Haunted

by Alexandra Inger

  “I wonder how much detention this will get me,” I giggled. The drugs were definitely kicking in.

  Chad smiled at me.

  “You are the bravest girl I’ve ever met.” He looked at me with a mixture of sadness and admiration.

  “What happened? How did Cheryl get your phone?” I asked from my haze.

  “I left it in my room. She and Trevor must have gone back there when they left the dance. I showed up in your costume. Cheryl made a beeline for me straight away. She pulled the mask right off of me and was furious. Her and Trevor left right away. They must have gone back to my room and saw my cell phone there. I stayed at the dance, I was having a good time with Michael and Jenny……I stayed til pretty much the end, and when I got home, my phone was right where I had left it. I saw the messages between you and me and realized what had happened. I ran back to the admin building to see if you were there, and when I couldn’t find you I headed over to your dorm to find you being put into the back of a police car with a bloodied nose. How did the police get there so fast?” he asked me, puzzled.

  “I called them for you. I didn’t know where you were or how Cheryl had gotten your phone. I met her at the back of the building thinking I was going to meet you. She tried to lure me into the woods by saying that you were there. I didn’t believe her and I just left, but when I got back to my room I started to wonder where you were and how she had gotten your phone….so I called the police just to be on the safe side.”

  “Wow. You were thinking of me but wound up saving yourself as a result,” he observed.

  “I guess,” I shrugged. “Chad? Do you think they brought Trevor to this hospital? I mean, is he here somewhere in this building? I won’t be able to sleep….”

  “Don’t worry about him. If he is here, he’s probably got his wrist handcuffed to the bed and a cop outside his door. And just in case, I’m going to stay here all night in this chair to make sure nothing can happen to you. So you can sleep safe and sound.”

  “Thank you,” I said gratefully. And I reached my hand out to him and he took it in both of his and just held it there on the bed until I fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 40

  I awoke to find my mother sitting in the chair that Chad had been occupying when I had fallen asleep.

  “Catherine!” my mother cried out as my eyes fluttered open.

  “Ma? What are you doing here?” I asked with confusion.

  “Well I’ve come to see how you are and take you home, of course!” she clucked. “How are you feeling? Can I hug you or are you sore?” she asked as she stood over me.

  “I’m fine,” I mumbled as I looked around for Chad.

  “Who are you looking for? That nice young man who was here? He went out to get coffee. Is he your boyfriend?” She looked at me hopefully.

  “What? No!” I must have turned fifty different shades of scarlet. But I was secretly thrilled that Chad had stayed all night like he had promised.

  “You got here fast,” I observed.

  “I left as soon as I got the call. I didn’t even pack anything! It was really fortunate that I was able to make the red-eye to the city and then I drove straight here,” she explained. “Your father is coming as soon as he can make arrangements for the animals to be looked after.”

  “Aw, you must be tired.” I felt bad that she had done that. I was really fine. It could have been so much worse. “Dad doesn’t need to come, too.”

  “Of course your father wants to come! Well, I talked to your doctor this morning. We’ll see what your nose looks like when the swelling goes down, but you might want to see a plastic surgeon. He said if it’s not too horrible, and if it doesn’t impact your breathing at all then you can leave it. But it’s up to you. We can start looking around for a good plastic surgeon when we get you back to Florida. It’s so chilly here! I wish I’d have thought to bring a heavier coat!”

  “What do you mean ‘when we get back to Florida’? Am I kicked out of school?” I asked.

  Just then Chad appeared with two paper cups of coffee.

  “Mrs. Sullivan,” he nodded as he handed my mother a cup. “They didn’t have stevia, so I brought you a few options,” he said as he slipped little packets of sweeteners to her.

  “Oh thank you so much! You’re a sweet young man!” She smiled at him.

  “What do you mean ‘when we get back to Florida’?” I repeated.

  “Well, the principal thinks it’s best if you have a little time off to recover from the shock. Just a week or two,” she smoothed my hair back.

