Brighter, a supernatural thriller (25 page)

The library had been a hospital during the Civil War, so Ramona was trying that angle. She was hoping to get more information than, "During the Civil War, the Elston library was the site of a hospital for wounded soldiers," which was currently all she could find. She was wading through search results on the query "Elston library hospital Civil War." She was getting the feeling that all of these websites plagiarized from each other, because they all had the exact same wording. And all of them had just a sentence or two about the library and the Civil War.

Ramona was about to give up and try a new tactic, when she saw a result titled, "Elston Public Library protected by the Elston Historical Society." Ramona clicked on it. The Elston Chronicle website filled her screen. "Archives," said the heading at the top of the page. It went on to explain that The Elston Chronicle was attempting to upload to the internet all of its issues since its establishment. Ramona was currently looking at an issue from a week in May, 1960.

Ramona scrolled down the page, looking for the article on the library. She found it and began to read. "In an unforeseen turn of events, local businessman Ben Helzey has changed his plans to tear down the Elston Public Library."

Ben Helzey. That was Ben's name. Her Ben. Who'd left her. Who she hadn't talked to in years. Ramona had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She kept reading.

"Helzey has instead submitted the building, which was built in 1800 and functioned as a hospital for wounded soldiers in the Civil War, to the Elston Historical Society for preservation."

Ramona wished there was a picture of some kind, but the Archives only restored text from the old issues, not the layout of the paper or any photos. She read on.

"This decision is an about-face for Helzey, who purchased the building earlier this year for the express purpose of tearing it down. Helzey had donated funds to build a larger, state-of-the-art library just outside of town, a few blocks from the stoplight."

Stoplight? When had there been a stoplight in Elston? Jesus, that was ridiculous. It was one thing to be a historic town and never progress, it was another thing altogether to reverse progress. Elston was a fucked up place.

"He planned to tear down the library and build a multi-story parking garage in its place, in order to help defray ever pressing parking concerns. In interviews, Helzey had expressed what appeared to be a deep-seeded hatred of the current library, coupled with what some called paranoia about its existence. Sources close to Helzey claimed that Helzey even thought the old library to be haunted. His decision to make the library a protected historical building is quite a change from his previous views."

Ramona wasn't certain what this article meant, but she had a very good idea about it. Ben Helzey had been a real guy in the 1960s, probably much like the girl that looked like Dawn Trimbley on the brochure she'd seen. He'd wanted to tear down the library for some reason or other. And the monsters had taken him over. Killed him and put someone in his place who looked and acted just like him. That monster had kept the Ben Helzey personality in his repertoire, bringing him back in time to be her Ben Helzey. Her Ben had been a monster. The only man she'd ever loved. The first man she'd ever loved. The first man to bring her to orgasm. That guy hadn't even been human. Ramona wanted to cry.

Ramona took some time to let the information wash through her, into her bones and into her head. She tried to come to terms with it. And when she realized she couldn't, and that she might never be able to do so, she plowed on through her thought process. The monsters had protected the library. For some reason. Why did they care about it? She remembered the joke that people made, saying that there was a vortex underneath the library. The vortex kept people from leaving. Called them back if they did leave. But that was just a joke. And that didn't have anything to do with what the monsters did anyway. They didn't keep people in town. People left town all the time.

Like Owen? Because he hadn't left. He was still here. He was just Garrett.

Ramona furrowed her brow. Did anyone really leave? Ever?

She shook the thought off. Of course people left. There weren't enough of the monsters to take over everyone in town. Granted, she didn't know how many there were. But she knew that people left town, because sometimes they came back to visit. And it was ludicrous really, believing in the vortex. The vortex was a joke. She wasn't gonna have any problem moving away. None.

Chapter Sixteen

Ramona's internet was in and out like a bad connection to a radio station. She had taken to bringing her computer downstairs and sitting outside The Grind, because the connection was usually always good there. Once, however, she'd had problems connecting to the internet right next to someone else who was surfing away right next to her. Frustrated, Ramona had asked her friend Nick to look at it. Nick was a computer whiz and was taking IT classes, so he knew all about networks and internet connections and all kinds of other things that were foreign to Ramona. She was worried that her computer was broken. But Nick had spent about an hour with it, and witnessed all the things that were frustrating Ramona. He declared it a problem with the network. "There's a problem with wireless in town," he said. "I run into it all the time. It's the same kind of thing that makes it hard to get the campus radio station on the other side of campus." That was true. Ramona knew that things like radio waves behaved strangely in Elston. "I'm not really sure why it happens," Nick admitted, "but sometimes you just wander into a blind spot. Sometimes the blind spot moves too. Sorry."

But there was nothing wrong with her computer, right? Nick assured her that computer was functioning just fine. It was just Elston. He even relayed to her what he thought was an amusing anecdote about trying to set up a wireless network for the public library. They had contacted his class, because they knew the college kids would work for cheaper than a real IT company. But they'd had absolutely no luck, apparently. Nothing worked in or around the library. No wireless. It might actually have been an amusing anecdote, if it weren't for the fact that Nick peppered his narrative with huge technological words that Ramona couldn't understand. Also, all she could think was, "The library again. The vortex."

Anyway, Ramona persevered. She moved her laptop around. She used the computers at work whenever possible. She managed to find several jobs available in Virginia, all at various colleges. That was about the only thing that went easily, however, other than the fact that Heather had found an apartment complex in Richmond that was reasonable and was looking for people to move in ASAP. She and Heather had been able to get rental applications sent off pretty easily. So the apartment front looked bright. But the job front... The job front was frustratingly difficult. She tried to submit applications online, but her computer either lost internet connection or crashed or navigated to the wrong page. Hosts of problems kept happening. Nor was the internet the only problem.

