Brighter, a supernatural thriller

by V. J. Chambers

  "I couldn't." Mason stopped, searching for words. "I was frightened of the way I felt about you. At how much I cared. I needed to break it off. I thought that if I just moved on, it would all go away. If I wasn't dating you, I'd stop caring about you. But it just didn't work. I couldn't stop thinking about you. I was sloppy with Angelica, because I was so excited to be your neighbor, to be close to you."

  "Wait," said Ramona. "That was you. When I saw Angelica, after she died, and she was so nice? That was you."

  "Yes."

  "You killed Angelica?" asked Heather.

  "Yes," said Mason.

  "But she was...so badly mutilated," said Ramona. "You were so...brutal."

  "I think the term monster was already used tonight," said Mason. "It's fairly appropriate. I'm not human, Ramona. I feel these emotions, but I don't really have the same moral makeup as a person does. I have done so many things...things that you would think are unforgivable. Things that would horrify you. When I was Ben, I fell in love with you. And I still love you, but I can't ever be with you. I'm not really part of the world you live in."

  Mason was Ben. Her Ben. The boy she'd fallen so deeply in love with. The boy who had hurt her so badly. And he was sitting right across from her. She felt repulsed by him, but she also just wanted to run to him and throw herself into his arms. And he was asking her to kill him. Just when she'd found out she hadn't lost him after all? Ramona didn't know if she could quite handle this. "Mason," she said. "Can you come smoke a cigarette with me on the porch?"

  She tried to tell Heather with her eyes that she needed to talk to Mason alone.

  "Okay," said Mason, looking a little confused.

  They both stood up and walked through her bathroom to the back porch. Once outside, Ramona looked at Mason, who was standing so close to her. It was odd, wasn't it, that she'd had a crush on him for so long and didn't know why she liked him so much? It was odd, that all along, she'd somehow known that there was something between them. She couldn't help herself. She grabbed him and kissed him.

  Kissing Mason was not like kissing Ben. Ben had been taller than Mason, had been built differently. And his lips had been fuller. But the way that Mason kissed was the same as the way Ben had kissed. He moved his tongue the same way. He put his hands in the same place, cupping her face with his palms. Ramona wanted to do nothing except kiss Mason forever. But he pulled away.

  "This can't happen," he said.

  "How can you ask me to kill you?" Ramona demanded.

  "You know we could never really be together," said Mason. "You know that, right?"

  Ramona guessed she did. But it didn't seem fair. First she'd lost Ben, then she'd lost Garrett, and now she'd found Ben again and was going to lose him again. But she knew that she didn't want to be with someone who couldn't grow old with her. And Mason was right. He had murdered people. Angelica, the real Mason, Rick. And those were just the ones she knew about. There had been hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that Mason had killed in order to assume their identity, and she'd never be able to look past that. But right now, she didn't really think she cared. Right now, she just wanted him. "Couldn't we just..."

  "No," said Mason. "Being with you like this destroys my resolve. I want you, and I can't want anything anymore. I don't deserve anything. I only play at being a person. I'm not really one. I can't have what people have."

  But he reached for her again, and his mouth was on hers again. They were holding each other as tightly as they possibly could. He crushed her against him, violently explored her mouth with his tongue. Ramona moaned. Mason pushed her away. "We have to go back in."

  They hadn't even smoked a cigarette, but Mason was already opening the door and going back into the apartment. Ramona followed him. Heather shot her a questioning look. Ramona would fill her in later.

  Heather was holding the book she'd found the information in about the ritual. "So," she said, "I guess I trust you. I guess you can see the ritual." She held out the book.

  Mason took it and began to read. After a few moments, he looked up, nodding. "I think this will work. And I will help you in whatever way I can, but I can't help you perform this ritual. You two will have to do it the best that you can."

  "Is there any way that we could just move away?" asked Ramona. "Like, not bother with this ritual, or what if it doesn't work? Doesn't anybody actually leave here?"

