Remember Page 3

  “Last one, your room.”

  “Are you able to get much business out here?”

  “I get by. Always someone new coming to stay for a night here and there.”

  “Just hard to believe that someone invested this much out here.”

  “I don’t see why not. No different than that Brad McClain selling his daddy’s farmland to build those expensive homes. Jesus Christ, I heard that some of that land sells for over a half a million each, enough to make you cough up your morning breakfast.”

  Johnny remembered Brad McClain, he had very little to do with the man, but his grandfather always seemed to hold a grudge against him. Always complaining that he was more scheming than a snake in tall grass. Gabriel opened the door to his room; the room was simple compared the rest of the room. The walls were white, the lamps that were mounted on the wall were golden and tacky. The only impressive thing was the king-size bed that was nestled in the middle of the room.

  “Got your own private bath.”

  Johnny entered the room, it suited him. He had hoped after seeing the other rooms that his room would not be on one of the extreme extents. He had two windows, the first overlooking the front of the B&B with the same view of the grass covered volcanic rock and the second pointed out towards his grandfather’s home which he could just barely see the faded blue from here.

  “This is great.” Johnny said.

  “One of my favorites. You can even get a glimpse of the Mcclocklin Manor from here.”

  Johnny gave him a puzzling look. The Mcclocklin Manor had been another victim of the town of Mcclocklin, and its red brick ruins had been a play place for him when he was a young boy. Looking out the window he followed the hill that encircled the town and caught the house. It no longer looked abandoned, it’s once destroyed walls had been rebuilt and the windows reflected down at him as though it was passing judgement over all those that lived in the town.

  “Someone restored it?”

  “Same property Investment Company that helped me get this place up and running. A wonderful group of people, if I do say so myself. She is a real beauty; you’ll have to take a look yourself while you are here.”

  “Must be nice to have that kind of money to waste.” Johnny said with a small smile.

  Gabriel gave off a chuckle as he glanced down at his watch.

  “Sorry to cut this short Johnny, but I have to get some groceries for breakfast tomorrow. I’d hate for you to think poorly of me as a host.”

  “Nonsense. I have no reason to complain. You’re letting me stay for free.”

  With that Gabriel nodded and left him. Johnny took a deep breath as he glanced around the room once more. Pulling his phone out of his pocket. It was only two in the afternoon, but Johnny felt sluggish, waking up at three would do that to you. Sitting on the edge of the bed he rubbed his forehead. Tomorrow he would go back down to his grandfather’s home, he could get a good night’s sleep and be fresh to deal with…whatever his imagination decided to throw at him.

  Chapter 3

  Sleep did not come to Johnny, it lingered just past his closed eyelids. It whispered his name as sweetly as any lover but teasing just the same. The bed was comfortable enough — more than his own — and the sheets seemed clean compared to some hotel or motels. Rolling onto his back he stared up towards the ceiling and attempted to count the spackle, though it was lost within a matter of seconds and he began again. Finally, he gave in and grabbed his phone from the nightstand.

  It was nearly six thirty in the morning, he had managed to kill a few hours, but he was painfully reminded how dull the town was. There was no traffic zooming past his window, no sirens in the distance heading to some unknown emergency, and of course there was no neighbor with their headboard too close to the wall as it would bang some nights. Opening his book app in his phone, he scrolled through a vast array of books, some he had read in a single night and others laid almost untouched with their little percentage reminding him where he had left off. He would finish them someday, when he had the time, when he didn’t glance a few pages between customers or during his lunch breaks.

  He had the time now, but as he finished towards the bottom. Nothing was interesting to keep his mind off everything. Taking a deep breath as he closed his phone and threw it beside him. He had a device that allowed him almost unlimited access to knowledge or entertainment and yet he was bored. Grabbing it again he flicked open his messenger and pressed Luna’s new contact, his thumbs hesitated over the call button. She said she was working at the local gas station; he could walk there. He got up and began to the door, reaching for the handle as he smelled a familiar scent, tobacco.

