“Then why didn’t you! Oh forget it, you’re all crazy. This place is crazy.” If I weren’t handling a horse, I might have slugged him and stormed off. How dare he say that he wanted to warn me? If he had something to warn me about it must have been bad. Bobby was no better than Clay if he didn’t try and protect us.
As I started to walk away with his horse, he took hold of her halter. “You asked me before what the difference between Clay and I was.”
“Oh please, enlighten me.”
“He doesn’t want you to leave this place.”
“Oh, and you do? What the Frick is it with this place and you people. Why do I keep getting the feeling I’ve entered the twilight zone or something. I can’t take this anymore. If you want to help me, then call my mother and tell her to come and get me.” When he didn’t say anything, I said, “That’s what I thought. Don’t break your neck getting to a phone asshole.”
“It’s my purpose to help you leave.”
“Bullshit!” I yelled. Lucy and I started to walk back to the pasture with the horse. When I opened the gate, I took the last word before he could say anything else. “I get the feeling I’m going to die here.”
I meant it. What kind of place allows young girls to get raped, and who the hell there cared that I was sick? After the encounter with Clay, I wasn’t just sick to my stomach. My head was splitting, and I felt so weak, it took everything in me to take a shower and crawl into my bed. It must have been the foul energy coming off of me that kept the rest of the girls away from me. Either way, I checked the sheets for surprises from my roommates. I jumped when my phone rang, thinking it was something in my bed.
“Claudia? Oh Claudia listen to…”
“Can you hear me?” she said two or three times, while I tried to get her to listen.
“Claud, please send help. I have to get out of here.”
“Wake up Sunny, please wake up.”
“I’m awake. I can hear you. Can you hear me?”
“What am I going to do without you…?”
The connection went dead of course. I was tempted to destroy the phone. What was worse? Hearing their voices and not being able to get through to them? Or not hearing anything from them at all? I put the phone under my pillow, and without even trying, I drifted off to sleep.
The scene from earlier played over in my nightmare. I was living it all over, only this time it was me Clay was attacking. I kept trying to scream, but nothing would come out of my mouth. All night he chased and attacked me, tormenting me and laughing that laugh. Then finally I was able to scream. My roommates shook me to wake me, and when I woke I was screaming bloody murder, my body was soaked from sweat, and I could barely breathe.
Miss Day came in the room with a shot. “This will make you feel better Sunny.”
“It’s only humane,” Vicky whispered to Missy.
“I don’t want it. No more shots and no more pills,” I ordered.
“The shot will help with the pain,” Miss Day said sweetly.
“What’s wrong with you people? Don’t you know that pain is a warning sign? Something’s wrong with me. I’m in pain. I’m sick.”
“The doctor left this for you Sunny. He wants you to have a shot or the pills as needed.”
“What doctor? I haven’t seen a doctor since my accident. I have stitches in my face that need to come out I’m sure, and I’m sick.”
“The doctor came last night and took your stitches out. LaKisha told me you were sick.”
“LaKisha? Is she all right?” I sat up, and an envelope addressed to me, fell to the floor.
“Clay left that for you,” Missy whispered. She had a real nervous look on her face as she picked the letter up and handed it to me.
Miss Day sat on the side of my bed and put her hand on mine. “LaKisha is fine, let’s worry about you. How do you expect to get through the day the way you’re feeling? The pain will eventually go away, but until it does, let me help you.”
Missy had tears in her eyes. A sympathetic sight that looked strange on her. I allowed Miss Day to give me the shot, while I reached up and felt the jagged scar on my face. Slowly the pain was dulled, and I felt a little stronger.
After Miss Day left the room, Missy said, “You slept with your sunglasses on.”
“Are you going to read the letter from Clay?” Vicky asked. “What are you going to do?”
“Since when do you two care what I do?”
“He’s so angry,” Missy whispered. “Things are going to get bad around here.”
“And they were a picnic before?” I asked. “What am I supposed to do?”
“There isn’t much time,” Vicky whispered.
