Infinity Chapter 26 - Just How Close...

[itztigress3]

Chapter 26 – Just How Close…
POV: Zac
Word count: 3552

August 26, 2013

Jackass, his current name to me because I had nothing else, was seriously getting on my nerves. We leave Friday and there was so fucking much to do both at home and at the studio to prepare and leave on time that his constant text messages were getting old. Most were just pictures, which didn’t bother me but the ones asking me random questions such as my favorite movies, favorite foods, stupid questions but if I didn’t answer I’d get a reminder that reaching Emily was easy, but I know come Friday reaching her would be impossible without his number being in her phone.

“Zachary Walker! Will you pay attention! We have two days to perfect this song and you’re spacing out again!” Isaac yelled.

Yep, this should piss me off but he was right and I knew it. Casey and Taylor both looked at me and I could tell I was verging dangerously close to being screamed at by them all.

“Can we take five so I can get a Dr. Pepper?”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea.” Casey said.

We each got up and left the studio, I got a Dr. Pepper and found Emily with Stephanie on the floor; Alexander was in his pack n play there because there was so much he could get into down here. He was content though, he had plenty of toys and things to chew on.

“Everything ok?”

“Yeah, just tired and it’s not translating well to work.”

Stephanie smiled. “If you two stopped the baby making train a bit...”

“We are not on that train.” Emily said. It was a flat toneless statement and Stephanie picked up on it as well.

She just kind of slinked away and I finished the drink and went back to the studio. I was just sitting down at the drums when my phone went off and I saw Taylor, Isaac, and Casey all turn, I quickly checked another stupid random question, wanting to know what fabrics I liked and I started to reply but instead laid it down behind me and picked up the drumsticks, I was testing their patience and seriously I didn’t need to piss Casey off. We weren’t even two songs in when the phone went off twice.

“Shut it off Zac.” Taylor said.

“It’s not my fault!”

“Then reply to whoever it is and turn it off.” Isaac said.

“Either that or your phone is going in my pocket; you know we only have today to get this right.”

I felt like some child being reprimanded by my parents and it doesn’t help that the sound and lighting crews are here as well as the other employees.

I got the phone and looked at the messages, ignoring the first question had prompted a why are you not answering then a do I need to call your wife.

I am working and therefore cannot sit on my phone. Cotton is my favorite fabric. But, I cannot respond to anything else today!

Of course you can, really Zachary you don’t have much of a choice. You either answer each time or I call Emily and tell her all about the packages, the e-mails, and the messages.

I’m not being given a choice, if you don’t stop texting me then my brothers are fully prepared to take my phone away and they will do it.

…perhaps you don’t understand what is going on Zachary. There not your boss anymore. I am. Either you do what I say, or else.

You can’t scare me with that crap because I know everyone is safe. I’m busy. Stop.

I turned the volume off and because Casey was standing in front of the bass drum I handed the phone to him, even if it vibrated or went off he couldn’t check it, I’d changed the password again yesterday. He put the phone in his pocket and walked away. I tried to focus after that and did much better. Emily came in about 11:45 with Alexander.

“I’m going to get lunch, pizza something quick. Any request?”

I almost started to tell her not to go alone, but then she’d ask why. Her leaving the studio alone was becoming a little nerve wracking to me.

“You want me to keep Alexander here?”

“No, he needs to get out a bit. He’s been inside for like two weeks. Velma is going to ride with me anyway so she can carry him while I carry pizza or stay in the car with him.”

“I have no preference.”

No one really did so she left and when she came back Casey handed me the phone.

“It’s about to vibrate my ass off, who in the hell keeps sending you this many messages?”

“Friends dude, I do have more than one.”

Yet, every message on my phone was from one person and following my last message was a progressively angrier one. They were carefully worded though, although they were threats they weren’t threats that would get the police’s attention. I’d already asked having contacted them again after his ultimatum was given. The last message said to check the truck, but it was sent just minutes after Emily came in. I excused myself claiming the bathroom and instead went outside to the truck, where I did find as silver wrapped box. I hesitated before opening it and then just stood there.

Inside the box was a brown teddy bear in a pair of overalls and a small red shirt, I recognized it as a teddy bear that belonged to Alexander and one Emily had tried to find for weeks now, the last place she recalled seeing it was his crib here at the studio. I picked it up and inspected the bear, but nothing was wrong with it. Yet, knowing he had handled it I would never give it back to Alexander.

Yet, there was something else in the bottom of the box and I carefully lifted the item, it was a pair of Emily’s panties, ones I knew were hers because I had bought them for her. Always blue, but these were black and there was small pouch for the bullet. It was the only pair of vibrating panties she owned, ones we hadn’t used in several months. The problem was that these were never outside of our home. I felt the vibration against my thigh and quickly got my phone.

Do you like my present to you?

No. How did you get them?

How I obtained those items is not important, what is important is that you understand the meaning behind them. That you understand that failure to follow my directions will result in some consequence.

