Strange in Skin

by Zook, Sara V.

  I ran back to my car and grabbed the flashlight. The house looked dark and gloomy. Dust filled my lungs as I stirred it just by opening the front door and taking one step in. I fought back the sudden urge to sneeze. I turned on the flashlight as thick drapes covered all the windows. Cobwebs hovered all over the ceiling like nets bending down toward my head, the spiders waiting for their prey. There was a set of steps directly off the front door and beside those steps, an old piano, the white keys now dirty and covered in dust. There were a few pictures sitting on top of the piano. I walked over and shined the light on the picture frames. The first picture had a young couple in it, a woman dressed all in white holding up a daisy and the man in a Navy uniform, his arm around her waist. It looked like it might be a wedding photo. Another one just as large sat beside that one. It had the same young couple in it along with a little girl who sported blonde curls and a little boy about the same height with dark brown hair and a large grin. A smaller photo was on the other end of the piano. It was a headshot of the little blonde girl smiling, one of her front teeth missing as it looked like she might be in second or third grade. I picked up this one and attempted to blow the dust off. I studied the little girl’s face. She was beautiful. I put it back and rounded the corner to a living area. There were two red velvet couches in there and an overstuffed green chair. There was a small coffee table with some magazines sitting on top of it. Someone had moved out of here in a hurry and hadn’t bothered to take much of anything with them. There was a large mirror on one of the walls in this room, and it made my heart flutter as I kept staring up at it, half expecting someone to be there in the mirror, staring back at me.

  A small book sat under the coffee table on a shelf. I sat down on the edge of the dusty sofa and picked up the book. I blew the dust off of it, and this time I did sneeze. I opened the front cover. It was a photo album. There were tons of pictures of the little girl and boy together, the same ones that belonged to the photo on the piano. They were smiling, swimming and some pictures showed them riding in the back of an old truck down the road, the kids smiling from ear to ear at whoever was taking the picture as they drove off. I picked up one of the pictures out of the book and turned it over. There was writing on the back. It said: Lucas and Cassie, 1955. They looked like partners in crime, brother and sister perhaps, very happy being with one another.

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  I screamed, startled, the photo album sliding off my lap and crashing onto the floor. I looked up at the face of a young girl who was a little on the heavy side, her light brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, her hands on her hips as if she were pleasantly irritated to find me here like this.

  I jumped to my feet and stared at her, my heart pounding in my chest. “You scared me.” She didn’t say anything, just continued to stand there with an annoyed look on her face. “Are you a ghost?”

  “Yes,” she said quickly.

  I frowned. “Well, I don’t believe in ghosts.” I thought about my last comment. No, not ghosts, just other worlds and beautiful men with supernatural powers and witches who can convince respectful townspeople that they need to chant around a bonfire in the middle of the night. I almost laughed, but instead I walked over to the child and I poked her shoulder with my finger. “It looks like you’re just as human as I am.”

  She glared at me, upset I had revealed her secret so quickly.

  “Who are you?” she asked in a demanding tone.

  “I’m Anna. And you are?”

  She remained silent again, pressing her lips together as if forcing herself not to speak. “Oh, come on,” I said. “Don’t ghosts have names, too?” I raised my eyebrows.

  She was not amused with my games. She let out a huffy sigh. “Lucy.”

  I held out my hand to shake hers. “It’s nice to meet you, Lucy.”

  She cautiously reached out and shook my hand, her eyes never leaving my face.

  “So what are you doing in a creepy, old house like this?” I questioned her, reaching for my flashlight that was lying on the coffee table behind me. She smiled. “I’m the groundskeeper.”

  “Huh,” I mumbled. “Of this house?”

  She nodded her head proudly.

  “Surely you don’t live here. I bet it gets awfully cold at night.”

  She ran her fingers along an old wooden rocking horse that sat in the corner of the room. It rocked a little as she touched it. “No, I don’t.” “Can I ask you another question, Lucy?”

