by Gary Lewis
The gaps between the line of cars were few and far between as the seconds turned to minutes. "Come on, already," she said, gripping the wheel tightly, awaiting a chance to escape the parking lot. She reached for a quick peek at her phone before tossing it into the passenger seat with a huff. "Nothing."
###
Heavily leaved branches loomed over the road, casting dim shadows from the noon day sun directly overhead by the time Sarah turned onto Birch Tree Street. Farmlands were the only gaps in the forest where maples and pines crowded on both sides of the narrow street. Eventually, a few houses preceded a couple clusters of mobile homes, surrounded by thick woods. She slowed to a stop at the familiar gravel driveway that stretched up a steep hill to a trailer, now lined with yellow tape. "Nobody at Tony's old place," she said to herself, scanning for any signs of movement. Her eyebrows pressed with an anger that clenched her jaw as she focused beyond the wooded horizon ahead. "Let's try David's."
###
Hours of frustrating trips finally brought Sarah home. But not even her light blue house, hugged by the tall grass that surrounded it, welcomed her anymore. She was now truly apart from the others, estranged from the home she thought she had made, with nobody left to share even a moment's time. And now as the late afternoon sky began to lose its brilliance, the brightness that she had found in Pine Bluff truly became dim. This is how it always went. I should've known this is how it would end. Her eyes dropped slowly to her lap and she killed the engine.
#Janice#
Rusted iron squeaked on the frame of the old swing set as Janice kicked at the ground, swinging herself back and forth at the long-deserted playground on the far end of city park. "Remember when Tony used to push us on this thing?" She smiled as she turned her gaze to David who stood with one hand in his pocket, shielding his face from the sun with the other. Her words didn't break his westward stare at the towering mountain.
He took a long sigh. "You think he could be out there somewhere?" His question wasn't an optimistic one and neither was any answer she might have had.
"Maybe we should hang out at your place for a while," she said. "I'm hungry."
"We really need to leave town for a while, Jan." His eyes glanced toward her. "I'm not kidding." David finally dropped his hand and stepped over to her. He grasped the chain above and slowly slid his hand down to hers.
Janice took a long, hesitant breath and released it with a huff. "I know, David." She raised her eyes to his face. "But what do we tell everyone? Where will we go?"
"Look," David said, lifting his arms out to his sides. "Do you want to die?" He turned to the track that looped around the other side of the park as Janice rose to her feet and strolled past him along the shoeprint trodden path dusted dry with hardened, crumbly clay that led to the freshly paved track.
David's voice followed closely behind. "Remember when we were little and Tony got into it with Brad, right over there?" She didn't have to see where he pointed as she glanced across the grassy field in the center of the track.
"It says a lot about Brad, you know?" Janice said, stopping to wait for his footsteps to halt just behind.
His right hand swept around her side as his palm slid across her belly from where he stood behind her, resting his chin on her left shoulder, caressing her left arm with his other hand. "But it still sucks,” he said. “What happened to him, I mean. Brad didn't deserve to die."
She clasped his hugging arm with her left hand before she spoke. "David, Brad and his dad were dealing drugs to Vance's mom before she killed herself." His chin nudged against her shoulder where she felt him nod a couple times.
"Tony was standing up for some little kid Brad was bullying," David said, his voice drifting into the distant past where his mind still seemed to hang. "Vance just walked by ignoring it, but Tony always stood up for everyone. The world won't be the same without him."
She slid her hand along his forearm until she felt his fingers. Placing his palm firmly against her heart, she turned to look up into his eyes, facing him in the moment of stillness that surrounded them. "I’m so sorry, David. I miss him too." Janice raised her chin as David's face lowered closer to hers with a slow tilt and their lips slipped together in unison around their rolling tongues.
#Sarah#
Sarah's pacing shoes clapped across the linoleum kitchen floor toward the comfy red carpet of her living room that did little to sooth the now frantic adrenaline that tingled through the soles of her feet as she repetitively brushed her fingers through her hair and typed another text. "Where the hell are you two?"
