“Oh crap!” he said, and hurried to cut her off. John and Jimmy moved in front of the frozen Bentley to block her view.
“Ellie! No!” Luke said grabbing her shoulders and stopping her from getting any closer.
Her face was pale except for two red spots high on her cheeks. Her breath came in gasps and she was trembling beneath his hands. “Lucas Harrison, you get out of my way!” she said, trying to look past him.
“No,” Luke said, and he shook her shoulders once. “Look at me.”
She wouldn’t at first and struggled a bit in his grasp, then her lip trembled and her eyes went to his. As she saw what was in them, she dropped her head to his shoulder, clutched at his coat and sobbed, “No!”
He held her that way until her mother came up and took her into her arms.
Chapter 3
A week passed since the discovery of Bentley’s frozen and decapitated body, and Luke finally stopped having nightmares. School re-opened and he trudged through each class as the day dragged. Ellie shared two classes with him and he tried talking to her but she was withdrawn and quiet. He understood, he just missed his happy go lucky friend.
On the fourth day after they found the dog, Luke put a small, white, stuffed bear on her locker and watched from a distance as she finally smiled for the first time. She looked around finding him, and she raised it in a salute as her eyes found his, a small glimmer of a smile sneaking across her lips. He knew then she would be alright.
Ellie’s mother had called the police and they came out and looked around, inspecting the dog’s carcass and hauling it away. They promised they would follow up but they told the Pembertons it had probably been some kids. The one detective had eyed Luke’s little group of boys as he said this, but didn’t question any of them. Luke had been pissed that he would silently accuse them just because they were conveniently there. At least Ellie hadn’t seen the detective look at him that way. He didn’t know if he could handle Ellie blaming him for Bentley.
On Friday, snow started to fall again and they were expecting a blizzard. Hopefully it would snow all weekend and school would be canceled again on Monday. Luke was walking home from the bus stop with Jimmy and John when he saw Ellie sitting on her front step. She hadn’t been at school.
“I’ll catch up with you guys later,” he said, and wandered over to her.
When he got closer he could see she was crying. He stopped short of her porch thinking he should just leave her alone, but then she wiped her face and looked up at him.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. Missed you in class today. You sick?”
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t want to go.”
“Me neither. Maybe school will be canceled again on Monday because of the snow.”
“Uh huh. I hope it snows hard.”
Luke didn’t know what to say so he just stood there for a minute as the silence dragged out. Finally he said, “Whatcha doing?”
“Just watching the snow.”
He nodded and the silence went on for a few more seconds. “Are your parents gonna let you get another dog?”
He watched her face fall and realized, too late, what an idiot he was. He tried to backtrack. “I mean, when you’re ready. Jeez-I’m sorry Ellie. I didn’t mean…”
“I know. It’s ok. Come sit by me.” She patted the spot next to her and he walked over and sat. “I just don’t know right now,” she said. “I can’t even think of looking at another dog. Maybe it sounds stupid to people, but he was like my best friend. I could never replace him.”
Luke nodded. “He was pretty cool.”
She was silent for a moment and Luke could actually hear the snow falling. Just a hint of a whisper as the snowflakes fell past his eyes. Ellie had a few flakes stuck to the bangs around her face and he thought she looked like an angel.
“I’m glad you stopped me the other day. I was a little out of my head.”
“No problem,” he said. “He was…uh, kind of messed up.”
She looked about to cry again. “Was he really that bad?”
Luke nodded. “I got sick.”
“Oh God-maybe I shouldn’t have asked you.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t say anymore.”
“Ok-I don’t want to know. They took him away and I won’t ever see, so that’s good, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll just remember him the way he was.”
Luke looked at the ground thinking he wasn’t helping her at all. He didn’t know how to talk to her without upsetting her. He felt like a jerk.
She was staring off into the falling snow and a single tear ran down her cheek. He wanted to reach up and brush it away, but was scared, so he just sat and shuffled his feet, not knowing what to do.
“You know,” she said, “I blame myself. I let him out all alone and I never do that. It was just cold and I…”
“Ellie, it’s not your fault. Somebody else did this to him. You would never hurt Bentley.”
“I know, but if I had gone out with him, he wouldn’t have run off like that.”
“I think whoever did this, would have gotten to him no matter what. I think they were waiting for the right moment.”
She turned to him. “Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling, I guess. You said it was like he just disappeared. Somebody had to make it look like he vanished without a trace.”
She didn’t look convinced. “So some dog stalker is out there stealing dogs and-and doing stuff to them?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know-maybe. Some sicko is out there. Why else would his head be missing?”
Her mouth dropped open and then she made a small cry as her hand went to her lips. She stood abruptly and ran into the house. Luke tried to think of something to say to stop her but he just sat there kicking himself and wondering why he was so stupid. He went to the door and knocked, but no one answered. He was turning to go when the door opened and Mrs. Pemberton said, “Hello, Lucas.”
“Hello Mrs. Pemberton. I think I upset Ellie. I wanted to tell her sorry.”
