She hurries down the hall before any of her teaches can see her, clutching her books close to her chest. ‘Simon has to be there, he’s always there.’ she thinks to herself.
She stands in front of the door and puts her ear close. She hears the rustling of papers on the other side. She looks at the foot of the door. Light creeps from under the bottom and dimly illuminates the toes of her shoes.
She knocks lightly on the door and waits. The faint sound of rustling papers continues. She knocks slightly harder. Still no answer.
Kate balls her hand into a fist and begins to pound on the door.
‘Simon?’ she says. The door knob begins to turn. Simon peeks out through the opening of the door. He looks at Kate perplexed, ‘Yea?’
Kate holds up the folder he gave her, ‘I need your help with something. Are you busy?’
Simon looks back into the room, and then looks at Kate, ‘Give me a minute. I have to put some stuff away.’ Kate cracks a smile at Simon, ‘Ok, take your time.’
Simon quickly closes the door. Kate looks down the hall, hoping no teachers or authority figures approach her and ask what she is doing out of class.
Kate waits for Simon. “I hope he didn’t take the whole “take your time” thing literally.’ she thinks to herself.
Simon cracks the door again, ‘So, what do you want? If it’s more pictures, I don’t have anymore.’ Kate flips through the folder and finds the picture of Jessica and Rachael showing off their homecoming dresses, ‘I was wondering if you have some kind of microscope to see pictures more closely?’
Simon opens the door further, ‘I do. Well, in photography jargon it’s not called a microscope. We call it a magnifier.’
‘Ok,’ Kate says, ‘Can I uses your magnifier? It will only take me 10 minutes.’ Simon unenthusiastically opens the door for Kate. Kate hastily walks into the room, closing the door and leaning against it.
She looks up and sees a long line of strings hanging from the ceiling. Hundreds of photos are clipped to the strings, swaying back and forth from the wind blowing from the air ducts. A table under the strings is cluttered with photos and folders. At the end, a neatly stack of folders sit next to a filing cabinet.
Simon reaches for the picture in Kate’s hand, ‘So, what are you looking for?’
Kate hands Simon the picture. Simon walks to a large, steel machine. He flicks a switch on the side and a bright light flashes three times before lighting up. He puts the picture under the light and looks through the lens on top of the machine. Kate walks over to the machine and looks over Simon’s shoulder, ‘I’m just wanted to see the picture closer.’
Simon backs away from the machine, ‘Well, go ahead.’
Kate looks through the lens. ‘She turns to Simon, ‘The picture is blurry. Is there some way you could make it focus?’ Simon begins turning a knob on the side of the machine, ‘Tell me when it’s in focus.’
Kate watches as the image slowly comes into focus. ‘Stop!’ she yells. Simon watches Kate move the picture around. She squeezes her lips together and strains her eyes looking through the lens.
‘You see what you’re looking for?’ Simon asks. Kate continues to move the picture around, ‘No, not yet. Is there any way you can zoom in?’ Simon pushes a small button with a plus symbol next to the knob, ‘Better?’
Kate slightly nods her head, ‘Yea, a little. Can you zoom it in a little more?’ Simon tries to move Kate from the lens, ‘If you tell me what you’re looking for, I can probably help you?’ Kate pushes back, ‘No, I got it.’
Simon pushes her a little harder, ‘Look, it will be quicker if you just tell me. I use this thing every day so I know how to use it.’ Kate pushes Simon back, ‘I know where I saw what I’m looking for so…’
Simon crosses his arms, ‘Well if you haven’t found it by now, they you obviously don’t know how to use the machine.’ He reaches under her wrist and tries to take the Photo, ‘Just let me have a look at it.’
Kate snatches the photo away from him, ‘Would you let me do this! Stop bothering me!’ Simon walks over to the wall, grabs the cord connected to the machine and pulls it from the socket. ‘Look, I don’t have all day to play around with you. Either you tell me what you’re looking for or go find someone else to help you.’
Kate furiously pounds the side of the machine with her fist. She stomps over to Simon and grabs the cord.
‘Plug it back in!’ she yells.
Simon yanks the cord from her hand, “Not until you tell me what you’re looking for.’
Kate grabs the photo from the machine. She shoves it in Simon’s face, ‘I’m looking for a round light! Do you see a round light anywhere?!’
Simon tries to push Kate’s hand from his face. She grabs his collar and rubs the photo in his face, ‘Do you see it?! You want to help me right Mr. Know-it-all?! Tell me where a light is!’
Simon rips the photo from her hands. He carefully examines the photo. ‘Where did you see the light?’ he asks Kate calmly. Kate snatches the photo back, ‘It was somewhere in the woods behind them. Now plug the machine back in!’
Simon raises his head. His eyes widened with shock, ‘Did you say a light in the woods?’ ‘Yes!’ Kate snaps, ‘Now plug the machine back in!’