  “Time off, or suspension?” I looked at Chad.

  He shook his head.

  “No, Catherine. You’ve got it all wrong. Trevor has been expelled from school. Even if he hadn’t been, he’ll be in jail, so he wouldn’t be able to attend. His parents have refused to post bail for him under the circumstances. And Cheryl is suspended too, pending further investigation. The police interviewed me as well – I told them everything, I’ve showed them the text messages. Cheryl even admitted using my phone to lure you outside. She told the police she and Trevor had planned to get you into the woods and scare you a bit, but that she had no idea he planned to assault you. She said she was admitting it all because she was shocked by what he did. They haven’t charged her with anything – yet.”

  “Oh,” I said weakly. I didn’t want to go back to Florida. I wanted to stay at school with Stefano and with Chad and with Margie. There was nothing for me back in Florida.

  “We’re just waiting for your doctor to sign off and then you can be discharged,” my mother explained. “Other than your broken nose, you have a few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious.”

  “Chad, will you stay here with her for a minute? I’m afraid I need to use the ladies room,” she announced as she skittled out the door.

  “How are you feeling?” Chad asked me as his eyes searched mine.

  “I’m alright. I feel like I have a terrible cold, but otherwise I’m good,” I answered.

  “No, I mean, how are you?”

  I took a deep breath.

  “It was so surreal, Chad. I saw him outside my window, and I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. I just stood there transfixed. It was like I was stupefied. Why didn’t I run out of the room then? I was just….I couldn’t move. Literally petrified. And then when he smashed the glass….he was on me within seconds. I was so afraid. I was terrified. I thought he was going to kill me.”

  Chad’s eyes looked glassy. He moved as if to hug me, but then my mother came back abruptly and he checked himself.

  “Well, your mother’s here with you now, so I’ll leave you. Mrs. Sullivan, you have my number if you need anything while you’re here,” Chad said as he made his way towards the door.

  “Thank you, Chad. It was very nice to meet you.” My mother smiled approvingly at him.

  “Chad!” I called and caught him just as he was about to turn and disappear down the hall.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He cleared his throat and nodded at me and then he was gone.

  I was discharged from the hospital later that morning. My mother found a little bed and breakfast place in town where we stayed for a few days so that the police could question me some more. My father came up and joined us. The look on his face when he saw me for the first time nearly broke my heart. He hugged me so hard I thought he might crush all of my ribs.

  After the police had finished with me and told me it was alright to leave the state, I was taken back to Florida against my will. My mother had insisted on going to my room by herself to collect some clothes and things for me. She thought if I went back to the scene of the crime too soon it would be too much. So I didn’t even get to touch base with Stefano and let him know where I was going. I spent a week walking around bored and listless, angry and depressed, which my mother wrongly attributed to the attack. I tried to explain to her that I had Retirement Community-itis, but she insisted the warm weather was doing me good. So exasperating.
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  One good thing to come out of it all was that I took the opportunity to convince my parents that having a horse at school would do me a great deal of good. They were convinced and promised that it was something we would deal with over the Christmas holidays.

  Finally around day ten I snapped and insisted that I be allowed to go back to school as soon as possible. My father was the one who relented and bought me the plane ticket. My mother wanted to come with me again, as she had done on the first day, but I absolutely refused to let her accompany me. Chad had been texting me from time to time to check that I was alright and he had offered to drive into the city and pick me up at the airport when I came back.

  He was there waiting at the gate on the morning I arrived. He took my bag from me immediately and carried it out to his car.

  “Now, we have a long drive ahead of us. I thought maybe we could stop somewhere downtown and grab something to eat,” he suggested.

  “Really?!” I squealed with delight. I had never actually been into the city.

  “I’ve arranged to have the whole day off school, so we have all the time in the world!” he told me.

  We drove into the city and he took me to a trendy neighborhood where we had one of the best lunches I had ever had. We walked up and down the streets and I marveled at some of the landmarks I had seen so often on television.

