by Piper Dow
“Where’s Dad?” Wayne asked.
Kelly pushed the laptop to the side on the cot and disentangled herself from the blankets. “He left a note. Says not to open the door, he went to get coffee and breakfast and would be back soon, but I woke up a while ago and he was already gone. He should be back by now if that’s all he went for.” She crossed over to the table and sat in the other chair.
Wayne nodded, tousling his hair. He glanced at Kelly, then away, at the laptop. Kelly waited. Minutes ticked by.
“I put some photos on the desktop.”
Kelly nodded. “I was looking at them now.”
“Could you tell,” he began, but Kelly’s head shake cut him off. “They weren’t edited?”
“Not that I can tell.”
More silence. Wayne glanced again at Kelly, then back at the laptop.
“Was it her? Was she,” his voice trailed off instead of finishing the question.
“It was the same dress. That’s all I can tell for sure from the photos,” Kelly said. She watched his face. She usually let him take the lead, ask the questions he was ready to hear answers for, but his plodding pace was too slow as a memory swam to the forefront of her mind. “Wayne, do you know what ‘skinwalkers’ are?” He shook his head, but then slowed and cocked his head to one side.
“Is that what Sam was talking about last month when she was home?”
“I think so. I video-chatted with her last week. Remember all that stuff about legends and fables she was talking about when she was home?”
Wayne nodded, still looking quizzical.
“She told me last week that some of the legends are real. She said she had seen something – she said it was a ‘skinwalker’ that some of the legends are about,” Kelly said. “Jill came in the room while we were chatting and Sam changed the subject. I was going to say something, and she made those googly eyes at me –– you know, when she wants you to be quiet in front of Mom and Dad and makes those eyes? Like that. I had forgotten about it, but now,” Kelly trailed off, too.
“You think the pictures might be of those? Of skin walkers?” Wayne asked.
Kelly shrugged. “Maybe. It’d be worth finding out, don’t you think?”
Wayne gave a non-committal shrug. He glanced again at the laptop. “Kelly, I know Mom and Dad saw those things, and I know Sam has pictures of them, but,” he faced Kelly straight on, his words spilling over each other now. “The things she wrote – some of that sounds like Sam was cracking up! C’mon, sneaking around and being afraid to use the internet at home? Thinking her food was all going bad and throwing everything in the fridge away? Does that sound sane to you?”
Kelly shook her head slowly. “No, it actually reminds me of someone with schizophrenia. In my psych class, there was a girl who has schizophrenia, but she takes medication for it. She said before she got diagnosed she had hallucinations that made everything taste like it had blood or metal in it. People with schizophrenia sometimes can think they’re being watched, and they have trouble keeping things straight on what’s real and what isn’t.” Kelly thought, rubbing her forehead, trying to see which pieces fit together. “But Wayne, Sam was being followed – she was attacked after she came home! And she does have those pictures of things that Mom and Dad saw. How likely is it that some of what she saw and wrote about was real, but some not?”
Kelly shook her head more firmly. “No, I don’t think Sam is crazy. I don’t know what is going on, but I don’t think she was losing it.”
Wayne squinted one eye and chewed the inside of his bottom lip. “But, Kel, seriously, what are we talking about here? People don’t just turn into animals – werewolves don't exist. They can’t!”
He stood abruptly, pushing back the chair with his legs and just catching it by the top to prevent it from tipping over. He strode to the cot and picked up the laptop, then carried it back to the table. He used the touchpad to open Sam’s journal program and scrolled, looking for a specific entry.
