Touch of Vision

Chapter Three

The boys all remain on the dock waiting patiently for the agents and investigators that had accompanied them to decide what they were going to do about the information JC had provided. They had their answer when several boats showed up, some with divers on board, several hours later.

“I’m sorry boys, but until we can confirm your friends story, we’d really appreciate it if you’d stick around,” Agent Jackson states.

“It’s fine with me…I’d like to know if…well…it may seem strange and all but, I kinda like to make sure I’m not just seeing things.” JC blushes and stammers, “Well…I know I am but…”

“Relax son,” the agent smiles. “I think I get what you’re trying to say.”

JC smiles slightly and returns to Justin’s side.

“You ok Jayce?” Justin questions concern evident in his voice.

“As ok as I can be J.” JC sighs, “I’ll explain later.”

Justin places a hand on JC’s shoulder and gives him what he hopes is a reassuring smile.

JC looks up at Justin just as the vision hits him:

The two of them are standing on a dock, looking out over the water, when they hear the first shot. JC looks over at Justin just as his body is pitched forward. JC quickly reaches out somehow managing to catch his heavier friend and slowly lower him to the ground. He looks around for a minute before he realizes that they seem to be the target for this unknown assailant. He’s shocked at first by this revelation then his instincts kicks in. He jumps up, pulls Justin, as quickly as he possibly can, behind the nearest corner then looks around again.

“Jayce, you ok…” Justin asks, as JC turns white as a sheet.

JC looks at Justin closely, and then the surrounding buildings, “We need to get out of here.”

“We can’t Jayce. We have to stay…” His eyes travel across the wharf just as the divers surface.

“We’ve found something,” one of them can be heard yelling. “Get me the net.”

JC and Justin walk over to join Agents Sanchez and Jackson as the diver, dragging a net, submerges himself once again. Several minutes later he returns to the surface, gives the men in one of the boats a signal and climbs into one of the other boats, pulling his gear off as everyone awaits the lifting of what was found.

There was no doubt in any person’s mind that stood on the wharf that it was a human body that had been found, the only question was, was it the body they were expecting to find?

JC walks into the quiet room and gives a slight nod to Agent Jackson and the man standing next to her. Agent Jackson smiles slightly in return, “Mr. Chasez, this is Dr. Carasquillo, he’s the county coroner.”

The man extends a hand towards JC and is a bit miffed, as the gesture is not returned. JC glances at the hand, lifts both hands to his shoulders and states, “Sorry, no offense but, well, ‘snot such a great idea.” He looks towards Agent Jackson, “Why exactly do you need me here?”

“Well, we need you to tell us if this is the man you ‘saw’.”

“Why? It’s not like…” he sighs, “Fine. Let’s get it over with then.”

The coroner pulls back the sheet, JC moves closer, accidentally brushing against the mans arm:

“Well, well, look what we have here,” a short stocky man snickers.

“Don’t know man, but he’s obviously in the wrong part of town,” states a taller, scruffy looking man from the rear.

JC shakes his head, looks at the coroner again and frowns, a cold chill running down his spine at the look in the other man’s eyes. He looks down at the body again, “It’s him, can I leave now?”

Agent Jackson looks at the young man, then back at the coroner, although she’s a bit puzzled she smiles at JC, “Yes, you can leave now. But don’t go too far.”

“I’ll be at the hotel.” As he leaves the room he mumbles under his breath, “I don’t think we’re done here yet.”

Lance and Joey were sitting on the couch, Justin at the table and Chris was sprawled across one of the two beds in the room as JC walked in. Justin jumped to his feet, but JC just lifted a hand and flung himself across the bed closest to the door. “Let me rest for a few, then I’ll explain. Ok?”

The other four in the room began to rise to leave the room when tired blue eyes opened, “Please stay.”

They all sat back down, quietly resuming their previous activities, every once in a while glancing at their restlessly sleeping friend.

JC woke with a start, looking around the room. He was a bit surprised to see the other four staring at him, concern clearly written on each of their faces. “Thanks for staying guys. Not that it helped much but…” He got up, made his way across the room and looked out the window. “So…guess its time huh?”

The other four nod and wait patiently, knowing this would not be easy for their friend.