She looked back behind her and up the stairs. “I’ll tell her for you. I’m sure she’ll be ok in a bit.”
“Sorry about Bentley,” he offered. She nodded once and shut the door.
Luke climbed the steep driveway to his three story house and concentrated on keeping his footing in the new fallen snow. In the short walk from Ellie’s house, the snowfall had intensified and a few inches had already accumulated on everything. The older, brown, dirty snow was covered completely and the world had a new, white, clean sheen that made Luke feel better despite the fact he had botched it with Ellie.
He pushed the front door open just as his older sister Deana pulled from the inside. He stumbled off balance and fell into her.
“Watch it, loser!” she grinned, and pushed her way past out into the whiteness. Apparently she was in a hurry. Her boyfriend’s beat up Ford F-150 was just pulling up. Luke’s mom yelled from the kitchen, “You tell that boy to drive careful in this,” but Deana was already gone.
“She didn’t hear you, Mom,” Luke said.
She peered around the kitchen door and said, “Where have you been? It’s already 4 o‘clock.”
“I stopped and talked to Ellie.”
“How is she?”
“Worse now. I’m an idiot.”
His mom smiled and shook her head. “I’m sure that’s not true. You two have been friends for a long time. What did you say?”
Luke and his mom were close. He was still at an age where he would let her help him if he needed it and right now he needed it. He relayed the conversation to her and she laughed.
“You men really have a way with words,” she said.
“Thanks Mom-I feel so much better now. I told you I was an idiot.”
“She’ll be fine. She would have found out eventually anyway. I think you just shocked her. Apologize when you see her again and give her one of these.” She held up one
of her famous chocolate chip cookies and Luke knew Ellie would smile at that. All the kids in the neighborhood knew of his mom’s chocolate chip cookies.
Luke smiled. “Could you put some in one of those awesome girlie bags you have?”
“Of course.” She turned and started sorting through a drawer looking for the bags. “So, how was school?”
“Stupid.”
She stopped and stood up straight. “Are you talking about the school system itself or maybe the student.”
“Both.”
“I know the student, and he is definitely not stupid.”
“I just hate school. Ninth grade seems like such a waste.”
“We’ve had this conversation before and you know what I’m going to say.”
“I know. I can’t see the forest for the trees right now, blah, blah, blah…”
She put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “Do I need to be worrying about you?” she said.
“No. I’ll be fine.” He grabbed a cookie and took a bite. The warm chocolate was heaven.
“Don’t spoil your appetite. We’ll be eating in an hour. Any homework?”
“No,” Luke lied. “I did it at lunch.”
“Alright, I know you don’t want to hear this but you’re going to be a wonderful man some day.”
Luke blushed but said nothing.
“Until that time, though, your father wants you to shovel the walk.”
He felt duped. Sometimes he wished his mother would stop being his mother for five minutes. He shook his head, said “Alright,” and headed for his room.
As he climbed the stairs, he could hear his little brother Christopher and his younger sister Katy laughing at something in Katy’s room. He stopped at her doorway and looked inside. Katy, a year younger than himself, held six year old Christopher hanging by his feet and was tickling him while he laughed hysterically. Luke couldn’t help but smile at the two.
“You’re going to make him puke,” Luke said.
As if on cue, Christopher threw up all over the floor. She almost dropped him. Christopher looked shocked for a second and then started laughing again. She put him down and said, “Aw Christopher! Gross!”
“I’m not cleaning that up,” Luke said and shuffled down the hall to his room. Katy was yelling for their mom as he closed the door.
Luke turned his computer and cell phone on and waited for both to boot up. He carried the cell with him but wasn’t allowed to have it on at school. Sometimes he forgot to turn it on until he got home. His mother reminded him periodically that she wasn’t paying for the phone for his enjoyment. It was supposed to be for security and a way to get in touch with him. If he didn’t answer it or turn it on, then that was defeating its purpose. This usually came after she had been trying to get a hold of him and couldn’t.
The cell phone didn’t have any messages, but when he logged onto Facebook, he had a new friend request. He didn’t recognize the name and the avatar was just some cartoonish dog, but he figured it was someone from school, so he hit ‘accept.’ A message sat waiting from the new friend whose name was William Smith. He navigated to the message page and clicked on it bringing up the note ‘Hi!’ with a link embedded in the page. He clicked on it and the web browser went blank for a second, navigating to another page.
When the page came up he froze and a small squeak came from his mouth. Right in front of him, bigger than life, was a picture of Bentley’s head. His tongue hung out, whitish and stiff, and his open eyes were grey and glazed over. Matted, dried blood dotted his fur and Luke could see raw flesh where his head had been separated from the body. He gagged a little but kept everything down.
He tried to look away, but the picture was so obscene his eyes stayed glued to it despite his effort. The caption read, ‘This is what happens when you get lazy.’ The emoticon for a frown followed the word ‘lazy.’
After the shock wore off, the only thing he could think of was what if Ellie was looking at this too? He dialed her number in a panic. Her mom answered on the third ring.
“Hello.”
