The Savior Rises (7 page)

She thought she heard Matt crying before everything went completely black. He was probably still sitting there, doing his best to understand what was happening. Nothing made sense. Maybe this was all just a dream. Maybe she would wake up in her mother’s arms, and everything would be ok. Maybe her life was not the basis of insanity. Or maybe insanity was all she had left. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

She was full of questions, but she didn’t have many answers. All she wanted to do was rest. She needed to somehow find peace. Why was her mother there? Her mother. What was happening to her?

Stefani’s entire body felt stiff. She wondered if someone had dropped her in a dryer and kept the spin cycle going for a few hours. She loved the way the sun always shone through her bedroom windows in the morning. To her, the best part of any day was waking up, snuggling her Raggedy Ann doll. The doll had been with her for her entire life.

She rolled over on her back, blinking. Then, her torso bolted tightly as she sat stiffly erect, straight as a board. She was in her bed. Her bed. She was in her bed, in her bedroom, in her apartment, and water was running. She jumped up. She somehow had on her sweat pants and a T-shirt. They were her sweat pants – she double-checked to make sure.

She ran down the hall and flung the bathroom door open, screaming.

“Oh, my God, what is wrong with you?!” Staci yelled. Staci had lived in the apartment longer than any of them. Her name was on the lease. She was the designated communicator with their landlord. “Can you, please, just wait until I am finished? I will only be another minute.”

“Staci, Staci, what is going on?” Stefani stammered. “Why are you here? What happened in the hospital? Are you ok?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about, but can you please let me finish my shower?” said Staci, sounding a little annoyed. “I’ll find you when I’m done.”

Stefani closed the door and walked back to her room. The rest of the apartment was quiet as it was the middle of the workday.
But
, she thought,
how could they be at work?
 What about the living room?

As she walked back through the hallway, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Everything looked just the same as it always had. It was all fine. The window wasn’t broken. The coffee table was in place. There was nothing-- nothing -- that had been disturbed. Nothing was different from any other day. What was happening?

She flipped on the TV to check the date and heard Drew Carey’s annoying voice on The Price is Right. She flipped the channels looking for a local morning show or some form of news. What was the date? She finally noticed it on the cable box. This did give her a little comfort.

 At least she wasn’t traveling back and forth in time. She was just losing her sanity. She had seven more days until her birthday. What happened to the last few days? What was going on? Her Raggedy Ann doll was fine – just as perfectly dirty as always. Her closet, her bed, her body, her hair, everything – nothing had changed.

She sat down on the bed and thought of her mother and started to cry.

“What is going on?” she said out loud to nobody. Nobody was around. Nobody was here.

There was a light tap on the door, and Staci entered wearing her bathrobe. “Are you ok?” she asked softly. “You’re worrying me.”

“I don’t know,” Stefani sobbed. “I honestly don’t know what’s happening. Didn’t we go to the hospital yesterday? Didn’t a bunch of men break into our apartment? What’s happening?”

She couldn’t catch her breath. She felt nauseous again. Staci sat down on the bed next to her and wrapped her arms around Stefani.

“Why don’t you just stay home today? Maybe call in sick. It sounds like you could use some rest, sweetie.”

Stefani just cried and finally said, “Ok, I think that’s a good idea.”

She laid her head down and curled up in a little ball as Staci closed the drapes.

“I’ll be here for about 30 more minutes if you need anything. You can also call me at work if you want to,” she said. “I could come home early, as well. It’s a pretty light load for me today, so if you need something, just let me know.”

“Sure,” Stefani replied.

She’d seen her mom. Her mom was alive. How could her mom be alive, and how could she, Stefani, be lying here in her bed? What happened to Matt? It wasn’t like she even knew how to find him. She jumped up and grabbed the phone. She had been in the San Francisco General Hospital. They had to have a record of her.

She dialed 411 and asked for the number. She let the system carry her through until she finally reached an actual person on the other end of the line in hospital admissions.

“Hi, I was checked in yesterday to your hospital. My name is Stefani Hernandez. Can you please tell me if my test results are back? They did some blood work.”

She waited for several minutes, listening to the warped music on the other end of the line. She wondered if she were going crazy. Maybe she was insane. Insane people have no idea what they are doing, right? Things just didn’t add up.

Finally, the lady on the other end came back and, as Stefani expected, the answer made no sense.

“Really, you don’t have any record of my being admitted? There are no tests pending? I was never there?”

Stefani hung up the phone and talked to herself. She curled up in a ball again. She cried, but this time she didn’t even realize it. Her mind acted involuntarily. Was this how you found out you were crazy?

