I stood quietly in the semi-dark room as I helplessly watched my
best friend of many years sob tears of fear, anger, and of sadness. I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I
didn’t hear Chad or Sonny enter the kitchen until I heard their voices near the
entrance of the study. I watched as
Heidi turned away from the doorway as her son and husband entered the room.
“Heidi, Julie what’s going on?
Are ya’ll okay?” I heard Chad ask
with concern in his southern-accented voice.
“Mom, are you okay?” Sonny
echoed as he hopped on his crutches towards his mother’s shaking figure. As Sonny slowly made his way across the room,
I gently grabbed Chad’s upper arm and pulled him into a corner out of Sonny and
Heidi’s line of vision.
“She showed me the letter and the pictures,” I stated quietly.
I watched in silence as Chad looked around the room, not meeting
my eye. “It is all right, Chad. We just need to tell the other adults about
this. I know Heidi is going to be ticked
at us about it, but they need to know just in case something similar happens to
them.”
Chad nodded in agreement and took one last look around the room
before quietly saying that he would tell the others and that Heidi and I should
meet him outside by the pool as soon as we could.
I quietly walked over to the desk and opened the drawer
quickly. I picked up the envelope, and,
shoving it into my pants pocket, I walked over to Heidi and Sonny, smiling
slightly at the bits of conversation I heard.
“Are you going to be okay, Mom?”
“Yes, honey.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Sonny Darrin,” I giggled to myself as both Heidi and Sonny
rolled their eyes, Heidi at Sonny’s
questioning, and Sonny at the use of his full name.
“Just making sure. I love
ya, Mom.”
“I love you too, sweetie.
Let’s get out of here and join the party,” she said, while running the
back of her hand over her moist eyes, trying desperately to change the subject.
Moments later, as the three of us exited the room, I grabbed Heidi
by her arm, telling her that we all needed to talk outside. By the look in her dark eyes, I could tell
that she knew something was up, and she was getting upset, but at that moment,
that was the least of my worries.
***
Sean, Jess, and I sat on the couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn,
waiting impatiently for Sonny to come and join us in watching a movie. As I heard the sound of his crutches on the
hardwood floor in the kitchen, I reached over to the side table and picked up
the remote and hit the rewind button, surprised when a message popped up on the
screen stating the DVD was at the beginning.
I remembered that when my parents and I watched the movie the other
night, we didn’t rewind it after we had finished watching it, but I just
shrugged it off, concluding that my dad had probably rewound it earlier,
knowing that I would want to show my friends and brother the movie
tonight.
I looked up as Julie pulled Mom outside and shot my brother a
questioning look as he hopped into the living room.
“So nice of you to join us, cripple,” I said with a sneer.
“Oh fuck off,” Sonny mumbled as he took a seat beside Hallie and
laid his crutches on the floor at their feet.
My face softened slightly when I saw my brother grimace in pain as
he struggled to get comfortable. “So
what’s up?” I said casually, while slapping Sean’s hand away from the popcorn
bowl as I took a big handful.
“I’m not sure what it is exactly.
But Mom is upset about something.”
“Well, duh!” I shrieked.
Sonny rolled his eyes at my response, and if looks could kill, I
would have been six feet under at that moment.
“Just shut up, Abs,” was all he said, but the firmness and disgust in
his voice was something I didn’t hear very often, and I decided to stay on the
safe side, not wanting to piss my brother off and die just days before my
birthday.
“Sorry,” I said softly as I pushed the PLAY button and sat back,
sitting between my two best friends. We
waited patiently as the movie took longer than usual to start, not realizing
the terror that would be awaiting us.
***
Julie’s POV
I kept my grip on Heidi’s arm firm as she tried to pull away from
me; although she was strong, at the moment she was no match for me because when
I was determined about something, nothing stood in my way.
A few feet away, all the adults either stood or sat by the edge of
the pool. Brian and Leigh sat
side-by-side, talking quietly, and Chad, AJ, and Josh stood to the side,
talking amongst themselves. AJ and Chad
were both smoking a cigarette, and my eyes narrowed, knowing Chad only smoked
when he was stressed. I realized that
this was affecting Chad a whole lot more than he was showing. I also knew that if Heidi wasn’t held down by
my death grip on her arm that she would probably be joining them by now.
“Hey guys,” I stated as I sat down in one of the chairs by the
edge of pool and pushed Heidi down to sit in the seat beside of me.
“Abusive much?” I heard Heidi mumble as I let go of my grip on her
arm.
“What’s going on?” AJ asked as he put out his cigarette and walked
over to where we sat, the others quietly following.
“A lot,” I answered simply.
“I got a call from Nick this morning.” I held up my hand to hush
everyone as they threw questions at me.
“Needless to say the conversation wasn’t very pleasant. Nick told me that he received an envelope
similar to this,” I said as I pulled the envelope of pictures out of my pocket
and held it above my head.
