Under the Cobblestones

by Aline Riva

  Chapter 11

  Zack opened up the front door. Kyle stood with his back to him looking down the path. Zack said his name, and he turned around, and then he noticed there was an odd look about his eyes.

  “Kyle?” he said, “Are you okay?”

  “Um...No, I'm not,” he said, pausing to rub the back of his neck as tension pained it, “I'm just trying to do something, it was meant to be easy but...”

  He paused, looked downwards and shook his head.

  “This is hard,” he admitted, “I need to do something but I don't want to do it - but I need to do it for me, do you understand?”

  Zack looked at him in confusion.

  “You're not making sense,” he said.

  Then Sarah joined Zack at the door, and looked in surprise at Kyle, who was looking oddly at both of them as she stood there beside him on the doorstep.

  “I'm really sorry,”Kyle said, “This isn't something I want to do...But I can't cope any more. I don't want to die.”

  “Come in, you need to sit down,” Zack said kindly.

  But he stayed on the porch, then his hand slipped into his pocket and the feel of the cold heavy gun was reassuring beneath his fingertips.

  “No, I can't do that,” he said, “I just need to talk to you for a minute, just here, on the doorstep...”

  Then Zack's phone rang and he took it from his pocket and answered it.

  “Zack?” said Sally Brackenby, and she sounded anxious, “This is important, is Kyle with you?”

  “Yes -”

  “Don't say a word!” she told him, “Just listen -”

  “Hold on a minute,” he said, and then he glanced to Kyle, “I've just go to take this call...it's business, I won't be a minute.”

  And as Sarah shot him a puzzled glance, he gave her a look that she understood – he was asking her not to let Kyle out of her sight.

  “He won't be a minute,” she said to Kyle as Zack went back inside, “How about you talk to me? You look frightened, what's happened?”

  Kyle shook his head.

  “I can't talk about it,” he said, and his hand was still in his jacket pocket.

  Zack went down the hallway and spoke again in a low voice as he continued the call.

  “What's going on, Sally?” he said, “Kyle's turned up on the doorstep and he's acting really weird!”

  “Just keep him there,” she said, “I'm on my way over. But don't get too close to him, I noticed the gun we keep for home protection is missing and I'm afraid for him because he said he's been hearing Frederick talk to him in the house. That can't be possible, because Grace told me the house was exorcised years ago, there are no ghosts at our family home, if he's heard Frederick speak to him in our house, it's in his head. I checked his pills...he's not taken his meds for about six weeks. “

  What meds?” Zack asked, and then he thought about what else she had said, “And what's this about a bloody gun?”

  “I'm on my way,” she told him again, “Please don't call the police, he won't hurt anyone!”

  Then the call ended, and Zack hurried back to the front door.

  “Get inside,” he said to Sarah.

  “Excuse me?” she replied, “Why should I do that? :Look at the state of him, he's upset!”

  Zack pushed past her, standing in front of her as he looked to Kyle.

  “I think you should calm down. Sally's on her way to take you home.”

  Anger flashed in his eyes, and Sarah screamed as Zack stared in horror at the sight of the gun he whipped from his pocket. Kyle held it in a shaky grip as he pointed the weapon at Zack.

  “I don't want to kill you,” he said, and his voice cracked with emotion as tears ran from his eyes, “But I hear his voice every day, telling me to save myself, to lift the curse. I have to shoot you to save my own life!”

  Zack slowly raised his hand, blocking his own view of the gun in his face.

  “Put it down,” he said carefully, “Listen to me Kyle, when you heard Frederick at the grave side, it was real. When you heard him at the seance that was real too. We all heard him. But if you've heard him at home at the family mansion, that's not real. That's you. The mansion was exorcised years ago. Any voices you've heard, anything you've seen in that house, is in your own head!”

  Kyle's grip on the gun wavered as he gave a sob.

  “He won't leave me alone!” he wept, “He said I have to shoot you, I can't do it, I don't want to do it!”

