What Lies Beneath

by Denney, Richard

  “Thanks for being kind about it. And I’m fine,” I explained, fixing my seat belt so I didn’t look so tense. I turned back to him and smiled.

  “You promise?” the words set off something in me and all of a sudden I wasn’t staring at Tate anymore. I was staring at Dylan.

  The boat was uneasy and my stomach wasn’t agreeing with it. I should have just asked Dylan to take me home. I didn’t feel like having a picnic on a boat at night and he had scared me with all the talk about dying with him. Just thinking about it sent chills down my spine as I watched him untie the rope from a wooden spike and toss it into the boat.

  In the middle of the boat was a wicker basket full of stuff he packed and I could smell the chili pepper sandwiches his mom loved to make. He sat down and stared me, fixing me with a loving gaze.

  I didn’t feel right being there with him but I didn’t want to challenge him at the moment. He rowed the boat away from the shore and didn’t say a word to me for a good ten minutes. He stopped us in the center of the lake, and I could feel the cold water from beneath my feet.

  “You’re never going to agree with what I asked you before, are you?” his voice made me jump, the soothing, silky voice that I loved now sounded dark and unnatural.

  “I don’t want to talk about this right now-”

  “We are going to talk about it! Do you love me or not?”

  “Yes, I love you-”

  “Then why won’t you do this for me?”

  “Dylan, are you out of your fucking mind?” I yelled. I had never yelled at him before and I wanted to crinkle up and float away with the way he looked at me, seething with hatred instead of love.

  “No. I am not but you are just like the rest of them. You don’t really love me, Blair. If you did then you’d do this for me.”

  “That’s not fair, Dylan. I love you, I love you so much. But you are asking me to do something awful. I will not kill myself for you. Do you understand? Take me back to shore and drive me home.” I looked around to see if there were any boats around us, and in the distance I saw headlights coming through the trees.

  “I’m sorry, Blair.” I could hear the creaking of the wood as the weight shifted on the boat. I turned to say something to Dylan, but before I could utter a word, he snatched me by my hair and yanked me upward. The boat rocked back and forth severely and I couldn’t see his face.

  I screamed as loud as I could and tried to pull my hair out of his grip. What was he doing to me? I told him to stop, screamed as loud as my vocal chords could handle. But he punched me in the stomach and I fell overboard and into the freezing black water.

  My eyelids fluttered and I was now staring at Tate again, and he was staring at me, worried as anyone could look. It was another vision and this one caused goose bumps to grow all over my body.

  “Maybe I should take you back home,” he said.

  “No. it’s okay. I need to get out of that house and I’m sorry I keep flipping out around you. It’s not like me really. Let’s just go to the cemetery and act like this never happened.” I turned back to the road and swallowed hard.

  Why did Dylan want me to kill myself? Nothing was making any sense and it was bugging me more than anything. He was accusing me of not loving him enough and he tried to kill me for not wanting to die for him. I didn’t understand, but I knew of one person who could maybe help me. Pearl.

  “Okay, as long as you promise that you are okay.” I turned back to him and put on the fakest smile I’d ever used.

  “I promise.”

  The cemetery was dreary and cold as we passed through the rotted iron gates, two stone guardian angels glaring down upon us as Tate held the ghost box in his hand. It looked like a handheld radio turned inside out. It was odd and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen.

  Just for now I had to get everything off of my mind and tomorrow I’d find a way to get to Pearl and make her help me this time around. I was seeing these dead girls, getting scary gifts, having visions of the night Dylan tried to kill me, and my best friend was nowhere to be seen.

  She had to help me now. I was glad that I now knew what Dylan wanted from me, but I still didn’t know why he wanted me to do it.

  We walked down the cemetery trail, the scent of rain getting stronger. We didn’t have much time and we’d be soaked soon. I watched Tate mess with the dial on the radio, tuning it to different stations of annoying white noise. He seemed very focused on the ghost box, his eyes set on only that until we came upon a tomb.

  I stopped in front of it, taking in the crumbling stone and the strange gargoyles that sat on top of the four gray pillars, their deep set eyes staring down at me. For a moment I swore they were about to take flight and shoot down at us for disturbing their peace.

  “Is there someone here?” Tate’s voice startled me as I turned to him. For a long while I waited for a voice to appear in the white noise. But there was nothing. He tuned it again and waited, digging the heels of his shoes into the loose dirt.

  “Maybe they are all resting,” I joked. He laughed and turned the dial all the way to the left, the white noise growing louder by the second. Something was messing with it now as the soft sound of music came through the noise. You belong to me… I took a giant step backward and gripped a pillar with one hand, trying to steady myself. Why couldn’t this all just leave me alone for a while?

  “Are you okay?” Tate asked, coming toward me, the music increasing in volume as he stopped directly in front of me.

