Taking Risks

by Cassie Allee

  “Where could we even start to look for his mother’s spirit?” Gray asked.

  I looked down at my fingers as I answered. “We’re going to have to ask Dale where his wife killed herself.”

  FIGHTING BACK

  The school day passed in a flash and afterward Gray and I decided to get to work on our Joey situation while Risk went to visit his mother at the county jail. When he and I entered the institution where Dale Harper was a resident we skipped reception altogether and went straight to Dale’s room without being questioned. Apparently we were the only ones to have ever visited him, and he had given the last nurse that had objected to my being there a tongue lashing, so I think everyone else knew my face and decided just to think of me as real family, which is actually what I told them that I was the first time we came to visit him.

  When we entered his room, we found him sitting in his usual rocking chair, but instead of looking out of the window, he was looking at the picture of his family. I watched him for a few short moments before knocking on the door frame and making myself known. He smiled at me and my heart ached at the thought of bringing up all of his painful memories. I cleared my throat to make sure that I could speak and he smiled widely at me.

  “Well hello there dear. How’s the search going?”

  I smiled and said, “It was great Mr. Harper. You led me straight to him, which is why I’ve come today. I have a new question for you, but it may be difficult for you to discuss.”

  Dale nodded at me and said, “This doesn’t seem to be very pleasant business, and I’m sorry that you have to do it. I’ve actually wanted to see you too.” I gave him a questioning look and he continued, “I had a dream after you left and I saw my baby boy. He looked just as he did the day that he died…except for his eyes were glowing red. He shouted at me and told me that he didn’t like you poking around in his business. He was so angry at me for talking to you.” I winced because I felt awful about what I was putting this man through. I apologized, but Dale brushed me off and said, “Ah, don’t you even worry about that. He wasn’t allowed to try and push me around when he was alive and I’ll be damned if I let him do it now. I know what’s best for my boy, and you’re it dear. I just thought I should tell you about it. So tell me…what is it you need from me?”

  I told Dale what happened when I found Joey at Roletta’s grave and because he made me feel so comfortable about my abilities, I made sure to tell him every detail. He listened intently as I finished my story and just before I was about to ask him where Roletta had killed herself he said, “Joey’s looking for his mother. Do you think she’s…like him?”

  “I have no idea Mr. Harper, but I sincerely hope not. I hope she found the peace that she was looking for with her death, but often times that’s just not the case with suicides. She may be a regular lost spirit, one without the red eyes that can easily be crossed over, and if that’s the case than I think I can get her to convince Joey to go with her.” I hadn’t told the boys about my plan yet, so Gray gave me a dirty look after I hinted at one.

  “I don’t have all of the kinks worked out, but I’m working on it. I need to find Roletta though, and I think she might be hanging around where she died. Can you tell me where that is?”

  Dale didn’t hesitate to answer me and I got the feeling that he had been reliving the tragedy every day since it happened. “She was out in the woods somewhere. A place that she really took an interest in. I don’t suppose you know where the old town square is, do you?”

  My jaw dropped when he said that and Dale looked at me with concern. I glanced Gray’s way and saw that he looked shocked too. “Mr. Harper, that’s where I met Joey. That’s where I meet most of the spirits that I help. If she’s there, I’ll to find her.” Gray and I had gotten what we came for and we needed to get home so that we could see if we could get close enough to the square to find Roletta. Dale gave us a picture of her so that we knew who we were looking for, but he cautioned us to be careful with it, because he didn’t have many.

  When we arrived home, Risk was waiting on us in the driveway. He was leaned up against his rust bucket car and looking delicious as always. He had gotten a haircut so that it was still longer and messy on top, but the sides were cut close to his head. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t put my finger on who it was. I brushed off the thought, just thinking that it had to be some gorgeous movie star that he was resembling. I hopped out of my car to greet him and he picked me up by my ass and I wrapped my legs around his waist while he kissed me hard on the mouth. He set me down while I was trying to get my head back on straight when I heard Gray say, “Ew dude, she’s like my sister/daughter. Keep it PG when you’re around the parentals.” Risk and I started cracking up laughing and Gray rolled his eyes and pretended to be pissed. When our fit of laughter was done I told Risk everything that Dale had said and I showed him the picture of Roletta that I was borrowing.

