A Dangerous Interlude

Sometimes things happen without our complete knowledge, and the results can be life-changing. For me, it was her; I knew from the first moment I met her that my life would completely change. Before her, I was lonely and felt I would always be alone. Since then, her smile warms my heart, her laughter tickled at my ears, her embrace causes me to melt and become fragile. Everything about her felt like perfection in a dystopian world. For two years, she has been my guiding light…

Until the day she disappeared.

For two months, I have not slept and ate very little. I spend my weekdays drudging along at work, while my evenings were spent conferring with the lead detective on the case. Weekends were spent with my family as well as hers. In the two years that she and I were together, our families had become great friends and we often spend a weekend or two together. My parents had decided to become moral support and moved in with her family for the time being. With all of this going on, I find I avoid the alone-time in the apartment…our apartment. I only go for a few minutes at a time to shower and change, and what little I eat I either go out for food or wait until I go home for the weekend and have something home-made and not greasy fast food.

Which is why today was a stranger-than-normal day. I found that I just wanted to be home. Calling off work, I sat on the couch and began to feel rather at home. It was like taking a break from everything and remembering what it was like before I had to grow up. On that couch, I began to picture her; my lovely Tessa, her long hair tossed up haphazard without care, wearing jeans and a comfortable t-shirt, sitting on the floor in front of me, flipping through a deck of cards during her game of solitaire. She would occasionally tuck a stray hair behind her ear and shuffle three or four cards around and work on her challenge. She turned her head to look at me then and her eyes sparkled with interest and concentration, her focus unknown to me. I found myself leaning toward her, compelled to place a kiss on the tip of her nose in play. Just before I could reach her, something took my attention from her.

I blink my eyes and the image of her was gone.

The ding of my tablet sounded again, alerting me of the presence of an email in my inbox. Cursing myself for not turning that blasted thing off, as well as feeling my heart continue to tear at the realization of her absence, I heave off of the couch and start for where the tablet lay against the wall. Again it sounded and I merely spoke aloud for it to shut up. I reach it and toy with the buttons to take me to the home screen.

What threw my head into another zone was the email used to hold the new mail. I had a certain one I used anymore mainly because of how I must be professional and the like. This one, the one that continued to ring for my attention, was a very old one. I plugged it into my device when I first started using it because I'd gotten it years previous. Now that I rarely ever use it, I was surprised to even see a message in that one.

I assumed it was junk mail when there was an unknown sending address. I wanted to throw it into the appropriate folder when I felt the need to open it. Hey, I needed a new tablet anyway. I had the money. If a virus destroyed it, I probably wouldn't have cared in the least. So, in the end, I opened the email.

Inside was something that nearly ripped my heart from my chest.

I stormed the police department, my stride and expression revealing I was a hell-bent madman. Several officers asked if I needed anything. The only thing I could even utter in my rage was one word: "Gutierrez." Many of them had no clue what I meant. When I reached the missing person department, they understood immediately what I meant.

Detective Gutierrez rushed from his office when he heard me yell his name. His tie was loose, most likely since I was interrupting lunchtime. His expression was shocked, almost as if I'd grown horns and begun throwing fire at his coworkers. I stop in front of him, my breathing hard as though I had run a marathon.

"Mr. Greene, I could hear you calling my name before you hit the department. I never expected you to be—"

I thrust forward my tablet, never taking my eyes away from the lead detective in the department. He merely looked at me with confusion, aware that my eyes were narrow with anger.

"I just got an email on this. You need to see this. It's about Tessa."

The napkin Gutierrez had been holding instantly crumpled in his hand and he angrily threw it against the wall. He then beckoned me to follow him into his office, and I did so. If there was one person I could trust with anything in this investigation, it was Gutierrez. Every time we get a new lead or have a downfall, it seems to affect him greatly. He had even confided to me once that this was the hardest case he had ever worked. So this email was good news…we had hoped.

Pulling cables from my pocket, I then proceed to connect the ancient tablet to the computer system for the email to be viewed on a larger screen. We wanted to see this on a larger screen…needed to see this on a larger screen. This evidence would hopefully help us finally get closer to finding her and her troubles would be over. My troubles—not sleeping, barely eating, not knowing if I'd ever see her again—were nothing compared to her loneliness, her fear, her uncertainty of seeing another day.

