Hidden Realms

by Unknown

  Lucy and Allison had seemingly forgotten about his weird moment, or else they simply chose to ignore it. I, on the other hand, had not forgotten, and was dreading Saturday. In addition to the evidence I had suggesting that something was seriously wrong with Dan, I also just had an uneasy gut feeling about him. My intuition was still screaming that something bad was coming . . . or maybe it was already here.

  Chapter Four

  Allison had decided that the shopping couldn’t wait until next weekend, so we were going Friday afternoon. Lucy and I waited outside my house for Allison to come pick us up. Not that we couldn’t drive, we both had our licenses, but sadly, no cars. Allison’s parents bought her car for her on her 16th birthday.

  Lucy and I were sitting on the swinging redwood and wrought iron bench that dominates the left side of my front porch, when Allison’s dark blue Nissan Sentra pulled into my driveway. I matched Lucy’s resigned sigh with one of my own. Neither of us enjoys shopping, but Allison has a tendency to beat at your resistance until you finally just give in to whatever she wants.

  “You ready for this?” I asked Lucy.

  Lucy nodded her head with a look of determination. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  I stood and straightened my jeans and lightweight navy sweater, then turned to wave goodbye to my mom, who I could see through the kitchen window. Lucy and I strode toward Allison’s car to meet our fate. I stole the front seat, forcing Lucy to slide into the back as we were assaulted by some generic girly pop music blasting from Allison’s car speakers. I immediately grabbed the volume knob and turned the music down to a bearable (or at least as bearable as girly pop can be) volume.

  “Remind me why we’re friends with you?” I asked Allison playfully.

  “It’s because I have a car,” she replied with a smile. She glanced back still smiling to acknowledge Lucy, but her smile slipped a little as she noticed Lucy’s sweater, which was practically the twin of mine. Allison looked back at me, then at Lucy again. “What are you, the Bobbsey Twins?”

  I sighed. “It wasn’t on purpose, don’t judge, you’re not exactly looking your usual self today.”

  Allison looked down at her plain white t-shirt and torn, faded jeans. She shrugged. “Laundry day.”

  I smiled and said jokingly, “I knew there must be some valid excuse.”

  “Of course,” Allison replied as she mimicked a royal bow with the top half of her body. She put the car in gear and began to maneuver out of my driveway. She glanced at me as we reached the road. “Did your mom give you any shopping money?”

  “Yeah,” I replied, “she was so shocked that I was actually going back-to-school shopping that I didn’t even have to ask her, she just excitedly ran for her wallet.” I held up my mom’s gray and gold credit card as evidence.

  “Lucy?” Allison asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

  “Yep.” Lucy’s hand appeared between Allison and me, holding a fifty dollar bill.

  Within a few minutes, we were driving past the Shelby cemetery. Cemeteries give me the creeps, especially the one in Shelby. Lucy and I visited it after Lucy’s grandma passed away. We had walked among the rows of graves, all the way to the back where the oldest tombstones loomed, some of them dating back to the early 1800’s. I could feel the age of the place, like the spirits of the long-dead corpses were surrounding me, trying to push me out. I know logically that ghosts don’t exist, but the sudden feeling of panic that scraped across my skin while I was among the dead begged to differ.

  Once the cemetery was out of sight, I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. I turned my attention back to the narrow road ahead of us. We soon approached what Shelby calls a “mall”. It was more of a hallway according to Allison.

  We parked in the partially full lot and stepped out of the car to be met by a cool breeze. I wouldn't have minded hanging around outside for a bit, but I grudgingly followed Allison straight inside the mall to its fluorescent-lit corridor.

  The mall was the stuff of nightmares. Salespeople called to us from little kiosks in the middle of the hallway, asking us what cell phone service we had or if we had ever heard of the Dead Sea. Groups of people from our high school were clustered together, laughing and ignoring the fact that they were totally clogging the sporadic flow of foot-traffic. Lucy and I followed Allison as she veered into one of the chaotic, brightly colored stores.

