The trio rode back to their cars and loaded up their gear, Tony pulled some spare clothes from his truck and gave them to Levi. “Thanks, so how long have I been gone?” Levi asked, he already had a suspicion that it was going to have been 66 days.
Tony answered first “About 2 months, long enough for almost all the snow to melt away.”
“66 days to be exact.” Alice added. “Everyone else thought you were dead. But I knew there was no way, and you’d find a way to get out, so now that you’re not naked, can you tell us everything that happened?”
Levi looked away “Is it okay if we talk about this after getting some food?” his expression grew a little darker. He didn’t know what he was going to tell them because he knew that he couldn’t tell them the truth.
Alice hugged Levi again “Yeah that’s fine, I’m just happy you’re back.”
While Alice was overjoyed at Levi’s return, Tony couldn’t help but feel a mix of disappointment and jealousy at how Alice was towards Levi. Seeing her with him now had all but destroyed any hope he had of being anything more with her.
Tony loaded up the last of his gear “I’ll give you 2 some time alone, but tomorrow would you mind coming into the station to go over everything. We’ll pretty much need to bring you back from the dead in the eyes with all the paperwork that needs to get done.”
“Sure, I’ll be there around noon.” Levi replied.
Tony opened the door to his car and was about to get in.
“Hey Tony.” Levi stopped him before he left.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. I get why Alice kept looking, but you had plenty of reasons to write me off like everyone else and you didn’t. You’re a good guy and sorry about what happened at the diner.”
Tony was caught off guard by Levi’s sincerity “No problem, I was just doing the right thing and the stuff that happened before is history. I guess you’re not as bad as everyone says you are, especially if someone like Alice loves you so much.” Tony’s jealousy was now the last thing he cared about; he was just happy that he was able to help bring Levi back.
Alice blushed at Tony’s words and Levi was thrown off too, Tony just smiled and got into his truck then drove off.
Alice and Levi stood outside her car in silence for a moment before either spoke and then they both tried to speak at the same time.
“Sorry, you can talk.” Alice couldn’t stop smiling, she was just so happy to have finally found him.
“Are you sure?” Levi asked.
“Yeah, you go first.” Alice insisted.
“Well, is that true?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it. I do know that I wouldn’t have spent all this time and effort looking for just anyone though.”
“Were you really out here every day?”
“Yes, every chance I could. I was out here with Tony looking for you.” Alice was a little embarrassed to admit it.
Levi was at a loss for words because in all his time held captive in the past, he had no one that was looking for him and when he woke up this time, he didn’t think anyone was looking either. “Thank you.” No words could encompass how grateful Levi was to have Alice in his life.
Alice couldn’t think of any words that would display how she was feeling. She did the one thing that could convey what words couldn’t and kissed him. Levi was shocked, he'd never kissed a girl or been intimate with anyone before. Alice opened her eyes and saw Levi’s eyes were wide open and filled with shock. She pulled away “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so forward. I’ve just been wanting to do that for a while, and I didn’t know if I would ever actually see you again. Sorry I’m talking a lot. I do that when I get nervous.”
Levi smiled “No you’re fine, well more than fine. It’s just that I’ve never… well done that before.”
Alice was shocked “Wow that’s surprising. You’ve really never kissed a girl before?”
Levi felt a bit embarrassed at having admit that “Well not that I can remember at least cause of the whole memory loss thing.”
Alice kissed him again and this time Levi closed his eyes and kissed her back. She pulled away “Alright let’s get you cleaned up now, it’s like I’m kissing a fireplace.” She joked.
“A shower does sound nice right now. I take it I no longer have a place to live considering everyone else was thinking I was kidnapped and brutally murdered.”
“Yup, luckily for you I had them box up your things and moved into my garage. It was pretty easy; it was pretty much just 2 boxes with clothes, and I still can’t believe that you were sleeping in a hammock.”
“What? It’s way cheaper than getting a bed.”
“I did throw out that old recliner though, that thing was on the verge of ruin.”
“But Alex gave me that.” Levi was a bit sad at knowing he wouldn’t get to go home and relax in his chair after all this.,
“Well, it’s gone now and while you look for a new place, you can stay with me.”
“That sounds good to me.” Levi went in for another kiss, but Alice stopped him.
“Let’s get you cleaned up first.” Alice wanted to kiss him back, but he wasn’t exactly the cleanest person right now.
