Haunting Hallucinations

“So where should we start searching?” Gabriel asked his new friends. They all had finished getting completely changed and had met up outside in the hallway of the American Airlines Center.

They had sort of rushed off to drop Val and Nathan off at the psychologist mental hospital “home,” so they hadn’t exactly changed all the way. But then they had returned to the Arena to search for some clues and converse with one another. They had also finished getting dressed in normal clothes and let the coaches and others know what was going on. They had to get to the bottom of what was happening to their friends and teammates and stop it.

Sure enough, everyone was okay and allowed the Avalanche captain, Stars captain, and his little sidekick to do what they needed to do.

Answers were necessary and they had promised that they would solve the case. Whether is was Sidney Crosby, Sergei Gonchar, Jonathan Drouin or someone else behind the creepy and disturbing hallucinations...they had to find out. Also, they needed to find out how and why the two were hallucinating.

Tyler and Jamie led Gabriel into a side room, so they could sit and think. Millions of people were still there, after all they’d been gone for only a little bit. Both teams were still there, and while the coaches were addressing their players with the usual post-game talk, the three had permission to split and skip the session.

Tyler closed the door and then came over to sit down beside his captain. Jamie had apparently received a text from the “home.”

“Who’s texting ya, Benny?” Tyler pressed, annoyingly poking his friend.

“It’s the mental place, according to them, neither man has hallucinated yet. And they seem calm and normal. The psychologist, Dolphi, apparently has done an analysis of them and has concluded that nothing is wrong.”

“Well, that’s good, right?” the Avalanche captain said passively.

“Kind of.” Jamie focused on his phone, looking at it bizarrely. “She seems to think that they were poisoned somehow…as they are fine now.”

“Poisoned? But by who and why?” Gabriel blurted out, leaning forward in his seat.

“Who would want to poison our sweet baby Russian?” Tyler echoed, clasping his hands together and giving his linemate a dreamy look.

“I don’t know,” Jamie replied, swatting at Tyler. “Stop that, Seggy.”

“But it’s a legit question?!”

“Not just your Russian kid, but our innocent Halifax native?” the Avalanche player threw in, as he combed his wavy golden blond locks with his fingers out of awkward nervousness.

“That’s true. Nathan doesn’t look like a guy who would regularly hit someone or fight someone...or do anything bad.”

Tyler snatched his friend’s phone and, as he flipped through it, thought out loud, “So, who would poison Nathan and Val?”

“Segs, give me that!”

Jamie reached over and took his phone back, just as another text came back. Tyler swatted at him like a blind cat and the captain of Dallas retalited.

Gabriel was watching them with one eyebrow raised. “Is this “fighting”/”sibling rivalry thing” normal?”

“Oh yeah, Tyler likes to play around and joke with me all the time. Even in serious situations. It’s his annoying habit!” Jamie remarked, as he shoved Tyler out of his seat and to the ground.

“Uh, huh...so what’s the new text?”

“Well, they looked more into the “poison” conclusion and the results are positive for a new drug...that produces hallucinations!”

“So they WERE poisoned?” Gabriel exclaimed, his eyes wide.

“Yes...it looks like it!” the Dallas captain remarked, somberly.

“But by who?” Tyler proposed, folding his arms and leaning back. He was trying to remain cool and collected, but if there was a serial poisoner on the loose...and they were targeting hockey players. He didn’t want to be the one who was next.

Jamie Benn faced his Dynamic Duo partner. “First, we need to figure out HOW they were poisoned. Okay, every time that Val was hallucinating, did you recognize anything strange or bizarre that would make him “crazy” or insane?”

The Dallas Star goal scorer stroked his chin and thought. He tried to remember all the scenes. “I don’t know.”

“Think, Tyler. There had to be something that stood out during his episodes...Sergei Gonchar throwing signs, voodoo stuff, uh, something…?”

“Well, we made him drink water...to calm him down. But he kept having episodes.”

There was a long silence. The three players seemed deep in thought and were concentrating on their memories and deductive reasoning.

Jamie suddenly perked up. “That’s it! It’s the water bottle! When we gave Val his water bottle he had issues, but when he drank from mine, he appeared to be fine. It has to be his water!”

Tyler screwed his face up in perplexment. “But how can water cause the hallucinations?”

“You weren’t listening Seggy, someone must have sprinkled something into the bottles to make them “be poisonous” and to cause them both to hallucinate!” Jamie stated.

“But who put the poison drug powder stuff into his water bottle and why?”

“Was it...could it be...Sergei Gonchar?” Jamie questioned, mostly to himself. “Would Sergei try to sabotage Val’s sophomore year?”

“No! He couldn’t. He retired…”

“But Val started hallucinating AFTER Sergei retired. RIGHT AFTER Sergei retired!” Jamie remarked.

“So, that could just be a happy accident.”

“I’m with Segs on this one, Benny. I don’t think it’s Sergei,” Gabriel stated. “Why would Nathan be hallucinating as well? And if it was Sergei, why would he also go after Kinny?”

“Thank you for agreeing with me, Gabe and that’s a good point, Landy, my friend.”

