Dead, Sweet Boy (Book One - Dead, Sweet Series)

by Susan MacQuoid

“What’s this about you guys bringing beer? This isn’t a party or a joke. I thought you were professionals. We don’t want anything to do with this if you’re going to make a game out of it.”

  “I’m Mason. This is my investigation. Unfortunately, my van broke down so we had to use my cousin’s van. He’s the one with the beer.”

  Claudia grabbed the flashlight from my hand and blared it into his face with all of her anger. What the light revealed about Mason, was enough to cause a little gasp from my friend. He could have been her very unusual and very striking twin. Instead of black and plumb hair, his was black and blonde. His bangs were cut close to his head, while two wide and long blonde locks hung just behind them. The rest of his hair got shorter as it got to the back of his head and a lock at the top and back of his hair was cut very short like his bangs, so he had a few spikes. His bottom lip was pierced with many silver hoops and his eyebrows were plucked.

  Despite how dramatic he looked, Mason had a beautiful face. It was almost feminine. In different circumstances I might have starred.

  “Hey, don’t shine that in my eyes. Look, I made him take the beer back to the van. I didn’t know he brought it with him. We had to let him come. It’s his van.”

  “Oh,” was all that Claudia could say, still beaming the light in his eyes. I reached over and moved her hand so the light wasn’t as direct.

  “Oh, sorry. I’m Claudia. The one who called you.”

  Mason smiled and offered his hand again. His teeth were beautiful and his lips almost looked like they had gloss on them. This time Claudia took his hand and gave out a little giggle. It was so not like her, or maybe I had never really seen her smitten with someone.

  “Well Claudia. I can assure you that ninety nine percent of my group is just as serious about this as you guys are. I think we’re all set up and ready to go. Are you ready?”

  “Rock and roll,” she said with the sweetest voice I had ever heard come from her mouth. Of course she took her place, which happened to be next to Mason. He didn’t seem to mind at all. Leave it to Claudia to find love in a graveyard.

  “Okay. So if this is Claudia, you must be Sunny.”

  I shook my head and put my hand back in Rick’s. My stomach took a little flip. This was it. Ready or not I was about to mess with something I knew nothing about. And on top of that, I was really feeling like something was going to happen. The atmosphere seemed to change as we all stood around Mack’s grave. It reminded me of how the air felt when Rick and I encountered the monster on the river. It was uncanny and I hated comparing the two, but I was starting to believe that Mack was the cause for the evil around us. Something needed to be done, but it was so unfair that I had to do it.

  “Don’t worry Sunny. We are scientific about the paranormal. It doesn’t pay to get emotional if you know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t. This is very emotional for me.”

  “They were best friends,” Claudia explained, as if she hadn’t filled him in, which she did. The girl was so over the ghost hunt and completely into Mason.

  “All I mean is if you approach the paranormal emotionally, anything could be evidence. We look for solid proof with our equipment.”

  “Can he, I mean they, really communicate with us?” I asked. “Will I know what he wants?”

  “I think my group has found enough proof to substantiate that they can let us know they are there. Sometimes they can communicate in small ways, but don’t expect him to be making any speeches.”

  “Great,” I whispered. Rick squeezed my hand to reassure me.

  “We can stop whenever you want, so just relax. We really want to help you Sunny.”

  How much experience could they really have? They were only a few years older than me and my friends. It was too late to turn back. They were ready to go, and Mason was asking me to talk to Mack.

  “You’re the one he seems to want to connect with.”

  “Go ahead Sunny,” Claudia encouraged, “like you did earlier.”

  “Mack?” my voice squeaked meekly. After I cleared my throat, I looked around at the darkness that surrounded us. Before I could even try again, an eerie breeze blew between us.

  “Did you guys start already?” it was the guy with the beer, coming back to the group. As if we wouldn’t notice, he had a tall one in a brown paper bag. “Thanks a lot Mason.”

  “Doug, please. Just stand over there and be quiet.”

