Chapter 57
The past few months have been hectic for us. And when more gets piled over our shoulders, I would think there is no possible way to add more. Then... this happens. And it was the worst discovery we could make at this point in time. To know she bugged my room... and actually had a plan of her own. The scary part was we didn't know what that plan was. We didn't know how much she knew. And we didn't realize the number of different things she could do if she picked up some of our conversations. Some of our more intimate moments as well. So yeah... we are pretty fucked.
I stared at Luke for the longest moment. It was cold in the garage. But I felt a hot flush come over me. A striking sensation of fear, a sickness that warmed my body to the point where I felt ready to boil over. My eyes were wide and my breath was noticeably erratic. Hell, Clare might even have heard that! She might have heard the drop of my heart. Who the hell knows! She might be listening to our thoughts too!
His hands grasping my shoulders, eyes in mine and panicked, Luke still did his best to stay calm. He knew we needed to. Because if we were calm, we would have control. His lips were parted, breathing deeply as his green eyes pierced mine, taking in my reaction - which was just staring back at him as my body felt ready to convulse. I forced my mouth to move with my thoughts and it was harder than I thought it would be to say something. "A-Are you sure?" I asked in a scared and broken voice, biting my lip to cut my heavy breathing off. Stay calm... stay calm.... I just knew I really couldn't.
Luke sighed and nodded. "Yes. I'm sure. I got up to go to the bathroom... and I found it. It's under your dresser along the wall."
"Do you know if there are anymore?"
He shook his head and groaned, trying to appeal to my eyes. "I don't know. I'll look. I'm just sure we would be safe out here. There is no reason she would do it to the garage and it would be harder for her to stretch a mic out here." He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath as I watched him. Like he held the answers for everything. I somewhat needed to believe that at the moment. "This changes everything," he said under his breath, his eyes still tightly closed as I was still staring at him with wide eyes.
"How did you find it?" I whispered, breaking away from his grasp. I felt too dizzy, too hot and sick... I took a shaky breath and moved over to the steps up to the door to the house. I sat down on the top of the two steps and rested my sweaty palms against the cold cement surface. My eyes lost for a moment, I looked back up to where he was standing, looking a more pale. His jaw tightened and he turned, looking down to where I sat.
"I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I did, Jack jumped down from the bed to follow me. Only when I came back into the bedroom, I thought Jack would jump back up in bed with you. But he didn't. I laid back down on the floor and I noticed that Jack kept sniffing around your dresser. Then... then he started scratching at the floor around it, acting like a spaz. I tried to get him to stop... and he actually did. But he laid down with me on the floor and didn't jump back into the bed with you. A few minutes later, he got back up, started digging at the edges around the dresser again. So... I looked around it and under to see what it was he wanted. And I noticed this wire... this wire was sticking out from the floor against your wall."
I gave a shaky sigh and shook my head, closing my eyes, and resting my forehead in my hand. Fucking bitch... I was seriously debating the idea of bringing up just killing her now. I am so done with this shit. I listened as Luke went on.
"I moved the dresser a little, and quietly at realizing what it might be. And it was. It was a small microphone wired through your floor and walls. It was a more advanced listening device so I wouldn't be shocked to find more smaller ones that are wireless."
"Oh god," I groaned, breathing hard. Looking back up to Luke, I bit my lip and just shook my head. "So there probably are more. That's just... just fucking great," I croaked, my eyes falling to the ground. We were so screwed. She could know everything. She might be a huge step in front of us. She had a plan... and she could know what we were planning on doing in the backyard. Meaning, she probably knew Luke was on my side. Fully. In every way, loyally and romantically.... Oh god. And if she knew her husband abandoned her like he did... well, like I knew, she would loose it. She cracked when my father left. She was broken now. And that meant she had nothing to loose if she wanted to kill me or him at any second. That was such a bigger possibility now than before....
"Albany," Luke said, getting my attention back to him. My eyes finding his, he was closer. He was kneeling before me now on the floor as I was sitting on the steps. He grasped his hand in mine and buried his gaze deep into mine. "We'll--"
"Don't lie and say we will be okay when you don't even know!" I said up to him, gasping. "We're not going to be okay."
