This is the first chapter of my NaNoWriMo from last November. It's kind of lame but I wasn't sure how else to start the story. Well tell me what you do like in it, an what could be changed. I'll be posting the remaining chapters soon :) I have 5 main parts, but the individual chapters are really short, so I plan on posting a few together, like here.
Also, *disclaimer* this was all based on Marble Hornets before Entry #67, so I realize that knowing what we now know, none of this would be true.
May 14, 1986
Janet Wright's parent's, middle aged Bible Belters, finally agreed to let her go with her friends to Florida. She lay on the beach, wearing the bikini her friend let her borrow. Eyes closed, taking in the sun, a shadow blocked the sun. She opened her eyes and sat up, ready to tell her friends to get out of the way.
Instead, she saw a young man. He was tan with dark hair. Average height, but he towered above her with his black shorts and muscular body. He apologized and offered to buy her a drink. He helped Janet up, asking what her name was.
"Um, Janet."
"Nice to meet you, um Janet." He grinned. "I'm Jason Luis. Where are you from?"
"I'm from Judicium Hill in South Carolina. It's kind of near Aiken. Little town, you know?"
"I actually know where that is. My parents grew up there. I live about half an hour away, in Augusta." He was handed their smoothies, and he passed one to her. "So what are you doing down here?"
"Spring break, you know." She hoped that he wasn't in college, and that if he was, he wouldn't realize that she was only in high school.
"Yeah, me too." He smiled at her, and she blushed and looked away, her curly dark hair bouncing.
"What?" He leaned forward.
"Nothing, stop that!" Turning back, he touched her nose with his finger, covered in whipped cream from the smoothie.
"Hey, what was that for?"
"Sorry." He looked down. Taking advantage of the situation, Janet scooped whipped cream out of her own smoothie, placing it on his nose.
He laughed, licking his nose, making her laugh more and she wiped it off. "Hey Janet," her friend, Allie, interrupted. "We're heading back to the hotel. Um," she eyed the stranger and smiled. "Are you going to come with us?"
"Don't worry, I can get her back to you guys. Unless you want to go now?" She shook her head. "Where should I take her?"
"We'll just be going to the inn down the road from here. Janet knows where it is, don't you?"
"Yeah, I know how to get back."
"Okay, well, have fun you guys. And, what's your name?"
"Jason Luis."
"Well, Jason-"
"Luis."
"Jason Luis, you better not murder my friend. And if you plan on being out past 11, I expect to hear from you, so I don't think she's being murdered."
"Deal."
"Well then, have fun." Allie walked off, swaying her hips, then taking off running toward the rest of the girls, who were already a block away.
"Sorry, that's Allie. She's just like that, you know?"
"Oh, no problem. That's awesome that you have friends who care. Who knows, I could be a murderer."
"You could. But you're not, right?"
"Of course not. If I was, I wouldn't murder a pretty little thing like you."
"Well that's good. I wouldn't like to be murdered." They stayed on the beach until sunset, just after six.
"How about dinner?"
"Dinner?"
"What, too soon?"
"No, let's eat dinner."
He led her to a small diner near the beach, and ordered fries and cheeseburgers. "Romantic, isn't it?"
"Oh, very romantic. I'm falling in love as we speak." She laughed, but worried that it might be true.
July 30, 1986
Her parents had just left the house, she heard the door close and lock and the car pull out. Janet had gotten out of going to church when her mother saw her throw up in the bathroom. The moment the car pulled out, Janet trudged out of bed to the phone downstairs. She dialed Allie's number. 3
"Hello, this is Allie?"
"Allie, I need to talk to you."
"Janet?"
"Are you busy?"
"Not really."
"Remember how you bought those fancy pregnancy tests a couple of months ago?"
"Oh, yeah I can do that! Bring one over that is. This is so exciting! I'll be over in ten!"
Janet was anxious about her friend's enthusiasm, and waited for her to show up. She had to use the bathroom, but waited for Allie to show up. She lay in her twin-sized bed with her pink knitted afghan around her body. She was dressed in a loose fitting sweatshirt and sweatpants, the outfit she had lived in through the summer.
Allie let herself in and ran up to Janet's room with a pregnancy test. "Okay, now you go to the bathroom and do what it says."
Allie pushed the pink box into Janet's hand and urged her to use the bathroom.
In the bathroom, she examined it. "New from the makers of Tampax tampons, First Response Pregnancy test." Opening the box, she found two test tubes with clear liquid, an eye dropper and a small cup to collect urine. How am I supposed to pee in that? She wondered.
She accomplished it well enough, and used the eyedropper to drop two drops into the test tube. Janet washed her hands and joined Allie in the bedroom.
