NOTE: Sorry, this may seem like a bit of a filler chapter, but please just bear with me, because it leads up to something very important.



ASHLEY:

I hear a tap on my door, then Jake cracks it open. "You coming down to breakfast, dude?"

"Yeah, I'll be down as soon as I finish getting dressed," I tell him, as I rummage through the drawer for socks. "I should only be a couple more minutes."

He goes on, and I finish getting dressed, then make the mistake of looking in the mirror before I leave the room. Shit, I look fucking ghastly! I'm starting to get big circles under my eyes from lack of sleep, and I'm pretty sure that I'm losing weight, too. It's been almost a week since the festival, and I still wake up at least once every night because the place is just too fucking quiet now. And it's not just me, the rest of the guys have mentioned it, too; things like how they expect to hear the window closing during the night, or how they're sort of startled not to find things put back in order when we come in from the studio. Apparently, we were all taking those things for granted, and got lazy.

I head down to the dining room, passing Charlie on the way, who says, "Good morning, Ashley. Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like you've had a bit of a rough night."

"Yeah, still not quite used to how quiet it's gotten. To be honest with you, I'm actually kind of glad we can't go to the studio for the next couple of days, I'm not sure how well I'd be able to concentrate."

We found out a few days ago that there's some kind of street fair going on in the neighborhood where the studio is located, and since we were told that the street will be closed to traffic today and tomorrow, and that parking will be a nightmare for several blocks around, we just decided to stay in this weekend, and do some longer hours later to make up for it. Which is fine with me, since those kinds of crowds seem to be prime locations for weird encounters. I mean, we love our fans, but being chased through the streets of an unfamiliar city is definitely not on my list of fun things.

I go on into the room, and walk over to the coffee dispenser on the sideboard, and as I reach for a mug, Susan passes me, carrying pitchers of juice to the table. She glances at me and gives me a polite nod, but doesn't say anything, which has been pretty much the status quo since the other night. My popularity with our hostess has dwindled considerably, and in comparison to everyone else, I've been downgraded from "friend" to "just another guest". And, if I'm honest with myself, I guess I shouldn't be surprised; she's still upset about the thought of Rachel's dad coming into the house, and what he might be planning to do with the medallion. Also, the two of them had become friendly, since they spent so much time together while we were gone, and she blames me for not having her friend here anymore.

As I sit down with my coffee, Jinxx looks up from his plate and says, "Hey, Ash, I know I already said this last night, but I'm sorry about the incident at the cafe. I hope Melissa isn't pissed off at you because of it."

"I haven't heard from her, so I don't know if she's heard about it yet, since she didn't work last night," I tell him. "And if she wants to get bent out of shape over that, it's her problem, not mine."

CC laughs, almost choking on his toast in the process. When he's able to speak, he says, "With all the people there last night, I'm pretty sure somebody has spread the word by now. Hell, they almost got a standing ovation!"

The "incident" they're talking about involves the fact that Jinxx, along with one of the other customers, completely discredited Jimmy's "paranormal investigator" credentials. He was there last night, telling people stories about "cases" he's been involved with, which meant that we had to listen to Jinxx grumbling about what a moron he was. This went on for a bit, until the woman sitting behind him, who turned out to be a college professor, started questioning some of the things he was saying.

Jimmy tried to come up with convincing answers, at least at first, but then Jinxx joined in, and between the two of them, he wound up contradicting himself so much that it was obvious to anybody that he doesn't have a fucking clue. He finally wound up getting pissed off when basically everyone in the place started laughing at him, and stormed out. This is what they think Melissa may be upset about, since he is her cousin, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not that much of an issue. I mean, yeah, she's a sweet girl and I like her, but we're not serious or anything, so if this causes her to stop talking to me, I'm not gonna stress over it.

For me, the thing I am stressing over is trying to figure out who I'm more pissed-off with: Jimmy, for spreading all this garbage when he doesn't actually know anything? Or myself, for being enough of a fucking paranoid half-wit to actually listen to his shit?