  On our walk back to the old town square I asked Risk about his visit with his mother. He looked down and started to fiddle with his hands before he replied.

  “She had her hearing and they are thinking that they are going to sentence her to four years for assault, but nothing’s official yet.”

  I didn’t want to ask any more questions and push the issue since I knew about this internal battle over me practically eliminating his parents from his life, so I just nodded at him. Risk grabbed my hand and squeezed it lightly as he gave me a reassuring smile. I couldn’t keep from imagining my fingers tangled in his hair. We hadn’t had sex since the night that he left me, and I was reluctant to hand my body over to him again, and he knew it. The thought that he had tossed me aside just a short while after he took my V-card still put my stomach in knots, but I had still had a taste of how amazing sex with Risk could be, and I was craving it.

  Just before we made it to the old town square we lowered to a crouch so that we weren’t spotted and mauled by a pack of red eyed ghosts. When we reached a bush near the clearing of the square we peeked through the branches and I heard Risk gasp and then clamp his hand over his mouth. He wasn’t used to seeing the Lost Ones yet and it was scary enough just knowing about the angry ones. Just one of them alone was enough to terrify someone, but this was a swarm of them, and the energy was oozing with hate as they jerked their heads around as though they were looking for someone to slaughter. Some of them were like a flickering image and they all moved around slowly and restlessly. Some were normal enough looking except for the angry faces and red eyes, but some of them were bloody and gory. There was a woman close to the bush we were hiding behind that must have been in some kind of accident. Part of the back of her head was missing, showing bits of her brain, and there was a massive hole on her back that exposed about a foot of her spine. The whole scene reminded me of one of those old zombie movies.

  The old town square wasn’t a big place. It was about the size of a regular city block and the only remains of it were two crumbled buildings, some laid bricks that used to serve as a road, and a dried up fountain with one intact stone bench beside it. It was completely surrounded by woods so not many people really knew about it. I had done some research on it before and found that the town was moved back in the 1800’s so that it would be closer to a water source.

  I pulled the picture of Roletta out of my pocket and let Gray and Risk get a good look at it before we watched through the branches of the bush, hoping to find Roletta Harper in the tangle of red eyes. We stayed still and quiet for over an hour before we all agreed that it was time to head back to the house. The sun light was fading fast and none of us wanted to be out there in the dark with the angry souls. Just as we were turning to leave, Gray whisper-shouted, “Look!” and Risk and I spun around, almost knocking each other over in the process. We saw Roletta had wandered to where she was only about ten feet in front of us.

  She wasn’t covered in blood and gore at all. Her hair was done up and she was wearing a pretty blue sun dress. The only thing that seemed completely out of place
was her damned crimson eyes. How was I ever going to make her listen to me any better than Joey when she was in the same situation herself? We sat watching her for another ten minutes or so before Gray motioned to us that it was getting dark and we needed to leave. When we were far enough away from the square we stood up from our crouching position to walk and started to whisper to one another. Risk kept asking questions and looked a little as if he had seen…well, a ghost. His face was pale and he was sweating. I grabbed his hand and explained that we were fine and that nothing had even seen us. I honestly couldn’t be sure that any of them (besides Joey) could harm us if they saw us anyway. I had had my encounters, but they only seemed to be pissed to see me and they would scream and vanish. I think Gray was more scared of them than I was.

  After we got back home Risk had calmed down and was starting to throw ideas to us about our predicament. He said that if I was sure that they couldn’t hurt us, than we could walk into the hive like we were the queen bee and none of them would even notice. They wouldn’t know that we could see them, so they would ignore us and go back to drowning themselves in misery. I was definitely not brave enough for that, but it sparked an idea.

