Condemned

by Christopher Renna

  "What is it?" Jared asked. "You look kinda freaked out."

  "Oh. Um. Nothing."

  Jared glanced at the road. Then he slung his arm onto Conner's shoulders. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."

  NINETEEN

  Stella reclined in her seat and folded her arms. "Hmm. Well, it seems this strange man has everything to do with what happened to Jared."

  "Obviously, something happened to Jared that he didn't tell his friends about." Lou returned the folded sheets of paper to the inside pocket of his jacket. "At some point, I think Jared knew what was happening to him. That's why he started pushing his friends away."

  "We may not have all the answers or all the puzzle pieces to figure it out completely, but you and I know more than these kids do. That man at the lake was performing some ritual to conjure a demon. Apparently, he'd planned to use the goat, but when the kids set it free, he used Jared as a replacement."

  "Exactly. And now these boys feel responsible for it. I think they believe their actions caused this terrible thing to happen to Jared."

  * * *

  Hailey sat at the desk in her bedroom, involved in a text conversation with Jasmine. The atmosphere in the house had been tense since her announcement in the car. At dinner, her father had maintained his expression of disapproval and her mother had continued to look disappointed. Yet everyone had avoided the topic of Hailey's virginity. That is, until her mother entered the bedroom at nearly nine o'clock.

  "Honey, I'd like to talk to you."

  "Mom, please. I know what you want to talk about. And I don't want to talk about it. I should have kept my mouth shut."

  "Well, I wish you would have shared that information at a more appropriate time. Honestly, while we were driving home from church? With your sisters in the car?"

  Was this the best time to confess that she'd lied? Would her mother view the lie more harshly than her loss of innocence? "I apologize for that. Obviously, it was a momentary lapse of good judgement."

  "What about losing your virginity. Was that good judgement?"

  Hailey rubbed her eyes. "Partially"

  "Partially?"

  "I didn't lose my virginity. I did some stuff. But I only said I lost my virginity because Dad was treating me like a little girl. And I'm sorry. I wanted to shut him up. So, I just said it."

  "To wound your father?"

  "No. Not to wound him. I can't explain it. Not now. Can't we talk about this another time? Or maybe never."

  "Did you give your consent?"

  Hailey searched her mother's expression for a sign of comfort and understanding, but her disappointment was set in stone.

  "Yes, Mom. It was totally my choice. Don't worry. Conner didn't take advantage of me or pressure me, okay?"

  "So, it was Conner Preston."

  "How many guys have you seen me with?"

  "We've had the conversation about waiting until marriage. Several times, in fact."

  "Mom. That's just it. It's my choice, right?"

  Her mother's silence meant she had no words of objection.

  "Then let it be my choice." Hailey walked to the dresser and pulled out a pair of pajamas. "I planned on waiting until marriage. Maybe I still will. But not because you and Dad expect me to."

  Hailey's phone signaled a text.

  "Is that Conner?"

  "No. I'm chatting with Jasmine."

  "Oh."

  "Everything's fine, Mom. Go to bed. And tell Dad to relax. Okay?"

  Turning to leave, her mother paused. "Don't be afraid to talk to me. I'll always listen when you want me to listen."

  "Thanks, Mom."

  "Do you really like Conner?"

  "Yes, I like him. But I doubt he's going to be the man I marry."

  "But you did . . . stuff with him."

  "Mom!"

  Her mother's blue-gray eyes seemed to study Hailey. "Are you dating him?"

  "I don't think so. We haven't talked about it. Right now, I'm more concerned with helping him."

  "Helping him how?"

  "Helping him with the death of Jared. Plus, Adam and Trevor as well. They're my friends, Mom. And a friend of ours died."

  "But the circumstances of Jared's death are—"

  "I'm a Catholic girl who goes to church at least once every week. Wouldn't you agree that I'm the best qualified person to help my friends deal with the circumstances of Jared's death?"

  "Well, yes but—"

  "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

  Her mother seemed satisfied by Hailey's quote and added, "One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor."

  Hailey smiled. "Precisely."

