Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Carly decided to call it a night early since there was nothing to do, and she brought Beth home about an hour after Michael left. She was glad for it, too. Knowing Halley was likely right next door made Beth sick to her stomach, but she hoped she’d have a chance to talk to Ryan at some point that night. Surely he wasn’t still mad at her over their conversation earlier that day, was he?

Loud music was playing in Shane’s room as she climbed the stairs. It was The Cure, and the whole tone was depressing. He’d never been grounded before, and she imagined it was probably devastating to him, the one who was usually the life of the party. She was surprised at herself that she didn’t think it was funny. Instead, she felt sorry for him, even though she knew down deep inside it was for his own good. He couldn’t keep acting the way he was without hurting himself or someone else.

Beth had left her blinds open, and she noticed right away that Ryan’s were open, too. Except his light was off. Only the dim, blue light of his aquarium filled the space. She assumed he was still in the living room watching his movie with Halley. Deciding she may as well go ahead and take her makeup off, she headed back downstairs, cursing the fact that there was no upstairs bathroom, and scrubbed off her mask. When she returned to her room twenty minutes later, she looked and felt like her old self. Unfortunately, Ryan’s light was still out.

After about an hour of listening to the radio and flipping through some magazines, she noticed his bedroom light was on. Beth tossed her Seventeen aside and headed for the window, but when she saw Halley was actually in his room, she froze. She was standing near his bed, laughing, and Ryan’s arms were around her waist. Bile rose up in the back of Beth’s throat. Did his mother know he’d invited her to his room? Did she have any idea what was going on? Thoughts of shouting out at them, of telling Halley to get out of there, had her mouth open, but then, with a high pitched giggle, Halley disentangled herself from his arms and floated to the window.

She looked right at Beth then, her golden eyes glowing through the five feet of darkness between them. A snarl covered her pretty face, and Beth thought back to the way Michael had described her, like a wild animal. Halley dropped the blinds, then, and despite the closed window, Beth could hear her giggling again as she likely crossed back over to Ryan’s waiting arms.

Beth collapsed onto the ground, her knees giving out. How could she be so dumb! This whole time, the perfect guy was right there, waiting for her to get her head out of her ass and realize how amazing he was. Now, not only was it too late for her to let him know how she felt about him, he may actually be in real danger. She dropped her head into her hands, but when Halley’s laughing turned into something else, some sort of heavy breathing, interlaced with moans, Beth slammed her window shut, dropping her blinds. She thought she heard a cackle in the air, the kind a witch might let loose when she did something evil. Regardless of who she really was or where she came from, there was no doubt in Beth’s mind that Halley Night was dangerous.

In one last ditch effort to do something—anything—to help Ryan, Beth crossed the room and picked up her phone. She doubted her friend would be home on a Saturday night, but it was worth a try. Zoey had given her the line to the phone in her bedroom so she didn’t disturb her parents. Just as she suspected, the answering machine picked up. “Hey, Zoey. It’s Beth. Will you give me a call when you get a chance? Thanks. Bye.” She hung up, thinking it would be silly to leave her purpose for calling on a machine when the whole thing sounded ridiculous anyway. I think the unfortunate girl who lives in a rest home for the mentally challenged with her aunt might be dangerous because she’s trying to make my best friend her boyfriend. It sounded creepy—on Beth’s part. Still, if she had a chance to explain to Zoey, maybe she could help her sort it out. Or maybe she had some more information about where Dee Dee recognized the girl from. She had to do something, or else she might just loose Ryan forever.

Stagnant. That was the only way to describe the situation. Zoey had called Sunday, but Beth had missed her call, and they continued to play phone tag over the next few days. There was no game on Tuesday because it was the Fourth of July. Beth had attended a large fireworks display with her parents and little sisters in Joplin, one where she could blend into the crowd without worry of having to pretend to be someone she wasn’t. By then, Shane had managed to get himself ungrounded by helping out with chores around the house, and he spent the evening with Tiffany and her family. Beth wasn’t sure when she’d be called upon to don her mask and blend in again, but she imagined it would be at the home game on Thursday. By Wednesday afternoon, she was beginning to feel anxious. Nothing had happened for days, but it had the feel of a ticking time bomb about it.

Ryan had also avoided her completely. Beth had seen Halley at his house late every night since the first time the new girl had been in his room. She imagined Halley would rather be there than at Phoebe’s. Who knew what kinds of people she had to put up with there? And from the sounds of it, Phoebe expected her to help, too. She wished she had some idea what Halley was digging for in that trash can, what she’d smuggled into her pocket, but there was no way of knowing. She would’ve also liked to know what those pills were for and who they belonged to.

The sound of her phone ringing had her shooting up on her bed. She’d been rereading Rebecca, thinking the sinister nature of Mr. de Winter might give her some insight into whatever Halley was up to, and she’d just gotten to one of the more suspenseful parts when the ringing jarred her back to reality. With a deep breath, she crossed to answer it, hopeful it was Zoey. “Hello?”