Simon reaches down and puts the plug in the socket. He walks over to the machine and switches it back on. ‘It’s all yours’ he says evenly. Kate throws the photo back under the light. She begins turning the knobs and pushing the zoom buttons.
Simon walks over to the table full of photos. He begins to rummage through the unorganized stack, periodically picking a few up at a time before returning them back to the table. He quickly shuffles though the photos before finding the one he wants.
He grasps the photo in his hands and makes his way toward Kate. He softly taps her on the shoulder with the rolled up photo, ‘Did the light you see look like this?’
Kate turns around. She inhales deeply with frustration, ‘Did it look like what?’
She sees the rolled up photo being extended to her by Simon. She takes the photo and quickly unrolls it. She sees a picture of Donavan tip toeing from his house with a large, plastic shopping bag. The tops of numerous bottles of liquor stick out the opening. His forearm muscles are fully flexed as he carries the heavy bag down the stairs. Off in the distance a white, oval shaped object is semi visible between the trees.
Kate points at the object, ‘That’s the thing! The thing I was looking for! When did you take this?’ Simon takes the picture from Kate. He gazes at it for a moment, and then looks up a Kate, ‘So you can see it right?’
‘Of course I see it!’ she replies, ‘What kind of question is that?’
He hands the picture back to Kate, ‘Can you see it now?’
Kate looks over the photo. The white object in the trees has vanished. She begins to walk over to the machine. Simon grabs her arm as she turns to leave, ‘You won’t see it again.’
Kate smirks at Simon, ‘What are you talking about?’ Simon goes over to the table. He picks up another photo. ‘Take a look at this one.’
Kate looks at the photo. She sees three teenagers, two boys with brown hair and a girl with jet black hair. They are posing with their arms around each other in front of what looks like the entrance of a drive in theater. Off in the distance a white oval can be seen in the trees.
Kate looks at Simon confused, ‘Is this some kind of trick?’ Simon takes the picture from her, then hands it back, ‘Now look, do you see it?’ She looks down at the paper. The oval once again has disappeared.
‘So what does this mean?’ Kate asks. Simon places the picture back on the table, ‘I’m not sure. Lately I’ve been developing pictures from old film I found at yard sales and thrift shops around here. Sometimes that thing so up in some of them, but every time I see it and look for it again, it disappears.’
Kate looks around the room, ‘Did it disappear to everyone you showed it to?’
‘Nah,’ Simon replies, ‘They think I’m
crazy enough without showing the disappearing circles in pictures. At first I thought I might have a brain tumor or something. But when you started talking about the circle you found in your pictures, I figured they were connected in some way.’
‘So, what does it mean?’ Kate asks. Simon hunches his shoulders, ‘I don’t know. But, I did some research on those kids in that picture at the drive in. I found their names looking through old yearbooks. I looked up the names, turns out they’re dead. ‘
Kate covers her mouth in surprise, ‘What?! How?!’ Simon begins to put the photos back on the table, ‘From what I read in news articles, they were found in a wooden box at the bottom of some lake.’
Simon walks over to the file cabinet and begins to look through the top drawer. ‘I had the newspaper around here somewhere. Anyway, some cadaver dogs picked up their scent around a lake. They dragged the lake and found their car. So they thought maybe they ran off the road somehow and drowned. So they kept dragging the lake for the bodies, but instead they found this huge box.’
Simon takes a brownish colored newspaper from the drawer, ‘So they opened the box and found all three of them squeezed in there. Here’s a picture.’
Kate pauses, ‘Did you see the oval in this picture too?’ Simon shakes his head, ‘No, but if you see it, you’re going to tell me right?’
Kate carefully takes the newspaper from Simon’s hands. She opens it up and sees a group of cops standing by a lake. A truck with a chain hooked to the back is pulling the wooden box out of the lake. In the second picture one of the cops is seen prying open the top of the box. Kate drops the newspaper. Her eyes freeze with horror as it casually floats to the ground.
‘Be careful with that, it’s old.’ Simon says.
Kate sits down on the table, ‘That box, did you see the lid on top?’
Simon opens the paper and observes the top of the box, ‘Well, yea. What about it?’ Kate walks over and points to the picture. Simon’s eyes follow Kate’s finger to the box’s lid. A chaotic ‘X’ is drawn inside of a circle scratched into the wood.
Simon looks at Kate confused, ‘Ok, what about it?’ Kate walks away from Simon and sits back on the edge of the table, ‘Have you ever seen that symbol before?’ Simon thinks for a moment, ‘Not that I can remember. Why?’
Kate begins to stare aimlessly at the floor, ‘Yesterday in the woods, I saw that written on a piece of paper. After that, my dog got stabbed. When I went to the police station last night, the old man they have locked up went berserk when he saw it.’
