Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers (40 page)

“Relieved?” Regina cried, her face still locked stiffly in Barron’s grip.

“She was always around, your best friend. We hardly ever had any time away from her for just us,” Barron explained tenderly. “You went to the movies together; she stayed over at your house EVERY weekend and, quite frankly, I was tired of always being second. You gave her
my
necklace!” He spat.

“But why did you do it? Why did you have to go back.” Natalie asked.

“I knew you girls; well, I thought I knew you. You were soft. I figured one of you would be leading the police to the body before sunlight. So I got rid of her once and for all; that way, you couldn’t find her even if you
wanted
to. The police and everyone else would just think you guys were nuts. I mean, with no body and all how much could really be proven? Besides, that hiding place was amateur at best, someone would have found her before the week was up and, sooner or later, Sheriff Handow and his band of idiots would have put it together and Regina, they would have taken you away from me. I wouldn’t let her keep coming between us even in death. I buried her on the DeFrank estate because I knew that no one would search for her there and even if they did find her there, well even better, everyone already knew that DeFrank was weird so he would take the fall. But I must admit it was sheer luck considering
I had no idea that he had been banging you girls only a couple of years before. When Regina, here, told me that…it all made sense. For years, I wondered how you girls were able to keep such an awful secret for so long, but now I realize that it was because you all have been keeping dark secrets together for a long time, haven’t you?” Barron asked accusingly.

“The secret keepers,” he whispered seductively in Regina’s ear. Regina struggled to get away from him, but he jerked her body hard and she fell back into submission.

“Why did you have to cut her up?” Natalie asked.

“Logistics” Barron responded casually. “I had to move her and I had to keep her in my car until I decided what to do with her and I couldn’t just haul a dead body wrapped in a blanket, which is where the garbage bags came in. It was just easier that way.”

Fighting the tears was impossible now and her cries began exploding in short powerful sobs. This was a man that she thought that she could love, but he had been betraying her from the very beginning.

Surges of adrenaline began pulsing through Regina’s body and her tolerance for listening to Barron’s psychotic babbling was thinning. In a wave of adrenaline-fueled power, she used all of her weight to heave her body backward into Barron. He lost his balance and almost stumbled into the mouth of the fireplace whose gaping jaws were only too ready to consume him. He yelled in surprise feeling the heat singe his back. The knife clattered to the floor and sailed across the room when Barron decided to use the knife-wielding hand to grip the fireplace and keep him from toppling into the hungry flames. His other hand was forced to release Regina’s neck, but not before violently driving her head into the hard stones on the side of the fireplace. Regina crumbled to the floor clutching her forehead in a useless effort to control the pain that splintered her head. Her senses blurred, blood ran into her eye, and hearing and seeing became a chore.

Natalie hopped upon Barron, clawing, scratching, and screaming in a reflexive attack, causing them both to go sailing to the damaged marble floor. Regina rolled around doing her best
to string together bits of consciousness in a way that made sense. Barron gripped Natalie by her hair tightly and attempted to position his other hand around her throat, but the struggle was too fierce for him to gain any type of advantage. Again he tried to get his hand around her neck, which placed the web of his hand directly in front of Natalie’s mouth and she bit into him like a venomous reptile. Barron wailed in agony. He released the hand that he had entangled in her hair and began punching her in the side of her head until she could no longer withstand the blows. Natalie released his hand from her blood soaked mouth and pulled away from the crazed lunatic.

Regina began to pull herself from the floor, but before either of the girls could make another move he slid across the floor, reached under the couch and yanked out a long black shotgun and before anyone could react a ferocious blast convulsed the room. Regina fell helplessly back to the floor, her body was beginning to numb.

Once the room felt still again Regina took her hands from her ears and patted her entire body searching for the wound, the blood, the soft hanging flesh that would have been exposed by the gunshot. Regina soon found the wound, the blood, the soft hanging flesh, but it was not on her body, it was Natalie who had been wounded. Natalie sat up against the wall, taking sharp and ragged breaths. Regina scrambled across the floor and took Natalie’s hand.

