JUMP! Blaire remembered the growling voice that came out of the vent.
JUMP! JUMP! JUMP! She heard it demanding, each time, changing, becoming lighter and more taunting, until it was no longer the sound of a drooling beast but that of adolescent girls. Jump! Jump! Jump!
That fall was one of the coldest Black Water had ever seen. Blaire could not have been more than eleven years old. Sabrina Langford had asked her if she wanted to go walking up to the Grammercy Bridge. Grammercy had once taken trains safely from one side of the river to the other and on through the picturesque town of Black Water, but that was long ago. It was a place of little interest to two young girls and, from what Blaire had known at her innocent age, it was, at most, a place where the older kids went to kiss on Friday nights. When Sabrina suggested it as a play place that day, Blaire wanted to object, but hesitated at the thought of turning off her newfound friend.
Long ago the bridge had become lifeless, but it still gave an endless series of death breaths as the girls walked along it. The water flowed rapidly, and the sound of the swishing and churning made Blaire shiver. After throwing a couple of rocks into the river, a series of familiar faces emerged. Lacey Wright, Sharla Hig, Kiana James, and Elizabeth Morrow claimed territory on the bridge, creating a poignant image that Blaire would never forget. A pang of fear sliced through Blaire’s stomach: seppuku. Nothing involving Lacey, Sharla, Kiana and Elizabeth could be good for her because the Frightening Four were perpetrators of horrendous kiddie crimes. Just the week before they surrounded a girl on the playground, who they teased relentlessly until she cried and admitted she was a “slut” as they kept calling her. It was a word that Blaire knew vaguely from hearing it in R-rated movies that she snuck to catch glimpses of from time to time, although she would have been hard pressed to define the word if asked. Against her better judgment, Blaire stepped into the circle of doom on the playground and screamed at all of them to leave the helpless girl alone. Within seconds of hearing the commotion, Mrs. Bennett, infiltrated the mob of minors with a series of inquiries and instructions that made Lacey roll her eyes. The kids scattered but not before Blaire received a malevolent glare from the hellion gang’s little hierarch. The four of them were relentlessly brutal BFFs, who stopped at nothing when they craved the blood of another in the form of utter humiliation and in the name of pure adolescent wickedness.
“Hey weirdo,” Lacey sang in a playful tone that was followed by a light chorus of laughter from her sequacious squad of beautiful baby bandits. Blaire looked over and saw that Sabrina had taken a wide step away from her, with her head hung in the shame of her unscrupulous betrayal.
“Sabrina?” Blaire called out her name and on the icy air of the brisk afternoon, it sounded hollow; a desperate SOS that would never be answered. Sabrina was not one of the Frightening Four, just one of their mere associates, used only when the occasion suited them.
Blaire was alone.
“Sabrina,” Kiana mocked.
“You saved the slut, but who is going to save you?” Sharla said, stepping toward Blaire.
Elizabeth, Lacey’s servile cousin, hung back not saying a word. They were closing in on Blaire who looked around for a way out.
“You can’t escape,” Lacey warned her.
There was no way to run and even if there was, she wouldn’t as there was nowhere to run to. She knew they would catch her, and then it would be worse. Lacey was inches from her now.
“Why do you look so scared? You were a big protector last week, weren’t you? So where is big, bad Blaire, now?”
Blaire was silent. “HUH?” the girl yelled.
“I’m sorry,” Blaire responded.
“You’re sorry?” Kiana stepped up but still made sure that she was behind Lacey so that the pecking order could not be confused.
“You’re not sorry yet.” Sharla’s face was a twisted map of rage. “If you ever get in our—”
“Jump,” Lacey instructed in a strikingly tranquil tone, cutting Sharla’s rant short.
For the first time, Sabrina moved as her head jerked up to look at Lacey.
“What?” Kiana asked. Lacey gave her friend a sharp glower that equaled one social lashing.
“You heard her, weirdo. Climb over,” Sharla said. “Go on! What are ya, scared?”
