Thornbird

Chapter Forty-Three Wave of Darkness

Forty-three

Wave of Darkness

Time slows to an absolute crawl. I’m unable to process what I’m hearing. My throat is so dry I can barely get a word out. “You were the one texting me?”

Everett nods. “Yes.”

“Was that you at the lumberyard, following me and Jasmine?”

He nods again.

“Why? Why would you do that to me?”

His face shifts through emotions I can’t read. “You don’t understand—”

“Then explain it! Tell me why you sent those messages. Why you scared us half to death at the lumberyard. What were you hoping to achieve?”

Everett falls silent again. It’s maddening.

And the longer it drags on, the more time my mind has to flash back to every encounter I ever had with him.

“Oh my God.” I suddenly feel sick. “You knew who I was when you took me to the bridge.”

“Yes,” he admits.

“And you were pretending to try to get to know me—”

“I wasn’t pretending.”

My eyes feel hot. Stinging wildly. “Did you ever even like me, Everett?”

“I did. I do.” He hesitates then, and that speaks even louder than his words. “I was attracted to you when we met on the trail, when I thought you were a Shipley. I wasn’t faking any of that. I asked you out because I wanted to.”

“But?” I say stiffly.

He visibly gulps. “But once I knew who you were, I guess a part of me figured it wouldn’t hurt to keep you close, try to figure out what you knew.”

That’s why he was so angry when I ended it, I realize. Because I’d deprived him of access to me. And why he was always pushing me to talk. He wanted me to spill my secrets because he knew I had them.

“Those messages,” I say, my voice sounding weak to my ears. “Why, damn it?”

He stares down at the porch, running his fingers through his hair. For a moment, I think he won’t answer. And maybe a part of me hopes he won’t.

But then he does.

“I didn’t want you to find the bodies.”

The admission sends a shiver down my spine. “Why not?”

“Because if you did, everyone would know my mom wasn’t among them. It would open up questions, things I didn’t want people to start digging into.”

My brain is still struggling to piece together what he’s telling me. “You’re saying you knew your mother wasn’t in my dad’s bunker? You knew she might’ve just run off?”

Instead of answering, he lets out a frustrated groan and stalks away from the porch.

“Everett,” I protest, but he only picks up his pace, his feet bare as he walks across the grass.

I reach the small clearing just as he lowers himself onto the bench in front of the wishing well, burying his face in his palms. Then he lifts his head and stares at the well as if he blames it for all the wishes he’s made that haven’t come true.

“How did you know your mom wasn’t one of my father’s victims?” I push.

His eyes flash to mine. “Ryan.”

“Yes?”

“Drop it.”

Yeah fucking right.

“No. I’m not dropping it. You scared the crap out of me because you didn’t want me or my cousins to look for the bodies. How did you know your mother wasn’t there? You knew she was alive this whole time?”

“She’s not alive. She’s dead. She’s been fucking dead since the day she disappeared.”

The breath leaves my lungs, and for a second everything goes still. I stare at him, trying to understand.

“How…Why…” I try to formulate a real sentence. “She’s dead?”

“It was an accident,” he says dully.

My body prickles with goose bumps, and I have to hug myself to stop from shivering. “What accident?”

Everett stumbles to his feet, staggering toward the well. Anxiety churns in my stomach as I watch him grip the rusted metal lid.

“What are you doing?”

He grunts as he tries to move it. It scrapes loudly, the sound grating in the silence around us. The lid barely budges. With a determined frown, he digs his fingers in and pushes harder, his face tightening with the effort.

“Everett, stop.”

He ignores me. “No one’s opened this in ten years.” His voice is strained. He’s panting by the time the lid finally slides open to reveal a dark, gaping hole. He glances my way. “I’ll go down first.”

“What? No! You’re not going down there…”

He’s already swinging himself over the edge and onto the metal ladder that runs down the inside of the well. The structure creaks, a haunting sound in the stillness.

“Come back,” I say, starting to panic. “Please.”

He gives me a quick, hollow smile. “It’s shallow. Only thirty feet or so. I’ll be fine.”

Then he’s gone, disappearing into the darkness below.

I lean over, watching the top of his head grow smaller until he vanishes completely.

After a few heartbeats of silence, I steel myself and step onto the ladder, gripping the rungs so tightly my knuckles ache. I have no desire to go down there. None. Zero interest. But I’m worried about Everett. I’m scared for him.

And I’m not leaving here without the truth.

The descent feels endless. I reach the bottom and find Everett waiting for me. He stands in a small concrete-walled space that’s totally barren. No debris. No water. Just an empty floor a different shade of gray than the surrounding walls.

“Why are we down here?” I ask, trying to ignore the tremble in my voice.

