Post by Penny on Dec 18, 2011 16:09:57 GMT -5
Have you ever felt the word ‘ominous’? That air that hangs around the area, which gives people headaches and joint pain? How about the feeling of underlying, gut-deep dread that it brings? Today I felt that. Today was the third consecutive teacher suicide in my town, a little place I’ll call Suburbia.
Suburbia was a quiet town. Paved sidewalks, nice identical houses, impeccable lawns, everything surrounded by tall trees that kids could climb. At this time of the year- October- the leaves had turned gold and red.
The high school was only a few blocks away from my house. A big building, in close proximity of the middle and elementary schools, as well as the local church and the day care center. Technically, everything was in close proximity to each other, but these were all on practically the same block. There was a dead teacher from each of the three schools now, the first being the middle school (an unfortunate accident, as the papers called it), then the high school (a terrible coincidence), and then the elementary school (a scary conspiracy). Truth is, nobody was sure what was plaguing Suburbia, but we all wanted to know.
Me? I was beginning to wonder if some animal or something came into town. I hadn’t seen any of the bodies (they always made it closed casket at the funerals, and there were no pictures in the news) but from what I’d heard, they were a gruesome sight… though still nobody told me a thing. It was getting rather annoying. It’s not like I was a baby or something. I was a freshman. I had friends. We probably saw things in horror films that were ten times worse than that.
Speaking of friends, currently I sat at the lunch table. I felt kinda bored, nothing much was going on. Jonesy (his real name being Maxwell Jones, other people called him Sparky) was talking to Lily (Lilith Sully), and Dan (Daniel Courtner) and I were talking.
“I told you that that show was epic win, Rose.”
(To clarify, my name is Lucille Anna Anderson. Everybody calls me Rose though.)
“You were right, Dan. I mean Jesus. It was like… crazy.”
My attention was stolen at that moment. I saw Elaine Childs- a friend who I don’t get to see much, as we don’t share classes this year like we did last year.
“ELAINE!” I screamed, waving my hands to get her attention. That got her, and she waved back. So did Juliet South, another friend who was in my Science and English classes. I sat right in-between her and her brother Roland. If I didn’t, I think those two would kill each other. Or well, Juliet might kill Roland… Much as I liked the boy, he could be annoying from time to time… mostly towards his sister.
Speaking of Roland, he was jibber-jabbering with some of his friends at the table to my right, against the wall. Well, he wasn’t really the one talking. He was too busy listening to some song on his music player. As for other people around the area, my friend Melody Sante was somewhere way the hell over by the soda machines, Sally Dawes was out in the courtyard, and Trisha Conner was at her usual table up front, and Jordan Adams was a few tables down from her. Monica Drew was… somewhere (to be honest I didn’t care where, I didn’t exactly like her)… and Ginny (Jonesy’s little sister, her real name’s something like Fiona, but she’s Ginny to us) was at the table beside Roland’s.
Boredom set back in again. With a groan I looked over at the clock, and then at the others.
“Can we please go now?”
This was generally accepted, as Lily had taken off to go talk to one of the teachers. I dragged the guys upstairs (Daniel was pretty ticked at that, with a healing leg and all) and stuck up there for a while before going into science with Roland and Jules, where we did some bookwork. Then off to English we skipped… okay, maybe not skipped, exactly, but still.
During this period I heard two people to the right, Elliot and Carrie, talking about something in frantic whispers. I couldn’t hear all of it, but I could catch a few words here and there. ‘Discombobulated’ was one. That threw me off. Then of course there was ‘Ms. Cainbride’… a teacher at the middle school who didn’t show up today.
Had the suicide chain gotten another person? Ms. Cainbride was a really good teacher, from what I’d heard. I didn’t have her personally, but I thought she was real nice last year, when she pointed me towards the right classroom. My favorite teacher (Mrs. Gaites) was the wife of Ms. Cainbride’s sub, as Ms. Cainbride wasn’t there for half the year. But the two fell silent soon and went back to their papers.
School was over soon. I flipped on my own music player, putting on some rather heavy rock, and started downstairs and back home, to the little house where I’d lived my whole life through. I turned off my music, and put it in my coat pocket, which went up onto the coat hanger beside the door. My backpack was dropped beneath it. I went upstairs to my bedroom, and flopped down on my bed. I was tired from school, and the pink themes around the room, calming as they were, all wanted me to fall asleep. But I couldn’t, I mean I had responsibilities, chores that still badly needed to be done.
I could hear my sisters, Ella and Kenzie, outside playing with their friends. Nobody else was home. My brother was in juvy (he made some pretty bad mistakes); my siblings had all moved out at this time. My oldest brother Alex and his wife Stacy lived up the hill a bit with their daughter Gracie, my oldest sister Adriana lived a few blocks away (though I never saw her anyway), my other sister Sadie lived in the Deep South with her baby Bailey and her abusive baby’s daddy, my brother Ethan was God Knows Where, and my other two sisters, Renée and Allison, lived a few cities away. My house, once crowded with people, was quiet. I liked that.
I got up and started cleaning, doing chores and such- pretty much just tidying up my room, unloading, reloading, running and unloading again the dishwasher, and scrubbing the bathroom. I turned on the radio in the living room, listening to it while I did all that, jamming in general really.
I actually kinda liked cleaning my room and the kitchen. My room because I loved fixing my stuffed animals and relaxing on my bed pretending to be doing stuff, and the kitchen because I had this obsession with wiping down the counters even when I didn’t need to. I was never totally sure why, I just did. But then again, afterwards I always got to wash my hands… and that was always the best part, because I loved blowing bubbles while washing my hands.
Secretly.
Once done, I went outside and grabbed the girls away from their friends, bringing them inside and locking the door. I turned off the music and passed out on my bed.
I woke up around dusk, to the phone ringing downstairs. I rolled off of my bed, trying not to get enveloped in my canopy, and went downstairs to answer it.
“Lucille, sweetheart?” Through the receiver came the chopping-up voice of my mother- the only person to call me Lucille instead of Rose pretty much. Our phone connection sucked.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, I’m going to be home late, okay? Apparently there’s been another ‘suicide’,” her voice accented this, “And they need us to go investigate it. Your dad’ll probably be home around normal time… just make up dinner and then send the girls off to bed.”
Years of babysitting had prepared me for this. I nodded before realizing she couldn’t see me.
“Yes, okay. I’ll be sure to do it. Seeya later.”
I did as I was told. By the time everything was done, it was almost nine o’clock. I went and took some sleeping pills (Melatonin, I took it semi-often), and went to bed finally. Since it was Friday, I didn’t need to turn on my alarm clock or anything. I just made sure the girls were asleep and started pulling on my pajamas. I heard the door open below.
“How many does this make?” I called down to my mother.
“Five…”
“Another teacher?”
“No. This one’s the pastor’s wife.”
“Mrs. Bennett?”
“Mhm. The girls in bed?”
“Yeah. They’re asleep.”
“Okay, good. Now it’s your turn. Goodnight.”
“Night…”
The rest of the weekend, nothing much happened. Neither of my parents had to work. The girls went to their friends’ house while we went to my brother’s. Church was cancelled- on account of there being a funeral for Mrs. Bennett, and Mr. Bennett was grieving. The next few weeks were just as boring- School, school, more school. Oddly enough everything was really quiet during this time.
But now Halloween was coming up. As with every year my friends and I had to plan something.
“Okay,” I said to Roland and Juliet during science, “We really need to figure out what the heck we’re doing for Halloween. It’s next week for Pete’s sake.”
“Alright. How about… uhm…”
“Can we girls be bug themes?”
“Hm… sure, Jules. I mean, if we can all find costumes. I was thinking maybe we could do a masquerade theme.”
“Ooh, that sounds pretty!”
“Mhm. And we can wear dresses of all types! The boys can wear preferably suits...”
“…Uh… can we just wear something normal and a mask? Like a Scream mask?”
“…Fine. Okay.”
“I’m going to dress up as a butterfly and wear a mask. It’ll be like… pink and purple and sparkly!”
“I think I’ll just wear my old wings again, and probably wear like, my pretty red dress.”
“The one you wore for the Christmas dance last year?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“Ooh, that’s pretty!”
“I know, right?”
Juliet and I were giggling girls to Roland’s blissful confusion. He just shook his head, smiling, and went on to work on his assignment. Soon enough he got me babbling with him, and then all of us together, about tacos and a cute anthropomorphic personification. I think Veera and Kaylee, next to us, were beginning to get as amused (or annoyed) as half the people behind us. Though I didn’t really care about the people behind us- they’re a bunch of jerks anyway who always make fun of Roland, me, and a couple of others. Oh well.
So I told the others, over the span of the next day, the idea of what we’re doing. Apparently Jonesy was going to be Jason… Dan was going to be Freddy go with it… Ginny was going with Juliet’s route and was going to be a lady bug… Lilly, Elaine, Melody, and Sally were all going my type… while Jordan, Trisha, and Monica were all doing their own theme. We were all going to meet up still, though, at the usual place- the front of the school, 6:00 PM on Halloween night.
This was the time where I could first feel the word ‘foreboding’. And though none of us would admit it, I’m certain the others felt it all too.
Halloween day was pretty exciting. Ginny came over around noon, Jonesy having let her go so he could have some peace while trying to get ready. Of course we girls had to get ready together. Or well mostly together. We went driving around with my parents, mostly, before coming back home and starting into our costumes. Once she got on hers, she picked up her cell phone, and left the room. She came back a few minutes later.
“Hey,” her little headband was bouncing on her ginger hair as she entered the room, “Gordon’s going to come pick me up, so we can go over to his friend’s house to get a few things. We’ll be back later, alright?”
“Oh… uhm… okay. Sure.” I shrugged, feigning being totally okay with it. “When’s he coming?”
“He’s on his way, so he should be here soon. Can you help me get on these tights?”
Soon enough she left streaked in black and red. Gordon wasn’t wearing a costume, and neither was his friend. I couldn’t help but feel kinda… well… distasted by them. I mean, we may be old, by the general adult consensus, but we were all still young enough to dress up. Even if they didn’t go trick-or-treating like all of us. I mean, people dressed up to hand out candy or go to parties, too…
While she was gone (and Dad was getting pissed about her blowing me off, more so than I was), I worked on my hair and makeup. My hair was a mass of dyed blonde curls in a ponytail at this point- ah, the wonders of a curling iron!- and my face was pale, splotched out with cover up, fake blood, and steely white eye shadow. Face it: Halloween makeup is fun to apply.