Missy elbowed her and then shushed her. “Are you crazy?”
“I can’t take it anymore. You heard Miss Day. The pain is almost gone,” Vicky seemed to caution.
They had to be messing with my head. “You guys are a riot. What next? Naked pictures of me posted everywhere? Leave me alone.”
“Yeah well this isn’t just about you Sunny,” Vicky snapped. Missy pulled her by the hand out of the room, looking like lightening might strike at any moment. “Wake up Sunny,” she blurted, before Missy pulled her down the stairs.
Once again breakfast was left on the table for me. Since I lost my dinner before I went to bed, I was starving. Lucy appeared just in time to get the last bite and lick the plate. “Good girl,” I said as I got up and looked over the list of chores on the wall. My name had been removed from the horse barn and my new challenge would be helping Bobby with the pigs. “Great,” I said under my breath. “Just what I needed.”
It may have been a relief not to have to work with Clay, but I would have rather trimmed the pine trees again than work with Bobby, my ‘protector.’ Just out of curiosity, I checked to see where LaKisha was working. I wanted to know if she was really okay. Her name had been whitened off the list. “What?”
Outside I asked the first girl I ran into, “Where’s LaKisha?”
“She got to leave this morning.”
“Leave? Are you sure?”
“She was my roommate,” the girls said sadly. “Not the one that told on you guys.”
“But how? She said she didn’t know when she would finish her sentence.”
“I don’t…” Before she finished her sentence, she walked away from me quickly.
“Sunny!” Bobby yelled from his truck that had half a dozen girls in the back. “Let’s go.”
“Where’s LaKisha,” I demanded, as I stormed up to his truck.
“Get in the back with the rest of the girls,” he ordered, just as Clay stepped out of the horse barn. I did what I was told, and as we drove the lane off the ranch, Clay just stood there looking hurt. It was a sickening realization to know that the look on his face affected me. All I could do was look away, and focus on the girls around me. If LaKisha was right, they had been his victims too.
“So LaKisha has disappeared,” I said to the girls in the back of the truck with me. “I would call that strange.” They looked frightened. “I know, it’s against the rules, right? Whatever.”
Our task for that day was to clean off the feed floors and spread the manure over the fields close by. I would have loved to have been picked to drive the equipment, but a girl with experience got to drive the tractor attached to the spreader, and Bobby operated the one with the bucket. It was probably a good thing. All I wanted to do with the equipment was tare something down.
Along with Lucy and the other girls, our job was to keep the hogs in the pen while the equipment did its work. My Lucy was a natural. It was so disgusting that those hogs were standing knee deep in their own waste, and that we had to manage them while standing in the most foul smelling crap I had ever encountered. A couple of times I was so overwhelmed by the smell, I thought I might lose my breakfast.
Because of whatever condition I had, my body was easily tired. A couple of the girls led me over to the shade at one point, and gave me a large bottle of wa
ter to drink. Bobby checked on me constantly, from a distance. I would have had to have been blind not to notice. Missy came over and removed my rubber boots, and took them to a hydrant to wash them. The pig team of workers seemed to be more concerned about me, than the chores.
Leaning up against a tree in the yard, with a cool breeze blowing on my face, I didn’t notice him ride up. “Can we talk?” Clay said.
I jumped to my feet and before I could focus, Bobby and the girls were at my side.
“This is between Sunny and I,” he said sternly. “So just back away. I’m warning you.”
Bobby stepped in front of me. “We have work to do,” he said.
“And so do I have work to do,” Clay sneered. “Sunny? Come with me. We have to talk.”
The attachment he formed with me was unnatural and strong enough to make me step closer to him. My body felt numb as my spirit seemed to answer to his call. “Leave me alone Clay,” I managed. “We have nothing to talk about.”
“You heard her Clay,” Bobby said sharply, “so leave her alone.” I felt his arms wrap around me while the white in his colors made me realize how cold I had been.
