Their Tainted Fingers

cody kidnaps people

She had her friend?

Rory tried to hide her surprise. "I have to excuse myself." If Rory tried to walk out of the diner through the front door, she would obviously be stopped in her tracks. She turned to the bathroom in the back, locked the door and leaned on the wall.

Her friend. Monroe is here. Chandler is...

Jesse.

There was only one more person, and that was Jesse. Jesse was with whoever called her. She breathed heavily in the bathroom stall, the world was spinning around her. "No, no no...." She wiped the sweat away from her head. Her shaky hands pulled out the journal as she brought out a pen and scribbled everything that happened that day onto a blank page as quickly as possible.

Jesse. Jesse was missing. Someone called. Everyone is ordered to stay inside. I tried to get out of the diner.

Rory sighed and closed her eyes. As soon as they opened...Her breath hitched. Why was she in a bathroom stall? The journal shook in her hands. The book fell onto the wet floor, splashing the contents inside with water. The cover read "AMNESIA" in dark, crimson letters. Rory bent down to pick the book up, running her hand over the wet paper. The ink was smushed into blurred letters, almost illegible.
"Jesse..."

She turned to her right. There was a window. Should she?

Rory closed the latched on her satchel and took a deep breath. She put one foot up onto the toilet, then the other. Her hands fumbled on the cool metal handle on the glass window. She had learned how to pick a lock when her mother left her at home on Halloween when she was little. The lights went out, and she ran away on her own that night. Rory was lucky that she always prepared everything.

She brought two paper clips out of her satchel. Furrowing her eyebrows and trying to refresh her childhood memory on picking a lock, she bit into one of the paperclips and bent it with her teeth.

Step one: Make a tension wrench.

She applauded herself mentally as she completed step one. She jammed the bent paper clip into the keyhole and turned it. She slid the other paper clip into the lock and jiggled it until she heard a clicking sound. She turned the bent paper clip once more. The window budged open. She lauded herself in her head, stepped on the top of the toilet and managed to climb out on her own.

The jump from the window onto the lawn was minuscule since it was only one floor tall. Rory landed on the grass and opened her journal once more. She tried to make out the illegible letters as much as she could.
This was what she summarized: Jesse was missing, and everybody was forced to stay inside. Someone called her and said that she had Jesse.

Rory didn't want to go alone at this hour. The sky was dark, and crickets chirped from far away. Should she go ask Chandler for help? Chandler would be willing to help. Rory dismissed the thought. It would take too long. Jesse was in trouble, and wherever he was, she had to arrive there. Quick.

Okay...Rory got out the window. Then, what?

She walked around the back entrance of the diner, trying not to get caught from the windows. The lawn was dark and empty. Rory walked along the wall, trying to blend in. She still didn't have any idea where she was going.

Just walk.

The wall turned in a corner. A graveyard was in front of it, filled with headstones. Could Jesse be here? She wasn't entirely sure whether Jesse actually needed help. She had known Jesse for only a few days until something happened. Rory was going to need an explanation later.

"Jesse!"

She shouted out into the void. He couldn't possibly hear her, could he? Rory walked along the headstones, trailing her fingers on top of them. The crickets started getting louder. Before she could take another step, she was greeted with an incredible odor. It smelled of rotting meat. Rory had to wrinkle her nose to stop herself from gagging.