Brian Freeman - Spilled Blood

Chris slammed the trunk. He saw no cars on the streets, and there were no lights in the nearby houses. The town of Barron was quiet. Even so, he felt as if a voyeur were watching him. It was a strange, uncomfortable sensation. He studied the parked cars in the hospital lot, but he was alone. He looked across the street to the dark field, which was buried in shadows. If anyone was there, they were invisible.

He was about to return to the hospital when he noticed something under the windshield wiper of his car. It hadn’t been there when he parked. He assumed it was the kind of annoying advertisement that sandwich shops placed on cars on the Minneapolis streets, but when he plucked it from the windshield he saw that it was an envelope. Nothing was written on the outside. It wasn’t sealed.

Chris slid a single sheet of paper from the interior, and when he unfolded it, he looked up sharply, staring into the empty darkness around him. He hadn’t been wrong. He wasn’t alone.

He read the black printed letters on the page.

TO THE ATTENTION OF

MR. CHRISTOPHER HAWK

YOU HAVE SUFFERED TONIGHT

YOU ARE IN A WORLD

WHOSE EVIL IS BEYOND SALVATION

YOU ARE IN A WORLD

THAT WILL SOON BE DESTROYED

LET THIS BE YOUR WARNING

THERE WILL BE NO ESCAPE

IF YOU STAY YOU WILL DIE

MY NAME IS

AQUARIUS

PART TWO

THE DEAD LAND

16

Chris found the minister’s son, Johan, awake and alone in his hospital room. The teenager sat up in bed, staring out the window at the pre-dawn darkness and using an incentive spirometer for deep breathing. It was obviously painful, and he winced as he inhaled. Seeing Chris, Johan put the device aside. His face still bore the welts and bruises of the beating he’d taken, but the wary demeanor that Chris had observed when he first met Johan at the motel had softened.

‘Mr. Hawk, I’m really sorry,’ Johan told him.

Chris pulled a chair next to the bed. ‘Why are you sorry?’

‘It’s my fault. I couldn’t stop them.’

‘There was one of you against half a dozen or more of them,’ he told the boy. ‘Don’t blame yourself.’

Johan rolled his head back. His fingers curled together into fists. ‘Those bastards.’

Chris saw in the boy what he’d felt in himself the previous night. It was so easy, so tempting, to be consumed by hatred in this town. Marco Piva at the motel had said the same thing. Everyone wants revenge.

‘I’d like to ask you some questions, Johan, if you’re up to it.’

‘Okay.’

‘It’s about you and Ashlynn,’ he said.

The teenager didn’t look surprised. ‘I figured people were going to find out sooner or later.’

‘You were involved with Ashlynn, weren’t you?’ Chris asked.

‘Yeah.’

‘Was it serious?’

‘Yeah. Very.’

‘Who knew about it?’

‘Almost nobody. It wasn’t safe, you know? My dad knew. Ashlynn told her mom. That was it. We didn’t tell anybody else.’

‘What about Olivia?’

Johan hesitated. ‘Yeah, she found out,’ he admitted. ‘She saw us together. She was really upset.’

‘Why? Because of Kimberly?’

‘Not just that.’ The boy hooded his eyes. ‘She was – well, she was really jealous.’

Chris was confused, and then he realized he’d missed the answer that was staring him in the face. Something personal. A teenage triangle. Boy, girl, girl. That was why Olivia hated Ashlynn so much. Olivia loved Johan.

‘Did you and Olivia have a relationship, too?’ he asked.

‘Yeah. Last summer.’

‘Did you break up with her because of Ashlynn?’

‘Look, Mr. Hawk, I never meant—’

Chris held up his hands to stop him. ‘I’m not playing the outraged father here. I just want the truth.’

He saw genuine conflict in Johan’s face. ‘Olivia thought so, but that’s not how it happened. I really care for Olivia a lot, but we’re so different. She thinks religion is a waste of time, and me, well, it’s a big part of my life. There were lots of things like that, where we just didn’t see life the same way. The more we dated, the more I began to realize we didn’t have that much in common. The one thing we did have was Kimberly, but you can’t build a relationship around losing someone, right?’

‘That’s true.’

‘I tried to tell her that, but she said she loved me. She was really hurt.’

‘What about you and Ashlynn? How did that happen? You two were on opposite sides of a pretty big divide.’

Johan looked uncomfortable, as if he were reluctant to share the secret even though Ashlynn was dead. ‘We met at church.’

‘In St. Croix?’ Chris was surprised.

‘Yeah. Ashlynn started coming to see my dad.’

‘Ashlynn was visiting Glenn ?’

Johan nodded.

‘When was this?’

‘About six months ago.’

‘Why?’

Johan swung his legs over the side of the bed. Gingerly, he got up. He walked with a slight limp, but he was a fit teenager, and he was already bouncing back from his injuries. He crossed the hospital room and closed the door. ‘It was very secret. She didn’t want anyone to know.’

‘I’m sure.’

‘The thing is, Ashlynn hated what the feud was doing to this area. She was heartbroken about the kids who died, too. She felt guilty, because of who she was. She wanted to reach out, so she began to visit my dad. At first, she just wanted to tell him how sorry she was about Kimberly and how bad she felt. Then she started getting religious counseling, too.’

‘How did your relationship with her develop?’

‘I’d help her get to and from the church, because she didn’t want anyone seeing her car in St. Croix. We talked for hours. Sometimes all night. She visited me at the motel, too, when I was working. I realized how amazing she was. Not just pretty – she was just this incredible person. I knew things weren’t working out with Olivia, and after we broke up, Ashlynn and I started talking about how we felt for each other. It was serious.’

‘How serious?’ Chris asked.

‘We were in love.’

‘Were you having sex?’

‘Does that matter?’ Johan asked.

‘Actually, it does. I’m sorry.’

Johan looked at the floor. ‘Ashlynn was a virgin. She didn’t like the idea of sex before marriage. I’d had sex before. I mean, Olivia and I – that is, we had—’

‘I get it,’ Chris said. ‘Did you and Ashlynn eventually have sex?’

The teenager nodded. ‘After a few months, we decided we were ready for it. We’d already been talking about getting married after school. It felt right.’

Chris heard regret in Johan’s voice. ‘Was it a mistake?’

‘I guess.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Ashlynn got really distant after we did it. I could tell it was bothering her. I apologized, but she didn’t want to talk. Then, like a month ago, she texted me that we should stop seeing each other. I couldn’t believe it. I thought she loved me.’

‘Did she say why she wanted to break it off?’

‘She said things were moving too fast. That’s it.’

‘Nothing else?’

‘No.’

Chris waited for Johan to talk about the pregnancy. The abortion. He studied the teenager’s face and saw nothing but confusion. Johan was telling the truth about being in the dark. He didn’t know what was really happening to Ashlynn. For whatever reason, Ashlynn had chosen to go through this on her own. She had turned to Hannah for guidance. Not Johan. Not Glenn Magnus. Not her own parents.