UNREAL ( A Suspense Filled Abduction Crime Thriller )

  Unreal

  A novel

  By

  Riley Moreno

  Copyright © 2014 Riley Moreno

  http://www.rileymoreno.com

  Cover art by Riley Moreno

  Smashwords Edition

  1

  Julie Edwards woke up with a smile on her face. After so many weeks of cramming for finals and subsisting on coffee and cold pizza, there was a sense of joy in the familiarity of the room in which she had almost come of age. Everything was as she had left it; the lavender curtains, the dresser littered with floral boxes and too many hairbrushes, the pictures tucked against the mirror of friendships, some maintained, some lost. Kim figured most prominently in the photographs. They had seen one another through Driver’s Ed, changes in majors, and the ugliest breakups. The latter was entirely Kim’s domain. Julie was shy by nature, and she had yet to meet him, the one from whom she desired more than a kiss. No matter. She had Kim. Her friend would be here soon enough.

  Then tomorrow would come.

  Julie stretched and settled her feet into her slippers. One floor down in the kitchen, she could already hear her mother clanging pots and pans. This was to be a grand sendoff for her little girl. Everything had to be perfect.

  She padded her away down the steps and ducked her head into the study. Greg was nowhere to be found. No doubt her mother had sent him off on a series of errands. Such a party required chips and soda and never-ending amounts of ice. Poor Greg. Barely five years after a blind date and a whirlwind romance, her mother got a well-deserved second chance with a captain of industry who saw to the needs of his girls, as he so affectionately referred to Julie and her mom. Greg got an instant family, but it wasn’t all roses and moonlight strolls. Julie’s mom saw to that.

  As expected, her mother was doing twelve things at once. Water was boiling in preparation of a pasta salad, vegetables were scattered about the counter in various states of chopped, and vanilla batter was ready to be poured into a cake pan. Julie leaned against the doorway, folded her arms, and made every effort to smile.

  “Mom?”

  Sharon Heller started at the sound of her daughter’s voice.

  “Sweetheart! You’re up early. Sleep well?”

  Every question that came out of Sharon’s mouth was laced with fear of the unknown. Julie had heard it on her first day of kindergarten, on prom night, and when she finally left the nest for college. Tomorrow that fear would reach epic proportions in anticipation. On the horizon was an escapade of which her mother did not particularly approve.

  Better to take her mind off it for the moment.

  “Fine, Mom. Need some help?”

  Sharon looked around the kitchen. To the naked eye the scene appeared chaotic, but Sharon knew where every ingredient was along with their intended platters.

  “I have everything under control,” Sharon said.

  Julie could have predicted that answer before she even asked the question.

  “Okay. Like some company?”

  Sharon smiled stiffly at the prospect of girl talk. Julie settled behind the breakfast bar as her mother poured her a cup of coffee.

  “Does the graduate take it black?” Sharon asked.

  “Still milk and three sugars,” Julie said through a blush. Sometimes, especially with her mother, she didn’t feel like a grown up. The diploma recently pressed into her hand was supposed to turn the tide, but Julie still looked and felt young whenever she stared in the mirror. Sharon’s presentation of super sweet coffee and a bowl of Fruit Loops did nothing to help matters.

  “So who’s all coming today?” Julie asked.

  “The usual. Beth and Dave. Max and Amy.”

  These were Greg’s friends. Julie only knew then in passing from the occasional weekend trip home. Like Greg, they were important men with stunning wives, and Julie knew that her mother always felt somewhat out of place with them. For Julie, the feeling was more than mutual.

  Thank God for Kim.

  “Should be fun,” Julie said.

  Sharon cracked the noodles and stirred the pot.

  “Absolutely. Everyone loves a party. You know, Beth is having us out to the Hamptons next weekend.”

  Julie sipped her coffee in between bites of cereal.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Now that is going to be a party! Beth is having the whole thing catered, and a little birdie told me that her handsome nephew will be there.”

  Julie had no idea who Beth’s nephew was or even if he was handsome, but she knew her mother well enough to see where this was going.

  “Mom…”

  Sharon popped the cake into the oven and licked a stray bit of batter from her fingers.

  “Why not, sweetheart? From what Beth says, he’s a very nice young man.”

  Sharon was hardly the product of another era. Julie didn’t have to settle down to be happy, but doing so soon and close to home seemed a safer bet than what Julie had planned.

  “Kim and I are leaving tomorrow, Mom.”

  Sharon reached across the bar and took hold of Julie’s wrist. So this was to be an encore of a performance of a familiar diatribe. She’d heard it ad nauseam since Kim and Julie hatched their little plan.

  “Julie, are you sure about this?”

  “We’ve been through all this---”

  “I know, I know. But it’s just… I mean… Greg said he’d pay for you two to take a cruise. Wouldn’t that… I mean wouldn’t that be… safer?”

  “Right, Mom. Because ships never sink and people never go overboard.”

  Sharon sniffed and turned back to her boiling pot. All of that and more could happen on the sea, but Sharon obviously liked the idea of her daughter in one place with itineraries galore to choose from. Two young girls hitting the open road with no real destination in mind, simply a desire to see the country before there was no choice but to be a grown up? It bothered Sharon. Julie had to wonder if there was a hint of jealousy in the concern.

