by Greg Herren
She opened her mouth, but closed it again.
Not yet.
“Well, I just wanted you to know I’m here, okay?”
“Thank you—it means a lot to me.” She gave Candy a weak smile. “Let’s talk about something more cheerful—I’m so tired of doom and gloom. So, are you and Tony a couple now?”
“I hope so.” Candy smiled back at her. “I do like him a lot.”
Laney could hear her talking but she wasn’t really listening. She didn’t really need to—Candy obviously could talk about Tony for hours. All she had to do was smile and nod and say “uh-huh” from time to time. They reached the city limits of Kahola, and Candy kept talking as she expertly maneuvered her Mustang through the slight traffic until she was pulling into the parking lot of Kahola County Hospital. As she parked the car, Candy said, “It’s weird, isn’t it, how you can know someone your whole life and never really notice them until one day you’re all wow what a hunk he is!”
“Yeah,” Laney agreed, getting out of the car. Candy kept up the string of chatter as they went through the automatic doors into the hospital, in the elevator, and down the hall to Tony’s room.
Laney hoped her shock didn’t register on her face as they walked into Tony’s room.
He looked terrible. His right leg was in a cast and suspended from a weird contraption above his bed. His left arm was in a sling, and there was an ugly purplish-yellow bruise on the right side of his face. His hair looked unwashed and greasy, and his olive skin looked pale. There were dark smudges under his eyes, and his full lips looked chapped. He smiled wanly at them both, his eyes lighting up with delight. He picked up a remote control with his left hand and muted the football game on the television.
“Hey, stud.” Candy kissed him on the cheek.
He smiled at her and turned his head. “Hey, Laney.”
“How you doing?” Laney approached the bed cautiously. He looked so—fragile. She bit her lower lip.
“I’m not contagious,” Tony teased. He looked at his suspended leg and grinned. “And apparently I won’t break.”
She kissed him lightly on the cheek and then stepped back. “So, how long are you in for?”
He shrugged his shoulders slightly and winced a bit. “Well, I have two pins in my leg, and once they let me out of traction I have to do some physical therapy. With any luck I’ll be out of here next weekend.” Tony looked at her and wrinkled his forehead. He turned his head and said, “Candy, would you mind getting me a Coke from the machine?”
Candy kissed his cheek again. “Of course I don’t mind. I’ll be back in a flash.” She disappeared through the door.
“Okay.” Tony said once the door was shut. “What’s wrong, Laney?”
“Is it that obvious?” She sat down in the chair next to the bed. She laughed, a brittle sound. “Oh, just about everything that could possibly be wrong is,” Laney shook her head. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“I’m sorry about Noah.” He licked his lips. “Do you mind if ask you something?”
“Go ahead. I don’t know that I want to talk about me anyway.”
“Have you noticed anything weird about Glenn lately?”
She laughed. “What isn’t weird about him lately is a better question.” She rolled her eyes. “Ever since that bitch showed up, he’s totally different.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for one thing they’re inseparable. I mean, you’d never know he’s gay the way he hangs on her.” She crossed her legs, and frowned. “And last night at the victory dance—” She hesitated. “This is going to sound crazy, but last night I noticed he looks like he’s really been working out a lot.” She shook her head. “Maybe I just noticed, but I can’t believe I wouldn’t have before. He doesn’t look the same as he did a few weeks ago when I saw him at the country club pool. People’s bodies don’t change that fast, do they?”
“You noticed that, too?”
“Yeah.” She stared at him. “At the game last night, or at the dance afterward, I mean, I noticed that his shirt was too small, and I had never noticed before how big his chest and arms were.”
“Laney, they weren’t that big last week.”
“What?” She blinked at him.
“Glenn always complained about how his body never seemed to react to the weights.” Tony frowned. “He always acted like we were in some kind of competition. I mean, just last week we took our measurements in the weight room. I’m telling you, Laney, I was bigger than him—my biceps were two inches bigger around than his. When he came to visit me this morning…Laney, we’re the same size now.”
