The Unwanted (Black Water Tales Book 2) (9 page)

The last student filtered out of the classroom as Blaire sat to make notes. A spirited game of Ring Around the Rosie began outside, not too far from Blaire’s open window, the euphoric play filled her with a joy reminiscent to that of being a young child again. She scribbled a few more lines on her notepad before she got up and crossed to the back window where the children were outside frolicking in merriment. Up and down each side of the building she searched for children that were not there.

Blaire listened closely, and she could still hear the game, but it was not outside as she originally thought, it was inside, right here inside of her classroom. Blaire swung her pencil between her fingers nervously as she scanned the room allowing her ears to lead the way. They homed in on the vent in the floor along the wall. The soft singing of the children grew faint, but it was coming from inside of the vent, as she was sure of that. Blaire got down on her knees and peered into the blackness.

“Hello,” Blaire called into the vent. She jumped at the giddy laughter that responded, and suddenly there was a scattering sound, as if a group of people were discovered in a secret hiding place, who then ran for cover. A sound rose up through the opening and into her ears. It was the desperate, undecipherable whispers of hundreds of little voices all moving about, intertwining in and out of one another like snakes in mating. She put her ear closer, trying to make out the words.

There’s suffering in the pavement?

What were they saying?
Blaire thought to herself
.

Growing louder in each new moment, they all but peaked into a schizophrenic static that felt like it was inside of Blaire, choking up her ability to reason. She felt something moving closer to her and heard whispers that were not just senseless jabbering, but were providing, something tangible, a ladder for something terrible that was crawling toward her, up from the bowels of the building, through the dark vent on the backs of the wicked whispers. The evil was moving quickly up out of the darkness like electricity through a wire, and Blaire couldn’t tear herself away.

There’s suffering in the pavement.
The jumbled whispers were closer now.
There’s suffering in the pavement.
Closer
. There’s suffering in the pavement.
Here it comes.
THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE BASEMENT!
It screamed and the words were clear now
. JUMP!
It belched.

Blaire was startled into movement by the growl that raged out of the vent and tried to eat her in one huge bite. She pushed herself back so harshly that the pencil slipped from her hand, and she watched in slow motion as it rolled and bounced down into the vent making a light plop, which told Blaire that it lay just beneath the grates.

“Hey,” Travis called popping his head into the room. “You okay?” he asked when he saw her on the floor.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just dropped my pencil in the vent, and I was trying to get it out,” Blaire explained nervously, and Travis’ expression of concern seemed to dissipate.

“…and I heard voices in the vent.” She sat up to get a better look at his reaction.

“Voices?” Travis eyed her strangely. “What kind of voices?”

“Of children, whispering and playing, and then someone yelled.” She felt confident that he would hear the voices too if he listened. Travis came over and got down on the floor with her, and they both pressed their ears to the vent, their faces less than a foot from one another, listening carefully.

Nothing.

“I heard something, I swear,” Blaire whispered.

Travis shrugged as he lifted himself from the floor. “You probably did. As a matter of fact, I think I heard voices from the vent in my office yesterday now that you mention it. These vents in these old buildings carry sound from room to room. The sound probably came from another room where the children were playing or talking.”

“Of course,”
Blaire thought to herself, adding out loud, “Travis, you’re a genius.”

“I know. You ready to shop?”

“Sure, just let me get my pencil, resources are scarce around here.” Blaire said as she noticed that the corner of the vent was not screwed in completely.

“All right, I’ll meet you out front.” Travis disappeared into the hall.

Blaire lifted the corner of the grate and dug her small hand inside. It moved about in the darkness, kicking up small billows of dust, and she laughed thinking that her hand scrambling around down there must look like Thing from
The Addams Family
. Blaire pressed her face to the cold floor, pushing her forearm further into the hole waiting for the pencil to sit at the tips of her fingers when suddenly she felt it, and she gave a smile that quickly transformed into a slicing scream within seconds as the demon that had been snarling at her from the vent just moments before bit into her hand with evil vengeance.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

B
laire
’
s s
c
r
ea
m melted into a
piti
f
ul sob
a
s needles of pain shot up
th
r
ou
g
h
e
v
e
r
y n
er
ve
of
h
e
r
hand
. The
a
n
i
m
a
l would not l
e
t
g
o; she
yanked her arm from
the
v
e
nt
a
nd, surprisingly,
it
ca
me
fr
e
e
l
y
with
t
h
e
t
ee
th still sunk into h
e
r
f
l
e
sh. T
r
a
vis
d
a
sh
e
d
b
ack
into the
r
oom, sliding and almost falling.
I
n s
e
c
onds
he
h
a
d
a
ll but pull
e
d the
v
e
nt grating
out of the floor, so that she could fully retrieve her damaged hand. Then she laid eyes on t
h
e
d
ea
d
l
y
b
ea
st th
a
t h
a
d
w
r
ea
k
e
d
h
a
voc.
Blaire
t
r
i
e
d to
ca
lm h
er
s
e
lf,
r
ea
li
z
ing
th
a
t she
w
a
s mo
r
e
in a
p
a
nic
a
t t
h
e
fac
t th
a
t
a
d
e
mon h
a
d
b
it into h
e
r
th
a
n in
ac
tu
a
l p
a
in from the injury. It appeared that t
h
e
d
ea
d
l
y
d
e
mon
w
a
s m
e
r
e
l
y
a
f
i
g
m
e
nt of
h
e
r
im
a
g
in
a
tion
,
the
t
r
ue
c
ul
p
r
it, o
n
e
of
H
e
in
r
ik
’
s mous
e
t
ra
ps.

