by David Haynes
Megan had her hands crossed over her breasts again. Even though he’d just explored every inch of her, she was as shy about her body as she had always been.
“Thought you’d up and left me here,” she said.
He watched her put the top back on but said nothing. He daren’t open his mouth yet. He was still angry.
“I won’t tell anyone, Ryan. I won’t say what happened.”
He felt his eyes widen. He hadn’t even thought about that, hadn’t even considered it.
“What?”
“I won’t tell anyone, not even Emily. I swear.”
That was as good as saying that she would tell Emily. And Emily would tell just about anyone who wanted to listen to her.
“Jesus, Megan.”
“What?”
“You tell anyone about this and I’ll be finished. Can you imagine what the guys’ll say?”
“They won’t know.” Megan stood up. “We should go.”
He grabbed her arm before she could take a step toward the door. “You better not,” he said.
She looked at his hand. “You’re hurting me. Let go.” She was calm.
“I swear, Megan, you mention this to anyone and I’ll…I’ll...”
“You’ll what? Now let me the fuck go and we can pretend this didn’t happen. Okay?”
But it had happened, and even if she didn’t tell anyone, he would still know. She would still know too, and she could tell anyone anytime she wanted.
He didn’t release her, kept his grip nice and firm. “It’s only because you teased me so much. If you hadn’t made me wait so fucking long this wouldn’t have…”
“You can’t blame me!” she shouted. “I didn’t make you squirt like – ”
Quick as a flash, he slapped her. He hadn’t even been thinking about it, it just happened. The blow snapped her head around.
“I’ll tell everyone you’re a slut,” he said. “That you and me have been doing it for years, that…”
She slapped him back. The sting shocked him. He’d been hit by linebackers plenty of times, even knocked out by one guy, but the shock of the slap was electrifying.
He threw her onto the bed. “You bitch!” he shouted. He touched his face where she’d hit him. The skin felt hot under his fingers.
She looked up at him. She looked scared, lying there in her little red bikini.
“You shouldn’t have done that!” he shouted, enjoying her sudden flinch at the volume of his voice.
“Ryan…Ryan… what are you doing?”
She was beneath him now. When had he climbed on top of her? He didn’t recall doing that. He pressed down on her. He was aroused again; not by the thought of her body, or of taking off her bikini. No, he felt a trembling thrill in his groin from the fear on her face. She was scared of him. Why? He’d only hit her once. It wasn’t as if he’d beaten the shit out of her. Not like his dad had done to his mom, anyway. That guy really went to town on her, beat her black…
“Ryan!” she screamed. “You’re really hurting me!”
He had her wrists, pinning them to the bed, holding her down. He was close again, close to exploding.
Tears sprung in the corner of her eyes, spilling out onto her cheeks and rolling onto the blanket. Oh, he wanted to hit her again. He wanted to do other things too. He didn’t know what they were or where they came from, but he had ideas. He would…
A horrible, stomach-churning pain rose up from his crotch. He squeezed his eyes shut but the tears welled up and spilled out just like Megan’s.
“Get off me, you bastard!” She brought her knee up again but he was already falling to the side. He landed on the wooden floor with a thud and curled into the fetal position. He felt her kick him in the back, but it was weak and didn’t hurt. She was sobbing.
“I never want to see you again!” she screeched. “Don’t you ever come near me ever again!”
He rolled onto his back and looked up at her. “Megan…I’m sorry. I don’t know…”
She kicked out at him again but he rolled away.
“Please!” he said. “Megan, I’m sorry!”
She ran out of the cabin without another word, but he could hear her for a long time after she left. He could hear her sobbing breaths as they echoed through the woods. How could a day go so wrong in only a few seconds?
5
“Come on, man, you said you’d go. You committed.”
“I said, maybe, maybe I’d go. You make it sound like a wedding. I’m busy anyhow.”
JJ sighed. “With what? Hanging out with your imaginary Xbox friends? Come on, Alex.” He paused. “We’re reading Laymon. You know how pervy he can be.”
They were in Alex’s bedroom; his cave, his sanctuary. If he wasn’t in school, this was where he was. They had been friends since the first day of high school. Alex Potts had been new then, just moved into town and didn’t know anyone. JJ had lived here forever and didn’t know anyone either. They didn’t share that much but what they did have in common tied them together, pitted them against the rest of the world.
Alex worked his fingers over the games controller, hammering the buttons rapidly but with purpose.
“It kinda sucked last year, JJ. I mean, all that Poe. It was like an episode of The Following. I kept waiting for Law to break into an English accent and start telling us to cut people up.”
“He was trying too hard to keep it educational, to keep the school happy.”
Alex put the controller down, ejected the disc. “Who’s to say it won’t be the same this time around?”
“With Richard Laymon? Are you kidding?”
Alex shrugged. “Never read any.”
JJ dropped his rucksack, rummaged inside and bought out a battered paperback. “Look at this!” he said, pointing at the cover. “The Travelling Vampire Show. Doesn’t sound much like Poe or Lovecraft to me. I read the reviews and it’s filled with…”
“Don’t knock H.P., man. Give me that.” He took the book, turned it over and then read the first couple of paragraphs. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll come with. Just so you don’t get lonely without me, though.”
