314 Book 3 (Widowsfield Trilogy) (39 page)

Alma was still confused about if The Skeleton Man was really her brother, and Paul explained that he believed The Skeleton Man wasn’t made up of just one soul. He thought that The Watcher used the fears of some people to create the monster that they’d come to know as The Skeleton Man, and that was the reason it seemed like it was Ben sometimes. Alma wasn’t sure, and explained that she thought there was more to it than that. She felt like the man sleeping in the bed upstairs was her brother, but that he’d been twisted into a monster by the awful things that had happened to him. The group went round and round in circles on the subject, but none of them knew anything for certain. It was all just theories.

Occasionally, one of them would go upstairs to check on Ben, and he always looked the same. He was staring up at the ceiling, quiet and still, as if terrified of disturbing the ghosts that lived here. It was a feeling they all shared.

“Have you looked in Rosemary’s bag at all?” asked Rachel as she glanced at the satchel that was leaning against the wall by the door.

“Yeah,” said Alma. “It’s got the things we gave her, and the candles for the ritual tomorrow. It’s also got her sketchpad and paint brushes.”

Rachel got up and went to retrieve the bag. “Well, let’s take a look and see how good of a painter she is.”

Rachel brought the bag back over to their circle and sat back down. Before she took out the sketchpad, she pulled out a watch and showed it to everyone. “I guess we’re going to need this now that we can’t check the clocks on our phones.” She set the watch on the floor and then pulled out the sketchpad. She placed the pad on the floor and opened it to the first page. Each of them gawked at the picture, and fell silent as they stared at it.

Rosemary had filled the book with pictures of awful scenes of murder and torture. Each page was gorier than the last, with depictions of people being flayed, boiled, and hung by black cords that reached out from the walls. There was a picture of the Salt and Pepper Diner on Main Street, but the front window had been broken and a corpse was on the ground, surrounded by shattered glass. His eyes had been plucked out and a bloody spoon was near his head.

“What the fuck?” asked Rachel as she continued to flip through the pages. “What is wrong with this bitch?” The last several pages depicted fires consuming corpses, and Rachel closed it in disgust.

“She spent too much time in this place, that’s what,” said
Jacker as he sat back. He’d had enough of the gory scenes.

“That’s the hell we might be headed back into,” said Alma. “Tomorrow, when we write that number on the floor, we might get pulled right back into his world.”

“Are you sure we ever got out?” asked Paul and everyone looked at him with quizzical, almost accusatory gazes. “Think about it. Maybe we never got out. I don’t understand how any of this works, or what the hell happened. How did you guys get pulled into that dream in the first place? And why was I kicked out of it? The whole damn thing’s a mystery to me.”

“Well, trust me,” said
Jacker, “sitting around here is a hell of a lot different than what it was like in those dreams. When we were jumping back and forth in time, and watching Aubrey come apart like that…” he shivered and crossed his arms. “We’re not in The Watcher’s world right now. I can promise you that.”

“Sure, we’re not in the nightmare he created,” said Paul. “But who the fuck knows anymore? This whole ordeal’s got me questioning all sorts of shit. I don’t know
, it screws with your head if you spend too much time thinking about it.”

“That’s all we’ve got right now is time,” said Stephen.

“Well, I for one am counting down the hours until I get to hop on my bike and get the fuck out of here,” said Paul. “I want to leave this town far behind me.”

“Hear, hear,” said
Jacker as he raised a two-liter of soda in agreement before taking a swig.

“We should’ve picked up some beers,” said Stephen.

“No, you shouldn’t have,” said Paul. Stephen cast a confounded glance in his direction and Paul explained, “Jacker and I are off the sauce. Right buddy?”

“Doing my best, man.
Of course, it’s times like these when getting wasted sounds like a damn good plan.”

“What are you going to do when you get back,
Jacker?” asked Rachel. “Are you planning on turning yourself in?”

Jacker
sighed, raised his brow, and then finally nodded. “I don’t think I’ve got any other choice. I’m not going to try and run from this forever.”

“What about your priors?” asked
Paul.

Jacker
shrugged and said, “They’ll toss me in the joint. But fuck it, after going through this shit, prison sounds like a luxury vacation.”

The group chuckled and agreed, except for Stephen who shook his head. “I don’t think so man. I think in a few days, all of our lives are going to get a whole lot better.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Alma.

“Because this story’s going to get out there,” said Stephen. “People are going to find out what happened here, and everything’s going to change for us. This story’s going to be huge.”

“Whoa,” said Paul. “We never signed off on shit. Don’t forget, you gave Alma the final say on all of the footage here.”

“Well, yeah, sure…” Stephen was flustered. “Right, I know, but come on. Guys, this is different. None of us expected any of this to happen.”

“Still though, Alma’s got the final say on everything,” said Paul.

“Of course, of course,” said Stephen.

Rachel looked at her husband, and then back at the others. She was clearly upset, and waited for Stephen to say something else, but he stayed silent. “Stephen,” she said his name as fair warning that he needed to be honest with them.

“What?” he
asked, perturbed.

“If you’re not going to say something, then I will.”

“Say something about what?” asked Alma.

“No, Rachel,” said Stephen. “They don’t have any right to that. They weren’t in it.”

“Weren’t in what?” asked Paul, his anger growing.

“We filmed something when we were at the facility, while you guys were gone. The younger nurse took off to go find Oliver, and Helen went upstairs for something, so we took the camera into the room with all of the sleeping people and filmed them. Then we shot a bit of me explaining what had happened. We posted it on our site.”

“You what?” asked Alma in shock at the betrayal.

