Cedar Hollow (18 page)

“I’ve never slept as well as I do when I’m with you.” Ben said as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Mmmmm. Then maybe you should always sleep with me.” Cassidy smiled sleepily as her heavy lids closed.

“Nothing would make me happier.” Ben replied as they both drifted off to sleep.

Cassidy was drea
ming of roasting marshmallows, something she hadn’t done since childhood. She could remember cookouts with her parents on the beach in Florida, waiting for the sun to sink below the horizon, watching the moon rise. Her favorite part was the campfire and the marshmallows.

In this moment of brief respite she was whisked back to that time, a time of carefree childhood. Walking down the beach holding each of her parents hands so that they could swing her in the air
as they walked along the sand, chasing the receding waves into the ocean and then running back up the shore to escape the returning tide, sitting around the campfire watching the dancing flames, hearing the sound of the ocean, and smelling the smoke in the air.

Abruptly the dream shifted. The smoke
began billowing from the fire in thick black clouds. She was alone and she wasn’t a child anymore. The smoke blocked out everything around her, swirling, suffocating. Her lungs burned as they filled with smoke and she began coughing violently as her eyes filled with tears.

It was the coughing that woke her. She was no longer on the beach
of her dream but in her bed in New Hampshire. However, the smoke remained. The room was filled with smoke and her lungs burned with every breath. Ben was lying very still beside her. She shook him as she tried to cover her mouth with the blanket, filtering the air. He didn’t respond.

“Ben!” She croaked as she choked on smoke-filled air. She shoved at his s
houlder but he remained unconscious beside her. She was beginning to feel light headed and she couldn’t take a breath without coughing. She realized she needed to act quickly, they were in danger and it wouldn’t be long before the smoke overtook her too.

She pushed Ben from the bed and heard the heavy thump as he hit the fl
oor. She clambered from the bed and crawled to the window. She reached up and undid the latch swinging the window open and hanging her head out to gulp in the fresh air. Her throat burned but her head cleared quickly as she took several deep cleansing breaths. She looked down to the ground and saw the glow of flames coming through the first floor windows. She contemplated if they would survive the jump.

She turned back into the room and crawled to Ben, slapping him hard across the face. He mumbled incoherently and her heart swelled with relief. She dragged his heavy body
to the window, inch by inch as she scooted along the floor.

“Ben, sit up!” She demanded as she tried to prop him against the windowsill. He responded slowly, sluggishly attempting to support his own weight.

“Ben, the house is on fire!” Cassidy cried and finally Ben opened his heavy lids, his eyes were glassy and unfocused. “You need fresh air.” Cassidy told him trying to lift his torso toward the open window. Ben realized what she was attempting and gripped the edge of the windowsill, pulling himself up and draping his body out of the window. He coughed and choked as the smoke cleared from his lungs. Cassidy leaned out of the window with him looking down at the nearly thirty foot sheer drop to the sloped ground below.

“Can we jump?” She asked with trepidation. Ben shook his head.

“Let’s see if we can get out another way.” He rasped. “Stay by the window.” He instructed as he crawled to the bathroom to retrieve their clothes from the floor. He pulled on his jeans and tossed Cassidy her clothes before crawling to the door to check the handle.

“It’s not hot
, which means the fire hasn’t spread to the hallway yet.” He told her as he tried to turn the handle. It didn’t turn. He tried again.

“
It’s locked.” Ben said incredulously. He crawled back to Cassidy at the window. He leaned his head out and took several big gulps of fresh air.

“What are we going to do?” Cassidy asked, alarmed. Ben
turned back to the room and without a word he rushed for the door slamming into it with his shoulder like a linebacker. The door cracked but it didn’t give way. Ben backed up to the window again and with one more quick breath he charged the door a second time. The wood splintered as his heavy body crashed through. Broken shards of wood scraped against his shoulder and chest leaving bloody gashes, but the door gave way. Cassidy crawled to him frantically. She climbed through the broken doorway and hunched over his motionless form on the floor. She gripped his face lifting his head to her lap. He looked up at her.