Blaire felt like a dramatic child sitting on the examining table in the nurse’s office. Gray clouds bled out into the sunny sky, and the silver hue reflected on Travis’ window. Blaire winced as he finished wrapping her hand.

“All better,” Travis said, assuring her.

“That’s it?” Blaire asked.

“Well, I canceled Life Flight. I do have lollipops, but their lenitive effects usually only work on children.”

Blaire shot him a dull glare.

Travis laughed. “There is really nothing more to be done. You don’t have any fractures or anything. You wanna know a secret?”

“I guess,” Blaire said, staring at her bandaged hand.

“I just wrapped it to make you feel better. The mouse trap didn’t cause any damage, but I know it hurts like hell. Keep it wrapped up for a day or two and it will be fine, but you should take it easy today. You do need to get some rest.”

“But
—”

“No buts,” Travis said as he helped her off the table. “Nurse’s orders!”

The clouds had completely covered the sun by the time Blaire returned to her room. The coldness of her sparse quarters penetrated her as she lay in bed cradling her bum hand.

JUMP!
Blaire remembered the growling voice that came out of the vent.

JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!
She heard it demanding, each time, changing, becoming lighter and more taunting, until it was no longer the sound of a drooling beast but that of adolescent girls.
Jump! Jump! Jump!

That fall was one of the coldest Black Water had ever seen. Blaire could not have been more than eleven years old. Sabrina Langford had asked her if she wanted to go walking up to the Grammercy Bridge. Grammercy had once taken trains safely from one side of the river to the other and on through the picturesque town of Black Water, but that was long ago. It was a place of little interest to two young girls and, from what Blaire had known at her innocent age, it was, at most, a place where the older kids went to kiss on Friday nights. When Sabrina suggested it as a play place that day, Blaire wanted to object, but hesitated at the thought of turning off her newfound friend.

Long ago the bridge had become lifeless, but it still gave an endless series of death breaths as the girls walked along it. The water flowed rapidly, and the sound of the swishing and churning made Blaire shiver. After throwing a couple of rocks into the river, a series of familiar faces emerged. Lacey Wright, Sharla Hig, Kiana James, and Elizabeth Morrow claimed territory on the bridge, creating a poignant image that Blaire would never forget. A pang of fear sliced through Blaire’s stomach: seppuku. Nothing involving Lacey, Sharla, Kiana and Elizabeth could be good for her because the Frightening Four were perpetrators of horrendous kiddie crimes. Just the week before they surrounded a girl on the playground, who they teased relentlessly until she cried and admitted she was a “slut” as they kept calling her. It was a word that Blaire knew vaguely from hearing it in
R
-rated movies that she snuck to catch glimpses of from time to time, although she would have been hard pressed to define the word if asked. Against her better judgment, Blaire stepped into the circle of doom on the playground and screamed at all of them to leave the helpless girl alone. Within seconds of hearing the commotion, Mrs. Bennett, infiltrated the mob of minors with a series of inquiries and instructions that made Lacey roll her eyes. The kids scattered but not before Blaire received a malevolent glare from the hellion gang’s little hierarch. The four of them were relentlessly brutal BFFs, who stopped at nothing when they craved the blood of another in the form of utter humiliation and in the name of pure adolescent wickedness.

“Hey weirdo,” Lacey sang in a playful tone that was followed by a light chorus of laughter from her sequacious squad of beautiful baby bandits. Blaire looked over and saw that Sabrina had taken a wide step away from her, with her head hung in the shame of her unscrupulous betrayal.

“Sabrina?” Blaire called out her name and on the icy air of the brisk afternoon, it sounded hollow; a desperate SOS that would never be answered. Sabrina was not one of the Frightening Four, just one of their mere associates, used only when the occasion suited them.

Blaire was alone.

“
Sabrina
,”
Kiana mocked.

“You saved the slut, but who is going to save you?” Sharla said, stepping toward Blaire.

Elizabeth, Lacey’s servile cousin, hung back not saying a word. They were closing in on Blaire who looked around for a way out.

“You can’t escape,” Lacey warned her.

There was no way to run and even if there was, she wouldn’t as there was nowhere to run to. She knew they would catch her, and then it would be worse. Lacey was inches from her now.

“Why do you look so scared? You were a big protector last week, weren’t you? So where is big, bad Blaire, now?”

