As Larry walked through the jail, the inmates greeted him with the usual taunting and bar banging. He stopped at Nick’s cell and called his name. Larry looked into the cell and watched Nick as he lay there sleeping.
“Hey! Nick Tooley!”
Nick sluggishly sat up and scratched his hair. Larry noticed his puffy eyes. Nick answered in a gruff voice.
“Yeah?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“No shit.” Nick lifted his head. “I’ve been trying to talk to you but you won’t listen.”
“All right, smart-ass! Get over here and tell me more about your dream.”
Nick stretched his arms and yawned before he moved to the cell door and spoke.
“Okay, Sheriff. I’ll tell you plainly. David Ray’s been talking to me. I don’t understand why he’s using me after everything that happened, but from the other sightings and what he did to that kid, I know it’s him and I know he’s real. And I’m telling you, if I can say that sober, you can trust it as the God’s honest truth.”
Larry could see that he meant every word. “Okay, Nick. Go on.”
“All right.” Nick put his hands on the bars close to Larry’s face. “I saw his life, Larry. He showed me everything he went through, things I would have no way of knowing. I don’t think he was trying to justify what he did. I just think he wanted me to know what happened. And it wasn’t pretty. Not that I care, but he was abused something terrible and forced into what looked like some kind of satanic ritual.”
Larry played along. “Assuming you’re telling the truth, Nick, what do you think he wants from us?”
“I don’t know. I’m seeing mostly images of his experiences, flashes of this and that. As far as actual words, all he said was that he’s alive and that I need to kill him or something like that.”
Larry looked away for a moment as he formed his thoughts.
“He asked you to kill him?”
“Yeah. Strange isn’t it?”
“And you don’t think that was just your subconscious desire?”
“My subconscious what? Hell, I don’t know! I jus… Listen Larry, I don’t know why he’d ask me to kill him if he’s already dead.”
Larry’s head snapped forward. “Wh…what did you say?”
“I said…how could we kill him if he’s dead?”
Larry smirked. Now we’re getting somewhere, he thought.
“I don’t know, Nick. But what if you could kill him? Would you do it?”
“Yes.”
“What if you couldn’t? Would you do the next best thing?”
“What do you mean?” Nick’s brow furrowed.
“What if you could watch him suffer? Would you do that?”
Nick pressed his face to the cell gate and answered without hesitation. “I’d die for a chance to see that!”
“Then today’s your lucky day.” Larry grinned. “While the rest of the town celebrates the reunion, we’re going to celebrate something else.” Larry dug a large set of keys out of his pocket and called the deputy from down the hallway. He looked back at Nick. “I’ve got something to show you.”
• • •
Nick’s eyes clouded with confusion. Nonetheless, the prospect of getting out of jail for even a few minutes felt like a major regaining of his freedom. He stepped over to the gate, glared at his jeering cell mates and flashed his middle finger.
Larry dangled a pair of handcuffs in front of Nick before he unlocked the cell door.
“Standard procedure, Nick.” Nick stuck his hands out toward Larry and was cuffed before the deputy would open the door. The other prisoners laughed as Nick meekly followed the sheriff.
Nick rolled his head. “Yeah. Yeah.” He didn’t care, he wanted out.
Nick and Larry walked out of the jail side by side and got into Larry’s vehicle.
“We’re going on a little road trip, Nick. Be prepared for a spiritual experience, because I’m going to make a believer out of you!” Nick’s eyes squinted at him with distrust and bewilderment. What was Larry up to, he thought. He might as well have spoken in Greek.
• • •
After the lights went out, the dark cafeteria became the haunted building that Kate secretly feared. Bryan defensively planted his feet in the darkness, ready to fight, an instinctive male reaction to danger. The women, on the other hand, reached for the first warm body within their grasp. Kate grabbed Bryan. Noah and Lana huddled close to the pillar. Maria reached across her chair and pulled Tanner close.
Within seconds, Maria shouted, “Oh, my God! What was that?”
Lana pulled Noah close and fearfully asked, “What was what?”
“I felt something cold! It rushed right past my face. It felt like a cold breeze, but it’s gone now.”
“Oh crap!” shrieked Kate. Her head spun around in search of the apparition. “I felt it too!” She let go of Bryan and blindly waved her hands as if trying to catch the wind.
Bryan spoke up. “Hey! Take it easy! It’s probably just a draft. You all know this place has been uninhabited for two decades. A little breeze here and there shouldn’t surprise you.”
“What about the lights, Bryan?” asked Lana indignantly. The others grumbled in agreement.
“The lights are a different issue. Something just tripped a breaker. I’ll go check it out. I know where the mechanical room is.” He pulled the flashlight from his gun belt and headed out of the cafeteria.
The others maintained their protective stance. Kate moved close to Maria and Tanner after Bryan left. She crossed her arms and quivered in fear. Noah and Lana moved cautiously toward the others.
“I knew it,” whispered Kate.
“You knew what?” questioned Lana.
“Nick was right. David’s ghost is in here.”
“You think it’s a ghost?” asked Maria. “I think Bryan’s probably right. It’s just an old building.”
The lights turned back on. Everyone relaxed again.
