314 Book 3 (Widowsfield Trilogy) (3 page)

“Is that The Skeleton Man?”

“I don’t think so,” said Rosemary. “I think The Skeleton Man was created by the other one, the one they call The Watcher.”

“Why do they call it that?” asked Paul.

“Because it’s always watching.” Rosemary tapped another of the beds, clicking her nail on the metal railing. “The Watchers are in everything. They’re in the walls, watching us, studying us. And Oliver figured out a way to bring them closer. I’m fairly certain of that part, but the rest is more conjecture than anything else.”

“Well, clue me in,” said Paul. “Because I haven’t got even the slightest clue as to what the fuck is going on.”

“I think The Watchers speak to us through dreams. When we’re awake, we have no knowledge of their presence, but when we’re asleep they can reach out to us. I don’t think they have much of an influence over most of us, but whatever Oliver did here in Widowsfield gave one of The Watchers a tighter grip. All of the people in the town on March 14
th
, 1996 fell unconscious, and they were put into The Watcher’s version of reality.”

“Into his dream?”

“Yes,” said Rosemary as the two paused. “Although, he was careful to trick them into thinking it was real. The dream only lasts about fifteen minutes, and it always starts just before 3:14 on March 14
th
, 1996. When he first started creating these dreams, he made them similar to how life would’ve normally played out for the people that lived here. Then he started changing things, just slightly, and turning the dream into a nightmare. With each new change he was able to twist their recollection, just like I did with Oliver’s book. And that’s where The Skeleton Man came in.”

“You mean Ben, right?” asked Paul.

“Not exactly,” said Rosemary. “But, speaking of Ben, we need to hurry up and find him. Hopefully he’s here, with the other sleepers somewhere.”

“No, he’s not,” said Paul.

Rosemary became concerned as she asked, “Do you know where he is? Is he dead?”

“No, Alma’s dad showed up and took him.”

Rosemary walked away from him, and headed back towards the room where Alma and the others were. She was clearly upset by Paul’s revelation. He followed behind and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure,” said Rosemary as they made their way through the maze of gurneys and crying women. “I have to find out more about what happened to your friends.”

They got back to the other room where Alma, Stephen, Rachel, and Jacker were standing by the bed that Aubrey was laying on. Alma looked up at Paul as they came back in the room and said, “She’s gone. Aubrey’s dead.”

Paul nodded, having already come to the realization that Aubrey was gone. He didn’t know the girl very well, but she didn’t deserve to die in Widowsfield this way. No one did.

Rosemary was undeterred by Aubrey’s death. “Alma, you need to tell me what happened to you. I need you to try and remember everything you can.”

“It’s…” Alma struggled to remember, and closed her eyes to try and bring the dreams back, but she shook her head and said, “It’s all a jumble.”

“Try harder,” said Rosemary impatiently.

Alma appeared offended, but did what she could to recount what had happened while she was unconscious. “We kept appearing in the van, on our way into Widowsfield. Sometimes we would make it into town, but it was always in 1996, like we’d traveled back in time.” She looked at Rosemary for approval.

“Go on,” said Rosemary while motioning for Alma to continue.

“After being in the town for a few minutes, fog would roll in. It was thick, and slid across the ground like it was heavy.”

Rachel interrupted, “And there were green lights flashing inside of the fog, almost like there was a storm in it.”

“Right,” said Alma in agreement. “And I think the children were in there too. They went in there to die.”

Rosemary shook her head in disagreement. “No. The Skeleton Man tricked them into thinking he cared about them. They would go to him, hoping that he’d protect them from the red-haired woman.”

“Terry,” said Alma. “The red-haired woman was my father’s girlfriend, a meth-addict named Terry. She owned the cabin, and she had a dog named Killer that she used to tell us was a werewolf.”

“She’s the one that died there?” Rosemary asked Alma, who nodded in response. “She got trapped while she was dying.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jacker. “Like her soul got trapped?”

Rosemary nodded and said. “Yes. There was another woman that died right when the fog first swept over the town. Her name was Amelia Reven, but The Watcher and The Skeleton Man didn’t trap her. She died before the fog got to her, before it blotted out the light. Terry, on the other hand, was stuck in the town with everyone else, but she wasn’t controlled by The Watcher.”

“Who’s The Watcher?” asked Stephen.

“He’s the one that controls everything that happened in your dreams,” said Rosemary.

“I thought The Skeleton Man was,” said Alma.

Rosemary shook her head. “No. He was just a guardian. I think The Watcher used your brother’s experience at the cabin to create the nightmares that you saw, but then he kept changing things to make the dreams worse. I’m not sure I’m right, but I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. I’m a psychic, or more specifically I’m a psychometric. That means that I can pull memories out of physical objects, but I was never able to do it consistently until I came here to work with Oliver.”

“Who’s that?” asked Rachel.

“He’s the one in charge of this place,” said Paul.

“In the real world, right?” asked Jacker, which at first came off as a bizarre question, but which Paul then realized was astonishingly cogent.

“Yes,” answered Rosemary, relieving Paul of the responsibility of discerning what was and wasn’t real anymore. She continued, “I helped him recreate what happened here leading up to March 14
th
, 1996.”

“So you’re the reason there were mannequins everywhere,” said Rachel as the rest of the group also began to understand Rosemary’s role in what had happened in the town.

“Yes. He wanted my help putting the town back together, like the whole place was just a puzzle waiting to be finished.”

“What happens when he finishes it?” asked Rachel.

“Let’s hope we never find out,” said Rosemary. “I did what I could to make sure he never put everything back together exactly as it was, but I don’t think the inanimate things matter as much as…” she looked at Alma and added, “the living things.”

“My brother and I?” asked Alma.

