on top of me but quickly was thrown right off.

 “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size you son of a bitch!”  My brother’s voice echoed through the small furnace room.

“Like you’re my size?” Roger asked amused. “The two of you put together aren’t my size.”

I managed to get back on my feet and stood there as the two of them circled each other like lions fighting over their prey. “Nick, get out of here!” Nickolas said while never taking his eyes off of the monster.

They were blocking my way to freedom. The only way I could run was in the direction that Roger was taking me. What if it was a dead end and I was trapped there? I’d just have to hope there was another way out.

“Go!” Nickolas said almost reading my mind and using his head to point me that very same way.

“Yeah, go…I’ll catch up to you after I’m done with this one.” Roger smirked confidently.

As much as I’d love to make up this part of the story and say I chose to stay and help my brother, I turned and ran away. I was in full blown scared to death kid mode and the only thing I could think about was staying alive. I’m ashamed of that fact, but what can you do?

I took off down a small hallway as I continued to hear scuffling coming from the boiler room area. I wasn’t sure where in the world I was going but just as I feared, I arrived at a dead end. Well technically not a dead, dead end. There was a door, but it didn’t lead outside. It looked like a very small apartment, maybe the place where the building’s custodian might live. I knocked hoping to find help but knowing there would be none especially since this was where Roger seemed to be taking me in the first place.

I stood back and braced myself for fighting. Not sure what or who would answer the door, but no one came. I knocked again, a little harder this time, starting to get nervous that I was taking too much time and wondering if maybe I should take my chances and double back the way I came, but just as I did, the door kind of opened on its own.

“Hello?” I said as I entered the toasty warm apartment. Making sure to close and lock the door behind me, “Is anyone here?”

All the lights were turned off in the small kitchen that I was standing in so I made sure to remedy that situation by putting one of them on. This place was tiny, not sure how anyone could live here. Walking through the kitchen which took about fifteen steps or so, I entered the living room where once again it was dark but this time I gasped because sitting there in the middle of the room in a wheelchair was a woman. She was facing a TV that wasn’t turned on. It looked like something out of a horror movie. I only saw her from behind but I was pretty damned sure that if I walked closer I would find that she was a decaying corpse of some kind.

“Hello?” I barely managed to get out. Even if she was alive, I was so quiet I doubt she would have even heard that.

“Roger, is that you?” The corpse asked, which I guess wouldn’t make her a corpse at all, unless she was a zombie, freaking zombies!

“Did you find him?” She asked, now taking her hands and turning her wheelchair to face me. I almost closed my eyes, scared to see what she might look like.

I’m glad I didn’t.

 “Oh my God.”

She smiled at the sound of my voice, “You’ve come home.” She said, “It sounds like you are a big boy now Andrew.”

“I thought you were…I don’t understand.” I was in a complete state of shock as I stared at Nicole. Her eyes shiny blue, those of someone who could no longer see, but everything else was her, just the way I remembered.

She put out her arms, “Come here my sweet boy.” She urged, “Let me get a look at you.”

I don’t know why I felt so drawn to her; I mean she kidnapped me from my family. It’s not like she was innocent in that. Most likely she knew exactly what she was doing. Just like now, when she asked ‘Roger’ if he found me yet. Had she been the one behind all of this? Even with all those thoughts in my head, I found myself walking towards her and kneeling beside her wheelchair as she lifted her hands and brought them up to my face.

She placed them on my cheeks at first and then slowly and lovingly caressed my face as she felt her way up towards my eyes and forehead. “You seem to have grown up into a lovely boy Andrew, I’m so happy.”

“I thought you were dead.” She placed one of her hands on the top of my head and placed her other under my chin and raised it slightly as if she wanted to look into my eyes, even though she couldn’t see anything.

She smiled at me as a tear fell down her cheek, “The bullet didn’t kill me; you did. I died when you went away. My heart broke, but now it’ll all be okay again because my baby has come back to me.”

I backed away from her and stood up. I wonder if she was always this crazy or if the bullet to the brain made her this way? The Nicole I remember wasn’t like this one. This one reminded me of a crazy person dancing around and humming while the world fell apart all around her. Who was that Shakespeare character? I think her name was Ophelia? That’s who she reminded me of. Wow, Mr. Thomas would be so impressed with me.

She reached out her hand hoping I’d take it, but I didn’t. I just stood there staring at her. Not really sure how she could possibly be alive after remembering what I saw. Although I was just a kid, I still can recall all the blood and I swear her eyes were opened. I now found myself wondering if my parents knew she was alive as well or if this would be as big of a surprise to them as it was to me.

“Andrew?”

“My name’s not Andrew. It’s Nick.” I said coldly, as it finally sunk in my mind that she was one of the villains of this story.

“Don’t be silly…you’re Andrew.”

“No, I’m not. I never was. Andrew is dead. He died the day my real family came and rescued me.”

The look on her face is one I’ll never forget. I’ve seen it many times on faces of disappointed fans when they are told that we aren’t signing autographs or posing for pictures. It was a look of despair. Only this time it was real, nothing superficial about it. I had hurt this woman to the core with nothing but words.

“You don’t mean that sweetheart. You’re just angry but you didn’t mean that.” Then she said under her breath, “You couldn’t mean that.”

“I do mean it. I mean every word of it. How could you take me away from my real family?” Now the anger was just flowing from me.

She seemed taken back by my reaction and my question. “I am your family.”

“No, you aren’t .You took me away from my real family when I was just a baby. You STOLE a year from my life. You ripped my real mother and brother away from me because of your own selfish needs!” I found myself crying again.

“I did it because I loved you, honey.”

“That’s not love! If you loved me, you would have let me stay with my family. You didn’t love me!”

“Of course I loved you.” Her voice was cracking as her tears were flowing.

“If you loved me, why didn’t you leave with me when your horrible husband mistreated us?”

“Roger can’t help the way he is.” She justified, “he has had a very hard life.”

“Roger is a douche!” I was quick to answer.

“Why are you treating me this way?” She cried in a loud voice, almost falling out of her wheelchair as she once again reached out to me. “All I have ever wanted was to make you happy and love you. Why are you being cruel to me?”

I stood there wanting to just keep going but instead, I just took a deep breath and said, “Goodbye Nicole.”

“Wait, come back!” She shouted as I turned and started for the front door, not really sure what I was going to do once I got there.

Luckily a knock and an urgent, “Nick, are you in there?” helped me out a little.

“Yes!” Thank God he was okay. I thought to myself as I unlocked the door and found my brother on the other side. He looked a little banged up and had the beginning of what looked like a pretty good shiner on his right eye, but other than that, he seemed to be okay.

“Where is Roger?” I asked.

“We need to go now, we don’t have much time. He’s knocked out. I almost finished the job, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.” He admitted, putting his head down. I could tell he was thinking the same thing I did earlier about disappointing my father.

I nodded and started out the door, “You can’t leave me now!” Nicole said as I turned toward her just in time to see the gun she was holding in her shaky hands, go off.