Читать книгу Haunted - Heather Graham, Heather Graham - Страница 6

A different time, a different place

Darcy Tremayne hadn’t expected her senior prom to be a dream evening. But neither had she expected it to be the beginning of a lifelong nightmare.

It started with Hunter being a total jerk.

She wasn’t sure what started their argument, only that it escalated into him saying that he didn’t intend to speak to her again until she apologized. She told him he’d better not plan on speaking to her again ever then, because she hadn’t the least intention of apologizing. She hadn’t done anything, other than suggest that despite the fact that he had been given an award in drama club, he hadn’t needed to kiss his leading lady quite so long, or so deeply, in the auditorium, in front of the world. Or their small part of it anyway—the entire high school. When he left her house that afternoon, she assumed that he’d call her and be the one to say that he was sorry.

The call never came. She heard the next morning that he had invited his leading lady, Cindy Lee, to the prom.

She avoided her friends, and allowed herself to indulge in some well-earned tears. She argued with herself all afternoon. Hunter was going to head straight out to California after graduation and try to make it big in Hollywood. She was heading to NYU, and she had been ecstatic about her acceptance there and the small scholarship that would allow her to go. Eventually, living across the country from one another, she and Hunter would have most probably fallen apart. She should have accepted the fact long ago that Hunter had an eye for other girls. He was young. So was she. They should spend some time without commitment.

But she didn’t really want to split. She had been in love with Hunter since ninth grade. They had shared the years since. Very long, good years, or so it had seemed.

In the end, Hunter did call her. He was so sorry. He’d ruined everything, but he couldn’t get out of going to their prom with Cindy Lee.

She accepted his apology with a maturity her mother assured her was beyond her years. And it was her mother who suggested that she ask her friend, Josh.

“Josh!” she’d said with surprise.

But it was only momentary. Josh was a loner. He was a genius with computers, math, and science. He was painfully shy himself, but delighted when she wanted to try out a song, a dance move, or a monologue on him. They had lived down the street from one another in their rather rural area for years, and had long ago become friends. They didn’t run in the same social circles, but Darcy had steadfastly maintained her friendship with him, no matter what anyone else thought. Over the years, some of her friends had accepted him.

And amazingly, Josh had been able to warn her about many of the pratfalls she might have encountered in life. Go with Hunter tonight for ice cream, he had urged her once. Don’t let him go alone. And she had done so, and Cindy Lee had been there, flirting with Hunter, until she had realized that Darcy was with him. There were other things. He’d made her stop her father from driving to the store one day when it turned out that his brakes were bad. Both her folks listened to Josh. She had learned to do so, too.

Other people, she knew, were frightened by some of his predictions. He had known when Mrs. Shumacher down the street was about to die of cancer. He had known when Brad Taylor was going to break his leg during a football game. A lot of the kids called him a freak. But despite her little spat with Hunter, she had always held her own in school. She could bring Josh to the prom, and he’d be accepted, because he’d be with her. Oh, they’d talk about her—and him—behind their backs, but what did she care? Hunter had already hurt her just about as badly as she could be hurt; she was cut right to her eighteen-year-old heart.

And besides, the whole high school thing was over. A new life was about to begin.

Josh hemmed and hawed at first, skeptical. “Darcy, I’ll just look like the geek you dressed up and brought along.”

But she’d laughed and assured him, “Josh, honestly, you’re a good-looking guy. Tall, lean, great eyes, and if you don’t mind, we’ll shop together. But if you’d feel uncomfortable, we won’t go. We’ll just see a movie or something that night. I mean, if you’re willing to keep me company.”

He’d smiled at that. “I’d rather be in your company than anyone else’s, that’s for sure. But you don’t have to take me. Half the school would go with you.”

“That’s doubtful and it doesn’t matter. If you don’t want to go, I don’t want to go.”

At that, Josh had given her a strange smile. “If you want to go to the prom with the class nerd, lady, I wouldn’t dream of stopping you.”

To her amazement, the planning was fun. Although he usually dressed like a couch potato himself, Josh had a good eye for clothes. Hand in hand they went shopping together. They ran into a number of her friends at the mall, and she was delighted to see their eyes widen at first, and then seem to focus more deeply on Josh. He was able to help Cissy Miller with a math problem she’d been dragging around for days, and over tacos at the food court, he found a new friend in Brenda Greeley, a really beautiful girl, and the head cheerleader.