They left Alex’s house and walked toward town, crisscrossing the streets and through the park. The suburbs were quiet at this time of the evening. Everyone was home from work or school, quietly going about their business inside their new builds.
“You ever wonder what’s going on inside all those houses?” JJ asked.
“Why the hell would I do that?” Alex replied.
JJ shrugged. “I do. See that house?” He pointed. “That’s Emily Carr’s house. Her dad snorts coke and her mum drinks vodka straight from the bottle. When they’re both nice and high, they go to their neighbor’s house and throw their keys in a big bowl in the middle of the room, then they get naked and…”
“Man, you’re weird. What the hell are you talking about?”
JJ laughed. “I’m going to write books one day. Books, movies, plays, whatever. I’m just going to write my ass off all day and all night, make ten million bucks by the time I’m thirty.”
Alex laughed. “And I’ll be president.”
They walked silently for a while before Alex spoke again. “Look,” he said, nodding across the street. “It’s Ryan Simmons.”
Ryan was walking straight toward them, his head down.
“You heard what they were saying about him at school?” JJ asked.
Alex nodded. “It’s all bullshit.”
“You think?”
“Of course. You think a guy like that suffers with premature ejaculation? He’s practically a god.”
“Plenty of people do believe it, though. And he’s not dating Megan Palmer anymore. They broke up. Apparently, he hit her.”
Alex huffed. “You’re just too gullible. You believe everything you hear.”
“I don’t!”
“Anyway, shut up,” he whispered. “He’ll hear you.”
Ryan moved closer, his head still down. He was walking quickly
, with purpose. Either that or he was pissed. He barged past them, bumping into JJ, almost sending him sprawling.
“Jesus!” JJ shouted.
Ryan stopped. He looked surprised, almost shocked to see them standing there. He stared at them both for a second, looking them up and down. His lips curled at the corners.
“Hey, Ryan?” said Alex.
“Fuck off, fag.” He turned and carried on walking away from them with the same purposeful stride.
JJ knew the comment would hurt Alex. All the football team called him names...fag, and worse. Someone once drew a huge penis on his locker and wrote the word ‘cocksucker’ underneath. Alex might be gay, he might not be. JJ never mentioned it because he didn’t care one way or the other. He did care about his friend’s feelings though, and he could see how much it hurt him.
“Dick,” JJ whispered. He turned to his friend after a few seconds. “Next time I’ll beat the shit out of him.” He raised his fist like a cartoon caricature and shook it at Ryan’s departing shape. “Come back here and I’ll rip your stupid jock head off.” He said it quietly. There was no way he wanted Ryan to hear him.
Alex smiled. “You wouldn’t last two seconds,” he said, turning away. “Come on.”
“Hey, I know martial arts.”
“Watching Master Ken on YouTube doesn’t count, JJ.”
The moment had gone, at least for JJ. The encounter with Ryan had been mercifully brief, one that he would probably never remember. Alex would though, he knew that. He would stew on it quietly, maybe even miss a couple of days of school. But to people like Ryan Simmons, Alex meant nothing.
They reached Main Street within a few minutes. The last of the late summer sun dipped behind the three-story buildings that lined the street, dropping the temperature by a few degrees. There were a few stragglers wandering about but most of the stores were closed now. It was a dead time, before Sandy’s opened and the diner fired up its genuine wood-fired barbecue.
They paused at the junction, not because there was any traffic but because of the new store. The windows were still fogged out but a dim light filtered through onto the street.
“I wonder what it’ll be?” JJ said.
“A McDonalds.”
“With the name Castavet’s?”
Alex shrugged. “Don’t know and don’t care.”
“You know who Castavet is though, right?”
“Rosemary’s Baby. Sure. Maybe the devil is right inside, JJ? Maybe he’s come to take over town and turn us all into soldiers in some dark army.”
“Very funny.”
They crossed over, walking in front of the new store. The doors were open.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” a voice called from inside.
They both paused, looking at each other.
“A pleasant evening for a stroll.”
They couldn’t see who the voice belonged to.
“My first customers get free merchandise!” A man appeared in the doorway. He looked in his late sixties, maybe even older. His hair was the whitest shade of white imaginable.
“Come on, don’t be shy. There are freebies!” He beckoned them in with a huge smile and stepped away from the door.
“What freebies?” Alex called.
“Why, books of course!”
JJ looked at his friend. “Want to take a look?”
Alex shrugged. “You’ll be late for Laymon.”
JJ checked his watch. They still had ten minutes before the Reading Room got started. “Just a quick look,” he said. “I promise. Five minutes. Tops.”
Inside, the store was dark. The fogged windows allowed almost none of the natural light still left in the day to pass through. A collection of old lamps burned on various shelves.
“Apologies for the somewhat Victorian atmosphere. The electrics have proved temperamental.
JJ looked down in into the darkness at the rear of the store. It looked like there were several rows of shelves, stretching deep into the shadows. “Wow,” he whispered.
Alex leaned in close. “This place is creepy.”
“I do hope so,” the man said. “It’s supposed to be.”