“Say this wasn’t Sam, wasn’t someone you knew writing this,” he said. “Tell me what this sounds like. Here. ‘Overslept again this morning and missed church. Head feels like it’s filled with Jello, so hard to make simple things make sense. Found the bread on the counter instead of in the fridge, but Jill hasn’t been home in two days. No dishes in the sink. Poured a glass of milk, but couldn’t drink it – curdled. Just bought it yesterday. I left the book about the Mi'kmaq tribe on the coffee table yesterday when I took a nap, and when I went to find it later it was missing. Found it this morning in the bathroom – I don’t read in the bathroom.’” Wayne glanced up at Kelly to make sure she was listening. “The earliest of these kinds of entries is from right after Sam came home last month. She seemed okay, then, right? But listen to this one: ‘Really wish Jill was here to talk to, maybe she could help me figure this out, but if she were here then probably Mark would be here, too, and then I couldn’t talk to her about it anyway. I keep seeing these people that no one else seems to see. I was walking down the street and saw someone in the store window following me. When I turned to look, there was no one there. I was sitting in the library and felt like I was being watched, but I looked all around and didn’t see anyone. I was at the grocery store and saw a man out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was David, Mark’s friend from the party, so I was going to say hey, but he had turned a corner –– and when I got to the next aisle, he wasn’t there. I kept an eye out, but he wasn’t in the whole store. When I left to walk home, I felt like I was being watched again, and I felt like it was him. And that’s crazy. I feel like I’m losing my mind.’”
Wayne looked up again and brushed his hair out of his eyes. “Kelly, she said it herself. She thought she was going crazy.”
“Yeah, Wayne, ok, but then explain the things that attacked her at the bus stop. Dad said something was biting her, and he can’t even bring himself to describe whatever the things were accurately, so you know there was something horrible about them. I’m just saying, Sam didn’t end up in the hospital because she was imagining things,” Kelly said. “I’m not saying you’re wrong – I’m not,” she pushed on before Wayne could interrupt, trying to forestall an argument. “Look, let’s look at this from all angles. Let’s pick it apart. But let’s not decide something is or is not without looking at everything, okay?”
The sound of tires crunching on gravel outside silenced them both. Kelly imitated Dad’s movements from the night before, standing to the side of the window and peeking out.
“It’s Dad,” she said, motioning to Wayne to open the door. “He’s got Dunkin’!”
CHAPTER FIVE
Wayne opened the cabin door as Dad was reaching for it, trying to balance the cardboard tray of coffee cups and a bag of pastries in one hand to free his other for the doorknob. He broke into a tired smile as he saw them eagerly waiting.
“I was longer than I wanted to be, I’m sorry,” he said, setting the tray of coffees down so that he could hand out cups. He pulled out a cup, read the markings on the side, and handed it to Kelly. “Caramel swirl, regular. So this one is French vanilla,” he added, handing another cup to Wayne. “There are muffins in the bag.”
He sank into the chair that Wayne had vacated and leaned back, bringing his own coffee to his lips.
“I went to the hospital. Sam is doing all right. They’ve got her on IV antibiotics, in case whatever that was that bit her was diseased. She was running a low-grade fever last night by the end of the shift, so they’re watching her. Her arm looks like it will probably heal okay, but the leg is going to have a pretty mean scar.”
Wayne, mouth full of cranberry muffin, tried to say something but stopped. He chewed to clear his mouth, then started again.
“Dad, we’ve been trying to put things together,” he started.
Kelly cut across him. “Let’s hear what else Dad has to say, first,” she suggested.
Irritation flashed across Wayne’s face, but he shrugged and took another bite of muffin.
Dad looked back and forth at the two before speaking.
“Listen, I don’t want you two getting in the middle of this. We don’t know what is going on, but we know something is –– and it’s not good. I don’t want you getting hurt, too.”
Kelly slapped her hand down on the table. “We’re already in the middle of this! Look at where we are!” Kelly struggled to control her voice. “We had to leave school early last night and come home to pack up stuff and drive half-way through the night to hide in a cabin so we could be told not to open the door until you come back, and you think we’re not in the middle of this? Do not tell us we can’t help figure this out!”
Dad blew out his breath slowly. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But if you help, you have to do it my way, and be extremely careful. We don’t know what we’re dealing with.”
