“And if it’s a gateway in,” Ben said, “it could be a gateway out, too.”
“Maybe…” Janine said.
“Okay, wait.” Ben began to pace around the shed. “This could be good. This could be very good. If we put blood in the spring, like a lot of blood, maybe it’ll open the gateway even wider and longer for us to extract Alicia.”
“Yeah,” Rex said. “It could, like, loosen the spirit’s hold on her.”
“Again, that’s a huge maybe,” Janine said. “It doesn’t say anything about the amount of blood.”
“Anything else relevant in there?” Ben asked.
“Just something about how a curse can alter and reverse the properties of the water,” Janine said. “Not sure that really—”
“Kidney stones,” Ben said flatly.
Everyone stared at him.
“Bleak Creek Spring was once known to heal people, right?” He continued. “That’s why the Whitewood School used to be a resort. So if the curse reversed the properties of the water, then maybe—”
“But it’s not like people like Big Gary are out swimming in the spring,” Rex said, thinking he had a good point.
“No, but the creek is the town’s main water supply,” Ben said.
“Oh. Right.” Rex reached for some grapes.
Janine couldn’t believe it.
Somehow she’d ended up right back where she started. With The Kidney Stoners.
“Hmm. It also says that ‘those of us who drink of the waters shall be persuaded by the waters,’ ” Rex said, squinting as he leaned over the giant tome with a mouthful of grapes.
“Oh my bod,” Janine said. “Maybe that’s why people in town are willing to ignore the deaths at the school.”
“And why Whitewood’s followers will do whatever he asks,” Ben added. “They drink directly from the spring.”
Rex’s eyes bugged out, signaling a sudden revelation. “We gotta stop drinking the town water! And get our parents to stop too!”
“Okay, okay…” Ben said, holding his hands up like a conductor. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, we need to focus on the task at hand. Here’s what I’m thinking.”
Ben’s plan was fairly straightforward. He and Rex would tie ropes around themselves, which the others would hold from the shore. Then they’d go into the spring—ideally in scuba gear—and release a very large amount of blood, overwhelming the spring and opening the gateway long enough for them to rescue Alicia. They’d use a couple of hammers to chip away at the rocks and dirt holding her in the wall, and once they’d gotten her free, they would tie her to themselves and all three of them would be pulled out of the water.
Rex had to hand it to Ben; this was way better than posters.
“Now,” Ben went on, turning toward Janine and Donna, “we want to be absolutely sure we can pull Alicia out of there, so we’re probably going to want to bring on a third puller to help you two ladies. Ideally a man.”
Janine and Donna stared at him.
“Sorry.” Ben shrugged. “But males are stronger. That’s just a biological fact.”
Rex internally cringed and cheered, delighted to finally see their fearless leader make a misstep, one he liked to think he never would have made.
“First of all, never say that again,” Janine said. “And second of all, I want to film everything, so yeah, it would probably be best to have someone—not necessarily a man—help Donna pull.”
“I got a guy, or, um…a person who just so happens to be a male,” Rex said, happily filling his role as Second Fiddle Who Changes the Subject When Necessary. “Travis Bethune. He actually mows the grass at the school.”
“Wait a second,” Ben said, lowering his sunglasses. “He works there? You trust him?”
“Well, he just cuts the grass. He doesn’t go inside. He’s a good friend. And he cared about Alicia. Plus, he’s strong and has a lot of tools.”
“Okay. Sounds like he may at least have some insights if he’s that familiar with the school grounds…” Ben scratched his wig, considering the proposition. “I’m fine with it if the group agrees,” he said, looking to Janine and Donna.
Janine gave a thumbs-up as Donna barely nodded her head.
“Done,” Ben said. “Now we just need one more person to serve as lookout and we’re set. Anyone know anybody?”
Janine considered GamGam for a brief moment before realizing she couldn’t say that because it was insane.
Rex had an idea, but he was desperately hoping someone else would speak up first.
Nobody did.
“Yeah, I think I got someone for lookout, too,” he said, already anticipating how annoying his conversation with Hornhat was going to be.
“Fantastic!” Ben said. “We’ve got a squad.”
“A squad,” Janine said, panning the camera around to film all of them. “That’s adorable.”
“Indeed,” Ben said, nodding so hard that his wig almost flew off. “Main thing we need to figure out now is: Where can we get a lot of blood?”
They were all silent, the rain still coming down.
“Rex,” Ben said, “didn’t you say your parents have a funeral home?”
Rex slowly nodded, even as he cursed himself for not thinking of it first.
23
AS LEIF WAS hastily extracted from the Roll, then blindfolded, gagged, and walked down the hall with his hands tied behind his back, he had the distinct sense that his theory about Whitewood not killing him had been incorrect.
This feeling had started, really, as soon as Whitewood had left the room, that ominous See you tonight echoing in Leif’s head for however many hours he’d been wrapped up.
And it continued now, as Leif heard the whoosh of a heavy door.
They crossed a threshold and he was pelted with rain. He knew that he’d somehow—in only a matter of days—managed to become the next sacrifice. He’d pushed too hard. Just like Alicia.
