Chapter 56 – A Journey beyond – Holly Hayfield

Val’s trick to get my ankle monitor off was clever. The way the ankle monitor knew it was attached to me was because of my body temperature. To combat this, she fastened together a make-shift heating pad by using a tiny battery pattered heating element and placing it into an unused sock. The entire device looked like the sort of unconventional creativity that would be found in a prison facility. Perhaps that was where her brother got the idea.

The operation of this device was simple enough that I could handle it on my own. Since it was powered by a rechargeable battery I couldn’t leave the ankle monitor off indefinitely, but it could go days without needing to be recharged. Another important caveat was that the ankle monitor had a GPS device built into it. It needed to be left wherever I was normally expected to be for that time of day. Managing all this information properly would keep the fact that the ankle monitor was removed a secret.

Perri’s help was equally essential. She gave me a crash course in lock-picking. The locks that held my ankle monitor strap in place were custom, but not particularly unique. Perri taught me a technique in which tension was applied into the locking mechanism using an angular knife-like tool, and a raking attack applied using secondary tool that looked like a miniature allen wrench. I was surprised to learn that both these lock-picking tools were cheap and Perri happily gave me both of them for free. With these tools, and this information, I was finally free.

Once they showed me how to handle the operation alone it was time for me to put it to the test. The first test happened that same day when I got home. When my mother got home I told her I’d be going out for a run. For a long time I had wanted to get back into exercising regularly, but with the ankle monitor weighing me down it didn’t feel right. This was going to be my first run in months without the accursed thing. For the purpose of this test I left it at the top of my closet where it would remain safely undisturbed.

When I stepped outside in my tracksuit and running shoes I felt almost like the old me. The scenery was wildly different from my old home, but my body felt lightweight and nimble once again. The moment I stepped outside I was already running in place and laughing to myself out loud. My neighbors probably thought I looked like a maniac. It felt good to be in the spirit of exercise once again. Without wasting any time I immediately set off on the road for an evening run.

Once I got out on the main road I didn’t even have a route planned. For a moment I thought I’d visit Annabelle Noelle’s grave once more, but even that graveyard felt too close. Without my ankle monitor holding me back I really wanted the chance to feel a runner’s high once again. I breezed right by that graveyard without stopping for even a moment. My new goal wasn’t a specific target, but a lap around several blocks.

By the time I got back home it was already night. That little run took hours. I was completely and totally out of breath as I walked up to my front door, but I couldn’t help but laugh. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had worked out so hard. When I made it inside I kicked off my shoes at the front door, and stumbled over to the couch. My mother saw me face plant into the couch from the dining room.

“Everything okay, Holly?” She asked.

“I’m good! Actually, I’m great! I just had a great work out.”

“I can tell. You look worn out.”

“Yeah, it’ll be a while before I get back into the shape I was in before. I’m going to try to make these runs a little more routine.”

My mother laughed.

“I’ve been saying the same thing about hitting the gym ever since New Year’s Eve. Maybe I should invest in a nice track outfit like yours.” She said.

I pulled myself up from the couch.

“The old me could’ve ran for several more hours before being wiped out. I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that level again.”

“You one-hundred percent can. You’re still young, after all. You’ve got time to work with.” She said.

My cell phone rang in my pocket. For a moment I freaked. What if it was Angel calling about my ankle monitor? Could the device have failed? My rational brained evoked the fact that I wasn’t hearing any alarm from my room, which meant the device was still working. I pulled out my cell phone to see it was Valentina calling.

“Do you mind if I take this in my room?” I asked my mother.

She nodded me on.

“Go on, don’t let me stop you.”

“Thanks.”

I waited until I reached my bedroom to answer the phone. I closed the door before speaking a word.

“It worked!” I said. “The device is working perfectly right now!”

“That’s good.” Val said. “Are you enjoying your new found freedom?”

“I am! I just had the best run I’ve had in months.”

“I think you’re about to enjoy your new freedom even more.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve got a surprise for you. I want you to come stay the night with me tomorrow night.”

“But…” I started to say.

“Your ankle monitor…?” She asked, continuing my outdated sentence.

“Sorry, I’m still paranoid... Anyways, what did you have in mind? A sleepover of some sort…?”

“Like I said, it’s a surprise.”

“You’re not going to assault me in anyway, are you…? I’m willing to trust you, but you have to promise there won’t be any funny business.”

“Holly…” She said with a soft laugh.

“Promise me!”

