CHAPTER 26
Darting up the steps to the Parkers' home, Maria felt a thousand questions race through her mind. She impatiently shook them off and tapped on the apartment door before poking her head inside.
"Hello, Maria," called Nancy Parker as she entered from the kitchen. "Everything all right?"
"What? Oh, yeah, it's fine. We're all locked up for the night," Maria blurted quickly. "Ummm...is Liz home?"
"She's in her room," Nancy answered. Watching as the girl hesitated for a moment, she continued, "Since when have you stood on ceremony here, Maria? Go on back."
"Alex is downstairs. We just...we wanted to talk to Liz about a school project." Well, she'd found the first two notes at school, so that wasn't completely untrue, was it?
"I'll send him on in when he comes up," Liz's mother offered. "You go ahead."
"Thanks, Mrs. Parker," Maria said, pasting a smile on her face before heading down the hall to Liz's room. The door was open and she walked right in. Liz was sitting on her bed, a book in her hands. "Liz, we need to talk."
Setting the book down, Liz answered, "What's going on?"
"I don't mean you and me," Maria explained quickly. "I mean all of us. All six of us. Alex is downstairs calling the others."
"What happened?"
"We've got a problem. I found another note. And it's not just me they're after any more."
Max listened impatiently as the phone on the other end rang for the fourth time. Finally, he heard a click, and Michael's answering machine began to play. The recording was short and to the point: "Leave a message." If Max hadn't been so concerned, the message would have amused him like it usually did. It was quintessential Michael, wasting no time on trivialities. But this was not a usual situation, and Max was worried.
He spoke into the phone. "If you're there, pick up, Michael. We need to talk." There was silence on the other end of the line, and he went on, "You made a promise, Michael. You promised that if I helped you with the dreamwalk, we would talk. And you've been avoiding me ever since. The time is now, Michael. Either pick up or I'll come over there and dog you until you come through. You're not sliding out of this one."
Another moment or two of silence, and then he heard a soft click as the phone on the other end was picked up. "Now's not a good time," a gruff voice on the other end said.
Max sighed, exasperated. "It's never a good time, is it, Michael? Look, we can't wait any longer. Either come over here or I'll come over there, but either way, we need to--"
A flustered Isabel burst into his room, interrupting his diatribe. Clutching her cell phone in her hand, she spoke urgently. "We need to get to the Crashdown right away. Something's wrong."
Max's heart took a giant leap into his stomach. "Liz?" he exclaimed in panic.
"No, she's fine. So are Maria and Alex. But there's a big problem. We need to get over there, now." She noticed the phone in his hand. "Is that Michael?" she guessed.
"Yeah. I finally got through," her brother answered.
"Good, he needs to come, too. Tell him," she ordered, and then lifted the cell phone to her ear. "Alex? You still there? Max and I are coming, and Max is on the phone with Michael, so he'll tell him about it, too. We'll be there as soon as we can."
"Change in plans," Max said to Michael. "Meet us at the Crashdown. We've got a problem."
The response was terse. "I can't."
Finally losing his temper, Max shouted into the phone, "You can and you will. If your friendship with Liz and Alex, if your relationship with Maria, if Isabel and I have ever meant anything at all to you, you'll be there. Ten minutes, Michael." Hanging up the phone, he grabbed his shoes and spoke to a startled Isabel. "Come on."
Maria sat on the edge of Liz's balcony, watching the other four as they tensely conversed. "He's not coming," she murmured numbly. "We might as well get started."
"He'll be here," Max insisted. "He won't let us down."
Isabel put her hand on his shoulder. "You told him ten minutes, Max. It's been forty."
"Something held him up, but he'll be here," her brother repeated.
"We don't have a lot of time," Alex pointed out. "Mrs. Parker thinks Maria, Liz and I are up here talking about a school project, but it's getting late. She'll come kick us out soon. We can't afford not to talk about this, so let's get started. If Michael--" Max flashed him a fierce look. "When Michael gets here, we'll catch him up. All right?"
The other four agreed, although Max was somewhat hesitant. Biting her lip, Maria began.
"For the past few weeks, I've been getting these...weird notes. Liz knows about it, and I just told Alex the other day, but I didn't want to bother you guys with it. I thought...well, I hoped that it was nothing. And then I fell down the stairs, and I thought maybe somebody had pushed me--"
"What?" interrupted Isabel with a gasp.
"I'm fine, Max healed me, there was no proof of foul play, we got over it," Maria explained. She turned to Max. "Or so I thought, anyway. That's when Liz told you that Michael and I were...well, that I was ignoring his existence."
Isabel let out a disbelieving laugh and Alex nodded knowingly. "I had the same reaction, Isabel."