  And he sank to his knees, and Sarah gave a gasp as Zack reached out and snatched the gun from his grip, he took it from him quickly in a fluid movement, then slid the weapon far from the porch. Then he was on his knees and cradling Kyle in his arms as Kyle sobbed with his head on his shoulder.

  “It's okay,” Zack whispered as he stroked his hair, “This isn't your fault.”

  Finally Sarah spoke up. She looked down at Zack as he held Kyle, and she explained what else she had learned from the diary:

  “I told you, there was a terrible curse that was already on the family,” she said, “The Brackenby line has schizophrenia running through it and accounts of it go back for centuries.”

  Then a car screeched to a halt outside the cottage and Sally got out wearing a light summer dress that was so sheer it was clear to see she still wore her bikini beneath it. The dress was inside out because she had thrown it on so fast as she had hurried off to find her husband. She ran up the path and sank to her knees, pulling Kyle from Zack's arms and then holding him tightly as he continued to weep.

  “I'm sorry,” she said as Zack got up, “He sometimes feels okay and comes off the meds and then he's not okay again...he promised me he would never do this again. Please don't call the police...”

  And tears ran from her eyes as she looked to the discarded gun.

  “It's okay,” Zack promised her, ”When he's feeling better, tell him I'm not angry and I'm still his friend. And don't worry about the gun. I''ll throw it in the river.”

  Sarah blinked away tears as she saw the way Kyle was weeping in his wife's arms.

  “He needs some water,” Sally said as she drew a bottle of pills from her pocket, “He's starting back on these things right now!”

  After Sally had made sure her husband had taken his medication, Zack and Sarah had watched as she took him back to the car, where he sat in the passenger seat and more tears ran from his eyes as she spoke kindly to him, and then they drove away.

  Zack went over to gun and picked it up carefully, and then he shook his head.

  “He wouldn't have done any harm with this,” he told her, “The safety was on.”

  And then they went back inside the cottage, closing the door on what had been a truly shattering day.

  Later that evening, after Sarah had joined him upstairs for an early night, Sally called Zack to let him know that Kyle was starting to feel some what better now he was back on the meds, she said 'Frederick' had stopped talking to him, and that Kyle was sleeping. She also said to give it at least a week before getting in touch, because she wanted to be sure he was back to normal before he left the house again, and when Zack told her she had nothing to worry about because he understood, she cried down the phone and he wished he could hug her. Then the call ended and he put down the phone and turned over on top of the covers where he lay on his bed next to Sarah, and sadness shaded his gaze.

  “At least he's on the mend now,” he said, “And I can understand why Sally would be so scared. She doesn't want to see him locked up for waving a gun around. I had no idea he was supposed to be on medication. He never told me about it.”

  “And he still has the rash to worry about,” she reminded him, “It's so unfair. He'll get over this and then he'll have to have the tests to find out if he's dying or not. I reckon it was the fear of that, I think that was the reason he came apart more than anything.”

  “I'm not digging up the path until he's better,” Zack said, “As soon as those meds kick in and he's back to himself, I want us to see thi
s thing through together.”

  Sarah shifted closer and put her arm around him.

  “Too right,” she agreed, “The three of us started this, we should all see it through to the end.”

  Then he turned out the light, held her in his arms and slept deeply, and for once, no dreams of Thornton's death troubled him.

  The time passed.

  It was ten days before Zack heard from his best friend. When he did call, he was full of apology that Zack assured him was not needed, and later that morning when he turned up with Sarah, the first thing he did was hug Zack tightly and say sorry all over again.

  “He knows you're sorry, and it's forgiven!” Sarah reminded him, and then as the four of them stood together on the cobblestones where the ground was uneven below the porch, Sally looked to her husband.

  “Are you are sure you're up to this?” she asked.

  Kyle looked to his wife and nodded, then he turned to Zack.

  “Trust me, I'm back on the meds and stopping on them, I never want to see Frederick again in my whole life! I'm telling the truth, I've learned my lesson. I wont be irresponsible again.”