  She turned around to face me and nodded.

  “Does the name Lucas Banesberry mean anything to you?”

  She put her finger to her chin as if in deep concentration for a moment. Then she looked up. “No.” “So your last name isn’t Banesberry?”

  She shook her head this time.

  I watched her go around the room, running her hand down the furniture, a small book shelf, an old toy truck behind the chair. The disturbed dust flew up in clouds behind her as she did so. “But my great-aunty’s is.”

  Hope flickered inside me. “Can you take me to your great-aunty? I’d like to speak with her for a moment, if that’s okay with you, Lucy.”

  She grinned at my asking her permission. “Sure. Follow me.”

  I walked behind her as she went outside and darted down off the porch in a hurry. She started running when we had reached the backyard and headed toward a wooded area behind that. “Lucy, wait!”

  She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to look at me.

  “My car is over there. Let’s just take that.”

  “But it’s right through this path,” she argued.

  I shut my mouth and followed her again. There was a narrow path in the woods behind the abandoned Banesberry house. It wasn’t long before we came to another clearing where another house was. It was more kept up, a stream of smoke lifting into the sky from a thin chimney sitting on top of the roof.

  “This house?” I asked. Lucy nodded and sprinted toward the front door. I hesitated for a minute before starting to jog myself. Lucy had already gone inside once I reached the front door. She reappeared with a middleaged woman who was also heavyset, her hair pulled back into a bun piled loosely on the top of her head. She looked exactly like an older version of Lucy.

  “This is who you wanted to show me?” the lady asked.

  Lucy nodded her head in excitement.

  “Hi. I’m Anna James.”

  “We’re not interested in buying anything today,” the lady snapped.

  I smiled awkwardly. “I’m not a solicitor.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  I bit my lip for a moment. “I came to find out about Lucas Banesberry.”

  “Lucas?”

  “Did you know him?”

  She looked me over again. “He was my cousin.” She looked around behind me for a moment and then opened the door wide. “Come on in. It’s too cold to be standing at this door.” Warm air greeted me once I was inside. I could smell some sort of pie baking, the aroma spreading throughout the house. “Don’t be impolite, Lucy. Take the lady’s coat.”

  Lucy held out her arms as I handed it over to her.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled.

  The woman turned and went into another room. I followed her. It was a small living room but neatly kept. There was another lady in there who seemed pretty old who looked like she was sleeping as her head bent backwards leaning against the back of her wheelchair.

  “Take a seat,” she instructed me.

  I sat down on the couch, my eyes fixated on the elderly woman’s face.

  “That’s just my aunt. She won’t bother you. She took a stroke a few years back, and she just mostly sleeps all day. She can’t talk no more.” I nodded as if I understood. Lucy came over and sat right beside me, her curious eyes burning into my face. I tried to force a smile at her. At least I wasn’t freaked out by this house or these people. It was a nice change.

  “I don’t know what you want to know about Lucas. It’s bee
n a long time since I’ve talked about him.”

  “You said he was your cousin?” I was grateful that she wasn’t asking why I wanted to know about him. If she did, I wasn’t sure what I’d say. I hadn’t had enough time to come up with something. She nodded. “That’s Pearl Banesberry.” She motioned toward the lady sleeping in the wheelchair, soft snores escaping her throat. “Her and her husband used to live in a big house just through those woods outside. They owned this house too, and used to rent this place out, but they decided to move back in here after the incident happened.”

  “Incident?” “Yeah.” She cleared her throat before continuing. “Her husband’s been dead now for almost ten years, and now just me and Lucy take care of her. Poor thing. She belongs in a nursing home. I just don’t have the heart to leave her.”

  Lucy jumped up from her position on the couch and walked over to be beside her great-aunt. She stroked her wrinkled cheek lovingly.

  “Anyway, the incident was the day their little girl went missing.”

