Eve (begonia9508) - Liz won't make anything stupid, I promise
Thank you for the feedback!
Roswelllostcause
Melissa is hiding something, but I have this feeling that she maybe knows more than anyone knows.
You're onto something there... Thank you for the feedback!
Natalie36 - Thank you
L-J-L 76
So Max, Liz, Michael, Maria, Isabel and Tess leave in 4 weeks.
Weeell... (see the next chapter
) Thank you for the feedback! And the bump <3
Carolyn (keepsmiling7)
Despite what the note to Max said, the gang may have to leave sooner than a month.
Yup. Thank you for the feedback! And the theorizing
dreamon - Thank you
Previously on "Lethal Whispers"...
Max had premonitions of Liz being in danger. He saved her once she actually got into danger. A rescue that promoted a FBI-interest from an agent Martin. In the aftermath of the save, the gang (consisting of Michael, Max, Isabel, Tess and Maria) met up with Liz. They also decided that they would leave; that in light of the curious FBI-agent's investigations, it was too dangerous to stay. They decided that they would take their time to prepare for the perfect departure and Liz simultaneously announced that she would come along. She felt more safe in their company than being left behind. That's when Max received an anonymous note warning them to "Not Run Yet". So when we left them last time, they were nervously waiting, wondering who the note was from.
Now... the story continues.
Just a note: You have not missed a chapter. We've just jumped ahead some.
CHAPTER 38
Alex
One day she was just gone.
She had handed in her resignation (effective immediately) at her work and by the time Alex realized her absence someone else was already living in her apartment.
No good-bye, no forwarding address.
She had told her father that she was going on a long journey around the world and that she would keep in touch but that the messages might be far between depending on where in the world she was at the time.
Why hadn’t she told him? He considered himself her best friend. Was it because she had feared that he would sense the holes in her story and call her on her lie?
She was bound to miss the trial of her own assault, risking that the man might walk free. It didn’t sound like something Liz would do. She was too concerned with the well being of others to risk that man getting back out on the streets.
But the weirdest detail was that the woman Liz had been working closely with at her office, the woman whose brother had saved Liz from being raped, had also disappeared. Around the same time as Liz. She had handed in her resignation about two weeks prior to Liz. And that wasn’t even the end of it. After some additional digging, Alex had found out that Liz’s savior, one Max Evans, and his friends Maria DeLuca and Michael Guerin had also disappeared around the same time. They all belonged to the ‘group’ that Liz had told Alex about. The group of new friends she had acquired. The group he was not allowed to speak of.
Now they were all missing - without a trace.
Alex could only come up with one plausible explanation: Liz had joined a cult and run off with them. For this, Alex could only come up with one plausible solution: He had to find Liz and rescue her from being brainwashed any further.
*****
Liz
They were going through cars like a chain smoker was going through cigarettes.
Sometimes they were crammed into two five-seater cars, sometimes into SUVs or minivans. Even though emotions tended to run high when people were crammed together in too close quarters, the mood had for the most part remained high. This, Max had told her, was because Michael’s mood remained good.
Michael was finally letting go of his fear of being watched, oddly enough on a trip with the goal of them going into hiding. According to Max, Michael had been restless for a long time and he had been searching for a reason for them to move much earlier. But without any real incentive, Isabel, Max and Maria’s connections to their families had won out and they had stayed in Boston for most of their lives.
As she watched the surroundings pass outside the car window on their way along Interstate-90 West, she couldn’t help but reflect over the detour her life had taken.
Shy of three months ago, she had started her first job fresh out of architectural school. Still on a joyous high from landing her dream job, the law-abiding Elizabeth Parker who could count on one hand the number of times she had jaywalked, had been attacked, saved by an alien, investigated by the FBI, and joined a mission to go into hiding from a threat from her own government. It all sounded like the plot to a bad movie.
Maybe she had foolishly followed her heart on this one, because to be painfully honest; had she not started to feel an interest for Max Evans she probably wouldn’t have even entertained the thought of leaving home.
After following her head her whole life, being guided by her heart was for once not a bad thing. Her father had always wished that she would find a ‘nice young man’. Of course, if Jeffrey Parker had found out the unusual traits of this ‘nice young man’ that Liz had chosen, he might have changed his wish.
Liz glanced over at Max at the wheel. It was rare for her to be seated in the passenger seat. Because of her small size, she was usually chosen to be crammed into the backseat, letting the tall people like Isabel and Michael take turns on riding shot-gun. But last night they had changed from a minivan to two sedans, which meant that Max, Liz and Tess was in one car and Maria, Michael and Isabel in the other.
Liz glanced to the backseat, where Tess was asleep with her head against the window. Tess hadn’t said much in total during their ‘road trip’, but when she did she had a tendency to sound tense and dominant. She usually spoke up when she wanted to correct someone or when plans about where they were going was on the agenda.
Liz tried not to judge Tess’ character prematurely, but it was hard to not feel something of a dislike to the girl. Compared to the other members of the group, Tess appeared cool and lacking empathy. Possibly, she was hardened by living her life on her own. But Liz couldn’t deny that her feelings of animosity towards the girl mostly stemmed from Tess’ flirting with Max.
