by Gary Lewis
"It opens up over that way to the field," Janice said, leaning against the wrecked metal cage as Sarah and David walked further.
"Wait," David suddenly said as he grabbed Sarah's shoulder and she swung around with surprise in her eyes. "Maybe we shouldn't. Vance had a bunch of bear traps."
"I didn't think of that," Sarah said as they looked around. Broken bark and branches sprinkled the ground all around them spattered in blood. "Do you think that's..." Sarah paused as she lifted her hand over her lips. "Vance?"
"It's hard to say," David said with a struggle in his voice as he swept his hand through his hair. "With all this damage, I doubt the monster escaped unscathed." Janice found it ironic that they referred to it as a monster.
Sarah bent down and broke a piece of poison ivy, lifting a large leaf covered in thick, reddish brown blood.
"You know..." When Sarah's eyes lit with an idea, it was as obvious as a lightbulb flashing over her head. "I bet if we could compare the DNA from this blood to all of our suspects, it would match the killer."
Janice looked over at David as he sighed and lifted his hand. "Sure. Let me just get out my trusty DNA lab and get started on that." Sarah rolled her eyes at him as she tossed the plant onto the ground with a shake of her head.
Sarah turned to Janice. "Listen, David and I thought about us all leaving town for a while, but-"
David interrupted Sarah's speech. "It's a no go."
"What? Why?" Sarah asked, turning her head back at David.
"Terry says the mayor has the cops listing everyone going in or out of town."
"The mayor?" Sarah asked.
"And that's not all," David said. "The Big Bucks are mobilizing to get it too. They're pretty pissed about Willy."
Janice joined in the conversation. "Do you think they know about it? The werewolf, I mean?"
Sarah and David looked at one another for a couple seconds before David finally answered. "I'm sure they know it's something."
"That doesn't really help us," Sarah said.
"Terry should be on his way," David said as Janice turned her back to them and began to pace back toward the broken metal bars.
"He didn't tell me he gave you directions here," he said, looking curiously in Janice's direction.
"He didn't have to," Janice said. “I just read the message and came down here."
Sarah and David looked at each other. "How did you find the exact place though?" Sarah asked. "The message just said the woods behind the chicken houses."
Janice didn't immediately answer, because she knew exactly what Sarah was getting at. She grasped onto the cold steel bars that hung horizontally from their broken frame as she stared out into the cracked canopy. Beams of morning light shined through every tiny gap.
"I had a hell of a time figuring it out, myself," David said hesitantly with a light gesture of his hand while they looked at her with questions in their eyes.
"I was with him for almost a year, remember?" Janice said. She lowered her eyes. "This was where we had our first major fight."
Janice released her grip as she turned to reclaim her seat on the damp stump while David and Sarah stood, looking on. "You're all wasting your time, you know?" she said as she swept one side of her hair back behind her ear. "We're all going to die before this curse does."
David swiped his hand in her direction. "There you go with this curse stuff again. This isn't some punishment and none of this is your fault, Janice."
She noticed the momentary look that Sarah shot David as if to tell him to shut up.
"You don't understand," she said as she blew a long breath out into the air. "It is my fault."
"No, it's not!" David shouted, stepping firmly forward, closer to where she sat. Janice noticed Sarah stepping slowly away, her eyes getting wider by the second.
"David..." Sarah's voice sounded with caution.
Janice rolled her eyes as she shook her head with a sigh. She slapped her hands onto her knees where she sat on her decaying wooden throne. "It was me, okay."
She saw Sarah's jaw plummet as David took a step back.
"What do you mean, Jan?" David asked quietly.
"I mean it's me,” Janice said. “I'm the one who killed those people."