  Mason shrugged. "I guess some people do. But most of the people that 'move away' from Elston are already dead. I guess you figured that out."

  "So you don't think it's possible?" asked Ramona.

  "It's possible," said Mason. "But I don't know if you'd be able to do it. Blair and the others aren't going to give up. They want to kill you both. You just might not have enough time to get that all together and then to fight off the power of the vortex. I don't think it's really an option anymore."

  "And what if this ritual doesn't work?" Ramona asked. "Then what?"

  "It will work," said Mason. "Like Blair said, the magic is flimsy."

  "And without the power of the vortex," said Heather, "all of them, of you, will die?"

  "Yeah," said Mason. "And the spirits trapped there will be free."

  "Well, when are we going to do this thing?" asked Ramona.

  "The sooner the better," said Mason. "How soon do you think you can do it?"

  "We need supplies," said Heather. "I could get them at Freeburg, probably tomorrow."

  "You should do the ritual at midnight," said Mason. "It's a between time. All magical ties are weaker in between times."

  "Well, probably tomorrow at midnight, we could do it," said Heather.

  "I can't take another day off work," said Ramona. "Can't we do it Friday night?"

  "Is it okay to put it off another day?" asked Heather of Mason. "It would be better, really. In case I can't find the supplies I need tomorrow. I'd have another day to search somewhere else."

  "Friday is okay," said Mason.

  "It is safe for me to go to work, right?" said Ramona.

  "Don't go to the library," said Mason.

  "Of course not," said Ramona. "I wouldn't do that."

  "And what will you do?" asked Heather. "About this ritual?"

  "I'll try to keep the rest of them off your trail. I'll try to keep them busy. I'll try to keep you two safe," said Mason.

  Ramona laughed. "I still keep thinking this is a really weird dream, and I'm just going to wake up. If you would have told me a few months ago that I'd be planning to do a ritual to break the power of the vortex so that we could kill the body snatching monsters in town, I would have...well, I wouldn't have believed it, anyway."

  "If you would have told me that my husband..." Heather didn't continue. "I know what you mean, Ramona. This is pretty insane. I don't know how we're all holding it together."

  "Be careful," Mason said. He took Ramona's hand and squeezed it. "Please be careful."

  She nodded. "Yeah. You too."

  Chapter Nineteen

  "I'm looking for chicory and angelica," said Heather to the woman behind the counter at the herb shop in Freeburg. It had been a long morning. She'd gotten stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way here, because of a pretty bad accident on Route 45. She'd been sitting at a standstill in traffic for about half an hour. It was lucky she'd left early to try to get these herbs, because otherwise, she would have been late for work. Heather had given the store a quick glance-through, but she hadn't seen what she was looking for. She figured it was just easier to ask the woman behind the counter.

  The cashier was an elderly plump woman. She had glasses perched on the end of her nose, and, until Heather had spoken to her, had been reading a fat mystery paperback. She gave Heather a look that seemed to say, "You want me to get up and help you find things? You want me to work?"

  "I looked around, but I didn't see either of them," said Heather, trying to explain why she was asking for help. "I just wondered if you could tell me if you carried them and where they were."


  The woman shrugged. "Well, if you couldn't find them, there's a good chance we don't have them."

  Heather was exasperated. Could that book honestly be that good? Was it too much to ask the woman to get off her ass and look for the herbs? "Well, is there some place you could check? Maybe inventory sheets or in your computer or something?"

  The woman looked at the computer. "I'm not really good with the computer," she said. "I can ring things up, but that's about it. When Jackie comes in a few hours, she might be able to do that, but I don't know how."

  Old people! Heather couldn’t believe how stupid they were about technology. It was like they were afraid of it or something. "I can't come back in a few hours," said Heather. "You don't know what's sold in this store? And you have no way of finding out? And you won't help me look?"

  "Those herbs are very peculiar. I'm not familiar with them, so we might not have them."

