She kept walking. Until she sat atop The Rock, she felt no sense of security here. Her feet hurt from those crappy hospital slippers, and her arms ached. The closer she got to The Rock she noticed the stares she attracted. Jennifer figured she probably looked like a homeless person or a bag lady. She didn't blame them for staring. She kept trudging around the lake until she stood in front of The Rock, trying to figure out how to best use her elbows in the climb.
Jennifer ignored the snickering and names people shouted as well as offers of help while she climbed the steps carved on the side of The Rock. She struggled, every step and crawled in agony, but she made it, and soon sat on top of The Rock in the late afternoon sun, noticing people stare at her as they walked by. She turned her back on them and riveted her attention on the lake.
Jennifer called Claire, imagining her sitting beneath one of the maple trees overlooking the cemetery gates. “Please let this work. Claire, if you can hear me, I need you. I'm sick and alone. Please come get me.” She intensely focused, chanting Claire's name over and over. A faint voice answered.
“Hey, I thought I told you to be good.”
Jennifer turned around to match the voice with a face, and there stood sweet Claire. Jennifer leaped forward, wrapping her arms around her neck. Her poor little hands flopped uselessly.
“I like your fashion statement. What a way to show 'em your individuality,” she laughed, eyeing the torn hospital gown, the stained orange sweats, and the battered slippers with holes in the soles.
“I’m so glad you came,” Jennifer said. “I knew you'd hear me up here.” She couldn’t help the tears that ran down her flushed cheeks. From the suffering Jennifer endured, she trusted no one but her best friend.
“Don’t say anything, I know what you’re about to tell me. When you’re sad, I am too. When you’re hurting, I can feel it. When you’re scared, I know why,” Claire told her. She gave her a gentle smile and wrapped her arm around her.
Claire gazed deep into her eyes. “I see the troubles playing havoc in your mind, Jennifer. And I know who wants you for a playmate.” She paused before saying, “Maddie Ann’s coming for you, and so are the others.”
The illness that shadowed Jennifer’s face intensified, highlighting the stress lines creased in her forehead. Falling back against The Rock, she reached to catch herself and began to sob when she fell over. Agony ripped through her arm clear to the shoulder.
“They want to devour my soul, I know. Even Father Donovan won't help me. You're all I have left.” She rolled back and forth across the cold granite as nausea swept her, and she trembled. She knew the reason her life continued going downhill, and it wasn’t getting better until she decided to give in to the power of the unholy. “I’m doomed after all, right? Maddie Ann wants me dead. So…it doesn’t matter where I go or what I do, she’s going to catch me anyway.”
Jennifer rose and gazed out into the distance. Tears rained down her cheeks. Everything seemed a lie the whole time and Maddie Ann taunted and tortured her for the fun of it. Her plans to never let her go only gave her a taste of the free world and then snatched it from her.
“Listen to me, I'll defend you with every ounce of my being, but you can’t go back to Old Creek, because if you do, they will kill you and I won’t be able to fight them off. They've grown stronger. We have to hide somewhere they can't find us.”
Claire laid her arm across Jennifer's shoulder. She gave her a big smile. As Jennifer sighed deeply, Claire suddenly jerked her arm upward.
“And what happened here?” Claire frowned. She fingered the stitches lightly, pointing out several that had pulled loose. Clots of blood began to ooze from the open sutures on Jennifer's filthy, bruised arms. Her whole body looked like one giant filthy bruise.
“I wanted to tell you, but…”
Shaking her head in disgust, Claire looked at her. “I was there with you the whole time. I'm the one who sent your mother to your room to find you. I tried to keep Maddie Ann from helping you wield the knife, but I wasn't strong enough. My first question is why, why would you do this?” Claire asked. The disappointment showed in her eyes.
“You don’t understand. No one understands. You think this is easy for me? Like I can turn it off in my head and forget this ever happened? Is that what you want me to do?”
Claire sighed. “I can't answer that, Jennifer. You have a big problem and nothing I say will make any difference. Opting for suicide scares the hell out of me, because you might decide to succeed next time. They'll win and take you with them. You have to be stronger, Jennifer.”
Jennifer shrugged her shoulders and began to weep.
“Talk to me, Jennifer. What are you afraid of? Are you scared you might grow up without us or maybe you might succeed in something and we won't be there to share in your success? No matter how your life goes, I'll be right there watching you. I could never leave you, and I hope you believe that. But this is inexcusable and I’m disappointed in you.”
“We have to destroy Maddie Ann,” Jennifer whispered.
Chapter Eighteen
Father Donovan fumed about Jennifer slipping through his grasp. She'd appeared so frail and ill, he didn't realize she could run that fast. Everything she told him kept playing over in his mind. He couldn't concentrate on his sermon for Sunday service. The more he paced through the aisles of the chapel, the more he needed to find her.
“Linda,” he called.
Rushing from a backroom, his adored and adoring assistant answered, “Yes, Father, what is it?”
