I'm the Last One That You'll Ever Remember

Chapter 42: Where Are My Friends?

This was too hard. This was too difficult. This was going to be too much for Frank to handle, but he knew he had to do it, if not for him, than for his friends…friends he hadn’t seen since he’d been kidnapped…

“W-Well we talked…about the things I-I’ve missed in s-school since I’d been…grounded.” Frank replied in soft pants, his breathing increasing along with his rising panic that came along with the painful memories. The tears that had filled his eyes were now dripping down his porcelain cheeks in large droplets. Margo pulled him tighter against her side as Frank Sr. placed a strong firm hand on his shoulder for added strength and support.

“You can do this, Frankie, you can do this. “Frank Sr. whispered to him in encouragement in hopes that it would give his son the power he needed to keep telling his story.

Frank nodded, and decided to continue on despite the many tears that constantly blurred his vision. “Ville…our friend Ville had to use the restroom and so he left to go into the w-woods. We continued on talking without him when we heard…we heard…” He shook his head as the memory came flooding back, but the people that were currently around him continued to push him on. “I-I don’t think I can do this, daddy.”

“I know, son. I can’t imagine how hard this is for you, but you must keep going! He’ll continue to walk these streets taking more victims if you don’t.” Frank Sr. desperately reminded him.

As much sense as that would make to anyone, it didn’t so much to Frank. He wasn’t sure why, but deep down inside he had this feeling that Poison wouldn’t do that to anyone else. In fact, it really wasn’t so much as a feeling than some kind of gut instinct, but either way, Frank didn’t think that was something he should say out loud, or more or less let the others figure out. “Y-You’re probably right, dad. I’m sorry.”

Frank Sr. nodded. “It’s quite alright, son.”

Detective Frost leaned over as Detective Drebin waited for Frank to continue on with his story. “You said you heard something after Mr. Valo went into the woods to relieve himself.”

Frank closed his eyes and let out a shaky sigh before reopening them. “Yes. It was a scream. W-We all heard it.”

“Did you know who was the one screaming?”

“Yeah, it sounded like our friend, Ville.” Frank revealed, continuing to speak despite the lump in his throat. “W-We weren’t sure what to think, I mean it was Halloween s-so it could have been trick b-but…Ville isn’t the type of person that would mess around like that with people, so then that’s when we all started to become a bit nervous. Then Ville came b-back but…he wasn’t…he didn’t look the same as when he l-left.”

“How so?”

Frank’s face scrunched up as he began to cry. “H-He had b-blood on him!”

Detective Frost raised a hand out to help calm Frank’s breathing. “It’s okay buddy, breathe slowly. Now do you know if the blood was his, or not?”

Frank shook his head as he wiped his tears and leaned against his mother. “N-No, I-I don’t.”

Detective Frost had no choice but to accept that and ask him another question. “What happened after he came back covered in blood?”

“H-He told us to run, but we…we didn’t w-want to leave him. We were scared. We just stood there when…” Frank cried as he struggled not to stammer his word too much. “…t-they came.”

“They? As in more than one?” Both of the Detectives were now literally sitting on the edge of their seats in suspense. “Who’s they, Frankie? Think really carefully, we need you to try and remember. What did these individuals look like? What color was their article of clothing, what was their race, it’s imperative we know, son!”

Frank shook his head as he struggled to remember the memories that fought to be called to the surface. “M-Masks…k-kn-knife…rainbow colors…men a-and women!”

The detectives could barely understand the poor boy, and had to keep their impatience from showing. “We don’t understand what you’re trying to tell us, Frankie. Are you trying to say there was more than and one person and that there were both men and women wearing masks with knives?”