“Because I thought maybe this would make it feel real. Make her gone.” His gaze trails over the concrete floor. “We’re standing on her.”

A strangled noise escapes my lips. Jesus. A part of me wants to throw myself back on the ladder and get the hell out, but I force my feet to stay rooted.

I shiver, the gravity of his words sinking in. “What happened to her?”

“I was seven. I overheard them talking about a divorce. When I confronted them, they told me it was true.” He sounds like he’s reciting facts from a textbook, rather than his own life.

“Mom said she didn’t belong here. She wasn’t happy.

With my dad. With—” Now his voice catches, finally revealing some emotion. “With us.”

A wave of sympathy tightens my chest. I want to take his hand, but I’m worried it’ll make him stop talking.

“They sat me down and told me Mom would be moving to the city, and Nikki and I would be staying here with Dad. She said we’d still get to see her, but I could hear it in her voice—she didn’t mean that.

She didn’t plan on seeing us. At least not often.

” Bitterness drips from his every word. “Before that day, my life was perfect. My family was perfect. And suddenly it wasn’t.

I couldn’t take it. It felt like my entire world was ending, so I ran out of the house. I ran here.”

I don’t know where he’s going with this, and my heart races at all the terrible possibilities swirling in my mind.

“Mom ran after me. She tried to console me and tell me she’d always be here for me. That she’d always love me. But I didn’t see it that way. I felt like she was abandoning us. I got angry. So fucking angry. When she tried to hug me, I pushed her away, and, I don’t know, I guess I pushed too hard.”

I stifle the gasp that rises in my throat.

“I didn’t mean to. But she stumbled. And she fell into the well.” Everett winces. “I heard the sound when she hit the bottom. I called for her, but she must’ve died on impact.”

“Oh my God.” I bring my hand to my mouth, feeling the horror he must have felt that day, so young and afraid.

“I ran to get my dad,” he continues, staring into the darkness around us.

“He came out with a flashlight, shined it down, and saw her there. Dead. And that’s when he lost it.

He just…broke. It was her choice to leave him.

He didn’t want a divorce. But he lost her anyway.

I’d taken her from him, from all of us.”

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

Everett groans softly. “I wanted to. But Dad made me promise to keep quiet. He said no one would understand. They’d think I did it on purpose, or that he did it, because she’d asked him for a divorce.

He was terrified, Ryan. He said we’d tell everyone she left.

He grabbed me by the shoulders and said, Your mother left, you hear me?

She left! Repeat after me. I was numb, so I just repeated it.

Over and over again. She left. She left. ”

“And that was it? You kept it a secret all this time?”

“I tried to tell myself she really did leave. I tried to just forget.” He sounds ravaged.

Haunted. “Dad reported her missing the next day, said it would look suspicious if he didn’t.

The searches started, and I felt so guilty knowing all those people were out there looking for her.

And then a few nights later, the cops showed up.

Your father had been arrested, and they found drawings of my mother.

Drawings of his victims. They said Gabriel Thorn killed her, and Dad went along with the police’s story.

He was relieved. He thought it meant she’d be laid to rest in people’s minds.

And Nikki was only a kid; it gave her the closure she needed.

” Everett lets out a choked laugh. “Except I knew. I knew the whole time.”

I finally reach for his hand, not just to comfort him, but because I feel chilled to the bone and need his warmth.

“After your father confessed to killing those women—and included my mother on that list, for some inexplicable reason—that’s when Dad decided to seal the well.”

I inhale sharply, suddenly feeling like I’m the one in a cage. “He filled it with cement?”

Everett nods. “I think it was his way of burying her, since we couldn’t hold a real burial.”

We both fall silent for a long, suspended moment. Then I do the only thing I can think of. I hug him.

“Do you think I’m a monster?” His voice is muffled against my hair.

“No,” I whisper, holding him tighter. “What happened was an accident. You were a kid, a little boy. You didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

“Then why does it feel like it’s crushing me? Why does it feel like I’m constantly fighting back this wave of darkness?”

“Because it’s a secret. It’s been eating at you for years.” I pause, choosing my words carefully. “The only way to be rid of this darkness is to tell the truth. You have to tell the cops what happened. Give your sister some real closure. She needs it, and so do you.”

He pulls back, his blue eyes filled with pain and sorrow.

“C’mon.” I offer him my hand. “Let’s go.”

This time, I take the lead, ascending the ladder and trying not to wince every time it creaks under my weight. When I reach the top, I curl my fingers over the cement edge of the well, yelping when a piece of it cracks off in my hand. I stumble, nearly losing my footing on the rung.

“I got you,” Everett says, and then he steadies me, helping me climb out.

Together, we walk back to his house to find JP.