Dark Winter (18 page)

“It belonged to a good woman,” he said. “Now it can belong to another good woman. Take it and look after it Beth. I’ve blessed it for you.”

I couldn’t understand why with Toril, nothing happened, and yet with Beth, we were attacked.

The shrill of Beth’s voice, snapped me back into reality. “No it won’t, Romilly. Whatever you unleashed from that cursed Mirror, went into Curie. I told you, told them all, how false and evil he was. Even better than that, he’s got a demon inside of him.”

“We don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe the girl passed through him.”

It was amazing how much I could manage to convince myself.

Beth managed to assert herself before I did.

“I’m not going to stand for it,” she said commandingly. “I know I flip flop everywhere, I know I change my mind all the time. You’ve got few reasons to stay friends with me. But I’ll work with you and this Mirror of yours, Romilly. We’re going to get Curie once and for all.”

“Sure Beth, anything you want.”

I wanted to believe Beth, but I was struggling with that. Our friendship had been on and off for longer than I care to remember.

“I do want,” reaffirmed Beth. “I want him to pay. I want justice for my parents. I want to sleep at night. I need the nightmares to stop. Sometimes, I wake up in the night. I have this recurring dream – well – nightmare. My parents’ bed is on fire. Their bodies are blackened from the smoke and the ash, and they sit, bolt upright in bed, their mouths opened wide, screaming at me to stop the flames burning their skin off. In the dream, I do nothing. Unable to do nothing. Then, I wake up screaming. Do you have any idea what that’s like?”

Of course I had no idea what Beth had gone through, or what she was still going through. I did know one thing though. The Mirror had better reveal itself to us next time we planned to use it, because Beth was absolutely serious.

One way or another, Curie was going to pay.

The wintry weather had subsided once Beth and me had gotten to her home. Beth’s mind was racing, and was well ahead of mine. She asked her grandmother if she had another crucifix. As was the case for pretty much all-Irish Catholic families, her grandmother had an array of crosses and chains.

For my part, I didn’t believe all the crucifixes, prayers, holy water and garlic would work against whatever we were facing.

I didn’t have time to discuss the hows and whys of the situation. There was no attack on Toril, but there had been on me and Beth.

Maybe the mistake I made, was seeing her in open ground. But there hadn’t been anyone around for the entire time I had been there, at least not until I had shown the Mirror to Beth.

Perhaps that is what had drawn the demons out. I had much to learn.

Beth didn’t care about any of that. She was motivated by revenge. I wonder if Curie knew how much Beth had it in for him.

Suddenly, she turned to me.

“Curie has to be stopped, Romilly. He will kill again, and get away with it, again. If that mirror of yours can help, don’t you think we should use it? Do you want any more blood on your conscience?”

I knew Beth was right, but Curie would not let two teenage girls capture him.

“We can’t simply walk into Gorswood High and arrest Don Curie. If it was that easy, someone would have done it already.”

“Well, we’re going to do it,” said Beth.

“The gates will be locked.”

“No they won’t, Milly. He’s counting on us going there. He’s taunting us, don’t you see? He thinks he’s won. We’ve got this Mirror of yours, and your hands – you can kill him if he touches you. I know I was grossed out before, and for that I’m sorry. But you’ll do this, for me, for all of us, won’t you? Tell me you’ll strike him down, when the time comes.”

“Beth, I-”

Even if he deserved it, I knew I couldn’t kill Curie. The way Beth looked at me, I felt she would cut off my hand in order to strike Curie down with it. So much for
Thou Shalt Not Kill, Bethany.

That’s why she needed me to come. Insurance.

Despite my reservations, we made our way to his out-house by Gorswood High. The gate swung open as we approached, and I muffled a scream as a rat brushed by my leg. Subtlety was not Beth’s way of doing things, and she marched up to the door, only to find it ajar. She pushed it open and it banged against the wall. I had to almost break into a run to keep pace with her.

She looked at me and smiling. Her expression said
See? I knew the gate would be unlocked.

Whether she was operating on Divine instructions or not, I decided to call out the Lord.

For God’s sake, Beth, I hope you know what you’re doing.

                                        
 
              *                            *                            *

Sure enough, Curie was in his office. He had his back to us, but swiveled his head around to talk. It startled me how eerily pleasant he was.

“Hello girls. Are you lost?” He stood up, still facing the window.

“No, we’re not,” said Beth. “You’re coming with us.”

“Am I now? ” Curie snorted. He went to turn around but Beth pointed her two fingers

into his back. “You’re going to do exactly what I say.”

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Just move slowly, one step at a time, Curie.”

“So, it is what I think it is. Well, well, well, look at this. Bethany O’Neill, all grown up. Not the little girl crying over her parents, the skin burning off them while they slept in their beds. I bet your home still has the scent of burnt flesh. But look at you now! They’d be so proud of you Beth!”

I wasn’t sure what would happen when Curie realised it was just Beth’s fingers which were pointed into his back. Maybe he already knew she didn’t have a gun, and was just playing along with her. She pushed him in the direction of his chair, and he sat down obediently. For now.

“Put your hands behind your back.”

Far from being unsettled, Curie mocked Beth’s serious tone.

“Put my hands behind my back, then you’ll torture me, I plead for my life, you whack me on the head, I come around. Wash, rinse, repeat.”

Of all the things I had saw coming, Beth holding Don Curie hostage, hadn’t been one of them.

“Romilly, get those plastic ties. Bind his hands together.”

Curie continued to mock Beth.

“I suppose you are going to shoot me with those fingers of yours, and the ties are to make sure I don’t call for help whilst I’m bleeding to death. Cruel girl, aren’t you Beth?”