“That’s fair, then let’s get going.” Levi was ecstatic at the idea of taking a nice long hot shower then spending the rest of the day relaxing with Alice.
After returning home with Alice, Levi went into the garage and found a fresh set of his clothes to wear and took a shower. While he was getting cleaned up, she started making food for the both of them. But she was interrupted by someone knocking on her door.
Alice turned off the stove and put a pause on the chicken tacos she was making for them to see who was at the door. She looked through the peephole and who she saw gave her quite a surprise. ‘What’s my mom doing here?’ she thought to herself and opened the door.
“Surprise!” Mrs. Arlington exclaimed as she hugged her daughter.
“Mom, what are you doing here? Not that I’m not happy to see you. This is just a little out of nowhere.” Alice asked her mother.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Lexi, does a mom need a reason to visit her daughter?”
Alice looked behind her and heard the shower turn off. “Mom, it’s Alice now. I changed my name to get away from all that and start over, so please don’t call me that here. I don’t need anyone finding out about everything.”
Mrs. Arlington rolled her eyes and kept hugging her daughter “Okay, I’ll be more careful Alice. But do I hear someone else in the house?”
“Remember how I was telling you about Levi?” Alice didn’t tell her the whole story of Levi’s kidnapping because she didn’t want her mom to try and use the situation as a reason to drag her back to her hometown.
“Your friend who got taken?” Mrs. Arlington recalled her daughter bringing up the topic about a month ago when she called to check on her.
“Well, they found him today, but since he was presumed dead, they rented out his place and he’s staying with me.” Alice realized how ridiculous this sounded as she said it.
“Oh my, that is certainly a lot.” Mrs. Arlington commented.
Levi came around the corner, his hair back to its almost white color and his skin no longer covered in grime. He wore a blue flannel shirt and black jeans.
“There’s of the man of the hour!” Mrs. Arlington shouted and rushed through the door past Alice to greet Levi.
“Um, nice to meet you too. I’m Levi.” Levi put his hand out for her to shake and she hugged him instead.
“I’m Mrs. Arlington, but please call me Ness. Lexi here is my daughter.”
“Mom!” Alice shouted in disbelief that she carelessly used the wrong name again and to make it worse she even did it in front of Levi.
“Lexi?” Levi muttered to himself. He recalled that was the name Alice originally put in her phone.
“Oops, sorry. Old habits die hard. You might as well explain the mix up now.” Her mother said that in such an upbeat tone that Alice questioned if ahead was doing this on purpose.
Alice went and grabbed her mom’s arm and started bringing her towards the door. “Thanks mom, I kind of have to now. But that’s a conversation you don’t need to be a part of.”
Mrs. Arlington got her car keys out and made her way out the door “When you 2 lovebirds finish that conversation, give me a call and we’ll get dinner because I have some news to share that I came all this way for.”
“I will, I love you but I kind of have a lot to deal with now thanks to you.” Alice said as she closed the door behind her mother.
Alice turned around and saw Levi still standing in the same spot with an entertained look on his face. “Want to tell me what that was all about, Lexi?” Levi emphasized the name when he said it.
The look on Alice’s face was filled with worry as she told Levi to take a seat beside her on the couch. “I will, but after you tell me what happened to you. I mean what the hell Levi, you’re taken to God knows where for 2 months and show up perfectly fine. A little gross, but uninjured overall in good health.”
Levi rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and tried to figure out a believable story.
“And don’t you try and tell me that you lost your memory again and I heard the man call you Leviathan that night. Why’d he do that and why’d he take you?”
“You heard all that? I thought you were asleep still.”
“Nope, I was faking until I had an opportunity to go get my gun.”
That’s when Levi realized it was Alice who shot Tyrese that night, he only remembered smelling blood through the back seat when he woke up in the trunk but had no idea how Tyrese got so injured. “Wait, so you were the one that shot him?”
“Yeah, and by the lack of your urgency when we found you in the woods, I can only surmise that he’s dead now.”
“Yeah, he was pretty banged up. But I was the one who killed him.”
“How?” Alice was surprised at how casually Levi just admitted to murder.
“He was strangling me and there was a fire, he didn’t make it. The fire burned my clothes, that’s why I was naked when you found me.”
“Where was the fire at, when was it? We didn’t see any smoke at any time when we searched for you.”
