“I still feel terrible. About what happened to Michael.”
Daniel didn’t have to look over at him to know what he meant. He kept his eyes fixed out the window, gazing at the Indiana countryside passing by.
“You would’ve done the same for him, Brandon.”
“Maybe.”
It wasn’t unusual for something like that to happen, Daniel knew. When somebody hurt themselves to do good for you, it was natural to feel as if you were to blame. So on a much higher level, Brandon feeling guilty was normal. That didn’t make it any easier.
“Is it really worse this time, Daniel?” Brandon asked. “I was a kid back then, so I don’t know really. Those memories are blurred. But you were an adult then, and you are now. You can tell me. Are the kidnappings worse this time? Are more people dying?”
“You sounded like a kid again, for a second.” Daniel smiled, but that slowly turned into a frown. “Yeah, I would say it’s worse. There are more deaths, more people affected by it, less pattern… I don’t know. It seems worse. I don’t have a word for it.”
“Well, maybe she’ll mess up and we’ll finally get her. I’d love to…”
“Revenge isn’t gonna help us, Brandon. Let’s just stay focused. How are we gonna get Crystal to come back and help us?” Daniel asked. “She was extremely opposed to it when I came up here last time.”
“I think we’ll find a way,” Brandon muttered. “I hope so, anyways.”
“Having two of you back will give us a better chance, I think. We have more help, too, with Alexander.”
Brandon frowned. “I don’t really like that kid.”
“And why not?”
The man at the wheel shrugged. There was another patch of silence for ten minutes. The interstate was a long and pointless road, as they went in the same direction for what seemed like ages. Never any turns, never any twists.
“Dark,” Daniel said suddenly. “That’s what makes it different than twenty years ago. It’s always on our minds. And it’s dark.”
“Why do you think it’s more so than last time?” Brandon asked. “They’re both terrible.”
“Yeah, except that this time we already know what’s coming. We know the consequences.”
<><><> <><> <>
They were sitting in the main room of Crystal’s apartment. It was worse than last time he had been there. The books were gone from the floor, replaced by trash and laundry. Crystal herself was covered in filth, her hair disheveled and her skin stinking.
She was sitting in one of the chairs, and Daniel took the seat closest to her. Brandon was on the opposite side, glancing at her nervously.
For a couple minutes, there were no words spoken. Crystal glared across at Brandon, who looked squirmy and nervous. The two childhood friends couldn’t find a single word to break the silence.
“I understand you’re mad at him, Crystal, but-”
“Michael was killed because of you. Do you know that, Brandon? Before we rescued you, we had escaped. We were free. And then he went back to save you.”
“I do understand!” Brandon said. “I really do! And I hate myself for it just as much as you do. But that’s not why we’re here.”
“You think just because it was twenty years ago it’s easy to move on for me?” Crystal snapped. “I did nothing with my life for years because of it, and I’m just now going to college, trying to have a future. I was getting over it until he showed up.” She shot a look at Daniel.
“You and Michael never even dated!” Brandon yelled. “You’re all torn up about a guy who you never even called your boyfriend!”
“Maybe it’d be easier if I did. But instead, there was so much future I lost and so much that was going to happen. I lost my family, my friends, my sanity all in the same day, and all because of the same lady.”
“Crystal, I’m asking you to help us stop the same thing from happening to others.” Daniel took over the conversation from Brandon. “You said you wanted to do something with your life. Do this. Help us and save others. There’s a boy there, a teenager, and his girlfriend. They’re the same age as you all were.”
“Did you think bringing Brandon would affect me?” she asked mockingly. “That I would be moved by him and forgive him and come back with you? Well, you’re wrong, Daniel. You might’ve been a detective, but you don’t read people that well.”
“It’s what Michael would have wanted,” Brandon muttered. “Us to get along and to work together.”
“He’s gone!” she screamed. “So don’t pretend like you know anything about what he wants!”
“Brandon, go stand outside for a minute, please,” Daniel said. “I need to talk to Crystal.”
With a huff, he left the room and walked out the front door. There was a creaking noise as the door swung shut, and then a thud.
“What?” Crystal asked. “What do you want to say?”
“You have two choices, Crystal. You can stay here and forget it; try to, anyways. You can lose your mind trying and wallow in your self pity. Or you can come back with us and do something good. Make something out of the bad things that happened.”
She shook her head softly. “Daniel…”
“I know that you’re afraid. You say you have nothing left to lose, but that’s not true and I know it. I know what you feel like, and I need you to trust me. We need your help. I need your help. So Michael and Brandon aside, think on a human level. Do what you know you should.”
“Why should I do this, Daniel?”
“If we don’t stop her, nobody’s going to. And we won’t be able to live with it. There’s nothing after this. There’s only us and her. So many people are depending on us. So many people that are just the same as you were.”
Daniel went outside and motioned Brandon to come back inside. As he stood beside the door, Crystal told him she was coming back to Hardy.
“This doesn’t change anything between us,” she said. “I’m just doing it to help Daniel. I don’t want him to feel what I’ve had to because of you.”
