Sex, Marry, Kill

by Travis, Todd

  “We find the string on this spell, yank that sucker out, and we’re free,” Darin said.

  “We hope,” Valerie said.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  They spent the rest of the day and early evening at the public library. Ed didn’t want to get on the computer, he was scared of them now, so he read books while Darin and Valerie did their research. Darin noticed that Ed’s reading material was fourth grade material, but as long as Ed was at peace, that’s the only thing that mattered.

  They dug up some old dusty books on far shelves in the library and found a lot of material on spells and black magic, but not much of it was useful.

  “Maybe we should look online?” Darin finally said, rubbing his eyes.

  “I guess, I didn’t want to, because every time I go online, the game site pops up on me. It’s getting harder and harder for me not to play. I can sometimes imagine what I’ll do with it, too. And it scares me.”

  “Me, too.”

  Valerie glanced around, saw that no one was close to them, and reached out a hand to him. Darin took it and held it tight.

  “We have some kissing to do later, right?”

  “Actual kissing, too. No pretend kissing.”

  “Good. I’d like that.”

  “It’s the only thing that puts that howling bridge out of my mind,” Darin said. “Kissing you.”

  Valerie’s eyes went wide and she sat up straight.

  “What is it?”

  “The bridge. The bridge is the key, the string. Why the bridge, why do we see that? Because the spell revolved around the bridge somehow.”

  “According to Herman, that’s where they made their animal sacrifice to get the ball rolling with the spell.”

  “Right. The bridge is the gateway, that’s why it’s on the site, that’s why we keep seeing and hearing it. The bridge is the key.”

  “We find the bridge and we burn that shit down, we close the door.”

  “We hope. But we have to find it, first.”

  Valerie tossed a book down and went to one of the nearby library computers and got on the Internet. The game site popped up right way and she opened a new window, starting surfing.

  “Okay, I put in crying bridge and I get a million hits. Look at this.”

  “Crybaby bridges,” Darin reads. “Holy shit, I didn’t know they had their own category for haunted places.”

  “Look at all these bridges. It’ll take forever to go through all these.”

  “None of them look like our bridge, either. Take a screenshot of our bridge, do an image search for it.”

  Valerie went back to the game site and took a screenshot of the bridge. Saved it and then loaded it up for a search. “Image not found.”

  “Click on the screenshot.”

  She clicked on the image. It opened to a blank screen.

  “Damn,” Darin said. “Same thing that happens whenever we try to show it to anybody. The picture just disappears. Damn it.”

  “I’ll just have to go through all these, I guess. None of them look like our bridge. It’ll take forever.”

  An instant message popped up on the screen. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, VALERIE?”

  “Who is that?” Darin asked.

  “I CAN SEE EVERYTHING YOU’RE DOING, YOU KNOW,” the next message read.

  “It’s Shakes, that’s his screen name. He knows I’m online somehow,” she typed a reply back into the box. “IF YOU CAN SEE WHAT I’M DOING, WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME WHAT I’M DOING? I’M DOING RESEARCH, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT WE’RE DEALING WITH!”

  Ed heard them mention Shakes, dropped his book and came over.

  “WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT WE’RE DEALING WITH. THIS IS POWER, DOLL-FACE, PURE AND SIMPLE. IS DARIN WITH YOU?”

  “I KNOW IT’S POWER, THAT’S WHY I’M RESEARCHING IT. I’M SCARED OF IT. AND DON’T CALL ME DOLL-FACE.”

  “IS DARIN WITH YOU? I KNOW ED’S WITH YOU. IS DARIN?”

  “IF YOU KNOW ED’S WITH ME, YOU WOULD KNOW IF DARIN’S WITH ME OR NOT. WHY ARE YOU ACTING THIS WAY?”

  “I KNOW YOU WENT TO PORTLAND WITH HIM, WITH DARIN.”

  “HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?”

  “I KNOW THINGS, BABE, THAT’S WHAT I DO. I’M AN ONLINE NINJA! YOU SPENT THE NIGHT NEAR WAUKEE … WITH HIM, RIGHT?”

  “How does he know that?” Valerie asked Darin. “Was it just a guess? How does he know Ed is with me but he doesn’t know if you are?”

  “JUST THE TWO OF YOU, ALONE … IN A MOTEL.”

  “Shit, he’s checking the GPS on your phones, that’s how he knows. I turned the GPS on my phone off so that my fosters can’t track me. He only knows I went to Portland and Waukee because I told him I did. I didn’t answer texts or calls, so he couldn’t track me. But he tracked you and he knows where you went. And he’s got Ed’s phone, too. He knows you’re both here because of your phones.”