She clutched her doll and wrapped her arms around her pillow. Her hand scraped something underneath, and she picked it up. It was somehow stuck inside the pillowcase. She stared at it for several minutes. Her eyes glued to a plastic bracelet from San Francisco General Hospital with her name on it. It had her name on it.

She didn’t realize she was screaming until Staci ran through her door.

“Oh, my God, are you ok?! I thought you were being attacked,” Staci yelled.

Stefani didn’t have any idea what to do. She was so lost.

“I’m just going to take a shower,” she said.

She folded the bracelet inside the palm of her hand. For some reason, she didn’t want to share this with her roommate right now. She just wanted to be alone.

She walked to the bathroom and flipped the faucet up, letting the warming mist fill the air. She just sat and stared at herself in the mirror. She really didn’t look very good right now. She stripped off her sweat pants and T-shirt, never taking her eyes off the mirror. She almost felt like she couldn’t look away. Maybe she would disappear if she lost her reflection.

She could hear Staci on the phone now.
The walls in these apartments are so thin
, she thought to herself. She never did like to eavesdrop, but a couple of words she heard intrigued her.

“I think she’s buying it, but she’s still unstable. I don’t know how long I can keep her here, but I’ll do my best. You have my word. I love you, too.”

With that, Staci hung up the phone.

Stefani stepped into the shower. She washed her hair, put conditioner in, scrubbed her back and even took the time to shave her legs. It felt like days since she had been clean for some reason, and it felt good, rejuvenating even, to be back on track. Taking a shower always helped her focus. There was something about the warm water cascading over her face. It calmed her down and helped her think.

She wrapped the towel around her and headed to her room.

“I decided to just work at home today,” Staci yelled as Stefani walked by. Stefani didn’t respond.

She picked out a pair of jeans and a spaghetti-strapped undershirt. She always loved the color purple and thought today was a good day to wear her light purple blouse. It was possibly a little too dressy for the daytime, but at this point she really didn’t care.

She brushed her hair, blew it dry, and meticulously applied her make-up. It felt so relaxing to do her daily routine. She even took the time to do her nails. They probably didn’t need it, but she felt like it. From now on, she really was going to do whatever she felt like doing.

After throwing on her socks and favorite black boots, she walked out to the hallway and down to Staci’s room. Staci sat on her bed, doing something on her computer. She didn’t even look up when Stefani entered. She kept typing away.

“Can I help you with something, honey?” Staci mumbled absentmindedly. She wasn’t even paying attention.

Stefani walked over to the bed, grabbed Staci around the neck with her right hand, and threw her up against the wall. She really was pretty damn strong. She felt a twinge of pride in her physical capabilities.

“What?!” Staci squeaked. Stefani held her by the throat securely. Staci’s arms flailed, and Stefani smacked her across the face with her left hand. She held back somewhat, not wanting to hurt Staci too badly.

“Time to answer some questions, you lying piece of crap,” Stefani said calmly. “I’m no longer in the mood to play. Every time I think you’re lying to me, I’ll break one of your fingers. Do you understand?”

Stefani heard this line in a movie recently. She couldn’t even remember which one, but it sounded appropriate.

She wondered if she really could break Staci’s fingers. It might be possible. After everything she had been through, why not? It wasn’t like Staci was really on her side. Jesus, she didn’t even know how the sides were defined. She actually didn’t even know what the sides were about.

“First, who are you, and why are you here?” Stefani said calmly, as she relaxed her grip on Staci’s throat a little.

Staci coughed a couple of times and, then, erupted with a barrage of words so quickly she was difficult to understand.

“I really don’t know anything. They’ve just been paying me to keep an eye on you. They told me that someday they’d need me to help them, nothing bad, just help them,” Staci said. “They called me last night and said they were going to clean things up. All I had to do was pretend nothing happened – that the attack wasn’t real. They’d do everything else. All I had to do was pretend and tell them if you left the apartment. I swear; I don’t know anything. I never meant to hurt you.”

Staci started crying. Stefani could no longer even hold her up. She bawled full force and slumped down on the bed, sniveling like a school girl.

Jesus, was her entire life a lie? Was there anyone or anything that was real?

One thing was sure, it was time to leave. She walked over to Staci’s table, picked up the phone, and yanked the wire straight out of the wall. Staci’s cell phone sat on the bed, so Stefani picked it up, dropped it on the floor, and crushed it under the heel of her boot.

“If you step out of this room, I’ll kill you. Do you understand me?” she said, calmly.

