It had to have been Labor Day weekend, right before the start of senior year, that they had last visited this place. They had all been invited to come with A.J.’s family to the lake house for the final weekend of summer vacation. If she was remembering correctly, it was the last time all five of them had been together at Silver Lake.
She turned the boat so she could face the shore and pulled the oars in, allowing the water to drip off before levering them into the boat. A graceful white bird was the only source of movement on the beach. The peaceful tableau made her immensely pleased that she had come.
“Remember that beach, Brandy?” she said softly, hoping to connect with the spirit that had been all too quiet lately. She waited patiently as she swayed with the rocking rowboat. An answering wave of cold passed over her, but whether it was Brandy, the wind, or only her over-active imagination, she couldn’t say. Just in case, she continued whispering to her friend. “As soon as we got there, you and A.J. took off to find some privacy. You two couldn’t keep your hands off each other, even after a year of constant togetherness. You guys were so in love.” She carefully retrieved her camera from her bag and imagined the five of them that day, heading for the small sandy shoreline in a rowboat and an old canoe.
The moment they had secured the two boats on the beach, A.J. had grabbed Brandy’s hand and tugged her toward the woods. “We’ll be back in about an hour or so,” he called, and he and Brandy shared a private smile. Their dark heads ducked into the unbroken tree line and they disappeared.
“I wonder where they’re going,” Allie said sarcastically, a hint of bitterness in her voice. Everyone knew she resented being the only girl in the group without a steady boyfriend.
“Probably on a nature walk,” replied Rain with feigned innocence. “I wonder why they didn’t invite us?”
Jason lifted the cooler out of the rowboat. “I forgot they were such naturalists. They’ll probably be hiking for hours.” He set the heavy cooler down in the sand and opened it with a flourish. “Ladies?”
The girls pulled out icy diet sodas and Jason helped himself to one of the beers they had snuck from the lake house fridge. They’d spread out their towels in a row, determined to soak up the last of the summer sun.
Looking back, Rain thought that weekend may have been when things started to change between her and Jason. As she snapped pictures of the small stretch of beach, she tried to recall the subtle details that made that day significant.
She remembered she had fallen asleep between Allie and Jason, and when she had woken up, she’d caught Jason staring at her, a strange expression on his face. An unexpected wave of self-consciousness had washed over her as she rubbed her eyes and rolled to her side.
“Was I talking in my sleep or something?” she asked.
Jason looked away quickly, then recovered his usual composure. “Well, sort of. You were moaning and calling out my name.”
For one horrifying second, Rain thought he was serious. But Jason’s green eyes were laughing and she narrowed her own blue ones at him. “Ha ha,” she managed.
His gaze moved quickly toward the woods, and A.J. and Brandy appeared a second later. “Well, look who’s back,” Jason announced.
They woke Allie up so they could enjoy their picnic, and then went for a swim in the warm September water. When the chicken fights began, Rain climbed onto Jason’s back as she had done a hundred times over their years of friendship. But this time, she was suddenly aware of the fact that she was sitting on his tanned shoulders wearing only a bikini, her legs wrapped around him as he held tightly to her thighs. The intimacy of their contact had caused her stomach to tremble with restless butterflies.
Rain shook her head and forced herself back to the present. How on earth had she ended up thinking about her relationship with Jason again? Just friends, she reminded herself firmly.
She put the camera away and reflected on the fact that all three of her friends would kill her if they knew she was out on the boat alone. Taking one last look at the little beach, she sighed wistfully and reached for the oars.
****
The evening before everyone returned, Rain made a disturbing discovery. She had been running around like a maniac all day, excitedly preparing the house for her friends. The time alone had been great, she reflected, and she knew she needed this experience of being on her own. But without a job or a social life, things got dull quickly.
The freshly-washed sheets were still deliciously warm from the dryer when she climbed the stairs to make the beds. She hugged them to her body as she turned right at the landing, automatically heading to Jason’s room first. The pretty blue and yellow striped sheets went on this bed, and she lined everything up precisely before folding the top sheet down and settling the comforter on top. She stood back to assess her work and then rolled her eyes at herself for being such a perfectionist. She couldn’t stop herself from fluffing up the pillows, though, before she picked up the pile bound for A.J.’s room.