  “Mom, come on. Don’t be like that.”

  “I’m not like anything.”

  Sharon kept her back to her daughter, but Julie could see the lines of all kinds of anxiety and regret through her faded gray tee. Making her worry so was never part of the plan. Julie finished her coffee and stepped away from the bar.

  “Mom, it’s going to be alright.”

  “Is it?”

  “Yes. Better than alright. Kim and I just want an adventure. It’s exciting. We’re probably going to see and do things that we can’t even imagine.”

  As soon as Sharon turned away from the stove, Julie realized that she had said the wrong thing.

  “I can,” Sharon said.

  “Mom, you watch too much Dateline---”

  “Don’t you know what could happen? You girls could breakdown, get stranded somewhere…”

  “We have iPhones.”

  “Lot of good if the battery dies.”

  “Car chargers, Mom. They’re the latest.”

  Sharon resumed cutting her vegetables. She brought the knife down with rapid, angry taps.

  “It’s Kim.”

  She was never Sharon’s first choice in a best friend. Kim was what Sharon classified as wild and unthinking. Julie had argued against this assumption for too many years to count, but the memory of the girls stumbling home drunk when they were supposed to be safely tucked away at grad night was something, among other things, that Sharon could not get past.

  “It’s not just Kim. I want to go, too. I’m excited, Mom. It’ll be fun.”

  “I thought you were so glad to be home.”

  “I am. Mom, it’s not for the
whole summer. Kim already has a job lined up, she has orientation---”

  “And maybe you should be focused on that, too.”

  Sharon was picking at a scab. Even Kim, normally enemy number one, could be held up as some kind of an example to follow if it stopped the girls’ plan in its tracks.

  “I’ll figure something out when we get back. I told you.”

  Sharon dropped the knife.

  “I... I guess so. It’ll just be better when this is over, little girl.”

  Julie lacked the conviction to argue Sharon’s last point as her mother kissed her head, and she cast her gaze on the clock.

  “I should… I should take a shower. Kim’ll be here soon.”

  Sharon went back to her vegetables as Julie trudged up the stairs.

  The water, as hot as she could stand it, cascaded down her body. Julie ran her hands over her head and leaned against the shower wall. She rubbed the mango body wash across her flesh with a sigh. Her mother wasn’t totally off base. This was Kim’s idea. She was the one who thought it would be fun to go where the day took them. If Julie was being honest with her friend or her mother, she’d admit that there was something scary about leaving the ordered world of home and school and everything she knew. But it was also too exhilarating an experience to pass up. Kim knew that she had agreed with the smallest bit of reluctance. Julie would keep that truth from her mother at all costs.

  She toweled her light brown hair dry and tied it back in a messy bun. As she walked back to her room, the doorbell rang. Julie raced down the steps to cut Sharon off at the pass.

  Too late.

  “Kim, so you’re an early bird now, too?”

  Kim appeared beyond confused until she caught sight of Julie at the foot of the stairs.

  “Times change, Mrs. Heller. Hey, Jules. What’s up?”

  Julie had never been happier to see anyone. She answered her friend with a mumble and a nod and started to pull her up the stairs.

  “Kim, breakfast?” Sharon asked.

  Bad idea. The invitation for coffee was just a ruse to launch into the third degree, and while Julie knew that Kim could more than hold her own with anyone, even her mother, she wanted to spare her friend the interrogation.

  “She’s good, Mom.”

  “Maybe you should let your friend answer the question.”

  Julie shot Kim a desperate look.

  Don’t make eye contact. It’s a trap. Just keep moving.

  Kim had known Julie and her mother long enough to take the hint.

  “All good here, Mrs. H.”

  Julie exhaled, and they hurried upstairs.

  “What’s the damage, Jules?” Kim asked once they were behind her closed door.

  “You know. She doesn’t want us to do this, she’s all freaked out…”

  “So same old Sharon, huh?”

  Julie flopped down on the bed.

  “You got it.”

  Kim fell beside her.

  “Christ. Guess Greg’s not doing it for her.”

  Julie reached for a pillow and playfully batted Kim’s leg.

  “Gross! I don’t want to think about that.”

  “Why not? Greg’s not so bad. He’s actually kind of cute.”

  “Kim!”

  “Not that I’m into that kind of thing.”

  Whether she was or wasn’t was beside the point.

  “We are not talking about my mom’s sex life.”

  Julie shot up and stepped into her walk-in closet to change. Even with Kim, she remained modest.

  “Okay. So let’s talk about yours.”

  Julie pulled her legs into a pair of jeans and slipped a floral blouse over her slender frame.

  “Nothing to talk about, Kimmy.”

  “I know. But maybe something on our trip will change all that.”

  Julie couldn’t help but roll her eyes. In between visiting national parks and historic landmarks, Kim hoped for a little summer loving on the road. Julie was not against this possibility, but the thought of it still scared her. Maybe she had waited too long to get her first time out of the way, and maybe she had built it up to something that needn’t be so terrifying. Kim’s advice was to just loosen up with a few drinks and not get so hung up how it might feel when Kim’s experiences had only ever been amazing.