  “I know that,” Zack replied, and as he looked into his eyes, Kyle knew he was forgiven, and the two men exchanged a smile.

  “Are you sure you can trust me with a pick axe after what I did a gun?” Kyle said, and now his eyes danced with amusement as he sounded like the Kyle Brackenby he knew and loved.

  Zack laughed.

  “Yeah smart arse, I do trust you!” he said, and then his smile faded.

  “Have you had those blood tests yet?”

  “No,”Kyle replied, and he turned over his arm and showed him the rash, “It's still there. I think I know what the outcome will be.”

  “And you don't want to think the worst until you have to,” Zack reminded him.

  Sarah stepped forward and indicated to the nearby garden shed, where the tools were waiting.

  “Get to work then, boys,” she said, “Me and Sally will just sit back and watch, see what you turn up.”

  “I think I know what we'll turn up,” Zack replied, and the two men went over to the shed to fetch the tools.

  Breaking through the cobblestones was hard work, especially as the sun rose higher in the summer sky. Zack stripped off his shirt as sweat ran down his back and Kyle did the same after smashing the pick axe into the pathway several times to crack it. And Sarah stood with Sally as they watched, as cobblestones were demolished and the ground beneath was slowly exposed.

  By the time the sun had sunk lower and the grandfather clock in the hallway chimed three, the new pathway by the porch was gone, and now remained as a stack of rubble at the side of the house.

  Then Zack and Kyle stood either side of the exposed ground, exchanged a glance and both drove their spades deep into the soil and started to dig, and they kept on digging.

  Taking up the soil was surprisingly a longer job than breaking up the cobblestones, and it was another hour before the hole was deep and wide and the deeper they dug, the more Zack wondered if it was the heat of the day that was getting to him, or if there was more to the feeling that kept swamping his mind as the smell of the earth seemed to echo the cries of Thornton as he was buried alive.

  Then he dropped the spade and reached out of the hole and grabbed the glass of iced water that was waiting for him, he drank it down fast and breathed hard as he tried to banish the taste of earth that seemed to refuse to leave his mouth. Then he coughed, and Kyle stopped digging.

  “What's wrong?” he asked.

  “I can taste soil in my mouth, I keep thinking it's down my throat, I know what this means.”

  “Do you want me to carry on alone?” Kyle offered.

  Zack drew in another breath and shook his head, fighting off the urge to cough and gag.

  “No, I can do this, I have to find my bones,” he said, and then he drove the spade into the soil and it struck something solid.

  Kyle stopped digging as the two men exchanged a glance, and then they both fell to their knees and began raking at the earth, clearing it away as beneath, white bone looked like china against the darkness of the soft soil as the sun rays shone down into the hole and lit on the bones of Thornton Ravencroft.

  “We've found it!” Kyle called up, and as the two women came to the edge of the hole and looked down, Sarah stared at the sight of the skeleton, its mouth open and filled with dirt.

  “Oh my god...” murmured Sally, and she took a step back.

  “You found your bones,” said Kyle.

  But as he stood there looking down at the remains of Thornton, now mostly exposed and certainly uncovered enough to see every bone was cracked or broken, Zack felt the hammer blows all over again and sank to his knees, his hands on the earth and the bones, the soft earth and the broken bones, and as he drew in a breath, the bones seemed to shift, and it drew up inside him and something shuddered though his own bones, something he had known all his life had been missing, something that had now returned...

  Zack gave a gasp as he sucked in a sharp breath, and then Kyle fell to his knees beside him, pulling him up from the earth, and the two mean knelt together in the shallow grave.

  “Zack?” Kyle said as he grabbed at his arm and gave him a shake, “Zack, are you okay?”

  Zack looked up, into the eyes of Kyle Brackenby, and as the words he long sought to find whirled about him and rose up from his bones, something old and dark shimmered as a flicker at the back of his eyes. He placed his hands on Kyle's shoulders and gripped tightly as he fixed his gaze on him intently and a smile played about his lips.