“You’d know all about cruelty, wouldn’t you?” hissed Beth.

I stood behind Curie, who was still sat in his chair. Still facing towards Beth, he held out his upturned arms towards me, and although I was trembling as I bound his hands together behind his back, he remained un-nervingly calm.

I felt we had crossed a line, though. Beth had her reasons, but even so, what could any of this accomplish?

“Yes,” said Curie, leaning towards Beth. “I would know all about that.”

“You are going to tell me all you know about the night my parents died, Curie, and if I don’t like what I hear, it’ll be the worse for you.”

“Ooh! Ooh!” Curie’s eyes brightened. “Really, my girl,” said Curie, without the slightest sense of irritation in his voice, “you don’t scare me. I rather feel it will be the worse for you, if you can’t go through with….whatever you’ve got planned for me. You’ve got to be prepared to do it, and we know you’re not capable. Pulled any legs off a spider lately? I thought not.”

“I’m
not
your girl,” said Beth. “You’re going to rot in hell. Nobody’s going to give a damn about you after you’re gone.”

Easy, Beth, he’s just trying to wind you up. Don’t let him bite.
My Nan could hear my words, sometimes. This was one time I hoped Beth could hear my words.

“So, what are you going to do? Torture me, is that the general idea?”

Beth paused a bit too long. In one way, I hoped I was getting through to her, in another way, just what was she planning? How was this supposed to end? I couldn’t let Beth get in trouble over what Curie may or may not have done. We just couldn’t be sure. We couldn’t be emotional about this. We needed facts. Evidence. We had nothing.

There had been plenty of cases in history where the bad guy had gotten away. That didn’t change the fact that on the night Beth’s parents died, Curie had not just one, but several water –tight alibis.

I didn’t know Beth all that well back then, but she insisted to everyone that Curie had been responsible. The first day back at school following her parent’s death, Beth kept screaming at Curie whenever she saw him in the school corridors. It was enough to have her committed to the mental institution at St Margaret’s Hospital for nearly six months. They only let her out when Beth admitted she thought the fire was an accident.

Of course, she didn’t believe that then, and did not believe it now.

The ‘Barmy Beth’ moniker sticked for a while though, but Toril and Jacinta took Beth into their little group anyway. They were pretty girls that would have fitted in any clique, but Toril announced they were anti-clique anyway, and would just be as they were, and screw anyone else who disagreed with them.

My mother had often told me that two wrongs don’t make a right. Whatever Beth was planning to do next, it had better be the right move.

She did nothing though. She was hesitating for far too long. Psychologically, Curie was winning, even though he too was doing nothing. The cold-eyed stare he had perfected over the years, burned into Beth. I jumped in, to save her.

“Just answer her questions, damn you.”

“Oh! Well done Milly, you actually do talk! Here was me thinking little Beth had brought along a silent partner.
Well done to you
, Beth, that’s clever of you. You really are smartening up. I’d applaud you…but…!” 

He shrugged, knowing his hands were bound, and I found his sarcasm irritating, but I suppose while he felt in no danger, he was free to mock us.

There was a paperweight shaped like a toadstool on Curie’s desk. Beth picked it up and threw it at Curie’s face.

“That’s enough out of you!”

Curie was a bit dazed, but still awake. He was bleeding from a cut above his eye. His white shirt and beige trousers soon became peppered with droplets of blood.

“I want to know what happened, and if I don’t like what I hear, I’m going to start cutting things off, and gauging things out.” She pulled out a flick knife from her bag.

Beth, this has gone far enough. What if he doesn’t know? What if he really was at school when your parents died in a freak accident? After all, that’s what the official report said, right? Beth, please listen to me. Please.

I couldn’t tell if Beth could hear me, but Curie could.

Turning to face me, and wincing from the blood seeping into his left eye, he said, “She won’t listen to you. She’s got her own agenda. But she’s too weak and pathetic to

carry it out. Pull the spider’s legs off, Beth, see how it scurries around on five legs.”

Beth looked at Curie, then at me.

Ignoring the spider comment, she asked, “What does he mean? Are you two…linked, somehow?”

“I can hear her thoughts,” he said. “And I can make her do things, unpleasant things, to those who would try and hurt me. You won’t ever understand that there is a bigger picture here. Your only desire is revenge. Well, let me help you get what you want, and I’ll keep your rather mute friend out of this. In the drawer on the left, there is a gun. You can take it out, put it in my mouth, and blow my brains out. After all, that’s what you came for, isn’t it?”

“I don’t care what you can hear!” Beth screamed. “I want the goddamn truth out of you. Romilly, if he can hear you, can you hear him? Can you read his mind? He knows the truth, he
knows
…..”

Beth was crying hysterically. She was shaking my shoulders, pleading with me to tell her what Curie knew. Even if I could read someone’s mind, I really didn’t want Curie’s mind be the first I would try it on.

Beth sank to the floor, shaking and crying.

Curie turned to look at me. “I guess it’s up to you, now, little one.”

“Is there really a gun in your drawer?”

“Yes, there is. But you don’t have the guts to use it.”

“I guess I’m not like you then.”

Curie tried to sit up.

“Oh no, you’re wrong there,
Milly.
Actually, you’re a lot like me. You see, if you don’t do it, the two of you will die. No-one will find your bodies. Beth knows all about that. I cover my tracks really well, you see.”

I didn’t want to be like Curie. He was everything I aspired not to be.

Beth suddenly stood up.

“Oh, Beth, are you still here?” said Curie. “I thought you had run home to mommy and daddy. Then again, you can’t hug a gravestone, can you? I bet your folks would love a warm fire right about now.”

She was crying hard, but trying to compose herself. Beth gathered a steely determination in her eyes.