The helpers walked him a short distance, heavy raindrops soaking his jumpsuit through in less than a minute.
“Thank you,” a woman’s voice said from ahead of him, projecting to be heard over the downpour. Leif was passed on by the helpers, four new hands gripping him so tightly, it felt like they were leaving fingerprint-shaped bruises. The saturated fabric of robes brushed against him.
The cult.
Or, as Whitewood preferred: the group.
“Are we ready to begin?” the woman asked, and this time Leif identified her. Mary Hattaway. The intense lady from Second Baptist whose hand had been bandaged at the funeral.
“Master should be here shortly,” a man’s voice said, this one harder to place.
Leif saw light flash through his blindfold, followed not too long after by a clap of thunder that reverberated for at least ten seconds. Why were they doing this tonight, during a thunderstorm? He found himself worrying about being struck by lightning before realizing how ridiculous that was. If anything should terrify him, it was the invisible presence in the spring that had yanked Janine’s camera away.
“Let’s begin,” Wayne Whitewood said as he joined them.
Leif barely had time to register the profound dread Whitewood stirred before the chanting started. As he was marched away from the school, Leif subtly moved his shoulders back and forth, testing to see if escape would be possible. After all, Ben had done it, right?
“Don’t even think about it, son,” a voice said, two of the hands on his arms clamping down even harder. It was Sheriff Lawson. Even the police are involved. Leif’s hopes of getting away were wilting fast.
His heart started pounding as he comprehended how soon he was going to die.
He thought of his mom—his wonderful, hardworking mom. He didn’t want to leave her.
He didn’t want to leave Rex, either. He hated that
their friendship would be ending on such a weird note. Hopefully Rex would remember the good times—drawing contests, stupid messages passed back and forth in church, laughing so hard tears streamed down their faces—and not the pointless arguing from the last month.
“Vee-tah ehst ah-kwa,” the cult chanted over and over again, still in competition with the rain. He felt the ground under his feet change from grass to rocky mud. They were nearing the spring.
All four hands gripped Leif in place, and he realized everyone had stopped walking.
The chanting ended abruptly. Whitewood began to speak.
“Tonight is very special,” he proclaimed. “For we will be saving not just one Lost Cause, but two!”
Two? Leif thought, as his blindfold was pulled off and he saw, standing not ten feet away with two cult members at her sides, J. It was like a slap in the face, as he of course felt responsible. As they made eye contact, there were no silent entreaties to Keep Fighting. J was as petrified as he was, which Leif found comforting before it quickly became soul-crushing.
“A dark, rebellious spirit has been gaining strength amongst our young ones,” Whitewood continued, his swirl of white hair sticking out from under his hood and quickly losing its battle with the rain. “It has been spreading like a virus, infecting souls in a way never before seen. But we have been shown the way! We have found the waters that can purify these wayward souls!”
“We thank you, Master, for showing us the purifying waters that will deliver these young ones,” Mary Hattaway said, her eyes fixed on Whitewood like she was staring at a natural wonder.
“Yes, Master,” the others repeated.
“And let us not forget,” Whitewood said. “If the One Below accepts our two offerings tonight, we will be just one Lost Cause away from seeing fulfilled what has long been foretold…”
They all began speaking in unison. “When the last Lost Cause is given to the waters for purification, the Seven Lost Causes shall be cleansed of their rebellious spirits and emerge as the Seven Shepherds. These holy ones shall lead our youth into righteousness, teaching them to submit to the precepts of the old and wise.”
Leif could only see some of the cult members’ faces—four were kneeling at the edge of the spring in front of him, and he assumed more were doing the same behind—but their huge, beatific smiles were enough to clue him in that for them this was a very big deal.
“Let us begin!” Whitewood shouted up to the heavens, raising his arms.
The chanting started again, Leif’s stomach flipping as he saw that one of the cult members walking J over to Whitewood was C.B. Donner of C.B.’s Auto Parts. He took out her gag and untied her hands from behind her back.
Leif knew all too well what was going to happen next.
C.B. Donner held out J’s right hand as Whitewood brought down his knife and sliced her palm.
The sound of her crying out was among the worst things Leif had ever heard.
She writhed in place as C.B. and another man restrained her.
Whitewood turned to Leif, whose gag was removed as he felt his hands being untied.
I don’t want to be here I don’t want to be here I don’t want to be here, he thought, trying to imagine he was somewhere else, anywhere else, even as he felt Sheriff Lawson forcing his hand out toward Whitewood.
Leif was with Rex on their island. He was on the Small Rock, and he had a very important question: Why was all this happeni—
The pain was blinding, all-consuming.
Leif stared in shock at his hand, his poor hand, as he felt himself being walked toward the water.
This was his last chance.
He pulled his arms away from Sheriff Lawson as sharply as he could, but the man’s rough hands wouldn’t let go. Leif jabbed his knee into the other man, making solid contact with his hip.
“Dammit, boy!”
Leif heard an explosive thud as the man slapped him on the ear. It was both painful and disorienting, followed by a ringing that wouldn’t stop. The men dragged him into the spring, warm water spilling into his school-issued shoes as he stepped into the shallows. There would be no escape.
