by Joan Rylen
The water stopped running in the kitchen and Tracy walked into the room drying her hands on a towel. Her apron was splattered with red food dye, and she had flour on her face. Her eyes were bloodshot. “Welcome back. You have a nice drive today?”
Vivian tried not to let the shock of Tracy’s appearance show. “We sure did.” She gestured to the table. “I see you’ve been busy.”
Tracy shrugged. “Since it’s your last night I wanted to show our appreciation for having you as guests. Your stay hasn’t been the most relaxing, and I wanted to try and end it on a better note.”
Kate picked up a cupcake. “Mmmm, thank you, we appreciate that.”
“Is Brandon around?” Pierre asked. “I have an old radial arm saw at home and wanted his thoughts on what I should do to fix it, or if I should just give up and buy a new one.”
“He’s chopping wood behind the garage.” Tracy picked up a knife and cake server. “Anyone like a piece of Italian cream cake?”
“I hate to mess up your cake, it’s so pretty,” Vivian said.
Tracy sliced into the top tier.
“But since you’ve started, I’d love a piece.”
Tracy smiled as she gently set a huge piece on a plate.
Maybe it was Tracy’s bloodshot eyes, or maybe it was the splatter of red dye on the apron, but something in her smile sent a chill down Vivian’s spine. “I think I’ll take mine to our room if you don’t mind.” She looked at the girls, imploring them to get the message.
Wendy looked at her, then at Tracy. “Me, too. Being in the car all day makes me tired. Whew!”
“I’ll stick with the cupcake for now,” Kate said, then headed toward the stairs.
Lucy passed on the baked goods and went upstairs while Pierre went outside in search of Brandon.
Vivian walked in as Kate pitched the cupcake in the trash. “You think she’s the one who got Nicole sick with the E. coli?” Kate asked.
Vivian scraped her cake into the trash, too. “I don’t know. She’s been feeding us for days and we haven’t had any issues, but something isn’t right here.”
“She looked a little crazy,” Wendy said, dropping her plate into the trash.
“She is a little crazy to cook and bake like she did today,” Lucy said. “That cake looked like a wedding cake. All that was missing was the bride and groom on top.”
Vivian looked out the window and could see Pierre helping Brandon with the wood. “What if she’s in on this with him and the abused spouse is just a front?”
Kate joined her at the window. “Let’s hold off on that until we can look through the attic. I’m willing to bet Brandon has more things hidden up there he doesn’t want Tracy to find.”
Lucy opened the bedroom door and peeked out. “Coast is clear, let me go try the attic door.” She crept down the hallway and tried to turn the knob to the attic but it was locked. She hurried back into the room. “Now what?”
“We’ve got to get in there,” Kate said.
Vivian smiled and pulled Jeremy’s lock pick set out of her purse. “No problem!”
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Vivian walked as quietly as she could down the dark hallway outside her bedroom to the attic entrance. Lucy stationed herself near the top of the stairs. Kate and Wendy stayed at their bedroom door looking ready to dive inside if needed.
Vivian twisted and tugged on the attic door handle. She had no idea how to use Jeremy’s lock pick set, but she figured this old door couldn’t be too complicated. She opened a blade that was as curved as a treacherous road. She pushed it into the hole on the doorknob. She twisted it left and right, but nothing happened. Jammed it in pretty hard. Still nothing.
“Tick tock, tick tock,” Lucy whispered.
“I’m working on it!” Vivian whispered back. She tried the blade with the gradual curved tip and slid it through the small hole in the door handle and started jiggling. She heard a small click. “I think I got it!” She turned the handle. “Open sesame,” she said and pulled the door open.
Lucy, Wendy and Kate tiptoed down the hall toward her. Vivian clicked on the light and started up the narrow staircase. The boards creaked under her feet, sounding like an alarm going off with each step. She reached the landing and couldn’t see much, given the dim, bare bulb in the middle of the attic. The mustiness got to her, and she coughed several times.
Wendy popped up behind her. “Thank goodness I brought this,” she said and clicked on her flashlight. “It’s small but powerful.”
