Grave Little Secrets

by Collins, Stacy R.

  “Really? Dude, this is not good!” Luke says, raking his hand through his hair. “Should we go check it out?”

  “Yeah, but let’s be quick. We don’t want to get caught out here. I’m sure someone has already called the cops and we don’t need to be here when they show up.” Jeffrey climbs out of the car and Luke opens the back door to follow.

  “Wait, don’t leave me here!” I shriek, panicked.

  “Calm down, Alex. It’s fine. They’re maybe ten feet away. We’ll see what happened and we’ll be right back. I’ll leave the door open, and if you need me just yell, okay? I promise, you’re fine. I’ll be right back.” Luke leans down and kisses my forehead before stepping away.

  I want to go, I want to see for myself what happened. I want to check on Zack. I want to make sure that my little brother is okay. The brother that I love. The brother that I watched grow from a small baby to a young man. The one I fought with, laughed with, and cried with. How could he turn on me the way he did? How could my brother, my own flesh and blood, treat me so badly? How could Zack inflict so much pain on someone who has been a part of his life every day since the day he was born? God, Zack, please be okay. We can talk, we can work all this out. I cannot be the reason that another person loses his life all too soon. We both deserve answers. Please be okay.

  LUKE AND JEFFREY RETURN, BOTH barking commands at me, but I can’t make sense of any of it, and the pounding in my head intensifies with each word they say. I place my hands on my temples and apply pressure. “Slow down,” I tell them through gritted teeth.

  “We can’t slow down. We have to do this and we have to do it now,” Jeffrey says, not unkindly.

  “Do what?” I ask, confused.

  “Shit,” Luke mutters as the faint sound of sirens breaks through the silence of the night, or, at least, I think they’re sirens. With this buzzing in my head it’s hard to tell.

  “Listen, Alex, we’re going to put you in Jake’s truck.”

  “Wait. What?” I hope I misunderstood what Luke just said.

  “We have to get you into Jake’s truck.”

  “No, you can’t. They’ll kill me. Luke, please. Don’t do this. Don’t leave me,” I plead, tears stinging my eyes.

  “Alex, it will be fine. They can’t hurt you. Just trust me, please. We have to make it look like you were in the car with them when they crashed. That will explain how you got all your injuries. The ambulance will come and take you to the hospital.”

  “No, Luke, you can’t leave me alone.” Panic raises the pitch of my voice.

  “We’ll be right around the corner. They won’t be able to get to you. I promise.”

  The sirens are getting closer, the wailing matching the ringing in my ears. Jeffrey and Luke look at one another, visibly nervous. Tears stream down my face, my body trembling with fear, but when I look into Luke’s eyes, prepared to beg him to just take me home, all I see is concern and compassion, and I know I can trust him. I need to do what he says.

  “Fine,” I tell them. “But stay close. Please don’t leave me here alone.”

  “I’ll never leave you alone, Alex,” Luke says softly, so only I can hear, running a thumb down my tear-stained face. “We’ll get you in the truck, then Jeffrey and I are going to move the car around the corner so we won’t be seen, but I will have my eyes on you the whole time. The ambulance will be here shortly, and then this will all be over. I promise.”

  I give Luke a slight nod, pain boomerangs around my head. Dammit! Quit nodding your damn head.

  “The paramedics are going to ask you some questions, but act like you don’t remember anything after arriving in Hilldale. Can you do that?”

  “Come on, you two. We’re running out of time,” Jeffrey says impatiently.

  “Look at me, Alex. Can you do that?” Luke asks again.

  “Yes.” My voice is barely more than a whisper, but I plaster on a brave smile.

  Luke reaches his hand into the car to help me out, but the slightest movement sends pain radiating throughout every cell in my body. An inferno is now alive and raging inside me, threatening to take me over to the darkness again. I clamp my mouth closed tightly to muffle the sound of my agonized scream.

  “Okay, just relax. Don’t move. We’ll get you. Jeffrey, come help me.”