“You just make sure no rules are broken. It’s only a matter of a very short time now. I can feel it. It’s clear she belongs here, if not with me.”
“What are you saying?” I shouted. “I don’t belong to anyone.”
Clay laughed, and I fell to my knees with pain. My head was crushing with pain. “Make it stop,” I cried. Clay road off quickly, while the others tried to attend me. “Please make the pain stop.”
“Is it too late?” one of the girls asked.
“Can you save her Bobby?” Vicky asked. “Please say it’s not too late.”
The next thing I knew I was being lifted by Bobby. He carried me to his truck and the girls climbed in the back. My body was laid out gently on some feed sacks, and my head was in Bobby’s lap. One of the girls must have been driving. His hand soothed my head as he stroked my hair, and one of his tears fell on my cheek.
“Can you feel it Sunny?” he asked.
“Feel what?”
“It’s all around us now,” he whispered. A couple of the girls started crying.
I could feel the wind pick up and it was getting darker. A dark chill ran up my spine, making me instantly terrified, but I didn’t know why. “A storm,” I whispered.
“Yes, a terrible storm Sunny. You have to fight it.”
“Bobby don’t,” Missy warned. “Don’t break the rules.”
“I can’t let this happen to her. I can’t.”
“What?” I asked weakly. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“She’s too weak. She’ll never make it out,” Vicky said. “We’ll all be punished.”
Lightning cracked through the sky so violently, it lit up the sky all around us making the girls scream.
“Let’s get her back to the house and get her a shot,” Bobby said, “It’s her only hope.”
“Oh my God, you people are freaking me out,” I whispered. “I really am crazy, aren’t I Bobby?”
“Just crazy difficult. Most people either figure things out right away, or fall right away. You’re a whole different animal Sunny. None of this adds up, does it? Think Sunny. Think about home and how you got here.”
“Where’s Lucy?” I asked. The lightening cracked again, sending pain throughout my whole body, from my eyes.
“She’s right here,” Bobby said, lifting me enough to see her.
“You can see her? Lucy girl, are you okay? Good girl.” I lay back again and looked back into Bobby’s eyes. He looked as if he were desperate for me to speak. Even Lucy seemed to be waiting. “What should I do? I don’t understand, am I dreaming?”
“That’s right,” Bobby whispered. The girls in the back of the truck gasped at his words. “Please think Sunny. You know the answer. What is responsible for everything that has happened?”
My thoughts flashed back as far as I could take them. No childhood to remember, just Mack and his illness, Mack killing himself and me striking the match. Lucy barked, making me hurt so bad, that I wanted to die. “I’m sorry Lucy. I didn’t mean to hurt you really I didn’t. But I did it. I burned down the house and I killed you.”
The wind picked up again, like it had in the cemetery. The same dark feeling sent panic through my shriveling body. “It’s after us,” I cried. “Don’t let it get us Bobby.”
“What’s after us?” he yelled over the storm. “Tell me.”
“Evil.” The moment I said the word, I understood. “It’s the same evil that tormented Mack I can feel it now all around me, like it was when it encouraged me to burn down the house. Oh my God. It was at the graveyard, and it tried to kill Rick. It wants me. Clay?”
“Yes Sunny, it’s all the same evil,” he sighed.
The girls sighed at the same time. “Will she make it?” one of them asked.
“I was in the hospital. My body, I couldn’t move and they were going to operate. My body is dying, isn’t it?”
The colors around Bobby grew stronger, forming wings so large and powerful they gave me hope. Before I could take it all in, we were back at the ranch house. He carried me in, past Miss Day, and put my body on the table in the dining room.
“She’s ready. She knows,” he told her. “She needs the shot.”
“It’s too late. I must go,” she replied. “You’ve broken the rules.”
“I’m here to protect her. Give me the shot.”
“Unfortunately, my involvement is over. Unless you leave with me, you will be cut off and on your own. The same goes for you girls.”
“I’ll give her the shot myself. She just needs a little more time.”
