Post 24

Peter came to a decision. Dan was still here, so Peter went to him. “I think it would be a good idea if we at least spent the rest of the weekend at Uncle Jeff’s house,” he said. Dan nodded.

“That sounds like a great plan, Pete. Let’s get you packed up and ready.”

“What about me?” asked Laura. “I would rather stay with you, but if you guys are going somewhere else, my parents should, too.”

“Why don’t you give them a call while we get packed up. We can go by your place to pick up some clothes if you want to stay with us.” Peter looked at his mother. “That is, if it’s alright with you, mom.”

“That’ll be fine, Peter. Jeff has a couple spare rooms now that his kids have moved out,” said Heather.

Laura was on the phone with her father, so Peter went up to his room to gather a few things together. It was convenient that he already packed up his room, putting away the things he felt he didn’t need for a while. With it like this, he didn’t have to hunt for the things he wanted. He felt suddenly sentimental looking at the room he lived in for years. He had a fleeting sensation that he wouldn’t be returning to this room. He dismissed that thought as quickly as it surfaced.

He was able to get a bag of clothes together relatively quickly. He closed his bedroom door and came back downstairs carrying his baseball duffel bag full of clothes in one hand and a baseball cap he picked up off his desk in the other. To him, one naturally went with the other.

Laura waited for him at the bottom of the stairs. “My parents are going to be staying with a friend of theirs for the next few days, but they want a phone number where they can reach me.”

“Do they have a cell phone?” asked Dan, passing behind Laura on his way to the living room.

“Yes, my mother does since she travels a lot.”

“Great. Let’s give her a call on her cell phone when they get where we’re going. I don’t want Uncle Jeff’s number to be lying around at your house in case you get an unwanted guest while your parents are away.”

“Do you really think he’ll break into my house?”

“Let’s not take any chances,” said Dan.

“Peter, will you go with me to my house to get my stuff together?”

“Of course I will.” Peter set his bag down at the base of the stairs and gave her a hug, trying not only to reassure her, but to give himself some confidence. Leaving his own house was more difficult than Peter expected.

Dan helped his parents get their luggage out to the truck. Peter helped Sarah with hers, and Laura carried Peter’s duffel bag out with her.

“Do you remember how to get to Uncle Jeff’s place, Peter?”

“Yes, we’ve only been going there for years, right? I’m sure I can find it.” Peter and Laura waved goodbye to his parents before they got into Laura’s car, Peter as the passenger this time, and they left, heading to Laura’s house. As they drove away, Peter looked back at his house almost longingly.

“Are you okay?” asked Laura.

“Yes, but it does feel weird leaving the house behind, completely unprotected.”

“Did you remember to lock the door?”

“My dad will take care of that. He never forgets.”

Peter took a deep breath, which turned into a yawn. Laura saw him out of the corner of her eye, which made her yawn, too, which made them both laugh. Just then, in the middle of their laughter, Peter got a sudden pain in his chest. It was coming from the very same place where Gerald was trying to pull some kind of energy out of his body. Peter put his hands on his chest and doubled over in pain, his expression shifting from laughter to agony.

“What is it, Peter?” Laura could barely keep her eyes on the road. “Are you okay?” She reached a hand over and put it on his shoulder. Peter barely noticed her touch. The pain was excruciating. Then came the vision.

People around him were yelling and screaming in a language he didn’t understand. It sounded like some Middle Eastern language to him, but he knew that much only from movies and television. People near him were running and pointing down the road, and when Peter looked in that direction, he saw armored Humvees driving towards him. He had to take cover but there was nowhere to run. He was caught in the open. Some soldiers got out and walked on foot or ran towards him, their rifles at the ready. One of them raised his weapon and aimed it directly at Peter. Peter began to run blindly away. He looked to his right to check on the soldier and was taken aback when he saw that it was Gerald, drawing down on him. Time slowed down. Gerald fired his rifle, and it went wide of the mark. Peter heard the bullet ricochet off a wall behind him. He continued running, and saw that Gerald began to chase him. He chased him through the streets and between buildings. He was only a block away from where the Humvees drove in. Peter ran around the corner to his right and stopped in his tracks. He had run into a courtyard, closed in on three sides by walls. His only option was to run back the way he came, and that way was now blocked by Gerald, who just peeked his head around the corner of the building. There were windows cut into the sand-colored stone. Peter thought he could make it to one of them, and he began to run towards it. He stopped when he saw that someone was inside, aiming at him. He was completely motionless, staring into the darkness beyond the window, where he saw a brief reflection of sunlight and movement beyond. He didn’t know what to do. Then his eyes adjusted, and he saw that the people inside the building were carrying video cameras. They were filming the courtyard as Peter ran into it.

