Page 35 of Halloween Haunting
Grace flinched as his shout echoed through the alley’s narrow hall.
“You think I had a choice?” he asked as he crept closer, no longer looking the slightest bit sane. “Do you think Ieverhad a choice?”
Her eyes went wide. “Y-You weren’t working alone, were you?”
“Alone?” he repeated. “I’m always alone. I’ll always be alone. Even whenhecomes, I’m alone. Especially whenhecomes, I’m alone. I’m always alone.”
Grace inched forward, as though he were an injured animal prone to lashing out of fear. “Who is ‘he’, Beau? Do you mean Tommy?”
Beau lurched closer before the ladies jerked Grace away from him. “IlovedTommy,” he cried. “He was my friend too. Why can’t anyone see that? Why doesn’t anyone understand? Tommy wasmyfriend. Sam wasmy friend.They were all –”
“Why didn’t you have a choice, Beau? Who didn’t give you a choice?”
He raked his hands through his long hair as he crept back toward the back wall, his shoulder leaning harshly against a dumpster. He pulled away and slammed himself in it till he was red in the face and panting. “Henever gives me a choice,” he finally whispered. “Hemade me do it and didn’t even let me ask questions. Didn’t even let me…let me say…let me say goodbye…”
Grace was beginning to see the true tragedy coming to light. There was nothing normal about Beau Redding, and she doubted there had been anything normal about him, at least not since Sam’s death all those years ago. They were a group of friends torn apart in multiple ways, but perhaps they had been ripped asunder from the inside out, with an angry voice whispering lies in Beau’s ear. Now, as she watched him slowly unravel, Grace only felt pity for the man she had watched kill Tommy Briggs.
“We can help you, Beau,” Grace said as she stepped forward. “We can help you. All you have to do is tell us who made you do it. Tell us who made you kill Tommy and –”
Beau’s arms flailed around him as he released a guttural shout. “He’s here, isn’t he?” His head whipped around violently, as if he was in search of the person he was speaking of. “He found me.”
Before Grace had the chance to say anything else, Beau was pulling himself up the dumpster, and climbing the rest of the way over the wall, with the help of a nearby fire escape. He was gone, ducking around the corner, within seconds. Grace waspanting as she stared at the spot where he once was, everything he said running amok in her mind.
“What’re you all just standing there for?” Bryant appeared in the threshold of the alleyway, dressed in his familiar pirate costume. “We can cut him off around the corner!”
Jerked out of her daze, Grace quickly followed the rest of her party out of the alleyway and back into the quiet streets. The far off sound of the festival still going on echoed to where they were, but the festivities were nowhere to be found. There were only crawling shadows, owls and bats sounding overhead, and the odd sensation that they were being watched. Grace followed Beau as he led the way down main street, not stopping as he curved into a nearby neighborhood.
The front lawns were decorated as much as the rest of Holiday Hollow was. Fake bodies of dead witches and decaying zombies and fanged vampires littered the grass, a few even leaning over the white picket fences as though they were iron spikes. The entire get up would’ve been charming if Grace wasn’t trying to chase down a known murderer. The night stretched on and their search became hopeless, without a sign of him turning up. But Grace was hardly taking that for an answer.
People didn't just disappear – even if it was a supernatural town.
Bryant let out a sigh as he started to holster his gun.
Before he had the chance to say anything, Grace jogged a few paces ahead, peering out over the quiet dark street with one hand resting on the street sign’s tall pole.
And then the vision descended on her.
An image of Beau running down the same streets flashed through her mind. He had brushed by the same street sign, pausing to throw a look over his shoulder. She watched as his face contorted with fear and anxiety, the expression too haunting to forget. The scene faded into something new, as if shewas right at Beau’s heels as he ran through the neighborhood streets. The fear radiated off him, even as he was running.
But as it changed another time, Grace spotted the worst outcome.
Beau was on his knees in a random front lawn, a figure standing before him. The villain’s face was entirely obscured from her, as well as any other qualities that might’ve been deemed as notable. The figure loomed over Beau’s tall frame effortlessly, before bringing down a long blade, and subsequently ending the killer's life.
Grace shoved herself away from the pole.
“What is it?” Bryant quickly asked, coming to her side instantly. “Grace –”
But she was already running, already searching for the house she had seen within her vision. She kept passing them by till one in particular stood at the street corner, where a familiar figure was slumped in the grass, standing out amongst the fake dead bodies.
Grace ran onto the lawn and froze, her eyes stuck on the newest victim.
Beau Reddings was dead.
17
“At the end of the day, I guess youdidcatch Tommy Briggs' killer, right?” Caroline asked from her cozy spot beside the ancient lantern in Grace’s loft.
They had retreated to the Lantern House after the final events of that tumultuous Halloween, passing around a bottle of wine and sharing their thoughts. The lantern stood between them all silently, without any sort of light coming to life within it. Grace pulled her knees into her chest from where she sat across from it, hugging the blanket she had around her shoulders even closer as a chill rolled through her.
