I sigh, watching Vincent talking to my mom. If he wasn't so clever I would have stayed with her. I turn my head to realize I'm now inside the restaurant. The voices stop, I don't hear them anymore. The room begins to spilling with singing voices. My eyes are drawn to a table where everything becomes more clear. Maddie and Theresa's birthday. We threw it at the restaurant. Vincent must already be the owner.
I watch as Maddie and Theresa blow out their cakes. The memories fast forwards again and I watch everyone move away from the table to their own things. Then I see Vincent approach the two girls after little Alex leaves them at the stage where a small band is playing.
I move closer to them. They know Vincent, so they smile and welcome him when he walks up. "Hey Vincent!"
"Ah, the birthday girls!" He smiles, opening his arms and giving them hugs. I see him glance over to where little me had disappeared. As if making sure I'm not there to see whatever he's about to do.
His look goes back to the girls, "Well, seeing as its your birthday, I got you guys some presents." He pats his pockets, "oh no. I must have left them in my office. Would you ladies mind coming to get them with me?"
I watch as my childhood friends giggle, "sure!"
I follow when Vincent leads them down the hallway to a back room. Vincent doesn't have an office. I don't think there ever was one. He takes them into the room, but I'm too afraid to follow. I can't change anything. I don't want to know what he did to my friends.
I stand outside the door, listening. I can hear him rummaging through something. "Hm, I swear they were in here somewhere." The rummaging continues, "ah, here it is."
Suddenly I hear the girls scream. They run at the door and I can hear and see the door bend as they pound on it. They're screaming for help. But we're too far down the hall. No one in the auditorium would be able to hear them. The screaming only lasts a few seconds, then it's silent. I'm too afraid to look. What did he do?
I wait for a minute before Vincent comes out of the room, rolling up his sleeves. There's blood on his sleeves, and all over his shirt. I glance behind him into the room. No blood, nothing. I don't see any trace of Maddie or Theresa. I follow Vincent as he goes into the kitchen, the special today was cherry pie. He puts some of the dessert on his top. He's covering it up.
I look at the clock. It's closing time. We head out to the auditorium, he walks calmly as if he's closing up shop, turning off lights, checking rooms. The staff starts leaving. One yells, "thanks for the help with the cherrie pie mess, Mr. Johnson!" It sounds like Andrew. I didn't know Andrew was here so long.
I follow Vincent out to the main auditorium. "Oh. Vincent, Sir!-"
"It's closing time, ma'am," Vincent says, grabbing a jacket and putting it on.
"B-But Vincent-Mr. Johnson. Our girls are missing." Maddie and Theresa's dad says.
Vincent's eyes widen as if in shock, "oh my, should we look for them? There's not many places for anyone to hide in my building, I think one of my staff would have seen them. But we can look."
I watch as the girl's mom gets on the phone. I kind of remember this. Mom and I had been driving home and we got a call that Maddie and Theresa were missing. So we had to drive back to the restaurant.
"Maybe we should call the police," the girl's dad says. He seems suspicious of Vincent already.
Vincent nods, "of course, Sir." I can tell by Vincent's demeanor he's nervous. I don't know how he didn't expect them to want to find their kids, unless his goal was to kill them too. But by the time he's about to object to calling the police, Mr. Kitt is already on the phone.
Little Alex and Mom come through the main doors. My mom and Mrs. Kitt embrace in a hug, "Have you found them?" My mom asks but Mrs. Kitt shakes her head.
"Can we look around Mr. Johnson?" My mom asks. I look over at Vincent. He's not even looking at them. He's looking at little Alex. He looks at my mom and the girl's mom.
"Yes of course," he says.
Vincent looks like an adult right now. But Vincent is actually only six years older than me. I'm only nine at this time, which makes Vincent only fifteen. How has he tricked everyone into thinking he's an adult? He may look and sound like a twenty-some year old, but isn't there a law against fifteen year olds running restaurants? Even if they graduated high school and college early?
Everything goes black and the blue pulses show in my vision again. Then I'm back in the room with Salvation. "B-but I didn't get to see what happened..." I protest.
Salvation takes the USB out of my wrist, "sorry, sis." He says, putting a finger over the hole and it closes, looking like skin again. "That's all that was on it. He must not be ready for you to see it all."
I look down. What happened to Maddie and Theresa? What happens to their parents? "I have so many questions.." I say.
Salvation nods, "You can ask Vincent when he gets back."
My heart pounds. I don't want to ask Vincent. I not only don't trust him but I don't want to get hurt by getting into business that's not mine. Or it should be? I shake my head, no. I'll leave it until he gives me more memories.
I watch Salvation stand up. He kisses my forehead, "I have to go talk to Andrew. I'll see you later." He says softly.
I nod, laying down on the bed when he leaves. I tug on the chain. Maybe if I find out what it's attached to. Maybe I could break it. I get off the bed and look underneath to see the chain goes into the ground. I sigh. Even if I wanted to, it would ruin Peter's plan.
I look around the room. I really have nothing to do. If only I could figure out a way to get Vincent to trust me enough to not chain me up while he's gone. I climb back into the bed just in time for the door to open. I smile when I see Peter. But then my smile drops. "I'm not supposed to talk to you, Peter." I say.
Peter nods and closes the door, glancing outside first as if making sure no one sees him, "I know."