Lisa Ch. 08b: Evil

He didn't have to say that twice.

"Here Jess." He handed her a plate of food once the twins vacated her lap to run down the hall to the bathroom.

"Thanks Abe." Jessica said, taking the plate and balancing it while Scott pulled her onto his lap.

"And tomorrow we have to start training again." Jessica said after swallowing her food, "With the boys. In case anything goes wrong." She added when all she got were blank stares.

"No arguments from me." Amanda said, "Those bastards scare the shit out of me."

"Found it." Don said coming over, face pale.

"Videos?" Jessica asked.

Don nodded. "Tons of them, and you can tell exactly who is doing what to who. Excuse me." Don suddenly said and practically ran outside.

"They must be bad." Quinn said.

"So you're not watching them." Angus said pointing at Jessica. "You don't need anything else keeping you up at night."

Jessica nodded.

"We'll go to town tomorrow and get those supplies." Mark said.

"And then we're all set." Riley said.

"We have to get Earl to find us ..." Jessica said, "then we're all set."

The whimper from Brett and Nathan seemed to vocalize the general shiver that went around the room.

"Come on boys." Leah said directing them to the table. "Everything will be okay. Eat up now."

"This has to be the quietest dinner ever." Jim observed. The boys ate silently. They didn't look quite scared, but they were tense.

"Can one of you finish this for me?" Jessica asked holding her plate up, not even half of it gone.

"You have to eat more than that." Angus said.

"I'm not hungry." Jessica said. "If you can't eat it, then save it for me. Please?"

"I'll put it in the fridge." Angus said, "Do you feel okay?" he asked holding his hand to her forehead.

"Fine thanks. But, um," she said looking around the room. "could we go to the studio of a while?"

"It is pretty busy in here ..." Scott said, "Let's go."

"Back in a little while." Jessica said when the boys lifted weary eyes as Jessica and the men stood up.

When they entered the studio, Jessica automatically slid one hand into Angus' hand and the other into Scott's.

"It feels like it's been weeks since we were in here for your birthday even though it's only been a few days." Riley said.

Jessica automatically gravitated to the instruments towing Angus and Scott with her. When Jessica slipped her hands free and picked up the guitar Angus dropped his back against the wall next to her and exchanged knowing smiles with the other men. Jessica's reverent love for her instruments was reflected in the way she looked at the guitar, ran her hands over the guitar, gently strummed the strings. Scott hovered near her on her left, Jim, Josh and Riley fanned out in a semi-circle around Jessica and along with Angus planted against the wall, they just watched.

"You know. We should write our own songs. Then we could record them." Jessica said.

"Hmmm, that could be interesting." Scott said.

"I already have some ideas. I've been writing them in my calculus book." Jessica said.

"In your calculus book?" Jim asked, "I'm not sure you've grasped the full concept of calculus."

"Maybe not." Jessica said with a laugh, putting the guitar back in its holder. She meandered over to Angus, leaned in to him folding her arms on his chest, placing her chin on her arms, and staring at him with a goofy smile.

"What's going on?" Angus asked, surprised. He brought his hands up to rest on Jessica's waist.

"I'm ready." She said.

"Ready for what?"

"For our talk ... about how uncomfortable you are with the idea of involving the police."

"I was uncomfortable with it until you explained it.." Angus said.

"You're okay now?" Jessica asked.

Angus nodded. "But while we're on the topic, we," he flashed his eyes at the other men, "do have a backlog of things to 'talk' to you about."

Jessica laughed, nodded, and looked around at the other men.

"Before we get to the backlog, there are a couple of things I'd like to discuss."

"Okay." Angus nodded.

"I understand why you don't want me to watch the videos. I really don't want to anyway. But there are some answers we're going to need that we may only get from the videos."

"You're not watching them Jessica." Angus grumbled.

"Agreed. But somebody will have to, and I don't want it to be you ... or you." She said looking at Angus and Josh. "I'd prefer it wasn't any of you really." She added looking at Riley, Scott and Jim, "there is a houseful of other adults." She motioned her head toward the house. "But it can't all be up to Don and I'm not sure if there will be any other volunteers."

"Why us?" Angus demanded. Jessica looked from him to Josh and then back again. Josh looked resigned to something but Angus was clearly upset.

Jessica held a hand out to Josh, who took it and moved in and wrapped his arms around her from the behind. Jessica cupped Angus' cheek with her hand.

"Because you two seem to be the most ... fragile, when it comes to the topic of rape. I've already told you what I think about you and me, and what happened between us in that other life. But I'm not sure that you've fully accepted what I'm telling you and what's on those videos is not going to make you any more accepting of the past. I want you to stay the way you are. Do you understand?"

Josh hugged Jessica tighter but Angus only stood and looked at her for a long time.