"Anyway," Maria continued, pointedly ignoring Alex's comment, "I thought someone was playing practical jokes on me or something, and that one just got out of hand. But today something happened that made me question what was really going on." She swallowed. "I guess it's better if you see for yourself."
"What?" asked a worried Liz.
"It's in the break room. Max, Isabel, why don't you go back down the fire escape and we'll let you in downstairs, okay?"
The two aliens quickly clambered down the ladder, while the three humans took the more traditional route back through the apartment. As they passed through the Parkers' living room, Liz told her mother, "I'm just going to walk Maria and Alex out, Mom."
"It's rather late," Nancy pointed out. "Do you two have a ride home?"
Alex and Maria exchanged a glance; he spoke. "Sure, Mrs. Parker. Actually, some friends are stopping by to pick us up."
"Good night, then," she said with a smile.
Heading downstairs, they let Isabel and Max in through the back door, and Maria led them all to the couch where the alien doll was still lying in pieces. "After we closed up, I found that." She showed the two aliens and Liz the note, which she'd held tightly ever since she'd first read it. Worried glances were exchanged all around.
"What do you think it means?" Liz asked no one in particular.
Maria answered. "Someone knows about you guys," she told the two aliens. "Or about Michael. This is a definite threat."
Isabel tried to brush her concerns away. "It could be just a Halloween prank," she ventured halfheartedly, but then shook her head. "Okay, I know it's not."
Liz studied the toy for a moment, and then asked, "Maria, why do you think this is a threat to Max, Isabel and Michael?"
"Ummm, look at it. It's an alien, Liz."
"But the whole town is filled with alien souvenirs. For that matter, your mother makes dolls just like this one. I'm not trying to downplay this," Liz assured her friend. "This whole thing is pretty disturbing. I just don't want us jumping to conclusions without a little more information."
"You said you'd been getting notes, other than this one? What did they say? Maybe they'll give us a clue," suggested Max.
Moving to her locker, Maria pulled the other two notes from her bag and held them out to the others. "These are the other notes I got. I found the sketch in my locker at school and the other one on my car."
"You won't get away with it," Isabel read aloud. "Get away with what?"
"I don't know for sure," the smaller girl admitted. "But it was right after that very public fight with Michael, and now with the alien...maybe it has something to do with him."
Isabel looked around the room, then voiced her thoughts. "Whoever it is must have been paying a lot of attention to Maria's comings and goings to be able to plant these notes without being seen. It's got to be someone nearby."
"Or someone with good equipment, like the FBI stuff we found in Michael's apartment," mused Alex. "Or hey, is invisibility a Czechoslovakian power?"
"No," answered Isabel shortly, then turned to Maria. "However they're doing it, they're really watching you."
"Okay, I already have one pair--excuse me, make that trio--of stalkers already, just among my friends," Maria pointed out. "I do so not need another one." Liz and Max exchanged confused looks, and Maria went on, "Didn't you know? This afternoon, Isabel was added to the Maria-watching detail."
Max looked at his sister, who shrugged nonchalantly. "What? Alex needed a favor, so I helped out."
"It's too bad Michael isn't here yet," Max mused. "Maybe he could get a vision from one of these notes, get a clue as to who sent them and what their intentions are."
Alex opened his mouth to speak, but closed it abruptly. He'd promised Michael not to tell Maria about the drawing and the alien's attempts to get visions from it, and now he was ruing that very same promise. But it had seemed like the thing to do at the time...
"If he can do it, maybe you can too," suggested Liz to the two aliens. "It's worth a shot, anyway."
They agreed, much to Alex's dismay. Each holding one of the notes, Max and Isabel closed their eyes, trying to summon up a vision that would give them some answers. Isabel's attempt met with no success, but after a moment, Max swayed on his feet and opened his eyes with a jerk. "Did you see something?" Liz asked.
"I think so," he answered, eyes opened wide in shock.
"What?"
He looked down at the sketch he was holding. "I saw who drew it. It was...it was Michael," he said reluctantly.
The three girls fixed their eyes on him. "What? How?" sputtered Isabel.
Maria shook her head, rejecting the idea. "No. You're wrong, Max. Michael wouldn't do this to me. You're wrong."
"I saw what I saw, Maria. I don't want to believe it either, but..." Max's voice trailed off.
"I don't care what you saw. I don't believe it!" she burst out.
Alex swallowed. He had warned Michael that his little replacement sketch was going to get him into trouble, but he'd never expected this. He could explain it so easily, but he'd made a promise. As it turned out, a colossally stupid one, but a promise nonetheless.
He had a sudden urge to go scour the streets until he found Michael and, super strength or no super strength, crack the infuriating alien a good one across the jaw. Of course, that wouldn't make Maria any more pleased with him than she already was. Or Isabel, come to think of it. And he doubted Liz would approve of the violence either. Oh well, for the sake of his own health it was just as well. But he was certainly going to try every verbal trick he could think of to secure Michael's permission to tell all. Just as soon as he saw him.
