Shade

Chapter 15 - Confession

Jonas and I ate lunch in town, just sandwiches from the deli attached to the gas station. It was nice to have one-on-one time with him. Being with him felt easy. It felt right. Part of me wanted to hop back in his truck and drive away from the ranch, to leave the haunting behind. It would be a new way running away from my troubles, I would actually take another person with me. I could really see myself falling in love with Jonas. This time, I told myself, it was real.

We did hop in his car, but with the intention of returning to the commune. I felt uneasy as we drove. If Alessa and Evelyn were right, if was the trigger of a shade, if my presence awakened the haunting, what business did I have going back?

"What if we don't go back to the ranch?" I asked Jonas.

"Why, so we don't piss off the Golden Lady?"

He said her nickname with a certain amount of contempt. And why wouldn't he? All the haunting had resulted in was skull-pots, creepy visions, and a broken window. Still, I felt the worst was yet to come.

"Because I have this feeling in my heart that something awful's going to happen."

He looked at me as best as he could while safely driving. He softened, sensitive to my concern.

"Maybe we can change the story," he said. "Maybe we can be positive and give the story a new happy ending."

My phone rang. I was surprised. Service in the middle of nowhere was spotty at best. On the ranch, I relied on WiFi. It was Hector. I answered.

"Hello?"

He didn't respond right away, but I heard him breathing on the other end. And when he finally spoke, there was nothing cheerful in his tone, just woe, and grief, and dread.

"I did something," he said.

"Hector?" I replied. His voice was so coarse, I wasn't sure it was him.

"It's me," he said. "I'm me right now. I'm me."

I knew instantly something was wrong. He sounded disturbed and frightened.

"What's wrong? What did you do?"

"I don't want to say," he replied, choking back tears. "I don't want to say, because I didn't really do it. It was my hands, but it wasn't me."

"Okay," I said. I looked back to Jonas. He could tell too, from my face, from the shift in my demeanor.

"I need you to come," said Hector. "I need you to come so you understand."

As far as I knew, Hector lived hours away.

"I'm not sure how soon I can get there," I said.

"I'm close." He said. "We didn't go back. We stopped just outside the property. There's a field on the left down the road. You'll see us."

"I-" He hung up. I looked at my phone and back to Jonas. "That was Hector," I said. "Is there a field by the commune?"

Jonas nodded. He knew the place. He drove us past the turn for the commune, beyond the tree line and the lake. There was a field of yellow grass on the left. Tire tracks led to Hector's maroon minivan sitting in the middle of the field.

"There he is," I said. "Should we drive out to meet him?"

"Hell," Jonas replied. "If his minivan can make it, my truck sure can."

He took a certain joy in off-roading. The truck bounced wildly over the gully before Jonas drove us up towards, the van following the tracks that were left for us. As we got closer, we found the minivan was parked on an unusual plot. The grass didn't grow there; nothing did. It was a large rectangle of untouched earth. Hector didn't flag us down. He was nowhere to be seen.