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Chapter 70
HE OPENED HIS eyes, but his vision was blurry, so blurry. Strands of hair tickled his back, and he felt fingernails trail across his neck.
He stiffened.
Was it a dream? Or had he passed already? What was—?
He blinked in the darkness. Slowly, his eyes adjusted and he saw his window. He was woozy. He wanted to close his eyes but he knew this was important. What was going on? Was he still alive?
“Don’t speak,” a voice next to him said, and a warm hand moved from his bicep to his chest, then down to his abdomen.
His heart jumped inside his chest. Big jumps, little jumps. He tried to pull himself up.
“Lay with me,” she whispered. “Please. I’ll give you what you look at in your magazines. . . but I’m the real thing.”
The ci
Beneath the cloud of ci
He stumbled out of his bed and pain sliced through his body. It was so sharp, he winced and doubled over. There was also something sticky beneath his feet.
Maybe God wasn’t ready for him, he thought. Maybe he was supposed to be on earth, in Grand Trespass. Maybe there was a reason for his existence after all and his work had yet to be finished.
Either that, or his mother had been right: He was pathetic. After all, how difficult was it to kill yourself? He carefully considered both conclusions.
Allie got up and stood in front of him. In a sliver of moonlight he could make out her naked body. “What’s wrong with you?” she wailed.
A memory droned inside his head. His mother’s long, cold fingers on his frightened skin. Invading, humiliating him. The memory was enough for a second wind. He staggered to his bedroom door and pushed it open. Then he stumbled toward the back door.
“Why’s the television in here anyway?” she snarled. “That’s all I really wanted. To watch the fucking TV. It wasn’t about you. It’s never about you!”
He pulled open the back door and heard her bare feet on the kitchen floor. When she spoke next, her voice was sinister. “Quit ignoring me, you hear me, you sonafabitch? Just stop because I know what you did!” she screamed. “You killed those girls, you fucking freak! I know it was you!”
***
THE CLOUDS HAD grown thicker since he’d fallen asleep, and the outside world had taken on a somber grayness not unlike the cramped space inside his mind. A heavy rain now pounded against his body in a mad frenzy, mingling with the electricity that blared in his head.
He stumbled from the shed, back to the house with the old Army issue .45 his father had left behind. Over the years he’d handled it sparingly, but knew that one day he’d be forced to use it.
He looked up to see Allie glaring at him through the back window. She was wearing one of his t-shirts, her bare legs dark against the blue-white fluorescent lights of the kitchen. Her eyes looked wild, just as his mother’s had been late that one night.
He rounded the house and arrived at the front porch. Ian had taken the bait. He was now curled up on the second-to-bottom step of the porch, asleep for good. For a second, he felt bad for the cat, but he knew that what he’d done had been the right thing. The cat had been miserable, and had wanted an end to its wicked existence. That’s why it had trailed him all summer. Animals could sense unkind people, and this one had sensed unkindness in him. He stepped over the animal and, feebly, kicked opened the screen door.
He found himself face-to-face with his sister.
Her face screwed up as though she were ready to shout. But then she saw the gun and shook her head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she said. But her voice shook, betraying her.
His eyes drifted in and out of focus. There was one Allie. Two. . . Allies.
He wondered about the longing that swelled inside of him, the uncontrollable desire to kill his sister. Was it evil? Or would God see it as an acceptable means of justice? Would God understand him at all?
Lightning ripped through the sky and rain battered the windows. He took a step forward.
Allie took a step back.
The roof began to creak, and Allie’s full mouth pulled into the shape of a square. She was crying but there was no sound.
Now he was the one in control. He looked into his sister’s terrified eyes, appreciating that she felt it too. With his left hand, he reached into his pocket and withdrew the polished stone.
She stared at the gun. “I won’t do it again. I. . . I promise. It was just a joke,” she pleaded. “It all was. I’m so so sorry.” Her lips quivered, and he could see goose pimples on the bare flesh of her thighs. Her red fingernails flew in front of her face, and she wiped away tears.
Crocodile tears.
Lies.
“I said I’d tell them about what you did to the girls. But I wouldn’t,” she cried. “I couldn’t do that to you. I never would have. You’re my. . . my brother!”
He shook his head, and his vision blurred. When he spoke next, his voice boomed. “You made my life a living hell, Allie. Why the fuck would you want to do that? What have I ever done besides try to take care of you?”
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Really!” she said, taking a timid step toward him, then thinking better of it, stepped back again.
Sheets of rain crashed against the living room windows and the screen door out back banged shut, opened, banged shut.
Now there were three Allies.
Chapter 71
THE SKY OPENED wide and rain shot down so viciously Haley had to strain to see in front of her. But after minutes of searching, she finally found what she was looking for in Weston. Austin’s truck. The license plate reading LUVINBETH sat stone-like under the tumultuous sky, down a long dirt driveway, in front of a small house.
A bluish-white sliver of the moon peered down at the woods, competing against the cloudy sky, and reflected ominously off the overgrown front yard as the Landrys’ station wagon bumped along the soaked gravel drive and pulled next to the blue Ford F-350.
Since she couldn’t find Erica, she’d decided to confide in Austin. He was intelligent and she trusted that he’d be able to shed light on the situation, help her make sense of it all. He’d tell her just where her logic about the necklace was flawed. He’d smile his crooked smile and everything would suddenly be better. At least she hoped so. There was really no one else in her life to turn to.
Not bothering to shut her car door, she ran through the rain toward the house. Thunderheads boomed above her as she dashed across the yard. Just before she reached the porch, lightning pierced the sky, illuminating a chain link fence on the yard’s perimeter.
The front door was open and a window at the front of the house appeared to be broken. A dull ray of fluorescent light glowed against a rickety porch, reflecting off shards of what appeared to be glass. There was also something on one of the porch steps. Haley gasped and jumped back. A dead cat lay curled up, the tip of its tongue clenched between its teeth.
Through the downpour, she could hear voices in the front room. Arguing.
Could Beth be in there with him?
She tried to remember if he’d mentioned her being in town. And, for the first time, she thought that it might have been a bad idea to come. After all, aside from the dreams she’d had of Austin and several weeks of small talk and a few rides home, she hadn’t really had any meaningful conversations with him. Not really.