Reunion (A Psychological Suspense with Murder, Mystery and the Paranormal)

by Jeff Bennington

  He had to blink several times before his eyes could focus enough to make sense of it all. But after looking at the image for a few seconds, it became clear what, or more specifically, who was looking back at him.

  The words David Ray entered his mind.

  He did not want to believe it, but he had never forgotten the look of madness in David’s eyes. And there he was, twenty years after the shooting, those evil eyes staring back at him, penetrating his soul and pouring fear into his veins.

  “Oh, my God!”

  Bryan stepped away and forced himself to breathe. The sight of David’s face forged into the door caused him to go into a panic attack.

  Breathe, breathe, breathe, he thought to himself.

  He took his hat off and began to nervously run his fingers through his hair as he paced across the rubble from the doorway.

  “What the hell is that?” he shouted. He momentarily looked at the door again and then back at Larry.

  “How? I mean…I…please, explain that to me!”

  Larry said nothing. He waited to hear Bryan say the name, to confirm his fears.

  Bryan pointed at the door and made the pronouncement that Larry was expecting. “That…that’s David Ray! That’s David Ray’s face!”

  Larry remained silent.

  Bryan stepped back. “Is that why you called me? Is that why I’m here?” He started pacing in circles. “Damn it, Larry! How did that happen? The parents…the community…they’re going to want answers. If we don’t come up with some way to explain this… What the hell are we supposed do with that, huh?”

  “Nothing,” said Larry. “We aren’t going to do, or say, anything.”

  “What do you mean? You can’t just sweep something like this under the rug!”

  “Sure we can. We just get the door replaced, clean up all this mess and pretend it never happened. But I didn’t want to do that until you’d identified the face, because you’re the only one on the force who really knew him. And unless that face belongs to David, there’s no other way to make sense of what seems to have happened here. I just figured that had to be him. Apparently, what we have here is a face to face encounter with the paranormal. And that’s a force I don’t know how to reckon with. Do you?”

  “No! We all suffered enough because of him while he was still alive.” Bryan paused and shook his head. “What exactly happened, Larry? Where’s the victim?”

  Larry looked up and pointed toward the top of the flagpole that sat in the center of the concrete patio. “Up there.”

  Bryan tilted his head upward to view the thirty-foot pole.

  To his horror, a young man had been completely impaled on it. With his body facing toward the heavens, the pole skewered the boy through his lower back and belly. His arms and legs dangled in complete obedience to the powers of gravity.

  The stainless-steel pole dripped red with his blood, oozing downward to where it pooled at the base. The sight sickened Bryan and had obviously instilled an incredible amount of fear into the attending law-enforcement officers. The thought of someone or something powerful enough to throw the boy up that high and spike him on the flagpole seemed to have intimidated the other law-enforcement officers present. Bryan did not react any differently. He had to turn away from the horrifying sight.

  As he turned, he saw Nick Tooley walking down the sidewalk, away from the school. Nick twisted his neck toward Bryan, turned away, and then hurried off. What’s he doing here, Bryan wondered? He didn’t have time to deal with Nick, especially with Larry around.

  Bryan and Larry continued their discussion of the murder, but then stopped to stand silently out of respect as the fire crew hoisted a boom to the top of the blood-stained pole and, with great difficulty, removed the body. After it was covered and taken to the waiting ambulance, Bryan asked, “Can I talk with the other boys?”

  “Sure.’’ Larry directed him to the older of the two.

  “Jason is sitting over there.” Larry pointed toward a tree surrounded by a retaining wall.

  The boy, still in shock, sat on the wall with his legs pulled close to his chest. A paramedic had wrapped him in a blanket. Bryan and Larry approached the teenager.

  “Hey there,” Bryan said. Jason said nothing.

  Bryan made a second attempt. “You wanna tell me what happened here, Jason?”

  Jason blinked his tired eyes and shrugged his shoulders.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” Bryan sat down beside the teen. “Is that your friend over there?” He pointed to the other boy.