  Jeffrey slips into the car on the opposite side and slides his arms underneath mine while Luke grips my legs. They begin to slowly slide me out of the car, pain slips and slides its way up my body, starting at my toes and working its way up to my head, only to work its way back down again. It won’t stop; it just keeps coming in waves. I want to yell at them to stop, but my mind can’t form the words. The whole world spins and it seems as though a tunnel is closing in around me. The black hole creeping up on me. I hear Luke talking to me, saying my name, but his voice seems miles away. I try to focus on his voice to keep me here, to keep me focused, but the pain is too much. I finally give in and allow the blackness to consume me.

  I WAKE UP COCOONED IN warmth with the smell of bleach permeating the air. The sound of voices fills my ears, but they are too far away for me to hear what they’re saying. There’s a familiarity to one of them, but I can’t quite figure out who it is. They are getting closer, the low murmurs now distinguishable. I can make out my mom’s voice, but I don’t recognize the other one, the one doing most of the talking. He’s saying something about blunt force trauma, irreversible damage, and brain dead. Oh, my God! Are they talking about me? Am I brain dead? No, that can’t be right. A brain dead person wouldn’t be having thoughts or hearing voices, would they?

  I force my eyes open, and blink a few times to clear the haze. It takes me a moment to adjust to the stark fluorescent light that fills the room. I look around; crisp white walls surround me and the not-so-comfortable bed I’m lying in. There’s only one window in the room with the blinds drawn, but little shards of sunlight filter in through the slits. A TV hangs in the corner playing a rerun of Full House with the sound turned down. A rolling table pushed against the wall has several bouquets of flowers sitting on top and there’s a whiteboard on the wall directly in front of me, letting me know that my nurse is Roxanne. Nurse? Why do I need a nurse? I hear Mom speak, but I can’t quite make out the words. They are broken and muffled by her sobs. What the hell is going on? Who are they talking about?

  “Mom?” I croak out. My throat is on fire and it feels like I’ve swallowed sandpaper. I try to swallow but my mouth is too dry. Water, I need water.

  Mom comes racing into the room and over to my bed. “Alex, honey, I’m here,” she says as she gently rubs both of my arms, her voice reflecting the pained expression on her face.

  “Water,” I whisper. She grabs a water pitcher off the night stand, fills a plastic cup, and hands it to me. I empty the contents in one long gulp. I hand it back to her, indicating that I want more.

  “Take it easy, Alex,” a new, strong male voice says. “Maybe just sip on this one. You don’t want to take in too much at one time and make yourself sick.”

  I look up to see a tall, slender man with grayish brown wavy hair, a goatee, and piercing blue eyes. He is dressed in green scrubs and a white lab coat with a stethoscope hanging from his neck.

  “I’m Dr. Reinhart,” he tells me as he steps further into the room. “I’ve been taking care of you. You gave us quite a scare for a while there, but you seem to be doing a lot better now. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

  I look toward Mom for assurance, and she smiles and nods at me.

  “Sure, I guess so.” The words come out a little easier now that my throat isn’t scratchy and raw, and my voice is starting to sound normal again.

  “Can you tell me your name?”

  That’s a stupid question. Shouldn’t he know my name, considering I am his patient?

  “Alex Spurlock.”

  “And how old are you, Alex?
”

  “Seventeen,” I say after taking another a sip of the room temperature water.

  “Okay, good. Now, do you remember what happened? Do you know why you’re in the hospital?”

  I try to think but come up blank. Come on, Alex, focus, I tell myself. What did happen? Why am I here?

  It slowly starts coming back. Scenes of the previous days flash through my mind, like a DVD on fast forward. I struggle to slow the images down, afraid of what I’ll see. The threatening letters, then the texts. I remember confessing the truth about the accident to Mom and Anna. I drove to Hilldale and met up with Jake. Tyler is really Jeffrey. Then Luke showed up at Jeffrey’s house. I fight the urge to be sick as the awful memories come flooding back.

  My breathing is starting to come in shallow pants like a dog that is over heated. Jeffrey told me that Zack, my loving little brother, was the one behind all the threats. My eyes begin to fill with tears. Jake turned against me. Now, I’m finding it hard to breathe and the machine beside my bed is beeping at an alarming rate.