  Opening the door, he glanced into the hallway and frowned finding it empty. What was he thinking? She was likely off work by now and at home. Maybe sitting down with her boyfriend or even husband it was not like he had asked her. Closing the door, he threw himself onto the bed and wrapped his arms around one of the pillows. He just needed sleep.

  ***

  “Johnny-bear your friends are at the door” Shouted Kenneth Everleaf as he held the door open to the deck.

  Johnny paused Battle-Toads and threw down his controller as he came out from his room. The kitchen table was covered with newspapers and his grandfather had a carburetor, most likely from one of the riding lawn mowers, which Johnny hoped he would have fixed before he had to mow. Coming to the front living room, passing the circle of green furniture without taking a second glance he could see Luna and Larry Smith stand awkwardly just inside of the doorjamb.

  Larry had moved to Mcclocklin the previously summer and as one of the few children around his age, he was glad to have another boy.

  “Don’t call me that in front of my friends.”

  “I thought I was your best friend?”

  Johnny rolled his eyes at his grandfather with a small smirk on the corner of his lips.

  “Yeah come on Johnny-bear.” Larry Smith said mockingly.

  “See what you did?” Johnny groaned as he pushed past his grandfather and friends onto the partially finished porch.

  “Careful, I heard your mother’s nickname for you Larry.” Luna said.

  Johnny turned on his heel as he heard this, his lips pressed together before Larry pushed him forward down the steps and away from Luna.

  “Don’t listen to her. She is a girl; she has a girl brain.”

  “Alright buggy boo.”

  Johnny let out a squall of laughter as he heard this which caused Larry to slug his arm.

  “Buggy boo.” Johnny snickered

  “Your mom wants you home by dinner.” Kenneth Everleaf said as he slapped a pack of new cigarettes against his wrist before pulling one and sticking it between his lips just in the doorframe.

  Johnny waved at his grandfather as he began down the driveway, — no smoking in the house — his mother wouldn’t be home until at least six or maybe seven depending on the traffic.

  “What do you want to do today?” Larry asked as he straddled his bike.

  They had left their bikes with Johnny’s at the end of the drive. Johnny hated riding on his bike in the loose gravel that his grandfather had recently laid.

  “Want to go to the Mcclocklin Manor?” Luna asked.

  “And run into those teenagers again?” Johnny asked, pulling his bike from what once had been a hedge.

  “Chicken?” Larry teased.

  “No!”

  “Oh yeah? Want to prove it?”

  “How?”

  Johnny caught Luna roll her eyes from the corner of his eye. This conversation had led them to be in the Mcclocklin Manor before, but Johnny could not let Larry one up him. Especially in front of Luna. Johnny kicked off and followed slowly behind Luna as Larry came up to ride beside him, doing some circles as he seemed in thought.

  “How about going into the old school?”

  “It’s locked.” Luna piped in as she slowed to roll beside them.

  “I found a way in.”

  “Been in before.” Johnny said proudly.

  It was not entirely a lie; he had been in the doorframe with his grandfather when a bad lightning-storm had struck it a few years ago.

  “Liar. If so, it shouldn’t be a problem showing how brave you are.”

  Johnny slowed his bike as glanced down at the front wheel turning it slightly, he began to do small swerves. He looked up at them, Luna gave him a small smile which for some reason made Johnny feel bad, while Larry was smiling smugly. Already proud of his momentary victory.

  “Fine.”

  Johnny sped up past them, raising from the seat as he pushed heavily down on the peddles. With each stroke he gained ground between them, and he could feel his shirt clinging to his chest as he rode — riding the wind, Johnny thought. His bike was old and one that his grandfather had gotten from a garage sale, but with a new gear and chain, it sang. Even Larry and his new bike that his parents had bought him just that August — a gift for good grades — sluggishly weaved behind him.

