The Dark: A Collection (Point Horror) Read online

  For three years now he'd been serving a sentence for armed robbery in the Georgia state penitentiary.

  Bianca had never had a brother or a sister. But if her mother or father had suddenly taken to the streets to carry on a life of crime, she would never be able to hold her head up. It would be a badge of shame.

  Someday the murderer of Mrs. Ingersoll might be caught and Bianca would be safe. But there was no chance of living down the horror of having a family member turn to crime. That person would always be your mother, father, brother or sister as long as you lived. On an island where everybody knew everybody else, that was like living in perpetual hell. The real hell couldn't be any worse.

  "You don't have such a chip on your shoulder any more," Bianca remarked. "When I see you at school, you look as if you don't care. Mike doesn't seem to bother you."

  Harry looked straight into Bianca's eyes. "I pulled myself together and toughened up. It hasn't changed Mike. It's just made Mike a helluva lot easier to put up with."

  Bianca bit her lip. "I don't think I could do that."

  "Why not?"

  "I'm not that brave."

  "Somebody like you who—"

  She clapped her hand over his mouth.

  "It makes me feel guilty when people call me a heroine. I — I don't deserve it."

  "If you're not a heroine, nobody is!" he exclaimed. "Risk your life for a baby? Man, most people would have run out the door and saved their own necks when they heard a killer in the house."

  She shook her head no. "I'm stupid, and I'm a coward." If only Harry could see what was written all over the mirror in the ladies' lounge!

  Harry put his hand under her chin and made her look at him. "Hey! Don't put yourself down. The reason the other kids tease you is that they're afraid of you."

  "I — I don't understand. . ."

  "They'd be scared shitless if they were faced with a killer. They wouldn't have survived.

  They know it. They're envious of you and don't want to admit it. It's like you have some sort of awesome, supernatural power." Harry was gazing at her with naked admiration.

  Bianca blushed and looked shyly down at her lap. No one had ever seen her behave so badly, then praised her like this.

  "Thanks!" Bianca murmured, managing a wan smile. "You don't know what I'm like."

  "You're not a convict like my brother!"

  "I'm just as bad in a different way. I mean, I haven't done anything illegal that the police would arrest me for, but. . ."

  "What have you done wrong?" he scoffed.

  Bianca had never talked like this to anyone, not even Doc. She was thinking about confessing stuff to Harry that she'd never told another soul.

  "You can't call somebody brave who sleeps with the lights on," she began. "I don't mean just night lights either. I mean overhead ones. Do you know any other kid like that who's almost eighteen?"

  "Three years ago when Mike was out on bail awaiting trial, I used to leave the phone off the hook all the time. I was afraid that Mike might call. You might say that's my phobia — Mike."

  Bianca felt encouraged enough to smile.

  "Go ahead!" Harry urged her. "Confess more of your deep, dark secrets. You haven't shocked me yet."

  He beamed at her with such a bright smile that it made her heart pound. She'd never felt like this before. She didn't know what to call it. His hand was warm as it closed around her smaller one. A reassuring feeling flowed into her. He gave her courage. No matter what she said, Harry didn't make fun of her.

  She tried to think of her deepest, darkest secrets to test Harry. "I tell kids I need lots of sleep. That's why I don't ever go to slumber parties. Really it's that—"

  "You can't sleep with the lights out, right?"

  "You're not shocked?"

  "Keep trying to shock me. You're doing a terrible job."

  "This is my first movie in years because—"

  "You're scared of the dark. You don't have to bother to tell me that was why you excused yourself to go to the rest room. There are lights out here in the lobby. It's pitch black inside the theater without any windows."

  She'd never met anyone who understood her feelings so well. "How — how did you know?" she stuttered.

  He shrugged. "Guess you could say I felt the same way about my brother. Sort of like your fear of the dark. I was always trying to escape him — at first. Started coming up with false last names when I went places where they didn't know me. If I saw Mike walk past when he was awaiting trial, I'd go hide in the bathroom. Once I hid in an umbrella closet. Made an absolute fool of myself when the dentist's nurse decided to leave in a hurry. I fell right on top of her when she opened the door. Damn near frightened the poor woman to death. Thought I was a dead body. Might as well have been in those days."

