Cryptid Girl — Chapter 33

Copyright 2013

A Novel by Mystery Jones

Art by Terrill Chappell

18 Months Later

Paige sat down at a secluded table near the window in the visitation area at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women. She was nervous as hell and didn’t know what she was going to say. She hadn’t spoken to Lorna since “that night” and she had no idea what to expect.

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t purge the images of the Lorna’s sentencing hearing from her memory. She sat in the very back of the courtroom and watched as two corrections officers dragged Lorna into the room and stood her before the judge. Seeing her friend shackled to the hilt in her orange uniform was a harder blow than she’d expected. She closed her eyes for a moment, wishing that when she opened them everything would magically return to the way it was before Lorna’s life-shattering spelunking ordeal.

There was a mess of reports the judge had to take into consideration before handing Lorna her fate. Detectives Nelson and Walsh were dumbfounded. They grilled Lorna day after day demanding she tell them the truth. She did, but it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. Once their frustrations peaked, they gave up, asserting that Lorna must indeed be out of her mind.

Lorna had been through two psychological evaluations. One concluded that she was delusional and something unexplainable corrupted her brain causing her to act as she did. The other evaluation concluded that there was nothing wrong with Lorna and stated that the evaluator believed that she concocted the El Chupacabra story as a ploy to claim insanity. Lorna had undergone testing to make certain she didn’t have any tumors or abnormalities in her brain. The tests came back negative. And even though the judge didn’t get to see it, she was administered a lie detector test, which she passed with flying colors.

When the judge finally spoke, he took the death penalty off the table. Lorna admitted her guilt and complied with every examination asked of her, and he didn’t feel comfortable condemning a defendant who couldn’t be verified mentally stable. He said he wasn’t certain what to think about Lorna’s mental condition other than he truly believed something had gone haywire in her brain during her killing spree. However, he didn’t feel as though the reports he’d read suggested chronic mental illness, so he chose not to commit her to an institution for treatment and instead sentenced her to prison and pointed out that she would be able to receive mental health assistance there. When his gavel came down, he handed Lorna five life sentences, one for each of the victims she slaughtered.

There were no charges filed against Paige for shooting Lorna. Her self-defense claims held strong. The prosecutor was more concerned with securing her and Wes’ testimony against Lorna than messing around with any kind of gun charges against the hero who stopped the brutal murderer.

Paige shook her head, snapping back to the present. What would have happened if she’d told the truth about Lorna and El Chupacabra?

She watched as a line of inmates filed into the visiting area. Lorna was the last one through the door, and Paige watched as she scanned the room for her visitor.

Their eyes locked and a stunned look fell over Lorna’s face. Then a slight smile broke across her lips and she headed toward the table where Paige was sitting.

Paige took a long, hard look at her friend as she approached the table. Lorna was clad in the same white sneakers and baggy khaki brown uniform as the other inmates in the room. Her hair still spilled far below her shoulders but looked greasy and disheveled. She was wearing her glasses, and Paige noticed her eyes had regained their vibrant blue and her skin looked healthy and fair as it did before she fell under the influence of El Chupacabra.

“Hey blondie, what’s up?” Paige asked as Lorna sat down across from her.

Lorna stared at her and gave no response.

“I didn’t think they’d let me see you up close and personal like this,” Paige said. “I figured you’d be under…you know, high security.”

Lorna smirked. “Are you scared of me?”

“No…I mean…can you blame me for being a little leery?”

“Everyone here is leery of me.” Lorna sat back in her chair and folded her arms. “I was under psychological evaluation for the first eight weeks after I got here. I didn’t display any violent or disturbed behaviors, so the warden and the psych docs decided to okay me to be part of the general population.”

Paige nodded, nervous and uncertain what to say next. “So…how’s the cellmate situation?” she asked, desperate to lighten the mood.

Lorna squeezed the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. “I think you know her. Her name is Amanda Blake.”

“No way! You’re living with the little puke I did time with in the county jail?”

“I guess.”

“Small world, huh?” Paige replied.

An awkward silence passed between them. Paige knew what she needed to say, she just couldn’t gather enough courage to do it.

“Did you come all the way out here just to make small talk, Paige?” Lorna asked. “Why didn’t you answer the letter I wrote you? I hear nothing from you and now you just show up for a visit?”

Paige swallowed a lump of guilt. “I didn’t think you’d want to have contact with me after I stabbed you in the back like I did.”

“You obviously didn’t read my letter then, did you?”

