by J. S. Bailey
A chiming sound made her jump. She’d forgotten that she had put her phone in her pocket.
“Did you two elope?” read the white words on the screen. “You know it,” Jessica replied. She put the phone back in her pocket. It chimed again. She didn’t bother getting it back out to see Sidney’s reply.
She had difficulty grasping that the pile of bones at her feet had once been part of a living, breathing person. Jerry’s face had been painted in flesh over this very skull. A heart had once beaten inside the now-broken chest, and two blue eyes had looked out onto the world from those gaping sockets.
Wayne’s silent sobs turned audible.
“It makes you think, doesn’t it?” she said. Her own voice was strained. “Knowing that we’ll all end up looking kind of like this in the end.”
He took off his glasses and lifted a hand to his eye. “I guess. It’s just…I can’t stop thinking about what I went through as a kid.
The crazy mood swings my mom had, acting sweet one moment and whipping me until I bled the next.”
The warm air suddenly felt icy on her skin. “You mean it wasn’t just a fireplace poker?”
He turned. His eyes were more bloodshot than ever. “Here, take a look.” He pulled off his shirt. His skin was the color of milk, like a plant that grew stunted in the dark. He limped toward her and turned again.
Countless thin scars crisscrossed his back like a roadmap. Most were concentrated at the top between his shoulders, though a few snaked down and disappeared under the waistline of his pants.
“I’m sorry,” she said. If he’d been hiding these scars for most of his life, what other scars lay hidden in his memories? He might be more broken on the inside than out—yet still, Wayne always found something to smile or laugh about.
Suddenly she had the urge to kiss him, to hold him and tell him that all was okay and that she didn’t care that he had killed someone, because she loved him anyway.
But doing that next to a corpse hardly seemed proper.
He put his shirt back on after a beat or two. “I think about the torment she put me through, and then I look at this and realize that none of what happened to me even compares to what they did to him.”
“But he only went through one night of it.”
“So? I thank God every day for letting me live. Jerry certainly can’t thank him for that.”
Jessica would have personally preferred death over repeated abuse, but it wouldn’t have been wise to mention that. “Should we call the police about this?” she asked.
Wayne gestured at the huge area they had dug up. “They won’t believe we were only looking for coins if they took a look at this archaeological dig we made. They’ll think we knew about the body ahead of time.”
“We did.”
“And you think they’ll believe that a ghost told you where to find it?”
“Some cops might.”
“But probably not.”
This stank. “Well, we learned two things by coming out here,” she said.
“What’s that?”
She held up a finger. “One, Jerry was telling me the truth, and two, somebody used to meet in that cabin for a Satanic Mass or something.”
“You think whoever used the cabin had something to do with Jerry’s death?”
“My guess is yes. If people came out here all the time for their freaky church services, they’d know about this being a convenient spot to hide a body.”
“So you think it could have been a sacrificial murder.” She shook her head. Something didn’t sit right with that theory. “There’s too much anger permeating the air around here.
If someone were making a sacrifice, wouldn’t they be happy about it?”
His lips formed a faint smile. “I guess so.”
“Exactly! And if those emotions do have a connection to Jerry’s murder, I’d say that whoever killed him did it out of anger.”
“Was Jerry a Satanist? They could have killed him if he’d tried to leave their coven.”
“He can’t be.” Jerry had mentioned going to church and reading his Bible and fearing God’s judgment. A Satanist would mock those things, kind of like the way someone had mocked the cross in the cabin by hanging it upside down. “I’m pretty sure he’s just a fallen-away Christian.”
“All right,” Wayne said. “Then what in the world did he do to make them decide to butcher him?”
Before she could answer, the phone in her pocket chimed a third time. “Oh, Sidney, what do you want now?”
The first message Jessica had ignored made her smile. “You should have invited me. I could have been the flower girl,” it said.
Then, “Please come home. I’m scared.”
She frowned. Sidney would be by herself with Jerry, and while Jessica was sure that their altercation in the bedroom the day before had been a simple misunderstanding, she didn’t blame Sidney for being worried. She typed, “We’ll be there soon,” and hit send.
“What was that about?” Wayne asked.
“Sidney. I think we should hurry up and get this covered back up before something bad happens between those two again.”
SIDNEY’S CAR was not in the driveway when Jessica and Wayne made it home shortly before seven.
Jessica was relieved that Sidney wasn’t there to see that they were covered in sweat and grime. She’d undoubtedly ask what they had been up to and have a heart attack when they told her, though they would have to tell her sooner or later. It would only be fair.
The house was eerily quiet. Jessica turned on the kitchen light to dispel the gloom.
“You think I should call her?” she asked.
“Go ahead. I’ll be in the shower.” Wayne pulled off his muddy gym shoes and went upstairs.
Jessica dialed Sidney’s number. The phone barely finished its first ring when Sidney came on the line. “Where have you been?” she said in a frantic voice. “I thought you’d be home hours ago.”
Since there was no telling where Sidney had scampered off to, Jessica thought it best not to mention the grave digging over the phone in case somebody else overheard. “We were metal detecting at the Iron Springs United Methodist Church. We found some coins.”
