Cold Summer Nights (17 page)
Read Cold Summer Nights Online
Authors: Sean Thomas Fisher,Esmeralda Morin
His full pupils stared at her in disbelief, sheer horror dripping from his face. “How did you get in here?” he asked in a panic-stricken whisper.
“I wanted to come see you.”
His heart thundered so loudly in his ears, it sounded like it was coming from inside a carved out jack
o’lantern
. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, refusing to believe anymore of this madness. When he opened them again, she was still there.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
He glanced to the closed cell door. “How did you get in here?”
She followed his gaze and turned back to
him .
“I have my ways.”
Clark’s heavy snoring hitched and then continued its revolving rounds of lazy rumbles.
Rusty’s face twisted into knots. “What ways?”
She took a step closer and he tried scooting back further against the cold wall but it wouldn’t budge.
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” she said softy, taking his hand.
He yanked it back as soon as he felt her cold flesh.
She glanced down to Clark, before returning her watery eyes to him. “I’m sorry about Nick too,” she said with a sniffle. “It’s not your fault. You don’t belong here.” A lone tear rolled down her white cheek.
“How did you get in here?” Rusty asked again.
Clark’s snoring hiccupped, then stopped.
“You deserve the truth,” she sniveled.
His eyebrows pulled together. “What truth?”
“You remember the missing
persons
flier?”
“What about it?”
“I wasn’t running from some abusive guy in the mafia.”
He glared at her, hanging on her every word, certain the fog floating around his brain like a tall mountaintop was about to finally clear with the afternoon sun.
Summer took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, her dark eyes making contact with his. “I was kidnapped while I was out running, by a man whose face I never even saw.” She dropped her soggy gaze and began
wringing
her hands.
Dim light from the hall crept across one side of his befuddled face, his jaw dangling in the stale air.
“He had this…mask,” she said heavily, her eyes going out of focus as she pulled up the memory bank. She looked back up to Rusty. “He made me wear this dress, and then he…tortured me until the next morning.” She blinked her glassy eyes, causing another teardrop to stream down her gaunt face. “I couldn’t get away. I was scared to even try,” she sobbed. “When he finally got bored, he…” She trailed off to swallow. “He stabbed me in the stomach with a hunting knife.”
Rusty frowned in the thunderstruck silence that shook more tears from
Summer’s
eyes. They splattered to the cement floor below. He squinted at her, searching for a voice of reason. She looked down to her hands again and began twisting her bony fingers.
“What?” he gasped.
She nodded. “I’ve…” she said, meeting his eyes again. “I’ve been dead for the past five years now.”
Rusty’s heart plunged off the deep end, his mind desperately trying to hang on for dear life. He closed his eyes and rubbed them with sweaty palms, reality slipping from his finger tips. When he opened them again, she was standing there watching him. “What are you talking about?” he hissed.
Summer took a wavering deep breath as the tears kept coming. “He took everything from me. From my family,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Hey Russ?”
Clark said thickly.
Rusty stared at
Summer
, his chest pumping blood through his temples in pulsating thuds. “Yeah?” he replied, not taking his eyes from her.
“Who you
talkin
to, buddy?”
Clark asked, rolling over onto his back.
Summer held his steady gaze, willfully letting him see deep down into her tortured soul, where he could freely search for fact or fiction. It was cold in there. He shivered, not realizing he could see his own breath again.
So dark and lonely.
Desolate. The kind of place that could drive a person mad with its claustrophobic walls, like
being buried
alive. Anger suddenly flashed past him in a frenzied blur. A rage so venomous it was blinding to look at. He hastily retreated before it was too late, before it could snatch him, trapping him in there with her forever.
“Hello?” Clark said.
Rusty blinked, sucking in big gulps of sour oxygen.
“Yeah?”
Clark chuckled. “You’re not starting to lose it on me already, are
ya
, boss?”
Summer glanced to Clark and looked back up to Rusty. “He can’t see me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Rusty furrowed his brow. “What do you mean he can’t see you?”
“Only you can.”
“Who can’t see who, Russ?” Clark quivered.
“Why only me?”
Summer shrugged. “Only those I want to see me can see me.”
Rusty whipped his blue blankets back and jumped down from the bed. “How is that possible? How is any of this possible?”
Tears slipped over the edge of her eyelids. “I don’t know,” she said, dropping her face into her hands. “I don’t know what’s happening or why.”
