LUCY AND THE LETTER EATERS
By: Alisia Compton
Published by Alisia Compton at Smashwords
Copyright ©2011 Alisia Compton
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SMASHWORDS COPY
All Rights Reserved ©2011 SMASHWORDS and ALISIA COMPTON Publications. First Printing: 2012.
The editorial arrangement, analysis and professional commentary are subject to this copyright notice. No portion of this book may be copied, retransmitted, reposted, duplicated, or otherwise used without the express written approval of the author, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.
United States laws and regulations are public domain and not subject to copyright. Any unauthorized copying, reproduction, translation, or distribution of any part of this material without permission by the author is prohibited and against the law.
Any resemblance to characters living or dead is purely coincidental.
To My Best Friend Jackie:
Thank you for always making room underneath your umbrella!
Prologue
The dark cloak hung loosely over the girl’s head and shoulders. Its sinister red coloring was like blood pooling around her body, sitting on a wooden bridge in the middle of Goren’s Wood. With thick white chalk, she finished the interior of the circle. Surrounded by ancient pagan symbols, she completed the final sig-rune, a design like a lightning bolt in front of her. Through her own research, and ill-will toward the target, the girl challenged her own beliefs with each mark. She completed the circle with six Norse symbols. She thought these would help her to better engage the demon. These would help her to better control him when he appeared before her.
Setting the chalk aside, the girl raised a gold chalice to the moon, its contents a mix of grain alcohol and her own virgin blood taken at her time of the month. She lowered the chalice and set to spilling its contents around the circle. The blood was beginning to coagulate, but the grain alcohol allowed for it to be thin enough to spread evenly. She pressed her hand into the mixture, making sure to spread it the entire way around.
With a single match, the blood caught fire, surprising her and causing her to whip backward for a single moment. The fire burned around her much higher than she’d anticipated. It burned with an evil passion, signifying she had successfully opened the portal where communication with Hell had become possible. The girl lowered her blood red hood, exposing her forehead and a soot outline of a pentagram. She dipped her finger into what remained in the chalice, and dotted some of what was left onto her forehead, in the very center of the pentagram. For a moment, her brown eyes flickered with hints of red.
She spoke these words in order to evoke the demon:
“Lord of Darkness, by your grace, grant me the power to realize that which I desire.
I entreat thee to inspire him to come forth, to manifest before me that he may give me true answer,
So that I may accomplish my desired end.”
She then stopped and pulled an ancient text in front of her. The girl began to read again, much louder, and in the moonlight, her eyes not only flickered red, but grew in enormous proportion to her head. They bulged and danced in the firelight in a most unnatural manner.
“I conjure, I address and I exorcise ye that ye may approach. בוא קדימה עכשיו ועושה שלי להציע. Come forth now and do my bidding!”
The silent darkness was interrupted by a crack of lightning and the sound of rolling thunder, despite a clear sky. The girl tilted her head and screamed up into the sky, begging for an ancient demon, to come forth and fulfill her desire. As the space between two worlds pulled apart, deafening sound raked through the girl’s body, causing her to shake and shiver and eventually pass out. His strong arms carried her the whole way home, and as he laid her down on her soft mattress he laughed at her stupidity.
Chapter 1
“The darkness was erasing me. I reached for the phone over and over again, but my hand kept moving right through it.”
Lucy Bennett worked to recount a recurring nightmare to her guidance counselor, Mr. Wilson. The upright wooden chair pinched a nerve, shooting pain down her back, and she stretched to adjust. Her thick blonde hair worked its way over her shoulders, and as she writhed, Mr. Wilson watched in silence, wondering what to say to the girl that he hadn’t already said a hundred times before.
“Lucy, our dreams have a way of seeming prophetic. Our brains interpret so much. There are bound to be occurrences of prophecy, but this is merely coincidence. Sometimes our brains will even reconstruct dreams of the past, to make them seem closer to a circumstance that has just happened. Because a dream seemed familiar, the brain may tell you you’ve dreamt the occasion. In reality, you haven’t. There was no way you could have stopped what happened that night.”
The night in question took place six months prior. Lucy had put herself to bed, only to awake moments later in a cold sweat with the pressing knowledge that James and Karen Slocum were in danger. In the dream, her father slept soundly at his desk, in the Whiskey Falls Sherriff’s Station. He was nearly comatose after chugging back a fifth of Jameson. The phone rang, but he never answered.
In a small town, the dispatch girl could be sent home to her family around eleven p.m. Surely, nothing would happen after then that the sheriff couldn’t handle. Only that night the phone rang with a real emergency. It rang for thirty minutes straight before James wrestled the keys away from his distraught wife. He burst into the bedroom of their eighteen month old daughter, and he put her in the car without strapping her in. An hour later and the coroner were calling the time of death, 3:30 in the morning for them both.
“It’s not your fault,” Mr. Wilson switched to his consoling voice. Lucy adjusted again in her seat, choosing to focus on the chair and not what her aging mentor was trying to convey to her. “Lucy,” he said again. “It’s not your fault.”
She wanted to ask him to declare that to Tina Monroe. Tell Tina, her former best friend that she wasn’t somehow responsible. Tina, who babysat for her aunt and uncle on a regular basis, would not listen. Tina Monroe blamed Lucy, her father, the sheriff’s department, the entire town for what happened.
“Our time is running up. You’ve got to get to class, young lady. But, before you go, can I get you to say it?”
Lucy didn’t want to say it, but she would say it anyway. It was supposed to be therapeutic somehow, but as soon as she left the safety of Mr. Wilson’s office there would be hundreds in the hallways who thought differently. They blamed her because she was related to the person they all deemed responsible, her father. He wasn’t there to string up on a daily basis and so she took the heat.
