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Very slight gore in this chapter. Very slight. Like, very very slight.
This chapter is also rather long. Explanations are at the end (to avoid any spoilers).
Shawn woke up and found himself tied up to a chair, his hands tied behind his back. Again. Once his vision finally cleared up, he took in his surrounding and tried his best to make out exactly where he was. He knew that the sooner he knew his location, the sooner he'd be rescued.
Wallpaper is peeling. Windows have scratches. Curtains… there are none. Carpet is dirty. Very, very dirty.
Clearly, it was a motel room.
Desk, still has dust on it. It hasn't been used. Bed is made far too neatly. No one has slept in it. Windows are still shut and were probably never opened despite it being 90 degrees out.
This room has been vacant for a very long time. Shawn was probably the only person to have actually used this room in a while. And it wasn't even by choice.
Shawn worked the knots around his hands, trying desperately to untie himself. Then, his butt vibrated. Well, not his butt. His phone in his back pockets. Shawn twisted his hands desperately trying to answer his phone. Rope burns, turning hands further than they should go. Then, the phone stopped. So Shawn resorted to trying to untie his hands again. It was clearly the only way to accomplish anything.
Then, the door opened wide. Natalie entered, followed by a man Shawn immediately recognised.
Scar on face. Bald, blue eyes. Tall, around six foot. Tattoo on arms. William Pond.
It all made sense.
"Well, hello Natalie!" Shawn exclaimed happily. Natalie rolled her eyes, but it was clear to Shawn that just the fact that he knew her real name bothered her. "And hello Mr Pond" Shawn said, now looking at the man.
"How do you know who we are?" Natalie asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I not tell you? I'm kind of psychic" Shawn said. Natalie looked at her husband, confused as to what to do with that.
"Do you expect us to believe that?" Mr Pond asked.
"Would you like me to prove it to you?" Shawn asked.
"Go on" Mr Pond said. "Convince me."
"Alright, let's take a look into your past" Shawn said. "The year 2010." Natalie stiffened, though Mr Pond rolled his eyes. "That was the year Natalie stole from her charity. But it wasn't Natalie. She was just covering for you.
"Back in time! Early 1990's. Natalie meets Mr Pond. Falls desperately in love. Year 1999. William Pond robbed a bank with a knife. Or, attempted to rob a bank with a knife. That didn't go so well, did it? But still, four dead. You proud of that Will?" Shawn asked, Staring directly at Mr Pond.
"Fast forward. Year 2009. William Pond on parole for good behaviour. He returns to the love of his life, and they marry. Natalie Lestrange becomes Natalie Pond.
"That brings us back to the year 2010. Money goes missing from the charity. Your finance advisor notices, and asks questions. Natalie immediately suspects William so she confronts him, and her theories are proven to be true. But she can't have that. She has the love of her life and if she tells people that William Pond took the money that would be in violation of his parole and he'd be sent back to prison. She couldn't have that. So she took the blame. And doing so ruined her. But she didn't care. She had the love of her life."
Shawn stared at Natalie, judging her past, judging her future and judging her. All Natalie could do was stare back at him, eyes wide open, jaw dropped.
"Now we're in the present day" Shawn continued, now putting his new theory into play. "The couple, now completely broke, go looking for Helga Duff. An old family friend who happened to be loaded. I like to think that you were going to just ask for a loan, but the spirits are telling me you had something much more dark in mind for her. How Drake Ramoray fits into this… the spirits and I are still working on."
"I never intended to kill Helga!" Natalie exclaimed. "She's like family to me!"
"To you" Shawn repeated, and then he turned towards William. Natalie followed his gaze and stared at her husband.
"Will?" she said, barely above a whisper. "You said no one would die. You said 2 million and then promised no one would die!"
2 million. Natalie was only left 1.5 million. They weren't going to kill Helga.
"No one is going to die. Ramoray has the money. I heard him say so. He just hid it. That's why we need to stop wasting our time with this clown, and go talk to Ramoray again!" William said, already making his way to the door.
"What makes you think Ramoray has 2 million?" Shawn asked.
"I heard him. On the phone. He was talking about rebuilding the theatre, saying he could afford it now that he had the money. Natalie, let's go!" William barked.
"Ramoray's dead" Shawn said. William stopped and turned to face Shawn.
"He's what?"
"OH I'M GETTING A VISION!" Shawn exclaimed. He tried to put his hand on his head, but quickly remembered he was tied up. "You both came here to ask Helga to borrow money. It was just an innocent loan. You met up with her at the theatre, talked to her but never got around to asking for the loan. Because you heard something far more interesting.
"Drake Ramoray enters! He talks about how he has 2 million dollars. And that's when you get your idea. 2 million dollars. You wouldn't need to borrow anything from Helga. You'd be set for a very long time. Maybe even start a family, though I think that's the last thing my buddy Will here wants.
"You confront him, tell him you want the money. You even threaten him. Maybe with his life, maybe just to hurt him. I don't know. It doesn't work. So you send Natalie in alone, get her to try and reason with him. Maybe get a little good cop bad cop in. Or in this good crook bad crook. But it goes horribly wrong.
"Natalie approaches him in his booth. They talk but Natalie doesn't get what she wanted. So she pushes and shoves. Then, she pulls out a gun and points at Ramoray. Ramoray, lost for words and scared, puts his hands up and backs up into the railing. But the building's old and the railing breaks. Ramoray dies.
