episode 3: blind boys don’t cry
Tim Fallen, a 30-year-old hopeless romantic, discovers that the girl he is madly in love with went missing. Deep secrets are uncovered as he sets out to search for her. He not only discovers where she may be, but he discovers that he is one of ... The Followed.
The door closed quietly behind Tim, a scrawny, thirty-year-old with disheveled, curly black hair and glasses. He surveyed the dark and empty house from a stationary position. “Lily?” he called out.
No answer. He peaked outside but only saw his blue Ford Focus parked in Lily’s long driveway. Only two houses occupied Angels Lane - one was Lily’s and the other belonged to an older lady which Tim never met but knew about her from Lily’s rants about the lady’s cats which frequently invaded her front porch. It had been a while since Tim had been inside. There was a stillness and eeriness that Tim didn’t recall from his last visit. The smell of sex and stale cigarettes permeated the house. As Tim made his way closer to the living room, he saw twenty-four condom wrappers on the floor. He clenched his fists with anger and dropped down to his knees. Tim was fully aware of Lily’s stunt. He wasn’t ignorant of the recent uploads of her sexual escapades. However, seeing the aftermath up close allowed him to finally embrace the reality that Lily wasn’t his.
Crash! The sound of dishes falling to the floor startled him. He ran into the kitchen and discovered a lady, roughly in her mid-twenties, wearing blue jeans and a faded t-shirt. Her brown hair was tied in a messy bun, while she was sporting rubber blue gloves.
“Who are you?” Tim asked.
The lady was undeniably attractive and shapely. Her brown eyes arrested Tim’s attention.
“Sorry,” she replied. “Lily told me to clean up the house while she went away.”
Tim stood there, confused. “Where did she go?”
The lady found a broom and started to clean the broken plates. “Are you the boyfriend?”
He grabbed the dustpan and held it as the lady swept into it. “Well, yes and no,” Tim said.
The lady gestured over to the condoms and wrappers in the other room. “I would’ve never guessed she had a boyfriend.”
He waited till she was done sweeping the rest of the pieces. “Well, maybe I was an admirer who loved her.”
She smiled. “So, you were a stalker?” The lady grabbed the dustpan from him and went to empty it into the garbage. “It’s not good to follow people without their consent.”
Tim shamefully looked at the kitchen floor. “She’s everything to me.”
The lady moved closer toward him. “While ironically, she was nothing to them.”
Tim sat at the kitchen counter while staring into the living room.
The lady touched his hand. “Sometimes us women, have a funny way of showing affection. But it was clear that she loved you too … Tim.”
Tim didn’t remove her hand from his, but he stared at her, puzzled.
“She mentioned that a Tim would be worried sick and would probably come looking for her. I assume that’s you?” He nodded.
“She told me to give you this.” The lady extended her closed hands toward his. He reached out and realized that he was holding a positive pregnancy test. Tim furiously dropped the test.
He turned his back to the lady and began venting. “I tried to talk her out of it, but she told me that this would be her last stunt and then she would dedicate herself to me.”
Tim turned around only to discover that the lady was gone. There was quietness and stillness that was much more intense from the time he first arrived. That moment of silence was interrupted by a male’s voice coming from the living room. “Smile for the camera, Lily.”
The sound of Lily’s muffled moans seemingly reverberated against the walls. Then, Tim heard Lily speak. “Tim. Please don’t go. Wait for me.”
Suddenly, a loud thud came from upstairs, and Tim began to feel his heart pounding more. He heard the voice of the lady that he was previously speaking with, coming from upstairs.
“Tim, up here. Lily is waiting for you!”
He rushed up the stairs and saw the lady lying on Lily’s bed wearing red lingerie. “Do you know why I am here, Tim? I am not here to clean up Lily’s mess. I’m here to clean up yours.”
Tim couldn’t take his eyes off her radiant beauty.
“What did I do?” he asked.
She approached him and stroked her fingers through his hair. “Your love was what drove her away.”
Tim stared at her with a look of defeat.
“Why don’t you learn to give your love to someone who will appreciate it?” Her eyes locked onto him. He began walking toward her in a trance-like state. “Let me give you the love you deserve,” she said.
As Tim began to touch the lady’s shoulder, the sound of a man clearing his throat came from the corner of the room. “Well done, Sofia. Well done.”
Tim turned to see a man dressed in a black peacoat smoking a cigarette. “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
Sofia grinned. “You get to have your fun, why can’t I have mine?”
Tim grew flustered. “Who are you people? Where is Lily?”
The man in black looked at Sofia. “Should we tell him?”
Tim started panting heavily. “Tell him what?”
The man and Sofia both arose and simultaneously approached Tim. They started circling around him.
The man in black replied, “Heaven!”
Sofia responded, “Hell!”
While they continued to circle around Tim, they shouted conflicting words.
First, the man in black, then Sofia.
“Up!”
“Down!”
“Here!”
“There!”
Tim jolted toward the door, but it slammed shut before he was able to get a chance to escape. He turned around and saw Lily. “Here I am, Tim.”
Tim yelled. “Where is she?”
Suddenly, Tim heard the doorbell ring. In a cold sweat, he opened the bedroom door and ran downstairs. After opening the front door, he frantically scanned around the neighborhood, but didn’t see anybody.
Meow! He looked down and saw a merle-colored cat circling around his feet. Before he returned inside, he saw a pamphlet on the floor which read: “If you died today, do you know where you will go? Heaven or Hell? Written by Jack Hartwrong.”
Tim stepped over the pamphlet and stormed back inside. He searched for Sofia and the man in black. They weren’t anywhere in sight. After searching throughout the house, he heard familiar voices coming from the living room. Tim saw himself breaking down with tears with Lily consoling him.
“Oh poor, weak Tim. Get it together. Blind guys don’t cry.”
Tim stood by watching them. The crying version of Tim manifested back into the man in black and looked directly at the real Tim and spoke. “Today is where you become a man.”
Lily transformed back into Sofia and the man in black disappeared. Tim walked over to Sofia. “How about a kiss goodbye?” He grabbed Sofia by the hair and gave her a French kiss. Sofia spoke after regaining her composure. “Go find the girl you love, Tim.”
Sofia looked outside and watched Tim’s car reverse out of the driveway. Tim adjusted his mirror and looked at himself. “It was preacher Hartwrong that killed your girl. Go show the world how much you loved her.”
THE END