“That’s crazy!”
“He looks like he’s been doing a thousand sit-ups every night,” Tony went on rapidly. “Like he can bench-press over two hundred pounds easily. I’m telling you, he did not look like that last week!”
“How hard did you hit your head?” Laney stared at him. You know he’s telling the truth, that voice whispered in her mind, you noticed it yourself last night.
“And that’s not all, either.” He grabbed her hand. “Have you been having weird dreams?” He was squeezing her hand so hard that it hurt. “About Noah? About her?”
She felt the color draining out of her face. She pulled her hand free. “How did you know that?” she whispered hoarsely.
“Because I’ve been having them, too.” He closed his eyes.
“What is going on?” She was scared, more frightened than she’d been when she woke up from her dreams. “Tony, this isn’t possible.”
“I don’t know, I wish I did, but it has something to do with her.”
Laney felt dizzy, and she leaned back in her chair, gulping deep breaths of air. “Tony, what you’re saying is insane.” Even as she said it, though, her instincts told her he was right, he was telling the truth.
“Is it?” Tony said softly. “Just a week ago, everything was fine, everything was normal, right? Sure, Zack and Noah were kinda being dickheads about Glenn being gay, whatever, but he was dealing with it just fine. And then we ran into her that night at Vista. Suddenly, Glenn’s got a new best friend. Then Noah dies. Then Zack Zimmer commits suicide on the same day that Glenn breaks his nose.”
“Glenn broke Zack’s nose?” She shook her head. “I didn’t hear about that.”
“After practice that day, they got into it in the locker room. Glenn lost it and just hauled off and slugged him. I was there—I saw it. Coach brought him here to get his nose set—I went along for the ride. Zack was fine, Laney.” He shook his head. “Embarrassed, mad, but fine. But then he goes home and hangs himself. Does that make any sense to you? And Glenn starts developing the body of a Greek god in an impossibly short period of time.” Tony grimaced at her. “And then we have our little accident. Glenn gets a few bruises, and I wind up in the hospital with a dislocated shoulder and pins in my leg. Does any of this sound like normal, everyday happenings to you?”
“Well, no.”
“I haven’t told you the worst part, Laney.” Tony closed his eyes. “Right before we had the accident, Glenn tried to use the brakes, and he said they weren’t working. Laney, he had the pedal to the floor. I saw it. The brakes on his car were not working, I would swear to it. But yesterday I had a little visitor from the police department. There was nothing wrong with the brakes.”
“Maybe Glenn was scared and hit the gas.”
“No, Laney. I’m telling you, I saw him pushing the brake pedal to the floor. I saw it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“The last thing I remember before I was knocked out was hearing laughter.” He opened his eyes. “Her laughter. Just like in my dreams. She was why we crashed, Laney, I know it.”
“That’s crazy, Tony.” Laney stared at him, not wanting to believe him. But she knew he was right—she felt it. She’d felt it herself, even though she didn’t want to admit it. “These things aren’t possible.” She walked over to the window and looked out into the parking lot. “You just did
n’t see what pedal Glenn was pressing. I mean, how sure are you of what you saw?”
“And the dreams?” he said quietly. She didn’t answer, and he went on, “Okay, everything can be explained—except the dreams. Noah came to me the night he died. After he’d already died, Laney.”
“Tony, stop it!”
“I thought it was a dream, but I found Noah’s key ring in my room the next morning. How did it get there?”
“What are you saying?” She felt a chill.
He took a deep breath. “I think Sara is behind all of this. I don’t know what she is, but I don’t think she’s human.”
They stared at each other in silence. The door opened and Candy came back in with several cans of soda.
“I assumed you wanted a Coke.” Candy handed her the can. “What were you two talking about so serious?”
Laney couldn’t accept it even though she knew it was true in her gut. “Tony seems to think that Sara is a witch or something.”
Candy laughed. “I don’t like her, either.” She made a face.
