"Rachel? Say something."
"I'm here, Aidan. I'm here. Two days. You said?"
"Yes, Rachel. Two days. We have enough time. I know I can get it back from Nathan. Let Harvey and his friends work on his brother and his cousin. I have another idea."
~~~7~~~
"Hi Ms. Keller. I brought you some coffee."
"Thank you, Keiko. And again, call me Rachel." She's a cutie.
"Okay, Rachel." Now she's blushing. "Um, Ms- Rachel, you look confused. What's wrong?"
"Aidan told me what you said, about Samara being more tragic than evil. That's what's wrong. I know that is what she was, but I don't know if that is what she is now."
Her head fell on my shoulder. It's nice to have another girl around again. The last girl we had around was Aidan's babysitter, Claude, after Katie died. He realized that she must have watched the tape, since that was where he found the video, and we saved with only several hours' left.
She cares about him, me, everything. It feels good to have this again. "If she gets out, we know how to stop her. It shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's just a case of damage control now, right?" I can't go through this again. "Rachel?"
"Keiko, does Aidan ever tell that he has nightmares? I know he does; I hear him at night. I know his are worse, much worse, than mine. I know that he has changed because of her, Samara. She, in a way, infects us, everyone who watches the video. I see the well, from the outside and the inside looking up, feel the brick against the back of my head, I hear the horses at night, I can smell Anna Morgan's perfume, and I know how my blood tastes when I bite through my tongue during electroshock therapy. Aidan's walls shake some nights and I know he learned how make the images appear on screen from her and her memories."
"Rachel, there is nothing we can do for now." Her hand makes me warm; it's just the presence of someone, but it helps more than you can know.
"We have three days left."
"I know. We have to wait for Aidan to come back. He will have a tape, I know that."
I still get scared when the phone rings; this phobia has been getting worse. Now is no exception. "Rachel, it's Harvey. Stop hyperventilating. I have good news. The third kid, the cousin, he skipped out on his last meeting with his delinquency officer, which was around the same time as the break-in. That's enough cause for him to brought in and a search. The kid's sheet reads like the script for the last season of 'Law & Order'."
"That's good. It's good." I nearly scream as a hand squeezes my own. This girl is too good.
~~~7~~~
'Busy. It's probably Harvey on the phone with her,' Aidan thought. Nathan's room was as ordinary as every other spoiled rich kid's room as he had been in. Even though his school was made for gifted children, money has its way of weighting the scale. Nathan was not in the position of being in need of the influence of money, it had helped with getting funding for certain programs, like the art and video diversity program.
"So, Aidan, what do you need my help with?"
"Can you show me the technique that you used for your midterm project?" Aidan Keller was a genius, but when it came to film and video, he was the undisputed champion. This was an act, albeit a well-planned one, but an act still.
"Sure, I'll get my equipment," and then Aidan saw it. Lying there, as clear as day. A photo of him and his brother, faces blackened out in an insane spiral.
"Nathan, is everything alright?" In the years, Aidan had only learned how vocalize some of his emotions; while most people would not see it, those around him long enough did. "Your face is gone. Why?"
Nathan had not noticed it, what he had done. While doing something else, anything else, it did not matter, he had destroyed the image of the viewers, the infected. On his desk and desktop, photos and images of him receiving awards, being the star, being the hero in one instance, were all blackened out, scarred, defamed. An uncapped black marker lay right next to it all.
"Everything is fine. It's nothing. Hold on. I'll get my editing board." Terrified by the unknown, he rushed out of the room pretending everything was fine, failing miserably.
Aidan stood up and looked around the room. The tape was not there, but evidence of Samara was there. A notebook of pictures of the chair and camera at Eola, drowning horses, the burning tree, pages of the word "mirror", the well, the ring, spirals, and insane loops. He was marked and had three days left to live.
Aidan summoned up what he was, the spark inside him. 'Summoning' is not the right word, but it does it the best. 'Gathering' works well too. His eyes shut and in a tunnel, he saw everything, stretched out in front of him. He saw the tape, in a blank box, in a blue shoebox under the computer desk, in Nathan's room, in the apartment where Nathan was on the phone with his brother. This process was how the CIA taught the participants in their remote viewing projects in the 60's and 70's exactly how to use their powers. Rumor had it that in the desert of Nevada, an offshoot of that branch continued on and today's web games were the continuation of the project. Keiko taught him how to do this.
Staggering back, Aidan's eyes opened, seeing the box, went to open it. As he began to clip off the tape that bound it shut, Nathan walked in, wild eyed and red faced. "What the hell do you think you are doing? My- my work is in there. Let go of it."
"Of course, Nathan. You open it." Handing him the box, Aidan looked Nathan straight in the eye. "There will be a foot long centipede in there. It will crawl past you and circle around your chair. Have you had any unexplained nose bleeds lately? I need that tape back. All of them. Open it."
Nathan shook. "Why are you doing this? We didn't mean anything. I just wanted to know how far you were. It was all Brian. He was jealous, he wanted to get back at you, he was obsessing about you. He talked Vinny into breaking in, he knows how to do it all. I want it all out of my head." On the floor shaking, he truly looked pathetic. The reality was that he was terrified. Nathan was smart enough to realize the truth: before you die, you see the ring.
"She's stronger than she was. I shouldn't be too surprised, neither should you. There was a reason why those tapes were locked away."
It would sad, if it weren't so terrifying. "Make her stop. You know how to. You must know; you're still here." Sigh left his lips just before he lost his lunch. "I'm going to die, aren't I?"
"No." Aidan took the box, kneeled down on the floor, and opened the box on its side. The centipede crawled out and away, circling the chair to make its new home underneath a bookcase. He picked up the tape and held it to the light, checking for scratches. "There is a tracking problem, right? Make a copy of it. Now. I'll leave the room. I don't want to see it again."