The Test

Chapter Twenty-One

"Layna? Layna it's me! It's me, calm down," I said gently pulling her to my chest, "It's me. You don't have to be scared."

"Derek?" she sobbed into my chest, "Derek, we need to call the police. Timothy was here."

I froze at her words, my heart pounding in my chest, "What?"

"He was here, in the room. I thought it was you but it was him. He tried to kill me."

My mom gasped I looked over to see her standing at the door her hands shaking with tears in her eyes, "It's okay mom, everything's fine."

"No it's not," Layna whispered hoarsely into my neck. "He's mad that I left him."

She pulled away from me, running her fingers through her hair, and pulling at the ends.

"Hey," I said softly, putting my hands on her shoulders and turning her to face me. "We're going to figure out what happened, okay?"

Nodding, she rested her forehead on my chest and I wrapped my arms around her, resting my cheek on the crown of her head. This gave me the perfect view of the one window in the room. It was closed, and the switch on the bottom indicated that it was locked from the inside.

***

Thirty minutes later there was a knock on the door. My mom answered since Layna hadn't moved from my arms. My mom came into the living room first, Detective Allan Greene right behind her. He looked exactly like a remembered him; his badge was hanging on a chain around his neck, and he was wearing a leather jacket, which I knew concealed the gun he had at his hip.

When he saw the state Layna was in, his eyes softened and he sat down beside us on the couch. My mom sat across from us, and no one spoke for a moment.

"I'm sorry about your father," Greene said, breaking the silence.

"Thank you," I replied.

He pulled out his notebook and his pen from his pocket and then he looked over at me, "Tell me what happened?"

Layna explained to him what had happened, clutching my hand tightly in hers. She lifted her shirt to show where she claimed that Timothy had pinched her. There was only a faint red mark in the area she indicated.

"Alright, I'm going to make some calls, see if we can find him. You don't need to worry, Layna, I have this under control," Greene touched her shoulder gently, giving her a smile.

"Mom, do you mind taking her up while I talk to Allan? She can just use the guest room, and I'll come up when we're done here."

My mom nodded so I kissed Layna's forehead, before watching her go up the stairs, clutching on to my mom for support. I turned took look at Greene, who had a grim look on his face as he spoke quietly on his phone.

"Let me guess," I said when he hung up the phone, "Timothy is still there."

"He's been there all night in solitary confinement. They've had a camera on him the entire time, and a guard monitoring the camera. Apparently, there was an incident today and they have him on suicide watch."

I sighed, dropping my head in my hands, "That's what I thought."

"You think she had a nightmare? Or something like that?"

"Greene, no one was in the room. The windows were closed from the inside, and from when she screamed to when I got inside her room, it must have been minutes. And now you're telling me that Timothy was video recorded in the institute this whole time? What else am I supposed to think? He can't just teleport back and forth with no trace."

"I don't know what to tell you, Derek. Has she ever had something like this happen?"

"Never like this; she has nightmares and sometimes panic attacks but she has never had a hallucination. But then again, she went and saw him today for the first time and he freaked out at her. That's quite the shock, especially for her since she had never seen him like that. She was upset after, and we got into a fight so it makes sense."

Greene could sense my frustration and he placed a placating hand on my shoulder, "Listen, there isn't anything else that we can do for tonight. Timothy is locked away like he should be, and everyone is safe. I'll send a squad car out tonight to watch the house, just in case. Just go get some sleep, okay?"

"Thanks, Allan, I appreciate it."

I walked him out, locking the door behind him. Then, for my peace of mind, I went back upstairs to my bedroom. I checked everywhere; under the bed, in the closet, in the bathroom, even behind the curtain. Anywhere that someone could hide I made sure to look.

There was no one there, and no evidence that anyone had ever been there.