“It’s not my fault,” Lucy said without genuinely believing it. Mr. Wilson nodded, pleased with himself. He leaned back, his weight causing his chair to squeak a little. He pulled a pencil from behind his ear and tapped it against his knee. The bell went off and Lucy began gathering her things, but Mr. Wilson stopped her by raising a pudgy, aged finger in her direction. His face wrinkled into a large smile, but his sad eyes gave him away.
“You’re holding yourself back from being happy. You’re going to let your youth pass you by, if you don’t start enjoying being a teenager. Try getting a slice of pizza with a friend. See a movie. Just let yourself be a teenage girl. You’re young, Lucy. You’ve been through a lot, but you’re still young. Just let yourself be happy.”
Lucy put on the best smile she could muster and thanked him for his kind words of encouragement. She left his office and merged into the current of passing bodies, doing her very best to stay unnoticed. Whiskey Falls was a small town, but the school wasn’t. It housed grades seven through twelve, with students ranging in size from puny first years to over-bulked super seniors. In the hall, amongst the crowd, Lucy felt uncomfortable and exposed. For a moment, she glanced at those around her, jocks in lettered jackets pushed and shoved, violent laughter erupted from somewhere else, slamming lockers caused the displacement of air which ruffled signs taped to walls. It all seemed so ordinary, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Underneath the sweat stink of hormonal teens was an element of danger, a foreboding Lucy could smell and it was palpable.
Lucy was able to pass through the hallways unnoticed and out through the large double doors, where Sebastian Sumner was waiting in his usual spot. He was a boy of casual demeanor, just leaning against a bike rack looking all around, but not staring at any one thing. Under a navy blue hoodie, he wore an aged Clash t-shirt. His hair had grown a tad shaggy over the last few months, but the length suited him. His light brown eyes were outlined by thick, black eyelashes. Although not particularly tall, Sebastian had a lanky quality that girls of a certain disposition positively worshipped. Lucy noticed there were a few around him now, but he didn’t seem to care, maybe that was part of the charm.
“Lucy...fer!” Sebastian bellowed as she bounded up to him. “How was your day,” he continued. “Don’t answer that, I already know. Typical teenage angst? Despairing looks? Muffled whispers from a group of jealous onlookers? Who is that quiet girl and why does she spend all her time reading?”
Lucy laughed, loving the way he could make fun of any situation. As she stood there, he pulled a book from the top of the pile she was holding. “Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman. How perfectly you.”
“Hey, at least I can read,” she fired back, still smiling. She was able to wrestle the book of poems from him with ease. Their little tussles were becoming more and more frequent as the fall drifted into winter. From the front lawn of the school, the second bell rang out, signaling it was time to move on to their science class. As students raced through the double doors, leaving the front lawn empty, Lucy struggled to get moving. Sebastian knew what was bothering her. The next period was a science class, and they shared it with the same group of kids who had been torturing her since the beginning of the school year. “Come on, Lucy. I’ll watch out for you.” Lucy knew it was true, and so she took his hand, and they walked to class together.
She knew it was true because that’s how they’d become friends. Before a year ago, before her father became the town’s pariah, Lucy had never noticed Sebastian before. Days after the accident Lucy was pushed out of her social clique, pushed from the top of the ladder and the taunting began simultaneously as if they’d never known her prior. Lucy didn’t know the years Sebastian would choose seats near her, just so he could hear her voice and catch glimpses of her jade green eyes. When her father was let go as town sheriff, he kept a closer watch on her, ready to stop in at any moment should anyone try and hurt her.
The day Lucy officially met Sebastian she had dared to raise her hand during fifth period English to discuss the book they were reading. “The Pearl,” by John Steinbeck. She had become withdrawn, quiet and sallow since the accident and her teacher was excited to call on her, hoping it meant Lucy was returning to normal.
“Greed is a destructive force,” Lucy suggested as the main theme for the book and her teacher nodded encouragement, encroaching her to continue on. After their dialog ended, the class moved on to a period of silent reading, and the paper planes began to fly through the air, catching on air currents from a cracked window. Lucy looked down to find one had stretegically landed on her desk. When she opened it, she found it read, “You’re the destructive force. Why don’t you just die?”
Sebastian had been watching. He’d watched Tina scrawl the anger fueled message, and he’d watched her pass it to Callum to launch toward Lucy. And he noticed the single tear spilling down her cheeks, falling from those typically bright, now waning green eyes. He’d been noticing things since long before she’d become a bull’s eye for The Letter Eater’s projectiles. At the time, Sebastian didn’t know what it was like to be picked on, and he hadn’t actually cared so much when it happened to other people. Before he started hanging out with Lucy Bennett, no one had messed with him and he was no one’s hero. He flew entirely under the radar, and preferred to keep things that way. But, if there was one girl who could make him a target, it was Lucy. She made him feel like it was worth it. She meant a lot to him, and he was ready for her to know it. That day, just after seventh period English class, everyone would know it.
As the class spilled into the halls, Lucy tried to keep her head down and sneak away. Tina Monroe yelled in her loudest cheer voice for Lucy to stop. The combined voices, the loud chatter of the halls died down to near nothing and Lucy did stop, but she didn’t turn around. The kids moving to other classes and getting stuff from their lockers completely stopped what they were doing, and formed a tight, elongated circle around the two girls. “Lucy Bennett, if you’re going to move through my halls you’re going to pay the toll!”
Lucy took a deep breath and turned finding herself standing alone and facing a wall of angry students. Behind Tina was another of Lucy’s former friends, a particularly aggressive jock named Callum Norris. Lucy fought back the tears and waited for something to happen. Before her eyes could adjust, a pink, crème filled Snowball landed directly in the middle of her face.
As the hallways erupted into laughter, Lucy scraped the warm pink dessert treat from her face and turned to leave, but the wall of students was too difficult to maneuver out of. “Wait!” Tina called out again, causing Lucy to turn back yet again her face a mix of white crème filling and hopelessness. Tina’s eyes seem to shine brighter after seeing the pain on Lucy’s face, knowing that it could never fully match the pain within her own heart.
