Wraiths of Winter (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 3) (37 page)

After Zach’s close call, I had promised him I wouldn’t
go back there and he definitely wasn’t pleased that I was not
only going back but going back there without him. Lucas left
with the promise that he would return when it was time to
close the store. Zach stayed with me the entire day talking
about school and how to get back into my dad’s good graces.
The only thing he never once mentioned was Lucas and the
inordinate amount of time I would be spending with him.

Closing time came with a changing of the guard. Lucas
waited in his car while Zach gave me a goodbye kiss. Zach
was
quite
the
kisser but this
one
was
spectacular—on
purpose, I suppose. He walked me to my car and kissed me
one more time before closing the door for me.
Before he
pulled out behind me, Lucas gave a manly rev of his engine.
Boys!
They
thought
it
was
all
about
who
had
the
biggest…engine.

The first scene to be rehearsed was one between
Rachel and Brian, leaving sufficient time for Lucas to question
me.

“So I understand why Zach can’t protect you here or
while you’re at work, but why am I in charge of seeing that
you get to and from school okay? There’s something you
haven’t told me, isn’t there?”

His question made me squirm just a little inside. Zach
didn’t want me to tell Lucas that we technically weren’t
allowed to see each other. But that was just his male pride
talking, wasn’t it? I was torn. I made a promise to Zach that I
shouldn’t break. But if Lucas was willing to put his life on the
line for me, he deserved an answer.

“Yes, there is. My dad thinks we’re
not dating
anymore.” Straight to the point—no unnecessary details.

 

Lucas smiled widely. “So what did Mr. Perfect do to
make your dad so mad?”

He was infuriating. Why couldn’t he ever just accept
my first answer? Always, he had to dig for something I didn’t
want to give up. So I replied as delicately as possible.

“Nothing
actually—it’s what my dad
thinks
he did
that’s the problem.”

“Cryptic answer, Ru, very cryptic.” Lucas sat there
quietly beside me and pondered my words for a moment. His
furrowed brow soon relaxed. He’d had an “a-ha” moment.

“He caught you two in bed, didn’t he?” he exclaimed.

My brain had no intention of answering him but my
face wouldn’t obey. My cheeks were in a full out blush within
seconds.

“I’m right—I knew it! But you said that Zach didn’t
actually
do
what he was accused of so that means you guys
still haven’t slept together!” he said with obvious excitement.

Again, I couldn’t hide the fact that he’d hit the nail on
the head. “That’s none of your business,” I mumbled
uncomfortably.
“It
is
my business if I’m the reason why.”

Damn him! Why was I so transparent when it came to
him? Zach rarely, if ever, knew when I was lying. Lucas, on
the other hand, could see right through me. Now what?

“It’s not what you think!” I protested and left it at that.
“My dad really lost it when he saw the gift the killer sent me.
He assumed it was from Zach and grounded me on the spot. If
it hadn’t been for Shelly, he would have probably locked me
away in a tower by now.”

Locked me away in a tower.
Something about that
phrase resonated within my brain.
But what?
As
Lucas
rattled on about who knows what, I pondered that phrase.
When I was about to give up, it hit me.

“Give it a chance, Ru, you might find—”

“That’s it!” I interrupted, “This place has a bell
tower—I thought I saw someone up there the first day I was
here! It’s the perfect place for a killer to hide his victims!
Crimson’s there—I’m sure of it!”

Lucas went from cocky to curious instantly. “You’re
right—there is a tower!” Then came the frown. “But where’s
the access to it? You’ve been backstage—it’s
not there.
Where else would it be?”

I pointed above us.
The balcony remained the only
part of the theater I had yet to explore. “It has to be up there
somewhere.”

Lucas looked up at the balcony. “You’re probably
right. So how do you think it happened, the murder I mean?”

