Brighter, a supernatural thriller (24 page)

Heather shrugged. "I had a dream about Rick," she said. "He was trapped in all this blinding white light, and he was screaming."

"Yeah," said Ramona. "I had a bad dream too."

"I don't think it was just a dream," said Heather. "I think it was his spirit, trying to contact me."

Ramona rolled her eyes.

"Ramona!"

"I'm sorry," said Ramona.

"You think I'm nuts to talk about spirits, but people are stealing bodies."

Ramona felt bad. "I didn't mean it. I'm just tired."

"Wherever Rick's spirit is, he isn't resting peacefully," said Heather. "He's in pain. They sent him to some limbo or something... I have a book about that... But, damn it, I left it at home."

"I think I'm going to call in to work today," said Ramona. "I don't want to leave you here alone."

"No," said Heather. "You should go. I'll be fine."

"Heather, your husband—"

"I don't want to talk about it," Heather said. "I don't want to think about it. Just go to work. I'll be okay. I have to go to Applebee's later tonight, anyway."

"You should call in too."

"No. I should just keep going as if nothing's happened. It's the only way to get through this."

Ramona shrugged. "Well. Okay. If you're sure. Um...there's food in the refrigerator. And you can watch cable. And when I get home—oh, I guess you'll be at work."

"I need to stay here for a while," said Heather.

"Of course. That's not even like a question," said Ramona.

"I'll buy an air mattress when I'm in Freeburg tonight," said Heather. "So I don't have to take your bed. And, um, I guess I should open up a separate bank account than Rick.... But, um, we can't stay like this forever."

"I don't think you should worry about that stuff yet," Ramona said, although she had to admit that she was relieved to find that Heather wasn't going to be sleeping in her bed indefinitely.

"I don't like it here," said Heather. "In Elston. Were you serious about moving?"

"Yeah."

"Can I come with you?"

"Absolutely," said Ramona.

* * *

Ramona set an Icy Chalice down in front of Heather and sat down, sipping on her own Icy Chalice. The two were sitting outside The Holy Grind. It was Saturday morning. Ramona didn't have to work, but Heather had to go to work later that afternoon. It had only been a few days since both Rick and Garrett had been killed. The girls were both crammed into Ramona's small apartment, but they weren't having too much trouble dealing with the close proximity to each other. It reminded Ramona of what it had been like to live in a dorm room with Heather. Still, they weren't talking too much about what had happened. Ramona wanted to. She was upset and angry about her losses. She wanted to talk about how she felt, get it out so that it wasn't clanging around in her brain, ricocheting off the insides of her skull. But Heather didn't seem to want to talk about it at all.

Ramona was worried about Heather. Ramona didn't think it was a good idea to keep this kind of emotion all bottled up inside. Whenever she tried to say anything about it, however, Heather just changed the subject immediately. The girls drank their coffee silently and watched tourists wander up and down the sidewalks of Elston.

If the people who came to coo over the pretty old buildings and buy overpriced jewelry in the shops knew what was really going on in Elston, they wouldn't think the town was so cute and quaint would they? Ramona had always been annoyed with tourists. They took up parking spaces on the weekends. They stopped her on the street for directions to places that were two feet ahead of them. They often openly gaped at her and her friends because of the way they dressed or what they were doing. If the historical aspects of the town were a tourist attraction, then so were the dirty hippies, as far as Ramona could tell. This morning, however, she had an urge to go to them, grab them by the collar and scream at them to open their eyes, to help her.

She didn't move, though. She just drank her iced coffee and lit a cigarette. Heather coughed. She didn't smoke. "Do you want me to move?" Ramona asked Heather. Heather shook her head.

Ramona had been so interested in the tourists, she hadn't seen Blair approaching the coffee shop. Heather nudged Ramona, and Ramona looked up just in time to see Blair ascend the steps and go inside.

"Should we leave?" asked Heather.

"We're in public," said Ramona. "We should be safe."

Still, Ramona's pulse began to race. Just being close to Blair made her nervous. But she wasn't going to let anyone chase her out of places like The Holy Grind. For now, anyway, she was still living in Elston. And she was living in enough fear without having to worry about holing up in her house and not going anywhere like a hermit. No, she wasn't going to run screaming every time Blair showed up.

