The Dead House
Page 11
Kaitlyn’s eyes roll, flutter, and close.
“Help me,” Naida says to Scott.
He starts to pick Kaitlyn up, but Ari is closer and faster, and soon she is cradled limply in his arms instead.
Naida nods. “Up to the guest room.”
Ari carries Kaitlyn inside.
“You sure she’s okay?” Brett asks.
She puts a hand on his arm. “I told you, sugar. She is the way she is.”
TAUNTON ADVERTISER
Tuesday, 2 November 2004
MISSING GIRL LAST SEEN AT HALLOWEEN PARTY
Elmbridge High School student Juliet McClarin, 16, has vanished after attending a Halloween party at a local friend’s house last night, two miles from the school. McClarin, last seen at approximately 9:00 PM, is 5 foot 3 and weighs approximately 120 pounds. She has sandy blond hair and was wearing a Red Riding Hood costume at the time of her disappearance. There is speculation that Juliet tried to walk back to her dorm room alone after leaving the party. Taunton police officials are requesting the public’s assistance in locating Juliet. Any information should be made available to the Taunton Police Department and will be kept confidential.
29
93 days until the incident
Diary of Kaitlyn Johnson
Monday, 1 November 2004, 2:00 am
Attic
Nothing from Carly in the Message Book. Don’t know how to take it.
I’ve decided that what happened at Naida’s party was probably because of the alcohol. Serves me right for drinking like that when I know Carly’s on meds. I wanted that release—that feeling of flight. It’s the nearest I can get to actually jumping off that roof, Dee. Scary thought.
Does it make me a joke? Because, honestly, I feel like one.
Later
I wish I could stay here, but I have to get Carly back to the dorm before sunup. It was so amazing to have Ari at the party with me. It was actually fun. Well, before the psycho Ouija board thing.
Just thinking about him makes me smile.
5:47 am
Dee… is it you?
If it’s you, please stop smiling at me.
30
93 days until the incident
Naida Camera Footage
Monday, 1 November 2004, 6:00 AM
Kaitlyn’s Dorm Room
A door, closed. A hand knocks.
“What?” comes a tight voice.
“Can I come in?”
Naida doesn’t wait for a response. She opens the door, steps inside, and closes it behind her.
“Get that thing out of my face,” Kaitlyn says right away, looking at the camera.
“What happened at my house? Why did you… pass out? I mean, like that. Was it even a transition? I’ve never seen it like that before.”
“Is that why you’re here? To interrogate me?”
Naida puts the camera on a shelf to her left, facing the room. “Kaitlyn—just stop. Stop it, okay? Do you know that I was scared out of my mind?”
Kaitlyn laughs derisively. “What is this?”
“I know you need this”—she gestures vaguely—“this bravado mask you insist on wearing. I get it. You have to protect yourself: fine. But I want to be your friend. And I’m asking you what went down with that board. What happened outside? I want to help you.”
Kaitlyn puts down the book she’s been writing in—her journal?—and gets to her feet. As she speaks, she steps closer and closer, until she is standing inches from Naida, her posture aggressive. “You want answers? How about you provide a solution? How about you tell Carly to stop taking those damn antipsychotic meds. How about you do that for me, huh? Then maybe I can have a drink without—” She stops herself.
“Kaitie—”
“Don’t call me that. You have no right.”
Naida exhales. “Kaitlyn. You’ve made me into an enemy. I have no idea why. But something did happen at my party. That pointer found you, and there was… something. You weren’t playing with a Ouija board, don’t you see?”
“I don’t care.”
“Of course you do. That board is a board of the Spirits—great spirits. By using that board, you drew their attention. I’ve tried to tell you before that you’re special. Every person has a living body and a soul. The soul is hugely powerful. It’s an amazing energy source, and it connects us to whatever comes after this life. You and Carly are two souls. That’s two in one body. Do you see the kind of power you wield? Do you see how potentially catastrophic that is? Two souls connected to what comes after in a single form? Can you see how attractive that is to malevolent forces? You and Carly are in there together, so you have to stay under the radar—”
Kaitlyn rolls her eyes and makes a guttural sound of irritation or boredom. “Twin souls, blah blah. Yeah, I’ve heard it before, Naida. What’s the point?”
“Playing with the Olen is dangerous,” Naida snaps. “You never know who’s listening. It’s like talking on a tapped phone line.”
“I guess that makes you a real genius, having that thing in your cousin’s house on Halloween. I bet you planned this.”
“You’ve really got no idea how dangerous that board was, do you? You just be glad I burned that pointer.”
“Nice going, Sherlock. Now get out of my room. And take that bloody thing with you!”
Naida turns, reaches for the camera, and the screen goes black.
[END OF CLIP]
31
Diary of Kaitlyn Johnson
Monday, 1 November 2004, 8:43 pm
Attic
Naida. Queen of the dramatic. Melodramatic.
I need a drink. Want to fly. Want to jump.
