Split. Part 33

When she was a child Mak was rarely alone, least of all on this day of the year.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

Mak was doing her best to find the upside to what had happened in September. She was a survivor, and most importantly, she had ended Daniel Blake's bizarre reign of terror. But she could not forget Daniel's face-the look of homicidal rage and agony as he lay on the floor with the knife protruding from his body, and his final cry as the bullet tore into him, sending him swiftly into death to join his twin-a violent end to a tortured and violent life.

Makedde felt sad for Roy. He had been naive and made some very poor decisions, but he seemed to have a good heart. In order to protect his brother he had taken him out of the hands of the people who might have helped him. He didn't understand what his brother, in his illness, was capable of. Not even Ann could have guessed, until it was too late.

Ann believed that their father had abused Daniel, mentally and most probably s.e.xually as well. For whatever reason, he decided to pick on the one child. Their mother had found out. That was why she left. No one had been able to track her down since, and probably no one ever would. And their father, the prize hunter, whether he abused them or not, was now a senile old man in an inst.i.tution.

It seemed unlikely that anyone would ever know the whole truth.

Mak slipped her sweater on and her mother's earrings, and walked in her thick winter socks from the bedroom into the family living room. From the big front window she could see up and down the whole block. The window was adorned with the Halloween decorations her father still pasted there every year; they were at least fifteen years old, depicting a smiling green witch riding her broom across a big orange moon. There would be Santa Claus and his reindeer in that spot at Christmastime and the Easter Bunny in April. Mak smiled at the sight of the old decorations, and wandered over to the side wall to plug in a plastic pumpkin. It glowed brightly as it hung in the window nearest the front entrance, smiling with its single tooth, complementing the Halloween ensemble. Finally she flipped the light switch on for the front porch-a signal that this house had candy to offer the Trick or Treaters.

Happy Halloween.

As she reached the base of the stairs, the phone rang. She turned and leapt up the steps two by two and skidded across the linoleum in the kitchen.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Wakey, wakey, rise and shine," came the familiar voice.

"Dad!" Her heart lifted.

"How's my girl?"

"I'm fine, Dad. How are you? How is Ann doing?"

Her father had spent much of the past month with Ann Morgan, who was recovering well. They clearly had something good there, and Mak was pretty comfortable with it. She wanted her father to be happy and she liked Ann a lot, but that didn't stop it from feeling a little weird at times. After all, Ann Morgan was turning out to be her father's first real "girlfriend" since he was widowed. As if that dynamic needed to be more awkward, Ann knew all about Makedde's darkest fears and worst experiences and Mak had witnessed Ann fighting for her life with a fireplace poker. Not exactly a conventional start to their relationship.

"Hang on..."

"Hi, Makedde," came a woman's voice. "Happy Halloween." It was Ann.

"Oh," Makedde exclaimed, taken off guard. "Happy Halloween to you, too. How are you?"

"I'm very well. I'm hoping we can catch up again next weekend. I'll be much better company soon, and much more mobile."

"You take it easy, okay? Promise me."

"Deal."

Her father got back on the line. "By the way, the press haven't laid off yet. They don't know where you are, so I'm copping all the flak."

"That's what fathers are for."

"Yup. They're offering five figures just for a photo of you."

"Mmm. My agent would like that," she said. "If they do anything like that behind my back I'll slaughter them."

"And Professor Gosper has been skulking around again. He wants to talk to you."

Makedde let out an irritated sigh. "I know, I know, so he can write my story. How thoughtful of him. Tell him to get stuffed, Dad. If I want my story written, I'll write it myself."

A pause. "Oh dear. I didn't tell him to get stuffed."

Oh no. "You didn't? What did you do? You didn't promise I would speak to him, did you?"

How could he do that?

"No. I told him to get f.u.c.ked."

"Dad!" she squealed. "You said that? Such language." She couldn't remember the last time she had heard her father swear.

"You alone?" he asked.

"Presently, yes."

She knew what he meant.

"Call him."

"Yes, Dad, well, have a good night," she blurted, changing the subject.

"You too."

"And thanks for calling," she said. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too."

Smiling to herself, she settled into the couch behind the witch and her broom. She laid her arms along the back of the seat and rested her chin, looking out the window at the children dressed up in their costumes and wandering around under the streetlights. There was an alien here, a Dracula there, one of them was a fairy, a Frankenstein, a Dalmatian.

I will give him a call, she thought.

Andy had come across from Vancouver to visit her now that Dr Harris was back at Quantico. They both agreed that it was a little too intimate to have him staying in the Vanderwall guestroom, so Andy had splurged on a nearby B&B-the cheapest accommodation possible. For the past two days he had been renting an undersized bed in the maid suite in the house of a rather frightening old woman with some strange opinions and too many cats.

He planned to leave for Australia in about a week, but she figured he wouldn't last another day in that place. She'd have to save him. If he was good, that is.

He had dropped a few not-so-subtle hints about getting back together, but she wasn't so sure. You are not over the shock yet, she told herself. Don't go running into his arms hoping he'll save you from the memories of what has happened here. But she did want to see him, and she didn't want to be alone on her favourite night of the year.

Perhaps she could make him wear face paint and answer the door in a big cape or something? That'd be amusing.

The number of his B&B was tacked to the bulletin board next to the phone. She dialled.

