The Summervale Series, page 20
I wanted to fall asleep and wake up like that forever. And I hoped we would.
I prepared coffee and bagels and fruit for everyone, laying it all out of the spacious island counter, and then took mine out onto the deck while I waited for everyone to wake.
The sun was slowly rising over the tips of the trees. I could see it touching the water through gaps in the trees, turning everything it touched golden. After I finished eating my bagel covered in cream cheese and strawberries, I stood by the railing, looking out into the thick woods. I couldn’t wait to explore the island. I wondered if we could today.
I heard a noise, the sound of bare shuffling feet on the wooden floor boards, as someone entered the kitchen and gathered their breakfast. Stacey exited the doors soon after and joined me at the railing.
“Oh, what a night,” she said, yawning. She didn’t have a bagel yet. Just coffee. She practically inhaled it.
“I know. do you think Bobby and Dylan did it?” I asked.
“I hope so. I’m happy for them. It’s cute.”
“Me too. Hey, do you want to explore the island with me today? We’ll ask the boys if they wanna come too.”
“Hell yeah. It’s meant to be haunted by the ghosts of murder victims. But, rumors have it, their bodies have never been found,” she said, with a dramatic flair, lowering her voice like she was the narrator of a true-crime show.
I shivered, but it wasn’t because of the brisk wind coming off the water.
Bobby and Dylan joined us soon after, and the effects of the alcohol and the game last night hadn’t worn off. They looked just as in love or lust. Dylan stood by the railing down further by the fire pit, and when Bobby came out, he handed him a coffee, then wrapped his arms around Dylan’s waist and kissed his neck. I smiled to myself and finished my own coffee.
When everyone had had breakfast and enough coffee a little while later, and when everyone was dressed, the boys agreed to accompany us on a tour of the island.
We made our way through the thick brush, using an old path carved out beside the lake.
“This place is so… overgrown for an exclusive luxury island,” said Dane, rubbing his hand after a branch scratched him. We all wore jeans, boots, and sweaters, as it was quite cold this morning and thick foliage.
“That’s the whole allure,” said Bobby. “People love abandoned places. Speaking of, if you wanna look for graves, the best bet would be to start at the mausoleum.”
“There’s a mausoleum?” I asked.
“Yep. It belonged to one of the founding families of Summervale. The Capulets, of which this island was named,” he explained.
“Oh, I just thought it was a Shakespearean reference,” I replied.
“It is. It is said the founder’s wife was a huge Shakespeare fan and changed their name soon after they arrived because they were running from the law.”
“Whoa, so they were fugitives?” I asked, surprised.
“So, the story goes. If you want to know more, go to the town hall. There are old newspapers there.”
I made a mental note to go and check them out later. This town’s history was fascinating.
The path wound up a slight rocky incline, rose to a hill, and settled upon that hill, an old stone mausoleum remains. It had columns framing the door like a colonial-era house, and the name above the door said ‘Capulet’. The first two letters were faded so much you could hardly make them out, but they knew what it said.
“I would not have expected a mausoleum to be here,” I said.
“Me either. It’s creepy,” added Stacey. She sniffled, the cold making her nose run, and made her way through the thick undergrowth to the mausoleum door. I wiped my nose on my sleeve and followed her. Bobby and Dylan walked a little further down the path toward the water, and Dane and Ashton wandered off past the mausoleum further into the woods.
The door to the mausoleum was open, and there had been a lock on it, but it had been smashed, the chains cut. I picked up a piece of the heavy chain and padlock.
“Someone’s been in here recently. These chains and locks are new. They’ve been cut with metal cutters,” I said.
“Strange. And look—footprints.” I followed Stacey’s pointed finger, and sure enough, when we shone our flashlights into the burial chamber, a set of shoe prints were distinct in the thick layer of dust and dirt lining the floor.
I walked over to one of the two stone coffins in the small room. The lid was askew and sitting half off.
“This one’s broken,” Stacey said. I hurried over to check, and she was right. There were only a few chunks of stone left where the lid to the coffin had been. We removed the last of the stone and revealed a rotten wooden coffin inside.
“Ready?” I asked, looking at her.
“What? Are you serious? You wanna open some old founder’s coffin?”
“Yes. Someone’s been in here recently, and I wanna know why.”
“Maybe it’s the island’s caretaker, or some other teens, or the couple’s relatives. We should probably get out of here, go see what the boys are up to.”
“Don’t be a chicken. Come on.” I reached in and found the latch on the old coffin and slowly lifted it. It opened without resistance.
When we saw what, or rather, who was inside, we screamed.
Lying inside, on top of the skeleton of the man who had founded this place, whose name was on the tomb, was the body of a newly-deceased girl.
Even though her skin was waxy and there were only slight signs of decomposition, her eyes had been eaten out by insects. Maggots wriggled inside the eye sockets. I tried not to look and hold back my urge to vomit.
We heard footsteps and the crunch of twigs behind us and jumped when Dane entered the mausoleum.
“Are you okay? I heard you girls scream.”
