chapter 4
On the way to work, Trinity was driving and could barely keep her eyes open. Yawning again, she didn’t know how she was going to make it through the entire day. She knew she needed to get some rest, but she didn’t know how to accomplish that. If only she could have the dreams but still feel like she had gotten a full night’s rest. That would be nice, she thought.
Ever since she woke up, Trinity had perfect clarity of her dream and the one from the night before. She couldn’t help the “cat that ate the canary” smile when she thought back to everything they had done. It was hard to believe that she was the same person she dreamt of. In real life, she would never have the courage to act the way she had. She could feel the heat rising to her face when some of the details popped into her head.
The last thing she needed was to resemble an apple in front of her students. Trinity rolled down her car window just to try and diminish the flush before reaching school, immediately rolling it back up when the rain hit her face.
Dammit! She was really getting tired of it raining all the time. They needed the rain after the incredibly dry summer, but this is insane. What she wouldn’t do now for another one of those dry days.
She was almost to work when she saw that there was some activity on the street corner. When she drove by, she noticed some students from school. It looked as if a confrontation was taking place. Trinity decided to pull around and put a stop to whatever was happening. She spun the car around, passed the group of kids again then turned around a second time to be able to pull on the side of the street.
When she threw her car into park and stepped out, she walked around it to look at the group of people in front of her. She could tell that things had begun to get heated, and she was glad she stopped when she had.
On one side, there were three boys. One she recognized, the others, she did not; one of which was advancing on the other kids. When Trinity looked over, she noticed the other two kids right away from her first period. They just happened to be two out of the three students who were late to her class yesterday. The boy, Hugh, had put himself in between the girl and the other boys and started advancing as well. At a closer look, she noticed the girl sported a split lip.
Hurry! Gotta make it there, Trinity thought to herself, when she was getting closer.
Hugh pulled back his fist to throw a punch at the exact moment Trinity stepped in between everyone. She put one hand up in each direction to stop the advancing boys.
“STOP THIS!! Stop this right now!”
Hugh, obviously startled, jumped back and dropped his hand. “Ms. Bradshaw?”
“What the hell do you think you guys are doing? What happened to make you think this was remotely okay?” Trinity’s heart was pounding.
“He hit her!!” Hugh yelled. “I just thought he might like to see how it feels.” With his last words, he lunged at the other guy.
Hugh pressed against her hand that she still held out. “Whoa! Settle down!!” She didn’t know how to stop this, but she had to think of something quick before things got too rough.
Standing as tall as she could, she put her shoulders back and tried to look like she meant business. She had enough history dealing with bullies that she figured she could handle this.
She rounded on the group of boys and addressed the one Hugh had tried to attack. “Did you hit her?”
He just shrugged. “She was trying to interfere in my business after I already told her it was none of hers. It’s kind of like what you’re doing right now.” He eyed her close. “Who the f*ck are you anyway?”
“How can it be none of my business? He’s my brother and you won’t leave him alone!” Stephanie yelled from behind Hugh.
After close examination of the boy, she noticed his pupils were over dilated and he smelled of something that she hadn’t smelled since college. Then and there, she knew the best response. “I’m the person that just called the police before I got out of my car. They should be here any minute now, and by the looks of you guys, I don’t know if I would want to meet with them.”
They started looking around at the road and at each other, more than likely trying to figure out what to do.
“You’re lying…” one of the boys said, but not sounding too sure.
“Am I? I don’t think so. I don’t mess around when it comes to my students.”
Looking at the one obviously in charge, Trinity continued. “Speaking of which…I didn’t catch your name. I need to be able to tell Sherriff Johnson, a very dear family friend, the name of the young adult that has been beating around my young student.” She started slowly stepping toward him. “What are you…eighteen, nineteen? How does it feel to smack around a smaller, weaker, sixteen year old girl? Does it make you feel tough?” By this time she was inches away from him and finished it off with a more menacing voice. “How about this “tough guy”, the next time I hear about you being anywhere near her or her brother, I will have you put in jail so fast your head will spin; harassment, assault, and I’m pretty sure we can figure out more.”
Finishing her little speech, she stepped back and pointed to the boy she had seen in school before. “And you…you better get in that school, you’re late. Maybe think about a better influence in friends next time.”
The boy in the middle finally spoke up before backing away. “Come on guys, let’s go.”
“Good choice” was all Trinity said before she turned around to address her students. “Come on, get in the car. We’re already going to be late as it is.”
Stephanie looked at her warily. “No, we can walk. I don’t want to talk to the police; you should stay since you’re the one that called.”