The attic was about the size of one of their bedrooms except they could only stand up straight in the middle; otherwise the pitch of the roof was in the way. The floor was unfinished, and a small, dirt-caked window faced out toward the garage. Dust floated through the beam of light as Wendy moved the flashlight across the room, displaying the handiwork of generations of spiders.
“Over there,” Lucy whispered, pointing to the right.
Two sets of old suitcases shoved in a corner had boxes stacked beside them. An old floor lamp, drapery rods and a twin-sized mattress leaned against one wall. The only items not completely covered in dust were five boxes in various sizes marked Christmas decorations.
The girls crept over and Wendy handed the flashlight to Kate, who peeked inside a long rectangular box. “Christmas tree,” she whispered, then moved on. The other four boxes were as marked, no surprises except the last box contained a framed picture of Brandon and Mary Beth, arms around each other, in front of the snow-covered house, which was decorated in white Christmas lights.
“They could’ve used this as their card. Sad.” Kate put everything back exactly as it was. “Now what?”
Lucy walked toward the mattress. “Think there’s anything hiding behind it?”
“Let’s see,” Kate said and walked close to it.
Lucy pulled the mattress from the wall, then quickly set it back, kicking up a cloud of dust. Kate covered her face, coughed and moved away. Lucy stepped back and ran into the floor lamp, knocking it over.
Vivian held her breath, listening for footsteps. After what felt like long enough, she turned to Lucy. “Be careful!”
“Sorry!”
“Let’s hurry,” Kate said and picked up the first of three small suitcases.
Nothing was found except an empty tube of toothpaste, some bobby pins, a couple of hotel-sized complimentary soaps and a white sock.
“That just leaves those,” Vivian said, hunching over to get to the last stack of boxes. She pulled back the flaps on a medium-sized one. The light from the bare bulb wasn’t enough to see what was inside. “Kate, can you come over here with the flashlight?”
Kate stood beside her and shined the light in the box. “What in the world?”
Vivian reached for an item wrapped in tissue paper and carefully unwrapped it. A cow wearing a party hat and covered in confetti was sitting on a birthday cake holding a little sign that read Happy Birthday To Moo. “Cute.” She picked up the next item wrapped in tissue and discovered a Hawaiian-themed cow figurine with sunglasses, lei and grass skirt.
Wendy came around the other side of the box. “My mom collects these Cow Parade things. They could probably sell these on eBay for a little bit of cash.”
Vivian sifted through the rest of the box but the only occupants were bovine. Vivian handed the box to Lucy, who moved it out of the way. In the next box were old dishes. Lucy moved that to the side and pulled at the shipping tape on the next box, trying to open it. “I can’t get it.”
Kate reached into her pocket. “Here, I’ve got the car keys.” She punctured the tape and put the key back.
Vivian opened box number three revealing four royal blue books with Lake Placid High School on the spine spanning 1992 to 1995. “Yearbooks.”
She opened the front cover on 1992. The inscriptions were to Brandon, and Vivian read them aloud. “Brandon, I’ve had a crush on you since third grade and I’ll always love you, signed Regina.”
Kate pointed to an inscription in the corne
r. “Brandon, you suck, Mark.” She picked up the 1994 yearbook and started flipping through.
Lucy grabbed 1993. “This was Brandon’s, too.” She flipped through it, pausing and laughing at some of the outfits.
Wendy picked up 1995. “This is weird.” She held it up for the other girls to see. “No inscriptions. Nothing.”
“Maybe since it was his senior year, he didn’t want it signed?” Vivian said.
“That’s usually when you do want it signed,” Lucy said.
Wendy flipped through the first few pages as Kate peered over her shoulder, then went back to the junior yearbook.
“Let’s check our key players,” Vivian said and looked up Mary Beth Turlington under the freshman class. Nothing written by her picture, so Vivian scanned the whole freshman class for Tracy’s picture. It was a small class and didn’t take long. One small heart was under Tracy’s name in blue ink. “I’m guessing Brandon hearted Tracy. Y’all look them up, too.”