  Once her mother left, Hailey returned to Jasmine's texts. There had been a frenzy of activity after the reporters had accosted the patrons of Saint Ann's Church. Then the thrill-seeking journalists had swooped into the neighborhood, filming the Smiths' house and interviewing every neighbor who agreed to talk.

  The kids at school no longer considered the story about Jared to be a rumor. Now all her classmates accepted the story as fact, so the narrative had shifted. The intriguing gossip had transitioned into an addictive account of the supernatural. It seemed to be the only thing that everyone wanted to talk about.

  * * *

  Conner had called Trevor, but he didn't answer. So Conner sent a text: dude r u okay? Yet hours later, Trevor still hadn't responded, which was unusual because he normally replied within minutes. Obviously, Trevor was still upset about the conversation earlier that afternoon.

  Since first learning of Jared's death, Conner had avoided allowing all the thoughts in his head to unfurl. Doing so would have forced him to acknowledge all the details that for months he'd tried to convince himself couldn't possibly be true. Even an in-depth conversation with Adam and Trevor had seemed foolish, as if ignoring Jared's full story would somehow lessen the role Conner and his friends had possibly played in the whole affair. Because the more Jared started acting more peculiar, the more Conner, Adam, and Trevor couldn't deny that something beyond their understanding had happened to Jared at Lake Bantam.

  What if they had walked away from the man when Trevor had suggested it? Maybe the creep would have called the cops like he'd threatened. Then what? The man had no proof that they'd stolen the animal. It was missing. Conner and the guys might have been fined for setting the goat free and perhaps warned not to return to Lake Bantam. Big deal.

  What if they had agreed to search for the goat, rather than letting Jared assume the task on his own? Maybe they would have found Billy. Or more importantly, they would have been united against the man. What could he have done to all four of them? Likely, nothing. Then Jared wouldn't have suffered whatever cruelty the man had subjected him to.

  And what if they had encouraged Jared to talk to them? Dude, talk to us. Tell us what happened. What's the problem? Maybe we can fix it. Those are the words Conner wished they had said to Jared. But they hadn't. And the sting of not reaching out to their friend burned deep within him, and he didn't know how to extinguish the fire.

  * * *

  "I'm sorry," Trevor said the moment that Adam and Conner got into his car. "I know I should have texted or called you. Sorry."

  "Why didn't you?" Conner asked.

  "I was pissed about the interview. Not just because of the whole Levi thing and telling Lou about smoking weed." He looked at Adam in the back seat. "Sorry." Then he turned his gaze to the windshield as he scratched a fingernail along the steering wheel. "The trip to the lake bothered me all over again. Something bad happened to Jared. And when it started going downhill, we just let it. You know? We avoided him. And I avoided you guys last night. So, I'm sorry."

  "It's fine," Conner said. "I understand."

  "Me too, bro." Adam slapped his hand onto Trevor's shoulder. "It's all right. We still love you, man."

  The hum of the engine and the draft of heat from the vent replaced spoken words. The th
ree sat, as though each pondered their own deep thoughts about everything that had transpired since June.

  Conner said, "We were scared."

  The statement lingered in the air until he continued speaking.

  "Scared of what happened to Jared. What happened at the lake. Scared of admitting that we turned our backs on our friend. And now he's dead."

  Adam settled against the back seat. "I had a nightmare about that damn goat, last night."

  Trevor stopped scratching at the steering wheel. "What happened?"

  "I don't remember the whole thing. But I went outside to check out a noise in my backyard. It was dark. Like, the middle of the night or something. And just before I was gonna go back inside the house, the goat crawled out of a hole in the ground. And that's when I woke up."

  Conner muttered, "Effing Billy."

  "As time goes by," Trevor said, "the nightmares will stop."

  Adam leaned toward the front seat. "You had a nightmare too?"

  Trevor's hesitation to respond answered the question. But he finally said, "Yeah, I had one about the snake. But everything was kinda mixed up. Like, I picked up the shirts with the snake, just like I did at the lake. But then it bit me, and my arm started to instantly turn red and swell up. I was on the ground. Even though it was the same two- or three-foot snake, it was swallowing my hand. Like, it was going to eat me. And that's when I woke up all sweaty and breathing hard and everything."

