CHAPTER II
Traditions
Holly drove up Main Street and curled through the connecting roundabouts and into Old Hilliard. About a quarter of a mile up on the left, Holly parked her car along the street and she and Kevin stepped out. They walked into Abners Casual Diner for an early lunch.
The bell hanging above the door chimed as the two walked in and grabbed a seat along the wall.
A young woman approached them and laid out two menus.
“Drinks?” the girl asked.
“Water for me, please,” Holly requested.
“Same,” Kevin pouted, still upset at his run-in with Elizabeth Watkins.
“Let it go, Kev,” Holly said as the waitress walked away.
“It doesn’t make sense, Holly. How can we go ten years without actual answers?”
“Aside from that poor girl that hung herself, all five of the other autopsies were conclusive – heart attacks. There’s not much you can accuse someone of when a cause of death is undeniable.”
“Meaning what though? Don’t you find it completely far-fetched, Holly?” Kevin queried, confused and angry. “We’re supposed to believe that the Watkins’ knew nothing? There’s something that they’re not telling us.”
Holly looked at a small, carved and lit pumpkin in the center of their table. She glanced around the dining area and saw that each table had one. She smiled, remembering how the two of them use to enjoy Halloween before Ava died.
“We need to go back to the traditions,” Holly said.
“What are you talking about?”
“After lunch, let’s go get a pumpkin, go back to my place, carve it and watch monster movies all day. Like we did before what happened to Ava.” Holly began to twist her necklace in her fingers. It was the left half of a broken heart necklace that she and Ava had split over ten years ago. Holly didn’t go very long without feeling the heart in her fingers.
“I don’t know, Holly. I don’t feel up to it.”
“Please,” Holly said to her brother, batting her eyes.
Kevin smiled and shook his head. “Fine.”
A chill pierced the air inside the restaurant. Goosebumps took over Holly’s arms and she shivered. The candle inside the pumpkin on the table began to flicker and then went out.
Kevin looked around and noticed all the pumpkins were going out. The lights in Abners Diner flickered and then shut off. Everyone inside the restaurant started muttering and looking around, confused by the random power surge.
Suddenly, Holly screamed and turned around in her seat, grabbing the back of her neck. The customers who were in the diner gasped and looked at Holly; all eyes were on her.
“What? What is it?” Kevin quickly asked, concerned about his sisters’ fright.
“Someone touched my neck!” she said. “Their fingers were ice cold!”
“Nobody’s there, Holly. There was no one behind you.”
A short buzzing sound brought all the lights back on in Abners Diner. Everyone shrugged it off and went back to enjoying their food, while occasionally shooting a glance in Holly’s direction.
Holly was upset. She turned back and faced Kevin while rubbing her neck. She was breathing heavily and closed her eyes tightly, trying to regain her composure.
“Are you okay?” Kevin asked.
Holly didn’t answer.
After lunch, Holly and Kevin pulled into the gravel parking lot at Kuhlwein’s Farm Market off of Walker Road. They got out and Holly locked her car with the remote. They walked up to the barn where they started looking at hay bales stacked with pumpkins.
Kuhlwein’s was a year-round farm market, but autumn was their time to shine. They had hayrides, fresh produce, pumpkins, baked goods and fresh apple cider.
Cooper, an older employee and good friend of the Kuhlwein’s, walked up to them with a plate of cookies.
“Happy Halloween, guys,” he said in a very peppy and polite tone. “The wife just made fresh pumpkin sugar cookies. They’re over by the pies if you’re interested. Want to try a sample?”
“Sure,” Kevin said. He grabbed a cookie, as did Holly, and they each took a bite.
“Mmm,” Holly said finishing off the cookie.
“I’ll be around. Let me know if you guys need any help,” Cooper said.
“Thank you,” Kevin replied. Cooper walked off to the next person and Holly continued looking at the pumpkins.
“Are you okay?” Kevin asked her, noticing she was a little shaken up still from the diner incident.
“It’s just a weird day, Kev.”
Kevin just nodded, knowing something was off. He felt it too.
~
Two black-and-white Hilliard Police SUV’s pulled up behind the mail truck on Amity Road with their lights spinning, but no sirens. An officer stepped out from each of the cars and approached Nancy and Chris who stood by the abandoned government vehicle.
“Are you the one who called in?” one of the officers asked Nancy.
“Yes, sir. I’m Nancy Harris. I’m a supervisor at the Hilliard Post Office. One of my carriers called me a little while ago saying his truck broke down. Chris and I came out to jump him, but he wasn’t with the truck. I called his cell phone and he didn’t answer, but it rang from somewhere in the cornfield.”