  Allison got right to work, like a tiger on the prowl. Soon Lucy and I had piles of clothes draped over our arms. We trudged back to the fitting rooms before Allison could weigh us down with yet more clothing. The fitting room attendant was a petite woman, probably only about 5’1”, with bright red, curly hair. She showed me to my own little stall and hung all of my clothes on the little hooks inside.

  Once I was away from Allison’s prying eyes, I picked through her selections for anything that I would actually wear. A miniskirt and a pale pink tank top went immediately into my discard pile. Next was a dark red, long-sleeved shirt made out of an almost sheer cotton. Surprised that Allison had actually chosen something I might wear, I tried it on.

  The shirt made me look even more pale than usual, but my green eyes were in sharp contrast, which I kind of liked. When I wore it to school, Allison would probably tell me that it was a bad color for me, then I could tell her that she had picked it out . . . totally worth it.

  Along with the red shirt, I bought a new pair of jeans and a fitted, shiny dark brown leather jacket. The jacket was way more class than I was used to, but I figured my regular garb would help to dress it down. Lucy bought a red dress that I would never have guessed she would go for. Allison practically beamed.

  We went to several more stores where Allison loaded Lucy and me up with more clothes, without losing an ounce of the same conviction she’d had in the first store. I was coerced into a few more clothing items, but ignored Allison’s attempt to replace my beloved sneakers.

  When the clothes shopping was finally finished, Allison insisted that we visit the makeup counter at one of the two larger department stores in the mall. Allison was drawn to the perfume counter like a moth to a flame, so I followed Lucy to browse all of the little sticks and squares of makeup.

  Lucy held up two different tubes of lip-gloss in front of my face. “Which one do you think?”

  Was she serious? I had never seen Lucy buy makeup before. She never expressed any sort of interest in it. “Um . . . ” I replied, then quickly pointed to one of the tubes with my finger. “That one.”

  “You just randomly chose one, didn’t you?”

  I bit my lip. “Umm . . . yes.”

  Lucy smiled and shook her head at me, then called out, “Allison!”

  Allison came trotting over with a little hot pink plastic bag that I assumed contained her new perfume. Upon observing Lucy’s gloss dilemma, Allison turned Lucy back in the direction of the counter and started holding different glosses up against her face. Allison handed a peachy-pink tube back to me without a word. I apparently was to buy it. It was only six dollars so I decided not to argue. I could always just give it to my mom.

  By the time Allison had finished with her, Lucy had two hands full of makeup. She shuffled to the counter to buy it all. I was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that Lucy’s new penchant for makeup had something to do with Dan. It worried me. I did not trust Dan to be with my best friend. I didn’t trust Dan period.

  After Lucy purchased her makeup, Allison finally announced that we were done. We left the hallway of horrors behind us and piled back into Allison’s car to drive back to my house. Fifteen minutes later we came crashing through my front door, hands full of bags. Lucy and Allison headed straight up to my room so that Al could give Lucy a makeup tutorial. I paused to toss my new tube of lip-gloss to my mom, who was sitting on one of the couches in our living room watching TV.

  “Thanks hon,” she called as I started up the stairs.

  When I got to my room, Allison had already spread all of Lucy’s makeup out on
the floor. There was a pile of plastic wrappers, which had once encased the little containers, lying discarded to the side. Lucy and Allison were sitting on the floor facing each other, so I sat down near them, forming an uneven triangle.

  “What’s this?” I asked holding up a fat pencil with a light gold, shimmery tip.

  “Highlighter,” Allison answered, keeping her attention on her job of applying eye shadow to Lucy’s eyelids.

  “For what?”

  Allison grabbed the pencil from my hand and crooked her finger at me. “Come here and I’ll show you.”

  I raised my hands in surrender and scooted a little further away. I watched as Allison continued to work on Lucy’s eyes. I found out what the highlighter stick was for . . . kind of. It didn’t seem to make much difference, at least to my untrained eye. Once Allison was finally finished, Lucy turned to face me.

  “What do you think?” she asked me.

  Allison had done a good job. You could tell that Lucy was wearing makeup, but it was understated enough that it wasn't the first thing you noticed about her face. “It’s . . . different,” I answered hesitantly.

  “It’s perfect,” Allison corrected. She held up a mirror in front of Lucy’s face.