"I was going to say that we'll come up with a plan. We'll do as much as we can to get through this. No, I don't know if we will be okay. I don't know. But I will put my life on this that I'll do everything I can to make sure we are," he said in a very firm voice.
I sighed, my head dropping from his gaze as I just shook my head. "What are we going to do?" I said. "She wants me out in a few weeks or she will kill me... now she's been spying on us for who knows how long," I groaned in an aggravated voice.
"Well... I have a few theories that could help. But first, I want to show you the bug I found," he said. "Then, you are going to head to school like it's a normal day. I'm going to go to work, pick up some detectors and devices to pick up bugs, and come back home for the day. I'll sweep the house, dissect every inch I can of it and especially your room by the time you get home."
"What do we do now though?" I asked. "After you show me the mic."
"You can go back to bed and I'll stay up. But I doubt you would want to do that," he said in a knowing voice.
"Yeah, you're damn right I'm not going back to sleep. I can handle being tired, no big deal," I murmured.
"When we go back in the house though," he said, sighing and biting his lip, looking up to the door, "you know you can't say anything about this since we don't know if she can hear us...."
I glared at him. It's like he didn't know me at all. Of course, I admit I've shown moron behavior in the past that I understood he was worried I would repeat. I scowled either way. "I'm not retarded. If I say anything, it will involve us being awake because 'we heard a noise.' Christ, give me some credit." I said as I watched the slightly amused expression over his face. It was gone quickly.
"Okay," he said nodding. "Let's go," he nodded, squeezing my hand tighter before he let go and knelt back up from the ground and I followed, going back into not just hell anymore. The tainted and bugged house of hell. I felt ten time more uncomfortable going back into the house than I did when I followed him into the garage.
***
He showed me the mic. Not a word was said, obviously, as we inspected it close up. It was as he said. A little microphone on the end of a very thick wire leading down into the floor. It didn't look like a big deal. But by the time Luke and I moved the dresser back quietly and perfectly, we sat down on my bed and I found out something.... He mouthed to me very clearly the words, 'very advanced' and that's all he could give me so far on the bug. After all, what else could he do? Tell me everything he was thinking out loud so the mic would pick it up? We weren't even safe to speak what we wanted.
But we did speak up. After all, what if Clare could pick up that we were up and moving around, not saying anything? "You up?" Luke asked in a purposefully groggy voice from where he was sitting next to me on my bed against the headboard.
"Yeah..." I moaned, my eyes in his and I knew they were filled in worry. This was all a little play we were doing for Clare.
"Did you hear that noise?" he asked, looking down at the bed and gave an audible but not too obvious yawn.
"No I think you're going crazy," I sighed. "Just go back to bed," I mumbled, looking down to Jack who was laying between us. Running my fingers along him, I bit my lip. It was easy just to talk randomly about something not even happening; but I hated it. My freedom has been stripped away from me my whole life. But... the one thing I did have was my mouth. I would back talk, insult, scream, sometimes spit at Clare if she did it first. But now... I didn't have a voice, at least in my room anyway. I couldn't speak with Luke without knowing Clare would be listening. And that limited everything until we found out more. It made my insides hurt.
We said nothing more for hours. After all, we were 'sleeping' - and staying quiet was better than a false conversation we would have had to have. So we just sat there silently as the clock ticked by. Though I was still freaked out, with a million different possibilities running through me, I did slump down in my bed a little and rest against the pillow. But I wasn't going back to sleep. The lamp on and keeping me up like I wanted, my eyes rested on the bed, on Jack, and Luke's thigh which was eye level with my eyes. He was still sitting against the headboard and just softly, I felt him caress my cheek, my hair, and it made me a little more relaxed at least.
We stayed like that, sitting there in bed, for the two hours it took for the alarm clock to go off - which was unneeded with both of us up already for hours. So when it went off, Luke shuffled over and shut it off, coming back to sit beside me again. "Albany... get up," he said in a tired voice again. This time, I doubt he was pretending he was tired.
I moaned softly in protest. After all, it was locked in my head that she was hearing everything. Sounding like I was still trying to get up, I said, "No, I'm too tired." I said as my hands continued running over a sleepy Jack.