A short while after she left, my dad got a text message from my brother asking if we would mind watching Gracie, as her grandmother was sick and couldn’t watch her while they went to a party. Daddy asked me if I would mind taking her on the trip. I of course didn’t, and so he drove over to get her, coming in with the little girl who was dressed like a black kitten.
Ginny ended up coming back at around five o’clock, her boyfriend still outside, much to my father’s dismay. I helped her put on her makeup, and she fixed my dress for me. My dress was terrible- this short, tiny red cake layer thing, with a big zipper all down the back. It was hard for me to squeeze into it, without a person helping me both for the zipper and the layers, since I was NOT thin in the slightest and had kinda… outgrown the dress a long time ago but still insisted upon wearing it. Slightly bent over my vanity table, I felt like some medieval princess being forced into a corset. Then, raiding the cabinets for bags and waving goodbye to my parents, we left with Gracie in between us. Ginny’s boyfriend took her away and kept kissing her then, though, so I was just left with Gracie by myself.
We were a bit early when we came to the high school. Juliet and Roland were there already, so we got to hang around with them until the others all got there. The next people to show up were Sally (in a blue dress, with oversized glasses as a mask), Trisha (Super Girl), Jordan (I’m not exactly sure… it was something rather gory, though), and Monica (The Queen of Hearts). Jonesy and Daniel arrived with Lily (in a black dress with a domino mask) soon after that, and after THAT Melody, Veera and Kaylee got there. We were all just waiting on Elaine.
“She’s probably not coming,” Monica said after a while. “I heard about a party downtown. She’s probably there.”
“She wouldn’t do that.” I waved my hand at this suggestion.
“Maybe.” Trisha shrugged. “Maybe not. All I know is that it’s almost six fifteen, and if I have to wait any longer, I’m going to leave. If she comes later, well, that’s her loss. It’s a small town. She can find us.”
“…Speak of the devil…” Roland pointed down the slightly hill that was what our school was on, and waved. Sure enough a figure in a white dress was running up the hill.
Elaine was decked out. She wore a big white and gold gown, a sequined domino on a handle, heavy makeup, a fur stole. Her blonde hair (a better dye job than mine by tenfold) was up in a braided bun on top of her head.
“I am so sorry I’m late!” She panted. “This stuff took FOREVER and I didn’t start until three o’clock!”
“It’s fine!” I told her, before going over to her. I bent down and lifted up her dress slightly to get a look at her shoes. “…Glass slippers? Cheese and rice on a freakin’ cracker, Elaine. You’re just like Cinderella- all dressed up for a ball!”
“Well I took it seriously!” She was blushing now under the makeup. I giggled and gave her a hug.
I took Gracie’s hand as we all walked around the town. My other hand was being held by various people throughout the night. First it was Elaine, though by the fifth or sixth house Juliet had squished her way in and kept on hugging me. She ended up getting kinda forced out of the way by Jordan though, and we swung our arms like crazy. By the end of the night my left arm was in pain. But at least we all had fun, Gracie especially. She kept telling everybody her name and getting hugs and kisses from old people. Everybody thought she was just the cutest thing in the whole wide world. Not like I didn’t already know that, of course. She knew it too.
By the end of the night, everybody’d thinned out. Juliet, Roland, and I walked Gracie home together. Juliet once again was holding my hand. We dropped Gracie off and I gave Stacy a hug before leaving. We were now escorting each other home- we lived across the street from one another. Juliet was exhausted- practically falling asleep on my shoulder. When we got to the parting on the sidewalk I gave her a big hug and let Roland attempt to keep her up. He snorted, trying not to drop her while holding onto her waist. The two were completely sugar high. Or well, Roland was- Juliet had hit her crash.
“Thanks Rose!” Roland called to me when I got to my porch. I blew them a kiss, and went inside.
“Did you have fun?” My stepmother asked, looking up from the TV to me.
“Mhm! Loads of it! We’ve got a TON of candy now, just so you know. So does Gracie, though I’m sure Alex and Stacy aren’t going to let her have all of it soon so there’s no worries there.”
“That’s good. I’m glad you had fun sweetie.”
“Thanks Mom.”
I went upstairs now, and tore off the dress with some difficulty. I dropped it in the hamper in the hallway, picking out clothes for tomorrow and clothes to go to bed in. The clothes for tomorrow I left on my dresser, while the ones to wear for tonight I took with me when I went down the hall. I pulled my curls out of their ponytail, finished getting undressed and got into the shower, turning it on warm and enjoying myself while washing out my hairspray and my makeup. Soon, my hair soft and me being thoroughly wet, I got out and dried off. I pulled on my pajamas and underclothes and shuffled off to bed. Looking at the clock, it was nearly ten thirty. I felt sleepy mostly because of the activities of the day. I reached over and turned on the alarm clock, and curled into bed, pulling my canopy over me- a bad habit I had, but a habit that helped me sleep, nonetheless. Eventually I heard my parents go to bed too, and fell asleep as the whole house went dark.
Sometime during the night I woke up, groggy and blurry-eyed. I could have sworn I heard a noise, felt a presence, seen a shadow… but I was a paranoid loser, I did that all the time. Casting my eyes quickly at the clock while pulling the blanket over my head, I noticed it was a little while past midnight. I needed to fall back asleep, or else I wouldn’t be awake in the morning. Using this, plus the comforting fact that if anything was here they’d have made themselves be noticed by now, I went back to sleep. It was probably just Peter Pan anyway, if anything.
The next morning I felt refreshed, energized, and ready to start the day. Humming I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, had breakfast with my parents, and then pulled on my coat and backpack and started outside, music blaring in my ears.
Immediately I knew something was wrong. I wasn’t sure how. The biting frost and fog was nothing, so that wasn’t it. It wasn’t the silence, as I couldn’t hear the silence. I think it was the fact that nobody was outside. When I got up to the school, people were all huddled together, whispering frantically to one another. This was when I started to get scared. Was there another ‘suicide’?
I didn’t realize what happened until I heard it over the announcements, until I didn’t see Roland or Juliet. Until I figured out what had been missing on my walk to school.
Juliet South, my best friend, optimist and complete dork, was found dead in her room this morning.
The next day school was cancelled. I immediately went over to Roland’s house, and knocked on the door. For a few moments nobody answered, but right as I was about to leave, Roland opened the door. His eyes were dark, his hair was matted, and he was pale. He looked sick, to me. I went inside and shut the door behind me, and immediately I was giving him a hug.
“Oh my god, Roland… I am so sorry…”
He was silent. I knew he was upset by this. Roland was never, ever quiet. I lead him upstairs to his bedroom, and sat him down on his bed, taking a stool for myself. He stared off into space right now, eyes wide. I wondered what he was looking at.
“May… May I ask what happened?”
Slowly he nodded, and then blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked to me.
“I swear to god, it was not a suicide.”
“I believe you on that.”
“No, you don’t understand!” Roland was on his feet now, pacing back and forth in front of me, his hands balled into fists. “There are so many fucking reasons why it CANNOT BE A SUICIDE!”
“ROLAND! I know!”
“NO, YOU DON’T! You know how happy Jules was. You know how chipper and peppy and excitable she was. She wouldn’t commit a suicide. You know that much, Rose, but you don’t know the rest!”
“Then what is the rest?”
He stopped pacing. He came up to me, hands on my shoulders, holding me against the wall. Our noses and foreheads touched. We stared into the others’ eyes; there was nothing else to actually see.
“I. Found. My. Sister.”
“…Oh my god, Roland.”
“There was blood everywhere. All over her bed sheets. There was a gun a few feet away…” He fell silent for a few moments, and took a step back, his hands still on my shoulders. “It wasn’t a suicide.”
“I know.”
He relaxed then. He sat back down on the bed, leaning against his headboard. I got off of the stool and sat beside him.
“Did she know I loved her?” He asked. This was nearly inaudible.
“Yes,” I reassured him, “She did.”
“I never made it seem like I did… I was always teasing her…”
“Brothers can do that. That’s their job. Trust me, she knew you loved her.”
“How?”
“Because. The nice things you did. Like taking her upstairs on Halloween, or beating up those guys who were being mean to her back in the first grade. And if she didn’t know by those, then she’d still know, because any good God would tell her.”
“…Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.”
“…I’m beginning to not believe in God. If He were out there, why would He take my sister? All those teachers? Mrs. Bennett?”
“I don’t know. I asked myself this too, a long time ago, remember? When my mom died. Mr. Bennett would tell us that it’s all because of some divine plan… but to be honest, I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t know if He exists or not.”
After a few moments of silence, Roland replied, “It’s good to know somebody else agrees with me in this Hellhole.”
I nodded, and looked up to his ceiling- filled with stick-on glow planets and stars, to go with the similar nighttime theme of the room. It had been the same for as long as I can remember, for as long as we’d lived across the street from one another, I’d reckon. Fifteen long years.
“Promise me something, Rose.”
“What?”
“Promise me you won’t die.”
“Only if you promise me you won’t.”
“I promise.”
“Then I promise too.”
Almost absent-mindedly, I locked pinkies with Roland. Soon enough we could hear footsteps coming up the stairs and entering the room.
“Lucille, dear,” Roland’s mother said, giving me a sad smile, “Your father wants you home now.”
“Oh… okay, Missus South. Thank you.”
I gave her and Roland hugs, and then left the house, going back across the street to mine. My dad was in the kitchen at this point.
“Rose, come in here.” I did such.
“Yes Daddy...“ My voice fell off. I stared at the items which lay on the table now. Three guns. “What the…”
“Your brother and I picked these up. Glocks.”
“What for?”
“Well since Jules was killed last night- and by this point we’re all pretty sure it’s not suicides, no matter what the papers say- we’re going to teach you self-defense. You’re the oldest girl in the house; you have to protect the others and yourself. What happened on Sunday… The Souths live right across the street. That could have been you dead, Rose.”
“I know Daddy.”
“So we’re going to teach you how to shoot a gun. We’ll take you out to the hills this weekend, alright?”
“Alright, Daddy.”
He tossed me one. I squeaked, but caught it before it hit me in the face.
“Put it under your bed. We’ll work on your catching skills afterwards.”
Saturday, I woke up before the dawn. I groaned, stumbled over to my closet to pull out clothes and get dressed in warm pants and a sweater, and then went downstairs to make myself up some breakfast. Having a lot of time today, I made myself pancakes instead of just cereal. I took my time, I went upstairs and pulled my hair into a ponytail around eight thirty, when my dad woke up. While he fixed himself up with coffee and got dressed, I got out the gun and waited.