“Lacey,” Blaire heard Elizabeth’s voice from somewhere behind all of them.
“Move!” Sharla yelled.
Blaire began climbing over the railing. There was a frantic shuffling as Sabrina shot out for the wooded area that made up the land between the bridge and their homes. Every ounce of hope drained from Blaire as Sabrina disappeared, her bright tangerine-colored coat dissolving into the brown of the trees. Blaire stood on the side of the bridge with her hands behind her, gripping the cold railing. Unsympathetically, the water under her raged.
“Lacey, stop!” Kiana cried.
“Shut your fat mouth or you’re next,” Lacey scolded, with Sharla’s glare confirming the threat. Kiana rolled her eyes deeply, and then she set a seething glower on Blaire. It was herself or Blaire, and it was clear that Kiana had chosen Blaire, and who could blame her?
“JUMP!” Lacey screamed, losing her patience.
“JUMP!” Sharla repeated the command. Soon Kiana joined in and they were chanting, their faces perverted in iniquitous scowls.
“JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!” They all chanted and their words and faces were swimming around in Blaire’s head, driving her to the razor-sharp edge of madness, until all she wanted was to get away from them, to get away from it all—all she wanted was for the incessant taunting to stop.
JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!” It continued. Blaire didn’t want to die, but she could not hang on, she couldn’t stay here, any place was better than here. What more could she do? There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide—
One swift move and she could no longer feel the stony metal underneath her hands, she was falling. The sound of the tremendous splash resonated all around her and fizzled into garbles of whooshing water. The water was clear and the light of the sky pierced the liquid prison. Up above, she caught a brief glance of the girls peering over in disbelief, but in the next moment they were out of sight. Blaire was traveling rapidly down the river alone.
A speechless Lacey watched Blaire be carried away.
“Why did you do that?” Kiana yelled.
“I didn’t do it…we did it, and, besides, I didn’t actually think that she was stupid enough jump!” Lacey spat back.
“We need to leave,” Sharla shouted.
“I can’t believe this!” Kiana yelled and suddenly the three of them were bickering ferociously when one primal scream rose above them all.
“Let’s get out of here!” Sharla screamed. For a moment they were frozen, and then Lacey took off, grabbing Elizabeth briefly by the collar.
Elizabeth could not move despite the fact that her accomplices were leaving her behind. She walked over to the railing of the bridge opposite of where Blaire went in, and she searched down river for the girl, but there was nothing but gallons of glacial, unforgiving water. They would pay for this, Elizabeth was not sure when or how, but the time would come for them to pay for everything that they had done. Elizabeth watched for several moments before she scrambled off the bridge as if being chased by wild dogs.
Blaire was fighting a losing battle to keep her head above water. It was difficult to breathe and getting harder as her body tossed and jerked. Her arms flailed madly, and suddenly she was freezing as her face was hit with a blast of frigid air, causing her to gulp violently. Blaire’s hands searched her surroundings wildly for rocks or branches, but nothing stayed in her slippery grip. She was under again and drowning as buckets of water forced themselves into her mouth and down her throat, her chest was hurting, it felt full and swollen. In the midst of all the chaos, Blaire was overwhelmed with a single infantile yearning. She wanted her mother and called out to her with a gasp of precious air.
In that moment a brutal lurch lifted Bl
aire from the water, with her arms and legs still thrashing, but she was no longer moving down the river; she was immobilized. Looking around, she realized that her coat had caught on a thick branch of a downed tree. Still panting, Blaire wrangled her coat collar from the branch and pulled herself along the massive trunk of the tree until she could feel rocks under her shoe, and then under her other shoeless foot. The river had swallowed one of her shoes, but she had escaped. Exhaustion took her along the rocky riverside, and she collapsed. As she lay there, her disoriented gaze floated to the sky.
A new perspective had come with her water-ladened emergence from the river that day. She knew that she could never go back, and that she could not change her past nor could she escape her destiny. Acceptance was the only way. The only ray of brilliant light in the charcoal Black Water sky found a break in the clouds that day and beamed down on her.