  “Well Risk, you and I are alive and that seems to piss them off. If only we knew someone that was dead like them…” I smiled broadly at Gray and he began shaking his head in protest.

  “Hell no Spud. Those things give me the creeps.”

  “You’re a ghost Gray. You’re one of them! You can walk amongst them and blend in with the crowd! What’s the worst they could do to you? Kill you?”

  “Ha ha Marlee.” Gray said dryly. “What if they can hurt me? We have no idea what they’re capable of!”

  “That’s a big if and this is honestly the best option. Either you have to go into it, or I’ll have to. Which would you rather have, Gray?”

  He gaped at me for a moment because he knew that he had been backed into a corner. He sighed dramatically and said, “Well you’re a klutz, so if you go into it you’ll definitely be killed even if it’s just from tripping over something and hitting your head. Guess I’ll have to be the hero…again.”

  Risk laughed at our spat and I tried punching Gray, hoping that his arm had somehow become solid and he would feel the sting of my fist, but just like always my hand passed right through him and he gave me an uppity smirk that made me want to punch him even more. Risk laughed harder at seeing my expression so I decided that if I couldn’t punch Gray, than I would punch Risk and hopefully it would satisfy me. I punched him in his arm and came into contact with his rock hard bicep. He laughed at me, but rubbed the spot where I had hit him. After that, I felt triumphant and got my violent streak under control.

  “Is she always like this?” Risk asked Gray while still chuckling at me.

  Gray huffed and said back to him, “When she doesn’t get her way. Sometimes she goes all ninja on me, just hoping for flesh to appear so that she can extract her revenge. I think she needs a legit chill pill.” The boys howled with laughter together and I tried to not pout about being the odd man out in my own inner circle now. They seemed to have formed some kind of bro-mance in their time together and I was starting to feel like I was being ganged up on. I thought hard and decided that Remi and Jane were going to have to become more a part of my life so that I had girlfriends to gripe to.

  Risk asked me if he could stay with me that night and I couldn’t contain my excitement. I was grinning from ear to ear. I shook my head at him in earnest and he sighed with relief as though he thought that I would refuse. Risk and I both already knew that we wouldn’t be being intimate for a while. My heart had built its own protection against him and I needed to find a way to let him in again before I could hand my body over to him. Gray excused himself from our company and said his goodnights to us. Risk and I cuddled up in bed together and I was giddy with the thought of falling asleep in his arms. I remember, just before I lost myself to my dreams, I heard Risk humming a song. I recognized the tune as “Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crue, a song that I had heard Gray singing many times. It was one of my favorites.

  I woke up some time in the middle of the night to crashing sounds. I looked to my side for Risk, but I was alone in my bed. I saw my room was destroyed, just like it had been in my nightmares, and then I saw the culprit Joey, A.K.A. Little Dirty Boy, had seriously taken some anger out on my stuff. I’m not sure how he was moving it, or how he had gotten enough strength to actually break all of my stuff, but I could tell that he was beyond mad. I tried my best to stay perfectly still in hopes that he wouldn’t notice that I was awake.

  With all the commotion, I couldn’t believe that Gray and Risk hadn’t come to see what was happening. I wondered why Risk wasn’t in the room with me and if Joey had done something to him. My mind was running a million miles per minute when Joey launched the last intact piece of my computer desk and turned to look me straight in the eyes. I froze in terror and felt myself start to tremble when he started stalking towards me. He pointed his finger towards my face and said, “You…”

  I couldn’t think of anything at all to say. I couldn’t make myself move or scream. I laid there on my bed, just waiting for something horrible to happen to me. When Joey was about an inch from my face and ready to pounce I quickly blurted out, “I found your mother!” and he froze. His eyes blazed right in front of mine, but neither of us said anything for several long minutes. He looked so wound up that he might spontaneously combust at any moment. I couldn’t handle the silence anymore and I was scared out of my mind, so I started to ramble.

