J.C. pulled off the road halfway between the house and the town of Leila. We all jumped out so we could think straight. I had finally stopped crying, going down the road. I stopped pacing and turned to the others.
“We have to call the police,” I told them. Chris turned around, his brown eyes bored into my jade colored ones. He walked toward me taking long strides. “What are we going to tell them when they see the bodies? ‘Oh it wasn’t us, seriously it wasn’t. It was those ghosts that have been haunting that house for over 150 years’. We can’t exactly smile and nod and hope that if we agree with everything they say they will leave us off hook just because we are famous. Reality check! We are regular people just like your parents were and they have a right for a fair trial. The police will never believe that it wasn’t us, Tabitha. You... we will go to prision. We will lose our career. Everything that we worked so hard for will vanish in front of our very eyes with just one word. GUILTY! No, that is not even a choice!” he yelled.
“What other choice do we have?” I yelled back. Lightning struck the sky making us all jump. In a split second I saw Chris’ angry eyes.
It was silent until Lance spoke up. “We can leave. They said they don’t keep records of people who visit.”
My eyes narrowed at Lance. “Reminder! I’m their daughter. Somebody is going to see that my body isn’t there or anywhere near the town. The police are going to try track me down, blame me, then by the time they catch me, I won’t be a minor anymore. I’ll be tried as an adult and probably be put to death as my punishment. Do I look as stupid as you? I think the color of your hair is just now going to your head,” I insulted him viciously.
“It was just a suggestion,” Lance replied.
“Well it was stupid. Totally stupid,” I snapped.
“Calm down,” Joey tried to sooth.
“Calm down? My parents are dead because of ghosts and you’re telling me to calm down?”
“Calm down,” Joey tried again. “Calm down.”
“I am calmed down!” I yelled at him.
He backed away slowly hands up. “Ok, ok.”
It started raining. Within a moment a puddle started to form at my feet.
“We go back to the house, then,” J.C. said. We all looked at him. He continued on, “We get the bodies and bury them somewhere, no one would bother to look.” We were silent for a minute.
“I still say we tell the police,” I told them.
“And I still say we leave them.”
I looked at Chris and glared over at him. “They are my parents,” I snapped.
“Its your life!”
“They are my life!” I screamed. I watched Chris’ eyes soften at me.
Cold rain hit my head harder and harder. Thunder rolled somewhere above us. We stood there for another long moment.
“We vote then,” Joey told us. “I’m up for J.C.’s plan.”
Chris looked around, “J.C.’s plan.”
I looked a Lance waiting for him to answer. “What about you Lance?” I asked.
He looked at me amazed. “Now you want my suggestion?” he shook his head. “Uh huh...sorry.”
I flashed him a look of warning. “Don’t tempt me Lance. You’re too understanding to get hurt.”
“What an interesting choice of words, Tabitha.”
Joey tried to change the conversation. “Justin, what do you think?” My eyes never left Lance’s face.
“I like Tabitha’s plan.”
J.C. mentally counted. “Then its settled we go back to the house.” The rain started to cease slightly. The white rope of electricity flashed again.
We started moving to the car when Justin stopped us. “I can’t go back you guys. There is no way I can go back to that hell you call a house.”
Chris sighed loudly. “Don’t start whining on us now. Not a time like this.”
“I’m not whining, I’m telling. You get scared shitless one night. Then you get scratched by the devil himself when you know he just about killed you.”
I moved from the back to Justin, still limping. “You don’t know what its like to be scared to close your eyes at night. Afraid you will never see the light of day again. Then being afraid to open them because you don’t know what you will see. You pray to GOD to protect you from the evil that you know that lerks around your room.”
I pointed to myself. “I had to live with that for 18 years. You think about that. When you find something that is worse than what I just told you, only then can you come and talk to me about being scared.”
I could feel the cold steady rain stream down my cheeks mixed by my tears of truth. “Now get in the car… we are going back to the house. I’m not asking you…I’m telling you.”
copyright © 2001 AngelH