“Mrs. Pemberton? This is Lucas Harrison. Can I speak with Ellie?”
“She’s lying down right now, Lucas. I’ll tell her you called.”
“It’s pretty important, can I please talk with her. I promise I’ll be quick.”
“Lucas, you already upset her earlier. I gave her your message, now I think it’s best if you let her be for a while. Don’t you?”
Luke didn’t know what to do. If Ellie saw the same picture, she would freak out.
“Alright. Just tell her to call me as soon as she can. And tell her not to get on Facebook until she talks to me.”
“What’s going on Lucas?”
“Just tell her that for me, please.”
She was quiet for a moment. “I hope you kids aren’t doing anything to upset her. I told her I didn’t like that website, but she begged me to let her on it. I’m not going to regret that decision am I Lucas?”
He paused. “No ma’am.” He hoped he hadn’t just lied to her.
“Alright. I’ll give her the message.” She hung up.
Luke put the phone down and looked at the picture again. He shivered. He clicked the link taking him to his new friend’s page and looked it over. There was no Bio info and the person only had one friend. Him. That didn’t mean he hadn’t requested other friends it just meant that no one else had responded.
He didn’t know any William Smith, or Bill Smith, or Will Smith, or any Smith at all for that matter. At this point he had no way of finding out the identity of the unknown photographer. He was about to un-friend this person and delete everything about him when he hesitated. Maybe he needed to keep it. He might be able to find out more about who it was if he went along, keeping the contact open. If he deleted and un-friended the person everything would be lost for good. He moved the mouse curser away from the delete button and moved it over his own home page button and clicked it.
John was online and Luke sent him a message to meet him out front. John and Jimmy lived next door.
Chapter 4
Luke leaned into the shovel and scooped more snow off of the sidewalk. John stood by and watched while Luke sweated in the cold. John offered to help but Luke told him he could handle it. He knew John had his own shoveling to do later.
His cell phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was Ellie.
“Hey.”
“Who is doing this!” she cried. She was almost hysterical and Luke knew she either hadn’t listened to him or never got the message.
“Are you ok?”
“No I’m not! What is happening here? Who is William Smith and why would he send me that picture?”
“I don’t know. I got it too. I tried to keep you from seeing it. Did your mother give you my message?”
Ellie didn’t say anything for a minute and Luke could hear her crying. Finally she said, “Mom gave me the message. But I looked anyway. I know I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t help it. I wish you had tried to talk to me.”
“I did. Your mom wouldn’t let me. She said I upset you enough already and now it looks like I’ve done it again.”
“It’s not your fault. I was warned and I did it anyway.”
More silence as she cried.
“Me and John are out in front of my house,” Luke said. “Do you want to come over and talk about it?”
“Ok. I’ll be over there in a minute,” and she hung up.
“Ellie got the picture too?” John asked after Luke put the phone away.
“Yeah. She’s pretty upset. She’s on her way over.”
Luke bent with his shovel and worked on the sidewalk a little more while John watched and kept silent. When Luke rested on the handle for a minute John asked, “I can understand some sick bastard sending the picture to her, since it was her dog, but why did he send it to you?”
Luke shrugged. “You didn’t get a friend request right?”
“No,” John said, “and I asked
Jimmy too. Nothing.”
“It’s weird isn’t it? Just me and Ellie. I wonder if her brother got one.”
“Here she comes. Ask her.”
Luke watched Ellie make her way up the street. She trudged through the snow with her hands shoved in the pockets of her coat and her head bent staring at her feet. Her short blonde hair peeked out from beneath the hood of her coat and her jeans were carefully tucked into her boots. Luke couldn’t help thinking she looked cute no matter what she was doing or wearing.
She looked up as she got closer and her face was red from crying, but her eyes were dry.
“Hey,” she said. “Shoveling snow?”
“Yeah. Dad never does it anymore. Are you ok?”
She nodded but kept quiet.
“We were wondering if Patrick got a friend request too?” John asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t think to ask him, and I really didn’t have time. I called Luke right away and then came straight here. Mom doesn’t even know I’m here.”
“I know this is upsetting for you but what was in your picture?” Luke asked.
“It was Bentley’s head.” Her eyes looked shiny and wet again and her voice was a whisper, but she held it together.
“Was there a caption on it?”
She nodded, clearly upset. “It said, ‘Tell no one, or you’re next.’”
“Are you sure? Nothing else?” Luke asked.
“Yes. Why?”
He looked at John and John shrugged. Luke said, “That’s not what mine said.”
“What did yours say?”
“Are you sure you want to hear?”
Her head nodded up and down but he could tell she wasn’t sure.
“It said, ‘This is what happens when you get lazy’ and it had a frown emoticon at the end.”
Her face went white and her mouth formed a little ‘oh’ as she took this in. “Who is doing this to me? Why are they doing this? It’s like they know everything about me.” A tear fell down one cheek and Luke dropped his shovel and went to her.
“It’ll be ok, Ellie.” He touched her sleeve and she looked down at the ground.
Frozen Past Page 2