This choice: Laura gets scared and runs away into the darkness. • Go Back...Chapter #7Laura gets scared and runs away into the darkness. by: Bikerider   "I can't stand this any more," Laura shouted and ran into the darkness of the woods.
Steven watched as the nigh swallowed Laura. He wasn't sure what he should do. The lights that had coalesced from many points of light into one large beacon was now undulating and shimmering. Steven wasn't sure if he should be afraid and run like Laura had, or just stand there and keep whatever it was from pursuing Laura. A moment later his mind was made up for him, as two small orbs of light broke away from the beacon and flew in the direction Laura had fled. Steven turned and took two quick steps to follow the lights, but suddenly a loud voice stopped him in mid-stride.
"Every thing will be alright,"
Steven slowly turned expecting to see the bright beacon of light, but instead, what he saw made his jaw drop open and his eyes bulge.
She stood before him, her dark eyes clouded by something Steven believed had to be drug related. Her long, curly dark hair fell down past her shoulders to the middle of her back in a riot of bouncing tendrils. Her thick lips formed a wide smile that revealed two rows of large, white teeth. Steven's eyes moved down from her face, as he continued to take in her form. The woman was a bit on the heavy side, and a long, loose-fitting, multi-colored dress hid her round hips and ample thighs. Her feet were clad in flat sandals that exposed her crimson-tipped toes, and a leather strap wound its way around her ankles and up her calves. She wore multiple gold hoops around both wrists that jingled when she moved her arms.
"Hi, baby," she said. "Where did you come from?"
"Where did I come fr...?" Steven blinked, swallowed, then blinked again. "This can't be. No, this is not possible."
"What's not possible, baby," the woman said in her sweet, smooth voice.
"Janis Joplin?" Steven ran both of his hands through his hair, pulling at the strands behind his head. "No, no, I'm seeing things. I'm hallucinating."
"Hallucinating?" the woman said. "Now you're talking my language. She smiled and looked around conspiratorially. "Just between you and me, baby," she turned and gazed at Steven, her eyes brightened by anticipation. "You got anything to share?"
Steven stared at the woman for a long second. His lips moved as if he was saying something, but no words came out of his mouth. He wiped his palm over his mouth, swallowed, blinked several times, then ran his tongue over his dry lips.
"Something..." he blinked. "Something to share?" He shook his head vigorously as if he could clear the image of the woman standing not three feet away. A woman who had been famous during the 60's. A woman who had captivated millions of people with her voice and with her crazy, unpredictable antics. A woman who had lived a wild life of abandonment of drugs and casual sex.
A woman who had died many years ago.
Steven looked back over his shoulder trying to find Laura, but the woman pulled his attention back to her with her words.
"Don't worry about her, baby," the Janis Joplin look alike said. "Just say, Bye, Bye, Baby, and then let my friends find your girl."
"She's not my girl," Steven said a little too quickly." He looked over his shoulder again. "And who are your friends who have gone looking for Laura?"
One is name Bobby McGee," she said. Her gaze, still unfocused, searched the darkness where Laura had disappeared. "The other one is my Big Brother. He owns a Holding Company, somewhere in Port Arthur in Texas."
Steven just stared at the woman, his mind racing in all directions. This woman, no, this visage, could not be a real person, and certainly not the dead Janis Joplin, he told himself.
When Steven didn't say anything, the woman's shoulders sagged as if she had become suddenly sad.
"You don't believe me, do you/" she asked.
"Don't believe you about what?" Steven asked. "You mean about you being Janis Joplin?"
"No," she said and smiled. "You didn't believe me when I told you that my brother owns a holding company in Texas." Her smile faded. "You think I'm lying to you, don'tcha?"
Steven's lips moved rapidly, but the only sounds coming out of his mouth were unintelligible animalistic grunts.
"What are you on, baby?" A wide smile returned to her face. "And do you have any left to share?"
"Any what?" Steven was finally able to put words together. "What am I on? Do I have any to share?" Steven shook his head again. "What the hell is going on here?"
"You seem to be having some kind of nervous breakdown, baby," the woman calling herself Janis Joplin said. She reached out and took a hunk of his cheek between her thumb and forefinger and pinched. "But I'll look after you. You'll be fine."
Steven touched his cheek where he had just been pinched. A red mark was beginning to take shape. "I'm not having a nervous breakdown," Steven said, his voice rising in volume, "I'll have you to know that--"
"Look!" The woman said. "Here comes you girl." She jutted her chin out. "I told you that you didn't have anything to worry about."
A sweaty Laura emerged from the darkness and walked slowly, tentatively, toward Steven. Behind her, two men followed.
When Laura reached Steven, she tucked herself behind him, her hands grasping his arms from behind.
"Why did you run off like that?" Steven asked Laura.
Laura's voice was edgy, nervous. "I just couldn't handle any more setbacks." She looked at the woman who had just been joined by the two men who had found her in the woods and convinced her to come back. "These people are weird."
"Do you know who they are, Laura?" Steven waited several seconds before adding, "Did they tell you their names?"
Laura pointed to the taller one, and said, "That one is Bobby McGee. At least that's who he says he is." She swung her arm to the other man standing there, and said, "And he has something to do with some kind of holding company in a place called Port Arthur in Texas." Laura let her arm drop to her side. "But to tell you the truth, Steven. I think they're all crazy."
"I heard that," said the woman who had introduced herself as Janis Joplin.
"Me too," said the guy so-called Bobby McGee. The other man, the one who owned the holding company stood there quietly, his eyes taking in Laura brazenly.
"What are you looking at?" Laura said when she felt his withering gaze moving over her body. "What are you, some kind of freak?"
"Yeah," the holding company guy said. "I am a freak. Want to freak out together sometime?"
"Groovy," Bobby McGee said. "We've only been here a short time and already we're putting a party together."
"Slow down, you guys," Joplin said. "It sounds like you got Trouble in Mind. And this guy," she pointed to Steven, "he looks like he's got Trouble in Mind. But I'm gonna try Just a Little Bit Harder to not be a Cry Baby. You know how I am, I Need a Man to Love. So Move Over while I search for my Mercedes Benz." The woman let out a long breath and said. "Somebody should name some songs after what I just said."
"Will everyone please stop this nonsense?" Steven said, his voice strong and authoritative. "We're still lost, Laura and I, and we need to get out of here."
"That's no problem, baby," the Joplin lady said. "I already have a plan to do just that. After all," she waved her hand indicating her and the two guys with her, "we came her to help you guys."
"So what's the plan?" Steven asked. "How do we get out of here?"
"Well, baby," Joplin said, "it's like this."
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