The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(70)

“Uh, yeah, definitely. How did you know where I live?”

“The phone book,” Ben said. “They had one at the Short Stop.”

“Weren’t you worried about being seen?”

“Desperate times.”

“Yeah.”

“Only one person saw me. A woman power walking. I told her I was going duck hunting.”

“Smart.”

“So. Whitewood took Leif,” Ben said, shifting his voice into “let’s get down to business” mode. “Which means Leif could be the next sacrifice.”

Rex was grateful to have someone to talk everything out with, but even with the window open, Ben’s smell was overpowering. “Hey,” Rex said. “Do you want to maybe take a shower?”

“Oh,” Ben said. “Is that an option?”

“Yes, definitely. You can borrow some of my clothes, too. Maybe ditch the jumpsuit.”

“That is incredibly generous,” Ben said.

Thirty minutes later, with Ben looking and smelling like a regular human being, outfitted in sweatpants and a baggy orange 1990 rec-league basketball T-shirt and fresh gauze on his hand, the two of them stood in the kitchen, staring at the contents of the McClendon family fridge.

“Really, help yourself to whatever,” Rex said.

Ben’s eyes greedily roamed over everything before grabbing a carrot from the produce drawer.

“That’s what you want?” Rex asked.

“I’ve missed carrots so much,” Ben said, taking a huge chomp.

Rex was mid-shrug when he heard a car pulling into the driveway. “My parents!”

He rushed Ben and his carrot into his bedroom closet and ran to the front window to see if it was his mom or his dad.

It was neither.

It was a Grand Marquis with a red stripe of paint on the side.

Janine bounded out of the car, camera bag in hand, and by the time she made it to the front doorstep, Rex was waiting for her. “Hey,” he said. “How’d you know I was staying home from school?”

“Oh, right. School,” Janine said. “I didn’t even think about that. Can I come in? There’s something you need to see.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Rex said. “So Leif is officially a student at Whitewoo—”

“Where’s your TV?” Janine asked, already striding past him into the house, unzipping her camera bag.

“Uh, in the living room,” Rex said, pointing. “Hey, Ben,” he called back to his bedroom. “It’s not my parents, it’s Janine. The filmmaker.”

When Ben made it to the living room, Janine was crouched down by the TV, pulling random cords out of her camera bag as Rex paced around, biting his nails, wondering what they’d caught on camera. He had a feeling it wasn’t the underwater machinery of a fancy hot tub.

“Why is your TV so weird?” Janine asked, trying to figure out which colored holes on the back of the television were the right ones to attach the camera cords to.

“It’s not weird,” Rex said, feeling oddly defensive about his parents’ choice of electronics. He took the cords from her hand and quickly plugged them in, as if to prove his point.

“Oh, that worked,” Janine said, as the otherworldly blue of the spring filled the television screen, the camera on pause.

“I haven’t seen a TV in ages,” Ben said, still working on the carrot.

“Who the hell are you?” Janine asked.

“I’m Ben.” He gave a small wave with his bandaged hand. “I was the hooter.”

Janine cocked her head.

“In the tree,” added Ben. “Making owl noises.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Janine. “Hi.”

“Thank you for joining the fight,” Ben said. “Most adults think it’s bullshit.”

“No problem,” Janine said, eager to show them the tape. “Okay, so, um…I rushed over here as fast as I could. Because this is…Well. I mean. Yeah. I’m gonna hit play now.”

Rex and Ben nodded.

It was hard at first to tell that the footage was no longer paused, as the screen remained bright blue even as the camera panned back and forth. Then, the frame shifted violently, the picture dimming for a moment.

“That was whatever was pulling on the camera?” Rex said.

“Yeah,” Janine said. “You never see anything other than that darkening. But just keep watching.”

The camera began to swing around again, a wall of roots and rocks coming into view as Leif panned the camera farther to the right. Janine paused the camera.

“There,” she said.

“There what?” All Rex saw was the rocky wall of the spring. Was there more to see than that?

“Oh,” Ben said, his eyes bugging.

What were they seeing? Is there an especially interesting rock? He was embarrassed to ask.

But then Rex saw.

And he felt faint.

Sticking out from the dense, mossy wall was a head. A curly-haired head.

Alicia.

“That’s not all,” Janine said. She pressed play again and Rex saw it, just before the camera moved left.

Alicia opened her eyes.





20


FEBRUARY 1978