"It makes me nervous to be this close to her," said Heather.

"Me too," said Ramona. "But we're gonna move soon, so we won't have to see her anymore."

"Which reminds me, how is your job hunting going?" asked Heather.

"Well, how is yours?"

"I can get a job at a restaurant easily. There are restaurants everywhere. So you need to find a job first. Then, once I know where we're going, I'll find a job."

"I keep trying to look, but things keep coming up at work," said Ramona.

"So you're nowhere? You haven't found anything?" Heather didn't sound happy.

"I found a few things, but they're too far away."

"Where?"

"California."

"You said a few."

"Okay, so I only found one."

"Are you saying that there aren't admissions openings besides that one, or that you just haven't been looking hard enough?"

"I just...it's like, I want to search for jobs, but whenever I start to do it, I just...really don't want to," said Ramona. Which sounded stupid.

"Get over it," said Heather. "You need a job, because we need to move."

Blair came back out of the coffee shop. Ramona and Heather both looked at her. Blair smiled. Ramona heaved a sigh and then turned back to Heather. Blair wasn't going to stop her conversations either. "Maybe," said Ramona. "We should do some looking together. Because it's not just me that's going to move, you know. So, I want your input."

Heather nodded. "We can do that. After coffee, we can do that."

"Good," said Ramona.

Blair pulled a chair up to the table that Heather and Ramona were sitting in and sat down.

"Um," said Ramona, "I don't think either of us asked you to sit down with us."

"I know," said Blair. "But you guys don't mind. There's just no one else here for me to talk to."

"You want to talk to us?" asked Heather. "Whatever for?"

"I couldn’t help but overhear that you two are planning on moving?" said Blair. "Is that true?"

"Yeah," said Ramona. "Elston sucks."

Blair nodded. "Well, I think there comes a time for everyone when they need to move on. I think that's cool that you're moving, Ramona. When are you going?"

"Is this really your business?" asked Heather.

"You guys are really hostile this morning," said Blair. "Better drink up that coffee. It might put you in a better mood."

"Is that what Owen did?" asked Ramona. "Did he move on?"

Blair smiled. "Yes, actually. He moved away."

"Without notifying his job?" asked Ramona. "Griff was pissed off."

"It was a sudden decision," said Blair. "An opportunity presented itself that he couldn't pass up." She paused. "Look, Ramona, Heather, I wish you the best. I really do. And I think moving away is an excellent idea. But sometimes...it can be harder than you might think to leave a place like Elston. I just want to tell you to be strong and fight the feeling that you'll be leaving behind so many memories. You can leave. You can. Just keep telling yourselves that."

* * *

Heather and Ramona huddled over Ramona's laptop. Heather had practically had to force Ramona to leave the coffee shop and come up here to search for jobs. She didn't know why Ramona was being so resistant. It had been Ramona's idea to move away anyhow. But Ramona really procrastinated. She always had, since Heather had met her. Heather couldn't count the number of times she'd seen Ramona stay up late to finish papers that were due the following morning. What amazed Heather was that even though Ramona always waited until the last minute, she always seemed to make good grades anyway. If Heather put things off, whatever she came up with at the last minute was always crap. In some ways, she envied Ramona for that. But Ramona couldn't seem to get motivated if there wasn't a looming deadline. That was why she hadn't ever applied to grad schools. Heather knew she was going to have to force Ramona to look for jobs. It might put a strain on their friendship, but Ramona wasn't going to do it on her own.

Currently, Ramona was being difficult because of what Blair had said to them. "It just bugs me that Blair is so keen on us leaving," said Ramona. "Should we do it if she wants us to so bad?"

"God, Ramona, of course she wants us to leave. She's been trying to kill us. Dead, out of town, it's all the same to her. Isn't that why we're leaving, anyway? Because we're in danger?"

"But she seems to think we're a threat to her," said Ramona. "Maybe there's something we can do to stop them from doing what they're doing. Should we try it if we can? Don't they deserve to pay for what they've done?"

