by JL Bryan
The gravel drive curled past the house and behind the barn, where a couple of old cars and pick-ups were parked. The wide wooden door into the barn was slightly ajar, letting out a narrow vertical strip of dim electric light. Carter heard Incubus blasting over a stereo as he approached the door.
Carter looked in through the door. Jared occupied a chair near the middle of the room, wearing his battered old Joker cap and a thin white tank top, drinking beer from a forty-ounce bottle. His girlfriend, a cute junior named Becca Towbridge, sat in Jared’s lap smoking a cigarette, casually flicking ashes onto the dirty wooden floor. Carter could hear more voices, and he could see part of one girl in a chair, her back to him, and the hairy legs of a couple of guys sitting up on the wide work counter.
He nudged open the door while knocking on it. Most of the people in the room looked up and immediately scowled at him. Three guys sat on the counter near a rusty table saw.
Carter recognized two of them, both juniors—Finn McKinley, shirtless, his freckles particularly dense and heavy on his face, shoulders, chest, and arms. Finn was the younger but larger brother of Wes McKinley, who was in most of Carter’s classes. The second guy was Derek Butcher, a sandy-haired kid with a scrubby attempt at a goatee, also shirtless to show off his tanned muscles. The third guy was younger, maybe a sophomore, stocky and heavyset, the type who likely had chunks of muscle under his layer of fat. He wore a gold hoop in his left ear.
Two girls sat in chairs and half-turned to look at him, but Carter didn’t recognize them, either, which meant they were likely sophomores or freshman. One had dyed her hair an unnaturally bright shade of blond and streaked it with purple. The other, pudgier girl had tied her dark hair back with a kerchief and wore dark purple eyeshadow and lip gloss, which left stains on the white filter of the cigarette she was smoking. All the kids seemed to be smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.
“Whoa, look who that is,” Jared said. “Somebody’s slumming tonight. What the hell are you doing here, Carter?”
“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Carter asked him.
“Go ahead.” Jared leaned back in his chair, grinning, clenching a lit cigarette between his teeth. His girlfriend Becca settled against back against him, frowning at Carter. She had brunette hair streaked with gold, and dressed in a bikini top and tiny black shorts. Studs and rings stippled the edges of her ears.
“I mean privately, though,” Carter said.
“What, you don’t like us?” Finn asked.
“Probably scared of us,” Derek said, which got a few laughs, so he milked it for more. “Hey yo, you scared of us, nerd-boy?”
“Am I supposed to be?” Carter asked.
“What the fuck do you mean by that?” Derek scowled, his voice drunk and aggressive. “Hey, Jared, what the fuck does he mean by that?”
“Relax, dude,” Jared told him. “Slide off, Becca, I’m going to talk to him for a second.”
“Can’t I come?” Becca frowned.
“Nah, go get yourself another beer from the cooler. Good girl.” Jared slapped her butt as she stood up, and she shrieked and turned back, playfully slapping at him with both hands. Carter had to endure more than a minute of their laughing play-fight before Jared finally shook the girl off and walked to the door. He stepped outside with Carter and eased the door shut.
They looked at each other for a moment.
“Been a long time, man,” Jared said. “Long time since you lowered yourself to speak to me.”
“I’m not lowering myself. You know I cut everybody off after it happened.”
“Everybody?” Jared snorted. “There was no ‘everybody,’ Carter. Just me.”
“I know we haven’t talked in a long time, but—”
“Don’t even start like that,” Jared interrupted. “Don’t act like it’s equal, like we just stopped hanging out. You cut me off. You decided you were better than me.”
“I didn’t,” Carter said. “I just...after seeing her die...I couldn’t...deal with anything.”
“Me, either, man. That was a fucked-up day.” Jared swigged beer from his bottle.
“It was.”
“You guys lost the go-kart place, too. That sucks. We used to have so much fun there.”
“I know. My mom took off, too. Couple years ago.”
“I heard,” Jared said. “Sorry, man. So, what’s up? Are you trying to buy some weed or something?”