JC returns to the bed he’d been sleeping on and begins his story, “It started back during the trial…guess the stress just got to me or something, I’m not sure. I still can’t pinpoint exactly when it started…it just did.” He pauses looking around the room. “The first time I got a vision, it freaked me out big time. Thank God it wasn’t any like I’ve been getting lately.” He stops and looks over to Justin, “It was just a small glimpse of Justin on the stage. He was a couple years older and his head was shaved. Which by the way still bothers me….I like the curls J. Anyway, it happened when Justin hugged me, right after we’d won.” He looks around to make sure they all remembered, “The first one, was of Justin. Then Joey hugged me, I saw him too. He was much older, maybe three or four years older, laying on a stage, blood gushing from his leg. That one kinda startled me, then Chris hugged me and I saw him with Dani.” JC turns and offers a small smile, “You were fighting, I don’t think it ended well, but before that one even had a chance to play out Lance was everywhere. He had on this funny looking ‘uniform’ and everyone around him was speaking a strange language. I still haven’t figured out what language it was.” JC smiles at Lance, “You were so happy though, whatever it was, you were more than happy. I could feel your excitement.”

JC stood, walked over to the small fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He returned to his spot, took a long drink and continued, “They just kept coming like that. Small little glimpses…Sometimes they were…well, what I thought looked like the future, but some…some were of the past.” He looks over at Chris and smiles, “Man, I never had any idea how bad you guys really had it.” He returns his gaze to his lap, “I just figured they were a result of our being so close or something…never really thought about it til….” He trails off and takes a long drink.

“Til what Jayce? What happened?” Justin pressed.

“Til about six months ago.” JC looks up and meets the gaze of each one of his friends. “The night ‘She’ started showing up in my dreams. At first she was just this little girl, playing on the beach or running in a park…you know, typical little girl stuff. Then one night…it all changed. Something’s happened and I…” He quietly wipes at the tears, “I don’t know what to do. They’re hurting her, hurting her so bad that even if they don’t kill her…she’ll never be ‘ok’ again. She’s so little…”

Justin rises and moves to his friend, pulling him into a hug.

The two of them are standing on a dock, looking out over the water, when they hear the first shot. JC looks over at Justin just as his body is pitched forward. JC quickly reaches out somehow managing to catch his heavier friend and slowly lower him to the ground. He looks around for a minute before he realizes that they seem to be the target for this unknown assailant. He’s shocked at first by this revelation then his instict kicks in. He jumps up, pulls Justin, as quickly as he possibly can, behind the nearest corner then looks around again.

JC closes his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, “Now even the ones of you guys…even they are turning on me. I can’t help any of you anymore…I don’t know what to do.”

“Jayce?” Justin whispers, “Does this have anything to do with the paper that you took the other day? The one Lance was reading?”

JC looks up at Justin, confused for a moment then remembering the paper, “The picture, she looked so much like the girl.”

Joey holds the paper up, “This little girl JC?”

JC turns to look at Joey, he jumps from the bed and is kneeling in front of Joey, whispering to the picture, “I’m sorry…I don’t know what to do…” He looks up at Joey, “I can’t help her and it’s…it’s driving me insane Joe.”

Lance stands and opens the door to the adjoining room, “Ok, this is how it’s gonna be.” He states to the two newcomers, “He’s helped you both…now it’s your turn to help him.”

JC stands and glares at Lance, “What are you doing? No one can help me. What are they gonna do? Take the visions from my mind, the horrible sight of this poor girl being beaten and tortured?”

Justin grabs JC, pulling him back towards the bed and holding him tightly til he calms down.

Lance quietly explains to the two people what JC has just told them, when both gasp he knew he’d been right in calling them. “Do you think you can help him?”

“We’d be more than happy to. He says she looks like this little girl here?” One asks.

“Not ‘like’ Agent Jackson,” JC states. “She ‘is’ the girl in my dreams. Only she’s a lot sadder now.”

“Well, that gives us a place to start at least,” Agent Sanchez states. He whips out his cell phone and begins making calls.

Agent Jackson does the same thing, but after a few minutes she flips hers shut and looks at JC, “We’re gonna need to know everything you know or have seen Mr. Chasez.”

JC takes a deep breath, smiles at Justin, “You might wanna pull up a chair, this could take a while.”

“Well, then we need to order food first. I have a strange feeling this is gonna take a long, long time and I’m starving.” Chris states, picking up the phone, “Anyone for pizza?”

Chris opens the door grabs the boxes while Lance hands over more than enough cash for the pizzas.

JC takes a couple pieces then resumes his spot on the bed next to Justin;

“Ok, guess we just well ought to get started. Like I was telling the guys before, I started seeing her about six months ago. At first they were ‘happy’ glimpses. She would be on the beach or park playing….then one night…it all changed. There were these two men, they came into her room, well…I think it was her room. There were all kinds of dolls, stuffed animals…and I’d seen the room before…in other dreams.

