Dead On Arrival~ Season 2- Episode 16: What About Grace (Part 2)

Episode 16: What About Grace (Part 2)

I spent the rest of the day cooped up in the room thinking about what Grace said. I still had chills from it. My mind just kept going over it and over it again. In between that time, Audrey brought me the plate she promised me. She talked my ear off like usual. About the gas station. About last night. It wasn’t till nightfall long after dinnertime that I actually got some sleep and even then Audrey woke me up whining.

“Vince, you don’t look comfortable. You can take the bed or we can…um… share,” she said staring at me from the bed.

I stared back at her from my semi-comfortable chair and blushed thinking about the idea of sharing. I quickly mumbled, “No thanks.”

“Well, Vince…”

I turned over in my chair. “Audrey, I’m sleep. Shut up.”

“Vince. Vince. Vincey? VINCE!!!”

“For God’s sake, what?!

"Can you get me a glass of water? I’m thirsty.”

“Get it yourself!”

She hung upside down on the edge of the bed gawking at me now. Her eyes like puppy dog eyes and her lip out pouting. “Pleeease!”

I groaned knowing full well it was useless to resist. I couldn’t even if I wanted to with her making that stupid face. I got up begrudgingly and left her lying there with an idiot grin plastered on her face.

I descended the stairs. I figured no one should be up this late, so I immediately thought this should be an easy trip to the kitchen and back. I entered the kitchen and not a soul seemed to be in sight. I breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed Audrey a glass. We were lucky to have water still coming from the well system the Jones had set up, but bottled water was still being conserved in the fridge. I thought about grabbing one but settled for the ol faucet. I ran the water and it came out a murky brown. No way I was giving her that. I let it run some more to see if it would clear and gave up when it didn’t. I then poked my head in the fridge for a bottle. I grabbed one and saw something out of the corner of my eye. I lifted up and l looked out the doorway that led to the main hall. There I saw Grace.

“Hey. Hey Ms. Grace,” I whispered loudly smiling a bit.

She didn’t respond. She just kept walking. The look on her face blank. She almost looked like a spirit walking the halls as her blue nightgown flowed behind her. I started to go after her, follow her, but I sensed another presence looming behind me. I could feel its eyes burrowing into me. I turned around to see it was Matthew.

I frowned but greeted him. “Sup?”

He said nothing. I persisted.

“I just saw Ms. Grace. She usually up this time of night?” I asked genuinely concerned as I pointed to the hall.

Nothing. He just stared daggers at me. Frozen in fury. He looked almost like a statue. I could hear the back door open and I immediately panicked thinking of Grace again, but as I went to go after her I felt Matthew grab my arm. I turned around snatching it away from him and we stood face to face.

“Look I just heard the backdoor. I think it was Grace.”

“Shut the fuck you liar!” he snapped glaring at me.

“What?”

“You think you can distract me. Well, it’s not going work”, he snarled. He pointed to his eyes with his forefingers and back at me. “I’m watching you. You may have the others fool, but not me.”

“Dude, what are you talking about? I’m not trying to fool anybody. I just came down here to get some water and then I saw Grace walking around…”

He looked at the bottle of water and with a flash, he slapped it out my hand. He scowled. “Yeah, to steal our water. Our water!”

I raised my right fist but stopped myself. “You’re lucky,” I fumed.

“What? You’re so angry you can kill me? Haven’t you heard the expression? A leopard never changes its spots.”

“I told you I was innocent!!!”

“That’s what they all say!!!”

I breathed heavily trying to keep myself from exploding. I could feel it. Feel the anger. The animalistic anger I had felt before. I clenched my teeth. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re making it very hard.”

“Oh, I thought it would be easy for you!”

“Come off it. What the fuck do you want? A fight? Is that what you want to do?”

“No. I want you out of here. Away from us and I won’t stop till you’re gone, because frankly, I don’t trust you. I don’t trust you won’t hurt us,” he said. He shook his head. “People like you…criminals…they don’t change.”

“And how about you? An ad executive? Is anyone supposed to believe that?” I scoffed. “Who are you really? Maybe someone should be watching you because you’re no simple ad executive, boy. No, there’s more than meets the eye with you!”

He came closer puffing out his chest and we were nose to nose now. I was close to hitting him. I knew it. Maybe even vice versa. The tension and anger had reached its boiling point, but I don’t know what happened first. Omar running downstairs screaming for Grace, the cries echoing downstairs, or Madison running into the kitchen out of breath and terrified. It all happened in slow motion.