Soon enough we got into the car, driving down the street to my brother’s house. He was waiting- Dad must have sent him a text that we were coming- and hopped into the car when we came up. We drove off and out of town then, and soon enough we were in the hills.
The skies above were bursting open in light, and so the clearing we went to was practically blinding. A well-used target was marked on one of the trees. My dad dusted it off with his hand, and came back to stand beside me with my brother.
“Now. Make sure the gun is loaded.” It was. “Alright. Now, sweetie, aim it right at that target. Just like you were playing darts.”
…Yeah, GREAT idea Dad. I suck at darts. And it showed as I shot the gun. Not only did I almost drop the gun screaming, but the bullet didn’t hit even hit the target. My dad steadied me, and had me try again. My aim was still terrible, but at least this time, though I was tentative now, I didn’t drop the gun.
“Think about throwing a ball! You want to hit this guy in the face, Rose! IN THE FACE!”
Well. That worked. The bullet hit the upper proportions of the target, which rattled in reply. My brother cheered and my dad looked proud.
“Okay, that was a good one. We’ll keep working on this. For now, though, I think we might want to get home before we scare all the animals away.”
I nodded. I wanted to be out of there as soon as possible. So into the car we reloaded ourselves, and back towards home. We dropped Alex off and then pulled up to our house. A familiar face was on the corner, looking kinda lost and confused. I jumped out and ran towards him once the car stopped.
“ANDY!” I screamed. It was Andrew Davis, a new friend of mine since he moved here earlier this summer. I clinged to the taller boy’s shoulders. He seemed surprised at this, and nervously patted my back. I smiled up at him.
“Hi Rose!”
“What’s going on?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips before I attempted to jump up high enough to play with his mousy brown hair. “I haven’t seen you for a while!”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But I’ve got good news! ... Guess!”
“Uhm… Oh, I’m no good at guessing! Tell me!”
“Fine. My mom’s enrolling me in your school!”
“Really? Why so now?”
“She doesn’t want me home alone all the time, what with the killings. According to her, out with people would be better than at home alone.” He shrugged. I smiled, and took his arm, dragging him up to my porch.
“So she’s only putting you in now that a student’s been killed?”
“Yeah. Because now I’m at risk, just like every other high school kid.” His hazel eyes locked onto my face. “Even you, Rose.” His gaze fell to his watch. “Shit, I gotta go. I’ll see you later!”
I waved after him, and went inside.
The rest of the day, and indeed the next few weeks, were uneventful. However, then came the night before the day my school’s play opened. I was going to bed at around eight, trying to get as much sleep as possible, as I was in it. And indeed, for a long while I did. But then I heard that tapping at my window again, as I’d been hearing for a while. I groaned and pulled the pillow over my head, trying not to look. The tapping continued, and eventually came to a slight scratching noise.
Then I felt the breeze chill my legs, and heard the slight, almost metallic creak of my window sliding open.
Now I was fully awake. I put the pillow back off of my face, and looked around through my eyelashes. A silhouetted person stood by my window. Not thinking at the moment, but my heart pounding, I sat up quickly and pulled back my canopy.
This scared the person away. They darted out the window once again, leaving it open. I struggled out of the covers and hopped over, holding onto the windowsill while looking down. I didn’t see a person below. Absent-mindedly, I then looked above. Still nothing.
My Peter Pan must have flown away too fast for me to see him.
I locked the window this time.
Weeks passed by since the last attack. Everything was still in locked-down silence. By the wintertime we all were in two factions- the group that thought that everything was over, and the group that thought that the sudden silence was unsettling. I was on the second party. Through November I was on my toes.
The biggest instance of this was during the last day of the school play, just three days after the night where a mysterious person came into my room. It was the first day of snow for Suburbia, a rare occurrence as it was mid-November. Once we all actually got inside, and from that, soon into the real folds of the play, we’d all relaxed a bit from the cares of the world. We weren’t, however, accounting for the power to be cut during the finale, just before Trisha started singing.
I have to say, I really admire Trisha. Unabashed, she’d just continued singing. The pit couldn’t see their music, so the entire house was otherwise silent. Monica, Addison, and I all followed, trying to keep cool. The whole ending went through with this, with the curtain calls and running out into the outside hall to greet the fans. Afterwards, we were all congratulated by everybody who knew that that wasn’t supposed to happen. We’d stayed in character!
Afterwards, when I got home, I fell right onto my bed. Thank god. Nothing happened, like I had expected. That was an honest scare, and I really think that the others really did amazingly well under that pressure. If they hadn’t, we would have lost the audience, and the night would not have gone well because we all would be embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves and each other.
But we were lucky, at least then, and everything went on as usual. The next week we didn’t have school due to the snow, which kept piling up further and further. On Monday I went out with my friend Sarah. She called at like, eight o’clock at night, squealing about the snow, and asking if we could meet outside. I agreed, and ran and got on my coat, gloves, hat, scarf, and sneakers, going out into the cold night. The sky above was an odd bright gray, and I could hear laughter down the road on both sides- up the hill and down by the school. I started towards the school area, slowly, waiting for Sarah to get here already. Gosh, it was colder than I thought it would be.
Soon I saw a figure crossing the street a few times, and coming closer. After a moment, I called out. “Sarah?”
“Yeah?”
“Good! You’re here!” I ran up, to be hit in the face with a snowball. Sarah giggled, and I chucked some at her too. Promptly, a snowball fight began. Sarah soon fell onto the ground. She grabbed my jeans while I was gloating and pulled me down too.
“OH MY GOD THAT’S COLD!” I screamed through a fit of laughter. Snow was coming up my sweater. Sarah and I were both writhing, and we probably would have been getting looks from passers-by if there were any. But now we were making snow angels. We helped each other up, dusting off the snow.
“Rose! I KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD DO.”
“WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!”
“WE SHOULD GO SLEDDING DOWN SNAKE HILL!” Seeing my blank expression, she continued, “The hill behind my house!”
“Oh! Sure! Let’s go ask my dad if he’ll let me go.”
He did. He just gave me his cell phone to take with me in the meantime. We walked over to her house- under a barrage of snowballs from some local boys. Sarah through a few back while we ran off. Once we went around the corner, the rain of snowballs stopped, and we got to her house. Her mom was super nice- she gave us pizza pans and garbage bags to use, and we left. Sarah’s dog Juniper was following us, barking.
“Go home, Juniper!” Sarah told her. She didn’t listen, but she did shut up while following us. We went up the hill- it was a small hill, luckily- and set it down. I’d never sled before, so Sarah had to teach me. She took a garbage bag, wrapping it around her lower half and sitting on the ground. With slight prompting with her hands and feet, she started sliding down the hill, slicking out a trail behind her. She spun a big, and landed halfway down the hill as a truck was coming. She came back over to me, letting it go past. We stuck our tongues out at it. Hey, it was fun to be childish.
“Now it’s your turn,” she told me. She sat me down on one of the pizza trays on her trail, and instructed me to lean back and lift up my legs. I was reminded of the crunch position at our school, so I did that. She took my shoulders, and gave me a small shove. I started spinning down the hill, down her path, and when I hit the bottom ridge of it, screaming, I tipped over. I wasn’t sure how the pizza tray got on top of me, but it did. Sarah soon almost smashed into me on her own tray. We lay there snorting for some time before we actually got up, going back up the hill where the rest of our stuff was. We sat down, trying to catch our breath, before we started whitewashing each other with the trays.
It was after a few moments that we heard Juniper growl. Since she’d been so quiet throughout most of this it came as a bit of a shock to us. She was staring at the woods surrounding the road.
“Juniper,” Sarah sighed, “There’s nothing there. Calm down already.”
Juniper didn’t. I could see a bit of movement myself, but I thought it was just the wind.
“Go on Juniper.” Sarah pointed to the house. “Go home. Go on.”
Juniper, slightly whimpering, did this, albeit slowly. I looked to Sarah, gave her a sheepish smile, and then greeted a storm of white snow in my eyes. I did the same to Sarah.
There was a rather loud noise, like a knock, nearby. I jumped almost a foot in the air, landing right on my ass. Sarah stumbled over my legs and fell down beside me. I started rubbing my eyes, and then wished I hadn’t.
Hanging from the stout little climbing tree beside the road was a body, tied about with a noose. In the dim light shining from the streetlamps onto the snow, I could make out brunette hair in a ponytail and long, slender limbs. The figure was extremely pale, drained.
I grabbed Sarah’s hand.
“Sarah,” I whispered.
“What?” She was trying to get the snow out of her eyes. I pulled down her cap, and pulled her to her feet with me. “It wasn’t nice of you to trip me like that…”
“I’m sorry, it was an accident. Run.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ll tell you once we get inside!”
“What about the bags and the trays?”
“Don’t worry about them! Move it! Don’t look back!”
I finally got her to then. We started running to her house. We opened the gate, Juniper yapping at us while we went up the stairs to her porch and inside, slamming the door behind us. I was out of breath, and waited a few minutes to answer Sarah’s impending question of ‘What happened?’
“I saw a body…”
“You probably just saw vines. Don’t be so superstitious!”
“No, Sarah. I swear to god. Somebody is out there hanging from that tree. Call 911. Now.” My voice was commanding at this point. Sarah rolled her eyes, and went to the phone. Soon enough, an entire team of cop cars were rolling up to the side of the road. They didn’t bother with us, but went straight up towards the hill. I dragged Sarah outside to watch, and we went to the foot of the hill before being nearly trampled by police. I pulled out my cell phone, which had just come back to my mind. I sat down on the front porch, and called my dad. Upon telling him what was going on, he of course panicked. He left the girls with my stepmom, and started over. Once getting here, he enveloped me in a big hug.
“My god, Rose! Do you know how close this was?”
“Yes Daddy. I know…”
“It’s a good thing you and your friend were smart and came right back here and called the police. Did they say who it was?”
“No, they haven’t gotten it down or identify it yet.”
There’s a saying that states ‘Speak of the Devil and He shall appear.’ Well, I think it’s true, because at that moment I was tapped on the shoulder, to face a tall, imposing officer. He asked me and Sarah to go over and see if we could identify the body, as they were pretty sure it was of a person our age. I took Sarah’s hand, and with our parents following us up, we went to the hill to see the body lying there.