  “He’s my little brother. He’s thirteen,” replied Jason with a numbed tone in his voice.

  “Can you tell me what you boys were doing out here? And don’t worry about gettin’ in trouble. We just want to help.”

  Jason looked at Bryan with suspicion, but continued. “We were just shootin’ out some windows with my BB gun. And Chris—” Jason looked up at where the dead boy had been impaled—”he was throwing rocks.”

  “Okay. Then what?”

  “Well, my little brother, Alex, looked at the glass after he shot it a few times and…and all of a sudden, a ghost or whatever it was started running toward the door like it got all pissed at him. Alex said the thing looked sort of cloudy at first, but then it took shape as it moved closer. Next thing I knew, Alex started crying and gettin’ all scared and stuff. That’s when Chris and I ran toward the door. We thought Alex was just being a baby, so we started pushing him around and teasing him. But we started hearing voices that sounded like a bunch of kids screaming bloody murder and whispers and eerie noises. Then I got this cold feeling and Chris told me to look inside. He said, ‘Oh, my God! It’s coming at us!’ and then he started to run away. But he didn’t get very far because by the time he turned around this…this force or wind or something swooped him off the ground, and well, we didn’t know it at the time, but it dropped him on top of the flagpole.” Jason’s mouth remained open. His voice quivered as tears pooled in his eyes. He shivered, folded his arms tighter around his legs. His glazed eyes stared into the distance.

  “It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. It happened so fast! I didn’t even have a chance to see what it was, because when that thing came busting through the door, glass flew everywhere!”

  “What’d you do?” asked Larry.

  “I turned my head to look and the force pushed me backward onto the ground. It was like this heavy hand threw me down…and…” Jason continued crying and shaking, his voice breaking as he spoke. “When I turned back, Chris was gone.” He started sobbing. “All I could see was broken glass and that…that face!” Trembling, Jason paused to breathe and wiped the tears from his eyes with a dirty hand. “We looked all over for Chris. But…then I…I felt something dripping on me, and when I looked up…I saw him…I saw him hanging up there, bleeding and shaking.”

  Jason tucked his head into his knees and retreated into himself. Bryan patted his shoulder gently. He thought he’d seen it all before, but this took his experience to a whole new level.

  “Will you excuse me, Larry?” asked Bryan.

  Larry nodded and Bryan walked away with his head down. The screams and whispers haunted his mind and clouded his thoughts. As he walked away, his hands began to shake. The David Ray massacre resurrected itself once again. The horrifying memories of children screaming crowded out any hope of clear thinking. Help, help, help! Oh my God, help me, please! It’s David Ray! I’m hurt! Please don’t shoot! No! Nooo! Nooooo! Please stop, David! Don’t shoot! Don’t kill me, please! Oh, please, please don’t kill me!

  Overcome with a paralyzing anxiety, Bryan walked to the emergency vehicle that served as host for the coffee pot. He gripped the edge of the table to keep his balance. When he had regained control he poured the hot coffee into his cup but his hands still shook. Deputy Burns came over to get coffee too and stood next to Bryan.

  “Wasn’t that the damndest thing?”

  Still trembling slightly, Bryan looked at him from the corner of his eye
and muttered, “You could say that.”

  “The sheriff’s gonna cover this up, you know?” The deputy shook his head. His words distracted Bryan and the coffee overflowed onto the table.

  “Damn it!”

  He wiped up the mess with a napkin and took a sip of his drink. He turned his back on Deputy Burns, trying to project his lack of interest in conversing. He knew firsthand what David had been capable of as a living person and now his spirit appeared to have gained some kind of supernatural intensity.

  Bryan had previously dismissed the experience by the basketball court as a fluke. Apparently it wasn’t.

  The deputy interrupted Bryan’s brooding. “Hey, man! What’s your deal? Are you listening to me?”

