Brighter, a supernatural thriller (17 page)

"Plus, just the fact that the two of them talk about us could poison the town against us. We need to be trusted or we won't be able to recruit. They need to be stopped. Silenced."

"If Garrett's the one at the library, then he's the one that's the real problem," said Mason. "He's also the one who saw Blair die. Ramona just thinks she saw a ghost."

"You like Ramona," Blair sneered. "That's all it is. You worship her. You follow her around like a puppy dog."

"So? You have some sort of special fondness for Garrett? Any reason why he shouldn’t be silenced?"

"I know why you want it to be Garrett," Blair grinned. "He's close to Ramona. Well, it won't be you who does him."

"But you're going to recruit him?"

Blair took a long drink of wine. Her eyes danced at him above the glass.

* * *

Garrett was still in her apartment when Ramona got home. She'd convinced him to call in sick at the library that day, even though he'd insisted he was fine. "Your face will scare people," she'd told him. He didn't look much better when she arrived at home. But he had made dinner, which Ramona thought was delightful. They ate at her breakfast bar, and it was like a perfect picture of domesticity.

Ramona had thought of something at work today. She'd been working in a college admissions office for about five years now. That was a marketable skill. She could work in a different college admissions office. Somewhere else. She had experience. It was her way out. Maybe if she and Garrett left, if they went somewhere together and started over, then maybe they really would be happy.

After dinner, when she was washing the dishes and Garrett was drying them, she decided to tentatively broach the subject. She was frightened of doing it, because guys usually got freaked out when girls mentioned even the idea of a future for the two of them together. Apparently, commitment terrified them. Ramona didn't exactly get it, but that was just the way guys were. Maybe it was socialization; maybe it was testosterone.

"I was thinking about what you said about leaving," she said.

"Yeah," said Garrett. "Well, I don't know how I'm going to do that exactly. I don't really have much money saved up, and I have no idea what I'd get a job doing. You know, I left before, and that didn't really turn out well."

Garrett hadn't talked much to her about what he'd done when he'd left Elston before, and Ramona was curious, but she also didn't want to be distracted from what she was trying to talk about. "Well," she said, "what if you didn't, like, um, leave alone?"

Garrett looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if someone came with you?"

He grinned. "You mean like you?"

Ramona shrugged, thrusting her hands into soapy water in search of another dirty dish. "I'm not trying to freak you out. I know it's barely been a month."

"But it's been a good month," said Garrett. "Except for getting locked in basements and being beaten up."

"Well, yeah, except that," Ramona laughed. So far, this was going okay. "I was thinking today that I could probably get a job working at another college admissions office pretty easily. I have the experience and everything, so it probably wouldn't be that hard."

"Yeah, but you like it here."

"No, I don't. I hate it here. Even before all the weird stuff started happening, I wanted to leave."

"Really?" said Garrett. He paused in the middle of rubbing a towel over a plate and considered. "So, what would we do? You'd try to get an admissions job, and then we'd move wherever that was, and I would look for a job there too?"

"Maybe," she said. Wow. He was going for it. What was wrong with Garrett? Why wasn't he like all other men?

Garrett resumed drying. "And we'd look for an apartment together? If we could handle having a one bedroom, the rent would be a lot cheaper. But we'd kind of be on top of each other all the time, which isn't exactly a problem, but—"

Ramona cut him off by kissing him. The thought of someone trying to plan a future with her, wanting to be with her, was almost too much. She suddenly felt an ever-swelling amount of emotion for Garrett. Garrett put his plate down to hold her. When the kiss stopped, they smiled idiotic smiles at each other. Ramona couldn't quite remember ever being this happy in her life.

"Let's do it," said Garrett.

"Okay," said Ramona.

* * *

The night air was warm. It smelled like the Chinese restaurant in town, like it always did. Garrett reached for Ramona's hand as the two strolled down Main Street. She squeezed his fingers with her own and beamed at him. He'd never seen her so happy. They were going to do it. They were going to get out of this town. Garrett was pretty happy himself.

He and Ramona rounded the corner onto Pope Street. Now they could see the house Blair’s and Owen's apartment was in. They took a few more steps, and then they both stopped walking. Ramona looked at him. "Do you wonder what they're talking about in there?"

