by Rysa Walker
After their mom died, it had been Daisy who slipped across the hall more often than not.
On that particular night when Dani showed up, it had been at least six months since either of them had ventured out of her own bed. Daisy had scooched closer to the wall, making room. A few minutes later, her sister had said, in typically blunt Dani fashion ,“We did it.”
Daisy hadn’t needed any clarification. The other person was obviously Tommy Doyle, three years older and not someone her sister was supposed to be seeing. And Dani had been debating whether or not they were going to do it for the past three weeks. Daisy, who really didn’t know how to respond, had asked if she was in love with Tommy.
“Remember a few years back when you practiced that Beethoven piece for a solid month?” Dani had asked, after she finished laughing. “Why didn’t you wait and play it for the first time at the recital?”
“Because I would have sucked at it.”
“Ding-ding-ding. The first time is always going to be two people fumbling around in the backseat of a tiny car, bumping your head on the door handle, and freezing your ass off. When I meet Mr. Right, I want to know what I’m doing. And speaking of freezing my ass off, gimme some of those covers.”
Daisy hadn’t bothered to ask what it was like after that. If Tommy’s tiny backseat, bumping her head, and a cold ass were Dani’s main takeaways, it had probably been a rather disappointing experience overall.
Now she’s torn between wishing Dani had waited until she found someone she loved and thinking that there’s a very real possibility that her sister is no longer alive. Maybe it was better with Chad than it had been with Tommy, even though she was pretty sure Dani didn’t love Chad, either. Still, what Dani had with them was probably better than nothing.
Find happiness where you can in this world.
“What are you thinking?” Tucker asks, pulling her closer.
“That I love you.”
“Okay, now you have me worried, because there was a sad little frown right”—he kisses a spot on her forehead—“there.”
“I was kind of worrying about Dani at the same time. And thinking that we can’t hide out here in your room forever.” And so she reluctantly asks the questions she really doesn’t want to ask, both because she’s afraid of the answers and because she knows it will break the bubble keeping the rest of the world at bay. “Did you find Julie? Or MB?”
Tucker sighs. “No and no. Julie’s house looks like no one has lived there in months. And MB didn’t come home last night. Her dad was there, though. Said she’d gone to a party. Do you know someone named Sidney? Or Cindy?”
Daisy shakes her head. “Gotta be a fake name. MB has to jump through a lot of hoops to keep her dad thinking she’s Little Miss Innocent.”
“Yeah, well…I hope she’s okay, but I also really hope she doesn’t go home.” Tucker begins telling her about his run-in with the white-eyed version of Scott Jenkins.
Just as he reaches the part where the cat sails in through the window, his doorbell rings. They both jump and lie stock-still for a moment. Then, Tucker groans and starts pulling on his pants. He grabs the pistol from the bedside table as the bell rings again. “Stay here, okay?”
She doesn’t argue, mostly because she’s fumbling around in the dark trying to find her own clothes.
“Hang on,” Tucker yells down the stairs. “I’m coming.”
It must be someone Tucker knows, because Daisy hears voices downstairs as she tugs her sweater over her head and runs her fingers through her hair to smooth it. She walks into the hallway and stands at the top of the stairs, trying to figure out who’s there and what they’re saying as she debates whether to stay put. The two of them haven’t really discussed how public they’re going to be with their relationship, and while she really has no issues with the entire world knowing—okay, maybe she’s a tiny bit worried about telling her dad—she doesn’t want to make things difficult for Tucker.
But then she hears him at the foot of the stairs. “Daisy? Can you come down? I think you need to hear this.”
Luke Randall is seated at Tucker’s kitchen table. There’s a half-empty bottle of water in front of him. He looks pretty beaten up. Clothes torn, covered in mud, and maybe blood, too, although she can’t really tell in the dim light from over the stove. What’s more troubling, though, is the look in his eyes. He seems to be on the verge of shock.
She sits down in the chair next to him. “Hey, Luke. You okay?”
“I’ve been better. How about you?”
