Betraying Innocence

by Phoenix, Airicka

Groaning, Ana dropped down on the sofa. “I guess I can dig up one of my old ones. I think they’re in the boxes downstairs.” She twisted around to peer at him. “Are you and Mom doing anything special this year?”

  He bunched up his face. “Probably not. We’ll just stick around here and help with the candy.”

  Ana frowned. “Really? But you guys always go out. What, does Chipawaha Creek not have any cool enough parties?”

  He jerked his shoulders. “There are a few, but we just want to stay close to home.”

  Her smile faded. “It’s because of me, isn’t it? You think I’m not safe here alone.”

  “That’s not what I meant … but yes.” He rounded the sofa and sat. “With everything that’s been happening since … you know, we would just feel better knowing you weren’t alone out here in the middle of nowhere.”

  “But I won’t be alone. I’ll have King, Hitchcock and Tarantino chilling with me.”

  He elbowed her playfully. “You’re having the party of the century with all my favorites and you’re not even going to invite me? Where did I go wrong in your upbringing?”

  She shoved him back. “You blinked. I grew up. Sad fact of life.”

  His arm came up and hooked around her shoulders. She was yanked into his side. A kiss was pressed into the top of her head.

  “Yeah, I kinda did.”

  Ana closed her eyes and leaned into him, letting his familiar warmth and strength seep into her. But the moment didn’t last.

  “Richard!”

  Her father cursed, leaping to his feet. “She found my stash.” He bolted on his tiptoes towards the stairs. “You didn’t see me!”

  Ana laughed as her father ninja sprinted up the stairs and out of sight.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Ana

  Her costume wound up being the glittery pink fairy outfit she’d worn so long ago that memories of it were a vague, sugar high blur. The body fitting ensemble with its tutu, pink tights and ballet flats was topped with fingerless gloves that went to her elbow, a diamond tiara and a magic wand with ribbon tied to the end. There were even wings that wiggled when she walked. For the most part, it was cute, but not what she would have picked had she had the courage to go into the basement by herself. She had no choice but to accept whatever costume her father brought up, even if he told her it was the only one he could find. An unlikely story. She knew for a fact all her costumes were stuffed inside a single box marked costumes. He’d deliberately brought up the only one that made her look like a kid.

  “Well played,” she muttered to her reflection as she stuffed the final bobby pin into her curled updo. She slid the tiara into place overtop, brushed body glitter across her cheeks and stepped back to study the results.

  The bodysuit clung to her chest and smoothed down her sides to disappear beneath the tutu. Rhinestones glittered across the sweetheart neckline, emphasizing the chest she knew for a fact she hadn’t had the last time she’d worn the thing. All in all, it was as put together as it was going to get.

  “Oh don’t you look beautiful!” Her mother beamed when Ana skipped dramatically into the kitchen, waving her wand. A string-crazed Mitzy trotted after her, desperate to get the elusive ribbons floating just out of reach from her wand. His big green eyes were unblinking as he watched them, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce and destroy.

  “Crap,” her father muttered, raising his head from the bowl of candy he was sifting through. “I thought for sure I was safe with that one.”

  Ana glowered at him. “I knew you did it deliberately.”

  He stuffed a gummy worm into his mouth. “You should put a sweater on,” he suggested around the mushed up worm guts. “You could be a winter fairy.”

  “You picked it.” She said, as she flounced over to the counter and poked at that year’s offerings. “So what are you guys supposed to be?”

  Her mom put her hands on her hips and struck a theatrical pose. “A corporate executive.”

  “A dad,” her father mumbled around a marshmallow ghost.

  “So … yourselves?” she said, popping a sour key into her mouth.

  “Pretty clever, huh?” Her father gave her a wink.

  Shaking her head in amusement, she grabbed up the bowl and made her way down the hall. She set it down on the little table one of her parents had already set up and waited for the first trick-or-treater.

