Death Likes British Columbia
Seleah awoke when she felt a hand squeeze hers. She felt the skin of her eyelids peel open. Lewis was standing over her.
“Imagine my surprise when i get a call from the police telling me that you collapsed.” He said, sitting down in the chair he put next to her bed.
Seleah wanted to speak but nothing came out. Her building frustration came out in tears.
“I was more surprised that I was the one they called, but we can talk about that later. The cops are outside, they still have stuff to ask you. I need to know though, you can tell me through a head nod, are you going to tell them everything?” He said gently.
Seleah shook her head. Lewis sighed and stood up. “Alright.” He said, before exiting the room. His presence was replaced by the same cop who Seleah was talking to at the station.
“You gave me a scare. I’m not used to people passing out when I give them information. You seemed relatively fine until I asked if you knew who Francis was. I know he’s a director, but as your boyfriend out there told me, you’re not an actress and you’ve got nothing to do with that world, so why he sent your ex boyfriend from Sydney to try and win you back is still a mystery.” The cop said.
Seleah simply looked at him. She was saved by a nurse who had just walked onto her shift.
“My patient has had a traumatizing experience, please leave sir. You can talk to her later. Now she needs to rest.” The nurse said. The cop looked at her and frowned, he excused himself from the room. Seleah watched as the police talked to Lewis in the hall. She watched as Lewis looked at the cops leaving and then he looked at her, and followed behind them.
The nurse closed the door, and fluffed Seleah’s pillows. “I’ll make sure to keep your visits short, i know a patient with PTSD when i see one.” She said before leaving Seleah’s room.
Seleah was unaware she had PTSD. She sighed quietly to herself. “Death?”
Death didn’t answer her. Seleah cried quietly into her pillow before falling back to sleep.
She was awoken by a hand stroking her forehead. She slowly opened her eyes, and saw Lewis again, standing over her. She was sure worry lines were forming on his forehead.
“What are you doing back?” She croaked.
“I’m gonna come see you until you can be released. The police have been asking a lot of questions. Especially since Rylie has gone back to Sydney.” He said.
Seleah looked at him puzzled. She had no idea why her assailant sent her ex boyfriend to her, nor how he knew where she lived.
“Why did they call you when I fainted?” She asked.
Lewis shrugged. “I guess it has something to do with this.” He said, holding up her phone. Her home screen flashed on, and it was a picture Jo had taken of her and Lewis together in Aspen.
Seleah could feel herself blushing. “Oh.”
He sat down next to her and stretched his neck. “What’s going on?” He asked.
“Well Rylie-”
“Not with Rylie, with you? What’s going on in that head of yours, are you finally going to talk to me about what’s been bothering you lately?” He asked.
Seleah looked at Lewis’s hand holding hers. She thought about how he had become less of a socialite since he met her, and less like the person everyone else knew him to be.
“I noticed how you’ve been changing. You’re less social now, you spend so much time chasing after me. I’m nothing like the girls you’ve dated before, i’m not a model or actress or anybody of any kind of influence really, i’m not on the scale compared to your level 10 ex girlfriends. You drive a Porsche and go to premieres and red carpet releases. I am shy, weird, and a loner. So why the hell do you even like me? You can do better.” Seleah said, removing her hand from his.
He stared at her for a moment before responding. “You never stopped to think that that’s why i like you? Sure you’re different from my exes, but my relationship with you is different because my relationships with most of them were all…sexual. That’s it. I wasn’t dating most of them. They just clung to me because they wanted to, and I didn’t care. I care now.” He said leaning over to wipe a tear from her cheek.
Seleah didn’t respond right away, The tears started again. “I haven’t spoken to Death in a while. What if he’s gone? What if I somehow made him leave?” She cried.
Lewis looked at her and sighed, he had no answer to her. Dealing with entities was out of his wheelhouse. “Look, you’ll be released in a few days. We’ll talk some more then, but we have to do something about that houseboat. If Francis knows where you live, then you should assume he’s been following you. You’re staying with me. I don’t want to hear any complaining.” Lewis said, leaning over to give her a quick peck on the lips before heading towards the door.
“Bye.” Seleah said quietly, hearing commotion outside the door. Lewis looked back at her and bit his lip in concern before leaving.
Jo and Phil ignored the nurse and bombarded their way into Seleah’s hospital room. “Oh Why didn’t Lewis tell us you were here? That boy of mine.” Jo said.
