And we’re off.
The person who’d messaged me (online name: scr33ngrabber22, told me to call him “Jay”.) has agreed to meet up at a diner in a town about one hour away from us and two away from him. He seemed genuine enough while I was talking to him online, but intentions can be hard to ascertain over text. Still worth a shot, I guess. I’ll do anything to figure this out.
Mike was all-in from the get-go. I suppose I felt safer with him around, given the fact that he stood at 6’2, 200+ lbs, boasting a 650 lbs deadlift and a borderline obsession with both French kickboxing and long-range shooting.
Obviously, he didn’t like the idea that something might be happening to his sister. Hell, I had to stay on my toes just to stop him from knocking me out when he found out Lacey and I were first dating. He was also pissed as hell at both his parents for being so complacent about the situation and the cops for not yielding any results.
On the other hand, Rose was a wary about the situation at first. Couldn’t blame her really. This shit was weird. But at the end of the day… we all really wanted to find Lacey. Enough so to venture off into what was ostensibly a dangerous unknown.
The drive over was uneventful, which I suppose was a good thing. I had a feeling that the humdrum nature of our little trip wasn’t going to last, though.
“What a seedy-ass place.” Mike stated as he stepped out of the vehicle.
I couldn’t disagree. Flickering fluorescent lights, peeling paint and a nearly empty parking lot. A place that truly hadn’t caught up with the times.
“Guy was probably bullshitting about knowing anything,” Mike continued. “If he got us out here to try something, guess I’ll blow off some steam by stomping his shit in.”
I expected nothing less from him.
“Anything to find Lacey. But don’t do anything stupid. I know you’re gonna.” Rose said, before taking the lead and heading towards the entrance.
“Hey, wait up!” Mike called out, running after her.
I took a deep breathe before following suit. This was happening. We were taking matters into our own hands.
The place was sparsely populated inside. About six other people in total.
“Green hoodie, black hat…” I muttered to myself. Jay’s outfit of choice, apparently. It didn’t take long to spot him. I was relatively relieved upon realizing that he was on the younger side. He looked just slightly older than us – probably early twenties/late teens. Nothing terribly noteworthy about his appearance. A skinny guy with medium-length dirty-blonde hair.
“Jay?” I asked, approaching his table.
When he looked up, I realized that were was something off about him. His eyes. They looked a little… unhinged? Low-key though. That’s a strong way of describing it, I guess. But there’s a reason why that was the first word that popped into my head when my pupils met his.
He gave me a slight smile, before awkwardly gesturing for us to sit.
“So…” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. His movements were also rather jittery. “You wanna know… about… the movie.”
We all nodded at once.
He let out a weird noise. Like something halfway between a sneer and a cough.
“But why? How do you even know about it to begin with?”
“Does it matter why?” Mike spoke up. “We just want to know. Don’t tell me you’re about to waste our time.”
He tended to get quite dramatic sometimes.
“I’ll tell you what you need to know.” Jay said, after a few moments of silence.
“Alright. Get on with it.”
“You guys… need to drop it. Stop thinking about it.”
“Christ,” Mike said. “What the hell did I just say?”
“I’m not wasting your time,” Jay responded. “I’m saving your lives.”
Just as Mike seemed to be reaching his wits end (which wasn’t hard to get to, mind you), Rose chimed in.
“What do you mean?” She said. “Look, our friend went missing. We’re not leaving without something. Please.”
Her tone was a lot softer, which seemed to Calm Jay down.
“I’m sorry that happened,” he said. “But… I don’t think you’re going to find her.”
“Son of a bitch!” Mike said, slamming the table.
Jay flinched at the action.
“Look, I’ve given you best advice that I can. Just leave it alone.”
“If that was the case, you wouldn’t have agreed to meet up. There’s clearly something that you feel we should know.” I said.
“No,” Jay shook his head. “If I left it like that, you would’ve kept digging deeper. I called you here to convince you to let it go.
“Not gonna happen,” Mike said. “So either you tell us something, or you say goodbye to your teeth.”
“Ignore him,” I chimed in. “But you gotta tell us something. Like what the hell Mr. Blank is supposed to be.”
I was getting desperate. My hopes had been spiked - perhaps to an unreasonably high degree, but I still wasn’t prepared to just leave it at that. I needed something.
I could see Jay’s bottom lip quiver just slightly upon hearing the question.
“He’s…” he muttered. It looked as if he could hardly muster up an answer. He looked terrified, which in turn terrified me. At one point, it seemed as if he were about to cry. But he took a deep breath, seemingly calming himself down.
“So you guys aren’t gonna let this go?”
I shook my head. “How are we supposed to?”
He clicked his tongue in a frustrated tone. His previous face of distress had morphed into something more comparable to anger. As if this whole situation was beginning to bother him something great.
“Okay, I guess you’ve forced my hand.”
He whispered something under his breath. Sounded relatively aggressive. Truth be told, Jay’s reservation towards the situation was only spiking my interest even more. What was he so afraid of?
He gestured towards the exit.
“Follow me then. I’ll show you something.”
It was nearly a mutter.
Follow you, I thought. Alright then.
I’m not a total idiot. The red flags were sticking out like sore thumbs. But at the end of the day… I suppose this is exactly what we were asking for. In my pocket, I gripped the stiletto knife from Italy that Lacey had gotten me a few months back. Just in case, you know?
With all of us on high alert, we walked out of the diner and began following Jay’s beat-up jeep. The subsequent drive wasn’t long, probably only around 3-4 minutes. An inherent symptom of small towns, I guess.
He led us to a small motel. Looked kinda dingy, but not terribly so. Nevertheless, it was another cause for concern. He only lived 2 hours away. Why stay the night?
