Inside The Mind of War - Part 4
The Buick tore up the lip of the curb before juddering to a halt on the slated driveway. Megan's hysteria had reached delusional levels. On her way back home, she had envisioned several brutal scenarios, each one based upon an unhinged father and his vulnerable daughter. Her disturbing mental projections also managed to blot out the numerous missed calls ringing out through the cell phone beside her.
Her eyes darted towards key areas of the house from the outside. The front door, windows, even the shutters on the garage enclosure. Although what she expected to observe by doing so was a mystery even to herself. Slamming the car door shut, Megan hastened up the floral pathway. Her eyes were soaked with fine bloodshot streaks from the building pressure and anxiety. She fumbled the key thrice at either side of the lock before pushing the front door wide open and taking in a deep, hard gulp of breath.
Daniel was standing at the entrance to the kitchen, holding a plastic crate of paraphernalia in one arm and an opened bottle of beer with the other free hand. Upon seeing her, he broke out into a broad grin, but furrowed his brows at the next instant, given the visible nervous disposition of his wife.
"Sweetheart, are you OK? I thought you said you'd be gone until late afternoon?" The mild and soothing tone to his voice seemed to dampen her fears. She may as well have stepped into a scene from their not-so-distant future where life had reverted back to normality and this was just another typical summers day of familial interactions.
Megan sighed and expelled the pent-up air in her lungs, dissipating most of the tension with it. She flicked away a lock of hair smeared onto the side of her perspiring, reddened cheeks. "I'm fine. Just had a case of... some sort of panic attack, I guess." Daniel placed the contents he carried on the floor and strode up to her. "Why, babes? It's OK. I'm back home now. That's all that matters, yeah? We're a family again." Comforting arms spread around her shoulders and the remaining stress dissolved like snowflakes on a serene forest lake. She shut her eyes and held him close.
"Danny, I never felt so alone in all my life. Friends would come around during the day and I'm honestly so grateful for that, but it was more just to pass the time until you came back to me. I... I'm sorry. I just need some time to adjust as well." She let her arms fall down toward his lower back. His firm, solid muscles flexed under his cream sweatshirt as she did so. A little further down and her wrist made contact with the cold, rigid metallic handle of the gun, tucked tight into the back of his Denim jeans. A flurry of fresh terror flooded back into her mind and she pulled away from him. "What is it, Meg?" He asked.
"Why do you have to carry that blasted thing around everywhere you go? I meant to talk to you about it later on tonight but this is actually part of the reason why I'm freaking out like this. Please can you get rid it. Like immediately." She heard herself screaming the words out to the limits that her vocal cords could stretch, but all Daniel heard was the sympathetic pleadings of his wife. "We've been through this yesterday, Meg. "She" stays with me." He asserted himself but in a calm, controlled manner. "I need you to compromise and work with me on this issue. It's important that you do so, OK? You think I'd put both of you in danger? My wife and little girl? Come on, Meg. It's me, Daniel. You know, the same guy you lived with for over four years before he left? Doesn't that count for anything?"
Then, it hit with an impact that almost knocked her off her feet. Since arriving back home, there was no sign of Karly. Her stomach caved in on itself with a surge of anguished fervour. "Where's Karly, Daniel? Tell me right now." She scanned the cramped vicinity behind him, looking through the kitchen area backing up into the garden. No sign.
Daniel screwed up his face. "My god, you're so jittery. She's just playing down in the basement. What's all the fuss about?" Now his inner frustrations were beginning to bare their teeth.
"Karly!" She called out, voice trembling. "Karly, answer me, sweetheart!" The twisting abdominal pains were reaching fever pitch as mere moments felt more like minutes. Her eyes glazed over with sheer delirium when there was no initial response.