  Doug stood on the other side of me. I could smell the beer as his overweight body breathed hard from his short trip to the van. The guy added nothing to the group and it was irritating.

  “Go ahead Sunny,” Mason said. “Sorry about the interruption.”

  “Mack? Are you here? I mean I know that your body is here, but is your spirit? Was it you that threw the pebbles at my house all night Mack? Please… why do you want to frighten me?”

  “This is nuts, I’ve got something already on EMF. Aim the thermal camera over here Brian.” Mason was excited already.

  The breeze picked up, but it wasn’t a normal breeze. It surrounded us like a presence. I knew from the depths of my soul that it wasn’t Mack. Then I saw something. A shadow darker than the night darted behind the trees very close to our group.

  “Did you see that?” I asked Rick.

  “This camera is dead,” Brian alerted. “I need a light to replace the battery.” Rick held the light while Brian quickly fumbled with his equipment.

  “This isn’t Mack,” I blurted out. “I don’t know what it is, but I know it isn’t him.”

  Rick turned to reassure me, but before he could put his arm around me, he was knocked to the ground. The whole group witnessed his feet fly up and his back slam to the ground as if he were picked up and thrown.

  His hands went to his throat and he was fighting to unblock his airway. When the group moved to help him, he managed to yell, “Sunny run. Run to the car.”

  His words shot panic, electricity and adrenaline through my body. The only way I could think to run, was the way I had come in. Instead of running to Rick’s car or the ghost hunter’s borrowed van, I ran for Claudia’s bug. I thought she would follow, but I was alone in my sheer fear and flight.

  My path was blinded by the darkness, and my eyes might as well have been closed. After falling three or four times, and realizing I had no idea where I was, I stopped and broke down. My whole body was shaking. Something took over. I knew the direction, and suddenly I felt guided in the night. When the car came into view, I looked back to see if anyone had followed, but they hadn’t. I wanted to turn back when I realized I left Rick struggling on the ground, and Claudia to find her own way home. But when the real darkness in the night swirled once again around me, I jumped in the driver’s side of Claudia’s bug.

  “Thank God,” I yelled, when I saw the keys were in the ignition. Claudia always left them there, but there was a frightening chance that she might not have this time.

  It started right up, and at that moment I was so grateful that Mack had taught me how to drive his truck. It was a stick shift. I thought the poor car was going to fall apart as fast as I took it through the field.

  “Damn!” the lights wouldn’t go on. “Frick!” I couldn’t recall the trick to make them work and I had to find the dirt road quick at the speed I was going. I aimed the bug for the only break in the trees I could see in the moonlight, but when I got close to what I thought was the road I realized I was wrong.

  My right foot slammed on the breaks, forgetting that they had to be pumped to work, it was too late. Claudia’s bug, filled with my screaming body, headed down a ravine, across the pebbles of the shallow creek and straight for a massive tree trunk.

  I didn’t see my life flash in front of my eyes. It was a moment of such crisp reality, in a slow motion forum of colors and smells. It was like I knew everything about that tree before I hit it. How it felt, what lived in it and what it would sound like to crash into it.

  Just before the darkness came, the headlights wen
t on. For a split second, I was sure I saw Mack.

  This was a new darkness, almost a gift. But it was interrupted by red flashing lights and people talking. They were talking about me, and fighting with the metal around my body with loud tools.

  I could hear Claudia crying.

  “Stay with us Sunny,” one of the men said, “we’ll have you out of here in a minute. You’re going to be fine, just stay with us honey.”

  His voice wasn’t what I expected. The smell of beer made me think it was Doug, but then I got a flashback of me running straight into Doug in my hasty exit, and his beer being knocked out of his hand and spraying all over me. The smell was me. The voice was the police or the paramedics and they were going to think I had been drinking. Driving and drinking – with no license.

  It was a strain to open my eyes and move my lips before the darkness came back.

  “I didn’t do anything wrong,” was all I could manage to get out.