Chapter 20
#David#
David stood frozen in the small wooded clearing, looking over Janice in shock as her words replayed over and over in his head. It's me. I'm the one who killed those people. He looked over his right shoulder where Sarah backed up further before he turned back to Janice, still sitting on her stump with lips that pouted down to match her pressed eyebrows. She just sat there, looking past both of them as David studied her smooth, light brown hair, mildly complected, soft skin and shining green eyes. Her plump lips glistened in the morning sunlight. He wondered if the moonlight could really transform such an elegant creature into a monster of darkness.
The sunlight flickered in through the green shelter of maple and oak leaves above. Dark wooden branches snaked their way across, forming a vein like skeleton that held the canopy in place. Below, they stood among scattered debris from the night before. They were the remains of what must have been a ferocious battle with the beast that hunted them all, stalking them from within their own social circles. This seemed the fitting place and time for them to meet their demise, David thought as he impatiently waited for what came next.
Janice finally broke the silence with her soft voice. "The fire at the old rec," she said with a sniffle. "Vance didn't do it. It was me." He watched her press her eyebrows together more firmly as he heard Sarah let out a long-held breath from behind. It was certainly good to know Janice wasn't about to sprout fangs and claws, but her words weren't matching up to the Janice he knew.
"But why, Jan?" David asked. "I don't understand."
"Hey. It's alright," Sarah said with a hint of relief. "We've all accidentally done things we regret, right?" Her hesitant words still shook with a subtle uneasiness.
"When I missed school, after the accident..." Janice's voice rubbed sarcasm in Sarah's direction. "They were going to take away my photography awards... cancel my scholarship. I was upset."
"Upset?" Sarah asked with raised eyebrows.
"It's fine, Jan," David said, sliding his hand over his forehead, pushing back his hair. "You didn't expect anyone to get hurt."
David watched Janice's eyes return to the ground as she tapped her foot against a large metal bracket that was once part of Vance's trap.
"I didn't care." Janice said. "I walked to the old rec from my house. The gas jug was sitting beside the mowers. All I could think about was everything that was taken from me. I was so upset." Janice's words started to break apart into sobs as she continued pointing her face down out of view. "They had so much of my work hanging up inside that old building. Before I knew what I did, I got trapped inside. The smoke and heat overcame me so fast." Her words trailed into silence as if she had ended the story.
"And...?" Sarah finally spoke up as she stepped forward, taking a close spot beside David.
"And what?" Janice asked, raising her head to wipe her teared face with her arm.
"How did you escape?" David asked, eager to hear the rest.
"Vance showed up just in time. It was just after we started talking." She said it so quickly that David wondered why she didn't get into that part of the story.
"Was there something about Vance that seemed..." David struggled to find the right words. "Out of the ordinary?"
"Not really," she said, standing up and turning away from them as she took a couple steps to face the old well, a distance away, near the travel path they had entered.
"You're not leaving, are you?" Sarah asked. "Janice?"
The sound of a car engine came from the dirt road and the white paint of Terry's new car reflected light through the trees as it cruised up to the opening before coming to a stop. Shortly after his car door shut, Terry came shuffling down the concealed path, passing the stone well.
"Hey guys! Did you
find anythi-" Terry stopped midsentence as he beheld the pile of destruction in which they stood. "Incredible."
"Well,” Sarah said. “That's one way to put it.”
"I see you guys finally worked things out," Terry said with a friendly smile as he nodded at Janice.
"I wouldn't go that far," Janice said, folding her arms as she glanced the other way.
The tension pulled the air in tight knots around David's breath. "So anyway..." David said, clearing his throat. There's a trail of blood over that way, then all of this." David motioned toward the field side edge of the woods then circled over to the broken cage. Though he was speaking to Terry, everyone went silent to listen. "We think he lured it over there where he already had this 'gauntlet' or whatever he called it laid out. It's probably where the bear traps were." David cleared his throat again before proceeding. "All these tangled, rusted wires get dragged over to this thing." He walked over and gave the cage a light kick.
"Looks like he got him," Terry said, lifting his eyebrows as he walked up to squeeze one of the warped bars, giving it a firm tug and shake.
"Not for long, though," David added as he swayed his arm in the direction of the littered ground.
