Part 3 (of 4): Deadlines
-----
Ten minutes after leaving the old Rooney home, Sean and Amy arrived at her house.
"Where's your phone?" Sean asked. "I need to check on Janet."
"She's okay alone?" Amy asked.
"We've done it before; sometimes we have no choice with my dad being at work so many hours. She's okay for short periods at a time."
"The phone's down the hall, in the kitchen," Amy answered.
Sean dialed home, and waited as the phone rang. "C'mon, sis. Pick up," he said quietly.
After a minute, Janet answered, "H-hello?"
"Janet? It's Sean. Everything okay?"
The relief in Janet's voice was obvious. "Yeah, I'm all right."
"Listen, I'm at Amy's house; we're going to try to do a little bit of research and see if we can't solve this mystery. Why don't you just hang around the house until I get back?"
"Okay. Sean?"
"Yeah?"
"I saw something strange earlier today…," Janet hesitated.
Sean frowned. "What did you see?"
Janet sighed. "I opened a drawer in the kitchen to get a fork, and I saw…all these fingers just laying there, quivering. I thought it was gross and looked away, and when I looked back, they were gone. It was just like in the video."
Sean closed his eyes. It was starting.
"Sean?" Janet sounded like she was trying not to panic.
"Janet, listen to me. Over the next few days, you're going to be seeing some very strange things, and some of it might be scary. The important thing to remember is that they aren't real; they're phantom images. They can't hurt you."
"Not yet, though. But something bad is going to happen to me, right?"
Sean leaned his head against the wall. He didn't have the heart to tell her, because then it would mean giving up all hope of saving her. "Just don't worry, okay? We're gonna figure this out."
Janet took some comfort in his reassurance. "Okay. I love you."
"Love you too, sis. I'll be home soon."
Sean hung up, and turned to Amy. "Let's get rolling," he said.
He followed Amy upstairs. "Good thing my parents won't be home for a while," she said with a smile. "They'd kill me if they knew I had a boy up in my room."
Sean couldn't help but watch Amy from behind as he followed her. Any other day they'd be right, he thought, but I've got other things on my mind right now. "Don't worry," he said aloud, "I'll behave myself."
They went into her room, and she turned on the computer that was on her desk. "I'll let you drive," she said. "You'd know better what we need to find out, anyway.
Sean sat at the desk and logged into Google as Amy sat on the bed behind him. For a moment, he didn't know where to begin. He thought of doing a search related to "videotape" but thought that'd be too generic. Finally, on a whim, he typed "ring" and started the search.
Ten entries came back, all related to The Lord of the Rings.
"Figures," Sean muttered. "The movie wasn't that good, people."
He scanned the other entries, ten at a time. If it wasn't the Rings trilogy, it was jewelry stores, or other different web rings; web sites clustered under a specific topic. Finally, about five pages in, there was a listing for a website simply titled "Rings," with the brief description, "Have you seen the tape?"
"Now we're talking," Sean said as he clicked into the site. He couldn't believe what he saw next.
"My God," he whispered.
"What is it?" Amy leaned over his shoulder.
"Brian's wasn't the only group," he answered. "They're all over the country; look at this!"
The web site's menu had links to video and typed testimonials from people who had seen the video, and recorded their experiences. "They watch the video, go to day five or six, then pass it on," Sean continued.
Some were looking for a thrill, some believed that it was a key to the afterlife; a mystery to learn. No one had gone to day seven.
Amy pointed at the screen. "Sean, look there."
There was a link that read, "Day Seven discovery goes sour." Sean clicked it.
It was a news article about the deaths at Brian's house, along with a diary entry from him about what they were going to accomplish.
"The bastard was going to put my death on the web," said Sean.
There was a video link titled "Day Seven disaster." Sean moved the mouse over it, but Amy shook her head.
"Don't, Sean. I don't want to know."
Sean nodded, and checked out some of the other diary entries. After a few minutes, he leaned back in the chair. "Christ Almighty," he sighed with a bit of disgust.
"No luck?" Amy asked.
Sean shook his head. "It's all the same old crap. Watch the tape, pass it on. Watch the tape, pass it on. Let's trip out on the pretty rings but don't walk under the ladder."
"They think it's a joke," Amy said. "If only they knew."
For a moment neither one spoke. Then, Sean turned to Amy. "If only I had some idea who that girl was. Maybe I could look at all this from a different angle."
"Yeah," Amy replied, "but what would you search under? 'Girl in a video'?"
