Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 16:30:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill Tandy <mailliw110@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Camera Series, Chapter 14

"911 emergency." He operator said.

"Yes, I need an ambulance to come to the warehouse by the dock." I told the
operator.

"What is the address?" She asked me.

"The address...1191 NW Front St." I said after Peter told me.

I proceeded to tell the operator what was wrong and who the patient was,
and any other questions she had. It wasn't too long before we heard the
sirens coming. I went out to my truck to show the paramedics where to
go. They got to work right away. I did have to get Peter away from Bobby so
they could work.

"Are you the one who called this in?" A police officer asked as he walked
up to me.

"Yeah..." I answered him. Peter and I were still watching the work being
done to Bobby.

"Let's move over here so we can talk." The officer told me. We went a few
feet away. After getting my name and home info, he started to question
me. "So how do you know the boy?" He started asking me.

"He's one of the neighborhood boys. Peter is his best friend." I said. The
officer wanted to know how we knew Bobby would be here. "Well, Peter knew
that Bobby liked to skateboard down here sometimes. So we came here and
found him over there." I pointed. "I thought he had hurt himself
skateboarding." I added.

"This looks more like a beating then an accident on a skateboard." The
officer said. I agreed with him. "Any idea who would do this?" He asked
me. I told him I had no idea. That was a lie. I definitely thought it was
his stepfather or Brian.

As soon as I get back to my computer, I will find out for sure who did this
to Bobby.

By this time, the medics had Bobby on the gurney and were heading to the
ambulance. Peter was right by his side the whole time.

I asked the medics how Bobby was doing. "He's got some broken ribs and a
concussion, plus possible internal bleeding." The medic told me as they got
him in the ambulance.

Peter wanted to go with Bobby, but the medics wouldn't allow it.

"We'll go in the truck, Peter." I told him. I could tell Peter was barely
holding it together. I also told the officer that he could ask me more
questions at the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, Peter was on the phone, first to Bobby's house
to tell his mom, then to his house to tell his family. By that time, we had
arrived at the hospital. Before I had the truck stopped Peter was out and
running through the emergency doors.

By the time I got into the emergency room, I could hear Peter yelling.

"He's my best friend...I want to go see him!" Peter was yelling. I saw him
yelling at the nurse. I also saw a security guard start to walk over to
Peter and the nurse. I needed to get to Peter and calm him down before the
boy is arrested.

"Peter!" I shouted at him to get his attention as I approached. "Peter,
calm down. We are going to have to wait here. Let the hospital do its
job. They will let us know what's happening to Bobby soon." I tried to tell
him.

I had to shake him by the shoulders to get him to understand. He did stop
the yelling, and then he collapsed into me and started crying. I got him
over to a corner of the room where he continued to cry.

Peter had about calmed down when his family showed up. By the time he was
finished telling what had happened, and crying most of the way through,
Bobby's mom and stepdad came in.

To say that Peter was happy to see Bobby's stepdad would be far from the
truth.

"YOU! YOU DID THIS TO BOBBY!!" Peter screamed at the stepdad.

"Stay away from me you fuckin faggot!" The man yelled back. He started to
push Peter. "If you would have left him alone he would be..." He didn't get
a chance to finish before he was punched in the face. Not by Peter, but by
Peter's dad, David.

"Nobody touches my son!" He yelled down at the crumpled stepdad.

Unfortunately for David, he was soon on the floor and in handcuffs.

After everyone had calmed down, and the asshole stepdad was taken away to
have his possible broken nose fixed, I told Mary that I would take care of
David being arrested. She was understandably upset as she went to the
police station.

That left Bobby's mom, Peter, his brother Jacob and me waiting for news
from the doctors.

It didn't take long for news, and it wasn't very good either.

"Mrs. Mercer, first thing is that your son is alive." The doctor started
saying. "That being said, he is not in good shape. His left arm is broken
along with his left leg. He has three broken ribs and a collapsed lung. We
were able to inflate the lung. He has a concussion and because of that, we
are keeping him in a drug-induced coma to keep the brain from swelling. He
lost a bit of blood and because of that and the concussion we are not sure
of any brain damage." The doctor finally finished and then went back into
the emergency room. He did say that Bobby would be in intensive care
shortly and we could see him soon.