“I don’t know, I was wandering through the forest aimlessly for hours before you found me.” Levi avoiding looking her in the eyes as he answered and fidgeted in his seat.
“Where were you held and for how long, also how did the fire burn your clothes but not you?”
Levi remained silent.
Alice was unrelenting in her questions, she wanted to know why Levi was being so dodgy while answering and just not telling the full story. She took his hand and looked him in the eyes “Levi, if you really care about me and want me to be honest with you, you have to be honest with me.”
Levi thought about what he should do, and he could only think of one course of action to get Alice to believe the stories he was about to tell. He stood up and went into the kitchen then grabbed a knife.
“What are you doing, Levi?” Alice’s tone was full of concern.
Levi rolled up his sleeve “Don’t freak out and just watch.”
“Watch what?” Her concern was growing.
Levi slit his wrist with the knife and grit his teeth. Alice rushed over and grabbed a towel; she was in disbelief at what Levi just did. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Levi winced as she squeezed the towel to apply pressure in hopes to stop the bleeding. “Do you trust me?” he asked.
“I did, but now I’m seriously questioning my judgment.”
He removed her hand and held the towel himself. “Then let’s go watch TV for the next 10 minutes and you’ll get why I just did that.”
“No! Are you crazy? We need to get you to the hospital, that looked deep and that’s a lot of blood.” She tried pulling him to the door, but Levi wasn’t budging.
“10 minutes. Then if you still want to, we can go to the hospital.”
Alice saw that there was no way she was getting Levi out that door unless he wanted to. She let out an annoyed groan “Fine, but you can spend those 10 minutes with your arm over the sink. I’m not having you get blood all over my floors and furniture.”
Levi chuckled “That’s good with me.”
Alice impatiently sat at the table and watched Levi hold his blood-soaked arm wrapped in an equally bloodied towel over the sink. She anxiously counted down the seconds while shaking her leg. “This is ridiculous.” There was still 2 minutes remaining.
“Don’t worry, it’s about to get even more ridiculous.” Levi removed the towel from his arm and sat it on the counter beside him.
Alice jumped out of her seat “What are you doing? Keep applying pressure, I don’t need you bleeding to death after I just got you back!”
Levi turned the sink on and washed off the copious amounts of dried blood from his arm. “Just wait.” As he scrubbed the blood away, Alice saw that the wound had miraculously healed.
“How did you do that?” She asked and rushed over to examine Levi’s arm that not even 10 minutes ago had an 8-inch vertical slash running through it.
“This is going to be a long story, so let’s get comfy.” Levi moved towards the couch and sat down; Alice followed. “This is all going to sound… well I don’t know how it’s going to sound. I’ve never talked about my life with anyone before. But I never imagined it going over well. I’m hoping after what I just showed you, you’ll be a bit more inclined to believe me.”
Alice was still in awe and from what Levi was saying, things were about to get even more unbelievable. “Wait, so you don’t have amnesia?”
“Nope, that is very much true. But the past 4 years I remember very vividly.”
“I’m listening and I promise I’ll be as understanding as I can.”
Levi recounted his years of torture. The pain he had to suffer through, the psychotic experiments, the cult leader who moon lighted as a mad doctor, and most recently about his unfortunate demise during the kidnapping.
“Holy. Crap.” Alice was trying her best to compartmentalize and grasp everything she just heard.
“You don’t believe me.” Levi ran his fingers through his hair.
“I believe you, that’s the problem. I believe every word you just told me. It’s just… wow.”
“Yeah, it’s all not pretty great. But that’s my life, well what I can remember at least.”
“You really can’t die?” It sounded even crazier when she says it out loud.
“Unless you cut my head off, that’s what I was told anyway. I don’t really feel like finding that out though. Otherwise, it’s a 66-day nap for me.”
“It’s definitely something I wouldn’t recommend testing out. But this whole time we’ve been looking for you, you’ve been dead.”
Levi sheepishly smiled “Very much so. Just kind of rotting on the ground.”
“I’m so sorry.” She took Levi’s hand and kissed it.
Having someone say that made Levi’s pain finally feel recognized and understood. “It is what it is.”
“But you did leave out one big part, how did you escape that cult?” Alice asked, feeling like Levi was skipping a very big part of the story.
Levi fake laughed, “That’s the neat part, I didn’t.” His words confused Alice, but he was about to paint a very clear picture of the conflict that led to his freedom.