  Lucy’s eyes widened. “Wow, Al, I have to hand it to you, you know what you’re doing.”

  Allison turned a wicked grin to me. “Your turn.”

  I held my hand up to my ear, as if hearing something far away. “Oh, what’s that? I think I hear my mom calling me. Just a sec mom!” I stood and ran for the door before Allison could grab me.

  Allison and Lucy left later that afternoon to eat dinner with their families, and I sat in my room to sulk. Spending time with my friends had temporarily distracted me from the fact that we would see Dan tomorrow, but now it was all I could think about it.

  I sat with the portable phone beside me on the bed, debating on whether or not I should try to wiggle my way out of our plans. I hated admitting it, but I was afraid of Dan.

  I sighed, then reached out a hand to push the phone away from me. I couldn’t cancel. Lucy and Allison seemed to trust Dan. If something happened and I wasn’t there . . . well, I’d never be able to forgive myself, and that’s just for starters. I was going. Everything would be all right . . . Yeah, and pigs can fly.

  Chapter Five

  By Saturday morning the feeling of dread was a hard knot in my stomach. I was sick with nerves that I didn’t really know how to explain. That’s a lie. About the lack of explanation I mean. I hadn't understood the bad feeling when I first met Dan, but I could explain it now. He was . . . different. Off. Not that different or off were necessarily bad things, but in Dan's case they definitely were.

  I ran a brush through my hair and dressed mechanically in a black tank top, more holey jeans, and my ever-present sneakers. Allison would loooove it. I grabbed my new shiny brown leather jacket, just in case. The nights were starting to grow colder, warning us of winter, even though September had barely begun.

  As I was heading downstairs, I heard a knock at the front door. I grabbed my satchel with my wallet and house keys as I trotted across the living room to answer it. Lucy was waiting in her new red dress and a pair of cute, funky brown boots that gave her a little more height. I hadn’t seen her buy the boots on Friday, but I had avoided the shoe section like the plague, so that wasn’t saying much. The outfit was a little dressy, well, okay, a lot dressy for Lucy’s normal taste.

  As soon as I beheld her garb I exclaimed, “I knew it! You bought all that stuff to impress Dan!”

  She was even wearing her new makeup. Her almond shaped eyes were delicately lined in black, and her lips were freshly glossed. And was that perfume I smelled? Color me horrified.

  I gave her a disapproving look.

  Lucy’s olive skin darkened with a blush. She turned and walked back toward the car where Allison waited, not saying a word.

  Lucy wasn’t getting off that easy. I shut and locked the door behind me, then quickly caught up to her side. “How can you like him? All he does is stare! And what about the weirdness at lunch the other day? I know you haven’t forgotten about that. He’s totally whacked,” I hounded her.

  “He’s cute,” she replied, “and he only stares at you, and that’s probably because you treat him like he’s some sort of freak. He’s pretty normal once you actually talk to him, and the lunch thing was just a joke.” Lucy glanced through the car window at Allison, patiently waiting in the driver’s seat, then gave me a look that clearly stated don’t tell Allison. She slipped into the backseat before I could say anything else.

  Frowning, I opened the car door and took my usual place in the front. Allison took my grumpy look in stride and started the car. She was dressed up as well, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary. She wore dark-wash jeans, a dark purple cami, and one of those fitted vest thingies that were apparently in style in a dark gray. Her suede booted foot pressed on the gas, and we were on our way. The theater wasn’t far from my house, well, nothing in Shelby is really far, but my anxiety at the whole Dan situation made the ten minute drive seem like hours.

  Dan was already waiting when we pulled up into the parking lot of the old, dreary theater. The theater was originally built with only three screens, but had been expanded to fit seven. Dan stood with his arms crossed, dressed in casual gray slacks and a black v-neck t-shirt, topped with his brown leather jacket. His near-black hair was styled to perfection, as always. He looked expensive, and dangerous, or maybe I was just projecting. He watched us approach with his pale blue eyes, seemingly at ease. I was feeling anything but at ease.