  Johnny pushed harder, all his weight kicking into each stroke as he hit the hill that lead up towards the old school. The old dirt road was compacted, it’s potholes he swerved. He knew them, and they knew him. Bruise, scrapes and a chipped tooth had taught him well. He hand-braked into a hard turn, keeping to the inner corner of the four way stop. Paying no mind if there was any traffic, there was none, there never was. A few more minutes and he skid his brakes into a stop in front of the school. Its broken windows overlooking him with jagged teeth.

  Luna came in behind him, her breathe as ragged as his own and Larry followed a few moments later.

  “Jesus Christ John.” Larry said as he dropped his bike in the middle of the street and laid out with it.

  “Trying to make a dirt angle?” Luna
said as she leaned over her bike, her forearms resting on the handles of her bike. Her breath was deep, and Johnny caught himself watching her chest rise and fall with each deep breath, it was hard not to notice the recent change in Luna.

  “Shove it.” Larry said raising a middle finger towards her.

  Johnny let out a small laugh as he pushed his bike to the steps. The cement had cracked with time as the building had settled.

  “Alright show me.” He said

  Larry rolled over before pushing himself up from the ground, pulling his bike beside Johnny’s.

  “You sure this is a good idea?” Luna asked.

  “No.” Johnny said with a fearful laugh.

  He watched as Larry went straight up to the front door and grasped the chain that wrapped around the doorknob. Lifting the first chain off, he pushed the door open. Johnny smacked his lips with a bit of annoyance. Ascending to the top of the stairs he peeked through the door, he could make out a stairway leading up and one leading down.

  “Coming?” He asked Larry.

  Larry backed away from the door as he stared in the building and Johnny could see that some of the color had left his cheeks.

  “No. No you have to do it alone.”

  “Who’s the chicken now, buggy boo?” Luna said teasingly.

  Johnny let out a small chuckle as he walked into the school, with Larry closing the door behind him. He stood in the darkened room, the window to his right were only letting in shimmers of light between the boards. The wood floor creaked under his footsteps as he walked into the room to his right and he worried that they might crumble below his feet. Many of the walls were only studs now and he could see through to the external walls. Dust covered nearly every inch of the floor and he could see where water had damaged the remaining walls.

  He heard a small tapping and spun thinking that Larry or Luna had followed him, but he found nothing. He could already feel the creeping fear resting on his shoulders, whispering in his ear, telling him to run. He walked back towards the front door until he heard another creak above him on the second story. He looked up the stairs and thought about the late-night horror movies he would secretly flip to when his grandfather would doze off. He always thought that the main character was dumb to venture towards the noise, yet here he found his hand now resting on the banister to the second story as he began to ascend.

  “Hello?”

  Silence followed from above as he came to the step before the top floor. The walls here were still partially covered in particleboard and most of it was tagged with spray paint. He stood at the top of the stairs the silence gave way to him breathing normally again, he wasn’t sure what he had expected but he had been holding his breath. The fear on his shoulder had loosened its grip and he decided that he could leave and convince Larry that it was his turn in the old school.

  “Hi.”

  Johnny heard the voice from the bottom of the stairs, he half believed it might have been Luna’s from how soft it had sounded but he knew something was not right, he could feel as fear gripped him so tightly again, tight enough that he swore he had stopped breathing. He stood there motionless; his knuckles white from his grip on the banister. His grandfather had always told him he had an overactive imagination and that was what this was. It was his own mind creating the voice, echoing it inside his head to make him believe that he wasn’t alone in the building. Just his imagination.

  He nodded with his own voice of reason, but his body refused to turn and be proven wrong. He instead found his feet carrying him down the hallway in front of him, he would do a circle around the top floor to prove it was empty and then simply turn around and leave. Stopping when he looked down at a hole in the floor that dropped straight down to the school’s basement — where his grandfather had told him that there was a basketball court — he could see that it had been flooded. The murky water laid eerily still; he could imagine the same darkness that clung to the hole in the old bank. He swallowed the ball in his throat. He had finally seen enough and without the voice appearing again he felt assured that it was truly in his mind.