I ran into his arms. Stacey remained frozen in place, staring at the motionless face of the dead girl lying in the dead man’s grave.
“Is that… is she…”
Then another voice joined them. A deeper male voice. The voice of someone they knew…
“Dead, yes. A shame, really. She was good in bed. But the bitch had started to blackmail me. So, she had to go.”
“Melanie Carmichael,” gasped Stacey in realization.
“Dad?” I gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Darcie. Dane. Stacey. How are you?”
“Mr Ryder…” Dane began, swallowing his fear. He stepped in front of me.
Harry Ryder sighed. “It’s a shame it had to go this way. I had plans for all of you. And you just ruined the entire plot. So now I have to change things up a bit.”
“What are you talking about?” Stacey asked. “What have you done, Mr Ryder?”
“First, open up the other tomb. Quickly. Your friends’ lives rely on it.”
All the blood drained from my face, and my stomach dropped as dread and fear settled in.
“Dad? What have you done? You better not have hurt my friends.”
“They’re fine… at the moment. But if you don’t follow my instructions, no one will make it off this island alive.”
Quickly, Dane, Stacey, and I moved to slide the lid of the other tomb open. Inside was what looked to be two mannequins, and stuck to the mannequins’ faces were images of Dane and me.
“What is this?” I asked him.
“I’m sure you’ve realized the poetry of this place, Darcie. I know you have. You’re a smart girl. Too smart. My goal is to eventually bury you and your beloved boyfriend here in this place, so you’ll be together forever. But Stacey here and your other friends have ruined my plans.”
I reached into my backpack for the large kitchen knife I had packed. This is because it was a comfort thing and because I knew my father was still out there.
Good thing I had trusted my gut.
His hand flinched, and he pulled out a gun.
Shit. I wasn’t the only one who had come prepared.
“Drop the knife, Darcie. I know you’ve always got one. Then, you and your little friends, follow me.”
We didn’t hesitate, but I still kept my fingers on the handle of the knife.
“Where are we going?” asked Stacey.
“Back to the cabin. Your friends are waiting.”
ten
THE DEADLY GAME
DARCIE
We followed him through the woods and down the track past the lake, back to Bobby’s cabin. When we got there, we found a horrifying scene awaiting us.
Ashton, Dylan, and Bobby were lying unconscious on the living room floor.
Stacey screamed and ran for Ashton, pulling his head into her lap.
“What have you done?!”
Dane and I gasped and ran to check the others.
“Relax, they’re not dead. I injected them with a sedative. So they’ll be out for a little while. Long enough for us to have a little fun.”
“Fun?” I said, turning on my father, moving toward him. “Your idea of fun is some twisted game? No thanks. I’m not playing, and neither are my friends.”
He laughed maniacally like the villain he was.
“Oh, but you will. I know all your secrets, and soon the world will too.”
“What are you talking about?”
My heart thudded against my ribcage, waiting in anticipation for what he was about to unleash on us.
“Oh, you know the body of poor Wendy you so lazily left in the ditch outside the asylum? The authorities may or may know that you and Dane did that.”
All the blood drained from my face. Dane had been crouching down sitting on his heels, but he slumped to the ground in defeat, his face going ghostly pale too.
And the rage, unlike anything I had ever felt before, burned inside. The monster I had spent so many years keeping hidden inside came screaming out. I lunged at my father, knife in hand.
“How dare you!” I screamed. I slashed at him, but he was bigger than me and backhanded me in the face with the butt of his gun. I flew backward, my head hitting the arm of the couch and my body crumpling to the ground. Stars danced in my vision.
“Darcie, sweetheart. What did I say about controlling that temper of yours? People will think you’re crazy, darling.”
DANE
I had only seen a slight hint of what Harry Ryder was like and felt Darcie’s fear and pain when she talked about what he had done to her in the past.
But experiencing it first hand, hurting his own daughter… my own rage came out. I sprang to my feet, lightning-quick, grateful for my football training and fast reflexes. I threw my body at his and tackled his body to the ground. The gun fell from his hand and slid across the stone floor out of his grasp.
“Stacey! Grab the gun!” I yelled.
Stacey snapped out of her shocked stupor and ran for the handgun. She grabbed it, taking the safety back off and then pointing it down at Harry’s head.
I still had him pinned to the floor with my body weight and my arm underneath his chin.
“The police are on the way, Harry. It ends now. It’s over. You’ll never hurt Darcie or anyone ever again.”
Harry Ryder grinned wickedly, and they began laughing.
“Oh, really? You know nothing, Romeo,” he taunted. “This thing you have with my daughter won’t last. Have you thought about what will happen in a year when you’re at your fancy ivy league college, the star football player, with a mentally ill serial killer’s daughter as your girlfriend? After that, people will talk, Dane.”
“You know what, Harry? I have thought about it. And I don’t care what anyone says or thinks about us. We love each other, and that’s all that matters.”
“Love will not save you when the rumors run riot and ruin your career, Dane.”
I avoided his gaze. I hated that he was getting to me. And the bastard knew it.
