Chapter Fourteen: Jared and Sarah Hines

Jared was on the left bed sleeping. Melissa and Sarah were on the right bed, Melissa reading the latest Teen People and Sarah meditating.

June was leaned against the wall, seated on the floor. She was so deep in thought and the room was so quiet that she jumped when her cell phone rang.

“Hello?…Hey April!…What?!?!…No way!…No, I’m at a hotel with some, uh, friends…Yeah….Yeah, I’ll be over in a minute.” She closed the phone. “Can someone take me to a friend’s house? She’s got some important information we need to know.”

Sarah, who had stopped meditating when June’s phone rang, raise her hand. “I will!”

The two got their shoes on and left. Melissa, now finished reading the magazine, looked over at Jared. She smiled to herself. “I guess he is cute,” she thought.

At that moment, Jared opened his eyes. He looked around the room in confusion. “Where’s-”

“They left. June said something about picking up a friend who has important information,” Melissa responded.

“Oh…” He got off the bed and grabbed his room key. “I’m going to get something to eat. Do you want to come?”

She nodded and grabbed her Sketchers. While she was putting them on, she could feel Jared staring at her. She felt nervous and blushed.

While they were walking to the elevator, Jared asked, “So why don’t you ever talk?”

“Um…I don’t know. I used to talk a lot, but since Joseph attacked me, I’ve been scared that he’s going to come after me again.”

“Oh. I guess he really scared you, huh?”

She nodded. Then she sighed and said, “I’ve never really told anyone…but I’m afraid of death.”

Jared nodded. “Many people are. They’re afraid of loosing the people that they love. They’re afraid they won’t make it to heaven.”

By now, Melissa and Jared were in the elevator. Melissa looked up at Jared in amazement. “Do…do you think there’s really a heaven?”

“Absolutely. It might not be as awesome as society makes you think, but there is a heaven.”

Melissa smiled to herself as she thought about what heaven might be like.

“So…” Jared said as he tried to think of something to talk about. “Won’t your parents be mad that you’re skipping school to catch a murderer?”

“No. As long as I’m safe and getting good grades they really don’t mind.”

“You’ll have a lot of homework to make up.”

She shrugged. “I’ll get help from my friends.”

They didn’t talk again until they got outside.

“So how old are you?” Jared asked, sitting on a bench.

“Sixteen,” Melissa responded, sitting next to him. “What about you?”

“Twenty-two.” He got out his wallet and looked to see how much money he had. “You want some ice cream?”

“Sure.”

Jared smiled at her. “My treat.”

They sat outside the ice cream store licking their cold treats.

“Sarah,” Melissa started, holding her scoop of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, “is she younger than you?”

“Twin,” he responded, eating his Rocky Road ice cream.

“You both have the same blue eyes. And similar noses. But she has long, blonde hair, and you have short brown hair…” She stopped short and looked at Jared, puzzled.

“Well…they say I have my mom’s hair, but she has my dad’s.”

Melissa nodded. She sat in silence, eating her ice cream.

Breaking the silence was Jared’s phone. He picked it up. “Hello?…Yeah….I just took Melissa out for some ice cream…yeah…I’ll be there in a minute.” He put the phone in his pocket and said, “They have the girl. We need to get back.”

“I, um…really liked the ice cream.…” she smiled.

“Anytime.”

As they were walking back, Melissa debated with herself whether or not she liked Jared. Although he looked mean at first glance, he was really nice underneath.

“So, do you like arcade games?” Jared asked.

“Yeah,” she answered. “Why?”

“Well, I need a break from all this murder stuff, so I was wondering if you’d want to come with me to the arcade at the mall tomorrow. I read about it in the paper.”

Melissa giggled. “Sure!”

Once at the hotel, Jared and Melissa were surprised to see a little girl.

“Who’s this?” Jared asked, taking off his Nikes.

“This,” Sarah started, glaring at him, “is April Simpson. Her brother, Phillip, died in Joseph’s first killing spree.”

“Ok…Why is she here?”

April stood up. “Excuse me for not explaining sooner. I have physic powers and I am as smart as a high school student.”

“Dang,” Jared whistled.

“Now,” she jumped off the bed onto the floor, “I had a vision that you may want to know of.” She stopped for a moment before going on. “In my vision, I saw a girl with curly blond hair and blue eyes like the sea. She was in a…a jail cell, I think. The walls were made of stone and it was cold. She was yelling and screaming, begging for someone to let her out.

“Then, Joseph came down a set of wooden steps, carrying a girl with red hair like the fur of a fox. He was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him. It was like I waent deaf because I couldn’t hear anything. I just saw and felt cold. He put the other girl into the cell. Then he talked to the curly blonde before going into a room opposite the stairs.”

Sarah glanced at June. “Anything sound familiar?”

She thought for a moment. “Yeah. Sounds like the place where Joseph and I plotted everything. It was a little stone house that Jorge had made. It’s built into the ground in our backyard.”

“If she’s right,” Jared looked at Sarah, “then we’ve got where Kim and Elizabeth are.”

“In that case…” Sarah turned to June, “who is next on the list?”

“Chris Martin.”