Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Cutter glanced around, as if checking to see if other patrons were looking in their direction, her voice was so loud. No one seemed to be paying them any mind by Ru’s account, but she honestly didn’t care if they did. “Listen, Ru, I can explain everything. And I will. But I’m not sure this is the place to do it.”

“Well, you picked it,” she reminded him, tossing her napkin down on the table next to her only half-eaten entrée.

“No, I know,” he replied. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t think any restaurant, any public place, is the right one for this discussion.”

Ru crossed her arms. “Cutter, why don’t you stop the bullshit, and tell me what the hell is going on? You show up here, right before school starts. You can fix things no one else can. You seem to know an awful lot about me, and now you’re essentially telling me I’m not who I think I am. So get on with it. What the hell is this?”

With a deep breath, Cutter ran his hand through his hair and tried again. “Ru, I didn’t come here to take a job teaching fourth grade at Thomas Elementary because I am tired of big city life. I came here to find you. And I can tell you exactly why, but I think you should come back to my house so I can show you a few things.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound sleazy at all.” Ru grabbed her clutch and began to slide out of the booth, wondering how much it would cost to get an Uber home from here, but Cutter reached across the table again, grabbing her arm and stopping her.

“Ru, I can explain your mishaps with electronics, the vivid dreams you have, even the scars on your back, if you’ll just give me a chance.”

Ru froze, looking him dead in the eyes. “How do you know about… those things?” She couldn’t even voice them. Sure, he’d figured out the electricity part, but he couldn’t know about the dreams or the scars.

“Because I have them, too. All of them.”

Feeling goosebumps rise up on her arms and the hairs stand up on the back of her neck, Ru stared at him for a long moment. She could tell by his eyes that he was telling the truth. Still, letting him take her to his house after the conversation they’d just had, where he’d essentially confessed to being her stalker, seemed risky. “How can I trust you after what you just said?”

“How can you not trust me?” he countered. “Ru, I’m here to help you. There are forces out there, things you don’t understand, concepts you will have trouble comprehending, and it could be… dangerous.”

Once again, she felt chills invade her body. The dream she’d had the night before came back to her. Before she could even think, she whispered his name. “Thanatos.”

Cutter’s grip on her arm strengthened. “What did you say?” he asked, his voice just shy of panic.

Ru raised her eyes to meet his, wondering why he’d had that reaction. “Thanatos,” she repeated, just a little louder.

“You… you’ve seen him? You know about him? What? How?”

Cutter’s questions were coming so quickly, Ru wasn’t sure what to say. “It… was a dream,” she stuttered. “Last night. I… I saw a picture of him online. And then I dreamt about him. It was nothing.”

His eyes still skittish, Cutter insisted, “We need to go. I’ve got to get you back to Angel Grove so we can talk about this. You need to tell me everything.”

“Angel Grove?” Ru repeated, watching him pull out his wallet and drop enough cash on the table to more than cover the bill and leave a generous tip.

“Yeah, you might know it as the Van Tassel House.”

“The Van Tassel House?” Ru repeated. “That’s where you’re living?”

“Come on, Ru, let’s go.” He was out of the booth and offering her his hand. She looked at it and knew she needed to go with him, no matter how dangerous the situation felt in her gut. Either Cutter was nuts, she was, or they both were, but Ru had to find out what was going on.

It took Cutter a while to say anything at all as they drove back toward Reaper’s Hollow, though she knew he wouldn’t go through town, taking an alternate route out into the woods where the old house stood. She’d never been there, as rumor had it the dilapidated building was difficult to find, though in high school a few of her friends claimed to have gone there and been chased off by the ghost of Katrina Van Tassel.

“What do you know about the history of Reaper’s Hollow?” Cutter asked once he’d settled down a little bit.

“I have an idea. Why don’t you tell me what you know, and I’ll let you know if it’s the same?” She knew her response sounded harsh, but his technique of asking her to explain everything she’d ever learned was getting old.

“Ru, it’s important that I understand things from your perspective so I can determine how best to tell you what you need to know.”

“Why don’t you just tell me everything, and then it won’t matter?”

He looked at her, and even though it was dark, she could tell by his expression, illuminated in the eerie light of the dashboard, he wasn’t joking around.

With a deep breath, Ru recited Reaper’s Hollow History 101. “Reaper’s Hollow was founded by Thomas Reaper in 1789. It’s named for the founder and his family, who lived there and started a trading post with local native tribes. Our school, Thomas Elementary, was named for Reaper. Even though he had an unusual last name, children need not be frightened because Reaper was a good, church going man. He had twelve children with three wives, and some of his descendants still live in the area. Is that what you wanted to hear?” She had recited it as if she were giving a lesson to her class.

“That’s what I assumed you’d say, but it’s all wrong.”

Ru chuckled; she couldn’t help it. “All wrong?” she repeated. “How do you figure?”

“There was no Thomas Reaper. He was a façade, invented by the church in the early 1800s to cover up the town’s true history. And the part about Reaper being a good, church going man—the part that’s supposed to prevent kids from being frightened? Obviously, the first part is a lie because there was no Thomas Reaper, and the second part isn’t true because there’s plenty to fear.”

Crossing her arms, Ru looked at him skeptically, even though she was aware he was concentrating on driving and couldn’t see her. “Okay, then who is Reaper’s Hollow named after? Bob Reaper?”

Cutter narrowed his eyes at her briefly before focusing on the road. “No, it’s named after the evil things that lurk in the area, the ones that allegedly come out of the woods nearby, though we’ve never been able to track down an entry point—a centuries old problem. Even before Henry Hudson ‘discovered’ this part of the world, Native Americans had legends about them. Their word for them translates as ‘ones without faces,’ because of the thick, black cloaks they wear that obscure that part of their anatomy.”

Ru couldn’t help but stare at him in disbelief. He glanced at her briefly and then turned back to the road as she attempted to formulate a response. “Are you saying that you really believe all of that, Cutter? Have you lost your mind? I suppose these Reapers are also where the legend of the Headless Horseman comes from then?”

His response was quick. “Yes, they are. It was a bad translation of the original native terminology.”

Running a hand through her hair, Ru took a deep breath. She was beginning to wonder what in the world she’d gotten herself into. “I think maybe you should just take me home, Cutter.”

“What? Why?” he asked, looking at her again for a moment. “No, listen, Ru once we get to the house, I’ll be able to show you, and then you’ll know I’m telling the truth.”

“Show me?” she echoed. “Show me what?”

“More than I can tell you right now while I’m driving,” he said, his voice sounding a bit exasperated.