  “I’ll tell you where and how I found her, but you’re going to have to be calm enough to reason with me first. You’re going to have to sit down here with me and talk civilized like we used to. You used to like to talk to me, didn’t you Joey? It wasn’t that long ago…” And my mouth just kept going and going until he finally spoke.

  “Tell me what you know and I’ll leave here without harming you or your friends.”

  I got some courage knowing that Joey was backing down and said, “I know that this is worth a hell of a lot more to you than that.” Joey looked down and nodded. That’s when I noticed the pounding noise at my door. Risk and Gray were on the other side yelling, “Why the hell can’t I get in there? What’s going on Marlee? Are you alright? MARLEE!” I knew that they were worried sick about me so I yelled back, “I’m fine guys just give me a few minutes. I’m okay.”

  Joey looked up at me with his eyes still glowing red, but his expression had softened. I took the opportunity to make my list of demands. “I don’t know how or why you have condemned all of those poor souls to an eternity of feeling lost here like you do, but it’s time to let them go. You can’t make everyone miserable because you’re feeling sorry for yourself. They’ve done nothing to you.”

  He thought for a moment before he said, “Fine, but you’re going to have to deliver before I stop anything. You’ve got a deal, but I want to see her before I’ll let them go.”

  It seemed practical to me that he would want payment up front, but I didn’t think that he was going to react well when he saw his mother and what she had become. Even if he was a nasty mean ghost, he still loved her very much and he was going to blame himself for what had become of her. I decided that it was our best chance and so I tried to strike another deal with him.

  “Give me three days and I’ll take you to her. We’ll meet here on Sunday morning.”

  Joey stuck his hand out so that we could shake on our deal. I wasn’t sure how a hand shake could work between a soul and a living person, but I thought it might just be symbolic. I was surprised when my hand met his solid, firm grip. We shook hands while staring at each other hard in the eyes, and then Joey disappeared and my bedroom door burst open.

  By the time the sun had appeared I had told Gray and Risk everything that had taken place between Joey and I and Gray demanded to know every detail that I could remember. Risk and I picked up as much of my room as we could in a short time and he tried
salvaging my books that only had a few pages stripped from them. My mom was going to freak when she saw all of my furniture missing, but I had until the next morning before we had to worry about it.

  Risk and I couldn’t miss the day of school or we would be banned from going to our senior prom. The beautiful dress that he bought would be wasted and my mom would be crushed, so we got dressed and ready and reluctantly took off to school. In first period English we sat side by side, holding hands, and I was soaking up every minute that I had with him. I was still feeling as though the bottom could drop out of our happiness at any time. Risk must have noticed my concern because he looked at me and gave me a sultry smile that make my thighs twitch. Even though the events of the night had shaken me, I couldn’t help but think of Risks hands all over me for the entire school day. By the time the bell rang to let me out of my last class of the day, I was practically panting from my own thoughts alone.

  Risk met up with me at my locker and I blushed and looked away from him. He noticed my reaction and looked at me through darkened eyes that nearly had me climaxing. I had to work that night and I couldn’t afford to be anything but clear headed. I counted the minutes up in my head and decided that I had exactly twenty minutes that I could spare before I had to bolt to work. I grabbed Risks hand and practically ran down the hallway before ducking into a girl’s bathroom. I barricaded the door behind us with trash cans.

  Risk was kissing my face and neck as he was backing me up against the sink. My head was thrown back and I felt him reach up behind me and tug on the ends of my hair. His lips made their way up to my ear and he whispered, “I missed you so much. God Marlee, I fucked up. I’m so sorry. I love you. I love you.” And he slipped his hands down the front of my loose fitting jeans. As soon as his fingers came into contact with my body I came apart in his hand. As I was coming he shoved a finger inside of me to sweeten the effect and it worked exactly as he planned.