  “SO IS DARIN WITH YOU NOW?”

  “DON’T CALL ME BABE. IF YOU KNOW SO MUCH, YOU’D KNOW IF HE’S WITH ME OR NOT.”

  “SO ARE YOU TWO A COUPLE, NOW? AN ITEM? BOYFRIEND AND GIRLFRIEND? LOVERS?”

  “IT’S NOT ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS.”

  “I DON’T THINK YOU CAN TRUST HIM, VALERIE. HE’S AN ORPHAN, THEY ONLY THINK OF THEMSELVES. HE’S HAD LOTS OF GIRLS, TOO. YOU DON’T WANT TO BE JUST ANOTHER NOTCH ON HIS BELT. HE’S USING YOU. I SAY THAT AS A FRIEND. I’VE BEEN FRIENDS WITH YOU FOR MUCH LONGER THAN HE HAS. I’VE ALWAYS BEEN THERE, AS A FRIEND, FOR YOU. EVEN WHEN YOU DIDN’T WANT FRIENDS, I WAS YOUR FRIEND. YOU KNOW THIS IS TRUE.”

  “Jesus,” Valerie said. She typed a fast reply.

  “IF YOU WERE MY FRIEND, YOU’D UNDERSTAND HOW SCARED I AM NOW OF WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING TO US. I’M SCARED, ED’S SCARED, DARIN’S SCARED.”

  “DARIN’S NOT REALLY SCARED AND HE’S NOT REALLY TRYING TO GET US TO STOP PLAYING TO PROTECT US. THAT’S NOT WHAT HE’S DOING.”

  “IT IS.”

  “NO, VALERIE, IT’S NOT. HE WANTS THE GAME ALL TO HIMSELF. HE WANTS US TO STOP PLAYING SO HE CAN PLAY IT ALL BY HIS LONESOME.”

  “Oh my God,” Valerie said. “He’s gone completely paranoid.”

  “SOONER OR LATER, WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT HIM, VALERIE. BECAUSE HE’S A THREAT TO THE CIRCLE.”

  Darin flushed with anger, leaned in and typed a reply.

  “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA DO TO ME, SHAKES? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO TO HURT ME?”

  “AH, DARIN, YOU ARE THERE! I THOUGHT SO!”

  “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU, MAN? HAVE YOU COMPLETELY LOST IT? YOU’RE THREATENING ME?”

  “WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SPEND THE NIGHT WITH HER! YOU KNEW I LIKED HER! YOU KNEW! YOU FUCKING KNEW I LIKED HER!!!!!”

  “Oh, no,” Valerie said. Darin flushed and typed a reply.

  “SO THAT’S WHAT THIS IS ABOUT, SHAKES? ABOUT VALERIE!”

  “NO, IT’S ABOUT FRIENDSHIP! IT’S ABOUT BETRAYAL! YOU BETRAYED OUR FRIENDSHIP, WE WERE FRIENDS, MAN! FRIENDS DON’T DO THAT SHIT TO EACH OTHER! YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT YOURSELF! YOU BETRAYED THE CIRCLE, MOTHERFUCKER! YOU WANT THE POWER OF THE GAME ALL FOR YOURSELF, I CAN SEE THAT THAT’S WHY YOU CONNED VALERIE INTO SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH YOU, YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT HER, NOT LIKE I DO, YOU’RE JUST TRYING TO CONTROL HER. AND YOU’RE TRYING GET ED ON YOUR SIDE NOW, TOO!”

  “Christ, he’s really lost it,” Darin muttered and typed.

  “SIDES? THERE ARE NO FUCKING SIDES, SHAKES!”

  “DON’T FUCKING CALL ME SHAKES!! AND YOU’RE GOING TO PAY!”

  “HOW AM I GONNA PAY? THE GAME DOESN’T WORK ON OTHER PLAYERS, SHAKES! SO IF YOU’RE GONNA DO SOMETHING, YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF, LITTLE MAN!”

  “YOU’LL SEE! JUST COME ON OUTSIDE, BIG MOUTH! YOU’LL FUCKING SEE, MOTHERFUCKER!”

  The computer went black, like the power was switched off. Valerie looked around, startled. “How’d he do that?”

  Darin stood up straight, looked around. He saw no one through the windows, but it was already dark outside. The librarians were closing up the pla
ce.

