Chương 7: | Mysteries Unveiled
Ava turned off the bath taps. The bathroom was filled with steam. The water pipes hissed like a nest of vipers.
She dipped her foot in the scalding water and felt the heat bite into her skin. With a soft whimper, she plunged in first one leg, then the other, and stood there in the overflowing tub, trembling.
She bit her lip and screwed up her eyes. The hairs on her arms were standing up with the shock of it. Slowly, soundlessly, she crouched and sank through the acid burn of the steaming water's surface. Finally, a choked gasp escaped her.
The pain was excruciating, the water like fire.
Purifying fire.
She needed to feel clean.
'Remember Mark,' her father had said.
Like she could ever, ever forget.
His pale face. Blue eyes were wide and fearful. Clammy hands grasped for hers.
Ava wished she could dissolve in the searing water. She couldn't keep the scene from replaying in her mind …
'I love you, Ava,' Mark says, just the way he always does, ever since a few days after they'd met. But his eyes are slightly glazed now, his skin beaded with sweat like he's taken something.
Ava sees the ugly wound on his neck, the bruised and puckered skin around it, and feels tears building. 'I told you never to come here, I told you … '
'Couldn't keep away.' He smiles goofily.
'We said we'd wait! Wait till I finished school, till I—'
'Oh, baby, all that time apart … You know I'm smitten.' He giggles suddenly. 'Smitten and bitten now … just think what we'll be able to do together … '
Ava couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'So now you know what my family is – and you're OK with it? You want this?'
Mark glances behind to where Marcie stands watching, a crafty shine in her eyes. Then he turns back to Ava, and nods. 'I'm glad your mother bit me,' he drawls. 'C'mon, Ava. Say you'll do it. For me – for us … ' He tries to pull her to him.
Ava shrugs him away, her heart breaking. She can't let him touch her. 'You don't know what you're saying.'
She turns to Marcie. 'I'll never forgive you for this.'
Marcie smiles coldly. 'Blessed be the bite. It's a natural high, sweetheart if the spirit is willing.'
Mark clumsily reaches for Ava again. 'I'm still your Mark, baby,' he protests.
'No!' Ava shakes her head fiercely. 'No, you're not. You're one of them now. And if I give myself to you, I'll be like them too.'
Mark turns to Marcie. 'She'll come round, in time. I know she will. We love each other.'
Ava feels a knife twist in her guts. She dashes away her tears and then turns to her mother. 'No way am I playing this sick game of yours. Not now, not ever. I'm not going to let you rule my life!'
A tight-lipped smile appears on Marcie's face. 'Is that a fact? Such a shame. I thought if I turned someone you cared about, you'd be willing to make the sacrifice.'
'I'm not sacrificing myself for your sick little dreams.'
Marcie shakes her head. 'You're not going to change your mind, are you, Ava? All you care about is yourself.' She looks at Mark. 'Sorry, honey. I hoped this would work out. But I guess she just doesn't think you're The One, after all.'
Ava, feeling the slow burn of betrayal, shrinks from them both in disgust. Then her breath catches in her throat as Marcie suddenly drops to all fours.
Marcie licks her lips. 'But hey, Mark, d'you know what I think you are? I think you're dinner.'
'No!' Ava shrieks. 'You wouldn't—'
The change comes easily to Marcie. A thick stream of drool floods from her mouth as she readies herself to jump. 'I think your prissy, stuck-up bitch of a girlfriend needs a lesson teaching,' she snarls, arching her back. 'She does things my way – or not at all.'
Mark stands there, frozen in shock.
Ava runs for him, to give him whatever protection her skinny body will allow.
Too late.
Ava sat straight up in the steaming bath. The tears poured down her face. She splashed the stinging water against her cheeks and rubbed it into her eyes.
It was no good. She would never be clean.
She rose unsteadily and got out of the bath.