Simon gazes at Kate puzzled, ‘So, what are you getting at? You think it could be some kind of serial killer mark. Like the Zodiac killer used?’
Kate sighs, ‘I don’t know. I just find it weird that it turned up.’
Simon walks over to the filing cabinet and puts the newspaper back in its place. He walks over to the table and sits next to Kate, ‘Well, you’re not dead so, it can’t be that.’ Kate begins to bite her lip, ‘Yea, not yet.’
Simon slides off the table and begins to pace the floor. He interlocks his fingers and place them on his head as he begins to whisper to himself.
‘You know,’ he says quickly turning to Kate, ‘if you think this is serious, we should really tell someone.’
Kate begins to swing her dangling feet, ‘And say what? That someone may or may not be killing people and the same killer has been around since the 40’s? Then what?’
Simon begins to pace across the floor faster, ‘I don’t know? Maybe they have some sort of file on this. We just can’t sit on this information…right?’
Kate hunches her shoulders, ‘We really don’t have a choice, do we?’
Simon rushes over to the table and begins sort through the pictures. He finds the one of Donavan and starts stares at it. Kate watches his eyes twitch from his deep thoughts. She walks over to Simon and places her hand on his arm.
‘What are you thinking?’ she asks.
‘Do you know by any chance what Donovan does after school?’
Kate nods, ‘Yea. He works at his dad’s convenience store till 11pm and then he either goes home and drinks or sneaks through Linny’s window.’
Simon turns to Kate, ‘If what you’re saying is true, the whole serial killer thing, maybe you should tell him. You don’t have to talk about the whole deal, just subtly tell him to stay out of the woods.’
Kate lets out a small chuckle. Simon glares at Kate with an offended look, ‘What’s so funny? This is serious right?’
‘Yea, it is,’ Kate replies, ‘But how do you subtly tell someone to stay out of wooded areas? Either he’s going to know something is up or he’s going to go in the woods because he thinks he some sort of tough guy. Plus, it just sounds stupid.’
‘Ok,’ Simon says, ‘So, what do you suggest we do?’ Kate smirks at Simon, ‘Don’t worry about Donavan, I’ll figure out something to tell him. The real question is what are we going to do about Rachael? I mean, she’s in some of these pictures too right?’
Simon nervously taps the table with his fingers, ‘Well, I heard she’s doing another interview with the local news so….’ Kate begins to grind her teeth, ‘I guess the real question is, do we want to save her?’
‘Now is not the time to hold grudges.’ Simon says while checking his watch, ‘The bell for second period will be ringing soon. You better get out of here before people start wondering where you are.’
Kate picks up her backpack and begins to walk toward the door.
‘Wait!’ Simon says. Kate turns around and sees Simon searching through his backpack. He takes out a camera and gives it to her, ‘You better take this. Just in case you see something suspicious when you go talk to Donavan, we’ll have some documentation of it.’
Kate takes the camera and puts it in her backpack, ‘It has film in it right?’
Simon nods, it’s all ready to go. If you need to use the flash, it’s the red button on the top left with the light bulb printed on it. Just push it once, wait for it to charge and take the picture like you normally would.’
Kate turns the door knob. She looks back at Simon before exiting, ‘So what are we going to do about Rachael?’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ he replies, ‘I heard she had some kind of interview so she’ll be surrounded by people. But I’ll keep tabs on her just in case.’
Kate slowly blinks, ‘Well, looks like you have it all covered. Meet back here tomorrow?’
‘Yea, but before class begins. I don’t think you need to miss any more time.’ Simon responds while zipping his backpack.
Kate takes the camera and tucks it away between her books and her chest, ‘Ok, thanks for the concern regarding my education.’ she says to Simon sarcastically.
The bell rings and student pour into the hallway, quickly filling the corridors with sounds of chatter and sneakers squeaking across the linoleum floor.
‘Kate?’ Simon whispers, ‘Remember, be discreet when talking about this.’
Kate nods her head, ‘You can bet I’ll keep this to myself. Don’t want to run the risk of people thinking I’m crazy.’ she says with a smile.
She opens the door as the onslaughts of stampeding students rush past. As she closes it, she looks through the shrinking opening. Simon is back to his table, shuffling through the photos. As the door begins to close, she sees Simon briefly glance up at her before quickly turning away.
She knows Simon will stay in the quiet, safe haven of the darkroom until he’s forced to face the outside world again. She wonders if the discovery they made together will complicate his simplistic life. But what she knows for sure is they will never pass by each other as strangers again. The barrier between them has crumbled, yet they still stand on opposite sides.
The late bell rings. Kate walks down the empty hall, nervously going through the words she will say to Donavan tonight. She doesn’t know what will happen, how he will react or if he is in any real danger at all. All she knows is it has to be done.
The Slender Man Game of Myths Page 9