Madison came in the kitchen running at top speed. Her eyes were wide as saucers and she had the most alarming look on her face. She babbled almost and pointed frantically. The anger drained from Matthew’s face instantly upon seeing her and was replaced with fear. I also forgot my anger. We both looked at each other sharing frightened expressions and we rushed over to her side.

She began crying. Sobbing. Her knees grew weak and she fell to the floor. Matthew grabbed her and bent down to meet her face.

“What’s wrong? What happened? Madison!” he cried.

I then heard more cries and recognize them. It was Audrey. She stumbled down the stairs and fell to the floor weeping in the stairwell. I ran over to her and held her.

“Oh, God what happen? Audrey, what happened? Tell me.” I said softly feeling teary-eyed myself. I had never seen her this way.

Nathan appeared in the doorway that led into the hallway. He looked pale. You could just tell something horrible had happened from the look on his face. His hand shook as he combed a stray hair out of his face. He looked from one to the other. He looked pained to even speak.

Matthew sat Madison down in a chair gently and turned his attention to him. “Nathan. Nathan. What happened?”

His lip trembled, but he spoke. “Grace. She… she’s outside. In the backyard. Something terrible has happened.”

“I saw her! I saw her! From our window,” Audrey screamed hysterical now. I grabbed her and held her close. I did my best to quiet her.

When she calmed down a little, I told her to stay. She refused shaking her head and she hung on to me for dear life. So we walked into the dining room and out the backdoor. Matthew followed leaving Madison with Nathan. She looked barely conscious as she laid back in the chair with tears streaming down her face.

I was afraid of what I might see even though I expected it. I stepped onto the porch and looked across the yard. Omar appeared to be kneeling over someone. Grace I assumed. Wade then appeared in the doorway. He looked confused but scared. His eyes darted between me and the scene. I managed to loosen Audrey’s grip and gently pushed her towards him. He nodded taking her as if he read my mind and understood. He held her and I knew whatever anger or hate we felt for each other last night had took a back seat.

Matthew too seemed to be on the same page. We exchanged worried looks and we walked over to Omar who held his wife in his arms now. He rocked her back and forth whispering to her. A corpse laid next to them motionless and a white clump of bloody fur laid beside it. I looked closer. It was the white cat from before, Ms. Fluffy or what was left of her anyways. I shuttered and almost headed back for the porch, but I knew I had to look. I slowly looked over Omar’s shoulder. Matthew did the same. We both gasped.

Grace was alive and conscious, but you could see a large gaping hole in her neck. Blood gushed from it. She looked up at us. She looked strangely peaceful. She turned her attention back to Omar and closed her eyes. He rocked her back and forth. Singing quietly to her now.

I felt tears well up in my eyes and turned away to walk over to the porch, but I saw Audrey running towards us. I went to grab her, but there was no stopping her. She pushed past Matthew and bent down next to Omar. She sobbed loudly. I stood by unsure what to do. I didn’t want to leave her there, but it was almost too much for me to bear. Grace was slowly dying. I watched the life slowly drain from her face. She gasped for air and her body trembled as she drew near to death. Any second I was expecting her to take her last breath and take another as a nightmarish shell of herself as a corpse. The thought disturbed me.

DJ then suddenly appeared. He walked at full speed towards us. A knife in one hand and a pistol in the other. “We offer both,” he said addressing Omar quietly as he displayed both weapons. He looked down at the pistol. “We make exceptions for…for times like this.”

Omar glanced up at him and back at Grace. The pained expression on his face was heartbreaking. After several moments, he took the gun.

“I could do it though if you want,” DJ said solemnly cutting his eye at the crossbow on his back.

The older man peered up at all of us standing by. He shook his head. “No, I need to do this. I just need some space. Please.”

We silently agreed. I grabbed Audrey and we headed for the porch. Me, Audrey, Matthew, and DJ joined Wade, Aaron, and Madison who were watching now. Madison though immediately took Audrey into her arms and went back in the house. Aaron and Wade remained.  Aaron sighed loudly as he drunk from his flask while Wade stood by watching. He looked over at me and then at Matthew. His expression then changed to one of suspicion.

“Who was on watch?” he asked eyeing Matthew.

He didn’t answer and he asked again. “Who was on watch?”

“I was. I was on watch,” Matthew cried finally. He crumbled to the floor. “I was.”

Then the sound of a single gunshot rung out loudly at the end of the yard.

*sigh* This was sort of hard to write. :( 

On the next episode, Vince takes a break as narrator and Matthew takes over. Don’t worry Audrey’s turn is coming up too.