I didn't feel that there was anything I could do right now. I also was
anxious to see what I could find out from my computer.

"Peter, I don't see us helping anymore here. Would you like to stay or come
with me? I want to look on the computer and see if I can learn anything." I
told him.

"I would like to see Bobby first, if it's ok." Peter said.

We were finally told we could see him in another fifteen minutes. It was
very hard to see Bobby with all the tubes and wires all over him. His arm
and leg were bandaged along with his head.

"We're here for you Bobby." Peter managed to get out before he started to
tear up again and we left the room.

As we left the hospital, I thought I saw Brian in the shadows, but when I
looked again he was gone.

The drive home was a very quiet drive. Peter would mutter something every
once in a while, then pound the dash gently. I did hear him say something
like fucking prick, every so often.

Once again, as soon as I had stopped the truck, Peter was out the door and
in the house. I heard the house alarm beeping and turned it off.

"FUCK!" I heard from the office.

I got in the office soon after I heard that, plus a few more fucks coming
from the boy.

"John, look at this..." He started telling me. "That's Brian...there's
Brian's dad...there's Bobby's stepdad. I don't know those other
guys...maybe a couple are from school."

I watched as the gang circled around Bobby. The boy already looked
terrified. Then the beating started. His stepdad was the one to throw the
first punch. The beating went on for ten long minutes. Then to add a final
insult they all spit on the unconscious boy as they left.

Peter turned off the picture after that. We didn't say anything for a few
minutes.

"We need to show this to the police." Peter said quietly.

"I know...but how?" I asked both of us. "I mean, we can't just tell them,
hey, we have a magic camera and here's Bobby getting beaten. Just forget
all the underage sex on those other pictures."

"Why don't we make them turn themselves in?" Peter asked me. "We could crop
each of them to their own picture, then invade their minds and make them
turn themselves in or just terrorize them till they go crazy."

The boy is smart. Then he pointed out something that we didn't notice the
first time we watched the beating. Brian was not doing any of the
beating. He made it look like he was to the other beaters, but when you
looked closer we saw that Brian told Bobby to play dead and it would be
better.

I left Peter to do the picture editing and went down to the kitchen to make
some breakfast. I made Peter get away from the computer long enough to
eat. The time was now close to ten in the morning. After we finished
eating, the phone rang. We both jumped when we heard the phone. I ran and
grabbed it; Peter was right behind me.

"Hello?" I answered. "Yes, this is John." I listened to the voice on the
other end. "Yes, thank you for calling and telling us." I said. "Yes,
probably later this afternoon." I thanked them again for calling and hung
up.

"Who was that? Was it about Bobby? Is he awake yet?" Peter fired off his
questions.

"Yes, it was about Bobby. He's still in ICU, but his vital signs are
improving. They think they might be able to move him to a room
tomorrow. And, if you like, we can go visit later today." I told him.

"Yes, yes, yes. Please, can you take me? I'll take the bus if you don't
want to go." Peter said.

"Of course I'll take you. I want to see our friend too." I said. "So how
are you doing with the pictures?" I asked.

"I got almost all of them separated. It's hard to not get pissed off while
doing this. I looked back a little more and found out that Brian was the
one to get Bobby out there. But I don't think Brian knew what was going to
happen to Bobby." Peter told me.

"Let me know when you got all the pictures fixed. Then we can plan what to
do next." I said. I had some thoughts of what to do to the
assholes. Anything close to death would be ok with me. It took Peter about
an hour more to get everything organized. I thought that now would be a
good time to take a break and visit Bobby. Peter, of course, readily
agreed.

We got back home after spending a couple hours sitting next to the still
unconscious Bobby. Peter talked to him the whole time. Holding his hand and
letting Bobby know that he had his best friend at his side. I don't know if
Bobby knew this, but I have been told that people in a coma can hear and
feel people around them.