  Adam and Trevor then stared at Conner.

  "I haven't had nightmares," he said. "But I've been kinda freaked out by shadows."

  Trevor held Conner's gaze. "Go on."

  "Sometimes, out of the corner of my eye, a shadow will freak me out if it looks like a human."

  "An actual human?" Adam asked.

  "Well, no. The shape." Conner said. "At the lake cabin. Then the other night when Hailey said she thought someone was in the room with us. And sometimes at my house."

  "So you're seeing things," Trevor said.

  "Not exactly. I think I'm just freaking myself out, you know? My mind's playing tricks on me."

  Adam asked, "The shadow doesn't do anything?"

  "No. I just feel like it's watching me."

  "Too much voodoo crap in our heads."

  Facing Adam, Conner asked, "You think that's all it is?"

  "Yeah. Everything that happened at the lake. The way Jared was acting, and then the creepy things we experienced with him. Now, we're talking about all of it. It's like, stressing us out and affecting us more than we thought."

  "I guess that could be it."

  "Adam's right," Trevor said. "We were fine until Jared died. Then the possession story started going around. We didn't want to believe it, even though we knew it was probably true."

  "Yep," Adam agreed. "What happened to Jared isn't gonna happen to us. That man did something to cause that. But he didn't do anything to us."

  Conner set his head against the headrest and glanced to the side at his friends. "Lou knows all about this kinda crap. I want to know what Lou knows. I want to know exactly what happened to Jared all the way to the end, when he died."

  Trevor finally pulled away from the curb. "We're going to be late for school." At the stop sign at the end of the block, he said, "We gotta talk to Lou before he leaves Newman."

  Very few students were lingering in the parking lot when the three arrived at school. Conner checked his phone. "Crap. The last bell already rung. We are tardy, tardy, tardy."

  "So what." Adam scooted across the back seat to the passenger door. "We're always on time. One tardy won't kill us. Besides, Miss Campbell likes us. Let's go."

  As Conner was busy slipping his phone into his backpack, Trevor groaned. Conner looked at Trevor and sighed. "Now what?"

  Trevor gestured to Conner's window. "Here comes trouble."

  Hailey's father walked a steady, direct path toward the car. The look of determination on his face was clearly visible, even halfway across the parking lot.

  "He doesn't look happy," Conner said as he opened the door. He slid his backpack onto his shoulder and resisted his body's reflex to tense in anticipation. "Good morning, Mr. Brooks."

  "I'd like a word with you, Mr. Preston."

  "We're already late."

  Mr. Brooks smiled. "What I have to say won't take long." He looked at Adam and Trevor. "May we have a minute, please?"

  When Trevor stepped away, Adam tugged him back and said to Mr. Brooks, "We're gonna stay. We're here for support."

  "It's a private matter," Mr. Brooks replied.

  Adam offered a smile. "Nothing's private between the three of us."

  "Fine." Facing Conner again, Mr. Brooks said, "How dare you use an innocent girl for your selfish, sexual needs. Hailey was a girl of high moral standards. Your charm and attention was a ploy just so you could violate—"

  "I didn't violate anyone," Conner replied, his frustration rising. "I've never forced a girl to do anything. I don't take advantage of girls. I'm very respectful of—"

  "If you respected Hailey, you would have allowed her to hold onto her innocence."

  "You want me to leave your daughter alone? Is that what you're going to tell me?"

  "I want you to maintain a respectful, safe distance. I can't forbid her from seeing you. That will only push her to you."

  Conner turned to walk. "I'll be respectful, just like I always am."

  Mr. Brooks clutched Conner's wrist. "A respectful, safe distance. I'm sure there are plenty of girls in school who'd love your attention. So go stick your dick in one of them."

  Conner's eyes widened. He'd never imagined Mr. Brooks using such language. He was torn between reacting with a jaw drop or a mildly restrained laugh. "Loud and clear, Mr. Brooks. Sorry, but we're late. We gotta go."