“You’ve only paid half the toll. Right, Callum?” She asked, turning in his direction. Callum moved next to Tina with an natural fluidity that was remarkable for his size. In his hand, he tossed another snowball up and down, all while laughing so hard he almost dropped it more than once.
“Seriously, get ready Lucy because this one is coming at you.”
Before Callum could use Lucy’s face as target practice, Sebastian finally fought his way into the circle. “Drop the snowball, you rabid gorilla!”
Callum physically lumbered over Sebastian, and his laughter barely faltered as he listed to Sebastian’s demand. “Or what,” he asked, in between hearty gaffs. Suddenly Sebastian found he was standing only a foot away from Callum’s massive frame. Callum looked down at him and taunted, “What are you going to do about it? Small fry.” Callum tilted his brawny neck and large head, so he was peering down at the top of Sebastian’s crown, in an act to prove how much bigger he actually was. Sebastian wasn’t tall, but there wasn’t a guy in school who could match Callum’s stature. Although scared, Sebastian stood his ground, not giving an inch even when Callum edged in closer – their bodies practically touching.
“Well,” Callum asked, breathing heavy down into Sebastian’s face. Sebastian craned his neck to stare right back in Callum’s face. “Only a pussy throws shit at girls. I may be a small fry, but you’re a burger. A fur burger!”
The energy of the crowd shifted and a few giggles led to everyone laughing. The entire school seemed to erupt in that moment, into buckets of laughter. This included Lucy, who until that point, had never really noticed Sebastian before. Soon she would find that he could always make her laugh. For Callum and Tina, the laughter was oppressive. Callum turned like a rapid dog, baring teeth at those closest to them. Only the laughter persisted, causing Callum’s anger to boil over until he was shaking fists at the crowd. Sebastian, always the goofball, mocked those fists and causing the laughter to amplify.
In the flash of a single moment, the laughter stopped as Sebastian found himself on the ground, wincing due to incredible pain. Callum had taken the snowball he held and smashed it hard into Sebastian’s face. Like Lucy, he now found himself covered in pink frosting and white crème filling. Later he’d wash it off and find his right eye utterly blackened by the force Callum had used to shove it.
Mr. Wilson broke into the crowd yelling for students to, “Move along. Get to class! Detention for anyone who doesn’t get to class!”
He roped the collars of both Callum and Sebastian. It wasn’t until later that day that Lucy had an opportunity to thank Sebastian. He was leaning against the bike rack, in a manner she was now accustomed to seeing him. He didn’t notice the group of girls, dressed in black and making eyes in his direction. He only seemed to notice her walking toward him, and he almost smiled at her, but the pain it shot up his cheek to his eyes was too much.
“Thanks for standing up for me,” she told him. “No one’s ever really done anything like that for me before.”
“Hey toots,” he returned. “No problem.”
Chapter 2
The walk to the black lab table, where Lucy sat with Sebastian and Ginny Franklin was a long one. The science room reminded her of death row, as each table passed sat another person to sneer or hiss at her. The muffled whispers caused her normally pale cheeks to become inflamed. And the table directly in front of hers was the worst of them all.
The Letter Eaters were a group of rich kids, jocks and cheerleaders, with one clear leader, Tina Monroe. They called themselves The Letter Eaters because they forced losing teams to hand over their jackets. They ate the competition.
The jackets were then handed over to the cheerleading squad to be defaced to show the Whiskey Falls mascot, the Black Bear, eating away at the losing team’s letter. Currently they wore what were once Blue Devil’s jackets. The blue parts were mostly recolored orange to represent the Whiskey Falls colors of white, black and orange.
The Black Bear was drawn on the backs of the jackets, tearing into what was once a horned devil. On one jacket, his horns were now swallowed up by the blood soaked teeth of the dreaded Black Bear, all done with a great deal of pep using the puffy fabric paint that could be picked up in any craft store. Callum Norris, an aggressive linebacker, had the most fascinating of all the jackets. His jacket crudely depicted the Black Bear pissing on the Blue Devil’s face. Some of the urine was drawn splashing off the blue horns, with what looked like a yellow highlighter. Clearly this was one he’d done up himself. His dull eyes and slack-jawed smile suggested his pride in it. The image was vulgar, and inappropriate for the classroom, but these were The Letter Eaters.
The Letter Eaters won every game. They were state champions two years in a row. Lucy used to be one. She used to hold the small bottle of black glitter glue, and color in the body of their famed mascot. Although never a cheerleader, she participated in the post-game ritual of defacing their jackets.
Never once had Whiskey Falls High had to give up their jackets since they instituted the practice, not a single time in two years. They were the shining pride of Whiskey Falls. Teachers not only passed them when they should be failing, but they totally ignored when the cheerleaders avoided work too. Their grades were decent, even when they skipped class and turned in assignments late. As far as Lucy knew, Callum could hardly read last year, yet he maintained a decent average. It wasn’t right, but State Championships are important to a small town.
Callum eyeballed Lucy as she walked with her head down, curly blonde hair falling into her eyes. His bulky arm elbowed Tina to look up. At first she attempted to shrug him off, but then she caught a glimpse of who it was, moving toward them. She raised a manicured middle finger to Lucy, making sure she leaned forward to catch her eyes. Lucy looked up just as Tina finished mouthing the word, “bitch.”
“Hey,” Ginny said, smiling as Lucy took the seat between her and Sebastian. Ginny’s eyes were laden with dark splotches from not sleeping. She’d taken to doing her homework long into the night, as her Mother was encouraging her to use a worn toothbrush to scrub the grout out of bathroom and kitchen floors. The work showed in her bloodied fingertips, which she tried to hide under long sleeves.
“Do you see what Tina’s wearing today?” Ginny was always eager to discuss The Letter Eaters, their clothing choices, their hair, their make-up. It was an obsession with her despite how disinterested Lucy was in the conversation.
