The Blind Man

TEN

Maggie's whole body shook in Jae's arms as he held her tightly too him. The man must have come in and taken Cristal while they had been talking. Jae couldn't believe that any of this was happening. Why was this man doing this and what did he want from them?

"I'm scared." Maggie said into his chest.

He needed to call the sheriff and tell them what's happened, but he didn't want to let go of Maggie just yet. This was his fault. If he hadn't been thinking about Maggie so much he might have heard the man come in.

At that moment, the house phone rang and they both froze. Jae never got a phone call unless it was Luis or Cristal. A few people at church sometimes called to check in, but he knew they wouldn't be calling at 11:45 at night.

He slipped away from Maggie as the ring of the phone echoed through the house. The phone was downstairs in the kitchen.

He heard Maggie following close behind him as he rushed down and picked it up. "Hello?" He wasn't scared of who was on the other side. He was angry, and his tone showed it.

The man's tone was urgent. "Holy cow, Jae it's me, I can't believe you answered." The voice sounded familiar but Jae couldn't place a name to it. It definitely wasn't Luis. "I'm trapped here and I need you to come get me, I'm-"

Silence suddenly filled his ears and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. "Are you still there?" Jae asked.

A woman's scream suddenly sounded over the phone, it was so load Jae had to pull the phone away from his ear. "No stop!!" The lady cried.

It was Cristal. Jae yelled her name through the phone but suddenly the line went dead and the dial tone hummed in his ear.

Jae hug the phone up more confused then ever. "What happened?" Maggie asked.

He heard the tears in her voice. His mind raced as he placed a name to the voice. Shock rushed over him and he suddenly felt sick. "I think I just talked to Mark." He mumbled.

"Who's that?"

Jae hesitated. If he told her who Mark was then he would have to explain how he lost his sight. "It'll take a lot of explaining." He paused. "Let me call the sheriff first."

     ~~*~~

She still couldn't believe it even though it was pouring out of Jae's mouth. After hearing the story of Jae's attack, Maggie had rushed over to her house with one of the officers and returned with a picture of her brother. Sure enough after Jae gave his distribution of Mark, she stumbled at the realization that Jae had been friends with her lost brother.

Apparently Jae had been with Mark when Mark's house had been broken into. The man had slammed Jae's head with a baseball bat before possibly killing Mark and leaving. But from the call earlier, Mark was alive and had been hidden from them for over ten years. But why? And why was it coming out now? Why would the man wait ten years later? None of this was making sense.

"How does all this fit together?" Maggie asked the tired eyed sheriff.

"I believe that the same man that took Jae's sight is the same man that has killed your friend and taken Cristal."

Maggie felt weak and Jae looked sick. They both couldn't believe it, things like this only happen in movies not real life, right?

"What do we do?" She questioned.

"All I can do is take out Jae's case, go through it and see how we can catch this man."

Jae cleared his throat. "Didn't you say you would do drivebys? Did y'all see the man?"

The sheriff looked over at one of his deputies. "We did do a driveby but it happened to be 10 minutes before Cristal went missing."

"How is that possible?" Jae asked.

"I believe this guy knows what we're doing. Do you have any camera's around here?"

Maggie looked over at Jae as he took off his sunglasses and ran his hand over his face. "I don't have a security system or anything, why?"

The sheriff stayed quiet for a moment. "Can we take a look around?"

Jae placed his glasses back on his face. "Do what you want. "

The two men stood and left the room as Maggie fought back her tears. "I'm scared Jae."

"I am too. I wish I knew what was going on. At least we know that Cristal and Mark are alive."

"What about that scream over the phone? Do you think that man," she paused at the pain of it all. "You think he killed them then?"

He reached across the kitchen table and found her hand. "I hope not." Was all he could say.

It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she knew he was just trying not to lie to her.

That moment the deputy came rushing downstairs and into the room. His expression was stern but his eyes hopefull.

"We've found something you should see."

They both stood and rushed up to find the sheriff standing at the door of Cristal's room. He turns to them as they approach and holds out his hand.
A small camera lays in his palm.

"It was in the door jam. He's been watching you. There could be more."

Maggie shuttered as she remembered the first night in her new home. This had been the room that the lights had been turned on in. It hadn't been Jae. The murder had been coming in and out of this house a lot longer then they thought.

As they stared down at the camera a small red light flipped on at the top of it and the lens adjusted. Maggie froze with the rest of them. The murderer was watching them as they stood staring in shock.