Once Again (26 page)

“Sort of.” I heard him take a deep breath.
“We know they were married. We know he was accused of killing his
former girlfriend. We know the two of them tried to run away, but
they found him and killed him before they could. We saw her die in
childbirth sometime after he was killed. We need to know how to
keep all this tragedy from happening again.”

“Do you think they’ll show us who he is?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But it won’t hurt
to ask. And if they don’t show us who he is, maybe we’ll get some
kind of clue about how to stop him.”

As much as I didn’t want to deal with all
this after yesterday’s revelations, I knew we had to. Something
inside me told me this was quickly coming to a head. We needed to
be ready.

I did not intend to lose Lucas this time.

At least not to a crazy person.

“When do you want to meet?”

***

We spread the blanket on the rocky sand near
the outcropping. I thought it would feel eerie, being here, for the
sole purpose of contacting Leo and Lillian, but to my surprise, it
felt almost reassuring.

Without a word, Luke laid back on the blanket
and held out his arms. I snuggled close, the warmth of him wrapping
around me and permeating the heavy jacket I wore.

“Ready?” he whispered.

“Ready,” I answered.

“Okay then.” His arms tightened around me,
and I nestled my head on his shoulder. “Show us what you got.”

For a moment, I drifted along on the pure
pleasure of being in Luke’s embrace. Other than the fact that we
were trying to connect with our dead past-selves, the situation was
wildly romantic.

I couldn’t be sure when the present and past
merged together, but one moment I was cuddled with Luke, and the
next, we sat on the blanket, across from Leo and Lillian.

They looked like us, only slightly older. It
was sort of like looking into a mirror that morphed us into young
twenty-somethings.

Damp fog rolled off the water, swirling
around us, shrouding us in its heavy curtain until it seemed we
floated on clouds.

There were no introductions, no pleasantries.
I guessed after everything the four of us had been through
together, everything they’d shared with us, regular niceties
weren’t necessary.

“I had courted Katherine,” Leo’s voice began.
“Not with much seriousness, as we were both young, but enough that
folks began to expect we would marry.”

In the dream, Lucas took my hand, while Leo
went on. I felt the warmth as his fingers slid against mine.

“In truth, I had no intention of marrying
Katherine. I had no real knowledge of love and no desire to wed,
but I knew enough to realize that I felt none for her. Lillian and
her family came to town a few months later.” Leo smiled, his mind
in a far away memory. “I was smitten immediately. I like to think
Lillian was as well.”

“I was.” Lillian’s voice came a split second
later. “Much to Katherine’s dismay. She was jealous, of course, but
it amounted to nothing but pettiness.”

A soft look passed between them, and my heart
warmed. I let myself imagine for a moment that years from now Lucas
and I would look at each other like that.

Leo spoke next. “Carter took her jealousy,
combined it with his own, and twisted it into something vile and
evil.”

“Carter?” Luke asked.

“Carter Johnston was a local man who took a
liking to me,” Lillian said. “I hadn’t noticed him, nor was I aware
of his interest.”

“He knew of Katherine’s jealousy and
convinced her to help him come between us.” Leo slipped his arm
around Lillian and pulled her close. “When we married and it became
clear that nothing Katherine did would succeed in separating us,
the madness took him.”

“Carter devised a plan to get rid of Leo, as
well as cover up his conspiracy with Katherine,” Lillian said. “He
killed her, brutally, and left her by the creek near our home where
he knew we would find her. Then he told the townspeople that Leo
was the murderer. Made them believe he’d killed her in a rage.”

“They came for me that night,” Leo continued.
“I knew they would. The menfolk were livid and seeking justice. I
knew they would not listen to me. I tried to leave in time to
escape. Lillian and I were to meet at the sea and run away. But
Carter anticipated what we’d planned, and when Lillian came to the
beach to find me, it was too late.”

The fear and sorrow I felt at the memory of
what had happened on the beach was mirrored in Lillian’s eyes. My
heart ached for her, because unlike me, she hadn’t been able to
wake up and realize it had all been a dream.