“See, it was just the breakers,” explained Tanner as he walked toward the front entrance and attempted to open the door. “We just got a little spooked, that’s all. I’m going to open the doors and—” Tanner shook the door. Nothing happened.
“What’s the matter, Tanner?” shouted Kate from across the room.
“Uh…the doors are locked!” He shook harder. Nothing. He moved on to another one.
Noah ran toward another exit and tried to open it as well. “Locked here too!”
Kate looked around at all her friends. Their faces were again filled with fear.
Bryan walked back in from the mechanical room.
“There now. All better!”
He put the flashlight back in his belt and rubbed his hands together, proud of what he had done. Kate stared at him, suddenly wondering why she’d ever thought he might be the answer to her problems.
“Now the doors are locked, Bryan!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. I tried to open these and they’re all stuck,” retorted Tanner.
Before anyone else could say anything, a loud bang boomed overhead. Startled, Kate looked up toward the ceiling. She noticed that one of the halogen light bulbs had blown up inside its large fixture, leaving a big black spot on the glass. Seconds later a bulb burst, in an explosion of glass slivers—then another and another. Soon every light in the cafeteria had burned out and Kate stood rooted with fear in the pitch black of the cafeteria.
“That’s it! I’m getting out of here!” shouted Kate. “I knew it! I knew something like this would happen!”
She stumbled to the nearest wall and felt her way toward one of the doors, only to find it locked just as Tanner had said. She pushed and pulled to no avail. She pounded and screamed for someone on the outside to help, for someone to turn the flashlight on so she could see! Bryan gripped his flashlight again and turned it on, but no one came to the door from outside. They had all gone to their homes, happy and safe. There seemed to be no escape. Kate turned toward the others with her back
to the door and slid down until she sat in a fetal position. She dropped her head and surrendered to despair.
Separated by the darkness, she sat alone with only the beam of the flashlight as Bryan moved toward her. She looked into the darkness, but could not see the others. All she could see were tiny airborne particles that danced in the wide blade of light approaching her. She ran her hand through the beam, stirring the dust into a whirlwind. And then the air around her started to chill.
• • •
“What in God’s name is going on here?” asked Noah as he watched Bryan walking toward Kate.
Tanner responded, “I don’t want to believe it, but maybe Kate’s right about David!”
“What? What’s all this talk about David Ray?” Noah pressed.
Bryan turned, sighed and interjected, “Listen everybody! This is no big deal! We’ve had a few sightings and reports about a ghost on campus and now everyone is all stressed out!”
Noah remained pensive. “What’s so unusual about that? There were a lot of kids who died here, in case you don’t remember.”
“Yeah, but this is different,” added Tanner.
“What do you mean?” asked Noah.
“Two things,” Tanner said. “One: Nick Tooley claims to have seen David Ray more than once. And two: David Ray tried to speak to me in a dream last night. I know that sounds weird, but he did.”
No one could see Noah’s confusion in the darkness.
Bryan said, “David Ray is dead. He can’t possibly speak to you or Nick or anybody if he’s not alive!”
Noah pointed out, “Sure David Ray’s dead. Maybe that’s why he’s speaking to them. Maybe that’s how he’s speaking to them.”
At that moment Kate began to mumble, her voice trembling. Noah and the others turned to look in her direction.
She said, “Uh…Bryan?”
“Yeah?”
“Did…you…or any of you…just come over here?”
Everyone quietly responded, establishing his or her location.
“I’m still a few feet away. Why?” Bryan shone the flashlight back on Kate and squinted to see her eyes glistening in the lone stream of light.
She screamed.
“Something just grabbed me!”
Noah gasped as he watched Kate’s face disappear from the beam of light. He heard her body slide rapidly across the tile floor as she cried for help. Noah, Bryan and the others ran after her, but she was moving much faster than they could run. When they got to where she had been sitting, she was gone.
“Where is she?” asked Noah.
“She was here a second ago!” said Bryan.
Maria pointed down the hallway and shouted, “Oh, my God! Look! There she is!”
The corridor shone faintly with a red glow reflected from the emergency exit signs. Noah looked in the same direction as Maria, and saw Kate sliding across the floor, feet first. He stared in disbelief. No one seemed to be in contact with her, yet both of her legs were raised as if someone or something was pulling her, dragging her, with her head bobbing and rolling. From a distance, Noah witnessed her fight to escape through an occasional burst of faint red light. Her hands scratched and clawed the smooth floor but she could not stop the force that had taken hold of her.
Bryan ran after her. Noah stayed with the others.
• • •
“Kate!” Bryan shouted as he ran across the cafeteria. “I’m coming!” Using the flashlight again, he sprinted after her.
The others were frantic. Only Noah remained a hub of calm as he watched Kate disappear into the faint red light.
Kate’s helpless body turned a corner, moving out of their sight. She was still screaming for help but her voice began to fade as she slid farther and farther down the red-glowing hallways into the heart of the school. Bryan continued his pursuit around the corner. He slipped on the waxy floor and fell heavily while winding the turn. Although in pain, he staggered to his feet and continued the chase.
