The Lie (The Skyy Huntington Series) (5 page)

I scanned the bar, looking for the bartender from last night. They served a small variety of food and being around dinner time, there were quite a few patrons inside trying out the new spot in town. I walked up to the bar and approached the girl working there. She was in her early twenties with a pierced lip and blue streaks in her hair.

“Hi there, I am looking for someone who works here, not sure of his name. He is about 5’ 9” I’d say, brown hair, mid-twenties. He was wearing a Red Sox baseball cap last night,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound like some psycho stalker. She nodded her head at me.

“Yeah, that’s Shawn, he isn’t in until eight. If you want to stick around he usually comes in early.”

“Ok, yeah, sure. Umm can I place an order here for food or do I have to get a table?” I stuttered.

“You can eat at the bar, what can I get ya?” I glanced at the menu, which was typical bar food, with a bit of Irish flair thrown in.

“I’ll do the shepherd’s pie please, and a bottled water to drink.” I smiled at the homely girl as I placed the menu back on the bar. She disappeared into the kitchen and I tapped my fingers nervously on the bar while I waited on my food.

To my surprise, the food wasn’t bad at all, in fact it was quite tasty. I glanced at my watch as I was finishing up my meal. Ten minutes until it was eight o’ clock. Just as I looked up I saw Shawn walk out from the kitchen with a confused look. “My co-worker told me you were looking for me?” he asked.

I nodded at him, “Yes, I was in here last night, not sure if you remember me? You gave me an envelope from someone, and I was hoping you could tell me a little bit more about whoever it was that left it with you.”

He paused for a moment, looking dazed. Almost like he was somewhere else for a moment. “I was working last night, yeah. But I don’t remember anyone giving me an envelope, and I don’t remember you. I’d remember something like that.”

Crap. Either I was nuts and imagining all of this, or my pen pal was erasing people's memories. It looked to me like this guy knew something but just couldn’t quite remember it. I leaned into the bar closer to him. “Are you sure? I’m certain it was you who handed me the envelope. You were my bartender all last night. I tipped you very well too,” I tried to coax him.

“Ma’am I’m very sorry, I really have no idea what you’re talking about, I’ve never seen you before. I serve a lot of people every night, been a bartender for about five years now, but I remember faces and I am telling you, I have not seen you before.”

I was beginning to feel stupid, so I decided to wrap it up. “Ok, I’m sorry to bother you, thanks for your time. The food is great here by the way, I’ll be sure to tell my friends.” I smiled a fake smile, left the tab and my money on the bar and hot footed it out of there.

My phone rang on the way home. I looked down at the screen and saw it was Christian calling. Since I still wasn’t sure how to handle that situation I didn’t pick up and he left a voicemail that I didn’t check. But I didn’t care at the moment because all I could think about was getting home to see if there was a new letter. A light snow started to fall on the way home. It was almost March, I was so ready for the spring.

A newly lit tea light was on the porch, and under it was a letter. My heart skipped a beat as I scanned my front yard, knowing that I probably wouldn’t see anything. The snow was starting to fall a little bit harder now. I walked inside shaking the snow out of my hair before bending down to pet Cupcake. She hated going outside in the snow, but I had been gone for a little while so I was going to try to get her to go potty before the snow really started coming down.

I put a leash on her and decided to take her out front. She hesitated but I tugged on the leash, walking her down the stone walkway into the grass. I was looking all over my yard, there was only one streetlight close by and it barely lit a portion of my yard, and my porch light was far too dim. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and spun around to my right to look.

There, under a huge maple tree, I saw the shadowy outline of a male leaning against the tree. I couldn’t move or breathe. Cupcake was oblivious to it, still sniffing around for that right spot to do her business in. Dropping the leash I started running towards the tree, and as I did the shadow bowed to me, and just like that it was gone in a blur. I continued to run towards the tree, when I got there I looked down into the snow and sure enough there were footprints there.

“
HEY
!” I yelled loudly, hoping to get a response. But all that I heard was my own breath from running. “Please,” I begged, “please show yourself, I already know you’re there. Just come out.”

