The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) (23 page)

"There's a party
at the Cloister Hotel on Friday night for the hospital interns. We're
supposed to bring dates. It would do you some good to get out. But
you don't have anything to wear. For a rich girl you seem to be
rather indifferent to your clothing."

Bianca parked in her
driveway and went up to her bedroom. She listened to the messages on
the answering machine. Her mother had called to say:

Your dad and I
decided to go on an Alaska Cruise followed by a Cruise Tour to
celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary The Maitlands suggested it.
They had fun on their cruise a month ago. We just barely got tickets.
Somebody else cancelled at the last minute. We'll be gone a few
weeks. It should be good for the travel agency to get firsthand
cruise experience. We'll send plenty of postcards and gifts. Bon
voyage!

Bianca started to
pack her suitcase. The Maitlands were new customers of her parents
since they had become "rich". So many people depended on Bianca,
including her parents' travel agency and all their new clients. She
couldn't afford to let them down. She had to be careful to "get a
hold on herself".

The floorboards
creaked behind her. Bianca heard footsteps. She looked up. There
stood Marianna in a tight-fitting halter top. Her leather pants
hugged every curve of her hips and thighs.

"Hi! Thought we'd
talk since we now share so much in common."

Bianca gasped. "What
— what do you mean?" Her hand spasmed. She dropped her cocktail
dress on to the floor.

How had Marianna
gotten in here? Bianca must have been so distracted with worry
driving here that she had forgotten to lock the downstairs door.

Marianna spread
photos of herself and Harry all over Bianca's bed. Some showed them
at the beach together. Some showed them in his dorm room at the
campus. Bianca could even see the room number on the door. Others had
been taken in a bubble bath, presumably with nothing on underneath.
Marianna's dark hair was floating all around them. She had her arms
around Harry from behind. Her chin was resting on his shoulder.

Bianca picked up one
photo. With a trembling hand she held it up to her face. It was
unmistakably Harry Fellini. She couldn't deny it. He had the same
fine, straight, flyaway black hair and big, dark eyes. He looked wiry
and slim. His shoulder muscles looked the same.

"Rick Roscoe and I
broke up." Marianna leaned close to Bianca. "I wanted a richer
boyfriend. Harry is much richer since he got that hundred thousand
dollars from you."

How would Marianna
have known about the one hundred thousand dollars unless Harry had
told her? It hadn't been announced in the newspaper!

Marianna cackled. She
held her leather-clad belly with the belly button exposed. She flung
herself down on to Bianca's bed and rocked back and forth with
mirth.

"Don't you get
the idea? Guys like you all right. They like your money." Marianna
leaned on one elbow. "But you can't compete with me in the sex
department."

Bianca groped blindly
inside her dresser drawer for her own photos of Harry. She had not
yet had time to put them into an album. As she held them next to
Marianna's snapshots, she tried to blink back tears.

She grabbed a picture
of Harry at high-school graduation with his arms around her waist. He
was dressed in a black robe. She wasn't, which was why she was
attending summer school. She put it next to the one of Harry and
Marianna in the bubble bath.

Bianca thought,
Harry, you were the only one I trusted! Big tears coursed down her
cheeks.

Marianna breathed
down Bianca's neck.

"You're always
whimpering and crying. People think you're the heroine of St.
Simons Island. They don't know you like I do."

Marianna reached for
the lights. She turned them off. "I bet you're still scared of
the dark."

It was totally dark
outside now. It was totally dark in her bedroom. The darkness seemed
to press in on Bianca. It whispered in her ears, "Coward! Coward!
Coward!"

Bianca freaked. She
ran in panicked flight, trying to escape from the room. Marianna had
carefully inserted herself between Bianca and the door to the
upstairs hallway. Bianca slammed into her. She couldn't get around
Marianna's body.

"Please let me
out!" Bianca sobbed.

"You deserve it,
girl. You've got to pay me back for tripping me in that cemetery in
May and making me fall into that open grave. You almost killed me."

Bianca tried the
other door through the bathroom. This time Marianna jumped out from
behind the shower curtain and shouted, "Boo!" almost scaring
Bianca to death.