The bandage on Garrett's face itched. He extracted his hand from Ramona's to scratch. He surveyed the house. They were looking at it from the side. It squatted on the corner of Pope and Duchess Streets, but it faced Duchess. The house was one story. A yellowish color. In the darkness, it looked mustard colored. Scraggly bushes grew around the building, nearly obscuring the windows from his view. But Garrett could see that all the windows were open. And the windows glowed brightly. Blair was home. Someone was home.

"We're leaving," he said. "Right? It doesn't matter."

"Right," she said.

Neither of them moved. They just stared at the house. "If we did hear them say something," said Garrett, "if we did figure it out..."

"It wouldn't really matter. Would it?" Ramona looked at him.

"No," he said. "But it might be fun. Like we were spies."

Ramona grinned. "Yeah. Spies."

Garrett took Ramona's hand again and led her across Pope Street. They darted to the house, until they were standing with their backs against the back wall. Garrett crouched. Ramona followed suit. They half-walked, half-crawled behind the bushes. It was noisy. Branches scraped against the house. They stopped. They slowed. Finally, they made it to a position underneath an open window on the side of the house. Ramona sat down Indian style. Garrett settled onto his knees. They waited. They listened.

For quite some time, there was nothing except the faint noise of the television set. A sitcom. Canned laughter. Then a female voice, unmistakably Blair's, said, "Do you want to go out tonight?"

Garrett and Ramona both sat up straighter, straining to hear.

"I was going to," said another voice. Male. Probably Owen. Garrett wasn't nearly as familiar with Owen's voice.

"You weren't going to ask me to come with you?"

"You can come if you want."

"No. I don't really wanna go out."

This was ridiculous. They should probably just leave.

"So, why did you ask me if I wanted to go out?" Owen was saying.

"I was curious. I wanted to know if you wanted to."

"Well, I do."

"Cool."

More TV noises. Ramona shifted uncomfortably next to Garrett. Branches rustled. He glared at her but realized she couldn't see him because it was so dark. She stopped moving. Garrett sighed audibly. Now he realized that he was uncomfortable too. Maybe they should just get out now. But how was he going to communicate that to Ramona?

Suddenly, the TV snapped off.

"Hey," said Blair. "I was watching that."

"Why aren't you coming out with me?"

"Because I'd rather stay home."

"Are you meeting with Mason again? Were you trying to get me out of the way so you could talk to him alone again?"

Ramona twitched. Garrett didn't know this Mason guy very well. Mason hadn't lived in town when Garrett had left a few years ago. But he knew that Mason had been there when he was getting beaten up. And he was pretty sure that Mason hadn't actually laid a finger on him.

"Jesus," said Blair. "Not this again. Don't tell me you're jealous, Owen."

"I just don't know why I'm not allowed in on whatever it is the two of you discuss."

"It's always been the two of us that discuss things," said Blair. Her voice sounded threatening. "It's always been the two of us that make the decisions. You've never had a problem with it before."

"Mason's changed," said Owen. He sounded disgusted.

"We don't change," Blair thundered.

Silence for a few minutes.

"Mason's changed," Owen said again, but his voice was soft, frightened.

"It's not a change exactly. Maybe it's more like a phase."

"It all started with Ramona. I don't know why we aren't planning to take that girl out."

"It has nothing to do with Ramona. Nothing at all. Because there's nothing going on with Mason. He's fine. You've never been power hungry before. Maybe you're the one who's changing. With all your accusations..."

"No, no," said Owen quickly. Defensively. "I'm the same. I'm not...never mind. You should come out with me is all."

"Why don't you stay in?"

"And watch reruns of
Seinfeld
? No thanks."

"There are other things we could do..."

Oh, yuck. If Blair and Owen were going to have sex, there was no way that Garrett was sticking around to listen to it. The thought made him feel ill.

"Oh yeah?" said Owen.

This was definitely getting gross. Garrett touched Ramona's shoulder and indicated with his head that they should leave. Ramona nodded. She began to crawl forward. The rustling noises sounded deafening to Garrett. He was so caught up in cursing her noisiness that he didn't notice the person standing at the back of the house.