“I’m okay. But…it’s been a crazy night. What happened to you?”
“Truck went into a ditch, for one thing,” he says. “The rest of it, though…I don’t think you’re gonna believe me.”
“Luke,” Tucker says, “in the past twenty-four hours, I’ve seen the dead come to life, shot at a white-eyed ant the size of an elephant, and watched a vampire cop turn to dust when I staked him. Daisy’s seen some truly weird shit today, too, so…I think you might be surprised what we’d believe.”
Luke draws in a sharp breath through his nose as Tucker speaks, looking back and forth between the two of them. For a minute, Daisy thinks he’s going to burst into tears.
“Then maybe I’m not going crazy.”
“Well, we can’t guarantee that.” Daisy gives him a little smile. “But we can tell you that you’re not the only one heading in that direction. You’ll have company on the drive, if that’s any comfort.”
“You have no idea,” Luke says. “I thought it was just me.”
“We need to compare notes,” Tucker says. “There are some things I haven’t had a chance to tell Daisy yet, and she said earlier that she has a theory about what’s going on, so—”
Daisy nods. “I do. But it might be easier if I get my tablet and book from my house.”
Luke says he needs to clean up anyway. Tucker points him toward the bathroom, then he and Daisy head next door. As soon as they step inside, she realizes someone has been there. The eggs and butter are no longer on the counter. At first her heart leaps at the sight—her dad must be back, because no way would Dani have put the ingredients away. But then she sees the open can of LaCroix, which her dad doesn’t drink, and the small flashlight-and-pepper-spray combo next to it. She’s never seen the flashlight before, but there’s only one other person who might have a key to their house, and she does drink seltzer.
“Julie was here,” she says, glancing around for any other clues. They make a quick run through the house, keeping their eyes firmly averted from the mirror in the second-floor hallway. But nothing else has changed.
Daisy grabs her book and tablet, and they return to Tucker’s place. As they cross the strip of lawn that separates their houses, though, she notices someone walking up the road toward them. Tucker’s hand moves toward his gun and closes around the grip when he realizes the person approaching them is armed.
He pushes Daisy behind him, but she calls out, “Is that you, Ben?”
Tucker keeps his hand on the gun.
“Yeah. I’m looking for Chase. Is he here?”
“No,” Tucker says as Ben steps under the streetlight. “What happened to your face?”
“My old man happened. Sort of. It’s…been a weird night. I guess if Chase isn’t here he must have gone to the preacher’s house. I need to find him, so—”
“Julie was just at our house. I seem to have missed her, but she’s probably looking for me and Dani. She told Dad she’d check in on us, and…” Daisy gives an embarrassed little shrug. “Maybe Chase is with her?”
Tucker motions toward the house. “Why don’t you come on inside? Luke Randall is in there, and we’re going to compare notes. Maybe you can fill us in on what happened with you and Chase. We’ll see if Julie shows back up and then figure out next steps.”
Ben nods and follows them, but Tucker holds up one hand when they reach the porch. “No offense, but I’m going to need to get you to either unload that or leave it outside.”
Reluctantly, Ben unloads the gun and props it up against the side of Tucker’s couch, where Luke is now sitting.
“Oh, man. That looks bad,” Luke says. “I’m not even gonna ask who used your face for a punching bag. But at least you gave him a taste of his own medicine.”
Ben gives Luke an odd look. “Tried to. Chase seems to have picked up the slack after he choked me out. That’s why I’m worried about where he went. What happened to you?”
Luke glances over at Daisy and Tucker, then back at Ben. “I think I killed Carly. But she was more like a zombie when it happened…and she had a whole backup group of zombies, too. Weird stuff has been happening all day. At work, then out at the Pinewood.”
“The diner or the motel?” Tucker, who has pulled over one of the kitchen chairs so that they all have a seat, leans forward.
“Motel.” Luke looks down at the carpet for a moment. “I was meeting someone. Things aren’t good between me and Carly. Never have been, really…”
“Not judging,” Tucker says. “Just tell us what happened.”