“What was Tracy’s maiden name?” Lucy asked.
“Browne.”
Lucy quickly found the page. “Whoa, she had some ’90s bad hair.”
Vivian looked over. “Indeed.”
“There’s a little heart under her picture,” Lucy said, “so I guess he still ‘hearted her’ their sophomore year, too.”
Vivian watched as she flipped to a smiling Mary Beth, then Brandon.
In the middle of the book Lucy landed on the football team’s page. “Aww, they were cute.” There was Brandon in uniform and Tracy in a cheerleading uniform standing side by side, holding hands. Lucy read the inscription. “ ‘I’ll love you forever, Scooter Bill.’ ”
“So they were together their freshman and sophomore year. That’s a long time when you’re that age, and a big deal,” Kate said.
Vivian closed the book she was holding. “I’m ready to get out of here. This is getting us nowhere.”
Wendy flipped to Tracy’s senior picture, but there was no heart or anything written so she turned the page to Brandon’s picture, but again, nothing. “Let’s check out Mary Beth,” she said and turned the page, then gasped.
“What?” Vivian came over to see.
In the place that should have held Mary Beth’s senior picture were deep, black, ballpoint pen scratches. The page was deeply grooved. Her name had been scratched out and “Bitch” was written in its place.
“I have the feeling this isn’t Brandon’s book,” Wendy said as she turned to his picture. Surrounding it was a giant heart inscribed with SB+T in red ink.
Kate drew in a quick breath. “Oh my god, it’s not Brandon that’s the killer, it’s Tracy. We’ve got to get out of here!”
They threw the books down, not bothering to close anything up, and followed Kate down the steps.
She pushed on the attic door. “It won’t open!”
“Let me try,” Vivian said.
Kate scooted out of the way. Though the handle would turn, the door wouldn’t budge. “What the — oh my god, is that smoke? It’s smoke!” Smoke billowed under the attic door and crept around the edges. Vivian touched the handle again and could feel it getting hotter. “Holy shit, the house is on fire!”
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Vivian banged on the door to the attic as smoke began filling the small staircase. “Help! Help! We’re in here!” She tried the knob again, but no go. She, Wendy, Kate and Lucy were trapped.
“Help!” All the girls yelled, banging and shoving on the door.
The smoke started getting thicker so Vivian pulled her sweater up over her face and indicated they should do the same. “Kate, get back upstairs. Wendy, go with her. Lucy, let’s try to break open this door.”
“No, let’s stay together,” Wendy yelled. “Buddy system. We can’t get out that way anyway.”
Vivian looked at Lucy, who nodded. They all four turned and ran up the narrow staircase.
Once in the attic, Wendy ran to open the window, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Watch out!” Lucy ran toward the window, floor lamp in hand like a javelin. She let it fly and the glass shattered, letting in fresh air, just not enough of it. Smoke now poured through the floorboards and attic walls.
Kate coughed several times and looked around frantically. “This is a balloon frame house. This attic will be engulfed in minutes, especially if this started on the second story.”
Vivian’s eyes burned as she looked around the attic again, just in case she had missed something, but there was no other way out. “We’ve got to get through the window.” She ran over to it and looked below.
The pitch was steep, but if they could crawl down the roof of the second story, they might be able to swing over the side and drop down. Anything was better than burning alive. “Pierre! Pierre! HEEEEELLLLLLPPPPP!!!!”
Vivian turned away from the window. “Lucy, go first so you can help Kate. And see if you can get Pierre’s. He and Brandon need to catch Kate.”
Vivian moved out of the way and looked at Kate, who had one hand pulling her shirt above her mouth, the other wrapped protectively around her belly.
Wendy held onto Kate’s arm and, between coughs, said over and over, “It’s going to be okay, we’re going to get out of here.”
Lucy knocked the few remaining pieces of glass out of the frame and then crawled through the window.
Kate stepped up, ready to go next, and Lucy reached for her hand. “Don’t cut yourself on the glass,” Lucy yelled, helping Kate steady herself.