Rosemary nodded. “When I was at the house on Sycamore, I realized that The Skeleton Man was fixated on you. You distracted him, and you’re the reason he started changing the dreams.”

“How did I do that?” asked Alma.

“When your mother brought you back here, when you were ten; not long before she tried to kill you.”

Alma shook her head. “She didn’t try to kill me.”

Rosemary looked warily at Alma, as if certain she were lying. “Yes she did.”

“No,” said Alma, eager to correct the stranger. “She brought me here, but then took me back to my grandmother’s before she came back here and…” Alma stopped, unwilling to continue.

Rosemary was silent for a moment as she looked at Alma, and then said, “Our minds can play tricks on us sometimes, honey. When you want to know what really happened, just let me know and I’ll…”

“I know what really happened,” said Alma with obvious anger that she tried to mask with a laugh. She glanced at Paul, and her burgeoning fury subsided into embarrassment. She looked away and said, quieter, “I know what happened.”

“Okay,” said Rosemary, willing to leave the subject alone. “That part doesn’t matter. What matters is what happened at the house.”

“We broke in and that’s when
my mother wrote the numbers on the floor. That’s when I remembered Ben.”

“And that’s when he remembered you as well,” said Rosemary. “Until then, The Watcher had stolen you from him. But when you went back, you reminded your brother of what he’d lost. He saw you again, and The Watcher had to try and get rid of you. He did what The Skeleton Man didn’t think was possible. He broke out of the dream and spoke through you. He threatened your mother, and that’s what convinced The Skeleton Man that he could get out as well.”

“When I talked to this thing,” said Paul, “he was acting like he was Ben.”

“He might think he is,” said Rosemary. “Everything The Watcher created was inspired by what happened to Alma’s brother. I was never able to see how things started; there’re too many timelines laid out on top of one another that it was like picking through a thousand pieces of multiple puzzles that had all been thrown together. It wasn’t until just before I left that I figured out this all started with some sort of fog or smoke that came from the reservoir.”

“What happened to your brother?” asked Rachel of Alma.

“He got burned by chemicals and boiling water while trying to help my father kill Terry.”

“Oh my God,” said Jacker. “Seriously?”

“That was the part that I couldn’t remember,” said Alma. “Remember how I told you that I could
recall everything up to when the fog showed up? And how the next thing I could remember was leaving the town?”

“Yeah,” said Rachel.

“Well, I think I can remember some of it now. Although,” she put her hand over her eyes as she tried to recall the dream that was slipping away. She could remember being at the sink, with Ben beside her, and how he was goading her into taking a pot of water up the stairs. “I’m not sure which parts are lies.”

“Ben,” said Paul, but then he corrected himself, “or
I guess The Skeleton Man, showed me what happened. The red-haired girl was overdosing, and Ben walked in as it was happening. Then his father asked Ben for help, and went to get water when the girl fell unconscious. Your dad thought she was dead, and told Ben that he was the one that killed her. He made Ben go boil water and get cleaner so they could melt her down in the bathtub.”

“Jesus,” murmured Rachel as the group listened. “Is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” said Paul. “They tried, but Terry wasn’t dead. They put her in the tub and poured the cleaners in. Then Ben poured boiling water over her and she woke up. She grabbed him and pulled him face-first in with her.”

“Right,” said Rosemary, providing Paul with a sense of balance as he tried to determine if what he’d learned was true. “That’s when Alma came up the stairs. She could hear Ben crying, and she got a knife to try and protect him. Terry was blinded by the chemicals in the tub, and she was trying to run out of the room when Alma came in.”

“And I killed her,” said Alma matter-of-factly.

“You stabbed her,” said Rosemary, “but your father was the one that killed her. He gutted her.”

“That’s why the mannequin was on the floor in there,” said Rachel. “But why were the two child-sized mannequins still on the couch?”

“Because I was trying to trick Oliver,” said Rosemary. “I lied to him to change his perception of what had happened, the same way The Skeleton Man started to try and hide from The Watcher.”

“How?” asked Stephen.

Rosemary tried to explain, “The Skeleton Man kept The Watcher’s lies intact. All of the timeframes exist in the same short period of time, but The Watcher is the one creating the new ones. The Skeleton Man was the one that kept them in order. It’s sort of hard to understand, but the best way I can explain it is to think of someone knitting one long scarf, and there’s someone behind him carefully laying the scarf down and making sure the pattern stays correct. The Watcher is the one making the dreams, and The Skeleton Man was behind him, keeping the whole thing in order so The Watcher can change things if he wants to. Does that make sense?”

“Not really,” said Jacker.

“I get it,” said Stephen. “Instead of thinking of it like a scarf, think of it as a fifteen minute video clip. Pretend I’ve got the clip, and I keep making little changes to it and then sending you a copy. Your job is to keep all of the versions in order, so that if I ever need to go back and make a change I can do it easily.” He looked at Rosemary and asked, “Is that right?”

She raised her brow and nodded in satisfaction. “Sure, if that makes more sense to you. The Skeleton Man started making changes of his own to what was happening in the town. He did it because he wanted to try and trick The Watcher into forgetting him.”

“He wanted out,” said Alma.

Rosemary looked at her and asked, “Are you sure?”

“Yes. He used his lies to hide, and then he tried to get me to take his place. I think it worked.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Rosemary, her concern becoming more apparent.

“Because he made me switch places with him. I was the one that put the chemicals in the tub, and I was the one that Terry tried to grab. Then he stabbed her, and then The Watcher tried to catch me. I got away, and
that’s when I met you,” she said as she motioned to Rosemary, “or some version of myself that you put there. You explained that I needed to get out by going over the cliff and into the reservoir so that I could go and bring The Skeleton Man back. Then we ended up back in the van, and we saw my father driving away with Ben sitting in the back seat instead of me.”