“I’m going out for awhile, so take messages if anyone calls. There’s something important I have to take care of.”
“All right, Father. I’ll lock the back doors when I leave,” she said.
He took advantage of Linda. She had a kind heart and she always looked after him. He'd known her most of her life; he'd officiated at her wedding and the baptism of her three children. She'd worked for him as his assistant for fifteen years, since the day he walked in this church. She was more than his right hand—he cherished her. They bickered good-naturedly like an old married couple.
“That’ll be fine. I’ll try to hurry because I know how you are, but it might take me awhile. If it gets too late, I’ll call you,” he said, winking.
Draping his black coat around him and jamming his bowler on his thinning hair, Father Donovan walked out the side door of the rectory to his old Buick. As a man of faith and also a man who served the wicked, he knew Jennifer faced serious trouble. The police, who had no training in these matters, wouldn't make sense of what she told him. It all sounded like gibberish from a delusional mind. But having performed an exorcism and witnessed two others, he knew the rules. If her story proved true to the authorities…. He had to get to the cemetery—now.
***
“Jennifer, are you certain you don’t want to go to your house?”
“Nope, if I go back home they'll wheel me right back to the hospital, and I’m not going back there. They think I’m crazy, Claire. They’re going to lock me inside the psych ward and throw away the key. You know I’m not crazy though, right?” she asked Claire, begging for her to agree.
“I didn’t say you were, Jennifer, but are you planning to stay away from home forever? You can’t live out here. You'll starve to death if something worse doesn’t get you first. You're alive and need nourishment and shelter. Before too long, you’re gonna have to give yourself up.”
Looking out for Jennifer's welfare had become the biggest worry Claire had to contend with. Well, right next to fighting demons.
“I'll stay out here as long as it takes to get everything right, then after that, I'll be dead, which is where you come in.”
Without a clear understanding yet, Claire decided to press her luck and carry on with it. “And I fit in where?” she asked.
“We'll talk about your role in my plans later. But I’m not going home. The alternatives there are not acceptable. I’ve decided this is the only decision I can make.”
Claire rolled her eyes. Jennifer could at least call her parents and tell them she had come to no harm, and not to worry. She made Jennifer go to the pay phone by the concession stand whether she liked it or not. “All you have to do is tell her you’re fine and you’ll call her soon,” Claire told her. She handed her the receiver.
When the phone started to ring, Jennifer wanted to back out, but Claire wouldn’t let her. After the collect call connected, she heard her mother's frantic cry.
“Hello?” her mother yelled. “Jennifer, are you, all right?”
“Mom, I'm fine,” she choked out, trying to camouflage the tears that ran down her face.
“Where are you,” she asked. “Please, I'll come get you.”
“I can’t tell you where I am, but please don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m with an old friend and trusted friend, and she’s helping me.”
“What old friend? Jennifer, baby, tell me who’s with you.”
Jennifer held back the tears and paused for a second, “I'm with Claire, Mom. I have to go now. I love you and Daddy.”
“Claire? But she’s dead! Oh, dear God! How…what… Oh, please don’t hang up. Jennifer, talk to me,” her mother begged, voice frantic and pained.”
Jennifer slammed the receiver on the base, and turned to Claire. “Let’s go, before someone sees me. I’m sure the cops will start looking for me soon.”
They crossed the soccer field and around the lake to The Rock. This had made itself a life-and-death matter with no return. Jennifer had forged her path.
“Do you think what I’m doing is right?” she asked, as if Claire had all the answers.
“I don't know what you're doing, so how can I know if it's the right decision or not? You have to do what you have to do, Jennifer. I can't make you do anything. Death has its limits.”
Claire didn’t know what to tell her. Jennifer's troubles and challenges in this world were different from hers. She couldn't bully her into compliance, much as she wanted to. She could only lend her presence. With apprehension for what half-baked scheme Jennifer would try next, Claire decided to go with the flow and keep her out of trouble as best she could. She'd have to watch Jennifer's back to ensure her safety. Claire found her and Jen a cozy spot to try to rest. This afternoon seemed to stretch longer than the norm.
***
The sirens awoke Jennifer from a fitful nap. A dump truck had struck the side of a car on the east side of the park, but neither Jennifer nor Claire could tell who drove the car. They crept closer, until Jennifer could see Father Donovan on a stretcher as the paramedics loaded him into an ambulance. He had blood all over his head. Jen sidled through the crowd of rubber-neckers’, hopping behind the giant cedars lining the parkway. He kept trying to get off the gurney, assuring the paramedics he only had a few bumps and bruises. They heard him mumble about finding someone, but the EMTs paid him no mind and strapped him down. With sirens blaring, the ambulance took off in a hurry.
“That’s Father Donovan,” Jennifer said. “He was searching for me!” They both watched the ambulance climb the hill in the distance.
“How would you know who he’s looking for?” Claire asked, surprised.