It was as she was pulling the navy blue fitted sheet onto the top corner of the bed that she stepped in yet another mysterious puddle. She hopped out in surprise and frowned down at the pooled water. Nothing she had come across yet had been able to help her explain this in terms of paranormal activity. The closest thing she had read about was something called ectoplasm, which was a gel-like substance supposedly left by spirits after materializing. She got down on her hands and knees to investigate, but it didn’t look gel-like at all, it just looked like regular water.
She sniffed it cautiously. It smelled like the lake, which was how everything around here smelled. But then she caught another scent that was less pleasant—it reminded her of something burning. Wrinkling her nose, she sat back on her heels and surveyed the mess. The puddle had spread beneath the bed and extended under the boxy night table.
As she stood up to make her way to the adjoining bathroom, the overhead light flickered off and on. She froze, her mouth going dry with fear. Not moving didn’t make much sense, but it seemed like the right thing to do, so she stood motionless and waited for what seemed to be an eternity. She let her eyes wander to the windows, where twilight was painting orange streaks across the sky.
Nothing else happened and her heart rate began to approach the normal range again. She continued on to the bathroom and grabbed two of the clean hand towels she had hung in there yesterday.
She pushed one of the towels around on the wood floor with her bare foot while she moved the bedside items off the table. It was a solid-looking piece, with a small drawer, a cabinet door, and decorative scalloped edging cut along the bottom. The water had seeped through the curves of the design and under the nightstand.
It wasn’t as heavy as it looked, she discovered, as she lifted it and moved it a few feet away from the bed. The lights flickered again, but her attention was focused on what had been underneath the table, and she barely looked up.
Lying in the water was what appeared to be a sandwich baggie, rolled up lengthwise. Goose bumps rose on her arms as a chill enveloped her. She looked around suspiciously, and then bent down to pick up the bag.
Her first thought was drugs. A.J. was doing drugs, and for whatever reason he felt he had to hide them under his nightstand. She sat on the edge of the partially-made bed and unfurled the plastic. White tissue paper concealed the contents.
With shaking hands, she unsealed the bag and withdrew the paper carefully. She fully expected to find pills or capsules or even just some loose marijuana. Her brows drew together in confusion when instead she uncovered a tiny silver ring.
She shivered with cold and apprehension as she puzzled over the delicate piece of jewelry. A single round silver bead was the only distinguishing characteristic. It was much too small to be a ring, or even an earring. Unless it was meant for the upper part of an ear, and not the lobe.
A wave of recognition hit her and her stomach heaved. She dropped the ring to the floor and doubled over, closing her eyes. It was an eyebrow ring. It was Brandy’s eyebrow ring. She was absolutely certain.
Bright spots flashed across the insides of her closed lids; she wasn’t sure if it was due to an encore of flickering lights or the intensity of the nausea that was racking her body. She took a deep breath and fought for calm. There had to be a rational explanation.
When she felt better, she opened her eyes and retrieved the shiny ring from the floor. Turning it over in her fingers, she tried to gather her racing thoughts. A.J. had brought the ring with him and hidden it there. This was a rental house now; there was no way something like this had remained here, in A.J.’s parents’ room of all places, for the past five years.
Perhaps A.J. had kept it all these years as a reminder of his lost love. Rain struggled to remember if Brandy had been wearing it around the time she disappeared. It was possible she had taken it off and left it with A.J. If that was the case, maybe he was embarrassed by his need to hold on to it. And maybe he thought that bringing it here might help solve the mystery.
She nodded her head firmly and began wrapping the ring back up. Her reasoning made sense. Another option, much more sinister, lurked in the back of her mind, but she refused to acknowledge it. A.J. had loved Brandy, she had no doubt about that. She was not going to suspect her friend of any wrongdoing until she knew more.