I knew who it was immediately. Though the face was now gaunt, and the mouth was open in an O, and the eyes were wide in shock, I could tell who it was. Even though the amount of mutilations around the neck, chest, and face should have by all means made her impossible to pick out.
“It’s Monica Drew.”
The next few weeks were spent mostly inside. My friends would come over to visit me, instead of the other way around. Roland came first. Instantly he came and gave me a hug.
“You saw one too.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about it. What did you feel?”
“Well, when I first saw it I was really freaked out. My only thought was about getting Sarah and me out of there alive. We didn’t know who’d be there, what happened. I just got us to run. But when I saw who it was… I wasn’t AS freaked out anymore, since I’d come to accept it, though it still kinda disturbed me. I mean… I hated Monica, you know that. I’m a jealous spirit. But she didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody does…”
“I agree.”
“I can’t imagine what it must have been like to find your own sister.”
“Well… I kinda felt what you did. I was scared. I ran downstairs to my parents. I didn’t know what else to do. But when it really hit me, when I really saw her body… I was just… in a blind rage. That’s all I can really say. I’m still trying to get over that.”
“I bet…” We were sitting on my window seat at this time. The window was shut, still locked from a few days ago.
“But you see what I mean. About how it couldn’t have been a suicide.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Good. I was hoping I wouldn’t be the only one.”
It was then that I heard the door open downstairs. Roland and I stayed quiet, listening in to what was going on downstairs. Somebody was talking to my stepmother.
A few moments later, Andy pounded into the room, panting and sweating.
“I came over here as soon as I heard!” He huffed, bending over slightly to hold his knees. Roland looked confused. “Jesus, Rose, what happened? Are you okay? Did the person touch you?”
“No, Andy! Andy, I’m fine. I promise. It was scary, but it’s over now. Sit down.”
He did such. Roland was still looking confused. After a moment of looking between the boys, I finally realized why.
“Oh! Roland, this is Andy Davis. Andy, this is Roland South.”
“Ah, that explains it.” Andy jutted out a hand. Roland reluctantly took it. “Nice to meet you, bro. So what are you to my girlfriend?”
I blushed vividly then.
“Andy!”
“What? It’s pretty obvious…”
“I know, but still!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up.”
“I’m her brother,” Roland said.
“Really? The one that’s never around?”
“No, the one that’s not biological and lives across the street.”
“Oh.” Andy nodded then. “Your real sister died a few months ago, on Halloween, huh?”
“Yeah…” Roland looked down at this.
“Maybe we should change the topi-“
“Man, that must be rough. Losing the person you love so much. I don’t have a sister.”
“Lucky you.”
“Yeah. I know, right? I heard you found her. What was it like? I’ve heard stories. Is it true that her body was torn in half?”
“Can we PLEASE change the subje-?”
“Yes.”
“What about all the cuts? The bruises? I heard she was naked. Is THAT true?”
“PLEASE!”
The scream was enough to make Andy shut up.
“I’m sorry.” He said, calming down a bit. “I should go. I’ll see you later, Rosie.”
He came over and gave me a kiss on the forehead before leaving. Roland was shocked. I put my arm around his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry… I don’t know what got into him…”
“It’s okay, Rose. It’s not your fault.” He shook my arm off, standing up. “I should probably go too, actually. It’s getting late. Mom’ll want me home.”
I gave him a hug, and he left.
The next day, Andy came back over. He sat beside me on my bed, and took my hand.
“I’m sorry I ruined your day yesterday.”
“You didn’t. It’s fine.”
“Still. I’m very sorry for whatever harm I may have caused you.”
“It wasn’t me you hurt, Andy. It was Roland.”
He was silent at this. For a while I just sat there, being quiet and holding onto my old plushy teddy bear, while he eventually stood up and walked around the room. He went to the window, unlocking it and opening it.
“You shouldn’t keep this window closed, yknow. You need fresh air. It’s not healthy for a pretty young girl like you to be held up in a hot, stuffy place like this. With no real air coming inside… you could suffocate…”
“Andy, stop saying that and shut the window. Nothing like that’s gonna happen.”
Andy sighed, and shut the window again. He came over to the foot of my bed, holding onto either side of the two posts at the end.
“Rose, I don’t like Roland.”
“Why?”
“I just don’t. There’s just something about him. I don’t trust him. You shouldn’t either.”
“But Roland’s a nice guy! He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“How do you know that, Rose? How do you know he’s not the creep who killed his own sister? After all, he’s the one to have found her, isn’t he?”
I was quiet. That was true, but I still couldn’t see Roland killing Jules. No, he couldn’t have had. Roland was too good to do something like that. Even if he declared himself violent, he really wasn’t. Not to girls anyway. Even to guys, the only time he got violent was when they hurt him, Jules, Elaine, or me. That was a general rule for him- you don’t touch a friend, or else you get your ass handed to him.
“I want to protect you.” Andy let his hands slide off the posts, and he came back over to me, sitting by me and taking my hands from my teddy bear to hold. “That’s all I want to do. Rose, you’re my world. Understand?”
My face was becoming beat red. I nodded.
“Good.” He gave me a kiss. “I have to go now. I’ll see you at school on Monday.”
I nodded, and let him go. I relaxed in bed, or at least tried to. I was still nervous, thinking about Andy and Roland. What would happen? Would they get into a fight? I wasn’t sure. What I was sure of, however, was that this wasn’t the end of it. It was just the beginning.
I got up and locked the window again.
It was winter break now. My parents had finally let me start being alone again, because everything started being quiet again. It snowed, much more than the first time, dumping down into the city of Suburbia like a flood.
It was a Saturday when my brother and sister dropped off Gracie, and when my father and stepmother were to go with them to a local Christmas party for adults. It was tradition, so even though this would mean leaving a lot of kids home alone with a killer on the loose, most people still went. I thought that that was stupid, but I didn’t complain.
“Okay,” my stepmother was running me through everything one last time while pulling on her jacket, “No parties, and no friends over, gets the kids to bed by ten…“
“Eight thirty for Gracie,” my sister added.
“Yes, right. Make dinner around six… We’ll be home around eleven, understand?”
“Yes ma’am.” I curtsied, grinning. My stepmother gave me a dry smile, looking slightly amused by my sarcasm. “I got it, Mom. Go on, now! You guys need to go enjoy yourselves.”
The two women nodded, finishing up their jackets, and going outside and to the car. As soon as it pulled away was when everything started. The little kids seemed to have made a pact with each other to annoy me. Gracie needed to use the bathroom, Ella and Kenzie were fighting over who got to do what, and then all three were fighting over what we’d have for dinner... I never realized that being a babysitter for three kids could be so hard.
“That’s it! C’mon, you’re going outside.”
The girls seemed to be rather impressed with that. I helped them all into their jackets and mittens, hats and sweatpants, laces up their boots, everything. Throughout all this, luckily, they were relatively quiet and complacent. They went outside, shouting at each other that they were all going to make a snowman. I went upstairs and fell into my chair in the corner, exhausted.
And yet the day wasn’t even done. It was only three o’clock… I’d have these kids for the next eight hours. I had to do something.
But not right now. For right now, I just relaxed. I read a few books, I drew random pictures of girls, and at around three thirty I answered a call.
“Hello?”
I could hear static all throughout it. That made shivers run down my spine. I HATE the sound of static. There was no answer. I tried talking again. Still no answer. Finally, I just put the phone down on the receiver and sat back down. That was creepy. But it was no match for what happened just a few minutes later.
I heard the girls scream my name. At that point I was trying to fall asleep on the chair, but that startled me. I hadn’t heard them do that before. I was quick- I started out towards the door, before my common sense kicked in. I grabbed my gun from under my bed, and ran downstairs and out the back door.
This was when everything seemed to stop. The moment I got off the porch and into the white-covered lawn, time seemed to slow down, letting me take in what was going on.
A man stood in the middle of the lawn. He was just a few inches taller than me. His pale head, undoubtedly bald beneath, was covered with bandages. He wore a white robe, not too much unlike a hospital gown. His nose was thin, his face was gaunt, and his lips were cracked and bleeding. But the part about him I noticed the most was his eyes. They were a brilliant gray-blue slits, sunken into his skin. The area around them was dark, bruised. But the most starting thing was how calm they looked. While they seemed hard the split moment previous, while he’d been looking at the girls, they’d softened upon looking at me. I know I’d seen those eyes before… somewhere…
Ella and Kenzie were a few feet away from me, to my right and left. Gracie was nearer the man, knocked on her butt, staring with huge, fearful eyes at what was surrounding her- a steely gray wolf, no doubt almost twice my size. Fear gripped me, too, now. My heart beating, I lifted up the gun.
“Let them go.” I said, trying to make my voice sound confident. I glared to try and add to this effect. I realized my voice had cracked, and shouted instead, “Let them go!”
The man seemed to hear me that time. He looked confused, but then turned, walking to the fence and throwing himself over. The wolf followed.
My shaking arm dropped the gun then. I ran to Gracie, falling to the ground beside her as I struggled to pick her up and hold her. My chest was aching. I clinged to Gracie like a lifeline, forcing myself to my feet. Ella and Kenzie were looking at me with admiration. I leaned down to pick up the gun on my way back into the house, the girls following me. I gave Gracie to Ella, and shut the door, locking it. I locked the front as well, and then started checking all the windows.
Mine was open. That got me scared even worse.
I looked around the whole house. I found nothing. I shut and locked the window, running back downstairs to the girls, who were sitting at the edge of the steps waiting for me. I shepherded them over to the TV, putting on a mind-numbing little show while shutting the blinds. I sat with them for a while, before going and making dinner. It was simple- I threw some chicken nuggets into the microwave and made some macaroni and cheese on the stovetop. We ate in silence, and went back to the TV for the remaining few hours.
At eight thirty I turned it off.
“We’re going to bed now.” My voice, I thought, sounded unquestionable. Not so.
“Why?” Kenzie asked, crossing her arms. “I’m not tired. It’s not ten yet.”
“It’s time for Gracie to go to bed, and I am not letting her go alone, and I’m not letting either of YOU go alone either. We’re all going to bed.”
“If you don’t want us to be alone,” this was Ella now, “Why are we going to bed?”
I thought about this, and then nodded.
“Come on. Let’s to get you kids dressed. We’ll share my bed.”
“…Is your bed going to be big enough?”
“It should be, it’s a Queen.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Now come on.”
I got them into their pajamas, and got into my own nightgown, before we settled down. Ella took the foot of the bed, and I snuggled up with Gracie, Kenzie beside us. Like this, we fell asleep by nine o’clock.