She'd sworn then that no one else would die because of her, that she'd go along with whatever Marcie wanted. But she knew with a sick certainty, deep down, that when it came to it, she would never be able to give herself. And that by kidding herself all this time that she could play along, Jack River might go the same way as Mark. And what would she do then?
She toweled her burning body dry, slipped on a robe, and went to her room. The tea-light candles burning around Mark's student card had gone out.
Ava knew she had to stop Marcie from harming Jack any further. Before it was too late.
*****
Jack was feeling more alive than he'd ever imagined possible. His heightened senses earlier that evening hadn't been a hallucination. They were back, crowding through his head. And he was learning to control them: if he stopped and concentrated, the mundane workings of the world about him became so intense he could barely stand it. If his mind wandered, his voracious senses slunk back into sleep, and everything seemed normal.
As normal as they could get in this house.
Like thirty minutes ago. He'd heard Ava's door opening and her soft footsteps coming out into the hallway. Then …
'What's in the folder?' Marcie had asked. She must have been passing Ava's door at the time.
Ava had been irritated, and defensive. 'It's nothing. Puzzles and stuff. I thought he might be bored. I'm just trying to make the effort like you want me to.'
'That's sweet, but you heard the boy,' Marcie said softly. 'He wants to rest up. And I think you've said enough to him today, don't you?'
'Forget it.' Ava had gone back inside her room and slammed the door.
'You're not to go to his room,' Marcie hissed. 'I'll be watching.'
Nuts. Everyone here was nuts. He heard Hal and Wes arguing now. We wanted to go out into the woods.
'For Chrissakes, no one is going out tonight!' Hal yelled. 'There's meat in the freezer. We don't know when the boy's going to … '
The words were suddenly lost in the lo-fi thud and blare of some pretty hardcore-sounding hip-hop. Jack smiled grudgingly. Nicely played, Wes. If you can't leave the house, make it tough on everyone else stuck inside.
Jack reached a decision. With the blaring music covering his tracks, he could take a look around. Maybe look in on Ava, and ask her what the hell was going on here. Or at least apologize for being such an utter doofus downstairs.
He crept stealthily along the corridor – then froze as he heard footsteps descending the stairs. Marcie. She must've meant it about watching Ava. So why give up now? A second later, the sound of the shower gurgling into life gave him his answer; Jack doubted that a soaking wet Ava was about to come running into his room with a soggy pile of puzzles.
He turned the corner. Ava's bedroom door was ajar, so he stepped inside.
His eyes adjusted surprisingly quickly to the dim candlelight. A red folder sat by the pillow. He opened it up and found it stuffed with newspaper clippings. Even a cursory glance gave him the gist of it: a spate of missing persons and violent murders in Twin Falls, Idaho. The last one has dated three years ago. About the time the family moved away, Wes had told him.
He suddenly got the creepy feeling he was being watched. But turning round, the only eyes on him were those of Mystery Mark looking out sightlessly from his student card through the flames of fresh candles.
Jack closed the folder, a chill shivering down his spine. As he did so he noticed a note scrawled on a yellow sticky on the back of the file.
Pull back the sheet
Get rid of it
With an uneasy feeling, he pushed Ava's pillow and quilt to one side, then paused. Did he want to do this? He could smell traces of her scent on the bedding. Such a good smell …
Jack's face grew hot with embarrassment. Great. He was sniffing around the girls' bedrooms. Maybe he should go through her underwear next.
Holding his breath, with a sharp yank Jack tugged a corner of the pristine white sheet away.
There was nothing there. Just a pink patterned mattress.
Jack put things back just as he found them and left the room. But as he arrived back at his own, there was the quiet crack of a pebble at the window.
Jack sat up, senses alert again.
Something hit the wall below the window with a thud.
He leaped out of bed and crossed to see what was going on.
Beyond the jutting lip of the porch roof beneath him, Jack caught a fleeting glimpse of Ava, ducking from sight. But the shower was still running! How'd she got out there? He opened the window and craned his neck round to see if he could catch sight of her again. But what he saw made him break out in a cold sweat.
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