“Finally!” The sound of her friend’s voice crackled across the line like the long distance call had a bad connection. “Oh, my God! I’ve been calling you for days.”

“I know! I’m so sorry we haven’t caught each other. How’s it going?” Beth hated trying to sound nonchalant when what she really wanted to do was interrogate Zoey for any information she might have about Halley, but she had to play it cool.

Zoey went on about some guy she was dating in Green City, a town not too far away from Lockton, for longer than Beth cared to listen before she finally said, “Okay, so get this. Dee Dee called me the other night. She was over at her cousin’s house in Dade City, you know that little shithole on the other side of Silverton?”

“Sure,” Beth said really having no idea what she was talking about.

“Well, her cousin wants her to flip through the yearbook, right? To tell her who Dee Dee thinks is hot. And sure enough, there she is. That girl. The one who was hanging out in the parking lot the other night. Remember?”

“Halley?” Beth asked, hoping not to sound too eager.

“Yeah, that’s her. Only that’s not her name.”

Beth felt her stomach tighten. “It’s not?” she asked. “What is her name?”

“Her name is Hannah. Hannah Day. And the reason Dee Dee recognized her is because she was dating a guy from our high school. You might’ve know him. He played ball. He was a couple of years older than us. Brock Hill. Do you remember him?”

The name sounded very familiar, but Beth couldn’t put her finger on it. She wondered why Zoey was talking about him in the past tense. “I don’t know. What do you mean he was older than us?”

“Well, that’s just it. He died last November. Remember? It was on the news. First tragic hunting accident of the season. I wasn’t that close to him, but Dee Dee dated one of his friends, and she’d seen Hannah at a party a few weeks before Brock died. So anyhow, the whole thing was real shady. Like, Hannah said at first she didn’t know what happened, and then she said that he accidentally shot himself trying to take the safety off. Then she said something about him propping the gun against a barbed wire fence while he climbed over it. Anyhow, he died. And she was there.”

Beth inhaled slowly, held it for a second, and then gradually let it go. “Why was she there? She doesn’t strike me as the hunting type.”

“I know, right? But Dee Dee said Brock was really into that. So maybe he just begged her to go with him. Anyway, the police let it go, you know? It was an accident or whatever. But there’s been lots of rumors about her. Like some people say she’s just batshit crazy. Other people say she was totally fine until Brock died, and then she lost it, she was so upset. I mean, I can’t imagine watching my boyfriend blow his head off, right?”

“Right,” Beth agreed. The images filling her head were quite disturbing, and she didn’t even know Brock Hill. “And Dee Dee was certain it was Halley—I mean that Hannah is Halley?”

“Oh, yeah, she’s sure. She asked her cousin if she knew what happened to her, and Dee Dee’s cousin said they sent her away to some home for messed up people. She didn’t say her aunt owned it, but isn’t that what that place down the street from you is? Some place where crazy people or mentally slow people go?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” That was Beth’s understanding. “But I don’t think they take murderers.”

“No, but then Hannah wasn’t convicted or anything. Hell, she wasn’t even arrested. I don’t think she killed the guy. I don’t know. But… she hadn’t lived there for too long. Some people say she moved to Dade City from Idaho the year before Brock died and that she was running away from a similar situation, like some other dude she’d been seeing died mysteriously.”

“You don’t think that’s true, do you?” Beth asked. It was all sounding a little surreal now, and she knew how kids liked to talk.

“Hell if I know,” Zoey replied. “But you take one look into that bitch’s cold eyes and tell me she’s not capable of murdering someone.” She took a deep breath and let it out into Beth’s ear. “So I wouldn’t want anyone I care about dating her.”

Beth had nothing to say to that. It was already too late. The idea that Ryan might be in real danger was more than a little disturbing. “Thanks for letting me know.” She tried to sound nonchalant. “I should probably go since my mom will have a freaking cow if the long distance bill is too high.”

“Aw, I didn’t get to hear how it’s going for you. Did you get Sammy to ask you out?”

“I did,” Beth admitted. “And I laughed in his face.” That wasn’t quite true, but close enough.

Zoey giggled. “Good girl. I’ll try to get over there in a few weeks to pick up my friend’s clothes. I guess I’ll let you go. Have a good night!”

“You, too,” Beth said, placing the phone back on the receiver with a thud. She glanced at the clock. It was 4:30. Surely, Ryan was home and Halley wasn’t there. She needed to talk to him, but at the same time, she didn’t want to alarm her friend. If she was too overly dramatic, he’d think she was lying, just trying to sabotage things for him. At the very least, however, she needed to apologize. Maybe she could start there and see how the conversation went.

She checked herself in the mirror. Her old self stared back at her, the one that Ryan preferred. With a deep breath, she said, “You can do this,” and gave herself a nod of confidence, praying that she was right.