"Harry and I play
this game of Peek-a-boo all the time. We think of you while we do it.
We laugh. You're such a little ninny."

Bianca ran out on to
the balcony attached to her second floor bedroom. Marianna cornered
her. She pushed Bianca back up against the railing.

Bianca peered over
her shoulder. It seemed a long way down to the stream below flowing
through the woods. Rocks glowed in the moonlight. Bianca thought she
saw yellow alligator eyes.

Her head whirled
around. Bianca clutched the railing. She could barely keep her
balance. Suddenly she was back on the roof of the lighthouse clinging
to Little Katie, screaming for her life.

Marianna hissed into
Bianca's ear. "Life's not worth much when you're scared of
your own shadow, is it?"

Marianna was pressing
all her weight against Bianca. She could barely hold on. The ground
appeared closer and closer. Bianca seemed to be falling down to meet
it.

Chapter 5

Honk! Honk! Honk!

Bianca shook herself.
She didn't know how long she'd been here like this. She was still
on her balcony slumped against the railing — not in the stream
below. She must have imagined falling. Marianna was no longer
anywhere around.

Honk! Honk! Honk!

She looked toward her
driveway and stood up. It was too dark to make out anything except
the outlines of a car.

She put her hand to
her head and thought, Oh yes! It must be Ronnie. He'll probably
stop for me on his way home from the hospital.

Bianca raced back
inside her bedroom. She grabbed her suitcase and hurriedly ran a comb
through her mussed-up hair. She charged downstairs, nervously
flicking on the lights as she went. By the time she reached the front
door, her house was lighted up like a Christmas tree. She leaped into
the front seat of the car.

"I'm sorry,
Ronnie. I — I got held up. I—"

Automatic door locks
clicked. The car started down the road. Rick Roscoe brushed his
knotted mass of curly blond hair out of his eyes and stared at her.

"Rick, what —
what are you doing here? There must be some mistake. Marianna's not
here any more if you're looking for her. I—"

"Don't talk to me
about that bitch, Marianna. We're history. You and me, gal," he
reached over and patted her on the leg, "now that's another
story."

Bianca gaped at him
in fright.

He slid his arm
around her waist and forced her against him.

"Act more friendly,
girl. Don't be such a snob. You were once as poor as a church mouse
like me. We got along a lot better back then. Don't you remember
our first date at the movies?"

Their first date back
in May had been their last. It had turned into a disaster as Rick and
Marianna had pursued her and Harry home from the Island Theater. The
goons had chased them through Christ's Church Cemetery. Marianna
had fallen into an open grave. They had straggled back to Bianca's
house in time for Rick to get arrested and carted off to the police
station as Marianna had been taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Rick pulled over
along the side of the road. He forced his lips down on top of hers,
crushing her body against his. Bianca could hardly breathe as she
pummeled him with her fists. Rick fell on top of her and knocked her
down on to the front seat.

"You're going to
be my gal now, you and all your millions, whether you like it or
not."

The darkness swirled
around her. Bianca tried to get hold of herself and not panic as
Ronnie had told her to. She grabbed the car keys and jabbed them into
Rick's arm.

He sprang back,
crying out in pain. He got out a gun and held it to her head as they
progressed down the street to the Shipleys' house. They stopped on
the other side of the road.

"Now get out, go in
there, and ask for Little Katie. She's gonna be my meal ticket all
right. You might be worth two million, but she's worth much, much
more."

"What — what are
you talking about?"

"Tell them you want
to take the little girl to a movie. Out to eat with your friends.
Anything! You're Miss Perfect as far as they're concerned. You
can do no wrong."

"You mean you want
to kidnap Katie? And you want me to do it for you?"

"You're finally
catching on."

"I'd rather die."

"Yeah, well try
looking down the barrel of a gun and tell me that." He cocked his
pistol. "Get out of the car. Take it slow and easy. Ask for Katie
at the front door. Don't go inside. If you give me the slip, I'll
be waiting for you when you come out."

Bianca climbed out of
the car, hoping she might be able to get away somehow. She paced
slowly up to the front door, glancing back over her shoulder.