Tony sighed. “That isn’t what I meant, and you both know it. I just think that something very strange is going on around here, and I think she has something to do with it.”
“Have you talked to Glenn about all of this?” Laney said, trying to keep her voice steady. Her head was spinning. Even though it was crazy, she knew deep down it was true, and if it was true—
“Of course I haven’t!” Tony laughed mirthlessly. “He’d think I was crazy.”
“And we wouldn’t?” Laney looked from Candy to Tony and back again. Candy’s face was pale, her mouth open.
“You know I’m right,” he insisted. “Don’t you?” He closed his eyes. “She’s some kind of witch or something, I don’t know what.”
“Tony, do you hear yourself?” Laney sat down in a chair and began playing with her hair. Maybe if I can talk him out of it, I can talk myself out of believing it. “Okay, suppose you’re right, okay? Why would she pick Glenn, Tony? Out of everyone, if she is some kind of witch, or whatever, why did she pick Glenn? Or our school? Us? I mean, if I was a witch I could think of a better place to put myself than Southern Heights High, out in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas. There’s a great big world out there. Why us? Why Glenn?”
“I don’t know.” Tony scratched his forehead. “That’s the one thing I can’t figure out.”
“Have the two of you completely lost your minds?” Candy finally exploded. “What is wrong with the two of you? You’re saying that a girl we go to school with is some kind of…of…demon.” She walked over to where Laney was sitting.
“What other explanation is there for everything that’s happening?” Tony asked quietly.
“I don’t know!” Candy spun around, her red hair flying. “But there has to be. There’s no such thing as witches. You know that!”
“I don’t want to believe it,” Laney replied. She laughed. “Trust me.”
Candy started crying. “I hate all of this! Why can’t we just forget about Glenn and Sara?”
“Because of the dreams.” Laney stood up, and walked back to the window. She took a deep breath, and took the plunge. “The one thing that I can’t explain is the dreams, Candy. What about the dreams? Tony and I have both had them.”
“You’ve had them, too, haven’t you, Candy?” Tony said, taking her hand.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Candy?”
“Yes,” Candy said so softly that they almost didn’t hear her. “Yes, I have.”
Once Candy started talking, the words came pouring out in a torrent. Tony and Laney let her talk, interrupting only occasionally.
“The dreams started on the first day of school,” Candy said, the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I dreamed that night that I was going to school, and everybody was out in the parking lot, laughing and talking and joking around. Everyone was there. And then this big cloud seemed to cover the sun, and it got cold, and everyone began looking up at the cloud, waiting for it to pass, but it just kept getting bigger and bigger and darker and darker, as though it was moving down through the air toward us, like a big dark fog. And it was evil. I could sense it, that it hated us and wanted to hurt us all, every one of us, and people began to get scared, and then it was on us, all around us, so dark and thick that I couldn’t see anyone, and it was so cold, and from all around me I could hear people screaming, and then I heard this laughter, and it was horrible, it was so horrible, and I knew that everyone was dying. And then I woke up.”
“Jesus,” Tony breathed.
Candy took a deep breath. “The next night I dreamed I was asleep in my bed. It was so real, that was the thing about all these dreams—they were all so real, like it was really happening. Something woke me up, and I got up out of the bed. There was something scratching at the screen of my window, but there was no moon, and I couldn’t see what was out there, so I tried turning on my bedside light, but the lightbulb was blown or something, so it wouldn’t come on. Then I heard the sound again, so I wanted to see what it was. The scratching seemed so sad and pathetic, like something was lost and trying to find its way home. I felt sorry for it, whatever it was. It never occurred to me that it might be something bad. I just knew I had to help it, so I went over to the window to see what I could do. When I got to the screen and looked out, I could make out this shape on the lawn, a few feet away from my window. It was shimmering and moving, but it was a dark shape, and I could see the movement, but I still couldn’t see what it was. It seemed so, so, sad, I guess. And then it said my name, in a low gravelly sort of voice.