  The next time the darkness peeled back enough for me to know what was going on, I couldn’t move or see, and the pain that throbbed through my body was at such an extreme level, I wanted to die if it would go away.

  Another voice spoke. “She might be able to hear you, so just talk to her and let her know you’re here. There isn’t much time; we have to start the surgery.”

  “Sunny, its mom.”

  Mom? Oh mommy help me. It hurts so bad.

  “I’m here honey and you are going to be just fine.”

  It wasn’t true. I could hear it in her voice. She had been crying and her words couldn’t hide the fear.

  Suddenly my body was in motion and mom’s voice was getting farther away. Replaced by so many voices, all in a hurry and barking out replies to the main voice.

  “Sunny, I’m going to make the pain go away. We have to operate on you and it could take awhile. If you can hear me, blink your eyes.”

  As hard as I could, I tried to blink, but nothing happened. I couldn’t move one small inch of my body and I couldn’t speak. Before I could let them know the horrible things that were happening inside of my body, their voices faded too. Darkness again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Saint

  I believe you were a new arrival

  On the fast train passing through

  And you traded in your luck for survival

  To sweeten up the witch’s brew

  (Elton John’s, Too Low For Zero)

  I thought the darkness would last for hours, like the voice had told me. But in a matter of seconds I could hear and feel again. The pain that had radiated throughout my body seemed to concentrate on one spot now. My cheek. I could feel a tugging at that spot first, and then heard people talking. They were muffled at first and as they got clearer, the pain started in my head and my eyes. Light and heat shone through my eyelids.

  Frantically, I blinked my eyes to let them know I was alive.

  “Is something in your eyes Sunny?” a voice asked me.

  He saw my eyes blinking, it was working. He knew I was alive. I blinked faster, and the faster I blinked the wider I was able to open my eyes. Shocking light and colors invaded, locking my eyes closed again.

  “What’s the matter Sunny? Do you feel the needle?”

  My head violently rocked back and forth to answer and when I realized I could move my head, I tried to open my eyes again. Slowly, I let them focus on the voice. An older man, obviously the doctor I heard earlier, even though his voice was different now. He smiled. An emotion which shot shocks of green through my eyes and into my head made me look away. The pain of the color vibrated through my body, but it was my eyes that took the brunt.

  “My eyes,” I whispered. I spoke. My voice worked. Slowly I checked the rest of my body, carefully moving each piece of it. Confusion drowned out the voices for a moment. How could this be? I was sure that my body had been broken.

  “Sunny?”

  “My eyes and my head hurt.”

  “Well I don’t doubt it. You have a nasty bump on your head.”

  “My head? Is the surgery over?”

  “Surgery? Stitches aren’t really surgery. We’re almost finished dear. Yes, oh it’s looking very good. You’re going to have a pretty big scar, but I’ve made sure that a plastic surgeon won’t have any trouble fixing it up for you.”

  I felt the tug on my cheek again. It was my right cheek, so I tried to pull my right hand up to feel what he was talking about, but it was secured to the bed I was on. Instinctually, my left hand shot up to my face. Someone pushed my hand away.

  “Don’t touch. All you need is an infection,” she said. I opened my eyes slowly to look in the direction of the voice, and this time red shocks of colors around the woman’s form, shot through my eyes.

  “Oh, my eyes,” I winced.

  “I’ll get you something for the pain,” the kind voice of the doctor said, “just let me finish. Don’t move.”

  It seemed to take forever for the doctor to stitch up whatever was wrong with my face. My right hand explored what was keeping it bound. The metal around my wrist was a hand – cuff. And when I looked further into the room, I saw who’s they were. There was a cop, surrounded by murky browns, mixed with green. He was standing by the door. I was under police guard. This was so serious. Had I run over someone with the car? Did I kill another dog or something?

  “Done,” the doctor said. “I’ve made out a list of instructions for you on how to care for your wound. And the nurse will get you the pills I want you to have for pain.” That was it. He was done, and so he was gone, leaving me in the room alone with the nurse of horrible colors and the cop.

