Dirty Secrets

Part 73

With beers in their hands, the girls crossed the railroad tracks, avoiding the tall weeds poking up through the sparse gravel between the wooden ties. They ventured down a rocky slope to the river's edge.

Plastic soda and water bottles huddled in a shallow nook bumping and rocking against Styrofoam cups and clamshells.

"Was there this much garbage in the water when we were kids?" Darcy asked before draining her beer.

"I don't remember that," said Lyla.

"Want another one?" Darcy pulled a beer from her bag and cracked the top.

"I just started this one," said Lyla. "Whoa, pump the brakes, girl."

"Stop being such an old woman."

"You gonna be okay to drive?"

"Who gets drunk on two beers? Geez." Darcy took a drink. 

"If you drink 'em in ten minutes."

"Don't forget, I have an Irish liver," Darcy said, licking the foam from her lips.

"Yeah." Lyla rolled her eyes. "You're magically delicious."

A loud beer belch escaped Darcy's lips.

"Classy," Lyla huffed.

"A thousand pardons for offending your delicate sensibilities, Miss Snowflake."

Lyla sipped her beer, watching a tree limb floating in the slow-moving current. "So, you exchanged that dress?" Lyla asked. "For your romantic sports awards dance thing?"

"Yep. Told you. I got the blue one. Pastel, baby blue kind of thing." Darcy took a drink. "I can admit it. You win."

Lyla gloated with a self-satisfied smile.

"So..." Darcy segued.

Uh oh.

"I know it's super last minute," Darcy tipped the can against her lip.

Lyla recognized that tone.

"But Wes still doesn't have a date."

"I hope you're not--"

"I told him I'd ask you," she said sheepishly.

"Two days before the dance?" Lyla fumed. "Seriously?"

"We could all go together. The four of us."

Lyla gulped her beer.

"Come on," said Darcy. "It'll be fun."

"Fun? Watching Jack with Carissa the smokeshow with her dress cut down to here and everybody drooling? I'd rather poke my eyes out with a fork." She took another long drink. "When is she going back to New York, for God's sake?"

"Come on." Darcy pressed. "It won't be so bad."

"That is so not true."

"Okay. So, I'll take that as a no." Darcy glanced over her shoulder. "You hear the train?"

"Not sure," Lyla replied. She climbed the slope and squinted down the track. "It could be around the bend."

Darcy joined her friend. "I definitely hear it. Where's the ring?"

Lyla dug into her jeans pocket as the train rounded the corner two hundred yards away.

"Come on, come on," Darcy said. "Here it comes."

They crossed the tracks then Lyla placed the ring on the iron rail closest to them.

"This is gonna be so epic," Darcy giggled, then gulped her beer.

"Feel like I'm in third grade." Lyla grabbed her friend's arm and backed them away from the tracks.

"Whoa! I wanna see this," Darcy grumbled.

"What if the ring goes shooting off the track and we die like some freaky Final Destination death?" Lyla stabbed Darcy's forehead with her finger. "Right through the skull and into the brain."

"Ouch. You really think that could happen?"

"No one ever thinks it could happen. Until it does."

Darcy took the remark to heart and retreated a few more steps.

The locomotive sounded its horn as it rumbled down the track in their direction, closing the distance.

A piercing shriek turned Lyla's head. On the opposite side of the tracks stood the ghoulish, curly-haired girl. With eyes wide, she threw back her head and howled the agonizing cry of a frenzied animal being torn to ribbons.

As the train thundered past, Lyla watched in horror the strobing image of the pale white legs, arms, and chalky face of the dead child in the blurring spaces between train cars. Lyla covered her ears to muffle the hair-raising, relentless scream cutting through the deafening roar of the train.

When the final train car had passed, clickety-clacking down the tracks, the phantom child was gone. And as Lyla lowered her eyes to the track, she discovered that the ring, too, had vanished.

"The ring!" Darcy could barely catch her breath. "Where is it?"

Lyla couldn't respond.

"Did it just vaporize?" Darcy looked around. "What the actual hell?"

Lyla articulated her solitary thought. "Let's get out of here."

Darcy led the way up the worn path toward her parked car. She pulled a blue plastic bag from her shoulder bag, finished her beer, and added the empty can to the bag. She held the bag open for her friend.

Lyla dumped out the remainder of her beer into the weeds then tossed the empty can into the bag with the others.

"I need to ditch these before I get home," Darcy said, tying the bag closed.

Lyla flinched when her phone rang, relieved to see it was Packer calling.

"Hey," he said. "How... how are you?"

"I'm doing okay."

"Bo... Bo told me. Told me about it."

Lyla didn't know what to say.

"That crazy.... That crazy woman. With... with a knife."

"Yeah, it was super scary," said Lyla. "But I'm okay."

"So you... you're... you're really okay?"

"Yeah. Natalie probably saved my life."

"I'm so mad I... I'm so. Shoulda been there... I should."

"I'm okay. Don't worry."

"When can? When can..."

"Maybe tomorrow?" Lyla said.

"Good. I'll ask... I'll ask my mom."

"'Kay. Lemme know. Bye." Lyla ended the call.

"He sounds like a super sweet guy." Darcy huffed as she climbed the last stretch of the slope up to her car.

"Yeah," Lyla replied. "He wanted to be there to save me and he can't even stand up by himself."

"That sucks so bad," Darcy muttered, unlocking her car.