Sean thought a moment, then turned back to the screen. "Not quite. But…."
He went back to initiate a new search, and typed, "girl in a well'. He hit the jackpot right away; the first entry was a link to a local news report; the headline read, 'Girl's body recovered from well'.
"Bingo," Sean said. "That's got to be it."
He followed the link, and read the article aloud. "'The body of a young girl originally thought to have died in a fire in the late 1970's was recovered two days ago from a well at the Shelter Mountain Inn.' This article's only a few months old."
"Wait a minute," Amy said, leaning over Sean's shoulder. "I remember hearing about that when it happened." She scanned the article. "The girl was identified as Samara Morgan, she had died when she was seven. There's a photo of her."
"Samara Morgan," Sean repeated softly to himself as he stared at the photo, described as a video still, of a young girl. She was sitting in a chair in a stark white room, almost like an examination room. Her head was downcast, but her eyes were level with the camera, her expression neutral. Her long dark hair almost covered her face; Sean recognized her immediately.
"I'll be damned," he said. "That's her. The girl from the video."
"If she was supposed to have died in a fire, how did she get in there?" Amy wondered.
Sean went back to the news story. "Doesn't really say. Mentions her parents, Anna and Richard Morgan. Seems Richard had committed suicide the day before Samara's body was found, Anna had thrown herself off a cliff not long after Samara was to have died."
Sean had grown quiet at that. Amy nudged him. "What is it?"
Sean was looking at couple of photos of the Morgans. He didn't recognize Richard, but Anna….
"The woman in the mirror," he said to himself.
"What?" Amy asked.
Sean told her about Anna; how her suicide was on the video. Amy shook her head. "It's all coming together now," she said quietly.
Sean kept scanning the article. "Doesn't say anything other than that--wait a minute. The police were tipped off by a local newspaper reporter and a video technician who apparently found her body. Rachel Keller and Noah Clay."
"How did they find out about it?" Amy wondered.
Sean read for a minute. "'Unnamed sources,'" he announced.
"Bullshit," Amy said.
"Yes," Sean agreed. If those two were able to find out about where Samara was, that meant they knew about her to begin with. Maybe they knew how she got there.
"Sean," Amy said as she suddenly pointed, "look!"
There was a related story link in the article; an obituary for Noah Clay. Sean followed the link and read the text as it was loading. "Seems he died the morning after they found Samara. I wonder if--."
"Oh, my God!" Amy cried out and looked away as a photo finished loading. It was a close up photo, taken when police found Noah's body, of his face. Or what was left of it.
Sean recognized the glassy eyes, the distorted features. "Yeah, he watched the video, all right," he said. "Then the day after he helps recover her body, she comes and kills him. That's one hell of a 'thank you'."
Sean clicked back to the story about Samara. "You okay?" he asked Amy.
"Yeah," she said after a minute. "Just wasn't expecting that. Is that was Brian and the others looked like?"
Sean nodded. "Pretty much. So, he watched the video, and I'm willing to bet that this Rachel Keller did too." He scanned the article, and wrote something down.
"What's that?" Amy asked.
"The newspaper that she works at," Sean answered. "I've got a phone call to make."
"Why don't we make it at your house?" Amy said. "It's getting later in the afternoon, and my parents will be home soon."
"Good idea," Sean said. "I've left Janet alone too long already."
-----
They arrived at Sean's house just as Janet was getting off of the phone.
"That was Dad," she explained. "He'll be home in about an hour."
Sean looked at the clock. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon. "Man, that's a change for him," he said.
"Are you going to get in trouble if I'm here when he comes home?" Amy asked.
Sean shook his head. "No, my dad's pretty easygoing; we can just tell him we were working on a project for school or something if we have to, and I'll drop you at home when he gets here."
"Did you have any luck?" Janet asked anxiously.
Amy shrugged as Sean went for the phonebook. "Some. We know who that girl is, and we think we know someone to contact who might know a bit more."
Sean dialed the newspaper where Rachel Keller worked. "Time to raise bullshitting to an art form," he said quietly.
There was a pause Sean waited for someone on the other end to pick up. When someone did, Sean put the phonebook down.
"Hello, I'm looking for a Rachel Keller, is she available please?" A brief pause. Then, "Well, I'm calling on behalf of my high school newspaper; we're doing a sort of retrospective on some things that happened in the community this past school year, and she had done some features on a few things that I was just looking for more information on, and was hoping she could help me out.