When we left, I could have sworn that I saw Brian lurking around the
hospital. However, just like earlier this morning, when I looked again he
was gone.

Peter was exhausted when we got back into the truck. I told him to go home
and sleep. He tried to talk me into having him stay at my place, but I told
him he should let his family know that he was ok.

"Ok, but if you hear anything you better call me." Peter told me. I made
sure he understood that I would let him know if I heard any more info. I
drove him home and put the near sleeping boy to bed. Just as I was heading
back downstairs to leave, Mary and David walked through the door. To say
that we were both surprised to see each other was an understatement.

"Mary, David. How are you doing? I'm sorry; I completely forgot that you
got arrested." I told the two of them.

"Oh no, they didn't arrest David." Mary started to say.

"No, they just wanted to get me out of there. They let me go as soon as
they understood situation." David said.

"It seems that the hospital security know Mr. Morehead. Apparently he likes
to fight in bars." Mary finished.

I told them that was great news and that Peter was upstairs in bed. They
asked me if I was going to go to the hospital later on. I told them I would
take Peter when he wakes up.

"Thank you John." Mary said. "Now you better be getting home, you look like
you're about to fall asleep yourself." She said as she led me out the door.

As soon as I got back home, though, I went straight to the computer and
pulled up Brian's picture. I thought that I would have a talk with the kid.

I wasn't too surprised that he was at the hospital. He was standing right
outside the ICU doors. I knew he wouldn't be able to get in because his
name was not on the list. Looking closer at the kid, I could see that he
was crying.

I touched the screen with my hand and was back in his mind. I think he was
able to tell that I was there because he suddenly froze in place.

"Brian...Brian, this is your conscience." I started out saying.

"I knew you would show up sooner or later." He said. "I didn't know, you
know...I didn't know that was going to happen."

"I believe you Brian." I told him. He seemed relieved when I said
that. "You know the right thing to do now, don't you Brian." I said.

"Yeah, but I can't! The same thing will happen to me. I can't do it...I
just can't." Brian moaned.

"I'll help you Brian. The police will protect you. You must do this. If you
don't turn in those guys, that would make you just the same as them." I
said. "I know you didn't hurt Bobby, but if you don't turn those guys in,
you will hurt Bobby just the same." Brian cringed when I said that.

"But I'll go to jail too." Brian said back. "No...I can't, I'm sorry, but I
can't do that." He stared crying again.

"Ok, then just tell me this. Who was it that got this going? Who told you
to get Bobby to come out to that warehouse?" I asked the trembling boy.

"It was Mr. Morehead...Bobby's stepdad. He told me...he told me to get
Bobby out there. He told me he was only going to scare the...the faggot
lover." Brian paused. "Then when me and Bobby showed up there were all
these guys I didn't know. I didn't know what was going to happen. I'm so
sorry." He cried again.

"I believe you Brian, but you still must do the right thing." I told
him. "I'll let you think about that for a while."

That was all I needed to know for now. I called my lawyer, mister fix
it. After I told him what had happened, I made a copy of all the beaters
and emailed them to my lawyer. Then I pulled up the picture of Bobby's
stepdad.

The asshole was sitting in a bar with his buddies, some of which were the
thugs that beat Bobby. I was pissed, but I needed to keep my mind straight
to do what I needed to do. I then noticed that his nose was not broken, but
he did have a nice shiner.

"Hey asshole!" I yelled in his mind as soon as I had touched his picture.

"What? Who said that?" He said to his drinking buddies. The other guys
looked at him funny. "Somebody called me a asshole."

"Nobody said anything to you." One of the guys said.

"Hey you fucking dick head!" I said real loud again.

"What the fuck! Who just called me a dick head?" Morehead yelled turning
his head.

"Jesus Morehead, you must be hearing things." One of the guys said and
laughed.

Before anyone knew it, Morehead flew across the table and landed on top of
that guy. "Are you saying I'm crazy?" He said right in front of the other
guys surprised faces.

"No, Jesus Christ, I was just joking." The guy was able to get out.