  “You’ve never been here before? I can’t believe it!” he exclaimed. He was having a grand old time playing tour guide.

  If it had been warmer, I’m sure we could have spent all day wandering around, but as it was, we both became eager to escape the whipping November winds and to get back into the warmth of the car after a few hours.

  “Maybe some long weekend…..” he trailed off without finishing his sentence.

  “Hmm?” I asked dreamily as I looked out at the city passing by my window.

  “Oh, maybe some long weekend you could come out here. And really experience it. That was a bit of a flying visit,” he said.

  “Thank you so much for that. That was the most enjoyable afternoon I’ve had in a very long time,” I said happily.

  “My pleasure. I only wish it had been warmer. We barely scratched the surface.”

  There was an awkward silence and he finally said, “Soooooo……”

  I turned me head to look at him.

  “On other, less pleasant topics…You should know that Cheryl has been suspended indefinitely. So you don’t have to worry about her.”

  “They must have been planning it for weeks,” I thought out loud. “That’s why she was so eager to be ‘friends’ again.”

  “She’s keeping to her story that they planned to lure you out into the woods on Halloween to scare you. They wanted to take pictures and post them on the internet. But I guess you foiled their plans when you refused to go into the woods with her that night. She says she had no idea that Trevor was going to…do what he did. But you don’t need to worry about him either. He’s in jail. He only just got out of the hospital. His lung was nicked.”

  “Really?” I breathed.

  It must have been the second stab. The first time I’m sure I came down on top of his shoulder, but maybe the second time I had hit below the collar bone. I felt around my own shoulders. So many bones! How had I managed to get through to his lungs?

  I was silent. I thought that I should have felt bad, but I didn’t. I felt nothing.

  “What are you thinking?” Chad asked me.

  “Well,” I thought about my response. “I’m thinking that if you don’t want to be stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors, that maybe you shouldn’t break into people’s rooms and viciously assault them.”

  Chad managed a small chuckle.

  “I hope you’re alright. I mean, really alright. If you’re not, if you’re traumatized and trying to cover it up, please don’t. Let someone know,” he said and then he took a deep breath. “Even if it’s just me,” he added.

  I smiled at him. He had his eyes glued to the road in front of him and I don’t know if he saw me, but I smiled at him.

  We drove the rest of the way in comfortable silence and I think I might even have snoozed a little bit.

  It was dark by the time we got back. Chad pulled straight up to the visitor’s parking in front of my building and grabbed my bag out of the back.

  “I’ll walk you up,” he informed me.

  “They cut the tree!” I exclaimed as I looked up the side of the building to my window. It seemed like a horrible fate for a beautiful tree that had done nothing wrong but had been used, likely against its will, in the commission of a crime.

  “Yeah. I guess they finally realized what a potential danger it was having a natural ladder up the side of the dorm. They’ve cut down or trimmed back a lot of the trees that were close to the dorms,” he said.

  We took the elevator up and Chad walked down the hall to my room with me, carrying my bag the whole way.

  I took a deep breath as I scraped my key into the lock. I looked up to Chad for reassurance and pushed the door open.

  “Jesus Christ! Ever heard of knocking?!” Margie shrieked.

  She was fresh from the shower, soaking wet with a towel on her head and a towel wrapped around her still wet body.

  “Oh my god you’re back!” She launched herself at me and put me in a bear hug that was nearly as tight as my dad’s.

  “Hey! Good to see you!” I laughed at her. “Sorry for the element of surprise!”

  “No worries! No worries! I’m so glad you’re back!” She rocked me back and forth.

  “I’ll just set this down here,” Chad said as he put my bag on the floor near my bed.

  “Thank you so much for everything, Chad,” I said as I disentangled myself from Margie.

  “Text me if you need anything. Anything at all,” he said as he reluctantly exited the room.

  “I will. Thank you.”