Suburbia was a quiet town. Paved sidewalks, nice identical houses, impeccable lawns, everything surrounded by tall trees that kids could climb. At this time of the year- October- the leaves had turned gold and red.
The high school was only a few blocks away from my house. A big building, in close proximity of the middle and elementary schools, as well as the local church and the day care center. Technically, everything was in close proximity to each other, but these were all on practically the same block. There was a dead teacher from each of the three schools now, the first being the middle school (an unfortunate accident, as the papers called it), then the high school (a terrible coincidence), and then the elementary school (a scary conspiracy). Truth is, nobody was sure what was plaguing Suburbia, but we all wanted to know.
Me? I was beginning to wonder if some animal or something came into town. I hadn’t seen any of the bodies (they always made it closed casket at the funerals, and there were no pictures in the news) but from what I’d heard, they were a gruesome sight… though still nobody told me a thing. It was getting rather annoying. It’s not like I was a baby or something. I was a freshman. I had friends. We probably saw things in horror films that were ten times worse than that.
Speaking of friends, currently I sat at the lunch table. I felt kinda bored, nothing much was going on. Jonesy (his real name being Maxwell Jones, other people called him Sparky) was talking to Lily (Lilith Sully), and Dan (Daniel Courtner) and I were talking.
“I told you that that show was epic win, Rose.”
(To clarify, my name is Lucille Anna Anderson. Everybody calls me Rose though.)
“You were right, Dan. I mean Jesus. It was like… crazy.”
My attention was stolen at that moment. I saw Elaine Childs- a friend who I don’t get to see much, as we don’t share classes this year like we did last year.
“ELAINE!” I screamed, waving my hands to get her attention. That got her, and she waved back. So did Juliet South, another friend who was in my Science and English classes. I sat right in-between her and her brother Roland. If I didn’t, I think those two would kill each other. Or well, Juliet might kill Roland… Much as I liked the boy, he could be annoying from time to time… mostly towards his sister.
Speaking of Roland, he was jibber-jabbering with some of his friends at the table to my right, against the wall. Well, he wasn’t really the one talking. He was too busy listening to some song on his music player. As for other people around the area, my friend Melody Sante was somewhere way the hell over by the soda machines, Sally Dawes was out in the courtyard, and Trisha Conner was at her usual table up front, and Jordan Adams was a few tables down from her. Monica Drew was… somewhere (to be honest I didn’t care where, I didn’t exactly like her)… and Ginny (Jonesy’s little sister, her real name’s something like Fiona, but she’s Ginny to us) was at the table beside Roland’s.
Boredom set back in again. With a groan I looked over at the clock, and then at the others.
“Can we please go now?”
This was generally accepted, as Lily had taken off to go talk to one of the teachers. I dragged the guys upstairs (Daniel was pretty ticked at that, with a healing leg and all) and stuck up there for a while before going into science with Roland and Jules, where we did some bookwork. Then off to English we skipped… okay, maybe not skipped, exactly, but still.
During this period I heard two people to the right, Elliot and Carrie, talking about something in frantic whispers. I couldn’t hear all of it, but I could catch a few words here and there. ‘Discombobulated’ was one. That threw me off. Then of course there was ‘Ms. Cainbride’… a teacher at the middle school who didn’t show up today.
Had the suicide chain gotten another person? Ms. Cainbride was a really good teacher, from what I’d heard. I didn’t have her personally, but I thought she was real nice last year, when she pointed me towards the right classroom. My favorite teacher (Mrs. Gaites) was the wife of Ms. Cainbride’s sub, as Ms. Cainbride wasn’t there for half the year. But the two fell silent soon and went back to their papers.
School was over soon. I flipped on my own music player, putting on some rather heavy rock, and started downstairs and back home, to the little house where I’d lived my whole life through. I turned off my music, and put it in my coat pocket, which went up onto the coat hanger beside the door. My backpack was dropped beneath it. I went upstairs to my bedroom, and flopped down on my bed. I was tired from school, and the pink themes around the room, calming as they were, all wanted me to fall asleep. But I couldn’t, I mean I had responsibilities, chores that still badly needed to be done.
I could hear my sisters, Ella and Kenzie, outside playing with their friends. Nobody else was home. My brother was in juvy (he made some pretty bad mistakes); my siblings had all moved out at this time. My oldest brother Alex and his wife Stacy lived up the hill a bit with their daughter Gracie, my oldest sister Adriana lived a few blocks away (though I never saw her anyway), my other sister Sadie lived in the Deep South with her baby Bailey and her abusive baby’s daddy, my brother Ethan was God Knows Where, and my other two sisters, Renée and Allison, lived a few cities away. My house, once crowded with people, was quiet. I liked that.
I got up and started cleaning, doing chores and such- pretty much just tidying up my room, unloading, reloading, running and unloading again the dishwasher, and scrubbing the bathroom. I turned on the radio in the living room, listening to it while I did all that, jamming in general really.
I actually kinda liked cleaning my room and the kitchen. My room because I loved fixing my stuffed animals and relaxing on my bed pretending to be doing stuff, and the kitchen because I had this obsession with wiping down the counters even when I didn’t need to. I was never totally sure why, I just did. But then again, afterwards I always got to wash my hands… and that was always the best part, because I loved blowing bubbles while washing my hands.
Secretly.
Once done, I went outside and grabbed the girls away from their friends, bringing them inside and locking the door. I turned off the music and passed out on my bed.
I woke up around dusk, to the phone ringing downstairs. I rolled off of my bed, trying not to get enveloped in my canopy, and went downstairs to answer it.
“Lucille, sweetheart?” Through the receiver came the chopping-up voice of my mother- the only person to call me Lucille instead of Rose pretty much. Our phone connection sucked.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, I’m going to be home late, okay? Apparently there’s been another ‘suicide’,” her voice accented this, “And they need us to go investigate it. Your dad’ll probably be home around normal time… just make up dinner and then send the girls off to bed.”
Years of babysitting had prepared me for this. I nodded before realizing she couldn’t see me.
“Yes, okay. I’ll be sure to do it. Seeya later.”
I did as I was told. By the time everything was done, it was almost nine o’clock. I went and took some sleeping pills (Melatonin, I took it semi-often), and went to bed finally. Since it was Friday, I didn’t need to turn on my alarm clock or anything. I just made sure the girls were asleep and started pulling on my pajamas. I heard the door open below.
“How many does this make?” I called down to my mother.
“Five…”
“Another teacher?”
“No. This one’s the pastor’s wife.”
“Mrs. Bennett?”
“Mhm. The girls in bed?”
“Yeah. They’re asleep.”
“Okay, good. Now it’s your turn. Goodnight.”
“Night…”
The rest of the weekend, nothing much happened. Neither of my parents had to work. The girls went to their friends’ house while we went to my brother’s. Church was cancelled- on account of there being a funeral for Mrs. Bennett, and Mr. Bennett was grieving. The next few weeks were just as boring- School, school, more school. Oddly enough everything was really quiet during this time.
But now Halloween was coming up. As with every year my friends and I had to plan something.
“Okay,” I said to Roland and Juliet during science, “We really need to figure out what the heck we’re doing for Halloween. It’s next week for Pete’s sake.”
“Alright. How about… uhm…”
“Can we girls be bug themes?”
“Hm… sure, Jules. I mean, if we can all find costumes. I was thinking maybe we could do a masquerade theme.”
“Ooh, that sounds pretty!”
“Mhm. And we can wear dresses of all types! The boys can wear preferably suits...”
“…Uh… can we just wear something normal and a mask? Like a Scream mask?”
“…Fine. Okay.”
“I’m going to dress up as a butterfly and wear a mask. It’ll be like… pink and purple and sparkly!”
“I think I’ll just wear my old wings again, and probably wear like, my pretty red dress.”
“The one you wore for the Christmas dance last year?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“Ooh, that’s pretty!”
“I know, right?”
Juliet and I were giggling girls to Roland’s blissful confusion. He just shook his head, smiling, and went on to work on his assignment. Soon enough he got me babbling with him, and then all of us together, about tacos and a cute anthropomorphic personification. I think Veera and Kaylee, next to us, were beginning to get as amused (or annoyed) as half the people behind us. Though I didn’t really care about the people behind us- they’re a bunch of jerks anyway who always make fun of Roland, me, and a couple of others. Oh well.
So I told the others, over the span of the next day, the idea of what we’re doing. Apparently Jonesy was going to be Jason… Dan was going to be Freddy go with it… Ginny was going with Juliet’s route and was going to be a lady bug… Lilly, Elaine, Melody, and Sally were all going my type… while Jordan, Trisha, and Monica were all doing their own theme. We were all going to meet up still, though, at the usual place- the front of the school, 6:00 PM on Halloween night.
This was the time where I could first feel the word ‘foreboding’. And though none of us would admit it, I’m certain the others felt it all too.
Halloween day was pretty exciting. Ginny came over around noon, Jonesy having let her go so he could have some peace while trying to get ready. Of course we girls had to get ready together. Or well mostly together. We went driving around with my parents, mostly, before coming back home and starting into our costumes. Once she got on hers, she picked up her cell phone, and left the room. She came back a few minutes later.
“Hey,” her little headband was bouncing on her ginger hair as she entered the room, “Gordon’s going to come pick me up, so we can go over to his friend’s house to get a few things. We’ll be back later, alright?”
“Oh… uhm… okay. Sure.” I shrugged, feigning being totally okay with it. “When’s he coming?”
“He’s on his way, so he should be here soon. Can you help me get on these tights?”
Soon enough she left streaked in black and red. Gordon wasn’t wearing a costume, and neither was his friend. I couldn’t help but feel kinda… well… distasted by them. I mean, we may be old, by the general adult consensus, but we were all still young enough to dress up. Even if they didn’t go trick-or-treating like all of us. I mean, people dressed up to hand out candy or go to parties, too…
While she was gone (and Dad was getting pissed about her blowing me off, more so than I was), I worked on my hair and makeup. My hair was a mass of dyed blonde curls in a ponytail at this point- ah, the wonders of a curling iron!- and my face was pale, splotched out with cover up, fake blood, and steely white eye shadow. Face it: Halloween makeup is fun to apply.
A short while after she left, my dad got a text message from my brother asking if we would mind watching Gracie, as her grandmother was sick and couldn’t watch her while they went to a party. Daddy asked me if I would mind taking her on the trip. I of course didn’t, and so he drove over to get her, coming in with the little girl who was dressed like a black kitten.
