The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (9 page)

"What does that mean?" Steve said.

The sheriff held his flashlight closer to the
body and began to examine it closely. "Look there," he said.

Everyone in the hallway moved closer except
Evelyn.

"What are we seeing, Bernie?" Steve said.

"Ain't completely sure," he said. "But I'll be
damned if that don't look like a knife wound to me. Right over his
heart." He stood up straight again and everyone backed away to give
the big man some room. "Cain't be certain. I reckon the coroner
will tell us when he gets here."

Evelyn's mind was reeling. Stabbed. Becky had
mentioned it but at the time no one should have thought it was
anything other than being burned to death. She caught herself and
rested on a calmer thought. Becky had just mentioned a way of being
killed. She didn't
know
that was what happened; it was just
something that popped into her mind. She forced her own mind to
accept it was a reasonable conclusion to believe someone was
stabbed if a conversation about someone dying was overheard.

"Anyway, let's all get out of here," Bernie
said. "We cain't do nothin' for him and the way this floor is
saggin' I'm scared we're all gonna fall right through any
minute."

"You all go ahead," Steve said. "I wanted to
look for an old book up here, anyway." They all started to leave.
"Oh, Miss Crone, Evelyn, can you stay for a moment and give me a
hand?"

She shrugged. "Yes, I suppose so," she said.

He looked over her shoulder and remained silent
until he watched the last of the group go down the stairs. "Sorry,
I didn't want the others to know about this." He spoke softly so
that only she could here. "Follow me." He stepped over the body and
walked a few steps down the hall. She decided to follow without an
argument. "Take a look at this." He shined his light on a small
area on the floor that had some sort of design scratched into it.
"By the way, I looked you up on the internet," he said. "You posted
a lot of private information about yourself."

"What?" she said.

"Not on any newer accounts, but I found a blog
you had when you were a teenager," he said.

"Oh," she said. She thought for a moment. "Oh
shit!" She ran her fingers through her long red hair and winced.
"That was a long time ago," she said. "I wasn't the happiest girl
in the world."

"I'm not judging you," he said. "So, you were a
witch. I was a comic book geek in high school. Witchcraft,
whatever, doesn't matter to me what you choose to believe."

"Well, it was just a phase," she said. "I
stopped believing in that stuff a long time ago."

"Maybe you shouldn't have," he said. He knelt
down and ran his fingers over the scratches. "You can't make them
out in this light, but feel this."

She knelt down beside him, careful to keep her
skirt modestly tucked between her legs. "Feels like writing."

He grabbed her hand. "Start here and move to the
right. Feel the letters."

She tried again. "Oh, okay, I can feel them,
now. S U S A N..." She jerked her hand back. "Yeah, okay, you're
trying to tell me Susan scratched this in the floor. How many
Susan's are there at this school this year, let alone over the past
years."

He grabbed her hand again. "The next name."

"B E C K..." She jumped up. "No!" She shook her
head. "You did this earlier."

He stood up. "Believe what you want to believe,"
he said. "I've shown you something important. It's up to you if you
accept it or not."

"All of the names are there?"

He nodded. "Now, did they do it, or did Charlie
do it before he died?" He chuckled. "Were they signing their work
or was ole' Charlie naming his murderers?"

"You've got one hell of an imagination," Evelyn
said. "I'll give you that. You should write horror novels." She
stepped back over the corpse and headed toward the stairs.

"You know something is wrong, right?" he
said.

She stopped but didn't turn around. "I..."

"This whole fucking town is screwed up," he
said. "And there's nothing either of us can do to fix it. I tried
once, but it cost me my little boy, too." He caught up with her and
turned her around. "I was new here, once, too," he said. "I
believed I could change things, fix things. But I couldn't. Neither
can you. My boy died when the other boys died. Got strangled on
candy."

She turned back around and started walking
again, but stopped. "Why are you telling me these things now? Why
do you hate my girls so much when you know they had nothing to do
with the accident?"

"You don't get it, do you?" he said. "It's not
just your girls, it's everyone. They seem okay, nice enough, right?
I'll tell you something. Charlie was the most normal of the
bunch."