Blaire was silent. “HUH?” the girl yelled.

“I’m sorry,” Blaire responded.

“You’re sorry?” Kiana stepped up but still made sure that she was behind Lacey so that the pecking order could not be confused.

“You’re not sorry yet.” Sharla’s face was a twisted map of rage. “If you ever get in
our
—”

“Jump,” Lacey instructed in a strikingly tranquil tone, cutting Sharla’s rant short.

For the first time, Sabrina moved as her head jerked up to look at Lacey.

“What?” Kiana asked. Lacey gave her friend a sharp glower that equaled one social lashing.

“You heard her, weirdo. Climb over,” Sharla said. “Go on! What are ya, scared?”

“Lacey,” Blaire heard Elizabeth’s voice from somewhere behind all of them.

“Move!” Sharla yelled.

Blaire began climbing over the railing. There was a frantic shuffling as Sabrina shot out for the wooded area that made up the land between the bridge and their homes. Every ounce of hope drained from Blaire as Sabrina disappeared, her bright
tangerine
-colored coat dissolving into the brown of the trees. Blaire stood on the side of the bridge with her hands behind her, gripping the cold railing. Unsympathetically, the water under her raged.

“Lacey, stop!” Kiana cried.

“Shut your fat mouth or you’re next,” Lacey scolded, with Sharla’s glare confirming the threat. Kiana rolled her eyes deeply, and then she set a seething glower on Blaire. It was herself or Blaire, and it was clear that Kiana had chosen Blaire, and who could blame her?

“JUMP!” Lacey screamed, losing her patience.

“JUMP!” Sharla repeated the command. Soon Kiana joined in and they were chanting, their faces perverted in iniquitous scowls.

“
JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!”
They all chanted and their words and faces were swimming around in Blaire’s head, driving her to the
razor
-sharp edge of madness, until all she wanted was to get away from them, to get away from it
all
—all she wanted was for the incessant taunting to stop.

JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!”
It continued. Blaire didn’t want to die, but she could not hang on, she couldn’t stay here, any place was better than here. What more could she do? There was nowhere to run, nowhere to
hide
—

One swift move and she could no longer feel the stony metal underneath her hands, she was falling. The sound of the tremendous splash resonated all around her and fizzled into garbles of whooshing water. The water was clear and the light of the sky pierced the liquid prison. Up above, she caught a brief glance of the girls peering over in disbelief, but in the next moment they were out of sight. Blaire was traveling rapidly down the river alone.

A speechless Lacey watched Blaire be carried away.

“Why did you do that?” Kiana yelled.

“I didn’t do it…
we
did it, and, besides, I didn’t actually think that she was stupid enough jump!” Lacey spat back.

“We need to leave,” Sharla shouted.

“I can’t believe this!” Kiana yelled and suddenly the three of them were bickering ferociously when one primal scream rose above them all.

“Let’s get out of here!” Sharla screamed. For a moment they were frozen, and then Lacey took off, grabbing Elizabeth briefly by the collar.

Elizabeth could not move despite the fact that her accomplices were leaving her behind. She walked over to the railing of the bridge opposite of where Blaire went in, and she searched down river for the girl, but there was nothing but gallons of glacial, unforgiving water. They would pay for this, Elizabeth was not sure when or how, but the time would come for them to pay for
everything
that they had done. Elizabeth watched for several moments before she scrambled off the bridge as if being chased by wild dogs.

Blaire was fighting a losing battle to keep her head above water. It was difficult to breathe and getting harder as her body tossed and jerked. Her arms flailed madly, and suddenly she was freezing as her face was hit with a blast of frigid air, causing her to gulp violently. Blaire’s hands searched her surroundings wildly for rocks or branches, but nothing stayed in her slippery grip. She was under again and drowning as buckets of water forced themselves into her mouth and down her throat, her chest was hurting, it felt full and swollen. In the midst of all the chaos, Blaire was overwhelmed with a single infantile yearning. She wanted her mother and called out to her with a gasp of precious air.

In that moment a brutal lurch lifted Blaire from the water, with her arms and legs still thrashing, but she was no longer moving down the river; she was immobilized. Looking around, she realized that her coat had caught on a thick branch of a downed tree. Still panting, Blaire wrangled her coat collar from the branch and pulled herself along the massive trunk of the tree until she could feel rocks under her shoe, and then under her other shoeless foot. The river had swallowed one of her shoes, but she had escaped. Exhaustion took her along the rocky riverside, and she collapsed. As she lay there, her disoriented gaze floated to the sky.

A new perspective had come with her
water
-ladened emergence from the river that day. She knew that she could never go back, and that she could not change her past nor could she escape her destiny. Acceptance was the only way. The only ray of brilliant light in the charcoal Black Water sky found a break in the clouds that day and beamed down on her.

Blaire turned over on her uncomfortable St. Sebastian, standard issue bed and faced the wall. She thought of the Frightening Four and hoped that those little witches had gotten what they deserved.