• • •
The cafeteria grew quiet again as Noah strained to hear what was happening to Kate and Bryan. After watching Bryan disappear around the corner, Noah paced near the group as he gathered his thoughts. He concluded that he needed to do something. He turned to the others.
“I’m going too! Bryan might need my help. Tanner, stay here with Lana and Maria.”
“Sure.” Tanner put an arm around each of them.
Noah ran cautiously into the red darkness. He contemplated all that he had experienced in his lifetime, which remained unknown to the rest of the group. In that moment, his mind shuffled through his ministry and studies in parapsychology.
He had witnessed all sorts of paranormal activity, from simple electronic voice phenomena and personal encounters with dead spirits to several full-blown demonic possessions.
As he ran, he thought, if this is David’s spirit, he’s very angry. If it’s not him, then we might have a real problem on our hands. It could be a distressed spirit…or it could be something far worse.
22nd
Larry drove south toward the Mount Carmel State Institution. After observing him over the course of the week Larry had determined that Nick wasn’t nearly as dangerous as Bryan claimed. If anything, he seemed to be more of a nuisance because of his panic attacks and paranoia than a potentially violent criminal. Larry had transported far more dangerous men much farther than the short fifty-minute drive ahead. He figured the trip would give him adequate time to break the news of David Ray’s survival, allowing Nick an opportunity to process it.
Larry glanced at Nick and saw him quietly looking out the window with his head leaning against the glass. The grey sky faded into blended hues of purplish-gray and navy-blue clouds. Nick seemed to be mesmerized by the tangled clouds that billowed into the moonless sky.
“This beats the white walls inside the county jail, any day,” said Nick.
Larry nodded. “Got that right.”
The colors converged into heavy grey clouds, drowning out the daylight and dripping small droplets of water onto the windshield. Larry turned his eyes to the road and prepared to tell Nick the truth.
“So, Nick…”
“Yeah?”
“I met a man by the name of Donald Stout yesterday. Does that name ring a bell?”
“Nope.” Nick’s eyes remained fixed on the sky.
“Well, he was the county coroner twenty years ago and he gave me some very interesting information.”
“Does this have anything to do with David Ray?”
“Yeah. It sure does.”
• • •
Nick felt his insides rumble, but he kept his outward appearance calm. He turned his head in Larry’s direction.
“What is it, Larry?”
Larry responded in kind by returning a glance, but only for a moment. “He’s alive, Nick. He’s alive.” Larry looked back at the road.
Nick’s heart trembled and his gut filled with nausea. He sucked in a mouthful of air and exhaled like a mother in childbirth, breathing through the pain.
“I need some fresh air,” he said as he rolled down the window. Tiny raindrops pelted his face.
After breathing the moist air, Nick pulled his head back in.
“How? I mean…how is he still alive?” Nick shouted over the rush of the wind. “He killed himself! I watched him die!”
“You’re right. He did. But his heart began beating after he was pronounced dead. Donald Stout’s the man who made the official statement. And this story comes straight from the source.”
Nick rolled up the window. Very puzzled and beginning to be angry, he replied, “Okay. So what happened? Was it all a lie?”
“Oh, no. He was legally dead. He just…came back. The doctors classified him as having PVS, or living in a persistent vegetative state, a human vegetable. He was secretly declared a ward of the state, unfit for trial, and quietly placed in Mount Carmel State Institution until his death.”
Both men were quiet for a moment. Larry lo
oked at Nick briefly then turned his eyes back to the road.
“He’s still there, Nick. And he’s still alive. I wouldn’t call it living though, because he’s a vegetable. At least that’s what Mr. Stout told me. And that’s why I’m taking you with me. I know you’ve been hearing voices. And I know you’ve been through a lot. But I want you to see firsthand that he’s not dead. And to tell you the truth, after seeing that boy impaled at the school, I need to see what remains of David Ray as well. I need to know if he’s alive or if this paranormal nonsense is real. I think it’d do us both some good to know the truth.”
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right,” Nick lied. The thought of seeing David alive made him grind his teeth in a hate-filled rage. Still, on the outside, he remained calm. His insides burned, but his limbs and expression remained cold, masquerading as composed and collected.
“I sure hope so,” said Larry.
Nick kept his eyes focused on the sky, watching the rain lash the trees and pavements. He recalled his numerous appeals for forgiveness from God, his promises of penance and the long, rainy walks at the school where he would replay the murder of his brother over and over in his mind. Survivor’s remorse had become a regular part of his life, consistently impacting his string of poor decisions. And if what Larry said was true, he felt unsure of what to do or how to respond.
Larry lifted his visor and turned up the windshield wipers. He glanced at Nick once again then continued the drive toward the state institution, cursing the rain.
• • •
Bryan ran frantically through the school in search of Kate, but her body was no longer in sight.
“Kate!” He turned to look around each corner. “Where are you?”
He staggered through the stale-smelling halls and leaned against a locker to catch his breath. As he flashed his light across the tile and doorways, he noticed an object lying on the floor in the distance. He peered through the darkness, trying to make out what it was.
Reunion (A Psychological Suspense with Murder, Mystery and the Paranormal) Page 21
