Page 51 of Lake Hollow Curses

Once I’m back at my truck, I lean against the driver’s side door, keys clutched tight in my hand. A guttural cry breaks out. Tears that I fought shedding, break free. Even if it was unlikely he was going to confess or address all the lies, I’d held onto the hope that after everything we’ve shared, I’d get a reaction other than bland greetings.

I meant every word I said to him. He’s dead to me. I’ll go on living my life and doing everything I can to forget what he once represented in my life.

I am leaving a lifetime of memories behind me today, because I no longer know who that person ever was.

Wilder Lee

Iknow that look. “It didn’t go well, I take it?”

Remi shakes her head as she slips into my office. “We all tried to talk him out of it.” Sighing, I pull her towards me. “Is he on his way home?”

“He is. We were right, and I think he’s ready to move on now.” The look of defeat on her face is heartbreaking. She had wanted to hear that Gibson was remorseful or gave a shit about what he’d done. The love she had for him didn’t disappear automatically when he turned on her. Unfortunately.

If Cal needed to have more proof that Charlie doesn’t deserve an audience with any of us, then who were we to stop it? I know Grady tried several times to discourage it. We were all concerned Gibson would fuck with his head.

He’d sure done a number on all of us.

Remi still cries at night when he’s been mentioned in a conversation had around her.

Grady cut ‘Drowned’ from the set lists on their tour.

I still want him to suffer.

Mitchell is finally realizing that his brother was trying to convince everyone in his life that he was a mental mess. Newsflash, he was growing suspicious of his big brother, but he was never clinically depressed or suicidal. He’s still a whiny brat, but it’s easy to overlook that after everything going on with his family. Turns out his dad, David, grew concerned about Charlie when he was carving WPL into things and writing notes signing it WPL. Like the Poe quote in the locket. Which girl received the note from him and put it there, or did he?

The locket still baffles us all. Was he getting it out of the lake, or… Well, fuck if I know?

I think he did it to draw suspicion towards me, even though I don’t have a middle name, WPL could be attributed to me. The dumb fuck knew planting a seed of doubt in people’s minds would be enough. Who is going to think a group of kids from a church group, Water Provides Life, were going to do the things they did or decades later a fucked-up kid was going to look up to them.

That his wack job uncle would be some type of hero to him.

We don’t even know if any of us have his intentions correct. If there was thought behind it, or it was all arbitrary. Because he’s not giving anyone a single answer.

Holding Remi close while she silently cries, my heart is in my throat. “We’re going to get through this. I’m sure it was painful for Cal, but now the repair begins. We’re doing this together. I know we’re all lugging around a lot of baggage, but you’ve got partners who are willing to unpack beside you, and we can all be unapologetically human together.”

Healing needs to start.

For every one of us.

It helps that my constant worry about seizures has eased. I haven’t had a single one since the day Remi was almost drowned. The impressions, the feelings are still there. Last weekCeily paid us a visit, I kept getting a slight pain in my chest. When I gave her a hug goodbye, I envisioned her dropping to the ground outside Pop’s. She didn’t understand my insistence to be seen by a doctor, but she did that afternoon. She was in danger of a heart attack and had a stent put in.

Sometimes I wonder if what I felt when I had my episodes and the way I physically responded was the feelings the drowning victims had. The seizures began when I was in fourth grade in Lake Hollow, they were about the drownings long before they happened.

The way I felt during the seizures mirrored the effects of potassium chloride poisoning, and drowning. I’ve never had a seizure away from Lake Hollow. Knowing that no doctor could explain it, and it seems they’re gone, with any luck, I’m inclined to think this ‘gift’ I’ve had since I was a small child was being used to stop Gibson.

It only took nine times before I was able to.

A fact I confront every damn day.

“Umm… kay, so I have to tell you something,” Remi says wiping her cheeks off. “Before you start to lecture me or get irritated just hear me out. Okay?”

What in the wrong turn is this?

“Let’s hear it.” I brace myself for a Skip story.

“It’s only for a few days… or a couple weeks at the most.” She gives me a forced smile. “Or… yeah, a couple weeks.”

“This has Skip James vibes. Spill it.”

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