I would gladly take her place. I am stronger, but in the way that I could more likely defend myself better. She could, however, be stronger than I had ever imagined; her patience was marvelous and I envied her self-control. Back in the day, I would get into fights at the drop of a hat. Her coolness was something that attracted me to her and her level head has made me a better man.

By now we had connected the devices and I began typing and clicking my way toward the email. Within minutes I had pulled up the email I used and had downloaded the email from. I pause the mouse over the email and I found I was frozen. I could barely breathe. This was the most pivotal moment in my life so far and I found I could not move a muscle. Was it due to what I had seen before I came over here? I felt a hand on my arm and Gutierrez looked at me with soft eyes.

"Go ahead, Mr. Greene. When you're ready."

No hesitation when I clicked the mouse. A video instantly popped onto the screen and I threw the volume on the speakers to full. Static from a home video recorder was dim and audible, bit not loud enough to cover the sounds. On the screen sat a figure shrouded in shadow and apparently weeping. It sounded feminine…I had heard that exact weeping a few times before.

A light above the figure clicked on and the cloak of shadow disappeared, revealing a haggard female.

"Tessa!" Gutierrez shouted loudly and emotionally. This was as far as I had gotten when I had first seen it at the apartment. The rest of this video would be as alien to me as seeing an actual extraterrestrial walking the streets.

The video showed me what I did not want to see; torture. She looked to be bound, sitting in a hard-backed chair, her hands wrapped around the back, her feet tied together with a white rope. She wore the same jeans and shirt she was wearing when she left the apartment to go to school. Her hair was limp and looked as if she never had a chance to really brush it. Then I began to think that this was all set up, a show for the audience to make them believe that the actors were really victims.

A mechanical voice then began to speak to us. "Hello there, Justin. I assume you know why I am showing you this?"

Tessa lifted her head and I saw her face covered in dirt and shiny with…was that tears? My heart broke as I saw her face contort in anguish and begin to cry.

"I figured it was time to let you know how she was doing. She misses you, you know. I hear about it every day. It wasn't the result I wanted, but in the end you are a rather lucky man, Mr. Greene. I think I'll allow you to try and find her now."

There was a little pause and Tessa then opened her mouth to say something. Not knowing what she would say—I couldn't even imagine any words she may use—and waiting practically on my toes to hear her, she licked her lips and began to utter words.

"Justin," she scratched, her voice so crackled and broken that she could barely utter my name without her throat giving and her tears starting again.

I turn away from the screen, my throat closed so tight that I could not breathe. My hands were in fists clenched so tight that I could nearly break the skin. I wanted to believe this wasn't real and that it was just more of the imagination I used to try and have as a child. I wanted more than anything in the world for her to not be on the screen now, but at home, waiting for me with a plate of spaghetti or something in her hand as she just gets done making dinner. I wanted to believe that I would see her again.

"She misses you a great deal, Mr. Greene. Go to the police with this video, because without it, you might not be able to find her. Believe me, Mr. Greene, you may need all the help you can get."

I then heard the camera lift from where it had been sitting and laughter. Tessa's sobs became audible and I squeezed my eyes shut to try to tune that sound from my ears and erase it before it etches into my mind. The next sound was of a key being pressed on Detective Gutierrez's computer. Silence.

"I'll take this to the tech guys. Hopefully we can get some sort of trace on it. We need to find the location of where she is. Based on past cases, she looks like she isn't in too good of shape."

I nod my head as I turn around. "Take my tablet if you need to. Do whatever you need to do. I want to finish this. I want her back."

Gutierrez nodded his head. "Me too, Mr. Greene. Me too."

I looked at her now, her hair floating in the calm breeze, her eyes reflecting the soft smile that danced across her lips. The meadow where she stood was vast and radiantly green, the sun bright and high in the summer sky. She danced in the tall grasses, spinning freely and laughing occasionally. The dress she wore around her flowed with the wind and her every movement. As the sun was very bright, I had a hard time placing the color of this dress.

