What Lies Beneath (6 page)

I felt as if I couldn’t breathe, so I yanked the brown scarf away from my neck and unzipped my jacket. She was making it look like I was insane. Just like my mom did when I told her about the nick name. Just like Max.

Even though he drove me here and told me about Pearl, I knew deep inside he didn’t believe any of this crap. But he was being a friend and I appreciated him for that. But I couldn’t face him right now, not like this. Without a second thought I ran across the street and into the woods that surrounded the entire town.

              I ran and ran, my heart beating heavily in chest, knocking against my ribcage. The cold air stung my lungs and seemed to tighten my throat all at the same time. All I could hear were the leaves crunching beneath my shoes and the faint echo of someone yelling my name. Max.

I kept on, barreling through the gnarled trees, cold sweat trickling down my spine and chest. I needed to get far away. I knew I was going to get Max in trouble with my dad but I didn’t care. I needed to be alone for now.

The ground became wetter as I neared a large rock. The love rock. I stopped dead in my tracks, breathing in like a wild track runner. The love rock is a giant stone that teens use to proclaim their love for each other and write their names down on the rock in oddly shaped hearts.

I didn’t need to look too close to see my name and Dylan’s scrawled in red sharpie, my perfectly shaped heart around our names. If I was at the love rock then that meant I was near the lake… where I nearly died.

              I slowly walked past the stone and headed through the mud and leaves toward the large body of water that was only about a hundred feet away. I don’t know why I was heading toward it, but I felt as if something was pulling me to it, moving my legs for me.

I didn’t even notice that my shoes were full of mud by the time I reached the rocky shore. There was ragged yellow police tape tied to some branches, dancing in the wind. It was as if the tape was waving, welcoming me back to place where I would have died. Directly across the lake I could see the broken windows of the Bernard cabin, grinning at me between a mass of trees.

The water was nearly icy now and had a variety of flowers floating on top, preserved by the cold. They were more than likely from people mourning Dylan’s death. He tried to kill me, but at least a few people still cared for him and I couldn’t be mad at that.

I took a few steps closer to the edge of the water, recalling the memories of Dylan and me here. We came here a lot. This is even where I lost my virginity to him. I cringed now thinking of that.

I zipped my jacket back up and rewrapped the scarf around my neck, shielding myself from the freezing wind. It was picking up now, traveling through the trees and creating ripples in the murky water. I took one final step, the toes of my shoes touching the water.

My reflection caught in the ripples, my pale face looking disfigured and bare. I hadn’t worn make up in a while, ever since Dylan asked me not to. He said that I was naturally beautiful and that make up made me look fake. I should start wearing make up again. Water rushed up and touched the laces of my shoes sending me into quick shock.

He tore the keys out of the ignition and tossed them onto the dashboard. I winced as he socked the middle of the steering wheel, softly cursing to himself. I grabbed the doorknob and opened my door, ready to step out. But he grabbed me by my shoulders and turned me to him. His dark eyes bore into mine, as if he were trying to tell me something telepathically.

“We could be together forever, Blair. Just say yes. Do it for me, it won’t hurt, I promise.” the sweet minty scent of his breath tickled my nostrils and I deflated right in front of him, my eyes beginning to water.

“I love you, Dylan. But you are scaring me. Maybe you should just go talk to someone.” I grabbed for the knob again but he smacked my hand away from it and growled like an angry monster. My heart began doing flips in my chest, tears cascading down my cool cheeks. I was scared. This wasn’t like him at all.

“I’m sorry, Blair Bear. Forgive me? I’ll go talk to somebody, I promise.” I turned to him and saw that his eyes were still fixed darkly. He didn’t mean it.

“You promise?” I asked, wiping tears from my face.

“I promise.”

I took two giant steps back from the water and stood there, stunned. It was another vision of that night. We were fighting about something that scared the shit out of me. But I can’t remember exactly what it was.

I kicked the rocks below me and screamed as if someone were hurting me. Birds erupted from a few dead trees and I began crying hysterically. What was happening to me? Why couldn’t I remember anything? And why was someone messing with me?

“You feel like you are going crazy, don’t you?” a feminine voice said from behind me. I whirled around, my hands flying against my chest. A young girl, terribly scrawny, with skin that was nearly translucent stood before me, her large wide eyes piercing mine.

Her long blonde hair flew in wisps around across her oval face coinciding with the wind. She was colorless except for her blonde hair, not even her irises showed any tint. She looked…
dead
. I knew who she was. She was the girl from Dylan’s house.

“Who are you?” I pushed the words out of my mouth and took a step back. She was wearing a sky blue sundress, the fabric faded, ragged, and damp. She must have been out of her damn mind wearing something so light in this weather. She was even shoeless, which I found extremely odd considering there were no cars or houses in sight except for the deserted cabin.

“Caroline Deming. I know how you are feeling right now Blair, but you have to keep going. You have to figure it all out before he comes for you.” her voice echoed slightly, teasing my ears.

“I don’t understand. Who will come for me?” I stammered.