  Bianca's mouth dropped a foot. It sounded like something stupid she would do herself. She challenged herself to think hard. She was going to come up with the worst things about herself that she could imagine, things that she could hardly admit to herself, let alone to someone else.

  "I'm afraid of the night sky. At sunset I close the shutters and stuff bath towels under my door so I can't see that thin, black line of darkness from out in the hallway. All I see is the electric light on my ceiling instead."

  This was clearly the sort of stuff you never told anybody else, not even your diary. Would he say she was nuts?

  "Look, kid," he squeezed her hand, "you're a survivor. You're real tough, tougher than you think — just like me."

  She blinked back tears. "You really think so?" She didn't seem to be able to shock him no matter what she told him.

  "I know so!"

  This was different from talking to Doc about her problems. Doc was an adult that she was going to for advice, that she was trying to please. Doc never had problems. He had everything figured out. He never had to confide in her. Harry was more her equal, someone she could share her feelings with, painful as they were. She'd never realized until now how desperate she'd been for a friend.

  He leaned close. Their noses touched. He brushed her lips with his own gently. Then he did it again and again.

  A tremor went through her body. This time it wasn't fear. She couldn't believe that anybody could like her enough to kiss her — if they knew her darkest secrets. She wanted to thank Harry in her own, special way. She leaned forward and kissed him back. With Doc, she had always waited for him to make the first move for fear of displeasing him.

  Harry toyed with her hair, brushing back the strands that had fallen into her face. He rubbed noses. He acted as if he was attracted to her as she was to him, as if he needed her as she needed him. No one else made her feel half so good — not even Doc.

  He aimed for her lips and awkwardly hit her nose. She didn't mind. She stopped blushing and held up her lips for him to kiss. He kissed her tentatively, then again as if he couldn't get enough. He pulled her against his chest. He kissed her as if he never wanted to let go.

  She felt shy at first. She'd never kissed a guy except Doc. That had been different. Even at intimate moments Doc would instruct her. His touch had felt clinical and detached. It was the doctor and the teacher in him, that and the fact that he was older and more experienced.

  Harry, on the other hand, liked whatever she did naturally. She got up her courage and slipped her arms around his back. It felt good to draw him down to her and kiss him back slowly at first, then with increasing fervor.

  Soon she didn't know where her lips ended and Harry's began. She was pressed so close against him that she didn't know if it was his heart pounding against her chest or her own. She thought, I never knew it could be like this — not to be all alone and scared.

  As she kissed him she whispered all the things she had started to remember about that night two years ago. She confessed everything from the time that Mrs. Ingersoll thought she heard someone prowling around out in the bushes to the time that she, Bianca, had run screaming murder down the street. He kept on whispering as h
e kissed her that she was a true heroine. She shouldn't doubt herself.

  "All right you geek, what's the big idea!" A voice growled.

  Bianca gasped. She hastily straightened out her T-shirt and brushed off her jeans. She reached up under the back of her T-shirt to pull down her bra.

  Rick stood in the doorway, his chest heaving up and down. His fair complexion flushed bright red. His blue eyes blazed. His legs were slightly apart, his knees flexed and ready to spring to the attack. Rick fingered something as if he couldn't wait to use it. It looked sharp and glinted silver in the dim light of the lounge.

  A knife!

  Chapter 6

  Bianca had assumed that the movie had finished long ago and that Rick Roscoe had gone home. She could tell by the sounds from the lobby that the movie was letting out now. Kids were streaming out the front door, laughing and shouting.

  Marianna followed Rick into the room. She leaned against the wall. To judge by her malicious look, she had everything to do with Rick knowing where to find Bianca. Bianca would bet her life on it!

  "When a girl goes to the movies with me, I expect her to leave with me!" Rick thundered.

  Bianca had never imagined that he would act like this. All during the movie he had pretty much ignored her. Why should he suddenly show an interest now?