Blaire turned over on her uncomfortable St. Sebastian, standard issue bed and faced the wall. She thought of the Frightening Four and hoped that those little witches had gotten what they deserved.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I suggest you use them,” Travis said, mocking Marko’s statement about the locks. “What did he mean by that?” Travis asked as he and Blaire walked into town. He hoisted the folded metal grocery carts under his arm.
“I don’t know. That’s all he said.”
“He is so weird. Even though I guess I can understand about the children hurting themselves with no night caretaker.”
“Maybe I’ll just start doing my own checks during the night…” Blaire thought aloud.
“…and then teach all day? Doubt it,” Travis countered.
“Have you spoken to your parents?” Blaire asked, as Travis had made no mention of his family since they arrived. Travis was quiet for a moment before he spoke.
“I spoke to my mother when we first arrived. My father was not in. I tried them again this morning, and I spoke to my mom for a bit. We were on the line just long enough for her to tell me that my father was still not in before I lost reception.”
Blaire looked down to her feet after seeing the childlike joy drain from Travis’ face. “How about you?” he asked.
“No,” she responded without explanation as they entered the store.
They were greeted by a wisp of a woman with a face that sagged. The sorrow in the woman’s eyes hung heavy in the store’s air, and it seeped into Blaire’s pores like a poisonous gas.
“First things, first,” Travis announced as he made his way over to the deserted tower of sunglasses that held exactly three pairs.
Forty-five minutes later their carts were filled with everything from blankets to books to basic medical supplies. Standing in front of the register to pay, the pair had lined the counter with items that piled up so high that they could hardly see over them to the store owner. Blaire pointed to a box of cigarettes that were behind the counter, and she could feel Travis’ eyes on her.
“I know it’s bad for you and I am trying to quit. I am actually doing very well.”
“Uh-huh.” Travis seemed unconvinced.
“Oh,” Blaire said, allowing a slight gasp to escape her when she saw film along the back wall. Her thoughts went to Danya. Blaire explained the type of camera to the woman, who grabbed a couple of different packs of film from the shelf behind the counter in hopes that one would work.
The woman eyed Blaire and Travis as she rang up all the items.
“$827.53.” The voice was quivery, laden with the hardships of her life.
Travis turned to Blaire who pulled a titanium credit card from her wallet and allowed the woman to swipe it through the ancient machine.
“Margaret Dobish” The woman introduced herself after the pair proved they could pay.
“I’m Blaire Baker and this is Travis Wells.”
“Why are you at St. Sebastian?”
“Word travels fast,” Travis remarked.
Blaire cleared her throat. “Uh, we’re volunteers…to help with the children.”
The woman eyed him for a moment. “It’s not a good place.”
“What do you mean?” Blaire asked.
“My aunt used to work there. It’s haunted,” Margaret informed them.
Blaire looked to Travis quickly before he responded. “Okay, great, thanks for the info. Anya, who works up at St. Sebastian, told us that we could get our items delivered if there was too much to carry, can we?” he said completely ignoring her unsolicited information.
“I will have it delivered this afternoon,” Margaret answered.
“Great,” Travis said, as he finished loading the metal shopping carts with the bags that they could carry.
“What is with these people?” he said when they were finally back on the street. Blaire looked back to see that Margaret had come to the door. Her sorrowful eyes watched them as they continued along the sidewalk.
“Don’t tell me that you believe that crap? Oh, come on!” Travis said as if he felt completely let down by the person who was supposed to be his educated, sensible partner. What he didn’t know was that when you came from a place like Black Water it was very easy to believe in ghosts.
“I don’t believe it’s haunted. I guess, it’s just the traveling and being in an unfamiliar place. It’s…it’s…it’s just a little creepy sometimes.” Blaire was relieved to finally get it out. “Have you noticed anything strange at St. Sebastian?”
“Yeah, the people, the building, the food. Have I covered everything?” It’s just different, Blaire, but not haunted. Can we at least agree on that?”