“Well, I had a bit of an argument with the person I met there. Partly about Carly and the baby, but…” Luke shakes his head. “Anyway, I’m getting dressed, and they decide to take a shower before heading back home. Then I see this woman with a knife heading into the bathroom. I swear it was like a scene out of—”
“Psycho,” Daisy says. “And let me guess. Both the body and car disappeared. Probably the old woman with the knife, too.”
“Well…the body disappeared. And the woman with the knife. Gotta admit I didn’t even check on the car, though. I was too busy getting the hell out of there. Why? What else happened at the Pinewood?”
“I worked a case there last night,” Tucker says. “A woman was murdered, but when I went back this morning, the place was wiped clean. I sent pictures to the county sheriff, but they think I was being punked…and I kind of doubt they even remember it now. Neil Prescott found the body and called the station to report it. He was pretty shook up at the time, but now he has no memory of it ever happening. Daisy, our resident expert on all things horror movie, described the car from the Hitchcock film, and it matches the one the victim was driving.”
Luke and Ben both chime in at the same time, but Daisy holds up a hand. “Could we go in order? I don’t really care what order, but one at a time. Tell me about your day…or day and a half, I guess, in Tucker’s case. Every detail you can remember. Because I’ve got a theory, and I want to see if your experience fits before I explain it to everyone.”
They agree, although she senses a bit of reluctance on Ben’s part. He keeps glancing out the window, which she totally gets. She’d taken the chair facing the window on purpose, so that she could see if headlights pulled in next door.
For the next twenty minutes, the four of them rehash their own personal living nightmares from Halloween in Haddonwood. Daisy takes notes as they talk, filling in the makeshift chart she’d started before she fell asleep earlier at her house and marking an asterisk next to several points she wants to look up in her Compendium of Horror Classics.
Luke goes first. It seems to Daisy like he wants to get everything off his chest, including the fact that he hates his wife and has had idle fantasies about killing her. Daisy, who could never figure out what Luke saw in Carly anyway—well, aside from the fact that she’s gorgeous—can tell he’s struggling with admitting that, but then he looks over at Tucker.
“That’s the reason I came here, Tuck, instead of going home. I don’t know where Aaliyah is. I don’t even know where Carly is, truth be told, only that I whacked some demon that looked like her upside the head with a giant birdcage, and then she…vanished. I came here to get you to lock me up, because I can’t find the baby, and I still think that’s the best course of action. I’m scared I did something to hurt Aaliyah, too—or that I might. I love that kid, and I wouldn’t hurt her for the world when I’m in my right mind. But even if all of you have gone crazy, too, I’m clearly not in my right mind today.”
“Locking you up might be a bit of a problem,” Tucker says. “I’ll take it from the top, like Daisy asked, but I think you’ll understand why I’m not inclined to lock anyone in the Haddonwood jail by the time I’m done.” He starts with an overview of what happened at the Pinewood, including his bout with the crow, at which point both Luke and Ben jump in to talk about their experience with the bird.
“Mr. Crow has been busy,” Tucker says. “He was also at the library when Barb Starrett killed herself.”
“You said—” Ben begins, but Tucker holds up his hand.
“Barb didn’t stay dead.”
After he explains that bit, he summarizes the events they witnessed at the Hart, his run-in with a white-eyed Scott Jenkins, the orange cat coming to his rescue, and being forced to stake Marty at the jail.
“The problem is, Scott Jenkins seemed normal enough by the time I left his place. So Marty might have eventually been okay, too, and maybe now he won’t be. But either way, I’m not inclined to lock anyone in that jail unless they look back at me with those white eyes.”
Ben snorts. “Good luck with that. My old man’s eyes were that blood-streaked white when he came after me. His punch packed a wallop when he was his normal brown-eyed self, but I’ve never felt anything like his fists tonight. I was pretty sure I had a concussion when I came to. But…I’ll get to that in a minute. Ladies first. What kind of crazy shit have you seen today, Daisy?”