  Harry leaped up from the sofa and stepped in front of Bianca. "Leave Bianca alone. If you're going to pick on anybody, pick on me."

  "Do you go around picking up other guy's dates? Is that how you get your kicks? You're going end up in jail like your brother real soon."

  "You don't give a shit about Bianca. I care about her."

  Bianca stood behind Harry. It was nice to hear Harry say that.

  "You're wasting your time with a girl like that. Too rich and stuck up. You can't trust her. That's why I came to you as soon as I saw what was going on," Marianna broke in. "It was all too obvious that Bianca and Harry were having a fit of smoochies in the back lounge."

  Marianna's CLOSED sign had been up. Bianca had had no idea that the other girl had been spying on her.

  Rick lunged at Harry with his knife. Harry stepped out of the way just in time, pulling Bianca with him.

  Rick taunted him. "Are you afraid to fight, Fellini? Are you going to hide behind Bianca?"

  "There seems to be no limit to your stupidity, Roscoe. I just prefer to keep my head."

  Harry exchanged looks with Bianca. Some secret, silent communication passed between them. This was what Harry meant by refusing to let the kids get his goat. She was amazed. She could never act like that. She wouldn't have the nerve.

  "You're just a coward!" Rick spat.

  Harry stood stock still.

  "You're afraid to fight me. You know you're going to lose."

  Harry bit his lip. He didn't move.

  "Maybe you're brain dead." Rick laughed cruelly. "Did Mike throw you against the wall one too many times when you were little?"

  Harry clenched his fists. Still he didn't move one inch toward Rick.

  "Maybe he needs a real woman to give him hair on his chest instead of that little ninny cringing against the wall." Marianna threw her hips back and forth as she crossed the room to Harry's side. "Bianca's made him as chicken as she is." She gave Harry a taunting kiss on the cheek, then cackled with glee.

  Harry stepped away from Marianna. He didn't give in to the temptation to say something back.

  "Wait until I tell the theater manager about you." Marianna's poisonous, violet eyes glowed with venom. "You know he doesn't allow employees to mess around on the job. He'll fire you on the spot, Fellini."

  Bianca's spine tingled. She sensed a presence in the doorway and turned. There were the thick bifocals that made him look smarter than anybody else. He was wearing a collared white dress shirt, starched at that. She'd forgotten that Doc could afford to wear dress shirts whenever he wanted. The McColloughs had money like the Shipleys. Besides, Doc was a rather formal kind of guy.

  "Doc!" Bianca raced over to him.

  Doc caught her by the shoulders and drew her aside. "You seemed a little bit overwrought in the movie theater tonight." He frowned, looking concerned. "Overwrought" was Doc's kind of term. He used big, fifty-cent words like that.

  "I'm OK now, I guess." She looked shyly down at the carpet and then back up into his eyes. She wanted to tell him about her memory of that night two years ago and how it was returning. This clearly wasn't the time or the place.

  "Do you want to tell me all about it?" It was more of a statement than a question, taking for granted her compliance. "I'll give you a lift home. We can talk in the car. Susan won't mind." Doc didn't bother to glance at his date.

  The nurse with the shapely legs emerged from the lobby. She was wearing a sundress with stockings. She leaned against the door frame and gave Doc a faint smile, slipping her stockinged foot out of her heel and rubbing it up and down her calf. Any woman Doc went out with must be used to this kind of thing. After all, doctors were on duty all the time. Doc took his cases very seriously.

  "I — I can't go now." Bianca excused herself.

  Bianca looked at Harry. She couldn't desert him in a pinch, not after he'd been so nice. If she left, that would only make Rick angrier. He would punch Harry out since he couldn't get his hands on Doc.

  "You have a new commitment in the romance department?" Doc looked Harry up and down as if he were examining him clinically under a microscope.

  Bianca flushed to the roots of her brown hair. She wanted Doc to be the first to know. It wasn't anything like what she felt for him. Nothing else could ever be. Maybe now Doc would be proud of her. He'd told her that she had to go out and find herself a boyfriend. She'd been successful.

  "Are you sure about this boy?" Doc sounded doubtful.