Kelly and Wayne both nodded, watching him attentively.
“Ok, so what else did you find out this morning?” Asked Wayne.
Dad described driving to the hospital, following a circuitous route again and continually checking to make sure no one was following him. He had driven past the house, just to see what was going on, and saw the same van parked on the side of Thomas Street.
“I was thinking of getting someone else’s vehicle to drive past that van to see if it’s there legitimately or what, but I put that on hold,” he said.
He had driven next to the hospital, parking in the employee lot and watching the cars in the lot before walking to the entrance.
“I don’t know if there’s a reason to think someone might be staking out the hospital or not, but better to be,” he said.
“Safe than sorry,” Wayne and Kelly both chimed in, smiling. It was a familiar mantra.
“Right,” he said, not smiling. “I talked to security before going up to Sam’s room. The guard had an interesting story from the night. I don’t know if it’s related, or not. There was a commotion in the ER that security had to respond to. A handful of kids all dressed up like zombies were brought in – a couple had to have their stomachs pumped because of alcohol poisoning.”
Kelly felt Wayne glance at her but refused to turn her attention.
“While the zombies were milling about, trying to scare patients, a couple of people tried to get past the security door,” Dad said. “They didn’t look like zombies, and the guard said they didn’t look like college kids, but nowadays you can’t really tell. They didn’t get access to the rest of the hospital, but if they were trying to get up to Sam, they might be back.”
“Other than the fact that strange things are going on in our family, what makes you think they were trying to get up to Sam’s room?” Asked Kelly.
“The guard said they were talking between themselves about getting a laptop before they tried opening the door. They told the guard they were trying to get homework notes from a friend,” said Dad.
Kelly nodded. She bent and rifled through Sam’s bag, pulling a notebook and pen toward herself. It might help sort things out later if she wrote them down. She turned to a fresh page and wrote in a column, “Sam attacked. Van on Thomas Street. ER zombies. Someone trying to get a laptop, homework notes.”
As she wrote, she asked, “You didn’t happen to hear the names of any of the zombies, did you?” She rubbed her forehead with her left hand and tried to keep her voice casual.
“No, the guard didn’t use names,” he said, watching her pen move across the paper. “Mom said Sam didn’t have a restful night. Neither did Mom. They’ve got a bed made up for her, but you know hospitals – they’re in and out of the room checking things all night. Plus, she doesn’t know everything that’s going on. I haven’t told Mom everything we found in Sam’s bag, but I did tell her she needs to be alert to anything strange, which of course made her anxious about sleeping. If you really want to help, you guys could take turns staying with Sam so Mom can get some sleep today.”
Kelly nodded.
“So, Sam’s going to be okay, then?” Wayne asked.
Dad considered the two of them before speaking. “We don’t know what bit her, but the doctors were able to close the wounds. She did wake up after the surgery, but she’s been asleep all night since then. There’s a lot we still don’t have answers to, but yes, I think she is going to be okay.”
“Ok, so how are we going to handle this?” Kelly started talking as she thought things through. “You want us to go to the hospital and stay with Sam so Mom can get sleep –– is she going to come here? We all came together. We only have your truck. Shouldn’t we get our vehicles? But then there’s a bigger risk of being followed, if there’s anyone following. But if we don’t get our vehicles, it means a whole lot of all of us sitting around doing nothing because we’re stuck without vehicles.”
“Dad?” Wayne broke into Kelly’s stream of conscious monologue. “What about the police? Shouldn’t we talk to them?”
Dad’s mouth twisted as he considered Wayne’s questions. “Well, on the one hand, that’s a good idea. Sam was attacked. On the other hand, it looks like she was attacked by animals. Mom and I aren’t sure what we saw, but it would be hard to describe them as people, and the wounds looked like animal bites. If she was attacked by animals, it’d be something for police to watch out for, but nothing criminal, and animals are not likely to keep trying to get her, or her laptop. Everything else we’re suspecting is based on Sam’s pictures and journal, none of which is likely to convince anyone else that something is going on.”