“I promise I won’t assault you in anyway.” She said. “This weekend will be too important for that. Just be ready to leave by 12PM tomorrow. I’ll be there to pick you up at that time.”

“Okay. I need to think of how I’m going to sell this to my mom.”

It took me all night to come up with something that I felt was workable. What I ended up telling my mom was that I’d be visiting a friend to begin studying for the fall quarterly exams. It wasn’t exactly a lie as I had been planning to start on that anyways. I was even packing my study materials with me just in case Val felt like studying together. I wasn’t sure what she meant about her surprise, but there’d probably be enough downtime for studying.

My mother asked about my ankle monitor of course. I told her that I had already cleared the situation with Angel. From there she didn’t ask me any further questions. The only problem was if Angel randomly decided she was going to come by. It was rare for that to happen, but it had happened before. So I started making contingency plans. Now that my ankle monitor was off I didn’t want to lose my freedom here.

In order to ensure there wouldn’t be any surprise visits this weekend I decided to strike up a conversation with Angel. She was happy to receive a call from me. In a roundabout manner I managed to ask her about her plans for this weekend. It turned out she’d be working an additional work day on Saturday. That put me in the clear. However, as a safety measure, I explained to her that I’d also be busy studying for fall quarterly exams. We wished each other luck and ended the call there.

It looked like I was in the clear. Still, it was impossible to be sure. My hope was that Val’s place was close enough that I could return if my plans fell through. That way if I got a call from Angel about her planning to visit, I could beat her there. It was a flimsy backup plan, but it was the only one I could come up with.

When Val arrived on her motorbike to pick me up I wanted to put this concern out of my mind. The feeling of unease never left me, even as we were driving out of the trailer park and onto the main road. The ankle monitor had become such a part of my person that it was still acting like a phantom limb. My hope was that Val’s place was closer than I expected. She was always so secretive regarding her home situation that I had no way of knowing.

My expectations were further taken for a ride as we were leaving the city limits altogether. I hardly noticed the sign on the road as we passed it. I was still so scared of falling off of Val’s motorcycle that I couldn’t bring myself to take in the views. Instead, I was clutched up against her like I might fall from 10,000 feet in the air. Just how far away could Val’s place be? We attended the same school after all. The chance to ask her didn’t come until several minutes later when we were stopped at a red light.

“Where’s your house at?” I asked her over the commotion of the cars around us.

“About a few miles back the way we came.” She said without looking back at me.

“Then where are you taking me?” I asked worriedly.

“That’s the surprise. Don’t worry. We’re close. Just hang tight for a few more minutes.”

Hang tight. It sounded like she was taking a shot at just how tightly I was hanging on to her. That wouldn’t cause me to loosen up even an inch though. Even after all this time it was hard for me to get used to the back of the motorcycle. My heart was relieved to see us pull into some hotel building after that wild ride. It felt like we must’ve been on the road for over an hour, but that was probably my anxiety getting to me.

“This is the surprise?” I asked as we got off the motorcycle together.

“Not exactly,” She said as she took her extra helmet from me and put it into her bag, “This is the start.”

As we entered the scenic hotel lobby I began to wonder just how much a room here would cost. When we left I wasn’t expecting to come to this sort of place. There was probably less than $50 in my wallet altogether. Did Val have the money to pay for this alone? I followed behind her as she approached the front desk. The woman working the desk looked at us curiously as we came up to her. She probably wasn’t used to customers our age.

“Hey,” Val said, “I have a reservation for room 210. The reservation is under Valentina Ivanovich.”

“Can I see some ID?” The woman asked.

“Of course, here you go.” Val said.

Val gave the woman her ID so that she could look it over. She raised her lowered glasses enough to get a better look at Val’s driver’s license and a better look at Val herself. When that was done she started punching keys on her keyboard to pull something up. She put some information into the computer and then rolled her chair to the cabinet behind her to retrieve some hotel keys. She gave these to Valentina and nodded.

“Okay, you’re reservation has been recognized. Here are the keys. I just need you to sign this check-in paper and you’re free to go to your room. If you decide you’d like to extend your stay then please let us know before tomorrow at 8PM. Otherwise that’ll be your time to vacate the room.”

“Thank you very much.” Val said as she took the keys.

After signing in we left the lobby to take the elevator. Our room was a single bedroom unit on the second floor. The bed must’ve been twice the size of mine so sharing a bed with Val wouldn’t be a problem. When we walked into the room Val tossed her bag on the bed and went over to look out the window. I didn’t bother taking my bag off because it was still hard to believe I was here at a hotel in the first place. Of all the things I had thought about doing on this weekend, visiting a hotel out of town definitely wasn’t one of them.