  I lowered my eyebrows focusing on following the story. “Cassie,” she said. That had been the name on the back of the photo. It must’ve been the little blonde-haired girl with the curls. “She was their only child. One day she came home with another child, Lucas. He had been hanging around the old store the Banesberrys used to own in town. They had caught him sleeping there. He was a runaway orphan. Anyway, Cassie took to the boy right away. My uncle had shooed him away from the store a couple times, but Cassie just kept bringing him right back. Finally she brought him to their house and said that she always wanted a brother. Lucas stayed with them then, ate dinner, had his own room and everything. They even went to the courthouse and got the adoption of him in writing so he’d be a true Banesberry. They were happy for a long time. Then one day, Lucas and Cassie decided to follow the train tracks to the lake.”

  “I’ve already heard this story,” Lucy whined. “Hush now,” her mother scolded her. “Go into the other room and play with your dollies for a while.”

  Lucy began to interject but then saw her mother’s commanding eyes and stood up and left without a word.

  “I’d like some tea. Would you like some tea?”

  “Oh.” I looked down at my intertwined hands. “No, thank you.”

  I watched the woman stand and go into the kitchen. I glanced back at the person beside me still sleeping away in her wheelchair. She made me feel slightly uncomfortable alone in the room with her, so I decided to go into the kitchen and hear out the rest of the story. “Lucas wasn’t a normal boy. Anyone could tell that just by being around him for a little while.” “What was different about him?” I asked, watching her fill up a pot full of water from the spigot.

  She shrugged. “He was always polite and nice and all, but he just seemed like he was in his own little world half the time. He was spacey. He didn’t click with other kids, but he sure loved being around Cassie.”

  “You said they were headed to the lake?” She put the pot on top of the stove and turned the burner on. She turned around to face me, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Well, I guess they never made it that far. They took a break on the tracks. It wasn’t just Cassie and Lucas though. Another boy went along with them. What was his name?” She closed her eyes as she sifted through her memory. “I can’t remember. Anyway, that boy and Lucas got into an argument. Lucas got really upset and supposedly he started shaking all over.”

  “Shaking?”

  “Yeah, like he was having a seizure or something … only different. Cassie tried to help him. And then the next thing they knew, Cassie was gone,” she said.

  I frowned. “What do you mean by gone?”

  “Just like poof, vanished into thin air.” She looked at me studying her face and laughed. “I know, sounds crazy, right?”

  Not entirely but definitely out of the ordinary, I thought. “So they never found Cassie?” She shook her head. “Not even a body, not a trace. Poof!” she repeated, throwing her hands in the air to demonstrate. She turned around to check on whether or not her water was coming close to boiling. “It tore up my aunt and uncle. They couldn’t have any more kids. Cassie was all they had, and now she was gone. They blamed Lucas right away and themselves too, of course, for letting him into their home.”

  “So what happened to Lucas?” I asked. “He was a little boy, right?” “Yeah, he was still in elementary school when this happened. Lucas swore he didn’t know what happened to her, and even the other kid that was with them told everyone how Lucas just started shaking right before Cassie’s disappearance.” She slapped her hand against her thigh and grinned. “Gary!”

  “Gary?” She nodded. “Yes, that was the other kid’s name. It just came to me. Funny how a mind works.” She laughed. “They didn’t believe Lucas or Gary. They were out to point the finger, and they had every right to. Cassie couldn’t have just vanished like they said. And Lucas was a strange boy. So they locked him up.”

  “Like in prison?”

  “Yeah. There was this young woman who convinced everyone he was a danger, a murderer who would only kill again if he was set free.” “Who was she?”

  “Now wait a minute,” she said. “Just give me a moment to think.”

  The pot started whistling, startling us.

  “What are you making?” Lucy asked, popping her head inside the kitchen.

  Her mother frowned at her, knowing she had been eavesdropping on a story she didn’t want her to hear. “Tea. Now get on back to your room,” she commanded her.

  I watched Lucy turn around and obey against her will. The woman poured the water into her creamcolored coffee mug sitting on the counter. I remained silent hoping she would go on. She dipped her tea bag in the water. “She was kind of pretty. She had brown curly hair that was always pulled up. Hanley was her last name.”

