[October 23rd] [Perry Mason] Do the Words I Say Ever Make It Through?, 9

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: Do the Words I Say Ever Make It Through?, part 9
Day/Theme: October 23rd - Remembering what has been
Series: Perry Mason
Character/Pairing: Lieutenant Anderson
Rating: T/PG-13

Cross-posted to octoberwriting.


By Lucky_Ladybug


Andy’s nerves had been strained to the final straw.

Days had been passing with very little to no success. By now it was almost Halloween, and not only did neither he nor his loved ones have any idea how to get him back, there had continued to be no further communication between him and them.

He had never given up, although his attempts had grown much more resigned and discouraged. But he was indeed fading. If he lasted as long as Halloween, he thought grimly, it would be a miracle.

He was alive now; he fully realized that. But his life was being drained a little more with every passing second. He could feel the life and the energy leaving him. And he very seldom found anything for sustenance. He was so weakened and dizzy that he could barely stand, let alone walk.

Out of helpless necessity he spent most of his time resting. It was never very restful. Even when he managed to go to sleep, his dreams took up his living nightmare and forced it to stay on his mind. He continually started awake with wide eyes and a harsh, cold sweat.

What was it going to be like, to fade completely? Would he still have a physical body? It certainly didn’t do him much good on this plane, but he would far rather be with it than without it.

He sat up, looking around the living room with a start. He had been lying on the couch while the apartment’s resident was at work. And it hit him like an arrow—he did not remember whose apartment he was in.

There was a name, just on the tip of his tongue. Jimmy. . . . Was that it? Was that who he was staying with?

“Jimmy?” he choked out aloud. His voice was raspy and low, but the anguish was prevalent. Of course it was Jimmy, his cousin. How could he have forgotten that? He had always looked after Jimmy. Always. Jimmy was like his brother more than his cousin.

He leaned forward, digging his hands into his hair. What if this was what it meant to fade? That gradually, ever so slowly, his memories would be pulled from him as well as his life energy? Maybe he would die an amnesiac, sprawled on the ground with absolutely no idea of who he was or who cared about him.

Lieutenant Tragg had been drained of his life energy under Vivalene’s spell, but it had not been like that. He had only grown very weak and was always exhausted. But what if it would have progressed to Andy’s current state of mind if the spell had not been broken?

A shudder ran up his spine. Tragg and Jimmy and everyone else had banded together over the past days, struggling both to communicate with Andy and to research whatever kind of spell could possibly be causing him to appear dead. They were in as much or more of a panic than Andy. And the longer it dragged on with no answers coming to light, the more desolate and helpless they were becoming.

Jimmy and Mrs. Norden thoroughly refused to give up. Tragg, who had never been fully convinced of the truth of Andy’s plight, wasn’t sure what to think or do. But he continued to half-heartedly do what he could—although he was afraid that Andy really was dead and had merely lingered for a while before crossing over.

And according to their mysterious enemy, Andy wouldn’t even have the chance to do that when he died for real.

Andy was not a hysterical man by nature. He was calm, cool, and collected, often businesslike in his approach to police work. While amiable, he still kept most people at arm’s length.

It was his double Amory Fallon who was in general a more stressed man. And that only increased to catastrophic proportions whenever everything started going wrong.

Andy could fully understand how someone’s life falling apart around them could induce more and more stress, especially by this point. For him it was happening in a much different and more unreal way than it had for Amory, but every bit as horrifying and agonizing.

He trembled, looking up at the room with wild, flickering eyes. “I’m in Jimmy’s living room,” he told himself. “I’m in Jimmy’s apartment. Everything is going to be fine; I won’t forget. I’ll never forget.”

Maybe it would help him to think on past times, to cling to those memories in a desperate attempt to give himself hope and ward off any oncoming amnesia.

He and Jimmy had played astronauts and spaceships in their backyards, often late into the night.

He had decided to join the police force and Jimmy had wanted to follow in his footsteps and join too.

He had been so proud when Jimmy had graduated from the police academy. . . .

He had transferred to the central precinct and had met Lieutenant Tragg, a gruff old veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Tragg had not been receptive to Andy at first, believing that he had been sent there to replace him.

His mistake had been realized and they had grown so close. Tragg was a surrogate father to Andy now.

And Mrs. Norden, a surrogate mother.

Otto . . .

Her son, Andy’s friend.

Jimmy’s police partner, for one night, until he was brutally murdered at Wilson Plastics.

Andy had been so oblivious to Otto’s death until Tragg had sadly told him. There had been no sensation, no feeling at all that something was wrong.

Jimmy had been released from the force, suspected of robbery and later, of murder.

Andy had gone to Perry for help. . . .

He had feared that if it wasn’t Jimmy, it was Otto who had been involved. It had been set up that way, to implicate a policeman.

Jimmy had been exonerated. Otto too.

Jimmy had been restored to the force. . . .

He and Andy had spent so many happy hours together, talking, laughing, sharing meals. . . . Sometimes Tragg and Mrs. Norden had been there too.

Whose apartment was he in?

He screamed in anguish, slumping against the couch.

There was no way out. Not for him, never for him.

Not anymore.