Waves

Part 24

The same unending curiosity that drove Eve to snoop for Christmas presents in hidden closets or look at Joe's wish on the Wishing Tree had a somewhat reckless dark side that sprung forth the second she registered the eyes peering back at her. Without another passing thought, she ran to fling open the motel room door and confronted the masked man.

"Hey! Stop right there!" she yelled out into the cold Erie air. The man turned around and ran into the parking lot, heading for a large van parked in the furthest corner away from the building. Eve sprinted after him, her bare feet assaulted by the bumpy gravel.

The man climbed into the van and started it, an ominous groan emitting from the engine. Eve froze for a second; her car was too far away for her to get to it in time to follow him and she didn't want to give him an opportunity to leave. Throwing caution to the wind, she stood in the path of the van, daring him to hit her.

He threw the van into gear and headed towards the exit, speeding up while he got closer. Eve's heart pounded waiting for him to stop or swerve; the headlights from the van temporarily disorienting her. The van was close enough that Eve could feel the head radiating off the transmission, and at the last second, Eve jumped out of the way, crashing onto the blacktop as the car barely missed her. 

She managed to catch the last few numbers of the license plate, repeating them to herself like a mantra. Her whole body was on fire and she went to wipe the sweat off her brow before realizing it was blood. Moving to get up, she screamed in pain as she slowly crawled to a standing position.

Eve quickly called 911 and breathlessly explained the situation. The operator said they'd dispatch help and she hung up so she could text Adam Schwartz to notify him of the incident at the motel. To her surprise, he responded immediately, asking for the address of her motel and saying he would head over.

Within minutes, an ambulance and two squad cars came blaring into the parking lot. Eve could only imagine how disheveled she looked in that moment; her nightgown torn and filthy from her fall, blood now running down her face.

The paramedics grabbed a warming blanket for her and immediately started evaluating her injuries while she gave the officers a rundown of what had happened. Detective Schwartz soon appeared, pushing past the small crowd that had walked out of their rooms to see what the commotion was.

"Are you okay?" Adam asked. "Yeah. Just a little shaken up," Eve replied. "She has a concussion and her hand is definitely broken. We've gotta transport her to the hospital," one of the paramedics piped up from the back of the ambulance.

"I'm fine, really. We've gotta find that guy," Eve insisted, wincing as she tried to shift on the gurney. "No, you need to be checked out. What did the car look like?" Adam pulled out a notepad, writing down a few notes while Eve gave her best description of the van.

"It was an old van, like an EconoLine or Astro. I couldn't make out the full plate but the partial had 'SJ4X'," Eve mumbled. "Wait—it was a van? What color?" Adam's eyes were wide as he stopped writing. "Red? Maybe maroon? Something like that." Eve's head was starting to throb and she noticed odd shapes floating in her eyes.

"Same description of the van that dumped Connie Banks off at the hospital," Adam grimaced, turning to one of the officers to give them instructions for the APB. Eve's blood ran cold at Adam's words; she'd forgotten about that detail regarding the night Connie reappeared. That meant someone wanted to get to her and was willing to go the distance in order to do so.

"I'm going to call my counterpart at Cincinnati PD to make sure there's a squad car outside your house," Adam said. "No need. There was a break in at my apartment earlier today. My boyfriend called to let me know," Eve groaned.