  “Demons of old be gone I chase thee from thy bones,” he whispered, and the voice did not sound like his own,”Poison be gone, gone is the curse, clean be the blood, the spell in reverse. Clean be the blood, now be free...”

  And then he let go of Kyle and slumped backwards, his back hitting the side of the shallow grave as the world turned dark.

  As Zack opened his eyes and looked up through the hole at Sally and Sarah looking in, he heard their voices as Sarah asked if he was okay, and Sally was saying he needed some water because he had fainted, then Kyle pulled him upright and he blinked and the world came back into focus.

  “I'm okay,” he said, “Get me out of this hole, I've had enough of damp earth, I hate the smell of it.”

  “Are you sure you can stand?” Kyle asked, and Zack nodded. A brief wave of dizziness swept over him and then it was gone. He blinked to clear blurred vision and saw Kyle was looking at him doubtfully.

  “Maybe you should just sit here for a minute,” he suggested.

  Zack shook his head.

  “I'll be fine,” he said.

  Then as Kyle climbed out of the hole and held out his hand to help him up, Zack looked back down at his former bones, broken and shattered by the beating he would always remember as the pain of the memory lingered. He took in the way the skeleton was lying there, arms outstretched as if begging to be released, and then he wondered about what had flowed between it and him as his hands had touched earth and bone.

  Earth and bone below stone, but still there was fire...

  Those words seemed to make sense now as he felt as if he were taking something out of that grave with him, now warm once more inside his own, living bones covered by flesh. And he kept silent about that feeling as Kyle helped him out of the hole and he felt relieved to be on solid ground once more, in fresh air that carried scents of the summer garden, as he brushed dirt from his jeans and then had a hug from Sarah as he promised her that he really was okay.

  “But you fainted!” she said.

  “And I said I'm fine!” he insisted.

  Sally handed him a glass of water and he drank it down, the ice cubes in the glass rattled and the chill of it brought back his senses sharply as the last of the dizziness left him. He looked down again into the hole at the bones below and then turned away, and as he looked to Kyle, he wondered why his best friend was still covered in mud and had
made no attempt to brush it off.

  “You might want to get cleaned up,” he suggested.

  And Kyle just stood there looking at him, with tears in his eyes as he started to smile.

  “What is it?” he asked, wondering why he was looking at him like he wanted to hug him.

  Kyle gave a sob and wiped his eyes, not caring about the mud he smeared on his face as he did so.

  “What's wrong Kyle?” Sally asked anxiously, and he looked to her and shook his head.

  “Nothing at all,” he told her, and then he laughed and tears ran down his face, and he went over to her and as she protested about the mud, he laughed again as he grabbed her and kissed her.

  As he let go she stared at him.

  “You're not off your meds again?”

  “No, I promise you I am not off them, not now or ever again,” he replied, and then he turned to Zack and he was still tearful, but joy was shining in his eyes and as he spoke again, his voice choked with emotion.

  “I don't know what you said to me down there in that grave,” he told him.

  “Neither do I,” Sarah added, “We saw you suddenly start talking but we couldn't hear what you said.”

  “What did you say?” Sally asked.

  The words he had uttered that had come from old magic were still bright in his mind, but he kept silent about that as he shook his head.

  “I don't know, I can't remember,” Zack replied.

  “Whatever it was that you said to me,” Kyle told him, “It bloody worked!”

  And he turned his arm over and brushed away dried mud, and then Zack's eyes misted with tears too as he saw every trace of the rash was gone.

  “You did it!” Kyle said as he wrapped his arms around him and hugged him tightly, “You lifted the curse!”

  Then Sarah looked on in surprise as Sally took a look at her husband's arm, and as she too saw that the rash was gone, she started to cry, and then she reached for Zack and Kyle, and as the three of them embraced and Sally thanked him, Zack said again he didn't remember what he had done, and then he looked to Sarah, and held out his hand, and as she caught it, he pulled her close, and the four of them stood there in the sunshine over the exposed grave of the warlock and embraced tightly.