Chris had a look of surprise that just might deepen to anger if it could. Mossy remembered Chris telling him part of the story the day they met, and the little boys going into the lake under Jake’s watch wasn’t part of it. Chris opened his mouth to speak, but Mossy placed a hand on his arm and shook his head. Chris nodded, understanding that a confrontation might silence Jake.
“For some reason, when I heard them go in the water, I was scared. I managed to open my eyes and sit up a little. Why would I be scared? Both of those kids were better swimmers than I was. Why should I have been so scared?” He looked up, eyes shifting back and forth from Chris to Mossy, and back. His eyes were windows to a haunted soul. Finding no answers from Mossy or Chris, he shook his head and kept going. “At first they were fine, splashing each other, horsing around, kid stuff. Then the water… it started swirling behind them. They couldn’t see it, but I could, and I knew why I was scared. Something bad was going to happen… was already happening.”
Mossy felt like frigid water was running through his veins instead of blood. He was suddenly cold right to the bone. He knew what was coming. Knew exactly how this story would end. He’d known it all along, but to actually hear it… it made it more real.
“Kevin gave Willie a shove, knocking him down in the water, then started running for shore. They still hadn’t seen the whirlpool behind them, that’s what it was, a whirlpool. Willie got up and started chasing him. Kevin finally made land, got a few steps out of the water and turned to wait for Willie to come get him. That’s when he started screaming. Willie was running after Kevin, that awkward, high-stepping run you have to do in the water, probably thinking Kevin’s scream were part of the game, when the lake behind him… erupted. The whirlpool exploded with a splash… and this… thing… was there. Willie turned and saw it, and started backing up out of the water. The thing just watched, the whole time Kevin screaming his head off. I started to get up… and it looked at me…”
Jake was now cringing in the corner of the booth. His eyes were staring straight ahead, but he wasn’t seeing Mossy or Chris or the seedy surroundings of the Witch’s Hat. He was seeing the lake and two little boys and a monster about to take one of them. Mossy had never seen a look of such terror.
“It looked at me and it started coming toward the shore. I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to grab Willie and Kevin and run… but I froze. It kept coming and I could see how big it was. It had two arms and webbed hands with huge claws… but it had tentacles too… and those eyes. Willie was almost out of the water and started turning to run, but one of its tentacles wrapped around his wrist and he never struggled… just slumped into the water. The whole time it was looking at me, daring me to do something. I pissed myself, that’s all I did, then leaned back against the rock and waited for it to come for me. But it didn’t, it just backed into the deeper water dragging Willie with it. The whole time staring at me and Kevin screaming bloody murder. Then you and Lori came back… and I’ve spent every moment since then wishing it did come back for me.”
Chris was looking at Jake with such sorrow that Mossy had to turn away. He knew when Chris’s eyes turned his way, they would contain hate and anger and disgust. “Christ, Jake… I’m so sorry. All this time… why didn’t you tell me?”
A wry smile filled with despair darkened Jake’s face. “Would you have believed me? Or just thought it was all a drunk hallucination?”
Chris nodded. “You’re right… but now we know the truth. It’s back, what do we do? Tell the police? And everybody thinks it’s Greymore doing this…”
Mossy spoke. “I’m going to kill it, that’s what. I’m not sure how to help Greymore, but I am ending this once and for all.” His voice shook with anger and conviction. Finally he was able to look them each in the eye. “Everything that happened is my fault. I helped create this thing. I thought it was dead, but when it killed all those kids in 1961, I should have come back. I grabbed on to Greymore being guilty like a drowning man grabs for a life preserver. Deep down I knew it wasn’t him, that somehow that thing wasn’t dead. Then the killings stopped and I was able to convince myself that Greymore was responsible… I’ve ruined so many lives…”
Jake was slowly nodding his head. “When do we do this?”
“You are not a part of this, Jake.” Chris’s voice began to rise, gaining another look from the bartender. In an urgent whisper he continued. “This is your chance to move on, to get your life back. You are not going anywhere near the lake.”
Jake’s reply was immediate and final. “That’s not what Dad would have done.”
Mossy’s mission was clear; any doubt he harbored because of his alcoholism was gone. But there would be no more innocent victims, he would do this alone. “Jake, I need a few days to get some things together. When I’m ready, we go in to the tunnels under the old base and kill this thing. You are there to record the evidence. I’ll get you a good camera and make sure you know how to use it. You can finish the story your father started.” He was once again disgusted at how easy the lies came.
Jake was nodding. There was a glint in his eyes that wasn’t there at the start of the night, a hint of the old Jake, perhaps.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I need to go home and get some rest.” The three men got up and left the bar, each lost in his own thoughts of what was to come.
(64)
Denny and Billy got off the Round-Up and staggered against a nearby tent laughing. Denny finally got himself under control. “That ride’s the best! If I didn’t think I’d puke, I’d get right back in line.”
Billy started walking. “Come on, a nice piece of Fried Dough will settle your stomach.” They ordered their dough and piled on cinnamon and sugar before devouring them.
“This is the greatest. How could they have even thought about canceling this?”
Even with everything else going on, the lure of the carnival was too much for boys to resist. Paul had been away in Boston, safe, scheduled to return later that evening. Joe was healing and should be released in a day or two, and Denny had avoided Crawford for the past couple of days. Denny felt… normal for the first time in a long time.
Billy shook his head. His mouth was caked with sugar. “I don’t know, but it looks like a lot of people canceled it for themselves,” He gestured toward the midway.
Denny looked at the thinner-than-usual crowd making their way from booth to booth. “You’re right; this place is dead compared to last year. And hardly any little kids.” A sudden jostling of people on the midway caught his eye. “Oh, shit. This could be a problem.” Denny’s sense of normalcy had lasted less than a minute; pushing their way through the crowd was Dale Crawford and his loyal subjects. They looked ready for action, shoving anyone in their path and taunting anyone who even looked at them.
Billy wiped the sugar off his face. “Let’s head over to the other side. Maybe we can avoid them.” They quickly ducked around the side of the Fried Dough cart and headed back toward the rides, away from the midway.
“This sucks, now we’re going to have to worry about those clowns all night. I figured they’d be out boozing somewhere.” They ended up in front of the Ghost Ship ride where a barker dressed as a pirate rattled through his spiel to try to get them in. The line was already pretty long since the ride was new this year. “I’ve still got some tickets left, let’s check this out.”
Billy dug through his pockets and also came up with some tickets. “We’ll still have enough for one more Round-Up after this,” he said with a grin.
Finally, they reached the front of the line. The Ghost Ship consisted of four-man cars that followed a track through the “ship.” Beyond that, they could see nothing in the blackness. Just as they were climbing into the rear seats of the next car behind an older couple, angry shouts rose behind them. As their car moved slowly into the impenetrable darkness, they saw Dale and three of his cronies pushing their way to the front of the line. They would end up in the very next car! Denny quickly looked forward. It was impossible to see the people in the car in front of them, which meant Crawford couldn’t see them. “Do you think they saw us?” Billy whispered in a shaky voice.