Miss Day disappeared. I mean like she was never there to start with. The girls began to cry. Five of the six disappeared the same way Miss Day had. The last one to stay was Missy, of all things strange.
“You’re gonna need this,” she said. Missy pulled my mp3 player out of her pocket and handed it to me. “He’s going to talk a lot.”
“Who?”
“Clay!” Bobby snapped. “Don’t listen to him. All he knows is lies but he will make you believe them.”
“I don’t want to see him. Please, don’t make me.”
“See him?” Missy asked. “You have to fight him. Please tell me you can do that Sunny. My spiritual butt depends on it.”
“Huh? Fight him? How?”
“From within, Sunny. Let him know that he’s a lie. Break all connections with him.”
“I’m so weak. I can’t fight him.”
“Your spirit is strong enough. You can do this Sunny. Don’t ever give up, and don’t listen to his lies. He’s coming. Now tell me what you want me to do.”
“Huh?”
“Tell him Sunny. You have to tell angels what to do.”
“Okay, take me home. Take me back to my body,” I whispered, barely strong enough to hold my head up.
“Do not be afraid,” Bobby commanded. “You have nothing to fear. I am an angel of the Lord, sent to protect you.”
There wasn’t time to question my sanity. I was going with this one, no matter how crazy it seemed. The evil was so real and it was getting closer and closer. I heard it call out to me like it had in my nightmares. It was Mack’s pain, and my downfall and it wanted me.
“Bring her to me,” the atmosphere around us called out with authority. “She’s mine now.”
I put the ear buds in my ears and turned on my music. They were our songs. Mack’s and mine, and I understood them more now that I knew the truth. I listened to myself sing Mack’s pain and his struggle. He tried to protect me, that’s why he wouldn’t let me dress a certain way, or swear, or … oh my God, he knew it would come after me. My sweet boy gave up, to try and save me. I realized that everything he was was a struggle between who he was and the evil that wanted to kill him.
If I fail, you might win
I’ll take the darkness
I�
�ll fight for you
These were his words, singing through my head, and it was my voice that gave them life. Every word he wrote made sense to me now.
“Are you ready Sunny? Just keep your mind focused on getting back.”
“I’m ready,” I answered, more determined than ever to fight. “This thing killed my friend.”
“No Sunny,” Missy pleaded, “no anger. You’ll feed him. Just know who you are, Bobby and I will do the fighting.”
I’m not going to lie. It was a relief to know that I wasn’t going to physically fight the bastard. How could I anyway. Bobby lifted me into his arm. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’ve been such a fool.”
“Yes you have,” he smiled. “Let’s go.”
Lucy barked like crazy while Bobby carried me out of the house. Clay stood there like a great pillar, one that couldn’t be moved. I buried my face in the warmth of Bobby’s neck. He kissed my head, sending light and love though my spirit, which gave me some strength.
“Looks like someone’s been playing around with the rules,” Clay laughed. That horrible laugh that had once reeled me in made me want to vomit.
“She’s going back,” Bobby said, standing in his own strength and conviction.
“It’s too late. Your body is dying as we speak. What’s that sound? Code blue? Oh listen Sunny, I can hear your mother crying.”
“It’s a lie,” I said as confidently as I was able. Clay took a step back, alerting me to a possible power I might have. The truth. “I’m going back and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“You fell in love with me. You’re damaged now. I felt your spirit asking for my body. It’s too late my love. You let me touch you, the way you let him. You fed me with your own lust and I have to say, it made me strong.” He took a step forward. “Did you honestly think that I would fall for an ugly little girl like you? It was a joke how the little bits and pieces of you throbbed for me to touch and pinch you.”
Shame shot through my heart. I wasn’t worthy to go on.
“Don’t listen to him”, Bobby snapped. “Just because you were seduced, doesn’t mean a thing. You didn’t give him permission for this Sunny. He can’t take you while you’re still alive, if he doesn’t have your permission.”
Dead, Sweet Boy (Book One - Dead, Sweet Series) Page 23