Today, Mr. Kelsey was lecturing on projectiles, and Tina waltzed to the front of the class. She was an exceptional student, favored in every classroom, a true perfectionist. Lucy remembered a time when they competed for a teacher’s attention, when every assignment was a chance to best the other. Those days were over. Tina had won. Tina’s perfectly quaffed black hair, athletic body and short skirts made her the quintessential popular girl and head cheerleader. Her supreme intelligence made her first choice for student body president. She took her perfection seriously.
She glared in Lucy’s direction for a moment, before stopping and smiling at almost everyone in the room. Her pep avoided their table, nearest the back. As Tina began demonstrating the arc of a projectile, Ginny stared ravenously at the clothes she wore. Tina was dressed in a gray Oxford sweater over a white button up. She wore argyle stockings under a black A-line skirt with a pair of shiny, black Mary Janes on her feet.
“She looks like a senator’s wife,” Ginny commented, enamored. “She looks like a giant sock,” Sebastian said, causing Lucy to snicker and eyes to fly in their direction. Sebastian was always good for a snarky comment or two.
Mr. Kelsey nodded, impressed with Tina’s exceptional demonstration skills. He motioned her back to her seat, and with applause and a curtsy she found her way there. The attention from the classroom sent her radiant smile to all those around her, but avoided the back table even though Ginny clapped the loudest of all.
The clapping died down when the door to the classroom opened wide, and the assistant principal appeared with a new student in tow. Ginny’s jaw nearly hit the table as Seth Boyd, a transfer from another district entered the classroom. Mr. Kelsey introduced him, and asked Seth to take a seat. Surprisingly, he walked to the back of the classroom and sat at an empty lab table nearest Ginny. His skin was tan, suggesting southern roots or a lot of time in a tanning bed. His features were hardened, chiseled and it was obvious he worked out. Seth’s appearance was that of the All-American boy, traditionally handsome, athletic, what is commonly referred to as a dream boat. The boy next door and Ginny Franklin could not take her eyes off of him.
Tina’s lean body walked back to her seat, swishing her skirt. She was hardly interested in boys her own age, but Seth was handsome, he was new and he was about to start a conversation with the most loathsome trio in the entire school. When he hardly looked in her direction, she turned her chair to the side and leaned over. “So, where are you from?” Seth smiled and when he did every girl in the classroom turned to look, including Lucy. His teeth were large, white, and perfect causing his face to light up the room around them. There was something alluring about his smile, and as he spoke the only girl who wasn’t as captivated was Lucy, instead she felt the tinge of suspicion. She looked around the room, and then rolled her eyes at Sebastian. They both knew there’d be another seat taken at the Letter Eater’s lunch table this afternoon.
“My family just moved here from Florida,” Seth said with the ease of someone popular and affluent. He wasn’t shy, and he didn’t seem nervous at all. Ginny’s head turned like she was watching a tennis match, Seth, Tina, Seth, Tina. “Florida. My family has a house down there. I just love the beach,” Tina said. There was something strange about her voice. It rose higher and higher as she spoke, until Lucy thought she may purposefully be trying to sound dumb.
“So, what did you do down in Florida?” Tina asked him, batting her eyelashes and leaning ever forward. Ginny moved forward in her chair in a desperate attempt to hear better, only Tina was too distracted to tell her to butt out. “I was quarterback for the Gators, undefeated the last two seasons.”
Callum Norris had been quiet the entire time. He’d noticed Seth come in, but hadn’t really cared. He was leaning on one of his thick fists, slowly drifting off to sleep. Only now his interest had been piqued, and he turned toward the conversation, with quickness. “You don’t say,” he started. “Our quarterback was knocked back during last night’s practice and tore a tendon. Our sub ain’t no good.”
Plans were made for Seth to join them at lunch, and try out for the football team after school. Lucy felt odd that they had spent the entire class talking near her, but never looking in her direction. Still, being ignored was better than being made fun of. As Lucy walked home that afternoon, she thought about Seth. Her suspicions lingered in her mind all through dinner with her father. Despite being distracted, she still noticed the way Daryl seemed to have locked eyes with the empty space where the liquor cabinet used to be. His eyes rested on the square of dust that still stood out on the pristine floors. They’d never really swept under that old cabinet. Only she turned away, refusing to give it much thought. There was something in Seth’s smile that couldn’t be trusted.
Chapter 3
The walk to Herod’s Bookstore was treacherous during the fall, in the nighttime. With poor lighting, and a lack of a groundskeeper, debris had piled along the path through Goren’s Wood. Lucy walked with a purpose, carefully stepping over branches and keeping an eye out for any big enough to trip her. She hoped to be near the bridge soon, the halfway point between her house and town. The second half of the journey was cleaner, as it was more frequently traveled and there were brass lamp posts lighting the way. As she neared the bridge, she was surprised to see a young man standing there, leaning over it and staring at the moon’s reflection on the water. She was curious about him, but didn’t want to distract him from what seemed to be particularly deep thoughts. For a while she just stood there, watching him.
He was slightly older than she and wearing sophisticated clothing that seemed reminiscent of a different time. His longish hair was pulled into a short pony behind his head, with a few stray pieces sweeping his forehead. His breath produced a cloud like smoke that drifted and clung in the moonlight. For the first time in her life, Lucy felt her own breath catch in her chest, as he was devastatingly handsome. With a heavy sigh, she released her own cloud of breath and crunched leaves moving forward, intent to be heard. He turned and looked toward her, his blue eyes visible even at their distance of more than a few yards. His gaze exhilarated her, and she smiled back when he smiled.
For a short moment, they stayed like that, locked in each other’s eyes. The moment seemed to intensify, dulling all the woodland noise and the light that surrounded them. Lucy felt glued in his eyes, as if they were calling her closer to him. There was no resistance in her body, and slowly she began to walk, unable to think of anything but being closer to him. His blue eyes seemed to glow with a deep intensity. With each step closer, she felt their blue aura reaching out like hands caressing her cheek and calling her forward. The deeps of his eyes told a story, and she knew if she could get closer still she’d be able to decipher whatever was hiding there. Her brain seemed clouded by thoughts of wanting. She was positively hypnotized.