“I went to see him earlier today. I also told him about—you know…you, and the cemetery, and the black souls. I told him everything.”
With a sinking heart, Claire knew who made this accident happen. Maddie Ann had to be behind it to keep him from finding Jennifer. Luckily, he didn’t perish.
“Why would you tell a stranger our secrets?” she demanded. “First you tell Molly and now Father Donovan. Damn it!” Claire realized this had become worse than she first thought when Jennifer called her to The Rock. The more Jennifer talked to outsiders about Old Creek Cemetery and the goings-on there, the worse their troubles snowballed. Because Jennifer remembered and talked, she'd broken the rules and now people’s lives hung in the balance. Maddie Ann didn’t care about the age of her victims. If they knew about her, they would not have the chance to see tomorrow.
“Now it’s over,” Claire pronounced. “What did you say to him? Tell me what you said, or right now your life as you is over.”
“Nothing… just that Maddie Ann’s responsible for the killing,” she said.
“What, you told him her name? Are you insane? Geez, Jennifer, you want those black souls to come after you? Listen to me; don’t say another word to anyone else. Otherwise, it’s a death sentence for you and other innocent people. Maddie Ann will go to any lengths to keep her secret from exposure to the world.”
***
Confusion clouded Jennifer’s mind. No one gave her a book with rules to follow. She had no one but Claire in this fight for her life, and at times of clarity, she wondered if Claire only existed in her head, conjured up from the wee recesses of her tortured mind. She wondered how she survived the desert plain or how she got home. Nobody told her what to keep confidential and what she could talk about. It appeared as though Claire held fury in her heart for Jennifer involving Molly in this, and now Father Donovan, when all she tried to do was FIX this.
“Because you've blabbed your mouth, we have to get you out of here. I feel them lurking. There is a little church on the corner of Broad Street and Lincoln. That’s where we need to go,” Claire explained.
“Why?” Jennifer questioned. “I don't belong to that church. Isn't it Baptist or something? The roof will fall in.” Jennifer had a giggle in her voice.
“It’s safe. And it's within a short walk from here. Maddie Ann’s on the prowl for your blood. She can’t get to you inside a church. She's afraid of God. Oh, there’s something else that I forgot to tell you besides keep your mouth shut.”
“What’s that?” Jennifer asked, wiping the sweat trickling down her nose.
“I saw my grandpa again yesterday. He spoke to me before he had to go. He told me why I could never go back and stay with him. He said Tina did me a favor and set me free by killing me outside the cemetery gates. Tina knew that if I died inside the cemetery, I would be evil like they are. Don’t you see? In some small human corner of her dementia, Tina does care, but now Maddie Ann’s ticked off that she released me, because now she knows she can’t have me. I'm safe from their hell now.” Claire smiled gently.
Jennifer clapped her hands and laughed out loud. She threw her arms around Claire—and realized she could. Her arms worked. Her hands moved. The scars and stitches healed as she watched. Twisting her hands back and forth, Jennifer marveled. She didn't want to know how it happened or who mended her. She had her arms back. “Oh, Claire. Look at my arms. I'm fixed, you're fixed, and I can fix this mess with Maddie Ann, too. My mama didn't raise a doofus. We can win this. And we'll win it by using our brains, not brawn. We'll have to outwit the little witch.”
***
Watching Jennifer dance atop The Rock, Claire smiled. Without a doubt in her mind, she foresaw what Maddie Ann planned to get back at Jennifer for remembering and leaking it out to others. She'd kill or maim anybody who posed a threat, and that included every member of Jennifer's family. She knew Jennifer’s death sentence just began. The rest… well…she couldn’t stand the thought of it. Even with her new discovered healing powers, she had no idea how to heal Jennifer's soul if the black souls got their hands on it.
The sunset glowed behind the drifting clouds. Claire and Jennifer raced through the twilight streets on their way to Lincoln and Broad Street. As the two of them made their way to the white doors of the Baptist church, Claire reached for the brass handle and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Now what, it’s locked? We can’t get in,” Jennifer said. She looked at Claire with her sad eyes as if Maddie Ann already had her. “Saaaaave me, Claire,” she mocked.
“Stop it. We’ll get in even if I have to kick a door in,” Claire replied. She grinned despite herself and whirled around the side of the building. A basement window stood halfway open, cracked for ventilation.
“See, what did I tell you? I
'll go first,” Claire told her as she wrenched the windowpane all the way open and slid through. Scrambling in behind her, Jennifer landed on her butt in the darkened cellar shadows, blinding her and sending a sudden panic thrilling up her spine.
“Now the hard part is over. What do you say we find some lights?” Claire said, striding across the pitch-black room to take Jennifer's hand in hers.
“Sounds good to me. I can't see crap in here,” Jennifer retorted. The pit of her stomach rumbled. “Man, I’m starving. Think there's any food in this joint?”
Maddie Ann s Playground Page 23