She glanced across the room toward the dining area. Vance's silvery revolver shined with the interior lighting on the table beside a pile of folded maps and a vacant laptop. They were now empty remnants of where the recently lost had once been. Sarah's attention returned to her phone where she noticed Tony's active status still lit. "Tony never hid anything," she said to herself. "I wonder..." Her thumb quickly tapped at his profile. A mini-map displayed the location of his phone on the move near Central Avenue. "Oh shit," she said as her eyes lit with the anticipation of pursuit.
Scrolling back to her messages, she tapped at the icon of Vance's face as she remembered the words they shared. "Wish you were here to see this," she typed before hitting send in futility. A loud ding sounded from her deserted laptop that hadn't felt the touch of a finger since Vance used it last. "Dumbass," she said with a light smile. "Forgot to log out."
As she slid her phone into her tight, blue jean pocket and reached for her keys, Sarah's heart skipped a beat and she paused. Her head slowly turned to the laptop. Her mouth opened with a long moment of realization. She quickly dashed over to the small computer and clicked the touchpad, lighting up the screen. Vance’s inbox was inundated with unseen messages, hers at the top. She scrolled down a couple weeks until Tony's final message to Vance appeared in frantically misspelled text. "Gtta run shw dvid," it read.
"This was the night we were stranded in the storm," she whispered to herself. Just above, a dark video displayed as Sarah turned up the volume and watched.
"David. Is that you?" Tony's voice shouted through the blackened distortion. Rustling leaves sounded across the branches he brushed aside. For just a second, his light swept across a vaguely visible form standing alone, then the screen was shrouded in pixelated darkness once again. "Sarah?" His voice sounded as his footsteps splatted closer through the mud. Sarah's eyes grew wide as she continued to watch.
#David#
The Sunset Diner bustled with the voices of rumors that bounced against one another as David picked a table for he and Janice in an empty corner of the lobby. She slid into the booth, just in front of him as he watched beyond her elegant, light brown hair. Another group of locals slowly trickled into the lobby. Terry's father accompanied Blaine in a dead pace toward the counter. Terry's younger brother said something to his father and they stopped to both glance in David's direction with a look of contempt before continuing to the counter. "Maybe we shouldn't be here, Jan," David whispered. Her eyebrows furled to the huff that left her lungs to sweep an air of frustration across the shiny surface of the table.
Old man Sam's tall, thin form strolled in their direction from across the lobby. "David, I was hoping I would see you."
As David watched Janice turn her head to face the old man who now stood beside them, he spoke up. "Listen, Sam. I wanted to apologize for last time."
He waved his weathered hand down at David. "Oh, don't worry about it. Already forgotten." Sam turned to face Janice as he motioned toward the seat. "May I?"
Janice scooted over and Sam settled in, giving David a prolonged stare. His aged expression of concern was written across his wrinkled face.
The large, thick glass windows that covered the wall across the lobby were now a darkening screen that brightly reflected the interior as the evening grew dim outside.
"Listen, Sam," David said. "We don't have much time and I want to tell you about something that you're not going t
o believe, but someone has to know what happened here."
Janice's eyes grew wide. "David!"
"It's okay, Jan." He slid his downturned palm toward her in a calming gesture that didn't seem to have much effect. His gaze redirected to the old man who sat before him, his years of life now directing their undivided attention through baggy eyes that still shown with determination.
"The werewolf, y'mean?" His voice grumbled as Janice turned with an open mouth.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"I might be old, but these things work, y'know?" Sam pointed at his ear before turning back to face David. "Whatcha gonna do about it, though? Who is it?"
"Well," David said as he scanned the busy dining room for answers, finally settling back toward Sam and Janice. "We know for sure that it's one of us."
Sam's eyes grew wide. "One of you two?" He pointed his finger back and forth.
"No," David said. "I mean, we set a camera trap that only Vance, Sarah, Tony, Janice and I knew about." He paused to think for a moment.