  “No. That was mine and Dylan’s song.” I gritted my teeth, my heart rising into my throat. He speedily turned the dial, cutting off the music. “I don’t think this was a good idea after all.” Behind him, standing near a tall headstone was the girl from the road. She was staring at me with such intensity that I felt as if my brain were about to burst. I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them, exhaling. She was gone.

  “I’m sorry, Blair. I thought this would get your mind off of everything. Come on, I’ll take you home before it starts pouring. We’ll do this again another time when you feel better.” He turned off the ghost box and I could tell he felt bad for bringing me out here. But it wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t even my fault. It was all of this crap.

  I told him it wasn’t his fault and that we’d do this again sometime. But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be for a long while. I followed him back to the car, still shuddering with fear.

  I had to face that none of this was ever going to go away unless I listened to Caroline. There was something I had to figure out and hopefully with Pearl’s help, I’d at least get one step closer to grasping the truth.

  “Blair, I know this might seem worse but would you like to go with me to the Halloween carnival tomorrow night?” Nearly the entire town turned up for that. Everyone would be there, everyone would see me. It would be too crowded for all of this to mess with me, wouldn’t it?

  I didn’t know how I felt about being around people from school and having people stare at me… but something was telling me that this would make me feel a little better.

  “Sure, I’d like that very much.”

  10

  My mom had her arms crossed as she watched me apply a little bit of makeup. Her eyes were narrowed and I could see in the mirror that she wasn’t okay with this, with me leaving for the night. My dad seemed exhausted when I asked him about the carnival, but he ended up saying yes.

  My mom on the other hand wasn’t okay with it and didn’t want me to take one step through the front door. She said something bad was going to happen and it didn’t make me feel any better about leaving. I even considered telling Tate that I couldn’t go when he dropped me off yesterday.

  I looked at myself in the mirror. I fixed my hair with hair wax, combing it down and styling like the men did in the 20s. I gave myself red velvet cake lips and the smoky burgundy eyes to match my wine-red cardigan.

  I rolled up the sleeves to my elbows, fit myself into my black leggings and had my mom hem up the charcoal colo
red pencil skirt she had worn when she was younger. I looked more 50s than 20s but dressing up for the carnival was mandatory.

  “You look beautiful, Blair. But I still don’t think you should be going anywhere tonight,” my mom said as she fixed a heart shaped silver locket around my neck. It was my grandma’s.

  “I know, but I think this will be good for me. It will give me a chance to be around people again and I’ll be with Tate, mom. He’ll make sure nothing happens to me,” I tried to calm her nerves. “I will be fine.” She looked down at me in the mirror and smiled.

  “I hope so.” she let the locket fall against my breast bone and walked out of my room, closing the door behind her. I smiled down at the locket and looked back into the mirror. Caroline was standing directly behind me.

  “You are taking a risk going out tonight, Blair. He will be there waiting for you. Have you figured it out yet?” her voice pricked at my ears like an annoying fly. I turned in my desk chair and looked up at her. She was so close to me, I could feel the cold radiating off of her.

  “Figured what out? I can’t keep living like a hermit. And what do you and that other girl want from me? I don’t know you and I don’t see what I can do for you,” I explained as low as I could. I didn’t want my mom coming back into my room, thinking was I talking to myself. Caroline shook her head at me.

  “Dylan. What he wanted from you.” Caroline’s eyebrows furrowed.

  “How do you know about him?” I asked. There was no way she knew him, she died too long ago.

  “Figure it out and stop him. That is all we want from you.”

  “We? You mean you and that girl I saw yesterday?” I stared at her face, almost gleaming in my bedroom light.

  “All of us,” she said and evaporated into thin air.

  Tate was checking himself in the rearview mirror as we sat, parked in the town mall lot. People walked by, not even noticing me. Maybe this would go well after all. A blonde girl rushed by, dressed like a horror movie victim. She reminded me of Caroline.

  What had she meant by all of us? How many of them were there? Figure it out and stop him. Figure what out? That he wanted me to die for him? But why did he want me to die. Nothing was making any sense and I couldn’t control the visions from that night. They came so unexpectedly.

  “Are you sure you are okay with this?” Tate’s voice extracted me from my thoughts. I turned to him, smiling. He was dressed like a deranged doctor, fake blood splattered all over his blue gown. I was glad my mom didn’t see his entire outfit.

  “I’m excited,” I said as I got out of the car and breathed in the cold night air. The moon was high in the sky, shining down upon our little town. I had to make tonight fun.

  I noticed a guy with a blue flannel jacket and my heart came to life. I rushed forward, but was stopped by a perky dark skinned girl who ran into his arms. I thought that it was Max. I still hadn’t heard from him and I wasn’t taking it well at all.

  “I want one thing from you tonight,” Tate said as he stopped beside me and fixed his cap. “I don’t like Ferris wheels, so can we please not go on it.” I laughed and looked up at the red ride, bright yellow lights blinking.