I had a theory. “Allison was part of the group working
to restore the theater when she died.
What if she broke up
with Drake that night?
He could have followed her here and
attacked her in a fit of rage. She ran up into the tower but he
followed her.
They argued, he pushed her down the stairs,
and she broke her legs. And then he snapped—if he took her
to the hospital, she would tell them what happened. He would
go to jail and lose his shot at the NFL. So he dragged her back
up the steps and kept her there until he could figure out what
to do. Maybe he tried to convince her not to tell on him—
even asked her to marry him.
When she refused, he killed
her. Then he got a taste for it and now he’s compelled to do it
again.”

Lucas laughed. “You have quite the imagination, Ru!
But, you may be right.
Serial killers have to get their start
somewhere, I guess. So do you want to go take a look at it
now?”

Just as I was about to say yes, Jonas called for Lucas. “I
need my Erik on stage now. We’re going to take it from the
top of the kidnapping scene.”

“I guess it’ll have to wait—I’m up.” Lucas made his
way to the stage leaving me alone in the dark recesses of the
theater.

I had every intention of staying right where I was—
really I did.
Going into that tower alone was never on the
agenda. But as always, I really wasn’t the one writing that
agenda.

As I sat there watching Lucas rehearse the kidnapping
scene with Rachel, I started to get warm—warm enough to
take my sweater off.
Weird. The theater was always so cold.
Whatever—it was
a welcome change.
It almost felt like
summer in there.

Summer—when things
were way
less
complicated
between Zach and I. My dad liked him then and Lucas wasn’t
around to interfere. Hot, sweltering summer. Nights spent at
The Hideout talking and getting to know each other. Burning,
blistering summer.

Sweat was pouring down my back like I’d been baking
in the sun for hours. This wasn’t normal. As I looked toward
the stage, my sight was skewed by wavy lines—the kind that
poured from the pavement when the sun set it on fire. The
theater felt like it was about to ignite.

Although there was no visible smoke, the air became
too thick to breathe in effortlessly. Hot, heavy, dusty air. The
arms of the seat I was sitting in became too hot to touch—like
a metal spoon left in a boiling kettle. Then a searing pain shot
through the upper part of my back—the part revealed by the
tank top I was wearing. I shot out of my seat and into the
aisle. That’s when I saw them.

Footprints. Bloody barefoot prints on the hardwood
floor.
They formed in a line heading straight to the lobby.
The blood sizzled from the heat, bubbling and evaporating
until there was nothing left. She wanted me to follow her and
I knew right where she was taking me.

Lucas was still on stage but I couldn’t wait—the
footprints were disappearing quickly. Drake wouldn’t be here
while the theater was occupied. Now was my chance to find
Crimson and end the nightmare. I caught up with the trail of
footprints as they wound around to a curtain just beyond the
ticket counter then disappeared beneath it.

With the curtain hanging all the way to the floor, I’d
never even thought about what might be behind it but I was
about to find out. I brushed the heavy fabric aside and found
a narrow
curving
staircase with
bloody
footprints
slowly
climbing them. I held tightly to the rail as I ascended behind
them.

At the first landing, I could see the balcony ahead of
me. In my dreams, that was always where the murder took
place. Fear started to take root. Maybe I should retreat until
Lucas could accompany me. I’d already discovered one dead
body today, wasn’t that enough? Then my conscience kicked
in.

The body I found up here
might
still be alive.
Every
single second was precious—one more night and she could be
dead.
My intense fear took the backseat to possibly saving
someone’s life. The bloody prints continued past the balcony,
climbing toward the tower instead. I took a deep breath and
followed them once more.

The air became hotter as I went until I thought I might
pass out. The stairway grew increasingly darker as I climbed
until I could barely make out the prints on the steps ahead. I
pulled my phone out of my pocket and used the flashlight app
to light the way.
My
heart pounded relentlessly
as
I
approached the final landing.
I paused for just a second to
prepare myself for whatever I might find then I removed my
foot from the top step and shined my light into the dark
tower.