  Zack. God, I don’t even want to think about what Zack did to me. The tears race down my face, my breathing is almost nonexistent, and my vision is going in and out. I can’t let them know the truth. I can’t tell them anything. I promised Luke.

  “It’s okay,” Mom tells me. “If you don’t remember right now, it’s fine,” she says in a soothing, motherly tone.

  “Alex, just take a couple of deep breaths and count backward from ten,” Dr. Whatshisname tells me. I do as he says and slowly my heart rate and breathing settle.

  “Everything okay in here?” an overly chirpy young blonde asks as she practically bounces into the room. “Hello, Dr. Reinhart. Is our patient okay?” she asks, smiling flirtatiously at him.

  “Yes, she’s fine. She just got a little worked up, but she’s better now,” he tells her, the beeping machine going back to its normal rhythm. “I’m just going to give her a quick exam and then she’ll be all yours.”

  Dr. Reinhart shines a light in my eyes, nearly blinding me in the process, then lifts my gown and looks at my stomach. I don’t even want to know what it looks like. I feel like I went a round with Evander Holyfield, and we all know the type of damage he can do to a person. He moves down to my ankle, which is wrapped in a dull, white cast.

  “How are you feeling?” the nurse asks as the doctor finishes his examination. “Are you in any pain? It’s not quite time for your medication, but I could get you a little something to help if you need it.”

  “I’m okay,” I lie, forcing all thoughts of Zack to the back of my brain. I can’t think of him right now. I’m just going to assume he’s okay and that this was all a bad dream.

  “Well, everything here looks good. You got banged up pretty bad,” Dr. Reinhart says, listing my injuries one by one. “You have a broken ankle and nose, a slight concussion, and you had some brain swelling when you first arrived, but luckily, that seems to have subsided. You also have two broken ribs, and some scratches and bruising over your body, but nothing life threatening. You’re going to be sore for the next couple weeks, so be sure to take it easy. We’re going to keep you one more night just for observation, but if everything looks good tomorrow, you should be able to go home.” Dr. Reinhart gives me a slight smile, then pats my hand. He lifts my arm, staring at the bright red marks that wrap around my wrists. “We must have missed these earlier,” he says, turning my arm over. “Do you know how you got these?”

  “What is it?” Mom asks, rushing to the doctor’s side.

  “It’s nothing,” I answer, snatching my arm away. “Like you said, I have a lot of bruises and scratches.”

  “These look more like rope ligatures,” the doctor says, staring at the marks.

  “Rope ligatures!” Mom exclaims. “Like she was tied up?”

  “That’s what it looks like. Alex, is there something you need to tell us?” Dr. Reinhart asks, his face showing his concern.

  I shake my again, my body gripped with fear.

  “Alex, why do you have rope burns on your wrists?” My mother demands.

  “I don’t know,” I say, the beeping machine exposing my lie with the tracing of my rapidly beating heart. God, what do I do? What can I tell them? Come on, Alex, think! “Oh, I remember now,” I tell them, an idea slowly forming in my mind. “Zack found his old magic kit in the garage the other day and we started playing around with it. I bet him I could do an escaping trick, so Zack tied me to a kitchen chair. I was tugging against the rope, trying to loosen the knots and they must have cut into my skin, leaving the marks.”

  Mom looks at me questioningly while the doctor makes notes in his chart.

  “Sorry, I guess I forgot. It’s kind of hard to think over this headache,” I explain.

  “Oh, God, Alex. I’m so sorry. We shouldn’t be asking you all these questions, not after what you’ve been through.” Mom turns to the doctor, “Can you give her something for her head?”

  “Of course, I’ll have the nurse get it now.”

  “Thank you,” I say.

  Dr. Reinhart turns and gives me one more smile, this one more forced, and he motions for my mom to join him in the hall.

  “I’m Roxanne,” the blonde says. “I’ll be your nurse for the rest of the day. If you need anything, just press this button right here.” The overly chirpy nurse points to a button on the bed railing. “I’ll be right back with something for your head.” She smiles politely at me and leaves the room just as Mom reenters.