  “He’s really, really mad,” Ed said.

  “What are we going to do?” Valerie asked.

  Darin grabbed his jacket. “Let’s get out of here. Now.”

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Once they left the library and the doors closed behind them, the boys stepped out of the shadows nearby where they were waiting. There were six of them, all football jocks, all big guys. Darin recognized Roger and Chris and James, but he didn’t know the names of the others. They blocked the sidewalk, cutting off the path to Valerie’s car.

  “Mr. Samuel said to give you a message,” Roger said. “Said that you need to understand how important friendship is and how to … value it.”

  “Yeah, we got that message from him already. So you can tell him you delivered it and I said he can kiss my ass,” Darin said.

  “Sorry. Mr. Samuel said that you needed to be taught a lesson. That you needed a long stay in a hospital in a plaster cast to cure your wandering ways. That’s what he said.”

  Two of the jocks grabbed Darin and held him tight. Darin bucked and pulled away but they were too strong. Another jock, James, put his hand on Ed’s chest and pushed him away.

  “Wait, don’t do this!” Valerie said.

  “Sorry, but we can’t cross Mr. Samuel, we can’t,” Roger said. He punched Darin in the jaw and blood flew. He hit him again.

  “Don’t betray the circle, Mr. Samuel said,” Roger said. “Never betray the circle.”

  Valerie tried to get between them but another jock grabbed her and lifted her away. She shouted and kicked. Roger hit Darin again and again.

  “Stop it, stop it!” Valerie screamed. “Ed, do something! Please!”

  Ed pushed against James, who held him back.

  “Stop hurting him,” Ed said. “He’s my friend. Stop it!”

  “Stay the fuck out of this, Special Ed,” James said. “Or you’re next.”

  James was having trouble keeping the bigger boy back. James brought a fist back and punched Ed, hard, in the face. Ed rocked back, then looked at James. Ed remembered James from football practice, remembered that he’d always made fun of Ed. Every single bad memory of football flooded Ed’s mind in an instant. James brought his fist back for another punch. Ed picked James up as though he weighed nothing.

  “No,” Ed said. “No more. No.”

  Ed turned and threw James like a rag doll into the outside wall of the library. James rammed headfirst into a window and cracked it. He collapsed on the ground.

  “No more!” Ed screamed. He waded into the fray like a raging rhino, screaming in anger and fury. He grabbed the two jocks that held Darin and mashed their heads together. They toppled and released Darin, who fell to the sidewalk. The boy holding Valerie let her go and rushed Ed, along with his buddies. Valerie went to Darin’s side as the remaining boys piled on Ed.

  Ed simply shook them all off, swinging his fists like battering rams. He plowed through them all, screaming with rage, and they went down with broken limbs and bloody noses.

  Roger slipped backward, ducking Ed’s wild swings. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his keys. Put them in his fist, between his fingers, like a jagged set of pointed brass knuckles. He circled Ed, wary and careful.

  “Okay, retard. You want to fight, finally? Let’s go, Special Ed, let’s do this,” Roger said. “Should’ve shown some of that fight on the football field, you fucking retard!”

  Ed swung and Roger ducked under and punched him hard, with the keys, in the side. Ed grunted in pain. He swung again but Roger was too quick, this time popping Ed on the jaw, cutting him with the keys. Blood ran down his chin.

  “Yeah, you simple motherfucker, what you gonna do now?” Roger teased.

  Ed stared at Roger, his eyes glittering with darkness, and waited. Roger slipped in, faked for the gut then went upstairs again. Ed caught his fist, however, and squeezed. He squeezed it hard. Roger shouted in pain and went to his knees, trying to free his hand but it was no use. Ed screamed back at Roger as the bones in the jock’s hand broke. Ed kept screaming.

  “Ed, let him go, you can let him go now,” Darin said, now beside him. He grabbed Ed’s hand and tried to get him to release Roger. “Let him go, man. Let him go!”

  Ed released Roger, swiveled and grabbed Darin by the shirt, not recognizing him at first. He pulled his fist back to strike but stopped himself in time.

  “It’s me, Ed, it’s me,” Darin said. “You can stop now.”

  “Ed, it’s okay,” Valerie said. “It’s over. It’s all over.”

  Ed let out a sigh as the rush of anger left him. He took in the carnage he wrought. Roger curled up in a ball on the sidewalk, clutching his crushed hand and moaning. The others lay about in various forms of physical distress.

  “I hurt them. I hurt them pretty bad.”