“What’s going on with you?” Phil asked in his normal calm demeanor.
Seleah shrugged. “Fainted. That’s all.”
“That can’t be all, you’ve been here for 2 days.” Jo said.
Seleah shrugged again, she could punch Lewis for leaving her with his parents. Jo and Phil stayed for another few minutes before the nurse came to escort them out of her room. Seleah got up to use the bathroom, finally. Her legs didn’t ache like she thought they would.
She made it to the bathroom and sat on the cold tile floor.
“Death? Please answer me if you can.” She said sadly.
“Yes?” He answered quietly.
Seleah smiled as the tears threatened to spill. “You’re still with me. Thank Goodness.” She said, hugging herself tightly, and crying.
“I told you I wasn’t leaving.” Death said in a whisper.
Seleah used the bathroom and heard shuffling in her room. She didn’t hear a voice, so she wasn’t sure it was a nurse or doctor. She slowly cracked open the door to the bathroom, and peeked through the slit.
Francis was putting a vase of flowers on her nightstand. She felt a heavy ringing sensation in her ears. She watched him leave the room. She left the bathroom, and smashed the vase on the ground.
Nurses piled into the room,and saw Seleah sitting on the floor, rocking herself back and forth, crying. They pulled her from the floor and put her into bed. She hysterically fought with them until they restrained her.
Lewis came later, and saw a nurse sweeping the broken glass from the floor. “What the hell?” He said.
The nurse turned around and looked at him. “Someone left her flowers, she broke the vase, and then started fighting with her nurses. We had to sedate her. She’s pretty out of it.” The nurse said, putting the glass in the garbage can meant for sharp objects.
“Was it an older man?” he asked.
“No one saw him until he left. He won’t be allowed back in though.” The nurse said, wiping up the remaining water on the floor. She left Lewis standing by Seleah’s bedside.
It was obvious to him that Francis was trying to torment her. He grabbed Seleah’s phone off the table, and used her thumb to unlock it. He scrolled through her messages to find her old thread from Rylie. He used his phone to Dial Rylie’s number.
“Hello?” A voice with an Australian accent answered.
“Look, I’m gonna ask you this one question and I swear you better answer me, and I’ll know if you’re lying.” Lewis said.
“This is the asshole from the dock. What’d you want mate?”
“Why did Francis Taylor tell you to come to LA to see Seleah?” Lewis asked.
“He told me if i did he’d find a role for me. He didn’t keep his end of the bargain, Houses are expensive in sydney mate i-”
Lewis hung up. So Francis tricked Rylie into finding Seleah, but why? Lewis would be forced to end Seleah’s suffering for himself, if she mentally wasn’t strong enough yet, but he needed answers more than anything. Answers the police were looking for but wouldn’t be able to do anything with. There were plenty of celebs who got away with terrible things, simply because they had money. In Seleah’s case, Francis hadn’t actually committed any crimes in the US towards her. Sending her ex to see her isn’t illegal since Franics barely had to put any pressure on him to do it. Even so, all Rylie did was leave flowers. All Francis did was leave flowers in her hospital room.
Then it occured to him, how did Francis find out Seleah was in the hospital and which hospital she was in. It hit him. He bolted from her room, and back towards the elevator.
Pnce in his car, Lewis nearly floored the gas pedal. He arrived at his father’s studio. Unannounced he entered the busy studio. His father looked up from the director’s chair.
“Have you been talking to Francis about Seleah?”
“After dinner in Aspen yeah. He mentioned he wanted to put her in a movie.”
“Did you tell him where she lived?” Lewis asked, feeling himself getting incredibly angry.
“No. I don’t know where she lives. Why?” Phil asked.
Lewis excused himself and got back in his car. He saw his father come outside as he took off down the road.
He made his way back to Seleah’s hospital room, but her bed was empty. A nurse was making the bed.
“What-where is she?” He asked outloud. The nurse turned and looked at him.
“We don’t know. She took off after she woke up.”
Lewis felt exhausted suddenly. He sat outside the room, in an unoccupied chair. His head felt heavy. He had trouble keeping his eyes open.
“Don’t worry, you’re not dying.” The voice said.
Lewis felt himself transported away from his body. He was sitting in a chair, in a darkened office. The air around him felt thick. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.
“Look at me.” Death said.
Lewis looked up at the grumbling entity in front of him. Death sat across from him.