When they got back to shopping, he made Darcy try on a dress she hated on the rack, and loved once she slipped into it. It turned out that one of Josh’s computer buddies worked in the store, and he was able to give her his employee discount, so she could afford the gown. The young man’s name was Riley O’Hare, and he told Darcy he was actually in her auditorium class. She apologized sincerely for never having met him, and when they left the shop, she thoughtfully told Josh that she had never known that she could be so rude or careless herself.

“Darcy, you? Never,” he told her devoutly. “Rude and careless is when you don’t acknowledge someone when they talk to you, when you can’t even lift your hand for a wave. Or when you push over a thin guy just ‘cause he’s not on the football team, or can’t really join in on a jam with a guitar. Darcy, you know that I love you, and it’s one hell of an overused term, but you’re a special kind of girl, you know?” He looked embarrassed suddenly. “Hey, come on, we’ve got to find something for me. I can’t take out a girl like you looking the way I usually do.”

So next came Josh’s turn, and when she advised him on a shirt and suit, somewhat funky and retro, he, too was delighted, thinking that he looked something like a New Age Mozart.

There was only one fly in the ointment that day.

Mike Van Dam.

He was friends with Hunter, and dating Brenda. Darcy realized later that he must have seen them in the food court, and seen Brenda talking to Josh. When they were leaving the mall, the door suddenly swung back on Josh, who was carrying the bags filled with their purchases. Mike, broad shoulders thrusting forward, was suddenly there, standing over Josh, who had wound up on the floor. “Hey, there, geek-boy, having a problem standing?” He reached a hand down, which was accepted by Josh, except that as soon as Josh was halfway up, Mike released him. Josh fell again, hard, on his tailbone.

“Mike, what the hell is the matter with you?” Darcy demanded, infuriated, reaching down to give Josh a hand herself. Mike caught her by the shoulders, spinning her around.

“What the hell is the matter with you, Darcy? Trying to make fools of us all by taking up with the riffraff, the scum of the school?”

She jerked free from him. “Mike, you idiot. What? Are you going to live in your little high school tough-guy haven for the rest of your life? Scared for your future, because football star and all, you just might not get into college, and a decade from now, you’ll still be on the couch, an armchair quarterback, while Josh is making his way up the ladder in a top law firm?”

That got him, and she knew it did. Josh was on his feet by then. Mike stared at him furiously.

“I carry mace,” Darcy warned softly.

Mike cocked his square-jawed head, blue eyes burning, cropped blond hair seeming to stand on edge. He made a clicking sound and pointed a finger at Josh. “You’re a dead man,” he told him.

Josh stared back at him, a strange smile of amusement and irony curling his lips. “Maybe. But so are you,” he said very softly.

Mike was about to go into another fit of rage. Darcy grabbed the bags and pushed Josh out the door. For a moment, they could hear Mike raging behind them. “What’s that supposed to mean, geek-boy? You’d better be careful, I’ll—”

They never heard the rest of the threat. The door had swung shut once again.

Darcy looked at Josh uneasily as she quickly led him to the car. “What was that all about? You didn’t have one of your little premonitions there, did you?”

Josh laughed and shook his head. “No, kid, no. But he doesn’t know that.”

Darcy laughed as well, delighted. Josh had probably managed to scare Mike through the next many nights.

The night of the prom came. As long as Darcy had known Josh, she barely knew his father. His mom had died when he was an infant, and his dad had almost never been around. All Josh had ever said about him was that he was the head of a company with offices in D.C., which was why he had to spend so much time away from their small town in southern Pennsylvania. He was a nice enough man when Darcy saw him, though he had seemed ancient from the first day they had met. She hadn’t realized, though, until Josh picked her up for the prom just how much money his dad must make. Josh’s graduation present had been a brand-new Volvo, a sporty one at that.

Josh brought her the most beautiful corsage she had ever seen. Her mother fussed around the two of them, taking picture after picture while her father beamed.

Josh, she discovered that night, was also an amazing dancer. Flushing, he informed her that he’d had some experience because his father had brought him to cotillion classes when he’d been in junior high.

Her friends were good that night, especially Brenda, and even the guys had to toe the line somewhat, since their dates seemed to accept Josh. Hunter, however, never approached her once. She saw that he and Mike were watching them from a distance, however, and that Mike looked as if he were about to explode when she and Josh won the “Wild and Wacky” dance contest.