“You are as ignorant as the rest,” the girl snapped.

“Blair!” Max’s voice tore through the trees. I turned away for a moment and searched for him but I couldn’t see him coming. I turned back to girl to respond, but she had vanished and was nowhere to be seen.

I made my way back to the love rock, keeping my eyes peeled for the girl. But it was as if she disappeared into thin air. Either I was really losing my mind. Or I just had a run in with a ghost.

7

I was in my bedroom, scouring the internet for anything about experiencing paranormal phenomenon when my dad walked in, a smile on his round face. He was twisting the bottom of his green over-shirt as he took a seat on my bed and looked around my room. He did stuff like that when he was insanely nervous or he wanted to talk to me but didn’t know how.

I was the only child and I had been super close to my mom, even though I accompanied my dad on a few fishing trips. He missed his tomboy daughter who didn’t get grossed out at bait or was afraid of getting fish juice on her hands. I grew up, but I always made the effort to be the daughter I used to be, even when it was so clear that I was sometimes bullshitting him.

             
“I liked what you did with the attic, and I didn’t get to tell you that I liked your new haircut. You look beautiful, baby girl.” I could sense the quiver in my dad’s deep voice.

I spun slowly in my swivel chair, my
Doctor Who
quilt wrapped tightly around my shoulders. I bought it from a website called Etsy a while back and cherished it like a newborn blanket. It had the Tardis on it and the eighth doctor’s face outlined in an awesome constellation. I haven’t watched the show in so long, ever since Dylan started coming over every single day four months ago. I lost track and that is bad for a Doctor fan,
real
bad.

              “Thanks dad. And thank you for letting Max take me places, I know that I should be healing or whatever, but I need to feel like I can be free. Otherwise you’ll have a permanently depressed daughter living in your attic for eternity.” I laughed, attempting to raise the gloominess that had taken over my room.

My dad snickered and turned to me, a serious look spread across his face. I looked more like him than my mom. I had his droopy, tear drop eyes, and his round face. I had my mom’s hair and her giant forehead.

              “Your mom told me about what you said about the note. About you thinking Dylan wrote it, even though he’s dead. I’m not going to tell you that you are going crazy, baby. I’ve always been very open minded, I mean look how well I’ve taken Max becoming a man right before my eyes. I still remember that strawberry dress he wore over and over that one summer. I love him like a son and you know that. But if you ever want to talk about anything, even if
you
think you sound loopy, I’m right here.” I rose from the chair and rushed into my dad’s arms, thanking him over and over for not thinking I was insane. He gave me hope and that was all I needed right now.

              I didn’t feel the need to tell him about Caroline just yet or about Pearl. I didn’t even tell Max about Caroline. I ended up telling him the reason I screamed was because I got scared of the water. It sounded weird, but he took it seriously and didn’t ask me about what Pearl said or anything else the entire ride back. I needed more to go on before I set everything free.

I waited for my dad to leave my room, feeling bad that I wasn’t telling him everything. Just a little while longer and I would tell him all that he needed to know eventually. I returned to the chair and rewrapped the quilt around my neck as I typed away on a paranormal forum.

             
The sun was going down by the time I was finished eating dinner, and my dad looked a whole lot better, mood wise. My mom smiled at me the whole time we ate. It was strange, but I knew it was because of my talk with dad. She liked when we bonded, it put less stress on the fact that she had taken me away from him as I grew older. She knew that wasn’t true, but I knew she still felt that way often.

My mom began clearing the table when I saw something pass by the kitchen window above the sink. It was so quick, yet I knew it was a person. It sent chills down my spine and made me feel like I was in some kind of Japanese horror movie remake.

I hastily got up from the table and headed for the back door near the refrigerator. My mom caught me and gave a look that said
where do you think you are going?

              “Can I take out the trash?” I asked, snatching the red lid off of the trash bin. “I need some air.” I grabbed the trash bag by the drawstring and pulled it out from the bin. She nodded but I could tell she wasn’t having it inside. But I needed to see who was out there, lurking around my house. Was it Caroline? Or maybe, just maybe, it was Dylan.

              I closed the back door behind me and descended down the back porch steps, the trash bag weighing my arm down. Our house was surrounded by the woods, but they were fenced off with barbed wire and wood. Pinecones and pine needles made up the back lawn, a gigantic pine tree looming above me as I made my way over to the trash cans that sat next to the kitchen window.

There were no neighbors for miles. Every house seemed to have a giant gap of woods between them. It was scary sometimes. There was no one to really talk to and at night I used to get think of someone breaking in and how there were no neighbors to holler for.

It reminded me of that one messed up thing that happened in the early eighties. There was a town in California where the houses were separated like ours and one night someone killed a family in their own home but no one knew because no one heard anybody scream.

I still get the creeps just thinking about that. And as if responding to my thoughts, the cold wind picked up and brushed against me like an icy blanket. I shivered and pulled my gray cardigan around me as I searched the back lawn with my eyes. There was no one out here. But someone was out here earlier, that I knew for sure.