Kate looked inside the window at Vivian and Wendy. “The shingles are hot, hurry!” She turned and sat on her butt, scooting down after Lucy.
Wendy looked at Vivian.
“You go,” Vivian said. “Go! I’m right behind you!”
Wendy didn’t hesitate and carefully but quickly got out the window. She dropped to her butt and followed after Kate. Lucy was already at the edge.
Vivian started to crawl out, then remembered the senior yearbook. She hesitated for a second before deciding to go back for it. Flames now lapped up the steps and on the wall around the door. Vivian held her breath and ran to the boxes.
The flames provided a little light, and she was able to make out the books through the haze. She grabbed three, hoping 1995 was among them.
“Vivian!” she heard Wendy screaming from the window. “VIVIAN! Hurry! Let’s go!!”
Vivian fell to her knees, her eyes and lungs burning. She crawled toward the direction of the window, pushing the books in front of her. Audrey, Lauren, Olivia, Ben. Audrey, Lauren, Olivia, Ben. After the agonizing crawl, she reached the window and popped her head outside, needing oxygen.
“I’m here, I’m here,” she coughed, then shoved the three books outside.
“You scared me! Come on!” Wendy yelled, grabbing the yearbooks and chunking them off the roof.
Vivian threw herself out of the window, not realizing how steep it was. She landed with a thud, then began rolling down the roof. She tumbled over and over, unable to stop.
“Viv!” Lucy yelled, lunging for her as she approached the edge. She grabbed Vivian’s sweater and pulled, which was enough to stop her momentum, but they were both perilously close to going over.
Vivian righted herself, rubbing her eyes. “I can’t see anything.”
“That may be a good thing,” Kate said, looking at what lay below.
Wendy joined them at the edge. “Holy shit.”
“I’m jumping down,” Lucy said. She dropped one leg over the edge.
“Be careful, Lucy!” Vivian yelled. Their bloodshot eyes locked for a moment before she dropped down, dangling from the roof’s edge.
Pierre came running from near the lake just in time to see Lucy hanging from the second story. Brandon was behind him.
An old truck crashed through the door of the garage and raced off down the drive. Brandon had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.
“There goes Tracy!” Wendy yelled, then turned her attention back to Lucy. “Hang on, Lucy, here comes Pierre!”<
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Pierre made it to the porch and underneath Lucy just as her grip slipped and she fell.
“Kate, you’re next!” Wendy said.
Kate was sitting on the ledge, feet dangling over the side. “I can’t!” she screamed.
“You have to!” Pierre yelled up at her. “We’ll catch you, I promise.”
Lucy yelled to her from the ground, “Do it for Little Plum!”
Kate was bawling.
“Do it like Lucy did,” Vivian said. “Turn around and drop down.”
Wendy and Vivian helped Kate turn, then helped her balance as she got ready to go over.
“You’ve got this,” Wendy said. “Nothing bad is going to happen.”
Kate screamed as she dropped over, kicking her legs wildly. Both Vivian and Wendy held her arms as she dangled.
“Kate, look at me,” Wendy said. “On three you’ve got to let go. Pierre is down there.”
Kate closed her eyes. “Okay. Okay. I can do this.”
“Here we go,” Wendy said. “One, two three!”
Kate dropped, screaming a scream Vivian would never forget. The scream of a mother afraid for her child.
Pierre held Kate close as she sobbed into his chest. Lucy ran over and helped Kate get away from the house so Pierre could catch Wendy. She dropped to the edge like Lucy and Kate had, dangling from the second story.
Brandon and Pierre stood below, ready to catch her. Suddenly, the edge she was holding crumbled and gave way. She dropped awkwardly to the side as Vivian watched from above.
“Wendy!” Vivian yelled.
Brandon shifted to the left, reaching for her, but her knee hit Brandon in the jaw and her boobs wound up in Pierre’s face. Part of the porch railing fell and they all landed with a thud. Brandon definitely softened the blow, and Wendy was able to stand and join Lucy and Kate.