After that though, and when we really did get up and out of bed, we just went back to getting ready like we normally do in the morning. Of course, not daring to bring up Clare or anything we were currently panicking over. It wasn't too strange in the morning staying silent. After all, for the past week or so, that's all it really was between us. Just silence and awkwardness.
Clare leaves for work first lately. But even then, we said nothing. We couldn't. Luke was supporting his uniform I noticed though when we were both ready to leave. After all, even if for a minute, he was heading to the station to get a few things then take the day off and head back home. So when Ramper came to pick me up for school, Luke walked outside with me towards where Ramper was waiting in his car. I raised a brow up to Luke who walked at my side towards Ramper's car. Free of any bugs out here, I looked up to him and asked, "What are you doing? Coming to school with me?" I smirked. I looked Luke over in curiosity, his dark officer's jacket wrapped around him I noticed.
"I want to pick you up from school today so I'm going to tell Ramper. After all, who knows if we will be able to talk in the house. It would be safer to just talk in the truck if I come and get you. No doubt I'll be anxious too to tell you what I found."
I nodded and was happy he said that. After all, I was anxious enough as it was. I wondered the past few hours the possibilities. Of what he could find. I hoped it was just that one mic and no more. It could be good or bad. There might be mics all over the house and we wont have one sliver of privacy if that's the case. So yeah, I was happy he would be willing to get me. The sooner I know, the better. Plus like he said, what if the only private space we have is in his truck?
Walking to the passenger side of Ramper's cop car, I opened the door and got in. Glancing through the windshield, I saw Luke heading towards the drivers side where Ramper was. I heard Ramper groan from next to me, seeing that Luke wanted to talk. "If he's going to start bitching about my behavior, I'll be pissed," he warned me as his eyes reached mine, his eyebrows low as if he was annoyed already. Sighing, he glanced back to where Luke was outside his door, who knocked on Ramper's window. Rolling the window down, he nodded to him in a professional manner. "Prenta," he said.
Luke nodded back as he glanced to me before back to Ramper, giving him a polite smile. "I wanted to let you know I will be picking Albany up today. So you wont need to drive her back here."
Ramper nodded. "Will do," he said as I put my seat belt op, looking between the two of them. Offering Luke a small - and hopefully supporting - smile, he gave me a stiff one back, knowing how tense this day was going to be. After all, he was going through the whole house today to find anymore of those mics or other bugs. It would be interesting to see what he finds.
***
It was hard focusing in school today. Well... I guess everyday is like that. Especially with Ramper around to annoy the hell out of me. But I dealt with it so I think I deserve a prize. Which would come in the form of Clare's dead body. It was a very long day so to see her dead would be perfect. But that's not how this world works. So I would have to claim food instead as a prize, which wouldn't be bad either.
Anyway, the best reward I could have got came to me after school ended. It was such a relief... to see Luke sitting in his truck in the parking lot, waiting for me. It took me no time at all to get to the truck. Which was unfortunate, if you were on the side of my torn half. After all, I was anxious to know what Luke uncovered today when he searched the house. But I was also scared to find out how bad it was and his personal theories or ideas of it and what we should do.
The weather was warm like it was yesterday. I hope it would stay that way. It allowed me to leave my coat unzipped as I walked with uneasy legs towards his truck. Biting my lip as my eyes were searching Luke's expression as best as I could through the windshield, I didn't know what to make of it.. It was blank. It was blank and hidden, which didn't make me feel that confident. Of course, I could be over thinking things. Hell, I know I was. Because this shit was all I could think about all day!
Taking a deep breath as I reached his truck, I opened the passenger side and got it, putting my bag at my feet before I slammed the door shut. My eyes... were on the floor or down the whole time. I didn't want to look at him, afraid his face wouldn't be blank anymore. But I needed too.
Sighing, I closed my eyes for a moment before I looked up to my side and opened them. My eyes reached his, which were already waiting on mine. His beautiful emeralds searched mine, his thick eyebrows were slightly lowered in thought. Luke's lips were flat and his body, as far as I could tell, appeared relaxed. But I knew he was sometimes tricky to read (which always drove me crazy). Groaning, I was the first to speak, rubbing the back of my neck under my bun. "Alright. Just... tell me," I sighed, biting the inside of my lip.