“You mean you were doing something as dumb as that when I was at home fearing for my life?”
Surely Sidney was exaggerating. “What happened? And where in the world are you?”
“Dad’s house. I figured it would be safe here.”
“Safe?”
“Jessica, I don’t think you’re dumb enough to have already forgotten about him.”
“What did he do?”
Sidney lowered her voice. “Hang on, let me go to a different room before Brian and Kyle start giving me funny looks and tell Dad to have me committed. Okay.” Jessica heard a click as a door latched into place. “He’s nuts, Jessica. Looney. Not right in the head.”
“You’re talking about Jerry?”
“Of course that’s who I’m talking about! When I came home from work, I couldn’t get the front door open. Somebody jammed the kitchen table up against it and stacked all the chairs on top of it so no one could get into the house. And those chairs are heavy! Fortunately he must have forgotten that we have a back door, so I went around and came in that way. Then when I tried to turn on the lights, they wouldn’t work, so I went to the basement and found out that half the breakers in the house had been tripped. Must be why my CD player stopped working yesterday. It’s like he overloaded the circuits drawing enough energy off of them to move stuff around.”
As bizarre as that was, Jessica couldn’t see why Sidney had been so frightened. “Why didn’t you just stay here?”
“Duh! If he can move stuff as heavy as that, what’s going to stop him from getting mad at me again and chucking me through a window?”
Jerry must have done the furniture stacking not long after she and Wayne had left. Which meant… “I don’t think he was mad at you.” Jerry had probably heard them talking about digging up his remains and become
upset. That would be kind of distressing, knowing that someone was going to mess around with your bones just to be nosy.
“You think he did it for fun?”
“Come home, and I’ll tell you all about it. And I promise there isn’t anything to be afraid of. Wayne’s got holy water.”
She snorted. “Fine. I’ll be there in a bit.” The line went dead.
Jessica and Wayne had picked up burgers and fries from a Wendy’s in Iron Springs for dinner, so she went right upstairs to get clean clothes to put on after her shower. If Sidney hadn’t eaten yet, she was on her own.
The water was already running in Wayne’s bathroom when she made it to the landing. She would have to wait to shower until he finished so she wouldn’t steal all of his hot water.
She paused outside her bedroom door. Was Jerry hiding in there? It would be nice to speak with him alone and try to talk some sense into him.
She swung the door open and flipped on the light switch. “Is anybody in here?”
Nothing looked like it had been disturbed since she and Wayne left. She closed the door and sat down on the floor between the mismatched twin beds. “I’d like to talk to you. Is that okay?”
“You found it, didn’t you?” Jerry was suddenly sitting Indian-style on her bed. His face was long.
Jessica nodded. She would have to speak carefully so as not to incite one of his bursts of anger.
“What did you expect that to accomplish?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping it would give us some answers.”
“You don’t need answers. Nothing you find is going to help me or you.”
“We found something else out there, too.”
An eyebrow lifted. “What’s that?”
“A cabin. With an altar and inverted cross and pentagram inside.”
At first he said nothing. He only stared at her.
“You know about it, don’t you?” she said.
The minute changed on Sidney’s alarm clock. Jessica waited.
At last he nodded. “I didn’t know about it at first,” he said slowly. “I only came across it later, after I saw some people traipsing through the cemetery into the woods one night. I recognized some of their voices, so I followed them. They had a prisoner with them. A girl. She might have been ten years old.”
Jessica’s vocal cords tightened. “What were they doing with her?”
“They took her to that cabin and raped her. All of them, even the women. I could have tried to step in to scare them away, but I didn’t. Because I know what it’s like. To do something so horrible yet enjoy every moment of it. It’s like consuming the forbidden fruit. Have you ever done anything like that?”
“Well…” She had to think. “I used to do really dumb things when I was a kid to make my parents mad, because then they’d pay attention to me.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Yeah. I was being immature.” She didn’t elaborate by telling him about the broken vase and the flooded bathroom. She’d just been a stupid kid. “What happened when those people were done? With the girl, I mean.”
“They killed her.” His voice held a slight tone of remorse. “Tore her throat open with a knife. I saw her spirit leave her body. She seemed confused at first, but then her face brightened with a look of pure joy, and she disappeared. I was happy for her, but at the same time…jealous. That she would go home to her Maker while I was left alone and hopeless in a cabin full of scum.”
Sweet Jesus. To think she had stood in the very place where that had happened! “Do those people still meet there? We thought the cabin was abandoned.”
He shook his head. “As much as I understood them, I couldn’t allow myself to let them hurt anyone else. The next time they arrived with a victim, I drove them out. And the next time, and the next time. Eventually they stopped showing up. I assume they meet elsewhere now, if they meet at all.”
“Who were they?”
“People.” He smiled. “You and your friend are wasting your time on this whole solving-the-mystery-of-my-death business. You think that I’m still here because of the way I died? That I’m restless because I never had a funeral? I told you why I’m here. It’s because of what I did. Not what they did. And please take my advice. Quit prying.”