She blinked and he was gone. He disappeared in an instant, as if he’d never been standing there to begin with and she began to wonder if she were dreaming. A brisk wind blew through the trees, making a sound like the hissing of many snakes. Lucy drew her jacket around her and began to jog the rest of the way to Herod’s.
The inside of Herod’s Bookstore was like a safety haven for Lucy. It was her single favorite place in town, more so than her own bedroom. Paperbacks spun on spinning racks, all the romance novels right in the front near a table with oversized picture books strewn about.
Beaches of Maine. Scientific Advancements of the 20th Century. The World’s Oceans. The titanic non-fiction volumes were for the disinterested passerby, stopping in for the stale coffee, to people watch through a large, front window. The people who sat there often seemed lonely to Lucy. They would have pages of the picture books thrown open in front of them, but they weren’t truly reading, instead they were staring out the window as their hot coffee steeped in front of them. The front shop window at Herod’s wasn’t really for lookers in, but rather for lookers out. People of a lonely disposition watched others as they ran their errands about town. These were people who sat in the shop all evening, just looking out as if the people outside were actually inside a giant, life sized snow globe, fall themed this time of year. The falling leaves added to that effect.
Lucy did not pity those that sat at the large table, beside the bay window. She knew they knew what she did. They knew that looking out from the inside of a bookstore was better than looking in from the outside. Especially since those that did stop, to pear in at the newest texts in the windows always would just keep walking. Lucy often felt those texts should be turned in, away from the people on the street, away from those that hardly noticed them. Those novels should face inward, toward the people sitting there to remind them just how valuable they are, as surely they were the ones to buy them.
Behind the table set for dreary dreamy types, sat a few rows of best sellers and then the bookstore was separated into sections based on genres. These sections were falling to dust and disrepair. Many of the shelving units were being held together by thick gray duct tape, and they all seemed to be shifting in one direction or the next.
Ginny’s Mom, Vicky “Troll” Franklin, ran the register during the day, and one or two evenings when the other girl had night classes at a local community college. People had been referring to Vicky Franklin as Troll behind her back since long before she’d given birth to Ginny. This had much to do with her general negative attitude.
Her grumpy attitude and short, frizzy red hair gave her the appearance of someone to avoid. Her greedy and unkind nature made grocery store clerks cringe when she got into their lines. She made bank tellers go on break early, forcing someone else to deal with her. She scowled at toddlers, lectured kids and mocked the wimsied conversations of the American teenager. She was the most avoided woman in Whiskey Falls, only Lucy couldn’t avoid her, because she also worked in her most treasured getaway.
“Are Sebastian and Ginny here yet,” Lucy ventured to ask her, not seeing them on the first floor where they customarily met. “Why don’t you go see for yourself,” Troll snapped back and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, indicating they were quite possibly on the second floor.
The stairs leading to the sagging second floor were the skinny, metal winding kind. They had only one large turn before reaching the second floor. The black paint over the wrought iron was peeling in some areas, exposing a rusty bronze on the rails and scroll work. They squeaked and creaked at every step, causing the unseasoned climber to second guess their decision in taking them. Lucy was not unseasoned and fully trusted the ancient looking staircase, oftentimes bounding up and down them two steps at a time. She loved the stairs because they kept most people on the first floor. Their fear left her alone to read in quiet solitude or browse the second floor selection, which was much better than the first.
Although Troll hated Lucy, she could not stop her from coming into the establishment and her presence meant less work to do. She’d long stopped going to the second floor herself, because she knew that Lucy would do her job for her. Lucy often took time to tidy up and organize the bookshelves. As Lucy bounded by, Troll watched her with distaste and wished her own daughter had enough sense to avoid such trash. “Just like her mother, that one.” Troll thought out loud, as Lucy disappeared up the staircase.
Troll had never known Scarlet Bennett personally. She had only known of her, as Scarlet was the envy of the town. She was beautiful, turning heads wherever she went. Only Troll had experienced the greatest envy of all when Scarlet became a Bennett, after marrying Lucy’s father Daryl, a man Troll had worked hard to bump into many times. Although, Troll would never admit the satisfaction she’d felt when word got around that Scarlet could not have children, she was hopeful that she’d witness dissolution of the marriage. It never happened, instead, she found herself stone faced and miserable again when Scarlet started popping up around town with a full belly. Everywhere Scarlet went she would leave people singing her praises.
“She positively glows with her pregnancy.” And then they’d pass right by Troll’s own full belly without as much as a nod at it. A wave of grief passed through the entire town when Scarlet died only moments after giving birth. Only Troll wasn’t sad, those days she seemed to smile wider and laugh heartier. Troll’s laughter came to a subsequent halt when her husband stole away in the middle of the night, just a few short weeks later, leaving nothing but a note and a colicky baby.
Lucy was the spitting image of her mother, and that was something Troll couldn’t stand. She loathed the day her daughter became friends with the girl with the long blond hair, and deep green eyes set under long eyelashes.
No amount of criticism, chores, and punishments could stop Ginny from being friends with her. Ginny would whine, “But, she is popular. This could help me at school.” “She ain’t popular no more,” Troll would fire back a year later, after the accident, but it didn’t help. The damage was done. The girls were friends.
Upstairs Sebastian and Ginny listened as Lucy recounted her encounter in the woods, leaving out the part where she was transfixed to the stranger’s eyes. “…I blinked and he was gone.”
