Frights at Twilight (Part 5)
Sloane Baecker (7)
Chapter 9 – The First Time
“AAH!” Bea screamed as the scalding hot coffee cup shattered and spilled on her feet. Bea was so overwhelmed by everything, she couldn’t think quickly, and Perry ran over immediately to pull her away from it. “Oh my goodness!” Perry said as she got a first aid kit and got a rag to clean it all up.
After they’d cleaned it up, Bea’s foot was covered with scratches, bruises, and a few burn marks. They sat in silence until Perry asked, “Are you okay?”
This had distracted Bea from whatever happened to Perry, but she definitely didn’t forget. “Am I okay? What happened to you? Are you okay? You’re covered in bumps and bruises!”
Bea exclaimed, she couldn’t believe that Perry was asking, she sat speechless as she gathered her thoughts. Bea was still concerned but much more calm now.
“What happened last night?” Bea asked.
“Well in years past, you’ve helped me out of my terrors calmly,” she started.
“ Uh huh.”
“Well since you weren’t there last night, I ended up waking myself up in a rather brutal way,” Perry told her.
“What did you do?” Bea asked as intense worry started covering her face.
“I don’t know exactly what I did, but I remember waking up the first time when I banged my head into the plant stand by the window. I looked in the mirror, and saw that I’d cut my forehead really bad and it started swelling. After that I cleaned and bandaged it then went back to sleep,” Perry explained.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry—wait “the first time”?” Bea asked and she grew more terrified than before.
Perry avoided eye contact, slightly embarrassed. “I woke up multiple times and hurt myself a lot last night… I did treat them though, so I’m good now.”
“Perry, I can’t let you do this to yourself every night,” Bea told her.
“But I can’t trust that I won’t hurt you. What do we do?”
RING RING! The home phone rang, Perry jumped up and ran over to the phone and picked it up, “Vance residence, who is this?”
Bea stayed seated on the couch. She couldn’t hear, but she saw that Perry was reacting to something and it didn’t look great. Bea grew concerned.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry I didn’t know…no… oh ok… Yes I’ll try, again I’m so sorry…uh huh, ok bye.” Perry hung up the phone.
“What’s wrong, who was that?” Bea asked.
“That was our neighbor, the one that shares the spare room wall. She made a complaint to the landlord about the noises at night. She’s furious.”
Bea gave Perry an I told you so look, “You can’t keep doing this, you hurt yourself quite seriously, you hardly slept, and now there’s a chance we’ll get kicked out of here!”
Perry had a miserable look on her face, she knew Bea was right, but she still didn’t want to risk hurting her. Bea knew this, they were lost, they couldn’t find a way out of this situation. Bea looked at Perry as she began suggesting something she knew Perry would never agree to. It was the only way she could think of to get out of this. “You know… You could let me help you ease you out of your terrors,” she suggested.
“I can’t do that, I can’t put you in danger.” Perry retaliated.
“You won’t hurt me Perry, you never have and never will,” Bea said as she got closer.
“Except for all I know, I have. And you know that I have no control of what I do,” she told her.
“Perry, I know this is hard for you to hear, but that was only a dream. You never hurt me!”
Perry wasn’t convinced.
“So what do we do then?” Bea asked, fully aware this was the only way they’d work this out.
Chapter 10- Where?
Perry was unhappy and very scared of whatever would happen tonight. She struggled falling asleep.
That next morning, Bea woke up, all she could remember was that Perry did have terrors. She had to ease Perry back to sleep, but this was different than the other times. This time, Perry was completely silent when this happened.
Bea woke up and saw that Perry was not in the room. I guess she’s already out there, she thought. Bea walked into their main room, expecting to see Perry, but she was nowhere to be found. Bea began to worry.
“Perry, where are you?” she cried out Bea. She picked up her phone and called Perry.
“Hi! This is Perry’s phone, leave a message after the beep…..
*BEEEEP*
Bea left their house and rushed to Perry’s work; the library. “Bea?” she whispered rather loudly. She dashed, as quietly as possible, down every aisle and toevery counter, and then over to the customer service counter. She slammed the bell urgently and leaned over the counter looking for one of Perry’s coworkers to help her. “Hello? Is anyone here?”
No one answered and she continued hitting the bell.
“I’M COMING! You don’t have to break the bell,” a voice said coming from behind the closet door. “How can I help yo– OH! Bea what brings you here? Perry didn’t tell me you’d be coming,” said a small woman coming around the door holding a pile of novels.
“Hi, Frances. I don’t have a lot of time. I just have to ask if you’ve seen– wait did you say Perry was here?” Bea commented, almost too quickly to understand.
Frances put the books on the counter, “Well, no I haven’t seen her here today. Is something wrong? Can I help?” Frances asked, losing her bubbly energy.
“It’d take a while to explain everything, but long story short I can’t find her and she isn’t picking up her phone. Do you know where she might be?” Bea pressed.
“No, I’m afraid I don’t know. You might want to ask her brother; he might know,” Fran suggested.
“Wait, Harlan’s in town right now?” Bea asked bewildered.
“Oh yeah he came in earlier. I don’t know what he’s doing, but he’s just been walking laps around the library,” she told Bea.
“He’s looking to check out books from a town he doesn’t live even close to?” Frances asked sarcastically.
Fran started looking around and then pointed towards the sci-fi section, “There he is.”
Bea whipped her head around following Fran’s finger and sure enough there he was.
“Let me know if you need anything el—” Fran said but realized that Bea already left.
“Uh, Harlan? YOU’RE IN TOWN?!” Bea exclaimed.
“Shhhhh!” the library collectively told her.
“Sorry everyone,” Bea replied sheepishly.
“Hello Bea,” He greeted her. “Perry told me to tell you that she just went out of town to see— t-to see—wait a second.” He flusteredly pulled out a folded piece of paper and reread it under his breath. “Ah, yes. She went to see–”
“Stop!” Bea interrupted him, “Don’t you lie to me, Harlan.”
He looked down with a sense of defeat, “Ok fine.” He looked around as if checking to see who was watching, or listening rather. “She called me last night. She told me to come here. She wanted me to make sure you wouldn’t worry or try to find her. It looks like I failed her.”
Bea rolled her eyes, “So where did she go? Did she tell you?” Bea asked him.
He looked away trying not to make eye contact, he was hiding something.
“Harlan… where did she go?”
“She ran away,” he responded.
“What do you mean, ran away?”
“She just told me she wanted to go somewhere that she couldn’t hurt anyone, somewhere… isolated. I think she went to Ms. Marley’s house,” he breathed. Then he looked into Bea’s eyes, “I don’t think she’s coming back.”