Terry pressed his lips narrowly together and nodded his head. "I see an arrow in that tree over there," Terry said, adjusting his glasses while he pointed with his other hand. David turned to see a small, black rod stuck about ten feet high in the bark of a maple tree.
"So you give up on the idea that it's Vance?" Terry asked David.
"I don't know. His dad got killed," David said. "Vance definitely had motive for that. But if his truck wrecked into the chicken house over there, then all of this." David spread his hands in a wide motion. "It just seems like too much trouble for him. Vance wouldn't do all this just to convince us that it wasn't him and then just disappear."
"That's definitely not Vance's style," Janice added.
Terry let out a somber sigh as he lowered his eyes. "You think he's dead?"
David pulled the corner of his lip to the side of his face. "Probably."
Terry walked around the scene for a few minutes, occasionally squatting to look at the ground as David found a spot to sit beside Sarah who had now stolen his place on the log.
"Let’s suppose it's Tony…," Terry said. David shook his head but elected to remain quiet as Terry continued. "Tony sends Vance a message to meet at his place, says the werewolf is someone else and also kills his father. Maybe he knew something."
"I don't know. It just doesn't seem right to me," David said. "That's not Tony."
"I agree," Terry said. "But it's just not enough to rule him out.”
"I don't think it's Tony, either." Janice spoke up softly. It was the first time David had heard her voice return to its sweeter side.
"Thanks," David said.
"I said I didn't think it was Tony." Her voice rekindled to its stern fire in an instant. "Never said a word about you."
"I know it's not David," Terry said. "So let's say it isn't Vance or Tony. I'm not completely convinced we can rule Tony out."
"Me neither," Sarah blurted out before Terry cleared his voice and continued.
"But if we did rule out Vance and Tony," Terry said as he looked to David and quietened his words. "That would leave these two." Terry pointed with both index fingers at each side of David as Sarah and Janice glanced across at one another.
The silence that fell enveloped the forest itself. Not even the birds had anything to say. David forced himself to continue looking toward Terry, but thoughts of the night before flooded his mind. Sarah never made him leave before. The fact that they had just made love made things even more out of place.
"David was with me last night," Sarah said assertively, stepping closer at his side. The way she just volunteered him to lie for her tightened the suspicion that squeezed around his stomach.
"Well, that settles that," Terry said, placing his hands in his pockets with a slow turn in Janice's direction.
A solid wall hung over David's right shoulder, preventing him from turning in her direction.
Janice leaned forward to speak. "Sorry. I haven't been having fun filled nights with promiscuous friends lately." Janice's glance could almost be felt along the side of David's face and her words fell like a stack of bricks inside his chest.
"I guess we haven't really gotten anywhere today," Terry said. "Maybe we're a little more sure that it wasn't Vance, but if we're right about that..." He took a slow look toward his boots as his voice softened to a somber tone. "Then I suppose it was too late."
"Terry?" Janice spoke out softly.
"Yes, what is it?" he asked.
"Why are we trying to figure out who the werewolf is anyway?" David turned to Janice, unsure if he misunderstood what she just asked.
"Are you serious?" Sarah's voice blurted out from his left. He watched Janice, waiting for what strangeness she might say next.
"What are we going to do when we learn who it is?" Janice asked calmly. The only obvious answer pulled with a ton of gravity from David's feet. The only sensible thing to do was insensible. He watched Janice open out her hands in front of her as she continued. "I mean, I can't kill Sarah. Can either of you?" David could feel the shockwave of surprise hit everyone around him with the same force as himself at her oddly inappropriate comment and she still wasn't done. "I'm sure she wouldn't have a problem killing us."
"Me?!" Sarah shouted with such volume that David had to step back, giving a direct line of sight between a strangely nonchalant Janice and a hostile Sarah, aiming her finger as she yelled. "Listen, you psycho bitch! Why don't you just go set fire to the fucking town and kill everyone. I'm sure that would do the trick."