Staci emphatically shook her head up and down as mucus dropped from both nostrils to her waiting lap below. She was obviously not an integral part of the recent events. She had the spine of a pathetic invalid.

Stefani walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her. She grabbed her suitcase from the top of her closet and threw as many clothes as she could pile inside. She grabbed handfuls from her drawers and randomly yanked things off of hangers. She looked at her doll, picked it up and ripped the head off in one clean jerk.

Some stuffing fell out, but nothing else was inside. It seemed whatever ring they had been so hot and bothered about was no longer in her possession. She really didn’t care. She was not a part of their world and, for better or worse, it was time for her to exit.

She grabbed her suitcase and headed out the front door, yanking the living room phone wire out of the wall on her way. There was no reason to give Staci any opportunity to rat her out, which she was pretty sure would happen quickly enough.

She walked the two blocks to the closest ATM, withdrew $1,000, and continued on to the corner, waving her hand. It didn’t take long for a taxi to stop. The driver got out and tossed her bag in the trunk as she dropped down in the backseat.

“Where to lady?” he stammered.

“I am heading to the San Francisco Airport, please,” she responded.

“Exciting, where are you off to?”

“Anywhere but here,” she heard herself answer. “I just want to get there fast.”

Just as the driver was about to pull away from the curb, someone started beating on her window, and her door flew open.  Matt stood there, staring at her with those puppy dog eyes, looking like he had been through a night of pure hell.

“Please, can I get in?” he asked. “Please, I really need your help.”

Stefani sat and stared at him, not fully knowing what to think. How was it possible to feel this connected to somebody she’d just met? There was something there; she felt it in her bones, but she couldn’t wrap her fingers around what it was.

Maybe this guy was legitimate; and if that were the case, he’d just found out his father and his entire life were lies. Stefani could relate to that.

“Why should I let you in, Matt? How do I know I can trust you?” Stefani asked.

“Because, I have your ring,” he said.

With that, he pulled out the necklace with the ring still attached. It dangled back and forth, looking almost alive as if it had found its way home. It sparkled as rays of sunlight reflected on its surface. Interestingly enough, it seemed to be mocking her, daring her to snatch it from Matt’s hand and take on the responsibility.

“In or out people? I have to move,” said the driver, interrupting Stefani’s thoughts.

“Get in, quickly, before I change my mind,” she said. “How did you get it, by the way? I can’t imagine they just let you have it.”

“When you fainted, I knelt down next to you and removed it without my father, well, whoever he is, seeing me,” Matt explained. “Then, I just slipped it in my pocket. He was furious when he couldn’t find it. They stripped you down naked, doing everything they could to locate it. Then, they left.

“They didn’t even say anything to me. They just left. I walked in the bathroom, splashed water on my face, and tried to get my senses together. I came back out, and you were gone. I was on my way to your apartment when I saw you hailing a cab, so I ran over.”

“That all sounds logical, which means I have no idea what to believe. Everyone seems to be lying to me. I don’t have any idea what to do,” Stefani sighed. Her strength seemed close to failing again.

“I can help with that,” Matt replied. “When I was in England, I met an old guy named Hector. He lived in Bath. He used to tell me stories about gargoyles and legends about a ring. He seemed like an old man weaving tales at the time. I understood gargoyles, so I knew some of what he said made sense, but some of it seemed exaggerated.

“He used to reference a ring and a prophecy. The prophecy spoke of a girl, an all-consuming power, and the destruction of the world. It all seemed more like fantasy than reality, but now I’m not so sure.”

Stefani thought for a moment.

“Europe. I don’t have the kind of money to romp around Europe on a magical make-believe excursion,” she said. “I’m a waitress for Christ’s sake.”

“Well, in that area, I can definitely help. I have more money available to me than I could ever hope to spend, and I might as well use it before Greg cuts me off,” Matt said. “It seems like I might have outlived my usefulness. Not that I really knew what that was to begin with.”

On the one hand, it was easy to see he had never been close to his father, but, on the other hand, having your father rip any semblance of a relationship out from under you is a lot to digest. Matt turned away from Stefani and wiped his face. It seemed he was still navigating the murky waters of how to move forward.

“Well, I have nothing else to do. My roommates are all working for the bad guys, apparently. Whoever the bad guys might happen to be. I have no idea who my mother is or if she is even alive or dead,” Stefani said bitterly. “My entire world seems about as royally screwed as yours. Seems like a perfect time to head to Europe. Let’s do it.”

With it decided, they rode the rest of the way to the airport in silence. Matt traveled extensively, so once they arrived at the ticket window, he figured out a decent flight for them that left in three hours. He bought first class tickets on British Airways and led her to the first class lounge.