“Say, everything okay, boss man?” Clark asked, sitting up.
“You sleepwalking or something?”
Rusty glanced at him. “Do you mind? I’m trying to have a conversation with a dead girl here.”
Clark stared at him and swallowed hard, his eyes darting around the tiny cell. “Dead girl?” he muttered, hesitantly waving his stocky hand through the air. When it passed through
Summer’s
jeans, he didn’t even notice.
Rusty watched him, astonished by what he was seeing. “You don’t see her?”
Clark pulled his hand back and scooted against the wall without responding.
Rusty’s head snapped around to
Summer
. “Let him see you.”
She looked to Clark and then shook her head.
“Why not?”
“There’s no time.”
“What do you mean there’s no time?”
“Did it just get cold in here?” Clark asked faintly, wrapping a blanket around him that didn’t cover much.
“Quiet down in there,” a guard sneered as he strolled past on his late night rounds.
Rusty returned his attention to
Summer
and took a few steps back. “You killed Nick,” he whispered.
She shook her head, her long thin hair jiggling over her face. “No,” she said, tears rolling down her ashen cheeks.
His breath came hard and fast. “You killed Amy too and Nick knew it, and that’s why you killed him.”
“No!” she cried, wiping her face with her hands. “I don’t know what…” She trailed off and took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. “It’s just that sometimes I have these dreams, with this...horrible anger.”
Rusty snorted. “Yeah, probably because you’re a little pissed off that you were murdered!”
Clark jumped at the exclamation, the color draining from his scruffy face. “Oh sweet Jesus, Russ, please don’t murder me. I’m not a bad guy, just give me a chance.”
Rusty ignored him, his eyes still fixed on
Summer
. “The eternally tormented soul, left alone to haunt the Earth until you exact your revenge,” he scowled. “But you can’t control everything. Can you?”
Summer broke her stare with Rusty and rubbed her arms like she was cold. “Sometimes I wake up in strange places, and don’t remember how I got there.”
“Well it wasn’t a cab,” Rusty said curtly. “You’re that…
thing
.”
She shook her head, refusing to believe it. “No!”
“If you’re really dead, then why are you still here? Why aren’t you in Heaven or Hell?”
Summer took a step towards him and opened her mouth, reminding him of a pasty vampire in need of a long drink. He flattened himself against the wall and she stopped, tears consuming her face.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “All I know is I’m stuck and
I’m
scared.”
“You’re scared?” he laughed. “After what you did to all those people, you should be burning in Hell!”
She shook her head, making tears splatter the floor.
“Please don’t kill me, Russ,” Clark said feebly. “I didn’t touch
none
of your stuff. I swear it.”
“Those people had families,” Rusty yelled.
Clark flinched on the narrow bed.
Summer’s eyes grew thin and she took a step closer. “I had a family!”
Rusty watched her start pulling at her hair. “They were good people who didn’t do a damn thing to deserve what happened to them,” he said in a hushed tone.
Her hands covered her mouth. “I know they were, it’s just that...I don’t know,” she sobbed.
“Why didn’t you kill me?”
“I would never kill you, Russ. You’re my
celly
,” Clark said, with a nervous chuckle.
Summer wiped her eyes and swallowed. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
Rusty laughed.
“How?
In case you haven’t been keeping up on your current events, I haven’t been grounded by my
muggle
parents.”
She glanced to the iron bars and turned back to him. “Leave that to me. When this cell door opens, go to your left until you see me.”
His jaw dropped. “What?”
“Just trust me. We can figure everything else out after we get out of here,” she whispered.
Rusty’s mouth fell open as a dark realization slowly slid across his face. “You’re going to kill the guards…”
Insult washed over her face. “What? No!”
“Oh okay, just some of the guards?”
“I’m not going to kill anyone; you just have to trust me. You’re in here because of me and if I can get you out, then that’s what I’m going to do.
That much I can control.”
“And then what?” he snickered. “Am I just supposed to just go back home again? Get a new job at a Footlocker in the mall?”
Summer stepped closer and took his hand. This time he didn’t pull away. “My car is just outside and I have access to more money than you could spend in ten lifetimes,” she whispered.
His brow folded.
“From where?”
She squeezed his hand. “Think about it. I got in here, didn’t I?”
