Sleepwalkers

Sleepwalkers

I rolled onto my side and opened my eyes to see David’s bare back. I listened for a moment before I turned over again and stood up. I wiped my eyes and caught a glimpse of my heavy, ruined make-up and I cringed. She had gone out again.

           “Celeste?” David questioned behind me and I stiffened reflexively and reached to fidget with my wedding band before I realized that she had left it at home. I turned around and offered David a half-hearted smile. He was not a bad man, and I knew that this was as weird for him as it was for me. He had a wife, two children.

“Are you alright?” David got up from bed his sweatpants low on his hips.

“I’m pregnant,” I almost whispered. David stopped short, his hand stretched out to retrieve his shirt from the back of the chair.

           “Congratulations,” He said after a moment.

           “I think it’s her’s.”

           “Oh…”

           I mean she wasn’t exactly the maternal type. I’d wake up with cuts and bruises all the time. I had never been more afraid of her than I had been when I was pregnant with my own kids. God what was I going to tell Ezra?

           “It’s alright Celeste. Most people exercise their right to reproduce at some point.” Did I mention that David also happened to be a scientist?

           “I know,” I sighed looking over David’s shoulder.

           I walked back into my own house a half hour later. We didn’t live very far apart.

           Ezra was already in the kitchen and I could smell breakfast. I came into the kitchen and Ezra looked up, his lips twitched into a crooked smile that melted my heart.

           “Good morning love, the kids are up and should be getting ready for school, coffee is over there and these eggs will be done in a moment.”

           I smiled as I took down a mug. I held the cup between my hands and blew on the steaming liquid for a second before placing it on the counter in front of me.  

           “Ariel wasn’t there today. I think they had a fight, he’s been drinking. I could smell it on my breath when I woke up,” Ezra continued and I nodded absently. I should just tell him now, he brought it up. I opened my mouth just as the kids came crashing down the stairs.

           My youngest Robyn saw me first and soon, I had a little blonde head buried in my stomach with a chorus of “Mommy, I missed you” ringing in my ear.

Henry pushed his glasses higher on his nose and sniffed at the plate of eggs Ezra placed in front of him.

           “Well good morning to you too,” I muttered as I released Robyn from my arms. Jacky’s nose was already in her phone. She was sixteen now, thinking she was all grown up. Her alter would show up soon.

           “Star…Celeste,” Ezra said drawing my attention back. I blinked at the plate of eggs he was holding out to me. I felt bile rise in my throat.

           “You okay Star?” Ezra asked and that got everyone’s attention. Jacky set down her phone and Henry paused his fork halfway to his mouth, Robyn tugged gently on the hem of my shirt.

           “I’m just going to lay down for a few minutes,” my voice tiny as I walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. I closed the bathroom door behind me and knelt down in front of the toilet. I dry heaved for a second before my stomach could come up with some bile.

           “Celeste…” Ezra knocked on the door gently.

           “I’m alright,” I called and was about to flush when I saw something. I squinted, it was a flash-drive.

           What the hell?

           My fingers twitched on the handle and I longed to just let it go, but curiosity was a strong emotion. I fought back a new wave of nausea as I pulled the little device out. I ran the sink rinsing my mouth and cleaning the drive before stuffing it into my pocket.

           Ezra was leaning against the wall when I opened the door, “Do you need a doctor?”

           I leaned against the doorway, “I know what’s wrong.”

           Ezra, just raised his eyebrows and I squared my shoulders. “I’m pregnant.”

           “That’s wonderful, Star.” His eyes lit up for a second before he saw the look on my face. “It’s hers isn’t it?”

           “I can’t know for sure before the testing.” I sighed and Ezra held out his arms for me. I folded myself against his chest, listening to his heart beat.

           “Are you going to work today?”

           “Yeah,” Ezra murmured into my hair, “Taylor said he had a new patient he wanted me to look at today.” I nodded into his chest. I should tell him about the flash-drive.

            “We’ll get through this Celeste.” Ezra said as I stepped back.  

He turned towards the stairs, and then looked back over his shoulder at me. “I’ll drop the kids off on my way to the hospital.”

           I just nodded and he vanished from sight. I crossed the hall and eased open our bedroom door like I was some spy invading an enemy’s house. I could feel the drive burning a hole in my pocket, I could hear my family downstairs. Guilt was stewing in my gut as I climbed under the covers of my bed and stuffed my nose into Ezra’s pillow.

           I heard the front door. I got up slowly and moved to my office.