  Hanley. I thought about the name for a moment. It didn’t ring a bell. “She was bossy, the know-it-all type,” she explained. “I forget what her first name was, but oh, she always wore this white lacy shawl around her head.”

  White lacy shawl? Could it be? Mrs. Anderson. It had to be. She was always wearing that shawl. And she was the bossy, know-it-all type, too. That explained why she knew so much about Lucas Banesberry. She had helped in keeping him locked up even as a young girl at the time.

  “This family hasn’t been the same since Cassie’s disappearance. It’s one of those things that wasn’t ever solved and just wore on my poor aunt and uncle. You had to pity them, for not knowing and all. It ate away at them all these years, and then after my uncle died, my aunt just deteriorated further. I don’t think she’ll hang on much longer.”

  “But I thought Lucas died, too?” I asked, puzzled by how exactly that fit into the story. She took a sip of her tea as a little puff of steam lifted from the top of the cup and disappeared into the air. “He was in jail the rest of his life then. When he was a teenager, they had another trial. Someone had paid some top of the notch lawyer to come in and defend him.”

  “Who?” She shrugged. “Who knows. But he got him out of it. And then on the day he was released, I remember it clearly because I was actually there protesting his release like everyone else, he took a few steps out of that courthouse, and someone shot him dead right then and there.”

  “What?” I asked in astonishment.

  She smiled, proud of the fact that her story had affected me that much. “Never did find out who either.” “Did it have anything to do with that Hanley woman?”

  “Huh,” she replied. “I never thought of that, but no, I doubt it.”

  You have no idea what she’s capable of , I thought. She has violence written all over her face, and I wouldn’t ever put murder past her agenda if she thought it were the only way to get her way.

  “It’s kind of an odd, little story, I know, but there it is. You now know how Lucas Banesberry died.” She smiled again and took another sip from her cup. “Why is it you wanted to know again?”

  I stared down a
t the floor for a moment. “Thank you for your hospitality,” I blurted out. “Please tell Lucy goodbye for me, and I’ll pray for your aunt.” I practically sprinted out of the kitchen, through the living room with the sleeping woman and straight to the front door.

  I was horrified. I was trying to get Emry free, but it didn’t matter. Mrs. Anderson would have him assassinated the moment he was free. They were out to get him. They were out for blood, if that’s what it came down to. What on earth was I going to do?

  Tears streamed down my face as I traversed the little patch of woods that Lucy had taken me through. The old Banesberry house was just ahead. Poor Emry. I had to warn him. I had to get to him again. But how? It seemed so impossible. Nothing’s impossible though, I told myself. I had gotten in there before in disguise. They’d be watching for me now, probably checking everyone’s IDs, too. I had to come up with a plan. I couldn’t let them try to kill him. He had to have the chance to be properly set free again, and happy with me.

  I thought about Lucas’ story as I started up my car and pulled out of the Banesberry driveway. I’m sure it was a legend in a small town such as Elverson, which was very similar to Seneca. Strange things didn’t happen in small towns, and when they did, everyone panicked. It seemed like the more I was listening to people these days, everyone had a story to tell. Well, the story of us, the story of Anna and Emry wouldn’t end so abruptly, so brutally if I had anything to do with it. Nothing else mattered. No one was going to shatter the only smidgen of happiness that I had in this awful world.

  Chapter 14

  I woke up in my car again the next morning freezing to death. My mouth was dry and stuck together as I attempted to sit up. All my muscles were aching. Why did I keep doing this to myself? I couldn’t live in my car. I had even brought enough money for a hotel.

  I realized I wasn’t in Elverson anymore. I was back in Ohio. I was in Seneca parked in front of the antique store. The sun looked as if it were still trying to come up for the day. It must be very early. I turned the key in the ignition so that I could see what time it was. It flashed on. 6:02a.m.