"…Green…"

The dress turned to a light shade of green, but then it changed to a calmer beige. Or white even.

"…Green!..."

No! The dress was not green! It was beige! It had long flowing sleeves and came down to just above her knees. There was no way this dress was green.

"Greene!"

I open my eyes and find myself staring into the face of Gutierrez. The proximity to which his face was to mine made me momentarily forget where I was and I nearly strike him in the face with my fist before I realize who it was and stop myself. Then I started to feel my heart hurt; I had done this to Tessa a number of times when we first started living together and she would be calm and understanding and just kiss me and say that it was alright and not to be afraid. I shove Gutierrez away and sit up to see that he had not been alone when he woke me.

My friend from years back looked at me, concern in his eyes. My friend Simon, who I had been friends with since we were young children, gave a small wave. I heave myself from the couch I had been sleeping on and we gave a tight hug. I had seen him last when the investigation first started, and since then he had been active in helping when I wasn't feeling up to answering questions.

"Si, what are you doing here?" I ask him when I pulled myself from him.

"Detective G called me when you fell asleep. He said there was a big break in the case. Is everything alright? You finally getting some sleep?"

"How long was I out?"

Gutierrez looked at the clock on his desk. "I'd say roughly an hour. I'm having the tech guys look at that file on your tablet as we speak. Let's just hope the trace isn't too difficult—"

A cell phone rang and Gutierrez answered it. He said a few words to the person on the other end and looked at me with wide eyes. Then he hung up and continued to look at me.

"They have a lead. They also…found something you need to look at."

We all enter the small room that housed dozens of computers and a great amount of technical equipment. The whirring of computers was loud and the two men operating the machines looked bright and hopeful in their hobby.

"We have good news. The trace we did on the file went to a computer located just a few miles away. It looks to be an old warehouse of some sort."

The video looked to be in a warehouse. That I remember.

"This email came in as we were running through the other file. We think you may want to see this."

One of them clicked the email and opened the attachment to open a video file. They pressed play and the video was of a newspaper dated for this morning. Then it flashed over to Tessa, who was still in the chair, looking as haggard as earlier.

"Thank you all for taking time out of your lives for this helpless girl. She is still alright, as you can see. I have just one demand: I want Mr. Greene to enter the building first. Don't worry, I won't shoot him. I won't shoot the girl if he does not enter first. However, I will shoot at the police if one enters before Mr. Greene. I want to see Mr. Greene's face when he sees his beloved as a damsel in distress. Come when you're ready."

The video stops itself and I nearly faint from the loss of blood. If I don't go, people will die. If I do, how was I sure she was alright? The voice could have been lying and might shoot me if I go in. I wouldn't mind as long as Tessa was saved from the same fate as I.

Everyone in the room was silent. The whirring of the computers almost seemed to quiet themselves at this moment in time. I had the feeling no one knew what to say, what to think even. I know I was having a very hard time wrapping my head around this new development. Looking to Gutierrez, I saw him bow his head in concentration and fold his arms across his chest. He stood there a moment like that, thinking about something important. After a moment, he raised his head and looked at me.

"Would you be willing to go in first? It's against our better judgment, but I don't want any of my men killed. This video seems legitimate, too. There's no doubt that he will tell the truth. Would you be willing to go in and risk your life?"

I turned to look at him squarely and felt my eyes narrow unconsciously. "I'd walk on fire and take a bullet for her any day of my life. Of course I'll go in first. I want to see her for myself. I will risk my own life before the life of one of your men is taken, Detective."

"Then it's settled. We leave in twenty. Grab your coat, Greene. It's time to bring her home."

It took us only twenty minutes to grab enough officers to secure everything and get into vehicles to get a move on. I noticed Simon missing once we started getting everything packed up. It was good for him. I didn't want him there. This was something I wanted to do on my own and with him there it could get messy. He was the friend I relied on a lot and he being there would just be weird, in my own opinion.