"Okay, twenty minutes."
"So, if you are pregnant, which we don't know yet, who's the father?"
"Well, I mean, there was only ever Jason Luis?"
"You mean from Spring Break?"
"Yeah, that one. He's come up a few times after then."
"How's he going to feel about it?"
"I don't know."
Twenty minutes later, the liquid turned bright blue. Allie congratulated Janet and went home.
Later that night, after Janet's parents went to bed, Jason Luis called the home phone and hand up after one ring, their special code. Janet snuck downstairs to get the phone when she was sure it was all clear and brought the cordless Sony home phone upstairs to her room. She called him back and he told her to meet him down the road, something they had done multiple times.
He picked her up 3 blocks down in his father's pickup truck. Jason Luis greeted her with a kiss and drove to the dock. "I brought us a picnic lunch."
"Lunch?" Janet laughed nervously.
"You know what I mean."
Jason Luis climbed into the back to get their picnic, and they jumped the fence to get on the dock. Jason Luis had to help her more than usual, and they lay out their midnight snack at the end. Lying under the stars, she struggled to find the right words.
"Janet, are you okay?" he asked, holding her in his arms.
"I, um, no." She closed her eyes tight.
"What is it? Are you crying?" He sat up and wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"I'm, well, I think…" She faded off and buried her face in Jason Luis's chest.
"Janet, you're what? Breaking up with me?" Janet reassured him through her tears that she wasn't leaving him.
"Then what? You're pregnant?"
He felt her nod and shake.
"Really? Janet, this is awesome. We're going to be parents. I am the father, right?"
Janet scooted back and wiped her eyes. "Yeah," she laughed. "You are, of course you are."
Jason looked up to the sky. "It's just like we said we were going to do. We can run away together and have our own little family." He put his hand on Janet's stomach. "Let's do this. Are you sure?"
"I think so. I'm going to take the second test in a few days just to be sure. You mean you're really happy about this?"
"I'm more than happy. I'm… I'm elastic. No..."
"Ecstatic?" Janet suggested, giggling.
"Yes! That one. So what do you think? Run away with me, Janet?"
"Yes, I will run away with you, Jason Luis Magee. But, to where?"
"We could go anywhere. I have enough money saved up to get us an apartment."
"When?"
"A couple of weeks? I have a cousin down is Mascogan, that college town in Alabama. How would you feel about that?"
"Sounds exciting!"
"I'll figure it all out. I'll call you when I know when we should leave and all that. Don't start packing until then, or your parents will get suspicious."
He took her home, and she slept soundly, with just a hint of anxiety.
August 23, 1986
Janet and Jason Luis arrived in Mascogan, AL at noon on one of the hottest days of the year. The Mascogan Regional Airport was so alive. College students back for another year who hadn't yet received syllabi or homework, retired grandfathers and grandmothers making a statement of their ability to live, there were people of every career and class. The racial diversity was split almost equally between white and black men and women.
Janet took off her jacket in an attempt to escape the heat. It was already September and still in the mid 90 degree temperatures. Janet sat on a bench in the luggage retrieval room (which was thoroughly was air conditioned) while Jason Luis waited for their bags to make it around. Jason Luis looked for his plain black backpack and suitcase full of clothes and other necessities, and his theater bag. Janet had one small bag which she had brought onto the plane as a carry on. In it were her clothes, make up and various books. On the top was
Jason Luis had already lined up seven auditions for small plays in the area. They wouldn't pay much, but Janet planned on finding a part time job until his career set off. She suspected than Jason Luis was planning to propose soon.
The conveyor belt finally offered the couple their bags, which Jason Luis took, and they made their way to the front.
"Jackson Magee where are you? He should be around here somewhere." Jason Luis said, surveying the front of the Mascogan Regional Airport for his cousin. Nathan was Jason Luis's 24 year old cousin twice removed. His parents lived in Washington State, and he had been living on his own for three years. He agreed to let Jason Luis and Janet stay at his place until they were on their feet as long as they weren't a bother. Janet was terrified of what would happen once she started showing. They hadn't told Nathan that they were expecting a child, and Janet would be noticeably pregnant within the next few weeks. It was highly unlikely that they would have enough for an apartment by then.
"Jason!"
They turned to where the sound came from.
"Well Mr. Jason Luis Magee, don't you look all grown up. Graduated, with a pretty girl." He turned to Janet. "What, did he knock you up?"
She blushed and turned to Jason Luis.
"Don't listen to silly ol' Nate here, he's just messing with you. He's always been a big bully, haven't you, cuz?" In an instant, Jason Luis was caught in a head lock and being given a noogie.