The asshole Morehead was suddenly jerked up by his collar and
unceremoniously shown the door with the help of the bouncer. "I've told you
before Morehead, you cause any trouble, you're out a here." The bouncer
said as he tossed the man to the curb.

Morehead grunted a couple times, along with a couple curse words, before he
got up.

"Hey Morehead, this is your conscious speaking. Yeah, it is hard to
believe, but you do have one." I told the jerk.

The man spun around looking for whoever was speaking to him. "Where are you
fucker?" He yelled still spinning around looking.

"I told you, asshole, I'm your conscience. I am in your mind, much as it
is." I said.

The man stumbled towards his car.

"You aren't planning to drive are you?" I asked him.

"Shut up, whoever you are. I don't know how you're doing it, but I know
you're not my conscience. No fuckin way." Morehead said.

Now I was really getting pissed. I wish there was something more I can do
while he is awake. I knew I could control dreams, but I was pretty sure I
couldn't control people when they were awake.

"God dammit, you're not driving this car home. You're going straight to the
police station. Now!" I told him.

Morehead didn't say anything, he just started driving. The next thing I
knew, he was pulling into the nearest police precinct.

Holy shit, did I do this? Was it because I was so emotional with my
feelings? This is amazing! I stayed in the man's mind as he got to the
front desk.

"Tell him why you're here." I told him to say. "Tell him you're here to
turn yourself in for the beating of Bobby Mercer." I tried to put as much
emotion into this as I could.

I saw him look at the officer behind the counter and then say exactly what
I told him to say. I was amazed again.

"Why don't we go over here, Mr.?" The officer said as he led Morehead off
to a private room.

"Morehead." He answered the officer.

While the officer was taking Morehead into the room, another officer was
calling the detective handling this case. It took a minute for the officer
to convince the detective that he wasn't joking. A minute later, he entered
the room where Mr. Morehead was.

"Ok Mr. Morehead, I believe you want to tell me about your stepsons
beating." The detective said.

For the next hour, Morehead spilled out everything that happened that
night. The detective could hardly believe his luck. Here was this sorry
excuse of a man telling him in complete detail what went on. What's more,
Morehead was telling him his story in such a non-emotional way that the
detective could hardly keep from punching him in the other eye.

At the end of the interview, I was exhausted myself. After all, I had to
sit through the whole thing too. Morehead had just signed his statement
when I took my finger off his picture.

All of a sudden, Morehead started screaming. "What the fuck! What the fuck
am I doing here?" The man yelled. He jumped up out of his chair and started
going for the door. The two officers in the interview room quickly tackled
him and had him in cuffs in no time. The man was still yelling, "Get me out
of here. What the hell happened?"

"You just signed a statement on your involvement with the beating of your
stepson Bobby Mercer." The detective said leering at the man who was still
on the floor. "Get him in a cell."

The two officers hauled Morehead up and dragged him out of the room to his
cell. You could hear him yelling all the way down the hall. If it wasn't
for Bobby still being in a coma, it would almost be funny.

I took a break from this work because it was rather taxing on the brain. It
was actually harder to do this mind control, then it was to make the
dreams. I went to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. I took the
sandwich and a Coke into the living room and watched some TV. I didn't want
to think of anything, so I watched the most stupid thing that I can find.

About an hour later I felt refreshed enough to go and try getting another
of the creeps.

I looked at the next picture on the list. This one would be Brian's dad. He
was almost as bad as Bobby's stepdad. Brian's dad was sitting at home now,
his feet were up, and he had a beer in his hand.

I touched the screen with my hand.

"You will do what I say." I said to the man strongly.

"Huh?" Brian's dad said. He jerked up in his chair, almost spilling his
beer.

"You will go to the police station now." I said.

All of a sudden, the man jumped up out of his chair, this time he did spill
his beer. Without saying a word, he went to the door, put on his coat,
grabbed his keys, and was out the door and in his car. He didn't take off
right away. I could feel his mind fighting mine. I tried concentrating a
little harder.

"Start the car and drive to the police station, now!" I emphasized
strongly. It seemed to do the trick. He started the car, backed out of the
driveway, and was off to the nearest police station.