Ginny ended up coming back at around five o’clock, her boyfriend still outside, much to my father’s dismay. I helped her put on her makeup, and she fixed my dress for me. My dress was terrible- this short, tiny red cake layer thing, with a big zipper all down the back. It was hard for me to squeeze into it, without a person helping me both for the zipper and the layers, since I was NOT thin in the slightest and had kinda… outgrown the dress a long time ago but still insisted upon wearing it. Slightly bent over my vanity table, I felt like some medieval princess being forced into a corset. Then, raiding the cabinets for bags and waving goodbye to my parents, we left with Gracie in between us. Ginny’s boyfriend took her away and kept kissing her then, though, so I was just left with Gracie by myself.
We were a bit early when we came to the high school. Juliet and Roland were there already, so we got to hang around with them until the others all got there. The next people to show up were Sally (in a blue dress, with oversized glasses as a mask), Trisha (Super Girl), Jordan (I’m not exactly sure… it was something rather gory, though), and Monica (The Queen of Hearts). Jonesy and Daniel arrived with Lily (in a black dress with a domino mask) soon after that, and after THAT Melody, Veera and Kaylee got there. We were all just waiting on Elaine.
“She’s probably not coming,” Monica said after a while. “I heard about a party downtown. She’s probably there.”
“She wouldn’t do that.” I waved my hand at this suggestion.
“Maybe.” Trisha shrugged. “Maybe not. All I know is that it’s almost six fifteen, and if I have to wait any longer, I’m going to leave. If she comes later, well, that’s her loss. It’s a small town. She can find us.”
“…Speak of the devil…” Roland pointed down the slightly hill that was what our school was on, and waved. Sure enough a figure in a white dress was running up the hill.
Elaine was decked out. She wore a big white and gold gown, a sequined domino on a handle, heavy makeup, a fur stole. Her blonde hair (a better dye job than mine by tenfold) was up in a braided bun on top of her head.
“I am so sorry I’m late!” She panted. “This stuff took FOREVER and I didn’t start until three o’clock!”
“It’s fine!” I told her, before going over to her. I bent down and lifted up her dress slightly to get a look at her shoes. “…Glass slippers? Cheese and rice on a freakin’ cracker, Elaine. You’re just like Cinderella- all dressed up for a ball!”
“Well I took it seriously!” She was blushing now under the makeup. I giggled and gave her a hug.
I took Gracie’s hand as we all walked around the town. My other hand was being held by various people throughout the night. First it was Elaine, though by the fifth or sixth house Juliet had squished her way in and kept on hugging me. She ended up getting kinda forced out of the way by Jordan though, and we swung our arms like crazy. By the end of the night my left arm was in pain. But at least we all had fun, Gracie especially. She kept telling everybody her name and getting hugs and kisses from old people. Everybody thought she was just the cutest thing in the whole wide world. Not like I didn’t already know that, of course. She knew it too.
By the end of the night, everybody’d thinned out. Juliet, Roland, and I walked Gracie home together. Juliet once again was holding my hand. We dropped Gracie off and I gave Stacy a hug before leaving. We were now escorting each other home- we lived across the street from one another. Juliet was exhausted- practically falling asleep on my shoulder. When we got to the parting on the sidewalk I gave her a big hug and let Roland attempt to keep her up. He snorted, trying not to drop her while holding onto her waist. The two were completely sugar high. Or well, Roland was- Juliet had hit her crash.
“Thanks Rose!” Roland called to me when I got to my porch. I blew them a kiss, and went inside.
“Did you have fun?” My stepmother asked, looking up from the TV to me.
“Mhm! Loads of it! We’ve got a TON of candy now, just so you know. So does Gracie, though I’m sure Alex and Stacy aren’t going to let her have all of it soon so there’s no worries there.”
“That’s good. I’m glad you had fun sweetie.”
“Thanks Mom.”
I went upstairs now, and tore off the dress with some difficulty. I dropped it in the hamper in the hallway, picking out clothes for tomorrow and clothes to go to bed in. The clothes for tomorrow I left on my dresser, while the ones to wear for tonight I took with me when I went down the hall. I pulled my curls out of their ponytail, finished getting undressed and got into the shower, turning it on warm and enjoying myself while washing out my hairspray and my makeup. Soon, my hair soft and me being thoroughly wet, I got out and dried off. I pulled on my pajamas and underclothes and shuffled off to bed. Looking at the clock, it was nearly ten thirty. I felt sleepy mostly because of the activities of the day. I reached over and turned on the alarm clock, and curled into bed, pulling my canopy over me- a bad habit I had, but a habit that helped me sleep, nonetheless. Eventually I heard my parents go to bed too, and fell asleep as the whole house went dark.
Sometime during the night I woke up, groggy and blurry-eyed. I could have sworn I heard a noise, felt a presence, seen a shadow… but I was a paranoid loser, I did that all the time. Casting my eyes quickly at the clock while pulling the blanket over my head, I noticed it was a little while past midnight. I needed to fall back asleep, or else I wouldn’t be awake in the morning. Using this, plus the comforting fact that if anything was here they’d have made themselves be noticed by now, I went back to sleep. It was probably just Peter Pan anyway, if anything.
The next morning I felt refreshed, energized, and ready to start the day. Humming I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, had breakfast with my parents, and then pulled on my coat and backpack and started outside, music blaring in my ears.
Immediately I knew something was wrong. I wasn’t sure how. The biting frost and fog was nothing, so that wasn’t it. It wasn’t the silence, as I couldn’t hear the silence. I think it was the fact that nobody was outside. When I got up to the school, people were all huddled together, whispering frantically to one another. This was when I started to get scared. Was there another ‘suicide’?
I didn’t realize what happened until I heard it over the announcements, until I didn’t see Roland or Juliet. Until I figured out what had been missing on my walk to school.
Juliet South, my best friend, optimist and complete dork, was found dead in her room this morning.
The next day school was cancelled. I immediately went over to Roland’s house, and knocked on the door. For a few moments nobody answered, but right as I was about to leave, Roland opened the door. His eyes were dark, his hair was matted, and he was pale. He looked sick, to me. I went inside and shut the door behind me, and immediately I was giving him a hug.
“Oh my god, Roland… I am so sorry…”
He was silent. I knew he was upset by this. Roland was never, ever quiet. I lead him upstairs to his bedroom, and sat him down on his bed, taking a stool for myself. He stared off into space right now, eyes wide. I wondered what he was looking at.
“May… May I ask what happened?”
Slowly he nodded, and then blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked to me.
“I swear to god, it was not a suicide.”
“I believe you on that.”
“No, you don’t understand!” Roland was on his feet now, pacing back and forth in front of me, his hands balled into fists. “There are so many fucking reasons why it CANNOT BE A SUICIDE!”
“ROLAND! I know!”
“NO, YOU DON’T! You know how happy Jules was. You know how chipper and peppy and excitable she was. She wouldn’t commit a suicide. You know that much, Rose, but you don’t know the rest!”
“Then what is the rest?”
He stopped pacing. He came up to me, hands on my shoulders, holding me against the wall. Our noses and foreheads touched. We stared into the others’ eyes; there was nothing else to actually see.
“I. Found. My. Sister.”
“…Oh my god, Roland.”
“There was blood everywhere. All over her bed sheets. There was a gun a few feet away…” He fell silent for a few moments, and took a step back, his hands still on my shoulders. “It wasn’t a suicide.”
“I know.”
He relaxed then. He sat back down on the bed, leaning against his headboard. I got off of the stool and sat beside him.
“Did she know I loved her?” He asked. This was nearly inaudible.
“Yes,” I reassured him, “She did.”
“I never made it seem like I did… I was always teasing her…”
“Brothers can do that. That’s their job. Trust me, she knew you loved her.”
“How?”
“Because. The nice things you did. Like taking her upstairs on Halloween, or beating up those guys who were being mean to her back in the first grade. And if she didn’t know by those, then she’d still know, because any good God would tell her.”
“…Can I tell you a secret?”
“Sure.”
“…I’m beginning to not believe in God. If He were out there, why would He take my sister? All those teachers? Mrs. Bennett?”
“I don’t know. I asked myself this too, a long time ago, remember? When my mom died. Mr. Bennett would tell us that it’s all because of some divine plan… but to be honest, I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t know if He exists or not.”
After a few moments of silence, Roland replied, “It’s good to know somebody else agrees with me in this Hellhole.”
I nodded, and looked up to his ceiling- filled with stick-on glow planets and stars, to go with the similar nighttime theme of the room. It had been the same for as long as I can remember, for as long as we’d lived across the street from one another, I’d reckon. Fifteen long years.
“Promise me something, Rose.”
“What?”
“Promise me you won’t die.”
“Only if you promise me you won’t.”
“I promise.”
“Then I promise too.”
Almost absent-mindedly, I locked pinkies with Roland. Soon enough we could hear footsteps coming up the stairs and entering the room.
“Lucille, dear,” Roland’s mother said, giving me a sad smile, “Your father wants you home now.”
“Oh… okay, Missus South. Thank you.”
I gave her and Roland hugs, and then left the house, going back across the street to mine. My dad was in the kitchen at this point.
“Rose, come in here.” I did such.
“Yes Daddy...“ My voice fell off. I stared at the items which lay on the table now. Three guns. “What the…”
“Your brother and I picked these up. Glocks.”
“What for?”
“Well since Jules was killed last night- and by this point we’re all pretty sure it’s not suicides, no matter what the papers say- we’re going to teach you self-defense. You’re the oldest girl in the house; you have to protect the others and yourself. What happened on Sunday… The Souths live right across the street. That could have been you dead, Rose.”
“I know Daddy.”
“So we’re going to teach you how to shoot a gun. We’ll take you out to the hills this weekend, alright?”
“Alright, Daddy.”
He tossed me one. I squeaked, but caught it before it hit me in the face.
“Put it under your bed. We’ll work on your catching skills afterwards.”
Saturday, I woke up before the dawn. I groaned, stumbled over to my closet to pull out clothes and get dressed in warm pants and a sweater, and then went downstairs to make myself up some breakfast. Having a lot of time today, I made myself pancakes instead of just cereal. I took my time, I went upstairs and pulled my hair into a ponytail around eight thirty, when my dad woke up. While he fixed himself up with coffee and got dressed, I got out the gun and waited.