  “Am I under arrest?”

  “Oh, let’s just say that you are on your way to an adventure that will hopefully teach you a lesson,” the witch said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Drinking and driving is a crime. Sit up now. The officer is waiting for you.”

  Sit up? I was in a terrible car wreck. Surely I wasn’t in any condition to get up. And what did she mean? I wasn’t drinking and driving. I was so confused, and wished the doctor had stayed to explain.

  “Come on now, sit up.”

  To my surprise, I was able to sit up without any problem, but the colors around the nurse and the cop were too much.

  “My eyes,” I complained, but the nurse didn’t seem to care.

  “Your parents brought some of your things back for the officers, and it appears you leave now. Hopefully you learn your lesson. Too many people don’t learn their lesson and spend the rest of their precious time without choosing.”

  “Choosing? What are you talking about? Is my mother here?”

  No answers came. The cop unhooked me from the bed, but then hooked my hands together, behind my back.

  “Really? Are you kidding me? I want to talk to my mom. Where are my friends?”

  He picked up a suitcase, that I recognized to be my mother’s, and my purse, and guided me out of the emergency room cubicle. It was the walk of shame through so many people and their overwhelming colors. I bowed my head, to shield my eyes, but I’m sure the people took it as a sign of guilt.

  We passed through the waiting room, where I hoped to see my mother and my friends, but they weren’t there. Just more strangers and their God awful colors.

  “My eyes,” I whispered.

  A van from the Sherriff’s department was waiting for me outside. I assumed they were taking me to jail. It was a van used to transport criminals and prisoners.

  “I’m not really going through this again. Please, I wasn’t drinking. Ask my friends.”

  My mouth was so dry, but I was afraid to ask for anything, even the pills the doctor gave me. The pain in my eyes was moving to my head and it was turning into one of the worst migraines I had ever experienced.

  We drove for what felt like hours. From the back of the dark van it was hard to avert my eyes from the colors around the cops. They talked to each other as if I didn’t exist. Nobody cared what I went throug
h that night. My parents didn’t say good-bye, and my friends didn’t wait at the hospital for me. Was it because I ran off and left Rick and Claudia at the mercy of whatever was in the graveyard? Did it really attack Rick? Was I remembering it right?

  “Please, sir? Can you tell me if my friends are all right?”

  “You were alone in the car. You’re friends weren’t there.”

  Maybe they didn’t know what happened to me. No, I heard Claudia crying.

  I felt the van turn onto a gravel road that went for miles. There were no street lights and no houses anywhere, until they turned off again. Up a lane that must have been a mile long, was a huge farm, only parts of which were visible because of a yard light on and electrical pole. A porch light went on, as the officers got out of the van.

  My things were handed over to a guy, and a woman approached the van as they let me out. One of the cops took the handcuffs off while the other had the woman sign some papers. No explanation at all.

  “She’s all yours,” he said.

  I stood by the woman, while she watched the van pull away. She was wearing a bathrobe and slippers, and her colors were pink with swirls of yellow.

  “Follow me.”

  We walked into the very large farmhouse through the back door. I found myself in a dining room, standing in front of a table, where all of my things were spread out. Someone was rummaging through my things, but his colors were the strongest yet, so I couldn’t look at his face. It was the guy who took my bag in the house. He picked up my cell phone and opened it.

  “It’s broken. I mean, my friend broke it earlier today.”

  He tossed it back into the pile after trying to get it to work. Next he picked up the mp3 player and tossed it in the pile.

  “She’s clean,” he said. His voice struck my heart with its depths and richness, so I tried to look at his face.

  “Oh, my eyes. I was in an accident.”

  “Here’s her medication,” the male voice offered. His colors were bright white with shocks of gold.

  “My head.”

  The woman handed me a small cup with two pills in it and a glass of water. “I’m Miss Day,” she started. “And I’m the director of this ranch. This is Bobby. He works on the ranch. It’s very late, but unfortunately we have some paperwork for you to fill out. Have a seat please.”