  Or so she said.

  “We’ll see, Kimmy.”

  She fastened the locket her father had given her at age ten around her neck, and she touched it wistfully. Cracking the heart open, she saw the picture of her father hugging her close. Not long after she unwrapped the gift, he was struck down by a drunk in a Chevy. Just another excuse for Sharon to hold her back.

  “Jules? You okay?”

  Julie closed the heart and turned back to her friend with a smile.

  “I’m fine.”

  As Greg’s friends started to arrive, Julie kept her eyes on the window and waited for the man who was the source to make his return appearance. Julie did like Greg. He was never going to take her father’s place, and he laid no claim to the title. But at least her mom seemed to relax some whenever he was around. With her so wound up at the prospect to the trip, she needed Greg present for that purpose above all else.

  His car finally pulled into the drive, and Julie took a deep breath and Kim’s hands. They descended the steps to the party and were met with a group of smiling well-wishers whom she barely recognized. The strangers’ lips, already tinged with the first of what would probably be several cocktails before the day was out, met her face. Their congratulations were accompanied by cards that had to contain checks celebrating the accomplishment that was her degree. No gifts were produced for Kim, and the partygoers apologized for what struck them as a fatal faux pas. It was no skin off Kim’s nose, and she fixed herself a screwdriver. Julie was the one who truly needed a drink when her mother’s tense face forced a smile as conversation turned to the girls’ travel plans, but she needed to keep a cool head.

  Kim made small talk with the invited guests, and Julie abandoned the party for the patio. She fingered the locket again and thought of her father. The repeated sentiment in the wake of his death was that time would heal the wounds which were then still so fresh around her heart. All these years later, it was truth and fiction wrapped into one braid. Julie was able to focus on the day to day and cope with the pressure of her course load and even have fun with Kim and their other friends once projects were completed and turned in. Yet always and without fail, the memory of the man and the reality of how much she’d lost, and the many more things that they would never share, tugged at her soul. It was the latter that still had the power to send her towards a sadness that was unspeakable. In those moments, the only thing that Julie could do was rest upon the conviction that her father’s death was the worst thing that had and ever would happen to her. It seemed as if every person walking the earth had one supremely sad story, and while she wasn’t so naïve as to believe that the remaining roads in her life would be paved with nothing but rose petals, she managed to take some comfort in the fact she’d at least gotten her most awful tragedy out of the way. It didn’t completely stifle the pain of the loss, but it was something.

  Julie turned her head at the sound of the sliding glass door, and saw Greg, smiling, with two glasses in his hand.

  “There you are!” he beamed. “I got to keep my eye on you, Julie.”

  He offered her a drink. Julie sniffed the glass and shook her head at the scent of gin mixed with tonic.

  “Not having any?” he asked.

  “Not today.”

  “You sure?”

  “So sure. But thanks.”

  Greg downed the first glass in one gulp and proceeded to sip the drink he retrieved from her hand. He was handsome in a plastic game show host kind of way, and he had been good for her mother. When he first came into the picture, Kim warned Julie to be on the lookout for her new daddy. Her parents had divorced when Kim was seven, and her mother changed pretenders to the throne with like most
people clicked between TV channels. More than one of these posers had leered at Kim as she shot up and out, and the worst of the bunch even tried to feel her up during an Easter brunch. At that point Kim was strong enough to fend him off with a swift kick to the shins, and even her mother wasn’t self-absorbed enough to keep him around in service of her fragile ego.

  Despite Kim’s gross cautionary tale, Greg was never anything but a gentleman in her present, and Julie counted herself and her mother lucky to have chanced upon a decent guy.

  “So, you girls are really doing this,” he said.

  Julie groaned and rolled her eyes. He had to be here on another of her mother’s errands, and she waited for him to try to talk her out of the trip.

  “Leaving first thing tomorrow,” she said as she kept her eyes firmly planted on her feet.

  “Excited?” he asked.

  She slowly nodded.

  “And a little scared!” He playfully nudged her ribs, and Julie twisted away from him.

  “You, too?”

  “Me too what?”

  Julie let out a long sigh.

  “Come on, Greg. Where are your lines?”

  “What lines?”

  She finally looked up at him with a knowing stare and gave the imitation of Sharon that was the product of a lifetime.

  “It’s just so dangerous in that big, bad world, Julie. You’ll get stranded or lost and never ever ever find your way home.”

  Greg let out a long laugh.

  “Julie, those aren’t my lines.”

  “But she still wanted you to say it.”

  “The truth?”

  She nodded and waited for it.

  “Julie, I told your mom what I’m going to tell you. You’re a smart kid with a cell phone and a GPS at your disposal. This isn’t 1960 something. People take vacations every goddamned day.”

  That was a relief. Julie couldn’t take another lecture, and Greg was right. It was basically a drive on a longer than usual Sunday afternoon with stops to take in the sights along the way. Nothing bad was going to happen.

  “Thanks, Greg.”

  “Don’t mention it, Kid. When it’s all said and done, I think it’s going to be the best thing for all of us.”