JC paused as if seeing the girl in her room again, then the sadness settled across his face again.

She was in her bed, she must have been having a good dream cuz she was smiling in her sleep, when all of a a sudden these two mean appeared. One was taller, seemed a bit slower, maybe…I don’t know…just not quite as quick witted as most people. The other guy…he was short, stocky…he was definitely the brawn of the operation. He’s the one that snatched her from the bed, hauled her down the stairs and threw her in the car. Both men had masks over their faces and have ever since. I’ve yet to see either one’s face. The short guy is the one I see abusing her and yelling at her. The taller one…the only time I see him anymore is to bring her food or to help the other guy mover her to another location.

JC stops and looks at the agents, “If I saw the house I’d know it. Also, I’d recognize those voices anywhere. Looking up at Agnet Jackson, “They were involved in that last guys’ death. I recognized their voice. Unfortunately, I still didn’t see their faces.”

Leaning back against the headboard and closing his eyes, he continues:

They stick to warehouses close to the waterfronts. I think our last friend got lost and found himself in the wrong place. They were in one of the warehouses closeby and he spooked ‘em. The two of them stay with her all the time. When the short one is with her…he’s…he abuses her…beating her, yelling at her…I’m afraid, whatever their leader’s plan is…the short guy…he has no intention of letting her go alive. I think…well…they must be demanding a ransom, because the short guy has…a couple of times anyway…”Even if they pay, you’re still gonna die.” I’m afraid, if she isn’t found soon, she’ll be dead the next time her parents see her.

JC opens his eyes, looks around the room “I think they’re still here…somewhere in this city.”

Lance clears his throat, hands JC a bottle of water and asks, “What makes you think that Jayce?”

“I don’t know…just a feeling. Today when we were down on the dock…I could feel someone watching us.” He shivers, “Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.”

Agent Sanchez looks up from the notebook he’d been furiously writing in, “What makes you think they aren’t the only two involved?”

“Neither one seems smart enough to come up with the idea in the first place, let alone calculating enough to be able to pull it off so well.”

Agent Sanchez rises, “Well, I think we should get back to the office and get this search moving. We’ll start with a search through the ‘Missing Persons’ databank. If you remember anything else give us a call.”

Joey walks the agents out and closes the door. The four boys watch JC for a while then settle in. All coming to an unspoken agreement that from now on, JC would not be left alone if at all possible.

Justin wakes up as an arm hits him across the chest, “What the….” He then recalls where he is and flips to his side. He is greeted with the site of his best friend’s sweat soaked, frowning face. He watches as the sadness over takes his friend and tears begin to flow from the closed eyes. Unsure of what to do, he does the only thing he can think of…He scoots as close as possible to JC’s body and wraps his arms around him. “Shhh, Jayce….” He runs his hand over the dark hair, attempting to calm the older man.

JC’s body shifts as the dream changes slightly:

The young girl cowering in the corner while a man stands over her. He’s holding the belt in the same hand, slapping it across his other hand, yelling. The man moves toward the girl. The belt snaps in the air, then comes down and across the girls legs, arms everywhere. The man continues to yell, telling the girl she’s a whore, that she’s worthless, useless and more trouble than she’s worth.

The scene suddenly changes:

The girl is alone, lying on the floor, crying, her face covered in dirt, streaked with tears. She crawls along the floor, quietly sliding her hand along the crevice for any hint of a hole or crack. Suddenly she looks up and smiles, “I know you’re there. I can feel you. Why won’t you help me?”

Just as she asks her question the door opens and the taller man walks in. He looks around a bit, puzzled, “Who you talking to?”

The little girl looks up at the ceiling and whispers, “I know you can hear me.” Then looks at her captor, “I was just praying, that’s all.”

“Praying, for what? Your daddy pays and you get to go home…no amount of praying is going to help you. Anyway,” He looks around, opens the door quickly, looks around, then closes it again. “I got you something. Now you’re gonna have to keep ‘em from seeing it but…” He holds out a soft, black teddy bear. “Thought you could use a friend,” he brushes a couple of blonde hairs from the girl’s face. “You’ll be going home soon.”

The tears begin to flow from her small blue eyes and she brings the teddy bear close to her chest, “Why?”

The man is clearly confused by this simple question, “Why what?”

“Why did you do this? You know if he finds out…if he finds out, he’ll know you gave it to me.”

“I don’t know. I saw it and thought you’d like it. You do like it don’t you?”