She can’t help but wonder why he’s being so chivalrous. Ben’s a nice enough guy, but he’s not exactly the type to rush ahead and open doors. Well, except for Marybeth. And what she really wants to do right now is grill his ass about exactly where her best friend is. She’s pretty sure he knows more than he let on when they picked him up at the bonfire. But she nods and starts recapping her day.
“Part of my story dovetails with Tucker’s. And Chase’s, too, so I’ll fill in what he told me he saw.”
Ben’s eyes open a little wider at that point.
When she gets to the part about them staring through the window at Martha Yarn’s house, she hesitates. At some point, she will tell Tucker about taking the Xyleva. But it’s not a conversation she wants to have in front of Ben and Luke.
“And that was my insane day in Haddonwood,” she concludes. “Or maybe I should say my insane month. Because I’ve been at the Hart pretty much every day since the third week of September, helping Trent get ready for the opening. And it’s shuttered up tight now, same as it’s been for as long as I can remember. Inches of dust coating everything. Tucker had to kick the boards away in order to get the three of us out. So, you’re up, Ben.”
But a light from outside slashes across the dimly lit living room before he can begin. It’s Julie, pulling into the driveway. Daisy runs to the door and waves to get her attention.
She’s stunned to see how exhausted Julie looks as she gets out of the car. Sure, it’s nearly four in the morning, but Julie doesn’t just look like she’s been up all night. The woman almost looks like she’s in shock, and she’s limping. Not hard, but Daisy suspects she’s been on her feet most of the night.
“What happened?” Daisy asks, running toward her. Tucker follows, and they help Julie into the house.
“Have you seen Chase?” Ben asks before she’s even through the door.
Julie shakes her head as she sinks into a chair. “Not since I left the theater. Although…” She looks around at the others. “I did think I saw him. But it was an illusion. I don’t know how, but… Jesus, I think I’m going crazy.”
“Was it vampires?” Tucker asks. “Or zombies? Whatever you’ve seen, Reverend Kennedy, we’re not going to question your sanity. First, you’ll be glad to know that Barb Starrett is alive.”
Julie’s mouth drops. “But…she can’t be. We saw her. You and me and Chase—”
“Yeah,” Ben says. “Not trying to be rude, but could we get back to Chase? You said you think you saw him?
”
“No. I saw something that I thought was him, but it was just a cruel joke.”
Ben gets a temporary reprieve from telling his side of the story, as Julie relays her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Her eyes shoot toward Daisy as she begins talking about finding the car on the side of the road, clearly not wanting to say what Daisy already suspects based on the bogus film clip she saw at the Hart. Even though she really doesn’t want to speak the words, Daisy takes pity on her.
“It was Dad’s car, right? I sort of know that already.”
“How?” Julie asks.
“Long story with many parts,” Daisy says, looking around at the others. “We’ll fill you in when you finish. But just to be clear, I really do think Dad is okay, Julie. I think he’s outside Haddonwood, but he’s okay. Because…” Because I’m unwilling to admit any other possibility, she thinks. But since she can’t bring herself to say those words, she just leaves it hanging.
Julie’s story gets weirder after that, and eventually, everyone is talking over each other. Daisy starts to lose track of things she needs to jot down. Luke jumps in to confirm Julie’s comment about the stars disappearing. Tucker jumps in when Julie says she thinks Scott Jenkins is dead to tell her he’s not exactly dead.
When he mentions the orange cat again, something that kind of nagged at Daisy earlier hits her like a sledgehammer.
“There are no pets.” Everyone turns to look at her.
“What?” Tucker says. “No pets?”
“Do any of you have a cat? A dog? Or even a frickin’ goldfish?” They all stare back blankly, so she pushes the point. “Do any of you know anyone with a pet? Because we all know that Martha Yarn should have had a whole houseful of cats. And the only animal I’ve seen, aside from birds, is the same orange cat that several of us have seen. It’s been almost as many places as that crow.”