Soon enough we got into the car, driving down the street to my brother’s house. He was waiting- Dad must have sent him a text that we were coming- and hopped into the car when we came up. We drove off and out of town then, and soon enough we were in the hills.
The skies above were bursting open in light, and so the clearing we went to was practically blinding. A well-used target was marked on one of the trees. My dad dusted it off with his hand, and came back to stand beside me with my brother.
“Now. Make sure the gun is loaded.” It was. “Alright. Now, sweetie, aim it right at that target. Just like you were playing darts.”
…Yeah, GREAT idea Dad. I suck at darts. And it showed as I shot the gun. Not only did I almost drop the gun screaming, but the bullet didn’t hit even hit the target. My dad steadied me, and had me try again. My aim was still terrible, but at least this time, though I was tentative now, I didn’t drop the gun.
“Think about throwing a ball! You want to hit this guy in the face, Rose! IN THE FACE!”
Well. That worked. The bullet hit the upper proportions of the target, which rattled in reply. My brother cheered and my dad looked proud.
“Okay, that was a good one. We’ll keep working on this. For now, though, I think we might want to get home before we scare all the animals away.”
I nodded. I wanted to be out of there as soon as possible. So into the car we reloaded ourselves, and back towards home. We dropped Alex off and then pulled up to our house. A familiar face was on the corner, looking kinda lost and confused. I jumped out and ran towards him once the car stopped.
“ANDY!” I screamed. It was Andrew Davis, a new friend of mine since he moved here earlier this summer. I clinged to the taller boy’s shoulders. He seemed surprised at this, and nervously patted my back. I smiled up at him.
“Hi Rose!”
“What’s going on?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips before I attempted to jump up high enough to play with his mousy brown hair. “I haven’t seen you for a while!”
“Yeah, sorry about that. But I’ve got good news! ... Guess!”
“Uhm… Oh, I’m no good at guessing! Tell me!”
“Fine. My mom’s enrolling me in your school!”
“Really? Why so now?”
“She doesn’t want me home alone all the time, what with the killings. According to her, out with people would be better than at home alone.” He shrugged. I smiled, and took his arm, dragging him up to my porch.
“So she’s only putting you in now that a student’s been killed?”
“Yeah. Because now I’m at risk, just like every other high school kid.” His hazel eyes locked onto my face. “Even you, Rose.” His gaze fell to his watch. “Shit, I gotta go. I’ll see you later!”
I waved after him, and went inside.
The rest of the day, and indeed the next few weeks, were uneventful. However, then came the night before the day my school’s play opened. I was going to bed at around eight, trying to get as much sleep as possible, as I was in it. And indeed, for a long while I did. But then I heard that tapping at my window again, as I’d been hearing for a while. I groaned and pulled the pillow over my head, trying not to look. The tapping continued, and eventually came to a slight scratching noise.
Then I felt the breeze chill my legs, and heard the slight, almost metallic creak of my window sliding open.
Now I was fully awake. I put the pillow back off of my face, and looked around through my eyelashes. A silhouetted person stood by my window. Not thinking at the moment, but my heart pounding, I sat up quickly and pulled back my canopy.
This scared the person away. They darted out the window once again, leaving it open. I struggled out of the covers and hopped over, holding onto the windowsill while looking down. I didn’t see a person below. Absent-mindedly, I then looked above. Still nothing.
My Peter Pan must have flown away too fast for me to see him.
I locked the window this time.
Weeks passed by since the last attack. Everything was still in locked-down silence. By the wintertime we all were in two factions- the group that thought that everything was over, and the group that thought that the sudden silence was unsettling. I was on the second party. Through November I was on my toes.
The biggest instance of this was during the last day of the school play, just three days after the night where a mysterious person came into my room. It was the first day of snow for Suburbia, a rare occurrence as it was mid-November. Once we all actually got inside, and from that, soon into the real folds of the play, we’d all relaxed a bit from the cares of the world. We weren’t, however, accounting for the power to be cut during the finale, just before Trisha started singing.
I have to say, I really admire Trisha. Unabashed, she’d just continued singing. The pit couldn’t see their music, so the entire house was otherwise silent. Monica, Addison, and I all followed, trying to keep cool. The whole ending went through with this, with the curtain calls and running out into the outside hall to greet the fans. Afterwards, we were all congratulated by everybody who knew that that wasn’t supposed to happen. We’d stayed in character!
Afterwards, when I got home, I fell right onto my bed. Thank god. Nothing happened, like I had expected. That was an honest scare, and I really think that the others really did amazingly well under that pressure. If they hadn’t, we would have lost the audience, and the night would not have gone well because we all would be embarrassed and ashamed of ourselves and each other.
But we were lucky, at least then, and everything went on as usual. The next week we didn’t have school due to the snow, which kept piling up further and further. On Monday I went out with my friend Sarah. She called at like, eight o’clock at night, squealing about the snow, and asking if we could meet outside. I agreed, and ran and got on my coat, gloves, hat, scarf, and sneakers, going out into the cold night. The sky above was an odd bright gray, and I could hear laughter down the road on both sides- up the hill and down by the school. I started towards the school area, slowly, waiting for Sarah to get here already. Gosh, it was colder than I thought it would be.
Soon I saw a figure crossing the street a few times, and coming closer. After a moment, I called out. “Sarah?”
“Yeah?”
“Good! You’re here!” I ran up, to be hit in the face with a snowball. Sarah giggled, and I chucked some at her too. Promptly, a snowball fight began. Sarah soon fell onto the ground. She grabbed my jeans while I was gloating and pulled me down too.
“OH MY GOD THAT’S COLD!” I screamed through a fit of laughter. Snow was coming up my sweater. Sarah and I were both writhing, and we probably would have been getting looks from passers-by if there were any. But now we were making snow angels. We helped each other up, dusting off the snow.
“Rose! I KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD DO.”
“WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!”
“WE SHOULD GO SLEDDING DOWN SNAKE HILL!” Seeing my blank expression, she continued, “The hill behind my house!”
“Oh! Sure! Let’s go ask my dad if he’ll let me go.”
He did. He just gave me his cell phone to take with me in the meantime. We walked over to her house- under a barrage of snowballs from some local boys. Sarah through a few back while we ran off. Once we went around the corner, the rain of snowballs stopped, and we got to her house. Her mom was super nice- she gave us pizza pans and garbage bags to use, and we left. Sarah’s dog Juniper was following us, barking.
“Go home, Juniper!” Sarah told her. She didn’t listen, but she did shut up while following us. We went up the hill- it was a small hill, luckily- and set it down. I’d never sled before, so Sarah had to teach me. She took a garbage bag, wrapping it around her lower half and sitting on the ground. With slight prompting with her hands and feet, she started sliding down the hill, slicking out a trail behind her. She spun a big, and landed halfway down the hill as a truck was coming. She came back over to me, letting it go past. We stuck our tongues out at it. Hey, it was fun to be childish.
“Now it’s your turn,” she told me. She sat me down on one of the pizza trays on her trail, and instructed me to lean back and lift up my legs. I was reminded of the crunch position at our school, so I did that. She took my shoulders, and gave me a small shove. I started spinning down the hill, down her path, and when I hit the bottom ridge of it, screaming, I tipped over. I wasn’t sure how the pizza tray got on top of me, but it did. Sarah soon almost smashed into me on her own tray. We lay there snorting for some time before we actually got up, going back up the hill where the rest of our stuff was. We sat down, trying to catch our breath, before we started whitewashing each other with the trays.
It was after a few moments that we heard Juniper growl. Since she’d been so quiet throughout most of this it came as a bit of a shock to us. She was staring at the woods surrounding the road.
“Juniper,” Sarah sighed, “There’s nothing there. Calm down already.”
Juniper didn’t. I could see a bit of movement myself, but I thought it was just the wind.
“Go on Juniper.” Sarah pointed to the house. “Go home. Go on.”
Juniper, slightly whimpering, did this, albeit slowly. I looked to Sarah, gave her a sheepish smile, and then greeted a storm of white snow in my eyes. I did the same to Sarah.
There was a rather loud noise, like a knock, nearby. I jumped almost a foot in the air, landing right on my ass. Sarah stumbled over my legs and fell down beside me. I started rubbing my eyes, and then wished I hadn’t.
Hanging from the stout little climbing tree beside the road was a body, tied about with a noose. In the dim light shining from the streetlamps onto the snow, I could make out brunette hair in a ponytail and long, slender limbs. The figure was extremely pale, drained.
I grabbed Sarah’s hand.
“Sarah,” I whispered.
“What?” She was trying to get the snow out of her eyes. I pulled down her cap, and pulled her to her feet with me. “It wasn’t nice of you to trip me like that…”
“I’m sorry, it was an accident. Run.”
“What? Why?”
“I’ll tell you once we get inside!”
“What about the bags and the trays?”
“Don’t worry about them! Move it! Don’t look back!”
I finally got her to then. We started running to her house. We opened the gate, Juniper yapping at us while we went up the stairs to her porch and inside, slamming the door behind us. I was out of breath, and waited a few minutes to answer Sarah’s impending question of ‘What happened?’
“I saw a body…”
“You probably just saw vines. Don’t be so superstitious!”
“No, Sarah. I swear to god. Somebody is out there hanging from that tree. Call 911. Now.” My voice was commanding at this point. Sarah rolled her eyes, and went to the phone. Soon enough, an entire team of cop cars were rolling up to the side of the road. They didn’t bother with us, but went straight up towards the hill. I dragged Sarah outside to watch, and we went to the foot of the hill before being nearly trampled by police. I pulled out my cell phone, which had just come back to my mind. I sat down on the front porch, and called my dad. Upon telling him what was going on, he of course panicked. He left the girls with my stepmom, and started over. Once getting here, he enveloped me in a big hug.
“My god, Rose! Do you know how close this was?”
“Yes Daddy. I know…”
“It’s a good thing you and your friend were smart and came right back here and called the police. Did they say who it was?”
“No, they haven’t gotten it down or identify it yet.”
There’s a saying that states ‘Speak of the Devil and He shall appear.’ Well, I think it’s true, because at that moment I was tapped on the shoulder, to face a tall, imposing officer. He asked me and Sarah to go over and see if we could identify the body, as they were pretty sure it was of a person our age. I took Sarah’s hand, and with our parents following us up, we went to the hill to see the body lying there.
I knew who it was immediately. Though the face was now gaunt, and the mouth was open in an O, and the eyes were wide in shock, I could tell who it was. Even though the amount of mutilations around the neck, chest, and face should have by all means made her impossible to pick out.