Away, away, up, up, away!
Later, Dorm
It’s official. Juliet McClarin is missing. No one has seen her since the party. She and her little friend Maggie were meant to come back to the dorms together in Maggie’s dad’s car, but Juliet left right before the Ouija board… thing.
They think she tried to walk the two miles back to school alone. At night. She could have fallen into a ditch or been eaten by foxes.
That’s really stupid if you ask me. Unless you are me.
From: AriHait558
To: RealxChick
Date: 1 November 2004
Subject: Tell Me
Tell me the truth about you.
Ari
32
36 days until the incident
Criminal Investigation Department, Portishead Headquarters
Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Portishead, Bristol
Tuesday, 28 December 2004, 15h40
AUDIO INTERVIEW #1: Detective Chief Inspector Floyd Homes (FH) and Scott Fromley (SF)
(FH): This is Detective Chief Inspector Floyd Homes, Avon and Somerset CID, interviewing Mr. Scott Fromley on the twenty-eighth of December 2004. You are a student at Elmbridge High in Taunton?
(SF): Yes.
(FH): In what year?
(SF): 2004.
(FH): What academic year, son.
(SF): Oh, uh, I’ve been here since seventh grade. I’m in my last year.
(FH): Do you know where Juliet McClarin is?
(SF): No.
(FH): Any ideas about who might want to hurt her?
(SF): [Laughs] Seriously? She was the year below me, mate. I barely paid attention.
(FH): Do you have a girlfriend?
(SF): Yeah, I do, so why would I look at Juliet?
(FH): So you only have eyes for your girlfriend?
(SF): Bloody hell, yeah. Sorry. Look, mate, Naida’s my girl. I’m no playboy, right? Nothing to it but that.
(FH): Naida. [Pause] Naida Chounan-Dupré?
(SF): Yeah, that’s right.
(FH): And you’d do anything to protect her?
(SF): Of course I would.
(FH): Even lie to protect her. [Pause] Even if it would hurt someone innocent?
(SF): What are you talking about?
(FH): Even if a life could be in danger?
/>
(SF): Seriously, mate, I don’t know what you mean.
(FH): Juliet has been missing for almost two months now. It seems highly likely that Carly Johnson was the last person to see her. Juliet stepped outside before the Ouija board incident, and shortly after that, Carly went outside. Witnesses state that they heard a scream, but none have been able to identify that scream as either Carly’s or Juliet’s for certain. It was several moments before others joined Carly outside. We don’t know what happened in the interim.
(SF): What does that have to do with Naida?
(FH): Do you know where Juliet is?
(SF): This is mental. No, I don’t know where she is. You should, though. Besides, I still don’t see what any of this has to do with Naida.
(FH): Scott, I need you to be honest with me.
[Pause]
(SF): Okay…
(FH): Is Naida Chounan-Dupré hiding Carly Johnson?
[End of tape]
33
91 days until the incident
Diary of Kaitlyn Johnson
Wednesday, 3 November 2004, 11:00 pm
The Anniversary of the Accident
Attic
We both know what today is, so I guess I’m not surprised that Carly didn’t leave a note. I should just come out and ask her, but… what if it’s true, and Lansing’s right? What if I cause irreparable harm by forcing her to talk to me?
No. It’s a trick. Another damn trick.
I felt stupid, but I did it all the same. Walked up to the old chapel, went inside, and lit two votive candles. Mum. Dad. Ari wasn’t there. I don’t know where he is. I don’t know what to say. I closed my eyes, as you’re meant to do, and I thought of them… tried to think of them. I don’t really remember what they looked like. Lansing keeps their photographs away from me. Trauma Lies.
She (you?) were standing in the solitary votive area. She (you?) were watching me from the darkness.
She (you?) were grinning.
I wish I could go to sleep.
34
88 days until the incident
Naida Camera Footage
Saturday, 6 November 2004, 6:53 PM
Naida’s Dorm Room
The screen is dim. We can barely make out Naida’s face.
“Idiot Mike,” Naida says, her voice low, breath heavy. “He doesn’t have even the tiniest clue what he’s done.” She pauses, hesitates, then clenches her jaw. “Or maybe he does.”
She pulls the camera away from her face, and we can see her more clearly. Her eyes are shadowed with fatigue and sleepless nights.
“The significance of the vandalism on his room… the missing door, the mirror… it’s not lost on me. I think he’s tampering with things he should leave well alone. I think he’s messing with black magic. And that he found the Olen board?” She closes her eyes. “And then there’s this.”
The camera pans over to Naida’s hand, in which sits a melted piece of dark plastic that she turns between her slim fingers.
“It’s the pointer. From my party. The one that found Kaitie… and Carly. I found it on my desk.”
She pans back to herself. “Shit. I have to see for myself. I have to know.”