He suddenly realized that a heated debate was going on right in front of him.
"I think we have to at least consider the possibility, Maria, much as I don't want to," Max stated earnestly. "We all know he's not exactly himself. None of us can tell what's going on in his head. He might be worse off than we thought."
Isabel reluctantly added, "And Alex looked for him all afternoon, and couldn't find him. Maybe he was lurking around, waiting for an opportunity to leave you...well, the latest note."
"No, he wasn't. I would have felt it if he was nearby, and he wasn't. Just because I don't know where he was this afternoon doesn't mean that he's guilty of anything." Maria rushed on vehemently, "For that matter, I have no idea where Alex was all afternoon, or you, Max, or Liz. And Isabel could have sneaked into the back room while I was working. But that doesn't mean I'm going to go around suspecting any of you. You're not capable of this, and neither is Michael. It's...it's nasty."
Max was relieved to have an excuse to back down. He didn't want to believe it anyway. "Okay, so it's none of us. Maybe I was wrong, and didn't see what I thought I saw. I'm not all that experienced at this vision thing."
"So we rule out using visions as a clue, at least until Michael gets here and can try," Alex put in.
"I'm still not convinced it has something to do with the Czechoslovakian situation," said Liz. "If they're trying to get to you guys, why use Maria? Why not go directly to threatening you? I don't get it. It's too subtle."
"Unless they're specifically trying to get to Michael," Isabel said softly. "As much as he'd like us to think otherwise, she is--or was--his weak spot."
Alex frowned and asked, "Are they trying to get to Michael through Maria, or to Maria by using Michael? If she's his weak spot, he's certainly hers."
Maria shook her head, not really denying it. "But who would really know that? A few public arguments and one kiss in the school hallway last spring, that's all anyone would ever have seen. We weren't exactly a visible couple. He had a hard enough time acknowledging me in public as a friend, let alone a girlfriend. The only people who knew about us were you guys. Well, and my mom kind of suspected, I think."
"Finding him asleep in your bed was probably a pretty good indication," said Alex, straight-faced.
She glared at him. "You're not helping, Alex." A thought struck her. "And for some reason, I kind of think Mark could tell."
"Mark?" asked Isabel. "Mark Blumenthal?"
"Yeah. He made a comment or two at rehearsal last week that...well, let's just say that he seems to think that...he knows Michael and I have a past, I guess."
"What did he say?" asked Liz curiously.
"It doesn't matter. That was after I found the other two notes, anyway."
Alex tried to lighten the mood. "Was this before or after you laid one on him during rehearsal?" he asked innocently.
"Maria!" Liz gasped.
Blushing rosily, Maria looked defiantly around at her four friends. "Okay, so I used the show to try and make Michael jealous. So sue me." Her chin in the air, she continued, "Well, it must have worked, at least a little. At least Mark thought so." Alex's lips twitched with repressed humor, while Isabel and Max stared at her, eyebrows raised in a matching expression of disbelief. Liz just stood there, stunned. "Okay, so maybe it was a little too high school of me," Maria admitted, "but guess what? I am in high school! I'm allowed to do stupid things occasionally! Get over it!"
After a moment of silence, Max coughed and brought the subject back to the issue at hand. "I'm glad you told us about this," he told her, gesturing towards the notes. "I wish you hadn't waited so long."
"I didn't want to bother you with it. You would have told Michael, and I needed him to concentrate on fixing his own problems," she explained, then gave a small snort. "I mean, we're doing so well on that front...we didn't need anything else to worry about."
"So you just ignored the threat to you?" snapped Isabel. "Talk about doing stupid things, Maria! We are all friends here. If one of us has a problem, then all of us have a problem." Her voice calmed down somewhat. "Just let us know about things that happen, okay? No more secrets."
Maria smiled up at her. "No more secrets," she agreed. Without even discussing it, they both turned and looked pointedly at Alex.
"What?" he said defensively. Receiving knowing looks from the two blondes, he admitted, "Look, I want to tell you what's going on, but I've got to talk to Michael first. You wouldn't want me to betray your confidence, would you? So don't ask me to betray his." He paused. "Besides, what I know isn't really anything you can't figure out for yourself."
Maria pounced on this. "He's not just stalking me. He's guarding me, isn't he?" Alex looked back at her, not giving a clue one way or another. Knowing him so well, Maria took this as confirmation. "I knew it! But from what? Yeah, okay, he saw the sketch, but I convinced him it was just a joke, so why is he doing it? He has no idea about the other note, or tonight's decapitated alien, or the fact that I fell and broke my ankle--"
An extremely upset voice from behind them barked, "You what?" As one, they turned to see a white-faced Michael standing in the doorway.
TBC...>br>