Frank nodded through his tears, his body now shaking with sobs. He couldn’t do this anymore, it was becoming too difficult. The lump in his throat was trying to smother his words and he was literally drowning in his tears. Not to mention that deep inside his heart, Frank knew that he didn’t want to tell the two detectives anything more about what happened to him. He didn’t want to tell them the color of Poison’s hair, the paleness of his skin, his hazel green eyes, and his yellow mask. No, what he wanted to do was to tell them lies instead, about an Asian man with blonde hair, and brown eyes wearing a hockey mask and wielding gun as his weapon of choice…and that’s exactly what he did. “The man who took me was a Korean man with platinum blonde hair and brown eyes. He wore some transparent plastic mask to hide his face and was waving a gun around like a maniac!”

Everyone jumped in their chair at Frank’s quick outburst as they watched him drop his head into his hands and then slide his hands up to grab handfuls of his dark hair. Mr. and Mrs. Iero worked together to calm their son down while the detectives took that opportunity to look through their notes. When Frank was calmer, he leaned himself back against the couch due to his parents urging and tried to relax all the intense emotions that were spiking through him. His eyes darted to the notepads the detectives were flipping through and remained glued there for a long time until his own voice interrupted the soothing silence. “Where are they?”

Detective Frost looked up from his handwriting to raise a puzzled eyebrow at the young boy sitting across from him. “Pardon? Where is who?”

Frank’s eyes widened in shock at the same time tears began to blur his vision all over again. His heart was pounding violently inside his chest as he sat straight up in his seat. After all this time, the locations of his friends were still a mystery to him. He’s been back a week and hadn’t heard a thing about them. Poison said he had let them go alive to be found, so where were they and why hadn’t they contacted him. “My friends, the ones that were taken with me! Where are they? Wh-Why haven’t I seen them yet? Mom? Dad?” Frank desperately looked between both of his parents, searching for the answer but they were silently trying to keep themselves together. His eyes turned to the two detectives, who were both sharing a grim look. “WHERE ARE THEY?!”

Detective Drebin looked towards Frank’s parents, who both gave him a nod of their approval to tell their son the truth because they obviously couldn’t able to do it. Clearing his throat, Detective Drebin scooted himself forward in his seat to place his notepad on the coffee table between him and the grieving family and addressed the frantic boy. “Look, Frankie…we’ve been looking for months in different areas of the state to find you and your friends when we first got the call. It got to the point where people were telling us that it was time to look for your bodies instead because of the lack of evidence we couldn’t find at the scene of the crime that forced us into a dead end. Your families pushed us on and on to find you boys, and by God did we did our hardest. When we first found you, we were relieved to that we had a victim that had made it out alive, and were eager to talk with you once you were ready. Until then, we waited for another call that we prayed would notify us of another surviving victim…but we never got that call.”

Frank stared at him like he had a squid for a head. He couldn’t understand what they were trying to tell him, but he had the faintest idea of what it could be. “A-Are you saying…I’m…t-the only one out of the nine mi-missing boys to...m-make it out alive? You never f-found anyone else but me?”

The Detectives both nodded in response, that grim look still plaster on their faces. Frank looked over at his mother to see her trying to muffle her cries behind a handkerchief, and then to his father who was trying to blink away his own tears as he pressed his fist again his mouth. Any doubt that he might have had was now gone. The truth was not only told to him by two professional hard-working Detectives, but was also right there on his parent’s faces. With his chest quickly rising and falling, Frank exploded into sobs that came out sounding like howls. The pain he felt was so overbearing that Frank fell off the couch and onto the floor. His parents scrambled over to help him back up as the Detectives shot out of their chairs to also help if it was needed. Frank was lifted up into his father’s arms screaming repeatedly “WHERE ARE THEY!? WHERE ARE MY FRIENDS!”

Frank Sr. didn’t bother to excuse himself or his son from the Detective’s interrogation. Instead he hurried over to the stairs and took them two at a time with his son still screaming in his arms. Margo turned to the Detectives with tears in her eyes as she twisted her fingers anxiously. “I-I’m sorry Detectives, but…can we-”

Detective Drebin nodded. “Of course, Mrs. Iero. We can continue this another time. Please, go to him, we can let ourselves out just fine.”

Margo frantically nodded before running up the stairs where her son could still be heard screaming.