“And you want people to come inside a creepy shop?” Alex asked. “It’s not Halloween yet.”
“Of course! How else am I going to sell all these books, all these wonderful horror books?” He gestured into the shadows.
“Horror?” JJ asked.
“Exclusively,” the man replied. “Gothic, weird, quiet, noir, splatterpunk, grindhouse, psychological, erotic and my personal favorite – visceral. It’s all here, gentlemen. I have it all, as well as some categories you may not be familiar with.”
“Wow.” It was all JJ could think of to say. He’d never seen such a collection before.
“And you won’t find any of these books on Amazon, or at Barnes and Noble. You won’t find them anywhere but right here. Right here at Castavet’s!”
“Are you related, Mr. Castavet?” Alex asked. He nudged JJ in the side. It was his attempt at humor. “I mean, you’re not going to spawn devil babies all over town, are you? There’s enough around here without any more sprouting up.”
The man laughed. “I’m glad the name means something to you! Already I can discern two well-read young men. Perhaps it is my real name and perhaps not.” He raised his eyebrows and walked behind the counter. “Now, I promised you something for nothing. Let me see…” He bent down behind the counter.
Alex nudged him in the ribs and made circles with his forefinger on his temple. He mouthed the word Crazy.
A second later, Castavet straightened. It looked like a painful maneuver for him. The creak was almost audible. “Here we go,” he said, sliding two books onto the polished wooden counter. “This one is for you.” He pushed one toward JJ. “And this one is for you. I just know you’ll love, love, love them.”
JJ took the book. It was slightly smaller than the norm, barely, but enough for him to notice. The cover was soft leather, cracked, antique looking. It was also blank. Probably just a diary.
“Thank you,” he said. “How much…”
“No charge!” Castavet replied. “But you must come back and tell me how much you loved the books. I demand it!”
JJ slid the book into his rucksack. Alex did the same.
“Now, be on your way, gentlemen. I must close the shop now. Good evening.”
JJ followed Alex out of the store and before they had time to turn around, Castavet had closed and bolted the door.
“Why do I feel like I’ve just been in a bad dream?” Alex asked. “I kept expecting Vincent Price or Christopher Lee to come out from behind one of those shelves. Creepy, man, really creepy.”
“But did you see how many books he had? He’s got more than the goddamn library!”
“All I saw were shelves, it was too damn dark to see anything else, but I’ll tell you something about that book he gave me. I’m going to burn it. Man, I’m going to burn the shit out of it.”
“What? What for?”
They walked along the sidewalk toward the library. “It’s probably some religious crap, some sort of paraphernalia. He’s running a cult, that’s what it’s all about. A cult.”
“Jesus, Alex. And you say I’ve got a weird imagination. It’s just a diary. He’s just trying to drum up trade. Maybe he’s a bit…”
“Bizarre, odd, weird. Fucked up.”
“I was going to say eccentric. It’s all a show, obviously.”
“Well he’ll be gone by Christmas, that’s for sure. Nobody will set foot in that place, let alone buy anything from him.”
The reached the library and climbed the steps to the front doors. The lights were on inside.
“I reckon Law’s going to love it in there,” JJ said, opening the door.
“You mean love, love, love it.” Alex’s impression of Castavet was creepier than the original.
6
Four kids had shown up for the Reading Room. It was better than last year. By one. JJ had b
een excited as soon as he walked into the room. Dan took it as a compliment, a validation of his chosen book, at least initially. It wasn’t until after they’d finished that the real reason for JJ’s excitement was made clear, and it wasn’t the book.
“It’s a bookstore!” he said. “And what’s better than just a regular bookstore? A store dedicated solely to horror! Can you believe it, right here in Silver Lake?”
“Jesus, JJ. It’s just a bookstore,” said Alex, JJ’s best friend. He was clearly less enthusiastic than JJ. He’d always been a quiet kid, difficult to engage with. He missed a lot of school too, mostly due to the bullying he suffered.
Nevertheless, Dan found the news pretty exciting himself. “Really? That explains the Castavet sign, I guess. Must be a pseudonym.”
“It’s his real name,” Alex said. “Apparently.”
“I’ll have to check it out then.” He pushed his copy of The Travelling Vampire Show across the table to Alex. “Here, you can borrow this. Now you guys better go home.” He checked his watch. “We’re already twenty minutes over. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”
Alex shrugged. “Like that would happen.”
Dan was about to ask what that meant, but the two boys turned and disappeared out of the door. Their figures were briefly illuminated in the orange glow of the streetlights.
“You all done?”
He turned around. Lori was sitting at the desk, tapping away on the computer keyboard.
“Sorry, it went on a bit longer than I wanted. Give me two minutes and I’ll be out the way and you can lock up.”
“You don’t have to apologize. Good to see the kids engaging.”
“All four of them.”
She closed down the computer and stood up. “You looked like you were enjoying yourself too.”
He laughed. “I guess so. I haven’t read the book for about ten years. It’s like meeting up with an old friend. I can remember what I was doing when I…” He stopped. “Sorry, I’m waffling on again. I’ll go now. Thanks, Lori, see you…”