"So, it's gotta be one of you," Sam said. "I see."
"But we've all done things that..." David stopped as he saw Janice silently press her eyebrows together at him.
"Tell you what," the old man's voice rattled before him. "Stay with me at my place. I have-"
"We can't, Sam," Janice interrupted. "It will find us no matter where we hide. We'll only get you killed." Her eyes grew round as she looked beside her at the old store owner. "There's nobody we can go to, Sam." Her sad eyes dropped to the seat.
Sam raised his hand in protest. "But I'm not gonna just sit ba-"
"She's right," David said. He turned toward Janice. "We have to leave town. How long is your mom on vacation?"
Janice's phone chimed. As she lifted the screen, David noticed Vance's name light up the notification bar. "Coming to get you," it read. Her eyes lit white with fear. It dinged again with another message. "Nowhere to hide."
"I knew it," David said. "Part of me didn't want to believe it was Vance." He slapped his hand into the table as Sam sat silently. "But I thought part of me wanted to believe it was."
Janice raised round eyes of worry to David. "You were right. Let's go."
Sam stood to let her out as David rose to his feet and grasped Janice's hand.
"Wait," Sam said, stopping David as Janice lightly tugged at his palm in the direction of the entrance doors. "The darkness only lives in the absence of the light."
"What do you mean?" David asked as Janice continued subtly pulling at his arm.
"That circle of secrets y'all keep. That's where it hides and feeds."
"Come on!" Janice tugged David's arm. "We have to hurry."
"Alright, already," David said to her. "Thanks, Sam," he said to the old man before following Janice's lead to the double-doors.
As Janice rushed ahead into the dark parking lot, a raggedy old form bounced into her and she let out a scream, jumping back with flailing arms. The old, blind beggar pointed his hand in her direction. "You don't have much time left. Better hurry." His eerie voice rambled with sickening glee as David nestled her in his arm, guiding her to the passenger side of his car.
"Someone needs to do something about that guy," David said as he threw the car into reverse and pulled around the building.
"Where will we go?" Janice asked as he pulled onto the highway.
"We'll take the mountain road past the cliffs, out of town and figure it out later," he said as he grasped the steering wheel and continued along the brightly lit street. "I've got enough for a room for a few days."
As the streetlights began to pass behind them, the black forests opened ahead to the dim red glow of the setting sun that still surrounded Bluff Mountain. The night was enveloping them in a bleak isolation as David continued to drive toward the mountain wilderness ahead.
"I want you to know that I really do love you, David." Janice's voice rippled with despair.
"It's not over, yet, Jan," David said as he pondered old man Sam's last words to him. "I have a plan."
The road narrowed as they were swallowed by wilderness from both sides. He continued driving along the dark pavement onto Moss Lake Bridge, toward the shimmering reflection of the bright full moon that hung huge overhead. Janice turned on the radio. "Missing woman found in her home as police search for a red sports car that fled the grisly seen of-" She turned the dial to the first song that played. "Must be something good on here." A slow, sad beat filled the car, calming the tone into a pressing, emotional wave that settled between them. From the corner of his eye, he saw Janice turn her face to him. "What's your plan, David?"
"We're going to tell everything to the cops. Turn ourselves in."
His words opened Janice's mouth as she reached to kill the song. "No!" Her face locked onto the side of his as he continued driving across the bridge. "You don't have to choose this, David."
"Jan, it's the right thing to do." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Besides, Sam was right. It was only able to hide among us and hunt us all down because of the secrets and deceit we all kept." He looked at her as he cruised over the bridge. The shimmering moonlight sparkled across Moss Lake's black surface just beyond her light brown hair that flowed softly in the open window. "It fed on our distrust and resentment toward one another." The sparkling lake continued to pass in the background as he stared into Janice's wide, shining, green eyes and took her hand while he continued. "The shadows that it lives in are our own."
