Heather wanted to tell Serafina that she didn’t know. That Brittany had wandered off on her own. Heather pictured the look of disgust and blame Serafina would bury her with when she heard the truth. But Sera didn’t need to hear it, her steel eyes read the guilt heavy on Heather, and she pulled her in tighter.
Heather was shocked to silence and could only point towards the basement door. Sera pulled them up and rushed them out of the living room. “We found a crawlspace in the basement,” Heather said with a rasp. “Brit lost her candle and made a circle. After that… is she okay?”
“No,” Serafina said. She led Heather by the hand down the basement steps. “But she’s not dead either. How bad off she is depends on what came through and how much you distracted them. Looks like you kept them pretty busy.”
Heather wiped her eyes with a grimy fist. Even if Sera was feeding her bull, it was to hear she might have managed to do something right tonight. The girls stepped into the basement and it seemed somehow even bigger by flashlight.
“Where’s the crawl space?” Sera said. “We need to get Brittany and book it.”
“But, the ritual. I thought we couldn’t leave until time was up.”
“Time is up, for the ritual and us. The cops are swarming outside.”
Heather’s jaw dropped in realization. “Wait, what are you doing here with the police outside?”
“Don’t worry about it now, point us to Brittany.”
“I can get Brit, you need to get the fuck away from here!” Heather said. God, was she going to ruin everyone’s life tonight?
Sera shook her head and handed Heather the flashlight. “It’s too late to get away. Now, lead us.”
*
It was hard. Maybe the hardest thing Heather had ever done. But her helplessness may have ruined all of their lives tonight. She was going to at least manage to get them all out together. She didn’t know what they’d find beyond that crawl space door. She fantasized about showing Sera the door and then running herself into the waiting arms of the police. Anything to be out of the house and to not have to see the state she put Brittany into.
They wandered anxiously, hearing occasional sirens drifting from above. How long before someone kicked the front door in? Heather was sure they’d covered every corner and started to wonder if the door had vanished with the end of the ritual. Then they heard the sounds of exhausted sobs in the distance. Their flashlight revealed the small metal door at last.
All the guilt and fear sluiced off Heather and she took off running. She ripped open the door and dove inside as Sera struggled to keep pace. The tunnel leveled out and the powerful maglite lit the whole room.
Brit did not look good. She didn’t react to Heather and Sera, and didn’t seem to know where she was. She was laying on her side shivering in the small circle. Her skin was bruised and drained of color, except for her red puffy eyes. When Heather touched her hand she flinched, but some recognition surfaced. “Heath, why are we in a sandbox?”
“I’ll explain later Brit,” Heather said, fighting back her own tears. “Let’s get somewhere warm, come on.” It took steady coaxing, but Heather eventually brought Brittany back through the tunnel. She could barely stand, and felt so light and limp. When Heather mustered the courage to look at Serafina, there was only clear relief on her face. She got under Brittany’s other arm and the three limped back to the stairs.
More and more of Brittany’s memory seemed to return as they walked. They had to pause on the living room couch when Brittany started hyperventilating. Heather rubbed Brit’s back and radioed her cousin.
“Heather what the fuck did you do?! There are like four squad cars over there!”
“Not now Jake. Is your car on? Over.”
“Yeah but I can’t get near you, they’ve got every side of the house covered. I’m on Maple, over.”
Heather swore. “Stay there as long as you can, we’re coming. Over and out.” Serafina’s tight lips said she was about as sure of that as Heather was. “There are some woods between us and Maple,” she said to Sera. “But I don’t know how we get there without being spotted.”
“Yeah, especially if we’re carrying…” Sera trailed off.
“Can we get the fuck out of here and worry about who sees us later?” Brittany said. She still sounded feeble, but she knew where she was and wanted the hell out. That was a win.
“That later will be two seconds after we step outside,” Serafina said, before softening. “But yeah, let’s get you out of here. If we jump out the back window there are some tall bushes we can land behind. Maybe we’ll get lucky“ Brittany nodded gratefully and let Sera pull her to her feet..