  She was halfway through Pet Sematary when the doorbell chimed.

  “I’ll get it!” she called, making her way to the front door. She yanked it open to a loud chorus of trick or treat!

  A ghost, a witch and a fairy princess grinned up at her, their bags open. She made all the appropriate noises while tossing candy into their sacks. Their parents waved from their discreet position at the end of the driveway. Several more children stopped by as the hour progressed. Ana wondered where they were coming from. Parents didn’t actually drive their kids all the way to the middle of nowhere for treats, did they? Why would they bother? There were only six houses there. Unless it was to show them the house where the gruesome murder had taken place, which was a sick and morbid thing to do. But it was Halloween.

  The night was nearly over, her bowl nearly empty and she was at the end of The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock when the doorbell rang for the first time in almost an hour. Ana got to her feet and shuffled to the door. She threw it open and beamed.

  “Look at you guys!”

  Michael and Gabriella stared up at her with their wide blue eyes. Gabriella smiled shyly, swaying slightly side to side in her elaborate mermaid princess fairy costume. Michael looked slightly flustered and annoyed in his Batman suit. But both held out their bags.

  “Trick or treat!” they said simultaneously. Ana noted Gabriella sounded a lot chirpier than Michael’s sullen mumble.

  She grabbed her bowl and emptied nearly half of it into their bags.

  “You guys look so great,” she said.

  “I’m a mermaid princess,” Gabriella said. “With wings,” she added, wiggling her shoulders to make the white wings flutter.

  “You look beautiful,” Ana told her and earned a toothy grin before Gabriella twirled on her heels and hopped off the porch. Ana looked at Michael. “Batman was always my favorite superhero.”

  Michael fisted his hands around his sack, looking like he was trying to strangle it. “He’s not real.”

  “No…” Ana agreed. “But you gotta love a guy with his own bat cave.”

  He squinted at her for a long moment, as though he couldn’t decide if she was pulling his leg or not.

  “You beat up my dad.”

  Ana stiffened. She straightened. “Michael, I…”

  He dropped his chin, staring hard at the ground. “Thank you.”

  Then, without another word or glance at her, he turned and followed his sister down the steps and into the darkness. A moment later, before Ana could collect herself, a figure stepped forward, walking slowly up the drive towards the porch. Darkness seemed to peel off him the closer he drew into the light of the porch. The familiar height and build had her hands trembling around the bowl and her heart racing in her chest. By the time he was standing in front of her, she was pretty sure she wasn’t breathing anymore.

  “Hey.”

  She looked up into Rafe’s brilliant eyes. “Hey.”

  Silence enveloped them as they continued to stare at the other. It was broken only when they both decided to speak at the same time.

  “Ana.”

  “I called you.”

  Ana laughed. Rafe chuckled. Both looked down at the floor.

  “I called you last night,” she said again.

  “I didn’t get home until late.”

  A chunk of ice settled in the pit of her stomach. “I see.” She set the bowl down on the little stand, all the while not looking at him. “I should let you go. Kids are probably waiting for you.”

  “Ana.” His hand stopped the door from closing when she tried to shut it. “I went drivi
ng. Alone. I just needed to clear my head. I was going to call you this morning, but I was hired on as cheap labor decorating the house and helping the twins with their costumes. Then I had to take them into town to trick-or-treat. I only just got back. You house is the first one we stopped at.”

  She dared herself to peer into his eyes, searching them for even a hint of untruth. But they kept her gaze, unflinching, and she relaxed. She smoothed a nervous hand down the front of her tutu.

  “I called you last night to tell you I was sorry. You were right. I’m way over my head.”

  His brows furrowed. “Did something happen?”

  “Come on, Raphael!” Gabriella called from the end of the driveway, the tutu she’d pulled on over top of her mermaid tail glittered in the darkness as she jumped up and down.

  Ana chuckled. “You should go before you have a riot on your hands.”

  “No, wait.” He shifted, standing to his full height. “What happened?”