“Yes…It’s…It’s very nice, thank you.” She smiles a sad smile then curls up into a ball.

Suddenly the door flies open, “What is going on in here?”

The taller man struggles to his feet, the little girl curls into a tighter ball, the bear tucked snugly under her filthy shirt.

“Nothing’s going on. Just wanted to see how she was doing.”

“She’s fine. Leave her be…we’ve other things to worry about…he’s supposed to be coming to see her today. I don’t want him to find you in here. Go find her some clean clothes and get her cleaned up…my God she looks pathetic. They aren’t gonna be able to do shit with her looking like that.” He strides over and smacks the taller man on the back of the neck, “Go, hurry up. Get her a dress and shit.” He turns to the little girl, “He brings you that dress, you make sure you keep it clean til the man gets here…you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good,” the man leans over, looking the girl over closely, “And Jasper, while you’re out why don’t you try to find something for this brat to eat?” He kicks at her, snickering as he walks out of the room.

JC’s blue eyes open to meet Justin’s staring at him, “J? What?” He looks around the room, noticing the others were piled into the other bed in the room. He meets Justin’s gaze, “Why’s everyone still here?”

“We’ve decided you’re not to be left alone anymore…you’ve been going through this by yourself for too long the way it is. Now that you’ve let us in, we have no intention of getting shoved back out.” Justin brushes a stray hair from his friends forehead, “Care to tell me what that one was about or do I need to wake the rest of them up?”

A puzzled expression comes across JC’s face, “I don’t know…it seemed different somehow. I mean…the dream…it started out the same…the short guy,” he pauses, waiting for Justin to show that he remembered. After Justin nods he continues, “Well, he was beating her again…they all seem to start that way, but…this time…he just stopped, left the room…then she was crawling along the floor, against the wall…this is something new…I’ve never seen her do that. It’s almost like she was looking for something. Then she looked up…like at the ceiling and said… ’I know you’re there. I can feel you. Why won’t you help me?’ Then the tall guy came in and gave her a small black teddy bear.” Suddenly he jumps from the bed and grabs the phone, then suddenly drops it. “Something’s gonna happen soon J. I can feel. We have to find her soon.”

Justin walks over and picks the phone up, “We’ve done everything we can. You told Sanchez and Jackson everything you know, right?” He waits for an answer, “Then there is nothing more you or we can do Jayce. We have to wait for them to do their jobs.”

Suddenly there is a knock at the door, causing both boys to jump. Lance crawls his way out from under the two other men on the bed, looks at the shocked faces of his two friends, then makes his way to the door. “You two gonna stand there like that all day?” He pulls the door open and smiles at the two Agents, “Good morning, and what do we owe the honor of such an early visit from you two wonderful folks?”

Agent Sanchez checks his watch, “What do you mean early? It’s already eight o’clock.” He walks over to the small table and drops several brown folders on it. “We’ve narrowed it down to these five cases. Mr. Chasez…do you think…”

JC walks over to the table and spreads the folders out, lightly touching each:

A glimpse of a small child’s decaying body covered in dead leaves.

“Not this one…she’s already dead. She’s under a huge tree standing on the edge of a cliff or steep hill…you’ll find her at the bottom of the embankment. She’s been dead a while.

A glimpse of another child, this one very much alive, smiling, and laughing. She’s running out of a building and into a mid sized car. She hugs the man in the car, puts on her seatbelt and leans back against the seat. “Can Cassie come over tonight daddy?”

“Not this one either…she’s with someone she thinks is her father…calls him daddy. They’re in Texas I think. The school she was attending had the name ingraved…Roosevelt Elementary.”

The next glimpse was even more grizzly than the first. There were more girls than just the blonde, their faces began to swirl around until one became more focused than the others. The girl was small, younger than the others, brown hair with bright green eyes.

“How many are involved in this case? The blonde’s already dead…but…there’s a tiny one still alive, if they get to her in time. She’s under the rest of the bodies. They’re buried behind the cabin….he’s…he’s the doctor in a small town.” JC turns to Agent Sanchez, “You know him.”

Agent Sanchez cocks his head, squinting then flips open his phone and dials.

As he’s talking JC takes a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever he may see when he touches the next folder.

A small blonde girl is curled on her side crying, suddenly she opens her eyes and smiles. She sits up and whispers, “I knew you’d be back.”

JC withdraws his hand quickly, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. He takes another deep breath, sits in one of the nearby chairs, closes his eyes and places both hands across the top of the folder.

