THE
MIND ALTERING
ADVENTURE

Chapter Eight

It's absolutely quiet when Kevin finally awakens and there is something not quite right about his surroundings. Warily, he opens his eyes, but the room is dimly lit. He reaches for the lamp by the bed, only to become aware that things are worse than he thought. Fumbling around, he finds that he is handcuffed, and what's more, chained!

"Well, damn!" he mutters thickly, finding his mouth dry and uncomfortable. "I must be worse off than I thought." He tries to sit up, only to find that he is well and truly restrained. "Okay, so I'm really not going anywhere anytime soon."

A brief check reveals a chain attached to his neck with the other end of the chain attached to something large and black.. "What the hell?" he wonders, as he strains to see in the small amount of light. "Make that 'where the hell'? Good grief! I thought that mental health had come a long ways. I know-- I'm dreaming, and this is a nightmare. We don't chain up insane people anymore. So what am I doing chained up? Oh, yeah, I'm insane. I must be." He pulls on the chain, and grumbles. "This is my dream, damnit, and I don't want to be chained." He groans. "If this is a nightmare, this isn't like any nightmare I've ever had. Okay, Kev, time to wake up." He closes his eyes, and reopens them. "Maybe I'm not dreaming??" He pinches himself. "I feel pain, therefore I must not be dreaming....oh hell, how would I know whether or not I'm dreaming if I'm insane? Face it, Kev, old boy. Sane people don't do what they said you did, and sane people don't wind up chained to a ....oh god! A pot bellied stove!"

He laughs at his plight. "I gotta be nuts! So, here I am, wherever here is, chained to a potbellied stove in my pajamas, that is, I'm in my pajamas, the stove isn't, chained to the aforementioned stove... laying on a....I think it's a mattress....and in dire need of a bathroom."

"Coming right up," remarks a chipper voice. "Good morning, Kevin!" Felicia greets, as she lugs in a huge bag of kitty litter along with a box. "How'd you sleep?"

Kevin closes his eyes, and lays back down. "So this is hell!" Hmmmm



"I'm telling you, Sonny," Luke says, "There's something going on here."

Sonny is down at Luke's club where he's gone to meet with Luke and Lucy. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sonny responds. "And I've had enough of it. You don't think that Dr. Collins did it? I mean, I don't want to whack the wrong guy."

"No," Lucy injects. "Kevin wouldn't have killed Gina."

"Not even if he went nuts again?" Sonny questions.

"No," Lucy insists adamantly, continuing, "He could have killed me or Felicia at the lake house if he'd wanted to, but he didn't. There's no reason for him to kill Gina."

"Unless he was trying to kill himself," Tom says from the door, as he strolls into Luke's club. "It's my guess that he equated Gina with himself-she abandoned her brother, Stone, in his hour of need much the same way that Kevin sees himself as having abandoned his brother, Ryan. His guilt has surfaced and he's trying to punish himself. He may even be suicidal." Tom pauses for effect as Sonny, Luke, Lucy, and Mike listen in disbelief before adding, "Where Ryan kept punishing his mother, Kevin may keep punishing himself-and maybe his mother, too, whom he blames for the initial abuse. He may even try to punish his father, as well. It's obvious that the problems are escalating. Things will get worse."

"Tom," Lucy begins, horrified. "What are you saying?"

"He's saying that he wants to blame every killing in the city on Kevin," Luke drawls, as Mac walks in. "Is that the plan, Scorpio?," Luke asks, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You going to mark a few cases closed and hang all this on Kevin?"

"No," Mac answers, struggling to keep his temper. "We're going to find Kevin, and we're going to find the killer."

"Damned straight," comes another voice as Jagger enters the room. "We won't just 'hang' this on anybody. Gina was my sister and I'm going to work with Mac to find her killer."

"Then we're on the same side," Sonny states, calmly meeting Jagger's gaze. "She was Stone's sister, and that makes this personal."

"No concrete boots or mysterious disappearances," Mac injects. "We're going by the book on this."

"What book is that?" Sonny asks. "No, don't tell me. The book that has different rules for the rich? My book has the same rules for everybody. One size fits all, and it says that Gina's killer is going down."

"Sonny," begs Lucy, tears flowing again. "Kevin has to be cleared. Legally cleared. He has to be completely exonerated."

"Don't worry Lucy," comes yet another voice, as Scott Baldwin enters the room. "I know this really uptown lawyer...." Hmmmmm



Stay tuned!!! Has Kevin gone from the proverbial frying pan into the fire?? Do we really want to know what Felicia is going to do?? Will Tom convince the others that Kevin is really dangerous? Who is this lawyer that Scotty knows??? Is help on the way??? Hmmmmmmm

BACK E-MAIL NEXT
HOME