  "I'm calling your manager," Heather snarled. Then she spent twenty minutes searching through the store again, more meticulously. She didn't find any chicory or angelica. She didn't know if she actually was going to call the woman's manager, but Heather was sick of people giving her crappy service. If she had a person working for her at the restaurant who acted like that, she would fire that person fast. People needed to treat customers a certain way, and not helping them, or refusing to get up was not one of those ways.

  On the other hand, Heather reflected, she sounded like one of those customers she hated, getting angry and threatening to call supervisors. However, she was right to say what she had. The woman was incompetent.

  Still angry, Heather dragged herself to work, knowing that she hadn't actually made any progress. She hadn't gotten the herbs they needed for the ritual, and that was the only herb shop that Heather knew of in existence. She had no idea where they were going to get the herbs now. She snapped at her hostess on the way in, because the hostess was wearing a nose ring, which was against the dress code. "Take it out or put a band aid on it," she said.

  Throughout the day, people kept commenting on her mood. Heather couldn't help it. She was panicking more and more as the day wore on. She had hoped that after a little time had passed, she would think of some way to fix the fact she hadn't found the herbs. But she had nothing. She had no idea how to fix what she'd failed to do. There were no other herb shops in Freeburg. There was a store called The Herb Shop in Elston, but they sold cards and knickknacks, not actual herbs. She thought about just trying to go to Wal-mart and seeing if they had anything in their gardening section. You could never be sure about Wal-mart. Of course, that wouldn't work, because she'd have to dry the herbs herself, and they didn't have time for that. Plus, by the time she got off work, the gardening section would be closed. And beyond that tragically flawed idea, Heather hadn't had any.

  After midnight, Heather told Regina to close the bar early. It was a weeknight, and there weren't very many people hanging out anyway.

  "Sure," said Regina. "Hey, are you all right? You've seemed tense to me all day. Didn't I tell you living in Elston was a bad idea?"

  Heather laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. I'm just frustrated, because I was trying to buy something I needed, but I can't find it anywhere."

  "What were you trying to buy?"

  "Just some herbs."

  "Herbs? I have an herb garden. I dry them myself. What were you looking for?"

  "Um, chicory and angelica."

  "Not a problem," said Regina. "Would you believe, I have some in my car?"

  "Really?" Divine providence? Regina to the rescue? Whatever it was, Heather was grateful. She couldn't believe that she'd been lucky enough to talk to Regina. It was one problem solved.

  Thinking about it, though, she wondered why she hadn't asked Regina in the first place. Regina was a Wiccan after all, and she probably used herbs like this far for often than Heather would. She should have just gone straight to Regina. It would have saved her a lot of headaches, and it would have saved her staff her yelling at them all day. She hoped that they would forgive her. Anyway, it didn't matter. She didn't think she'd be working here for much longer. Regardless of how this ritual went, she and Ramona were moving away.

  "Angelica and chicory, huh?" said Regina. "That's a combination all right. You sure you know what you're doing?"

  Heather nodded. But she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure at all.

  * * *

  Ramona was getting coffee on her lunch break at The Grind. She didn't generally drink coffee midday. After all, she'd had a large Icy Chalice that morning. But she felt sluggish and tired at work. She'd finally given up on the brochure project, and had tried to go to Maxine that morning and explain to her that there was nothing she could find out about Elston that she hadn't found out before. This truly was the most unhistorical historical town, ever. Nothing had ever happened here. Knowing what Ramona now knew about the vortex, she actually thought that made sense. But she couldn't tell Maxine about the vortex, and they certainly couldn't put that in the brochure. Maxine had taken the news fairly well, but Ramona could tell she wasn't entirely happy about it. Still, she thanked Ramona for the work she'd done, and said she appreciated that this had been a pretty tough assignment.