Ramona's printer ran out of ink. The closest place to buy printer ink was in Freeburg. Since Heather was going there five days a week to work at Applebee's, Ramona was able to give Heather money to buy another ink cartridge. But, of course, despite Ramona's very detailed instructions, written down no less, Heather bought the wrong kind of ink cartridge the first time out. By the time she finally got the right kind, Ramona had broken down and printed out the applications at work.

One evening, as Ramona was attempting to fill out applications, all the pens in her apartment seemingly disappeared. She searched high and low for a writing instrument and couldn’t find one. Ramona couldn't believe it. Where had all the pens gone? She finally had been forced to go to Rite Aid to buy one. When she got the pen home, however, it hadn't worked. They'd sold her a pen with no ink. Ramona drove back to Rite Aid and exchanged it for another pen, which she made sure to test before she left the store. Of course, once she got home, she found about five workable pens, all in places she could have sworn she had searched several times.

And then, of course, there was the search for references. One of the jobs wanted two letters of reference. Ramona's first inclination was to ask Maxine for one of them, but that meant, of course, that she had to tell Maxine that she was looking for another job. Ramona was terrified this would make Maxine angry, considering it would mean she'd have to fill Ramona's position. So Ramona put off telling Maxine and tried to get someone else to write her a letter of reference. She called all of her old college professors, one by one, and none of them answered their phones. The spring semester was over by then, so she guessed it would be hard to get them on the phone. She tried email. She left multiple messages. She tried calling the main office of the college and begging them to give her home phone numbers. Of course, they wouldn't do that. Ramona didn't blame them. She knew the professors wanted their privacy. Finally, by chance, she happened to see one of her professors walking down Main Street in Elston, while she was struggling with the internet connection outside The Grind. Ramona put down her computer and ran after him.

Out of breath, she explained her situation, and the professor agreed to write her a letter of reference. He gave her a number where she could reach him, and told her to remind him, because he might forget. While this didn't sound particularly promising, Ramona decided to take what she could get.

Now she really had no excuse not to tell Maxine, so one day, she entered Maxine's office and told her she was looking for another job. To her relief, Maxine was incredibly supportive. "It's about time you got out of this town," Maxine said. "You've been hanging around here for far too long." And Maxine produced a glowing letter of reference by the end of the day.

Ramona didn't relish the idea of reminding her professor, but a few days later, she called him. To her surprise, he told her that he'd finished the letter earlier that day and that she could pick it up whenever she wanted. Finally, everything was in place. Ramona could send out her applications and resumes. Of course, she didn't have any stamps, but she'd buy some at the post office when she went to mail them the following day. She showed Heather her envelopes proudly. To Ramona, it felt like she'd just defeated a dragon or reached the end of a quest. She was exhausted, but she didn't know if she'd ever felt prouder of herself for conquering adversity.

Feeling buoyant, Ramona and Heather decided to celebrate. They'd been so focused on trying to get jobs and on being frightened of the monsters in town that they'd spent most of their time in Ramona's apartment. A change of scenery was in order, so the girls got dressed up and went to The Brass Frog. It was a Friday night; the whole town seemed to be out.

Ramona and Heather got drinks, but they couldn't find an empty table anywhere. A month or two ago, if Ramona had been out and looking for a table, she just would have sat down with a group of people she knew, but tonight, it seemed like all the tables had at least one person she didn't want to be close to at them. Zane. Craig. Dawn. Fiona. Heather and Ramona stood outside in the garden instead, clutching their drinks and trying to feel celebratory.

"It will be nice to live in a place that has more than one bar," said Ramona.

Heather laughed. "Yeah."

"In a place like that, if you come into the bar, and you see someone you don't like, then you can just leave."

"Absolutely. And go to another bar."

"Yeah."

"We're going to get out of here," said Heather. "You just wait. And it's gonna be awesome. Our lives are actually going to start."

"You didn't feel like your life had started already?" Ramona asked.

"You feel like your life is already started?"

"Well, no. I really don't. But you were married." Ramona instantly realized that she probably shouldn't have brought up the subject of Rick.

Heather was quiet for a minute. "I miss Rick. And I loved him. I really did. More than anything on earth." She took a long swig of her beer. "But we got married too soon." She looked down at her beer. Began picking at the label. "Sometimes love isn't enough, you know?"

Ramona didn't know, but she nodded. She watched Heather demolish the label on her beer. "I thought you guys were happy."

Heather shrugged. "Sometimes, yeah."

Ramona didn't know what to say. She knew she shouldn't have brought the subject up in the first place. Heather was really touchy about it, and for good reason. Suddenly, Heather turned to face Ramona.

"Listen," she said with a large gust of air. "I don't like to think about it."

"I know. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"No, you don't understand. I don't like to think about it, because, even though I'm devastated, there's like this part of me, that when I found out he was gone, was like...relieved." Heather covered her mouth in horror at what she'd just said.

Ramona put her hand on Heather's shoulder. And then it happened. Heather started crying. And Ramona pulled her into her arms, and the two of them stood in the garden of The Brass Frog, with the whole town of Elston chatting around them, and they both sobbed.

They could have gone home after that, because neither of them was entirely in a celebratory mood anymore, but a strange thing happened. People started to approach them. Not a lot of people, but a few. One or two at a time. And all of the people that approached them said things like, "We can't believe Blair is such a bitch. She obviously has it out for you," and, "Sometimes I think something very weird is going on in this town." It wasn't much, but it was enough that Ramona and Heather felt comforted. Finally, it was Olivia who approached the two of them. She guided them to the table where she was sitting. Nick was there and so were Tom and Mark, the guys in favor of polar shifts.

"I've been talking to people," she said. "Ever since you told me about Blair locking you in the basement, I've been suspicious. She's just started to seem really weird to me."