  “Goodnight. Goodnight, Margie,” he nodded to her as he shut the door behind him.

  “Oh my goodness! Grrrrrrrrrrrl! I have been dying to see you! I didn’t know if you were ever coming back! They got rid of that evil bitch, Cheryl! But her ugly stepsister came back so it’s one step forward, one step back,” Margie cracked.

  I laughed.

  “Your face looks okay. Everybody’s been saying you’d need total reconstructive surgery!” she told me.

  “Ha! Not quite! Maybe a little something to fix a broken nose, but I don’t think it looks too bad. Do you?” I asked as I tilted my nose to the light.

  “Nah. There’s a little bump. No biggie. You’re still gorgeous!” she punched me playfully in the arm. “So tell me what happened! I’ve been dying to hear the real true story!”

  “Oh dear god. Where to begin?” I wondered aloud and I began to tell Margie the whole story.

  “Oh yeah – the broken window. They wouldn’t let me stay here for a few days because they were fixing the window. I was like great! Get me back to town! And I skipped school and stayed with my boyfriend. So thanks for that, roomie!” She gave me another playful nudge. Then she turned serious. “Wow. I’m so glad he didn’t, uh….” Margie shook her head.

  “I know. I don’t know if I could have handled it,” I whispered. “I felt like I was fighting for my life.”

  Margie hugged me then. A long, loving, comforting embrace between two real friends.

  “Thanks,” I sniffled as we broke apart. “I think this is the first time I’ve cried about it!”

  “Hey, hey, hey,” she soothed as she handed me a tissue. “It must be hard. This is the first time you’ve been back. We can sleep with the lights on if you want,” she offered thoughtfully.

  “Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be good,” I said gratefully. Margie was really truly a good friend.

  “Hey, I was planning on going into town tomorrow to spend the weekend with the BF as usual. But I can cancel if you want me to stay here with you?” she looked at me with sincere concern.

  I thought of Stefan
o, and how I hadn’t seen him in so long and how I had been dying to.

  “No! Not at all! I insist you go!” I told her. “I think it’s like riding a horse – you have to get right back on again! I’ll be fine!” I assured her.

  “Because I’m happy to stay…”

  “No! Really! I’ll call you and ask you to come back if I can’t handle it!” I told her.

  Oh god please don’t let her stay!

  “Alright,” she said cautiously. “But I seriously want you to call me and I’ll come back in a second if you want me to.”

  “No worries,” I assured her. “I’ll be fine, I’ll be just fine.”

  A sly grin crept across her face.

  “You want to be alone with Cha-aaaaddddd!” she smirked at me.

  I blushed and looked away.

  “Okay! Alright! I get it! I’ll be gone tomorrow!” she said as burrowed down into her blankets. “But I want to hear all about it on Sunday night!”

  “Of course!” I joked.

  And I got myself undressed and my face washed and scrunched down into my bed. With all of the lights still on.

  The next day at school was rather interesting. I attracted more stares than a movie star! Anytime I walked past a group of people talking they would immediately go silent and regard me curiously. Anytime I entered a classroom a hush would descend. It was more than a bit embarrassing.

  In English class Ms. Tyrol handed back my essay. I received an A+ and she made very flattering comments at the bottom.

  “It’s good to have you back, Catherine,” she said to me as I took the paper from her.

  It’s good to come back – to a grade like this! I thought.

  It was strange to take my usual seat at the back of the class and not have Cheryl there. Janice sat in the diametrically opposite corner of the room and stalwartly avoided looking at me.

  I felt like the most popular kid in the school at lunch in the dining hall. Kids let me cut in front of them in line and people I was only vaguely acquainted with came up to me and asked me how I was doing. By that time, and especially after having been briefed by Margie, I knew that the rumors were that Trevor had come very close to actually murdering me and that it had been a bloodbath. I wasn’t used to so much attention and the novelty wore off rather quickly. I was hungry and just wanted to eat! Oh well, it would all die down soon enough I hoped.