Gutierrez had now repeated, for the third time, what the plan for me was. I was to go in and find Tessa, get her out, then make sure to never let her go again—that last part is for myself. I was asked if I wanted to wear a bulletproof vest. I told them no, because if I was going to get shot to be killed they would have to give me a helmet; the head was quickest. They obeyed my request and then I was turned loose to go find Tessa. As I stepped from the car, I prayed that this would all blow over well. If there was anything I wanted in the world, I wanted to see her smile again and kiss her until I couldn't breathe.

I quickly made my way to the door of the building that had a hand-written sign on it. "Greene" was what it said; this was the way into finding her. I slide in and was blinded by a darkness so deep that it took me minutes to adjust to the change in light. Once again able to see, I saw long hallway with another door at the other end. I start toward and noticed something painted on the door in red. Realizing what it was, I picked up my pace and was nearly running toward the red target on the door. If I was wrong, I would die trying to find my lost love again. I closed in on it and thought only one thought: Tessa, Tessa, Tessa!

I made it! I threw open the door the moment I got to it and looked into the room. The darkness from the hall caused me to become blind to the small light that hung in the center of the room. It only took me a moment to readjust to the new amount of light for me to then understand everything.

There she was. Sitting with her hands still bound and appearance even more defined in person, Tessa looked haggard, causing my heart to feel like it had nearly split in two. She lifted her head and I could see the streaks her tears made in the crusted dirt that covered her face. Upon seeing me, her face scrunched and she began to sob, almost embarrassed with herself. I go to take a step toward her…

"Mr. Greene," a familiar voice called through the darkness, "I see you made it just in time. Please close the door so we may begin."

Turning my head, I saw no one around me. I close the door and behind the door stood a figure in the shadows. Coming forward, I was surprised to see Simon staring back at me, a grimace of evil spread across his face.

"Hey," he said calmly, his hands in the pocket of his black hoodie. It was like he was addressing an old friend, not the game piece of his negotiations in front of his captive.

"Si…how could you…this whole time—"

"I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out. You had no clue at all? God, even I was careful enough to even use the email you had in high school. Didn't that give anything away?"

Thinking back, I was sure I had never suspected him. He had been there for me at the beginning, telling me everything would be alright and the police would find her. Never in my mind did I suspect him of this or anything even remotely close to it. Then the full force of it hit me; he had kidnapped Tessa. He was the scumbag I had dreamed of getting rid of for two whole months. I felt the rage boiling within me.

"To think I thought you were smarter than this—"

"Justin, no!"

I pounced on Simon, Tessa knowing full well that I would do it. I dealt a spinning heel kick to the side of his face, as I had done hundreds of times in martial arts. Simon fell to the floor and began laughing maniacally. I went to force my foot into his stomach when I heard Tessa call my name…and the clatter of a chair hitting concrete. In my fit of red rage, I heard this and instantly my mind returned to her. I spin around and found Tessa on the floor, chair overturned, her forehead beginning to glisten with scarlet from a scratch above her eye. I ignore Simon and rush over to where she was, my heart throbbing in pain for her.

"Sweetheart," I cooed as I knelt and lifted her head from the cold floor. I looked at the wound and saw it was minor. She looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

"Justin," she whispered, her voice soft and heavy with tears.

"She's tamed you," I heard Simon taunt. "You could have finished me off with just a few more blows, yet you ran to her side. I see why she wouldn't love anyone but you."

I turn my head and look at him. His lip was bleeding and his eyes were dangerous and fierce. He looked angry, like I had spoiled his fun. I stroked Tessa's hair, not looking at her, knowing from memory where her hair hit her face. I trailed my fingers then down to her eyes, avoiding where I felt the hot sticky blood that dripped just above her eyebrow. They were closed, and wet, from warm watery tears.

"What does that even mean, Si? She loved you like a friend—"

"Just a friend! That's all I ever was to her! Neither of you could see what my true feelings were. I always had to hide who I was in front of her because I couldn't handle being compared to you any longer."

My hand stopped and my blood paused. Was he really saying what I thought he was saying? No, it wasn't possible. I had never pegged him as the kind of person who would go so far if what he was saying was what I believe he was implying.

