No, not appearing to watch TV—watching TV.
She heard a noise in the house and by now her panic had already gotten the best of her. Her eyes turned from the stairs to the other end of the hallway and she scurried along it like a frightened rat. She turned into a dark room on the left and crouched down on the floor, closing the door most of the way and peering through the crack at the hallway. In the darkness, she watched and waited and held her breath.
The groaning wood moved through the hidden bowels of the house. Climbing, climbing, they reached the third floor. The floor she was on.
Katie's heart lurched.
A door opened in the hallway, within her view from the darkened room. Earl stepped out of it then turned around and shut the door. Katie racked her brain, trying to remember what that door was. It was thin; it must have been a linen closet or something. But yet he emerged from it. He had gone from outside the house to the inside and came out that door. And that meant that she could do the exact same thing in the opposite direction. She could escape.
Earl turned and his gaze fell on the room where Katie was hiding.
She nearly squeaked from the fright and shrank away from the door. Had he seen her? Had she made a sound? She didn't know.
Earl started walking, his lumbering steps falling along the hallway toward her one by one.
In the Dark
"Elizabeth."
Katie froze.
Earl continued toward the door. "Elizabeth, come out here." There was nothing in his voice that sounded like a request.
Katie stood up in the darkness of the room and took a step back from the door. Then she briskly opened it and stepped out, jumping as if she didn't expect him to be there, or to be standing so close. "Oh! Sorry, I didn't know you were up here."
"What were you doing in there?" he asked sternly.
Katie looked at the darkened spare bedroom over her shoulder then shrugged. "I don't know. Bored, I guess." A sudden feeling swept through her and she didn't know if it was sadness or anger. Why should she have to explain what she was doing? He was keeping her prisoner; what the hell else should she be doing?
"I don't want you poking around, Elizabeth."
"My name is Katie," she said in a huff and began to storm past him.
Earl slammed his fist into the wall next to her face and cut her off. This shocked Katie so much that she shot an inch off the ground and stood there rigid like a board, her eyes wide. Earl bit his tongue for a moment and suddenly the tension seemed to dissipate so smoothly that it was almost like he hadn't been angry in the first place.
"I'm making dinner tonight," he said to her, almost whispering. His breath stank, his face only half a foot from hers. "It will be ready in an hour. I expect you to be down there, and I expect you to have an appetite. A dress will be laid out on your bed before then. Change into it, please." He eyed her for a moment, then he removed his fist from the wall and let her by.
Katie was so frozen in fear that she found it hard to move, but she slipped by and hurried downstairs.
At dinnertime, Katie found a lime-green dress laid out on her bed. It was an old summer dress, a hideous thing. Katie thought about ripping it apart, about crumpling it up and tossing it out the window... maybe trying to flush it down the toilet. But she knew that she would do none of those things.
She undressed and put the dress on. She cringed as the fabric went over her skin. It wasn't that the previous owner of the dress was so detestable to her, but that this entire situation was detestable; it felt like she was sliding on someone else's skin, and the thought of it alone made her gag. But she was downstairs at the dining room table at the precise time Earl had specified. She was quiet and kept to herself, starting in on her dinner immediately and without a word. She had no appetite at all, but she forced herself to eat. She was too afraid of what would happen if she didn't.
"Are you enjoying it, Elizabeth?" Earl asked from the seat across from her. He sat turned slightly on his hip with one leg bent and propped on the other knee, his arm casually slung over the back of his chair. "Is it good?"
Katie nodded silently, not raising her eyes from her plate.
"Do you remember that summer by the lake?"
Katie almost choked on her food. Her eyes betrayed her for half a moment and they flitted up to his face before returning to the chicken on her plate.
Earl wasn't bothered by her silence. He turned his head up wistfully as if searching for that old reverie that was floating around in his mind. "It seems like it was just yesterday, doesn't it? The five of us there, all friends, in the summer between college semesters. We had so much fun there. All of us did. But none more than the two of us, I suspect. Do you remember how beautiful you looked in that red-and-white-striped one-piece suit?"
Katie slowly chewed her food. Her grip on her fork tightened. It was all she could do to stop herself from heaving. She kept her gaze down.
Then Earl was standing up. He slowly walked around the dining room table, dragging his chair behind him.
She tensed even more, forcing herself to keep her gaze down. But she paused in mid-chew, waiting to see what he was doing. A dozen thoughts suddenly ran through her head telling her what to do in case Scenario X, Y or Z played out.
Earl plunked the chair down right next to her and sat just as casually as he did before.
Katie tried to ignore him, continuing to chew her meal and cut off her next bit of chicken on the plate as if he wasn't even there.
Earl was still in his dreamlike state, still caught up in his memory which she was sure had been pleasant only for him. "Do you remember when the others went back to the car to get the beer?" he continued. "And it was just us floating in the water in our tubes? How we started playfully splashing each other? You wanted it, I know you did. We were having so much fun together. And then you fell into the water. And do you remember how when you got back onto your tube, one of the straps of your swimsuit came undone and you revealed your breast to me? I was the only one around to see it, and it stayed just our little secret."