Jamie frowned. “Don’t even, Seggy.”

“So...um...the water bottles being ‘spiked’ with some drug, who would go after Kinny and Val?” the Avalanche captain stated justly, drawing the two once again back into focus.

“I don’t know. It could be anybody. If there anyone who has it out for Nathan?” Jamie asked.

“Not that I know of, again, we try to keep personal issues to ourselves. If he had made an enemy, he hasn’t talked about it or...well…”

“What? What is it?”

“There was...nah, I don’t think it’s important. I mean Jo and Nathan are friends.”

“Jo?” Tyler questioned.

“Yeah, Jonathan Drouin!”

“Oh, the Lightning guy, right?” Jamie inquired. “The one we discussed in the hallway earlier as a possibility.”

“He and Nathan were best friends in Halifax and then they had a little spat as you know, but there’s something else. I didn’t want to mention it, but my mind keeps returning to it. He had a bag of powder and lied to me. AND he was there around the time the two began to hallucinate. I can’t help but think it was him. But how could he do this to Nathan? And it doesn’t make sense for him to poison Val.”

“You’re right. We’ll have to keep thinking.”

“What if it was an accident?” Tyler suggested with a tiny shrug.

“An accident? How?”

“Well...I don’t know.”

“If we stick with the idea of the water bottles and them being targeted and poisoned, then maybe we could find some video evidence of the tampering?”

“Wait if the bottles were tampered with, that opens possibilities to teammates. The pranksters love to mess with the bottles! Right?” Gabriel purposed.

“But...if we check the video from the rink, we might be able to answer the mystery, eh?” Tyler said with a wink, similar to the kind he would give a chick at the bar. ‘The Player’s wink!’

“We did play at the Pepsi Center together, I’m sure that day and that video evidence will give us the answers we need!” the Avalanche captain exclaimed.

“You’re right! You can work on getting that. Me and Segs will check out the Center here and see if there’s any suspicious signs. Maybe someone was hanging out here to watch the show or something.”

Gabriel nodded. He immediately got on his phone and stayed in the room.

“Stay in here and if we find anything, we’ll all come back to meet you here!”

“Okay. Sounds good.”

Tyler and Jamie walked out of the room. They turned to one another.

“So, I’ll take the rink and locker rooms, you take the lobby and the other place?” Jamie suggested.

Tyler nodded. He started off. Before he knew it, Jamie had vanished from sight, leaving him alone. He walked into the lobby. Now was not the time to be freaking out. He had to help out Val and get to the bottom of these bizarre issues. The Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche could not continue to carry on without two key members of their roster.

He couldn’t help but freak out though. The last of the fans were filing out and they waved at him. He panicked and bumped into someone, distracted. He fell backward and landed on his back.


Meanwhile,

Jamie made his way into the arena’s rink. He hit the ice, finding it to be more slippery than with skates on. He stumbled his way into the center of the rink and looked around.

“Hey Jamie!” someone called out. “What’s going on?”

The Dallas captain looked up toward where the voice was. It was Marc Cohen, the tech guru and cameraman. He was fiddling with one of the TV cameras that captured the game for the TV audience.

“Nothing, Marc, just trying to solve a mystery! You didn’t happen to see anything abnormal tonight at any time did you?”

“Nope. The usual spectacular crowd of people, Jams!”

“Okay. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just wondering. Its for the mystery.”

“Oh, well, come to think of it,” he began to say, pausing in his fiddling and turning to face the hockey player. “there was this one guy who wore a black hood and seemed out of place. I thought he was an Avalanche fan, but somehow I don’t think he was a fan at all.”

“Really? Did you get a good look or view of him?”

“No, sorry. All I could see was him smiling. But I can send you the cam’s footage if you want me too.”

“Yeah, that would be great. If you caught him without knowing it and happened to catch his face that would be helpful.”

“Alright, I’ll get you that!”

“Sick, I’m going to be hanging in the “thinking/quiet room”...the one next to the concussion room with Gabriel Landeskog. Just bring the tape there.”

“Why are you hanging out with Landeskog?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Oh, is this about the fight - Val VS Nathan?”

“Yeah...sort of.”

“Well, I’ll get it for you and bring it!”

“Alright!”

Jamie stumbled back off the ice and headed back to the room.


Meanwhile,

Gabriel chatted with the person at the Pepsi Center. He finished getting the okay and permission for the video, which was being sent to the American Airlines Center at that moment. As soon as he finished, he looked up at the door, as the Dallas captain walked in.

“Got another video from Marc, our cameraman. What’s the news on the Pepsi vid?”

“On the way and should be here...soon.”

“Sounds good. We can wait for the vids and Tyler here.”

“I don’t see why not.”

A few seconds later, Marc walked in and passed the Dallas Star the footage he’d copied. Jamie thanked him and bid him farewell. Then the captain for the Stars spun around and played the video.

Notes

Oh, Seguin, who did you find???? Is it Sergei Gonchar?? Or Sid maybe????
I hope this reads okay...
Oh man this is gonna take a turn...for Bizarre World! Here we come! :D

Next up: Kazer kissing, and, um, some weird stuff in the psychologist place...