“She’s running. Running away. I can’t stop her. I’ve tried. She doesn’t trust herself. She doesn’t trust anyone but us. I need to know. If she can’t pull the trigger, can you? Will you keep the promise you made to her, all those weeks ago?” Death asked him.
“I don’t think she will kill him. I don’t think she really wants to. I think she just thinks he’ll get away with it.” Lewis answered honestly.
“He will. For reasons we’re both aware of.” Death said.
“It’s bullshit. But i’m not her. I don’t have death inside me. I can disappear and reappear in 2 different places. She has to kill him. I doubt i can get away with murder.”
“So i take it as a no then. You won’t do it.” Death said.
“We’ll figure something else out.” Lewis said, feeling like he was suffocating.
“No. We won’t.” Death said.
Lewis felt himself being pulled away from the office where he just was, and back into his own heavy body that was leaning off the chair. He stood up and felt a rush of air hit him.
“Fuck that was terrifying.” He said to himself. The nurse’s at the nurse’s station looked at him.
“Are you ok?” They asked from across the room.
He nodded, and made it way back towards the elevator to leave.
The metal doors quietly opened and he came face to face with the cop that called him.
“Just who i was looking for.” The cop said. “We can talk outside.”
Lewis and the cop made their way down to the lobby and out of the building.
The cop followed Lewis to his car in the garage and they stopped to talk.
“How does your girlfriend know Francis Taylor? Through her ex?” The cop asked.
“I’ll only talk to you off the record.” Lewis said quickly. He was running out of time to find Seleah.
The cop closed his book and clicked his pen. “Fine.”
“He raped her when she lived in Sydney. She came back here after she found out Rylie cheated on her and when she was packing to leave he… Francis was a neighbor in their building. I called Rylie and asked him why he came here to talk to a girl he proved he didn’t care about and he told me it was because Francis told him he’d give him a part in a movie if he did. I still don’t know what Francis wanted, or why he’s doing this to her, I still don’t know how he found where she lived and where she was in the hospital.” Lewis said.
The cop looked at him with surprise. “Uh…you have any evidence he did that to her or just…her word that he did?” The cop asked.
Lewis scoffed, “This conversation is over.” He said digging his key out of his pocket and getting into his car.
Lewis took off down the street and made his way to the dock. He ran to the end of the dock to Seleah’s slip. Her houseboat was gone.
Seleah sat in her seat on the plane, she was on the midnight plane to British Columbia. She had packed all her stuff from her houseboat that could legally make it onto a flight. The pilot had announced their arrival in the next few minutes. She was surprised that Death always managed to make things work out in her favor. She had the last first class seat to BC on the shortest flight time available.
Seleah pulled out her phone, and considered dumping it in the trash, but she knew that would be suspicious. The sun was bright when she landed in the morning. The airport was bustling with people, and she felt relieved. Her phone chimed in her pocket. She opened it and it was a text from Lewis. She had seen she had 5 missed calls from him.
“Where are you?” It said
Seleah felt an ache in her chest. Her heart was slowly breaking. She put her phone back in her pocket, and took off outside, where she got into a black cab.
“Where’s our new place?” She asked outloud.
“You’ll see.” Death said.
The drive from the airport was a long one, Seleah could feel her stomach eating itself.
“I’m hungry.” She muttered.
The driver of the cab pulled a salad from the bag on his seat that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and handed it to her.
She quietly thanked him, but he didn’t acknowledge her. Seleah ate her salad in peace and cleaned up after herself. The driver then handed her a bottle of water. This time she didn’t thank him.
“You’re learning.” Death mentioned.
Seleah smirked, pleased with herself. She was driven through this sleepy small mountain town, up to a residential area. A row of houses with matching green shutters and beige siding line one side of the street. The car stopped and she stepped out. The cabbie got out, released her luggage from the trunk and drove off.
“I…left my salad container in there…oh well.” She said.
“Welcome to Fernie, British Columbia. Local Population is less than 6 thousand people. Except in the winter when all the tourists come. This house is yours.”
“I don’t have keys.” Seleah said.
“Yes you do.” Death said. Seleah instictively put her hand on her pocket, she did have a key.
“One day you’re gonna need to explain how you do that.” She said, picking up her luggage and carrying it to the front door.
Seleah opened the door, and stepped onto the hardwood floors that matched the stairs.
“This is home?” She asked, relishing the beauty of her home.
“This is home. This is also…where it all will end.” Death stated.
Velveteen Wabbitt 