Katie paused again. She could feel the bile coming up to the bottom of her throat.
"I liked that," Earl cooed. "I like that you bared your soul just for me. I never forgot that."
Katie gripped the fork so hard her whole hand went white. In her mind she saw herself plunging it into his thigh, into his face, anywhere.
"Do you remember that, Elizabeth?"
And suddenly Katie felt something brush against her cheek. Her head snapped toward him in horror to see that he was brushing her with the backs of his fingers. She raised the fork in the air, the tines shining in the dull dining room light. Then tears burst from her eyes and she flung the fork down on the table and stood up. Earl's face turned to concern as Katie ran from the table and started bawling.
She hurried up the stairs and ran to her bedroom. She flung the door shut behind her and locked it, then she threw herself onto her stomach on the bed and sobbed miserably. After a moment, she pulled the dress off and whipped it into a crumpled ball on the floor.
She spent the rest of the evening crying until nighttime came and she fell asleep.
The next morning, she felt the crusty sheets of dried tears around her eyes. She stared blankly at the room ahead of her in a near-comatose state. When her spirit came back to her little by little, she thought again about that door that she'd seen Earl come out of when he returned to the house. That was still her one and only hope. She would wait as patiently as she could muster for him to leave, and then as soon as he did, she would go in that closet and find the way out of here. Yes, she would do that. Or she would die. And not necessarily from the blade of his axe; she was starting to feel that if she spent much longer in this place, her soul would simply drift out of her body, the way that it must happen for someone in a nursing home who was tired of their life. If that happened, she hoped she would go peacefully in her sleep.
When she could muster the energy to get out of bed, she found that
Earl was nowhere in the house—at least not in the visible part. She looked outside from the kitchen window and saw his Volvo sitting in the driveway. So he was still watching her, then.
Earl didn't make breakfast or dinner for her that day, and she spent the rest of the day floating around like an empty shell. Some of it was spent crying. Some of it was spent staring out of the window and seeing how beautiful nature was. How freeing and lovely it all was. It was like a key being dangled outside of a jail cell, just far enough away to be out of reach for the prisoner inside. Sometimes when she stared too much she had to look away, otherwise she knew she was going to break out into a fresh batch of tears. And she couldn't do that right now; she had to keep her mind on the prize: her escape. So she bided her time. She waited, listening carefully for any sign of movement within the hidden bowels of the house.
But he didn't leave at all that day. He didn't leave the next day, either. The day after that, Katie found herself checking the driveway again and still the Volvo was there. Earl's subliminal messages played periodically throughout the day. He occasionally requested over the speaker that she read more from the book of Elizabeth he prepared, and she did just to placate him. At first she tried to flip through the pages while she mindlessly stared through the words, but Earl began quizzing her on the contents, becoming very upset if he knew she wasn't reading. So she read.
The next day, Katie found herself moving around slower than ever. When she saw herself in a mirror she saw that she couldn't even keep her eyes open more than halfway. And she knew that she was growing weaker; she could almost feel her spirit slipping out of her. It was harder and harder to resist his conditioning. And when she went to bed that night, as she was falling asleep and she was trapped in that state between waking and sleeping where the mind starts to drift, she felt a very strong sense of her identity slipping away from her. She could see herself standing in front of her, like she was looking into a mirror. The image of herself slowly drifted away into some unknowable blackness. There was a blank expression on her face, no sadness or emotion. It was just a matter of fact; she was losing herself.
When she finally passed into sleep she found herself in a disorienting dream. There was water all around her, splashing all over her. And when she caught her breath and got her bearings, she found that she was floating on a lake in an inflatable tube. A small group of people were around her, all horsing around. She found herself giggling. She looked from face to face at her friends and thought of what a lovely time she was having.
Except when she looked at his face.
His small, bulbous face. His bug eyes. He was young but already his hair was starting to thin out on top. She didn't know why they invited him. She never felt comfortable around him.
And then in the next moment all of her friends were gone and it was just her in the water floating on her tube. She was wearing a red-and-white-striped one-piece bathing suit that covered most of her body, but still she felt so bare. She pulled her arms up and covered her chest with them. She looked around frantically, knowing that she wasn't truly alone. He was out there, watching her.
And then she saw his eyes, squinting and red, like two little marbles of pure evil peering out from the deep blue of the lake. He was beneath her and now she was pulling her feet out of the water, bending her knees and holding her legs in the air, desperately trying to get away from him, using a hand to paddle away and try to get to shore, away from the dreadful shark that was looking to consume her whole, to steal her very soul.
Katie awoke in a panic and shot up in her bed. Sweat had matted her hair to her face.
The shining morning sun was coming in through her bedroom window, warming a spot on the hardwood floor. She wiped the saltiness from her eyes and turned onto her stomach, resting her head in her hands. Her brain felt like it was starting to split apart.
That was it. She knew she had to get out of here. She couldn't wait any longer.