"You're a lucky man, Justin. After all those years and those stupid girls who cheated on you, you finally found one that just happened to be perfect for you. It's rare to find a girl half as decent as her anymore. Most guys want a girl just like her—"

"Si, why are you telling me this? You'll find a girl like her one day. It might not be tomorrow, but in the future, someone will be the missing piece from your puzzle."

Simon laughed and turned around. He began toward a chair near the wall and stooped over. Picking something up, he returned to there I could see him and I saw a shiny object that sent chills up my spine.

"Si, there's another way—"

"There's only one way for this to end, Justin. Loneliness will drive a man to do anything. Rejection will drive a man to do anything. I'm sorry it had to be this way."

His arm had begun to raise the gun when the door was blown from its hinges and S.W.A.T. officers stormed the room, followed by Gutierrez and his partner. Simon held the gun while many were pointed at him. Deafening shouts filled the room and Gutierrez's partner came over and began to help me untie the bounds on Tessa. Once she was free, she wrapped her arms around me and felt wet tears on my neck. I also felt them on my cheeks and realized that they were my own. I pull her closer to me, holding her close so she wouldn't exert herself; she was weak and her embrace was light because of the loss of feeling in her arms from the bonds.

"Drop your weapon, Masterson," called Gutierrez, the room silent except for his shouting.

Simon began laughing again. He turned to me, I saw, and laughed even harder.

"What…wait, did you think I was going to shoot her?" He laughed even harder now. "So thoughtless were you to think that. Why would I do that? Why would I kill the woman I fell in love with? I'm not that stupid. I know that I should get rid of the problem. I should get rid of the one person who started all of this."

Guns trained more attentively on Simon as he moved his hand again. I braced for the worst. I braced for the kill-shot that would take me away from her. Instead, however, I had to brace something else at the very last second.

"Si, no!"

I covered Tessa's eyes as Simon pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. He stood dazed a moment, then he dropped the gun and fell over, his body hitting the cold floor in a dull thud. I looked away as the S.W.A.T. team lowered their weapons and began to mutter to themselves, barely audible to anyone else. Gutierrez, I was sure, was slowly lowering his own weapon and rubbing his eyes, defeat weighing his shoulders. I sat frozen as Tessa wept beside me. A hand patted my shoulders as Gutierrez's partner consoled me.

I could not take my eyes from Simon's dead body.

"Is she alright," her mother ran to me with tears in her eyes. Her father and my parents were just behind her, looking worried and expectant.

I nod. "The doctor says they want to keep her overnight for observation. She's doing very well. She was fed and taken care of mostly. Malnutrition and disease aren't the doctor's worries; the trauma is. The small cut on her head will heal in a few weeks, but everything else…"

I trailed off as the eyes trained on me looked soft and worried. "My baby girl is strong. I know she will be okay for the most part. I just need to know that she can have someone strong at her side to help her in times of fear."

The full force of her statement hit me and I understood what she meant almost instantaneously. I smile and nod my head again.

"I'll be fine. I will have nightmares, I'm pretty sure, but if I have someone like Tessa close by, I'll get through it. I lost my friend, but I wasn't going to lose the love of my life. I just hope she will still want me, because I never want to leave her again, and all of this has helped me wake up to what she really is to me."

Tessa's mother smiled and wrapped her arms around me in an embrace of comfort. Her hug was warm, motherly, understanding. I let her pull away first, then went to shake the hand of her father when he pulled me into an embrace. Then my parents hugged me and soon we were allowed to go see Tessa. The doctor said that she wanted to see me first, so I leave and follow him to her room.

She was sitting up in the bed, a single tube in her arm. She was cleaned up; her face was clean, her hair tied back haphazard into a ponytail. A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth, then a single tear dropped from her eye.

"Justin," she said, her voice cracking.

I was there immediately, kissing her, memorizing this moment. She was safe. She was alive. She was breathing. She was the reason I still continued to breathe. When we pulled apart I rested my forehead against hers, relishing the closeness.

"Thank you for coming for me," she whispered, her voice filled with tears of what I assumed were happiness.

I smile to myself. "Thank you," I replied, "for never giving up on me. I'm never going to leave you, sweetheart. Please always come back to me safe."

She kissed the tip of my nose and the last two months then felt like a bad dream. I was home again.