“No, thanks.” Carter took a breath. He’d spent his time with the slow, slow search party mentally practicing what he was going to say.
“No!” a girl screamed inside, but she was laughing.
“Look,” Carter said. “You know about those missing kids, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Reeves used to come hang out sometimes. He was pretty cool. I guess the other kid was his weird neighbor or something.”
“We were thinking, what if they went into Starland?”
“Wait, wait,” Jared said. “There’s a ‘we’ now? Who else besides you?”
“Victoria Samaris.”
“That’s the new girl you eat lunch with?”
“That’s her.”
“Sweet ass on her,” Jared said. “You fucking her?”
“No...”
“Kinda sad in the ta-ta zone, though. Plus she’s got too much of that dark and witchy look, like she spends too much time reading books. But if you’re into that type.” Jared shrugged.
“Anyway, we were thinking the police probably didn’t search Starland. They do drive-bys to check for trespassers, but they like to keep that place sealed up. They wouldn’t expect local kids to go in there.”
“So why do you think they went there?” Jared asked.
“It seems like people are really talking about the park this year, doesn’t it? Like it shocked us for years, but now something’s different. I’ve even seen some devil graffiti.”
“I’ve seen a few of those, yeah. Little red spraypaint devils around town. It wasn’t me or anybody I know doing it, and that eliminates most of the usual suspects...”
“So maybe they got curious and went inside.”
Jared seemed to think it over, then took a long chug of beer and wiped his mouth. “You know, we’ve been talking about doing that all summer, but we haven’t yet. Go in there, check out the craziness, maybe party a little...”
“Was Reeves here when you talked about it?” Carter asked.
“Probably.” Jared shrugged. “We were talking about it again like fifteen minutes ago.”
“So I’m trying to get some people to help us. We have to sneak into the park and search it without the cops finding out.”
“Yeah, no shit. Not with psycho Chief Kilborne around. He’d stomp your ass for it.”
Maybe not, Carter thought. Kilborne hadn’t formally charged him with anything, and had informally sentenced him to some pointless community service. Then again, Carter and Victoria had walked into the police station and confessed. If Kilborne or other cops had caught them in the act, the situation would have been very different.
“But we need more people for a search party. Can you and your friends come?” Carter asked.
“You need a few people to help, and I’m the first person you ask?” Jared snickered. “Jesus, dude, you are desperate. You really don’t have any friends, do you?”
“I don’t know. Will you help us out? You said you were friends with Reeves.”
“Hell, if they’ve been in there this long, they’re probably dead anyway,” Jared said. “We’re going to find dead bodies if we find anything.”
“It’s worth looking, though. It would really help if you guys came.”
Jared stared at him for a long moment, clearly thinking about it, or thinking about something. Maybe he was just putting together a choice insult to fling into Carter’s face.
“You know what?” he finally said. “We’ll do it. We want to go there anyway.”
“Seriously?” Carter felt a moment of shock, then relief. He’d
been almost certain Jared would turn him down, but he didn’t know who else to ask.
“Yeah, let me just go sell it to everybody. Hey, you should hook up with one of these sophomore chicks. They’re really friendly. I guarantee you could probably get Elissa’s top off, maybe.”
“That’s okay. Thanks, though.”
“You’re serious about that Victoria girl, huh?”
Carter shrugged.
“All right, come on.” Jared pushed open the door and led the way back inside. “Hey, listen. We’re going to search for Reeves and the fat kid.”
The kids groaned or shook their heads, except Jared’s girlfriend Becca, who laughed.
“And we’re going to search for them in Starland,” Jared said, which made the room fall silent.
“We can’t go in there!” one of the sophomore girls gasped.
“How are we supposed to get in?” Finn asked.
“There’s a big hole in the fence by Crashdown Falls,” Carter said.
“We’re going to have a search party,” Jared said. “I mean a search party, like we’ve been talking about. Sneak in some bottles, some smoke and just tear that fucking place up! Who’s going to stop us?”
