Dead End High

Obeying the rules, Adam headed home with a friend. That friend of course was Daisy. He was her bodyguard. If anyone dared try to lay a finger on her, they would have him to deal with. He even told her that, causing her to smile and flutter her eyelids. A week ago she would have snorted at him and rolled her eyes.

They stopped outside her place and she placed a gentle kiss on his lips, which left his head spinning. He stood there for a few seconds, his heart a flutter, feeling like he was in some kind of a fairy tale. He even felt confident around her now, confidence he never thought he’d ever have with a girl like her.

She entered her house and closed the door before he came to his senses. Returning to reality, he continued on his way.

He passed by the Collins’ house a few minutes later. It appeared quiet and it was probably safe to assume that Miss Crazy and her two goons had not returned. But all the same, he felt nervous just looking at it. About to walk on home, curiosity got the better of him and he entered the section to have another look inside to see if anything had changed.

Sure enough, the door was still unlocked. He slipped inside, not bothering to knock. If someone was inside, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. He checked out each room, a little disappointed that nothing had changed. The copy of The Stand still sat on the coffee table, right where he had left it. He relaxed and started to turn when a female voice called from the hallway. ’What the hell are you doing here?’

He whirled to face the voice, bashing his shin against the coffee table. ‘Dora!’ Adam gasped, his eyes wide. ‘You’re here!’

The skinny unattractive Dora stood there in front of him, looking perfectly ok. ‘Of course I’m here! This is my house…’ Her voice trailed off and she stared at him. ’Adam?’

‘Yes.’

She began to speak, a puzzled look on her face, but then her voice became muffled. Adam was having yet another of his relapses. He strained to hear her voice, but couldn’t make out any of her words. Her manner grew angrier as she spoke and finally her voice cleared. ’…that was obviously a lie. A total lie! Why would people say things like that, if it wasn’t true?’

‘What?’ Adam asked, wishing he knew what she was talking about.

Her voice became muffled again, but her mouth motored on like a little Pacman head, until finally, ’…Are you listening to me?’ She glared at him, with fury in her eyes. ’Obviously not! Anyway, you know, you can’t just come waltzing into someone’s place like this, don’t you?’

‘I...’

Dora marched into the lounge.

’You better not have broken anything. You better not have stolen anything!’

‘I haven’t.’

’So why are you here?’

‘I... I was looking for you. Where have you been? You’ve been missing for nearly a week. Where are your parents?’

‘Missing?’ She scrunched up her face. ‘What in Heaven’s name are you talking about?’

‘Was it Miss Casey? Mr Vennie maybe? Were two other men involved? You’ve got to tell me what happened.’

‘Nothing happened to me. I don’t know what you are talking about. Have you completely lost your mind? I’ve been to school every day this week…’ Her voice became muffled again.

Adam gave up trying to figure out what she was saying and continued to stare at her mouth opening and closing and the thoughts of Pacman entered his head once more. But this time he imagined the little coloured ghosts chasing the Pacman head and a horrible thought crossed his mind.

What if he was looking at a ghost?

He immediately dismissed the thought. Perhaps Miss Crazy and her goons had messed with her mind and somehow she had found her way home with no memory of the abduction.

Adam was tempted to throw the paperback book at her to see if she could catch it, but decided to try talking to her some more, even though he had to interrupt whatever it was she was trying to say. ‘Miss Casey was staying here. You weren’t around!’

’Miss who?’ Her voice came back clearly this time. ‘Get real. Nobody else lives here but us.’

Adam picked up the book on the coffee table and shoved it in front of her face. ‘How do you explain this then?’ He opened it up and pointed out Miss Crazy’s name and address on the inside cover.

‘What does that prove? You put that there. Adam, you have gone loopy. I’m gonna call the cops.’ She walked towards the telephone and as she did, Adam’s eyes went funny again. Dora’s body turned transparent. He could see the desk through her as she neared the phone.

Adam closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them again, he could see her properly once more. She was at the phone and turned to face him again, ‘You are going to be in so much trouble.’

‘Wait!’ Adam didn’t want the police involved. He was about to explain why, but Dora’s body started to fade again. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head again. Opening his eyes, Dora was still there, but still partly transparent. She studied him with one eyebrow raised.

‘L…Look…’ Adam tried to ignore what he was seeing. ‘People have been disappearing around here. I thought you had too. You weren’t at school, so I don’t know why you’re trying to insist you were. It can be prov…’

‘Oh come on! What is the mat...?’

’Adam, who are you talking to?’

Adam spun towards the hallway again. ‘Robyn!’ He felt a sudden sense of déjà vu.

‘Hi, Adam.’ Robyn stepped into the room, looking around. ‘Who were you talking to?’

‘Dora! Dora’s here...’ He directed Robyn’s attention to where Dora had been standing, but she was gone. He circled the room and searched the kitchen, but she was nowhere in sight.

‘What’s the matter? And why are you in here? This isn’t your place.’

Adam felt extremely flustered. ‘She was here... Didn’t you see her?’ He rushed to the phone and glanced around frantically. She had well and truly disappeared.