Liz guided her eyes back to the scene outside the car window as she corrected her thoughts grimly. ‘Flirting’ was too kind of word. More like ‘seducing’ him in active ‘pursuit’. She knew, logically, that she didn’t have any claim on Max. They were not in a relationship.
Still, it hurt. It hurt to see Tess touching Max more frequently and more easily than Liz could will herself to. Liz was too polite, too sexually reserved to take liberties like Tess did. Liz was not used to having to fight for a man’s attention, instead more used to
fighting off unwanted male attention.
But sometimes Liz felt as if Max was only hers. Sometimes she imagined that he was looking at her in a special way, when he thought she didn’t notice. Sometimes (like now), she could feel the heat of his contemplative eyes on the side of her face and she couldn’t help but wonder if he had the same feelings for her as she had for him. In the naive optimistic thinking of a girl falling heavily in love with a boy, she’d imagined that it would be easier to get to know Max when out on the road, isolated from the rest of the world.
But instead it had proved more difficult.
At night, they were logically and sensibly divided up in female and male rooms, with the exception of Maria and Michael who always stayed together. The majority of their time awake was spent driving, which meant that they were never really alone. Liz hadn’t spoken to Max privately since that night in her bedroom when he had held her hand and promised that they would find a way to break the news of them leaving to her family without hurting them.
“You okay?”
His question startled her out of her heavy thoughts and alerted her to the fact that a tear had tumbled down her cheek. Thinking of her dad always tempted her to tears.
She glanced at him with a forced smile, restricting herself to a quick peek of his face, knowing that his concern might just throw her into a real crying episode. “Yeah. Just thinking.”
There was silence again and then she felt his fingers flutter against the back of her hand. She looked at him in surprise and his open expression seemed to beg for her approval to let him hold her hand. She swallowed and grabbed his warm hand, immediately feeling the aching loneliness diminish in her chest.
“You’ve been very quiet lately,” Max said softly.
She looked down at their interlocked hands and observed how well they seemed to fit into each other. Like two pieces of a puzzle.
“I miss my dad,” she whispered and choked on a sob. Pressing the back of her free hand against her mouth, she tried to stop the tornado of sadness that was threatening to overwhelm her.
She couldn’t look at him, because she could hear the sad concern in his voice, “I know you do. You don’t have to be strong, you know. If you need to cry, do. No one would think any less of you.”
With closed eyes, she shook her head and her voice didn’t even sound like her own as she croaked, “I can’t.” With a quick gesture in the direction of Tess’ sleeping form, she hoped that Max understood what she was trying to say.
That she couldn’t appear weak in front of Tess.
The squeeze of his fingers around her hand told her that he had gotten the message loud and clear.
“I’m in awe of you,” Max whispered, but loud enough to be heard over the consistent hum of the car engine. “And the rest of us are too.”
He wasn’t making it easy for her to prevent a mental breakdown. All she wanted was to break down in tears and be comforted by him. To have him utter nonsensical assurances like ‘Everything’s going to be okay’ and ‘You’ll see him soon enough’, because it would momentarily make her feel better.
“You left your family too,” Liz said quietly, wiping at the silent tears.
“Yeah,” Max answered. “But we’ve had a lifetime to prepare for that eventuality. You haven’t.”
She had never considered herself to be the strong one. Quite frankly, she felt like a lovestruck, whimsical teenager who would follow her latest crush anywhere (even though she knew that this was not a simple
crush). She had looked down on herself with something akin to disgust for not being rational about this life-changing decision. For being uncharacteristically irrational.
Seeing herself through Max’s eyes made her feel slightly better about her decision, but she was still beating herself up about leaving her family. About leaving Alex. Leaving Alex had left a bitter taste at the back of her throat. Their departure had in the end been hasty as they had received another anonymous note which had scared them all into action, and Liz had not had the time to say goodbye to Alex. Something she couldn’t quite get over.
“When would it be safe to make contact?” Liz asked, hoping for a positive answer.
She could feel Max fumbling for an answer that would spare her feelings, she could feel it vibrating in the space between them through whatever connection they might have since he brought her back to life as a child.
“Phone calls can be traced. Stamps on postcards… We have to find a safe way first.”
She nodded, sniffling. She knew the facts. Still they hurt.
“Liz,” he prompted.
She looked at him, seeing the warm sympathy on his face. Certain that he had her attention, Max continued, “You can still go back. I can drive you to the next airport and you can take a flight home.”
Liz’s sobs turned into a short laugh, surprising herself more than Max. “Sorry. But…” she smiled at him, “Sometimes I wonder if you really want to get rid of me. You keep bringing it up.”
But he was serious when he replied, “I never want to hold you against your will.” Keeping his eyes on the road, his voice dropped to an almost inaudible softness, “Nor do I want you to leave.”
Her smile softened and she brought their joined hands up to her cheek. Pressing the warmth of his hand against the softness of her left cheek, she whispered, “Thank you.”
In the backseat, the eavesdropping Theresa Harding tensed.
TBC...