“Carter and his men found me,” Lillian said,
her expression full of sorrow. “I’d collapsed in the sand, caring
not what might happen to me. I was hardly even aware of being
carried away. I’m sure I lost consciousness, because the next
memory I have was of being inside a strange house. Carter was
there, prattling on about how everything would be fine now that I
was with him. He said I didn’t have to be afraid of Leo anymore and
that he would take care of me. I believe he’d actually deluded
himself into believing the lies he spewed.”

“But you got away from him at some point,
didn’t you?” I asked, remembering the awful scene where she’d died
alone in a shack.

Lillian nodded. “I’m not certain how many
days passed while I was inside Carter’s house, but I refused to
speak or interact. He left food and water for me, and continued to
talk incessantly about how my state of mind would improve once I
purged myself of memories of Leo. There were times I was afraid he
would force himself upon me, but thankfully he did not.”

Luke’s hand tightened around mine. “I’m
really glad to know that,” he said.

“I realized I was with child, though it
wasn’t visible to Carter yet. I knew I had to get away, that the
only hope my child had was if I could escape from Carter’s evil.
The next time he left to go to the water pump, I fled through the
back door. I knew it would take him several minutes to retrieve the
water, so I crept quietly for a moment, putting distance between
the cabin and myself. Then I ran. I hid in the woods that night,
frightened and alone, but so thankful to be away from him. I had no
idea where I was, what direction I was moving, but eventually, I
came upon a deserted shack. There was a stream close by, and a
farmhouse and barn within an easy walk. I knew I shouldn’t steal,
but I had no choice. I took what I needed from the barn in order to
build a fire. Occasionally I would take an egg or two from the
chicken coop. I managed to keep myself fed well enough for a
while.”

Tears formed in my eyes and I did not try to
stop them. I knew what came next.

“The baby came early,” Lillian continued.
Leo’s expression hardened, the sadness for all that had happened
etched on his forever-young face. “I was young and had no idea
about childbirth, but I knew something was wrong. It was as if
someone set fire to my womb.”

I remembered exactly. I’d felt the fire in my
own body the night I’d watched her die.

“He killed us all,” Leo said. “Me, Lillian,
and our child. And for what? He did not succeed in keeping Lillian
for himself, and once we were gone he failed at everything he put
his hand to. His farm, a mercantile, eventually a marriage. All of
them ended badly. He ended up on the wrong side of a fight with a
drunken man one summer night and died as a result.”

Knowing that Leo and Lillian had watched
Carter reap what he’d sown gave me some satisfaction. In no way was
it punishment enough, but at least he hadn’t gone on to live
happily ever after.

“Don’t let him separate you,” Lillian said.
“If the two of you can weather this storm, our deaths will not have
been in vain.”

“How?” Luke and I asked in unison.

“He must remember,” Lillian said. “He must
know he cannot succeed.
Think you your acts will bring you joy.
But hate and malice you employ. For the things you want you’ll
always yearn. Until the day you finally learn.”

Sad smiles crossed their faces an instant
before their bodies turned translucent. Though the visual
connection faded, I could still feel the strength of our bond in my
heart. Part of me wished we could keep them here.

In the next moment, my eyes fluttered open,
my head still against Luke’s shoulder. I felt him shift, his hand
brushing my hair with light strokes. The sun sat high in the sky,
indicating that Sunday afternoon was still young. I wondered how
long we’d been asleep.

Lucas pressed a light kiss against my lips as
we sat up. “Now we have the whole story. Details and all.”

I nodded. “What happened to them was so
horrible. It makes Vaseline on my windshield look like
nothing.”

“Whatever happens, we stay together,” he
said. “If he can’t succeed in splitting us up, maybe the cycle will
be broken.”

And wasn’t that just the way I wanted to keep
Lucas in my life? Out of some kind of obligation to our
past-selves? It was almost worse than thinking his feelings for me
weren’t real, but rather just “left-overs”.