Carter thought the obvious answer was “the police,” but nobody said anything until Becca spoke up.
“Hell, yeah!” Becca said. She threw her arms around Jared and kissed him. “That’ll be a fun night. I want to go there so bad, I’ve been having dreams about it.”
“Yeah, we could go in there, bust some shit up,” Derek said, lighting a cigarette destined to join the pile of crunched butts and ash on the counter beside him. He pointed at Carter. “Is this guy coming with us?”
“Carter, you know everybody here?” Jared asked. “That’s Finn, Derek, Heath...” The big quiet sophomore guy with the earring gave Carter an upward nod. “These ladies are Tamara and Elissa.” The sophomore girls waved. “And Becca. The hottest girl we know of.” Jared slung his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders.
“Oh, you’re so sweet to her! You’re like the perfect boyfriend!” chirped Tamara, the sophomore girl with the ultra-blond hair. Becca gave her a frosty little smile.
“So everybody wants to go, right?” Jared asked. Nobody disagreed. “Good. Becca, get Carter a beer.”
Becca walked to the large cooler perched on an old tool cabinet.
“That’s okay,” Carter said. “I have a lot of—”
“Have a fucking beer, man,” Jared insisted, while Becca popped open a bottle of Rolling Rock and held it out to Carter with a friendly smile. “When a hot girl hands you a cold beer, you just say yes.”
“I guess I could have one.” Carter took a sip, but he didn’t really like the taste of beer. “There’s something else I should say before we go. The park might be haunted.”
The room grew quiet for another moment. Finn snickered.
“I bet it is,” said Elissa, the sophomore girl with the purple lips and allegedly loose bra. “If anyplace is haunted, Starland would be.”
“It has to be,” Jared said. “Fuck, that place haunts everybody. It haunts the whole town.”
“So there could be ghosts at our party. Could be fun.” Becca gave Jared another smile.
“True,” Jared said.
“You guys are crazy!” Tamara said. “I can’t wait.”
“Carter and I were there, you know,” Jared told Becca. “When it happened.”
“Seriously?” Becca’s eyes went wide. “You never told me that!”
“It just sucked that carousel right down into the ground,” Jared said. “Then the swings. Thing is, man, some of the people on the swings got bashed into the pavement first, then dragged down into the hole. Then the roller coaster broke apart. Hell, Carter’s little girlfriend was riding Inferno Mountain, and when she came out...” Jared looked his way, and Carter felt all the blood drain from his face. He didn’t want to think about any of that. Jared hesitated, then shook his head. “That was a fucked-up day, man.”
“I want to know what happened to his girlfriend,” Tamara said, looking Carter over. “Was she pretty?”
“Yeah,” Carter said. “I really have to get going. It’s a long walk home, then I have a ton of homework—”
“Homework,” Finn snickered, and Derek snorted and shook his head.
“—so that’s a long night,” Carter said. He raised his beer bottle in a kind of parting toast, which nobody returned. “Thanks for helping, everybody. We’ve got some more research to do, but we’ll let you know when we’re ready to go.”
“I’m ready now,” Derek said, and the other guys grunted their agreement.
Carter started for the door.
“Later, man,” Jared said. “I’d give you a ride, but I’m way too smashed.” Jared didn’t seem all that drunk to Carter, but he was willing to take Jared’s word for it.
“We can give you a ride!” volunteered Elissa, one of the sophomore girls.
“Really? You’re old enough to drive?” Carter asked, looking at the nearly empty tall boy of beer in her hand.
“I’ve got my learner’s and my mom’s car,” her friend Tamara said. “So, basically, yeah.” This made Elissa burst into drunken laughter beside her. The two girls spilled over each other, laughing uncontrollably, and then Tamara threw up on herself a little bit.
“I think I’ll walk,” Carter said.
Chapter Thirteen
Carter and Victoria ducked behind a low-riding blue pick-up truck as the principal strolled along the side of the school. The man was looking toward the student parking lot where Carter and Victoria were hiding, and he was clearly checking for lunchtime cutters. Carter hoped he hadn’t seen them.