He turned to face me more, his face still pretty blank. But it did offer up a softer expression, a caressing one. But that didn't tell me much - whether it was for sympathy or happiness. He took a deep breath. "I looked through the entire house. Thoroughly felt up the furniture - shut up - and inspected the walls carefully. I also used this sensor and detector device that can find disturbances or unusual readings not common among electrical appliances. I used multiple different ones in each room. But I focused on your room the most. I dissected everything," he said, making that very clear.
I raised my eyebrows at how much he did. But it was for the best job, and to be sure of everything. "So what did you find?"
"Your room... besides the wired one under the dresser, had about three more. But they were small little chip ones, is the best way to describe it to you. Very advanced like the one under the dresser. But the one under the dresser is meant to pick up the most and is more sensitive. The others, I think, are back up to catch anything it could have missed. So... she wants to be very thorough with everything it picks up."
My breath hitched and I felt my body slump back into the seat, my eyes falling from his. Great. Just... fucking dandy. She wanted to be so thorough, she cluttered my fucking room with a bunch. "God," I groaned when I looked back up to him. "Where in my room are the other smaller wireless ones?" I asked, curious and just... shaken up by this point. Such a violation of both of our privacy. And sure, I knew violation in my life, up and down. But ever since Luke's been in my life, nothing like this type of violation has happened. And it bothered me more than I thought it would. Probably because we could taste the freedom we were heading towards, only to have this happen. Only to have Clare, who I'm ready to stab out of sickness of her and her face, mess shit up.
"One was buried inside the fabric of your pillow. Another one was on your window sill. One under your bed between the floor boards." Luke sighed and his face was finally no longer blank. But filled with a sadness at what he had to tell me. But not for too long and he didn't appear as panicked as he had this morning over the matter.
"What about the rest of the house?" My room was basically raped of it's privacy it held. This next answer determined whether we would get any privacy in the house at all. I was crossing my fingers he didn't find many more outside of my room.
He gave me a relieved look than made my nerves calm just slightly. "I looked everywhere. With sensors and other devices, looked up and down in every room in the house, and there wasn't one other bug in the house. She only bugged your room."
For the first time today, I felt the fading of fear and anxiousness that held tight to me. It faded... even if just a fraction. It was a big plus for us, the fact that it was just my bedroom. We could still talk and be comfortable in any other room in the house, just not mine. But a bigger question loomed over me that I was still dying to know - and that made everything depend on this one thing.
"That's... wow, that's awesome," I sighed a breath out. My eyes found his though and I raised an eyebrow. "But... were you able to find anything that would tell you around what time she put those mics in?"
He offered me a sly smile. "Actually, yes. I think she put them in within the last week or not far before that. The reason being Jack. If these microphones were placed a long time ago, Jack would have reacted a long time ago too. This was the first time he started sniffing around and wanted at one. I'm mean, so... I'm assuming she just put them in. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked if that's what she was doing yesterday when we heading over to Shannon's place and she didn't go."
I thought that over for a minute. I agreed with him about Jack and it must have been recent. But I don't know about just yesterday. "Well... to be fair, she has been home alone before when both of us were out. She could have even done it on a lunch break of hers," I said for example.
"True," he nodded, not denying that. "So, just to be safe, we should just assume that those mics have been in there for over a week."
"So... what have we talked about in my room that she could have heard in the past week, maybe more?"
Luke sighed, looking down before ahead and out into the now busy parking lot. With parents picking up their kids, kids walking home - the few that did.... So innocent, they all appeared. With nothing crazy happening in their lives like ours. People say their lives were boring... but was my 'exciting' life any better? If I didn't have Luke to help me through all of this, I'd be finished. Boring sounded beautiful in a certain aspect. I hoped one day we could reach that kind of boredom that I would see to be 'normal.' And normal would be beautiful and happy and full of life, even if seen to be 'boring'.
