by Linnea West
Looking around, I almost couldn't believe that there was a point in time where we were at each other's throats. Right now, everyone was laughing and smiling as they snacked. It made me happy to know that even when we are all stuck together in a blizzard and one of us killed someone, we could still put that aside and have fun together.
The timer dinged and we all started to drift to the next round. I went back to the Crazy Eights table where the cards were already shuffled and waiting for us. My father picked them up and dealt them out to start the game. My starting hand was not great. I had already lost all hope of winning this competition, so I didn't really mind.
The game progressed and my father was absolutely trouncing us. I may have been a little biased, but I was cheering him on to win the entire thing. It was funny though because my father was so humble. He was actually apologetic every time he won or made a move that put him ahead of someone else.
Claudia was in a good mood and I realized that I had grown to like her. Even though I was a bit skeptical of her choice of spouse, she was really pleasant. I was surprised that Claudia was actually quite a bit younger than I thought. Simply because of the fact that she was married to Lyle, who was nearing retirement age, I had assumed that Claudia was about the same age. But sitting next to her as we played a game, I realized that she was actually much nearer to my age. I wondered how someone as young and lovely as her had ended up with grumpy Lyle.
Dawn, on the other hand, seemed incredibly distracted. She kept staring off into space over my shoulder and we would have to remind her that it was her turn. It was like she kept snapping in and out of reality. I wondered what was the problem. Was it the money problems she had mentioned before? Or maybe Jake's death was weighing heavily on her mind. I wasn't going to ask her about it.
As we went through the game, I played a valiant game, but ended up losing which gave me zero points to add to my already sad total. I really didn't mind because we had a great time playing. I had always been someone who was more about playing the game than winning. Most of my siblings were incredibly competitive and while I did enjoy winning every once in a while, I was not one to flip the board when I was losing or gloat when I was the one who won.
We were the first game done during this round, followed closely by Chinese Checkers. My mother scurried over from the Chinese Checkers game to the poster board so she could record the points from each game. Claudia went to report our standings and as it became apparent that there was no way I would be anywhere near the top of the leader board, I was just excited to see that my father was in first place. The last round was also his break, but Joe would be playing and could tie it up for first place.
After all of the points were recorded, it looked like the most exciting thing would be figuring out who would come out in first place. The race for third wasn't as tight, but Joe and my father were neck in neck. We didn't really have a plan for what to do if they were tied after all five rounds were done. I wandered over to the leader board, trying to think up a plan of what to do.
"I think your father might win it all," my mother whispered conspiratorially. Her eyes were shining with love and pride for my father, and I couldn't help but smile along with her. Their love story was one of my favorites because now even after raising six kids, they still were totally and completely in love with each other.
"He might, but Joe might tie it up in the next round," I said. "I was just trying to figure out what we should do if they do end up tied. We can't just leave it that way, not after spending the entire afternoon organizing this competition."
My mother nodded, but before we could say anything, Dawn walked up. Her hair was still in a french braid, but she hadn't bothered to re-do it this morning, so there were wisps of hair flying all over the place. Her eyes were sparkling with a thought.
"Don't worry," she said as she pointed at me. "I have a great idea."
I glanced at my mother, but she had moved on to the food table. She was looking up and down to see what needed to be refilled to make the people happy. Owning a B&B really did suit her because she was definitely the hostess with the mostess.
"Okay," I said. "Tell me more."
I was hoping she had some kind of fantastical, wonderful, out of the ordinary idea that would really cap off this experience on a good note. Hopefully the storm would die down now and we could end this strange couple of days with the end of the games competition.
Chapter Thirty-One
"I think that obviously your father and Joe will need to play another game together to figure out who the ultimate, overall winner is," Dawn said. Her eyes were glittering with possibilities, but there was something else behind it that I couldn't read.
Honestly, I had been hoping for something a little bit more exciting. Obviously we were going to have them play another game to break the possible tie. I was a little annoyed that Dawn was acting like she had just come up with a wonderful, new idea that we never would have thought of.
"Well yes," I said. "I think it's quite obvious that we will need to figure out another game for them to break the tie, if they end up tied of course."
Dawn's eyes lit up as she stuck her pointer finger in the air. Her face erupted with happiness, a smile spreading across her face. There was something disconcerting about her smile though, and I found myself a little taken aback by it.
"When we were down in the basement, I saw a backgammon set," she said. "That would be the perfect, two-person game to settle the tie. Would you go downstairs with me to get it? I don't think I'm supposed to go down there by myself."
I went back and forth in my mind. I really didn't want to go back down into the dark basement, but someone would have to. I suppose that was actually a good idea for a game to break the tie.
"Okay, that would work," I said. "Let me just tell someone else."
I looked around for someone to tell the plan to, but Dawn grabbed my arm a bit too forcefully and whirled me around to face her.
"No no," she said. "You don't have to tell anyone. I mean, everyone is busy watching the last round. We will be really fast and when we come back up, we will tell them the plan."