  We reached where he was standing and stopped a short distance in front of him. We then proceeded to stand there in awkward silence. I looked to Lucy and Allison, but Lucy stayed looking down and shuffling her feet, while Allison smiled goofily at Dan. I was surprised to see that Dan looked slightly nervous himself. He usually seemed so macho and self-possessed. An abashed grin began to creep across his face. Could he get any more confusing?

  I sighed and gestured my arms toward the theater. “Shall we?”

  Everyone nodded and we were finally able to vacate the parking lot. We continued across the sidewalk, past outdoor posters of movies I would have loved to see, but knew we wouldn’t end up with. Allison and Lucy’s boots clicked on the pavement while I followed behind them in my quiet sneakers. Dan held the door for us as we went inside, then stood too close to me as we purchased tickets to a generic chick flick that was detailed on the least appealing poster.

  Our movie was in theater seven, all the way at the end of the hall. The walk to the proper screening room seemed to take ages, as did the process of choosing seats. Lucy, Allison, and I would usually sit in the row directly behind the hand railing that cut the theater in half. That way we could put our feet up on the bar, and not worry about any tall people sitting in front of us to block the view.

  I almost thought we'd end up with different seats as Lucy and Allison just stood in the isle, waiting for Dan to move, but when he didn't choose either, I sat where I wanted and waited for everyone else to follow.

  Lucy sat next to me, then came Dan, then Allison. Lucy smiled a contented smile, while Allison looked less than happy. It seemed like Al had finally realized Lucy’s intent in wearing her new outfit, and was none too happy for the competition. I was pretty sure that Lucy had won the competition before it even started, but for Allison, it ain’t over ‘till it’s over.

  We were early. The previews hadn’t even started yet, and the silence was thick. Sighing, I nudged Lucy with my elbow. “I’m going to get some popcorn.”

  She nodded, not offering to go with me, so I climbed over the rail to go to the concession stand by myself.

  “I’ll join you,” Dan announced, then hopped over the rail before I could protest.

  Shaking my head, I walked out of the theater and toward the concession stand with Dan trailing slightly behind me. I was trying my hardest to ignore his presence, when he grabb
ed my arm from behind and spun me to face him. My heart skipped a beat. I looked at him, startled.

  “What are you playing at?” he hissed.

  “What are you talking about? Let me go!” I replied angrily, trying to pry my arm loose from his iron grip.

  His blue eyes were very close, looking feral. His fingers squeezed my arm, hard enough to bruise. His hand was large enough to enclose my bicep entirely.

  “Don’t be stupid. I can smell you, just tell me,” he snapped.

  Smell me?

  Taking in my puzzled expression, he hesitated, cocking his head to the side like he usually did when observing me. He gave me a crooked smile. “You don’t know, do you?”

  I kept the same stupid expression on my face, jaw slightly agape.

  He laughed to himself and shook his head. “Um . . . nevermind, forget I said anything.” He continued chuckling.

  I opened my mouth to argue, but he simply turned around and walked back toward our section of the theater, moving with a carefree skip to his step.

  I stood, stunned, rubbing my arm where he had grabbed me. I stayed like that for several minutes, not sure what my reaction should be. I finally walked back into the movie without popcorn. I had lost my appetite. I climbed back over the bar and sat down, ignoring a puzzled look from Lucy. At least the previews had finally started.

  I rubbed my arm again where Dan had grabbed me. Yep, there was definitely going to be a bruise. I gave Dan a dirty look that he didn’t notice, then settled in to watch the movie. Once the movie started I tried to get into it, but ended up letting my mind wander. The feeling of dread was back in my stomach and my thoughts were dark. I was no longer simply creeped out, I was scared. I replayed my unnerving experience with Dan in my head, trying to puzzle out exactly what had happened.

  By the time the movie ended I was no closer to coming up with an explanation. The credits began to roll and we all stood to leave the theater. After waiting behind the few shuffling people who had managed to reach the aisle before us, we finally made our way through and walked outside. The chilly breeze made me glad that I had brought my jacket. I slipped it on while only half listening as Lucy and Allison talked about the movie on the way back to Allison’s car. I caught Lucy claiming that the movie was decent, once you got past the done-and-done-again plot . . . I hadn’t noticed.