I pushed aside scraps of paper. I opened my laptop and turned it on. I placed the flash-drive on the desk as I sat down, my eyes taking in every detail of the little device. I know I shouldn’t have been snooping, but I could feel this desire to know burning inside of me. I knew other people who had perfectly cordial relations with their alters. They left them messages and had conversations. I had tried it once, left her a note, but there was no response. This was the only way I could learn something about her.

 I plugged it in.

The first file was a video, my mouse hovered over the play button. I swallowed hard and clicked.

           They first thing that shocked me was my face on the screen. The second was the blood on the wall behind her.

           “If you’re watching this something has gone terribly wrong.”

I paused the video there to stop myself from hyperventilating. Oh god…I hit play with trepidation this time.

           “My name is Tara James, my alter is named Celeste Randle, she is innocent in all this. I work for the United States Government, ask them and they will deny it, but that’s the nature of the work. If you are seeing this because my body turned up somewhere--” Tara made a face and my stomach twisted violently. “I just wanted to say sorry to Celeste’s family. If by some chance this is Celeste, well…I’d stop watching now. What I have to say next isn’t something you’d want to know.” I paused the video again and took a steading breath, I could stop now. Pull out the flash drive and get back to my life.

           “The mission started out good,” Tara continued, “Coal and I were doing basic recon on some suspected terror organization operating out of this club called…um…Ice-slide, I know the name sucks. Coal and I went there to meet his contact who had some names for us, but things started to go bad,” Tara looked behind the camera for a second, “Coal do you want to tell this part?”

           Tara stood up and a man came into view. “David,” I gasped, looking at the face of the man I woke up next to every morning.

           “I should have known that my contact was a bit sketchy,” David, or Coal as she’d called him said, “It was an ambush. As soon as we exited the main dance floor…Tara and I got a gun pointed at our faces. These are bad people.”

           “They said they wanted to talk,” he sneered. “Fabian Smith, the guy in charge told us that our boss was a close friend and that help wouldn’t be coming. He gave some compelling evidence to that point.” Coal tugged the collar of his shirt.

           “He has our boss’s daughter hostage,” Tara chimed in solemnly.

           “It had been a setup from both sides. Smith needed someone agents to do something his regular guys couldn’t and the boss volunteered us,” Coal finished and turned back to Tara.  “There was never a choice. This is the video evidence that should prove that if something were to happen to us,” Tara said and then took a deep breath. “On this flash drive there are several documents that contain information the police will need when this is over. Our task is simple, two nights from now the night president comes through and we are going to kill him. Or everyone we love dies.”

           “He is a shitty president anyway,” Coal muttered and Tara reached up to turn off the camera. I sat back and swore. I fished my phone from my pocket and scrolled through my contacts. He picked up on the second ring.

           “Hi David, it’s Celeste I think we have a problem.”

           “What it is?”

           “I found something you are going to want to see.”

           “What is it?” David repeated. I could hear his irritation.

           “It’s a flash-drive. She swallowed it.”

           David was silent for a few minutes, “I have lunch in two hours, meet me at the office. I have something I need to show you too.”

           This was absolutely insane. I knew people who’s alters were crazy cat ladies, who worked factory jobs, just normal stuff. I was normal, so normal that people tell me I have the perfect life.

           She had to be a damned spy.

           David bought me a chicken sandwich from a food cart. We sat in front of the pond behind his office. I bit into my sandwich as David worried the hem of his lab coat.

           “Okay I’m ready to see it,” he said finally pulling his laptop from his bag. I handed him the flash-drive and looked out over the pond as he put his headphones in. David watched the video and then looked down at me. I could see the fear in his eyes that was mirrored in my own.

           “This is what I had to show you.” David lifted up his shirt so the start of his ribs were showing. The skin was a hideous shade of purple.

           “David!” I exclaimed putting my hand over my mouth.

           “It started to appear after you left, hurts like hell, but I guess the video explains everything.”

           “You should see a doctor…” I trailed off for a moment, “Ezra is a nurse.”

           David looked at me with soft eyes. “We can’t let them do this.”

           “How can we stop them?” I hissed, “It’s not like we have any control over our body once we go to sleep.”

           “Then we won’t go to sleep.”

           “We have to sleep David.”

           “No listen, I have been thinking about this. If we can stay awake our brains cannot switch to our alters. We could prevent them from doing anything stupid.”

           “What about Alexia?” I felt compelled to point out. David jerked like I had slapped him.

           “I don’t know, either she dies or we die. Because if they kill the night president they will be asking questions over our dead bodies.”

           My heart was banging off my ribs.

           “What if we found her first?”

           David sighed deeply, “And how would we do that? Our alters might be spies, but I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

           “What if we could find the alters of the people who took Alexia. If we could find them and convince them to help us,” I said searching David’s face.

