It Lives In The Woods

Chapter Six

-2008-

Stacy sat in her empty house, her prom queen campaign posters spread out around her as she crafted and pasted. Her mother and brother were out at dinner, and her father, well there was no telling where he was at any given time, or who he was with. Like an eager child she jumped up to greet her mother at the door. The mayor stumbled in, already drunk off red wine as her son parked the car. "Mom, mom are you drunk? Did Conner drive home?" Stacy asked in shock, looking out the door. Her mom waved her off with a flutter of her wrist, "It's fine." She slurred. "Move these goddamn things Stacy!" She snapped, kicking over a pile of Stacy's posters. The girl's small, skinny body grew rigid. "Mom you're drunk, you should go to bed, you have a press conference in the morning." Stacy grumbled, watching as her brother climbed out of the car, shaking his head at his sister, a sure sign to not bother their mother. When Lauren Grace was in a bad mood her children had learned early on not to cross her lest they end up with busted lips and cracked phone screens. "Mom when's dad going to be home?" Stacy asked, quietly picking up her posters with a set jaw. "I don't know! God you're so annoying, why do you have to ask so many goddamn questions ?!" She snapped, stumbling forwards with a single accusatory finger jabbed in Stacy's face. "Hey, hey mom, she's just asking okay?" Conner said in a soft, soothing voice as he steered his mother towards the stairs. "No she's just bothering me! Stupid bitch." Her mother spat, her eyes turning to knives as she looked back over her shoulder at Stacy. Stacy's fists clenched into fists, her fingernails digging bits of flesh from her palms. "Frienddddd '' The hairs on the back of Stacy's neck stood to attention, the air became charged with energy as the smell of sulfur and dirt filled her nostrils. "Blue?" She whispered, whipping around to find nothing behind her except empty space. Her mother's screams and thuds of her falling down the steps pulled Stacy's attention back to reality. As the ambulance loaded her mother, she found herself daring to wonder, had Blue played a part in this "accident"? And if so, why had he done it?

-2020-

Stacy left the room in a hurry, puking into the trash can outside of the room, her body heaving with fits of dry gags. "I-I've gotta leave, I'm sorry." She mumbled, wiping her mouth before turning away from her friends, and rushing out the door. Andy held the bridge of his nose, sighing, a tired look surfacing in his brown eyes. "I promised Paul I'd take him to school." He said, checking his watch with a flourish of his wrist. Bee looked back in the hospital room where Jamie now rested peacefully, where Lily still held a crying Ava in the floor, Tanner backed into a corner, and Noah, Noah with Norah's eyes, she felt suffocated by all of it, suffocated by the very thought of staying in that godforsaken room with all those negative emotions. "Can I come?" She blurted, turning her bleary eyes upwards. Andy frowned in shock and looked at his watch again, metal leg squeaking slightly under his pressure. "Uh yeah, yeah of course! I'm sure Paul would love to see you, you always were his favorite. We can get some breakfast after I drop him off, come on." Bee looked back to see Noah watching them with bitter eyes, before turning his head away in solitude.