“Yes, Travis, we can agree on that,” Blaire said with a tentative smile.
“Great and now that we have gotten over that, can we focus on more important business, like how in the hell could you just have spent eight hundred dollars back there, like it was eight?”
Blaire laughed lightly and said, “Okay, remember when I told you that I wasn’t rich?”
“Uh-huh,” Travis said, perking up astutely.
“Well, I kinda am…”
“I knew it! I just knew it.”
Blaire laughed. “What do you mean?”
“I just knew you were different, that’s all. Hey, you wanna pay my student loans?” he asked with a big grin on his face.
“SURE!” Blaire agreed dripping with sarcasm.
“Just kidding,” he said. “…unless you’re serious…” He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not,” Blaire responded as they broke into laughter, tripping over one another playfully in the street.
That evening it took them hours to sort and organize their haul, but the mood of the children when they were served salad, spaghetti, and garlic bread, instead of slop for dinner, was priceless. They ate until their stomachs where rounded out in rock hard protrusions of satisfaction.
Blaire found Danya and presented her with the film for the camera that was always loyally around her neck. Her face lit up as they fumbled with the various rolls of film until she inserted the correct one, which she knew only because the camera suddenly woke from the dead in a garish flash of light that burst into Blaire’s eyes.
Danya hugged Blaire tightly, burying her face in her new teacher’s abdomen, as Blaire hugged her back and stroked her bushel of tangled hair. Danya backed away and pointed to her camera then to Blaire.
“You want me to take a picture?” Blaire asked. “Ivan” She called out to the boy who was standing close by, and pulled him over delicately. Ivan’s expression was muted as the flash went off capturing a little piece of them both.
After dinner Blaire pulled out some of the new games purchased and the sound of the children’s joy echoed off the dingy walls for hours. Blaire was inspired with wonder, but also a morsel of dread as the children rediscovered what seemed to be old, cursed treasure, their laughter. That evening Anya and Vesna tucked the children into their newly blanketed beds in soft new pajamas. An ephemeral peace settled on St. Sebastian and if Blaire had any doubt before, she was sure now
that she had a purpose here; she was in the right place.
Travis spoke as he prepared his bed, “I’ll check on the kids at about midnight and you can make a second check a few hours later. Will that make you feel better?”
Blaire smiled as she snuggled under her blanket. She had not been wrong about Travis, he was amazing. “Sounds great,” she said before setting the alarm on her phone and closing her eyes.
St. Sebastian was still covered in darkness when Blaire woke. The soft, recognizable scratching on the walls made her afflicted hand come to life with a familiar throb.
Blaire looked at her phone; it was 2:59 a.m. Travis lay in a restful sleep, his chest slowly rising and falling with slight breaths every couple of seconds. Blaire wondered if he had completed his bed check at midnight.
Deactivating the alarm on her phone, Blaire roused her body from the bed. She grabbed her keys, pulled her new flashlight out of her dresser and set out for the second floor. Everything was eerily quiet, and the only things that she heard were her own soft movements through the barren corridors. One by one, Blaire went to each room on the second floor, pressing up on her tiptoes and peeking into every window, flashing her light around inside in order to make sure that nothing was out of place.
As an icy chill suddenly swept through the room, Blaire slipped back into her own bed happier than ever that she had purchased the thick blankets. Burrowing deep under the covers, she listened to the silence that soon gave way to the scratching of the rats. Blaire’s eyes were almost completely closed when she heard a soft melody, a song that someone was humming. There was a scraping noise, but it was not that of the rats, as this was loud and long, and then pacing, soft footsteps patting the floor. Blaire got out of bed and crept to the door, which she had left slightly ajar, ignoring Marko’s mysterious advice. It was Hannah, she told herself. Maybe Hannah could not sleep. Blaire contemplated peeking into the hall, but that icy chill returned, racing up and down her back until she could hardly stand it. She pressed her door to a silent close and turned the lock.
The Unwanted (Black Water Tales Book 2) Page 9