"Fade to Black 8" by Tansy A. H. Pye

Scene 8
Close Encounters.

The announcement was made the next day during the morning assembly. Marcia Brown was dead. Police were asking anybody who knew anything about Marcia’s last known whereabouts to step forward and speak to them. There were Policemen all over the school. Christie felt sick. She looked round, but Danny’s year was some rows behind hers and she couldn’t see his face.

The assembly continued like a slow torture. Teachers said a few words about Marcia, all around her she could hear students talking in hushed tones. Charlotte, Hannah and her other close friends had been told the night before it seemed and had taken the opportunity to take some time off school. Christie wished that she had such an excuse but everybody knew how she felt about Marcia, or at least, how Marcia felt about her.

For the rest of the day she kept expecting someone to accuse her, she couldn’t take the guilt from her face, or from her heart, she dreaded every encounter, but no one approached her. Without the bullies to attract attention to her, nobody even noticed she was there. No teacher called her out, no student spoke a word to her all day. At break and lunch she searched for Danny and the freaks, but she couldn’t find them. The first time she really needed them and they were nowhere in sight. She felt miserable. When the last bell rang she went to her locker to throw her bag inside, no homework had been set that day and she saw no reason to carry all her books home just to have to carry them in again the next day.

As the locker door swung back Christie screamed and threw herself against the opposite wall.

The leering face of the Vampire leered at her from a poster in the depths of the locker, but it was not this that had so terrified her. On the top shelf of her locker was a single blood soaked Nike Trainer.

She looked up and down the corridor, there was no-one there to have witnessed her bizarre behaviour. She slammed the door on the grizzly scene, and put her back to it, her mind racing, what was she to do. Danny. She decided, she had to see Danny. The freaks often hung out at the swings by the main gates after school, she remembered, so she headed there.

The freaks were indeed on the swings. She nodded to the others but went straight up to Danny.

“My God Danny, where were you?”

“When?”

“Try all day, I was only having a seizure!”

“Lucky us, we’ve been answering questions in the Head Master’s office all day, it seems some of her friends told the police we’d ganged up on her the other day.” Christie had been so caught up in her own panic she had failed to notice how tired and worried they all looked.

“Oh Hell, I’m sorry. What did they want? What did they ask?” She went cold all over and looked Danny in the eye “What did you tell them?” If the other freaks noticed the look they exchanged, they didn’t mention it.

“Nothing. what could we tell them? we don’t know anything do we.”

“It was intense though. If you don’t mind guys I want to go home.” Wolfboy said and jumped off his swing and head down walked towards the road. He was soon followed by the rest of the freaks finally Danny and Chris were left alone.

“Shall I walk you home?” She looked at him. Danny was tired and stressed, it showed in his eyes and his lips, which were a thin white line.

“You don’t have to.” She could see his struggle with the man’s need for chivalry and the boy’s desire to just go home. The boy won.

“Do you mind? I’m really tired.”

“No It’s okay, I only live a couple of streets away and my Mom will be home soon. But I need to talk to you. Soon.”

“I know. But I’ve got a lot of stuff to think about first... It’s just I... Well, it’s...” She watched him struggle for the words to say what he was feeling. “I want to believe you. I really do.” He got up and walked away. She watches him till he is out of sight then sat heavily on one of the swings and began to cry. She didn’t know what to believe any more. Or who. Marcia was really dead, but was it the vampire or not? Is he really real? Or did she kill Marcia and can’t remember it.

She was still sat on the swing, long after dark. In her heart she was hoping for the Vampire to turn up, for one of his sardonic chats. He didn’t. But at around seven the police did. Her Mum had called them, frantic that she wasn’t home when she got back from work. The Police took her down to the station where she had to sit for three hours till her Mum got back from the Morgue. Christie felt nerves turn to cold hard dread in her stomach. Her Mum had been sent to the morgue because another girl had been found and the Police had thought it may have been her. She felt awful for her Mum to have to go through that, but she felt worse, because she knew who had been killed. Charlotte. And she bet she knew how too.

Her Mum rushed into the waiting room and threw Christie into a hug she wouldn’t let go. A nice Policeman offered to drive them home and her Mum accepted. It wasn’t until they were home that her Mum started yelling at her.

“What did you think you were doing?”

“I’m sorry Mum”

“Do you know what I had to see? Where they took me” Her Mum was yelling and sobbing. Christie was crying too. “That little girl could have been you. All broken and pale.”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I’ll be home early tomorrow. I swear. I’m so sorry.” She broke down crying, her Mum rushed over and caught her up in her arms and the two of them howled and cried together, till finally they both went upstairs to bed. Christie in her Mum’s bed.

The next morning they decided they were both too tired to go to work or school. Her Mum went downstairs to phone her work and the school to explain their absences. Christie ran a bath and thought about what she was going to say and do. When she finally went downstairs her Mum was cooking breakfast.

“The School said none of your year has to go in today. Not after last night. I don’t know what’s happening to this town. It’s so small, and yet we’ve got some kind of suicide ring killing our children. I wish your father had never got us posted here. Next time he rings I’m going to tell him to scrap that job. I can’t take it any more him being so far away. He should be here. Three kids in two days.” She puts their breakfasts on the table.

“Three? I thought there was just two.” Christie has quite lost her appetite.

“No, the school said there was a boy killed last night too.”

“Nick.”

“They didn’t say. Why? Do you know these kids? Do you know why they may be doing this?”

“Just a guess. Nick is Charlotte’s boyfriend. Did they say it was suicide?”

“Yes. What else could it be?” They sit staring at each other in silence both trying desperately not to think what else it could be. Finally Christie could stand it no longer and went upstairs to her room. She was trying desperately to decide what to do when she heard the door bell. She glanced at the clock, quarter past one. Time really flies when you’re miserable. Her Mother answered it.