“Maybe it was a ghost,” Ginny said, laughing loudly and then stopping abruptly and shifting in her seat. Her mother’s presence at Herod’s meant they had to be quiet. “It wasn’t a ghost,” Lucy responded, not entirely sure if she was right about that or not. Sebastian oohed like a ghost and sauntered around them, making spooky noises until Lucy could not control her laughter. They all settled down after hearing a bellow requesting silence, coming from the bottom of the stairs. They exchanged mocking looks, before breaking into whispers of laughter. Although Ginny laughed the quietest of all, knowing her Mother’s temper and what her insolence could mean when she got home.
Lucy was late, but it didn’t matter because she didn’t have studying to do. As Sebastian opened a notebook, and set to composing and Ginny perused a textbook, Lucy wandered toward the bookshelves and the treasures that awaited her. Herod’s Bookstore was quite like a pirate’s treasure trove. The downstairs sat full of booby traps, all meant to keep away any that would dare seek out the treasures hidden above. Herod’s appeared nothing more than a dreary old bookstore, worse even because it was dirty and falling apart and the selection was hardly, if ever updated. Even the stairs proved a deterrent to would-be shoppers, and there was a musty smell in the air that filled the first floor.
However, should one be brave enough to surpass the dangers, then they would find themselves surrounded by some of the most fantastic works of literature humanity has ever known. The masterpieces on the second floor were an array of ancient, dated tombs written in foreign script, and priceless first editions. Lucy estimated the worth of the volumes to be in the thousands, if not more yet she never breathed a word of it to anyone, afraid that should someone find out, the place would be robbed and then shut down. As she moved through the classics section, Lucy found herself thinking about Herod’s and wondering again who owned the place. Troll was clueless, having been hired years ago by a manager on his way out. “The checks come in the mail,” she’d say, “and I don’t care who is writing them, as long as I can cash them.”
Lucy stopped midsection, near an area of books that she had lately been finding herself more and more interested in. The second floor housed what she initially thought was a religious section, and frequently avoided. Upon closer inspection one day, she found the texts were an eclectic mix of religion, philosophy and magic. Many of the texts were written in languages she had yet to master, and therefore could not decipher, but their covers and words still inspired her to take a look. As she pulled a Latin textbook from the shelf, a smaller book slipped from behind it and fell to the ground. The weathered journal was bound in old, cracked leather. Lucy untied a fraying, blue ribbon and opened the book, happy to find that the hand-written entries were in English.
She skimmed through the pages finding the dates jumped around quite a bit. The beginning started sometime during the 1600’s, and toward the end it jumped to the 1930’s, always with the same small, handwritten script. Lucy glanced around her, and when she didn’t see anyone she slipped it into her bag. There was no price tag, and Troll would not sell something without one. Lucy justified her indiscretion by promising to bring it back, just as soon as she’d finished reading it. Shortly after, the time came to pack up and head home. Herod’s Bookstore closed early on weeknights. Lucy’s father waited outside for her in a used, red hatchback purchased from the same dealership he’d bought his truck at. The truck had to be sold to make a mortgage payment, and the remaining money was used to pay for the small car and Daryl worried it wouldn’t hold up in the blizzards they experienced living so close to the lake.
As Lucy stood outside of Herod’s saying goodbye to her friends, an original Lotus Elite, Type 14 with white paint and a black racing stripe pulled up to the curb. The enigmatic, blue-eyed boy stepped out and walked passed Lucy and her friends without even turning a nod of acknowledgement.
Lucy stood frozen, not expecting to see him again so soon. He disappeared into Herod’s ignoring Ginny’s call that they were closed. Inside he exchanged some words with Troll before disappearing upstairs. They all watched through the front window, exchanging confused looks.
“That’s him,” Lucy muttered. “Him?” Sebastian asked, not remembering their previous conversation. “Him,” Lucy said with growing shock and frustration. “The guy from the woods!” Sebastian and Ginny were confused before their memories made the connection to Lucy’s strange story. “Oh, him,” Ginny started. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”
As Troll exited Herod’s Bookstore she locked the doors behind her, with the blue eyed boy still inside. She said nothing to the group, all seemingly questioning her with their eyes. Lucy was the first to speak up, desperate to know who he was and what he was doing in Herod’s during closing hours.
“Mrs. Franklin? Who is that gentlemen?”
“None of your business, Lucy Bennett. Now please go home, your father is waiting for you.”
Troll took one look at their recently acquired vehicle, a downgrade from what they had before and stifled a laugh coming from her thick gullet. Before Ginny turned to leave she gave Lucy a brisk hug and whispered in her ear, “As soon as I know, so will you.”
Chapter 4
The dream was a recurring one. Lucy stood at the entrance of Goren’s Wood, surrounded by a thick rolling fog. The fog seemed to flow into the wood, directing her where to go. It appeared more like a thick smoke than the thin fogs that would normally creep into this part of town. It hung low to the ground, making it impossible to see anything below two feet. Lucy knew this dream, and so she stepped forward, following the fog into the wood. Despite the late hour, seeing was easy as the moon hung fat and low, lighting the way.
“Lucy.” A soft voice called from behind her, but when she turned no one was there. Again she heard her name, this time with a hand caressing the back of her head. The soft voice didn’t frighten her as it may have had the first time she’d had this dream. It was a voice attempting to warn her of the dangers ahead, but like in all dreams she had no choice but to move on.
As Lucy walked ahead she was reminded of the blue eyed boy who had stood there. She remembered his deep blue eyes entrancing her, holding her in their grip and she was not afraid. Instead, she wished she could see him again. She wondered what it would be like to touch his face, to be closer to his blue eyes. As she crossed the bridge, the moon hung impossibly low and reflected on the water which appeared by like silk rippling underneath it. For a moment, she considered just stopping, but she remembered that each dream was another opportunity to figure it out, to stop it before it came true. She couldn’t waste time.
As she neared where Goren’s Wood let out, onto Main Street in town, right next to her favorite bookstore Lucy expected to be greeted by the same fog, the same scrawled warning she had seen on the side of the bookstore in this dream numerous times before. She did not expect to be greeted by the growling, agent of hell that stood before her now.