“Natalie,” she cried as she wiped Natalie’s blood splattered bangs from her lifeless face with the gentility of a mother. Natalie wheezed and her eyes stared blankly into open space. Regina looked down, but promptly looked away when she realized that she could see the wall through the enormous hole in Natalie’s torso. There was no hope of saving her. Regina knew that it was impossible, but she would not leave Natalie until she was sure that her friend was gone, she would not let her die alone.

“Natalie, everything will be OK, I promise.” Regina was not sure if Natalie could hear her in these last few seconds that she still managed to take in air somehow. Regina looked into her eyes
and she knew what Natalie was thinking as she sat there, her body dying, her soul preparing for the next place. Both girls thought of Lola. The guilt that Natalie felt over Lola riddled her and she was relieved that it was over and that she would get, with the ceasing of her own life, to face the girl whose life she had taken years ago. Regina was terrified. Regina doubted herself and wondered if Natalie was not thinking any of those things, if she had no brain capacity anymore to think of anything and Regina was just speaking of what she saw of herself in the reflection of Natalie’s blank eyes.

Regina hadn’t noticed that Barron was standing over them once again as Natalie took in her last labored breath. The shotgun rang out again and Natalie’s face came apart before Regina’s eyes and her vision was all but taken away with a wash of Natalie’s blood as it sprayed her face. Incessant ringing penetrated Regina’s ears as she grabbed them again and threw herself to the floor and as far away from the blast as possible.

Regina knew it was over now and she was happy that this miserable life was finally going to end. Barron knelt over Regina and began speaking. His voice was far away and there was a delay from the time that he spoke until she could actually hear the words that were coming through the wind tunnel of the time and space that was between them.

“You always did care more for them than me when I was the one who tried to give you everything. I tried everything. I was always good to you. I took care of Lola’s body for you. And I thought this would be our opportunity to start something again, but you couldn’t just come back and go the funeral, right? You just had to
figure
everything out, didn’t you? This is all your fault, Regina. None of this had to happen. But you came here and the only thing you were focused on was Lola, then you blame my brother!” He spit. “You have got to be the most selfish person I’ve ever known. Well, where are your friends now, Regina? Where are they now?” he asked with a smirk.

Barron’s face twisted in a devilish grin that she had never seen before.

“It’s just you and me.” Barron’s demonic grin deformed as his jaw twisted furiously and he released a strained sob. He released his tight grip on the shotgun, which began to hang from his hand. He groaned again and Regina could see the blood began to bubble out of his mouth.

“… and me.” The sound of Nikki’s voice felt warm and blanketed Regina. Barron slumped helplessly onto Regina and his weight was tremendous on her small chest.

Nikki rose behind him, she was lifted on her knees but delivering the two stab wounds to Barron’s body robbed her of what little strength she had gathered and she let her body sink back into the floor. Regina heaved Barron’s massive body off her. She got to her knees and rolled him onto his back to see if he was still alive. His dark brown eyes peered into hers.

“Barron,” Regina spoke his name sweetly. “Please…I need to know if she was alive.” Regina said. In his barely lucid state, Barron did not immediately understand her question, but once he did his eyes danced in delight. There was something that she desperately needed from him and he knew that this was the way that he would hold on to her forever. Regina cradled his head between her palms and he smiled cunningly.

“That’s my secret.” He spoke his last words through blood painted teeth.

Regina cried as she laid her head on his stomach. Choking on his own blood, Barron gargled, blew bubbles and then he was dead with the sadistic smirk still lathered on his face.

It was the same lock that kept the truth in that wouldn’t let the demons out.

