“I believe you,” Barron finally said as he released the girl from his embrace.
“Are you going to go to Sheriff Handow?” she wanted to know next. “I would not blame you if you did, but I just need some time.” Regina meant every word that she said. For so long now she had been waiting for the chance to reveal this burdening secret and she would not be the least bit angry if Barron decided to do the right thing and take everything that she said to the police. In fact, that is probably what she wanted; although, in recent years she found it more and more difficult to be sure of her maze of feelings.
“No. I won’t go to the sheriff; besides, there is probably no evidence anymore that points to any of you girls. If you did not have anything to do with the new crime scene there will be nothing there and even if there was it would be tainted by whatever happened after you did whatever it is that you think you did or didn’t do. Anything that was ever in Nikki’s backyard or fireplace is probably long gone,” he reasoned.
There was no reason anymore to hide any details. Regina recounted the events of that sinister afternoon, the DeFrank estate, and the photograph. She told him how she was attacked at the festival, but she recanted her idea that it was Lola that attacked her and credited the delusions of a terrified girl with her previous accusation. Barron was already beginning to question her mental health and she didn’t want to provide him with any more ammunition by standing firm on her idea that a dead girl had attacked her.
Barron pulled up to the curb on the side of the street that was opposite Regina’s house. The lights were on in the kitchen.
“What if this person comes after you again?” he asked. Regina beamed at the concern in Barron’s voice. He was beautiful and the love that she once had for him, which for years lay gray in the same forsaken corner of her heart where Black Water resided, had just come back from the dead like a flower growing to full bright pink bloom.
“I’ll be fine with my parents here. Once you get over the devastating fear that comes from facing the darkness and you step inside, it isn’t so bad,” she revealed.
Barron raised an eyebrow and Regina regretted revealing her newly discovered revelation and thought that she better back it up with something less abstract.
“I’m not scared anymore.” She said. “Besides, whoever it is wants me to stop, they don’t want to kill me. If they kill me they start a whole new investigation that would threaten to reveal who they are.”
“Yeah…well …” he said, looking into the rearview and then scanning all of the windows. “It’s still pretty early so I’ll just hang out here for a while,” he said. Regina leaned across the seat and kissed him long and aggressively, pressing his face closer to hers with her hand on the back of his neck. Everything around them faded into a blur of useless sights and sounds and they were the only two people in the world. All of the fear and frustration drained from her and she felt as light as air for the minute that she was in rapture with him. This kiss was the one that she had been waiting for and it was everything that she imagined it would be. She felt close to him, which is something that she had been missing.
Regina jumped out of the truck and scrambled across the street. Her parents were in the kitchen having coffee in costume.
“Regina, you OK? Barron said that you weren’t feeling well.” Her father spoke first.
Regina plopped down on one of the chairs at the kitchen table. “I had a couple of drinks. I just needed to relax.” Regina told her parents.
“I’m starting to think that you don’t want to spend any time with us.” Her mother said half-jokingly, but the hurt was apparent.
Regina pressed her fingertips to her forehead, exacerbated by her mother’s guilt and feeling the oncoming of a massive headache.
“Mom, this has nothing to do with you, OK? I know that I have been a little checked out, but can you understand, Mom? Can you understand?” Regina asked.
Her father sighed, dreading having to get in the middle of this conversation.
Mrs. Dean sensed her husband’s anxiety. “I just want you to grieve in a healthy way is all.”
Regina took a moment to actually think about the words that her mother was saying before brushing them off simply based on the fact that they were the words of her mother. She wanted so badly to tell them everything, to tell them that this was not just simple grieving for a friend lost, it was so much more. Mr. Dean gave his wife a disapproving glance.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Her mother came over and stroked her hair.
“It’s not you, Mom. You’re right. I just needed to have a couple of drinks tonight, but I promise I won’t deal with it like this.” Regina relented. Mr. Dean reached around the table and held his wife’s hand. Regina fought back the tears.
“You hungry?” Her mother asked.
“No. I just need to get a little sleep.” Regina confessed.
“Do you want to talk?” Her father pressed.
“Maybe tomorrow dad, I just want to sleep. Are you still going next door to the Jamison’s?” Regina asked as she rose from the table.
“Well …” Her mother began with concern.
“Uh.” Her father’s stuttering fell over that of her mother’s.
Regina laughed lightly and sniffled. “Go”
“Maybe we should just stay home; I’m kind of tired anyway.” her father said.
“No, you’re not!” Regina challenged. “You go to their Halloween party every year. Go, I’m just going to go to sleep anyway,” she urged.
“Are you sure?” Her mother asked.
“Yes, Mom. I’m a grown woman I will be fine.” Regina said feeling confident with Barron standing guard.
“Well, we’ll be right next door if you need anything.”
“We won’t stay very long,” her father promised.