JERRY STAYED behind in the bedroom when Jessica went to take her shower, struggling against the temptation that had seized him like a snare.
Jessica should have suspected him. She did not come across as being stupid, but any person with multiple brain cells would have figured it out days ago.
That meant one thing. She didn’t know.
The thought both amused and sickened him.
In truth, he shouldn’t involve himself with her anymore. He could go away somewhere to silently wait for the final judgment while the world fell apart around him. Jessica would go on with her life, and she would die blissfully ignorant of the things that transpired during that summer when the world still reeled from the Chernobyl disaster and glam metal had been all the rage.
The Presence nudged at his conscience like a bratty kid prodding a dying animal with a stick. It had been doing that a lot these past few days. Where’s the beauty in that?
It made a good point. Justice had never been served. He could have forgiven those awful people for killing him, but did they deserve it? No! They deserved to be torn from limb to limb and left out for the buzzards to consume.
The thing was they wouldn’t have killed him if he hadn’t done something very, very bad first.
Don’t think that way. They didn’t have to kill you over it.
True.
They could have forgiven you. And you know they never did.
Should they have?
It’s the proper thing to do, isn’t it? Good Christians say so.
But they weren’t good Christians! And neither was he, for that matter.
Doesn’t matter. They killed you, they’ve walked free for far too long, and they should pay for what they did, shouldn’t they?
He didn’t even know where any of them lived anymore. Some of them might have even died during the last couple of decades.
Then use what knowledge you already have.
Yes…he could do that.
Suddenly all the faces swam in his mind’s eye. The laughing, giggling faces that mocked him with every glance.
We’re more special than your baby’ cause our mommies wanted us, their eyes seemed to say. Countless phantom voices filled his head in an echoing playground chant.
More special than your kid, we’re more special than your kid, we’re more special than your kid…
Echoing, echoing…
He could see himself lifting the revolver. Drawing back the trigger. Delight filled him at the sight of the stunned look that appeared on the first one’s face as the bullet tore a hole through its skull. The others were in too much shock to move, like a trio of fawns caught in a high-wattage beam of light. He cut them down in rapid succession.
He could remember the lightness in his chest. The immense feeling of relief knowing that he would never have to see their faces again.
It felt good, didn’t it?
Yeah. It had. Better than he had felt in his entire life, in fact.
They took that feeling away from you, Jerry. They tortured you. Do you remember how it felt when they cut you open? Do you remember how frightened you were?
Yes. All too well.
People say that the punishment should fit the crime. Did yours?
Of course it hadn’t. They did something far worse than he’d ever done.
So you see? Justice, Jerry. Serve it well.
Wayne fixed a giant bowl of popcorn, and he, Jessica, and Sidney ate sitting on the couch while an Everybody Loves Raymond marathon played on the television.
Wayne kept the volume low so they would be able to hear each other with clarity.
Jessica and Wayne took turns telling Sidney what they had been up to all afternoon. Jessica felt a little guilty addin
g even more items to her friend’s list of concerns, but what else were they going to do? Lie to her?
“I can’t believe you did that,” Sidney said when they were finished. She looked even more agitated than she had sounded when Jessica talked to her on the phone.
Jessica couldn’t believe it either. Purposefully digging up an unmarked grave was one of the brashest things she had ever done, and that was saying something for the girl whose main hobby was gallivanting around the county alone looking for ghosts. “I know it’s crazy. I just had to see it for myself,” she said, rubbing her aching calf. “Proof, I guess. It makes everything seem more real.”
Sidney gave a short laugh. “It seemed real enough to me when he showed up in our room.” She glanced down at her hands. “I’m really sorry about not believing you. I was just being a big dummy. When you said you’d recorded a bunch of stuff and all your equipment turned out to be blank…I mean, if the situation were reversed, you’d have thought I was nuts, too, right? Don’t answer that,” she added with a blush.
“It’s okay,” Jessica said. “I’ve been a big dummy about some things, too.” It was nice that the animosity between them had successfully been eliminated. If something were to permanently damage their at-times shaky relationship, Jessica didn’t know what she would do. “I hope you forgive me.”
Sidney rolled her eyes. “What, are we all going to join hands and start singing kumbaya? Of course I forgive you. As long as you forgive me for being a turd.”
Jessica grinned. “You’re forgiven.” Now maybe things around here would seem a little more normal—with obvious exceptions. “So,” she continued, changing the subject, “do either of you want to come to the family reunion tomorrow?”
“You mean I could be an honorary Reyes for a day?” Sidney said. “I’m…well, honored. But I’ve got work, and I promised Dad and the boys I’d spend the rest of the day with them, so I’m going to be a no-show.”
“I’ll go,” said Wayne. His half-closed eyes and lined face made him look unimaginably tired.
“Great,” Jessica teased. “Everyone will think you’re my lover.”
“I see nothing wrong with that.” He smiled weakly and yawned. “I can’t wait to see the looks on your parents’ faces when we show up hand in hand.”