The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(74)

“You’re not dead, Daddy.”

Wayne’s heart jolted as Ruby appeared next to him, her white dress floating around her. She was as blurry as the rest of his surroundings, radiating a strange light.

“And I’m not either,” she said.

“Ruby,” Wayne said, finding he could somehow speak underwater. “We’re not dead?”

“Nope,” Ruby said. “Want to meet my new friend?”

Before he could respond, another glowing body floated up next to Ruby.

“This is Timothy,” Ruby said.

Timothy, a little boy he guessed to be four or five, came closer. He wore a white polo, khaki shorts, and a blank look that made Wayne’s skin crawl.

“Nice to meet you, Timothy,” Wayne said.

The boy just stared.

“He’s been down here for a while,” Ruby said, as if it was very impressive. “But he’s not dead either.”

“I have a twin brother,” Timothy said. “Eli.”

“Oh,” Wayne said. “Is he…down here too?”

Timothy shook his head. “I miss my family,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

“I’m sorry,” Wayne said, suddenly becoming aware of another presence hovering around them. This one wasn’t a body, and it wasn’t glowing. It was more of a…shadow. It was even more unnerving than Timothy, appearing right next to them, then farther away, then somewhere else, impossible to pin down, accompanied by a sort of buzzing scream.

“That’s the Keeper,” Ruby said.

“Oh,” Wayne said.

“He says he’s willing to let me go. And heal me. If you do something for him.”

“What’s that?”

“Bring him seven more.”

Wayne’s insides went cold. “Ruby…”

“But the Keeper only wants young, strong ones.”

Timothy nodded along confidently.

“I don’t understand…” Wayne said.

“The Keeper needs the ones who won’t follow,” Timothy added.

Wayne looked at his daughter as the Keeper pinballed from location to location faster than before.

“Can you do that, Daddy?”

“I…I don’t know…”

“You don’t love me?” Ruby suddenly looked and sounded distressed.

“Of course I do, baby.”

“Then please! Do what the Keeper asks, Daddy!”

“I…”

As he stared at his daughter, everything blurred to black as her words blended with the buzzing scream, getting louder and louder and then abruptly cutting out.

Wayne was back to looking at the dirt wall of the spring, the water mercilessly pressing in on him from all sides. Rather than rudely flinging him away, Wayne felt himself deliberately lifted to the surface and lightly shoved toward the shore.

The retching was just as terrible as it had been the night before, maybe even worse. When it was done, Whitewood lay in the dirt in his blue swim trunks, trying to make sense of what he’d just experienced.

His daughter was gone.

But there was a way to get her back. Fully healed.

He propped himself up on one elbow as he noticed a boarded-up building about a hundred yards away.



* * *



—

THE WHITEWOOD SCHOOL opened in August of 1979, just four months after Wayne Whitewood first visited Bleak Creek.

It filled a need the people of Bleak Creek didn’t even realize they’d had, finally getting the kids in town to fall in line.

It was an immediate success.



* * *



—

“WHERE ARE THE ones who won’t follow, Daddy?” Ruby asked.

“I’m trying, Ruby-girl,” Whitewood said.

It was the fall of 1982, and the new year had just begun at the Whitewood School. While Whitewood felt like he’d aged a decade in just three years, even his hair going prematurely white, Ruby hadn’t changed at all. She was still the sweet seven-year-old she’d been when the Keeper had taken her. He was now seeing her monthly, his body unable to visit more often, as each violent invasion of the spring water took him days to fully recover.

“The Keeper says you’re not trying hard enough.”

“I’ve given him a few kids now, and he spit ’em all out! And they all ended up…well, changed. Like the life had been taken right out of ’em.”

“He says they weren’t strong enough.”

“I don’t know what else to do,” Whitewood said, growing frustrated. “None of those kids would not bow to my authority. I pushed them so hard.”

“Sorry, Daddy, you need to push harder.”

“I just…You gotta tell the Keeper this is gettin’ ridiculous! I just want you back!”

Whitewood heard the familiar buzzing scream, the shadowy form coming close and pulsing near his head.

Suddenly Ruby began to shriek, her face stretching out like taffy, as if it were being yanked. “Daddy! Help me! Daddy!”

“Stop that!” Whitewood yelled. “Right now!”

Ruby’s face returned to normal. “The Keeper says he’s going to hurt me if you don’t bring him one very soon.”