Teacher's Pet

by Richie T Cusick

  There was a long silence. As Gideon’s eyes dropped to her outstretched hand, he reached out slowly and took the watch.

  “My… I didn’t know, Kate… how kind of you… really….”

  As Kate’s eyes narrowed in concern, Gideon slipped the watch into his pocket, wandered to the top of the stairs, and turned to face her, as if he’d suddenly remembered she was there.

  “Gideon, are you all right?”

  He nodded, his voice polite but very thin. “Of course. Thank you for coming. I’ll show you out now.” His eyes flicked to the door behind her, where the black room lay beyond.

  “Gideon,” Kate said softly, “who’s Rowena?”

  And she didn’t expect his hand to tremble so violently upon the bannister, clutching as if he would fall… and she wasn’t prepared for the tears that slowly filled his eyes, though his face was calm and poised.

  “Rowena,” he whispered.

  She started toward him, saw his eyes fix again on that door at the end of the hall.

  “Rowena was my sister,” he murmured. “She died a year ago.”

  Chapter 15

  “DIED?” KATE ECHOED. “BUT… but that’s impossible. I don’t understand….”

  Gideon didn’t seem to hear, his eyes still fastened on that doorway behind them. “This watch is very special to me. I… thank you for bringing it. I’ll walk you back.”

  “No, you don’t have to,” Kate said, but he was starting down the stairs. As she caught up with him, she reached out, covering one of his hands with her own. “Gideon, wait. There’s something we have to talk about.”

  His eyes met hers, empty and sad. “I’m grateful, truly, but—”

  “I’ve seen her, Gideon.”

  She saw his fingers tighten on the railing… a muscle clench in his jaw.

  “Seen who? What are you talking about?”

  “Rowena.” Kate’s voice dropped. In front of her, Gideon’s head began a slow turn, but his body seemed frozen. “Rowena,” she said again, nodding. “Or… at least… she said she was.”

  His eyes brimmed again. His hand gripped harder on the bannister. “Is this… some kind of joke?”

  “Look at you,” Kate mumbled. “Do you think I’d joke about something like this?”

  He held her in an eternal stare, his head shaking at last. “No,” he whispered. “No. Of course you wouldn’t.” He seemed to lose all strength then. Kate watched in alarm as he slid into a sitting position onto the stairs. “Tell me. Tell me what you saw.”

  Easing herself down beside him, she made a hesitant beginning. “Last night. I got lost and found your house by mistake. There was a girl outside the gates—she was dressed all in black—Gideon?”

  He was shaking his head again, his cheeks paling. “She wore black. Always. She was fascinated with death—obsessed with it, really. You saw her room.” It was an accusation, not a question, and Kate lowered her eyes. “She wrote about it. And all her paintings… her music… everything was about death. She was brilliant, you know. Brilliant.”

  Kate gave a lame nod. “Was she?”

  “The most talented… the most beautiful….” Something passed over his face, and he struggled for composure. “This girl you saw. She wore black—“

  “Yes. A long skirt. Gloves. A veil. I couldn’t see her face.”

  “But she spoke to you?”

  Kate nodded. “It was weird … sort of threatening. She knew who I was … knew my name. She said someone—‘he’—had talked about me. An… and she talked funny. Sometimes in rhyme.”

  His body stiffened, his hands gripping his knees. “Rhyme?” he said weakly.

  “Yes. Like little songs almost.”

  “It was a game,” he murmured. “A game we always played. Only she was the best at it…. she always had the best rhymes.”

  “But her voice…” Kate thought a moment, hearing it again in her mind. “I’ve heard people talk like that before… when their throats are raw… or their vocal cords are damaged. That’s the sound she made. A funny sort of whisper.”

  “My God.” Gideon’s face twisted. “My God…” He stood up slowly, one hand reaching out to her in slow motion. “You really need to go now, Kate. Forgive me, but I have a lesson plan to finish, and it’s been a tiring day.”

