The Summoning (12 page)

She got up and blew out the candles. She left the den and went a few steps down the hall to her bedroom. She got her light jacket out of her closet and shrugged into it. She caught a glimpse of her husband’s face in the framed photo next to her bed. A moment of loss caused her heart to ache. She turned away from the photo and left her bedroom.

She hadn’t seen Victor and Tom all morning – probably sleeping the day away as usual. She loved those two to death, but they could also annoy her sometimes.

Carol left her house and walked across her flagstone steps to the driveway. She got in her car and started it.

She needed to go and see him. She needed some answers.

Carol pulled up in the driveway and turned off her car. She got out and walked up to the front porch of the neat and tidy house. His car was in the driveway so she knew he was at home. She knocked on the door and waited.

A moment later, Walter answered the door. He seemed a little surprised to see her, but he covered it up quickly with a warm smile. “Carol. What a surprise.”

Walter invited her in. “I was just making a pot of tea.”

“That would be lovely,” Carol said and gave him her razor blade smile.

“Come sit down in the dining room,” Walter said and then he hurried into his kitchen where a tea kettle was whistling away.

Carol sat down at the dining room table. The house was tastefully decorated, but now Carol noticed subtle clues in the decor that others might miss – a painting on the wall with strange squiggly symbols in it if you looked closely, a gargoyle head on top of a bookcase built into the corner of the dining room. In that bookcase were books on strange occult subjects squeezed in between other books.

Walter, who seemed a little too feminine to Carol, came back with a silver tray in his hands. He was a thin man, and he was as neat and tidy as his house. On the tray were a ceramic teapot, two cups, and some cookies. It was almost like he had expected company and had already begun preparing the tea.

That made Carol slightly nervous.

Walter, and the things he claimed to know, made her nervous.

He sat down and poured a cup of tea for each of them. “I hope you like green tea,” he said. “It’s very healthy. Helps you live a long life.”

Carol nodded. “Thank you.”

“Try a cookie,” he offered.

Carol didn’t make a move for the cookies and she only took one sip of her tea. She hadn’t come here for tea and cookies. She needed answers from Walter. And she suspected that he knew why she was here.

“Walter,” Carol said. “I did everything you told me to. I followed all of your instructions to the letter. But it isn’t working.” Carol thought for a moment. That wasn’t exactly true, was it? She rephrased her sentence. “I mean, it’s not working the way it’s supposed to.”

Walter sipped his tea and smiled at her. It was a fake smile, and his light eyes bored into hers. It almost seemed like he was amused by all of this, like a child might be amused by torturing a bug on the sidewalk. He didn’t answer her.

“I don’t know what to do now,” she said and hated the miserable sound of her voice.

“It’s what you asked for,” Walter finally said.

“Is it him?” Carol asked. It was the question she had really wanted to ask. She had believed at first that it was him, but now she wasn’t so sure, and she needed to know the truth now. “I’m not sure if it’s him,” she added.

“You need to be patient,” Walter said.

“I’m afraid I’ve made a mistake,” Carol finally spit the words out. She hated the sound of her voice, the hitch in it like she was on the verge of helpless tears. “I’m afraid I’ve done something really terrible.”

She didn’t see any mercy in Walter’s eyes.

He didn’t say anything for a long moment and then he sipped more of his tea.

“Don’t like the tea?” he asked.

Fuck your tea, she wanted to say even though she rarely cursed. But she smiled and nodded. “No, it’s wonderful.”

They were silent for a moment.

“Anything else?” Walter asked.

“Something came for him the other day. It was a suitcase.”

Walter just nodded, but Carol could see the small smile still on his face, a smug smile like he knew everything, like he knew every secret, but he wasn’t going to reveal anything to her.

“I think I need to see what’s inside that suitcase,” Carol told Walter.

“So look inside,” he said.

“I don’t have the key.”

“You’ve had the key all along. Look in a place close to your heart, a place that’s close to your memories of your husband.”