[END OF CLIP]
35
Naida Camera Footage
Saturday, 6 November 2004, 7:07 AM
Kaitlyn’s Dorm Room
“What do you want?” Kaitlyn asks. She seems tense, her eyes darting past Naida into the corridor as though waiting for someone. “You know she’s not here yet.” She checks her watch. “Not for another three minutes.”
“Did you put this in my room?”
Kaitlyn frowns down at Naida’s hand and the hunk of plastic. “What is it?”
“You’re for real? You didn’t put it in my room to be funny?”
“I don’t go into your room.”
There seems to be strong meaning behind those words, made more so by Naida’s pointed silence.
Eventually Kaitlyn rolls her eyes and takes the plastic from Naida’s hands. Immediately she freezes, her neck muscles distend, and her mouth opens as though she’s in agony.
The camera dips and then rights itself. “Kaitlyn—”
Kaitlyn’s eyes scrunch up, and she bends over and screams, her hand balled into a fist around the plastic. Naida grabs her hand and rips the pointer free. Kaitlyn’s cries cease.
“What,” she gasps. “What did you—”
A door bangs open. “What the hell, Chounan?” Brenda’s angry voice is heard from afar. “Keep it down!” The door slams shut.
Naida turns back to Kaitlyn, lifting the camera. “Now, can you please explain—”
Kaitlyn’s eyes roll back, and she collapses in the doorway.
“Damn it.”
[END OF CLIP]
For many years, it was not known what exactly happened to make Kaitlyn scream so violently. However, nine years before the journal was found, a scrap of paper was discovered under the cushions of a sofa in the attic when safety renovations took place. It is written in Kaitlyn’s hand and dated 7 November.
Diary of Kaitlyn Johnson
Sunday, 7 November 2004, 7:00 pm
Dorm
Blood on my hands. There was blood on my hands.
And that sound, all around me, that terrible laughter—that derision! I could feel the amused malice behind that Voice, and I felt the breath down my back, and I could feel, I swear I could feel, a hand running down my shirt, touching me—urging me—
What the hell is happening to me, Dee?
36
From: RealxChick
To: AriHait558
Date: 7 November 2004
Subject: Tired of Hiding
Dear Ari,
I’m tired of hiding, running, being scared. I’m so tired of being alone, and fighting myself and everything else all the time. But even though I know I want to tell you the truth, I’m too much of a coward to do it face-to-face. That’s why I’ve been avoiding you. That’s why I avoid everyone.
Bogged Down by My Confession
From: AriHait558
To: RealxChick
Date: 7 November 2004
Subject: Re: Tired of Hiding
Confess.
Sincerely,
Interested
From: RealxChick
To: AriHait558
Date: 7 November 2004
Subject: Confession
You first.
Sincerely,
Coward
From: AriHait558
To: RealxChick
Date: 7 November 2004
Subject: Re: Confession
I think I’m not a very nice person. Me: army brat who hates his dad. I don’t care about very much some days, which I feel like is mostly because of this rootless existence I live with the asshole who shares my genes but not my emotional level, and I’m kind of scared I might be forced to leave, yet again, before I get to know this girl I met. I struggle to forgive wrongs done against me because I can’t ever forget them—I have an eidetic memory. I wear bowler hats because I hate my hair, but I despise fashion. I would like to have a cat one day, even though I hate animals, and I would very much like to know your story.
Full of Contradictions,
Ari
From: RealxChick
To: AriHait558
Date: 7 November 2004
Subject: Re: Re: Confession
My name is Kaitlyn, and I am a ghost. I don’t exist, or so they tell me.
During the day, I literally don’t exist. Most people go to sleep, wake up to the sun, and walk around in the light. Not me. My world is, and has always been, darkness, shadows, night.
My sister (we’ve always used that word), Carly, and I exist in the same body. I only come out at night. Carly is the one you see during the day at school, the one who ignores you, the one who probably looks at you like you’re a total stranger (if she looks at you at all), and the one everyone thought was at that party. I’m Kait—I’m the one who talks to
you in the confession booth, who has a WEIRD sense of humor, or lack of it, the one you went swimming with, the one you went to the party with, and the one you’ve been writing to. Me, Kaitlyn.
My doctor is convinced that I’m not really here. She keeps trying to convince me of it too. Sometimes she wears me down enough that I start to think maybe she’s right. But I didn’t appear after my parents died, as she is convinced—I’ve always been here. It’s just the way we are. Me and Carly, together in one form.
We keep this secret because we always have. Our parents sort of convinced us it was the best way, unless we wanted to be locked away in a mental ward for the duration of the universe. We even talked about pretending it was some kind of memory problem or something. In the end, though, they just decided to hide me away. I’ve been hidden ever since. I guess they were right after all. People do think I’m crazy when I tell the truth. They try to trick me—lie to me. Tell me things… that are so beyond hurtful that I think they must be denizens from hell to do that. They make me feel like poison. Like an illness. A symptom of some horrible disease.
But hopefully you won’t. I don’t expect you to believe what I’m telling you. But please, please, at least acknowledge this email.