***

They rode in comfortable silence, Bee picking leaves and sticks from her curly hair in the passenger mirror as Andy drove towards his large family home on the outskirts of town near the lake. "How old is Paul now?" She asked. Paul Cho would always be the runty little brother in her mind, barely 5'7, all black hair and wild rambunctious energy, a walking ADHD case since the day he was born, always crawling up his older brother's body like he was a tree to be climbed and vaulted from. "He just turned sixteen, a sophmore. Just like we were when this all started." Bee smirked slightly, "Well let's hope his experience is going better than ours." An awkward silence passed between them before they exchanged glances, and burst out into joyous giggles like school children. "Yeah, yeah it definitely is so far at least. He's taken up basketball, he's no good though, don't tell him I said so. Paul should definitely stay at his computer, he's a good techie, he should stay that way." Bee laughed, shaking her head, folding her legs beneath her body, leaning on her elbow, watching Andy drive. "Oh don't be such a pessimist, Paul Cho is just like his big brother, he can do anything." Andy grinned, his cheeks flushing a light pink, though his eyes never left the road. Bee breathed a smile, "Do you remember what everyone used to call you back in school? King Andy. The top of the food chain, King Andy and his weird artsy girlfriend." Bee snorted slightly, remembering all the dirty looks females would give her, walking hand in hand with the king of the school, just another pretty face that got lucky to them, but Bee had always known it was more than that, they had had a connection deep within them since they were kids, just two kids on the playground holding hands on the slide. But that was then, and this was now, and she felt that connection grow cold, he was just another friend to her now. "Can I ask you something Bee?" He asked, pulling into his driveway, putting his truck into park, beeping the horn for his brother. Bee sighed, she just wished men would stop asking her that, nothing good ever came from it. "Sure, I suppose." Andy couldn't hide the hurt in his voice, "Was it Tanner? The person you left me for?" Bee looked over in outright shock, "What?! No, gross no. I love Tanner, but he was too damaged for me, I knew too much about his nasty habits to ever go beyond best friends. I have always been Tanner's protector, that's it, nothing more. I didn't leave you for another man Andy, I just left you." Bee heard the harshness in her own voice and flinched, thankful to see Paul jog out, black hair flopping against his forehead. "Jesus Paul, you've really grown up!" She cried, laughing despite what had just been spoken, Paul's lanky figure towered over Bee as she sat, looking up at him out the window. Paul grinned that Cho family grin and climbed into the backseat, hugging Bee tightly from behind. "Me? What about you Miss Superstar? Glad to see you haven't forgotten the small town city folk here in Crescent Point." Bee shrugged, giving him a smug, sarcastic look. "Well, the Cho brothers are certainly a hard pair to forget." Andy laughed, pulling out and driving towards their old high school. "Hell yeah we are. Paul especially, the way he stalked you for all his life." Paul threw up his hands in mock defense, asian eyes squinting with attitude, "Stalked is a harsh word, I prefer childishly admired from afar, or really really close." They all laughed, and Bee was thankful for the lighter atmosphere, her tense conversation with Andy forgotten. The day she had broken up with him was no picnic, they'd been together for nearly a year, and Norah's funeral was the next day, but she knew she was leaving, and she knew Andy deserved better, so she had broken it off without much of an explanation, and King Andy was left heartbroken. "So how is the old prison Paul? Old Mr. Hardbecker still running the place?" Bee asked as they neared Crescent Point high school. Paul sighed and nodded, "Oh yeah, and he still has it out for me thanks to you and Noah's notorious pranks. The Cho name will forever be associated with the Pierce and Preece reign of chaos." Bee nodded curtly, the yells of her old principal still ringing in her ears, the squeak of Noah's sneakers running through the halls of the school still fresh. "As it should be. The three of us wanted an epic legacy." Paul laughed, leaning forwards over the middle console, his head separating Bee and Andy. "Well you definitely got it. It's been a good year so far, did Andy tell you I made the basketball team?" Bee faked surprise as Andy hid a smile of amusement. "Oh my goodness, no he didn't! Congratulations Paul, hey who knows maybe you'll be able to beat some of your brothers records." She teased casually as Paul flexed his nonexistent muscles. "I'll try, I have a bet running with the captain of the debate team though that I can't read the whole occult section of the library before the school year ends, so I spend an embarrassing amount of time doing that instead of practicing." Bee frowned, tilting her head slightly to look over at him, head reeling, "We have an occult section at the high school library?" Paul laughed and shook his head, "No silly, they just remodeled the public library, they added one, apparently it was in high demand. No wonder with all the creepy ghost stories I've read so far about this region of America." Bee nodded, mind whirring like the cogs in a clock. "Hey Andy, rain check on breakfast?" She asked, taking out her phone.

Hey girls, I have an idea on how to get a leg up on Blue, meet me at the library in 15?

Ava: All of us?

Yeah, come on, it'll be a good uh, bonding experience?

Lily: Sounds like a wonderful plan Bee!

Stacy: I guess it couldn't hurt.

****