Carol nodded. She would look for the key when she got home. She took another sip of her tea and tried to think of a reason to excuse herself. She suddenly wanted to be out of Walter’s house very badly.

She shouldn’t have done what she did, she knew that now. But it was too far along and she didn’t know how to stop it. She didn’t know what to do. And she could tell now that Walter wasn’t going to help her.

Ryan sped down the country road that twisted through the tall evergreen trees. He drove in silence; his hands gripped the steering wheel.

Amber watched him. “Where are you going?”

Ryan didn’t answer and Amber could feel a knot of fear gnawing at her.

“What is it that you remember?”

Ryan still didn’t say anything.

“Ryan!” she snapped. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know,” Ryan said in a low voice. “But I’m remembering something. I remember this road we’re on. I remember these woods. There’s something … something I need to see here.”

They drove down Winter Road and turned onto an even narrower road that cut through the woods, it was more like a back road. Ryan’s car bumped along the uneven road as the trees seemed to crowd in around them even more.

Amber was beyond nervous now and heading right towards outright fear. She liked Ryan, but she didn’t really know him as much as she thought she did – and today she realized that she didn’t really know anything about him at all.

Except that he couldn’t remember his past.

“I think I should go home,” Amber said. She never would’ve dreamed she would ever say that, she never thought she would rather be back at home with her psycho brother. But what if she was with a worse psycho right now?

She watched Ryan drive; he seemed to be watching the trees whip by, like he was studying them.

Like he was looking for something.

She wanted to tell him again that she’d like to go home, but she decided to stay quiet and just watch him. She knew that the big knife was still in the picnic basket if she needed it.

And thinking of the big knife made her wonder why he’d brought such an instrument on a picnic. To cut cheese with? Seemed like overkill to her. Maybe he had other intentions for the kitchen knife that was, if she was being honest with herself, more like a butcher knife. And out here in these woods, she couldn’t help but think of the serial killer that had terrorized Edrington ten years ago.

Ryan hit the brakes and Amber had to catch herself with her hands so she wouldn’t dive head-first into the dashboard – she still wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, and she wasn’t going to put it on now in case she needed to make a mad dash for the picnic basket.

He stared out the driver’s side window at the dark woods for a moment while the car’s motor rumbled.

Then he shifted into reverse and backed up a few car lengths, and she could see what he was looking at now. It was a trail that led into the woods; if you were speeding by you would never see it. There were two small wooden posts on each side of the beginning of the trail, nearly hidden by the brush and ferns, and strung between the wooden posts was a chain with a rusty sign dangling from it that read: No Trespassing.

Ryan put the car in drive and pulled off to the side of the road. He shut the car off and pulled the keys out of the ignition and got out. He didn’t even look at Amber; it was like he was mesmerized by the trail in the woods and all of his attention was focused on it.

Amber got out of the car. She glanced at the backseat and the picnic basket with the knife inside. She hoped the back doors were unlocked, but she didn’t dare try to open the door right now. She walked around to the back of the car and watched Ryan as he stared at the entrance to the trail.

“Ryan, you’re not thinking of going in there, are you?”

Ryan stared at the trail that led into the woods. He could feel the memories wanting to come back to him now, and he was trying to hold them back, but it was like trying to hold back a bursting dam.

There’s something back there, his mind whispered. Something in those woods.

And you know what it is,
his mind whispered to him.

He took a step closer to the dark woods, and then he heard Amber’s voice.

“Ryan, you’re not thinking of going in there, are you?”

Ryan didn’t answer her question. Instead, he asked her a question of his own. “There’s something back there in those woods, isn’t there?”

Amber stood motionless near the back of Ryan’s car – she wanted to be close to the car for some reason, and as far away from these woods as she could get.

“There’s some kind of … of house back there; more like a shack,” he added, still staring at the No Trespassing sign and the trail that led into the dark woods. “It’s a bad place,” he whispered.