"But it was an accident. You didn't go with the intention to kill, and yet he died. That's why you looked so shaken up at the crime scene. But you knew your husband would be furious if he was dead. Your one way to find the money is now gone. So you lied to the cops.
"You gave a fake name. you gave a fake story. So that if your husband ever went to the theatre alone, he'd see that Ramoray was dead and a woman named Tiffany found the body. How could he trace that back to you, right?"
Natalie stared at her husband, terrified of his reaction.
"Is that true?" William asked.
"Yes" Natalie whispered. She expected all hell to break loose. Instead, William turned back to Shawn.
"Congratulations. You really are psychic!" William said. "So here's what's gonna happen." William pulled out a knife and pointed it at Shawn. "You're going to divine use where the money is. Using your psychic powers, of course." Shawn stared at the knife. Knowing very well he couldn't possibly divine anything, he tried to buy some time.
"Really? A knife? Did you not learn from your whole 'Rob a Bank' scheme?" Shawn said.
"Just shut up" Natalie said, clearly just giving him some good advice.
"Would we share the money?" he asked. They both stared at him. "Well, I mean, he's dead. It's fair game right? After all, I am going to lead you to the money. I deserve a fair share."
"You're not getting anything" William said.
"Well. That's not very fair. What if I decide not to show you to the money anymore?"
Out of frustration and impatience, William held his knife tightly and stabbed Shawn in his left thigh. Shawn yelled out in shock and pure agony.
"You die!" William yelled. He dug the knife in further causing Shawn to yell again. "Are we clear?!" William then yanked the knife out of Shawn's leg.
Then, Shawn's phone rang. Shawn sighed, expecting another attack. Instead, all that happened was Natalie grabbed his phone out of his back pocket and handed it to William.
"Who's Juliet O?" he asked. Shawn, afraid of getting into any more trouble or, even worse, getting Juliet in any trouble, quickly made up a lie.
"Some girl who works at a cheesecake factory. She's been calling me nonstop. You can just ignore her" he said.
"Juliet O'Hara?" Natalie said. "She was at the crime scene. She's one of the detectives."
"She's a detective?" William asked, finally understanding what he was dealing with.
"So is he" Natalie said, pointing to Shawn.
"He didn't need to know that" Shawn muttered to her. William punched Shawn in the face. Hard.
"Great. Great. This is just great! We're dealing with cops!" William yelled, pacing around the room and ignoring all the calls Shawn's phone got. "They're probably on their way now. This idiot was probably sent under cover or something."
"If they are coming, can't we use him as a hostage?" Shawn laughed.
"With a knife?" and then flinched, afraid, William would land another punch.
"No" Natalie said, before anything could happen. "With this" she said as she pulled out a gun and handed it to her husband. "I don't know if it works. I never used it. I only threatened Drake with it."
"Well, let's find out if it works" William said. He cocked it back, aimed it at Shawn's foot and then shot. Shawn yelled out once again. "Look at that!" William said. "It works!"
Shawn looked at Natalie. Surely she couldn't be allowing this. But, she was. She'd do anything for the money.
"I can see the money" Shawn spat out. He didn't care if he didn't have the faintest idea of what to do next. He had to get out of that motel room. "It's back at the theatre." Natalie and William exchanged glances. William was clearly the brains behind it all. He had the experience. He had dealt with cops and hostages. He knew what to do. Shawn's phone rang again.
"Okay. Here's what's going to happen" William said. "I'm going to answer this phone. You have one minute to talk to them. That should give the cops enough time to trace the call. Then, we're out of here. You say one word about anything else, I will shoot you. Are we understood?" Shawn nodded and William then put the phone on speaker and placed it in front of Shawn.
'Shawn? Finally! You didn't answer any of my calls! Are you okay?' Juliet asked. Shawn hesitated before answering. He knew he had limited time and he had to come up with a way to let Juliet know where he was going without William knowing.
"Yeah" he said. "Um… sort of…"
'Where are you, Shawn?'
"I don't know. But I do know I don't have very much time left. So please don't waste it trying to figure out where I am."
'Don't think like that. Don't you dare. We're tracing the call and we're going to find you, okay?'
"I need you to do two things for me, though."
'Anything.'
"First, I need you to think back to our third proper date. I took you out to that fancy restaurant. I think that was the best night of my life and I would very much appreciate it if you could remember me as that romantic guy."
'Shawn-'
"Also, one more thing I need you to do. I need you to tell Gus that I don't mind if he goes out with that girl this weekend."
'Why don't you just tell him that yourself?'
"I don't think I'll get the chance. Jules, one last thing."
'What?'
"I love you."
William then snapped the phone shut. Natalie quickly went behind Shawn and worked on the knots, quickly untying him. Then Shawn noticed the texture of her hands and found out how she did it. She was wearing gloves. All this time, she was wearing very thin clear gloves. He then focused on Williams hands and sure enough, he was wearing gloves too.
There wouldn't be any fingerprints at this motel room. With all the dust and tidiness, whoever went in this room would be under the impression that no one had been here for weeks.
William forced Shawn to get on his feet and then Natalie tied his hands together again behind his back.
With William clutching his arm far too tightly, Shawn was then forced to limp his way towards their car.
This whole chapter ended up being very different to what I had wanted. I mean, the plot is the same and so are the twists. But originally, I had planned to make this the really gorey chapter. Like, there was going to be hand stabbing and all that but i just didn't see where I could fit that in. Also, I had originally planned for this chapter to be split in 2. But I couldn't find a good spot to split it in. So it's just one long chapter.