Dawn was right. Everyone was watching the last round intently, especially the Chinese Checkers game where Joe was trying his best to come in first. It wouldn't take that long to get the backgammon set, so we could just tell everyone the plan once we came back with the game.
I grabbed my flashlight and pushed through the door to the kitchen with Dawn following close behind me. I hated going down to the basement, but this time should take even less time than when we had to get the tables and chairs plus I was one of the only ones who knew where the backgammon set could be. My mother and father were still overseeing the game competition and honestly, I wanted Tank to stay with Lyle because even if he wasn't my number one suspect anymore, he still had an anger problem that could flare up anytime.
When I got to the door to the basement, I opened the door and stood at the top of the stairs for a few minutes. Staring down into that dark void, even with a beam of light from my flashlight, was daunting. It felt like a deep hole just waiting to swallow me up.
"What's wrong?" Dawn asked. "Let's go."
"I just..." I started, not really wanting to tell a stranger that I was scared of the dark. It sounded so childish even if it was true. "I just really don't like the basement and how dark it is."
"Oh, well we have flashlights," Dawn said with a smile, waving the flashlight in her hand.
I nodded and turned back to the steps. Gingerly, I started to walk down them with one hand on the railing and the other gripping my flashlight. I shone the beam of light on the stairs, not wanting to miss a step. The last thing we needed was for me to tumble down these stairs and get hurt.
I took a few steps down the old, linoleum covered stairs. As always, they creaked underneath me but in a house as old as this, everything creaked. Once I was about halfway down, I realized that I hadn't heard Dawn start down yet. I turned and saw her waiting at
the top of the steps, looking down at me with a wild look in her eyes.
"Come on," I said. "You have to tell me about where you saw it. I won't be able to find it in the dark, otherwise."
Dawn stood still for a moment, staring at me as if she were deciding whether to follow me down or not. I made a decision that I was not going to look around down here by myself. Just as I put my foot on the stair above me to start climbing back up, Dawn started to come down the stairs.
Satisfied that she was going to accompany me down, I turned around and started back down the stairs. As I wondered what her problem was, the already dark stairs became noticeably darker. I turned just in time to see Dawn closing the door behind her.
"What are you doing?" I said, my voice sounding a bit more desperate than I wanted to. "Open the door. It's too dark down here."
"Well the basement is cold," Dawn said, her voice sounding casual. I could almost hear her shrug. "I didn't want the draft to come up and make the living room and kitchen even colder than they already are."
"Okay," I said slowly. "Let's just go fast."
I walked down the last few steps down to the concrete floor and I could hear Dawn's footsteps coming down behind me. The basement seemed so much darker than it had just a few hours ago when we had come down to fetch tables and chairs. Of course, it was just the same. I wondered if maybe I should have asked Mandy to come down with us. Maybe she had helped last time.
Slowly, I spun around, using my flashlight to do a quick search of the shelves that lined the basement walls. I didn't see the backgammon set right off the bat.
"Show me where you saw the backgammon board," I said as I started my second circle around with the beam of light.
"Oh, I think it was somewhere back here," Dawn said. "Follow me over here."
Dawn brushed past me and started walking towards the second room of the basement. I couldn't remember having been back there when we came down for the tables, but I had been more focused on getting in and out as fast as possible, so Dawn could have taken a little look round while I was busy trying not to panic.
Thinking about panic made me realize that panic was slowly setting in again. I focused on swallowing it down and taking deep breaths as I followed Dawn into the next room, further into the bowels of the basement, where it seemed to be even darker. I was starting to regret agreeing to come down here again.
Chapter Thirty-Two
As I walked into the second room of the basement, it felt like it was so dark that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Whereas before the darkness was surrounding me, now the darkness seemed to be pressing in. It seemed to be taking on a life of it's own and it seemed to be some kind of bully.
My breath started to become more staggered as I exhaled. I could feel what people termed as "impending doom" coming up my throat along with the feeling of stomach acid. It was almost like I had acid reflux except I knew it was just sheer panic.
I hated this feeling and I especially hated that there was nothing I could really do about it. Short of leaving the dark basement or making the power come back on, this feeling of panic would settle itself deep down inside of me until I was able to leave the darkness behind.
"Come on Tessa," Dawn said. "It's just right over here."
Dawn was holding the flashlight towards me and it was blinding me, but once my eyes got used to it, I could see Dawn's face above the beam of light. It was twisted with some sort of an evil smile, as if she were enjoying watching me start to panic. I couldn't tell if that was true or if I was just interpreting it that way because I was in the beginning stages of a panic attack.
I slowly walked across the small concrete room toward Dawn. As I got closer, she pointed her flashlights towards the wall in front of her and the shelves that ran along it. I squinted as I tried to follow her beam of light, still not seeing the backgammon set.
"Where is it Dawn?" I asked, "I still don't see it."