It just so happened, this was the same police station that Morehead was
at. When the officers heard Brian's dad say he wanted to confess, they
could hardly believe their luck. When they called the detective, he accused
the officers of really joking with him. The officer swore on his badge that
he was telling the truth.

They led the compliant man into the same interview room that Morehead was
just in a few hours ago. The detective came in a minute later.

"Ok, what is your full name please?" The detective asked Brian's dad after
he started the tape recorder.

"Answer the detective's questions." I told Brian's dad. I concentrated as
hard as I could.

"Charles Percy Peter Fitch." Brian's dad answered.

Jesus, what a name.

Now I know this may seem weird, but I didn't know his name. Even though I
was in his mind, I couldn't read it. Brian had never called him anything
but dad.

"Ok, Mr. Fitch. Can you tell me why you're here?" The detective started out
asking.

"Yes, I want to confess to helping beat Bobby." Charles Percy Peter Fitch
stated.

The detective smiled. "And what was your part in this beating?" He asked.

Just like Morehead, Fitch went on for an hour telling exactly what he
did. The detective didn't even have to ask a single question. When Fitch
was through talking the detective had him sign a statement sheet. That's
when I took my finger off the screen. Just like Morehead, Fitch went
berserk once he realized where he was. However, unlike Morehead, Fitch
actually got a punch into one of the officers before they tackled him to
the floor. It actually took a couple more officers coming into the room to
subdue the angry Fitch.

They had to hogtie the man and carry him down the hall to his waiting
cell. He was screaming obscenities all the way down and yelling for a
lawyer.

I took a break from this work. I was starting to get a headache. I pulled
up Bobby's picture and watched him lying in his hospital bed. His head was
still bandaged up, along with his arm and leg. I could hear the beeps of
the machines. Without noticing it, my hand touched the screen.

I now know what goes on in the mind when you're in a coma. The doctors and
nurses say that you're asleep. But when you're asleep, you have
dreams. There were no dreams in Bobby's mind. It was just darkness.

"Oh Bobby," I muttered, "Please come back to us."

Just as I said that, a brief image flashed through the darkness. It was so
fast that I couldn't quite grasp what it was.

Then I heard his voice.

"Help me..." Bobby said.

"I'm here for you Bobby." I told him.

"Help me..." Bobby said again. Then, for some reason I felt him slip
away. It was all black again.

I pulled my finger off the screen. Bobby was still there, struggling to
survive. I was hoping I could find a way to help him get better.

I closed off Bobby's picture and opened up Brian's picture.

From the looks of it, he was sitting in the park. He didn't look very happy
either. I could hear him mumbling something, but I couldn't quite make out
what it was. Just then, his cell phone went off.

"Hello?" Brian said. "What? Who is this?" Brian looked upset. "No I didn't,
I don't know what you're talking about." He hung up the phone. Then I saw
him call another number. "Hey, what's going on?" He said. "He what?" He
listened again. "Why the fuck did he do that?" He listened for a second
then his face turned white. He listened for a few more seconds then he hung
up the phone and slipped it into his pocket.

The boy started muttering something again. Then suddenly he started
spinning around in circles. "Dude, where you at?" He was saying as he spun
around in circles. "Come on conscience, I know you're out there." He kept
spinning around until he finally fell to ground. "Come on man, I know
you're there. I...I need your help."

That's what I needed to hear. He finally asked for my help. I touched my
finger to the screen. "I'm here Brian. What is it that you need help with?"
I said to him.

"They think I did it. I don't know what to do." He muttered.

"Who are they, Brian. And what do they think you did?" I asked him.

"The two guys from school. They told me my dad and Morehead had turned
themselves in. They all think I had something to do with it. They're going
to kill me. When am I going to do?" The boy rattled off quickly.

I knew the obvious thing was to tell the boy to go to the police. However,
I didn't think he would go for that and for some reason I didn't want to
force him. The only other option I can think of was for him to come to my
house. That, of course, would open up a completely new set of problems. One
of which, would be that he could recognize me from his dreams.