"She's no longer there? She's moved to Astoria…yes, I know Astoria, Oregon, thank you." Asshole. "You wouldn't happen to have a listing, would you? No? All right, then. Thank you for your time."
Sean hung up. "She's living in Astoria, now."
"Oregon?" Janet said with a smile; she and Amy were trying not to laugh over that one.
"Yeah," Sean said rolling his eyes. "Don't you love it the way some people expect our generation to be a bunch of airheads?"
He grabbed a pen and paper, dialed information, and told the operator whose number he was looking for. After a moment, he jotted down a number.
"Only one listing for a Rachel Keller down there," he told the others. "Let's hope it's the right one."
He dialed the number, and waited. After a moment, he shook his head. "Voice mail," he explained. Then, into the phone, "Hello, Ms. Keller, my name is Sean Lewis and I'm calling from Seattle; the paper you used to work at told me you had moved away. My school newspaper is doing a retrospective of what's happened in the city this past school year, and I was hoping to get some extra information from you about a couple of the stories you covered. My phone number is 206-555-1120. I hope to hear from you soon as I'm…fast approaching a deadline this coming Monday. Thanks for your time."
"You don't think you should have given her the full story?" Amy asked as Sean hung up.
He shook his head. "Better to do that when I'm actually talking to her. Something tells me she's not going to be thrilled about revisiting this."
"So what's next?" Janet asked.
"The hard part," Sean answered. "The waiting. If she doesn't call back today, I'll have to try tomorrow."
The three hung out for the rest of the afternoon until Sean's dad came home. As Sean predicted, he had no problem with Amy being there, and even mentioned that she could come by tomorrow if they had work to do. Besides, he joked, even though he wouldn't be home, Janet made a good chaperone. The three kids couldn't help but chuckle at that one. Amy even blushed a little.
A short time later, Sean and Amy drove up to her house.
"So what time's good to come by?" she asked.
"My dad should be gone for work about nine o'clock. Any time after that," Sean answered.
"Okay. I'll come over as soon as I can," Amy said. She hesitated as she was about to get out of the car, and turned to Sean.
"You going to be okay?" she asked.
Sean sighed. It had been a long day. "I don't know. Ask me again in a few days."
Amy unexpectedly leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Have faith, Sean," she said, blushing again, and she got out of the car before he could say anything else.
Sean watched her go in the house. "Yeah," he said to himself as he drove off, "I should really know how I'm doing in a few days."
-----
It was about ninety minutes before dawn on Friday that Sean was woken up the sounds of Janet having another nightmare. Not even wasting time, he lay back down, closed his eyes, and felt himself fade into her dream.
This time, he was on a high ledge looking down at a mass of writhing bodies in a pool of muck. It took a moment for him to place it, but then he recalled a similar image on the tape shown just after a pile of maggots; the two images were eerily similar.
Drifting up to him were the sounds of moaning and wailing, and above that, Janet's shouts. Sean looked harder to see Janet stuck in the middle of the mass. He then realized that she wasn't just screaming, she was also trying to fight off the people that swarmed around her.
Atta girl, Janet! Sean thought to himself; she was starting to learn to take some control. He took a few steps back, and then leaped off the ledge to the swamp below. As soon as he hit the muck, the people started crowding around him.
Sean immediately began to punch, kick, and claw his way toward Janet, and he saw that their faces all had one thing in common. They were all distorted and warped; it was as if it was a mass gathering of Samara's victims. Among the noise, Sean could hear a low moaning, "Help us. Help us."
Not all of them were looking for help, however. Sean also heard, "Join us. Join us."
Unwilling to do either, Sean eventually got to Janet. "This is getting old, sis!" he shouted above the noise.
Janet was visibly frightened, of course, but she also looked like she was tired of being afraid; she had a defiant look about her. "Can you get us out of here?" she asked.
Sean grabbed onto her, all the while trying to get some distance between them and the curse victims; he needed a moment to concentrate.
Just as he was about to try to make the getaway, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. One of the faceless, coming straight at him, all but screaming, "Sean! Why us? Why not you?"
Sean somehow recognized him. It was Brian. Sean felt a flash of anger as he yelled, "Sooner or later, the ring comes back around, Davidson! Payback can be a bitch!"
Brian charged just as Sean focused on slipping him and Janet away. Sean swung his fist, knocking Brian away, but his attention was divided…
BLINK!
…and Sean and Janet found themselves surrounded by darkness. Pitch black darkness.