           “We don’t even know who they are,” David stressed, “How are we going to find someone we know nothing about in two days?”

           “What if we could get our alters to help us?”

           “That’s a fine idea, but it’s not like they cared about us before. They are going to get both themselves and us killed,” David snarled angrily slapping down his hand on the bench. I flinched.

           “You don’t know that,” I squeaked and David snorted. He shook his head and hiked up his shirt again.

           “That’s all the proof I need.” He stood.

           “What are you going to do?”

           “I’m going to go back to work, drink a ton of coffee and try not to die tonight.”

…

           I sat in my office staring at the same webpage I had been staring at for hours. The kids would be coming home soon. God, what was I doing?

I found Fabian Smith, he was listed on a webpage record of convicts in an area, but it didn’t do me any good because there was no mention of who his alter was. I leaned back and pulled my fingers through my hair. The website listed Fabian’s address and his description right down to the burn scar he had on his left hand.

           Wait…I leaned forward and typed his address into maps and watched the little red circle ping about thirty miles from my house, three minutes from the house I grew up in. My eyes scanned the area until I found what I was looking for. Engine Number 6 Fire Station.

           No, it couldn’t be that easy. I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I told myself I would never call again.

           “Hello,” answered a gruff voice. My throat clogged.

           “Dad, it’s me…Celeste.”

           “Celeste,” he sounded surprised, “I thought you never wanted to hear from me again.” 

           “You were drunk at my wedding. You tried to pick a fight with Ezra,” I pointed out and my dad cleared his throat.

           “I’m going to meetings now.”

           “I’m glad, Dad I really am, but I called because I need to ask you something about the house.”

           “The fire house?”

           “Yeah, more specifically someone you may have come across there.”

           “What’s going on Celeste?” my dad asked, I bit my lip.

           “Do you know anyone named Fabian Smith? That might be his alter’s name though. He’d be a middle aged man with a burn on his hand.”

           “I know a ton of guys like that Star, burns are an occupational hazard.”

           “This is serious Dad.”

           “Why? You haven’t told me what’s going on,” my dad said in that patriating, know-it-all voice that reminded me why we hadn’t spoken in years. “Marie still calls me you know.”

           “I don’t care what my sister is doing with her life…you know what this was a mistake, forget I bothered you.” I hissed and was about to hang up the phone when my dad chimed in as charming as ever.

           “What? Do you think you are so high and mighty now because you moved to that nice neighborhood, married that prissy husband and left you gutter-trash family behind?”

           “This is why mom left you, because you’re an ass,” I spat wiping the tears from my eyes, “I’m asking you a favor dad and because I’m asking you, you know I have to be desperate, so I’ll ask you one more time, do you know this guy or not?” There was a moment of silence that met my confession then my dad spoke again.

           “Fabian Smith…alright hold on a min.”

           “Thank you,” I said exasperatedly, I could heard some background typing.

           “Alright,” my dad said finally and I could hear his chair creaking as he leaned forward. “Says here Smith is the alter of some guy who works here, what do you know, Sam. I know Sam, good guy …”

           He kept talking, but I stopped listening as my stomach wrenched violently and I swallowed the bile that rose to my mouth. “I have to go.” I cut my dad off.

           “Are you in some kind of trouble Star?” Dad asked.

           “Yeah…dad, yeah I’m in trouble.”

           I hung up before he could reply.

           I looked down at the papers scatted across my desk. I quickly jotted down everything I learned and out Tara’s name on the front.

           Please help me. Just this once.

           I laid awake that night listening to Ezra snore for a few hours before his alter woke up. His breathing hitched and I knew that he had changed. Mac sighed as he retrieved his clothes from the closet and then disappeared to the bathroom to change. When he came back I was looking at a face I loved, but the eyes of a stranger.

I needed to sleep, but the only thing I could think about was Sam. He was going to lose, his freedom, or his life. Fabian Smith had to be punished for what he’d done, but…

           I screwed my eyes shut tightly, I just needed to be someone else for a while.

           I woke up the next morning covered in blood. I screamed and David in his alarm smacked me across the cheek. My scream quieted to a whimper.

           “What the hell Celeste…shit why are you covered in blood.”

           “I don’t…I don’t” I spluttered jumping up. I pinched my skin in an effort to peal the crusty clothes off my body. My breathing came in ragged gasps as I stood naked in front of David, too freaked out to care about modesty. David politely looked away. I glanced around the room until I saw a folded piece of paper sitting on the nightstand. My heart sank as I picked it up.

           Thanks for the information, Smith has been dealt with. Maybe we can have further dealings in the future.

-Tara

I let the note fall to the floor. I ran to the toilet and threw up. This time I flushed without looking.