“There not coming. Come on, let’s go.” Trinity walked over to her car and opened the passenger door for them.
They didn’t move. “But Ms. Bradshaw, that would mean you lied.” Hugh spoke up but his tone was mocking.
“Yes I did. It was a good bluff at the time. If you remember, I put honesty and respect in the same context. That boy did not deserve my respect and was not showing any in kind.”
Stephanie, looking exhausted, mumbled. “Let’s just get out of here.”
Trinity stepped forward and grabbed Stephanie’s upper arm to guide her to the car. “You know, you don’t have to go to school, I can take you home.”
“No. I’m fine.” She climbed into the car and maneuvered to the back seat.
When Trinity turned to walk over to the driver’s side, she noticed Hugh had made no move to get in. She looked back at him with a questioning look and he spoke up. “I was handling that you know? You didn’t have to get involved.”
“I know, but this way was less violent and cops would have definitely been called the other way, and you would have gone to jail.”
“Fine.” He relented and climbed in the car. When they were back on the road, Hugh made another observation. “There’s no Sherriff Johnson, is there?”
She kept her eyes on the road and her face expressionless as she answered. “Maybe somewhere, but not that I know. Like I said, it was a good bluff.”
The car was silent for the remainder of the trip. When she pulled into a parking space, they all got out and started walking up to the school. Looking over at Stephanie, she noticed that her lip was starting to look worse. “You know, you should probably get to the nurse so she can ice your lip. It will help with the swelling. Just tell her I sent you.”
Stephanie nodded and broke away when they had made it to the doors. She turned after only being a few feet away and addressed Trinity. “Thank you. You know…for everything.”
“You’re welcome.”
Hugh made a short strangled noise and when Trinity looked over; she could tell he was still fuming.
She started to head to her class and addressed Hugh without looking at him. “Walk with me.” After a minute of walking in silence, Trinity knew she was going to have to be the one to speak up first. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer for so long, she was afraid they would be at the classroom before anything got settled. Finally, he answered in a clipped tone. “I had that back there! Those guys…they needed to be taught a lesson, and you just let them walk away!”
“You wanted to solve violence with violence?” He pursed his lips, but said nothing so she continued. “I get it, you wanted to avenge her, but you just would have caused more trouble. Sometimes things are better solved subtly. Will what I said work? Who knows? My goal, today, was to keep you both out of harm’s way.
She could tell he was getting really agitated now. “Guys like that don’t deserve to be able to walk around hurting whoever they want!”
All of this was hitting a little too close to home for her.
“I completely agree. The world would be a much better place without people that thought it was okay to pick on a weaker person. They all get what’s coming to them in the end. You just have to be patient.”
Hugh, who was at eye level with her, just stared. Damn, she did it again…let too much show. “Is that what you’re doing?”
Trinity ducked her head and sped up her pace. “Hurry up. I don’t want to be too late.”
With that last statement, the two of them briskly walked to the classroom. Trinity spent the last minute they had composing herself after her trying morning. She would have never thought she would have gone through all this before her first class even started. Now, it felt like she had had a full day and all she wanted to do was go home and crawl in bed to go to sleep.
She then had a genuine smile. Yeah, sleep and dream about… Did she ever give him a name? Hmm, she’ll think of something later. It’s weird how all she had to do was think of him and calming warmth spread through her.
She was still smiling when she walked into her classroom. “Sorry I’m late. There were things that needed to be tended to, and I apologize that it took away from your class time.” She propped herself against her desk. “Anyone have anything they would like to share? Any ideas on how we can get to know each other better?”
That’s how it went on for about ten minutes. Students were reading, laughing at the funny stories and giving comments on others.
She went around to the back of her desk to get out her notes on what she wanted to talk about today. That’s when she saw it. There was another rose on her chair and she froze in place. This was becoming too much. Memories swarmed her and all she wanted to do was run, hide, or scream; not knowing exactly which one first. After what felt like an eternity, she slowly stood up and squared her shoulders. She wouldn’t do any of those things, because she promised herself that she wasn’t going to be a victim ever again.
Roses were Seth’s thing. He got her roses all the time. The color would depend on his mood. If he wanted to be romantic, it was pink, lustful…red, orange…he was displeased. She got a blue rose twice from him. He told her that the blue reminded him of the ice in her veins. After the first blue rose, she got a broken wrist and a busted cheek from “falling”. She never wanted to remember what happened after the second. After that, she broke away from him the best she could. He didn’t make it easy, but she made it.