It was ten times the size of a normal dog, with thick black fur that stood up like spikes on its back. Its eyes grew a strange red, and its snarl was pulled back, dripping spit and exposing enormous sharp teeth. Its growl filled her ears, deafening her. The hell hound took a step forward, its giant paw disrupting the fog in front of it and causing it to flow up his body, into one large nostril and then out another with a tough burst of breath. It swung its heavy head with an ease one would not think possible. It was a quickness she had not expected.
With every step Lucy took backward, the beast would take one forward, moving slowly but with purpose. It meant to tear her apart, and as she realized this, its growls turned to eerily familiar laughter. With a leap, it was over her, its massive head dripping saliva onto her face, its glowing red eyes seeming larger and its mouth opening wider, exposing the biggest and sharpest teeth she’d ever seen. She tried to scream, but the murky world of the dream would not allow it. Instead, her scream was just a silent twist of the face depicting agony. The beast set to laughing again and raised a paw as if to strike her.
Lucy turned to the brick wall, the side of Herod’s Bookstore. Tears welled in her eyes as she prepared to be struck in the face. Sheer panic and fear gripped her, forcing her to forget it was only a dream, a place where she couldn’t be hurt. As she struggled against the beast, refusing to look it in the face, a light flicked on from the upstairs window of Herod’s. The beast saw it too, causing it to momentarily back off. Lucy took her opportunity to slide herself backward and then almost to her feat. The beast wasn’t distracted for long and reared up onto its hind legs, pulling its front paws up ready to cut through her with giant claws.
From the window, two blue lights shone down cutting through the darkness between them. The beast stared at the blue light, afraid to cross it. Lucy looked the frightening creature in the eyes only to see they were dimming, it looked afraid. With a whimper, it whipped around and galloped out of the alley. Lucy followed the blue rays up to the second story window where they settled into the face of a shadow. She stood breathless and confused and in real pain after the attack. Pain was something she’d often dealt with in her dreams, although she’d never become accustomed to their realness. As her heart beat like a thick drum, heard only in her brain, she shut her eyes tight and begged for release.
Lucy reached over and slapped the off switch on her blaring alarm clock. The glowing green numbers displayed the un-godly hour of 6a.m. She lay in bed for a while, contemplating the dream. She’d had many strange dreams before, but not one so sinister. In a grip, she forced her brain to let go of the beast’s thick claws and blood red eyes. She stared grimly at the ceiling dreading another day at school. She prayed to hear her dad call up that school had been unexpectedly canceled, due to a freak snowstorm, a bomb scare, an Ebola outbreak, anything. She gave it five minutes before facing the fact that going to school was an avoidable inevitability.
Daryl Bennett drove his teenage daughter to school not at all clued into the fact that she’d been dreaming the future for the last few years. He made small talk about his new job at the local bottling plant, while she stared out the window hoping to catch a glimpse of a tornado ripping its way through town, anything to avoid the Letter Eaters.
“Is everything alright, honey?” Daryl had waited until they were parked just outside the school’s entrance to ask her. “Yeah, Dad,” she said, trying her best to feign happiness. “Everything is great.” Daryl accepted his daughter’s mundane response for truth, as he was too distracted with the growing disquiet in his own brain. He’d been sober since the accident, but it wasn’t getting any easier. The more time passed, the more he longed for a stiff drink, a swig of the Jameson. These days he just couldn’t forget. Even as the weather grew colder, the freeze on his heart was melting and the only thing that could remove the image of that toddler’s mangled body from his mind was a stiff drink. With a shake of the head, he told himself he could fight it, and pulled away from the school leaving Lucy at the curb.
Curiously, Ginny Franklin was not waiting for her by the front door with Sebastian. Lucy ran up to him and then followed his gaze to where Ginny stood in happy conversation with the new kid, Seth Boyd. “What is she doing?” Lucy asked, flabbergasted. “I don’t know,” Sebastian returned. “They’ve been like that since I got here. She hasn’t even looked in our direction.”
“What is she wearing?” Lucy stared curiously at Ginny’s outfit. She had cast off the baggy, ripped jeans she normally wore for a black, pinstriped mini. “I don’t know,” Sebastian continued, “but, do you see the look on Tina Monroe’s face? She looks like she’s ready to kill her.” Lucy followed his gaze again to Tina and Callum Norris who stood looking on. Tina’s face did have a menacing glare, and Lucy worried about her friend, but lacked the confidence to march over there.
After a short while, Ginny waved goodbye to Seth and came bounding up the steps toward them. Her oversized parka was open, exposing a white lace shirt, over a black tank top. “Are we in the twilight zone or what,” asked Sebastian. Even in the hot months Ginny was known for wearing long sleeved shirts, hoods and baggy jeans, so her sudden change confused them both. Lucy was pleased to see her friend’s arm sans cuts that were frequently and awkwardly explained away as clumsiness. Maybe, Lucy thought, she’s finally getting better.
“Ginny, you look so amazing today! What’s the occasion?” Ginny looked at them, shy but radiant. Her hair still retained its dull sheen, and her eyes were still that of a girl not getting much sleep, but everything else about her seemed so suddenly alive and happy. She just shrugged, but Lucy suspected there was a boy involved in her sudden change, and she was at once happy and then nervous as she looked up and was greeted by an icy stare from Seth. His face quickly changed when he noticed her looking back, and he launched one of his large, toothy smiles and a wave in her direction.
As they walked through the packed hallways, Lucy began to wonder about the boy from the woods, the one they’d left in Herod’s. There was no time to ask before first period began, so Lucy resolved herself to wait until Mr. Kelsey’s science class began. It would be difficult to carry on a conversation with The Letter Eaters there to make things difficult, but there just wasn’t going to be another opportunity until the end of the day and Lucy was dying to know before then. She was happy to find the group of Letter Eaters distracted by an exciting conversation with their newest addition, Seth Boyd. Tina was thoroughly distracted by his dark eyes and listened intently as he recounted a story complete with fifty yard passes and a game winning touchdown. As Lucy slipped into her chair, Ginny turned toward her excitedly. “Did you hear?”