The front door burst
open. There stood Dr. Rankin, the Shipleys' family physician.
Beside him stood Dr. Byron Kingsley. They were saying goodbye to Mr.
and Mrs. Shipley. Mrs. Shipley was holding Little Katie in her arms.

Bianca rushed up to
the little girl and hugged her. "Is anything wrong?"

"Katie's
developed some sort of mysterious rash," Mrs. Shipley tried to
explain. "Dr. Rankin was making a house call."

"Let's say
bye-bye to Dr. Rankin." Mr. Shipley raised Little Katie's hand
and had her wave at the doctor as he hurried to his car parked along
the side of the street.

Bianca looked up and
down the street in fright, searching for Rick Roscoe. He had pulled
down the street a little so as not to be so obvious from the front
door. She could not see his face clearly in the dark. But she could
imagine that he was still staring at her. She could picture the glint
of the silver pistol. She swallowed hard.

Ronnie raised his
hand and waved at Dr. Rankin himself. He waved and waved, long after
the doctor, with a beep of his horn, had disappeared down the street.

Byron Kingsley
escorted Mrs. Shipley and Bianca back into the
living room, followed by Mr. Shipley. Bianca kept on thinking about
what Rick had threatened. If she went inside the house, he would be
waiting for her later.

Ronnie said, "I was
looking for you, Bianca. I happened to come by when Dr. Rankin
arrived to examine Little Katie."

"It's a good
thing Dr. Kingsley was here." Mrs. Shipley remarked. "He's very
good at explaining to us what's going on."

To Bianca's horror,
she could see that Little Katie's arm was covered with a mean red
rash. There was even a blister or two.

"Dr. Rankin has
taken a skin sample, and he's doing some tests," Ronnie told
Bianca.

"I hope it's not
serious!" Bianca took out Little Katie's favorite toys. She
started to play with TR and Lou, the bears, as she sat on the floor
next to the toddler. Katie crawled over to her and played along.

"It's not skin
cancer, if that's what you mean." Mr. Shipley said. "The doctor
thinks it might be a severe allergic reaction of some kind."

"To some kind of
poisonous plant or something." Mrs. Shipley shook her head.

Poison! That word
stuck in Bianca's mind. "How did Little Katie come in contact
with poison?"

"It's not that
kind of poison. It could be as simple as some sort of plant growing
in the backyard," Ronnie explained.

"What's
disturbing is that Dr. Rankin can't identify it," Mrs. Shipley
confided to Bianca. "And he's an expert."

They discussed
Katie's condition for some minutes more. Then Ronnie promised that
he would drive Bianca back in the morning to visit Katie. They had to
go now. They had to get to the party at the Cloister Hotel. They were
already late.

"I do hope you
remembered to bring that dress." Ronnie hurried Bianca out the
front door. "They won't allow jeans at the Cloister, you know.
It's a very formal place."

Bianca suddenly
remembered her suitcase. She had left it in Rick Roscoe's car. She
didn't know how to explain that to Ronnie. So she kept her mouth
shut.

She looked around for
Rick. Bianca didn't see him anywhere. He had not carried out his
threat to get back at her when she came out of the Shipleys' house.
That was not like Rick. He usually carried out his threats to the
letter.

"Well, do you have
a dress?" Ronnie pressed her.

"I — I got held
up. I — I forgot." Bianca made her excuses awkwardly.

Ronnie looked
troubled. "Lately you disturb me with how easily you seem to forget
things. It shows mental confusion. But here —" Ronnie opened the
door of his car — "I've got a dress for you. I figured that you
might not remember."

Ronnie handed her a
party dress in exactly her size. He even had a matching pair of high
heels.

"You can change in
the back seat."

She marveled at how
Ronnie knew her size exactly. After all, they hadn't known each
other that long. Then maybe he'd glanced at her clothes' labels.
Her clothes were hanging all over his closet back at his apartment.

They drove in silence
over the short bridge that connected St. Simons Island to Sea Island,
the location of the Cloister Hotel. The place was illuminated by
lights, showing off a drive lined with palms, a manicured green lawn
and formal garden beds featuring azaleas, rhododendrons and bulbs. A
fountain plashed into a pool nearby. The drive led up to the
white-washed stucco main building with a red-tiled roof.