“We will immerse both at once! On my signal!” Whitewood said, and moments later Leif’s hand was underwater. The chanting got louder behind them—Ah-miss-um in-trot ah-qwam sank-tum—as Leif half noticed the start of the glowing and the bubbling, how it seemed brighter and more intense than the other two times.
Soon he was being walked deeper into the water, side by side with J.
His hand was still screaming, his ear was still ringing, and he thought he might faint.
He felt Sheriff Lawson’s hand clamp down on the back of his neck, pushing his head toward the surface.
Leif took a panicked breath before going under.
The second his face entered the spring, water began streaming into his nose and mouth, pushing its way in with undeniable force. No amount of struggling seemed to make a difference, and the discomfort of being literally filled by the spring was so much worse than his cut hand or clocked ear. The bitterly cold water coursed through his body, its icy tendrils seeming to race down his veins into his core. He was overwhelmed with the feeling that something, or someone, in the frigid water was scanning him, evaluating him.
Judging him.
He was suddenly, violently pulled toward one of the spring’s walls.
As everything around him began to blur and blacken, he knew he would be dead soon. He even thought he saw Alicia’s face sticking out from the dirt, as if waiting to greet him.
Hi, Alicia, he thought during his last few seconds of consciousness.
It was a wonderful hallucination to go out on.
* * *
—
SO THIS WAS death.
Blackness.
Nothingness.
For all time.
Or…wait.
Leif slowly began to feel his body again, at the same time that his surroundings came into view, as if someone were very gradually raising a dimmer switch.
He was in an endless ocean, where breathing didn’t seem necessary. He held his hand out in front of him. Glowing faintly in the dreamy haze, it appeared to no longer be injured.
“Hello,” a voice said from his right. Leif somehow shifted his floating body so that he was looking at a boy his age, also suspended in the water, emanating the same dull light as his hand. The boy had a hockey haircut—a mullet fanning out behind his head—and wore a jumpsuit similar to, but not quite the same, as Leif’s.
“Hey,” Leif said, discovering he could speak underwater.
“I’m Rich,” the boy said. Leif couldn’t tell if his mouth was actually moving. “Who’re you?”
“Leif.” He pronounced it Layf.
“And who’s she?” Rich asked, pointing behind him.
Leif was surprised to see J floating toward him.
“I’m Josefina,” she said.
Leif was glad to finally know her full name.
Rich narrowed his eyes. “How’d you both get here at once?”
Leif shuddered instead of responding, as he’d just made eye contact with an unsmiling little boy in a polo shirt who’d floated up next to Rich.
“What?” Rich asked, before noticing the little boy. “Oh. Timothy, don’t stare! We talked about this.”
Timothy looked down, then began to stare again.
“Is this Heaven?” Josefina asked.
“Uh, no,” Rich said. “You’re not dead. You’re in the spring.”
“What do you mean?” Leif asked, excited to not be dead but also very confused.
“We’re all in the spring. Physically, at least. Our bodies are still alive, but our minds, or souls, or whatever you want to call ’em, are here, in this place. We call it the Void. It’s actually quite extensive once you
look around. You’ll meet the others eventually. They’re busy now.”
“What year is it out there?” the stone-faced little boy asked.
“It’s 1992,” Leif answered.
“Wow. Still 1992,” Rich said. “That’s the same year Alicia joined us.”
Leif’s heart—or whatever one would call it in this strange place—practically stopped.
Alicia was here.
“What— Why— How did—” Leif couldn’t make a sentence.
“What do you mean, still 1992?” Josefina interrupted. “Alicia was kill— Uh, put here, like a week ago.”
“Yeah,” Rich said. “But we don’t really have weeks here. Or days. Or years. Or even minutes. Time is sort of irrelevant.”
Leif didn’t understand, and trying to do so made his not-dead brain hurt. “Can we see her?” he asked instead. “Alicia?”
“Hold on.” Rich and Timothy appeared to dissipate into the water.
Leif found it hard to believe he might actually see Alicia again, but he couldn’t help but feel incredibly excited.
“So,” Josefina said as they floated awkwardly on their own, “this is pretty weird.”
“Yeah,” Leif agreed. “I’m, um, sorry you ended up down here with me.”
“Not your fault,” she said.
“I really appreciated how you, you know, helped me. At the school.”
Josefina shrugged. “I really appreciated that you were willing to stand up to those people.”
“Thanks,” Leif said. “I just can’t believe we’re—” He was distracted by a dissonant noise, like an incessant whirring, as he noticed a shadowy presence moving all around them. Moving wasn’t quite the right word, as it seemed almost to jump instantly from one point to the next, one moment twenty feet away, the next moment jarringly close to his face.
It gave Leif that same feeling he’d had right before he’d drowned. Like he was being judged.
Then it was gone, just as abruptly as it had appeared.
After a few moments of pure stillness, Leif saw a distant point of light moving toward them at a great speed. As it drew near, it became clear it was a person.
The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek Page 25