“It’s Monica Drew.”
The next few weeks were spent mostly inside. My friends would come over to visit me, instead of the other way around. Roland came first. Instantly he came and gave me a hug.
“You saw one too.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about it. What did you feel?”
“Well, when I first saw it I was really freaked out. My only thought was about getting Sarah and me out of there alive. We didn’t know who’d be there, what happened. I just got us to run. But when I saw who it was… I wasn’t AS freaked out anymore, since I’d come to accept it, though it still kinda disturbed me. I mean… I hated Monica, you know that. I’m a jealous spirit. But she didn’t deserve to die like that. Nobody does…”
“I agree.”
“I can’t imagine what it must have been like to find your own sister.”
“Well… I kinda felt what you did. I was scared. I ran downstairs to my parents. I didn’t know what else to do. But when it really hit me, when I really saw her body… I was just… in a blind rage. That’s all I can really say. I’m still trying to get over that.”
“I bet…” We were sitting on my window seat at this time. The window was shut, still locked from a few days ago.
“But you see what I mean. About how it couldn’t have been a suicide.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Good. I was hoping I wouldn’t be the only one.”
It was then that I heard the door open downstairs. Roland and I stayed quiet, listening in to what was going on downstairs. Somebody was talking to my stepmother.
A few moments later, Andy pounded into the room, panting and sweating.
“I came over here as soon as I heard!” He huffed, bending over slightly to hold his knees. Roland looked confused. “Jesus, Rose, what happened? Are you okay? Did the person touch you?”
“No, Andy! Andy, I’m fine. I promise. It was scary, but it’s over now. Sit down.”
He did such. Roland was still looking confused. After a moment of looking between the boys, I finally realized why.
“Oh! Roland, this is Andy Davis. Andy, this is Roland South.”
“Ah, that explains it.” Andy jutted out a hand. Roland reluctantly took it. “Nice to meet you, bro. So what are you to my girlfriend?”
I blushed vividly then.
“Andy!”
“What? It’s pretty obvious…”
“I know, but still!”
“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up.”
“I’m her brother,” Roland said.
“Really? The one that’s never around?”
“No, the one that’s not biological and lives across the street.”
“Oh.” Andy nodded then. “Your real sister died a few months ago, on Halloween, huh?”
“Yeah…” Roland looked down at this.
“Maybe we should change the topi-“
“Man, that must be rough. Losing the person you love so much. I don’t have a sister.”
“Lucky you.”
“Yeah. I know, right? I heard you found her. What was it like? I’ve heard stories. Is it true that her body was torn in half?”
“Can we PLEASE change the subje-?”
“Yes.”
“What about all the cuts? The bruises? I heard she was naked. Is THAT true?”
“PLEASE!”
The scream was enough to make Andy shut up.
“I’m sorry.” He said, calming down a bit. “I should go. I’ll see you later, Rosie.”
He came over and gave me a kiss on the forehead before leaving. Roland was shocked. I put my arm around his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry… I don’t know what got into him…”
“It’s okay, Rose. It’s not your fault.” He shook my arm off, standing up. “I should probably go too, actually. It’s getting late. Mom’ll want me home.”
I gave him a hug, and he left.
The next day, Andy came back over. He sat beside me on my bed, and took my hand.
“I’m sorry I ruined your day yesterday.”
“You didn’t. It’s fine.”
“Still. I’m very sorry for whatever harm I may have caused you.”
“It wasn’t me you hurt, Andy. It was Roland.”
He was silent at this. For a while I just sat there, being quiet and holding onto my old plushy teddy bear, while he eventually stood up and walked around the room. He went to the window, unlocking it and opening it.
“You shouldn’t keep this window closed, yknow. You need fresh air. It’s not healthy for a pretty young girl like you to be held up in a hot, stuffy place like this. With no real air coming inside… you could suffocate…”
“Andy, stop saying that and shut the window. Nothing like that’s gonna happen.”
Andy sighed, and shut the window again. He came over to the foot of my bed, holding onto either side of the two posts at the end.
“Rose, I don’t like Roland.”
“Why?”
“I just don’t. There’s just something about him. I don’t trust him. You shouldn’t either.”
“But Roland’s a nice guy! He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“How do you know that, Rose? How do you know he’s not the creep who killed his own sister? After all, he’s the one to have found her, isn’t he?”
I was quiet. That was true, but I still couldn’t see Roland killing Jules. No, he couldn’t have had. Roland was too good to do something like that. Even if he declared himself violent, he really wasn’t. Not to girls anyway. Even to guys, the only time he got violent was when they hurt him, Jules, Elaine, or me. That was a general rule for him- you don’t touch a friend, or else you get your ass handed to him.
“I want to protect you.” Andy let his hands slide off the posts, and he came back over to me, sitting by me and taking my hands from my teddy bear to hold. “That’s all I want to do. Rose, you’re my world. Understand?”
My face was becoming beat red. I nodded.
“Good.” He gave me a kiss. “I have to go now. I’ll see you at school on Monday.”
I nodded, and let him go. I relaxed in bed, or at least tried to. I was still nervous, thinking about Andy and Roland. What would happen? Would they get into a fight? I wasn’t sure. What I was sure of, however, was that this wasn’t the end of it. It was just the beginning.
I got up and locked the window again.
It was winter break now. My parents had finally let me start being alone again, because everything started being quiet again. It snowed, much more than the first time, dumping down into the city of Suburbia like a flood.
It was a Saturday when my brother and sister dropped off Gracie, and when my father and stepmother were to go with them to a local Christmas party for adults. It was tradition, so even though this would mean leaving a lot of kids home alone with a killer on the loose, most people still went. I thought that that was stupid, but I didn’t complain.
“Okay,” my stepmother was running me through everything one last time while pulling on her jacket, “No parties, and no friends over, gets the kids to bed by ten…“
“Eight thirty for Gracie,” my sister added.
“Yes, right. Make dinner around six… We’ll be home around eleven, understand?”
“Yes ma’am.” I curtsied, grinning. My stepmother gave me a dry smile, looking slightly amused by my sarcasm. “I got it, Mom. Go on, now! You guys need to go enjoy yourselves.”
The two women nodded, finishing up their jackets, and going outside and to the car. As soon as it pulled away was when everything started. The little kids seemed to have made a pact with each other to annoy me. Gracie needed to use the bathroom, Ella and Kenzie were fighting over who got to do what, and then all three were fighting over what we’d have for dinner... I never realized that being a babysitter for three kids could be so hard.
“That’s it! C’mon, you’re going outside.”
The girls seemed to be rather impressed with that. I helped them all into their jackets and mittens, hats and sweatpants, laces up their boots, everything. Throughout all this, luckily, they were relatively quiet and complacent. They went outside, shouting at each other that they were all going to make a snowman. I went upstairs and fell into my chair in the corner, exhausted.
And yet the day wasn’t even done. It was only three o’clock… I’d have these kids for the next eight hours. I had to do something.
But not right now. For right now, I just relaxed. I read a few books, I drew random pictures of girls, and at around three thirty I answered a call.
“Hello?”
I could hear static all throughout it. That made shivers run down my spine. I HATE the sound of static. There was no answer. I tried talking again. Still no answer. Finally, I just put the phone down on the receiver and sat back down. That was creepy. But it was no match for what happened just a few minutes later.
I heard the girls scream my name. At that point I was trying to fall asleep on the chair, but that startled me. I hadn’t heard them do that before. I was quick- I started out towards the door, before my common sense kicked in. I grabbed my gun from under my bed, and ran downstairs and out the back door.
This was when everything seemed to stop. The moment I got off the porch and into the white-covered lawn, time seemed to slow down, letting me take in what was going on.
A man stood in the middle of the lawn. He was just a few inches taller than me. His pale head, undoubtedly bald beneath, was covered with bandages. He wore a white robe, not too much unlike a hospital gown. His nose was thin, his face was gaunt, and his lips were cracked and bleeding. But the part about him I noticed the most was his eyes. They were a brilliant gray-blue slits, sunken into his skin. The area around them was dark, bruised. But the most starting thing was how calm they looked. While they seemed hard the split moment previous, while he’d been looking at the girls, they’d softened upon looking at me. I know I’d seen those eyes before… somewhere…
Ella and Kenzie were a few feet away from me, to my right and left. Gracie was nearer the man, knocked on her butt, staring with huge, fearful eyes at what was surrounding her- a steely gray wolf, no doubt almost twice my size. Fear gripped me, too, now. My heart beating, I lifted up the gun.
“Let them go.” I said, trying to make my voice sound confident. I glared to try and add to this effect. I realized my voice had cracked, and shouted instead, “Let them go!”
The man seemed to hear me that time. He looked confused, but then turned, walking to the fence and throwing himself over. The wolf followed.
My shaking arm dropped the gun then. I ran to Gracie, falling to the ground beside her as I struggled to pick her up and hold her. My chest was aching. I clinged to Gracie like a lifeline, forcing myself to my feet. Ella and Kenzie were looking at me with admiration. I leaned down to pick up the gun on my way back into the house, the girls following me. I gave Gracie to Ella, and shut the door, locking it. I locked the front as well, and then started checking all the windows.
Mine was open. That got me scared even worse.
I looked around the whole house. I found nothing. I shut and locked the window, running back downstairs to the girls, who were sitting at the edge of the steps waiting for me. I shepherded them over to the TV, putting on a mind-numbing little show while shutting the blinds. I sat with them for a while, before going and making dinner. It was simple- I threw some chicken nuggets into the microwave and made some macaroni and cheese on the stovetop. We ate in silence, and went back to the TV for the remaining few hours.
At eight thirty I turned it off.
“We’re going to bed now.” My voice, I thought, sounded unquestionable. Not so.
“Why?” Kenzie asked, crossing her arms. “I’m not tired. It’s not ten yet.”
“It’s time for Gracie to go to bed, and I am not letting her go alone, and I’m not letting either of YOU go alone either. We’re all going to bed.”
“If you don’t want us to be alone,” this was Ella now, “Why are we going to bed?”
I thought about this, and then nodded.
“Come on. Let’s to get you kids dressed. We’ll share my bed.”
“…Is your bed going to be big enough?”
“It should be, it’s a Queen.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Now come on.”
I got them into their pajamas, and got into my own nightgown, before we settled down. Ella took the foot of the bed, and I snuggled up with Gracie, Kenzie beside us. Like this, we fell asleep by nine o’clock.
