HDA - Dead Scholar's Society by Gabrielle de Lioncourt Chapter 20

"But what does ‘Mn’ ‘lT’ ‘Pt’ stand for?" Vanessa wondered.

"Moonlight Point," Joe said and instantly his eyes clouded over. Frank looked at his brother sharply. His trained eyes didn’t miss the sudden change in Joe and he wondered what could have caused it.

"Moonlight Point? Where is that?" She had been in Bayport for slightly more than a year now and she’d always thought that she knew every inch of the town already. Obviously she still didn’t.

"Out of town. About an hour drive from here, right on top of a small hill where you can get a spectacular view of the whole city. It’s a favorite spot for young couples to, uh, hang out," Frank explained feebly, glancing out the corner of his eye at his brother. He didn’t bother to explain much further because he was sure Vanessa could figure it out herself.

Vanessa raised her eyebrows. No doubt she could grasp the hidden meaning behind Frank’s furtive glance. Young couples? A place to hang out? And to make out, a silent voice said inside her head. A look at Joe’s face confirmed her suspicions. Deeply hurt, Vanessa struggled hard to swallow her disappointment and barely suppressed anger and tried to focus on the case.

"So, uh, Moonlight Point it is," she said finally, trying her best to keep a straight face, hoping that she didn’t sound the least bit jealous. Joe was staring at his hands in his lap and looked as if his thoughts were miles away. Vanessa wanted so badly to know what he was thinking about. Is he thinking about Tessa? A secret rendezvous under the twinkling blanket of stars, high up in the sky, overlooking the rest of the world? She thought sarcastically. She was more crushed than jealous though. Joe had only known Tessa, or whoever she was, for 2 weeks. He’s known me for a year and never once has he ever taken me there.

Frank could sense the tension mounting in the small kitchen like steam filling a boiler. But he knew they had a bigger problem at hand.

"Moonlight Point is a big place."

"I know the spot," Joe stood up abruptly. "I’ll lead you there."

The hour-long journey was spent in complete silence, all three of them lost in their own thoughts; Frank preoccupied with his dread and uneasiness, Vanessa with her jealousy and Joe…with his memories.

"Why did you want to come here?" he asked uneasily. I shouldn’t be doing this, he thought. Though it was a beautiful place, Moonlight Point was more than just that. To him, it was a very romantic place, and when the time was right, with a full moon shining brightly in the sky, the scenery was just breathtaking.

"Isn’t it beautiful?" she asked, breathing in the refreshing air. A breeze blew oh-so-gently through the trees, lifting her long dark hair off her bare shoulders.

It wasn’t the beauty that was making him uneasy. He felt like he was cheating on Vanessa. Though they still weren’t talking to each other but Joe knew that every couple had to go through bad phases once in a while. And this was just one of them. But standing here, at this place, the very place where he’d planned to take Vanessa for their first-year anniversary next month filled him with guilt. Oh well, I’ll just make she never finds out about this.

"Come on, Joe!" Tessa beckoned to him, encouraging him to get closer to the edge of the cliff. The city of lights lay below them in a dazzling ensemble of neon colors and fluorescent lights. "Are you scared of heights?"

"Of course not," Joe said uneasily. There were only the two of them and huge, dark trees loomed over them, casting an eerie shadow over them both. He hated to admit it but the place was creeping him out.

"Why, Joe…what’s the matter?" Tessa said, smiling coyly. "Are you scared?"

"Scared?" Joe laughed. "Of what?"

"I don’t know…" There was a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Ghosts?"

"There are no ghosts-"

Tessa wiggled her finger. "Don’t be too sure." With a mysterious smile, she slowly turned sideways and pointed to a single tree, which stood at the far end of the long, winding road. In the blackness of the midnight sky, the tree looked huge, dark and ominous. "You see that tree over there?"

Joe nodded.

"Some people say they’ve seen an apparition of a teenage girl walking in the vicinity, sometimes just walking around the tree, just circling it like this-" Tessa picked up the hems of her skirt and tiptoed to a nearby tree. Her smile looked frightening as she circled the tree slowly, laughing softly all the while.