“Crystal…” Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it away.
“I’ll get my stuff.”
Daniel and Brandon took the minivan and got McDonald’s for the three of them while Crystal was packing her bag for the stay, however long it would be. They decided she would sleep at a hotel while in Hardy, and Daniel would sleep in his minivan in the parking lot.
“She doesn’t seem like the type of person that packs a lot,” Brandon commented as they were driving back towards her home. “What happened to her anyways? She’s a mess.”
“She would say the same thing about you. Be careful not to judge her,” Daniel warned. “You have no idea the things she’s gone through, and vice versa.”
“You’re right. Sorry.”
Crystal climbed into the passenger’s seat a few minutes later, and Brandon was relegated to the back with all of her bags. They left Indianapolis and drove southwards, listening to Death Cab for Cutie -Crystal’s choice- and talking about anything that came to mind. For those thirty minutes as they drove the Interstate, there was nothing to remind them of the horror they were heading towards. It was all peaceful and fun, something Brandon and Crystal hadn’t experienced for years.
It felt weird to laugh again in each other’s company, but still normal in a way. Brandon found himself grinning from ear to ear as the Indiana countryside flew past them and their conversation turned from sports to shopping to the origins of Halloween.
We’re talking like kids again, he thought to himself joyfully. Just like it was twenty years ago before…
The minivan started rumbling and slowed down drastically. The ride went from smooth to terribly bumpy, and the entire vehicle was rocking. Daniel turned the wheel and slowly pulled over on the side of the Interstate, getting as far to the right as possible.
“Must be a flat tire,” Daniel said. “I’ll check; hold on.”
He climbed out of the car and went around, bending down an
d inspecting all four tires. A minute later, he went over to Crystal’s window.
“Somebody messed with the tire valve on both of the right-side tires. It makes them impossible to drive, and lets out the air slowly. That’s why we were driving so long before anything went bad.”
“It must have happened at my house when we were talking,” Crystal said. “Maybe it’s a prank? Some guys at the school-”
“No, I don’t think so.” Daniel shook his head. “It’s more serious than that. If it was college kids, they wouldn’t go through the extra trouble to do it this way. They’d just slash them or something. With this method, we get stuck on the side of the road where it takes longer to get another method of transportation. We can’t just go up the street and get a rental car. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“It was the woman,” Brandon muttered. “It had to be!”
“She knows we left Alexander there alone…” Daniel smacked his head against the car. “Get out! Both of you. Grab the bags. We need to go.”
They hurriedly climbed out of the minivan, and Brandon grabbed the bags of clothing she brought along. He pulled out the bags that Daniel kept his clothes in, and handed them to the older man.
“Do you think she’s gonna take him?” Brandon asked. “Is he the next kid?”
“He can’t be. She already has two teenagers, and that’s the pattern.”
“But you said the pattern was broken?” Brandon said.
“Who is Alexander?!” Crystal interrupted. “Another kid of yours?”
“He’s a boy who’s helping us. His girlfriend is related to the man who wrote the book you all used last time.” Daniel growled. “And now she has some plan for him, too.”
“We need to get back as fast as we can,” Brandon said. “Can we call a taxi?”
“On the Interstate?” Crystal shook her head. “I doubt it. But Columbus is a few miles ahead of here. I saw it on a sign. We can rent something there.”
“What about your car?” Daniel asked.
Brandon said, “I don’t need it urgently. It’s my oldest one, anyways.”
They started walking towards Columbus at a brisk pace, staying on the shoulder of the road, outside the white lines that led them towards the end.
Chapter 18
Pattern
They arrived in Columbus, sweaty and exhausted. Daniel and Brandon pulled out their wallets and began counting how much they had between them as Crystal kept a lookout for a rental car shop. After twenty minutes, they finally spotted a place and made their way towards it.
“Do you think we have enough?” she asked the two men.
“Definitely.” Daniel glanced at Brandon. “One of us has been doing pretty well to keep that much in his wallet.”
Brandon watched Crystal to see her reaction, if she was jealous or angry. There were no tells to be seen, so instead he focused on the ground.
“What do we do if she’s taken Alexander already?” Brandon asked. “It’s gonna be dark by the time we get back to Hardy.”
“She’ll leave us a clue if she does take him,” Daniel said. “Whatever she’s up to, she’s trying to get us to chase her. I know that much.”
“Chase her where?” Crystal sighed. “I feel like we’re always the ones chasing her, always a few steps behind.”
Neither of them said anything after that. They reached the rental shop, and Daniel went inside to work out a deal with the cash they’d gathered. About 30 minutes later, they all hit the road again in a tiny Hyundai.
“They said they’ll send somebody up the Interstate and find your car. I told them to call me when they’ve repaired it,” Daniel said to Brandon.
“How did you get that worked out?” Crystal asked.
“Money,” Brandon replied. “Money.”
“I used to have a car just like this,” Daniel said as he steered them back onto the Interstate. “Exactly twenty years ago.”
“Time has a sick sense of humor,” Crystal muttered.