"Okay." He finally said but there was a subtle shift in the way he looked at her that worried Jessica. It was the kind of shift that she'd been trying to avoid by keeping him away from the videos. Jessica pulled back and studied him more intently. Had she inadvertently done what she'd been trying to avoid? But then Angus seemed to do a double take too. Blinked, and then forced a smile. "Okay Jess, if that's what you want."

Jessica studied him some more. Maybe she'd imagined the shift in his expression but as she looked it was difficult to know for sure. Sometimes it seemed to be there, other times it seemed to fade.

"Anything else?" Angus asked.

Jessica brought a hand up to Josh's cheek. His head was burrowed into the side of hers.

"Do you understand Josh?"

Josh nodded. "Whatever you want Jess. Just tell me and I'll do it."

Josh's tone and words sounded dangerously close to the say he spoke when he'd cracked early on. When Jessica tried to look up at him he held her tighter so she couldn't move. Jessica decided that to belabour this point was only going to make things worse so it was time to move on.

"Okay ... the next thing," Jessica said trying not to let the panic building inside express itself.

"Jess." Angus interrupted, "Don't worry. Josh and I are fine. Really." He added and made his smile bigger. Like bigger meant better.

"What's the next thing?" Josh mumbled in her ear.

Jessica tried to look around at the other men but Josh had her firmly in place.

"Josh, why don't you take her to the sofa?" Jim suggested. "Hold her on your lap?"

No sooner did he say that than Jessica was swept up in Josh's arms, and moments later deposited on his lap on the sofa, pressed hard against his body in a bear hug. She still couldn't move but at least she could see everyone. Scott and Riley sat on either side of her and Josh. Angus and Jim pulled up chairs.

"I wonder how Earl and his clan managed to force adults into doing all of those awful things. I mean, how could he, time and again, show-up and hurt them? Wouldn't they fight?"

"I was wondering that myself." Riley said. "They must have drugged them. It wouldn't be hard to taint their water supply if they were on a well. Which they likely were."

Realization hit them all at once.

"Bottled water from now on." Riley said.

"But you'd think Daryl's clan would have figured that out too." Scott said.

"They could taser them, like we plan to." Jim said, "Or gas them."

Another round of stunned stares at one another.

"Gas masks." Riley stated.

A shiver ran through Jessica. And then another. And then they just kept coming.

"Jess ..." Josh asked, leaning forward to look at her face.

"Do you think Earl is the devil?" Jessica asked in a small shaky voice. She pulled her knees up onto the sofa, curling into a ball and burying into Josh as much as she could. "I don't think I've ever heard of anyone as evil as him."

"Are you cold?" Jim asked sliding off the chair, kneeling in front of her and rubbing his hands on her thigh to create friction.

"Do you think she has a fever?" Angus asked now standing and watching Scott and Riley touch her cheeks and forehead.

"I don't know, I don't think so." Scott said.

"We need a goddamn thermometer, ours is broken." Riley said. 'I've gotta write down everything we're buying. Is there a paper and pen around here?"

"There should be some over by the synthesizer." Jim said.

"Um ..." Jessica said while Riley started to scribble the list of items. "We'll get the boys to work and train with us so they have a fighting chance, but the idea is that when Earl shows up they run. I mean, they'll have guns and tasers, but the main idea is for them to run, right?"

"That is the idea Jess." Riley said, "But the last person we gave that plan to had some issues with the execution. Not that we can really complain since it saved our lives." He added when Jessica blinked at him.

"Don't worry Jess," Jim said when Jessica looked doubly worried, "No one can predict what exactly will happen. The best we can do is plan. If you had run away as planned ..."

"You're trying to make her feel better, right?" Josh asked.

"I guess that's the point I'm trying to make." Jessica said between chattering teeth, "I promised the boys no one would ever hurt them again. That was kind of stupid. I can't guarantee that."

"No, no one can." Riley said, "But we're covering all possibilities. Bottled water, gas masks, stun guns, guns, training. We increase the odds of keeping them safe by a lot this way."

Jessica nodded.

"What's wrong Jess?" Scott asked when it was obvious a new thought had occurred to her and even more obvious that she didn't like it.

"Um, we haven't planned everything yet." She said in a quiet voice. She had a haunted look to her, like she couldn't believe she'd thought of the idea much less that she was going to voice it. "If things go horribly, horribly wrong, the boys should have a way out."

Jim nodded. "We have the cars, the horses, the motorbikes. They'll have a lot of ways to get away Jess."

"That's great, but not what I meant. If they get captured, they should have a way out of the suffering. No one should have to go through what Earl does. Especially not children."

"By a way out you mean ..." Angus began.

"Poison?" Riley finished.

Jessica nodded.

"Shit ..." Josh whispered.

"I don't know where we could get cyanide but I'll ask Abe and Caleb." Riley said.

.... continued in 8c