Kelly was curled up on the couch in the den trying to watch TV, but she was finding it hard to concentrate.
The phone had been ringing persistently, but she had let the answering machine pick it up each time and each time it was Woods. She knew it would just be a matter of time before he'd be at her door and from the sound of desperation in his voice that time was nearing.
Kelly got up and went into the living room. She peered out the front window by pulling the edge of the curtain away from the window frame just enough to see out and not be seen. The station wagon was still parked in the same place. She carefully let go of the curtain and went back into the den where she turned the TV off. She then went upstairs to the master bedroom where she lie down on the bed and stared at the ceiling trying to put together a plan to get out of this house without being seen.
Kelly became more restless as the day wore on. Some of her memory seemed to return in foggy bits and pieces, but she still had no recollection of even what the building looked like that was the home to the Organization. By the time the sun had started setting and the sky had gone from a pale blue to a spectrum of shades of orange and red, Kelly was pacing the floor of the bedroom.
Finally, she went to her closet and took out a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt and laid them across the back of a chair. From her dresser she removed underwear and a pair of socks. She returned to the closet and retrieved her cowboy boots and set them with the clothes. She then took her robe from the hook behind the bedroom door and went into the bathroom to take a long hot, relaxing shower.
Kelly got out of the shower when the water began to turn cool. She put on her robe and went into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. She stared blankly at the gold band on her left ring finger for several minutes, and then she slipped it off her finger and set it on the night stand. She looked at her naked finger and was surprised that there was no tan line.
Kelly lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She dozed on and off. She woke up in a cold sweat after dreaming about a man she didn't recognize, an attractive man with long hair and bedroom eyes, trying to take her head. The room was completely dark. She got up and went to the window and looked out. She was able to see the silhouette of the station wagon in the moonlight.
Without turning on any lights, Kelly took the clothes she had laid out earlier from the chair into the bathroom and closed the door before turning on the light. She got dressed, turned off the light and opened the door going back into the dark bedroom. Using the light of the moon that was filtering in through the bedroom windows, Kelly went to Brian's closet and took out a back pack and a duffel bag which she filled with clothes and toiletries. Once they were filled she made her way downstairs without turning on any lights. She put her sword into the duffle bag and took her ID out of her purse and stuck it into her jeans pocket.
Kelly set the bags down and went into the living room and checked on the station wagon one last time. Seeing it was still parked in the same place she went back into the foyer, picked up the bags and went into the kitchen and quietly went out the back door. She made her way to the back fence, threw both bags over the fence and then climbed over it her self.
Once on the other side, Kelly slung the back pack onto her back and the duffle bag over her shoulder and, keeping low, hurried across the vacant lots behind her house to the highway. She followed the highway to Marin City where she found the bus station and bought a ticket on the first bus whose destination was out of the San Francisco area.
Kelly sat near the back of the bus and didn't relax until they were midway across the Golden Gate Bridge but became anxious the entire time the bus was sitting at the San Francisco terminal. Once it had left the big terminal and was well on its way out of town to its destination of Medford, Oregon, Kelly relaxed and finally fell into a dreamless sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED