Chapter Thirty-Six
Fate had thrown Ben for another loop. Bumping into Vanessa was indeed a strange coincidence — one of many as of late. There was reason behind it, that much he was sure of, but with two killer henchmen on his tail, he had no time to ponder the meaning.
“Ben, oh my gosh, I didn’t even realize it was you. How are you?”
“I’m good, well, not really…” he answered, in between deep breaths. “Look, Vanessa, it’s great running into you… I mean, not like that, but whatever… the point I’m trying to make is that I don’t really have time to chat with you right now,” he said, looking over his shoulder again.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Not really. I need a place to hide.”
Vanessa read his body language and knew he was being serious.
“Come on, I know a spot,” she said.
Together, they ran down the hall, turned a corner, and kept running. She led Ben to a storage room and attempted to input her four-digit code while Ben kept a watchful eye behind them.
“Dammit!” she said.
“What’s wrong?”
“My code , it’s not working for some reason. It’s the first time I’ve had to use it so maybe I memorized it wrong. Just give me a minute.”
“Vanessa, we don’t have a minute,” Ben said, looking down at the lock. He then cast his gaze up at the door and had a revelation. It only occurred to him at that moment that he had been there before. It was the very same storage room he and Kyle had used in the past.
“Try 4125!” Ben said.
“What?”
“Just do it!”
Vanessa entered the numbers and twisted the handle. The door opened and they both stepped inside. Once inside, Vanessa shut the door and locked it behind her.
“How did you know the code?” Vanessa asked in confusion.
“Don’t you want to know why we’re hiding first?”
“Sure, but start with the code.”
“I assure you the answer is not that intriguing,” Ben huffed, still out of breath. “My buddy Kyle is… or was a science major. He had access to this room. I saw him input his code a few times.”
“Of all the places I could have taken you, it happened to be a room you had been to before and you also happened to know the code. I find that pretty intriguing.”
“You don’t even know the half of it,” Ben mumbled. He took another deep breath.
“So tell me, what’s going on? Who or what is after you?”
“It’s a long story, but some very bad men are after me and they are trying to kill me.”
“Kill you!?” she blurted out.
“Shhh,” Ben said, gesturing for her to keep her voice down.
“Who’s trying to kill you?” she asked in an urgent whisper.
Ben deliberated for a moment on whether or not he should tell her everything. Ironically, it was the exact same spot where he had revealed the manuscript to Kyle. Now, fate had brought him back to the same location, and Ben took it as a good omen.
“Vanessa, I want to tell you something and it may be hard for you to believe me, especially for a scientific mind like yours.”
“Try me.”
“You remember the moment we met, right?”
“Vaguely.”
“I actually had a little help getting your number.”
“What do you mean?” she asked with a perplexed look on her face.
“You know the manuscript I was reading?”
“Yeah.”
“I told you I wrote it, but I didn’t actually write it. The truth is… that manuscript is not an ordinary manuscript, it’s very special. The pages are filled with remarkably accurate details of my life, and sometimes I can use that information in ways that will benefit me.”
“What are you saying?” Vanessa asked in disbelief.
“Here, let me show you.”
Ben crouched low, removed his backpack and took out the manuscript. He flipped through the dog-eared pages until he found the spot. “Read this,” he said as he shoved the manuscript in her hands.
Vanessa read the text with a furrowed brow. The prose described an event similar to the meeting that took place between her and Ben, but it was slightly different. When she was done, she handed it back to Ben.
“Vanessa, this is how I knew all those details about you. I wasn’t in your earth and ocean science class, nor was I in your English class. In fact, I don’t even go to this school. The reason why I didn’t look familiar to you was because you’ve never seen me before in your life.”
Not sure what to make of Ben’s story, she remained silent and processed the information she had just heard.
“Before you go and judge me, and call me a bad person, please let me at least explain where I was coming from. You see, it just so happened I was reading this text moments before I saw you. Then you walked by in your green coat and something compelled me to call out your name. I couldn’t resist the temptation to use what I had just read to try to get your number. It was stupid and I shouldn’t have done it, but I did. I’m sure you can understand how someone with an impulsive and weak character such as mine could do such a thing, right?”
“Ben, if what you’re saying is true, as unlikely as it sounds, you manipulated me.”
“Well, sort of. I manipulated the situation, you just happened to be in it. After all, it’s not like I influenced your thoughts or anything. I didn’t even know you would agree to go out with me.”
“Let’s agree that it was a little sneaky and leave it at that. I’m not upset with what you did.”
“One more thing I should mention is that I may have altered our destinies and inadvertently sent us down a course where we don’t belong. There may be some unforeseen consequences to my actions. That may be why our date didn’t go so smoothly. I think it was the universe’s way of self-correcting the situation.”
“Oh don’t be so silly. I don’t think it was the universe’s fault you spilled a drink on me. You were probably just really nervous. People spill drinks all the time, it doesn’t mean the world or universe is out to get them.”
“Either way, I’m really sorry about what happened, and I appreciate you being so cool about it.”
“And Ben, if the universe was working so hard to keep us apart, why did it bring us together again?”
“I don’t know. There are a lot of really strange things that have happened to me lately. I think it has something to do with this manuscript.”
“Tell me more about this manuscript. Where did it come from?”
“The origins and the author of it are unknown, but I found it in a secret room hidden behind a trap door in my fireplace. It was guarded in a vault-like room with a big steel door, which required a ten-digit passcode, that just so happened to be a number that was written on a piece of paper that was given to me by a nurse in the hospital when my apartment burnt down.”
“Wait, Ben, slow down,” she said, attempting to make sense of all the details, “let’s start over at the beginning. Your apartment burned down?”
“Yeah, last summer I awoke to a blaze and this old man was in my apartment and basically saved my life. Next thing I know I’m in a hospital and upon checking out, a nurse hands me a note, says someone left it for me.”
“Did she say who?”
“No, but I asked. She said her shift just started and she had no idea who the person was.”
“Weird.”
“Actually, it gets weirder,” Ben explained. “Less than an hour later I meet some random lady on the bus and she hands me the exact same note — something about my life having a purpose and her phone number, which bears a striking resemblance to the ten-digit number on the other note. I chalk it up to coincidence, stuff both notes in my back pocket, and never think about them again.
“While I’m at work, I receive another note — this time it’s from a process server who was hired by some law firm in Calgary. I go to their office and am put in
contact with the law firm. As it turns out, someone died and bequeathed their house to me. There was no note and no explanation, but I’m told I have to go to Calgary to sign some papers. I make my way to Calgary to sign the papers and literally seconds after I leave the lawyer’s office, I bump into my childhood friend, who was also my foster brother at one point during our adolescence. We had lost contact and hadn’t seen each other in years. He tells me he’s leaving town because he can’t afford to pay rent.
“Next thing I know, we’re living together. He starts working on his graduate degree and doing research at the university and is hardly ever home. I spend most of my time writing, but periodically throughout the day I’d take breaks to refresh my brain. I would visit the basement often because I had this strange feeling whenever I was down there. I don’t know what it was, it’s hard to explain, but it was like this nagging sensation. Something just didn’t sit right with me. After some investigation, I discover there’s a secret door in the fireplace, which leads to a locked door. The code for which was in my back pocket the whole time.”
“It’s certainly an incredible story, Ben.”
“But?”
“But, I just wonder how much of it is true?”
“Every single word of it, I swear.”
“This is some kind of joke, right? Did one of my sorority sisters put you up to this?”
“I know how this all must sound to you, but you have to believe me. I’m telling the truth.”
“As a scientist, I need more proof than just some elaborate story.”
“If you want proof, I can show you proof.”
“Who are these men that are after you? And show me what your book says about them.”
“I have no idea who they are,” Ben said as he bowed his head with regret. “And they’re not in the book.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. I think it might have to do with me altering my destiny. All the events I described and even bumping into you, I think they’re all connected somehow.”
“So tell me about these men. What did they do to you to cause you to run from them.”
“Last week, I was at my house when I heard a knock on the door. I peered through the viewer, but decided not to answer. The men standing on the other side of the door were huge, and didn’t look like that were there to borrow a cup of sugar. Next thing I know, the door is coming off its hinges and the two men are beating me to a pulp. My brother Kyle came to my aid and we managed to escape. As we were leaving, they pulled out guns and shot at us. We could hear the sounds of bullets whizzing by our heads.”
“That must have been really scary for you.”
“It was terrifying.”
“So then what did you guys do?”
“Given the options of fight or flight, we did the only thing we could do — we ran. We started hopping fences in backyards and then hid in some storage shed until we felt it was safe to come out.”
“So did you end up going back to your house?”
“Sort of. We actually went to our neighbour’s house. She’s an eighty year old woman who lives alone. We had met her a few times before and hoped she would allow us to stay with her given the circumstance. She welcomed us in with open arms, and I’ve been staying with her for the past week. I didn’t really want to go back there because if these guys found me at my house, they’ll definitely find me at hers. But I have nowhere else to go. Aside from my neighbour and my brother, you’re the only other person I know in the entire city.”
“You said someone died and left their house to you?”
“Yeah, I think it was my grandfather.”
“You think?”
“I was put into foster care as a baby and have bounced around different homes my whole life. I never knew my parents or any relatives, but upon reading the manuscript, it filled me in on a few details that I had forgotten. According to the story, my grandfather left me the house.”
“You mentioned you used the contents in the manuscript in ways that benefited you. Besides me, what else have you used it for?”