Dad sighed. “But if there really is something going on, the police have far more resources to deal with it than we do. It’s just – I know this sounds like we’re crazy.” Dad looked at Kelly. “To your point, yes, I guess we are going to have to get your cars. If we go to the house first, you guys can get a car and go to the hospital. I’ll call the police and ask them to have someone meet us there. That way they’ll be able to talk to Sam, too.”
They made quick work of tidying up the cabin, not bothering to repack everything since they would be returning in a few hours. Kelly stashed the notebook and Sam’s laptop back in her bag and slung it over her shoulder. The police might want to take a look at it, and she didn’t really want to let it out of her sight. If someone really was trying to get their hands on it, leaving it unprotected was not a good idea. With that thought in mind, Kelly turned to look at the room before closing the door, trying to make a firm imprint in her mind of where everything was. She wanted to be able to tell if anyone did try to look around while they were gone.
CHAPTER SIX
Driving back to the house took twice as long as it usually did after a weekend of fishing. Dad drove North on Rte. 1 to get to Tremont Street and took that around town before taking Main Street back through town to get home from the opposite direction. Kelly and Wayne decided to drive Wayne’s car to the hospital so that Kelly could keep an alert eye on their surroundings.
“Don’t go into the house,” Dad cautioned. “I don’t want to take the time to check it out every time we come near it, and I don’t want you going inside unless I check to make sure nobody is in there waiting.”
Kelly had been hoping to go inside to grab her pillow and some Excedrin but didn’t argue. They were heading to a hospital; she was sure she’d be able to find some medicine for her headache there. Tonight she would sleep on one of the bunks in the back room so her body wouldn’t be as sore when she woke up.
They approached the neighborhood, and Dad took a right onto Thomas Street.
“We may as well see if that van is still there,” he said.
It wasn’t. Kelly felt an odd sense of letdown.
“What in the world?” Dad muttered under his breath as he turned down their street. White streamers of paper hung from tree branches and draped over the shrubs near the road in the front of their house. Their house had been T-P’d.
As they drove slowly closer, Kelly noticed silly string had been shot at most of the windows and the mailbox, and both Wayne’s car and hers had be
en slathered with shaving cream. She looked up and down the street. None of the other houses had been hit, just theirs.
“Don’t touch anything yet,” said Dad as he parked the truck on the street in front of the house and they all got out. He turned to Wayne. “Do you have anything to tell me about this?”
Wayne opened his mouth wordlessly and then closed it again. He looked thunderstruck.
“Seriously, Dad? I’ve been with you and Kelly since yesterday afternoon!”
“Could this be payback? Have you done anything to anyone else?”
Kelly knew Dad was thinking about the Parker’s house that Wayne and a few of his friends had toilet papered a month ago. They had been caught, and the police made them clean it all up and then expanded their efforts to clean up the whole street, going so far as to make them dig the empty fast food cups and used nip bottles out of the weeds at the edge of the road before deciding they had made sufficient retributions.
“I don’t know anything about this,” Wayne said through gritted teeth. His hands were balled fists shoved in his pockets.
Dad nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s just head to your cars and check them out.”
He scanned the neighborhood as he spoke, scrutinizing the shadows under the trees and at the sides of houses. He motioned them forward.
Wayne reached his car first. He cupped his hands around his eyes and leaned forward to peer into the car, making sure he didn’t touch the window. A moan of anguish escaped him. Dad grabbed his hand as he reached for the door handle, preventing him from opening the door. Kelly looked inside quickly, then ran to assess the damage to her own car. Wayne’s car had been trashed; his car seats were slashed, and a gaping hole in the dash indicated where his stereo had been. The inside of her car, however, had been left undisturbed.
“Okay, that’s strange,” she said. “Aside from the shaving cream, my car looks fine.”
