Eye Witness

This isn’t my room. These aren’t my clothes. This, this is not my face Rae thought looking in the mirror. Looking around she noticed blankets on the windows and locks on the bedroom door. What is this place? Where am I? She went towards the window trying to look out but her ankle dragged on something, looking down she saw a heavy chain padlocked around it. What is going on? Scared she tried to scream but nothing came out. The bedroom door snapped open and a heavy set woman stood there staring at her. She was talking but Rae couldn’t make out what she was saying she stepped back but it felt like she wasn’t in control of her body. The scary woman got closer yelling more and then she smacked Rae across the face and she fell back on the bed. The woman loomed over her then stuck a needle in her arm and darkness surrounded her.

“Rae, Rae wake up!” A familiar voice said. “Rae you are having a bad dream, wake up!”

Rae opened her eyes and she saw it, her room and clothes. She jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom mirror and reflecting back at her was her face. It must have been a dream, a terrible and weird dream. She walked back to her bed and sat down; she looked over and saw her boyfriend staring at her.

“They are happening again aren’t they?” Tom asked.

“I don’t know, this time it was different girl I saw”

“What happened in this one?”

“Same like last time I could see everything but I couldn’t hear anything. I was moving but it didn’t feel like my body and when I looked in the mirror it was someone else.”

“What did she look like this time?”

“She was thinner than me with dark brown hair that was straight and she had brown eyes.”

“So you were seeing through her eyes. Like the last one.”

“I guess,” Rae shuddered, “it was scary.”

“I know,” Tom said wrapping his arms around her, “I heard your screams.”

Later that morning they sat down for breakfast and a breaking news alert sounded on their phones. Rae looked at her phone and gasped.

“The girl on the news that is the girl I saw in the mirror.” She said showing Tom her phone.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m sure, that is her!”

“Okay, okay,” he said looking at the phone, “It says she has been missing for a week… her name is Jessica. They have no leads and don’t know where to start.”

“I can’t stand by and do nothing this time Tom. I see these things for a reason, maybe I can help.” She said.

“Ok we can do some research and if we find anything we will take it to the cops.” Tom said giving her a peck on the cheek.

Rae tried to push the events of the morning out of her mind. So far it wasn’t working. She couldn’t get the look of the scared girl out of her mind. Frustrated she shut the laptop lid and got up from her desk. She walked to the window and just stared out of it the truth was she had a dream like this before, a dream when she saw through someone else’s eyes.

It was about a month ago she woke up in the same room but it was a different face staring at her. This one was a blonde girl with green eyes and wavy hair and that’s all she saw. Rae woke up confused but figured it was a crazy dream until she saw that same girl on the news a week later, found dead. She didn’t know how to tell Tom at first or if he would believe her but in the end he did. He was the detective on the case and Rae went to him about her dream. Tom blew it off at first but when Rae came back and saw through the victims eyes again right in front of him, he changed his mind. A week after seeing the blonde girl in the room, her name was Mary, she was found murdered. Rae was upset knowing if she would of came to Tom sooner then maybe Mary would have been found alive.

Snapping back to the present Rae shook off the image. She didn’t know why or how she was seeing these things but she was going to help however she could. They thought it was a one time thing but this morning’s dream proved otherwise. Tom brought in lunch and they started looking for the scary woman. Tom was also a sketch artist so Rae described the woman to him and he sketched out the description then he looked it up in the database. While he did that Rae focused on other things like the blankets on the windows and the chain on the ankle, she tried to think back to any other details. Frustrated she wasn’t getting anywhere she closed her eyes for a second and was brought back to that room. She looked around trying to get any clues, but she wasn’t in control of what she saw. The girl got up again and started looking around for something but Rae didn’t know what. Then the door flew opened again, the woman was angry again shouting but again Rae couldn’t hear her. Rae noticed the uniform she wore and it was for a local restaurant. Rae tried to wake up but she couldn’t. Then the girl was thrown back on the bed and Rae woke up. Tom was staring at he again concern on his face.

“Are you ok?” He asked rubbing her back.

“I know how to narrow down the search. The woman had a uniform on for Annie’s Restaurant.”

“That’s great. But are you ok?”

“I’m fine Tom. I just want to find this woman.”

An hour later the woman was identified as Betty Grain, she had no arrests, no priers not even a parking ticket. Tom was on the phone with his unit chef relaying the information.

“Yes sir I believe this woman knows something about the missing girl,” he said into the phone, “Yes sir an anonymous tip came in… yes sir I know she has no priers… yes sir I will check it out myself.” Tom hung up the phone and went to his safe to grab his gun.

“Please be careful,” Rae said hugging him, “we don’t know if she is alone or not.”

“I’m always careful,” Tom replied giving her a kiss, “I will be back, I promise.” Tom left and met with his unit at Betty’s house. It was a two story house and Tom didn’t know where to look. He hoped they would be allowed in without force but was expecting the worse. The house looked nice except for the dark blankets on the windows then Tom remembered what Rae said about the windows being covered and he knew where the victim Jessica was. He signaled his men to go around back and cover the sides while he went to the front door. Tom knocked and waited. No answer so he knocked again.

“Police open the door,” he shouted. Right before he was about to kick it in, the door opened and a heavy set woman stood there with a scowl on her face.

“What do you want? I was trying to sleep I work the night shift.” Betty Grain said.

“Sorry to disturb you ma’am but we got a tip about the missing girl on the news and we need to search your premises.” Tom said handing her the search warrant.

“That’s nonsense! I live alone! Go ahead and look but I’m filing a complaint!” She huffed while Tom stepped inside.

After a thorough search of the house they found nothing, no girl and no evidence that she was there. Tom was confused and he was about to apologize to the woman when his phone rang. He was going to ignore it when he saw Rae’s name on the screen.

“Hey babe, listen it’s…” he began but Rae interrupted.

“She’s in the attic,” Rae said breathing hard.

“We checked there Rae”

“She’s in the attic they moved her when they saw you pull up. There is a false wall to the right of the door. Hurry Tom she is hurt.” Rae said hanging up the phone.

Tom ran up the stairs to the attic and felt along the wall until he felt it, the opening to the secret room. He pushed and the door sprang opened and he saw her, Jessica. He radioed his men and told them to arrest the woman. Tom helped Jessica down the stairs so the medics could look after her. By time they made it outside there were a few people looking outside and soon the news vans would show up. Tom decided to call Rae before that happened.

“We got her. She is ok and safe. You did it.” He said through the phone.

“Oh that’s great! WE did it!” Rae replied.

“I have to update my chef and the news van just pulled up. I’ll be home in about an hour or two and we will celebrate.”

Almost three hours later and Tom pulled into his driveway. Rae opened the door and smiled at him then ran into his arms. He held her tight and kissed the top of her head. They walked inside and sat down on the couch and watched the news together; the news left out some details.

“So you got them right?” Rae asked.

“Yes. The woman, Betty, confessed to holding both girls and murdering the first victim although she didn’t say why.” Tom replied.

“Yeah I heard that but the reporter said one is custody.”

“Uh yeah. Betty, the scary woman she is in custody.” He said confused.

“There were two people though”

“What?”

“The scary woman wasn’t working alone…”