  “But—Gideon—”

  “It was kind of you to bring the watch. I’d have been devastated to lose it—”

  “But—”

  “And I’m certain that whoever you saw last night was only out for some fun. I’m afraid you’ve been made the butt of a very tasteless joke—but that’s what I’d expect from William’s friends, and I assure you I’ll speak to them about it.”

  To her dismay Kate suddenly found herself outside the gate, with Gideon releasing his grip on her arm. Before she could think of anything to say, he’d fastened the lock and strode back into the house, leaving her staring openmouthed.

  Rowena… dead for a year!

  Kate stood there, gazing through the bars, watching the dark, silent windows of the house. She could still feel the shock of Gideon’s reaction—his nervousness—and something else….

  Fear.

  With her thoughts in turmoil, Kate turned toward the path, and then screamed as someone stepped out of the darkness.

  “Denzil!”

  “So he threw you out, huh? Does this mean you’re not teacher’s pet anymore?”

  Kate collapsed back against a tree, determined not to let him know how glad she was to see him. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

  “And what did he give you? A heartbreak? Jeez, Kate, what’s with you, anyway, just wandering into some guy’s house?”

  Kate stared at him. “You… you followed me.”

  “Yeah,” Denzil grumbled. “So what if I did?” He shook his head impatiently. “You must be loco, snooping around like this! When I saw you go in, and then Gideon went in after you, I didn’t know what to do.”

  “I thought he was home,” Kate said weakly. “The door just opened by itself.”

  “Kate, what’s going on?”

  She stared at him a minute, then slowly let out a long sigh. “How’d you know?”

  “How’d I know? It doesn’t take a cleverly deductive mind—even though I have a cleverly deductive mind—to figure out something’s weird when someone’s bed gets knifed—”

  “Okay, Denzil,” Kate said seriously, “do you believe in ghosts?”

  She took a deep breath and started in, trying to recount every strange incident from the day she’d arrived at camp. Denzil listened attentively, expression unchanged throughout the narration. When Kate was finally through, she shrugged and frowned.

  “So. What do you think?”

  “What do I think?” Denzil mused. He folded his arms across his chest and frowned back at her. “I think… jeez… I don’t know what to think.”

  “You’re a big help.”

  “But you’re sure this girl called herself Rowena? You couldn’t have misunderstood the name?”

  Kate shook her head firmly. “When Gideon told me about William’s weird friends, then I didn’t worry about her anymore. It’s obvious he doesn’t like them—I just thought she wanted me to keep quiet so Gideon wouldn’t know she’d been at the house.”

  “But William hasn’t been there, right?”

  “But that doesn’t mean his friends couldn’t still be hanging around. Maybe—” Kate thought a minute. “Maybe William isn’t really missing at all. Maybe he just wants people to think he is.”

  “Yeah. And maybe Rowena really isn’t dead.”

  They stared at each other uneasily.

  “You said he practically ran you out of the house.”

  Kate looked doubtful. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s just the way it seemed—like Gideon saying fear’s in the mind of the beholder? Maybe he was just so upset hearing Rowena’s name that he overreacted. I mean, I don’t like people around me when I’m having trouble with painful memories.”
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  Denzil groaned. “Will you stop sticking up for this guy?”

  “Well, okay, since you know so much—where is Rowena?”

  “Hey, I’m just coming up with theories here, I don’t have to explain them.” Denzil shone his flashlight over the thick trees, his face solemn. “But okay, try this. Say Rowena’s possessive—for some Freudian reason—possessive of Gideon, maybe. So she sees him giving you all this special attention—”

  “He doesn’t give me special attention. I’m just one of the class.”

  “Yeah, right. You blew that excuse when I saw you go into his house tonight.”

  “Denzil, I told you, I took back the watch.”

  “I thought you were getting books.” He grinned as she turned red and looked away. “And anyway, you were jealous of that watch. You wanted to pin him down about Rowena. I know the way your mind works. I saw that inscription.”

  Kate regarded his smug face and kept quiet.

  “So maybe she’s trying to scare you into staying away from Gideon. And things are getting a little out of hand.”