“If you are heading over to Europe, traveling first class is the only way to go,” he said excitedly.

Three Bloody Mary’s later, they were relaxed and headed to their gate.

Nothing passes time like getting sloshed in the first class lounge
, Stefani thought to herself. What kind of lifestyle had she missed out on? From drinking to being rich, it seemed she was moving up in the world.

“Hey, do you know why they call them ’Bloody Mary’s’?” Matt asked with glassy eyes and a big grin.

“No, why?” she responded.

“Apparently some Queen of England, back in the old days, was named Mary. I guess her father, who was king before her, got tired of her mom and banished her,” Matt recited as though he were reading a history book. “When the king remarried, the new wife told him he really needed to cut ties with Mary and her mother on all counts, so he did. Then the king died; the new wife became queen, and guess what? She died, too. Everyone up and croaked, which left Mary as the next in line to rule.”

“The real kicker is her father, when he was king, was a new-wave radical thinker and made all of these changes in the church.
Give the people their religion. Let them decide.
I guess he broke ties with Rome, as well. Apparently the sermons used to always be given in Latin, so nobody understood what was being said. Her father changed things so the sermons were given in English. It flipped out The Vatican, but the people loved it.”

“Somehow, Mary blamed all of this religion stuff on her father’s ditching her and her mother. So when she took over, she declared the people would hang up these new-fangled ideas and go back to the old ways.”

“The people didn’t like that so she gave them an ultimatum. Do it my way or die. It didn’t help that her husband never really loved her; and after a very short stay in the castle, he ended up traveling a lot. He never came home. I guess it was the same back then as it is now when your wife is, um, well, you know, a raving lunatic.”

“So Mary went on a killing rampage and had her men burn, stab, maim, and basically do away with anyone who didn’t conform. Not a very nice lady, if you ask me. So with so much blood on her hands, she became known as ‘Bloody Mary.’ I forget why we have the drink named after her, though. Damn, and that was the point of the story, wasn’t it?”

Matt laughed at himself. It was good to have a little humor with everything that was happening.

Stefani smiled at him. She couldn’t tell if he were nervous or if he normally rattled on without interruption. He just kept talking and talking. It had been that way ever since they entered the airport. He seemed like a worldly guy, but he tripped over his own feet, right and left.

“First class is now welcome to board,” the flight attendant announced over the loud speaker.

“That’s us,” Matt said with a grin. “Let’s go relax some more for a few hours and forget about our troubles.”

Stefani had never been on an airplane before, so she had no experience with first class. There was nothing about her life that resonated class on any level. Jesus, she was a stripper although that life seemed so far away. It was as if she were no longer her own person anymore. Apparently, whoever she had been was just a lie, anyway.

“May we take you to your seat, ma’am,” the flight attendant asked when Stefani flashed her ticket.

“Sure, that would be fine,” Stefani said, trying to act as though she flew first class routinely. But her eyes grew wide when the first thing she noticed was the live rose in a single vase in front of the seats. The seats themselves would take a while to explore.

When she turned around to view the entire area, she was a little shocked to see artwork on the wall. Artwork in a plane?

She might not have flown on a plane herself, but she had seen enough movies to realize there was no room for artwork hanging on the walls. There was barely enough room to sit, according to the actors, anyway.

She played with the buttons on her seat the second she sat down and realized it would adjust so it was completely prone. It basically turned into a bed. A bed. A bed on the plane. As she was lying back another flight attendant came by.

“Would you like some champagne, miss?” she asked.

“Sure,” Stefani responded.

“It seems like you’re fitting in quite well,” Matt said with a grin. “Do you think it’d be possible to get used to this?”

Stefani smiled as she brought her seat back up to a sitting position and tried to figure out the TV. She had her own personal TV and would have the option of picking out whatever movie or show she wanted to watch. It was like having On Demand, right in the plane. She didn’t even foot the bill for On Demand with her cable company at home.

She suddenly realized that despite the drinks in the lounge and the champagne, she hadn’t eaten anything all day. As the next flight attendant passed by she asked if it would be possible to get some crackers or a snack. The last thing she wanted to do was get sick. Her experience lately in that department had been anything but good.

“Sure, if you could wait until we take off, I could make you a plate with some cheese and crackers. Do you have a preference, or would you like me to bring you an assortment?” the flight attendant asked.

“Hmmmm, an assortment would be excellent,” Stefani stammered in response.

It just didn’t make sense that people lived like this.