  “Dylan didn’t like it either,” I said and quickly caught myself. “I’m sorry, I was just remembering something.” I licked my dry lips and looked around, trying to avoid Tate’s eyes.

  “It’s alright, Blair.” He grabbed me by my hand and pulled me along with him to the ticket booth.

  Staring eyes pierced through me as Tate and I waited for our cotton candy. I could hear whispering and the faint shutter of cell phone cameras. What was I a damn celebrity now? I ignored them the best that I could as I grabbed my candy from Tate and we proceeded to the stage area where the live band was playing.

  They looked as if they had been shipped directly from the French quarter of New Orleans, fixed with trumpets and saxophones and Mardi gras colored vests. We weren’t far from Louisiana so it wouldn’t surprise me if they did come from there.

  “Any requests tonight folks?” a chubby dark man sang into the microphone. A guy ran up to the stage, his face obscured by a black hooded sweater. The man leaned down and spoke to the guy, nodding his head a few times before he stood up and stared out at the large crowd that formed around the stage. “It seems we have a request ladies and gentlemen.” He turned away from the crowd and conversed with his band.

  “This is fun,” I said to Tate.

  “I’m glad you are having fun. What time did your parents say you had to be home?” Tate asked after he shoved a wad of blue cotton candy into his mouth.

  “Eleven,” I replied.

  “Then we better get to all we want to do before we have to leave,” he said as the band started up again. We were walking away from the stage when the man started singing. No. not here, I said to myself. It was the song, our song. That guy, the one who went up to the stage, he requested it. I broke away from Tate and tossed my cotton candy in a trash can.

  “I have to go to the restroom, where will you be?” I said.

  “At the palm reading tent,” he said and before he could say another word, I sped away from him and pushed my way through the crowd of people in front of the stage. I looked forward as the music pummeled my ears and standing directly at the end of the crowd, was the guy in the hooded sweater. He had a blacked out mask on and was staring straight ahead at me. My mom and Caroline had been right. I should have just stayed home.

  A large man obstructed my view of the guy and I forced him aside and ran the rest of the way to the end. But he was gone. Frustrated I kicked a trash can and searched around me with my eyes. He had disappeared and I’d probably never see him again.

  I was nearing the palm reading tent when Tate hurried out through the entrance, smiling at me. I wasn’t going to tell him about the guy in the sweater. He’d want to go looking for him and I didn’t want Tate involved.

  “Are you alright? That band was playing that song. If you want to go home Blair, I understand.”

  “No. I’m fine. That song has been everywhere lately. Like a giant reminder of Dylan. It’s just a song, it’s not like I can make it go away. I’ll be okay,” I explained to Tate.

  “Alright then, what do you want to do?”

  “Something Dylan hated,” I replied.

  “Not the Ferris wheel right?”

  “The Swing Chair.”

  The swing chair was thing giant ride full of swings and it would spin at a rapid pace, making someone dizzy as hell. Dylan hated that ride and I think Tate didn’t like it much either because afterward he rushed to the restroom.

  After he endured that, we took on the bumper cars. Tate liked that ride and even grew an audience with Kimberly Von and her friends.

  Kim graduated in my class and though she wasn’t a very nice person to anyone but her friends, she was kind to me sometimes, which I found weird. But it might have been because we both moved to Hanson around the same time and she probably thought we were linked somehow.

  We exited the bumper cars, laughing, but our laughter was cut short by the appearance of Kimberly. She smiled at me with her picture perfect face, her golden blonde hair in loose curls and her cat-like eyes set on mine.

  “Blair, I’m sorry about what happened,” she said in her fake southern accent. She was from New Jersey and took on a southern accent a little quick when she moved here.

  “I’m better, thanks.” She moved her eyes from mine to Tate’s, but he didn’t look interested. I was about to break the silence when I saw the guy in the hooded sweater hurry past Kimberly’s friends. My heart jumped into my throat and I turned to Tate.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said to him. “It was nice seeing you, Kimberly.” I smiled at her once again and took off. I turned back to see Kimberly practically all over Tate. I felt bad for him but I had to find out who was behind that song request.

  I stopped in the middle of the carnival, surveying the area with wide eyes. Mostly everyone was in costume, but only som
e were wearing all black. Just when I thought I lost him again, there he was, heading into the hall of mirrors.

  I cut my way through the line, but no one said a word. They all probably noticed who I was since my face was practically in the newspaper for a whole month. I made it into the black tent, purple light shining down on me as I moved through people and followed the guy.

  He didn’t seem to notice me as he went through a vacant hall. I was on his ass quicker than possible with all of the mirrors, grinning at me with my own nervous reflection.

  “Dylan!” I finally yelled. The guy stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to me and seemed terrified. “Stay right there.” I ran toward him with my might and jumped on top of him. He landed with a thud and I turned him over on his back.