"Tessa, stop it!" Joe hissed. He kept glancing at the tree at the end of the road.

"And they say she was murdered too!" Tessa said, giggling.

"Tessa, stop it this instant!"

"Joe’s scared…Joe’s scared…" she taunted and danced around the tree, her arms flailing in graceful motions. "Come and play with me, Joe!"

Come and play with me, Joe…

Joe squeezed his eyes shut. He kept hearing her voice in his head. He kept hearing the same sentence over and over again.

Come and play with me, Joe…

"Joe!!!" Joe jerked awake with a start. The car had come to a stop. Frank, who had been driving, was looking at him with an intense expression on his face. Vanessa too.

"We’re here."

"This place is creepy," Vanessa said timidly, and though she was walking with two strong, reliable guys on either side of her, she still didn’t feel safe. The road leading to the peak of the same hill was not only narrow but also winding and they had to walk the rest of the way up after parking the car. Though it wasn’t completely dark yet, the sun was just setting; but she could swear the huge trees looming on both sides of the path had come alive, leering at her.

Each one of them armed with a shovel, they made their way silently up the hill. The thought of what they were about to do was enough to shut them up and Vanessa definitely wasn’t looking forward to it. But Frank had suggested they go check it out before notifying the police, so here she was, about to dig up some poor girl’s grave.

"This is it. This is the spot," Joe said, pointing to the tree. Frank sent him a curious look.

"How do you know all this?"

"I just know," Joe said softly. Joe refused to go near the tree so Frank inched closer until the big, jutting outer roots of the tree were inches away from his rubber boots. With a quaking heart, he planted the shovel into the earth. Then he started digging.

Vanessa swallowed hard. Sweat had long ago since drenched the thin T-shirt she was wearing and her heart was pounding so hard she swore she could see her chest pumping up and down with every erratic heartbeat. My God, I never thought I would be doing this. Not ever. What the hell have I gotten myself into? But she kept her thoughts to herself and went to help Frank as she tried not to think about what she was probably going to see, what they were going to uncover. God, this is like a bad horror movie. A really REALLY bad one. Starring me.

Frank was also thinking along the same line. With every shovelful of earth he threw over his shoulder, the pit under his feet grew bigger and deeper. Joe, who had stood rooted to the ground a few feet away for the last 10 minutes, finally realized what he was there to do.

Don’t think about it, Joe. Don’t think about her, don’t think about anything. Reluctantly, he dragged his feet to where Vanessa and Frank were working and dug his own shovel into the soft, moist earth. Why couldn’t we just let the police do this? It’d be so much easier-

Joe didn’t get to finish his train of thought when suddenly Vanessa jumped backward, threw her shovel down and let out the shrillest, loudest scream he’d ever heard in his whole life. Vanessa kept on screaming and screaming until Joe lunged toward her and grabbed her in his arms, enveloping her tightly with his strong arms.

"Hush, Vanessa, it’s okay!!! It’s okay!!!" He shouted, trying to calm her down but Vanessa kept on screaming. Her words were all garbled and to Joe, she looked as if she was on the verge of hysterics. Hell, she IS hysterical, he thought and his heart stopped as he made out the words at last.

"Hand!!!!! Oh My God, Joe, it’s a hand! IT’S A HAND!!!!!!!!!!" Vanessa shrieked. Joe’s eyes went wide.

"Vanessa, calm dow-"

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks and Joe took a few involuntary steps backward when she suddenly turned and wrapped her arms tightly around him. "Joe, I’m scared-I’m scared-pleasegetmeoutofhere-Iwannagetoutofhereplease-"

"Frank?" He called out his brother’s name. Frank had been oblivious to all the commotion. He was standing where Vanessa was, just staring down at the ground. Slowly Frank turned his head and looked at Joe, an unreadable expression on his face. Joe suddenly remembered to breathe again and instantly a stench assaulted his nostrils. A stench so strong it brought a sudden violent reaction from his stomach. A stench associated only with rotting, decomposing flesh.

"I think we can call the police now," Frank said quietly.