  “Alex, some policemen are here and they want to ask you a few questions, but if you don’t feel up to it I’ll make them leave,” Mom tells me, two uniformed officers entering the room behind her.

  “No, it’s fine, Mom,” I tell her, even though I’m not quite sure I can fool them as well as I did Mom and the doctor.

  THE SHORT PUDY OFFICER, WHO looks like he’s taken one too many trips to Krispy Kreme, pulls a small notebook and pen out of the breast pocket of his wrinkled, blue uniform shirt.

  “Your name is Alex Spurlock, is that correct?”

  Wow, talk about cutting to the chase. No introductions, no asking how I feel or anything. Well, if he wants to be a piss-pot, then so can I.

  “That’s what they call me, so yeah, I guess that’s my name.”

  Officer Porky Pig snaps his head up at me, a look of disbelief on his face while the other officer, standing behind him, fights back a smile.

  “Alex!” Mom snaps.

  I shrug my shoulders at her, feigning innocence.

  “Here, Jenks, why don’t you let me handle the questions.” The taller officer, with bulging muscles, a surfer’s tan, and the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen, takes the notebook and pen from his partner. “Hi, I’m Officer Nielson, and this is my partner, Officer Jenks. We know you’ve been through a lot, but we just have a few questions, and then we’ll get out of here and let you rest.”

  I like this officer much better than Officer Porky, who’s now sulking in a corner like a toddler who just had his lollipop taken away. Neilson’s not too bad on the eyes, either, for an old guy. He must be in his forties!

  “So, we’ve established that your name is Alex Spurlock,” he says, giving me a wink. I smile sheepishly at him, fidgeting with a loose string on my blanket. “Do you remember anything from yesterday?”

  I take a minute before answering. I can’t reveal too much. I need to be as discreet as I can without seeming evasive.

  “I remember driving to Hilldale and meeting up with my boyfriend Jake.” The stupid, annoying, beeping machine picks up as my heart beats faster. I inhale a deep breath and focus on calming myself down. “But everything after that is kind of a blur,” I lie, hoping it isn’t obvious. I remember every horrible, terrifying detail. My eyes begin to burn with unshed tears as the images of Zack and his demonic stare fill my mind. I blink a few times, forcing them back.
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br />   “Do you remember how you got back to New Hope?”

  “Did I drive?” I ask, creasing my eyebrows, attempting to make it look like I’m really trying to remember.

  “No, we don’t believe so. Do you recall being involved in a motor vehicle accident last night?”

  “An accident! No, I don’t remember that. Oh, my God, did I hit someone?”

  “No, actually we’re pretty sure your brother was behind the wheel at the time.”

  “Zack? He couldn’t have been driving. He doesn’t even have his permit yet.” I look toward my Mom. I hate having to lie, but the truth would break her heart, and would also get my family in a shit ton of trouble. She blots her eyes with a tissue and sucks in a shaky breath.

  “Yes, we are aware that your brother shouldn’t have been driving. Your boyfriend, um—” He flips back a page in the notebook. “Jake. He was also in the car at the time of the accident.”

  I rub my face with both hands, pretending to be confused.

  “I don’t remember any of that. Are they okay? Are they here? Can I see them?” I really do want to know if they are here, but no way in Hell do I want to see them. Mom lets out a sob and rushes into the bathroom.

  “Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but the driver, your brother, was ejected from the vehicle on impact. He didn’t survive.”

  I take in a sharp breath. God, don’t let it be true.

  “The other boy, Jake, is on life support, but he’s not expected to improve. They’re still waiting on his parents to arrive. You’re very lucky that you came out with such minor injuries. We found you lying on the floor in the back seat of the truck.”

  A single tear slides down my face.

  “And you’re sure you don’t recall any details?”

  I shake my head, unable to form any words.

  “Okay, well, if you remember anything, give us a call,” Officer Nielson says, offering me his card, which I take with a trembling hand. I watch the two officers walk out the door and release a shaky breath.