Nothing. After standing there like an idiot for the next fifteen minutes, I started shaking. The snow was really falling fast now and Cupcake was whining to go inside. I picked her up and snuggled her under my jacket as I walked through the large front yard back to the house.

“Your Mom is going nuts, Cupcake,” I said to her as I shook my hair out again. I let her off her leash and she ran out of the foyer into the living room doing laps to warm up. My phone was ringing again as I took my coat off. Christian sure was persistent. I let it go to voicemail again.

As I grabbed the letter off the table in the foyer where I had left it, I clicked the heat on and walked over to the couch to open it.

Dearest Skyy,

I’m sorry if I have frightened you. By now, I am sure you can guess that no, I am not a human as you know them. I am not a ghost or a spirit of any kind, nor am I a demon or incubus. I am not out to hurt you or manipulate you.

As for what you can expect, I cannot say. I should not be communicating with you, but I find that I cannot help myself. I did not harm those men in the cemetery, nor did I murder the drunkard who attacked you. I know you went to the pub tonight to try to find information on me, so you already know that I have the power to erase memories.

That is why you intrigue me. You should not have remembered that night, you should not have seen me. No human ever has ever remembered their interaction with me. I could not erase your memory. So you in a sense, frighten me too.

This is a new road I am traveling on. I trust you, and would not be communicating with you if I thought differently.

I ran upstairs to get a new sheet of paper. I had to know more, and had to know it as soon as possible. My phone was ringing again downstairs. I wondered if there was some kind of emergency, and felt guilty for not picking up. As I came back down with a pen and paper, I picked up the phone to call Christian back,

It didn’t even ring a half of a ring before he answered. “I’m so glad you called me back.” I could tell from his voice he had been drinking. I wasn’t in the mood for this right now.

“What’s up Christian, I’m really busy right now,” I said shortly.

“I know you’re mad at me…I know I know! Please just listen. I’m really sorry about last night. I can’t stop thinking about you. I miss you so much, and I am so sorry if I screwed things up,” he slurred on the other end of the line.

“It’s ok Christian, don’t worry about it. Give me a day or two and everything will be fine. Just get some sleep, ok?”

“I’m not tired! Can you come over? Please Skyy? I am so upset and just want to talk to you face to face, I’ve had a drink or two and don’t want to drive. Please?” he pleaded.

I couldn’t deny him when he begged, and he sounded so sad. I hated to hear him sad. “I’m busy right now, but I can come over in a little bit. Say forty-five minutes?”

I could hear him breathe a sigh of relief on the other end. “Ok, see you soon, and thanks Skyy.”

Now that I was being rushed, I lost all focus on what I wanted to write. I poised the pen over the paper several times and drew a blank. Finally I just decided to be blunt.

Just tell me what you are. What you want with me or from me. If you don’t want to harm me and you trust me, then this shouldn’t be an issue. If it is an issue then please stop contacting me, and leave me alone. I don’t need any more sleepless nights or watching over my shoulder everywhere I go.

Skyy

I folded it up, grabbed my keys and my coat, and decided I should probably bring Cupcake along too, I had no idea how long I might be over at Christian’s tonight and since it was snowing I didn’t know if the roads would be too bad to drive back later tonight.

I placed my letter under the tea light, not bothering to light it. He knew it was there, he knew everything I was doing apparently. I made my way as fast as I could down the walkway to my car, cranked it up, and turned the heater on. I sat in the driveway a few minutes, watching, but knowing that he wouldn’t show himself.

Chapter 3

The drive to Christian’s was worse than expected. The snow was really coming down and my rear wheel drive didn’t handle very well on icy roads. I made it there, slowly but surely in one piece. I walked up the steps to his door, and he opened it before I could even knock.

“I heard you pull up, glad you made it here safe. I didn’t know it was snowing so hard, I’m sorry,” he said as he hugged me and shuffled me inside the house. He seemed to be at least a little bit more sober than when he called earlier.

