SPELL ACROSS TIME: THE PENTACLE

A Thursday in August

Stepping out of Max’s Café, one of their favorite haunts for their standing Thursday night dinner brown haired, brown eyed Kelly McKenna looked up at the stars and took in a deep breath. “You know Suz, I should have told the guard at work to refuse packages a long time ago. Do you have any idea how relaxing it has been not getting dead roses and spiked candy and other crap every week? It’s like heaven. The past week has been pretty decent.”

“I bet,” Blond haired, gray eyed, Susan Hammond answered, “and no more dreams?”

“Not since the last one, or whatever that was that happened in the tub. At least not that I remember.”

As Kelly closed her driver’s side door and reached to open the passenger side for Susan she glanced at the windshield and froze.

“Susan, don’t move, don’t get in the car.” Although spoken quietly Susan heard the absolute panic in Kelly’s voice.

“What? Why?”

Kelly herself climbed back out of the car, her voice trembling, “Susan, listen to me, step away from the car, keep everyone else away and call the police.”

To say Kelly sounded frantic and near to going out of her mind would have been an understatement. Susan looked at her friend and saw the absolute terror on her face.

“Kel, what’s happening?” Was she having a flashback? Something new? Was she finally giving into the stress of being stalked and going to lose it right here in the parking lot?

“I think that’s a bomb on my windshield! Go call the police and I’ll get people away from here.”

Seeing Susan reach for her cell phone Kelly stopped her, “No, not the cell, it could trigger the bomb. Use a land line and stop anyone else from using their cells.”

As Susan ran back into the restaurant yelling for the phone Kelly reflected on the nasty turn what had seemed like just a stalking had turned. Just a stalking? Who was she kidding? Stalkings never were “justs”. They were serious, emotionally painful invasions of a person’s life. This went beyond stalking. This was a direct threat on her life. The notes, emails and phone calls had been irritating, childish pranks, but then they had happened when she was still in high school and just into college. The dead flowers and tampered candies were obnoxious, but any of those things could have been easily dealt with. The doll she received a few weeks ago, a Barbie, with a knife stuck where it would have had a heart, that was when things turned to actual death threats. Now he was trying to kill her. He had shifted from wanting to scare and own her to wanting to kill her. If he wasn’t playing for real before, he was now. If she hadn’t been alert, if it really was a bomb, she’d be dead now. As she moved around the parking lot, trying to calmly ask people to stay back from her car and not use their cell phones she searched their faces. Was one of these people the stalker?

The material she had read on stalkers was that they didn’t really want to kill their prey. They fed off the terror, always coming just close enough to really harming them, but never quite completing it. It was about possession of the person, not killing them that drove them. And they liked to watch the person’s reaction. But a bomb? That was taking it a step further than stalking.

In the restaurant Susan quickly reached for the desk phone and dialed 911. “My name is Susan Hammond and I am at Max’s and we think there is a bomb on the hood of my friend’s car.”

“A bomb?”

Was the dispatcher deaf?

“Yes, a bomb!”

Despite the question Susan heard the dispatcher’s fingers fly across the keyboard and her call out, “I have a bomb threat coming in.”

“It’s not a threat lady. It’s a real bomb looking thing on her car!”

“Ok, calm down, my partner is getting units rolling, can you tell me the color and type of car and where the device is?”

“It’s a red Ford Mustang convertible, near the entrance of Max’s parking lot. Kelly is trying to keep everyone else away from the car in case it goes off. Are you sure you’re coming?”

“Yes, they were rolling immediately after your call came in, it’s just that when you have an emergency a minute can seem like an hour. Is anyone else near your friend?”

“Yes, no, well they weren’t before I came inside. She told me not to use my cell phone and I told the guy that was near us not to use his but to keep everyone else away and not use theirs. Was that right?”

“Yes, you did right. Susan…I have a unit pulling on scene, can you go out and meet him?”

“Yes, I’m on my way. Oh yeah, my friend? Well she’s been being followed, stalked and this weird guy has been sending her weird things like dead plants. Detective Campbell knows all about it, can you call her?”

“Campbell?”

“Yes. She might want to know.”

“Ok.”

Susan rushed up to Kelly, a small crowd standing near her. As Kelly did before her, Susan scanned their faces looking for who could have done this. All she saw was curious bystanders, people looking for some excitement, something to regale their friends with over gatherings the next few weeks.

“Kelly, the police are coming, they just pulled into the parking lot. Come on, let’s go talk to them.”

Grabbing her arm Susan dragged her over to the arriving police cars.

“Officer! Officer!” Susan called out and waved while heading towards the officer.

“Are you Susan?”

“Yes, and this is Kelly, it’s her car and this is who this guy has been stalking.”

The frantic stance and non-stop chatter he heard from Susan contrasted sharply with her friend Kelly stood staring like a deer looking into headlights.

“Where’s the car?”

Pointing out the red Mustang Susan hovered just behind the officer. Afraid to move forward, afraid to abandon her friend, Susan felt paralyzed.

As he approached the car he did see what appeared to be a bomb. Stepping back he contacted his dispatch and requested the bomb squad be called out. As the officer turned to set a deeper perimeter around the car and check for other devices he heard the sound of a click and a brief second later the car exploded. Officers and witnesses turned and ran for cover as hot debris rained down on the parking lot. The smell of burning metal and gas permeated the air. Sirens came alive in the background as fire moved up their response.

A cacophony of screams mingled with an array of “Shits did you see that?” filled the parking lot. Amid the confusion and chaos no one saw the black car drive slowly by the street beside the parking lot, the lone figure looking out at Kelly as she stood transfixed by the burning carnage that had been her car. Kelly Kelly, I keep telling you, you can run, but you cannot hide, I will always find you because I love you. Come to me Kelly, come to me now, this could be your final chance. Turn to me now or you may not survive the next.

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