When there was nothing more to be done, Regina lifted herself from the floor, found the necklace and clasped it around her neck. Nikki was more lucid, but still weak when Regina lifted her off the floor. Neither of them looked at what was left of Natalie’s body as they dragged out of the living room. Regina leaned Nikki against the wall as she labored to unlock the front door. She gathered her friend up once again and they stepped out into the starry tranquil night. The atmosphere was misty from the storm and the
fresh air made them feel clean and new. The hood of her father’s car was open and frayed wires hung pathetically out the sides. She made no attempt at the dead car and instead continued to walk along the drive toward the highway with the moon lighting the path. Before that day, Regina would have been frightened on a foreboding night like this, but now there was no reason. All of the ghosts were dead.

“Would you have really killed Natalie?” Nikki inquired sleepily.

“I don’t know.” Regina responded listlessly.

“Did you really think that she had done it?”

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything at the time.” Regina answered.

“Do you think that Lola was dead?” Nikki asked. Regina stopped walking for a brief second to ponder the question and then began moving again just as quickly.

“I don’t know.”

There were no more questions until they were out of the gates and limping along the edge of the highway.

“What’s gonna to happen to us?” Nikki asked.

Regina became still when a chilling wind swept over her. She turned back and there flashed a glimpse of Lola, not a dead rotting corpse, but the funny sixteen-year-old girl that they had all loved and Regina prayed that the Rushers’ porch light was burning bright tonight. Warmth filled Regina’s chest as she said a silent good-bye to the girl before turning on the place that she would never lay eyes on again.

Regina turned to Nikki. “All we know right now is that Barron brought us to this house, he killed Eden …”

“He killed Eden too?” Nikki interrupted her. Regina sighed, feeling bad for Nikki who had still not yet realized that she had been hidden under Eden’s corpse.

“Yes, he killed Eden. He killed Natalie and tried to kill us and that is what we will tell the police for now. I just want to go to Lola’s funeral. After that we will go to Sheriff Handow and tell him everything, OK?” Regina explained.

“OK,” Nikki said as her frightened eyes filled with tears.

Regina got a new and better grip around her friend’s waist and they continued silently down the highway. Soon, they heard the wail of sirens approaching and the sight of the flashing red lights were next. Regina smiled; she was sure that her parents had come home and found her note. She deposited Nikki along the side of the highway and stepped into the road waiving her hands over her head in a calm signaling for help. The first police car sped by her causing her to venture farther into the highway so that she would be seen by the next one. The second patrol vehicle flew by her but this time the driver spotted the wandering figure and the tires squealed as the car came to a screeching halt and whipped around.

At the police station, Regina and Nikki told Sheriff Handow how they had been brought to the DeFrank estate that night, how Eden and Natalie had been murdered and how Barron had confessed to killing Lola. In secret Regina and Nikki agreed to go back to Sheriff Handow after the funeral and reveal the story of Lola’s murder in its entirety, which ensured that they could attend the final burial of Lola Rusher without fear of being arrested for it.

The day was bright with the earth colored leaves dressing the branches of the endless landscape of trees that stood protectively over the countless tombstones littered across the cemetery. A night of rain had refreshed the grass and it thrived despite the chill. Wind whipped the faces of each mournfully dressed funeral attendee, but the sun counteracted the minor flaw of the day with its exuberant shine. Nikki and Regina had hardly slept at all after their long night explaining at the police department, not to mention their forced visit to the hospital to be checked despite the objections of both girls. During the hours of questioning, Sheriff Handow appeared to have been genuinely confused by the complicated story that Nikki and Regina recounted at the police station, but when the search of Barron’s home turned up not only the ruby ring that Lola had been wearing the night of her death, but also an axe in his shed that did not appear to have been used recently, but
could have easily been the weapon used to dismember the young girl, his suspicions immediately refocused on the dead man.

Regina touched the green amulet that the Rushers had allowed her to keep. Loving words were spoken over the gleaming casket, but Regina could hardly focus on the eulogy with the dank fragrance of the thick dirt into which Lola was about to descend invading her nose. Regina said her own prayer for her friend. She took Nikki’s hand, which instantly crumbled the tough exterior and Nikki began to sob silently as Regina looked on at the casket without a tear.