Regina retreated upstairs to the bathroom where she took another shower in an attempt to wash away the dirt, the dirt that had been waiting for years to be cracked by the truth. Regina was warm in her robe as she crept down the hall into her room and looked out of the window to see Barron staring directly up at her through his open car window. Relief settled her stomach and she gave him a quick wave. It was doubtful that any stranger was coming for her that night, but there was something overwhelmingly romantic about having Barron there. His watch-keeping made her feel like a princess being protected in her tower, while the valiant prince kept the monsters away. She slid into bed and sleep swept her away.
Pain sliced through Regina’s head as her groggy eyes opened to reveal a room full of the clouded remnants of a dream and she immediately wished that she had taken some aspirin before bed. Someone was at the front door pounding out another loud series of bangs. “What the hell?” she muttered to herself, one hand on her forehead trying to massage away the alcohol-induced pain, the other hand lifting the alarm clock to reveal that it was only 9:45 p.m.
More violent pounding permeated the house.
“Jesus Christ! I’m coming.” Regina gave a soft yell loud enough for them to hear, but not loud enough to agitate the pain that was swimming in her head.
“Who is it?” She yelled again as she shakily made her way down the stairs.
No answer, just another series of thunderous knocks. Abruptly the circumstances of her current life came floating back to her in a wave of haunting reality and she froze.
18
She stood on the last step listening intently, but heard nothing. Regina fell back on the stairs at the sound of a cat squealing on the porch and then a sudden rustling, in her startled movement her ankle collided with one of the hard steps.
“Ouch!” Regina gave an injured cry.
“Regina!” A voice yelled before another string of loud blows to the door. Regina dashed into the kitchen and pulled out the drawer full of knives of all shapes and sizes in a menacing jangle of metal. Regina wrenched out one of her mother’s favorite utensils, a dangerously sharp steel butcher knife. She held it up and admired the gleam that flashed across
the shadowy kitchen. Regina raced back to the door and stood with her ear pressed tightly against the wood.
“Who is it?” she yelled, blowing out all of the air in her chest so that her voice would sound strong.
Silence.
“Natalie!” the voice yelled. “Open the door. Please hurry!”
Regina’s breathing slowed.
Natalie? What the hell was she doing here?
Though Regina had kept company with Natalie only once in the past six years she knew that she hardly sounded like herself. Her voice was different; higher.
“Natalie,” she confirmed as she released a relieved exhale. Regina unchained the door and turned the lock. Yanking open the door, she was dumbfounded by the shadowy figure that floated on the porch a few feet from the door. It stood limp and dangling, its head hanging low.
“Natalie,” Regina spoke as her fingers felt along the wall until they found what they needed. Regina’s fingers flipped the porch light switch and she gasped. Natalie was battered and disheveled, some of her hair hung out of her ponytail, her lip was bleeding, and she had a colorful bruise on the side of her forehead.
Natalie began to walk toward Regina. Regina raised her hand to cover her mouth. Natalie reeled back at the sight of Regina’s fierce weapon. Regina realized that she was still holding the knife that hung clumsily in her hand.
“What is that?” Natalie asked.
“I’m sorry, but you didn’t answer when I asked who it was.”
“I didn’t hear you. I didn’t hear anything.”
“Sorry” Regina apologized for greeting Natalie with a knife.
Natalie moved quickly, snatching the blade and brushing by Regina into the house, she slammed and locked the door behind her.
“It was Lola!” Natalie stated. “Lola tried to kill me.”
“What? When?” Regina blurted.
“Not long ago, about an hour. I was outside in my garage storing some things and I had the garage door open. She just walked right in! We fought and I managed to get away and get into the house and she ran. She never said a word. I waited to make sure that she was gone; then I came here.”
“How do you know it was Lola? Did you see her? Did you see Lola?” Regina asked like a detective arriving at the clincher of an interrogation.
“I didn’t actually see her. She was wearing this sort of cape thing, but I know it was her.”
A cape? The monk.
All of the evening’s events came flooding back to Regina; the monk had attacked Natalie too. Regina’s eyes lit up as her brain fired off rapid thoughts that began to connect, she noticed the large bruise on Natalie’s forehead getting darker by the moment.
“What is going on?” Natalie said now pointing with the knife. Natalie’s fear was disintegrating rapidly into anger.
Regina could feel a nerve in her thigh begin to twitch as she realized that Natalie’s bruise was in the same place that she had hit the monk with the crucifix earlier in Clark’s that night. Natalie’s eyes burned into Regina.
“What?” Natalie gasped. Regina was trembling. She was locked in a house with someone who may be the person that wanted to hurt her. Regina backed away from the frantic girl.
“Don’t you believe me?” Natalie pleaded, the blade of the knife moving wildly in accordance with her animated words. Regina jumped as the point of the knife was now inches from her chest.
“I believe you, Natalie, I do.”
Natalie’s eyes glazed over in a brief moment of rage and then turned to a haughty smile as if she knew something that Regina did not.
“You don’t believe me, do you? You think it was me, don’t you? You think I cut her up, buried her.” She used the point of the knife to conduct her story only inches from Regina’s face. Natalie moved closer, the point of the knife so close now that its gleaming tip was almost a blur. “You blame me for everything, don’t you?” Natalie asked.
Both girls screamed at the sound of incessant rings through the house.