Rain finished wiping up the water and moved the table back beside the bed. Taking deep, centering breaths, she tucked the little bag back behind the scalloped edging in the wood and resumed making the bed. She was suddenly exhausted. Trudging down the stairs, she noted that it was only 7:30.
There were several bottles of wine chilling in the fridge, and she poured an enormous glass of Chardonnay for herself. She swirled the pale liquid around in the glass as she contemplated her choices. Her urge to call Jason was overwhelming, and yet she didn’t want to cast any suspicion on A.J. until she knew more. In less than 24 hours, they would all be here again. Their combined energy would make Brandy stronger; she was sure of it. And the truth would somehow come to light. She decided to keep her unsettling discovery to herself for now.
She wandered out to the porch and sat down on the couch, putting her feet up on the long footstool in an attempt to relax. She tried to focus on the serene view, but her eyes kept glancing sideways to the swing. Her chaotic thoughts continued to revolve around her discovery, no matter how hard she tried to divert her mind.
The presence of the ring could be entirely innocent. Brandy could have bought herself a new piece of jewelry for her piercing, and switched them out. For that matter, A.J. could have bought her a new eyebrow ring. Brandy was in his room all the time; she could have easily left the tiny ring behind one day. Maybe it even fell out while they were sleeping.
A.J. may have brought it with him in an attempt to help them connect with her. If that was the case, he was doing a good job of feigning disbelief in the whole idea of communicating with ghosts. More likely, it served as a personal keepsake that he had no interest in sharing with the others.
Eventually she finished her wine and went back inside. It was barely 9:00, but she knew she was done for the night. The rest of the preparations would have to wait for the morning. She was physically and emotionally drained. Besides, her instincts told her that uninterrupted sleep would be too much to hope for.
****
An echoing scream pierced the night. Someone had called her name. Rain sat bolt upright in bed, her eyes and ears straining in the darkness. Her room was empty and still. She stayed motionless, listening intently, but the only sound she could hear was her heart slamming in her chest.
The mournful cry had torn her awake from a horrible nightmare which involved the eyebrow ring. Rain had been out on the beach, in the dark, and she had dropped the tiny silver ring in the sand. She had searched frantically for it, clawing at the sand, but water kept filling up the hole and washing her efforts away. She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her middle. Perhaps the scream had been a part of the nightmare. Her pulse slowly began to return to normal.
Then a sudden realization sent another thrill of fear through her body. She was sitting
in the dark
. She had left her bedside light on when she went to sleep. It was foolish and pointless, she knew, but since it made her feel better, she decided it was staying on. Now it was off. She reached out a trembling hand and turned the knob once. It clicked softly with no results. Maybe the bulb had just burnt out in the night. She turned it one more rotation and was rewarded with a warm glow as the light went on.
“Please, Brandy, no more tonight,” she whispered as she settled back in the pillows that were still propped up against the wall. Her novel was open beside her, and she picked it up with a sigh. “They’ll all be back tomorrow. Hit us up then.”
Chapter 22
Friday afternoon, Rain sat at the kitchen island, restlessly awaiting the arrival of her friends. She was still on edge, although the rest of her night had been uneventful, and the day had been quiet as well. She had slept late and finished the beds, and then run into town for a few more supplies. After a workout and a shower, she had taken pains to blow her hair dry perfectly and find something cute to wear. She smoothed the skirt of her white sundress and tapped her foot impatiently.
Relief flooded through her when Allie’s car pulled into the driveway. She jumped up and retrieved an artistic cheese plate from the fridge, then ran out to greet her friend.
Allie returned her hug with equal force and they unloaded her car together. As they caught up, Rain carefully edited her account of her time alone at the house. She mentioned the flickering lights and her name being called, and left it at that.
They were in the kitchen snacking on cheese and crackers when Jason’s car pulled into the drive. As they got up to go outside and greet him, Allie noticed that the door was wide open again. “Wasn’t that shut?” she asked suspiciously. Rain just shrugged. Doors mysteriously opening themselves were nothing to her now.