I get pulled out of my thoughts by Bob asking, "So, since this street fair is keeping us from getting anything done in the studio today or tomorrow, does anybody have any big plans for themselves?"

After a bit of discussion, it seems like no one really does, so Charlie announces, "Well, since it's supposed to be cooler today, I'm planning to do some yardwork that I've been putting off. And obviously it's not required, but if anyone wants to help, it would be greatly appreciated."

"What do you have in mind?" I inquire.

"Clearing the vines off the corner of the house, getting rid of all the crap behind the old shed, and pulling apart those crappy-looking planter boxes in the front yard."

I think for a second, then say, "Sure, I'm in. Maybe I can tire myself out enough to actually get a full nights sleep tonight."

When I agree, the rest of the guys do as well, so we talk about it and decide to divide everything up, to hopefully make it go faster. We end up with a plan for Charlie and Jake to tackle the vines, while Andy, CC, and Bob clean behind the shed, and Jinxx and I will take care of dismantling the planters. So we finish eating, then Charlie leads us out to the toolshed, sets everyone up with work gloves and tools, and puts us to work.

Jinxx and I walk out to the middle of the lawn with a couple of prybars to check out the planters, circling around to decide the best way to get rid of them. They're about twenty feet apart, on either side of the front walkway, and basically look like a pair of oversized six-sided wooden ottomans that are missing their cushions, with a few scraps of dingy beige paint clinging here and there, and a bit of dry dirt in the bottoms. "So do you think we should do 'em one at a time, or take one each?" Jinxx asks me.

After making one more pass around the closest one, I reply, "Lets try tackling them individually first, we're less likely to hit each other with these bars while we're working. Then, if that doesn't work, we'll tag-team the bastards. Okay?"

He agrees, moves to the other box, and starts wedging the bar into a corner, so I do the same on mine. I have to reposition a couple of times, but I finally find a weak spot and the nails start pulling loose, and I start laying the boards off to the side, in case Charlie wants to do something with them. Within a couple of minutes it's down to just one side of the box, still attached to the platform base, and this part wants to be stubborn, so I give it a kick with the heel of my boot.

I get the idea that this is probably my dumbest move of the day when the whole assemblage gives out a loud groaning noise and promptly drops out of sight, almost making me lose my balance and go along for the ride. I flail my arms, and manage to end up on my ass in the yard instead, while Jinxx drops his bar and dashes over.

"Holy shit, are you okay?" he asks. "What the hell was that, some kind of a sinkhole?"

I can see why he might think that, but since I grew up in the country, I know better. "No, dude, somebody used the planter to cover up an old well, and there's no way in hell this thing should be left open like this. Why don't you go holler up at Charlie, and I'll check it out. Maybe if we're lucky it'll be at least partly filled in."

He nods, and jogs off around the side of the house, while I lay flat and pull out my phone, so I can use the flashlight. I carefully poke my head past the rim, propping myself on one arm, while I lower my phone down into the opening. Before I even turn on the light, I know that it hasn't been filled, because I can hear the sound of water that was stirred up by the box, and there's an odor of stagnant water, along with something else I can't quite place.

Then I turn on the light, and almost drop my phone as I realize that this was actually my worst decision, not kicking the boards. I lever myself up with my other hand and do my best to fucking teleport out of this horror show, not caring if about nails, or splinters, or much of anything else right now. As I stand up, everyone else comes jogging over, but they stop and stare as I stagger away from them, dropping back to my knees several feet away and promptly leaving my breakfast on the lawn.

"Ashley, what is it?" Charlie questions urgently. "What's wrong?"

I try to answer, but all I can get out before my stomach rebels again is, "In the well... Call Whitworth."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Andy and Bob move over to look, and when I hear Andy say, "Holy fucking shit, this can't be fucking for real!", I know that I wasn't imagining things, that he sees the same thing that I saw.

Two long, bulky bundles, wrapped in plastic, floating on the surface of the water. And on one of them, a rip in the plastic giving a clear view of a human hand. Bodies. They've been here all the time.

Notes