Tonight, when it got dark, she would make her way to the closet door and escape. If he wouldn't leave the house, then she had to do it when he was asleep. He did still sleep, didn't he?
So Katie bided her time throughout the day as best as she could. She was happy that Earl left her alone, playing only the occasional subliminal message over the speakers. When she casually glanced outside at the driveway, the Volvo still remained.
So when night fell, Katie went to bed. She had no energy anymore, but before she drifted off into sleep, she frantically told her brain to wake her up in the middle of the night—maybe three or four in the morning. He must be sleeping then. She would get up and quietly move to the stairs, staying in the darkest shadows possible and out of sight of the cameras. And then when she got to the closet door, she would find the way out and she would escape. She would run and as soon as she was in town, she would find anyone she could, even if it was a drunk or homeless person. She would scream and scream until someone paid attention to her and the police found her. Then she would bring them back to that awful house so they could lock him up for the rest of his life just like he was doing to her.
But Katie couldn't sleep a wink. She pulled the covers over her and pretended to sleep, leaving enough space for her to peek out at the clock. She watched the red glowing numbers tick by all night. Time seemed to move so slowly that she thought she would go mad. But she held on, telling herself at three-thirty she would go.
When the clock finally struck three-thirty in the morning, she felt like she had lain down to bed a lifetime ago. She roused very slowly, moving at a snail's pace. She twisted and glanced around the room at the cameras she knew about. Dull red lights glowed in the darkness. Moonlight was coming in through her window, giving some light to the room, but she knew the hallway would be darker for most of the way.
Katie slipped out of bed and made her way to the door, keeping herself pressed as close to the wall as possible. She twisted the doorknob slowly, and when it wouldn't turn any more she opened it, being as patient as possible so it wouldn't make a sound. She stared down the hallway, seeing the camera at the end.
Like a lithe cat burglar, she danced from doorway to doorway, staying in the darkness and out of sight of the cameras as much as she could allow. She was totally aware as she moved that the closet door was directly above her—not far to go now.
She took a deep breath then dashed from one doorway to the stairs, staying on the edges of the floor where it groaned the least. She paused when she was at the bottom of the staircase, knowing she was just out of sight of the hallway camera. She waited and listened.
There was a faint wind blowing outside, but other than that, the house was completely silent.
Katie put her hand on the banister. Her skin was cold and clammy and her hand shook badly. She took the stairs one by one, moving very slowly. Each step groaned under her weight and she groaned in direct proportion to the volume of the noise. Her heart hammered in her chest. She waited for something to jump out at her. But when she made it to the top, the house was still silent.
She peered down the hallway to her right, her heart hammering faster than ever. Her blood was pumping so hard she could feel it in her fingertips. She moved so slowly along the hallway toward the closet door.
It was only a few paces away.
Now a couple paces away.
Now just one.
Her hand reached out, her fingers longing for the doorknob's brass.
"Go back to bed, Elizabeth."
Katie jumped and pulled her hand back tightly by her side. She spun around in a circle, frantically looking through the darkness for a lumbering body rushing at her. But then she realized she was alone and the voice came from a nearby speaker. Because he was still watching her, even in the night.
She turned and went back to bed.
A Friend in Need
The channels flipped on the television. Katie wasn't even aware she was doing it. Eventually, she put the remote down on the couch next to her and let it lie. An old episode of The Simpsons was on. T
he show used to crack her up. It didn't now.
Her face was as blank and fuzzy as the static-filled channels that sometimes popped up while she was mindlessly surfing. Earl hadn't treated her any differently after she tried to make it to the closet in the night a few days ago; after all, she had just been up for a walk and certainly wasn't trying to poke around. At least that was how she was playing it, and so far it seemed so was he. And still, he never left the house. He used to leave routinely. Now it must have been a week since he last departed. Katie wasn't really sure though; the days started to blend together into an amorphous sludge, similar to the feeling lingering in the pit of her stomach nowadays.
The TV kicked out with a quiet whine of electricity.
Katie stared at her reflection in the afternoon glare of the blank gray screen. It was detestable. She looked away.
With a sigh, she stood up and headed for the basement door. She did it more out of habit than want or need. She flicked the light on and descended the stairs. It must have been scorching outside, because as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, that strong and foul smell met her nostrils. Whatever it was, it smelled like she was standing on a rotten garbage heap.
She went to the nearest window high in the wall and opened it. The subtle hint of summery wild flowers and bitter weeds drifted into the musty space. Coupled with the sunshine outside, it was enough to bring tears to her eyes.
She turned away from the window quickly and headed for the old fuse box in the other section of the basement. Katie wiped her tears away and grabbed a fresh fuse from the little cardboard box and opened the fuse box's panel. Pulling out the burnt one, she replaced it and closed the panel.
A quiet hum issued from the chained door to her left.
Katie drew closer to it and stared. It was still just as ominous as the first time she laid eyes upon it, and it still carried with it that same mystique. She pressed her ear to it and heard the hum loudly within. And the voices.
The Haunting of Ironwood Page 10