While his words still resounded, the car backfired with a loud bang. "What the hell now?" he shouted. Janice shook her head and slapped the dashboard. David pressed the pedal almost to the floor as the car barely puttered down the road.
"Let's just pull in there," Janice pointed at the entrance to Moss Lake's main parking lot.
As he pulled the rattling car down the curving drive and coasted toward the parking area, David looked around at the leaning tree limbs that loomed far above the pavement from the thickly wooded forest. "I think I hate this place even worse than you now." The car puttered loudly before going silent and they coasted down the drive until reaching the first climb where the tires came to a gradual stop in the road beside a secluded picnic area. "Can't go uphill," David said. He opened his door to step onto the dark, secluded street.
Janice's face slowly rose above the other side of the car as her watery eyes glistened in the moonlight to meet his. "So, this is it," she said softly. "I guess it's a fitting place." Her unsteady voice rippled with sadness above the distant sound of waves clapping together from the lake. It filled the silence that not even the crickets dared interrupt.
David closed his door and slowly walked around to meet her halfway at the front of the car. "Jan, I'm sure we'll be just fine." Her large eyes stared back up into his, but only disappointment shown from her shadowy face in the humid midnight air.
"Are you absolutely sure, David?" He felt her squeeze tighten around his fingers from the couple feet of space that remained between them. "We can still disappear and start over." The pause between her words weighed heavy with an emotion David couldn't ascertain before her soft voice continued. "Put all of this behind us and have a life together."
"I'm sorry, Jan." He pulled his hand from her grasp and walked off the side of the road where a wide, dusty pullover shoulder opened into a small drive. It led to a secluded picnic area shrouded with thick oaks and maple trees that wrapped around the dirt clearing. Two picnic tables composed of age-old wood sat in disrepair, alone in the darkness before him.
Her voice grew louder from behind. "What do you mean, sorry?" The forest was silent as death in the heavy air that surrounded them. "You promised me that you would never hurt me like that again!" The sound of her sobs broke through her words.
"We have to come clean about everything. It's the only way, Jan. I hope you'll understand some day." He turned to see her silhouette standing several yards away. The bright full moon gleamed just beyond her form. David's arms and legs sudde
nly went cold and his knees felt clammy. A chill rushed down the back of his neck to sweep across his shoulders. What's happening to me? The fear seemed to creep in every dark, unseen corner from beside and behind.
The roar of a car engine rapidly approached from the street. David rushed toward Janice as she turned her head toward the road. "Hurry, Jan." His arm stretched toward her shoulder. "They're coming fast, whoever it is." As he grasped to usher her further down the path away from the road, the street brightened with headlights that drew near.
A braking skid burst onto the dirt drive, sliding to a stop about thirty feet away. Blinding headlights lit the cloud of dust that concealed a light-colored car. "Who the hell?" David asked, shielding his eyes from the glaring beams that shined in his face. Janice slowly paced backward beside him. The driver side door opened to a vague, thin figure that stood just beyond the bright white haze.
Three loud pops flashed from behind the blinding glare. Janice slumped immediately to the ground with a whimper. "No!" David screamed. He turned to bolt toward her. Another blast kicked the dust just in front of his shoe, halting him in place.
"Get away from her!" Sarah's voice shouted from the car.
He turned to face the lights, swinging his arms out. "You lost your fucking mind!" The dust cloud started to settle as Janice crawled herself up into a hobble toward the bushes near the picnic tables. David spread his arms as he shouted. "You're just going to have to shoot me, Sarah!"
"Holy shit, David." Sarah's voice blared over her still running car. "Snap the fuck out of it, already." She reached inside and switched to the dim, yellow fog lights and slammed the door before beginning to walk in his direction, gun still drawn. "Her mom isn't on vacation."
His eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness as she walked closer. "What do you mean? I need to know what the fuck is going on! Now!"
Sarah glanced behind, toward the road for a second. "Hurry up, already," she mumbled to herself. "What the hell's taking so long?"