The girl is still sitting up, only this time she’s crying, “Why’d you leave?”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I can feel you. It doesn’t hurt as much when you’re here.”

“How are you? Has he…has he hurt you anymore?”

“No. I’m scared…” The tears start again, “Why haven’t you come for me?”

“I’m trying. Do you think you could help me?”

“How? I’m just…I’m just a little girl.”

“Yes, but if I’m gonna find you…I need to know some things. You think you can help me?”

The little girl wipes away the tears and smiles brightly, “I’ll try.”

“Good. Now, what can you tell me about where you are? Can you hear anything outside of the room?”

She sits for a couple of minutes then shakes her head, “Nothing…only thing I can hear is loud horns. They don’t sound like car horns though. You understand?”

“Yeah sweetie, I understand. They’re probably boat horns. I think they’re keeping you on or close to the river. I just can’t figure out which one.”

“Really?” She seems excited for a minute then suddenly gets very quiet, “That’s not good is it?”

“I’m trying sweetie. Try to think…have they said anything…anything at all that…”

“Shhh…they’re coming.”

“Ok…I’ll be here for you though, ok?”

“Ok.” She curls back up on her side and pretends to be asleep.

The tall man comes in with a dress in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. “Ok, time to get dressed to meet the boss.” The man leans over and gently runs a hand over the matted hair. “Shall we start with your hair? I bet you’d like to have clean hair huh?” He smiles brightly at her as she sits up. “I hope you like the dress that I found for you. It was the prettiest one I could find with the money that Craig gave me. He doesn’t trust me very much you know, thinks I’m getting too attached to you.”

The small girl looks up at the man, “Jasper?”

“Yes?”

“Why is he so mean to me? What have I done to make him so mad at me?”

“What? You didn’t do anything to him…he’s always mean like this, to everyone.” The man begins to get uncomfortable and starts rubbing his hands together. “Now…you need to get cleaned up. He’s not gonna be happy if he comes in here and you’re still in that mess.”

“Yes sir.”

She dunks her head in the bucket of water, Jasper pours a small amount of a flowery shampoo and lathers it up. She dunks her head again to rinse it out, then takes the rag that Jasper offers and begins to scrub as much of the dirt and grim as she can from her small body. When she’s done Jasper hands her the dress, a new pair of socks and much to her surprise a pink bow for her hair to match the dress. She puts them all on then spins in a circle, forgetting for a moment that this was one of her captors, “How do I look?”

The little girl looks up briefly and JC whispers, “You look beautiful.”

Jasper smiles, “You look like a wonderful little girl. Craig will be so happy when he sees you.”

The smile is immediately replaced by a frown when the door opens and Craig walks in. This time however he is not alone and the man he is accompanied by is not wearing a mask.

JC jumps, both hands coming off the folder and he’s no longer in the little girls’ world but back in his own. He looks around the room at the faces of his friends and the two agents, “What?”

Justin lifts an eyebrow and kneels in front of JC, “Um, you…you were talking to someone Jayce.”

“I was? You mean I was…” He looks around, meeting the gaze of each person in the room. He stops on Agent Sanchez, “I saw one of the faces.”

“You did? Did you recognize who it was?”

JC glances from one person to the other, “I have to go back…she needs me.” He places his hands back on the folder:

“Where’d you go?”

“I had to tell my friends what you’d told me…what I saw.”

“Are you coming soon? I miss my daddy.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can. Did you ever see that man before?”

“The one that came in with the mean guy?”

“Yes.”

“No…He’s never…” she grows quiet for a few minutes, “Yes, I have. He was the one that was driving the van…when they took me. Do you know him?”

“I know of him…I’ve never met him in person. Now I have to go, you be very good and do what they tell you ok? If they move you again, try to listen to as much of their conversation as possible. See if you can get me any clues as to where they are taking you.”

“Ok, I’ll try. When will you be back?”

“As soon as possible.”

JC opens the folder and gasps when he sees the name on the folder, “How long has she been missing?”

“About three months.”

“Have they tried to contact him? Ransom?”

“Yeah, about three weeks ago. Of course by then we, well the bureau was already involved, was a bit late for them to tell him not to contact the cops and they knew it.”

JC ran his hands through his hair, “You need to contact him. I don’t care what you tell him but he needs to get to Orlando and fast. Make sure he knows not to tell anyone, and I mean anyone, where he’s going.”

“Jayce? What’s going on? Who is this little girl?”

“The little girl? She’s…she’s…her name’s Hailey…Hailey Mathers.”