Chapter 10

Toluca Lake was perfect in the fall.

The trees lining it were changing color. The reds and yellows and greens made the sky gleam like a good sapphire. Everything seemed to be at it's most vibrant. With the sunlight sparkling off the lake, the water seemed to be almost… dancing.

This was why I chose to bring my wife here for our honeymoon.

I had woken up especially early that morning, as Penny started to stir. I kissed her softly and told her to go back to sleep. With a contented sigh, she did. It was our honeymoon, after all. There was no reason to get up unless absolutely necessary. So, I left her a brief note, and went out to the dock to enjoy the sunrise.

A young, male voice broke into my reverie. "Hey, dumbfuck." It said cheerily.

(Huh?)

"Behind you, genius." The voice now oozed with sarcasm.

I turned to find a man of about thirty or so smiling merrily at me. He was unusually pale, with dark hair and eyes. And being clod from head to toe in black made him seem like one of the undead.

He nodded toward the lake. "Like it here, do ya?"

I smiled cautiously. "Yeah, I do."

He looked at me for a long moment, a somber look on his face. Then, he broke out into a grin. "On your honeymoon? I brought my wife here, too. We only lived on the other side of the lake, in Silent Hill, but this is our special place. What is it about this place that draws all the couples?" he mused wistfully.

"Who the hell are you?" I wondered aloud.

"A nomadic soul."he replied. Then, weirdly, he burst out laughing.

At this point, I was both irritated and somewhat amused. "Is there a reason as to why you're bugging me?"

He smirked again. He acted like everything was amusing to him, but I thought I caught an undercurrent of some other emotion, something darker. Anger? No. I contemplated it for a moment, and realized what it was.

Envy.

Before I could call him on it, he was talking again. "Listen, big guy, don't go to work in the morning- 'kay?"

I stared blankly at him. "I'm on my honeymoon- why would I go to work?"

He gave me a look like I was just dropped from the special ed class. "Hey, moron, you know this is a dream, right?"

"Huh?"

He sighed dramatically. "I'll take that as a 'no.' Just don't go to work in the morning. Shit, you want to see that grandkid get born, don't you?"

"Wait, what're you- who the hell are you?"

He just grinned devilishly at me. "Well, Bob; my name's Garrett. Garrett Daniels."

&*&*&*&*&*&

"Bob, honey, time to wake up."

"Mrmmm…."

I heard musical laughter. I opened my eyes to see Penny standing over me, smiling brightly.

"Thirty years of marriage, you'd think a gal would get used to the fact that her hubby's not a real morning person." She mused wryly.

Without warning, I jumped up and grabbed her. She yipped in surprise, and swatted me away.

"Thirty years of marriage, and you'd think you would've seen that one coming." I retorted playfully.

She laughed again. "What's got you so frisky this morning?"

Pulling her close, I purred. "I dreamt about our honeymoon again."

(And that creepy guy showed up for the fifth time this week., and told me not to go to work today: again.)

She popped me on the shoulder. "Knock it off, stud. You'll be late for work."

(Hmm. Ironic?) I pondered.

I shook off the idea.

Changing tones, she asked me. "You hear from Lucy? I'm starting to worry."

The concern in her voice matched my own worries. Lucy Gomez was the only woman working at the plant. She was a sweet kid, and had been the one to find Jose when he…

I was extremely worried about her. The kid mooched dinner off of us at least twice a week. She was a silver tongued smart-ass, but also very sweet natured. Penny and I had come to see her as an unofficial second child. A couple of days ago, she'd taken off to Washington state. Why; nobody knew. But, she'd sworn to call when she'd figured out what she was going to do. So far, no call.

Seemingly on cue, the phone rang as I was walking out the door. Sure enough, a strident, female voice bellowed happily, "Hi, Bob!"

"Luce- holy old shit! Where in the hell have you been? You shoulda called sooner, kiddo." I scolded in my Annoyed Daddy Voice.

She wasn't impressed. "Sorry." She replied, giggling. "I got caught up in stuff."

"Yeah? What kind of stuff?"

"Uh, look, I can't talk…Hey, don't you have to go to work?" she asked nervously. I had a sneaking suspicion that that was the end of the conversation.

With a sigh, I grumbled. "Yeah, dammit."

She chuckled. "Look, I'm staying at a friend's house. Here's the number." She gave it to me. I scribbled it down on a notepad next to the phone. I had no clue where the area code was from.

"Call me when you're home again." She said.

I chuckled. "Okay."

"Love ya, dinosaur."

"You too, ya damned fetus."

&*&*&*&*&*&

(Kaufman)

"No sir… yes, sir… no, sir… of course. Goodbye." Hanging up the phone, I hurled it across the room with a wordless scream of fury.

