Chapter 32 Confronting Demons
CONFRONTING DEMONS
LUCAS
How long had they been locked in here? They’d taken turns pounding on the door, calling for help, but it proved fruitless.
The props room was in a far corner of the theatre department that no one came to unless they were actually pulling props for a production.
On top of that, Judah confiscated their phones, watches, and anything electronic that might allow them to contact anyone.
They couldn’t even see what time it was to know if there was even anyone in the building.
For all they knew, it could be the middle of the night.
The teens filled him in on their budding relationship and Judah’s descent to where he was now.
“I’m sorry for not listening to you, Ryker,” Lucas apologized. “It seemed so obvious to me at the time, but I should have looked into it further.”
“It’s okay, Dr. Vaughn. He was really good at what he did. You weren’t the only one who was fooled. I could keep being mad about it, but it doesn’t change the past. It seems rather pointless considering how badly this could all go now. I’ll just be thankful to get out of this alive.”
They sat quietly for a bit. Lucas racked his brains, trying to think logically about their situation. “We need a plan for when Judah comes back,” Lucas said to them. “When he’s been here, why has he come? To bring you food and water? Take you to the restroom?”
“I haven’t seen him yet,” Ryker told him. “He came running up to me between classes and led me here, then whacked me in the knee with a pry bar when we got to the top of the stairs.”
“He’s only been here once for me,” Kennedy told them.
“He brought me water and a bucket.” Her voice was tinged with embarrassment.
“I haven’t had any of the water. I didn’t want to have to use the bucket, and I also didn’t trust him not to have done something to the water.
I wanted to be able to fight him in case… ”
“Smart move, especially if he’s mad at you about Ryker. There’s no telling what he might have felt he was justified to do. I’ll do my best to keep you safe, Kennedy. Both of you.”
“We know you will, Dr. Vaughn,” Ryker said. “And I’ll do my best to help as well.”
“Me too. I can’t let Judah frighten me anymore.”
He nodded, knowing that as much as he wanted to keep Kennedy absolutely safe and to rely as little on Ryker as possible because of his injury, it would likely take all three of them to outsmart and overpower Judah.
“Do you think anyone’s even looking for us?” Kennedy asked, a tremor in her voice.
“If they aren’t already, they will be. I was supposed to meet with Lieutenant Axton of the San Antonio Police Department.
Ezra would be waiting for me after school, and I’m sure the office staff would grow concerned when they didn’t see me all day.
Someone will find us, but it won’t hurt to give them some help. ”
He outlined what he wanted them to do. Both were frightened, but there was a resolution in their agreement that he had no doubt they would fight to get free.
They moved a stack of boxes to the right of the door.
When Judah entered the room, Ryker would push the stack of boxes over to distract Judah temporarily, hopefully allowing Kennedy to flee the props room.
Once down the stairs, she was to go out the nearest exit and find someone to call the police and let them know where Ryker and Lucas were.
They assumed their assigned positions, and now they just needed Judah to come into the attic.
It felt like hours, but it could have been minutes. Finally, they heard sounds at the door. Faint light spilled in the doorway from the emergency lighting in the hallway, and Judah had a flashlight in his hand. It caught Lucas directly in his eyes, causing him to throw up an arm to block the light.
“Turn out that light, Judah,” he called out. He needed to draw him further into the room, hoping that his voice would drown out any noise Ryker might make.
When the flashlight panned the rest of the room, he held his breath.
Surely the boy would notice the change in the configuration of the room since there hadn’t been any boxes next to the door earlier.
Ryker and Kennedy also wouldn’t be in view, which was something they needed in order to make their plan work, but could also be a weakness in their plan. However, they couldn’t do nothing.
“Come out with your hands up, Ryker,” Judah called out. “I have a gun, and I’ll just start shooting up things until you come out.”
From where Lucas was standing, he couldn’t see Ryker in the darkness, but he looked in the opposite direction and nodded, hoping the teen would understand it was a diversion.
Judah didn’t move from his position in the doorway. “Where’s Kennedy? I want to see her and Ryker in front of me.”
“That’s not going to happen, Judah,” Lucas told him. “Kennedy’s too weak from lack of food and water to move. We have her lying down on the couch back in the furniture area.”
“She hasn’t been up here that long to be weak,” Judah said. “You can’t fool me, Dr. Vaughn. Where’s Ryker? Hiding somewhere, waiting to jump out at me?”
Time to start the performance of a lifetime. Lying was not his strong suit, but he hoped Judah would be too amped up to realize. “He’s watching over Kennedy. He’s not going to jump you, I promise. Let’s talk about this, Judah. What has you so upset that you’ve kidnapped us?”
“Ask Ryker. He knows.”
“I did. He says he doesn’t know. Kennedy said you thought she was seeing him behind your back, but both of them swear they’re not. She said she wouldn’t do that to you. She loves you, Judah.”
