“No,” I answered. “It’s just a hang up of mine. Let’s forget about that a moment. Why have you been so mad at me?”
“Because of you,” she said, “Payne did something he’s never done before. He lied to me. And because I love him, I lied to my family, which I hate. He won’t be straight with me. I know he lied about what happened at Weeder’s, but he won’t tell me the truth, and it’s because of you.”
“Me?” I said. “Hunter, I never told Payne to lie to you or your family. What is it you think he’s lying about?”
“How you came to be by Weeder’s,” Hunter explained. “You arranged it to learn his secret, didn’t you?”
“He told you I know about…”
“That he heals from almost anything?” Hunter said. “Yeah, I know you know, but how did you find out?”
“Weeder shot him. I saw him heal.”
“Yes, I know,” Hunter said. “Why did you suspect him? If you’d been wrong…”
“I never imagined Payne could do that,” I said. “I didn’t trick him into going there.”
Hunter watched me closely. “You’re telling me the truth.”
“Well thank you very much,” I remarked. “What are you, some sort of human lie detector?”
Hunter didn’t flinch at the absurdity of the question.
“Wait,” I said. “You can tell when someone is lying, can’t you?”
Hunter again didn’t answer me, which was an answer in itself. It was such an outrageous idea that if she wasn’t denying it, it had to be true.
“Are you planning on telling your family about me, too?” Hunter asked.
“No, I’d never,” I said. “Hunter, I haven’t told anyone about Payne either. Not even Ricky.”
“Who’s Ricky?”
“My hamster,” I answered. “Let me ask you a question. From what you’ve said, it sounds like Payne lied about certain details about that day. You knew he was lying, but you didn’t call him out to your family. Am I right so far?”
“Yeah,” Hunter said, “more or less. I trust Payne like no one else. I kept telling myself he had a good reason to lie. He told me to leave it alone and trust him, but I was afraid you were fooling him. You’ve lied to me before.”
“So you assumed I was somehow lying to Payne,” I said. “And if you knew the truth, would you tell your family about it? Can I trust you with the truth?”
“I can’t really answer that without knowing the truth, can I?” Hunter replied. “If I thought the truth meant you were a threat to my family? I couldn’t keep quiet.”
“Well, I suppose that’s fair. I haven’t told my family about Payne because it’s none of their business. If I believed he might hurt them, I would, but I know Payne wouldn’t. Do you believe me?”
Hunter thought a moment before answering. “Yes.”
“Payne trusts you, doesn’t he?” I asked. “I mean completely. He’s told me as much.”
“I thought he did,” Hunter said.
“He’s just trying to protect me,” I said. “I’ll tell you the truth. You want to know how we ended up at Weeder’s?”
“Yes,” Hunter answered. “Did Payne follow you?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “He followed me because I followed someone else. I was following your cousin. I followed Jared.”
Hunter blinked. She didn’t run, she didn’t laugh. She just stared at me for a good ten seconds.
“You’re telling me the truth,” Hunter said. “But Jared’s dead.”
“I know,” I answered. “I was following his ghost. I can see and talk to ghosts, Hunter. Jared’s ghost led us there.”
“Oh my,” she said. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you? You really have seen Jared’s ghost.”
“Yup,” I answered.
“Oh.” She glanced behind me to the closet that she had just freed me from. “Is that why you were in there? Were you talking with Jared? Is he…” Now Hunter looked around the hallway, a bit of panic filling her eyes. “Is he here right now?”
“No,” I said. “I haven’t seen Jared since Weeder’s. He may have moved on by now.”
“What do you mean? Moved on to where?”
“I don’t know,” I responded. “Moved on to wherever people who die are supposed to move on to.”
“Right.” Hunter nodded. “So, why were you in the closet?”
“It was a different ghost,” I explained. “Not Jared.”
“Oh,” Hunter said. “Was it Elvis?”
“Ah… no.” I couldn’t help but smile. “I’ve actually never had the pleasure.”
Hunter grinned. “I think you and I need to talk, but somewhere private. Do you feel like coming over to my place?”
I looked down at myself. “I wouldn’t mind, but I kinda need a change of clothing. Can I meet you there?”
“Deal,” Hunter said. “One hour?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Um, so if you were in there because of a ghost,” Hunter asked. “Does that mean a ghost is responsible for putting the broom against the door to lock you in?”
“No, ghosts can’t do that,” I explained. “That was the work of a regular old human.”
“Who?” she asked.
“I don’t know. But I’d really like to find out.”
* * * *
An hour later, I arrived at Varick McKnight’s home. It was a beautiful five story house with stained glass windows and a giant water fountain in the front garden. There was a circular driveway that allowed someone to pass right by the front door, which also went into a garage that could hold about twenty cars. The house was taupe with stone trim and had a great view of the mountains to the front and the lake in the back.
I rang the doorbell. A moment later, Hunter answered and invited me in. She quickly spirited me off to her bedroom on the second floor. As I passed through her home, I couldn’t help but admire how elegant it was. I knew nothing about art, but even I could tell the paintings that adorned the walls were as expensive as they were magnificent. I spotted what were probably antique vases and furniture. I felt like I was in Wayne Manor.