Nothing.
No body—alive or otherwise.
In fact, the
tower was empty—there wasn’t even a bell. The floor was
dusty and showed no trace of any recent visitors. At least not
human ones anyway. A cluster of pigeons sat roosting in the
rafters above, the floor below them littered with feathers and
droppings. The bloody prints led through them to the far
window and disappeared.

Of the four windows in the tower, only one was still
intact. A snowy draft blew through the boarded up openings,
chilling me as I passed. The air was welcome after the intense
heat that had engulfed
the theater.
Slowly
my
body
temperature was returning to normal except for that one spot
on my back that felt like someone had held a scorching hot
iron against my skin.

When I got to the window, I stared threw the pane in
wonderment. From this vantage point, I could see all of the
lights from downtown Charlotte’s Grove winking back at me.
It was such a beautiful sight that I almost forgot where I was.
And who was with me.

A gathering of what felt like spider webs started to
entwine around me, like I was the fly about to be gobbled.
Sticky threads crawled up my arms and reached for my face.
The
faster I moved to brush
them
away, the faster they
seemed to regenerate and climb even faster.
The spectral
netting held me tight, constricting my movements until I was
powerless to fight it.

I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t move. The only parts of
me not covered in it were my eyes and nose. My eyelids were
glued open so that I couldn’t even close them to the horrors
unfolding. Whatever she was going to do to me, she wanted
me to be alive and to see it coming. The threads began to tug
at me, pulling me forward toward the window. The bottom
pane shot upwards, blasting me with a frigid wind as I was
flung toward it.
Allison was trying to throw me out of the
window!

Struggling to get even one arm free, I wrenched with
my right wrist until just the tips of my fingers were unbound.
There wasn’t time to work on my other hand—I was about to
plummet to the alley below. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to hold
on with just one hand, but I was certainly going to try.

I dug my fingernails into the soft, rotting wood frame
and hoped for the best. I’d survived a lot in this town—
drowning and even a coerced suicidal hanging—but Zach was
always there to save me.
Not this time.
miles
away,
probably
plopped in
front
This time he was
of the
television

watching Sunday night football. While he shouted at the refs
for a questionable call, I would be silently plummeting to my
death.

My
fingers
cramped in
extreme pain
as
the webs
fought to break my grip.
My head was outside the window
now, snowflakes stinging my unblinking eyes. The alley was
so far down—there was no way I could survive a fall like that.
Not even close.
Would people think it was an accident or a
suicide?
Two people would definitely know the truth.
Zach
would blame Lucas—he was supposed to be keeping an eye
on me. Lucas would feel like he’d failed me. The wood tore
away under my grip and I pitched forward.

“Ru! Hang
on—I’m coming!” Lucas’s footsteps
thundered across the tower floor sending the pigeons into
frenzied flight.

At the sound of his voice, the webs disappeared and
left me hanging from the frame still about to fall even without
their assistance. Now that my left arm was free, I flung it out
wildly for something to hold onto but my fingers met with
dead air. My center of gravity was too high. I lost my grip and
toppled forward.

“I got you, Ru!” Lucas shouted as his arms locked
around my waist.

I was suspended in midair—he was the only thing that
stood between me and a bone crushing death.
But I trusted
him and that trust was all I needed.

As he pulled me to safety, I tumbled backwards and
knocked him over, losing my sense of balance in the process.
Lucas fell flat on his back and I landed straight on top of him.
We were pressed against each other so close—closer than I’d
ever been to anyone other than Zach.
Heaving
breaths,
unimaginable relief. I felt so…alive.

Lucas wrapped his arms around me. “What a rush!”
he exclaimed and I knew that he felt it, too—that undeniable
desire to take the moment anywhere it wanted to go.

Acting on instinct more than anything else, I leaned
forward fully intending to kiss him.
Just as our lips were
about to touch, we were interrupted.