Eldritch

Chapter 5

Lisa flings her schoolbag down as she pulls the door closed. 'Mom? I'm home.'

She follows the hum of the television down low and sighs at the sight before her. Her mother slumped in her chair, her face rested on one hand, drool dripping down her chin. She clutches an empty lager bottle. Sprawled at her feet are the remaining five bottles from the pack she had bought the previous day, all strewn carelessly along the rug.

'Come on Mom,' she sighs. 'Time to get you cleaned up.'

Lisa places her hands to her mother's underarms and gently pulls her to sit upright. She grabs a tissue from the bathroom, dabs around her mother's mouth and scoops the empty bottles from the floor. When they are disposed of, she grabs her again, hauls her off the sofa and drags her towards her bedroom.

----

Charlene, Daniel, Sean, Ella and Martin hang out in Starryton Bowl. Ella rests her head on Sean's lap, Charlene burying her face in Daniel's chest as Martin steps forward with the bowling ball in his hand, takes a pause, retracts his arm and swings it forward. The ball rolls down the lane and knocks into one of the pins. Like a domino effect, most of the other pins fall to the smack of the ball, leaving Martin at a modest starting score of seven. He smiles to himself as he rejoins the others.

Charlene smiles weakly. 'If Abi was here,' she teases. 'She'd kick your ass.'

Martin's smile drops and he abruptly heads in the direction of the male washroom while Charlene stands to take her turn. As he places his hand to the door, he feels a hand press down on his shoulder. Daniel faces him, and eyes his friend with concern. 'You thinking about--'

'Yeah,' he swallows. 'I just don't know how to act normally around Charlene. She's my cousin and it's too hard to keep this from her.'

Daniel nods in silent understanding. 'I know,' he replies. 'I know how you feel. I hate lying to her too, and everybody else. But, not only did we make the pact, but there were rules to whatever this fucking game was, and it said if we break them, we'll be eliminated. Whatever this is, it killed Abi when we said we wanted her to leave us alone, so I don't even want to imagine what will happen to us if we tell anybody about it.'

Martin nods. 'I know, but it's killing me, what I did. I hate myself for it.'

'So do I. But you need to keep it to yourself,' he replies. 'Because, we can't draw any attention to ourselves, okay?'

He bites his lip. 'Okay?' Daniel repeats.

'Okay,' he swallows, his shaky voice displaying all the guilt he's finding it hard to push aside.

----

Daniel bounds up the steps to his home and bustles inside. 'Daniel?' Marissa calls.

'Yeah, Mom,' he says, following the trail of her voice to the kitchen.

She turns to face him. 'Annie Caulfield dropped by today.'

Annie Caulfield? he thinks. Who's Annie Caulfield?

The name sounds vaguely familiar to him, and he knows it's one he should recognise straight away. As he wracks his brain for everyone he knows from around Starryton, Marissa continues and the penny drops. 'She was telling me all about Friday night.'

Kooky A, he thinks to himself. Shit. She told my Mom about Friday night. I'm in trouble.

'Mom,' he gulps. 'I was just--'

'Being the kind hearted, lovely boy I brought you up to be,' she smiles. 'It was so nice of you to drive her home when you saw her straggling along the road on her own.'

He releases a sigh of relief. Kooky A didn't drop him in it, at least, not yet. Why, he doesn't know. But, he's glad of it. 'Oh, yeah, I guess, I just--'

'She stopped by to leave this for you, as a little thank you. I thought it was really sweet of her.'

Marissa reaches out to him, a card in her hand. He takes it from her and makes it up to his bedroom. He draws the card from its envelope and goes about reading the message inside.

You played the game, boy, it reads. Now, it's going to play you and history will repeat itself.

He doesn't exactly know how to interpret the message, but it's definitely sending bad vibes his way.