"You're telling me everyone in this town is
somehow evil?" She turned to face him. "How can an educated man
believe that?"

He smiled. "Because they are," he said. "Not on
purpose, maybe, not even maliciously evil, but evil still the
same."

"My girls, they'll be blamed for this."

"No," he said. "No one is brave enough to blame
them. I think they have the power to control everyone else, or at
least threaten them someway. Except maybe your past protects
you
some way, makes you more resistant than everyone
else."

She shook her head and snickered. "You tell a
good story, Steve," she said. "But I stopped reading horror stories
when I auctioned off my black dresses online. Charlie killed
himself. The girls might have scratched that in the floor, but
probably months ago. Or maybe he did it to set my girls up."

He smiled and shrugged. "Believe what you
want."

"I always have."

****

She could see the girls standing outside the
building as she walked across the lawn. The day was not starting
off on a good note: overslept, drizzling rain, and now it looked
like another new problem to face with the girls.

"Miss Crone," one yelled. "They won't let us
in."

"What?!" She walked past them and up to the
entrance. The doors were locked. "Is anyone inside?"

"Yep," Susan said. "Everyone else is in
there."

"We're wet," Betsy said. She tried to smile but
seemed embarrassed that she was one of the girls singled out for
humiliation. "What did we do?"

"Nothing," Evelyn said. She jiggled the door
handle, and then pounded on the door. With no response, she kicked
the door several times. She could see the Principal come out of his
office, glance toward the door, but then quickly walk into Steve's
classroom across the hall. "What the hell is going on!" She kicked
the door again. "Open this god damned door!" She saw the Principal
peep around the door facing and she pointed at him. "Now!"

He seemed to resign himself to facing her, and
slowly walked to the door and unlatched the lock. But he didn't
open the door, he simply cracked it open slightly. "Sorry, you and
your girls are forbidden on school property until the investigation
is over."

"What?" she said. "What are you talking
about?!"

He winked at her several times. "They're saying
Charlie's death was murder," he said. "And they think your girls
had something to do with it. Maybe even
you
told them what
to do since you're a witch."

She was shocked and took several steps back. She
hadn't imagined, even in her wildest dreams, that the possibility
of her being suspected of
any
crime would be possible. "This
is crazy," she said.

"Mister Cross was interviewed last night by the
state police."

"That bastard!" she yelled. "He told them all
his idiotic theories, didn't he?!"

"Steve was arrested," the Principal said.

"What?"

"He confessed, apparently," he said. "He told
them the girls had forced him to kill Charlie."

"Oh my god," Evelyn said. "I..." She couldn't
think of another word to help construct the next sentence. "He's a
psycho!" She turned and walked down the steps. "Girls, come on,
we're going to my house."

They followed her a few feet then all caught up
and walked with her across the field and to the old dormitory
building. "Everyone is staying here until your parents can pick you
up," she said. "So, come on, we've got a few steps to climb." She
tried to smile but her anger was still very apparent.

"Mister Cross wasn't arrested," Susan said.

"What?!" Evelyn squatted down and put her hands
on the girl's shoulders. "What do you mean?"

"He is inside the school," she said. "We all saw
him go in the back way."

She looked around at all the other girls as they
spilled into her living room. "Girls, is that true?"

They all nodded. "He didn't see us 'cause we was
hiding behind the corner," Tiffany said.

"Why were you hiding, sweetie?" She motioned
them all to sit down on the floor, and then she sat down with
them.

"We heard someone talking about Mister Allen
dying and thought they could let us in the back way, but then they
started talking about us, so we hid," Betsy said. "Mister Cross is
not a good person."

She pulled a piece of paper from her coffee
table and then took out her cell phone from her skirt pocket and
dialed a number. She held her finger to her lips, motioning the
girls to stay quiet. "Oh, yes, Sheriff Combs, this is Evelyn Crone,
the new teacher at Ceres Elementary." She listened for a moment.
"I'm okay, thanks. Listen, there is a rumor that Steve Cross was
arrested." She frowned. "Really? No, just a rumor I heard. About
Charlie Allen's death... oh, okay. What? No. Well, nothing I can
figure out yet. Thank you. Good bye." She put the phone down.

