The road to the lighthouse was long, winding, and dark. We drove in procession, following one another. Dane and I tailed Ashton’s red truck, and the other girls followed us.
“So, are we the only ones going to the after-party?” I asked, breaking up the silence as we drove.
“I don’t know. Ashton usually organizes a whole thing. Most of the kids in our year group go. Sometimes juniors sneak in. Word spreads pretty quickly in this town.”
I nodded.
“So, I’m curious, why the old psych hospital? I mean, it’s still a working hospital. There are still patients there.”
Dane turned toward me and gave me his wicked smile.
“Are you kidding? It’s the scariest and best place to throw an illegal party. We’ve done it before. Plus, the residents don’t mind. You’ll see. It’s like they’re not even there.”
I nodded again. I didn’t need to see. I knew what it was like.
I used to live there.
The only thing that was making me hesitant to go was if someone recognized me.
Still, I needed to get rid of the evidence before the place was redeveloped later when my dad took the contract.
This might be my last chance.
When we were approaching the lighthouse, Stacey texted to tell us to turn off our headlights. When the road was in complete darkness, we moved slowly into the tourist parking lot a little bit down the lighthouse road. Trees and shrubs surrounded it, so it provided the perfect camouflage for our little clandestine party.
When we got out of the car, Dane made his way to the trunk of his car and popped it open. When I joined him there, I saw it was filled with beer kegs and bottles of wine and spirits.
My eyes widened.
“Where’d you get those?”
He winked at me and touched his nose. Ashton ran over and high fived and hugged him.
“It’s who you know. Nah, Ashton’s older brother got them for us, and we paid him back.”
“Let’s rock this joint!” hollered Ashton, taking a keg out of the trunk and hoisting it onto his shoulder. I wasn’t surprised he could carry that thing. He was used to carrying band equipment and speakers around to gigs.
The other guys grabbed the other kegs, and we girls stashed the wine and spirit bottles in shopping bags one of the blonde girls provided. Kelsey and Ashlea if I remember correctly.
Just as I remembered also, there was a chain-link fence with barbed wire on the top, surrounding the facility. But the guys found the gap in the fence someone had created before and snuck through.
It was surprisingly easy to sneak into the psych hospital.
Where was all the security that used to be around when I was there? We crossed the courtyard and opened a window at the side of the building, climbing in and hoisting our booze stash through, taking turns to drop our load through, and climbing in after it.
“Why isn’t there any security?” I had to ask.
“No one cares about a couple of little old crazy ladies.” Ashlea laughed.
“Due to cost-cutting by the government, they got rid of the security guards and night staff years ago,” explained Dane. “My mom told me it’s recently been sold to a developer from the city. It’s soon going to be turned into luxury condos, a resort, and a golf course.”
“Ah. I see.” I nodded, pretending I knew nothing about it. “So what about the residents?”
“What do you mean? They’re fine. You’ll see,” said Kelsey.
We made our way down a long corridor past many locked doorways and abandoned rooms when we came across our first resident of Summervale Cove Psych hospital.
A record player was on in one of the rooms, and through the open doorway, we saw an elderly lady turning in slow circles in her wheelchair to the beat of the music. It was jazz and probably from the era the older woman grew up in.
She didn’t notice us as we walked past. She just kept spinning around and around in lazy circles to the music, in her own little world.
Further down the hall, there was a tiny little old lady dressed in a floral sundress and a wide brim sun hat and lace gloves, like she just came from the Queen of England’s garden party or something. She was slumped in a chair and wasn’t moving. I wanted to check if she was breathing, but Dane took my hand, and the guys picked up their pace. I looked back at the lady in the sundress, and a thought formed in my mind. But it didn’t have time to percolate.
In the large recreation room, an open plan room at the back of the facility, Ashton and the other band members had already set up their wireless speakers and were in the process of pushing the chairs and tables out of the middle over to the walls.
There were two residents currently occupying the space, a lady with a long hooked nose and short, purplish-gray hair staring into space, and a young-looking plump woman with sandy colored hair.
Chills ran through my veins, and my feet suddenly felt like they were buried in concrete.
I knew this woman.
“Darce? What’s wrong?” asked Dane, confused as to why I had suddenly stopped walking.
“It’s her,” I whispered.
Dane glanced at the woman and nodded once, not speaking. He then walked over to the woman who still haunted my nightmares and attempted to wheel her out of the room so I didn’t have to see her and so we could party.
But when he placed his hand on the woman’s shoulder to move her into an upright sitting position, as she was currently slumped forward, the woman’s eyes snapped open, and she began cackling loudly.
Her cackle sounded wicked, like a witch, and was the same one that haunted me to this day. It made the acid in my stomach curdle, and it was threatening to rise.
Her laugh wasn’t loud enough to be heard over the music they had playing from the speaker, though. It was something techno with lots of bass.
Only Dane and I were close enough to hear her.
Well, I didn’t have to be close enough to know what her laugh was like.
I would never forget that laugh.
Dane moved quickly and wheeled the woman who had abused me all those years ago out of the room.
When she was in a vacant room safely away from the party and me, we closed the door. I stared at the closed white door with the small square window, frozen to the spot.
“Are you okay?” Dane asked, coming to stand beside me.
“I never thought I’d see her again. I knew she was here, but not being in the community, she was out of sight, out of mind, you know?”
He nodded and slipped his hand into mine.
“Come on. Let’s get a drink and forget about this. About her.”
I looked up at him and smiled. I stood up on my tippy toes and kissed him before taking his hand and jogging into the rec room to join the others.
Kelsey handed me a wine cooler, and I cracked it open and took a huge drink.
Then I began to move my hips to the beat of the music, swaying my hands about, waving them in the air. I had to forget about the fact my tormenter was here, only a few feet from me.
I had to block her out.
I wanted to forget about killers, secrets, and lies, and the fact my father was dating Dane’s mom, and our relationship was kind of forbidden or the fact that he brought me to the one place he brought all his other girlfriends.
I wanted to forget about it all and just dance.
I lost myself in the music, in Dane, as he sidled up to me, drink in hand, and ground his body against mine. The wine slowly warmed me and gave me that much-wanted buzz.
I was well on the way.