“What the hell?” I asked, hoping for any sort of answer to our current situation.

Val turned back to me with a sly smile.

“Relax. I’m not kidnapping you just yet. We’re here for a reason.”

“I hope it’s a good reason.”

“It is!” She said, “Like I said, I need you to trust me.”

“I want to trust you.” I said. “In order to do that I need to know why you’ve got a total vacation planned here without my knowing.”

“If I tell you now then you might try to talk me out of it.” Val said.

“And that’s supposed to convince me…?”

“No, but this is. Consider this payback for getting your ankle monitor taken off. Is it so much of me to ask a little of your time after you’ve spent so much time with Lilith.”

“That was… That was different.”

She came over to me to put a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s okay Holly. I’m not trying to grill you. I’m just asking you to give me a chance. I know bringing you all the way out here was weird, but it was the only way we were going to get answers.”

“What sort of answers?”

“I’m seeking answers to questions that you’ve probably been wondering about yourself. This hotel is just a convenience. Our real target is near here. We should eat lunch before we go. Come on, I’ll buy you something.”

“Hold on,” I said before Val could walk away.

I took off my bag and opened it up to pull out two lunch boxes. Val was surprised to see me hand her one.

“You made lunch?” Val asked.

“I wasn’t expecting for us to come to a hotel. I wanted to pay you back for making lunch for me before.”

Val smiled and opened up that lunch box.

“Another salad, huh…? That’s sweet of you.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure what else would be appropriate to make. This isn’t the same sort of salad you made. This is a recipe my mom taught me back in middle school.”

“It looks good. I’ll order us some drinks to go with this then.”

We had lunch together out on the hotel balcony. Val had spent so much of her time on the student council election that this was the first time in days we could have a conversation about something else. The topic we ended up with was still about school. There were two major events coming up for us. The first event was the Fall Festival. The other event would be the fall quarterly exams.

Naturally, we were more interested in the Fall Festival. The student council was put in charge of coming up with campaigns and decorations for student events. We’d have only two weeks to come up with everything. The Fall Festival happened on the Friday night that the fall exams took place. It was a dance event meant to let students blow off steam after tests were done. When Val invited me over the night before I thought that planning the festival would be the main thing we worked on.

Immediately after lunch we were back on the road. True to Val’s word, the house we pulled up to was only a few minutes away. It was an average looking suburban house, nothing too out of the ordinary. I couldn’t imagine what we were here for. Val’s sudden stiffness made me think that this wasn’t someone she was familiar with. She approached the door with caution before ringing the doorbell. I could feel an uncanny sense of apprehension emanating from her.

A middle-aged woman answered the door, but not generously. She left it cracked only enough that we could make out part of her face. Val put on her angelic expression and waved.

“Hi, my name’s Valentina Ivanovich. This is my friend, Holly Hayfield. We’re from Meredith’s School for Troubled Girls. As of yesterday, we are official members of the student council.” Val said.

The woman flinched at the name of our school.

“What do you want?” She asked in a whisper.

Her voice was so gentle and soft that if it were any lighter it might fade away with the wind. The way she was still hiding herself with her door gave me highly anti-social vibes. I knew a recluse when I saw one and this woman was a hermit, afraid to come out of her shell. Everything from her slouching posture to her homely dress seemed to support my theory. So what did Val want with her?

“In order to secure the future of our school we need to have a serious conversation with you.”

The woman wanted to shy away as Val said this. It was easy to see her wishy-washy demeanor take control.

“That’s got nothing to do with me anymore…” She said softly.

“On the contrary,” Val said, “It has everything to do with you, Ms. Hoffman. You could be the last major link between the school’s dark past and a brighter future. Before we can do our job as the student council there are some things we need to know to move on.”

“Ms. Hoffman…?” I whispered to myself.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ms. Hoffman said, “If you needed anything from me then you should’ve just called. I’m sorry, but goodbye.”

She started to close the door. I stepped in front of Val to get my foot into the door. Once I was sure the door couldn’t be closed I opened it up enough to get a good look at her. She was taken aback by my assertive behavior. She wanted to back away even more but I grabbed her hand.

“Abigail Logan is in a dangerous place and needs your help.” I said. “If you have a shred of sympathy for her in your heart then you’ll talk to me so that we can save her.”