“It’s not live,” said Stephen. “It won’t post until around this time on the fifteenth. Chill out.”

“When were you planning on telling us about this, you slimy fucker?” asked Paul.

“We’re telling you now,” said Stephen.

Jacker shook his head in disgust. “Dude, you’re really a slimeball. You know that?”

“Me? Fuck you. You’re the one that bashed some kid’s head against a wall. What I did was smart. It was fucking smart, you guys. None of us know if we’re going to make it out of this alive, and if something happens to us then there’s a record of it.”

“And if Rachel hadn’t forced you to say something, then you would’ve posted that video with or without our consent,” said Paul. “Right?”

“There’s no point in arguing about hypotheticals,” said Stephen.

“Well stop the video from posting,” said Alma. “At least until we get a chance to think over whether or not we want it to get out there.”

“I can’t,” said Stephen. “Even if I wanted to, there’s no way to do it. We don’t have any electricity, and my
laptop’s in the van. Plus, it’s not like this town is set up with Wi-Fi to get online. Right? Look, guys, chill out. The post isn’t set to go live for a couple of days. You’ll have plenty of time to decide if you want to let the story get out about what happened here or if you want to play right into the hands of the people responsible for all of this and bury the story. Okay?”

“You’re such a weasel,” said
Jacker.

“Go fuck
yourself, man,” said Stephen.

“Don’t have to,” said
Jacker. “You paid one of your old hookers to do it for me.”

Stephen cursed back at
Jacker, but Rachel didn’t let the remark pass without focusing on it. “What do you mean by that?” she asked of Jacker.

“Nothing, forget it,” said
Jacker as he started to stand up.

“No, I’m not going to forget it,” said Rachel as she stood up with him.

“Babe, just sit down,” said Stephen as he reached up and took his wife’s hand.

She jerked her hand away from Stephen’s grip. “No, I want to know the truth. I want to know who Aubrey really was.”

“I’m staying out of it,” said Jacker as he started to walk towards the front door. “I’m getting some fresh air.”

“No you’re not,” said Rachel as she grabbed his arm and held him back. Her hysteria was becoming apparent as she screamed, “Tell me the truth!”

“Okay,” said Stephen. He waited for a long moment before continuing. He stood up, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Finally, he admitted the truth, “Aubrey and I slept together about a year ago.”

“You piece of shit,” said Rachel.
“You miserable fucking piece of shit.” She went to grab at her ring to take it off and throw it at him, but she remembered that she’d already taken it off to give to Rosemary.

“Rachel, honey, let’s not do this…”

Rachel screeched a curse at him and then headed for the door. She pushed past Jacker, flung the door open, and went outside. Before anyone had a chance to react, Rachel was coming back in. She quickly shut the door and shushed the group.

“What’s wrong?” asked Alma.

“There’re people out there.”

Terry’s cabin

March 13
th
, 2012

“People?” asked Alma as she approached the door.

“Man, this is just like last time,” said
Jacker as he shook his head.

“I saw headlights up the road,” said Rachel.
“A lot of them.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Stephen as he went to the window to peer out. It was late, and the sun had gone down several hours earlier, making seeing the approaching headlights easier. “She’s right,” he said as he ducked down.

“Of course I’m right,” said Rachel. “I might be blind to how big of a piece of shit you are, but I’m not actually fucking blind.”

Paul hushed them both as they all got down on the ground to avoid being spotted as the vehicles passed. The living room lit up as the vehicles drove down the street, and the group sighed in collective relief as the intruders kept driving. After being certain they were safe, they got back up and looked out the window to see where the cars were headed.

“Do you think they’re going to Cada E.I.B.?” asked Paul.

“I think that’s a safe bet,” said Stephen in a mocking tone.

“This is happening just like it did before,” said Jacker. “Next thing you know, we’re going to get shot with salt pellets or something.”

“Not me,” said Rachel. “I’m getting the fuck out of here.”

“No,” said Jacker as he grabbed her arm. “Don’t you remember what happened last time? I left and I got caught.”

“That was different,” said Rachel. “You were with my husband’s whore at the time.”

“It’s not different,” said Jacker. “Look, I don’t know if this is just a coincidence or what, but this whole thing feels like we’ve done it before, just like how everything felt in that dream, or whatever the hell it was. Here we all are, and we’re fighting, and there are people out there driving around, and Alma’s going to do her weird ritual again. It’s all the same. It’s like what Paul said earlier, like how maybe we’re all just still stuck in that creature’s web.”

“That’s bullshit,” said Rachel.

“Is it?” asked Jacker. “Are you sure? Because if you are, then convince me, because I’m losing my damn mind here.”

“What are you trying to say?” asked Rachel. “What do you propose we do? Because I think we should all just pack our shit, count our losses, and get the hell out of here.”

“How much longer do we have to wait?” asked Jacker.

“Just over three hours,” said Stephen as he looked at the watch they’d found in Rosemary’s bag. He’d decided to wear the watch in preparation of the coming ritual. “It’s just about to be midnight.”

“Okay then,” said Jacker. “Here’s what I think, and bear with me because I’m still trying to figure all this out myself. I think we need to wait here, and give Alma a chance to use her Chaos Magick shit to fix this, otherwise we’re all going to be stuck going around in circles like this. I can’t be the only one that thinks that us ending up back here, in this same damn situation, is eerie.”

Alma was quick to agree. “No, you’re right. My whole life I’ve felt like I’ve been getting pulled back here. If we don’t fix this now, then I think we’re going to find ourselves getting dragged back again at some point in the future. We’re just a few hours away from getting it over with. I don’t want to risk screwing it up now.”