  “You sure did, big man. You also saved my ass.”

  Ed looked up and froze. Darin and Valerie followed his gaze. A block away, Faye and Shakes sat in Faye’s car, watching them. The car pulled out and drove away.

  Their phones all dinged at the same time. It was a text message from Shakes.

  “YOU FUCKED UP, ED. YOU BETRAYED THE CIRCLE. NOW YOU MUST PAY THE PRICE. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS, DON’T YOU?”

  “Oh no,” Ed said. “No!”

  Ed ran away, down the street.

  “Ed, wait,” Darin said.

  He ran as though his life depended on it, through backyards and over fences and hedges. Valerie and Darin couldn’t keep up and eventually went back to her car and peeled out on the pavement in pursuit of him.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  There was already a police car and an ambulance parked in front Ed’s grandma’s house by the time they got there. Darin and Valerie later found out that one of her neighbors had seen what she was doing through the kitchen window and called 911 right away, but by the time they’d gotten there it was too late. Ed arrived on the scene shortly after the cops did and had to be physically restrained by several policemen. Even that wasn’t enough. He bulled his way far enough inside to see what his grandmother had done.

  Ed stumbled back outside, sat on the steps and howled in agony, tears and mucus running down his face. Darin stopped Valerie before she got too close, but they could see, from where they stood in the yard, her feet hanging above the floor. She’d hung herself. Valerie put her hand to her mouth.

  “I’m sorry!” Ed shrieked up at the night sky. “I should have never done it, Shakes, I’m sorry! Grandma, I’m so sorry! Sorry sorry sorry!”

  “Ed!” Valerie said and went to him.

  “Stay away from me!” Ed screamed and stood, his fists clenched.

  A couple of burly policemen grabbed Ed to try and calm him down. Ed picked one of them up by the neck and tossed him. The other shouted for help as Ed grabbed him and yanked the weapon from his holster. Ed knocked the man aside.

  “Gun!” the cop yelled as he went down.

  The remaining officers pulled their weapons and aimed at Ed, shouting at him to put the gun down. Ed jacked the slide and waved it around at them like a wild animal.

  “Ed, don’t!” Valerie said from behind the cops.

  “Ed, wait, wait,” Darin said. “Hold on, please … don’t do this. Ed, this is what he wants, that’s why he … please, Ed. Just please. You’re my friend. Put it down. Please.”

  Ed stared at Darin and Valerie, his entire being filled with sorrow. “I wish I’d never played that fucking game.”

  Ed raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger as Valerie screamed.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  The cops kept both of them at the station until late that night. They had lots of questions, and neither Darin nor Valerie had any satisfying answers for them.

  “What do you mean, ‘this is what he wants,’ what was that about?” one cop asked, his eyes suspicious. Darin and Valerie looked at each other.

  “Satan,” Valerie said.

  “Satan?”

  “Yeah, Ed
was … he was getting into some dark things,” Darin picked up the ball from Valerie and ran with it. “He’d changed a lot, dressed different, hung with new kids. It changed him. We were trying to help him with it, but …”

  “You’re saying this kid was getting into Satanism?”

  “We think, yeah. He was talking about it, a little bit.”

  “What does that have to do with what happened to his grandmother?”

  “I … I don’t know. We barely knew her. I know she was the most important thing in his life. But I don’t know what that had to do with it.”

  Darin did know, but he also knew that the real explanation would get him nowhere. The cop just stared at him, suspicious. It helped when Valerie broke down into tears and bawled her eyes out. The officer took pity on them and finally nodded.

  “I don’t know if it’s Satanism or what,” the cop said, “but folks around here have gotten nuts. You know how many suicides I’ve had in the past week? And all sorts of other strangeness, too. Whatever it is, we’ll get to the bottom of it, I promise you that. If it is Satanism or anything like it, you kids stay away from it, hear me?”

  “Yes, sir,” Darin said. “We’ll try.”

  They eventually had to let them both go. Darin’s foster parents picked him up at the station, very uncharacteristically quiet and supportive in light of the loss of his friend, and Valerie’s dad waited for her near the desk. He seemed shocked at her tear-stained face and hugged her tight, which made her cry even harder.

  Before they left, she broke away from her father, grabbed Darin and whispered into his ear. “Can you slip away and come see me tonight?”

  He nodded.

  Chapter Sixty

  Valerie let him in through her bedroom window.

  “I’m glad you live in a one-story house,” he said. “Hey, you have …”