  Her gaze darted into the next room where her mom and dad were kissing like teenagers on the sofa. She looked back at Rafe.

  “I can’t talk about it right now.”

  His face only seemed to darken even more at that. He bit his lip as he turned his head to peer over to where the twins stood waiting for him.

  “Give me an hour,” he said and looked at her once more. “I’ll be back.”

  Relieved to hear it, Ana nodded. She watched as he bounded off the porch and hurried back to finish his trick-or-treating rounds. She closed the door when they were out of sight and confronted the problem at hand.

  Armed with several packets of leftover candy, she began pitching them at the two defiling the sofa.

  “Don’t make me get out the hose!” she warned, moving to join them for the rest of the horror movie marathon.

  True to his word, Rafe returned an hour later. He eyed the fresh pair of flannel bottoms and t-shirt she wore with a bit of a pout on his face.

  “I loved your legs in the fairy getup,” he told her.

  She playfully shoved him as they made their way into the sitting room. Her parents had vacated the sofa, claiming exhaustion from sitting around watching horror movies and eating candy and had turned in, leaving Ana to clean up the mess left behind. She did so as Rafe helped. They unearthed all the wrappers from between the couch cushions and swept up the bits of popcorn and spilt pop. It was nearing eleven by the time they had everything straightened and were free to flop down on the sofa.

  “So tell me what happened,” Rafe said immediately.

  Ana did, leaving nothing out about her surprise visit from the mayor and principal. Rafe listened, his features growing thunderous with every passing second. He was on his feet when she finished.

  “I knew something like this would happen!” he growled.

  “Shhh! You’ll wake my parents.”

  He threw his hands up. “Don’t you think they need to know there’re a couple of murderers out to kill them in their sleep? Or a vengeful ghost?”

  “I think two murderers is easier to explain than the ghost part,” she muttered. “I just don’t know what to tell them. They already think I’m unstable because of what happened. There’s no way they’re going to believe that I had a vision about a murder that happened thirty years ago, never mind the fact that I’ve been seeing the spirit of the boy who was murdered. They’ll lock me up for life.” She rose and began pacing. “But if I don’t tell them, they could get killed.”

  Rafe growled deep in his throat as he scrubbed fiercely at his face with both hands. He ripped his fingers back through his hair and stomped to the window. He stared at the darkness outside, his shoulders tense.

  “You were right,” she said. “I should have stopped. I was so obsessed with solving Johnny’s mystery that I didn’t think how I was putting my family in danger, or you. I made things worse. I’m sorry.”

  He turned to her, his eyes slitted. “Do you really think I care about what happens to me? This was never about me, Ana. This was about keeping you safe and ending this nightmare.”

  “That’s what I was trying to do! I was tired of being scared in my own home. I wanted it to end.”

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t have made pals with the thing trying to kill you!”

  “I already said I was sorry and that you were right,” she said, frustration drawing hot tears to her eyes. “What do I do?”

  He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  Deflated and defeated, Ana sunk down onto the sofa and dropped her face into her hands. She pressed her eyes closed and fought not to throw up. The cushion next to her dipped. Strong arms enveloped her and pulled her into a warm chest. She nestled there, letting the strength of him soak into her.

  “We’ll figure this out,” he murmured into the top of her head.

  Sniffling, she raised her head and peered up at him. “You’re not giving up on me?”

  He kissed her lightly. “I never did. I was just pissed and needed to clear my head.” He chewed on the inside of his lip before adding. “I think we need to tell your parents, Ana. We have to,” he insisted when she opened her mouth to argue. “Not only so they can be careful, but because they might know a way to fix things.”

  “They won’t believe me,” she said, hating the whining tone in her voice. “The last time I talked about demons my mom was ready to start filling out psych ward applications.”