  “You mean, my clothes at the inlet, and my room and—”

  “And the trap.”

  “What?”

  “Kate, don’t you hear anything? Pearce might have been right, what he said to you out there. That trap was set where you were supposed to be.”

  In a split second it all rushed back to her—Pearce walking out of the cave—the snap of metal jaws—the scream of agony—

  “God….” Kate clamped her arms around her chest, a fierce shiver going straight through her. “If Pearce hadn’t been there—”

  “Will you forget about Pearce?”

  “Denzil, he probably saved my life!”

  “Quit talking about him like he’s some kind of hero! He’s probably in on this Rowena thing, too.”

  “Okay, okay, but we still haven’t figured out why they’re hiding her.”

  “Hmmm…” He gave an exaggerated sigh. “Obsessed with death… dresses like a corpse… sacrifices small creatures in shower stalls…. I give up, Kate. Why would they wanna hide her?”

  “Oh, Denzil, I—”

  “Ssh! Someone’s coming!”

  In an instant, Kate found herself on her stomach in the weeds, her eyes focused through a tiny crack in the shrubbery. She heard the gate open and close… saw legs hurry past her hiding place. Scarcely daring to breathe, she felt Denzil nudging her from behind.

  “Follow him,” he hissed.

  “Who?”

  “Gideon. I wanna see what he’s up to.”

  Feeling like a traitor, Kate held Denzil’s arm as they tracked Gideon deeper and deeper into the woods. In the night silence where every sound was magnified, they had to keep a safe distance behind, Denzil aiming his flashlight slightly off the trail to avoid being seen. Gideon moved swiftly as if he’d been this way many times before, and more than once Kate thought they’d lost him. After what seemed like miles, she felt Denzil slow down and give her hand a cautious squeeze. Holding his finger to his lips, he squatted down and slowly parted a mass of leaves to peer out.

  It was a cemetery. Spattered with moonlight, the tombstones shone gray… graves beneath dead leaves… dead weeds… everything… so dead… so final.

  Gideon was standing beside one of the markers.

  Just standing there like some funerary statue carved from stone… his face hidden… staring down at the marker… at the black thing that fluttered there… the strange, wispy thing like some black dying bird, just flowing there, beckoning, as Gideon reached out… reached down….

  “No!” His cry echoed through the night… caught in the trees… flung back again… again….

  “Denzil!” a voice called. “Denzil? Where are you!”

  Paralyzed, Kate recognized Tawney’s voice through the trees. As she and Denzil exchanged horrified looks, Gideon turned and raced past them, swallowed immediately by the night.

  “C’mon!” Denzil jumped up and flung his flashlight beam onto the spot where Gideon had been standing. The black, fluttering thing was gone. “Damn, damn, damn!”

  “Denzil?” Tawney yelled again. “I saw you heading for the woods! Come on out—you have a phone call! If you’re trying to scare me, it won’t work!”

  “Don’t answer her,” Denzil said. “Maybe she’ll wander away, and we’ll never see her again.”

  “Denzil, stop it,” Kate said, but he was moving forward, exploring the cemetery with his flashlight, the pale glow skipping over that one grave, over that name on the stone, shaking, like his hands were shaking—

  ROWENA DREWE

  BELOVED —

  Kate jerked him away, her voice angry and panicky. “Now are you satisfied? She’s dead! She’s here, and she’s—”

  “What was that?” Denzil shone the light in her eyes, and she put up one arm to ward it off. “What was that thing he was looking at?”

  “I don’t know.” Kate was backing away, suddenly unable to bear this place a moment longer. “A scarf or something, I—”

  “Kate, take a look at this.”

  She saw him untangle something from a low-sweeping branch and hold it into the light.

  “It’s some kind of black material. He must have torn it, trying to get it loose. And you’re right, see? It’s kind of gauzy like a scarf—”

  “Or a veil.” Kate reached out with trembling fingers and took the cloth from him. “It could be a veil… like Rowena was wearing… and…”

  As her voice trailed off, Denzil moved closer, adding his light to hers. “Kate, what’s wrong?”