I swallowed and stood there, logically the teddy bear was stolen when he broke into the studio that was logic it was accessible and Emily had heard him near the crib. But her panties were another story, he couldn’t have gotten those unless he’d found a way into our home, which was always secured. But, as if I needed a reminder the power had gone out there too, it was therefore likely he could have. I finally hit reply.

How you obtained the items is not really a problem, I am sure I can say when. What remains important is that YOU cannot reach her, I am sure of this. They are safe and I know you’ll mess up at some point. But, I have more important and better things to do than consistently answer random questions. If you have them, e-mail a list it’s much easier.

I put the box and the items in the tool box and locked it; I would put the items with the rest when I was home. I then went inside to eat lunch which most were done, but no one questioned how long I had been gone but Emily didn’t look so pleasant. She all but left the moment I sat down but it was Alexander’s nap time and nursing time. We finished up lunch and then went through another show for quick measures, but when my phone rang it was Velma’s ring tone, so I checked the message.

Uh..don’t know what was in the package Emily just got but she shoved me out and locked the door…

I got up and ran to the office, despite Taylor and Isaac calling my name, Velma was outside the door waiting.

“What happen?” I asked.

“UPS delivered a box for Emily, Stephanie got it but I brought it up, she opened it and then pushed me out, closed the blinds and locked the door. I know David had gotten stuff to her before, I have no idea what it is.”


“Where is Alexander?”

“He’s in there with her.”

“I’ll check on her.”

My door code worked because they were master codes, not even Emily could stop me. I closed it behind me and she was sitting on the sofa, Alexander was in his pack n play, happy and nothing wrong.

“Emily?”

She kicked a long box right to me. “Is that your fucking idea of a joke?”

Yep, I was confused and unsure what she meant so I picked up the box and opened it. In the center of the box was a snow globe of Tulsa and surrounding the snow globe were black roses, the stems were super short and they were stuck in styrofoam which kept everything just as it was.

“I didn’t…”

“YOUR name is on the box!” She yelled.

Alexander got really quiet and I saw it on her face, I opened the door to get Velma but she was there.

“Can you please take Alexander for just a few minutes?”

“Not a problem.” She said.

She came in and quickly got him and then vanished outside and down to the warehouse.

“I didn’t send these to you Emily, I wouldn’t do that.”

She only looked at me and I looked at the box, sure enough my name was there, that son of a bitch. I laid the box on my desk and sat down beside her.

“Baby, look at me.”

She turned but she was upset and mad. “I would not send them, I know you hate snow globes, I know you can’t stand them. I wouldn’t send something I know you’ll hate.”

“Your name Zachary.”

“It doesn’t take much to put something in my name; I’ve been here all day long. I’ve been with someone all day.”

“Except when you went to the bathroom earlier, you were gone way too long for just a break.”

“I was replying to messages and got caught up, you can check all of the accounts I haven’t ordered anything.”

I shouldn’t have to be explaining this and if she didn’t believe it then she clearly was having issues with something, probably what Carrick had assumed as well. I pulled her to me and kissed her forehead.

“Emily, you know me better than this, you know I wouldn’t do that.”

“Then who would? No one has sent me anything Zachary. Have they sent you anything?”

I should say yes, I should just tell her everything but the messages were nothing. “No.”

Her eyes traveled to the box and then to me and I could already see the fear in her eyes, if I hadn’t sent them then someone did and while I did know who, she didn’t. Mission accomplished jackass, she’s now afraid.

“It’ll be fine Emily, could just be some wacko fan trying to scare you. Maybe one of those who pissed you off during Hanson day or some male fan who wants you to leave me and come to him, I’ve had a few messages wanting to know if you were single.”

“That was before we told everyone.”

“It counts.”

“Should we contact the police? I don’t know if we should.”

“The globe was clean so I’ll assume it was wiped down and it’s not like the ones Adam sent, there is no audio component and you’re not really afraid of black roses. So, how about you go find Velma and make sure Alexander is ok. I’ll check the box and make sure there isn’t anything that signals this is the start of something else, if I find something I’ll call Detective Walker, if not then I’ll just trash the whole thing.”

She sat there a moment before agreeing and I gave her a tight bear hug, know she likes those and then watched her go down to the floor where Velma was. I opened the box and checked for a note, letter, anything that told me this was the same jackass fan. I found the infinity symbol under the snow globes base, his trademark. I got my phone.

Nice try asshole, but she didn’t fall for this bullshit. Nice touch with the globe but the whole thing WILL go to the trash.

To emphasize I first took photos of the package and then I personally walked it to the dumpster, I took the globe out and as hard as I could, threw it into the dumpster. I then made sure it had broken the flowers I ripped apart and then threw everything away. I hope the bastard saw me. Evidently he did, but the message only said to check my e-mail.

I couldn’t right now though, Emily was back in the office with Alexander and Taylor and Isaac were standing in the hallway and it was basically break is over. So, I followed them for final checks and all. Everyone had worked hard and we had the stage set up or at least a faked one.

“I like it, simple and translates well.” I said.

“We will raise you up though, platform, just here we don’t need it.” Robert said.

“Yeah, not needed here at all, so what is left?”

“Packing everything we need but we need Emily for that.”