The officer looked towards the cornfield, and then to the Watkins’ home, sitting eerily quiet. “This is the old Watkins home, isn’t it?”
“I believe so,” Nancy said.
The officer looked back to the younger officer who was in the other vehicle. “Call the Chief. We may need some extra bodies out here.”
“What’s wrong, York?” the younger officer asked.
“You’re new to Hilliard, Westman, this house has a history here. Trust me, it’s probably a good idea to call in some back up,” Officer York said.
“Okay,” Officer Westman reluctantly complied. He walked back to his SUV and picked up the radio.
“Mrs. Harris, why don’t you head back to your office and we’ll take a look around. We’ll call you when we find anything,” Office York said.
“Could I send someone out to pick up the mail from the truck and finish the route?” she asked.
“Not yet. This could be considered a crime scene, and in that case, everything needs to remain here, untouched.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
Nancy nodded and she and Chris got back into her car, u-turned on Amity Road and drove away.
Officer York looked around the large yard leading up to the Watkins’ home. Everything was still - eerie and still. Westman joined York back near the mail truck.
“Let’s go see if anyone’s home,” York said.
Westman followed York up the gravel driveway and onto the wide front porch of the home. Both officers had their hands on their holsters, strictly as a precautionary measure. York knocked on the front door and then peered into the window next to it. The curtains were obstructing any kind of viewing.
“Who lives here again?” Westman, the young and inexperienced officer asked.
“Elizabeth Watkins,” York said. “She’s widely been accused of being a witch.”
“A witch?” Westman laughed. York looked at him with a serious face.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about Hilliard,” he said. York knocked again, but no one ever came to answer it. “Follow me.”
York led the way around to the backyard, walking in the grass between the house and the cornfield. The gravel driveway stretched around the other side of the house and into the back where there was room for more than one car to park. The lot was empty.
Just beyond the gravel parking area was an old barn, gray and brown in color. The shutters on the front and sides were old and barely hanging on. The front door to the barn was opened, and inside the barn sat in darkness.
The officers walked up to the barns’ entrance and York noticed a silky spider web stretching across the entire doorframe. The web was huge, but there wasn’t a spider to be seen.
The loud squawk of a bird fluttering overhead startled the officers and instinct told them to duck. York looked up and watched as a black raven perch itself on the top of the barn and tilt its’ head to look down at them.
The raven squawked again as it sat there, watching them.
“That’s a big bird,” Westman said.
York nodded. “Indeed.” His nerves started to get the best of him. “Let’s go back up front and wait on the backup.”
York led the way back along the side of the house.
~
Holly and Kevin were walking through the pumpkin patch at Kuhlwein’s. There were a few other people scattered around in the fields, but most everyone else in Hilliard had already picked their pumpkins. Halloween might have been considered a little too late to be picking out a pumpkin to carve.
“What about this one?” Holly said, picking up a short and plump one.
Kevin looked it over with hesitation. “Maybe we’ll get something a little taller. We’ll have more options for carving.”
As Holly set the pumpkin back down in the dirt, a chilly wind picked up and blew in from the west. Holly shielded her eyes from any flying dirt debris. She looked around at the few other people in the patch. She looked passed the fields to the tree line in the distance and watched the trees, vacant of their leaves, sway in the wind.
Something seemed off to her. This Halloween felt different. It felt...menacing.
The cold wind howled past her ears and she covered them with her gloved hands and squinted to avoid it stinging her eyes. She took her hands off her ears and the wind howled deeply all around her, whispering “Ava…”
Holly turned around fast as to see where that whispering voice came from. Her heart began to pick up beats and she heard it again: “Ava…”
Kevin, oblivious to anything, picked up another pumpkin. This one was taller and had a wide, sturdy base. “This is the one, Holly. This is our pumpkin.”
He noticed his sister was startled again, frantically looking around in every direction. Concerned, he sat the pumpkin back down and approached her.
“What’s wrong?”
Holly had a cold tear dripping down her cheek. She swallowed hard and looked Kevin in the eyes. “Something’s really wrong, Kevin. I heard Ava.”
“Huh?”
“When that wind just blew through, I swear I heard Ava’s voice in it. She said her name.”
“Holly…” Kevin began, but didn’t know how to comfort her.
“The whispers, the cold hand on my neck at the diner – this morning when I was waiting for you at the park, I thought I saw shadowy figures standing in the trees…”
“What are you saying?”
“I think it’s a warning.”