“Are you ok?” She asked looking over his bleeding chest as
she cradled his head.

“We’ve got to get out of here.”
Ben’s voice was strained and gravelly, but determined. He pulled himself up from the floor and took Cassidy’s hand, pulling her down the hallway as they hunched low to stay beneath the smoke that was quickly filling the second floor.

They reached the stairs and looked down to the first floor. The dining room was filled with flames that were shooting out into the hallway and climbing the walls, but the stairwell and front door were still clear. Ben pulled Cassidy quickly down the stairs as they raced the fire to the door. Just as the
y reached the landing the front door swung open.

Lucy Owens came walking calmly inside carrying a gas can in one hand and an axe in the other. Ben stopped abruptly
, reaching his arm out in front of Cassidy and pulling her behind him to shield her with his body. For a moment all of them stood frozen in shock. Then Cassidy watched in disbelief as Mrs. Owens face contorted with rage and she screamed charging at them swinging the axe.

Ben blocked the first blow with his forearm
. He reached for the axe but she brought it up from the floor with such force that the blunt end made contact with the side of his head. Ben immediately slumped to his side at Cassidy’s feet. She screamed in horror and fell to her knees, lifting Ben’s limp body into her arms. Blood was running down the side of his head.

Suddenly she was being snatched up by her hair
. She grasped at the hand that had ensnared her and looked up into the crazed eyes of Lucy Owens. She was almost unrecognizable her face was so twisted with hate.

“This is
all your fault!” She shrieked, striking Cassidy across the face so hard that stars exploded behind her eyes.

“Why are you doing this?” Cassidy cried as she struggled to free herself from Mrs. Owens grip.

“Because of you!” Mrs. Owens shouted. “This is all your fault! It’s your fault Ben had to get hurt! Because you wouldn’t just die!” She backhanded her and Cassidy tasted blood in her mouth. Her head swam and she began seeing spots in front of her eyes.  She looked down at Ben’s lifeless body crumpled at the foot of the stairs lying in a growing pool of blood. Her heart stopped and for a second everything faded to black.

The next thing she was aware of was jerky movement and then sound. Thud, thud, thud. It took a moment for the two senses to coordinate. She was being dragged up the stairs. The pain coming from her scalp was excruciating. The only thing she could see was sheer white blinding light and then blackness overtook her again.

The next time her sense of smell came back first. She could smell dust
followed by the harsh scent of pine cleaner. The pain in her head had lessened to a dull throbbing, she was no longer being pulled by her hair. She was propped upright in a chair. She willed herself to open her eyes, one felt swollen. She looked around at the cross covered walls and realized she was in the attic room. She felt the ropes cinch tighter around her chest and then Lucy Owens stepped out from behind her chair.

“Please don’t do this.” Cassidy cried. Lucy looked at her with confusion, her face the mask of innocence.

“Shhh!” She held her finger to her lips. “Father will hear you.” She warned, her voice sounding eerily childlike. “Father gets very angry if he can hear you. We can’t let anyone know that we’re up here.”

“Please, let me go.” Cassidy begged as she struggled against the ropes that bound her.

“Do you want to know a secret?” Lucy giggled playfully. “Sometimes late at night when everyone is asleep I sneak downstairs.” She giggled again. “I go to the pink room with the roses on the bed, it’s so pretty.” She said wistfully. “But Father must never know!” She insisted fearfully. “I’m never supposed to leave the attic!”

“I won’t tell him.” Cassidy promised.
She realized that Lucy Owens was completely out of her mind. Her eyes were unfocused as she circled the room. Cassidy thought perhaps the best thing to do was play along. “I promise I won’t make a sound if you untie me.” Cassidy coaxed softly.

“You know that should have been my room.” Lucy continued as if Cassidy hadn’t spoken. “I lived in this house first. Long before those brats came along.” Her eyes flashed with jealousy. “Pretty little Lainey just had to have the pink room.” Lucy said mockingly. “And of course her parents just gave it to her, like it was theirs to give. It was mine!” She shouted.
“My room!” She began pacing the room angrily.