The doorbells rang again almost immediately after the first round. Regina felt relief flood her quaking body. Natalie looked back toward the door nervously still not moving the knife.
“I gotta get the door, Natalie.” she insisted.
“REGINA!” She heard Nikki’s strained voice through the door.
Both girls recognized the voice. The tension drained from Natalie’s stiff posture and she moved aside to give her friend a path to the door. Natalie went into the kitchen to put the knife away. Regina scrambled to the door and flung it open to reveal a battered Nikki, she had a thick red bruise around her neck and her eyes were bloodshot. Regina could see Barron jogging up the walkway behind her.
“He attacked me!” She blurted out throwing herself upon Regina. Confused, Regina embraced her friend. She looked over the shaking girl’s shoulder at Barron who shrugged.
“It wasn’t me. I just saw Natalie come in, and when I saw Nikki I figured I should find out what the hell’s going on.” Barron told her.
Nikki turned and was shocked to see Barron.
“Natalie’s here too?” Nikki said unlocking herself from her friend. Natalie appeared in the foyer once again and Nikki then threw herself upon Natalie who had no time to react and barely knew how to respond considering she made it a point to avoid public displays of affection.
“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked.
“Someone attacked me,” Nikki told her. Natalie’s eyes immediately went to Regina’s in an expression of anxiety.
“Everyone come in, go into the living room. Barron, lock the door. I’ll be right there.” Regina said as she slipped into the kitchen. She opened one of the cabinets and took down a small bottle. She winced and rubbed one of her temples before opening the bottle and popping two pills with nothing to drink.
In the living room, the three were locked in uncontrollable chatter. Barron and Natalie sat on the couch and Nikki was propped on the piano bench.
“When were you attacked, Nikki?” Regina asked trying to avert the stare that was now upon her from Natalie.
“Just now! At the festival, I came straight here. I didn’t know where else to go.”
“Are you happy now, Regina? I know what you were thinking. I was not lying.” Natalie boasted. Regina shot her a quick look, but said nothing because Natalie was right about what Regina had been thinking.
“What are you talking about?” Barron asked. “Nothing.” Regina answered.
“All right, so we were all attacked.”
“You were attacked too?” Nikki asked.
“Yes” Regina said with a sigh.
“And you thought I did it?” Natalie accused; she looked hurt.
“No, not at first, but then I saw the bruise on your head and I thought…maybe …” Regina explained.
Natalie shook her head. “Un-fucking-believable.”
What happened to you, Nikki?” Regina asked with a sigh.
Nikki used her shaking hands to pull her wild hair back into a tight ponytail before speaking.
“I went to the festival looking for you. There were so many people there and I didn’t see you so, after a while, I crossed over to the park to have a drink. I was just sitting on the swing when I heard someone behind me, but before I could turn around, they had something around my neck.” Her voice began to shake as she lifted her hand to massage the red bruise that marked her throat. Her story was choking on the sorrowful cries that were now flowing from her.
“They dragged me off of the swing and pulled me behind this tree. I was kicking and I was, I was trying to scream, but I couldn’t get anything out. There was no air. I couldn’t breathe and everything was starting to go black, I was gasping and then he just let me go. The rope slid from around my neck and he ran away. I just laid there for a while because I couldn’t move. I was so scared; I thought I was going to die. When my head started to clear and I started breathing normally again, I don’t why but I came straight here. It was someone in like a priest costume or somethi
ng,” she reported while using her hand to illustrate the flow of the gown. Tears streamed down her face.
Regina, Natalie, and Barron sat speechless.
“And you think it was Lola?” Regina finally asked.
“Lola?” Nikki asked looking startled. “What do you mean it was Lola? I never said it was Lola.”
“Lola?” Barron questioned, a mystified glaze transforming the features of his face. “So you do think that it was Lola that attacked you?”
“Lola attacked you?” Nikki shrieked her mouth gaping in horror.
“She attacked me,” Natalie inserted.
“Lola attacked you?” Nikki asked Natalie, becoming more hysterical with every word spoken.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” Barron put his hands up to halt the girls, as he could see that this meeting was rapidly dissolving into a summit of frenzy.
“Regina, you said that someone attacked you, not Lola,” Barron said.
Regina looked to Natalie and hated to tell the truth, but had no choice. If she couldn’t trust the people who sat in this room right now, there was no one to trust.
“It looked like her.” An ashamed Regina admitted.
“You said you didn’t see their face.” Barron insisted.
“I didn’t!” Regina spit, aggravated by the mentions of her own potential delusions.
“I didn’t see her face, but it looked like her,” she confirmed.
“The eyes.” Natalie said. “I didn’t get a good look at her either, but it was her eyes.”
“Are you saying that it was Lola that attacked me?” Nikki spoke almost in a daze as she grabbed at her skin that was now crawling with thousands of worms slithering just beneath the surface. She got up and went to the window, drew back the drape a couple of inches and stared into the dark night, the omnipresent silver eye just behind black tree branches floated between two bodies of midnight blue clouds and stared directly back down at Nikki.
Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers Page 21