“She said she was taking Wednesday to pack everything we would need and load it, I’m leaving the truck with her and Carrick’s staying also. But, he’s arriving tomorrow.”

“Great! We can have his gear and load most of it tomorrow.”

“Yeah, that was the idea. He’s also going to watch Alexander Thursday, so that would be the prime day for us to pack and make sure we have everything. We can practice once last time tomorrow, clean up Wednesday and you guys can bring your luggage anytime between now and Thursday.”

“Your wife is fucking awesome Zac; she printed out a list of everything we needed to bring.” Ryan said.

“Yes, she’s awesome like that. We have a list too.” Taylor said.

We made a few minor tweaks to placement and then we made the final sketch which would help us set up the stage faster.  After that we began to prep for packing by finding all of the cases the equipment went in and moving it to a single location, for quick access. We even freshened the labels but by 6:45 we were all done and called it quits for the day. Emily was giving Alexander plums when I came into the office and I waited for her to be done, we decided quick fast food was called for and stopped on the way home. She went ahead and bathed, changed, and nursed Alexander which gave me time to check my e-mail, now that I could. There were two actually, one was from Carrick with one going to Emily too reminding us he’d be here, she was already ahead of him and had a room set up. The second one was from jackass and the subject was “just how close”, weird subject line but I opened it and let the multiple pictures load, he usually e-mailed higher quality or bigger ones, my assumption was these were taken with a camera where as the others were on a phone. I let them load and then opened them.

The first two were pretty normal for what he sends, both were of me and they were fairly recent, these were from Hanson Day actually. Then came one of Emily from Hanson Day, very up close picture and she was smiling so she knew the camera was there, meaning he’d been close. But, that was public, so I kept scrolling down and the next one was a black and white picture of Emily asleep. I swallowed kind of hard, because she was covered up and the design of the blankets over her matched our bed spread. I slowly scrolled it down and there was one of Alexander, a black and white picture of him asleep in his crib. There was no way in hell he could have gotten that picture.

I scrolled on down and there was another one of Emily and Alexander, she was on the couch and Alexander was laying on her chest, both were asleep and the person had to be standing in front of the sofa because I could see the doors to the office behind her, which is where I was now. I didn’t want to go to the next one, but I did. The very last picture was of us all, Alexander’s crib was on my side close to the bed and Emily and I both were asleep in the bed. It was our room and the date was when we had storms. Every picture had the infinity symbol but they were also dated.

The earliest date was May 18, which was the one of Emily and Alexander on the couch, probably the day I sent her home early, because he was sick. I closed the program and sat there; I felt the phone and got it.

I see you finally were able to check. Do I need to continue to prove that I’m not playing around? I can get just as close to her as you can, I can touch her, I can play with her hair, I can even take whatever I want from her dresser. As you can see, I can also touch your son, play with his hair… I can even do that to you…

I sat there for a few minutes before I hit reply..

You have my attention…what do you want?

You already know what I want Zachary, you. But, I would like to know more about you, let you know more about me first. The question is what are you willing to do to keep me away from them? To keep me a secret?

That was a very good question, because the obvious answer is anything in the world but there are things that existed that would hurt her worse than he ever could. So, I couldn’t say that and I didn’t know what I would do really, because in reality it was anything in the world. I saved the pictures and forward the e-mail before deleting it. I had promise to keep Carrick updated and all I ever told him was about the pictures of me, I couldn’t tell him about the package which I had moved earlier with the other two in the garage, or the flowers, or the ones from inside this house. He’d tell her. I sat there for another twenty minutes just thinking about it.

“Baby? Everything ok?”

“Yeah, I just needed to check my e-mail. You got Carrick’s right?”

“I did. I shot him a text to say he was confirmed and ready and not to worry.”

“Alexander down?”

“Yep, he’s already asleep. Velma had him going for a long time this afternoon.”

She walked over and I pulled her down into my lap. “The box didn’t have anything but maybe since Carrick will be around you should kind of hang with him at least until we’re on the road and then you’ll be with me and the others.”

“You mean like it was before? Your probably right Zac, it’s just some fan. It’s not a secret that I don’t like snow globes and black roses are always seen as bad.”

“I’m sure it’s just someone messing around, but in case. There have been some of the interviewees that didn’t get called back that could be mad.”

She nodded. “I’m sure Carrick won’t mind. We’re going to be busy anyway.”

I laid my head on her shoulder. “Go on to bed, I know you’re tired. I’ll be right up.”

She kissed my forehead and then headed up-stairs and I closed the laptop down and turned off the lights and paused at the steps before sending a reply.

You asked what I’d be willing to do to keep you away, the answer is anything as long as it doesn’t end up hurting her or my son in any way, shape, or form. However, no more packages or calls to her. You respect that I have a job to do and I cannot always drop that to answer messages. If you can’t reframe from either of those, then don’t count on me to do anything…

I sent the message and got a response almost instantly and all it contained was a smiley face and good boy. I paused at the bedroom door, Alexander was sound asleep and Emily was already lying down. It was probably going to be the worst mistake of my life, but she would be safe regardless.