Hunter just looked sad.

Darcy smiled at Josh, and he looked at her, curiously arching a brow. “Thank you,” she told him.

“Me? Thank you! I’m like a male Cinderella tonight. Prince-not-so-charming, feeling like the beau of the ball.”

She shook her head. “No. You made me realize that my life wasn’t over without Hunter, and that there is a world ahead.”

He caught both her hands, squeezing them tightly. “Don’t you ever forget that, Darcy, you hear? The world is out there, and it’s yours. It’s a beautiful world.” He spoke urgently, staring into Darcy’s eyes. “Even when things don’t seem quite right. Some people, just with a smile here and there, a kind word, make it all a better place for everyone around them. You’re one of those people. Remember that. There are times in life to be sad, to feel pain, but you’re a giver. Don’t ever let yourself be downed by fear, hardship, or even sorrow that’s so deep, you may not feel like going on.”

A chill swept into her. “Josh, you’re scaring me.”

“Sorry, Darcy.” He seemed to return to himself again. “Hey, I don’t believe it. They’re playing a Charleston! Want to try it?”

“Why the hell not?”

In a while, she forgot his words, because they did just have so much fun.

She was vaguely aware of the amount of drinking going on, the punch being spiked, and even the drugs. Brenda was upset because she was sure Mike was getting smashed. She was uneasy about the guys driving, but she had no control over any of it and decided that she was just going to enjoy the miracle that occurred; Hunter had thrown her over just before their senior prom, and she was still there, and having the best time of her life.

At last, it was time to go. Darcy had booked a room at the hotel where most of the kids were going after the prom, but she didn’t want to go. Josh agreed that a perfect end to the evening might be watching a few movies, then seeing the sun come up. They were in his brand-new Volvo and heading out of the parking lot when the first warning that they were never going to make it occurred.

There was a tap against Josh’s bumper. Just a tap. It barely jerked them forward.

Josh turned around, swearing softly. “Too much alcohol in there, or kids who just can’t drive.”

With lights blaring around them, they really couldn’t see who was behind them.

Josh pulled out on the road.

“Care if I rifle through the CDs?” Darcy asked him.

“Be my guest.”

She was oohing over his Beatles collection when the next tap against the bumper came. This one was harder, slamming against the car.

“Dammit!” Josh swore.

“What the hell…?” Darcy said, looking back.

She didn’t really need to look back. A car pulled alongside them. Mike was at the wheel, in his souped-up old Chevy. The car was a battle-ax with an engine that might have made the grade at the Daytona 500. His window was down. He had a beer in his hand while driving.

“Ass!” Darcy said.

Josh was quiet, staring ahead. He didn’t seem frightened. Only…strangely resigned.

Mike was making signs for her to roll the window down.

“Might as well do it,” Josh said.

“He’s an idiot. Just drive,” Darcy told him.

She looked straight ahead as well. To her amazement, Mike slammed his Chevy’s tank side right against the Volvo.

She was wearing her seat belt; still, she slammed against Josh. Amazed, she straightened as Josh deftly maneuvered to keep the car on the road.

“Josh, I’m so sorry!” she gasped, real fear starting to trickle down her spine. She’d known that Mike could be a real jerk. She hadn’t known that he could be this insane. She stared furiously over at the Chevy, still driving neck-and-neck with them.

The problem with small-town Pennsylvania, of course, could be the roads. Miles and miles of them in almost total darkness, with no one around for help.

Mike knew that. She could tell the minute she saw the grin on his face.

Then, to her great dismay, she saw that Hunter was sitting next to him, in the passenger’s seat.

She rolled her window down. Surely, Josh’s father was going to have a fit about the car. And someone was going to wind up really hurt.

“Stop it! You idiots!” she shouted.

“Ah, come on, you want to play with the geeks?” Mike called back.

Wind was racing by them. Darcy was afraid her voice wouldn’t carry. “Hunter! Make him stop this, now!”

Hunter leaned forward and she saw his face. He was as white as a ghost. “Darcy, I’m trying!”

Mike laughed and slammed the car again. Darcy heard the terrible screech of metal against metal.

“Stop! We’ll just stop, Josh,” she said. “Hunter won’t let Mike hurt you. He’s still sober, I can see.”

Just as she finished speaking, the Chevy began to veer insanely. She grabbed hold of her seat with a death grip as the Volvo veered accordingly. There was a split second in which she saw Hunter trying to seize the Chevy’s steering wheel.