Once the plane took off, she spent the entire flight eating, watching movies, and playing with her chair. She did venture back to the coach section briefly and decided she really did like the amenities of first class. As long as she was privy to the elite status, it was an acceptable idea to segregate, she laughed to herself. She wondered how much Matt had paid for the tickets.

Then, she realized it wasn’t actually his money footing the bill for this flight. It was really Greg’s money and that thought almost made her sick to her stomach again. She vowed to enjoy herself and did her best to set it aside as she ventured off to the restroom. There was nothing she could do presently about the escalating turmoil, so why not relax as much as she possibly could.

When she flipped on the light in the bathroom, she smiled as she saw there were flowers in there, as well. A limited, signed print by some artist she didn’t recognize hung on the wall.  She sat down on the faux wood toilet seat, feeling a little overwhelmed. Maybe she was in over her head.

Jesus, she was definitely in over her head – she had no experience with flying first class. She was nothing more than a poor stripper, thrown into a pool of sharks, and she had no idea how to swim. What was the next step, what was her role in life? She felt the tears flowing down her cheeks, and she realized she was crying again.

She found out her mom, or somebody who might possibly be her mother, was alive. But, she may have lost her again all in the same day. If her mother had been alive all this time, why hadn’t she contacted Stefani? Was her mother connected to Greg? It appeared so. It was almost like he had called her. It was as if she were his whipping dog, doing his bidding.

After what happened to Matt, Stefani began to wonder if the woman she had known the first 10 years of her life was even her actual mother. Maybe this was all some kind of sick game rich people played on the poor working class. Maybe they had been drugging her. Maybe the things she remembered weren’t even real.

For that matter, who was Matt? Did things like this ever happen in real life? Was Matt the shining knight in white armor, riding in with his first class tickets to Europe in order to hand her all the answers on a silver platter? What was that smell? The last time she smelled that was in Greg’s office when the dogs from Hell had been led in.

She opened the door to the bathroom and followed the scent. She felt as if she were turning into a bloodhound. Damn, maybe that is what she would turn into. Instead of getting to be one of the cool, flying, almost-human gargoyles, maybe she was destined to be one of those ghastly dogs.

She followed the odor to the bathroom at the tail end of the plane, all the way through the business class and the coach areas. She stood outside for several minutes, just sniffing and staring. Then, she realized the flight attendants were staring at her, so she walked away, heading back to her seat.

It made no sense, really. It wasn’t like one of those horse dogs could fit on the plane, anyway.
They’re huge,
Stefani thought to herself. Everyone on the plane could not be part of a conspiracy, and somebody would notice a beast that big and that ugly if it happened to saunter through the gate with a boarding pass.

“Are you ok?” Matt asked her when she returned.

“Yes, I’m fine.” she said. “It’s just that I can only relax for so long. I keep thinking about everything – my mother, your father, monsters, death. It just overwhelms me, and I get a little lost. It’s now three days since this insanity began. I just wish…it just seems like we’re lost, and I don’t see any options for finding our way back again. My life might as well be over, and I can’t put a finger on where I’ll end up.  How can my road possibly end with anything good happening?”

“For now, just sit back and breathe. We only have four or so more hours left, and you might feel better if you got some sleep. Even if you can’t sleep, just closing your eyes might help.”

Stefani leaned back in her seat and did just that. Shutting herself off from the world did help some, but it also allowed her mind to swirl in so many different directions. It was just overwhelming.
Not much I can do about it now
, she told herself. Somehow that wasn’t giving her much satisfaction.

Dennis waited a few minutes before stepping out of the restroom. Stefani’s skills were growing quickly. Soon she would be ready for the change. He knew that was both a good thing and a bad thing. It all depended on the next few days. It was anyone’s guess how life would turn.

It had been difficult following these two. He would never have guessed they would be going to England of all places. They were most likely going to see Hector, his long-time friend. He would have to call him as soon as they landed. He had to make sure Hector was prepared. Jesus, Dennis knew he had really screwed things up.

It should’ve been him sitting up there with Stefani, not this weasel. Greg’s son – what a joke. Greg had more sons than grains of sand on the beach. You had to give it to the guy, though. He really had a way of spreading his seed. Dennis wondered if Matt knew. Dennis guessed he probably didn’t. Greg had a knack for keeping people twisted in a warped universe so they had trouble telling which end was up.

He went back to his seat, three rows from the back end of the plane. That was ok. He was actually more comfortable in coach. It was where he fit in. It was his place in life. Some people were born to be wealthy, and some people were born to do the right thing. Rarely, it seemed, did the two go hand-in-hand.