“‘Who are you’ I called out to it. ‘What do you want?’
“‘Help me.’ I thought I recognized the voice, but I couldn’t place it.
“I asked again who it was, and then I heard that same laughter, that same horrible laughter that I had heard in my dream the night before, and then it was gone.” She swallowed. “Does this sound as crazy to you two as it does to me? But after that I didn’t dream for a couple days. I almost forgot about the dream until the night of the first game, when I met Sara for the first time.” She inhaled again. “I met her after the game. My mother had told me all about it, and said that Sara would be at the game, and would introduce herself to me, and would I take her to Vista and introduce her around, blah blah blah. I said sure. But I waited all night during the game for someone to come up to me, and no one ever did. I figured she chickened out or she was too scared or shy to introduce herself. But after the game was over and the guys were heading for the locker room, I saw this beautiful girl standing there, watching the guys leave the field. She turned and she looked at me, like I wasn’t really there, and then she smiled at me, and when she smiled I didn’t think she was so beautiful anymore. It wasn’t a very nice smile.
“‘Candy,’ she said, and walked toward me. I was terrified! There was something about her, something that was not quite right, you know what I mean? Like, oh, I don’t know. ‘I’m Sara Sterling.’
“‘Nice to meet you,’ I said, and shook her hand. It was cold as the grave. And we talked for a little while, and she kept asking about Glenn, and you, Tony, and Noah, and Randy, like she was drilling me for answers, like I was taking a test on everyone or something. All the way to Vista, all she did was ask questions. Then we got to Vista, and then we met you and Glenn there, Tony.
“I dreamed again that night. This time it was about Noah. He was on the bed of his truck, naked, having sex with someone. I think, even in the dream I was a little embarrassed about it. Then I heard the laughter again, and then I could see that the girl was Sara! And she had a knife, and started stabbing him in the back, and the blood was flying all over the place. And she was laughing.” She shuddered. “And then she pushed the body off her and started laughing again as she stood there, naked, all covered in his blood. ‘You’re dead, Noah.’ She started looking around, as though she knew that I could see her. And I wanted to run, to hide, I didn’t want
her to see me, because I knew that if she did, she would kill me, too. And then the next night Noah was dead.”
“But that was an accident,” Laney said softly.
“Do you really think so?” Candy looked at her, and her voice and face were tired. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“Did you dream about Zack, too?” Tony took a drink from his Coke. His hand was shaking.
“Yes.” Candy shuddered, and tears began falling out of her eyes again, but that was her only outward show of emotion. “I dreamed about Zack the night he died. I was in the bathroom, looking out through the closet door. Zack was in the bed, naked, and he was with Sara, too. I could see that hair of hers. No one else on earth has hair like that. They were laughing, and he had bandages on his nose, and moaning, and making all sorts of noise—it was horrible. Why was I having these pornographic dreams? And then she got out of the bed, and she told him to get on his stomach, and she pulled out a rope and slipped it around his neck and began choking him, and he was trying to call out, and get her off him, but she kept pulling tighter and tighter on the rope, and then I heard this horrible cracking sound that somehow I knew was his neck breaking, and then she made the rope into a noose and threw it over one of the beams and pulled his body up, and she was laughing. Then she stopped, as though she knew that someone was watching her, and she started looking around, and she had that horrible smile on her face that I knew from when I met her, and it turned my blood to ice, and then I woke up.” She smiled weakly. “And that’s the story of Candy’s crazy dreams.”
“My God.” Laney’s face was white. “Your dreams are as bad as mine.”
“I think,” Tony put his glass down, “that it’s time we told each other about our dreams.”
*
“Oh my God.” Candy looked back and forth between the two of them. “What is going on around here?”
“I don’t know.” Tony scratched his head, grimacing as he lifted his arm. “But I think we need to find out, and before anyone else gets hurt.”
“Everything that has happened revolves around Sara,” Laney said.