“Of course I didn’t have to hide in the attic anymore by then. But
to them I was just the maid. They didn’t know who I was. They didn’t know that I was the Chosen One! But I showed them. First Curtis, and then Liz. They got what was coming to them. Father told me when it was time, time to fulfill my purpose and rid our family of sin. Then those stupid brats ran off to their grandmother in Connecticut. They thought they could hide, but you can’t hide forever. I guess you know that.” She laughed and looked at Cassidy, focusing on her for the first time since her tirade had begun. Her reverie had brought her full circle, back to the present. Cassidy could see the recognition in her eyes.

“But Ben has nothing to do with any of this.” Cassidy pointed out. “He’s hurt and he needs help.” She pled. Lucy’s expression contorted with rage.

“It’s your fault!” She shouted, charging at Cassidy and slapping her hard across the face. “It’s your fault that Ben had to be involved at all! I can’t let anyone stand in my way! Why couldn’t you just die? It should have happened years ago, you should have been in that car in Florida! But no! Little Miss Homecoming Queen didn’t ride to the dance with her parents.” Lucy’s mocking tone cut straight through Cassidy’s heart, confirming her worst fear. Her parents had died because of her. Wherever she went death followed, and now Ben was going to lose his life because of her too. She couldn’t bear the thought. She had to do something.

“You’re right. I deserve to die.” Cassidy’s defeated tone surprised Lucy and she reared back as
if a snake had struck at her. “But Ben doesn’t deserve to die. Please just let him go.”

“He knows too much.” Lucy shook her head sadly. “He’s seen too much.” She said regretfully. “Just like
my poor Harold.” Lucy plopped down on the edge of the bed with her shoulders slumped looking reminiscent of the lonely widow Cassidy once believed her to be.

“But Harold isn’t dead.” Cassidy prompt
ed hopefully.

“He’s my husband!” Lucy exclaimed
, sounding offended. “I couldn’t take his life, but I had to take his mind. Father showed me what herbs to use so that I could keep him with me. So that he wouldn’t have to die. But he’s not really with me anymore.” She said sadly hanging her head. Cassidy tried to process everything that had been revealed trying to find a way out of this. She had to save Ben. The fire could have already reached him downstairs.

“I tried to explain it to him.”
Lucy continued. “I told him who my father was, and the shame your grandparents brought to our family. They were the reason my mother died. Father told me so. He told me that we were being punished for their sins. He told me that was why I never had children of my own. We were being punished because of them!” She stood from the bed and began pacing again. “He told me that it was my job to cleanse our family, that’s why I was born! That’s why I had to hide in the attic, no one could know about me because I was special. I was the Chosen One!” Lucy railed as her eyes became glassy again. “And I was succeeding! I was fulfilling my purpose! I found that stupid brat Lainey, she couldn’t hide forever, and then Kim just came back. It was like a gift from God. She was delivered right back to me. I knew if she was still alive she couldn’t stay away from Billy. That’s why I watched him. I was there the night she came back. I watched through the window as she brought more shame to our family with her wicked ways. A simple fire was all it took to rid the world of that sinful whore.” Lucy smiled at the memory and Cassidy could feel the anger building inside her as she listened to this crazed woman talk so callously about how she’d murdered her entire family.

“All that left was you.” Lucy said hatefully as she refocused on Cassidy.
“The last seed of an evil line. Father was not very happy with me when we learned that you hadn’t died in that car accident in Florida.” Lucy accused angrily. “If you would have just been where you were supposed to be, Harold would have never overheard anything! I would have fulfilled my purpose, I could have gone on with my life. But no! You just won’t die!” Lucy shrieked as she charged Cassidy again.

This time Cassidy dodged her attack by throwing her body weight to the left and tipping over the chair she was tied to. Lucy crashed down on top of her breaking the frail wooden chair in the process. Cassidy struggled beneath her still tied to the broken remains of the chair. She managed to scramble under the bed and out of reach just long enough to untangle herself from the wooden shards. She gripped a wooden chair leg in her hand as a weapon and braced herself for
another attack, but the room fell silent. Cassidy watched from under the bed as Lucy stood and crossed the floor.