Heather gathered up the stuff she’d dropped in the living room when she was… on the ground. She shoved that memory into a box to confront later, hopefully much later. Sera led them to the room with the grandfather clock. Behind a lacey curtain was a small window half covered by an overgrown holly bush.
Heather was boosted out first and dropped behind the sharp holly leaves, clutching her sack of books. A few flashlights were sweeping across the yard, but most were focused on the upper windows. Brit let Sera carefully lower her down to Heather next. Her skin was clammy. Serafina lingered in the window, scowling out through the leaves at the blue lights. Heather thought she could read her mind. Sera would rather face whatever was inside the house than go towards those lights.
“I’m not going to let them see you,” Heather said. “Come on Sera.”
“How can you promise that?” Serafina said.
“I’ll run distraction.” Heather’s brain tried to make a plan to catch up to her sentiment. “If they catch me I have a clean record. You guys slip by and get to Jake.”
Serafina climbed down, landing almost silently. She got very close to Heather. “You’d seriously do that?”
Heather gave an uneasy smile. “I don’t know if you noticed, but you kind of saved my life in there. Yeah I’d do it.”
“Hey,” Brit said in a weak whisper. “She saved both of us. Let me do it.”
“You can barely stand up,” Heather said. “How’s your head?”
“Gotta be real, not good. But this makes the most sense.”
“We don’t have time to argue about this.” Serafina growled, shifting on her feet.
“Exactly. Heather, your parents will bury you if you get arrested. Ony my sister would give a shit if I spent a night in jail.” Heather couldn’t disagree. Brit’s mom would pay the bail, hire a lawyer, and move on. That’d probably be the end of it. Heather knew by the tilt of Brittany’s chin that she wasn’t going to be talked out of this.
“Fine,” Heather said. “Let’s do it.”
Serafina stood Brittany up and clapped her shoulder. “Thanks,” she said, and catching Heather’s eye, ”both of you.”
They clawed through the holly around the side of the house until they had a clear view of the line of police cars and officers. It looked like they were setting up to breach the door. But not everyone in front was a cop.
“It’s fucking Callagan!” Heather said, pulling the others back.
“Shit.” Serafina said. “How did she get so fast?”
“Back from where?” Heather asked.
“She was supposed to be out of state for at least a day. I watched her leave.” But there she stood, bundled in a jacket and talking with one of the officers. Now and then she’d point to a window and shake her head.
“Doesn’t change what I need to do,” Brittany said. And before anyone could stop her she sprinted around the side of the house. Brit was doing the dirty work for Heather twice in one night, and there was nothing Heather could do about it. A few seconds later they heard a male voice shout “Shit, hey! Stop!” The officer said something into his radio and took off running. Stampeding boots faded away in the distant crunching leaves.
Heather risked a peak and saw a wave of cops peeling off to the main road while more ran for their cars. Callaghan had vanished. “Now.”
Heather and Sera sprinted through the now darkened back yard and didn’t look back until they reached the shelter of some overgrowth. A few flashlights still swept the area, but no one had seen them yet. The yard had gone so wild that finding a clear path to the woods was impossible. Every double back, every thorn that snagged Heather’s bag, every snapping twig threatened to drop her heart into her stomach. But they finally broke through to a clear trail in the woods and took off. Heather felt like an uncaged animal. All the night’s trauma and restrained mania pumped into her legs. Trees blurred by as branches parted for her and the deepening darkness hid her from the world. She’d have kept running until morning if Serafina hadn’t dragged her to a stop.
“We’ve gone deep enough,” Sera said, face red, gulping down night air like a landed fish. She pointed towards faint street light leaking through the branches. “Jake should be just through there. Come on.”
They found Jake waiting, engine on, lights off, hands dancing restlessly on the wheel. He yelped as the girls jumped into his backseat. “Get us out of here!” Heather shouted, righting herself from a headfirst dive.