"Well?" Susan said.

"He laughed at me when I asked if Cross had been
arrested," she said. "'Hell no, why would I do that? I just had
dinner with him and his little daughter last night'." She stood up
and paced back and forth, looked out the window at the school, then
paced some more. "Allen's death was ruled a suicide," she said.
"They found a knife behind his body with his fingerprints on it."
She shrugged. "The sheriff seems like a nice enough guy."

"He's my daddy," Karen said.

"What?" Evelyn said. "Your father?"

She nodded.

"Well, that helps, right?" she said. "We know
he's on our side." She looked back out the window. "But those
bastards over there..." She stepped back. "Oh my god!" she yelled.
"The school's on fire!" She quickly punched in 911 on her phone.
"Yes, there's more smoke, now. But no one is coming out!" She hung
up and called the sheriff back. "Sheriff! The school's on fire! No,
no, she's here with me! They wouldn't let us in the building this
morning, so all of my girls are at my house! Yes, please hurry!"
She opened her door and ran down the steps, then across the field.
"Fire! The school is on fire!" She continued to yell but no one
came to the door, no one came out. There was no alarm ringing, but
there were obvious flames shooting out of the second floor windows
now.

The girls had caught up with her as she stood
back from the building, the whole structure too hot now to safely
approach. There was the sound of a distant siren, getting closer,
and as the fire truck pulled in front of the school, the roof
collapsed. A million cinders flew into the air, and the hole
allowed a plume of dark smoke to escape, filling the air and rising
quickly.

"Holy shit!" one fireman said as he got out of
the truck. "My sweet lord!" He grabbed the radio microphone from
his shoulder. "This is bad!" he said, practically in tears. "Ya
gotta call everyone, all the stations around here, they gotta help
us. Please, god, they gotta help us!"

The sheriff's car pulled in and as he got out of
the car, Karen ran to him and he lifted her up in his arms then sat
her down and pulled her close to his side. Another car stopped, and
then more cars pulled in. Nosy onlookers, parents, most of them
were screaming and crying, begging anyone they could grab to do
something.

The pumper truck was spraying water on the
doors, cooling the area down and another fireman ran up and kicked
them several times, until finally the lock surrendered and they
opened. The men with the hose directed the water inside the
building, apparently trying to make a path for anyone alive inside
to escape. But there were no children coming out, nothing, until a
lone figure, back-lighted by flames, appeared, and then walked
slowly through the doorway. It was Steve Cross holding a young
girl. And as everyone watched the surreal scene, wondering what
would happen next, he put a large handgun to her head and pulled
the trigger.

As quickly as it happened, he swung his arm
around and pointed the gun directly at Evelyn, but before he could
pull the trigger again, the sheriff had fired five rounds, all
landing in the middle of his chest. He stood for a moment and
seemed to smile, and then dropped to his knees, toppled forward,
and covered the dead child at his feet. His legs were twitching and
something inside Evelyn hoped he was still alive enough to feel the
pain.

As another fire truck pulled in, the building
shook and the sides began to wobble. Karen pulled away from her
father's hand and joined the other girls, and then suddenly, they
all ran inside.

"Girls!" Evelyn shouted. "Don't!" She ran after
them and before she even realized what was happening, she was
standing in the hallway watching the girls. They ran down the hall,
flames and falling pieces of wood all around them. Two girls
stopped at each classroom door, and as the last girls stopped at
the final doorway, they all held out their hands and with an
enormous blast of what appeared to be wind, the doors were blown
open. Just as quickly, children began running out. Evelyn's girls
stood in the hall, pointing the other girls in the right direction
as they began running past Evelyn and out of the building. She
could hear cheers coming from outside, and then watched as the last
of the classrooms emptied, the teachers the last to dart out and
toward her. The sheriff had caught up with her and was yelling for
her and her girls to get out of the building, but instead, all of
them, including his daughter, formed a ring in the hallway, all
holding hands. They seemed to be preparing to die.