  “But you won’t be alone this time,” he reminded her. “I’ll be there with you and I think—”

  A slow, whining creak splintered the air, air that had become thick with crystalized ice. Sheets of frost crackled across the surface of picture frames and the TV. It curled across the floor from the hallway and stopped inches from their feet. From the corridor, something began to crack like weight on thin ice. It splintered up the walls to cobweb along the ceiling. The house groaned as though settling. The windows snapped. Thin, white vines branched across the glass.

  Rafe got quickly to his feet and pulled Ana up with him. He kept her close as the cracks broke off the glass and traveled up the walls, crisscrossing in all directions.

  “What’s going on?” Ana whispered.

  “I think your boyfriend’s angry,” Rafe mused, his fingers tightened around hers.

  She ignored the comment as a chunk of plaster dropped from the ceiling, nearly pegging her on the head.

  “Johnny, stop!” she shouted.

  A lamp shot off the end table and burst against the wall. Picture frames rattled on the walls before they dropped one by one to the floor. Glass sprayed everywhere as every light bulb in the living room exploded. Ana screamed as the shards rained down on them. Rafe pulled her to him and covered her, but bits still cut her cheek and her bare feet.

  “Ana?”

  Her mom and dad came running down the stairs in their night things. Ana expected Johnny to stop and for the room to mysteriously return to its normal state, because he never did anything in front of her parents. But the sight of them only seemed to intensify the cold wave of rage that swept through the room. Knickknacks off the mantel zipped through the air, bursting against the walls and floors. Pages were torn from books and whipped through the room like pieces of fallen snow. The sofa ripped across the floor and slammed into the open doorway, blocking her from her parents.

  “Ana!” Her father raced towards her, only to be smacked by an invisible force and sent sailing backwards as though he weighed nothing. He slammed into the railing and slumped to the ground. Her mother ran to him, but he was already pushing to his feet, his face determined.

  “Get out!” Ana shouted to them.

  “We’re not going anywhere without you!” her father shouted.

  “What’s going on?” her mother cried as the lights began to flicker rapidly. “How’s this happening?”

  “Johnny, enough!” Ana pleaded, looking up at the ceiling.

  The house gave a violent shudder like it was ready to collapse. Then everything went still. Her father was across the
room in a flash, grabbing Ana from Rafe and pulling her into his arms.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded. “Are you?”

  “What was that?” her mother demanded, making her way more carefully to join them.

  Ana looked at Rafe, who nodded. She faced her parents. “I need to tell you something.”

  The full story that was three months in the making, took less than twenty minutes to tell. Ana was amazed at how quiet her parents got the longer she went on. She had expected doubt, annoyance and maybe even fear, but both steadily seemed to grow angrier the more in-depth she got. Her father nearly had steam coming out of his ears.

  “That son of a bitch!” he snarled and leapt to his feet. “I should have killed him while I had the chance.”

  “Stand in line,” Rafe muttered from his slumped position against the wall next to the window.

  Her mother continued to just rock her head from side to side, her mouth gaping as she stared at her ruined living room in horror. “I nearly let him in,” she croaked. “I almost let that monster into our home.”

  “You didn’t know,” Ana said. “I should have told you. I’m sorry.”

  Her father shook his head slowly. “We need to figure out how we’re going to deal with this. I know the first thing I’m going to do in the morning is dig up that pond. If that boy is down there, we’ll make sure he gets a proper burial.”

  Her mother nodded. “Poor thing. I wonder if there’s a way to get a hold of his parents. I’m sure they would like the closure.”

  “As for those assholes…” Her father marched to the phone and snatched it up.

  “Who are you calling?” Ana asked.

  “The sheriff. I’m sure—” The phone was snatched from his grasp by invisible hands and sent into the wall where it shattered.

  Her mother screamed.

  Her father went ashen. “Jesus…”

  “The sheriff won’t do anything,” Ana told him. “Philip Andrews is the mayor. It’s your word against his.”

  “There has to be something—”

  Something slammed into the side of the house and the world went dark.