Episode 51: Explanations and Explosive Orbs

Aubrey Lance, S.S. (Supernatural Sleuth) -- Season 1, Episode 51: Explanations & Explosive Orbs

I looked at Chloe. “We know we need to get out. We’re trying to figure out how.” 

She hurried to her feet, her wide eyes still fixed on the orb. “No, I mean we have to get out of here now. That thing is not safe. I heard them say it was meant to capture energy, transfer it, then self-destruct.” 

I stared at her. “That’s not great. But we kind of already knew that.” 

“You did?” Chloe stared back at me.

Beside me, Collin nodded. “Yep. Some crazy woman told us, ‘Have fun exploding!’ then left us here.” 

Chloe’s eyes widened. “Wow.” She looked at me again. “How are you not panicking?” 

I met her gaze. “It’s been kind of a crazy few days. I think I’m desensitized.” 

She gave me a bewildered look, then nodded slowly. “Okay, then… So did this woman also mention how to get out of here? Or how to open this cell?” 

I shook my head. “I hoped you might have an idea.” 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “My father—” She sighed. “That’s a long story, but his weird bodyguards knocked me out back at Vorcos and I woke up in here. I don’t even know how I got in here.” 

“Well, we know how we got in,” Trenchcoat Man said. “We came in on our own accord. Getting out is still a problem, though.” 

I leaned toward Chloe. “Have you seen Emery here? Or heard anyone talk about her?” I knew it was a longshot, but I had to ask. 

Chloe stared at me. “No. Why?” 

I was disappointed, but I tried to hide it. 

“Wait,” Chloe said. “How would I have seen Emery? Are you saying Emery is still alive?” 

“We hope so,” my dad said from behind me. 

“We’re pretty sure she was kidnapped, like you, and may still be alive somewhere,” I said. 

She sat up straighter. “Really? That’s amazing! I mean—not so amazing if you can’t find her, but…” She looked at me. “Aubs, I’m so happy for you. That she might still be alive, that’s incredible.” 

“We’re… also pretty sure that your dad may be the one who took her,” I said as gently as I could. 

She looked confused, then upset. “Oh.” A look of shame entered her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s not your fault,” I said, and meant it. Chloe might be biologically related to that man, but the agitated feeling I’d had the whole time I interacted with the false Chloe was gone. This was the real Chloe. I knew it in my heart, just like I knew her—and she’d never have had anything to do with harming Emery.

“Anything you heard or can remember from your interactions with him or the people who work with him would be much appreciated,” Trenchcoat Man told Chloe. “We’re working from an information deficit.” 

Chloe nodded, then chewed her lip. “I don’t know that much, and I’m not sure what you already know.” She looked at me. “How much do you know about what happened between my dad and me?” 

“Not much,” I said, ”but we did meet your dad. He’s… crazy.” I offered that part gently, unsure of how she would feel about it. “And that crazy woman Collin mentioned… at first, she looked like you. We thought she was you.” 

“What?” Chloe spat. 

“She’s a shifter or something,” I explained. “We went to check out Vorcos, and the fake Chloe trapped us. I thought—” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. After that, she pretended to help us escape only to trap us again down here, then admitted she was actually your father’s right-hand person at Vorcos.” 

“After her face melted and she became not you,” Collin said with a shiver. 

Chloe gaped at him, and I fought back a shiver of my own. That woman’s transformation had been freaky. 

“Anyway, I think they’ve been watching us,” I told Chloe, “and they’ve been kidnapping supernaturals—including maybe Emery.”

Chloe looked sad. “I’m sorry, Aubrey.” 

“How did you even get involved with him?” Lockley asked Chloe. “You never knew your dad before this, right? Did he just show up out of nowhere and come find you?” 

Chloe sighed. “My supposed father made contact with me a few weeks ago.”

That wasn’t exactly what the fake Chloe had told us, but given she’d been trying to deceive us, that wasn’t surprising. 

“Your supposed father?” Lockley asked. “Is he not really your dad?” 

Chloe looked at her. “Genetically? He is. He had both of our DNA tested to prove it. But no true father acts this way. I may not have ever had one before, but I know that much.”

Her tone was colder than any I’d ever heard from Chloe.

I reached for her hand and squeezed it. 

She gave me an appreciative look and took a breath, then continued. 

“He was the one who convinced my mom to move to this town, back when they were first married. At some point, my parents separated. My mom wanted to work on things, but my dad didn’t, so he filed for divorce. He started a new business elsewhere, but also kept a location here. When my dad left her, Mom already had a job and friends in this town. She thought about moving back to her hometown, but she didn’t want to leave her community of support when she was pregnant. My father moved away pretty quickly, because of the new business he was starting. She lost contact with him after that. Neither of us knew where he was, or even if he was still alive. He didn’t even come to my birth.”

I squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry.” 

She just sniffed and nodded.

“That may have been when he established his first location of Vorcos,” Trenchcoat Man said. “Vorcos has been around for a long time, with multiple operation sites, but we didn’t realize what it truly was until recently. We now suspect it has something to do with a supernatural trafficking ring… or perhaps something even more sinister.” 

Chloe looked so sad about that news, and I hated what all this was doing to her. It might have been better to have never known her father, than to find out he was an absolute jerk, and maybe even evil. 

“It seems he’s only recently resumed operations in his location here,” Trenchcoat Man continued. “Did either he or your mom mention why it was so important for him and your mom to move here, initially? Or why he’s back here now?” 

Chloe nodded. “I think so. When he was explaining why he’d left, he said he had initially wanted to be in this town to keep an eye on supernatural activity. He said this city is some kind of a magical hub where supernaturals are drawn here magnetically, or something like that. I didn’t really understand a lot of what he was saying.”  

“He told you about supernaturals?” I asked, surprised. 

She frowned. “Yes, but not until after he had his goons snatch me from the ProScoop parking lot. It all sounded so crazy, at first.” She looked up at the orb. “Until I saw that. Now, I kind of believe him.” 

“So your dad’s men were the ones who took you?” I asked, then glanced at Trenchcoat Man. “How did no one see them?” 

“That’s a good question,” Trenchcoat Man said. He looked like he was pondering it. 

“I don’t know,” Chloe said. “I could see them.” She frowned again, then looked at me. “Aubrey, when he first made contact, he also asked me a lot of questions about you. At first, I had no idea why he wanted to know so much about you. I thought he was just interested in my friends...” She paused, looking embarrassed, but then her embarrassment shifted to a frightened expression. “Oh, no. How long have I been gone?”

“A few days?” I said. I wasn’t sure, anymore—things had gone so crazy, lately, that all my days had blended together.

The fear on her face shifted into a deep concern. “My mom must be so worried.”

“She is, sweetheart,” my mom said. “But we’ll get you back to her as soon as we can.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me your dad had contacted you, Chloe?” I asked. Honestly, I was a little hurt—I was supposed to be her best friend. 

“I didn’t even tell my mom,” she said. “He came by the house when she wasn’t home, told me who he was, and said he’d had a change of heart about not being in my life and wanted to make it up to me. He asked me not to tell my mom, yet… or anyone. He said he just wanted a chance to earn my trust back before everyone else tried to weigh in with their opinions, and that he was a prominent businessman in his field and he didn’t want the press to try stirring up any drama in the media about me or Mom. At first, I was just so excited to get to know him. He seemed genuine enough, if a little eccentric, and—” She looked down, blushing. “I’m so dumb. I guess I just really wanted it to be the truth.” 

My heart ached for her. “What did he want? Why do all this? Why take you?” 

“Like I said, he wanted to ask me lots of questions about you.” She sounded hurt and frustrated. “Turns out, he only cared about me because I was your friend.” 

My heart sank. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “I’m not upset with you, Aubrey. Just with him… and with myself. He kept asking questions about you every time we talked or met up for coffee or whatever, and eventually I got creeped out. I asked him if he was some kind of stalker, and he got really mad that I wouldn’t answer his questions. I got scared and told him I was going to tell my mom and even call the cops… but then he threatened my mom.”

She sighed. “The day that I was taken, I was planning to talk to my mom that night and tell her everything… and then I planned to call you and your parents and let them know, too, just in case he really was dangerous. I’d even thought about telling you that afternoon, at ProScoop, but you said you weren’t coming. I’d just arrived at the ProScoop, and was contemplating driving to your house to tell you anyway, when my dad’s men popped up out of nowhere and yanked open my car door and grabbed me.”  

Fake-Chloe’s version of events had been very different—not that I should be surprised.

My throat tightened. “I’m sorry, Chloe. I should’ve come to meet you.” 

She grabbed my hand and squeezed. “No. It’s not your fault. If you’d been there, who knows what might have happened to you, too.” She dropped my hand and sighed again. “I didn’t realize why my father wanted to know more about you, until I got the primer on all things supernatural after he locked me up in his creepy warehouse basement.” She stared at me in disbelief. “Do you really have magic?” 

“I guess so?” I said, then shrugged. “We think so. Apparently I have the gift of visions or dreamwalking or something?” 

“I mean, after all I’ve seen, I guess I can believe that,” Chloe said, though she still looked dumbfounded. 

“Not that I can do much with it yet,” I added. “Emery could. All those nightmares I was having—” 

Chloe gaped at me. “Those were from her?”

***

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