“So, you live here with just your grandfather, and now Payne?”
“For the most part,” Hunter answered. “There’s usually some staff somewhere around, and I have a great-uncle who lives here as well. But he’s been in a coma for something like fifty years, so he’s not one for conversation. Of course, there are usually nurses around for him, too. They’re up on the third floor on the far side of the house. Other family members spend time here. Many of my cousins have their own rooms, even if they don’t live here. Here’s mine.”
Hunter’s room was three times the size of mine. She had a canopy bed with fluffy pillows and stuffed animals crowding the top of it. The room was painted pale lavender. She had a desk with a laptop, printer, and scanner. There was a flat screen TV mounted on the wall. She had an area with leather chairs that had a great view of the TV as well as the big windows that looked out over the lake.
“You want something?” Hunter asked. “I could send down for some snacks.”
Send down for some snacks? Wow, how cool was that?
“No, I’m good,” I said. “Hunter, are you okay? I mean, you’re not freaked out by me? By what I told you, I mean.”
“Well, it’s a bit of a shock, I admit,” Hunter said. “It’s not every day that someone tells you they’ve spoken with your dead cousin. I think it’s kinda cool. How long have you been able to see ghosts?”
“For as long as I can remember,” I answered.
“Is it weird?” Hunter asked. “I mean, does it ever freak you out knowing you’re talking to someone who’s dead? I imagine that could be scary.”
“Not really,” I said. “This is stranger to me, actually. I’ve never had anyone to talk to about this stuff. I’m used to being open with the dead about it. No reason to hide it from them. But it’s very strange to be talking to people with a pulse about this.”
“Are you
okay to talk about it?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I responded. “I suppose you’d like to know about what happened with Jared.”
Hunter nodded.
I took a deep breath and tried to prepare myself. “I first saw Jared playing near my house, near that stream that runs nearby,” I said.
I told Hunter everything that had happened, starting from Payne crashing down on his dirt bike to Jared leading us to Weeder’s house.
“Weeder got off easy,” Hunter said. “If it were up to me, he would have died a lot more slowly, with a lot more pain.”
“I understand how you feel,” I said. “I’m just glad he’s dead. If not, he’d still be trying to kill me.”
“That’s the wacky part,” Hunter said. “The part my family can’t understand. The theory was that someone in your family used Weeder to get at our family. But why go after you? That makes no sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “I know I’m new to all this, but I haven’t met anyone in my family that I believe would ever hurt a little boy. I don’t think my family was behind his death. And I don’t believe anyone in your family was behind Weeder trying to kill me. There’s something else you should know.”
I explained the shadow creatures and how they spoke to Weeder.
“Oh please,” Hunter said. “Don’t try and plead insanity for that man. He was responsible for killing Jared. No one made him do it.”
“I didn’t say that,” I said. “I agree he’s responsible, but I also believe there was something telling him what to do. I had a dream a while ago. In my dream I saw these shadow creatures having a chat by that stream where I met Jared.”
“You dreamed it?” Hunter repeated. “Were they serving tea and biscuits?”
“Hardy har har,” I sneered. “No, I’m serious. I dreamed this. They’re out there.”
“Bristol,” she said. “I had a dream that I was stuck on a tropical island with Big Bird and Elmo. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It might,” I responded. “Big Bird and Elmo? Are you kidding me? That’s the best you could do?”
“Hey,” Hunter said. “I had just spent the afternoon watching three of my little cousins. They’re all at that age.”
“Oh, well…” I shrugged. “I guess that’s okay, then.”
“Thank you,” Hunter said. “My point is, you can’t go by dreams. They don’t mean anything.”
“Your dreams don’t mean anything,” I corrected. “Mine have this crazy habit of coming true.”
Hunter stared at me, unblinking for several moments before responding. “Are you kidding me? Really?”
“Really,” I confirmed. “I’ve been dreaming of your cousin since I was little.”
Hunter gawked. “You’ve been dreaming about Jared since you were a kid?”
“Jared?” I repeated. “No, wrong cousin. I’ve been dreaming of Payne.”
“Really?” Hunter said. “Wow. Like what kind of dreams? Anything good?”
“Don’t go there,” I insisted. “I’m not sharing any of those with you.”
“Spoil sport.”
“Whatever,” I said. “I’ve had a lot of different dreams about Payne. Some were just of him growing up. Sometimes it was just flashes that didn’t make sense until recently. I may have seen him when his mother was killed.”
“I miss Aunt Linda,” Hunter said. “She was wonderful with Payne. He was so devastated when he lost her. He blamed himself.”
“Survivor’s guilt,” I explained. “It’s not helped by the fact that anyone else wouldn’t have survived. That’s part of the reason why Payne is the way he is. So damn reckless. He feels pain when he’s hurt even if he does heal.”
Hunter rose now and walked to the windows. “Yes, I know. I’m well aware of what happened that day she died. He tries to hide things like that, but he can’t. Not from me. At least not once I can get him to talk about it. Then I know if he’s trying to hide something. Of course Payne is real good at keeping quiet.”