“Don’t lie to me, Dr. Vaughn. I saw them. I saw them on the dock late one night. They were kissing. He had no right to do that. You don’t steal someone’s girlfriend. Especially your friend’s girlfriend.”
“No, he shouldn’t have. That breaks the bro code.”
He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. He never believed in that nonexistent construct, and students constantly dated each other’s exes. It was all part of normal teenage drama.
Judah took a single step into the room, probably not even realizing he’d done it.
“Call them. Get them out here where I can see them.”
“Judah, talk to me. This misunderstanding can’t be all that’s causing you to do this. Let me help you.”
“You can help me by calling them out here.”
The boy had taken another step into the room to where he was even with the boxes Kennedy was behind. There was no way she could sneak around them without drawing attention to herself. He had to get Judah further into the room.
“I’ll call them if you’ll tell me what’s going on. Please, Judah. I can help you with whatever it is. No one even knew you were in distress. We can’t help you if we don’t know what’s going on, and we desperately want to help you. We care about you.”
Judah laughed. “What a joke! If people cared, they would have told me that Kennedy was cheating on me. They would have noticed I was hurting. Instead, everyone just kept going about their daily lives, as if I wasn’t even here.
Kept worshipping Ryker as if he were a fucking god. He had everything, and I had nothing!”
His memories of the recent conversation with Elyxandre struck a chord. So much of what they discussed was at the root of Judah’s pain. Perhaps it was a far more common complaint than he ever realized.
The high level of emotion that was building in Judah wasn’t a good sign.
The teenager was starting to self-destruct, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d take Lucas with him, then Ryker and Kennedy.
While he would protect the two kids with his life if necessary—as a principal, he felt that was his job—he certainly didn’t want it to come to that.
He didn’t want to leave Ezra alone. The boy was almost an adult, but he had to admit, he didn’t want to miss out on all the great things his son would accomplish.
And then there was Elyxandre. His heart was breaking that he might not get to see her again.
Never get to hold her again. Be unable to support her through this awful transition she was going through to regain her sense of self-worth.
While he knew she would—and could—find her way on her own, he didn’t want her to have to do that.
“I’m sorry we didn’t know. Let us help you now. We want to help you.”
“Nobody wants to help me.”
As Lucas’ eyes adjusted to the extra light from the hallway, dim as it was, and the glow around the edges of the flashlight, he saw that Judah had a gun in his hand.
Things had just gone from bad to worse. He should have expected it, but he’d been more worried about overpowering the boy than wrestling a weapon out of his hands.
A weapon also raised the stakes on their escape. It meant that Judah was near the end of his rope. Chances were, he already planned to end things here today—if not by his own hand, then by the actions of the police if they showed up.
He weighed his options. The attic space was narrow and clogged with boxes, furniture, and shelving.
Since Judah wasn’t doing what he’d hoped he’d do, he was going to have to lure him further into the attic and away from Kennedy and Ryker.
It would be nearly impossible to move backward into the space and circle back to safety.
That meant that his chances of making it out of here alive decreased dramatically, but if it meant the two kids could get out to safety, then that’s the way it went.
He sent out a mental apology to Ezra for what he was about to do. His son would understand, but it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t hurt.
He also sent up a plea to Elyxandre. To be safe. To be happy.
One step at a time, hands raised in the air to show he didn’t have any sort of weapon, he began to back into the attic space toward where he claimed Kennedy was hiding. Of course, Judah didn’t like that.
“Stay where you are, Dr. Vaughn. Don’t make me shoot you.”
“You said you wanted to see Kennedy and Ryker. I’m going to get them.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Judah growled. “I told you to call them to come to us.”
“If you’re worried, come with me. If I’m lying to you, then you can shoot me, and you’ll know.”
“Call them here!” The boy’s voice became strident. Lucas was getting to him. Good. If he was emotionally overwrought, he’d follow, afraid to let him out of sight.
“No, Judah. If you want to see them, you’ll have to go to them.”
Then, in an act of desperation and probably stupidity, he turned his back on Judah and walked slowly into the dark recesses of the attic.
Straining his ears, he heard what he thought was a gasp from Kennedy and a whimper. However, it didn’t seem to register to Judah. Good. He had the boy’s attention. The question was, was he following Lucas or holding his ground?
“I don’t want to shoot you!”
He could hear anguish in the boy’s voice. He sounded close.
Out of the darkness, his voice rang out. “I don’t think anything’s going to prevent that now, do you, Judah?”
Suddenly, there was a clatter from the stairwell, as if one of the kids had fallen down some of the steps in their hurry. Hopefully, neither of them was hurt.
He looked over his shoulder at Judah’s anguished scream.
The boy had run to the doorway, aiming his weapon down the stairs, firing off two shots at the couple.
Prompted into action, Lucas quietly, and as quickly as he dared in fear of making noise, ducked out of sight and didn’t stop until he was as far back into the space as he could get.
He turned down one of the aisles of shelving, then realized his mistake.
He’d miscounted and gone down an aisle that had no exit except the one he just turned into.
He was trapped.