Then it all went out of control. The Chevy jackknifed with a roaring vengeance against the nose of the Volvo. Then it flipped, and rolled over and over in front of them. Josh pumped the brakes, but simple physics sent them flying into the body of the Chevy.

For a moment, Darcy felt the weightlessness of flight herself. An air bag suddenly exploded in her face. She felt a thud unlike anything she had ever known before, and the world suddenly turned to an absurd cartoon vision as stars in a field of black velvet swam before her eyes. Then, one by one, the stars twinkled out, and there was nothing but an ebony darkness.

Ashes to ashes.

Dust to dust.

Darcy attended Josh’s funeral with blackened eyes and heavy bruises. They told her that it was only thanks to the integrity of Josh’s Volvo that she was still alive.

Mike wouldn’t be buried for another two days. Somehow, again miraculously, Hunter had survived as well. Darcy thought that she must still be in shock, unable to really absorb what had happened because, as she stood by Josh’s grave site, supported on either side by her parents, she was able to look at Hunter. She could even think that, to his credit, he’d had the balls to come here, and that he was weeping like an infant.

The accident had been a wake-up call for the entire school, she thought, for those who had shunned Josh for years had come. He might well have been amused, she thought. But again, every face showed shock and sorrow. Those who had thought themselves young and immortal had discovered that life was fragile and death could come at any time. Who, in their realm of experience, had ever imagined that taunting a nerd could come to such a tragic end?

Josh’s father, grave, tall, ancient, and bowed, tenderly kissed the coffin, and laid a flower upon it. His grief seemed beyond tears, and still, when the last words of the priest had faded into the bizarre and beautiful blue beauty of the day, he came toward her. He managed a gentle smile, as if her pain could be as deep as his own, and reached for her hand. She took it, let him lead her to the coffin, where he offered her a flower to cast upon it.

It was a strange moment, for those who had attended seemed to want to come to him, to offer their condolences. Yet, he and Darcy stood in their own little world, and people hesitated, then let them be. Even Darcy’s parents, loving, kind people, allowed them that moment.

They stood in silence for the longest time. Oddly, Darcy became aware of a bird chirping. At last, she found her voice. It was broken and trembling, but she managed the words she wanted. “I’m so sorry. So, so, sorry. I—I’m responsible. That can’t help you any, I know,” she babbled. “But he was my friend, truly, my best friend, always there, and oh, God, I didn’t know…I….”

“Please,” Josh’s father said softly. “Darcy, you did nothing wrong. It’s never wrong to be a real friend. He loved you. Not romantically, of course. You didn’t love him that way, either. But he knew you really, truly cared about him. You were a special person to him. Incredibly so.”

She looked up at the old man who seemed bowed with sorrow, and yet so accepting. She offered him a teary, rueful smile. “Please, you’re trying to comfort me. You’ve lost your only child.”

He looked back at her a long time. “I always knew that I would,” he said quietly. “And still, what a fine, bright boy! The love we shared will remain in this old heart as long as it ticks. I was privileged to have him as long as I did. Remember this, those we love do live forever in our hearts. You’ll remember his voice. The things he said that made you laugh. I can’t explain this, but…Josh wasn’t really for this world.”

“He has gone to a far better place,” she whispered, wincing at the way the words, sincerely meant, could sound so trite.

“He was different, Darcy. You must have known that.”

“Smart, sweet, wonderful,” she whispered.

Josh’s father was still smiling. He reached into his wallet suddenly, producing a card. “I doubt if I’ll be around the old homestead here much anymore. Please, take this. If you ever need help, if you ever need to just talk, call me. Come see me. You have great folks of your own, Darcy. I know they’ll help you through. But if you’re ever confused, lost…call me. Remember that I am—was—his dad. I’ll always be there for you. You were always there for my boy.” He hesitated. “And you may find that you need me. Remember this, please, I’ll always be there.”

He touched her head gently, then walked away, leaving her at the coffin. She stood there for several seconds, feeling the breeze touch her face, noting again the unbelievable blue of the sky. Down by the road, her parents were waiting. They would give her all the time she needed.

She saw that Hunter, leaning on his crutches, was waiting as well.

She didn’t think that she could bear to talk to him.

She knelt down in the earth at the head of the coffin, suddenly overwhelmed with bitterness. “Oh, Josh, I will never speak to him again,” she whispered softly, then shook her head. “God help me!”