  Johnny glanced behind his shoulder, the hallway and stairs were empty. Relief breathed over him. Turning he began towards the stairs, hopefully Larry imagination was on par with his own, but he doubted it. He came to the top of the stairs and stared down at the bottom, where a little girl with dark red hair stood in a long white dress. Fear twisted his stomach as their eyes locked. She couldn’t have been much older than him but comparing her to Luna would’ve been an insult. As in that moment he doubted he had ever seen a more beautiful girl. Not even the girls on TV that he would occasionally fixate on compared to her.

  “Hi.” She said again.

  “Hello.” Johnny stepped down the first step, his legs rigid. The girl tilted her head slightly at him with a soft smile on her lips. “Did you just move into town?”

  What was he asking? Of course, he knew that wasn’t the case. He would have heard about it. Mrs. Olson would have been on the phone with his mother, wearing her ear off with all the details about the new neighbors, their car, if they had children or if they looked shady. He came to the last step and was eye to eye with her now. Her green eyes never leaving his.

  “What are you doing here? Not that you can’t be here, just why are you in here? Alone?” He stuttered over the words. Had he ever stuttered before?

  “Come.” She said, reaching out her hand and pulled him away from the stairs and down onto the lower section.

  He followed her, each step on the balcony that overlooked the placid water creaked. She pulled him into a side room that still had some practical board and a door. Kneeling with her where there were several pieces of broken glass bottles. She plucked out a green shard and inspected it, the sun glimmering through it.

  “Do you live here?”

  “What is your name?”

  “Johnny Everleaf.”

  “Mine’s Elisabeth.”

  She grabbed his hand out from him and pulled the glass across his palm which Johnny winched and pulled his hand away from her.

  “What the hell was that for?”

  She cut into her own hand and grasped Johnny’s open wound with hers. Johnny felt a slight tingling before he pulled his hand away, the pain was gone, and the wound had healed mostly. He stared at the girl in disbelief before pulling himself to his feet and rushing from the room. He did not understand what was happening, and he had allowed himself to be pulled into the moment too easily. It was the green eyes they had pulled him in and captured him. Turning onto the balcony and he ran towards the front door.

  If he had possible been a bit faster, his legs a bit longer, he might’ve been able to pull himself away from the balcony as it crumbled below him, but he wasn’t faster and his legs were the same as always and so he fell backwards into the dark placid water.

  ***

  Johnny gasped as he sat up in bed, his hand out reached towards. Taking a moment to collect himself he glanced around the room of the B&B. His breath was rough, and he could still feel the twist of fear in his belly. Rubbing his forehead, he wondered when the last time he had a nightmare like that. He had remembered coming into the school that day, but the rest was just his dream running wild. Raising from his bed he walked to the bathroom, and turned on the light, washing his face in the sink.

  His shirt felt like it was clinging to him, he must have been sweating. Drying himself with a towel he walked back to the bed and grabbed his phone. The backlight screen showed him it was a little after two in the morning with the battery being below thirty percent. He rustled through his bag, throwing several pieces of clothing to the floor as he looked for its charger. When he reached the bottom of the bag, he groaned at the thought that it was likely still plugged in behind his nightstand back home. He would have to go buy one in the morning. He guessed it wouldn’t hurt to take a walk.

  Exiting his room, he began towards the stairs just catching the glimpse of a light shining behind what he remembered was the room that was covered in tacky rose wallpaper. Someone must have checked in during the night. Coming down the stairs he came to the main landing, the sitting room laid eerily dark with only the moonlight shimmering through the windows. Turning he went down the second flight of stairs and stood on the balcony overlooking the pool below. The wood solidly under his feet as he tapped his heel slightly for reassurance.