“Hear what,” Lucy wondered. “About Seth Boyd? He told me this morning. After last night’s practice, they made him quarterback! He’s going to take the team all-state again, I just know it!” Sebastian and Lucy exchanged strange looks.
“What about the old quarterback?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess a hard hit resulted in permanent knee damage or something. He’s out for the rest of the season. I guess Seth is exceptionally good though!”
Lucy cracked her book and pretended to read along with Mr. Kelsey. After things had settled down some she gently nudged Ginny. “So, did your Mom mention that guy at Herod’s last night?” “Oh yeah!” Ginny spoke louder than she initially intended, causing the classroom to erupt into a unison of “shh’s.”
Lucy received a turn and a sharp look from Tina. Seth was already sitting at their table with them, and sporting his very own lettered jacket. He’d yet to take one from another team, so his was the Whiskey Falls Black Bear holding a football under the stitched name, Boyd, a jacket they wore before games. He laughed at something Tina had whispered in his ear, and they both stole a glance in Lucy’s direction.
Lucy tried to ignore them, more intent to find out if Ginny had learned anything about the blue-eyed stranger. It had recently occurred to Lucy that he may work for the owner of Herod’s Bookstore. He may be cleaning out the upstairs. Would they notice they were one book shy of a full collection? If he were taking inventory, he may see that the handwritten journal was missing.
“I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep it to herself,” Ginny started. “I heard her on the phone talking to my great-aunt. His name is Cole, and he owns the place.” “But, he’s so young!” Lucy blurted out, causing another murmur of whispers to come flying in their direction. “He inherited the place from his Grandfather. He also inherited that giant house, on Old Jackson drive.”
Lucy thought about the mansion on Old Jackson drive. It was a decrepit estate house that hadn’t been lived in, in over twenty years. It had been left to fall into disrepair and most of the local kids thought it was haunted. The town never condemned it, because the taxes were paid and it was outside town, and certain zoning laws. After school, Lucy once again found herself rushing through dinner with her father. “How’s everything going at school,” he asked in his mild mannered way and Lucy wondered if he truly cared to know or was just asking, because that’s what single fathers are supposed to do. “Fine,” she answered.
“How’s Mr. Wilson,” he continued. Daryl knew his daughter met with her guidance counselor on a regular basis and he also knew that she’d skipped a meeting that very afternoon. Lucy dropped her fork on her plate, annoyed that Mr. Wilson had called.
“He’s fine, Dad. I had a lot of homework to catch up on, so I skipped. I sent him an email.”
“He said that, but Lucy you’ve got to make these appointments.”
She wondered why he was so eager to see her do well in therapy when he still had barely come to terms with his first step in AA. Sure he admitted he had a problem, but did he really believe it? As they sat there in silence, she once again traced his gaze to the empty space where their liquor cabinet once stood.
Lucy dressed in her bedroom, wondering if the suite would still be her bedroom if Scarlett were alive. She glanced at her bedside table, where a picture of her mother was framed, and she starred into the photograph’s jade green eyes, one’s that matched her own. “I’d give up the bathroom to have you back,” she told the photograph before heading for a shower. In front of her mother’s photograph was the blue ribbon, bound book she’d taken from Herod’s. She’d not yet found the time to delve into it. As she closed the bathroom door air displayed in the room, causing its pages to fall open and land at a space in the middle.
Chapter 5
Lucy did not see the boy on her walk through Goren’s Wood. She stopped on the bridge to admire the moon, three quarters of the way full and traced its light to the water’s edge. She found herself leaning over the wooden railing quite like she’d seen Cole standing and she longed to run into him again. It wasn’t difficult to pry away from the soft beauty of the moon and rippling water, as there was the hope that she’d find him at Herod’s. She jogged the rest of the way out of the wood, until she found herself gasping for air in the alley way next to the bookstore. She leaned over, in an attempt to slow her breathing. She eyed the bookstore and the excitement she felt caused more gasps and slowed her attempts to calm down. Her heart was trying to confirm something her brain was suggesting. She knew he was in there. In some strange way she could sense it.
What she hadn’t sensed was Callum Norris’ presence just steps from her, leaning against the cobblestone wall. For a moment, she imagined his voice was the voice of Cole, the boy she hoped to see this night. With immediate disgust she realized otherwise. “Hi,” Callum repeated. He was smiling and waved in her direction, still leaning against the cobblestone wall of Herod’s Bookstore. With a start, she realized that he seemed somehow bigger than he had the last time she saw him. Lucy knew it must be the night, or the way the moonlight was following her out of the wood, but he seemed bulkier, heavier and even taller.
Taller by a couple inches, she found herself thinking. His wide, bloodshot eyes were drinking her in as he waited intently for an answer. Lucy tried to dismiss her growing assurance that something was about to go terribly wrong. Her brain flashed back to the dream she’d had, a warning about this very spot. Her eyes traced the cobblestone wall, toward the upstairs window, but before her eyes could reach that space Callum was directly in front of her. He moved fast. Too fast, she thought. This can’t be happening. “Hello,” he said using the sarcastic deep baritone reserved just for making fun of her. “Earth to Lucy Bennett. Callum Norris, high school classmate here.”
Lucy was finding it hard to focus. Did he mean to play nice here, or was this some kind of trick? Maybe she was dreaming. She didn’t want to be dreaming. She wanted to escape this fool for the safety of the inside of Herod’s. “Hi,” Lucy said quietly, attempting to lower her head and just walk around him. Her stomach was slowly rising into her chest as she thought again of her dream. A cool breeze shot passed her, forcing the hairs on her arm to a standing ovation. Certainly this was not a dream. She hurried her pace to get out of the alley as fast as possible.
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