“Where’s Brittany?”
“Just go!” Serafina barked, and Jake obeyed, coasting out of the dead end street. They made it a few blocks down the road, and Heather was calming down just enough to really process what’d happened to them. She could already feel the walls coming up, the voice telling her maybe she imagined it all. But she’d never believe that voice again. Blue lights appeared in the rear view mirror.
“Ooooh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck. I’m dead. What did you dumbshits do in that fucking house?”
“Dude!” Serafina said, “be cool, politely answer all their questions, and we’ll be fine.” Her shaking voice didn’t give Jake a calm template to follow. Heather always assumed juvie hadn’t phased Sera, but her wide eyes and shallow breathing made Heather reconsider. What had happened to her in those missing years?
“Remember Jake,” Heather said. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know I don't!”
“And we were at a Halloween party.”
“Then where are our costumes?” he asked. But time was up, the officer was at the window.
Jake struggled to crank the window down, and then said in a surprisingly confident voice, “Evening sir, how can I help you?”
The big man was inscrutable behind the wrap-around sunglasses he inexplicably wore. He learned down to our level. “What are you and your friends doing out this late, son?”
Jake kept his hands still on the wheel and answered maybe a little too politely. “Sir I’m just driving my cousin and her friend home from a party.”
“At three in the morning? Where was this party?” Heather itched with the temptation to shout it was none of his business.
“Just a couple blocks over, another friend's house, officer…?”
“Waring. I need an address son, what street?”
“It was uh, on…” Jake trailed off and glanced to the back seat. Sera gripped Heather’s hand.
The cop gave an annoyed sigh. “Hand over your license and registration.”
Passed his license and then started tearing through every compartment for the registration. By now Heather could see the cogs plainly turning in the officer’s head. He’d probably ask Jake to step out next, then search the car and find their bag. She could maybe pass the notebook off as hers, but the flashlight and the salt, and why had they taken so many cookbooks?! Sera sank deeper below the seat, eyes shut.
“It was Pleasant Street officer Waring,” Heather said from the back. “We’re sorry, my cousin’s nervous because he broke curfew to pick us up. The party started to get weird and we didn’t feel safe there anymore.” By now Jake had found the registration and handed it over with a toothy grin.
“There was a pretty loud party on that road. And your name is?”
“Heather Sarantakis, I live on Gardner’s.”
The cop paused scrutinizing the registration. “Your dad’s name George? Yeah I know your folks. Surprised they let you stay at a party this late but they’d be glad to hear you knew when to leave. I’m gonna run this real quick, don’t go anywhere.”
They sat and waited for an eternity. The officer stood in front of his headlights so all Heather could see was a silhouette of a man. Despite the present danger, the image was dragging her back to the third floor. She shoved it down, there was plenty of time for that freak out once they were clear.
The officer took his time wandering back to the car. “Son, you have one of your license plate lights out. You need to get that fixed before you’re on the road again. You’ve got a clean driving record so I’m just going to warn you for now. Heather, say hi to George and Hana for me.”
“Thank you sir,” Jake said in a way that made Heather want to gag. It felt insane that the difference between an arrest and a ticket was who you knew. Well, and what you looked like…
“Oh, Jake, you didn’t see anyone else out while you were driving, did you?”
“No officer, I didn’t.”
“Mm, well you get these two home. Something's going on around here. We may have to call you in for questioning in the future, you know, help us paint a picture of the night while we investigate.”
“Good luck sir.” All the collective sighs released from the passengers could have floated the car to the moon. Jake cranked the window and got back onto the road. The officer wheeled the other way.
Heather was a run out rag with nothing left in her to fuel any thoughts. She blinked up at the pearly moon shining through the car window, feeling the thrum of the motor and the heat from Serafina’s leg touching hers. That small comfort was all she carried with her into oblivion as she let sleep take her in those final hours of the night.