David forced his way in front of Sarah, grasping her shoulders. "Okay. Okay." He wrapped his arm around her upper back as he began to pull her away.
"Like fucking clockwork." Sarah shouted in his face. "Go ahead and take her side!"
"We've got to go," he said quietly to Terry as he led Sarah toward the footpath beside the well. She huffed with a furious fire and David swore he could feel the heat radiate from her body.
"I'm here for you, Sarah. Not anyone else," he said as they walked past the well, the dirt road now visible ahead.
"Sorry, Terry," David shouted behind. Terry waved them off just before they emerged onto the dirt road.
David walked briskly past Terry's car, trying to keep pace with Sarah as she stomped off ahead. The heat had intensified since when they entered the woods earlier and not just outside. Sarah was still fuming by the time David caught up.
"She sure didn't seem like herself," David said.
"Ha!" Sarah said, turning to meet his eyes. "You mean to tell me you finally snapped out of her weird spell and see her for what she is?"
"Come on, Sarah,” David chuckled lightly. “You're both mad right now. She doesn't normally act that way."
Sarah finally slowed down, allowing David to relax his pace. "Oh no you don't." She shook her head. "Don't even give me that. That bitch is crazy. We shouldn't have even left Terry back there alone with her."
David held his breath in order not to laugh.
"How can you even smile right now, David? What in the actual fuck?"
"It's just that we're talking about Jan, here. I mean, really?" He shook his head with a light grin.
"David, she baited me and was absolutely calm about it," Sarah said before forcefully poking her finger into his chest. "Let that shit sink in for a minute."
David nodded his head. "It was definitely strange."
Beads of sweat moistened David's forehead as the familiar sight of passing cars signaled the paved street just ahead. David had left the car parked in a lot near the trailer park. It wouldn't be long before he could blast the air conditioner. Hopefully it would be enough to dissipate the inferno that marched beside him.
"You know it's her, right?" Sarah asked.
"The werewolf?" David cracked a bewildered smile.
"David, she sat down and told us straight out that it was her."
"The fire," David said. He watched her squeeze her lip across the side of her face and shake the sarcasm in her head up and down intently at him. Sarah does have a point. It was a strange way to put it.
"And the people that died in the fire?" Sarah swept her hand horizontally. "No fucks given."
"So, cool," David said, gesturing his hands in front of him. "So, you think it could be Janice."
Alongside the road, David hopped over the ditch, jogging to the top of the embankment as he reached for Sarah's hand. She ignored his gesture and trekked it alone before they strolled to David's car.
As David opened the driver side door, Sarah looked over the roof of the car at him from her side. Her wide eyes looked straight into his. "I'm almost sure of it." The certainty in her voice was frightening.
David started the engine and turned to look Sarah in the eyes as she buckled up. "Why did you lie about last night?" he asked.
Sarah's short, blonde hair shook to the warm wind that forced through the vents to blow in their faces as the air conditioner took its time getting cool and a stale humidity still hung around them. "Didn't want her to hear that one, did you?" Sarah said, rolling her eyes away from him as she turned to look out her window.
#Janice#
The humidity was beginning to rise as Janice walked back toward the dirt path with Terry. The bright summer sunlight gleamed through the parted bows above when they stopped beside the old stone well.
"I can give you a ride back if you like," Terry said with a brisk lift of his hand. "I know things haven't been easy, but I have faith they will all work out for the best."
Janice glanced up at him. "Thanks, but I drove Mom's van. She's on vacation with my aunt and uncle right now," Janice said as she forced a slight half smile. "But you could give me a lift to the street near where I parked it."
"Sure," Terry said with a huge smile as he swayed his hand to the passenger door, opening it for her.
As the air conditioner sucked away the thick heat, the gravel crackled beneath the slow roll of Terry's car. "Four cylinder," he said, stretching the corner of his mouth with a nod to his side. "Have to take it nice and slow."