"No. Even if there is something we could do, and I'm not sure there is, if we try to do it, they'll just kill us. We have to get out of town, Ramona. Now, would you pull up Google and start searching?"

"Fine," Ramona muttered, clicking on the Internet Explorer icon. "Okay, so, where do we want to move?"

"Somewhere far away," said Heather. "But not too far away."

"D.C.?" asked Ramona. "There are a bunch of colleges in D.C. American University, Catholic University—"

"No. That's too close. And I don't want to live in a big city." Heather liked the comforts of an area with a little more population than Elston, but she didn't want to live somewhere clogged with tons of people. "Besides, rent will be astronomical in D.C."

"Okay," said Ramona. "Then, what did you have in mind?"

"Well, where do you want to go? Do you want to go to D.C.?"

"No, not really. Do you want to go somewhere in Maryland?"

"I don't know. What about south? Let's go south."

"All right. Like far south? Like Georgia?"

"Virginia?"

"Virginia. Okay." Ramona typed in Virginia colleges into the Google search bar. She looked at the search results and clicked on a site that listed Virginia colleges. "Um...what do you think about Charlottesville? There's a college there. UVA."

"I've never been there."

"Me either. Or, what about Richmond? There are a couple colleges in that area. VCU, William and Mary..."

"Richmond could be cool. Check that out."

Ramona went back to the search page and typed in VCU. She clicked on the college's official site, and then navigated to the Employment tab. The page wouldn't load. "Fuck," said Ramona. She went back and clicked refresh on the home page for VCU. The page wouldn’t load. "Damn it," said Ramona. She opened a new window. The page wouldn't load.

"I think something's wrong with the internet," said Heather.

"Yeah," said Ramona, clicking open her wireless networks window. "It says I'm connected. But look." She pointed. "There's no information being sent over the network. Damn it."

"Can you call your internet provider?"

"Well, that's the thing. I steal internet from the wireless connection in The Holy Grind."

"Oh," said Heather.

"I can call The Grind. Olivia's working there. She might be able to tell me if it's working down there. And she wouldn't rat me out for stealing it."

Ramona did. Heather listened to the other side of the conversation. Finally, Ramona hung up. "Weird," she said. "It's working fine down there. I'm going to restart the computer and see if that works."

But even after the computer was restarted, Ramona couldn't connect to the internet. The girls tried to make it work for a little over a half hour before giving up.

"I have no idea why this is happening," said Ramona. "But I guess if I want reliable internet, I should really pay for it myself."

"Yeah," said Heather. "I guess so. Well, that's okay, anyway, because you can look at work on Monday. Or we could go to the library on campus and use the computers there."

"Right now?" asked Ramona.

Heather checked her watch. "I have to get ready to go to work, but you could go."

"Yeah," said Ramona. "Maybe I will."

Heather took a shower and put on her Applebee's uniform. When she was done, Ramona was at her computer, still trying to make it work. She wasn't having any luck. "What if my computer is broken?" asked Ramona. "This computer is not that old. I do not want to deal with it breaking."

Heather nodded. "That would suck, especially with the expense of moving and everything."

"Yeah," said Ramona. "Damn it. This sucks." She bit her lip. "I wonder if we should move."

Heather shook her head. She was not going to have this argument again. "I'm going to work," she said. "If you really want to stay in Elston, that's fine with me. But I'm moving. Just let me know if you change your mind." And she left.

* * *

The internet had started working again late Sunday night. Ramona had found that there was an open admissions position at VCU, so she'd printed out the application. It was pages long. She'd fully intended to sit down and try to fill it out, but the thing had just seemed so daunting that she'd set it aside. She'd brought it with her to work the next morning, but Maxine was watching her like a hawk, trying to find out her status on the brochure copy. So instead of working on her application, Ramona was knee deep in Elston history research. She wasn't finding anything out. She'd read as much as she possibly could about Rumsey and his steam engine. Apparently, he hadn't been the first person to come up with a steam engine, so that was why he never got credit for it outside of Elston. But he'd been one of the first, and that had gotten him a monument in town.