But I knew that when you dealt with narcissists, you couldn’t let them see your weakness. Otherwise, they will use it against you as a weapon.
I looked back down at him and met his gaze, shrugging.
“I don’t care. If it does, so be it. I’ll never abandon Darcie, or downgrade her and or abuse her as you have. And we accidentally killed that woman when she ran in front of my car after trying to kill us. We were running from her. It was an accident. It was self-defense.”
There was a groan from behind me as Ashton began to stir.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here,” Stacey told him.
The leather squeaked as Bobby and Dylan also stirred. Harry’s sedative was beginning to wear off. Good. There will be six against one.
But Harry took our distraction as an opportunity. He suddenly shoved me off and rolled to the left, away from me. I fell forward, trying to grab him once more. Instead, he sprang to his feet and lunged at Stacey.
The gun fired.
eleven
THE KILLER
DARCIE
Dane’s and Stacey’s screams startled me back into the waking world. I knew it was them deep in my soul. I don’t know how, but I just knew. Ignoring the pain in my head, I pulled myself to my feet to survey the damage.
When my father had gone for the gun in Stacey’s hand, the gun that she had grabbed when Dane dislodged it from my father’s hand the first time, it fired, the bullet striking Dylan in the abdomen.
Stacey, Bobby, and Ashton were helping him. Bobby was cradling his new lover’s head in his lap, crying. Ashton had his hands over the ever bleeding wound in Dylan’s stomach. It was bleeding too much. Dane had lunged at my father again but missed, and my father had tried to run for it. Dane had gone after him. I looked back at my friends, at Dylan bleeding on the couch. And then back at the open door where my father and my boyfriend had fled into the night.
“Go!” Stacey told me.
“Are you sure? Dylan. I am so sorry,” I cried. I hated that my friends had been hurt because of my father.
“It’s… okay, Darcie,” he wheezed. He coughed, and blood ran from his mouth. “I forgive you.”
And then he went still.
“Dylan? Dylan! No, no, no!” Bobby screamed, and Ashton bowed his head. Stacey fell to her knees and sobbed.
I felt like falling too, felt like giving up. My friend was dead. He was only fifteen. Way too young to die.
But I couldn’t sit here and mourn, not yet. I had to find my father before he killed the one man I had ever truly loved and who had loved me in return.
I, too, fled into the night.
DANE
I ran hot on his heels through the woods. It was dark out, but I could just see where I was going because of the full moon above. I used it to guide my way. I heard nothing but the sound of my footfalls in the undergrowth. No birds, or owls, or insects. It’s as if they knew how haunted this place was and decided to abandon it. I wish we had heeded the warning. It was a godforsaken hellhole, and I couldn’t wait to get off this island and leave Summervale behind. When this was over, I planned to leave sooner rather than later, before Summer’s end with Darcie, and leave Summervale behind.
I ran, leaping over fallen trees and rocks further into the heart of the island.
A stick snapped behind me, and I stopped running and froze, spinning around.
A shadow darted past in front of me and then another to the side. I spun in the other direction and saw another. Was I surrounded? Was there more than one person hunting us tonight?
I had taken the knife from Darcie and had slid it down the back of my jeans. I slipped it out now. Its blade glimmered in the light of the moon.
Another branch snapped, and leaves crunched. My heart pounded as I waited for Harry or someone else to burst out of the trees, but it was only Darcie.
“Oh my god, Darce! You scared me. what are you doing out here?”
“Sorry. Thank god you’re all right.”
“I’m fine. How’s Dylan.”
Her eyes fell, and my heart sank. I knew then that he was dead.
“Shit,” I whispered, my chest and throat burning with tears and with anger. “We have to find him and make him pay.”
“That’s what I plan to do. But Dane, you have to go back to the house and let me handle this. Let me end him.”
“No way. I am not letting you go out there alone. I will never let him hurt you again.”
She sighed and threw her arms around my neck, and kissed me. When she pulled back, the moonlight caught revealed the distinct shape of the handgun in her hand.
“You’re so stubborn. Fine. Let’s go do this.”
“Ah… why don’t you let me take the gun? You can have your knife back,” I offered, holding out the knife in my hand, her knife.
“So, that’s where that got to. Fine. I’m much more comfortable with knives anyway.” She took the knife by the handle, and I took the gun. I turned on the safety just to be safe, and we made our way into the thickest part of the forest together to hunt her father.
twelve
FOLIE A DEUX
DARCIE
I couldn’t believe it was all about to end.
I couldn’t believe I was about to kill my own father, but he wasn’t just my father. He was the man who had tormented me and gaslighted me my entire life.
He had left me in the care of an abusive woman and had cheated on my mother before he killed her. And above all that, he had killed numerous others, lied, and covered it all up.
He had to be stopped. I couldn’t let him continue. My friends, Dane or myself, would never be safe while he was still breathing.
Something was exciting about hunting down a killer with my love by my side.
We were star-crossed lovers, Bonnie and Clyde, Romeo and Juliet, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson… you get the point.
