Summer Night Secrets

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. It had the same shade of blue paint that now reminded her of stolen innocence. The same stark white shutters to round of the secret that the people inside the house lived with for so many years. The secret they all stilled lived with and would die with, if they knew what was good for them.

She didn’t exactly know what she was doing back here. It was stupid really and she would tell whoever came up with the idea that she thought so. The whole reason for them not being friends anymore is so no one would have to face each other. So they wouldn’t have to remember what had happened. For the most part the plan worked because she didn’t think about it every single day and even though she couldn’t talk to her therapist about what happened the sleeping pills she was prescribed helped with the nightmares. So what if she was somewhat addicted to them now? That was something she could deal with, this isn’t.

The front door of the house opening pulls her out of her own mind. The woman that steps out has the same shade of blond hair that she had all those years ago. The same body too. Some fantasies will just never fade away, is her only guess to the appearance of someone she once held very near to her. Another body follows the blond bombshell, for lack of better description. This one adorning a head of dark curls that weren’t quite as dark or as curly as she remembers. It doesn’t take long for them to spot her car and she knows they know she’s inside but she makes no move to get out. She’s still not sure if she even wants to be here and driving away now would save her from whatever it is they want to talk about. Whatever part of their past that they want to force her to relive, as if the constant nightmares weren’t enough to torture her.

It’s an automatic response of her body and before she knows it the car door is closing behind her and she’s leaning against the white hunk of metal. She runs a hand through her own mop of hair, not quite as neat as it was when she started the journey but she’s not here to impress anyone. Not anymore at least. Her footsteps landing on the driveway sounds louder than she thinks they should be and with every passing second she wishes she would have just stayed home. This way she wouldn’t have to make up excuses about her sudden breakdown to her husband, she wouldn’t have to abandon her kids, in fear that she lashes out at them because she can’t seem to get away from her own demons. She wouldn’t have to use extra pills and fall deeper into her addiction than she already is.

“We didn’t think you would get out.” Her blond friend says and even though she doesn’t find anything about this funny, a laugh escapes her mouth and she lifts her shoulders in a shrug.

“Why are we here?” She was never one to beat around the bush and she’s not going to start now. Her dark haired friend gives her a wary look, her stomach sinking about the thought of having to break the news to them. It wasn’t their fault, not any of this, but they had helped clean up her mess and now she needed them to do it again. Only, this time she had no idea how they would do it.

“Mom wants to sell the house. Get rid of it.” The words tumble out of her mouth before she can think them over. She might not get them out otherwise and she needed a plan. Now.

“So, let her sell it. You can buy it, you do know that. I don’t see why you called us up for this, Maggie.” The blond haired woman says, a slightly annoyed look on her face and in looking at her two friends she couldn’t help but think there’s something much deeper going on here.

“Let her explain, Clare.” The blond looks at her, not hiding the fire in her eyes. Somehow the love they once had for each other had turned into hate. Probably because it was easier to hate each other and be apart than to love each other.

“Explain? Weren’t you the one who looked like you were about to drive away any second now, Dani? What is there to explain?” Maggie sighs, giving her friends pleading looks and it all falls quite around them.

“I can’t buy the house, she won’t allow me to. She feels that both of us have to move on from what happened here. The people who wants to buy it wants to bulldoze it, start fresh and you know that can’t happen.” Maggie finds her voice again after a few minutes of staring into space.

“So? Let them tear it down. God knows it’s going to save us a lot of trouble.” Clare says, staring at the dark haired woman like it’s the most logical thing to do. “It’s been twenty-four years. There’s nothing of him left and we all know it. We made sure of it.” That they did. Even though they had to figure out how to do that on their own. They couldn’t ask anyone else how to get rid of a dead body and in a small town doing that type of research in the library will get people talking. So, they did what they thought was smart and mixed the chemicals they found that might have sped up the process.