  Bryan needed to clarify his thoughts, but this guy was becoming more and more of a distraction. He apologized and shook his head, indicating that he didn’t want to talk. He walked back toward Larry and said, “It’s him. It’s definitely David Ray.”

  “Okay then. I’ll take over from here. Thanks, Bryan.”

  “Sure.”

  • • •

  Larry gave the fire department the okay to break the mysterious glass and begin the repair process. The crew would have a new commercial-grade steel door installed before daybreak. While they started the work, Bryan sat in his patrol car and finished his coffee. Then he went home. He had thought the town had seen the last of David Ray.

  14th

  Tanner woke up early for a morning jog. He stretched, put on his headphones and began a five-mile trek around his hometown. As he ran, his eyes absorbed the sights and sounds, bringing him back to a time when as a shy, underdeveloped, tag-along, he’d follow Kenny’s every move. The buildings and streets seemed much smaller than he remembered. The twigs that once sprouted from seedlings had blossomed into pleasant shade trees, while some of the houses that once shone with newness had grown old and deteriorated with neglect. As vivid as Tanner’s memories were, his legs kept moving, his arms kept pumping and his mind kept racing.

  Regardless of the impact on the people of the community, he thought that Crescent Falls had not developed at all. With the exception of natural aging, everything seemed to look the same. The dilapidated service station still sat at the edge of town. The strip mall across from the library had just enough customers to break even, same as before. The only new establishment Tanner saw was Rockies Bar & Grill.

  As he ran out of town, he thought to himself, No wonder Rockies is so popular; it’s the only place that lets you forget.His heart pounded but he loved the feeling. He enjoyed the freedom and organic sensation of running wherever his legs could carry him. The pounding of his feet on the pavement created a rhythmic beat that fed his brain a steady stream of endorphins. With his mind in a euphoric state, and his muscles pulsating, he watched the sun rise above the mountains. He ran east out of town, past the railroad tracks, squinting as the morning light poured over him, flickering through the pines that lined each side of the road.

  He marveled at the universe and often wondered how it all came to be. Was his life just an illusion that played out in his mind? As he ran, he idly questioned whether the sunrise and the Grand Canyon were only figments of his imagination.

  One thought led to another. Was his spirit resting somewhere in the heavens, creating some kind of cerebral fantasy? Had he been killed in the massacre? Were the last twenty years an imaginative fulfillment of his desires, when in truth he was still that little boy he used to be, dreaming of being a man?

  Tanner realized that he frequently struggled with his thoughts about eternity—life and death and God, if there was one. Occasionally, he doubted the validity of a creator, but he didn’t fully believe that the details of life were so intricately formulated by chance either. Consequently, he questioned his arrogance and his faithless life. Yet, with so much appreciation of the world around him, he wondered how he could even consider it a chance mishap of the universe.

  With his legs driving forward on autopilot, Tanner turned around and ran back across the railroad tracks near the granary. As he drew closer to town, he wondered if Crescent Falls had given up on God too, or whether they had embraced Him in the midst of their struggles. Whichever it was, he returned to earth when he saw another runner in the distance.

  A petite figure graced the concrete trail ahead. As he slowed down to get a better look, his breathing grew heavier and his lungs tried to catch up with his heart rate. He lifted both hands above his head and stretched, peering through the morning light to watch the woman runner bounding forward like a spring doe. He watched her brown hair bobbing from side to side and noticed her thin gazelle legs, with a slight limp to her left.

  Looks like Lana, he thought. His spirit perked up.

  He was too far away to call her name so he picked up his pace again and caught up with her. When he drew parallel with her, his smile grew even bigger. Her smooth, tan legs seemed to attract him with every stride. He couldn’t help but notice her scant running shorts and how they left very little to his imagination. As he approached, announced by the pounding of his feet, she turned around, recognized him and smiled.

  He matched her pace.

  “Good morning, Lana.”

  “Hey Tanner…how are you?”