"Mummy." The faint, child-like reply came up from the basement. There was no denying where it came from. She shoved past Daniel, unmoving him for the most part and swung open the thick, wooden door. The dim ceiling lights had been switched on, although enough daylight streamed through the ventilation shaft to provide adequate brightness overall. Megan descended the narrow steps, gripping on to the handrail but still managing to stumble over her feet a few times.
Karly was playing with "Tibbles the bear" is a darkened corner of the room. She appeared content and in complete obliviousness to her external surroundings. "Baby!" Megan called out, slowing her pace down after seeing Karly was alright. "Mummy's here. How are you? You playing with Tibbles?" Without looking back, she replied in a high-pitched squeak. "Yeah, we're just having some fun down here. I couldn't find him for ages. He was a bad bear so I had to punish him." Megan beamed with relief and touched a hand upon Karly's golden brown curls, brushing them down over her shoulders and back. "I think he knows by now playing "hide-and-go-seek" is not a game you enjoy playing, sweetie. He's learnt his lesson, I'm sure. Why don't you come upstairs with me and I'll fix us all up some tasty sandwiches."
Karly continued to bob the tattered bear up and down in her miniature hands, but this time craned her neck around to look at Megan. "Well, I asked Daddy where "Tibbles" was hiding at. Daddy told me he saw him crawling down into the basement and to go find him there. He told me to wait for him here until he came down too."
Megan spun around and squinted at the top of the stairs. Daniel had closed the door and was making his way down. He carried a plate with some dry food as well as the bottle of beer he was drinking earlier. "Hey there!" He exclaimed. "How are my two favourite people in the entire world?"
Now Megan had a chance to regain her composure once more, she noticed most of the old cardboard boxes and crates stored up against the far wall were now missing. Shelves supporting various belongings and ornaments that had once been perched high above, collecting nothing but dust, had been emptied. The whole area was one large open space, save for a table pushed up just under the ventilator. She looked up at him with a mild scowl. "What's going on here, Daniel? You didn't have to bring us food down here. I was on my way upstairs to make something. Shouldn't take too long."
He sauntered over to the table and placed the plate upon it, though still grasping the bottle. His mouth crimped around the open top as he helped himself to a generous swig. "Well, Megan. Actually that's what I've been meaning to talk to you about. You see, things have changed around here." He held his hand up and closed his eyes. "No, no. Scratch that. What I meant to say is we need to keep ourselves out of danger for a little while. Just until things calm down or I figure out a resolution of some sort. It's really nothing to worry about."
Megan's jaws hung open, an expression of confusion as to what she was hearing. "Danger? What danger? What are you talking about?" Her mind bolted through a list of a thousand possibilities, but failed to conjure any plausible explanation.
Daniel shook his head as if the answer was so painfully obvious. "Well, you know what went down in those last few weeks for me, right?" He continued. "The rescue team got us out at the final hour when all hope was seemingly lost. Blew those son's of bitches to Hades. Back to where they damn well belong. Myself and another guy you don't know. We were the only ones to make it out." He moved in closer to her and lowered his head, speaking just a smidgen over a whisper. She stood her ground, though now fearful of what he may say next.
"See, it turns out that not all those asshole's had been eradicated. They were just a decoy. Their superiors knew exactly what they were doing." He brought his hands up into the air to emulate someone shooting a rifle. "Get rid of the focus of attention. Everyone turns a blind eye, then begins the real mission. It couldn't be simpler."
Megan froze in stunned shock, but she held it together enough to keep the conversation in flow. "What do you mean "the real mission", Daniel? All that is done with now. You're home, away from the horrors that you witnessed in that bunker."
Again, Daniel shook his head from side to side, but this time more in terms of disbelief than anything else. "Can't you see, Megan? You let the enemy escape, they get relieved of duty and sent back home. You get them tailed and when the time is right, you attack while their defenceless and exposed. The "real mission" is here and now. To get at you and Karly through me. That was always their sole aim. But I'll never ever let that happen, Meg. Not to my family. Over my dead body..."
(To Be Continued...)