“Tell me about it.” I got up and joined Hunter by the window. “The things I’ve seen…Well, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. You know, when I have these visions I never know whether they’re going to happen or not. I just know it might.”
“Right.” Hunter nodded in understanding. “I think it was Yoda who said the future is always in motion or something.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve got to be honest, I’ve never seen Star Trek.”
“Star Wars,” Hunter corrected. “Not Star Trek.”
“Whatever.” I shook my head. “Point is, whenever I saw this stuff I always assumed the boy I was seeing was really lucky.”
“Lucky?”
“Yeah, very lucky,” I insisted. “I never saw Payne heal in my visions. I just saw him getting hurt. I knew no one could ever survive all that stuff, so I just figured it was all just really close calls. It never occurred to me Payne was actually living through all that stuff.”
Hunter grimaced. “I know. I hate some of the stuff he does. I try and get him to stop. But he never listens.”
“Well, he’s going to stop,” I announced. “I made him give me his word; no more doing stupid things that get him hurt.”
“He said that?” Hunter asked. “Payne actually gave his word he would do that?”
“Yes, he did. And I plan on making sure he keeps his word, or I’m going to hurt him myself.”
Hunter smiled. “If Payne gave his word, then he means it. And the fact that he gave you his word on that is nothing short of amazing. He must really like you.”
“What’s not to like?” I asked. “I’m a dorky, ghost-seeing, vision-having girl whose family is your family’s sworn enemy. We’re a match made in heaven. Oh, and from now on, if someone steals your Barbie dolls, you’ll have to find another way to get them back.”
“You saw that?” Hunter exclaimed. “Man, that was like forever ago and… wait, I didn’t know that Payne got hurt that day. He told me no one was home.”
“I don’t think any person was,” I said. “But their dogs were. They took a big chunk out of Payne before he got back over the fence.”
“That idiot,” Hunter said. “He tricked me. He told me he went up and over and there wasn’t a person in sight. He told me the truth, but left out the fact there were dogs there, and I didn’t think to ask back then. I can’t detect lies of omission. He’s going to pay for that.”
“Can I ask… how does your power work? How do you know someone is lying?”
Hunter shrugged. “When you say something, if it’s a lie, I kind of hear an echo of what it is you said. I’ve been fooled a few times, but it’s rare. I’ve never been wrong when I hear the echo. If I hear it’s a lie, it’s a lie.”
“You told me I lied when we first met,” I said. “About what? I don’t remember lying. I can’t remember everything I said, but I really don’t remember lying.”
“There were two things,” Hunter explained. “The first was when you talked about just being with Payne when he happened to find Jared. You were lying. I understand why now. That’s why Payne said what he did right afterward. About you being nothing but kind and compassionate about everything. So, I could hear him say it and know he was telling the truth. I figured maybe the two of you were maybe off making out at the time and, you just didn’t want to mention it.”
“No,” I said. “Not at that point, at least. What was the second?”
“When I asked you if you thought of yourself as a freak,” Hunter answered. “You said no. You lied.”
I broke eye contact and looked once more out to the lake. Damn, I liked Hunter. But having her as a friend was going to be hard.
“Well, I grew up where the people I spent the most time with were all dead,” I explained. “You have to admit, that’s pretty freaky. And I didn’t know there were other people out there that were different. I hadn’t grown up in Spirit. It’s an adjustment talking to people about this, but it’s nice.”
Hunter smiled. “I think you and I are going to be good friends, Bristol. I hope we will be. I can tell you’re important to Payne. And I can see he’s important to you.”
“He is,” I admitted. “Look, back when I was in the city, I never had any close friends. I mean, I had friends. If I wanted to get together and go see a movie or something, I could. But I was never one to just hang out with others. I was always different, and I never knew when some spirit might pop out of nowhere. A few people caught me once or twice. They just all assumed I was talking to myself. I guess I’m used to being a loner.”
“I’m sorry,” Hunter said. “That’s sad. Did your parents know about you?”
I started to say no, but then I shrugged. “I’m not sure. When I was six I told them about having a dream where my teacher had a heart attack in front of the class. I didn’t want to go to school that day.”
“But they made you go?” she asked.
“No, they didn’t,” I said. “In fact, they both called in to work themselves. We had ourselves a wonderful family day. We did the zoo, a movie, we ate out. We didn’t get home until late. When we got home, we had an answering machine full of messages from other parents about my teacher dying in front of the class. My parents flipped. My mom called me a…” I hesitated to use the word, “freak. After that, I figured it was better to keep my visions and other abilities to myself.”
“I’m sorry,” Hunter said
“I’m just very…” I stopped talking midsentence as panic set in. In the distance, I could hear the shadow creatures. I jumped up from where I sat and started to look around.
“Bristol, what’s wrong?” Hunter asked.
I held up my hand to stop her from talking so I could listen more closely. A chill sliced through me as I realized the shadow creatures were getting closer. I went to the window and looked outside. They were by the lake. Something about the sound made me realize they were really ticked off.
“You remember those shadow things I told you about?”
“Oh boy,” Hunter jumped up. “Please don’t tell me they’re here. Pretty please. Pretty please with sugar on top.”
Vision of Shadows Page 19