My attention returning to Luke as I waited for an answer he took a while to think over. Going over everything we might have talked about in his head... and from what I could recall, there wasn't much. Except the big bomb Luke dropped on me, resulting in silence.
Luke voiced my thoughts when he looked back up to mine, his cheeks flushing slightly but nothing more. "The only thing was my... confession to you," he said, giving me a curious look, as he continued trying to uncover anything else. But... I really think that was it. Even if it was a huge hit to us, it could have been worse.
I mean, I thought about it for a moment. And though Clare probably heard Luke confess his love for me, it could be worse. I knew I had to look at that from the good side. Because if Luke never told me he loved me, we wouldn't have been quiet this past week with each other. And no doubt if that didn't happen, we would have talked about something involving Clare or Emily most likely. That was one good thing that came out of his confession for this situation. Even if now, her faith in him was shattered....
"Well... that's not good. It could be worse," I offered, crossing my arms as I pursed my lips, thinking everything over.
"Yeah.... At least there is a good chance she doesn't know out plan for Emily. All she really knows is that my love for her is dead. Which still could be disastrous," he mumbled in a humorless tone.
I nodded in total agreement and told him what I thought about before. "I think the same thing will happen like it did when my dad left. She will break - and when she did before, that was the start of the torture. She is broken now and this time... she has nothing to lose if she wants us dead."
Luke groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "That doesn't make sense though. Why would she want you out by the time you turn 18? If she wants us dead, why would she wait for you to run?"
"I... don't know," I sighed, my head spinning. Such a damn headache.... "I am almost positive she said that because she doesn't want me to try anything like digging up Emily. She knows I want to after she revealed where she could be. She wants me gone before spring gets here. But how that could connect to this... I don't know." I said raising my hands up. "I don't know why she wouldn't just kill us now and wait for me to run...."
"Maybe she wants us split. Because she knows we are together and is pissed. Because she wants to isolate us - then kill us when we are split. Like your idea before. It would fit with this too," Luke nodded. And it was a very solid, the most likely, of reasons why. Strategy on her part. She is rogue but has enough of a brain to know how to kill us. And the best way would be to wait until she makes me run.
"I think that's it," I nodded and smiled. Not because we figured she had a good plan on how to kill us. No, retards. Because we figured it out. And we could avoid it, no doubt, when that time comes. But that was the best part: time. We knew when she would do this and it wouldn't be anytime before my birthday, I was positive about that. It would be after I 'run away' and split from Luke like she said I must do.
"So what you're saying is... just go on as if nothing is happening? As if she isn't listening to everything we are saying?" Luke asked. "We now know she has discovered my betrayal. And probably wants to kill us. But we wait because you think she is waiting for the right moment when you run?"
I bit my lip. Sounds crazy... but who knew crazy better than me? "Yes. We don't have to be in my room to talk. And maybe... we can throw her off track. Voice a false plan or information into the mic, feed her something that can turn this in our favor. But... yes, we go on. As if nothing is happening. Because she wont try anything for a few more weeks, at least. When that comes... we will have a plan. But for now, she wont do anything. As long as we are together, she wont do anything. And if she does anyway, we will be ready," I said, leaning forward and placing a hand on his arm. I was so sure about this.... She knew I would run and listen if it was in the sake of my life and his. So she would wait quietly until my birthday to make her move.
"I think... you might be right," Luke admitted. "Even if we didn't know what she was doing, we know she wont do anything anytime soon. So until then, everything should be okay. But I think we can at least sleep easily at night with the windows barred up and door locked," he grinned, nodding.
I sighed in relief and offered him a small smile, nodding. We sat there fore a long moment, soaking everything in. And... to be honest, I had no clue what she was up to. I just knew that things were starting to fall down... and fall hard and fast. We were on the thinnest ice we have stood on yet. And it's only a short amount of time before things break wide open. Until that happens though... we had to just lay low. Do nothing crazy and stay calm. Stay calm and safe and ready just in case. To have a plan of action by the time my birthday gets here.
And until that time comes... we had to keep our minds busy. And our instincts on edge.
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This is the first of three days I have off of school. So I hopefully will be able to update again within those days. I hope you are enjoying where this story is heading.