"There's a man who can help you, he's not the police, and if you trust him
and do what he says, your life could possibly be changed into a totally
different direction." I told Brian before I could even think about it.

The boy took a moment to think about it. He took a deep breath and let it
out slowly. "Ok." He said at the end of his breath.

"There's a bench next to the drinking fountain. Sit there and wait for the
man to show up. He should be there in less than ten minutes. He knows who
you are, but you may or may not know who he is." I told Brian.

Brian walked a little ways to where the bench was and sat down.

"I'm going to leave you now Brian. Remember though, do what he says and you
might be able to get out of this mess you're in." I finished saying to
Brian.

"Ok, I will. I don't want to die." Brian mumbled.

I quickly ran to my bedroom and put on some dark jeans and a dark
T-shirt. I grabbed my cell phone and my keys, lockup the house and ran to
the park. I slowed down when I got close to where he was sitting. I peeked
around a corner and saw him sitting down on the bench. He looked nervous as
hell. Then again, I don't think I was far behind him.

I took a deep breath and started walking to him.

"Brian." I said as I got up to him. He looked at me and for second, I
thought he was going to bolt. "I'm the one you were told about." I told
him.

"You're...you're going to help me?" Brian squeaked out.

"I will if you answer me three questions truthfully." I said.

Brian took a deep breath before answering. "I don't think I have much
choice." He finally said as he slouched down into the bench.

I was surprised that this was going so easily. Maybe there is hope for
Brian yet.

"Ok Brian, here's the first question. Remember; answer truthfully, even if
you don't think I'll like answer." I paused. "Did you beat up Bobby?" I
asked him. I watched his face closely.

"No, I didn't beat up Bobby." Brian answered me. He kept his face locked on
mine, his eyes didn't blink. If I didn't know anything else, I would likely
believe him. However, I did know more and I knew that he was telling the
truth. He was involved, but he faked punching Bobby.

"Thank you Brian. That was the truth. You did set Bobby up, but you never
actually hit him." I told Brian after a brief pause. "You answered that one
truthfully; now continue to do that with the second question." I told
Brian. He nodded his head silently. "How do you feel about what has
happened?" I asked him.

I saw his face change a couple times. His mouth opened and closed. Then he
answered. "I feel like shit. I just watched my only friend get beat up. Now
I have no friends, and at least four people who want me dead. I wish this
had never happened. I didn't know, I just didn't know this was going to
happen. We were just supposed to scare him." He said all in one breathe.

"Thank you Brian. Just one more question. Will you do exactly as I tell
you? If the answer is no then we have nothing more to talk about. But if
your answer is yes, I'll start right now in helping you." I finished
saying.

Brian looked at me with tears in his eyes. "Yes, please help me. I don't
know what else to do. Just don't make me go to the police." He managed to
get out.

I pulled out my phone. "Bring the car." Was all I said. I then sat down
next to Brian. "Ok Brian, this is what's going to happen. I'm going to put
you up in a hotel where you will stay the night. Do not go out; do not call
room service or anyone else for that matter. Be ready at eight in the
morning, I will bring you breakfast and my lawyer." I told him. "Are you
clear on these instructions?" I asked.

"Yeah...can I call my mom?" He asked me.

"Do it now. When you finish, give me your phone." I instructed him.

He called his home and briefly talked to his mom. He told her he had to
disappear for a few days. After saying he was sorry a few times he hung up
and handed me his phone.

Just then, my phone beeped and I was told that the car is here. "Let's go."
I said to Brian. I took his arm and we walked together to the car.


A note from me:

Damn, what a mess this is! Bobby is barely holding onto his life, Brian is
so afraid for his life that he will trust a total stranger. Peter wants
revenge and John, well, what will be his part in all this? Another question
to think about is how much power does this magic camera have? John found
out just by accident that he could control people though the cameras
program, although it seems to take a lot of concentration to do that.

Let me know what you think could or should happen. All I know is that I
don't know either. Just remember what I said at the start of the story,
only the bad guys might die.

Thanks for reading and your comments.

Bill