Peter turned around to face Gerald, and Gerald pulled the trigger once more. Suddenly now Peter was floating above his body, which was lying face-down in a pool of blood. He watched as Gerald ran up to him, cut off one of his ears and pocketed it. He then turned his attention to the window that Peter saw the film crew behind. He raised his weapon again and began to fire indiscriminately. As he shot, he advanced on the window. Peter knew the people inside were scrambling to get away. He knew they were dying. Peter saw a bright light over his head, at the end of a long tunnel. He felt as though he wanted to head towards the light, but then the light was gone as quickly as it came. Instead, he felt himself being drawn into a dark, stagnant pool.

When Peter snapped out of his vision, he sat upright in the car. Laura had pulled over to the side of the road and was rubbing his back and shaking him gently, asking, “Are you okay?” Peter nodded in response. “Does it still hurt?”

“No, I feel better now, but I had another vision. This one was strange.” He described his vision to Laura.

“Again, we have soldiers. Gerald was one of them. He was a brutal killer of defenseless people, an animal himself,” she said.

Peter felt the pain in his chest begin to rise again. He put his hands on his chest and rallied against it. The vision began to replay in his head, but when it reached the point where Peter began to run blindly away, Peter pulled himself out of the vision. The pain subsided.

After a few minutes of making sure Peter felt better, Laura put the car back into gear and drove the rest of the way to her house. Once there, they got out of the car and went in the front door. Peter went with Laura up to her room. This was the first time he saw what her room looked like. It was girlier than he expected, done up in pink and purple, with a flowery, ruffled comforter on her bed that matched the curtains.

Laura pulled a suitcase out of her closet and opened it up on the bed. She took out the dryer sheet that was put in to keep it fresh while she wasn’t using it, and went to her dresser. Opening the drawers one by one, she pulled out enough clothes for several days away and placed them into her suitcase. Peter sat on the bed next to the suitcase, watching her fill it up.

She went out of the room and down the hall to the bathroom, returning with her toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, a hairbrush, hair ties, a blow dryer and an extra towel. “I like to travel light,” she quipped as she placed them into the suitcase.

Once all the things she wanted were placed in the suitcase, she closed it, and Peter picked it up to bring downstairs. It was heavier than he expected, but not so heavy that he couldn’t move it. She opened the door for him, and he put it into the trunk of her car.

“Are you ready to say goodbye to the house for a few days?” Peter asked.

“I guess that’s what I have to do, isn’t it?”

She locked the door and they got back into her car. They drove north on a side street, and west on Sixth Avenue. It reminded them of driving out to Golden, though Uncle Jeff lived in Lakewood, so they wouldn’t be going that far. They got off Sixth Avenue at Simms and drove south and a little west. Peter was guiding Laura, until he realized that they had taken a wrong turn. They drove around the neighborhood, which was mostly made up of apartments and condos, until finally they found the right street. His parent’s car and truck were already here, parked along the street. Laura pulled up in front of the truck and parked. They got out, and Peter pulled the suitcase out of the trunk. Laura grabbed Peter’s duffel bag.

They began walking towards the house when Laura noticed how much Peter was struggling with the suitcase. “It has wheels, Pete.”

He looked at her skeptically and stopped walking. He put the suitcase on the ground. Laura reached over and pushed a button on the side of the handle. The handle telescoped, and Peter was easily able to wheel the suitcase along behind him and up to the house.

They got to the step of the front door and Laura rang the doorbell. Jeff answered the door. At first, he was distant, because he didn’t recognize Laura, but then he saw Peter and was openly friendly. “Hey, Pete! C’mon in!” He stood aside first for Laura, who brought Peter’s bag in, and then for Peter who brought Laura’s suitcase in. His parents and sister were sitting around the large, oak dining room table talking about Gerald, and how he has caused them to leave their home.

“I just wish he would leave us alone,” said Sarah. “We have enough trouble in our lives. We don’t need some guy randomly singling us out.”

The conversation went from there to introducing Laura to everyone, including Jeff’s wife Karen, and then continued on for hours, drifting from one topic to the next. They frequently revisited the events surrounding Gerald’s harassment of them, but also talked about a great many other things. The family was comfortable with each other. Peter and Laura decided to excuse themselves after a while, and went into the living room, where they watched TV and sat, sometimes arm in arm, sometimes holding hands.

For dinner, they ordered enough pizza to feed twice the number of people that were in the house, which gave them a pretty good variety to choose from. Everyone sat around the table for dinner. Afterwards, Jeff showed Laura to the small guest bedroom, and told Peter that he would be sleeping on the couch, which Peter was okay with.