Dawn took a step towards me and grabbed the flashlight out of my hands. It was so unexpected that by the time I realized what she was doing, she was already holding my flashlight in her other hand. By the time I tried to close my grip on my flashlight, it was already gone.
"Give that back," I squealed, flailing a bit towards Dawn. "What are you doing?"
"I will give it back in a minute," she said. "I just thought you needed more light so you could see where the backgammon set was."
A lightheaded feeling was setting in, so I tried to start taking deep breaths. I took another step towards Dawn with my hand out, reaching desperately for the flashlight. It felt like the darkness was pressing in even more, setting in even though my eyes were open. I kept trying to open my eyes to see more, but they were already open.
"I'll find the set," I said. I was trying to keep my voice calm, but the more I tried, the more desperate it sounded. "Just give me my flashlight back."
Dawn's face was mostly in shadow which gave her smile an evil sort of look. It gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched her. Every time I took a step towards her, she took a step back. It was like she was enjoying this little interaction between us. I suddenly fully understood the idea of the game of cat and mouse. She was the powerful cat, leading me as a scared mouse right into her trap.
"You're scared of the dark, aren't you?" she said, her voice coming out in a snide whisper. "You're like a little child. You were like a little child in your bedroom also. When I went to find you there, you were terrified."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "When you were in my bedroom I wasn't scared at all."
Dawn rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. She was annoyed that I wasn't following her line of thought, but I was actually more afraid that I was following exactly what she was saying and I didn't like it.
"I told myself that when you disappeared, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit," Dawn said. "I went through the door into the family section upstairs and figured out where your bedroom was."
As she spoke, Dawn started to walk towards me. She had reeled me into her trap and now she was closing in. The closer she got to me and the more she spoke, the more confidence seemed to fill her up. It was almost like she was swelling up confidence.
"But by the time I got to your room, I realized that absolutely no one else was around," she said. "I knew that you were starting to suspect me, so I was going to use that chance to keep you quiet. I had planned such a wonderful crime and I couldn't let you ruin it by figuring me out."
Her words swirled around me and I stood still for a moment, all fear of the dark being pushed down while I let what Dawn was saying really set in. She had been the one in the hallway when I had fallen asleep in my room. She was the one who killed Jake.
"Look at your face," Dawn said with a cruel laugh. "You had no idea. Here I thought you were so smart and that you had me totally figured out. That is why I tried so hard to get you to look at Lyle and Anna. I threw everything I had at you to make you look at anyone but me. And it worked."
"If it worked, why are you telling me all of this?" I asked. "I have to give you credit, you really did make me looking very seriously at Lyle and especially Anna. I hadn't even thought of you as a suspect for a while. But now you are confessing to me and I'm unsure of why you are doing that."
Dawn took a few more steps towards me. I backed away until my back was right up against the shelf that ran along the wall. I had nowhere to go. The cat had indeed trapped the mouse.
"I am telling you this because I wanted you to know why I have to do this," Dawn said. She was so close now that I could see a sort of madness dancing in her eyes. "This is the perfect opportunity for me. You are the only one smart enough to to put all of the pieces together. And here we are, just the two of us. Don't worry, I'll make sure it looks like an accident."
My breath caught in my throat as Dawn was so close to me that I could feel her breath on my face. I was certain that if there were more light down here, that her eyes would be colored red from all of the vitriol ins
ide of her.
"The more you fight, the harder it will be for both of us," Dawn said.
Suddenly one of the flashlights swung out of the darkness towards me. As the hard metal flashlight connected with the side of my head, fear started to rush in, competing for space with the panic. Pain radiated out from where the flashlight hit just above my ear.
The darkness that surrounded me was suddenly filled with sparkles and I couldn't think about anything except how much my head hurt. I needed to get out of the basement before she could do anything else. If I could make it upstairs, I could get some help. I needed to get out of the basement.
Dawn raised her arm up above her head, but as she tried to bring the flashlight down onto my head, I dodged to the left. As she tried to follow me, I hurriedly faked her out and went around her to the right. Her momentum kept her going left as I was able to get by her and run back to the first room and towards the stairs leading up to the kitchen.
I reached the stairs and started to climb up, trying not to let the panic set in. My adrenaline was pumping and it was filling up the space that had been filled with panic. If I started to panic now, I might not be able to make it up the stairs.
Dawn's footsteps were coming towards me, thumping on the concrete floor. I started up the stairs, knowing that when I made it to the top, I needed to get the police here now. It was bad enough that I had let Dawn slip right by me as a suspect, but I felt even stupider when I realized that I don't think my family owns a backgammon set.
Chapter Thirty-Three
My previous fear of the basement stairs had nothing to do with the stairs themselves, but with what could be at the bottom of them. Right now, at the bottom of the stairs was a crazed woman trying to hurt me so I guess I was right about that.
But now when I was trying to climb them in a hurry, I was realizing just how treacherous they really were. They were wood stairs that had been covered at some point in time with linoleum tiles. There were spaces between the steps that seemed to want to swallow my feet up.