“Chris.” Her mother shouted up the stairs. “It’s Danny. Are you decent?” She looked around. Her room was tidy, she was still in the T.shirt she had slept in so she grabbed a pair of jeans out of her wardrobe and threw them on.

“Yeah!” She shouted back. “Tell him to come up!” A minute later, Danny entered her room.

“Hi. It’s lunchtime, but they’ve sent us all home. You weren’t in school today. I was worried.” He looked more than worried, he looked like he had been terrified.

“Are you okay? You don’t look well.” Chris fluffed up the beanbag and motioned to him to sit down. Once he had made himself comfortable, she pulled up a few floor cushions and sat down opposite him.

“The police are all over the School. They said there have been three deaths now. They think it’s suicide but they’re not ruling out foul play. I think I’m going to scream every time they look at me. The school is closing from this afternoon. They said they were going to do a locker search tomorrow.” Christie went visibly pale and began to tremble.“What’s wrong?”

“In my locker.”

“What? what's in your locker?”

“A trainer. Marcia’s trainer.” Danny frowns and looks confused. “The one she was wearing. blood soaked and torn.”

“What? How? Why do you have it? How did you get it? Why?” Danny begins to stand up.

“I don’t know, it appeared in my locker. I don’t know how it got there. I assumed the vampire had put it there, but now I don’t know.”

“Christie. I don’t know if I can believe you about that anymore. Please tell me you haven’t really got Marcia’s trainer in your locker. Or please tell me how you got it.” Christie feels the tears well up in her eyes again.

“I’m sorry Danny, I don’t know. Really I don’t and I swear The vampire is real. But I don’t think he’s killing them, I don’t know who is.” Silently Danny turns and walks to the door. “Stop. Please. Where are you going.” He opens the door and begins to walk down the hall. She runs after him and grabs his arm, pulling him round to face her. He is crying.

“I can’t hear this. I don’t know who you are or what you are playing at. But I don’t think I should be around you. The Police already think it’s me. If they find that in your locker and then find out your my girlfriend. I’m doomed.” She lets him go. He runs down the stairs and out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Christie leans on the wall. She feels empty and lost. She doesn’t think she will ever be able to cry again. Her Mum rushes up the stairs.

“What happened? What did he do? Are you okay?”

“I think we broke up.” She slides down the wall to sit on the floor.”

“I’m sorry. Your school has rung. They said that they are closing for a week because of what has happened. I phoned work and I’ve taken some sick leave so I can stay home with you.But the police want to speak to you tomorrow.” Chris looks sharply up.

“What? Why?” She must have looked terrified.

“It’s only routine I think. They’re taking around a counsellor to talk to everyone in your year I think. Christie is there something wrong. Is there something your not telling me. Please. I’m your Mum. You can tell me anything. I love you.” Christie begins to sob uncontrollably, she curls up on her side and begins to tremble. Her Mum picks her up and half carries, half drags her to her bedroom and puts her into the bed. Then she lies down behind her, cuddling and rocking her like she was a baby till all Chris can do is tremble and make whimpering hicough noises. Every time she looks at her Mother’s tear lined face it just sends her into worse sobs. Finally she sleeps.

Her Mum wakes her up at half past five, with a cup of tea and a few slices of cheese and tomato on toast. Her favourite comfort food. She leaves Chris to eat in silence. When she felt a bit more collected Christie went to her room and wrote a note for the vampire, begging him to come and see her tonight as soon as he could. Then she showered, changed and went downstairs to see her Mum.

“You look better.” Her Mum says when she goes into the living room. Her Mum is curled up on the sofa drinking her tea.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. I lied. I did know them. All of them. They were those people I told you about before. The ones who bullied me, I... It’s hard, because... I wanted them dead.” Tears began to run down her face.

“Oh God. You can’t blame yourself. It isn’t your fault.” Christie takes a deep breath and brings her self under control. She had practised this in the shower.

“I know... Mum, I need to go for a walk. I need to get out.”

“I’ll come with you. Where are we going?” Chris had anticipated this.

“Okay. Let’s walk round town, the shops will be shutting, but we can still get an ice cream and sit by the pond in the castle park, like we used to.”

“Okay. I’ll go get my shoes on. We can drive into town, I’ll park at the church.” They get ready and drive to the church in silence and park in the car park. When they had first moved to town, they had gone to this church, but gradually, other things had filled their Sundays, gardening and visits to the big mall. Her Mum had said that as Sunday was her only day off, she was sure God would understand that she wanted to spend every minute of it with her Daughter, she did however not stop paying the monthly fee which allowed them as parishioners to park in the church car park at anytime. As they walk past it up to the church. Christie notices it is closed, but makes a note of it’s opening hours just in case. There is a small queue of tourists at the ice cream shop. So Christie feigns tiredness and leaves her Mum waiting in the queue while she runs down to the pond. She immediately slips the vampire’s note out of her pocket and sticks it under the seat with electrical tape she had brought with her. She slides over the spot where the note is stuck as her Mother walks down the steps with their ice cream cones.

They eat their ice creams and then feed the ends of the cones to the fish. this was an old ritual. They used to do it after church, then go down to the boating pond and take out a couple of canoes. When her Dad was home they raced. She and her Mum chatted happily about old times till Chris noticed it was getting dark and told her Mum, she was hungry and it was time to go home. But her Mum suggested they found a restaurant and ate in town.

It was dark when they got out of the restaurant. Christie couldn’t help but keep scanning the crowd for the vampire. She kept thinking she saw him, but it was never him. She began to worry that he would not get her note. Or that he had already been to her house and found she was not there.

She needn’t have worried. By the time she got home and rushed upstairs, the vampire was lounging on her beanbag reading the ‘making-of’ book of the film.