“Only what if it didn’t?” Deep frown lines forms between the dark headed woman’s eyes. Her face looking so natural in it’s worried state you can’t help but wonder if she’s lost her smile completely.

“You called us here to make sure of it.” It’s not a question and when Maggie nods at Dani’s question a sense of dread fills the latter’s stomach, all her worst fears confirmed. This wasn’t something she wanted to do, not ever, but she also didn’t want to help murder a man, even if he was sick in the head. Although it was the only thing she could think about in her sixteen year old traumatized state. It was all they could think about and now they would have to pay the price. She was sure their revenge would come to bite them in the ass someday and this was that day.

So, they did the only thing she knew they could do. They waited until midnight and made their way into the back yard, flashlights and shovels in hand. They could only thank the grieving mother for putting up high fences in her state of grief, this would serve them well now. As softly as they could they started digging at the ground and along with that the memories they had tried so hard to forget. That summer night, when a run of the mill sleepover turned into a nightmare, ruined them all. They hadn’t planned on killing him, but they also hadn’t planned on him doing what he did. They just wanted him to stop and make sure he couldn’t do what he did to Maggie to anyone else again.

“How deep did we dig?” Clare asks, some of her blond hair clinging to her face from the sweat, a frown on her face.

“We have a little more to go. You were the one who said that they shouldn’t smell him.” Dani says, digging her shovel into the dirt, much like she dug the knife into his chest. She had to make sure he was dead, that she couldn’t come after them again.

“Well, if they did we wouldn’t be here right now.” The blond snaps back, taking a few more digs into the earth before falling back against the wall of the hole they dug. “How did we manage this?”

“You can manage a lot of things when you’re desperate.” Maggie whispers, her gaze haunting into the night. No one said anything after that and they dud in silence, much like they did the night it happened. It was another hour before they realized that they had dug much deeper than they did all those years ago.

“Looks like we did something right.” Clare says as they stand in the middle of the hole.

“Or something very wrong.” Dani says, her voice barely above a whisper. She remembers the screams, her running into the room and finding him on top of her best friend. All these years of thinking had led her to believe that they didn’t intend for this to happen. They just wanted him to stop. He was the one that kept coming after them. Followed them down the hall, his pants still halfway down his legs and into the kitchen. They had pleaded with him, he wouldn’t listen and then his body crumbled to the ground. He didn’t get up for a long time after that and with the little training they had in health class they concluded he was dead after none of them could find a pulse. The knife was a last resort, driven into his chest because of anger or grief, she’s still not sure witch emotion it really was.

“It’s over now. No one is ever going to know and even if they do, they don’t have the evidence, not anymore.” The blond woman says, pulling herself out of the gaping hole in the yard before helping her friends up. Just before the sun peeks over the horizon they fill in the last of the hole before gently putting the grass patches where they had taken them out, making sure that it didn’t look too disturbed to the naked eye.

They stay for a week, even though all they really wanted to do was get back to reality. Dani drinks two sleeping pills each night, even though she’s only supposed to take half of one on a normal bases. They do little to help her sleep though and she ends up spending most of her nights back in her small hometown rolling around in bed. Clare sleeps without trouble, having long since convinced herself that if they got away with murder they could get away with anything. What she hated most was seeing the woman she used to call her friends, she had given everything up staying friends with them in high school and this is what it got her. Twenty-four years later and still being reminded of the deepest regret of her life. Maggie spends time avoiding her mother’s gaze, much like she did when her brother first went ‘missing’ all those years back. Much like she did when her father took his own life because he couldn’t get over the death of his pride and joy. She often wondered what would have happened if she didn’t strike him dead that night, if anyone would have believed her and her friends over the golden boy of their small town.

In any case, it didn’t matter much. In the end they all went their separate ways, now assured that there would never again be a reason to call them together. The blue house with it’s white shutters and their stolen innocence would soon be a distant memory. Every secret it kept would die with the three of them and that was all that mattered.