He sighed as he exited his vehicle, gesturing us up the stairs. We ascended three floors and walked past a few doors before arriving at his room. Mike and Rose walked in first. And then I followed. Big mistake.
“So… what did you want to-“
Before I could even finish my sentence, my vision went black. I’m not sure how long I was knocked out for, but when I came to, I was lying on the couch, nursing a splitting headache.
“Yo, he’s awake!”
Mike’s booming voice felt like a hammer to my brain. I looked up and saw him holding Jay in a headlock. There was a baseball bat lying a few feet away from them. Rose was standing at the foot of the couch, looking relieved that I wasn’t dead.
“Oh, thank God.” She said.
“You… won’t be… thanking anybody once he shows up! I’m… trying to SAVE you fucking idiots!” Jay rasped out, struggling for air.
What happened wasn’t exactly a mystery. Jay had tried taking my head off with the damn bat. With my brain still reeling, I pulled myself off the couch and approached him, all while he struggled against Mike’s python-like arms.
“So…” I said, still wincing. “What the fuck was that?”
Jay’s face was starting to go beet-red, so I gestured for Mike to loosen his grip.
He began panting like hell upon being released.
“Who the hell is Mr. Blank?” I asked. “I’ll ask you one more time. Or do you wanna explain to the cops why the hell you just fucking assaulted me?”
His expression had changed drastically. Not so angry anymore. He looked more… defeated.
“I tried.” He said in a hoarse voice.
“Tried to do what?”
“To save you people. To save myself.”
"So what the hell was your plan? Knock us out and then what?"
"I don't know..." he said, nearly in hysterics. "I panicked. Didn't know what to do. But I had to get you guys to stop somehow! YOU FORCED ME TO!!"
“I get it now,” Mike said. “You’re a crazy guy. We’ve been talking to a psycho. Good job guys.”
Was that it? I thought to myself. Were we just wasting our time talking to a guy who’d clearly gone off the deep end?
I wasn’t so sure. I’d had encounters with the criminally insane before. My father had worked security at a psychiatric ward, and I’d visited him there a few times there before. This guy… he just didn’t fit the bill. I suppose his words sounded genuine. Of course, I couldn't know for sure, so I remained cautious.
Jay slumped against a wall, tilting his head back against it.
“I never could escape him,” he said. "I don’t think anybody ever does.”
"Who?" I asked, already the expecting the answer I was about to receive.
He looked over at me directly.
“Mr... Blank…" His voice quivered. It seemed as if merely saying the name caused him a great deal of discomfort. "I don’t know where he came from. What he even is.
We kept quiet as he talked. We were finally getting what we came here for.
“He’s incomprehensible. Imagine the worst, most visceral nightmare you’ve ever had. That’s nothing compared to an encounter with him. You can’t outrun him. Can’t outrun him. Can’t kill him. Can’t deal with him in any way. And once he's after you... he won't stop. You just have to pray that you never meet him.”
A look of absolute grief suddenly washed over his face.
“But.... it's too late now. You’ve pried too hard. He’s already on his way.”
“You wanna elaborate on that?” I asked.
He smirked at the question. It was one that unsettled me to my core. The smile wasn't one of joy or relief. Not even close. It was more comparable to a smile that somebody in great pain would make upon learning that their misery would soon be coming to an end.
“I shouldn’t have spoken his name again. But I guess it doesn’t matter. This is the end of the line for me.”
Suddenly - as if he were a man possessed, he drilled his elbow into Mike’s ribs and began scrambling away from him. He barreled past me and into the washroom. Before I could try and stop him myself, he’d locked himself in there.
“Shit!” I muttered. I began banging on the bathroom door. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I tried talking some sense into you. This is my punishment for failing.”
“What are you talking about man! C’mon, we’ll figure it out!”
“I can’t deal with what happens next,” he said through the wood. “My nightmare ends here. I’ll pray that your suffering ends up being less than mine.”
A short silence followed.
“I’ll pray for your friend as well. I suggest you do the same.”
“C’mon, don’t do anything stupid!”
Too late. I heard his body slump to the ground moments later. When we finally got the door open, Jay was lying limp on the floor, with an empty, unlabeled pill bottle beside him.
“Fucking hell…” Mike said, sounding frustrated.
“Jeez,” Rose added, looking understandably horrified. “What the hell do we do now? Do we call the cops or something?”
“Fuck no,” Mike replied. “I’m not dealing with that. Let them find the guy themselves. He overdosed. Simple as that.”
He turned to me. “You’re not bleeding are you?”
I touched the back of my head. Dry. I shook my head.
“Good. No blood, no suspicion.” Mike said. “Let’s get the hell out of here then.”
“That’s not how it works. We also busted the bathroom door down, remember?” I said.
He seemed to think about for a moment, before coming to his final, profound conclusion:
“Eh. Fuck it.”
I had my own reservations about leaving the situation the way it was, but Mike was already out the door before I could say anything else. In the moment, there was nothing I could do but follow him. Call it selfish, but the situation was beyond helping at that point.
But if you asked me if I felt somewhat responsible for Jay’s death, then I’d have to answer in the affirmative. The feeling in my stomach as we walked to the car was not a good one.
The drive back was relatively silent. We’d gotten next to no answers, had a hell of a lot more questions and had just witnessed a fucking suicide.
On top of that… there was somebody following us. I don’t either Mike or Rose had noticed it. The driver was doing a good job of being discrete, after all. Suddenly, I remember the sketchy vehicles that had been parked around town. I looked back at the vehicle. Yup. Tinted windshield.
I don’t think I’m going to tell them. Nerves are already high, and abrupt panic probably isn’t going to help us here.
One thing’s for sure though:
The situation has gotten a lot more complicated.
---
Credits
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