  Maxine asked Ramona when Ramona was planning on leaving. Maxine had already advertised Ramona's position, and had actually conducted a couple of interviews. This made Ramona nervous, because she hadn't heard back on any of the résumés she'd sent out. Ramona was actually frightened that the vortex had gotten them lost in the mail or something. She didn't know whether it would be the right thing to call any of the places and see if they'd gotten the resume. Maxine told her to definitely do it. "When I hire people, I'm usually so busy. Someone calling and inquiring about the job never bothers me. It just makes me think that the person must really want the job. It's always a positive thing. Definitely follow up."

  But Ramona didn't know when she was going to have time to do that. She worked during the same hours as every admissions office was open. She didn't want to call during work. That seemed too public. She didn't want everyone else in the office listening to her talk to people about getting another job. It just seemed sort of tacky. But she couldn't call after work, because they'd be closed. She guessed she could and just leave a message. Of course, what she really should do is just call right now, during her lunch break. But when it came right down to it, Ramona felt nervous. She was making all kinds of excuses for why she shouldn't do it. Like buying coffee.

  She sipped at her drink, smoking a cigarette, and trying to gather the courage to just dial some numbers on her damned cell phone. She actually got the phone out and stared at it. Took deep breaths. Tried to muster her courage.

  "Ramona," said someone.

  Ramona's head snapped up. Garrett was standing right next to her. If it were possible, her heart started beating even faster. What with the influx of caffeine, her nervousness over calling, and the sight of Garrett, Ramona thought she just might have a heart attack. "What do you want?" Ramona asked. She wondered if she should just get up and run. She looked anxiously around her. There were cars lining the street. People walking to shops on Main Street. Even a few people sitting at the tables outside The Grind. She was probably safe. They couldn't all be monsters. Could they? She wished she'd asked Mason how many of them there actually were.

  Garrett sat down at the table with her. "Ramona, we wonder if maybe we jumped to some conclusions," he said.

  "Maybe you did," she said. "Who cares, now? Seriously. I want out of town more than anything on earth right at this moment."

  "I bet you do," said Garrett. "Unfortunately, I just don't know if that's going to happen."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well, we jumped to conclusions, but we scared the hell out of you, and we think that we may have tipped our hand a bit. By worrying about things that we thought you knew, we actually told you those things. The way we acted gave you more information than you had before."

  "Why are you talking to me, Garrett?
If you need a rationalization for killing me, maybe it's because there's just a little too much of all the people you've killed rolling around in your head. Feeling guilty, are you?"

  "Nothing of the sort," he said. "I just thought you should understand why we have to do what we're doing."

  "Are you going to do it to me right here, right now? In front of everyone?"

  "Of course not," said Garrett. "But when you go back up to your apartment, I'm going to follow you, and we'll just see if you can get there faster than me." He grinned.

  "I'm not going back to my apartment," said Ramona. "I'm going back to work."

  "Sure you are," said Garrett.

  "Are you going to follow me to work?"

  "What would be the point of that? You'd be around all those admissions people."

  "Okay, well, good then," Ramona said. She was shaking. She took a sip of her coffee and a little spilled onto her hand. She wished with all her might that Garrett would just go away. She wished that Heather wasn't working late at Applebee's. She wasn't going to be home until late, and that meant Ramona was going to be all alone in the apartment for hours. It wasn't that she thought Heather could save her or anything, but she would just feel better with someone else around. She wondered if, after work, she should just go to Mason's house. No. That was a bad idea. Because Mason was going to try to get the monsters off their trail. They couldn't hang out together.

  Ramona looked back down at the phone in her hands. Maybe she could call the police. Say that Garrett had threatened her. Would they actually arrest him? She kind of doubted it. It was her word against his. Besides, throwing Garrett in jail wouldn't really solve much of anything. There were other monsters out there trying to get her. Well, she had planned to go upstairs to her apartment to each lunch, but she wasn't going to now. She'd just have to starve. But she wasn't leaving The Grind.

  The phone in Ramona's hand rang. She jumped, but picked it up. She didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" she said timidly. Garrett was still sitting next to her. She turned away from him.