<><><> <><> <>
They pulled into Alexander’s house when the night was pitch black. Daniel pulled onto the street and found the driveway empty. He immediately began to fear.
“His parents aren’t here,” he whispered in the dark car as they parked. “Get out, but be careful. We’ll try the front door.”
He pocketed the keys to the car and stepped out of the comfortable vehicle. The single-story house looked completely different in the dark. There were large trees in the front yard and around the back. There was a good twenty yards of grass between the front door and the road, and attached to the house was a rugged old basketball goal, a staple of any Indiana home.
Daniel pulled out his gun and held it down at the ready, cocking it. “You two stay back.”
He led them up to the door. There were no lights on inside, and a glance at his watch told him the time was past eleven. The air was chilly, and much nicer than the blistering July heat. His feet swept through the grass as he approached the stone porch.
With a deep breath, he reached for the door. It was locked.
“What now?” Brandon asked.
Without a word, Daniel reached up and rung the doorbell.
There was a scuffling noise inside, and he heard the lock click open. Nobody said a word as the door slowly swung away from them, the bottom scraping on the wood floor, until finally the inside of the house was revealed.
“Daniel?” Alexander asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Where are your parents?” Daniel asked.
“They’re visiting my grandparents. Why?”
“You didn’t tell us!” Brandon yelled. “You knew we were leaving town, and you didn’t think at all that you were in danger!”
“Danger?” Alexander looked at the three of them. “How am I in danger?”
“Nobody’s come by here that you didn’t recognize?” Daniel asked. “No mysterious notes or a person outside your window?”
“Nothing happened, sir.” He ran his hand through his hair. “And I’m sorry how I acted the past couple days. I guess the fear of everything has been getting to me.”
“Not enough to tell us you were home alone,” Brandon snorted.
“Have you talked to your girlfriend?” Crystal asked suddenly.
Alexander looked at her curiously, and it was clear that he wasn’t sure if he should talk to the stranger. At a nod from Daniel, though, he answered, “Yeah, I was all night. She went to bed a couple of minutes ago, actually. We were texting.”
“And did she seem alright?” Crystal gestured her hands. “Nothing wrong, nothing unusual?”
“No, she was actually happy. Tomorrow, she’s-”
“Call her again,” Daniel said. “Tell her to lock all her windows and doors and get something to defend herself with. And then take us there.”
“What’s going on?” Alexander asked. “Why… Is she in-?”
“Somebody tried to stop us from getting home,” Crystal said forcefully. “Something’s gonna happen tonight. So call her, and make sure she’s safe. Then come out to the car.”
He went back inside to retrieve his phone, while the other three stayed on the porch, leaving the front door open.
“Go to the car, you two, and I’ll wait here for him,” Daniel said. “And Crystal, good thinking about the girlfriend.”
She smiled feebly and then started heading towards the car with Brandon. Daniel heard them arguing about something, before he turned back around to face the house.
Alexander hurried out of the house, closing the door behind him. “She said her parents are out on a date for the night, but everything’s locked up and she’s waiting in the living room now, away from the windows and with a knife. I told her to stay there and keep texting me so I know she’s okay.”
Daniel nodded and rushed to the car. Alexander climbed into the backseat, looking unhappily at Brandon and the many suitcases, which took up most of the space in the back. Once everybody was inside, Daniel flew out of the dr
iveway and drove like lightning.
“Give me the directions to her house,” he commanded the teenager.
They arrived in fifteen minutes, hearing the constant chirp of a new message from Jill every minute or two. Alexander was in the back, either texting or staring nervously out the window the entire time. When they pulled into the driveway, Alexander was out before the car stopped.
He sprinted up to the front door and began pounding on it. There was no answer, and the adults getting out of the car started to hurry.
“Jill!” he began to shout. “It’s me! Open the door!”
A silhouette walked up to the other side of the glass in the door. All they could see was the outline, but there was definitely somebody standing there.
“She won’t open the door!” Alexander yelled, his voice strained with fear. “What’s going on?” He turned to Daniel, his eyes begging for an answer.
“Get away from the door, Alexander,” the older man growled, pulling out his gun.
Alexander hurried away to stand beside Crystal, while Daniel alone advanced towards the house.
“Open this door,” he commanded, standing in front of it. “Either you do or I’ll kick it down. You decide.”
“Don’t hurt her!” Alexander pleaded.
“The person behind this door is not your girlfriend, Alexander.” Daniel lowered the gun and straightened his shoulders. “She’s the woman we’ve been looking for.”
With a roar, he stomped forward and smashed his foot against the door, breaking it off the hinges and sending it flying. As soon as he moved, the figure began to dart away, down the hallway.
Daniel gave chase after her, as she leapt over a sofa and into the kitchen. She threw chairs over her head, which he narrowly avoided. He got off one shot from his gun, missed her, and another chair flew past his head.
“You won’t get away this time!” he screamed as he followed her outside to the back.
She scrambled away from the back porch, until she was covered in darkness and too far away. He stood on the grass, panting and crying, as he stared away into the night.
She Watches: A Horror Novel Page 11