  “The smell,” she mumbled. “Don’t you recognize it?”

  And as he sniffed the air, she held the material beneath his nose, drawing it back again, inhaling deeply.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ve smelled it before,” Kate said flatly. “Upstairs in Gideon’s house. Like dead flowers.”

  “So? It’s fall, remember? Everything’s dying.”

  “And somewhere else.” She was silent a moment as her eyes focused wide on his face. “My room, Denzil,” she murmured. “That funny smell in my cabin… mixed with the smell of blood.”

  Chapter 16

  “ARE YOU SURE?” DENZIL frowned. “About that smell, I mean?” Back in Kate’s cabin, he stretched out on her bed and propped his chin on folded arms. Kate, sitting beside him, straightened her back against the wall and nodded.

  “It’s a strange smell… almost suffocating. I couldn’t quite place it in Rowena’s room, but I knew I’d smelled it before.” She thought a moment. “Should we go to the police?”

  Denzal’s laugh burst out before he could stop it. “And tell them what?”

  “Well, that some dead girl’s after me might be a good place to start.” Kate looked injured.

  “We don’t have a bit of proof. As a matter of fact, there’s not a whole lot of stuff we know anything about.”

  “Do you think he heard us following him?” Kate sounded worried as Denzil shrugged.

  “Maybe. You’re the only one who has a chance to find out anything. Start asking him about his family and stuff.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Sure you can. You’re the teacher’s pet, remember? He likes you. He just might let something slip about William and Rowena.”

  From the other bed, Tawney lifted a questioning finger. “Now… one more time… what exactly’s going on?”

  Denzil flopped back down with a groan. “You never shoulda told her. Not any of it.”

  “I want her to know.” Kate cast Tawney a thin smile. “I need her moral support.”

  “You’re just afraid I’ll screw something up,” Tawney sighed. “But I can’t screw it up if I don’t understand it to begin with.”

  “Trust me,” Denzil forced a smile. “It’s what you do best.” He yawned and glanced at Kate. “You gonna be okay here tonight? Wanna stay with Tawney? Want me to stay with you?”

  In spite of everyt
hing, Kate smiled, reaching down to hug him. “Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble sleeping. Do you need to go to the village tomorrow?”

  “Oh, here it comes, I knew it. Poor Pearce. You simply must go and check on poor Pearce.”

  “Miss Bunceton,” Kate corrected him. “Do I get a ride or not?”

  “Sure. But I still don’t think you should sleep alone.”

  “I told you, I’ll be perfectly fine. Good night.”

  Kate watched her friends leave and locked up behind them, but lying in bed afterwards she wished she’d let them stay. She couldn’t control the pictures whirling through her head—William… Rowena… Gideon… Pearce…. The night was full of secrets. And she had an unshakable feeling that something awful was about to happen.

  At long last she drifted off, tossing and turning in fitful sleep. When she bolted up in bed, gasping, she looked around the darkened room in confusion, wondering what had woken her. Silence crushed in, yet just beneath it she was sure she’d heard something oddly out of place in the night.

  Her eyes swung to the door, half expecting the knob to turn.

  Everything was still.

  Inching up on her knees, she caught hold of the curtains above her bed. Her ears strained through the quiet, her heart pounding in her throat. She tasted the sharp tang of fear and tried to choke it back.

  Slowly… slowly… she pulled the curtains apart….

  And stared into someone’s face.

  Even in the dark the eyes were wide and gleaming, the gaze fixed on hers as if they’d known the exact spot, the exact moment she’d peer out.

  With a shriek Kate let the curtains fall, leaping from her bed, huddling in the corner, screaming… screaming….

  She didn’t know how long she screamed.

  Only when her voice gave out, when her strength gave out… when she realized nothing else was going to happen, did a surge of anger replace her fear, flinging her back onto her bed, tearing at the curtains—

  No one was there.

  In the shifting shadows there was only the endless black night and all its mysterious whispers she couldn’t recognize….