She closed her eyes. It seemed that Josh’s voice entered her head. “Darcy, hey, don’t be so hard on Hunter. You know, he realized that Mike was being a homicidal jerk. He tried.”

The voice was so real that her eyes flew open.

The day hadn’t changed. The sky was still blue, the breeze still soft. The coffin still lay in the mechanism that would shortly bring it deep into the ground.

Tears welled in her eyes again. She closed them tightly, and prayed. Then she rose, kissed the coffin, and murmured. “Josh, I will never forget you. And like your dad said, you will always be in my heart. Always. If I live to be a hundred.”

At last, she turned away. She started for the road where her parents, and Hunter, waited.

For a moment, the hate remained. She couldn’t even look at Hunter. Then she remembered Josh’s words, so real in her mind. Don’t be so hard on Hunter.

He was still crying. She managed to walk to him and place a hand on his arm. “You tried,” she said very softly.

“Oh, Darcy!” he whispered sickly.

“You tried,” she repeated. “One day…one day, we can talk again.”

Amazingly, she felt better. And she knew that Hunter had tried. She knew, too, that his leg would heal. His heart never would. He would live with the night in which Josh and Mike had died all of his life. And he would fight the guilt in his soul just as long.

Her mother was waiting with outstretched arms. Her father, too. She ran to them, and let them do all the right things they thought that they could do.

That night, her mother gave her a sleeping pill, since she hadn’t really slept since the accident.

And it was the pill, she was convinced the following day, that caused her strange dreams.

She was back at the cemetery. It wasn’t a blue day anymore. It wasn’t exactly gray, either. It seemed that there was a cast of silver, like a mist, over the day. Time had passed, and she walked through the old gnarled trees, ancient graves, and newer ones, that composed the cemetery. Josh had been buried beneath a beautiful old oak. She walked toward it, clad in black, bearing a bouquet of flowers.

And yet…

As she neared it, she saw a thin man standing by the old oak. Frowning, she came closer. And it was Josh.

He looked very handsome, dressed in the dark suit, tailored shirt, and crimson tie in which he had been buried. His dark hair was trimmed and brushed, as it had been for the prom. He was leaning against the tree, arms casually crossed, smiling as she came.

For a moment, she was afraid. Only a moment.

“Josh?”

“Darcy, poor Darcy,” he said softly. His rueful smile reminded her of his father’s when he had spoken to her over his son’s coffin. “Darcy, you’ve got to know. It’s okay. Honestly, it’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, you’re dead.” She frowned, amazed to realize that she was a little angry with him. “You knew it, Josh! You knew you were going to die. The day that Mike threatened you…you said that maybe you’d be dead, but he’d be dead as well. And he is!”

“I know. I’m sorry. He was a true jerk, but I didn’t really hate him.”

“Josh—”

“I’ve got to go, Darcy. I just wanted you to know that I’m okay. I’m really okay. And you’ve got to go on.”

“I will, Josh, but…I never knew how much I’d miss you,” she whispered.

He touched her hair. Except that…he wasn’t real, and of course, it was just a whisper of the breeze.

“I’ll always be with you, Darcy. When you need me, just think of me. Here.” He laid his palm against his heart.

“Oh, Josh!”

He was fading. Into the silver color of the day. Of course. It was a dream. A drug-induced dream.

He smiled. “You’re special, Darcy. You’ll need to be strong,” he said softly.

And then he was gone.

It began the next day.

Her father had determined that he wasn’t going into work; neither was her mother. They were going to spend the day with her, take a drive to the nearby mountains, and just spend time in that quite and beautiful part of their state.

He couldn’t find his Palm Pilot.

“You left it on the counter of your bath,” she told him.

“How on earth would you know that? Were you in our room, sweetheart?” her dad asked.

“No,” Darcy said, startled herself. “I just…well, I guess it’s a place you might have left it.”

He went upstairs to his bathroom and returned with his Palm Pilot, looking at her oddly. “Thanks. I guess you know your old man pretty well, huh, kid?”

Of course, that was it.

But then…

Little pieces of precognition began to come to her, now and then. A few that summer, a few during her first years of college, more after that.

They were disturbing at first. Then she came to accept them. She thought that they were maybe something that Josh had very strangely managed to leave her.

It wasn’t until later that she decided it was time to call Josh’s father.

When the ghosts came.