The principal was sometimes tolerant of seniors skipping out during lunch, especially during the spring as graduation approached. It was still August, though, and Carter was still seventeen, and Victoria was a junior, so they were courting serious detention if caught.
“Is he coming this way?” Victoria whispered.
“I couldn’t tell.” Carter eased his way up the door of the truck and peered through the cab windows, hoping they would make him less visible at a distance. The principal was still looking their way, and Carter tensed up. Then the principal continued on around the corner of the building, out of sight.
“He’s gone,” Carter whispered. Victoria had a sly smile, and he thought she was enjoying this, sneaking out of school and the risk of getting into trouble. He wasn’t particularly enjoying it, except for seeing her smile.
“Should we go?” Victoria whispered.
“Now or never.”
They dashed to her car and climbed inside. As she pulled out of the lot, they both sat low in their seats, as though the school administrators and teachers wouldn’t know who they were by the Michigan plates on her car.
They escaped, and soon they raced down Gulf Coast Highway toward the Hanover Realty office.
“What do you think he’s going to say?” Victoria asked.
“He’ll probably tell us there’s a big Satanic temple in the caves underneath the park.”
“Seriously? Are there caves?”
“There shouldn’t be any, but nobody can explain the giant sinkhole, either. So, sure, giant Satanic caves,” Carter said. “Why not?”
“Maybe he’ll remember something that can help us. Or maybe he can put us in touch with the guy who made the rides, Artie Schopfer. I called Amusements and Attractions magazine, and the lady there said the guy who wrote the article on Inferno Mountain died years ago, but she said she would try to find some information about Schopfer for us. Honestly, I think she just wanted to get me off the phone.”
“We’ll find out. I think that’s your turn.” He pointed to a four-story office building with dark windows.
Hanover Realty occupied the top floor of the building, but most of that floor had been let out to a temporary employment company called STAFF UP TODAY!, their logo plastered everywhere in cheery yellow letters.
&n
bsp; Hanover occupied just one corner of the floor, a front corner with floor-to-ceiling glass in the reception lounge, looking out over the highway and palm trees and the half-empty strip malls of downtown Conch City.
Carter introduced himself to the receptionist, a stern-looking lady with a large heap of battleship-gray hair and a sour frown that seemed permanently carved into her face.
“Have a seat,” she invited, in a tone that implied she’d be happy to watch them drop dead on the carpet. Carter and Victoria sat on uncomfortable antique mahogany chairs next to a bookshelf stocked with volumes of classics, from The Odyssey and Arabian Nights to Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy in three volumes: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. All the books matched perfectly in height, with identical black covers and golden binding, the kind of books sold as a set for display by people who didn’t necessarily care to actually read them.
Another wall held a large bulletin board pinned with fliers and brochures for properties for sale or lease around town.
Carter and Victoria sat quietly, since the receptionist’s presence seemed to demand a library-like silence. The only sound was the lady’s fingernails clacking the keys at her computer.
They grew more nervous as one minute after another dragged by. The sooner they returned to school, the smaller their chance of getting caught, but it was already six minutes past their appointment. They had to be back at school when the beginning-of-period bell rang at twelve-fifteen or their absence would be noticed.
Finally, the intercom on the receptionist’s phone crackled, and a man’s voice muttered, “Okay.”
The woman stood and opened the door to Mr. Hanover’s office, motioning wordlessly for them to enter. Her stern eyes bored into both of them as they passed.
Theodore Hanover Junior looked about sixty years old, with a deeply wrinkled face and a permanent squint that Carter associated with cigarette smokers. His curly, dark brown toupee almost matched the hair on his mustache and the sides of his head, but not quite. He was heavyset, his stained white shirt stretched over his stomach paunch, his checkered necktie askew. He coughed as he stood and extended his hand for a shake. The pungent burning smell of old cigarette smoke rolled off him, filling the room.