  Bianca hung on Doc's every look and word as she nodded.

  Doc frowned. "Maybe I advised you to go out on your own too soon. It's my fault, not yours, of course. I misjudged how far along you were in your recovery. Going out with one of the Fellini boys. . . Frankly, I don't think it shows good judgment."

  Bianca tottered on her feet. She didn't know how she was going to live with that condemnation. She never felt good unless Doc approved of her choices. It had been that way for two years.

  "You'd better come with me." Doc took Bianca's arm and started to guide her out of the room. "The police can deal with these low-life scum. I just summoned them on my cell phone."

  Bianca had never resisted Doc before. She stopped and gaped at him with a silent plea.

  "Bianca, what's wrong?" Doc caressed her cheek. "You don't look well, my dear. You're so pale and—"

  "I'm — I'm sorry you don't approve of Harry. But — but he was so nice to me. You told me I should find friends. He's had problems like me. I think you'd like him if — if you'd give him a chance."

  It was hard to express herself in Doc's presence. He was so intimidating. She never, but NEVER, dared to argue with him.

  "Bianca." Doc shook his head. "You don't have the presence of mind to make such important decisions all by yourself. You're in a nervous state, too easily deceived by cons like the Fellini brothers. You've got to trust me. Harry's not right for you. He's not right at all." Doc patted her on the shoulder.

  Harry had gotten in trouble because of her. Bianca would never forgive herself if she deserted him now.

  "I'm — I'm sorry." She looked down at the floor. She couldn't meet Doc's eyes. "I have to stay a little while longer. Please!"

  Harry grabbed her. "Who are you, anyway? Leave Bianca alone. She's been picked on enough tonight."

  Harry and Doc glared at each other, each taking the other's measure.

  "I'll have you know that I'm an intern at the Brunswick Memorial Hospital and Bianca's official outpatient medical adviser." Doc impaled Harry with his frosty stare.

  "Yeah, well we're doing fine, thank you. We don't need you sticking your nose in our business. Shove off!" Harry stood up to Doc.

  Bia
nca's mouth fell open. No one ever told Doc to shove off! She wanted to drop through the floor.

  "Bianca, are you coming?" Doc turned his steely gaze on her. "I can't stand here all night." He got out his gold pocket watch and glanced at it. He was always so busy.

  Bianca couldn't meet his eyes.

  "Very well, Bianca. This is more serious than I thought. I'll have to call your other doctors. I'll be in touch as soon as we arrive at a diagnosis. In the meantime, you can deal with the police by yourself. It won't be very pleasant, I promise you. But if you insist!"

  Doc started to walk off with that firm, rapid step, but then he stopped in his tracks. He turned. He spoke in a different tone, his words going through her like a knife. "I wouldn't have thought that you'd forget so easily, Bianca, that I want the best for you."

  Bianca burst into tears. She tried to rush after Doc. Harry grabbed her around the waist. For a while she tried to fight him off. Then he let her cry on his shoulder while he stroked her hair.

  Doc was angry. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach. She could sense it in the way her hands shook. How was she going to live with herself?

  Rick lunged at Harry with his knife while he was still comforting Bianca. Bianca fell back with a scream. Harry kicked the blade out of Rick's hands.

  Marianna cheered Rick on. "Slug the bastard!" Marianna called. "Show him what for!" She was turning red in the face as she shouted. She would do anything to get back at Bianca.

  Rick didn't take time to look for his knife. He knocked Harry to the ground and leaped on top of him. He started punching Harry around the face.

  Harry pushed Rick off. Rick scrambled to his feet as Harry gave him another shove. Rick went hurtling back against the wall with a crash. The impact knocked some pictures down and shattered their glass.

  Marianna let out a bloodcurdling shriek. She went racing out of the room. She was soon back with the manager in tow, bellowing, "Break it up!" He was a big, burly man with a beer belly sticking out of a Hawaiian shirt, wiping the ticket taker's lipstick off his face. He tucked his shirt in around his waist. He reeked of cheap perfume as he inserted himself between the two boys, forcing them to fall back.