It was true. Paige couldn’t bear to read it. She imagined the spectrum of things it could have said — Lorna hated her guts and wanted her to burn in hell, Lorna was taking a beating every day by her fellow prisoners, Lorna was depressed and wanted to die — the possibilities were endless. She’d filled out the visitor registration form Lorna had included in the envelope and sent it back to the prison. Just in case she ever built up the courage to face her friend. She tore the letter up and trashed it.

“I acted like a real jerk, okay?” Paige blurted. “I told a lot of lies about you and made everyone involved in your case think you were a complete whack job. I should have stood behind your story, backed you up. What I did was stupid and selfish, and I feel like the scum of the earth. I cared more about what happened to me than what happened to you. I’m sorry.”

Lorna stared back at her for a moment, her expression unreadable. She leaned forward in her chair. “You did act like a jerk. It broke my heart when my attorney told me about all the accusations you made against me. Especially when you said I was nuts like my mom.” Lorna shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I was guilty. You just helped the detectives make sense of it all.” She stared deep into Paige’s eyes. “If you would have read my letter you would know how truly sorry I am for what I did to you and Wes and that I’ve forgiven you for your lies and the knife planting.”

“You forgive me? Seriously?”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think things over,” Lorna replied. She paused and gazed out the grated window. “I had to take responsibility for everything I’d done.”

“But it wasn’t you, it was El Chupacabra! You’re going to spend the rest of your life in this dump for something you didn’t even know you were doing.”

Lorna gave no response.

“And what happened to the damn creature?” Paige continued. “You haven’t had a transformation since the night I shot you. If the creature was living in your brain, it should have shown up on one of your scans, right?”

“I got a letter from a man named Dr. Blake Patterson a couple months ago. He explained his theory and experiences regarding El Chupacabra,” Lorna replied. “He said that Wesley told him all about me and my situation. Blake asked if we could visit in person, so I sent him the paperwork. He was here just a couple weeks ago.”

“Blake left a message on Wes’ cell phone,” Paige said. “Said he was on his way to a medical conference and would make a point to stop and visit us. And you.”

“He talked to me about how he thinks El Chupacabra was a blood thirsty parasite living in my brain.” She stopped and took a deep breath, the glisten of tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. “The night I killed Jeannie was the last big dose of blood the parasite received. After I killed Mason, it wasn’t satisfied. I remember waking up in the middle of the night covered in blood, feeling fatigued, disoriented and this weird, insatiable hunger for blood. That’s when I realized it was me. I was El Chupacabra. I was the one doing the killing.

“Blake thinks the parasite died when I was bleeding out on Wes’ living room floor. It must have shrunk away and exited my body through my bloodstream, leaving no traces that it was ever there. After I went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital, that killed any chances for its survival. I guess it couldn’t handle all the trauma.”

Paige frowned. “If that’s true then how did the parasite survive the cave incident? You lost a lot of blood and almost died then, too. How was it able to pull through and set up shop in your brain?”

“I must have had enough blood left in me for it to survive.” Lorna shrugged. “Who knows? When I woke up in the hospital, I knew it was gone. I think God got rid of it.”

“What do you mean ‘God got rid of it’?”

“I think he took the parasite from my body. He’s the only reason I pulled through this awful mess.”

Paige didn’t buy into the God thing. Her brows furrowed. “Lorna. If God was really taking care of you, do you think you’d be in prison for the rest of your life?”

“I can’t tell you why things worked out the way they did. All I know is that I survived a terrible spelunking accident, being shot three times, and a couple crashes on the operating table. I have no explanation other than God must have been sustaining me.”

“Is this what incarceration has done to you? Turned you into a religious fruit loop?”

“No. It started in the hospital. I prayed…and God’s been showing me things.”

Paige folded her arms across her chest. “What things?”

“I’m dead without Christ in my life.”

“Oh my God…stop. That’s ridiculous. Do you know who you sound like? That freak-show sorority drop out Kelly Ozwald.”

“Funny you should mention Kelly,” Lorna said. “She visited me pretty regularly while I was in the county jail. It’s been less often since I’m way out here in York now, but she’s been here twice already to see me. She even bought me a Bible. Kelly has been a good support and friend to me.”

Paige’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t stand Kelly Ozwald. Kelly must have sunk her claws into Lorna during her time of vulnerability.

But Lorna was still alive and that was a miracle in itself. After all she’d been through, the girl ought to be dead. But she wasn’t. She didn’t even suffer from any permanent damage or disabilities. Maybe God did carry her through all the crap, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to admit it to Lorna.

“So, I suppose you and Kelly are besties now.”

Lorna raised an eyebrow. “Are you jealous of my friendship with Kelly?”

“No! Maybe… Look, I came here today to apologize and…” Paige let out a deep, exasperated sigh. “Restore our relationship. I miss you, okay? I don’t have any other close girlfriends that I can share personal stuff with. I miss having someone who I can tell anything and who sticks by me no matter how stupid, drunk, or loud-mouthed I get. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose my best friend to that Bible beating traitor Kelly Ozwald.”

A genuine smile broke across Lorna’s lips and the wall of awkwardness between them crumbled.

“So…are we cool again?” Paige asked. “You’re not going to trade me in for Kelly, are you?”

“Yes, Paige, we’re cool. And no, I won’t kick you to the curb. Even though it’s pretty tempting.”

Paige sneered and shook her head. “Smart ass.”

Lorna grinned.

“I have a peace offering,” Paige said as she picked two bottles of soda up off the floor. “The vending machine was out of Diet Pepsi. Sorry. I got you straight sugar instead.”

They each twisted the caps off their sodas and took a drink.

“How are things going for you and Wesley?” Lorna asked. “Are you two still together? Is he doing okay?”

“He’s doing great. The physical therapy did wonders for his shoulders. And as for us…” Paige smiled. “He asked me to marry him.”

“Paige, that’s fantastic!”

“I tried really hard not to, but I said yes. We’re flying to Vegas in two weeks to elope.”

“Elope?”

“Yeah. Wes just wants to be official. I never wanted a huge wedding anyway and since my maid of honor is doing life without parole, I figured what the hell. Let’s get hitched and have a party for everyone later.”

“I’m so happy for you two.”

Paige took another drink of her soda. “You know, after you were in jail and everything settled down at work, I got moved to Bob Collins’s unit. He reassigned all of your cases and I picked up the Dashel kids.”

Sadness flickered in Lorna’s eyes. “How are they?”

“Wonderful. The Graftons agreed to adopt them all and I closed the case. But I still call every now and then, just to check in on them. Erika’s doing much better in school, the boys are participating in all sorts of sports, and Riley…she’s a junior in high school now. She was pretty shocked and crushed when you confessed to committing those murders. It took her quite a while to work through it. She’s totally convinced your story about El Chupacabra is true and she’s been obsessed with finding the creature.” Paige grinned, then her expression fell serious. “She keeps asking me what really happened the night I shot you. I just tell her I can’t talk about it.”

Lorna nodded and seemed to understand that the truth about ‘that night’ could never be spoken of unless the conversation took place between those who experienced it.

Paige sighed and shook her head. “How are you dealing with all that’s happened? Be honest. Your reputation has been turned to crap. The newspaper and T.V. reports made you out to be a blood thirsty, deranged femme fatale. You’re stuck in this hole for the rest of your life. Yet you seem okay for the most part. How are you surviving?”

Lorna took a long swig of her soda. She set the bottle down and fiddled with the cap, spinning it around on the table. “It’s hard, but I manage. The prison makes me work in the laundry facility to keep me busy. Amanda is teaching me how to play all sorts of card games, and I’ve been playing a lot of basketball during rec time. My aunt has come to visit me, and she brought a bunch of books, so I read a lot. Kelly gave me a Bible, so I read it every day. And journal. That’s about it. The other lifers tell me that I’ll eventually get used to being here.”

“What do you journal about?”

“Well, whether or not I should join a prison gang, what kind of prison tattoo I should get, who I need to shank or beat up…stuff like that.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “You’re not funny.”

Lorna smiled.

“Journaling, huh?” Paige sat back in her chair and pondered an idea. “Hmmm… Since you’ve got some extra time on your hands, I think you should write a book.”

“Write a book? About what?”

“This whole crummy, supernatural experience. You could do a memoir. People would eat it up. We both know the public loves a bloody, murderous scandal.”

“I don’t think anyone would believe it’s a true story.”

“Then you could write it as fiction. I’ll even help you get it published.”

“I don’t know, Paige. I’m not sure I’m even capable of writing a book.”

“Come on, Lorna. I can picture the teaser on the back cover right now: A beautiful young blond goes on a dangerous spelunking expedition and comes face to face with a horrifying urban legend — the elusive, blood sucking, El Chupacabra.”

The End