  “Great, thanks.”

  “Beautiful morning, huh?” she asked. Tanner was so close he could smell her hair as it swung, releasing a country-lavender fragrance.

  “Yes,” he went on. “Just watched the sun rise over the mountains. Reminded me of how beautiful it was growing up here.”

  Lana chuckled. “Yeah, I remember.”

  “So, do you run much?” asked Tanner.

  “I try, but I have my limits.” She reached down and rubbed the scar on her thigh. “It’s painful sometimes, but I don’t want that to stop me! How ‘bout you?”

  “Five a day! If I’m not running, I’m biking, or climbing, or kayaking, or something. I can hardly keep still.”

  Lana laughed at him. “You were always hyper. Some things never change.”

  He smiled back. “I guess not.”

  The rhythm of their feet filled the silence.

  Then Lana asked, “So, where are you headed?”

  “I don’t know. I’m about finished. Why? You going somewhere special?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where?”

  “The school.”

  “Really? Why?”

  Her willingness to venture into their past intrigued him.

  Lana slowed to a walking pace, grunting from the pain in her leg. The wind, no longer flying through her hair, let it fall back into place and she looked away from him for a moment. “I don’t know, Tanner. I just feel compelled to look at it, and see if it’s still there. I mean, I guess I just want to s—”

  Tanner completed her sentence. “Want to see if you can stand it? That is, if you can take the heat?”

  Lana stopped and grabbed Tanner’s arm, bringing him to a sudden halt.

  “Yes! How did you know?”

  “I told you, I did a lot of thinking before I came out here. I knew this could be tough. And I kind of figured some of us wouldn’t be able to go through with it.”

  “Then why even suggest it?”

  “Because I know what I need. And…um…” Feeling a heaviness in his gut, Tanner turned away. “I…uh…I need to walk in there, and let out some anger…and…” He continued to fight the torrent of emotions that he had held at bay for so many years. Yet his quivering voice gave away his buried grief. “I need to figure out who I am, and what I believe in, because when this is over, I’m not sure what’ll become of me.”

  “Become of you? What do you mean?”

  “What do I mean?” Tanner stopped and stared up at the morning sky. “You know, I suddenly realized how long I’ve been climbing mountains and paddling upstream, chasing after something. It’s like I’ve been going after this invisible carrot that has somehow been dangling in front of me for twenty years. Funny thing is, I never r
ealized it until Maria called and invited me to be a part of this. And I’ll be honest with you; nothing, and I mean nothing I’ve faced since I left this town, has been more frightening than coming back here.”

  Lana gently touched his arm. “What’s so bad about that?”

  Tanner ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath and thought, if I can face coming back to the school and walking through those halls without pissing my pants, maybe, I’ll finally be okay.

  He looked directly into her eyes and said, “Nothing, I suppose. I’ve always told myself that one day I’d return. I always knew that if I could climb Mount Everest or sail the Atlantic, I’d finally be courageous enough to face my greatest fear…coming back to this place.”

  “And now?”

  “I’m here and I’m scared shitless. Most people spend their lives chasing after the allure of something that they can’t put their finger on. And that’s me. Or at least, that was me, until now. So, without the need to chase after my fears, ironically, I’m afraid. I’m afraid that all that’s left is emptiness. I’m afraid that those things that kept me moving will suddenly lose their purpose in my life. Again, I’m faced with the question: what will become of me?”

  Lana stood stock-still, stunned by Tanner’s openness. She too had a quest, led by a distant force. What Tanner called a carrot, Lana always referred to as the pull. She remained silent about her feelings for Noah, but Tanner’s frank disclosure left her free to be honest.

  In response to Tanner’s question, she replied, “What will become of you is…you’ll be even stronger than before. Maybe for the first time, you’ll be free to climb the mountains that you want to climb instead of the ones you feel you have to. Maybe, you’ll choose to live completely as yourself and not as some carrot chaser.”