Sean looked around, even though he couldn't see a damn thing. One thing was for certain; they were out of whatever danger they were in. All there was now was just a black void. They were standing on some type of solid ground, but that seemed to be all.
"This is new," he said to himself.
"What happened," Janet asked. "Where are we?"
"I have no idea," Sean answered. He thought for a moment about what had happened. "I was trying to get us out of the dream, and awake again, but my concentration was broken at the last minute. So now I don't know where we are."
Janet thought for a minute herself. "Maybe we're in between," she said finally.
Sean followed her voice to where she was and took her hand. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, we're not awake, but maybe we're not completely asleep, either. At least we're not dreaming. Maybe you only got us halfway out of it."
Sean thought about that. "Maybe I can get us the rest of the way. Hold on."
He held her hand, concentrated…and then found himself in his bedroom.
"Weird!" he said as he walked to Janet's room.
She was sitting up already. "I tried to take control of it," she said.
"I noticed," he said as he sat on the edge of the bed. "That's how you do it. You do what you can, when you can."
"Sean, what's going to happen?" she asked after a moment.
Sean hesitated. He did not want to face this. "Janet, don't," he said.
"Please tell me," she insisted. "Even if it's something bad, which I think it is from the way you and Amy are acting. Maybe I won't be as afraid if I know what's coming."
Sean took a breath, then finally decided that she should know. He told her almost everything; how he was tricked into watching the tape, how Samara came for him, and how his fearlessness kept him alive, how her body was recovered from the well that she came from to claim her victims.
He did not tell her how destroying the tape ruined her apparent only chance for survival. She didn't need to know that; there was nothing that could be done now. That secret he would take to his grave, no matter how much it ate at him.
When Sean finished, Janet stared down at her hands. "I'm going to die," she said finally. "Or, at least I could die."
Sean felt his voice start to break as he answered, "Yes. You could."
Janet looked up at him, eyes full of silent tears. "Will you be there with me when it happens, one way or the other?"
Sean could only grab her and hug her tightly, and she could only hug him back.
-----
The two were watching Maury Povich later that morning when the doorbell rang around ten o'clock.
"That could be Amy," Sean said as he got up. On his way to the door, he found himself checking his appearance in the mirror, making sure he looked okay.
Hey, he thought, what the hell, right?
He opened the door and frowned; Amy looked like she was going to be sick. "Amy, what is it?" he asked.
Amy stepped in the house carrying a newspaper. "Have you seen the paper yet?" she asked.
"No," Sean shook his head, "my dad took it with him before I could get to it. Why?"
She showed him the local news front page, and Sean could only stare as he took it. It was an article about Tommy Rusk. He had cut his wrists in the bathtub the night before. According to the article, there was a suicide note left behind with jagged writing, of only one word: CURSED.
"Christ," Sean could only say.
"Do you think we led him to do it?" Amy asked?
Sean slowly shook his head as he realized what Amy was worried about. "We couldn't have helped his frame of mind any, but I think there was a lot more to it than that. Watching that tape puts some kind of mark on you, I think. That must have been what drove those horses crazy over me the day of the carnival. Even if you beat the curse, the mark never really goes away. Maybe I haven't noticed it that much because of the way I am, but Tommy…it just all might have driven him over the edge."
Amy remembered how Sean had acted toward him the day before. "You don't seem too upset with the news," she commented.
"I'm not especially sad to hear it," Sean admitted, "but I do pity him. Those seven days leading up to…you know; I thought I was going crazy, and that's without being afraid of it all. Someone like Tommy who was spooked of the whole thing to begin with…. Yeah. I do feel a little sorry for him."
The two went into the living room. "So what's the next move?" asked Janet.
Amy stopped short when she saw Janet; the girl had a haunted look on her face. "Sean, you told her?" she asked, surprised; she thought Sean wanted to keep it from her.
Sean sighed. "Yeah, she knows it all." He then explained the dream Janet had last night.
Amy gave Janet a hug. "Don't worry," she told her, "we'll figure it out." She then turned to Sean. "So, what is the next move?"
Sean grabbed the phone. "We keep phoning Astoria until we get an answer. I know it's Friday, but you never know; she might be home for the day."
He called once again, looking out the window as the other connection rang in his ear.
After the fifth ring, someone picked up. "Hello?" a woman asked on the other end.
Sean straightened up. "Hi, is Rachel Keller available, please?"
"This is she.