He looked to the iron bars preventing him from leaving. “So what are you saying? You’re a bank robber to boot?”
“I never robbed no bank, Russ,” Clark piped in. “I just killed a few people, but that was an accident.”
Summer and Rusty both looked over to Clark, who was busy keeping a worried eye on Rusty.
She turned back to Rusty and squeezed his hand again. “Do you want out of here or not?”
His gaze drifted from Clark to the drawings of the chickens, to the silver toilet with no lid. He groaned. “You better not be screwing with me. After what you did to my friends…”
“I told you, I didn’t…”
He waved a hand through the air. “Yeah, yeah, you’re alter-psycho-ego did
it.
Good for you! I hope that clears your conscience.”
She took a deep breath and glanced to the bars again. “I’m going to create a diversion. Be ready.”
He threw his hands on his hips and exhaled a tired breath. “You swear you won’t…”
“Don’t worry, no one is going to get hurt,” she cut him off. “I promise. Now, when that gate opens in a few minutes, take a left and keep going. I’ll be waiting for you.”
He opened his mouth to tell her how crazy she was and that the only way he was getting out of this place was inside a body bag. It didn’t matter if she could walk through walls or not, he couldn’t. Not to mention they could see him, whether he wanted them to or not.
He sighed instead, deciding he had nothing to lose at this point. He was already a branded cop killer and no jury was ever going to believe any of this ghost stuff. At best, he’d be lucky to knock off a few months in a county psyche ward before spending the rest of his life behind prison bars.
She flashed a bright white smile at him before turning and walking right through the iron bars.
“Wow,” he mumbled, watching her disappear down the hall to the left.
Clark followed Rusty’s gaze. “If I try to wake you up, are you going to try
an
kill me?”
Rusty slowly turned to him. “I can’t believe you couldn’t see her.”
Clark’s forehead wrinkled. “See who, Russ?”
Rusty shook his head.
“Doesn’t matter, Clark.
What matters is, this gate is going to open up in a few minutes and I’m walking out of here.”
Clark looked to the thick bars and let out a nervous chortle.
“Awe hell.”
“It’s up to you if you want to come along or not.”
Clark scratched his head. “So there was a dead woman in here, and now she’s
gonna
set you free?”
Rusty slowly nodded.
Clark clicked his head to the side and back. “Now, that’s a new one.”
Rusty turned back to the bars.
“I just hope
ya
don’t get too upset if things don’t work out so hot, Russ. A lot of people have trouble adjusting to this lifestyle, believe me I’ve seen it.”
Rusty snorted.
“You
ain’t
seen
nothin
yet.”
Clark arched a bushy eyebrow at him.
Rusty looked at him and narrowed his eyes. “So, how many people did you kill anyway?”
Clark dropped his gaze to his meaty fingers and began cracking his knuckles. “Four kids,” he said softly.
Rusty frowned. “Four kids?”
“It was an accident,” he quickly added, with a couple pops. “I got off work at noon one day after a small warehouse fire and a bunch of us went out to a couple bars for the afternoon. On my way home, I blew a red light and t-boned a Nissan Maxima with four teenagers inside.”
“Oh man,” Rusty whispered. “That’s horrible.”
Clark nodded glumly. “It really was,” he said dully, staring blankly at the wall. “It was my third DUI too, so they locked my ass up and threw away the key.”
Rusty glanced down to his prison issued orange tennis shoes. “That really sucks.”
“For those poor kids and their families it sure did. Wasn’t much better for my wife and kids either.
Kinda
hard to put food on the table for your family when you’re stuck in the clink.”
Rusty thought he saw tears running down Clark’s cheeks but it was hard to tell in the shadows from the low light. If there were, Clark didn’t bother wiping them away.
“If I could go back in time to that day, I’d just go home to my family instead of out to those damn bars. Think about it every single day too. If I could only go back in time,” he said mournfully.
Rusty took a seat in the small desk chair. “How long
ya
been in here?”
Clark rubbed his hands together like he was cold and looked up. “Thirteen years.”
“How much longer do
ya
have?”
“Well,” Clark said with a short laugh. “I’m forty-four now, so however long it takes me to die, hopefully not much longer than another thirty years or so.”
Rusty looked back down to his shoes. “I’m sorry to hear that, Clark. I really am.”
“Me too, Russ.
Me too.”
