Page 70 of In Her Bed
“Watch your step,” Jake cautioned as they gazed down a narrow concrete stairwell.
Jenna took point, her service weapon drawn but held low as she descended.At the bottom of the stairs, they found themselves in a dark corridor.
“Which way?”Jake asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“This way,” she decided, heading to the right.
“Place is like a maze,” Jake observed as they turned yet another corner, finding themselves in an identical passageway.
A distant sound stopped them both mid-step.
“Did you hear that?”she whispered.
“Sounded like someone talking.”
Another sound reached them—faint but unmistakable.It was a voice, though too distant to make out the words.
“End of the hall, maybe?”Jake observed.
As they moved that way, the sounds became clearer—a man’s voice and a woman’s, though they couldn’t catch the words
Jenna felt a familiar prickling sensation at the back of her neck.Her intuition—the same sense that had guided her through countless investigations—told her not to call out.
“We need to move,” she whispered, urgency propelling her forward.“Now.”
***
Kevin held the audio cord in his hand, the familiar texture of the braided cable reassuring against his skin.In the pitch darkness of the old Astral Waves studio, he felt a sense of rightness, of destiny fulfilled.
He circled slowly around where he knew Diana stood frozen, enjoying the soft sound of her frightened breathing.She couldn’t see him, but he didn’t need to see her.He knew this room well.
He moved three steps clockwise, maintaining the circle he traced around her.The cord dangled from his hand.
“I was there when you told your listeners about the cosmic vibrations,” he told her.“About the messages hidden in radio waves.I believed you heard them, just like I heard bits and pieces.Everyone believed you.”
“That was a long time ago,” Diana said, her voice quavering.“It was just a radio persona, Kevin.Entertainment.”
The word ‘entertainment’ ignited something in Kevin’s brain, a flash of white-hot anger that momentarily blinded him even in the darkness.
“Entertainment?”he hissed.“Is that what you call it?People made life decisions based on your guidance.They trusted you!”
He stepped closer, his anger propelling him forward before he regained control and resumed his circling pattern.
“I trusted you,” he continued, softer now.“When I came to you and told you I could hear the message too, that I needed help understanding it—you turned me away.”
He explained, as if Diana had asked for clarification.“I’ve been trying to tune into it for years now.The others helped me get closer.But it’s still not clear enough.I need your help to tune it properly.You’re the only one who can do it.”
In the darkness, Diana’s breathing had accelerated.Kevin could almost taste her fear, metallic and sharp on his tongue.He moved closer, allowing the cord to sway from his hand like a pendulum.
“You’re going to help me tune the frequency.That’s why we’re here, where it all began.Where you first taught me to listen.”
A sound from beyond the studio—a metallic creak, faint but distinct—interrupted his monologue.Kevin froze, head tilted toward the door.
“What was that?”he whispered.
He strained to listen, suddenly acutely aware of the building around them—old, abandoned, full of shifting metal and settling concrete.But this had sounded different.Deliberate.
“Is someone here?”Diana asked, hope creeping into her voice.