Here goes nothing. "Oh, hi, Ms. Keller. My name is Sean Lewis, I left you a voice message yesterday?"
"Oh, yes. How can I help you, Mr. Lewis?"
Sean had to chuckle at that one. "Actually, just call me Sean. I'm not old enough yet to go by 'Mr. Lewis'."
On the other end, Rachel laughed a little herself. "Okay, Sean. You had mentioned something about a story for your school paper?"
Sean hesitated a bit, and decided it was now or never. "It's about a girl who was killed and put down a well back in the 70s; you had helped the authorities find her body."
"Oh?" The humor had left Rachel's voice.
"Yes," Sean pressed on. "I need all the information you can give me about Samara Morgan."
There was a brief pause. Then, "I'm afraid I can't help you, Sean." Rachel said in a curt tone.
"Ms. Keller, I know about the videotape, and the myth that goes with it. I also know that's it's anything but a myth. I know you've been in contact with this whole thing. I'm not looking to extort you, or harass you, or anything, but I have to know more about Samara."
"I-I can't help you. Please leave me alone," Rachel's voice now sounded pained.
"Rachel, listen," Sean began, desperate to keep her on the line. "I know this must be hard, and I can imagine what you've been through--."
"What is it you think you know?" Rachel shouted back at him. "You can't possibly imagine what I've been through! Never in your lifetime!"
"Rachel, wait! Ms. Keller!"
But it was too late. Rachel had hung up.
"Damn," Sean whispered as he called her back. The phone rang a few times, then went to voice mail.
"Rachel? Ms. Keller, please pick up?"
No answer. Sean sighed, then kept talking.
"All right. At least hear me out. About two weeks ago, I was tricked into watching that video by a group of kids who were passing it around themselves looking for a thrill. Seven days later, Samara did come to kill me, but she failed. It's a long story, too long to get into over the phone. Samara was just unable to scare me to death like she does everyone else.
"This past Monday, my ten year old sister wound up watching the tape without realizing what it was, and before I found out, I had destroyed it. So she can't make a copy to save herself. Unless I can figure something else out, she'll be dead in a few days. I was hoping anything you knew could help me solve this in a different way.
"Ms. Keller, I'm desperate. Please think about this and call me back. A moment of your time is all I'm asking for, and you'll never hear from me again. Please?"
Sean waited a moment longer; no one picked up. He closed his eyes and hung up the phone.
Janet and Amy were watching him. "So now what do we do?" Amy asked quietly.
Sean could only look out the window. "I don't know," he finally admitted.
-----
The rest of the day went by like a blur. The three kids hung around the house just in case. Amy walked home later that afternoon so Sean could wait by the phone, but no phone call came. That night, thankfully, Janet had no dreams. Amy couldn't come by Saturday, the next day; Janet went about the day as best as she could, playing with some friends. She experienced nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that would suggest that her deadline, for lack of a better term, was fast approaching.
No one called. Sean found himself calling Rachel's number a couple of times, but he always got the answering machine, and hung up without leaving a message. Instead of fear, he felt anger. Instead of worry, he felt sadness.
Sunday brought more of the same. Amy came over later that afternoon, and she and Sean sat together on the porch as the sun started to go down.
"Sean," Amy said, "can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"What's it like being fearless?"
Sean paused as he mulled over how to answer that one. "It's something like being color blind, I'd imagine. Think of your emotions as light bulbs, and something that makes you feel those emotions as the things that turn them on. When something happens that should scare me, it's like trying to turn on a light with a blown fuse; there just isn't anything there. When Samara was coming out of the TV at Brian's, I was puzzled, I was confused, but that was it. Nothing else."
"That sure came in handy," said Amy.
Sean shrugged. "Yeah, but there's not even anything there with Janet. I'm sad as hell, and angry about what's going on, but I can't even be afraid for her. It's frustrating, especially when I know I should be."
The two sat in silence for a minute. Then, Amy turned to Sean. "What are you going to do about tomorrow?"
Sean sighed. "My dad's going to be home later; Janet's going to fake being sick to try and convince him to call her out from school tomorrow before he leaves for work; he's got another early shift. I'm going to try and get him to call me out too; tell him that I can stay home to take care of her."
"And if that doesn't work?"
"Then we just ditch school. I'd rather have Dad call us out, that way no truant officers will come by or anything. After that, whatever happens, happens. I'm not going to let it go down without a fight. Even if I have to let her take me instead."