They felt a lot safer here than they did at home, which was a sad revelation. Once dinner was done and things had quieted down, Jeff and his wife and Peter’s parents went up to their respective rooms, leaving Peter and Laura on the couch, again watching TV. Jeff had movie channels, so they were watching Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This was the one with Johnny Depp.

As the single Oompa Loopma was dancing around on the screen as a troop, thanks to being digitally replicated, Peter had another episode. This time, it wasn’t a pain in his chest. It was his vision. It kept slipping and blurring, causing him to look away from the television. He was able to get it back under control, but it took an effort, and it was giving him a strong headache. After a while, he was getting nauseous.

His vision was then normal for the rest of the movie. As the credits rolled, and it was getting late, Peter’s vision blacked out completely and all at once. He was lucky to be sitting down when it happened. If it were to have happened when he was driving, he would have caused an accident.

“Laura, I can’t see.”

“You can’t see anything?”

“Nothing. My vision’s black.”
“Can you fight it like you did before?”

“I’m trying.” A wave of nausea rose up, but he fought that back. “Help me get to the bathroom, just in case.”

“Okay.”

Laura stood up and helped Peter to his feet. She led him to the bathroom and lifted the toilet seat. Peter knelt next to it, with one hand on the bowl, so that he would know where to aim if the need arose.

“How’s the vision?” she asked.

“I’m... fighting through it,” he said with some effort. “I don’t feel nauseous any more, at least not right now.” He grimaced as the pain returned to his chest. As soon as it did, though, his sight returned. The brightness of the bathroom, with its lights reflecting off the mirror, was almost too much for Peter’s eyes. The pain in his chest intensified.

Peter tried something. He felt his face getting warmer.

“What are you doing?” Laura asked.

“I’m asking for help,” he said, clearly focused on something other than speaking. His face grew redder and warmer, as though he was diverting blood to the skin on his face. He looked down at his arms and saw the now-familiar aura around his arms. “Help me, Leanne,” he said.

Laura took half a step back. “What is it about you and bathrooms, Peter?” Peter didn’t react, though.

Finally, Peter took a deep breath, relaxing his mind and body. He saw that he still had an aura around his arms, but his face returned to a normal color. The pain in his chest subsided completely, and his eyesight was normal. “So this is how Aura Man does it,” he said finally, looking himself over in the mirror. “I’ve got to tell you, it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world.”

Peter grabbed a drink of water and they returned to the couch. They were both wide awake, and 12 Monkeys was just coming on, so they sat to watch it. Peter tried to keep tabs on how he felt as the movie played. He felt fine every time he checked. After a while, he stopped worrying about it.

Towards the end of the movie, they were starting to fall asleep. Laura drifted off first, leaning against Peter’s shoulder. Peter raised his arm and she leaned further over onto his chest. He put his arm around her, and placed his head gently onto hers. With his other hand, he reached the remote control and turned the television off. Then he too drifted off to sleep.

In the middle of the night, the house exploded. The shock of the light and searing pain he felt throughout his entire body all at once was almost too much for Peter. He felt like he was losing all control, as he had during the first vision when he woke up posed like a soldier with a rifle. He sat bolt upright and could faintly see around him by the dim light available in the living room. He found himself having to fight the urge to hit Laura with the back of his hand. She was now awake because of Peter’s flailing and struggling. Slowly, meticulously, he fought against the disconnected feelings and regained control over his body. It wasn’t until he was fully in control that he spoke to Laura.

“You might want to go up to your room now. That was really scary.”

“What happened, Peter? You had me so worried!”

“It is as though something inside me wants to take control over my body, and I’m not letting it. If it weren’t for Leanne being with me still, I wouldn’t have been able to stay in control. If anything like this happens again, I don’t want you near me. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I don’t think you would hurt me, Peter. I think it’s good for you to learn what is going on with these things, these attacks.”

“But I don’t want to become another Aura Man, running around killing people.”

“You could never do that, Peter. You’re a good man.”

Her words were indeed soothing to Peter. He was once again awake, though. Wide awake. They sat in the dark holding each other until finally, Laura drifted once again off to sleep. Peter sat awake the rest of the night, fearful that he would lapse again and end up hurting Laura.

In the morning, Peter stirred and Laura woke up when they heard people coming down the stairs. Laura looked at Peter with sleep still in her eyes. “You look terrible, Peter. Did you sleep at all?”

“Not really. I might have dozed here and there, but I was too afraid of hurting you to let myself fall asleep.”

Peter stood up, stretching the tightness from sitting in one place for so long out of his limbs. Laura stretched while sitting on the couch.

“How about we go get some breakfast, and some coffee?” asked Laura.

“That sounds like a great idea. Just promise me you’ll sleep in the guest bed tonight.”

Laura smiled at Peter. “I promise, but it was kindof nice waking up to you this morning.”