But he was right. Whoever was targeting us
couldn’t succeed. It was time to put an end to the madness that had
taken over Leo and Lillian’s life.

The
next week rolled by without incident.

Luke and I stayed together – or in contact –
the majority of the time. We’d even resorted to texting each other
between every class. The only time we went any length of time
without talking or texting was during cross-country practice.

Tolstoy proved to be a harder test than
Frost, but Luke and I both felt pretty confident about the test
we’d taken yesterday.

On Friday afternoon, I hung around in the
parking lot after school, waiting to see Lucas and the rest of the
runners off as they ran their last practice round before the state
meet tomorrow. Typical of Friday afternoons with no home football
game to look forward to, several crowds of kids loitered, making
their plans for the night.

Jessie stood next to me, leaned against my
car, the brisk November wind breezing around us. Mr. Hartley had
scheduled a chemistry test for Monday of all days, so Jessie and I
were studying this afternoon.

After all, tomorrow was the state
cross-country meet and I would be driving back up to Belfast to
cheer Luke and the other guys on. There would be no studying
tomorrow.

We watched the runners take off from behind
the school locker room, setting out on their practice course.

Luke looked back toward my car, waving when
he saw Jessie and me. I gave him a big thumbs up and a smile.

“He looks really happy,” Jessie said.

I smiled, and knew without looking at my
reflection that it was a really huge, stupid grin.

“But if we’re going to get finished studying
in time for you to see your man after he runs,” Jessie continued,
with a friendly shoulder bump, “we better get started.”

With a laugh, we got in our cars and headed
to my house for an afternoon of chemistry punishment.

***

My cell phone buzzed just as Jessie was
backing out of my driveway. I waved goodbye to her as I reached in
my pocket.

Smiling, I flipped the phone open to read a
text message from Lucas.

Meet me on the beach.

U know the spot.

Surprise!

Strange, but okay. We hadn’t made a point of
avoiding the beach, and the memories we’d made there hadn’t all
been bad. I figured it would be a shame to let such a beautiful
spot become a place we avoided.

I went in the house long enough to grab my
coat and backpack, and tell my mom where I was headed, then hopped
behind the wheel and took off.

***

I arrived before Lucas, and walked toward the
outcropping. I felt connected to him here, tied to him by what had
happened in the past and what we had experienced in the present.
Leo’s death. Lillian’s abduction. Our first kiss. The communication
we’d experienced here with Leo and Lillian. And despite all that
had been done to us in this place, the beauty of it still drew me
in, and I longed for our good memories to outweigh the bad.

Closing my eyes and breathing the salty sea
air, I imagined the potential happier moments Lucas and I could
create here.

In my hand, my phone vibrated. Expecting
Lucas, I answered without looking at the screen.

“Hello.”

It was Jessie. “Ohmigosh, did you hear?”

“Hear what?” The alarm in her voice worried
me.

“Something happened to Kara.”

My stomach dropped. “What?”

“I’m not sure.” She took a deep breath and
went on. “I went back to school to get my history notes out of the
locker, and everyone was talking about it. Someone found Kara down
by the creek, near where the cross-country people were running.
She’d been beaten up. Someone said she might’ve also been
drugged.”

Everything in me trembled. My knees
threatened to crumble beneath me.

I didn’t have to wonder what came next.

“Layla,” Jessie continued. “Corey and Will
came back to school to get their stuff from the locker room, and
they told me that the police are talking to Lucas.”

Even knowing it ahead of time didn’t take the
sting out of hearing it.

“No,” I whispered, more to myself than to
Jessie. “No, no, no, no.”

“He couldn’t have done it,” Jessie assured
me. “No way would Lucas do anything like that. I’m sure it’s just a
misunderstanding.”

I ordered myself to think. If Luke was being
questioned by the police, how did he manage to send me a text
fifteen minutes ago?

And then Jessie’s words fell into place.

Luke didn’t send me that text.

“I have to go, Jessie.” I dug frantically in
my coat pocket for my keys, hoping I wasn’t too late. “I have to
get there.”