  Releasing Conner's arm, Mr. Brooks replied, "Please honor my request. Because next time I won't be so nice."

  Walking to the school entrance, Adam said, "I told you. Hailey's a Goody Two-shoes. You're chasing the wrong girl."

  Conner back-handed Adam's stomach. "That makes two of us."

  Adam smiled, but lowered his head as they walked.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Conner saw Mr. Brooks' car leave the parking lot. Then he noticed a news station's van parked on the street.

  After a quick stop in the administration office, the three strolled to Miss Campbell's English class with tardy slips in hand. Trevor was the first to arrive at the door. He peered through the door's small window. "Yeah. They have their books open already."

  Adam poked him in the back. "Just open the door so we can get in there and start class."

  When the three walked into the classroom, all eyes focused on them. A boy sang out, "Dun, Dun, DUN."

  Several kids snickered.

  "Welcome, gentlemen," Miss Campbell said. "Take your seats so we can continue without further interruption."

  Conner dropped his backpack onto the floor. As he bent to retrieve his English textbook, he heard whispers. The unknown hushed words imitated the sensation of bugs crawling on his skin. He could feel it down to his bones as he straightened his posture and glanced at Trevor. The whispering stopped. Then he glanced at Adam.

  He flipped open the textbook and stared at a random page. He suddenly felt uncharacteristically self-conscious. He was not used to people whispering about him, and it bothered him.

  * * *

  It soon became abundantly clear that the weekend arrival of reporters in Newman had advanced Jared's story from rumor to fact. In the eyes of students, the devil had paid Newman a visit; he was responsible for the death of Jared Smith, and he likely still wandered the streets searching for his next victim. Aside from their closest friends, most people avoided Conner, Adam, and Trevor. Everyone seemed content to steal a glance, openly stare, and talk in hushed tones.

  At lunchtime, the three regrouped and sat at their usual table. Soon Hailey, Jasmine, and Miguel joined them. But then Zach appeared at their table, an air of melancholy coloring
his mood.

  Sitting on the bench, he said, "I guess some people are nervous to be around me."

  "Why?" Adam asked.

  "Because I went to Jared's house that night." He traced his finger though the air, pointing at everyone at the table. "Apparently, one of us is the next to be possessed."

  Hailey gasped in disgust. "That's so rude. And wrong."

  He looked at Jasmine. "I guess that means you and I will be sitting together at detention."

  Slumping, she rolled her eyes. "Oh great. That's just great. Well, I'm not sitting with Rachel. She's the reason I have detention in the first place."

  "Whatever," Zach replied as he opened a carton of milk. "All of us are outcasts at the moment."

  Conner swept his eyes across the cafeteria. The stolen glances and whispered words were unrelenting. Instead of tapering off as Conner had expected, the not so stealthy behavior had only intensified. "Everyone's acting like an idiot."

  "Yep," Adam mumbled as he chewed. "Idiots."

  "I don't care," Trevor said. "I'm not playing into their BS."

  "Hey. Wait a minute." Adam dropped his turkey sandwich onto his plate. "So, basically everyone is thinking this?"

  "Apparently," Conner responded. "Basketball should be fun."

  Trevor groaned. "Yeah, we'll see how successful practice is."

  As Trevor discussed basketball with Adam and Zach, and Jasmine pretended to be keenly interested, Conner shyly smiled at Hailey. "Your dad confronted me this morning."

  "No, he didn't. Oh, my goodness. What did he say?"

  "That I violated his innocent daughter."

  Her cheeks flushed. "I'm sorry. I should have told you about what I said to my parents. But I didn't hear from you last night. And then this morning, well . . . I'm sorry."

  "I don't think he likes me."

  "He doesn't know you."

  "Then, I don't think he will like me."

  "I blurted something to my parents totally on an impulse, and my dad assumed the worst. I mean, I didn't correct him. So I"—she leaned forward—Can we talk about this at a later time?"

  Miguel, who had been watching the exchange with curiosity, said, "Her dad can be very temperamental."

  She relaxed. "Conner, are you guys doing okay? Everything's gotten kinda crazy."