‘Dora?’ Robyn shrugged. ‘Who’s Dora?’

‘She used to live here...’ He felt goose bumps all over his body. The words he spoke seemed to have an eerie feel about them and a nasty thought began to manifest in his mind. ’Robyn... I think they’re all dead.’

She was silent for a few seconds as if letting his words sink in. ‘You really think so?’

‘Dora was here. I know you’re going to say I was imagining it, but she was here. You interrupted her. I can’t believe you didn’t see her. Didn’t you hear her talking?’

‘No. I only heard you.’ She didn’t smile, but her eyes looked so innocent and honest. It was hard to think of her as being in league with Miss Crazy. But he couldn’t trust her. ‘Nobody’s here, Adam. Only you and I.’

It seemed she was right. He opened a pantry cabinet in the kitchen to see if Dora was just hiding. There had to be a better explanation.

‘What are you doing here anyway?’ Robyn asked.

Adam was about to reply that he was just doing a little investigating, when a question of his own occurred. ‘How did you know I was in here?’

Robyn looked down at the floor, turning red. ‘I… I saw you come in.’

It seemed like a fair enough answer. At first, he considered she might have been following him, but that was not necessarily the case. But it still didn’t add up. ‘What made you think I snuck in? How do you know Dora didn’t invite me in? Or her parents for that matter? Why did you just follow me in without knocking? And how come you waited for so long to do it?’

‘Ummm… I don’t know. I guess I was worried you might be in some kind of trouble, especially with all the disappearances. I waited for a bit, but you didn’t come out so I came in. Besides, I always thought this place was deserted. I’ve never seen anyone around here.’

Adam’s eyes narrowed. She had only been in town for a few days, so how would she know the place had been deserted? And if she was in league with Miss Crazy, as he suspected, then she knew the woman had been staying here. ’But this place hasn’t been deserted, has it?’

‘Huh? Why do you say that?’

‘Because you’ve been here yourself. With Miss Casey.’

Robyn looked at him with a puzzled expression. ‘Why would you say that? Have you seen me here before?’

Adam wasn’t quite sure how to answer that. The last thing he wanted to do was upset the girl, especially if she was innocent. But she’d also admitted in front of the whole class that she knew Miss Crazy personally – outside of school. ‘No,’ Adam said finally. ‘But it had crossed my mind.’

‘Why?’

‘There’s just been too much way weird stuff going on around here. And with Mr Vennie and Miss Casey and those other two guys turning up in Pungaru at the same time as you, I just wondered whether there was a link.’

‘Well...’ Robyn’s lips curled in a wry smile. ‘Even if there was, you’d have nothing to worry about. I’m not here to try to abduct people and kill them off. And neither is Miss Casey.’

Adam decided not to argue. After all, he couldn’t really well accuse her of lying. And if she was trying to protect Miss Crazy, she was hardly going to agree that she was guilty.

Robyn kept her eyes locked on Adam, as if waiting for him to reply.

Adam sighed. ‘I guess we might as well go. Looks like Dora doesn’t want to speak to me anymore, anyway.’ Still feeling disturbed, he headed towards the door. Robyn followed.

Adam began to feel like a real fool. Robyn must be thinking he’d lost his mind, claiming to have been talking to Dora, when there was no sign of her. Had she really been there talking to him? He began to wonder whether he really was going insane.

Once outside, they walked towards Robyn’s place. But when they came to her house, Robyn continued walking. Adam came to a halt.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘This is your house isn’t it?’

‘Oh… yeah, of course.’ Robyn giggled. ‘I was just going on to your place with you.’

‘Well I wouldn’t want you walking back on your own.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘No, it’s too dangerous. You’d better go in now. Hey, why don’t I come in and say hi to your parents?’

‘No!’ Robyn seemed alarmed, but then relaxed and smiled. ’You don’t wanna meet my parents.’

‘Why not?’

‘They just aren’t that friendly.’

‘Oh.’

‘Well…’ she said, ‘I better go in. You go home. My parents wouldn’t appreciate you being here anyway. They’re like that. If you were a girl it would be a different story.’

Adam could understand. Her parents were probably strict when it came to members of the opposite sex. Robyn smiled at him and walked towards the house. She paused once she got to the door and turned to look at Adam. ‘You ok?’

‘Yeah. Just wanted to make sure you got inside safely.’

She looked uncomfortable and hesitated. She nodded, gripping the door handle in an attempt to open it. She turned back and smiled, going red. ‘Locked. Uh oh.’ She laughed. ‘I don’t have my key with me.’ She knocked on the door, but nobody came. ‘My parents must be out.’ She turned back and smiled again.. ‘I guess I’ll have to hang around out back for a bit.’

‘You sure you don’t want to come over to my place? We can ring here a little later to see whether they’re home.’

She seemed to be considering the option, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. ‘No,’ she finally said. ‘Not this time. I’ll hang around here. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.’

Adam didn’t like the idea of leaving her, but didn’t trust her a whole lot either. He left her standing on the front veranda and headed off home.