"Say I'm you're favorite cousin!" Jason Luis resisted, laughing.
"Say it!"
"All right, all right. You're my favorite drunk, poor cousin." Nate let him go, and they embraced.
Janet felt awkward in this. She knew this was how siblings acted, she had seen her friends' brothers fight, but never in public. Nate offered to take Janet's bag, and they walked to his car. It was obviously well used, but seemed to be in good shape. There were no dents or scratched, and it was nearly empty of trash, save for an empty can of Corona in the back.
"My house is about 15 minutes from here if we take the freeway, unless you guys want to take the scenic trip?" Nate suggested.
Jason Luis looked to her questioningly.
"Sure, why not," she agreed. "I'd like to know what's around here."
They drove the long way home, about half an hour. The roads were long and straight, and surrounded by trees, some streetlights, and a long strip of industrial buildings.
"We'll be staying by Rosswood. I have a job at Rosswood."
"Rosswood?"
"What's that, Janet?"
"What's Rosswood?"
"It's just a big State Park. I heard a pretty scary story about it yesterday."
Jason Luis smiled. "Tell me more."
"Okay, so back in the eighteen hundreds or whatever, people around here thought that the forest, I don't think it was called Rosswood Park yet, they thought this place was blessed. I guess because everything would grow so fast. So they figured that God was there. They would take their worst criminals, murderers and child molesters and rapists, and they would put them on trial before God out here. I doubt there was any "Innocent until proven guilty" kind of stuff though, because they would tie them up to the trees and the idea was that they would get stretched out, kind of like a rack. They never fed or gave them water or whatever though so they would just die of dehydration.
And they would just leave their bodies there for a few days, then they would just burn the whole tree with them still on it. Then one day a kid went missing. A little boy probably. They searched for weeks, and he finally turned up in the area where they would do the trials. Dismembered and strung up. He's buried at a cemetery a few minutes down the road. That's what they told me at least. Want to check it out."
Janet wasn't sure, but Jason Luis wanted to. They turned left and made their way to a small cemetery. It was very old looking, there didn't seem to be any new markers. The newest one Janet found was 1914.
"How are we supposed to find this?" she asked, hoping they'd go back in the car.
"Let's make it a game." Jason Luis suggested.
"First one to find it chooses tonight's dinner?"
"Sounds fair to me."
"Any hint of how to find it or are we just going to get some feeling when we see it?"
"Maybe it says on the tombstone. You know the little epi something?"
"Epi pen?" Jason Luis suggested.
"Epitaph," Janet clarified. "It's the inscription on a tombstone."
They began looking. Jason Luis and Nate joked about some of the odd named.
"I found someone with your birthday, Jason."
The grave markers varied from tall statues, many of them taller than Janet herself, to modest, flat plaques. Many of them were too eroded to read. Janet stooped down to move a layer of orange and red leaves, and found a gravestone raised a couple of inches. "Timothy Arky, Born November 9, 1814. Found dead September 27, 1822."
There was more underneath a layer of moss. Janet looked around for a stick, and used it to clean off the marker. "Vellet ire Arcui."
"Hey guys, what does this mean?"
Jason walked toward her and looked at the words. "Probably just some carpe diem type stuff."
Jack made his way over and looked at the words. "That's weird. Arcui was a hospital or something in Rosswood. There was a fire a few decades ago, it's just standing there, getting vandalized now."
"This says he was 'found' when he was only eight. I wonder what that means." Janet stood up and looked at the men.
"It could be the dismembered kid," Jason suggested.
"Maybe. We should get going now." Nate started to walk back to the car.
"You look worried." Jason Luis took Janet's hand.
"I'm fine. Just excited to see the house. How long is he going to be letting us live there?"
"Probably the next few months." He leaned in and said in a whisper, "We'll have a place before the baby gets here."
"Guys?"
"We're coming."
They drove to the house in silence.
"Here it is!" The house was fairly large. Two story with a back yard, it was tan on the outside.
Jack showed them the kitchen and living room downstairs, then their room upstairs. Nate had the large master bedroom and the adjacent office. The walls were bare, and most of the house looked unlived in.
"So," Nate said, "Janet might have found the grave. What should we order?"
"I can cook," Janet offered.
Jack laughed. "I would love to have a home cooked meal, but I've been living alone here for a few years, I don't keep around ingredients. I have a few cooking utensils or whatever, you know, pots and pans, but there isn't much cooking in here. Oh, that reminds me. Until you guys get a car, there's a bus stop at Rosswood Park's parking lot. It's a little less than a mile away from here, just go east."