Snared

9

The next morning.

“Are you okay?” Lindsay asked through the open window. She hadn’t even waited for Mark’s invitation to open it. She had to speak to him.

“What are you doing here?” Mark whispered, his voice breaking with anxiety. “Doug and Jack are in the next room.”

“You have to let me call someone for you. This isn’t right.”

“Lindsay, you can’t get involved in this. I told you. Go home. We’ll talk if they leave again.”

“If?”

“Something happened last night. I’m not even sure what, but they’re on red alert out there.”

“I know,” Lindsay said. “I saw it. Look, take this.” She handed Mark her cell phone. “Hide it under the bed or something. I programmed my number into the first speed dial. I’ll have my Treo. I can use that. You can call me anytime or call for help if you need to.”

“I can’t take this,” Mark said, lifting the device toward the window.

But Lindsay wouldn’t take it. “You have to,” she told him. “I want to know you’re okay.”

Lindsay sat in the kitchen, staring at her coffee. Her PDA rested on the table in front of her. When her dad came in and said “You’re up early,” Lindsay muttered “Couldn’t sleep.” Her dad bent over and kissed her forehead, stroked her hair, then went to the coffeepot.

“Your mom will be down in a minute.”

“Okay.”

She watched her dad pouring milk into his coffee mug. Last night at dinner his face had been red from a day in the sun, but now it was brown, and he looked more like a bear than ever.

“What are your plans for today?” he asked. “Your new friends dragging you off again?”

“I don’t think so.” She hoped she never saw those creeps again.

“You’re welcome to join us on the beach if you want. That is, if you won’t be too embarrassed being seen with your parents?”

“Of course I’ll be embarrassed,” Lindsay said, trying to make a joke. Her heart wasn’t in it, and it came off dry and nasty. So she added “How could I NOT be?” This time she put in enough flare to her voice to get the playfulness across.

Her dad chuckled, but it was a courtesy laugh at best. “You okay, honey?”

No, she thought. “Fine,” she said. “Just a little tired.”

“Well, some sun will do you good.”

Such simple answers to everything, Lindsay thought. According to her dad, a little sun, some sea air, and a piece of pie were all anyone needed to cope with anything. The world could be crumbling down, and he’d be there handing out beach towels and slices of Dutch apple to everyone, telling them not to panic.

What was she going to do? What could she do?

Nothing, a small voice said to her. You can’t do a damn thing.

She rarely listened to this annoying voice. It was a downer, a shot of pessimism she just didn’t need. For most of her life, she’d been able to fix things. Fixed them for herself. Fixed them for her friends. Even helped her parents every now and then. Why couldn’t she fix this? Why wasn’t there a simple answer? A plan to follow? Something?

After an hour on the beach, Lindsay decided to get something to drink and get out of the sun for a while. So she sat in the shade of her uncle’s porch, sipping an iced tea. She could still see her parents, who were closer to the water. Her dad’s belly rose and fell steadily as he napped with a baseball cap over his face. Her mom lay on her stomach, reading a paperback. The light trill of her Treo brought Lindsay out of her revery. She fumbled with the PDA and finally answered.

“Hey,” Mark said, his voice quiet and sounding very far away.

“Hey.”

“Can you hear me?”

“Sure,” Lindsay replied.

“I have to be quiet. Doug went out for a while, but Jack’s napping in the next room. I can hear him snoring. Sounds like a hog with asthma.”

Lindsay laughed and threw a look at the porch of the neighboring house.

“So what are you doing?” Mark asked.

“Sitting on the porch, having some tea.”

“Not out with Barbie?”

“After last night…I don’t think so.”

There was a brief silence on the line. “What happened last night?”

“You don’t know?”

“Lindsay, I haven’t been out of the house in a week. I’m a little out of the loop.”

So she told him about seeing Ev between their houses, how she was sneaking up to his window. How she totally freaked at what she saw.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Mark said. “I was in the living room, watching TV, when Doug and Jack went charging through like a couple of startled water buffalo. I didn’t know what was going on, but the cops showed up in the middle of the night and really made a stink.”

“The police were there?”

“Yeah. I thought Jack and Doug called them. I figured they caught someone trying to break in. I didn’t know.”

Lindsay felt awkward saying what she was about to say, but she had to. “I thought Ev might have seen them…you know…hurting you or something. She really looked scared.”

“No. Nothing like that. They did send me back to my room though, like I was the one that did something wrong.”

“What do you think she saw?” Lindsay asked.

“Don’t know. Jack and Doug have done some really weird stuff. They perform these rituals sometimes. I don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish, but it can be pretty creepy to watch.”

“Rituals?”

“Yeah. They’re both totally into the occult. I’ve never seen them sacrifice a goat or anything, but they take it seriously. Like I said, some of that junk is just full-on creepy.”

Suddenly Lindsay thought about the burner with the dreadlocks. He’d been on that side of the house, moving close to Mark’s window. What if he’d seen the same thing as Ev?

They’re real! God protect us. They’re real.

“But why were they doing it in your room?”

“I don’t know,” Mark said. “But I’m kind of freaked out now. I mean, especially if your friend was all psych ward over it.”

Lindsay didn’t know what to say. The occult? She remembered the tattoos on Jack’s back. Were they magic symbols? Some cult pattern?

“You know, Lindsay, it might be better if you took this phone back. If they find it on me, you could get into some real trouble, and I don’t want that. Things have always been weird around here, but it feels like something is going to happen soon, something bad, and I don’t want you to be hung up in it.”

“No,” Lindsay said. “You keep it. You might need it.” “I don’t think it will help, but I do like chatting with you.”

“Me, too.”