“What is in it?”
“Pictures.”
“So?” AJ asked simply.
“It isn’t the fact that they are pictures, AJ, it is what the
pictures are of. The pictures Nick
received were all of Sammy when she was in the hospital and when her body was
in the morgue afterwards.”
Silence came over my group of friends and nothing was said until
Brian finally spoke up in a shaky voice.
“What are the pictures in that envelope of then?”
Before answering I snuck a quick glance over at my best friend,
who was now hunched over in her chair with Chad at her side.
“They are of Sonny,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry, Heidi,” I whispered as I pulled
the gruesome pictures out of the envelope, feeling the familiar nausea
overwhelm me as I thought of the picture I had seen, shuddering as I thought
that the rest of the pictures could be worse.
“Here,” I said as I divided the stack in half the best I could and
passed them around.
“Oh my God,” I heard murmured through out the small group several
times. “I know these pictures are
horrible to see, but I just wanted to warn you guys in case any of you guys get
something like this and also to see if you guys see anything unusual about the
pictures or anything,” I explained as Brian quickly glanced up at me with
terror in his blue eyes.
“How could you?” Heidi hissed from my left side. “I trusted you,” she shouted as she quickly
got up and briskly walked away from us.
Chad and AJ exchanged glances, and seconds later, took off after her.
“Gosh, I fucked up,” I said miserably as I looked around the group
at my remaining friends, after watching the three figures retreat to the far
end of the huge yard to the edge of the woods.
“You did what you felt was best, Julie,” Leigh spoke up in a soft,
but comforting voice. “I can see why
Heidi is upset, but I also see why you felt it would be best to share these
with us. Don’t be upset; she’ll come
around.”
I gave Leigh a small smile and looked over at Josh and then to
Brian, who were both silent. When they
still didn’t say anything, I looked away, feeling ashamed at my actions.
“Here,” Josh said quietly as he handed me the stack of pictures
and gave my hand a light squeeze as he got up and went in the direction the
other three had gone.
For the first time since Heidi had told me about the pictures, I
finally got up the nerve and began to look at all of the pictures, forcing
myself to, even though I knew I couldn’t do it.
As each pictures passed my field of vision, tears filled my eyes as I
remembered the horrible time when Sonny had died, and my best friend had
changed. I cursed Justin Timberlake
under my breath for causing so much pain to the people who were closest to
me.
I slowly began to follow Leigh and Brian, who had since gotten up
from their seats by the pool and slowly began walking towards the house. As we began our journey back into the house,
five muffled screams were heard from the open kitchen window. Without a moment’s hesitation, I ran towards
the house, praying that nothing bad had happened. But deep inside, I had the feeling that
something bad would be awaiting me.
***
It seemed
like an eternity before I reached the back door and opened it, running quickly
towards the living room where the screams came from. Fearing the worst, I
grabbed onto Brian’s hand as he grabbed onto Leigh’s as we entered the
room. The only sounds heard from the room were soft whimpering and
whispers, totally different from what I had expected.
“Are
you guys okay? What happened?” I asked as I surveyed the room, thinking they
had been freaked out by some horror movie or something, but my thoughts of the
source changed as I witnessed Hallie hugging Sonny tightly, whispering to him.
“What happened,
Hal?” I whispered as I quietly approached the two oldest kids in the room as
Bri and Leigh comforted the others.
“The video
- it was horrible, Mom!”
“What was
on the video?” I asked, knowing their reactions were not something from a cheap
horror movie.
“It was a
video from years ago. I recognized Dad in the video. And it showed someone attacking dad, and…”
she broke off with a sob.
“It will be
okay, Hal,” I soothed. “Brian, can you go find the others, please?” I
asked over my shoulder as I tried to comfort my oldest daughter.
I
watched as Brian walked out of the room in what seemed like a daze and turned
my attention back to what was most important at the moment, our children.
“Hal,
can you take everyone up to Abby’s or Sonny’s room while we watch the
video? We don’t want you guys to see it again.”
“Yeah,
Mom,” Hallie whispered as she gave Sonny one last hug and stood up,
walking over to where Abby, Jess, and Sean all sat huddled together and
shaking.
“Come on
you guys,” I heard Hallie say, and a few moments later, the younger three were
heard walking up the stairs with heavy footsteps.
“You
coming, Sonny?” Hallie asked as she knelt in front of her best friend.
Leigh and I watched silently as Sonny nodded and for the first time since we
had entered the room after hearing the screams, we saw Sonny’s face. His
usually tan face was now pale, and his expressional green eyes were dark and
unyielding. I could tell that even
though he didn’t want to show it, he was breaking down inside.
Both Leigh
and I watched silently as Hallie helped lead Sonny up the stairs, and once we
both were certain, we reached for the remote control, bracing ourselves for the
worst.
***