Finally, she remembered where she was. When she looked up, she saw the class was staring at her speculatively. As a way to brush everything off, she started to laugh. Giving a halfhearted chuckle and a shake of her head, she apologized for dazing off and started again. “Okay, today we are going to talk about photos we like and why. By the end of the class, everyone should be able to tell what type of prints another person might enjoy taking.”
The next thirty minutes until class was over seemed to go by fast. With the use of her blown up prints of miscellaneous things, they had a good class discussion about themes, lighting, setting, and more.
The bell rang right when they were discussing advantages and disadvantages of natural sunlight. The kids were still discussing these things as they were leaving the classroom, and Trinity thought how satisfying it was when the kids liked what she taught.
When she turned around, Hugh was standing by her desk.
She jumped back and got startled enough to screech a little. Holding her hand to her chest, she caught her breath and addressed him. “Did you have a question, Hugh?”
He stood there with obvious interest on his face. “Why don’t you like them?”
At her confused look, he added, “The roses…”
“Did you give them to me?” Shocked, she could have sworn they were from Seth.
He smiled a little at the crack in her voice. “No, no. But I can see your face every time you see one, and I can tell that you don’t like getting them.”
“Oh!” She was a smidge disappointed. She would much rather ward off the affections of a student then be on Seth’s radar again. “Well…it’s not something I want to discuss, but you are right. I don’t like them.”
Nodding, he turned to leave but stopped before turning his head at the last minute to look at her over his shoulder. “I know you only think of me as a kid, but if you need anything, anything at all, just let me know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” No she wouldn’t. She watched the young man walk into the hallway and thought how the stuff revolving around her was no place for him.
Now that she had a couple hours free before her next class, she decided to go to the nurse’s office and talk with Stephanie. So, she gathered up a few things, and locked up her other personal items. Walking passed her desk; she grabbed her newly acquired flower, and not so gently pitched it into the garbage can.
“Please let the rest of the day not be so difficult.” Sending up a silent message to whomever was up there, she walked out of the room.
Trinity was dragging her feet by the time she walked into her front door that evening. What a day she had! First the stuff that went down this morning before school even started, then the stress about the rose situation.
By the time her first period was over, she didn’t want to be around anyone else today. She tried spending an hour in the darkroom to relax a little, but she just couldn’t shake the tension surrounding her.
She always tells her students to let everything go that is bothering them before going into the darkroom, or it will show in their prints by creating mistakes that normally would never have happened. She should have taken her own advice. Now she added to the trash bin, and gave herself a few more over-exposed photos.
The classes were relaxed and carefree but she was not in such a good mood, and the students could tell. In an exercise where there should have been lightness, everyone was tense or bored and couldn’t wait to leave.
After the day was over, she was ready to get into comfy cloths, eat some dinner, and be lazy for the rest of the night. She was contemplating whether she would watch television or finish reading the romance novel she had just started when she walked in her front door. Immediately she kicked off her shoes and dropped all her belongings by the door. She couldn’t believe how much her body ached. Sleep, that’s what she needed, actual sleep.
Once she got changed and ate a light dinner, she opted to watch some television. Snuggling into the corner of her couch, she picked up the remote and started flipping channels, stopping when she saw the weather being reported. She listened as the weatherman predicted the rain to stop within the next few days. Thank heavens!
They then went on to talk about the flooding throughout the city, but before she could change the channel, they were talking about another murder near the art museum. She shook her head and wondered how many that was now. Chicago was by far not the safest city, which was the main reason Nicole and she decided to live outside of it, but it was still weird for so many murders to happen that far East. Is anywhere safe now a day, she thought?
“Ahh!!” Trinity casually glanced over and screamed when she saw her back door slowly opening. The door swung all the way open and Nicole was standing there with her eyes looking like they were about to pop out of her head. She jumped inside and started looking around. “What!?! What is it?”
Hand over her chest, Trinity was trying to catch her breath. “Jeez Nicci, you scared me half to death! Can’t you make a little noise, or announce it’s you?”
“Okay…” Nicci looked confused. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but I’ve never had to before, so I didn’t give it much thought this time.”
“I know, I know. Sorry I snapped; it’s just been an off day.” Trinity put on the face that everything was okay, but inside she was slowly uncurling. She was in real trouble if a lone door opening could do this to her.
“Tell me about it! That’s why I brought wine.” She spoke as she held up a bottle of wine and walked in the kitchen and pulled out two glasses. “I had such a frustrating day, nothing I was doing was going how I wanted, and things weren’t getting done…” Pouring the glasses, she walked back over and handed one to Trinity. “What’s up with you?”
“A lot happened today is all.” She smiled up at her friend, but by the look Nicole gave her, she knew her friend didn’t believe it was that simple. Before the night was through, she knew she would be spilling her guts.