(Damned bureaucratic bullshit!) I fumed internally.

After that fucking redneck moron up and died, I found myself drowning in paperwork. My lawyer was so far up my ass that his voice came out of my mouth. It was degrading and repulsive.

And it was also all my own fault.

Unlike my late brother, Michael, I just had to go and be independent. Why did I have to be a doctor like everyone else in my family?

The fact that I was wrong only made me seethe.
I had to prove that I wasn't liable for the kid's (Joe? Jeff? What the fuck was his name, anyway?) death. Otherwise, the rodent's family was going to drain me dry.

Lucky for me, I was trained in the time honored art of lying, cheating, and stealing to achieve my goals. Conveniently, the kid "had" a blood alcohol level high enough to intoxicate a rhino.

Heh.

There was only one- or rather, two- large problems with the situation.

Security guard Bob, and the conspiracy theory guy with the glandular problem.

They needed to go.

Fortunately, I happened to collect medieval antiquities. My gaze turned to the spiked mace that had arrived today. I'd had to smuggle it in before ol' Bob came in, and now I eyed it in the corner, still in it's packaging…

&*&*&*&*&*&

(Bob)

Away from Penny, my mood grew bleak. As I ambled down the hallway to the "main office," my gaze caught my crappy plastic nametag. Perfect for my crappy plastic job. "Hi! My name is Bob!" it screamed.

(Who needs this shit, anyway?) I thought miserably. Then I remembered that I was eight months away from my pension. (Oh, yeah. Damn.)

In a really pissy mood, I shoved Dave away. His shift was over, and I wanted the peace and quiet.

Within minutes, I was staring numbly at the monitors. I noticed ol' Genghis Kaufman staring at some package that had apparently arrived earlier. It was the biggest freaking box I'd ever seen. He stared at it with something like rapture on his face. That sealed the deal for me, the guy was a fruit loop.

With a sigh, my thoughts turned to Lucy, Jaime, and Jose.

The three of them had been saddled with the most disgusting job in this hellhole. Right in their "office" was a door that led straight to the main sewage treatment room. The place was so rank that the three of them often walked out with secondhand stink. Luckily for Jaime and Jose, they worked with the ever-prepared Lucy. She stuck to one feminine cliché: perfume. She carried a veritable boatload of it on her. Once when she dropped her purse, I saw three bottles of the stuff roll out. They may start out smelling like toilets, but by the end of the day, they left smelling like cookies.

Thank God for small favors.

They were a tight-knit little group. (I imagine that comes with being stuck down there like cave dwellers, but hey…) When Jose had been, er, killed, it was a devastating blow to Lucy and Jaime. That fucking dickhead Kaufman didn't even let anyone take any time off to grieve except Lucy, and that was only because she had found the body. All of ten days to get over discovering your friend's eviscerated corpse. I bet that turd only did it to avoid legal fees. Damned penny pinching tightwad. I fervently hoped Jose's family drained Captain Craphead's wallet dry- pension be damned!

My eyes finally wandered back to the screen. Speak of the psycho, his office was empty now. Something else was off, too…

"Where the hell is that package?" I muttered.

&*&*&*&*&*&

(Kaufman)

Shoving the wrapping of my new toy into a nearby garbage can, I stalked down the hall. As I reached the hallway to the security office, I grinned gleefully. Opening the door, I fought from giggling. This was going to be fun! I stared at the back of Bob's hat-clad head, contemplating my next move.

…his scalp. That fucker was well into his golden years and had a thick head of arctic white hair. I had been on Rogaine since college. As I crept slowly towards him, he never even reacted. He was obviously unaware of my presence, which pissed me off more. I was paying for a second rate loser who probably wouldn't hear me behind him if I banged a damn drum in his ear.

Hmmm. There's a thought…

&*&*&*&*&*&

(Bob)

I stared in shock at the monitors. Somehow, Kaufman had slipped past me, undetected. How in the hell had that happened? And where was that bastard? I scanned every screen, but saw nothing. With a sigh, I settled back in my chair in defeat. Kaufman would turn up eventually. Why worry about-

"Hey, Bob." Said Garrett.

I jumped, startled. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Define here."

"In my office, and in god-be-damned reality."

He smirked at me. "Look down, dummy."

I did, and instantly regretted it. I was staring at a corpse… a headless corpse. It seemed the person in the blue uniform got his skull bashed in. In fact, the spiked medieval thingamabob wedged in the pulp that used to be his brainpan was the likely cause of death.

"What the hell?!" I yelled.

"Read the nametag."

I looked. Hi! My name is Bob! It declared.

"Ah, fuck." I croaked as my hand passed through my dead body.

"Told ya so."

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:: NOTE :: The Crappy Plastic Paragraph was courtesy of Literary Alchemist.