"h.e.l.lo?" An older lady's voice.

"Hi, I'm calling for your guest, Andy Flynn."

"Oh, hang on. He's just here watching TV," she said.

Mak chuckled to herself.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Hi, Andy. It's Mak."

"Oh, I'd know that voice anywhere," he said. And she certainly knew his.

"Would you like to come over?" she asked, feeling a bit like a naughty teenager with the parents away. "We could order in and watch all the vampire and werewolf movies on TV. Whaddya say?"

"You want to drag me away from the Charlie Brown Halloween special with the haunted pumpkin in the pumpkin patch and all that? I'm enjoying it, you know."

Mak couldn't restrain a giggle.

"Get me outta here," she heard him say in a low voice. "I was hoping you'd call."

"I did recommend the Honoured Guest, didn't I? But nooooo..." She laughed. "Well, I wouldn't want to drag you away from Charlie Brown at grandma's house. But the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is on next, so if you need someone to cling to when you get scared-"

"I'll be right over."

Grinning from ear to ear, she made her way back to the window.

Rain had begun to fall outside. She saw some children being ushered under shelter by their parents. Some had opened umbrellas and were rushing home, and others shivered and waited for it to pa.s.s. Hopefully it would clear up. It was never as much fun traipsing around in the wet. It was h.e.l.l on those Dracula capes, not to mention the pasty ghoul make-up.

The rain depressed her, and she thought again about what Ann had said.

Be careful what you wish for.

In the end Makedde supposed she got what she wished for-another chance to prove herself, to save her own life. In some ways, she felt whole again.

"You came to save me," she'd told Andy, "but I didn't need saving this time..."

Andy and her father were rummaging through her apartment for clues when news came that she had called 911 from a cabin deep in the woods of Squamish. She hadn't needed anyone to save her this time, though she suspected that she might not have made it back to the cabin safely if the brothers had not fought. Their quarrel had given her time that the other victims were not afforded.

Debbie Melmeth's and Susan Walker's families had both contacted her. They found some solace in knowing that their daughters' killer was dead, but nothing would bring their children back. Nothing anyone did could change that fact.

Whatever great being or force shaped Makedde's life, it had an infinitely bigger picture in mind than she did. Now, more than ever, she was convinced of that. Whatever her fears were, they would come true. But what she was only just realising was that rather than being a curse, adversity was in fact a great gift. For once your greatest fears come true, you are no longer burdened by them. You have survived, you are stronger, and you are free.

The doorbell rang.

Makedde peered cautiously through the peephole and saw Andy's familiar face.

"Aren't you going to say trick or treat?" she asked, opening the door.

"What?"

"Never mind. Come on in."

Andy was wet from the rain, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, and carrying a bottle of wine.

They sat up that night and watched the Halloween specials on TV, periodically answering the door for adventurous Trick or Treaters who still rang the bell despite the weather. In time, the visitors dropped off, and they hugged close to each other in silence on the couch. There was no need to talk.

Makedde gave in to her sleepiness around one. She kissed Andy goodnight and saw him to the family guestroom, not wanting to send him back to that awful B&B. But nightmares came to her quickly. She was running, and there were monsters, horrible monsters chasing her-twin vampires and zombies. She heard their footsteps behind her as they followed, fast-too fast even for her athletic strides. She was breathless, panting and running, and then somehow all was quiet. She had reached an oasis in the dark, a temporary haven behind a great gnarled tree like the ones in the forest when the twins had hunted her down. And then a noise...a crack of twigs...no, a sc.r.a.ping, somewhere...the sound was real, and she opened her eyes with a start.

NO!.

There was a sound.

A real sound.

In real life.

She leapt out of bed. There it was again. It was coming from down the hall.

Daniel...with Roy's blood on his hands...

But he's dead...I killed him...

Andy was already in the hall, standing in his boxer shorts, his eyes wide. He had heard it too.

"What is it?" she whispered, coming up beside him, heart pounding and trying not to tremble. He gave a cursory glance at her dressed in underpants and a T-shirt, but said nothing. He was half-naked, too, so what could he say?

"It's coming from the sliding doors at the back," he said quietly. "I think someone is trying to break in. I'll go check it out."

Makedde followed, and when he looked back at her and held up his hand as if to say, "Stay here", he saw from the look on her face that she wasn't staying anywhere.

They crept down the hall together.

At the end of the hall, they turned to look into the kitchen. Through the opening on the other side, they could see the sliding gla.s.s doors of the balcony, and blackness beyond.

Silence.

They moved closer.

They were a mere five feet from the gla.s.s doors when a sudden "Boo!" pierced the silence, and a gruesome green face emerged from the dark to blow a big raspberry against the gla.s.s. Huge white lips squished up against the gla.s.s pane, the pink tongue writhing. Ghoul make-up. It smeared against the gla.s.s in a pasty mess, and in seconds the teenager ran away to the laughter of his hiding cohorts.

"Oh, b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l!" Andy exclaimed. "Kids!" They collapsed together in a relieved and shaken heap on the kitchen floor, holding one another in their underwear, laughing.

"You were more scared than I was!" Makedde cried, barely able to form words through her laughter.

They held each other when they drifted into sleep. That night Makedde slept soundly.

She didn't dream.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.