A few subtle questions later and sure enough, she was telling all. When she got around to the part about the roses, Nicole choked on her wine. “Have you called the police yet?”
“I didn’t want to blow things out of proportion. What if it’s just an admirer and I’m jumping to conclusions?”
Before Trinity could finish, Nicci interrupted. “What colors?” When Trinity didn’t answer right away, she asked again. “What colors were the roses, Rin?”
Trinity waved her hand as if to wave off her concern. “It’s nothing, orange, no big deal.”
Nicole didn’t look entirely comfortable. “I still think you should call the police. At least give them a heads up.”
“No! No police right now. There’s been no sign of him.”
“Why wait till he decides to surface?” She just didn’t get it.
“I’m not. I just…I don’t want to say anything right now!”
Nicole was sitting straight up in her chair. “Why, the hell, not?”
Trinity didn’t answer her. She couldn’t look up. She didn’t want her to see… “Im not weak! I am strong! I’m not weak!!” She kept repeating the phrase in her head.
“Answer me!!”
Trinity’s head popped up when Nicole yelled. Nicci never yelled. She stood up and loomed over her friend. “What if I tell someone and it makes him madder? What if he comes after me when all he was doing was trying to scare me?” Her hands started to shake and she gripped them into fists to help them stop. “I’m so scared it’s hard to breathe Nic, but what are the police going to do? I have no real proof that it’s even him.”
Nicole just stared. She had always tried to put up a strong front, not showing any weakness, therefore Nicci hardly ever saw her like this. Nicci stood and pulled Trinity into a hug. “At least stay at my place tonight.”
Trinity was already shaking her head no before her friend finished. “It’s okay. I’ll lock all the doors and windows and sleep with my cell phone in hand, but I need to be here. I am hardly getting any sleep and need some rest.”
Nicole finally conceded and left shortly after, but not before making Trinity promise to scream bloody murder if she needed help.
Finally, she started to change for bed and opted for her cozy flannel pants tonight. She felt her cheeks start to warm and let out a small bit of laughter when she remembered the comment her dream guy had said about them. As she climbed into bed, she didn’t know what she wanted more; to see him again tonight or to actually get some sleep for once. When her head hit the pillow, she smiled, looking forward to either scenario.
******
Quickly, she realized that she wasn’t in the nice big bed she had been in for the last two nights. This place was dark and had a combined smell of wood and dust. It was so familiar, but she couldn’t peg it down to anything in particular.
She tried to adjust her position, but found that she could hardly move because it was such close quarters. She hated tight spaces! Her breathing became harsher and faster. She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself, but it wasn’t working.
“Come out, come out wherever you are.” She heard someone taunt. “Come on sweet cakes, don’t make me search… The harder I look for you, the madder I will become. Trust me, you don’t want me mad!”
Trinity knew that voice!! She threw her face quickly to the small sliver of light so she could see out. She saw legs pass by and quickly backed up again. She put her hand over her mouth to be sure not to make any noise. It can’t be, she thought.
She was right back where she was fourteen years ago, hiding in her secret place in the wall, away from the people that murdered her parents. When she glanced back out the crack she saw her parents’ bedroom. If she remembered correctly, her mother was right…there. Trinity turned her vision a little to the left and saw her mom bloody and beaten, but still alive. She knew her father was just beyond the doorway, but could only see his head.
“Where is she!?!” Trinity heard this from the other room and knew they were yelling at her dad. She could feel a spreading warmth fill her chest to have her parents alive and so close, but she knew it wasn’t going to last.
Trinity knew what was coming and didn’t want to watch it all over again. She clinched her eyes shut and willed herself to wake up. It didn’t work! She pinched, poked, anything small that hurt, she did to herself to try and wake up. Nothing worked!
Trinity could hear the man calling again for her to come out. She thought about getting out of the wall, changing what happened last, in fantasy at least. She couldn’t move. All she could do was stare.
One man grabbed her mom’s hair to hold her still while he placed a gun at her temple. The other man was explaining that if her dad didn’t tell them where she was hiding in ten seconds, that he would give the order to kill his wife.
10, 9, 8, 7…
Trinity’s dad just sat there with tears streaming down his face, staring at his wife…her mother.
“Don’t even think about it!” Hearing her mother’s voice made her swing her vision to her. She was so beautiful, even with tear stained cheeks. Trinity wanted to yell out, to tell them to leave them alone, but her mother told her to stay quiet no matter what.
6, 5, 4, 3…
Trinity frantically was looking from her dad to her mom, willing one of them to say something, but no one did. She looked over at her dad just in time to see him mouth “I love you.”