“How do you know that?” he heard Amber whisper.

Her words broke his momentary hypnosis. He turned and looked at her and for the first time he saw how frightened she was. He watched her back up a step as he stared at her.

“There’s no way you could know that unless you’ve been here before, been in this town,” she said.

Ryan took a step towards Amber. “I can’t remember. Maybe I’ve been in this town before. I don’t know how I know, but I’m sure there’s a shack down this trail in these woods.” He glanced back at the trail into the woods and then turned back to Amber and shook his head no. “But I don’t want to go in the woods and see it,” he said, finally answering her earlier question.

He took a few more steps towards her and he could see that she was practically shaking with fear; she looked like a frightened deer ready to bolt. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I … just … it’s just that you wanted to know about me, and there’s nothing to tell you. I can’t remember anything. I woke up in a motel room a few days ago and all I had was a handwritten note with Carol’s address on it. I came to this town, hoping it would jog my memories, but it hasn’t. Carol didn’t seem to recognize me, but I rented a room there because she must have something to do with my past or I wouldn’t have her address written down in my wallet.”

Amber just stood there staring at Ryan, watching him like someone might watch a wild animal.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered and stood right in front of her. “I don’t want you to be scared of me. I don’t want to be like your brother.” He looked into her eyes. “I just need some help.” He wanted to touch her, try and reassure her, but he was afraid he’d frightened her too much already. He nodded at his car. “I’m sorry. I’ll take you home now.”

They drove out of the woods and headed back into town. Amber hadn’t said much on the way back from the woods, and he hadn’t said much, either. What could he say? He had scared the hell out of her, and he couldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see him again. When they got back to her house, he expected that she would bolt out of his car and run screaming to her brother.

Amber stared out the passenger window at the houses streaming by outside as they drove through town. She didn’t seem so scared now that they were out of the woods and back in town.

“I’m sorry, Amber,” Ryan finally said as he stopped at a traffic light. “I know you think I’m crazy. I don’t blame you.”

Amber turned and stared at Ryan. She surprised him by lunging at him and grabbing on to him. She kissed his lips fiercely, clinging to him for a moment. He could feel her body shaking underneath his arms. She backed away after their intense kiss and stared at him.

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” she said in a low voice. “I think you can’t remember your past and it’s making you feel like you’re crazy. I think you need some help. And I want to help you.”

Ryan felt a pang of compassion surge through his body; it was as much of an electric feeling as her sudden kiss had just been.

A car honked its horn from behind them.

Ryan looked up and saw that the traffic light was green. He gunned the engine and drove through the light. He looked at Amber, searched her eyes to make sure that she was telling the truth. She looked right back at him. “But I want you to tell me everything you remember so far,” she said.

And Ryan told her.

He told her again how he’d woken up in the motel room with no memory of his past. But he left out a few details – the bullet hole scars on his chest, the duffel bag full of money, his certainty that someone was following him. But he told her about the piece of paper that was in his wallet with Carol’s address scrawled on it.

“I know Carol has something to do with this,” Ryan told Amber. “I just don’t know what it is. There has to be a reason that I had her address written down. I must’ve known her somehow. But I can’t remember her or anything about her. And at first she didn’t seem to know me or recognize me. But then she said some strange things. It was like she knew me, like she knew things that I liked, like my favorite foods and drinks, things I couldn’t even remember about myself.”

“I don’t know who Carol is,” Amber said. “Sorry, wrong side of town for me.”

Ryan told her more as he drove. He told her a little about his dreams, about the tortured, red-haired man who visited him in his nightmares and wanted to show him things.

“Maybe that man is a figment of your imagination,” Amber offered. “Someone your mind made up to try and show you things, to get you closer to your memories. Maybe you should follow him and see what he wants to show you.”

Ryan nodded. That sounded like good advice. But he couldn’t explain to her the fear and dread he felt when he was near that person. He was afraid of what the red-haired man wanted to show him.