The determination in his voice stunned Amy to silence; she could only take his hand. The two then just sat there, trying not to think about what lay ahead.
-----
The ruse worked; early the next morning, Mr. Lewis called both Janet and Sean out of school. It was a little after six o'clock that he went to check on Janet. While she was wide awake, she faked that she was half-asleep when he went to her bedside.
"Sean'll be here to take care of you," he said. "I'll make sure he knows to call me if an emergency comes up, but you'll be okay."
"Okay," she said, trying not to let the tears go in front of him. "I love you, Daddy."
Her dad gave her hand a soft squeeze. "Love you too, honey. Get some rest."
As soon as her bedroom door was shut, she cried softly.
-----
Sean was already downstairs in the kitchen, reading the paper when his dad came down.
"Thought you'd be taking advantage of the extra sleep," his dad said.
Sean shrugged. "I had a restless night, so I figured I'd just come down. I'll try to get some rest later."
"Sean," his dad said after a minute, "is everything okay?"
The question almost caught Sean off guard. "Why?" he asked.
"Well, these kids at your school that have gotten killed, you knew them, right?"
Sean shrugged. "Somewhat; I had classes with a couple of them, but that's it. I'm okay, though. Really."
"You'd tell me if anything was wrong?"
Dad, please…. "If I really needed your help, you know I would, but it's all cool."
Finally, his dad nodded. "Okay. I won't be back until much later tonight, maybe early tomorrow morning; it's one of those shifts. Make sure you take care of your sister, and call if you need anything, you hear?"
"Yessir," Sean answered, thinking, I just hope I can find a way to explain all this.
His dad left, and Janet came down about an hour later.
"Have you got any ideas at all?" she asked him.
Sean paused a moment. A fragment of an idea had occurred to him in the middle of the night, but he wasn't sure how to build on it. "Something," he admitted. "Although I'm not sure what I'm going to do. When the time comes, I might just wing it."
They flipped between Good Morning America and the Today show, when the doorbell rang at 7:30. Sean went to the door and looked out one of its windows. When he saw who was standing there….
He opened the door. "Amy? What are you doing here?"
Amy stepped inside. "Cutting class. I told you I was with you in this until the end," she answered.
Sean couldn't help but give her a hug. "Thank you," he said.
-----
Time passed, but no one bothered to watch the clock. Eventually, Sean turned the TV off and the three spent the time in the dining room playing board games. When the phone rang, Amy and Janet jumped in their seats. Sean clenched his fists as he went into the kitchen to answer it, wondering what twisted experience Samara was going to spring on them now.
"Hello?" he answered firmly.
"Sean?" a woman's voice asked. "Is Sean Lewis there?"
"This is he," he replied, puzzled.
"Sean, it's Rachel Keller."
Immediately, Sean waved his free hand frantically at Amy and Janet, snapping his fingers to get their attention. "Ms. Keller! Hello!"
"Maybe you should just call me Rachel, Sean," Rachel said.
"Rachel," Sean said as Amy and Janet ran over. "Thank you for calling."
"I've been thinking over what you said in your last voice message. I know your time's short, but I think we need to talk. Do you have enough time to meet me somewhere?"
"Not to drive to Astoria," Sean answered.
"No, I drove back to Seattle early this morning," Rachel said. "I'm in a coffee shop called Brewer's Choice. Can you meet me here now?"
Sean turned to Amy. "Brewer's Choice, do you know where it is?"
Amy nodded, "Yeah, it's further in the city. I can show you."
Sean checked the kitchen wall clock; 9:00. "Yeah, I can get down there," he told Rachel. "I'm out the door right now."
"I take it you know what I look like?" she asked. "If you were able to track me down in the first place, I mean?"
"Yes, I saw your picture on the internet."
"Okay. I'll see you soon."
Sean hung up and turned to Janet; Amy was already getting her jacket. "Sis," he said, "are you okay here alone for a little while?"
"I should be," Janet answered. "There's still a couple of hours to go."
Sean nodded. "You remember that idea I had? I might be able to work it out better after this. We'll be back soon. I promise."
"Okay," Janet said as Sean kissed her on the forehead.
He turned to Amy. "Let's go."
-----
They did have time left, but not nearly enough as they thought. Had they been paying attention to the time, rather than let the day pass by, they would have realized that the kitchen clock had read nine o'clock for some time.
The clock's battery had died a while ago.
And the path of the Ring was about to come round to its endpoint sooner than any of them realized….
TO BE CONCLUDED…..