2, 1
The gun shot made Trinity jump. There was no room to move and her head hit a nail sticking out of the wall. She reached up and felt the side of her head and her hand came back sticky. She knew she was bleeding, but didn’t care. She just watched her mother die…again. She wanted to wake up before anymore happened, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t.
She heard screaming, and yelling, and a constant thud. When she looked out the crack again, she saw two men yelling at each other about not being able to find her. The other took it upon himself to hit her father over and over hoping he would give up her location. He never did.
They did one last search of the house, and then thought up a plan to make it look like an interrupted robbery; hoping that Trinity was out of the house so she couldn’t dispute the fact. The men gave her father one last chance to talk while pointing the gun at his chest. When he didn’t, the man holding the gun fired three quick shots that ended her father’s life.
Daddy…
She knew the rest. The men would take things and then disappear, but that’s not what happened this time. When they left, she fully intended to wake up, but she didn’t. Instead she heard slow, steady footsteps.
“Trinity…where are you…?” It was a man’s voice; very soft and somewhat soothing in a way.
She didn’t recognize his voice so she peered out the hole, trying to get a glimpse. She got none, but could hear him getting closer.
“Trinity… Hello…?” Was he laughing? “Where are you now girl?”
Trinity could feel that he was close but couldn’t see or hear him anymore. A few minutes went by and nothing. She had just started to relax when an eye appeared at the crack in the wall.
The color of the eye was black and crinkled at the edges as if he were smiling. The sudden appearance made her jerk backwards.
“Oh, there you are!” That was all she heard before a hand grasped he ankle and started to pull.
She fought and screamed and kicked, but nothing would deter him. In fact, she swore she heard him laughing.
In a split second, she was no longer being pulled, but now in a place that was almost completely black. She was standing up with her arms stretched out to the side. Something was holding her in the position because she couldn’t move.
She saw something gray flash in her line of vision right before she felt an intense pain on her chest. She looked down, but the room was too dark for her to see anything. Eventually, she felt something warm running down her front and she knew that it was blood. She was trying to peer into the darkness when she saw, what looked like a cord, whip toward her again. The burning came suddenly in the exact place where the thing touched her.
She cried out and yelled to leave her alone, but all she got as a response was a deep chuckle.
Gray flashed in her line of vision again and Trinity let out a long, loud scream.
She was free! She could move her arms finally, but she wouldn’t stop screaming. Trinity opened her eyes when she heard a loud thud. She saw Nicole standing there in the doorway with a gun held up, pointed at nothing.
“Oh God! What are you doing?” A gun? Trinity cringed backward, she hated guns!
“Where is he!?!” Nicci was frantic.
“What are you talking about?” Trinity was confused. What the heck was going on and when had Nicci finally lost her senses.
Nicole was still waving the gun around everywhere, searching the room. “You were screaming, have been for a good five minutes! I called the police, grabbed this…” She indicated the pistol. “…then got over here as fast as I could!”
“Put that away, now!!” Trinity yelled. “I can’t believe you would bring that in here. You know how I feel about them.”
“Don’t yell at me!! I thought you were in trouble, I was trying to help.” Nicole yelled right back but at least lowered the gun and placed it on the dresser.
Trinity wiped her hand over her eyes and was surprised that her hand came back wet. “I had a bad dream.”
“Seth…?”
“No, I was in the wall again.” It was hard for her to finish talking and at least she didn’t need to elaborate. Nicole knew every detail of her past.
Nicci walked over and sat next to her on the bed. Her friend’s face had gone from frustrated to sympathetic is a matter of seconds. Nicole wrapped her arms around her and whispered. “I’m so sorry! And I’m a big help after that huh, bringing in a gun?”
“When did you get that anyway? I thought you hated them just as much as me.” Trinity was still holding onto Nicci, not ready to let go.
“Not as much as you.” Nicole talked softly, treading carefully. “I got it a couple years ago. We are two women living alone. I wanted to be able to defend us if need be.”
Trinity understood; she really did. Taking a few deep breaths, she was finally starting to calm down. That was until she remembered something her friend said. She stiffened and pulled back. “Did you say you called the police?”
Trinity could already hear the faint sound of a siren and knew that it was for her.
“You were screaming! I thought-“
Trinity interrupted with a loud sigh. “I know. You did good Nic.” She yawned and thought how she still hadn’t gotten any decent rest. Now this… She stood up, out of bed, and put on her slippers to walk downstairs so she could wait for the police. Knowing that she wasn’t going to have time to go back to sleep, she wondered if she would have really wanted to again tonight.