I took my coat off and set Cupcake down on the floor. He took my coat and put it on the rack near the door. We stood there in awkward silence for about thirty seconds, both of us just watching Cupcake lick the snow off her coat like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

I walked past him into the living room and plopped down onto the couch. For the first time since ninth grade I didn’t know how to act in front of my own best friend. Yeah, things were weird all right. I heard him open the fridge door. “You want a soda or anything?” he called.

“Sure, I’ll take some water if you’ve got any.” He walked back over to the couch and handed me a cold bottle of water as he sat down next to me. I fidgeted with the wrapper on the water bottle for a few moments before the silence became way too awkward. I reached for the TV remote and flicked it on to the weather station.

We had to wait a few moments before they got to the local weather. Looked like most of the New England area was getting hit with a snow storm. Well, it looked like I had no choice but to stay at Christian’s tonight now. So much for spring being right around the corner, I thought as the weatherman predicted up to seven inches in some areas.

“I hope the office closes tomorrow due to the snow", Christian commented, “I could use a three day weekend. Speaking of which, how is your career hunt coming along lately?”

“I’ve got a couple of appointments this week to see some buildings for lease. I’m really in no rush though, it’s nice to just relax and enjoy not having to work right now,” I replied. I had been looking into starting up a small bistro or eatery. People always needed to eat and the area supported tourism very well so I figured it would be a safe gamble.

“Let me know how it goes. I envy you right now, getting to sleep in all the time.” He did have a point, it was nice to sleep in and catch up on a lot of things I didn’t have the time for before. I had gotten a lot of reading done, caught up on all my favorite TV shows, took up a cooking class that met two times a month, and was planning to start a garden in the yard once the weather was finally good. Back in Boston I never had time for anything, between my job and the dirt bag boyfriend I had been seeing. That lasted almost a year before I found out he was cheating on me with two different women. I’d been single now for almost two years, and I was in no rush at all to jump back into any kind of relationship, even if it was with Christian.

“I’m thinking about tossing a frozen pizza in the oven, you hungry at all?” he asked. It’d been a little while since I had the shepherd’s pie at the pub.

“Sure, I’ll have a slice or two,” I replied.

I sat at his bar on a stool while we were waiting on the pizza to cook. We made small talk which seemed way too forced, but it was better than silence I guess. With about five minutes left on the pizza timer, the power flickered out for a few seconds.

“Oh great, not again,” he sighed. His house was old and the problem with old New England homes was the wiring was pretty bad. Just about every storm that rolled through made Christian’s power go out, along with most of his neighborhood. Sure enough a few minutes later the power flickered out for good. I reached into my pocket to grab my cell for some light so we could find our way to the candles.

He kept a large stock of candles on hand for times like this. After we fumbled around in the dark lighting some up, I grabbed two plates and took the pizza out of the oven. Thankfully it was close to being done when the power went out, and the cheese on top had melted into a nice golden brown indicating it was cooked.

I peeked out his sliding glass door to see how much snow had fallen so far. We were really getting slammed in, with easily about four inches or more on the ground. With no TV to watch we settled for playing cards instead. Christian never brought up the kiss subject, and I didn't want to mention it even though he'd asked me to come by so we could talk. After about an hour and a half I was starting to get tired. “I think I am about ready to call it a night, I’m sleepy,” I said as I stood up to stretch. “You got some sweats and a t-shirt I can sleep in?”

“Sure, let me go find something for you. I’ll take the couch tonight and you can have the bed,” he replied. He came back downstairs a few moments later with some sweats, a t-shirt, and a hoodie in case it got too cold in the house. I thanked him and went into the bathroom to change. I said goodnight to him and as I was climbing the stairs to his room he called out, “If you need anything just let me know.”

As tired as I was, I could not fall asleep. I lay there for easily over an hour trying. Cupcake was sound asleep next to me, breathing softly. The house was really getting cold now with no heater coming on. I wondered where my pen pal entity lived, if he lived anywhere at all, and how he was faring through this snow storm. I wondered if he had a house, he said he wasn’t a ghost which meant he had to live somewhere I guessed.