When they emerged from the bushes and started to stand up, Mason was there. His arms were folded over his chest. He looked at them with smoldering eyes.

* * *

Ramona stood up, brushing at her pants. Jesus Christ. They'd been caught. But at least it was just Mason. Of course, the last time she'd spoken to Mason, he'd told her to stay away from Blair if she wanted to stay alive. And Mason looked pretty pissed. Plus, she thought it was awfully weird that Blair and Owen had just been talking about Mason. It was weird that Mason and Blair were talking alone and that it bothered Owen. Was there something going on between Mason and Blair? Was that why Mason never seemed to respond to Ramona's advances? He was in love with Blair?

There were too many questions. And Mason had already warned her not to ask questions. The thing was, she wasn't sure if she could stop. Earlier that evening, she'd been content with the idea of running off with Garrett and moving in together. But now, all the questions seemed tantalizing.

"Hi Mason," she said sheepishly.

"Come with me," he said, turned, and walked.

Ramona looked at Garrett. He shook his head. Ramona followed Mason anyway. When they were back on Main Street, Ramona looked back to see if Garrett had followed them. He had. He was a few paces behind. Mason stopped walking. "I don't even want to know what you were doing there," he said.

Garrett caught up with them. Mason glowered at Garrett. "It was your idea, wasn't it?" Mason asked Garrett.

Garrett seemed embarrassed. "Look, we just were...it was stupid."

"Oh, it absolutely was," said Mason. "I want to talk to Ramona alone."

"No way," said Garrett.

"Why can't Garrett stay?" Ramona asked. "You know that whatever you tell me, I'll just tell him, right?"

Mason shrugged. "I don't like him."

Ramona sighed. "I don't understand why no one in this town will give Garrett a chance. He's not a rapist."

"I know he's not a rapist," said Mason.

Garrett took Ramona's hand. "Let's go," he said to her.

Ramona looked at Garrett. She could understand why he was angry with Mason. Mason was being rude. But Mason was her friend. She'd known Mason for a lot longer than she'd known Garrett. And there were a lot of things she was willing to give up for Garrett. But she realized that her friendship with Mason was not one of them. "No," she said. "I know he's being an ass, but I need to hear what he has to say."

Garrett leaned close to her. "He's one of
them
, Ramona."

"No, he's not." Ramona laughed. That was stupid. Mason was her friend. He wasn't... She looked at Mason. She bit her lip. "Look," she said to Garrett. "I'll meet you back at my place, okay? It won't take long."

"I'm not leaving you alone with him," said Garrett.

Mason thrust himself between the two of them so that he was eye level with Garrett. "I won't hurt her," he said. "I'd never hurt her."

"I wouldn't hurt her either," said Garrett.

Mason snorted. "Sure."

Ramona leaned around Mason. "I'll be fine," she told her boyfriend. "It'll only be a minute. Just go back to my apartment."

Garrett shook his head. "Fuck you," he bit out, his voice full of fury. "It's your fault he found us. You were so goddamned loud in those bushes."

Ramona recoiled from Garrett's words. His voice was so ugly. And she couldn’t remember any of her boyfriends swearing at her in quite that tone.

Garrett backed away. "I'll call you tomorrow," he said. And he took off down the street.

"Real sweet guy you got there," Mason commented.

"He was just mad," Ramona said. She felt like she should make excuses for Garrett.

"Sure," said Mason. "When a guy's mad, it's totally okay for him to talk to his girlfriend like that."

"You're real sarcastic tonight."

Mason chuckled softly. "Yeah. Well. I distinctly told you to back off and to stop asking questions, and then I find you spying on Blair."

"I just—"

"It
was
Garrett's idea, wasn’t it?" Mason interrupted.

"Does it matter?"

"I knew it. Ramona, that guy is bad news. You should stay away from him."

"
Are
you one of them?" Ramona demanded. "Because you sound an awful lot like Blair right now."

"I'm mixed up in this because I'm concerned about you."

But that didn't really answer her question, did it? Suddenly, Ramona remembered the conversation she'd had with Mason the night when she was on mushrooms. He'd said, "I'm not Mason. Mason is dead." Ramona took in a sharp breath. "What did you mean when you told me that you killed Mason?"