Rusty glanced out into the hallway, guessing there were a lot of stories spun from the same spool of yarn as Clark’s in this place. Stories about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and wishing you had a time machine to do it all over again.
Stories about burning second and third chances to the ground.
“Well your little ghost-friend sure is taking her sweet paranormal time,” Clark chuckled.
Rusty glared at him and Clark dropped his smile.
“Say listen, Russ, I didn’t mean...”
“The question is
,
what are you going to do when this cell door opens?” Rusty asked, jerking a thumb towards the bars.
Clark turned to the door and snorted. “Shoot, that gate slides open and there
ain’t
any guards in sight…” he paused. “I’m right behind
ya
.”
Rusty smiled.
“If that’s okay with you, boss?”
Rusty shrugged.
“More the merrier.”
“Sounds good,” Clark said, lying back down in his bunk. “Wake me up when it happens.”
Rusty watched him close his eyes and then turned back to the cell door, wondering if
Summer
had really been there or not.
“Say Russ?”
“Yeah Clark.”
“Promise you’re not going to kill me in my sleep?”
A light laugh escaped Rusty’s chapped lips. “I promise.”
Clark yawned and scratched his balls. “Actually, I don’t give a rat’s ass. You do what
ya
gotta
do. I’m sure I got it
comin
.”
Rusty stared at the big man, trying to comprehend how his family had survived such a tragic accident that not only took the lives of four innocent teens, but the life of Clark as well. The cell door began sliding open, jerking Rusty from his thoughts.
Clark’s eyes popped open and stared at the underside of the top bunk.
For a moment Rusty was paralyzed, unable to command his body into motion. It felt like everything was some movie he was watching from his couch with a four beer buzz and Chili Cheese Fritos crumbs all over his chest. Finally, he rose from the tiny chair, feeling like he had gained a hundred pounds. “Show time,
Clarky
boy,” he whispered.
Clark swung his bare feet to the cold floor and stared at the open door. “Sweet Lord almighty,” he muttered, putting his orange shoes on.
Rusty glanced up and down the hallway, waiting for guards to swoop inside at any second.
Two men stirred in their cell across the hall and slowly approached their cell door. They gripped the bars, trying to look up and down the corridor. They turned back to Rusty and Clark, eager to see what they would do next.
“Go for it, motherfuckers,” the tall one whispered. “There
ain’t
no one
comin
!”
Rusty and Clark swapped nervous glances. There was no sign of patrolling footsteps, talking, or radios squawking unintelligible codes anywhere in earshot.
“Hey, man,” the short pudgy one whispered. “Go push the button on cell 217.”
“Yeah, dude,” the tall one said, smiling and pressing his face between the bars. “Get us out of here, please!”
Rusty and Clark took a small step outside their cell, glancing up and down the long corridor.
“Wait,” the pudgy one yelled.
Rusty and Clark froze, the color draining from their faces.
“What if all the guards are dead?” the pudgy man asked, worry flickering across his face. “Don’t leave us in here to rot! There could be a zombie uprising or some shit, man! Why else would your door just open?”
“Take it easy,” Rusty whispered, pushing his hands down through the air. “We’re going to get everyone out of here,” he lied. “You just keep an eye on our backs.”
The short portly one nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah, we got your backs. Go now, it’s clear,” he whispered.
“Don’t forget,” the tall one said, nearly slipping his thin head through the thick iron bars. “Cell 217,” he pleaded with a friendly salesman-like smile.
The fat man grinned with him. “I swear to God, we will do whatever you want us to, man. I can make chocolate chip pancakes and wash laundry.”
The tall man nodded feverishly. “Yeah, yeah, and I can make some of the meanest scrambled eggs you ever seen. We’ll have breakfast for every meal!”
The fat man let out a short whistle. “Damn, breakfast for every meal!
Not too bad, huh?”
“
Shhhhh
,” Rusty hissed, causing both men to grow quiet and begin nodding. Rusty looked to Clark. “You ready?”
Clark peered back inside their cell to the drawings on the desk and the shelf of paperbacks above it. Paperbacks he had read at least ten times each now. He took a step back like he was going to grab something from the desk and turned back to Rusty instead. “Let’s do it to it, boss man.”
They eased out of the jail cell and took a left, carefully creeping down the hallway, trying not to wake anyone else up. The door ahead of them required a security badge to open and Rusty guessed this is where
Summer
would meet them.